"I spects dat I do."
"No matter," I continued, "how much I scold or boot you, you must carry out the character of a tip-top genteel nigger waiter; and you must make every body think that you have got the best master in the world. Can you do it?"
"I spects dat I can."
Spence was too deeply impressed with the reality of the situation to say much; but, however much he feared the consequences of a discovery, he acted well the part assigned him, and that, too, knowing the certain fate awaiting him if my real character should be found out.
At the time that I started, the weather had been rainy for some time, and the ground had become completely saturated with water, the roads muddy, and the streams very high. I had gone but about twenty miles, when I found that the bridges across the streams had all been destroyed either by the enemy or swept off by the water, and that they were too high for me to ford them.
I then turned to go back to Memphis, but I found that a squad of guerrillas had got between me and the city. Not wishing to encounter them, I made my way across to Lafayette, a town on the Memphis and Charleston Railroad. At that place I found Brigadier-General Lee (formerly Colonel of the 7th Kansas Cavalry). I called on him, and requested him to inform General McPherson that on account of the high water, I was unable to get through on the Hernando road. From Lafayette I went to Lagrange, at which place I found General Denver. I requested of him a pass to go through his lines. He inquired who I was. I told him, and, to convince him, showed him the order Colonel Hillyer gave me to scout, in Memphis; but, for some reason, best known to himself, he took the order away from me. It was raining at the time I asked for the pass, and I requested to have it dated for the next day. The Adjutant remarked that if I had it dated a day ahead it would afford me a fine opportunity to see how many forces they had before I went out. A pass was granted me, however, to go out, but not to return, and I remained at Lagrange until the next day. I think that General Denver doubted my being a Federal scout. Not expecting to pass any Federal lines, except when I left Memphis, I had no pass proper for the occasion, and showed the order that I had for want of something better.
I put up at a house of entertainment kept by a Mr. Lee, where I met with a cotton-buyer by the name of Hall, who was boarding at the same place. In the course of our conversation, something was said about a noted guerrilla by the name of Sol. Street. I remarked, "I don't see how it comes that Sol. Street has managed to make himself so noted; he is a man that very little was said about before the war."
"Do you know Sol. Street?" said the cotton-buyer.
"Yes, I have known him for ten or twelve years. I knew him when he lived in Memphis, and then afterward when he lived on Island 40, and then again when he moved up to the foot of Island 37."
"Now, see here," said Hall; "you want to make money and I want to make money, and now is the time to do it. If you are acquainted with Sol. Street, you can arrange the matter so as to make a handsome thing of it for both of us."