"My father had the other guns and I had to take that. The last thing he told me was to take a gun and scare the blackbirds and crows from the ten-acre lot."
"Is your father a loyalist?"
"Yes."
"That's good; and now if you can answer my questions, perhaps I'll be inclined to let you go. You say you've lived here all your life. Do you know all the roads and bridges? Could you find your way anywhere in the county?"
"Tell me about the bridges. Have many of them been torn up?"
Tom did not know, but he thought of his meeting with young Lieutenant Gordon that morning, and boldly answered, "Yes, sir."
"How does it happen that your good father and the other loyalists permit that?"
"My father's not at home, and there are too many of the pa—of the rebels."
"I thought you told me your father sent you out with your gun," said the colonel quickly. "How is that? How could he send you if he wasn't at home?"