"Maybe he has and maybe he hasn't," said the woman. "I can't keep track of Sam Tolliver's doin's. He has all kinds of men here. Who is Levi?"
"Why, he is a little sutler that used to be in the Yankee army and now is doing what he can for—"
"I reckon he's been here," spoke up the woman promptly. "What might yo' all want o' him?"
"I don't want anything of him just now," said Noel, his face again lighting up with the smile which won him friends on every side. "What I want now is something to eat. I'm as hungry as a bear and almost as thirsty as I am hungry. Can you help me? I shan't be able to pay you—"
"Who said anything about payin'?" broke in the woman. "I ain't got much fo' toe eat, but I reckon pa't of what I has is fo' yo' all. Come in and set ye down at the kitchen table and I'll see what I can do fo' yo'."
Too hungry and thirsty to delay, Noel promptly accepted the invitation, and after he had washed his face and hands, he eagerly took his place at the table as the woman directed.
The young soldier was well aware that he was in the midst of perils. If the husband of his hostess should return or Levi should come, his position was not one to be envied. Not that he was afraid of either of the men in a personal encounter; but he was unarmed, while the man whom Eliza Jane had called Sam Tolliver was doubtless thoroughly armed and desperate. Besides, if he was playing the part which Noel suspected, and was obtaining information concerning the plans and movements of the Federal troops and reporting the knowledge to the leaders of the Confederates, he was well aware that the man was one to be feared.
Noel's meditations were interrupted by the approach of his hostess who placed some corn-bread and a small jug of molasses upon the table before him.
"'Tis about the best pore folks can have these days," she said. "I don't know how I happened to save that ther' molasses, but Sam never likes his co'n-bread unless he can po' molasses over it, and we had a barrel put in the cellar before the Yanks started all this trouble."
"I don't want to rob you," said Noel.