“That’s what I thought.”
The girl began to mount the ladder.
“I’m coming up,” she said.
She disappeared, and the ladder was withdrawn.
She came back after a long time, and there were men with her.
“It’s all right, Yankee,” she called down the hole. “They’re your own men, and I’m the prisoner now.”
The ladder reappeared, and two friendly men in blue came down into the cellar.
“Good God!” they said. “It’s Aladdin O’Brien!”
Hannibal St. John and Beau Larch lifted Aladdin tenderly and took him out of his prison.
Outside, tents were being pitched in the dark, and there was a sound of axes. Fires glowed here and there through the woods and over the fields, and troops kept pouring into the plantation. They laid Aladdin on a heap of hay and went to bring a stretcher. The girl sat down beside him.