“Well, I’ll tell you how it was,” said Cale, who didn’t think that he was betraying his brother by the confession he was about to make. “The captain offered to make me lieutenant, but I didn’t think he had any right to do it.”
“Ah!” said the President.
“Yes; and my brother he offered to make captain. Dan was in for it, but I was a little jubius. He offered to show them where Leon and that rebel fellow was, but the captain said he would go on and see how many men they were at the bridge.”
“And that was the time they killed Bach Noble,” said Mr. Knight, with suppressed fury.
“Well, it was all in war times, wasn’t it?”
“War times? What do you mean by that?” ejaculated the President, while a restless movement among the men told that they did not uphold anybody in thus taking the life of a sentry. Bach Noble was one of the most popular lumbermen in the county, and this method of shooting him just because it “was war times” aroused all the anger there was in them. A word from the President would have seen Cale swung up to a tree in less than no time.
“It was war times, wasn’t it?” inquired Cale, who seemed to think he had said too much.
“We’ll not discuss that. The Confederate captain offered you and your brother promotion. Then what?”
By a little questioning Mr. Knight got at all that had transpired during their interview with the Confederate captain, and the old soldiers that were in there were amazed when they saw how green Dan was. After thinking a moment, he said:
“I don’t think that Cale has been guilty of treason. What do you men say to that?”