“Well, I declare, somebody has been burned out, here!” said Dan. “Is this the place where you came last night, Leon?”
“I was around here somewhere,” replied Leon.
“Then here’s where that rebel fellow lives,” continued Dan. “It serves him just right. Before I take an oath to support a government and then go back on it I would deserve to be burned out myself.”
Leon did not make any reply to this, for he thought that Dan might be burned out and still not lose a great deal by it; but he did not want to say so for fear of making him angry. His captors had treated him all right so far, but he knew what the consequences would be if he got them down on him. While he was thinking about it, and wondering how Tom Howe and young Dawson would look upon his absence—they certainly would know he had been captured—they came suddenly around another bend in the road, and saw before them a long line of horsemen who were travelling as though they had some place to reach before night. He took a second glance at them, and saw that they were all dressed in Confederate uniform.
“There’s some of our men now!” exclaimed Dan, so overjoyed that he took off his hat and waved it to them. “But, Cale, that ain’t our captain in front, is it? He was a big man, and this is a little one. There must be a whole regiment of them, and if that is the case they are going up to whip the Union men.”
Leon’s heart fairly came up into his mouth. He would know soon what the rebels were going to do with him. The Confederates discovered them as soon as they came around the bend, and they kept a close watch of them until they came up. The man in front certainly was not a captain. He had a mark on his collar that no one had ever seen before.
“Well, boys, where are you going?” inquired the man; and they found out before the interview was over that his men called him colonel. Of course, Dan looked at him with a great deal of respect after he found out what his rank was.
“Yes, we’ve got a Yankee prisoner here,” said Dan, who was expected to do all the talking. “He is the son of the Secretary of War up in Jones county.”
“He is, hey?” exclaimed the colonel, beginning to show some interest in the matter. “Well, we’ll send him right down to Mobile the first thing we do. Are you from Jones county?”
Dan replied that he was.