“I ran out on the logs and started a jam, and Tom Howe fell into the water and I saved him. But that isn’t what I have against him,” said Leon. “You see, Newman’s father has never said where he stood. When he came back to this county, and found that we were in earnest in threatening to secede, then he wanted an office, but the men were too sharp to give it to him.”
“Ah! that’s the trouble, is it? Let him go in and serve as a private. That’s what my father and I intend to do.”
“But he don’t want to serve as a private. He wants the position that father holds, so that he can boss around the men and have nothing else to do. Father would give it to him in a minute if he thought he was able to fill it, but you see he don’t. And mind you, I don’t say this out loud, but I believe it to be so, he says if he can’t be an officer he will betray us all.”
“Ho-ho!” said Dawson, while a gleam of intelligence shot across his face. “He is going to turn Benedict Arnold, is he? By gracious! You fellows have something to contend with, haven’t you? A spy! Well, let him come on and see how much he will make by it.”
“Now, don’t say that out loud,” said Leon earnestly, “for I don’t know that it is so. I only judge him by his actions. Now, here’s the place where your weapons were left. We’ll go up and see the President.”
“I don’t look fit to go into the President’s office,” said Dawson, looking down at his clothes. “I want to get home and see my wardrobe, so that I can get some clothes more befitting my station in life.”
“O come on,” said Leon, with a hearty laugh. “Ten to one you will find the President with a pair[pair] of jean breeches on, and a pair of cowhide boots. He is like all the rest of us, but then he will be glad to see you, for you were a rebel once.”
“There’s where you make a mistake,” said Dawson. “I never was a rebel, although I wear the clothes. Introduce me as a Union man forced into the rebel army.”
At this moment Leon opened the door that gave entrance into the office of the high dignitary of Jones county, where they found him leaning back in his chair and conversing with three or four men. He was just such a man as Leon said he was—to the manor born. He didn’t act as though he considered himself better than other men simply because he was President. Dawson took off his hat, while the other men did not remove theirs. He followed Leon to a corner in which several stand of fire-arms were stowed, and assisted him in picking out his own weapons. Leon gave him the sword and revolver, and motioned him to buckle them around him, while with the carbine in his hand he approached the President’s chair. When he got through talking with the men he looked up to see what Leon had to say.
“Mr. Knight, here’s a good man I have got for us,” said he. “His name is Dawson, and although he wears the rebel uniform, he is as much of a Union man as anyone here.”