"Are you on an even keel now, my hearty?" asked the mate.
"Where are the guerrillas, Jack?" asked Frank. "Are we safe?"
"O yes, we're safe from them, but we are still prisoners."
At this moment a shaggy head, nearly covered up with a slouch hat, was thrust in at the door, and a voice inquired:
"Are you all right now, Yank? If you are, come out here, for we must be off."
Frank, although very weak, was able, with the assistance of the mate, to walk out of the cabin, where they found several of the rebels mounted, and waiting for them. They were each given a horse, after which the Wild-cats closed about their prisoners, as if to put all further attempts at escape out of the question, and conducted them down the road at a rapid gallop.
As soon as Frank's ideas had fairly returned, he began to make inquiries in regard to the singular manner in which he and the mate had been rescued, and learned that the men by whom they had been captured were guerrillas, in spite of what they had said to the contrary; that they made war on rebel as well as Union people, and being especially obnoxious to Colonel Harrison—from whom they had stolen several horses—they had been summarily disposed of. At first Frank could scarcely credit the statement that they had been rescued through the agency of the very negro to whom they owed their capture; but, after being assured that such was the case, it occurred to them that their approach had first been discovered by the rebels in the cabin, and that the negro, to save his own life, had acted in obedience to their orders; and then, to make amends for what had at first appeared to be an act of treachery, he had conveyed the news of their capture to Colonel Harrison.
As soon as they had fairly started, the orderly sergeant galloped up beside Frank, and inquired:
"Yank, how did you get out of that cabin that night? Nobody don't seem to know nothing about it."