"Do you intend to take them from me?" said Mr. Allison.
"I think you understand the situation as well as I could explain it to you," answered the soldier, nodding toward Mark Goodwin, whom he recognized as soon as he looked at him; and as if to show that he was not in the humor to put up with any nonsense, he dismounted, his example being quickly followed by his men.
"Of course I will bring them out," Mr. Allison hastened to say. "But they are heirlooms and I don't like to part with them. Besides, they are no longer of use as weapons."
He went into the house as he said this, and the captain, who seemed to be a lively, talkative fellow, and good-natured as well, even if he was a Yankee, turned to Mark and said:
"You beat me here, did you not?"
"I hope there was nothing wrong in my coming," said Mark, beginning to feel uneasy.
"Nothing whatever. You have a right to go where you please and do what you like, so long as you do not set the graybacks on us."
"Graybacks?" said Mark inquiringly.
"Yes. Johnnies—rebel cavalry."
"Oh! Well, there are none around here that I know of, but you can find plenty of them a few miles back in the country," said Mark, who was a little surprised to hear himself talking so freely with this boy in blue who had carried things with so high a hand in his father's house a short time before; and then, emboldened by the sound of his own voice, and prompted by an idea that just then came into his mind, he added: "I can tell you where you will find one rebel and also a rebel flag, if you would like to have it for a trophy."