"He will be old man Webster, the father of that sailor who promised to stand by you through thick and thin, and then went off and 'listed. He's home now, and as soon as I leave you, I'll ride straight down to his house and tell him what sort of 'rangement me and you have come to. Oh, I am all right with the Union men, even if I do wear a gray jacket; and if they aint afraid to trust me you needn't be."
"I am not afraid to trust you," Marcy hastened to say. "But I don't like to leave mother. It looks cowardly."
"You want her to have some peace of mind, don't you?" demanded Hawkins, almost angrily. "Well, she'll see a heap more of it if you will do as I tell you and clear yourself, than she will if you stay to home. As long as I am foot-loose, I'll make it my business to go to your house as often as any of the Home Guards go there, and the first one who don't do jest right will have to answer to me fur it."
"I thank you for the assurance," began Marcy.
"I aint got no time to hear you talk that a way," exclaimed the rebel. "What I want to know is whether you are going to foller my advice or not."
Marcy said very emphatically that he was.
"Cause, if you don't, you are liable to be started on the road to jail before this time tomorrer," added Hawkins.
"I'll do just as you have told me, and there's my hand on it," replied Marcy. "You will be sure to arrange matters so that Mr. Webster will meet me on the river?"
The soldier assured him that he could be depended on to do as he had agreed, and after another lingering hand-shake they separated, Hawkins to carry out his part of the programme, and Marcy to take a budget of most unwelcome news to his mother. But she bore up under it better than he did. She declared that her heart would be much lighter if she knew her son was in full possession of his liberty, even though he was compelled to hide in the swamp for the time being, than it would be if she were called upon to remember, every hour in the day, that he was shut up in jail, with a fair prospect before him of being forced into the Confederate army, and she urged him to carry out Hawkins's instructions to the very letter. And in order to show him that she meant he should do that very thing, she began at once to pack his valise. When she left the room for a few minutes, Marcy, having become satisfied that Hawkins's plan was the best, and in fact the only one that could be followed under the circumstances, seated himself at the desk, pulled out a sheet of foolscap paper, and began writing a short note upon it. While thus engaged his face wore a most determined expression, and when the note was finished he put it into his pocket. But he said nothing to his mother about it.
The hours were a long time in dragging themselves away, but Marcy and his mother had many small details to arrange and many things to talk about, and only once was he out of her presence. That was when he made a trip to the creek, in company with Julius, to select the boat that was to take him down the river. He raised the black boy very high in his own estimation by making a confidant of him and promising to take him along as his servant, and in order to provide against the upsetting of his plan by some awkward blunder on the part of Julius, he told him just what he was going to do when darkness came to conceal his movements, and how he intended to do it. It was well for him that he went to so much trouble, as we shall presently see.