"Friends with the countersign," replied the corporal.
"Halt, friends. Advance one with the countersign, and have your head blown off if you don't give it right," continued the voice; and although the words seemed to be spoken in a jest, Ben and Ned remained by the fence while the corporal climbed over it and disappeared in the bushes. A moment afterward he called to them to come on, and when Ned joined him he knew that he was in the presence of the other two fugitives and Tom Randolph. It was made plain to him at once that Tom had sent the corporal and his comrade to the house with the assurance that they would find Union people there and plenty to eat, for Tom said:
"Did you find Griffin?"
"They not only found me, but brought me here to see you," said Ned, answering for himself, and working his way slowly through the dark in the direction from which Tom's voice came. "And I am sorry to find you in this fix."
Captain Randolph may have borne up bravely enough while he was alone with his captors, but the sound of a familiar voice and the warm grasp of Ned's hand unnerved him completely. He drew the young overseer to a seat on a log beside him, rested his head against his shoulder, and shook as if he had the ague; but whether it was with fear, or with the violence of the struggle he was making to keep up the character he had so foolishly assumed, Ned could not tell. There had been a time when Tom Randolph would have been ashamed to rest his head against an overseer's shoulder; but he was pretty well humbled now. It was at this juncture that Ned was allowed a few minutes' talk with Tom, the soldiers being busy with their own affairs—two of them in describing what had happened at the house, and the others in disposing of the contents of the provision basket.
"Tom," said Ned, "you never told these Yankees that you had whipped their cavalry and fought the gunboats."
"Yes, I did," answered the captive; and the overseer was not much surprised to notice that his voice was choked with sobs. "I took them for brave men, and thought they would extend a brave man's treatment to me if they knew me to be a loyal soldier of the Confederacy."
"Well, do you know that you have got yourself in a scrape that may end in your being sent to a Northern prison?"
"Oh, don't tell me that," gasped Tom. "That's what they have been threatening me with, and you must make them let me go. You can do it, for you are known to be Union, and my father will reward you beyond——"