The lieutenant looked surprised, as Rodney and Dick knew he would, and so they handed over their discharges to prove that they had seen service, and had the right to be at home at that particular time.
"We're not going to be in any hurry," answered Rodney, who thought all his neighbors ought to know how he felt on that point. "Since I came home I have met many able-bodied civilians who were fierce for a fight when this thing first broke out, and who haven't yet put on a gray jacket. When I see those men in the front rank I'll go back, and not before."
Mr. Biglin winced and glanced uneasily at the soldiers, for these remarks came pretty near applying to him, as Rodney meant they should. Mr. Turnbull was exempt by reason of his age, and he wasn't a very hot Secessionist, either. His wife hastened to turn the conversation into another channel by saying:
"O Rodney; did you hear anything of those escaped prisoners in your neighborhood, and do you think they have killed or captured Tom Randolph?"
"Small loss," began Mr. Turnbull, and then he was checked by a look from his wife. The latter knew that every word that he uttered against Tom would get to Mr. Randolph's ears by the shortest route, and she was afraid of Home Guards.
"Randolph was down here last night looking for Tom," continued Mr. Turnbull, "but he told a story that was too funny for me to believe. He said Tom had gone out with his Home Guards to search for the prisoners, but I know better than that."
"And Tom certainly did not go into the woods alone to hunt for them, so what chance had the Yanks to kill or capture him?" added Rodney. "We know that they were in our neighborhood yesterday, for some of these soldiers told my mother so; but they never came near our house."
"I noticed you did not come by the road," observed the lieutenant. "Have you been riding through the woods back of this plantation?"
"Dick and I have been walking through them, but not a horn nor a hoof did we see," answered Rodney. "You know, Mr. Turnbull, that my father will have a big lot of bacon and beef to pay to the government for the exemption of two overseers; and just now I don't know where he is going to get it."