"No doubt he wants you to help——" began Rodney.
"But how does he know that there is such a fellow as I am in the world, and that I command a company of State troops?" continued Tom, who was almost beside himself with terror. Acting on his own responsibility and serving under the eye of a Confederate officer were two widely different things. His mother took the note from his hand and read it, and she, too, became visibly affected.
"What can be the meaning of it?" she asked of Rodney.
"It means that there is going to be a battle somewhere in this vicinity, and that Tom must bring his men out to help," was the reply. Rodney had predicted just such a scene as this and was prepared to enjoy it.
"A battle?" gasped Mrs. Randolph.
"Somewhere in this vicinity!" echoed Tom.
"That's what they tell me, and indeed there has been a skirmish already. Breckenridge is coming here to drive the Yankees out of Baton Rouge, and the Arkansas is coming to assist him."
Tom and his mother were too amazed to speak. They stared stupidly at the bearer of these evil tidings, and listened in a dazed sort of way while he told what he had heard and seen since morning. There was one thing Tom and his mother could not understand, and that was how Colonel Clark, whoever he might be, knew there was a company of Home Guards at Mooreville and that Tom was commander of them. But of course Rodney did not enlighten them on that point.
"You enlisted for just such work as this," said he.
"No, I didn't!" shouted Tom. "And what's more, I won't go. I'm as close to the Yankees as I want to be, and besides I don't belong to the service any longer. I've resigned."