It would have done no good to prolong the leave-taking, and Rodney was glad to have it broken off so abruptly. He gave his friend's hand a final squeeze and shake, and when he came into the road again a moment later, riding one horse and leading the other, there was no one in sight.
The way home was a long and lonely one to Rodney Gray, who felt as if the last tie that bound him to his school days had been sundered forever. He got through without any trouble, although he met some inquisitive people who wanted to know how he happened to have a riderless horse with him, passed one night at his father's house, and in due time was back in his old quarters on the upper plantation, where he had spent so many pleasant hours with the absent Dick. But before he had leisure to look about and tell himself how very lonesome he was, he had visitors, one of whom threw him into a terrible state of mind before he left. They were a squad of the —th Michigan boys, and commanded by the corporal who had once taken him prisoner, and whose name he had never heard. They good-naturedly demanded all the weapons he had, and threatened to go through his house if he didn't trot them right out; but when they went to the well for water the corporal drew off on one side, intimating by a look that he had something to say to Rodney in private.
"Where's your partner?" were the first words he said when they were alone.
"Gone over the river," answered Rodney.
"How long since?"
"He went night before last."
"Well, I'll bet you a hard-tack he didn't make it. Some of your good friends were the means of stopping him. You see," he went on, without giving the astonished Rodney time to speak, "Ben and another boy, who were in my party when you and Griffin did so much for us, scouted down Randolph's way a few days after the fight, and that Home Guard——You made a big blunder when you stuck to us till we let him go. Now he's gone back on you."
"What has he done?" inquired Rodney, who told himself that that was just what he expected from Tom Randolph.
"Why, Ben distinctly heard him tell one of our officers that a bearer of despatches would go from Mooreville in a few days, intending to cross the river at Baton Rouge, where he had friends to help him," said the corporal. "Of course the matter was reported at headquarters, and the houses of all the Secession sympathizers in the city were watched closer than ever."
"Was Mr. Martin's house watched, do you know?"