"Well, what would you think if you had been in his place? What was there to hinder those Yanks from taking him and Graham to Baton Rouge and turning them over to the provost marshal? They were in uniform when they were captured."
"I see you are on the side of those traitors," said Tom, rising to his feet and pounding lightly upon the captain's desk with his clenched hand, "and I have this much to say to you: If you go to Gray's you will no longer be welcome at our house."
"I shall be sorry for that, of course, but I don't suppose I can help it. Gray and his chum know all about soldiering, and as I may have to go into the army myself some day, I want to learn all I can from them. I think you would be wise to do the same."
"And while you have been having a good time with my enemies, I have been working for the cause which you made oath to support but seem to have deserted," continued Tom impressively. "I have been making arrangements to capture some of the very men whom Rodney Gray and Dick Graham promised to assist if they found them in trouble. I want all you fellows," here he turned about and addressed himself to the Home Guards who had come into the office to hear what passed between their captain and the enrolling officer, "to mount your horses at once and go in pursuit of four escaped prisoners who are hiding in the woods somewhere on the outskirts of the town. As you go, warn every other member of the company you see to turn out and join in the chase."
"Why, captain, what do you mean?" cried the enrolling officer, becoming excited at once.
Without paying the least attention to him or his question, Captain Tom proceeded to give his men a short and very incomplete account of the interview he had held with the two veterans while he was on his way to town. We say the account was incomplete because Tom did not tell his men that the fugitives had armed themselves when they escaped from their guards, and had been carrying things with a high hand ever since. He was afraid he could not raise much of a squad to aid in the pursuit if he told that; so all he said was that the four Yankees were striking for Baton Rouge, that fourteen Confederate veterans had been following them with hounds for three days past, and that if they (the Home Guards) would turn out in a body and capture the prisoners from under the noses of the Confederates, it might be a feather in their hats. The Home Guards thought so too; and hardly waiting for Tom to get through with what he had to tell them, they made a rush through the door toward the rack at which their horses were hitched.
"I am glad to see you so prompt to obey orders," shouted Captain Tom, following them to the sidewalk and waving his hand to them as they rode off one after the other. "We'll show the authorities that there are some loyal people around here yet. I'll be with you as soon as I can ride home and get my uniform and weapons, but you needn't wait. Divide yourselves into squads of six or eight, and search every nook and corner of the woods you can get into between this time and dark. And don't forget corn-cribs and nigger cabins, nor the cellars and lofts of Union men."
"I think it strange that you did not bring those Confederate officers straight to my office," said the conscript captain, when the last Home Guard had ridden away out of sight.
"Since you have deserted loyal people for the society of those who say that they will not do anything more for the cause they pretend to believe in, I am sorry myself that I did not bring them here," answered Tom. "But I did not once think of it. I am glad they did not accept my invitation to supper, for I should have felt obliged to ask you to join them. Where are you going?" he added, when Captain Roach began bundling his papers into his desk and locking the drawers.