The horseman drew up and turned about just as Rodney's hand was placed upon his shoulder. The greeting was just such a one as any two boys would extend to each other under similar circumstances, and so we need not say any more about it. Rodney and Dick Graham were shaking hands at last, and two brothers could not have been more delighted.
"How in the world did you get through St. Louis without being put in jail, and where did you pick him up, captain?" were the questions Dick asked when he recovered from his surprise. "Lyon is between us and St. Louis, but we manage to get our mail pretty regularly—Heard about Bull Run? Wasn't that a victory though? Fifteen thousand against thirty-five thousand! When we were at school, captain—"
"Where's the regiment?" interrupted the latter. "I am ordered to report to the colonel at once."
"Over there," replied Dick, sweeping his right arm around the horizon so as to include the whole camp on that side of the street. "Come on, and I will show you the way. When we were at school the Union boys made sport of us rebels because we shouted ourselves hoarse over the victory in Charleston Harbor, and declared that we ought to be ashamed of ourselves for it. Five thousand men against fifty-one was not a thing to be proud of. But they couldn't say that now if they were here. We won a fair fight on the field of Bull Run, although the enemy outnumbered us more than two to one. I say we are going to repeat the good work right here in Missouri."
"Are you Confederate?" inquired Rodney.
"Not much. I'm State Rights. That's me."
"And you'll not be ordered out of your State?"
"I may be ordered but I won't go. That's me. Seen Jeff Thompson's last proclamation? In it he calls Lyon's Dutchmen Hessians and Tories, and says our first hard work must be to drive them from the State. After that has been done, then we'll decide whether or not we want to join the Confederacy."
"If the Governor of Louisiana had talked that way I would not be here now," said Rodney. "He tried to swear us into the Confederate service against our will, and that broke up the company. I have as much to tell you as you have to tell me, and I propose that we postpone our talking until we can sit down somewhere and have it out with no fear of interruption. Do you suppose I can get into your company?"
"I suppose you can," replied Dick, with a laugh. "When the captain sees your writing he will make you orderly so quick you will never know it."