In an instant the figure sprang into the stable and seized Rodney in his arms.
"Did anybody ever hear of such luck?" said Tom, who was the first to recover his power of speech. "Where are you going and what business have you got up here in my State, you red-hot rebel?"
"I never expected to be on such terms with a Yankee horse-thief," answered Rodney, letting down the hammer of his revolver and putting the weapon back in its place.
"I knew just how much faith you would put in that outrageous story," said Tom. "It was got up against me on purpose to induce the planters in my uncle's settlement to run me out."
"To hang you, you mean," corrected Rodney. "That's what they would have done with you before to-morrow morning."
"If it hadn't been for you," added Tom; and he did not talk like a boy who had so narrowly escaped with his life. "I heard your story down there in Jeff's cabin, and knew that you kept your promise and enlisted within twenty-four hours after you reached home. And I know, too, that your company didn't want to join the Confederate army or leave the State. What did they want to do then? They're a pretty lot of soldiers. Well, it's a good thing for them that they stayed at home, for you rebels are going to get such a licking—"
"Have you licked Dick Graham back into a proper frame of mind yet?" interrupted Rodney.
"No. Haven't had the chance. He helped raise the first company of partisans that left the southwestern part of the Slate to join Price, and I have scarcely heard of him since. I had a lively time dodging Price's men when I went up to St. Louis to offer the services of my company to Lyon, and when I heard you tell Westall that you were going to undertake the same kind of a journey, I felt sorry for you. I am overjoyed to see and have a chance to speak to you, Rodney, but I don't know whether we ought to stick together or not. Of course Merrick took you for a Union man," added Tom, in a suppressed whisper.
"Certainly. I didn't have much to say to him until I found out who he thought I was. Did you go it blind when you addressed him as a Union man?"
"Oh, no. I know the name of every man it will do to trust for twenty miles ahead," replied Tom. "But I've got his name in my head. I haven't a scrap of writing about me, and I am sorry to know that you have. Take my advice and stick everything in the shape of a letter you have in your pockets into the tire the first good chance you get."