“And his hand wasn’t inside the deadline,” said Marcy in a faint voice. “It was under the rail which marked the line, and the poor fellow was trying to get hold of an old tin cup that someone had thrown there, so that he could dig a hole in the ground to protect him from the weather. If I had been a volunteer and had shot that man, I would have received a month’s leave of absence.”
Rodney sat down on the edge of the bed and looked at the two troopers who were leaning half-way through the window, listening. His face showed that he could hardly believe the story even if his cousin did tell it.
“There’s a man in our company who escaped from Andersonville, and he declares that such things really happened,” said one of the soldiers. “Besides being starved to death our fellows are shot without any provocation at all.”
“And because you wouldn’t murder that Yankee somebody triced you up by the thumbs,” said Rodney in a voice that was choked with anger. “Who reported you?”
“The sentry in the next box, who saw it all,” replied Marcy. “He tried to get a shot at the man himself, but the prisoner’s friends closed around him and hustled him out of sight; and that made the sentry so angry that he reported me before we were relieved from post.”
“How can the rebels hope to win in this war when they torture their own men for not committing murder?” exclaimed Rodney hotly.
“Why, I thought you were a rebel,” said one of the soldiers at the window.
“So I was,” answered Rodney honestly. “But, as I have said a hundred times before, I know when I have had enough. When I was whipped I quit.”
Both the troopers extended their hands, and after Rodney had shaken them cordially he walked over and shook hands with Charley Bowen, and tried to thank him for what he had done for Marcy; but his voice grew husky and finally broke, and so he gave it up as a task beyond his powers.
“I am a Georgia cracker,” said Bowen, “and the boys used to call me ‘goober-grabbler’; but I know a good fellow when I see him, and I don’t want any thanks for doing for your cousin what I am sure he would have done for me if he had known the country as well as I do. He assured me that we could find friends if I would guide him to Baton Rouge, and I was doing the best I could at it when we fell in with Captain Forbes.”