"How is your wound, captain?" asked Branch.
"It troubles me very little, sir!" was the reply.
"I do not believe you. You say that to spare your sister pain. You are suffering, and you know it!" growled Branch.
Hayward frowned, but did not speak. His sister crept close to his breast.
"Do you know the federal army are within two days march of this place?" continued Branch.
"I did not know it!" answered Hayward.
"Don't you wish they would come upon us to-night? We have only twenty-two hundred men here, and they with forty thousand might defeat us, and rescue you and your lovely sister."
Hayward made no reply.
"Oh! I will open your mouth presently. You saw the Fair-Ground as we passed? You won't speak? Well, I will. If you could only look inside the high board enclosure, you might discover a platform, surrounding a large tree. From one of the limbs a rope is hanging. It is for your neck. You are to die to-morrow at three o'clock."