"Indeed! Why so?"
"You had been absent just long enough to reach camp, when we heard the firing of guns. In a short time a party of horsemen rode past at a furious rate, cursing and speaking of a spy. We feared you had been discovered, were making your escape, and that they were in pursuit."
"What did you do?"
"Of course I advised our friends to remain quiet. I thought if we were to appear and fight, you would reach us in some way, or give us some signal. But it was very difficult to restrain Nettleton. He determined to rush upon the pursuers, and once had his gun raised to fire upon them, but I prevented him from doing so."
"I am very much obliged to you for your good feeling, and admire your courage. But, you must not be rash. If you had fired a gun, it would have brought certain destruction upon us all."
"Well, captain, you see I wouldn't have done it, but I was feared that black rascal there would expose us all. The curse began to cry just as soon as he heerd the guns shootin', and when they let off that volley up at that rock there, the darned sneak's bones rattled so, I was sure they would hear them."
"But, how have you succeeded, captain?" asked the adjutant.
"Oh! admirably. That party you saw was led by Price himself. He was in pursuit of an Indian. He left camp just as I arrived at his tent, and this gave me just the opportunity I desired. There was no person at the general's tent but an orderly, who became very familiar and communicative. He gave me the exact plan of their encampment, but it will be of little use, as Price takes up his line of march for Cassville to-morrow. But the most important document I possess is the plan of our own camp, containing not only my own description, but I suppose that of yours, and of all the generals, and other principal officers in our army."
"How did you get possession of this document?"
"It was brought to the tent of Price by his spies while he was absent. I learned from the orderly that the general did not know the existence of the paper, or that his spies had returned. So I worked upon the fears of the orderly, got possession of the paper, and his promise not to let Price know anything about it, and then ordered the men who brought it to be put in the guard-house and gagged. Of course I accused them of playing false to Price, and of being in reality Union spies."