"Great God! don't kill me, sir," he piteously pleaded; "don't kill me."
"Look here, old man," said I savagely, "if I let you live, do you think you will trouble Union men in this county again?"
"O, no, no, I will not."
"Won't bring 'em to trial?" I asked.
"No, indeed, I will not," he solemnly asserted; "I have been compelled to enforce the law," he then began in extenuation, when I interrupted him with,
"Don't talk to me about enforcing the laws, you old reprobate, or I will kill you in your tracks. Now, see here," I continued, "I will give you a chance for your life. This is a level road, and a straight one; now, I will count one hundred and fifty, and if you are not out of sight in that time, I shall kill you, just as sure as God made little apples."
I gave the word, and began to count, and he darted off, like an arrow, and was soon lost to my view in a cloud of dust.
Again taking the Athens road, I pushed on rapidly for some time till I passed several houses, and then, reaching a shallow creek, leading into the woods, I turned down it, so that the place where I left the road could not be found. I traveled up byways till near sunset, when I met with an old man, who had just crossed the Athens road, and he told me that he had seen twelve of Young's Tennessee Cavalry and fifteen mounted citizens after a man, "who had been raising a disturbance up the country." He said that I answered the description exactly, and that he believed I was the man.
"You had better hide somewhere, till after dark," he advised me; "for they are alarming the whole country wherever they go."
I saw that he was a Union man, so I told him that if I kept on riding they could better see and hear me, and perhaps it would give them a chance to bushwhack me. I then told him I wanted to find a sequestered spot, where I could leave my horse, and have him taken care of till I could get him again; and he told me of a very good Union man, who lived down in the woods, away from any public road, and advised me to leave my horse there; and he gave me such directions as would enable me to find the place, which I reached in safety.