"It is a miserable piece of business all the way through," remarked Captain Falconer. There was a note of sympathy in his voice, which Mr. Sanders could not fail to catch, and it interested him.
"I called upon my cousin, Mrs. Claiborne, for the first time to-day," the Captain went on. "She has invited me to tea often, but I have refused the invitation on account of the state of feeling here. I know how high it is. It is natural, of course, but it is not justifiable. Take my case, for instance: I am a Democrat, and I come from a family of Democrats, who have never voted anything else but the Democratic ticket, except when Henry Clay was a candidate, and when Lincoln was running for a second term."
"You don't tell me!" cried Mr. Sanders, with genuine astonishment.
"It is a fact," said Captain Falconer, with emphasis. "If you think that I, or any of the men under me, or any of the men who fought at all, intended to bring about such a condition as now exists in this part of the country, you are doing us a great wrong. Don't mistake me! I am not apologising for the part I took. I would do it all over again a hundred times if necessary. Yet I do not believe in negro suffrage, and I abhor and detest every exaction that the politicians in Washington have placed upon the people of the South."
Mr. Sanders was too much astonished to make appropriate comment. He could only stare at the young man. And Captain Falconer was very good to look upon. He was of the Kentucky type, tall, broad-shouldered and handsome. His undress uniform became him well, and he had the distinctive and pleasing marks that West Point leaves on all young men who graduate at the academy there.
"Well, as I told you, I called on my cousin to-day for the first time, and after we had talked of various matters, especially the unfortunate events that have recently occurred, she insisted that I make it my business to see you or Mr. Clopton. She told me," the Captain said, with a pleasant smile, "that you are the man that kidnapped Mr. Lincoln."
"She's wrong about that," replied Mr. Sanders; "I'm the man that didn't kidnap him. But I want to ask you: ain't you some kin to John Barbour Falconer?"
"He was my father," the Captain replied.
"Well, I've heard Meriwether Clopton talk about him hundreds of times. They ripped around in Congress together before the war."
"Now, that is very interesting to me," said the Captain, his face brightening.