The Lieutenant was attentively watching the barbering operation. "Cut it close closer yet," he admonished the barber.
"Lieutenant! Lieutenant!" pleaded the Deacon, awkwardly saluting.
"Stand back; I'll attend to you next," said the Lieutenant impatiently. "Now, tie his hands behind him."
The Lieutenant turned toward the Deacon, and the barber picked up his shears and made a step in that direction. Just in the extremity of his danger the Deacon caught sight of the Captain of Co. Q walking toward Headquarters.
"Capt. McGillicuddy! Capt. McGillicuddy! come here at once! Come quick!" he called in a voice which had been trained to long-distance work on the Wabash bottoms.
Capt. McGillicuddy looked up, recognized the waving of the Deacon's bandanna, and hastened thither. Fortunately he knew the Provost officers; there were explanations all around, and profuse apologies, and just as the fifes and drums struck up the "Rogue's March" behind the luckless storekeeper, who had to step off in front of a line of leveled bayonets, the Deacon walked away arm-in-arm with the Captain.
"I'm not goin' to let go o' you till I'm safe back in our own place," he said. "My gracious! think of havin' my head shaved and marched off the way that feller's bein'."
He walked into the cabin and stirred up the beans.
"The water's biled off," said he to himself, "but they hain't been in nigh as hot a place as I have. I guess the boys'll have to do with a plain dinner to day. I'm not goin' to stir out o' this place agin unless they're with me."
He put his hand into his pocket for his bandanna and felt the roll of bills, which he had altogether forgotten in his excitement.