Several men, dressed in the gray uniform of Confederates, appeared at the barn door.
"Halloa!" cried one, in the uniform of a lieutenant, "here is a dead dog. Can that be what those three shots were fired at which brought us here?"
"By Jove, Lieutenant Snapemup, there's a queer rooster," and the speaker pointed to our friend Diggs, who sat trembling astride the rafter.
"Who are you and what are you doing up there?" cried Lieutenant Snapemup.
"Oh, Lordy, Lordy, Lordy!" groaned Diggs.
"Come down there, Stumpy," cried Diggs' old tormentor and former companion, Seth Williams, entering.
As Diggs showed no sign of an intention to obey his order, Seth adopted a summary method for bringing him down. Taking a musket from a soldier, he fired a shot which passed about a foot above the small, round head. With a howl of fear and desperation, Diggs, who verily believed he was killed, let go his hold and fell from the beam, head first into the open meal-chest that was just beneath him.
"Williams, what do you mean? You have killed him!" cried Lieutenant Snapemup.
"No, I have not touched him," replied Seth.
"Who is it?" asked Howard Jones entering the barn.