"O, Uncle Dan, Uncle Dan, promise me you will not let me be hurt!" cried Diggs.
"Come along. You shall be treated as a prisoner of war, but I can't say what a court martial may do about your desertion."
"O, Uncle Dan, you wont let them shoot me, will you? Say you won't, and I'll do anything in the world you want me to do. I'll enlist in your army and fight on half rations."
"You've 'listed a little too much already," said Uncle Dan. "This tryin' to sarve two masters won't do."
"Oh, you surely would not let me be killed. Oh, promise me, you will not let them take me out and shoot me." Poor Diggs broke down and sobbed like a whipped school-boy.
"Hush up blubberin'. Be a man, if ye've got any manhood about ye, and come along."
They now begin to retrace their steps back to where the main army had paused.
"But, Uncle Dan, you have known me from a child, and you knew my father before me. Say that you wont have me killed!" sobbed Diggs, as he walked along with a soldier on either side of him.
"That's beyond my control," replied Uncle Dan. "I'll turn ye over to the authorities, and I can't make promises."
Poor Diggs felt his heart sink within him. His very breathing became oppressive, and the soldiers who walked by his side seemed like giants of vengeance.