“Tell me about it, Dick,” he said. “And you, Sergeant Robertson, you and your men are to be thanked for your vigilance and activity. You can go off duty. You are entitled to your rest.”
As they withdrew the sergeant, who passed by Dick and who had not missed a word of the conversation between him and his uncle, said to him:
“At least, young sir, I've returned you to your relatives, an' you're a minor, as I can see.”
“It's so,” said Dick as the sergeant passed on.
“They have not ill treated you?” said Colonel Kenton.
“No, they've been as kind as one enemy could be to another.”
“It is strange, most strange, that you and I should meet here at such a time. Nay, Dick, I see in it the hand of Providence. You're to be saved from what will happen to your army tomorrow.”
“I'd rather not be saved in this manner.”
“I know it, but it is perhaps the only way. As sure as the stars are in Heaven your army will be destroyed in the morning, an' you'd be destroyed with it. I'm fond of you, Dick, and so I'd rather you'd be in our rear, a prisoner, while this is happening.”
“General Grant is a hard man to crush.”