"You will return home?"
"At once."
"If I were you I'd place Old Ben on guard at the plantation. I don't believe anybody will harm the place, now it is flying a hospital flag. Certainly the troops under Colonel Stanton won't trouble us."
"No; he is a gentleman, and I know I can trust him. Dear Harry! I wish he was not with the Yankee army."
"Well, he is fighting according to the dictates of his conscience, so there is no use in finding fault."
Mrs. Ruthven kissed Jack tenderly and hurried off, and then with all speed our hero set to work to summon together the lads composing the Home Guard.
The task was not difficult, for the firing in the distance—which was gradually coming closer—had aroused everybody. In less than an hour the Home Guard was out in force on the town green, with Jack in command.
"Boys, we may have some hot work to do," said the young captain. "I expect everybody to do his best. I trust there is no coward among us."
"Not a bit of it!" came back in a shout.
"We aint no St. John Ruthvens," whispered one of the young soldiers, but loud enough for a dozen or more to hear.