"Wait till you are alone, colonel. Then I'll tell you about it."
Col. Bent said in an undertone to Garfield, as he left the tent, "Don't trust him, colonel; I know him as a thief and a rebel."
This was the substance of Brown's communication. As soon as he heard that James A. Garfield was in command of the Union forces, it instantly struck him that it must be his old comrade of the canal, for whom he still cherished a strong attachment. He was in the rebel camp, but in reality cared little which side was successful, and determined out of old friendship to help Garfield if he could.
Concealing his design, he sought Marshall, and proposed to visit the Union camp as a spy, mentioning his former intimacy with Garfield. Gen. Marshall readily acceded to his plan, not suspecting that it was his real purpose to tell Garfield all he knew about the rebel force. He proceeded to give the colonel valuable information on this subject.
When he had finished, Garfield said, "I advise you to go back to Marshall."
"Go back to him, colonel? Why, he would hang me to the first tree."
"Not if you tell him all about my strength and intended movements."
"But how kin I? I don't know a thing. I was brought into the camp blindfolded."
"Still you can guess. Suppose you tell him that I shall march to-morrow straight for his camp, and in ten days be upon him."
"You'd be a fool, colonel, to do that, and he 'trenched so strongly, unless you had twenty thousand men."