NORTHERNER. Be still, or they'll hear you. How are you going to get me out of this?
MARY [angrily]. Ye git out. Why did ye come here, a-bringin' me all this extra work, an' maybe death?
NORTHERNER. I couldn't go any farther. My horse and I were both near dropping. Won't you help me?
MARY. No, I won't. I don't know who ye are or nothin' 'bout ye, 'cept that them men want t' ketch ye. [In a changed tone of curiosity.] Did ye steal somethin' from 'em?
NORTHERNER. Don't you understand? Those men belong to the Confederacy, and I'm a Northerner. They've been chasing me all day. [Pulling a bit of crumpled paper from his breast.] They want this paper. If they get it before to-morrow morning it will mean the greatest disaster that's ever come to the Union army.
MARY [with frank curiosity]. Was it ye rode by yesterday?
NORTHERNER. Don't you see what you can do? Get me out of here and away from those men, and you'll have done more than any soldier could do for the country—for your country.
MARY. I ain't got no country. Me an' Thad's only got this farm. Thad's ailin', an' I do most the work, an'——
NORTHERNER. The lives of thirty thousand men hang by a thread. I must save them. And you must help me.
MARY. I don't know nothin' 'bout ye, an' I don't know what ye're talkin' 'bout.