"What for?" blurted the captive, sitting up and rubbing his elbow.
"For being Bill Appleweight, alias Poteet. Get up, now, and come with us to headquarters, or my instructions are to break your head."
"Who in the devil are you?" panted the prisoner.
"Well, if it's anything to you, we're the South Carolina militia, so you'd better get up and climb."
CHAPTER XVI THE FLIGHT OF GILLINGWATER
"It will be better for me to break the news to Colonel Gillingwater," said Jerry, "and you must go out and meet the troops yourself, with Mr. Cooke and that amusing Mr. Collins. There is no telling what effect my tidings will have on Rutherford, or what he will decide to do. He has never before been so near trouble as he is now, and I may have to give him first aid to the injured when he finds out that the South Carolina troops are on Raccoon Creek, all ready to march upon our sacred soil."
"But suppose your adjutant-general shouldn't go back to his troops after he sees you, then what am I to do?"
"If you don't see him by ten o'clock you will take personal command and exercise your own discretion as to the best method of landing Appleweight in a South Carolina jail. After that we must find papa, and it will be up to him to satisfy the newspapers and his constituents with some excuse for his strange disappearance."