"We uns 'll be very glad to see Old Zolly, and I reckon we shall pay him a visit afore many days," replied the sergeant.
"If you do, you uns 'll git wiped out," added the man.
"Mebbe we shall do the wiping," said Life, as the keeper of the prison came up to him.
"I reckon I needn't stop here no longer," said he. "But I'll show you a room before I go, where you can sleep in a bed. It's where I sleep, though I hain't got no prisoners in the jug just now. There ain't much civil law afloat around here; and a Secesh man can kill a Union man, and nothing said about it."
"I'm much obleeged to you; and I consayt that you ain't much of a Secesh yourself," answered Life, as his conductor unlocked a door near the entrance to the jail.
"I reckon I ain't," replied the keeper as he led the way into the room and closed the door after him; "but it don't do for me to say much about it here. Them fellers you brought in here would hang me to the first tree they found if they knowed it."
The apartment was not a cell. It contained a bed and some furniture, and the sergeant thought he could be very comfortable in it till morning.
"Which way did your troopers come from, Sergeant?" asked the keeper.
"From the west. We left Millersville this morning," answered Life.
"We had a company of Cornfeds in town last night, and they started for Millersville this mornin'. I reckon you hain't seen nothin' on 'em, have you?" continued the keeper, as he seated himself on the bed while the sergeant occupied the only chair in the room.