“What does all this mean?” said the guerilla leader, bewildered by the new aspect of affairs. “Who is this man, that you cannot speak in his presence?” he added, turning to the major.
“He is a bigger man than you or me,” answered the scout, mysteriously.
“That may be, but I command here. Is he a traitor, or a Yankee?”
“No!” almost shouted the scout. “He belonged to Winchester once. He is a Tennesseean.”
“Good!” exclaimed the captain, apparently much pleased with this confirmation of what the major had said of himself.
“Give your information, Tippy,” added De Banyan, with an awful exhibition of dignity, as though he were the “big man” whom the scout had represented him to be.
“Not yet,” said Lynchman. “I want to understand this matter a little better.”
“We have been in Nashville together. We have worked together for years,” interposed De Banyan.
“O, that’s the idea—is it?” said the leader of the guerillas. “Then you are a scout yourself, Major de Banyan?”
“I have done a great deal of hard work in Virginia and in Tennessee. I have stood by the flag almost from the beginning,” returned the major.