"Major Vinegold is a man after my own heart," answered the prisoner.
"If he is your friend, you will be likely to see him before morning," added the major, as he turned away.
The prisoners were placed in the centre of the united company, and marched to the camp just as the darkness was beginning to gather on the landscape. All the people in Greeltop were in the roads, and greeted the soldiers with applause and cheers as they marched by them. The officers and most of the privates were loaded with bouquets on the way.
Several times the magnate, who returned to the camp with the troopers, began to tell the commander something about Plain Hill; but the cheers he was obliged to acknowledge prevented him from giving attention, and the subject was delayed to another time.
CHAPTER XXXIV
THE RE-ENFORCEMENT FOR PLAIN HILL
It was not strange that the loyal people of Greeltop were grateful to their deliverers. Reports of similar occurrences within twenty or thirty miles of them had fully informed them of the nature of such raids, doubtless with many exaggerations; but they had every reason to expect more severe treatment than most other places, for the residents were Unionists to a greater extent than in other villages in that section. The magnate was an intensely loyal citizen, and he had largely built up the place.
Colonel Coffee was a Kentuckian, born in the county where he now lived; but he had not amassed his million there. His father had been a planter, and left a moderate fortune to his children at his death. With his share the colonel had gone to New York, and embarked in business. This had led him to China, where he had made his million when he was fifty. He retired, purchased the plantation which had been his father's, and another. He built the elegant mansion where he now resided.