"I don't know what they will do with you; but I reckon they won't shoot you, as they might a fellow whose father was not a man of some consequence," replied the sergeant, as he ordered one of his men to open the gate.
"Shoot me!" exclaimedPercy, evidently appalled at the bare possibility of such an event.
"I reckon they won't do that," added the soldier.
"This is my father's plantation, and my mother is in the house," continued Percy.
"She can stay there: we shall not meddle with her."
"But you are going to take me away from her."
"You look like a stout young fellow, and you ought to be able to get along for a while without your mother," chuckled the sergeant. "You belong in the army; and I reckon you will have to go back to it, in spite of your mother."
"I don't belong to the army," protested Percy.
"Well, they call you a deserter, anyhow."
Percy seemed to be overcome by this statement, and Christy thought there was something more of his story than he had told on board of the Bellevite. It was possible, after all, that Major Pierson was not as much of a brute as be had appeared to be. But, if his companion was a deserter, he certainly did not come under that head himself, and he could not understand why he had been arrested.