"How yo' goin' to git dar?"
I explained about the ravine, the positions of the Confederate lines, and where I understood the special guards were stationed. The boy listened in silence, his fingers, clinching and unclinching, alone evidencing excitement.
"Will that plan work?" I asked, "or can you suggest any better way?"
"I reckon it'll work," he admitted, "if yo' don't git cotched afore yo' git dar. I knows a heap 'bout dat ravine; I'se hunted rabbits dar many a time, an' it ain't goin' to be no easy job gittin' through dar in de dark."
"Will you show us the way?"
"Well, I don't just know," scratching his head thoughtfully. "Maybe de col'nel wouldn't let me."
"I can arrange that."
"Den I don't want fo' to go to dat house; dat's whar I run away from."
"But I thought you belonged to the Le Gaires of Louisiana?"
"Dat's what I did, sah; but I done tol' yo' I come up yere wid de army. I was left dere till de captain come back; dose folks was friends o' his."