The colonel ground his teeth with rage, but before he could reply, Lucius pushed Ephraim unceremoniously to one side.
‘Shut up, Grizzly,’ he said; ‘I’ll do the talking.—I’ll tell you the truth, if you care to listen to it,’ he added to the colonel.
‘Tell it then, and be quick about it,’ said the latter, casting a furious glance at Ephraim. ‘And talk more civilly than that low hound there, or it will be the worse for you.’
Ephraim opened his mouth, but Lucius silenced him with a look, and answered quietly:
‘We left Staunton early this morning in our balloon. We only intended to have some fun; but we were nearly killed up there’—he pointed to the sky—‘and were glad enough to descend anywhere. We had no idea but what we were close home. Certainly, if we’d thought your army was anywhere around, we wouldn’t have been fools enough to drop right into the middle of it. That’s all.’
The Federal colonel looked darkly at him.
‘That’s all, is it?’ he sneered. ‘A likely story. I’ll see for myself.’ He turned and walked to the balloon, round which the sergeant and half a dozen men were grouped, having hauled it down and secured it firmly to the log. ‘What have you found here, sergeant?’ he demanded.
The sergeant saluted, and pointed silently to a small heap of articles which had been taken out of the car and laid upon the ground. There were some bread and meat, a bottle of milk and another of water, a telescope, a revolver and a box of cartridges, a small gun—the same which Ephraim had been engaged in making when the war broke out—two bags with powder and shot, and, most compromising of all, the tiny rebel flag with its stars and bars, within the folds of which was concealed a drawing block fitted with a lead pencil.
Lucius stared in astonishment as his eyes fell upon this collection, of the existence of which—save for the flag—he had till then been unaware; for at first the darkness had concealed them from him, and afterwards, when day dawned, his terror had been too great and absorbing to allow him to notice anything. Mutely questioning, he looked at Ephraim, who, vaguely conscious of coming trouble, muttered hastily: ‘It’s all right, Luce. I put ’em thar. I’ll tell him wanst I git the chance.’
‘Be quiet,’ answered Lucius in the same low tone. ‘Let me speak.’