“Yes, sir.”
“You'll have to ride to Kinston. The railroad won't be through until to-morrow: I'll telegraph there, and to General Easton at Morehead City. He'll have a boat for you. Tell Grant I expect to run up there in a day or two myself, when things are arranged here. You may wait until I come.”
“Yes, sir.”
I turned to go, but Clarence Colfax was on my mind “General?”
“Eh! what?”
“General, could you hold Colonel Colfax until I see you again?”
It was a bold thing to say, and I quaked. And he looked at me in his keen way, through and through “You saved his life once before, didn't you?”
“You allowed me to have him sent home from Vicksburg, sir.”
He answered with one of his jokes—apropos of something he said on the Court House steps at Vicksburg. Perhaps I shall tell it to you sometime.
“Well, well,” he said, “I'll see, I'll see. Thank God this war is pretty near over. I'll let you know, Brice, before I shoot him.”