d he diligently set about the
business of making his appearance correspond with his circumstances.

He felt that he was hardly dirty enough to be a rebel; so he rubbed his
face, neck and hands with some dark-colored earth, ripped his pants and
coat in sundry places, and otherwise disfigured his comely person, till
Miss Lilian Ashford would not have known him, or if she had known him,
would have been ashamed to acknowledge his acquaintance. Having completed
this work to his entire satisfaction, he rose, and resumed his march
towards the rebel line. He had advanced but a few paces before he felt
something in the breast-pocket of his coat, which excited his curiosity.
It was a diary which the dead soldier had kept from the time he entered
the army.

Such a work would have been deeply interesting to the lieutenant at any
time, but especially at the present, when he was sadly in want of the
information which would enable him to personate the difficult part he had
chosen to perform. Seating himself on the ground again, he was soon
absorbed in the contents of the note-book. The owner's name was Owen
Raynes; and from the diary Somers learned that he had been a clerk in
Richmond when the war broke out; and that his father resided on the
Williamsburg road, near Seven Pines, where the battle had been fought.
Somers was alarmed at this information; for the young man must be well
known in the neighborhood. Of course he could not assume the name and
character of Owen Raynes.

Though the time was precious, he continued to read the diary till he came
to an entry which excited his deep interest: "Poor Allan Garland was
captured to-day by the Yankees; and I suppose they will torture and
starve the poor fellow, as they have the rest of our boys who have fallen
into their hands. We shall never meet again. He was a good fellow. He was
on a scout."

Somers was deeply concerned about poor Allan Garland, who had fallen into
the hands of the terrible Yankees, to be tortured and starved; and he
turned back to the beginning of the diary to obtain further particulars
in regard to this interesting person. Fortunately for history, and
particularly for Lieutenant Somers, Owen Raynes had given a tolerably
full account of his friend. They had been to school together in Union,
Alabama, where Owen had an uncle, and where Allan resided. They were fast
friends; and both agreed to enlist as volunteers in the Fourth Alabama,
Colonel Bush Jones; for their