t through your
vitals," said the soldier sternly, as he demonstrated with the ugly
weapon he had fixed on his gun before he began to examine the chimney.

"Dunno," replied the deserter sulkily.

"Answer, or take the consequences!"

"Dunno. Jes as lief be stuck with a bagonet as shot by a file of
soldiers," answered Tom, to whom the future looked even more dark than
the present.

"Tell, Tom," pleaded his father.

"Dunno, dad; I was up chimley when he left. Dunno no more'n the dead."

Perhaps the sergeant concluded that Tom's position was a reasonable one,
and that it would not have been possible for him to see, from his dark
retreat, where the Yankee had gone. At any rate, he was saved from
further persecution; and two of the men were ordered to conduct him to
the camp, while the remainder stayed to continue the search for the
fugitive. Farmer Rigney protested and pleaded, and even offered to warm
the palms of the soldier's hands with certain pieces of gold which he had
in the house; but, unfortunately for the patriotic farmer, the sergeant
was above a bribe, and Tom was hurried off to his doom.

A careful search of the house and premises was now instituted; and this
time the farmer was a zealous co-operator with the soldiers; for it was
necessary for him to establish his own loyalty before he could do
anything to save his son from the deserter's fate. The party proceeded
up-stairs first, and carefully examined every closet, and every nook and
corner which could by any possibility contain the form of a man. As
Somers was not up-stairs, of course they did not find him; and we will
not weary our readers by following them in their fruitless search.

Somers went down into the cellar, closing the door after him; and, as he
may be lonesome in his gloomy retreat, we will join him there, though it
was rather a tight place for more than one person. The cellar was dark
when the fugitive made his advent within its somber shades; and, as he
was an utter stranger in the place, he was not a little bewildered by the
awkwardness of the situation. He was in darkness, and wished for light;
at least, for enough to enable him to find the hiding-place of which he
had heard the farmer speak.

This snug retreat, where the deserter had balked his pursuers, was
undoubtedly the cellar drain; though, to Somers, it appeared to be a
Virginia notion to have it long enough to admit the form of a man. Tom
Rigney was a larger person than himse