ared we'll form a group and hunt
this fellow until we find him. And then, please God, if the gallows of
Haman is still in existence, we'll hang him on it with promptness and
dispatch. I believe in the due and orderly process of the law, but in
this case lynching is not only justifiable, but it's an honor to the
country."

"Well spoken, Leonidas! Well spoken!" said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector
St. Hilaire. "I'm glad that Arthur mentioned the matter, and we'll bear
it in mind. You can count upon me."

"And here is coffee," said Happy Tom. "I made this myself, the camp cook
liking me and giving me a chance. I'd really be a wonderful cook if I
had the proper training, and I may come to it, if we lose the war.
Still, the chance even then is slight, because my father, when red war
showed its edge over the horizon, put all his money in the best British
securities. So we could do no more than lose the plantation."

"Happy," said Colonel Talbot, gravely rebuking, "I am surprised at your
father. I thought he was a patriot."

"He is, sir, but he's a financier first, and I may be thankful for it
some day. I'll venture the prediction right now that if we lose this war
not a single Confederate bill will be in the possession of Thomas Langdon,
Sr. Others may have bales of it, worth less per pound than cotton,
but not your humble servant's father, who, I sometimes think, has lots
more sense than your humble servant's father's son."

Colonel Leonidas Talbot shook his head slowly.

"Finance is a mystery to me," he said. "In the dear old South that
I have always known, the law, the army and the church were and are
considered the high callings. To speak in fine, rounded periods was
considered the great gift. In my young days, Harry, I went with my
father by stage coach to your own State, Kentucky, to hear that sublime
orator, the great Henry Clay."

"What was he speaking about, sir?" asked Harry.

"I don't remember. That's not important. But surely he was the noblest
orator God ever created in His likeness. His words flowing like music
and to be heard by everybody, even those farthest from the speaker,
made my pulse beat hard, and the blood leap in my veins. I was heart and
soul for his cause, whatever it was, and, yet I fear me, though I do not
wish to hurt your feelings, Harry, that the state to which he was such
ornament, has not gone for the South with the whole spirit that she
should have shown. She has not ev