mother's dining-room, we should have laid his abduction at
your door," said Allison. "But the flag proves that you are all right;
and, besides, you couldn't have had a hand in it, for you were on your
way to Newbern when it happened. It opened our eyes to the fact that
there are traitors among us, and that we must be careful who we talk
to."

"Traitors," repeated Marcy. "I don't know what you are trying to get at.
Hanson told me with his own lips that he was a Union man. Kelsey told me
the same, and brought word to the house that Colonel Shelby and Mr.
Dillon wanted Hanson discharged; but I sent back word that if they
wanted the overseer run o& the place they could come up and do the work
themselves, for I would have no hand in it. I don't want to get my
neighbors down on me if I can help it. If Hanson was a Union man, as he
professed to be (and I don't know whether he was or not, for I would not
talk politics with him), it was Confederates living right around here
who came to the quarter and took him away."

Marcy saw by the astonished look that came to Allison's face that all
this was news to him, and this made it plain that he was not in Colonel
Shelby's "ring." He backed up against one of the counters and glanced
around at his companions, but had not another word to say. The time came
when he was admitted into the "ring," and showed himself to be one of
the most active and aggressive ones in it. To keep up appearances Marcy
bought a paper, took another look at his mother's box and left the
office; and as no one went with him to help him on his horse, he led her
alongside the fence and mounted without assistance. A mile and a half
from Nashville the road followed the windings of a little creek whose
banks were thickly wooded. As he drew near this point he dropped the
reins upon his horse's neck and pulled his paper from his pocket--not
with any intention of reading it, but to be in readiness to answer Aleck
Webster's hail when he heard it. It came before he had ridden twenty
yards farther. The man had hidden his horse in the bushes, and now stood
in the edge of them within easy speaking distance, but out of sight of
any one who might be watching Marcy Gray.

"You are Mr. Jack's brother, ain't you?" said he, as Marcy stopped his
horse and fastened his eyes upon the paper he held in his hand. "I
thought so; and I want to know if you are satisfied, by what we did
while you were gone, that we will do to trust."

"We