me, that I was a square prisoner of war, an' he sent me to Johnson
Island. Of course it didn't take me long to get out of that hole--I
escaped."

The Bishop was silent, looking at the sword.

"Well, at Franklin, when I seed Cap'n Tom dyin' as I tho'rt, shunned
by the Yankees as a traitor----"

"As a traitor?" asked the old man hotly--"what, after Shiloh--after
he give up Miss Alice for the flag he loved an' his old grand sire
an' The Gaffs an' all of us that loved him--you call that a traitor?"

"You never heard," said Jack, "how old Gen'l Travis charged the
breastworks at Franklin and hit the line where Cap'n Tom's battery
stood. Nine times they had charged Cap'n Tom's battery that
night--nine times he stood his ground an' they melted away around it.
But when he saw the line led by his own grandsire the blood in him
was thicker than water and----"

"An' whut?" gasped the Bishop.

"Well, why they say it was a drunken soldier in his own battery who
struck him with the heavy hilt of a sword. Any way I found the old
Gen'l cryin' over him: 'My Irish Gray--my Irish Gray,' he kept
sayin'. 'I might have known it was you,' and the old Gen'l charged on
leaving him for dead. An' so I found him an' tuck him in my arms an'
carried him to my own cabin up yonder on the mountain--carried him
an'----"

"An' whut?"--asked the old man, grasping the outlaw's
shoulder--"Didn't he die? We've never been able to hear from him."

Jack shook his head. "It 'ud been better for him if he had"--and he
touched his forehead significantly.

"Tell me, Jack--quick--tell it all," exclaimed the old man, still
gripping Jack's shoulder.

"There's nothin' to tell except that I kept him ever
sence--here--right here for two years, with little Jack an' Ephrum,
the young nigger that was his body servant--he's been our cook an'
servant. He never would leave Cap'n Tom, followed me offen the field
of Franklin. An' mighty fond of each other was all three of 'em."

The old man turned pale and his voice trembled so with excitement he
could hardly say:

"Where is he, Jack? My God--Cap'n Tom--he's been here all this time
too--an' me awonderin'--"

"Right here, Bishop--kind an' quiet and teched in his head, where the
sword-hilt crushed his skull. All these years I've cared for him--me
an' Ephrum, my two boys as I called 'em--him an' little Jack. An'
right here he staid contented like till little Jack died last
night--then--"

"In God's name--quick!--t