llows levy war against them when you fired upon Sumter?
If you did, you are traitors the last one of you."

"W-h-e-w!" whistled Gifford. "And you think we ought to be hanged?"

"I certainly hope you won't be, you especially, but you know as well as
I do that the penalty of treason is death."

"And you don't call yourself a traitor to your State, I suppose?"

"I don't, because I have made no effort to overthrow the legal
government of my State. Between you and me, I joined that privateer
because I did not think it would be safe to do anything else."

"There's where you showed your good sense," said Gifford earnestly.
"Judging by what I have heard, you took the only course that was open to
you. The people here are not half as crazy as they are in Charleston,
Wilmington, and Newbern, but they are none the less dead in earnest, and
you will find that after the State goes out, a Union man will not be
safe in this country. I think you have completely allayed suspicion here
in Nashville, but you want to look out for secret enemies near home.
Whatever you do, don't run Beardsley's schooner aground."

"What have I got to do with running the schooner?" asked Marcy, who was
surprised at the extent of his friend's information. He began to see
that he and his movements had been pretty thoroughly discussed.

"You're going to pilot her," answered Gifford. "That's what you've got
to do with running her, and I say again, don't run her aground."

"If I do accidentally, Beardsley will shoot me, I suppose."

"No, he won't. He hasn't the pluck to shoot a squirrel; but you never
could make him believe that it was an accident, and when he got ashore
he would do all he could to inflame the secessionists against you. He
seems to have something against you. I can't imagine what it is--"

"I can," replied Marcy, coloring to the roots of his hair. "He wants to
marry our plantation."

"Whew!" whispered Gifford. "That is a piece of news, I confess, but it's
safe, old boy. He'll not make it, of course. Then you have a most
implacable foe in Lon Beardsley. He is one of your secret enemies, and
that overseer of yours--what's his name, Hanson?--is another. They are
sworn friends, I have heard, and if your mother has any money stowed
away--Mind, I don't ask whether she has or not, because it is none of my
business. But I understand that before you came home she made several
trips about the country that could not have been made for nothing. If