one. "Whoa!"--to his horse.

"Mississippi?" asked Mary's guardian.

"Rackensack," said the man in the blue cap.

"Arkansas," said the other in the same breath. "What is your command?"

"Signal service," replied the spy. "Reckon I look mighty like a citizen
jess about now, don't I?" He gave them his little laugh of
self-depreciation and looked toward Mary, where she had halted and was
letting her horse nip the new grass of the roadside.

"See any troops along the way you come?" asked the man in the hat.

"No; on'y a squad o' fellehs back yonder who was all unsaddled and fast
asleep, and jumped up worse scared'n a drove o' wile hogs. We both sort
o' got a little mad and jess swapped a few shots, you know, kind o' tit
for tat, as it were. Enemy's loss unknown." He stooped more than ever in
the shoulders, and laughed. The men were amused. "If you see 'em, I'd
like you to mention me"-- He paused to exchange smiles again. "And
tell 'em the next time they see a man hurryin' along with a lady and
sick child to see the doctor, they better hold their fire till they sho
he's on'y a citizen." He let his foot down into the stirrup again and
they all smiled broadly. "Good-morning!" The two parties went their
ways.

"Jess as leave not of met up with them two buttermilk rangers," said the
spy, once more at Mary's side; "but seein' as thah we was the oniest
thing was to put on all the brass I had."

From the top of the next hill the travellers descended into a village
lying fast asleep, with the morning star blazing over it, the cocks
calling to each other from their roosts, and here and there a light
twinkling from a kitchen window, or a lazy axe-stroke smiting the
logs at a wood-pile. In the middle of the village one lone old man,
half-dressed, was lazily opening the little wooden "store" that
monopolized its commerce. The travellers responded to his silent bow,
rode on through the place, passed over and down another hill, met an
aged negro, who passed on the roadside, lifting his forlorn hat and
bowing low; and, as soon as they could be sure they had gone beyond his
sight and hearing, turned abruptly into a dark wood on the left. Twice
again they turned to the left, going very warily through the deep
shadows of the forest, and so returned half around the village, seeing
no one. Then they stopped and dismounted at a stable-door, on the
outskirts of the place. The spy opened it with a key from his own
pocket, went in and came