y, "I want to
introduce my friends, Lieutenant Mason, Lieutenant Warner and Lieutenant
Pennington."

"Movin' in mighty good comp'ny, though young, Dan," said Brayton, who
was about Whitley's age and build.

"They're officers, an' they're young, as you say," said Whitley, "but
they're good ones."

"Them's the kind we eat alive, when we ain't got anything else to eat,"
said the Mississippian, a very tall, sallow and youngish man. "We're
never too strong on rations, and when I eat prisoners I like 'em under
twenty the best. They ain't had time to get tough. I speak right now for
that yellow-haired one in the middle."

"You can't swallow me," said Pennington, good naturedly. "I'll just turn
myself crossways and stick in your throat."

"What are you fellows after around here, anyway?" continued the
Mississippian. "The weather's hot an' we all want to go in swimmin'
to-morrow, bein' as we have two rivers handy. Shore as you live if you
get to botherin' us we'll hurt you."

"You won't hurt us," said Dick, "because to-morrow we're going to
surround you and drive you into a coop."

"Drive us in a coop. See here, Yank, you're gettin' excited. Do you know
how many men we have here waitin' for you? Of course you don't. Why,
it's four hundred thousand, ain't it, Bill?"

"No, it's just two hundred thousand. I don't believe in lyin' fur
effect, Jim."

"I ain't lyin'. There's two hundred thousand men. Then there's Bobby
Lee. That's a hundred thousand more, which makes three hundred thousand.
Then there's Stonewall Jackson, who's another hundred thousand, which
brings the figures up to exactly what I said, four hundred thousand.
Now, ain't I right, Bill?"

"You shorely are, Jim. I was a fool for countin' the way I did. Will you
overlook it this time?"

"Wa'al, I will this time, but be shore you don't do it ag'in. Now, see
here, you Yanks: we like you well enough. You're friends of Bill, who
is a friend of me. Just you take my advice an' go home. Start to-night
while the weather is warm, an' the roads are good. If you're afraid of
our chasin' you we'll give you a runnin' start of a hunderd miles."

"Wa'al now, that's right kind of you," said Whitley. "I for one might
take your advice, but I was froze up so much in them wild mountains an'
plains of the northwest that I like to go south when the winter's comin'
on. It's hot now, all right, but in two months the chilly blasts will be
seekin' my marrow."

"I was speakin' fo