a company organized by my government."

"A company of Partisan Rangers?"

"But in the service of my country."

"Are you a Kentuckian?"

"I am."

"And your service is to roam over your native State, killing, robbing,
plundering your fellow-citizens; a highwayman, a thief, and a
murderer," continued the lieutenant very severely. "This is the second
time you have visited this mansion for plunder; but you don't come out
of it so well as you expected," said Deck with a sneer, evident in his
tones as well as his looks.

"Where is the rest of your company, Captain Grundy?"

"On duty in another county."

"But you expect the balance of your command here some time to-day?"

"There will soon be a time when the treatment we have received here
will be returned with compound interest," said Grundy with a savage and
revengeful look on his ill-favored countenance.

"You wished to see me; what is your business?" demanded the lieutenant.

"I am ready to surrender. You and your gang have murdered nearly all my
men here in cold blood. I can do nothing more, and I must yield,"
replied Grundy.

"Are you a lawyer, Captain?"

"I am not; I am a horse-dealer."

"I should think you might be!" sneered Deck. "Do you think it is right
to ride over the State, robbing your fellow-citizens, threatening to
hang a planter to a tree for refusing to give up his money?"

"In the service of my country, yes! Kentucky belongs to the
Confederacy; and those who fight to keep the State in the exploded
Union are traitors, and should be treated as enemies of the State and
the Confederacy."

"Suppose I should visit your house, demand your money, and hang you if
you did not give it up? Would that be all right?"

"That is another matter," growled Grundy.

"Precisely; the same boot don't fit both feet," returned Deck.

"I am your prisoner; but you need not thorn me with your Union logic."

At this moment the lieutenant heard the voice of Davis Hickman in the
hall, talking to his father. He called him into the parlor, and
requested him to bring a quantity of cord or straps to him; and he went
for them.

"What do you want of cords and straps?" asked Grundy.

"To bind my prisoner."

"Do you mean to hang me?"

"I do not; I leave that job to the regular hangman. He will perform it
in due time, I have no doubt," replied Deck, as Davis brought in the
cords.

"I don't mean to be tied up like a wildcat," said the captain doggedly.

"Then you