he tell me
how to get him clar."

The woman read out the contents of the note.

"Dat's it, missus, sure enough; dat's the way," he exclaimed in delight.
"Me tink and tink all day, and no manage to tink of anyting except to
shoot de sentry and fight wid de oders and get him out; but den all de
oder sojers come running down, and no chance to escape. If me can get de
spirits dat's easy enough. Me make dem all drunk as hogs."

"I can give you that," the woman said. "Is there anything else you will
want? What are you going to do with him if you get him free? They will
hunt you down like vermin."

"I tought we might get down to de river and get ober somehow. Dere will
be no getting troo der cavalry. Dey will hab dem on ebery road."

"Well, you want some clothes, anyhow; you can't go about in these
soldier clothes. The first Yank you came across would shoot you for a
deserter, and the first of our men as a traitor. Well, by the time you
get back to-night,--that is, if you do come back,--I will get up a chest
I've got buried with my men's clothes in them. They didn't want to take
them away to the war with them, so I hid them up."

She had by this time dug up the keg from its hiding-place, and now
filled Tony's canteen.

"Tank you, missus; de Lord bress you for what you've done, wheder I get
Massa Wingfield off or wheder we bofe get killed ober de job. But I must
get back as fast as I can. Ef it was dark before I got back to camp dey
would wonder whar I had been."

"Oh, you have plenty of time," the woman said; "it won't be dark till
eight o'clock, and it's not seven yet. I will set to and boil a big
chunk of pork and bake some cakes. It's no use getting out of the hands
of the Yanks and then going and getting starved in the swamps."

When Tony got back to his regiment he strolled over to the shed where
Vincent was confined. Two sentinels were on duty, the sergeant and the
two other men were lying at full length on the ground some twenty yards
away. Their muskets were beside them, and it was evident to Tony, by the
vigilant watch that they kept on the shed, that their responsibility
weighed heavily upon them, and that Captain Pearce had impressed upon
them that, if the prisoner escaped, they would certainly be shot.

"Well, Sergeant John Newson," Tony began, "I hab just walked over to see
how you getting on. It am a mighty 'sponsible business dis. I had six
hours of him, and it make de perspiration run down my back t