. Until we get to Camp Jackson I mean to command this
company, and I'll find means of enforcing what I order. That is all.
Right face! Break ranks!"

A shout went up, in reply.

"Good for Captain Sam!" cried the boys. "Three cheers for our
captain!"

"Huzza! Huzza! Huzza!"

All the boys,--there were about a dozen of them--joined in this shout,
except Jake Elliott, the mutineer, who had provoked the young
captain's anger by insisting upon quitting the camp without
permission, and had even threatened Sam when the young commander bade
him remain where he was.

The revolt was effectually quelled. The mutineer had found a master in
his former school-mate, and forebore to provoke the threatened
corporal punishment further.

The camp was in the edge of a strip of woods on the bank of the
Alabama river, the time, afternoon, in the autumn of the year 1814.
The boys had marched for three days through canebrakes, and swamps,
and had still a long march before them. Sam had called a halt earlier
than usual that day for reasons of his own, which he did not explain
to his fellows. Jake Elliott had objected, and his objection being
peremptorily overruled by Sam, he had undertaken to go on alone to the
point at which he wished to pass the remainder of the day, and the
night. Sam had ordered him to remain within the lines of the camp. He
had replied insolently with a threat that he would himself take charge
of the camp, as the oldest person there, when Sam quelled the mutiny
after the manner already set forth.

Now that he was effectually put down, he brooded sulkily, meditating
revenge.

As night came on, the camp fire of pitch pine threw a ruddy glow over
the trees, and the boys, weary as they were with marching, gathered
around the blazing logs, and laughed and sang merrily, Jake Elliott
was silent and sullen through it all, and when at last Sam ordered
all to their rest for the night, Jake crept off to a tree near the
edge of the prescribed camp limits and threw himself down there.
Presently a companion joined him, a boy not more than fourteen years
of age, who was greatly awed by Sam's sternness, and who naturally
sought to draw Jake into conversation on the subject.

"You're as big as Sam is," he said after a while, "and I wonder you
let him talk so sharp to you. You're afraid o' him, aint you?"

"No, but you are."

"Yes I am. I'm afraid o' the lightning too, and he's got it in him, or
I'm mistaken."

"Yes 'n' you