e dismounted and
their horses tied to the fences. Their captain, a confiding individual,
on the wrong side of sixty, looked with surprise at this irruption, and
asked,--

"Whose company is this?"

"Wolford's cavalry," was the reply.

"What? Kentucky boys? Glad to see you. Where's Wolford?"

"There he sits," answered the man, pointing to Morgan, who was
carelessly seated sideways on his horse. Walking up to Wolford,--as he
thought him,--the Indiana captain saluted him,--

"Captain, how are you?"

"Bully; how are you? What are you going to do with all these men and
horses?"

"Why, you see that horse-thieving John Morgan is in this part of the
country, cutting up the deuce. Between you and me, captain, if he comes
this way, we'll try and give him the best we've got in the shop."

"You'll find him hard to catch. We've been after him for fourteen days
and can't see him at all," said Morgan.

"If our hosses would only stand fire we'd be all right."

"They won't stand, eh?"

"Not for shucks. I say, captain, I'd think it a favor if you and your
men would put your saddles on our hosses, and give our lads a little
idea of a cavalry drill. They say you're prime at that."

"Why, certainly; anything to accommodate. I think we can show you some
useful evolutions."

Little time was lost in changing the saddles from the tired to the fresh
horses, the hoosier boys aiding in the work, and soon the Confederates,
delighted with the exchange, were in their saddles and ready for the
word. Morgan rode up and down the column, then moved to the front, took
off his hat, and said,--

"All right now, captain. If you and your men will form a double line
along the road and watch us, we will try to show you a movement you have
never seen."

The captain gave the necessary order to his men, who drew up in line.

"Are you ready?" asked Morgan.

"All right, Wolford."

"Forward!" shouted Morgan, and the column shot ahead at a rattling pace,
soon leaving nothing in sight but a cloud of dust. When the news became
whispered among the astonished hoosiers that the polite visitor was
Morgan instead of Wolford, there was gnashing of teeth in that town,
despite the fact that each man had been left a horse in exchange for his
own.

As Morgan rode on he continued his polite method of levying a tax from
the mill-owners instead of burning their property. At Salem, the next
place after leaving Corydon, he collected three thousand dollars from