f he had been thrown from a catapult, Mr. Watkins
went out at the front, and Mrs. Gray hastened to her son's room with a
pair of scissors in her hand. Marcy went to the coachman's cabin and
felt for the latch-string; but it had been pulled in, and that proved
that old Morris was inside. He pounded upon the door, and called the
black man's name impatiently.

"O Lawd! Who dat?" came in muffled tones from under the blankets.

Before Marcy could answer Julius glided around the corner of the cabin,
looking like a small black ghost very scantily clad in white. He had
been brave enough when the robbers made their raid upon the house and
there was a strong force of Union men to back him up, but now that he
thought the robbers had come again to finish their work, when Aleck
Webster and his friends were not at hand to lend assistance, he was very
badly frightened.

"I don't suppose Morris will get up and let me in, but you will do as
well as anybody," said Marcy. "Get a spade, quick, and come with me. No,
they are not robbers. They are Yankees, and I am to go to the fleet with
them; and that is all I can tell you. Hurry up."

While Julius was digging in one of Mrs. Gray's flower-beds under Marcy's
supervision, and the quilt on his bed was being ripped to pieces, Mr.
Watkins was standing in the front yard, telling the master's mate what
he had seen and heard in the house. The young officer was astonished,
and declared he had never dreamed that there was such Union sentiment
anywhere in the South.

"I did not believe there was either, though I have often heard of it,"
replied Mr. Watkins, "but I believe it now. It is easy enough for us who
are surrounded by loyal people to swear by the old flag, but I tell you
it must take pluck and plenty of it to do it down here. I wish some one
else had been ordered to do this work, for I have taken her last prop
away from that poor woman in there. She is a heroine; and as for the
boy, he is as true as steel, and as brave as they make them. One can't
look in his face and think anything else of him. He has gone to dig up
the captain's money and will be along directly. I never thought to ask
him how he got his hand hurt."

While the officer was adding to his subordinate's surprise by telling
how completely Lon Beardsley had reduced Captain Benton to poverty by
taking the _Hollins_ from him, Mrs. Gray came down the steps with
Marcy's flag in her hand and followed by three laughing darkies, wh