he had eaten all the breakfast he
wanted, Marcy mounted his mother's horse, that had been brought to the
door in place of his filly which old Morris had taken to Nashville, and
galloped out of the yard. The first man he saw was Beardsley, standing
by the ruins of his house. The man looked up when he heard the sound of
hoofs on the road, and when he discovered Marcy he beckoned him to come
in.

"I've just thought of something," said the boy to himself, as he turned
into the gate. "This villain is going to play off friendly, and I can't
watch him any too closely. When the Yanks get to scouting through here,
he will be the best Union man in the world; and who knows but he will
send them to our house after Jack's rebel flag? That flag must come down
the minute I get home."

Then he rode up and shook hands with Captain Beardsley, who acted as if
he was glad to see him.

CHAPTER XIII.

A REBEL SOLDIER SPEAKS.

"I just wanted to ask you how and when you got back," said the captain,
holding fast to Marcy's hand. "I see Morris over town yesterday, and
right there he is going to stay till you come to ride the filly home.
How did you like the Yanks, what you seen of 'em?"

"I have no reason to complain of my treatment," replied Marcy. "I had no
idea that you were impressed at the time I was, until I saw you on that
gunboat."

"If I'd knowed that they was going to slap the bracelets onto me, they
never would have took me there alive," said Beardsley in savage tones.
"I'd a fit till I dropped before I would have went a step. Who'd 'a'
thought that me and you would ever seen any of them _Hollins_ fellers on
a war-ship? I'm mighty sorry now that I didn't stick Captain Benton in
irons the same as I done with his men, and it's a lucky thing for him
that he didn't let me have the handling of his ship. I would have run
her so hard aground that she would be there now."

"Then it is a lucky thing for you that you were sent below," added
Marcy. "You would have been hanging at the yard-arm in less than ten
minutes after you ran the ship ashore. Those gunboat fellows don't stand
any nonsense."

"Mebbe that's so," said the captain. "And sense I've got home all right,
I'm kinder glad things happened as they did. The robbers who went to
your house, after the money they didn't get, used me pretty rough,
didn't they?" he added, jerking his thumb over his shoulder toward the
spot on which his home had once stood. "How do you reckon