th enough in you black ones to trust you with muskets in your
hands."

"They'd better not," said Morris. "How you come here, Marse Mahcy? I
been waiting two days for you."

The boy explained that Julius had found him in the creek and helped him
home, and the old fellow did not appear to be well pleased with the
news, for he walked off, muttering to himself and shaking his head with
every step he took, to bring up his mule and Marcy's horse. The latter
did not wait for him, but mounted and rode homeward; and he was in so
anxious and unsettled a frame of mind that he could not bring himself to
take his papers from his pocket. The situation was something he had
never dreamed of, and Marcy did not believe it would last for any length
of time. The Confederate authorities would not permit enlisted men to
roam at large through the country, talking as Hawkins had done, but
would soon put a stop to it by some violent measures, and bring their
disaffected soldiers to punishment at the same time. The paroled
prisoner was angry over the result of the battles at Roanoke Island; he
must have been or he would not have expressed himself so freely. And
when Marcy reached home and talked the matter over with his mother, and
became quieted down so that he could read his papers understandingly, he
found that there were some high in authority who were angry over it
also; General Wise for one, who said in his report that "Roanoke Island,
being the key to all the rear defences of Norfolk, ought to have been
defended at the cost of twenty thousand men." But General Wise did not
stop there. He sent a protest to the Confederate Congress, censuring
both the President and Secretary of War, and the upshot of the matter
was that Mr. Benjamin became so unpopular that he was forced to resign.
The general's letter also opened the eyes of the Confederate government
to the fact that the people of North Carolina were not half as loyal to
the cause as they ought to have been, and that something would have to
be done about it. If the Southern men would not enter the army
willingly, they must be compelled to come in; and this the government
straightway proceeded to do. Almost the first move that was made brought
about the thing that Marcy Gray most dreaded, and made a refugee of
him.

CHAPTER XIV.

A YANKEE SCOUTING PARTY.

Marcy Gray served as pilot on Captain Benton's vessel for a period of
ten days, counting from February 8 to the time the fle