the shape of weapons in your house."

To the surprise of both the boys Mr. Allison replied:

"Yes, sir; I have."

"That's honest, at any rate," said the captain. "Will you please bring
them out?"

"Do you intend to take them from me?" said Mr. Allison.

"I think you understand the situation as well as I could explain it to
you," answered the soldier, nodding toward Mark Goodwin, whom he
recognized as soon as he looked at him; and as if to show that he was
not in the humor to put up with any nonsense, he dismounted, his example
being quickly followed by his men.

"Of course I will bring them out," Mr. Allison hastened to say. "But
they are heirlooms and I don't like to part with them. Besides, they are
no longer of use as weapons."

He went into the house as he said this, and the captain, who seemed to
be a lively, talkative fellow, and good-natured as well, even if he was
a Yankee, turned to Mark and said:

"You beat me here, did you not?"

"I hope there was nothing wrong in my coming," said Mark, beginning to
feel uneasy.

"Nothing whatever. You have a right to go where you please and do what
you like, so long as you do not set the graybacks on us."

"Graybacks?" said Mark inquiringly.

"Yes. Johnnies--rebel cavalry."

"Oh! Well, there are none around here that I know of, but you can find
plenty of them a few miles back in the country," said Mark, who was a
little surprised to hear himself talking so freely with this boy in blue
who had carried things with so high a hand in his father's house a short
time before; and then, emboldened by the sound of his own voice, and
prompted by an idea that just then came into his mind, he added: "I can
tell you where you will find one rebel and also a rebel flag, if you
would like to have it for a trophy."

These words almost knocked Tom Allison over, but at the same time they
loosened his tongue.

"That's so, but I never should have thought to speak of it," he
exclaimed. "Go back the way you came until you strike the big road, then
turn to the left and stop at the first house you come to."

"And remember that you will pass ruins on your left hand before you get
where you want to go," added Mark, who did not mean that the Yankee
officer should miss his way for want of explicit directions.

"Who lives there?" inquired the latter, looking sharply at the two boys
as if he meant to read their thoughts, and find out what object they had
in view in volunteering so m