you mean the Yanks?" answered Mark, as he and Tom reined their
horses across the ditch to the place where the man was standing. "I
should say so; and you ought to have seen the way they conducted
themselves, just because my father stood on his dignity as any other
Southern gentleman would."

"Well, he was a fule for standing on his dignity or anything else," said
the captain bluntly. "You didn't ketch your Uncle Lon trying to ride no
such high horse as that there, I bet you, kase fifty agin one is too
many. I was right here in this field when they come along," continued
Beardsley, resting his right foot upon one of the lower rails and both
his elbows on the top one, for he never could stand alone if there were
anything he could conveniently lean upon, "and when they asked me did I
have any we'pons of any sort up to the house, I told 'em I had for a
fact, and if they didn't mind, I'd go up and bring 'em out. So I clim
the fence and went along."

Here the captain went off into another paroxysm of laughter, shaking his
head and pounding the top rail with his clenched hand.

"Well, what did you give them when you reached the house?" asked Mark
impatiently.

"Nothing in the wide world but an old shotgun that belonged to one of
the boys that used to come out from Nashville squirrel shooting once in
a while, and that I wouldn't fire off if you'd give me a five-dollar
gold piece," chuckled Beardsley. "The rest of my shooting-irons is hid
where they won't find 'em. You see I suspicioned that they would do
something of this kind as soon's they got a foothold here, and so I
toted my guns out in the garden and shoved 'em under some bresh there is
there."

"You had better hunt up a better hiding-place for them the first thing
you do," said Tom earnestly. "There's where I put mine when Mark warned
me, but I am not going to leave them there. The Yankee who came to our
house was as much of a gentleman as one of his kind could be, but the
next one who comes along may be a different sort. Did they go to Marcy
Gray's?"

"Bet your life," said the captain, with another chuckle. "Do you reckon
I'd let them miss that place? I sent them there, and they was gone long
enough to give the house a good overhauling; but what I can't quite see
through----"

"We sent them there too," exclaimed Tom. "Did you see them when they
returned? What did they have?"

"I'll bet they made Marcy hand over that fine hunting rig in which he
takes so much