that you don't need.
Well, I must be piking along. I'll be up this afternoon, tell your
maw."

"And it will be the worst news she ever heard," thought Marcy, as the
two separated and rode away in different directions. "What he is up to
now I can't imagine; but he has strong backing, I know from the way he
talks. Mother has always been afraid that he would come back to trouble
her, and here he is. And here am I without a friend to advise or assist
me. I was almost sure that something like this would happen when Aleck
Webster and his friends deserted me."

But if Aleck was gone there was at least one man in the neighborhood who
was able and willing to take his place, and that was Ben Hawkins, the
paroled prisoner, whom he encountered before he left Beardsley's gate a
quarter of a mile behind. The man was sitting on his horse in the middle
of the road, and the first words he spoke seemed to indicate that he was
waiting for Marcy.

"Who was that onery looking chap I met along here a spell ago riding
Beardsley's old clay-bank?" said Hawkins. "I seen you talking to him up
there."

"Oh, Mr. Hawkins," exclaimed Marcy, who had suddenly resolved to put a
certain matter to the test then and there. "You saw and talked with a
Federal scouting party that came through here this morning, and the
officer in command told me that you are a good friend of mine. Is that
so or not?"

"What do you want me to do to prove it?" asked the rebel in reply.

"Ob, a hundred things," answered Marcy. "But in the first place, do you
know anything about the Home Guards?"

"Being one of 'em I oughter know all about 'em," was the reply. "But not
being pizen enough agin the Unionists to suit 'em, I have sorter got it
into my head that they are keeping some things from me. All the same, I
know enough to be sartin sure that they mean harm to you."

"That is what I thought; and I am certain of it too, now that this
Hanson has returned. He used to be my mother's overseer, and is the man
who was taken from his house and carried into the swamp."

"So that's the chap, is it?" exclaimed Hawkins. "I didn't know him, for
your mother hired him after I 'listed; but I've heard as much as I want
to know about him. Of course he is going back on the place to stay his
time out?"

"That is what he says; but the worst of it is that he wants to make up
the time he lost by being carried away. Now, is there any way in which I
can stop that?"

"You can shoot him, I