k to
you. And if you make a success of it, as I hope you will, no one will
hear from me that I knew a thing about it."

"And you won't let on about the other things I have told you?" said the
captain, as he dismounted and spread a blanket over his horse. "I don't
reckon I had oughter said so much. Mebbe Shelby won't like it."

"Will you tell me what he says after you have had a talk with him? Then
you may depend upon me to keep a still tongue in my head. As for Shelby,
I don't care whether he likes it or not. It is none of his business. I
know, and have known for a long time, that he and his ring have some
things in hand that they won't let me hear of, and I am as warm a friend
to the South as they dare be, and just as ready to help her."

"But you see you're a boy; and some men don't like to take boys into
their secrets," replied Beardsley.

"I know I am a boy, but all the same I am a wild horse in the cane and
hard to curry. If Shelby and his gang don't pay a little more attention
to me I will make them wish they had; and if Beardsley don't keep me
posted in his plans, I'll knock them into the middle of next week. I'll
find means to get Hanson's abductors after him. By George! That's an
idea, and I'll think it over as I ride home."

So saying Tom Allison hitched his horse to one of the pins in the rack
and followed Beardsley across the street toward the post-office.

CHAPTER III.

THE NEIGHBORHOOD GOSSIP.

The streets of Nashville were almost deserted, for the cold wind, aided
by the driving rain that was falling steadily, had forced all the idlers
to seek comfort within doors. The post-office was full of them, and when
the captain walked in with Allison at his heels they greeted him
boisterously, and asked more questions in a minute than he could answer
in ten. First and foremost they wanted to know why Beardsley had come
home so unexpectedly, but that was a matter he did not care to say much
about. All they could get from him was that he had some important
business to attend to.

"But of course you are going back again," said one. "I would if I had
such a chance to make money as you have got. But perhaps you are rich
enough already."

"Well, no; I don't reckon I'll ran the blockade any more," replied the
captain. "My schooner is safe and sound now and I want to keep her that
way. The Yankees are getting tolerable thick outside, and I don't care
to have them run me down some dark night and slap me i