t.

"And I suppose you will stay also, won't you?" said Tom, speaking to the
darkey who bent down from his mule and threw a few of the top rails off
the fence so that the boys could jump their horses over into the field.

"Who? Me? Oh no, sar," answered the guide, with rather more earnestness
than the occasion seemed to demand. "Marse Merrick done tol' me to be
sure an' come home dis very night, an' I 'bleeged to mind him, sar."

"I'll bet you don't mind him," thought Tom, as he and Rodney rode into
the field and waited for the negro to build up the fence again. "There's
a bug under that chip and I know it."

The appearance of three horsemen riding up to the back door in this
unexpected way created something of a flutter among the female portion
of Mr. Truman's family, and even the farmer himself, who presently came
to the door of one of the outbuildings, seemed to be a little startled;
but when a second look showed him that one of Mr. Merrick's negroes was
of the number, he came up to the pump near which the boys had
dismounted.

"This is Mr. Truman, I believe," said Tom.

"Well, yes; that's my name, but I don't reckon I ever saw you before,"
replied the man cautiously.

"Do you know this boy who has been acting as our guide?"

"Oh, yes. I know all of Merrick's boys, so it must be all right. But you
see in times like these--"

"I understand," Tom interposed, for Mr. Truman talked so slowly that the
boy was afraid he might never get through with what he had to say. "In
times like these you don't know whom to trust. That's our fix, exactly;
and we shouldn't have thought of stopping here if Merrick and Hobson had
not told us who and what you are. Go on, boy, and tell Mr. Truman who
and what we are, where we came from, where we want to go, and all about
it."

The negro was talkative enough now, and the boys had no fault to find
with the way in which he complied with Tom's request except in one
particular--he had too much to say regarding Rodney Gray's loyalty to
the Union, and his undying hostility toward everybody who was in favor
of secession. He dwelt so long upon this subject that Tom Percival,
fearing Mr. Truman's eyes would be opened to the real facts of the case,
thought it best to interrupt him.

"Yes; we passed the night in company with Mr. Hobson and five of his
friends who have been compelled to go into hiding," said he, "and while
we were eating supper in Mr. Merrick's kitchen, some of Thompson's m