xt
question.

"I say we both are," answered Tom. "I am Captain Percival, and I am now
on my way home after having offered the services of myself and company
to General Lyon. Justus Percival, of whom you spoke a moment since, is
my uncle."

"And who is this friend of yours?"

"He is a schoolmate who left his own State because things didn't go to
suit him, and who intends to enlist the first chance he gets."

"On which side?" inquired the leader, squinting up both his eyes and
nodding at Tom as if to say that he had him there.

"Do you imagine that he would make a journey of almost a thousand miles
for the sake of enlisting in the Confederate army when he might have
done that at home?" asked Tom, in reply. "You must be crazy."

"Not so crazy as you may think," said the leader, who seemed to be sure
of his ground. "We have the best of evidence that he is secesh."

"What sort of evidence?"

"His own word."

"Is the man who heard me say that outside?" asked Rodney, who thought by
the way Mr. Truman and his wife looked at him that it was high time he
was saying something for himself. "If he is, bring him in and let me
face him. You have no right to condemn me until you let me see who my
accuser is."

"That's the idea," said Tom. "Fetch him in."

The boys played their parts so well, in spite of the alarm they felt and
the danger they knew they were in, and looked so honest and truthful
that the leader was nonplussed, and Mr. Truman and his wife were firmly
convinced that their visitors had made a mistake. There were reasons why
the latter could not produce Rodney's accuser, and for a minute or two
some of them acted as though they might be willing to let the matter
drop right where it was. But there is always some "smart man" in every
party who thinks he knows a little more than anybody else, and it was so
in this case; and when he spoke, he "put his foot in it."

"Didn't you say to-day in the presence of--of--"

"Merrick's red-eyed nigger," Tom exclaimed, when the man paused and
looked about as if afraid that he might have said more than he ought.
"Why don't you speak it right out? What did I tell you, Mr. Truman?
Didn't I say that boy would bear watching? Now, what I want to know of
you is, are you going to take that darkey's word in preference to
mine?"

This was bringing the matter right home to the visitors, every one of
whom was a slaveholder, and would have taken it as an insult if any one
had so much