our own people in the
hands of the enemy."

"You rendered us a most important service," replied Tom; and he told
nothing but the truth when he said it. "It is necessary that I should go
home on business, but Rodney Gray wants to enlist in an independent
command as soon as he can get the chance. Didn't you speak of Dick
Graham as a sergeant?"

"May be so. That's what he is."

"Does he belong to your company?"

"No; but he belongs to our regiment, and that's how I came to get
acquainted with him. He's got more friends than any other fellow I know
of, and he will be glad to see an old schoolmate once more. I have heard
him tell of Rodney Gray and the scrapes he got into by speaking his mind
so freely, and I am not the only one in the regiment who thinks that the
Barrington Military Academy is a disgrace to the town and State in which
it is located. The citizens ought to have turned out some night and torn
it up root and branch."

"They would have had a good time trying it," said Tom. "The boys punched
one another's head on the parade ground now and then, but it wasn't safe
for an outsider to interfere with our private affairs."

"Why, the Confederates wouldn't fight for the Union boys, would they?"
exclaimed the lieutenant. "That's a little the strangest thing I ever
heard of. We don't do business that way in Missouri, and I could see
that our boys didn't like it when you and Gray stuck up for those Yankee
sympathizers back there in the house."

Perhaps they wouldn't have liked it either, if they had known how Tom
and Rodney had "stuck up" for each other ever since they met at Cedar
Bluff landing. But that was a piece of news that Tom did not touch upon.
He intended to reserve it for Dick Graham's private ear.

"And in the meantime I mustn't neglect to ascertain just when and where
the lieutenant expects to rejoin his regiment, so that I can take the
first chance that offers to get away and strike out for home," thought
Tom. "Dick wouldn't expect to see me in Rodney Gray's company, and might
betray me before he knew what he was doing."

Having saddled and bridled the horses Tom and the lieutenant returned to
the house, the former somewhat anxious to know if anything had been said
during his absence that could be brought up against him. But a glance
and a reassuring smile from Rodney were enough to show him that he had
nothing to fear on that score. The guards stood at the windows watching
the party inside, the