around while he awaited his return. He thought of
what the captain had said regarding the Continentals at Valley Forge,
but did not see that there could be any comparison drawn between the two
armies. Price's men seemed to be well clothed, provisions were plenty,
and as for their arms, they had an abundance of them such as they were,
and a charging enemy would find their double-barrel shotguns bad things
to face at close quarters. But a few months later the comparison was a
good one. During the "little Moscow retreat," after the battle of Pea
Ridge (which Van Dorn's ambition led him to fight contrary to orders),
along a route where there were neither roads nor bridges, through a
region from which the inhabitants had all fled, leaving the country "so
poor that a turkey buzzard would not fly over it," with no train of
wagons, or provisions to put in them if there had been, and no tents to
shelter them from the cold, biting winds and sleet and snow--when Rodney
Gray found himself and companions in this situation he thought of the
Continentals, and wondered at the patriotism that kept them in the
ranks. But it wasn't patriotism that kept Price's men together. It was
_fear_ and nothing else.

But this dark picture was hidden from Rodney's view as he sat there on
his horse waiting for his friend Dick Graham to come out of the
colonel's tent. The martial scenes around him, the military order that
everywhere prevailed, the companies and regiments drilling in the fields
close by, the inspiriting music that came to his ears--these sights and
sounds filled him with enthusiasm; and if any one had told him that the
time would come when he would think seriously of deserting the army and
turning his back upon the cause he had espoused, Rodney Gray would have
been thunder struck. But the time came.

CHAPTER XV.

A FULL-FLEDGED PARTISAN.

Having transacted his business with the colonel, Dick Graham came out of
the tent and mounted his horse.

"Of course I had to wait until the captain had made his report," said
he, in a suppressed whisper, "and in that way I happened to hear a
little about yourself and Tom Barton. I knew enough to keep still in the
presence of my superiors, but I did want to ask the captain to say more
about Tom Barton. Was it Percival?"

Rodney winked first one eye and then the other and Dick was answered.

"It's the strangest thing I ever heard of, and