you say you don't want to argue. I have been in a fever of
suspense ever since you sent that second telegram to my father in St.
Louis. In it you said, in effect, that you would start up the river on
the first boat; and father wrote me that when he got it, he was ready to
dance."

"With delight?" asked Rodney.

"Not much. With apprehension. He supposed you were coming up with your
whole company. You asked him, for the company, if Price would accept
you, and he met Price on the street and showed him the dispatch. Price
said he would be glad to do it; and when you sent word that you were
coming, father thought, of course, that you were all coming, and he knew
that if you did, Lyon would make prisoners of the last one of you the
moment you touched the levee."

"Your father didn't give us credit for much sense, did he?" said Rodney,
with some disgust in his tones. "The boys wouldn't come and so I had to
come alone. I hope that second dispatch did not put your father to any
trouble, but I was obliged to send it to throw those telegraph operators
off my track and blind them to my real intentions. I suppose that St.
Louis cotton-factor was on the watch?"

"Of course; and the minute he put his eyes on that roan colt, he would
have pointed you and him out to the soldiers. Your second dispatch
frightened father, but it did not put him to any trouble. About that
time he received a hint that he was being watched, that he was believed
to be hanging about the city for the purpose of picking up information
that would do us rebels some good, and so he dug out. He's at home now;
and if we get a chance, we'll ride down there some dark night. I should
like to have you acquainted."

"Thank you. I'll go any time you say the word; but why do you persist in
speaking of our side as 'rebels'? I say we are not. We simply desire to
resume the powers which our forefathers were foolish enough to delegate
to the general government. Why, the great State of New York, in adopting
the Federal Constitution, reserved the right to withdraw from the Union
in case things were not run to suit her."

"Yes; but the great State of New York isn't foolish enough to try any
such game as that. She'd be whipped so quick that it would make her head
swim; and that's just what is going to happen to South Carolina. But you
always was as obstinate as a mule, and. I don't care to get into any
argument with you."

Rodney Gray was now a full-fledged partisan; but the