put on the fire before he went for his potatoes.
Then there was a row, as his potatoes happened to be those boiled by us.

Of course he could not identify the property, and I was indifferent, but
to my surprise, instead of accusing us, he did not seem to suspect
anyone save his comrades, and his accusation against them caused the
rest to investigate on their own hook. The row that now ensued took a
direction which we had not calculated upon, and we finally got well
scared. The men were all more or less drunk, and their denunciations and
reproaches of each other caused a row among themselves. The rest of the
party came back, and there was more investigation, more row and much
confusion. There were two classes of men in this crowd. About half were
poor whites, of the ignorant, malicious sort, and the balance of a
better class.

The question finally settled down to a denunciation of us by the
first-named portion, and accusations against them by the others. At this
stage of the game they began to talk of searching us, and we got scared,
for we had too much on hand to be able to "bluff" them off in a general
search, and their condition of excitement would not give us much chance
for argument.

We now did what might seem to be a very mean thing, but it was done on
the principle that, while our conviction of the robbery might, in their
present state, mean death to us, they might curse and swear mightily,
but would not harm anyone if they found the balance of their stuff where
we put it--among the wounded men. We hid it around as best we could and
awaited developments with much interest, but the row finally quieted
down and we all went to sleep.

We were up very early in the morning, as we had to dispose of the
plunder in some way, and went to work, for it was work. We ate all we
possibly could, including the butter, and stuffed the remainder inside
of our shirts. I had a butter taste in my mouth for a week afterward,
and it was a good while before I could eat the article with my former
relish.

Our guards made a partial search before we started, but they did not
attempt to be too personal, and we evaded the discovery of any of the
purloined food. It was plainly to be seen that we were now suspected,
but they rather regarded the thing as a good joke, now that they were
sober, and the search was for something to eat rather than to prove
anything.

We now had several days of travel and similar scenes, but the robberies
w