or a boy what's run away to join the army. You figgerin' to take
this kid home personal?"

"You'll have to tie me to a horse to do it!" Boyd flared up.

"No thanks for your help." Drew frowned at Kirby, then turned to Boyd
again. "No, I can't take you back now. But I'll see that you do go
back!"

Boyd laughed, high, with a reckless note. "I'm comin' along."

"As I was sayin'," Kirby returned to his half suggestion of moments
before, "we can see 'bout helpin' ourselves. Them Yankees are mighty
particular 'bout their rigs; they carry 'nough to outfit a squad right
on one trooper."

Drew had already caught on. "Stage an ambush?"

"Well, now, let's see." Kirby looked down at his own gear, then
critically inspected Drew and Boyd in turn. "We could do with carbines.
Them blue bellies had them some right pretty-lookin' hardware--leastways
them back by the river did. An' I don't see no ration bags on them
theah hosses you two are ridin'. Yes, we could do with grub, an'
rifle-guns ... maybe some blue coats.... Say as how we was wearin' them
we could ride up to some farm all polite an' nice an' maybe git asked in
to rest a spell an' fill up on real fancy eats. I 'member back on the
Ohio raid we came into this heah farm ... wasn't nobody round the place
at all. We sashayed into the kitchen an' theah, jus' sittin' easylike an'
waitin' right on the table, was two or three pies! Ain't had me a taste
since as good as them theah pies. But maybe with a blue coat on us we
could do as well heah 'bouts."

There was merit in the Texan's suggestion. Drew, from past experience,
knew that. His only hesitation was Boyd. The youngster was right. Short
of subduing him physically and taking him back tied to his saddle
through the spreading Union web, Drew had no chance of returning Boyd to
Oak Hill. But to lead him into the chancy sort of deal Kirby had
outlined was entirely too dangerous.

"You mean--we hold up some Yankees and just take their uniforms an'
carbines an' things?" It was already too late. Boyd had seized upon what
must have seemed to him an idea right out of the dashing kind of war he
had been imagining all these past weeks.

"It has been done, kid," the Texan affirmed. "'Course we got to find us
two or three poor little maverick blue bellies lost outta the herd like.
Then we cut 'em away from the trail an' reason with 'em."

"That ought to be easy." Boyd's enthusiasm was at the boiling point.
"The Yankees are all cowar