"I heard a fishy story about your being captured by Yankee soldiers who were gentlemen enough to release you."
"There's nothing fishy about it," replied Rodney, greatly relieved. "I said that Dick and I were captured and set free again between here and Camp Pinckney, and it is nothing but the truth. I said, further, that if I ever saw those men in trouble I would try my best to help them out; and I appeal to these soldiers here to say if they wouldn't do the same."
"I would, if I could do it without bringing myself to the notice of my superiors," said the lieutenant; while his men nodded at Rodney and one another as they had done before.
"Well, I wouldn't," declared Mr. Biglin, in savage tones. "And more than that, I would report every soldier or civilian whom I knew to be guilty of such a thing."
"I thank you for your words," said Rodney to himself. "I know now that you'll not do to tie to, and shall be careful that none of my doings get to your ears."
Mrs. Turnbull saw that it was time for her to interfere again. Two of her guests were becoming almost red in the face with anger, and her woman's wit or something else told her that the conversation was taking a dangerous turn. She had wondered from the first what brought Rodney Gray so far from home on foot, and now she believed that she knew all about it. She moved her chair to the side of Rodney's, and asked the young soldier to tell her a story of army life; and as she did so, her gaze wandered through the bushes and trees to the front fence, where she saw one of Mr. Biglin's negroes dodging about, and evidently trying to catch the eye of his master without attracting the attention of anyone else in the yard. The circumstance increased her suspicions, but she said very calmly:
"Your boy Bill is out there in the road, Mr. Biglin, and I think he wants to tell you something."
"Then why don't he come in?" replied the planter. "He has been down in the woods trying to locate a small drove of my hogs, and perhaps he has found them."
"And perhaps he has found something else," was what Rodney's eyes and Dick's said when they looked at each other; and they could hardly conceal their agitation when they observed that Mrs. Turnbull was keeping her gaze fixed on their faces.