"We've been here too long," replied the corporal. "Our friends down there in the woods will think we are lost or have been gobbled up. May we trespass still further on your good-nature by asking for a bite for our absent comrades?"
"Lucindy, fill up the biggest basket you can find in the house," said Ned. "And Ben, if you will sit down a minute I will get shoes and stockings for you."
"And have you anything in the way of bedding?" inquired Mrs. Griffin. "The nights are cool, if the days are sultry."
No, they didn't have a thing except their guns and the dilapidated garments they stood in; and a blanket or two, if Mrs. Griffin could spare them, would protect them from the mosquitos if nothing more; for of course it would be dangerous for them to build a smudge until they knew positively that their pursuers had been left behind. Ben was profuse in his thanks, and suggested that No. 9's would be about the right size for him; and Ned went among the darkeys to find them, for he wore nothing larger than 6's, and couldn't boast of an extra pair of them. While he was gone his mother saw the basket filled and the blankets made into a bundle, and also found opportunity to say a word for Tom Randolph.
"What do you intend to do with him?" she asked.
"Turn him over to the provost marshal and have him sent North," was the answer.
"If you do that you will kill his mother, and punish a man who is as innocent of any military achievements as I am," said Mrs. Griffin. "You must not think that I am a friend of his—how can I be when he tried his best to have my son conscripted? Why can you not parole him and let him go?"
"We didn't parole those six rebels for fun, or because we thought the parole was binding," said the corporal with a smile, "but simply to delay them until we could get a start. If we turn Randolph loose, it will be out of gratitude to you and your son."
"Better knock him in the head," growled Ben.
"Don't mind him," said the corporal, seeing that Mrs. Griffin was shocked by the words. "Ben is down on all Home Guards because he saw one of them shoot his chum."
"But Tom Randolph was in no way to blame for that," answered the lady. "And I know that Rodney Gray would insist upon his release if he were here. Promise me that you will let him go; and when you are ready to start for the river, Ned shall take you there by the shortest and easiest course."