The best part of half an hour passed, and during that time everybody placed his weapon in proper fighting trim again. Lee took one shot at a face which appeared at a bedroom window and received a shot in return, but neither took effect. Evidently the guerillas were on the alert. "I told you so!" Deck felt like saying, when the side door of the mansion opened and a man waved a white towel toward them. But the major remained silent, and the man advanced cautiously to the edge of the veranda. Then the young commander waved his handkerchief in return, and marched up the lawn to interview the ruffian with the flag of truce. The fellow was an ugly looking customer, over six feet tall, thin, and with a face horribly pox-marked. He came swaggering up to within five yards of Deck and halted. "Say, don't yer think this game has been played long enough?" he grunted rather than asked. "Entirely too long," answered Deck, briefly. He had not yet forgotten the manner in which he had been addressed at the barn. "We-uns is ready ter make terms if yer don't ask the earth," continued the tall guerilla, swinging his lanky arms into a fold. "Wot do yer say to it?" "I think you had better make terms." "Oh, we ain't so terribully skeered, Major. But makin' terms might suit better all around, thet's all." "Well, what do you propose?" "This. You-uns let us withdraw on our hosses to the road an' give us half a mile start, an' we-uns will leave everything in the house jest as we found it." "And if I refuse?" "Then we'll burn the hull shebang to the ground and take wot comes arfterward," exclaimed the guerilla, vehemently, and added an expression I would not care to transcribe to these pages. "Do you know what will come?" "A fight most likely," and the guerilla shrugged his bony shoulders. "Yes, and a heavy one, if our reenforcements arrive in time. And as commander here I'll promise you that if you harm the house or its contents in the least, every man captured shall be hung to yonder trees as an incendiary and thief." "Ye can't do thet--not to Confed'rit sodgers, Major." "I don't recognize you as Confederates. You are simply outlaws." "'Tain't so; we--" The guerilla paused and began to think of the instructions which had been given him. "Wot kind o' terms air you calkerlatin' ter make, Major?" he asked, in a milder tone. "I want all in the house to surrender, and if you do I'll simply hand you over to the county authorities and they can do with you as they think best. But each of you must swear to leave Riverlawn alone in the future." "The boys won't agree on thet--I know they won't." "They can do as they please; you have my terms," returned Deck, curtly. "Yer won't treat us as simple prisoners o' war?" "No; for such you are not. Neither your captain nor your lieutenant holds a commission signed by the Confederate authorities."