A scouting party of some six or seven men, under their young lieutenant, had volunteered to make this capture, if possible, having heard that young Taylor, as they thought the name was, would no doubt spend his Christmas at home. They knew very well the importance attached to this holiday by the Southern people, and what a time for home-coming it was, and were confident of springing a trap and catching their unwary victim in it. So confident of success had they been, that they would take only some six or seven in their party, and now to be met in this coolly prepared-for manner, and by such a demoralizing pretty girl, was upsetting to their soldierly dignity and calculations. They moved slowly round the room for a minute or two, talking in an undertone. Sallie Tom, snorting in a suppressed kind of way, was walking about moving chairs and sofas, shaking out curtains, and opening the doors of cabinets full of bric-a-brac, but still not a word did she utter. How on earth was she going to keep Bobbie away, and give him the signal of danger, was what she was turning over her mind. Her cabin was a good distance from the house. If she could only get there without exciting suspicion, or if Peter Black had already gotten there with Dorothy’s message, all might yet be well. She lifted herself up straight and changed her tactics—that is, she ceased to snort; she would do the amiable act. It was Christmas night; perhaps she could make the whole crowd drunk; and, if so, the Colonel and Doctor could slip off with Bobbie. CHAPTER IX. “Has you gent’men seen everything in dis heah room what you would like to?” She gave a low, cheerful, seductive kind of laugh as she asked the question, resting her hands on her hips and looking at first one and then the other, “’cause we’ve got a pow’ful lot of rooms in dis heah house, and if you wants to get back to your Christmas-tree I reckon we’d better be a movin’.” The two men looked at her as a fresh kind of curiosity and laughed. “Oh, I guess there isn’t much use in hurrying,” one answered; “it’s right uncomfortable to be hidden somewhere, and you all might as well make up your minds to give up the young gentleman; he can’t possibly escape, you know. We’ve got men all outside the house. It would be dangerous for him to try; he might get shot.”