Oleah, hearing others advancing, sprang into the bushes and made good his escape. Abner looked after him for a single moment, and when he turned to speak to Yellow Steve, that mysterious person had disappeared. "Who was them uns?" asked Uncle Dan, hastening forward to where his bewildered captain stood. "One was my brother Oleah, the other was that strange negro, who calls himself Yellow Steve." "Where did he go?" asked the scout. "I don't know," answered Abner. "His ways of appearing and disappearing are quite beyond my comprehension." "I'll catch him," replied Uncle Dan. "I know the tricks of the fox and mink, and others, and I'll set a trap, which will get him yet." "Will you?" cried a mocking voice some distance up the path, and looking up, they saw the mysterious black, standing by the trunk of a tree his arms folded on his breast, a look of defiance in his gleaming eyes. Almost simultaneously with the discovery came the crack of Uncle Dan's rifle. When the smoke had cleared away the black had again disappeared. The place all about was searched, but no trace of him could be found. "I believe he is the devil," said Uncle Dan. "I never missed a squirrel's head at that distance in my life." "He is certainly a very extraordinary person," said Abner. CHAPTER XXI. CRAZY JOE'S MISTAKE. Uncle Dan had long prided himself on his skill in woodcraft, and, to be thus outwitted in his old days, was more than he could endure. He plunged recklessly into the brush, which was so dense that no object could be seen a dozen feet away. He ran several narrow risks, coming two or three times almost into the rebel lines. "To think that a nigger should get ahead of me that way! It's too much!" exclaimed the old man, as he leaned against a tree, and listened to the occasional shots which awoke the echoes of the forest. "But what do I want with him, if I should catch him? My business is to lead the army through the woods, and not to be following a strange nigger up and down." A crushing in the underbrush told him that some one was advancing, and, a moment later, Corporal Grimm and Sergeant Swords with half a dozen soldiers came up to where the old man stood. "Hilloa, old boy!" said Sergeant Swords. "Pausin' to view the land ahead?" "No, I've been trying to git a pop at a nigger," replied Uncle Dan. "What are niggers doing here?" said Corporal Grimm. "When dogs fight for a bone, the bone seldom fights." "The bone is in these woods, but I'll be hanged if I know what it's here for. Let's be moving on." "D'ye know the lay of the land?" asked Sergeant Swords. "Every foot," said Uncle Dan.