That portion of Shady Dale which was moving about the streets with its eyes open was surprised and shocked--nay, wellnigh paralysed--to see the "Yankee Captain" on parade, as it were, with Meriwether Clopton on one side of him, and Mr. Sanders on the other. Yes, and the hand of the son of the First Settler (could their eyes deceive them?) was resting familiarly on the shoulder of the "Yankee!" Surely, here was food for thought. Were Meriwether Clopton and Mr. Sanders about to join the radicals? Well, well, well! At last one of the loungers, a man of middle age, who had seen service, raised his voice and put an end to comment. "You can bet your sweet life," he declared, "that Billy Sanders knows what he's up to. He may not git the game he's after, but he'll fetch back a handful of feathers or hair. Mr. Clopton I don't know so well, but I was in the war wi' Billy Sanders, and I wish you'd wake me up and let me know when somebody fools him. There ain't a living man on the continent, nor under it neither, that can git on his blind side." "Now you are whistlin'!" exclaimed one of his companions, and this seemed to settle the matter. If Mr. Sanders didn't know what he was about, why, then, everybody else in that neighbourhood might as well give up, "and let natur' cut her caper." "I understand now why Mrs. Claiborne referred me to you," said Captain Falconer, when Mr. Sanders had related the nature and extent of the information which he had been able to gather during the morning. "The lady is kinder partial," remarked Mr. Sanders, "but she's as bright as a new dollar, somethin' I ain't seed sence I cut my wisdom teeth." "You already know what I intended to tell you," said the Captain. But it turned out, nevertheless, that he was able to give them some very startling information. It was the general understanding in Shady Dale that the prisoners were to be sent to Atlanta; but the military authorities, fearing an attempt at rescue, perhaps, had ordered them to be sent to Fort Pulaski, below Savannah. There were other reasons, the Captain explained, for sending the young men there. They would be isolated from their friends, and, so placed, might be induced to confess; and if the circumstances surrounding them were not sufficient to produce such a result then other measures were to be taken.