The Captain, who had remained with the company, came over, on his handsome horse, picking his way through the débris lying about. “So he is alive after all?” he asked as he rode up. “Alive? Well, if you’d seen the way he took this!” And the Lieutenant shook his canteen up beside his ear, as if to gauge its remaining contents; then held it to Jacquelin again. “Have another pull? No? All right—when you want it. You aren’t the first reb’s had a swig at it.” Then he repeated to his superior, a tall, handsome fellow, what Jacquelin had told him as to his name and destination. In an instant the Captain had sprung from his horse. “Jacquelin Gray! Red Rock!—By Jove! It can’t be!” He stared down at the man on the ground. “Do you mean to say that you live at a place called ‘Red Rock’—a great plantation, with a big rock by a burial-ground, and a red stain on it, said to be an Indian’s blood?” Jacquelin nodded. “Well by ——! What’s the matter with you? Where have you been? What are you dressed this way for?—I mean an old plantation where there was a wedding—or a wedding-party, about five years ago—?” he broke out, as if it were impossible to believe it. “And—a little girl, named Blair Something, sang?” Jacquelin nodded. “Yes, that’s the place—Miss Blair Cary. But who are—? What do you know about——?” “Well, I’m— Here, Reely, call Sergeant O’Meara; tell him to send the ambulance here directly,” interrupted the Captain. He turned back to Jacquelin. “Don’t you remember me? I’m Middleton—Lawrence Middleton. Don’t you remember? I happened in that night with Mr. Welch, and you took care of us? I’ve never forgotten it.” “I remember it—you painted the horse red,” said Jacquelin. “Yes—it was really this fellow, Reely Thurston. He is the one that got me into all that trouble. And he has got me into a lot more since. But where have you been that you look like this?” Jacquelin told him. By this time several of the people from the few houses in the neighborhood of the station, who had at first kept aloof from the troop of soldiers and gazed at them from a distance, had come up, seeing that they had a Confederate with them. They recognized Jacquelin and began to talk about his appearance, and to make cutting speeches as to the treatment he had undergone. “We ain’t forgot your Pa,” some of them said. “Nor you neither,” said one of the women, who added that she was Andy Stamper’s cousin. They wanted Jacquelin to stay with them and let them take care of him until his mother could send for him. Captain Allen had been down to see about him, and Andy Stamper had been there several times, and had said that if he didn’t hear anything from him next time, he was going North to see about him, if he had to ride his old horse there.