"If it hadn't been for you," added Tom; and he did not talk like a boy who had so narrowly escaped with his life. "I heard your story down there in Jeff's cabin, and knew that you kept your promise and enlisted within twenty-four hours after you reached home. And I know, too, that your company didn't want to join the Confederate army or leave the State. What did they want to do then? They're a pretty lot of soldiers. Well, it's a good thing for them that they stayed at home, for you rebels are going to get such a licking--" "Have you licked Dick Graham back into a proper frame of mind yet?" interrupted Rodney. "No. Haven't had the chance. He helped raise the first company of partisans that left the southwestern part of the Slate to join Price, and I have scarcely heard of him since. I had a lively time dodging Price's men when I went up to St. Louis to offer the services of my company to Lyon, and when I heard you tell Westall that you were going to undertake the same kind of a journey, I felt sorry for you. I am overjoyed to see and have a chance to speak to you, Rodney, but I don't know whether we ought to stick together or not. Of course Merrick took you for a Union man," added Tom, in a suppressed whisper. "Certainly. I didn't have much to say to him until I found out who he thought I was. Did you go it blind when you addressed him as a Union man?" "Oh, no. I know the name of every man it will do to trust for twenty miles ahead," replied Tom. "But I've got his name in my head. I haven't a scrap of writing about me, and I am sorry to know that you have. Take my advice and stick everything in the shape of a letter you have in your pockets into the tire the first good chance you get." "I have been thinking about that all the afternoon. What if I should fall in with a party strong enough to search me? I've got a letter addressed to Erastus Percival." "Where in the world did you get it?" demanded Tom, who was greatly astonished. "Man alive, he's my father." "So I supposed. It was given to me by Captain Howard whose acquaintance I made aboard the _Mollie Able_, and he got it from a friend of his." "My limited knowledge of the English language will not permit me to do this subject justice," declared Tom. He looked around for something to sit down on, and then leaned against the wall for support. "My father has heard of you and would have helped you at the risk of his life. He wouldn't go back on a Barrington boy any more than I would; but if you should be searched by rebels anywhere between here and Springfield, that letter would hang you. Burn it before you take the road to-morrow." "If your father is so well known, I don't see why his neighbors haven't hung him before this time," said Rodney.