The next morning a squad of prisoners was being conducted toward Army Headquarters. At their head walked a stout, middle-aged farmer, carrying a portly blue umbrella. He had spent the night among the riotous spirits in the guard-house, and had evidently undergone much wear and tear. He looked as if things had not been going his way at all. By him marched the stalwart Provost-Sergeant, with a heavy striped carpetsack under his arm. Gen. Rosecrans rode up at the head of his staff, from an early morning inspection of some part of the camp. The men saluted and cheered. "Whom have you here, Sergeant?" said the General, reining up his horse beside the squad. "That's Gen. Rosecrans," said one of the guards to Deacon Klegg. "Nobody of importance," replied the Sergeant, "except this old man here. He's a Knight of the{188} Golden Circle, that we've been watching for for some time, going through with information and other things from the Knights of Indiana to the enemy in Tullahoma. I've got his carpetsack here. I expect it's full of papers and contraband stuff. It feels as if it had lead in it. I am taking him to the Provost-Marshal's for examination." He set the heavy carpetsack down on the ground, to rest for a minute. "Gen. Rosecrans, it's all a plaguey lie," burst out Deacon Klegg. "I'm as loyal a man as there is in the State of Injianny. I voted for Abe Lincoln and Oliver P. Morton. I've come down here to visit my son, Josiah Klegg, jr., of the 200th Injianny Volunteers. You know him, General. He's one o' your officers. He's a Corporal. He's the boy that tried to take a commissary wagon away from the rebels durin' the battle, and he's got a house with a tin roof. You recollect that, don't you?" Some of the staff laughed loudly, but the General checked them with a look, and spoke encouragingly to the Deacon. "Yes, General," continued Mr. Klegg, "I knowed you'd know all about him the minit I mentioned him to you. I told this over and over agin to these plaguey fools, but they wouldn't believe me. As to that carpetsack havin' things for the enemy, it's the biggest lie that ever was told. I'll open it right here before you to show you. I've only got some things that my wife and the girls was sendin to Si." He fumbled around for his keys. "Possibly you have made a mistake, Sergeant," said the General. "What evidence have you?"{189} "We'd got word to look out for just such a man, who'd play off the dodge of being an old plug of a farmer on a visit to his son." [Illustration: MEETING BETWEEN SI AND HIS FATHER. 189] "He was on the train with a man whom all the detectives know as one of the worst Knights in the gang. They were talking together all the way. I{190} arrested the other one, too, but he slipped away in the row this man made to distract our attention."