The captain flushed deeply. ‘My name is Peters, sir,’ he answered, ‘Captain Peters of the —— Vermont. I received orders to make a detour of these woods, to feel for an advance of the enemy. The scene which has just passed has considerably surprised me. I know nothing of these people, though, from the presence of the balloon, and the fact that they are wearing Federal uniforms, I am led to believe that they are those of whom all the camp is talking. I have no wish to hinder you in the execution of your duty. If you conceive it to be your duty to arrest these fellows, do so, by all means.’ ‘I conceive it to be my duty,’ retorted the angry colonel, ‘to let you know that you are too free with your speech, young man. You don’t command anything or anybody while I am on the ground, and just you remember it.’ Captain Peters reddened again, but held his peace. He was a volunteer with little experience, and he really did not know whether he ought to be at the orders of a stray colonel, just because he was a colonel. ‘We’ve got a friend in the captain,’ whispered Ephraim to Lucius. ‘We won’t come to harm ef he kin git the whip hand.’ But this it did not seem that Captain Peters was likely to do. ‘He’ll kill us if he can,’ replied Lucius. ‘Look at his face.’ ‘I reckon,’ returned Ephraim simply. ‘The old blunderbuss is mad.’ The colonel resumed his march up and down, probably wrestling with himself; for brute though he was, what manhood there was left in him could not but recoil from the deed he contemplated. For several minutes there was silence, the men standing at ease, and the captain meditatively poking holes in the ground with the point of his sword, and ever and anon casting furtive glances at the two prisoners. The stillness became oppressive. Only the colonel’s hurried footsteps broke it irregularly, and the sound jarred so much upon Ephraim’s tense nerves that he felt he must speak at whatever cost. ‘See hyar, cunnel,’ he called out. ‘It’s cruel ter keep us standing hyar. What ye goin’ ter do with us? Remember we ain’t done ye any harm, ’ceptin’ thet whack I ketched ye jest now, and any wan would hev done ez much, makin’ a break fer freedom.—Cunnel!’ Captain Peters made Ephraim a swift sign to be silent; but the colonel, after one prolonged and malevolent stare, continued his march as though he had not heard a word. ‘The pesky critter!’ muttered Ephraim. ‘Hold up, Luce. He dassn’t do nuthin’, and he knows it too, right well. Thet’s what’s makin’ him so mad. He’d like ter chaw us up inter little bits, on’y he dassn’t.’