The blacksmith nodded. “They say that he ‘lowed ez traitors orter be treated like traitors. But _I_ be a-goin’ ter tell him that the Confederacy hev got one arm off’n me more’n its entitled to, an’ I’m willin’ ter call it quits at that.” “‘Tain’t goin’ ter do him no good ter raid the Cove,” an ancient farmer averred; “an’ it’s agin’ the rebel rule, ennyhows, ter devastate the kentry they live off’n--it’s like sawin’ off the bough ye air sittin’ on.” His eyes dwelt with a fearful affection on the laden fields; his old stoop-shouldered back had bent yet more under the toil that had brought his crop to this perfection, with the aid of the children whose labor was scarcely worth the strenuosity requisite to control their callow wiles. “Shucks! He’s a guerilla--he is!” retorted the blacksmith. “Accountable ter nobody! Hyar ter-day an’ thar ter-morrer. Rides light. Two leetle Parrott guns is the most weight he carries.” The idiot’s eyes began to widen with slow and baffled speculation. “Whut--w-whut ails him ter take arter Tangle-foot? W-w--” his great loose lips trembled with unformed words as he gazed his eager inquiry from one to another. Under normal circumstances it would have remained contemptuously unanswered, but in these days in Tanglefoot Cove a man, though a simpleton, was yet a man, and inherently commanded respect. “A bird o’ the air mus’ hev carried the matter that Tolhurst’s troops hed rid inter Tanglefoot Cove by mistake fur Greenbrier, whar they war ter cross ter jine the Fed’rals nigh the Cohuttas. An’ that guerilla, Ackert, hed been ridin’ a hundred mile at a hand-gallop ter overhaul him, an’ knowin’ thar warn’t but one outlet to Tanglefoot Cove, he expected ter capshur the Feds as they kem out agin. So he sot himself ter ambush Tolhurst, an’ waited fur him _up_ thar amongst the pines an’ the laurel--an’ he _waited_--an’ _waited!_ But Tolhurst never came! So whenst the guerilla war sure he hed escaped by ways unknownst he set out ter race him down ter the Cohutty Mountings. But Tolhurst had j’ined the main body o’ the Federal Army, an’ now Ackert is showing a clean pair o’ heels comin’ back. But he be goin’ ter take time ter raid the Cove--his hurry will wait fur that! Somebody in Tanglefoot--the Lord only knows who--showed Tolhurst that underground way out ter Greenbrier Cove, through a sorter cave or tunnel in the mountings.” “Now--now--neighbor--_that’s_ guesswork,” remonstrated the miller, in behalf of Tanglefoot Cove repudiating the responsibility. Perhaps the semi-mercantile occupation of measuring toll sharpens the faculties beyond natural endowments, and he began to perceive a certain connection between cause and effect inimical to personal interest.