As he spoke he pushed some bushes apart, and in a brief time Noel was able to see that a corduroy path, or roadway, narrower than the one over which they recently had come was before him. One of the guards now advanced, while the other two took a position in the rear, and as soon as the directions were given the entire band began to make its way over the rough pathway. Once more silence returned, not to be broken until what Noel assumed must have been a half-mile had been covered and again they were approaching more solid ground. A rough stretch of land lay before them, which was without trees and apparently without a roadway. Without hesitation their conductors at once led the boys across the intervening sandy stretch and soon arrived at a low house, whose walls gleamed almost ghostly in the moonlight. Whitewash had been applied to the exterior of the rude building and also had been used upon the farm buildings and the fences that inclosed them. Advancing to the low, covered piazza, which extended across the entire front of the house, the approach of the band was speedily discovered by the inmates, and in a moment a dozen or more soldiers came running out of the building. Noel was able to see that every one was clad in the Confederate uniform and also was armed. At first the house seemed too small to contain so many men, but when several more emerged from the interior he suspected that there might be accommodations in the little building which did not appear upon the surface. "Here we are, Captain!" called one of the leaders. "We've got two." "Is that all?" "Yes, sir. But we'll soon have more. We've got a trap down in the Hedge Swamp road. It's the only way the men can get through the swamp, and we have stationed a few of the cavalry at the farther end. Some of the boys are on the watch on the other side of the swamp, and are doing their best to drive what Yankees there may be hiding anywhere around here on to the corduroy road and then they feel safe to leave them. The poor fools keep right on the road and run directly into the trap Lieutenant Fowler set fo' them. He is waiting there with about twenty men." "Is this the first batch you have taken?" "Yes, sir. We have sent out Long John to help draw the Yankees into the trap." The Confederate officer was unaware of the gleam which appeared for a moment in the eyes of Dennis, and he said lightly, "We'll be ready for all you can bring us, Tom. We'll put these two fellows in the pen until we have enough to make it worth while to send them on to Libby."