"Oh, he's hot-headed," said the Judge. "He gets one idea and he can't think of anything else. Lock the door, Joe, so we won't be disturbed. And lock the kitchen door, too, or Alf'll be back. Now let's search these men, and see what we can find." Tom, Shadrack, and Wilson held their arms up, while the men dumped the contents of their pockets on a table. Three revolvers, handkerchiefs, Confederate money.... They found nothing of importance. "Now let's sit down here and talk this thing over," said the Judge. "Where do you men say you come from!" "From Fleming County, Kentucky," replied Wilson. "We were getting tired of the way the Yanks were running things and so we decided that we'd go and fight for the South. We started out last week and made our way through the lines. It was easy. We didn't see a single Union sentry." "Where did you come across the river?" demanded the Judge. "A few miles this side of Decatur," said Tom. One of the men beside the Judge interrupted: "There aren't any ferries running up there." "I know there aren't," answered Tom. "We were afraid to tell anyone what we were going to do until we got across the river, and so we had to build a raft." "A raft!" exclaimed the Judge. "Yes, out of logs. I got washed overboard and I grabbed on to one of the logs and held there. Look at my hands." He spread his hands out upon the table, palms up. They had been torn and bruised by the logs he had yanked from the tender. "Hm-m-m!" grunted the Judge, "must have whipped you around some in that current!" "Once it whirled me right over, and I thought my wrists would break before I could get another grip. They were trying to pull me aboard, but every time they came to help me the raft tilted so that they had to crawl back." "And finally," said Wilson, "I got down on my stomach and held to his wrists, while Shadrack sat on the other side and balanced us." "I came mighty near going overboard myself, then," added Shadrack. It was a good yarn, and they enlarged upon it. "And so you're going to enlist, eh?" asked the Judge finally. "Yes," answered Wilson. "We thought that Chattanooga would be a good place for us. It's near Beauregard and we'll probably get into action pretty soon." "It's not so near to Beauregard as you think," the Judge answered. "The Yanks have taken a bite out of the railroad between there and Corinth." "They have?" asked Tom. "Is that what this man Alf was so excited about!" "No--not exactly," replied the Judge. "Some Yanks stole a train on the Georgia State Railroad yesterday and burned a bridge." "Stole a train!" "That's what they did!" He gave them a wild and inaccurate account of what Andrews' raiders had done. "A daring bit of work!" he ended. "Judge, we're famished," said Wilson. "Do you think we could get some supper here?" "Joe, run out to the kitchen and see if Mrs. James can give these boys some dinner. And tell Alf that I don't want to be disturbed."