“Thanks be to goodness, Old Beever and Old Barnes and Old Copp are all past sixty, and too old to fight, or they’d turn fools with the rest; but, as it is, they’re ’bliged to stay home and ’tend to their business, and take care of Mondreer and Greenbushes. “But they do say, hereabouts, as old Capt. Grandiere—and he over seventy years old—has turned pirate, or privateer, or something of the sort, and is making war on all Uncle Sam’s ships; but I can’t believe it for one. And young Roland Bayard is with him—first mate—and is as deep in the mud as the captain is in the mire, and is tarred with the same brush—which I mean to say as they are both a pirating on the high seas, or a privateering, or whatever their deviltry is, together. So they say hereabouts. “Anyway, the ship is overdue for months, and neither ship, officers nor crew has been heard of with any sort of certain sureness. “And what I said in the beginning, old ‘oman, I say in the end—as you and the ole man had better pack right up and come right home. “But still, if it would ill convenience you at the present time to do so, you needn’t come, nor likewise fret about your home. To be sure, the devil is let loose all over the country, but he hasn’t entered into Mondreer or Greenbushes yet. Me and the three old men, Copp, and Beever, and Barnes, and the old niggers, take the very best of care of everything. You bet your pile on that. So do just as you think proper.” This letter filled the Forces with dismay, as it told them that their old friends and neighbors had risen, so to speak, in arms against each other. But the most disturbing part of the news was that which referred to old Capt. Grandiere and his mate, young Roland Bayard. Mr. Force, from his boyhood up to middle age, and Mrs. Force, from her first arrival in Maryland to the present time, had known the old mariner intimately and respected him highly. They knew him, even in his seventieth year, to be strong, vigorous, fiery and energetic. But with all their knowledge of him they could not know, in his absence, how he would regard the Civil War, or which side he would take, if any, in the struggle. They had known young Roland Bayard from his infancy, and known him to be pure, true, brave and heroic as his namesake, but they could not judge, without him, which side he would take in the conflict. Nor could they reconcile it with their knowledge of these men that they should run up the black flag, and wage a war after a manner little better, if any better, than piracy. But of one course they were clear; namely, that they must keep this baleful report as to Capt. Grandiere and Mate Bayard from the hearing of little Rosemary Hedge. The child must not be made miserable by a mere rumor which might have no foundation in fact. Mrs. Force was even more affected than her husband by the doubt that hung over the fate of the _Kitty_.