The stretcher-carriers were followed by others, until six wounded Confederates lay on cots in the sitting room. A young surgeon was at hand, and he went to work without delay, and Mrs. Ruthven and Marion assisted. And now the army was passing by the plantation, some on foot, some on horseback, and all exhausted, ragged, covered with dust and dirt, and many badly wounded. The shooting of small-arms had ceased, but the distant cannon still kept booming, and occasionally a shell burst in the vicinity. As the last of the Confederates swept by Jack ran down to the roadway. "The enemy are coming!" he said, after a long look ahead. "They will be here in less than ten minutes." Soon the trampling of horses' hoofs was heard, and then came the occasional blast of a trumpet. At last a troop of cavalry swept by, paying no attention to the Ruthven homestead. The cavalry was followed at a distance by a company of rascally looking guerrillas--followers of every army--who fight simply for the sake of looting afterward. "To the house!" cried the captain of the guerrillas, a man named Sandy Barnes. "Company, attention!" cried out Jack, and drew up his command across the lawn in front of the homestead. "Halt!" shouted Captain Barnes. And then he added; "What are you boys doing here?" "We are the guard of this house," answered Jack, quietly but firmly. "Guard nothin'! Out of our way!" growled the guerrilla. "We will not get out of your way, and you will advance at your peril." "What, will you boys show fight?" queried the guerrilla curiously. "We will!" came from the boys. "Keep back!" "This is private property and must be respected," went on Jack. "Besides, the house is now a hospital, for there are six wounded Confederates inside, in charge of a surgeon." The guerrilla muttered something under his breath. "Come on, anyhow!" shouted somebody in a rear rank. "It looks like a house worth visitin'!" "Try to enter the house and we will shoot!" went on Jack, his face growing white. "Why, youngster, you don't know who you are talking to," growled Barnes. He stepped forward as if to enter the house by a side door, when Jack ran in front of him and raised his sword. "Not another step, if you value your life!" "Out of my way, boy!" And now the guerrilla raised his own sword, while some of his men raised their guns. It was truly a trying moment, and Marion, at the window, looked on with bated breath. "Oh, if Jack should be killed!" she thought. But now there came a shout from the road, and there appeared a regiment of regular Federal troops. The guerrillas saw them coming, and gazed anxiously at their leader. "It's Colonel Stanton's regiment!" muttered a guerrilla lieutenant. "He won't stand no nonsense, cap." "I know it," growled Barnes. "Right face, forward march!" he shouted, and, as quickly as they had come, the guerrillas left the plantation and took to a side road leading to the distant hills.