"We will not discuss the matter," said the Colonel coldly. "Come, Barbara, I will take you to your quarters, and under pain of my severest displeasure, I expect that you will have no more to say to this young person."
Bob gave Jeanne a long sad look, and then silently gathering up her belongings, left the tent.
And now began a dreary time for Jeanne. Cold looks greeted her on every side. The old, pleasant, cheery companionship with Bob was no more. She missed even the tiffs they had had, and longed with a passionate yearning for home and friends. The march to Jackson would have been a pleasant one as it led through the autumn woods which shone through a silvery mist amid spicy breezes which blew cool and keen from the heart of the pines, had it not been for the manner in which she was treated.
No one paid the least attention to her comings and goings. Indeed it seemed to her that Colonel Peyton would gladly welcome the fact of her disappearance, and so she grew into the habit of riding a little apart from the others and sometimes of loitering considerably in the rear of the cavalcade. It had been the original intention that she go in the wagon with Bob, but under the altered conditions a horse had been given her while Bob rode in front with her father.
The afternoon of the second day out Jeanne dropped behind the regiment, for she was very tired, intending to wait for the wagons and to ask the drivers to let her rest for a while in one of them. A bend of the road hid the regiment from view. The wagons were far in the rear and for the time she was alone.
"Jeanne," came her name in low tones from the underbrush at the side of the road.
Jeanne drew rein quickly and looked wonderingly about her. She saw nothing and thinking that she had imagined the call, she started to go on, when it came again.
Pale and trembling the girl stopped, and then to her astonishment Dick came breathlessly though the undergrowth.
"I have waited and watched for this chance ever since I left the camp," cried the lad. "Come with me, Jeanne. You have no business with these rebels."
"Come," cried Dick seizing the bridle of her horse. "I do not understand why you are here, but it is no place for you. I will take you home."