He had approached within ten rods of the back door of the house, when Tom, fearing his footsteps might attract the attention of the soldier, ventured to give a low whistle. As this was not heeded, he repeated the signal when the man was within two or three rods of the house; but even this was not noticed, and throwing his head forward, so that the sound of his voice should not descend the chimney, he spoke.
The man suddenly stopped, and looked up. Tom made signals with his hands for him to leave; but this mute language appeared not to be intelligible to him.
"Consarn yer picter, what are yer doin' up thar?" said the proprietor of the castle, in tones which seemed to Tom as loud as the roar of the cannon at Bull Run.
"Hush! Hush!" replied Tom, gesticulating with all his might, and using all his ingenuity to invent signs that would convey to the militiaman the idea that he was in imminent danger.
"You be scotched!" snarled the man. "What are yer doin'? What ails yer?"
"They are after you!" added Tom, in a hoarse whisper.
The fellow most provokingly refused to hear him, and Tom thought his skull was amazingly thick, and his perceptions amazingly blunt.
"Now you come down from thar," said he, as he picked up a couple of stones. "You act like a monkey, and I s'pose yer be one. Now make tracks down that chimley."
But instead of doing this, Tom retreated into his shell, as a snail does when the moment of peril arrives. The soldier in the house was not deaf; and if he had been, he could hardly have helped hearing the stentorian tones of his victim. Instead of going out the back door, like a sensible man, he passed out at the front door, and in a moment more Tom heard his voice just beneath him.
"Halt!" shouted the soldier, as he brought his musket to his shoulder. "Your name is Joe Burnap."
"That's my name, but I don't want nothin' o' you," replied the embarrassed militiaman, as he dropped the stones with which he had intended to assault Tom's citadel.
"I want something of you," replied the soldier. "You must go with me. Advance, and give yourself up."
"We want you for the army. You are an enrolled militiaman. You must go with me."
"Ill be dog derned if I do," answered Joe Burnap, desperately.