Dinner was then announced as ready, and we all sat up. "_I think that they will have some use for you!_" reverberated through my brain, and set me into a train of thought any thing but agreeable, _I'm to be a conscript then!_ thought I. I tried to suppress my feelings, and feigned to be cheerful, as if nothing had occurred to disturb my equanimity. In fact, my only hope was in appearing cheerful.
When dinner was over, the two men had their horses brought out, and we all three mounted and started for Cold Water, forty miles distant. On the way I kept up a cheerful conversation, and on several occasions I had my butternut friends convulsed with laughter. I found out that the man who had made me a prisoner was Captain Daniels, a noted guerrilla, and the other person was a Quartermaster.
At 2 o'clock, A. M., we reached the outpost near Cold Water, where we halted until daylight, and then went in. As we were going in, we met a soldier, who, when he saw me, called out, "Hallo, Ruggles, is that you? Where in the h--l have you been? I hav'n't seen you since we made shingles together on White River!"
"Yes, Captain Daniels, here, captured me at Somerville, yesterday."
"Ha, ha! captured _you_? Why, Captain, I have known that man for years, and made shingles for him on White River, in Arkansas, and he is as loyal to the Confederate cause as you are! There are five or six other boys here that know him as well as I do!"
Captain Daniels then took me to the head-quarters of the regiment, and there I found, in the Colonel, another man that I was well acquainted with. His name was Slemmens; he used to be prosecuting attorney at Napoleon, Arkansas. When I entered his quarters--
"Lord bless me!" he said, "if here a'n't Ruggles! How are you?"
"Pretty well, I thank you. I am glad to meet you. I didn't know that you was in the service. The last time we met was at Napoleon, I believe."
"Captain Daniels captured me and fetched me here."
"Yes; I told him I was a citizen of the South, but he did not believe me."
"I have known Ruggles these six years, Captain; he's all right. But, then, never mind--I see! we'll make him count one in exchange. I'll parole him. Where did you capture him?"
Daniels told him the particulars of my capture, and that I had been in Bolivar several weeks.