"Do you mean to say that old man Gray dared to talk of whipping _me_?" exclaimed Tom, who could hardly believe his ears. "Wasn't it Lambert he spoke of?"
"No, it was you; and he wasn't the only one who spoke of it, nuther," replied the Home Guard. "They was all mad, I tell you, and some of them was for hanging Lambert."
"I wish to goodness they had," said Captain Tom, speaking before he thought. "That is to say, I wish they had done something to him before he brought me into all this trouble. Was that what frightened him?"
"You're mighty right, and he took to the bresh as soon as he got wind of it. But he come out this morning and we all have promised to stand by him. If they put a ugly hand on one of the company we uns allow to burn them out."
"That's the idea!" cried Tom, who never would have thought of such a thing himself. "I see very plainly that we've got to do something to protect ourselves. We are State troops, and if these cowardly citizens drive us to it we will treat them as we would the armed enemies of our country if we could only get at them. We'll begin on old man Gray and never let up until we've destroyed everything he's got. No man who dares to threaten me and those who serve under me shall hold up his head as high—— Sh! Here comes my mother. Don't say a word in her hearing, but tell Lambert I'll see him after a while and arrange a plan of operations with him."
Just then Mrs. Randolph came out on the porch with the note she had written, and which she presented for Tom's approval. It was not written in his name, but in her own. She said she regretted that her son did not feel able to accept the captain's kind invitation, owing to the excitement and distress of mind into which he had been thrown by the unfortunate occurrences of the last few hours, but if Captain Roach would honor her by coming up to dinner at the usual hour she hoped he would find Captain Randolph so far recovered that he would be able to talk over with him the very important business to which Captain Roach had referred in his note.
The result of this piece of strategy was that an open rupture between Captain Tom and the conscript officer was avoided; and when the latter, who had been so frightened and angered by the threats of the Baton Rouge committee that he was several times on the point of doing something desperate, came up to dinner "at the usual hour," he was the same pleasant and agreeable fellow he had always been. But he found Captain Tom lying on the sofa in dressing-gown and slippers, and looking the picture of misery. Before he advanced to take the limp palm that Tom languidly extended he stopped in the middle of the room and asked if someone had been laying violent hands upon him. To be candid he thought it would be a good thing for Tom if the citizens would shake him up a little.