Rodney, the Overseer — Part 173

"Where's your partner?" were the first words he said when they were alone.

"Well, I'll bet you a hard-tack he didn't make it. Some of your good friends were the means of stopping him. You see," he went on, without giving the astonished Rodney time to speak, "Ben and another boy, who were in my party when you and Griffin did so much for us, scouted down Randolph's way a few days after the fight, and that Home Guard—— You made a big blunder when you stuck to us till we let him go. Now he's gone back on you."

"What has he done?" inquired Rodney, who told himself that that was just what he expected from Tom Randolph.

"Why, Ben distinctly heard him tell one of our officers that a bearer of despatches would go from Mooreville in a few days, intending to cross the river at Baton Rouge, where he had friends to help him," said the corporal. "Of course the matter was reported at headquarters, and the houses of all the Secession sympathizers in the city were watched closer than ever."

"Was Mr. Martin's house watched, do you know?"

"Why, certainly. He is always watched, and we had him under arrest during the fight."

"And I was simple enough to tell the provost marshal that that house would be my stopping-place as often as I came to the city," groaned Rodney.

"You needn't blame yourself for that, for I don't suppose it made a particle of difference," said the corporal soothingly. "The provost marshal would have found it out sooner or later, because it is a part of his business to find out where every stranger lives, and what he does while inside the lines. If you went there with your friend Graham——"

"I did," whispered Rodney. "And we went from there up to—up to——"

"Henderson's? Well, he's watched, too; and if one is caught the other will be."

"If Tom Randolph has got Dick Graham into trouble I will see that he is well punished for it," said Rodney angrily.

"If he hasn't, it isn't because he didn't try. If you say the word, I will go straight to his house and arrest him for a Home Guard."

"No, no; don't do that. I am not coward enough to take revenge on him in that way. But since he has made his boast that he is willing to die for the South, I will see that he has all the chance he wants."