"I couldn't obey it if I wanted to," cried Tom. "My men are scattered for miles through the country, and I couldn't spend the night in hunting them up."
"They may call it disobedience of orders if you don't do it," replied Rodney, who wanted to laugh. "If I were in your place I would make the effort."
"And run the risk of being shot? But suppose my men refuse to turn out?" said Tom, a bright idea coming into his mind.
"Then you will be blameless, and all you have to do will be to report to the colonel and tell him that you are ready for any duty he may assign you."
"And can't I stay at home any way I can fix it?" inquired Tom, who made no effort to conceal his terror.
"I wouldn't. What if some of the colonel's troopers should find you skulking here when you ought to be in the front rank? Or suppose the battle should be fought on your plantation. Wouldn't you——"
"I know, but a battle sometimes ends a good many miles from where it begins, and the one that's coming is as likely to be fought here as anywhere else. And if that should happen, wouldn't you rather have a musket in your hands than go skulking through the bushes trying to keep out of danger? I would a hundred times over. But really we must be going. Good-night."
Rodney and his companion bowed themselves to the door and went out, and Captain Tom and his mother sat in their chairs looking at each other and listening to the clatter of the receding hoofs. When it died away altogether Tom jumped to his feet in great excitement.
"We never once thought to ask them where they got that order, or why it was sent by their hands instead of by the hands of one of that colonel's own men," he fairly sputtered. "Mother, it's an infamous trick, and there isn't going to be any fight. I'll remember Rodney Gray for this and other things he has done to me—you see if I don't!"
"I hope you are duly ashamed of yourself for frightening that poor woman so terribly," said Dick, as he and Rodney galloped out of the yard and turned their horses toward the village.
"Why didn't she stay out of the room?" retorted Rodney. "We sent in word that we desired to see Captain Tom privately, but she didn't take the hint. So Tom thought he couldn't spend the night in riding about the country. Well, we've got to, if we do the work we set out to do."