While one started for the stable yard, the other ran in to tell his black housekeeper that he was going to ride toward Mooreville, where he would remain until the Federals had left the country. Yes, there had been a sharp skirmish down there in the woods, he said in reply to the woman's anxious inquiries, the Confederates had been driven from the field, and he and Dick thought it best to get out of sight for awhile.
"The Federals may not come back this way," added Rodney, "but if they do, tell the truth and don't try to pass me off for a Union man. They know as well as you do that I have served my time in the Confederate army, and there's nothing to gain by telling a different story. If anyone asks for me, you can say that I have ridden toward Mooreville."
Well, he and Dick did ride toward Mooreville, but they did not go there. Not knowing how far the darkeys could be trusted, they went down the road half a mile or so, and turning into the woods hitched their horses close together so that they would not call to each other, and finally took up a position from which they could see the house and anybody who approached it. These precautions were not taken any too soon, for the Federals did scout back that way, and when they came in sight they were riding at top speed. They knew that a large party of horsemen had passed along the road before them, for they saw the prints of many hoofs in the dust. Some of them kept on without drawing rein, while others went into the house and all over it; but as no contraband goods rewarded their search they left it standing when they went away. And although the hands all left their work in the field and ran to the dwelling when they saw the blue-coats surrounding it, they did not improve the opportunity to secure their freedom, as the boys thought they would. They returned to their work when the soldiers departed, and Rodney and Dick thought it safe to go back to the house.
Their next visitor was a single Confederate soldier, who arrived just at dusk with a note addressed to "Captain Thomas Randolph, C. S. A., Commdg. Mooreville Troops." This man Rodney took into the house and fed as if he had been a long-lost brother, for he was anxious to learn something about the battle that was soon to take place; but, although the messenger said he was orderly at headquarters, he could or would give very little information. Breckenridge was rapidly feeling his way toward the city, he said; he would soon be reinforced by the command of General Ruggles, which would be picked up at Camp Pinckney, and with the _Arkansas_ to help and clean the Yankee gunboats out of the river, there was no doubt but that a decisive victory awaited him; and having finished his supper, and said all he had to say, the messenger mounted his horse and rode off. Five minutes later Rodney and Dick had mounted theirs and were riding hard to carry that note to Captain Randolph. They stopped at Rodney's home just long enough to put the folks on nettles with the very meager information they had to give, and a quarter of an hour afterward were sitting in Mrs. Randolph's parlor, waiting for Tom to show himself. When he came he was accompanied by his mother.