"You have prevailed upon them to release me and I know it," he exclaimed, seizing one of Rodney's hands in both his own and shaking it with all his might. "And I'll never forget you for it; never in this world. If you want anything, all you've got to do is to say the word, and if I've got it you shall have it. And as for you soldiers—I'll cook up some sort of a story when I reach home that will stop all pursuit till you have had time to reach the Union lines. I am very grateful to you, and will prove it by pulling off my gray suit as soon as I get home. If all Yanks are like you, I am not going to fight any more during the war."
Tom was sure he saw a faint prospect of escape before him, and his joy was so great that it choked his utterance. He continued to rattle on in this way, until the corporal interrupted him with:
"That's all right, Johnny. So long as you keep the hounds off our trail, it's all the return we ask for setting you at liberty."
"Then you are going to release me, aint you?" cried Tom.
"I don't suppose such a thing was ever done before," said the corporal hesitatingly. "And I don't know what the boys will say to me when they hear of it; but I——"
"That don't make any difference, Mr. Soldier. You just tell me to go home, and I will keep the hounds off your trail."
"Well—git!" said the corporal. "You will find your sword and revolver back there in the grove where we hid them yesterday."
Tom lost no time in grasping the corporal's hand and shaking it with all his strength—a proceeding to which the boy in blue submitted with very bad grace. He felt more like giving his late captive a kick, and so did his comrades; but they let him shake their hands instead—all except Ben, who put his hands into his pockets and turned away when Tom approached him. Captain Randolph would have persisted in his efforts to take leave of him also, had he not been warned by a look from Rodney that he had better stop his nonsense and get away while the Federals were in the humor to let him go. Acting upon the hint, he turned away from Ben and disappeared in the direction of the fence.
"If I am any prophet that surly Yank will see the time when he'll wish he had not turned his back on me in that style," soliloquized Tom, when he found himself safe in the lane. "I'll square accounts with him and with Rodney and Dick at the same time. And Ned Griffin, too. I might have given those Yanks the slip last night, if he had been friendly enough to fall asleep as I wanted him to do; but he wouldn't, and now he will see how I will pay him for it."