replied the older gentleman. "There will be time enough for you to look for a wife after the war is over, and you have more time to attend to the affair."

"Mr. Mulgate, I should like to know something more about your intentions before we go any farther," interposed Corny, in a tone so decided that Mulgate had to listen to him, especially as he had obtained so little sympathy from the elderly gentleman.

"Speak quick then, for we have no time to spare," added Mulgate.

"Do I understand from what you have said that you intend to take Florry Passford back to 34 the South with you?" asked Corny, with his teeth closely pressed together, so that it was rather difficult for him to speak intelligibly.

34

"I answer, as I did before, that I don't know what I shall do; that depends," replied Mulgate evasively.

"Depends upon what?"

"I have no time to discuss that matter now," added Mulgate, turning to his companion.

"But I have time to say that I will ruin the whole enterprise if you mean to commit an outrage such as you appear to have in your mind," replied Corny, as vigorously as though he had been the military equal of the one he had called "major" by accident.

"Do you mean to be a traitor to your country, Neal?" demanded Mulgate angrily.

"Neither to my country nor to my uncle."

"Your uncle is a Yankee, and is doing all he can to subjugate the free South. He has no rights which we are bound to respect," said Mulgate fiercely.

"This will never do," interposed Captain Carboneer; and this may or may not have been his real name. "We are getting into a disagreement at the very first step of our enterprise."

35 "I don't know you, Captain Carboneer, but I wish to be understood as meaning every word I have said; and I will wreck this enterprise, if I am shot for it, rather than allow my cousin to be carried off in connection with it," protested Corny stoutly. "I will do my duty faithfully; but I will not assist in robbing my uncle of his daughter."

35

"You are quite right, young 

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