“I  DO hear it,” said Clarence, as soon as he caught the sound that had attracted Godfrey’s attention. “There’s some one digging out there in the field.”

“That’s jest what it is,” said Godfrey, in a trembling voice. “Don’t let’s go no further, Mr. Clarence.”

“What’s the use of being afraid?” returned the boy. “It is a man, of course, for if it were anything else it couldn’t use a shovel. You are not afraid of a man, are you?”

No, there was no man in that part of the country that Godfrey was afraid to meet on equal terms; and to prove it he laid down his shovel, clenched his hands and jumped up and knocked his heels together.

“I don’t know what you mean by that nonsense,” said Clarence, impatiently. “If you are afraid, go home; if you are not, come along with me!”

As the boy said this he placed his hands on the[Pg 195] top rail of the fence and vaulted lightly over it, closely followed by Godfrey, who touched the ground on the opposite side almost as soon as Clarence did. Side by side they moved cautiously in the direction from which the sound of the digging came, and after advancing a short distance, Godfrey threw himself flat on his face to make some investigations. The night being very dark, of course all objects on the ground were invisible to them; but by placing themselves in such a position that they would have the lighter sky for a background, any object they wished to examine was rendered quite distinct to their gaze. This they both proceeded to do, Clarence following Godfrey’s example, and when they arose to their feet again a few seconds later and compared notes, they found that both had arrived at the same conclusion—that there was a man in the field but a few rods away from them, and that he was digging a hole with a shovel. He had gone down so deep already that his legs as far as his knees were concealed, and that proved that he had not come there to steal potatoes. Was he looking for the barrel? If so, who was he, and how did he find out that there was any barrel there?

“Come on,” whispered Clarence, as these thoughts[Pg 196] passed through his mind. “We’ll soon know all about it. Be careful not to make the least noise. If he starts to run go after him and bring him back. We must find out who he is, and what he means by this business.”

Guided by the strokes of the shovel, which fell upon their ears at regular intervals, Clarence and his companion slowly and cautiously drew nearer to the workman, who, greatly to their surprise, never paid the least attention to their approach. He must have heard the squeaking of Clarence’s boots—they would squeak, no matter how carefully he stepped—and the rustle of the dry grass and vines that covered the potato-hills, but he was not frightened from his work. Finally Clarence was near enough to him to lay hold of his arm. Even then the man never looked up or ceased his work, and Clarence began to feel a he had never felt before. His heart beat rapidly and all his strength seemed to be leaving him, but he managed to say, in a very steady voice:

“Look here, young fellow, this sort of game won’t work with us, you know. Come up out of that hole and let’s see who you are.”

“O, my soul!” exclaimed Godfrey, who had stooped down to obtain a peep at the man’s face.[Pg 197] “Turn him loose, Mr. Clarence! That’s ole Jordan’s haunt! I’d know that ole white coat anywhar. O, my sakes alive!”

“Come back here!” said Clarence, in much the same tone that he would have used had he been addressing a disobedient hound. “Don’t you dare run away, unless you want General Gordon to know all about this.”

These words were spoken just in time. In a moment more Godfrey would have been scudding across the field at the top of his speed. Tremblingly he approached Clarence, and had there been light enough to enable him to distinguish his features, the boy would have seen that they were as white as a sheet.

“You gave me to understand that you are not afraid of any man in the country,” continued the latter. “Now prove it. Reach out your hand and take hold of this fellow’s arm; and if you don’t feel solid flesh in your grasp, you may take yourself off as soon as you please!”

“Is it a man?” gasped Godfrey.

“Of course it is. Come here and see for yourself.”

“Why don’t he say somethin’, then?”

[Pg 198]“I suppose it is because he don’t want to. Come here and take hold of him, and we’ll soon find means to make him use his tongue, if he has one!”

Very reluctantly Godfrey obeyed the command. He extended his hand and made a grasp at the prisoner’s arm, fully expecting that his fingers would pass through it as they would pass through the air; but to his surprise and intense relief his grasp closed upon a small but very compact bunch of muscle. He seized it firmly and held fast to it, and then his courage all returned, and he was as brave as Clarence himself.

“Now,” said the latter, “I want to take a good look at this fellow.”

Striking a match on the sleeve of his coat as he spoke, he examined the man by the aid of the light it threw out, and saw that he was a coal-black negro, and that he was dressed in a suit of something that had once been white, but which was patched with so many different kinds of cloth that it was hard to find any of the original material in it.

“Are you old Jordan?” he demanded.

There was no answer returned by the negro, who was as passive in the hands of his captors as if he had been a lump of clay.

The Capture of “Ole Jordan.”

[Pg 199]“This won’t do, old fellow,” said Clarence, angrily. “You can’t play off on us in this way. You had better open your mouth, or we’ll take you straight to the general. Perhaps he can find means to make you tell what you are doing in his potato-patch at this time of night.”

“O, that ain’t no way to talk to a nigger, Mr. Clarence,” said Godfrey. “I knows who he is, an’ I can soon make him speak,” he added, drawing back his shovel preparatory to punching old Jordan in the ribs with it.

“Hol’ on dar, boss!” cried the prisoner.

“Thar, now, what did I tell ye?” exclaimed Godfrey, triumphantly. “Don’t sound much like ole Jordan’s voice, though!”

“Now that you have found your tongue, I want to talk to you,” said Clarence. “Would you like to make a thousand dollars?”

“O, I’m goin’ to make a heap more’n dat, boss,” replied the negro.

“You are? How are you going to do it?”

“Jordan,” said Godfrey, “did you come back to dig up that thar bar’l you kivered up here in this tater-patch on the day the Yanks cut the levee?”

“Dat’s tellin’,” replied the negro.

[Pg 200]“Do you know where the barrel is?” asked Clarence.

“Course he does,” exclaimed Godfrey, “kase he’s the one that kivered it up. Whar is it, Jordan? Pint out the spot, an’ ye shall go free without no harm bein’ done to ye; but if ye don’t tell——”

“Hol’ on dar, boss!” cried the old negro, as Godfrey once more drew back his spade.

“Do you know where the barrel is?” asked Clarence. “Answer that question!”

“I reckon I does, boss!”

“Well, where is it?”

“O, I didn’t say I’d tell dat, did I? It ’longs to my ole marse, Gen’ral Gordon.”

“He’s got more’n his share already,” said Godfrey.

“Den I reckon I’se got jest as much right to dat bar’l an’ what’s into it, as anybody,” said the negro; “mebbe more, kase I’se the one that hid it!”

“Hold on a minute, Godfrey,” said Clarence, as his companion raised the shovel threateningly. “Step this way, a moment. Old man, you stay right where you are. If you make any attempt to run, I’ll throw this shovel at you!”

Clarence and Godfrey drew off on one side, just[Pg 201] out of ear-shot of the negro, and the former said, in a suppressed whisper:

“Are you sure that’s old Jordan?”

“Just as sure as I can be,” replied Godfrey. “’Tain’t his haunt—I can see that now—but ole Jordan his own self.”

“I am glad you are so positive, for there is something about this business that doesn’t look just right to me. If it is he, he has come back to dig up that barrel himself. I wonder if it is somewhere about the spot where he was digging! How are we going to make him tell?”

“Lick it outen him,” suggested Godfrey.

“O, that would never do in the world. He’d raise the neighborhood with his howling.”

“Wal, mebbe goin’ without grub an’ water fur a few hours will loosen up his tongue.”

“That’s the idea,” said Clarence, joyfully. “No one will miss him, for those who have seen him since he came back think he is a ghost. Where can we take him and keep him safe until he tells us what we want to know?”

“I reckon my tater-hole is as good a place as any,” said Godfrey, after thinking a moment. “I[Pg 202] don’t have nothing to put in it now, an’ nobody ever goes nigh it.”

“Can we lock him up there?”

“No, but we can tie him up, an’ that will do jest as well. Howsomever, I don’t much keer to go into any sich business as that, Mr. Clarence. S’pose it should come out on us?”

“How in the world is it going to come out on us?” asked Clarence, impatiently. “You’ll not tell, will you?”

“No, sar,” answered Godfrey, with great emphasis. “I couldn’t live here if I did.”

“Well, I shall not tell, either. You may be sure of that; so I don’t see how it can become known. We can starve old Jordan into opening his mouth, and when he gets ready to tell us where the barrel is, we’ll dig it up, divide the contents, and the first boat that comes along will take me away from here. I don’t care whether I go up or down the river, so long as I have my pockets full of money.”

“An’ what’ll I do?” asked Godfrey.

“You can do as you please. You want to stay here and spend your share, don’t you?”

“But what’ll I do with the nigger?”

“I don’t care what you do with him,” was the[Pg 203] boy’s mental reply. “So long as I get safely away from here, you and the nigger can settle the business between you in any way you see fit. That is a matter in which I am not interested.” But aloud he said: “O, we’ll get rid of him somehow. We’ll think about that when the time comes. Now, we’ll give old Jordan one more chance to earn his freedom, and if he doesn’t see fit to improve it, it is no fault of ours. He will have to go to the potato-hole and be tied up there.”

Godfrey was not at all pleased with this arrangement, and he wondered why he had been foolish enough to suggest it. As much as he wanted to be rich, he would never have dared, had he been left to himself, to resort to such desperate measures as these to gain his object. The thought of it was enough to make him tremble. He wished he had never seen Clarence, or had anything to do with him. The boy was so determined to go through with what he had begun, and seemed to be so utterly reckless of consequences, that Godfrey was really afraid of him.

“Say, Mr. Clarence,” said he, suddenly, “I ’most done forgot it, but it’s the gospel truth, an’ I hope I may be shot if it hain’t, that that tater-hole of mine has done fell in, an’ ain’t no more account fur tyin’ up niggers in. ’Sides, I hain’t got no ropes of no kind.”

[Pg 204]“All right, Godfrey,” said Clarence, who saw very plainly what his companion was trying to get at. “We will find out about that when we get there. But let me tell you one thing: If you think you are going to back out and leave me in the lurch, you are very much mistaken. If you will stick to m............