At the fence I ceased to lead, and we crept near the gin-house from three sides, warily, though all the chances were that wherever Oliver lay he was heavy with drink. The Colonel stole in alone. He was lost to us for, I should say, five minutes; they seemed thirty; then there pealed upon the stillness an uproarious laugh mingled with oaths and curses, sounds of a plunge, a struggle, a groan, and old Dismukes calling "Come, boys, I\'ve got him! Take it easy, take it easy, I\'ve got him on the floor by the hair of his head; call Gholson!"

Gholson brought the mulatress. In the feeble rays of an old tin lantern, on some gunny-sacking that lay about the gin-room floor, sat old Dismukes cross-legged and smiling, with arms folded and revolver dangling from his right hand, at full cock. On one side crouched Harry and I, on the other side Gholson and the slave woman. Facing him, half sat, half knelt Oliver, bound hand and foot, and gagged with his own knotted handkerchief. The lantern hung from a low beam just above his face; his eyes blazed across the short interval with the splendor of a hawk\'s. The dread issue of the hour seemed all at once to have taken from his outward aspect the baser signs of his habits and crimes, and I saw large extenuation for Charlotte\'s great mistake. From the big Colonel\'s face, too, the heaviness of drink was gone, and its smile grew almost fine as he spoke.

"Ten minutes for prayer is a good while to allow you, my amiable friend; we ain\'t heard for our much speaking, are we, Brother Gholson? Still, we\'ve given you that, and it\'s half gone. If you don\'t want the other half we won\'t force it on you; we\'ve got that wedding to go to, and I\'m afraid we\'ll be late."

The bound man sat like a statue. The slave girl went upon her knees and began to pray for her master,--with whom she had remained after every other servant on the place had run off to the Federals, supplicating with a piteous fervor that drew tears down Harry\'s cheeks. "Humph!" said the Arkansan, still smiling straight into Oliver\'s eyes, "she\'d better be thanking God for her freedom, for that\'s what we\'re going to give her to-night; we\'re going to take her and your poor old crippled father to the outposts and turn \'em loose, and if either of \'em ever shows up inside our lines after to-night, we\'ll hang \'em. You fixed the date of your death last June, and we\'re not going to let it be changed; that\'s when you died. Ain\'t it, Gholson? Whoever says it ain\'t fixes the date of his own funeral, eh, boys? I take pleasure in telling you we\'re not going to hang your father, because I believe in my bones you\'d rather we\'d hang him than not. Mr. Gholson, you\'re our most pious believer in obedience to orders; well, I\'m going to give you one, and if you don\'t make a botch of it I sha\'n\'t have to make a botch of you; understand?"

Gholson\'s lips moved inaudibly, his jaws set hard, and he blanched; but the Colonel smiled once more: "I\'ve heard that at one time you said, or implied, that Captain Ferry had betrayed his office, because when he had a fair chance to shoot this varmint he omitted, for private reasons, to do it. And I\'ve heard you say, myself, that this isn\'t your own little private war. So,--just change seats with me."

They exchanged. The slave girl sank forward upon her face moaning and sobbing. Harry silently wept. "Now, Gholson, you know me; draw--pistol."

Gholson drew; I grew sick. "Ready,"--Gholson came to a ready and so did the Colonel; "aim," Gholson slowly aimed, the Colonel kept a ready, and Oliver, for the first time took his eyes from him and gazed at Gholson. "Fire!" Gholson fired; Oliver silently fell forward; with a stifled cry the girl sprang to him and drew his head into her lap, and he softly straightened out and was still. "Oh, sweet Jesus!" she cried, "Oh, sweet Jesus!"

The amused Colonel held the lantern close down. "He\'s all right, Brother Gholson," was his verdict; the ball had gone to the heart. &q............