Are they friends or enemies?” was the question which rose simultaneously in the thoughts of the two adventurers. One thing was certain, they were not a cavalry scouting party from Rolla, as they were not in the army uniform, but were dressed in the common garb of the country, the universal “butternut.”

Two of the men dismounted and entered the house, or rather stepped just within the doorway, while the others remained in their saddles and held the horses of the two already mentioned. The first question of the one who appeared to be leader was:

“Any Yanks about to-day?”

Receiving a negative reply, he asked if they had anything to drink. The host said he had just a drop of whisky, but he was afraid there was n't enough to go around. He brought out a bottle, and as it was less than half-full it was very evident that it would be a small allowance for the party of horsemen, supposing all of them were thirsty.

The captain, as his comrades called him, proceeded to fill the bottle with water, thus diluting its contents, and then remarked that he thought it would go around. After taking a good-sized drink for himself he went outside and handed the bottle over to his subordinates, by whom it was speedily emptied.

While they were discussing the whisky and remarking upon its thinness, the captain questioned the two youths, who replied as they had previously arranged to do. They told the story they had already given several times, and which they had begun to believe was entirely within the bounds of truth. The captain seemed somewhat suspicious at first, but before they were through talking he fell into the same error as did the woman at whose house they stopped in the morning.

“We're going south, too,” said the captain, “soon as we can raise more men and horses. If you'd only a couple of horses we'd jest take you along. But you don't look old enough for soldiers. How old are you?”

Jack said they would be sixteen very soon, and he added that perhaps the war might last long enough for them to get their full size. He echoed the wish of the captain that they had horses to travel with, so that they could go along with his company.

“Well, p'r'aps you 'll find some in a day or two,” the captain answered; “there's some of these Union men round here that 've got horses we ought to have.”

Jack took the hint and indicated their willingness to help themselves to horses whenever they could find any. This was satisfactory to the captain, and he said that they might join him as soon as they were mounted, and it would n't be very hard to find him if they asked in the right quarters.

Then he gave them several names of men who could be relied upon, and told where they lived. They covered a distance of fifteen or twenty miles to the east and south, so that as soon as the youths had supplied themselves with horses they could find out the captain's rendezvous. “But don't trust this man,” said the captain, nodding in the direction of the house in front of which they stood. “He talks South to our fellows and North to the Yanks when they come around, and nobody knows where to put him exactly. He's trying to carry water on both shoulders, and 'll be likely to spill it if he don't look out sharp.” Then the captain mounted his horse, after handing the empty bottle to the farmer, and the troop of Southern recruits rode off. The farmer was evidently glad to see them going away, and also not at all sorry when the boys followed in the same direction. He had heard only a small part of the conversation between them, but evidently caught enough of it to divine its purport.

“It's getting rather exciting,” said Harry, as soon as they were alone. “Had n't we better go back to Rolla and tell what we've seen and heard, so as to put the colonel on the track of the captain who wants us to become horse-thieves?”

“I've been thinking the same thing,” said Jack; “but how will we work it?”

“That's the question,” Harry responded. “It won't do to turn round now, as we should be suspected by everybody who has seen us, and particularly by the man where we had dinner. I think he's a Union man, or neutral anyhow; but we 'll take the captain's advice, and not trust him.”

“I have it,” said Jack. “We're tired now, and will go into the woods and have a sleep. We're about fifteen miles from Rolla, and can get back there by morning. Soon as it's dark we can start back and go just as fast as we can, and by breakfast time to-morrow we 'll have a party of cavalry on the heels of the captain.”

This was agreed to, and at once the boys, in the parlance of the Southwest, “took to the woods.” They slept soundly till dark, and then took the back track for Rolla. Fortunately they met nobody save a man in a farm-wagon, and as they heard the sound of his wheels some time before he reached them they had abundant opportunity to conceal themselves by the roadside till he had passed.

Just at daylight they reached the pickets outside of Rolla, and were immediately taken before the colonel, who received them in his tent and heard their story. Then he sent for a lieutenant of cavalry, who was at once dispatched with twenty men to hunt for the captain and his band of horse-thieves. Jack and Harry offered to accompany them, but the captain declined, partly because they were in great need of rest, having traveled thirty miles in about twenty-six hours and been awake all night, and partly because they would be recognized by those who had seen them on the road, and by the captain and his men in case they should be encountered.

“But do us one favor,” said Jack, when he found that their desire to accompany the party would not be granted.

“Anything in reason,” said the lieutenant; “what is it?”

Then he told about the woman who had given them the milk and asked them to stay to dinner, and he described the house so that it could not be mistaken.

“Well, what about her?” asked the lieutenant, as Jack paused.

“Take her this,” said Jack, handing out a package containing half a pound of tea, which he had obtained from the colonel's servant while they were waiting the arrival of the lieutenant, after the boys had told their story. “Just leave it and say it is from friends; you need n't tell her anything more, and it isn't necessary for her to know. We feel rather guilty at having had her hospitality for nothing, and want to compensate her in some way.”

The lieutenant laughed as he tossed the package to his sergeant and gave the order to mount. In two minutes the party was off. It was accompanied by two Union men, natives in that region, who were to act as guides in designating the roads leading to the probable retreat of the captain with whom the youths had formed so brief an acquaintance.

The lieutenant carried out the request of the boys and left the woman a good deal puzzled over the affair. He did not stop five minutes at the house, and briefly told her that an old friend had sent her something he thought would be acceptable. As the boys could not in any sense be considered old friends, she never once thought of them, and especially as they had gone, as she supposed, to the South, and turned their backs altogether upon Rolla and the way the Yankees came from.

Let us follow the scouting party and see how it turned out.

About fifteen miles out from Rolla, and near the point where Jack and Harry turned back, the lieutenant halted his men and sought a place of concealment in the woods by the roadside, first putting out a picket to prevent any one passing in either direction. Then, as the Union guides were known, he had them change clothing and horses with two of the men, whom he sent forward to one of the secessionists whose name had been given by the rebel captain to the youths. For this work he selected two young and beardless men, on the chance that the captain had told the secessionist that the two youths might ask his whereabouts.

The lieutenant's calculations were correct. The resident readily told where the captain was to be found, and the men returned by a circuitous route to where the soldiers were waiting for the desired information. Then there was a change back again to clothing and horses as before, and the hunt for the human game was renewed.

So well was the affair managed that the whole band was captured without the shedding of a drop of blood.

With the aid of the guides the camp of the rebel recruits was surrounded and the whole party was taken by surprise. At first they were inclined to fight, but when they saw their assailants were double their number, and also were better armed, they considered discretion the better part of valor and gave up as gracefully as they could.

The lieutenant returned in triumph to Rolla with his prisoners and their horses. To guard against accidents the prisoners were not mounted on their own steeds, but carried in a wagon which formed a part of their camp equipment. Four soldiers with their carbines ready rode on each side of the wagon, and if any attempt had been made to escape it would have resulted badly for those who tried it.

The captured horses were turned over to the quartermaster, with the exception of two, which the colonel gave to Jack and Harry for their own use. Jack selected the one which had belonged to the captain, and remarked as he did so that he had carried out that gentleman's wishes in helping himself to a horse, though possibly not in the way the latter intended.

The colonel praised the boys for what they had done, but advised them to give the region of their late operations a wide berth in future.