Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-05-26

| Brought a lieutenant In the German
army, he had resigned come to America,
engaged in business dropped it at the call
! To arms and gone into the fighting almost
/ purely from love of fighting.
They cumber us-these blacks," he said
often. They ruin discipline too. Then
go in and out like the air?" But even
| he had taken into his service. 1t had
| happened in this wise. Three days earlier
| he had been accommodating when his de-
| tachment was charged upon by single
mounted man, riding at full speed. and
| crouching low over the neck of the horse.
| The reason plain. Behind came half a
dozen men in gray, also mounted. spurriug
! as for life and shooting as they rode. 1t
| seemed miracle that some bullet did not
| touch the fugitive. The federal cavalry
| parted to let him through, as soon they
| saw his face. He was mulatto. evidently
| a camp servant making a. dash for liberty,
since he wore over his jean trousers a
| cast-of gray overcoat
shoot me, please Don't send me back, -
| he said, riding straight up to the colonel.
| flowtoW eyed him a minute. then asked
| gruff1y: why did you run away?
| For answer the mulatto flung off his coat
with cruel crimson vets. Nobody ever
dared to touch me befo'." he said II was
a house nigger-and | don't belong to the
| man that done it.
How came you in the army" Flowtow
| asked suspiciously The negro looked full
in his eyes and said: Il went to take keer
of my marsters son. He-he's dead now.
l wanted TO go and they tried to make me
| stay.
"Iumph. Who is your master?" Flowtow
asked.
Maj, Hilliard-that is, he used to be
major. He's colonel now under old Mister
Forres'. If he had been there nobody
wouldn't a-dared to touch me-. the negro
said. That's how come l to know all this
country so well. L used to live at Wake
Fores'.'
So. The exclamation was one of pleas
ure Ihen you may be worth keeping
if you will be a true guide" Flowtow said,
pursuing his lips: then brutaly: This ma
jor-he is your father. too, eh?''
Il hears EN- say So the negro said
looking down. Please. sir, take me to
wait on you. 1 can cook"
II may have better use for YOU Flow
tow interrupted. Ride you here beside
me a little. If you serve me well you shall
have money and freedom If''-with a
stern look-''you try to trap me. then l
will cut you alive into little teeny bits
Il don't want money-Only to be Free and
to learn readin' and writin'." the negro
said. AS to trappin' you, no niger cain t
do that. You are too smart for even our
i white folks
SO yellow Ned came to be free of Flow
lows quarters. following the colonel like
a dog wherever he went. crouching pa
| tiently beside the hearth while Flowtow
wrote or talked, alert for any service, but
seemingly Needless of all he heard. He had
found an old note book and stub Of pencil
The sentry at the door had set him copies
OF letters and figures. These he repro
duced in thousand unheard-of combina-
tons. The sentries. they changed, VIC &c
| much amused by his efforts and said one
to another yellow Ned must be crazy-you
simply could not teach him that two and
two made four. or that a was not e.
1t was mid May. four years from the
month when Col Hilliard had sent the
HintOns away. Old Nat had come back
very soon after the federal victory He
claimed, indeed. to have a mysterious con-
nection with those in authority, and swag-
gered among the other fisher folk as to the
vengeance he meant to take on the slave
holding aristocrats who had formerly 80
oppressed him. year Of riotous living
had wasted the Hilliard money. Luce and
Prude now chose to go their own way, but
swan came with her father because her
mother came perforce.
with the wreck and remnant Of their
sudden wealth old Nat had chartered a
trading boat, miserable scow-like affair,
which was towed up or down stream as
occasion served. Ostensibly it was a suit
ler's boat. In reality 1t engaged in all man.
| ner of contraband trading. A cotton cargo
once safe under matches meant more profit
| planned to smuggle such cargo aboard
before the Lucy tied up at Wake Forest
| landing. He had slipped outside the lines
spying where best to seize 1t. leaving his
| wife and Swan in charge of the boat.
Soldier villages gossip even more than
! ordinary Villages. Everything at headquar-
( ters Is soon the common property Of the
| camp. Thus Swan came to know very soon
| all the particulars of yellow Ned's arrival
| She pondered what she had heard a day
then just at sunset startled her mother by
| saying, I'm going over to the outpost
| Funny l never thought Of It before-but
| there Is my chance to see the inside O.
| Wake Forest"
| There was no protest. Mrs. Hinton never
| wasted breath In trying to turn Swan from
her purposes. But something, she knew
not what. made her kiss her daughter
once shyly, fearfully once, az she felt Swan