A Cabin of Friendly Negroes.-Southerners Unacquainted with Tea.- Walking Twelve Miles for Nothing.-Every Negro a Friend.-Touch- ing Fidelity of the Slaves.-Pursued by a Home-Guard.-Help in the A Curious Dilemma.-Food, Shelter, and Friends.-Loyalty of the Mountaineers.-A Levee in a Barn.-Visited by an Old Friend.-A Day of Alarms.-A Woman's Ready Wit.-Danger of Detection from Snoring.-Promises to Aid Suffering Comrades.-A Repentant Flanking a Rebel Camp.-Secreted among the Husks.—Wandering from the Road.--Crossing the Yadkin River.-Union Bushwhackers.— Union Soldiers "Lying Out."-An Energetic Invalid........... 461 Money Concealed in Clothing.-Peril of Union Citizens.--Fording Creeks at Midnight.-Climbing the Blue Ridge.-Crossing the New Over Mountains and Through Ravines.-Mistaken for Confederate Guards.-A Rebel Guerrilla Killed.-Meeting a Former Fellow-Pris- Dan Ellis, the Union Guide.-In Good Hands at Last.-Ellis's Bravery.— Lost! A Perilous Blunder.—A most Fortunate Encounter.-Rejoin- Fording Creeks in the Darkness.-Prospect of a Dreary Night.-Sleep- THE FIELD, THE DUNGEON, AND THE ESCAPE. I. THE SECRET SERVICE. CHAPTER I. I will go on the slightest errand now to the antipodes that you can desire to send me on-MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. EARLY in 1861, I felt a strong desire to look at the Secession movement for myself; to learn, by personal observation, whether it sprang from the people or not; what the Revolutionists wanted, what they hoped, and what they feared. But the southern climate, never propitious to the longevity of Abolitionists, was now unfavorable to the health of every northerner, no matter how strong his political constitution. I felt the danger of being recognized; for several years of roving journalism, and a good deal of political speaking on the frontier, had made my face familiar to persons whom I did not remember at all, and given me that large and motley acquaintance which every half-public life necessitates. Moreover, I had passed through the Kansas struggle; and many former shining lights of Border Ruffianism were now, with perfect fitness, lurid torches in the early bonfires of Secession. I did not care to meet their eyes, for I could not remember a single man of them all who |