"You seem young for this kind of workstudying fossil stones and fossil bones." "I am older than I look. Still, I am only a student in the university. I came to spend my vacation in this work." "And you have nothing to do with the war?" "No." "The North has-" once more Warwick hesitated. "If you live with Warwick and have told the truth, you have nothing to fear from the people hereabout, be they for the North or for the South. But if you come here as a spy, there is danger-danger for you and for others. If you seek to live here as a rock-hunter only, well and good; but if this is not your work, be careful, for so sure as the sun shines on this knob there is danger ahead." "I have told you the truth, Mr. Warwick." "The whole truth?" "Yes." "Then you may stay," said Warwick, changing his tone. "I take some interest myself in these curious stones, which seem once to have been shells, and in these great bones, which dwarf our largest beast of to-day. You may stay for a time, and yet, if your tongue has been led astray, so sure as the shadows lie all day long on Gunpowder's Valley, so sure will you pay for the crooked speech. This seems harsh, my young friend, but these times demand plain words." They left the table, and Joshua went out to the tobacco field, the daughter turned her attention to the household duties, Warwick and his guest returning to the sitting-room. "Another word," said Warwick when the others were out of hearing, "now that we are alone. You are from the North. You need not have said it. I knew it from the way you speak. I knew it last night. But that is not what I have to say now. You are here to hunt shells in the hills, and bones in the Lick Valley. Be sure you do this, and that you close your ear and your eye to things outside. To everything else let your eye be as blind as are the stone shells of our bluffs, and your ear as dead as are the mammoths whose teeth lie in the Big Bone quagmire.” The youth flushed. He was not accustomed to such plain talk. He turned away, but Warwick laid his great hand upon his shoulder. "Troops of men in blue will pass you in the daytime, for the provo'-marshal scours both hill and valley; keep your eyes on the stones when these hoofs beat the road." The young man shrugged his shoulders, and tried to twist from the grasp of the heavy hand. "You may be caught from home by night, and then may meet a squad of horsemen who wear no blue clothes," said Warwick, lowering his voice. "Should any one question you, tell the truth; say you are a student of stones, and tell them that you stop with Warwick of the Knobs; and if they doubt that, bring them to me." "But why should they interfere with me?" "Do as I say. It is not interference for the Home Guards to inquire into the business of a stranger, nor can men, bound to the Confederacy, run the risk of betrayal by a spy with a stone hammer in his hand as a blind. Do as I say. And now, another word. The room in which you will sleep is that of my two oldest boys. They are not here now; you may never meet them; but in case they come it will be in the night. Ask no questions, keep your eyes closed; and if some man shares the room with |