“Increasing years, Hector, have not dimmed those perceptive faculties of yours, which I may justly call brilliant.”

“Thanks, Leonidas, you and I have always had a proper conception of the worth of each other.”

“If you will pardon me for speaking, sir,” said St. Clair, “there is one man I’d like to find, when this war is over.”

“’What is the appearance of this man, Arthur?” asked Colonel Talbot.

“I don’t know exactly how he looks, sir, though I’ve heard of him often, and I shall certainly know him when I meet him.  You understand, sir, that, while I’ve not seen him, he has very remarkable characteristics of manner.”

“And what may those be, Arthur?  Are they so salient that you would recognize them at once?”

“Certainly, sir.  He has an uncommonly loud voice, which he uses nearly all the time and without restraint.  Words fairly pour from his tongue.  Facts he scorns.  He soars aloft on the wings of fancy.  Many people who have listened to him have felt persuaded by his talk, but he is perhaps not so popular now.”

“An extraordinary person, Arthur.  But why are you so anxious to find him?”

“Because I wish, sir, to lay upon him the hands of violence.  I would thrash him and beat him until he yelled for mercy, and then I would thrash him and beat him again.  I should want the original pair of seven-leagued boots, not that I might make such fast time, but that I might kick him at a single kick from one county to another, and back, and then over and over past counting.  I’d duck him in a river until he gasped for breath, I’d drag him naked through a briar patch, and then I’d tar and feather him, and ride him on a rail.”

“Heavens, Arthur!  I didn’t dream that your nature contained so much cruelty!  Who is this person over whose torture you would gloat like a red Indian?”

“It is the man who first said that one Southerner could whip five Yankees.”

“Arthur,” said Colonel Talbot, “your anger is just and becomes you.  When the war is over, if we all are spared we’ll form a group and hunt this fellow until we find him.  And then, please God, if the gallows of Haman is still in existence, we’ll hang him on it with promptness and dispatch.  I believe in the due and orderly process of the law, but in this case lynching is not only justifiable, but it’s an honor to the country.”

“Well spoken, Leonidas!  Well spoken!” said Lieutenant-Colonel Hector St. Hilaire.  “I’m glad that Arthur mentioned the matter, and we’ll bear it in mind.  You can count upon me.”

“And here is coffee,” said Happy Tom.  “I made this myself, the camp cook liking me and giving me a chance.  I’d really be a wonderful cook if I had the proper training, and I may come to it, if we lose the war.  Still, the chance even then is slight, because my father, when red war showed its edge over the horizon, put all his money in the best British securities.  So we could do no more than lose the plantation.”