He crawled painfully to the trap-door and, finding a chink in the boards, looked down into the apartment below.  Aun’ Jinkey was smoking as composedly it might seem as if a terrible Yankee, never seen before, was not over her head, and a band of Confederates who would have made him a prisoner and punished her were only a few rods away.  A close observer, however, might have noticed that she was not enjoying languid whiffs, as had been the case in the afternoon.  The old woman had put guile into her pipe as well as tobacco, and she hoped its smoke would blind suspicious eyes if any were hunting for a stray Yankee.  Chunk’s pone and bacon had been put near the fire to keep warm, and Scoville looked at the viands longingly.

At last he ventured to whisper, “Aun’ Jinkey, I am as hungry as a wolf.”

“Hesh!” said the old woman softly.  Then she rose, knocked the ashes from her pipe with great deliberation, and taking a bucket started for the spring.  In going and coming she looked very sharply in all directions, thus satisfying herself that no one was watching the cabin.  Re-entering, she whispered, “Kin you lif de trap-do’?”

Scoville opened it, and was about to descend.  “No, you kyant do dat,” interposed Aun’ Jinkey, quickly.  “Lie down up dar, en I han’ you Chunk’s supper.  He gits his’n at de big house.  You’s got ter play possum right smart, mars’r, or you git cotched.  Den we cotch it, too.  You ’speck I doan know de resk Chunk en me tookin?”

“Forgive me, Aunt Jinkey.  But your troubles will soon be over and you be as free as I am.”

“I doesn’t want no sech freedom ez you got, mars’r, hid’n en scrugin’ fum tarin’ en rarin’ red-hot gallopers ez Mad Whately en his men.  Dey’d des bun de ole cabin en me in’t ef dey knowed you’s dar.  Bettah stop yo’ mouf wid yo’ supper.”

This Scoville was well contented to do for a time, while Aun’ Jinkey smoked and listened with all her ears.  Faint sounds came from the house and the negro quarters, but all was still about the cabin.  Suddenly she took her pipe from her mouth and muttered, “Dar goes a squinch-owl tootin’.  Dat doan mean no good.”

“Aunt Jinkey,” said Scoville, who was watching her, “that screech-owl worries you, doesn’t it?”

“Dere’s mo’ kin’s ob squinch-owls dan you ’lows on, mars’r.  Some toots fer de sake ob tootin’ en some toots in warnin’.”

“That one tooted in warning.  Don’t be surprised if you hear another very near.”  He crawled to the cranny under the eaves and Aun’ Jinkey fairly jumped out of her chair as she heard an owl apparently hooting on the roof with a vigor and truth to nature that utterly deceived her senses.  Scoville repeated the signal, and then crept back to the chink in the floor.  The old woman was trembling and looking round in dismayed uncertainty.  “There,” he said, with a low laugh, “that squinch-owl was I, and the first you heard was one of my men.  Now, like a good soul, make pones and fry bacon for five men, and you’ll have friends who will take good care of you and Chunk.”