Chapter 17 - Page 2

troop. Captain Lawton had rewarded his fidelity by making him
its orderly.

Followed by Birch, the sergeant proceeded in silence to the door of the
intended prison, and, throwing it open with one hand, he held a lantern
with the other to light the peddler to his prison. Seating himself on a
cask, that contained some of Betty's favorite beverage, the sergeant
motioned to Birch to occupy another, in the same manner. The lantern was
placed on the floor, when the dragoon, after looking his prisoner
steadily in the face, observed,--

"You look as if you would meet death like a man; and I have brought you
to a spot where you can tranquilly arrange your thoughts, and be quiet
and undisturbed."

"'Tis a fearful place to prepare for the last change in," said Harvey,
gazing around his little prison with a vacant eye.

"Why, for the matter of that," returned the veteran, "it can reckon but
little in the great account, where a man parades his thoughts for the
last review, so that he finds them fit to pass the muster of another
world. I have a small book here, which I make it a point to read a
little in, whenever we are about to engage, and I find it a great
strengthener in time of need." While speaking, he took a Bible from his
pocket, and offered it to the peddler. Birch received the volume with
habitual reverence; but there was an abstracted air about him, and a
wandering of the eye, that induced his companion to think that alarm was
getting the mastery of the peddler's feelings; accordingly, he proceeded
in what he conceived to be the offices of consolation.

"If anything lies heavy on your mind, now is the best time to get rid of
it--if you have done any wrong to anyone, I promise you, on the word of
an honest dragoon, to lend you a helping hand to see them righted."

"There are few who have not done so," said the peddler, turning his
vacant gaze once more on his companion.

"True--'tis natural to sin; but it sometimes happens that a man does
what at other times he may be sorry for. One would not wish to die with
any very heavy sin on his conscience, after all."

Harvey had by this time thoroughly examined the place in which he was to
pass the night, and saw no means of escape. But as hope is ever the last
feeling to desert the human breast, the peddler gave the dragoon more of
his attention, fixing on his sunburned features such searching looks,
that Sergeant Hollister lowered his eyes before the wild expression
which he met in the gaze of his prisoner.

"I have been taught to lay the burden of my sins at the feet of my
Savior," replied the peddler.

"Why, yes--all that is well