s repeated, in the same low and cautious tone.

"Who is it? Where are you?" said Tom, looking all about him, among the
groups of soldiers who were gathered on various parts of the deck,
discussing the present and the future.

"Here, Tom," replied the voice, which sounded more familiar every time he
heard it.

He turned his eye in the direction from which the sound proceeded, and
there, coiled up behind a heap of barrels and boxes, and concealed by a
sail-cloth which had been thrown over the goods to protect them from an
expected shower, he discovered Fred Pemberton.

"What in the name of creation are you doing there, Fred?" exclaimed Tom,
laughing at the ludicrous attitude of the embryo secessionist.

"Hush! Don't say a word, Tom. Sit down here where I can talk with you,"
added Fred.

"What are you doing here?"

"I'll tell if you will keep quiet a moment. Is the company full?"

"What company?"

"Captain Benson's, of course."

"No."

"I want to join."

"You!" ejaculated Tom.

"Come, come, Tom, no blackguarding now. You and I used to be good
friends."

"I've nothing against you, Fred--that is, if you're not a traitor."

"I want to join the company."

"Is your father willing?"

"Of course he isn't; but that needn't make any difference."

"But you don't believe in our cause, Fred. We don't want a traitor in the
ranks."

"Hang the cause! I want to go with the company."

"Hang the cause? Well, I reckon that's a good recommendation."

"I'm all right on that."

"Are you willing to take the oath of allegiance, and swear to sustain the
flag of your country?"

"Of course I am. I only followed the old man's lead; but I have got enough
of it. Do you think Captain Benson will take me into the company?"

"Perhaps he will."

"Ask him--will you? You needn't say I'm here, you know."

"But what will your father say?"

"I don't care what he says."

Tom thought, if Fred didn't care, he needn't, and going aft, he found the
captain, and proposed to him the question.