WITHIN an hour from Ben's encounter, he was arrested without warrant by the military commandant, handcuffed, and placed on the train for Columbia, more than a hundred miles distant. The first purpose of sending him in charge of a negro guard was abandoned for fear of a riot. A squad of white troops accompanied him.
Elsie was waiting at the gate, watching for his coming, her heart aglow with happiness.
When Marion and little Hugh ran to tell the exciting news, she thought it a joke and refused to believe it.
"Come, dear, don't tease me; you know it's not true!"
"I wish I may die if 'taint so!" Hugh solemnly declared. "He run Gus away 'cause he scared Aunt Margaret so. They come and put handcuffs on him and took him to Columbia. I tell you Grandpa and Grandma and Aunt Margaret are mad!"
Elsie called Phil and begged him to see what had happened.
When Phil reported Ben's arrest without a warrant, and the indignity to which he had been subjected on the amazing charge of resisting military authority, Elsie hurried with Marion and Hugh to the hotel to express her
