“By gum, I won’t do it!” exclaimed Latham, with energy. “If you want to take me prisoner, take me. But do you think I am going sneaking [pg 185]back to camp with the story that I let one Johnny gobble me? No, sir, not by a jugful!”
“Latham, you are a character. Can you swim?”
“Never learned when a boy.”
“Will your horse carry double?” asked Calhoun.
“No, he is a poor swimmer, he would drown us both.”
“Latham, I am afraid I shall have to shoot you. I don’t see any other way to get rid of you.”
Latham thought a moment, and said: “Let me ride the horse across and you swim.”
“A brilliant idea, declined with thanks.”
Latham scratched his head as if for an idea. “Perhaps I can hang on by the horse’s tail,” he remarked, hesitatingly.
“That’s better. It’s either a parole, the tail, or death. Which shall it be?”