“Thank you, Sergeant, for your watchfulness. I shall remember it.”
Then as they rode along, the Lieutenant told Latham his story.
“And that pesky Reb was concealed in the house all the time, was he?” asked Latham.
“Yes; the girl worked it fine.”
The Sergeant laughed long and loud. “And she coaxed the letters from you too. Oh, my! Oh, my!” And he nearly bent double.
“Shut up, you fool you!” growled Haines. “Say, you must help me out of this scrape.”
“Trust me, Lieutenant; I will tell how brave you were, and how you run the Rebel down, and how you would have captured him if he hadn’t shot your horse. But look out after this how you let Southern girls fool you.”
The Lieutenant sighed. “She is the most beautiful creature I ever saw,” he murmured. “Gods! I shall never forget how she looked when she sprang in between me and that Pennington when he had his revolver levelled at my head.”
“Forget her,” was the sage advice of the Sergeant; but the Lieutenant did not take it.