"I hear they are not much better yet, and it seems to me that it is not too late to slip our men across and clean 'em out."
But Colonel Butler was too wily to consent to any such project, although there was reason to believe that it might have succeeded, even though deferred till that rather late hour.
"It isn't worth our while. There's only one more of the rebels that I want to lay hands on. Let me get that one and the rest may go."
"I think I know who it is, colonel."
"No doubt you do," was the prompt reply. "Any one who has heard me speak within the last twenty-four hours has found it out. I tell you, captain, that you don't often see as pretty a rebel as that young Minturn. She slipped off last night because she found I admired her so much that I couldn't keep my eyes from her."
"You're right there, colonel, when you speak of her beauty, for I have never seen one that could surpass her; I wonder that she don't turn the heads of all she meets. Perhaps she does, though, and, if you hadn't foreclosed there, I would be tempted to make a claim myself."
"It will be dangerous for any man to interfere with me."
The individual whom he addressed as a captain was heard to laugh at the words of his superior officer, and he replied:
"I am sure there is no fear of my trying to intrude myself in that direction, for I am opposed to the thing on principle."
"I am aware of that," replied the colonel, the party having halted on the edge of the river, as if awaiting the coming of some one. "Of course I had no reference to you when I spoke, but I feel especially angry toward Red Jack, or Lena-Wingo, and I will give a good deal for his scalp. He has played the mischief with our plans more than once, and now, when everything is going along just as I want it to, he comes in and walks off with the prize."