“No, sir,” said Clark, gravely; “I can not do it. My orders, if obeyed, will punish these fellows better than by following them. The settlers must take care of themselves.”
Captain Arbuckle drew himself up stiffly.
“Am I to understand that you refuse to help me save our imperiled fellow-citizens, colonel?”
“You are, sir,” said Clark, firmly. “If you want to follow a will-o’-the-wisp, you must do it alone. I must do my duty, which forbids me to stop a single hour on my way.”
Arbuckle looked perplexed and vexed.
“But where, then, are you going?”
“Where my orders take me, sir; and that is a secret.”
Arbuckle looked angry. He lifted his hat with very stiff courtesy, and said, as he turned away:
“Then I have the honor to bid you farewell, Colonel Clark, and to wish you better manners.”
“And I, sir,” said Clark, with equal bantering, “shall have the honor to demand an apology for those words, when I have done my duty.”