"Think what you like, lad," Malcolm said, "so that you are cautious and guarded. I shall sleep with one eye open, I can tell you, till we are fairly beyond the frontier."
Two days later the regiment encamped outside the town of St. Quentin. They were usually quartered on the inhabitants; but the town was already filled with troops, and as the weather was fine Colonel Hume ordered his men to bivouac a short distance outside the walls. Ronald was seeing that his troop got their breakfast next morning, when a sergeant came up with two men with a horse.
"This is Monsieur Leslie," he said to them. "These men were asking for you, sir."
"What do you want with me?" Ronald said surprised.
"We heard, sir," one of the peasants said, "that you wanted to buy a horse. We have a fine animal here, and cheap."
"But I do not want to buy one," Ronald replied. "I am very well supplied with horses. What made you think I wanted one?"
"We asked one of the officers, sir, if anyone in the regiment would be likely to buy, and he said that Monsieur Leslie wanted one, he believed."
"No," Ronald said decidedly. "Whoever told you was mistaken. I have my full complement, and though your horse looks a nice animal I could not take him if you offered him to me for nothing. I don't think you will get anyone to buy him in the regiment. I believe that every officer has his full complement of chargers."
In the evening Ronald happened to mention to Malcolm the offer he had had in the morning.
"It was a nice looking beast," he said, "and I had half a mind to ask them what they would take to exchange him with my roan, but I did not want to dip further into my purse."