"Not much as anybody knows of, I won't," replied Lambert in savage tones.
"Just five minutes," pleaded the citizen. "Perhaps we can take our wives and little ones into the cellar before you will find it necessary to open fire."
"Not one minute—not one second nor a half of one," snarled the lieutenant, once more raising his weapon to his shoulder. "I aint a-goin' to have you shakin' a handkercher at them boats to warn the Yanks that there's something wrong here behind the levee. You just squat down where you are till this thing is over, and then you can go any place you please."
"Watch out, Sile," said one of the Home Guards suddenly. "There comes that feller after his grub."
Lieutenant Lambert flopped over on his face as if he had been shot, and saw a small boat, with four men at the oars and two officers sitting in the stern-sheets, come into view from behind one of the war vessels and turn toward the landing.
The time for him to win a name for himself had arrived.