“May I speak with you, Major?” he said, casting a frosty look at Bill Brown.
“I’m busy right now with these gentlemen, Captain, but if you—”
“I must inform you, Major,” replied the stoutish, plump-jowled officer, with another toplofty glance at the tall scout, “that Brown has been here before, just yesterday to be precise.”
“So he tells me. Says he has important news, bearing on an Indian plot.”
“I went over all that with him yesterday, Major.”
“You’re skeptical?”
“Pshaw! just a parcel of idle rumors.”
“You think so, eh?”
“Rubbish it is, just rubbish! You’ll waste your time giving ear to such moonshine.”
“How ’bout lettin’ the Major hisself decide as to that?” broke in Bill Brown, stifling his mounting anger. “He knows me from way back. Knows that I ain’t the man to peddle a bundle o’ gossip.”