“That part of it was all right. The time hadn’t come for him to carry out his plans, and he explained it. Couldn’t you hear him?”
“I heard what he said; but that didn’t deceive me.”
Then Isaac explained with many a detail why the old man was the ablest soldier in the encampment, and while he was trying to convince the skeptical Nathan, Corporal ’Lige returned, looking very important and mysterious.
“You’re to come with me,” he said tapping Nathan on the shoulder.
“Where?” the boy asked sharply.
“I said you were to come with me.”
“Well, you may say it again before I go. I want to know what you’re thinkin’ of doin’. I ain’t one of these make-believe soldiers that can be ordered ’round by such as you.”
During an instant the corporal glowered at the boy as if of a mind to chastise him for his too familiar words, and then Isaac interposed to save his new-found friend from what he feared would be most severe punishment.
“He’ll go with you, Corporal ’Lige; don’t be angry with him. You see he’s a stranger here, an’ doesn’t understand what——”
“I understand enough not to go till I know what he’s about,” Nathan cried angrily, wrenching himself free from Isaac’s detaining grasp and leaping back a few paces.