"Oh, no! not this time. I have seen prisoners taken before," remarked the lady with a little smile.
"Then you'll not flinch to see them taken again," said Harry very boldly. "But I shall regret to put you to any inconvenience."
I think the confident air of Harry saved us considerable trouble at the moment; but while he was putting on a bold front and trembling in his shoes—as he told me afterward—I had my eyes on the lady. She looked at me once, and turned her face away; twice, and frowned; thrice, and blushed. "I was afraid at first that you were a prisoner," I remarked in a tone that was intended to be apologetic, but the lady calmly turned her head away and ignored me.
"To what command are you attached?" inquired the Federal officer, very brusquely.
"We are serving under General Forrest," replied Harry.
"Why are you so far away from your command?" the officer inquired with real curiosity. His tone was so puzzling that Harry hesitated an instant—but in that instant a detachment of Forrest's troopers came around the bend in the road.
"Are we indeed so very far from our command?" I inquired.
The troopers came rattling up, and the officer turned to the lady, somewhat ungraciously, I thought, with the remark that they had been led into an ambuscade.
This was so ridiculous that I laughed aloud, though I felt little like laughing. "What amuses you?" the lady asked in some surprise. "I am sure I can see nothing humorous in our situation."
"Perhaps you have heard ladies placed under such accusations before?" I suggested.