He was twiddling and twirling his umbrella, as though he had something on his mind.
"I want you to do me a favor," he said, after a moment. "I should really like a gun, if it is not too much trouble."
The idea of the Doctor, with his fifty-five years, his peaceful habits, and his spectacles, rushing to battle made Colburne smile. Another imaginary picture, the image of Lillie weeping over her father's body, restored his seriousness.
"What would Mrs. Carter say to it?" he asked.
"I should be obliged if you would not mention it to her," answered the Doctor. "I think the matter can be managed without her knowledge."
Accordingly Colburne fitted out this unexpected recruit with a rifle-musket, and showed him how to load it, and how to put on his accoutrements. This done, he reverted to the subject which most interested his mind just at present.
"Mrs. Carter must be better sheltered than she is," he said. "In case of an assault, she would be in the way where she is, and, moreover, she might get hit by a chance bullet. I will tell the Major that his Colonel's wife is here, and that he must turn out for her."
"Do you think it best?" questioned the Doctor. "Really, I hate to disturb the commandant of the fort."
But Colburne did think it best, and Gazaway was not hard to convince. He hated to lose his shelter, poor as it was, but he had a salutary dread of his absent Colonel, and remembering how dubious had been his own record in field service, he thought it wise to secure the favor of Mrs. Carter. Accordingly Lillie, accompanied by Black Julia, moved into the brick building, notwithstanding her late declarations that she liked nothing so well as sleeping in the open air.