“Not positively; but there will be time to think of that. Did you hear where we were to be attacked?”
“At a point about five miles from here,” said Herbert.
This he had gathered from the conversation he had overheard.
When the two friends reached the hotel, they found Col. Warner already downstairs.
“Good-morning, gentlemen!” he said. “So you have taken a walk? I never walk before breakfast, for my part.”
“Nor do I often,” said Melville. “In this case I was persuaded by my young friend. I am repaid by a good appetite.”
“Can't I persuade you to try a glass of bitters, Mr. Melville?” asked the colonel.
“Thank you, colonel. You will have to excuse me.”
“Breakfast's ready!” announced the landlady, and the stage passengers sat down at a long, unpainted, wooden table, where the food was of the plainest. In spite of the impending peril of which they, only, had knowledge, Herbert ate heartily, but Melville seemed preoccupied.