“After all, Colonel Dale is right.”
“Yes,” assented Erskine helplessly, and then—“it is possible that we shall not always be on the same side.”
“So I thought,” returned Grey with lifted eyebrows, “when I heard what I did about you!” Both Harry and Hugh had to catch Erskine by an arm then, and they led him struggling away. Grey mounted his horse, lifted his hat, and was gone. Colonel Dale picked up the swords.
“Now,” he said, “enough, of all this—let it be forgotten.”
And he laughed.
“You’ll have to confess, Erskine—he has a quick tongue and you must think only of his temptation to use it.”
Erskine did not answer.
As they rode back Colonel Dale spoke of the war. It was about to move into Virginia, he said, and when it did—— Both Harry and Hugh interrupted him with a glad shout:
“We can go!” Colonel Dale nodded sadly.
Suddenly all pulled their horses in simultaneously and raised their eyes, for all heard the coming of a horse in a dead run. Around a thicketed curve of the road came Barbara, with her face white and her hair streaming behind her. She pulled her pony in but a few feet in front of them, with her burning eyes on Erskine alone.