"But I have so much to tell, and so short a time to tell it in," remonstrated the lieutenant. "I must be off again in an hour."
"Never mind; I won't listen to such a woe-begone individual. Besides, Ralph will want to hear your news as well."
With this, Anstice disappeared in the house, and Douglass sank wearily into a great easy-chair.
Directly afterward Ralph Boyd appeared with a hearty greeting, and a demand to hear all the news at once. Before his desire could be gratified, his sister returned with a basket of oranges, and followed by a maid bearing a tray of decanters, glasses, and a jug of cool spring water.
"These will save you from immediate collapse," said the fair hostess, "and something more substantial will follow very shortly. Now, sir, unfold your budget of news, for I am dying to hear it."
"Well," began Douglass, "there has been the biggest fight of the war, away down south on the shore of Lake Okeechobee, and I was in it."
"Oh!" exclaimed Anstice.
"That, of course, is nothing wonderful," continued the young soldier, "but it is surprising that I came out of it without a scratch, for there were plenty who did not. On our side we left twenty-six dead on the field, and brought away one hundred and twenty severely wounded, besides a few score more suffering from minor injuries."
"Whew!" ejaculated Ralph Boyd. "Who was in command?"
"General Taylor, on our side. And now for my most surprising bit of news." Here the speaker hesitated and looked carefully about him. "I want to be cautious this time," he said. "But it was confidently asserted by scouts and prisoners that the Indian commander was no other than our late lamented friend, the Wildcat."