"That's much better," said Lanark. "Sergeant Jager, it strikes me that we'd better get our pickets out to guard this position."
Mandifer cleared his throat with actual diffidence. "Lieutenant Lanark—that is your name, I gather," he said in the soft voice which he had employed when he had first appeared. "Permit me, sir, to say but two words." He peered as though to be sure of consent. "I have it in my mind that it is too late, useless, to place any kind of guard against surprise."
"What do you mean?" asked Lanark.
"It is all of a piece with your offending of him who owns this house and the land which encompasses it," continued Mandifer. "I believe that a body of your enemies, mounted men of the Southern forces, are upon you. That man who died upon the brow of Fearful Rock might have seen them coming, but he was brought down sightless and voiceless, and nobody was assigned in his place."
He spoke truth. Gray, in his agitation, had not posted a fresh sentry. Lanark drew his lips tight beneath his mustache.
"Once more you feel that it is a time to joke with us, Mr. Mandifer," he growled. "I have already suggested gagging you and staking you out."
"But listen," Mandifer urged him.
Suddenly hoofs thundered, men yelled a double-noted defiance, high and savage—"Yee-hee!"
It was the rebel yell.
Quantrill's guerrillas rode out of the dark and upon them.