Tom was about to answer her, when a ball went whizzing past him, while the loud shouts of the men, whose heads were visible beneath the distant trees, told that he had been discovered.
To return to the cave and take Maude with him, was the work of a moment, and amid yells of fury the drunken mob came on to where Maude, forgetting everything now except Tom Carleton, stood waiting for them. They would not harm her, she knew, and like a lioness guarding its young, she stood within the cave, but so near the entrance that her face was visible to the men, who at sight of her stopped suddenly, and asked what she was doing there, and who she had with her.
“My brother Charlie and Captain Carleton, the man whom you sought at Uncle Paul’s,” she answered, fearlessly, as she held with a firm grasp the dangerous-looking weapon, which she knew how to use.
“And pray, what may you be doing with the Yankee? asked one of the coarser of the men; and Maude replied
“I am standing between him and just such creatures as you are.”
While Tom, grasping her shoulder, said:
“Step aside, Maude; I cannot endure this. You, a girl, defending me! I must go out. Let me pass.”
“To certain death? Never!” Maude replied, thrusting him back with a strength born of desperation.
Charlie, who had roused from his sleep, and fully comprehended what was going on, caught Tom around the neck, and nearly strangled him, as he said:
“Let Maude alone, Captain Carleton. They’ll not harm her. They would only shoot you down for nothing.”