"However," he added, "don't you get nervous. If we chase them out it will only be a little rifle practice, and I doubt if they even have any ammunition."
As I turned to go into the house, he called after me,—
"See here, I notice that you've got doors on all sides of your house. Better lock all those but this front one."
As all the windows were barred and so could be left open, I didn't mind; so I went in and locked up. The thing was getting to be funny to me,—always doing something, and nothing happening. I suppose courage is a cumulative thing, if only one has time to accumulate, and these boys in khaki treated even the cannonading as if it were all "in the day's work."
It was just dusk when the bicycle corps returned up the hill. They had to dismount and wheel their machines under the barricade, and they did it so prettily, dismounting and remounting with a precision that was neat.
"Nothing," reported the captain. "We could not go in far,—road too rough and too dangerous. It is a cavalry job."
All the same, I am sure the Uhlans are there.