"Being unarmed, how can we help ourselves?"
"I see you have a large stock of common sense, even if you were captured," said Deck, with a laugh. "All right, you shall ride, but your animals must be chained to our own, or they might run away with you in the darkness."
"Which means that we might try to run away on them."
"I didn't put it quite so pointedly, Captain."
"But you meant it, nevertheless. Well, it's all right,—'fortune of war,' so to speak, and I shan't complain. Who are you?"
"Major Deck Lyon, of the Riverlawn Cavalry of Kentucky."
"And I am Captain Vallingham, of the South Carolina volunteers,—now on detached duty."
"You seem to have been running a sort of a signal station up there, Captain Vallingham."
"Oh, we have been amusing ourselves."
"Do you think the persons who were signalled to were likewise amused?"