“Yes, in the pursuit Alick was splendid,” continued Riggleston, taking the words out of Somers’s mouth.
“You forget, major; you conducted the pursuit alone,” mildly added the staff officer.
“O, yes! so I did. I am mixing up this matter with another affair, in which my boy Mingo chased the Yankees—”
“Chased the what?” interposed Somers, confounded by this singular and inappropriate remark.
“The guerillas, I said,” laughed the major. “What did you think I said?”
“I understood you to say the Yankees.”
“O, no! Yankees? No; I am one myself. I said guerillas.”
“If you did, I misunderstood you.”
“Of course I didn’t say Yankees. That is quite impossible.”
Somers was disposed to be polite, even at the sacrifice of the point of veracity; therefore he did not contradict his companion, though he felt entirely certain in regard to the language used.