“I do not ask you to say anything.”
“What, then?”
“To act.”
“What can I do?”
“Much.”
“I can do nothing for you, nothing whatever.”
“Let me tell you that, unaided, from this place I could not escape. I am sorry, very sorry, not to make a widow of you in a few weeks, so that you could wed the colonel, but I cannot die just to oblige you, and so I call upon you to save me. A moment’s thought will prove to you that you are to-day in command of about half the officers in the fort, married and single, while Miss Clarice Carr divides the honors with you, and I will admit, for candor urges me to do so, that she holds perhaps a trifle more power.”
“Then get her to aid you.”
“I would gladly do so were it possible, which it is not, as I am not bound to her as I am to you, so cannot force obedience from her.”
“You were a fool to come here as you did, and kidnap her.”