I bowed smiling.
"Sufficient for the purpose."
Bell, evidently short-sighted, was staring at me through glasses, and broke in,
"It's Galesworth, the Yankee lieutenant I told you about, Colonel. Say, I thought you left."
"Instead of leaving, Captain Bell, I have decided to stay."
"But, good Lord, you can't hold that house against us with only ten men!"
"You will discover we have considerable more than ten when you come to capture it."
They whispered together, evidently undecided how seriously to take me. I thought Bell was trying to impress the others with the idea that it was all a bluff, but my coolness made them suspicious. I leaned motionless against the post in apparent indifference. The gruff-voiced colonel broke the silence.
"Do you know we have a division of troops within bugle call?"
"Oh, yes, and they have got their work cut out for them. Your whole force is at it already, except the cavalry."