"Little these outlaws care for that."
"At least they appear to, as we remain unmolested. There has not been a raiding party halted here since the war began."
"Well, if you hadn't been at home, there would have been one along now," burst forth Grant rather roughly. "Those fellows out there are desperate enough to sack the house if that was their only method of getting food. And I promised they should have the chance."
"Oh, you did, indeed! That would have proven a friendly act."
"Necessity does not take much account of friendship. I was responsible for a hundred starving men. Under such conditions force would be justified. I doubt if I could control the fellows now if provisions should be refused."
"There is no necessity for indulging in threats, Captain Grant," said the boy's voice coldly. "Elmhurst has never yet turned a soldier away in hunger. Peter will instruct what few servants remain to attend to the immediate needs of your men. May I ask how long you expect to remain?"
I thought Grant was walking nervously back and forth across the room.
"How long? Until night, probably. Then with a bite in our haversacks we'll take the road again. That is, providing you condescend to act as our host for so long a time. Odds life! but this reception is not over warm to my thinking."
"Elmhurst is not a tavern, sir."
"No; but the home of a loyalist—the commander of half those men out yonder. However I am not pleading for them, but myself personally. What welcome have I had? By all the gods, I was almost compelled to fight that bald-headed old fool to even gain admittance to the hall. Were those your orders?"