“Friends, of course; who would you expect to meet on this road?”
Fortune seemed with me in the chance answer, for he who had hailed exclaimed:
“Oh! is that you, Brennan?”
There was no time now for hesitancy; here was my cue, and I must plunge ahead, accepting the chances. I ventured it.
“No; Brennan couldn't come. I am here in his place.”
“Indeed! Who are you?”
“Major Wilkie.”
There was a moment's painful pause, in which I could hear my heart throb.
“Wilkie,” repeated the voice, doubtfully. “There is no officer of that name in the Forty-third.”
“Well, there chances to be such an officer on the staff,” I retorted, permitting a trace of anger to appear in my tone, “and I am the man.”