“They seem to be peckin' away pretty lively out in front,” said the corporal, interrupting my reverie.
“Yes,” I admitted. “In my judgment that will prove the main point of attack. How many men did the Major have there before we came?”
“Same as here, sir.”
“And four of mine; that makes seven altogether, counting himself, and two of these ought to be posted in the upper story. He's bound to need more; that firing is very steady.”
“He's got the women loadin' for him, and that helps some.”
“The women?” I asked, staring at him in amazement, “Do you mean to say Mrs. Brennan and Celia Minor are there in that front room?”
“Don't know who they are, sir—two mighty fine lookin' young ladies, an old lady with white hair, an' a big, rough-lookin' female, sir. The last one wus handlin' a gun to beat the band just afore you came.”
“And he keeps them there, exposed to all this heavy fire? What can the man mean? Why, Corporal, that constant shooting must have completely shattered the windows. There could be no safety for any one except lying flat upon the floor.”
“Well, 't aint quite so bad as that, sir,” he protested, seemingly anxious to shield his officer from adverse criticism. “You see it's a double parlor, with a wall an' foldin' doors atween, an' the women are all in the rear room. Of course, it's almighty dark back there, an' they has to lie pretty close, but blamed if I know of any better place for them. This house hain't got no cellar.”
It certainly was not my place to interfere. Her husband was the one who should be most solicitous as to her safety, yet it worried me greatly to think of Edith Brennan lying helpless in the dark, exposed to constant danger, with the deadly rifles crackling all about her. Surely somewhere in this great house there would be an interior apartment where greater protection could be assured. Doubtless Brennan was unwilling to have them away from him; possibly he even continued to hold them where they were to prevent all possibility of their meeting with me. It was this last thought, improbable as it surely was, which put me on my mettle. If that was has little scheme, and to my suspicion it looked like it, I was not unwilling to play a hand in the game. I might not hold trumps, yet I could bluff as well as any one.