‘Bravo!’ exclaimed the brigadier. ‘I am glad of it. Were they followed?’
‘They war,’ replied Ephraim; ‘but I guess the men didn’t want tew ketch them, for they got clean off.’
‘That is a very different story,’ commented General Shields, when Ephraim had brought his narrative to a close. ‘Still, there are some things to be explained. The presence of the balloon is itself suspicious, and it is incredible that they should have made it themselves.’
‘That’s what they said, anyhow,’ remarked Ephraim.
‘Quite so; I understand that,’ said the general. ‘I suppose,’ he added after a pause, ‘you would have no objection to repeat your story if brought face to face with Colonel Spriggs?’
‘Nary a objection,’ replied Ephraim with alacrity; ‘if ye fetch him back, I’ll say it all over agen.’ For, seeing the general’s mood, and having heard his avowed detestation of Spriggs, he began to wish that he had thrown himself upon the former’s generosity to start with. However, he thought within himself that there would be no difficulty about that when the time came.
General Shields scribbled a few lines in his pocket-book and tore out the leaf: ‘Colonel Spriggs, if you come up with the two men who escaped from the balloon this morning,’ he read out to his officers, ‘you will detain them as prisoners and bring them before me, without taking further action.’
‘I’ll send that on to him in the first instance,’ he said, signing the paper.—‘Orderly!’ But there was no answer. Cox had, for the time being, disappeared.
‘Confound the fellow!’ said the general. ‘What does he mean by going out of call?—No matter,’ he continued to Ephraim, ‘you can take the note yourself. Your regiment—what is left of it—is a couple of miles in rear of Lewiston. It will not be in action to-day.—Well, why don’t you go?’ as Ephraim took the note, but made no effort to depart.
‘Ef ye please, ginrul,’ replied the Grizzly with his most sheepish air, ‘I’d be obleeged tew ye, if ye’d let me take the ham. I guess you won’t want it now, and I left it up thar.’ He pointed to the roof.