“Yes’m.... If I heard a cock-o’-the-pines squeal I was to squeal back, an’ then he was to holler—jest friendly—‘Hallo-oo! How’s fishin’?’ That’s all, ma’am——”
“And you were to cross?”
“Yes’m—jest friendly like. Him an’ me was fond o’ fishin’——”
“I see. Sit down and don’t move. Nobody is going to hurt you.”
She went to the door, leisurely uncocking her revolver and pushing it through her belt.
“Oh, Connor,” she called carelessly, “please mount my friend Mr. Snuyder on my horse, take him across the ford, and detain him as my guest at headquarters until I return. Wait a second; I’m going to keep my saddlebags with me.”
And a few minutes later, as the troopers rode away in the mist with their prisoner, her gentle voice followed them:
“Don’t be rough with him, Connor. Say to the colonel that there is no harm in him at all, but keep him in sight until I return; and don’t let him go fishing!”
She began housekeeping at sunrise by taking a daring bath in the stream, then, dressing, she made careful inventory of the contents of the house and a cautious survey of the immediate environment.