"Not a chicken on the place!" he cried.
"Well, I didn't take your chickens, did I?"
"No, maybe you didn't, but——"
The captain crossed the hall and stood before the girl in rather a culprit's fashion. "You are not angry at me, are you?" he asked timidly.
"No," she said. She hesitated a moment, and then suddenly held out her hand. "You were good to me—and I'm—much obliged."
The captain took her hand, and then he blushed, for he found himself unable to formulate a sentence that applied in any way to the situation.
She did not seem to heed that hand for a time.
He loosened his grasp presently, for he was ashamed to hold it so long without saying anything clever. At last, with an air of charging an intrenched brigade, he contrived to say: "I would rather do anything than frighten or trouble you."
His brow was warmly perspiring. He had a sense of being hideous in his dusty uniform and with his grimy face.
She said, "Oh, I'm so glad it was you instead of somebody who might have—might have hurt brother Harry and grandpa!"