“The bonnet!� he begged. “If I have the bonnet I can hold their notice.�
“You mean you’ll help me off?� Sandy’s voice broke huskily. “Little Neil—I’ll remember this, I’ll——� But there was no time for words. He pulled the bonnet from his tunic, turned and walked coolly into the woods, just as the soldiers caught sight of Neil’s higher figure on the horse.
Neil rode to meet the regiment, holding his bonnet in his hands. He forgot his disguise and saluted like a soldier.
“Colonel Campbell, I’m not a girl. I’m Neil Davidson, and I’ve brought you a message from General Greene,� he said. “It’s sewed inside the bonnet.�
But the colonel had caught a motion between the trees. “Who’s that moving off there?� he asked sharply.
“A man I was talking to,� Neil said. “I was riding fast and my bonnet flew off. A stranger stepped out of the woods and picked it up for me. He thought I was a girl, of course, and teased me at first. He wanted me to kiss him before he’d give it back. I was nearly wild on account of the message. Then we heard you coming. He stopped teasing and waited with me until I told him you were my friends.�
“Humph! It’s pretty evident we weren’t his friends; but I reckon he’s not worth following!� the colonel commented. He tore open the bonnet, found the message in it, and troubled himself no more about the man in the woods.
“Ah, Neil, you brought them in!� the general said, when Neil reported to him. As it chanced, the regiment would have arrived just as safely without the message, yet he let his grave, tired eyes rest approvingly on the boy.
Neil had on his own tattered clothes again. His head was as shaggy and bare as usual, and his brown legs nearly as bare, but there was something unfamiliar in his face. “Yes, sir,� he answered impetuously. “I brought them in, but I let the worst Tory in the country go free.�
Greene smiled half-incredulously. “Why was that?� he asked.