The captain cleared his throat. His look at the youth contained a quality of singular and terrible ferocity, but he said in his stolid tone, "I don"t suppose you mean what you say now."
Upon his arm he had felt the pressure of some unconscious little fingers. The girl was leaning against the wall as if she no longer knew how to keep her balance, but those fingers--he held his arm very still.
She murmured: "O Harry, don"t! He was good to me--indeed he was!"
The corporal had come forward until he in a measure confronted the youth in gray, for he saw those fingers upon the captain"s arm, and he knew that sometimes very strong men were not able to move hand nor foot under such conditions.
The youth had suddenly seemed to become weak. He breathed heavily and clung to the rail. He was glaring at the captain, and apparently summoning all his will power to combat his weakness. The corporal addressed him with profound straightforwardness, "Don"t you be a derned fool!" The youth turned toward him so fiercely that the corporal threw up a knee and an elbow like a boy who expects to be cuffed.
The girl pleaded with the captain. "You won"t hurt him, will you? He don"t know what he"s saying. He"s wounded, you know. Please don"t mind him!"
"I won"t touch him," said the captain, with rather extraordinary earnestness; "don"t you worry about him at all. I won"t touch him!"
Then he looked at her, and the girl suddenly withdrew her fingers from his arm.
The corporal contemplated the top of the stairs, and remarked without surprise, "There"s another of "em coming!"
An old man was clambering down the stairs with much speed. He waved a cane wildly. "Get out of my house, you thieves! Get out! I won"t have you cross my threshold! Get out!" He mumbled and wagged his head in an old man"s fury. It was plainly his intention to a.s.sault them.
And so it occurred that a young girl became engaged in protecting a stalwart captain, fully armed, and with eight grim troopers at his back, from the attack of an old man with a walking-stick!
A blush pa.s.sed over the temples and brow of the captain, and he looked particularly savage and weary. Despite the girl"s efforts, he suddenly faced the old man.
"Look here," he said distinctly, "we came in because we had been fighting in the woods yonder, and we concluded that some of the enemy were in this house, especially when we saw a gray sleeve at the window.
But this young man is wounded, and I have nothing to say to him. I will even take it for granted that there are no others like him upstairs. We will go away, leaving your d----d old house just as we found it! And we are no more thieves and rascals than you are!"
The old man simply roared: "I haven"t got a cow nor a pig nor a chicken on the place! Your soldiers have stolen everything they could carry away. They have torn down half my fences for firewood. This afternoon some of your accursed bullets even broke my window panes!"
The girl had been faltering: "Grandpa! O grandpa!"
The captain looked at the girl. She returned his glance from the shadow of the old man"s shoulder. After studying her face a moment, he said, "Well, we will go now." He strode toward the door and his men clanked docilely after him.
At this time there was the sound of harsh cries and rushing footsteps from without. The door flew open, and a whirlwind composed of blue-coated troopers came in with a swoop. It was headed by the lieutenant. "Oh, here you are!" he cried, catching his breath. "We thought----Oh, look at the girl!"
The captain said intensely, "Shut up, you fool!"
The men settled to a halt with a clash and a bang. There could be heard the dulled sound of many hoofs outside of the house.
"Did you order up the horses?" inquired the captain.
"Yes. We thought----"
"Well, then, let"s get out of here," interrupted the captain morosely.
The men began to filter out into the open air. The youth in gray had been hanging dismally to the railing of the stairway. He now was climbing slowly up to the second floor. The old man was addressing himself directly to the serene corporal.
"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!"
He told her, "I wouldn"t have hurt "em for anything!"
There was a little silence.
"Well, good-bye!" he said at last.
"Good-bye!"
He walked toward the door past the old man, who was scolding at the vanishing figure of the corporal. The captain looked back. She had remained there watching him.
At the bugle"s order, the troopers standing beside their horses swung briskly into the saddle. The lieutenant said to the first sergeant:
"Williams, did they ever meet before?"
"Hanged if I know!"
"Well, say----"
The captain saw a curtain move at one of the windows. He cantered from his position at the head of the column and steered his horse between two flower beds.
"Well, good-bye!"
The squadron trampled slowly past.
"Good-bye!"
They shook hands.
He evidently had something enormously important to say to her, but it seems that he could not manage it. He struggled heroically. The bay charger, with his great mystically solemn eyes, looked around the corner of his shoulder at the girl.
The captain studied a pine tree. The girl inspected the gra.s.s beneath the window. The captain said hoa.r.s.ely, "I don"t suppose--I don"t suppose--I"ll ever see you again!"
She looked at him affrightedly and shrank back from the window. He seemed to have woefully expected a reception of this kind for his question. He gave her instantly a glance of appeal.