Peace Manoeuvres | Page 6

steadily.
"Do you intend to drive me away from my own door, or will you go?"
Lathrop picked his wheel out of the dust.
"Good-by," he said. "I'll come back when you have made up your mind."
In vexation Miss Farrar stamped her foot upon the path.
"I HAVE made up my mind!" she protested.
"Then," returned Lathrop, "I'll come back when you have changed it."
He made a movement as though to ride away, but much to Miss Farrar's dismay, hastily dismounted. "On second thoughts," he said, "it isn't right for me to leave you. The woods are full of tramps and hangers-on of the army. You're not safe. I can watch this road from here as well as from anywhere else, and at the same time I can guard you."
To the consternation of Miss Farrar he placed his bicycle against the fence, and, as though preparing for a visit, leaned his elbows upon it.
"I do not wish to be rude," said Miss Farrar, "but you are annoying me. I have spent fifteen summers in Massachusetts, and I have never seen a tramp. I need no one to guard me."
"If not you," said Lathrop easily, "then the family silver. And think of your jewels, and your mother's jewels. Think of yourself in a house filled with jewels, and entirely surrounded by hostile armies! My duty is to remain with you."
Miss Farrar was so long in answering, that Lathrop lifted his head and turned to look. He found her frowning and gazing intently into the shadow of the woods, across the road. When she felt his eyes upon her she turned her own guiltily upon him. Her cheeks were flushed and her face glowed with some unusual excitement.
"I wish," she exclaimed breathlessly--"I wish," she repeated, "the Reds would take you prisoner!"
"Take me where?" asked Lathrop.
"Take you anywhere!" cried Miss Farrar. "You should be ashamed to talk to me when you should be looking for the enemy!"
"I am WAITING for the enemy," explained Lathrop. "It's the same thing."
Miss Farrar smiled vindictively. Her eyes shone. "You need not wait long," she said. There was a crash of a falling stone wall, and of parting bushes, but not in time to give Lathrop warning. As though from the branches of the trees opposite two soldiers fell into the road; around his hat each wore the red band of the invader; each pointed his rifle at Lathrop.
"Hands up!" shouted one. "You're my prisoner!" cried the other.
Mechanically Lathrop raised his hands, but his eyes turned to Miss Farrar.
"Did you know?" he asked.
"I have been watching them," she said, "creeping up on you for the last ten minutes."
Lathrop turned to the two soldiers, and made an effort to smile.
"That was very clever," he said, "but I have twenty men up the road, and behind them a regiment. You had better get away while you can."
The two Reds laughed derisively. One, who wore the stripes of a sergeant, answered: "That won't do! We been a mile up the road, and you and us are the only soldiers on it. Gimme the gun!"
Lathrop knew he had no right to refuse. He had been fairly surprised, but he hesitated. When Miss Farrar was not in his mind his amateur soldiering was to him a most serious proposition. The war game was a serious proposition, and that, through his failure for ten minutes to regard it seriously, he had been made a prisoner, mortified him keenly. That his humiliation had taken place in the presence of Beatrice Farrar did not lessen his discomfort, nor did the explanation he must later make to his captain afford him any satisfaction. Already he saw himself playing the star part in a court-martial. He shrugged his shoulders and surrendered his gun.
As he did so he gloomily scrutinized the insignia of his captors.
"Who took me?" he asked.
"WE took you," exclaimed the sergeant.
"What regiment?" demanded Lathrop, sharply. "I have to report who took me; and you probably don't know it, but your collar ornaments are upside down." With genuine exasperation he turned to Miss Farrar.
"Lord!" he exclaimed, "isn't it bad enough to be taken prisoner, without being taken by raw recruits that can't put on their uniforms?"
The Reds flushed, and the younger, a sandy-haired, rat-faced youth, retorted angrily: "Mebbe we ain't strong on uniforms, beau," he snarled, "but you've got nothing on us yet, that I can see. You look pretty with your hands in the air, don't you?"
"Shut up," commanded the other Red. He was the older man, heavily built, with a strong, hard mouth and chin, on which latter sprouted a three days' iron-gray beard. "Don't you see he's an officer? Officers don't like being took by two-spot privates."
Lathrop gave a sudden start. "Why," he laughed, incredulously, "don't you know--" He stopped, and his eyes glanced quickly up and down the