Page:Milady at Arms (1937).pdf/244

 Zenas, she, herself—the Todds' bond maid, here under strange circumstances—all seemed fragments of an overwrought imagination! Surely, she told herself, as she had told herself on that long-ago morning, she must waken soon!

Zenas's voice brought her back to the exigencies of the moment. "Captain Camp hath ordered our retreat, Sally," he said hurriedly. "He says we must return to the Mountain at once!"

"Oh," said Sally. She looked at him disappointedly. "Of course, I want to be safe, Zenas," she went on naïvely, "but I did indeed want to see some o' the fighting, an fighting there is going to be! Must we go at once?"

Zenas nodded. "At once!" he repeated.

"Well," Sally sighed, "well, where be the horses, then, Zenas?"

"Horses?" Zenas opened his eyes. "Why, I ne'er thought o' horses, Sally." He admitted it ruefully. "Nay, I have not seen any this morn! We shall e'en have to walk, I fear!"

A voice spoke from the doorway in displeased surprise. "What, still lingering i' this dangerous vicinity?" asked Captain Camp. "Haste ye, young folk; this be too near the river to tarry o'erlong!"

Sally approached him with a curtsey. "We have no horses. Captain Camp," she told him in a respectful little voice. "And—and—'tis a long walk back to the Mountain!"