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Rh "Yes, madam, you are safe," he answered. "Did those two men throw you into the stream?"

"Yes, yes! Oh, they are villains, señor—great villains."

"I must say they look it, even if they are of our troops," replied the young captain. "Come, do you think you can walk back to the mill with me?"

The woman said she would try, and he assisted her to her feet. She was still very weak, and readily consented to lean on his arm; and thus they moved slowly back the way the captain of Company D had come.

During all this time Ben had not heard a sound from the house, and he was anxious to know how Major Morris was faring, although feeling positive that the major was fully capable of taking care of himself. Now, as they came closer, he heard loud talking.

"We ain't goin' to stay, major,—an' it ain't right fer you to ask us to," the older of the regulars was saying.

"You will stay, and that's the end of it," came in the major's clean-cut tones. "If you attempt to pass through that doorway, I'll put a bullet through you."