“You see,” he explained, “him and me are scouts.  We’re not supposed to waste time taking prisoners.  So, we’ll set you free.”  He waved his hand invitingly toward the bicycle.  “You can go!” he said.

To Miss Farrar’s indignation Lathrop, instead of accepting his freedom, remained motionless.

“I can’t!” he said.  “I’m on post.  My captain ordered me to stay in front of this house until I was relieved.”

Miss Farrar, amazed at such duplicity, exclaimed aloud: 

“He is not on post!” she protested.  “He’s a scout!  He wants to stop here, because—­because—­he’s hungry.  I wouldn’t have let you take him prisoner, if I had not thought you would take him away with you.”  She appealed to the sergeant.  “Please take him away,” she begged.

The sergeant turned sharply upon his prisoner.

“Why don’t you do what the lady wants?” he demanded.

“Because I’ve got to do what my captain wants,” returned Lathrop, “and he put me on sentry-go, in front of this house.”

With the back of his hand, the sergeant fretfully scraped the three days’ growth on his chin.  “There’s nothing to it,” he exclaimed, “but for to take him with us.  When we meet some more Reds we’ll turn him over.  Fall in!” he commanded.

“No!” protested Lathrop.  “I don’t want to be turned over.  I’ve got a much better plan.  You don’t want to be bothered with a prisoner.  I don’t want to be a prisoner.  As you say, I am better dead.  You can’t shoot a prisoner, but if he tries to escape you can.  I’ll try to escape.  You shoot me.  Then I return to my own army, and report myself dead.  That ends your difficulty and saves me from a court-martial.  They can’t court-martial a corpse.”

The face of the sergeant flashed with relief and satisfaction.  In his anxiety to rid himself of his prisoner, he lifted the bicycle into the road and held it in readiness.

“You’re all right!” he said, heartily.  “You can make your getaway as quick as you like.”

But to the conspiracy Miss Farrar refused to lend herself.

“How do you know,” she demanded, “that he will keep his promise?  He may not go back to his own army.  He can be just as dead on my lawn as anywhere else!”

Lathrop shook his head at her sadly.

“How you wrong me!” he protested.  “How dare you doubt the promise of a dying man?  These are really my last words, and I wish I could think of something to say suited to the occasion, but the presence of strangers prevents.”

He mounted his bicycle. “‘If I had a thousand lives to give,’” he quoted with fervor, “‘I’d give them all to—­’” he hesitated, and smiled mournfully on Miss Farrar.  Seeing her flushed and indignant countenance, he added, with haste, “to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts!”

As he started on his wheel slowly down the path, he turned to the sergeant.

“I’m escaping,” he explained.  The Reds, with an enthusiasm undoubtedly genuine, raised their rifles, and the calm of the Indian summer was shattered by two sharp reports.  Lathrop, looking back over his shoulder, waved one hand reassuringly.