pay for your
blundering. You failed to carry out your orders, and you had a dozen
against three, and one of the three a negro."

The man started away, but his lagging footsteps showed that he had
something on his mind, and in a few moments I heard him coming back.
"'Tain't no use to hunt for the man in the dark, and by sun-up his
friends'll be buzzin' around here worse'n a nest of hornets. We are
going back--going back," he repeated, "and you may report what you
please."

Then the man went away, mumbling and mouthing to himself. As for me, I
should have preferred to go with him. Pretty much everything is fair in
war, and Jane Ryder was on the Union side. She knew of the ambuscade
and had not told me; it was her duty not to tell. She would have made
no sign if we had been going to our deaths. I have never felt more
depressed in my life than I did at that moment. Something had slipped
from under me, and I had nothing to stand on. I came out of the closet
both angry and sorry. "I shall be obliged to you if you will find my
hat," I said.

I tried hard to hide my real feelings, and with anyone else the effort
would have been successful; but she knew. She came and stood by me and
caught me by the arm. "Where would you go?" There was a baffled look in
her eyes, and her voice was uneasy.

"Call your man," I said; "I will go with him; it is not his fault that
he cannot find me; it is not his fault that I am hiding here in a
woman's closet. Nor shall he be punished for it."

"Your hat is not here," she declared. "It must be where you fell. Do
you know," she cried, "that you have killed a man? Do you know that?"
Her tone was almost triumphant.

"Well, what of that?" I asked. "You set them on us, and the poor fellow
took his chance with the rest. Gladly would I take his place." My head
was hurting and I was horribly depressed.

She had turned away from me, but now she flashed around with surprising
quickness. "You are the cause of it all--yes, you! And, oh, if I could
tell you how I hate you! If I could only show you what a contempt I
have for you!" She was almost beside herself with anger, passion--I
know not what. She shrank back from me, drew in a long breath, and fell
upon the floor as if a gust of wind had blown her over; and then I
began to have a dim conception of the power that moved and breathed in
the personality of this woman. She fell, gave a long, shivering sigh,
and, to all appearance, lay before me dead.