“I knew I’d find you awake,” whispered Jimmie, perching on the bed’s edge. “Oh, I’m so sorry, Dad. I wanted to tell you before. But mother kept me in the room all the time the folks were here. It’s awful hard lines.”
“It can’t be helped,” said Dad, with an effort at philosophy.
“I got a hint of how it was going to be,” said the boy. “I heard mother and father talking. But I didn’t have the sand to tell you when you were so tickled at being asked here. And, anyway, I didn’t know how bad it would turn out. Mother is--”
“Mother is mother, Jim. Let’s try to remember that. She’s a good woman. She means it all for the best.”
“You told me once that Uncle Zach Taylor said the hot place was paved with the failures of folks who ‘meant it all for the best,’ Dad.”
“He never meant people like your mother, son. She does what she thinks is right. Remember we’re soldiers, you and I. And when soldiers are expecting a square meal and the commissary train gets lost they don’t whine. They just buckle their belts tighter and keep on the best they can. That’s the way it’s got to be with me for a while. It can’t be helped, and--”
“It _can_ be helped, Dad. That’s why I sneaked in here to-night. We got to hold a council of war, you and I. And I guess I’m the one with the only idea.”
“Fire away, general, but make it brief. It’s time little boys--I mean little generals--were asleep.”
“No,” contradicted Jimmie. “It’s time they woke up, if they’re going to save Colonel Brinton. Listen, Dad: how far did you tell me you tramped in one day when you went on that hunting trip last April? Twenty-two miles, wasn’t it?”
“Not a bit. You see, I’m used to exercise. And the work I do in my garden keeps me in pretty good shape. But why--”
“She hasn’t said a thing. I guess there’s nothing left for her to say. She’s said about everything already. But you can’t. It will be like being in jail. You saw how it was to-day. Well, it’ll be like that to-morrow and the next day and the next day after that and all the days. And it’ll keep getting worse.”
The old man shuddered involuntarily at the prospect.
“There’s just one thing you got to do, colonel,” he declared, “you got to break prison.”
“Wait a second. I’m the general and this is a council of war. You got to run away. I’ve planned it all out. And I’ve planned where you’ve got to run away to.”