Orderly-sergeant Cox, who, now that his terror and confusion had been sent to the right-about by the hilarity of the officers, would have given a good deal to be able to express his own feelings in the same way, saluted silently, swung on his heel, and made for the door.
‘Stop!’ ordered the general, and Cox swung round again, managing by a violent effort to dismiss the grin which he had allowed to overspread his features the moment he had turned his back.
‘Any news of Colonel Spriggs?’ asked General Shields.
‘Very good. My compliments to him, when he returns, if he returns, and I wish to see him at once.’
‘Anywhere. Wherever I happen to be. I can be found, I suppose.’
‘Very well, sir,’ and with another salute Orderly-sergeant Cox withdrew.
‘I believe that beggar knows more of this than he cares to say,’ observed General Shields, mournfully regarding the remains of the ham.
‘Oh, not he,’ laughed the fat brigadier; ‘I never saw a fellow look so utterly flabbergasted. No, no, general, your thieves have come and gone through this window. See, here are some of the spoils dropped both inside and out.’
Ephraim nudged Lucius gently, as much as to say: ‘Now you see my object in scattering the crackers there. It was to distract attention from our hiding-place.’ And Lucius answered by a responsive nudge, which signified comprehension.
‘There are the thieves, or I am much mistaken,’ continued the brigadier, as his eye fell on the soldiers who were resting on their arms at the edge of the wood. ‘But I imagine it would be hopeless to try and get an admission out of them.’
‘Better make the best of what is left,’ said General Shields. ‘Fall to, gentlemen. It is half-past six now, and news from the bridge should soon reach us.’
Only half-past six! The boys heard this announcement with surprise. True, they had dropped from the clouds very shortly after daybreak; but the long light of the summer morning, and the crowding of so many events into a short space, had confused their sense of time, and they had imagined it to be much later.
The day had begun early for more than Lucius and Ephraim. Movements were afoot which were destined to bring about very important results, and the news from the bridge, which the Federal general so calmly anticipated, was likely, when it arrived, to disturb his equilibrium a good deal more than the loss of his breakfast.