"My ride was nothing more than every American woman owes to her country," replied Miss Desmond.
"True," replied Wildfoot, "though few would have had the courage to pay the debt. But I have come back mainly to say that some of my scouts have brought in Lieutenant Belfort, sorely bruised, but not grievously hurt, and that he will have no opportunity to tell the English of your ride to-night, Miss Desmond, at least not until he is exchanged."
I had forgotten all about Belfort, and his capture was a lucky chance for both of us. As for the other Englishmen who had pursued us, I had no fear that they would recognize me, even if they saw me in the daylight, and they had seen me but dimly in a hot and flurried pursuit.
Captain Wildfoot raised his hat to us with all the courtesy of a European nobleman and rode away with his men, while we turned our horses towards Philadelphia, and were soon far from the hill on which we had stood and witnessed the battle's flare. Miss Desmond knew the way much better than I did, and I followed her guidance, though we rode side by side.
"You do not ask me to keep this matter a secret," I said, at length, when we had ridden a mile or more in silence.
"Is not your own safety as much concerned as mine?" she asked, looking with much meaning at my gay British uniform.
"Is that the only reason you do not ask me to speak of it?" I said, still bent upon going deeper into the matter.
"Will you speak of it when I ask you not to do so?" she said.
I did not expect such a question, but I replied in the negative with much haste. But presently I said, thinking to compliment her, that, however my own sympathies might be placed, I must admit that she had done a very brave deed, and that I could not withhold my admiration. But she replied with some curtness that Captain Wildfoot had said that first,--which was true enough, though I had thought it as early as he. Had it been any other woman, I would have inferred from her reply that her vanity was offended. But it was not possible to think such a thing of Mary Desmond on that night.
"Have you any heart for this task?" she asked me, with much suddenness, a few minutes later.
"The task that the king has set for his army,--the attempt to crush the Colonies," she replied.