"Oh, how happy I
am that I have found you out in time. You are the most miserable
specimen of a man I ever heard of, and to think that you have called
yourself an officer and a gentleman. But this is the last for you. If
you were brave enough you ought to kill yourself to save the army from
the disgrace of having had you in it."
"Curse you!" he cried, in impotent rage. "If you were not a woman I
would knock you down."
"If you feel like it, don't let so small a matter that I am a girl and
your colonel's daughter interfere with your pleasure. Strike me!"
But Barrows only stared at her with a white face, and with a muttered
curse left the room.
"This way, miss," said the sergeant. She entered the room into which Ted
had been taken, but he was not there.
In the middle of the floor was an open trapdoor.
"I must ask you to go down there," said the sergeant. "You will find a
ladder. You will be safe, and it is not for long. We start for the post
soon, I am told."
Hallie made no reply, but did as she was bid.
The cellar was as dark as a pocket, and she could see absolutely nothing
as her feet touched the earth floor.
But she found a box, and sat down upon it. The trap was closed, a bolt
shot in it, and she was in Stygian darkness.
She was terribly frightened at first, but there were no rats in the
cellar, which she had at first feared, and she fell to thinking what it
all meant.
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