"You're all right!" he said, heartily. "You can make your getaway as
quick as you like."
But to the conspiracy Miss Farrar refused to lend herself.
"How do you know," she demanded, "that he will keep his promise? He may
not go back to his own army. He can be just as dead on my lawn as
anywhere else!"
Lathrop shook his head at her sadly.
"How you wrong me!" he protested. "How dare you doubt the promise of a
dying man? These are really my last words, and I wish I could think of
something to say suited to the occasion, but the presence of strangers
prevents."
He mounted his bicycle. "'If I had a thousand lives to give,'" he quoted
with fervor, "'I'd give them all to--'" he hesitated, and smiled
mournfully on Miss Farrar. Seeing her flushed and indignant countenance,
he added, with haste, "to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts!"
As he started on his wheel slowly down the path, he turned to the
sergeant.
"I'm escaping," he explained. The Reds, with an enthusiasm undoubtedly
genuine, raised their rifles, and the calm of the Indian summer was
shattered by two sharp reports. Lathrop, looking back over his shoulder,
waved one hand reassuringly.
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