He's only talking to you to gain time.' 'What for ?' said Oswald.
'Why, so that we shouldn't warn the other army, you silly,' Alice said, and Oswald was so upset by what she said, that he forgot to be properly angry with her for the wrong word she used.
'But we ought to warn them at home,' she said--' suppose the Moat House was burned down, and all the supplies commandeered for the foe ?' Alice turned boldly to the soldier.

'DO you burn down farms ?' she asked.
'Well, not as a rule,' he said, and he had the cheek to wink at Oswald, but Oswald would not look at him.

'We've not burned a farm since--oh, not for years.' 'A farm in Greek history it was, I expect,' Denny murmured.

'Civilized warriors do not burn farms nowadays,' Alice said sternly, 'whatever they did in Greek times.

You ought to know that.' The soldier said things had changed a good deal since Greek times.
So we said good morning as quickly as we could: it is proper to be polite even to your enemy, except just at the moments when it has really come to rifles and bayonets or other weapons.
The soldier said 'So long!' in quite a modern voice, and we retraced our footsteps in silence to the ambush--I mean the wood.