A CAPTURE What was the matter with the fellow?
Could he have sent for me merely to ask that question, insisting on privacy?
There must surely be some hidden purpose behind this.

Yet if so, there was no betrayal in the man's face.
His eyes had an angry gleam in them, and his words were shot at me in deadly earnest.
"The lieutenant ?" I repeated, not prepared for a direct reply.

"Why, I hardly know--curiosity largely." He stared at me in manifest unbelief.
"What do you expect to gain by lying ?" he exclaimed sullenly.

"You saw him, no doubt, or you would not have asked what you did." "Certainly I saw him," more deeply puzzled than before at his insistence.
"That was what aroused my interest.

He seemed such a mere lad as he rode past, and later I heard his voice, the voice of a boy." "Was that all ?" "All! What else could you suppose?
It was dark, only a little gleam of moon revealed outlines.