Part 4

“Hands up!” shouted one. “You’re my prisoner!” cried the other.

Mechanically Lathrop raised his hands, but his eyes turned to Miss Farrar.

“Did you know?” he asked.

“I have been watching them,” she said, “creeping up on you for the last ten minutes.”

Lathrop turned to the two soldiers, and made an effort to smile.

“That was very clever,” he said, “but I have twenty men up the road, and behind them a regiment. You had better get away while you can.”

The two Reds laughed derisively. One, who wore the stripes of a sergeant, answered: “That won’t do! We been a mile up the road, and you and us are the only soldiers on it. Gimme the gun!”

Lathrop knew he had no right to refuse. He had been fairly surprised, but he hesitated. When Miss Farrar was not in his mind his amateur soldiering was to him a most serious proposition. The war game was a serious proposition, and that, through his failure for ten minutes to regard it seriously, he had been made a prisoner, mortified him keenly. That his humiliation had taken place in the presence of Beatrice Farrar did not lessen his discomfort, nor did the explanation he must later make to his captain afford him any satisfaction. Already he saw himself playing the star part in a court-martial. He shrugged his shoulders and surrendered his gun.

As he did so he gloomily scrutinized the insignia of his captors.

“Who took me?” he asked.

“WE took you,” exclaimed the sergeant.

“What regiment?” demanded Lathrop, sharply. “I have to report who took me; and you probably don’t know it, but your collar ornaments are upside down.” With genuine exasperation he turned to Miss Farrar.

“Lord!” he exclaimed, “isn’t it bad enough to be taken prisoner, without being taken by raw recruits that can’t put on their uniforms?”

The Reds flushed, and the younger, a sandy-haired, rat-faced youth, retorted angrily: “Mebbe we ain’t strong on uniforms, beau,” he snarled, “but you’ve got nothing on us yet, that I can see. You look pretty with your hands in the air, don’t you?”

“Shut up,” commanded the other Red. He was the older man, heavily built, with a strong, hard mouth and chin, on which latter sprouted a three days’ iron-gray beard. “Don’t you see he’s an officer? Officers don’t like being took by two-spot privates.”

Lathrop gave a sudden start. “Why,” he laughed, incredulously, “don’t you know--” He stopped, and his eyes glanced quickly up and down the road.

“Don’t we know what?” demanded the older Red, suspiciously.

“I forgot,” said Lathrop. “I--I must not give information to the enemy--”

For an instant there was a pause, while the two Reds stood irresolute. Then the older nodded the other to the side of the road, and in whispers they consulted eagerly.

Miss Farrar laughed, and Lathrop moved toward her.

“I deserve worse than being laughed at,” he said. “I made a strategic mistake. I should not have tried to capture you and an army corps at the same time.”

“You,” she taunted, “who were always so keen on soldiering, to be taken prisoner,” she lowered her voice, “and by men like that! Aren’t they funny?” she whispered, “and East Side and Tenderloin! It made me homesick to hear them! I think when not in uniform the little one drives a taxicab, and the big one is a guard on the elevated.”

“They certainly are very ‘New York,’” assented Lathrop, “and very tough.”

“I thought,” whispered Miss Farrar, “those from New York with the Red Army were picked men.”

“What does it matter?” exclaimed Lathrop. “It’s just as humiliating to be captured by a ballroom boy as by a mere millionaire! I can’t insist on the invading army being entirely recruited from Harvard graduates.”

The two Reds either had reached a decision, or agreed that they could not agree, for they ceased whispering, and crossed to where Lathrop stood.

“We been talking over your case,” explained the sergeant, “and we see we are in wrong. We see we made a mistake in taking you prisoner. We had ought to shot you dead. So now we’re going to shoot you dead.”

“You can’t!” objected Lathrop. “It’s too late. You should have thought of that sooner.”