"Certainly not," answered the Major. He folded his arms, and regarded the visitors as if he were trying to read their inmost thoughts. "You are lying to me! And as you've lied to me about coming from Kentucky, it's quite as likely you've lied to me about your being on your way to enlist in the Confederate army. For all I know you may be Union spies. In short, my friends, you are acting in the most suspicious way, and I put you under arrest!" George's heart sank within him. He was not afraid of being arrested, but to think that he might never take part in the bridge-burning expedition. Lightfoot turned the key in the door. Watson walked up to the Major, and tapped him on the shoulder. "Look here," he said, in the tone of a man who is quite sure of his position. "You talk about putting us under arrest, but you're only playing a game of bluff yourself. We are three to your one--and I'd like to know what is to prevent our walking out of this house, and knocking you down, too--or, if you prefer, shooting you--if you attempt to stop us?" Lightfoot laughed, in a superior sort of way. "Go, if you want," he said curtly; "but I don't think you'll go very far." His eyes glistened, as if he thought the whole scene rather a good joke. "Half a mile back of this mansion there's a squadron of Confederate cavalry picketed. If I give them the alarm they'll scour the whole countryside for you, and you'll all be in their hands within an hour." Watson turned pale. It was the paleness of vexation rather than of fear. "Why were we fools enough to come to this house," he thought. He knew how quickly they could be caught by cavalrymen. The Major smiled in a tantalizing manner. "I think you will take my advice and surrender," he said, sitting down carelessly in a chair and swinging one of his long legs over the other. "If, on investigation, it proves that you are not spies, you will be allowed to go on your way. If there's any doubt about it, however, you will be sent to Richmond." Macgreggor, with a bound, leaped in front of the Confederate, and, pulling out a revolver, pointed it at Lightfoot's head. "Unless you promise not to have us followed, you shan't leave this room alive!" he cried with the tone of a man daring everything for liberty. George fully expected to see the officer falter, for he had seen that the Major was unarmed. But Lightfoot did nothing of the kind. On the contrary, he gave one of his provoking laughs. "Don't go into heroics," he said, pushing Macgreggor away as though he were "shoohing" off a cat. "You know I would promise anything, and the second your backs were turned I'd give the alarm. You don't think I would be fool enough to see you fellows walking away without making a trial to get you back?"