you that!"

"Don't get him started," Noel pleaded; "he is a perfect lion when he gets
started. I saw enough to teach me that, after the third skirmish. After
it was over I saw him come out of the bushes and attack a dead man
single-handed."

"It is another lie; and I give you fair warning that you are going too
far. You will see me attack a live one if you are not careful."

"Meaning me, of course. This wounds me more than any number of injurious
and unkind speeches could do. In gratitude to one's benefactor--"

"Benefactor? What do I owe you, I should like to know?"

"You owe me your life. I stood between the trees and the foe, and kept
hundreds and thousands of the enemy at bay when they were thirsting for
your blood. And I did not do it to display my daring. I did it because I
loved you and could not live without you."

"There--you have said enough! I will not stay here to listen to these
infamies. I can endure your lies, but not your love. Keep that corruption
for somebody with a stronger stomach than mine. And I want to say this,
before I go. That you people's small performances might appear the better
and win you the more glory, I hid my own deeds through all the march. I
went always to the front, where the fighting was thickest, to be remote
from you in order that you might not see and be discouraged by the things
I did to the enemy. It was my purpose to keep this a secret in my own
breast, but you force me to reveal it. If you ask for my witnesses,
yonder they lie, on the road we have come. I found that road mud, I paved