I suppose I am not more truculent than my fellows;
but since then, in all calmness and sincerity, I have thanked God for
sparing me one strong temptation.
Before I had advanced ten paces the same voice challenged again.
"Stop where you are--if you come a step nearer, I'll shoot."
I was in no mood to listen to argument, much less to an absurd threat.
"You may shoot and be d----d," I said. "You've got the shooting all your
own way to-night. I carry no fire-arms,"--and walked on.
Now, I record these words--conscious that they were thoroughly
discreditable to the speaker--simply because I mentioned them in my
examination before the Judge Advocate (after he had insisted on the
point of verbal accuracy), and from his office emanated a paragraph,
copied into all the Washington journals, stating that I had cursed my
captors fluently. I affirm, on my honor, that this was the solitary
imprecation that escaped me from first to last.
So I kept on advancing: they did _not_ fire, and I don't suppose they
would have done so, even if they had had time to reload. I soon got near
enough to discern that among the three men there was not a trace of
uniform; they were evidently farmers, and roughly dressed "at that." So
I opened parley in no gentle terms, requiring their authority for what
they had done, and promising that they should answer it, if there was
such a thing as law in these parts.
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