y and increase the danger--still, I thought she probably knew
better than I what to do. The officer said:

"Well, in that case we are here to block the way."

"Yes, if they come this way. But if they should send out spies, and find
out enough to make them want to try for the bridge through the woods? Is
it best to allow the bridge to stand?"

It made me shiver to hear her.

The officer considered awhile, then said:

"It might be well enough to send a force to destroy the bridge. I was
intending to occupy it with the whole command, but that is not necessary
now."

Joan said, tranquilly:

"With your permission, I will go and destroy it myself."

Ah, now I saw her idea, and was glad she had had the cleverness to
invent it and the ability to keep her head cool and think of it in that
tight place. The officer replied:

"You have it, Captain, and my thanks. With you to do it, it will be well
done; I could send another in your place, but not a better."

They saluted, and we moved forward. I breathed freer. A dozen times I
had imagined I heard the hoofbeats of the real Captain Raymond's troop
arriving behind us, and had been sitting on pins and needles all the
while that that conversation was dragging along. I breathed freer, but
was still not comfortable, for Joan had given only the simple command,
"Forward!" Consequently we moved in a walk. Moved in a dead walk past
a dim and lengthening column of enemies at our side. The suspense was
exhausting, yet it lasted but a short while, for when the enemy's bugles
sang the "Dismount!" Joan gave the word to trot, and that was a great
relief to me. She was always at herself, you see. Before the command
to dismount had been given, somebody might have wanted the countersign
somewhere along that line if we came flying by at speed, but now we
seemed to be on our way to our allotted camping position, so we were
allowed to pass unchallenged. The further we went the more formidable
was the strength revealed by the hostile force. Perhaps it was only a
hundred or two, but to me it seemed a thousand. When we passed the
last of these people I was thankful, and the deeper we plowed into the
darkness beyond them the better I felt. I came nearer and nearer to
feeling good, for an hour; then we found the bridge still standing,
and I felt entirely good. We crossed it and destroyed it, and then I
felt--but I cannot describe what I felt. One has to feel it himself in
order to know what it is