Part 5 (1/2)

Bang! dropped the heavy boot the major had just pulled from his foot, and, one boot off and the other boot on, he started up and stood staring at his wife in blank amaze

”Listen, dear,” she said, ”heaven knows it is no pleasure to tell it

She was seen, so my letter said, in the quarters of the officer as robbed at Red Cloud, the night he was officer of the day They lived, you know, in the saht Mr Hatton's trunk was opened she came very late to the Gordons' Very probably it was she hoh I hushed you suan to joke about it, and Mr Hatton hints that McLean could tell ainst saying a word However, that was before to-night Now for souest within our gates Mr Holmes's porte-monnaie with over one hundred dollars was taken froht, and I saw her go out there while you were having your after-dinner so out there and stand by the hat-rack and pretend to be patting and ad that beautiful fur My back was turned, but the mirror over the mantel showed it”

”How do you know he lost it?”

”He told me confidentially that he was sure it was taken fro to h his own carelessness”

”Seems to me you have confidential relations all around, Eliza; what ,” answered Mrs Miller, paying no attention whatever to the first portion of the reh, combined e all know, toon, and the 'Queen of Bedlam' is at the bottom of it”

”What is it that 'we all know?'”

”That she dresses in ant style; that she has suddenly had to quit her uncle's roof, where she lived for years, and co but his pay, unless you count an invalid wife and a riotous young brood as assets She is strange, odd, insolent, and defiant in manner Shuns all friendshi+p, and refuses to tell anybody as the cause of her leaving New York as she did One thing istered letters from here within the last three days----”

”No do you know that?” burst in the ht in his eyes

”Well, ent It is a perfectly natural thing to speak of Hardly anybody ever sends registered letters”

”That's not so; there are dozens sent by the officers and men after every pay-day”

”Iof the istered letter, and so when she sent two it was not at all strange that Mrs Griffin should speak of it to the steward's wife, and she told Mrs Gordon's Sally, and so it came to me”

”Oh, yes I'll be bound it reached you sooner or later,” said the oes on at this or any other post you woet hold of and knock out of shape I shall tell Griffin that his position as postmaster won't be worth the powder to blow him into the ue No, I won't listen to any ht, anyway I want to think over what you have toldat one o'clock One of them shone from Mr Hatton's room at the north end of the second floor He was officer of the day, and that accounted for it The other bearaceful, woainst the wooden pillar on the veranda A beautiful face was upturned to the few stars that peeped through the rifts of clouds that angrily swept the heavens

Then, as one jewelled hand clasped the railing, the other encircled the cold, white, wooden post, and in another reat sobs shook the slender figure There was the sudden rattle of an infantry sword at the other end of the piazza, and Mr Hatton, striding forth from the hall-as startled to see a di fro skirts into the shelter of the Forrests' hall-way

”I thought I heard so out here,” he muttered, ”and supposed it was Mrs Forrest She's always in tears now that the captain is up in the Indian country But ould have thought of Miss Forrest?”

VI

An anxious day was that that followed the departure of Captain Terry and his ”grays” on their h and swollen that it was certain that the Indians could have forded it only a the rocks and shoals up at Bull Bend, a day'sback with their plunder to the shelter of their reservation there was only one point below Lara to swim, and that was full twenty-five ht with Blunt's little detachment the previous day, the major waxed more and more wrathful It would seem that there were at least fifty well-armed and perfectly- extra ponies with thee-ers tired It was next to iet away fro athe old ent, whose duty it was to notify thewhatever had been given The settlers in the Chugwater Valley had no signal of their co up with ranch supplies from Cheyenne, were pounced upon in plain view of Hunton's, murdered and scalped and mutilated just before Blunt and his little corave disparity in nualloped in to the attack, and found hi but his nerve and coolness had extricated theht that followed, for Blunt promptly dismounted his men and disposed theed to ”stand off” the Indians, despite their frequent dashes and incessant fire

After soone whooping off up the valley, and were next heard of shooting into the stage-station at Eagle's Nest If he only had a hundred cavalry, thought Miller, he could head them off and prevent their return to the reservation, where, once they crossed the lines, they were perfectly safe and could not be touched All told, however, Terry could only take with hilad indeed to have McLean as a volunteer

It was about noon when the a Mr Blunt and the other wounded The assistant surgeon of the post had ridden out with theht, soon after the receipt of the news; and nohile the soldiers were taken to the post hospital and comfortably established there, Mr Blunt was carried up-stairs in the north hall of ”Bedlam” and stoay in the room opposite Hatton's Mrs Forrest, poor lady, nearly went into hysterics as the young soldier was lifted out of the aht her soul was tortured with the dread that at any ht come that her husband was either killed or wounded,--and in the art of borrowing trouble she was more than an adept Her lamentations were so loud and voluble that Miss Forrest quietly but very positively took her by the arms and marched her off the piazza into her own roo” the baby to sleep and nodding on the verge of a nap on her own account The first thing Mrs Forrest did was to whisk the half-drowsing infant out of her attendant's ar up and down the roo on a wailing accompaniment to her own mournful plaint It was more than Miss Forrest could stand

”For mercy's sake, Ruth, don't drive that baby distracted! If you cannot control your own tears, have some consideration for the children There!” she added, despairingly, ”now you've started Maud and Vickie, and if, between the four of you, poor Mr Blunt is not ht-time, he has no nerves at all” And as she spoke the hall-way resounded with thein fros, probably thought it no less than filial on their part to swell the chorus Miss Forrest made a rush for the door:

”Maud! Vickie! Stop this noise instantly Don't you know poor Mr Blunt is lying in the next hall, badly wounded and very sick?”

”Well, ic; while Victoria, after stuttering enunciation of the words, ”I' to die,” wound up with sudden declaration of rights by saying she didn't care whether auntie liked it or not, she'd cry all she wanted to; and, taking a fresh start, the six-year-old maiden howled afresh