she caught sight of him. "We
wanted to come when we heard of it yesterday, Mr. Gray," said Amy
Lawrence, "but it was dark when we got back from seeing the fleet off,
and uncle was too tired in the evening. Indeed we are all very, very
sorry!" And poor Billy never heard or cared what the others said, so
absorbed was he in drinking in her gentle words and gazing into her soft,
dark eyes. No wonder he found it difficult to release her hand. That
brief visit, filled with sweetness and sunshine, ought to have been a
blessing to him all day long, but Canker caught sight of the damsels as
they walked away on the arms of the attendant cavaliers--Miss Lawrence
more than once smiling back at the incarcerated Billy--and Canker
demanded to be informed who they were and where they had been, and Gordon
answered they were Miss Lawrence of Santa Anita, and Miss Prime of New
York--and he "reckoned" they must have been in to condole with Mr.
Gray--whereat Canker snarled that people ought to know better than to
visit officers in arrest--it was tantamount to disrespect to the
commander. It was marvelous how many things in Canker's eyes were
disrespectful.

So he heard these stories with eager ears and sent for Gray, and thought
to bully him into an admission or confession, but Gordon's words had
"stiffened" the little fellow to the extent of braving Canker's anger and
telling him he had said all he proposed to say when the colonel called
him up the previous day. The result of that previous interview was his
being placed in close arrest and informed that he should be tried by
general court-martial once. So he had taken counsel, as was his right,
and "counsel" forbade his committing himself in any way.

"Then you refuse to divulge the contents of that note and to say why you
were so eager to go on guard out of your turn?" said Canker, oracularly.
"That in itself is sufficient to convince any fair-minded court of your
guilt, sir." Whereat Gordon winked at Billy and put his tongue in his
cheek--and Billy stood mute until ordered, with much asperity, to go back
to his tent.

But there were other things that might well go toward convincing a court
of the guilt of Lieutenant Gray, and poor Billy contemplated them with
sinking heart. Taking prompt advantage of his position as officer of the
guard, he had caused the young prisoner to be brought outside the
guardhouse, and as a heavy, dripping fog had come on the wings of the
night wind, sailing