orse."

After a time Ellsworth said, "Alaire has commenced her action." Dave
took a deep, sharp breath and began to tremble weakly. "I didn't tell
her, but--you must. We can't go on like this."

"Suppose I just go to war and--and don't come back?" thickly inquired
the sufferer.

"That won't do. You won't get killed--fellows like you never do.
Wouldn't you rather have her know the truth than believe you to be a
quitter?" Ellsworth waited a minute. "Do you want me to tell her for
you, Dave?"

Law shook his head slowly, wearily. "No, I'll do it. I'm game. I'd
rather she heard it from me."

Blaze Jones took the San Antonio paper out upon the porch and composed
himself in the hammock to read the latest war news. Invasion! Troops!
The Stars and Stripes! Those were words that stirred Jones deeply and
caused him to neglect his work. Now that his country had fully awakened
to the necessity of a war with Mexico--a necessity he had long felt--he
was fired with the loftiest patriotism and a youthful eagerness to
enlist. Blaze realized that he was old and fat and near-sighted; but
what of that? He could fight. Fighting, in fact, had been one of his
earliest accomplishments, and he prided himself upon knowing as much
about it as any one man could learn. He believed in fighting both as a
principle and as an exercise; in fact, he attributed his good health to
his various neighborly "unpleasantnesses," and he had more than once
argued that no great fighter ever died of a sluggish liver or of any
one of the other ills that beset sedentary, peace-loving people.
Nations were like men--too much ease made them flabby. And Blaze had
his own ideas of strategy, too. So during the perusal of his paper he
bemoaned the mistakes his government was making. Why waste time with
ultimatums? he argued to himself. He had never done so. Experience had
taught him that the way to win a battle was to beat the other fellow to
the draw; hence this diplomatic procrastination filled him with
impatience. It seemed almost treasonable to one of Blaze's intense
patriotism.

He was engaged in laying out a plan of campaign for the United States
when he became conscious of voices behind him, and realized that for
some time Paloma had been entertaining a caller in the front room.
Their conversation had not disturbed him at first, but now an
occasional word or sentence forced its meaning through his
preoccupation, and he found himself listening.

Paloma's visit