lly Moreau
had been accused,--that money was actually needed to establish his
claim. It would all have been repaid if your soldiers had not forced
this wicked war, and--" and now in her vehemence her eyes were flashing,
her hand uplifted, when, all on a sudden, the portiere was raised the
second time, and there at the doorway stood the former inspector
general, "Black Bill." At sight of him the mad flow of words met sudden
stop. Down, slowly down, came the clinched, uplifted hand. Her eyes,
glaring as were Field's a moment agone, were fixed in awful fascination
on the grizzled face. Then actually she recoiled as the veteran officer
stepped quietly forward into the room.

"And what?" said he, with placid interest. "I haven't heard you rave in
many a moon, Nanette. You are your mother over again--without your
mother's excuse for fury."

But a wondrous silence had fallen on the group. The girl had turned
rigid. For an instant not a move was made, and, in the hush of all but
throbbing hearts, the sound of the trumpets pealing forth the last notes
of tattoo came softly through the outer night.

Then sudden, close at hand, yet muffled by double door and windows, came
other sounds--sounds of rush and scurry,--excited voices,--cries of
halt! halt!--the ring of a carbine,--a yell of warning--another shot,
and Blake and the aide-de-camp sprang through the hallway to the storm
door without. Mrs. Hay, shuddering with dread, ran to the door of her
husband's chamber beyond the dining room. She was gone but a moment.
When she returned the little Ogalalla maid, trembling and wild-eyed, had
come running down from aloft. The general had followed into the lighted
hallway,--they were all crowding there by this time,--and the voice of
Captain Ray, with just a tremor of excitement about it, was heard at
the storm door on the porch, in explanation to the chief.

"Moreau, sir! Broke guard and stabbed Kennedy. The second shot dropped
him. He wants Fawn Eyes, his sister."

A scream of agony rang through the hall, shrill and piercing. Then the
wild cry followed:

"You shall not hold me! Let me go to him, I say--I am his wife!"

CHAPTER XXIV

THE DEATH SONG OF THE SIOUX

That was a gruesome night at Frayne. Just at tattoo the door leading to
the little cell room had been thrown open, and the sergeant of the guard
bade the prisoners come forth,--all warriors of the Ogalalla band and
foremost of their number was Eagle Wing, the ba