to the left,
doing her duty with the bravery and patience of a soldier on the
firing-line, knowing that any moment some stray bullet might end her
usefulness. She would not dodge, nor would she cower; the danger was no
greater than others she had faced, and no precaution, she knew, could
save her. Her lips were still sealed, and would be to the end; some
tongue other than her own must betray her sister and her trust. In the
meantime she would wait and bear bravely whatever was sent to her.

Jane was alone when the captain entered, the doctor having left the
room to begin his morning inspection. She was in her gray-cotton
nursing-dress, her head bound about with a white kerchief. The pathos
of her face and the limp, tired movement of her figure would have been
instantly apparent to a man less absorbed in his own affairs than the
captain.

"He'll be here to-morrow or next day!" he cried, as he advanced to
where she sat at her desk in the doctor's office, the same light in his
eyes and the same buoyant tone in his voice, his ruddy face aglow with
his walk from the station.

"You have another letter then?" she said in a resigned tone, as if she
had expected it and was prepared to meet its consequences. In her
suffering she had even forgotten her customary welcome of him--for
whatever his attitude and however gruff he might be, she never forgot
the warm heart beneath.

"Yes, from Amboy," panted the captain, out of breath with his quick
walk, dragging a chair beside Jane's desk as he spoke. "He got mine
when the steamer come in. He's goin' to take the packet so he kin bring
his things--got a lot o' them, he says. And he loves the old home,
too--he says so--you kin read it for yourself." As he spoke he
unbuttoned his jacket, and taking Bart's letter from its inside pocket,
laid his finger on the paragraph and held it before her face.

"Have you talked about it to anybody?" Jane asked calmly; she hardly
glanced at the letter.

"Only to the men; but it's all over Barnegat. A thing like that's
nothin' but a cask o' oil overboard and the bung out--runs
everywhere--no use tryin' to stop it." He was in the chair now, his
arms on the edge of the desk.

"But you've said nothing to anybody about Archie and Lucy, and what
Bart intends to do when he comes, have you?" Jane inquired in some
alarm.

"Not a word, and won't till ye see him. She's more your sister than she
is his wife, and you got most to say 'bout Archie, and shoul