on by the door, with an anxious troubled
expression on his face.

"What in the world is to be done, doctor?" Captain Clinton asked. "I
never heard of such a thing, it is a most serious business."

"I can quite see that," the doctor replied. "When Mrs. Humphreys came to
me and asked me to break the news to you, I told her at once that it was
a terrible business. I own that I do not see that she is altogether to
blame, but it is a most unfortunate occurrence. As I have just told you,
she had, when she put the children to bed, put your child in one of her
baby's night-gowns, as it happened there were none of your child's
clean. In the morning she took them out and laid them on a rug on the
ground before beginning to wash and dress them. She went out to the
canteen to get something for her husband's breakfast, and when she
returned she could not remember the order in which she had taken them
out of bed and laid them down, and could not distinguish her own child
from yours."

"You must remember, Mrs. Humphreys," Captain Clinton broke in; "think it
over, woman. You must remember how you laid them down."

"Indeed, I do not, sir; I have been thinking all the morning. I had
nursed them two or three times during the night, and of course had
changed their position then. I never thought about their having the same
night-gowns on. If I had, of course I should have been more careful, for
I have said to my husband over and over again that it was only by their
clothes that I should know them apart, for if they had been twins they
could not be more alike.

"This is downright maddening!" Captain Clinton exclaimed, pacing up and
down the room. "And is there no mark nor anything by which they can be
recognized? Why, bless me, woman, surely you as a mother ought to know
your own child!"

Mrs. Humphreys shook her head. "I have nursed them both, sir, and which
is mine and which is yours I could not say to save my life."

"Well, put the children down on that sofa," Captain Clinton said, "and
take yourself off for the present; you have done mischief enough for a
lifetime. I will let you know what we decide upon later on."

"Well, doctor, what on earth is to be done?" he asked after the door had
closed upon the sergeant and his wife. "What do you think had best be
done, Lucy?"

But Mrs. Clinton, who was but just recovering from her illness, was too
prostrated by this terrible blow to be able to offer any suggestion.

"It is a terribl