nd I cannot go
with you."

"I know, I know!" she sighed, resignedly. "But it hurts all the same."

"This tumult will die out soon," he went on, in the effort to comfort
her, "and then I can come on to Washington for a visit. I warn you I've
lost all my scruples; seventeen hundred million dollars are as straws in
my path, now that I know you really care for me."

"I don't feel rich now; I feel very poor. You must come to Washington
soon."

"I warn you that when I come I will ask hard things of you!" He rose and
his face darkened. "But my duty calls!"

She came to him and yielded herself to his embrace. "My queenly,
beautiful girl! It is sweet to have you here in my arms; but I _must_
say good-bye--good-bye."

In spite of his words he held her till she, with an instinctive
movement, pushed from his arms. "Go--go quick!" she exclaimed, in a low,
imperative voice.

Not staying to wonder at the meaning of her strange dismissal, he turned
and left the room without looking back.

Only after he had helped Calvin into the wagon, and had taken his seat
beside him, did the young soldier lift his eyes in search of her face at
the window. She was looking down upon him, tears were on her cheeks, but
she blew a kiss from her finger-tips, not caring if all the world were
there to see.

XXXIV

SEED-TIME

As Lawson predicted, the very violence of this outburst of racial hatred
was its cure. A reaction set in. The leaders of Brisbane's party, with
loud shouts, ordered their harriers back to their lairs, while the great
leader himself, oblivious to daylight or to darkness, was hurried home
to Washington. The Tetongs returned to their camps and hay-making, the
troops drilled peacefully each afternoon in the broiling heat, while
Curtis bent to his work again with a desperate sort of energy, as if by
so doing he could shorten the long, hot days, which seemed well-nigh
interminable after the passing of Elsie and her friends.

In a letter announcing their safe arrival in Washington, Elsie said:

"I am going to see the President about you, as soon as he
returns from the mountains. Papa is gaining, but takes no
interest in anything. He is pitifully weak, but the doctor
thinks he will recover if he will only rest. His brain is worn
out and needs complete freedom from care. Congress has
adjourned finally. I am told that your enemies expect to secure
a court-martial on the charge of usurpi