e in this strange business."

Desmond laughed, and then said, more seriously, "Well, I have had
an adventure. Other people were concerned in it, as well as
myself. I have made up my mind to tell you both, because I know
that I can depend upon your promises to keep it an absolute
secret."

"This sounds mysterious indeed," O'Sullivan said. "However, you
have our promises. O'Neil and I will be as silent as the grave."

"Well, then, you know how you were chaffing me, the other day,
about finding Mademoiselle Pointdexter?"

"You don't mean to say that you have found her, Kennedy?" O'Neil
exclaimed incredulously.

"That is what I mean to say, though found is hardly the word,
since I was not looking for her, or even thinking of her, at the
time. Still, in point of fact, I accidentally came across the
place where she was hidden away, and after a sharp skirmish, in
which Callaghan and I each had to kill two men, we carried her
off, and delivered her safely to her father this morning."

The two young officers looked hard at Desmond, to discover if he
was speaking seriously, for his tone was so quiet, and matter of
fact, that they could scarce credit that he had passed through
such an exciting adventure; and the three were so accustomed to
hoax each other, that it struck them both as simply an invention
on the part of their comrade, so absolutely improbable did it seem
to them.

"Sure you are trying to hoax us, Kennedy," O'Sullivan said.

"You could not blame me, if I were," Desmond said, with a smile,
"considering the cock-and-bull stories that you are constantly
trying to palm off on me. However, you are wrong now. I will tell
you the affair, just as it happened."

And he related, in detail, the story of the rescue of Mademoiselle
Pointdexter, and the manner in which he had conveyed her to
Versailles.

"By Saint Bridget, Kennedy, we were not far wrong when we called
you a knight errant. Well, this is something like an adventure,
though whether it will end well or ill for you I cannot say. Did
you learn the name of the person who had the girl carried off?"

"No. I asked no questions, and indeed had but little conversation
with her; for, as I have told you, I put her in a carriage, with
the old hag who was in charge of her, and rode myself by the side
of it, in case the old woman should try to escape."

"A truly discreet proceeding, Kennedy," O'Neil laughed. "I think,
if I myself had been in your place, I should h