eard, if you have been
afflicted with the stories sent around the post this morning. Be sure
and keep everything of the kind from Mr. Blunt. Here! Can you catch?"
And fumbling in his waistcoat-pocket, he fetched out a glittering gold
piece and tossed it deftly to the gallery. It fell upon the boards with
a musical ring, and was quickly pounced upon by the man, who blushed
and grinned awkwardly.

"I don't like to take this, sir," he said. "It's five dollars."

"Never mind what it is! It's worth a thousand times its weight if you
keep all such yarns from the lieutenant.--Oh! Good-morning, Mr. Hatton!
I thought your rooms were up-stairs," he said, as at that moment the
infantryman stepped forth from the lower hall.

"They are, Mr. Holmes, but I have taken up my quarters temporarily in
McLean's, so as not to disturb Blunt with the creaking of those
ramshackle old stairs. What is Mac's is mine, and _vice versa_. Won't
you come in?"

Mr. Holmes hesitated a moment. Then a sudden thought struck him. He
sprang lightly up the steps and was ushered into the sanctum of the
young soldier, whom he had marked the night before starting upon the
scout with Terry's troopers.

"So this is McLean's vine and fig-tree, is it?" said he, as he looked
curiously around. "Ha! Lynchburg sun-dried, golden leaf! Can I have a
pipe?"

"Most assuredly! Excuse me five minutes, while I run over to the
guard-house. Then I'll rejoin you, and we'll have a whiff together."
Another moment, and Mr. Holmes was sole occupant of the premises.

He seemed to forget his desire for a smoke, and in its stead to become
possessed with a devil of mild inquisitiveness. After a rapid glance
around the front room, with its bare, barrack-like, soldier furnishing,
he stepped quickly into the bed-chamber in the rear and went
unhesitatingly to the bureau. The upper drawer came out grudgingly and
with much jar and friction, as the drawers of frontier furniture are
apt to do even at their best, but his firm hand speedily reduced it to
subjection. A little pile of handkerchiefs, neatly folded, stood in the
left-hand corner. He lifted the topmost, carried it to the window,
compared the embroidered initials with those of the handkerchief he
took from an inside pocket, scribbled a few closely-written words on a
blank card, carefully folded the handkerchief he had brought with him,
slipped the card inside the folds, replaced both on the pile, closed
the drawer, and was placid