ts and up the slope came the
courier, his horse panting loudly. Half-way from "Sudstown" he was
easily recognized,--Corporal Zook, of "Terry's Grays," and a tip-top
soldier. Reining in his horse, throwing the brown carbine over his
shoulder and quickly dismounting, he stepped forward to the group and,
with the unfailing salute, handed his commander a letter.

"How came you to tell those women anything?" asked Miller, his lips and
hands trembling slightly, despite his effort to be calmly prepared for
the worst. "Don't you see you've started the whole pack of them to
yowling? I thought I warned you never to do that again, when you came
in with the news of Lieutenant Robinson's murder."

"The major did, sir; I had it in mind when I came in sight of those
Irishwomen this time, and wouldn't open my lips, sir. They are bound to
make a row, whatever happens. I only shook my head at them, sir." And
Corporal Zook, despite fatigue, hard riding, and dust, appeared, if one
could judge by a slight twinkle of the eye, to take a rather humorous
view of this exposition of national traits. Followed by two or three of
the guard, Mr. Hatton had obediently hastened to quell the tumult of
lamentation, but by the time he reached the nearest shanty the
infection had spread throughout the entire community, and--women and
children alike--the whole populace was weeping, wailing, and gnashing
its teeth,--and no one knew or cared to know exactly why. Having been
wrought up to a pitch of excitement by the rumors and rapid moves of
the past forty-eight hours, nothing short of a massacre could now quite
satisfy Sudstown's lust for the sensational, and, defrauded of the
actual cause for universal bewailing, was none the less determined to
indulge in the full effect. Poor Hatton had more than half an hour of
stubborn and troublesome work before he could begin to quell the racket
in the crowded tenements, and meantime there was mischief to pay in the
fort. No sooner did the Irish wail come floating on the wind than the
direst rumors were rushed from house to house. The courier had barely
had time to hand his despatches to Major Miller, and the major had not
had time to read them, when a messenger came post-haste for Dr. Bayard,
and stood trembling and breathless at his door while the punctilious
old major-domo went to call his master. Holmes was reading at the
moment in the doctor's library, and, at the sound of excited voices and
scurrying footfalls w