her. Then he thought he heard McLean's voice, and entering found him
propped on his elbow, a queer look on his face.

"Hat, there are spooks in this old rookery. I could have sworn I heard
a woman's dress and a woman's footfalls on those creaking stairs just
now. Has any one been in here?"

"N--no one, Mac."

"Gad! I'm not dreaming. It sounded just as it did the night--the night
that thing happened. You know, Hat."

XII.

Just at tattoo that evening Mrs. Miller was smitten with a sudden
desire to go over and see Nellie Bayard. The child hadn't been out of
the house, she explained, since "the Grays" started for the fray down
the Platte, taking Randall McLean with them. She longed to see her and
learn from her lips how matters were going at home. She wondered if
Nellie knew how her father was devoting himself to the Forrests; she
wondered if the gentle and obedient daughter would not rebel at the
idea of such a possibility as his becoming seriously attached to Miss
Forrest. She had indulged the major in one very plain and startling
dissertation on the subject of that young woman, from the effects of
which he was still suffering; but, worst of all, her motherly heart
longed to acquire, through Nellie's words, looks, or actions, some idea
as to whether she really cared for her pet among all the lieutenants.
Of course Nellie liked--but did she love him? Of McLean's deep-rooted
regard for the shy and sensitive little maiden, Mrs. Miller had not the
shadow of a doubt. Nellie had no one, she argued, to be a mother to her
in this troublesome time, and yet she was beginning to feel a species
of jealousy in the knowledge that the Bruces and the Gordons and other
good garrison people--maid and matron--had been seen going continually
to and from the doctor's quarters. Mrs. Miller thought she had a prior
claim on the confidences of the doctor's pretty daughter, and did not
relish it that others should possibly be before her. Oddly enough there
was no one calling on this night of nights; the major had been out,
ostensibly to attend to business at the office, but something told her
he was seeking information as to the array of circumstances pointing to
the fact that there was further evidence against Miss Forrest.

The bugles were sounding the call through the stillness of the early
summer night, though at Laramie summer seemed yet far away, when she
heard him coming heavily up the steps to the piazza. Well the good lady