before you dreamed of anything of the kind, so you are
in no wise responsible. She must have a mania, there's no other
explanation for it; but we're going to keep it all quiet. No one is to
know until Captain Forrest gets back at the end of the campaign. Then
he will be told, and restitution be made. But isn't it dreadful?"

For all answer McLean would only shake his head. He was
stunned--horrified at thought of the wild revelation he had made. He
could not bear to speak of it. Yet now he felt that he must know how
much he had let fall.

"It is the last time that fellow Lachlan shall enter this room," he
muttered between his teeth. "I'll have Weeks send him back to his
company this very day."

"No, don't blame Lachlan. The poor fellow meant no harm. He only told
it as evidence of the extremity of your delirium. He does not dream the
truth with regard to her, though I fear his wife does. Why, Mac, if
they had not come away from Robinson when they did, the whole post
would have been in an uproar. Things were disappearing all the
time,--money and valuables,--and since they left there it has all
stopped, but has begun here. You and Mr. Hatton are not the only
losers. Mr. Holmes confessed to me that his porte-monnaie had been
stolen from his fur overcoat the night we were there at the doctor's,
and I saw her standing by it, patting it and pretending to admire it;
and I know that she has been sending registered letters away, and that
bills are constantly coming to her from the East. Mrs. Griffin told me
so. And then Mr. Hatton--well, you know he has confided in me in ever
so many things--he told me a good deal before he went away. No, indeed,
Mac. It isn't that you have revealed anything I did not know. It is
only that I felt you ought to be told of it."

But McLean could not be comforted. "Who else knows of this?" he
presently asked.

"I have told the major. We had talked it all over before your illness.
Mrs. Bruce knows, for she too gets letters from Robinson. And perhaps
there are one or two who suspect, but that is all. Mr. Hatton is the
one who knows most about it all, and has most reason to believe in her
guilt. When did you become convinced?"

"I don't know,--that night Hatton told me, I suppose,--the night the
major came to see me, and Hatton begged off. You know about it?"

"The major told me he had gone to see you about some evidence you had;
Mr. Hatton met him at the door and explained that you were asleep