appy night. Leary declares he
has been close-mouthed; the other men on guard know absolutely nothing,
and Captain Wilton is the only officer to whom in my distress of mind I
betrayed that there _was_ a mystery, and he has pledged himself to me to
say nothing. Sloat, too, has an inkling, and a big one, that Jerrold is
the suspected party; but I never dreamed that anything had been seen or
heard which in the faintest way connected _your_ household with the
matter, until yesterday. Then Leary admitted to me that two women, Mrs.
Clifford's cook and the doctor's nursery-maid, had asked him whether it
wasn't Lieutenant Jerrold he fired at, and if it was true that he was
trying to get in at the colonel's back door. Twice Mrs. Clifford has
asked me very significant questions, and three times to-day have
officers made remarks to me that indicated their knowledge of the
existence of some grave trouble. What makes matters worse is that
Jerrold, when twitted about his absence from reveille, loses his temper
and gets confused. There came near being a quarrel between him and
Rollins at the mess a day or two since. He was saying that the reason he
slept through roll-call was the fact that he had been kept up very late
at the doctor's party, and Rollins happened to come in at the moment and
blurted out that if he was up at all it must have been after he left the
party, and reminded him that he had left before midnight with Miss
Renwick. This completely staggered Jerrold, who grew confused and tried
to cover it with a display of anger. Now, two weeks ago Rollins was most
friendly to Jerrold and stood up for him when I assailed him, but ever
since that night he has had no word to say for him. When Jerrold played
wrathful and accused Rollins of mixing in other men's business, Rollins
bounced up to him like a young bull-terrier, and I believe there would
have been a row had not Sloat and Hoyt promptly interfered. Jerrold
apologized, and Rollins accepted the apology, but has avoided him ever
since,--won't speak of him to me, now that I have reason to want to draw
him out. As soon as Armitage gets here he can do what I cannot,--find
out just what and who is suspected and talked about.

"Mr. Jerrold, of course, avoids me. He has been attending strictly to
his duty, and is evidently confounded that I did not press the matter of
his going to town as he did the day I forbade it. Mr. Hoyt's being too
late to see him personally gave me sufficient g