her hand in his and lean upon its
steady strength down the incline; and so, hand in hand, with old Dobbin
ambling placidly behind, they passed out from the shaded pathway to the
glow and radiance of the sunlit road.

XII.

"Colonel Maynard, I admit everything you say as to the weight of the
evidence," said Frank Armitage, twenty minutes later, "but it is my
faith--understand me: my _faith_, I say--that she is utterly innocent.
As for that damnable letter, I do not believe it was ever written to
her. It is some other woman."

"What other is there, or was there?" was the colonel's simple reply.

"That is what I mean to find out. Will you have my baggage sent after me
to-night? I am going at once to the station, and thence to Sibley. I
will write you from there. If the midnight visitor should prove to have
been Jerrold, he can be made to explain. I have always held him to be a
conceited fop, but never either crack-brained or devoid of principle.
There is no time for explanation _now_. Good-by; and keep a good
lookout. That fellow may be here again."

And in an hour more Armitage was skimming along the winding river-side
_en route_ to Sibley. He had searched the train from pilot to rear
platform, and no man who in the faintest degree resembled Mr. Jerrold
was on board. He had wired to Chester that he would reach the fort that
evening, but would not resume duty for a few days. He made another
search through the train as they neared the city, and still there was no
one who in stature or appearance corresponded with the descriptions
given him of the sinewy visitor.

Late in the afternoon Chester received him as he alighted from the train
at the little station under the cliff. It was a beautiful day, and
numbers of people were driving or riding out to the fort, and the high
bridge over the gorge was constantly resounding to the thunder of hoofs.
Many others, too, had come out on the train; for the evening
dress-parade always attracted a swarm of visitors. A corporal of the
guard, with a couple of men, was on hand to keep vigilant eye on the
arrivals and to persuade certain proscribed parties to re-enter the cars
and go on, should they attempt to revisit the post, and the faces of
these were lighted up as they saw their old adjutant; but none others of
the garrison appeared.

"Let us wait a moment and get these people out of the way," said
Armitage. "I want to talk with you. Is Jerrold back?"

"Yes. He came in