tly only moderately pleased to see them and
nervously anxious to expedite their onward movement. With the perversity
of both sexes, however, they stopped to chat and inquire what he was
doing there, and in the midst of it all a faint light gleamed on the
opposite wall and the reflection of the curtains in Alice Renwick's
window was distinctly visible. Then a sturdy masculine shadow appeared,
and there was a rustling above, and then, with exasperating, mysterious,
and epigrammatic terseness, a deep voice propounded the utterly
senseless question,--
"How's that?"
To which, in great embarrassment, Chester replied,--
"Hold on a minute. I'm talking with some interested spectators."
Whereat the shadow of the big man shot out of sight, and the ladies
found that it was useless to remain,--there would be no further
developments so long as they did; and so they came away, with many a
lingering backward look. "But the idea of asking such a fool question as
'How's that?' Why couldn't the man _say_ what he meant?" It was
gathered, however, that Armitage and Chester had been making some
experiments that bore in some measure on the mystery. And all this time
Mr. Jerrold was in his quarters, only a stone's-throw away. How
interested _he_ must have been!
But, while the garrison was relieved at knowing that Alice Renwick would
not be on hand for the german and it was being fondly hoped she might
never return to the post, there was still another grievous
embarrassment. How about Mr. Jerrold?
He had been asked to lead when the german was first projected, and had
accepted. That was fully two weeks before; and now--no one knew just
what ought to be done. It was known that Nina Beaubien had returned on
the previous day from a brief visit to the upper lakes, and that she had
a costume of ravishing beauty in which to carry desolation to the hearts
of the garrison belles in leading that german with Mr. Jerrold. Old
Madame Beaubien had been reluctant, said her city friends, to return at
all. She heartily disapproved of Mr. Jerrold, and was bitterly set
against Nina's growing infatuation for him. But Nina was headstrong and
determined: moreover, she was far more than a match for her mother's
vigilance, and it was known at Sibley that two or three times the girl
had been out at the fort with the Suttons and other friends when the
old lady believed her in quarters totally different. Cub Sutton had
confided to Captain Wilton that Madame
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