ck to the bedroom, he hastily dressed,
muttering angrily and anxiously to himself as he did so. He was thinking
deeply, too, and every movement betrayed nervousness and trouble.
Returning to the front door, he gazed out upon the parade, then took his
forage-cap and walked rapidly down towards the adjutant's office. The
orderly bugler was tilted up in a chair, leaning half asleep against the
whitewashed front, but his was a weasel nap, for he sprang up and
saluted as the young officer approached.

"Where did Major Sloat go, orderly?" was the hurried question.

"Over towards the stables, sir. Him and Captain Chester was here
together, and they're just gone."

"Run over to the quarters of B Company and tell Merrick I want him right
away. Tell him to come to my quarters." And thither Mr. Jerrold
returned, seated himself at his desk, wrote several lines of a note,
tore it into fragments, began again, wrote another which seemed not
entirely satisfactory, and was in the midst of a third when there came a
quick step and a knock at the door. Opening the shutters, he glanced out
of the window. A gust of wind sent some of the papers whirling and
flying, and the bedroom door banged shut, but not before some few
half-sheets of paper had fluttered out upon the parade, where other
little flurries of the morning breeze sent them sailing over towards
the colonel's quarters. Anxious only for the coming of Merrick and no
one else, Mr. Jerrold no sooner saw who was at the front door than he
closed the shutters, called, "Come in!" and a short, squat, wiry little
man, dressed in the fatigue-uniform of the infantry, stood at the
door-way to the hall.

"Come in here, Merrick," said the lieutenant, and Merrick came.

"How much is it you owe me now?--thirty-odd dollars, I think?"

"I believe it is, lieutenant," answered the man, with shifting eyes and
general uneasiness of mien.

"You are not ready to pay it, I suppose; and you got it from me when we
left Fort Raines, to help you out of that scrape there."

The soldier looked down and made no answer.

"Merrick, I want a note taken to town at once. I want _you_ to take it
and get it to its address before eight o'clock. I want you to say no
word to a soul. Here's ten dollars. Hire old Murphy's horse across the
river and _go_. If you are put in the guard-house when you get back,
don't say a word; if you are tried by garrison court for crossing the
bridge or absence without leave, plead gu