hear of your department, and how painful is the news I
this moment received that you are sick, if alive, in the hospital! Your
complicated nerves will not admit of writing, but inform the bearer if
you are necessitated for anything that can conduce to your comfort. If
you recover and think proper to inquire my name, I will give you an
opportunity. But if death is to terminate your existence there, let your
last senses be impressed with the reflection that you die not without
one more friend whose tears will bedew your funeral obsequies. Adieu."

* * * * *

The distressed invalid replied to this note that "he" was not in need of
money. The same evening, however, another missive was received,
enclosing two guineas. And the like favours were continued throughout
the soldier's stay at the hospital.

Upon recovery, the "blooming boy" resumed his uniform to rejoin the
troops. Doctor Bana had kept the secret, and there seemed to Deborah no
reason why she should not pursue her soldier career to the end.

The enamoured maid of Baltimore still remained, however, a thorn in her
conscience. And one day, when near Baltimore on a special duty, our
soldier was summoned by a note to the home of this young woman, who,
confessing herself the writer of the anonymous letter, declared her
love. Just what response was made to this avowal is not known, but that
the attractive person in soldier uniform did not at this time tell the
maid of Baltimore the whole truth is certain.

Events were soon, however, to force Deborah to perfect frankness with
her admirer. After leaving Baltimore, she went on a special duty
journey, in the course of which she was taken captive by Indians. The
savage who had her in his charge she was obliged to kill in
self-defence, after which there seemed every prospect that she and the
single Indian lad who escaped with her would perish in the wilderness, a
prey to wild beasts. Thereupon she wrote to her Baltimore admirer thus:

"Dear Miss ----:--Perhaps you are the nearest friend I have. But a few
hours must inevitably waft me to an infinite distance from all sublunary
enjoyments, and fix me in a state of changeless retribution. Three years
having made me the sport of fortune, I am at length doomed to end my
existence in a dreary wilderness, unattended except by an Indian boy. If
you receive these lines, remember they come from one who sincerely loves
you. But, my amiable friend, forgi