he disgrace he's bringin' on the
capt'in and the batthery, and I knowed he'd been dhrinkin', sir, and I
came back to look for him, but he'd got started, capt'in, and it's----"

"Stop this talk! He wasn't drinking at all until you came back here to
hound him. Open that door, or a file of the guard will."

"Och! thin wait till I'm dressed, fur dacency's sake, capt'in. Sure I'll
thry and wake him."

And then more whispering, the clink of glass, maudlin protestation in
Doyle's thick tones. Cram banged at the door and demanded instant
obedience. Admitted at last, he strode to the side of an ordinary
hospital cot, over which the mosquito-bar was now ostentatiously drawn,
and upon which was stretched the bulky frame of the big Irishman, his
red, blear-eyed, bloated face half covered in his arms. The close air
reeked with the fumes of whiskey. In her distress lest Jim should take
too much, the claimant of his name and protection had evidently been
sequestrating a large share for herself.

"How on earth did you get here? Your house was flooded all day," angrily
asked Cram.

"Sure we made a raft, sir,--'Louette and me,--and poled over to the
levee, and I walked every fut of the way down to follow me husband, as I
swore I would whin we was married. I'd 'a' come in Anatole's boat, sir,
but 'twas gone,--gone since last night. Did ye know that, capt'in?"

A groan and a feverish toss from the occupant of the narrow bed
interrupted her.

"Hush, Jim darlin'! Here's the capt'in to see you and tell you he's come
back to have you roighted. Sure how could a poor fellow be expected to
come home in all that awful storm this mornin', capt'in? 'Tis for not
comin' the colonel had him under arrest; but I tell him the capt'in 'll
see him through."

But Cram pushed her aside as she still interposed between him and the
bed.

"Doyle, look up and answer. Doyle, I say!"

Again vehement protestations, and now an outburst of tears and
pleadings, from the woman.

"Oh, he can't understand you, capt'in. Ah, don't be hard on him. Only
this mornin' he was sayin' how the capt'in reminded him of the ould
foine days whin the officers was all gintlemen and soldiers. He's truer
to ye than all the rest of thim, sir. D'ye moind that, capt'in? Ye
wouldn't belave it, mabby, but there's them that can tell ye Loot'nant
Waring was no friend of yours, sir, and worse than that, if ould
Lascelles could spake now--but there's thim left that can, glory be to
Go