riedly started to her feet.

"Keep-a-hic-your seat and-a-hic-don't get agitated;
we're-a-hic-gentle-mench."

The thick-set man had already seated himself, and the other man
followed his example, forcing Jean to a place by his side.

Judging the thick-set man to be the least intoxicated and more decent,
she appealed to him for protection. The lower part only of his face was
visible, but she saw that he laughed.

"He don't mean no harm. Keep still and he'll go on about his business,"
he assured her.

Jean's face blazed and her heart beat with the force of four.

The tall man emptied his mouth of tobacco juice and other fluids and
substances, and the sickening mixture fell so close to Jean's foot that
her boot was spattered. Then he wiped the dribbles on the back of his
hand and turned to her.

He bent so close that his hot, foul breath struck her with staggering
force and his bloated face almost touched her cheek.

"You're-a-hic-a little peach," he said, with a leer,
"and-a-hic-I'm-a-hic-a going to k-k-kiss you."

It was then Jean screamed with all her might, and at the same moment a
man sprang to her rescue from a light buggy that had rounded the bend of
the drive unobserved.

The thick-set man suddenly disappeared, but the other soldier, either
too drunk for rapid movement or too muddled to understand the gravity of
the situation, only rose to his feet and stood leering at Jean with
disgusting admiration.

The next instant he was felled to the earth and a broad-shouldered man
stood over him ready to render a second blow if occasion demanded.

The soldier made an attempt to rise.

"Lie there, you brute," the man cried, hotly, and the drunken fellow
obeyed.

"Nice-a-hic-way to treat a-hic-man that's
protecting-a-hic-the-a-hic-honor-a-hic, the honor of----" he muttered.

But the gentleman turned to the woman, and Jean, trembling with fear and
indignation, with crimson cheeks and flashing eyes, looked a second time
into the face of the gentlemanly liquor dealer.

"I am so glad you came!" she gasped, and held out her hand to him.

As they turned to his buggy the gentleman cast a glance back at the
prostrate soldier, who had crawled behind a bush to sleep until removed
to the guardhouse.

"Such creatures are a disgrace to a civilized government," he exclaimed,
with ill-concealed wrath.

"Our government is a disgrace to itself," she added. "It creates such
creatures by a legal process, and yonder is th