that you do not quit the post--to-night."

A moment later when the door had closed upon the tall, spare, almost
angular form, the colonel mopped his brow and said: "If I let that man
go he'll follow Foster to the station and throttle him--he so hates a
liar and a lie."

"I thought Foster got away in time for the Flyer," said the doctor,
after a pause. He had been intently watching Dwight's every move and
gesture.

"In plenty of time," answered the colonel, "though he planned it
otherwise, and don't know it even now. He was scheming to miss to-day's
Overland and so wait until to-morrow, but I sent the adjutant, with a
man to help him pack, and the word that the ambulance would call for him
at four. He _could_ decline the help, but he couldn't the ambulance.
Now, as luck would have it, they wire me that the Flyer's five hours
late."

"If that's the case at Valentine," said the adjutant, "she'll be six
behind by the time she strikes Minneconjou."

"Then," said Dr. Waring, "we may not have seen the last of Stanley
Foster. Is Ray, too, confined to the post?"

"No," said the colonel, "I hadn't thought about that at all."

CHAPTER XI

DEEPER IN THE TOILS

Dress parade went off that evening in somewhat perfunctory fashion. Even
the alert and soldierly adjutant had a preoccupied air. Stone rejoiced
in his three battalions, as they really were--the cavalry squadron
consisting, like the infantry units, of four companies--and ordinarily
loved to hold them quite a while at the manual, and later for the march
past. This evening he ordered but a few casual shifts and dispensed
entirely with the review. Almost every piazza had its little group of
spectators. The walk was lined with visitors, the roadway with vehicles
from town, and Stone had never seemed to notice them. What he did notice
was that Dwight, standing stark and alone in front of the center of his
squadron, began swaying before the sergeant's reports were rendered, and
was obviously faint and ill. It was on his account entirely that Stone
curtailed the stately ceremony, and thereby disappointed spectators. He
took the major by the arm and walked with him to his door and left him
there with promise to send the surgeon without delay. Dwight declared
the doctor unnecessary, but thanked most earnestly his commanding
officer. A pert young woman in cap and ribbons met them at the threshold
with the information that Madame had partaken of a _tisane_ and begged