ects, the bearer
of the letter not unnaturally hesitated and coughed dubiously,--he did
not know whether to ask permission of the officer or the lady. They
declined her invitation to have a cup of tea and some luncheon, saying
they had dined in town, and the colonel said he would walk down with
them. Only Mr. Warner had been allowed in the quarters since the
inquest.

They had gone but a few steps along the walk when a hack drove up, and
Mr. Blake, catching sight of them from its interior, shouted to the
driver, sprang out, and, stiffly saluting the commanding officer, handed
the lawyer a batch of telegraphic despatches, and, taking the little man
from Denver to one side, said a few words to him in a whisper, then
turned, and was walking away, when the colonel concluded it time to
assert himself.

"Mr. Blake!" he called.

"Sir," said Blake, facing him but coming no nearer.

"You appear to have been in town, sir. Had you permission to leave the
post?"

"I did not think to ask, sir. As the only friend Mr. Ray appeared to
have in this garrison I went with him to jail."

"You will think, hereafter, and not presume to go without my consent."

"Then I take this opportunity to ask permission, colonel; I desire to
return to my friend this afternoon,--in ten minutes in fact."

"The post regulations, sir, require that such applications should be
made at my office between nine and ten A.M. I am not disposed to
consider them at other times, especially where gentlemen absent
themselves without authority." And he turned majestically away.

"Am I to understand, colonel, that you refuse me permission to return to
Mr. Ray in such an emergency as this?" choked Blake.

"I will consider it, sir. I will take it into--ahem!--consideration when
I have finished other matters. Now, gentlemen, we will proceed." And so,
having established the fact that after all he was the post commander,
and laid the ghost of their lingering doubt, Colonel Whaling led on down
the row with the duly reassured civilians, and Blake, too much saddened
by recent events to feel the wrath that at other times would have
overpowered him, contented himself with glaring after his chief a
moment, ejaculating, "The bloodless old mummy!" and then turning on his
heel, he went to his lonely quarters.

The lawyer read the despatches, handed them to his Denver friend,
pointing significantly to a clause in one of them, and the colonel felt
himself omitted from their c