!" said the anxious officer; "wherefore should he flee
after knocking for admission? What motive could he have in coming?
and how could he obtain admission unperceived? I have no doubt that
fatigue and excitement and the lateness of the hour have tended to
call up this vision. Would that you could make it real."

"Ronayne," repeated Mrs. Headley, gravely, "you well know that I
am not given much to imagine that which is not. Even to the very
handkerchief you have on your head, his dress was identical, was
Wau-nan-gee's; and I well recollect the occasion when, at the
distribution of the annual presents to the Indians, you appropriated
that handkerchief to yourself, because, as you said, Wau-nan-gee
had manifested so much good taste in choosing one like it."

"But, my dear Mrs. Headley," returned the officer with gravity,
while, after closing the shutters, he took a seat at her side, "you
must pardon me if the very fact of the resemblance in dress only
increases my conviction of the illusion. In all probability, it
was my shadow that you saw reflected by the strong light upon the
glass upper half of the door."

"As you please, Ronayne; but, for my own part, I have not the
slightest doubt on the subject. You ask how he could get here?
Even, as you will remember, you once made an evasion from the
fort--well intended, I grant, but still an evasion from the fort--over
the picketing of the fort. But the matter would not be of so much
consequence at any other time. At present, it is connected with
much that I have to reveal; but how so connected, I cannot even
fancy myself. Ronayne," she continued, taking his hand and pressing
it in her own, "disabuse yourself of the idea that Wau-nan-gee,
whatever he may have been, is now your friend."

"Wau-nan-gee not my friend?" returned the officer, sadly. "Well,
I was prepared in some degree to hear the assertion, Mrs. Headley,
our conversation an hour since being well calculated to make me
revolve the subject in my mind during your short absence, and I
have done so. When you mentioned a moment ago that Wau-nan-gee
had been at this door, seeking for admission, I felt confident that
you had done him great wrong; but now, I confess, since you so
positively assert his presence and sudden evasion, I am led to
apprehend, I know not what. Speak; let me hear it all," he concluded,
with bitterness.

"Ronayne, my almost son," she said, leaning her arm affectionately
on his shoulder, "it was