. Hurley, who came in pale and soft-eyed and with a
gentle demeanor that touched the colonel more than he could tell. Her
cheek flushed for a moment as he bent low over her hand and told her how
bitterly he regretted that his absence from the post had resulted in so
grievous an experience: it was not the welcome he and his regiment would
have given her had they known of her intended visit. To Mr. Hurley he
briefly said that he need not fear but that full justice would be meted
out to the instigator or instigators of the assault; but, as a something
to make partial amends for their suffering, he said that nothing now
could check the turn of the tide in their brother's favor. All the
cavalry officers except Buxton, all the infantry officers except Rayner,
had already been to call upon him since the night of the occurrence, and
had striven to show how distressed they were over the outrageous
blunders of their temporary commander. Buxton had written a note
expressive of a desire to see him and "explain," but was informed that
explanations from him simply aggravated the injury; and Rayner, crushed
and humiliated, was fairly in hiding in his room, too sick at heart to
want to see anybody, and waiting for the action of the authorities in
the confident expectation that nothing less than court-martial and
disgrace would be his share of the outcome. He would gladly have
resigned and gone at once, but that would have been resigning under
virtual charges: he _had_ to stay, and his wife had to stay with him,
and Nellie with her. By this time Nellie Travers did not want to go. She
had but one thought now,--to make amends to Mr. Hayne for the wrong her
thoughts had done him. It was time for Mr. Van Antwerp to come to the
wide West and look after his interests; but Mrs. Rayner had ceased to
urge, while he continued to implore her to bring Nellie East at once.
Almost any man as rich and independent as Steven Van Antwerp would have
gone to the scene and settled matters for himself. Singularly enough,
this one solution of the problem seemed never to occur to him as
feasible.

Meantime, the colonel had patiently unravelled the threads and had
brought to light the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It made a
singularly simple story, after all but that was so much the worse for
Buxton. The only near relation Mr. Hayne had in the world was this one
younger sister, who six years before had married a manly, energetic
fellow, a civil enginee