r to head-quarters, a rollicking Irishman called to the
sergeant of the guard,--

"Does he know the ould woman's skipped, sargent? Shure you'd better tell
him. 'Twill cheer him, like."

But when, a few moments after, the news was imparted to Clancy, the
effect was electric and startling. With one bound and a savage cry he
sprang to the door. The sergeant threw himself upon him and strove to
hold him back, but was no match for the frenzied man. Deaf to Kate's
entreaties and the sergeant's commands, he hurled him aside, leaped
through the door-way, shot like a deer past the lolling guardsmen on the
porch, and, turning sharply, went at the top of his speed down the hill
towards Sudsville before man could lay hand on him. The sentry on Number
One cocked his rifle and looked inquiringly at the officer of the guard,
who came running out. With a wild shriek little Kate threw herself upon
the sentry, clasping his knees and imploring him not to shoot. The
lieutenant and the sergeant both shouted, "Never mind! Don't fire!" and
with others of the guard rushed in pursuit. But, old and feeble as he
was, poor Clancy kept the lead, never swerving, never flagging, until he
reached the door-way of his abandoned cot; this he burst in, threw
himself upon his knees by the bedside, and dragged to light a little
wooden chest that stood by an open trap in the floor. One look sufficed:
the mere fact that the trap was open and the box exposed was enough.
With a wild cry of rage, despair, and baffled hatred, he clinched his
hands above his head, rose to his full height, and with a curse upon his
white lips, with glaring eyes and gasping breath, turned upon his
pursuers as they came running in, and hurled his fists at the foremost.
"Let me follow her, I say! She's gone with it all,--his money! Let me
go!" he shrieked; and then his eyes turned stony, a gasp, a clutch at
his throat, and, plunging headlong, he fell upon his face at their feet.

Poor little Kate! The old man was, indeed, free at last.

XVIII.

There had been a scene of somewhat dramatic nature at the colonel's
office but a short time before, and one that had fewer witnesses.
Agitated, nervous, and eventually astonished as Captain Rayner had been
when the colonel had revealed to him the nature of Clancy's confession,
he was far more excited and tremulous when he returned a second time.
The commanding officer had been sitting deep in thought. It was but
natural that a man