up the stairs.

A moment later she was at the parlor door with a wrap thrown over her
shoulders: "If Captain Rayner comes in, tell him I want particularly to
see him before he goes out again."

"Where are you going, Kate?"

"Oh, just over to Mrs. Waldron's a moment."

IV.

Facing the broad, bleak prairie, separated from it only by a rough,
unpainted picket fence, and flanked by uncouth structures of pine, one
of which was used as a storehouse for quartermaster's property, the
other as the post-trader's depository for skins and furs, there stood
the frame cottage which Mr. Hayne had chosen as his home. As has been
said, it was precisely like those built for the subaltern officers, so
far as material, plan, and dimensions were concerned. The locality made
the vast difference which really existed. Theirs stood all in a row,
fronting the grassy level of the parade, surrounded by verandas,
bordering on a well-kept gravel path and an equally well graded drive.
Clear, sparkling water rippled in tiny _acequias_ through the front
yards of each, and so furnished the moisture needed for the life of
various little shrubs and flowering plants. The surroundings were at
least "sociable," and there was companionship and jollity, with an
occasional tiff to keep things lively. The married officers, as a rule,
had chosen their quarters farthest from the entrance-gate and nearest
those of the colonel commanding. The bachelors, except the two or three
who were old in the service and had "rank" in lieu of encumbrances, were
all herded together along the eastern end, a situation that had
disadvantages as connected with duties which required the frequent
presence of the occupants at the court-martial rooms or at
head-quarters, and that was correspondingly far distant from the
barracks of the soldiers. It had its recommendations in being convenient
to the card-room and billiard-tables at "the store," and in embracing
within its limits one house which possessed mysterious interest in the
eyes of every woman and most of the men in the garrison: it was said to
be haunted.

A sorely-perplexed man was the post quartermaster when the rumor came
out from the railway-station that Mr. Hayne had arrived and was coming
to report for duty. As a first lieutenant he would have choice of
quarters over every second lieutenant in the garrison: there were ten of
these young gentlemen, and four of the ten were married. Every set of
quarters had i