usly as
containing his one clue to the Governor's identity. Now that the evil
hour the woman dreaded had come, Archie found himself hesitating as he
listened to the agent's complaint of the fate that had stranded him in
so desolate a spot. The man turned to answer the importunity of the
instrument which was sounding his call and Archie tore open the
envelope. In a flowing hand which expressed something of the grace and
charm of the woman who had given it to him in circumstances so
remarkable, he read:

Mrs. Julia Van Doren Graybill
Until October 1, Southampton, L. I.

The agent was taking a train order and was unaware of the agitation of
the man at the window. It was the Van Doren that burnt itself into
Archie's consciousness. It was an old name of honorable connotations,
one with which he had been familiar all his life. It was chiseled in the
wall of the church near the pew held for a hundred years by his own
family; it was a name of dignity, associated with the best traditions of
Manhattan Island; and this, presumably, was the Governor's name.
Graybill was unfamiliar, and this puzzled him, for he knew and could
place half a dozen Van Dorens, probably relatives in some degree of the
Governor, but he recalled no woman of the family who had married a
Graybill. Julia had said at the Governor's that she remembered him; but
even now with her name before him he could not place her.

He made his message as brief as possible:

Regret that I must act on my promise of several weeks ago and use
the address given in confidence. Encouraged to believe that the
patient will recover. Suggest, however, that you come at once.

To this he added instructions as to the most direct route to Huddleston,
and signed himself Ashton Comly.

He and Congdon were at the supper table when he received the answer:

Thank you. I am just leaving. J. V. D. G.

Archie was not permitted to enter the sick room, but from time to time
he received assurances that the patient's condition was "satisfactory,"
and at intervals Dr. Reynolds recited with professional brevity data as
to temperature, respiration and the like. A second nurse was
imperatively needed, but when they were considering the danger of adding
to the number of persons who knew that a wounded man was fighting for
his life in the abandoned village, Mrs. Leary suggested Sally--Sally who
had been in tears from the moment the Governor was carried