very sacrifice you think I ought to let you make for
me!"

"By Joe! sir, it wouldn't be a sacrifice! If it will just get you out of
town it will suit me perfectly!"

"Then, sir, you'll not be suited! I'm going to stay here and see what my
enemies are up to; and if they're up to what I think they are, I'll
break their backs if I have to do it single-handed and alone! Good-day,
sir."

"Good-day, John; that's the way you'll have to do it, sir."

"Devil take him," added the General as he found himself alone, "_he's_
crossed the bar. It's his heart that's safe. O, Fan, my poor child!"

LXVII.

PROBLEM: IS AN UNCONFIRMED DISTRUST NECESSARILY A DEAD ASSET?

John went away heavy and bitter. Yet he remembered, this time, to take
more care of his facial expression. He met Shotwell and Proudfit coming
out of the best saloon. They stopped him, complimented his clothes and
his legs, asked a question or two of genuine interest, poked him in the
waistband, and regretted not meeting him sooner. Proudfit suggested,
with the proper anathema, to go back and take a _re_-invigorator with
Vice-President March. But the pleasant Shotwell said:

"You forget, Colonel, that ow a-able young friend belongs to Gideon's
ba-and, now, seh."

Proudfit made a vague gesture of acknowledgment. "And anyhow"--his
tongue thickened and his head waggled playfully--"anyhow, Shot, a
ladies' man's just _got_ to keep his breath sweet, ain't he?"

Shotwell looked as though the rolling earth had struck something. March
paled, but he took the Captain's cigar to light his own as he remarked:

"I don't get the meaning of that expression as clear as I wish you'd
make it, Colonel."

Shotwell pretended to burst with merriment. "Why, neither does the
Colonel! That was only a sort o' glittering generality to hide his
emba'assment--haw, haw, haw!"

Proudfit smiled modestly. "Shot, you're right again! He's right again,
John. It was only one o' my grittlin' gen--my grilterin' geren--aw!
Shot, hush yo' fuss! you confu-use me!"

John was laughing before he knew it. "Gentlemen, I've got to get along
home. I slept at Tom Hersey's hotel last night, and haven't seen my
mother yet. O--eh--Captain----"

Shotwell left Proudfit and walked away with March. Persons rarely asked
advice of the ever-amiable Captain; they went by him to Charley
Champion, whom he reverenced as well as loved. And so he was thoroughly
pleased when John actually let Champion pass them a