ssume, and had induced Miss Tescheron, perhaps, to
avoid meeting me. The flowers, perhaps, were only to mislead me.

"Did I really ask if they concerned Mr. Hosley?" And she looked at me
with such a teasing air.

"You surely did."

"Well, you used to have so much to say about him I thought perhaps you
might have heard from him, you know, through this gentleman who called,
and if you are still friendly to him you would not want to have his
letters read around the hospital to furnish entertainment. Still, these
letters were written by a married man, and I understand you and Mr.
Hosley are bachelors. Mr. Hosley might have written these letters as a
bachelor, I feared, and might not be proud to hear them now. He--"

"Tell me, if you thought of reading them to Mr. Hosley, where is he? It
might interest me to know. You sometimes talk strangely, as if you know
where he is, and yet you will not tell me. Has Miss Tescheron confided
his whereabouts to you? If so, please tell me, for I would, indeed, like
to confront that gentleman mighty well."

"Then you are really friendly to Mr. Hosley, and may look for him when
you leave here?" She spoke as if I were about to confirm her impression
that I knew only good of Hosley.

"I shall certainly find him, never fear. But my friendship for that man
is dead--slain by his own hand," said I, bitterly.

This seemed to shock her rudely, but she quickly recovered and asked:

"Why look for a man in whom you have no interest? Has he committed some
crime that you would track him down?"

"I will track that man down to his very grave," said I, solemnly,
shaking my forefinger at her as she rested one hand on the foot of the
bed and looked at me with breathless interest. "Miss Tescheron shall
know all that I learn. If she should ever happen to call here to see
you, be sure to tell her that, if you please; but you need not say I
told you to tell her. Only, I shall be willing to have her know that I
am on the trail of that scoundrel. There--I did not mean to burden you
with my opinion of Hosley. I had intended to leave here quietly without
saying a word about him. The secret has clawed at my heart so that I
have not been able to keep it. And what matters it? You do not know him.
I am satisfied that he has skipped to parts unknown, because he fears
that officers are watching for him here. My, but it is terrible!
Terrible! How can such villains achieve their dastardly ends with women
and escape