ss to--with Mrs.
Gordon and an interesting family to consider. What tent'd the ladies go
to? _I_ didn't see 'em."

"Mrs. Gordon, suh," said the adjutant, with placid superiority,
"considers it a reflection on her sex when I fail to pay it due homage.
Of course you didn't see the ladies. The party was shown into the
general's own domicile. Couldn't you see how many young fellows were
posing in picturesque attitudes in front of it? Awe Hank!" he suddenly
shouted to an officer striding past the tent in dripping mackintosh.
"Goin' up to division headquarters? Just tell the staff or the chief I've
sent an orderly galloping after Squeers. He's halfway to the Presidio
now, but it'll be an hour before they can get back." The silent officer
nodded and went on, whereat Gordon made a spring for the entrance and
hailed again.

"Say, Hank! Who are the damsels?"

The answer came back through the fog:

"People from the East--looking for a runaway. Old gent, pretty daughter,
and pretty daughter's prettier cousin. Heard the orders?"

"Damn the orders! They don't touch _us_. Where do they come from?"

"D'rect from Washington, they say. Three regiments to sail at once,
and----"

"Oh, I know all that!" shouted Gordon impatiently. "It was all over camp
an hour ago! Where do they--the girls--come from? What's their name?"

"Wasn't presented," was the sulky reply. "Let a lot of stuffy old women
show up in search of long-lost sons and those fellows at headquarters
unload them on us in less than no time, but a brace of pretty girls--!
Why, they double the gate guards so that no outsider can so much as see
them. Billy, here, knows 'em. Ask him."

By this time the youngster had ranged up alongside the adjutant and was
laughingly enjoying the latest arrival's tirade at the expense of the
headquarters' staff, but at his closing words Lieutenant Billy's grin of
amusement suddenly left his face, giving way to a look of blank amaze.

"_I_ know 'em! I haven't been east of the Big Muddy since I was a kid."

"They asked for you all the same, just after you started. 'Least one of
'em did--for What's-his-name?--the chief's military legal adviser, came
out bareheaded and called after you, but you were out of hearing. He said
the cousin, the prettiest one, recognized you as you skipped away from
the general's tent and pointed you out to her friend. Somebody explained
you were running an errand for one of those aides too lazy to go himself,
and t