ling poor Latrobe; and Witchie Garrison was beginning to
take heart and look upon that threatening letter as a mad piece of "bluff"
when one day the unexpected happened.

The men of the house, Frost and Garrison, were accustomed, when the latter
was at home, to breakfast together quite early. Then the colonel would
drive off to the Ayuntamiento in the walled city, and Frank would mount his
pony and ride away to his long day's duties. Later the sisters would have
their leisurely breakfast, secure in the protection of the guard, would
give their Chinaman _chef_ his orders for the day, and send him off to make
such purchases as were possible in the now scanty market. Then reading,
writing, receiving callers of their own sex would fill up the morning.
There would be a brief siesta after luncheon, an hour or so on the broad
veranda overlooking the sparkling bay, then dress and the inevitable drive.
Of Armstrong they had seen nothing, heard next to nothing. He was busy with
his men over toward East Paco. Of Billy Gray of late they had seen rather
too much. On one pretext after another he was now forever coming to the
house, and Witchie was beginning to wish that Canker had had his way; but
Canker had failed dismally. The witnesses he counted on proved dumb or
departed, and it had pleased the General-in-Chief to send him with a
regiment of infantry and a brace of guns to garrison an important point on
an adjacent island, and to tell him that in view of the impossibility of
his substantiating his charges against Gray the youngster had some shadow
of excuse for his violent outbreak. Rather than bring up a scandal it was
best to drop the matter entirely. Gray had been sent to duty with the
----teenth before he was thoroughly well, and a good-hearted battalion
commander, taking pity on his obvious change for the worse, had found
occasion after the first ten days at the front to send him back to quarters
in Malate, instead of incessantly on duty along the threatened line toward
Singalon Church; and while he seldom came in the evening when numbers of
visitors were present, the boy had a way of dropping in between three and
four, when he could generally count on a few moments, at least, alone with
Mrs. Frank. She had nursed him well in his slow convalescence, had made
deep impression on his boyish heart, lacerated as he conceived it by a
disappointment at home. She had won him to her service, as she thought,
until she felt sure he was