ng hysterically to her sister and moaning on her bed was
sufficient to determine his first move, which was to wire for his launch to
come around to the bay shore and take them off to the fleet. The next was
to send and ask for an officer and twenty men from the Cuartel, on
receiving which message the major commanding, standing on the dusty roadway
in front of his men, grinned under his grizzled mustache and said, "Frost's
got 'em again. Here, Gray, you go over and tell him to keep his hair on,
that it's nothing but a fake alarm." And Gray, glad enough of the chance to
go again into the presence of the woman who so fascinated him, sped on his
mission. He was in a fury over his recent humiliation in her very
sight--he, a commissioned officer, tossed aside like a child and outwitted
by this daring intruder in the shape of a private soldier--he and his guard
brushed away and derided by a young fellow in some strange regiment--who
had easily escaped along the beach to an adjoining inclosure into which he
darted and was no more seen. The streets were full of scurrying soldiers,
and it was the simplest thing in the world for him to mingle with them and
make his way to his own command. Of course, Gray well knew who the man must
be--Nita's troublesome lover of whom Witchie had told him so much. There
was his chance to recover the letters and claim the reward; but man and
letters both had escaped his grasp; and when he pulled up, blown and
exhausted after fruitless chase, he was brought to his senses by the sight
of his own men falling in "for business," and he had to scamper for his
sword and join them.

That was a miserable evening. Margaret Garrison was the only member of
the household who seemed to have her wits about her and her nerves under
control, for Frank, her liege lord, had his duty elsewhere, and not until
hours later trotted slowly home. Margaret plainly let Gray understand how
he had fallen in her estimation at being so easily tossed aside. A
warning finger was laid upon her lips. "Not one word of what has happened
while he is here," she muttered; and a nod of her fluffy head toward the
perturbed colonel told plainly that the chief of the household really had
no place in the family councils. To the sisters that alarm was a blessing
in disguise. It was all sufficient to account for Nita's prostration. To
the rash and reckless lad, who, claiming to be an orderly with a letter
from the colonel, had been passed by the ga