now how to refuse the lady, until
she poured me out a big tumbler of wine--wine, she said, she was taking
in to Sergeant Briggs and Corporal Turner that was shot at the Elk, and
she couldn't bear to see me all alone out there in the cold." But Six
said he dasn't take the wine. He got six months "blind" once for a
similar solecism, and, mindful of the major's warning (this was
diplomatic) Six swore he had sworn off, and had to refuse the repeated
requests of the lady. He suspicioned her, he said, because she was so
persistent. Then she laughed and said good-night and went on to the
hospital. What became of the wine she had poured out? (This from the
grim and hitherto silent doctor, seated by the bedside.) She must have
tossed it out or drunk it herself, perhaps, Six didn't know. Certainly
no trace of it could be found in the snow. Then nothing happened for as
much as twenty minutes or so, and he was over toward the south end of
his post, but facing toward the hospital when she came again down the
steps, and this time handed him some cake and told him he was a good
soldier not to drink even wine, and asked him what were the lights away
across the Platte, and he couldn't see any, and was following her
pointing finger and staring, and then all of a sudden he saw a million
lights, dancing, and stars and bombs and that was all he knew till they
began talking to him here in hospital. Something had hit him from
behind, but he couldn't tell what.

Flint's nerve was failing him, for here was confirmation of the
general's theory, but there was worse to come and more of it.

Miss McGrath, domestic at the trader's, had told a tale that had reached
the ears of Mistress McGann, and 'twas the latter that bade the major
summon the girl and demand of her what it was she had seen and heard
concerning "Crappo" and the lady occupant of the second floor front at
the trader's home. Then it was that the major heard what others had
earlier conjectured--that there had been clandestine meetings, whispered
conferences and the like, within the first week of the lovely niece's
coming to Fort Frayne. That notes had been fetched and carried by
"Crappo" as well as Pete; that Miss Flower was either a somnambulist or
a good imitation of one, as on two occasions the maid had "peeked" and
seen her down-stairs at the back door in the dead hours of the night, or
the very early morning. That was when she first came. Then, since the
recapture, Miss McGrath fe