sing's prelection that it created a sort of
mitigating effect, and made the enormity it qualified gain a trifle of
respectability from the fact that Captain Demere countenanced it. Odalie
knew already that he was the commandant, and it was plain to be seen
that Captain Demere stood first in Mrs. Halsing's estimation. And the
officers all, she declared, the captains, the frisky lieutenants, and
the ensigns, all drank tafia.

"When they can git it," interpolated Mrs. Beedie, with twinkling eyes.

"They are deprived, I will say, by the slowness and seldomness of the
express from over the mountains. But if they are a sober set, it is
against their will, and that I do maintain," Mrs. Halsing added, turning
an unflinching front toward Mrs. Beedie. Then resuming her dissertation
to Odalie:--

"But there's one thing that rests on my mind. I can't decide which one
it belongs to, Captain Stuart or Captain Demere. Did ye see--I know ye
did--a lady's little riding-mask on the shelf of the great hall. Ye must
have seen it,"--lowering her voice,--"a love token?"

"Oh," said Odalie, in a casual tone and with a slight shrug of the
shoulders, not relishing the intrusive turn of the disquisition, "a
souvenir, perhaps, from the colonies or over seas."

"La, now!" cried Mrs. Halsing, baffled and disconcerted, "you're as
French as a frog!"

Recovering herself, she resumed quickly. "It's the deceitfulness of
Captain Stuart that sets me agin him. Ye must be obleeged to know he
can't abide the Injuns. He keeps watch day and night agin 'em. Yet they
think everything o' Captain Stuart! They _all_ prize him. Now don't ye
know such wiles as he hev got for them must be deceit?"

Odalie made an effort to say something about magnetism, but it seemed
inadequate to express the officer's bonhomie, when Mrs. Halsing
continued:

"Ye never know _how_ to take Captain Stuart," she objected. "Before
folks he'll behave to Captain Demere as ceremonious and polite as if
they had just met yesterday; but if you hear them talking off together,
in another minute he'll be rollicking around as wild as a buck, and
calling him 'Quawl--I say Quawl!'"

She evidently resented this familiarity to the dignified officer, and
Odalie pondered fruitlessly on the possible ridicule involved in being
called "Quawl."

In this remote frontier fort a strong personal friendship had sprung up
between the two senior officers which not only promoted harmony in their
own relat