dged--was harbored there beneath their general's roof, where the
lights were burning on the brow of the hill.

So not for half an hour did Willett get the news. He would not return
to the hop room. He did not go directly home. He dimly saw the mule
team, at spanking trot, go rattling up the road; saw and heard it draw
up at the general's, and then whisking back to the valley to deposit
Bright. He divined at once that the chief must have returned and
congratulated himself that he would not be expected to pay his duty
until the morning, especially if he at once saw Bright. So upon his
fellow staff officer he projected himself with proper welcome, and the
first question Bright asked was: "How are the Archers?" It had not
occurred to him that no mail had come up for nearly a week--that
Willett did not know that they had started from Almy three days before.
Then Wickham came in and briefly said: "Certainly. They're up at the
general's. They were down at the dance awhile, looking on through the
windows," whereat Harold Willett's handsome face went white.

Late as it was he knew he should go over at once, and he did, and it
was God's mercy, as Wickham said afterwards, that sent the bearded
general, not the gray-haired, raging father to meet him at the door.
There had been a minute of tearful, almost breathless, conference
between the devoted couple before Archer released his wife from his
arms, sent her in to Lilian, and then came down as calmly as he could
to face his host and hostess. There had been a moment or two, in the
sanctity of their chamber, in which this other devoted but childless
couple--the Darby and Joan of the old army--conferred swiftly over the
situation, the wife briefly telling the soldier spouse of what she had
seen, heard and believed, and a glance at Archer had done the rest.
Crook saw the anguish in the face of his old friend, and had only
measurably succeeded in calming him when Willett's step was heard upon
the veranda. The chief sprang to his feet. Archer would have followed,
but with a silent, most significant gesture, the commander warned his
comrade back. Then, closing the parlor door behind him, confronted the
young officer in the silence and darkness of the veranda.

What transpired in that brief interview was never told. Two or three
couples, wearying of the dance, and wending their homeward way, saw the
two tall, shadowy forms in the dim light, saw that one of them was
standing strictly at a