ithout, came forward into the hall just as the
door of Nellie's room was heard to open. Glancing up, he caught sight
of her at the head of the stairs,--her hair dishevelled and rippling
down over her shoulders and nearly covering the dainty wrapper she
wore.

"Mr. Holmes! please see what has happened?" she cried, with wild
anxiety in her eyes. "I hear such dreadful noise, and see men running
down toward the laundresses' quarters."

But there was no need for him to ask. The messenger at the door was
only too eager.

"Oh, Miss Nellie!" she called, sobbing, half in eagerness, half in
genuine distress. "There's such dreadful news! There's a man come in
from Captain Terry's troop, and they've had a terrible fight, and Mr.
McLean an' lots of 'em are killed. It's all true, just as we heard it
this----"

But here Mr. Holmes slammed the door in the foolish creature's face and
went tearing up the stairs, four at a bound, for, clasping the
balusters with both her little hands in a grasp that seemed loosening
every second, Nellie Bayard was sinking almost senseless to the floor.
Chloe, too, came running to her aid, and, between them, they bore her
to the sofa in her pretty room, and then the doctor reached them,
almost rejoicing to find her in tears, instead of the dead faint he
dreaded.

"How could I have been so mad as to bring her to such a pandemonium as
this?" was his exclamation to Holmes as, a moment later, they hastened
forth upon the parade. "Yes," he hastily answered, as a little boy came
running tearfully to him, to say that mamma was taken very ill and they
didn't know what to do for her. "Yes. So are all the women in garrison,
I doubt not; though they're all scared for nothing, I'll bet a dinner.
Tell mamma I'll be there just as soon as I've seen Major Miller. Here
he comes now."

The major, with his adjutant, and followed by his orderly, was coming
rapidly into the quadrangle as he spoke, and the two gentlemen hastened
forward to meet him. From half a dozen houses women or children were
rushing to question the commanding officer with wild, imploring eyes
and faltering tongues. He waved his hands and arms in energetic
gyrations and warned them away.

"Go back! Go back! You distracted geese!" he called. "It's all a lie!
There's hardly been a brush worth mentioning. Terry and his men are all
safe. Now, do stop your nonsense! But come with me, doctor," he quickly
added, in a lower tone. "Come, Mr. Holmes. I want