letter
gave her son. Her own longing was to have him established in some
business in the East; but he said frankly he had no taste for it, and
would only pine for the old life in the saddle. There were other
reasons, too, said he, why he felt that he could not go back to New
York, and his voice trembled, and Mrs. Maynard said no more. It was the
sole allusion he had made to the old, old sorrow, but it was plain that
the recovery was incomplete. The colonel and the doctor at Sibley
believed that Fred could be carried past the medical board by a little
management, and everything began to look as though he would have his
way. All they were waiting for, said the colonel, was to hear from
Armitage. He was still at Fort Russell with the head-quarters and
several troops of the ----th Cavalry: his wound was too severe for him
to travel farther for weeks to come, but he could write, and he had
been consulted. They were sitting under the broad piazza at Sablon,
looking out at the lovely, placid lake, and talking it over among
themselves.

"I have always leaned on Armitage ever since I first came to the
regiment and found him adjutant," said the colonel. "I always found his
judgment clear; but since our last experience I have begun to look upon
him as infallible."

Alice Renwick's face took on a flood of crimson as she sat there by her
brother's side, silent and attentive. Only within the week that followed
their return--the colonel's and her brother's--had the story of the
strange complication been revealed to them. Twice had she heard from
Fred's lips the story of Frank Armitage's greeting that frosty morning
at the springs. Time and again had she made her mother go over the
colonel's account of the confidence and faith he had expressed in there
being a simple explanation of the whole mystery, and of his indignant
refusal to attach one moment's suspicion to her. Shocked, stunned,
outraged as she felt at the mere fact that such a story had gained an
instant's credence in garrison circles, she was overwhelmed by the
weight of circumstantial evidence that had been arrayed against her.
Only little by little did her mother reveal it to her. Only after
several days did Fred repeat the story of his night adventure and his
theft of her picture, of his narrow escape, and of his subsequent visit
to the cottage. Only gradually had her mother revealed to her the
circumstances of Jerrold's wager with Sloat, and the direful
consequences; o