n the contrary, he was as urgent as a school
child. Everything about him, packed in boxes and traveling bags,
seemed prepared for instant journey. Upon his table a few disarranged
papers were scattered beside a leathern portfolio, through which he had
evidently been looking when I arrived. Without stopping to replace any
of the documents he hastened me to a seat, and drawing his chair close,
commanded me to begin. My coming had been so sudden I had given no
consideration to the nature of my report to Serigny, and found some
difficulty in gathering ideas together in such shape they would be
understood. I had hardly begun my statement when quick steps sounded
along the outer passage followed by an almost imperative knock on the
door. Jerome, I thought. So it was. Jerome, bespattered and soiled
from his hard ride, a raw bruise across his cheek, his clothing awry.
He was pale and determined, yet quiet withal.

I instinctively rose and laid my hand to my hilt. A glance reassured
me. His purpose, lying deeper, I could not divine; it was plain though
he brooded not that kind of quarrel. Nor do I to this day know what he
intended when he first entered Serigny's room that night.

"I rode after you in all haste, Captain."

"Indeed you did," I mentally agreed.

"And met a fall, which, as you see, has somewhat disfigured me," and he
laughed, while I agreed with him again.

Serigny, being so intent on the important transactions of the hour,
accepted his explanation without question. The welcome, though
cordial, was brief, Serigny being a man of no unnecessary words.

"Go on, Captain," and I picked up the broken thread of my narrative
where Jerome had interrupted.

As I went on obediently, Jerome would now and again supply some link
wherein my memory failed, or suggest something I had left unsaid, until
having so much the nimbler tongue he took the telling out of my mouth
entirely. I could not complain, for he detailed the various adventures
far better than I, and gave me more of the credit than I would have
claimed for myself. We had, by common consent, forgotten our late
strife, and becoming much interested I broke in upon a glowing account
of my heroism:

"Hold, Jerome, by my faith, you grow more garrulous than a fish-wife of
the barriers; tell but a plain, straight tale, and leave off all that
romantic garniture of thine," and thence I reclaimed my straggling
story and brought it to a conclusion. All this