ve in the army."

"If you should see a big Servian with a neck like a bull and a head the
size of a pea, who speaks very bad German, you will do well to keep out
of his way,--unless you find a good place to tie him up. I advise you not
to commit murder without special orders,--do you understand?"

"It is the custom of the country," assented Oscar, in a tone of deep
regret.

"To be sure," laughed Armitage; "and now I am going to give you money
enough to carry out the project I have indicated."

He took from his trunk a long bill-book, counted out twenty new
one-hundred-dollar bills and threw them on the table.

"It is much money," observed Oscar, counting the bills laboriously.

"It will be enough for your purposes. You can't spend much money up there
if you try. Bacon--perhaps eggs; a cow may be necessary,--who can tell
without trying it? Don't write me any letters or telegrams, and forget
that you have seen me if you don't hear from me again."

He went to the elevator and rode down to the office with Oscar and
dismissed him carelessly. Then John Armitage bought an armful of
magazines and newspapers and returned to his room, quite like any
traveler taking the comforts of his inn.

CHAPTER XI

THE TOSS OF A NAPKIN

As music and splendor
Survive not the lamp and the lute,
The heart's echoes render
No song when the spirit is mute--
No songs but sad dirges,
Like the wind through a ruined cell,
Or the mournful surges
That ring the dead seaman's knell.
--Shelley.

Captain Richard Claiborne gave a supper at the Army and Navy Club for ten
men in honor of the newly-arrived military attache of the Spanish
legation. He had drawn his guests largely from his foreign acquaintances
in Washington because the Spaniard spoke little English; and Dick knew
Washington well enough to understand that while a girl and a man who
speak different languages may sit comfortably together at table, men in
like predicament grow morose and are likely to quarrel with their eyes
before the cigars are passed. It was Friday, and the whole party had
witnessed the drill at Fort Myer that afternoon, with nine girls to
listen to their explanation of the manoeuvers and the earliest spring
bride for chaperon. Shirley had been of the party, and somewhat the
heroine of it, too, for it was Dick who sat on his horse out in the
tanbark with the little whistle to his lips and manipulated the troop.

"Here's a confusion of tongues; I