knavery so exactly
the architect of his own destruction as mine? And for what gain? Just
the excitement of the comedy from day to day!--for she was sure to
despise me as soon as she knew--and the desire to hear her voice say
another kindly thing to me--and the everlasting perhaps in every woman,
and this one the Heart's Desire of all the world! Ah, well! Tell me--I
want to hear it from you--how many hours does the doctor say?"

"Hours, Crailey?" Tom's hand twitched pitifully in the other's feeble
grasp.

"I know it's only a few."

"They're all fools, doctors!" exclaimed Vanrevel, fiercely.

"No, no. And I know that nothing can be done. You all see it, and you
want me to go easily--or you wouldn't let me have my own way so much!
It frightens me, I own up, to think that so soon I'll be wiser than the
wisest in the world. Yet I always wanted to know. I've sought and I've
sought--but now to go out alone on the search--it must be the search,
for the Holy Grail--I----"

"Please don't talk," begged Tom, in a broken whisper. "For mercy's sake,
lad. It wears on you so."

Crailey laughed weakly. "Do you think I could die peacefully without
talking a great deal? There's one thing I want, Tom. I want to see all
of them once more, all the old friends that are going down the river at
noon. What harm could it do? I want them to come by here on their way
to the boat, with the band and the new flag. But I want the band to
play cheerfully! Ask 'em to play 'Rosin the Bow,' will you? I've never
believed in mournfulness, and I don't want to see any of it now. It's
the rankest impiety of all! And besides, I want to see them as they'll
be when they come marching home--they must look gay!"

"Ah, don't, lad, don't!" Tom flung one arm about the other's shoulder
and Crailey was silent, but rested his hand gently on his friend's head.
In that attitude Fanchon found them when she came.

The volunteers gathered at the court-house two hours before noon. They
met each other dismally, speaking in undertones as they formed in lines
of four, while their dispirited faces showed that the heart was out of
them. Not so with the crowds of country folk and townspeople who lined
the streets to see the last of them. For these, when the band came
marching down the street and took its place, set up a royal cheering
that grew louder as Jefferson Bareaud, the color-bearer, carried the
flag to the head of the procession. With the recruits marched the
veter