r? Not since morning. Why?"

"There was a sort of snarl down at the store this morning, Some mention
of it was made while we were talking there at Whaling's, and I was
anxious to get the particulars. Wilkins was saying something about Ray
that worries me. Have you heard nothing?"

"Not a thing, Luce. Did you suppose Mrs. Turner was possessed of all the
information and would come to me with it?"

The major looked uncomfortable. "She would be apt to go to somebody, and
you were the nearest. Both those youngsters, Dana and Hunter, were
present, and they are leaky vessels, I'm told. Turner never tells her
anything, but the boys do."

"What a thing to say, Luce!"

"Can't help it," growled the major, thrusting out his spurred boot-heels
towards the railing and tilting back in his chair. "You never heard, I
suppose, that between her and Mrs. Raymond and Mrs. Wilkins there was a
regular intelligence bureau at Sandy two years ago. So you heard nothing
about this affair?"

"Not a word; and it occurs to me, Major Stannard, that you look vastly
as though you wish Mrs. Turner _had_ come with the details. That's just
the way with you men. You rail at our sex for gossiping, and growl when
we can't or won't tell you anything. Luce! Luce! How consistent!" And in
her enjoyment of her burly lord's discomfiture, Mrs. Stannard forgot for
the moment her many anxieties and laughed blithely.

The major had too much to worry him, however, and this was so evident to
his devoted wife that her laugh was brief,--it was never loud or
strident,--and she moved her chair nearer to his own.

"Is Mr. Ray in any trouble?" she asked, with genuine concern.

"I don't know. Of the officers present at the conversation in the store
this morning all I have since seen were infantrymen, whom I couldn't
ask. Wayne and Merrill heard something of it and came to me at once
because of their regard for Ray, but Blake has gone to town. He is the
man who snubbed Crane and Wilkins. It seems Wilkins claims to have a
letter from somebody--that man Gleason probably--to the effect that Ray
has been on a perpetual tear with the very man of all others I dreaded
his meeting. You remember that contractor, Rallston."

"Mr. Ray's brother-in-law?"

"Yes; worse luck! I knew the fellow by reputation before we went to
Arizona. He's a scoundrel, and a very polished one, too. Ray is smart
enough ordinarily, but if Rallston has been trying to sell him horses
there will be trou