curly pate
of hers out of the door. I want you to know Mr. Wing, Sergeant Wing,
who has charge of the signal-station here."

Almost instantly a slender hand, holding a little brass hurricane
lantern, appeared at the opening, followed by a sweet, smiling face,
while just behind it peered another, only a trifle older and more
serious, yet every whit as pretty. Wing raised his old felt hat and
mentally cursed the luck that had sent him down there in his ragged
shirt-sleeves. Pike, the cynic, busied himself in getting the buckets
from underneath the stout spring wagon, and bumped his head savagely
against the trunk-laden boot as he emerged.

"I never dreamed of seeing ladies to-night," laughed the sergeant.
"It's the rarest sight in all the world here; but I remember you well
when you came to Yuma last year. That was when you were going to
school at San Francisco, I believe."

"That was when I was in short dresses and a long face, sergeant,"
merrily answered the younger girl. "I hated the idea of going there
to school. Fan, here, was willing enough, but I had never known
anything but Arizona and Mexico. All I could think of was that I was
leaving home."

"She was soon reconciled, Mr. Wing," said Miss Harvey; "there were
some very pleasant people on the steamer."

"Oh, very pleasant for you, Fan, but what did they care for a chit of
fourteen? _You_ had lovely times, of course."

"So did you, Ruth, from the very day Mr. Drummond helped you to catch
your dolphin."

"Ah! we were more than half-way to San Francisco then," protested Miss
Ruth, promptly, "and nobody had taken any notice of me whatever up to
that minute."

"Well, Mr. Drummond made up for lost time from that on," laughed the
elder sister. "I never told of her, Ned,--wasn't I good?--but Ruth
lost her young heart to a cavalry cadet not a year out of the Point."

"Is it our Lieutenant Drummond who was with you?" queried Wing.

"Oh, yes; why, to be sure, he _is_ of your regiment. He was going back
to testify before some court at the Presidio, and--wasn't madame
mean?--she wouldn't allow him to call on Ruth at the school, even when
I promised to play chaperon and insure strict propriety and no
flirting."

Ruth Harvey had, with quick movement, uplifted a little hand to
silence her sister, but the hand dropped, startled, and the color
rushed to her face at Wing's next words.

"Then you're almost sure to meet the lieutenant to-night or to-morrow.
He's been