Of course you don't know that the circus has gone," he remarked.

"Gone!" I echoed, astonished.

"Gone to Lorient."

He came and sat down on the edge of the gilded bedstead, buttoning his
collar thoughtfully.

"Buckhurst is in town again with a raft of picturesque ruffians," he
said. "They marched in last night, drums beating, colors
unfurled--the red rag, you know--and the first thing they did was to
order Byram to decamp."

He began to tie his cravat, with a meditative glance at the gilded
mirror.

"I was here with you. Kelly Eyre came for me--Madame de Vassart took
my place to watch you--"

A sudden heart-beat choked me.

"--So I," he continued, "posted off to the tent, to find a rabble of
communist soldiers stealing my balloon-car, ropes, bag, and all. I
tell you I did what I could, but they said the balloon was contraband
of war, and a military necessity; and they took it, the thieving
whelps! Then I saw how matters were going to end, and I told the
governor that he'd better go to Lorient as fast as he could travel
before they stole the buttons off his shirt.

"Scarlett, it was a weird sight. I never saw tents struck so quickly.
Kelly Eyre, Horan, and I harnessed up; Grigg stood guard over the
props with a horse-pistol. The ladies worked like Trojans, loading the
wagons; Byram raged up and down under the bayonets of those bandits,
cursing them as only a man who never swears can curse, invoking the
Stars and Stripes, metaphorically placing himself, his company, his
money-box, and his camuel under the shadow of the broad eagle of the
United States.

"Oh, those were gay times, Scarlett. And we frightened them, too,
because nobody attempted to touch anything."

Speed laughed grimly, and began to pace the floor, casting sharp
glances at me.

"Byram's people, elephant and all, struck the road a little after
three o'clock this morning, in good order, not a tent-peg nor a
frying-pan missing. They ought to be in Lorient by early afternoon."

"Gone!" I repeated, blankly.

"Gone. Curious how it hurt me to say good-bye. They're good
people--good, kindly folk. I've grown to care for them in these few
months ... I may go back to them ... some day ... if they want a
balloonist ... or any kind of a thing."

"You stayed to take care of me?" I said.

"Partly.... You need care, especially when you don't need it." He
began to laugh. "It's only when you're well that I worry."

I lay looking at him, striving to r