clock,--and Kate is not yet asleep,
and the captain is still down-stairs, reading. He is not looking well at
all, and Kate is sorely anxious about him. It was his evidence that
brought years of ostracism and misery upon Lieutenant Hayne, and there
are vague indications that in his own regiment the officers are
beginning to believe that possibly he was not the guilty man. The
cavalry officers, of course, say nothing to us on the subject, and I
have never heard the full story. If he has been, as is suggested, the
victim of a scoundrel, and Captain Rayner was at fault in his evidence,
no punishment on earth could be too great for the villain who planned
his ruin, and no remorse could atone for Captain Rayner's share. I never
saw so sad a face on mortal man as Mr. Hayne's. Steven Van Antwerp, I
wish I _were_ a man! I would trace that mystery to the bitter end.

"This is a strange letter to send to--to you; but I am a strange girl.
Already I am more than expecting you to write and release me
unconditionally; and you _ought_ to do it. I do not say I want it.

"Faithfully, at least, yours,

"NELLIE.

"P.S.--Should you write to Kate, you are not to tell her, remember, of
my meeting with Mr. Hayne. Of course I am anxious to have your reply to
that letter; but it will be five days yet."

An odd letter, indeed, for a girl not yet twenty, and not of a
hope-inspiring character; but when it reached Mr. Van Antwerp he did not
pale in reading it: his face was ghastly before he began. If anything,
he seemed relieved by some passages, though rejoiced by none. Then he
took from an inner pocket the letter that had reached him a few days
previous, and all alone in his room, late at night, he read it over
again, threw it upon the table at which he was sitting, then, with
passionate abandonment, buried his face in his arms and groaned aloud in
anguish.

Two days after writing this letter Miss Travers was so unfortunate as to
hear a conversation in the dining-room which was not intended for her
ears. She had gone to her room immediately after breakfast, and,
glancing from her window, saw that the officers were just going to
head-quarters for the daily _matinee_. For half or three-quarters of an
hour, therefore, there could be no probable interruption; and she
decided to write an answer to the letter which came from Mr. Van Antwerp
the previous afternoon. A bright fire was burning in the old-fashioned
stove with which frontier quarters a