atastrophe.

"I _ordered_ them here,--to enter and search."

A pause.

"Search what?--what for?"

"For--a woman I had reason to believe he had brought out here from
town."

"_What?_ You infernal idiot! Why, she's his own sister, and this
gentleman's wife!"

The silence, broken only by the hard breathing of some of the excited
men and the moaning cry of the woman, was for a moment intense.

"Isn't this Mr. Hurley?" asked Blake, suddenly, as though to make sure,
and turning one instant from his furious glare at his superior officer.
The stranger, still held, though no longer struggling, replied between
his set teeth,--

"Certainly. I've told him so."

"By heaven, Buxton, is there no limit to your asininity? What fearful
work will you do next?"

"I'll arrest _you_, sir, if you speak another disrespectful word!"
thundered Buxton, recovering consciousness that as commanding officer he
could defend himself against Blake's assault.

"Do it and be---- you know what I _would_ say if a lady were not
present! Do it, if you think you can stand having this thing ventilated
by a court. Pah! I can't waste words on you. Who's gone for the doctor?
Here, you men, let go of Mr. Hurley now. Help me, Mr. Hurley, please.
Get your wife back to her room. Bring me some water, one of you." And
with that he was bending over Hayne and unbuttoning the fatigue-uniform
in which he was still dressed. Another moment, and the doctor had come
in, and with him half the young officers of the garrison. Rayner was led
away to his own quarters. Buxton, dazed and frightened now, ordered the
guards back to their post, and stood pondering over the enormity of his
blunder. No one spoke to him or paid the faintest attention other than
to elbow him out of the way occasionally. The doctor never so much as
noticed him. Blake had briefly recounted the catastrophe to those who
first arrived, and as the story went from mouth to mouth it grew no
better for Buxton. Once he turned short on Mr. Foster and in aggrieved
and sullen tone remarked,--

"I thought you fellows in the Riflers said he had no relations."

"We weren't apt to be invited to meet them if he had; but I don't know
that anybody was in position to know anything about it. What's that got
to do with this affair, I'd like to hear?"

At last somebody took him home. Mrs. Waldron, meantime, had arrived and
been admitted to Mrs. Hurley's room. The doctor refused to go to Captain
Rayner's, even whe