and brought back under charge of
officers of the law? He had had trouble enough, poor fellow!

The officer of the guard looked wonderingly at the carriages and their
occupants. He saluted Major Waldron as the latter stepped briskly down.

"You will take charge of Clancy, Mr. Graham," said the major. "His
discharge will be recalled: at least it will not take effect to-day. You
will be interested in knowing that his voluntary confession fully
establishes Mr. Hayne's innocence of the charges on which he was tried."

Mr. Graham's face turned all manner of colors. He glanced at Hayne, who,
still seated in the carriage, was as calmly indifferent to him as ever:
he was gazing across the wide parade at the windows in officers' row.
Little Kate's sobs as the soldiers were helping her father from the
carriage suddenly recalled his wandering thoughts. He sprang to the
ground, stepped quickly to the child, and put his arms about her.

"Clancy, tell her to come with us. Mrs. Waldron will take loving care of
her, and she shall come to see you every day. The guard-house is no
place for her to follow you. Tell her so, man, and she will go with
us.--Come, Katie, child!" And he bent tenderly over the sobbing little
waif.

"Thank ye, sir. I know ye'll be good to her. Go with the lootenant, Kate
darlin'; go. Shure I'll be happier then."

And, trembling, he bent and kissed her wet cheeks. She threw her arms
around his neck and clung to him in an agony of grief. Gently they
strove to disengage her clasping arms, but she shrieked and struggled,
and poor old Clancy broke down. There were sturdy soldiers standing by
who turned their heads away to hide the unbidden tears, and with a
quiver in his kind voice the major interposed:

"Let her stay awhile: it will be better for both. Don't put him in the
prison-room, Graham. Keep them by themselves for a while. We will come
for her by and by." And then, before them all, he held forth his hand
and gave Clancy's a cordial grasp:

"Cheer up, man. You've taken the right step at last. You are a free man
to-day, even if you are a prisoner for the time being. Better this a
thousand times than what you were."

Hayne, too, spoke a few kind words in a low tone, and gave the old
soldier his hand at parting. Then the guard closed the door, and father
and daughter were left alone. As the groups around the guard-house began
to break up and move away, and the officers, re-entering the carriages,
drove ove