should show great emotion on learning that the
evidence he had given, which had condemned a brother officer to years of
solitary punishment, was now disproved. It was to be expected that
Rayner should be tremulous and excited. He had been looking worse and
worse for a long time past; and now that it was established that he must
have been mistaken in what he thought he saw and heard at Battle Butte,
it was to be expected that he should show the utmost consternation and
an immediate desire to make amends. He _had_ shown great emotion; he was
white and rigid as the colonel told him Clancy had made a full
confession; but the expression on his face when informed that the man
had admitted that he and Sergeant Gower were the only ones guilty of the
crime--that Clancy and Gower divided the guilt as they had the
money--was a puzzle to the colonel. Captain Rayner seemed daft: it was a
look of wild relief, half unbelief, half delight, that shot across his
haggard features. It was evident that _he had not heard at all what he
expected_. This was what puzzled the colonel. He had been pondering over
it ever since the captain's hurried departure "to tell his wife."

"We--we had expected--made all preparations to take this afternoon's
train for the East," he stammered. "We are all torn up, all ready to
start, and the ladies ought to go; but I cannot feel like going in the
face of this."

"There is no reason why you should not go, captain. I am told Mrs.
Rayner should leave at once. If need be, you can return from Chicago.
Everything will be attended to properly. Of course you will know what
to do towards Mr. Hayne. Indeed, I think it might be best for you to
go."

But Rayner seemed hardly listening; and the colonel was not a man to
throw his words away.

"You might see Mrs. Rayner at once, and return by and by," he said; and
Rayner gladly escaped, and went home with the wonderful news he had to
tell his wife.

And now a second time he was back, and was urging upon the commanding
officer the necessity of telegraphing and capturing Mrs. Clancy. In
plain words he told the colonel he believed that she had escaped with
the greater part of the money. The colonel smiled:

"That was attended to early this morning, captain. Hayne and the major
asked that she be secured, and the moment we found her fled it confirmed
their suspicions, and Billings sent despatches in every direction. She
can't get away! She was his temptress, and I mean to