offered his hand to Rayner. This was something the Riflers
could not account for. The intensity of his feeling at the time of the
court-martial none could forget: the vehemence of his denunciation of
the captain was still fresh in the memory of those who heard it. Then
there were all those years in which Rayner had continued to crowd him to
the wall; and finally there was the almost tragic episode of Buxton's
midnight visitation, in which Rayner, willingly or not, had been in
attendance. Was it not odd that in the face of all these considerations
the first man to whom Mr. Hayne should have offered his hand was Captain
Rayner? Odd indeed! But then only one or two were made acquainted with
the full particulars of Clancy's confession, and none had heard Nellie
Travers's request. Touched as he was by the sight of Rayner's haggard
and trouble-worn face, relieved as he was by Clancy's revelation of the
web that had been woven to cover the tracks of the thieves and ensnare
the feet of the pursuers, Hayne could not have found it possible to
offer his hand; but when he bent over the tiny glove and looked into her
soft and brimming eyes at the moment of their parting he could not say
no to the one thing she asked of him: it was that if Rayner came to say,
"Forgive me," before they left, he would not repel him.

There was one man in garrison whom Hayne cut entirely, and for whom no
one felt the faintest sympathy; and that, of course, was Buxton. With
Rayner gone, he hardly had an associate, though the _esprit de corps_ of
the ----th prompted the cavalry officers to be civil to him when he
appeared at the billiard-room. As Mr. Hurley was fond of the game, an
element of awkwardness was manifest the first time the young officers
appeared with their engineer friend. Hayne had not set foot in such a
place for five years, and quietly declined all invitations to take a cue
again. It was remembered of him that he played the prettiest game of
French caroms of all the officers at the station when he joined the
Riflers as a boy. Hurley could only stay a very short time, and the
subalterns were doing their best to make it lively for him. Some,
indeed, showed strong inclination to devote themselves to Mrs. Hurley;
but she was too busy with her brother's household affairs to detect
their projects. Hurley had turned very red and glared at Buxton the
first time the two met at the club-room, but the bulky captain speedily
found cover under which to