d lieutenant if he could,
Uncle Ray."

Lanse, lifting his sister in his strong arms, remarked, "I should say
not. Why should he?"

Celia and Captain Rayburn, laughing, exchanged a sympathetic,
comprehending glance.

* * * * *

CHAPTER VI

Three times Jefferson Birch knocked on his sister Charlotte's door. Then
he turned the knob. The door would not open. "Fiddle!" he called,
softly, but got no reply.

"You're not asleep, I know," he said, firmly, at the keyhole. "I can see
a light from outside, if you have got it all plugged up here. Let me in.
I've some important news for you."

Charlotte's lock turned and she threw the door open. "Well, come in,"
she said. "I didn't mean anybody to know, but I'm dying to tell
somebody, and I can trust you."

"Of course!" affirmed Jeff, entering with an air of curiosity. "What's
doing? Painting?"

The table by the window was strewn with artist's materials, drawings,
sheets of water-colour paper and tumblers of coloured water. In the
midst of this confusion lay one piece of nearly finished work--the
interior of an unfurnished room, showing wall decoration and nothing
more. The colouring caught Jeff's eye.

"That's stunning!" he commented, catching up the board upon which the
colour drawing was stretched. "What's it for? Going to put in some
furniture?"

Charlotte laughed. "No, I'm not going to put in any furniture," she
said. "This is just to show a scheme for decorating a den--a man's den.
Do you really like it?"

"It's great!" Jeff stood the board up against the wall and backed away,
studying it with interest. "Those dull reds and blues will show off his
guns and pictures and things in fine shape. How did you ever think it
up?"

Charlotte brought out some sheets of wall-paper, as Jeff thought, but he
saw at once that they were hand-work. They represented in full-size
detail the paper used upon the den walls. Jeff studied them with
interest.

"So this is where you are evenings, after you slip away. You're sitting
up late, too. See here, this won't do!"

"Oh, yes, it will. Don't try to stop me, Jeff. I'm not up late, really
I'm not--only once in awhile."

"I thought people couldn't paint by artificial light."

"They can when they get used to the difference it makes. But I do only
the drudgery, evenings--outlines and solid filling in and that sort of
thing."

"Going to show this to somebody?"

"Oh, don't talk about it!"