dge advocate read, looked puzzled, glanced up, and cleared his
throat.

"You mean you want these summoned?"

"No, they're here, in my office."

The judge advocate turned to the orderly of the court, a soldier
standing in full dress uniform at the door. The hallway, even, was
blocked with lookers-on. The windows to the south were occupied by
curious citizens, gazing in from the wooden gallery. Those to the north,
thrown wide open to let in the air, were clear, and looked out over a
confused muddle of shingled roofs and stove-pipe chimneys. Hardly a
whisper passed from lip to lip as the orderly bustled away. Members of
the court fidgeted with their sash tassels, or made pretense of writing.
Nevins, the sheriff's officer, in close attendance, sat staring at the
doorway, his face ashen, and beginning to bead with sweat. Presently the
people in the hall gave way right and left, and all eyes save those of
Loring were intent upon the entrance. He sat coolly looking at the man
whom six months before he had convicted in Arizona. There was a stir in
the courtroom. Half the people rose to their feet and stared, for slowly
entering upon the arm of a tall, slim, long legged lieutenant of
infantry, a stranger to every man in the court, came a slender,
shrinking little maid, whose heavy eyelashes swept her cheeks, whose
dark, shapely head hung bashfully. Behind them, in the garb of some
religious order, unknown to all save one or two in the crowded room,
came a gentle-faced woman, leaning on the arm of a field officer of the
Engineers, at sight of whom the president sprang from his chair,
intending to bow, but the silence was suddenly broken by the quick,
stern order, "Look out for your prisoner!" followed by a rush, a
crashing of overturned chairs, as court and spectators, too, started to
their feet--a general scurry to the northward windows, shouts of "Halt!"
"Head him off!" "Stop him!" in the midst of which a light, supple form
was seen to poise one instant on the sill, then go leaping into space.
"He's killed!" "He's not!" "He's up again!" "He's off!" were the cries,
and with drawn revolver the deputy sheriff fought his way through the
throng at the door and with a dozen men at his heels, darted down the
hallway in vain pursuit of Nevins, now out of sight among the shanties
half a block away.

Of all that followed before the court when at last it came to order,
there is little need to tell. The judge advocate would have been g