who is not entirely a stranger to my wife."

Then all eyes were on Loring as he slowly dropped his hand and looked
with undisguised astonishment at the accused. Blake, a spectator,
suddenly drew his long legs under him and straightened up in his seat.
It was needless for Loring to speak. His eyes questioned.

"I do not mean that Mr. Loring knows my wife, but--she has heard of him
from her sister. They hoped to find him in Frisco."

Loring had picked up a pencil as he turned. Its point was resting on the
pine-topped table. He never spoke. His eyes, still steadily fixed upon
the twitching face of Nevins, questioned further, and every man present
strained his ears for the next word.

"I should explain--her sister is Miss Geraldine Allyn."

And with a snap that was heard all over the assemblage the lead of
Loring's pencil broke short off. He sat staring at Nevins, white and
stunned.

CHAPTER V.

The sutler's "shack" at Camp Cooke was crowded with officers that
evening and the episode of Nevins' address was the talk of all tongues.
Certain civilians were there, too, frequenters of Sancho's place, but
they were silent, observant and unusually abstemious. To say that Nevins
had astonished everybody by an exhibition of feeling and an access of
conscience would be putting it mildly. But the fact was indisputable. He
himself, after adjournment, exhibited to the interrogative major two
long letters, recently received from San Francisco, in graceful feminine
hand, and signed "Your sad but devoted wife, Naomi." One of these
referred to Lieutenant Loring, "whom Geraldine met at West Point and saw
frequently the summer and fall that followed his graduation."

There were members of the court who sought to hear what Loring had to
say on the subject, but he proved unapproachable. All men noted the
amaze--indeed, the shock--that resulted from Nevins' public and somewhat
abrupt mention of the sister's name. The judge advocate sat for a moment
as though stricken dumb, his eyes fixed and staring, his face pallid,
the muscles of his compressed lips twitching perceptibly, his hand
clinched and bearing hard upon the table. There were few army women at
Camp Cooke in those days, only two or three veteran campaigners and one
misguided bride, but had the post been full of them there could hardly
have been curiosity more lively than was exhibited by most of the court
all that long afternoon and evening. Conjecture, comment, suggest