y. Almost
gave me heart-failure!... Wot t'hell, Bill! Poor old Hugs, it was his
last chance. Sure, we'll have him where we want him now.... Think of
being able to call Hugs down!... Lordy, Lordy, am I awake!"

Suddenly the unnatural tension broke, and a long-limbed trooper jumped
to his feet with his arms in the air. "Boys! Are you dumb! We've passed!
We've got the straps! All together now, Mumbo-Jumbo!"

They marched around the room with their hands on each other's shoulders,
singing:

"For I've got rings on my fingers
And bells on my toes;
Elephants to ride upon----"

In a little house in Vancouver, embowered in such greenery as only the
mild, moist airs of Puget Sound can produce, a young woman sat in her
drawing-room regarding a letter she had just read with a highly
dissatisfied air. It was a pretty little room, not rich nor fussy, but
expressing the charm of an individual woman no less than the clothes she
wore.

To the mistress entered the maid, to wit, a matronly Indian woman with
an intelligent face. She looked from her mistress' face to the letter,
and back to her mistress again. When the latter made no offer to speak
she said, for she was a privileged person:

"You hear from Stonor?"

Clare nodded.

"He not pass his 'xamination, I guess?"

"Certainly he has passed!" said Clare sharply. "If anybody can pass
their examinations he can."

"Why you look so sorry then?"

"Oh--nothing. I didn't expect him to write it. A five-word postscript at
the end of a matter-of-fact letter."

"Maybe he couldn't get leave."

"He said he'd get leave if he passed."

"Maybe he comin' anyhow."

"He never says a word about coming."

"You ask him to come?"

"Of course not!"

"Don't you want him come?"

"I don't know whether I do or not."

Mary looked perplexed.

Clare burst out, "I can't ask him. He'd feel obliged to come. A man--man
like that anyway, would feel after what we've been through together that
I had a claim on him. Well, I don't want him to come out of a sense of
duty. Don't you understand?"

Mary shook her head. "If I want something I ask for it."

"It's not so simple as all that!"

"Maybe he think he not wanted here."

"A man's supposed to take that chance."

"Awful long way to come on a chance," said Mary. "Maybe I write to him."

Clare jumped up. "Don't you dare!" she cried. "If I thought for a
moment--if I thought he had been _brought_, I should be perfectly
hatefu