o lean against her father, while he
sat with one arm round her studying his railway problems. She had been
self-sufficient enough all her life,--"an independent little bird of
freedom," as Crozier had called her; but she was like a boat tossed on
mountainous waves now.

"S. O. S.!--Save Our Souls!"

As though she really had made this poignant call Crozier turned round in
the buggy where he sat with Jesse Bulrush, pale but erect; and, with a
strange instinct, he looked straight to where she was. When he saw her
his face flushed, he could not have told why. Was it that there had
passed to him in his sleep the subconscious knowledge of the kiss which
Kitty had given him; and, after all, had he said "My darling" to her
and not to the wife far away across the seas, as he thought? A strange
feeling, as of secret intimacy, never felt before where Kitty was
concerned, passed through him now, and he was suddenly conscious
that things were not as they had ever been; that the old impersonal
comradeship had vanished. It disturbed, it almost shocked him. Whereupon
he made a valiant effort to recover the old ground, to get out of the
new atmosphere into the old, cheering air.

"Come and say good-bye, won't you?" he called to her.

"S. O. S.--S. O. S.--S. O. S.!" was the cry in her heart, but she called
back to him from her lips, "I can't. I'm too busy. Come back soon,
soldier."

With a wave of the hand he was gone. "Not a care in the world she has,"
Crozier said to Jesse Bulrush. "She's the sunniest creature Heaven ever
made."

"Too skittish for me," responded the other with a sidelong look, for he
had caught a note in Crozier's voice which gave him a sudden suspicion.

"You want the kind you can drive with an oatstraw and a chirp--eh, my
friend?"

"Well, I've got what I want," was the reply. "Neither of us 'll kick
over the traces."

"You are a lucky man," replied Crozier. "You've got a remarkably big
prize in the lottery. She is a fine woman, is Nurse Egan, and I owe her
a great deal. I only hope things turn out so well that I can give her
a good fat wedding-present. But I shan't be able to do anything
that's close to my heart if I can't get the cash for my share in the
syndicate."

"Courage, soldier, as Kitty Tynan says," responded Jesse Bulrush
cheerily. "You never know your luck. The cash is waiting for you
somewhere, and it'll turn up, be sure of that."

"I'm not sure of that. I can see as plain as your nose how