t of whose face
McCalloway bent forward as though confronted by a spectre--and indeed
the newcomer belonged to a world which he had renounced as finally as
though it had been of another incarnation.

This visitor was lean and weather-beaten. His face was long and somewhat
dour, but tanned brown, and instead of speaking he brought his hand to
his temple with a smart salute. It was such a salute as bespoke a long
life of soldiering and the second nature of military habit. The voice in
which McCalloway greeted him was almost unrecognizable as his own,
because it was both far away and strained.

"Sergeant!" he exclaimed; "what has brought you here?"

"The lad, sor'r," the other gravely reminded him. "I must speak with ye
alone. 'Tis a verra private and a verra serious matter that brings me."

Boone had never heard so hard a note in his benefactor's voice as that
which crept into his curt reply:

"It must needs be--to warrant your coming without permission,
MacTavish."

They were just finishing their daylight supper, and the boy rose,
pushing back his chair. Faithfully he regarded his pledge of respecting
the other's privacy whenever he was not invited to share it, and
instinctively he felt that this was no moment for his intrusion.

"I reckon I'll hev ter be farin' over thar ter see how Asa's woman's
comin' on," he remarked casually, as he reached for the hat that lay at
his feet. "Like es not she needs a gittin' of firewood erginst
nightfall."

But the matter-of-fact tone and manner were on the surface. Boone
secretly distrusted the few messages that came to his preceptor from the
outside world. By such voices he might be called back again and hearken
to the summons. Boone could not contemplate existence with both his
idols ravished from his temple.

Now he closed the door behind him in so preoccupied a mood that he left
his rifle standing against the wall forgotten and McCalloway remained
standing by the table rather inflexible of posture and sternly
inquisitorial of countenance.

"MacTavish," he said in sharply clipped syllables, "you are one of
few--a very few--who know of my incognito and address. I have relied
upon you implicitly to guard those secrets. I trust you can explain
following me into what you must know was a retirement not to be
trespassed upon without incurring my anger--my very serious anger."

Respectfully, but with a face full of eager resoluteness, the other
saluted again.

"General," h