ade to carry it out.

It was Tuesday when I gave the alarm of the poison plot, and Thursday
was the day gossip suggested for a raid. Nevertheless, the people were
no longer nervous. They felt a joyful confidence in the troops who had
been sent to reinforce the garrison at Fort Bliss, and even the most
bloodcurdling newspaper headlines had at length lost much of their
gruesomeness.

By this time Milly Dalziel was as well as ever once more, and using her
regained health to make a "dead set" at Eagle March. (I shouldn't tell
this of her, if what she did later hadn't influenced events in a
strange, dramatic way.) She couldn't let Eagle alone; and she showed her
feelings so plainly--as a very rich girl sometimes thinks she may do
with a comparatively poor man--that even Eagle himself, despite his lack
of self-conceit and his preoccupation with thoughts of Di, couldn't help
understanding. He kept out of Milly's way as often as he could, but she
attributed this retirement to the calls of duty; and at last began to
behave so foolishly that for her own sake he gently snubbed her.

Poor Milly Dalziel had not her pretty, bright red hair for nothing. Her
impulsive emotions, which she concealed badly, and her fiery temper were
its natural accompaniments. When it burst upon her that Eagle March did
not admire her as she admired him, and thought it best she should
realize this once for all, she suffered a wild reaction of feeling. From
being slavishly, ridiculously in love, she flew to the other extreme;
and after an embarrassing little scene, in which Eagle firmly avoided
her, she broke out to me in hysterical abuse of him. He was rude; he was
"no gentleman"; and she didn't see how I could make a friend of such an
ungracious brute. The one thing he could do was to fly, and she only
wished he _would_ fly--far away, and never be seen again.

I was too sorry for the girl to resent as I ought to have resented her
childish but mean abuse. I knew, only too well, how much it hurt to be
in love with Eagle March, and not to have him care an American red cent
in return. I let Milly talk for a while, and then tried to soothe her
down, saying that she would feel differently about everything next day.
This was the signal for the girl to turn on me, which she did so
ferociously that I began to fear I must find an excuse to cut my visit
short. I wanted to stay; I had very little money for travelling, and I
was sure Father would send funds with r