, I
believe. But Vandyke's all right, anyhow."

"You speak as if some one wasn't." I heard myself talking, though I
seemed not to have spoken the words deliberately.

"Only the orderly, poor chap. He was driving the car. I guess the
sentries saw him before they saw the white flag."

"They shot him?"

"Yes, unfortunately they did." Tony's voice broke a little, and that
struck me as odd; for he could not have had any personal interest, it
seemed, in Major Vandyke's chauffeur-orderly.

"I hope they didn't kill the poor fellow?" purred Mrs. Dalziel.

"I don't think he's dead yet, mater, but I'm afraid he's past speaking.
They got him in the lungs."

"Major Vandyke's come back, then," I said.

"Oh, yes, he was back in less than an hour, after a parley over there,
explaining everything and making the Constitutionalists understand we
weren't meaning them any harm. I didn't get leave to see you till just
after he had brought his car and his wounded orderly over to this side
again. And now, if your minds are calmed down, I'll be off. I've told
you no secrets. Everything I've said the papers will repeat to-morrow.
But all the same, please don't talk to any one about this business.
Promise, mater, and Milly. And I guess I don't need to ask you, Lady
Peggy. Now, good-bye. I'll see you as early as I can in the morning."

He kissed his mother, patted Milly on the arm, and gave my hand such a
shake that I should have writhed if I had worn any rings. For once,
instead of lingering, he had the air of being glad to escape from us,
but on an impulse I followed him to the door and called him back just as
he had reached the threshold.

"Tony!" I began. He turned with a start, and stopped. I had often been
invited, but had never before consented, to call him Tony.

"I want to ask you something before you go," I said.

He gave me a queer, apprehensive look. "Please don't!"

"Then I'll tell you something, instead. There isn't one word of truth in
your story about what happened. You've been making it all up."

"That's where you're mistaken," he contradicted me. "I haven't made it
up."

"If not, somebody made it up for you, and you've been ordered to put the
story round. This is what people are to believe, the version that the
papers will be given. But it's no use giving it to me. I don't believe
it. So there!"

"It's all I've got to say, and even you won't get a different word out
of me," he said despairingly. "You always di