long time--fact is, he's engaged to my sister. I
asked him if he'd heard about Captain March being wounded. And he
said--only I don't know as I ought to tell you what he said----"

"Tell me--every word," I panted.

"Well, then, if it's _every_ word you want, miss, he said it was all
damn nonsense about March being wounded, that something big was up, and
he's under arrest."

Under arrest! The words struck like bullets. Just for a second
everything swam before my eyes, and I was afraid that I was going to do
the most idiotic thing a woman can do--faint. You see, I had had no
sleep and wasn't quite at my best. But I pulled myself together, and in
my ears my voice sounded only a little sharp, as I asked the messenger
if his soldier friend had given him any further information.

"Not he! Shut up tight as a clam," was the answer. "I don't believe he
knowed anything else."

There was nothing more to be got from that quarter, so I paid the man
and let him go. Then I tried to think how I could hope to probe to the
bottom of the mystery, since mystery there certainly was. It seemed to
me that, since I wasn't able to reach Eagle by letter, my one chance lay
in Tony. His manner, and the admissions he had inadvertently dropped
last night, had told me that he had some knowledge of the truth, which
was to be hidden from the public. He had refused to be pumped, and I
respected him for his refusal; but I wasn't the public. Whatever the
secret might be, I would keep it. All I wanted to do was to help Captain
March if he could be helped; for I was sure all through to my soul that,
if he had been arrested, it was through some terrible mistake or cruel
injustice. It was wicked of me, perhaps, deliberately to make a tool of
poor Tony's love for me, but I tried to justify myself in deciding to do
so by saying that no harm could come to him through it, or evil to any
one.

"I'll wheedle the truth out of Tony," I thought again.

I dared not write and beg him to come and see me, for after our parting
last night he would suspect what I wanted and have time to steel himself
against me before we met. Nor could I go to the camp and try to find him
there, for I--a young girl--wouldn't be admitted alone even if I were
desperate enough to think of attempting such a wild adventure. If I
persuaded Mrs. Dalziel to take me, and we had the luck to see Tony, I
shouldn't have a moment with him alone, whereas the process of
"wheedling" might take many