will be able to get leave and follow us."

She proceeded to tear open the envelope in the ruthless violating way of
which I could never be guilty except with a soulless circular. A letter
from a lover, or a friend, full of thoughts and touched by a dear hand,
is too sacred for such usage. Fearing from Di's expression that she
would be capable of reading aloud choice selections from Major Vandyke's
version of events, I simply couldn't stay to risk hearing them. I jumped
up and fled with my two prizes.

Locked safely in my room, delicately I cut the edge of Eagle's envelope.
I was on the point of drawing out the letter, which appeared to be
meagrely thin, when something within me seemed to faint. Reading what he
had to say, I should know in a very few words, I was sure, the fate to
which he looked forward. There would be no working up, no preamble, to
prepare my mind. I wasn't strong enough to bear it. I should have to
take Tony's letter first, like a dose of sal volatile.

"Dear, dear Peggy," my benevolent Billiken addressed me, and as I read,
the thunder rolled like the far-away drums of Fort Alvarado or El Paso.
"This is my first real letter to you, for I don't count notes; and I
wish it could be a better one. I'm afraid you must be pretty mad about
not getting a telegram at Chicago, or anyhow at Mrs. Main's, when you'd
taken all the trouble to wire me your address. But it was intimated to
all of us concerned that we weren't to telegraph news about _you know
what_ to our families or friends, and that we were even to be discreet
about our letters. I've been so indiscreet with you on that subject
already, on a never-to-be-forgotten night, however, that the latter bit
of fatherly instruction doesn't hold good in my case. Only, before
telling you what I have to tell, I'll just take the liberty of reminding
you once again of your promise to keep mum till Gabriel's trumpet
sounds--or till I take off the embargo (is that the way to spell it, I
wonder, and what exactly does it mean?). As matters look at present, one
thing is liable to happen about the same time as the other. Well, now
I'm going to tell you news of the court-martial as best I can. I'm no
great shakes at telling things, you know. Vandyke was 'seedy' (as you
say in your truly British fashion) the day appointed for the trial, and
as he was the principal witness it had to be put off for twenty-four
hours. You'd have thought it would be March, if anybody, who was