o her, it should be to his own wife!

She plunged into the idea with the reckless daring of a gamester who
throws down his last card to win or lose. It had to be played any way,
so why not double the stakes? She had played on that principle in some
of the most fashionable gaming places of Europe in search of cure for
the ennui she complained of to Captain Jack; so why not in this more
vital game of living pawns?

She had wept in the dark of the garden when his lips had touched her;
she had said, wild, impulsive things; she had been a fool; but in the
light of the new day she set her teeth and determined the folly was
over--only one day remained. Military justice--or injustice--moved
swiftly, and there was a man's life to be saved.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

The sun was just peeping, fiery red and threatening, above the bank of
clouds to the east when Delaven was roused from sweet sleep by the
apparition of Colonel McVeigh, booted, spurred and ready for the
saddle.

"I want you to come riding with me, and to come quick," he said, with
a face singularly bright and happy, considering the episode of the
night before, and the fact that his former friend was now a prisoner
in a cottage back of the dwelling house, guarded by the orderlies.

He had dispatched a courier for a detachment of men from one of the
fortifications along the river. He would send Monroe in their charge
to Charleston with a full statement of the case before he left to join
his brigade--and ere that time:--

Close to his heart lay the little note Pluto had brought him less than
an hour before, the second written word he had ever received from
Judithe. The first had sent him away from her--but this!

So Delaven dressed himself quickly, ate the impromptu breakfast
arranged by the Colonel's order, and joined Judithe at the steps as
the horses were brought around.

She was gracious and gay as usual, and replied to his gallant remarks
with her usual self-possession, yet he fancied her a trifle nervous,
as was to be expected, and that she avoided his gaze, looking over
him, past him, every place but in his eyes, at which he did not
wonder especially. Of all the women he had known she was the last to
associate with a hurried clandestine marriage. Of course it was all
explained by the troublous war times, and the few brief hours, and
above all by the love he had always fancied those two felt for each
other.

They had a five mile ride to the country hom