the truth as to this
night's business, it would be well to arrest Trooper Rawdon, or he'll be
off for good and all."

"Find him, then, sergeant-of-the-guard, and have it done," said Button.
"Report it to the officer-of-the-day as my order."

III

That ended the dance, but not the excitement. Women and girls were
seeking their wraps even before the corporal came, and now went
twittering homeward, each on the arm of her escort, except in the case
of those allied forces, the wives of certain seniors, who long had
lived, moved, and ruled in the regiment, and now in eager yet guarded
tones were discussing the events of the hour gone by. With these went
Mrs. Foster, her husband having joined the searching party, and her
sleigh, instead of returning, being still missing and unaccounted for.

Not yet midnight, and in the space of less than one hour all Fort
Cushing had been stirred by the news. A most popular and prominent young
officer had been placed in close arrest. A prominent, if not most
popular, sergeant, had been pummelled. An alarming scene of some kind
had occurred at the quarters of Captain Sumter. No one outside of the
immediate family knew just what had happened, and those inside cared not
to tell. Mrs. Sumter had hurried away the minute she learned that her
husband had gone. The colonel, sternly silent, led his wife to their
door, and there left her, saying he had summoned certain officers to
join him at once, and she, who ruled him in all matters domestic almost
as she managed the children, knew well that when roused he would brook
no interference in matters professional, and Bob Lanier, a prime
favorite of hers, had in some way managed to fall under the ban of his
extreme displeasure.

At the office were presently assembled the colonel, the adjutant, the
quartermaster, the post surgeon, and to them came Paymaster Scott. At
the "store," the only club-room they had in those days, were gathered
half the commissioned officers of the post. At Sumter's there kept
coming and going by twos and threes, from all along the officers' line,
a succession of sympathetic callers, who left even more mystified than
when they arrived. Mrs. Sumter was aloft with Kate and their guest, and,
as the captain civilly but positively told all visitors, "had to be
excused." One of the girls was "somewhat hysterical." Miriam had had a
fright in the dark on their return home and screamed. Something foolish,
probably, but none th