er himself with
an extraordinary swiftness at moments, and to be again the alert,
adventurous creature of the woods and wilds his extraordinary career
proclaimed him.

It was in a moment of supreme sobriety that he touched Paul's arm and
said:

'I'll tell you all about little Gertie right away.'

CHAPTER XXIV

The Colonel's capacity for the holding of liquid substances looked
abnormal even to a man of Paul's experience.

'Thirst is now assuaged,' he said solemnly at the end of his third deep
tumbler, 'and a man may begin to enjoy himself. There ought to be a boy
here who can make a cocktail.'

He kept the boy fairly busy, and he talked. He had recovered himself
curiously, and there was now no more than a hint of coming intoxication
in his eye and in his voice. It seemed as if he had arrived at a settled
stage, and was able to make a longish stay there.

'You're pretty thick with our little friend, ain't you?' he asked,
rolling round in his seat.

'If you are speaking of the lady who left us a little while ago----'

'Why, certainly,' said the Colonel.

'I have the honour of her friendship,' said Paul with an icy air.

The Colonel was no longer smoking, but he chewed the end of his cigar
with a lazy appetite, and he smiled.

'Funny little devil she is,' he said contemplatively. 'Women are odd,
however you take 'em; but she's odder than odd. By God, sir, she's
odder than Dick's hat-band! I suppose she wants me to believe that she's
forgotten how I bowled her out years ago. Soul! Heart 'It was before she
got married. She made me believe that I was the only man she ever came
across who had either. There were twenty-three of us met in New York
City, and we had a dinner on the strength of it. I was that mad, sir, at
the time, I drummed up the whole contingent. I believe that evening
left some of us a little sore, but it cured us, and little Gertie had
three-and-twenty play-fellows the fewer next morning. And I'm damned if
she didn't open fire on me again in the first half-hour after all these
years. It's funny, ain't it?'

'I am afraid I must bid you good-afternoon, sir,' said Paul. 'And if you
will permit a stranger to intrude in your affairs, I would suggest that
you should make that cocktail your last.'

'Wha-at?' asked the Colonel, placidly smiling, and eating his cigar.
'Should we have made it four-and-twenty if you had been in Noo Yawk City
at the time of that banquet.'

'I beg your pardon, sir,