Pittston Gazette

              B*TABLt8HKIDl850. » VOL. XLV. NO. 18 » Oldest Newspaper in the Wyoming Valley. PITTSTON, LUZERNE CO., PA., FRIDAY, NOVEMBER .30, 1894. A Weekly Local and Family Journal. IAB- Oh, God! How blind we aro! How blind we are!" And ]Door old Maynard bowed his head and almost groaned aloud. which brought in tho rest of what wo of tho captain at all. Remember what tho colonel said of him"  years! Do you know, young lady, J D might never have suspected what a brute " I was if it had not been for you? What a blessed thing it was tho colonel did not tell you I was coming! You would never havo given mo this true insight into my character." But Maynard only shook his head. ' \TVF A \TD THP All! His heart was too troubled for rest of 11 U any kind. He stood gazing out toward the park, where the tall figure of his ex-adjutant had disappeared among the trees. He heard the low toned, pleasant chat of the ladies in the sitting room, but he was in no mood to join them. He wished that Armitage had not gone, he felt such strength and comparative hope in his presence, but it was plain that even Armitage was confounded by the array of facts and circumstances that he had so painfully and slowly communicated to him. The colonel went drearily baok to the room in which they had had their long conference. His wife and sister both hailed him as he passed the sitting room door and urged him to come and join them—they wanted to ask about Captain Armitage, with whom it was evident they were much impressed—but he answerod that he had some letters to put away, and he must attend first to that , i good Americiurs term "the busload." There were women among the newly arrived who inspected tho dark girl with that -calm, unflinching, impertinent scrutiny and half audibly whispered comment which, had they been of the opposite sex, would have warranted their kicked out of tho conveyance, but which was ignored by tho fair object and her frieiKls as completely as were tho commentators themselves. There were ono or two men in tho omnibus who might readily havo been forgiven an admiring glance or two at so bright a vision of girlish beauty as was Miss Renwick this August afternoon, and they had looked, but the one who most attracted tho notice of Mrs. Maynard and Aunt Gracc—a tall, stalwart, distinguished looking party in gray traveling dross—had taken his seat close to tho door and was deep in the morning's paper before they were fairly away from the station. USES poisons. Adieu, kind friends, I'm going home. A sweet young novice, who ia training for a nurse, took my pulse this a. m. Took quite awhile to find it, but I did not murmur or repine. I am trying to learn to love everybody, for to that bourne to which "my chemist says that I am going I should carry with me no enmities, no bitternesses. Ta, ta, vain world, begone— "Mother," protested Alice, laughing, "I havo no doubt Captain Armitage Cs tho paragon of a soldier, but ho is unquestionably a most unpleasant anil uugentlemanly person in his conduct to tho young offioers. Mr. Hall has told me the samo thing. I declare, I don't see how they can speak to him at all, ho has ljoen so harsh and discourteous and unjust.'' Tho color was rising in earnest now, but a warning glance in her mother's eye seemod to chock further words. There was an jnstant's silonco. Thou Aunt Grace remarked: Chester rose, and in his characteristic way began tramping nervously up and down. There was a knock at the door. ' 'The adjutant's compliments, and 'twas time for guard mount. Would the colonel wish to see him before ho went out?" asked the orderly. BEING IN THE HOSPITAL FOR TWEN TY DAYS, HE MEETS A FEW. But she saw nothing to laugh at and would not laugh. Her lovely face was still burning with blushes and dismay and full of trouble. And While He Is Fading Away by Eaaj Stages He Is Made the lleclpient 01 Many Kind but Mistaken Tokens of Af "I ought to go, sir," said Chester. "I am old officer of the day, and there will be just time for me to get into full uniform. " "I do not look upon it lightly at all," she said. "It was unpardonable in me to—to"  taction, but He Is Not Grateful. Ah, here comes the other rear breadth of the bullock I Pass me the salt, please, and see that my grave is kept occasionally squirted on during the dry weather. I have left a small fund for that purpose.[Copyright, 18M, by Edgar W. Nye.] I have just been sent to the hospital for 20 days. "Let them go on without yon," said Maynard. "I cannot spare yon now. Send word to that effect Now—now about this man—this Jerrold. What is the best thing wo can do? Of course I know what ho most deserves, but what is the best thing under all the circumstances? Of conrse my wife and Alice will leave today. She was still sleeping when I left, and, pray God, is not dreaming of this. It was nearly 2 before she closed her eyes last night, and I, too, slept badly. Yon have seen him. What does he say?" "To take so effective and convincing a method of telling a man of his grievous sins! Not a bit of it. I like a girl who has the courage to stand up for her friends. I«hall congratulate Jerrold and Hall both when I get back, lucky fellows that they are!" And evidently Captain Armitago was deriving altogether too much jolly entertainment from her awkwardness. She rallied and strove to put an end to it My physician did it. "Alice, your next door neighbor has vanished. It think your vehemence has frightened him." He did it with an analysis. Anybody who amounts to anything nowadays gets analyzed. The life here at the hospital is delightful, and while I am fading away it is a joy to have loving bands bathing my little hot footies and manicuring my knobby brow. The Stockyards' Flower mission paid a visit this a. m. and left a big wet cauliflower on each breast. [continued.] one, my fiery Rweetheart, Cto you not reanze now tlint I was wise In showing her no much attention? A thousand kisses. Come what may, they cannot rob us of the past. Sometimes you find casts, sometime) you find maple sugar, and sometime* you find acids, oxides, paint oils, varnish, white lead, borax, albumen, lime, hair and cement. In theso cases the pa tient should be placed under a strict diet, or he will in the course of his lift become a corpse. "Oh, well, come in to breakfast," said the colonel. "We'll talk it over there." Surely enough, the big, blue eyed man In tweeds had disappeared. During this triof controversy ho had quickly and noiselessly let himself out of tho open door, swung lightly to the ground and was out of sight among tho trees. Howard. "Pardon me, sir, I cannot I must get back home before guard mount and Rollins is probably waiting to see me now. I—I could not discuss it at the table, for there are some singular features about the matter." I fear you heard and were alarmed by the shots just after I left you. All was quiet when I not home. v , One large porterhouse lady with a blue badge on her flank laid a big eggplant on my pillow, and when I sung on! oheerily, "Cut, cut, cudat cut!" she oursed me bitterly and called me a great coarse thing. It was some seconds before Chester could control himself sufficiently to speak. "I wish to God the bullet had gone through his heart!" he said. Laying down tho letter she had just finished reading, Mrs. Maynard glanced at her daughter, who was still engaged in one of her own, and evidently with deep interest "Why, what a strange proceeding!" said A lint Grace again. "Wo aro fully a mile and a half from the hotel, and ho means to walk it in this glaring sun." "Indeed, Captain Armitago, I do think tho young officers sorely need friends and advocates at times. I never would have knowingly spoken to you of your personal responsibilities in the woes of Mr. Jerrold and Mr. Hall, but Bince I have done so unwittingly I may as well define my position, especially as you aro so good natured with it all." And here, it must be admitted, Miss Renwick's beautiful eyes were shyly lifted to his in a most telling way. Once there, they looked squarely into the clear blue depths* of his and never flinched. "It seemed to me several times at Sibley thkt the young officers deserved more consideration and courtesy than their captains accorded them. It was not you alone that I heard of." "I am profoundly gratified to learn that somobixly else' is a brute," he answered, trying to look grave, but with that irrepressible, merriment twitching at the corners i|f.hurmouth and giving sudden gleams of his firm white teeth through the thick mustache. "You are como to us just in time, Miss Renwick, and if you will let me come and tell you all my sorrows the next time the oolonel pitches into me for something wrong in B company I'll give you full permission to overhaul me for everything or anything I say and do to the youngsters. Ls it a bargain?" And he held out his big, firm hand. Among those that had been shown to the captain, mainly letters from Chester telling of the daily events at the fort and of bis surveillance in the case of Jerrold, was one which Alice had brought him two days before. This had seemed to him of unusual importance, as the others contained nothirD?. *b*,*.. tended to throw new light ... It said: I go into details about this becaus* a false impression got out a few weekD ago to the effect that I came here foi another purpose. A reporter came tc "Denies everything — everything — challenges me to prove that he was absent from his house nifc-e than five minntes—indeed, I could not, for he may have come in just after I left—and pretended utter ignorance of my meaning when I accused him of striking me before I ordered the sentry to lire. Of course it is all useless now. When I confront him with this letter, he must give in. Then let Jiim resign and get away as quietly as possible before the and of the week. No one need kjiow the causes. Of courso shooting is what he deserves, but shooting demands explanation. It is better for your name, hers and all that he should be allowed to live than that the truth were suspected, as it would be if he were killed. Indeed, sir, if I were you, I would tike them to Sablon, keep them away for a fortnight and leave him to me. It may be even judicious to let him go on with all his duties as though nothing had happened, as though he had simply been absent from revoille, and lot the whole matter drop like that until all remark and curiosity are lulled; then you can send tier back to Europe or the east —time enough to decide on that—but I will privately tell him he must quit the service in six months and show him why. It isn't the way it ought to be settled, it probably isn't the way Armitage would do it, but it is the best thing that occurs to me. One thing is certain. Yon and they ought to get away at once, and ho should not be permitted to see her again. I can run the post a few days and explain matters after yon go." "Why, in God's name, what?" asked the colonel, with a' sudden and deep anxiety. "It has gone through mine—through mine) This will kill her mother. Chester, '' cried the colonel, springing suddenly to his feet ' 'she must not know it She must not dream of it I tell yon it would strotch her in the dust dead, for she loves that child with all her strength, with all her being, I believe, for it is two mother loves in ona She had a son, older than Alice by several years, her firstborn—her glory he was —but the boy inherited the father's passionate and impulsive nature. He loved a girl utterly beneath him and would have married her when he was only 20. There is no question that he loved her well, for he refused to give her up, no matter what his father threatened. They tried to buy her off, and she scorned them. Then they had a letter written, while he was sent abroad under pretense that he should have his will if he came back in a year unchanged. By Jove, It seems she was as much in love as he, and it broke her heart She went off and died somewhere, and he came back ahead of time because her letters had ceased and found it all out There was an awful scene. He cursed them both— father and mother—and left her senseless at his feet and from that day to this they never heard of him, never oould get the faintest report It broke Renwick—killed him, I guess, for he died in two years, and, as for the mother, you would not think that a woman so apparently full of life and health was in desperate danger. She had some organio trouble with the heart years ago, they tell her, and this experience has developed it so that now any groat emotion or sudden shock is perilous. Do yon not see how doubly fearful this cornea to us? Chester, I have weathered one awful storm, but I'm old and broken now. This—this beats ma Tell me what to do." Evidently he did. Tho driver reined np at tho moment in responso to a suggestion from some one in a forward seat, and there suddenly appeared by the wayside, striding out from tho shelter of the sumacs, tho athletic figure of the "Prom Fort Sibley, Alice?" She was right. I ought not to frolia on the crumbling edge of a long dank grave. "Well, sir, an officer of the garrison is placed in a compromising position by this affair and cannot or will uot explain. '' "Yes, mamma, all three—Miss Craven, Mrs. Hoyt and — Mr. Jerrold. Would you like to see it?" And, with rising color, slio held forth the one in her hand. Goodby, wicked world. After December 70a will have to pajr /uui- uwu taxes, so the chemist says, for traces of one long, also floating island and ice cream, were found in this last analysis. Do not mourn for me, kind friends, and choke and sob and make yourselves sick. It will be vain. Just live as I have done, so that you may come where I am at. Live upright lives and run the lawn mower about -every ten days o'er my humble grass during the summer. That Is all you can da Weep not. In me you lost a man who can never be replaced, but never mind—the world will have to drag on somehow. I couldn't be here all the time. Anybody with a particle of sense must have seen that I oouldn't live forever. "Who?" stranger. "I am glad you have telegraphed for Armitage and heartily approve your decision to lay the whole case before him. I presume he can reach you by Sunday, and that by Tuesday he will be here at the fort and ready to aot This will be a great relief to me, for, do what I could to allay it, there is no concealing the fact that muoh speculation and gossip is afloat concerning the events of that unhappy night Leary declared he has been close mouthed. The other men on guard know absolutely nothing, and Captain Wilton is the only officer to whom in my distress of mind I betrayed that there was a mystery, and he has pledged himself to me to say nothing. Sloat too, has an inkling, and a big one, that Jerrold is the suspected party, but I never dreamed that anything had been seen or heard which in the faintest way connected your household with the matter until yesterday. Then Leary admitted to me that two women, Mrs. Clifford's cook and the doctor's nursery maid, had asked him whether it wasn't Lieutenant Jerrold he fired at, and if it was true that he was trying to get in the colonel's back door. Twice Mrs. Clifford has asked me very significant questions, and three times today have officers made remarks to me that indicated their knowledge of the existenoe of some grave trouble. What makes matters worse is that Jerrold, when twitted about his absence from reveille, loses his temper and gets oonfused There came near being a quarrel between him and Rollins at the mess a day or two since. He was saying that the reason he slept through roll oall was the fact that he had been kept up very late at the doctor's party, and Rollins happened to oome in at the moment and blurted out that if he was up at all it must have been after he left the party and reminded him that he had left before midnight with Miss Renwick. This completely staggered Jerrold, who grew confused and tried to oover it with a display of anger, Now, two weeks ago Rollins woe most friendly to Jerrold and stood up for him when I assailed him, but ever since that night he has no word to say for him. When Jerrold played wrathful and accused Rollins of mixing in other men's business, Rollins bounced up to him like a young bull terrier, and I believe there would have been a row had not Sloat and Hoyt promptly interfered. Jerrold apologized, and Rollins accepted the apology, but has avoided him ever Binoe—won't speak of him to me now that I have reason to want to draw him out. As Boon as Armitage gets here he can do what I cannot—find out just what and who is suspected and talked about "Mr. Jerrold, air." tr "Not now," was tho answer, with a smilo that told of confidence and gratification both. "It is about the gerinan, I suppose?" "Go ahead!" he called in a deep chest voice that had ail unmistakable ring to it—the tone that one so readily recognizes in men accustomed to prompt action and command. "I'm going across lots. " And swinging his heavy stick, with quick, elastic steps and erect carriage, the man in gray plunged into a wood path and was gone. "Jerrold! Why, I got a note from him not 10 minutes ago saying he had an engagement in town and asking permission to go before guard mounting, if Mr. Hall was ready. Hall wanted to go with him, Jerrold wrote, but Hall has sot applied for permission to leave the port." "Yt*. Ho thinks it outrageous that we should not be there—says it is to be the prettiest ever given at the fort, and that Mrs. Hoyt and Mrs. Craven, who are thy managers for the ladies, had asked him to lead. lie wants to know if we cannot possibly coma " "Alice," said Aunt Grace again, "that man is an officer, I'm sure, and yon have driven him into exile and lonely wandering. I've seen so much of them when visiting my brother in tho old days before my marriage that even in civilian dress it is easy to tell some of them. Just look at that back and those shoulders! Ho h;is been a soldier all his lifa Horrors! Suppose it should bo Captain Armitage himself!" "It is Jerrold who is compromised, colonel I may be' all wrong in my suspicions, all wrong in reporting the matter to you at all, but in my perplexity and distress I see no other way. Frankly, the moment I caught sight of the man he looked like Jerrold, and two minutes after the shots were fired I inspected Jerrold's quarters. He was not there, though the lamps were burning very low In the bedroom, and his bed had not been occupied at all. When you see Leary, sir, he will tell you that he also thought it must be Mr. Jerrold." "Are you not very eager to go, Alice? I should be," said Aunt Grace, with sympathetic int. rest. "Yes, Ion;." answered Miss Renwick reflectively. "It had been arranged that it should come off next week, when, as was supposed, we would bo home after this visit It cannot bo postponed, of course, because it is given in honor of all the officers who aro gathered there for tho rifle competition, and that will be all over and done with today, and they cannot stay beyond Tuesday next We must give it up, auntie," and she looked up smilingly, "and you have made it so lovely for mo here that I can ■lo it without a sigh. Think of that— in army german—and Fanny Craven -;ays tho favors are to bo simply lovely. Yes, I did want to go, but papa said lie felt unequal to it the moment ho got back from Chicago, day before yesterday, and ho certainly does not look at nil well. So that ended it, and I wrote nt cnco to Mrs. Hoyt This is her an- • / \ While penning the above words a messenger boy has come swiftly in with • note from the chemist He says in this note: "We regret thatan error was made in your ease by our assistant, who, in the rush of business here at the college, has got your analysis somewhat confused with that of the justly celebrated race horse Nancy Hanks. We uiifortunately got the Bputa mixed. On going ever your ease again we find that, wheroas there are signs of glanders ih the Hanks analysis, you are, as a matter of fact, almost too healthy. You havephenomenal health and seem freqf from tendency to pleuropneumonia, thrush and epiaootic, while in the Hanks case there axe tubercles present antt signs of botts. "Abstain from pie in large quantities and avoid the night air. We hardly know what to suggest for you to use in plaoe of the night air after dark, but you must not use night air. Wear heavy A BED APPLE. Miss Renwick looked genuinely distressed as well as vexed. Certainly no officer but Captain Armitago would have had reason to leave tho stage. Certainly officers and their families occasionally visited Sablon in the summer time, but Captain Armitage could hardly bo here. There was comforting assurance in the very note she held in her hand. see me, and I sent word to him that 1 was then on the operating table in snob a position that I could see no one, while an elderly surgeon was engaged in removing a porous plaster received during the war. "The young scapegrace! Been off to town, I Bupposa " "I think you are—very different from what I heard," was all her answer as she looked np in bis eyes, twinkling as they were with fun. "Oh, we are to shake hands on it as a bargain? Is that It? Very well, then." "Colonel," said Chester quickly, "you—not I—must decide that I went to his quarters after reveilla and he was then there and resented my visit and questions, admitted that he had beeu out during the night but refused to make any statement to ma " I was not serious in saying fcMat but unfortunately I have the reputation foi absolute veracity and seriousness, so that the statement got into the papers as bona fide and caused American securities to go down two points in one day. I like it here very much. "It cannot bo,"slio said, "because Mr. Jerrold writes that they have just heard from him at Sibley. He is still at the seashore and will not return for a month. Mr. Jerrold says ho implored Captain Chester to let him have three days' loave to come down here and havo a sail and a picnic with us and was told that it would be out of the question." When Captain Armitage left the cottage that night, he did not go at once to his own room. Brief as was the conversation he had enjoyed with Miss Renwick, it was all that fate vouchsafed him for that date at least. The entire party went to tea together at the hotel, but immediately thereafter the colonel carried Armitage away, and for two long hours thoy were closeted over some letters that had come from Sibley, aud when the conference broke up and the wondering ladies saw the two men oome forth it was late—almost 10 o'clock—and tho captain did not venture beyond the threshold of the sitting room. He bowed and bade them a somewhat ceremonious good night His eyes rested—lingered—on Miss Renwick's uplifted face, and it was the picture he took with him into the stillness of the summer night. CHAPTER IX "Well, Chester, I will haul him up after breakfast Possibly he had beeii up to the rifle camp or had driveu to town after the doctor's party. Of course that most be stopped, but I'm glad you missed him. It of course staggers a man's judgment to be knocked down, but If you had killed him it might have been as serious for you as this knockdown blow will be for him. That is the worst phase of the matter. What could he have been thinking of? He must have been either drunk or mad, and he rarely drank. Oh, dear, dear, dear, but that's very bad—very bad—striking the officer of the dayl Why, Chester, that's the worst thing that's happened in the regiment since I took command of it It's about the worst thing that could have happened to us. Of course he must go in arrest I'll see the adjutant right after breakfast I'll be over early, Chester." And with grave and worried faoe the colonel bade him adieu. The oolonel sat in wretched silence a few moments. Then he arose: Saturday.—Another little oripple boy named Charlie comes afternoons to play with ma We have a set of building blocks and can make most everything."If it were not for her danger—her heart—I would never drop the matter here—never I I would see it through to the bitter end. But you are probably right as to the prudent course to take. I'll get them away on the noon train. He thinks they do not start until later. Now I must go and face it My God, Chester, could you look at that child and realize it? Even now, even now, sir, I believe—I believe some way— somehow—sho is innocent" ewer now." "What does sho say?" "Oh, it is very kind of her. She wants me to come and bo her guest if the colonel is too ill to come and mamma will not leave him. Sho says Mr. Hoyt will como flown aud escort me. But I would not liko to go without mamma," and the big dark eyes looked ap wistfully, ' 'and I know she does not care to urge pap:) when he seems so indisposed to going." Yesterday the Chioago Ladies' Society For the Prevention of Good came to see us and gave me a kiss and a red apple.The captain was silent a few moments. He was thinking intently. "Does she know you have that letter?" he asked. "Did he tell you any other news?" asked Mrs. Maynard, looking up from her letter again, "anything about the german?" The lady who kissed me was the vice president of the society and hurt me when she strained me against her breastpin. I hate a woman who cannot control herself that way. "Ho says ho thinks It a shame we are to be away and—well, read it yourself." And she placed it in her mothor's hands, tho dark eyes seriously, anxiously studying her face as sho read. Presently Mrs. Maynard laid it down and looked into her own; then, pointing to a certain passage with her finger, handed it to her danghtor. Maynard shook his hoad. "I looked back as I came away. She was in the parlor singing softly to herself at the very moment I picked it up, lying open as it was right there among the roses, the first words staring me in the faoe. I meant not to read it—never dreamed it was for her—and had turned over the page to look for the superscription. There was none, but there I saw the signature and that postscript about the shots. That startled me, and I read it here just before you came and then could account for your conduct—something I could not do before. God of heaven, would any man believe it of her? It is incredible 1 Chester, tell me everything yon know jow—even everything you suspect I fuust see my way » »D I went and took a dose of medicine to take the taste out of my mouth. Tomorrow we have an operation here in my ward. A large lady from La Salle will be removed from a Hungarian tumor.And then the colonel left the offioe, avoiding, as has beeu told, a word with any man. Chester buttoned the telltale letter in an inner pocket after having first folded the sheet lengthwise, and then inclosed it in a long official envelope The offioers, wondering at the colonel's distraught appearance, bad tome thronging in, hoping for information, and then had gone, unsatisfied and disgusted, practically turned out by their crabbed senior captain. The ladies, after chatting aimlessly about the quadrangle for half an hour, had decided that Mrs. Maynard must be ill, and while most of them awaited the result two of their number went to the colonel's house and rang the bell. A servant appeared. "Mrs. Maynard wasn't very well this morning and was breakfasting in her room, and Miss Alice was with her, if the ladies would pleas# exouse them.'' And so the emissaries returned unsuccessful. Then, too, as we have seen, despite his good intention of keeping matters hushed as much as possible, Chester's nervous irritability had got the better of him, and he had made damaging admissions to Wilton of the existence of a cause of worriment. and perplexity, and this Wilton told without compunction. And then there was another excitement that set all tongues wagging. Every man had heard what Chester said; that Mr. Jerrold must not quit the garrison until he had first come and seen the temporary commanding officer, and Hall had speedily carried the news to his friend. "God grant It sir!" Mrs. Maynard's eyes were anxious and troubled now. Sho turned to her sister-in-law: "Do you think ho seems any bettor, Graco? I do not." "It is hard to say. Ho was so nervously anxious to Ret away to see the general tlio very day you arrived here that there wan not a moment in which I could nuk him about himself, and since his return he has avoided all mention of it beyond Haying it is nothing but indigestion and he would be all right in a few days. I never know him to suffer in that way in my life. Is there any regimental matter that can be troubling him?" sho asked in a lower tone. "Men were deceivers ever," she said, laughing, yet oracularly significant The medical students will be here and see the operation. The beet student for 1894 who has been neither absent nor tardy will get the tumor. And Alice Renwick oould not quite oontrol tho ptart with which she read: The colonel accompanied him to the steps and rested his hand upon the broad gray shoulder. As he turned away Chester heard him saying again to himself, "About the worst thing he oould have done—the wont thing he could have done!" And the captain's heart sank within him What would the colonel say when he knew how far. far worse was the foul wrong Mr. Jerrold had done to him and his? "Mr. Jerrold is to lead with his old love, Nina Beaubien. They make a capital pair, and she of course will bo radiant—with Alice out of tho way." "God only knows how I have needed you, Armitage. This trouble has nearly crushed me, and it seems as though I. were utterly alone. I had the haunting fear that it was only weakness on my part and my love for my wife that made me stand out against Chester's propositions. He can only see (milt and conviction in every new phase of the case, and though you see how he tries to spare me his letters give no hope of any other conclusion." I have to diet very closely, or I may gradually have a diabetic tendency. I get a slice of toast every day and a thermometer."That is something Mr. Jerrold failed to mention, is it not?" The rules are very strict Patients are requested not to die in the house. Miss Renwick's cheeks were flushed, and tho dark eyes were filled with sudden pain as she answered: Some of the nursegirla are perfectly lovely. They are very pretty and kind hearted. I like to have one of them hold me up in my little cot while I am drinking my koumiss at night. And then the captain, with halting and reluctant tongue, told1 his story— how he had stumbled on tho ladder back of the colonel's quarters and learned from No. 5 that some one had been prowling back of bachelors' row; how he returned thero afterward, found tho ladder at the side wall and saw the tall form issue from her window; how he had given chase and been knocked breathless, and of his suspicions and Leary's as to the identity of the stranger. • "Nothing of any consequence whatever. Of courso the officers feel chagrinod over their defeat in tho rifle match. They had expected to stand very but Mr. Jerrold's shooting was unexpectedly below tho average, and it throw their team behind But the colonel didn't mako the faintest allusion to it That hasn't worried him anywhere near as much as it has the others, I should judge." "I did not know she was there. She was to have gone to the lakes the same day wo left" FADING AWAY. CHAPTER VIL Norwegian •woolen socks during the cold weather, and do not think too mnoh. Ton are prone to overthink yourself. Go carefully in this direction, and yon will live to be a burden to your friends. Wishing you good fortune and regretting the confusion of your case with that of Hanks, we beg to inclose our bill and to wish you welL " Before guard mounting, almost half an hour before his usual time for appearing at the office, Colonel Maynard hurried into his desk, sent the orderly for Captain Chester, and then the olerks in the sergeant major's room heard him close and lock the door. As the subject of the shooting was already under discussion among the men there assembled, this action on the part of the ohief was considered highly significant It was hardly five minutes before Chester came, looked surprised at finding the door locked, knocked and was admitted. "Mr. Jerrold, of course, avoids ma He has been attending strictly to his duty and is evidently confounded that I did uot press the matter of his going to totvn ob he did the dav I forbade it Mr, Hoyt*a being too late to see him personally gave me sufficient grounds on which to excuse it, but he seems to understand that something is impending and is looking nervous and harasse"* He has not renewed his request for leave of absence to run down to Sablon. I told him curtly it was out of the question." The colonel took a few strides up and down the room. It had come then. The good name of those he loved was already besmirched by garrison gossip, and he know that nothing bu| heroio measures could over silence scandal, Impulse and the innate sense of "tight" urged him to gq At onoe to the soene, leaving his wife and her fair daughter here under his Bister's roof, but Armitage and common dense said no. He had placed his burden on those broad gray shoulders, and though ill pontent to wait he felt that he was bound Stowing away the letters, too nervous to sleep, too worried to talk, he stole from the cottage, and, with hands clasped behind his back, with low bowed head, he strolled forth into the broad vista of pioonlit road. There were bright lights still burning at the and gay voioes came floattug through tho summer air. The piano, too, was trumming a waltz in the parlor, and two or three couples 'were throwing embracing, slowly twirling shadows on the widows. Over in the bar Qn4 billiard rooms the click of the balls and the refreshing rattle of cracked ice told suggestively of the occupation of the inmatea Keeping on beyond these distracting sounds, he slowly climbed a lemg, gradual ascent to the "bench, "or plateau above the wooded point on which were grouped the glistening white buildings of the pretty summer resort, and having reached the crest turned silently to gaze at the beauty of the soene—at the broad, flawless bosom of a summer lake all sheen and silver from the unclouded moon. Far to the southeast it wound among the bold and rook ribbed bluffs rising from the forest growth at their baaq to shorn and rounded summits, "She did go, Alice," said her mother, "but it was only for a brief visit, it seems." Armitage pondered a moment before he answered; then he slowly spoke: Sunday, 8 p. m.—An analysis today shows mora oasts, fibrin, gelatin and some zinc and copper. The chemist also discovers that in 1853 I fell from an apple tree and tore my panties in two places. He also says that I will be unhappy with my third wife. She will be unhappy also. The colonel was not at their cottage when the omnibus reached the lake. Over at the hotel were the usual number of lounKers gathered to see the new arrivals, and Alice presently caught sight of the colonel coming through the park. If anything, he looked more listless and dispirited than he had before they left She ran down tho stops to meet him, smiling brightly up into his worn and haggard face. "Chester has lived a lonely and an unhappy lifa His first experience after graduation was that wretched affair of whioh you have told ma Of course I knew much of the particulars before, but not alL I respect Chester as a soldier and a gentleman, and I like him and trust him as a friond; but, Colonel Maynard, in a matter of such vital importance as this, and one of such delicacy, I distrust not his motives, but his -judgment All his Ufa practically, he has been brooding over the sorrow that came to him when your trouble came to you, and his mind is grooved. He believes he sees mystery and intrigue in matters that others might explain in an instant" So today I leave my kind little nurses in their sweet and neat attire. Goodby, girls. I'm going home, where they know me. No one there will count my fevered pulse in the still watches of the night No (me there will put a nice big hot water bog that feels like a Mexican hairless dog at my feet "I do not think it was all Mr. Jerrold's fault, mamma," said Miss Bonwick, with gentle reproach and a very becoming flush. "I'm going to stand tip for him, becauso I think they all blame him for other men's poor work. He was not the only one on our team whose shooting was below former (oores." A - -- - v Last evening we had a concert and operation at the hospital. Yesterday afternoon the North Side Ladies' Society For the Prevention of Good paid us b visit. I crawled under the covers and remained in a rigid attitude, givinp them a sort of stiff, as a partially idiotic friend of mine said afterward. The colonel bowed his head still deeper and groaned aloud. But he had still other questions to ask. "Did you see—any one else at the window?" "Not while he was there." "Are you feeling a little brighter, papa? HtTp are letters for you." He took them wearily, barely glancing at the superscriptions. The look on the haggard face at the desk, the dumb misery in the eyes, the wrath and horror in it all, carried him back 90 yean to that gloomy morning In the casemates when the story was passed around that Captain Maynard had lost a wife and an intimate friend daring the previous night Chester saw at a glance that, despite his precautions, the blow had oome, the truth been revealed at one fell swoop "At any time, then—before or after?" And the colonel's eyes would take no denial. I wring the hand of the superintendent with reluctant haste and leave the hospital with regret at 2 p m. The general secretary spoke as shC passed by something about "kissing him for his mother," but as she starteC to raise the sheet from my face I bi her a little in sportive mood, and sh« gave a shrill and echoing scream. I dC not mind being an invalid, but oharita ble societies must not press me to thei1 bosoms. It hurts. "I saw," faltered Chester, "nobody. The shade was pulled up, while I was standing there, after I had tripped on the ladder. I supposed the noise of my stumble had awakened her." "They claim that none fell bo far Seriously, what a blessing it is when we are weary of work and the gastrio funotions go out on a sympathetic strike, and the solar plexis goes away and sits "I had hoped for Bomething more," ho said and psissed on into the little frame house which was his sister's sum mer home. "Is your mother here?" he asked, looking back as he entered the door. "Are you ready to go?" asked Mr. Jerrold, who was lacing his boots in the rear room. "But think of all the array of evidence ho has." "Enough and more than enough, I admit, to warrant everything ho has thought or said of the man, but"  down on a stone pile to weep over the situation; when you are in that state of pneumogastrio flunk where even you have to threaten your digester with arrest, and your liver sulks in a corner, and Old Man Gastric buttons up the coatings of your stomach and looks sour, what a godsend that one can go to one of these coay corners, out of the current of whoop and hurrah, and eat raw steak and be sort of made of. "And was that all? nothing more?" Did yon sea •"No. I've got to go and get into 'cits' first" "Colonel, I did see afterward a woman's hand and arm closing the shade." "In the north room, with Aunt Grace, papa," she answered, and then once inoro and with graver face she began to read Mr. Jerrold's letter. It was a careful study she was making of it this time, and not altogether a pleasant one. Aunt Grace came out and made somo laughing remark at seeing her still so occupied. She looked up, pluckily smiling despite a sense of wounded pride, and answered: I heard a simile the other day mat was not half bad, as Matthew Arnold C5jsed to say to me. It was made by a tenaporanoe lecturer, too, which makes wonder where ho got it, for a man who is strictly temperate has to skirmish pretty hard for anything of that kind. John B. Ganghwever acquired a good story after his reformation, it is said, but had to use over and over the witty things he got while he was a nanghty man. "Lock the door again, Chester, and oome here. I have some questions to ask yon." "All right Qo and be lively! 1*11 wait for you at Murphy's, beyond the bridge, provided you say nothing about it" "He simply puts it this way. If he be guilty, can she be less? Is it possible, Armitage, that you are unconvinced?" "My Qod! And she told me she slept the night through — never waked or heard a sound!" The captain silently took the chair which was indicated by a wave of the colonel's hand and waited. For a moment no word mora was spoken. The old soldier, white and trembling strangely, reseated himself at the desk and covered his faoe with his hands. Twice he drew them with feebly stroking movement over his eyes, as though to rally the stunned faculties and face the trying ordeal. Then a shiver passed through his frame, and with sudden lift of the head he fixed his gaze cm Cheater's faoe and launched the question: vjnester, is mere any Krhaness to a man who has been through what I have in telling only half a tale, as you have doner* "Certainly I am unoonvinced The matter has not yet been sifted. As I understand it, you have forbidden his confronting Jerrold with the proofs of his Rascality until I get there. Admitting the evidence of the ladder, the picture and tho form at the window—aye, the letter, too—I am yet to be convinced of one thing. You must remember that his judgment is biased by his early experiences. He fancies that no woman is prooi against sucb lascinanons frfito'V "Did you hear nothing yourself, colo- "You don't mean you are going against orders?" uel?" "Now, Altec," midher mother, "youmunt "Nothing. When she came home from the party, she stopped a moment saying something to him at the door, then came into the library and kissed me good night I shut up the house and went to bed about half past 12, and her door was closed when I went to our room." "Going? Of course I am. I've got old Maynard's permission, and if Chester means to revoke it he's got to get his adjutant hare inside of 10 seconds. What you tell me isn't official. I'm off now!" not take hi* Hew of the capt/iln." low tneir expectations as He, Alice. You know I am no judge of such matters, but Mr. Hoyt and Captain Gray both write the colonel that Mr. Jerrold had been taking no care of himself whatever and was entirely out of form. " "I am only convincing myself that it was • purely on general principles that Mr. Jerrold seemed so anxious I should bo there. Ho never wanted me to lead with him at all." All the same it stung, and Aunt Grace saw and knew It and longed to take her to her heart and comfort her, but it was better so. She was finding him out unaided And when the adjutant returned to Captain Chester it was with the information that he was too late. Mr. Jerrold's dogcart had crossed the bridge five minutes earlier. This temperance man was lecturing in a Chicago church and paying his respects ever and anon to the saloon keeper. "But, dear friends," said he, "I do uot hate the saloon keeper personally. He is a man and a brother. It is not the personality of the saloon keeper that I demur to. I feel opposed to him just as I do to the bedbug—because I don't like i the way he gets his living." Last week ,T. J. West of this oity stepped into a large and prosperous laundry to talk business or politics with the proprietor and all hands. While he was standiug around the oounter with the air of one who owns what is in sight, a timid little man with a big square market basket with dried gore on the edges, also with a' large head of f'elfforian whiskers of a rji"l» obeny color and with yarn raveling* In them, stepped up and asked in a little Punch and Judy voice; "What will you charge me to wash and do up a child's dressi?" "In any event, I'm glad the cavalry did no better," was Miss Renwick's loyal response. "You remember the evening we rode out to the range, and Captain Gray said that there was tho man who would win tho first'prize from Mr. Jerrold—that tall cavalry sergeant who fainted away—Sergeant McLeod. Don't you remember, mother? Wei}, hp did not even get a place, and Mr. Jerrold beat him easily. "t Something in her mother's eyes warned her to be guarded, and in that indefinable but unerring system of feminine telegraphy called her attention to the man sitting by the door. Looking quickly to her right, Miss Ronwick saw that he was intently regarding her. At tho mention of Fort Sibley tho stranger had lowered his paper, revealing a bronzed face cloan shavon except for the thick blond mustache and a pair of clear, steady, searching blue eyes nnder heavy brows and lashes, and these eyes were very dolilDerately yet respectfully flxod upon her own, nor were they withdrawn in proper confusion when detected. It was Miss Bonwick whoso eyes gave up the contest and returned in some sense of defeat to hor mother's face. "So there were two closed doors, yours and hers, and the broad hall between you?" DIDN'T GET HIM. th» !•«« Deputy Sheriff Kxplaina WTijr B* Perhaps an hour later the oolonel sent for Chester, and the captain went to his house. Tho old soldier was pacing slowly up and down the parlor floor. "And your belief?'* Failed. "Certainly. We have the doors open all night that lead into tho rear rooms and their windows. This gives as abundant air. Alice always has the hall door closed at night." "Is that some women—many women —are utterly above such a possibility, "■ Old Maynard wrung his comrade's hand. "You make me hope in spit© of myself, my past experiences, my very senses, Armitage. I havo loaned on you bo many years that I missed you sorely when this trial came. If you had been there, things might not have taken this shape. He looks upoti Chester—and it's one thing Chester hasn't forgiven in him—as a meddling old granny. You remember the timo ho so spoke of him last year, but he holds you in respect or is afraid of you, which in a man of his caliber is about the same thing. It may not be too late for you to act. Then, when ho is disposed of once aud for all, I can know whftt must be done, where sho in euneerned." The new deputy sheriff came into tha office and laid the wan-ant on the desk; then he went and sat down by the fireplace and gave a deep Bigh. She was still studying over portions of that ingenious letter when the rustle of her aunt's gown indicated that she was rising. She saw her move toward the steps, heard g, quick, firm tread upon tho narrow planking and glanced up in surprise. There, uncovering his uIoho cropped head, stood the tall stranger, looking placidly up as he addressed Aunt Grace: "Pardon mo, can I see Colonel Maynard?""1 wanted you a moment A singular thing has happened You know that 'directoire' cabinet photo of AMoe? Jly wife always kept it on her dressing table, and this morning it's gone. That frame—the silver filigree thing—was found behind a sofa pillow in Alice's room, and she declares sho has no idea how it got there. Chester, is there any new significance in this?" The captain colored red "I am at a Iom to answer you, colonel," he said after brief reflection. "You know far more than you did half an hour ago, and what I knew I could not bear to tell you as yet." After awhile the sheriff came in, puffing with the exertion of climbiug the steps. "And Mrs. Maynard, was she asleep?" "No. Mrs. Maynard was lying awake and seemed a little restless and disturbed. Some of the women had been giving her some hints about Jerrold and fretting her. You know she took a strange fancy to him at the start. It was simply be- "Hello!" ho said. "Got back, did you?" "My God, my God! Tell me all and tell me at oroe. Here, man, if you need stimulant to your Indignation and cannot apeak without it, read this. I found U, open, among the rosebushes in the garden, where she must have dropped it when out there with you. Read it Tell me what It means, for, God knows, I can't believe such a thing of her." He handed Chester a sheet of note paper. It was moist and blurred on the first page, but the inner pages, though damp, were in good condition. The first, second and third pages were closely oovered in a bold, nervous hand that Chester knew well. It was Jerrold's writing beyond a doubt, and Chester's faoe grew hot as he read, and his heart turned oold as stone when ha finished the last hurried line: Mr Daiuiio— I mast see you. If only for * moment, before you leave. Do not let this "Yes," answered the deputy, without much spirit. "Did you find your man?" "Oh, yes, I found him." "Where is he?" "Welf I found him, but I didn't git him." The captain bowed assent "What is it?" "He is at home. Pray come up and take a chair. I will let him know. I—I felt sure you must be some friend of his when I saw you in the stage," said tho good lady, with manifest and apologetic uneasiness. "That photograph was seen by Majoi Bloat in Jerrold's bureau drawer at reveille this morning." CONTINUED.] "Got away, did he?" And such was the situation at Sibley the August day the colonel took his Wife and her lovely daughter to visit Aunt Grace at Lake Sablon. French Wit. "No; not partic'lar. I was just goin to tell 700 how it was. When I got oal there, his wife said Ike was over in the clearin I weut over there au found him. Here is a specimen of the Bort of pleasantries of which the Parisians appear never to tire. It U from The Ganlois: At $ subscription ball a man happens to step ot\ the train of a lady's dress The lady turns in a wrathful manner, but suddenly changing her expression says, with a smile: "Ah, pardon, monsieur. 1 was nearly angry. ] thought it was my husband. " ''Yes," responded the stranger as htD quickly ascended tho steps and bowed before hor, smiling quietly the while. "Let mo introduce myself. I am Captain Armitage of tho oolonel's regiment""And under no circumstances can you question Mrs. Maynard?" "Well," was the reply, "I couldn't do it short of 35 cents j&nd make anything out of it" "Bnt that's too much, ain't it?" ask ed the other, with a cobgh. "Well, possibly it ifcr said Colonel West, "but I can't seem to do it for less and make anything oni df it Yoa see, just doing one that way I don't really compete with the laundry peoplo hero who aro in the business; and handling them by the hundred. I always did hate to stop my business to do up a child's dross.'' "No, no I If sho suspected anything of this, it would kill her. In any event, she must have, no, suspicion of it now. "I says, 'Howdy, Ike?' "Ho Bays, 'Ilowdy.' In the big rod omnibus that was slowly toiling over tho dusty road several passungers were making their way from the railway station to the hotel at Lake Sablon. Two of them were women of mature years, whoso dress and bearing botokened lives of ease and comfort. Another was a lovely brunette oi less than 20, tho daughter evidently of one of these ladies, and an object of loving pride to both. These three seemed at home in their surrounding* and were abnofb'd in the packet of letters and papers they had just received at the station. It was evident that they were not new arrivals, as were the other passengers, who studied them with the half envious feelingq with which newcomers at a summer resort are apt to regard those who seem to have been long established and who gathered from the scraps of conversation that they had merely been over to say goodbv to friends leaving on the very train CHAPTER VIII. t'But does she not ask? Has she no theory about the missing photograph? Surely she must marvel over its disap- "We talked awhile abont things, an I says, 'Ike, I got a little writ here for you on account o* that tightin.' "What letters havo you for tho colonel?" «wked Mrs. Mayuaid, coming an seoours. "There I J know ttP was Aunt Grace's response as, with both hands uplifted in tragic despair, she gave one horror stricken glanoe at Alice and rushed into tho house. "He said he 'lowed maybe that was what I wanted. pearanca " "Three—two of them from his devotod henchman, Captain Chester, who writes by every mail, I should imagine, and those he will go off into some se eluded nook with and come back looking blue and worried. Then here's an other, forwarded from Sibley too. I do not know this hand. Perhaps it is from Captain Armitago, who, they say, is to come buck next month. Poor Mr. Jer roldt" "She docs, at least slio did, but— I'm ashamed to own it, Armitage—wo had to quiet her natural suspicions, in some way, and I told her that it was my doing; that J took It to tease Alice, put tlyj photograph in tho drawer of my desk and hid the frame behind hof sofa pillow. Chester knows of the nr rangement, and We had settled that when the picture was recovered from Mr. Jerrold he would send it to me '* Clara—My fiance bet me last night that he could tell a bigger fib than I could. I took the bet, and he said that he had never loved any one but inc. She Wou. "We talked on awhile longer, an then I said it was time we was goin, hat about that time Ike set down agin a stump DUm you, for the more I think the more I am There was a moment's silence. Then, with burning cheeks, but with grave eves that looked franklv into his, Alioo Renwiek arose, came straight up to him and held out her hand. convinced it Is only a bluff, but Captain Chester discovered my absence early this morning I when spying around as usual, and now he claims to have knowledge of our secret. Even If he was on the terrace when I got back it too dark for him to recognise me, and it Impossible that he can have got any real oJLeto. He suspects, perhaps, and thinks to force me to confession, but I would guard jow name with my life. Be wary. Art as thoogh there were nothing on earth between OS, and If we cannot meet until then I will be mt the depot with the others to see you off, and will then have a letter ready with full partlru. lars and Instructions. It will be In the first thing I hand to you. Hide it until you can aafely read It. Your mother must not be allowed a glimmer of suspicion, and then you are safe. As for me, even Chester cannot make 4fes colonel turn against me now. Mv Jealous "J »(ivD tlit Hf/nature and that postscript about the Hhots." "He said he was tired. cause he reminded her so strongly of th« boy she had lost. She told me so. Put after a little she began to discover traits in him she did not like, and then his growing intimacy with Alioe worried her. She would haye put a stop to the doctor's party, to her going with him, I mean, but the engagement was made some days ago. Two or three days since she warned Alice not to trust him, she says, and it is really as much on this as any other account that we decided to mt her awav off to sen her Annt Graca Laura—A pvetty good fib, wasn't it? Coyld yoy beat it? Monday, 4 p. m.—Temperature twoflfths of I degree above Wfirmal. Pulse regular, but sluggish. Have got all my business arranged, evenj to terms for ghipmont home. Ato scjraped raw beef for breakfast, using rear;quarter of Colorado steer, with peppejr and salt on same. Acute gastritis seems to be one of the features of disease; I have to eat simple things like raw Bullocks and keg oysters. Another chemical and microscopic analysis was made yesterday of sputum, Hhowjnf traces of nicotine and other "I ordered him to git up an talked with him an reasoned with him, an tlten I took holt of him. You know how big he is?" "Captain Armitage, J bog your par- Clara—Easily and utterly. ] told him I had never loved any one but him. —New York Herald, don." He took the extendod hand and gazed earnestly into her face, while a jtiud— almost merry—spM" lighted up his own, "What did he do then?" "Oh, he didn't do nothin. He jurt continued, as the feller says, to set fliers. I couldn't 'a' raised him with a derrick. "Whypoor Mr. Jerrold?" asked Auni Grace, with laughing interest, as she noted tho expression on her niece's prot ty faoo. Armitage \vas silent A frown settled on his forehead, and it was evident thai tho statement was fur from welcome to him. Presently he held forth his hand. Mii. Cheltenham—I supposo you are lunch gratified to think your youngest daughter is going to be married? "Have the boys given me such an uncanny reputation as all that?" he asked, and then, as though tickled with the comicality of the situation, he began to laugh. "What ogres some of us old soldiers do become in the course of "I tell you what I'll do," continued the deputy, with some show of resolution. "If yon say so, I'll take about four men an a team an go back then this evening to see if he's settln ther* wet"—Chicago Record. "Decauso ho can't boar Captain Armi tage, and"  ' Well, good night, sir. I must go and have a quiet think over this. I hope yon will, rest well. You need it, colonel."Mrs. Witherby—Yes, indeed, and I am simply delighted to think that your oldest can act as one of the bridesmaids —Petroit Free Press, "Now, Alice," said her mother re provingly, "you must not take his view