Pittston Gazette

              KfttHhliiti. C1 18.-VO. (. DL. \LVHIXC». aT I Oldest Newspaper in the Wyoming Valley. PITTSTON, LUZERNE COUNTY, PA., FRIDAY, APRIL 29, 1898. A Weekly Local and Family Journal. } *1 OO a Year iu ACtv»u«e. briifjpnifid shoulders ana in stalwart lii.iuhood and bristling mustache, the young graduate came once more to the peaceful Mohawk village before joining his regiment in the far west. She had looked upon him as her own to guide tyid mold and direct as she bad guided and directed his toddling footsteps. She had never known hiui to oppose his will, his plans, to hers. - AN ASiAfy Bi would be allowed to return to their past —and he wouldn't. The renegade Indian*, far from rushing northward on the old accustomed trail, as had been predicted, had lashed out westward anil made a wide circuit ljefore striking for the sand hills of Nebraska. There hud been no conflict betweeu theiu and the squadrons of the —th. Tha latter were now trotting a stern chase with the quarry long leagues ahead, and while they were saying unbecoming and unpunishable things abroad their better halves were thanking heaven at their army homes for the news that the fleeing warriors were safely across the Uniou Pacific and "scooting" for the savage fastnesses in far northwest Nebraska, news which brought disgust unspeakable to the pursuing troopers, but to these women left at Russell joy utterly uncontiued. tlieir lords. But Mrs. Barry's face was clouded too. "Look at this," she said and held out a dingy missive with the Cheyenne postmark and a scrawling superscription, "Miss Nath. Baird, in care of Mrs. Majer Barry, Fort Russell." "Dnce beforo a letter came for her from town, but it was addressed in a scholarly hand, and I remember now how agitated she was at sight of it. But this is the work of some uneducated person. It seems Irish somehow, that 'In care of Mrs. Majer' especially. What can we do—what shall we do to help her? If she would only confide in sonle one!" you know why 1 do not end it all, ana by stealiug away at night and hiding until the first train goes eastward I jould relievri,you of all this misery? Mrs. Barry, I haven't a penny in the world, lie has takeu e\ ery cent.'' some dainty refreshment Mrs. Stanuard had prepared for him ho turned away almost petulantly and with his face to the wall said be could not bear the sight of anything to eat. And this was the brother who ever since babyhood had been her charge to keep, her loyal and obedient vassal. attract attention, while a stalwart ami men there before last night. ilien t*ie and band nearly throttled him and : doctor ahked if any of Boston's people surely estopped his speech, and even j had been seen, and they hadn't. .So far while Maynard stood there marveling j us Hannifin knew Boston had no friends and with sinking heart asking himself or relatives, nor could ho tell where bo what new complication involved the was now in hiding. Even the police, girl he so hopelessly loved he felt a j what there was of them, didn't know light touch oil his arm, and his sister in Lbat. loose wrapper had hastened to bis side. I So the doctor reluctantly turned "Ronald, this is most imprudent," uway. and after reporting his ill sucshe began, but he shook her off roughly, 'cess to Mrs. Stannard it was proposed relentlessly, for there on the roadway that they should find Rackets, the boy below before his very eyes a tall, slen- messenger, and question him again, and der girl, her beautiful hair adrift, clad, j find him they did at noon, but not belike his sister, in loose wrapper, was fore, and his story was straight as a hastening toward the struggling group, j string. The man who gave him tho job and at sight of her the contest ceased. llt the railway platform was there to The corporal respectfully touched his wait for him wbeii lie got back. He took cap. The furious captive forgot, for a the package, paid the dollar bargained moment at least, his wrath and eagerly 'or and walked rapidly away up into held forth the scrap of paper in his town. Where he'd gone Rackets didn't hand. She took it hastily, read it rapid- know. Who be was Rackets didn't ly through, turned as though in utter : know, neither did anybody at the depot, helplessness and despair. Was it fancy, "Him and two other fellers" had Maynard asked himself—did not her reached Cheyenne by the Denver train eyes imploringly seek his window for 'lie day before. an instant? Thon as suddenly she turned. Troubled and perplexed, these would "Say I'm coming quick as possible, be rescuers turned their horses' heads Go!" she cried and then fled back into and drove back into town, hardly know».h« bnnuo ing what to do. The one police official CHAPTER IX. the doctor had an acquaintance with The excitement consequent upon the was at the Railroad House and had ?J)PTa£Ce °f ® Empire'8 "bouncer," there declared that no one of their force Mr. P. Mar*iey, at the early hour of ()f five or six "occasionals" had seen half put 6 o'clock this fine April morn- anything of th'. young lady or knew ing was not slow in spreading itself anything of * ttje u»t j, out they were from the guardhouse to the quarters and straining every nerve to know. " What thence to officers' row. By the time the we do know is that there was a knife bugle sounded for guard mounting at 9 fight at the Empire between these strantbere was hardly a household along the gers and this fellow Boston, who's been line that did not know tlflft just before knocking about here for some ten days, gun fire the Celtic Cerberus of this once but what has become* of him is more popular resort had turned up in gar- than we can find out. The town is full rison, boldly demanding the right to of strangers getting readv for the hills, ring at Major Barry's door and merely and we're just as apt to run iu the asking where it was. wrong man as the right one. What we Very properly the corporal of tho hope is to corral tlieiu on the night gnard had been summoned by the sen- train. But where they carried Boston try who first sighted the presumable to after he was knifed is what gets me." prowler, and very properly the corporal To think of having to return to Mrs. had told Mr. Maloney that this was no Barry with a report so meager as this! hour to be calling at officers' quarters Mrs. Stannard could not bear it, but reand that he'd have to come with him to turn was imperative, for the doctor had the guardhouse and wait there the patients who needed his attention, and pleasure of the temporary post com- he had not seen Maynard at all that mander, and very properly the corporal day. Reluctantly they abandoned the was amazed if not shocked at the sud- investigation after a few more words den appearance of the young lady in- , with the police and a promise to retarn mate of the Barrys' quarters and her j that afternoon if nothing were heard of announcement that she would follow the young lady iu the meantime, the messenger without delay. True to j Then the horses were headed for the her word, not half an hour later Miss open prairie, which they reached at a Baird issued from the eastern gate and spanking trot, and there, far out across started swiftly on her three mile walk the breezy level, was trundling briskly to town. The corporal saw her go, so toward the post the little team of grays did the hospital steward and the man of and the covered spring wagon owned by all work, sweeping out the store, and so j an old retired soldier who had a ranch did the lone sentry, pacing his post near by, and before the surgeon's well along the row of storehouses, and such matched bays bad covered half the disa thing had never before b£en heard of tauce the leading equipage disappeared at Russell. Maloney, it seems, had rid- within the gate, and ten minutes later, den out on a borrowed horse and had when Mrs. Stannard sadly stepped from hastened back with his answer the mo- the carriage at Mrs. Barry's door, she ment the bewildered noncommissioned was accosted by Mrs. Turner, who came officer let him go. What no one of these ; tripping from Miss Maynard's side to men could understand was how it hap- meet her and to say with eager dilation pened that one so fair and delicate as of the eye and parsings of the mouth: Miss Baird should have to take that "She's back—she's just got here, lonely walk instead of being sent in by W here on earth can she have been?" some one of the several vehicles owned And turning, unsatisfying, from her among the officers'families. What they questioner, Mrs. Stannard rang at the did not dream was that of all the worn- Barrys' door and entered and found en in the crowded garrison not one of Nathalie sobbing her heart out as she their number at that moment felt so knelt by Mrs. Barry's side, encircled by friendless, So utterly alone in the world, that lady's loving arms. m Nathalie Baird. "I declare," said Mrs. Turner that At 8 o'clock Mrs. Stannard had re- afternoon, "there's just ten times as ceived a brief line by the hands of Mrs. j much mystery and misery about this Barry's maid. It merely said, "Come : old post when the men are away as to me for a moment as soon as you can," when they're here,'' for that night the and Mrs. Stannard lost no time. doctor had a patient at Barrys' who She found her invalid friend and needed all bis care—Nathalie's strength neighbor pallid, distressed and alone, had given way and she was very ill in- Her eyes must have asked for Nathalie, deed. for Mrs. Bicry, without a word, handed And then came stirring, thrilling her a little note, and, opening, Mrs. news next iiay from the front. Both Stannard read: battalions of the —th, diving after the I am called away by a trammonH that cannot Cheyeiines into the sand hills, had sudb« ignored. He is desperately ill, perhaps dy deuly been brought to • bay. Yellow ing, and has aent for me. After this you know ,v ,i , . . ,  why I ought never to return to your roof. a s desperate band, fending The shame of it all overpowers me, and yet I themselves confronted, SO said the young cannot do less for him than I am and 1 men sent far out in advance, by strong cannot, must not, tell you why. Tonight—to- forct.8 0f cavalry and infantry from the morrow—you itfiall hear from me, and then let , . . . .: . me go home ani let me be forgotten. Your northern agencies, had recoiled to cerheart broken Nathalie. tain well known old fastnesses in the CHAPTER VIII The doctor came away from Ronald Maynard's room that evening a puzzled man. He was not the most astute practitioner in the service. Of the three "medicos" employed at tho post two were in the field with the battalions of Barry and Stanuard, and the third—we ueed not give his name—remained to look after the women and children, the band and noncombatants and the infantry guard sent over from Steele. He was a good, conscientious youug man. He had found the lieutenant so much improved two days before that lie advised his sitting out on the porch and sunning himself and was surprised at the result of his experiment. Maynard said the sight of the faraway suowcaps of the peaks only made him mad with eagerness to get into saddle and away to join his friends in the field. So if they couldn't let him go to the regiment there was no use of his getting worse by fretting out of doors. Sighing heavily, she turned away and would have gone, but he called her back. "Grace," ho said, "there's something I've got to say. I'm getting all right. I can sit up just as well as not, and there's no reason why tomorrow or next day I shouldn't go to my own room and why within the week I shouldn't hurry after the regiment." She recalled how when, only three weeks before it was time for him to start for Wyoming, he came in all eagerness one day to say that Wharton, Ives and Draper of his class were to sport their new uniforms for the first time at 7 rnrt».s%*e/y.  the "Twenty-eighth hup" (the ball given by the cadets on the 28th of August annually) at West Point and had written for him to join them, and he was wild to go, she had glanced at Gertrude Bonner sitting patiently in the vine shaded porch of the old homestead and bude him hold his reply until she oould have opportunity to speak with hiui aloue. How submissively, how affectionately, he had yielded to her brief argument. How entirely he seemed to be swayed by her wish. How utterly for years had the brother been her vassal— "hers to command'1- indeed! How indefinitely might she not have counted on the continuance of her queendom had not another woman stepped upon the threshold of her throne. Not only to her, to the sister who had been his guide and guardian, lo, these many years, did he owe allegiance now, but in the jealous love of power and possession burning in the woman's breast she had come to regard it as her right to say to whom her princeling should tender, when the time came, the heart and hand that she had held in fancy as only hers to bestow. But before evening it was definitely settled that that was the one thing poor Nathalie could not or would not do. Mrs. Barry sent the letter to her room with the message that Mr£, Freeman was there to take her driving and would she not come down. And the maid returned, saying Miss Baird was not well enough to go. She had been lying 011 her tied, the girl admitted, for she had to wait some little time before "the door was unlocked. Then Mrs. Freeman penned a little note, "Dearest Nathalie, won't you see me just a minute or two?" But the maid came back in five minutes with thepeocHed words, "Please, please do not think 1 am ungrateful for all your patience and kindness, but indeed I tun not fit to see any one just now." "Oh, Ronald," she interrupted, "the doctor says it would be death to you to try it." Mrs. Raymond was growing jealous, jr years, despite those occasional tiffs d spats with which feminine intijcies are so frequently diversified, Hhe »d been Fanny Turner's closest friend, •ere had been occasions in the lives of CHAPTER VI came for Stannard's men to move—she had been drooping visibly, and Mrs. Barry was sore distressed. No more did Nathalie take her long, exhilarating walks upon the opeu prairie. She stole forth oil sunshiny days at Mrs. Barry's urging, and went timidly up and down the long walk within the sentry lines, but never neared the gate at the east or the open roadway that passed out to the westward beyond the old headquarters betiding. Sim seuuicd to .shrink froiii observation even then. She seemed reluctant to meet or talk with the mauy kind and sympathetic women who would have welcomed her to their firesides when the swift gales burst upon them from the mountain pass to the northwest or to their sunshiny piazzas on the rare afternoons when soft breezes blew from the Colorado foothills, and the band played sweet melodies, and the children frolicked merrily out 011 the broad level of tho parade. " Well, better that kind of death than fretting to death here. It's killing me by inches, Grace, and I want to get away, and—we've staid too long here at the Stanuards' anyhow. It's awfully good of them, but we have no right, no claim, so I'm going to move day after tomorrow to my own den, and—yon ought to be thinking about starting for home." "Isn't it too good for anything?" exclaimed Mrs. Freeman as she led the way into Mrs. Barry's pretty parlor. "They have got so long a start our troops can't possibly catch them, and the cavalry from Robinson and Red Cloud will have to do it all. I've been in misery until I got the news just now. Where's Nathalie? Is she ready? I wanted to drive in before luncheon." Dth when neither had spoken to the Dther for as much as 48 hours, and jvben neither believed it possible for aer ever to speak to the other again. In this suspension of (Jiplomhtic JW personal relations, however, no embargo jxisted as to language descriptive of aach other's faults, foibles or falsifications. What the two ladies failed to say to was more than compensated by what they said of each other, notwithstanding which disturbance of the atmospheric conditions in the fair sky of their friendship the intimacy lived and thrived—was even strengthened if not purified by the brief flashings of such Summer lightnings and reverberations of vocal thunder. Indeed It would be hard to say where in all the —th either lady could have found an intimate save in the other, for the maids and matrons then composing the social element of the regiment had learned wisdom in their generation, were under the influduce and guidance of such pure spirits as Mrs. Stanuard, Mrs. Barry, Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. Ray, so that even domestic and social terrors like Mrs. Wilkins had been tamed into a certain fealty to the new creed expounded by them, and many a man, many a woman, had remarked that "the —th was u 4uiighty differuiit regiment from what it used to be- in the days of Lady Pelham and Arizona." Think about starting for home, indeed? Was she in her sound senses? Was this her little Ronald telling her she should be returning to that far Mohawk village before he was fairly well? It was incredible, it was more than that, it was ungrateful, undutiful, cruel, heartless. She had arranged it all on very different lines. The doctor was to give a certificate. She had studied out the whole situation—a certificate on which Ronald was to be granted a month's leave with permission to apply for another, and then she would bundle up her hero baby brother, and by easy stages she would trundle him home, and there he would swing in his hammook, and she and Gertrude would do all the reading and nursing and petting—she and Gertrude at first, so as to arouse no suspicion and consequent rebellion— then she would gradually slip away for a few moments at a time, then for half an hour or so, and more and more leave them alone together, and Cupid and proximity would do the rest. But Mrs. Barry put her finger to her lips and glanced significantly aloft. Maynard was distinctly aud aggressively ill tempered in his remarks, thought the doctor, and ought therefore to be getting well, but he was not as well by several degrees as he had been three days before, and for the life of him the doctor couldn't say what had gone amiss until coming down into that self same evening sunshine he found Mrs. Turner and Miss Maynard with their heads olose together—so close that they could only find time for a very perfunctory greeting to Mrs. Raymond, who had just gone by, but who sprang up quickly enough at his appearance on the piazza with Mra Stanuard by his side, and as be looked at Fanny Turner's now coquettishly smiling face the little medico's eyes were suddenly enlightened. He was a married man, it is perhaps unnecessary to say, and therefore had a more comprehensive knowledge of the personal characteristics of the ladies at tb# post than could ever have been acquired as a bachelor. He, in common with every man aud woman, had noted the rapid growth of Ronald Maynard's devotions to Miss Baird, their equally guddeu cessation, and he, too, had heard and pished and pshawed and poohpoohed the rapidly circulated stories about her meetings with the mysterious man. "You might as well tell me that Mrs. Barry was out flirtinu with a stranger now that the major's gone," said he to his spouse in somewhat wrathful tone. "If ever a girl was truth and purity personified, U's that Miss Baird." But he, too, was nonplused and silenced when the wife of his bosom declared: "Well, I'm not telling you alone what I've heard, but what I've seen. Our spare room windows look out over the prairie back of the hospital, and I've seen her meet a man away ont there." The doctor was heard to express a wish that the spare room was in Halifax for all the good it did them, but that didn't help matters. It was something in the faces of the two women—Miss Maynard grave aud anxious. Mrs. Turner coquettishly smiling—that gave aim a clew to his patient's feverish pulse and lackluster eye. Mrs. Turner, as has been said, could rob a woman of her reputation and reoeive her with open arms almost in the same instant. "Nathalie is utterly upset about something this morning," she murmured. "Do sit down a moment, won't you? 1 want to talk with you about her. I am so troubled on her account She has been ailing for days, as yon know, seeming nervousand troubled, and it has become so much worse of late. What can be the matter?" And so the friends bad gone sadly away without the longed for word with her, and then Mrs. Stannard came to read to the invalid, bat the books were set aside and the two took counsel together as to what should be done. They sent tea and an appetizing luncheon up to her room, and tbe maid brought back her best thanks and mid that she would try to eat. She was writing a letter then. But when two hours later tbey sent up to see how she was the maid reported that the luncheon was untouched ; even the tea seemed to have been neglected. They beard Nathalie's step on the landing above, as iu troubled silence the ladies looked at each other aud the maid stood patiently by. They heard it light und almost stealthy on the little landing to the stairway, and both looked eagerly to tbe door as though expectant of her coming, but she never neared it Without an instant's falter the girl hastened through the hall and out of the housa Shy she had ever seemed to be, but not startled and afraid as now, and Mrs. Stanuard, generally self contained and Bell reliant, had eveu taken counsel with Mesdames Ray and Trusoott, two young matrons she much approved of, aud invoked their aid in the good work of banishing the evil spirit that bad darkened the day dreauiB of this strange New England girl. Both were ready and willing to help in any way, yet neither oould suggest a line of operation. The girl seemed so utterly unapproachably Mrs. Trusoott had paraded Baby Ja'k for Miss Baird's inspection and expected her to become a slave to that conquering hero's fascinations as did other women, old and young, but Miss Bainl had passed his little highness by with scant recognition the very next time she met him, and au injured and indignant nnn»D whh not slow to take the vidings borne. Mrs. Kay Had bidden ber to luncheon or tea or both, always with the same result. Nathalie could not leave, she said, her invalid at home exoept for the walk she took each day. Mrs. stannard bad sought, gently and kindly, to win the confidence of the girl, but Nathalie seemed to divine her object and fled from her in nervous alarm. "It is a most uncanny thing," said Mrs. Stannard to Nathalie's friend and protector. "I never met a girl of her years so utterly set against her kind." There was a lovely young girl often visiting at the Freemaus' then, a Miss Nannie Bryan, who was freshness, vivacity aud frankness personified, and these schemers sought to induce her to cultivate Miss Baird, but that fell through, for Nan's outspoken, open hearted manner seemed to be a reproach in Nathalie's eyes—she who would not or could not confide in anybody. Then Mrs. Freeman looked appealingly at Mrs. Ray, and as she remained silent tho former spoke: And he had dared to look with eyes of love upon another, and now had lared to say to her that not one word would be believe of her aspersion of the girl he loved! It stung her to quick resentment, to one supreme effort to regain her old ascendency. Far down the row toward the east front the slender form of the fair young girl could be seen. She had well nigh reached the end of the walk. It was too early for the band, too soon after the midday meal for the ladies to appear upon the piazzas. Only a few children were chasing about the gray green carpet of tbe parade, only a few nursemaids and baby carriages were visible, lazily trundling along the sunlit path. Not a man was in sight about the great quadrangle. The barracks were silent and deserted. The guard maintained over the few general prisoners bad been drawn within the wooden prison. Grace Maynard was alone with her brother, weakened as he was by wounds and suffering and mental worry, and it might be her last opportunity. "Mrs. Barry, if we, too, didn't think everything of Nathalie I shouldn't say this, but we both feel—Mrs. Ray and I —that you should know the story that has been going round. We've both heard it. We couldn't help hearing it. Everybody seems to have beard it in the last two days, and it isn't all Mrs. Turner's doing either. Marion," she said, turning impulsively to her younger frieud, "do help me, it is so hard." But here he was calmly, positively telling her that it was his purpose to move to tjiat other roof, never suggesting that she should follow aud oocupy Dana's room or Hollis', but with almost callous indifferenoe saying it was time for her to be thinking of the homeward start because he meant as soon as possible to take the field. It meant defeat to her hopes and plana. It might leave him still under the influence of this dangerously lovely New England girl, whom she was bound to regard as unworthy his notice, yet could not really believe guilty, no matter what Mrs. Turner thought, of anything graver than indiscretion. Looking first at one, then at tbe other, Mrs. Barry saw too plainly the narrow and embarrassment in each fair face. It was a better regiment in every way, much as they had all loved "Old Catnip," as they called the colonel, who led them in the days of -their exiie, but who, lucklessly, was too often and disastrously led by his wife. The new commander, like the modern Tommy Atkius, was "every inch a soldier and "Tell me everything," she murmured. "Surely if trouble comes to her we should be the ones to help." been answering that note," said Mrs. Barry the moment she bad dismissal the servant, "aud now, trusting to no one, has gone to put it in the mail bag herself." "It is briefly this, Mrs. Barry: It is tokl that Nathalie has several times been seen either away out on the prairie before the troops went away, or else down here near the store since that time, talking earnestly, pleadingly with a strange man—not a soldier—a tall, powerful fellow. At first it was thought to be—you know—one of Fanny Turner's fabrications, but Miss Maynard solemnly assured Mrs. Staunard she had seen it twice, and now, Mrs. Kay, you've got to tell tbe rest." It was late when Nathalie returned tu the bouse, and this time she came straight to her protector's side, knelt at tbe sofa, and, never waiting for welcoming word or caress, took the sleiufer white hand in both her own, bowed over it almost humbly a moment, and fben, lifting her head, throwing it back with gesture almost desperate, abruptly spoke: every inch a man,"and though Mrs. Athcrtou loved a cozy chat with her cronies as much us any woman alive she had lived and moved and bad her ' being in wider social circles too long not to have learned tbe golden rule of silence. Several objectionables had been eliminated in tbe course of years, some by transfer to other arms of the service be it understood, one or two to other spheres, and still Buxton lingered among the men and Mrs. Turner among the women unH if avur th«rn lived * lady blessed with unbounded confidence in the infallibility of her opinions and the unerring rectitude of her intentions "Ronald," she exclaimed in tragic resumption of the old, almost forgotten tone of mingled amaze, distress and horror with which erring little boys are made to vaguely realize that they have been guilty of some unpardonable crime, "Ronald, jCDu never, never would have dared to say such words to me were our father still alive!" The same gloaming that shrouded Nathalie and her gentle friend in the adjoining quarters bad stolen in upon this unprompted conference. The sister could no longer see her brother's face. He lay there vaguely conscious of, yet never hearing, tbe rapid beating of her aching heart. Perhaps in bis own dumb misery tbe young fellow did not wish to see or hear tbe tirst symptom of either pain or remonstrance. The one thought uppermost in his mind was that for long, radiant, beautiful days, for rapturous hours of night thoughts, Nathalie Baird bad lived queen of bis heart's first love, pure and strong and fervent, and that from that queendom bad been dashed to earth a broken idol, and it was his sister who dealt the blow that shattered her throne. For Mra Turner he felt only impatient contempt He recalled now how often be bad beard of her as seeing wrong in and saying wrong of every woman of whom she felt the faintest envy, aud already there was growing up in his heart strong reaction against the two "informers," as be called them, and new excuse, new explanation, of Nathalie's strange conduct. He did not wish to wound bis sister, but if he bad to prepare her for tbe move he at least could not wound ber half so deep as her revelation had stabbed him. For several minutes she had stood there after he bad ceased. Her first impulse was to protest, aud vehemently, against his decision. Then she was minded of the doctor's demand that be should be spared all worry and excitement, for his sleep had been fitful aud broken, and he sorely needed oalm repose. At last she ventured to trust herself."Mrs. Barry—I—I've got to nay it— 1 oan be of no further use to you now. I'm bringing trouble, yes, even shame, to you who have been so loving and kind to me and to your friends who have been so eager to help me. I'm not fit to stay. Do me one last kindness, baud me hoiue.'' "It is only this, Mrs. Barry: You kuow the one failing Hogan, our Irish groom, has. He is devoted to Captain Ray, but once in a long while be yields to temptation, and the other night he was in town and had evidently been drinking when he cume back aud had lost his key to tbe door of the little room he has in the extension at tbe roar of the quarters. Will bad gone over to the barracks, and I heard our cook go to let Hogan in aud beard him telling her thickly of an adventure be bad had. He was excited aud talked loudly, and I feared it would rouse tbe neighbors, so I threw open the back window and told Jane to make him go to his bed without another word, and he obeyed, but his eye was all black aud swollen in tbe morning, aud 1 saw there was some truth in what he said—that just back of your quarters he had stumbled on a big, burly man in civilian dress to whom a girl was talking low, begging and imploring and crying, and the man answered her roughly, and Hogan thought the girl was your housemaid, for she beard bis step and ran indoors at once, aud then he himself had some words with the man and got kuocked down, he said, so quick he never knew what hit him, and tbe man had vanished wheu he regained bis feet. Hogan's man aud that described by Miss Maynard are apparently the same. Who cau it be and what possible hold can one like him have on a girl so sweet and refined as Nathalie?" "Grace," ho answered, with fire burning in bis deep eyes, "you would never have dared to speak so of such a girl in his presence, and I'll never listen to it from you or any one again." it was that same Mrs. Frances Turner. Her fingers were working nervously. Her eyes were bard aud hot and dn. There was no weakness, no indecision, no meltiny now. Tbe girl had spent long hours that day looking her trouble iu the face aud bad tuadu her resolution. She was set and determined. It was not us suppliauf sh« knelt. It was to urge, almost to demand. Other women there were, of course, I to circulate her views, but in bold, in spiring originality of ooufifjtfinn there • was uone to equal her. Mrs. Turner might not be alone as a disbnrser of regimental gossip, but, as Lieutenant ' Blake was heard to say, she could start more in a minute than could be stopped in a month. She had sprung to her feet, barely listening to him now, and was gazing with dilated eyes in tbe direction the girl bad taken. "She is the loneliest girl in Wyoming, '' said Mrs. Barry despairingly to a friend one sunny ufternoon. Mrs. Ktanuard bad been writing to ber major in a quiet corner, while tbe newly made intimates were busy outside. She bad intended waylaying tbe doctor as he came down stairs, in order that Stannard might have the latest bulletin as to the patient, but so absorbed had she become iu telling "Luce" the home news and so slowly and quietly did be descend tbe stair that she never heard him until the opening of the outertloor aroused her, and she bad just time to catch him on the porch. "Ah, well," was the reassuring reply, "Mr. Maynard is to lDe allowed to sit up in tbe sunshine presently, and then you'll see how soon she flutters to his side." "You won't listen!" she cried in tones of mingled wrath and triumph. "You won't believe the sister who loves and would stand between you aud de ceit. Well, then—look!" "Nathalie, otoild," began Mrs. Barry, "you do yourself infinite wrung. There bi And now Mrs. Raymond was actually disturbed and jealous because of a new, sudden ami mysterious intimacy that bad sprung up between the friend of ber bosom and the hitherto impassive and unapproachable Miss Maynard. From meeting only formally and semioccasioually there had developed an unlocked for and apparently unquenchable desire for each other's company, and where Mrs. Turner used to be dropping in on Mrs. Raymond any morning after her toilet was completed for the day she had taken to bustling by en route to Mrs. Htannard's, never so much as stopping at the Raymonds' to explain the mean- Anil they did see. She came out from the Harrys' for her customary exercise out) brilliant afternoon, aud there he sat reclining in an easy chair, well wrapped up in overcoat, robes and blankets, aud he caught instant glimpse of her, aud his eyes Hashed their signal of joy and recognition, his pale cheek mounted its radiant color in houor of her coming, but she went pale as a lily and, turning hurriedly, snapped the gate behind her and with obstinately averted bead hastened down the row. It was impossible for bis sister not to see the depth and bitterness of his disappointment aud chagriu. She determined that the hour for her to speak, and to speak plainly, was now at band, so relentlessly she began. There are women who choose the time when a fellow is down, a helpless invalid, to tell him in extenso the worst news perhaps that could be brought to his ears. At the moment when he should bo free from new or grievous distress they load upon hint then and there the latest rumors or reports that can be relied upon to bring htm infinite anxiety and concea—not that they wish to see him Buffer, but because the temptation to tell direful tidings is so uncontrollable. Then, again, when he is up aud well and able to dodge away she may not so easily reach his ear. Whatever be the reasoning. Miss Maynard felt that the time for her to speak had come, and speak she did. And, looking us she pointed, Ronald Maynard saw that a tall man in civilian dross had suddenly issued from behind the last bouse on tbe row uud was bending eagerly, closely over tbe drooping head of Nathalie Baird. las been uo talk of bhame, uu thought cUbflr KjL £ (MtfL i JJ |My CHAPTER VII. "Nathalie, dear," said Mrs. Barry, looking up from her sofa a day or two later, "it is high time you were indulging in a new gown aud a spriug hat. Why don't you drive to town with Mrs. Freeman one of these warm afternoons? She'd only be too glad to take you aud help you, uud you'll be surprised to see what pretty things you cau get or have made here in Cheyenne." Tbe little mau looked badgered as the tbree surrounded bim. "Mayuard isn't as well as be ought to be," was, bowever, bis downright reply. "His wound is doing well, but be isn't. That's all there is to be said about it, except"— and here he looked intently first at the sister, then at the sister's new found friend—"except that just now nothing of a worrying or disturbing character should be allowed to reach him. It is bad enough that he should be fretting so to get to the regiment. Oh, you'll all bare letters tomorrow, Mrs. Stannard," ho continued, "for we heard that the major crossed at North Platte today." "What caii we do?" was Mrs. Stannard's exclamation after the momentary stupelaction seemed to have passed. "May 1 iiot get the doctor and drive after her with him?" deep breaks to the south of the Niobrara, and in _ recoiling had stumbled against Ktannard's advance, thereby bringing on a sharp and rattling fight that had warmed the cockles of the old "Could you? Will you?" asked Mrs. Barry, almost weeping. "Ah, I knew you would! Send first for him, and then I'll tell you all I know." The girl's color, ever betraying, came and went, leaving her even paler than before. She turned away as though searching for a book and for a moment made no reply. Mrs. Liarry listened without interposing a word, but her eyes were eloquent with sorrow and perplexity. At last she spoke. But as luck would have it the little doctor had his hands full this fateful morning. The only practitioner left at the post, it was but natural that half the laundresses' children should be down with various infantile maladies and that officers' row should find itself in urgent iieed of bis services. Meantime there had come many a caller to the Barrys' door—wouieu like Mrs. Kay and Mrs. Freeman, full of sympathy and sorrow; otheis, like Mrs. Turner and Mrs. .Raymond, inspired by a rage of curiosity veiled beneath the conventionalities of "kind inquiries." Mrs. Barry could see no one at first, but yielded to Mrs. Freeman's importunities, and she, too, with Mrs. Kay, was taken into confidence. It was nearly half past 10 when at last the doctor drove up with the post surgeon's team and double seated carriage, and just as Mrs. Stannard was being handed in and numbers of interested spectators were looking on irp and down the row there cantered into garrison on a scrub of a pony a youngster who used to earn a precarious livelihood in those days carrying travelers' hand luggage, running errands and doing odd jobs around the few hotels and many barrooms, and he had a note for Mrs. Barry addressed in Nathalie's small and tremulous hand. They took it in to her at once, and she opened it. "Tell me everything," the murmured. of even blame attached toynu, but those who love yon and would be your friends are troubled because of your trouble." "We will not decide tonight, Ronald, "she said as gently as she could. "I will think over all yon say, and if the doctor agcees with you"— "I know how self denying you are, Nathalie, but think, dear, a young girl like you should not be so aggressively plain in her dress, and while your jacket und hat are all very well for wiuter our bright days are here now and there are warm hours in the sunshine no matter how cold it grows toward night. You're not sending money home, are your" "Can you remember the night Mrs. "1 was just writing to him, hoping to intercept him there," she replied, "but couriers will undoubtedly be sent after them, will they not? Have you beard where Major Barry was likely to strike the railway? Tbe Indians must be far ahead now." Ray?" "Whether he agrees with me or not," broke in tbe young soldier impatiently, "I leave this bouse tomorrow or next day. I will not remain here, a tax on Mrs. Stannard's kindness, and I'm going to the field the moment I can walk. I shall tell Mrs. Stannard tbe first thing tomorrow morning." "Yea, it was the night I was here with you—the night the news came that our battalion, too, had to go." "Mrs. Barry, don't tell me there has not been evil report, if not shameful report. Can I not see? Why otherwise should Mrs. Turner and Mrs. Raymond turn their heads away and refuse to recognize me on the walk? Why should Miss May Irani avoid meeting me, as she has twice done, shrinking back into her gate as though I were—contamination. There has been talk—cruel talk—and I know it. and what is worse—ten times worse—is that much that is said 1 can never deny. In my misery I've tried to bide it from everybody, but be has been utterly reckless. He has dogged and dared and followed everywhere, even here. Mrs. Barry—Mrs. Barry, there is ouly one place on earth where I can uvoid him, and that is home. Send me there. In pity send me home." There was a moment of silence. Mrs. Barry had covered her eyes with her thin white hand aud was thinkiug intently, aud presently, without removing her hand, she asked, and the question itself was significant: "So far that I can see no chance of our people coming up with them unless they go to sleep," said the doctor. "Now I've said nothing of their crossing to Mayuard. I want him kept quiet tonight if possible. I ll be back by and by." And with those parting injunctions the doctor took bis leave, and Mrs. Stannard, after a courteous word or two with her guests, left them together and returned to her desk. "I'm—I've lieen helping dress Cousin Ruth," faltered the girl. But when morning came it brought new distraction, and for tbe time at least banished all thought of change of quarters. An unloohrU for Clexirc for each other'I ing of her haste, and there in Mrs. Staunard'a parlor or in solemn promenade along the walk did Mrs. Turner and her new' found friend spend hours in close and confidential communion, the object of which was a mystery to Mrs. Raymond, not to mention the rest of Russell. Meantime Lieutenant Maynard was mending fast and needing little nursing. Therefore was his sister at liberty to seek more aud more the stimulant and exhilaration of the open air. Therefore, too, was it suggested by Mrs. Raymond that the necessity of her remaining a burden on her brother and the Stannards no longer existed. Stannard and his stanch battalion had gone. The populace of Russell was now made up mainly of the temporarily widowed and fatherless, the invalids and the band. A small squad had been left from each troop to take care of the stables, quarters and corrals, aud front these the poet quartermaster detailed night watchmen to patrol the garrison pending the coming of an infantry company. The colonel and adjutant, too, had taken the field one train ahead of Stanuard's. Mrs. Atherton had gone in to visit relatives in Chicago, and, when they could laugh at all, the ladies were asking each other which of their elders was really in temporary command of the camp, or did the surgeon, chaplain aud quartermaster deserve consideration? rumpann. "But that isn't right, Nathalie, child, and your uncle is the last man to allow it, if indeed he knows of it. Your little salary should go to keeping you nicely dressed and in laying up for a rainy day. The major told me you bad put most of it in the bank. Do tbey allow you interest on it? Forgive me, dear. I don't wish to intrude on your personal affairs, but you've become very dear to me, Nathalie, and I cannot see you piuchiug aud denying yourself if it be to provide for others who are quite as well able to take care of themselves as you are; more so, I fear, for you are not lookiui; a bit well of late." "Doyou know—has Mrs. Turner been very much with Miss Maynard lately?" "Ronald," she began, "do you care— already—for that girl?" And Ronald without speaking answered.And her visitors looked at each other without speaking. After waiting a moment for an answer and receiving none Mrs. Barry looked up. "Why do you not speak?" she said to Mrs. Freeman, who sat nearest "You know that your silence tells me that my conjecture is correct And now about Mr. Maynard. Mrs. Stannard told me that he sat up two days ago, was out on the porch awhile, but that be seemed anything but benefited. Did he see Nathalie and this man down by the store? Is that one reason he has not left his room since?" He bad passed a wretched night despite the doctor's late visit and a suspi- "There had been a drunken row at the Empire late la*t night,V said Ilannlfln. Whereupon Miss Maynard in tones of deep dismay ejaculated, "Oh, Ronald!" and lapsed into a silence indicative of unspeakable woe, leaving bim no alternative but to demand the reason for her strangely significant conduct. No little urging accomplished the object. It required strong persuasion apparently to induce the womau to tell what she knew, or believed she knew, concerning Nathalie Baird, but when once the ice was broken there was no stint to the swift torrents of her accusations. campaigner's heart and shown even his recruits to be fellows of excellent mettle.But up aloft in his cozy room Mr. Maynard was not resting at all. Despite bis 6tout declaration that he did not believe and would not believe a word said at the expense of Nathalie Baird, deep down in his heart, even before he saw ber brief meeting with the big stranger, that soft, sunshiny afternoon, be knew that there was abundant reason for be lieving that the disturber had been there before. He bad never forgotten for a moment that extraordinary occurrence the night of the hop—the shadowy civilian who tossed pebbles up at ber window and then floored him in the twinkling of an eye when he had sought to challenge. Furthermore, Maynard had caught tho outlines of the stranger's bulk that night, and those outlines strongly resembled those of the man who bent bo confidentially over ber as she stood with bowed bead, yes, with apparently attentive ear, down at tbe end of tbe row by old No. 1. What could be the explanation? What but that some former lover was pursuing her here and that she, though unable to welcome him to garrison, was not unwilling to meet bim, and if she would meet him stealthily by day away out on the prairie in some of its swales or depressions, why uot by night, when none could spy upon her actions? What other explanation could there be? Was not her beauty enough to lure a man from the ends of the earth? Would not he have sought and followed her anywhere, had she but kept tho queendom of bis faith and trust. Love ber? He did, deeply, passionately, miserably, for now be recalled that she hud never given bim encouragement; that only for a day or two before his mishap had she shown shy pleasure at his coming, and all those days that he used to ride out in search of her. was it not more than probable now that he had only been very much in tbe way—r» nuisance to ber and to ber skulking lover? Very bitter were bis thoughts, and, manlike, he included in bis jealous auger not only tbe girl who bad caused bim such poignant suffering, but that other—the sister who had been tbe first to open his eyes to his queen's unworthiness. All the same, Yellow Wolf was in no mood for a general melee, or he could have made it hot for Stannard that crisp April morning, for he had only four troops, Barry being some miles away to the southeast The two battalions were converging as they hastened northward, and had Yellow Wolf been a strategist he had excellent opportunity to beat his opponents in detail. The Indians, however, really wished to avoid conflict with the cavalry. Every life was previous in the long badgered and fast diminishing tribe, and there was something almost pathetic in the efforts of the old chief and leader of the Cheyennes to people, warriors, women and children, safety in touch with Iheir kindred of the northern tribe, the rery thing which the interior department was most anxious to prevent. And then at last the overcharged heart gave way. The poor girl burst into a passion of tears, and turning she tlyew herself prone upon tbe rug at the sofa side, buried her face in her arms and sobbed like a spirit broken child. No answer, but tbn girl'a face was rembliug now from "Yes, Mrs. Barry. Miss Mayuard bus told Mrs. Stanuard aud others, too, tbat uot only she, but her brother, saw the meeting, and her brother recognized the man as one he had seen in the crowd the day of the trouble in town. Bat now let me say right here that I can believe no ill of her; that there is probably some hold, Home claim, or she would never be seen with such a lcCoking character, aud that he is reprobate I thoroughly believe. She is shielding him for somebody's sake or she never in the world would have concealed her meetings yith him from yon. I say again, Mrs. Barry," persisted Mrs. Freeman, her color rising with the warmth of her appeal, "I will believe no ill of Nathalie, and that's one reason why i so earnestly urged her to go to town with me. I wanted to in every way to win her confidence and be a help to her. I had hoped so much from lyr knowing Nannie Bryan but they didn't get along together at Nathalie is utterly unnerved by this trouble. That's the truth of it, and she dare uot tell the cause to anybody. Did you say she was in her room?" averted, and sbo wan For severil minutes the storm'of her passionate weeping raged unbrokeu. She was weak and exhausted, weak even as the invalid herself, when at last she was [Dersnaded once more to kneel beside the couch, lay her swollen face on her protector's bosom and submit to tbe soothing of her almost motherly caress. For a long time as the sunshine vanished and the twilight settled down and the gloom and shadow of the coming night enshrouded tbe little parlor the girl knelt nerveless, encircled by those loving arms. Mrs. Barry would ask uo questions, seek no explanation now. Her one aim was to calm and comfort. Confidences, she assured herself, would follow. The maid came to the doorway with the parlor lamp, but was bidden to leave it in tbe adjoiuing room and to excuse the ladies should visitors appear. At last Nathalie herself attempted to move. "Why, it is long past time for your tea," she murmured brokenly. "How selfish and forgetful I've been! Let me get it," she pleaded. It gave her infinite pain, she declared, to have to say one word against a girl who was orphaued, homeless and, but. for Mrs. Barry, practically friendless, but duty to her brother and tbe good nauie their father had given them prompted iter to the task. Shy and pure and innocent as Miss Baird might look, there was a cloud over her name and character. She was carrying on a clandestine correspondence and holding secret meetings in tbe dead of night with a man, a total stranger to the garrison. It was a brief, piteous, yet almost imperative demand for $25 to be sent to her by the bearer. Tbe doctor shook his head. Mrs. Stannard looked grave, but Mrs. Barry never hesitated. "It's the last thing she would ever have doue had it not been vitally necessary." The bills were placed in an envelope with a few lines begging Mr to be ready to see Mrs. Stannardand the doctor and return with them without fail if by that time she1 bad finished what bad co be done, and the ragged Mercury trotted away with the message clutched in a dingy hand, all Russell wondering the while. D*=v I Writhing in the grasp of the corporal oj the guard. For at. hour his young nten had kept up their dashing, long range fight with Stannard's skirmish line, striving to kill and wound as many of the soldiers as possible so as to hamper their subsequent movements. Others at tbe same cion of soothing sirup in his medicine. For a moment Maynard could not speak. His face, pallid through illness and suffering, took on a shade of gray that intensified its ghastly hue. His sister looked upon him in astonishment and in fright. "Kouald," she cried, "I did uot know—I did uot dream it could mean so much to you!" He was awake long hours and was only falling into a troubled doze when the rafters shook with the dull boom of the reveille gun, and tbe bugle of tbe infan- try summoned the little garrison to roll call. Not ten minutes thereafter came Half an hour later the doctor, It aving Mrs. Staunard with tbe carriage at the postottice, strolled quietly around to the Empire and asked to see the proprietor. He wasn't in. Maloney then. He'd just gone out and wouldn't be back. Then could they tell him where he could itud Maloney? No, they'd no idea where be'd gone. Evidently information was lacking at the Empire, but a happy thought occurred to the doctor. Hntmitin's was just across the way, and to Hannifin's he went, feeling well assured that the rivalry between the establishments would prompt some one at the latter to tell what might be detrimental uf the "other, and he was right. "There had beon a drunken row at the Empire late last night," said Hannifin, "between toughs that wouldn't be allowed in a respectable saloon like this, for instance. " Two fellows were badly cut, and others were wanted by the city marshal, but Hannifin could ouly tell that a man called Boston was mixed up in it and bad been slashed by somebody else, and that it was claimed that the whole gang were strangers in Chey«uue. only two of them having been Continued 011 4 Meantime poor Maynard was fuming and fretting in his pretty room, devotedly nursed, carefully attended and prescribed for, bat with every day becoming more irascible aud unreasonable. It was bis first year with the regiment, bo it remembered, and the idea tbat it should be on the warpath and be mewling in bed was intolerable. Yet the doctor gravely told him he could not ride without certainty of reopening his wound and endangering his life. Maynard could not believe it. Both Mrs. Staunard and his sister strove to read to hiui, but he would not listen. He wanted all the papers that had news of the field columns, but no other subject in their pages interested him in the least. The*.* was one subject much nearer home to which he would have given ear with more than avidity, but on this subject he could uot talk, and Mrs. Staunard and his sister would uot talk to him. He longed for daily news of Nathalie Baird and got uone. She had even ceased her visits to the house. of tnc Glolxj lor  f RHEUMATISM,1 1 NE J UALGIA and similar Complaints, I and prepared under the stringent m GERMAN MEDICAL LAWS.^ prescribed by emine" ipbysicianss^flBM |A) DR. RICHTERS (WJt ANCHOR fPAIN EXPELLERl H World renowned! Romarkalily successful! B ■onlyp-niifnew-It'iTrade Mark " Anchor,"! ■K. Ad. "215IVarlSL. Nei» York. ■ I 31 HIGHEST AWARDS. A 13 Branch Houses. Own Glassworks, ■ 25«UWDW.% udvraed A by A O r Glick. .MIX Ma'n S».; J R 4,kf: ' OR. mo.TCR'8 I ANCHOR*9 STOMACHAIi best fori the sound of voices on the road below. one broadly Irish, loud, truculent, semidefiant, the other low, firm, but authoritative."I did not dream it could mean so much "It doesn't mean,"he interrupted, finding husky voice at last. Then each word seemed to come like the crack of a whip — sharp, snapping a tone that never in his life had she heard from bis lips before. "It doesn't mean, for I don't believed a d d word of it I" to you." . head to foot. Big tears were starting from her eyes. She was biting her lips in the effort to control their mad quiv- "I tell ye the leddy will see me— she'll see me the instant she sees this," tbe first was saying. "Him that sint it's dying on me hands wid sorra a"— "Stop your infernal noise," was the "And you, too, Nathalie, have not tasted a mouthful since breakfast. Order tea. dear. Then we'll talk." ering, Anxious and troubled, Mrs. Barry half turned on her couch and strove to se« what Nathalie was doing. She held forth a fragile white baud. "Nathalie," she said softly. "Yes. she was here with me, and I was urging her to go with you to town and trying to get her to tell me what was worrying her when she heard your steps and vanished. I think she was crying. I've found this out—that she has lDeeu Bending some money to help dress a cousin of hers." But even after the soothing cup Nathalie Buird amazed her friend and comforter. To every plea that she should reveal the name of the man who biid so destroyed her peace of mind and to disclose the nature of the claim she held the girl was deaf and determined. "Do not ask me that," she said. "I have pledged my v» ry word not to tell. All I ask is to be allowed to go, to relieve you of the shaiue and anxiety my staying would surely causo. Oh, Mrs. Barry, Mrs. Barry," she cried aloud, "you do not dream what" he could do. Ho threatens me even here under your roof. He says unless I bring or send him more he will come here to this house to demand it. Oil, don't jou see—dou't fierce interruption. "You'll see no one Shocked aud stunued, the woman was for the moment silenced. Never since childhood days bad he braved her. Taught by bis soldier father the most scrupulous courtesy and gentleness to women in general, his mother and elder sister in particular, punished promptly if in boyish temper he raised band or voice against either, he had passed from the jurisdiction of that mother to that of the sister as unopposing as though her sway for all time were unquestioned, aud Grace, womanlike, had accepted his submissiou as her just due, hud found him yielding as ever to her dominion when he returned to her ou cadet furlough aud hardly less no wheu, w ith here until people are up, and not then until you can give an account of yourself."It was too much. The girl turned suddenly, as though to throw herself upon her knees uud clasp the extended hand, but at that very instant brisk steps and cheery voices were hoard at the door, the gong bell clanged, and Nathalie rushed from the room up the narrow stairs. And Maynard, painfully struggling out of bed, reached the window with uo little effort and gazed out upon the road. Writhing in the grasp of tbe corporal of the guard, to whose assistance another soldier had run, was a brawny Irishman, and Maynard knew bim at a glance. It was the same fellow whose And just then came another step, quick aud businesslike, upon the piazza. It was the orderly from the adjutaut's office with the mail. As the servant entered with the little packet both tne visitors spraug to the door and called after the garrison Mercury, eager to know what he had for them. He came back, smiling, with letters for both, and yet their faces were loug as they re-eutered, for there was not a line from It was Mrs. Freeman and Mrs. Ray who entered, fresh, radiant, blithe and joyoas, the pictures of health aud happiness despite the fact that their respective lords were far afield and no uiui but Sheriduu could say wheu they shock bead had peered from the upper window over the Empire saloon the day , of bis luckless mission in search of absentees.i Frantically now he was waving a paoer iu his htuid though striving to Ever since the uight of her first apparent illftfuw—the night that orders And so when Grace Maynard came to him soon after oveuiuu Kuu_flrowith