Evening star., 1903-08-01


soon forget that this should be an awful
lesson. Aunt Janet's manner, therefore.
when, butterfly net in hand, she required
of her niece full explanation of the pres
ence in the room of this ravished trophy.
was something fraught with far too much
of future punishment. of wrath eternal
Even in her chastened mood Angelas spirit
stood garde.
she declared. Il leave it all to him. and
bore in silence the comments, without the
utterance of which the elder veStal felt she
could not conscentiously quit the field.
Bold" 'immodeSt," 'unmaidenly. wan
ton" were a choice few of Aunt JanetS
expletives, and these were unresented. But
when she concluded with Il shall send this
thing to him at once. with my personal
apologies for the act of an irresponsible
child up sprang Angela with rebellion
flashing from her eyes. She had suffered
punishment as a woman. She would not
now be treated as child. To Janet's un
disguised amaze and disapprobation. Wren
decided that Angela herself should send
both apology and net. 1t was the first mis-
Sive of the kind she had ever written, but,
even so, she would not submit 1t for either
advice or criticSm-even though its COM
position cost her many hours and tears and
sheets of paper. No one but the recipient
had so much as peep at it, but when
Blakely read it a grave smile lighted his
pallid and still bandaged face. He slowed
the little note in his desk, and presently
took it out and read it again, and still
again, and then it went slowly into the in
ner pocket of his white sack coat and was
held there, while he, the wearer slowly
paced up and down the veranda late in
the starlit night. This was the evening of
Dalys funeral. the evening of the day on
which he and his captain had shaken hands
and We're to start afreSh with better TN
derstanding.
Young Duane was officer of the lay and,
after the tattoo inspection of his little
guard had gone for few minutes to the
..J 1T,,1Ii
tossing in his feverish sleep; then meeting
Wren and Graham on the way had tramp
ed over to call on Blekely. thinking. per
haps to chat while and learn some thing.
Soon after taps was sounded however,
the youngster joined the little group go.s-
siping in guarded tones on the porch ut
Captain Sanders, far down the row. and,
in response to question, said that Bugs
that being Blakely'S bTiefeSt nom de guerre
must be convalescing rapidly. he had
no for his friends" and, as the lad
seemed somewhat ruffled and resentful,
what more natural than that he should be
called upon for explanation? Sanders and
his wife were present and Mrs. Bridger,
very much alive with inquiry and not Il
little malicious interest. Kate, too was OF
the party, and Doty, the adjutant and Mes
danes Cutler and WeStervelt-it was so
gloomy and silent, said these latter at then.
end of the row. Much of the talk had been
about Mrs. Plume's illness and her sleep
walking act" as 1t had been referred to.
Of her possible presence on the post of NJ.
5 about the time that No. was stabbed
They knew she couldn't have done It, of
course. but then how strange that she
should have been there at ALI The story
had gained balloon-like eXpanse by this
time. and speculation was more than rife
But here was Duane with a new grievance
which, when put into Duane's English re-
duced itself to this: why, it was like as if
Bugs wanted to get rid of me and expected
somebody else and this they well remem-
bered later. Nobody else was observed
going to Blakely's front door, at least but
at II o'clock he himself could still be dim
ly heard and seen pacing steadily up and
down his piazza, apparently alone and deep
in thought. His lights. too, were turned
down, a new man from the troop having
asked for and assumed the duties formerly
devolving on the wretch Downs, now doing
time within the garrison prison. Before
eleven however. this new martial domestic
had gone upstairs to bed and Blakely was
all alone. which was as he wished it, for he
had things to plan and other things to
think of that lifted him above the possibil-
ity of loneliness.
Down the line OF officers quarters only in
two or three houses could lights be seen
Darkness reigned at Piumes, where Byrne
was still rooming. Darkness reigned at
Wren's and Graham's. despite the fact that
the lords of these manors were still abroad
both at the bedside of Trooper Mullins
dozen people were gathered by this time at
Rlakely's with its solitary watcher seemed
deserted. To these idlers of the soft and
starlit night, sitting bareheaded about the
gallery and chatting in the friendly way
Of the frontier there came presently
young soldier from the direction Of the ad-