amply protected. This is all so very strange. He does not even know you
are here with us?"

"No," I admitted reluctantly. "Perhaps I have no excuse even for being
here at all. My duty as a soldier is certainly elsewhere, but I could
not rest content until I knew you were in a position of safety. Believe
me, Mrs. Brennan, I have intended no indiscretion, but I was informed
by a soldier that you were being held here under fire. It would have
been useless for me to appeal to the Major for information, and I felt
I must know the truth. If I have erred in this I can only plead the
deep interest I have always had in your welfare."

Her hand touched mine impulsively, and it was warm and throbbing.

"I can merely thank you with all my heart, Captain Wayne, and assure
you I both understand and appreciate your purpose. But truly I do not
wish any trouble to occur again--you will go back to your post, will
you not? You can serve me best in that way, and retain the gratitude
and admiration I have ever felt for you."

There was a pathetic pleading in her voice, low as she spoke,
impossible to resist. It made me feel thoroughly ashamed of my
impulsive, ill-considered action.

"At once, Mrs. Brennan," I returned earnestly. "I realize I have done
wrong in ever coming here as I have. It is my first act of disobedience
to orders in all my military life. But tell me first that I have
forfeited neither your confidence nor your friendship?"

Her warm hand closed frankly over mine, and as I bent above it her hair