"All talk, my dear; town gossip," said the colonel. "You gave him his
discharge, didn't you, Doctor?" The colonel looked hard at the medical
officer; he had prepared the way for a statement suited to a mixed
company, including ladies. But Doctor Fleming stated things usually to
suit himself.

"There was a man who left the Sisters' Hospital rather informally
yesterday. I won't say he is not just as well off to-day as if he had
stayed."

"Who was it? Was it our man, father?"

"The doctor has more than one patient at the hospital." Colonel Middleton
looked reproachfully at the doctor, who continued to put aside as childish
these clumsy subterfuges. "I think you ladies frightened him away with
your attentions. He knew he was under heavy liabilities for all your
flowers and fancy cookery."

"Attentions! Are we going to let him die on the road somewhere?" cried
Moya.

"Miss Moya?" Lieutenant Winslow spoke up with a mixture of embarrassment
and resolution to be heard, though every voice in the room conspired
against him. "Those men are a big fraternity. They have their outfitting
places where they put in for repairs. Packer John had his blankets sent to
the Green Meadow corral. They know him there. They say he had money at one
of the stores. They all have a little money cached here and there. And
they _can't_ get lost, you know!"

Moya's eyes shone with a suspicious brightness.