secret of which only she shared with him.

Unwilling as this man was to have anything in common with her, he
had been obliged to have something in common--to have much. Something
existed; a bond, even if an unpleasant one, had already stretched
itself between these two--the first secret this man ever had shared
with any woman.

"Captain Alden" smiled a little. The honors of war, so far, lay all in
her camp.

The Master, feeling this to the inner marrows, humiliated, shaken,
yet through it all not quite able to suppress a kind of grudging and
unwilling tribute of admiration, sought to conceal his perturbation
with a stern command:

"Now, madam, I will call my orderly and have you escorted to a
stateroom; have you provided with everything needful for your injury.
I trust it is not causing you any severe pain?"

"Pray don't waste any time or thought on any injury of mine, sir!" the
woman returned.

"Very well, madam! Resume your disguise!"

She tried to sweep up her magnificent hair and secure it upon her
head. But with only one hand available this proved impossible. They
both saw there was no way for her to put on the toupee again.

She smiled oddly, with a half-whimsical, wholly feminine bit of