The sword that Capt. Brewster had drawn at the sudden appearance of
the strangers quivered for a moment in his strong hand. Then,
sharply striking it across the pommel of his saddle, he snapped it
in twain, and cast the pieces at the feet of the speaker.

"Go on," he said doggedly.

"Capt. Brewster," said Major Van Zandt, with infinite gravity, "it
is not for me to point out the danger to you of this outspoken
emotion, except practically in its effect upon the rations you have
in your pocket. If I mistake not, they have suffered equally with
your steel. Forward, march!"

Capt. Brewster looked down, and then dropped to the rear, as the
discased yolks of Mistress Thankful's most precious gift slid
slowly and pensively over his horse's flanks to the ground.


II


Mistress Thankful remained at the wall until her lover had
disappeared. Then she turned, a mere lissom shadow in that
uncertain light, and glided under the eaves of the shed, and thence
from tree to tree of the orchard, lingering a moment under each as
a trout lingers in the shadow of the bank in passing a shallow, and
so reached the farmhouse and the kitchen door, where she entered.
Thence by a back staircase she slipped to her own bower, from whose
window half an hour before she had taken the signalling light.
This she lit again and placed upon a chest of drawers; and, taking