We had all risen and were moving toward the door. A black servant came when the Major pulled the bell card, and showed Boyd and myself to two pretty chambers, small, but very neat, where the linen on the beds smelled fresh and sweet, and the westering sun struck golden through chintz curtains drawn aside.

“Gad!” said Boyd, eying the bed. “It’s long since my person has been intimately acquainted with sheet and pillow. What a pretty nest, Loskiel. Lord! And here’s a vase of posies, too! The touch feminine — who could mistake it in the sweet, fresh whiteness of this little roam!”

Presently came our rifleman, Jack Mount, bearing our saddle-bags; and we stripped and washed us clean, and put on fresh linen and our best uniforms of soft doeskin, which