"Run over to the quarters of B Company and tell Merrick I want him right away. Tell him to come to my quarters." And thither Mr. Jerrold returned, seated himself at his desk, wrote several lines of a note, tore it into fragments, began again, wrote another which seemed not entirely satisfactory, and was in the midst of a third when there came a quick step and a knock at the door. Opening the shutters, he glanced out of the window. A gust of wind sent some of the papers whirling and flying, and the bedroom door banged shut, but not before some few half-sheets of paper had fluttered out upon the parade, where other little flurries of the morning breeze sent them sailing over towards the colonel's quarters. Anxious only for the coming of Merrick and no one else, Mr. Jerrold no sooner saw who was at the front door than he closed the shutters, called, "Come in!" and a short, squat, wiry little man, dressed in the fatigue-uniform of the infantry, stood at the door-way to the hall. "Come in here, Merrick," said the lieutenant, and Merrick came. "How much is it you owe me now?--thirty-odd dollars, I think?" "I believe it is, lieutenant," answered the man, with shifting eyes and general uneasiness of mien. "You are not ready to pay it, I suppose; and you got it from me when we left Fort Raines, to help you out of that scrape there." The soldier looked down and made no answer. "Merrick, I want a note taken to town at once. I want _you_ to take it and get it to its address before eight o'clock. I want you to say no word to a soul. Here's ten dollars. Hire old Murphy's horse across the river and _go_. If you are put in the guard-house when you get back, don't say a word; if you are tried by garrison court for crossing the bridge or absence without leave, plead guilty, make no defence, and I'll pay you double your fine and let you off the thirty dollars. But if you fail me, or tell a soul of your errand, I'll write to--you know who, at Raines. Do you understand, and agree?" "I do. Yessir." "Go and get ready, and be here in ten minutes." Meantime, Captain Chester had followed Sloat to the adjutant's office. He was boiling over with indignation which he hardly knew how to control. He found the gray-moustached subaltern tramping in great perplexity up and down the room, and the instant he entered was greeted with the inquiry,-- "What's gone wrong? What's Jerrold been doing?" "Don't ask me any questions, Sloat, but answer. It is a matter of honor. _What_ was your bet with Jerrold?" "I oughtn't to tell that, Chester. Surely it cannot be a matter mixed up with this." "I can't explain, Sloat. What I ask is unavoidable. Tell me about that bet." "Why, he was so superior and airy, you know, and was trying to make me feel that he was so much more intimate with them all at the colonel's, and that he could have that picture for the mere asking; and I got mad, and bet him he _never_ could." "Was that the day you shook hands on it?" "Yes."