"Then I meant to. He has just come up from the Apache country--a kind of quiet man, with a good deal in him and a way of making you listen when you once start him talking. We half expect him here this evening, and if he comes, I want you to be nice to him. You could make him believe we are in the right quite easily." "From the Apache country?" and Flora Schuyler glanced at Hetty. Allonby nodded. "New Mexico, Arizona, or somewhere there. Now, just when you were beginning to listen, there's Mr. Torrance wanting me." He rose with evident reluctance, and Miss Schuyler sat reflectively silent when he moved away. "What are you thinking of?" asked Hetty sharply. "That the United States is not after all such a very big country. One is apt to run across a friend everywhere." Hetty did not answer, but Miss Schuyler knew that she was also wondering about the cavalry officer, when half an hour later it became evident, from the sounds outside, that a sleigh had reached the door, and when a little further time had passed Allonby ushered a man in blue uniform into the room. Hetty set her lips when she saw him. "Oh!" said Miss Schuyler. "I felt quite sure of it. This is the kind of thing that not infrequently happens, and it is only the natural sequence that he should turn up on the opposite side to Larry." "Flo," said Hetty sharply, "what do you mean?" "Well," she said lazily, "I fancy that you should know better than I do. I have only my suspicions and some little knowledge of human nature to guide me. Now, of course, you convinced us that you didn't care for Cheyne, but we have only your word to go upon in regard to Larry." Hetty turned upon her with a flash in her eyes. "Don't try to make me angry, Flo. It's going to be difficult to meet him as it is." "I don't think you need worry," and Flora Schuyler laughed. "He is probably cured by this time, and has found somebody else. They usually do. That ought to please you." In the meantime, Allonby and the man he was presenting to his friends were drawing nearer. Hetty rose when the pair stopped in front of them. "Captain Jackson Cheyne, who is coming to help us. Miss Torrance and Miss Schuyler, the daughter and guest of our leader," said Allonby, and the soldierly man with the quiet, brown face, smiling, held out his hand. "We are friends already," he said, and passed on with Allonby. "Was it very dreadful, Hetty?" said Flora Schuyler. "I could see he means to come back and talk to you." Hetty also fancied Cheyne wished to do so, and spent the next hour or two in avoiding the encounter. With this purpose she contrived to draw Chris Allonby into one of the smaller rooms where the card-tables were then untenanted, and listened with becoming patience to stories she had often heard before. She, however, found it a little difficult to laugh at the right places, and at last the lad glanced reproachfully at her.