In an instant a goblet of cool water was at her lips. She drank slowly, deliberating all the time to recover her senses; the surgeons--both young men, mere lads--waiting respectfully, inferring much from the melancholy robes. The water cooled her head, and she began to be able to think coherently. "I have the surgeon-general's permit to visit a patient in your fever ward--Jones, the name is. Can I see him?" "Pray, let me see the permit, madam?" He glanced at it, looked significantly at his comrade, and said: "This man was removed three days ago." "Whereto?" "Warchester." "Ah!" Kate's veil, by an imperceptible gesture, fell over part of her face. A great trembling came upon her again. The young surgeons exchanged glances. "Who--who--did--who asked for his removal?" "A Mr. Boone, also of Warchester." "Thank you--I am too late--I wanted to--to ask this Mr. Jones some questions concerning a dear friend in his regiment. But I can write, if you will kindly give me the address." "I am very sorry--beyond Warchester we have no record here of his whereabouts. If he had been officially transferred to another government hospital, we should have all the facts. But the removal was a personal favor to Mr. Boone. He is well known both here and in Warchester, and you can have no difficulty in communicating with him." "Ah, true; I had forgotten that." "If we can be of any service to you, Miss Sprague," the young man said, handing Kate back the permit, made out in Olympia's name, which Kate had never thought of, "you can always reach us through the surgeon-general's office." He handed her a card with his own and his comrade's name in pencil. Thanking the young man with as much self-possession as she could summon, Kate reached the carriage in a whirl of wild imaginings, more terrifying as she strove to reduce them to definite shape. Who was this Jones? Why remove him to Warchester? If it were not Jack, what interest could her father have in his removal? But. first, what could she say to Olympia? She could say she did not know Jones, but Olympia would surely ask what questions she had put to him. What should she say? That he had been taken away from the hospital? She knew Olympia well enough to know that this vague story would only incite her to further inquiry. She would find out the father's handiwork in the affair, and she, too, would be set on the rack of suspicion.