“As well as possible,” cried Fitz joyously. “Never given you up for an hour, Major. And the _baba_ is a boy, the pride of the whole place.” “Thank God!” said Dick fervently, and at the words the last remnants of the distrust with which the rest had regarded him melted away. “Forgive us, Major. We’ve thought of you so long as dead that we couldn’t believe our eyes,” said Woodworth. “Have you been a prisoner all this time, after all?” “North, my dear fellow!” Colonel Graham broke into the group and seized Dick’s hand. “Thank God you’re alive! This will be new life to Mrs North. But look here, we mustn’t let her see you like this. The fright would undo any good she might get.” “I suppose I am rather a scarecrow,” said Dick slowly. He spoke with a curious hesitation, as though the words he wished to use would not come to his lips. “But I have been at death’s door until very lately, and now I have had no food for three days.” “Woodworth,” said Colonel Graham, “post a sentry before the door of the ladies’ courtyard, and don’t let any one go in to carry the news. Happily they are none of them on the walls this evening. Now, North, for your wife’s sake, to save her an awful shock, you’ll come to my quarters and have a bath and a shave and something to eat, and get into some of my clothes. You’ll be a different man then. Can you walk?” “I have walked a good deal yesterday and to-day, but I can do a little more,” said Dick, accepting gratefully the arm which was offered him. “Close round, and let us smuggle him in,” said Colonel Graham to the rest. “We don’t want the men to hear the news before Mrs North. Let them think it’s a messenger who has got through in disguise.” The other men waited outside the Colonel’s quarters until, after the lapse of a miraculously short space of time, Dick came out again. They raised a subdued cheer when they saw him, for once more in uniform, he looked his old self. The feebleness was gone from his gait, and he held himself erect again. His hair and moustache, though greyer than before, had resumed their usual aspect, and the straggling beard was gone, so that but for the excessive thinness, which made the clothes hang loosely about him, he seemed little changed. The rest pressed forward to shake hands with him. “We were a set of fools not to know you, Major,” said Beltring, “but at the moment I hadn’t a doubt you were a spy.” “Well,” said Dick, as the others laughed shamefacedly, “that didn’t matter; but when you all stood and looked at me without speaking, I made certain something frightful had happened. See you all afterwards; I can’t wait now.” He passed on into the inner courtyard, where Mabel and Flora were sitting talking in the verandah. Both sprang up as his shadow came between them and the sunset. “Dick!” shrieked Mabel. “Then Georgie was right after all! But don’t stay here.” She was dragging him in the direction of Georgia’s room. “I daren’t keep you from her a moment.”