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“Billy! You are not going out of barracks?”

Unwillingly McKay yields to the pressure of the firm hand laid on his shoulder, and turns.

“Suppose I were, Stanley. What danger is there? Lee inspected last night, and even he wouldn’t make such a plan to trip me. Who ever heard of a ‘tack’s’ inspecting after taps two successive nights?”

“There’s no reason why it should not be done, and several reasons why it should,” is the uncompromising reply. “Don’t risk your commission now, Billy, in any mad scheme. Come back and take those things off. Come!”

“Blatherskite! Don’t hang on to me like a pick-pocket, Stan. Let me go,” says McKay, half vexed, half laughing. “I’ve got to go, man,” he says, more seriously. “I’ve promised.”

A sudden light seems to come to Stanley. Even in the feeble gleam from the gas-jet in the lower hall McKay can see the look of consternation that shoots across his face.

“You don’t mean–you’re not going down to Hawkshurst, Billy?”

“Why not to Hawkshurst, if anywhere at all?” is the sullen reply.

“Why? Because you are risking your whole future,–your profession, your good name, McKay. You’re risking your mother’s heart for the sport of a girl who is simply toying with you—-“

“Take care, Stanley. Say what you like to me about myself, but not a word about her.”

“This is no time for sentiment, McKay. I have known Miss Waring three years; you, perhaps three weeks. I tell you solemnly that if she has tempted you to ‘run it’ down there to see her it is simply to boast of a new triumph to the silly pack by whom she is surrounded. I tell you she—-“

“You tell me nothing! I don’t allow any man to speak in that way of a woman who is my friend,” says Billy, with much majesty of mien. “Take your hand off, Stanley,” he adds, coldly. “I might have had some respect for your counsel if you had had the least–for my feelings.” And wrenching his shoulder away, McKay speeds quickly down the stairs, leaving his comrade speechless and sorrowing in the darkness above.

In the lower hall he stops and peers cautiously over towards the guard-house. The lights are burning brilliantly up in the room of the officer in charge, and the red sash of the officer of the day shows through the open door-way beneath. Now is his time, for there is no one looking. One quick leap through the dim stream of light from the lantern at his back and he will be in the dark area, and can pick his noiseless way to the shadows beyond. It is an easy thing to gain the foot-path beyond the old retaining wall back of the guard-house, scud away under the trees along the winding ascent towards Fort Putnam, until he meets the back-road half-way up the heights; then turn southward through the rocky cuts and forest aisles until he reaches the main highway; then follow on through the beautiful groves, through the quiet village, across the bridge that spans the stream above the falls, and then, only a few hundred yards beyond, there lies Hawkshurst and its bevy of excited, whispering, applauding, delighted girls. If he meet officers, all he has to do is put on a bold face and trust to his disguise. He means to have a glorious time and be back, tingling with satisfaction on his exploit, by a little after midnight. In five minutes his quarrel with Stanley is forgotten, and, all alert and eager, he is half-way up the heights and out of sight or hearing of the barracks.

The roads are well-nigh deserted. He meets one or two squads of soldiers coming back from “pass” at the Falls, but no one else. The omnibuses and carriages bearing home those visitors who have spent the evening listening to the band at the Point are all by this time out of the way, and it is early for officers to be returning from evening calls at the lower hotel. The chances are two to one that he will pass the village without obstacle of any kind. Billy’s spirits rise with the occasion, and he concludes that a cigarette is the one thing needful to complete his disguise and add to the general nonchalance of his appearance. Having no matches he waits until he reaches the northern outskirts of the Falls, and then steps boldly into the first bar he sees and helps himself.