"Never, never doubt it, lassie.

It will not take me long, and if I live I come straight back." He watched her slender, white-robed figure as it passed slowly down the deserted street.

Once only she paused, and waved back to him, and he returned instant response, although scarcely realizing the act.
"Poor little lonely girl! perhaps I ought to have told her the whole infernal story, but I simply haven't got the nerve, the way it reads now.

If I can only get it straightened out, it'll be different." Mechanically he thrust an unlighted cigar between his teeth, and descended the steps, to all outward appearance the same reckless, audacious Hampton as of old.

Mrs.Guffy smiled happily from an open window as she observed the square set of his shoulders, the easy, devil-may-care smile upon his lips.
The military telegraph occupied one-half of the small tent next the Miners' Retreat, and the youthful operator instantly recognized his debonair visitor.
"Well, Billy," was Hampton's friendly greeting, "are they keeping you fairly busy with 'wars and rumors of wars' these days ?" "Nuthin' doin', just now," was the cheerful reply.