CHAPTER XIV.
A MYSTERY IS UNRAVELLED Lieutenant Burrell was considerably taken aback when, a quarter of an hour after the young lover's ecstatic return to his quarters, Gale knocked at his door, for the trader's visit, coupled with the late hour and his sombre countenance, forecast new complications.
"He's here to object, but it won't go," thought the Lieutenant, as he made his visitor welcome.
It was the trader's first glimpse of the officer's quarters, and he cast a roving eye over the room, as if measuring the owner's character by his surroundings.
"I've got to have a long talk with you, Burrell," he began, with an effort.

"It's liable to take me an hour or two." "Then take this chair and be comfortable." Meade swung his big reading-chair out beneath the hanging-lamp, and, going to the sideboard, brought back a bottle, some glasses, and a pouch of tobacco.

Noting the old man's sigh of fatigue as he sat himself down heavily, he remarked, sympathetically: "Mr.Gale, you've made a long trip to-day, and you must be tired.

If this talk is to be as lengthy as you say, why not have a drink with me now, and postpone it until to-morrow ?" "I've been tired for eighteen years," the other replied; "to-night I hope to get rested." He lapsed into silence, watching his host pour out two glasses of liquor, fill his pipe, and then stretch himself out contentedly, his feet resting on another chair--a picture of youthful strength, vitality, and determination.

Beneath the Lieutenant's flannel shirt the long, slim muscles showed free and full, and the firm set of jaw and lip denoted a mind at rest and confident of itself.