He was at a distant point of the garrison, therefore, and listening to
the excited and vehement comments of the younger of the three women upon
this strange newspaper story, and its possible connection with matters
at Frayne, at the moment when a dramatic scene was being enacted over
beyond the guard-house.
Kennedy was still the center of a little group of eager listeners when
Pink Marble, factotum of the trader's store, came hurrying forth from
the adjutant's office, speedily followed by Major Flint. "You may tell
Mrs. Hay that while I cannot permit her to visit the prisoner," he
called after the clerk, "I will send the girl over--under suitable
guard."
To this Mr. Marble merely shrugged his shoulders and went on. He fancied
Flint no more than did the relics of the original garrison. A little
later Flint personally gave an order to the sergeant of the guard and
then came commotion.
First there were stifled sounds of scuffle from the interior of the
guard-house; then shrill, wrathful screams; then a woman's voice
unlifted in wild upbraidings in an unknown tongue, at sound of which
Trooper Kennedy dropped his rein and his jaw, stood staring one minute;
then, with the exclamation: "Mother of God, but I know that woman!"
burst his way through the crowd and ran toward the old log blockhouse at
the gate,--the temporary post of the guard.
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