"But they did not see you?"
"No; for seeing that the mischief was done Sergeant Treacher stepped out too. You should have heard them explaining to Miss Gabriel! But they were quite brave and determined. They told me afterwards that rather than allow one of the visitors to enter and catch sight of me they would have picked up all three and carried them outside the garrison gate."
"The Lord Proprietor will certainly hear of this," said the Commandant, musing.
Vashti, who had bent to pin the sheet closer, lifted her head and regarded him with a puzzled frown; then, averting her eyes, let them travel under the foot of the sail towards the sunset.
"Decidedly the Lord Proprietor will hear of it," she said, after an interval during which he almost forgot that he had spoken. "Indeed, if it will help to get you, or Archelaus, or anyone out of a scrape, I propose to call on him to-morrow and confess all. Do you think he will be lenient?"
There was a shade of contempt in the question, and it called a flush to the Commandant's cheek. He was about to answer, but checked himself and sat silent, looking down at the foam that ran by the boat's gunwale.
"He must be worth visiting, too; that is, if one may reconstruct him from—from them."
The Commandant smiled. "My dear lady, you have already made one attempt to reconstruct him from them."
Vashti pondered awhile, her chin resting on her hand and her eyes yet fixed upon the sunset.
"I give you fair warning that I am here on a holiday," she murmured.