"Aren't you going to sleep?" asked Jennie, anxiously.
"I shall lie down here on the sofa—I must be where I can hear a tap on the window. Good-night."
Both girls rose at his word, and Elsie said: "It seems cruel that you cannot go properly to bed—after such a wearisome day."
"You forget that I am a soldier," he said, and saluted as they passed. He observed that Lawson merely bowed when she said "Good-night" politely. Surely some change had come to their relationship.
Lawson turned. "I think I will turn in, Captain; I have endorsed the telegram."
"It must go at once." He tapped on the pane, and almost instantly a Tetong, sleeping under the window, rose from his blanket and stood with his face to the window, alert and keen-eyed. "Tony, I have a long ride for you."
"All right," replied the faithful fellow, cheerfully.
"I want you to take some letters to Pinon City. Come round to the door."
As he stepped into the light the messenger appeared to be a boy of twenty, black-eyed and yellow-skinned, with thin and sensitive lips. "Take the letters to the post-office," said Curtis, speaking slowly. "You understand—and these despatches to the telegraph-office."
"Pay money?"