"Oh, I'll send the rest of the hospital off to Canso," interposed Pepperell, "all I can of it; our house there is full now. And the nurses,—you may be sure that they shall go. That's what you mean?"
"Yes, you think of everything."
"Mr. Royal has been impressing the same necessity upon me." And the General laughed.
"Where is he?" asked Stephen quickly.
"He has been with his daughter all the afternoon, I believe, but a while ago he went up to the Batteries with Col. Vaughan.
"But Elizabeth Royal is not a woman to be forgotten," Pepperell went on, "even if her father were not my old friend, and at my elbow."
"No," said the young man. Then he made a remark about military affairs, and the subject of the attack was renewed.
Suddenly came the report of a pistol different from the roar of the cannon, and so unexpected and near that it startled the listeners as if its sharpness had broken in upon the still night.
"Where was that?" cried the General.
Not only sound, but intuition guided Archdale. For the element that was a sharper discord than war was to be found in the place to which his feet were rushing. If not himself for victim, who then? In another moment he threw back the door of the hospital tent in which Elizabeth was, and entered.