“Will says he is almost sure to be home soon——­”

“And he has been made a sergeant,” Amy interrupted, or rather added, her eyes shining with pride.  “Just think of that—­ Will, a sergeant!”

“I was just going to tell them that if you had waited a minute,” said Grace, rather crossly.  There was quite a little jealousy between Grace and Amy over Will.  Grace had declared more than once that whereas she had known her brother all her life, Amy had only known him for a couple of years—­ or—­ or more.  Grace loved her brother devotedly and once in a while she resented Amy’s place in his affections.

So now to change the subject and avert a possible quarrel, Mollie jumped into the breach.

“Listen to this,” she said.  “Roy and Frank have been made corporals and Allen—­ oh, look at Betty blush!” She looked gleefully across at the Little Captain and Amy and Grace followed her glance.

Betty was not blushing, but she felt as uncomfortable as though she had been.

“Tell us what Allen says,” Mollie dared her wickedly.  “Come on, honey—­ dare you to.”

“You can go on daring all you like,” said Betty defiantly.  This time she was blushing—­ from the fact that she knew she could not, or would not, tell the girls what Allen had said in his letter.  Not for anything in this world!

“I don’t mean what you mean,” said Mollie, enjoying her confusion immensely, while Grace and Amy looked on laughingly.  “I just thought that maybe you would like to be the one to tell us about his promotion.”

“His promotion!” cried Amy and Grace together, and Betty looked quite as bewildered as any of them.

“Mollie, for goodness’ sake tell us what you mean,” she demanded.

“But didn’t he tell you about it, Betty?” Mollie insisted.

“Wait a minute,” said the Little Captain as she hastily scanned the pages of her long letter.  Then, down near the end of the last page she found it, just a little paragraph, put in as though it had been an afterthought.  “Why,” cried Betty, her eyes beginning to shine with excitement, “girls, listen to this.  Allen has been promoted.  He’s an officer now—­ a lieutenant!  Think of it—­ leather leggings and all!”

It was too much for the girls.  They laughed and cried and hugged each other and tried to imagine Allen in his new uniform to their hearts’ content, for the young new-made officer was a favorite with them all.

“Goodness,” said Amy happily, “I suppose when he gets home he will be altogether too high-toned to notice common folk like us.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” said Grace happily, adding with a sly little glance at Betty, “I imagine he will make an exception of one of us at least.”

“I wonder,” drawled Mollie as she picked up her unfinished letter, “which one of us you can mean.”

CHAPTER XI

 The hold-up