“I will speak with the colonel to-night,” said Peter gloomily.

“Lord save yer honor,” returned the trooper gratefully, “and if ye could be sayin’ that the leddy tould you,—­it would only be the merest taste of a loi ye’d be tellin’,—­and you’d save me from breakin’ me word to the leftenant.”

“I shall of course speak to my sister first,” returned Peter, with a guilty consciousness that he had accepted the trooper’s story mainly from his previous knowledge of his sister’s character.  Nevertheless, in spite of this foregone conclusion, he did speak to her.  To his surprise she did not deny it.  Lieutenant Forsyth,—­a vain and conceited fool,—­whose silly attentions she had accepted solely that she might get recreation beyond the fort,—­had presumed to tell her what she must do!  As if she was one of those stupid officers’ wives or sisters!  And it never would have happened if he—­Peter—­had let her remain at the reservation with the Indian agent’s wife, or if “Charley” (the gentle Lascelles) were here!  He would have let her go, or taken her there.  Besides all the while she was among friends; his, Peter’s own friends,—­the people whose cause he was championing!  In vain did Peter try to point out to her that these “people” were still children in mind and impulse, and capable of vacillation or even treachery.  He remembered he was talking to a child in mind and impulse, who had shown the same qualities, and in trying to convince her of her danger he felt he was only voicing the common arguments of his opponents.

He spoke also to the colonel, excusing her through her ignorance, her trust in his influence with the savages, and the general derangement of her health.  The colonel, relieved of his suspicions of a promising young officer, was gentle and sympathetic, but firm as to Peter’s future course.  In a moment of caprice and willfulness she might imperil the garrison as she had her escort, and, more than that, she was imperiling Peter’s influence with the Indians.  Absurd stories had come to his ears regarding the attitude of the reservation towards him.  He thought she ought to return home as quickly as possible.  Fortunately an opportunity offered.  The general commanding had advised him of the visit to the fort of a party of English tourists who had been shooting in the vicinity, and who were making the fort the farthest point of their western excursion.  There were three or four ladies in the party, and as they would be returning to the line of railroad under escort, she could easily accompany them.  This, added Colonel Carter, was also Mrs. Carter’s opinion,—­she was a woman of experience, and had a married daughter of her own.  In the mean time Peter had better not broach the subject to his sister, but trust to the arrival of the strangers, who would remain for a week, and who would undoubtedly divert Mrs. Lascelles’ impressible mind, and eventually make the proposition more natural and attractive.