Here, can you sit up? By Heavens! I hope Hardy
catches him."
"He hardly will," I answered, struggling into sitting posture, a vision
of the chase recurring to mind. "He was too mad to run."
Bell laughed nervously.
"I never supposed Le Gaire was that kind of a cur," he said regretfully.
"I never liked the fellow, or had much to do with him. Blamed if I could
understand why Miss Hardy--"
"Oh, he played nice enough with her up until the last week at least," I
broke in, aroused by the name. "Le Gaire is good looking, and pleasant
also when things are going his way. It's when luck is against him that
he gets ugly. Besides, he had the major on his side."
"I happen to know something about that," returned Bell dryly. "It was
talked over at headquarters. Le Gaire is rich, and Hardy hasn't much
left, I reckon, and the captain filled him up with fairy tales. Some of
them drifted about among the boys. There were others told also not quite
so pleasant, which Hardy did not hear. You see, none of us cared to
repeat them, after we realized Miss Willifred was interested in
the man."
"You mean duelling?"
"No, that was rather mild; fellows in his regiment mostly cut him dead,
and say he is yellow; generally in the hospital when there's a battle
on.
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