“So that’s why you asked the old fellow,”
Tracy said.  “Was that kind?”

They were rounding the slender point on which the tall, white lighthouse stood, and entering the little cove where visitors to the fort usually beached their boats.

A few rods farther inland, rose the tall, grass-covered, circular embankment, surrounding the crumbling, gray walls, the outer shells of the old barracks.

At the entrance to the enclosure, Tom suddenly stepped ahead, barring the way.  “No passing within this fort without the counter-sign,” he declared.  “Martial law, this afternoon.”

It was Bell who discovered it. “’It’s a habit to be happy,’” she suggested, and Tom drew back for her to enter.  But one by one, he exacted the password from each.

Inside, within the shade of those old, gray walls, a camp-fire had been built and camp-kettle swung, hammocks had been hung under the trees and when cushions were scattered here and there the one-time fort bore anything but a martial air.

But something of the spirit of the past must have been in the air that afternoon, or perhaps, the spirit of the coming changes; for this picnic—­though by no means lacking in charm—­was not as gay and filled with light-hearted chaff as usual.  There was more talking in quiet groups, or really serious searching for some trace of those long-ago days of storm and stress.

With the coming of evening, the fire was lighted and the cloth laid within range of its flickering shadows.  The night breeze had sprung up and from outside the sloping embankment they caught the sound of the waves breaking on the beach.  True to their promise, the minister and Dr. Brice appeared at the time appointed and were eagerly welcomed by the young people.

Supper was a long, delightful affair that night, with much talk of the days when the fort had been devoted to far other purposes than the present; and the young people, listening to the tales Mr. Allen told in his quiet yet strangely vivid way, seemed to hear the slow creeping on of the boats outside and to be listening in the pauses of the wind for the approach of the enemy.

“I’ll take it back, Paul,” Tracy told her, as they were repacking the baskets.  “Even the old fort has developed new interests.”

“And next summer the ‘S.  W. F. Club’ will continue its good work,” Jack said.

Going back, Pauline found herself sitting in the stern of one of the boats, beside her father.  The club members were singing the club song.  But Pauline’s thoughts had suddenly gone back to that wet May afternoon.

She could see the dreary, rain-swept garden, hear the beating of the drops on the window-panes.  How long ago and remote it all seemed; how far from the hopeless discontent, the vague longings, the real anxiety of that time, she and Hilary had traveled.  She looked up impulsively.  “There’s one thing,” she said, “we’ve had one summer that I shall always feel would be worth reliving.  And we’re going to have more of them.”