Goree sat straight in the saddle, with head erect, but his eyes were turned to the right, sharply scanning every shrub and fence and hiding-place in the old homestead yard.  Once he muttered to himself, “Will the crazy fool try it, or did I dream half of it?”

It was when he came opposite the little family burying ground that he saw what he had been looking for—­a puff of white smoke, coming from the thick cedars in one corner.  He toppled so slowly to the left that Coltrane had time to urge his horse to that side, and catch him with one arm.

The squirrel hunter had not overpraised his aim.  He had sent the bullet where he intended, and where Goree had expected that it would pass—­through the breast of Colonel Abner Coltrane’s black frock coat.

Goree leaned heavily against Coltrane, but he did not fall.  The horses kept pace, side by side, and the Colonel’s arm kept him steady.  The little white houses of Laurel shone through the trees, half a mile away.  Goree reached out one hand and groped until it rested upon Coltrane’s fingers, which held his bridle.

“Good friend,” he said, and that was all.

Thus did Yancey Goree, as he rode past his old home, make, considering all things, the best showing that was in his power.

XVI

THE SONG AND THE SERGEANT

Half a dozen people supping at a table in one of the upper-Broadway all-night restaurants were making too much noise.  Three times the manager walked past them with a politely warning glance; but their argument had waxed too warm to be quelled by a manager’s gaze.  It was midnight, and the restaurant was filled with patrons from the theatres of that district.  Some among the dispersed audiences must have recognized among the quarrelsome sextet the faces of the players belonging to the Carroll Comedy Company.

Four of the six made up the company.  Another was the author of the comedietta, “A Gay Coquette,” which the quartette of players had been presenting with fair success at several vaudeville houses in the city.  The sixth at the table was a person inconsequent in the realm of art, but one at whose bidding many lobsters had perished.

Loudly the six maintained their clamorous debate.  No one of the Party was silent except when answers were stormed from him by the excited ones.  That was the comedian of “A Gay Coquette.”  He was a young man with a face even too melancholy for his profession.

The oral warfare of four immoderate tongues was directed at Miss Clarice Carroll, the twinkling star of the small aggregation.  Excepting the downcast comedian, all members of the party united in casting upon her with vehemence the blame of some momentous misfortune.  Fifty times they told her:  “It is your fault, Clarice—­it is you alone who spoilt the scene.  It is only of late that you have acted this way.  At this rate the sketch will have to be taken off.”