Mark told him the story then. They were still discussing it when they turned out and lined up for roll call; and that ceremony being over, they scattered again, Texas still eagerly asking questions about the strange affair.
Taps sounded half an hour later--ten o'clock--"lights out and all quiet." They stopped then.
Sentry No. 3 that night was "Baby" Edwards. His beat lay along the northern edge of the camp, skirting the tents of Company A. And Baby Edwards let quite a number pass his beat that night.
For instance, he was on duty from midnight until two. It was bright moonlight then, and Baby could have seen any one who crossed his post; but he heard a signaling whistle and faced out in order not to see any one. The person who entered was a boy clad in a blue uniform, an "orderly," as they are called.
He ran silently and swiftly in and made straight for one tent. When he got there he hesitated not a moment, but stepped in and crept up to one of the sleepers.
It was Mark who awoke at his touch, and Mark sat up in alarm and stared at him.
"Sh!" said the boy. "Sh! Don't wake any one."
"I've a letter, sir, a letter from her again."
Mark stared at the boy and recognized him at once as a messenger who had given him a note from Mary Adams about a month ago. And he sprang to his feet in surprise.
"She writing again!" he whispered. "Quick, give it to me."
He broke the seal, stepped to the tent door, where, in the white moonlight, he could read every letter plainly. And this was what he saw:
"DEAR MR. MALLORY: Oh, once more I have to write you to call upon you for aid. You cannot imagine the terrible distress I am in. And I have no one to call upon but you. If you respect me as a woman, come to my aid to-night and at once. And come alone, for I could not bear to have any one but you know of my terrible affliction. Oh, please do not fail me! You may imagine my state of mind when I write you like this. And let me call myself
Mark finished the reading of that letter in amazement, even alarm.
"Did she give you this?" he demanded of the boy.
"Yes, sir, she did, not five minutes ago," replied the lad. "And she told me to run. She seemed scared to death, sir, and I know she'd been crying."
Mark stared into his earnest face a moment, and then he turned away in thought.