Macinlay tells me you won't be fit for duty for months.
He is going to send you at once before a medical board."
"It is very aggravating, Colonel, as I particularly wished to be here
for the next few weeks.
"To be in at the death, I suppose? We are bound to take the place at
the next attack."
"I hope you may. But it is not that. Our friend McKay is in imminent
danger."
"What is the nature of the danger?"
"He is pursued by the relentless hate of an infamous woman: one who
has never yet spared any who dared to thwart or oppose her."
"What on earth do you mean, Hyde?" The colonel thought the old
sergeant was wandering in his mind. "There are no women out here
except Mother Charcoal, and a few French _vivandieres_. How can any of
them threaten McKay?"
"It is as I say, colonel. By-and-by I will tell you everything. But
let me implore you to find out McKay at once and bring him to me. I
cannot, you see, go to him."
"Is this very urgent?"
"A matter of life and death, I assure you."
"I will order a horse at once. It is all very mysterious and
extraordinary; but then you have been a mystery, Rupert Hyde, a riddle
and a puzzle, ever since I have known you."
"It will all be unravelled some day, colonel, never fear; but lose no
time, let me beg;" and, thus adjured, the colonel presently mounted
his horse and galloped over to headquarters.
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