Thursday noon
Soon the hooks were locked in the blazing framework , and speedily the little bachelor den was torn into hissing and smoking fragments . Meantime Lanier and Cassidy , Blake , Horton , and nearly a dozen daring fellows who had risked their skins to save their lieutenant , had been led over to hospital to be cooled off and lotioned and bandaged and variously put to bed , and when at last not a spark could be found in the black , unsightly ruins , and even they had been buried under bushels of snow , the colonel and his men-at-arms went back to quarters , and many of the officers to the store , to talk it all over , especially what Bobby had said to Button . And thus were we brought to the morning of Thursday , the sixth since the eventful night when Miriam Arnold 's shriek had alarmed the garrison -- Miriam , whose voice had now been heard a second time , upraised in frantic dread and appeal , but this time for the young soldier who , on the previous Friday night , forgetful of his arrest , had rushed forth at her cry , but this night had to be dragged -- Miriam who now lay sick from maidenly shame that in one wild appeal to save her lover she had so betrayed herself . With Thursday noon came resumption of telegraphic communication , and the long-stalled railway trains from east and west . With Thursday afternoon came `` wires '' from Arnold , the father , begging to know had his daughter started , and back went the electric message that she neither had nor could , nor would for a week -- `` full details by post . '' With Thursday evening came stacks of belated letters , `` with whole bales of newspapers , '' said the stage driver , to follow , and with Thursday midnight , long after every one had gone to bed , there came a tapping at Major Stannard 's storm door , and presently a fumbling at the bell knob , a clanging of the bell . `` What now ? ''