k.
Other regiments, profiting by example, followed suit; but in others
still, a small proportion of their membership, believing as they said,
that the "jig was up," took to lawless and unhallowed expression of their
disgust and became thereby a nuisance to the neighborhood. San
Franciscans, who had wept copiously when others sailed away, would have
seen these patriots sent into exile without shedding a tear.

"Every man of this command will yet be needed and yet be sent," said
Armstrong. So, too, did the veteran division commander, and the brigade
took heart accordingly. The last of the regulars, with the recruit
detachments for regiments already in the Philippines, had been shipped to
Honolulu, there to await orders, and September seemed destined to go by
without a change for the better in the prospects of the men still left in
camp about the reservation. The Primes, convinced at last that the boy
they sought was not to be found in California, had gone to Santa Anita
visiting their kindred, the Lawrences; and Armstrong, buckling down to
hard and constant work, was striving to persuade himself that he did not
care that the mornings no longer brought with them the carriage and the
fair face of that gentle girl; the department commander himself had gone
to take a look at his new responsibilities in Hawaii; little Mrs.
Garrison still held court, though with diminished retinue, at the
Presidio, when one day, just as October was ushered in, there came a
message from the adjutant-general in town. Would Armstrong drop in at the
office at the first opportunity? A matter of some importance had come up
in the general's first letter from Honolulu, one on which Armstrong's
opinion was desired; and the colonel, hoping for tidings of a chance to
move even that far to the front, made immediate opportunity and took the
first car for the Phelan Building. The adjutant-general looked up from a
littered desk as Armstrong entered.

"It is good of you to come so promptly," said he. "I'm in a stew, to tell
the truth, and I want your advice." Then he tapped his bell. "Excuse me
to any one who comes for the next ten minutes," said he, to the attendant
who entered. "I have business with Colonel Armstrong."

No sooner did the orderly vanish than the man of the desk whirled full on
the man of the saddle. "Armstrong," said he, "you defended Gray and
proved him innocent. What else has Canker against him?"

"Nothing that I know of--why?"

"Becau