nd, managed to bring a sizable
foot in heavy riding boot almost savagely upon the slim gaiter of the
humorist, who suddenly started and flushed to the temples, glanced
quickly at the chief, and then as quickly back to the floor, his blue
eyes clouded in genuine distress.

The general's gray face had seemed to grow grayer in the gloom. Again
there came, like a rippling echo, the chorus of merry laughter from the
adjoining tent, only it seemed a trifle subdued, possibly as though one
or two of the merry-makers had joined less heartily. With sudden movement
the general rose: "Well, I've kept you long enough," he said. "Let the
three regiments be got in readiness at once, but relax no effort in--that
other matter. Find the guilty parties if a possible thing."

And then the group dissolved. One or two of the number looked back,
half-hesitating, at the entrance of the tent, but the chief had turned
again to the littered table before him, and seating himself, rested his
gray head in the hand nearest his visitors. It was as though he wished to
conceal his face. One of the last to go--the thin-faced soldier with the
twinkling blue eyes, hung irresolutely behind the chief a moment as
though he had it in his mind to speak, then turned and fairly tiptoed
out, leaving the camp commander to the society of a single staff officer,
and to the gathering darkness.

"Kindly say to Mr. Prime, or his friends, that I will join them in a
moment," said the former, presently, without so much as uplifting head or
eye, and the aide-de-camp left as noiselessly as his predecessor, the
humorist. But when he was gone and "The Chief" sat alone, the sound of
merry chat and laughter still drifted in with the mist at the half-opened
entrance. Shadowy forms flitted to and fro between the official tent and
the lights beginning to twinkle at brigade headquarters across the wide
roadway. An orderly scratched at the tent flap, but got no answer. The
lone occupant sat well back in the gloomy interior and could barely be
distinguished. The waiting soldier hesitated a moment, then entered and
stamped once upon the wooden floor, then turned and noiselessly stepped
out, for, anticipating his question, the general spoke:

"No light just yet, orderly. I'll call you--in a moment. Just close the
tent."

At his hand, he needed no light to find it, lay a little packet that had
been passed in to him with the mail while the council was still in
session. It was stoutly