e had long suspected the sergeant who had
accompanied the party in immediate command of the little guard. He hated
the commanding general with all his soul, and, how it came about no one
could thoroughly explain, but one day Canker turned up with indubitable
proof that the sergeant was the thief--that he was bribed to bring about
the escape of the prisoners, and that he had drugged the fresh spring
water he brought in to the young officer after the burning heat of the
desert was left behind in the dead of the summer night. Canker even
recovered most of the stolen money, for there was a woman in the case,
and she had safely stowed it away. Carson was cleared and Canker
triumphant. "See what the man can do when his sense of justice is
aroused," said the optimists of the army. "Justice be blowed," answered
the cynics. "He never would have raised his finger to help Carson but for
the joy of proving the General unjust, and a regimental pet--the
sergeant--a thief."

Yet Gray reverted to this episode as explanation of his tolerance of
Canker's harshness and thereby gave rise to a rejoinder from the lips of
a veteran company commander that many a fellow was destined to recall
before the regiment was two months older:

"In order to settle it, somebody's got to find his life or his commission
in jeopardy. Maybe it'll be you, Billy, and I'm betting _you_ won't find
Squeers a guardian angel."

Yet on this sunshiny summer morning, with hope and sunshine and
confidence in his handsome, boyish face, Lieutenant Gray came bounding up
to the presence of the regimental commander as though that sour-visaged
soldier were an indulgent uncle who could not say him nay. A stylish open
carriage in which were seated two remarkably pretty girls and a
gray-haired, slender gentleman, had reined up in the street opposite the
entrance to the row of officers' tents and Canker had ripped out his
watch, with an ugly frown on his forehead, for three of his companies had
just marched in from drill, and three of their young lieutenants, on the
instant of dismissal, had made straight for the vehicle and he half-hoped
to find they had lopped off a minute or so of the allotted hour. The
sound of merry laughter seemed to grate on his ears. The sight of Gray's
beaming face seemed to deepen the gloom in his own. Instinctively he knew
the youngster had come to ask a favor and he stood ready to refuse.

"Colonel, I'd like mightily to go over and see that review