s and despair
of his foes.

"What is his name?" he calmly asked.

"One of those society swells of whom you have so many," was the reply.

"That does not give his name--nor identify him as one of my men," said
Armstrong coolly.

"Oh, well, I didn't say he belonged to your command," was the staff
officer's response, "but one of the kid-glove crowd that's got into the
ranks."

"If you mean the recruits in the --teenth Infantry, I should be slow to
suspect them of any crime," said Armstrong, with something almost like a
drawl, so slow and deliberate was his manner, and now the steel-gray eyes
and the fair, clear-cut face were turned straight upon the snapping eyes
and dark features of the other. There was no love lost _there_. One could
tell without so much as seeing.

"You're off, then! That commissary-sergeant caught one of 'em in the
act--he got wind of it and skipped, and to-day came back in handcuffs."

"All of which may be as you say," answered Armstrong, "and still not
warrant your reference to him as one of my irreproachables."

By this time much of the crowd and most of the vehicles had driven away.
The generals still sat in saddle chatting earnestly together, while their
staff officers listened in some impatience to the conversation just
recorded. Everybody knew the fault was not Armstrong's, but it was
jarring to have to sit and hearken to the controversy. "Don't ever twit
or try funny business with Armstrong," once said a regimental sage. "He
has no sense of humor--of that kind." Those who best knew him knew that
Armstrong never tolerated unjust accusations, great or small. In his
desire to say an irritating thing to a man he both envied and respected,
the staff officer had not confined himself to facts, and it proved a
boomerang.

And now, Armstrong's eyes had lighted for an instant on the alleged
culprit. Seated opposite Miss Lawrence as the carriage whirled across
Point Lobos Avenue, and watching her unobtrusively, he saw the sudden
light of alarm and excitement in her expressive face, heard the faint
exclamation as her gloved hand grasped the rail of the seat, felt the
quick sway of the vehicle as the horses shied in fright at some object
beyond his vision. Then as they dashed on he had seen the running guard
and, just vanishing within the portals of the corner building, the slim
figure of the escaping prisoner. He saw the quivering hands tearing at
their fastenings. He turned to the driver and ba