d.

A little color had already crept back in Ernest's face, and Bill was
seemingly quite himself.

Then he asked Major Sherman to come into the den, and beckoned Frank to
follow. The boy did so with the air of a condemned man.

No one ever knew what went on at that solemn meeting. One hour, two
passed and still they sat behind the closed door. Then Major Sherman,
with a grave and troubled face, came out, kissed his wife, mounted the
horse the orderly had been holding for the past hour, and rode away in
the direction of the General's quarters. Bill and Frank remained seated
in the den.

Bill, almost as shaken as the culprit, stared out of the window at the
quarters across the court. Frank, broken at last, lay on the hard
quartermaster cot and shook with dry and racking sobs. Neither boy knew
what the outcome would be. It seemed days before the jingle of spurs in
the tiny passageway told of the approach of officers, and the door
opened to admit General Marcom, his aide, and the Major. Bill rose and
stood at attention. Frank too struggled to his feet and stood drooping
before his judges.

Once more the story was told, this time Frank adding a broken sentence
here and there. He told how Jardin had filled him with the longing for
money, and how he had seen the amounts that Jardin spent and wickedly
wanted to do likewise. It was on the impulse of the moment that he had
taken the envelope filled with bills to pay the Battery. Once in his
possession, he was panicstricken. The terror of being found out and
punished had driven him onward; that was all.

The General, an old and kindly man, listened with a grave face. He said
nothing. Writing an order on a slip of paper, he gave it to his orderly,
who galloped off toward Old Post where the jail is situated. In this
grim building with its small, grated windows and thick stone walls, Lee
was awaiting the hour of his departure for prison. There was much red
tape to go through with, but at last the orderly went clattering back to
the General with his answer, and close behind him followed an ambulance
with Lee and a couple of guards, armed with short carbines and heavy
pistols.

As they entered the quarters through the kitchen, Mrs. Sherman placed
both hands on Lee's shoulders--shoulders as straight and proud as ever.

"Oh, my dear boy, it is _all right_!" she whispered so the guard would
not hear. "It is all right, just as I knew it would be! Be generous, be
forgiving, won't