and said
Mr. Willett was unwise taking so many chances, and Mr. Willett would be
in big luck if he got away from Almy without further puncture. Somebody
else had been shot at last night. He and the ghost had heard it.

This at the moment was regarded as semi-maudlin talk, but at morning
office hour Watts was sent for, was told what the guard had seen, and
asked what Case had really said, rumor being, as a rule, inaccurate.
Then Archer rebuked Watts for letting Case go in his intoxicated
condition, and it was decided to send a little party in search, in
hopes of fetching him in and finding out more about the alleged
shooting. The party found Case without any trouble. He sat singing to
himself and swinging his legs from the table in the abandoned rookery,
the half-emptied bottle on one side and a "monkey" of spring water on
the other, scornful alike of danger or demands, but indomitably
courteous. The party took a drink with him as promptly invited, but
found him implacably bent on holding the position. Not until argument
and whiskey both were exhausted would he listen to reason and the
suggestion to return to the post. That being the only means to more
whiskey, he started affably enough, but before going half a mile
declared he had left or lent his revolver. "There's only one revolver
at Camp Almy just like it," said he, with drunken dignity, and then,
with sudden gravity, "an' that one--_isn't_ at Camp Almy."

The infantry sergeant in command of the little party tried to wheedle
Case out of his whim, but it was useless. Back he would go, and they,
half supporting, had to go with him. From the drawer of the battered
old table he drew the missing weapon to light, and it stood
revealed--one of the famous Colt's 44, made soon after the Civil War to
replace the percussion-capped "Navy" carried by most officers of the
army until late in the '60's. In the hands of the cavalry at the
moment, and for experimental purposes, were nickel-plated Smith and
Wesson's of the same calibre, and nearly the same length of barrel,
also one or two other patterns of the remodelled Colt. But, as Case
said, this was a special make and model, differing slightly from any
that Sergeant Joyce had ever yet seen; but not until later did the
sergeant or his comrades attach any significance to Case's statement,
"there's only one at Almy just like it."

His weapon recovered, his mental balance slightly restored, and with
the further inspiration of rep