ll you go on with Lacey at once, and--My good fellow, are you
mad?"

"Yes, sir, a'most," cried Jerry, whose appearance and action justified
the colonel's question, for he had suddenly seized the old officer's arm
and made a snatch at the note.

"Stand back, sir! Leave the room at once! Here, turn this scoundrel
out."

"Keep off, or I'll do you a mischief," roared Jerry, as two of the men
sprang at him, and they shrank from his menacing gesture. "Here, Mr
Lacey, Colonel, I want to know--I will know--if S'Richard's hurt--"

"Sir Richard! The man's drunk," cried the colonel.

"No, I ain't; but it's enough to make me," roared Jerry. "I am drunk
now with what you gents call indignation. If S'Richard's hurt, it's
foul play, and it's that black-hearted, cheating, gambling hound as done
it. Keep back!--d'yer hear? It's all over now. It's the cat out of
the bag, and no mistake!"

"One moment, colonel," cried Lacey firmly. "Brigley never drinks.--Look
here, my man, you said foul play. Do you know who was likely to injure
Smithson?"

"Smithson!" cried Jerry in contemptuous tones. "I don't care; I will
speak now. Smithson--do I know? Yes, sir, I do; and I ought to have
spoke before, when he was missing first."

"Then speak out," said Lacey, and the angry frown upon the colonel's
face began to change to a look of interest. "Who is the scoundrel that
had a grudge against Smithson?"

"Tell you he ain't no Smithson!" roared Jerry, bringing his fist down
upon the table and making the glasses jump and one fall to the floor
with a crash. "He made me swear I wouldn't speak; but I will now. He's
no Smithson. He's Sir Richard Frayne, Baronet, and the man as hurt him
is his black-hearted cousin Mark, as calls himself `Sir.' Him of the
310th."

"Stop, my man," cried the colonel. "This is a terribly serious charge
to make against an officer and a gentleman."

"Officer!" cried Jerry, who was boiling over with hysterical excitement;
"he deserves to have his uniform stripped off his back. Gentleman! as
borrowed money on bills, and forged Sir Richard's name; said he didn't;
and made the poor feller go off, leave everything, and come here and
'list."

"You are too excited, my man," said the colonel. "If all this is
true--"

"True, sir? Bring me face to face with him--no: don't; for if he's
killed that poor dear lad, I shall be hung for him as sure as I'm a
man."

"Brigley," said the colonel, "you will be br