ilty, make no defence, and I'll
pay you double your fine and let you off the thirty dollars. But if you
fail me, or tell a soul of your errand, I'll write to--you know who, at
Raines. Do you understand, and agree?"

"I do. Yessir."

"Go and get ready, and be here in ten minutes."

Meantime, Captain Chester had followed Sloat to the adjutant's office.
He was boiling over with indignation which he hardly knew how to
control. He found the gray-moustached subaltern tramping in great
perplexity up and down the room, and the instant he entered was greeted
with the inquiry,--

"What's gone wrong? What's Jerrold been doing?"

"Don't ask me any questions, Sloat, but answer. It is a matter of honor.
_What_ was your bet with Jerrold?"

"I oughtn't to tell that, Chester. Surely it cannot be a matter mixed up
with this."

"I can't explain, Sloat. What I ask is unavoidable. Tell me about that
bet."

"Why, he was so superior and airy, you know, and was trying to make me
feel that he was so much more intimate with them all at the colonel's,
and that he could have that picture for the mere asking; and I got mad,
and bet him he _never_ could."

"Was that the day you shook hands on it?"

"Yes."

"And that was her picture--_the_ picture, then--he showed you this
morning."

"Chester, you heard the conversation: you were there: you know that I'm
on honor not to tell."

"Yes, I know. That's quite enough."

V.

Before seven o'clock that same morning Captain Chester had come to the
conclusion that only one course was left open for him. After the brief
talk with Sloat at the office he had increased the perplexity and
distress of that easily-muddled soldier by requesting his company in a
brief visit to the stables and corrals. A "square" and reliable old
veteran was the quartermaster sergeant who had charge of those
establishments; Chester had known him for years, and his fidelity and
honesty were matters the officers of his former regiment could not too
highly commend. When Sergeant Parks made an official statement there was
no shaking its solidity. He slept in a little box of a house close by
the entrance to the main stable, in which were kept the private horses
of several of the officers, and among them Mr. Jerrold's; and it was his
boast that, day or night, no horse left that stable without his
knowledge. The old man was superintending the morning labors of the
stable-hands, and looked up in surprise at so early