eben!" shouted the Sergeant--bellowed it, in
fact--when he saw that the guard was nodding his head emphatically.
"You mean to tell me that you have stood there all these minutes, and
allowed me to read the orders of the day, and to cross-examine you,
without giving so much as a hint as to the real cause of the firing of
your rifle? You mean to say that you have allowed all this delay, well
knowing that a prisoner is attempting or had made an escape, and
thereby have assisted him to make clean away from this prison?"

It was the non-commissioned officer's turn almost to explode with
indignation and anger; he towered above the trembling guard as he
thundered at him, and might still have been abusing him and threatening
him had it not been that at that moment another individual came upon
the scene--a short, spare, dried-up fellow, a lieutenant, one risen
from the ranks not long ago, and still retaining all the bullying ways
of a non-commissioned officer. If the burly sergeant had jostled the
guards unceremoniously to either side, had stamped on their feet, had
threatened and browbeaten them, the new-comer was tenfold more violent
and domineering. If looks could have slaughtered individuals, the
glance he cast at the sergeant would have slain that perspiring and
angry person in an instant, while the scathing glances cast at the
group of guards would have decimated the whole party. Yet, if this
under-officer's looks were terrible, if he were still more threatening
than the non-commissioned officer, he was at least practical, and quick
to get to the bottom of matters.

"Stop this racket!" he commanded abruptly, snapping the words like
pistol-shots at those round him. "There was an alarm; it started with
a rifle-shot--I know all that, so you needn't report it. Stop!" he
commanded, seeing the non-commissioned officer open his mouth as if to
describe what had happened. "A rifle-shot gave the alarm--something
caused one of the guards to fire. This man here undoubtedly is the man
who did so. Sergeant, you have called for his report? You have been
here a good five minutes--what's the report?"

"A prisoner escaping. This fool here has kept the knowledge from me
until this very moment, and I have only just managed to drag the
information from him. I have----"

"Hold!" snapped the officer. "I am not asking what you did; I am
asking what caused the sentry to fire. A prisoner escaping, you tell
me--he's gone then; you'