ve ascertained that fact?"

"I--I--he--you----"

The non-commissioned officer was utterly taken aback, and it was his
turn now to look askance at this dried-up, sinister-looking
under-officer. If the unfortunate and aged guard who had fired that
shot had been remiss in making a rapid report--remissness excusable
enough considering the violence of the Sergeant--the latter had been
more remiss in not pursuing the matter more rapidly. He knew it, and
knew that the under-officer already condemned him. Moreover, with that
under-officer, he was well aware, excuses would not avail him.

"I was going to----"

"That will do," the officer told him. "Whatever you were going to do
was not your duty. You have been delaying a report; I will deal with
you later in the Commandant's office. Now, my friend," he began,
turning upon the trembling guard, "a prisoner was escaping; I will ask
the question that should have been asked at the very commencement: you
fired a shot--you killed the man, eh?--so that he did not escape, or
you stopped him?"

There was the dawn of a smile actually on the face of the rotund guard
who had been so odiously browbeaten by the Sergeant. It was his turn,
he felt, his turn to be jubilant, and at the expense of the man who had
bullied him so abominably. He was, in fact, helping to turn the tables
on the Sergeant, and hastened to assist the officer.

"I was about to report the matter, sir," he said. "A prisoner was
escaping, but failed. I did not shoot him, because it was not
possible, seeing that he was out of sight and underground. I therefore
fired my rifle to give an alarm and to call assistance. Meanwhile I
stood guard over the opening, which I discovered by mere accident. In
the hut, there, sir, there is a hole beneath the boards laid on the
floor, and a tunnel leading from it. It is not my duty to enter the
huts, and, in fact, the orders of sentries are emphatic on that point;
we are to patrol outside though, and not to venture farther unless
there is a commotion. But it is the duty of the non-commissioned
officer in whose charge a hut may be to see that the prisoners keep the
place tidy, to watch them carefully, and to observe if they show signs
of an attempted escape."

"Hah!" The fierce little dried-up under-officer actually
smiled--smiled at this stout sentry, smiled at him, and, indeed, almost
winked. For, in an instant, he had realized what was happening, how by
this last st