aker through a haze of tobacco smoke. "I
wonder," he murmured at length. "I wonder."

He did not state that during the morning he had made a point of
interrogating Jerry Dixon's servant. And that worthy--an old and
trusted soldier--had very positively denied that either of the Pelicans
Rampant, which formed the regimental badge, had been missing from his
master's coat the previous evening.

"Now Mr. Brinton's coat, sir," he remarked thoughtfully, "that did 'ave
a badge off, that did. But 'is servant!" He snorted, and dismissed
the subject scornfully.

As I say, the Major did not mention this fact. After all, it was such
a very small point of detail.

To the frivolous-minded, Dick Staunton was at times the cause of a
certain amount of amusement. Originally in the Army, he had left it
when a junior captain, and had settled down to the normal life of a
country gentleman. By nature of a silent disposition, he abominated
social functions of all sorts. He hunted, he fished, and he shot, and
spent the rest of his time studying the habits of the wild. And as
always happens to a man who lives much with nature, his mind gradually
got skilled in the noticing of little things. Small signs, invisible
to the casual observer, he noticed automatically; and without being in
any sense a Sherlock Holmes, he had acquired the habit of putting two
and two together in a manner that was, at times, disconcertingly
correct.

"Points of detail," he remarked one evening in the dug-out after
dinner, "are very easy to see if you have eyes to see them with. One
is nothing; two are a coincidence; three are a moral certainty. A
really trained man can see a molehill; I can see a mountain; most of
you fellows couldn't see the Himalayas." With which sage remark he
thoughtfully lit his pipe and relapsed into silence. And silence being
his usual characteristic he came into the Battalion Head-quarters
dug-out one evening and dropped quietly into a seat, almost unnoticed
by the somewhat noisy group around the table.

"Afternoon, Dickie." The Sapper officer looked up and saw him. "D'you
hear we're pinching your last recruit? Jesson--this is Major
Staunton." He turned to a second lieutenant in the Royal Loamshires
beside him as he made the introduction.

"How d'you do, sir." Jesson got up and saluted. "I've only just got
over from England; and now apparently they're attaching me to the R.E.,
as I'm a miner."

He sat down again,