nt will know, if it takes any action on these
trumped-up, lying charges," declared Lieutenant Noll hotly.

"Of course we won't lie down and tamely submit to such false charges,"
agreed Lieutenant Overton.

"Going out for a walk this morning?" Noll wanted to know.

"I feel much more inclined to sit here and think this whole thing over,"
Hal answered, pointing to the lying sheet.

"Hal, if we stay indoors to-day the _Sphere_ will have it to-morrow that
we are overwhelmed with shame and fear, and have kept in hiding."

"And, if we go out around the town," laughed Hal, "the _Sphere_ will
proclaim to-morrow that we are brazenly showing ourselves and trying to
cheek down the charges against us."

"Then we'll take our choice and do as we please," remarked young Terry.
"Come along out."

Hal got his hat, and the chums went forth, again in their tennis flannel
undress.

The news had not been slow in spreading. They had gone hardly a block
when they were stopped by friends, and congratulated on having taught
Bunny such an effective lesson.

Others there were, however, who whispered behind the backs of the young
officers. Hal and Noll were not slow to catch some of those whispers.

"We're a whole lot more important than we were three years ago," grinned
Noll. "Now, at last, we seem to have the town divided into two camps
concerning us."

"Three," corrected Hal.

"How do you make that out?"

"One crowd believes the charges against us, and another doesn't. The
third crowd isn't sure, or doesn't care."

"One fellow I'm after, anyway," muttered Noll grimly.

"Who's that?"

"Sayles."

"Who's he?"

"Don't you know?"

"I'm afraid I can't recall a party named Sayles," Hal answered
thoughtfully.

"Why, he's the pen-hoister who gets out the _Sphere_!"

"Oh, well, what are you going to do to him, Noll?"

"I'm going to make him prove all he printed in his lying sheet."

"He can--with the aid of the kind of witnesses that he has back of him,"
Hal reminded his chum.

"Well, we shall have to see if the testimony of such witnesses will 'go'
in court," Noll contended grimly.

"Are you going to prosecute the fellow?"

"I'm going to sue Sayles for libel," Noll retorted.

"Is the fellow worth the trouble?" Hal inquired doubtfully.

"No, but our reputations are," rejoined Noll bluntly. "Hal, we are
commissioned officers in the United States Army. If that means anything,
it means that the United States government c