of yer run fer the stretcher--leg it now. We 'll have yer out
o' here in a minute, Lieutenant. What happened, sir? Who shot yer?"

Gaskins' dulled eyes strayed from the speaker's face, until he saw
Hamlin, still firmly gripped by the sentry. His lips drew back
revealing his teeth, his eyes narrowing.

"That's the one," he said faintly. "You 've got him!"

One hand went to his side in a spasm of pain, and he fainted. The
Sergeant laid him back limp on the grass, and stood up.

"Where is your gun, Hamlin?"

"I dropped it when I fell over the Lieutenant's body. It must be back
of you."

Some one picked the weapon up, and held it to the light, turning the
chambers.

"Two shots gone, Sergeant."

"We heard three; likely the Lieutenant got in one of them. Sentry,
what do you know about this?"

Mapes scratched his head, the fingers of his other hand gripping the
prisoner's shoulder.

"Not so awful much," he replied haltingly, "now I come ter think 'bout
it. 'T was a mighty dark night, an' I never saw, ner heard, nuthin'
till the shootin' begun. I wus back o' officers' row, an' them pistols
popped up yere, by the corner o' the barracks. I jumped an' yelled;
thought I heerd somebody runnin' an' let drive. Then just as I got up
yere, this feller come tearin' 'long, an' I naturally grabbed him.
That's the whole of it."

"What have you got to say, Hamlin?"

"Nothing."

"Well, yer better. Yer in a mighty bad box, let me tell yer," angered
by the other's indifference. "What was the row about?"

The cavalryman stood straight, his face showing white in the glow of
the lantern.

"I told you before I had nothing to say. I will talk to-morrow," he
returned quietly. "I submit to arrest."

"I reckon yer will talk to-morrow, and be damn glad o' the chance.
Corporal, take this fellow to the guard-house, an' stay there with him.
Here comes the stretcher, an' the doctor."

Hamlin marched off silently through the black night, surrounded by a
detail of the guard. It had all occurred so suddenly that he was
bewildered yet, merely retaining sufficient consciousness of the
circumstances to keep still. If they were assured he was guilty, then
no effort would be made to trace any others connected with the affair.
Why Gaskins should have identified him as the assassin was a
mystery--probably it was merely the delirium of a sorely wounded man,
although the fellow may have disliked him sufficiently for that kind of