n they would get even with me
yet. God help me, colonel! seeing every day the growing conviction that
Hayne was innocent, that somebody else _must_ be guilty, I thought, what
if this man _should_, in drunken gratitude to Hayne for saving his life,
go to him and tell him this story, then back it up before the officials
and call in these two others? I was weak, but it appalled me. I
determined to get him out of the way of such a possibility. I got his
discharge, and meantime strove to prevent his drinking or going near
Hayne. _She_ knew the real story he _would_ tell. This was her devilish
plan to keep me on watch against him. I never dreamed the real truth.
She swore to me that three hundred dollars was all the money they had. I
believed that when he confessed it would be what she declared. I never
dreamed that Clancy and his confederate were the thieves: I never
believed the money was taken until after Hayne received it. I saw how
Hayne's guilt was believed in even in the face of contradictory evidence
before the court. What would be the tendency if three men together were
to swear against me, now that everybody thought him wronged? I know very
well what you will think of my cowardice. I know you and your officers
will say I should have given him every chance,--should have courted
investigation; and I meant to do so, but first I wanted to hear from
those discharged men in Nebraska. The whole scheme would have been
exploded two months ago had I not been a coward; but night after night
something kept whispering to me, 'You have wrecked and ruined a
friendless young soldier's life. You shall be brought as low.'"

The colonel was, as he afterwards remarked, hardly equal to the
occasion. He had as much contempt for moral weakness in a soldier as he
had for physical cowardice; but Rayner's almost abject recital of his
months of misery really left him nothing to say. Had the captain sought
to defend or justify any detail of his conduct, he would have pounced on
him like a panther. Twice the adjutant, sitting an absorbed and silent
listener, thought the chief on the verge of an outbreak; but it never
came. For some minutes after Rayner ceased the colonel sat steadily
regarding him. At last he spoke:

"You have been so frank in your statement, captain, that I feel you
fully appreciate how such deplorable weakness must be regarded in an
officer. It is unnecessary for me to speak of that. The full particulars
of Clancy's confessi