afterward ordered to Tennessee and I never heard about you."

"It was all right, sir," said Brune, without visible emotion; "I escaped
and returned to my colors--the Confederate colors. I should like to add
that before deserting from the Federal service I had earnestly asked a
discharge, on the ground of altered convictions. I was answered by
punishment."

"Ah, but if I had suffered the penalty of my crime--if you had not
generously given me the life that I accepted without gratitude you would
not be again in the shadow and imminence of death."

The prisoner started slightly and a look of anxiety came into his face.
One would have said, too, that he was surprised. At that moment a
lieutenant, the adjutant, appeared at the opening of the tent and
saluted. "Captain," he said, "the battalion is formed."

Captain Hartroy had recovered his composure. He turned to the officer
and said: "Lieutenant, go to Captain Graham and say that I direct him to
assume command of the battalion and parade it outside the parapet. This
gentleman is a deserter and a spy; he is to be shot to death in the
presence of the troops. He will accompany you, unbound and unguarded."

While the adjutant waited at the door the two men inside the tent rose
and exchanged ceremonious bows, Brune immediately retiring.

Half an hour later an old negro cook, the only person left in camp
except the commander, was so startled by the sound of a volley of
musketry that he dropped the kettle that he was lifting from a fire. But
for his consternation and the hissing which the contents of the kettle
made among the embers, he might also have heard, nearer at hand, the
single pistol shot with which Captain Hartroy renounced the life which
in conscience he could no longer keep.

In compliance with the terms of a note that he left for the officer who
succeeded him in command, he was buried, like the deserter and spy,
without military honors; and in the solemn shadow of the mountain which
knows no more of war the two sleep well in long-forgotten graves.

ONE KIND OF OFFICER

I

OF THE USES OF CIVILITY

"Captain Ransome, it is not permitted to you to know _anything_. It is
sufficient that you obey my order--which permit me to repeat. If you
perceive any movement of troops in your front you are to open fire, and
if attacked hold this position as long as you can. Do I make myself
understood, sir?"

"Nothing could be plainer. Lieutenant Price,"--this to an