of the situation might have lasted there is no saying.
It was broken by the sudden lifting of that dirty canvas screen, as
sudden and perceptible a start on part of each of the confronted men and
the quick entrance of the engineer. For another second or two no word
was spoken. Loring's eyes were evidently unable at the instant to
penetrate the gloom. Then he recognized Blake, then gradually the two
men at the wall, and then at last Blake spoke.

"There are your followers, Loring."

A moment's careful scrutiny, then a nod of assent was Loring's answer.

"Now, then, you two," said Blake. "I've suspected you before. Now I more
than suspect you. You--the long villain--I warn never to come nosing
about our camp again, and you, the shorter, I'll trouble to come into
camp forthwith. No, don't draw that pistol unless you want a dozen
bullets through you. Half a troop is right here at my back. Your soldier
name was Higgins and you're a deserter from Cram's battery, New
Orleans."

For a moment there was a silence, broken only by the hard breathing of
the two cornered men, then came a flash, a sharp report, a piercing
scream as the lithe Mexican girl sprang forth from behind the blanket
and hurled herself on Blake, a panther-like leap of the accused man
under cover of the flash and smoke, a thwack like the sound of the bat
when it meets a new baseball full in the middle, and Loring's fist had
landed full on Higgins' jowl and sent him like a log to the floor.

CHAPTER IV.

The court-martial that met at Camp Cooke in compliance with orders from
division headquarters at 'Frisco had, three weeks later, practically
finished the case of Brevet-Captain Nevins, and that debonair person,
who had appeared before it on the first day, suave, laughing, and almost
insolently defiant, had wilted visibly as, day after day, the judge
advocate unfolded the mass of evidence against him. All that Nevins
thought to be tried for was a charge of misappropriation of public funds
and property, and it was his purpose to plead in bar of trial that he
had offered to make complete restitution, to replace every missing item,
and doubly replace, if need be, every dollar. This, indeed, he had lost
no time in doing the moment he was handed over to the post commander,
two days after the exciting episode at Sancho's, but he coupled with
the offer a condition that all proceedings against him should be
dropped, and the veteran major commanding, while ex