e worse still for poor
Lennox."

"No! How?"

"Because he'd leave the poison behind him. There, I'll do all I can
with the colonel; but all the officers believe Roby, and that Lennox was
seized with a fit of panic. There's only one way for him to clear it
away."

"Exchange? How can he?"

"Exchange? Nonsense! Get strong, return to his company, and show every
one that he is not the coward they think."

"There's something in that, certainly," said Dickenson sadly; "but he'll
want opportunities. Suppose he had the chance to save the major's life;
how do we know that he too wouldn't set it about that Lennox was more
cowardly still? Saving lives doesn't seem to pay."

"Nonsense, my lad! You're speaking bitterly now."

"Enough to make me, sir. It isn't only Roby; Lennox saved Corporal May
as well."

"Never mind that. You tell Lennox to try again. Third time, they say,
never fails."

"Humph!" said Dickenson. "Well, we shall see."

"Yes," said the doctor; "we shall see."

CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.

THE MUD THAT STUCK.

"It's a bad business, Mr Lennox," said the colonel sternly, some weeks
later, when matters looked very dreary again in the camp, for the
supplies of provisions had once more begun to grow very short, and the
constant strain of petty attacks had affected officers and men to a
degree that made them morose and bitter in the extreme.

"But surely, sir, you don't believe this of me?" said Lennox, flushing.

"As a man, no, Mr Lennox; but as your commanding officer I am placed in
a very awkward position. The captain of your company makes the most
terrible charge against you that could be made against a young officer."

"But under what circumstances? He was suffering from a serious injury
to the head; he was delirious at the time."

"But he is not delirious now, Mr Lennox, and that which he accused you
of in a state of wild frenzy he maintains, now that he is recovering
fast, in cold blood."

"Yes, sir; it seems cold-blooded enough after what I did for him."

"Unfortunately he maintains that this is all an invention on your part."

"And my being dragged away for some distance by one of the Boers, sir?"

"Yes; he declares that he was not insensible for some time after his
hurt, and that had what you say occurred he must have seen it."

"Then it is his word against mine, sir?" said Lennox.

"Unfortunately it is not, Lennox," said the colonel gravely. "If it
were only that I should