heart and appreciated his motives to the
uttermost it was his lieutenant and the young officer was prepared to
lose his commission, aye, even face prison for insubordination if
continued opposition to the Commander-in-Chief would result in a
re-hearing. And so he caught himself together for the second time and
returned to the charge.

"I do not offer his courage as a plea for pardon," he said, and turned
to his general with half a smile, "but still I find in Shakespeare--and
in Blackstone--the suggestion of tempering justice with mercy."

Grant tossed aside his pencil, repeating the last word slowly, bitterly:

"_Mercy!_"

He rose from his seat and stood beside his table, speaking with a low
but almost fierce intensity:

"They call me a war machine! I am! And you--and all the rest--are parts
of it! A lever! A screw! A valve! A wheel! A machine half human--yes! A
thing of muscle and bone and blood--but without a heart! A merciless
_machine_, whose wheels must turn and turn till we grind out this
rebellion to the dust of peace!"

He paused impressively, and in the hard, cold words which followed, all
hope for Morrison seemed to fade and die.

"If a wheel once fails to do its work--discard it!--for another and a
better one! _We want no wheels that slip their cogs!_"

The General ceased and turned to his littered table; but Harris was not
yet beaten.

"No, General," he answered bravely, "but there happens to be a flaw ...
in your machine's control." The General looked up, frowning sharply; but
Harris still went on: "In a military court we have condemned a man to
die--_and the facts have not been proved!_"

Amazed more at the young officer's obstinate temerity than his words the
General stared at him.

"How so?" he asked, with irony.

Harris opened out his hands with a simple gesture that seemed to leave
his logic to the judgment of any impartial observer.

"In times of peace, my profession is that of the Law. I know my
ground--and," in rising tones of sincerity, "I challenge you to shake it
in any civil court in Christendom."

"Strong words, young man," came the stern reply. "For your sake, I hope
they are warranted. What is your point? Get at it!"

Harris drew a short breath of relief. He had cleverly switched the
appeal from grounds on which he stood no chance whatever to those where
he did not fear any intellect in a fair fight.

"The evidence," he said calmly, "was purely circumstantial. In the firs