hand to help _her_ out. Instead of accepting, instead of throwing
herself into his arms and weeping there, she turned to the coachman
and said, 'Driver, drive me to my father's house.' That was the end of
their wedded life, Wallis."

The Colonel actually wept at this point, and the maudlin tears were
not altogether insincere. His own wife and children he heartily loved,
and remembered them now with honest tenderness. At home he was not a
drinker and a rough; only amid the hardships and perils of the field.

"That was the end of it, Wallis," he repeated. "And what was it while
it lasted? What does a woman leave her husband for? Why does she
separate from him over the grave of her innocent first-born? There are
twenty reasons, but they must all of them be good ones. I am sorry to
give it as my decided opinion, Wallis, in perfect confidence, that
they must all be whopping good ones. Well, that was the beginning;
only the beginning. After that he held on for a while, breaking the
bread of life to a skedaddling flock, and then he bolted. The next
known of him, three years later, he enlisted in your regiment, a smart
but seedy recruit, smelling strongly of whisky."

"I wish I smelt half as strong of it myself," grumbled Wallis. "It
might keep out the swamp fever."

"That's the true story of Col. John James Waldron," continued Old
Grumps, with a groan which was very somnolent, as if it were a twin to
a snore. "That's the true story."

"I don't believe the first word of it--that is to say, Colonel, I
think you have been misinformed--and I'll bet you two to one on it.
If he was nothing more than a minister, how did he know drill and
tactics?"

"Oh, I forgot to say, he went through West Point--that is, nearly
through. They graduated him in his third year by the back door,
Wallis."

"Oh, that was it, was it? He was a West Pointer, was he? Well, then,
the backsliding was natural, and oughtn't to count against him. A
member of Benny Havens' church has a right to backslide anywhere,
especially as the Colonel doesn't seem to be any worse than some of
the rest of us, who haven't fallen from grace the least particle, but
took our stand at the start just where we are now. A fellow that
begins with a handful of trumps has a right to play a risky game."

"I know what euchered him, Wallis. It was the old Little Joker; and
there's another of the same on hand now."

"On hand where? What are you driving at, Colonel?"

"He looks li