ith him it was steel-ribbed
facts. He could hear the bang of the trap, the snap of the rope, and the
quivering creak of the scaffold. And afterward, the lonely, hopeless
years. Besides, the dishonor of it. What irony to parade with thirty
years of service chevrons on his sleeves, and be pointed out as the
father of a man hanged for deserting to the Filipinos!

The officers went to the front and center and the formation was over.
Private Wilson departed to his closely guarded prison, and old Jeremiah
took the troop to quarters and dismissed it. For the first time in
twenty years he forgot to "open chamber and magazine," and publish the
details for the next day. He wanted to be alone; away from the pitying
eyes of the black men of the troop.

He had honestly believed that there were grounds for hope. He could not
see now, in the face of the evidence, how the court could have given
"Buff" the extreme penalty. He thought he had explained the
circumstances so clearly. Hadn't he told the tribunal of the baleful
influence of Mercedes Martinez? how this _mestiza_, had lured his boy to
his downfall? He thought he had shown positively, by his testimony,
that this woman had terrible "voodoo" powers and had _conjured_ "Buff."
Hadn't they apparently listened with wonder while he related the charms
that had been brought to bear on his son? the devils that had pursued
him; the angels that had beckoned him away to the hills; the divine call
he had received to be the George Washington of the Filipinos, and lead
them to freedom?

[Illustration: "ALL DAY LONG OLD SERGEANT WILSON SAT IN THE CORNER OF
THE SQUAD ROOM, CLASPING AND UNCLASPING HIS STRAINING HANDS"]

The old soldier's pride in his son's physical perfection had always
blinded him to the fact that the private was constantly in trouble, and
was known as a "bad egg." If any one had told him that he was an object
of pity because of his boy's worthlessness, he would have sputtered with
indignation. He never realized that Buff escaped many a "bawling out"
because the officers respected the father's long years of faithful
service and did not want to humiliate him. He knew that his boy flew
high occasionally, but that was because he was "jess nachally sprightly
and full o' devilment." No one could deny that Private Wilson was one of
the finest animals, physically, that ever wore the uniform; or that he
had gained a wide reputation among his comrades and the Filipinos on
account of h