s.

"I am glad I have then, my lad," smiled back the young lieutenant. "I'm
glad for your sake, Sergeant, and, if you wish, you may consider that I
took much of the trouble on your account personally. But I had also a
still greater motive in doing what I did."

"What was that, sir, if I may ask?"

"My own love of the service," replied Lieutenant Dick Prescott
impressively. "What would the service ever amount to, Sergeant, if we
allowed our best, brightest and most loyal men to be downed by
suspicions against them that clearly had no base? What honest man would
care to enter or to stay in the ranks of the Army if he did not feel
sure that his officers would work to see him righted and enjoying his
proper place in the esteem of his comrades. So, Sergeant, don't try too
hard to thank me. Whatever I did for you personally, I did it ten times
more for the good of the tried, old, true-blue United States Army."

Then, after a pause, Mr. Prescott went on:

"I've had my attention attracted to you more than ever, both yourself
and Sergeant Terry. I see even new possibilities in you as soldiers. Do
you know why?"

"No, sir."

Lieutenant Prescott laughed lightly, though there was a slight mist in
his eyes as he answered:

"It may be news to you, Sergeant, but my good old schoolboy friend, now
Mr. Darrin, of the Navy, has taken almost as much of a liking to you two
youngsters as though you were pet younger brothers of his. Darrin
watched you both often while he was here, after we returned from the
hunting trip. He spoke of you frequently, and seemed to have noticed so
many excellencies in both yourself and Sergeant Terry that I grew
ashamed of my own slight powers of observation. Of course, you don't
know anything of the old days when Mr. Darrin, Mr. Dalzell, Mr. Holmes
and myself were all devoted chums."

"I think I do, sir," Sergeant Hal rejoined.

"You do? How?"

"Mr. Darrin told me a lot that day he and I spent some hours hunting
together. He told me a lot about your old schoolboy days."

"That's only another proof of how much Darrin likes you, then," pursued
the young lieutenant warmly. "Darrin isn't usually very talkative with
new acquaintances. But what I was going to say was that, back in our
schooldays, I often made a great reputation for wisdom just because I
accepted Darrin's wise estimates of human nature and people. So now
Darrin's praises of you two young sergeants have made me feel that I
have missed a