r chap," protested Algy. "See
how simple it all really is? I can spare seven hundred dollars as well
as I can a cigarette. I'll hand the amount to Overton. He'll hand it to
Green--and all the cause of the trouble is removed and everybody happy."

"Just like that!" gasped Lieutenant Greg Holmes ironically, and he
appeared to need the support of the mantel at which he clutched.

There was a savage look on Lieutenant Prescott's face as he demanded:

"Ferrers, are you trying to make game of me?"

"Make game of you?" echoed Lieutenant Algy, with a face so blank, so
full of wonderment and so lacking in guile. "Why, I----"

He broke off abruptly, going to the top drawer of a dresser.

"Money talks," announced Algy, holding out a long wallet. "There's a few
thousand dollars in this leather. Help yourself to whatever will square
Overton with the individual Green."

"Put your pocketbook up," replied Prescott almost brusquely. "And accept
my apology at the same time, Ferrers, if you'll be so good. You weren't
trying to make fun of me; I know it now. This is simply another buttered
piece off your thick cake of stupidity."

"I've never been noted for cleverness; even the guv'nor admits that to
me, in confidence," confessed Lieutenant Algy. "But why won't the money
do the trick?"

"Because--oh, why--tell him, won't you, Holmesy? I'm off to see Captain
Cortland."

Prescott strode away to his company commander for advice.

"Perhaps you think, sir, I'm a good deal of a fool to take such a keen
interest in this matter of Overton," suggested the lieutenant.

"On the contrary, an officer who isn't interested in the men serving
under him has done wrongly in choosing the Army for his profession,"
replied Captain Cortland gravely. "I, too, am disturbed, for, like
yourself, Mr. Prescott, I find it impossible to believe that such a
clean, clear-cut young soldier as Corporal Overton has been guilty of
dishonesty."

"Can you suggest anything that I can do, sir?" the young lieutenant
asked gravely.

"I have been thinking over that same matter. It seems difficult to know
what to do. Of course you can let Corporal Overton see that he has your
confidence, Mr. Prescott. You may assure him, at any time, that he also
has mine, if you think that will do him any good. But the only thing
that will actually clear up the matter will be the discovery of the real
thief--and that's a matter, I fancy, that's going to be full of
difficulty."

L