more, almost fainting
with terror, in the covert of oak leaves, just above the court's head,
whither he had noiselessly climbed, to overhear everything. "He's
a-goner, sure! They'll shoot him, sure as guns. Saltpeter won't save
him. He's broke every Article o' War in the whole book. My, what will I
do?"

He slipped down and communicated his information to the
anxiously-expectant comrades of Co. Q.

"It mayn't be as bad as we expect," the Orderly-Sergeant tried to
console them. "The bite of most of them regulations and charges and
specifications ain't never near as bad as their bark. If they were,
a good many of us would have been shot long ago. My experience in the
army's been that the regulations are like the switches the teachers used
to have in school--a willow for the good scholars, and a stout hickory
for the bad ones. Still, I'm afraid that Shorty won't get off with less
than hard labor for life on the fortifications."

"Prisoner, you have heard the charges and specifications," said Lieut.
Bowersox, in a stern voice. "How do you plead to them?"

"O, I'm guilty--guilty o' the whole lot," said Shorty dejectedly.

"Inasmuch," said Lieut. Bowersox, with an entire change of tone, "as
it is my duty to represent the prisoner's interests as counsel, I shall
disregard his plea, and enter one of not guilty."

Shorty started to gasp. "But I done all that--"

"Silence," thundered Lieut. Bowersox, "you are only to speak, sir, when
I or some other member of the court ask you a question."

"But has the Judge-Advocate the right to disregard the plain plea?"
Lieut. McJimsey started to inquire, when the President interrupted with,

"Lieutenant, we can have no discussion of the court's practices in the
presence of the prisoner. If you want to enter upon that we shall have
to clear the court. Do you desire that?"

There was something in the bluff old Major's tone that made the
Lieutenant think this inadvisable, and he signified the negative.

"Call your first witness, then, Judge-Advocate," said Maj. Truax, with a
wave of his hand.

Lieut. Steigermeyer, in full-dress, even to epaulets, rigidly erect and
sternly important as to look, testified that he was a Second
Lieutenant in the Regular Army, but had the staff rank of Captain and
Inspector-General, and after going out of his way to allude to the
laxness of discipline he found prevailing in the Western armies,
testified that on the day mentioned, while in pursuance of