debted to you. I should not
mind so much being robbed of my purse, but I prize my watch very highly
as it was a present from my father. Major Horsley will see you and thank
you when he hears what you have done."

"I do not want any thanks," Edgar said; "it is a pleasure to punish such
ruffians."

Half an hour later Major Horsley came across to Edgar's quarters, and
the sergeant called the lad down.

"I am greatly indebted to you, Smith," he said, as Edgar saluted,
"greatly indebted to you. You have behaved most gallantly, and have
saved my wife from the loss of her watch and chain that she greatly
valued, and perhaps from serious ill-treatment from those ruffians; as
it was, one of them struck her a very severe blow on the face. I know
enough of you, lad, to feel that I cannot offer you money for the
service that you have rendered me; but be assured that I shall not
forget it, and that when it is in my power to do you a good turn I will
do so."

"Thank you, sir," Edgar said. "I am very glad to have been of service."

The major nodded kindly. Edgar saluted and turned away, well pleased at
having made a friend who would have it in his power to be so useful to
him, and still more pleased that the major had not offered him money as
a reward for what he had done. An hour later he was sent for to the
orderly-room, where the colonel in the presence of several of the
officers thanked him for his gallant conduct.

"You are a credit to the regiment, Smith; and you may be sure that I
shall keep my eye on you," he concluded.

The next day the tramps were brought up before the local magistrates and
committed for trial for highway robbery with violence, and a month later
they were brought up at the assizes at Winchester and sentenced to five
years' penal servitude. Edgar gained a great deal of credit in the
regiment from the affair, and came to be known by the nickname of "The
Bantam." There were, of course, some men who were jealous of the young
trumpeter's popularity, and two or three of the non-commissioned
officers especially felt aggrieved at the notice taken of him. One of
these was the corporal in charge of the barrack-room occupied by Edgar,
for he had, since he had been regularly appointed to a troop, left the
quarters he first occupied with the band for those allotted to troop D.

Corporals, however, have but little power in a barrack-room. They are in
a sort of transitional state between a private and a sergeant,