th your permission, take it off, Mr. Kennedy.
It is much better that the wound should be properly washed, and
some dressing applied to it. It will heal all the quicker, and you
are less likely to have an ugly scar.

"It is a pretty deep graze," he said, after he had carefully
removed the plaster. "An eighth of an inch farther, and it would
have made your teeth rattle. You had better keep quiet, today.
Tomorrow morning, if there is no sign of inflammation, I will take
off the dressing and bandage and put on a plaster--one a third of
the size that I took off will be sufficient; and as I will use a
pink plaster, it will not be very noticeable, if you go outside
the barracks.

"Where is your man? The colonel told me there were two patients.

"A nasty cut," he said, after examining Mike's wound. "It is lucky
that it was not a little higher. If it had been, you would have
bled to death in five minutes. As it is, it is not serious. You
will have to keep your arm in a sling for a fortnight. You are not
to attend parade, or mount a horse, until I give you leave."

On the ride from Versailles, Desmond had warned Mike to say no
word as to the events of the night.

"I do not know what course the young lady's father may take," he
said, "and until I do, the matter had better be kept a secret,
altogether."

"I will keep a quiet tongue in my head, and no one shall hear
anything, from me, as to how I got this slice on my shoulder. I
will just say that it was a bit of a scrimmage I got into, with
two or three of the street rascals; and the thing is so common
that no one is likely to ask any further questions about it."

After the parade was over, O'Neil and O'Sullivan came up to
Desmond's quarters.

"Now, Master Kennedy, we have come to receive your confession. We
gave you credit for being a quiet, decent boy, and now it seems
that you and that man of yours have been engaged in some
disreputable riot, out all night, and coming in on two strange
horses, which, for aught we know, have been carried off by force
of arms."

Desmond laughed.

"As to the horses, you are not so far wrong as one might expect,
O'Neil. We rode them this morning from Versailles."

"From Versailles!" O'Neil repeated. "And what, in the name of all
the saints, took you to Versailles! I am afraid, Desmond, that you
are falling into very evil courses.

"Well, tell us all about it. I shall be glad to be able to believe
that there is some redeeming featur