y here again, and I would rather be on
horseback, riding all over the country, than walking up and down
these streets till my feet fairly ache."

"That is my opinion, too, Mike. We have had a good many rides with
despatches, but between times it is stupid work, hanging about the
general's quarters waiting for orders."

The next morning, Desmond joined Colonel Crofton's regiment as it
was on the point of starting from the barracks. It was in the
service of Spain, and had taken a brilliant part in several
engagements. Desmond was acquainted with the colonel and his
officers.

"Good morning, Kennedy!" Crofton said, as he rode up and saluted
him. "I had a note from the Duke of Orleans, last night, saying
you were going on special service, and would travel with us as far
as Badajos. King Philip sent for me, later on, and himself gave me
instructions, besides handing me the written orders. It seems you
have discovered that the governor is mixed up, with a lot of
contractors, in swindling the state by supplying earth instead of
powder and flour."

"So far as the governor goes, Colonel, there is no absolute proof.
I have not the smallest doubt that he was the prime mover in the
matter, and that the commissaries only received a small portion of
the bribes paid to him. It is hardly possible that every one of
them should have betrayed his trust, unless sure of the governor's
protection. I cannot prove that he had all these men shot in order
to silence them, employed men to assassinate Colonel Mendez, or
set men to murder me in my hotel and afterwards to intercept us in
crossing the sierra. Still, I have no shadow of doubt in my mind
that it was so.

"However, I do not think you will find him at Badajos. No doubt,
as soon as he heard I had got safely down into the valley of the
Tagus, he made off. There is just a possibility that the
contractors, knowing that their lives will be forfeited by the
discovery of the frauds, might at once have sent in supplies of
powder, flour, and other things, to take the place of the casks
and sacks of earth; in which case he would probably deny the truth
of my statement altogether, and declare that I had simply invented
it in order to do credit to myself. But I hardly think that
possible. In the first place, there are the soldiers both of my
escort and of Colonel Mendez, who assisted in the work of
examination; besides which more than half the commissaries escaped
while this was taking plac