t leave shortly after, and at the time Captain Tremayne was still
with her ladyship--as her ladyship can testify if necessary. He spent
the remainder of the afternoon with me at work, and we went home
together in the evening. We share the same lodging in Alcantara."

"There was still all of the next day," said Sir Harry. "Do you say that
the prisoner was never out of your sight on that day too?"

"I do not; but I can't believe--"

"I am afraid you are going to state opinions again," Major Swan
interposed.

"Yet it is evidence of a kind," insisted Carruthers, with the tenacity
of a bull-dog. He looked as if he would make it a personal matter
between himself and Major Swan if he were not allowed to proceed. "I
can't believe that Captain Tremayne would have embroiled himself
further with Count Samoval. Captain Tremayne has too high a regard for
discipline and for orders, and he is the least excitable man I have ever
known. Nor do I believe that he would have consented to meet Samoval
without my knowledge."

"Not perhaps unless Captain Tremayne desired to keep the matter secret,
in view of the general order, which is precisely what it is contended
that he did."

"Falsely contended, then," snapped Major Carruthers, to be instantly
rebuked by the president.

He sat down in a huff, and the judge-advocate called Private Bates, who
had been on sentry duty on the night of the 28th, to corroborate the
evidence of the sergeant of the guard as to the hour at which the
prisoner had driven up to Monsanto in his curricle.

Private Bates having been heard, Major Swan announced that he did not
propose to call any further witnesses, and resumed his seat. Thereupon,
to the president's invitation, Captain Tremayne replied that he had no
witnesses to call at all.

"In that case, Major Swan," said Sir Harry, "the court will be glad to
hear you further."

And Major Swan came to his feet again to address the court for the
prosecution.

CHAPTER XVII. BITTER WATER

Major Swan may or may not have been a gifted soldier. History is silent
on the point. But the surviving records of the court-martial with which
we are concerned go to show that he was certainly not a gifted speaker.
His vocabulary was limited, his rhetoric clumsy, and Major Carruthers
denounces his delivery as halting, his very voice dull and monotonous;
also his manner, reflecting his mind on this occasion, appears to have
been perfectly unimpassioned. He had b