of Captain Edney and his watch.

"Forgive me; forgive me!" he humbly entreated.

"I do, freely, as I told you," said the captain.

"But--the watch you gave me!"

"Dear boy!"--the captain put his arm kindly about him,--"haven't I always
told you I knew nothing about the watch? I did not give it to you, nor do
I know what generous friend did."

"It is true, then?" Frank looked up with a half-glad, half-disappointed
expression. He was disappointed to know that so good a friend was not
the donor of the watch, and yet glad that he had not wronged _him_ by
gambling it away. "Then, Captain Edney, I wish you would tell me what to
do. I have done the worst and meanest thing. I have lost the watch."

And he went on to relate how he had lost it. Captain Edney heard him with
deep concern. He had all along felt a sense of responsibility for the boy
Mrs. Manly had intrusted to him, as well as a genuine affection for him;
he had therefore double cause to be pained by this unexpected
development.

"Frank," said he, "I am glad I did not first hear this story from any
body else; and I am glad that the proof of your thorough repentance
accompanies the confession. That breaks the pain of it. To-morrow I will
see what can be done about the watch. Perhaps we shall get it again.
To-night I have only one piece of advice to give. Don't think of winning
it back with cards."

"Then how shall I ever get it?" asked Frank, in despair. For he did not
wish his mother to know of the circumstances; and to buy the watch back
when he was paid off again, would be to withhold money which he felt
belonged to her.

Captain Edney could not solve the difficulty; and with that burden upon
his mind, Frank returned to his bunk with his letters.

He bent over them with doubt and foreboding. The first he selected was
from his mother. As he opened it, his eye caught these words:--

"... He says that you beat some of the worst men in the regiment at
their own vices. He says you are generally smoking, except when you
take out your pipe to swear. According to his account, you are one of
the profanest of the profane. And he tells of your going with others
to steal turkeys of a secessionist in Maryland, and how you got out
of the scrape by the most downright lying. He gives the story so
circumstantially that I cannot think he invented it, but am compelled
to believe there is something in it. O, my child, is it possible? Ill