then of running up against one of the old crowd and being
recognized! It isn't so easy to lose your identity. I've had my lesson
on that."

Miles looked away quickly. The hard, implacable stare of the other man's
eyes, with the blazing defiance, hurt him. It spoke too poignantly of a
bitterness that had eaten into the heart. But he had put his hand to the
plough, and he refused to turn back.

"Wouldn't it"--he spoke with a sudden gentleness, the gentleness of the
surgeon handling a torn limb--"wouldn't it help to straighten things out
with Sara?"

"If it did, it would only make matters worse. No. Take it from me,
Herrick, that soldiering is the one thing of all others I can't do."

He turned away as though to signify that the discussion was at an end.

"I don't see it," persisted Miles. "On the contrary, it's the one thing
that might make her believe in you. In spite of that Indian Frontier
business."

Garth swung suddenly round, a dull, dangerous gleam in his eyes. But
Miles bore the savage glance serenely. He had applied the spur with
intention. The other was suffering--suffering intolerably--in a dumb
silence that shut him in alone with his agony. That silence must be
broken, no matter what the means.

"You'd wipe out the stigma of cowardice, if you volunteered," he went on
deliberately.

Garth laughed derisively.

"Cut it out, Herrick," he flung back. "I'm not a damned story-book hero,
out for whitewash and the V.C."

But Miles continued undeterred.

"And you'd convince Sara," he finished quietly.

A stifled exclamation broke from Garth.

"To what end?" he burst out violently. "Can't you realize that's
just the one thing in the world forbidden me? Sara is--oh, well, it's
impossible to say what she is, but I suppose most good women are half
angel. And if I gave her the smallest chance, she'd begin to believe
in me again--to ask questions I cannot answer. . . . What's the use?
I can't get away from the court-martial and all that followed. I can't
clear myself. And I could never offer Sara anything more than a name
that has been disgraced--a miserable half-life with a man who can't hold
up his head amongst his fellows! Yes"--answering the unspoken question
in Herrick's eyes--"I know what you're thinking--that I was willing to
marry her once. But I believed, then, that--Garth Trent had cut himself
free from the past. Now I know"--more quietly--"that there is no such
thing as getting away from the mistak