repair at once to the presence of
the commanding officer. Then Potts _had_ to give him a drink, or he
would never have got there. With the aid of a servant he was dressed,
and, accompanied by the doctor, reached the office. Braxton looked him
over coldly.

"Mr. Doyle," said he, "the civil authorities have made requisition
for----" But he had got no further when Doyle staggered, and but for the
doctor's help might have fallen.

"For God's sake, colonel, it isn't true! Sure I know nothing of it at
all at all, sir. Indade, indade, I was blind dhrunk, colonel. Sure
they'd swear a man's life away, sir, just because he was the one--he was
the one that----"

"Be silent, sir. You are not accused, that I know of. It is as a witness
you are needed.--Is he in condition to testify, doctor?"

"He is well enough, sir, to tell what he knows, but he claims to know
nothing." And this, too, Doyle eagerly seconded, but was sent along in
the ambulance, with the doctor to keep him out of mischief, and a
parting shot to the effect that when the coroner was through with him
the post commander would take hold again, so the colonel depressed more
than the cocktail stimulated, and, as luck would have it, almost the
first person to meet him inside the gloomy enclosure was his wife, and
her few whispered words only added to his misery.

The water still lay in pools about the premises, and the police had
allowed certain of the neighbors to stream in and stare at the white
walls and shaded windows, but only a favored few penetrated the hall-way
and rooms where the investigation was being held. Doyle shook like one
with the palsy as he ascended the little flight of steps and passed into
the open door-way, still accompanied by "Little Pills." People looked at
him with marked curiosity. He was questioned, re-questioned,
cross-questioned, but the result was only a hopeless tangle. He really
added nothing to the testimony of the hack-driver and Bonelli. In abject
remorse and misery he begged them to understand he was drunk when he
joined the party, got drunker, dimly remembered there was a quarrel, but
he had no cause to quarrel with any one, and that was all; he never knew
how he got home. He covered his face in his shaking hands at last, and
seemed on the verge of a fit of crying.

But then came sensation.

Quietly rising from his seat, the official who so recently had had the
verbal tilt with Cram held forth a rusty, cross-hilted, two-edged k