y's back porch. She felt
sure that Downs was one and thought from the sound that he must be
intoxicated, so Truman shuffled out to see, and somebody, bending
double in the dusk, scurried away at his approach. He heard rather
than saw. But there was Downs, at least, slinking back into the house,
and him Truman halted and accosted. "Who was that with you?" he asked,
and Downs thickly swore he hadn't seen a soul. But all the while Downs
was clumsily stuffing something into a side pocket, and Truman,
seizing his hand, dragged it forth into the light. It was one of the
hospital six-ounce bottles, bearing a label indicative of glycerine
lotion, but the color of the contained fluid belied the label. A sniff
was sufficient. "Who gave you this whisky?" was the next demand, and
Downs declared 'twas a hospital "messager" that brought it over,
thinking the lieutenant might need it. Truman, filled with wrath, had
dragged Downs into the dimly lighted room to the rear of that in which
lay Lieutenant Blakely, and was there upbraiding and investigating
when startled by the stifled cry that, rising suddenly on the night
from the open _mesa_ just without, had so alarmed so many in the
garrison. Of what had led to it he had then no more idea than the
dead.

Corporal Donovan, next examined, said he was marching Schultz over to
relieve Mullins on No. 5, just after half-past three, and heading for
the short cut between the quarters of Captains Wren and Cutler, which
was about where No. 5 generally met the relief, when, just as they
were halfway between the flagstaff and the row, Schultz began to limp
and said there must be a pebble in his boot. So they halted. Schultz
kicked off his boot and shook it upside down, and, while he was
tugging at it again, they both heard a sort of gurgling, gasping cry
out on the _mesa_. Of course Donovan started and ran that way, leaving
Schultz to follow, and, just back of Captain Westervelt's, the third
house from the northward end, he almost collided with Lieutenant
Truman, officer of the day, who ordered him to run for Dr. Graham and
fetch him up to Lieutenant Blakely's quick. So of what had taken place
he, too, was ignorant until later.

It was the hospital attendant, Todd, whose story came next and brought
Plume to his feet with consternation in his eyes. Todd said he had
been sitting at the lieutenant's bedside when, somewhere about three
o'clock, he had to go out and tell Downs to make less noise. Down