se.

There were half a dozen officers gathered in the small room, the
gray-bearded Colonel in command, sitting behind a table, with Major
McDonald at his right, and the others wherever they could find standing
room. Hamlin saluted, and stood at attention, his gray eyes on the
face of the man who surveyed him across the table.

"Sergeant," the Colonel said rather brusquely, "you came in last night
with 'M' troop, did you not?"

"Yes, sir."

"Had you ever met Lieutenant Gaskins before?"

"Once; he pulled me out of a bad scrape with a bunch of Indians out on
the trail a few months ago."

"The same affair I spoke to you about," commented McDonald quietly.
"The attack on the stage."

The Colonel nodded, without removing his eyes from the Sergeant's face.

"Yes, I know about that," he said. "And that was the only occasion of
your meeting?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well, Sergeant Hamlin, I purpose being perfectly frank with you.
There are two or three matters not easily explained about this affair.
I am satisfied of your innocence; that you were not directly concerned
in the shooting of Lieutenant Gaskins. Men of your troop state that
you were in barracks when the shots were fired, and the wound was not
made by a service revolver, but by a much smaller weapon. Yet there
are circumstances which puzzle us, but which, no doubt, you can
explain. Two shots had been fired from your revolver," and he pushed
the weapon across the table.

"I rode ahead of the troop in march yesterday," Hamlin explained, "and
fired twice at a jack-rabbit. I must have neglected to replace the
cartridges. Private Stone was with me."

"Why did you submit to arrest so easily, without any attempt to clear
yourself?"

The Sergeant's gray eyes smiled, but his response was quietly
respectful.

"I was condemned before I really knew what had occurred, sir. The
sentry, the Sergeant of the guard, and the Lieutenant all insisted that
I was guilty. They permitted me no opportunity to explain. I thought
it just as well to remain quiet, and let the affair straighten itself
out."

"Yet your action threw us completely off the trail," broke in McDonald
impatiently. "It permitted the really guilty parties to escape. Did
you see any one?"

"Black smudges merely, Major, apparently running toward the ravine. My
eyes were blinded, leaping from a lighted room."

McDonald leaned forward eagerly, one hand tapping the table.

"Was one of them a woman?"