nes has chosen a cavalry officer because
he can be better spared than an officer of infantry or of engineers.
Married men are not eligible. Of the others, who will volunteer?"

I need not say that all the unmarried officers stepped to the front. The
colonel looked round in some embarrassment.

I could see his dilemma. It was the best man who should go, and yet it
was the best man whom he could least spare.

"Sir," said I, "may I be permitted to make a suggestion?"

He looked at me with a hard eye. He had not forgotten my observations at
supper. "Speak!" said he.

"I would point out, sir," said I, "that this mission is mine both by
right and by convenience."

"Why so, Captain Gerard?"

"By right because I am the senior captain. By convenience because I
shall not be missed in the regiments since the men have not yet learned
to know me."

The colonel's features relaxed.

"There is certainly truth in what you say, Captain Gerard," said he. "I
think that you are indeed best fitted to go upon this mission. If you
will come with me I will give you your instructions."

I wished my new comrades good-night as I left the room, and I repeated
that I should hold myself at their disposal at five o'clock next
morning. They bowed in silence, and I thought that I could see from the
expression of their faces that they had already begun to take a more
just view of my character.

I had expected that the colonel would at once inform me what it was that
I had been chosen to do, but instead of that he walked on in silence, I
following behind him.

We passed through the camp and made our way across the trenches and
over the ruined heaps of stones which marked the old wall of the town.
Within, there was a labyrinth of passages formed among the debris of the
houses which had been destroyed by the mines of the engineers. Acres and
acres were covered with splintered walls and piles of brick which
had once been a populous suburb. Lanes had been driven through it and
lanterns placed at the corners with inscriptions to direct the wayfarer.
The colonel hurried onward until at last, after a long walk, we found
our way barred by a high grey wall which stretched right across our
path.

Here behind a barricade lay our advance guard. The colonel led me into a
roofless house, and there I found two general officers, a map stretched
over a drum in front of them, they kneeling beside it and examining it
carefully by the light of a lantern. The