his
mind inconsequently turned to the man who had passed through so many
crises with him.

"Carrick came through it all, too," he mused. "The veteran is now the
valet. Poor chap, his life has been a strange one." He recalled the
story the fellow had told of his past--a tale which had won for him the
friendship and aid of the man who had been his captain and was now his
employer.

It had occurred in the white stuccoed house on the Plaza which had been
his official quarters as Provost.

The picture of it, with its stately old-world balconies where violet
shadows nested lovingly, arose before his memory's eyes with a strange
yearning. The recollection of those striped awnings in the white light
of mid-day had potency to cool, even now, the fever of his thoughts. The
barren dignity of Carrick's story had contrasted vividly with the
tropical colorings in which its recital had been inspired.

Prompted by a kindly interest in his orderly's career and ambitions, he
had asked the man as to his past in general and his future in
particular. He was totally unprepared for the undammed flood of
confidence which had burst from the lips of the habitually taciturn
Carrick. The tattered rags of the fellow's humble past were spread
before him in all their pathetic squalor. He saw, as though a living
thing, the barren, inarticulate childhood. He heard, under compulsion,
the tale of youth's indefinable longings, with the meagre story of a
love which lacked not its own shabby tragedy. The delicacy of a
gentleman, who had intruded where he had no right, had caused him to
draw back with an apology; but the orderly had insisted on telling him.
He could almost see the raw, quivering heart in Carrick's breast.

"I wonder," he pondered, "what that medal was he wore under his shirt?
He said it was an heirloom. It looked devilishly like an order of
nobility." He referred to an incident in the man's narrative, when the
latter had drawn from beneath the blue army blouse what had at first
appeared to be a Star of the Bath. It had been solemnly handed to him
for inspection, with the information that the trooper's father had also
worn it.

It was old. The circular scroll, which at one time had doubtless borne
an inscription, was smooth save for a few dimples which indicated
faintly where words had been. The centre was a slightly raised disc
about an inch and a quarter in diameter. Upon this, of blue enamel,
cracked and chipped with age and usage