erial Blues, and from the time I was twenty-two
until I was twenty-six I was stationed at Malta."

Cleek made a mental tally of those two statements.

"Oh, I see; mistake on my part," he said serenely. "Malta was it? And
the Imperial Blues? Thought Harry said the other. I've got a rotten
memory. But it doesn't matter which, does it, so long as you learned the
trick, and are able to put up a stiff fight and floor a burglar still?
I'll lay you could floor one in short order, too, when I come to look at
you," he went on, glancing the General up and down with apparent
admiration. "Lord! shouldn't like to run foul of you when your temper's
up. Built like a blessed gladiator. Shoulders on you like a giant; arms
like--mind if I feel what they're like?"

Impudently taking hold of him before he could reply or resent the
familiarity, Cleek moved the General's forearm up as if to see the
swelling of the biceps.

"That's what I call muscle!" he exclaimed. "What a wrist! What a fist to
floor a man or---- Hullo! been flooring some one since I left you,
General? Big green smudge on your cuff, as if you'd been up against a
mossy wall? Didn't get into a scrap with Sir Philip after I left you,
did you, eh?"

There was no gainsaying it, the General's face grew absolutely white as
he looked down and saw that green smudge on the white cuff which
protruded beyond the sleeve of his evening coat. It was evident he had
not noticed it before.

"No, certainly I have _not_!" he rapped out sharply as he plucked away
his arm. "Sir Philip Clavering has gone home. And if you will pardon my
saying it, Mr. Barch, I object to being handled."

"Awful sorry; did it before I thought," said Cleek vacantly. "No
offence, eh? Because, you know, none was meant. Ought to have
remembered; ought to have remembered half a dozen things when I come to
think of it. One of 'em is that you and Sir Philip weren't likely to
scrap like a couple of drunken navvies; and t'other is that you couldn't
have got wall-moss on your cuff if you had, when there wasn't any wall
where I left you. So you couldn't have got it there, of course."

"And as that settles it, I think we can abandon the subject with profit
to both, Mr. Barch," said the General stiffly. "As a matter of fact, I
don't know where nor how I did get the smudge; and it's of no
consequence anyway. And now, if you will pardon me, I'll ring for
Johnston to lock up the house--we always retire to bed early at the