ll do your best to ascertain if their
escape has been due to the sympathy of the settlers, or even with their
preliminary connivance. They may not be aware that inciting enlisted
men to desert is a criminal offence; you will use your own discretion
in informing them of the fact or not, as occasion may serve you. I
have only to add, that while you are on the waters of this bay and the
land covered by its tides, you have no opposition of authority, and are
responsible to no one but your military superiors. Good-bye, Mr.
Calvert. Let me hear a good account of you."

Considerably moved by Colonel Preston's manner, which was as paternal
and real as his rhetoric was somewhat perfunctory, Calvert half forgot
his woes as he stepped from the commandant's piazza. But he had to face
a group of his brother officers, who were awaiting him.

"Good-bye, Calvert," said Major Bromley; "a day or two out on grass
won't hurt you--and a change from commissary whiskey will put you all
right. By the way, if you hear of any better stuff at Westport than
they're giving us here, sample it and let us know. Take care of
yourself. Give your men a chance to talk to you now and then, and you
may get something from them, especially Donovan. Keep your eye on
Ramon. You can trust your sergeant straight along."

"Good-bye, George," said Kirby. "I suppose the old man told you that,
although no part of a soldier's duty was better than another, your
service was a very delicate one, just fitted for you, eh? He always
does when he's cut out some hellish scrub-work for a chap. And told
you, too, that as long as you didn't go ashore, and kept to a
dispatch-boat, or an eight-oared gig, where you couldn't deploy your
men, or dress a line, you'd be invincible."

"He did say something like that," smiled Calvert, with an uneasy
recollection, however, that it was THE part of his superior's speech
that particularly impressed him.

"Of course," said Kirby gravely, "THAT, as an infantry officer, is
clearly your duty."

"And don't forget, George," said Rollins still more gravely, "that,
whatever may befall you, you belong to a section of that numerically
small but powerfully diversified organization--the American Army.
Remember that in the hour of peril you can address your men in any
language, and be perfectly understood. And remember that when you
proudly stand before them, the eyes not only of your own country, but
of nearly all the others, are upon