old
flints struck off a tiny shower of brilliant stars from the steel pan
cover. At other times, too, he had carefully lifted the sword from its
hooks and tugged till the bright blade came slowly out of its leathern
scabbard, cut and thrust with it to put enemies to flight, and longed to
carry it to the tool-shed to treat it to a good whetting with the rubber
the gardener used for his scythe, for the rounded edge held out no
promise of cutting off a Frenchman's head. And now for the old hero of
his belief to tell him calmly and without the slightest hesitation that
the charge was true was so staggering, so beyond belief, that the blank
look of dismay produced by the assertion gradually gave place to a smile
of incredulity, and at last the boy exclaimed:

"Oh, uncle! You are joking!"

The old soldier returned the boy's smile with a cold, stern gaze full of
something akin to despair, as he drew a long, deep breath and said,
slowly:

"You find it hard to believe, then, Aleck, my boy?"

"Hard to believe, uncle? Of course I do. Nobody could believe such a
thing of you."

"You are wrong, my boy," said the old man, with a sigh, "for everyone
believed it, and the court-martial sentenced me to be disgraced."

"Uncle! Oh, uncle! But it wasn't--it couldn't be true," cried Aleck,
wildly, as he sat up in bed.

"The world said it was true, my boy," replied the old man, whose voice
sounded very low and sad.

"But you, uncle--you denied the charge?"

"Of course, my boy."

"Then the people on the court-martial must have been mad," cried the
boy, proudly. "I thought the word of an officer and a gentleman was
quite sufficient to set aside such a charge."

"Then you don't believe it was true, my lad?"

"I?" cried the boy, proudly; "what nonsense, uncle! Of course not."

"But, knowing now what I have told you, suppose you should hear this
charge made against me again, what would you do?"

Aleck's eyes flashed, and, regardless of the pain it gave him, he
clenched his injured fists, set his teeth hard, and said, hoarsely:

"The same as I did to-day, uncle. Nobody shall tell such lies about you
while I am there."

Captain Lawrence caught his young champion to his breast and held him
tightly for a few moments, before, in a husky, quivering voice, he said:

"Yes, Aleck, boy, for they are lies. But the mud thrown at me stuck in
spite of all my efforts to wash it away, and the stains remained."

"But, uncle--"