nt
back from overseas in disgrace. You want to know if he spoke the truth.
He did!"

After a moment of silence Judge Halloran said, with stiff finality:
"Under the circumstances there is nothing more to talk about. You amaze
me when you say--"

"I want to know more than if he was just telling the truth," Tom
interrupted, grimly. "I want to know if you were guilty."

"That was the verdict of the court martial."

"To hell with that! Innocent men have been hung."

A faint smile softened Gray's face. "And guilty men have gone to the
gallows protesting their innocence. Which are you to believe? I made
the best defense possible, but it was insufficient. I have no new
evidence. I would rather endure the stigma of guilt than have you
consider me a liar, and, of course, that is what you would think if I
denied it."

Halloran was on his feet now, and evidently anxious to terminate the
interview. "There are two sides to every case, of course, and justice
is not always done. However, that really makes no difference in this
instance. The findings of a military tribunal are as conclusive as
those of any court of law, and it is not for us to question them. To
repeat what I started to say just now, I fail to understand how you can
expect us to tolerate your further attentions to Miss Barbara or how
you can persist in your insane determination to ask her hand in
marriage."

"Perhaps you'll understand when I say that I propose to clear myself."

"How? When?"

"Soon, I hope."

"And in the meantime?"

Gray considered this question briefly. "In the meantime--if you will
agree to say nothing to 'Bob,' I will promise not to declare my
feelings, not to see her alone."

"That's a go," said the father.

"Mind you, I may fail to right myself. In that event I shall feel at
liberty to tell her the facts and ask her to believe in me against the
world. I trust she will do so. If she loves me as I love her, she will
marry me even though she knows I am a liar and a blackguard."

"Never!" Halloran exploded. "'Bob' isn't that sort of a girl."

"I hope it never comes to the test."

"I hope so, too," the father declared, earnestly. "I'm--right fond of
'Bob,' and I wouldn't like to see her team up with a man she couldn't
be proud of. _I_ wouldn't take it easy." Mild as were these words,
coming from Tom Parker they had the ominous effect of a threat.

Without further ado the two old men left.

There was little sleep that night for Ca