eard him say he hated to drive a car. Too lazy!
Anyhow, there was the very dickens to pay. Before leaving the hill for
his dash across the river he'd told March to consider himself under
arrest----"

"How dared he?" I fiercely wanted to know. "That wasn't his business."

"Oh, yes it was! He's March's superior officer. Besides any officer has
the right, if--but I won't worry your head with military rules and
regulations! What you want to know is, how this affects Captain March,
don't you?"

"Yes, that's the great thing to me," I admitted. "Tony, will it ruin
him?"

"It's early days to say as much as that, yet. It all depends on the
result of the court-martial."

"Will he be court-martialled?"

"Of course. There's nothing else for it. It's a question which of those
two men can establish his case, and a court-martial will have to decide
between them. But, I'm afraid, Peggy, it will go against March. The
circumstances were so very queer, and Vandyke's denial of giving any
order at all is so strong. Besides, it would be such a mad, improbable
thing for him to give such an order, as there was no danger of attack.
He'd have no motive."

"He would have a motive," I broke in. "I can prove that. Will they let a
woman bear witness for a prisoner in a military court-martial?"

"I suppose your evidence could be taken, if they were certain it had an
important bearing on the case. But I don't see how that could have,
Peggy. This isn't women's business, it's men's."

"And devils'," I finished for him. "We won't argue now whether my
evidence could be important or not. Tell me both sides of the story you
were speaking of, first Captain March's, then Major Vandyke's."

"Well, March says that while he was strolling about, at a short distance
from the guns, looking through his field glasses at a fire he could see
on the other side of the river, he saw a chap in khaki hurry up the
hill, wheeling a bicycle. As soon as the fellow came near enough to make
out his features, March says he recognized Vandyke's orderly, a man
who's been the major's soldier servant for a good length of time. This
orderly, according to March, brought a verbal order from Vandyke as
acting colonel, to begin firing number one and number two guns, and keep
them in action until further notice, aiming at a spot just beyond one of
the bridges on the Mexican side. March said he was so astounded at
getting such an order, he thought there must be some awful mistake