im. He halted them in front of the town and sent out a scouting
party. There was no sound of firing now except in the distance. In an
hour the scouting party came back and reported that the place had been
vacated by the enemy, who for some reason had been seized by a panic.
Sam ordered the advance to be resumed, and late in the afternoon found
himself in possession of San Diego. He began to take measures at once
to fortify the place, when the brigadier-general whom he had seen in
the morning marched in with his brigade and took over the command from
him, congratulating him on his success, which was already the talk of
the army. Sam turned over the command to him with much grace and
dignity, and, borrowing a horse, set off for the old headquarters which
he had left in the morning, for he learned that, altho the enemy were
completely defeated and scattered, still the general would not move his
headquarters forward to the front till the following day.

The general received him with great cordiality.

"Everything turned out just as I planned it," he said, "but, Captain,
you helped us out at a critical point there on the right. I shall
mention you in despatches. You may depend on being promoted and given a
good post. You ought to have a regiment at least."

Sam was taking his supper when Cleary came in, hot and grimy.

"Well, you're a great fellow," he said, "to get away from me the way
you did this morning. But didn't I tell you, you were the stuff? Why,
you won the battle. Do you know that you turned their left flank?"

"To tell the truth, I didn't know it," said Sam.

"Well, you did."

"But the general planned everything," said Sam.

"Yes," said Cleary, "but I'll tell you more about that. I'm doing some
detective work, and I'll have something to tell you in a day or two.
But I wish I'd been with you. I had my kodak all ready. However, they
can make up the pictures at home. How's this for headlines?" and he
took some notes from his pocket. "'Great Victory at San Diego. Captain
Jinks Turns Defeat into Victory. Hailed as Hero Jinks by the Army.
General Laughter's Plans Carried Out through the Young Hero's
Co-operation.' What do you think of that? We'll put the part about the
general in small caps, because he's not quite solid with the trust. I'm
not going to write up anybody but you and the Mounted Mustangs; those
are my orders."

"How did the Mustangs make out?" asked Sam. "They