heroism and its prompt reward in the Army."

"A splendid idea, sir!"

At the close of the afternoon's fast and furious work came a spectacle
such as doubtless no one in the audience had ever seen before.

The three fighting arms of the service--artillery, cavalry and
infantry--combined at dress parade.

The ceremony, as enacted that afternoon, possessed all the fervor and
solemnity of a religious rite.

When it came to the publication of orders appointing Corporal Oliver
Terry a sergeant in recognition of unusual bravery and judgment in
saving a comrade's life, only a small percentage of the on-looking,
listening thousands grasped the importance or meaning of the promotion
of one young soldier.

No matter! All would read about it in the Denver papers the next
morning.

At the firing of retreat gun three military bands combined in the
playing of "The Star Spangled Banner."

Then, as the troops marched off, all was over as far as the audience was
concerned.

Captain Cortland, however, had no sooner dismissed his company than he
turned back to the field, to go to the gully to investigate the matter
of the broken log. Lieutenant Prescott went with him.

Over back of one of the cook tents, however, a plain soldier man was
already arriving at the truth.

"Hinkey, come over here!" called Private Slosson.

There was something in this soldier's voice which made Private Hinkey
feel that perhaps it would not be altogether wise to disregard this
request that sounded so much to him like an order.

"Hinkey," continued Private Slosson, "'twas a near escape from breaking
his neck that Sergeant Overton had this afternoon."

"That's no concern of mine, I guess," murmured Hinkey.

"Then it ought to be," retorted Private Slosson with considerable
warmth. "Hinkey, you had me guessing yesterday and this forenoon, you
were so full of industry. And that put me in mind. I saw you coming down
from near the gully this morning, and you had something hidden under
your coat."

The fingers that held Hinkey's cigarette began to tremble.

"What do you mean, Slosson?"

"Well, first of all, the thing you had under your coat was a saw. I saw
you hide something under the woodpile here, but I'm so dumb that I
didn't think much of it at the time. Now, the log over the gully was a
spruce log, wasn't it?"

"I don't know."

"Well, I do," replied Slosson, "and we haven't been using much spruce
timber around here, either. So I looked ov