After Phil had reached his ship he scarcely remembered how he had behaved to his anxious and sympathetic friend, Major Marble. The boy’s mind was dazed. He had not believed that Tillotson would dare make charges against him, but now that they had been made, how should he act? The mere words of each charge were only too true but Phil felt that he had had strong and sufficient reasons for acting as he did. But now he must refute these charges or else go before a court-martial. But how could he refute them? There was but one way and that was to go to General Wilson and tell his story, which would be corroborated by Sydney. It would be tantamount to telling the general that one of his officers was an arrant coward and unfit to be trusted with hazardous expeditions. And even then the charges would still hold. They were true in substance, every one of them. As commanding officer of a gunboat Phil was within his rights when he laid his plans as to where the attack of the gunboat should be and the locality to land his own men; but he could only advise the army man from his nautical experience as to where the best place would be to land the soldiers in order that their coöperation might be harmonious. Lieutenant Tillotson was free to accept his suggestions or refuse them as he saw fit. So long as they were both afloat the army officer could give no orders to him, nor could Phil give orders to his superior in rank. To the anxious lad it was certainly a perplexing situation. His conscience was quite clear upon the soundness of the plan he had proposed, and he felt that in carrying it out they had struck a severe blow at the insurrection and had saved the beleaguered garrison. The lieutenant’s action might in feeble minds be excused through the plea of caution, but no strong man would hesitate to say that it was a case where caution should not have been considered. Sydney was beside himself with indignation when he learned of the spiteful charges of the lieutenant and was for seeking him out and bestowing personal vengeance, but Phil dissuaded him from any such rash act. “I should have ordered his men out of the boats,” Phil said bitterly, “when I saw Tillotson was not coming. We might have won without them, although they were a great comfort, and if the Colt gun had gone back on us they would have been a necessity.” “What will you do?” Sydney asked, exasperated at the apparent indecision of his friend. “Tell the straight story to the general and he’ll make it hot for that dandified gentleman soldier.”