blessing to him all day long, but Canker caught sight of the damsels as they walked away on the arms of the attendant cavaliers--Miss Lawrence more than once smiling back at the incarcerated Billy--and Canker demanded to be informed who they were and where they had been, and Gordon answered they were Miss Lawrence of Santa Anita, and Miss Prime of New York--and he "reckoned" they must have been in to condole with Mr. Gray--whereat Canker snarled that people ought to know better than to visit officers in arrest--it was tantamount to disrespect to the commander. It was marvelous how many things in Canker's eyes were disrespectful. So he heard these stories with eager ears and sent for Gray, and thought to bully him into an admission or confession, but Gordon's words had "stiffened" the little fellow to the extent of braving Canker's anger and telling him he had said all he proposed to say when the colonel called him up the previous day. The result of that previous interview was his being placed in close arrest and informed that he should be tried by general court-martial once. So he had taken counsel, as was his right, and "counsel" forbade his committing himself in any way. "Then you refuse to divulge the contents of that note and to say why you were so eager to go on guard out of your turn?" said Canker, oracularly. "That in itself is sufficient to convince any fair-minded court of your guilt, sir." Whereat Gordon winked at Billy and put his tongue in his cheek--and Billy stood mute until ordered, with much asperity, to go back to his tent.