“To Miss Vedant, at Chicago!” he exclaimed, forgetting his determination to be as stiffly military himself as any one accosting him. “And sent by Major Appleby at two o’clock! Do you mean to say, Cato, that----” The sergeant gave a slight sigh of relief, and noticeably unbent. “Yes, sir,” he returned. “It was to inform her of her father’s disappearance. I thought myself it was a mistake to frighten her, when the thing’ll probably be cleared up before she can get here; but the message was handed me for transmission, and what could I do?” “So you expect the affair to be cleared up before Miss Vedant arrives, eh?” Grail asked. “What makes you say that, sergeant?” Cato flushed a trifle. “Well, sir, if I may make so bold, it’s because I am banking on you.” “Me?” “Yes, sir.” He shifted his feet uneasily. “Excuse me, captain, if I go too far; but it is a cinch, to my mind, that you’ll never rest easy under this talk that’s going around.” “You mean that there is a rumor that I am in some way responsible for Colonel Vedant’s disappearance?” Cato nodded. “That was what made me so sure the thing would be straightened out,” he explained. “I knew you’d move heaven and earth before you’d let a charge like that stand against you.” Grail was silent a moment. “Is the fact of the colonel’s disappearance pretty generally known among the men, sergeant?” he asked finally. The other gave a significant shrug of the shoulders. “It’s the only thing they’re talking about over in the barracks, sir.” “And do many of them believe this gossip connecting my name with it?” Cato’s reluctance to answer was more eloquent than words. “You know what a bunch like that is, sir,” he said apologetically. “Let somebody tell ’em St. Peter is a crook, and they’ll be proving it to you in five minutes. That’s what made me a bit standoffish when I came in just now, captain. I knew you couldn’t help but be wise to the way the post is feeling, and I didn’t want to seem to be handing you out any sympathy.” An incredulous look flashed into the adjutant’s face, and he bent quickly forward. “Am I to understand, then, sergeant, that you do not entertain the same unfavorable opinion of me as the others?” “Me, sir!” Cato’s tone was one of surprise. “What kind of a soft-brained pup do you think I am, sir? You sell out to Japanese spies, and make away with the old man? Why, Captain Grail, if you told me yourself that you’d done it, I wouldn’t believe you--no, not if you swore to it! It’s because I’m certain of your innocence, captain, that I’ve been so positive the colonel would be found. Foolish as the charge is, you’ve got to disprove it for your own sake; and, with that sort of a proposition facing you, I knew you would manage to do it somehow. I only wish,” he added, “that I could be of some help to you.”