‘No doubt,’ acquiesced General Shields; ‘and, no doubt also, your failure to rejoin your regiment completed the disaster, while at the same time it gave rise to the report that you had been killed.—And may I be forgiven for devoutly wishing you had been,’ he added mentally. ‘My failure to rejoin my regiment was due to the fact that I could not find it, sir,’ answered the colonel with some heat, for thick-skinned as he was, he could not fail at last to detect the undertone of contempt in the general’s voice. ‘Am I to understand, sir, that you imply that I have in any way failed in my duty?’ ‘I imply nothing, colonel,’ replied General Shields. ‘I may be permitted to say this, though, that I wish most earnestly that your “Trailing Terrors,” as I understand you call your men, would now and again trail in the direction of the enemy instead of so persistently keeping their backs turned to them.’ ‘General,’ began Spriggs, but General Shields held up his hand. ‘And I am not to be taken as implying,’ he went on, ‘that your men are any less courageous than others under my command. Bad soldiers, properly led, may win a battle. Good soldiers, improperly led, will very usually lose one.’ At this stinging speech Colonel Spriggs’s red, bloated face became purple. Here was an implication with a vengeance, and there was but one inference to be drawn from it. Moreover, Spriggs dared not attempt to reply, for he knew well enough that General Shields detested him, and only waited for the opportunity of direct and irrefragable proof of his cowardice to make short work of him. Therefore he swallowed his wrath and merely mumbled something about having done his best. But he registered a vow in his heart that four and twenty hours should not pass without a letter from him to his friends the politicians, in which General Shield’s name should figure with a very black mark indeed against it. ‘I do not doubt that you do your best, sir,’ returned the general; ‘I do not doubt it at all.’ The irony of the tone was sharp almost to fierceness, and Colonel Spriggs judged it wiser to give the conversation a rapid turn. It was with something like humility that he remarked: ‘I have a report to make, general, concerning an incident that occurred as I was making my way back to the lines this morning.’ ‘Proceed, sir,’ said the general stiffly. ‘I had fallen in with some of our fellows,’ began the colonel, ‘not my own men, and we were just casting about for some means to provide ourselves with some breakfast—which I may tell you we did not succeed in getting,’ he added, casting a longing look at the table. ‘Help yourself, sir,’ said General Shields with cold courtesy. Spriggs did not require any urging, but rapidly made an attack upon the remains of the feast, talking as he ate.