Just before he was aroused one morning he fell into a feverish slumber, following a wakeful night, and to him, as to many men before him, a vision came. Minerva seemed to stand before the regimental band at dress-parade. She waved the flag and said, in a voice which no one else heard: "The soldier serves his colors." It happened that about the same time the _mestiza_ girl whom Sergeant-Major Peter Spooner had honored with his attentions, before he had fallen into the villainous hands of Rosario, came back to the town. She did not remain long, and her face was sad. She had come, she confided to Mrs. Falkins, hoping to see the great, brave soldier, and, when she was told of how he had died, her sobs tore her until the spectacle of her grief was insupportable. Then Newton Spooner did an unprecedented thing. Unversed as he was in the ways of courtship, he dogged the steps of the _mestiza_ girl, fetching and carrying for her with doglike devotion. And, since he was willing, instead of pressing his own suit, to sing the praises of the late sergeant-major, she let him sit at the threshold of her nipa house, and gaze at her while she sewed. When she went away and Sergeant Spooner asked a brief leave of absence to accompany her on a part of her return journey, the men of the garrison shook their heads and announced that they would be damned. CHAPTER XXIV Newt Spooner was gone a week, though he had only announced it as his purpose to escort the girl as far as a near-by village. In three days more, according to the articles of war, his name must be dropped from the company roll, and his status become that of death or desertion. Even if he came back at once, he must face the lesser charge of absence beyond leave. When the sergeant did return, he bore the marks of jungle travel, and as he reported to his company commander, his face indicated that his explanation would not be merely personal. Yet Sergeant Spooner was secretive, and asked permission to guide a small force into the hills. He said that he had come upon evidence which would not wait, and he had, therefore, taken the liberty of following it up independently. He believed he could lead a detachment to a place where a party of insurgents were in hiding, and--at this his captain sat up and took notice--although it was a small party, he had information which led him to believe the renegade might be one of the number.