"You are kind, and I appreciate it, doctor; but do you think that the colonel is a man who will be apt to let me suffer injustice at the hands of any one here?" "I don't, indeed. He is full of sympathy for you, and I know he means you shall have fair play; but a company commander has as many and as intangible ways of making a man suffer as has a woman. How do you stand with Rayner?" "Precisely where I stood five years ago. He is the most determined enemy I have in the service, and will down me if he can; but I have learned a good deal in my time. There is a grim sort of comfort now in knowing that while he would gladly trip me I can make him miserable by being too strong for him." "You still hold the same theory as to his evidence you did at the time of the court? of course I have heard what you said to and of him." "I have never changed in that respect." "But supposing that--mind you, _I_ believe he was utterly mistaken in what he thought he heard and saw,--supposing that all that was testified to by him actually occurred, have you any theory that would point out the real criminal?" "Only one. If that money was ever handed me that day at Battle Butte, only one man could have made away with it; and it is useless to charge it to him." "You mean Rayner?" "I _have_ to mean Rayner." "But you claim it never reached you?" "Certainly." "Yet every other package--memoranda and all--was handed you?" "Not only that, but Captain Hull handed me the money-packet with the others,--took them all from his saddle-bags just before the charge. The packet was sealed when he gave it to me, and when I broke the seal it was stuffed with worthless blanks." "And you have never suspected a soldier,--a single messenger or servant?" "Not one. Whom could I?" "Hayne, had you any knowledge of this man Clancy before?" "Clancy! The drunken fellow we pulled out of the fire?" "The same." "No; never to my knowledge saw or heard of him, except when he appeared as witness at the court." "Yet he was with the ----th Cavalry at that very fight at Battle Butte. He was a sergeant then, though not in Hull's troop." "Does he say he knew me? or does he talk of that affair?" asked the lieutenant, with sudden interest. "Not that. He cannot be said to say anything; but he was wonderfully affected over your rescuing him,--strangely so, one of the nurses persists in telling me, though the steward and Mrs. Clancy declare it was just drink and excitement. Still, I have drawn from him that he knew you well by sight during that campaign; but he says he was not by when Hull was killed." "Does he act as though he knew anything that could throw any light on the matter?" "I cannot say. His wife declares he has been queer all winter,--hard drinking,--and of course that is possible." "Sam told me there was a soldier here two nights ago who wanted to talk with me, but the man was drunk, and he would not let him in or tell me. He thought he wanted to borrow money."