“No; I’ve thought about that. These charges are still in the nature of a complaint from private citizens. They will not become official until I have acted on them. But I feel that I cannot afford to ignore them. The Army Regulations provide that the commanding officer with whom any charges are filed shall state, in forwarding them, whether the charges can be sustained. I cannot say that these charges will not be sustained, but I can and will say that I do not think the filing of them warrants your immediate arrest. You will therefore continue to perform your usual duties until the court itself shall order otherwise.” “Thank you, Captain Murray! You are very generous.” “And, McCormack, if you get out of this thing safely--and let me tell you frankly that the chances are against you, for you’ve been skating on mighty thin ice,--but if you should pull through all right, for heaven’s sake let go of all these visionary schemes! Come back to solid earth, and be a plain American citizen along with the rest of us!” Hal did go to see Brownell. And although Brownell gave him a severe dressing-down for what he termed his crass foolishness, he agreed, nevertheless, to take up his case, and he did so with vigor and avidity, for he was fond of the first lieutenant and would have gone through fire and water for him. But when it came to the actual preparation for the defense Hal could give his counsel little assistance. The accused man knew of no specific circumstances on which the charges could have been based, nor of any witnesses whom he could call to disprove them. And while he was obliged to admit that he had undoubtedly said things that might give color to the complaint, he was nevertheless certain that the specifications as they were drawn were untrue. So Brownell, with a listless client and a weak case before him, had a man’s task on hand to make up a defense. But he plunged into the work bravely. He cross-examined and badgered McCormack by the hour. He interviewed Donatello, General Chick, Miss Halpert, any one and every one who might by any possibility be able to throw light on the situation. He studied the law of the matter and exhausted the logic of his fertile mind in the preparation of arguments and briefs. And after he had done everything that legal knowledge and human ingenuity could help him to do to make ready his defense, he admitted confidentially to Captain Murray that the case was hopeless, and, incidentally, he brought down severe maledictions on the head of the first lieutenant, who, by his ridiculous vagaries and indiscretions, had wrought his own destruction. One day General Chick came to Brownell’s office with flushed face and staring eyes. “They’ve put me through the third degree,” he said. “What do you mean?” asked Brownell; “talk!” “Why, they suspœnaed me into Jim Hooper’s place an’ made me tell everything Lieutenant ’Cormack said that night he met them strike leaders in Donatello’s shop.”