"Leave?" said Captain Hamilton incredulously. "Leave, Bones? What the dickens do you want leave for?" Bones, standing as stiff as a ramrod before the office table at which his superior sat, saluted. "Urgent private affairs, sir," he said gruffly. "But you haven't any private affairs," protested Hamilton. "Your life is an open book--you were bragging about that fact yesterday." "Sir and brother-officer," said Bones firmly, "a crisis has arisen in my young life. My word, sir, has been called into doubt by your jolly old sister. I desire to vindicate my honour, my reputation, an' my veracity." "Pat has been pulling your leg!" suggested Hamilton, but Bones shook his head. "Nothin' so indelicate, sir. Your revered an' lovely relative--God bless her jolly old heart!--expressed her doubt in _re_ leopards an' buffaloes. I'm goin' out, sir, into the wilds--amidst dangers, Ham, old feller, that only seasoned veterans like you an' me can imagine--to bring proof that I am not only a sportsman, but a gentleman." The timely arrival of Miss Patricia Hamilton, very beautiful in dazzling white, with her solar helmet perched at an angle, smote Bones to silence. "What have you been saying to Bones?" asked Hamilton severely. "She said----" "I said----" They began and finished together. "Bones, you're a tell-tale," accused the girl. "Go on," said Bones recklessly. "Don't spare me. I'm a liar an' a thief an' a murderer--don't mind me!" "I simply said that I didn't believe he shot the leopard--the one whose skin is in his hut." "Oh, no," said Bones, with heavy sarcasm, "I didn't shoot it--oh, no! I froze it to death--I poisoned it!" "But did you shoot it?" she asked. "Did I shoot it, dear old Ham?" asked Bones, with great calmness. "Did you?" asked Hamilton innocently. "Did I shoot at that leopard," Bones went on deliberately, "an' was he found next mornin' cold an' dead, with a smile on his naughty old face?" Hamilton nodded, and Bones faced the girl expectantly. "Apologize, child," he said. "I shall do nothing of the kind," she replied, with some heat. "Did Bones shoot the leopard?" She appealed to her brother. Hamilton looked from one to the other. "When the leopard was found----" he began. "Listen to this, dear old sister," murmured Bones. "When the leopard was found, with a spear in its side----" "Evidently done after death by a wanderin' cad of a native," interposed Bones hastily. "Be quiet, Bones," commanded the girl, and Bones shrugged his shoulders and obeyed. "When the leopard was found," continued Hamilton, "he was certainly beyond human aid, and though no bullet mark was discovered, Bones conclusively proved----" "One moment, dear old officer," interrupted Bones. He had seen out of the tail of his eye a majestic figure crossing the square. "Will you allow me to produce scientific an' expert evidence?" Hamilton assented gravely, and Bones went to the door of the orderly room and roared a name.