It was too late. Peter was dead, and, two hours before, Dick had seen his rough pine coffin on the platform, ready for the journey home. A clumsy wreath had been laid upon it by some sorrowing "buddy," at its foot stood a cheap suitcase, containing all the boy's few belongings. At the head a soldier kept guard. Dick's heart ached for the mother who must receive the pitiful box. And he groaned as he thought of the many, very many, he feared, that would follow it. Sabinsport's temper at the moment weighed even more heavily upon Dick that night than the sickness at the camp. The inevitable scandal, that both he and the General had feared, had come the night before. Twenty boys, off for their Saturday holiday, had slipped into Sabinsport for what they called a "blow out." They had gone to Beefsteak John's, one of the cheap workmen's hotels, had taken rooms, laid off their uniforms, put on pajamas and called up the barkeeper. Of course he could give them what they wanted, for they were not in uniform! And he had done it. The scandal had been made worse by the introduction of a half dozen of the strange women who had taken up their dwelling in Sabinsport. Before morning the crowd was on the streets, rioting madly. The boys had been arrested and were in jail. The whole story was in the City's Sunday morning paper. Sabinsport was disgraced before the world. The General and Dick had talked the matter over in the hour after he had closed poor Peter's eyes, and both had agreed that this probably put an end to their Christmas celebration. "You can see," the General had said, "how impossible it will be for me to do my part unless I know that every saloon in Sabinsport is absolutely closed. That's my ultimatum. They tell me that there's a man by the name of Mulligan that controls the town. Could you get at him?" "I could," said Dick, "but I don't know whether it would do any good. Mulligan is obstinate. I am sure I could have persuaded him long ago to close every house he owns in Sabinsport and willingly have stood his losses if it had not been for Mrs. Katcham. So long as she continues in the field, he will keep everything open to spite her." "I don't wonder," said the General, sympathetically. "Same here. She's been trying to force me to appoint a mother for every fifty boys. Let 'em live in the camp. Thinks I'm in league with the liquor interests because I refuse--told me so to my face. You can't do anything with such women. But you must stop the liquor selling there some way unless you want me to appeal to Washington." Dick had come back to town anxious and disheartened. "It's a nice situation, and Christmas only two days away." He was sitting perplexed and weary before his fire, when who should come in but Mulligan himself. "Can you give me a few minutes, Reverend?" he called, in his hearty voice. Dick stared in amazement. "Of course," he said. "Come in." He helped him with his coat, stirred the fire, offered him a cigar, and sat down.