Under military discipline matters move rapidly. Soldiers with lanterns were now searching for the trail of those who had escaped. Keen eyes were also seeking either bundle of loot from Captain Ruggles's quarters. It was thought that the thieves, in their haste to get away, might have dropped their plunder. Tip Branders, still unconscious, and badly hurt, according to the surgeon, was taken to the post hospital, and the civil authorities in Clowdry were notified. "That fellow you shot called you by name, didn't he, Overton?" inquired Captain Ruggles. "Yes, sir," Hal admitted. "Ah, you knew the fellow, then?" inquired Colonel North. He spoke blandly, but he had an instant recollection of the anonymous note that had been received at battalion headquarters. "Yes, sir," Hal spoke promptly. "The fellow is Tip Branders. He comes from the same home town that I do. He tried to enlist in the Army, but was rejected because he could not supply good enough references. Then he ran away from home, taking with him some money he stole from his mother, according to local accounts." "Did you know the fellow Branders was in this part of the world?" "Yes, sir." "Then why, Private Overton, did you not report your information promptly to your officers?" "Why, I did not have the least idea, sir, that Branders was still in this neighborhood, and I did not, at any time, connect him in my mind with the robberies." "How often, and where, have you seen Branders in this part of the country?" demanded Colonel North, impressively, while the other officers looked on with keen interest. Hal flushed, for he felt that now he was under some suspicion himself. "I have seen Branders just once, sir," the recruit replied. "Private Terry was with me at the time." "This man here?" inquired Colonel North, turning to glance at Noll, who stood by. "Yes, sir." "When did you both see Branders, then?" "Our first day here, sir. You may recall, Colonel, that you told Terry and me that we need not go on duty that first day, but that we might have the day to ourselves, as a reward for having helped Major Davis in that mail-train affair the night before our arrival at this post." "I remember," nodded Colonel North. "But you have not yet told me the circumstances of your meeting with Branders." Hal hurriedly recounted the details of that meeting, among the rocks past the ledge, out on the road leading westward from the post. "At that time, Colonel," Private Hal Overton continued, "Branders told us he was headed for a ranch to the westward, where he expected to get a job. We had no reason for disbelieving him, at the time, and so it never even occurred to us, until to-night, that he might be one of the burglars who have been looting this post. Besides, sir, though Tip had always been known as a rather worthless fellow, we had never heard of his being the associate of downright criminals."