"If you dare to question the propriety of my conduct, sir," returned his commanding officer, "know that the act was provoked--unavoidable, if we would respect ourselves and command the respect of our enemies. Pee-to-tum had insulted the American people by contemptuously trampling under foot the medal that had been given to him by the President. Join your company, sir! What tomfoolery is that?" alluding to the manner in which the colors were disposed of. "Remove those colors!" "That tomfoolery," returned Ronayne, his cheek paling with passion as he descended to the parade, "means that I know what you do not, Captain Headley--how to defend the colors intrusted to my care. I will not remove them." "This fills the measure of your insolence, Mr. Ronayne," returned the commandant; "you will have a heavy account to settle by the time you reach Fort Wayne." "The sooner the better; but if we do reach it, it will be from no merit of arrangement of yours," returned the subaltern, as he placed himself in his allotted station in the company. It may and must appear not only surprising, but out of character to the reader, that such language should pass between two officers--and these unquestionably gentlemen--of the regular service--the one in command, the other filling the lowest grade of the commissioned service; but so it was. The high spirit of the Virginian had ever manifested deep impatience under what he considered to be the unnecessary martinetism of Capt. Headley, and there had always existed, from the moment of joining of the former, a disposition to run restive under his undue exercise of authority. This feeling had been greatly increased since the resolution taken by Capt. Headley to retreat after giving away the presents and ammunition to the Indians, not only because it was a most imprudent step, but because while the fort was maintained, there was the greater chance of his again being reunited, through the instrumentality of Wau-nan-gee, to his wife. Perhaps had he known the sincere sympathy which Capt. Headley entertained for him at the grief occasioned by her loss, or the knowledge he had obtained of her supposed guilt, which, notwithstanding all their little differences, he guarded with so much delicacy, this bitterness of feeling would have been much qualified; but he was ignorant of the fact, and only on one occasion, and for a moment as has been seen, suspected that Mrs. Headley had, under the seal of confidence and from a presumed necessity, betrayed his secret. If the history of that time did not record these frequent and strong expressions of dissatisfaction and discontent between the captain and the ensign, we should feel that we were violating consistency in detailing them; but they were so, and the only barrier to an open and more marked rupture existed in the person of Mrs. Headley, whom Ronayne loved and honored as though she had been his own mother, and who, on her part, often pleaded his generous warmth of temperament and