THE FIRST BREATH AGAINST A SOLDIER'S HONOR
THE night was so quiet, the air so still, that the single, distant
stroke of the town clock bell over in the town of Clowdry was distinctly
audible.
Dong! boomed the bell, the vibration reaching the ears of two or three
of the lighter sleepers, and causing them to stir lightly in their sleep
in Sergeant Hupner's squad room.
Out on the post, not far away, a dog chose to bark at that town-clock
bell.
Some one gliding swiftly through the squad room upset a stool with a
loud crash. Yet few of the soundly sleeping soldiers bothered their
heads about such a series of trivial noises.
Now, a series of hails began, starting down at the guard house and
running rapidly around the sentry posts until the sentry pacing near
barracks caught it up and called lustily:
"Post number six. One o'clock, and all's well!"
One man in especial had been stirring on his cot as though trying to
throw off some phantom of dread. Now instantly after the sentry's hail
this stirring sleeper emitted an excited yell.
"Wow! Turn out the guard--post number six!"
Instantly Sergeant Hupner awoke, sitting up on his cot.
"What's the matter with you, you idiot?" growled the disturbed sergeant.
"I've been touched!" wailed the excited voice.
It was the voice of Private William Green, the joke of the squad room,
the man who hoarded his money and carried much of it about with him.
"Go to sleep, William," ordered the sergeant in a more soothing voice.
"I've often told you that one so young shouldn't drink coffee at
supper."
"I've been touched, I tell you!" insisted William Green, now out of his
bed and feeling with frantic hands under the head of the mattress.
"Don't I know? I tell you, my buckskin pouch is gone. Some one was in
this room and got it!"
In a jiffy Sergeant Hupner was out of bed. His groping right hand found
the switch and turned on the electric lights. Then Hupner jumped for his
uniform trousers and drew them on.
"What's wrong, squad room?" called the voice of the alert sentry
outside.
But Hupner first went to the door of the squad room, locked it and
dropped the key in his trousers' pocket. Then the sergeant ran to an
open window.
"I don't believe it's anything worse than a nightmare of one of the men,
sentry. Don't call the guard until I look about a bit."
"Very good, Sergeant."
Then Hupner turned to the cot of Corporal Hal Overton, which was close
to the window.
"Why, Corporal, what ails you?" demanded the sergeant. "You're shaking
and your face has a frightened look."
"I--I have just awakened from a pretty bad dream," Corporal Hal replied
sheepishly. "I'll be over it at once."
"Turn out, Corporal, and you also, Corporal Terry. We've got to
investigate in this room."
Hal instantly thrust a leg out. Something dropped to the floor.
Bang!
"Ow!" wailed Private Green. "It wasn't a dream, after all. I knew it
would go off."
Sergeant Hupner, bending low like a flash, now picked up a revolver from
the floor beside Hal's cot, while Hal himself sat up, staring rather
dazedly at the weapon.
"How did this come to be in your bed, Corporal Overton?" demanded the
sergeant.
"I don't know, Sergeant."
"But it was in your bed. You shook it out when you went to get up just
now."
"That's the gun," insisted Private William Green. "I saw it poked into
my face by some one prowling before my cot."
"Were you so scared that you didn't dare jump up or say anything?"
demanded Hupner, turning upon Private Green, who had now reached the
vicinity of Hal's cot.
"Scared, nothing!" grunted Private William. "I thought I must be
dreaming, for there was no danger in this room. Then I heard something
go smash down the room, like a stool being tipped over, and then I came
altogether out of my doze, and time I did, too! For I put my hand under
the mattress and my pouch and money were gone. Whoever poked that gun
toward my head got my money!"
By this time more than half the men in the room were sitting up on the
edges of their cots. A few more lay still, though wide awake, while a
few of the hardest sleepers were still in the Land of Nod.
"Green, are you sure your money's gone?" insisted Hupner sternly. It was
no light thing to the reliable old sergeant to find that he had a thief
in his squad room.
"Come and look for yourself, Sergeant."
"Corporals Overton and Terry, dress yourselves," ordered the sergeant,
as he started after Private William Green. "The rest of you men needn't
dress unless I direct it."
"Now, look here, Sergeant," insisted Green, after pulling the mattress
bodily from his cot. "Do you see anything that looks like my buckskin
pouch?"
There was no pouch to be found on or near Soldier William's cot.
"How much money did you have in the pouch?" demanded Hupner almost
angrily.
"Seven hundred and ten dollars," declared Green promptly.
"Whew!"
To most of the soldiers present that much money represented a fortune.
Yet no one in the room thought of doubting William's assertion. As
readers of the preceding volume know, Green had had considerable money
when he joined the regiment something more than a year earlier. And
William was known to be one who was constantly adding to his money by
saving his pay.
Moreover, Private Green had made not a little by lending money to
comrades in the battalion. He loaned on the time-honored system of
lending among enlisted men in the Army--the system of "five now but six
on pay day."
There are soldiers in every company--in every squad room--who always
spend their pay within a few days after receiving it from the paymaster.
As soon as his money is gone, and he needs or wants more, the
improvident soldier turns to some comrade who saves and lends his money.
The loan is five dollars, but by all the traditions the borrower must
return six on pay day.
William Green had been making money on this plan. Some of his wealth
Green now had on deposit at a Denver bank, but much of his "pile" he
always insisted on carrying with him.
And usually this is a safe enough plan. In no body of men in the world
does honesty average higher than among the soldiers of the American
regular Army.
Once in a while, of course, an exceptional "black sheep" may get in even
among soldiers, and William had often been warned not to keep so much
convertible wealth about his person. But William trusted his comrades
and carried large sums of cash.
"Corporal Overton, you take one side of the room, and Corporal Terry the
other. Scan the floor for any sign of a buckskin pouch."
"Let me help," begged William.
"All right," nodded Sergeant Hupner. "And look, also, for any stool that
may be overturned."
The search was unavailing. No sight was gained of the buckskin pouch,
while every stool in the room was upright and in place.
"Does any man here know anything about Green's buckskin?" demanded
Hupner.
There was no answer.
Crossing to the window, Sergeant Hupner called:
"Sentry, call the corporal of the guard."
Almost immediately the corporal of the guard was at hand. Sergeant
Hupner informed him that there had probably been a robbery in the squad
room and stated the known circumstances briefly.
Corporal Jason immediately sent a member of the guard to arouse the
officer of the day and ask him to come to the squad room.
Soon after Lieutenant Greg Holmes strode into the room, his sword
clanking at his side.
Lieutenant Holmes heard Sergeant Hupner's report, which was but a short
one.
Then the young officer of the day turned to Corporal Hal, eyeing him
keenly.
"Corporal Overton, isn't there something you can tell me about this? You
were found awake, shaking somewhat and with an alarmed look on your
face."
"That is true, sir," Hal Overton admitted.
"When Sergeant Hupner directed you to rise you did so, and at the same
time kicked out of your bed this revolver, which was discharged."
"Yes, sir."
"Corporal," continued Lieutenant Holmes, "it would look as though you
must have some knowledge of the affair. Bear in mind that I am not
making any charge against you."
"I--I should hope not, sir," stammered Hal Overton, his face growing
very pallid.
"What do you know about this matter, Corporal Overton?" pressed the
young officer.
"Absolutely nothing, sir, more than Sergeant Hupner has already stated
to you, sir. My condition of apparent fright was due to a bad dream from
which I was at the moment waking."
"And you know nothing whatever regarding the robbery from Private
Green?"
"Absolutely nothing more than the rest, sir," insisted Hal, though his
color continued to rise.
The young soldier felt that he was half suspected, and he felt all the
awkwardness of innocence--an awkwardness that real guilt seldom
displays.
"Men," it was Sergeant Hupner's voice breaking the stillness now, "if
you each want to clear your own individual selves you will step forward
and volunteer to have your persons and your belongings searched."
Instantly the men moved forward, and Lieutenant Holmes glanced away from
Hal Overton. The lieutenant's survey of the lad's face had not been in
the least accusing, but merely a keen look of inquiry.
"All the men in the room have come forward and are willing to be
searched, sir," reported the sergeant.
"Good enough, Sergeant, since they volunteer, but I would not have them
forced without an order from the post commander. Sergeant, will you
undertake the search?"
"Yes, sir; shall I have the corporals assist me?"
"Yes, Sergeant, and I will lend a general oversight at the same time."
That search occupied some forty minutes. Not only were the persons of
the men searched, but their chests and all their belongings. Hupner and
his two boyish young corporals asked Lieutenant Holmes to search them
himself, which the officer of the day did.
"There doesn't appear to be a chance that Private Green's money is in
this room, or in the possession of any man in the room," remarked
Lieutenant Holmes at last. "Green, you should have taken sensible advice
and deposited your money, either with the paymaster or at a bank."
"I shall, sir, if I ever get it back," replied William Green mournfully.
"Well, there appears to be nothing more that I can do," continued
Lieutenant Holmes. "However, I will return to the guard house and call
up the commanding officer over the telephone, reporting the matter. Let
your men go to bed, Sergeant, but you will remain up until either I
return or send you some word through the corporal of the guard."
After the officer of the day had gone out, the men of the squad room
looked from one to another in bewilderment.
"If any fellow took my money for a joke," announced Private William
Green, "I'll call it all off if he'll be kind enough to return it."
No one accepted the offer.
"It's gone, all right, Green, evidently, and serves you right," said
Sergeant Hupner gruffly.
In the course of a few minutes the corporal of the guard came back to
inform Sergeant Hupner that a guard would be set, both in the corridor
and outside, to prevent any man from leaving this squad room during the
night. In the morning, immediately following first call to reveille,
Colonel North, his adjutant and the officer of the day would visit the
squad room together.
"And that's all there is to it, for to-night, men," announced Sergeant
Hupner. "Every man in bed now, for I'm going to switch off the light."
Ten minutes later some of the soldiers were asleep, but not all, for
presently Hupner's strong military voice boomed through the room:
"Stop that whispering! Silence until first call goes in the morning."
After first call to reveille did sound in the morning barely sixty
seconds passed when the door was opened to Colonel North and the two
officers accompanying him.
Then, indeed, there was a thorough examination. Each man in the room was
questioned keenly by the colonel himself.
"Corporal Overton, how do you account for that revolver being in your
bed?"
Colonel North held up the weapon. It was an ordinary service revolver,
such as is worn by an orderly when on duty without rifle, and there were
many such revolvers in barracks. No soldier was supposed to have one of
these revolvers, except by orders, yet it would be easy enough for any
soldier to get one by stealth.
"I can't account for it, sir," Hal answered. "I didn't have it myself,
or put it in the bed, and I can only guess that some one else did."
"Why should any one else do that, Corporal?"
"Possibly, sir, with a view to making me appear guilty."
"Do you suspect any one in particular?"
"No, sir; I can't imagine why any man in the room, or in the battalion,
should want to do it."
"You understand, Corporal Overton, that you are not under any charge, or
even suspicion, of guilt in the matter," continued the commanding
officer, for Hal in truth was esteemed much too fine a young soldier to
be suspected by his officers in the present case.
"Thank you, sir," Hal replied.
The inquiry was soon over and proved as resultless as that made alone by
Lieutenant Greg Holmes in the middle of the night. The officers left and
the men prepared to hasten out for breakfast formation.
"I never thought Overton would do a trick like that," remarked a low
voice behind the young corporal, but Hal heard it.
"Oh, you can't tell. Sometimes these quiet fellows are the worst. Still
waters run deep, you know."
"I suppose other fellows in the squad room are thinking the same,"
thought Hal, his heart throbbing with pain.
He more than half guessed the truth--that the seed of suspicion against
him was already sown--that henceforth he would be watched by nearly all
eyes.