"I don't know. I went to my quarters soon after eleven o'clock and turned in a little before twelve. I was asleep when I heard somebody knock on my door. I got up and found it was about ten minutes after midnight. I didn't know what the knock was for, so I smoked a couple of pipes and drank a bottle of beer and went back to bed. I got up again at three o'clock, when everything was in commotion."
"Now, Macklin, your quarters are just back of Company B's barracks; it was a hot night and the windows were open, and according to your own story you were awake just when all this shooting and racket and the call to arms came off. How does it come you didn't hear it?"
Captain Macklin looked rather discomposed.
"Well, I was only awake a little while, and of course I was pretty sleepy."
"You were awake enough to smoke two pipes and drink a bottle of beer?"
"Yes."
"And you couldn't have done it in a minute."
"Well, no."
"And yet you say you didn't hear a thing of what was going on outside?"
"Well, of course, I suppose I did hear noises, but I didn't think them anything unusual."