"There's enough to hang you both, and perhaps others too, at home. As for you," he turned to Benito, "I will have you removed to the Balaclava hospital. You will be better looked after there, and we shall have you under our hands when required. Your accomplice, the commander-in-chief will deal with, I trust, very summarily; we have overwhelming proofs of his guilt."
Major Shervinton returned to his office, where the prisoners anxiously awaited his verdict.
"Take Joe away, and put a double sentry over him. I shall ride over to headquarters to report the whole case."
"Oh, good, kind, beneficent sir," began Joe, wringing his hands, "spare me! There no word of truth in all this. I done nothing, I swear. I unjustly accused. I—"
"March him out," said Shervinton. "Such vermin as you must be ruthlessly destroyed.
"And the lad, sir?" asked an assistant.
"To be sure; I had forgotten. Well, boy, you have behaved uncommonly well. What shall we do for you?"
"Nothing," she faltered out, "only save him—save Mr. McKay."
"Mr. McKay! Do you know him? What—when—?" asked Major Shervinton, greatly surprised at the agonised accents in which Mariquita spoke, yet more, seeing that her eyes were filled with tears. "Who are you? Where do you come from?" he went on, examining the little creature attentively.
He noticed now for the first time the delicate skin, the clear-cut, regular features, the lustrous, eyes; he remarked the fragile form, the shy, shrinking manner of the lad, who stood diffidently, deprecatingly, before him, and he said to himself, "What an exceedingly handsome boy! Boy!" he repeated, and now suddenly a doubt crossed his mind as to the proper sex of the young person who evinced such a tender interest in Stanislas McKay.