"I am shielding no man, Colonel Button. I would not shield a member of this command who wrote such wrong of it."
"Yet you know the author and you will not tell?"
"What little I know came in such a way that I cannot tell," was the resolute answer. Button's forehead furrowed deep and his voice trembled with anger.
"Enough said—or refused to be said—on that head. We will go to the next. Who personated you the night you left your troop at Laramie and went, contrary to orders, to that frolic at the post?"
A look of amaze came into the young officer's face. The answer came slowly, painfully:
"I took part in no frolic, sir. I went contrary to an order that had held good while we were out on the campaign, but that we did not suppose was binding there. I went to the post that night to help a fr—a man who—who needed money for an immediate journey. No one personated me to my knowledge."
"I have the written report of the officer-of-the-day, whom I ordered to inspect your tent, that you were there asleep at eleven p.m. Subsequently I learned that you were away from taps until nearly reveille."
"You could have heard that from me, sir, and why I was gone, if need be." And now it was plain that Mr. Lanier was growing angry. This was a point gained by the colonel. He tried for another.
"Officers who make comrades and intimates of enlisted men take chances that——"
"Colonel Button!" interposed Lanier, hotly, "I protest——"