"Yes, I see what they are, and it seems to me perfectly natural that you should have them!"
"Humph!" said Traverse, looking at Herbert with an expression that seemed to say that he thought the wits of his friend deranged.
"Traverse," said Major Greyson, "did it never occur to you that you must have other relatives in the world besides your mother? Well, I suspect that those checks were sent by some relative of yours or your mother's, who just begins to remember that he has been neglecting you."
"Herbert, do you know this?" inquired Traverse, anxiously.
"No, I do not know it; I only suspect this to be the case," said Herbert, evasively. "But what is that which you are forgetting?"
"Oh! this—yes, I had forgotten it. Let us see what it is!" said Traverse, examining a paper that had rested unobserved upon the stand.
"This is an order for my discharge, signed by the Secretary of War, and dated—ha—ha—ha—two years ago! Here I have been serving two years illegally, and if I had been convicted of neglect of duty in sleeping on my post, I should have been shot unlawfully, as that man, when he prosecuted me, knew perfectly well!" exclaimed Traverse.
"That man, as I said before, lies upon his deathbed! Remember, nothing against him! But that order for a discharge! now that you are in the way of promotion and the war is over, will you take advantage of it?"
"Decidedly, yes! for though I am said to have acquitted myself passably well at Chapultepec——"
"Gloriously, Traverse! You won your colors gloriously!"