"Only too glad, and I'll tell the court-martial the whole story," answered Hector, going.
"Come back."
"Ah!"
"I said, 'consider yourself dismissed.' Don't come near me again, d'ye hear?"
"Where am I to go?"
"I'll arrange that, go." Hector went, leaving Bradford white and shaken, as he saw in his mind's eye his late A.D.C. hurrying from Mess to Mess, and stripping, as he went, all his new-born reputation from him. Like most mental visions, it was altogether baseless, for, whatever other faults Hector possessed, pettiness was not among the number, and despite his threat to reveal all at the court-martial, he would, nevertheless, had such taken place, kept scornfully silent on the subject.
Bradford, however, had little or no understanding of human nature or character, and consequently sat where he was for hours, fearing to go out lest he should read in men's faces the knowledge of his own undoing. At last, wearily rising, he moved across to the writing-table, and, sitting down, proceeded to indite a letter to Headquarters, in which he stated that, for purely personal reasons, he was desirous of changing his A.D.C., and asked that his present one might be transferred to a post elsewhere.
He suggested the Transport, an unpleasant smile on his face as he wrote, and having finished the letter sealed it, and summoned the orderly, whose face he watched narrowly as he handed him the document. With sinking heart, he noted a cloud on the man's face, the consequence, it may be observed, of a misunderstanding with Martha, the Mayor's parlour-maid.
The result of the letter was Hector's appointment as transport officer to a small column working in the Transvaal, and to that place he departed, after a short leave-taking with his late Chief, who wished him good luck in his new venture, and regretted that the arrival of a nephew from England necessitated Hector's removal. He also regretted any differences they might have had, and—and he hoped that—that ...
"I am not a gossip," answered Graeme coldly, "though you were good enough to accuse me of it once, nor am I small," and, ignoring the outstretched hand, he turned his back on his well-wisher.