"Yes."
"Your man turned there—to the left. You fellows will have to double your speed if you're ever going to catch that soldier."
"Put on all the steam you can, men," Hal called back over his shoulder as he once more started in what he believed to be pursuit.
Chuckling softly, the citizen opened the door, closed it again and went inside to tell Hinkey why he had saved him.
It was a full hour before Sergeant Hal Overton again reported back at camp on the grounds.
He had come back at last, forced to admit himself baffled.
"You did all you could, Sergeant," replied Captain Cortland, who had just returned to the company street. "Hinkey will be caught, sooner or later."
Then, turning to First Sergeant Gray, who had just come up, Captain Cortland smiled as he added:
"Sergeant Gray, I wonder if Hinkey is still running. If he runs long enough he'll probably fall in with some muck-raking magazine writer, who'll get out of Hinkey a startling story of why some soldiers insist on deserting the Army."
"Captain," replied Sergeant Gray, "I could tell those magazine writers a good deal about why men desert from the Army, sir. But the magazine writers wouldn't want my story of why men desert."