Colonel North looked at Mr. Ferrers with a glance that did not convey absolute approval.
"Have you been in a train wreck, Mr. Ferrers?" inquired the colonel.
"Oh, dear me, no. Do I look as bad as that?" inquired the new lieutenant, with a downward glance at his faultless attire.
"But you were due to arrive here at four o'clock yesterday afternoon, Mr. Ferrers," continued the colonel. "I was here at my desk, waiting to receive you."
"I hope I didn't inconvenience you any," murmured Ferrers. "You see, Colonel, when I got in at Pueblo I ran across some old friends at the station. They insisted on my staying over with them for half a day. I couldn't very well get out of it, you see."
"Couldn't very well get out of it?" repeated Colonel North distinctly and coldly. "Wouldn't it have been enough, Mr. Ferrers, to have told your friends that you were under orders to be here at four o'clock yesterday?"
"Oh, I say, now," murmured Mr. Ferrers, "I hope you're not going to raise any beastly row about it."
"That is not language to use to your superior officer, Mr. Ferrers!"
"Then you have my instant apology, Colonel," protested the young man. "But, you see, these were very important people that I met—the Porter-Stanleys, of New York. Very likely you have met them."
Colonel North now found it hard to repress a tendency to laugh. But he choked it back.