The lively adventures of Gavin Hamilton

by Molly Elliot Seawell

The sergeant, leaving a couple of soldiers on guard, went out, and Gavin sat down on a bench before the stove to rest, for he did not think he could sleep. He was very hungry, and asking the soldier who walked up and down outside the room door if anything to eat was to be had, the man pointed to a cupboard. Out of it Gavin got some bread and cheese, and then, lying down on the bench, proceeded to sum up the situation, with the result that he considered his chances for being hanged within the next twenty-four hours about as certain as they well could be. But although this was his deliberate and reasonable conclusion, it by no means followed that he actually believed he was going to be hanged. On the contrary, it seemed altogether an impossibility, and the conditions surrounding him appeared to him more unreal than the wildest dream he ever had in his life. He pinched himself to find whether he was awake. The last time he had eaten, before getting the bread and cheese out of the cupboard, had been at the King’s headquarters in Breslau. He noted that the bread and cheese had no flavour to it; he only knew that he was eating by the looks, not the taste. Yet, it must be something portentous that could make him feel so strangely, and then he recalled all the circumstances, which led him to believe that he had fallen into the hands of a vengeful and desperate man, and something very like a promise had been made him that he would be hanged within twenty-four hours; and going over and over the whole puzzling business, he suddenly fell asleep, his dark, boyish head resting on his arm against the wall.

At daylight he was awake in the same strange mental state. The soldiers who guarded him were amazed at his coolness, but it was really the insensibility of a person too dazed and astounded to think or even feel, to a great degree. He was given a good breakfast, which he ate with appetite; but he might have been eating shavings, as far as his palate went. It annoyed him the way the soldiers and the guard looked at him. There was something pitying in their glance, as if they expected him to be hanged—an idea so ridiculous to Gavin that he could have laughed aloud at it. Yet it did not seem ridiculous to them, and that was both strange and disagreeable. Altogether, it was the most unpleasant morning of his life. He was left to himself all the forenoon, but soon after the captain’s midday dinner he was summoned to appear in another room. Seated at the head of the table was Captain Dreisel. One look at his determined and savage countenance showed Gavin that he could not appear before a worse judge. Chance had thrown a victim in this man’s way—a man looking for a victim. It was enough.

Three sublieutenants were seated also at the table, to give it something the appearance of a court martial. They were all young and beardless fellows, and what impressed Gavin as much as anything else was the distress and agitation visible upon the countenances of these young subalterns. They looked anxiously at one another, and it was plain that the work before them was not to their liking.

Gavin, after saluting, was given a chair and seated himself. Never in his life had his soul been in such a tumult as at that moment; yet never had he been outwardly more calm or more entirely in possession of his senses, which presently returned to him.

Dreisel began the examination, and Gavin told clearly and frankly all that had befallen him. But, to his consternation, he saw at every word that the three younger officers were losing confidence in him. Great as was their sympathy for him, his adventures, especially his claim of having lived at the King’s headquarters for three weeks, were too unusual to be accepted without proof. And of proof he had not a scintilla.

The examination was done almost entirely by Dreisel, whose artfully contrived questions were admirably adapted to put Gavin in the worst possible light. He felt, himself, the improbable nature of some of his replies, which, though strictly truthful, yet had an appearance of extravagance. As he was plied thick and fast, answering each question eagerly, it was plain that he was not making a good impression upon the three young officers, who, he saw, hated and dreaded the outcome. He saw glances of dismay exchanged among them at some of his answers, and one of these young officers, whose countenance was particularly mild, grew paler and paler, while great drops stood out on his forehead. At last, after an hour of torture, Dreisel said to him:

“And you expect us to believe that you are not a spy?”

At the word spy Gavin involuntarily started. It was the first time the word had been uttered in the presence of the other officers. Nevertheless, he responded promptly:

“I cannot be held as a spy wearing this uniform.”

“True, according to the rules of war among civilized nations. But my brother was hanged as a spy wearing the Prussian uniform.”