Captain Peters drew himself up as the colonel neared him, and waited silently at attention.
‘Captain Peters,’ began Spriggs, speaking rapidly in a husky voice, whether the result of shame or of his still blazing wrath it would be hard to say, ‘since you seem to have taken a more proper view of your position, I will condescend to explain matters to you. You were right in your surmise that these fellows are those who arrived yesterday in that balloon for the purpose of making observations of our position. They escaped, as you have doubtless heard, and they have been retaken, as you now see.’
Captain Peters bowed.
‘Well, sir,’ went on the colonel, ‘I presume you know the punishment in these cases, though your experience is probably not very great.’
He sneered out the last words, and still Captain Peters did not reply, though his brown face became a shade paler.
‘We will take that for granted, then,’ pursued the colonel. ‘Very well, sir, as, owing to your hasty assumption of the command, that punishment cannot be carried out in the usual manner, you will take a firing party fifty yards to the right, set these two rascals twenty paces in front, and—shoot them.’ The word came out with a snap as though the demon which possessed the man had forcibly expelled it.
‘Colonel!’ ejaculated the astounded Captain Peters. ‘Shoot them! Why—why——Has the charge been proved?’
‘Your duty is to obey, sir, not to ask questions,’ said the colonel with a hang-dog look. ‘Call your men forward at once.’
‘But, colonel,’ protested Captain Peters, ‘I beg your pardon, but I think I should be informed why I am ordered to do this. You have your own men, and’——
‘Obey your orders, sir. It is just to teach you that lesson, and for nothing else,’ thundered the colonel, now more violently inflamed than ever, because of the captain’s evident reluctance. ‘Obey your orders, and at once, or I’ll have you disrated. Do you know who I am, sir?’