"'Halt!' says the guard. 'Who goes there!'
"'Friend,' replied the captain. 'I'm captain of troop B.'
"'Captain Thornton is captain of Troop B,' replied the sentry. 'You are no longer a member of this regiment. They read you out of it yesterday.'
"The colonel had been attracted by this disturbance and he ordered the former captain to be brought before him in his tent.
"'Well, what made you break your promise in this way?' queried his anxious superior.
"'I couldn't help it,' replied the captain. 'I was afraid when I asked for leave that if I gave the right reason you wouldn't let me go, so I said it was to visit my mother. But she has been dead for two years now. In our mountain country of Northern Spain we have what you call blood-feuds, and when they are once started the end only comes with the extinction of one or both families concerned. In our family there has been such a feud now for twenty years, but it is no more.'
"'Go on,' said the colonel, 'explain your over long absence.'
"'That was the cause of it,' continued the captain. 'I received word that the last two men, the only ones left of our enemies had been seen about my house and that my wife and two children were in danger. I hurried to their aid. In crossing the pass I lost my musket and succeeded only in reaching my house in the dark, without any firearm. There was but one old gun in the house, and, worse luck, there was but one charge for that. However, our enemies who were trying to starve out my family, didn't know of my arrival. I waited day after day, hoping, sometime, to get them both in line and to kill them with but a single shot. Day after day they went for water at the well, and lurked about the grounds around the house, but never did the chance I was waiting for present itself. Then finally, on the eleventh day of my furlough, the opportunity came. And now they are both gone and I am here.'
"The colonel's face beamed with pleasure, for his confidence in the captain had been justified.
"'Thornton is captain of Troop B now,' said the colonel. 'Your leave of absence was, I remember, for twenty days, not ten. Good-night, major.'"