To my surprise he said, “I have seen the man this morning. It was right for you to report the matter, and I am glad that you did not report it in the usual way. You will not mention to any one what you have heard or know of this affair,” he commanded, “or it might do harm.”
Then he gravely said, as though to dismiss further talk about it, “I have learned about your gallant conduct during the raid on the enemy trench, and am pleased with you, and congratulate you.”
Just then Muddy rushed in like a miniature cyclone, circled around me, barking, as much as to say, “I have found you!” and then jumped into the colonel’s lap.
“He comes here once in a while,” explained the colonel, “and this is the way he salutes.”
Then rising, he came to me and said: “I would like to see that watch.”
“It isn’t a watch any more,” I said; “it’s a ruin.”
And I took it out and handed it to him.
“So I see,” he said, examining an inscription on the inner case, and then reading aloud, “‘Presented to Captain David Stark by his comrades and admirers.’ Yes,” he added, musingly, “it is the same that my father, with others, gave to him after the battle of Winchester, during the Shenandoah Campaign under General Sheridan. Do you know that Captain Stark saved my father’s life?”
Then he turned away as though to examine the inscription under better light, but I saw a tear in his eye, and I was proud of my father.
As I turned to go, he added, “I have heard my father tell about making the presentation of that watch, and am pleased to see it; I am sure he will be glad as I am, that his friend’s son has proved himself worthy to wear it, and that it has saved his life. Now as a favor to me—will you allow me to have the watch repaired for you?”