“Yes, sir.”

“Had you ever met Lieutenant Gaskins before?”

“Once; he pulled me out of a bad scrape with a bunch of Indians out on the trail a few months ago.”

“The same affair I spoke to you about,” commented McDonald quietly.  “The attack on the stage.”

The Colonel nodded, without removing his eyes from the Sergeant’s face.

“Yes, I know about that,” he said.  “And that was the only occasion of your meeting?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Well, Sergeant Hamlin, I purpose being perfectly frank with you.  There are two or three matters not easily explained about this affair.  I am satisfied of your innocence; that you were not directly concerned in the shooting of Lieutenant Gaskins.  Men of your troop state that you were in barracks when the shots were fired, and the wound was not made by a service revolver, but by a much smaller weapon.  Yet there are circumstances which puzzle us, but which, no doubt, you can explain.  Two shots had been fired from your revolver,” and he pushed the weapon across the table.

“I rode ahead of the troop in march yesterday,” Hamlin explained, “and fired twice at a jack-rabbit.  I must have neglected to replace the cartridges.  Private Stone was with me.”

“Why did you submit to arrest so easily, without any attempt to clear yourself?”

The Sergeant’s gray eyes smiled, but his response was quietly respectful.

“I was condemned before I really knew what had occurred, sir.  The sentry, the Sergeant of the guard, and the Lieutenant all insisted that I was guilty.  They permitted me no opportunity to explain.  I thought it just as well to remain quiet, and let the affair straighten itself out.”

“Yet your action threw us completely off the trail,” broke in McDonald impatiently.  “It permitted the really guilty parties to escape.  Did you see any one?”

“Black smudges merely, Major, apparently running toward the ravine.  My eyes were blinded, leaping from a lighted room.”

McDonald leaned forward eagerly, one hand tapping the table.

“Was one of them a woman?” he questioned sharply.

Hamlin’s heart leaped into his throat, but he held himself motionless.

“They were indistinguishable, sir; mere shadows.  Have you reason to suspect there may have been a woman involved?”

The Major leaned back in his chair, but the commandant, after a glance at his officer, answered: 

“The pistol used was a small one, such as a woman might carry, and there are marks of a woman’s shoe plainly visible at the edge of the ravine.  Lieutenant Gaskins was alone when he left the officers’ club five minutes before the firing began.  You are sure you have never had any controversy with this officer?”

“Perfectly sure, sir.  We have never met except on the one occasion already referred to, and then scarcely a dozen words were exchanged.”