The spectator., 1918-11-29

innocent air quite dramatically. Some of the war office people believed in him until the damning documents were laid before them.
 And he was still somehow in touch with things, Wallace, and the leakages went on afterward. That's why we had orders to hang him as soon as Santiago was taken. He did the kind est thing he could have done to him. self when he got in the way of that snipers bullet
 "Tll tell you who the child's mother was, Wallace, because I was unfortu- nate enough to know her. She was a Miss Rennie, Miss Marjorie Rennie, of Baltimore family-tine people, | and, of course, with tradition like | that, she believed in the Scoundrel ab- | solutely. She came to me twice. The | first time was before the informal trial held by the department. She begged me to believe he was innocent and the victim of trap. I wouldn't even lis | ten. You know, when a man has to run down his friend he has to harden | his heart.
 "She came to me again, after Hamp- ton was broken. She told me I had | played false to my best friend and l that I'd suffer for it to the last day of my life. I've never forgotten that in- | terview, and you can guess how it made me mad to hang Hampton when we learned that he was still keeping | up the game from his exile in Cuba. | He must have got quite q number of confidential papers out of the war of l flee. That's about all"
 It's enough" said Wallace. 'The l girl married him, then?"
 "So much We learned. And also that she died later. You see, we've been pretty close on the fellows track the 1 last couple of years-ever since the war became a probability, in fact i Most of the officers in the regiment are since that time, but I guess they all knew something, and kept it quiet, l like yOu.'
 1 Wallace nodded. 'I fancy there's a good deal of feeling" he said.
 Quite a good deal" said the ajor, dryly. And I guess you'll agree with me that this makes it-let's say, lit tie difficult to adopt his child ofli- cially?"
 You mean the remembrance would be too bitter?"
 'T mean that that position is the one and only position that she is dis qualified from holding. by reason of birth"
 "Still," urged Wallace. "it isn't in the blood. The mother was decent. Why should that baby be tarnished with her fathers treachery?"
 Its written in the Good Book" began the major.
 And there's something else about coals of fire, too, Major, which came It's just what we ought to do, because it's the only way to adjust the mat ter"
 Adjust 1t? Adjust what2" cried the Major, with sudden passion.
 "The whole of that hellish business, Major. The man was once an officer of the Seventieth He's dead and his crimes have died with him. We want to forget that such thing could have happened, and the only way is to leave him to Gods judgment and to cast out all bitterness from our hearts. You quoted Scripture to newell, l gave you the answer from the same Book. Let death bring oblivion to the mans memory. He's left us the child Start here. Start fresh. I have the right to the kid, but what you have told me makes me feel strongly that there's Providence in this affair and I'll lend her to you-mark that word, Major lon that condition or none"
 Major Howard pulled at his mus tache in agitation. You don't really mean it. Wallace?" he asked.
 'I do. If you want me to let you take her till the wars over"
 Tt means forgiying that black guard"
 Tt means forgetting him and letting the Judge judge
 Tt goes against every instinct. I'd bring her up away from the regimental life. Besides, there are the others"
 "Who else knows?"
 "Well, of course, nobody else knows who the dead man was The colonel will have to know. But he needn't know we've adopted the child. He's going South after the war. However, I'm afraid Kellerman knows. He rec ognized what was left of the face. or suspected somehow. I could tell from his manner"
 q don't see any overwhelming diff. ficulty in that. You can trust Keller man"
 The major nodded, and 1t occurred to Wallace that he would rather trust any of the officers than Kellerman. He had conceived prejudice against him which he could not have explained.
 And Hampton's name was erased | tlN.D D11 T IsxxO vnT1