“Now, pay particular heed, if you please Mr. Dodge,” requested Lieutenant Topham, fixing his gaze keenly on the witness.  Dodge tried not to look apprehensive.  “Did you have any paper in your hand while you had Mr. Prescott’s handkerchief in your own possession?”

“No, sir,” replied Dodge with emphasis.

“Did you, knowingly, pass the handkerchief back to the accused cadet with any paper inside of it, or touching it in any way?”

“No, sir!”

Lieutenant Topham continued for some seconds to regard Mr. Dodge in silence.  The witness began to lose some of his swagger.  Then, abruptly, as though firing a pistol, Lieutenant Topham shot out the question: 

“How about that smear of dirt on your hand, Mr. Dodge?  How did it come to be on the back of your hand?”

If Mr. Topham had looked to this question to break the witness down he was doomed to disappointment.

“I do not know, sir,” Dodge replied distinctly.  “I am of the opinion, sir, that it must have come from the blacking on one of my shoes as I put it on before leaving my room.”

There was no more to be gained from Dodge.  He was excused.  Now, Dick Prescott rose a was sworn, that he might testify in his own behalf.  Yet he could do no more, under the military rules of evidence, than to deny any guilty knowledge of the slip of paper, and to repeat the handkerchief-loaning recital substantially as Dunstan had given it.

This closed the testimony.  The president of the court announced that a recess of ten minutes would be taken, and that the room and gallery would be cleared of all except members of the court and the counsel for the accused.

As Dick turned to leave, he again turned his face toward the gallery.  He saw his Gridley friends and looked bravely into their eyes, smiling.  Then he caught sight of a veiled woman up there, who had risen, and was moving out.  Dicks started; he could not help it, there was something so strangely familiar in that figure and carriage.

The cadet witnesses had already left, and we returning to barracks.  Lieutenant Topham touched Prescott’s arm and walked with him to the corridor.

“I shall do my best for you, you may be sure, Mr. Prescott,” whispered the cavalry officer.

“May I ask, sir, what you think of the chances?

“Candidly, it looks to me like almost an even toss-up between conviction and acquittal.”

Dick’s face blanched.  Then he turned, with starts The veiled woman was moving toward him with uncertain steps.

“Lieutenant Topham, I did not know my mother was to be present, but I am almost positive that is she.”

Now, the veiled woman came a few steps nearer, looking appealingly at Dick.

“I am told, sir, that my son is in close arrest,” she called, in a voice that thrilled the cadet.  “But I am his mother.  May I speak with him a moment?”