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“No wan said a word for a time. They was all ashamed, past spache,

“‘Fwhat d’you think he will do?’ sez wan av thim at last. ‘He knows we’re all in ut.’

“‘Are we so?’ sez I from my cot. ‘The man that sez that to me will be hurt. I do not know,’ sez I, ‘fwhat onderhand divilmint you have conthrived, but by what I’ve seen I know that you cannot commit murdher wid another man’s rifle–such shakin’ cowards you are. I’m goin’ to slape,’ I sez, ‘an’ you can blow my head off whoile I lay.’ I did not slape, though, for a long time. Can ye wonder?

“Next morn the news was through all the rig’mint, an’ there was nothin’ that the men did not tell. O’Hara reports, fair an’ easy, that Vulmea was come to grief through tamperin’ wid his rifle in barricks, all for to show the mechanism. An’ by my sowl, he had the impart’nince to say that he was on the sphot at the time an’ cud certify that ut was an accidint! You might ha’ knocked my roomful down wid a straw whin they heard that. ‘Twas lucky for thim that the bhoys were always thryin’ to find out how the new rifle was made, an’ a lot av thim had come up for easin’ the pull by shtickin’ bits av grass an’ such in the part av the lock that showed near the thrigger. The first issues of the ‘Tinis was not covered in, an’ I mesilf have eased the pull av mine time an’ agin. A light pull is ten points on the range to me.

“‘I will not have this foolishness!’ sez the Colonel, ‘I will twist the tail off Vulmea!’ sez he; but whin he saw him, all tied up an’ groanin’ in hospital, he changed his will. ‘Make him an early convalescint’ sez he to the Doctor, an’ Vulmea was made so for a warnin’. His big bloody bandages an’ face puckered up to wan side did more to kape the bhoys from messin’ wid the insides av their rifles than any punishmint.

“O’Hara gave no reason for fwhat he’d said, an’ all my roomful were too glad to inquire, tho’ he put his spite upon thim more wearin’ than before. Wan day, howiver, he tuk me apart very polite, for he cud be that at the choosin’.

“‘You’re a good sodger, tho’ you’re a damned insolint man,’ sez he.

“‘Fair words, Sargint,’ sez I, ‘or I may be insolint again,’

“‘Tis not like you,’ sez he, ‘to lave your rifle in the rack widout the breech-pin, for widout the breech-pin she was whin Vulmea fired. I should ha’ found the break av ut in the eyes av the holes, else,’ he sez.

“‘Sargint,’ sez I, ‘fwhat wud your life ha’ been worth av the breech-pin had been in place, for, on my sowl, my life wud be worth just as much to me av I tould you whether ut was or was not. Be thankful the bullet was not there,’ I sez.

“‘That’s thrue,’ sez he, pulling his moustache; ‘but I do not believe that you, for all your lip, was in that business.’

“‘Sargint,’ sez I, ‘I cud hammer the life out av a man in ten minuts wid my fistes if that man dishpleased me; for I am a good sodger, an’ I will be threated as such, an’ whoile my fistes are my own they’re strong enough for all work I have to do. They do not fly back toward me!’ sez I, lookin’ him betune the eyes.

“‘You’re a good man,’ sez he, lookin’ me betune the eyes–an’ oh he was a gran’-built man to see!–‘you’re a good man,’ he sez, ‘an’ I cud wish, for the pure frolic av ut, that I was not a Sargint, or that you were not a Privit; an’ you will think me no coward whin I say this thing.’