"In your place I should let myself be tempted," says he. "It's an
elegant wine, and ten minutes more or less is no great matter."

The lieutenant discovered a middle way which permitted him to take a
prompt decision creditable to his military instincts, but revealing a
disgraceful though quite characteristic selfishness.

"Very well," he said. "Leave Sergeant Flanagan and ten men to wait
for me, O'Rourke, and do you set out at once with the rest of the
troop. And take the cattle with you. I shall overtake you before
you have gone very far."

O'Rourke's crestfallen air stirred the sympathetic Souza's pity.

"But, Captain," he besought, "will you not allow the lieutenant - "

Mr. Butler cut him short. "Duty," said he sententiously, "is duty.
Be off, O'Rourke."

And O'Rourke, clicking his heels viciously, saluted and departed.

Came presently the bottles in a basket - not one, as Souza had said,
but three; and when the first was done Butler reflected that since
O'Rourke and the cattle were already well upon the road there need
no longer be any hurry about his own departure. A herd of bullocks
does not travel very quickly, and even with a few hours' start in
a forty-mile journey is easily over-taken by a troop of horse
travelling without encumbrance.

You understand, then, how easily our lieutenant yielded himself to