"You advise me to lie?"

"Sir!" exclaimed Carr. "A plea of not guilty is only a legal form.
When you consider that the first hold-up in itself is enough to lose
you your commission--"

"Well, it's MY commission," said Ranson. "It was only a silly joke,
anyway. And the War Department must have some sense of humor or it
wouldn't have given me a commission in the first place. Of course,
we'll admit the first hold-up, but we won't stand for the second one.
I had no more to do with that than with the Whitechapel murders."

"How are we to prove that?" demanded Carr. "Where's your alibi? Where
were you after the first hold-up?"

"I was making for home as fast as I could cut," said Ranson. He
suddenly stopped in his walk up and down the room and confronted his
counsel sternly. "Captain," he demanded, "I wish you to instruct me
on a point of law."

Carr's brow relaxed. He was relieved to find that Ranson had awakened
to the seriousness of the charges against him.

"That's what I'm here for," he said, encouragingly.

"Well, captain," said Ranson, "if an officer is under arrest as I am
and confined to his quarters, is he or is he not allowed to send to
the club for a bottle of champagne?"

"Really, Ranson!" cried the captain, angrily, "you are impossible."