"If I had I'd refuse to show it," I answered. "I told you why I came
here. If you think I am a spy, you can go ahead and shoot me as a spy,
and find out whether I told you the truth afterward."

The General smiled indulgently.

"There would be very little satisfaction in that for me, or for you,"
he said.

"I'm an officer and a gentleman," I protested, "and I have a right to
be treated as one. If you serve every gentleman who volunteers to join
you in the way I have been served, I'm not surprised that your force
is composed of the sort you have around you."

The General raised his head and looked at me with such a savage
expression that during the pause which ensued I was most
uncomfortable.

"If your proofs you are an officer are no stronger than those you
offer that you are a gentleman," he said, "perhaps you are wise not to
show them. What right have you to claim you are an officer?"

His words cut and mortified me deeply, chiefly because I felt I
deserved them.

"Every cadet ranks a non-commissioned man," I answered.

"But you are no longer a cadet," he replied. "You have been dismissed.
You told me so yourself. Were you dismissed honorably, or
dishonorably?"