"No, sir."

"That's a lie," he pleasantly remarked, and lay back, enjoying my silent
wrath. "Send him, General," he added, "he's your man."

The General looked at me between puffs of his cigar. "I hear you've
ridden over fifty miles to-day."

"Yes, General." "If I give you a good fresh horse can you go
twenty-three miles more by midnight?"

"Yes, General, if I don't have to save the horse."

"The horse may have to save you," drawled the Arkansan.

"I think you know Lieutenant Durand?" asked the General, with a
quizzical eye.

"Slightly."

"Well, Smith, on his suggestion approved by Major Harper, I have
detailed another clerk to the Major."

Rills of perspiration tickled my back like flies. "Can't one man do the
work?"

"Yes, the new man is detailed in your place."

I almost leaped from the ground in consternation. My whole frame