I desire you to
publish this immediately in general orders, enjoining upon officers
of all ranks without exception the necessity to postpone the
settlement of private quarrels at least until the close of this
campaign. And to add force to this injunction you will make it
known that any infringement of this order will be considered as a
capital offence; that any officer hereafter either sending or
accepting a challenge will, if found guilty by a general
court-martial, be immediately shot."
Sir Terence nodded slowly.
"Very well," he said. "The measure is most wise, although I doubt
if it will be popular. But, then, unpopularity is the fate of wise
measures. I am glad the matter has not ended more seriously. The
dispatches in question, so far as I can recollect, were not of great
urgency."
"There is something more," said Captain Stanhope. "The dispatches
bore signs of having been tampered with."
"Tampered with?" It was a question from Tremayne, charged with
incredulity. "But who would have tampered with them?"
"There were signs, that is all. Garfield was taken to the house of
the parish priest, where he lay lost until he recovered sufficiently
to realise his position for himself.
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