“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?”
“Dishonorably,” I answered. I saw that this was not the answer he had expected. He looked both mortified and puzzled, and glanced at Heinze and Aiken as though he wished that they were out of hearing.
“What was it for--what was the cause of your dismissal?” he asked. He now spoke in a much lower tone. “Of course, you need not tell me,” he added.
“I was dismissed for being outside the limits of the Academy without a permit,” I answered. “I went to a dance at a hotel in uniform.”
“That was the crime for which I was dismissed,” I said, sulkily. The General looked at me for some moments, evidently in much doubt. I believe he suspected that I had led him on to asking me the reason for my dismissal, in order that I could make so satisfactory an answer. As he sat regarding me, Heinze bent over him and said something to him in a low tone, to which he replied: “But that would prove nothing. He might have a most accurate knowledge of military affairs, and still be an agent of the Government.”
“That is so, General,” Heinze answered, aloud. “But it would prove whether he is telling the truth about his having been at West Point. If his story is false in part, it is probably entirely false, as I believe it to be.”
“Captain Heinze suggests that I allow him to test you with some questions,” the General said, doubtfully; “questions on military matters. Would you answer them?”