"I did not expect that everything would be found right, but I had no idea of such villainy as this!" He turned to the men.
"Arrest the commissary, at once," he said.
But that official was nowhere to be found.

He had slipped away, as soon as the men began to take down the barrels.

Some soldiers were at once sent off in search of him.
"We will continue the work," Desmond said, "and see how extensively this fraud has been carried on." The same result was met with in each of the openings.

The first three lines consisted of barrels filled with cartridges; the seven lines behind contained nothing but earth.
"You see, Colonel, instead of having over three thousand two hundred barrels of cartridges, you have less than a thousand.

It is almost beyond belief! It is clear that this fellow, and probably the man who was in charge before him, have been in collusion with the contractors for these cartridges, and allowed them to send in seven barrels of earth for every three of cartridges.