He told me that an officer riding a wheel had passed sometime before, asking his way to a certain artillery brigade.

I told the sergeant-major my suspicions and while we were talking, to our astonishment, the sentry announced that the officer, accompanied by a Black Watch despatch rider, had turned up again, having heard that the brigade he wanted was in the other direction.
The sergeant and I went out and challenged him and said that he had to come to the colonel and be identified.

The colonel was in the back room of a little cottage on the other side of the road.

I made my way through the garden and entered the house.

The colonel, an oldish (p.