"There is no doubt about it! Look at the prisoner's face!" Anson tried hard to pull it back into its normal shape, for he had been gazing at West with a malignant look that meant anything from a rifle-shot to a stab with a bayonet.
"Now, sergeant, see if you can do better this time!" cried the General, as Anson's mouth shut with a click.
Then he stood fast with his brow wrinkled and his hands clenched, waiting expectantly with the rest of those present until the cask was set free from the raw-hide reins by which it was slung under the hind part of the wagon, and then rolled out, giving forth the regular hollow sound of a barrel half-full of liquid.
"Only sounds like water!" muttered the sergeant, and he set it running, to soak into the dry ground, and draining out as much as he could, before giving an order to the nearest man to take hold of one end while he raised the other, both men looking stern and severe in the extreme.
Then together they gave the cask a lusty shake, and the sound which followed was that of some shovels full of pebbles rattling in the inside.
The next minute they had set the cask down on end with a grin of delight, which was taken up by their fellows, while a satisfied smile dawned upon the faces of the _aides-de-camp_.
"Here, stop that fellow!" shouted one of the officers, for, in spite of his heaviness, Anson proved that he could be active enough upon occasion, and this was one; for, seizing his opportunity, he dived under the wagon, and by the time the soldiers had run round to the other side he was off, dodging in and out among the wagons in the mad idea that he could escape; but before he had gone a hundred yards he came out suddenly upon a mounted man, and the next instant he went sprawling over a lance-shaft, and the steel-shod butt end was planted upon his back to keep him from rising.
"Pity you should have taken all that trouble!" said the sergeant, as he came panting up, followed by his men, "because we might want you to tell us all a bit about the value of them stones! Now then, up with you.
Let him get up, Lancer! And see here, my lad, if you cut and run again--being a prisoner caught in the act of trying to escape--my men have orders to fire, and you're so broad and fat that they are sure to bring you down first shot." Anson glared at the men's rifles and fixed bayonets, but he said nothing, marching back between the men to the spot where he had left the General and his old fellow-clerks; but the barrel had been carried to a place of safety, and those who had witnessed his discomfiture had gone.
Half-an-hour later he had been marched out of the camp, and was under lock and key in the military prison, a sentry being posted at the door..