Persons whose sole means of identification is the countersign, or concerning whose authority to pass there is a reasonable doubt, should not be allowed to pass without the authority of the corporal of the guard after proper investigation; the corporal will take to his next superior any person about whom he is not competent to decide.

The COUNTERSIGN is a word given daily from the principal headquarters of a command to aid guards and sentinels in identifying persons who may be authorized to pass at night.

The countersign of the day was "Buford," the name of the colonel whose troops Tarleton had defeated and butchered.

" The countersign was "Spring," and where the spirit of it stepped, golden crocuses had thrust up through the warming earth, not far from where, a night or two before, fire-balls dropped from a hostile air- craft.