diff options
Diffstat (limited to '19507.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 19507.txt | 4479 |
1 files changed, 4479 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/19507.txt b/19507.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..839bada --- /dev/null +++ b/19507.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4479 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Lanier of the Cavalry, by Charles King, +Illustrated by Frank McKernan + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Lanier of the Cavalry + or, A Week's Arrest + + +Author: Charles King + + + +Release Date: October 9, 2006 [eBook #19507] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LANIER OF THE CAVALRY*** + + +E-text prepared by Martin Pettit and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net/) from page images +generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries +(http://www.archive.org/details/americana) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 19507-h.htm or 19507-h.zip: + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/9/5/0/19507/19507-h/19507-h.htm) + or + (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/9/5/0/19507/19507-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/American Libraries. See + http://www.archive.org/details/laniercavalry00kingrich + + + + + +LANIER OF THE CAVALRY + +or + +A Week's Arrest + +by + +GENERAL CHARLES KING + +Author of "The Colonel's Daughter," "Marion's Faith," +"Captain Blake," "Foes in Ambush," "Under Fire," etc. + +With illustrations by Frank McKernan + + + + + + + +[Illustration: "TELL HIM THAT I'D LIKE AN EXTENSION OF ARREST." +_Page 143_] + + +[Illustration: logo] + + + +Philadelphia & London +J. B. Lippincott Company +1909 +Copyright, 1909 by +J. B. Lippincott Company +Published April, 1909 +Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company +The Washington Square Press, Philadelphia, U. S. A. + + + + +LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS + + PAGE +"TELL HIM THAT I'D LIKE AN EXTENSION OF +ARREST." _Frontispiece_ + +"MR. LANIER, GO TO YOUR ROOM IN ARREST" 26 + +"BUT DO YOU MEAN COLONEL BUTTON ACCUSED +MR. LANIER OF THOSE LETTERS?" 195 + + +LANIER OF THE CAVALRY + + + + +I + + +The sun was sinking low beyond the ford of the foaming Platte. The +distant bluffs commanding the broad valley of the Sweetwater stood sharp +and clear against the westward skies. The smoke from the camp-fires +along the stream rose in misty columns straight aloft, for not so much +as a breath of breeze had wafted down from the far snow fields of Cloud +Peak, or the sun-sheltered rifts of the Big Horn. The flag at the old +fort, on the neighboring height, clung to the staff with scarcely a +flutter, awaiting the evening salute of the trumpets and the roar of the +sunset gun. + +The long June day had seemed unusually unconscionably long to the young +girl flitting restlessly about the vine-covered porch of the roadside +cottage. She laid the big binocular aside, for perhaps the twentieth +time within the hour, with a sigh of impatience, a piteous quiver about +the pretty, rosebud mouth, a wistful, longing look in the dark and +dreamy eyes. Ever since stable call, and her father's departure to his +never-neglected duty, she had hovered about that shaded nook, again and +again searching the northward slopes and ridges. The scouts had been in +three hours ago, reporting the squadron only a mile or so behind. It +should have dismounted, unsaddled, fed, watered, and groomed by this +time, and Rawdon should have been here at her side--Rawdon, whom she had +not seen for three mortal days--Rawdon, whom, for three mortal weeks +before the march, she had not missed seeing sometimes several times a +day, even when he was on guard--Rawdon, whom she had never set eyes on +before the first of April, and whom now she looked upon as the foremost +soldier of the regiment, when in point of fact he was but a private +trooper, serving the first part of his first enlistment, in the eyes of +his elders a mere recruit, and in those of Sergeant Fitzroy an +unspeakable thing. + +Another long peep through the signal glasses, another sigh, and then she +came, this girl of seventeen, in her dainty white frock, and plumped +herself dejectedly down on the top step, with two very shapely, slender, +slippered feet displayed on the second below, two dimpled elbows planted +on her knees, two flushed, soft, rounded cheeks buried in two long and +slender hands. Away over at the stables she could hear the tap, tap, of +curry-comb on brush-back, as the First Squadron groomed its fidgety +mounts. Away up the valley the voices of the children in the Arapahoe +village rose gleefully on the air. Away up among the barracks and +quarters at the fort, the band of the Infantry was playing sweet melody. +Peace, content, and harmony were roundabout her, but the dark eyes, +welling with unshed tears, told of a troubled heart. + +And then of a sudden the tears were dashed away and the girl sprang to +her feet. A blithe voice hailed her from within. + +"Dey's comin', Miss Dora--two on 'em, at least--like enough to be twin +brudders." + +The girl ran to the northward corner again and gazed out across the +rushing, swollen river. Not so much as a sign of a dust-cloud to tell of +marching cavalry, and she turned again, with rebuke ready on her tongue, +but again the voice from within: + +"Comin' _t 'other_ way, chile. Must ha' took the lower fohd and rode +roun' back o' de stables," and, with the words, a laughing "mammy" came +bustling to the front door, a cool white pitcher in one hand, a tray +with glasses in the other. + +"Ah know well 'nuff what brings de lieutenant round dis way. As for +dat--_trash_--wid him"--and here came a chuckle of delight at her own +wit--"he just cain't help hisself." But Dora was not listening. Light as +a bird she had flown to the other end of the little porch and was gazing +out through the honeysuckles with all her soul in her eyes. + +Coming up the slope at easy canter rode a young officer, with +broad-brimmed hat and dusty field dress, alert, slender, sinewy, of only +medium height and not more than twenty-five years, with a handsome, +sun-tanned, smiling face, a picture of healthful, wholesome young +manhood. And behind him, at the regulation distance, came what Aunt +Chloe, in her "darky" dialect more than once had declared "the very spit +of him"--a young trooper in similar slouch hat and dusty field dress, +younger, probably, by three or four years, but to the full as alert and +active, as healthful and wholesome to look at, his face now all aglow +with a light that was sweet for girlish eyes to see. + +The leader swung his hat and blithely shouted as he curbed his eager +horse. "Howdy, Miss Dora. Bless your heart, Aunt Chloe, I knew you'd +have the buttermilk ready! No, Rawdon, I shan't dismount"--this to the +young "orderly," who had sprung from saddle and, with his rein over his +arm, stood ready to take that of his officer. "Merciful saints! but +isn't that good after thirty miles of alkali!" He had swallowed a +brimming goblet of the cool, refreshing drink, and Chloe was delightedly +refilling. "Father home, Miss Dora?" he went on cheerily. + +"Over at the stables, Mr. Lanier," was the smiling answer. The face of +the girl was sunshine and roses now, yet merely a glance or two had +passed, for Trooper Rawdon had instantly swung once more into saddle and +was reining back to his place. + +"Stables going _yet_? Why, I thought it must be supper time. Colonel +sent me ahead to find him. Three of 'E' Troop horses act like they'd +been eating loco-weed. That's what kept us." + +"Colonel Button's always findin' some way of sendin' you in ahaid, Marse +Lanier," grinned Chloe. "Ah don't wonder dey says _you_ can do anything +you like an' never get hauled up for it." + +"You're a gossip, Auntie," laughed Lanier. "The colonel would cinch me +quick as the next man if I happened to rub his fur the wrong way. One +more swig now and I'm off. Tastes almost like the South again, doesn't +it?" + +"Lak de _Souf_!" Aunt Chloe bristled, indignant. "Sho! Dat's no more lak +de buttermilk _we_ makes dan dat ar' hawse is lak de racers at Belle +Mead. Cows got to have white clover, Marse Lanier, an' white clover +don't grow in dis Gawd foh-saken country." + +"It's good all the same. Thank you, heartily, Miss Dora. You, too, +Auntie. Er--Rawdon, you dismount and wait for Doctor Mayhew in case I +miss him. Give him the colonel's message and say the squadron should be +in by 7.30." And with that and a wave of his hand and a smiling +good-night, he took the rein of the troop horse and away they sped to +the stables. + +Then Chloe vanished opportunely. The young trooper stood one instant +looking gratefully after his officer and those curvetting steeds, eager +to reach their home and supper. Dora, with glistening eyes and glowing +cheeks, retreated within the shelter of the bowered porch. Then, +bounding up the steps and turning with outstretched arms, thither Rawdon +followed. + +Ten minutes later, at swift trot, came a third horse and rider, the +horse all that a cavalry horse should be in gait and build, the rider +well nigh as marked in build and proportions. He, too, was well-made and +muscular, though somewhat heavy and stocky; he was as soldierly, if not +as young, as the two so recently there in saddle. It was the face that +repelled, for it was black with wrath and suspicion. In front of the +little cottage of the veterinary surgeon he hurriedly dismounted, threw +the reins over the post at the horse-block, and strode, angering, +through the gate. The murmur of blissful voices had ceased at first +sight of him. Dora, her face paling, met him at the head of the steps. + +Hardly noticing her by look or word, he brushed by, turned sharp to his +left, and in an instant the two men were face to face. + +"Rawdon," spoke the new-comer, his tone curt, domineering, insolent, +"what do you mean by letting an officer lead your horse to stables? Go +you to yours at once! Take my horse, too, and groom _him_." + +Rawdon flushed to his forehead, said not a word, came forth into the +light, and then turned squarely. + +"My orders were from Lieutenant Lanier, sergeant, and they were +distinctly to stop here." + +"Go you at once and do as I say," was the instant rejoinder, and the +veins in the sergeant's face were swelled almost to bursting. His eyes +were fiery, his lips were quivering in his wrath. + +"Indeed, Sergeant Fitzroy," began the girl rebukefully, "those were +Lieutenant Lanier's orders." + +"Hang Lieutenant Lanier's orders! No stripling sub can give such orders +in this regiment. How dare you delay there? Go, you townskip, or I'll +kick you through the ----" + +But now with blazing eyes Dora Mayhew threw herself in front of him. +Tall, lithe, and slender herself, she seemed just the height of the +young trooper she defended. "If you raise hand or foot against Rawdon, +Sergeant Fitzroy, it's the last time you come inside our gate. No, I'll +_not_ stand aside! Before you strike him you'll have to strike me." + +And then and there Sergeant Fitzroy realized that the fears and +forebodings of the past month were more than grounded. If angered +before, he was maddened now. Brushing her light form aside with one +sweep of his powerful arm, he sprang forward at the young soldier's +throat just as a tall, lean man, with grizzled beard but athletic build, +bounded up the steps and caught his wrist. + +"None of that in my house, Fitzroy!" came the order, stern and +compelling. "In God's name, what does this mean?" And, still grasping +the sergeant's arm, the speaker, with his face nearly as white as his +stable frock, fairly backed the raging Englishman against the wooden +pillar and held him there. + +"Let go, Mayhew!" raved the sergeant. "I've ordered that young rip to +stables, and he refuses to go." + +"He was ordered to stay, papa, until you came," protested Dora, her eyes +ablaze. "Lieutenant Lanier--_that_ man's superior officer--gave him the +colonel's message to you." + +"He was ordered to go by Lieutenant Lanier's superior, the +officer-of-the-day, whom I represent," was Fitzroy's answer; "and the +longer he stays the worse 't will be for him." + +"No officer ever authorized you to come to my quarters and lay violent +hands on a man behaving like a gentleman, which _you_ are not," was the +cutting rejoinder of the older man, and it stung Fitzroy to fresh fury. +Was he, the model rider of the regiment, to be braved like this, and in +presence of the girl he loved? + +"Let go! You _must_, Mayhew!" he hissed through clenched teeth. "You +have no authority. You are only a civilian. You can be broke and fired +if I report this--outrage--and what I know. Let go!" he shouted, freeing +himself by furious effort. "Now, you, Rawdon, come with me. No. Stop! +Corporal Watts!" he shouted, to a non-commissioned officer, swinging up +the pathway toward the guard-house on the bluff, four men of the guard +at his back. "Come this way," he continued, for at first no attention +was paid to his hail. "Come here and take charge of this man. It's the +order of the officer-of-the-day." + +Doubtfully, reluctantly, leaving his patrol disgustedly waiting, +Corporal Watts slowly descended the incline, crossed the broad, +hard-beaten road, then, obviously embarrassed at the presence of Dora +Mayhew, demanded further information before he obeyed. + +By this time, Rawdon, pale and silent, was standing at the foot of the +steps, indignation, resentment, and trouble all mingling in his face. +Too well he and other young soldiers had learned to know the weight of +Sergeant Fitzroy's spite. But the trouble in his eyes gave way to sudden +relief. Two officers were coming swiftly round the corner of the corral, +Lanier foremost. + +"I say again, Corporal Watts, this man is to be taken in charge at once. +It is Captain Curbit's order as officer-of-the-day. I came direct from +him," was Fitzroy's final order. But it failed. + +"Do nothing of the kind, Corporal Watts," said a quiet voice, at sound +of which Sergeant Fitzroy whirled about and turned, if a possible thing, +a full shade redder. There at the gate stood Lieutenant Lanier. There, a +dozen yards away, but trudging fast as dignity would permit, came the +officer-of-the-day. + +A jerk of the head to the corporal, in response to his instant salute, +and that young soldier, much relieved, strode away to join his men. Then +Captain Curbit turned on Sergeant Fitzroy. + +"You told me nothing of the facts in this case, sir. Lieutenant Lanier +says he _directed_ this man to wait here, with the colonel's message, +while he rode to stables. Pardon me, Miss Dora. Come this way, +sergeant." + +And there was nothing for it but to obey. Abashed, humiliated, rebuked +and in _her_ presence, where he had looked but a moment before to +humble and humiliate his rival, Fitzroy, could only lift his hand in +salute, follow the captain out of earshot, and there make his plea as +best he could, leaving Lanier and the silent young trooper, Dora and her +grave-faced old father, in possession of the field. + +For a moment they watched Fitzroy, eagerly gesticulating as he stood at +attention before his superior. + +"He'll give you no more trouble, I fancy," said Lanier, in low tone, to +the veterinarian. "I'll say good-night again, Miss Dora;" and he walked +cheerily away, but Mayhew looked after him long and anxiously, then upon +the young people before him, then upon the still protesting sergeant +across the way. + +"Maybe not--maybe not," he muttered, with sorrowing shake of the head; +"but few men can give more trouble than--him, when he's minded, and I +reckon he's minded now." + + + + +II + + +Nearly six long months went the regiment afield on the hardest campaign +of its history. Then at last by way of reward it had been ordered in to +big Fort Cushing for the winter. It was close to town, close to the +railway--things that in those days, thirty years ago, seemed almost +heavenly. The new station was blithe and merry with Christmas +preparations and pretty girls. All the married officers' families had +rejoined. Half a dozen fair visitors had come from the distant East. The +band was good; the dancing men were many; the dancing floor was fine, +and the dance they were having on Friday night, December 16, was all +that even an army dance could be until just after eleven o'clock. Then +something happened to cast a spell over everybody. + +Bob Lanier was officer-of-the-guard. Bob had asked the colonel to let +him turn over his sword to a brother officer, who, being in mourning, +could not dance, and the colonel had curtly said no. The colonel's wife +was amazed; she did not dream he _could_ do such a thing. Six girls were +sorrowful, three were incensed, and one was cruelly hurt. She was under +parental orders to start for home on the morrow. It was to be her last +dance at the fort. She liked Bob Lanier infinitely more than she liked +her father's dictum that she must like him not at all. As for Bob +Lanier, the garrison knew he loved her devotedly even before she knew it +herself. + +Of course she came to the dance. As the guest of Captain and Mrs. Sumter +she even had to go up and smile on the colonel and his wife, who were +receiving. She and Kate Sumter had been classmates--roommates--at +Vassar, and Kate, born and reared in the army, had never been quite +content until her friend could come to visit the regiment--her father's +home. + +A winsome pair they were, these two "sweet girl graduates" of the June +gone by, while the regiment was stirring up the Sioux on the way to the +Big Horn and Yellowstone. Everybody had lavish welcome for them, and to +Miriam Arnold the month at Fort Cushing had been quite a dream of +delight, until there came a strange and sudden missive from her father, +bidding her break off a visit that was to have lasted until February, +_and_ all relations with Lieutenant Robert Ray Lanier. + +Up to this moment these relations had been delightful, yet indefinite. +For reasons of his own Mr. Lanier had made no avowal of his love to her, +even though he had disclosed it to every one else. He was a frank, +fearless, out-and-out young soldier, a prime favorite with most of his +fellows. Bob had his enemies--frank men generally have. He could hardly +believe the evidence of his ears when, just after sunset roll-call, he +had confidently approached the colonel with his request and had received +the colonel's curt reply. Time and again during the recent campaign the +veteran soldier now in command had shown marked liking for this +energetic young officer. Then came the march to the settlements, and +sudden, unaccountable change. Twice or thrice within the past ten days +he had shown singular coldness and disfavor; to-night strong and sudden +dislike, and Lanier, amazed and stung, could only salute and turn away. + +Everybody by half past ten had heard of it, and most men marvelled. +Nobody at eleven o'clock was very much surprised when, in the midst of +the lovely Lorelei waltz of Keler Bela, a group of young maids, matrons, +and officers near the doorway opened out, as it were, and Bob Lanier, +officer-of-the-guard, came gracefully gliding and circling down the +room, Miriam Arnold's radiant, happy face looking up into his. It was a +joy to watch them dance together, but not to watch the colonel's face +when he caught sight of them. Except Lanier, every officer present was +in full uniform, without his sabre. Lanier was in the undress uniform of +the guard, but with the sabre--not the long, curved, clumsy, +steel-scabbarded weapon then used by the cavalry, but a light, Prussian +hussar sword that he had evidently borrowed for the occasion, for it +belonged to Barker, the adjutant, as everybody knew--as Barker realized +to his cost when in less than ten seconds the commander summoned him. + +"Mr. Barker, you will at once place Mr. Lanier in arrest for quitting +his guard and disobeying my orders." + +"I shall have to--get my sabre, sir," stammered the adjutant, meaning +the regulation item over at his quarters. + +"There it is, sir, before your eyes. Mr. Lanier, at least, can have no +further use for it until a court-martial acts on his case." + +"Good Lord!" thought Barker, "how can I go up to Bob and tell him to +turn over that sword so that I can properly place him in arrest--and +here, too--and of all times----" + +But the colonel would brook no delay. "Direct Mr. Lanier to report to me +in the anteroom," said he, marching thither forthwith, and that message +the luckless adjutant had to deliver at once. + +Bob saw it coming in Barker's sombre visage. The girl on his arm +understood nothing (but noted the hush that had fallen, even though the +music went on; saw Barker coming, and something told her it meant +trouble, and turned her sweet face white). + +"Miss Arnold, may I offer myself as a substitute for the rest of this +dance? Bob, the chief wants to see you a second," was the best that +Barker could think of. They praised him later for his "mendacity," yet +what he said was true to the letter. It took little more than a second +for the colonel to say: + +"Mr. Lanier, go to your room in arrest," and Bob saluted, turned, and +went, unslinging the sword on the way. + +[Illustration: "MR. LANIER, GO TO YOUR ROOM IN ARREST."] + +Now, that was the first touch to spoil that memorable December night, +but it was only a feather to what followed. The waltz soon ceased, but +the colonel called for an extra, and led out a lady from town, the wife +of a future senator. "Keep this thing going," he cautioned his adjutant +and certain of his personal following, which was large, and loyally they +tried, but the piteous face of the girl he had left at the door of the +ladies' dressing-room and in the hands of Mrs. Sumter was too much for +Barker. Moreover, he much liked Lanier and bemoaned his fate. + +Colonel Button was "hopping mad," as the quartermaster put it, and as +all men could see, yet at what? Lanier's offence, when fairly +measured, had not been so grave. It had happened half a dozen times that +the officer-of-the-guard, making his rounds and visiting sentries in the +course of a dance evening, would casually drop in by one door and out by +another, taking a turn or two on the floor, perhaps--"just waltzing in +and waltzing out," as they said--and no one the worse for it, even when +the colonel happened to be present. Nor could men now see what it was +that so angered the commander against Lanier. + +"Disobeyed his orders flatly," suggested Captain Snaffle, who stood by +the colonel on every occasion when not himself the object of that +officer's satire or censure. + +"Disobeyed no order," said Sumter, as stoutly. "Simply did what many +another has done, and nobody hurt. Nor would Lanier have been noted, +perhaps, if he had not first asked to turn over his sword to Trotter." + +But even that could not fully account for the colonel's rancor, and, +though the music and dance went on, men and women both, with clouded +faces, found themselves asking the question: "What could have angered +him so at Lanier?" And in a corner of the ladies' dressing-room two +pretty girls, with difficulty soothed by Mrs. Sumter, were vainly +striving not to cry their eyes out--Kate Sumter dismayed at the almost +uncontrollable grief of her friend, who, strange to military measures, +imagined that Bob's arrest was but the prelude to his being shot at +sunrise, or something well nigh as terrible. + +Not ten minutes after Lanier went out, and went silent but in +unspeakable wrath, Paymaster Scott came dawdling in, and though but a +casual visitor at the post, just back that day from a tour of the +northward camps and forts along the Indian border, he saw at a glance +that something had gone amiss. The colonel was laboriously waltzing; +three or four couples were mechanically following suit, but most of the +men were gathered about the buffet, and most of the women huddled at the +dressing-room door, and Scott, marching over to pay his respects to the +colonel's wife, and explain his coming at so late an hour, noted +instantly the trouble in her serious face. He had known her long and +liked her well, as, despite occasional differences at whist, he did her +husband. Captain Snaffle was speaking with her at the moment. Mrs. +Snaffle was at her side. "Why did they tell her at all?" Mrs. Snaffle +was asking, with much spirit and obvious effort to control a racial +tendency to double the final monosyllables. "Sure they might have known +'t would sc--frighten the life out of her." + +"Sc--frighten _who_?" asked Scott, who was friends with everybody and, +for more reasons than his office, a welcome guest wherever he went. +Snaffle shot a warning glance at his wife, which fell, as he said, +"unaided." + +"It's Bobby Lanier, meejor, only you mustn't sp--refer--to it." Mrs. +Snaffle, when self-controlled, discreetly shunned such vowels as +betrayed her origin, a totally useless precaution, since all men knew it +and liked her none the less. + +"Lanier? Oh, yes, I thought it was Bob I saw a while ago streaking it +across the parade. It's bright as day in the moonlight with the snow. +What's Bob got to do with frightening folk?" And now he was shaking +hands with all three. + +"Something very unfortunate has happened, major," said Mrs. Button. "Mr. +Lanier was officer-of-the-guard and asked to attend the dance, Mr. +Trotter offering to take charge of the guard. Colonel Button felt +compelled to decline, and--he came any way. You know, of course, _that_ +couldn't be overlooked." + +"H'm," said Scott gravely and reflectively. "And who is so frightened?" + +"Miriam Arnold; a very charming girl who is visiting the Sumters. +Indeed, it looks as though she cared for him. It's no secret that he's +in love with _her_." + +"Ah, yes. Well, then, it was she I saw getting into the Fosters' sleigh +at the side door." + +"Oh, I think not! I _hope_ not!" cried Mrs. Button, a flush mounting to +her face. "I wanted to say a reassuring word after a little----" + +But at the moment Mrs. Sumter was seen coming forth from the +dressing-room. Half a dozen women were upon her at once with sympathetic +inquiries. To these she spoke briefly, yet courteously, and, escaping on +the arm of the regimental quartermaster, came straightway to Mrs. +Button. + +"You will forgive my girls for not saying good-night," she cordially +spoke. "Miriam has been quite upset by a letter from home; and this +little--episode--this evening, which she cannot understand as we do, has +so unstrung her that Mrs. Foster offered to send them over home in her +sleigh. The side door had been barred, but Mr. Horton pried it open for +them, so they had no need to come this way, and face everybody--and +explain." + +"You know how sorry I am," said Mrs. Button. "Of course they are +excusable for leaving as they did. Why, where are the others going?" + +The music had suddenly stopped. There was a scurry on the part of the +men at the anteroom. Several had run to the entrance. Others were +following. Some one among the women, with startled eyes and paling face, +sprang up saying, "It's fire"--always a dread at wind-swept Cushing. +Almost at the same instant the colonel and Scott reached the veranda +without. A dozen officers were there, intent and listening. "I tell you +I heard it plainly," said one of their number, "and the Foster sleigh +isn't back." + +"Heard what, sir?" demanded the colonel. "What's the trouble?" + +"A cry for help--or something, over yonder. Barker and Blake are gone. +There was a stir at the guard-house, too." + +And as though to confirm this much, at least, there presently appeared +round the corner of the building the sergeant of the guard, in his fur +cap and overcoat, and with him a burly soldier, bleeding at the nose and +bristling with wrath. One hand covered a damaged eye; with the other he +saluted Captain Snaffle, who had edged to the front of the group. + +"Sir, I have to report Trooper Rawdon assaulting a non-commissioned +officer." + +For an instant there was silence. Then Major Scott gave tongue. + +"Trooper Rawdon!" cried he, "why he's been with me nearly a month, and +now has a month's furlough from General Crook. He's the best man of the +escort." + +"Refused to obey my orders to go to his quarters, sir, and assaulted me +when I tried to enforce 'em. Sergeant Blunt says he won't confine him +unless Captain Snaffle orders it." + +"One moment, sergeant," interposed Colonel Button. "Has any +disturbance--any cry for help--been heard at the guard-house,--or was +this the explanation?" And he looked with disfavor on the battered +complainant. + +"Number Five, sir, hasn't called off half past 'leven. I've sent the +corporal to see what's the matter." + +"Number Five!" cried two or three men at the instant, and without a word +Captain Sumter hurried away, on a bee line across the snow-covered +parade, following the tracks of the adjutant. + +"Number Five!" repeated the colonel. "That's just back of Sumter's +quarters;" and he stepped out into the moonlight for clearer view. + +Afar over across the glistening level a few lights glimmered faintly in +the row of officers' quarters, bounding the northward side of the +garrison, but neither along their front nor that of the westward row was +there sign of moving humanity. The moon at its full, in that rare, +clear atmosphere, illuminated the post, the frozen slopes beyond, and +the dazzling range of the Rockies, with a radiance that rendered objects +visible almost as at midday. Only the hurrying form of Captain Sumter +could be seen half way across the parade. The Fosters' sleigh, that by +this time should have been back at the assembly room, was nowhere in +sight. Sumter's quarters were about the middle of the row. Lanier's were +at the eastward end. For the moment the complaint of the aggrieved +sergeant was ignored. All men stood waiting, watching. Then, on a +sudden, two or three black forms darted from the shadow of the middle +quarters. One came running out across the parade, hardly slackened speed +at the hail of Captain Sumter, pointed back with one hand, shouted +something that doubled Sumter's pace, but hurried onward toward the +group. + +It was Conroy, corporal-of-the-guard. "The adjutant orders me to report +Number Five sick, sir," he panted to the colonel. "I found him all +doubled up in the coal-shed back of the major's. 'T wasn't him hollered. +'T was somebody at Captain Sumter's. They got the steward over from the +hospital, but they want the sergeant and some of the guard to search the +back buildings." + +"_Who_ wants them?" demanded the colonel. + +"The adjutant, sir. Lieutenant Blake's with him. There has been some +prowlers--and the young ladies were frightened." + +"They are safely home?" asked the colonel. "Then where's the sleigh?" + +"They're home all right, sir, and the sleigh went on out of the east +gate--to the store, I suppose. Number Six didn't stop it----" + +"One moment," interposed the colonel. "Sergeant-of-the-guard, take four +of your men and report to Captain Sumter; or to the adjutant. Now, +corporal, when was this cry heard?" + +"Just after the young ladies got home, sir--leastwise that's what I was +told. We didn't hear it at the guard-house." + +"Was the officer-of-the-guard over there?" + +"Not the--new one, sir, but----" And then the corporal suddenly stopped, +contrite and troubled. + +"But what?" demanded the colonel, instant suspicion in his eyes and +tone. "Do you mean that Lieutenant Lanier was there--out of his +quarters?" + +"Out of his head, if he was," growled the paymaster, who loved him well +and was deeply concerned over his trouble. + +"I--I didn't see him, sir," answered the young soldier, but in manner so +confused that it simply added to the commander's suspicion. + +"Come with me, Horton," said the colonel to his quartermaster, and +turning back for his cap and overcoat. Then once again the voice of the +aggrieved and importunate sergeant was heard, this time with convincing +appeal. + +"I beg the colonel's pardon, but if he wants to get the truth as to this +night's business, it would be well to arrest Trooper Rawdon, or he'll be +off for good and all." + +"Find him, then, sergeant-of-the-guard, and have it done," said Button. +"Report it to the officer-of-the-day as my order." + + + + +III + + +That ended the dance, but not the excitement. Women and girls were +seeking their wraps even before the corporal came, and now went +twittering homeward, each on the arm of her escort, except in the case +of those allied forces, the wives of certain seniors, who long had +lived, moved, and ruled in the regiment, and now in eager yet guarded +tones were discussing the events of the hour gone by. With these went +Mrs. Foster, her husband having joined the searching party, and her +sleigh, instead of returning, being still missing and unaccounted for. + +Not yet midnight, and in the space of less than one hour all Fort +Cushing had been stirred by the news. A most popular and prominent young +officer had been placed in close arrest. A prominent, if not most +popular, sergeant, had been pummelled. An alarming scene of some kind +had occurred at the quarters of Captain Sumter. No one outside of the +immediate family knew just what had happened, and those inside cared not +to tell. Mrs. Sumter had hurried away the minute she learned that her +husband had gone. The colonel, sternly silent, led his wife to their +door, and there left her, saying he had summoned certain officers to +join him at once, and she, who ruled him in all matters domestic almost +as she managed the children, knew well that when roused he would brook +no interference in matters professional, and Bob Lanier, a prime +favorite of hers, had in some way managed to fall under the ban of his +extreme displeasure. + +At the office were presently assembled the colonel, the adjutant, the +quartermaster, the post surgeon, and to them came Paymaster Scott. At +the "store," the only club-room they had in those days, were gathered +half the commissioned officers of the post. At Sumter's there kept +coming and going by twos and threes, from all along the officers' line, +a succession of sympathetic callers, who left even more mystified than +when they arrived. Mrs. Sumter was aloft with Kate and their guest, and, +as the captain civilly but positively told all visitors, "had to be +excused." One of the girls was "somewhat hysterical." Miriam had had a +fright in the dark on their return home and screamed. Something foolish, +probably, but none the less effective. No! Sumter thought Mrs. Sumter +would need no help, yet he was _so_ much obliged to the several who +suggested going up just to see if they couldn't "do something." Captain +Sumter was a devoted husband and father, a capital officer, and a +gentleman to the core, but the captain could be just a trifle distant at +times, and this was one of them. + +Another house was virtually closed to question. To the disappointment of +many and the disapprobation of a few, Bob Lanier had closeted himself +with his classmate and most intimate friend "Dad" Ennis; then, after a +brief colloquy with Barker, the adjutant, had caused a big card to be +tacked on his door whereon was crayoned in bold black letters "BUSY." +But at quarter past twelve the assistant surgeon, Doctor Schuchardt, +called, as was known, for the second time, and entered without ceremony. +When the officer-of-the-day came tramping along the boardwalk at 12.30, +and turned in at the gate, he struck the panel with the hilt of his +sabre, by way of hint that his call was official and not to be denied. +Ennis, therefore, came to the door, but came with gloomy brow. + +"I am ordered by Colonel Button to ask certain questions of Lieutenant +Lanier," said the official from the depths of his fur cap. + +"How's that, Doc?" called Ennis, over his massive shoulder. "Can your +patient see the officer-of-the-day?" + +"Not yet, with my consent," came the stout answer. + +"Shout your questions, captain," sang out the patient, with much too +little humility of manner, yet Lanier knew Curbit well and knew his +mission to be unwelcome. + +Therefore, in Captain Curbit's most official tones, _ab imo pectore_, +came question the first: + +"Is Trooper Rawdon in hiding anywhere about your quarters?" + +To which, truculently, came response in Lanier's unmistakable voice: + +"He is not, if _I_ know it." + +"Do you know or suspect where he is?" + +"Neither. And there is no reason why I should." + +"Have you seen him--to-night?" + +An instant's pause; then, "I don't know whether I have or not." + +"You don't _know_?" exclaimed Curbit, puzzled and beginning to bristle. + +"I don't _know_," repeated Lanier, positive and beginning to rejoice. + +"Suppose the colonel tells me to explain that," began Curbit, but Doctor +Schuchardt set his foot down summarily. + +"Here," said he, "this thing's got to stop;" and he came to the door in +his shirt sleeves, leaning half way out, with one hand behind him. +"Lanier's in a highly nervous and excited state. He has had a fall--and +I'm trying to get him to bed and asleep. He doesn't know--whom--he has +seen since he got home in arrest, and you can say so for me." + +"All right Shoe," was the philosophical answer. "It's none o' my +funeral, and personally I don't give a cuss if they _never_ find him, +but there are just s-teen reasons why the Old Man wants to see that +young man Rawdon forthwith, and as many for believing he's skipped." + +"Then skip after him. You can track anything but a ghost in this +new-fallen snow." + +Curbit lowered his voice. "That's exactly the trouble, doctor. Go to the +back of the quarters and see for yourself. His trail starts--and +ends--_here_." + + +In all its history Fort Cushing had never known such a day of +bewilderment as that which followed. Guard mounting was held as usual at +eight A.M., and Colonel Button, awaiting in his office the coming of the +old and the new officers-of-the-day, directed his adjutant to drop his +own work at their entrance and give attention to what took place. Half a +dozen other officers, with little or no business to transact at that +hour, made it their business to be present, drawn thither from sheer +sympathy, as some declared, and downright curiosity, as owned by others. +The office building was large and roomy; the colonel's desk was close to +the door; beyond it were tables spread with maps, magazines, and +papers; a big stove stood in the middle, and a dozen chairs were +scattered about, for it was here the officers met one evening each week +in the one "book-schooling" to which they were then subjected--a +recitation in regulations or "Tactics." Across the hall was a smaller +office--the adjutant's--and beyond that the room where sat the +sergeant-major and his clerks. The windows, snow-battered and +frost-bitten, gave abundant light from the skies, but none on the +surroundings--the view being limited to scratch-hole surveys. There was +nothing to distract attention from what might be going on within, and +all eyes were on the two burly captains who entered at 8.30, fur-capped, +fur-gloved, in huge overcoats and arctics. The wind had begun, even +earlier than usual, to whine and stir as it swept down from the bleak +northwest, and the mercury had dropped some ten degrees since the +previous evening. + +"Blizzard coming," said Scott, as he glanced at the sullen skies, and +Scott knew the Rockies as he did the Paymaster's Manual. + +"I report as old officer-of-the-day, sir," said Curbit, with brief +salute, tendering the guard report book. + +The colonel went straight to business, as he glanced over the list of +prisoners. + +"No sign of Trooper Rawdon?" + +"No, sir. The patrol sent to search in town got back at reveille." + +"His horse and kit all right?" + +"All right, sir. Nothing missing that he was supposed to have." + +"Police notified to watch all trains--and stages?" + +"Yes, sir, and Sergeant Stowell, who commanded the paymaster's escort, +remains in town with a couple of men to help." + +There was impressive silence in the office. The colonel sat with +troubled brow, looking grimly over the roster of the guard, the written +"remarks" of the officer-of-the-day, and the hours of his inspections of +sentries, etc. Barker, the adjutant, had dropped into a chair, a few +feet back of the fur-capped officers, and, though listening as bidden, +was gloomily contemplating the frost-covered panes of the nearest north +window. + +Eight men had gone with Sergeant Stowell as escort to the paymaster +when, nearly four weeks earlier, he had set forth on his trip. Then the +little iron safe was full of money. Seven men had come back with him, +when, as the safe was well nigh empty, the paymaster said he hardly +needed an escort. Of the eight who started, four were "casuals" who +belonged to companies stationed at Fort Frayne, well up in the Indian +country, and there they remained when the duty was over. Of the seven +who came with Stowell, three belonged at Fort Frayne, a corporal and two +men of Captain Raymond's troop, and they came fortified with the orders +of their post commander, a copy of which was now in Barker's hands. + +"What I don't understand," said the colonel, whirling his chair to the +right about and addressing the paymaster, "is how or why those men +should be down here." + +"It _seems_ simple," answered Scott, placidly, he being entirely +independent of the post commander. "From Frayne I had to go to the +cantonments up along the Big Horn, and we doubled the size of the escort +accordingly. When we got back there these three were permitted to come +all the way, whether to buy Christmas things for the Frayne folk, or for +affairs of their own, I didn't inquire." + +"To whom did you assign them for rations and quarters?" demanded the +colonel, of Barker. + +"Captain Snaffle, sir--'C' Troop." + +"Are they there?--the others, at least?" + +"Corporal Watts and Trooper Ames are there, sir. Trooper Rawdon, as you +know, is not. He has not been seen about the quarters since some time +last evening. Moreover, the few personal belongings he had are gone." + +Again a pause. Then presently: "You arrested Kelly, I see, the man who +was on Number Five." + +"Yes, sir. Both Doctor Schuchardt and the steward said his sickness was +due to drink. The sergeant and corporal-of-the-guard are willing to +swear he was perfectly sober when they stationed him. The men say he +hadn't touched a drop of liquor for a month. He must have drunk after he +was posted as sentry, for he vomited whiskey at the hospital. I believe +he was doped." + +"That he could get whiskey anywhere along back of the officers' +quarters," said the colonel, reflectively as well as reflecting, "is not +improbable. That it should have been doped, judging from the way one or +two have misbehaved, is not impossible. Captain Snaffle's cook, it +seems, was indulging some of her friends with a surreptitious supper, at +his expense. That, very possibly, is how Kelley came to grief. The +others seem to have hidden their tracks thus far." Then, as though with +sudden resolution, he turned abruptly again. + +"The usual orders, for the present, captain," said he, to the new +incumbent. "And you are relieved, Captain Curbit"--to the old. "But I +shall need to see you later, so do not leave the post." + +"The man that leaves the post this day," said Major Scott, with a squint +through the upper and unincumbered panes of the nearest window, "may +need a seven days' leave." + +"And that, colonel," said a quiet voice at the commander's elbow, "is +what I applied for earlier. Pardon me, sir, but I need to know your +decision, for I should now be going to town." + +It was Captain Sumter who spoke, and the colonel flushed promptly at +sound of his voice. + +"I had intended sending for you, Sumter," said he, "but these rather +engrossing matters had to be taken up first. I--have your application," +he continued, fumbling among the papers on his desk. "It is an awkward +time--and these are awkward circumstances. It will leave your troop +without an officer." + +"Mr. Lanier will be here, colonel." + +"Here--but in close arrest," frowned the colonel, "and you haven't had a +first lieutenant since I have been in command." + +"My misfortune, sir, but hardly my fault," answered Captain Sumter +tersely yet respectfully. "General Sheridan selects his aides-de-camp +where he will, and last month you thought it a compliment to the +regiment and to my troop." + +"You feel that--you _ought_ to go?" asked the colonel, dropping the +subject like a hot brick, and resuming the previous question. + +"Our guest, Miss Arnold, is in no condition to travel alone," said +Captain Sumter gravely. "My wife decides to accompany her, at least to +Chicago, and I desire to go with my wife." + +The colonel bit his lip, and bowed. "I see," said he. "Miss Arnold was +very much shaken by what happened--after she got home?" + +"Rather by what happened _before_ she got home," was the calm yet +suggestive reply, and it stung the commander to the quick. + +"Captain Sumter," said he, flushing angrily, for no one of his officers +held he in higher esteem, "your attitude is that of opposition, if not +of rebuke, to the official acts of the post commander." + +"Then let me disclaim at once the faintest disrespect, Colonel Button, +but--as Mr. Lanier's troop commander and personal friend, I beg leave to +say that so far as I know, his offense is one which his comrades have +committed time and again, without rebuke." + +"Which simply goes to show, sir," responded the colonel, with glittering +eyes, "that you do not know the twentieth part of his offense." + +For a moment the silence in the office was painful. Men looked at each +other without speaking. Sumter stood before his commander, turning paler +with the flitting seconds. At last he spoke: + +"If that be true, Colonel Button, of course I cannot think of going. I +withdraw my application;" and, turning slowly, left the office. + +Between him and the adjutant flashed one quick glance. There was +something to come yet. The officers-of-the-day had gone--Curbit to shed +furs and sabre at his quarters and say "Thank God!" Snaffle, his junior +in rank but senior in years, a veteran of the old dragoons, to plod +wearily back towards the guard-house for a conference with Lieutenant +Crane, commander-of-the-guard. + +In the office of the sergeant-major the clerks were busily at work +consolidating the morning reports of the ten companies--six of cavalry, +four of infantry--stationed at the post. A note on that of Captain +Snaffle had already caught the eye of the sergeant-major, who had +bustled in to impart the tidings to his immediate superior, the +adjutant, and was disappointed to find them known already. + +Instead of carrying three enlisted men present as "casually at post," +the "return" of Troop "C" had but two. Trooper Rawdon, whose horse, +horse equipments, and field kit were safely stored in the troop-stables +since noon the previous day, was himself accounted for nowhere. In view +of the fact that he had not been seen, and could not be found, there was +nothing remarkable about that. With the morning report book, however, +there was handed in a copy of an order duly submitted by Corporal Watts +to Snaffle's first sergeant, and by him to his captain, which read as +follows: + + + FORT FRAYNE, Wyoming, + December 11, 1876. + +S. O. } + } (Extract) +No. 81. } + + * * * * * + + 3. On arriving with his detachment at Fort Cushing, and in + compliance with the telegraphic instructions from Department + Headquarters, Trooper G. P. Rawdon, Troop "L," --th Cavalry, is + granted thirty days' furlough, at the expiration of which he will + report to the commanding officer of Fort Cushing for transportation + to his proper station. + + By order of Lieutenant-Colonel Kent, + DOUGLAS JERROLD, + Second Lieut. --th Inf., + Post Adjutant. + + + + +IV + + +Just as the paymaster predicted, the wintry storm broke with the early +afternoon. A genuine blizzard came shrieking down from the mountain pass +to the northwest, charging madly through the post, blinding the eyes and +snatching the breath of the few hardy men who had to venture out of +doors, driving before it a dense white snow-cloud, sweeping clean the +westward roofs and prairie wastes, and banking up to the very eaves on +the lee side of every building. Even the sentries had to be severally +taken off post and lodged within. (Number Five, so it was reported, had +been blown bodily into the Snaffles' kitchen.) Even the commanding +officer's "orderly," who had barely managed to make his way back after +dinner, was now relieved. Only by hauling himself hand over hand along +the picket fence, and turning his back to the gale every ten seconds to +catch his breath, had he succeeded in returning to his post. Even stable +duty was abandoned, so far as grooming was concerned, for though the men +could readily be blown from barracks to their steeds, no power could +fetch them back for supper. Veteran first sergeants told off a stout +squad in each troop, and sent them with a sack-load of rations to +reinforce the stable sergeant and grooms, there to stay to feed, guard, +and water the horses. Unless the roofs blew away, and all were buried in +drifts, there was safety, if not comfort, in the sheltered flats below +the bluffs. + +But the telegraph wires went with the first hour. The stage, of course, +couldn't be hoped to return from town, and, so far as getting news from +the surrounding universe was concerned, Fort Cushing might as well have +been in Nova Zembla. And the Sumters, three, with Miriam Arnold, had +set forth at noon, intending to intercept the east-bound express, and +the colonel's spirit was raging in sympathy with the storm, and in spite +of his wife, for some one had started a tale that Sumter and his +household had ostentatiously called upon Robert Ray Lanier, in close +arrest, in utter disfavor and inferential disgrace. + +Now, while an officer in arrest may not quit his quarters under seven +days, and may not even thereafter visit his commanding officer unless +ordered, or his brother officers unless authorized by that magnate, +there is no regulation prohibiting other officers or their households +visiting him. Nevertheless, they who publicly do so lay themselves +liable to the imputation of sympathizing with the accused at the expense +of the accuser, and some commanding officers are so sensitive that they +look upon such demonstrations as utterly subversive of discipline, and +aimed directly at them. + +And of such was Colonel Button, a brave soldier, a gentleman at heart, a +kind, if crotchety, commander, and a lenient man rather than a +disciplinarian. Much given, himself, to criticism of his own superiors +or contemporaries, he could not abide it that he should lack the full +and enthusiastic support, much less be made the object of the criticism, +of his officers or men. A vain man, was Button, and dearly he loved the +adulation of his comrades, high or low. Veteran Irish sergeants knew +well how to reach the soft side of "The Old Man." Astute troop +commanders, like Snaffle, saved themselves many a deserved wigging by +judicious use of blarney. Sterling, straightforward men like Major +Stannard, like Sumter, Raymond, and Truscott, of his captains--men who +could not fawn and would not flatter--were never Button's intimates. He +admired them; he respected them; but down in his heart he did not like +them, because they were, in a word, independent. + +And during the long and trying campaign that began early in June and +closed only late in November, Button had made more than one error that +set men to saying things, and at least one blunder that had called for +rebuke. It was supposed at the time that the rebuke would end it, but, +to Button's wrath, and indeed that of most of his friends, the story +appeared in exaggerated form in many an Eastern paper. What made it +worse was that, as told in Boston, Philadelphia, and other far Eastern +communities, where the Indian is little known and much considered, +Button's interests were bound to suffer, for he was declared to have +butchered defenseless women and children in a surrendered village--a +most unjust accusation in spite of the fact that certain squaws and boys +had died fighting with their braves by night, when bullets could not +well discriminate. Button had but just got his promotion to regimental +command, and friends at court were working hard for his further +advancement to the grade of brigadier-general--a fact that hurt him in +an army so benighted as then was ours, in believing that generalships +should be bestowed only upon the seniors and service-tried among the +colonels. We have broadened much since then, and, as it was once said +that every French soldier carried the baton of a marshal in his +knapsack, so now may the silver star be hidden in the pocket of the +lieutenants of every staff department as well as those of the Fighting +Force. There are none who may not aspire. + +So Button believed it of Sumter that he and his, on the way to the +railway station, went in and condoled with Bob Lanier, and doubtless +vituperated him, the commander, when in point of fact no one of their +number had seen, or spoken with, Bob. Sumter merely left a big basket +filled with fruit, and a little note with friendliness, from Mrs. +Sumter, then sprang into the curtained escort wagon, and was whisked +away. + +Then came the storm, and then a Sunday and Monday in which no man went +either way between the fort and town. And then a third, in which the +gale went down, and the garrison first dug itself out, and then +tunnelled in to the colonel's, the adjutant's office, and other +submerged quarters, and on the morning of that third day Captain Sumter, +in snow-covered furs, reported his return in person to his post +commander, and explained that he had been storm-bound at the station in +the meantime. + +It was then barely nine o'clock. Guard mounting, the first held since +Saturday, was just over. The morning reports, the first rendered since +Saturday, were just in, and the staff and company officers for the first +time since Saturday were beginning to gather at headquarters and to +compare notes. All had much to tell. Stannard's wood-pile, Snaffle's +storm-shed, and Barker's cow had blown away. Somebody had just reported +Sumter's north dormer window "torn out by the roots," which moved +Button to say: + +"I hope your quarters sustained no damage in your absence." + +"I do not know, sir, I came direct to the office to report." + +"Ah, true; your household started before the storm." + +"Only started, sir. They went no farther than the surgeon's quarters, +where we learned the train was six hours late. I had--business--in town, +and went on. They remained." + +"Then the ladies have not gone East?" + +"Neither they nor any one else, since early Saturday morning. The road +is blocked." + +"The paymaster, too? He went in right after luncheon." + +"I cannot say, sir. I neither saw nor heard of him about the station. It +is crowded with people. Three trains are stalled there, unable to go +either way, and now--with your permission, colonel----" + +"Oh, certainly, certainly, Sumter. I didn't wish to detain you. I hope +you'll find the ladies well." Whereat the captain withdrew, giving place +to the quartermaster who had hurried in, an anxious look in his eyes. +That he should have numerous losses and damages to report was to be +expected; that he should appear in the least concerned was not. A +faithful and loyal staff officer was Horton, but one of the most +philosophic, if not phlegmatic, souls in the service. It took nothing +short of a national disaster seriously to disturb his equanimity; +therefore at sight of his face the colonel was almost instantly on his +feet. + +"Can I have a sergeant and twenty men at once, sir, armed and mounted? +The ambulance with the paymaster never reached town." + +"Order them out at once, Mr. Barker," was Button's instant answer, +turning to his adjutant, who went out like a shot. "What time did they +start?" + +"About two Saturday afternoon. It was blowing a gale then and the snow +so thick we lost sight of them within a hundred yards. Major Scott +declined an escort; said he and the clerk and the two men inside were +more than enough. He had only three thousand dollars left and thought +that too little to tempt anybody. Everybody knew he was just back from a +long pay trip--not going--yet they have disappeared utterly. I had men +ride the length of the creek valley 'twixt here and town, and there +isn't a sign of them." + +The silence in the office was oppressive. Men looked at each other in +dumb consternation. + +"How did you learn they hadn't reached town?" demanded Button. + +"Sergeant Fitzroy just came out. He'd been in there with Sergeant +Stowell to help find Rawdon, he said. Major Scott had a section engaged +in the Pullman for Omaha, and Fitzroy says he never claimed it--says he +searched every stable for the ambulance, but there was no sign of it, +and he says there was a gang of half a dozen toughs that had been +hanging about town for a week, and they've cleared out. I'd like to go +and get into riding rig, sir." + +"Go, and I'll have a troop out after you if need be." Then turning to +his adjutant: "Barker, have Sergeant Fitzroy sent for at once." + +Another moment and a trig, well-groomed soldier, florid-faced, muscular, +yet burly in build, stepped briskly in and "stood attention." His right +eye and cheek were still heavily bruised and discolored. His nose was +somewhat swollen. The colonel had looked upon him with sombre eyes the +night of the dance. It annoyed him that a non-commissioned officer +should have taken such a time and place to offer a complaint. He still +disapproved. Moreover, he had given Sergeant Fitzroy no authority to go +as volunteer aid to Sergeant Stowell. + +"How did you happen to be in town, sergeant?" was the abrupt demand. + +Fitzroy colored to the brows, but the answer was prompt: + +"I understood the colonel to say 'find him,' referring to Trooper +Rawdon, Friday night, and I went in Saturday morning thinking to help. +Then we couldn't get back, sir." + +"My order was to the sergeant-of-the-guard, not to you," interposed +Button curtly. "Sergeant Stowell was sent and that was enough." + +"Sergeant Stowell was looking for a man in uniform, sir, and had never +seen Rawdon except in trooper dress, and would never perhaps have known +him." + +"Then how should you?" was the sharp query. + +Fitzroy started. "I--had known him longer, sir, and much better. I--had +occasion to reprimand him once or twice, and knew him and his--pals, if +the colonel will pardon me--as none of the others knew him. There was +that young civilian, Lowndes, that went along with us and got into +trouble, and--there were others. In fact, if the colonel will pardon me +again, sir, I do not hold a high opinion of Trooper Rawdon, and if the +colonel were to investigate, it's my belief he could trace many a +disloyal trick--and tale--to that man. What's more," and now the +speaker's tone betrayed undue and most unprofessional excitement, and it +seemed as though he had quite forgotten himself and his official +surroundings, for he finished with voice querulous and upraised, "if +Paymaster Scott came to grief he has nobody to blame but his pet and +himself----" + +"No more of that, sir," broke in the colonel angrily, "unless you are +ready to prove your words." + +"Give me two days and half a chance, Colonel Button," was the confident +answer, "and I'll do it." + + + + +V + + +As Captain Sumter said, the ladies had gone no further than the +surgeon's quarters that memorable Saturday, and with Sumter's full +consent they had not gone even that far. Friday afternoon he had wired +his protest to the father of Miriam Arnold, and with startling emphasis +the reply had come early Saturday morning: "I repeat that I desire my +daughter to return at once." It angered this honest gentleman and +soldier. The tone was abrupt, if telegrams can be said to have either +tone or manner, but that "wire" settled the matter. Miriam said she must +obey, and nothing short of Doctor Larrabee, senior surgeon of the post, +had prevailed against her decision. He himself had met the covered +vehicle at his gate, and with calm but forceful courtesy had insisted +on their alighting. "Your train is half a day late," said he. "You'll be +wiser waiting here than at the frowsy station. Besides, I wish to see +this young woman again." So saying, he fairly lifted Miss Arnold from +the fur-robed depths of the dark interior, and deposited her on the +wind-swept path. "Run in," said he, then similarly aided Mrs. and Miss +Sumter. Their hand luggage and wraps came next, and Sumter drove away, +saying he'd be back to them in abundant time for the train--which he +was, though not until Tuesday morning. It was Thursday before the road +was open or the telegraph again at work. + +Less than half an hour the trio spent under the doctor's hospitable +roof. Before two o'clock the wind had increased to a gale. The snow was +driving swift and hard. "I checked you just in time," said he. "There'll +be no train either way this night." And so by two o'clock, and just as +the paymaster was driving away down the front of officers' row, Mrs. +and Miss Sumter, with Miss Arnold, escorted by the two medical officers, +were struggling across the open space between the surgeon's houses and +the rear fence of the long line, and presently entering the back gate at +Sumter's. + +It was an odd arrangement, somewhat peculiar to frontier stations of the +day. The enclosure of Fort Cushing was diamond-shaped. The entrance gate +was at the eastern apex. The hospital and surgeons' quarters stood on a +line with this gate, their front perpendicular to the long axis of the +diamond. Their "rear elevations," therefore, were not far from officers' +row. From the front of Sumter's house, around by way of the main gate to +the doctor's door--the first to the left (north) of the post +traders's--was quite a walk. From back door to back door, however, it +was less than two hundred paces. "We are near neighbors," Doctor +Larrabee had been saying, "though my wife thinks it a long walk on a +windy day. I could reach you day or night, almost in a minute. As for +Schuchardt and Bob Lanier, they could talk to each other out of their +back windows this morning, but you couldn't hear a bugle across there +now." + +"Is he sitting up?" Mrs. Sumter inquired. "I thought, from what we +heard, Doctor Schuchardt was trying to keep him in bed." + +"He won't stay," was the brief answer. "I doubt if he slept a wink last +night." + +But Schuchardt was even less communicative. In answer to Mrs. Sumter's +appeal, that young but gifted physician had looked perturbed, and +finally answered: "Mr. Lanier's hurt is more mental than physical, +therefore the more difficult for me to reach." + +"You've seen him this morning?" + +"Twice, Mrs. Sumter, and I'm going again as soon as we've seen you +home." + +And the moment they reached the rear storm-door, and their fur-hooded, +fur-mantled charges were safely within, Schuchardt excused himself, +Miriam Arnold's eyes following with a mute message that he felt, if he +did not hear. + +But Larrabee lingered. Stamping and shaking off the snow, he followed +into the warm and cozy army quarters. Cook and housemaid both looked +astonished at the unexpected procession through the kitchen. Mrs. +Captain Snaffle's "chef"--like her mistress, of Hibernian +extraction--sprang up in some confusion from her chair and the cup of +"tay" over which the three had been chatting, as is the way of our +domestics at such times and places,--she had reason to know the mistress +of the house did not well approve of her, or of these frequent +visitations. "We shall probably dine at home," said Mrs. Sumter, +somewhat coldly, to her own retainers, and bestowing no notice upon +their visitor. "There may be no train till to-morrow;" and with that led +the way to the parlor. + +Almost immediately, without waiting for the coming of the attendants +with their hand-bags, Miss Arnold fled up-stairs, followed, at a glance +from her mother, by Kate. + +"You see how wretchedly nervous she continues," said Mrs. Sumter. "How +could we have let her go alone?" + +"How should we let her go at all?" said Larrabee. "Indeed"--with a +glance from the clouding window over the storm-swept parade--"I repeat, +there will be no going anywhere for anybody just now. Has--has she--told +you anything, as yet?" + +Mrs. Sumter was gradually emerging from her winter coat of furs. For a +moment she hesitated, then closed the door leading back to the +dining-room and returned to him as he stood there, warming his hands at +the great parlor stove then indispensable in our frontier homes. His +fine, intellectual face, in its silver-gray fringe of crisp curling +hair, was full of sympathy and interest. It was a face to confide in, +and all Fort Cushing swore by its senior surgeon. "Doctor," said she, +calling him by the title he best loved, "Miriam says she believes it was +all a mere delusion--a dream. She blames herself bitterly and--begs us +to think no more of it--to forgive her, but----" + +"But?" and the kind dark eyes studied the gentle, matronly face. + +"But--oh, why should I attempt to conceal it? You know, and we have +reason to know, she _did_ see some one--some one right there in her +room. Some one who went out like a thief, through the window, and down +the roof to the shed, and away in spite of sentries or--or anybody--some +one who was in there when they so unexpectedly got home. _You_ saw----" + +"Yes, I saw the tracks in the fresh snow on the roof. I could see them +when I came hurrying over," murmured the doctor. + +"Captain Sumter had the snow swept off before reveille. What was the use +of advertising it further? Mr. Barker and Mr. Blake saw it, too. They +hold it was some garrison sneak-thief, looking for jewelry. Yet not so +much as a ring, or a pin, was touched--only her desk." + +"Did _she_ tell of that?" + +"No, Kate was the first to see it. She flew up-stairs when she heard the +scream; found Miriam a senseless heap on the floor, the desk open on the +little table by the window, the contents scattered, the window up, and +somebody bounding and slipping away in the moonlight. Then she heard the +challenge and scuffle outside and thought the guard had him, and gave +her whole attention to Miriam, until Mr. Barker shouted from the lower +hall. Oh, yes, cook and Maggie both declare they were in their room, +but--I believe they were next door at the Snaffles'. I believe the back +door was left open for--whoever it was." + +"And nothing is missing?" + +"Nothing. He was frightened off evidently. But Captain Sumter wished to +have it all kept quiet until he could confer with the detectives in +town. He has a theory of his own." + +She had lowered her voice, and now walked to the hall door, as though +listening for sounds from aloft, whither Kate and Miriam had vanished. + +"Miss Kate has a level head," presently spoke Larrabee. "What does _she_ +say?" + +"Doctor, that is what troubles me! Kate won't say--anything. It's the +first time she ever kept a secret from me." And now tears of genuine +distress were welling in Mrs. Sumter's eyes. + +It was half after two, and the wind was shrieking through the open space +back of the line, when Doctor Larrabee, bending almost double, managed +to fight his way homeward. Schuchardt, occupant of the adjoining set to +his own, had not yet returned. At Sumter's gate the senior surgeon +encountered the corporal-of-the-guard, nearly blind and well nigh +exhausted. He had been sent round to relieve the men on post and bid +them make the best of their way to the guard-room. He was even then +searching for Number Five, who had most justifiably, in fact, +involuntarily, taken refuge as previously explained. Had he not been +blown into the Snaffles' kitchen, he might, like Barker's cow, have been +blown away. + +"You will probably find Doctor Schuchardt at Lieutenant Lanier's +quarters," shouted Larrabee at the corporal, with kindly intent. "Take +Number Five in there and get thawed out. Tell him I think a nip of +whiskey advisable under the circumstances." + +And thus it happened that two storm-beaten soldiers presently shoved +their way through Lanier's back gate and banged at the kitchen door. +Nobody answering, they presently entered, passed through that deserted +apartment, and, hearing voices further on, the corporal ventured into +the dark hallway leading through the little frame house, now fairly +quivering in the blast. Here he caught sight of two officers--big, +powerful men, in fur caps and canvas overcoats, just pushing forth +through the front door into the fierce blast without. One was Doctor +Schuchardt, the other Lieutenant Ennis, joint occupant with Lanier of +the tiny premises. As Corporal Cassidy later expressed it, he felt "like +I'd lost a bulging pot on an ace full." He couldn't run after and beg +them to come back, yet he and his comrades were stiff from cold and +almost breathless from exhaustion. Suddenly Number Five's carbine +slipped from his frozen glove and fell with a crash on the kitchen +floor. The next instant the voice of Lieutenant Lanier was heard. + +"Who the devil's that?" + +"Corporal Cassidy, sir. The post surgeon told me to bring Number Five +in here and thaw him out. We'd find Doctor Schuchardt. But the doctor's +just gone, sir, and----" + +But by this time Mr. Lanier himself appeared in the hall, his feet in +warm woollen slippers, his hands in bandages. "Well, I should say! Come +right in here, you two. Pull off your gloves and get out of those caps +and things. Man alive"--this to Number Five--"why didn't you come +before? This is no time to stand on ceremony--or stay on post, either. +My striker's stormbound somewhere. I'd help you if I could, but I can't. +Help yourselves now, best you can; rub and kick all you want to; _dance_ +if it'll warm you." And all the time he was crowding them up about a +roaring stove, where presently he made them sit while he bustled about +at a buffet in the adjoining room. "You'll have to help me, corporal," +presently he cried. "One hand can't mix and pour and lift. There's +sugar; there's hot water on the stove; there's glasses and here's +whiskey. Mix it hot, and down with it!" + +And so hospitably and heartily, after the manner of old frontier days +and men, the young officer administered to his humbler comrades; +cheered, and warmed, and insisted on their eating with their second +tumbler, and when in course of half an hour the two stood before him, +glowing, grateful, and resuming their buffalo coats and fur caps and +gloves, honest Cassidy tried to say his say: + +"'D' Troop's fellers never can brag enough about their lieutenant, sir, +and though we don't belong to 'D' Troop, it hasn't taken this to tell us +why. If ever the time comes when me or Quinlan here can do the +lieutenant a good turn he'll--he'll know it." + +After which they were gone, rejoicing in their new-found strength, yet +reaching the nearest barracks only after severe struggle, and, later +still, the crowded, suffocating guard-room,--where now some thirty men +were huddled in a space intended for twenty at most--where Cassidy and +Number Five were speedily telling to eager, appreciative ears their +unusual and rejoiceful experience. + +"Well, ain't he the dandy lieutenant, though?" queried Casey, of "F" +Troop. "And did he give you yer new cap, too, Quinlan? Sure the wan you +marched on wid had the mange!" + +Cassidy snatched it from his comrade's head. "Mother av Moses! If he +hasn't lifted the lieutenant's----" But he broke off short. One glance +he had given the band within. A sudden cloud swept over his face. There +was an instant of indecision, then he whipped his own cap from his head +and thrust it on Quinlan. + +"I'm a liar," said he; "it's me own he's had." + +"Then you wear two sizes, Jim Cassidy, an' both different." Quinlan had +pulled the headpiece down, and was staring in at the soft lining. +"What's this?" he began, when the corporal's fingers closed like a vise +on his arm. + +"Shut up, Quinlan. The whiskey's gone to yer noddle. Come here!" And +Cassidy led him, wondering, to the barred corridor without and slammed +the door behind them. "Not a word do you whisper of this to any man, Pat +Quinlan," said he, never relaxing his grasp. "You heard what that +Cockney Fitzroy was swearin' to this morning? Sure--you'd never say the +word to back that whelp--an' harm the lieutenant!" + + + + +VI + + +"God helps those who help themselves," quoth Lieutenant Blake, on +hearing of the incident at Lanier's quarters, "but God help those who +help other fellows, unless 'the Old Man' likes it." Blake was but a +"casual" at Fort Cushing at the moment, summoned thither as a witness +before a general court-martial then in session, but there was nothing +casual in his friendship for Bob Lanier. Two years' campaigning in +Arizona and one in Wyoming had made these subalterns fast friends, +despite the difference of ten years in their ages and nearly twenty +"files" in rank, Blake being one of the senior and Lanier one of the +junior lieutenants of the regiment. Blake was no pet of the post +commander. Blake had a way of saying satirical things of seniors whom +he did not fancy, and Button was one of these. Blake should have +returned to his proper station the day after the dance, but, like +everybody else, so far as heard from, he had been held by the storm, and +therefore happened to be in the club-room at the store along toward +eleven o'clock on Tuesday, watching the distant deployment over the +southeastward slopes of the barren upland. Fully half the mounted force +of the garrison was on search for the paymaster's "outfit," and with +Blake stood half a dozen infantry officers and two or three of the --th. +To them, on his way to rejoin his searching troop, had entered big Jim +Ennis, Lanier's chum and classmate, and Ennis looked the picture of +smothered wrath. Half an hour previous he had been seen trotting up from +stables to the adjutant's office, summoned thither by the orderly of the +commanding officer. A few minutes later that same hard-worked orderly +had been seen sprinting to the surgeon's quarters, and Doctor Larrabee, +wrapped in furs and meditation, obeyed the summons, stood in the +presence of an irate commander not more than fifty seconds, came forth +wrapped in gloom, and took the short cut back of the major's house to +his own bailiwick at the hospital. + +About the only officer not to put in an appearance that morning out of +doors, afoot, in saddle, or adrift in snow, was Lieutenant Lanier. About +the first officer Button wished to see was Bob, and about the last was +Blake. Yet such was the freakishness of Fate that the first man to hail +him, with ill-timed jocularity, was Blake, and the last of his officers +whom he was destined that day to set eyes on was Bob Lanier, whom +Schuchardt, in answer to the commander's summons, had earlier declared +unfit to leave his quarters. + +If it had not been for the startling announcement about the paymaster, +Colonel Button would have fought that matter out with the doctor then +and there. First, however, he had to send forth his mounted men by +scores in search of the missing officer and party. This done, he had +once more summoned Schuchardt. Then he sent for Ennis, and had what they +termed a "red hot row." + +In his exasperated frame of mind, Button had been ready to believe +almost any story at the expense of Lanier, and, such is the perversity +of human nature, it added to rather than diminished his wrath that his +revered senior surgeon should promptly corroborate the statements of +both Schuchardt and Ennis, and further assume personal and entire +responsibility for the episode of Saturday afternoon in Lanier's +quarters. That episode had started many a tongue, and one of Button's +henchmen, thinking to win favor at the fountain-head by mention of new +iniquity on the part of the culprit, had deftly enlarged upon it. +Snaffle, of course, was the fellow at fault, and he justified it on the +plea that Lanier was demoralizing two men of his troop. The story he +told was that Lanier had been carousing at his quarters with certain +enlisted members of the guard. When told of it Button was furious, so +much so that for the time he forgot about Sumter and the ladies of the +Sumter household, and the north dormer window of Sumter's quarters, +reported "stove in by the storm." + +Nor had Sumter himself much time for domestic duties before the order +came for him and his troop to turn out to aid in the search. He found +the family fairly tranquil under the circumstances. He had sent a +messenger galloping out from town, to assure his wife of his safety, +when Tuesday's dawn showed the storm sufficiently abated. A devious +course the rider took, for the road was blocked in a dozen places, and +every ravine and hollow was packed to the brim with snow. But he bore +glad tidings and banished all anxiety on account of the husband and +father. Their anxieties now were mainly for Miriam, their guest. + +Mrs. Sumter had not half finished what she had to say concerning Miriam +when the summons came that called the captain forth to join the +searching squadron, but he had heard enough to increase the anxiety in +his fine, soldierly face. He went up with Mrs. Sumter and looked +critically over the damage to the window, in what had been Miriam's +room. She had moved, per force, to the front--to Katherine's--room +Saturday night, for toward sunset the storm-sash was torn out of the +north dormer, and the window blew in with a crash. By dark the room was +bank full of snow that Sergeant Kennedy and a brace of loyal troopers +had been shovelling out since seven that Tuesday morning, without making +any great addition to the huge drifts at the back. Front, flank, and +rear, most of the houses along the line were packed solidly to the +attic windows. On several the boys and girls were already coasting from +the peak of the roof down over the back yards, sheds, and fences and out +toward Larrabee's half-submerged hospital. + +It was easy to see how and why the storm-sash had failed to withstand +the buffeting. In his frantic haste and panicky flight the intruder of +Friday night had wrenched a hinge from its fastening. The sash had +sagged at the windward end, and the rest was easy for rude Boreas. + +"That sash is probably somewhere down in the back yard, sergeant," +Sumter quietly remarked to faithful Kennedy. "It's under fifteen feet of +snow, but when it comes to tunnelling, look after it, see that it isn't +injured, and call me as soon as you find it." + +Mrs. Sumter looked quickly at her lord. She well knew the reason of his +instructions. + +"Did you show that scrap of lining?" she asked, a moment later, as they +stood alone before the parlor fire. + +"They have it," was the answer. "I expect two of them out any moment." + +And then had come the sudden summons to turn out, and with only brief +greeting to his daughter, and a hurried kiss and caress, Captain Sumter +had mounted and spurred away. + +It must have been after twelve, for orderly call and mess had sounded in +front of the adjutant's office, when one of the hospital attendants came +floundering up the row from Lanier's, and made his way to Sumter's door, +a little note in his hand. He would wait, he said, for an answer, and +the maid bade him step inside while she ran up-stairs. Mrs. Sumter +answered her knock at the door of Miss Kate's room, into which the +damsels were now doubled. To the disappointment of that somewhat +volatile domestic, Mrs. Sumter closed the portal before proceeding to +open the missive, but her announcement, "From Mr. Lanier," caused Miriam +Arnold to sit bolt upright. + + + DEAR MRS. SUMTER [it read]: + + I've been living since Saturday mainly on your kindness and that + delicious fruit. It was more than good of you to take such care of + your incarcerated sub, and I'm ashamed to have sent no earlier + thanks, but we've been banked in until this morning, and that + rascal striker of ours is missing. He hasn't been about the house + since Friday night. Like Barker's cow, he may have blown away. I + reckon they'll find him, her, and the paymaster's outfit snowed + under somewhere down toward Nebraska, safe, but possibly starving. + Schuchardt has gone with the command, so has Ennis, and I'm all + alone with nothing to read. If you have anything moral, + instructive, and guaranteed to soften the unrepentant sinner's + heart--something I could read with profit as well as + pleasure--_don't_ send it, but tell me how you all stood the storm + and how you are. It is so hard to get anything but admonition out + of "Shoe," and "Dad" is now more unreliable than ever. + + I hope Miss Arnold is entirely recovered. + Yours most sincerely, + R. R. LANIER. + + +"The last thing a man mentions in a note is the first thing he wants +answered," said Mrs. Sumter sagely. "What shall I tell him for you, +Miriam?" + +"Tell _me_ what is to be done to _him_," was the sole reply, as the girl +settled back dejectedly upon the pillows. + +"I've tried to, child," answered her hostess kindly, patiently. "There +isn't a court in the army that would sentence him to more than a brief +confinement to limits, and reprimand." Yet Mrs. Sumter spoke with much +less confidence than on Saturday. Had not her husband _had_ to tell her +his application for leave was withdrawn, and why? Had not Doctor +Larrabee admitted to her that the colonel spoke of misdeeds far more +serious for which Lanier must suffer? Was there not, indeed, a story in +circulation, mainly in the Snaffle set, of a two-days escapade when the +regiment camped near Frayne, and then a financial transaction in which +Lanier had been involved--something growing out of an affair up on the +Yellowstone--something including that young civilian friend of his, the +collegian turned cowboy--Mr. Watson Lowndes? + +Even as she strove to assure Miss Arnold, for the twentieth time, that a +military arrest was far more portentious in sound than in effect, +something in Kate's determined silence and Miriam's insistence added to +the effect of these rumors. Could it be that the boy had confided to the +daughter, hitherto his stanch friend and ally, that which he dare not +confide to her, his captain's wife? Could this account for the fact +that, though it was impossible to conceal his love for Miriam, he never +yet had owned it to her--to her to whom it was now obvious that the +avowal would mean so much--so very much? + +Then another thing weighed heavily upon the brave heart of this loving +friend and mother. Never had she known her child to be so silent, so +strange, as now. Ever since Friday night she seemed to avoid all mention +of the affair, to shrink from the subject--she who had ever been +frankness itself--she who had never had a thought the mother did not +share. She had become fitful and nervous. She seemed oppressed with some +secret. In the long hours of their enforced confinement, with the lamps +burning on the ground-floor by day as well as by night, Mrs. Sumter had +pondered much over the result of her husband's investigations. Although +Miriam's desk was open and its contents lay scattered on the table, +nothing was missing, even to the packet of ten-and twenty-dollar +"greenbacks" in its secret drawer. If robbery had been the object of the +intruder, he had neglected his opportunity, or else been frightened off +in time. If robbery was not his object, then what could it have been? +The house was deserted at the moment of his entrance, that was now +settled, for first the cook and then "Maggie" had owned to having run +over to Mrs. Snaffle's kitchen for a moment, and the probability was, +they stayed the best part of the evening. The lights had been left +turned low in the upper and lower halls, in the kitchen and the +captain's den. Army doors were seldom locked or bolted. Any one could +enter, front or rear. A marauder, if such he was in this instance, might +have been there from tattoo at 9.30 until discovered some two hours +later, and been there undisturbed. + +But why should the situation so strangely affect her daughter? Could it +be that she, too, cared for Bob Lanier? The thought for the moment made +the mother's heart stand still. + +She was writing her reply to his note, when Maggie again appeared. "Two +gentlemen to see the captain, mum," and Mrs. Sumter hurriedly closed the +note and went below-stairs to meet them. She knew well who they were and +why they had come. A branch office of the Rocky Mountain Detective +Agency had been maintained long months at the great and growing railway +station. They had been summoned by her husband, and that was enough. + +Yet she shrank from meeting them, shrank from the thought of the +questioning that must ensue. They might ask to speak with Kate, even +with Miriam, but they did not. They asked to be shown the room, with the +storm-battered dormer, by this time emptied of its load of snow. They +asked to see Miriam's desk. Yes, the lock had been forced and by a big +knife. They begged that Mrs. Sumter would not mention that to any one +but the captain yet awhile. They were confident he would soon return. +They smiled at the idea of the paymaster being held up and robbed in +broad daylight by any gang in their neighborhood. They admitted that +many questionable characters were in town--there always _were_ toward +the holidays, and just now, of course, the town was overcrowded--three +big trains still stranded there. + +While they were yet at their work, there came sounds of stamping feet at +the front door, and in came Sumter, stiff from cold, but brimful of +energy. + +"Found Scott and his clerk, at least," he cried. "'Most dead and half +frozen! The driver's gone, I fear. He was blown or pitched off. The +mules ran away before the gale. Those inside the ambulance were +helpless. Two dropped off behind and are lost. The thing finally +capsized and went to pieces, and they managed to reach a little cattle +shack, two miles south of town. They've found Lanier's striker, +too--what's left of him." + +By this time Kate had come down-stairs, and with pallid face was +listening dumbly to her father's words. She seemed hardly to heed the +presence of the strangers. Not until the captain had emerged from his +furs and stood robust and ruddy, yet a little short of breath, did she +lay her hand upon his arm and ask her question. + +"Have they found Rawdon?" + +"Rawdon? No, not a sign of him anywhere!" + +"Is that the young fellow that those sergeants have been hunting for?" +asked one of the detectives. "We managed to find out about him. He was +in town early as three o'clock Friday, and he left on Number Six that +night." + +"Do you mean to tell me," said Sumter, gazing blankly at the speaker, +"that he wasn't out here when--this--happened?" + +"Not unless he had wings! That train leaves at 11.40." Whereupon Kate +Sumter slowly withdrew her hand, then turned away. + + + + +VII + + +Another day went by. Major Scott and his clerk, under Larrabee's skilful +touch, were gradually regaining strength and beginning to answer +questions. At first their senses seemed dulled, as though they could not +shake off the frost that benumbed them. At first they could tell little +of the cause of the mishap. The ambulance was curtained in, even at the +rear, through which the two scared troopers had managed to slip to their +doom. Not until the snows melted in the spring, and the contents of the +ravines should be revealed, was it likely they would be heard of again. +The railway was still blocked. The wires were still down. Fort Cushing +stood isolated from the outer world, and no less than five of its +garrison were absent and unaccounted for: the two men detailed to drive +in with the paymaster, two bacchanalians who, being in town when the +storm broke, had dared each other to face the gale and tramp out, and +finally a young trooper named Cary, who had arrived with the same +recruit squad that brought them Rawdon, and had been on terms of +friendship, if not indeed of intimacy, with him. They had been together +that very Friday afternoon. In addition, whereabouts unknown, was +Sergeant Fitzroy, of Snaffle's Troop. "Absent with leave," said the +morning report. "Acting under the verbal instructions of the commanding +officer," said his captain. + +Along toward dusk on Tuesday, others of the searching squadron, sent +afar down the valley, had come back, reporting that the ambulance mules +were found, huddled together, half starved and still half harnessed, in +a log shack or shelter to which their instinct had guided them after +their heels had made chopsticks of the running gear. The ambulance body +was snowed under somewhere and nowhere in sight. The driver, a civilian +employed in the Quartermaster's Department, had totally disappeared. +Scott, the paymaster; Thomas, his clerk; and Rafferty, Lanier's soldier +servant, or "striker" as then called, were still half dazed--Rafferty, +indeed, so much dazed that no coherent words had yet escaped him. + +One more unfortunate, the driver of Foster's sleigh, was in trouble. Not +until two hours after the dance had he turned up with the missing +equipage, a cock-and-bull story, and a case of what the corporal called +"jag." He swore that, having got chilled through, waiting, he just +thought to get one hot whiskey at the store. Sentry Number Six said he'd +mind the team while the driver went in, and the next thing he knew +"they'd run'd away, hell for leather," and he, their driver, had to +follow two miles to Flint's Ranch, close to town, where he "might have +taken a nip or two more." It was his first offense and Foster forgave. +It should be remarked, however, that Number Six declared that it was not +he with whom the driver left the sleigh, but two "fellers," _i.e._, +troopers, who happened to be near the store. However, that did not seem +much to matter at the time. + +And Fort Cushing was in unhappy frame of mind. Colonel Button was in +most inhospitable mood, and chafing because he could not communicate +with the general commanding the department. Mrs. Button was confined to +the house and denied to all but one or two intimates. Bob Lanier was +still in close arrest. No man could say what might be the result, for +Barker, the adjutant, declared he knew no more than they. "The Old Man +had something up his sleeve"--several somethings--against him, but was +confiding in no one, for he and Stannard were at odds over the matter; +he and Sumter were practically estranged because of it, and for the +first time in regimental history Button seemed to be giving all his +attention to Snaffle and men of his stamp and set. They were not more +than three or four in number. They had been rather tolerated than sought +in the past, but now the colonel seemed to have use for them alone. + +And there was sorrow and estrangement at Sumter's. Never before, as Mrs. +Sumter declared, had Katherine ever had a secret from her mother. Now +there was a matter upon which it seemed she could not talk. Moreover, +Miriam Arnold was affected in precisely the same way. She shrank from +all mention of that mysterious affair of Friday night. Not only were +they unable to speak of it to Mrs. Sumter; they avoided it among +themselves. + +It was now Wednesday, and there had been a procession of callers to +inquire for Miss Arnold. The girls felt that they _must_ dress and come +down and face them. "Are you sure you feel equal to it, Miriam?" was +Mrs. Sumter's anxious question. + +"I am sure I do _not_," was the weary answer, "but all the same I must." + +And, being a girl of pluck, and much ashamed of the breakdown of Friday +and Saturday, Miss Arnold made her effort, and did remarkably well so +long as people refrained from prodding her about her "strange +adventure," the alleged details of which, in exaggerated form, were +garrison property by this time. There could be no doubt, said nine out +of ten of the soldiery, it was the work of some sneak-thief in uniform, +in all probability that young swell Rawdon, who was gone. But among a +certain select few still another theory obtained, and Wednesday night +when Sergeant Fitzroy returned to the post and asked to see the colonel, +that officer, who was at dinner, sent answer that he would be at the +office at eight o'clock, and further sent word to Captain Snaffle to be +there at the same hour. + +A spell of sharp cold had followed the blizzard. The skies were dazzling +at night with the radiance and sparkle of the stars. The young people of +the garrison were out in force, rejoicing in the snow sports, the +moonlight, the exhilarating air. The men had made some famous slides +over at the bluffs, and the children along the officers' lines were +playing hide and seek, about the drifts and tunnels at the northward end +of the parade. They gathered in force about the office to cheer the +colonel as he came forth from a long conference, which left him so +absorbed he hardly noticed their gleeful salute. They pelted two prime +favorites who followed, with drooping head and woebegone visage, and +never once responded to the fun, and the youngsters asked one another +what on earth could have happened to Cassidy and Quinlan, who were +always so ready to frolic with them. + +Then Captain Sumter had been sent for, and was admitted to a +five-minute talk with the colonel at his quarters, and came away with +grave and troubled face, to a ten-minutes conference with his gentle +wife that left her sorely worried and distressed. + +"Ask Kate," he said, as once more he set forth into the night. "I've got +to tramp and think this over before I do anything further." And at that +moment Kate and Miriam had gone in to talk awhile with Mrs. Stannard. It +was best they should not stay home, subject to incessant interview. + +It was just about quarter of nine. The lights at the office were still +burning, for the colonel had intimated that he might be back. Barker was +bending over some of the post papers and reports at his desk, and +wondering why on earth the colonel should be colloguing with Snaffle, +Crane, Sergeant Fitzroy, and sending for Cassidy and Quinlan. That was a +queer "outfit" of Snaffle's at best. It seemed odd that the most +pronounced "Britisher" in barracks, outside of the band, should be a +sergeant in the troop commanded by the nearest thing to an Irishman +among the captains. True, Fitzroy as stable sergeant was quite +independent, and, being very ambitious and zealous, had attracted the +attention of other captains, to wit, Canker and Curbit, rival troop +leaders, who each, at one time or other, had offered to make Fitzroy +first sergeant if he would transfer; but Fitzroy preferred to stay where +he was in "C," and it was easier to suggest than it was to assert the +real reason. + +Barker was busy with these reflections when the colonel once more +entered and began pacing moodily up and down the room. The adjutant +rose, but at a signal resumed his seat and waited. He was, as he +whimsically described himself, "a relic of the previous administration." +In those days officers might serve long years on the staff and never +know an hour of company duty. Barker had been in the adjutant's office +under three different regimental commanders, and, as etiquette required, +had tendered his resignation to Button on that officer's promotion to +the colonelcy. Button as promptly and courteously replied that he hoped +Lieutenant Barker would consent to serve as right-hand man until he +reached his captaincy, which could not be very far off. But already +Button was repenting. "Barker is too much wedded to the old order of +things," said he. "Barker has his likes and dislikes" (a weakness the +colonel denied to himself), "and Barker's a little inclined to imagine +that nobody can run a regiment as Atherton did"--for which, at last, +there was this much foundation, that Barker thought, if he did not say, +that Atherton ran it much better than Button ever could hope to, and +Button instinctively knew and infinitely resented it. It must be owned +of Button that he hated the mere mention of his predecessor's name, +methods, and opinions. It was unlucky indeed, perhaps, that the views +of one of the former colonels had been recorded in black and white as +follows: + +"In my opinion Lieutenant Lanier is one of the finest young officers in +the Cavalry." + +Full fifteen minutes the colonel went striding up and down the long +apartment used for office, assembly, and school-room. Once in a while he +would turn across the hall and into Barker's smaller room, pause as +though half minded to speak, then turn out again. Twice he went to the +door, looking over across the glistening heaps and drifts, and letting +in a lot of cold air. Twice he muttered something about its taking +Snaffle and his sergeant an unusually long time to do a simple thing, +and at last, as the trumpeters were heard, with much stamping of feet +and blowing of hands, gathering for the old-time nightly "walk around" +that preceded tattoo roll-call, Button abruptly turned on his adjutant +and said: + +"Barker, how long have you known Mr. Lanier?" + +"Ever since he joined, sir." + +"And you knew him in his cadet days?" + +"As an instructor knows a cadet, yes, sir." + +"And you told me you never heard of his writing to newspapers?" + +"Never, sir," answered Barker, rising from his chair and facing his +commander. "And I repeat that I believe it impossible for him to have +had anything to do with those--inflammatory articles about the +campaign." + +"You consider him absolutely square--above a lie--or a trick of any +kind?" + +Barker faltered just one minute. What did the colonel mean by a trick? +Mischief there had been, once or twice. Tricks had been played, and one +only this last summer during the campaign--a trick, too, that if truth +were told, Lanier should have known about. At least, it had been played +for his benefit, and had "pulled the wool" over the colonel's eyes. + +"I consider him as square a man as I know, and utterly above a lie--of +any kind," was the final answer. + +"And yet you hesitate. You know, or have heard--rumors," said Button +suspiciously. + +"I have heard rumors and slanders, Colonel Button," was Barker's +probably injudicious reply, for he closed with "and so many of them that +I disbelieve nine out of ten." + +"Well, here!" said Button impulsively, "here are you and Stannard and +Sumter--three of the 'old liners,' as you are called in your respective +grades--and I see plainly enough you three, and God knows how many more, +are tacitly condemning my attitude toward Lanier. You think, if you +don't say, that I have treated him with harshness and injustice--have +listened solely to his accusers and enemies. Now, I've had enough of +this! There is nothing that _requires_ a commander to show his hand to +his subordinates, but as matters stand in this regiment--Oh, come in, +Major Stannard. I sent for you purposely, and Sumter as well, to meet me +here at tattoo." (And at the moment, as the united force of field +musicians began the stirring strains of the old cavalry "curfew call," +"The March of the Bear," the two seniors solemnly entered the presence, +removing their fur caps as they bowed to the commander.) "As I was +saying to Barker, as matters stand in this regiment, some half a dozen +at least of the men referred to as its 'representative officers' are +apparently resentful of my arrest of Lieutenant Lanier, and attribute my +course to pique, because he saw fit to show himself at the hop I +declined to permit him as officer-of-the-guard to attend. You think, +possibly, that because men like Captain Snaffle, Lieutenant Crane, and +one or two of that set have been in consultation with me, the matters at +issue are beneath your notice." (Here the three assailed officers +exchanged glances, but said not a word in protest, for the colonel went +impulsively on.) "They at least are loyal to their commander, and to the +best interests of the regiment. Now I mean to show you. Mr. Barker," +said he impressively, "go to Lieutenant Lanier and say that I desire his +presence here at once." + +And Barker took his cap and cape and departure without a word. + +Down the line in the moonlight the snow heaps were sparkling as though +crusted with brilliants. The black square of the field music was +trudging out across an acre of the parade swept clean by the recent +gale. The children, in laughing little groups, were returning from their +hour at the slide, and here and there from the deep cut or tunnel in +front of each officer's doorway dark muffled figures were emerging, and +striding away toward the barracks--subalterns en route to the companies +to supervise roll-call. + +Just as Barker neared Stannard's, at the head of the row, two cloaked +and hooded forms hurried forth, and Barker almost collided with them. + +"Oh, good evening, Miss Kate! Good evening, Miss Arnold!" was his +embarrassed greeting. Then, with attempt at jocularity for which he +later could have kicked himself: "I'm just in time to see you home, and +head off hobgoblins and hoboes." No wonder the two walked the faster and +gave but perfunctory replies. + +"Indeed, I beg pardon," he blundered on. "I'm just bound for Lanier's. +Any message?" + +"You might say we wish him speedy deliverance," answered Kate Sumter, +with unlooked-for spirit and effect, for the adjutant, in dismay at his +own awkwardness, darted swiftly ahead, shouting, "Hold on, Steve!" to an +officer with whom he would rather not have wasted a moment's time. + +Indeed, poor Barker was sore distressed. He could not help hearing +scraps of the talk that had passed at the office between the colonel, +Snaffle, Crane, and certain summoned enlisted men, Fitzroy, Cassidy, and +Quinlan among them. Even that poor devil who had been on duty Friday +night as sentry on Number Five had been marched into the awful presence +of the commanding officer, and ordered to tell who gave him the whiskey +that had been his undoing--even promising immunity from punishment; but +he was Irish and true to his faith and his friends, even they who had +betrayed him, and he'd die first, he said. Never would he "sphlit on the +best feller in the foort." + +And Barker had heard many things that pointed to Lanier--so many that +his heart seemed to stop as he entered the door, and sank at sight of +the trouble in the face of the young soldier sitting there in conference +with Ennis and Doctor Schuchardt. + +Silently Lanier heard the summons. There was no reason why he should +not go, said the doctor. "The air will do you good," he added, "and +we'll be here when you come back." + +Five minutes sufficed to reset the bandages and get him into his furs. +Ten minutes more and, for the first time since Friday evening, the +accused officer stood in the presence of his colonel, with three tried +and trusted comrades near to see him through. + +"Mr. Lanier," said Button presently, "I have sent for you in deference +to the sentiment in your behalf, entertained by officers of such +standing in the army as these gentlemen who are here present. I am free +to say that I have had grave reasons for forming a most unfavorable +opinion of your conduct, even of your character. It has been my +intention to forward charges of a serious nature against you, and to +urge your trial by general court-martial. But such is my regard for +these gentlemen, and the element they represent, that I stand ready to +abandon my views and adopt theirs on your simple word. Can I say more?" + +There was a moment of silence. Then Lanier spoke: "It depends, sir, I +think, upon what you wish me to answer." + +Button colored. Turning to his desk, he took from an envelope several +newspaper clippings. "You know what these are, doubtless, Mr. Lanier. Do +you care to say what part you took in their preparation?" + +"I am glad to say I took no part," was the answer. + +"No part at all? And you do not even know the author?" + +Lanier's dark eyes never swerved from their gaze. "I took no part, sir. +I did not say--I do not wish to say--that I do not know the author," was +the calm reply. + +"Then you admit, or permit me to infer, that you know him--a member of +this command, for no one else knew the facts--and, moreover, that you +shield him?" + +"I am shielding no man, Colonel Button. I would not shield a member of +this command who wrote such wrong of it." + +"Yet you know the author and you will not tell?" + +"What little I know came in such a way that I _cannot_ tell," was the +resolute answer. Button's forehead furrowed deep and his voice trembled +with anger. + +"Enough said--or refused to be said--on that head. We will go to the +next. Who personated you the night you left your troop at Laramie and +went, contrary to orders, to that frolic at the post?" + +A look of amaze came into the young officer's face. The answer came +slowly, painfully: + +"I took part in no frolic, sir. I went contrary to an order that had +held good while we were out on the campaign, but that we did not suppose +was binding there. I went to the post that night to help a fr--a man +who--who needed money for an immediate journey. No one personated me to +my knowledge." + +"I have the written report of the officer-of-the-day, whom I ordered to +inspect your tent, that you were there asleep at eleven P.M. +Subsequently I learned that you were away from taps until nearly +reveille." + +"You could have heard that from me, sir, and _why_ I was gone, if need +be." And now it was plain that Mr. Lanier was growing angry. This was a +point gained by the colonel. He tried for another. + +"Officers who make comrades and intimates of enlisted men take chances +that----" + +"Colonel Button!" interposed Lanier, hotly, "I protest----" + +"Protest you may, but listen you shall," was the instant rejoinder. "It +is well known you interfered with a non-commissioned officer in the +proper discharge of his duty. That was last June, and it was in behalf +of that young man Rawdon. It is well known that you were hobnobbing +with other enlisted men here, and gave them drink and food in your +quarters on more than one occasion. It is well known you lent civilian +clothing to your protege for his latest escapade----" + +"Colonel Button--gentlemen!" cried Lanier, "this is beyond all right!" +Indeed, Stannard and Sumter were on their feet, in expostulation, but +the colonel's blood was up. Bang went his bell, and the orderly fairly +jumped into the room. + +"Call Sergeant Fitzroy," said he, and in another moment Fitzroy stood +before them, a civilian coat and waistcoat hanging on his arm. + +"Briefly now, sergeant, where did you get those?" demanded Button. + +"From the room that Trooper Rawdon occupied in town, sir. It's the suit +he wore about town last Friday;" and so saying, he held them forth. +Lanier slowly took the coat, astonishment in his eyes; glanced at the +tag inside the collar, bearing the name of his own New York tailor; for +a moment he searched it within and without, then handed it quietly back. + +"It is enough like mine to deceive anybody but--the owner," said he. + +"Do you mean to tell me----" began Button indignantly. + +"That this is not mine?" interposed Lanier. "Yes, sir, and that one very +like it will be found in my closet at home." + +"Mr. Barker will go with you, and you will resume your confinement--in +arrest;" and Button, in his anger, was lashing himself to language his +hearers never forgot, and that some could hardly, even long months +after, forgive. "In _my_ time, as a young officer, nothing tempted one +of our members to violate an arrest, but you----" + +Pale as death Lanier faced him. + +"Surely, sir, a cry for help--that I thought might mean fire----" + +"There was _no_ cry for help," interrupted the colonel. "There was no +sign of fire. Even if there had been, it should mean nothing to a man +of honor when ordered in arrest. That is the only creed of a gentleman." + +And then, with the lone trumpet of the musician of the guard wailing its +good-night to the garrison--the sweet, solemn strain of "Taps"--the +adjutant led his stunned and silent comrade home. + + + + +VIII + + +Ennis and Schuchardt were still there, and started at sight of Lanier's +white face. Without a word he led on to an inner room, where Ennis +sprang to his side. "Help me off with these," he said, "and bring a +lamp. Come up-stairs, Barker;" and, wondering, both the others followed. +There were but two sleeping rooms aloft in the little bachelor set. +Ennis had the one facing the parade. Lanier's looked out upon the +hospital and surgeon's quarters at the back. Into this room marched Bob +Lanier and threw open the door of the single closet wherein was hanging +uniform and civilian garb in some profusion. Ennis held the lamp on +high, and with his free hand Lanier began throwing out the contents--a +new uniform dress coat, an older one that had done duty for the three +previous years, two sack coats or "blouses," the police officers' +overcoat of the day, several pairs of blue trousers, with the broad +stripe of the cavalry, and these as they came were flung on the bed by +Barker and "Shoe." Then appeared a suit of evening clothes, carefully +handled. Then a brown business suit of tweeds, then a light drab +overcoat, and then the closet was well nigh empty, and Lanier faced them +with the simple words: "It's gone!" + +"What's gone?" demanded Ennis. + +"Why, that dark gray mixture sack suit I brought from leave last year. +It always hung 'way back in here." + +"_Who_ wants it now, I'd like to know?" demanded Ennis. + +"Our colonel, who accuses me of costuming Rawdon for his getaway." And +the three friends looked at each in something like consternation. + +Then Barker spoke: "It's only fair to the colonel to tell the rest, Bob. +Rawdon's box, that he left for safe keeping with a friend in town, had +not only the suit you saw at the office, but a new fur cap with your +name in it. There were other things that looked queer. The day of the +storm Quinlan came over to the guard-house after his visit here, wearing +a new cap instead of his old one, and Cassidy swooped on it, thinking it +yours, for it was here he got it, and the name in that cap was Rawdon. +It leaked out somehow. Fitzroy hunted the story down." + +"The name was burnt out when Cassidy brought it back to me," said Lanier +slowly. "He claimed that in lighting his pipe----" + +"Poor Cassidy lied every way he could think of to save you," said Barker +ruefully. "It's the young cad you befriended and helped along that's +tricked you in the end, and you're not the only man, I'm afraid." + +"Roped Rafferty in, I suppose," said Schuchardt, while a light of +superior wisdom stole slowly over the face of Lieutenant Ennis. + +"Rafferty, doubtless, to the extent of bribing or wheedling him out of +Bob's new cits----" + +"But those were _not_ mine that Fitzroy had!" burst in Lanier. + +"Of course not. He's left you a worn suit in place of the new. Where'd +he steal that one, I wonder? There isn't another officer of your size +and build at the post. But, here, I've got to go back and report, and my +report will be in these words: 'Mr. Lanier has been robbed, too,'" and +Barker made for the stairs. + +"One moment," called Ennis. "You said Bob wasn't the only man this +fellow had tricked. Do you mean----" he paused suggestively. + +"I mean, yes--that there's more than one man, and there's at least one +poor girl in the garrison to mourn that fellow's loss, and be d---- to +him!" and with that Barker was gone. + +Button listened to his adjutant's report with something almost like a +sneer. Stannard and Sumter heard it with grave faces, but without a +word. Snaffle, who had drifted in, sniggered with obvious triumph. + +"Gentlemen," said the colonel, "you have not heard the half of what I +know, and every day brings something new. This comes in from Laramie +to-day, brought with the mail that lay over at the Chugwater during the +storm. Read that, Stannard." And Stannard took the paper and glanced +over it, blinked his eyes, sniffed, and said: "I've heard about that +case, and I'll take Lanier's story any day against--that fellow's +affidavit." + +"Major Stannard," said Button severely, "you are speaking contemptuously +of your superior officer." + +"Colonel Button," answered Stannard, with high held head, but with firm +hand on his temper, "I am speaking contemptuously of my superior +officer's _informant_, not of the commanding officer of Fort Laramie. If +you care to look you will see that he quotes, not asserts, that 'this +money was advanced to Mr. Lowndes on Mr. Lanier's statement that the +young man was summoned home by the serious illness of his mother, and +that he, Mr. Lanier, would be responsible for the transaction. Mr. +Lowndes has never repaid it, and Mr. Lanier when appealed to four weeks +since not only refused to make it good, but abused and cursed me for +simply asking for what was my own.' Now, sir," concluded Stannard, "I +haven't sought to learn the facts in the case, but I'll bet ten dollars +to ten cents you have yet to hear them." + +"Very good, gentlemen," answered Button, rising in obvious chagrin. "It +is quite evident in your opinion Mr. Lanier is a persecuted saint and I +am an abandoned sinner, but just as soon as I can reach Omaha this case +shall be laid before a general court-martial, and meanwhile I waste no +more words defending my actions." + +Whereupon, with formal "Good-night, sir," from Stannard and Sumter, and +a grumpy dismissal from the indignant commander, the ill-starred +conference broke up. Snaffle, pouring balm into Button's ready ear, as +he saw him home, went in and drank his health at the well-stocked +sideboard, and then started straightway across the parade to his troop +quarters, and, late as it was, called for his first sergeant. + +The men were mostly in bed, as they should be at such an hour, but there +had been an informal dance, and many of the sergeants were still at the +hop room. Beyond this brightly lighted building, and about in the rear +of the infantry barracks at the westward end, was the slide into the +creek valley, whereat so many of the officers' children had been +coasting early in the evening, and where now--nearly eleven +o'clock--half a hundred young people of both sexes, wives and daughters +of quartermaster's employees and of the elder sergeants, attended by +their gallants from the garrison, were having a merry time of it. The +moon shone in brilliance. The night air, frosty and still, was full of +exhilaration. The officer-of-the-guard, merely cautioning the revellers +to control their impulse to shout, had gone on his way with implied +permission to keep up the fun, and presently other officers appeared +upon the brow of the bluff, interested observers. One of them, the +junior medical officer of the post, was known to all, for his duty it +was to attend the families of the soldiery resident in the little +village of their own, just west of the quartermaster's corral, and +sheltered by the long line of bluffs from the northerly gale. Deep in +snowdrifts lay the snug little cabins, cottages and shacks, wherein +dwelt these blithe-hearted folk--many of the girls as pretty, and to the +full as coquettish, as their sisters of the official circle in the big +"fort" enclosure above. Still farther to the west lay three little +houses on the level "bench," by the swift-running stream--the homes of +the corral-master, the wagon-master and the veterinarian--civilians all, +as then ordained, yet men who had lived their lives with the army on the +frontier. + +And it was one of these, the veterinary surgeon, a gray-haired man of +nearly sixty, who presently came toiling up the hillside, touched his +fur cap front in salutation to tall Lieutenant Ennis, and begged leave +to speak a moment with Doctor Schuchardt, whom he led slowly away. + +Looking gravely after them and pondering many things in mind, Ennis, +none the less, had attentive ear for the chatter and gossip of a +neighboring group that had suspended their sledding for the moment and +were curiously watching the pair. + +"There's no more the matter wid Dora Mayhew than there is wid me, 'cept +one," said a red-cheeked maid of "laundress row," to the eager group +about her. "She's been daft about that young dude Rawdon ever since he +came last spring to Frayne." + +"Yes, an' deef to Cockney Fitz," laughed another. + +And Ennis, turning quickly, noted the group, four young non-commissioned +officers and three of the garrison girls, all of them toying with the +name of good old Mayhew's bonny daughter, she whom that veteran English +horseman had taught and guarded with such jealous care, to the end that +jealousy burned in the hearts of a dozen other girls less favored in +face or fortune. Well had Ennis known of Sergeant Fitzroy's aspirations. +Few in the regiment had not, and few there were who did not know that, +in spite of Mayhew's avowed dislike for him, the girl had for a time +encouraged. It may have been only to pique the others, for Fitzroy was +clever, well-to-do, a rising man in the service; indeed, one who had +"money in the bank and men in his toils," said elder women in the +quarters. + +Then, in April, to Fort Frayne, had come this handsome young fellow +Rawdon, with better looks, better manners, and even, as it seemed, +better money, for Rawdon was lavish where Fitzroy was "near," and the +favor of the young girl, who had toyed with the Englishman, turned from +him to this unknown. Then the whole command went forth to war and to a +summer of sharp work. Then with the late October, headquarters, band, +and six troops had been transferred from Frayne to Cushing, close in to +civilization. Then had come Fitzroy's new opportunity, with Rawdon left +at Frayne. Then had come Rawdon himself; then the night of mystery; then +the day of the storm, and when the skies above were clear again Rawdon +was gone, no man knew whither, leaving a trail of suspicion, +accusation, and a weeping, well-nigh desperate girl behind. + +And in this web of intrigue and mystery Bob Lanier had become deeply, +even dangerously, involved. Ennis was sorely worried. It was to see +Mayhew the two friends had come, and, lo, Mayhew had met them on the +way, himself in trouble and perplexity. + +"Where did you say she was now?" Ennis heard the doctor ask, as they +rejoined him. + +"She went to speak with Mrs. Stannard, but said ladies were there, so +she came back a while ago. I could hear her crying in her room before +she went the second time;" and poor Mayhew's head was drooping. + +"And you wish me to see her to-night?" + +"If you'd be so good, doctor. She'll soon be home. I was going over in +search of her now." + +"Wait," said Ennis. "Listen!" + +There was a flurry among the revellers a few rods away. Two men had run +toward the corner of the nearest barrack, looming black against the +northward sky. Others could be seen hurrying after them. Then, _could_ +it be? Yes, sharp and clear came the sound of a shot from away over +toward the hospital. Another nearer; another still nearer, and distant +shouts, and then the blare of the trumpet. + +"Come on! It's fire!" said Ennis, and sprang in pursuit of the leaders, +"Shoe," and Mayhew following. "It's fire!" went up the cry along the +hillside. "Fire!" echoed the nearest sentry, letting fly the load in his +rifle. "Fire!" shouted the few wakeful fellows in barracks, tumbling +instantly every man from his bunk to his boots and into his ready +clothes. "Fire!" yelled the sergeant-of-the-guard, as he tore in among +his sleeping comrades. "Fire!" echoed the cry from barrack to barrack, +as the men poured forth into the night, and then, as Ennis rounded the +corner and came in full view of the wide open parade with the long line +of quarters beyond, his heart leaped for his throat in wild dismay. "My +God, lieutenant, it's _your_ house!" panted a racing trooper. "My God, +and Bob's all alone!" sobbed Ennis, as he sped through the snow, for +already from the front dormer and from the lower windows the flames were +mounting high in the trail of a black volume of smoke, and over the +crackle and roar of the fire, the rush and clamor of men, the thrilling +alarum of echoing bugle and trumpet, there rose on the night air the +scream of a girl, imploring instant aid, and this time at least there +could be no doubt, for the cry was, "Save him! Save him!" + +Of the minutes that followed no man could give collected account. All +Ennis saw as he came staggering round to the rear of the flaming furnace +that once was a house, was a wild-eyed girl being led away by a group of +sympathetic women, and a little group of men bundling a slender yet +vigorously protesting form in a snow drift, where one or two others were +being rolled and buffeted; while others still, with a keening Irishman +in their grasp, were lugging him back to hospital; while Corporal +Cassidy, with his hair singed close to his head, his face and hands +seared and his clothing soaked, smoking, and a general wreck, was +striving to evade his handlers and stand attention to the colonel, who +for his part was bending over Bob Lanier just emerging from his third +involuntary plunge in the drifts, and sputtering objurgations on his +would-be benefactors. + +"In God's name, Lanier," almost wailed the colonel, as at last that +young gentleman, likewise singed and scorched and soaked and dripping, +yet preternaturally cool for one just out of a blazing hell, found his +feet and faced his commander--"in God's name, why didn't you jump when +they told you? There was nothing but snowdrifts below----" + +"There was a colonel coming," said Bob, with a grin of mingled anguish +and satisfaction, "who held _that_ sort of thing to be breach of +arrest." + + + + +IX + + +Few men slept the rest of the night for talking over the stirring scenes +of that spectacular fire. Indeed, there had been a strenuous fight to +keep it from spreading, and the Graysons' quarters next door were badly +scorched, and the Graysons woefully scared, before the little bachelor +hall had burned itself out. Big Jim Ennis had lost pretty much +everything he owned except what he had on. Lanier was not much better +off. As to the origin of the fire, Bob merely said that he had turned +the lights low in the sitting-room, and, obedient to "Shoe's" orders, +had gone up to his roost, too wrathful and amazed over what had occurred +even to think of sleep--to think, in fact, of anything but the colonel's +words. So absorbed was he, as he slowly undressed, he never noted the +sounds from below until his room of a sudden seemed filled with smoke, +and, throwing open the door, he was amazed to find the hallway ablaze, +the stairs impassable. Running to his dormer window, he yelled fire at +the top of his voice. Sentry Number Five heard and came running down +along the back fence; saw the peril, let drive a shot and gave the yell +that roused every one at the hospital--poor Rafferty, half crazed, half +dazed, and by no means half dressed, coming leaping along among the +first. + +And there at his back window, choking with smoke and tossing out +clothing and other belongings, stood Mr. Lanier. Some men went searching +for ladders up the line of back yards, the post hook and ladder truck +being, of course, on the far side of the garrison. There being no +extension and sheds to this little box, as to the larger quarters up the +line, other men began shouting, and Lieutenant Grayson imploring Mr. +Lanier to jump, for already the flames had burst through the windows +below. Then came the episode the regiment laughed over, swore over, +talked over, many a long year thereafter. To Grayson's appeal Bob's only +answer was a calm and deliberate: + +"Give my compliments to the colonel, will you, and tell him that, my +quarters being all ablaze, I'd like an extension of arrest?" + +Then Sumter and Stannard came in, tumultuous, and _ordered_ him down, +and Blake and Curbit, and the rest of the card party, came tearing after +them, and berated him for an absurdity, and implored him not to be an +ass. And then a bright tongue of flame licked in through the transom +behind him, and the door panels burst from the heat, and all the room at +his back suddenly blazed with fire, and then went up the cry from that +agonized girl, at sound of which Lanier started and strove to climb to +the little window-sill, with a lurid sheet lapping down about his head, +and then a brace of young Irishmen, Cassidy foremost, came scrambling up +a human pyramid, smoking and singeing below them. They reached the +blazing eaves and burst through the fringe of flame, dragging Bob forth +and on to the edge, and then tottered all together into that blessed +mound of snow beneath, fast melting in the glare of that fiery furnace. + +Then came the commander, and the swift running soldiers, and all the +antiquated fire apparatus, and most of the families. Soon the hooks were +locked in the blazing framework, and speedily the little bachelor den +was torn into hissing and smoking fragments. Meantime Lanier and +Cassidy, Blake, Horton, and nearly a dozen daring fellows who had risked +their skins to save their lieutenant, had been led over to hospital to +be cooled off and lotioned and bandaged and variously put to bed, and +when at last not a spark could be found in the black, unsightly ruins, +and even they had been buried under bushels of snow, the colonel and his +men-at-arms went back to quarters, and many of the officers to the +store, to talk it all over, especially what Bobby had said to Button. + +And thus were we brought to the morning of Thursday, the sixth since the +eventful night when Miriam Arnold's shriek had alarmed the +garrison--Miriam, whose voice had now been heard a second time, upraised +in frantic dread and appeal, but this time for the young soldier who, on +the previous Friday night, forgetful of his arrest, had rushed forth at +her cry, but this night had to be dragged--Miriam who now lay sick from +maidenly shame that in one wild appeal to save her lover she had so +betrayed herself. + +With Thursday noon came resumption of telegraphic communication, and the +long-stalled railway trains from east and west. With Thursday afternoon +came "wires" from Arnold, the father, begging to know had his daughter +started, and back went the electric message that she neither had nor +could, nor would for a week--"full details by post." With Thursday +evening came stacks of belated letters, "with whole bales of +newspapers," said the stage driver, to follow, and with Thursday +midnight, long after every one had gone to bed, there came a tapping at +Major Stannard's storm door, and presently a fumbling at the bell knob, +a clanging of the bell. + +"What now?" thought the sleepy major, as he scuttled down-stairs in +slippers and dressing-gown. "Who's there?" he growled, as he unbolted +the door. That fire down the line had made people nervous. There was no +saying how it started. + +"It is Mayhew, sir," said a solemn voice. "I've come not hoping, only +praying, I may find my daughter here." + +"Good God!" said Stannard. "Come in," and led forthwith his aged and +trembling comrade within doors, seated him by the still glowing stove +in the front room, and struck a light. In less than a minute Mrs. +Stannard, too, had joined them, her kind blue eyes filled with tender +pity and sorrow. She, at least, was not entirely unprepared. Poor +motherless Dora had no lack of friendly counsel and fond, womanly +sympathy when once she could be brought to lay her burden there. If only +she had earlier sought that wise and winsome monitor! But Mrs. Stannard +had not been at Frayne in the early summer, not until the major was +assigned to station at Cushing had the good wife joined him, and +meanwhile there had been no hand to guide, only a fond and passionate +young heart. And now, with his gray hairs bowed in sorrow to the dust, +poor Mayhew had come to tell his piteous tale. Ever since young Rawdon +had gone with the paymaster she had been fitful and nervous. Ever since +their coming to Cushing, four weeks agone, she had been watching, +waiting, listening, often weeping, and when letters came for her, with +the postmark of Fetterman or Laramie, Red Cloud or the cantonment in the +Hills, he could not but note her feverish eagerness and her instant +escape to her own room to read her treasure alone. Oh, yes, he knew they +must be from Rawdon. He had liked the lad, knew there was good stuff in +him, and he could not bear that fellow Fitzroy, who was a military loan +shark, a man who fattened on the needs or weaknesses of his comrades. He +hated to think of his bonny girl's losing her heart to Fitzroy. He owned +he rather welcomed Rawdon's advances and rejoiced that she, too, seemed +to prefer him. + +But--God! He had never looked for--this! Oh, where had she gone?--and +why? He had found her at home and in tears after the fire. All morning +long she had been in an agony of nervousness. Then that afternoon, some +time, somehow, she got a message or letter, and then, kissing him and +saying she would be better in bed, had gone to her room, but not to +sleep. At eleven o'clock old Chloe's sobbing aroused him. He found it +all deserted. Dora had disappeared, leaving not one word to comfort him. + +They lost no time, those men of the field and the frontier. Stannard was +dressed and out in twenty minutes; had summoned Ennis, Field, and others +among the young officers; had routed out half a troop and could have had +the entire garrison, for few were the soldiers who would not search all +night or work all day for good old Mayhew and his pretty daughter. +Perhaps that was one reason why, until this night, so many maids and +mothers among the sergeants' families envied and slandered her. Mayhew +had been far from wise, and Dora, indeed, had none to guide. Kindly and +cordially treated as he and she had been by the officers and their +wives--being, in fact, superior socially to the Snaffle household, if +not to certain others--there was yet this bar to hold them back: they +dined and danced not with the "commissioned" element of the post whereat +Mayhew was stationed. They were of finer clay than the people of the +rank and file, and so, with the families of the forage and wagon-master, +the chief packer and old Ordnance Sergeant Shell, they made up a little +middle class of their own, when Dora's heart had gone out, ungrudgingly, +to handsome, clever, educated George Rawdon, whom all men could see had +been reared among gentlefolk, and who, as further fascination, was +supplied from some unknown source with money which he spent with lavish +hand. + +The moon was in the fourth quarter now, yet still bright enough to aid +them, and up and down the creek bank went the searchers, probing every +pool, searching every shallow. It was odd--or was it odd?--that for half +an hour no man, no matter what he thought, went down and banged at the +door of "C" Troop's stable--where in cozy quarters and solemn state, +guarded by the sentries on either flank, slept that surly magnate among +the non-commissioned officers--Fitzroy, the stable sergeant of Snaffle's +troop. Whatever had befallen poor Dora Mayhew, it was not to join +Cockney Fitzroy she had fled. + +Had she fled to join anybody? was the question that racked so many a +heart, for, with the possible exception of gentle Mrs. Stannard, the +girl had made no confidant. It was stanch old Chloe who would have it +that her pet and pride from childhood, her solemn charge since the poor +mother's death eight years before, had never left her father's roof to +do harm to herself and break their hearts. If morning came without her, +she surely had been lured away, and, if "Marss Rawdon" had really gone, +who was there who, through love or fear or threat or artifice of any +kind, _could_ lure her? + +It was this, full fifteen minutes after Lieutenant Field and two of his +men had trotted off to town, that started old Stannard and big Jim Ennis +down the valley from the veterinarian's, through "Suds-town," where +girls and women were huddling and whispering at the news; through the +hay and wood-yards, where the sentry challenged sharply, so often had he +halted searching parties in the last ten minutes; past the little shack +where dwelt the farriers and blacksmiths, many of them alight, for the +story had gone sweeping; and so at last they came to the long cavalry +stables, standing gable ends to the north, like so many companies in +close column, and at the sixth of these, farthest from the bluff whereon +stood the barracks and quarters, they stopped and banged at the door. No +answer--even when the sentry came to their aid and hammered with the +butt of his carbine. They went round and rattled at the window of the +sergeant's room. Still no response, and at their beck the sentry yelled +for the corporal-of-the-guard, who had followed down, expectant. + +"I'll have him out," said he, and ran round to the south end, and +presently came back, panting but triumphant. He had roused the two +stable orderlies. They would open up in a minute. They did, with much +blinking of eyes and some demur, but stood abashed when the burly major +strode in, big Jim Ennis at his heels. The latter hesitated not one +second. His weight went in with the battering ram of that muscular leg +and massive foot, and the sergeant's door flew open before them. The +room was empty. Fitzroy and Fitzroy's furs were gone. Nor was that all. +Snatching a stable lantern from the hand of one of the shaking grooms, +Ennis swung it high aloft. Two empty stalls stood close at hand. + +"I thought so," said he, then grabbed the nearest orderly by the coat +collar. "Who took Lieutenant Foster's sleigh and team," demanded he, +"and how long ago?" + +"Sergeant Fitzroy, sir," came the answer, with a doleful whine, "just +before the third relief, at half-past eleven." + +"No time to see the colonel now!" said Ennis. "Major Stannard, I've got +to gallop into town, but a dozen men, if need be, should trail that +sleigh." + +"Go it, boy," was the instant answer, "and I'm behind you." + + + + +X + + +On the principle that disaster ever demands its victim, the sentry of +the second relief--the immediate predecessor of the soldier now on post +at the north line of the stables--was stirred up at once and ordered to +explain. Even as Stannard was hastening the movements of the men +detailed to mount and trail the Foster team, even as Ennis was galloping +town-ward on a mission of his own, Captain Langley, of the Infantry, +officer-of-the-day, began his stern examination of the luckless +guardian. + +Orders are orders. Even a stable sergeant could not take or send an +animal out at night (except the building stood in danger of destruction +by flood, fire, or tornado) save on written order of a commissioned +officer and in presence of the corporal-of-the-guard, and Stoner, the +sentry of the second relief, admitted he knew these were the orders, but +"the fellers" had never supposed they applied to Sergeant Fitzroy, who +did pretty much as he pleased. In fact, Fitzroy hitched up and drove +away without so much as a word to him. He, the sentry, was too little +surprised to think of ordering "Halt." Even as Langley drew from him the +admission, the word came up that the squad had started hot foot on the +trail. It led straight away to town. + +And the stable orderlies had sworn that Fitzroy started alone. +Therefore, unless Dora Mayhew had circled the fort and joined him on the +bleak eastward prairie, it was most unlikely she had gone with him, and, +up to one o'clock, there was none to hint with whom, or how, except +afoot, she could have gone. Then, however, came revelation. The sentry +stationed at the northwest face of the post admitted having seen "a rig +from town" making wide circuit clear around behind the fort on the +westward "bench," which was swept almost clean of snow. It had kept well +out beyond hailing distance, stood a moment or two up at the edge of the +bluff, then whirled about and went the way it came. What hour was this? +Just before they called off eleven o'clock. Why had he not mentioned or +reported it? Well, he thought it might have been some of the officers. +"They sometimes came out late and went in home the back way," whereat, +in some confusion, Captain Langley dropped that phase of the +investigation. + +By two o'clock that rig also had been trailed back to town, where it was +lost in the tangle of wheel tracks. There Ennis and Field and several +troopers, with one or two interested citizens, were in quest of tidings. +There they were joined by Mayhew himself, who had one more hope. Dora +had a friend, a few years older than herself, with whom she had been +intimate at Fort Riley. They went daily to school together when +children, and wept when parted. Now her friend was married to a +conductor of the Union Pacific Railway, and living in town. It might be +that Dora had gone to her. + +They found the house, and hammered at the door and lower windows, and +succeeded only in waking a Chinese servant who said, "All gone; b'long +Omaha," and refused further information. They went to the three stables +in town, and all had "rigs" out, some of them two or three. None, to the +proprietor's knowledge, had been to the fort. Most of them had gone to a +dance at Arena, a cattle town six miles east, and it was high time they +were returning, for now it was after three. "What's all the row about +anyhow?" demanded the night watchman of one of these establishments. +"There was that cockney sergeant fellow here along about midnight, +asking questions and raising hell. The town marshal had a rumpus with +him and went to bed mad." The half-dozen hangers-on about the railway +station, and the roisterers at the one, open-all-night saloon were +growing inquisitive, if not impudent. The station-master had gone home, +but the lone operator to whom, one after another, Field, Ennis, and +Mayhew had appealed, declared that no young lady had gone on Number Six, +for the reason that Number Six hadn't gone and wouldn't go till 'long +toward daylight. She broke down somewhere about seven o'clock at +Medicine Bow. + +But Ennis and Mayhew came at him a second time, with a second question: +Could he tell them anything of Mr. and Mrs. Osborn, Osborn being a +conductor and Mrs. Osborn Dora's friend of whom previous mention is +made? Had they gone to Omaha? No, for Mr. Osborn was round here early in +the evening, and had to be here at six o'clock A.M. to meet and take +Number Five over the Mountain Division. Then John Chinaman had lied, +said poor Mayhew, grieving sore and quite ready to break down, but Ennis +was spurred to new energy. + +"Keep your heart, old man," said he. "The more I think of this, the more +I'm sure there's light ahead, and I'm going after it. Go to the hotel, +lie down, and leave the rest to me." + +And still Jim Ennis felt by no means confident he could be in time. He +knew the Mayhews only slightly. He had never before been stationed at +regimental headquarters, had seen and known Dora only since their coming +to Fort Cushing, and therefore had not learned to share Bob's honest +admiration for her. She might be all Bob thought her, a loving child and +a true-hearted girl in spite of her infatuation for this presentable +young trooper whose antecedents nobody knew. Ennis had often marked him +during the campaign and noted his regard for Bob, and felt kindly +disposed toward him until mid September, when two troops were sent in +to Frayne, with the pack train and orders to load up with rations and +escort it back. Rawdon was missing from the column when it camped the +first night out, on the return, and only caught them by a daring night +ride through the Sioux country when they were two days' march beyond. +His captain, Raymond, had sternly rebuked him and promised him further +punishment when they reached the regiment, but Lanier had heard of it +and interceded, thereby making Rawdon still more his friend. But now the +heart of "Dad" Ennis was hot against him, for fear that what Barker said +might all be true: that Rawdon had wrecked an old man's heart and home, +and ruined an old man's beloved daughter. + +With just two troopers at his back, toward four in the morning, big Jim +went spurring on through the dim moonlight, town and station far behind, +following a meandering sleigh and wagon track across the wide, dreary +upland, riding, as a rule, parallel with the railway, while such sleighs +as tried the journey had evidently been making many a detour. Snow there +was in abundance in the coulees and ravines, snow in sheets in the lee +of every little ridge or hummock, but elsewhere the icy sod was swept +hard and clean, and the sharp hoofs rang as though they struck macadam. +Three miles out two "rigs" were passed, westward bound, filled with town +folk who had been to Arena for the dance. Had they seen or heard aught +of Mr. and Mrs. Osborn? he asked. No, they knew them well by sight, and +would be sure to note them had they come to the dance. Five miles out a +stage was encountered, loaded with exuberant revellers who had remained +after the dance for a spree, and were now consumed with wrath because +certain officers of the law from their own town, too, had hustled them +out. + +"A hull sleighful of 'em--three or four anyhow--came over there with +that cockney sergeant you fellers keep at the fort, lookin' for +deserters. You after deserters? Well, here's--hic--hopin' you don't get +'em." + +It was all Jim Ennis wanted to know. "Come on, men," he cried, and +spurred ahead, his wondering troopers following. + +"Now, what the mischief is that man Fitzroy's game?" thought Ennis, as +he pushed on through the bitter cold of the December morning. It had not +been difficult to learn that the sergeant, after much search and inquiry +in town, had started for Arena, taking with him, as it happened, two of +the Rocky Mountain police, who had business there and were tired of +waiting for the train. Ennis reasoned it was after Dora that Fitzroy had +gone; that in his jealous misery he had kept watch upon her, had +followed to town on hearing of her flight, had followed further, and +this it was that gave Ennis the hope that she was accompanied by such +worthy people as the Osborns. If that were so, it could mean but one +thing. It was to join Rawdon, perhaps to be joined to Rawdon. Osborn had +sent two messages by wire and received two early in the evening; Ennis +had learned this through the operator, though the contents were +withheld. Rawdon, probably, dared not come to Cushing City. There he +might still be arrested on sight. Yes. Ennis had it now. Dora Mayhew had +fled to Arena to meet and marry George Rawdon; Fitzroy had followed fast +in hopes of blocking it. + +And just as the twinkling switch-lights of the little prairie station +hove in sight ahead, there came a sound that startled him--the whistle +of a railway engine not a mile behind--Number Six at last, and coming +full tilt--the very train, perhaps, that they, the young couple, hoped +and meant to take, and might have taken on their eastward way had not +Fitzroy, keen-eyed, quick-witted, and vengeful, been there in time to +bar the move. + +And then in the soldier soul of big Jim Ennis was born a strange, +sudden, and somewhat unprofessional spirit of opposition. Starting out +in the hope of finding and restoring to her father's roof the sorrowing +fugitive, Jim Ennis veered right round to the purpose of succoring a +maiden in distress. If marriage was Rawdon's motive in bidding her join +him, then Rawdon was honest after all, and who was he or who was Fitzroy +to stand in the way and stop it? No, by all the Arts of Peace and the +Articles of War, Rawdon was right and d---- be the man that sought to +check him. + +Five minutes later, with the big engine and train coming hissing and +grinding to a stop at the platform, Ennis sprang from his panting horse, +tossed the reins to one trooper, and, followed by the other, shouldered +his way through a little knot of staring townsfolk and up to a group at +the edge of the platform. A trim-built young fellow in civilian dress +was struggling in the grasp of two detectives; a terrified girl was +clinging to his arm, tears streaming down her face; a clerical-looking, +elderly stranger was expostulating; a man in the cap and dress of a +railway conductor was vehemently arguing with a stocky sergeant of +cavalry, who seemed master of the situation, and greatly enjoying his +own importance. A pale-faced young woman, whom the conductor of Number +Six addressed as Mrs. Osborn, was imploring his aid, when, to the amaze +of the sergeant, this big subaltern in boots and spurs bulged in between +him and Conductor Osborn and demanded to know the nature of the trouble. + +"I've run down this man, at last, sir," gulped Fitzroy, flustered, but +making valiant effort at control, "as you see, sir, only in the nick of +time." + +"Oh, Mr. Ennis," cried Dora, throwing herself upon him and clasping his +arm, "Rawdon has done no wrong. We are married. Here are our friends to +prove it. _Why_ should they arrest him?" + +"Colonel's orders, lieutenant. Arrest him wherever found," said Fitz +stoutly, "and I've a sl--stage here to take him back." + +"On charges of your own invention, Sergeant Fitzroy," said Ennis icily, +"no one of which you'll ever prove. Have you any warrant for this +man?"--this to the detectives. + +"None, sir. The sergeant said he was a deserter, running off with the +doctor's daughter." + +"He's no deserter. He's on furlough by order of General Crook, +travelling, I take it, with his own wife, and unless you want to burn +your fingers to the bone, let go." + +"Then lieutenant," burst in Fitzroy, "he's a prisoner by order of +Colonel Button----" + +"Then as senior officer on the spot I'll take charge of him; also, +Sergeant Fitzroy, of you, and the sleigh you feloniously made way with. +Stand aside, sir. Now, gentlemen, how about this train?" + +"Ordered right on, lieutenant, to meet Number Five at Beaver Switch." + +"Then it's a case of all aboard for those bound eastward. We'll hear the +rest when you return from furlough, Rawdon"--for now the young man was +trying to speak instead of seeking to speed away. "I did my best to be +in time for the ceremony, Mrs. Rawdon," continued Ennis, gallant and +impressive, as he swung her suddenly aboard, "but with my usual luck I +lost the chance to kiss the bride." + +For answer she quickly turned, flung her arms about his neck, and her +warm lips swept his cheek. "One for you, Mr. Ennis," she cried, and then +again, "and this--for Mr. Lanier!" + + + + +XI + + +Friday again, and late in the day, and Bob Lanier's arrest lacked but a +few hours of its first full week, and Bob was in bandages and bed in a +sunny room of the hospital. Ennis, after a long night in saddle and a +short "spat" with the colonel, was taking a much needed nap. Stannard +and his wife had gone down to Doctor Mayhew's to meet Mrs. Osborn, who +had come to spend the afternoon. Paymaster Scott was up and about, and, +in his independent way, had been saying unrelishable things to Button, +who was in most peppery frame of mind. A wire had come from department +headquarters to say an inspector would follow. "Instead of ordering a +general court to try Lieutenant Lanier, they have ordered a colonel out +to try me, by gad!" said Button. "For that's just what it all amounts +to." + +And of all colonels to investigate matters at Cushing, there wasn't one +in the army Button would not rather have had than the very one who was +coming--bluff, blunt, rasping old Riggs, best known to fame and Fort +Cushing, as "Black Bill." + +"Why," said Button, to Scott, "this sending one field officer of cavalry +to sit in judgment on the official deeds of another is nothing short +of--of infamous, and I'm amazed at Crook's doing it." + +"It ain't Crook," said Scott, not without a little malicious delight in +Button's disgust. "He's away up at Washakie, and of course his adjutant +general don't want to act or even advise until he knows all about it. +You've seen fit to charge Lanier with all manner of things, and I don't +wonder headquarters are staggered." + +"But--_Bill Riggs_--to come and overhaul _my_ regiment, when it's +notorious he never could command even a two-company camp without having +everybody by the ears! Such men aren't fit to be inspectors!" + +Indeed, there was much to warrant poor Button's disgust. He had +preferred most serious charges against Lanier. He had accused him of +quitting camp on campaign, quitting his guard in garrison, quitting his +quarters when in arrest, failing to quit himself of a money obligation, +drinking and consorting with enlisted men, and in his letter of +transmittal he had intimated that there were other misdeeds he might yet +have to uncover. All, said Button, on the information of veteran +officers and sergeants of the regiment--notably Captains Curbit and +Snaffle, Lieutenants Crane and Trotter, Sergeants Whaling and +Fitzroy--and now here were both medical officers, both of his majors, +two of his best captains, seven of his subalterns, and nine-tenths of +the women folk at Fort Cushing taking sides with Lanier and issue with +him--their colonel and commander. And here, too, were Lieutenant and +Mrs. Foster, highly connected, influential, wealthy, insisting that his +most active and important witness, the unimpeachable Sergeant Fitzroy, +had corrupted their coachman, run off with their sleigh, and ruined +(this was Mrs. Foster) their horses. + +Foster, first lieutenant of Snaffle's troop, seldom on speaking terms +with his captain, had discovered the deed at morning stables just five +minutes before the aggrieved sergeant drove in with the missing property +_and_ Lieutenant Ennis as escort. Foster was in a fury over it, the more +so because Fitzroy had maintained, respectfully enough but most +stubbornly, that the circumstances were such that he felt justified in +making immediate use of any property under his care or charge, that he +would explain everything to his captain and the colonel, but begged to +be excused in the lieutenant's present frame of mind from arguing the +matter with him. + +And the story Snaffle told Button before Foster could reach him went far +to strengthen Fitzroy's position. Snaffle said that so far from +Fitzroy's corrupting the coachman, the boot should be on the other foot, +were Fitzroy corruptible--that Foster would find his coachman a +double-dyed liar when he came to the truth of that runaway the night of +the dance--that Foster's sleigh and carriage and driving horses had no +right in a Government stable anyhow--were only there on sufferance +(which was true, for Foster kept saddlers besides--all the law allowed +him)--and that under the circumstances, when, as was well known, at +least twenty officers and troopers on Government mounts had gone forth +at night in violation of standing orders, without the commanding +officer's knowledge or consent--all on the plea of rescuing Mayhew's +daughter, Lieutenant Foster ought to be ashamed of himself for abusing +Fitzroy for taking the sleigh in hopes of having a warm nest to fetch +the poor girl home in as soon as he'd found her. "Sure, did Mr. Ennis +expect her to ride back on his cantle on so bitter a night? Faith, +Fitzroy was worth the whole pack of 'em put together, if they'd only let +him alone." + +And that, at nine o'clock, when Ennis was sent for, was the colonel's +way of looking at it. Moreover, he had a rasp up his sleeve for our +massive young friend on half a dozen other counts. + +"In point of fact, Mr. Ennis, that girl has simply fooled the whole +party and is probably laughing at all of you. A girl that will run away +without a word or line to her father, and marry an out-and-out +adventurer--a mere nobody--has neither heart nor head anyhow. And now +you've interfered in a matter of discipline just as Mr. Lanier did, and +I gave _you_ credit for better sense. You know I had ordered that +fellow's arrest." + +Ennis took it all, all this and more, in grave silence and +subordination. He would have gone without a word, but Button would not +so have it. Button demanded his reasons, and began hitting back before +Ennis had named even two. This brought on the "spat," as Barker +irreverently described it, and left the colonel in no judicial mood in +which to see Stannard, Sumter, and others, as see them he had to in +course of the day. + +But flatly he swore that Sergeant Fitzroy should not go in arrest. It +was only too clear they sought to make a victim of him. + +And so all Fort Cushing seemed in turmoil and trouble as the sun of the +23d went out and "Black Bill" came in, yet that sun must have been +potent, for Mrs. Stannard's face, as homeward she sped, after a long +talk with Mrs. Osborn, was radiant with sunshiny smiles. "You're not to +know anything yet, Luce, at least until you get it from Doctor Mayhew, +for you never could keep it, and for a week at least it's got to be +kept." + +"Well, one thing you _can_ tell," said the major, "that is, if you know, +and put a stop to an awful amount of censure that poor girl's getting. +Why did she leave no word for her father?" + +"Because she expected to be home in two hours;" and the reader can judge +just how full and satisfactory must that answer have been. + +But were matters mending for Mr. Lanier? was the question still +troubling Mrs. Stannard. Neither Kate nor Miriam had she seen since the +night of the fire. Miriam Arnold was confined to her room. Kate Sumter +would not leave her, and yet over these two devoted friends there still +hovered a spell. The mutual trust and faith seemed shaken. The old +confidence or intimacy was gone. + +Now, whatever Mrs. Osborn had told that so cheered Mrs. Stannard, it is +certain the latter could not contain herself long, and that, even as +the major was summoned, toward nine of the evening, to join the solemn +conclave at the colonel's (where by this time Button had opened +proceedings by giving "Black Bill" the best dinner a frontier larder and +cellar afforded), she bustled over to the Sumters', was delightedly +welcomed by her friend and neighbor, whose husband, too, had been called +to council, and presently these two sages were in confidential chat. + +To them presently entered the captain, electric, bristling. He wanted +the bundle of latest newspapers. They had not half read them, and +Colonel Button was all eagerness to see some articles concerning the +campaign about which Riggs had been twitting him--asking him whom he had +subsidized at this late hour to rescue his reputation, etc. Riggs had +seen three long, well-written letters in the great New York _Morning +Mail_, obviously the work of a correspondent on the spot, an eye-witness +to the scenes he had described, and these letters refuted the calumnies +recently heaped on Button and his comrades--gave him, in fact, high +praise for soldiership, bravery, energy, even though the writer owned +himself by no means one of the colonel's circle, if, indeed, one of his +personal friends and admirers. Only the Sumters, at Cushing, subscribed +for the _Morning Mail_. Riggs had seen the paper at Omaha. It took a +search of some minutes before even the first was found. Then Sumter's +eyes danced as he read, and Mrs. Sumter exclaimed over another, and for +the first time in a week sounds of cheer arose in that little home. +Presently Mrs. Stannard read aloud a spirited, stirring paragraph, +describing a dash led by Lieutenant Lanier, and then Sumter made a swoop +for all three pages and said, "The quicker Button can see these the +sooner he'll come to his senses," and begging pardon for the rudeness, +took the papers and his leave and almost collided with Kate, who at +sound of the name and the glad ring of the voices had crept down-stairs +for the news. + +And so she had to come in and see Mrs. Stannard, and hear some few at +least of the details of Dora Mayhew's romantic, runaway marriage, and +while they were being told tattoo was sounded, and then Mrs. Stannard +asked if she might not creep up-stairs and see Miriam; she thought she +might cheer her a bit. This left mother and daughter alone together, and +again, and even more painfully, Mrs. Sumter noted how sad and +unresponsive was Kate at mention of Lanier. + +It must have been nearly an hour later when Sumter came hurriedly in, +threw his furs off in the hall, and with troubled face re-entered the +parlor. His wife rose instantly, laid her head upon his arm, and asked, +"What has happened?" + +"A scene the like of which I never thought to hear of in this regiment. +We had adjourned to the office. Snaffle had been drinking a bit and got +angered and flustered when Riggs cross-examined him. One thing led to +another, and finally in exasperation he blurted out, 'I'm sick of being +called the accuser of Mr. Lanier. By God, I've defended him! I've hidden +worse things than ever I told you yet, and now I'll stand it no longer! +You twit me with spying and slandering. Then by all that's holy, you +shall say here and now who's the better man. 'T was Lieutenant Lanier +himself that leapt from the window this night a week ago--the back upper +window of Sumter's quarters. That's how his hand was cut and torn, and +I've got three men that'll swear to it!'" + +He broke off suddenly, for Kate had turned, flung herself from the room +and into the arms of Mrs. Stannard. One long look into the sorrowful +eyes of his wife, and Sumter quickly followed, and drew the sobbing girl +from those kind arms into his own. + +"My child, my child," he said, "surely you did not _see_ him?" + +"No! No! No!" was the instant answer. "No!" again she sobbed. + +"Then tell me what it means, Kate, daughter. It is--I demand it!" + +"Oh, father, father--it was--it was what I _heard_--when she +screamed--and fell?" + +"_What_ did you hear?" + +"The other voice--_his_ voice. It said plainly, 'Miriam, hush! Don't you +know me?'" + + + + +XII + + +"Bob," said Mr. Ennis, sauntering in to his comrade's bedside the +following morning, "I'm instructed to pay you a kiss." + +Lanier's bandaged head spun on the pillow. He had but one girl in his +mind. + +"Wh--who?" he demanded. + +Ennis threw his head back and laughed. "Nine times out of ten when a +fellow is asked, 'will you take it now or wait till you get it?' he's +wise to take it now. If _I'm_ any judge, I should say you'd better wait +till you can get it, which may be in less than a week." + +"Ennis, if you can quit being an ass long enough to tell me what you +mean, and where you've been, I'll thank you. If you can't, I wish you'd +get out. _Ugashe!_" concluded Bob, with a lapse into Apache and the +pillow. + +"Well, it probably isn't just the kiss you were thinking of--no more was +when I got it--but, Robert, my son and fellow soldier, it's my recorded +conviction that the most enviable member of the regiment this day of our +Lord is your twin trooper friend Rawdon. I saw him off on his wedding +tour, and he _didn't_ have on your clothes." + +Lanier's head popped up in an instant--the one visible eye all eager +interest. "_Where_ were they married? _When_ did they get off? Was +Lowndes there?" were the questions that flew from his lips. + +"Arena. On Number Six. Don't know," was the categorical answer. "Rawdon +brought the parson out from Omaha, and the Osborns gave her away. Of +Lowndes I've seen nothing since the night you staked him at Laramie, and +what I've heard of him you refused to listen to. Of that callow specimen +of the effete and ultra-refined Back Bay District you've long since had +my opinion. He's too good and gentle for this Western world of ours, +Bob, and he and his shuddering kinsfolk suffer too much by +contamination----" + +"Oh, shut up, Dad! His people _did_ wire him that his mother was +desperately ill. They merely wanted to get him away from the campaign. +He'd been gambling, the pesky little fool, with some of the Rawhide +crowd, was all out of cash and dared not tell his guardian. That's all +there was to it. Soon's he gets his money he'll square up--thought +perhaps he _had_, since Rawdon had enough to marry on. Lowndes owed +_him_ ten times what he owed me, I reckon." + +To them, thus engrossed in confidential chat, there suddenly entered the +two doctors. "Black Bill," the inspector, it seems, had given notice +that he must needs have speech with the culprit, if that bandaged, +blistered, and unprincipled young man were in condition to see him. +"Black Bill" and his host had been having a night of it. Button was in +high fettle over the amazingly truthful and unlooked-for articles in +the _Mail_, and as eager to know and reward their author as he had been +to apprehend and punish the earlier detractor. Button had begun to +"wobble," as Bill expressed it, in his spleen against Lanier until so +suddenly "braced" by the truculent stand of Captain Snaffle, whose +half-drunken words the previous night were by this time known all over +the post. + +The matter was now in the hands of Colonel Riggs, however, and it was +his to determine what further action to take. Snaffle had named as his +witness Sergeant Fitzroy, Private Kelley (who, though drunk on duty, had +not been so drunk, said Snaffle and Fitzroy, that he could not recognize +an officer when he saw him), and the third witness, to the amaze of +Barker and the derision of Ennis, when told of it, was no less a person +than poor Tom Rafferty, Lanier's own "striker" and hitherto devoted +henchman. And to the consternation of Stannard, Sumter, and others, +Captain Snaffle had been able to back his words. Riggs sent for the two +availables, Fitzroy and Kelly, and the two had declared they could not +be mistaken; that they had heard Miss Arnold's scream, followed +instantly by the crash of glass. Fitzroy admitted that he was at the +moment at Captain Snaffle's back door; said he ran round to the Sumters' +gate; that he distinctly saw the figure of a man in a soldier's overcoat +and fur cap leaping and sliding down the roof, and that a moment later +he grappled with it in the dark woodshed, dropping his hold only when +angrily ordered to do so, the voice adding instantly, "I'm Lieutenant +Lanier." Kelly was ready to swear to practically the same facts, though +he "thought there was two of them," which, under the circumstances, was +not to be wondered at. Fitzroy declared that a moment later Rafferty +rushed to the spot, recognized the lieutenant, and by him was sternly +ordered to leave. As yet Rafferty was in no condition to affirm or deny. +The excitement of the fire had brought on a relapse, and the wild +Irishman was wilder than ever, "raving-like," as the steward said, in +the big post hospital. + +And these statements, presently, did Colonel Riggs lay before Lieutenant +Lanier, in presence of Doctors Larrabee and Schuchardt, as well as +Lieutenant Ennis. "I've known you three years, young sir," said he, "and +I've believed in you from the first. I have reminded Sergeant Fitzroy of +his previous allegations against Trooper Rawdon, as to the scuffle and +assault, and, so far from showing confusion, Fitzroy promptly said, +'Certainly, that took place barely half a minute later and within ten +yards of the spot.' He says his whole idea first was to drive Rawdon +from the scene, and prevent his finding his officer in so humiliating a +plight. He says he sought in every way at first to shield the +lieutenant, but when all these other facts came out about the cap, the +clothing, the lieutenant's absence from his quarters, his lacerated +hand, etc., there was no help for it. He finally yielded to the pressure +of Captain Snaffle's questions and told the truth. Kelly miserably +admitted his knowledge of it and when Rafferty came to his senses, he, +too, was to be catechised." + +"Now, Mr. Lanier, there's the situation. Do you care to say anything to +me, or would you prefer to take counsel?" + +And Bob Lanier leaning on his elbow, looked quietly up in the colonel's +bearded face and answered: + +"Colonel Riggs, I reckon both those men think they're telling the truth, +and I may have to prove they're not." + +"Do you mean--you _were_ there?" queried old Riggs, in genuine concern. + +"There, sir? Of _course_ I was there--quick as I could get there, but +not quick enough by any manner of means." + +Riggs looked grave indeed. + +"You say you may have to prove it was not you. Don't you _know_ you'll +have to--if these witnesses are further sustained?" + +"Fully, sir, and when my need is known there will be witnesses for the +defense. The doctors tell me Rafferty may not come round in less than a +week. When the time arrives I'll be ready." + +And that was the way it had to be left. That was the condition of +affairs when the eighth, and final, day of Lanier's close arrest +arrived. Longer than eight, according to law, the colonel could not keep +him in. Sooner than eight more, according to Larrabee, the doctors could +not let him out. Yet there came a compromise and a change. "The idea of +Bob Lanier spending Christmas in hospital!" said Mrs. Stannard. It was +not to be thought of. A sunshiny room on the ground floor of the major's +big house was duly prepared, and thither just before sunset on Christmas +eve our young soldier was piloted by Schuchardt and Ennis, making the +trip afoot across the rearward space, yet being remanded to a huge easy +chair and partial bandages immediately on his arrival. + +"Black Bill," with his incomplete report, had gone back to Omaha to +further mystify the adjutant-general and to eat his Christmas dinner. +The order for the court-martial hung fire until the preliminary +investigation could be concluded. Fort Cushing set itself to enjoy the +sweet festival as best it might, while such a problem remained unsolved. +Veterinary Surgeon Mayhew had taken seven days' leave, an eastbound +train, and at three P.M. the day before Christmas came a telegram from +---- Arnold, Esq., of Standish Bay, Massachusetts, announcing that he +would leave forthwith for the West, bringing his sister with him. The +Sumters told Mrs. Stannard, and she told Bob Lanier. + +It has been said that this young gentleman was an outspoken fellow, with +a hit-or-miss way of saying things when once his mind was made up, and +by this time it would seem he had made up his mind. + +"Mrs. Stannard, if you think a girl could stand the sight of such a Guy +Fawkes as this, I would give much to speak ten minutes to Miss Miriam +Arnold." + +"You're _not_ a Guy Fawkes," said Mrs. Stannard, with fluttering heart. +"You've lost something of your mustache and eyebrows, but very little of +your good looks. Only----" + +"Only what?" + +"Why, it's going to be so much harder to see her _now_ than it was +before--before she----" and Mrs. Stannard faltered. + +"Before she saw me playing Saint Somebody or other at the back window, +and screamed? Nobody knows _I_ heard it except you, and you won't tell. +Moreover, it isn't about _that_ that I have to speak." + +Mrs. Stannard's bonny face showed instant disappointment. + +"There's--there's another matter," said Bob, with trouble in his tones. + +"I so hoped----" faltered that arch match-maker. + +"So did I, Mrs. Stannard," said downright Bob, "but not with charges +hanging over my head. First I've got to meet the enemy." + +And yet he wished to see and speak with Miriam, who not once had set +foot out of doors since the night of the fire, whose sweet face flamed +at every recurring thought of that incident, whose self-betrayal covered +her with shame and confusion indescribable, who would give years of her +young life if she could only escape from Fort Cushing and hide herself a +thousand miles away. But not until that stern puritanical father should +arrive was leaving to be thought of. A week agone and the tidings of his +coming would have filled her with dread; now she heard them with relief. +Father coming--and Aunt Agnes! Aunt Agnes, who never before had been +west of the Hudson. Aunt Agnes, whose forebears had warred against +witchcraft and woodcraft, against village crones and forest children, +against helpless old women and stealthy young savages--all without mercy +when delivered into their hands! Was it in partial reparation for the +rapine, the swindling, and stealing dealt out by her Pilgrim forefathers +to the Indian of the East that Aunt Agnes had become the vehement +champion of the Indian of the West? President of a famous Peace Society +was she, and secretary of the Standish Branch of the Friends of the Red +Man, a race whom the original and redoubtable Miles had spitted and +skewered and shot without stint or discrimination. And now was Aunt +Agnes hastening westward with her brother, to reclaim their one ewe lamb +from the wolf pack of the wilds, and incidentally to see for herself +something of the haunts and habits of the red brother in whose behalf, +these last six months, her voice had been uplifted time and again. It +was the year of a great Indian war. The blood of hundreds of our +soldiery had been shed, without protest from these of Puritan stock, but +they shuddered at thought of reprisals. Aunt Agnes coming to Cushing! +Aunt Agnes to meet the colonel and his "red-handed horde of ruthless +slayers!" + +No wonder the Christmas day that dawned for Miriam Arnold in that +stirring Centennial year bade fair to be the gloomiest of her life. Yet +who can tell what a day may bring forth? + +Sumter came in, cheery and laughing, for the late family breakfast. +Guard-mounting was long over, but he had been detained by the colonel. + +"It is almost comical," said he, "to see Button's delight in those +letters in the New York papers. He's as curious now to know the author +of those as he was furious at the supposed author of the others." + +"What others?" faltered Miriam Arnold, her eyes filling with strange +apprehension, her face visibly paling. + +"Some bitter attacks on him that appeared in the Boston and Philadelphia +papers about that night surprise of Lone Wolf's village--the one he +accused Mr. Lanier of having started." + +"Accused--Mr. Lanier!" And Miriam Arnold, with consternation in her +voice, was half rising from the table. + +"I had thought it best to say nothing to you about it, Miriam dear," +said Mrs. Sumter gently. "You had so many worries." + +"But Mrs. Sumter! Captain!" interrupted Miriam, wild-eyed. "Do you mean +Colonel Button accused Mr. _Lanier_ of those letters?" + +[Illustration: "BUT DO YOU MEAN COLONEL BUTTON ACCUSED MR. LANIER OF +THOSE LETTERS?"] + +"That was the backbone of his grievance against Lanier," said Sumter +gravely, and intently studying her face. "Why?" + +"And he didn't--deny it? Didn't--tell what he knew?" + +"Denied it, yes, but refused to tell what he knew--said it came in such +a way he could not tell. Why, Miriam, what do _you_ know?" + +For a moment it looked as though she were on the verge of hysterical +breakdown. Kate sprang to her side and threw an arm around her, but with +gallant effort she regained self-control. + +"I know _just_ who wrote those wicked stories, and I told Mr. Lanier; +and I know--and I'm ashamed I ever _had_ to know--who first told them." + + + + +XIII + + +Stannard had been summoned to Omaha, much to Button's curiosity and +disquiet. Mrs. Stannard, left temporarily widowed, was none the less +radiant. A romance was unfolding right under her roof, and the heart of +the woman was glad. Her patient was sitting up in spick and span uniform +and a sunshiny parlor. Plainly furnished as were the frontier quarters +of that day and generation, the room looked very bright and cosey this +crisp December evening. Christmas had come and gone with but faint +celebration, as compared with former years. There had been several +callers, masculine and regimental, during the earlier afternoon, but now +they were off for stables. There had been an influx of army wives and +daughters, to wish Bob Lanier many happy returns, for this was his +birthday. Shrewd woman, with all her gentle kindliness and tact, was +Mrs. Stannard. She had sent word to all her cronies of the interesting +event and suggested a call. More significance, therefore, would be +attached to a neglect to an acceptance of the hint. Perhaps this is how +it happened that just about four P.M., when most people were gone, Mrs. +Sumter came quietly, cheerily, convoying her two girls, and presently +Bob Lanier was smiling into the eyes of Miriam Arnold, whose hand he +took last and clung to longest of the three. + +Not since the night of the fire had he set eyes on her. Not since the +night of the dance had he spoken with her, and he was startled to see +the change. Bravely though she bore herself, the flush that mantled her +cheek was but momentary, and left her pallid and wan. Miriam looked as +though she had been seriously ill. Kate Sumter had given him only +hurried and almost embarrassed words of greeting. Mrs. Sumter, however, +had extended both her hands in an impulse of loyal liking and +friendship, and it is doubtful if Bob even saw the daughter's face. +Certainly he never noted the lack of heart in her manner. His eyes had +flitted almost instantly to Miriam Arnold's, and there they hung. A few +minutes of swift, purposeless chat ensued, Mrs. Stannard and Mrs. Sumter +doing most of it. Then, somehow, three women seemed to drift away and +become engrossed in matters of their own over by the Navajo-covered +lounge, and then Miriam lifted up her eyes and looked one moment into +the young soldier's face. + +The bandages had been removed, though his left hand was still encased in +a huge white kid glove, a discard from the hand of Ennis. Eyebrows and +mustache had suffered much, and a red streak ran from the left temple +down toward the neck, yet Bob looked fit and debonair and happy in +spite of his weight of martial woes. + +"It's the first chance I've had to thank you for the dance we--didn't +finish," said he, noting with a thrill the tremor of the little hand +that fluttered for that moment in his grasp. + +"Do you think it a thing to be thankful for? I don't." + +"I wouldn't have lost it for a month's pay, to put it mildly, and it +will take more than a month's pay to repair later damages," said he, +trying to smile and be unsentimental. + +"How very much more than that you _may_ lose!" said she. "Do you think I +could have danced with you if I had dreamed what--what you were doing?" + +"You were dancing like a dream," said he. "Do you mean I was dancing +like a nightmare?" + +"You were doing what was sure to involve you in grave trouble, and--it +wasn't kind to me, Mr. Lanier." + +"I'm all contrition for the anxiety it caused you, Miss Miriam, and for +absolutely nothing else. I wish you to know that I did nothing unusual. +Colonel Button was angry with me for a very different matter." + +One moment she was silent; then, with lips that quivered in spite of her +effort--a quiver that he saw and that set his heart to bounding +madly--with lowered voice she hurried on: "And that, too, involves me, +or mine. And you"--then uplifting her swimming eyes--"you _would_ not +tell." + +And then the barrier of his pride was swept away. + +"Miriam!" he cried, his hands eagerly seeking and seizing hers, only +faintly resisting. "There was no _need_ to tell." He was standing facing +her now, close to the curtained window, his back toward the twittering +trio near the dining-room door and imperceptibly edging thither at Mrs. +Stannard's suggestion of coffee. Was this prearranged? Bob never saw +nor heeded. _She_ did, however, and well knew its meaning, and the woman +in her, that thrilled and throbbed at sight of the passion in his eyes +the worship in his face coquetting with her own delight would have torn +herself away to follow them, but her little hands were held in a grasp +against which she might struggle in vain. He was lifting them to his +heart, and as he drew them he was drawing her. She had to come, her long +curling lashes sweeping the soft cheeks, now once more blushing like the +dawn. "Oh, Mr. Lanier," he heard her murmur, as though pleading and +warning. One swift glance he tossed over his shoulder at the last form +vanishing through the doorway, then his dark eyes, glowing and +rejoiceful, fastened on hers, and quick and fervent came the next words: +"There is only one thing that need be told--that _must_ be told, because +I've just been brimming over with it all these weeks" (ah, how the +bonny head was drooping now, but drooping toward him), "and now I can +keep it back no longer. Miriam, Miriam, I love you--I love you! Have you +nothing to tell me?" + +One instant of thrilling suspense, then with a sob welling up from her +burdened heart, the barrier of her pride and reserve went as his had +gone a moment ago. "Oh, you know--you _know_ it! Who _hasn't_ known it +since that awful night?" she cried, and then found herself folded, +weeping uncontrollably, almost deliriously, in his arms, his lips +raining kisses on the warm, wet cheek. A moment he held her +close-wrapped to his heart, then gradually, yet with irresistible power, +turned upward the tear-stained, blushing, exquisite face, so that he +could feast his eyes upon her beauty, then with joy unutterable, his +lips sank upon the soft, quivering mouth in the first love kiss she had +ever known, and their troubles vanished into heaven at the touch. + + +Mrs. Stannard, you were a jewel and a general. Now, how about the major? + +"For conference with the Judge-Advocate of the Department," read the +order that summoned him, and from that conference forth went our doughty +dragoon in search of conquest. "It is understood," said the officials, +"that you know the circumstances under which Lieutenant Lanier became +responsible for the money borrowed at Laramie by or for that young Mr. +Lowndes, also that you know him." There were other matters, but that +came up first. Stannard knew and was quite willing to set forth with a +plain-clothes member of the Omaha force on a mission for and from +headquarters. + +In a derby hat and civilian suit of the fashion of '72, the latter much +too snug for him, our squadron leader of the Sioux campaign looked +little like a trooper as he sauntered with his detective companion into +the lobby of the Paxton a few minutes later, and listened to his +modernized tale of the prodigal son. It was all known to the police. +Lowndes had run through the purse and patience of his Eastern kindred +some two years before. Lowndes had been transported to a cattle ranch +near Fort Cushing in hopes of permanent benefit, but speedily neglected +the range for the more congenial society of the fort. He was well born +and bred. He was made free at first at the mess, but wore out his +welcome. He went on the campaign for excitement and got much more than +he wanted. He took to gambling among the scouts and packers and +sergeants, for the officers had soon cold-shouldered him. But he was a +college man, a secret society man, as had been Lieutenant Lanier before +entering the Point. Since the campaign Lowndes had been going from bad +to worse; had gambled away the money sent him by his relatives, and +they were now sorely anxious about him. Moreover, he was needed as a +material witness for the defense in the case of Lieutenant Lanier, and +would answer no letters to his post-office address. He hadn't been near +the ranch in nearly a month, hadn't been seen about Cushing City since +the blizzard; was believed to be somewhere in this neighborhood in +disguise. + +And even as the story was being told, there came bounding down the broad +stairway from above, a slender, well-built youth, in whom the +civilization of the East was stamped in the stylish, trim-fitting +travelling suit with cap to match, in the further items of natty silken +scarf and the daintiest of hand and foot covering. It was the erect, +jaunty carriage that caught the major's eye. In build, bearing, and gait +the approaching stranger was Bob Lanier all over. He came straight +toward them, and was tripping lightly, swiftly by when Stannard sprang +to his feet. + +"Rawdon!" he cried, voice and manner at once betraying the soldier and +the habit of authority and command. It was as imperative as the crisp, +curt "Halt" of veteran sentry, and effective as though backed by +levelled bayonet. + +But if Stannard for an instant looked for demur, resistance, attempt to +avoid, or even a trace of confusion on the part of this transmogrified +trooper, the idea as quickly vanished. A wave of color, it is true, +swept instantly to the young fellow's temples, but the sudden light of +recognition in his handsome eyes was frank and fearless. Quickly he +whirled about, courteously he raised his cap, instinctively his heels +clicked together as he stood attention to his squadron leader of the +summer agone. + +"I beg the major's pardon," said he. "I did not expect him here, and had +never seen him in civilian dress." + +And now the detective, too, was on his feet, and curiously noting the +pair. + +"You're on furlough I understand, but I heard--my wife said--you were +in Chicago." + +"Mrs. Stannard was right, sir. My wife and her father are there now, +visiting my sister. Doctor Mayhew told me of the charges against +Lieutenant Lanier, and that is what brings me back at once." + +"Going back at once?" began the major, mollified, yet mystified. "I +presume you know more of these matters than any one else." + +"With possibly two exceptions, sir. I hope to nab one of them here." + +"Lowndes?" queried Stannard. + +"Lowndes," answered Rawdon. + +"Then you're just the man we want." + + +That afternoon as the Union Pacific express stood ready at the Union +station for the start, there boarded one of the sleepers a burly, +thick-set, bluff-mannered man in huge fur overcoat, close followed by +two younger companions. One of these latter, erect and graceful in +bearing, alert and quick in every movement, with clear-cut and handsome +features, was dressed with care and taste, evidently a man accustomed to +metropolitan scenes and society; the other, a youth of probably his own +age, though looking elder, was sallow, shabby, with a dejected +down-at-the-heel expression to his entire personality that told +infallibly of failure and humiliation. At a sign from their leader he +dropped dumbly into a section, settled himself next the frosty window, +with his head shrunk down in his worn coat-collar, and his slouch hat +pulled over his eyes. + +"Better pull off that overcoat and make yourself comfortable, Lowndes," +said the younger man. "You've a long journey ahead." + +Whereat a tall, spare, elderly gentleman in the adjoining section slowly +lowered his newspaper and turned half round, while a tall, spare, +elderly, sharp-featured woman beside him, in prim travelling garb, +sprang from her seat and brushing the burly man aside, precipitated +herself upon the shrinking object in the corner. + +"Mortimer Watson Lowndes!" cried she. "Where on earth have you been?" + +For answer Mortimer Watson bowed his flabby face in his hands and wept +dismally. + +Two days later the colonel's office at Fort Cushing was the scene of a +somewhat remarkable trial. It had no force in law, yet was held to be +conclusive. There was no array of uniformed judges sitting, by order, as +a general court-martial. The tribunal consisted, in point of fact, of a +single man, acting as judge, jury and attorney, to wit, "Black Bill" +Riggs, Inspector-General of the Department of the Platte. To the +unspeakable disgust of most of the officers, and the outspoken +disapprobation of many of their wives, only those closely concerned in +or connected with the case were invited to be present. Certain others +who had just happened in, thinking to hear the proceedings, were, +indeed, invited to leave. + +Colonel Button, as post commander and principal accuser, was, of course, +at his usual desk. Colonel Riggs, his jealously regarded rival, was +seated at a little table, whereon was much stationery and a stack of +memoranda. Lieutenant Lanier, somewhat pale but entirely placid, +occupied a chair to the left of that table, with Captain Sumter, as his +troop commander and counsel, by his side. Captain Snaffle was in support +of the post commander to cross-question if he saw fit. Barker, the +adjutant, was present, as a matter of course. A headquarters clerk sat +facing Riggs, prepared to take notes, and the trim orderly stood outside +the closed door. Three or four people in civilian garb sat awaiting +summons in the adjutant's office across the hall, and Sergeant Fitzroy, +with trouble in his eyes and wrath in his heart, was flitting uneasily +about in the domain of the sergeant-major. + +"If you are ready, Colonel Button," began Riggs, with elaborate +courtesy, "I am, and let me briefly say that I have seen Trooper +Rafferty at the hospital, also certain other men named by Captain +Snaffle; but in order that all parties may be given opportunity to hear +and to examine, and at the request of Lieutenant Lanier, who desires the +fullest investigation and publicity, I have invited you and the captain +to hear what I consider the really valuable evidence. Will you call in +Trooper Rawdon?" + +Snaffle's face was a sight when the door opened and there entered a very +self-possessed young man, in stylish and becoming civilian dress, who +nevertheless stood bolt upright, with his hand raised in salute. + +"Hwat's he mean by coming here in 'cits'?" said Snaffle, in hoarse +whisper, to his commander. + +"Yes, Colonel Riggs; if this man's a soldier, why isn't he in uniform?" + +With perfect respect, at a nod from Riggs, the newcomer replied: "My +uniforms, and other belongings of mine, were taken from my trunk in town +during my absence." + +"You could have borrowed one," said Snaffle truculently. + +"I told him he need not," retorted Riggs. "And now, gentlemen, we'll +waste no time trying to worry the witness. Mr. Rawdon, you _were_ a duly +enlisted trooper, I believe. Take that chair." + +"And am still, sir, as far as I know." + +"But your discharge is ordered, as I understand it." + +"It was applied for and recommended, and General Whipple told me in +Chicago a few days ago it was settled; but that would have made no +difference, sir. I should have been proud to wear the uniform until +officially discharged." + +Riggs wheeled in his chair. "Colonel Button, it has been fully explained +to this--man, and to the next, that what they tell us here is to be +just what they would swear to before a court. You can decide for +yourself on hearing it whether you wish them to swear to it or not. Now, +Rawdon, tell us how you came to enlist." + +"As the representative of three newspapers, in Chicago and the East. +They were anxious to have an Indian campaign, and the life of an +enlisted man, described as it really was. I joined a squad of recruits +for this regiment right after the news of the Crazy Horse Battle on +Powder River." + +"Do you still hold that job?" + +"No, sir;" and there was a twitch of the muscles about the corners of +the mouth suggestive of amusement. + +"Why?" + +"I failed to--give satisfaction. Only scraps of my letters were +published." + +"What did they want?" + +"Criticism principally, and confirmation of the stories of abuse and ill +treatment of soldiers by their officers." + +"Were your letters never published?" + +"Three of them, eventually, after the campaign--in the New York _Morning +Mail_." + +Whereupon Riggs spun in his chair and rejoicefully surveyed Button, who +sat like a man in a daze, staring, opened-eyed, at the witness. For the +life of him Sumter could not suppress a chuckle. + +"Then, as I understand it, you were favorably impressed with the +life--and conditions?" + +"In spite of hardship and privation, yes, sir; and because I found +complete refutation of the stories about the officers, both as regarded +their dealing with the Indians and with their own men." + +"Were there any persons with the command who knew you and your mission?" + +"Two, sir, as it turned out. Trooper Cary, who enlisted at the same time +I did, and a civilian, Mr. Lowndes, who recognized us at Fort Frayne. We +were at college together. He and Cary became very intimate toward the +last, and yet I think they kept my secret in spite of our falling out." + +"Do you care to tell us why you fell out?" + +"I prefer that Mr. Lowndes should do that. He and Cary had been chums in +college days, and though we were in the same society I did not know them +then as I do now." + +"You had trouble with Sergeant Fitzroy at first, did you not?" + +"Almost from the start, sir." + +"We have heard his version. What is yours?" + +Rawdon's frank face clouded and colored one moment, but the eyes never +flinched. + +"It was partly on account of the lady who is now my wife, and partly on +account of--money. Fitzroy is an out-and-out usurer, and has a dozen +sergeants in the regiment in his debt and under his thumb, Captain +Snaffle's first sergeant among them." + +"It's a lie!" said Snaffle. + +"It's the truth," said Riggs, "and I have other proofs. You will curb +your tongue and your temper, Captain Snaffle, if you please. Go on, +Rawdon." + +"I had reason to believe he was squeezing Doctor Mayhew. I had learned +to love Mayhew's daughter. I had a little money laid by, and was getting +a good salary. I made Doctor Mayhew take enough to free himself, and won +Fitzroy's hate on both accounts." + +"You are accused of assaulting him the night of the 16th. What of that?" + +"I did not even see him or speak to him. I had been in town in the +afternoon, arranging for our marriage. Doctor Mayhew would not hear of +it until I had got my discharge, but we had decided to be married +Saturday morning, and to go East that afternoon, as important business +called me. Mr. Lowndes will tell you that he owed me much money. I had +lost my position as correspondent, needed the cash, and pressed him for +it. He had promised faithfully to have it ready, but ready it was not. I +knew of his relatives in Massachusetts and urged him to telegraph, but +he said he could get some of it, at least, at the fort. So I drove him +and Cary out in a sleigh, left them at the store, and, circling the +fort, spent two hours with Miss Mayhew. Then getting uneasy, as they did +not come, drove round back to the store just in time to see Lieutenant +Foster's sleigh going like the wind to town, and found Rafferty in +frantic excitement. He said there was hell to pay. The lieutenant was in +arrest. Lowndes and Cary had run away with some of his clothes. There'd +been a shindy up the row, and just then a soldier friend came running. +'Skip for your life, Rawdon,' said he. 'There's been robbery at Captain +Sumter's, and Sergeant Fitzroy swears it was you, and that you've struck +him and assaulted him. The colonel orders you arrested wherever found. +The patrols are out now!' There was no time to explain. I lashed my +team to town, caught Lowndes in cavalry overcoat and cap, the fool, and +with not a cent to his name. I gave Cary a note to Miss Mayhew, which he +never delivered, and took Lowndes with me on Number Six at 11.40." + +"Then you were not at Captain Sumter's that night?" + +"Nowhere near it, sir." + +Snaffle's eyes were fairly popping from their sockets. Hadn't he said +all along it was Lanier? + +"Now, another matter," continued Riggs. "That night at Laramie of which +you told me. These gentlemen will be interested." + +"There was nothing remarkable in that. I had heard of the same thing +being done at West Point. I heard in the nick of time of the order to +the officer-of-the-day to inspect for Lieutenant Lanier. I imagined that +something very serious would happen to him. I knew he'd gone to the +post with Lowndes, and why. So, with my apologies now to the lieutenant, +I slipped round to his tent and into his blankets." + +"Did the lieutenant know of it--or of the reason?" + +"Never, so far as I know. I doubt if he knows it now. Lowndes told me +the lieutenant--before he entered West Point--was a member of our +fraternity. That was enough." + +"And so far as I am concerned," said Riggs, "that is enough. Have you +gentlemen any questions to ask?" + +"Not--now," answered Button slowly. "But I desire personally to see--the +witness--later." + + + + +XIV + + +One more witness appeared before this informal court that memorable day, +and with him, as prearranged, the tall, elderly civilian who had arrived +with Stannard and his party from the East. Mr. Arnold came in, hat in +hand, bowing gravely and profusely, with a very puzzled look in his +face. + +"Thank you for coming, Mr. Arnold," said Riggs, with bluff civility. +"You have met these gentlemen--Colonel Button, Mr. Barker, Mr. Lanier, +Captain Sumter." He pointedly omitted Snaffle, to whom, none the less, +Mr. Arnold bowed as ceremoniously as to each of the others who had risen +at his entrance. "Pray take this chair, sir. As I have explained to you, +Mr. Lowndes, your nephew could not be compelled to testify before a +military court, and need not make public admission here of what he told +us at Rawdon's demand during our journey hither. I hope this is fully +understood." + +Mr. Arnold cleared his throat and beamed benevolently about him. The +occasion seemed propitious, and a moral lesson appropriate, and he +began: + +"My unhappy nephew realizes, with, I trust, genuine contrition, that he +has been the cause of grave trouble, not only to us, his kindred in the +East, but--er--to you military gentlemen in the West. He has, prompted, +as we must admit, by Mr.--Mr. Rawdon, made a clean breast of his +lamentable conduct, and has promised Mr. Rawdon to repeat every word of +it--er--to Colonel Button, but, as his----" + +"Then we'll waste no time," said Riggs impatiently. "We'll have him in, +and I can catch the afternoon train. Orderly, call Mr. Lowndes." + +"Er--I was about to remark," proceeded Mr. Arnold, "that if +any--er--suit for damages, or--er--recovery of money should be in +contemplation, we desire----" + +"Don't fear, sir. Nobody's going to sue for damages. What we want is the +quashing of all charges against this young gentleman, who has been made +to suffer abominably. Ah, come in, Mr. Lowndes. Sit down, sir. You have +met everybody here. Now, as speedily as possible, we'll finish this +matter, and in four hours we'll be off for home." + +It was but a dejected specimen of a college-bred man that sank into the +chair in front of Riggs and faced him with pallid cheek and somber eyes. +One look he gave at Bob Lanier, a furtive, forlorn glance, which met no +recognition whatsoever. Lanier looked him over with indifference that +bordered closely on contempt, but gave no other sign. + +"Mr. Lowndes," said Riggs abruptly, "there is no need of going over the +entire story. I'll ask you to answer certain questions. Who was your +earliest friend in this regiment?" + +The dreary eyes turned once more toward Bob, and the nervous hands +started the slouch hat in swifter revolution. + +"Mr. Lanier, sir." + +"How came that?" + +"I knew he was of my college fraternity before I entered college, and I +showed him my pin and certificate." + +"That insured a welcome, I suppose?" + +"Yes, sir. He--he made me at home in his quarters--and tent." + +"Shared the best he had with you--home, food, drink, even clothes and +money, I'm told." + +The flush deepened in the dejected face. + +"It is all true, sir." + +"Yet you quarrelled with him during the campaign." + +"Yes, sir." + +"Why?" + +"I lost money gambling, and he wouldn't lend me any more." + +"Did you ever pay what he had lent you?" + +"Not--yet, sir." + +"Even after your quarrel did he not aid you?" + +"Yes, at Laramie. I didn't seem to have any friend left by that time, +and had to go to him for help when they wired me to come home." + +"In point of fact, he enabled you to get one hundred dollars at +Laramie?" + +"Yes. I gave my note and he gave his word." + +"What did you do with the money?" + +"Tried to win back some that I had lost, at poker, and lost most of what +I had raised. I suppose I'd have lost all of it if Rawdon hadn't caught +me playing and pulled me out." + +"You owed him still more?" + +"Nearly two hundred dollars, sir." + +"Did you go home?" + +"I couldn't; I had only enough to bring me to Cushing, and they wouldn't +send me any more. I had to go to the ranch and stay." + +"Did you try to earn any money?" + +"Yes, sir, writing about the campaign. Rawdon lost his position because +he didn't send what they wanted, so I thought I might. The editor didn't +know me, and asked for references, so I sent my stories to--to Mr. +Arnold and my aunt. She often wrote for the papers." + +"Is that the way the Boston and other papers came to publish those +scandals at the expense of Colonel Button?" + +"She dressed them up a good deal and made it worse than I described," +faltered Lowndes. + +"Er--let me explain, gentlemen," interposed Mr. Arnold, who had been +twitching in uneasiness. "My sister is of a very sympathetic nature, and +her heart has long been wrung by the injustice meted out to the Indian. +When this unhappy boy wrote those--er--descriptive letters she had no +reason to doubt their entire truth. Indeed, her conviction was that he +was concealing, or glossing over, worse things." + +"He seems to have later supplied you with worse things, Mr. Arnold. For +instance, I will ask you what was his final explanation of his need for +money?" + +"He begged me to send him two hundred dollars at once, saying he would +be disgraced if he could not pay Lieutenant Lanier, who had won it from +him at cards." + +"Mr. Lowndes," said Riggs, "did Lieutenant Lanier ever win a dollar from +you?" + +"Never, sir." And now the miserable head went down into the hot and +feverish hands, and the silence in the room became something oppressive. + +Riggs let him rest a minute, then went on. "Now, then, in your own way, +tell us what happened that night of the 16th." + +For a few seconds there was silence. Then, suddenly uplifting his head +and looking at no one, Lowndes desperately plunged into his narrative. +"I--I--was mad, I suppose, with debt and misery, and I began to drink. +Rawdon told me he _must_ have the money. My uncle had flatly refused to +send me more. I got desperate. There was left me only one way, and that +was through my cousin Miriam. I knew she was out here, and she--she had +always been my best friend in my troubles at home. We'd almost been +brought up together until they sent me out here. She didn't know where I +was. They didn't wish her to know. But I knew if I could see her she +would help me. + +"Rawdon had changed into citizen's clothes in town, and I had pawned my +overcoat, so he lent me his cavalry overcoat and a fur cap, drove me and +Cary out to the fort, and left us at the store, promising to join him at +Doctor Mayhew's in an hour. We were chilled from the ride, and drank +more. Rafferty told me Mr. Lanier was officer-of-the-guard, and +everybody else was at the dance. We filled Rafferty up, for Cary'd made +up his mind he was going to Rawdon's wedding in 'cits' instead of +soldier clothes, and he was bent on borrowing a suit of Lieutenant +Lanier's, even though they would hardly fit him. He swore he'd return +them the next day, and Rafferty let him have them, and he put them on in +the lieutenant's back room. Then he and I went up the rear fence and +caught sight of Number Five--Trooper Kelly. Cary knew him and went ahead +to 'fix things' with him, as he said. Kelly had seen us come out of +Lieutenant Lanier's back gate, and was suspicious. Cary, to quiet him, +told him he was with Lieutenant Lanier--that we were helping Rawdon get +ready for his wedding. He made Kelly drink to Rawdon's happiness, and +drink three or four times, and finally left him with a half full flask +up the row toward Major Stannard's. Then we went to Captain Sumter's. +Kelly told Cary the servants were in at Captain Snaffle's. The door was +open. Cary watched below, while I hunted for my cousin's room. I found +it easily. I knew they had sent her money, and orders to come +home--uncle had written me as much. I found her desk. I knew it well of +old, and then, to my horror, I heard her voice, and in a second she was +in the room. She gave one awful scream, though I tore off my cap and +begged her to know me, but she fell in a faint. Others were coming. I +broke out of the back window, slid and scrambled down the roof to the +shed and so to the ground. I heard men come running, so I dove into the +coal-shed, where the sergeant grabbed me in the dark and I--had to make +him let go, and--said I was Lieutenant Lanier. Later I crawled through a +hole in the fence and started for the store, scared out of my wits. +Right at the next gate I crashed into two men, grappled and fighting. +We all three fell in a heap. I picked myself and cap up and ran again; +caught Cary at the store just jumping into a sleigh, and we lashed those +horses every inch of the way, left them at a ranch gate, and ran to the +station. The train was a few minutes late. Rawdon presently came, and he +took me to Omaha, as I begged him, for I didn't know what could or would +be done to me if I was caught. He, too, had to get away or be thrown +into the guard-house, and that--that's about all." + +"You have that overcoat with you yet, I believe--that cavalry coat." + +"It's all I have had to wear, sir," was the rueful answer, as, rising, +he took the garment from the arm of his chair and laid it upon the +table, with the yellow lining of the cape thrown back, exposing a rent +or gash, whereupon Captain Sumter arose, took from an envelope a sliver +of yellow cloth, and fitted it into the gap. "This," said he, "I found +on the hook of the storm-sash, and this," he continued, laying beside it +a rusty sheath knife, "was later found under the snow, close under the +dormer window." Then turning the overcoat inside out, he displayed on +the back lining in stencil the name "Rawdon." + +"And now," said Riggs, "we will hear the accused." + +"It isn't necessary," began Button, turning in his chair. "I have heard +more than enough----" + +"It _is_ necessary, Colonel Button, if you please, for my satisfaction +as investigator. Of course Mr. Lanier is not obliged to speak, but a few +matters remain to be cleared up. There is yet the time-honored problem +of 'who struck Billy Patterson,'" and Button subsided. + +"The matter is quite simple," said Lanier. "I went direct from the +dancing room to my quarters, not even stopping for my overcoat. I was +chilled when I got there. The fire was low, and I went back to call +Rafferty. He didn't answer, so I had to lug in some fuel. His overcoat +hung in the kitchen and I put that on, and just as I opened the back +door there came the scream from up the row. Fire was the only thing I +thought of, and I saw others running toward Captain Sumter's as I +started from the back gate. Then a man rushed past me, going the other +way, and then the next thing somebody sprang out from Captain Snaffle's +back yard, tripped me, and I went headlong. I was on my feet in a +second, but he had me round the neck, ordering me to surrender. I +wrenched loose and let him have two hard ones, right and left, before he +clinched again. Somebody else collided with us. We all went down. The +last man was up first and ran away, with the first cap he could reach, +and I followed in an effort to overtake him, knowing by that time it +wasn't fire, but robbery. Then when I realized no life was in danger, I +remembered I was in arrest, dropped the chase, and went straight to my +quarters the way I came. Both hands were bruised and left badly cut. I +am sorry, of course, to have struck Sergeant Fitzroy, but the language +he used was vile, and it seemed to me the only way to convince him I was +_not_ Trooper Rawdon." + +"Colonel Button, have you any questions to ask?" demanded Riggs, as +Lanier concluded. + +"Why didn't you tell _me_ this?" demanded Button. + +"I should have been glad to, colonel. Indeed, I tried to the last time I +was in the office," was the deferential reply. + +"Well, gentlemen," said the colonel, as a parting shot, "between us we +seem to have stirred up a pretty kettle of fish." Yet in that culinary +maelstrom even Snaffle disowned either responsibility or complicity. He +always _had_ said Lanier was a perfect gentleman. + +And so ended Bob's arrest and most of our story. Riggs went back with +his report that very afternoon. Rawdon lingered for a word with Cassidy, +Quinlan, and poor remorseful Rafferty; then followed, unhampered even by +his arch enemy Fitzroy, who slipped away to the stables three minutes +after the close of the conference. But he was not even there when, along +in the spring, Mr. and Mrs. Rawdon came out for a visit to Doctor +Mayhew. Like Rawdon, he had received his discharge. Unlike Rawdon, there +was serious objection to his reenlistment. Even Snaffle dare not "take +him on" again. + +The snows lay long and deep in the ravines and hollows. It was not until +mid-May that the poor victims of the blast and blinding storm were +uncovered, and the bodies of the missing were found, save that of +Cary--Cary, who, having been given up for lost, turned up most +unexpectedly the very day that Fitzroy, applicant for reenlistment, was +summarily turned down. But Cary came not of his own volition. He marched +with a file of the guard. Cary's story was simple enough. Rawdon and +Lowndes had hardly got away on the train when Sergeant Stowell and his +party came searching. Cary hid. He was still half drunk. Some one told +him of Kelly's arrest, and charged him with that and with running off +the Fosters' sleigh. He dared not face the music. He forgot his precious +missive to Dora Mayhew until next day. Then the storm held him. Not +until the fire night did he summon up courage to sneak home. He had no +money left and could buy no more liquor. He stole into Lanier's back +door to return the civilian suit and recover the cavalry blouse and +trousers left hanging in Rafferty's room. He could hear the lieutenant +moving about overhead. He had to strike a light; he struck several +matches; found the clothes, slipped out of the "cits" and into his own. +He was cold and numb. He knew there was liquor on the sideboard in the +middle room. The craze was on him, and he risked it. He struck more +matches and threw the burning stumps to the floor, drank his fill, then +stumbled away, intending to give himself up to his first sergeant for +absence without leave. Back round by way of the store and the east front +he went, but before he could reach the barracks came the appalling cry +of fire--Lanier's quarters! His doing beyond doubt, and now, in dismay +and terror, he fled from the post. Some ranch folk took him in next day, +and cared for him awhile, then sent word to the fort. Poor Cary had +Lanier to plead for him before his trial, but three months' hard labor +was the least the law would allow. He was still "doing time" when his +happier friend of college days came back with his sweet young wife. + +By which time, too, another wedding was announced as near at hand. Only +two days did Mr. Arnold and Aunt Agnes allow Miriam in which to prepare +for the homeward journey, but it is safe to say that in that brief time +their views of frontier life and people had undergone marked amendment, +for they had found an old expounder of their faith in the post chaplain, +for one thing, and many surprising facts as to officers, men, and +Indians for another. There came a bright wintry afternoon, at the fag +end of the year, when the station platform held a lively little assembly +waiting for the east-bound express. The colonel and his wife were there, +the former by no means the blood-thirsty warrior of the elder's +imagination. The Stannards had come in, and the Sumters, Kate, and "Dad" +Ennis, the chaplain, and both doctors, and all these surrounded the +brother and sister and held them in cheery converse, while Bob and +Miriam sauntered, self-centred, away. + +There was a sheltered, sunshiny little nook down the platform, between +the baggage and express sheds, with a high, board fence at the back, to +keep off the north wind and human intruders. They passed it twice in +their stroll, but the third time turned in--it was so good to get out of +the piercing wind--as well as out of sight. + +What wonders a few days of delight will do for a girl! The pallor and +lassitude had gone. The soft eyes were brimming with bliss. The rounded +cheeks had regained all their bloom. The sweet, rosebud mouth seemed all +smiles and warmth and witchery, and Lanier's eyes were glowing as he +drew her to his heart and gazed down into the depths of those uplifted +to his. + +"That brute of a train has been late for a week," said he, "but to-day +it comes on time. It is going to be a long, long wait for May. How does +papa seem to take it now?" + +"Papa is quick to make amends when he has wronged--any one, and now he +_knows_." + +"Well, so does Aunt Agnes, Miriam, yet _she_ doesn't approve." + +"Well, Aunt Agnes, don't you know--she's different. She's a good deal +like other women I know. When she's placed somebody else in a false +position, she thinks that person ought to be very sorry for her, and +sympathize with her, for having been deceived and misled. She thinks you +ought to say how sorry _you_ are." + +"How can I say I'm sorry when I'm so glad--_all_ glad?" + +"Well, then, there's Cousin Watson, don't you know? He was always her +pet. He was brought up by a weak mother and a doting aunt, and she knows +you don't approve of him." + +"Does she expect a man to approve of one who maligned him as Lowndes +maligned me?" + +"You should see his earlier letters about you! Why, if I'd known +anything of them I would never dared to meet such a paragon." + +"And yet, after all, he turned to and painted me black as an imp of +Satan. What had I done but good to him? I never took or won a penny of +his." + +A moment of silence, then the fond eyes looked up. + +"You won something he wanted and thought--_was_ his--he never had any +sense. Won't you try to forgive him--for my sake--Bob?" + +His arms went round and folded her closely; his face bowed down to hers. +There was a wordless moment, then the sound of a distant whistle, of +nearer shouts of "T-r-a-i-n." The dark mustache, the unsinged side, was +sweeping very, very near the soft curve of those parted lips. + +"What ransom will you pay?" he murmured. "I've not yet felt these arms +about my neck. I've kissed you, heaven be praised, but, Miriam, have +you ever kissed me?" + +"T-r-a-i-n! Train, train! You'll be left!" again came the shrill +feminine appeals, and with them, approaching, unwelcome, unheeded +footfalls. With sudden, impulsive movement she threw her arms about his +neck and upraised her lips to his. One moment of silence, two seconds of +bliss, then "Dad" Ennis's voice, barely a dozen yards away: "Come forth +into the light, you wanderers!" There was barely time for Bob's fervent +words: + +"If I couldn't forgive him after _that_, I'd deserve a dozen weeks' +arrest." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK LANIER OF THE CAVALRY*** + + +******* This file should be named 19507.txt or 19507.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/9/5/0/19507 + + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://www.gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS', WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, is critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/pglaf. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://www.gutenberg.org/about/contact + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: +https://www.gutenberg.org/fundraising/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. + |