diff options
| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 01:19:14 -0700 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 01:19:14 -0700 |
| commit | 1d500f507b172ddf64e0940d148693948011f280 (patch) | |
| tree | a7c567ea05e4176159cec4375cef245863011deb | |
| -rw-r--r-- | .gitattributes | 3 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 20101-8.txt | 14186 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 20101-8.zip | bin | 0 -> 325933 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 20101-h.zip | bin | 0 -> 660653 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 20101-h/20101-h.htm | 14387 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 20101-h/images/illus004-1.jpg | bin | 0 -> 69630 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 20101-h/images/illus103-1.jpg | bin | 0 -> 73550 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 20101-h/images/illus189-1.jpg | bin | 0 -> 62887 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 20101-h/images/illus335-1.jpg | bin | 0 -> 58191 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 20101-h/images/illus443-1.jpg | bin | 0 -> 57217 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | 20101.txt | 14186 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | 20101.zip | bin | 0 -> 325853 bytes | |||
| -rw-r--r-- | LICENSE.txt | 11 | ||||
| -rw-r--r-- | README.md | 2 |
14 files changed, 42775 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/20101-8.txt b/20101-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..142ae64 --- /dev/null +++ b/20101-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14186 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Under Fire, by Charles King + +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: Under Fire + +Author: Charles King + +Illustrator: C. B. Cox + +Release Date: December 14, 2006 [EBook #20101] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNDER FIRE *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net. (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: RED DOG'S ARREST. + +_Frontispiece._ _Page 264._] + + + + +UNDER FIRE. + +BY + +CAPT. CHARLES KING, U.S.A., + +AUTHOR OF "THE COLONEL'S DAUGHTER," "MARION'S FAITH," "CAPTAIN BLAKE," +ETC. + +_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS_ + +BY C. B. COX. + + +"A bad dhrill, a wake voice, an' a limp leg--thim three things are the +signs av a bad man."--PRIVATE MULVANEY. + +PHILADELPHIA: +J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. +1895. + + +COPYRIGHT, 1894, +BY +J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. + + +ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA, +U.S.A. + + +TO + +GENERAL WESLEY MERRITT, +U.S. ARMY, + +OUR HONORED COLONEL IN THE OLD DAYS AND A VALUED + +FRIEND THROUGH ALL THESE LATER + +YEARS, THIS STORY + +IS + +Inscribed. + +Trancriber's note: Minor typos have been corrected, and ads moved to the +end of the book. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +It is ten years since "The Colonel's Daughter" ventured before the +public and found so many friends that "Marion's Faith" and later +"Captain Blake" set forth in reinforcement, and even then there came the +call for more. Pelham's old regiment was not the only one to contain +either odd, laughable, or lovable characters, so now the curtain is +raised on the Eleventh Horse,--a command as apocryphal as the --th, yet +equally distinguished in the eyes of those who trod the war-path twenty +years ago. + +C. K. + +October, 1894. + + + + +UNDER FIRE. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +It was the last day of Captain Wilbur Cranston's leave of absence. For +three blissful months he had been visiting his old home in a bustling +Western city, happy in the happiness of his charming wife in this her +first long restoration to civilization since their marriage ten years +before; happy in the pride and joy of his father and mother in having +once more under their roof the soldier son who had won an honored name +in his profession, and in their delight in the exuberant health and +antics of two sturdy, plains-bred little Cranstons. The visit proved one +continuous round of home pleasures and social gayeties, for Margaret +Cranston had been a stanch favorite in the days of her girl- and +bellehood, and all her old friends, married and single, rose _en masse_ +to welcome her return. Parties, dances, dinners, concerts, theatre and +opera, lectures, pictures, parks, drives and rides,--all the endless +resources of the metropolitan world had been laid at the feet of the +girl who, leaving them to follow her soldier lover to his exile and +wanderings, had returned in the fulness of time, in the flush of +womanhood, a proud wife and proud and happy mother. People could not +understand her choice at the time of her marriage: "Cranston's all +right, but the idea of going to live in a tent or dug-out," was the +popular way of putting it, and people were still unable to understand +how she could have ever found anything to enjoy in that wild life or to +make her wish to see it again. It was, therefore, incomprehensible to +society that she and her two bouncing boys were utterly overwhelmed with +distress at having to remain in so charming a circle, so happy a home, +when it came time for the captain to return. Society even resented it a +little. Juvenile society--feminine--took it amiss that the Cranston boys +should so scorn the arts of peace, and persist furthermore in saying the +buffalo and bear and wolves in the municipal "Zoo" were frauds as +compared with what they had seen "any day" all around them out on the +plains. Tremendous stories did these little Nimrods tell of the big game +on which they had tired of dining, but some of their tales were true, +and that's what made it so hard for junior society masculine, in which +there wasn't a boy who did not honestly and justly hate these young +frontiersmen, even while envying with all his civilized heart. Loud was +the merriment at school over the Cranstons' blunders in spelling and +arithmetic, but what--what was that as offset to their prowess on +pony-back, their skill with the bow and sling-shot, their store of +Indian trinkets, trophies, ay, even to the surreptitiously shown Indian +scalp? What was that to the tales of tremendous adventure in the land of +the Sioux and Apache,--the home of the bear and the buffalo? What +city-bred boy could "hold a candle" to the glaring halo about the head +of two who could claim personal acquaintance with the great war chiefs +Red Cloud and Spotted Tail?--who had actually been to ride and hunt with +that then just dawning demigod of American boyhood,--Buffalo Bill? Sneer +and scoff and cavil as did their little rivals for a time, calumny was +crushed and scoffers blighted that wonderful March morning when, before +the whole assembled school, there suddenly appeared that paragon of +plainsmen, that idol of all well-bred young Westerners, he whom only on +flaring posters or in the glare of the footlights had they been +permitted to see, and smiling, superbly handsome, king of scouts and +Indian-fighters, Buffalo Bill himself stepped into their midst and +clasped the little Cranstons, madly rejoicing, in his arms, while their +father, the cavalry captain, and even the dreaded teacher looked +approvingly on. It was after that episode of no avail for even the +sturdiest of their schoolmates to seek to belittle the Cranston fame. +Louis, the elder, could not invent a whopper so big as to tax the +credulity of the school. Buffalo Bill was "starring it" with his +theatrical company through the States that spring, playing some +blood-curdling, scalp-taking; hair-raising border drama which all boys +eager strove to see, and when his old chum and comrade, the captain, +went to call on him at his hotel, the great chief of scouts would not +rest until together they had gone to see his friends "the boys." That +other parents should have been pestered half to death as a result of +this visitation any one who knows boys has not to be told, and many were +the queries and complaints addressed to the laughing cavalryman upon +that score. Parents, as a rule, had no proper conception of the honest +merit and deserved fame of this transplanted hero, Bill,--were amazed +to learn from Cranston that he was no fraud at all, but a man whom he +and his regimental comrades swore by. A total change had come over the +spirit of the school-boys' dreams. Nothing but Indian raids, +buffalo-hunts, or terrific combats diversified the hour of recess. The +little girls chose romantic prairie names, were either Indian maidens or +ever-ready-to-be-rescued damsels in distress. The boys became +redoubtable chiefs or rival imitation scouts, but Louis Cranston alone +was permitted to play the _rôle_ of Buffalo Bill; in his presence no +other boy dare attempt it. + +It was a revolutionized society long before that budding May morning on +which the captain had to take train for the far West, leaving wife and +little ones to his father's care until the long threatened and now +imminent campaign should be over. Then, should God spare his life +through what proved to be the fiercest and most fatal of ten fierce and +fatal summers, they should rejoin him at some distant frontier fort, and +the boys' triumphant reign at school be ended. Loudly did they clamor to +be taken with him. Stoutly did Louis maintain that his pony could keep +up with the swiftest racer in the regiment, and indirectly did he give +it to be understood at school that just as soon as the war really began +he'd be out with "C" troop as he had been in the past. The war had begun +and some savage fighting had already taken place, when the orders were +launched for the Eleventh Cavalry to concentrate for field service. +Cranston wired that he would give up the last ten days of his leave, and +Mrs. Cranston, brave, submissive, but weeping sore at times, set to +packing her soldier's trunk. It was their last evening together for +many a long month, and their friends knew it, and therefore, even if +they called to leave a sympathetic word with the grandparents, they did +not expect to see the captain and his wife. Once or twice the +gray-haired mother had come to twine her arms about her big boy's neck, +or to say that Mr. and Mrs. Somebody had just called, but wouldn't +intrude. It was, therefore, a surprise when towards nine o'clock she +came to announce a caller below,--a caller who begged not to be +denied,--Mrs. Barnard. + +"Mrs. _Barnard_!" exclaimed the army wife, in that tone in which +incredulity mingled with surprise tells to the observant ear that no +welcome awaits the announced one. + +"_Who is_ Mrs. Barnard?" asked the trooper, looking up from the depths +of his big trunk. + +"Oh, her husband owns about half the tenth ward," said Mrs. Cranston the +elder, city bred, "and," hesitatingly, "you've often seen her in +church." + +"At church--yes," answered her daughter-in-law, "but no one ever sees +her anywhere else. She has never called on me, has she?" + +"No," said the elder lady. "They are old residents, though, and years +ago when the city was new your father and hers--indeed, her husband and +mine--were well acquainted, but we drifted apart as the city grew. She +was Almira Prendergast." + +"I'm sure I never heard of her when I was a girl, though, of course, I +was away at school a good deal. Every one knows her by sight now because +she's the most conspicuous woman in church. She dresses magnificently," +said Mrs. Cranston the younger. "I couldn't help noticing her diamonds +last Sunday." + +"They must have been big, Meg," put in the captain, reflectively, as he +was getting himself out of his smoking-jacket. "Let's see,--ours is a +hundred-dollar pew down near the foot of the side aisle, and hers a +thousand-dollar box-stall just in front of the centre. Could they flash +all that distance? They'd be useful for signalling----" + +"Wilbur! I do wish you wouldn't mingle church and cavalry slang. It's +downright irreverent, and at the bottom of your heart you're anything +but an irreverent man." + +"I won't," said the captain, solemnly; "at least I'll try to separate +the ideas--they are a trifle incongruous--if you'll tell me how at that +distance you could mingle your devotions with appraisal of Mrs. +Barnard's diamonds." + +"I didn't. If you'd gone to church yourself you'd understand these +things. I couldn't help it. I simply happened to be next to her +afterwards--at communion." + +"Oh, I see," said Cranston, giving a jab at his thinning hair with the +thickest and stiffest of brushes. "That does bring us to close quarters, +doesn't it?" Then with provoking deliberation he rearranged his necktie +and began pulling on his coat. "Hum, let's see," he went on, his eyes +twinkling and his lips twitching ominously, "anything wrong about Mrs. +B., mother mine, or with the millionaire husband? No? I see: just some +of those people one meets at the Lord's table and nobody else's." + +"Wilbur!" exclaimed Mrs. Cranston, in tones of horror. "Indeed, indeed, +mamma, he isn't a bit like that out on the frontier. It's only when he +gets into civilized church circles that he says these outrageous things. +If you could hear him read the burial service over some of our poor +fellows as I have heard him, you'd know he lacked no reverence at all. +He's queer,--he always has been about these social distinctions. You +know and I know they are inevitable." + +But leaving wife and mother to deplore his conduct and comfort each +other with the assurance that he really knew better and wasn't as bad as +he painted himself, which was occasionally in lurid colors, as must be +admitted, Captain Cranston went down-stairs with a certain stiffness of +gait which his intimates were well aware was attributable entirely to a +war reminiscence of Pickett's parapet at Five Forks, but which nine out +of ten, uninitiated, ascribed to military _hauteur_. He was still +smiling his whimsical, teasing smile, for, though a devoted son, +husband, and father, Wilbur Cranston was at times a trial to his +feminine connections, and entertained on matters of church and state +some views that were incompatible with those of high society. With +opportunities second to none other when he joined the pioneer circle in +the early days, Mr. Cranston, senior, had but moderately prospered from +a worldly point of view. Eminent in his profession, he was destitute of +any instinct of accumulation. He was a man the whole county +honored,--whose word was his bond, whose purse-strings had never known a +knot,--who had made large moneys in the law and spent them in charity, +until now, occupying a social position at the top of the ladder, he +lived but modestly in the house that was once the envy of all his +neighbors, many of whom once, and more than once, the beneficiaries of +his charity, now looked down upon him from the colossal heights of their +wheat elevators or sixteen-story office blocks. "The Cranstons were +among our oldest and best people," said Society; "it is too bad they are +so poor." For there had been a time when the old lawyer's health failed +and practice was forbidden, and when Wilbur, once the recipient of a +liberal allowance, felt called upon not only to resign that, but often +to help from a captain's pay. Better times had come, and the soldier son +had been able to make investments for himself and for his father in far +Western mining property that yielded good return; but even when known as +one of the few well-to-do men in his regiment, Cranston had persisted in +a certain simplicity of living that some people could not understand. +There were officers who had married wealthy women,--women whose gowns +were superb, whose parlors and tables were richly furnished, whose +household establishments put to shame those of three-fourths of their +companions; whereas Cranston, even when he was able to dress his family +fashionably and furnish his quarters elaborately, would not do it. +"Every year," said he, "some of our most promising young officers are +going to the devil because they or their wives try to dress or to +entertain as do their wealthy neighbors. It's all wrong, and I won't set +the example. It's getting to be the curse of our army, Meg, and if I had +my way I'd introduce a law the reverse of that in force in foreign +armies. Over there no officer can marry unless he and his bride-elect +can show that they will have over a certain income to live upon. In a +republican army like ours no man ought to be commissioned unless he will +agree to live on less than a fixed amount for each successive grade." +They called him "Crank Cranston" in the Eleventh for quite a while, but +without affecting in the faintest degree his sturdy stand. Margaret's +gowns continued simple and inexpensive, and their mode of living modest +as any subaltern's, and many women spoke of them as "close" and "mean," +but many men wished openly they had Cranston's moral courage. At home, +too, better times had come. There was the old homestead, and Mr. +Cranston as counsel of certain big corporations had his easy salary and +little work. There was no anxiety, but there should be, said he, no +extravagance. + +On the other hand, neighbor Barnard, who in by-gone days, tin +dinner-pail in hand, tramped cheerily by the lawyer's rose-trellised +home long hours before the household was awake, and who in his early +struggles to maintain his little lot and roof had often availed himself +of his neighbor's known liberality, had been surely and steadily +climbing to wealth and honors, was now among the ranking capitalists of +the great and growing city, and a few years back had been united in +marriage to the admiration of his early school days,--Almira +Prendergast, who, disdaining him in the early 50's and wedding the youth +of her choice, was overwhelmed with joy to find in the days of want and +widowhood, fifteen years later, that Barnard had been faithful to his +ideal, had remained single for her sake, and so at last had she +consented to accept him and the control of his household. A pew in the +"First Presbyterian" had been for years his habitual resort on the +Sabbath, but as time wore on and wealth accumulated and the lady of his +love assumed more and more the leadership in all matters, spiritual and +domestic, he saw his establishment blossoming into unaccustomed +splendor, he met new people, later comers from the distant East, and +dropped the old, the friends of his boy days. He never meant to. He was +engrossed in his affairs. He let Mrs. Barnard "run the machine," as he +used to phrase it, knowing nothing of that sort of thing himself, and +Almira's buxom beauty, attired now in splendor hitherto undreamed of, +was rapidly rising into prominence in the new and growing circle wherein +the old families revolved but seldom, but the errant orbits of Eastern +stars were quick entangled; and some few years after their marriage a +new and gorgeous edifice having been erected by the congregation of St. +Jude's, and a daughter having been born to Barnard, the man of money +heard without surprise and with little resistance his wife's change of +faith in revealed religion. St. Jude's, a parochial offspring of old and +established St. Paul's down-town, had become an ecclesiastical necessity +in the growing north side. The Cranstons transferred their pew, as did +others, to follow a favorite rector and his gospel closer to home. Mrs. +Barnard experienced a long projected change of heart because the +acknowledged leaders of the social circle herded thither, and Barnard +followed as his wife might lead. The great memorial window in the south +transept, through whose hallowed purpling the noon-day sunshine +streamed rich and mellow on the gray head in that prominent central pew, +was the devout offering of Thomas Barnard and Almira, his wife, in +testimony of their abandonment of the faith of their fathers and the +adoption of that which in school days they had held to be idolatrous. +Wilbur Cranston well recalled how in his school days Tom Barnard's +honest, sturdy form went trudging by at nightfall from the long day's +labor with the railway gang of which he was "boss," but Tom was a +division superintendent when the lawyer's boy came home from West Point +on furlough just as the war dogs began their growling along the border +States. And now Tom Barnard owned all the tenth ward and most of the +railroad, did he? And it was Tom Barnard's wife, a fair, fat penitent in +sealskin and sables, who drove by in such a magnificent sleigh and style +to humble herself at the altar by the side of such as we, whose social +shoes she was as yet held unworthy to unlatch? Wilbur remembered how +once, some years before, when his father's affairs were straitened and +his own were cramped, when Meg and the baby actually and sorely needed +change, but she sturdily refused to leave him and go East because of the +expense, he had bethought him of Tom Barnard, the rising railway man, +and wrote him a personal note explaining the situation and asking +through his influence if such a thing as a pass for himself and wife +could be obtained over certain roads east of the Missouri, and the +answer came, written by a secretary, brief and to the point. Mr. Barnard +enclosed pass over the Q. R. & X. for Mr. Cranston and wife, but did not +feel in a position to ask favors of any other road. And now Tom +Barnard's wife had come almost at the last moment of his stay and begged +that he would not refuse to see her. What on earth could she want? + +A boy with a telegram had just entered and was at the open door as the +captain reached the hall. Under the gas lamp without Cranston saw the +carriage standing by the curb--a livery team, not the beautiful roans +that had caught his trooper eye the first Sunday of his leave when he +went to church with mother and Meg. The message was sharp and clear +enough in all conscience: + + "We march at once. You can catch us at Fetterman. + + GRAY, _Adjutant_." + +"So old Winthrop goes in command and Bob Gray as adjutant," he mused. +"Then I've no minute to waste." + +His step was quicker, his bearing unconsciously more erect and +soldierly, as he entered the parlor and found himself facing the lady. + +"I ask your pardon for keeping you waiting, Mrs. Barnard. I was in the +midst of packing when you came, as I must go West at once." + +She had not risen from the easy-chair,--a comfortable old family relic +which stood opposite the old-fashioned piano. She leaned forward, +however, so that the sealskin mantle, which the warmth of the room and +the length of her wait had prompted her to throw back, settled down from +her shoulders in rich and luxurious folds. She gave him, half extended, +a hand, which he lifted and lowered once after the fashion of the day +and then released. He remembered her now perfectly,--the Almira +Prendergast the big boys used to say was by long odds the prettiest girl +in the days when half a dozen big brick ward schools were all the town +afforded, but he did not say so, nor did she care to have him. + +"Perhaps I ought to begin by apologizing for taking up your time," she +said, as though not knowing how to begin; and then he saw that heavy +lines of grief and anxiety had eaten their way underneath her dark and +luminous eyes,--ravages that no tinsel could cover or wealth dislodge. +"Was it the driver you spoke to at the door? I heard you say wait. I had +already told him; but it isn't my carriage," she went on deprecatingly. +"Our horses cannot stand night work, the coachman says, and there's +always something the matter with them when they are most needed." + +She was looking at him appealingly, as though she hoped he might suggest +some way of helping her to say what had brought her thither--besides a +livery carriage; but Cranston had taken a seat and was waiting, the +telegram crushed in his hand. At last she spoke again. + +"You--went to West Point, didn't you?" + +"I? Yes." + +"Well, then, you could tell me, couldn't you, how to get my boy there?" + +"You mean by-and-by when he is old enough?" + +"No. I mean now,--at once,--this week in fact." + +"W--ell. That is hardly possible, Mrs. Barnard. Cadets are admitted only +in June or September, and only then when there's a vacancy in their +congressional district. But, pardon me. How old is your boy?" + +"He is twenty-one,--my eldest,--my first husband's." + +"And you wanted to make a soldier of him?" asked Cranston, smilingly. + +"Indeed, no! It's the last thing on earth I'd have chosen, nor would he, +I am sure, if he were in his right mind." + +"Oh, well, then I shouldn't worry about it, Mrs. Barnard. In this +country, you know, no one has to be a soldier unless he very much wants +to, and very often then he can't. And no boy who isn't in his right mind +could get into the Point even if given a cadetship. What made you think +of it?" + +"Why, it seemed--at least I was told--it was the only way out of the +trouble he is in. He--is already in the army, but I'm told it isn't so +bad if one is an officer." + +Cranston kept his face with admirable gravity. + +"Then I assume that he has enlisted. If he is only just twenty-one and +enlisted without your consent before his birthday, you can still have +him out." + +"Oh, we've tried that," said Mrs. Barnard, gravely, "but he had tried +twice before he was twenty-one, and they refused him until he brought +papers to prove his age. Then when he did enlist and we attempted to +have it annulled, they confronted us with these. They refused to believe +our lawyer." + +"Well, pardon me, which was right, the papers or the lawyer?" + +"The paper. It was my own letter; but I didn't suppose they had it +when--when we sought to have him released as not of legal age." + +Cranston smiled. "Was it Mr. Barnard's proposition or the lawyer's?" + +"Well, the lawyer said at first there was no other way that he knew of, +we'd have to do that. Of course you understand I wouldn't ordinarily +authorize an untruth, but--consider the degradation." + +"The degradation of--having to--authorize the untruth?" + +"No; of his enlisting,--becoming a soldier. I thought I'd had to suffer +a good deal, but I never looked for that." + +And then Cranston saw her eyes were full of tears. + +She had tried lawyers. She had used money. She had invoked the influence +of powerful friends. Each and everyone consulted assured her that the +case could be settled in a twinkling. They would get the boy discharged +at once. Then one after another all had failed, and then some one +suggested to see him, Cranston; he was a regular, perhaps he could help. +It was hard to think of her son as a soldier, but, said she, if he had +to be, for a time at least, why not get him out of where he was and put +him at West Point? She had come, she said, to tell Cranston the whole +story, and then he could have kicked himself for the momentary amusement +she had caused him. + +Ah, what an old, time-worn story of mother love, mother spoiling, mother +sorrow! Her bonny boy, her first-born, wild, impulsive, self-indulgent, +overindulged as was his father before him, he had gone the pace from +early youth; had been sent to and sent from one school after another; +had filled and forfeited half a dozen clerkships; tampered with cards +and drink and bad company. Mr. Barnard had been willing to do +anything--everything for him, but he had dishonored every effort, broken +every compact, failed in every trial, forfeited every trust. At last +there had been hot and furious words, expulsion from the house and home, +a life of recklessness, gambling and drinking on moneys wrung from her +until her patience and supplies both had given out. Then some darker +shadow,--arrest and incarceration, one more appeal to mother, one more, +on her knees, from mother to husband, a compromised case, a quashed +indictment, temporary residence at a resort for cure of inebriates--the +one condition exacted by Barnard--and prompt relapse, when discharged, +into his former habits,--disgraceful arrest because of some trouble into +which he had been led while drinking. This, all this she had borne, but +never dreamed, said she, that worse still could follow,--that he could +sink so low as to become a soldier. + +What Captain Cranston would have said to a man who had come to him with +such a tale, and with such unflattering conception of the profession he +was proud of, need not here be recorded. It was a mother, helpless, +sorrowing, and honest at least in her impression of the step taken by +her recreant boy. She had come craving help and counsel, not instruction +in the injustice of her estimates. Quivering, trembling, weeping, the +heart-sick woman in her magnificent robes had opened the flood-gates of +her soul and poured out to this comparative stranger the story of her +son's depravity. Aloft, two women listened awe-stricken to her sobs. +Cranston brought her water, made her drink a little wine, and bade her +take comfort, and amazed her by saying that at last her boy had shown a +gleam of manhood, a promise of redemption. She looked up through her +tears in sudden amaze. How was that possible? He must have been drunk +when he did it, and couldn't have been anything but drunk ever since. +Cranston patiently explained that so far from being drunk, the boy must +have been perfectly sober or they couldn't have taken him. He had been +frequently to the recruiting office, according to her account, and must +have been sober at such times, or they would have discouraged his coming +again. He couldn't have been drinking to any extent since enlistment or +he could not be where she said he was, and knew he was, on daily duty as +clerk in the office of the adjutant at the barracks. So far from its +indicating downfall, degradation, it was the one ray of hope of better +days. She looked at him, joy and incredulity mingling in her swimming +eyes. "Then why does everybody I've consulted, even our rector, urge me +to leave no stone unturned to get him out of it, even if we have to buy +him a place at West Point?" was her query. And again Cranston found it +hard to control his muscles--and his temper. Had it come to this?--that +here in his old home the accepted idea of the regular soldier was that +of something lower than the refuse of the prisons and reformatories? He +could only tell her that it was because they knew no better. Up to the +time of her boy's determination to enter the army had there been one +single moment in the last five years when he had been free from his +habits of drinking? asked Cranston. No, not one. And yet that step was +her conception of final degradation. What had occurred, he asked, to +make her feel renewed anxiety, to cause her to seek a cadetship for him? +Because the boy had written that recruits were soon to be sent to +cavalry regiments out on the plains, and he had asked to go. The thought +was terror. And Mrs. Barnard had learned that a congressman from the +interior of the State had a cadetship to dispose of, but he lived at +Urbana, the very place where poor Harry had spent his two months in the +retreat, and then had disbehaved so afterwards. And Mr. Goss, the +congressman, wanted references,--wanted him to pass examination, which +he could not do, because he's only been a little while at school. Harry +wrote a beautiful hand, and had read everything--everything, but he +hated anything like arithmetic as a study, and Cranston had to smile and +tell her that that in itself put West Point out of the question. But, +said he, if he has ambition and ability, why not encourage him to +persevere where he is and win commission from the ranks as many another +boy had done? Bless the mother heart! That, too, had occurred to her, +but they had told her it would take two years at least, whereas Harry +was a born leader, a born commander. That boy could step right out now +and command an army if need be, she said, and no doubt believed it; but +when she wrote to Mr. Cooper about it (and Mr. Cooper it seems was +Colonel Cooper, the boy's commanding officer), that gentleman replied +that while the young soldier had certainly conducted himself in a most +exemplary way and had given promise of being an ornament to the +service,--"He used those very words," said she, producing the colonel's +letter. "See, 'an ornament to the service,'"--still, the colonel could +hardly promise that the boy could rise above the grade of sergeant +inside of two years. + +Cranston recognized the handwriting, and took the letter. "I know +Colonel Cooper," he said, "and he means just exactly what he writes. +Mrs. Barnard, I am glad you came. I am glad to take a weight off your +mind. I wish your friends and advisers were here that I might say this +in their presence, especially our good rector, but I say to you with all +my heart, I congratulate you on the step your boy has taken. I honestly +believe he has done better for himself than you could do for him, and I +advise you to let him go and learn campaigning on the frontier. It will +make a man of him if anything will," and he added under his breath, "or +kill him." + +"And if you meet my boy, you'll help him? You'll be a friend to him?" +she smiled through her tears. "God bless you for so helping me." + +"I'll help him every way I know how," said Cranston. + +And so they parted. She infinitely comforted, he oddly impressed. But +Mrs. Barnard felt that fate was still against her and her boy when, four +weeks later, flashed the news of savage battle with the Sioux, of +Captain Cranston shot through the body and fearfully wounded in the +fierce encounter. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +Fifty seats in the parquette had been reserved for the members of the +class graduated from West Point on the beautiful morning of the 12th of +June. The brilliant auditorium was thronged with friends of the young +fellows. Officers of the Academy were seated in the boxes, interested no +more in the play than in the enjoyment of "the boys" just released from +their four years of hard study and rigid discipline. Two of the chairs +were vacant almost until the close of the first act, then their owners +came in. + +"You fellows have missed a heap of fun," whispered a classmate. Then a +burst of laughter and applause drowned his words. "All the same we +didn't miss the train," was the reply as soon as the new-comer could +make himself heard, after the lowering of the curtain. "Poor old Dad! It +wasn't easy to let him go." + +"What took him off in such a devil of a hurry? We counted on his being +with us at the last supper." + +"Oh, the Parson don't take much stock in last suppers--of this kind," +answered the other in no irreverence of spirit, for the young fellow +spoke in genuine earnestness; "still, he couldn't have gone back on us +if it hadn't been for bad news from home." + +"What, his mother?" + +"No--o. It's a girl. He said he had to go." + +"Ah, yes, we knew all along he was engaged, though he never said +anything about it. Parson never struck me as being one of the spoony +kind." + +"No, he wasn't a bit. He wrote to her every week, but her letters kept +coming all the time--regular continued stories; but he wouldn't stand +chaffing about them and didn't fancy remarks, so I quit." + +"Know anything about her? Ever see her picture?" + +"Once, by accident,--a mighty pretty girl, too,--but he never talked +about her; it wasn't his way. We lived together the last two years, and +I reckon there isn't anything I didn't tell him. I remember how you all +laughed at the idea of my taking up with 'Parson' Davies, but he's pure +gold." + +"There's no discount on that, Jimmy; but what a time it took to find it +out! If it weren't for the riding-hall we never would have known how +much there was to him. There may be some prettier riders than Parson, +but he's all round the best horseman in the class. What on earth did he +choose the infantry for?" + +"Something about that girl, I reckon. Looks to me as though he were +going to get married before he joined the regiment." + +"Sacrificing himself and his profession for the sake of a spoons, is it? +Well, thank God, I'm not in love, and I wish he weren't." + +Meantime the subject of this cadet chat, a tall, slender, serious-faced +young fellow, was sitting in one of the crowded cars of the night +express whistling away up the shores of the Hudson, shadowy yet +familiar, fifty miles to the hour. His new civilian dress--donned that +morning for the first time--bore something of the cadet about it in its +trim adjustment to the lines of his erect, even gaunt figure. He sat +very straight, looking silently across the aisle out on the starlit +river to his left, and holding on his knees the new dark-blue cape and +an old travelling-bag. A lone woman in search of a seat had entered the +car at Harlem and passed by a dozen unsympathetic travellers, who made +no move to share the seat over which they sprawled aggressively. The +first to lift his satchel and make way for her was the tall, thin-faced +young man in the straw hat and pepper-and-salt suit. He rose and offered +her the inner half, which she accepted gratefully, then thanked him in +broken English for stowing her various bundles in the rack above. + +The conductor looked oddly at him as he unrolled his ticket. + +"Going through? Don't you want a sleeper?" + +"How much is a single berth to Chicago?" + +"Five dollars." + +"No. I'll get along here." + +Not until they reached Albany, after midnight, had he a seat to himself. +Meantime, finding his companion overcome by drowsiness and her poor old +head bobbing helplessly, he rolled his new cloak cape into a sort of +pillow, wedged it between her and the window seat, and bade her use it. +As they came in view of the brightly-lighted station she awoke with a +start and made a spring for her belongings. She had slept soundly ever +since they left Poughkeepsie, and was again profuse in gratitude. "We +stay here several minutes," said Mr. Davies. "Let me help you with your +bundles." And, unheeding her protest, he marched off with a bird-cage +and a big band-box. A burly German made a rush for the car the moment +she appeared upon the platform and lifted her off with vehement +osculatory welcome, Davies standing silently and patiently by the while, +then surrendering her traps to her legal protector. "He is such a kind +young man," said the smiling frau. "He gif me his seat. We have a sohn, +yust so old as you," she added, "but he is farder as Chick-ago. He is a +soldier, out by Fort Larmie." + +"Yes?" said Davies, smiling. "Then perhaps I'll see him some day. I +expect to be out there before long." + +"And you are a soldier, too! Ach Gott! ein offizier?" she exclaimed, in +consternation, born of German associations. + +"Not yet, though I suppose I shall be very soon. What is your boy's +regiment?" + +And, jabbering excitedly now, both at once, the two old people began +pouring their tale into his ears; told their boy's name,--"He was a +gorboral alretty,"--and they were justly proud, and Davies made them +happy by noting the name and company in his book and giving his own, +though he explained that he was not yet a lieutenant, only a +just-graduated cadet, but that if ever he found the corporal, he said, +he should tell him of his pleasant meeting with the old folks, and then, +after a cup of coffee at the restaurant counter, he returned to his own +thoughts and the car. + +Soon they were spinning up along the shining Mohawk, and still his +eyelids would not close. In his waistcoat-pocket lay a bulky letter, +the last of many in the same superscription--a prim, unformed, +school-girlish hand--that had come to him during the last two years of +his cadet life. Its predecessors, carefully wrapped and tied, were in +the old trunk somewhere ahead among the baggage. In his hand again was +the telegram that, reaching him at the moment when he was bidding adieu +to the academic shades he had grown so deeply to love, had determined +him in the already half-formed resolution to cut loose from his comrades +and the class festivities in New York and take the first train for the +far West. + + "URBANA, June 12. + + "Doctor says come quick. Almira worse. + + "B." + +"B" was Almira's elder sister. Urbana, the home of his boy- and her +girlhood, the home where his father lived and died, pastor of the +village flock, a man whose devotion and patriotism during the great war +had won for himself the friendship of the leaders of the armies of the +West and for his only son, years afterwards, the prize of a cadetship at +West Point. Deeply religious in every fibre of his soul, the chaplain +had labored among the hospitals in the field from first to last, and +died not long after the close of the historic struggle, a martyr to the +cause. He died poor, too, as such men ever die, laying up no treasures +upon earth, where moth and rust and thieves are said to lessen treasure +there accumulated, yet where its accumulation seems the chief end of man +not spiritually constituted as was Davies, who was imposed upon by every +beat and beggar, tramp and drab, within reachable distance of Urbana. +Far and wide had spread abroad the words of his personal creed,--that he +would rather it were recorded against him that he had been duped a +million times than that one human being had left his door hungering. His +widow was not only merely penniless, she was helpless but for the strong +arms of her son, who slaved for her as the father had slaved for the +Union. Those were the days when pensions were few. It was too soon after +the war, and facts were fresher in men's minds. Percy did all the +farm-work by day and taught school by night until, in his twenty-first +year, he was sent to the Military Academy by the President himself, who +had known his father from the days of Donelson. It was told of the tall, +taciturn young man that he seriously contemplated resigning during his +fourth class year when he found that he could not send home the little +savings from his cadet pay. If the rule of the sacred commandment could +but be made to work both ways, and days would be indeed long in the land +the Lord our God had given to him who most honored his father and +mother, no life insurance company in all America would have hesitated in +Percy Davies's case, had the policy been millions and the premium unity. +A gentle woman was Mrs. Davies, but a distressingly helpless and +dependent one, and it was an old saying in Urbana that Davies had +married poor Salome Percy because if he didn't nobody would; not because +he stood in need of her, but because she was much in need of him. And +when, not long after his father's death, Percy appealed to a well-to-do +citizen on the widow's behalf, he was refused, and the brawny son and +heir of the well-to-do citizen told of the incident, and was idiot +enough in Percy's presence to repeat this old village saw as the reason +of the refusal, it nearly led to tragedy. Seizing the first available +weapon, a flail, which he wielded with uncommon skill, in one mad moment +the indignant youth smote the other hip and thigh,--the first, and for +years the only, time he was ever known to lose control of himself. In +ten seconds the battered gossip was sprawled full length, and they who +would have rushed to tear his assailant away stood amazed to see him +tearfully imploring the pardon of the vanquished. + +And then as Percy grew in years and grace, working day and night that he +might obey that last sacred whispered injunction, "Take care of poor +mother," and Urbana grew in population and importance, one mortgage was +lifted by the sale of part of their little farm, and the home made more +comfortable for the ailing, querulous woman. She loved young folks, and +yet lacked the faculty of attracting them. Striving to interest some of +the village maids in her, Percy interested more than one in himself, and +among these was a rural beauty, by name Almira Quimby. She was only +sixteen, a romantic child with an exquisite complexion, big melting blue +eyes, and curling ringlets. She lived, said other village maids, "on +Sylvanus Cobb and slate-pencils." She devoured with avidity every bit of +sensational trash procurable in the public or post-office libraries, and +made eyes at the tall, strong school-master,--the best rider, reaper, +thresher in the field, and best reader and declaimer in the winter +lyceums. He was intellectually far ahead of his fellows, and his father +had labored to teach him. He was "serious," which was our Western way of +saying he had strong religious views, and Almira became devoted in her +attentions at church, Bible-class, and Sunday-school. Still, he did not +become an adorer, and she began visiting the widow in her affliction, +and thereby seeing more and more of the widow's son. There were +strapping prairie beaux who would have given all they possessed for any +one of the soft, shy looks she stole at Percy Davies, and who began to +hate him vehemently as her fancy for him increased. + +He would have been of utterly unimpressionable material could he have +looked unmoved day after day upon her budding beauty, and it was not +long before Davies found himself strangely interested, and still he +would not speak. It was not until his appointment came, and he was +preparing to go to the Academy, that he owned himself vanquished. +Almira's red eyes and not entirely concealed emotion had told the mother +how the girl was grieving at the prospective loss of her first love, and +she with motherly solicitude took Percy to task. If he cared for Almira +why didn't he say so? With perfect truth the young man replied that he +couldn't help admiring her, but had struggled against it because he was +in no position to marry, and did not know when he would be. To this the +mother replied that she had grown very fond of Almira, and had learned +to depend upon her. She was not only very pretty but, what was much +better, a very good girl, and her father was as "well-to-do" as anybody +in Urbana, except the hotel-keeper. He could well afford to give her +part of the big farm and build them a house near the widow's own roof. +She knew, or thought she knew, as do so many of us, just what her +neighbor could and should do, but overlooked the fact that old Quimby +had two sons and three daughters older than Almira. The fact that most +of them were married in no wise detracted from their expectations of +material aid from the "old man." The fact that he might care to take +unto himself a wife to replace the late incumbent now sleeping placidly +in Urbana's leafy cemetery was no more contemplated by them than by the +Widow Davies. But there was another widow in Sangamon County who knew +better and who wisely said naught. Almira's father was well off, said +Mrs. Davies. She had rich relations in the great metropolis of the +State. Her Aunt Almira was married to the manager of the Q. R. & X. +Railway,--the man who used to send father Davies an annual pass so long +as he lived. Mrs. Davies longed, she said, to see her son happily mated, +and then she would be glad to go and rest by the father's side under the +shadow of the soldier's monument. How it all happened would be too long, +too old, and by no means uncommon a story. When Percy Davies went to +West Point he left behind him a weeping maid who vowed that she would +wait for him a lifetime, if need be. It was really quite a romantic +parting, and the young man believed himself very deeply in love, and so +did Almira. + +And yet he was not easy in his mind. Percy Davies was old for his years. +He was going to the Point because of his father's strong predilection +for the graduates of that institution. The son had no especial taste +for a military life. He was studious. He would far rather have gone to +some college or university and pursued a classical course, and then +studied for the law or the ministry. He had no means for such an end, +however, and accepted what was offered him on his father's account, with +no little uneasiness on his own. It was not his desire or purpose to +remain in the army. If he could honorably do so he meant to leave the +military service within the four years which his letter of appointment +stipulated he should serve after graduation. He doubted the propriety of +his accepting it under the circumstances, and he--looked upon by his +fellow-men and youths as the most enviable of their number--left his +home for the new life in no enviable frame of mind. + +For some months after his departure Almira fairly lived with the invalid +mother, and was faithful both to her and to the absent lover. Not a day +passed without her spending hours with the widow and discoursing on the +perfections of the absent one. Old Quimby, a hard-fisted, hard-headed +old democrat, had made no objection to the engagement, remarking that if +'twan't Davies 'twould be somebody else, and seeing as he was the +smartest lad at farming and schooling, and that it would be four years +anyhow, why, there was no call for him to worry. Then Urbana built a +bigger school-house and got a new teacher, and for two years saw naught +of Percy Davies. Property increasing in value, another slice of the +homestead lot had been sold, and with economy the widow could be +comfortable on her little income; but it was not long before the +gossips, dropping in to cheer her up a bit, began to tell of the swains +who were making eyes at 'Mira, and then of 'Mira's growing consciousness +of her charms and fascinations. The second year of Percy's absence there +could be no doubt that three or four bucolical hearts were turned on her +account. Had there been just one devotee the absent lover's claims might +have been endangered, but there being several she was content in a +placid cowlike way in their attentions, and became less devoted to +mamma. With the second summer, however, Percy came home on cadet +furlough. The slight stoop was gone. An erect, martial carriage and +quick, springy step had replaced the somewhat plodding gait of the +school and farm. The sprouting beard and whiskers had vanished, and a +stiff moustache, which soon began to curl and twist becomingly, adorned +his upper lip. The "store clothes" of the Western town long since cast +aside, Davies appeared in stylish and trim-fitting civilian dress, but +resolutely declined all appeals to wear--except for mother's eyes--the +uniform of his famous corps. When he went on sunshiny Sundays to the +church that seemed hallowed to his father's memory, the spotless white +trousers and natty sack coat of dark-blue flannel were, however, so +military in their effect as to create, despite himself, almost the +effect of regimentals. Then he had acquired already an air and manner, a +polish that distinguished him at once above his fellow-townsmen, and +Almira's wavering allegiance gave place to new romance and fervor. The +old flame had found too little breath in his earnest, honest letters to +keep it alive. As for him, though he had belonged to what was termed the +"bachelor gang" at the Point and mingled but little in ladies' society, +he was a close observer, and Percy Davies saw at a glance that though +more radiant in her rustic beauty than before, more appealing to the +senses in the flush of her health and unconscious grace, there was still +something besides the fashion of her gown that differed widely from the +beauties who thronged the gravelled walks, the shady groves, the tented +field of the national military academy. The swains of the winter gone by +were less in evidence now, and it pleased her anyhow during the two +months of his home stay to forget them one and all and cling only to +him. Changes came in the next two years--and trouble. Old Quimby married +again. Almira's home-life became unhappy. Quarrels ensued between the +new wife and the children. Reproaches fell from the lips of the failing +widow because of Almira's tacit acceptance of the devotions of young Mr. +Powlett, son of the resident physician of the sanitarium that was now +bringing so many patients to Urbana. A handsome, dare-devil sort of boy +was Powlett, who speedily cut out all the local beaux at the parties and +picnics which filled the summer of '75. A beautiful dancer was he, and +taught Almira to waltz and "glide" in a style never before seen in +Urbana, and that other couples first derided, then envied, then vainly +strove to imitate. That Urbana censors should go to the widow with +invidious comment upon Almira's misbehavior was a matter of course, and +that the widow should transmit their tales, not entirely without +embellishment and reproof, was only to be expected. Almira accepted both +with ill grace, was moved to tears and protest. She couldn't help it if +people admired her and liked to dance and walk and talk with her. She +must either submit to it or shut herself up and mope and not go out at +all. She thought Mrs. Davies most unjust, but she did not promise to +amend. Then the widow, finding Almira obdurate, was moved to write to +Percy advising him that he should caution her, who was only +light-hearted and thoughtless, and, to the widow's surprise, Percy +refused. He gravely wrote that Almira was but a child when she engaged +herself to him. She had seen nothing of the world or of other men, and +it was a matter he would not interfere with, and one that he desired his +mother to leave alone. This was simply incomprehensible. Urbana was very +gay that autumn and early winter. The sanitarium was the means of +bringing business to town, and a number of new stores were opened, and +new young men came to tend the counter and swell the parties, and still +young Powlett held supremacy, and everybody began to say that the cadet +was cut out, and Almira Quimby had gone over heart and soul to the new +claimant, when there came a cataclysm,--a scandal at the sanitarium, a +stir at the Palace Hotel, Urbana's new hostelry, the arrest of a +recently discharged patient by the name of Brannan, an afflicted young +man with what was described as an unconquerable mania for drink, and the +sudden disappearance of young Powlett. There was investigation and more +scandal. It transpired that this young Adonis had abused his father's +trust to the extent of smuggling liquor to certain patients and of +heaven only knew what else. Dr. Powlett resigned, crushed and +humiliated. Lawyers came and bailed out the other unfortunate, of whom +it soon was rumored that he was Almira Quimby's own cousin, the son of +her rich city aunt, and that was the reason the lawyers and not the +relatives came. It was presently established that young Brannan was more +sinned against than sinning, and the holidays opened, with a fearful gap +in Urbana, for Almira's devoted lover, to the comfort of every +right-thinking maid and swain in Sangamon society, had fled, no one knew +whither. + +Two weeks later the Widow Davies lay at death's door. Her son was +telegraphed for, and came. His leave was for only one week,--even that a +most unusual concession, granted only because of his unimpeachable +conduct and his safe though not high standing in scholarship. His coming +seemed to give new life to the mother, and Almira vied with him in +attention and devotion. Urbana took it much to heart that after her +months of monopoly of Mr. Powlett, of whom the most damaging and +dreadful things were now told, she should so calmly and complacently +resume her apparent sway over this martial and dignified and superior +sort of person, the widow's son. Urbana fully meant that his eyes should +be opened just so soon as the mother's were closed. But Urbana found +that luck was dead against it. The widow began to mend,--the son it was +who was suddenly prostrated on the eve of his return to the Point. + +Leaving Almira at her father's door one night after seeing her safely +home, Davies was found lying in the high-road, senseless, an hour later, +and never, said Urbana, knew what hit him. Concussion of the brain was +feared, for he had evidently been assaulted in the dark from behind and +felled to earth by blows of some heavy, blunt instrument. Robbery was +evidently the motive, for his little store of money and the beautiful +and costly watch presented to his father at the close of the war were +gone. Almira had two patients now, and devotedly she attended them. When +in a fortnight Percy declared he must return, and did return to pass his +midwinter examination, she wore at last an engagement ring. Urbana did +not know that he had offered--and she had refused--freedom. Urbana did +not know that she declared she loved him as she never did before, and as +she never had another. Urbana resented it that he who was so soon to +occupy the exalted station of an officer of the regular army, and the +princely salary of something over a thousand dollars a year "with all +expenses paid,"--double the sum enjoyed by the head salesman of Miller & +Crofts,--should be so utterly deluded as to the frivolous character of +his betrothed, and means were taken to enlighten him. Anonymous letters +came to Cadet Davies of the graduating class, which that grave and +reverend senior committed, not to memory, but to flames. Whatever she +had been before his visit and mishap, Almira was all devotion now. In +May he wrote to her gravely and affectionately, bidding her remember +that he always felt that she had been pledged to him when too young to +know her own mind, that his must needs be a life of self-denial, +privation, and danger, that he must live with the utmost economy +consistent with his position as an officer, because his mother's comfort +must be a sacred charge so long as she lived, and that it might be years +before he could see his way to asking any woman to come and share his +lot. All this he had conscientiously explained to her before, and she +had met it with tears and reproaches. She could help him live +economically. They could sell the homestead and take mother to live with +them. She would welcome the day when she could leave her father's roof, +now no longer a home to her. She knew it must be that he was tiring of +her,--that he had met some proud lady in the East, and his poor little +village maid was forgotten, etc. Now, in answer to this last letter, +virtually proffering release if she so desired, her response was +vehement. He would kill her with his cruelty and coldness. She had no +hope or ambition other than to share his lot, however humble. To be her +noble soldier, her hero Percy's bride, would be her heaven, and neither +gold nor grandeur nor princely mansion could tempt her from his side, +and she would welcome the grave if he proved false to her. It was all +the high-flown, emotional, melodramatic trash to be expected of an +ill-balanced girl whose pretty head was stuffed with the romance of the +country post-office type, and Davies sighed heavily as he read. + +He had planned to visit an old friend of his father's and see something +of New York harbor and city before turning his back on the East. Never +yet had he set foot in Gotham, and as it would be years before +opportunity might again be afforded him, he had weighed it all pro and +con, and decided that Dr. Iverson's advice and invitation should be +accepted. He would go with his classmates, spend the last evening with +them, and join the reverend doctor on the morrow. His mother, even in +her invalided state, urged that he should do so, but Almira heard the +plan with fresh outburst of tears. There was to be a grand picnic of +all the beaux and belles of Urbana on the 18th. She had counted on +having her soldier lover in attendance on that occasion. She had told +him of it, and that was enough. She had declined all other invitations, +saying that Mr. Davies was to hasten thither the moment the graduating +exercises were over, and now to think of the triumph and malicious +delight of the other girls was intolerable. Her lover should fly to her +like homing-pigeon the instant he was released from prison. It was +tantamount to treason that he should purpose anything else. Almira +fretted herself into a fever. She wrote one long letter to the recreant +Parson, and her sister Be_ay_trice, as they called her, followed it up +with another still more alarming. Then, as he did not wire instant +submission, the telegram was sent. Old Quimby was on the platform at the +Urbana station as Davies sprang from the train. "Nothing much," said he, +in response to the young man's eager inquiry. "Some dam girl nonsense +she and Bee have cooked up between them. When they ain't devilling the +life out of their step-mother they're worrying somebody else. Oh, +yes!--'course the doctor's been humbugging for a week,--too glad to get +a chance of shovin' in a bill." + +Davies went gravely up the sunny street to his mother's home,--a meeting +that served to chase away the clouds, and then an hour later to Almira's +bower. Bee ushered him into a pretty room whose windows were overhung +with honeysuckle and pink chintz, and there in a great old-fashioned +rocking-chair reclined the lovely invalid, who greeted him with +outstretched arms and rapturous cry, and who was sufficiently restored +to exhibit him at the Sunday-school picnic as originally planned. So far +as she was concerned, all went blithely as a marriage-bell until the +morning of July 5, when there came the fearful news of the massacre of +General Custer and his troops at the hands of the Sioux. That evening +the city papers said all officers on leave were hurrying to their +regiments, that reinforcements were being pushed to the front, that +recruits were needed at once; and the next day, followed by a mother's +prayers and a maiden's unavailing protest, Percy Davies was gone. Just +as his father did in '61, leaving all to pursue the path of duty, the +young soldier, though not yet commissioned, sped to the nearest army +post, and joined the first command _en route_ for the field. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +In the hot July sunshine, up the long vista of the street the flags hung +drooping, every one, with a single exception, at half staff. Over the +building where hearts were heaviest the colors soared highest; the +general commanding, until ordered from Washington, being debarred a +manifestation of mourning which the sovereign citizen adopts as a matter +of course. It was bitter disaster that had befallen the national arms +and involved so popular a commander with scores of his gallant men; the +stars and stripes that had been saluted all over town in honor of the +ever-glorious Fourth were now set at mid-height or draped with black. +The crowds that had gathered about the newspaper offices and department +head-quarters all the previous day were scattered, in the conviction +that little remained to be told, but there was a gathering at the +railway station to bid adieu to the battalion of infantry from the +neighboring fort, leaving by special train for the seat of war. They had +cheered the dusty fatigue uniforms as the cars rolled away, and many a +young fellow would gladly have gone with the boys in blue could he have +faced the social ban which a misguided public has established against +its most loyal servants, holding enlistment in the regular army as +virtual admission of general worthlessness. And now the crowds still +lingered under the glass roof of the big passenger shed, for word had +gone out that another train coming across the bridge was loaded with +more troops, and there was a fascination in watching these prospective +victims of the stake and scalping-knife. It had been a fierce campaign +thus far, and one in which the losses and vicissitudes both (there are +no honors to speak of) had been borne principally by the cavalry, but +now the "doughboys" with their "long toms" were being pushed to the +front. "Wait till Emma Jane gets her eye on ould Squattin' Bull," said +an Irish private, patting the butt of his rifle, as with head and +shoulders half-way out of the car window he confidentially addressed the +crowd. "It'll be the last spache he'll ever ax to hear." + +"That'll do there, Moriarty; get that gun inside," said a lieutenant, +briefly. And as Moriarty obeyed, with a grin and wink at the throng, the +laugh and cheer that went up were evidently for Private Pat and not for +his superior. It is the smiling face, not official gravity, that wins +the great heart of the people. The band which had headed the column on +the march in from the post, but was not to accompany it to the field, +was still waiting to give the next comers a fitting "send off." Two or +three staff officers in civilian dress stood in earnest talk with the +superintendent of the railway, a knot of curious citizens surrounding +them, eager to pick up any point with reference to the troops or their +transportation. Expectant eyes were cast towards the east where the +towers of the great bridge loomed in the shimmer and glare of the hot +noontide. "She ought to be here now," said the railway-man with an +impatient snap of his watch-case. "What keeps No. 5, Gus?" he asked of +an assistant hurrying by. + +The man hauled up short and touched his hat. "This just came at the +train-despatcher's office, sir," said he, as he handed up a slip of +paper, which the superintendent quickly read, a queer look coming into +his face as he did so. + +"Hu-m-m, gentlemen. This is something _you_'ll have to straighten out. +It doesn't seem to be in my line." And he handed the paper to Major +Ludlum, chief quartermaster of the department, who in turn read it, his +eyes filling with grave concern. + +"Recruits on No. 5 broke loose at Bluff Siding,--drunk--raiding the +saloon. Can't get 'em on train again. Can guards or police be sent?" It +was signed by the conductor. + +"Well," said Ludlum, disgustedly, "we might have known that would +happen. The idea of sending three car-loads of raw recruits with only +one officer, and that one old Muffet. It's tempting Providence." + +"Why, I thought he had a lieutenant with him. Somebody said so at the +office this morning," said the department engineer officer. + +"Not even a lieutenant,--a cadet, if you like; graduated not a month +ago,--not yet commissioned. Some young cub just out of school, with +about as much idea how to handle drunken recruits as I have of dressing +a doll. Home on graduating leave and thought it his duty to volunteer is +all I can make out of it." + +"Well, bully for him!" spoke up the superintendent. "The boy's got the +right stuff in him if that's the case." + +"What's his name?" asked the engineer officer. "I knew most of this +year's class when I was there on duty." + +"Davies," said the quartermaster, consulting a notebook. "Remember him?" + +"Why,--yes,--vaguely. He was not in the section I had charge of," said +Captain Eustis. "One of the last men to attract attention,--Parson +Davies they called him, I believe. He was one of the Bible-class. Don't +think anybody knew him outside of the Sunday-school." + +"No wonder the recruits jumped the traces with no one but old Muffet and +a parson," said the quartermaster, disdainfully. "Now the question is, +what's to be done? Somebody's got to go over and pull them out of the +hole." + +The situation was indeed serious. Many of the commands now suddenly +ordered to take the field were so short of men that, after the manner of +doing things in the 70's, a detachment of undrilled recruits, one +hundred and eighty strong, was hurriedly tumbled aboard the cars at the +cavalry depot on the Mississippi, while others were shipped from the far +East for the Foot. Only one officer--a semi-invalided old trooper--could +be spared from Jefferson Barracks to accompany the batch. There was no +time to wait, and just an hour before the detachment started there +arrived at the office of the depot commander a tall, slim, solemn young +man in brand-new fatigue uniform,--that of the infantry,--who introduced +himself as Mr. Davies of the graduating class, who said he was not yet +assigned to a regiment, but having read that all officers were hastening +to join their commands before they got beyond communication in the +Indian country, thought it possible that he might be assigned to some +company in the field and didn't wish to be left behind. That night he +was seeing his first service. Colonel Cooper, the post commander, shook +him by the hand and presented him to old Muffet, who was in a devil of a +stew and glad of professional help, and then wired on ahead to the +general commanding across the Missouri, or to his representatives at +head-quarters,--he being in the field. All went well enough early in the +night, but, towards morning, whiskey had been smuggled aboard in +sufficient quantity to start the devil of mischief, and finally, at +Bluff Siding, just before reaching the Missouri bridge, overpowering the +unarmed and perhaps sympathetic sentries at the car doors, and defying +the orders of their sergeants, the half-drunken crowd swarmed out and +made a swoop upon a saloon across the side-track. In less time than it +takes to tell it every cubic foot of space of the bar-room was packed +with rioting humanity in grimy blue flannel. The proprietor, who had +stood his ground at the instant of initial impact, was now doubled up +underneath the counter; his shrieking family--Hibernians all, and +somewhat used to war's alarms, though hardly to the sight of raiding +boys in blue--had taken refuge in the privacy of their own apartments +above and behind the saloon itself, while within the reeking +establishment pandemonium had broken loose. Bottles, glasses, and raw +liquor were liberally besprinkling the heads and shoulders of the +surging throng. A brawny Irishman, mad with the joy of unlimited riot +and whiskey, was on top of the counter impartially cracking the heads of +all men within reach with the blows of a big wooden bung-starter. Four +or five who had found the trapdoor leading presumably to the supplies in +the cellar were furiously fighting back the crowd so as to admit of +their raising it and forcing a passage down the wooden flight. Poor +Muffet, vainly pleading and swearing, was scouting on the outskirts of +the crowd about the door-way, occasionally turning and shrieking orders +to some bewildered lance sergeant to find the lieutenant and tell him he +must get in there and do something, but the lieutenant was nowhere to be +seen. At a respectful distance the neighbors were looking curiously on, +half a dozen roustabouts from the wharf-boat moored under the bank, a +little batch of railway employés, a number of slatternly women, not +entirely unsympathetic, and perhaps half a dozen hands from a +neighboring saw-mill, but all these, combined with the townsfolk +hurrying to the scene, would have been powerless as opposed to the +sixscore drink-maddened "toughs." Of the recruits, perhaps a dozen had +remained in the cars; of their non-commissioned officers, perhaps half a +dozen were trying to do something, but having no directing head or hand, +accomplishing little. It looked as though nothing but the bursting +asunder of that ramshackle building would liberate its human charge, for +even those who, battered, bleeding, and suffocated, would gladly have +escaped into outer air, were packed in, sardine-like, and incapable of +self-extrication. To the appeal of the conductor that he should regain +control of his men and prevent destruction of property, the luckless +Muffet plaintively responded, "My God, what can I do? I've done my best, +and nobody else has done anything. The only officer I've got has +deserted me." + +But even as he spoke, accompanied by a jutting and hissing and spraying, +by outburst of yells, jeers, maudlin laughter, there came sudden +vomiting forth of drenched and dripping forms. Over the heads of the +throng within, into the hot faces of the throng without the double door, +hurling them back from the battered entrance in sudden panic, a powerful +stream of cold water, shooting from unseen nozzle, broke up and +demoralized the drunken barrier. Skilfully directed into the heart of +the crowd at the door-way, then into the ruck and tumult within, it +first cleared a passage, then, torrent-like, swept away into it, +tumbling and swearing and cursing, but going, the last able-bodied +invader of saloon sanctity, bestowing upon its foul interior the first +thorough washing it ever received, driving the despoilers before it with +the force of a battering-ram, yet even then, unsatisfied, following up +its victory. With perhaps half a dozen soldiers and as many mill-hands +hauling on the slack of the hose behind him, through a north window came +the tall, slender, serious-faced person of Mr. Davies, a laughing young +lance corporal manning the butt with him, and, aiming low and driving +discipline and punishment at the rate of a gallon a second, _a +posteriori_, at the now drenched and scattering mob, and shouting, "Back +to the train! Back to your seats!" never did they cease their deluge +until the last laggard capable of locomotion took shelter within the +cars. Muffet, recoiling in time to escape both rush of men and muddy +water, stood shouting confirmatory orders from the platform the while. +Many a mob will face the shock of charging steel and hissing lead that +melts away before ridicule and squirted water. The _emeute_ was ended +long before the police arrived, and Muffet had regained some measure of +his accustomed presence of mind. "Oh, we simply manned the saw-mill +hose," said he, in complacent acknowledgment of the congratulation of +the staff officials first to meet him. "It didn't take long to souse +them to their sober senses." + +Indeed, the three car-loads of dripping and bedraggled humanity, meekly +side-tracked under the guarding bayonets of the one company of infantry +left at the fort, found not a sympathetic eye among the lookers-on. An +ambulance had carted off to the hospital four or five, whose battered +skulls bore witness to the hammering powers of big Milligan and his +bung-starter. That redoubtable giant himself, weak from the shock of +having involuntarily gulped more water in a second than ever before he +had swallowed in weeks, was flattened out in a baggage-car. Two more of +the arriving reinforcements failed to appear to the public eye at the +scene of congratulation, and, as sometimes happens in even so well +regulated a family as our little army, these were the two who most +deserved any honors that were being bestowed,--Mr. Davies and his +assistant pipeman. + +Just as the last prostrate victim of that powerful combination--rum and +riot--had performed the frog's march to the baggage-car, the raving +saloon-keeper had been instructed to send his bill of damages to the +chief quartermaster across the bridge, the conductor had signalled "Go +ahead," and the young officer, ruefully scanning the wreck of his new +fatigue uniform, was clambering on the platform of the sleeper, when he +saw that the blood was dripping from the corporal's hand, despite the +big handkerchief wrapped about it. + +"Come in here, corporal," said he. "Let me look at that. How did it +happen?" And he led the way into the men's toilet-room of the sleeper. + +"I must have cut it with some of that broken glass at the window," was +the answer. + +He was paling now, drooping evidently from loss of blood. Quickly Mr. +Davies unrolled the bandage, and there, beside a little jagged gash, +disclosed a deep cut from which the blood was oozing. "Why, man," said +he, "that's as clean as though done with a razor. Did any one try to +knife you?" + +But the soldier made no answer. He sank limp upon a seat. Two civilian +travellers, in prompt sympathy, tendered flasks, and a stiff cup of +brandy brought back some vestige of the flitting color. Then a young +lady came forward from the interior of the car. "Please let me help +you," she said. "My father was a surgeon and I know something about +these wounds." Davies gratefully gave way to her, and found himself +watching the swift, skilful touch of her slender white hands as she bent +over the work. It was finished in a minute, and then with calm decision +the girl spoke again. "I will take him back to our section. He needs +quiet for a while," said she, standing erect now and addressing herself +to Mr. Davies, and rather pointedly ignoring the younger civilian, whose +interjected remarks fell upon ears that were dainty but deaf. "I am with +Mrs. Cranston," said she, "whose husband is among the wounded. Do you +know him?--Captain Cranston?" + +"Only by reputation," answered Davies, raising his cap. "You are very +good to our men. Go with this young lady, corporal. I'll come as soon as +I can wash my hands." + +Hardly waiting, however, for his reply, the girl had passed her hand +underneath the soldier's arm and led him rearwards as the train slowly +rounded the long curve to the bridge embankment. Davies slipped out of +his sack coat and plunged his hands in the basin. "Would you mind +pumping for me?" he said to the nearest civilian, who with his companion +stood gazing admiringly after the girl. "My hands are covered with that +poor fellow's blood." + +"Certainly," was the prompt answer, as one of them grasped the +nickel-plated lever. The other and younger man turned to the ice-water +tank, rinsed the tumbler that had just been used to such good purpose, +poured out another stiff load of spirits, and with confident kindliness +held it out to the young officer. + +"Thank you," said Davies, shaking his head, "I never use it." + +"You don't?" was the surprised answer. "Why, I thought all army officers +drank." + +"That seems to be the general idea," was the quiet answer. "Much more +general than the practice, I hope. Thank you," he continued, as, drying +his hands, he quickly donned his coat and went on through the car. They +watched him a moment as he was presented to the elder of the two ladies, +one whose face, though still young, bore traces of grief and tears and +anxiety. They saw her look up and clasp his proffered hand, evidently +glad to meet one of her husband's cloth. + +"Now, if I'd only known about her husband's being one of the wounded, I +could have rung in there all right," said the younger of the two +travellers. "I haven't seen a prettier girl in all my wanderings,--but +she stood me off even on a dodge I never knew to fail." + +"You were too transparent, so to speak, Willett," said the elder. "She +couldn't help seeing you were trying to scrape acquaintance. All young +girls don't take to frivolity any more than all officers to whiskey." + +Willett, nettled at this palpable hit, spoke resentfully. "Oh, I dare +say they'd make a good team,--one's a prude and the other a prig." + +"Perhaps not a very bad team, as you put it, my boy," was the answer, as +the elder thoughtfully regarded the two now in earnest conversation. +"But a girl who won't flirt isn't necessarily a prude, nor a man who +won't drink a prig. If I were marrying again, I should be glad of a girl +like that for a wife. If I were soldiering again, I'd like that boy for +a sub." + +And just before leaving the train on its arrival at the Omaha station +the speaker went to Davies and held out his hand. "Lieutenant," said he, +"my name is Langston. I met and knew a number of West Pointers during +the war, and I am glad to have met you. If ever I can be of service to +you in my way,--and my duties carry me out here on the frontier very +often,--let me know." + +Never dreaming how it might be needed, Davies accepted the proffer of +services with all that the proffer implied. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +Guarded by a detachment of veteran infantry, the recruits so turbulent +at noon were spiritless now in every sense of the word. Turning over his +charge, as well as his account of their conduct and of his own, to the +commander of the escort, Captain Muffet remained at department +head-quarters long enough to impress the officials thereat on duty with +his version of the riot at Bluff Siding,--its inciting cause and its +incisive cure. Then he went back to the cavalry depot and presumably +improved on his initial effort. The story of Muffet's wild ride with the +raw recruits and Muffet's method of quelling a mob was often told that +summer at the rear long after Lieutenant Davies and the recruits in +question had gone to the front and were lost to all communication. The +officer who went in command from Omaha was an expert. He established a +sergeant's guard in each recruit car, with orders to flatten out the +first man who left his seat, rap every head that showed outside a window +when the train stopped, and so turned over the one hundred and +seventy-two that were turned over to him a sick and subdued lot by the +time they reached Fort Sanders the following afternoon. "This is Mr. +Davies,--Lieutenant Davies,--just graduated,--who's to go on with 'em," +said he to the commanding officer of that old army post, adding for his +private ear, "He's a tenderfoot and doesn't know anything but moral +suasion." To this conclusion Captain Tibbetts has been impelled by what +he had heard as well as by the events of the night. Mr. Davies, of whom +he knew nothing except what Muffet had to say, having been told that he +needn't bother about the men any more, had nevertheless bothered about +them, three or four at least, very much,--Lance Corporal Brannan to +begin with, who was slashed in the hand, and a couple of sorely battered +penitents in the middle car among them. No surgeon being with the +detachment, Davies had begged permission towards evening to fetch these +poor fellows back to the sleeper, where their hurts could be cleaned and +bandaged. Tibbetts said no, and two hours later yes. Meantime he had met +the ladies, one of whom, the elder, exhausted by the sleeplessness and +anxiety of forty-eight hours, was comforted by the despatch brought her +at Omaha to the effect that her husband was being sent in by easy stages +to Fort Fetterman, where she could meet and nurse him, and she was now +finally and peacefully sleeping in her berth. The other, a slender, +graceful girl, with very soft dark eyes and grave, sweet, mobile face, +who sat and fanned Mrs. Cranston during the heat of the afternoon, had +next surprised the captain by re-dressing the ugly wound in the young +corporal's hand. Tibbetts knew Captain Cranston well by reputation. He +was one of the finest troop commanders of the cavalry arm, but Tibbetts +had never before met Mrs. Cranston and her companion now consigned to +his care. + +"You are well taught in first aid to the wounded," he said. "Where did +you learn?" + +"My father was Dr. Loomis, of the army," she answered, simply. "He +taught me when I was quite a child. He died, as I think perhaps you +know." + +"We all knew him, Miss Loomis," was the instant reply. "Even those who +never met him, personally, knew him as I did,--for his devotion to our +poor fellows in the fever epidemic. And your mother?" + +"Mother has been dead for years. I am alone now, but for my cousin +Margaret,--Mrs. Cranston. I am her companion." + +And the captain, himself aging in the service, and with daughters who +might be left as was this girl,--penniless,--understood, and bowed in +silent sympathy. It was the sight of the gash in Brannan's fist that +called him back to the business before him. + +"How did you get that?" he asked, with professional brevity, little +liking it--soldier bred as he was--that one of the new flock should thus +be parcelled out from his fellows and transported in a Pullman. + +"Climbing through the window of the saloon I--cut it, sir," was the +answer. + +"Yes--_there_ perhaps," said Tibbetts, indicating the smaller gash, "but +this one,--clean cut like a knife. Whose knife?" + +Whereat Brannan looked confused and troubled. "I don't know, sir," he +finally said. + +"I believe you do know, and that you got it in that saloon row. A pretty +thing for a man like you to be mixed in." + +Whereat Brannan reddened still more, and looked as though he wanted to +speak yet feared to say. It was Miss Loomis who promptly took the word. + +"Indeed, captain, you don't understand. He was ordered in. He was +handling the hose pipe--the very first--with Mr. Davies." And here she +turned as though to seek the other pipeman, while Tibbetts +effusively--impulsively--began to make amends. + +"Well--well--well," said he. "That's a totally different matter. You got +your wound in a good cause, sir, and if I could find out who tried to +knife you, he'd repent it this night. Are you sure you don't know?" + +"I don't think anybody tried to cut me, sir," was the answer, after a +pause. + +"Didn't you see anybody with a knife?" + +But this Brannan wouldn't answer, and the captain, after a moment's +thought, went lurching through the grimy, swaying cars, hunted up the +two damaged recruits and gruffly bade them follow him. Davies looked up +gratefully as they entered the sleeping-car, but the captain did not +notice him. "I have reconsidered," said he, "and brought these patients +to you, Miss Loomis," then turned abruptly away. It was the subaltern +who aided, and then who thanked the skilful, light-handed nurse, for the +poor fellows seemed both abashed and humbled. One of them, looking +furtively about, had caught sight of Brannan, sitting alone in a section +with his bandaged hand. Quick glance of recognition was exchanged. There +was an instant of question in the new-comer's eye. It was answered by +the corporal, who raised two fingers to his compressed lips one second, +then let them fall. But Davies saw,--saw also that when told by the +captain they might remain there in the roomier, cooler sleeper for a +time, the younger and more intelligent-looking of the two dropped into +the seat by Brannan's side. They chatted in low tone together, as the +night came on, their lips moving and their ears attent even though their +heads were turned apart,--communing as men commune who do not wish to be +thought in conversation. + +"We shall have supper at Grand Island," said the captain, presently, +"and coffee will be sent through the cars for the men. If you will +escort Mrs. Cranston and Miss Loomis, Mr. Davies, my sergeants will look +after the command." And Mr. Davies being subordinate and just out of +four years' training in which no man may hesitate to do just as a +superior may bid, obeyed his instructions, not unwilling, even though +smarting under vague sense of being given to understand he was of no +military use. + +Re-entering the car, refreshed after a hearty supper, and seeing his +fair charges to their section, Mr. Davies caught sight of his invalids +still seated where he had left them, and looking weak and hungry. + +"Did they bring you no coffee? Have you had no supper?" he asked. And, +as a shake of the head was sole answer, he sallied forth. Appealing to +the sergeant in charge of the distribution of the cooked rations, he was +favored with the brief reply, "The captain didn't give me no orders." +Moreover, there didn't seem to be anything left. The captain was still +leisurely finishing his own supper, after having got the coffee started +on the train. The huge caldrons used for the purpose were already being +lifted off the cars, empty. Every drop had been spilled or swallowed by +the hungry and thirsty crowd. With quick decision Davies stepped to the +lunch-counter, loaded up with huge frontier sandwiches, doughnuts, and +hard-boiled eggs, and bade the manager draw a jug full of coffee and get +it, with some cups, milk, and sugar, on the sleeper at once. He came +forth laden, the Pullman porter with him, as the conductor was trolling, +"All aboard." Down the platform he went with the eyes of half the blue +coats on the cars upon him, and soldiers refreshed by food and coffee +are in more receptive mood than when dejected by hunger. Some men in the +third car who had heard his eager queries of the commissary sergeant +knew for whom those supplies were meant, others did not, and of these +latter one jocular and untutored Patlander sang out, "Bully for the +leftenint; 'tis he that knows how to look out for number wan." Whereat +there came furious shouts of "Shame!" "Shut up!" and inelegant and +opprobrious epithets, all at the expense of the impetuous son of Erin +who had spoken too soon. Some one whacked his empty head with an equally +empty canteen and called him a Yap. Some one else, farther back, sang +out, "Three cheers for the lieutenant," and stentorian authority in +chevrons bellowed "Silence there, fore and aft!" and then, when instant +hush and awe rewarded the mandate, followed up the order with the +military Milesianism, "Youse fellers wants to keep your mouths shut +barrin' you're atin'." The wounded in the Pullman ate and drank +gratefully and heartily at the lieutenant's expense, and these are +matters the rank and file remember. Lance Corporal Brannan, made +comfortable for the night in the sleeper, had a few murmured words with +the dark-eyed and more intelligent-looking of the two recruits before +they were remanded to their own car for the night, where they went, and, +after the manner of their kind, one of them bragged not a little over +the bully supper they had had with the lieutenant. "Enjoy it while you +can, me bucks," was the caustic comment of a fellow-recruit who had all +the ear-marks and none of the credentials of previous service about him. +"It's the last of that sort of hobnobbing you'll ever see." + +For upwards of an hour during the night, while Mrs. Cranston lay +peacefully sleeping, Mr. Davies and Miss Loomis sat in conversation in +the opposite section. Tibbetts, who would fain have enjoyed such a +privilege, found no opportunity. Somewhere towards ten o'clock he came +quickly in. Davies read official matter in the captain's manner as he +approached the section, and rising, stood attention, cadet-like, when +addressed. + +"Mr. Davies, while I think everything will go quietly with those +fellows from this on, I wish to take all necessary precautions. I will +divide the night with you. After two o'clock I wish you to go through +the cars once every two hours and see that the recruits are quiet and +the guard alert, also to step outside to the platform when we stop at +stations. Better turn in now and get what sleep you can." + +But though promptly at two o'clock the young officer aroused the +captain, who was dozing in the smoking-room, he himself had had little +sleep. The events of the day, the novelty of his position, the desire to +see something of the strange, half-settled land so recently the +roaming-ground of Indian and buffalo through which they were steadily +rolling, and which lay outspread, weird and ghostly, in the summer +moonlight,--these and thoughts of home and the rapidly nearing +possibilities of frontier warfare, all combined to make him wakeful. He +was only getting sleepy when he should have been wide awake. Captain +Tibbetts was an old campaigner and awoke from his doze with a start, +shook himself together, and said he'd take a turn through the car before +undressing for the night. In a moment or two he returned, the first +sergeant with him, and this faithful old soldier was rewarded by a long +pull from the captain's canteen before returning to the recruit car. + +"Do you know anything about that young fellow,--ever meet him before?" +said Tibbetts, indicating with a nod the recruit corporal, who, with a +pillow under his head and his feet on the opposite seat, was now curled +up in slumber. + +"No, sir," answered Davies. + +"Well, he's a man of good education and family, if I'm not mistaken. I'm +told he's been on duty as clerk at the depot, and 'twas he who made out +the rolls. It will be long before he can write again. Better leave him +at Sanders." As he spoke the captain was holding out the well-filled +flask in one hand, the cup in the other. Davies took neither. "Won't you +have a nip?" asked the senior. "It'll help you to keep awake." + +"Thank you, sir, I never have, and don't care to begin." + +Tibbetts began screwing on the cap, looking his man over as he did so. + +"I believe you're right," said he, "and if I were to begin over again +I'd do the same. But we were all taught the other way fifteen years +ago." He paused as though he half wanted to say more, but finally turned +away and disappeared in his section. + +Obedient to his instructions, Davies made frequent tours through the +cars, and scouted the outside of the train at every stop. The night +passed, however, in perfect peace. The dawn came hours before the train +was due at Sidney, where coffee was again to be served. Only one +incident occurred to give him food for new thought. Towards four o'clock +he returned to the sleeper after an absence of some ten minutes, just as +the train pulled slowly away from one of those little prairie stations, +and as he entered the dimly-lighted aisle he saw that Brannan was not in +his place. Standing at Mrs. Cranston's section farther on, a little +phial and medicine-glass in her hand, her dark hair falling in heavy +braids down her back, attired in a loose, warm wrapper, was Miss Loomis, +calm, yet evidently anxious. Beyond her hovered Brannan, holding the +captain's flask. + +"What is it?" asked Davies. "Can I be of assistance?" + +"Mrs. Cranston woke up in some pain," was the answer. "I know just what +to do for her. Thank you, corporal, I believe we won't need the +flask.--He thought I needed it," said she, turning to Davies. And +Brannan, going to the captain's section, slipped his prize back into the +little russet leather satchel and shoved it underneath the berth. Davies +looked at him in some surprise, but made no comment. + +"I am sorry I was not here to help you," said he. "Did you have to wake +him,--Brannan?" + +"He was awake. A soldier was in here speaking with him when I heard Mrs. +Cranston, just after we stopped at the last station. We were there +several minutes, were we not?" + +"Yes, taking on water; but Captain Tibbetts gave orders that no man +should leave his car. Who was the man who came in here, corporal?" asked +he of Brannan. + +"I--I couldn't give his name, sir," was the answer, in evident +embarrassment. "He came in just the minute the lieutenant got off at the +station. He was only in here a few seconds, sir." + +"What did he want?" asked Davies. + +"He--wanted something of the captain, sir, but I told him the captain +was asleep." + +Davies hastened through the passage and across the jolting platform to +the next car ahead. + +"Sergeant," said he, "what man went through here into the sleeper when +we stopped last station?" + +"No man, sir," said the non-commissioned officer, stoutly. + +"But there must have been--or no, perhaps he could have run along the +left side of the train from a forward car and jumped on the platform. I +didn't think of that. Did you see or hear no one?" + +"I heard some one on the platform of the sleeper, sir, but I thought it +was the lieutenant." + +Going forward Davies met with no better success. The guard at each door +was positive no man had gone out. Then, unless there were collusion on +the part of the sentries, he must have slipped through some window, said +Davies to himself. Miss Loomis was still up and rearranging Mrs. +Cranston's pillows when he returned. + +"Did you ascertain anything?" she asked. + +"Nothing. They all deny any knowledge of such a thing." + +"Do you know, I thought there was something strange about it. The man +seemed hurried and excited, talked low and fast, and when Brannan +refused or seemed to refuse what was asked, I heard him say, 'Well, +you'll be a sorry man if you don't.'" + +But of this threat Brannan denied all knowledge whatsoever. Davies, +feeling sure that the young soldier was concealing something, decided to +ask no more questions inviting more lies, but to wait and report the +affair to the captain after breakfast. This time the sergeants did not +overlook the lance corporal in the distribution of coffee and rations. +Davies found that Miss Loomis had just finished dressing and bandaging +the wound when he returned to the sleeper shortly after they resumed +the journey. The soldier looked gratefully into her face as he turned +away, and murmured something the young officer could not hear. "Yes, I +understand," said Miss Loomis in reply. + +A moment later she accosted him. "I'm going to ask you something that +may sound very strange," she said, and her color heightened and the lids +swept quickly over her eyes, "yet--I believe you won't misunderstand. I +want you to do something--or rather _not_ to do something--for me. You +were going to tell Captain Tibbetts about that affair of last +night,--that other soldier's coming in here, were you not?" + +"I certainly was." + +"Well--please don't." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +A week later, with additional detachments of horse, foot, and recruits, +Mr. Davies found himself in camp on the sandy, sage-covered flats to the +west of old Fort Fetterman. Here, too, were gathered wagons and mules +laden with ammunition and supplies for the big column already in the +field far to the northward. Officers hurrying to the front from leave of +absence which they had promptly relinquished, newspaper correspondents, +packers, teamsters, scouts and would-be scouts, soldiers old and +soldiers new,--it was a strange and motley array, all awaiting the +coming of the cavalry command, which was to be their escort through the +Indian-infested region that lay between them and the main supply camp +beyond Cloud Peak. Between them and the barren slopes to the northward +rolled the swollen Platte, its shallowest fords breast-deep. At rare +intervals, with his life in his hands and his despatches done up in +oil-skin, some solitary courier came galloping down to the opposite bank +and was hauled over by the rope ferry, the only means of dry +communication between the shores. One day, strongly guarded, there +arrived a little procession of ambulances and _travois_, bearing such of +the wounded as could stand such rude transportation,--but this was while +Davies with his recruits was still on his foot tramp through the passes +of the Medicine Bow,--and among these wounded was Captain Cranston, now +comfortably housed in the quarters of a brother officer who was with his +troop at the front, and there Davies found the two ladies, his +companions of the railway ride, duly installed as nurses. Almost the +first question asked by Miss Loomis was about her patient, the lance +corporal. + +"He is here with us," said Davies, "his hand still in a sling. That was +a deep cut and a bad one, but he's a plucky young fellow and declined to +be left behind at Sanders. He tells me, however, that the hospital +steward with us cannot compare in skill with the nurse he had on the +cars." + +Miss Loomis smiled. "You know I owe that to father," she said. Then, +with quick change of subject, "But I haven't congratulated you on your +assignment." + +"Is it here?--has it come?" he asked, eagerly. "I did not know. What +regiment?" + +"To the Eleventh Cavalry,--Captain Cranston's own regiment." + +"The Eleventh Cavalry!" he exclaimed, surprise and pleasure in his face. +"I had not hoped for that; and yet----" a shadow falling and constraint +creeping into his tone. "I fear I ought to have gone into the infantry. +I had made every preparation. Where did you hear?" + +"About the orders? Why, from Colonel Denton. He came last evening to +call, and we were speaking of you. Haven't you been to see him yet? You +know that's an officer's first duty on coming to a post." + +"I came here first," answered Davies. "It seemed most natural. Of course +I was going to call on the commanding officer. Captain Tibbetts said he +would take me as soon as he came up, a little later. I got away earlier, +as I wanted to inquire for my letters, but I missed them after +all,--they had been sent over to camp. Are you sure about my being +assigned to the cavalry?" + +"There's no doubt about it. Colonel Denton said instructions came by +telegraph to notify you of your assignment to the Eleventh, and +directing you as having relinquished graduation leave to report to +Colonel Winthrop, now commanding the regiment in the field. Perhaps your +throwing up your leave and seeking instant service had something to do +with your good fortune,--if cavalry is really what you wanted." + +"It is certainly what I would most like," he answered; "and yet,--there +were reasons." + +She stood there in the door-way in her cool white dress looking so fresh +and dainty and fair to see; her dark eyes had lighted with pleasure at +sight of her friend, and the flush was still on her soft and rounded +cheek. She was noting how his few days of marching and campaigning had +improved him, even at the expense of a sensitive complexion. Mr. +Davies's nose was peeling, as a result of a week's exposure to +blistering Wyoming suns, his eyes were red-rimmed too, in tribute to +alkali dust and water. The gloss was gone from his trim fatigue dress, a +red silk handkerchief had replaced the white starched collar, and a soft +drab felt hat the natty forage-cap. But he looked the more soldierly and +serviceable if less trim, and being tall, spare, and athletic, if not +particularly handsome, Mr. Davies was at least as presentable as the +average of his fellows now thronging the post, for bristling beards and +frontier scouting-dress banish all vestige of dandyism. But if she liked +him still better now that the week had wrought its changes, what could +be said of his impressions? Attractive as she had appeared in the grime +and dust and heat of the railway car, now in that dainty gown of cool +white lawn, open at the rounded throat, she saw with woman's unerring +eye the unspoken approval if not open admiration in his face. Not yet +nineteen, she had lived a busy, earnest, thoughtful life. The Cranstons +had known her from early maidenhood. She was a child in the Southern +garrison in the days of the great epidemic, when the young captain owed +his life to the doctor's skill and assiduous care. It was this that led +to the deep friendship between the two men, and to Cranston's assuming +the duties of guardian and protector after Loomis's lamented death. It +was this that determined her hastening to Mrs. Cranston the moment the +sad news came, and then accompanying her to the frontier. A mature head +was that on her young shoulders, but she who had so easily repelled the +advances of the admiring fellow-passenger on the train had been +attracted by the bearing and behavior of the young officer, who, +absorbed in his new cares and duties, had apparently noticed her hardly +at all. She and the train conductor and Mr. Langston, the elder of the +two civilians, at least, knew who was the inspiration of that effective +squelching given the rioting recruits, whatever impression might be +prevailing at department head-quarters or at Sanders. She, presumably, +had her duties as assistant to Mrs. Cranston at the bedside of the +sorely wounded officer. Davies, too, had matters requiring his attention +about the post, for the word had gone the rounds that they were to march +at dawn on the morrow. Yet here under the vine-sheltered portico they +lingered, chatting on all manner of topics. Mrs. Cranston came smilingly +to congratulate the young officer on his assignment to her husband's +regiment, to say the captain was dozing now and that she thought she +would lie down a while, but that Miss Loomis was not to think of coming +in out of the sweet summer air. + +"Oh, Mr. Davies is only waiting for Captain Tibbetts to come up from +camp to call with him on the post commander," said Miss Loomis; "and +here comes the captain now," she continued, as a stalwart, full-bearded, +heavily-built fellow swung himself off his horse at the gate, and, +leaving him with his orderly, came forward with cordial inquiries for +his wounded comrade, and with a packet of letters, at least a dozen, +which he handed to the new lieutenant. + +"Seven of them addressed in the same fair, feminine hand, youngster," +said he, in the easy jocularity of the frontier. "That gives you dead +away." + +And the color that mounted to Mr. Davies's forehead, a cloud of +embarrassment, told plainly that the shot was a centre. He had not +recovered himself when the captain again turned, saying they must go to +the commanding officer's quarters at once or be too late. + +"Remember, you are to come and lunch with us, Mr. Davies," said the +captain's wife, as he was saying adieu. + +"I--I'm afraid I can't, Mrs. Cranston," was his answer. "We march so +soon, and I have so many preparations to make." + +"Preparations? Why, what on earth have you been doing ever since you +came up to the post?" asked his witless or too witty tormentor. "He's +simply eager to get off by himself somewhere and devour his ration of +spoon meat. I know how it is, Mrs. Cranston. I was there ten years ago." +And Davies's low-toned protestations were drowned in the jovial tones of +his burly comrade. + +"I'll come to say good-by to-night, perhaps," he stammered, as he was +led away, still clutching his packet; but Miss Loomis had turned and +gone within-doors before the visitors reached the gate. + +"I'm sorry to hear of it," said Captain Cranston, when later that +evening his wife was laughingly telling of Davies's betrayal and +confusion. "I always feel distressed to find a young fellow, just +entering service, has already enlisted in one much more exacting. I was +in love when I graduated myself." + +And Davies didn't come to say adieu. He wrote a note to Mrs. Cranston +saying he found so many duties crowding on him at the last moment, so +many home letters to be written owing to his having left in such haste, +that it was impossible for him to leave camp. He begged her to say +good-by for him to Miss Loomis, whom he sincerely hoped he might meet +again, and with his best wishes for the captain's speedy recovery and +restoration to duty, he begged to subscribe himself her friend and most +obedient servant. + +"Now, I like that young fellow," said Mrs. Cranston, folding up the +letter, "only I didn't----" + +"Well, didn't what?" asked her companion, seeing that she had faltered +for a word. + +"Well--he didn't act at all like an engaged man,--like he ought to have +acted," said Mrs. Cranston, with honest disdain of masculine flirts or +malevolent rules of speech, due perhaps to long association with belles +of the Blue Grass country. + +"Why, I didn't think he was engaged," said Miss Loomis. + +"No,--and he didn't mean you to. But when one mail brings a man seven +letters from one girl, I've no use for him." + +"Well, I should much rather he had them of one than from seven different +girls," said Miss Loomis, smiling resolutely. + +"Oh, you're bound to uphold him, I see. All the same, I thought better +of him." + +"Ah?" And now in a very pretty, playful way did Miss Loomis take her +companion's flushed face between two long, white, slender hands,--very +cool and dainty members were they,--and archly queried, "Are you +beginning to tire of your bargain, Lady Cranston? Are you planning +already to unload me, as the captain says, on somebody else?" + +The answer came with sudden vehemence and a hug. "You are much too good +for any man I know,--except Will, and you can't have him. And I'll never +let you go till the right one comes." + +After which outburst, and for over a week, did this young matron say +little more to Miss Loomis on the subject, but she must have enlivened +some hours of the captain's convalescence with her views on recent +graduates in general, and this one in particular, for when at last +letters came from the front announcing the arrival of the reinforcements +and the final cutting loose of the reorganized column from its base, the +prostrate warrior glanced up at his busy wife with an odd mixture of +merriment and concern in his haggard face. + +"To whose troop do you suppose your friend Davies has been assigned?" + +"Not to yours, surely. You have no vacancy." + +"No. I fear I wish I had,--every time I see my bulky senior sub in +saddle. But, of all men you know----" + +"Will Cranston! You don't mean Captain Devers?" + +"Yes,--Captain Differs, for a fact." + +"Well, then your _protégé_ and Mr. Davies have gone into the same troop. +What a strange coincidence! Isn't it time Mrs. Barnard answered Agatha's +letter?" + +"Time she answered it? Yes," replied Cranston, "yet not time for her +answer to get here. Poor lady! She was so distressed at the thought of +his going into the army. I hope that letter will comfort her. It ought +to. I doubt if he ever did an honest day's work before." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +The battalion had halted at the foot of the slope, each troop closing up +on its predecessor and huddling in shivering silence. No trumpet +sounded; no word of command was heard. Every troop leader threw up his +hand when he thought he had gone far enough and rolled stiffly out of +saddle, his horse only too willingly standing stock-still the instant he +found himself no longer urged. "Dismount" either by signal or command +would have been an affront to a cavalry force two-thirds of whose array +seemed to be dismounted already, some towing along by taut bridle-rein +the famished relic of a once spirited charger, others comforting +themselves with the reflection that at least they had now only their own +carcass to care for, others still wishing they had not even that +responsibility, wondering how much longer their aggrieved stomachs might +have to struggle with the only pabulum upon which they had been allowed +to expend their gastric juices for over forty-eight hours, and suffering +the pangs of remorse, both physical and mental, in the poignant +consciousness that the cause of this distress was the undigested +portion of some late faithful four-footed friend and companion, for the +command for rations had been reduced to horse meat on the hoof. Three +hundred miles from the nearest post when their supplies gave out, in the +heart of the Bad Lands and the height of the worst season of the year, +except midwinter, it had turned its back to the forts and its face to +the foe, true to its orders, still following the trail of the hostile +tribe,--the only hot thing it had struck for a week. "Live on the +country, there isn't anything else," were their orders, as they cut +loose from the main command, and their major--a reserved and +conservative fellow at other times--came away from the grim presence of +his commander with blasphemy on his bearded lips. The only human +habitation within scores of miles of his line of march were Indian +lodges, and both grass for the horses and game for the men had been +fired off the face of the earth by those active foemen before the +drenching wintry rain set in and chilled to the marrow the shelterless +forms of starving trooper and staggering steed. + +"Live on the country, indeed! Two antelope and ten prairie dogs was the +sum total of the game secured by the hunters in three days' pursuit. And +what are they," said Captain Truman, "among so many? Barley loaves and +Galilee perch might be made to go round in a bigger crowd in the days of +miracles, but this isn't Jordan's strand," he added, as he glanced +around at the dripping, desolate slopes, and then, fortified in his +opinion by the gloomy survey, concluded, with cavalry elegance, "not by +a damn sight." + +"What's the matter ahead, anyhow?" hailed a brother captain, up to his +shins in sticky mud, who had been making mental calculation as to how +many more hours of such wearing work and wretched weather it would take +to unhorse his entire company. + +"Don't know," was the short answer. Men fight, but they seldom talk on +empty stomachs. + +"Why, I thought I saw you talking with Hastings when he rode back." +Hastings being the battalion adjutant. "Didn't he say what they were +pow-wowing about?" + +"No, and I didn't ask. There was nothing to eat in sight, and that's the +only matter that interests my people just now. Just look at those poor +brutes!" And Truman heaved a sigh as he gazed about among his gaunt, +dejected horses, many of them so weak as barely to be able to stand. + +"My men are as bad off as the horses, pretty near," said Captain Devers, +the other. "There isn't one of them that hasn't turned his saddle-bags +inside out to-day for the last crumb of hard-tack. They're worn to skin +and bone. Three of them broke down entirely back there at the creek +crossing, and if there weren't Indians all round us, nothing would have +fetched them along. There goes Davies, coddling 'em again, damn it! That +man would spoil any troop----Mr. _Davies!_" he called, and a gaunt, wiry +fellow, with a stiff beard sprouting on his thin, haggard face, turned +away from a bedraggled trooper who had thrown himself in utter +abandonment among the dripping sage brush at the side of the trail, and +came to his troop commander. + +"I wish you wouldn't make such a fuss over those men," said Devers, +petulantly. "Just leave 'em alone. They'll come out all right. This +coddling and petting isn't going to do any good. Soldiers are not like +sick children." + +"A good many of ours seem to feel that way just now, sir," said the +young officer. "I only thought to cheer him up a bit." + +"Well, when my men need nursing, Mr. Davies, I'll have you detailed in +that capacity, but be so good as to refrain from it otherwise. I don't +like it. That's all." + +Without a word Davies turned on his heel and went back to his horse. +Truman, looking after him with a not unkindly interest in his tired +eyes, saw that he swayed a little as he ploughed his way through the +thick and sticky mud. "That boy's as weak as a sick child himself, +Devers," said he. "You'll have to have a nurse for him before we get +in." + +"Well, it's his own fault, then. He had just as much in his haversack as +I had when we cut loose from the main column. I 'spose he's given it +away." + +"I know he has," was the curt rejoinder. "Neither of those two men could +stomach tough mule meat. I suppose that was the only way to get 'em +along." + +Devers turned gloomily about. Down in the bottom of his heart he felt +that in his annoyance at what he considered disregard of his +instructions he had spoken harshly and unjustly to a young officer of +whom he had heard many a word of praise during the hard and trying +campaign now drawing to a close. True, the words had fallen mainly from +the lips of those of the rank and file or from seniors whom he didn't +like. In some, cases, especially among the enlisted men, they would +appear to have been spoken for the captain's especial benefit. Devers, +while a painstaking officer and not unmindful of the care of his men, +was one who "lacked magnetism," to say the least, and never won from +them the enthusiastic homage they often lavished on others among their +superiors. The fact that Lieutenant Davies, finding Moore and Rupp +actually so weak from lack of food that they could hardly drag one leg +after another, had been sharing with them his own slender store of +provision was not the first thing the men had noted in his favor, but +that was no reason, thought Devers, why they should raise their voices +and glance covertly in his direction when referring to it. Devers was +one of the kind sometimes called unsympathetic, that is, he seemed so, +but it was more in manner than in fact, for few troop commanders in his +regiment were really more careful in providing for their men than he. +But these were days that tried men's tempers as well as their souls, and +the officer who could look back on that long campaign against the Sioux +without regretting some speech wrung from him by the exasperation +produced by incessant exposure, hardship, and finally by starvation, +were few indeed. Devers was honest enough to admit to himself at the +moment that he wished he hadn't said what he did say to Davies, but not +so honest as to confess it to any one else. Yet stealing a glance at the +young fellow whom he had humiliated, now wearily leaning against his +saddle, Devers would have been glad to find some way of making amends, +but, stealing another glance around another way after Truman, of whom he +was both jealous and afraid, he hardened his heart. It is one thing to +say "I was in the wrong" to the victim, and quite another to admit it to +one's fellows. It is fear of what the world will say that keeps many a +man from righting many a wrong, and men, too, who wouldn't flinch in +front of a mile of batteries. + +Standing listlessly by their horses, the men of Devers's troop had, some +of them at least, been silent witnesses of the scene. One or two +officers also had marked and conjectured, though they had not heard, +what had taken place. Truman alone was cognizant of all, and, whatever +may have been his views, this was neither the time nor place to express +them. But he took occasion to stop as he was returning to the head of +his own troop and speak to the young officer in the case. + +"Davies," said he, kindly, "come over with me a moment. I've got a +little chunk of antelope in my saddle-bags, and you need it, man. We'll +all have something to eat to-night--_sure_. We'll make the Belle Fourche +by nine." + +Davies looked up gratefully. "I'm ever so much obliged, captain," he +began, "but I can't eat with all those poor fellows looking at me. +They're about done up." + +"Oh, it's rough, I know, but all they've got to do is tag along with the +column till night and then eat their fill. You haven't had enough to +live on, and may have work ahead. Here comes Hastings now." + +And as he spoke the battalion adjutant came spurring down from a low +ridge at the front fast as a miserably jaded horse could bear him. +Earlier in the campaign every man would have felt the thrill of coming +excitement,--a chase, a brush of some kind, perhaps,--but now all were +weak and weary. Even the Patlanders in Truman's troop, men of whom it +had often been said that they'd rather fight than eat, were no more full +of fight to-day than they were of food. + +"What's he want?" growled Devers, sauntering over to where the officer +stood. "We've left the Indians miles behind. Surely there can't be any +between us and the river." + +Many eyes were fixed on the coming horseman or on the little group of +scouts and soldiers surrounding the major, who, kneeling, was levelling +his field-glasses over the ridge at some objects far away, apparently +towards the southeast. + +"They're everywhere,--damn them!" was the curt answer, "except where we +want them. But he's looking off square to the left, not ahead." + +This was true. Whatever it might have been far to the front of the weary +column that caused the little squad of scouts to signal halt after their +first cautious peep over that ridge, the object at which so many were +now excitedly peering and pointing was at right angles to the direction +of the march. Yet did the advance keep well concealed against observant +eyes ahead, though why they should do so when every Indian in Dakota by +this time knew all about them, their movements, and those of the main +column farther over towards the Little Missouri, Truman couldn't +understand. + +"Have you ten horses that can stand a side scout?" asked the adjutant, +urging his mud-spattered mount to the head of Devers's troop. He spoke +abruptly, and without salute, to his superior officer,--his own captain +at that. + +"What are we on but a side scout now?" demanded that officer, in the +surly tone the best of men may fall into under such circumstances. + +"That isn't the question," replied Mr. Hastings, "and we've no time for +points. Davies, it's your detail. There's something--we can't make out +what--over towards the river. Report to the major and I'll find your +party." + +"I doubt if my horse can stand any side scout," said Davies, slowly, +"but I am ready." + +"Oh, your horse's as good as any in the outfit," interposed the +adjutant, impatiently. "The major wants ten men from your troop at once, +captain,--the ten who have the strongest horses. It won't take 'em more +than a dozen miles out of the way, I reckon. The whole crowd would go, +only men and horses can barely make the day's march as it is." + +"See any Indians?" asked Truman, lounging up. + +"I haven't. Crounse and the scouts say they have, and it's likely +enough. Of course you've seen the pony tracks, and what's queer is that +many of them head over towards the very point where this smoke is +drifting from. Looks as if they'd jumped some wagons and burned them." + +Meantime, Mr. Davies had slowly mounted and was urging his reluctant +horse into some semblance of a canter. As the slope in front of him +steepened, however, both horse and rider abandoned the effort, and, +full fifty yards below the point where the battalion commander and his +scouts were in consultation, the lieutenant dismounted, and leaving his +steed unguarded to nibble at a patch of scant and sodden herbage that +had survived the Indian fires, he slowly climbed the ascent. "I am +ordered to report to you, sir," was all he had to say. + +The major lowered his field-glass and looked back over a broad, burly +shoulder garbed in canvas shooting-jacket. Not a stitch of uniform +graced his massive person from head to heel, yet soldier was manifest in +every gesture or attitude. A keen observer might have said that a shade +of disappointment crossed his fine, full-bearded face as he heard the +subaltern's voice, but no sign of it appeared in his tone when he spoke. + +"Mr. Davies, just take this glass and see what you make of that smoke +off yonder. The sun is getting low and it baffles me somewhat." Silently +the lieutenant obeyed, and creeping up towards the crest he knelt and +took a preliminary peep. + +Issuing from the Bad Lands the jaded column had been plodding all day +long, though with frequent enforced rests, through a rolling sea of +barren, turfless earth. What grass had carpeted its surface in the +spring had been burned off by sagacious Indians, bent on impeding by +every known device the march of troops through their lands,--and what +device the Indian does not know is little worth knowing. Under a +dripping leaden sky the earth lay desolate and repulsive. Miles away to +the north the dim, castellated buttes and pinnacles of the range were +still faintly visible, and the tortuous trail of the column of twos +winding its way over wave after wave of barren prairie like the wake of +some terrestrial bark in a sea of mud. Far to the westward a jagged line +of hills, sharply defined, seemed to rear their crests from the general +level of the land, and somewhere along the eastern slope of that ridge, +and not far from where two twin-pointed buttes seemed peeping over at +these uncouth invaders, the main command of the expedition should have +passed earlier in the day, making for the crossing of the swift-running +stream that circled the northern border of some black, forbidding +heights lying like a dark patch upon the landscape at its southwestern +edge. Black as it looked, that was their one refuge. There alone dare +they hope to find food. Thither had been sent an advanced detail with +orders to buy at owners' prices flour, bacon, bread, coffee, anything +the outlying settlements might have for sale that would sustain life. +Men who had been living on horse or prairie-dog would not be fastidious. +Here, too, the major had hoped by night to bivouac his weary men, but it +seemed desperately far away. The march had been much impeded, and now, +far out on his left flank was something that could not be passed +uninvestigated. He, with his worn battalion of four troops, had been +detached from the main column three days previous with orders to follow +the trail of a war-party of Sioux, and smite them hip and thigh if he +could catch them in forty-eight hours; if not, to veer around for the +valley and rejoin the column at its bivouac among the foot-hills. There +they should rest and recuperate. The pursued Indians, fortunately, had +turned southward and gone jogging leisurely away towards their +reservations, until warned of the pursuit by ambitious young braves +still hovering about the troops in hope of slicing off the scalp of some +straggler. Then, every man for himself, they had apparently scattered +over the face of the country, laughing gleefully to think what fun the +white chief would have in deciding which trail to follow. The situation +on the third day out had been summarized by Crounse, the guide, about as +follows: "So long as this outfit pulls together it won't catch an +Indian; so soon as it doesn't pull together it'll catch hell," which +being interpreted meant that the four companies united were too strong +for the number of Indians within striking distance, or say three days' +march, but that if it were divided into little detachments, and sent +hither and yon in pursuit of such small parties as would then allow +themselves to be seen, the chances were that those pursuing squads would +one by one be lured beyond support, surrounded, cut off, and then +massacred to a man. The major and his officers, most of them, knew this +as well as Crounse. They knew, moreover, that even so large a command as +theirs had been cut off, surrounded, and massacred more than once in the +history of Sioux warfare, but then the Indians were massed, not +scattered helter-skelter all over the continent as was the case the end +of this eventful summer. Well did Major Warren understand that with such +broken-down horses and weakened men he could now effect little or +nothing against the Indians after whom he had been sent, even could he +overtake them, and his instructions were literally obeyed. It was high +time for him to restore his men to their comrades. He was making the +best of his way to the rendezvous, hoping almost against hope to reach +the welcome of the bivouac fires, and hot tins of coffee and toothsome +morsels of hard-tack and bacon, things they had not had a scrap of for +three days, and only occasional reminders of for the previous ten, when +lo! off to their flank, far to the southeast there appeared this +unwelcome yet importunate sign. Was it appeal for help or lure to +ambush? Who could say? Only one thing was certain,--a thick smoke +drifting westward from the clump of wallows and timber surrounding what +Crounse said was a spring could not be passed unheeded. + +"If we march the whole command over there, it will be another +twenty-four hours before we can reach the regiment. I don't think many +of the men, or horses either, can go that much longer without a bite," +said Mr. Hastings, the battalion adjutant, seeing in his senior's eye a +permission to speak. + +"Well, there are no settlements there and never have been," said +Crounse, "so it can't be cabins or shacks. Wagons it may be, but who'd +be damn fool enough to start a wagon-train up the valley this year of +all others, when every Indian at the reservation except old Spot is in +league with the hostiles? I can't believe it's wagons, yet it's on the +road full a mile this side of the river itself. What I'm afraid of is +that it's a plant. They want to coax us over there and cut us off, as +they did Custer." The major was silent and thoughtful. Davies, still +studying the distant objects, said not a word. Leading their horses, +eight troopers following a sergeant, all wet, weary, and heaven only +knows how hungry, came slowly forward up the slope until they reached +the spot where Davies's horse was nibbling. Here the foremost halted +without a word, and the others grouped about him or, stopping short when +their leader did so, threw themselves on the wet ground reckless of cold +or rheumatism, as spiritless a squad as frontier warfare could well +develop. Valley Forge knew nothing like it. The retreat from Moscow +might have furnished a parallel. + +Leaving his horse to do as his jaded fancy might suggest, the battalion +adjutant, returning from his quest, came slowly to the major's side. +"I've picked out nine, sir. It was simply impossible to find another in +the whole two hundred. Some of these look barely able to stagger as it +is." + +"And it's Davies's detail?" asked the major, in low tone. + +"Yes, sir. He's the only sub in the battalion who hasn't been on +detachment duty since we left the Yellowstone, and his horse is able to +go. Look at him, actually kicking!" + +This was true. The sergeant's starving charger, showing a disposition to +poach on the little preserve that Davies's steed had pre-empted, was +rewarded by a sudden whirl about and flourish of two shod hoofs. + +"Davies," said the major, kindly, yet with quick decision, "I hate to +impose additional work on worn-out men, but we can't leave that matter +uninvestigated. I want you to ride over there and see what that smoke +means. I don't think Indians in any force are near, and ten men ought to +be enough to stand 'em off. If it's nothing of consequence you can +follow on up-stream or camp as you please. If it's a wagon outfit +attacked, and there's anything left to help, do your best. We'll keep a +troop in supporting distance, and instead of marching straight for the +hills, I'll edge off here towards the river, sending Devers well out +towards you. We've got nearly three hours of daylight yet. Think you +understand?" + +"I think so, sir," said Davies, slowly replacing his glass, then looking +hesitatingly around. + +"Anything you want?" asked Warren. + +"Well, I should like to see Captain Truman just a minute, sir." + +"He's three hundred yards back there now, and time's precious. Can't I +do?" asked the major, not unkindly. "Want to leave anything?" + +"No, sir. It's of no consequence." And turning abruptly, Davies went +half sliding, half shuffling down the slippery slope, kicked the mud off +his boots, and briefly nodding to the sergeant, said "Mount," hoisted +himself into saddle, and led his little party silently away. One of the +men looked appealingly back towards Crounse. + +"Got any baccy, Jim?" + +"Not a pinch. I'd give my boots for a chew." + +Davies heard the appeal and turned to his sergeant. "Tell Dunn to come +up here alongside," said he, reaching down into his saddle-pocket; "I've +half a plug left, sergeant, and we'll divide." + +"It'll help the men as much as a square meal, sir," said the trooper, +gratefully; "but I never saw the lieutenant chew." + +"I don't, but it's some I fetched along for just such an emergency." + +Meantime the major and his party stood gazing silently after them. They +saw them winding away down the southward face of the long ridge and +crossing the shallow ravine at its foot. Beyond lay another long, low +spur of treeless prairie. + +"The Parson didn't seem over-anxious to go," muttered Mr. Hastings, as +though to himself. + +"Small blame to him!" promptly answered the major. "I don't blame any +man in this command for declining any invitation, except to dinner. +Hallo! What's that?" + +In Davies's little party the men had been seen passing some object from +one to the other. One or two who had ridden up alongside the young +officer touched their hats and fell back to their place. Suddenly two of +them left the squad and, urging their horses to such speed as they were +capable of, went at heavy plunging lope over the southern end of the +opposite ridge and disappeared from view. + +"Antelope, by jimminy! I thought I saw a buck's horns over that crest +yonder a minute ago," said an orderly. + +"Antelope be damned!" said Crounse, gritting his teeth. "If those men +knew this country as I do they'd think twice before they rode a hundred +yards away from the column. I wouldn't undertake to ride from here to +that butte yonder,--not for a beefsteak, I wouldn't,--God knows what +else I wouldn't do for that!" + +"Why, you can see the whole valley, and there ain't an Indian in +sight," said the orderly trumpeter, disdainfully. + +"Yes, and it's just when you can't see one that a valley's most apt to +be full of 'em, kid," began the frontiersman, but the major cut him off. + +"Ride after Mr. Davies with my compliments, trumpeter, and tell him to +recall those men, and not to let them straggle, even after game." + +The trumpeter touched his ragged hat-brim and turned away to get his +horse, which he presently spurred to a sputtering lope, and went +clattering away on the trail. + +"We may as well mount now and push ahead," said the major, after a +moment's reflection. "Keep Davies in sight as much as possible, +Crounse." And so saying he went on and climbed stiffly into saddle, for +he, too, was wet and chilled and sore-spirited; but it was his business +to put the best face on matters in general, and the troopers, seeing the +major mount, got themselves to their horses without further order. None +of the horses, poor brutes, required holding, but stood there with +dejected crest, pasterns deep in the mud, too weak to wander even in +search of grass. Warren came riding slowly towards his men. + +"Captain Devers," said he, "I have sent Mr. Davies off to the left to +scout towards the valley. I wish you to follow his trail a mile, and +then to march due south by compass, keeping about midway between him and +us. Hold him in sight, if possible, and be ready to support him if he +should be attacked. We will back you. If all is quiet by the time you +strike the old road in the valley, turn west and follow on to camp." + +But Captain Devers was one of those officers who seemed never to grasp +an order at first hand. Even when it came in writing, clear, brief, and +explicit, he often required explanations. "I don't think I understand, +sir," he began, but Warren cut him short. + +"I should have been prepared for that," he exclaimed, giving way for the +first time to the generally peppery and irascible spirit of semi-starved +men. "Mount!" he ordered. "Captain Truman, lead the column,--Crounse +will show you the line. I will ride here awhile with Devers and show him +what's wanted." + +Now, it is one of the peculiarities of prairie landscape that where +whole counties may appear to be one general level or open slopes when +viewed from the distance, the face of the country is really cut up in +countless directions by ravines, watercourses and _coulées_, so that, +except in the level bottom-lands along a river-bed, it is next to +impossible to keep moving objects continually in view. Davies and his +little party were out of sight when the major reappeared on the ridge +with Devers's ragged troop at his heels. So, too, were the would-be +hunters. "Kid" Murray, the trumpeter, alone remained in view, and he had +just reached the crest of a parallel ridge somewhat lower and about a +quarter of a mile to the left. + +Then those at the head of column saw a strange thing. The young +trumpeter, instead of pushing forward on the trail, had suddenly reined +in. Bending forward in his saddle, he was gazing eagerly in the +direction taken by the antelope-stalkers; then, suddenly again, whirled +about and began frantically signalling to the column. They saw him +quickly swing his battered trumpet from behind his back and raise it to +his lips, sounding some call. Floating across the wind, over the bleak +and barren prairie, came almost together the muffled sound of two +rifle-shots, then the stirring trumpet signal,--_gallop_. + +"Away with you, Devers!" ordered the major. "Head Truman this way, Mr. +Hastings. Tell him to come on." And forty horsemen went laboring down +the gentle slope, lugging their rusty brown carbines, one by one, from +the mud-covered sockets. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +Jaded as were the horses, it was only by vigorous spurring that they +were forced into anything like a gallop. Earlier in the campaign, only +with extreme difficulty could they have been held. In dispersed order, +spreading out, fan-like, to avoid the volleys of mud hurled back by the +leaders, the troop came struggling up to the opposite ridge, many of the +men loading as they rode, all with eager eyes and compressed lips +staring straight ahead for the first glance at what each knew must be +the foe. That no shot was to be dreaded from lurking Indians along the +ridge each reasoned from the fact that the trumpeter, after sounding his +signal and seeing them well on their way, had himself pushed on out of +sight. Once or twice the foremost thought they heard other shots. All +reined up as they reached the crest, and this was what they saw: + +Far ahead, down towards the valley ran a long tongue or spur from the +high ground over which they had steadily been marching since the dawn. +Farther away, perhaps ten miles, a black fringe in the depths of the +valley marked the winding river-bed. Against this and the dull +background of the opposite rise a faint column of pale, blue-white smoke +was drifting slowly westward from a little patch of trees at least a +mile nearer them than the river. "That's Antelope Springs," said +Crounse, who knew every league of the valley. Straight towards this +point a little party of horse were now steadily moving, a dark spot upon +the slopes, and nearly a thousand yards away. They were gradually +descending to the valley along the eastern side of the long tongue +referred to, all ignorant, probably, of what might be going on upon the +other. Obedient to his orders then, Davies was riding by the shortest +line to the designated goal, and all with them thus far seemed tranquil +enough. But hardly half a mile to the right front of their supporting +comrades, afoot now, and stopping every minute to let drive a long-range +shot at some objects scurrying away over the slopes to the south, "the +Kid" was running, and ever and anon turning to beckon them on. One +glance told the experienced hands what those fleeing rascals +were,--Indians, fresh from some deviltry, their swift ponies bounding +over the little gullies and watercourses like so many goats. Once more +the troop spurred on, though every man realized the hopelessness of any +pursuit. The first thought in every mind was the fate of their two +venturesome comrades. Even "the Kid" could not be sure what that was as +they reached him. "They're just over around that point," he almost +sobbed in his excitement. "I saw the Indians sneaking up the ridge +yonder. They fired from there, and then rushed in with a yell, and I'm +afraid they've got 'em." + +Brief search was all that was needed. Not half a mile west of the little +party, and hidden from the sight and hearing of their comrades, the two +eager, hungry hunters had met their fate. Four lurking warriors,--part +of the daring band that, hanging about the battalion, watched its every +move, ever on the alert for just such opportunity as this--had lashed +their ponies to the gallop, darted along the winding ravine between the +two ridges until opposite the point where the hunters crossed, then +crawling to the top, had shot the poor fellows from their hidden covert, +and rushing in as they tumbled from their saddles, had quickly finished +the bloody work. One of the men, Mullen, a notable shot, seemed to have +been killed at the first fire, as he lay face downward, his hands +gripping the wet soil, his scalp torn from the bare and bleeding skull. +Phillips, his chum, had died fighting, and was riddled with shot and +lance wounds. His horse, too, was killed, while that of Mullen was +wandering helplessly about in a dazed sort of way, as though unable to +comprehend his own narrow escape. For once there had been no time for +further mutilation. Contenting themselves with the arms, ammunition, and +scalps of the troopers, the Indians had scurried away on the instant. +The whole affair had not lasted two minutes, yet there on the open +prairie, in broad daylight, with a four-company battalion of horse not +six hundred yards away in one direction, and double their own number of +troopers riding along not six hundred yards away in another, they had +dared interpose between and swoop down upon their victims in their +fancied security. Devers was almost beside himself with grief and rage. + +"It's all that damned Sunday-school soldier's fault!" he burst forth. +"He's let these poor fellows ride slap into ambush, and gone off without +a thought of them." He would have said more, and in the full hearing of +the whole command, but the stern voice of the major checked him. + +"Hush, Devers, hush!" he ordered, as he rode into the midst of the pale +and excited group gathered about the lifeless forms. "Don't halt, +Truman," he ordered, as the senior captain came trotting up at the head +of the long straggling column. "Push right on and do your best to catch +those devils. I'll follow in a minute." + +Without either orders or permission six or eight of Devers's men spurred +into the nearest gaps in Truman's column,--and gaps were many,--others, +half dazed, hung about their captain. + +"Send a messenger to Mr. Davies and let him know what's happened," +continued the major, after a moment of painful thought. "Bury your dead +as quick as you can, then carry out your orders. Better halt Davies +until you're ready to move ahead." Saying this, and followed by his +orderly, the battalion commander spurred away towards a bedraggled party +of some fifty dismounted men, some with horses meekly drooping at their +master's heels, several without even the shadow of a steed. Truman had +"fallen out" his utterly ineffective to form a guard for the sick and +unhorsed, Davies's two patients among them, and one of those now, in +weakness and excitement, crying like a child. A gray-haired lieutenant +was with the party striving to get this reserve into some kind of shape. +"Follow Captain Truman's trail to the river, Mr. Calvert," said the +major. "Bring your party along as well as you can. You'll find camp +somewhere up-stream. We'll have rations to meet you. I'll have to go on +now after the battalion,--what there is of it," he added to himself, his +teeth firmly set. "Was ever luck worse than this?" + +And thus was Captain Devers, as senior officer, left in command with the +troops that remained clustered about the still warm and bleeding bodies +of their murdered comrades, and his first order was characteristic. +"Ride after Mr. Davies, trumpeter. Tell him to halt his party where they +are, and say I wish to see him at once." Dashing the tears away from his +eyes, little Murray said, "Yes, sir," and mounted his horse. He was +starting when Devers called him again. "You needn't tell Mr. Davies +what's happened," he said. "It would demoralize him entirely;" adding in +an undertone that was none the less audible to the men around him, "He's +worse than demoralized now." + +Digging graves with hunting-knives and fingers as the only tools is +wearisome work. "What's the use of it anyhow?" reasoned the captain, +impatiently. "We simply can't dig anything but a shallow trench inside +an hour with the means at hand. The coyotes would paw up the bodies, +sure, before we'd gone five miles. Better carry them along on these led +horses by the shortest route to the river. We're bound to find plenty of +rocks there that the wolves can't roll away." It wasn't the first time +the sad little command had had to "pack" their dead and wounded, and in +a quarter of an hour, with perhaps thirty men trailing along behind him, +Devers, instead of obeying his original instructions, was striking +straight across country for the river. And so it happened as nightfall +approached there were four parties of cavalry, widely dispersed, in the +gathering gloom of the desolate prairie. The major with about one +hundred men was still hurrying far to the southwest on the trail of the +Indians, hoping before dark to find them in sufficient force to halt and +show fight. Calvert with his invalid corps followed three miles in their +wake, and losing ground with every minute; then Devers, with about +thirty men in saddle and two dead on their _travois_, was slowly +plodding southward towards the stream. Davies's little squad, halted as +ordered, was now isolated from all, far over on the east side of the +jagged spur, over whose crest their lieutenant had just disappeared from +their sight, with Murray in attendance, riding wearily back to find his +captain, disturbed by contradictory orders and dishearted to see him in +march full a mile farther away than he supposed, and diverging from the +point of direction of his own party with every step. Time and again had +Devers, still fuming with nervous tension and mingled wrath and +pain,--hungry and savage, too, it must be borne in mind,--given vent to +some petulant expression because of the non-arrival of the young officer +whom he saw fit to hold responsible for the loss of his men; and when at +last Mr. Davies neared them, riding diagonally towards the troop from +the low divide to the east, Devers did not change the direction of his +little column so as to meet him half-way, but held on sullenly +southward. Observance of the major's orders would have carried him along +the trail of Davies's party until well across that ridge or spur, then +having gone the designated mile he should now be marching southward +along the ridge where he could, frequently at least, see both Davies's +squad and their distant objective-point,--that smouldering fire in the +valley. Marching as he was he could see neither. + +Presently coming to the head of one of those tortuous ravines washed out +from the general surface of the prairie by the melting snows of +centuries, and noting that if he kept to the eastward side he would have +to deflect a trifle to that direction, Devers inclined to his right, and +ten minutes later found it swinging around in front of him, already +broad and deep and obliquely crossing his path. Either he must dismount +and lead down the abrupt declivity and up the opposite bank, or, keeping +along the bluff, follow the windings of the ravine. One wrong step had +led with him to another. There is a fatality about such things that +besets the truest of men and bedevils the best intentions. The more he +followed the right bank the farther west of south it bore him, and +Devers hid his compass with his conscience in the breast of his +hunting-shirt, and found relief in renewed expletives. It was Davies +who had to urge his horse to the lope to overtake the command so +steadily pulling away from him. He wondered who the poor fellows could +be who seemed to have given out and were being dragged along on the +_travois_, but it soon became necessary for him to descend into the +depths of the ravine, down along a tributary break, and then even in +nearing he lost sight of them until, after another canter and a hard +pull up the opposite slope, he came at last suddenly face to face with +his captain. Murray by this time, his horse entirely used up, was far to +the rear. + +"It's an hour since I sent for you, Mr. Davies," began the captain, +sternly. "What in God's name has kept you so long?" + +"I could come no quicker, sir," was the reply, given in respectful yet +remonstrative tone. "My horse----" + +"Oh, you've got the best horse in the battalion, and he carries the +lightest weight," said the captain, angrily; "physically and +intellectually both, by God!" he added to himself. "You must have been +far off your course to have been so long reaching me." + +"I was heading straight for the fire, captain,--straight as men could +go. I kept it in sight every minute from the time we crossed the crest +yonder," said Davies, his tired, haggard eyes looking squarely into +those of his commander instead of seeking sympathetic glance from the +pale, drawn faces of the silent troopers nearest him. + +"Well, then, that is your excuse, I suppose, for allowing men to +straggle in defiance of my orders." + +"It is partially so, sir, partially not. I knew these were the orders +early in the campaign, but ever since we ran out of rations Mullen and +Phillips, as well as dozens of other men in the regiment, have been out +hunting on the flanks every day. They never stopped to ask permission +this time. I never knew that they were gone until they were out of +sight. I supposed, of course, they wouldn't be away so long." + +"I have told you more than once, Mr. Davies, that you were reckless of +my instructions, and I've sent for you to show, once and for all, what +it has cost. Stand aside there!" he said sternly to the men, whom some +instinct of pity had prompted to gather between them and the stiffening +forms of the dead. "There are your hunters,--two of my best men, Mr. +Davies, and who but you is responsible for this?" + +For a moment the young officer gazed as though stricken with sudden +horror, his blue eyes staring, his gaunt, pinched features ghastly +white, and then Sergeant Haney and another trooper sprang from their +horses and ran to his side. Weak, worn, starved, he had quailed at the +dreadful sight, and was toppling head-foremost to the ground, swooning +away. + +[Illustration: "THERE ARE YOUR HUNTERS,--TWO OF MY BEST MEN." + +Page 96.] + +When half an hour later the captain with his silent and gloomy party had +resumed his march for the river, only with the field-glasses could +occasional glimpses be had of the main command far away to the southwest +in the gathering dusk. Lieutenant Calvert, with his invalid corps, was +dragging wearily after them, something like two miles away over the +rolling surface, sometimes dipping out of sight among the swales and +_coulées_, sometimes crawling over some low wave, and Davies, restored +to consciousness and accompanied by one of Devers's oldest troopers, +Sergeant McGrath, had once more ridden away to join his distant and +isolated party. Just before it grew too dark to see anything at all he +was faintly visible at the top of the divide where he and the sergeant +had halted, evidently searching in the gloom of the lowlands beyond for +sign of the squad he had left over an hour before. Then they disappeared +and were seen no more. + +Ten miles up-stream, around rousing camp-fires, in the thick of the +timber, the main body of the expedition--their lately starving +comrades--were holding high carnival. Men and horses were astonishing +their stomachs with dainties to which they had long been unaccustomed, +for wagons had come out from the settlements to meet them, pouring in +all the afternoon, and, mindful of his detached battalion, the colonel +had presently despatched three or four of these welcome loads, well +guarded, down the winding river in search of Warren, with instructions +to bivouac at once and feast, and at nightfall they had met him, halted +at the river after the luckless pursuit. The wagons were unloaded on the +spot, and two of them pushed on out to meet Calvert, and be loaded up +again with his exhausted plodders, while scouts, mounted on the draught +mules that had had so long and hard a pull all day, and yet were +stronger and fresher than the starving horses, were sent on down-stream +in search of Devers. With these latter went a pencilled note from the +battalion commander as follows: + +"Rations here in plenty. Unless you and Davies are used up, you'd better +come along to camp. We'll keep bright fires burning to guide you. I +presume you've seen no Indians, or we'd have heard from you before +now." + +In sending this letter Major Warren assumed two things: first, that +Devers had carried out his orders, crossed the long spur that jutted +down almost to the stream at its deep concave bend, and then, moving +south, had kept Davies in sight, if not actually in touch. Second, that +Davies had carried out his orders, investigated the fire, and then +rejoined his captain. For, reasoned the major, had Davies been attacked, +Devers would have known it, supported him at once, and sent word to us. +Men instructed to watch for signals from the ridge had reported that +nothing had been seen, which surely would not have been the case had +Devers desired to communicate. He assumed further that Davies must now +be somewhere about the point where the spur sank to the general level of +the valley, some eight or nine miles down-stream, too far to send a +wagon in the dark where there was no road, but not too far for men to +march, with rations as their reward. + +"Ride straight for that point," said he to the sergeant who was to carry +the note, "and watch for their fires in case they have camped." And the +sergeant and his companions--two wiry troopers whom nothing seemed to +daunt or tire--had ridden away on their ambling mules, their own +stomachs warmed with hot coffee and bread and bacon, and their soldier +maws crammed with that most beneficent and comforting of frontier +luxuries,--navy plug. What was a night ride after their weeks of +marching to the joy of being first to announce full rations for all +hands! They had gone only half-way, perhaps four miles, when from +somewhere in the timber to their right front, certainly not more than +five hundred yards ahead, they came suddenly in view of something at +which each man instantly reined in, and the sergeant, springing from his +saddle, grabbed his mule by the nose. "Grab yours, too," he muttered, +hoarsely; "for God's sake don't let the damn fools bray." And in another +instant each of the astonished and protesting brutes was grabbed +accordingly. + +"Sure it must be the camp of 'B' Troop," said the other man, +resentfully. "Indians wouldn't be lighting camp-fires so close to us." + +"It can't be the captain," answered Sergeant Rice, with emphasis he well +remembered and spoke of long months later. "I heard the major's orders +to him, and he couldn't be this side of that point without having +disobeyed them." + +But just then, soft and faint, sad and plaintive and low, there came +floating on the night wind the familiar notes of the sweetest of trumpet +calls, and Rice turned to his comrades in amaze. "It _is_ old Differs, +by Jupiter! Who but he would be sounding taps with Indians on every +side? Does the darn crank think that worn-out men can't go to sleep +without it?" Even the soldiers, then, were alive to some of the +captain's peculiarities. Even they could not do him justice. Even Rice +supposed that Devers, rejoicing in being once more freed from the +supervision of superior authority which he so cordially hated and so +persistently strove to evade, was celebrating the event by resuming the +sounding of unnecessary bugle calls, prohibited for night use during +the recent campaign. But neither the sergeant nor his comrades dreamed +that it was in its other, in its saddest significance, the sweet old +call was sounding,--that Devers and his men were bidding the last +farewell, and piping "lights out" to them who rode forth gallantly at +morn, only at sundown to be numbered with the dead. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +Morning dawned over the bivouacs along the stream in hilarity unknown +for previous weeks. The sun that for a fortnight had refused his face, +and sent wet skies to weep in sympathy with the hungering column, now +that the troopers no longer cared a rap whether he sulked or shone, came +forth in all his glory to surround and beam upon and shower +congratulation as do mundane friends who hold aloof when days are dark +and troublous, yet swarm like bees when dazzling and unexpected +prosperity bursts upon the lately fallen. Merrily rang the reveille as +"jocund day" came riding o'er the misty mountain-tops. With joke and +song and laughter answered the war-worn men, scores of whom had +alternately dozed and cooked and eaten and drunk all the live-long +night. Vain were counsels of captains and doctors. Soldier stomachs that +could tackle mule and horse meat could stand any load, said the boys, +and loaded accordingly. Cheer and laughter and merry-making, fun and +chaff and jollity, ran through the ranks, where all, but another sun +agone, was silence and despond. The rough campaign was practically over. +Only scattered bands of hostiles remained, in this part of the country +at least. Rest and recuperation for those "tatterdemalions" would be the +enforced order of the day for a month to come, for while they might +readily and speedily build up, it would take many a week to remount the +column or restore such horses as remained. Here among the Cottonwoods, +with fire and water and food at hand, the men could have loafed in +comfort and content a month, if need be; but here was no grass, and +barely a nibble of oats could be distributed for each surviving horse +from the scanty supply hurried forward the previous day. Before noon, +therefore, after another morning devoted principally to breakfasting, +the trumpets were sounding "boots and saddles." No need to sound "The +General" with its stirring summons to "Strike your tents and march +away," for tents had long months before been struck--by the pen of the +commander--from the list of camp equipage to be taken to the field. "We +were only waiting for Warren to come on," explained an aide of the +general to a regimental commander, "and we've sent him word to meet us +on the Birchwood farther up among the hills. We'll camp there to-night. +What kept him, do you suppose?" + +But the colonel couldn't imagine. Away down the valley to the eastward +Warren's men had slept, as they had marched, much later,--those of them +who could sleep at all, for all through the night there had been cause +of disturbance to more than a few of the command. It was late before the +demands of hunger were appeased. Little fires blazed all through the +timber, and men cooked and ate until they could eat and drink and cook +no more. Then the luxury of tobacco kept many awake. Then came advanced +troopers to say Devers was coming in, and despite the fact that two good +and gallant comrades would no more gather with them about the camp-fire, +there went up a cheer of welcome, and many men ran to meet the worn +arrivals, to take their horses to feed and water so that the masters +might be fed at once, and the major's first thought had been to welcome +his subordinate and fill him with comfort before requiring of him +detailed account of the day's doings. "I hardly expected you so soon," +he said; "but here's coffee all ready, baker's bread fresh in town +yesterday,--think of it!--and bacon and flapjacks. Your men must be +pretty tired." + +"They're about used up," said Devers; "but of course when we got your +instructions to come on we came." + +"Oh, I didn't mean you to come on if you were in camp for the night. Our +men would rather eat than sleep and we thought yours would; but +here--swallow this," said he, hospitably. "This is no time for business. +I haven't tasted anything so good as that coffee in years." + +"Thanks," said Devers, pulling gratefully at the steaming tin. "That +_is_ good. I'm glad, for my part, you told us to come along," he went +on, reverting again to the subject of the major's note. "We shouldn't +have done anything of the kind, of course, otherwise,--especially with +Davies still out." + +"_What!_ Isn't Davies with you?" asked Warren, with sudden anxiety and +suspicion. "Why, I thought----" + +"Well, we couldn't wait for him, you know, in face of your directions," +said the captain, his eyes glancing quickly, almost furtively, from one +to another of the bearded faces about him, for Truman, Hastings, +Calvert, and all the officers of the little command had gathered. "Of +course, I sent couriers right out to guide him----" + +"Why--what I meant was for you to bring him along," said the major, +gravely, yet not unkindly. "I felt sure, of course, you were within +communicating distance at least, even if he hadn't come in. What did +that smoke turn out to be when you got a closer look at it?" + +"We--didn't get any closer look," answered Devers, in apparent surprise. +"You ordered me to bury my dead and then go on. We had just buried them +when your next orders reached us,--to join you at once. These, of +course, superseded the others." + +There was profound silence. The major stood by the camp-fire, his hands +clasped behind his back, looking full in the face of the troop +commander, all the old sayings that he had ever heard with regard to +Devers crowding upon him now. When promoted to the regiment only just in +time to join it on this hard campaign, and when assigned to the command +of this battalion in which Devers was senior captain, the colonel +himself had said, "Be on your guard with Devers. He's the trickiest of +subordinates." Old Riggs, lieutenant-colonel commanding the Twelfth, had +remarked, "So Devers is in your battalion, is he? Well, when you want +him to do anything you stand over him while he's at it, or else do it +yourself." An intimate friend and classmate whom he had not seen for +years had given the new major this significant pointer: "There's a man +who could be one of the most valuable officers in service if he devoted +to obeying an order one-tenth the energy he throws into finding a way of +avoiding it." Yet, in the honesty and earnestness of his own character, +Warren was slow to suspect a fellow-soldier of disloyalty. The campaign +had gone on without special friction, though he remembered that he had +heard Hastings swearing _sotto voce_ more than once at Devers's +cantankerous ways, and he recalled now two or three incidents--little +things--in which Devers claimed to have misunderstood instructions; but +this was so glaring, so gross a departure from both the spirit and +letter of the orders he had given when face to face with the captain, +that for a moment or two he was at a loss what to say. He was indignant, +too, but it was a rule of his to control his temper and never speak to a +subordinate in wrath. He had broken it that morning and was sorry; so +when at last he trusted himself to speak, he said,-- + +"It must have been more than six hours ago that I told you to bury those +two men and then go on. Surely, captain, you could not have taken all +this time." + +"It was nearly five o'clock, sir, when you ordered me to bury my dead as +well as I could, and only a little after eight when we finished it; +meantime, we had to march seven or eight miles before we could find a +place where we could bury them at all well." + +"Why, I meant you to bury them right then and there, just where you +were, not go marching in search of a place." + +"But we couldn't bury them there; major, I had no tools to dig graves in +a hard prairie----" + +"Then you mean that you failed to go on after Davies,--failed to support +him?--that you haven't seen him since I gave those orders? My heaven, +Captain Devers! I told you never to let him out of your sight." + +"Oh, he wasn't out of sight until darkness,--that is, he was frequently +in sight. I not only saw, but communicated with him until that time." + +"Thank God for that, at least! If he wasn't attacked before dark he's +probably safe,--Indians are cowards in the dark. He ought to be coming +along presently, I suppose. He couldn't have been more than a mile or so +east of you." + +But to this observation, half query, half self-consolation, Captain +Devers made no verbal response. He bowed his head as he took a long swig +at his can of coffee, and then a big bite into a ham sandwich of +portentous size. The major and one or two others considered it a nod of +assent, and ascribed to ravenous hunger the captain's failure to respond +by word of mouth. Partially relieved of his anxiety on Davies's account +and unwilling to spoil a gentleman's first supper after such long +deprivation, the battalion commander turned away, saying,-- + +"Well, eat and drink till you're comforted, anyhow, captain, then we can +hear all about it. I'll take a smoke meantime." Truman and Hastings +joined him at a fallen Cottonwood a few yards away, and the three +puffed their pipes and thanked Providence for the mercies that had come +with the close of the day. And then the officer of the guard appeared to +ask a question about the posting of the pickets, and, leaving the others +with Devers, the major strode off with the officer through the timber to +satisfy himself as to the security of the horses for the night, and when +he returned--not having been gone ten minutes--Devers had disappeared. + +"I wanted to hear his report," said Warren, "and told him so. I supposed +he understood." To which neither of his subordinates made reply. When +ten minutes more elapsed and Devers did not come, Hastings, noting the +major's impatience, called to the orderly trumpeter sitting at the +neighboring fire,-- + +"Raney, go and see if Captain Devers is over with his troop +anywhere,--the major desires to see him." Raney was gone full ten +minutes, and when he returned it was to say that Devers's first sergeant +said the captain had given orders that all talk must stop so that the +worn-out men could rest, and the captain himself, rolled in his blanket, +was already sound asleep. + +"Well, I swear!" exclaimed the major. "Didn't you understand me to say I +wanted to hear all about his march as soon as he finished supper?" + +"I certainly did," replied Captain Truman, with an accent on the I that +meant volumes. + +"So did I," growled Hastings; but he never could bear Devers, who was +persistently distorting or misunderstanding the orders the adjutant was +compelled to convey to him. + +"Well, let him sleep," said Warren, finally. "I suppose he's tired out, +and very probably Davies will speedily come in." + +But midnight came and no Davies. Out on the prairie--now dimly lighted +by the rays of the waning moon--the pickets at the east had descried no +moving objects. Every now and then the yelp of a coyote on one side of +camp would be echoed far over at the other. These, with an occasional +paw or snort from the side-lined herd, and the murmuring rush of the +river over its gravelly bed, were the only sounds that drifted to the +night-watchers from the sleeping bivouac. Towards one o'clock the +sergeant of the guard came out to take a peep. Later, about two, +Lieutenant Sanders, officer of the guard, a plucky little chap of whom +the men were especially fond, made his way around the chain of posts and +stayed some time peering with his glass over the dim vista of prairie to +the eastward. + +"I declare I thought I saw something moving out there," he muttered, +after long study. "Are you sure you've seen or heard nothing?" he +inquired of the silent sentry. + +"Not a thing, lieutenant, beyond coyotes or Indian signals, I can't tell +which. They keep at respectful distance, whatever they are." + +"Well, even if Mr. Davies's horses were too used up to come, the +couriers ought to have got back long ago. Tell them to find me as soon +as they come in," said he, and went back to his saddle pillow in the +heart of the grove. At its edge a solitary figure was standing gazing +out into the night. + +"That you, Sanders?" hailed a voice in low tone. + +"Yes," answered the lieutenant, shortly, for he recognized Devers and he +didn't like him. + +"Isn't Davies in yet?" + +"No, and it's two o'clock." + +"Oh, he'll turn up all right," said the captain, in airy confidence. "It +was all absurd sending him out to scout a smoke,--as if we hadn't seen +and smelled smoke enough this summer to last a lifetime. He's probably +camped down the valley somewhere, and they're all waiting for morning. +I'm not worrying about him." + +"No, I judge not," muttered Sanders to himself, as he trudged on in the +dark. "You're simply keeping awake for the fun of the thing." But even +Devers got to sleep at last, and when he woke it was with a sudden +start, with broad daylight streaming in his eyes, and stir and bustle +and low-toned orders and rapid movement among the men, and Hastings was +stirring him up with insubordinate boot and speaking in tones suggestive +of neither respect nor esteem. + +"Come, tumble up, captain; we're all wanted; Davies has been cut off and +massacred." + +Already his orderly had led up the captain's horse, pricking his ears +and sniffing excitedly around him, and with trembling hands the young +German was dragging out from among the blankets the captain's saddle, +the hot tears falling as he stooped. His own brother was of Davies's +party. Devers was on his feet in an instant, dismayed, and, buckling on +his revolver, he went striding through the trees to where Warren stood, +pale and distressed, questioning a haggard trooper,--one of the +couriers sent on for Davies the previous evening. Devers burst in with +interrupting words, and was instantly coolly checked. + +"Never mind now, captain. Mount at once and get your men in saddle." Nor +would Warren see or speak with him, as with a hundred troopers at his +heels--all whose horses were even moderately fit for a ten-mile +trot--the major led the way down the valley, a few eager scouts +cantering on before. All Devers could learn as they jogged along was +that Tate, one of the couriers, had ridden in at seven on an exhausted +mule to say that not until after dawn had they found Davies's +party,--seven of them,--stone dead, stripped, scalped, gashed, mutilated +almost beyond recognition, far out on the slopes east of that fatal spur +over which the September sun had risen before he came, leaving his +stunned comrade trailing hopelessly behind. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +The prairie sod was torn by the hoofs of a hundred ponies. That was +evident. All around a little sink in the surface at a distance of +several hundred yards the warriors must have dashed and circled for full +an hour. Here along the rim of the shallow basin, each behind the +bloated and stiffening carcass of his horse,--each surrounded by +threescore copper shells, showing that he had fought till hope and +ammunition both were gone,--lay the poor remains of the gallant boys who +had ridden silently away in obedience to their orders on the previous +afternoon,--recognizable now only by their teeth or some still ungashed +body mark. How long they had pluckily, cheerily held out, confident of +the speedy coming of the comrades from over that westward spur, and +therefore less miserly of their lead and eager to stretch some of their +yelling foes upon the sward, could now only be conjectured. Little by +little their fierce, defiant fire had slackened. Little by little +confidence had waned, and doubt and dread replaced it. Some, probably, +had been earlier shot by the storm of centring bullets; some, possibly, +had sent their last shot into the reeling brain,--death by one's own +hand being better at least than by slow and fiendish torture; and at +last, probably just at dusk, the triumphant savages were able to close +in upon their helpless prey and reap their reward of scalps and plunder +and wreak their fury on a mute and defenceless foe. + +But in a search of full an hour not a sign had Warren's best scouts +discovered of Davies or his companion. The Indian trail, that of a +war-party of at least fifty or sixty braves, led away southward again, +into and through the timber in the distant river bottom, and there it +became scattered, most of the party seeming to have ridden on towards +the reservation in the darkness of the night, while others turned +up-stream, and their pony-tracks led towards the point where Warren's +battalion had bivouacked. These were probably the causes of the flitting +shadows Sanders had detected far out on the prairie,--these the owls and +coyotes whose weird cries had at intervals disturbed the silence of the +night. Solemnly, sadly, now, the burial-parties labored. The soil was +comparatively soft in the neighboring ravine,--much more so than higher +up the slopes where the two crack shots had fallen earlier in the +afternoon,--and here, with picket-pins and a spade or two which happened +to be with the pack-train, a trench was scooped out, into which the poor +remains were lowered and then covered with stones, dragged from the +depths of the neighboring _coulée_. It took some hours to finish the sad +duty, and meanwhile sharp-eyed scouts were busily occupied striving to +determine what had become of Davies and Sergeant McGrath. + +In this work the major himself took the lead, and here Devers's +statements had to be drawn upon. Old Indian-fighters pointed out many a +significant sign to sustain the theory that the fight must have lasted +full an hour,--the trampled condition of the turf,--the quantities of +shells lying behind every little hummock or ridge in the surrounding +prairie that commanded the position of the defence or afforded shelter +from its fire. Down in the very ravine in which the bodies were buried, +full four hundred yards from the scene of their desperate stand, the +soft, sandy soil was pawed and trodden by waiting war-ponies, whose +riders, lying flat on their stomachs along the bank above, had kept +their watch upon the besieged, firing whenever head or hand appeared +above their carcass fortification. The whole ingenuity of the Indian +plan became apparent as the situation was studied. Noting after ten +o'clock that morning that the battalion was no longer marching due +south, but had turned, heading southwest straight away for the landmark +of the valley,--that distant, black, pine-crested peak,--the lurking +warriors had devised their scheme to lure a scouting detachment away +from the support of the column. Far down in the river bottom, ten miles +away to the left of the trail, they had built at the springs a "shack" +from the relics of some miner's outfit captured thereabouts earlier in +the summer, and waiting until the head of the column was approaching the +crest of the water-shed to the north, set fire to their pile and then +secreted their main body in a deep ravine to await results, while small +parties were thrown well forward to pick off venturesome individuals, if +only such rode out in reconnoissance. If the white chief "bit" and +detached a small party, then every effort was to be made to keep the +battalion occupied and interested,--to draw it along, if possible, +towards the southwest,--just a few daring spirits devoting themselves to +this duty, while the stronger party, keeping in hiding until they lured +it far beyond rescuing distance, gradually encircled the isolated squad +and at last pounced upon their prey. It is no new device. It was to +prevent just such a play that Warren had ordered Devers with his troop +to keep midway, holding Davies's little party in sight and support and +the main column in communication. Had Devers obeyed the instructions +given him and gone on down along that jutting spur instead of far to the +west of it, the catastrophe would have been averted,--the Indian attack, +even if attempted, could have been beaten off. + +In bitterness of spirit the major was riding over the field, too full of +exasperation as yet to trust himself to send for and speak to his +subordinate, even when he felt that he must hold conference with him in +order to determine how best to direct the search. Twice or thrice had +Devers essayed to open communication with his chief and impress him with +his views, but Warren had sent him word by Hastings to supervise at the +designated point--which he himself selected--the burial of the men, +while he, the major, went on with the search. Time and again it was +noted how often Devers would climb the bank and anxiously gaze off to +the west toward that fatal curtain,--the spur that separated him from +the sacrificed detachment the night before. What his thoughts were could +only be conjectured, but little Sanders seemed to hit pretty near the +mark when he confided to Hastings that Differs didn't seem to care a +damn whether Warren followed the Indian trail or not; what he was afraid +of was that the major would "get onto" his own. And indeed as the +morning wore on it began to look as though that were what the major was +bent on doing. The scouting-parties had come back with their report of +what they had found in the river bottom, and by this time Warren with +his escort was three miles over to the west and slowly searching along +the east face of the spur, peeping into every hollow and depression that +might shelter a human form and looking everywhere for the print of +horses' hoofs. At ten o'clock he had sent to Devers for some intelligent +non-commissioned officer who could point out about where they had last +seen Davies as he crossed the ridge returning to his men at sundown, but +Devers very plausibly responded that while it might not be difficult to +do so from where they parted, "just over on the west side," it couldn't +be reliably done from so far to the east. The reply must at least serve +to delay matters awhile, and every moment was of value to Devers. + +His own theory was that, as twilight was setting in as Davies recrossed +the ridge, everything beyond in the low grounds was in deep obscurity. +The attack had probably begun about the time the young officer, with +Murray, first crossed the ridge in obedience to the captain's orders to +report to him in person. Less than an hour, Devers thought, elapsed +before he could again have come within sight of the spot where he left +his little command. By that time all was practically over. In the +gathering darkness and in the glut and greed of their savage triumph the +Indians had crowded about the victims. Davies and the sergeant, +returning, had been allowed unmolested to make their way well down +toward the scene. The fire in the bottom was fed to lure them on (it was +still smouldering when Warren's men trotted thither in the morning), and +the two had either been captured alive and run off with the main body to +grace the stake at the scalp-dance to be held with fiendish rejoicing +somewhere beyond danger of interruption, or else, warned in some way, +the two had sought to escape, and had been headed off and killed in some +of the still unexplored ravines or _coulées_ farther to the southwest. +In either case, provided the major did not persist in his investigation +and so discover how very far Devers had led his troop away from sight or +support of Davies's men, and how utterly he had failed to carry out his +orders, the captain felt tolerably confident that all the blame would be +landed where it properly belonged,--on the shoulders of the dead and +defenceless lieutenant, whose reluctance to undertake the duty many had +observed, and whose womanish swoon at sight of the slaughtered men had +not only proved his unfitness for frontier service, but long delayed his +return to his party. Devers had always said Davies was entirely +overrated by the colonel and Truman and others; he had held all summer +that the lieutenant was a "molly-coddle;" he had been reproved more than +once for what they termed his injustice to his subaltern, and now Davies +had proved just exactly what he knew he would prove,--a carpet knight, a +prayer-meeting soldier, with neither grit nor brawn nor backbone; and if +he was killed, at least he had died in time to save the regiment from +having to blush for him in the future. Devers had served throughout the +war of the rebellion in a regiment that saw no end of hard fighting, but +always when he happened to be on sick-leave or detached service of some +kind, for in all of his years of service no man in his grade or corps +had so seldom been under fire, either in the South or on the plains. +With abilities unquestioned and opportunities second to none, it was +nevertheless observed of him at the close of the four years' struggle +that there, at least, was a man who hadn't even mustering or recruiting +service to fall back upon when "brevets" went scattering broadcast over +the army, showering like the rain upon the just and the unjust. He had +lived all through it without having become distinguished for anything +that might become a man, winning a name for himself principally for +consummate skill in getting out of what he was told to do without +getting into a scrape or out of the service. He became a tremendous +paper-fighter in the days that followed, however, and like some of our +war generals, could find the weak points in the armor of his comrades if +he couldn't in that of the enemy. He became a club-room critic of other +fellows' campaigns, companies, or conduct, as probably the most +effective way of diverting attention from his own. He sneered at the war +record of every contemporary who had achieved rank superior to his own, +as with hardly an exception every one of them had done so, and made the +burden of his song among the younger men the blunders, faults, and +follies of the elders. Without a drop of Irish blood in his veins, he +inspired the belief that he must be own cousin to the newly-landed +Hibernian who announced himself as "agin the governmint," for post and +regimental commanders without exception found him the most adroit, +crafty, sinuous, and troublesome of captains,--one who was forever doing +something to try them, yet nothing on which they could try him. Well he +knew his unpopularity and sagely judged his opportunities. The liberties +he had dared with Warren he would not now have ventured with Riggs, or +Black Bill, or old Tintop, one and all of whom had learned to know him +well, and would have been prepared for some such betrayal of the trust +reposed in him. + +He had worried Black Bill--long time his post commander--to the verge of +exasperation with his perpetual hair-splitting and quibbling. He had +played his last trump with Tintop early in the campaign, and received +that grizzled veteran's rasping intimation that one more experiment +would lead to arrest and court-martial, and received it with every +appearance of amaze and pain, which might have been effective had not +Hastings been called upon beforehand to give his version of the affair +that led to it. It was one of those constantly recurring examples of +Devers's "cussedness" which led many a stout cavalry officer to set +forth just what he'd do with Devers if he only had him under his +command, yet the very men so confident they could bring him to time were +not infrequently the ones who subsequently found him too adroit for +their straightforward methods. Black Bill told Tintop that Devers was as +bad as the Irishman's flea,--put your thumb on him and he isn't there. +"I'll cinch him," said Tintop in reply, "if he tries any of his damned +nonsense on me." But with every intention of doing his level best, +"Topsy" little knew the infinite resources of the man. + +One of Devers's idiosyncrasies was a hatred of doing things as anybody +else did them. This in a service where absolute uniformity was expected +was prolific of no end of chafing. In every garrison where his troop was +stationed he had become notorious. If the other companies turned out in +white gloves at retreat, Devers's would come in gauntlets. When dress +parade, dismounted, was ordered at Fort Birney one mild November +evening, he marched his men out in arctics and fur caps, and claimed +that to be the proper full dress for the season. When Colonel Emerson in +regimental orders lauded the devotion of Sergeant Foley, who swam the +icy Missouri with despatches from Captain Cameron's beleaguered command, +and ordered a handsome collar to be made by the regimental saddler to be +worn thereafter by his gallant gray, now transferred to the band +because of the cuts and scars he had received in that fierce campaign, +Devers similarly decorated Trumpeter Finnegan's bull terrier "Mike," who +swam the Mini Ska in pursuit of his master the night of the wintry dash +on Tall Bull's village, and gravely paraded "Mike" with the troop next +muster day. These and a score of similarly annoying yet hardly +punishable attempts to bring ridicule upon or run counter to the orders +of his commanders, had actually rendered some of his seniors so averse +to having him under them that it often resulted in his being given +independent details, lonely detachment duty, "one-company posts," and +similar isolation which almost any other officer would have shrunk from, +but that Devers really seemed to enjoy, and, from having been so much +his own commanding officer, he was all the less fitted to render prompt +and cheerful obedience to others when they again had to have him. With +any command greater than that of a single troop he had never been +intrusted. There was no end of speculation and chaff around the +camp-fires, therefore, early in the summer, when Devers, most +unwillingly, it was said, was hauled in from some outlying post where he +had nothing to do but hunt, eat, and sleep, and reported for duty on +what turned out to be the toughest of Indian campaigns. What was worse, +he was ordered to report to Tintop, and now, said the boys, there _will_ +be fun. + +Well, there was. It took a week of persistent "cinching" to get Devers +and his troop to understand that they were no longer an independent +body, but must serve under the orders of a colonel or major. He had at +first been put in Bell's battalion, and every time the colonel pointed +out a fault Devers "thought" that was as Major Bell wanted it, and when +Bell called his attention to some irregularity, Devers had understood +Colonel Winthrop to say that that was the way it should be done. Bell +finally said that he'd be damned if he wouldn't rather have no command +at all than one with Devers in it. The first day Devers's horses were +herded to graze far out on the slopes,--five hundred yards beyond those +of any other troop,--and Tintop said he wished Captain Devers hereafter +not to allow his herd to be driven beyond those of the rest of the +regiment. Next day they were kicking up a dust not fifty yards from +Tintop's tent,--as far inside the cordon as they had been outside +before,--and Devers plausibly explained that he wanted to be sure he +wasn't too far away. The third day, after a long march with Indians on +every hand, Tintop ordered "double guards and side lines when the herds +went out to graze." The horses of the other troops were ridden out by +the men to good grazing-ground some five hundred yards from the bivouac +fires, and there the riders slipped off and the side lines were slipped +on; but Devers's horses were side-lined as soon as unsaddled, and then +the poor brutes, thus hobbled fore and aft, were driven, painfully +lurching, out to graze. Tintop boiled over at the sight of so +unhorsemanlike a proceeding and rode wrathfully at Devers to rebuke him. +"Why, colonel," said Devers, "I wouldn't have done it for the world, but +Mr. Gray was so positive in saying it must be done when they went out, I +couldn't do otherwise. Of course if he'd said when they _got_ out I----" +And though Tintop swore savagely through his teeth that Devers knew +well just what was meant, as did every other troop commander, he +couldn't prove it. Next day, before the side lines were put on, in some +mysterious way Devers's herd was stampeded and ran six miles before they +could be rounded up, and he explained it was all because they weren't +side-lined in the first place, as they were always accustomed to being, +and as the regulations required they should be in the Indian country. +This was another thing to make Tintop blaspheme. Every day for a week +something was amiss, and, having gone to the length of his own tether, +Devers took to saying that it was all Mr. Davies's fault or Sergeant +Somebody's,--"Mr. Davies had just joined and was utterly inexperienced." +Then Tintop gave Devers positive orders not to content himself with +telling people to do thus and so, but to see that the orders were +obeyed, and Devers then took his pipe and his blankets and +ostentatiously spent hours of the afternoon out on the open prairie, a +monument to the severity and exactions of his colonel. And still the +horses, all of them, got far out on the foot-hills, and Tintop ordered +him a day or two later, when on Scalp Creek, not to let his herd get +more than half a mile away from the troop fires, as they had no tents, +and then Devers had his herd-guards build fires and boil coffee far out +on the prairie, and claimed that those were his troop fires, and +therefore his herd was within reasonable distance of them. Then Tintop +swore another oath and ordered Devers not to let his horses graze more +than half or less than quarter of a mile from his own head-quarters +fire, and as there followed a few days of hot weather, Devers sent his +herd to the foot-hills again, claiming that there was no longer a +head-quarters fire to regulate by, which proved to be a fact, as in such +warm weather there was no need of one. Then, one day, Tintop in so many +words ordered the captain hereafter not to do as he thought, but simply +as his colonel said, and this led to the final incident, still more +side-splitting,--one that the boys in the regiment never tired of +telling. Tintop with his battalion was sent on a seven days' scout, +during which he ordered all the troop commanders, until further +instruction, not to permit their herds to graze more than five hundred +yards from camp. Three days later, what was his wrath to find Devers's +herd almost a mile away down the stream, and close by the tents of Major +Roome's battalion of Foot that had been for a week placidly awaiting the +return of the cavalry! Tintop had halted and unsaddled some distance +up-stream. There wasn't a shred of canvas with the regiment while on +this brisk raid, nor was there need of it in such perfect weather, and +Tintop with Gray by his side stood fuming in the midst of surrounding +cook fires, when Devers came placidly up in obedience to the summons of +the orderly, and many an ear was brought to bear and bets were given and +taken that this time Devers would catch it and no rebate. "How is it, +sir," demanded Tintop, "that in defiance of my positive orders you allow +your herd to go so far away?" + +"Why, colonel, you distinctly said they mustn't be herded over five +hundred yards from camp. Of course if I'd been allowed to think I +probably wouldn't have done it, but I sent mine down there accordingly. +That's the only _camp_ I see,--this is only a bivouac." And all Tintop +could ejaculate in response was, "Well, may I be damned!" + +These and a host of similar stories had come to Warren's ears in the +course of the campaign, and he had laughed at them as had everybody +else, for after all no man could say that actual harm had occurred as a +result of Devers's experiments. So curiously are we constituted that +when it is only the commander who is braved or his adjutant who is +ruffled, the bulk of the line can bear it with equanimity. Therefore, +while Tintop, Black Bill, Riggs, and his seniors generally could never +refer to Devers except with sympathetic swear words, there were not a +few of the officers junior in rank to his who found no little fun in all +these incidents. Like most stories in or out of the army, they were +perhaps exaggerative, but, like smoke, they could not exist without +smouldering fire. If there were any speculation about Devers in the +regiment, it was as to how he would behave if he ever did get into a +fight, or what would happen in the event of his some day squirming out +of an order on which vital issues depended. "You'll go too far yet, +Devers," said a soldier who strove conscientiously to be his friend and +counsellor, "and when you do, where will be the commander under whom you +have ever served to say a good word for you?" + +And now on this fatal September morning that ominous warning was ringing +in his ears again and again. Down in the bottom of his brooding heart he +knew, and well knew, that had he obeyed, as he should have obeyed, +Warren's orders, this catastrophe could not have occurred, and that he +more than any other man on earth was responsible for the death of these +gallant fellows, who, whether they looked up to him or not, were by the +stern discipline of the service dependent on him for the expected +support. If he could realize this, how much the quicker would others be +to attach the blame to him! how much the more necessary must it be to +lose no time in diverting suspicion elsewhere! The fatal propensity to +distort or disobey, which perhaps he could have downed had Tintop or +Riggs been there, he could not resist with Warren,--an envied +contemporary, presumably new to his idiosyncrasies. Nor would he, of +course, even with him, have disobeyed could he have foreseen the fatal +consequences. That would have been risking too much. But now that he had +disobeyed, and in all probability would be held accountable for the +catastrophe, his one road to safety and to acquittal lay in saddling all +possible responsibility on some one else,--preferably Davies. This, if +Davies were silent in death, would not be difficult. Whatsoever others +might think or say, they could prove nothing. If, however, Davies turned +up alive and alert, then matters might be grave indeed. No wonder he +climbed again and again the westward bank and levelled his glasses at +the dull-hued ridge against the brilliant westward sky, frequently +giving vent to loud denunciation of the leaders in the mismanaged +campaign. It was nearly ten o'clock before his dead were laid +away,--before anything occurred that looked like discovery of the +missing pair. Then came new excitement. + +Far down toward the point where the distant spur seemed to sink to the +general level of the prairie one or two of Warren's scouts could be seen +rapidly spurring, as though in answer to signals. Presently they, too, +began waving their hats to those searching higher up the ridge. Then all +disappeared over on the westward side. Something evidently had been +found, and Devers's men, their work completed, were grouped eagerly up +the bank. Over half an hour in mingled hope and suspense they waited, +and then there rode in a mounted messenger. + +"The major's compliments to Captain Devers," he said, "and he'll wait +for the captain and his troop over yonder. I'm to show the way." + +"Have they found anything?" asked Devers. + +"Yes, sir,--Mr. Davies; but he's more dead than alive. There is no sign +of McGrath." + +"Do you mean Mr. Davies is wounded?" + +"No, sir. He seems just dazed-like." + +"That's what I said all along," spoke the captain, loudly, so that it +was heard by all the soldiers near at hand. "He never tried to rejoin +his detachment. He never had any nerve. He probably saw what was going +on and hid himself, never daring even to let us know. Damn these +psalm-singing, Sunday-go-to-meeting soldiers anyhow! Here, Howard," he +continued, turning to a young trooper who stood silently at his horse's +head, "you come with me. Lead on, corporal. Sergeant Haney, mount the +troop and follow." And with that the captain rode away. + +For a moment, as the men were bringing up their horses and leading them +into line, there was silence. Looking after the three horsemen now well +out on the prairie to the west, the party saw that the messenger was +riding some distance in advance, and that Howard, a recruit who joined +with the detachment early in the campaign, was now side by side and +evidently in conversation with the captain. It had been a summer of +campaigning in which not only the nicer distinctions as between officer +and man--not only all symbols of rank and uniform--had gradually +disappeared, but with them, little by little, some of the first +principles of good order and military discipline. Officers had been +heard openly condemning or covertly sneering at the seniors in command. +It was not strange that the rank and file should fall into similar ways. + +"Never had any nerve, is it?" muttered Private Dooley, after a moment. +"Boy and man I've soldiered in this regiment longer than you, Captain +Differs, and I know an officer and a gentleman when I see wan, and it's +the public opinion av more than wan private that there's more av both in +that young feller's starvin' stummick than in your whole damn overfed, +bow-legged carcass. How's that, Brannan?" said he, turning to his next +neighbor, a wan, sad-faced recruit. + +"Shut up there, Dooley!" ordered Sergeant Haney, briefly. "No more of +that! Count fours." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +So far as the Eleventh and one or two other regiments were concerned, +that summer's campaign, so fraught with incident and tribulation, was +now at an end. It would take weeks and months of care to restore their +horses to serviceable condition. Others were ordered up to replace the +worn-out command, and while an indomitable general pushed fresh columns +into the field to track the savages to their winter lairs, the ragged +troopers--for all the world like so many beggars a horseback, so many +mounted scarecrows--were ordered in to the big garrisons near the supply +depots to refit, recuperate, and restore to discipline. Some, officers +and men both, had been sent ahead, too weak or ill to remain in the +field, and among these, consigned to the tender care of the post surgeon +of Fort Cameron, was Lieutenant Davies, over whose condition the doctors +shook their heads. Brain fever was the malady, but his system was so +reduced by starvation and exposure that even a moderate fever would have +been most serious. Not until he had been gone nearly a month did the +regiment follow, and then, scattered in detachments to various posts, +became busily occupied in the work of rehabilitation. Cameron was a big +new frontier fort with few accommodations, over-crowded, too; yet, being +the nearest to the field of action, thither had Captain Wilbur Cranston +gone just as soon as he was convalescent and able to move. Thither with +him went his devoted wife and her devoted cousin and companion, Miss +Loomis, for whose reception the subalterns of the infantry guard +promptly gave up their frame quarters and moved into tents, and Cranston +was there on light duty in charge of the big corral of remount horses +when Davies was bundled in and established under Cranston's roof. There, +carefully treated by Dr. Glover and regularly visited, often tenderly +nursed, by Mrs. Cranston and her friend, the naturally strong +constitution of the young officer triumphed and he began slowly to +mend. Meantime, as is or was the way, it fell to the lot of the gentle +and sympathetic army wives or maidens at the post to keep the distant +mother informed of her boy's slow progress toward recovery, and +presently to answer the importunate letters of another. Mrs. Cranston, a +shrewd observer, could not fail to note that as soon as her patient was +allowed to read at all it was his mother's letters, not the great packet +in Miss Quimby's unformed hand, that he eagerly opened. Then when at +last he did begin these latter the steady progress of his convalescence +was impaired. He became again feverish, restless, and depressed. Too ill +and weak as yet to write for himself, he read with grateful eyes his +mother's allusions to the kind and sympathetic missives sent her by Mrs. +Cranston, and occasionally, as happened, by Miss Loomis. Gladly, too, +did he avail himself of their services in reply. But when it became +necessary presently to answer those of his _fiancée_, there might have +been embarrassment but for Mrs. Cranston's tact. She had begun to feel a +strong interest in and respect for her patient. So, too, had her +husband, who came daily to sit by his bedside, but who avoided, as much +as possible, all reference to the closing days of the campaign. + +As yet the young officer had not been told of McGrath's disappearance, +and had not been encouraged to tell of his own experience. Indeed, there +was very little he could tell, but his story was frankly imparted to his +friend and comrade, Captain Cranston. Much seemed to be a total blank. +He spoke with a shudder of his last look at poor Mullen and Phillips, +and at the pale, drawn faces of Captain Devers and the troop,--of +another backward glance from near the top of the ridge, then of their +losing sight of Devers and his men, and pushing on to the deeper gloom +of the east valley. It was then too dark to see, and for half an hour he +and McGrath, weary and heart-sick, had scouted northeastward in search +of his party. They had seen some flashes as they began the descent and +rode in their direction, believing them to be signals, but soon all was +darkness, all silence, but for the sigh of the night wind. Conscious of +growing faintness, he suggested firing a shot or two as signals, and +McGrath obeyed. Then off to the southeast, far from the point where they +had seen the first flashes, the shots were answered and distant yells +were heard. McGrath considered this ominous, and asked him to wait in a +little ravine while he reconnoitred. In ten minutes two or three shots +rang out in the direction taken by the sergeant, and presently back he +came fast as a staggering horse could bear him, crying, "Indians! +Indians everywhere!" It was all up with Davies's party, and their only +hope was to hasten back to find the command; but the Indians came in +chase, and though they plied spur, their poor horses seemed too weak for +speed. How far they got he never knew, but remembered a sudden plunge, +his horse's going down, rolling all over him, and nothing more. + +"When you parted from Devers," asked Cranston one day, "how far was he +from the top of the ridge?--how far to the west?" + +And Davies answered, "At least two and a half or three miles." + +Over this did Cranston ponder long. It ill accorded with what they wrote +him from the front as Devers's story. + +"You write to Mr. Davies's mother, Agatha," Mrs. Cranston had said. "I +haven't time for both, but I'll take care of Miss Quimby." Just what +might be the tone and tenor of that young lady's letters to her +prostrate lover Mrs. Cranston could not positively say, as no one saw +them but himself, but she was ready to hazard a something more than mere +conjecture when Miss Quimby took to writing to her as well. As was her +wont when moved, Mrs. Margaret unbosomed herself to her lord. "I've no +patience with the girl," she said. "She'll worry him to death. If she +writes such silly, romantic trash to me, what mustn't she be saying to +him? What on earth can he ever have seen in her?" + +Now, that's just one thing no woman can find out,--what a man can see to +admire in one in whom she sees nothing. It didn't help matters that +Cranston, in his conservative, whimsical way, should counsel silence and +patience. What woman can be silent under strong provocation? What woman +can patiently abide the personal application of a general rule? + +"I don't suppose there ever was a match yet of which some woman didn't +say she couldn't see what he saw," said Cranston, deprecatingly; and +then, with one of his whimsical grins, began to add, "Let's see, wasn't +it Kitty Benton who said, when she heard of our engagement, that +she----" But he got no further in face of his wife's impetuous outbreak: + +"That's simply hateful in you, Wilbur, and you know it as well as I do. +She knew me only slightly, for we were not in the same set at school at +all----" + +"Well,--still, didn't she know you rather better than you do Miss +Quimby, whom you never saw at all?" + +"I don't care. I know what she's like," answered Mrs. Meg, with flushing +cheeks. And that was really before poor Almira's first letter came, and +if Mrs. Cranston thought she was right before, she knew it when she read +now. + +The closing paragraph of a long, almost incoherent missive must suffice. +Even Cranston's lips twitched under the heavy thatch of his moustache as +he listened. Even we, who like Mrs. Cranston, must admit it wasn't quite +kind in her, no matter how natural, to read it afterward to Agatha +Loomis, who, although declining to read, did not quite decline to hear +at least a line or two. + + "If you knew how I suffered--what tortures of anxiety, what + nights of sleeplessness and woe, tossing on fevered pillow, + tortured with visions of my beloved nobly fallen on the field + of battle and pining for the touch of this hand--you would + indeed pity me; but my father is inflexible. He refuses his + daughter the poor boon of flying to the stricken lover's + side,--her husband that is to be. In vain have I pointed out + that I ask no sweeter bliss than to share my Percy's lot, for + weal or woe, to live in the humblest cot, a tent, a hovel even, + with only a crust,--it meets only his scornful refusal. When my + arms are eagerly outstretched to enfold my soldier hero, I have + to be content with nursing day and night his afflicted mother, + whom for his sake I love as I would my own, had she not been + taken from me years ago when I was but an unsophisticated + child. When I think of you privileged to sit by his delirious + bedside, cooling his fevered brow, I envy you as I never + thought to envy any woman on earth since, long years ago, my + Percy blessed me with his love; and now if after all he should + be taken, or if some proud lady should win him from his simple + little village maid, there would be no refuge for me but the + grave." + +"Now," said Mrs. Cranston, "something besides the bedside is delirious +in that case. No wonder the poor fellow is picking up so slowly." + +"Well, wait a little," responded her conservative lord and master. +"Seems to me a man ought to rejoice in knowing that the arms of lovely +woman are outstretched in eagerness to enfold him. Now, if I were +he----" + +"Yes, if you were he I've no doubt you'd be off to Urbana by first +train; but this young man has some sense in his head" (here Cranston +began to finger his own skull tentatively), "and in losing his freedom +hasn't entirely parted with his wits." + +"Was that--my predicament?" asked Cranston, looking plaintively up. + +"Well, at least I have to do your thinking for you, and what you have to +do is help him here. Have you had any talk with him about--about what +Captain Truman and Mr. Gray wrote?" + +"Certainly not, Meg," answered Cranston, becoming grave at once, "and I +do not mean to until he is well enough to hear it." + +"Well, the more I know of him the more I know it's utterly untrue. +Hasn't anything been heard yet of Sergeant McGrath?" + +"Not a word. Even friendly Indians say they haven't an idea what could +have become of him." And Cranston's face was both anxious and troubled. + +The matter was indeed one to give him deep concern. The massacre of the +little detachment from Warren's battalion late in September--all of them +members of Devers's troop--had brought down sharp and deserved +criticism, and there was every prospect that the matter would be +officially investigated just as soon as the department commander could +turn his attention from the rounding up of the hostile band still at +large. Meantime, between Warren and his senior troop commander, Captain +Devers, strained relations existed,--the former holding to the theory +that the responsibility for the disaster lay with Devers and no one +else, the latter volubly, plausibly, incessantly protesting against the +imputation as utterly unjust, indeed, as utterly outrageous, and moving +heaven and earth to unload the entire blame on the shoulders of the +absent and defenceless. + +Now, as a rule this is an easy matter, almost as easy in the army as out +of it, and had his accuser been any other captain in the entire field +column, poor Davies might indeed have been prejudged; but with Devers it +was different. His idiosyncrasies were notorious. His whole mental and +moral fabric was one of antagonism to his fellows in general and his +seniors in particular. It was said, and generally said, of him that the +mere fact that everybody liked or respected a man was enough to set +Devers dead against him. The fact that Mr. Davies had thrown up his +graduating leave and sought instant service in the field as a result of +the tragedies of the early days of the campaign had won him instantly +the interest and good will of officers and men throughout the entire +command. He started well, so to speak, and his quiet, reticent, +observant, but unobtrusive ways favorably impressed his regimental +comrades and led to many a commendatory remark from veteran officers. +But there was universal comment, half humorous, half commiserating, upon +his assignment to Devers's troop, and Devers knew it. He treated the +young man with cool civility at first, but became speedily captious and +irritating, rebuking him openly in the presence and hearing of other +officers and of enlisted men for matters for which he was not justly +blamable. Old Winthrop spoke to Devers about it one day, and spoke +seriously. "You'll disgust that young gentleman with the service if +you're not careful, Devers," said he, "and be the means of depriving us +of a good officer." + +"That's just where I'm compelled to differ with you, colonel," was the +response, and it was this propensity for differing that had led to his +sobriquet. "I've had constant and daily opportunity of observing him, +and he's mistaken his vocation. That young man should be a missionary or +a Sunday-school superintendent. He's too pious for Indian fighting, +which is the only thing expected of us." + +But for weeks after there was no Indian fighting. What had become of the +swarms of red warriors that had swooped upon the front, flank, and rear +earlier in the campaign no one could say. Their trails led all over the +northwest, and the pursuing column pushed on night and day in dust and +sun-glare, in mud and rain, in pelting hail-storm and darkness, and +never once until late in the autumn could they again come within +striking distance. By that time the jaunty riders of the early +spring-tide were worn to skeletons; the mettlesome horses--those that +were left--barely able to stagger through weakness, exhaustion, and +starvation. Then like prairie wolves the warriors closed once more about +the jaded flanks, waiting, watching every chance of picking off the +stragglers. Just one day did Differs's troop get under fire,--a long way +from under, said satirical subalterns of a command that sustained some +losses,--but so scientifically did the captain handle his men that not a +trooper or horse was scratched. Mr. Davies on this occasion commanded a +platoon, dismounted on the skirmish line. It was his first affair, and +he kept his appropriate thirty paces in rear of his dispersed men to +watch and direct their fire, expecting that the enemy would charge or +attack or do something, he didn't know just what. He simply behaved as +he had been taught at skirmish drill at the Point,--was ready to do his +full duty, but having no experience in Indian battle, thought it his +business to wait orders, which was precisely what Differs had told him +to do, until attacked. All the same, when others twitted Devers on the +fact that his troop "didn't seem to get in," that officer did not +hesitate to respond that they'd have to settle that with their +admiration, Mr. Davies, who was commanding the fighting line, but +probably wasn't done saying his prayers. There was a lively, rattling +skirmish next morning between the rear-guard and the Indians, and at one +time things looked as though the thinned battalion of their comrades of +the --th might be cut off, and some of Devers's regiment thought the +rearmost troops ought to be deployed in support of the fellows who were +fighting off the warriors, who came charging after them over wave after +wave of prairie. But Devers couldn't see it in that light. He was +bringing up the rear of his own regiment. Indeed, not until the fatal +day of their _débouchement_ from the Bad Lands and sighting the broad +valley of the Ska had Devers's men felt the sting of Indian lead, and +then he was not with them. + +And now while the worn and ragged commands lay basking day after day in +the warm October sunshine at Camp Recovery, and men for the time had +nothing to do but eat and sleep and discuss the events of the late +campaign, the Eleventh was in turmoil over the tragedy of Antelope +Springs. + +When Davies was finally found that morning by Warren's scouts, he was +lying in a depression of the prairie at least a mile to the west of the +point where that long--that fatally long--curtaining ridge sank into the +general level of the valley, and therefore full four and a half or five +miles away from the point where his little detachment had died fighting, +and very nearly two miles south, or west of south, of the point where he +and McGrath had last been seen by their comrades,--just at dusk,--just +at what looked to be the comb or crest of the ridge from the point where +Devers had halted his troop and made the dramatic display of his dead. +But what looked to be the crest from the west was in point of fact not +the crest at all. Invisible to the halted command, there lay still +farther over to the eastward, where the spur seemed to broaden +considerably, a wave that overtopped the westward edge by a dozen feet +or more. Supposing from Devers's account that the trail of his command +could be found distinctly marked along the westward slope and close +under the crest, Warren was searching there with his scouts when +attracted by the signals two miles to the south announcing probably +important discoveries. He had found some Indian pony tracks, also those +of one shod horse, but dropped everything else to go at once in answer +to the signals. Then they had borne the unconscious officer +southeastward toward the clump of trees at the Springs, placed him in +the ambulance, and then came a courier from the general himself +directing Major Warren to report to him in person at Birchwood, thirty +miles away, and the major went, the ambulance following. And so, to his +unspeakable relief, Captain Devers was left once more the senior officer +on the ground to continue the search for McGrath, and in the conduct of +this he took excellent care that only himself and one or two of his +chosen should search any portion of the prairie that might involve +running over the trail west of the ravine which he had made the previous +day. The scouts and searching parties were kept in the valley and in the +timber along the river, not on the back track. _That_ search Devers +conducted in person, and made a rough topographical sketch of the +neighborhood as it appeared in his eyes and as he wished it to appear in +those of others. Just before dusk, sounding the rally far up the spur, +he rode to the point where his two hunters had met their fate, and +there assembled his men, gathering some fifty troopers, and thence led +them in column of twos southward close under the spur and well to the +east of the ravine which on the previous day had partially caused his +wide departure from the line of direction indicated to him by the major. +It was therefore very late, and his men were very tired,--much too tired +to sit up and talk,--when they got to camp. + +Pursuing its homeward march, the main column under the general +commanding had gone on through the wild hill country, and not until +nearly a month had elapsed was the scene of the tragedy revisited. The +officer who went thither with an escort, and Captain Devers and Corporal +Finucane and Troopers Boyd and Howard, had had pointed out to him the +scene of the massacre itself, then, far up the spur, the spot where +Mullen and Phillips were shot, and from thence the trail of Davies's +little squad as it marched away on its fatal errand toward the Springs, +and the trails of the various parties. Off to the southwest went Truman +in chase of the murderers,--off after Truman went Calvert and the +invalid corps,--off straight to the south--to the river--along the +westward side of the ridge, far to the east of the ravine and close +under the crest, went another; that, he was assured, was the trail made +by Captain Devers. Many of these trails, said the officer's report, were +now dim and nearly effaced, "but there can be no mistaking that of +Captain Devers along the spur,--it is quite sharp and clear. It isn't +more than five hundred yards from the point where Mr. Davies and +Sergeant McGrath had disappeared over the ridge to the nearest point on +the trail, where--while Captain Devers couldn't be sure--his troopers +are positive Mr. Davies had left to return to his men, and where they +are also positive the captain had again enjoined upon him the necessity +of vigilance, and reminded him that as it was growing dark he could no +longer see, and must therefore depend upon his lieutenant to keep him +informed of what was going on over on that side, as under his new orders +he, Captain Devers, must now go on and bury his dead. Mr. Davies and his +sergeant must have seen the attack just as soon as they got back across +the ridge, but what they did and why they had not instantly warned their +captain remains a mystery. At all events it would seem that Captain +Devers," so concluded the report, "had conscientiously carried out his +instructions, though he might perhaps, if unburdened with his dead, have +kept higher up towards the crest, and should perhaps have detached a +couple of flankers to keep communication, and so relied less on +Lieutenant Davies, who was at least inexperienced in frontier warfare." +The officer could not understand how it was that in broad daylight Major +Warren when searching had failed to see Devers's trail. It certainly was +there. And so the old, old story was told again. The absent it was who +had to take care of himself, and Devers was inferentially "whitewashed" +and Davies held to explain, when convalescent, and McGrath to +substantiate his statement if McGrath ever again turned up on earth. +Otherwise there could be no substantiation until the judgment day. Now, +McGrath, lost in the thick of an Indian fight, was as apt to be found +alive, or found at all, as a pin in a mill-pond. Davies, broken by the +campaign and sore smitten with brain fever, had but one chance in a +hundred of recovery. All things considered, therefore, it may be +conceded that Captain Devers was a very gifted man. + +But Devers wasn't the first man, or the last, to count on another +fellow's death or disappearance to cloak his own crime. It gave him a +queer turn to hear that Cranston and his wife and niece had undertaken +the building up of the absent patient. He hated Cranston,--his junior as +an officer, but infinitely his superior as a soldier. He feared him when +word came out to the homeward marching command that Cranston said Davies +was on the mend and would soon be on the war-path. But he drew another +long breath of relief when there reached them the news that General +Sheridan himself had telegraphed directing Davies to hasten home, that +his mother was dying. When next that young officer appeared upon the +scene and reported for duty, it was in midwinter at Fort Scott, a big, +brilliant, sunshiny post, the head-quarters of an infantry regiment, the +station of a cavalry battalion, whose major, Warren, had gone on long +leave abroad, whose senior captain, Devers, was its commander _pro +tempore_, whose other captains, Cranston, Truman, and Hay, were present +for duty; so were most of their subalterns, so were most of the infantry +officers, so were the wives and families of nine-tenths of the array, +for it was a much-married garrison, and there was not a little talk and +speculation when it was announced that Lieutenant Davies would come +accompanied by his bride. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +"The main objection to Fort Scott," said Winthrop, when one of his +battalions was finally ordered thither, "is that it's too fashionable +for my taste. What this regiment needs now is more drill and less +dinners." He loved to be epigrammatic. The head-quarters, staff, band, +and six troops had taken station at a big frontier post, two other +troops went with the lieutenant-colonel to a second post, so that that +officer could have a command, and two more with the senior major, but +the Interior Department had moved some thousands of the lately hostile +Indians down close to the line of the railway, where they could be more +readily fed and cared for. Great thereat was the alarm of the settlers, +and great the protest of the cattlemen, whose steers now roamed all over +the prairies within tempting distance of the restless young braves +across the reservation line. Scott was not a cavalry post at all. It had +no suitable stables, and only infantry ordinarily had been stationed +there since the completion of the railway, and thither Devers had been +sent when the final dissolution of the field column took place, and no +one of the field officers wanted him in his command, and he preferred to +be as usual,--alone. But then came the move of the Indians and the cry +of inadequate protection. Tintop had to part with two of his pet +companies--Cranston's and Hay's--at the reluctant orders from department +head-quarters. Still a fourth had to be sent, and Truman was taken from +the lieutenant-colonel and Major Warren despatched from head-quarters to +Scott as commander of this cavalry battalion or squadron at the very +moment when he was clinching his arrangements for long leave of absence. +He went, commanded a month, but persisted in his application. Long years +of service entitled him to the indulgence and it was granted, but +neither the lieutenant-colonel nor senior major would consent to give up +the command of a post to go to Scott as a subordinate to old Colonel +Peleg Stone, an infantry veteran of many a war, both in garrison and in +the field. A shout of merriment was heard in the camp of the cavalry +when the original orders were read distributing the troops to stations. +"Old Pegleg's got his match at last," was the comment of the knowing +ones. "He can't worry Devers half as much as Devers will worry him." +Scott was the innermost and easternmost of all the stations to which the +three regiments of cavalry were distributed. The big, bustling, growing +cattle town of Braska lay but a few miles away. Thriving and populous +ranches surrounded the post on every side, replacing the buffalo, +antelope, and deer of the decade gone by with countless herds of horned +cattle. Braska sported a theatre, an assembly-room, restaurants, +concert-halls and banks--of all kinds. It had the unhallowed features of +the average frontier metropolis and some of the more agreeable traits of +an Eastern city. It contained a very large number of abandoned +characters who were not all half as bad as they were painted, and quite +an array of citizens of high repute who were not all as good as they +looked. As between bad morals and bad manners, society seems to find it +easier to forgive the former, and most of the Eastern men who had come +West to embark in business had charming manners and were welcome +visitors at the fort, welcome companions at every party, picnic, and +dance, most hospitable entertainers in their turn when the fort people +went to town. During the long battle summer Fort Scott was garrisoned by +Colonel "Pegleg," the chaplain, the doctors, the adjutant and +quartermaster, the band, one company of his reliable old corps, the +Fortieth Foot, and the wives and children of pretty much all the rest of +the regiment. Famous campaigners were they of the Fortieth. They hadn't +missed a chance, winter or summer, for ten long years. They had tramped, +scouted, picketed, escorted, explored, surveyed, fought and bled all +over the great Northwest, some of the officers being so incessantly +abroad as to find themselves quite ill at ease at home, many of their +ladies declaring it a difficult matter to know their lords on the rare +occasions of their return, some few, indeed, being accused of having +forgotten them entirely in their absence. These were days the army +little knew before and will never know again,--the decade that followed +the war of the rebellion. Too old to take the field himself, the veteran +colonel at least could take his ease at home, and was quite placid and +content when he had the band to play for him, one company to guard and +"police" the post, and a host of women and children, bereft of their +natural protectors, fluttering about him. When all his companies were +home he had to spend hours at his desk overhauling ration and post and +forage returns, and as he was essentially a "red-tape" soldier,--one +who knew the regulations and recognized nothing else,--he made in busier +times his own life and those of his officers something of a burden. The +summer had been lovely at Scott. Thrice a week on sunshiny afternoons +the band played in its kiosk, and the gallants from town or the +neighboring ranches drove in with their stylish "turnouts" and called on +the ladies at the fort or took them driving over the hard prairie roads, +or danced with them on the waxed floor of the airy assembly-room. +"Really," said some of the ladies, "if it hadn't been for our friends +from town and the ranches I don't know what we should have done." What +some of them--ay, many of them--did was to gather their little broods +about them morn and night and pray to the Father in heaven for the life +and safety of the father in the field,--to lead pure and patient and +faithful lives, striving to keep their little house in order against his +coming, to teach his children to honor and love his name, to guard that +name from any and every possibility of reproach. What others did was to +accept most liberally the parting injunction, "not to mope, but try to +have a good time and be brave and cheerful," while the soldier went his +way. From this it was an easy step to accept as liberally the proffered +attention of the gentlemen with the charming manners from Braska and +Braska County. It was a gay post, a fashionable post, a frivolous post, +for the tone of garrison life depends immeasurably upon its social +leader, the wife of the commanding officer, and Mrs. Stone was but +little older than her husband's daughters. The latter were East at +school or visiting their own mother's relatives. The former had been a +belle at home and was glad to continue her belledom on the plains. There +were times when Mrs. Stone and the colonel lent the countenance of their +presence to charming little dinners and lunches, or after theatre to +suppers at the leading restaurant in town. There were times when some of +the ladies accepted refreshment there without such official +accompaniment. "Really, one had to drive very frequently to Braska even +if there was no actual shopping, for there was nowhere else to go," was +an oft-heard remark at Scott that summer. But breathes there a woman who +cannot find excuse for shopping? And shopping was hungry work and the +drive was long, the air keen, bracing, appetizing. What more natural +than that Mr. Courtenay and Mr. Fowler of the bank, Mr. Willett or Mr. +Burtis of the Cattle Club,--such charming dancers these,--should +sometimes, indeed frequently, suggest just a little bite, just a hot +bird and a cold bottle at Cresswell's? Such delicious salads as he could +concoct out of even canned shrimp or lobster, such capital oysters as +came to him, fresh, three times a week from Baltimore, such delicious +champagne, so carefully iced. What possible harm could there be in Mrs. +Flight and Mrs. Darling and Mrs. Watson's going together, mind you, and +lunching with their friends? "Why, the ladies at Fort Russell all do the +same thing every time they go to Cheyenne!" said Mrs. Flight, when taken +to task about it. "When I was up there visiting Fanny Turner last month +we thought _nothing_ of it!" All the same Mrs. Wright and Mrs. Leonard +and others of their standard not only wouldn't go driving alone with +the gentlemen from town, but declined to go to Cresswell's with anybody. +And Mrs. Wright's bonny face flushed and her eyes flashed when she said +why. As to what the ladies of the --th did out at Russell, that was not +her business. "Nevertheless," said Mrs. Wright, "I'll warrant you that +Mrs. Stannard, or Mrs. Freeman, or Mrs. Truscott did nothing of the +kind, and I don't care what Mrs. Flight says or Mrs. Turner does." + +And then the whole regiment came flocking home, and there was joy and +gladness unspeakable in many a little army household and some +modification thereof in others, and presently Devers and his troop +arrived after a long, long march, and Devers began giving "Pegleg" +something more to think about. The resources of the quartermaster's +department were insufficient to fill that ambitious dragoon's +requisitions. There wasn't anything he didn't want for his men, his +horses, or himself, and the next thing Pegleg knew he was involved just +as he was told he would be in a voluminous warfare with the troop +commander, and was minded of a saying attributed to the wag of the --th +Cavalry, a certain Lieutenant Blake, who knew Devers well and shared the +universal opinion of him. An officer had talked of challenging Devers in +by-gone days when vestiges of the code still lingered, but Blake scouted +the idea. "The only pistol he can fight with is the epistle," said +Blake. So Blake was another detestation of Devers, and doubtless for +good reason. He was forever getting a laugh on the captain when they +happened to come together, and, contentious and critical as he was, the +big dragoon couldn't abide being laughed at. Somebody once referred to +Devers as reminding her of a Hercules on horseback, which prompted Blake +to respond, "Hercules! yes, by Jove, of the Farnese variety," whereat +there was a guffaw among the men present who knew anything of art, and a +general titter on every hand, for no one was ignorant of Devers's wide +physical departure from artistic lines. But Tom Hollis and others of his +ilk only caught the "far knees" part of it, which, however, was quite +enough. Blake would have been a comfort to old Stone this breezy, wintry +December, but in default of native wit to aid him wrestle with his acute +antagonist, the colonel begged that if only one more cavalryman should +be sent to the post in response to the new outcry for protection, he +should come in the shape of a field officer to straighten out Devers. +"He's got," said he, "too damn much individuality for me." + +And not only had more cavalry come, but the major had come and gone. If +anything, said Stone, Devers was more unbearable than before, as he now +had over two hundred men to represent instead of a little more than +fifty. Fort Scott was in the height of the holiday festivities, Captain +and Mrs. Cranston with Miss Loomis and the boys were just settling into +the new quarters when Lieutenant and Mrs. Davies were announced as _en +route_ to join. + +And now arose a serious question. Who was to receive and entertain the +new-comers until they were able to furnish and move into their own +quarters? If any one, his own captain should be the first to tender +hospitality, but Captain Devers made no move whatsoever. He had a large +and interesting family of his own, which was sufficient excuse. There +were now two classmates of Davies at the post, both in the Fortieth, but +they were youngsters, only a few months in service, who roomed together +in the upper story of old Number Three, and lived at the bachelor mess, +which comprised the contract doctor, the sutler's clerk, and certain of +the quartermaster's employés. The boys would give "Dad" the best they +had and gladly, but they hadn't anything. Even the iron bunks on which +they slept were borrowed from the hospital. "How can a fellow invite a +bride to occupy his one room when he don't own C. and G. E. enough to +furnish a hen-coop?" And by C. and G. E., the army abbreviation for camp +and garrison equipage, the youngster meant to imply that he had no +furniture beyond a camp-chair and a trunk. Cranston himself would gladly +have taken them in but for two reasons,--he had not a vacant room under +his roof, and Margaret did not seem to wish it. It must be confessed +that there had been an outburst heard only by him--confided only to +him--when Mrs. Cranston received, a few weeks after the letter which +sadly told of Davies's mother's death, the brief and possibly +constrained note from her late patient announcing his approaching +marriage to Miss Quimby, who he said had been utterly devoted to poor +mother during her declining days and those of her brief but painful +illness. Margaret could not bear to speak of it to Miss Loomis. It was +Agatha herself who calmly asked, "And when is he to be married?" In +answering Mrs. Cranston found it impossible to conceal that she thought +it both quixotic and unnecessary. Miss Loomis quietly but decidedly took +the opposite view. No honorable man could have done otherwise. They had +long been engaged. It was not only their own but his mother's choice. +She was young, beautiful, deeply in love with him. He had long been in +love with her. Doubtless they would be very happy, as they deserved to +be. Margaret flared up again: "I believe he's doing it as he does +everything else,--from sheer sense of duty, and that you advised him +to." A random shot which went nearer the mark than the archer supposed, +for Miss Loomis flushed in an instant, and made no reply. "Well!" said +Mrs. Cranston, "she longs only to share the humblest cot, the rudest +habitation with her beloved. We'll see how she'll take to frontier +life." + +A detachment of thirty troopers had been ordered kept at the new agency +eighty miles to the north, and thither to his supreme disgust had +Lieutenant Boynton of the Eleventh been banished in command, with the +promise of relief soon after Christmas. Cranston wrote asking permission +to use the lieutenant's vacated rooms for the new-comers, saying he +would provide servants and such fittings as would be needed. Boynton +wired back yes, of course, and the dreary bachelor den was made as +habitable as Mrs. Cranston's busy hands and brain could make it. Other +kindly women lent their aid, as well as pillow shams, towels, +comforters, bed linen, lamps, wardrobe, bureau, rocking-chairs, lounge, +etc. The Davieses were to breakfast and lunch with the Cranstons each +day, and to be invited round to dinner until their own cot was ready. +And in thus wise did traditional army hospitality vindicate itself. +There was that still unexplained something hanging over Davies's head, +but as yet he knew nothing of it,--had never heard of the allegations so +vehemently, volubly laid at his door when Captain Devers had his own +portals to clear. Nor was the latter now given to faintest reference to +the matter. This at first glance may seem inconsistent, yet has its +explanation. As matters now stood there would be no further inquiry into +that wretched business. If Davies were once to know his good name had +been attacked, and that his explanation of his failure to reach his men +or give notice of their plight had been aspersed, somebody might put him +up to demanding a court of inquiry. Devers had even concluded it a +diplomatic move to treat the lieutenant with a courtesy hitherto +withheld. Mrs. Devers was already instructed to be particularly civil to +the bride. + +Another thing had Devers done, and done most diplomatically. Realizing +his own narrow escape and suspecting his unpopularity in the regiment, +though little dreaming (which of us does?) how ill he was really +regarded, the temporary battalion commander began making friends of the +mammon of unrighteousness, so to speak, and exerting himself to show his +juniors how courteous and considerate he could be in that capacity. As a +general rule it is the subaltern who makes the greatest outcry against +the disciplinary measures of his captain, or the captain who most +vehemently condemns the policy of his colonel, who proves in turn the +most inconsiderate and annoying of superiors. But Devers was +shrewd,--"wise in his generation." He knew his reign must be short at +best. He felt that he had a difficult rôle to play. He had always been +an outspoken "company rights" man as opposed to the federalizing policy +of the battalion or regimental commander. He had bitterly resented in +the past any or all interference with his management of his troop, yet +had been an unsparing critic of everybody else's system, and, as we have +seen, a nimble and active opponent of anything like control on the part +of his commander. Of him it had been predicted that he would immediately +begin to "boss" the entire battalion and require his brother captains to +conform to his own ways of conducting troop affairs. He had always made +it a point to try to be cordial to other fellows' lieutenants, but was +never liked by his own. Mr. Hastings cordially hated him, but Hastings +had his peculiarities, too. As for the captains, Hay and Devers hadn't +been on speaking terms for two years. Truman could not like him, yet had +had no open rupture. Cranston and he were personally and officially +antagonistic. One and all, the officers regarded this detail under his +command as one of the most unpromising of their experience, and could +hardly contain themselves when Warren left. As for Warren, his relations +with the senior troop commander had been of the stiffest and most formal +character ever since the close of the campaign. + +But just as he had baffled his own commanders in the past, so now did +Devers baffle all. Far from interfering or assuming control, he did so +only when in actual command at mounted inspection or drill, and then in +the most courteous way of which he was capable. He declined to overhaul +or inspect the quarters or stables of the other troops, which, as +battalion commander, it was really his duty to do at least once a +month. "I have always held that the captain should not be spied upon," +he said, "and I have too much confidence in the ability and sense of +duty of you gentlemen to differ now." + +Hay was amazed, so was everybody up at head-quarters. Colonel Tintop +didn't know what to make of it. Cranston presently decided he had solved +the mystery, but kept his theory to himself. Truman, a little later, +arrived at a like conclusion, and was for giving it abroad, but Cranston +counselled reticence. An appeal to Truman's regimental pride was always +effective. + +"Never mind what's at the bottom of it all, old man. We're getting along +smoothly and swimmingly, just like a happy family. Let's keep up the +illusion and fool these fellows of the Fortieth awhile longer," said he, +and Truman promised. But these fellows of the Fortieth were not so +easily fooled. They had been on the campaign and knew a thing or two +themselves, and as Devers and the adjutant speedily locked horns again +and Devers said some unjustifiable things, the infantry retorted, and +the infantry weapon had a longer range. It was the very day of Davies's +arrival with his bride that this smouldering fire burst forth. Devers +was in the adjutant's office snarling about the neglect of the post +quartermaster to pay any attention to his requisitions. Now, it was an +aide-de-camp and a cavalry officer who had been sent to the scene of the +affair at Antelope Springs to compare the situation there with Devers's +description and rough sketch, and a cavalry officer who had written what +was practically a vindication of Devers's course. Stung by the language +of the captain, the adjutant, himself a veteran soldier of years of war +service such as Devers had never rendered, looked up from his desk and +sharply asked what was Devers's complaint at the expense of his +regimental comrade,--the quartermaster. + +"What I mean," said Devers, "is simply this: that just so long as we +have to appeal to an infantry staff officer I can never get my stables +whitewashed." + +"We-l-l," said Mr. Leonard, looking his man squarely in the eye, "I am +inclined to think that the cavalry staff officer is sometimes given to +too much 'whitewashing,' and if an infantryman had been sent instead of +a cavalryman the most discreditable affair of the late campaign would +not have been, as it was, whitewashed entirely." + +"If somebody had whitewashed old Differs's face he couldn't have turned +a sicker shade," said Tommy Dot, the only other infantryman present at +the moment. Cranston was there, so was Devers's own lieutenant, Mr. +Hastings, and the thing couldn't be overlooked. The adjutant was as big +and powerful a man as Devers, more so if anything, and his black eyes +were snapping like coals, and his mouth was rigid as the jaws of a +steel-trap as he rose and squarely confronted the irate captain, and +Devers knew and knew well that more than his match was there before him. + +"This is something you'll have to answer for, Mr. Leonard," said he, in +tones that trembled, despite every effort at self-control. "You are +witness to the language, Captain Cranston, Mr. Hastings." + +"The language will be publicly repeated, sir," said Leonard, "if you +desire more witnesses." But by this time the colonel at his desk in the +adjoining room seemed to catch a whiff of the impending crisis, and +could be heard calling his adjutant. "I'll return in a moment, sir," +said Leonard, and he did, but when he returned Devers was gone. + +And now the questions were, what will Devers do about it? and what will +Davies say when he hears what Devers has done? There could be no fight, +except on paper, for that was Devers's only field. He had gone forth in +evident wrath and excitement, bidding Cranston and Hastings to follow. +Hastings as his subaltern went without a word. Cranston said he had come +to transact certain business and would follow when that was done. Devers +was tramping up and down in front of his quarters; Hastings, with +embarrassed mien and moody face, leaning, his hands in his pockets, +against the fence. + +"What do you think of that as an insult to the cavalry?" asked Devers of +his junior, as Cranston with his usual deliberation came finally to the +spot. + +"I think it provoked, sir, by your slur on the infantry." + +"I merely generalized," answered Devers. "He insulted both Archer and +me." Archer, by the way, was the aide-de-camp in question. + +"Well, then I presume Archer and you can settle it," said Cranston, +coolly. + +"It's evident your sympathy for your patient has blinded your sense of +justice to--to the rest of the regiment. I looked for more loyalty from +you, Cranston." + +"It is my loyalty to the regiment and my sense of justice that refuse to +be blinded by you, Devers. I cannot reconcile Mr. Davies's story with +your report, and I do not see how Archer could, if indeed he ever saw +Davies's story or heard of it." + +"Captain Cranston, your _protégé_ may thank heaven that I haven't yet +preferred charges against him for that affair," said Devers, white with +passion. + +"It has always been my belief, Captain Devers, that charges should have +been preferred, and the sooner that it is done the sooner will Davies be +cleared. I presume that you can want nothing further of me." And +Cranston walked calmly on. + +And that evening the bride arrived. "The Parson's" classmates drove over +to the railway to meet the happy pair and escort them to the post. The +ladies, one and all, had done their best to brighten up the absent +Boynton's quarters so as to make a fitting habitation for the new-comers +to their ranks. The officers had passed the word, as was the expression, +to keep from Davies, for the present at least, all mention of these +affairs in which his name was involved. Somebody at division +head-quarters must have had an eye on the situation, for there came a +letter from a trusted aide of the lieutenant-general to old "Pegleg" +reminding him of the gratitude we all owed the young man's noble father, +and bidding him lend a helping hand to Davies, and see that his life +wasn't made a burden to him by his troop commander. The general +evidently knew of Devers's idiosyncrasies, but Mrs. Devers herself came +early to join the circle of helping hands, and announced that she would +be there to welcome the bride to her temporary nest; and she was there +in the crisp, cold starlight when the ambulance with its spanking team +drove briskly into the big quadrangle, and in warm furs and happy +blushes and half-shy delight, a very pretty girl was lifted from the +dark interior and presented to the little knot of hospitable friends +awaiting her coming. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +Within the week of their arrival, thanks to the energetic movements of +Mr. Davies, the new couple were established in Number 12, the outermost +of the long row of officers' quarters, the one nearest the open prairie +and farthest from the official and social centre of the post, but the +best they could hope for on the rank of a junior lieutenant in a crowded +garrison. Even this roost was not to be entirely their own, for Acting +Assistant Surgeon Burroughs occupied the rear room aloft, and had he +chosen to fight for his rights, would probably have been accorded the +entire floor, but like everybody else he was eager to make everything +pleasant for the bride. Davies had expected no such luck, and had duly +explained to her that a combined dining-, sitting-, and bedroom, and an +out-door kitchen was absolutely all that they could expect, and more +than they were really entitled to. But Almira had enthusiastically +declared, as she had written, that even an Indian lodge in some vast +wilderness she would rather share with her Percy than a palace with a +prince royal. That there was a halo of romance about this marriage was +something everybody in the Fortieth had heard and many in the Eleventh +believed. All manner of theories and not a few stories had been put in +circulation, and no end of questions propounded of Captain Cranston's +household--who were believed to know all the facts--and not a few of the +fair bride herself, who showed no unreadiness to enter into particulars, +but had evidently been cautioned to curb her confidences. Taking a leaf +from the journalism of the day, let us congratulate the reader on having +now laid before him or her the first and only authentic record of the +facts in the case,--let us proudly await the commendation due their +herald. + +It was no part of Percy Davies's plan when he left the roof of his +devoted nurses at Cameron to return to the regiment within two months a +married man, but other forces had been at work. A halo of heroism had +been thrown about his head by the events of the summer. The papers of +his State had made much of his prompt and soldierly tender of service. +It was before the day of illustrated daily journalism, or his picture +might have appeared in several papers, all, presumably, copies from the +same photograph, and no two of them recognizably alike. According to +local predictions he was on the high-road to fame, rank, and promotion, +and Almira's romance was redoubled, and her importance in the community, +in her own eyes at least, immeasurably enhanced. One paper indeed had +referred poetically to the lovely bride from whose entwining arms at the +call of duty the heroic youth had torn himself, and the pen-picture +drawn of Almira was as flattering as the wood-cut might have been +frightful. Then something occurred that turned her head as nothing had +before. Who should write to her but rich Aunt Almira, her own dear dead +mother's long-talked-of sister, now the wife of the great railway +magnate, and Aunt Almira urged her niece to come and visit her, and +Almira went, as pretty a village maid as ever set foot in a Pullman car; +but Aunt Almira looked aghast at the rural cut of her garments, even +though she gasped with envy over her complexion. She drove her lovely +niece forthwith to a great mart where all manner of feminine wear was in +readiness for immediate donning, and Almira was in a heaven of bliss and +her aunt in corresponding spell of complacency over the improvement +instantly effected. This, however, was only a temporary arrangement. To +her own milliner, mantua-makers and modistes, and what not, the happy, +blushing girl was next transported, and Urbana looked upon her with envy +and delight when at the close of that changeful moon she was restored to +friends and fireside. Aunt Almira had given her niece a party, to which +came famous officers of the army, stationed in the city, to say nice +things to her about her hero lieutenant and honeyed words about herself. +There was a reception at which three cavaliers appeared in blue and +gold, with medals on their broad chests, great braids and loops of +glittering cord pendent from their armored shoulders. (Percy at that +time, in the rags of his first uniform and a shocking bad hat and the +wreck of a pair of soldier boots, cold and wet, faint and starving, was +staggering through the Bad Lands, dragging his skeleton horse behind +him.) A great military band was playing thrilling waltz music, and a +young lieutenant-colonel swung her twice around the whirling parlor and +helped her to champagne and praised her waltzing, which he declared +perfect,--and indeed she had enjoyed excellent teaching, but, alas! at +the hands of Powlett, not Percy, who would not dance at all. Yes, the +aide-de-camp helped her to champagne and more flattery. There was a +military wedding in a great cathedral church one evening where some of +Percy's classmates in glittering uniforms served as ushers and crowded +about her to talk of "Dad," as they called him, and to dance with her +and marvel among themselves later at her beauty, her unsophistication, +and at her being his choice. She went back to Urbana at the end of the +month, believing army life to be one long round of balls, parties, +music, dancing, champagne,--army men heroic gallants in gorgeous attire +who danced divinely and said the sweetest things ever whispered into +dainty ears. She went back with Aunt Almira's promise to provide still +more raiment for her _trousseau_, and finally with Aunt Almira's tearful +tale that her heart, too, was with the Eleventh, wherein her own beloved +boy, her idolized black sheep, was a trooper serving his country on a +private's pay and under the name of Brannan; and then, with a start, +Almira bethought her of certain wild, raving letters that she had left +hidden at home,--letters she had never spoken of to anybody,--letters +that had come to her from time to time in the spring and early summer +and then suddenly ceased, as Percy's had, entirely, for there were long +weeks that battle year when the field column was cut off from all +communication with friends and home, and these letters, too, had told of +Brannan,--told things she would not, could not tell Aunt Almira,--could +not indeed tell anybody, for her letters, though signed Bertie, were +written by another trooper, whose address was Howard. + +After such joys under Aunt Almira's roof, life at home became +insupportable. Mrs. Quimby said it was Almira herself, not the life. +Clash followed clash; there came sneers, tears, squabbles, rows, and at +last practical banishment. Old Quimby could stand it no longer. Almira +went to live with her prospective mother-in-law, who was not sorry, and +who, hearing for weeks only her side of the story, believed all she said +about home troubles and their inciting cause. She could not hear enough +about Percy, and so who so welcome as Almira, who never tired of the +topic, or of the telling of the officers she had met and all they had +said of him and of his spirited conduct. Even a great general, she said, +had been presented, and before all the company had drawn her to his +broad-sashed, button-studded bosom and kissed her mantling cheek, as was +his way with every pretty girl he met,--Almira did not mention that. And +then these two women, invalid mother and impatient daughter-in-law +elect, were drawn closely together by tidings of Percy's illness, +Percy's careful nursing, etc., then of Percy's slow convalescence. They +could not go to him, because Mrs. Davies was far too feeble. Almira +raved about going,--wanted to go,--wept, implored, and ranted, but her +father was implacable and Mrs. Davies opposed. The latter was sure +everything was being done that could be done and she needed Almira. But +from the very first Almira was suspicious of Mrs. Cranston and Miss +Loomis, jealous of their attention, fearful of their influence. Percy, +she cried, not she, would prove faithless. She would gladly, willingly, +eagerly fly to his side, nurse him night and day, dwell with him in +bliss and a wigwam if need be; but he--he was cold--he was changing--he +would prove faithless to his humble, adoring village maid, and then +there would be nothing left for her but despair. Then as his +convalescence progressed she became insistent and Mrs. Davies weaker. +Almira poured forth her plaint to her aunt by letter. Aunt Almira gave +another dinner, to which some of the staff were bidden, and a mellow +symposium it was, and over the oft-replenished champagne glasses did the +kindly woman tell of Mrs. Davies's craving to see her boy once more, and +how the boy would ask no favors, though her husband, the magnate, +offered to send to the lieutenant passes all the way from Cheyenne. Two +Almiras prevailed, and the last month of the mother's life was blessed +and gladdened by the presence of her devoted son. Almost the last +promise asked of him was that there should be no delay in the marriage +of her dear children, as she called them, though the poor soul had many +a misgiving now as to whether Almira, after all, would prove a worthy +helpmate for her earnest, duteous son. Indeed, she at one time had +thought to ask that they might be united before her eyes, but Almira's +wedding garment wasn't ready, and Almira, who had urged all speed, was +not prepared for speed so great as that. She, too, secretly nourished +the idea of a military wedding and a big church. Davies never meant to +retreat from his obligation, but he had hoped to make the girl fully +understand what was before her,--what army life and its duties were +really like,--but his every effort to talk with her gravely and +earnestly met with reproach and tears. She didn't care what it was, all +she asked was to share his lot, no matter how poor, how humble. It was +he who, after for years making her love him so, was now doubting and +distrusting her. She knew how it would be when those other women, +instead of her, had been chosen to nurse and care for him. They had +usurped her place. They had undermined her. That--that Miss Loomis whom +he was holding up as a model to her--all this time! He'd break her +heart, and she'd just go--anywhere except home--and die. She had no +home. She had given up everybody--everything for him, and now he was +tiring of her. Well, it was pretty trying, but Davies strove to explain +and to undeceive. He didn't take her in his arms and kiss away her tears +as he ought to have done, and plead and pet and soothe as she planned he +should do, poor child. It wasn't his way. He strove to appeal to her +judgment and to her common sense, but could not reach them. And then +came to him the great sorrow of his mother's death, peaceful, placid, +hopeful though it was,--and then when she was laid away and he faced the +world again, he found that there were outstanding claims against the +homestead of which, through motives of kindness, both his mother and +himself had been kept in ignorance during her life. Unless he could pay +regularly the interest on a large sum the old place his father loved +must go. It had ever been Percy's plan to hold it, and in the fulness +of time to return perhaps to take his father's place in the church, at +any rate to strive to do so in the community. He had planned to lease it +until he and Almira should be ready to go to housekeeping there if she +remained faithful all these years, but now only by pinching could he +hope to save it at all. + +And this he explained, but it made no difference. She would help him +pinch and save and starve if need be. They could live on a crust, and +she could cook and bake and darn and sew and sweep for him. The one +thing she could no longer do was wait, for people were pestering to know +when she was to be married, and some girls had openly hinted that Percy +Davies had changed his mind. Then came the naming of the day, and, as he +was in deep mourning, to her bitter disappointment he said their wedding +must be very simple and quiet,--just a few friends present as witnesses. +She had projected on a smaller scale an imitation of the swell affair +she had seen in the fall, but Percy wouldn't even have a best man. Then +he told her gravely that as they must live so quietly he thought her +aunt should not lay out money on party and dinner dresses and expensive +trifles. Almira should dress very simply as became a poor soldier's +wife, and as he was in deep mourning, and they could not go to dances or +dinners or anything of the kind, that she should so notify her, but +Almira could not thwart her aunt, and Percy's brow darkened when the +trunks arrived. "I fear she looks in return for all this for various +things which I cannot possibly do for her son," said he. He had not seen +the boy for months, and did not know how he might be withstanding the +temptations surrounding garrison life after long months of enforced +abstinence in the field. + +In the days of Davies's convalescence Cranston had told him of Mrs. +Barnard's call and of Brannan's story, and rejoiced that Brannan was +Miss Loomis's patient on the train, and that all through the campaign +the boy had borne himself well, and all this you may be sure did +Cranston write to Mrs. Barnard, and most gratefully was it all +acknowledged. She urged that as soon as possible now her son should be +transferred to Cranston's troop as a surer and simpler path to his +commission. After meeting and knowing the military gentlemen at +home,--people in whom she had taken no interest whatever until her +wayward son had taken to the army,--she had begun to picture him in a +staff uniform and on duty with the general at home, and, motherlike, was +eager to speed the consummation. And then Cranston's next letter told +her that her boy's best friend and adviser, Lieutenant Davies, was from +Urbana, and then very soon came the story of his engagement to Almira +Quimby, her own niece. It was then that Almira was sent for and became +Queen Paramount, for when do mothers cease to plan for wayward sons? + +And now the bride was actually there in the army. The ladies had +gathered to welcome her. The band had seranaded her the night of her +arrival. The colonel and his wife, captains and lieutenants by the +dozen, came to call, most of them with their better halves, some of the +latter refined, high-bred, cultured women, some simple-mannered, +warm-hearted army girls who knew no home but the regiment, no life but +that on the plains. Some vapid, frivolous, and would-be fashionable, but +all full of kindly motive. She could have had luncheons, dinners, and +parties in her honor, and secretly moaned that it could not be, but Mr. +Davies's deep mourning prohibited. She had dined _en famille_ and in +deep constraint at the Cranstons the evening after her coming, and not +all Mrs. Cranston's cheery, chatty, cordial way, or Miss Loomis's +courtesy and tact, could put poor Almira at her ease. She was set +against them from the start, and it made the feast an ordeal which both +Cranston and Davies would gladly have eliminated from memory could they +do so. The latter had never yet spoken reprovingly to his wife, but this +night he felt that something must be said. Just in proportion as her +manner to her hostess had been unresponsive and cold so had her +assumption of little wifely airs and proprietorship been comical. She +seemed bent on extracting from Percy public and frequent demonstration +of his lover-like side, and her appeals and endearments had furiously +embarrassed him. They went home early, met callers at their own door, +and were kept up late. That Mrs. Cranston should have turned and looked +inquiringly into Agatha Loomis's face the instant the door closed upon +them was to be expected. Her eyes were sparkling, her lips twitching +with the mental ebullition going on within; but Agatha turned abruptly +away. Mrs. Cranston then sought to search her husband's face, but the +captain was forearmed and chose to keep his back towards his better half +and to pull on his arctics and overcoat and gather up his little +hurricane lamp. The trumpet was sounding first call for tattoo, and +though it was no concern of his, for Mr. Sanders, his cheery subaltern, +had just gone whistling by on his way to the troop quarters, Cranston +preferred to face the falling snow rather than those speaking, luminous, +quizzical, questioning, tormenting eyes, and so invented business for +the occasion. "Don't sit up for me, Meg," said he, and she knew he +simply would not be drawn into a discussion. + +But she had to talk to somebody, and what was Agatha for? Agatha had +palpably dodged and gone to her room, and would have been glad not to +come down again. She even went into the boys' room and romped with her +two young trooper cousins instead of allowing them to go to sleep. So up +came Mrs. Cranston and ordered her out, and then, when the girl would +have escaped and gone down-stairs again, Margaret confronted her in the +hall, placed her hands on her shoulders, and with a world of mingled +merriment and commiseration in her tone said, or rather asked,-- + +"Well?" + +"Well what?" + +"What do you think now?" + +"Simply what I have maintained all along. That he did right." + +"But what do you think of--of her?" + +And Miss Loomis, shaking herself free, hurried by her friend and down +the stairs. She refused to say. + +Perhaps it might have been better had Mr. Davies postponed his first +marital lecture. It was very gentle, very brief, but Almira had seen his +vexation as they hastened home and had striven to avert the coming +comments. She well knew wherein she had erred. Public endearments of any +kind by word or touch had already been pointed out to her as +unconventional in society. There were no people on the post in whose +presence he more dreaded such demonstration than the two ladies of +Cranston's household. There were no people in the world in whose +presence she was more bent upon making display of her possession. He had +interdicted the gown she longed to wear and indicated a simple black +silk. In this point she had to yield, but she had conquered on the +other, and now when he gravely reminded her of his caution, she declared +she thought these people were his intimate friends, his confidants,--not +mere society people,--and--of course--if he was ashamed to have them +see--how dear he was to her----Oh, but why go on with the rest? Sobs and +tears and swollen eyelids and sore lamentation, and pleas to be taken +home again if this was to be the beginning of their married life. Davies +knelt alone that night, and his prayer for guidance and strength came +from the depths of an anxious heart. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +One of the first inquiries made by Mr. Davies was for Trooper Brannan. +"He is with the detachment up at the reservation," said Mr. Hastings. +"That's our Botany Bay. That's where Differs ships his bad eggs. Not +that Brannan was a bad egg, but that Differs so regarded him." + +"Had he been drinking or in any trouble?" + +"Well, not exactly trouble," said Hastings. "He didn't get along with +one or two of the sergeants. They made frequent complaint of his 'lip,' +and the old man seemed suspicious of him." Only one new hand or recruit +had been selected to go to the agency with Boynton's detachment, and +that was Brannan. He was sent to replace Fogarty, who broke his leg, +just about the time the other troops came. When Davies reported to his +troop and battalion commander for duty, Captain Differs received him +with much grave dignity,--with a certain air in which majestic courtesy +was mingled with that of forgiveness for injuries received, as though he +would say, "Let by-gones be by-gones. We'll make a fresh start, and in +consideration of your ills, inexperience, and the like, I'll try to +overlook your shortcomings in the field." Davies had never set eyes on +him from the moment of their parting at dusk that gloomy Dakota evening +to the northwest of the Springs,--from that evening to that of his +return. Totally ignorant of much that had taken place during his +illness, he was ready to serve his captain faithfully, even though he +felt that he could not like or trust him. They had but brief converse. +"Take all the time you need to get your quarters ready, Mr. Davies. You +and Hastings can divide the detail work of stables and roll-call between +you," said Devers. "Just remember we've got an infantry adjutant here +who's only too anxious to find fault and stir up trouble between us and +the post commander." + +Going into the troop office the day after his return, Davies was +surprised to see a dark-eyed, dark-haired, rather handsome young +soldier at the clerk's desk. He recognized him as one of the recruits +whom he had brought out in July, but of whom he had seen very little +during the campaign. + +"That's our new company clerk," said Hastings. "One of Differs's latest +pets. There are better clerks and better men in the troop. He relieved a +better man when he sent Moran up to the agency. But what Devers is +driving at is past finding out. There's been a total shaking up since +that--well, since the campaign." + +And that this was true Davies could see for himself. Never having known +the troop, except in the field on the worst of campaigns, it took him a +few days to become accustomed to the change. Some of the most prominent +of the troop sergeants were still on duty with it, but in their +spick-and-span uniforms and clean-shaven cheeks and chins he found them +greatly altered. The first sergeant was the same, and the relationship +between him and the captain seemed closer than ever. Haney recognized no +middleman in his dealings with the troop commander, and had long been +allowed to consider himself as of far more importance than a junior +lieutenant, a theory in which, perhaps, there was much to sustain him. +The manner of this magnate to the two subalterns, therefore, was just a +trifle independent. Two veteran corporals had stepped up to an +additional stripe vice Daly killed and McGrath missing in September. +Some new corporals had been "made." None of those whom Davies best knew +and most noticed during the summer were among them. He missed two or +three of the old hands and asked for them. Sergeant Lutz had gone to +the agency. Corporal O'Brien had been reduced for a spree on the +home-coming and was serving as private in Boynton's detachment, and +Privates Sercomb and Riley were up there, too. The resultant vacancies +in the troop had been filled by raw recruits who were being +energetically licked into shape. + +When Cranston was asked why he supposed it had pleased Captain Devers to +send a recruit like Brannan up to the bleak and unwholesome life at the +agency, Cranston replied by saying, "Differs said it was to keep him out +of harm's way. Up there he couldn't get liquor, down here he could." +When Davies asked if Brannan had shown a disposition to drink since +getting back from the campaign, Cranston again used Devers's authority. +"Differs said he had,--two or three times." But when Cranston wrote to +Boynton, Boynton replied that young Brannan declared that he had been +totally abstemious since the day after they reached the post. The day of +their coming in, he arrived half frozen and all tired out, as he had +been kept back on wagon guard, and he was offered liquor by Sergeant +Haney himself, and drank several times, and was wretchedly ill all the +next day as a consequence,--so ill that it frightened him, and he swore +off more solemnly than before. Hastings said, in fact, that there was a +set in "A" troop, a clique that "stood in" with the first sergeant and +some of his favorites, and that no man outside of it could hope for +recognition and no one in it fear punishment. Brannan was not in it. + +It was a Wednesday night, as has been said, that Davies arrived, and +not until the following Wednesday could they be installed in their +quarters, which were being simply but prettily furnished. Private +Barnickel had assumed the duties of striker, and Mrs. Maloney's +strapping daughter Katty was now presiding in Boynton's kitchen as cook +and maid-of-all-work. A tenant had been found for the old house at home, +who was to pay a certain rental to Squire Quimby, which sum was to be +supplemented by a monthly payment from his son-in-law's scanty purse. +"We must live very simply and economically, my wife," said Davies. "At +the very least it will take me two whole years to pay principal and +interest and set us foot free; but we have few other debts. We can be +warm and comfortable. You have all the clothing you will be apt to need +for a good while, and I will get along with what I have." And Mira had +received the suggestion with all wifely grace. They went to chapel +together that first crisp, sunshiny, wintry Sunday, and all Fort +Scott--at least all that happened to be there assembled--remarked on +Almira's rich color--and furs--and on Davies's reverent manner. He was +the only man in the little congregation who actually knelt. The old +chaplain rejoiced that afternoon when the tall lieutenant came in at +Sunday-school, and, taking immediate charge of the most turbulent of his +classes,--the big boys,--held them both interested and respectful until +the close of the session. Almira came too, and made an impression on the +juvenile minds of some of the laundresses' children, who studied her +pretty face and new hat and garments with close attention; but it gave +her a headache and she would rather not go to the evening service, she +said,--a service held more especially for the benefit of the soldiers +and their families, and but sparsely attended otherwise. Davies went, +however, and when he came home to their temporary quarters, found +Almira, all animation, chatting with Mrs. Flight and Mrs. Darling, to +whom she had been showing the contents of her big trunk. They were +called for presently by Mr. Sanders and his classmate Jervis, both of +whom had known the "Parson" in his cadet days, but from the somewhat +immeasurable altitude of a two years' start, yet they were the younger +looking now, gay, debonair bachelors, pillars of the social gatherings +at the post and most delightful partners, and, having completed their +duties with tattoo roll-call, they were now in search of these reigning +belles and an opportunity to talk over the hop projected for the coming +Wednesday night. Of course Mrs. Davies would come, said Jervis, but +Sanders's warning kick brought him to consciousness. "At least I +hope--we all hope you'll very soon be able to attend our parties, Mrs. +Davies. I suppose you've reformed the Parson and taught him to waltz." +Mira looked at her husband, and she knew not just what to say. + +Davies smiled gravely and said no, he feared that he was too old and +awkward to learn even at the Point, but that Mrs. Davies was very fond +of dancing, and by and by, perhaps, they would attend. Then the chat +flowed merrily on, of the lovely time that they had all enjoyed,--that +is, the garrison people had enjoyed all summer, and the pleasant +associations they had formed with the gentlemen from town, and how much +lovelier it would be now. And while they were talking, through the thin +partition which separated Mr. Boynton's official and personal quarters +from those of Lieutenant and Adjutant Leonard there came the sound of +sacred music,--Mrs. Leonard at her piano, her clear, true voice blending +with the deep resonant bass of her soldier husband and the sweet treble +of the children, and Davies stopped to listen. It was a hymn his father +loved, one they often sang at the old church at home,-- + + "Son of my soul, Thou Saviour dear." + +It brought sweet and sacred memories. It spoke of home and holy +influences, of mother love and father's blessing and children's hope and +faith. It filled his heart with reverence and his eyes with tears. The +babble and chat for an instant were silenced, and then Mrs. Darling +spoke. + +"The worst of these army quarters is that you can hear just what's going +on next door; but," she added, cheerfully, "you'll soon be where you +won't be bothered on one side, at least." + +Sanders gave a queer, quick glance at the speaker and then at Davies. +Jervis plunged into an immediate rhapsody on the subject of Mrs. +Leonard's children, whom he declared to be the best little beggars he +ever knew, unless it was Cranston's. "Of course," he added, +diplomatically, "I can safely praise them in your presence, ladies, as +you have none of your own." + +Then conversation languished, for Davies was silent and Mrs. Davies +uninspired. The visitors left and went laughing down the row, their gay +voices ringing in the frosty air. + +"How long had they been here, dear?" asked Davies as he returned to the +fireside. + +"The ladies? Oh, I don't know. Quite a little while. They were so +interested in everything,--so friendly. I quite forgot my headache while +they were here. Now it seems to be coming on again, and if you don't +mind I think I won't sit up,--unless somebody else is coming." + +"There will hardly be any more callers to-night," he answered, gravely. +"If your head aches you might be better for going early to bed, and I +will sit here and read awhile." + +But the wandering thoughts refused to be chained to the page before him. +His heart was full and vaguely troubled. "I shall be better for a turn +in the cold air," he thought, and so, throwing his cape over his +shoulders, he quietly left the house. + +It was just after ten, a still, sparkling winter's night. Across the +snowy level of the parade the long rows of wooden barracks lay dark and +silent, no lights burning except in the window of some company office or +first sergeant's room. Those were the days of "early to bed and early to +rise," and every man was supposed to be sleeping by ten so as to be up +and doing stable duty--or nothing--at dawn. Officers and ladies, the +privileged class of the army, made their own regulations as to domestic +hours of retiring. The enlisted man slept or was supposed to sleep "by +order." Mr. Davies, finding it essential to his comfort to sally forth +and imbibe free air, had no one to say him nay,--Mrs. Davies having +retired,--and might wander the live-long night about the post at will. +Trooper Blaney or Private Rentz, on the contrary, might toss for hours +on sleepless pillow, and could only grin and bear it. It meant so many +dollars "blind," or such other punishment as a court-martial might +inflict to a soldier caught out of barracks after the sound of the +signal to extinguish lights. + +Already, in the quarters of his next-door neighbor, the adjutant, the +parlor was darkened, and except for the studious head of the family, now +poring over some precious volume in the privacy of his den, the +household had gone aloft. Davies paused a moment, irresolute. To his +right the walk extended only a short distance. There were but two more +houses. To his left lay the main length of the line,--the colonel's, the +surgeon's, the cavalry commander's, and most of the captains'. +Cranston's roof, however, was one of the two to the right, and thither +Davies turned. Dim lights were burning in the little army parlor, as he +could see through the half-drawn curtain. A shadow flitted across the +dormer window above him,--Mrs. Cranston's. The other windows in the +upper floor were dark. He wanted to go in and commune with Cranston, the +man of all others whom he most liked, but he shrank from ringing their +bell at so late an hour. Elsewhere along the row many a window was +brilliantly illuminated and the social life of the post seemed in full +flow. The Cranstons were home-keeping folk as a rule, "not at all +sociable," said some of the dames of the Fortieth, and yet they were +highly regarded throughout the garrison. + +Except for a mere bow, as they were going to morning service, he had not +met Mrs. Cranston or Miss Loomis since the dinner of Thursday +evening,--the evening of Almira's provincial display of endearments, for +between Katty and Striker Barnickel they had been enabled to breakfast +at Boynton's quarters, and had lunched and dined elsewhere among the +many hospitably disposed throughout the garrison. Davies wanted to see +and talk with the captain, but to-night he shrank unaccountably from +meeting either of the ladies. It is under such circumstances that many a +man finds Fate unkind. Even as he stood there the hall door flew open +and a bright beam from the astral lamp within shot athwart the road. A +blithe voice called back in answer to some presumable remonstrance. +"What nonsense, Margaret! I can run over there as well as not and be +back in a moment." The door closed, and muffled in her long fur-lined +cloak, Miss Loomis was at the gate. "Why! Mr. Davies!" she exclaimed in +surprise. + +"I was just wondering whether I might venture to ring and ask for the +captain," he hesitatingly said. "I wanted very much to see him." + +"Captain Cranston is out. That is how it happens that _I_ am going out," +she spoke, with prompt and cheery tone. "Old Sergeant Fritz is very low +to-night, and you'll find the captain there," and she indicated the way +to the married men's quarters over to the southwest. "I have to run over +to the hospital, for Louis's cough is very troublesome, and we happened +to be entirely out of medicine." + +"Well, my talk with the captain can wait, Miss Loomis. Let me be your +orderly for to-night. What can I get for you?" + +"Indeed you shall not!" she answered, with quick decision. "I'm +accustomed to doing my own errands. Good-night." And with that she +turned independently away to where the dim lights in the hospital +glimmered at the eastward. + +"Then your ex-patient may at least trot along as escort," said he, as +promptly placing himself by her side and, army fashion, tendering his +arm. + +"No, thank you," she answered, resolutely muffling her cloak about her +and rebelling against the rising impulse of vexation, "I do not need +support, and indeed, Mr. Davies, I need no escort. I'm quite accustomed +to going about the post by myself. I--I would very much rather you went +on to see Captain Cranston, as was your intention." + +"And I would very much rather walk with you to the hospital," he +answered, with calm decision. "Come." + +She had stopped as though striving to dismiss him from her side, but he +ignored her wishes entirely. His lips were curving into something very +like a smile of amusement, and it nettled her. + +"To be perfectly frank with you, Mr. Davies, I wish now that I had made +a reconnoissance before venturing out so boldly. If there is anything I +hate it is this idea of burdening a man with escort duty. Just as though +one needed to be guarded at every step. It is the dependence of the +thing I despise,--a dependence that is entirely forced upon us." + +"Well, so long as the escort is not forced upon you, I hope you will +not despise it. I am going with you because, as it's after taps, you may +need help in rousing the steward. He was up all last night, I'm told, +with Fritz, and may be abed now." + +And so her protests, not her scruples, were silenced. Down the row they +rapidly walked, under the sparkling heavens, through the keen, +exhilarating air of the wintry prairie, passing, door by door, the +quarters of the officers of the garrison, some still brightly lighted, +others dark and silent. She was talking fast and with a nervous impulse +as they hurried by the colonel's, the broad portals of whose official +residence were just then thrown open to admit another party to join the +little circle sure every evening to be surrounding Mrs. Stone, and +welcoming voices and laughter floated out on the night. The moment +before they passed the gate whence he had issued forth barely three +minutes earlier. The hall light burned low as he left it, the parlor +shades were down. Almira presumably was nursing her headache in the +sanctity of the chamber at the rear. Boynton's upper story was occupied +by a junior subaltern of the Fortieth, who was believed to sleep there +at odd hours, but was generally to be found almost anywhere else. + +"Mrs. Davies looked so well to-day," remarked Miss Loomis. "I hope she +finds her welcome pleasant." + +"She is very well, except for a headache that sent her early to bed +to-night," he answered. "And her welcome from everybody has been most +kind and cordial, and from none more so than from Mrs. Cranston and +yourself. You are always adding to the obligations I am under." + +"I shall quarrel with you some day if you talk of obligations, Mr. +Davies. But I'm so sorry to hear of her headache," she went on, quickly, +as though to prevent argument on the point. "The chapel does get very +hot and stuffy by evening service. Ought they not to air it after +Sunday-school?" + +"It would be a good plan. But my wife did not go to-night. Her headache +began earlier in the day. I thought the close atmosphere of the chapel +would only increase it and so counselled her remaining home." + +He remembered, however, that he had counselled her going early to bed, +but found her engrossed in her volatile callers on his return. It was +all very natural. Upon spirits like Almira's, communion with such gay +and frothy natures acted like champagne. He was trying to believe he was +glad she could be so readily benefited. The houses grew darker as they +approached the east end. Even the hall lamp was extinguished at Devers's +quarters, though there were lights aloft. Devers had a storm-door, +another instance of his individuality, as even the colonel's quarters +were not so embellished. It was a perfectly still night, not a whiff of +wind astir, and yet Davies could have sworn the storm-door swung slowly +open a foot or so as they neared the gate, then suddenly shut to. What +was more, he felt that his companion had seen and noted the same +circumstance, for she drew an instant closer to his side, then as +quickly seemed to recollect herself and edged away. + +Davies looked back over his shoulder. So certain was he that the +storm-door had been opened and closed by some unseen hand within the +wooden casing that he would have turned to investigate, but for his +companion. He could not well leave her. They had now reached the east +end, right in front of the set of quarters which were so soon to be his +own. The hospital loomed up dark and massive across an open space two +hundred yards away. Only a narrow foot-path had been cleared from the +end of the sidewalk to the main entrance of the big building. He had not +thought to put on his over-shoes, and so, letting Miss Loomis lead, +Davies fell behind. Now that they were away from ear-shot of the +quarters their talk languished. Davies at least was thinking of that +mysterious door and wondering if he should not have looked into the +matter then and there. Now it was too late. If some garrison prowler +were the cause, he had doubtless by this time taken alarm and slipped +away; if Captain Devers or any of his household were the "power behind," +then it was none of Davies's business. Hurrying up the creaking, +snapping steps of the hospital, they found the office-door locked. "I +more than suspected you would need me," said Davies. "Will you wait one +moment?" He tiptoed away through the long corridor, found the drowsy +attendant in the big ward, and learned that the steward had gone to his +little home in Sudstown, but would return in five minutes. It was nearer +fifteen when he came, and meantime Miss Loomis and her escort seated +themselves in the warm corridor and chatted in low tone as befitted the +time and place. In one of the little wards a suffering soldier was +moaning, evidently in penance for recent spree, and weakly imploring +drink of a stolid nurse. + +"Don't make a fellow mad with misery," they heard him plead. "You know +where to get it. You know it's worse than hell to have to choke off +short." + +"Of course I do," was the brutal answer. "If I'd never knew it before, +I'd learned it that night on the train when you could have sent me help +and wouldn't." + +"My God, Paine! you asked me to steal from the captain's flask. I simply +ask for what's my own----" + +But the voice was suddenly hushed, for, springing to his feet, Mr. +Davies hurried to the door. "Who is this--who have you here?" he asked. +"You--you? Brannan!" + +And then, as a slender, graceful, womanly shape came noiselessly in and +appeared by the lieutenant's side, quivering, shaking in an agony of +shame and misery and nervousness, the lonely patient threw himself over +towards the wall, and burying his distorted face in his arms, burst into +a passion of tears, the attendant meantime slinking out into the hall. + +"Come back here, my man," ordered Davies, in low, stern voice, while +Miss Loomis, without one instant of hesitation, threw off her cloak, +drew a chair to the bedside, and laid her soft white hand upon the +tumbled head of the wretched boy. Unwillingly, sullenly, the man obeyed. + +"You are Paine, of 'A' troop, are you not?" + +"Yes, sir. And the captain's orders and the doctor's were that he +shouldn't have a drop." + +"Never mind that. When did he get here? How did he come?" + +[Illustration: "COME BACK HERE, MY MAN." + +Page 180.] + +"With the mail-carrier this morning, from the agency, sir, and he'd been +drinking on the way and got to going harder as soon as he reached the +post. The captain ordered him confined and the doctor sent him here. But +my orders was----" + +"Never mind your orders. What I want to know is, who detailed you, and +when were you detailed for hospital duty?" + +"The captain sent me over, sir, after Brannan was taken in, and he's +been begging like that for a drink for an hour back." + +Meantime, with great sobs shaking his form, Brannan lay there saying no +articulate word. Miss Loomis gently drew an arm from underneath his +head. "Let me have your wrist, Brannan," she gently said. "You know your +old nurse of last summer, don't you?" And in another moment her +practised touch was on the sufferer's pulse. In silence Davies awaited +the result. Her eyes filled with grave anxiety as she counted the feeble +fluttering,--a mere shadow of the vigorous throb of a soldier's heart. +"This man ought not to be here--neglected," she murmured to Davies. +Then, rising, she turned to the attendant. "Go at once to Dr. Burroughs +and say that Miss Loomis asks him to come here as quick as he can." + +And Private Paine concluded it best to go without further words. The +steward, returning to his post, was met at the steps by the young +contract surgeon coming over from his corner on the run. A moment more +and the two stood in presence of the sufferer and of his nurse. She +smiled kindly upon the new-comers. "I sent for you, doctor, because I +knew you had not been informed of Brannan's state. His pulse----" and +here she lowered her voice so that only Burroughs and Davies could +hear,--"is so thin and wiry as to be almost gone. My father would say he +needed stimulant at once, and treatment later. See for yourself." + +And the daughter of the well-known and beloved old army surgeon knew her +ground and never faltered. Burroughs made brief examination and no +remonstrance. In another minute the steward was administering brandy and +water in a tablespoon while, anxious to re-establish himself, the young +doctor was explaining. "I had no previous knowledge of the case," he +stammered. "Captain Devers told me of the man's arrival and downfall, +and I ordered him into hospital at his request, and,--yes,--I did say no +stimulants of any kind. The captain so urged, and of course that would +be the customary mode of treatment in most cases, but in a case like +this, of course, had I been aware----" + +"Oh, certainly," she interposed, with the same gracious smile and +manner. "It was because I knew you hadn't been made aware. Now we'll +soon be able to make him comfortable, and then when he's on his feet +again he can tell us how it all happened." Again her white hand was laid +upon the haggard forehead. "Courage, Brannan. Don't worry. We'll get you +to sleep presently. Now, doctor, I want to send some medicine and a note +to Mrs. Cranston. With your permission I mean to stay here a while." + +"I will be your messenger, Miss Loomis," said Davies, "as the attendant +doesn't seem to have returned, and then I can let Mrs. Davies know that +I shall come here again, myself." + +As he sped along the row, note and medicine phial in hand, Davies was +surprised to see his captain's storm-door wide open and a light shining +through the transom within. A light was moving through the parlor, too, +but Davies paid no further heed, left the note and medicine in Mrs. +Cranston's hands with brief explanatory word, then hurried back to +Boynton's quarters. He had turned down the light when he went out for +his walk and had left his wife in the darkness of her room, trying, +presumably, to go to sleep. He found the lights turned on again, and +Almira, a heavy shawl bundled about her shoulders, sitting with white, +scared face, trembling and twitching, at the big coal base-burner in +what was called the parlor. + +"Why, Mira!" he cried. "What has happened? Are you ill?" And he bent +over as though to fold her in his arms, but she shrank away. + +"Don't!" she cried. "I was frightened. You--you were gone so long. I +thought you'd never come back." Then to his utter amaze she burst into a +wild fit of hysterical weeping. "Oh, take me away,--take me away from +this dreadful place, or I shall die,--I shall die!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +Mr. Davies was very late in returning to the hospital that night. For +nearly half an hour Almira sobbed and shivered and refused to be +comforted, and yet failed to explain. To his urgent plea to be told the +cause of her fright and distress she could give no intelligible reply. +"Oh, I don't know. I heard noises, or voices, or something. I was +all--all unstrung, I suppose. You--you talked to me so strangely, so +cruelly the other night, and I've--I've been thinking of it all day--all +day, and when you went away--and didn't come back, I--I thought all +sorts of things. I supposed you'd gone there, you know where,--to those +women,--those women who despise me and show it." It brought on fresh +moans and tragic wringing of hands, and new outpouring of salty tears +when he presently told her where he had been, but she would not listen +to the cause of his detention at the hospital. It was more than enough +that he had been out walking with her,--with _her_, in the dead of +night. That seemed the only fact she cared to grasp, and that she +crooned over with bitter wailing until his patience was exhausted. + +"This is childish and absurd!" he said. "It is unworthy of you, my wife, +and unjust to Miss Loomis as well as unjust to me. It is not possible +that this has caused all your terror and distress. What noises--what +sounds did you hear?" + +But these now she had forgotten. In the light of his confession, as she +termed it, all other calamities had faded into naught. He gradually +calmed her sufficiently to induce her to return to bed, but when he +announced that he must go again to the hospital to see how Brannan was +getting on, her lamentations were piteous. In vain he reminded her that +Brannan was her own cousin, the only son of her aunt and benefactress. +She would listen to none of it. Brannan was only an excuse to enable him +again to go and meet Miss Loomis, and finally, with white face and set, +rigid lips, Davies turned and left the house, walking rapidly to the +hospital. + +Miss Loom is still bent over the patient, who seemed now dozing. Dr. +Burroughs sat beside her at the moment, but had been away, he explained, +to see old Fritz again. A new attendant, a shy, awkward young fellow +from Devers's troop, was hovering about the bedside, and Davies glanced +at him inquiringly. "What became of Paine?" he asked, and the steward +shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. + +"Captain Devers took him away," was the answer. The doctor arose and +stood by Davies a minute. + +"I don't know what to make of that captain of yours," he said. "Either +he or I will keep out of this hospital in future. He came here and +'raised Cain' with my steward to-night, all on account of Brannan; then +went over to the troop barracks foaming like a mad bull. I fancy he +means to make it rather lively for you." + +"Never mind me, doctor, so long as this poor boy's coming out all right. +How is he?" + +"Doing nicely now, but--I wish I'd understood the case before. I'm bound +to say Captain Devers misled me entirely. _She's_ the doctor he needed," +said he, with a jerk of his head towards the grave, beautiful girl +bending over the soldier's pillow, one hand still slowly, tenderly +stroking back the dark hair about his temples. + +"Will you say good-night to her for me and escort her home? Mrs. Davies +is not well and I must return to her," said Davies, "that is,--unless I +am needed here." + +"No, go by all means. Only I may need you at the colonel's office in the +morning when this thing has to be fought out. Dodge your captain, +meantime, if you can." + +"I know of no reason why I should dodge him or anybody," said Davies, +with rising color. "I have done no wrong." + +But on the steps without, as he hurried away, the lieutenant met a man +who differed with him as to that--who differed with most people as to +everything, and that he had been working up the case in his own mind +against his subaltern there was no room for doubt. + +"By what right, sir, do you assume to over-ride my authority and undo my +orders? Time and again last summer I had occasion to caution you against +interference in the handling of the men and the management of the troop, +and now no sooner do you rejoin than here you are taking advantage of my +being probably abed and asleep to countermand my positive instructions +and overthrow my efforts at discipline." + +Without one word of reply Mr. Davies assumed the position of attention +and stood like a soldier before his furious commander. "I say again, +sir," began Devers, "that you have deliberately sought to deride my +authority and have connived at the disobedience of my orders. You knew +perfectly well what orders I had given in the case of Brannan, and you +dared to set them aside." + +Still not a word in reply. + +"This silence is contemptuous. Why don't you speak, sir?" + +"I simply deny each and every allegation, Captain Devers." + +"Denial is ridiculous, Mr. Davies! Haven't I the evidence of my own +senses,--of the steward and the attendant? Don't I know? By God, +sir----" + +"One moment. Oblige me, captain. I wish to behave with all deference and +respect, but when you use blasphemy----" + +"Oh, blasphemy be damned! Don't attempt to teach me! I've had too much +of your puritanical, psalm-singing business. I condoned your wretched +misconduct of last September in the hope that you might do better, but +now the time has come for you to be given the lesson you deserve. Things +have reached a pretty pass when an officer who leads his men into ambush +and then deserts them in their extremity----" + +"Captain Devers!" + +"No dramatics now. You're not in the pulpit----" The steward came forth +at the moment, and with instant modulation of tone Devers went on. "You +may not realize what you have done, but you have done it all the same, +despite every effort of mine to teach you the proper course----What is +it, steward?" he broke off, as though suddenly aware of that official's +presence. + +"The doctor's compliments, sir, and the new man the captain has sent +over to relieve Paine seems to lack intelligence; he won't do at all as +an attendant." + +"Tell the doctor I sent the best I had, and that he begged to be +relieved because he couldn't serve so many masters. When the post +surgeon hears of this night's work he will doubtless have his say as to +the manner in which his subordinates have trifled with their duties. I +will make no change.--You appear to be waiting, Mr. Davies. That's all, +sir, for to-night. You may go." + +With a face almost as white as the snowy expanse of the parade, the +lieutenant still stood there, quivering with wrath and wrong. He looked +as though a torrent of reply were trembling on his lips, yet by supreme +effort he curbed the impulse. His chest heaved once or twice. His lips +were twitching. His hands were clenched and convulsive, but at last, +with one long look into his captain's eyes while the latter was going on +to say something about the necessity of his junior's accepting his +admonition in proper spirit, Davies turned abruptly and sprang down the +steps. Two soldiers stood there in the dusk, where they must have heard +every word that was said. One was the new company clerk, Howard, the +other Paine. Neither lifted a hand in salute to the officer. Both turned +their backs and feigned to be deeply interested in conversation of their +own. + +It was Mr. Hastings's duty that week to supervise reveille roll-call and +attend morning stables. He was surprised, therefore, as he went bounding +over the parade, to see his junior sub on the porch wrapped in a heavy +overcoat. Presently, after reporting to the post adjutant, as was the +local custom, the various officers came scattering back to their own +firesides, the infantry subs to turn in for another snooze, the cavalry +to swallow a cup of coffee before going down to stables. Sanders hailed +the lonely figure with characteristic levity. + +"Hello, Parson! Up for all day and meditating a sermon?" + +Davies ignored the question and went straight to business. "I want to +see Captain Cranston as soon as possible. Does he go to stables this +morning?" + +"Never misses 'em. What's up? Hope Mrs. Davies isn't ill." + +"Mrs. Davies isn't very well, but it's on personal business I want to +see the captain. I'll go down with him." + +"Come over to my house and have some coffee, or a cocktail," said +Sanders, with cheery hospitality. "Just what you need, old man. You look +as if you'd been dragged by the heels through a knot-hole." + +"Barnickel is making some coffee for me, thank you, Sanders. It will +pull me together all right, I fancy." And Sanders went whistling on. The +world and its cares, the flesh and the devil all dropped lightly on the +shoulders of this young sinner, and either rode there or fell to the +ground unnoticed. Garrison days were but a merry-go-round with him. "If +that's a specimen of the bridegroom cometh," said he to himself, "I've +got no more use for matrimony than I have for the catechism." And +doubtless to this gay and nonchalant spirit the deeply religious +temperament of the Parson seemed a sombre and repellent thing,--a thing +to be lamented, yet indulged as something too solemn or sacred for +remonstrance. + +The morning air was bitter and Davies felt his toes and fingers +tingling. The boards cracked and snapped under his tread, so, rather +than disturb Almira, he stepped out on the walk and began pacing up and +down, still burning with indignation over the events of the previous +night. There had been a fresh fall of snow Sunday morning, and though +the walks and paths were cleared, the soft white mantle lay like a +glistening carpet over the parade and prairie and along the slanting +roofs of the quarters. There was an open space of sixty feet from outer +wall to wall along officers' row, and a paling or picket fence, running +at right angles to the roadway in front, divided this space equally, so +that each set of quarters had its own yard. Davies had remarked with a +smile the previous evening, the contrast presented by the Leonards's +yard at the west end and his at the east of the double set in which they +lived. Leonard's yard was criss-crossed, cut up in every direction by +tracks of sled-runners and sturdy little rubber boots. His own lay like +a flawless sheet without even a kitten's footprint to mar its virgin +surface. Now as he strode rapidly westward again and came in front of +the Leonard playground, he noted once more the traces that spoke so +eloquently of happy, healthy childhood, of rosy cheeks and sparkling +eyes and merry laughter. Then he turned back to his own, still tramping +briskly in the endeavor to send the blood to his finger-tips, and then +coming in view of what at nightfall had been an unbroken coverlet of +snow, Davies stopped short, amazed. Straight from the corner at the +front where the fences met, straight as a lance, went the footprints of +a man, in long, unhesitating stride, to a point immediately underneath +the closed blinds of the window behind which his wife now lay placidly +sleeping. Davies stood and studied the tracks a moment, then went to the +point of meeting of the front fence,--a flat-topped affair,--with its +picketed offshoot. Beyond doubt the maker of those tracks had swung +himself over the fence at that point, dropped lightly to the ground +inside and gone straightway to that side window. There he must have +stood a moment or two, for the snow was trampled. Thence the tracks led +around to the back of the house. Returning to his gate and hall-way, +Davies tiptoed noiselessly through the little dining-room to the kitchen +in the shed at the back. There Barnickel was sleepily starting a fire, +and the door leading into his little den farther back discovered the +soldier blankets of his bunk tumbled over as though he had just arisen. +The door to the yard was still bolted. Davies slipped the bolt and +stepped out on the plank walk leading from the kitchen to the gate in +the rear fence. These had been tramped by many feet in that direction, +and by only one pair in the other. Coming around from the side of the +house were the tracks of the same foot gear, the heavy soldier arctics +worn then by officers and men alike, that he had marked at the front. +They led to a point underneath the rear or north window of Almira's +room, and there, after evident shifting and tramping of a minute or two, +had turned sharply away, led straight past the kitchen door and were +lost in the general run of those towards the gate. + +"What time did you come in to bed last night, Barnickel?" asked the +lieutenant, at the kitchen door. + +"About 10.30, sir. I'd been over to Sergeant Walsh's quarters. I went in +to see if the lieutenant wanted anything, sir, but he'd turned down the +lights and gone out." + +"Yes. And now did you hear any noise,--any footsteps?" + +"No, sir. Only Mrs. Davies, sir; she was stirring round, excited like, +and peeped out of her room to ask did I know where the lieutenant was." + +"Did you come in through the front hall or the back way?" + +"The back way, sir. There's standing orders against enlisted men +crossing the parade or bein' on the officers' sidewalk." + +Davies paused a minute. "Give me your broom," said he, and taking it +through the partly opened door he carefully turned the knob behind him, +swept away the traces leading to the rear window, swept and obliterated +those at the back and side, as far as and including those under the east +window, then, tossing the broom to the door, strode round the house to +the front just as stable call was pealing, and Captain Cranston in huge +beaver skin overcoat and cap came forth into the frosty day. The instant +he caught sight of Davies the captain hastened to him and drew his arm +within his own. + +"The very man I want to see, and you are waiting for me!" + +"Yes. I presume you know why." + +"I've heard. Come with me to stables, by way of the hospital. I want to +see how Brannan passed the night." + +"I cannot go in, captain. I am virtually forbidden further connection +with the case." + +"I understand, but I am not included in the order, and wouldn't heed it +if I were." Plainly Captain Cranston was in aggressive mood. Other +officers, issuing from their quarters, set forth across the parade, but +catching sight of the popular troop commander, pulled up as though to +wait for him, then looked surprised to see him earnestly talking with +the pale-faced subaltern, going straight on eastward. Directly in front +of Devers's house they met that officer himself, a bundle of papers in +his hand. In the "Tactics" of the day one of the foremost paragraphs +read, "Courtesy among military men being indispensable, it is enjoined +on all officers to salute each other on meeting, the junior tendering +the first salute," or words to that effect, but it was a rule far more +honored in the breach than the observance. The post commander was about +the only one to receive such recognition from his juniors, all others, +as a rule, contenting themselves with a jovial "'Morning, Jack." "How +are you, major?" and, possibly, an off-hand and perfunctory touch of the +cap. Only among sticklers for military propriety like Leonard was the +salute tendered to superiors. In nine cases out of ten it meant, when +given, that personal relations were strained. Approaching the battalion +commander Mr. Davies looked him straight in the eye and raised his +gloved right hand to the cap visor. Cranston, with the most off-hand nod +imaginable, gruffly and shortly said, "Good-morning," without so much as +a tempering "sir" or "captain," and hurried sturdily by. Devers flushed, +looked after the two an instant as though tempted to call, then turned +back across the parade and was presently swallowed up in the door-way of +the troop office. + +Leaving Davies outside, Cranston ran into the hospital, and presently +reappeared. "Sleeping quietly," said he, "and the poor devil would have +been in the terrors of delirium tremens if Devers's orders had been +carried out and the doctor hadn't been sent for. Now tell me the whole +story. Agatha has told me her version." + +Lashed tight to the heavy picket rope, the horses were revelling in the +keen morning air and slanting sunshine, nipping at each other's noses, +challenging, with sparkling eye and tip-tilted ear, each well-known face +and form of officer or man to caress or frolic, snapping and squealing +at each other across the line, occasionally rearing and plunging in +uncontrollable jollity. Bending to their work in their white stable +frocks and overalls, the men were making brush and currycomb fly over +the shining coats of their pets, carefully guarding, however, the long, +thick winter crop of hair, for no man could say how soon they might have +to take the field and face unsheltered the keen Dakota blasts. The +frosty quadrangle was merry with musical tap, tap of the metal comb, and +the snort and "_purr_" and paw of hoof of the spirited bays. Little +Sanders, an enthusiastic horseman, was darting in and out among his +charges, praising this man's work, condemning that, and occasionally +seizing brush and comb himself and giving a practical lesson to some +comparative novice. And, leaving matters for the nonce to his subaltern, +Cranston paced gravely up and down, Davies by his side, absorbed in +close converse. Captain Devers left his line to Mr. Hastings and did not +appear at stables at all. "That means he's concocting an epistle," said +Hastings, with a grin. "He's hobnobbing with his new pet, Howard, and +somebody'll get the benefit of an official letter this morning." + +"We expect you to breakfast," said Cranston, as he bade the lieutenant +good-by at the gate, "and I hope Mrs. Davies is feeling all right now." + +But Mrs. Davies was not. She was so far from well that she had decided +to remain in bed. No, she wanted no breakfast, no doctor, no anybody. +All the same, Mrs. Cranston sent her a dainty tray on which was +displayed a most appetizing little feast, and Almira's resolution gave +way at sight of it. Wisely Mrs. Cranston refrained from calling, but +other women were presently on hand to cheer and sympathize when at ten +o'clock the commanding officer's orderly appeared with the commanding +officer's compliments and he desired to see Mr. Davies at the office. + +"Precisely as I told you," said Cranston, who was waiting for him on the +walk without. "It was best to let Devers make the attack. Now for the +defence." + +Colonel Stone was at his desk. "Come in, Cranston," he called, as he +caught sight of the soldier he so much liked. "I want to see you, too. +Er,--come in, Mr. Davies," he added in a tone less cordial and more +official. "Orderly, ask Mr. Leonard to step in here. Then shut the door +and remain outside. Er--sit down, gentlemen, er--sit down." + +And then in came Leonard, silent, even saturnine; a massive fellow with +a mind as broad as his shoulders, a head full of reading and research +and knowledge of his profession, but the quietest man in the garrison +withal, and Leonard simply bowed to the new-comers, dropped into the +chair indicated by his commander, then dropped his eyes upon the floor +and waited. + +Pegleg dandled a pencil, end for end, between his fingers a minute, +reflectively studying a knot-hole in the floor that yawned through a +corresponding breach in the matting. Then he flung the stump of a cigar +into a sawdust spittoon and began. + +"Mr. Davies, I sent for you and I also invited in Captain Cranston +because I want to hear your side of a singular case. In an official +letter to the post adjutant, Captain Devers charges that you went to the +post hospital last night, ordered the attendant out of the room, and +proceeded to usurp control of a patient under the doctor's care,--that +you deliberately overthrew his authority and actually told the attendant +his orders were of no account. This, if true, is a most serious matter, +but I have learned that there are many sides to a story. What is yours?" + +"As briefly as possible, colonel,--and just as I answered Captain +Devers,--I deny every such allegation." + +"Well, you certainly went to the hospital?" + +"I certainly did, sir; simply to get some medicine for Captain +Cranston's little son and without an idea that Brannan was there." + +"Then you didn't go with the purpose of seeing Brannan?" + +"Certainly not, sir. I believed him to be at the agency until I heard +his voice. I knew the young man well from an experience last summer and +during the campaign." + +"But what about ordering the attendant out?" + +"That is absurd. I found--or rather"--and now the hot color of +embarrassment flew up to his pale forehead--"Miss Loomis, who is +experienced in such matters, found Brannan in very dangerous +plight,--his pulse nearly gone. He was verging, perhaps, on an attack of +delirium. She considered, as did I, that the doctor ought to see him at +once, and, as his quarters were at the nearest corner, barely two +hundred yards away, she told the attendant to hurry for him. I should +have done the same thing, but it was unnecessary. The attendant should +have returned at once, but----" + +"Well, didn't you undertake to administer brandy?" + +"Not at all, sir. The doctor himself ordered that on his arrival." + +"At your urging or suggestion?" + +"I certainly approved it, sir, but I did not urge." + +"Well, then, what does it mean--your having told the attendant his +orders were of no account?" + +"I did nothing of the kind, sir. The attendant once or twice began +talking about his orders, but I had no time to listen. I did say, never +mind your orders, or something like that, but he knew perfectly well +what I meant. I inferred what the orders were,--I simply had no time to +hear them." + +"Well, the attendant declares, or at least Captain Devers says he +declares, you twice choked him off when he tried to tell you what his +orders were by saying he shouldn't mind such orders. Here, Leonard, the +shortest way will be to read the whole letter. You do it." And slowly +Leonard took the official sheet and began. + + "POST ADJUTANT, FORT SCOTT, NEBRASKA. + + "SIR,--It is with extreme regret that I feel it necessary to + report to the commanding officer certain occurrences tending to + the overthrow of good order and military discipline in the + command. Yesterday morning there arrived from the Ogallalla + Agency, Trooper Brannan of Troop 'A,' Eleventh Calvary, who had + been ordered hither by Lieutenant Boynton as attendant or + escort to the mail-rider. First Sergeant Haney reported to me + at ten o'clock that the man had evidently been drinking on the + way and was in an advanced stage of intoxication. On + examination of the man I was convinced that he needed medical + attendance rather than incarceration, and, instead of sending + him to the guard-house, as is customary in such cases, caused + him to be taken to the hospital, where under Dr. Burroughs's + orders he was put to bed and an attendant from my troop was + detailed with instructions to see that no stimulants of any + kind were given him. All seemed to progress favorably until + shortly after taps, when Trooper Paine, the attendant in + question, reported to me that Lieutenant Davies, Eleventh + Calvary, entered the ward, accompanied by a member of the + household of Captain Cranston, declared the treatment of the + patient unjustifiable and ordered him, the attendant, out of + the room. On Paine's attempting to define his orders he was + abruptly silenced and again ordered to leave. Being on duty + under the instructions of superior authority, Trooper Paine + again strove to explain his orders, and this time was curtly + told that he should pay no heed to such instructions, and was + then sent out of the hospital. The trooper called the doctor on + his way and then, very properly, reported his embarrassing + dilemma to me. I closely questioned him, and there can be no + doubt as to the language imputed to Lieutenant Davies, whose + propensity to interfere in the discipline of the troop I had + frequent occasion to notice and rebuke during the campaign of + the past summer. As courteous and kindly admonition had no + effect, and as the officer in question has seen fit to treat my + words with apparent disdain, I am compelled to invoke the + support of the post commander in suppressing the spirit of + insubordination of which this is so flagrant an instance. + + "Very respectfully, + "Your obedient servant, + "JARED B. DEVERS, + "_Captain Eleventh Cavalry_." + +When Leonard had finished reading he folded the paper and looked +dreamily at the cobweb in the corner. He wished to be understood as +having no opinion whatever to express. Cranston sat in silence with lips +compressed under his heavy moustache. Davies never moved. His blue eyes +were fixed unflinchingly on the swarthy face of the veteran adjutant +until the latter had finished reading, then sought the eye of his +commander as though for permission to speak. + +"Well, Captain Cranston, what do you think of the letter?" asked Pegleg, +after a moment's silence. + +"I think it very ingenious, sir." + +"Now, gentleman, the captain says that when he attempted to remonstrate +with Mr. Davies last night he was treated with absolute contempt, and, +Mr. Davies, he says that you refused to answer." + +"I strove to control my tongue and temper both, colonel, and _not_ to +behave with disrespect. I did not answer him at once, but it was from no +lack of impulse to do so." + +Pegleg reflected a moment, then addressed himself to Cranston. "I +confess that this matter is one that causes me much embarrassment," said +he. "The post surgeon says that he was not aware of the man being sent +to the hospital at all, and that it was Dr. Burroughs's case. Dr. +Burroughs says he did not consider the man drunk, but took Captain +Devers's statement, as he knew the man well. Captain Devers asked that +he be put in hospital to keep him from drinking, because he knew the +prisoners got liquor whenever they had money, and it wouldn't be safe to +have him in the guard-house. Is there anything peculiar about this +Brannan?--any reason why he should be treated by his captain on a +different system?" + +"Colonel Stone," said Cranston, "I knew Brannan's mother, a wealthy and +prominent woman in society. Mr. Davies can perhaps tell you even more, +but I do not think Captain Devers knows anything of Brannan's past." + +Leonard's dark eyes came down from the cobweb and studied Cranston's +face as though he wished to ask a question, and Pegleg saw it. He leaned +on Leonard, and had grown to respect his judgment. + +"What were you about to ask?" said he. + +"Do you know anything about the antecedents of that new company clerk of +Captain Devers?" asked the adjutant, thus authorized. + +"Nothing whatever," said Cranston, wheeling round in his chair and +looking curiously at the big infantryman. + +"Well,--pardon me, Mr. Davies. Had you never met or known him?" + +"Never, except that he was one of the party of recruits I came out with +last summer." + +"But you knew Brannan, did you not?" + +"Yes, he was the man who handled a nozzle with me in showering a pack of +rioters among the recruits last June." + +"But I mean you knew him before that, did you not?" + +"Never," answered Davies, in surprise. "I never saw him in my life." + +And then Leonard in turn reddened and looked confused, and shut his jaws +like a clam. + +"Orderly," sang out the colonel, "go and give my compliments to Captain +Devers, and say I wish to see him." Then, turning to Cranston, "We may +as well get to the bottom of this business right here and now. I hate +trickery." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +But, as on more than one previous occasion, Captain Devers was not +immediately to be found. He was not at his quarters, not at the store +nor the stables. Mr. Hastings said later that just after Cranston and +Davies went to the adjutant's office, Devers came from his house and +went over to the barracks. Sergeant Haney did not know where the captain +had gone. Not until 10.30 o'clock did the orderly succeed in finding +him, coming up the bluff from the river bottom, whither he had ridden, +he said, to look over the prospective ice crop. By that time Pegleg was +tired of waiting and had dismissed his visitors. They, however, were +recalled in a minute, and when Captain Devers was made acquainted with +Mr. Davies's positive denial of his allegations, Captain Devers promptly +shifted the responsibility to the shoulders of the attendant, Private +Paine, who had persisted, he said, in his story despite his, Devers's, +incredulity and stringent cross-examination. Bang went Pegleg's fist on +the bell. "Send for Private Paine, Troop 'A,'" said he. "I'm bound to +get to the bottom of this at once." And then while the orderly was gone +he began pacing the floor, occasionally stopping to drum on the +frost-covered window. Leonard shifted his seat to Cranston's side and +entered into low-toned chat with him and Davies, though neither seemed +in mood to talk. A natural question that had risen to their lips was why +Leonard seemed to think that Brannan was well known to Davies before his +enlistment, and this question Leonard had disposed of by saying that he +had been assured that this was the case, and that he would ask his +informant's permission to give his name. It was an officer and a friend +of Davies, and the statement was made in all apparent good faith. Devers +sat nervously in a chair feigning to read a newspaper, but every now and +then furtively watching the three. Presently the orderly came back. +Trooper Paine wasn't in the post: he'd gone with the market wagon to +town. + +"Captain Devers," said Pegleg, irritably, "you ought to have known this. +Why didn't you say he'd gone, instead of keeping us waiting here?" + +"I protest against the imputation, colonel," said Devers, to all +appearances much injured at such injustice. "The wagon rarely, if ever, +goes to town on Monday, and that Private Paine should have gone with it +is equally fortuitous." + +"Well, just as soon as that wagon gets back I wish to examine that man, +and I wish you, gentlemen, to be present, also Doctor Burroughs. You see +to it, Mr. Leonard." + +"I'll give instructions at once," said Leonard, rising quickly, and +then, with significant glance at Cranston, taking his cap and quitting +the office. + +"Then, Colonel Stone," said Devers, "I must ask, in justice to myself, +that one or two officers, who are friends of mine, may be present at the +inquisition. I am conscious of nothing but enemies in this office, and I +can expect no fair play." + +Stone whirled wrathfully upon him. "Your language is insubordinate, +Captain Devers, and there must be an immediate end to it. If you have +enemies here, they are of your own making. Bring any gentleman who will +consent to appear with you, and, meantime, sir, you may withdraw." + +"And leave the field in possession of my opponents, sir, and, like Sir +Peter Teazle, my character in their hands. There is a higher court than +a post commander," said Devers, white and trembling with mingled wrath +and apprehension, "and to that court I shall appeal." + +"You shall have every opportunity, sir," answered the colonel, with a +bang upon his bell, "and leave this office in arrest if I hear another +word.--Recall Mr. Leonard," said he to the orderly, who sprang in with +scared face as Devers went mumbling out, "Which way did he go?" + +"To the cavalry barks, sir," answered the Irish soldier, and Devers +caught the reply before he was fairly out of the hall. He turned whiter +still, for sudden suspicion flashed upon him. He halted as though more +than half disposed to again address his commander, but realized that +already he had gone too far. He looked again across the white level of +the parade and saw the tall, dark figure of the adjutant stalking +straight to the door of his own troop office, and as with anxiously +throbbing heart he walked away homewards, Devers watched his hated +persecutor, almost divining what was his purpose,--what would be his +first question. He saw him halt and the office-door open and Sergeant +Haney come forth. Haney, who could be flippant and independent in the +presence of his own lieutenants, stood like a statue before that dark, +saturnine face. Officer or man, no soldier in that garrison ever took a +liberty with Leonard. Devers realized that he had made a fatal error at +last. He almost realized--almost divined the very words of that brief, +curt interview. + +"Sergeant Haney, you must have known Trooper Paine would be needed at +the office this morning. How, then, did you select him to go to town?" + +And Haney, to use his own expression, "wilted." + +"Them was the captain's orders, sir." + +"Captain who?" + +"Captain Devers, sir." + +"That's all." + +And when Sergeant Haney was informed ten minutes later that the captain +wished to see him at his quarters at once, he realized that there were +breakers ahead in earnest, and went with his heart in his mouth. Later, +when he came forth after full confession of the adjutant's question and +his own compromising reply, the sergeant proceeded to the adjutant's +office, asked to see that gentleman, well known throughout the old army +as Black Larry, and nervously twitching his cap stood uneasily before +those penetrating eyes. "I've come to make a correction, sir. I +misunderstood the captain." + +"As to what?" + +"As to Paine. The captain told me he might be needed this morning. Then +he said he promised Paine he might go to town next trip of the +market-wagon. We were out of potatoes, sir, and there were fine ones in +market, so the captain said we'd better secure some without delay. I +took it he meant at once, and so the wagon went this morning and Paine +went along. I suppose I got it mixed, sir, but I thought the captain +meant Paine should go to-day." + +"Which wasn't at all what the captain meant you should think, eh?" said +Leonard, dryly. + +"No, sir. He says he meant to have him ready to go to see the colonel." + +"Exactly. I only marvel at your misunderstanding such explicit and +clear-cut orders," said Leonard, with calm sarcasm. "That will do, +sergeant, so far as you are concerned." And Haney walked away, well +content that when Paine and the wagon got back there would be something +more for "the ould man" to explain, or stand the consequences. + +But even Haney had only faint conception of his captain's squirming +powers. Not until evening stables was the wagon back from Braska. It was +loaded to the guards with fine Utah potatoes for the troop mess, and +there was no room for Trooper Paine. "You're wanted at the adjutant's +office at once," said the orderly to the wagon-driver, who was already +in conversation with Sergeant Haney, "and I'm to fetch you with me." + +"The man can't go till he's put up his team, young fellow," said Haney +to the infantry bugler. + +"He can when ould Pegleg's a-pullin', Misther Sergeant Haney, and he's +not to go anywhere else or talk with any one else furst off ayther," was +the significant answer,--another unpleasant item to impart to his now +wretchedly uneasy captain; and verily it seemed to Haney that the +halcyon days were done for good and all, when soon after dusk a little +squad from Cranston's troop, with Second Lieutenant Sanders in command, +rode briskly away on the Braska road, and it was speedily whispered +about the garrison that they were going to find Paine, drunk or sober, +dead or alive, and fetch him back to the post forthwith. + +"It takes a heap of nagging to get old Pegleg fully worked up," said the +fellows of the Fortieth that night, _ŕ propos_ of the snub given Devers, +and the pursuit by members of another troop of material witnesses, "but +when he locks horns in dead earnest, the other party's got to scratch +gravel; it's business and no quarter." + +Meantime, acting under the advice of Captain Cranston, Davies had +refrained from making any complaint of the language which Devers had +seen fit to use at his expense. "Leonard says that some other matters +should come up first, and Leonard knows. The colonel is after Devers +with a sharp stick now, and all these charges are to be sprung upon him +presently. You go on getting your quarters ready for Wednesday's +house-warming. By that time you'll be wanted on the witness-stand. +To-morrow, Tuesday, there'll be fun at the commanding officer's office +with a general court-martial looming up behind it. Meantime, hold your +peace." + +This was Monday evening, and when he returned, meditating, to his +temporary fireside, he found Mira surrounded by a swarm of post callers, +smiling and chatting, gracious and gay. He was in no mood for chatter +himself, but had to sit by and strive to be interested and sociable. +Most of their visitors had heard the story of Captain Devers's close +call at the office that morning, and not a few sought to hear the facts +of the case from the lips of an eye-witness. But Davies would not speak +of the matter at all, and, finding him intractable, some one asked if +Sanders had returned, and what success had attended his search for the +missing. It was nearly time for tattoo. Dr. Burroughs was among the +callers, and had just come over from the hospital. He had had no +addition to the list of patients. "On the contrary," said he, "I have a +man who might go to duty to-night were there need, and that is Miss +Loomis's patient, Brannan." + +"Oh, do tell us about that, Mr. Davies," appealed Mrs. Flight, who was +again on hand, well knowing that next to the colonel's, where she was +not entirely in the good graces of the lady of the house, garrison +society would be most apt to be found in force doing homage to the +bride. "We've heard all manner of conjectures already, and are so eager +to know the truth. _Was_ he an old friend of her's, and _did_ he send +and beg her to come to him?" + +"No," said Davies, promptly, "she got to the hospital by merest +accident. Louis Cranston's throat was sore, and he was coughing a great +deal. She went for medicine, and I happened to meet her on the way." + +"But they said there was such a romantic scene; he wept and clung to her +hand, and----" + +Here Burroughs opportunely and somewhat aggressively burst into a guffaw +of derisive laughter. "Miss Loomis is just one of those admirable +women," said he, "that empty-headed idiots prate about. I wish other +people had half her sense." A luckless way of essaying the defence of +the absent, for it reflected on many a woman present. + +"Fie! Dr. Burroughs," exclaimed Mrs. Flight. "Your blushes give you +away, even more than your words. Don't you be falling in love with Miss +Loomis. She's aiming higher than one room and a kitchen and a thousand a +year." Whereupon there was shrill laughter, and further accusation and +indignant protest from the ill-starred medico. And Davies, who ought to +have rejoiced in the loyalty of such admiration for his friend and +whilom nurse, was conscious of a pang of annoyance and aversion. The +entrance of the old chaplain and his wife, and dark, swarthy Leonard +with the handsome partner of his joys and sorrows, gave instant turn to +the conversation. In a very few minutes Mrs. Flight and two younger +matrons took their departure, Almira following them with rustic +regretfulness, and exchanging some whispered confidences at the door, +which brought new flush to Davies's anxious face. Mrs. Leonard was +speaking of a recent visit "up the road," as in those days the Union +Pacific in its westward climb to the Rockies was referred to. She had +had such a lovely visit to Fort Russell, and had so much to tell about +affairs in that particularly swell regiment, the --th, and the Truscotts +had entertained her at such a pretty dinner; Mrs. Truscott was charming, +and Mrs. Stannard was such a noble woman, and they were all so +interested in Mr. Ray's engagement. It was practically announced. He was +to be married to Miss Sanford--an heiress and a great catch--early in +June, and this led to the chaplain speaking of Ray, whom in days gone by +he was prone to look upon with little favor, if not indeed as a +ne'er-do-well. "I always feared that he would fall, and I am so rejoiced +in this new phase to his character." + +"Oh, _I_ met Mr. Ray!" exclaimed Almira, delightedly. "He was ordered in +to General Sheridan on some duty late in the summer, and some of the +young officers, Percy's classmates, said he was such a brave fellow." + +"What did the old officers say?" asked Leonard, with a twinkle in his +black eyes, but not the vestige of a grin under his heavy moustache. + +"They? Oh, I don't remember their saying anything about _him_. They said +lots of lovely things about Percy." + +"Yes. That's right. I can understand their omitting no opportunity of +doing that. One learns to be something of a courtier even in Chicago, +when on staff duty, and as for Washington, service there is a liberal +education in diplomacy. One never knows who may have the strongest pull +with the President in the event of a vacancy in the staff corps." + +"Leonard," said the chaplain, gravely, "you're a born cynic and a +pessimist to boot. Have we no generous impulses in the army?" + +"Lots of 'em. Lots of 'em, chaplain, especially in the line and on the +frontier, where we can afford to pat a fellow on the back, since we know +that's about the extent of the reward he'll ever get. It's when we're +in big society in the East, above all in Washington, one has to be +guarded in what he says, or first thing he knows he'll be hoisting some +fellow over his own head in a moment of enthusiasm. No. I know just how +you regard me, but I spent six weeks of a three months' leave in +Washington last winter, and sat night after night at the club, or day +after day among the army crowd at the Ebbitt, or in some fellow's den at +the Department, and never once did I hear one word of frank, outspoken, +fearless praise of some other fellow's work or deeds, unless it were to +his face. Ask a man flat-footed if that wasn't a capital scout of +Striker's last winter in the Tonto Basin, or if Jake Randlett hadn't +done a daring thing in going all alone through the Sioux country to drum +up Crow scouts for Crook's command, or what he thought of Billy Ray's +cutting his way out through the Cheyennes to bring help to Wayne last +June, and ten to one he'll hum and haw and say yes, he _did_ hear +something about that, and now that I mentioned it he believed Striker or +Jake or Billy had really behaved quite creditably, but the whole tone +was significant of nothing like what some other fellow I might mention, +modesty only forbidding, would have done under similar circumstances.' +It's just the damnation of faint praise. The trouble with the whole gang +of those fellows seems to be a mortal dread lest somebody's eyes should +be deflected from the valor of the warriors at Washington to that of the +warriors on the plains. What recognition do you suppose Ray will ever +get for that feat? General Crook says it's useless to recommend him for +brevet, because the Senate wouldn't confirm it, and the reason they +won't is that those hangers-on about the capital don't mean to let such +rewards be given to the men on the frontier. And yet this sort of thing +doesn't happen only in Washington. It was a cavalry officer who said of +that very affair that Ray was simply a reckless fellow under a cloud, +with everything to gain and nothing to lose, and that doing a reckless +thing was just as much a matter of instinct with him as battle is to a +bull-dog." + +It was unusual to see Leonard warm up in this way. Besides the chaplain +and the silent host, there were three officers in the dreary little +bachelor den at the moment. Each and every one seemed surprised at the +adjutant's outbreak, but not one of them at the concluding revelation. + +"No need to ask who that was," said Captain Hay, with a prefatory +"Humph." "It savors of Devers from first to last. That man is a born +iconoclast. He pulls down everybody's idols and sneers at what he cannot +pull down,--our ideals." + +"Well, now let me ask you," said the chaplain, a man whose broad charity +led him at any and all times to the defence of the absent. "Without +detracting in the faintest degree from the heroism and value of Mr. +Ray's exploit, are there not degrees of personal bravery, are there not +possibilities of an order of courage higher even than his? As I recall +him, he was what I should term a fearless man, brave to a fault; but +have we not in the army tens and perhaps hundreds of honorable gentlemen +who are as keenly susceptible to the thrill of danger as Ray is +apparently dead to it? Have I not heard man after man say how his own +knees trembled or his comrade's cheek blanched at the whistle of the +first bullets of the battle? And as for this Indian campaigning, can +there be a warfare imagined in which the percentage of peril is so +great, the possibilities of ambush, surprise, sudden death in the midst +of fancied security so constant, the daily and nightly circumstances so +full of incessant nervous strain? Now, who is the better soldier,--the +really braver, or, perhaps better, the more courageous man,--he who +rides the trail utterly reckless of or insensible to its peril, or he +who, sighting danger in every bush, scenting death on every breeze, +looking every instant for the war-whoop, the death-wound, nevertheless +so bears himself with all his faculties in hand as to seem calm, serene, +confident, and stands ready for death or duty at any moment? I have +always held that the Christian gentleman was the highest type of the +highest order of courage; the man who replaced the fatalism of the +Mahometan with the sustaining faith of the soldier of the Cross. But I +see you think I'm in the pulpit and preaching again," said he, smiling +at Leonard. "We both warmed up to our hobby." + +They were silent a moment. Across the wintry night the trumpets were +singing the lullaby of the crowded garrison, and hurrying footsteps told +of belated subalterns speeding to their companies to supervise the +roll-calls. Leonard rose to his full height and threw his cloak over his +broad shoulders. + +"We are more in accord in this matter than you think, perhaps, chaplain; +only the man doesn't live who could be insensible to the danger of +cutting his way through a band of encircling Cheyennes. I've heard of +no braver deed in many a year than Ray's. I doubt if we'll hear of truer +grit or courage in many more." + +"Perhaps not, Leonard," said the chaplain, as the adjutant paused an +instant at the threshold to say he would return the moment he had +received the reports. "Perhaps not, nor would I say one word to +underrate the heroism of Ray's exploit; but when we do hear of another I +look to hear of it in some fellow as firm in his faith as he is in his +sense of honor and duty, and some day we shall see." + +But Leonard did not return in five minutes nor in ten, and Mrs. Leonard +grew anxious. "This never happens unless something unusual has +occurred." Captain Hay stepped through the hall and opened the outer +door. + +"There are lights dancing about over there on the parade near 'A' +Troop's quarters. I wonder what's up. Hullo, Sanders! That you? When did +you get back? Did you get your man?" + +"Got two of 'em," was the breezy answer. "T'other one disguised as a +gentleman in cits and just about starting on the night train for the +West,--the gifted Mr. Howard, clerk of 'A' Troop." + +Mrs. Davies was standing just within the parlor door at the moment, +blushing over the praises lavished on her by the chaplain's impulsive +helpmeet and trying hard to say civil and appropriate things to her +guests. The officers, one and all, had edged into the hall-way in +eagerness to hear the news. + +"What was it Mr. Sanders said?" asked Mrs. Leonard, anxious to know +what detained her husband. Hay half turned. + +"He says they arrested two men, one of them apparently deserting, being +in civilian dress and aboard the train,--Captain Devers's new clerk, +Howard." + +And then every one in the parlor saw that Mrs. Davies was seized as with +sudden faintness. She turned very white and grasped at the nearest chair +for support. "I'm only dizzy, not ill, or I don't know what it is," she +protested, as they crowded round her, and Davies came quickly in, +conscious that something was amiss. Nor did she recover her color or her +calm. Nervous, fluttering answers only could she give to their +sympathetic inquiries, and when presently Leonard reappeared, cool and +imperturbable as ever, she was evidently relieved to see her guests +departing. The adjutant explained his detention by saying he had gone to +the colonel's with Sanders, who had galloped ahead, leaving his guard to +bring along the prisoners in an ambulance, Paine too drunk to be able to +move. They would hardly arrive before eleven. + +"The colonel desires to see you at the office at eight o'clock in the +morning," said he in low tone to Cranston. "Howard has been away all +day,--since guard-mounting, in fact,--and no report was made of it. +Devers has been notified that the colonel would investigate matters--the +whole business, in fact--early to-morrow." + +But who can tell what a day may bring forth? Devers, after a sleepless +night, filled with foreboding of the wrath to come as the result of that +impending investigation, sat nervously over his coffee while the +trumpets were sounding first call for guard-mounting, and turned a shade +yellower at the ring of the front-door bell. The servant re-entered the +dining-room and announced that Lieutenant Leonard, the adjutant, +desired to speak to the captain. For a moment he could not rise. +Conscious of his own double-dealing, visions of arrest, charges, +court-martial--heaven knows what all--were floating before his startled +eyes, but go he had to. Summoning courage, bravado, or something, he +swaggered into the hall. + +"Oh--ah--step into the parlor, Mr. Leonard," said he, airily, "I presume +you're here on business." He was preparing to exhibit amaze--virtuous +and soldierly indignation--at the idea of having, all unheard and +unrepresented, been ordered into arrest on the prejudiced statement of a +swarm of hostile officers and sorely badgered and bullied members of his +troop. Well knowing himself to be tottering on the ragged edge of final +discovery, his duplicity exposed, his deceit established, he +nevertheless braced himself for the supreme effort to bluff to the very +last. Thanks to the storm-shed without, the hall was dark, and for a +moment he could only vaguely see the huge bulk of the infantryman +standing erect before him, the very attitude indicative of stern +official purpose. + +And then in sudden revulsion of feeling,--in a wild whirl of reviving +hope, courage, exultation,--he noticed that the adjutant was without his +sword, and listened, spell-bound, well-nigh incredulous and without +reply, to the brief official words which Mr. Leonard delivered, then +saluting, turned on his heel and left the house. + +"It is my duty to announce, sir, that Colonel Stone has had a stroke of +apoplexy or vertigo and is seriously ill. As senior captain, you are in +command of the post." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +That beautiful wintry Tuesday morning was as placid and serene as nature +could make it, but Fort Scott was in a ferment. Whether stricken by +apoplexy, which was the first, or vertigo, which was the later, theory, +Colonel Peleg Stone had been found lying bleeding and unconscious at the +foot of the stairs, and almost at his parlor door, just after sick-call. +He had arisen early, said his tearful and terrified wife, saying that +matters of importance demanded his presence at the office before +guard-mounting. He had been wakeful and restless during the night. He +had called for hot water soon after reveille, and gone into his +dressing-room to shave. This was all she knew until aroused an hour +later by her frightened maid, with the tidings that the colonel was +lying speechless in the hall. Both doctors and Mr. Leonard were +summoned. Violence was hinted at, but the orderly pacing the front +piazza declared that no one had entered the front door since he came +over and rang the bell to report himself for duty just as soon as he had +finished breakfast. "For them was the colonel's orders when he dismissed +me last night." Just about sick-call he heard the sound of a heavy fall +inside, and presently "Jane come a-runnin'," and told him to rush for +the doctors. Alonzo, the colonel's colored body-servant who had followed +his fortunes a dozen years, was in the kitchen below stairs, and was +sure no one had come in from the rear. He, too, had heard the fall and +ran up with Jane, finding his master completely dressed, lying close to +the parlor door, with blood streaming from his nose and mouth. There +were heavy contusions on the forehead and face, caused probably by his +having plunged blindly forward down the stairs. Something in the +stertorous breathing suggested apoplexy, but the doctors soon decided +against that. It might have been vertigo, or he might simply have +tripped at the top and come diving head-foremost all the way down, but +his clothing was not in such disorder as that would cause, and neither +the orderly, nor Jane, nor Alonzo had heard more than one single crash +or thud. Had they examined the parlor and sitting-room to see if any one +could have been there hidden? was asked. No, there wasn't time. The +house was one of the big double sets of quarters, with hall-way and +staircase in the middle, as frequently planned in those days for the +commanding officer of the large frontier garrisons. Four large rooms +were on the ground floor for use as parlor, sitting-, and reception- and +dining-room, all abundantly furnished, as Mrs. Stone was well-to-do, and +there were hiding-places enough if some one had stolen in, like a thief +in the night. The broad contusion on the forehead might have been caused +by some blunt instrument, to be sure, said the senior surgeon, but he +thought it improbable. Only one thing was certain,--Pegleg was knocked +out. It might be several days, possibly a week, before he could resume +duty. Captain Devers came over five minutes after the adjutant left him, +and was profuse in sympathy, sorrow, and proffers of aid. The despatch +sent to Department head-quarters that afternoon was a model of style, +but it did not reach the office until late in the afternoon, so late +that the general had gone home with his chief of staff, and not until +five o'clock was it placed in the hands of the latter, who took it at +once to his commander. + +"Whew!" said the chief. "It's bad enough to have Pegleg down, but think +of having Devers up, even for a week." + +"I don't see what we can do, sir," was the reply. "The +lieutenant-colonel of the Fortieth is on leave awaiting retirement, the +major on General Sheridan's staff. Major Warren, of the Eleventh, is +abroad, and Devers is the ranking captain." + +"Well, let it stand," said the general, after a while. "Leonard will +look after affairs in the Fortieth, and you look after Devers. If he +gets to cutting up any didoes, send him up to the reservation to +investigate the trouble up there; it's something after his own heart, I +reckon,--or send him anywhere, and let the command devolve on the next +captain until Stone's on deck again. Devers says he'll be up in a week." + +"That's just what makes me fear he won't be well in a month, and if he +isn't able to resume duty, Devers will say he only meant _sitting_ up in +bed, probably." + +No matter what the opinion attaching to Captain Devers, however, the +fact remained that he was now in law and fact commanding officer of the +biggest post in the Platte Valley, and meant to make the most of his +opportunities. Leonard promptly asked to be relieved from duty as +post-adjutant, on the plausible ground that Captain Devers would +doubtless prefer to have one of his own cloth and corps in the office, +and Devers, well knowing how it would reflect upon him at Department +head-quarters, refused to change. "However strained may be our personal +relations, the good of the service demands that for the present they be +ignored. The differences between us can and shall be adjusted later on," +was the purport of his reply. Meantime Mr. Leonard could be assured that +he should in no wise be disturbed in his functions as regimental +adjutant, or hampered no more than was necessary in those that related +to the post. Leonard swore impressively as he read the reply to his +friends, Captain Pollock of the Fortieth, and Cranston of the Eleventh, +but said nothing to any one else. + +Davies was to relieve Hastings as troop duty officer for the week, and +assume charge of roll-calls and stables, all matters between himself and +his captain being incontinently shelved after conference with Cranston, +Truman, and Hay, until such time as somebody beside Devers should sit in +judgment on Devers's acts. The temporary post-commander spent very +little of Tuesday morning in the office. With official gravity he signed +the ration returns and such papers as were to be forwarded. "All matters +concerning the interior discipline of the companies I prefer leaving to +their proper commanders," said he, coldly, to the statuesque adjutant, +thereby hitting a self-comforting whack at the colonel, who rather liked +to interfere. "I have every confidence in the judgment of the captains +of the infantry, at least, and as for routine matters you will be +pleased to conduct them just as when Colonel Stone was on duty." + +Then he went forth to his own sanctum, the troop office, raising his fur +cap in acknowledgment of the sentry's shrill, "Turn out the guard; +commanding officer!" and once there established, he sent his orderly +with directions to the sergeant of the guard. In five minutes prisoner +Howard, conducted by an armed sentry, made his appearance, and was +received within the sanctum. "You may retire, sentry, until called. I'll +be responsible for this man," said he, and from that conference even +Sergeant Haney was excluded. The interview lasted twenty minutes, at the +end of which time Howard was remanded to the guard-house and Paine +brought over in his place. Howard swaggered insolently past the sergeant +of the guard on his return, and when told to get ready to go out to +work, replied, "I guess not, Johnny, unless you want to lose your +stripes." But Paine came "home" scared and abject. Men in quarters said +that both the captain and Sergeant Haney stormed at him until he didn't +know black from white, and the temporary company clerk, excluded from +the office during the conference, was called in finally to witness +Paine's signature to a paper, the contents of which he did not see at +all. + +All day Tuesday Davies was occupied in getting his furniture and traps +into Number 12, and Almira--pretty as a picture, and eagerly assisted by +her now intimate friends, Mesdames Flight and Darling--was tacking up +curtains, brackets, and knickknacks. Army women have a gift of making +even a burrow look cheery and attractive, though they do accumulate an +amount of truck that becomes embarrassing in the inevitable event of a +move. On Wednesday, however, as has been said, his week of troop duty +was to begin, and at gun-fire he was up and dressed and ready for +business. Devers did not come down to stables. The first sergeant made +the various reports in somewhat off-hand and perfunctory style, but +Davies took, apparently, no notice of his manner, and, joining Captain +Cranston as soon as he had inspected the stables on the return of the +horses to their stalls, the two friends strolled slowly up the winding +road to the parade, the last officers to return homeward. Sick-call was +sounding as they passed the barracks, and Captain Devers met them on the +walk. Both officers saluted the post-commander, Davies in silence, +Cranston with an accompanying "Good-morning, sir." Devers responded in +the briefest possible way and went at once to business. + +"Mr. Davies, that man Brannan will be returned to the troop from +hospital this morning. See that he is immediately confined in the +guard-house." And then, with his orderly following, the commander went +his way. Sergeant Haney was standing not forty yards away on the +barrack-porch awaiting his captain's coming. Such instructions were +generally given by the company commander direct to the first sergeant, +and the purpose of making Davies the medium and Cranston the witness of +the order was apparent at a glance. Devers meant to inflict his +punishment not only upon the soldier, but upon those who dared either in +person or through some "member of the household" appear as the +soldier's friend. + +"What should I do, captain?" asked Davies, sadly. "Turn and carry the +order to the first sergeant at once?" + +Cranston looked back, saw Devers halt to say some words to the troop +farrier, and seized the opportunity. + +"Yes, and I will go with you to be ready to testify to your having +obeyed." + +Retracing their steps, the two approached the quarters. "Go no farther," +said Cranston, in low tone, as they got about half-way and were close to +where Devers stood. "Call the sergeant to you here." Davies did so, and +Devers whirled around in surprise. Haney came promptly, buttoning his +overcoat on the way. It wouldn't do to "slouch" in presence of Cranston, +whatsoever he might dare with a new lieutenant. + +"Sergeant," said Davies, "the captain orders that Trooper Brannan be +confined in the guard-house the moment he returns from hospital." + +"Yes, sir. I got the order, sir, last night," said Haney, forgetful in +Cranston's presence of the impulse to be flippant, and unconsciously +revealing just exactly what his captain meant to conceal. Davies turned +and looked at Cranston, and the latter, with a peculiar smile, linked +his arm in that of his friend and, carefully avoiding the spot where +Devers now stood watching them, led him away. + +This for a starter was significant, but more was to come. Guard mounting +was hurried through that morning, for the air was sharply cold and a +northerly wind was beginning to moan through the garrison and whirl the +snow in drifts over the desolate prairie. Captains Truman and Pollock, +the former as old and the latter as new officer of the day, appeared in +fur caps and heavy overcoats and stood at the desk where Colonel Pegleg +for months past had administered the affairs of the post. The former +raised his hand in salute as he said, "I report as old officer of the +day, sir," and tendered the guard report. Devers glanced at once at the +list of prisoners. Foremost were the familiar names of the old stagers, +the general prisoners undergoing sentence of court-martial. Then those +of the men sentenced to brief confinement by the minor or garrison +court. Then came the names of those awaiting trial, and opposite each +name in the column headed "Charges" was the word "Preferred," as was the +custom of the day, and this significant word appeared opposite the next +to the last name on the list, that of Howard, Troop "A." + +"Ah! What is the nature of the charges against prisoner Howard?" asked +Devers, blandly. + +"I haven't seen them, sir. I understand that they were prepared by +Lieutenant Sanders as directed by Colonel Stone." + +Devers tapped his bell and the orderly sprang in. "My compliments to the +adjutant," said he, and from the adjoining room, grave, stolid, and +imperturbable as ever, Leonard came in, pencil in hand, and stood at +attention without a word. + +"Mr. Leonard, have charges been preferred against Trooper Howard?" + +"Yes, sir. Desertion. The specification alleges that he was caught +aboard the west-bound train at Braska in civilian dress Monday evening." + +"Anything else?" + +"No, sir." + +"Captain Pollock, you may release Howard. He was in town with my +approbation and assent, looking for an absentee whose haunts he knew and +whose presence was required here. He says he boarded the train expecting +possibly to find him thereon, and wore civilian dress because his +uniform might have caused his rejection at places he wished to search." + +Captain Pollock touched his cap without a word. + +"You will also see that Paine and Brannan, recently confined, are sent +out to work with the police cart. Other orders as usual. You are +relieved, Captain Truman. That is all, Mr. Leonard." + +The talk that ensued among the officers of the calvary command when this +matter was detailed at the club room will have to be condensed. Davies +was not present. He never went there. Cranston was present for the first +time in weeks, for it was an establishment for which ordinarily he had +no use. He and Truman went thither because they knew that that was where +Sanders could be found, and there they found him. It was barely ten +o'clock, but this light-hearted young gentleman, together with three or +four kindred spirits of the Fortieth, was discussing, to the +accompaniment of hot Scotch, the relative values of hands dealt at +random from a grimy deck. That they should have taken to hot Scotch at +such an hour they explained by the statement that as they had to be up +with the dawn the day was already old, and that they should be playing +poker they didn't consider a matter calling for explanation of any kind. +It was "a way they had in the army" in those days when the other +three-quarters of the year was spent in sharp campaigning. Sanders +cheerfully dropped his hand as he had his money and told his story like +a little man. + +"We trotted or galloped all the way to town and found Paine soon after +six, drunk, of course,--too drunk to ride the spare horse, so while we +were waiting for an ambulance from the quartermaster's depot, I ran over +to the Cattle Club for a drink, and was chatting there with Willett and +Burtis,--by the way, I asked them both to drive out and dine with us +to-night and take in the hop later,--and presently in came a couple of +cattlemen from Cheyenne who knew everybody at Russell and were jolly, +pleasant fellows. They were going up on the evening freight, and we +loaded up a lunch-basket and went down to the depot to see them off in +the caboose. The Braska crowd did their best to send them home full, and +they were full, and nothing would do but we must go into the bar and +drink Roederer with them until the conductor came rushing in to say all +aboard. Then they snaked me on to the caboose platform when the train +was under way, pulled me inside and ran me half a mile up the track +before they could stop her again. But that half-mile did the business +for Mr. Howard. There he was spruce and dandified as you please, dressed +fit to kill in a bang-up better suit than I ever hope to own, trying to +sit behind a newspaper. They pulled Burtis aboard, too, and in the +scuffle he fell all over Howard, knocked his hat off, and I knew the +face in a second, and when I came off that car he came with me, by the +scruff of his neck, swearing and protesting and denying that he was +Howard, and threatening to have the law on me and appealing to the +cattlemen for rescue. By Jupiter, if it wasn't that I had been with them +long enough to make a favorable impression they would have rescued him, +too. They didn't half want to let him go, and he straggled hard to get +away as it was." + +Then Truman told him what Devers's orders and remarks were, and Sanders +fairly blazed with wrath. "It's the maddest kind of a lie," said he. +"That fellow had never looked for Paine or thought of such a thing. We +found where he had left his uniform and where he kept in hiding until +time to skip out and catch that train. He wasn't looking for anybody and +didn't care to see or be seen by anybody. If it wasn't a clear-cut case +of desertion may I be hanged. He had over two hundred dollars in his +clothes and fresh duds in his grip-sack." + +Long before mid-day, therefore, Sanders's words were being repeated from +mouth to mouth, and Trooper Howard, with pale face and starting eyes, +was shut up in the company office where only the captain and Sergeant +Haney could get at him, and Devers was there with his sergeant and +clerk, when just at 10.45 the telegraph operator came bulging into Mr. +Leonard's office. + +"An important despatch," said he, "for the commanding officer." + +Leonard took it, then hesitated. Under Colonel Stone his instructions +were to open and read at once, but the relations between him and the +captain temporarily in command were neither confidential nor cordial. +"Take it to Captain Devers," said he, "and I will wait." + +Devers read the despatch with kindling eye. It was from department +head-quarters at Omaha, and said briefly,-- + +"Send a discreet officer with twenty cavalrymen for temporary duty with +Boynton at the agency at once. Report action by wire." + +For a few minutes the captain sat in deep thought, then with head erect, +and with quick, confident step, left the barracks and went straight to +the adjutant's office. "Orderly," said he, "my compliments to Mr. Davies +and say I wish to see him at once." + +And so only a little more than an hour later, knowing absolutely nothing +of what might be going on at the agency, judging only from the reports +of the mail-carrier that there had been trouble between the agent and +some of Red Dog's people, and that the agent had determined to make +arrests, leaving his bride wildly weeping and protesting in the hands of +her devoted friends Mesdames Flight and Darling, yet commending her to +the guardianship of Captain and Mrs. Cranston, Percy Davies set forth +upon a bitter, wintry march of eighty miles, answering the call of duty +at the front, leaving wife and fireside, good name and character, to the +care of friends or foes who remained. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +Long remembered at Fort Scott was the evening that followed Mr. Davies's +departure for the agency. Infantry and cavalry both, the garrison took +it much to heart that the detail should have devolved, of all men, upon +him. Not because he was comparatively young and inexperienced; not +because he was just back from long leave that had been necessitated by +long and serious illness, but solely and entirely because he had but +recently married a wife, and therefore shouldn't have been expected to +go,--should not have been torn from her side. The women opened the ball, +but the men were not slow in taking the floor. What Davies himself might +think no one knew, because Davies would not say. He received the order +of the post commander without a word, went home to his wife and sent +Barnickel to ask Captain Cranston to come to him as soon as possible. +Devers retired to his quarters and was not again seen until after +stables, when, scrupulously avoiding those of the other troops, he +visited his own lines, having previously sent his orderly to Mr. +Hastings to notify that gentleman that he should not require him to +attend stables this week, which was to have been Mr. Davies's, but would +expect him to superintend roll-calls. The temporary commanding officer +of the garrison and of the cavalry battalion appeared, therefore, in +solitary state in his capacity as captain of Troop "A." Officers who +passed him on the way to or from stables raised hand or cap in the +salute due the post commander, but few of them entered into +conversation. Old Dr. Rooke, the post surgeon, a man ten years Devers's +senior in the service, returning from a visit to Colonel Stone's +bedside, came face to face with the captain, and the captain stopped to +make inquiries. Rooke's face was grave. + +"He is semi-conscious and resting fairly well, but has received a severe +shock that has clouded his faculties. I cannot say when he will be up +again. I do not see any likelihood of his returning to duty for a +month." + +Devers's face expressed all proper concern and sympathy. "It is best, of +course, that I should know this, but the colonel's friends are numerous +in garrison, and it is something that would have a depressing effect. I +suggest, therefore, that you do not confide your fears to any one else. +It affects me painfully to hear it, though I had not the good fortune to +be in the colonel's good graces. We differed as to various official +matters." + +"I'm aware of that," said Rooke, dryly, "and I have felt more than half +constrained to remonstrate with you as to the confinement of Private +Brannan. He left the hospital in good condition, and with the +expectation of returning to his detachment and duty. Of course if new +charges have been lodged against him----" + +"New charges _have_ been lodged against him, doctor. He was sent to the +hospital at my request that he might be restrained from liquor, which, +under the system pursued by Colonel Stone, could at any time be procured +by guard-house prisoners who had money. That he would be able to +indulge his propensity in your department had not, of course, occurred +to me as a possibility." + +"Any criticisms you have to make at the expense of my department will +receive due weight, I have no doubt, with my superiors, and you will +oblige me by addressing them upon the subject, not me. The post +commander expressed his entire approval of it, and to him and not to the +company commanders am I responsible, Captain Devers. This, however, I +will say, sir, that sooner than submit to further comment of this +character, I shall telegraph to department head-quarters requesting +instant relief from duty as post surgeon here, if you are to retain the +command." + +And Rooke had gauged his man. He knew perfectly well that this +application, coming on top of Stone's prostration, would lead to the +inevitable conclusion at head-quarters that the colonel could not return +to duty for some time, and the surgeon could not contentedly perform +duty under Devers as temporary commander. In other words, that Devers +was already beginning, as the general expressed it, "to cut up didoes," +and somebody--some field officer--would be at once detached, in all +probability, and sent from his proper post temporarily to take charge of +matters at Scott. On the other hand, if things worked smoothly and with +no apparent friction, Devers might hope to retain command for several +weeks, and that would be of inestimable benefit. What might not be +accomplished in that time? He was quick, yet not too precipitate, +therefore, in expressing grave and courteous disclaimer. No reflection +on Dr. Rooke's management was intended or implied, though Dr. +Burroughs, the junior, had, in Devers's opinion, laid himself open to +criticism. Of course being somewhat inexperienced, the unwarrantable +interference of Lieutenant Davies and Miss Loomis had confused and +hampered him. Surely Dr. Rooke could not say that he, Devers, had ever +interfered. On the contrary, had he not incurred the enmity of officers +and ladies of his own regiment by making formal report to the post +commander of what he considered an unjustifiable encroachment on their +part upon the sacred precincts of the post surgeon? Rooke looked at him +from under his shaggy eyebrows, suspicious and unmollified. He was a +shrewd old Scotchman, and Devers protested too much. + +"So far as Miss Loomis and Mr. Davies are concerned," said he, "I have +no exceptions to take whatsoever. I knew the young lady's father well, +and I have faith in the young man. I hear he has been sent on some +temporary duty to the agency, captain, and had he consulted me I should +have advised against his going. The suffering and exposure of such duty +in such weather are more than many a rugged man can bear. Mr. Davies has +not yet half recovered his strength." + +"Then I wish I had known it, doctor," said Devers, diplomatically; "but +not knowing it, I could make no other selection. The orders called for a +discreet officer, and Mr. Davies's friends consider him discretion +itself. I have even been led to think he had too much discretion. The +orders said 'cavalrymen,' therefore I was limited to the officers of my +battalion. They said to report to Lieutenant Boynton, therefore I was +limited to officers junior in rank to him, for no senior could be +required to do it. Mr. Boynton is a first lieutenant, and the only first +lieutenants junior to him here are Hastings, who is eminently +indiscreet, and Folsom, who is a martyr to rheumatism, as you very well +know. The only second lieutenants now on duty with us are Sanders, +Jervis, and Davies; certainly of the three Davies is the only one who +can be called discreet, and he was the only one who had not been on +scout or detached service of this character since he joined. I regret +having to break up his honeymooning, but even that is to be but +temporary, for so the orders said. I explain all this to you, doctor, +because I respect your rank and service, but I shall not condescend to +justify myself to my juniors." + +"And have you reported action yet by wire?" asked Rooke, critically. + +"Certainly," said Devers, but he reddened. Evidently there had been wide +spread talk over the selection already, and speculation as to what +department head-quarters would think of it. Evidently it was known that +he was ordered to report by telegraph, yet who could have "given it +away"? The despatch was still in his waistcoat-pocket, for Devers, +unlike his trimmer juniors, wore that unsoldierly garment underneath his +sack-coat. Even the adjutant had not seen the despatch, and the operator +was sworn to secrecy. He had reported by wire, and in these words: +"Discreet officer and twenty cavalrymen left post at noon with orders to +hasten to Ogallalla agency and report to Lieutenant Boynton for +temporary duty." This was sent at 1.15, and he had only just received +another inquiring name of the officer detailed. This he did not mean to +answer until after five o'clock, by which time he knew the Omaha offices +would be deserted and Davies some thirty miles away. "The horses are +hard and sound," he had said to the silent subaltern. "You should reach +there Friday morning without fail and without fatigue, and ought to camp +to-night at Dismal River. It's a long thirty miles, but you can easily +make it." He meant Davies to be beyond recall in the event of +disapproval, and that point secure, he didn't much care what +head-quarters might think or the garrison say. + +And so Wednesday's sun went down red over the snow-streaked barren to +the west, and long, long before that the last vestige of Davies's little +party disappeared from view among the breaks and ravines in the low +range of treeless heights many a long desolate mile to the north, and +Almira's faithful comforters were still with her, and at dusk bustled +her over to Mrs. Darling's for change of scene and surroundings and tea +and a little music, and presently sleigh-bells were heard, and Mrs. +Flight screamed joyously at the window, "Oh, it's Mr. Willett and Mr. +Burtis with their lovely team, and they've come out for the hop!" And +before long Lieutenant Darling, accompanied by these very gentlemen, +came stamping in, and Sanders and Tommy Dot followed, and in the +firelight the little army parlor was a pretty picture as these gallants +entered and the lamps were lighted, and the gentlemen from town were +presented to Almira, and everybody thought it the proper thing to be +especially devoted to her by way of consoling her for this sudden and +heartless separation from her lord, and for nearly half an hour her +lovely face maintained its expression of pathetic and unconquerable +woe; but Willett had seated himself at the piano, and he and Sanders and +Tommy Dot began singing with inimitable drollery some of the popular +melodies of the day, and presently, "to save her life," as she declared, +Almira could not resist joining in the laughter and applause, and then +Willett began telling of the new step they were dancing in the East,--he +had been home just long enough to attend a few parties,--and while Tommy +Dot played a waltz he essayed to teach it to Mrs. Darling,--a charming +partner ordinarily, but still she did not seem to catch the idea, and +Mrs. Flight was even less successful. Mira looked on with sparkling eyes +and new and uncontrollable eagerness. It was the very step she had +danced with the aides-de-camp in Chicago the previous September,--almost +the same that she had danced time and again with Mr. Powlett at Urbana, +and not a lady at Fort Scott had yet learned it. At last Sanders +spoke,-- + +"Why, surely it is the glide step you were telling us about, Mrs. +Davies." And then Willett implored her to try it with him, and how could +she refuse? This was not a ball or party, it was only a dancing lesson; +and somehow, all in a moment, she was floating around that little parlor +on Willett's sustaining arm in long, graceful, gliding steps that seemed +admirably adapted to his, and Willett's face glowed with delight and +hers with pardonable triumph, for was she not showing the belles of the +army the latest thing out in the ball-rooms of fashionable society? And +Sanders and Darling applauded enthusiastically, and the ladies as +enthusiastically as they could, for one's charitable impulses ooze all +too rapidly when the object looms suddenly as a rival. Sanders begged +presently to try with Mrs. Davies, while Mrs. Flight tried again with +Willett, and presently all were trying and gradually mastering the new +step, and when it was time to separate for dinner it was solemnly agreed +that they would tell no one of their practice, but that very night at +the hop they would simply paralyze the entire assemblage by dancing the +latest waltz step. + +"Now, Mrs. Davies," said Willett, "you've just _got_ to go, if only just +once to show them how," and Darling and Sanders joined eagerly in the +plea. There was not actual unanimity as to the propriety and necessity +of the project, however. Mrs. Flight was doubtful, but did not openly +oppose, and Mrs. Darling said, of course dear Mrs. Davies must know that +it would certainly cause remark. But all through tea it cropped out +again and again, and after tea Willett and Sanders came back from the +mess dinner and renewed their supplications. It was, at least, decided +that Almira could not be left to mope alone, and as her lady friends had +to go to the hop, why, she might as well go and peep in and hear the +music at any rate. There were good friends, true friends of her own and +her husband, who would have been glad indeed to spend the evening with +her, either at her fireside or their own, whose cards and condolences +she found on her little hall table when, escorted to the door by Mr. +Willett, she went home at half-past eight, just to make some slight +change in her toilet, which, as it stood, was too funereal for so +festive an occasion. + +And so that night, while Davies and his men were huddling about the +little camp-fires in the snow at Dismal River and a wintry blast was +whistling through the bare, brown limbs of the cottonwoods, there were +sounds of revelry at the big frontier post, spirited music, merry +laughter, the rhythmic beat of martial feet in the measures of the +dance, the rustle of silk, and the pit-a-pat of dainty slippers. Only +two or three households were unrepresented. It was the first hop Mrs. +Stone had missed. It was something that the chaplain and his wife did +not care for. It was a nuisance to Leonard, who loved his books and his +home. It bored more than one old warrior, who went, however, on account +of his wife and daughters, but Captain and Mrs. Devers were on hand, as +befitted the official heads, temporary, of post and martial society, and +the Cranstons with Agatha Loomis, after again going to see if they could +do anything for Mrs. Davies, and again finding her absent from home, +concluded to go over to the hop-room soon after taps, and the first +thing that met their eyes was the sight of Mira--Mrs. Davies--waltzing +down the waxed floor, and waltzing beautifully in the new step that was +coming into vogue while they were still at home, and waltzing on the +encircling arm of the appreciative Mr. Willett. Beyond doubt she was the +observed of all observers. + +It had all come about in the most natural and matter-of-fact way. Mira +had persisted for full an hour in her determination not to dance, but +again and again had Willett and Sanders implored,--Willett with eyes as +eloquent as his tongue. "None of these other ladies had yet really +learned the step. Everybody longed to see it. Everybody had heard how +beautifully she danced it," and presently body after body came and +coaxed "just to show us," and so, really before she knew it, she was +again on Willett's arm, he murmuring praise and encouragement into her +pretty little pink ear, and everybody seemed to stop to watch them, and +then strove to imitate. And then Sanders implored her to give him just +one turn for the honor of the Eleventh, and then Jervis wouldn't be +denied, and Willett and Burtis came for more,--Willett again and again, +and so she danced until the last waltz died away, and her first hop in +the army had been one long, vivid triumph; Willett in his eagerness +forgetting an engagement to waltz with Mrs. Hay. "She will never forgive +me," he murmured to Almira, as he saw her home, "but," and his voice +sank lower, "I only wonder I did not forget all--but yours." And that +was one of the lovely things said to her that night she did not report +in her long, explanatory, self-exculpatory letter to Percy. It is +possibly surprising that she had sense enough not to tell it to Mrs. +Flight, whose lord was on duty as officer of the guard, and who had +accepted Almira's urgent invitation to come and spend what was left of +the night with her. Almira was timid, even afraid to be left alone. Like +two schoolgirls they chattered about the cosey fire in Almira's bedroom, +Mrs. Flight filling the young wife's ears with tales of the compliments +that had been passed upon her beauty, her grace, her dancing, her lovely +costume,--one of Aunt Almira's _modiste's_ most charming creations, one +she assuredly would not have worn had Percy been there. Everybody had +praised her in one way or another, and many had done so to her face, +Captain and Mrs. Devers, even, taking heart, as they said, from seeing +her so delightfully occupied, came up to congratulate her on being the +belle of the ball and to express every manner of condolence for the +stern necessity which called her husband away. It was a piece of +diplomacy Almira was at a loss to answer. + +Of all the women present the two whose opinion she most dreaded and +toward whom she felt absolute aversion, neither congratulated nor +praised her in any way. Miss Loomis smiled and bowed and said, +"Good-evening, Mrs. Davies," in very cheery manner when they met in +promenade. Mrs. Cranston bowed and smiled gravely, stopped, and extended +her hand, which Almira, with heightened color and drooping eyelids, took +nervously. + +"I need not say how we deplore the orders, Mrs. Davies. I'm so sorry to +have missed you to-day. Won't you lunch and dine with us to-morrow and +talk over plans? We shall be so glad to have you." + +And Almira faltered that she had promised to lunch at Mrs. Darling's and +spend the afternoon, and was afraid she couldn't promise to come to +dinner, and Mrs. Cranston understood. They went home early, did the +Cranston's,--that is, early for Fort Scott,--whereas Mrs. Davies, +influenced by her energetic friends, danced until long after midnight, +and then sat up and talked it all over until long after two. + +"Willett's simply gone on you," was Mrs. Flight's significant remark. +"No wonder lots of our primmers looked blue to-night. Willett used to +dance with Mrs. Wright and Mrs. Hay all the time, but he hardly looked +at them to-night. And did you see the look Miss Loomis gave him when he +invited her? He says she snubbed him outright." No, Almira hadn't seen, +but she had caught almost every look that Willett gave her, and was +thinking more of those and of what he said, and of his plea that she +should be at Mrs. Darling's for luncheon next day,--they wouldn't drive +back to Braska until afternoon,--and of the ball they meant to give at +the railway hotel in town, to return the courtesies of their friends at +the fort. He was to lead the german, and might have to lead it with Mrs. +Courtenay of the bank, who was the leader of local society but couldn't +dance any more than he could fly, and if Mrs. Davies would only promise +to be there all would be bliss. Mrs. Davies had said she could not be +there. They were in mourning for Mr. Davies's mother, as Willett well +knew, and she expected Percy home within a week or ten days. Captain +Devers had assured her it couldn't be for longer, and indeed, oh, no! +she couldn't think of going to a ball in town. + +But she did think of it very much indeed. She thought of it, and the +dance of the evening gone, far more than she did of Percy and his party +now sleeping in the snow or shivering in the wind at Dismal River. She +wrote him one of her long letters Thursday morning, spending over an +hour in the effort, and an equal time in her toilet for the luncheon at +the Darlings. She was in the midst of this charming function, assisted +by Mrs. Flight, when the gong on the front door announced the coming of +a visitor. "I can't see anybody now, can I?" she hazarded to Mrs. +Flight, and Mrs. Flight thought she really wouldn't have time, and so +whispered to Katty, as that Milesian maid-of-all-work bustled through +to answer the summons, "Mrs. Davies will have to be excused to callers," +and the parley at the hall door was brief enough. Almira and her +assistant listened,--as what woman would not?--heard the courteous, +cordial tone of inquiry for Mrs. Davies, and Katty's flurried "Begs to +be excused, mum," and there was no need of the question which Mrs. +Flight asked,--"Who was it, Katty?" for both knew Mrs. Cranston's voice. + +"I've done my best, Wilbur," said Meg, as she threw herself on the arm +of the big easy-chair in which her lord was reading the Chicago papers +before the snapping, sparkling fireplace. "She did not want to see me +last night, and she practically refused to see me this morning. She has +chosen her intimates, and it is a case of like unto like. We are not +congenial. Yet I so wanted to be a friend to him and to her." + +Cranston dropped his paper and threw his strong arm about her waist, and +when a man turns from the contemplation of his favorite journal to that +of the face of his wife her queendom is assured. + +"You've done all I could ask, dear," was his answer, "but we may have to +pocket our pride a little. She is very young and inexperienced. She goes +to Darlings' to-day, does she?--and that coxcomb Willett is to be there, +too." The _Times_ slipped to the floor, forgotten, and Margaret, saying +nothing more, drew closer to his side and nestled her round, soft cheek +against his weather-beaten jowl, and Agatha, coming quickly in from her +supervision of the boys' lessons in the adjoining room, went back to the +book-littered table unnoticed. This frontier Darby and Joan, whose tin +wedding had passed and gone long months before, seemed spooning yet. +It's another "way we have in the army," and long may it live and linger. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +Long remembered at the agency and among the lodges of the assembled +Sioux was the morning of the arrival of Lieutenant Davies with a squad +of half-frozen troopers at his back. The gale that swept the prairies on +Wednesday had died away. The mercury in the tubes at the trader's store +had sunk to the nethermost depths. The sundogs blazed in the eastern +sky, and even the rapids of the Running Water seemed turned to solid +blue. Borne on the wings of the blast, straight from the frozen pole, +the Ice King had swooped upon the sheltered valley. Cold as is the wide +frontier at such times, even among the gray heads, the old medicine-men, +the great-grandmothers of the tribes, huddling in the frowzy, +foul-smelling tepees, were legends of no such bitter, biting cold as +this. Cattle lying here and there stark and stiffened, hardy ponies, +long used to Dakota blizzards, even some among the Indian dogs had +succumbed to its severity, while over at the agent's, behind +double-listed doors and frost-covered sashes, around roaring coal fires +in red-hot stoves, the employés and their families herded together +almost as did the Indians, execrating the drop in the temperature one +minute even while thanking God for it the next. It was the main thing +that had interposed to save them from the vengeance of Red Dog's band. + +All through the desperate battling of the previous summer, even in the +face of fiercest triumph the Indians had known in years, one little band +of Sioux had kept faith with the white brother and refused all effort to +draw its young men to the war-path. For months, from early spring-tide, +against three columns of regular troops, the hostiles in the Big Horn +and Powder River countries had more than held their own, and under the +spell of Sitting Bull and led by such war chiefs as Crazy Horse and Gall +and Rain-in-the-Face, the turbulent spirits of nearly every tribe had +swelled the fighting force until at times six thousand warriors were in +the field engaged in bloody work. The whole Sioux nation seemed in arms. +Ogallalla and Brulé, Minneconjou, Uncapapa, Teton and Santee, Sans Arc +and Black Foot, leagued with their only rivals in plainscraft and +horsemanship and strategy, the Cheyennes, thronged to that wild and +beautiful land once the home of the Crows. Three columns had striven to +hem them in,--three thousand wagon-hampered soldiers to surround six +thousand free lances of the plains, and the Indians laughed them to +scorn. When the columns pressed too close they swarmed upon the nearest, +stung it, sent it staggering back; then watched for the next, and swept +it out of existence. They flew at Crook on the 17th of June and fought +him luringly, begging him to follow farther into their traps in the +cańon, but the Gray Fox knew them and divined the numbers that lurked in +hiding behind the bold green curtain of bluffs, and so slipped out of +the toils. They turned on Custer eight days later and left no tongue to +tell the tale. Three columns, against such energetic measures, fell back +to recruit and refit, and not until late in the season, doubled in +strength, could they resume the offensive. Then, the summer's work +accomplished, the warriors scattered, spoil laden, and the troops chased +madly hither and yon until brought up standing at the boundaries of Her +Britannic Majesty on the one side or those of the Indian Bureau on the +other. Across the border-land Sitting Bull snapped his fingers at his +pursuers. Across the reservation lines did many a jeering chief hurl +taunt and challenge at the baffled soldiery. When winter came on there +were still a few strong bands of Sioux and Cheyennes dancing to the +war-drums in the fastnesses of the Big Horn, whence Miles and Mackenzie +and the Frost King soon routed them; but most of the warriors who had +spent their season in saddle in the field were once more at home under +the sheltering wing of the Department of the Interior, while their +chiefs and leaders, their hands still red with the blood of Custer's +men, their wigwams freshly upholstered with cavalry scalps, went +eastward on their customary junket to the capital of the nation, to be +fed and fęted and lionized, to come back laden with more spoil, more +arms, ammunition, clothing, blankets, tobacco, kickshaws and trumpery +dear to the savage heart, rejoicing, even though they marvelled, at the +fatuity of a people that annually rewarded instead of punishing their +murderous work. They, the heroes of the summer's campaign, rode in +triumph through the very homes of their victims, and weeping women and +children listened in amaze to the plaudits with which their townspeople +greeted the very savages who, not six months before, were hacking out +the last flutter of life, drinking the heart's blood, revelling in the +dying moan of beloved husband or father. Verily, we're a nation of odd +contradictions. + +And, just as a sojourn in Washington seems to turn many a white +brother's head, so did this, though with better reason, send the savage +homeward with boastful heart. He and his were welcomed back to the fold, +lavishly provided for, all manner of requests and demands hitherto +denied now smilingly honored. They came back lords of the soil, monarchs +of all they surveyed, scornful of all who were not with them in the +warfare of the summer gone by, and of these was the household of Spotted +Tail. Long time chief of the Brulés, he had kept faith with the whites, +his kith and kin were loyal to their obligations, and in so far as +example and influence could go they had held their tribe, all but the +more turbulent young men, out of the fight. There was a band that for +years had never "drawn a bead" on white man,--settler or soldier,--a +band that had furnished scouts and runners and trailers and had done +yeoman's work upon the reservations. These were now, as was to be +expected, of no more consequence in council lodge or tribal dance. +Snubbed by the war chiefs, sneered at by the young men, slighted by the +maidens, it was bad enough that they should have lost caste among their +own people, it was worse, and what made it infinitely worse that it was +so utterly characteristic, that these faithful allies and servants +should now find themselves neglected by the very government which they +had so earnestly supported. Back from the war-path, day after day, came +dozens of grinning, hand-shaking warriors lately in rebellion, and to +them, their squaws and children, with lavish hand the agency dealt out +blankets and calicoes, bacon and beef, coffee, flour, and sugar. Such +redoubtables as Red Dog, Little Big Man, Prowling Wolf, and Kills Asleep +were swaggering about, as were their young men, in plethora of savage +adornment and "store clothes." Their squaws and children were warm and +fat and garbed in attractive motley. Even their dogs were in better +fettle than the social exiles of the Spotted Tail school, now in rags +and dependent for their daily bread on what the agent would give them. +Three times it happened on ration days that Red Dog and Kills Asleep, +swaggering about the corral, told their followers to pick out and drive +away such cattle as were passably fat and presumably tender, leaving to +the silent loyals only a miserable batch of beeves which Lieutenant +Boynton described as "dried on the hoof." The agent said he couldn't +help it, "Red Dog and the likes of him are now high in favor at +Washington. They and their fellows could have me removed in a minute if +I interfered, and they know it. There is no lie at my expense their +interpreters wouldn't tell the inspectors, and against so many witnesses +what could I do?" + +"Do!" said Boynton, indignantly. "Do your duty, and I'll back you up. +I'll testify to the truth." + +And then the agent smiled sadly, but scornfully, and said another +truism. "What good would that do? From Sheridan down, what army +officer's statement has any weight whatever with the Indian +Bureau,--when it isn't what it wants?" + +"Well," said Boynton, "it's a damned shame, and I mean to make a formal +report to department headquarters at once." + +And the agent said he wished he would, and Boynton did, but before that +document could reach Omaha there were other and more serious troubles. +Two Lance was the name given the chief of the little band that had stood +fast with Spotted Tail, and Two Lance had begged that he and his people +might be allowed to go back to where most of the Brulés lived, at the +old home on the White River. "This is no place for us," said he. "We are +poor, hungry, ragged, almost naked. We are jeered at. Even our maidens +are insulted by these our own people because we were taught to remain +true to the Great Father and take no part in the war. Now, behold, they +who killed his soldiers, murdered his settlers, and ravished his women +are fat and strong and rich. Their ponies are as the herds of buffalo in +our fathers' day, and we who served the great White Chief and protected +his children, we are a shame and a scorn. Let us go to him who never +broke a promise or told a lie and he will right us. Let us go back to +Sintogaliska--to Spotted Tail." But the agent said he had no authority. +It would be another moon before he could get it, and it might not come +then. If they pulled up stakes and went anyhow he would have to send the +white chief Boynton with his soldiers to fetch them back; and when Red +Dog and Kills Asleep heard of this they rode to the village of Two Lance +and jeered him anew and called him "White Heart" and "No Lance," and +some of Red Dog's young men said worse things to some of the Brulé girls +who stood shrouded in their ragged blankets, bidding them follow and be +the mothers of men and braves and warriors and not remain in the lodges +of faint hearted curs. There were Brulés there, young braves who longed +for battle then and there, and who leaped to their gaunt ponies and +shouted challenge and defiance, but Two Lance interposed. There must be +no fratricidal warring, said he. They would lay the matter before the +council fire of Sintogaliska,--he who had ruled the Brulés since first +the white tents of the soldiers gleamed along the Platte--Sintogaliska +who never lied. And this too was jeered and flouted. Sintogaliska, +indeed! Sintogaliska was a traitor, an old woman whom the white father +had bought with beads and candy. The warriors of the Sioux, the only men +fit to lead, were such as Red Dog and Kills Asleep. But still Two Lance +kept his temper and the public peace, and again he rode to the agent and +told his story, and Boynton fired up and said in common decency the +agent must do something to put a stop to Red Dog's insolence, and the +agent sent for Red Dog and bade him report himself at the agency +forthwith, and Red Dog replied that he would when he got ready, and if +the agent wanted him sooner, why, to come and get him, and Elk-at-Bay, +who brought his defiance, lunged in and laughed when he gave the +message, and helped himself to the cigars remaining in the agent's box +and swaggered out with them. + +That evening in sudden brawl and in plain view of Mr. McPhail, the +agent, one of Red Dog's braves stabbed to the heart the lover of a +Brulé girl whom he had affronted. + +"Arrest him!" ordered McPhail, who then turned and ran in-doors,--after +his pistol, as he said, possibly forgetting that it was already on his +hip. Boynton and his men were at the picket-line grooming horses, three +hundred yards away at the moment, and the young brave mounted his pony +and dared any one to take him, and rode singing defiantly down the +snow-covered valley. Only the previous day the mail rider had gone on +his weekly trip, and now a special messenger was needed to convey the +agent's despatch to the railway, for the flimsy single wire to the +reservation was down and useless. The Indian who attempted to carry the +letter was pulled off his pony by frolicsome friends of the murderer and +treated to a cold bath in the Niobrara. Not until Sunday night did he +get back, half frozen, and tell his story. Meantime there was more +defiance, so another attempt was made. Sergeant Lutz said he'd +take it this time, and he rode through to Braska on a single +horse,--seventy-three miles in thirty hours. The Interior Department +asked immediate assistance of the War Department to make arrests, and +the general commanding at Omaha was instructed by wire to place a +sufficient force with the agent to enable him to overpower two or three +turbulent Indians. This sent Davies and twenty troopers to reinforce +Boynton, and the very day they started ushered in the coldest wave of +the winter and further tragedy at Ogallalla. + +Drunk and defiant, the exulting murderer with two or three reckless +friends had ridden up to the agency, renewed their boasts and jeers and +yells, while Boynton and his men, as instructed by the agent, were over +at the village of Two Lance, a long mile away, rounding up their pony +herd to prevent the warriors making an assault on Red Dog's more distant +township. A shot rang out from somewhere among the agency buildings, and +the days of the boaster were numbered. Back, bearing the body, scurried +the trio of friends, and in less than an hour, in fury and transport and +grief and rage, the women were tearing their hair and prodding +themselves with knives, while the warriors, singing the death-song, were +painting themselves for battle. In vain the agent despatched messengers +to say he and his men were innocent of blood and would bring the +murderer of the murderer, some prowling Brulé, to vengeance. Swift +return couriers bade him beware,--Red Dog and all his band were coming +to avenge the deed. Boynton was summoned in hot haste. He and his party +came sweeping in on the foremost wave of the wind, and between the two a +vengeful band of two hundred seasoned warriors, veterans of many a +foray, were held at bay from Wednesday night. It was too cold even for +fighting. + +And Friday morning, after hardship and suffering there was no time to +tell, Lieutenant Davies with his party reached the threatened agency, +and was greeted with ringing cheers. That evening the grasp of the Ice +King was loosened by the soft touch of the south wind, and Red Dog rode +in state to the adjoining camp to claim the alliance of his brother +chiefs in his attempt to wrest from the agent the perpetrator of the +murder of his tribesman. That the dead Indian was himself a murderer +had no bearing on the matter, said Red Dog. He had simply knifed in +self-defence a beggarly Brulé who quarrelled with him over a girl. The +blood of Lone Wolf cried aloud for vengeance, and the agent should not +be permitted to harbor or conceal his slayer. "You've got no time to +lose," said Boynton, who had kept his scouts on the alert. "You should +arrest that old villain at once or he'll stir the whole reservation into +mutiny." The agent thought he could accomplish more by seeing him and +having a talk. "Indians are always ready for a talk," said he. "I'll +take Mr. Davies and a couple of men just for appearance's sake and ride +right over to the village. He's at Kills Asleep's now." + +Boynton argued, but the agent was afraid to adopt the only course an +Indian respects,--prompt and forceful measures. "Talk" means to him +delay, compromise, confession of weakness. "Well, if you must palaver," +said Boynton, finally, "take me along. I've had more to do with those +beggars than Davies, and," he added to himself, "I'll make it possible +to nab that fellow." + +A most impressive scene was that which met the eyes of the little party +as they rode to the village across the frozen stream. The moon was +shining almost at full in a clear and cloudless sky. The neighboring +slopes, the distant ridge, the broad level of the valley, all blanketed +in glistening snow. Half a mile away down-stream in one dark cluster of +jagged-topped cones lay the village of Red Dog's people. Away up-stream +a long mile, black against the westward slope, the corral and +storehouses, the school and office and quarters of the agency, the +watch-lights twinkling like the stars above. Close at hand, loosely +huddled along the bank, the grimy, smoke-stained lodges of Kills +Asleep's sullen band, and in their midst, surrounded at respectful +distance by a squatted semicircle of old men and braves, all muffled in +their blankets, and by an outer rim of hags and crones and young squaws +and children and snarling dogs and shaggy ponies, there with trailing +war-bonnet and decked with paint and barbaric finery, his robe cast +aside,--there like an orator of old stood the Indian chief in the heat +of his impassioned appeal. All eyes were upon him, all ears drinking in +his words. Guttural grunts of approval rewarded each resounding period. +"You're too late," muttered Boynton. "He's been getting in his work to +good effect. You should have arrested him an hour ago." + +The agent reined in his panting horse and looked and listened. "He won't +talk to me now, I suppose. It would be an affront to his dignity to +interrupt. Best let him finish what he's begun. What shall we do +meantime?" + +"What you'd best do is to give me orders to nab the old sinner in my own +way and go back to the agency as quick as you can. Your life won't be +worth a pin in that crowd when he's done speaking. Go while there's yet +time and tell Mr. Davies to send me Sergeant Lutz and six men mounted. +Keep the rest under arms in the corral. I'll land Red Dog inside the +walls within an hour if you'll only say the word. Damn it, man! you've +_got_ to, or your influence is gone." + +"He's got more influence now than I ever had, and the whole Indiana +delegation backed me for the place," wailed McPhail. "What in heaven I +thought to gain by coming out here and taking such a job is more than I +can guess now. Every one said there was money in it; no one thought of +the danger. If my wife and kids were only safe at home I wouldn't care +so much. It's that that I'm thinking of. Can't we do this somehow +without bringing on a row?" + +"The row's here now and growing worse every minute. His own bucks are +ready for battle. He'll have every son of a squaw in this camp painting +himself chrome-yellow inside an hour, and he'll never rest till he's +harangued every village in the valley twixt this and morning. Our one +chance is to nab him midway when he rides from here to Little Big Man's +roost up-stream. Tell Lutz to meet me at the willows, and for God's sake +go!" + +And still the agent hesitated. Barely six months had he served in his +new and unaccustomed sphere. Old-world nations, either monarchies that +take no thought for the morrow's vote of the masses, or republics that +have outlived their illusions, suit their servants to the work in hand. +Uncle Sam, having hosts of importunate sons demanding recognition +irrespective of merit, and being as yet barely a centenarian, is at the +mercy of his clamorous and inconsiderate millions. Each salaried office +in his gift calls with each new administration for a new incumbent, +whose demanded qualifications are not "what can he do to improve the +service?" but "what has he done to benefit the party?" In this way do we +manufacture consuls who know next to nothing of the manners, customs, +language, and business abroad, and agents who know even less of the +Indians at home. + +But the problem in hand was settled for the sorely troubled official in +a most unlooked-for way. Sharp-eyed squaws spied the little squad of +horsemen at the outskirts of the village, the agent in his wolf-skin +overcoat, the troopers in the army blue, with the collars of their +overcoats up about their ears, and some one ran to Red Dog with the +news. With all "the majesty of buried Denmark" he paused in his speech, +faced the intruders, then came striding slowly towards them, warriors, +women, squaws, and children opening out and making a lane for his royal +progress. + +"Whatever you do, no words with him here," whispered Boynton to the +agent, now trembling with excitement and nervous apprehension. "Stand to +your terms. He can talk with you only at your office,--the agency." + +With the stately war-bonnet of eagle feathers trailing down his back and +dragging along the ground, the chief came stalking on, never hastening, +never slackening his stride, and after him flocked the warriors and +women of the tribe, the men eager and defiant, the women trembling in +fearsome dread. + +"Shall we turn and ride away?" asked the agent, his blue lips twitching. + +"No. Face him now,--cool as you can. Look him straight in the eye. Make +no answer,--I'll do that. Ride slowly away when I say '_now_' and not +before. Advance carbine there, men! Fetch 'em up slowly." + +Ten feet away from them Red Dog halted and stood erect, drawn up to his +full height. Slowly he folded his arms, and sternly he bent his gaze +upon the four white men. Silently his followers ranged up in big circle, +almost enveloping the stolid troopers. For a moment nothing was heard +but the shuffling of moccasined feet, the quick breathing or murmured +words of the squaws, the feeble wail of some Indian baby left to its own +devices in the parental lodge. Sniffing the tainted air the horses +shrank a bit, rallying under the prompt touch of the spur and standing +with erect, quivering ear and starting eyeball, staring at the coming +throng and uttering low snorts of fear. And then at last in the Dakota +tongue Red Dog hailed his visitors just as down the valley the +monotonous throb of the Indian drum began. + +"Why are these soldiers here?" + +To the agent it was, of course, unintelligible: he had been among the +tribe too short a time. Boynton understood, and in low tone muttered, +"Pay no attention to him whatever. Look around as though you were in +search of somebody you knew and wanted to see." Then aloud he called, +authoritively, "Come, step out there, some one of you who can speak +soldier English. Where's Elk? He'll do if you want to ask questions." +And presently Elk-at-Bay, he who bore the chieftain's message and +confiscated the agent's cigars, edged his way to the front, but with far +less truculence of mien than when the agent stood unsupported by +soldiers. + +"Red Dog asks why soldiers here," said he. + +"Tell him we're here to enjoy the scenery, if you know how to do it, and +minding our own business," was Boynton's reply. + +"Red Dog not speak to soldiers. He asks the man the Great Father sends +him." + +"Well, you tell him the agent of the Great Father will talk with him +there, at his office, and nowhere else," said Boynton, "and that +to-night's his last chance to hear what the Great Father has to say to +him." + +Unfolding his arms, the chief took a splendid stride forward. He +understood Boynton, as Boynton well knew, and now was preparing for an +outburst of oratory. The instant he opened his mouth to speak Boynton +turned to the agent and whispered, "Now," and coolly and indifferently +as he knew how, that official reined his broncho around and headed him +for the twinkling lights of the distant buildings. Red Dog began in +sonorous Dakota, with magnificent sweep of his bare, silver-banded arm, +and Boynton touched up his charger impatiently and rode a length closer, +his two troopers sitting like statues with the butts of their carbines +resting on the thigh, the muzzles well forward. + +"Red Dog wastes time and wind talking here. If he wants to be heard let +him go there," said Boynton, pointing to the distant agency. "Unless," +he added, with sarcastic emphasis,--"unless Red Dog's afraid." And then +he, too, reined deliberately about and signalled to his men to follow. +For a moment there was silence as Elk stumblingly put into Sioux the +lieutenant's ultimatum. Then came an outburst of wrath and invective. +Red Dog afraid, indeed! Loudly he called for his horse, and the crowd +gave way as a boy came running leading the chief's pet piebald. In an +instant, Indian fashion, he had thrust his heavily-beaded moccasin far +into the off-side stirrup and thrown his leggined left leg over the high +silver-tipped cantle, and the trained war pony began to bound and +curvet. Swinging over his head his beautiful new Winchester, Red Dog +rode furiously to and fro, haranguing the excited tribesmen, and +speedily more Indians were sitting hunched up in saddle, but darting +skilfully hither and yon, yelping shrill alarm. Others dashed away to +the distant village to rouse Red Dog's own people and summon the +warriors that remained. In fifteen minutes, at the head of three hundred +mounted braves, Red Dog was riding straight for the agency, his escort +gaining numbers with every rod. Red Dog afraid, indeed! + +Over the moonlit sweep of snow the watchers at the corral saw the coming +throng, a moving mass, black and ominous as the storm-cloud. Within the +buildings all hands were hastily barricading doors and windows and +bustling a few women and children, trembling and terrified, into the +cellars. Out in the corral in disciplined silence the troopers were +promptly mustering and forming line. Six or eight of the party that +arrived with Davies that morning having badly frozen fingers and toes +were told off to act as horse-holders. "We've simply to fight on the +defensive," said Boynton to his silent second in command, "and we'll +fight afoot. Thirty men can defend the corral and out-houses and the +front of the agency. The rest we'll put in the building. That's all +we've got." + +Away from the excited group at the office door a horseman turned and +spurred full speed for the hills far to the southwest. "Tell 'em we're +attacked by overpowering numbers," said McPhail, "and want instant +help,--all they can send us." There was no time to write despatches; the +shouts and taunts and shrill defiance of the coming troop already rang +in their ears. + +"Now then, McPhail," said Boynton, lunging up through the snow-drifts, +carbine in hand, "I've got my men at every loop and knot-hole, and those +beggars can't take this shop to-night. What I want is authority to +arrest that head devil the moment he gets here." + +"It will only infuriate them and make matters worse," pleaded the +representative of the Indian bureau. + +"Well, it's the only way to put an end to the row," said the soldier. +"The only thing in God's world those fellows respect is force and pluck. +You've temporized too long. Arrest him and tell his fellows to disperse +to their tepees in two minutes or we open fire." + +"How can you arrest him in front of all that array?" was the tremulous +question. "Do you suppose they'll permit it?" + +"That's my business," was Boynton's answer. "I don't mean to let that +gang come within three hundred yards, and you're a worse fool than I +thought if you overrule me. I'm going to ride out there now to halt them +at the creek. Then you order Red Dog forward with his interpreter and +bring him in here a prisoner. You've not an instant to lose," he +finished as a trooper came up at the run, Boynton's big bay trotting at +his heels. The lieutenant was in saddle in a second. "Are you agreed?" +he asked. + +"Why, they'll say we began it, lieutenant. They'll swear they were only +coming to talk. They've always been accustomed to come here whenever +they wanted to. We have only a handful of men; they've got a thousand +fighting braves within a day's call. My God! I can't risk my family!" + +"You've done that already with your confounded temporizing. Look there, +man. It's too late now. There's where I would have held them, along the +creek bank. Now they're swarming across." + +Singing, shouting, brandishing lance and rifle, their barbaric ornaments +gleaming in the frosty moonlight, some of the younger men darting to and +fro on their swift ponies, mad with excitement, on came the surging +crowd, led by the majestic figure of the big chief, jogging straight on +at the slow, characteristic amble of the Indian pony, his war-bonnet +trailing to the ground. From far and near, up and down the valley, dim, +ghostly, shadowy horsemen came darting to join the array. Close behind +Red Dog some rabid warrior began a wild war chant, and others took it +up. Somewhere along the throng a tom-tom began its rapid, monotonous +thump, and here, there, and everywhere the rattles played their weird, +stirring accompaniment. + +"Well, by God, McPhail! you may let them ride over you and yours, but +they can't ride over me and mine without a fight," said Boynton, now +wild with wrath. "That whole force will be swarming through the premises +in five minutes. Quick, Davies!" he cried. "Forward as skirmishers! +Cover that front! Ten men will do." And without further command, +scorning prescribed order of formation, but with the quick intuition of +the American soldier,--the finest skirmisher in the world,--a little +party of troopers watching at the corral gate, sprang forth into the +moonlight and, opening out like a fan, carbines at trail or on the +shoulder, forward at full run they dashed, spreading as rapidly as they +possibly could to irregular intervals of something like ten yards from +man to man, and presently there interposed between the coming host and +the black group of buildings at their back this thin line of dismounted +men, halted in silence to await the orders of the tall, slender +subaltern officer, who, afoot like themselves, now stood some thirty +paces in rear of their centre, calmly confronting the advancing Indians. +Up to Davies's side rode Boynton, bent and whispered a word, then +spurred forward to the line, and there, reining in, raised to the full +length of his arm a gauntleted hand, palm to the front, and gave the +universal signal known by every Indian and frontiersman from Hudson's +Bay to the Gulf of California,--"Halt!" + +"Red Dog comes to talk with the Great Father's agent, not with you," +shouted Elk, lashing forward for a parley. + +"All right. Come on, you and Red Dog, but order your gang to stay where +they are. The agent will talk with Red Dog, but no one else." + +Without audible orders of any kind, the Indians had suddenly ceased +their clamor, and now, apparently, were quickly ranging up into long, +irregular line in rear of their chief. Presently, as Red Dog and Elk +conferred, there stretched across the snow-streaked prairie some three +hundred motley braves, mounted on their war ponies, the flanks of the +line receiving constant additions from the direction of the distant +lodges. Then Elk again came forward, Red Dog sitting in statuesque +dignity in front of his tribesmen. + +"The white chief has his soldiers. The agent of the Great Father has his +men. Red Dog demands the right to bring an equal retinue," was doubtless +what the Indian wished to say and what in the homely metaphor of the +plains he made at once understood. "You got soldiers. Agent got heap. +Red Dog he say he bring heap same," was the way Elk put it, and Boynton +expected it. + +"Tell Red Dog the soldiers will fall back and the agent come half-way +out afoot. Red Dog and you dismount and come forward half-way. If your +people advance a step we fire. That's all." + +Another low-toned parley between the chief and his henchmen. Two minutes +of silent fidgeting along the line of mounted Indians. Like so many blue +statues the skirmishers stood or knelt, carbines advanced, every hammer +at full cock. Back in the shadows of the agency hearts were thumping +hard and all eyes were strained upon the scene at the east. The moon, +riding higher every moment, looked coldly down upon the valley. Elk came +forward again, and Red Dog's war-bonnet wagged first to right and then +to left. He was saying something in low tone to the braves at his back +and they were passing it along to the outer flanks of the line. + +"Red Dog says soldiers go back and agent come out and talk," said he. + +"All right so far, but does Red Dog agree to dismount? Does he agree to +hold his people where they are? Does he understand that if they advance +we fire? Here, Red Dog," said Boynton, riding forward half a dozen +yards, "you understand me well enough. If your crowd moves a pony length +forward we fire, and, mark you, any trick or treachery and down you go, +first man." + +To this Red Dog deigned no other response than a scowl. + +"Back up slowly, men, face to the front," said Boynton to his silent +line. "Hold 'em, Davies. I'll go back to McPhail." + +But when the agent was told the terms of the parley he refused. "Why, +he'd knife or pistol me just as the Modocs did the Peace Commissioners," +said he. "I won't step off the agency porch. We've got seven armed men +here. Let him bring seven, and you have your soldiers ready inside the +corral. Then if he wants to talk business he can see me here." + +By this time, slowly retiring and gradually closing toward the centre, +Davies and his skirmishers had come back within twenty yards of the +building. Boynton swore a round oath. "There's no help for it, Parson, +we've got to do as this chump decides. There's one chance yet. Get your +men back to their loop-holes and join me here. No man to fire, remember, +except as ordered." + +Quickly the troopers scurried back to their positions along the +stockade. Originally it had been intended to enclose all the buildings +within this defensive work, but the returning tourists were prompt to +express their disapprobation. Having just shaken hands with the Great +Father at Washington, they were suspicious of such an exhibition of +lack of confidence on the part of his agent. That the store-rooms should +have iron-barred windows was another ground for remark and remonstrance. +The red children refused to enter a stockade whose gates might be closed +behind them, or a room whose windows were barred. An inspector came out +and held a powwow and shook hands with everybody, and told the agent the +red children were lambs who would never harm him and he mustn't show +distrust. It hurt their sensitive natures. So the stockade only enclosed +the shed and stables, but it abutted, luckily, upon the agent's house +and office. Re-entering the house from the rear, after a few words of +instruction to Sergeant Lutz and his men, Davies pushed through +hurriedly to the front piazza. Red Dog in grand state, with an +interpreter at his left rear and seven stalwart braves aligned like a +general's staff six yards behind him, came riding with majestic dignity, +straight to the dark portico. Red Dog afraid, indeed! Turning his horse +over to an orderly and sending him within the stockade, Boynton ordered +the gate closed. + +"We'll have a breeze here in a minute," he whispered to Davies. "That +sinner means mischief. You watch him and the agent. I'll keep my eye on +the main body." + +Fifteen yards away, Red Dog halted and silently studied the shadowy +group on the agency porch. There stood the bureau's "ablegate," the +official interpreter by his side. In the door-way, dimly outlined, were +two of his assistants, men who had known the Sioux for years, but knew +not influential relatives in the East. Boynton ranged up close alongside +in hopes of prompting the official. "He's beginning to look knee-sprung +already," whispered he to Davies, "but I'll brace him if I can." Just +behind the agent stood one of his police, and this was before the days +of an Indian police that, properly handled, proved valuable as +auxiliaries. Then Red Dog in slow, sonorous speech began to declaim. + +"Choke him off! Make him dismount and report at your office. He'll only +insult you where he is," whispered Boynton. + +"Red Dog says, as the agent didn't dare come and get him, he concluded +to come in and see whether the agent would dare take him," began the +interpreter, in trembling tones, the moment the Indian paused. + +"Too late, by God!" hissed Boynton between his set teeth. "He means to +blackguard the whole party right here and then ride off rejoicing." + +And Red Dog reined closer and began anew. Throwing back his +quill-embroidered robe, he lifted a muscular arm to heaven, and with +clinching fist and flashing eyes seemed to hurl invective straight in +the agent's face. + +"You dare demand the arrest of Red Dog, do you?" he thundered in his +native tongue, leaving hardly an instant for the interpreter. "Now hear +Red Dog's reply. The blood of one of our young men calls aloud for +vengeance. His slayer is here and you know him. Red Dog, backed by the +braves of every tribe at the reservation, comes to demand his surrender. +Give him up to us and your lives are safe. Refuse, and you, your wives +and children, are at the mercy of my young men. Red Dog dares and defies +the soldiers of the Great Father." + +Consciously or unconsciously, in the magnificence of his wrath, the +chief had ridden almost to the very edge of the porch and there shook +his clinched fist in the ghastly face of McPhail. The agent started back +amazed, terrified, for as though to emphasize his defiance Red Dog's +gleaming revolver was whipped suddenly from its sheath and flashed aloft +over his feathered head. + +And then there came sudden fury of excitement. A bound from the edge of +the porch, a fierce yell, an outburst of Indian war-cries, a surging +forward of the escort at the chieftain's back, a rush and scurry in the +offices, the slamming of doors, the flash and report of a dozen +revolvers, a distant roar and thunder of a thousand hoofs and chorus of +thrilling yells, a scream from the women and children in the cellars +below, a ringing cheer from the stockade, followed by the resonant bang, +bang of the cavalry carbine, and all in an instant a mad, whirling +maelstrom of struggle right at the steps, braves and ponies, soldiers +and scouts, all crashing together in a rage of battle, and then, bending +low to avoid the storm of well-aimed bullets from practised hands at the +stockade, some few warriors managed to dash, bleeding, away, just as a +determined little band of blue-coats, half a dozen in number, leaped +through the door-way and down the steps, blazing into the ruck as they +charged, and within another minute were coolly kneeling and firing at +the swarming, yelling, veering warriors, already checked in their wild +clash to the rescue, and within the little semicircle two furiously +straining forms, locked in each other's arms, were rolling over and over +on the trampled snow,--Red Dog, panting, raging, biting, cursing, but +firmly, desperately held in the clasp of an athletic soldier, for +without a word Percy Davies had leaped from the porch and borne the +Sioux chieftain struggling to the ground. Red Dog,--redder than ever +before, even on the bloody day of the Little Horn,--bound hand and feet +with cavalry lariats, spent that long winter's night a prisoner in the +hands of Boynton's men, while the prairie without was dotted with braves +and ponies, dropped by their cool, relentless aim. Red Dog at last had +had his day. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +The blizzard that swept down on the broad valley of the Platte the night +of the hop,--the night Davies marched away,--though severe, had been of +short duration. A warm wind and a strong wind from the Arkansas met and +overthrew it, and pursued its decisive victory to the Dakota line. The +snow was "slumping," said the little Leonards, when Messrs. Burtis and +Willett drove out from Braska Friday afternoon and took Mrs. Davies and +Mrs. Darling sleighing up the valley. It was freezing, of course, again +by sundown, but judging from Mira's glowing cheeks the drive in the +exhilarating air had done her a deal of good, and she sat with Willett, +while Mrs. Darling faced the breeze at the side of his accomplished +associate. Many women watched the start and some saw the finish, and +none with more interest than Mrs. Flight, who had never before been +left on such occasions, nor with more distress than Mrs. Cranston, who +knew not what to say. The party dined at the Darlings' quarters that +evening, and later some of the boys came to Leonard and asked if it +wouldn't be possible to have a few of the band in the hop-room. They +wanted to dance and Darling's house was too small. Leonard said they +knew the colonel's decision,--the bandsmen were expected to play once a +week as late as any one cared to dance in consideration of certain small +extra pay. If they played at any other time, they had a right to expect +compensation. He would not order them out. Messrs. Sanders and Dot and +Jervis could go and see the leader and arrange with him as to terms and +men, if they chose, and have their dance. It wasn't what the boys +expected; moreover, it was late, but they were young, energetic, and +enthusiastic. Three musicians were found and a dozen couples, and long +after midnight the lights and laughter and merry strains of music told +that the younger element of Scott was enjoying itself irrespective of +anything that might be going on at the almost forgotten agency. The +chaplain and his wife, going earlier in the evening to call and cheer +Almira, were met by Katty at the door and the information that "the +misthress was dinin' at Mrs. Darlin's." Katty was short with her +visitors for two reasons. She didn't approve of the dominie, as he was +not of the faith of her Irish fathers, and she did approve of Corporal +Lenihan, who had come to spend the evening. When, therefore, the worthy +couple announced that they would return later after making other calls +in order to see if there were not something they could do for Mrs. +Davies, who must be dreadfully sad, Katty replied, "'Deed and they +needn't worry, for it's more'n _she_ did." The stern discipline of the +post took Lenihan off to his troop at tattoo, but Katty lacked not for +company. "It wasn't becoming," said her mother, "that she should be left +to herself at the dead of night with no one but that lout Barnickel to +look after her." So she came up from Sudsville at taps to discuss Mrs. +Davies's tea and preserves and, incidentally, her character with her +blooming daughter, and Barnickel was sociably disposed, and the kitchen +congress was in animated session when at 11.30 P.M. there came a sharp +ring at the bell. + +"Bless us! I didn't suppose they'd be home till long after midnight," +said Katty, as she scurried away. It wasn't the misthress, however; only +Mrs. Darling's maid, to say that Mrs. Davies would not come home; she +would spend the night at Mrs. Darling's, and Letty had come for her +things. This necessitated Mrs. Maloney's remaining all night to further +look after Katty, and what more natural than that they should light Mrs. +Davies's lamp and spend a blissful hour in her simply furnished but +pretty room, looking over the new gowns and garments and jimcracks, and +so absorbed were they in this occupation that they took no heed of time; +and so it happened that the good old chaplain, coming shortly after +midnight over from the hospital, whither he had been summoned to the +bedside of a sorely-stricken trooper, rejoiced to see that Mrs. Davies, +at least, had not gone to the dance, but was keeping wifely vigil in the +sanctity of her own room, praying, probably, for the safety of the loved +young husband now on perilous duty eighty miles away. At the corner, at +the end of the long row of quarters, a solitary figure was standing. The +chaplain recognized the beaver overcoat in the soft moonlight and the +soldierly face under the forage-cap. + +"Ah, Cranston! Officer-of-the-day, I see. Just going the rounds?" + +"I was,--yes,--but I saw you coming, so waited. How's Hooker?" + +"Very low, poor fellow! Typhoid has him in tight grip. He's flighty +to-night. He thinks he's back on the summer campaign again, and his talk +is all of the Antelope Springs affair. Odd! this makes the third man to +come back from Boynton's party, two with typhoid fever and one with the +mail-carrier and a bottle,--Brannan I mean,--and they all talk about +that. From what I have gathered it would seem that Devers blamed Mr. +Davies for the whole tragedy, but the men, when their tongues are +loosened by fever or rum, lay loads of blame elsewhere." + +"Yes?" said Cranston, with deep interest, yet reluctant to talk of +regimental scandal with an outsider. "I should like to know what they +say." + +"Well, they say McGrath could tell a tale if he were alive, and that +Lutz and the men at the agency believe they were shoved up there because +they had said things which First Sergeant Haney overheard and reported +to the captain. It seemed queer, even to me, so many men going from +Devers's troop under command of somebody else's lieutenant, and now +Davies himself has gone, and suppose he should hear of this talk?" + +"He will know what to do, chaplain. Davies has earnest friends who will +not see him further wronged, but just now, as you probably understand, +nothing can be done. Now excuse me a moment. I may have been mistaken, +but I thought I saw a man's figure hanging about the back gate of Number +Twelve as I came up the bluff from the wood-yard. I thought he went +through Davies's yard and that I'd see him crossing the parade when I +got to the corner, but not a soul was in sight and it is almost as light +as the day. If he didn't go through he must be in the shadows there of +the wood-shed. There's been some prowling, and though this isn't the +sort of night for that sort of thing, it's still possible. Will you +kindly wait here and watch the front and this side while I beat up the +rear?" + +Wonderingly the chaplain assented, and, with his sabre clanking at his +side, Cranston strode away northward along the line of white +picket-fence until he came to the high rear barrier of the row, one of +black unplaned boards, and around behind that he disappeared. Across the +intervening yard and through the open gate-way at the back the chaplain +could see a patch of the snow-clad valley, and watched for the +appearance of Cranston's sturdy form in that silvery gap. + +But another eye had also been alert. The very instant the figure of the +officer-of-the-day disappeared from view behind the high back fence, out +from the shadows of the shed there sprang a lithe, slender form, clad in +soldier overcoat, and, in less time than it takes to tell it, around it +darted behind the shed, was one instant poised at the top of the fence +that separated the yard of Davies's quarters from that of their +next-door neighbor, then noiselessly dropped out of sight on the other +side. The next minute Cranston appeared in the gap. + +Instead of shouting, fearful of disturbing the inmates, the chaplain +quit his post, hastened along the front to Davies's gate and around the +house to the rear, where he found Cranston searching. + +"There was a man. I saw him. He leaped the fence into the next yard. A +tall, slender fellow." + +But search in there and in its fellows revealed nothing. The prowler had +had time to skip from yard to yard, and nothing short of the services of +the entire guard would be apt to result in his capture. + +"I wish you had shouted to me. I could have grabbed him in Hay's yard," +said Cranston. + +"Well, I didn't like to for fear of startling Mrs. Davies," said the +chaplain, simply, and Cranston glanced quickly and queerly up at him +from under the visor of the little cavalry cap. + +"Why, she----" he began, then checked himself abruptly. + +"Could you give no description of him? Did he leave no trace?" asked +Captain Devers at the office next morning when the old +officer-of-the-day made his report. + +"No, sir, but the chaplain might. He saw him plainly,--said he was tall +and slender." + +And Captain Devers replied,-- + +"Very good, sir. You're relieved," and then turned to the new incumbent, +Captain Rogers, of the infantry: "I wish especial attention given to +this matter, Captain Rogers, and probably I shall take a turn with you +to-night after twelve." + +But that night long after twelve the whole post took a turn. It was +towards four A.M. when the telegraph operator, who slept always beside +his instrument, came banging at the door of "A" Troop's office. It was +opened by an indignant Irish sergeant. "Go rout out the captain at once. +You know how to rouse him and I don't. There's hell to pay and the whole +crowd wanted." And Haney, who would have damned his impudence another +time, donned his clothes without an instant's delay, and together they +ran across the parade and brought up with a bang at Devers's storm-door. + +Agatha Loomis was probably a light sleeper. It was her tap at the +Cranstons' room that first roused them. + +"What is it?" cried Margaret, up in an instant and filled with no other +apprehension than that of more sore throat or cough in the nursery. + +"There's some excitement and running about the post. The office is +lighted and people are hurrying over there." + +Cranston looked at his watch,--4.15. Peering out of the dormer-window at +the front, he could see dark forms scurrying across the parade and +lights beginning to pop up here and there and everywhere along the row +of barracks. Hurriedly donning his stable dress and furs, he went down +to the hall-way, Margaret, pale and silent now, following. A man was +knocking at the door of the adjoining quarters, and Cranston recognized +the form of Lieutenant Jervis. "What's up?" he queried. + +"Big row at the agency," came the murmured reply. "Reckon most +everybody will have to go." And though he spoke in low, guarded tone, +Margaret heard, and then clung to her husband's arm. + +"Again! so soon?" she cried. "Oh, God! Are we never to know one-half +year of peace?" + +Cranston led her into the warm little parlor and took her in his arms. +"I must go to head-quarters at once," he whispered. "Doubtless I should +have been there before; but don't borrow trouble, Meg, dear, wait until +I know what's to be done." Then he left her with Agatha and went his +way. + +The office was crowded. Devers sat in the colonel's chair pencilling +despatches to be sent to department head-quarters. Around him, sitting +or standing, were most of the officers of the garrison, either silently +regarding him or chatting in low tone. All that was known was that Sam +Poole, one of the best and most daring scouts employed at the agency, +had ridden into Braska about three o'clock, his horse nearly spent, with +the news that the whole gang of Sioux had risen in revolt and attacked +the agent. He left at 8.15 Friday night with McPhail's plea for instant +help and all they could send of it, but so deep were the drifts in +places and so exhausted was his horse that it had taken him all that +time to reach the railway. The wire was still down and he bore the +latest news. There could be no mistake: the attack had fairly begun +before he was out of hearing. The volleying and yelling beat anything +he'd heard since the battle at Slim Buttes in September. The +quartermaster in charge of the depot at Braska had despatches wired at +once to Omaha and another out to the fort. Devers was up in a few +minutes and had sent his orderly for certain of the officers, and the +noise of ringing or knocking along the row had roused others. Cranston +and Hay were not of those sent for, but Devers explained that he took it +for granted they were prepared to take the field with their troops at a +moment's notice, and did not care to disturb them until he knew what +they would be required to do. It would be several hours before orders +could reach them from Omaha, he reasoned, and he had no idea what the +orders would be. The whole command might be sent, or none of it. +Meantime vigorous preparations were going on in the store-rooms and +kitchens along the barrack row, "A" Troop's activity being conspicuous. +But without waiting for orders from their captains, the veteran first +sergeants of the other troops were getting everything in readiness, and +when Hay and Cranston walked over to the barracks to see how far +preparations were advanced, each had an approving word for his faithful +aide. + +But Omaha was wider awake than Devers supposed. The Gray Fox was in +possession of the news almost as soon as the post commanders, and he and +his adjutant-general were at the telegraph-office within half an hour. +"I will go by first train," said he. "Meantime we must start a big +force." + +And so before the reveille bugles were singing through the wintry +morning along the slopes of the Rockies, the telegraph had roused the +officers at all the posts along the railway for five hundred miles. +Russell, Sanders, and Sidney were up and astir with preparation. Special +trains were ordered to meet and convey their detachments of horse, foot, +and pack-trains, so that a big command might concentrate at once at +Sidney and march thence, 'cross country, to the Ogallalla Agency, +Colonel Winthrop at their head. The commanding officer of Fort Scott was +directed to start three troops of cavalry and two companies of infantry +at once, with instructions to join Colonel Winthrop's column at the +Niobrara crossing, and, his own troop being now the smallest at the +post, owing to these details at the agency, Devers very properly decided +on sending everybody else's. Truman, Hay, and Cranston of the Eleventh +and Pollock and Muncey of the Fortieth were the captains ordered to +march forthwith. Before eight o'clock on Sunday morning the little +column had swung sturdily away over the prairies, and Captain Devers, +with his own attenuated troop and two companies of "doughboys," remained +to guard the post and its supplies, and take care of the invalid colonel +and the wives and children of the soldiers so summarily ordered into the +field. + +And now Almira could not lack sympathizers, for both Mrs. Flight and +Mrs. Darling had been called upon to say adieu to their respective +lords, who marched with their sturdy comrades in the wake of the +cavalry, guarding the few wagons which had to be taken; but these +gentlemen belonged to a famous regiment that had known no other history +since the day of its organization than that of constant active service. +The Fortieth was forever in the field,--its wives "perennially +grass-widowed," said the garrison wits,--its children so seldom blessed +with the sight of the paternal face as to be preternaturally wise in +picking out their own fathers. The Fortieth went as a matter of course. +The two companies remaining behind looked upon that as a mere accident +that time would surely rectify. The two that went made the customary +appeal to the post commander for the release of certain untried and +unpunished of their weaker members who happened to be at the moment +languishing in the guard-house, and the plea prevailed. Hearing this, +the chaplain, backed by Dr. Burroughs, came to the office with another +plea. There was the young man Brannan confined in the guard-house since +Wednesday morning last, he knew not on what charges and begged to be +released from durance so utterly vile and permitted to go with the +command to the rescue of his comrades at the agency,--what there might +be left of them. + +But Devers replied that Brannan's troop was not going. Furthermore, he +intended to have Brannan brought before a garrison court on the morrow. +This was the sorrowful message the chaplain carried, and Brannan wrung +his hands. "I have violated no regulation, missed no roll-call, been +drunk on no duty. I did drink when half frozen on that hard ride from +the agency to the post. I drank after I got here, but drank no more and +behaved no worse than half a dozen others of the troop who were with me +at the store, and some of whom drank more, got drunk and were allowed to +sleep it off in quarters and nothing said about it. Why am I singled out +for punishment? Why is Paine--who went to town and had to be brought +back by a patrol--why is he released and allowed to go as wagoner, while +I am forbidden to go at all? There's surely something behind all this, +chaplain." + +And the dominie didn't say so to the man, but thought so to himself. He +was still talking with the prisoner when the sergeant of the guard came +and said he was sorry, but orders had just come for Brannan to be sent +to the quartermaster's corral at once to help load wagons, and the young +fellow, with tears in his eyes, was led mutely away. Cranston happened +to ride by the corral ten minutes later and caught sight of the pale, +fine-featured face, whose-eyes looked up at him wistfully, imploringly. + +"Why, Brannan," said he, "I had hoped to hear of your release by this +time. We march in less than an hour, and I fear nothing I can say to +Captain Devers will be apt to help you, but try to keep up good heart. +Say nothing about this confinement to your mother when you write, and +I'll ask Mr. Leonard to look out for you. He'll see that no great harm +comes." + +"It seems as if everything had gone against me, sir," said the boy, with +quivering lips. "I don't know why I can't get justice in this troop. If +Captain Devers thinks me so bad a soldier, why don't he let me transfer? +I've asked twice, and he refuses. It's my belief he's trying to drive me +to desert so as to get me out of the way--or destroy my character." + +"Hush, Brannan. You know that you ought not to talk to me in that way. +There's no time for words. I'll ask Mr. Hay to keep special lookout for +you. I know the general will overtake us to-morrow, and quick as +possible I'll have a word with him. Now, good-by, lad. Stand to your +guns a little longer and you're all right." + +"I'll try, sir, if you'll give my--give my respects to Mr. Davies, and +say to Miss Loomis--God bless her." And with a choke in his voice the +young soldier turned suddenly away, dashing his sleeve over his eyes. + +"Get to work there, you, Brannan," growled Sergeant Haney before +Cranston was out of hearing. "No more palavering with officers out of +your own troop this day unless you want double trouble in it,--and be +damned to you," he added, in low and cautious tone, his eyes furtively +following the captain, now twenty yards away. And Cranston was riding +home to don his winter field rig and to a parting that he dreaded beyond +all description, for now, more than for many a long year, had Margaret +need of all her husband's love and encouragement and devotion. + +Sunday noon the detachment from Scott was across the railway and first +on march to the beleaguered agency. Sunday night they camped in the +breaks of the big divide, some fifteen miles north of Braska, and still +no tidings came from beyond the Niobrara. Restoring the telegraph line +as they went, digging it out from under the snow, the infantry trudged +along all day Monday, following the trail of their mounted comrades who +left them at dawn, and early Monday morning an ambulance drawn by six +spanking big brown mules whipped by them along the road, and the kindly +twinkling eyes of their old friend and fellow-campaigner, the general, +peered out at them. Away he went to overtake the foremost riders, with +just brief word or two and cordial grasp of the hand to the few officers +who hastened alongside. Without guard or escort, with only a single +aide-de-camp, with his life in his hands as usual, the Gray Fox was +heading straight for the scene of danger. "Heard anything at all?" he +asked. + +"Not a thing." Who could tell whether man or woman was left to forward +word of any kind? + +Monday night the cavalry reached the snow-covered banks of the Niobrara, +and went into bivouac on the northern shore to await the coming of the +black speck that, just before dusk, could be seen far in their wake +picking a way through the drifts in its descent from the crest of the +divide. "It's the general, of course," said everybody, and the general +it was. + +"Anybody come ahead yet from Winthrop?" was his first question. No! The +Sidney road was covered in places by drifts that had lain unbroken ever +since the storm. "Any news from the agency?" + +Not a word, and it lay now barely a dozen miles away. Tuesday morning, +too impatient to wait for coming reinforcements, and confident he could +hold his own with the little force at hand, the Gray Fox pushed ahead. +All were up and off at the break of the wintry day, and at eight o'clock +had neared the top of the divide between the shallow, placid Niobrara +and the swift Chasing Water beyond. Little Sanders, trotting far in the +advance with three or four light riders, threw himself from his horse, +unslung his field-glass, and peered long and anxiously into the +northward valley. All seemed desolate and deserted. A smoke was drifting +lazily upward from the site of the distant agency; not from peaceful +chimney, but rising from a mass of smouldering ruins. The villages of +Red Dog, Kills Asleep, Little Big Man, even of Two Lance, had +disappeared, and of the Ogallalla Agency not another vestige could be +seen but the grim outlines of the stockade. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +When Sanders, with solemn face, turned to meet the general and report +his discovery, the difference between the young and the old campaigner +was told in their own words. + +"I'm afraid we're too late to save 'em, sir. Everything's wiped out but +the stockade." + +"If the stockade's left, they've saved themselves," was the answer, and +the Gray Fox was right. Long before the column reached the lowlands of +the valley horsemen could be seen spurring eagerly forward to meet it, +and the first-comer was Trooper O'Brien, who saluted the general with +all soldierly grace and the rest of the array with a sociable grin. + +"We're all right, general,--leastwise most of us is. Two of the boys is +killed, and Loot'n't Boynton's wounded,--and four others,--but the +women's all safe, and the agent--bad scran to him! Is there a doctor +along?" A doctor was along,--Burroughs,--riding with the senior captain +commanding the battalion, and Burroughs was hurried forward with Sanders +and a squad of men, while O'Brien, proud of his prominence, rode by the +general's side and told the story of the sharp and sudden fight. + +"They came down on us like a crowd of grasshoppers so soon as it was +light enough to see anything, but they couldn't get near us without our +bowling over bucks and ponies. The prairie's dotted with the corpses of +the poor beggars, sir,--the ponies, that is; they never left an Indian. +We stood 'em off first rate. Loot'nant Boynton and Loot'nant Davies was +everywhere at once, and after trying two dashes the Indians gave it up +and kept at long range. They was a thousand strong at least, and Elk +came in with a white flag for a parley, and Mr. Boynton ordered him +back, but McPhail let him in. He said we must give up Red Dog or they'd +burn the agency over our heads and massacre every man, and McPhail was +for letting him go then, but Mr. Boynton and he had words over it, and +they kept him. That night was cloudy and the moon was hid, and sure +enough at ten o'clock they crawled in on the storehouse side and heaped +up timber under them flimsy pine boards, and no one could see them on +that side until everything was in a broad blaze. It was when trying to +bucket out the fire the lieut'nant was shot, and it was a roaring +conflagration in five minutes, and from that it spread to the agency and +the other shebangs, and it was all we could do to get the women and +children out of the cellars and into the corral, and them bucks firing +from every sage brush for a mile around. The whole thing was down by +midnight, but it didn't do them no good: we was really better off with +less to take care of and more men to do it with, and we had wather in +the well and rations for all hands, and the agent and his non-combatants +under cover in one corner of the stockade, and Red Dog tied up in +another. All Sunday they kept up a long-range fire, and five or six +times made as though they was going to charge, but Loot'nant Davies was +on all four sides of that square from dawn till dark, sir, and they +never got within four hundred yards that we didn't drop them. Sure it +was just pie, general. The only trouble was, could they set fire to the +stockade at night? The loot'nant had buckets of water all around inside, +and every little while a patrol ran round on the outside, and half the +fellows kept watch at the loop-holes while the others slept, and Mr. +Davies had the office side of the stockade battened up with old wagons +and boxes and things to fill the gap. Faith, sir, he never seemed to +close an eye night or day until this blessed morning, when the valley +was clear of Indians and we knew it meant that the general was coming." +And as O'Brien told his tale to attentive ears, others of the little +garrison, lately beleaguered, joined the battalion, still steadily in +march, and found eager auditors everywhere along the jogging column. +Every one sorrowed at hearing of Boynton's serious wound, for he was a +soldierly, faithful fellow, albeit a trifle blunt and unsociable, but as +man after man spoke in lavish praise of Davies, of his plucky grapple +with the most redoubtable chief in the rebellious tribes, of his calm, +cool vigilance and skill in the conduct of the defence after the command +devolved upon him, Cranston's eyes sparkled, and Hay and Truman joined +in the chorus of congratulation. + +When at last the battalion unsaddled at the stream and the officers +pressed into the stockade to shake hands with the defenders, they found +Boynton and the wounded feebly rejoicing in Burroughs's hands and +Davies tucked away in a corner under an old wagon, rolled in agency +blankets, sleeping the dreamless sleep of a tired child. + +"Don't disturb him for anything," said the general, with moistened eyes. +"They tell me he hasn't had an hour's rest since Friday. He's behaved +like a trump." + +That night our old friend Tintop came trotting in at the head of eight +strong troops of horse, some of his own, others of the --th Cavalry. +Behind them, with the wagons, came the infantry, supplementing the +little detachment of the Fortieth already on the ground,--the sturdy +trampers from Fort Scott. Next day the agent and his household, with the +other women and children, were bustled off to Braska until new quarters +should be built for them, and his red wards be rounded up, run down, and +returned to the arms of Uncle Sam by their natural oppressors, the +cavalry. Sending Red Dog in irons and Boynton and the wounded back to +Scott by easy stages, leaving four companies of the Fortieth to build +cantonments for themselves and their comrades, the Gray Fox took the +field with the residue of his force and set forth upon a winter campaign +in search of the now scattered and despondent Indians. The oratory of +Red Dog had borne its fruit. Four truculent bands had joined in the +outbreak at the agency and lost their leader, half a score of +mad-brained young warriors, scores of their best war ponies, but, what +was of most consequence, had burned up the whole store of agency +provisions and, with their squaws and children, were now lurking among +the trackless Bad Lands to the north, outcasts upon the face of the +frozen earth. + +The only Indians whose condition was not made materially worse as a +result of this ebullition were the Brulé band of Two Lance, who had +taken advantage of the general confusion to slip away to their old head +chief Sintogaliska. He might not be able to feed or clothe them, and the +agent at Sheridan might say he had no authority to help, but they would +at least be getting as much comfort as was accorded them at Ogallalla, +and less abuse. + +And then, while the soldiers were stalking the renegades, the +commissioner of Indian affairs sent out to stalk the soldiers. +Investigation as to the cause of this inexplicable outbreak was +demanded. Those very chiefs had left the capital in unbounded good humor +not two months before, and who was responsible for this sudden and +baleful change of heart? It was a matter soon and easily settled. In the +absence of military testimony to the contrary and the presence of so +unanimous a party as the agent and his assistants, the fault was laid on +the broad shoulders of the troopers. Devers rode over from Scott to +Braska to hear the evidence, Boynton being still in surgical bandage and +bondage, and without committing himself to anything absolutely +derogatory to Messrs. Boynton and Davies, was certainly understood to +raise no dissenting voice to the often expressed theory that but for the +impetuosity and interference of those two officers the whole trouble +could have been amicably settled by the authorities of the Indian +bureau. And with this most satisfactory conclusion the commissioner +returned to Washington. Red Dog was ordered released and restored to the +bosom of his family, and when the general had finally succeeded in +bringing in the scattered starvelings and the cavalry reappeared at the +site of the agency, the first thing whispered to Davies was, "Be on your +guard every moment. Look out for Red Dog!" + +The general never swore. He was in this respect the mate of Grant, his +old-time friend and regimental comrade, but he could "look swear words +by the gallon," said the adjutant of the Eleventh, whose own chief was +in no wise tongue-tied. It fell to the lot of Mr. Gray, sent forward +from the Bad Lands to announce the coming of the field column with all +its humbled captives, to be the first on returning to announce to the +Gray Fox that Red Dog had been released from durance at Fort Scott, +equipped anew by McPhail at Braska, and had ridden to the cantonment to +harangue such Indians as were already reassembling there, and to thunder +furious threats at the officers of the Fortieth. Three bitter weeks had +the Gray Fox and his faithful men been scoring the wild, wintry +fastnesses along the Wakpa-Schicha, and, just as the Indians obtained +through the bureau the vast supplies of ammunition with which to battle +the soldiers through the summer past, so now, while the War Department +was running down the renegades in the field, the Interior Department was +running down the soldiery at home. The troops came in with the +conviction that they had been seeing some hard and trying service, many +of them with frosted fingers, toes, or ears, and thinking they deserved +rather well of their country for having finally rounded up a thousand +warriors with all their families, ponies, and unsavory impedimenta, and +the general so informed them, and leaving a command of eight companies, +equally divided among the horse and foot, to occupy the cantonments on +the Chasing Water and thereafter keep the Indians in check, he hastened +away to attend to important business in another lively section of his +big department. The agency buildings were being rapidly restored, which +was much more than could be said of its influence for good among the red +men, and presently McPhail and his family reappeared on the scene, shook +hands all around with the warriors who burned him out several weeks +before, slapped Elk at Bay on the back and called him a bully boy, and +promptly requested of the commanding officer of the new cantonment, +which was a mile away up stream, a guard of a lieutenant and twenty-five +men to be stationed at the agency itself. The major demurred, and the +agent wired to Washington with the usual result. Whatsoever slur upon +his actions McPhail had seen fit to cast at the expense of Mr. Davies +during the investigation recently referred to, he had heard enough to +convince him that the Indians spoke of that officer with awe and +reverence and as "heap brave," so the man he urgently asked for to +command his guard was the very one whom he had maligned. The +adjutant-general of the department could only transmit the order that +came from superior head-quarters within the week, and Lieutenant Davies, +just as he was expecting brief leave of absence to visit his wife at +Fort Scott, was detailed to the command of the permanent agency guard. +The Ides of March had come. + +And how had it fared with Mira and her sympathetic friends at Scott +during all these weeks of toil and march and scout? Two at a time the +officers had been allowed to run in thither for a few days as soon as +their men and horses were made fairly comfortable at the cantonments. +Cranston and Hay went first, then Truman and Jervis, then came the turn +to which Sanders and the patient Parson had been looking forward, and +Sanders went alone. Already some of those fearless frontierswomen, the +amazons of the Fortieth, had come ahead with bag, baggage and babies and +moved into the log huts of their lords as contentedly as they would have +taken quarters at the Grand Central in Omaha, but Mesdames Flight and +Darling were not of the number. Indeed, there was no reason why they +should be, as it was settled that their companies were those designated +presently to return to Scott; so was Hay's troop, so presumably would be +the detached members of Devers's Troop, "A," as soon as he wrote and +called attention to the fact that nearly one-half his men were detained +eighty miles away where there was now an abundance of other soldiery, +and the truly remarkable thing was that he, always hitherto so quick to +find fault with or criticise the actions of his superiors, was keeping +utter silence, and so long as he made no protest no one else could. +Colonel Stone, still weak and dazed, was just beginning to hobble about +the post, and for six wonderful weeks had Devers succeeded in retaining +the command. + +"Your husband will be home any day," said Mrs. Darling to Mira, when +they got the news of the triumphant return of the command to the +cantonments. "He belongs here with his troop, so he's sure to come, and +then," she added, archly, "what will poor Willett do?" + +That was a question occurring to many another mind and falling from many +another tongue. The rapture of Cranston's home-coming one sharp evening +in late February was dashed only by the sight of a blooming face at +Willett's side behind that stylish Eastern team. In the windings of the +road among the willow islands in the Platte he had come suddenly upon +them, he riding at rapid gallop, they dawdling with loosened reins. +Willett was bending eagerly toward her, talking earnestly. She sat with +downcast eyes that never saw the swift rider until he had almost passed +them by. Mrs. Darling, chatting with Mr. Burtis on the rear seat, was +the first to announce his coming, and with rare presence of mind to turn +and send sweetest smiles and beaming glances and the welcome of a waving +hand after the grim, bearded face that had no smile for their civilian +escorts and only grave courtesy for the ladies themselves. He would not +mar the joy of his home-coming by the faintest reference to what he had +seen, but Margaret read his honest eyes as she read her boys', and knew +that he must have met them on the way. For weeks she had seen the rapid +growth of the new intimacy and deplored it, and had no one to confer +with about it except Agatha, but Agatha flatly refused to open her lips +upon the subject. It was a mercy that Wilbur at last came home and +unloosed her tongue. As she pathetically said, "I simply could not +contain myself any longer." + +But if Mrs. Cranston had held her tongue, there was no lack of others +who had not, and foremost of these was Mrs. Flight, who spoke by the +card. For a fortnight or so the devotion of these two ladies, Mrs. +Flight and Mira, to one another had been of that seething and tireless +character that rendered them incapable of spending an hour apart, and +then came the little tiffs and coolnesses that betokened that this, too, +was inevitably going the way of all such feminine intimacies. Up to the +day of Mira's coming Mrs. Flight and Mrs. Darling had been inseparable +for as much as a week at a time. Both were young, pretty, and +empty-headed; neither was burdened with children nor ideas. Both were +healthy, one was wealthy, neither was wise. Mrs. Darling had the +advantage over Mrs. Flight in that she was able to entertain lavishly, +whereas Mrs. Flight could only entertain by personal charm and sprightly +chat. They were the reigning belles at Scott, and not only the young +officers at the post, but the young civilians in town, found great +pleasure in their society. There was capital sleighing for several +weeks, and Willett and Burtis came as often as every other day to take +the ladies an airing. At first it had been Mesdames Flight and Darling, +then the bride had to be invited because she was the bride, then because +she was a beauty, and finally because Willett would have no one else. +Then as it was generally at Darlings' they lunched, dined, danced, +supped, were wined and warmed and welcomed, it transpired that +Mrs. Flight found herself very frequently dropped from the +sleigh-rides,--only invited semi-occasionally, perhaps once in ten days, +when Burtis pointed out to Willett that they really must, you know, to +which the now infatuated Willett merely responded, "All right. You ask +her, then, and let her sit with you." No one but Mrs. Davies shared the +sleigh man's seat. + +During the fortnight that followed the departure of Lieutenant Davies, +Mrs. Flight had been devotion itself to her dear, bereaved friend, and, +having wept with her, slept with her, sleighed with her, bared her +innermost soul to her, and made herself, as she supposed, indispensable, +it was to be expected that Mrs. Flight could not look with equanimity +upon the discovery that she was not so indispensable after all. She had +started Mira on the road to conquest, never dreaming that she herself +would be the first overtaken and supplanted. She had thought hitherto no +possible harm could come of their taking an occasional drive with their +friends, especially as Mr. Flight expressed himself so grateful for the +attention shown his wife, and as she and Mrs. Darling seemed chosen +rather to the exclusion of the other women, but when Mira and not +herself became the invariable occupant of the seat by the swell +civilian's side, the indiscretion, not to say the impropriety of the +affair, became glaringly apparent. It is rarely from the contemplation +of our own, but rather from the errors of our neighbors, that our moral +lessons are drawn, and now that in all its nakedness the scandalous +nature of Mira's conduct was forced upon her attention, Mrs. Flight +reasoned, most logically, that she could be no true friend if she failed +to remonstrate and, if need be, admonish and reprove. She did so, and +Almira pouted and was grievously vexed. She didn't think so at all, +neither had Mrs. Flight until--until she began to be counted out. This +led to war, and from pointing the moral Mrs. Flight now turned to +adorning the tale with what "everybody was saying." Mira challenged her +authorities. "I know who you mean,--Mrs. Cranston and Miss Loomis. They +hate me and would say anything mean of me." Now, it was not Mrs. +Cranston and Miss Loomis at all. They had no more intimacy with Mrs. +Flight than they had with Mira, nor as much. They looked upon Mrs. +Flight as responsible in great measure for Almira's wrong start. They +under no circumstances would confide to Mrs. Flight what they thought of +Mrs. Davies, and Mrs. Flight knew it, still she was not unwilling to let +Mira suppose that she was now enjoying their confidences even while she +referred to other authorities by the dozen as condemning or deploring +Mira's conduct, and a stormy scene followed, ending in tears and +reproaches,--much heat, followed by chilling cold. + +For the following fortnight Almira's intimacy was transferred to Mrs. +Darling, and from going to spend the night with Mira, Mrs. Flight took +to revolving in mind her singular observations while she was there. +There had been a thrilling, a delicious, a mysterious and romantic +occurrence. Somebody twice came and whistled a strange, soft melody +under the window and tapped as with a cane, gently, stealthily, a signal +that sounded like Rattat _tat_, rattat _tat_, just once repeated, and +Mrs. Davies trembled all over and grew icily cold, and begged Mrs. +Flight to go to the window and say, "Go away, or I'll call the guard," +and when pressed for explanation Mira moaned hysterically and said, but +Mrs. Flight must never, never tell, that there was once a young man whom +she had known long before who had got desperate on her account, for she +couldn't return his love, and he had run away from home and enlisted, +and she feared that he was there now, though she had never seen him and +never wanted to see him, and it became Mrs. Flight's belief that it was +no one less than that handsome young fellow, Brannan, who Captain Devers +said was drinking himself to death. And now that Mira had withdrawn from +her the confidences of the month gone by and was recklessly driving the +road to ruin, flouting her admonitions, what more natural than that Mrs. +Flight should forget her own vows of secrecy and conclude it time to +seek other advice? Mrs. Darling would have been her first confidante in +this revelation, but they, too, had once been devotedly intimate and had +now drifted apart. They were no longer on anything more than merely +frigidly friendly terms, smiling and kissing in public and hiding +womanfully their wounds, yet confiding to friends how much they had been +disappointed in the other's character, if not actually deceived. Mrs. +Flight found a confidante in the chaplain's wife, a woman simply swamped +under an overload of best intentions. It was Bulwer who declared that +"It is difficult to say who do the most harm, enemies with the worst +intentions or friends with the best," but Bulwer, who had reason to know +what he was talking about, never lived at Scott in the Centennial times +or at old Camp Sandy in the Arizona "days of the empire," for then he +would have known no such difficulty in deciding. Just as the stanch old +chaplain was just such another God-fearing, God-serving, devil-downing +man as Davies's father, so was the chaplain's wife a counterpart of +Davies's mother, filled with the milk of human kindness still unturned, +and overflowing with best intentions uncontrollably effervescent. Had +she told her husband all might have been stopped right there, but, as +the demon of ill luck would have it, he had gone to a distant +convention. So she sallied forth, brimming with eagerness to snatch this +lovely brand from the burning, to turn this fair, motherless, guideless, +possibly guileless girl to the contemplation of her dangers, to the +knowledge of her peril, to banish Willett from the dove-cote,--wily hawk +that he was,--and settle forthwith the fate of that young scamp Brannan. +She did not find Almira until after dark, but meantime told her +thrilling tale to Mrs. Stone (now full panoplied for further social +triumphs, the colonel being on the mend, and herself so young as not to +have looked unmoved on those famous sleigh-rides, nor without envy on +Almira's blooming cheek), and from her side sped the chaplain's wife to +hunt up Captain Devers. In him she found a listener indeed in whom there +was no end of guile. + +This was just before Cranston's return. The ball to be given by the +townsfolk had been indefinitely postponed in deference to Colonel +Stone's condition and the absence of so many dancing men in the field, +but the weekly hops, although with thinned attendance, went regularly +on. Now there were several households who did not attend at all, among +them Cranston's, Leonard's, and Hay's. More civilians came out from +town, whom Devers welcomed affably and Hastings and the resident +"doughboys" entertained as best they could. No need to trouble +themselves: the visitors came to "dance with the grass widows at the +fort," and had no embarrassment other than richness. There were always +wall-flowers, but never in the person of pretty Mrs. Davies, to whom +"Phaeton" Willett's devotion was now the talk of all. + +It was just at this time, too, that there came to Braska a middle-aged +lawyer with all the ear-marks of the soldier about him, including a +white seam along his cheek that told of a close call his intimates knew +to have occurred at Spottsylvania. His name was Langston, and his first +visit to the post was the result of a letter of introduction to Captain +Cranston from a classmate in the East. Cranston had driven over to +Braska to seek him out on receipt of the letter enclosing Langston's +card, bade him hearty welcome to the West, and was surprised to hear +that his practice brought him frequently to the neighborhood. He asked +him out to dinner two weeks later, Captain and Mrs. Hay, Mrs. Davies, +and Mr. Hastings being invited to meet him, for almost his first +question had been for that soldierly young officer, the hero of the riot +on the train. Mrs. Davies pleaded previous engagement, but Captain and +Mrs. Cranston took the trouble to call and explain that this Mr. +Langston especially admired and asked for her husband, Mr. Davies, and +so Almira simply had to go. Hastings called for and escorted her. He was +a blunt fellow, who held that when the husband was away and the lady of +the house alone, no other man ought to set foot within the threshold, +and he waited on the porch. But the lady was not alone. Willett's sleigh +was in the trader's stable, and Willett himself biting his nails and +swearing in Almira's parlor while Mrs. Darling was putting the finishing +touches to Almira's toilet. Willett had driven out _solus_ this time, +thinking to persuade Mrs. Davies to take a drive, with some other dames +playing propriety on the back seat, and, finding she was engaged for +dinner and could not go, lost a chance of scoring a point by asking the +other women anyhow, for by this time his infatuation had utterly +overcome his senses. Katty again appeared and begged the lieutenant to +step in wid Mr. Willett, and Hastings turned fiery red, scowled +malevolently, said "No," and took himself outside the gate, pacing up +and down like the orderly in front of Devers's quarters, a short +pistol-shot away, until Almira came fluttering out, Willett in close +attendance, Mrs. Darling mercifully following. Hastings bade the others +a gruff good-evening, silently tendered Mrs. Davies his arm, and led her +away with the sole remark "Aren't we late?" which gave her a chance to +talk the rest of the way. + +And though Langston sat on Mrs. Cranston's right, with the pretty bride +on his other side, so that he might descant about the absent Percy to +his heart's content, his eyes ever wandered across the simple table and +dwelt on Agatha Loomis's noble face. She had recognized him at once as +the one of the two civilians on the sleeper the previous June who had +not been suggestively and impertinently intrusive, yet she welcomed him +only formally even now because of that association. Langston had heard +the first mention of a Mrs. Davies with an inexplicable little pang, and +the further description of her with quick reaction, for his instant +thought was of Miss Loomis. The dinner dragged, despite every effort, +for Almira was distinctly and determinedly unresponsive. Margaret was +glad when it was over, glad when Almira early went home, for matters +brightened somewhat with her disappearance. Langston paid his dinner +call with surprising promptitude, and then overjoyed "the ladies" with a +box of rarest roses expressed from Margaret's own beloved home. "I know +how many of these are meant for me," she said, with almost fierce +rejoicing. "Oh, Wilbur!" she cried that evening, as she nestled in his +arms in front of their cheery fire, "if only he is all they say of him, +and she should----" + +"Should what, Meg?" he densely queried. + +"Should--why, you know just as well as I do, and he has such a fine +practice, and comes from such an admirable family and all that." + +"Undoubtedly,--but where does Agatha come in?" + +"Wilbur, you are just as provokingly sluggish as our own Chicago +River,--what wouldn't I give for a sight of its dirty face sometimes +when--when you're away! Now, be honest. Don't you know he never could +have sent all that way for all those roses--just for me?" + +"_I_ would." + +"Oh, you,--you are----" but the entrance of Miss Loomis herself with +sorrow in her face blocked the conference. + +"Captain Cranston," she said, "Brannan has been sent to the guard-house +again. I know he has not been drinking. What can it possibly mean?" + +It meant, said Captain Devers, when respectfully approached upon the +subject in the morning, that on very strong circumstantial evidence he +had discovered the identity of the night prowler. Brannan certainly +answered the description given by the chaplain, despite the chaplain's +assurance that he didn't believe it was Brannan, and Brannan, said +Devers, when not in the guard-house or hospital, had frequently been out +of his quarters at midnight. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +Cranston's six days home-keeping sped all too swiftly away. It was now +definitely settled that his troop and Truman's were to remain +indefinitely on duty at the agency. The general hated the idea of +building cantonments there, and had urged that all the Indians be +concentrated at the White River reservation, but without avail,--the +Interior Department would have its way. Troops had to be drawn from all +the posts along the railroad to make up the new command at the +Ogallalla, and out of his own pocket Cranston was adding to the log +quarters assigned to him, for Margaret had promptly announced that she +would not remain at Scott, that where he dwelt was her dwelling, and +they had known far greater isolation and danger in the past. Indeed, +there was little danger of their going now, for in the presence of so +strong a force the Indians would be meek enough. Two log huts were +connected and thrown into one as rapidly as possible, and it was fully +decided that by the 25th of March Mrs. Cranston, Agatha Loomis, and the +boys were to join him at the cantonment. It was not a very difficult +trip for such heroines as lived in those days in the army. Cranston's +strong spring wagon, fairly lined with buffalo-robes and blankets, would +carry them in perfect comfort from camp to camp. They would have an +escort and a baggage-wagon, spend the first night at Dismal River, the +next at Niobrara. Hastings would escort them, for he longed to get away +from Scott for a while and visit his comrades in the field. There was +nothing in the least unusual in it, said Margaret, in her home +letters,--for this had she married a soldier. The boys, of course, +gloried in the opportunity and bragged about it, or would brag about it +when they next got away from their kind in the army to their kind in +civil life,--boys who could only vainly long for such opportunities and +vaguely loathe those who had enjoyed them. As for Agatha, she accepted +the change of station with serene and philosophic silence until +cross-questioned as to her own intentions. "Why, certainly I mean to go +with Mrs. Cranston," she replied, with clear, wide-open eyes. "She will +have more need of me there than here--and I of her." Mr. Langston, who +drove out again to spend Sunday at the post, heard of the decision with +grave concern in his soldierly face, but in silence equal to her own. + +Some others of the ladies whose lords were thus detached to Ogallalla +preferred, however, to wait until the snow was gone. There was now +abundant room at Scott,--why leave it, with its warmth, its comfort, its +society and all, to go to a mud-chinked hovel at that ghastly spot where +the Indians danced and coyotes howled the live-long night? Of course if +there were quarters in which a woman could live with even reasonable +comfort, that would be very different. Then their remaining at Scott +would be inexcusable. Mrs. Flight and Mrs. Darling were women who were +at variance on very many points of late, but openly in accord on this. +Indeed, almost every woman at Scott had all of a sudden been seized by +some strange lingual epidemic that manifested itself in the persistent +repetition of such expressions as "Of course no woman who could see her +way to any kind of a civilized house would be justified in not joining +her husband there instead of staying here." It was sure to attack them, +too, whenever Almira happened to be within ear-shot, for the news came +down one March morning that one officer at least was to have a very +comfortable little frame cottage,--the commander of the agency guard. It +would be finished in a week or two, and even the stoves, fuel, and much +of the furniture would be provided by the Indian bureau. Again did Mrs. +Cranston go and call on Mrs. Davies and warmly congratulate her, and say +that Captain Cranston's men who were packing up the troop property would +gladly box and pack her furniture too and send it out by their wagons, +and then she said there were six inside seats in the big Concord wagon +and it would afford so much pleasure if Mrs. Davies would go with them. +But Almira faltered unresponsively. Mr. Davies had not fully decided. It +was such a shock to her,--his being detained there. She had never +dreamed of his being away more than a week or ten days, if she had she +would have returned home to Urbana, but now it was nearly two months, +and really Mr. Davies would have to come down and look after the +household affairs and matters that she didn't fully understand. + +Davies understood them well enough when he got the commissary and grocer +and butcher and baker and other bills that Mira had managed to run up, +both at Scott and at Braska. He went with grave face to Cranston. "I'm +afraid Mrs. Maloney and Katty have been taking advantage of my wife's +inexperience," said he, "and ordering all manner of things in all +possible quantities, and possibly, or probably, stocking the Maloney +larder at my expense. I simply cannot pay these and my home assessments +too." + +Cranston was a man of few words. "Davies," said he, after looking over +the accounts, "Mrs. Davies has been cheated right and left by those +people, but in any event you cannot keep up two establishments. Break up +the house at Scott at once, let her come out with my people and leave +the Maloneys and Barnickel--and Scott behind. Let my Braska banker be +yours for the present. A few mouths here will float you well above +water." + +And though Davies declined the offer of pecuniary aid, the very night of +Mrs. Cranston's visit the agency telegraph flashed to Mira a despatch +directing her to get ready to come on with them, whereat Mira fled in +tears to Mrs. Darling,--Mira, who, it may be remembered, longed to come +and cook and bake and darn and sweep and sew and share the merest hovel +with her Percy so long as she thought it just possible that he might yet +change his mind and leave his simple village maid no fate but lonely +grief and an early grave. Mira's enthusiasm for the bliss of frontier +life fled at the contemplation of the utter isolation at the +agency,--with wild Indians and animals all around, and without Mrs. +Darling, without the lovely, cosey fireside confidences, without the +band, the hops, the sleigh-rides, not to mention the glowing devotions +of Mr. Willett. + +But Mrs. Darling rose to the occasion. From having been first favorite +in Scott social circles up to the time of Mira's coming she, with Mrs. +Stone and Mrs. Flight, was struggling now for second place. She felt +constrained to remind Mira that she was now a soldier's wife, and should +share a soldier's lot, especially a lot that included furnished +quarters. Other women had gone or were going to live in the log huts, +and it would never do to have it said of her, of Almira Davies, +that she had shrunk from joining her husband at the agency when +everything--everything was provided. Everything wasn't provided, by any +means, but in the largeness of her convictions woman sometimes drifts to +breadth of statement. The interview with Mrs. Darling proved but cold +comfort to poor Mira. She went homewards through the chill gloaming with +restless heart. There was a little parcel lying on her table, securely +wrapped and sealed. The post ambulance driver brought it out from +Braska, said Katty, "an' there was no address, 'twas only to be left for +Mrs. Davies," and Katty fain would have followed her mistress into her +chamber to see it opened, but Mira closed the door before she cut the +string. It contained some exquisite double violets and a tiny note +sealed as carefully as was the box. + +Before tattoo Mrs. Flight and other ladies hastened in to offer their +congratulations. They were desolated at the thought of losing Mrs. +Davies, but rejoiced with her that she was so soon to be comfortably +housed with her devoted husband at the agency, and Mira's cheeks were +flaming, her eyes, full of a feverish excitement, flitted from one to +another. She had but very, very little to say. She was glad, oh, yes, so +glad, though it was dreadful to leave Fort Scott, where so many people +had been so kind to her,--dreadful. + +This was about the 20th and the general situation of affairs was +somewhat complicated. The bureau, resuming control over the Indians +reassembled at the agency, conferred no longer with the general who had +gathered them in, and for whose naked word they had more respect than +for all the formal treaties of agents or inspectors, but contented +itself with sending curt, crisp orders signed, however reluctantly, by +his superiors at Washington. The general, leaving matters at Ogallalla +where he had no influence, had gone after other malcontent braves in a +far corner of Wyoming. Colonel Peleg was beginning to evince a desire to +resume command, despite Rooke's knitted brows and reluctant answers. An +official from Sheridan's headquarters had just paid informal visit to +Scott, had had long talks with Stone, Leonard, and the chaplain, and a +very short one with the plausible Devers, and had gone back to Chicago. +He arrived at Scott within four days of Cranston's departure for the +agency, and within five of the re incarceration of Trooper Brannan on +charge of night prowling. He made very brief examination in Leonard's +office of Sergeants Haney and Finucane, Corporal Boyd and Trooper +Howard, who were witnesses, so Devers said, to the frequent absences of +Trooper Brannan from quarters during the dead hours of the night, and +their expert testimony seemed to be given with much reluctance and to be +received with equal incredulity. He asked of Devers what his reasons +were for refusing to forward Brannan's application for transfer to +Cranston's troop, and Devers, much disturbed to find that this was +known, hesitated in his reply. He said he had not refused, he had merely +taken time to consider. The man had given him much trouble. Some +officers considered it all right for a captain under such circumstances +to shunt a reprobate off on some other company commander, but he +differed with them. He wanted to know something of the man's +antecedents. "Well," said the aide-de-camp, "Cranston knows all about +them and is willing to take him. You might relieve yourself of any +feeling of punctilio on that score." + +"Then Captain Cranston is your informant in this business, colonel," +said Devers, with an attempt at a sneer. + +"Not at all," said the aide-de-camp, placidly. "Brannan's mother told us +all about it. She is a very superior woman, and we dine there +occasionally." + +Devers stared blankly at the speaker just a moment, half incredulous, +half resentful, then at last he realized that it was no pleasantry on +the part of his visitor and, for once in his life, collapsed entirely. + +That night Brannan was released and bidden to go to his troop and be +patient. This time there was no doubt of his application being forwarded +to regimental head-quarters, and there's no doubt, said the chaplain, +who had a talk with him within an hour of his restoration to duty, that +a week would see him _en route_ to join Cranston's troop at Ogallalla. +Devers was still commanding officer of the post, however, and gave the +chaplain to understand that so long as the man remained at Scott the +interests of discipline required that there should be no exhibition of +exuberant triumph on his part or of further interference on the part of +his spiritual sympathizers. He hated the chaplain by this time as much +as he feared Cranston. Something had told him that the aide-de-camp's +visit meant that the toils were tightening, and that even though the +Gray Fox was away his great superior, the lieutenant-general, had an eye +on the situation and an ear for the stories of his defamers. Devers felt +that the inspector came because of sudden and direct appeal from +Brannan's friends. He could not longer attribute it to Davies. Well, it +would take a week or ten days anyhow before Brannan's orders could come, +and a week was a long time to a man with a treacherous thirst. + +But what Devers only suspected and did not know was that in the long +consultation with Leonard that officer gave, by request, his version of +the altercation which had taken place between himself and Devers, and of +the events leading up to it. The staff officer brought with him the +original report of the investigation made of the Antelope Springs affair +and Devers's topographical sketch of the ground, trails and all, and +Leonard's black eyes burned as he studied it. The aide-de-camp had some +social calls to pay and left these papers in Leonard's hands while he +was gone. "I have made a tracing of that map, colonel," said the +adjutant, when after two hours the official returned. "I hope you don't +object. I know you can't leave the originals with me." + +"That's all right," was the answer. "Say, Leonard, who's that young cit +with the swell team who came to take Mrs. Davies sleighing? I didn't +catch the name." + +"His name's Willett," said Leonard, briefly. + +"What's he doing here?" + +"Cattle." + +"Cattle in Braska, perhaps, but here, I mean." + +"I don't know," said Leonard to the officer. "I wish I did," said +Leonard to himself. "If I did--I'd smash him." + +Mr. Langston had driven out to the post with Willett that afternoon. He +had other calls to pay, and this was Saturday, a favorite day for +visiting at Braska. The Cranstons' house was topsy-turvy, everybody in +the midst of packing, but Langston had a box of _bon-bons_ which the +ladies, or the boys, might enjoy as reminders of Chicago, and he rang. +Miss Loomis herself, in cap and apron, opened the door. Her shapely, +soft white hands were covered with the dust of books and papers she had +been busily storing in the boxes, and her face flushed, just a bit, at +sight of her visitor. + +"I cannot shake hands with you, Mr. Langston, and, as you see, we're all +at work, but welcome in. I'll call Mrs. Cranston." + +"No. Don't," he said, hurriedly. "I only came to offer these trifles. I +heard you were all busy packing and had hoped to hear that, after all, +you were not going up to that forsaken spot. Is it true?" + +"Certainly. Wherever Captain Cranston goes there goes his wife, and +where she goes to live is my home and duty." + +He stood looking steadfastly into her brave, beautiful face. He was tall +and stalwart: she almost Juno-like in the grandeur of her form. He could +not conceal the admiration that glowed in his eyes. He could not, dare +not speak so soon the thoughts that had been surging in his brain, +springing up from his very heart. What would he not give could she but +accept the offer he longed to lay at her feet, that of a name, a love, a +home wherein she should reign as queen, not live as a dependent. Such +silences are eloquent. She turned quickly away. "Louis, tell mother Mr. +Langston has come out to say good-by," said she, and Mrs. Cranston, not +ten feet away, these being army quarters, had to appear. + +"I didn't mean to say good-by here exactly," said Langston. "I rather +planned to see you. I thought perhaps you'd honor me by breakfasting or +lunching with me in Braska on your way," he said, hesitatingly. "They +tell me ladies often----" + +"Well, we go direct. Ours is the through express, Mr. Langston," said +Mrs. Cranston, laughing, "and it's a hotel car we travel by. Braska is +some distance off the air line." + +"Braska doesn't seem to have been in your line at any time," he said, +after a moment's pause. "I hear of frequent visits on the part of the +other ladies, many of them, but you never honor us." + +"Oh, we sometimes go there for shopping." + +"But to Cresswell's, I mean, for luncheon or supper. They say he gives +a very creditable spread, and as quite a number of the ladies go there +at times, and Willett and Burtis have a little party there to-night in +honor of some of your friends, I thought I might persuade you; but--of +course--if you do not go that way," he concluded, vaguely. + +"No, thank you, Mr. Langston, we do not--go that way." + +"But I shall see you, both, again before you start, I hope," he said, +addressing Mrs. Cranston, but palpably appealing to Miss Loomis in the +weakness of a strong man deeply in love. + +"It will be a pleasure," said Margaret, cordially. She wished him to +come. She meant him to come. She saw and forgave the wandering eyes. He +might come any day he pleased before the 25th. There would still be a +box or a trunk for him to sit on; but now, she concluded, artfully, she +must get right back to the boys a minute. They were trying on some +clothes that had just come from home, and she'd return very soon. So +saying she vanished. It was half an hour before she reappeared, and +Langston was on his knees in the parlor--packing books. It was the +sweetest work he had known in years. + +But when he was finally gone Margaret turned impulsively to Agatha. "Do +you think it possible that--that she _can_ be going there--with +him--to-night? No matter who else goes. She cannot realize what she's +doing. Would you go--should I go to see her?" + +Miss Loomis stood at the window, leaning her forehead against the cold +pane and gazing silently out over the snowy expanse of the parade. "You +would be too late, Margaret," she answered, presently, and drew back +from the folds of the heavy curtain, and Mrs. Cranston seemed to read in +her companion's face what was coming along the road. + +Two double sleighs drove briskly past the window. First came Stone's old +swan-head behind his sedate team of bays, but from a perfect nest of +robes and furs a gay party waved their hands in laughing salutation. +Mrs. Stone and Mrs. Flight on the back seat, Messrs. Darling and Tommy +Dot opposite them in the body of the sleigh. Captain Pollock in the +driver's perch with a fair companion whose husband was still detained at +the agency, but wanted her to have the best time possible instead of +moping at home. Then came Willett's stylish sleigh and team, Sanders on +the back seat with Mrs. Darling, Almira blooming in her accustomed place +by "Phaeton's" side. She neither bowed nor kissed her hand to Cranston's +window, but smiled sweetly up into her companion's eyes. + +Mr. Langston, meantime, was dining at the officers' mess, and presently +when Mrs. Leonard came over to see if she could not help her neighbor a +trifle in her packing, she unfolded some of the details of the Braska +plan. Messrs. Burtis and Willett desired to entertain some of their fort +friends in town; Colonel "Pegleg" was the only man at the post who owned +a sleigh; Mrs. Stone was invited as a matter of course, and accepted, +provided the colonel felt well enough to let her go, and it was duly +settled that six of the party should go in her sleigh. The rest was +easily arranged. Langston was only too glad to go out with Willett and +spend the hours until the return of the party in calling and dining at +the post, hoping thereby to obtain more than one glance at and more than +a few words with Miss Loomis. It was nearly sundown when they started. +It would be eleven before they got back. Long before that hour the +lights in Cranston's quarters were out and all was silence and peace. +Langston, strolling by after making his evening calls, looked long, as +lovers will, at the window of the room he knew to be hers, then went +resignedly over to the store and took a hand with the officers at a game +for which at other times he had no use whatever,--pool. He had to do +something to while away the time until the sleigh-bells came tinkling +back, and that seemed to be the only thing going. + +But midnight came before the foremost sleigh. Pollock safely tooled his +party into the post as the twelve o'clock call was going the rounds. Oh, +they had had a blissful time! a glorious time! Such a delightful +supper,--partridges and celery and all manner of dainties from Chicago, +and such oyster patties! to say nothing of Roederer _ad libitum_. Then +they had danced, and then they had more supper, and then started home. +Willett would be along in a minute. + +But ten, twenty minutes sped and no Willett. Pegleg's horses, being +homeward bound, had possibly made phenomenal time, and Willett, +probably, was in no hurry. "It's about his last chance to have Mrs. +Davies beside him," laughed Mrs. Stone, "so he's making the most of it." +It was 12.30 when at last the bells of the New Yorker's sleigh were +heard tinkling faintly at the corner, and presently the party came +slowly into view. Only three now, and three silent, embarrassed if not +evidently agitated people, for they seemed to whip up and hurry by the +little knot of anxious faces gathered at the colonel's gate. + +"Where's Mr. Sanders?" was the cry. + +"Tell you in a minute!" shouted Willett, as he drove straight by to No. +12, where he sprang out, lifted Mira from the sleigh and almost bore her +to the gate, Mrs. Darling following. Already Mr. Darling was hastening +up the road to join his wife. At the door Willett simply had to turn +back to his spirited team, as they were standing unhitched, and Mrs. +Darling disappeared with Mira into the hall. + +"Where's Sanders? What kept you?" panted Darling, hastening up. + +"Hush! Don't make any fuss," muttered Willett. "He jumped out half a +mile back. Some drunken men, or soldiers perhaps, gave us a little +trouble. I'm going back after him now." + +"Hold on one minute till I see my wife and I'll go with you," sang out +Darling, as he ran into the house, where Mira had sunk nerveless into a +big chair and was wildly imploring Mrs. Darling not to leave her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + +The Cranstons were ready to start on the 23d, but nothing was in +readiness at Mrs. Davies's. On the contrary, that lovely and most +interesting young woman was, according to her own account, as +transmitted to the garrison by her now devoted friend and nurse, Mrs. +Darling, in a state of prostration and could do nothing at all. Mr. +Davies had been telegraphed for and was coming, and Dr. Rooke said she +must be kept very quiet meanwhile,--so at least Mrs. Darling reported to +sympathetic friends who called to inquire and possibly hoped to see. +Bluff old Rooke himself was besieged with questions as to his fair +patient, the nature of her malady and the cause of the sudden shock, and +Rooke told some people not to bother her, others not to bother him, and +others still not to bother themselves about her. She'd come out all +right if left alone. It was Mrs. Cranston and Miss Loomis to whom he +delivered himself of the last mentioned. He liked them both, which was +more than he did most people, for this Ćsculapian countryman of Carlyle +had much of that eminent writer's sharpness of vision and bluntness of +speech together with even more of his contempt for the bulk of his +fellow-men. "No, Mrs. Cranston," said he, "don't wait a day for her. +Start just as soon as you are ready, and don't give a thought to this +little flibberty gibbet." And so the Cranstons, with Miss Loomis, bade +farewell to Scott, and one radiant winter morning drove buoyantly away, +almost all of the officers and ladies being out to wave them adieu. +Hastings, with a brace of troopers, trotted alongside as they crossed +the Platte and reported the camp wagon well on its way to Dismal River. +"I never was so glad to leave a place in all my life," said Margaret to +her friend, as they glanced back from the crest of the distant ridge +that spanned the northern sky. "I never have been at a post where there +were so few people I cared for." The driver halted his strong team at a +level spot after a long, tortuous climb, and let the mules breathe a +moment while his passengers took their final peep at the dim, dingy +patch, far away upon the southward slopes beyond the willow-fringed +river, which indicated the site of old Fort Scott. Already the snow had +disappeared on many an open tract and lay deep only in the ravines and +gullies, on the ice coat of the stream and in the dense undergrowth of +the islands. To right and left for miles the broad valley lay beneath +their eyes, the rigid line of the railway cutting a sharp, narrow slit +across the level prairie in the lowlands, straight away eastward until +all was merged in the misty, impenetrable veil at the horizon, while +westward near the forks of the river, in long, graceful curve, it swept +around an elbow of the snow-mantled stream and disappeared among the +roofs and spires of far-away Braska. The boys, with the agile energy of +their kind, had leaped out to scamper about on the rimy buffalo-grass, +dull gray, dried and withered, yet full of nutriment for the little +droves of horned cattle already browsing placidly along the slopes where +but a few years before the Sioux and Cheyenne chased great herds of +bison. Hastings and his men were riding along a hundred yards or so in +front, and the two women were left to their own low-toned confidences. + +"I cannot help it," said Mrs. Cranston, "it may be uncharitable, unkind, +but I am simply glad she could not go with us. She does not like us,--me +at least. She has pointedly avoided me, and I half believe it was to +avoid going with us that she was taken ill. I only hope Wilbur will not +misunderstand the matter." + +"I think you are unjust, Margaret, in one thing at least. There was +certainly some severe fright or shock Saturday night." + +"Oh, a thing that might unstring a nervous, hysterical woman a few +hours, perhaps, but it is no case of nerves or hysteria with her. She's +a perfectly healthy country girl. Mrs. Darling, who isn't thoroughly +strong and well, seems to have been very little affected." + +"Mrs. Darling has been three years out here and is accustomed to +frontier life. Mrs. Davies, probably, never had such an experience +before, and she has been worried by these queer incidents that Mrs. +Leonard tells us of,--those midnight whistlings and tappings at her +window. Mrs. Davies is alone, her husband miles away at the agency. +Everything has tended to worry the girl. I honestly feel sorry for her, +Margaret. I'm sorry that she wouldn't let us be her friends." + +"You are full of excuse for her, Agatha, and down in the bottom of your +heart you know perfectly well she doesn't deserve it. I cannot forgive +her for this flirtation with Mr. Willett. I only welcomed the idea of +taking her with us because of the hope it gave me of breaking up that +affair." + +"Has it never occurred to you that she may have broken it off +herself?--that besides this queer adventure with those drunken fellows +there was something else to agitate her? Be just, Margaret. She came to +us utterly inexperienced, even ignorant. She hasn't much mind, I'll +admit, but she is innocent of wrong intent. Is it not possible that +driving home he may have spoken to her in a way she could not mistake, +and that that has had much to do with her prostration? If not, if she +did not then and there forbid his coming near her again, how do you +account for it that he has not once been out to the fort since +Saturday?" + +"Well, it's only three days, and the sleighing is practically ended." + +"Yes, but he hasn't let forty-eight hours pass hitherto without a visit, +so I'm told, and he has his buggy and wagon, and unless there was a +rupture of some kind was it not more than likely he would be out Sunday +or Monday? Wasn't it the proper thing, really, for him to call and +inquire for her?" + +But here the Concord rattled on again, the boys playing "giant strides" +hanging to the boot at the back, and the driver, poking his head around +the canvas wind-screen at the front, called out to Mrs. Cranston, +"There's two of our fellows coming a couple of miles ahead, mum." And +both ladies leaned from the wagon to strain their eyes in vain effort to +distinguish the forms and faces of the distant party, Margaret half +hoping that her soldier husband might have been able to stretch a point +and ride far down to meet her, Miss Loomis half divining who it must be, +and it was Miss Loomis who was right. Fifteen minutes further and the +Concord halted again, and Mr. Hastings, with Davies at his side, rode up +to the open door. + +Even at a glance one could see how much he was changed in the service of +those two months. The lines about his clear, thoughtful eyes had +deepened and his face was thinner, despite the full, heavy, +close-cropped beard, but there was no mistaking the joy with which he +met and welcomed his friends and nurses of that long autumn's +convalescence. He whipped off his gauntlets and flung them at Louis's +head, as the boys came dancing about his horse, and then extended both +hands in eager greeting to Mrs. Cranston, who was nearest him, and who +frankly grasped and shook them in hearty, cordial fashion. + +"Oh, how glad I am to see you!" she cried. "We thought to meet you at +our first camp I had no idea you could come so fast." And by this time +she had released his hands and he was bending farther in to extend the +right to Miss Loomis, who welcomed him with friendly warmth, yet with +that womanly reserve which seemed never separable from her. + +"We did not stop at the Niobrara," said he. "We came right through and +camped at Dismal River late last night. Did you see Mrs. Davies this +morning? How did you leave her?" he asked, with grave anxiety. + +"We left her very comfortable. Dr. Rooke said there was no occasion +whatever for anxiety," answered Mrs. Cranston, tactfully evading the +question as to "seeing her," and then, fearful lest he should be moved +to repeat it, plunging impetuously ahead. "She was looking so bright and +well, so lovely in fact, that none of us were prepared for her being +ill. Of course you'll hear all about the excitement and adventure they +met with, so I won't speak of it now. In deed, you know, we hardly know +anything more about it ourselves than you do, for both Mrs. Davies and +Mrs. Darling saw so little of what followed the first appearance of the +fellows. Mr. Sanders jumped right out among them, it seems, and gave +chase after some who ran. The one they afterwards captured was one of +your recruits, Paine by name, and Mr. Sanders can tell you all about it +when he gets back. He was sent up to Cheyenne. One or two men who have +disappeared entirely are the suspected ones, and he is after them." + +"But I don't understand," said Davies, gravely. "It seems incredible +that even drunken soldiers should have attempted an indignity to a party +of officers and ladies. Weren't you with them?" + +"No; we were in the midst of packing, you know, and we weren't going +anywhere. Indeed, it was an extraordinary thing and no one knows how to +account for it, but you'll hear all about it at the fort, and I know you +are eager to push ahead, and we'll see you so soon at the Ogallalla, so +just tell me how you left my husband and you may gallop on." + +How blithe and radiant was her face as she spoke! How could he suspect +the dread that lurked behind it,--the artfulness of her effort to escape +further questioning? + +"The captain's as well as ever and counting the hours until your +coming," he answered. "How thankful I am, for my wife's sake as well as +my own, that you and Miss Loomis are to be so near us! Think of our +having a house while the rest of you live in log huts! But if any sub +would exchange with me I'd gladly give him the agency guard and the +house and come and live in cantonments." Then with a parting shake of +the hand he waved them on. The driver cracked his whip, the boys +scrambled aboard, and away they went bowling on northward, while Davies +and his single orderly turned again their horses' heads to the welcome +awaiting them at Scott. + +Margaret sank back in her seat with fluttering heart and a deep sigh of +relief. "Thank heaven, that's over, and I have told nothing of any +consequence, have I?" she murmured to her silent friend. "What will he +say or think when he learns the truth? But you were saying Mr. Willett +had not reappeared. For that matter neither had Mr. Burtis nor Mr. +Langston. I believe they'll all be out to the fort this very day. Mr. +Langston thought we were not to start, you know, until to-morrow." + +No answer to this observation. Miss Loomis was quite well aware of the +fact and had been, for her, an eager advocate of the earlier start the +moment it was declared that Almira could not attempt to move. + +"I didn't fib, did I?" asked Mrs. Cranston, after a moment of deep +thought. + +"No; you managed to control the examination quite successfully without +it." + +But people at Scott that afternoon were less skilful or less fortunate. +Arriving nearly ten hours earlier than he was expected, Mr. Davies +dismounted at his quarters and, tossing the reins to his orderly, +quickly and noiselessly entered. He expected to find his wife an invalid +in a darkened chamber. He strode in upon a cosey little party at +luncheon, Almira presiding at the tea things in a most becoming +_négligée_, and Mrs. Stone and Mrs. Darling nibbling at the dainties set +before them, rising in surprise and some confusion as the young wife +fluttered from her chair to the arms of her returned hero and becomingly +precipitated herself upon his breast. The visitors managed to retire +soon after luncheon was over, despite Almira's evident desire to hold +one or both at her side, for in that brief quarter of an hour Davies +learned, as the result of questions that presently became insistent, +very much to deepen the grave anxiety in his grave face, very much that +made him impatient to hear from other witnesses. + +Over the interview between him and his now nervous and fluttering wife +we need not linger. She read disapproval, even distrust in his eyes, in +his grave, deep tones, and all the prostration of the three days +previous showed forcible symptoms of immediate return. She knew she was +going to be wretchedly ill again; she must have Mrs. Darling and Dr. +Rooke. Oh, why had they taken Dr. Burroughs away? he was so much nicer, +and Barnickel should go for Dr. Rooke at once; and Barnickel, who was +unpacking the lieutenant's saddle-bags and blanket roll, said he knew +the doctor had gone to town and there was no one but the steward about. +Mr. Sanders was just back, said he, and some gentlemen from town with +him; whereat Almira started nervously and with fear in her face, and +Davies took his cap and, presently, his leave. + +"I will ask Mrs. Darling to come to you at once," he said, gently, "but +I must go and see Mr. Sanders." He stooped and kissed her flushed +forehead and then turned slowly away. The instant he closed the hall +door behind him she crept to the parlor window, watching him as he +walked rapidly westward along the row; then, slipping the bolt, she flew +back to her room, searching in the bureau drawer an instant, drew forth +two or three little notes, tied with silken ribbon, also a bunch of +faded violets. The next instant notes and violets were blazing in the +parlor base-burner. + +Davies went straight to Sanders's quarters. It was then only a little +after two and no one happened to be visible along the row. Over at the +barracks and office there was the customary drowsy silence that followed +the mid-day meal of men who had to be up with the dawn, and at stables, +drill, or exercise until the noon recall. But Mrs. Stone had hurried +home to her colonel and told him of Davies's arrival, and the colonel +was eager to see him. Mrs. Darling had similarly warned her consort, and +Darling was as eager to dodge. + +"Lieutenant Sanders has gone to report to Captain Devers," said the +striker who answered Davies's ring, and Davies said he would come in and +wait until his return. He wanted to get by himself and quietly think +over Almira's fragmentary and reluctant account and admissions +concerning this supper-party at Braska. He threw himself into Sanders's +big arm-chair drawn up in front of the stove, and leaned his head on his +thin, white hand. Trooper Hurley, Sanders's striker, acting under his +usual instructions, presently reappeared with a decanter of whiskey, +glasses, sugar, and spoon on a tray. "We're all torn up, sir, packing +the lieutenant's traps for the move, but here's everything but bitters, +or lemon, and I can get them in a moment, sir." + +Davies wearily thanked him, but waved the proffered refreshment aside. +Hurley deposited his tray on the table close to the lieutenant's elbow +and tiptoed out. + +"Did Mr. Sanders say he'd come back here?" called the visitor. + +"No, sir," said Hurley, poking his head back in the door-way; "but he +will, sir. He was sent for by Captain Devers before he had been ten +minutes in the post, and he went as soon as he could change his clothes +and get into uniform. Mr. Darling run in here just a few moments ago +after him, but he was gone. Mr. Willett fetched him out from town, sir, +along with some other gentlemen. They went over to the store." + +"I'll wait a few minutes," said Davies. So Hurley hospitably brought the +late papers and placed them within reach. + +"There's pipes and tobacco if the lieutenant would like to smoke, and +I'll be in the back room, sir, packing." + +"Did you hear whether Mr. Sanders had succeeded in arresting the other +men?" + +"No, sir, he didn't. They couldn't be found and hadn't been heard of in +Cheyenne, but Mr. Sanders said they had bought their tickets for there, +and that they were on the train as far as Sidney anyhow. I heard him say +that. They were a bad lot, sir, them two fellows, especially Howard. The +men in 'A' Troop say he made many a ball for Paine to throw, and that he +was the one that was always making trouble for Brannan." + +Davies bowed silently. He remembered Howard well all through the long +dismal summer, one of the very "likeliest looking" of the recruits, at +first glance, and almost the only one of the lot whom Captain Devers +seemed to fancy, yet Davies was surprised, when he rejoined after his +sick-leave, to find him in the troop office instead of the drill squad. +All through the regiment the story had gone the rounds of how Sanders +had arrested him on the train in "cits" and evident intent to desert, +and how Devers had ordered his release, virtually assuming +responsibility for the entire affair, and no man could account for +Devers's action in the matter except that it was Devers's, and therefore +bound to be different from that which any other officer would have +taken. + +And it was Howard who, this time at least, had deserted for good, taking +with him a garrison ne'er-do-well whose going was only a good riddance, +and leaving as a captive in the hands of Lieutenant Sanders the luckless +Paine, now languishing in the guard-house, while, under the orders of a +nervous and evidently anxious post commander, parties were searching +everywhere for the other two. + +From the somewhat garbled and excited account given by the ladies at the +luncheon-table, Davies had been able to gather only these +particulars,--that, as the second sleigh was coming along, oh, just a +little distance behind Colonel Stone's, and as they rounded a sharp turn +at the head of one of the islands, a brilliant light flashed from the +bank, so close to the horses that they shied violently, nearly toppling +Mrs. Davies out, and in this flash they distinctly saw the face and form +of a tall young man in dark slouch hat and civilian clothes, and the +expression on his face was so wicked, and he was so ghastly pale that it +looked like an apparition, and Mrs. Davies screamed and nearly fainted +from the fright and shock, and Mr. Willett, who was driving, made a +furious cut at the fellow with his whip, and then as the horses tore +away in fright the occupants of the sleigh had just time to catch a +glimpse of some soldier overcoats, and when at last Mr. Willett regained +control of his horses, Mrs. Darling cried out that they must go back for +Mr. Sanders. He had leaped right out among those brutes, and she was +sure she had heard shots. Mrs. Davies admitted that here she protested +against going back, so terribly was she frightened, but Mrs. Darling +said that they must do so and Willett said that they must, and go they +did, only to find the spot abandoned. Even when Willett called for +Sanders there was no answer, and then they were dreadfully alarmed for +fear he had met with violence, and Mrs. Darling took the reins while +Willett searched, and Mrs. Davies, as she admitted, cowered under the +buffalo robe, and then, all on a sudden, they heard the sound of angry +voices, heard some one furiously denouncing Mr. Willett for lashing a +gentleman with his whip, heard Willett curse the stranger for flashing a +match purposely to frighten his horses,--some sneering reply to the +effect that a man had a right to light a cigar on a public road, then +Willett's voice calling the man a liar, then heavy blows and scuffle, +and then Sanders came running up the road just in time, for the stranger +had Mr. Willett down in the snow and was throttling him. He sprang up +and dashed into the willows the instant he heard Sanders's voice, and +that was the last seen of him, for Sanders's first care was for the +civilian, who was bruised and choked, but, after all, not seriously +hurt. He helped Willett back to his seat, bade him drive the ladies at +once to the fort, but said he was going after those marauders, for two +at least were soldiers. That was all. When Willett and Mr. Darling drove +back they found that he had captured Paine, too drunk to run well, and +that the others were gone. Next morning Trooper Howard was reported +absent, and that settled the identity of the man in civilian dress. Mr. +Willett had not been out at the post since the affair simply because he +was nursing a black eye and a sprained thumb. + +What Mrs. Darling and Mrs. Stone couldn't understand was what could +possibly have prompted the man Howard to stand right on that little +bank, close to the track, and there flash his phosphorus match. He must +have known it would scare the horses even if it did not terrify the +people. It was a reckless, diabolical thing to do, and then to think of +his daring to strike and beat Mr. Willett afterwards. Mrs. Darling was +full of indignation at his conduct; Mira was agitated, but had little to +say. She was thinking of the cross-questioning that was inevitable when +her supporters were gone. + +And now, sitting there in Sanders's easy-chair, Davies was pondering +over all that he had been told at the table, and the little that he had +wrung from her reluctant lips, putting them together with the frequent +questions asked him by the few women who had joined their husbands at +the cantonment,--questions so frequent and persistent as to whether he +often heard from his wife, and wasn't she soon coming, _very_ soon, to +join him, that even to his unsuspicious nature they carried a +significance he could not down, and now it seemed that Almira had gone +with a gay party to a supper and dance in town at a time when he +supposed that she was spending her hours with his friends, the +Cranstons, or in quiet and seclusion at her home. There, at least, he +showed his inexperience, for in nine cases out of ten the friends the +newly-arrived wife is surest to fancy in garrison are not those whose +praises her lord has been sounding for six months ahead. Of the hops and +dances and drives that had preceded this eventful evening he had as yet, +_mirabile dictu_, heard nothing beyond Mira's own meagre account. In +fact, he had no idea of them at all. + +He was worn and weary after the long, hard eighty-mile ride. The fire +was warm, the room still and peaceful; no sound broke the silence but +Hurley's occasional step and soft whistle out in the "linter" at the +rear where lay his packing-boxes. Possibly Davies may have become +drowsy, dreamy, as he reclined there. At all events he never moved as a +quick, nervous step came bounding across the veranda and into the hall. +The door burst open and a voice, surely a little tremulous and agitated, +spoke low and quickly. + +"Where are you, Sanders? Oh, say, will you do me a favor? I can't--at +least I don't want these other women to know. Was there ever such a +streak of hell's luck as this? He's home. I've got to go. Will you see +that Mrs. Davies gets this before to-night?" + +And in the dim light of the little bachelor den, Percy Davies, slowly +turning, was aware of a stylishly-dressed, handsome young civilian, +whose face, though pale and apparently bruised, was vaguely familiar to +him, in whose outstretched hand was a little box-shaped packet. Just +then another step came bounding into the hall-way, into the room, and +the lawful occupant of the quarters halted short at sight of the two +tall, slender forms confronting each other, one that of the civilian, +slowly recoiling toward the door with twitching, tremulous hands, and a +face livid as death, the other, in cavalry undress, with bearded, +haggard face, deeply lined, under whose heavy, bushy, overhanging brows +a pair of blue eyes were blazing. For a moment not a word was spoken, +then Davies broke the silence. + +"Sanders, this gentleman wishes you to see that that package is promptly +delivered to my wife, and I should be glad to see you as soon as +possible at my quarters." + +Not until the speaker had coolly stepped past them both and out of the +room had Sanders recovered sufficient presence of mind to sing out, "All +right, old man; I'll come." Then, as the outer door closed after the +retiring officer, he whirled on Willett. + +"You inveterate ass! How dare you haul me into this?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + +Among the gentlemen from Braska visiting the post that afternoon was Mr. +Langston, who drove thither full of eager anticipation, and hailed the +first glimpse of the bright hues of the flag with a thrill of hope and +joy. No spot in all God's green earth at that moment held in his eyes +such vivid charm and interest. Ten minutes later no spot in all the +world seemed so barren and desolate. The sunshine, the sailing clouds in +the vault of blue, the chasing shadows along the slopes, the streaming +colors of blue and white and scarlet at the tip of the swaying staff, +the glint and sparkle of the accoutrements of the guard, the gaudy +lining of the troopers' capes, were absolutely unaltered, yet the light +had gone from his eyes--following the trail to the far Ogallalla. To him +who loves a woman with all his heart there is more beauty in a +mud-chinked hovel in a frontier fort where she may dwell than in all +"the castled crags" of storied Rhineland or the cloud-capped towers and +gorgeous palaces among the mirror lakes of Alpine Italy. + +[Illustration: "FOR A MOMENT NOT A WORD WAS SPOKEN." + +Page 324.] + +Langston learned of the departure five minutes after he reached the +post, and lost all further interest in the day. He said he would "loaf" +at the club room until Burtis and Willett got through their calls, +which, said they, would occupy some hours,--two or three at least. +Indeed, Willett "didn't know but what he might stay out with Sanders +overnight" and let Burtis "tool the trap" back to Braska when he got +ready. When, therefore, in less than forty minutes Willett's team was +reported being hurriedly harnessed in the post trader's corral and that +gentleman himself came bustling in with a pale, scared face that +intensified the blue blotch under his eye, Langston was astonished. He +was listlessly turning over the leaves of a magazine at the moment and +seeking solace in a cigar. Willett looked nervously about him, bade the +attendant bring him some brandy and soda, and threw himself into a chair +in front of the stove. + +"You look used up, Willett," said the elder. "What's the matter? Seen +anything more of your midnight antagonist?" + +"No, by heaven! I wish I had. I believe the devil himself has gone in +league with the gang at this garrison. I never knew such a string of +mishaps in all my life. Say, are you ready to go back?" + +"Any time; but I thought you wanted to stay." + +"Oh, so did you when you came out, Langston, and now you don't, and I'm +simply in the same boat." + +The attendant brought him a tall glass and poured the soda hissing into +the brandy. Willett drank eagerly, then started for the door. "Come, +then," he called; "the trap's ready--or ought to be." Langston knew it +was not, so temporized. + +"How about Burtis?" he asked. + +"Burtis? Oh, I don't know or care. He can get back just the best way he +knows how. There's an ambulance coming over to town to-night." + +"Well, I think you ought to let him know, Willett." + +"I have. I sent him word by Sanders, whom I just left." + +"Very well, then I'll go with you now. Only stop one minute at Sanders's +so that I can say good-by to him. He goes back to the agency to-morrow, +I believe." + +"Well, he isn't there. He's gone out to pay a call. Jump in." + +But as they drove around the level road towards the northwest gate, and +the long line of officers' quarters lay to their right front, two +officers could be seen in earnest conversation at the front gate of No. +12, the farthest away. + +"There's Sanders now," said Langston. "It won't take you five minutes +out of your own way. Turn over there, won't you?" + +"I can't. I--I've got to hurry, Langston. If you want to see him you can +jump out, and I'll wait for you outside the gate." + +"Well, if you're in a hurry that'll take much more time than if you +drove. I'd have to walk both ways, don't you see?" was the cool answer. +"Never mind, though; go ahead. Who's that with Sanders?" + +Willett, who had turned red with confusion at his own blunder, turned +redder at the question, then went gray again. "That's Lieutenant +Davies," said he, briefly. + +"Oh, then he's home. Why, how I'd like to meet him again! Here--just let +me out, will you? and you go ahead. I'll come back with Burtis." + +"No; come on with me, Langston. I'm in a devil of a fix and want your +advice." + +And as they bowled swiftly along homeward over the smooth, hard, prairie +road, Langston admitted to himself, as Willett falteringly unfolded his +tale, that the young man was indeed "in a devil of a fix,"--in what +Langston, who was an old soldier, found it more descriptive to say, a +damnable fix. He pondered over it a moment and then said, "I don't +understand what you want me to do, Willett," and his tone was very cold. +"I don't see how I can help you. From your own account you have behaved +either like a fool or a blackguard, and what I can't fathom is why +Davies's commanding officer, or some friend or comrade, did not warn you +off weeks ago." + +Now, admitting that in the absence of almost all his comrades in the +field, and that it was distinctly his duty to protect the honor and +interest of his regimental comrade, let us see to what extent Captain +Devers felt disposed to exercise his prerogative and act against this +indisputable wolf in the sheepfold. Precedents he did not lack. +Everybody had heard how Colonel Atherton, of the --th, had served a +would-be gallant whose attentions to a lady of the regiment, during the +prolonged absence of her husband in the field, had become the talk of a +big garrison. Everybody knew how old Tintop, when he made up his mind +that Lieutenant B---- was becoming infatuated with Mrs. Captain +Potiphar, calmly recommended B.'s immediate and indefinite detail at the +Shoshone Agency, an isolated nook in the heart of the Wind River country +where the mails got through only once a week in midwinter and no one but +the mail rider thought of trying to get out. Colonel Pegleg, in the days +of his original wife, had taken a fatherly interest in garrison matters, +and instituted a system of post government that was almost patriarchal, +especially when most of the men were absent in the field, but Mrs. Stone +the second was made of flimsier stuff, and fond of gladness and gayety, +dancing and feasting, and what she termed "an innocent flirtation" was +harmless occupation so long as her own queendom was unimpaired. There +can be no question, however, that she would long since have put her +husband on the trail of this new disturber of the garrison peace but for +the illness that followed Stone's sudden prostration. The command with +its powers having devolved upon Devers, she could do nothing. It is a +hard thing for a man to find himself by reason of illness suddenly +stripped of the robe of command and forced to become only a lay figure, +but it is harder yet to many a woman whose social powers were dependent +mainly upon the rank of her husband to see herself, through his +prostration, suddenly set aside as though of only vicarious consequence. +Naturally, Mrs. Stone could not bear Captain Devers,--few of the women +could,--and it was only through his own wife that the gossip of the +garrison was apt to reach him, and Mrs. Devers had troubles of her own +that seemed to stifle to a great extent her interest in those of her +neighbors. She was neither young nor pretty; she shone not in society +and had no great ambition in that direction. She had seen Mr. Willett's +devotions to Mrs. Davies,--as who had not?--but with only languid +interest. Such things concerned her less than they did those belles of +the active list, who felt themselves thereby defrauded of attentions +that had been quite lavishly, even if impartially, bestowed up to the +time of Mrs. Davies's dawning on the social horizon. Actually, +therefore, Captain Devers was not so much to blame as Langston thought, +for of his own regiment only one officer was present to advise him, and +Hastings's advice, as that officer had long since been informed, would +be asked for when desired. In point of fact only three officers remained +at the post for whose opinions Devers entertained any respect, Leonard, +Rooke, and the chaplain, and he had quarrelled with the first and +second, and treated with indignity the third, so that no one of the +three now felt disposed to confer with him on any subject. This would +not have deterred the chaplain in a matter of duty, however, for that +honest and stalwart soldier of the cross was as ready to battle with +himself as he was to take issue with the devil, but the chaplain had +been absent for long days, and returned only when it was supposed that +Mira would be whisked away to the agency with the Cranstons, and, safe +in Percy's sheltering arms, be beyond the reach of harm or temptation. + +There were other reasons, however, for Devers's inaction, and grave +ones. Ever since the ominous visit of the staff officer from division +head quarters he had felt that the ground was caving beneath his feet. +For years had he been skimming along on the very verge of serious +trouble, yet ever adroitly evading trial; always incurring censure, but +escaping court-martial. One after another he had alienated or betrayed +every commander under whom he had served. One after another he had lost +the respect of every officer with whom he associated, and now he +realized that if the regiment could but settle down somewhere for a few +months, there would speedily follow a crystallization of the sentiment +against him,--a deposit of all this floating mass of testimony now +apparently held in solution, and the true inwardness of the tragedy of +Antelope Springs, the falsity of his insinuations against Davies, the +trickery of his methods, one and all be brought to light. Already, +through Haney, he heard of the sensation created among the men by his +defence of Howard, and of the depth of feeling among the old hands +against this airy upstart recruit, not a year in service, who frequently +boasted that he had more influence with "Cap." than all the rest of +them put together. Haney himself could not cipher out the secret of +Howard's importance, and was plainly and palpably jealous. Ever since +early in the campaign, when young Brannan was pointed out to Devers as +Miss Loomis's patient and as a trooper who wanted to get out of "A" +troop and into "C,"--ever since the colonel and the major began +interfering with Devers because of his open rebuke of Mr. Davies, it was +noticed that Howard, a mere raw recruit, could get the captain's private +ear at almost any time, and those were days when a soldier was not +supposed to address his company commander on any point until he had +first obtained the sanction of the first sergeant. Every man in the +troop knew that soon after their arrival at Scott, Howard began to get +letters from the East, and some of these contained money orders, which +he had cashed in Braska. Some men in the troop, notably that babbling +drunkard Paine, declared that in a little strong box he had brought with +him Howard had some letters tied up in ribbon that he watched with +jealous care. "New hands" who came out in the same batch of recruits +said that at St. Louis Arsenal, whither they were shipped on enlistment, +Brannan, Howard, and Paine had at first been very intimate, but that +some coldness had sprung up and Brannan kept aloof from them. They were +wild and full of "gall," Brannan was sad and sober. Howard used to write +lots of letters then to some girl, Paine said, and go off and post them +in obscure letter-boxes outside the gates when he could get leave, but +he had quit writing long since, Haney knew, for he watched the new +company clerk with jealous eyes. He knew and knew well that Howard was +savagely glad when Brannan was sent to the reservation with Boynton's +party. He noted that Howard became of a sudden fitful, restless, sullen, +and then reckless and negligent of his work and eager to go frequently +to Braska. Presently he heard things of him that made him believe Howard +was contemplating desertion, and no sooner had Lieutenant Davies arrived +than he became assured of it. "I had to serve under that damned, canting +Methodist preacher," said Howard, "and I won't have him nosing around +where I am. I'll desert first." Now, Haney had no objection to Howard's +"skipping,"--it would be good riddance to dangerous timber,--but he +wanted first to find out what was the secret of his dislike of Davies, +whom most of the men, and all the better ones, had learned to respect +and esteem. He plied Howard with questions, hints, suggestions, and +whiskey, but Howard's head, or stomach, was stronger than he thought, +and the liquor failed in the short time at his disposal to overcome it. +With a few months the result would have been different. Howard once +admitted, however, that he hated the lieutenant and had reason to, but +that was all that Haney ever wormed out of him, but he and others were +morally certain that Howard meant to desert when the very day of Paine's +trip to Braska the company clerk disappeared. They counted on his +court-martial and downfall when brought back to the post in "cits" by +Sanders's squad. They were amazed at the abortive outcome of the affair, +and then at last the gang that "had stood in with" the first sergeant as +the surest means of keeping on the right side of the captain began to +realize that here was a man with more "pull" than Haney, and the latter, +feeling his influence going, determined that the time had come to regain +it, cost what it might. He knew beyond peradventure who was the +mysterious night prowler, knew why Captain Devers had ordered Paine to +watch Brannan in hospital, he knew why, or believed he knew why, the +captain was so down on Brannan and so fiercely bent on breaking him or +driving him out. He knew that he could, if he would, lay before Mr. +Leonard certain damaging facts in connection with Brannan's two relapses +into drinking, and of Paine's detail to town that day when he was +needed, as they knew he would be needed, at the adjutant's office. He +required just one or two links more to make a chain so powerful he could +twist his troop commander in its coils and dictate the terms of their +future relations, but he needed Howard's testimony to complete the +chain, and the liquor with which he tempted him, in and out of the +office, at last began to take effect. Howard was getting more and more +reckless, sullen, savage. He would get up at night and drink and dress +and slip out of barracks and be gone an hour sometimes, yet so stealthy +was he that when Haney strove to trail him he turned on him like a tiger +and damned him for a spy, and still the sergeant felt that perseverance +and whiskey would bring him triumph yet, when all on a sudden came the +dramatic episode of that still Saturday night,--the flash that revealed +him for one instant to the frightened revellers in Willett's sleigh and +then covered his track in shadows impenetrable. All on a sudden Howard +had vanished,--deserted in earnest this time, leaving his first +sergeant in a tangle of unfinished toils and his captain in sore +anxiety. It was the contemplation of his own meshes that blinded Devers +to those which Willett would have thrown over Mira's pretty, curly, +empty head. + +The conversation between Sanders and Davies was very brief and decidedly +grave. Sanders had at first assumed the light air of superiority of the +old cadet toward the plebe, and, to head off questioning, plunged into +that species of deprecatory and officious advice which is generally +prefaced by, "Now, my dear boy, let me as a friend," etc., etc. Like the +chaplain's wife, Sanders started with the best intentions, and just as +she had excited Mira's resentment so had Sanders aroused Davies's wrath. + +"Stop right there, Sanders, and say nothing about friendship until you +explain that scene. Where is the packet you were asked to deliver to my +wife?" + +"I haven't it. I wouldn't touch it. You don't suppose I'd be a party to +such a thing. The man was an ass to ask me, and I told him so." + +"He doubtless reasoned that a man who could accompany the wife of a +brother officer to a place of such miscellaneous character as +Cresswell's would not be above carrying secretly to her that which he +dare not send openly." + +"He had no right to judge by it, Davies! Lots of ladies go there,--and +Mrs. Stone matronized us." + +"No ladies of our regiment have ever gone there, Sanders, until you +accompanied my wife,--an inexperienced and ignorant child. What Mrs. +Stone or her associates may have seen fit to do is no concern of mine. +You know and I know that women like Mrs. Cranston, like Mrs. Truman, +like Mrs. Leonard or Mrs. Wright would not go there under any +circumstances, and the fact that a party of women from the fort was in +one room simply served to attract a party of--very different women to +the next." + +"Then I'll bust Cresswell's head for him inside of twenty-four hours," +exclaimed Sanders. "The idea of his daring to allow such people in there +at such a time!" + +"The idea of your not standing my friend--you, the only fellow-graduate +of my regiment here at the post--and preventing my wife's being taken +there at any time. Think of that, Sanders." + +"Why, damn it, Parson, don't be so brutally unjust. I supposed if you +cared a rap you'd have stopped it before." + +"Stopped it before? Why, Sanders, what are you saying? You don't mean +she--my wife--had been there before?" And all the indignation had gone +from Davies's face. It was now white, almost awe-stricken. + +For a moment Sanders knew not what to say. All at once there dawned upon +him the realization that now through him, in this utterly untoward, +clumsy, miserable way, was Davies for the first time being made aware of +what common, every-day rumor said of his wife. He would have cut his +tongue out rather than wilfully put in circulation a word of scandal, +yet it had been reserved for him to bring to a husband's ears the first +ill-omened tidings of a wife's misdoing. + +"God forgive me, Davies, if I've blundered!" he burst out at last. "I'll +never forgive myself. I supposed--they all talked of it so fully--freely +together--I supposed you knew all about it. I never dreamed of harm in +it. Mrs. Flight--or rather Mrs. Darling and she together--occasionally +went there, and the other ladies had their husbands as a rule, or at +least sometimes, and there was good sleighing, you know, between here +and town, and absolutely nowhere else were the roads beaten. They sort +of had to go there, don't you see?" + +"Go there with whom?" said Davies, grasping the rail of the fence and +breathing hard. + +"Why, with Willett, of course; he was the only fellow that had a good +turnout. He used to come for them, I believe, and sometimes he had Mrs. +Darling and Mrs. Davies--he and Burtis--and sometimes Mrs. Flight." + +"And do you mean that they--that these four, went there to Cresswell's? +Do you know this, Sanders?" + +"Well," said Sanders, "they were all talking and laughing about it, +never dreaming of anything harmful or unbecoming. Why, Parson, old man, +you mustn't be too strait-laced out here. You know it's the way of the +West." + +But Davies threw out his hand as though imploring silence, seemed about +to speak again and ask another question, but finally turned without +another word, and leaving Sanders standing dejectedly at the gate, +re-entered his hall and closed the door behind him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + +That night Dr. Rooke called twice at No. 12, and went away both times +saying opprobrious things about his fellow-men and women. The chaplain, +who had gone over to see Davies about three o'clock, presently went back +for his wife, and that good-hearted woman remained until late at night. +Mrs. Darling coming over in the early evening to congratulate dear Mira +again on her husband's return and invite them both to dinner on the +morrow, was met by Davies himself at the door, but not invited in. Her +sweet smiles and words of greeting and proffers of hospitality were +checked at sight of his stern, sad face. In brief words he told her Mrs. +Davies was too ill to receive callers or accept invitations, and in +response to her flurried "Is there anything in the world I can do?" +coldly answered that Mrs. Darling had already done--too much. + +In her natural and justifiable indignation, Mrs. Darling at once sought +Mrs. Stone and Mrs. Flight. "They had an awful scene, I'm sure," said +she, "for his face was as black as a storm, and I knew how it would be. +Some one's been blabbing and making matters infinitely worse than they +really were. What do you suppose will happen when he and Willett really +meet?" + +"They _have_ met," cried Mrs. Flight, forgetful of her determination to +keep at odds with Mrs. Darling in the bliss of imparting exciting +news,--"they _have_ met at Sanders's quarters, and there must have been +something dreadful, because Willett came out, oh, with such a face! and +went right over to the store and drove off to town. Sanders is all +broken up about something. Flighty says he wouldn't tell anybody." And +by "Flighty" the lady referred to her consort. + +The awful scene of Mrs. Darling's imagination was really not very +tragic. Almira had shut herself in her room in preparation for the +coming visits of the doctor and Mrs. Darling. Her tea-gown being a most +becoming garment, she was still enveloped in its soft and clinging +folds, and had let her long, lustrous hair fall rippling down her back. +She had once seen a queen of the emotional drama similarly gowned and +groomed and a lasting impression was the consequence. The tea-gown and +tumbling hair became Mira's conception of the proper make-up for wronged +and injured and deeply-suffering wifehood. She had prepared to deluge +the doctor with symptoms and Mrs. Darling with tears, but nearly an hour +went by and neither came. Katty was clearing away the luncheon table, +and to her Almira faintly appealed for tidings, and Katty said that the +masther had come in for a minute and walked up and down in the parlor +and gone to the front door himself to meet Mr. Sanders, and they were +talking out in front. When the second time her husband entered the house +she prepared to hide her face and refuse him a word, but he did not come +near her. She heard him pacing up and down, up and down, at first with +quick nervous stride and at last more slowly. Then he seemed to sit at +his desk and write. She could hear him sigh heavily. What business had +he to sigh? She was suffering for lack of sympathy, nursing, tender +care. Why should he sit there sighing in that absurd fashion? She heard +him go to the kitchen and tell Barnickel to take that note to the +chaplain, and then he came back to write some more. She grew impatient, +lonely. She determined to bring him to her side, and if possible to her +feet again. Other men were abject enough; why should she be lorded over +in this way? She threw herself again upon her bed and covered her eyes +with her filmy handkerchief and faintly called "Percy!" As he did not +hear she tried again, louder, and still he did not seem to be at her +door listening for the slightest sign, and she was compelled to sit up +and call loudly, not for him but for Katty. + +And Katty, being out among the pots and pans and kettles, didn't hear +her at all; so Davies went and summoned the girl, instead of going to +Almira himself, as Almira thought he should have done. Presently Katty +came out. The misthress wanted to know was the doctor ever coming--and +Mrs. Darling? Then Davies entered the room and closed the door. + +"Dr. Rooke has not yet returned, Mira," he said. "Mrs. Darling with my +consent will not visit you again until you are experienced enough to +know right from wrong. You never told me of these visits with her to +Cresswell's or I should have forbidden them utterly. It never occurred +to me that you would be tempted to go thither or I should have warned +you. I do not blame you so much, my wife, as I do those who have so +misled you. There are some things I have been told that are past my +understanding, and that when you are well again I shall have to ask you +to explain. Now rest as well as you can. The doctor will come to you +just as soon as he returns to the post. Is there anything I can do to +help you?" + +But Mira burst into a wail. She didn't wish to see anybody--anybody but +the doctor and Mrs. Darling. It was cruel, heartless, brutal on his part +to come in and taunt and torment her when she was so helpless and ill. +It was wicked to cut her off from the only friends she loved or who had +been kind to her. She would have died of loneliness and misery while he +was gone if it hadn't been for Mrs. Darling and for her friends. _His_ +friends hadn't come near her,--hadn't done anything for her, and now he +was angry because, when she was neglected and scorned by them, others +like Mrs. Darling had been good and kind to her. Oh, why couldn't she go +home to her dear old father and the sisters who loved her, and weep her +heart out on her m-m-mother's grave? Davies sadly realized that neither +argument nor appeal would help matters. He heard the chaplain's ring at +the outer door, and went to him with sore-laden heart. Later the two +left the fair invalid to the care of the chaplain's wife and went in +search of Leonard. Boynton, still unable to walk about, was occupying +his old quarters next to the adjutant's, and, propped up in an +easy-chair near the window, caught sight of his comrade, the captor of +Red Dog, and eagerly beckoned him in. Davies had to go and shake hands, +though at the moment he wished that he might avoid almost everybody. + +"Why, Parson, old boy, you can't stand that agency work. It's making an +old man of you now before half your time. You look ten years older. I +hope you're not ill." + +"No, not ill; a little tired and worn perhaps," said Davies. "We were +just going in to see Leonard." + +"Well, I wish you'd fetch him in here the first evening you can. There +are some things that I want to talk over with you two, things that +affect us both. Have you seen Differs?" + +"No, not yet. I'll report to him at guard-mounting in the morning. The +regulations say the first orderly hour, don't they?" + +"Yes,--but you'd better report your arrival to him the moment he comes +out of his house or else go to the office and do it. We've got a bone to +pick with him, Parson, and I don't want you to get into any outside +tangle. I'll be up and about in a couple of days, then we'll settle it +with him." + +For a man who had striven conscientiously to do his duty, it seemed to +Davies, as he rejoined the chaplain, that he had become involved in +tangles enough without seeking new ones. His friend had already rapped +at Leonard's door and been informed that the adjutant was over at his +office, so thither went the two, many eyes following them as they +crossed the broad, brown level of the parade. The snow had disappeared +entirely except in dirty hummocks along the pathways and walks whither +it had been shovelled after the heavy fall. The post looked even less +cheery and attractive than before. The few men moving about had the +listless air of soldiers with nothing to do, going fat and "soft" for +lack of vigorous exercise. Over in front of the colonel's quarters his +sedate bay team was waiting, and presently that veteran, with Mrs. Stone +and Tommy Dot and a striker in attendance, was aided down the steps and +into his open carriage for a drive. + +"Is it not late for them to take him out?" asked Davies. "Why don't they +make an earlier start?" + +"Ordinarily they have done so. To-day, though, he has been having a +conference with your captain; rather an extended and trying one, I +fancy, and not agreeable to either party. Captain Devers was leaving +there as I returned to yours. Davies, my friend, there is a man who is a +veritable Ishmael. His hand seems against every one and every man's hand +against him. You could never have wronged him,--what on earth has set +him against you?" + +"Indeed," was the earnest answer, "I do not know;" and then, solemnly, +Davies added, "Trouble seems the lot of many of us, yet even in one's +saddest hour it is impossible not to feel sorrow and pity for one like +him, who stands before his fellows an utterly friendless man." + +The adjutant rose with an eager light in his dark eyes at sight of the +two. "I have been hoping to see you, Davies," said he, "yet I knew you +would have much to detain you at home. Mrs. Davies is better, I hope?" + +"Mrs. Davies is not well, but I think the matter is not serious. I came +first to report my arrival from the reservation. Mrs. Davies will go +there with me just as soon as we can pack. Then the chaplain and I want +to consult you personally about some important matters. Have you a spare +half-hour?" + +"Frankly, Davies, I haven't, and won't have until tattoo. There are some +reports here that will occupy me pretty much every minute. Is it +business that can wait until then?" + +"It will have to," said Davies. + +"Then let me get at once to the reason of my desiring to see you before +to-night. Captain Devers has been called upon by department +head-quarters to explain some discrepancies in an official report or +two, and I was present at the long interview between him and the colonel +this afternoon. Davies, have you ever seen a map or sketch of that +ground north of Antelope Springs where you had your adventure last +September?" + +"No," said Davies, wondering. + +"Then I want you to look at this, compare it with your recollections, +and tell me how accurate it is, especially as to the tracing of the +trails of the various parties." + +The short winter day was already waning and the light in the dingy +office growing dim. Leonard called for candles, then stretched a huge +white blotter upon a wide-topped stand and spread open upon it the filmy +sheet of tracing paper. An almost exact copy of Devers's map was thrown +into bold, black relief, and for the first time Percy Davies saw the +plan on which was based the report that, exonerating his captain, +inferentially held him accountable for the massacre of his comrades at +Antelope Springs. + +"Why! when was this made?" he asked, in grave surprise. "Whose work is +this?" + +"It was made while you were lying ill at Cranston's up at the old post," +said Leonard, calmly. "Had you never heard of the investigation?" + +"Never." + +"The general sent Mr. Archer of his staff up there to go over the ground +with Devers and let him explain, if he could, why he got so far away +from you and your people as to permit that tragedy to occur, especially +after the orders he'd received from Major Warren. Devers cleared himself +by proving to Archer's satisfaction that he obeyed his orders exactly +and marched right along the ridge here. This trail, the one that runs +due south, just west of the summit of the divide, was made by Devers's +main command moving in support of you and your detachment. This one off +here"--and Leonard's pencil rode lightly along another that skirted a +ravine apparently two miles away from the ridge--"this one was made by +his command the next day after you had been found by Warren's men," and +Leonard was narrowly eying Davies as he spoke. + +"Pardon me, Mr. Leonard, it was just the other way," said Davies, +assuming that the adjutant in his personal ignorance of the facts was +stating a theory. "Captain Devers never approached the ridge that +evening. He was going farther away from it all the time. I had to gallop +to catch him. This, out here to the southwest, is what might be called +an approximation to his trail. I finally overtook him away out over here +somewhere, across the ravine," and Davies indicated with the point of a +pencil. + +"Well, then who made this trail up here on the ridge? You must have +crossed it twice before dark." + +"There was no such trail there, sir, nor was there any party to make it. +Everything in the battalion except my own little squad was away off to +the southwest, anywhere from two to ten miles." + +"You could swear to that, Davies? You remember it distinctly--despite +your illness?" + +"Swear to it? Certainly, sir," said Davies, with wonderment in his eyes. +"So could McGrath, who was with me, if he were only alive. So could +Devers himself, or Haney, or Finucane, or a dozen others of the command +who must know that wasn't their trail." + +"I fear me, Davies," said Leonard, gravely, "that some of the very men +you name have told it, if not sworn to it, the other way, and that your +captain has allowed it to be accepted as the basis of his release from +accountability." + +In the gloomy office the darkness was gathering thicker. At the head of +the table, his coat thrown over his arm, his hat in his folded hands, +stood the strong figure of the chaplain, his thoughtful brow shining in +the light of the candles the clerks had placed upon the board. His was +the first face to be seen by one entering the room from the hall-way, or +peering in at the window, for the figures of Leonard and Davies, their +backs to the entrance, were thrown in black silhouette against the +glare; but as Leonard spoke the two who had been bending over the work +drew slightly apart and gazed silently, significantly, into each other's +faces, Leonard calm, massive, masterful, Davies searching, questioning, +the light of a new and grave suspicion in his troubled eyes. + +And looking on this picture,--on this triumvirate,--there stood on the +porch without, close to the uncurtained window, a fourth form, heavy, +massive almost as Leonard's, but far less soldierly. Then noiselessly +this latter turned to the hall-way, and with cautious step drew near the +open office door; the heavy arctics, which it was Devers's habit to wear +so long as the weather was even moderately cold, deadened the sound of +his footfalls, and now with beating heart the troop commander stood +listening to what he could catch of the conversation within. + +"It is absolutely false and misleading," said Davies, "and if it has +been used, as you say, to clear him or anybody else, it should be +exposed at once." + +"That," said the adjutant, in his deep, deliberate tone, "is precisely +what I believe, but needed your evidence to establish. Now you will +excuse me from further talk about this or anything else until, say, +after office hours to-morrow morning. I have much to attend to. If you +and the chaplain will meet me at ten o'clock, we can settle various +matters. Meantime I'll lock these papers in my desk." Across the dim +hall-way, as the two friends left the office, stood the door of the +sanctum of the post commander. It was just ajar, but there was no light +beyond, and to all appearances the room was as deserted as it was dark. +Rooke was just coming out of No. 12 as they returned thither. + +"I'm glad you're home, Mr. Davies, and I'll be gladder when you've got +that pretty little bunch of nerves and nonsense off my hands and off +this military reservation." + +"She will be well enough to travel--when?" asked Davies, as placidly as +he could. Even when the wife of one's bosom has been behaving +outrageously it isn't pleasant to hear it from one's neighbors, +unasked. + +"She could go to-morrow and be the better for it," said Rooke, bluntly. +"What she needs is a firm hand and a change of scene--and surroundings. +We're too volatile hereabouts." And this it seems was practically what +he had told Almira herself, much to her scandal and dismay. She +piteously asked why she couldn't see Dr. Burroughs; and was unfeelingly +told that there was no reason whatever, provided she started to-morrow; +that he was at Ogallalla and would be very glad to see her. "Once up +there," said the old cynic, "you can have Burroughs and lollipops to +your heart's content." + +"Oh, doctor, but think of the peril, the danger," she moaned. + +"Tut, woman, you'll be in no such danger there as here," he answered +brusquely; and Davies found her weeping dejectedly, but weeping to no +purpose. When morning came Barnickel and Katty were boxing up the lares +and penates, and toward nightfall Mira herself was meekly, though not +resignedly, bearing a hand. This indeed was not what she had pictured +army life to be. Davies and the chaplain were to have joined Leonard as +planned at ten o'clock. At nine the orderly came to the door of No. 12, +and said that Mr. Leonard would be very much obliged if Mr. Davies would +come to the office at once, and Davies went. Colonel Stone, as had been +arranged, was once more restored to his desk in the office, and though +looking gray and ten years older, was "on deck." He was absorbed in +turning over some official papers, so Davies did not disturb him. He +went into Leonard's den. The officer of the day was comparing the list +of prisoners in the guard report with some memoranda on the adjutant's +desk, but presently finished, shook hands with Davies and said welcome +back to Scott, then went his way. + +The moment he was gone Leonard whirled about in his chair. "Davies, you +remember our locking those papers in this drawer last night?" + +"Certainly." + +"Well, look at it now, and as I found it ten minutes ago." + +The drawer was absolutely empty. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + +The closing week of March was marked by a furious snow-storm that swept +the big prairie like a besom, but plugged up every _coulée_ and ravine. +For four days no communication had been held with the Ogallalla Agency. +The wires were down, the road impassable, and Mrs. Davies had reached +her new harbor of refuge none too soon. The quartermaster's ambulance +bore the couple half-way to the new station, and Cranston's Concord came +to meet and carry them the rest of the way. Mira's parting with her +devoted lady friends at Scott was cut short by a start at early dawn, +against which she rebelled faintly, but to no purpose. It had taken only +two days to pack their few belongings. They spent the last night of +their stay in Scott under Leonard's roof, and Mrs. Leonard did her best +to cheer and gladden the mournful bride. It was of little avail, +however. Almira was dimly beginning to see that her conduct had cost her +the respect of those women most worth knowing, and that although the +dreaded interrogatories which Percy was to put to her as soon as she was +stronger were still in the future, his faith in and love for her, +whatsover they might have been, were seriously shattered. In manner he +was still grave, kind, and gentle almost as before, but everything like +tenderness had vanished. One question he said he must ask her before +they left Scott. Had she ever accepted any gifts or letters or anything +from Mr. Willett? And Almira answered that once he had sent her just a +few violets with a note inviting Mrs. Darling and her to drive with him +the next day, but she had tossed them into the fire long ago. Nothing +more, nothing else at any time? asked Davies, gravely, and Almira +answered no. How could he torment her with such unjust suspicions? Far +better would it be to let her return to the father and sisters who +longed for and missed her, to her peaceful home where down in the bottom +of her heart Mira knew she was not wanted by either father or sisters or +step-mother. Davies looked graver, but questioned no longer. The day +before their start Mr. Langston came out from Braska and inquired for +Davies, and told him how glad he was to renew his acquaintance, and +Davies greeted him with much reserve. This was the man who was +travelling with Willett the June gone by, and just as it had at first +affected Miss Loomis, so did the recollection now prejudice the officer +against him. Langston saw it, but went quietly on with the business in +hand. + +"I am the bearer of a note to you from Mr. Willett, whose people, at +least, are old friends of mine. He has gone home, at my advice, and it +will be against my advice if he return here within a year. If he should +do so, I wash my hands of him. It is not to make excuses for him or +Burtis that I have come, but to ask you about one matter. On his way +back to the agency your comrade Mr. Sanders came to town and heaped +reproaches on Willett and on the proprietor of the restaurant, alleging +that certain disreputable people were allowed to occupy the adjoining +dining-room while the party from the fort was dancing. Cresswell was +very indignant at the charge. He says that the party in the adjoining +room was the family of old Pierre Robideau, from Kearney,--just himself, +his wife and daughter, with a friend whom they called Mr. Powell, and it +was Mr. Powell who paid the bill. + +"Robideau is an old trader and trapper, but he and his people are honest +and respectable as any in Braska, and the young man with them was +supposed to be paying attention to the daughter. Robideau and his family +went back to Kearney that night after a week's visit to friends up here +in Braska. The daughter, Angie, had been here some time visiting a +school friend. We feel sure you have made no such statement to Mr. +Sanders without some strong ground of suspicion. May I ask how you heard +it so soon after your arrival?" + +"I heard it before I got here," said Davies, quietly, "though when it +was told me I had no idea my wife was one of the party. My orderly was +cold and tired and we stopped at the Scott station at the point where +the road crosses the railway to give him a cup of coffee and water the +horses. There were some trappers and plainsmen in there, and one of them +was telling with much gusto of the performances of a soldier of our +troop who deserted that night,--how he had chartered the adjoining room +to that in which the officers and ladies were dancing and had a whirl to +the officers' music with some ladies of his own choosing, and the girls +lassoed a waiter and hauled him into their room and got a bottle of the +officers' champagne----" + +"Pardon me, Mr. Davies, but do not these plainsmen rather like to tell +big stories at the expense of the officers,--the bigger the better?" + +"I believe so, and paid little attention to it at first, but among the +listeners was a scout who went through last summer's campaign with us +and did good service. He rode over to the post with me, and on the way +we met a sergeant and two men of 'A' Troop, returning from an +unsuccessful pursuit of deserters. They told the same story with some +additions, and said the fellow openly boasted in Braska that afternoon +that he was going to the dance. Then the scout admitted reluctantly that +he had heard the story from several sources, and gave the names of the +women who were said to have been introduced there, and they were not +Robideau's family. The sergeant had heard just what the scout had as to +the identity of the intruders. Then on my arrival at home I learned that +Mrs. Davies was one of the fort party, and Mrs. Stone and other ladies +who were present referred to some rude creatures in a neighboring room +who peeped and stared at the dancing. There was also awaiting me with my +mail an anonymous letter, which I burned without reading through. Next +I learned that the man who frightened them on the homeward way and then +deserted after a fracas with Mr. Willett was Howard, of 'A' Troop, and +that man's associations in town are matters of notoriety. That was the +chain that led to my belief in the story." + +Langston looked grave. "And Howard was probably Robideau's friend, +though Cresswell didn't know it! He had been paying court to Robideau's +daughter during her visit to Braska, always in civilian dress and always +claiming to be a civilian clerk in the quartermaster's department with a +salary of twelve hundred a year. I have seen her friends in town where +she visited, and they are very plain, honest, and well-to-do people, +whose daughter was sent to Illinois to school and met Angeline Robideau +there. They had another friend living in Cheyenne, and when they were up +there visiting her for a few days they said Mr. Powell was coming up to +spend one evening,--Powell is the name they all knew him by, and the +belief is that Angie was much fascinated by him, and had met him East +before meeting him here. Mr. Davies, I am glad to relieve your mind of +one uncomfortable theory in connection with this affair. I wish I could +extenuate or explain Willett's conduct as easily, but that young man is +a fool of the first magnitude." + +Davies had taken the note handed him by Langston and was mechanically +turning it and twisting it in his fingers. His impulse was to toss it, +as he had the anonymous billet, into the fire. There was something about +the handwriting of the former that was vaguely familiar to him even +through its disguise, but Willett's scrawling superscription he had +never seen. Something told him, however, that anything of which a man of +Langston's calibre chose to be the bearer was entitled to consideration. +He made no reply to Langston's closing words. He had fully made up his +mind as to what his course should be, and what was the extent of Mira's +misdoing. Just as he said to her, he blamed those who should have been +her advisers and protectors far more than he blamed her, and as to this +popinjay who had become infatuated with her beauty, though the +lieutenant's blood boiled in wrath and indignation, his calmer judgment +and his disciplined spirit tempered any and every expression. He had +spent long, wakeful, prayerful hours in the silence and solemnity of the +night, and no man knew the story of the struggle. He had trained himself +to meet this man who had so openly and persistently shown himself a +worshipper at the feet of his wife, and to meet him with cool contempt, +yet the same hot blood that rioted in his veins when, long years before, +he had downed the village scoffer who had ventured to ridicule his aged +mother, now prompted him to horsewhip Willett should he venture again to +visit the fort. + +It was relief, therefore, to hear that he had gone. + +At last he opened and read the note, a clumsy, cubbish attempt to +explain his language in Sanders's room, and to say the package was +absolutely nothing but some violets, to apologize for any and every +annoyance he might have caused Mr. and Mrs. Davies, for whom he +entertained nothing but sentiments of the most profound respect and +esteem, and begging if ever they met again to be regarded as most +sincerely their friend, etc. + +"There is no answer," said Davies, as he finished it, a smile of +contempt on his lips. "You must have known there couldn't be, did you +not?" + +"Well, I fancied as much. He had no friend to carry it for him unless I +would, and the young idiot has gone off feeling profoundly wretched +about the whole business, as he deserves to. Had I been here, as an old +friend of his family, it would have been my right to warn him weeks ago, +and to put a stop to his foolishness if he was not to be advised. More +than that, Mr. Davies, I wish to say that ever since I met you on the +train last June I felt an interest in you that would have prompted me to +stand your friend in your absence whether I felt any interest in him or +not. I should like to know you better and to convince you that I meant +what I said when we parted there." + +And Davies at last held out a cordial hand. + +This was the afternoon before his early start, and though he left the +post feeling that he had gained a friend worth having, Davies did not +fully realize how dangerous a thing it was to leave a community of +women, none of whom he had sought to placate and some of whom he had +offended. Mrs. Darling had declared war against him, and Mrs. Stone, if +not Mrs. Flight, was in full sympathy with her. How dare he say they +were responsible for Mrs. Davies's flirtation? How dare he insinuate +that they had led her to the forbidden shades of Cresswell's? There was +a tempest in a teapot among Mrs. Stone's friends and associates over +Mrs. Darling's account of his rebuke to her, for Mrs. Darling had +deftly managed to include Mrs. Stone and Mrs. Flight in the scope of his +condemnation, and very possibly old Peleg might have been wrought up to +pitch of sympathetic resentment but for the fact that he was +concentrating all of his shattered faculties on the mysterious robbery +of the adjutant's desk. + +Captain Devers, relieved at last from command of the post and +overshadowed by vague sense of official condemnation, was now, in +hopeful imitation of the Homeric Achilles, sulking in his tent. Invited +by Colonel Stone to appear at the office and give his counsel as to the +matter, Captain Devers had replied that in view of the discourtesies to +which he had been subjected at the hands of the adjutant he could hardly +be expected to care to visit the building except when compelled to do +so, and having been relieved from command under circumstances indicative +of disapproval of his methods, he should consider it indelicate on his +part to say what he thought of the matter in question. + +But the orderly trumpeter had told the sergeant-major that Captain +Devers was on the piazza looking in the adjutant's window when the +gentlemen were there examining the map, and that he entered the +hall-way. The sergeant-major told Mr. Leonard, and Leonard was actually +startled. He conveyed the information to Pegleg, and Pegleg sent his +compliments to Captain Devers with the information that his immediate +presence was desired, so Devers came, and shrewdly guessed what was the +cause. Certainly, he said, he went to the office to get certain papers +that he had left in the commanding officer's desk. He did look in for +one instant through the adjutant's window, attracted by the unusual +sight of the adjutant, the chaplain, and his own subaltern, of whose +services he had been deprived, in apparent consultation. They were so +absorbed in talk that they did not hear him as he entered his own office +or when he left. Certainly he lit no candle; he needed none. He knew +just where his papers were, got them, and came away. Did he leave before +or after the others? Really, that was a matter he couldn't answer. He +was absorbed in his own reflections when he came out and couldn't say +whether the other gentlemen were there or not. + +Pegleg asked whether he had any theory as to the disappearance of the +batch of papers from Leonard's desk, and Devers said he had none +whatever, he didn't know how the matter could be supposed to interest +him. He did not inquire the means resorted to, but perhaps that was +unnecessary, as the drawer had evidently been forced by a heavy chisel +and the woodwork about the lock was crushed. Leonard glowered at him +with stormy eyes during the brief interview but, true to his notions of +subordination, asked no questions whatever. It was the colonel who +presently gave it up as a hopeless job and dismissed the cavalryman with +a brief, "Well, that will do, captain; I see you can't help us," and +Devers left with livid, twitching face. He had no fear of Stone, +weakened as he evidently was both physically and mentally by his recent +shock. It was that silent, gloomy thunder-cloud of an adjutant he +dreaded, and with good reason. There was an unsettled account between +these men and one that Devers would have been glad indeed to drop, but +Leonard was a man who never let go. "I hate to have you leave just now," +he said to Davies, "for I know we shall need you presently." + +But once more there was a week of no communication with the Ogallalla +agency. Three days of blizzard and three of repairs before the flimsy +telegraph line could be used again. Mrs. Davies, busily occupied in +putting her new house in order, was aided by Mrs. McPhail and one of the +ladies from the cantonment, who, happening to be visiting the agent's +wife when the storm broke, found it pleasanter to remain there than go +back to the log huts across that mile of blast-swept prairie. The +Indians, with the stoicism of their race, huddled in their foul, smoky +tepees instead of swarming about the agency, and except Davies's +detachment none of the command appeared. It was therefore a rather busy +time for Mira, as there was abundant opportunity for conversation, and +both Mrs. McPhail and Mrs. Plodder rejoiced in so interested a listener. +The three seemed to be getting along together famously, a fact which +Davies noted with the same half-dreamy, half-amused smile. It was a +relief in seeing her really interested in setting her little house to +rights, but it was as evidently a relief to her that the otherwise +inevitable visitors were blockaded by the storm. Davies really did not +know which she dreaded most, the Cranstons or the Indians. + +It was the latter who were the first to call. The gale went down with +the sun one night, and the morning dawned clear and fine. Up with the +sun, true to his cavalry teaching, Davies had been out superintending +the grooming and feeding of his horses. He and Mira were at breakfast +and Mrs. Plodder had come to help. Trooper Gaffney was the household +cook for the time being, and a good one. The coffee was excellent, +despite the fact that Gaffney could get no cream, and condensed milk was +the only substitute obtainable. The steak was juicy and tender, as the +finest of the contractor's beef was sure to go to the agency itself, and +Gaffney's soda biscuits were enticing, whatsoever might be the +after-effect. The two ladies were chatting in very good spirits when one +considers the depths of woe from which Mira had so recently emerged, and +the lieutenant was beginning to take some comfort in the outlook, when +all on a sudden Mira turned a chalky white, screamed violently, and +cowered almost under the table, her face hidden in her hands. Davies's +instant thought was of the repeated whisper of warning that came to him +regarding Red Dog, but Mrs. Plodder's merry peal of laughter reassured +him, as he whirled to confront what proved to be the foe. There on the +porch without, crouching low, shading their eyes with their broad brown +paws, their painted faces almost flattened against the window, three +Indians, a brave and two squaws,--all innocent of any violation of +etiquette or decorum, but just as their kith and kin and instincts +taught them,--were staring hungrily into the room. To Eastern readers it +would have seemed bare, homely, plain in the last degree; to the +untutored minds of these children of the prairie it spoke of wealth, +luxury, and plenty. Peering over the shoulders of one of the squaws, +from its perch on her toil-bowed back, was a wee pappoose, its beady +little black eyes gleaming, its tiny face expressive of emotions that +in later years it would speedily learn to suppress,--wonderment and +interest. A thinly-clad girl of five or six clung to the mother with one +hand and clutched her little blanket with the other. They all looked +cold and hungry, and the big eyes wore that dumb, professionally +pathetic look which these born beggars are adepts in assuming. + +"Go 'way! Scat!" called Mrs. Plodder, with appropriate gesticulation as +she waved them aside. "You're darkening the room." But for answer the +visitors only huddled the closer and mournfully patted and rubbed the +region of their stomachs. Davies, laughing, went to the door and called +them in, which signal they promptly obeyed, and came trooping smilingly +after the stalking warrior, who took the lead as he would have taken +anything else. Mira by this time had backed into a corner, where she +cowered in terror, but Mrs. Plodder laughingly shook hands with the man +as Davies passed them in, and then blockaded him in an opposite corner +where he could not lay hands on anything they might give the squaws and +children. He wanted to shake hands with Mira, too, but she implored them +to keep him away. Davies took the little girl by the arm and led her to +his wife. "Do look at her, dear, and see what a pretty, intelligent face +she has. I want you to know how really friendly they mean to be." And +still Mira shrank and trembled. The younger woman was a Minneconjou +girl, with frank, attractive, almost pretty face. She dropped her +blanket from her head and let it fall about her calico-covered +shoulders, smiling affably about her, but eying the breakfast things +appreciatively. Davies held out a lump of sugar to the baby, which that +embryo warrior grasped eagerly and thrust into his ready maw, and then +buttering one of Gaffney's biscuits and calling for a fresh supply, the +lieutenant, with Mrs. Plodder lending active aid, began feeding their +unbidden guests. Gaffney came in with a heaping platter of his +productions and a pitcher of maple syrup. "This is what they like, mum," +said he to the lady of the house. "Give that little kid a molasses +sandwhich and she'll be your friend for life. Heap walk? heap hungry?" +he continued, addressing the head of the family, in sympathetic tone. + +"Heap walk--plenty heap hungry," was the warrior's prompt response, with +appropriate pantomime and immediate lapse of dignity. Mrs. Plodder had +cut off a big slice of the steak and handed it to the mother with +reassuring gesture, but that well-disciplined wife passed it immediately +on to her lord, and in eloquent silence pleaded with open hand and eyes +for more. "The heathens!" exclaimed Mrs. Plodder. "We'd cure them of +that notion in no time, wouldn't we, Mrs. Davies?" But Mira was watching +the Minneconjou maiden, forgetful even of the adulation in the eyes of +the little five-year-old girl now licking the syrup off her slab of +soldier bread and gazing adoringly up into the shrinking donor's face. +Miss Minneconjou had caught sight of her own winsome face in a mirror +that hung in a stained-wood frame opposite Mira's seat, and with no +little shy giggling was revelling in the study of her charms even while +busily munching the big biscuit in her slender brown hand. Here was a +trait that formed a bond of sympathy, and Mira took courage. It is not +the contemplation of their nobler qualities, but their weaknesses, that +puts us on easy terms with our fellow-men. Breakfast promised to last a +long time. Gaffney, with the adaptability of the trooper of years of +service on the frontier, had been worming something of their visitors' +story out of them. The average Indian never wants to tell his name, but +gets a friend to give it for him. It proved, however, to be +Bear-Rides-Double who, with his wife, sister, and little ones, had +honored them with this early visit, and after riding double long years +among his people, this young chief had come afoot long miles to see the +Great Father's man and lodge a complaint. He had actually walked from +the Minneconjou village, five thousand yards away down-stream. But for +the chance of making a theatrical _coup_ Bear-Rides-Double could easily +have borrowed a pony, even though his own were gone to pay a poker debt +incurred within thirty-six hours, and when he waked up the morning after +the protracted play he found that Pulls Hard and the half-breed "squaw +man" with whom he had been gambling had not only played him with cogged +dice, but plied him with drugged liquor, and then gone off with his war +ponies as well as the rest. He wanted the Great Father to redress his +wrongs, recover his stock, and give him another show with straight +cards, and then he'd show Pulls Hard and Sioux Pete a trick or two of +his own. Davies had proffered chairs during this recital, which Gaffney +managed between the sign language and a species of "pidgin English," +called "soldier Sioux," to interpret for him, but the family preferred +to squat on the floor. Mrs. Plodder, tiring of the diplomatic features, +took Miss Minneconjou into Mira's room to show her the pretty gifts the +pale-face bride had brought with her, and Mira, with her five-year-old +friend toddling alongside, speedily followed. Davies strove to make the +double equestrian understand that he had no authority in the premises, +and that McPhail was the proper person to apply to, but the warrior +wished to deal only with his kind,--a heap brave chief,--the conqueror +of the redoubtable Red Dog. He could get more to eat through him in any +event, and in the midst of it all Gaffney came in from a brief visit to +his kitchen to say that Sioux Pete, the malefactor in question, was +actually in the corral at that moment trying to sell two ponies to the +sergeant of the guard. Leaving Gaffney to the duty of entertaining his +guests, Davies went out to investigate. Pete had come over from Red +Dog's camp with some of his plunder, and had no idea the complainant had +forestalled him. Pete spoke English,--that is, plains English,--but he +shrank a little at sight of the tall, grave-faced young officer of whom +Red Dog's people spoke with bated breath. + +"You want how much for these ponies?" asked the lieutenant, as though he +had heard the talk. + +"Tirty dollar." + +"Where are the others?" + +"No got." + +"You rode off with four ponies from the lodge of Bear-Rides-Double two +nights ago. Where are the other two?" + +Pete turned sickly gray. Could this white-faced soldier read visions +and dreams and thoughts? Was he a medicine-man? + +"No got," he sullenly answered once more. + +"You will leave these two with me for safe-keeping," said Davies, "and +go and fetch the others at once, even if you have to take them from +Pulls Hard, and get back here with them at noon without fail. No, you +need not appeal to the agent, or I'll tell him that you loaded Bear with +drugged liquor and marked cards and cogged dice. Off with you, Pete," he +continued, and the half-breed rode away on his Cayuse pony with scared +face, and told in the camp of Red Dog that the young chief Davies was a +seer, a mind-reader as well as a brave who feared not to grapple their +war chief; and when he was gone, Bear-Rides-Double was summoned and +bidden to ride double if he could, but to go and sin no more with cogged +dice, and the Minneconjou looked with evident awe and wonderment upon +the grave, reticent cavalryman, and went away homeward on one of the +recovered ponies, his women-folk, laden with Mira's discarded finery and +leading the other, trudging contentedly along behind him afoot. + +"You'll be a heap bigger man among the Indians than the agent can ever +hope to be, lieutenant," said Gaffney, with an Irish grin. + +But Davies said nothing. Had he overstepped his authority? Would McPhail +approve? The point was soon settled. Through the hangers-on about the +store McPhail heard rumors flitting like lightning among the villages. +The young officer was a medicine-man, a mind-reader, and far and wide +the Indians spoke of him in fear and reverence. It might be a good +thing, said the canny Scot, to back him up and reap the benefit. "Just +so long as I can keep him here in charge of the guard we can run things +to suit ourselves, for no red-skin will dare buck against him." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + +For nearly a fortnight there was sunshine at the agency,--sunshine and +prosperity, and then came manifestation of that pride which goeth before +destruction. Because there were more of the Ogallalla tribe than of +others herded there when originally established the agency on the +Chasing Water had been given this name, but after the stirring events of +the winter and the revolt of Red Dog, it happened that rather more of +the Minneconjou and not a few of the Uncapapa backsliders were gathered +among the grimy tepees. Two Lance and his people, having made their way +to the fold of Spotted Tail, were permitted to abide with him as a +result of the earnest plea made in their behalf by the general in +command of the department. Young-Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses and some other +chiefs of the wiser--the peace element, had also been transferred, and +such Brulés as remained under the wing of McPhail were of the class old +Spot denounced as "devil-dreamers," men who would stir up a row in any +community, men he wouldn't entertain among the lodges of his people. The +Uncapapas were of Sitting Bull's own tribe, malcontents almost to a +man, "mouth-fighters" who, like some recent exponents of Southern +oratory, were far more conspicuous after than during the battle days, +and between these breeders of devilment and the renegade Brulés, there +lay the village of Red Dog's reviving band,--three gangs of aboriginal +jail-birds who looked upon Red Dog's release as virtual confession on +part of the White Father that he dare not keep him, and they were only +waiting until the grass sprouted and their ponies could wax fat and +strong to take the war-path for another summer, and take all they could +carry with them when they did it. April had come. The last vestiges of +ice and snow were slipping away out of the broad, sun-kissed valley. Up +at the cantonments a stalwart infantry major had a battalion of the +Fortieth out along the prairie slopes for over two hours every morning, +drilling, drilling, drilling, until officers and men came +double-quicking in at 11.30, exuding profanity and perspiration from +every pore, but owning up to it, after a rub down and a rest and a +hearty dinner, that old Alex was a boss soldier who knew how to take the +conceit out of the cavalry, even if he did nearly have to run his +bandy-legs off, and the lean shanks of his men, in doing it. The cavalry +major was far less energetic. He sent his troops out under their +respective chiefs, and ambled around among them after a while making +audible comment to this captain and that, but never drawing sabre +himself. Cranston had a capital troop and was a born cavalryman who +needed neither coach nor spur and there were others nearly as good as +he, but each worked on his own system, whereas the doughboys pulled +together. Not to be outdone, Davies laid out a riding-school back of +the agency corral, and every day had his detachment out for a vigorous +mounted gymnastic drill as well as another at platoon exercise. He was +wiry, athletic, and an enthusiastic teacher, and presently it was noted +that the Indians, who for a time hovered impartially all over the +prairies and slopes, watching the manoeuvres of the soldiers, began +gathering in daily augmenting crowds about the agency grounds, +frequently applauding the leaping and hurdling, but only too readily +jeering the awkwardness of some of the men in mounting and dismounting +at the gallop, a thing they had learned and practised since early +boyhood. Then Cranston and the other troop leaders got to working down +toward the agency and, during the rests, moving close up to the corral +and watching the riding-school. It was capital work, said Cranston and +his contemporaries, though some jealous youngsters used to say to their +cynical selves that Parson probably "put up a prayer-meeting as a +stand-off." McPhail and his people began to come out and look on, and +Mira to watch from the window, for she still trembled and shrank at +sight of the savage painted faces and glittering eyes of the Indians, +and equally shrank from meeting the Cranstons. But presently Mrs. +Cranston and other women came driving over in their ambulances, the +generic term by which army carriages were known in the days when a +provident Congress first began curtailing the transportation facilities +of the line where, _sous entendu_, all great reformatory experiments +were tried, the staff being, of course, beyond even congressional +suspicion, and so it resulted that about eleven o'clock every fine day +the biggest gathering of the people, red and white, in all the broad +valley of the Chasing Water, as far east as its confluence with the +shadowy Niobrara and thence to the shores of the Big Muddy, was that to +be found about the rectangular space where the Parson held forth to his +faithful squad. + +Now, McPhail came back to his recaptured children with conciliation for +his watchword, willing, eager to shake hands with one and all from Red +Dog down, or up, according to the proper plane of that warrior on the +scale of merit; but as he noted the humility of bearing exhibited by all +except a truculent few, and the evident awe with which even these looked +upon the stern and taciturn commander of his guard, the agent began, +like Mulvaney after his fifth drink, "to think scornful av elephints," +in other words, of the red wards of his bailiwick, and with McPhail to +"think scornful" was to act. Just in proportion as he was meek and +cringing before did he become arrogant and abusive now. There was no +Boynton on hand to warn him with what he termed brutal bluntness that he +was tempting Providence again. Even the worm will turn, and the +difference between the worm and the Indian is that one can anticipate +the former and prepare for the blow. Up to the 10th of April Red Dog had +held himself haughtily apart from the whites--agent, officers, troops, +and all, but there were half-breeds and scouts who warned them that the +humiliation of his capture still rankled in his bosom, and that a mad +thirst for revenge possessed him. "Watch him as you would a snake," said +old Spotted Tail himself, when he came down to visit the agency. "He +never sleeps without dreaming of vengeance." The agent told Davies what +the loyal old chief had said, and Davies looked grave, but made no +reply. He was thinking, however, of Mira's danger. Indians could not be +put under bonds to keep the peace, however: the Bureau's system being to +let them kill first and explain afterwards. It wasn't pleasing to the +relatives of the deceased or even to the army, but what were they among +so many?--the millions of Indian sympathizers dwelling at discreet +distance. + +One morning half a dozen ladies drove down from the cantonment, and +their wagons were ranged up close alongside the rail near the high +hurdle. Around them were thickly clustered a number of squaws and +children and a few Indian boys, though most of the men, old or young, +kept to their ponies around on the south and east sides. McPhail came +out later with his household, and really was not unprepared to find his +usual place, on a little raised platform, pre-empted by a score of +blanketed "reds." Mac had some odd views. He couldn't understand why the +soldiers should not be made to salute him as they did their own +officers, who, having occasionally to report to him for instructions, +might be considered as his inferiors. He liked to impress the ladies of +the cantonment with the extent of his power and authority, and had more +than once interrupted the proceedings in the ring by loudly-shouted +orders to some of the Indians on the other side. This annoyed Davies, +but he said nothing. McPhail spoke of the detachment as "My guard," +etc., and once or twice in the presence of the army ladies had +addressed Davies in the crisp, curt tone of the superior officer, or +such imitation of it as he was enabled to compass, and this, too, the +young man had suffered without remark, though with a quiet smile. Seeing +the swarm of Indians on McPhail's platform, Mrs. Cranston and Miss +Loomis presently called to him to bring Mrs. McPhail to a seat in their +wagon, but the agent sprang up on the flimsy structure, sharply ordering +off the Indians right and left, and emphasizing his order with his boot +toes. Mac's twelve-year-old son, taking the cue from his father, +proceeded to deliver a vicious kick at a slowly-moving, blanketed form, +and the very next instant was screaming for help, flat on his back among +a swarm of Indian boys. All in a second the little savage had flashed +out of his blanket like lightning from a black cloud, and, grappling, +had hurled McPhail junior to earth. The agent made a furious lunge to +the rescue of his first-born, and the squaws and young girls scattered +shrieking at his charge. Startled and excited, the horses of Cranston's +wagon whirled sharply around, nearly capsizing the vehicle. Other horses +followed suit despite the efforts of their drivers, and in less than a +moment all the young braves on the opposite side came lashing their +ponies at mad gallop around the long rectangle just as McPhail +reappeared on the platform, bringing captive a furiously struggling +Indian boy screaming with rage and yelling for help. In less than that +moment too, it seemed, Percy Davies had leaped his horse over the +breast-high barrier and spurred to the heads of Cranston's team, seizing +the reins of the near horse. "Come right on," he shouted to the driver. +"Let them follow me." Out through the surging, scurrying crowd he guided +them to the edge of the road, then, pointing to the cantonment, called +to the driver, "Home with you, quick!" And with hardly a glance at the +grateful occupants, whirling his horse about, he burst his way back +again through the excited crowd until he found himself at the edge of +the platform. Already a dozen Indians were furiously demanding the +release of the prisoner. Little McPhail had scudded for home; Mira's +white face had disappeared from her window. Some of the guard had darted +into the corral for their arms, others, unarmed, had pressed to the +support of the agent. Before Davies could reach him four warriors were +out of their blankets and high-pommelled saddles, and had hurled +themselves on McPhail. "Rescue! Help!" he screamed, with ashen face, +releasing the Indian boy and vainly striving to draw his revolver. Away +sped the escaped captive, darting between the legs of struggling braves, +sheltered by the robes of hurrying squaws; away, right, left, anywhere, +everywhere, scattered the blanketed, jabbering groups, leaving on the +scene of action only the agent, the quickly rallying guard, and upward +of fivescore of jeering, taunting screeching warriors, at least a dozen +of them now dismounted, dancing and brandishing knife and tomahawk, +rifle or revolver, about the still writhing group rolling upon the +wooden floor,--McPhail and his assailants. Into the midst of this mad +mellay sprang the cavalryman, turning loose his horse, which animal, +urged by shrill yells and slyly administered lashings, went tearing away +over the prairie. Right at the lieutenant's back, almost as he had +fought his way with him, nozzle in hand, into the ruck of the rioting +crowd at Bluff Siding, striking out scientifically with his clinched +fists, charged young Brannan, only three days since transferred to the +agency guard. Vaulting the low rail and lunging in among the +devil-dreamers, came Sergeant Lutz and a squad of his fellow-troopers, +and in a dozen seconds, breathless and dust-begrimed, half stifled, but +practically unhurt, the agent was dragged from among the whirl of +moccasined feet and propped up, panting and swearing, against the rail, +while burly forms in trooper blue were hustling the half-raging, +half-jeering crowd of warriors off the platform. Even in the moment of +mad excitement they knew too much to use their weapons. Wise old heads +had been cautioning them against any deed of blood so long as the grass +was barely beginning to shoot. All they demanded was the instant release +of that boy, the chieftain's son, but incidentally, if McPhail insisted +on wrestling, they could not deny the Great Father's man or spare him +vigorous handling while about it. Davies had seized one brawny, muscular +throat and sent a gauntleted fist plump against the sweat-gleaming jaw +of a second brave. Brannan had backed him with half a dozen +well-delivered blows, but even these had evoked neither shot nor knife. +The instant the savages realized that it was the young commander of the +guard, they seemed to give way without further struggle, and so it +resulted that in a moment more every red-skin was off that sacred square +of board, and that a thick, deep semicircle of warriors, some few afoot, +but most of them astride their ponies, glowered in silence now at the +tall soldier who, interposing between them and the victim of their rude +horse play, stood confronting them with grave, set, indomitable look in +his pale face, on which the sweat was already starting. Behind the +officer, leaping up on the platform, were now a little squad of his men, +and McPhail, fuming and raging malevolently. "Arrest those blackguards, +arrest them instantly, Davies! Every man of them, by God! They shall pay +for this or there's no power in Washington." But Davies never moved hand +or foot. Calmly eying the surrounding crowd, he was searching for some +familiar face among the scowling warriors. Some few were men well on in +years, others mere striplings. Some were still covertly fuming with rage +for battle, others slyly tittering at the agent's expense, but all faces +were turned in instant interest, all ears attent when Davies began to +speak. "Where is Charging Bear?" he asked. "What is the meaning of this +riot?" + +Probably not ten Indians in the throng could speak a dozen words of +reputable English; probably not ten, however, failed to read his +meaning. + +"Charging Bear is not here," suddenly spoke in deep guttural a grizzly +Indian, who urged his pony forward. "The son of McPhail struck and +kicked the son of White Wolf,--the son of a clerk struck the first-born +of a war chief, and the Great Father's man would punish, not the +striker, but the struck." + +"Nab that damned lying scoundrel, Davies. He put 'em up to this whole +business. He's another of your mission whelps. I know you, Thunder +Hawk," continued McPhail, his courage and his choler rising alike as he +saw that the Indians were slowly recoiling, and evidently meant no +further mischief. "I know you, and I order your arrest right here and +now. As for the young dog that attacked my son, I'll demand him of White +Wolf in half an hour with five hundred soldiers at my back." + +"Then bring your own, who gave the first blow, if you want him in +exchange. As for me," continued the old man, in calm dignity, "I have +done no wrong, but my people shall not be made to suffer because of me. +I know the power of the Great Father, but he would not demand my +surrender to such as you. Here is the chief to whom the Indian yields," +he said, turning to the lieutenant, and then, riding a pony length +closer, gravely swung his handsome repeating rifle from its +gayly-fringed sheath of skins and extended it, butt foremost, to Davies. + +But before that officer could receive the proffered rifle a warning cry +came from the outskirts of the swarm. There was instantaneous lashing of +quirts, a sudden scurry and rush, and like one great herd of elk smitten +with sudden panic, away surged and sped the entire throng, Thunder +Hawk's stampeded pony bearing him irresistibly away with the rest. Only +a cloud of dust settling slowly to earth remained to greet the long line +of Cranston's troop as it came sweeping in from the foot-hills at +thundering gallop. Far out across the prairie the manoeuvring cavalry +had sniffed the "sign" of trouble at the agency, and his was the first +to answer the alarm. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + +Again was there scene of mad excitement among the Indian villages on the +Chasing Water. Again was Red Dog in saddle, exhorting, declaiming, +prophesying, but with no such ready result as during the winter days +gone by. It was one thing to rally to the standard of a war chief and +follow him on a raid against the agent of the Great Father when but a +handful of soldiers could back the authorities. It was quite another to +rise in revolt when five hundred war-trained blue-coats were aligned to +defend him. Within two hours after the exciting scene at the corral the +Indians in every band knew that McPhail had launched his ultimatum at +the little village of White Wolf. "Send in Chaska, the assailant of my +son, and Thunder Hawk, the boaster, or there is war between the Great +Father and you and yours." + +Already had Chaska and Chaska's mother, with three trusty friends, +mounted on swift ponies, been spirited away northward, with instructions +to ride all night through the devious trails of the Bad Lands, and never +draw rein until they reached the shelter of the Uncapapa lodges beyond +the Wakpa Schicha. Already had Red Dog dashed over to the lodge of +Thunder Hawk, offering him asylum in the heart of his tribe, and +pledging his uttermost brave to his defence. But the old Indian would +none of him. Long years before, a fatherless boy, he had been reared +and taught by a priest of the Church of Rome,--is there a people they +do not know, a peril they do not dare?--and when finally his friend and +teacher and protector was gathered to his fathers and laid in the old +mission churchyard, the boy drifted back to his tribe, a mature and +thoughtful man, to find his kindred among the tents of the +Ogallallas,--among, worse luck, the malcontents of Red Cloud. From this +time on he had cast his lot with them, marrying, rearing children, yet +but slowly gaining influence among them. When his great and cruel chief +lured the garrison of a mountain stockade into the neighboring hills and +massacred every man, Hawk had refused to take part. His heart was not at +war with the whites. When swarms of the warriors left to join the great +renegade bands gathering under Crazy Horse and Gall to reinforce Sitting +Bull, Hawk had held aloof. "The people of Red Cloud," said he, "have no +grounds for war. The Great Father has done everything he promised them +and more," and Red Cloud called him dastard and squaw; but when an +Indian girl was missing from her lodge, and the gossips told how she had +been lured by a white soldier to the distant banks of the Laramie, Hawk +rode thither, rode into the presence of the post commander and told her +story and his, and found and brought her back to her people. He strove +to find the man for whose sake she had abandoned her father's lodge and +forfeited her good name. Hawk well knew how futile was her trust that +the white chief would ever claim her as his wife, but among so many +comrades he was concealed, and Hawk left his message. Sooner or later +his people should find the white man who had wrought the wrong and his +days were numbered. Every knife in all his band was whetted for that +particular scalp. And now again, when Indian blood had been fired by the +insult to the son of White Wolf, he stepped forward to interpose between +his people and the fury of the Great Father's man. He had repressed, not +incited the wrath of his brothers, but the agent in authority ruled +otherwise and demanded his surrender. His people would have fought to +save him. He would suffer willingly rather than that one drop of blood +should be spilt on his account. Refusing Red Dog's clamorous offer, +Thunder Hawk mounted his pony and, despite the wails and lamentations of +his village, rode forth in calm dignity to meet the coming soldiery, to +offer in silent submission his hands to the clinch of the steel. + +The recall had sounded at the cantonment, and mounted orderlies had +galloped out to bring in such troops as might have trotted too far away +for the sound. The infantry battalion, practising skirmish drill, had +quickly rallied, re-formed, and was marched within the log walls to +exchange blank for ball cartridge and await orders. The four cavalry +troops galloped back to their stables and dismounted, while their +officers gathered about the major commanding. Cranston to him had +briefly recounted the story of the excitement as he had heard it from +McPhail's lips. "I am bound to say, sir," said he, "that Mr. Davies did +not seem to agree with the agent in either his statements or his +conclusions. He considers the agent to have been the aggressor, and if +he is required to go to arrest Hawk and White Wolf's boy, it will be +with an unwilling hand." + +"Yes," said the major, coldly, "the trouble with Davies seems to be that +he has displayed similar unwillingness on previous occasions." + +The command of the cantonment had been given to this veteran field +officer of infantry, a man whose motto had been fight from boyhood on. +For ten days had he been hammering away here, hours at a time, to get +his own battalion in readiness for what he considered the inevitable +summer's work. He had fought every one of the dozen or more tribes of +plains Indians, and considered fighting their normal condition as it was +his own. He had made it his boast that during the previous summer his +battalion, day after day, had outmarched the cavalry, and even while the +statement was misleading, the boast was based on facts. The horses of +the cavalry, starved and staggering, worn to skin and bone, had to be +towed along instead of ridden, and the cavalry were therefore +handicapped. Yet there was not a trooper who did not honor the bluff +senior major, and none who really disliked him, except perhaps the +battalion commander of the cavalry, a gentleman whose gold leaves were +as dazzlingly new as the senior's were old and withered, and just about +to be changing into silver, the silver of the lieutenant-colonel. The +contrast between Major White's spirited handling of his battalion of +foot and Major Chrome's listless management of a similar body of horse +was vivid in the last degree. The latter and two of his troops belonged +to Atherton's fine regiment, the --th, the other two troops, Cranston's +and Truman's, were, as we know, of the Eleventh, and here in presence of +four officers of the latter's regiment, and a dozen of the Fortieth +Foot and of the --th Horse,--here on the broad parade of the cantonment, +at high noon and in plain sight and hearing even of three or four +enlisted men, orderlies, horse-holders, etc., had the post commander +spoken words that meant nothing short of discredit, if not disgrace, to +the subaltern who was at that very instant riding away on a perilous as +well as thankless mission. Deep, embarrassed silence fell on one and all +of the major's hearers for a single instant. Cranston reddened with +indignation, little Sanders with wrath. Truman looked quickly and +curiously about him. All three were eager and ready to speak, yet by +common consent the duty devolved upon Cranston, who took the floor. + +"It would be idle, Major White, to feign ignorance of what you refer to, +but let me say right here and now that you have been utterly misled as +to that young officer's character, and I doubt if you properly estimate +that of his detractors." + +"I base my opinion on a cavalry report, Captain Cranston,--on Mr. +Archer's vindication of Captain Devers." + +"As one-sided a report as was ever written, sir, for the other side--Mr. +Davies--had never a hearing,--never even heard of the investigation +itself until a week ago, and is now bound to silence pending action at +department head-quarters; but meantime, sir, as a friend of his, and a +man who believes in him, I protest against any such impression as you +have received, and I ask you how it is that you can believe such a story +of an officer who, single-handed, arrested Red Dog in the face of his +followers? There has been an insidious influence at work against him +ever since last summer, and we of the Eleventh know just where to place +it." + +"If I've wronged him, Cranston, you know me well enough to know that +I'll make every amend possible. I have heard, I own, much more than +Archer's report, so have my brother officers, not only before the recent +outbreak in which he seems to have outwrestled Red Dog, but since. Since +his recent visit to Scott stories have come to our ears very much to his +discredit." + +"Not from Leonard, sir, I warrant you," interposed Cranston, hotly. + +"No, not from Leonard, for Leonard never talks against anybody, but from +officers at Scott who seem to speak by the card. There is general +indignation because of his affront to the wife of one of our number. If +your friend is so far above suspicion, and did not feel some sense of +the sentiment against him, why did he utterly shun the society of every +officer at the post-except the chaplain? It reminds me of that English +snob who was sent to Coventry for abandoning the Prince Imperial, and +then took refuge in the prayers of the Church." + +"Major White, there are reasons for Davies's conduct for which I will be +answerable, and which you could not fail to respect. The fault, sir, lay +on the other side. This is something that can't be discussed here, for a +woman's war is mixed up in it, but if I have any place in your esteem, +let me urge you to suspend judgment. While the responsibility for the +original wrong done Davies must rest in my regiment, there have been +later wrongs done him in yours, and I learn it for the first time +to-day." + +It was an impressive scene, this impromptu gathering at the foot of the +flag-staff while anxiously awaiting further tidings from the agency. +Over among the quarters the humid eyes of frightened women peered from +many a door-way, watching with fluttering hearts for sign of action. +Stacking arms in front of their barracks, the infantry had been sent in +to a hurried dinner, and the cavalry horses, saddled, still stood at the +lines, watched by a few troopers, while the rest were packing +saddle-bags and taking a bite on their own account. The sentries to the +eastward kept gazing over toward the grim stockade and the clustering +groups of Indian lodges far away down-stream. Ten minutes since a party +of a dozen troopers had been seen to ride slowly away from the agency in +the direction of White Wolf's tepees, a mile beyond; "Davies going to +demand the surrender" were the words that passed from mouth to mouth and +gave the text for the startling conversation that had just taken place, +a topic which was now by common consent dropped as having reached a +point where the utmost caution should be observed. Everybody seemed to +know in some mysterious way that the circulators of the new and +unflattering stories about Davies were not so much the invalid colonel +or Messrs. Flight and Darling of the Fortieth as their more voluble, +active, and dangerous helpmeets. Indeed, the very day Trooper Brannan +arrived, transferred by regimental orders from "A" to "C" troop, he +brought one letter from Mrs. Leonard to Mrs. Cranston, and two or three, +each, of the missives of Mesdames Stone, Flight, and Darling to ladies +at the cantonment. Mrs. Leonard's letter said that her husband, the +adjutant, had been summoned by telegraph to General Sheridan's office in +Chicago, and he expected to be gone a week. No trace had been found of +the papers stolen from his desk, but it was undoubtedly on that business +that he had been sent for, and Mrs. Leonard felt confident that when he +returned it would be with news that full justice would at last be +awarded Mr. Davies for his conduct during the campaign as well as at the +agency, and Mrs. Leonard could not control the impulse to add, "If +justice could only be meted out to his accuser!--but will that man ever +get his deserts?" + +It must be owned that Mrs. Leonard had good grounds for being doubtful +on that point. + +Meantime how fared it with the embassy to White Wolf? Smarting under the +injury to his pride and person, McPhail had decided to inflict severe +humiliation on the red men prominent in the affair. First, White Wolf's +boy should be made to suffer, and then Thunder Hawk, who had dared to +oppose his views, should be ironed as an inciter of riot and placed +under guard. Knowing the feeling of veneration, almost of awe, with +which Davies was regarded by many of the Indians, he desired to avail +himself of the fact and send him to make the arrest, and at last Davies +asserted himself. Calmly, but positively, he refused. "My orders are +simply to protect the agency and the agent and his family from attack," +said he, "not to act as the agent's police." + +"Do you refuse to obey my orders?" asked McPhail, angrily. + +"You are not empowered to give me any orders, Mr. McPhail,--above all, +such orders. It is no question of obedience or disobedience." + +"Then I'll ask to have you relieved and sent to your regiment, and some +man sent here who will do his duty," said McPhail. + +"You cannot do it too soon, sir," was the answer. "It has been most +unwelcome from the start, and I shall now ask to be relieved in any +event." + +And so, finding Davies inflexible, Mr. McPhail had no alternative but to +go himself. He had sent his demand; it had met with no response. He must +attempt the arrest in person or become the laughing-stock of his Indian +wards. Here at last Davies had to back him. It might be true that the +officer would be sustained in his refusal to go and do his bidding, but +if the agent went in person the lieutenant would have to send a +detachment as a guard. Davies did more. He calmly informed McPhail that +he should place himself at the head of the party and protect him to the +extent of his ability; and so with the detachment as it marched away, +watched by many an anxious eye, rode McPhail with his agency +interpreter. + +And when barely half-way to the cluster of tepees among the Cottonwoods +at the point, there came to meet them in solitary state old Thunder Hawk +himself. He wore no barbaric finery. His pony was destitute of +trappings. He, himself, wore not even a revolver. Everything that might +speak of war or even self-defence was left behind. When within a hundred +yards of the foremost horsemen he reined in his pony and calmly awaited +their approach. + +Half a mile farther down the valley, clustered in front of their +lodges, some of them lashing about on their excited ponies, could be +plainly seen the warriors of Red Dog's band, and that that hot-blooded +chief was in their midst could hardly be doubted, though he was too far +away for personal recognition. All at once the seething group seemed to +obey some word of command, for it heaved suddenly forward, and, +breasting its way through the scattering outskirts, just as it had +advanced on the agency that moonlit winter's night, the centre burst +into view, one accurate rank of mounted Indians, and in another moment, +wheeling and circling, all the individual horsemen came ranging into +line at the flanks, and, reinforced every moment by galloping braves +from the villages in the rear, Red Dog's big squadron, like Clan Alpine, +came sweeping up the vale. Borne on the breeze like one long wail of +foreboding, the weird chant of squaws and stay-behinds was wafted to the +ears of the agency party. Another instant and the song was taken up in +swelling chorus by the coming foe. McPhail, who had spurred eagerly +forward as Thunder Hawk halted, now irresolutely checked his horse and +glanced back, as though feeling for the support of the grim and silent +guard. + +"By God, Mr. Davies, I believe that traitor Red Dog means mischief!" + +Making no reply whatever, the lieutenant simply raised his sword arm in +signal to his party,--halt! whereat, sniffing the tainted breeze and +anxiously eyeing the distant cavalcade, the horses of Davies's party +stood nervously pawing and stamping. Evidently they liked the outlook as +little as did McPhail. And there, all alone, fifty yards out in their +front now, grave and motionless, still sat old Thunder Hawk. + +"Do you suppose they will try to rescue if we arrest him here?" asked +McPhail. + +"Very probably. They regard him as a martyr, and so do I," was the +answer. + +"Here! gallop to the cantonments for help at once," said McPhail to his +interpreter. "Say that Red Dog and his whole gang are coming," he +shouted, instantly reining about and looking anxiously back. Behind him, +nearly a thousand yards, lay the low, squat buildings of his official +station. Beyond that, nearly two thousand more, and but for the flag and +staff almost indistinguishable from the dull hues of the prairie, except +to Indian eye, lay the low log walls of the cantonment. Already signs of +alarm and bustle could be seen about the former. A buckboard was just +hurriedly driving off, full gallop, for the distant barracks, scudding +for shelter before the storm should break. Evidently Mrs. McPhail didn't +mean to stand siege in her cellars this time. Already Lutz, who remained +with the reserve, had mounted his men and was trotting out to the +support of the advance. Already the long, barbaric array of Red Dog's +band had come within rifle-range, and their clamoring chief, all +bristling with eagle feathers, rode up and down across their advancing +front, brandishing aloft his gleaming rifle. "Watch him as you would a +snake," indeed! Here he came once more in open, defiant hostility, bent +beyond possibility of doubt on instant attack should the agent attempt +to lay hands on Thunder Hawk. + +"Come in here, Hawk. I suppose you surrender!" yelled McPhail, +nervously. Evidently something had to be done, and done at once. + +"Not to you," was the determined answer. "I will surrender to soldiers +when they demand, and to them only, and I'll await justice as their +prisoner and not as yours." + +"My God! Mr. Davies, you've _got_ to do something!" wailed the agent, +shrinking still farther back now, as Red Dog's line unmistakably +quickened the pace and the earth began to quiver and tremble. + +"Take the men and fall back towards the agency, sir," said Davies, +quickly, sternly, and then without an instant's hesitation spurred +forward. As he rode he whipped off his right gauntlet, and then halting +within a horse-length of the silent warrior, held out his bare hand. +"Thunder Hawk, this is the hand of a friend. Will you ride with me and +turn Red Dog back?" + +"I will go with you wherever you say." + +Over among the lodges of Thunder Hawk's people the signs of intense +excitement were on the increase. Women and young girls had taken up the +weird war-song of the advancing array. Young men springing to their +ponies and no longer able to restrain their desire to act in his behalf, +all forgetful of his injunction, came galloping forth to join the band +of Red Dog riding to the rescue. Over at the agency, far to the rear, +there was mad flurry and consternation. Women and children of the few +employés, now that there was a military post within range, were +gathering up such valuables as they could carry and scurrying away along +the cantonment road. Conscious of his own impotence, McPhail had lost +the last vestige of his truculent manner and, eagerly availing himself +of Davies's advice, turned nervously to the senior corporal of the +little squad of troopers and said, "Fall back! We've got to fall back to +the reserve." The corporal glanced first at him, irresolutely, then back +at the coming reserve now spurring forward with Lutz at their head, then +around at the whirl and turmoil and trouble in the villages, at Red +Dog's now "magnificently stern array," and finally at the two figures, +calmly, slowly riding straight at the very centre of the advancing line, +straight at the heart of Red Dog's chanting battalion; and then, when +McPhail nervously repeated his instructions, and, adding example to +precept, turned and strove to lead the party in retreat, briefly +addressed first his fellows and then the agent. + +"Stand fast, men!--You--go to hell!" + +A moment later and far out at the front now the two figures had halted, +a strange contrast. The man on the right, tall, slender, of athletic and +graceful build, clad in trim simple undress uniform of the cavalry, +sitting his horse as straight as a young pine; the other, bent, +blanket-robed, hunched up on his pony in the peculiarly ungraceful pose +of the Indian rider when at rest, but resolute and immovable; both +sublimely devoted in the duty now before them. When by the sweeping +advance of the Indian line these two, the young officer, the old +sub-chief, were brought nearly midway between the little party of +blue-coats and the great rank of red warriors, both men as by common +impulse threw upward the right hand, signalling "Stand where you are!" +to the coming line. + +And recognizing their challengers, little by little, gradually reining +in, the Indians obeyed. Only Red Dog, followed closely by Elk, sullenly, +angrily continued the advance; his fierce eyes, avoiding Davies's calm +face, were bent glowering upon his fellow-tribesman. + +"Why is Thunder Hawk here?" was his demand in the Ogallalla tongue. "Is +he ally or prisoner of the soldiers?" + +"Thunder Hawk is their friend and the friend of his people. The white +chief came as his friend and brother to protect him from indignity. Now +as friends and brothers we stand between Red Dog and the wrong he would +do. Only over our bodies shall Red Dog move another lance-length against +the Great Father's people." + +Davies could not comprehend this talk, but there was no mistaking its +import or its effect on the rabid chief. Furiously Red Dog pressed +forward, his rifle still clutched in his sinewy hand. + +"Thunder Hawk is a traitor and a liar! He has sold himself to the +whites! He is their prisoner, and when they have used him they will iron +and brand and starve him. Even a sub-chief of the Dakotas shall not live +to be their tool. Thunder Hawk rides back with us at once or dies here +and now." And around came the ready weapon, muzzle to the front, with +Red Dog's hand at the guard. + +"Ride back to your men, lieutenant," muttered the old Indian. "You have +my word that I will join you as soon as I can, but this man is crazed. +He means to force a fight." + +"If that be so my place is here with you," was the answer. "What does he +demand?" "No parlying with your soldier friends," shouted Red Dog, +again in the Sioux tongue. Then, as though losing all control of himself +in his hatred of his captor, he dashed furiously at Davies. "Back!" he +shouted. "Back!" And he pointed with grand dramatic action up the +valley. "Back to your own people! This is Indian land." Then seeing that +his words fell on heedless ears and that Davies never relaxed his cool, +steadfast gaze into the raging red face, he fell into such English as he +knew. "Run or I kill." + +And then Lutz and his reserve, just reaching their comrades under +Corporal Clanton, saw a sudden flash of sunshine from the silver +mountings of the Indian's beautiful Winchester as it was whirled to the +brawny shoulder, saw sudden rear and plunge of Davies's spirited horse, +a grapple as though in mid-air, and with a mad cry of "My God! They'll +murder him!" young trooper Brannan dashed forward from the ranks just as +the shot from Red Dog's rifle whirled harmless into space, and horse and +man, the pride of the Ogallalla hostiles, were rolling in the dust, +overthrown by the officers heavier charger, while the butt of the +polished weapon, wrested from the warrior's grasp and wielded by +muscular hand, came down with resounding whack on the head of the +struggling chief, and for the second time, in the very face of his +astonished braves, Red Dog, the redoubtable, went sprawling to earth, +downed by the white chief whom he affected to despise. + +In the fierce mellay that followed the advantage lay with the first to +move. Lutz and his party had not really checked their gait, and so +leaped into the charge with a flying start. Sixteen ready troopers had +darted forward to the support of their beloved young officer. Thunder +Hawk had lashed his pony so as to interpose between him and the rush of +the Indian band, but even as those red-skins nearest the centre, where +the drums and rattles were keeping up their low, threatening din, with +one impulse dashed forward to rescue the chief, those on the flanks, +far-seeing, held wisely back, even while around the prostrate chief +there raged for a brief, hot, furious moment a wild babel of threat and +execration, a mad whirl of brandishing knives and pistols and naked red +limbs and brawny arms in dusty blue, Hawk and two other stalwart Sioux +had thrown themselves between avenging blows and the young white chief, +standing afoot now with pale, set face, over his writhing victim. Lutz +and his men, lunging in among the lighter ponies, bore them back by +sheer force of weight. 'Only one or two shots were heard; even in that +frantic turmoil friend and foe alike seemed to realize that a battle +must be avoided so long as each side held possession of its own. And +then from the outskirts came loud yells of warning. By fives and tens +the mounted warriors melted hurriedly away, and presently all the broad +prairie to the eastward, back toward the lodges from which they came, +was alive with circling, darting, screaming red-skins, keeping up their +shrill appeal to brethren still hot-handed in the struggle for out from +behind the curtain of the agency corral swept the long column of +galloping horse under its curtaining cloud of dust, and down at full +speed came the whole squadron, far more than Red Dog's band dare tackle +in heady fight. Out from beneath his struggling pony they dragged him, +bleeding and bedaubed with sweat and paint and blood, and when +presently as the long skirmish line of Cranston's troop swept over the +spot and drove before it all the mounted warriors, only two or three of +the faithful remained to share the fortunes of their fallen chief, for +like Thunder Hawk, Red Dog was the prisoner, not of the Great Father's +agent, who was somewhere far to the rear, but of the soldier chief of +the cantonments, who came galloping up in the wake of the cavalry, +wrathful, if anything, that the whole thing was over without a fight. + +And then, and not until nearly ten minutes after he had downed his man, +was it noticed that Mr. Davies had not recovered color, that he was too +faint to remount his horse. + +"What is it, lad?" murmured Cranston, with keen anxiety in his eyes. + +"I'm stabbed, captain. I--think you'd better not let Mrs. Davies know." + +But Davies need not have worried on that score. When a little later they +bore him, faint, unconscious from loss of blood, to his own roof at the +agency, there was lack of woman's nursing, there was dearth of woman's +tears,--Mira had fled with the McPhails with the first alarm, and was in +hiding somewhere up at the cantonment. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + +One soft spring morning, some two weeks later, a little knot of officers +had gathered about the Cranstons' quarters at the cantonment. Under an +awning of tent flies they were conning the papers that had just reached +them and eagerly discussing their contents. Mrs. Cranston, a shade of +anxiety on her winsome, sunburned face, was glancing quickly from one +speaker to another. Through the open door-way in the cool interior Miss +Loomis could be seen bending over the boys as they fidgeted at their +books. Neither felt like studying this day of days, for absorbing news, +and lots of it, had come. To begin with, a general court-martial had +been ordered to meet at Omaha for the trial of Captain Devers, Eleventh +Cavalry, and officers of high rank and distinction were to be his +judges. With Atherton as president of the court there could be no +"monkey business," said Mr. Sanders, by which that young gentleman was +understood to mean that there would be no trifling with the subject. It +was noticeable that neither Riggs nor Winthrop was of the detail, an +omission readily understood, as Devers would unquestionably object, as +was his privilege, to either or both on the ground of bias, prejudice, +or malice, which, whether sustained or not, would lead to their asking +to be excused from serving and so reducing the array. The court had been +ordered from division head-quarters by the lieutenant-general himself, +and its members, as a rule, were summoned from distant posts and +commands, so as to preclude the possibility of the accused captain +saying it was "packed" from the ranks of his enemies. In other words, +except Atherton, the court was made up entirely of officers who had +taken no part in the campaign of the previous summer. It was understood +that the charges were grave and numerous; rumors of misconduct in the +face of the enemy, disobedience of orders, misrepresentation of facts, +etc., being among the items mentioned. Major Warren had been summoned +from abroad a month earlier than he had planned to come. Colonel Peleg +Stone and Mr. Leonard had both been notified that they would be required +as witnesses, so had Captains Cranston, Truman and Hay, Lieutenants +Boynton, Hastings and Davies. The court could not meet before mid-May +because several of the members came from the department of Dakota, far +up the Missouri, but that it was to be a "clinch" at last was the +generally expressed sentiment. Devers had run to the end of his tether, +said Boynton, unfeelingly. "I could add a charge or two myself if I +didn't know he was loaded with them so deep that he can't stagger." +Boynton, limping still, had come back to resume command of the agency +guard, for Davies's wound had proved deep and serious. He had been +stabbed by Red Dog after that warrior was raised to his feet, after +Cranston's skirmishers had swept the field, after Davies thought the +struggle at an end, and was unprepared for the stealthy blow. Nothing +but Brannan's vigilance, and the warning cry which caused the lieutenant +to turn in the nick of time, had saved his life. Red Dog in irons lay in +the log guard-house. Thunder Hawk, on parole,--for White had dared the +wrath of the bureau and refused to let McPhail have him,--walked the +garrison at will. Mr. Davies, still weak and languid, lay in the big +hospital tent, really the most comfortable dwelling at the station, now +that the weather was growing warm, and there, attended by Burroughs and +ministered to by a pathetically pretty wife (who had somewhat recovered +from her panic, now that she was within the stockade of a military post +with lots of men around to watch her and be fascinated), was on the road +to speedy convalescence. He was being allowed occasional visitors, and +while his own comrades vied in their attentions, nothing could exceed +the anxiety of old White, the major commanding. Twice did he have +Thunder Hawk recount to him the details of Davies's calm courage in this +second daring capture, red-handed, of the rebellious chief, and White +went to Cranston like the blunt, outspoken campaigner that he was. + +"It begins to look to me," said he, "as if this young fellow had been +most damnably backbitten. You can haul Devers before a court, but what +can we do with these women?" + +"You have never told me, major, what these women had to say against +him." + +"And I'm not going to," said White. "When a man's ashamed of having +believed a mean story, the sooner he buries it the better. Men like him +don't go round abusing their own wife or insulting anybody else's. It's +my belief that the swarm that buzzes around the throne there at Mrs. +Pegleg's ought to be muzzled, and if the old man hadn't lost his grip in +this seizure he's had, I'd tell him so." + +But this seizure of Pegleg's had indeed proved a serious matter. So far +from recovering his accustomed spirits, the old colonel seemed to grow +feebler and less inclined to move about with every day. One morning he +sent word to Captain Devers that he would not leave his bed, as he felt +too weak, and that night it was that Leonard got back from Chicago. When +told by Pollock, who met him at the railway station, that Devers was +again in command, Leonard stepped into the telegraph-office and wrote a +message which he showed to nobody. Within thirty-six hours Lieutenant +Archer of the department staff reached Fort Scott with orders from the +general commanding. Captain Pollock was placed in command of the post +and Devers in close arrest. The next day Mr. Langston came out from +Braska and was closeted an hour with Leonard at the adjutant's office, +and then, taking advantage of a returning escort and ambulance, the +civilian lawyer left for the agency. Even while the group of officers at +Cranston's was eagerly discussing the news, he had made his bow to a +deeply blushing Mira over at the hospital tent, and was seated by +Davies's side. "Business first, pleasure afterwards," hummed Cranston to +himself when he heard of the arrival, and noted how Meg's bright eyes +dilated. + +"Business, indeed!" thought she. "I know the business that brings him +here, despite Agatha's assumption of sublime indifference." + +But grave though some of the older faces grew as the news was read, and +eager and excited as were some of the younger, it was not because of the +long-prophesied trial of Captain Devers. The papers, letters, and +despatches were full of detail of the serious condition of affairs to +the northwest. Inspired by the success of the Sioux in their grand +uprising of the previous year, and reasoning that they had little to +lose and everything to gain by similar methods, a big tribe had cut +loose from its reservation and taken the field, one band of it prudently +massacring all the white men to be found in their neighborhood as +necessary preliminary to the move. This was bad to begin with, but +worse was to follow. The other agencies were overrun by a number of +young Indians of what might be termed the unreconstructed class, and +these, excited by reports brought in by runners from the openly hostile, +were slipping off in scores to join them. Already had the epidemic +struck McPhail's "angels." Already had Mac, with long face and longer +story, been up to see Major White and beg for cavalry to be sent in +pursuit. White said it was preposterous. The renegades had two or three +days' start to begin with, and if pursued, all they had to do was to +hide in the Bad Lands and pick off their pursuers. Cavalry could only go +there in single file. Ten Indians could hold the narrow, tortuous trail +against ten hundred troops. Relations were strained between Mac and the +military anyhow. Everybody knew by this time that he had lied about +Boynton and Davies, and had striven to make it appear, and with no +little success, too, so far as Eastern newspapers were concerned, that +all the turbulence and rioting at Ogallalla was caused by the arrogance +of the army. Then Mac pointed out that if something weren't done to +drive those renegades back, all the young braves over at the big +reservation beyond the Mini Ska would follow suit. Already the cattlemen +were complaining. Already settlers were drifting in to Pawnee station +and Minden on the railway to the west, and besieging old Tintop at +regimental head-quarters at Fort Ransom, and stirring up "screamers" in +the columns of the infantile dailies at Butte and Braska, alleging +apathy on part of the authorities and cowardice on that of the cavalry. +Already letters had passed between the officers of the Eleventh at the +cantonment and their comrades at Ransom. "If we have to take the field +again this summer let us try to get together as a regiment and not be +split up in all manner of crowds," was the cry. What Cranston and Truman +dreaded, too, was that they might be squadroned with some of the --th +under Major Chrome. The --th was all right, but Chrome was so horribly +slow that his own comrades chafed under his command, and Atherton really +wanted him to retire and get "a live man" in his place. Truman, Hay, and +Cranston felt certain that it would not be a fortnight before they were +ordered into the field. Tintop and Gray were sure of it. Captain Fenton +and others at Ransom were talking of sending their families East, and +now the question that agitated Cranston was, what to do with his dear +ones? It was all well enough to have them at the cantonment while the +cavalry were there, but with all the troops in the field except a single +company of infantry, he did not dare leave them. They must go back to +Scott. + +No wonder then that Mrs. Cranston's bonny face was clouded this sweet +spring morning. No wonder the boys could not pin their vagrant thoughts +to the books before them while snatches of the low, eager talk came +drifting in through the open door. No wonder Miss Loomis went about her +work with conscious effort, but when told of the arrival of Robert +Langston, the woman in her knew he would not go until he had seen and +spoken with her. + +The day of Red Dog's capture was still fresh in the minds of Cranston's +household, as indeed in that of every household at the cantonment. With +field-glasses they had marked the threatening gathering at the distant +village, and the ominous advance in line. Old White had his men in ranks +in less than no time, and the cavalry column, masked by the agency +buildings, was sent at brisk trot to the eastward, so that McPhail's +messenger, spurring at mad gallop for aid, met them midway. Cranston's +troop was instantly deployed into long skirmish line at the gallop, and +the affair was practically over by the time Major White, leaving the +infantry battalion to guard the post, had reached the scene. Meantime +the composure of the mothers and children left at the cantonment was in +no wise augmented by the panic-stricken guise of the arriving refugees, +Mrs. McPhail, with her children, and Mira being the first to appear. It +so happened that the Cranstons' bungalow, being near the eastern end of +the line, proved the natural refuge of the first wagon-load, and that +Mrs. Cranston and Miss Loomis were the angels who thus had to minister +to their weaker sisters. Even then, when nearly "dead with terror," as +she expressed it, Mira would gladly have gone somewhere else, but as +Mrs. McPhail promptly bundled herself and her youngsters out of the +wagon and under the shelter of the Cranstons' wing, there was nothing +left for Mira but to follow suit. Dr. Burroughs came promptly to see +what he could do for her. Both Mrs. Cranston and Miss Loomis mastered +their own anxiety in the effort to comfort these weaklings, and as no +sounds of battle came from the eastward, and the watchers on the roofs +reported Red Dog's people as scattering for their tepees before the +advance of the cavalry, comparative composure was gradually being +restored when the first messenger came in from the front, a corporal of +Cranston's troop, whom the boys hailed with eager acclaim. + +"Everything's all right, mum," he blithely saluted Mrs. Cranston. "We've +got old Red Dog again,--Lieutenant Davies nabbed him," he added, with +prompt recognition of Mira's lovely face. "They want Dr. Burroughs to +come down to the agency though." And as the doctor mounted the trooper +said something more in a low tone, glancing furtively at Mrs. Davies as +he did so. Burroughs nodded, but rode rapidly away, the corporal after +him. Mrs. McPhail became instantly lachrymose. Dr. Burroughs wanted at +the agency? That could mean only one thing,--Mr. McPhail must be +wounded, he was always so impetuous. In vain Mrs. Cranston strove to +soothe her. She ran out on the roadway in front and hailed the very next +party straggling in,--the wife and the cook of the agency clerk, +importuning them to say was Mac badly hurt. + +"Mac ain't hurt at all," said the new arrivals, hot after a long and +needless tramp. "How was he to get hurt? It's Loot'nant Davies that's +shot. Red Dog tried to kill him." + +And here Mira promptly and appropriately shrieked and fainted. + +Nor was she of use when presently restored to a limp and dejected +consciousness. Other messengers had come by this time. Dr. Burroughs had +examined Mr. Davies's hurts. He was stabbed, not shot. It was serious, +not dangerous. He was being made comfortable at home, where Captain +Cranston said it was perfectly safe for Mrs. Davies to join him, and +the ambulance was speedily ready to take her to the bedside of her +wounded hero, but again poor Mira's nerves gave way. She could not go to +that dreadful place, so much nearer those frightful savages. Oh, why, +why hadn't they brought her Percy here? Even Mrs. McPhail was no such +coward as that. She drove back without her, and not for hours after was +Mira strong enough to go. By that time he was sleeping placidly when, +trembling still and pathetically pale, Mira was escorted to his bedside, +and that night Mrs. Cranston had her revenge. + +"Agatha Loomis," said she, "you declared all along that he did perfectly +right in marrying that--that--in marrying _her_. What do you say now?" + +And Miss Loomis said--nothing. + +They had been talking of Davies again this very morning before the mails +and Langston came. No sooner had he been well enough to move than he +asked to be sent up to the garrison. He was no longer commander of the +guard, and no longer entitled to the house. What was more, he must +decline to serve McPhail in any such capacity again, and had had a +letter written to department head-quarters representing the facts, and +one was received from the general promising that another officer should +be detailed immediately. Furthermore, Mr. Davies announced that Mrs. +Davies simply could not stand the life at that point. Then Boynton +expressed a desire to return to it, as he was now able to stump around a +little, and he enjoyed chaffing McPhail, and so the wounded second +lieutenant of Devers's troop was shifted to the hospital tent put up +for his accommodation at the cantonment, and there Mira was made far +more comfortable than many an army wife had been, awaiting the day when +they could with safety be started on the road to Scott, now his proper +station. + +"Langston's paying the Parson a mighty long visit," exclaimed Mr. +Sanders, unslinging his sabre and flopping down into the first +camp-chair on his way back from morning drill. "Mrs. Cranston, what do +you want to bet y'all go back to Scott inside of a week?" + +"I like it very much better here, especially as our going to Scott would +mean 'y'all' were to be again in the field," was the laughing reply. + +"Well, I like duty here better, but I do hanker for a waltz on that old +waxed floor. Think, we haven't had a dance since we came." + +"The men had some good music the other evening; why didn't you suggest a +waltz on the prairie to Mrs. Davies?" + +"Well, I did think of it. She looks bored to death. I saw her just now +as I came by. She was yawning in the shade of the tent fly while +Langston and the Parson were chatting inside." Why don't you and Miss +Loomis go over there and cheer her up sometimes? was the question he +checked just as it trembled on his lips. Some brief inspiration of +discretion warned him that that was ground too sacred for his blundering +intrusion. "She seems downright lonely," he concluded, somewhat lamely +and suggestively. "I don't think Mrs. Davies is cut out for this kind of +army life. Here comes Langston now." He needn't have made that +announcement. Mrs. Cranston was watching, waiting for him, and she +glanced quickly to see where Miss Loomis was. That young lady, however, +never looked up from the slate whereon Louis's hieroglyphics were in mad +arithmetical tangle, even when she heard Langston's courteous greeting +to the lady of the house and his inquiries for the captain, and heard +them without evidence of any emotion whatsoever. + +"The captain is at the stables, Mr. Langston. We are so glad to see you. +I'll send him word in a moment. Do sit down and tell us all the news +from Braska," said Mrs. Cranston, hospitably. + +"I will do all that most gladly, Mrs. Cranston, but the matter on which +I desire to see him at once is urgent, and perhaps Mr. Sanders will walk +over to the stables with me. Then, may I not call and see you later?" + +"By all means! and will you not dine with us? A real campaign dinner, +you know, but we shall be so pleased to have you." + +Langston's face fairly glowed. "I'll be here in half an hour, if I may, +but I must see the captain at once, and will go. I trust--Miss +Loomis--is well." + +"Very well, and quite able to answer for herself," said Mrs. Cranston, +mischievously, while Langston's eyes eagerly searched the door-way and +dim interior; but Miss Loomis was nowhere in sight, and chose to appear +to be not within hearing. + +"Why didn't you come or speak?" said Meg, reproachfully, the moment he +was gone. + +"I was busy. These are school days," was the calm reply, one that would +have been no comfort to Langston, who walked rather ruefully on with the +subaltern. The business with Cranston proved interesting. + +"You have a young trooper, Brannan, whom I need to see confidentially, +and at once. May I do so, captain?" + +"Certainly. Send Corporal Brannan here," said the troop commander, +wondering what new complication had involved this wayward son; and +presently, erect and soldierly, with a fine tan on his cheek and +brand-new chevrons on his sleeves, "lanced for bravery in the field," as +the troopers expressed it in those days, the young soldier stood +attention before them. + +"You probably do not remember me, Corporal Brannan," said Langston, in +courteous tone, "but I remember you favorably and well for the day at +Bluff Siding last June." And the light in the young soldier's eyes +indicated that he recalled the civilian. "Your captain knows something +of the matter on which I wish to see you, and I have asked him to remain +here with us." And now an anxious, troubled look crept over Brannan's +face, some swift overshadowing from the coming cloud. "You have never +yet told any one whose knife it was that cut you that day." + +Brannan's lips moved and he turned even paler, but he said no word. + +"Well, corporal, the time seems to have come when instead of keeping +silence to protect another man you may have to speak for your own sake." + +Brannan glanced quickly, anxiously, from one face to another, from the +lawyer to his troop commander, as though appealing to the latter to say +how could that be. Presently he faltered, "I don't understand." "Well, +I will tell you, in part at least. Your captain and I know something of +your past history, and I do not think you will have cause to regret that +fact. We know that you were at Dr. Powlett's at the time Mr. Davies was +assaulted and robbed near his Urbana home. You had there been on terms +of intimacy with young Powlett, who disappeared after much disreputable +doing. You soon enlisted, and were for a time very intimate with a +recruit, Howard, who corresponded with the description I have of +Powlett. You both had frequent letters,--you from your mother and he +from several sources. Then came a disagreement and you held yourself +apart from him and his new chum, a young fellow called Paine, and, while +you continued loyal to an old friendship and kept silent as to Howard's +past, he was less considerate of you. There was serious trouble between +yourself and Sergeant Haney and Howard the night you reached Fort Scott +after the campaign, and you were ordered confined. I have heard there at +Scott a story I do not believe. Will you not tell your captain and me +the real cause?" + +"Well, sir, it was about my writing-case," said the corporal, in low and +hesitant voice. "I kept mother's letters and some pictures and things I +valued in it. It went with me up to the Big Horn camp all right, but +when we started on the campaign and cut loose from the wagons I had to +turn it over to Sergeant Haney. I saw him lock it in the big company +chest, and the night we got into Scott with the wagons and that chest +was unloaded, over three months afterwards, I asked for it at once, and +I had been kept back with the wagons, and I'd been drinking a little, +for it was a bitter cold march, and Haney and Howard gave me more +liquor and told me I'd better not take it until I'd quit drinking. We +had trouble that night later, and I was confined for abusing the +sergeant and being drunk, though I could prove I hadn't abused him, and +that it was just the other way, and that I was only slightly affected by +the liquor. The next day I sent word from the guard-house for my case, +and the reply came that the sergeant gave it to me the previous night. I +knew he hadn't and said so. They answered that I was drunk and must have +lost it, and that was all the satisfaction I got." + +"Why didn't you tell me about this at the time, Brannan?" asked +Cranston, kindly. + +"I meant to, sir, the moment I got out, but they fixed things so as to +send me direct from the guard-house with Lieutenant Boynton's detachment +to the agency, and when I wrote from there to Howard and Haney both, +they answered that they had a clue, and if I'd only keep quiet they'd +get it sure, and the man who stole it from me. I never told mother about +it,--it shamed me so. I was afraid the liquor was drugged, and--it might +be true, though I thought I knew everything that happened." Then he +stopped abruptly. + +"Go on," said Langston, with deep interest in his keen, shrewd face. +"There is even more to this than I thought. What followed?" + +"I got tired waiting, and there was a chance to go to Scott with the +mail rider and I took it, and a bitter cold ride it proved to be. We +couldn't get coffee on the way, the rider and I, but we could get +whiskey, worse luck, for he had it with him, and so I had been drinking +when we reached the post, and made my demand of Haney. He put me off +with more liquor and soft words. Then I threatened to appeal to Captain +Cranston or Lieutenant Davies, and the next thing they had me in +hospital with Paine to watch me. I had been drinking enough to make me +mad with suffering for more by that time." + +"Well, did you never appeal to Captain Devers?" + +"No, sir; there was no use in doing that," said Brannan, coloring +uneasily as he spoke. "I beg Captain Cranston's pardon for saying so of +an officer, but no one could hope for justice in 'A' Troop unless he was +solid with Sergeant Haney." + +"And you have never seen your writing-case to this day?" continued +Langston. + +"Never, sir." + +"Well, one thing more. Now that you know Howard's character,--know him +to have deserted and to have striven to injure you in many a way, will +you still persist in saying he did not wield the knife that slashed +you?" + +"I have said, sir, that I knew no one in all the recruits who would have +used a knife on me." + +"True! You put it well, Brannan," said Langston, with a smile of deep +meaning, "and among simple-minded military folk the answer would be +enough, perhaps, but not to a lawyer. Would you declare that Howard did +not wield the knife that slashed you--but was meant for Lieutenant +Davies?" + +And Brannan colored still deeper. "I cannot say anything about him, sir; +at least not now." + +"Very well. Then it is useless to ask just now what you know of his +past?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"All right, Brannan. It is my belief that in the near future that +writing-case of yours will turn up, and I mean to stay to see it, for +when it does you'll need us both." + +But Langston's hope for a speedy and brilliant coup was dashed by the +news that came that very night. Forty-eight hours thereafter a little +caravan of army wagons, Concords and ambulances, with an infantry +escort, was slowly wending its way southward toward the welcoming roofs +of old Fort Scott, with the wives and children of several families, with +Mira and her newest friend, Mrs. Plodder, with the tall, martial-looking +civilian riding in close attendance on the Cranston's equipage, basking +in the life-giving sunshine and in the thrill and hope and sweet unrest +of an ever-growing love, devoted and insistent in spite of vague and +jealous dread, for there was not the feeblest flicker of encouragement +in Miss Loomis's calm and oft-averted eyes. Langston asked himself in +the still hours of the starlit night, camping on the banks of Dismal +River, was it possible that her heart was following some soldier in the +dusty column, riding hard, riding fast long miles away to the northwest +now, eager to overtake the comrade soldiery already on the flank of the +foe, and bear a trooper's part in the battle summer so suddenly to open. +Even Percy Davies, laughing at the feeble protest of Dr. Burroughs, and +heartily congratulated by old White himself, had donned his field dress +and climbed stiffly into saddle, to ride once more with the fighting +column, to the savage disappointment of his one red foe at the +cantonments, and the utter confusion of other foes at Scott. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + +A hundred miles away,--a hundred as the crow flies, and not by the +tortuous route the cavalry had to follow, through a region that, all in +an hour's march, shifted its scene from the dull monotone of barren +waves of prairie to bold, beautiful heights and deep sheltered ravines +and cańons, the winding thread of the Mina Ska went foaming and leaping +over its stony bed, taking occasional cat-naps in wide, shadowy +shallows, only to wake up again to wilder riot under the frowning, +fir-crested cliffs of the Black Rock Range. For many a long, sunshiny +mile it had come floating placidly eastward, issuing from the great +water-shed of the continent, drifting leisurely between low-lying, +grassy banks all criss-crossed with ancient buffalo-trails, or the +recent footprints of long-horned cattle, past the broad plateau, crowded +by the wooden walls of Fort Ransom, past the roofs and spires of +bustling Butte, a prairie metropolis, a railway and cattle town that +rivalled Braska, past long miles of gleaming tangents of the +transcontinental railway until it met the bold bluffs east of Alkali +Station and was shouldered from its course and sent on long, tortuous +_détour_ to the northeast, until, beyond the great reservation of the +red men in the loveliest hill country of the wild frontier, it once more +turned sharply eastward at the point described in the sonorous language +of the plains as "the Big Bend of the Mina Ska." Midway between its +sweeping curve near Alkali and the sharp deflection at the big bend +there came flowing into it from the westward, through the very heart of +the Dakota lands, the clear, translucent waters of the Wakpa Wakon,--the +Spirit River of the Sioux, all along whose storied shores for mouths had +clustered the thronging villages of the tribe, living through the long, +fierce winter in sheltered comfort, fed, warmed, inspired by the spoils +and stories of the great campaign the year gone by. But now as though by +magic had the tepees vanished. Only around the protecting agency, miles +to the west, miles deeper in among the tumbling hills, were the lodges +now clustered, hundreds of them, with their swarming occupants,--old +men, old crones, Indian mothers, wives, sweethearts, maids, young boys, +children, and pappooses,--all confidingly clinging to the protecting +hand of the Great Father and claiming his bounty; while the husbands and +fathers, the stalwart young warriors of the Sioux themselves, were +skulking through the Bad Lands across the Ska, eagerly, warily watching +the coming of the little cavalry column from the distant Chasing Water, +while even in greater numbers their wild red cohorts patrolled the deep +valley, the overhanging heights of the Ska itself, watching every move +of the coming force from Ransom, bent on luring both, if possible, far +within their borders, far in among those tangling, treacherous ravines +and cańons, and, there surrounding, to massacre the last man. + +Southwestward, at Painted Lodge Butte, after a long, long march through +the heat and glare of the long June day, Colonel Winthrop had ordered +his men to bivouac for the night. Riding steadily eastward by the +"foot-hill" trail from Ransom, they had reached Willow Springs on Friday +noon, purposing to camp there until the following dawn, but so alarming +were the reports of the few fleeing settlers whom they met that the old +colonel decided after an hour's rest to push on again. Without being +trammelled by precise orders, the general tenor of his instructions was +to march on down the Ska, and strike and punish any Indian war-parties +he could find, and clear the valley as soon as possible. Major Chrome, +with four troops, two of the Eleventh, his own, and two of the --th, +Atherton's regiment, was ordered to march across country from the +Chasing Water, and join Winthrop in the valley of the Ska. One hundred +miles, as has been said, had Chrome to march to reach the valley at the +nearest point, nearly opposite the mouth of the Spirit River. Nearly two +hundred if he followed the stream would Tintop have to cover in going +from Fort Ransom to that point, but he had started on a Wednesday +morning, twenty-four hours ahead of Chrome. Each well knew he would +probably have to fight his way. Each meant, according to his own lights, +to do his best, and each resorted to measures radically different. +Winthrop, active, eager, nervous in temperament, pushed forward boldly, +rapidly, bent on "getting there," as he expressed it, and hitting hard +before the reds could slip back to their holes. Chrome, slow, +phlegmatic, cautious, advanced by carefully-studied marches, with scouts +far ahead and flankers far dispersed. Arguing that Winthrop, with one +hundred and fifty miles or more to go, and a bigger crowd to handle, and +with Indians on his flank every inch of the way, would not be able to +reach the Spirit River crossing inside of seven days,--Chrome parcelled +out his own march accordingly. Starting with all speed from the +cantonment, according to his instructions from Major White, he soon +slowed down to a pace more in accordance with his own views. "If we get +there Monday or Tuesday even," said he, "we'll be 'way ahead of Tintop." +And this was at the close of the second day's march, when he could point +to less than a total of forty-four miles covered. The country was still +open, the trails distinct, the Indians reported in the distance were in +small parties, probably from the Ogallalla reservation. To Cranston and +Truman, as well as to the captains of the --th, there seemed every +reason to push ahead. It was urged among them that, at last, Truman +should speak, and Truman did, as the captains of the --th positively +declined. "We have known Colonel Winthrop well, sir," said Truman, "and +we believe he will make long marches, perhaps forced marches, to throw +himself between the raiders and the reservation. Just as soon as a big +force gets there, they will scatter for the far north and northwest. The +only chance of punishing them is to get there at once while there is +still something left for them to kill or burn,--something to tempt them. +I fear, major, that unless we make better time we'll be too late for the +ball." + +Chrome listened placidly and without impatience of any kind. Yes, he +admitted, that was what White himself said. White was fuming with wrath +because he wasn't given command of a field column instead of being sent +west to cover the Pawnee Station road. "Small blame to him!" muttered +Cranston. "Why on earth couldn't this tortoise have been left to that +work and old Whitey given to us?" No! Major Chrome meant to advance with +caution and deliberation. If the Indians saw them coming precipitately, +they might be equally precipitate in their flight, and thereby defeat +the general's plans of having Tintop get in their rear, at which +characteristic opinion Captain Canker, of the --th, a man of many moods, +but a fighter, turned gloomily away, and was heard soon afterwards +swearing viciously. It was the old story of the army of lions with a +sheep at their head. + +And then came a calm, cloudless, radiant June Sunday, a day as perfect +and serene aloft as was that June Sunday of the year gone by on whose +high noon there rose the mad clamor of the battle on the Little Horn, +whose pitiless sun looked fiercely down upon the slaughtered ranks of +Custer and his gallant Seventh, and just as the red went out of the +western sky, and the sharp, jagged line of the Warrior Buttes melted +into softer purple, there came galloping in from the distant outpost an +excited trooper, who gave a paper to Major Chrome. The officers were +seated about him at a tiny fire, and Cranston quickly lighted a candle +lantern and the major read. It was from the officer of the picket. + +"Thunder Hawk and Rides Double just in from over toward the Ska. They +say they have seen 'plenty warriors' all day and are sure there has been +a big fight far across the valley. We could plainly see Indian +signal-smokes an hour ago, and Hawk says a heavy dust-cloud rose between +him and the sunset." It was signed "Davies." + +"Now, _there_, gentlemen!" said Chrome, "if we had pushed ahead any +faster Davies couldn't have kept up with us, and this evening he's +commanding the advance. If we had hurried, those Indians would have +hurried too and got clear away before Tintop could have got behind them +and struck them as he has. See how well it worked?" And Chrome glanced +contentedly about him. + +"That's all well enough, sir, so far as it goes," growled Captain +Canker, "but where do we come in on this campaign? What will be said of +our failure to get into the fight?" + +"What a growler you are, Canker! Why, man, in matters of this kind +individual ambition must give place to concerted plans. It's the _team_ +work, the _combinations_ that tell." And here the silent circle became +engrossed in pipes or in whittling, or in the contemplation of the very +ground at their feet, though from under the broad brims of their +scouting hats veteran campaigners exchanged meaning glances. Canker only +growled the more sulkily. + +"What I'm afraid of, Major Chrome, is that Colonel Winthrop may have +wanted us this very day, and forty miles wouldn't have reached him." + +"My heaven!" said Cranston, later that night, tossing upward his +clinched fists and nervous straining arms, "I feel like a man in a +nightmare. One long winter of incessant friction and undecided +clashings with Devers, and now this mad eagerness to be doing something +choked and smothered by this incubus at our head. If to-morrow brings no +relief I want to quit for good and all." + +But the long weeks of indecisive warfare, in camp as in the field, were +destined to have their climax at last. Well for the little battalion, +perhaps, was it, after all, that officers and men alike were boiling +over with repressed, pent-up fury for action, for when the morrow came +it called each soldier into line, and gave him giant work to do. + +Somewhere towards one o'clock in the morning, under the glitter and +sheen of the myriad stars overhead, while, all but the guard, the +troopers slept peacefully upon the prairie turf and, all but a few early +risers, their chargers, too, were drowsing undisturbed by the occasional +querulous yelp of the coyote,--somewhere, far out over the dim, shadowy +slopes to the westward, there rose upon the night the faint sound of a +trumpet call, seemingly miles away. In his extreme caution Chrome had +posted little parties full a mile out from the bivouac, north, east, and +west, and it was while slowly riding to the westernmost of these that +the officer of the guard first thought he heard the sound. A corporal of +Cranston's troop was at his heels. "Yes, sir," he said, in answer to the +low, eager question, as the two reined in their horses, "I could almost +swear I heard it. I couldn't make out the signal though--could only hear +a note or two." They found the picket alert, even excited. They, too, +had heard something very like a faint trumpet call very far to the west, +and Davies waited no longer. "You remain here, corporal. I'll call the +captain." And in a few moments he was bending over Cranston. The latter +was awake in a minute, and together they hastened out afoot, past +snoring troopers or snorting steeds, and stood some hundred yards +outside the inner sentry line. + +"Hay left Scott with 'A' and 'I' troops Wednesday, as we know," said +Cranston, "but it's impossible he could have caught us yet, though he +took the cutoff. That night trumpeting's a trick of the --th. They tried +it twice last summer." + +"I know, sir, and may not that be some of them trying to find us?" + +"Well, hardly. You know Atherton only had one troop left at Russell, the +other five were sent up toward the Big Horn ten days ago. Listen! There +it goes again!" + +Yes, unmistakably, faint, far, but clear, the notes of a cavalry trumpet +could be heard, and, while Davies hurried to rouse the major, Cranston +stirred up his boy bugler. It took a minute or two to make Chrome +comprehend the situation. "Why," said he, "who'd be ass enough to be +marching or drilling with trumpet calls this hour of the night and in +the midst of a campaign?" + +Cranston reminded him how scattered troops of the --th, his own +regiment, had found each other by night the previous year; how Truscott +announced the coming of his relieving column to Wayne's beleaguered +squadron; and Chrome slowly found his legs and faculties, but wouldn't +believe his subordinates. He demanded the evidence of his own senses, +and unwillingly accompanied them to the point beyond the lines, +Cranston's trumpeter sleepily following. It was full five minutes before +again the call was heard, and then it seemed farther away than before, +too far away for Chrome, who still could not believe it. + +"Let my trumpeter hail them," urged Cranston, "then they'll answer." But +Chrome said that wouldn't do; it would wake up or startle everybody in +camp, and so declined. + +"It's all your fancy," he said. "There are none of our fellows with +Tintop, and----" + +"But he knows you, with at least two troops of the --th, are somewhere +out here, sir, and he takes a regimental way of trying to communicate +with you. I beg you to listen one moment more. _There!_" And this time +even Chrome was convinced, and the next instant guards and pickets, +sleeping troopers, and drowsing steeds all came staggering to their +feet, roused by the shrill blast from Cranston's trumpet sounding +"Forward!" + +And half an hour later there came jogging wearily into camp, guided for +a time only by the call, and finally met and escorted by the picket, a +sergeant and trumpeter from old Tintop himself, and the letter they bore +put an end even to Chrome's inertness. In brief, terse words it told the +story. He and his command had had a sharp, stubborn fight with a big +force of hostiles that very day, with considerable loss to both. "If you +had been here with your men," Tintop said, "I believe we could have +cleaned them out entirely." The main body, however, had retired toward +the agency at the head of Spirit River, but a band of Uncapapas and +Minneconjous, that had cut loose from all, had gone on down the Ska, +making for a junction with some of Red Dog's people at the confluence of +the streams. Tintop held that Chrome must be there by this time, but if +detained from any cause this was to tell him to strike, strike hard and +instantly with every man at his back, and that he, Winthrop, would +support as soon as possible. + +Fording the Ska above the narrows of the valley, the faithful messengers +had plunged into the open country to the east, so as to keep well in +rear of the fleeing Indians, then sounding officers' call, the night +signal of the --th, as they came, rode eastward through the starlight, +scouring the broad prairies for the comrade column. + +Half an hour later the command was saddling. Coffee had been hurriedly +served. The packers were lashing their bulky sacks and boxes to the +_apparejos_ and turning loose the patient little burden-bearers. Old +Thunder Hawk, grave and dignified, had been standing in consultation +with Chrome and his troop commanders. He knew the point where the +hostiles were probably in camp, and placed it, as did Tintop's scouts, +close to the confluence of the Wakpa Wakon and the Ska. Thunder Hawk was +of the Ogallallas, therefore not a tribesman of the renegades, but he +was a Sioux, and therefore a brother. He had counselled peace to his +people, and they had rewarded him with taunts and jeers. He had +accompanied the column, formally enrolled as a scout, and he would be +guide and adviser to the white chief, yet shrank from personal part in +the coming battle. He had been asked how many miles it was to the forks +and replied fifteen, "but," said he, "it is much farther by the way the +chief should go." + +"We want to go the shortest way," was Chrome's short reply. "The +quickest way to reach and strike them." + +Already Cranston seemed to divine what the old Indian meant to +counsel,--"The longest way round is the shortest way home," in fact, as +Hawk calmly explained. They knew the white soldiers were coming from +Ogallalla. They expected them from the southeast,--had seen them coming +from that direction and, falling back to the stream before them, were +watching for their coming on the following morn. Their scouts could not +be more than a few miles in front of them now. They would be up and away +the moment they heard of the near approach of the column. Then it would +be a stern chase into the heart of the hills, and there, reinforced by +renegades from all sides, they might be able to turn upon and overwhelm +their pursuers. There was only one likely way of striking them where +they were, and that was by making wide circuit to the north, fording the +Ska far behind their camp, and then, turning up-stream, attack them from +the north or northeast. Chrome saw the point and yielded. When at 1.30 +the little command mounted and moved away it was at brisk, steady walk, +"column half right," with the pole star high aloft but straight ahead. +Ten minutes out and they struck the trot. "Bedad!" said Trooper Riley, +at the rear of column, "Old Chrome Teller's had his nap out at last." + +Many's the time a cavalry column, after an all-night march, finds +itself jaded and drowsy just as a blithe young world is waking up to +hail the coming day. Far different is the feeling when, refreshed by a +few hours' sound and dreamless sleep, warmed with that soldier comfort, +coffee, and thrilled by the whispered news of "fight ahead," the troop +pricks eagerly on. Then the faint blush of the eastern sky, the cool +breath of the morning breeze, the dim gray light that steals across the +view, all are hailed with bounding pulse and kindling eyes. It was just +at the peep of day, after a glorious burst over the bounding turf, that +Chrome's little battalion, some two hundred and forty strong, riding in +broad column of fours, and guided by old Thunder Hawk himself, turned +squarely to the left at the head of a long, dark, winding ravine, and, +diminishing front to two abreast, and steadying down to the walk again, +dove out of sight among the tortuous depths. Thirty minutes more and the +Ska was foaming about the horses' bellies as they boldly forded the +stream, every man whipping out and raising carbine as his steed plunged +in. Then, turning southwestward, close under the bluffs of the Indian +shore, they rode within the reservation lines at last, with the dawn no +longer at the sabre hand, but at the bridle. Peering out through the dim +ghostly light, long miles to the south, were the Uncapapa scouts, +watching for the first sign of the coming of the column that, slipping +away from before them in the darkness of midnight, had ridden in wide +circuit around and across their front, burrowed into the earth at the +first blush of the morning sky, reappeared dripping on the left bank of +the bordering stream, the Rubicon of the reservation, and now was +swiftly bearing down upon the devoted village from a quarter utterly +unsuspected. + +"Just 4.15," said Cranston, glancing at his watch as soon as it was +possible to see. "How do you feel, Davies?" + +"Better than I have for a month, though tired. I told Burroughs no harm +could result. That scratch is almost entirely healed. How far ahead are +they supposed to be, captain? It'll be broad daylight, even in this deep +valley, in a quarter of an hour." + +Sanders, acting as Chrome's adjutant, came riding back from the head of +column at the very moment and reined about alongside his own troop +commander. "I'd rather be here in my old place, sir, and you're in big +luck to have it, Parson. The major says he wants to capture their whole +pony herd, if it takes three troops to do it, and 'C' is to charge the +village and rout out the bucks." + +It so happened that Cranston's troop was bringing up the rear of +column,--only the pack-mules and their guard being behind,--a long +distance behind at the moment, for the pace had been trot or lope for +ten miles until the command reached the shelter of the ravine. + +"I was in hopes there was no village," said Cranston; "that we'd only +strike the wickyups of a war-party. Do you mean village, Sanders?" + +"Thunder Hawk says he's afraid so, sir. He thinks the Uncapapas and +Minneconjous who were rounded up last fall really want to get away and +join the bulk of their tribe who are summering in Canada with Sitting +Bull. If so this was their chance, and they've got their women and +children with them." + +Cranston's face seemed to grow paler in the gray gathering light. +"There's no help for it, then," he said; "but I hate that sort of thing. +How near are we?" + +"Within two or three miles," Hawk says. "He and Bear and two others have +galloped out ahead. We'll know by the time we've reached that bluff +yonder." And he pointed to a magnificent rose-tipped palisade of rock +that jutted out across their path. "That's Good Heart Butte, and the +Wakon comes in just around it. It's ten to one we'll find them right +there. Where're you going, Cullen?" he called to a trooper who came +cantering back past the flank of the column. + +"To hurry up the pack-train, sir. It's the major's orders," sung out the +trooper, only momentarily checking his horse. It always annoys the +officers of a marching column to have messengers galloping up and down +along their flanks, but this was the major's own orderly, and no man +might rebuke but the chief himself. + +"Reckon I'd better get up to the front again," said Sanders, as he +spurred away and left the friends together. Cranston looked back at his +leading four. His veteran first sergeant was commanding a platoon, and +it was a junior sergeant who rode with the head of column, and next him +a stunted little Irish corporal, for by the inexorable rule of the +cavalry the shorter men rode at the flanks of the troop. Midway down the +column the guidon-bearer was just unfurling and shaking out its silken +folds, but without raising it so as to attract the attention of possible +spies. Forward, in the ranks of the two companies of the --th, uniforms +were rare and no guidons visible;--long campaigning in Arizona had +taught the uselessness of both in Indian warfare, but the Eleventh had +their traditions, as had the Seventh, and rode into action with a +certain old-fashioned style and circumstance that lent inspiration to +the scene. Turning out of column for a moment the captain rode slowly +alongside, looking over his men as they passed him by. There was always +something trim, elastic, jaunty about his troop, and they knew it, and +even on long marches in hard campaigns the men would instinctively +"brace up" and raise their heads and square their dusty shoulders when +they felt the captain's eye upon them. He couldn't help seeing how +eagerly and with what trust and faith in their leader many of his sixty +glanced at him as though to question what work he might have in hand for +them to-day. Side by side with the guidon-bearer rode Corporal Brannan. +"Another chance for our prodigy," smiled Cranston to himself. "I wonder +if it will be as warm in Chicago as it promises to be here. More than +one mother there will be kneeling little dreaming, even as she prays for +his safety, what scenes her boy may be battling through this day." The +thought sent a lump into his throat and softened the soldier light in +his eye. "You'd rather be here than at the agency guard, I fancy, +Brannan?" + +"Indeed I would, sir, if we get a fight out of 'em." + +"We'll get it, I think, and speedily, too. Look to your pistols, men. +We're to charge them." + +One could almost feel the thrill that leaped along the column. Every +horse seemed to start and paw and dance as though impatient for the +word. Some faces flushed, others lost a shade or two of tan, as some +faces will in presence of sudden peril or the news of stirring battle +just ahead. Out from the holsters came the blue-brown Colts, each man +twirling the cylinder, testing the hammer and trigger, and counting his +shots, even while holding the weapon steadfastly "muzzle up." Nervous +troopers have been known to kill a comrade or his horse at just such +times. + +"Look to it that each has six shots ready, and remember the old rules +now, men. Stop for nothing unless some one falls. Charge through and +rally on the farther side. Careful about the women and children if there +are any. Return pistol now." And here again came Sanders galloping back, +his face aglow, his eyes snapping. + +"Treed 'em, captain," he shouted, gleefully. "A thundering big, +loose-jointed village, too, tepees and all. It covers a ten-acre lot and +more. Must be a thousand ponies in the herd right around the point. The +major says to come ahead with 'C.'" + +Just here the ground was open and fairly level, the trail cutting across +a bend in the stream. Just ahead towered Good Heart Butte, with its +glistening, gilded crest throwing a black shadow half-way up the +billowing westward slopes. Over at the east across the stream, bold and +beautifully rounded, the bluffs went rolling away, knoll after knoll, +shoulder after shoulder heavily wooded and fringed at their bases and in +the deep ravines, and away over those natural ramparts, far out to the +southeast, still rode and peeped and peered the young braves, but ever +in the direction of the far Ogallalla, marvelling that no sign appeared +of the threatening foe. Not half a mile in front, along a low ridge, a +little group of scouts, Hawk, Bear, and two half-breed Sioux, were +lying, peeping at the village still sleeping in fancied security. +Chrome, riding a trifle heavily, and speaking with just a tinge of +excitement in his tone, came jogging back from the ridge to meet his men +just as Cranston's troop trotted up from the rear of column, parallel +with their comrades of the --th, at whose head rode Canker with that +injured expression on his face that was habitual to him at no time more +than when he thought somebody else was going to get into a fight ahead +of him. He couldn't understand why Chrome should have picked out +Cranston for the dash on the village and retained him for so much less +conspicuous a duty. Everybody, however, who knew Canker knew he had +absolutely no dash at all. Brave and determined he might be, but +Canker's idea of a charge was a steady advance in line, to be instantly +checked and corrected and done over again if the men lost either touch +or "dress." + +"We haven't a moment to lose, gentlemen," sang out the major. "The +village is already waking. Cranston, you charge through and stir 'em up +all you can. Truman, you support Cranston in line, but don't follow in +unless he's checked. Captain Canker, take the two troops and round up +that pony herd; it's half a mile long. Just as quick as you've rallied +beyond the village, Cranston, you face about and stand off any Indians +who rip out on that side. What I want is to drive every pony across the +Wakon and up the Ska valley, where we'll find support. Get them on the +jump and we're all right. Now I'll ride somewhere between Canker and +Truman. All ready now?" "What I want to know, major, is this," began +Canker, always on the lookout for some point or flaw. + +"Well, you can ask what you want as we advance, captain. Are you ready, +Cranston?" + +"Ay, ay, sir," answered Cranston, in the hearty, nautical fashion he so +much liked that it had become habitual with him. + +"Then shove ahead. We're backing you now. Now, Canker, what is it?" + +But no one else cared what Canker wanted. All eyes were on Cranston and +his troop. Quickening the pace he led the way, keeping in fours until +clear of the head of column, then rapidly forming line. "Now, Davies, +just keep them so," he ordered, as he rode diagonally over in front of +the first platoon, "while I gallop ahead and get a peep over that +ridge." + +Another minute and, curveting with impatience even after their +twenty-mile spurt, the handsome bays were dancing in one long line over +the springy turf, Davies and two stalwart sergeants in front of the +three platoons. They saw their soldierly leader whip off his hat as he +rode up the slope, rein cautiously in and peer eagerly over, saw him +gesticulating as he conferred with old Hawk, who lay on his stomach a +dozen yards farther to the front and to the right, where the ridge was a +little higher. Every man knew that just ahead of him, over that curtain, +lay in overwhelming force the mass of their red enemies. Not one of +their rank had yet set eyes on the point of attack. Not one man knew how +many lodges, much less how many braves, would leap into view the instant +they went bounding over the crest; yet not a soul faltered, for, turning +with confident, eager mien, their captain signalled come on, and Davies +ordered "Trot!" + +"It's all right, lads," cheerily rang Cranston's voice, as he rode +circling down to place himself at their head. "The ground's open and +level. We can go through like a blizzard. Draw pistol! Now, not a sound +till I say charge, but take the pace from me." + +Up the gentle slope they go, many horses already plunging and tugging at +their bits, the glorious excitement of the rider communicating itself, +as it must and will where horse and man are in sympathy. Right behind +Cranston rides his second sergeant commanding the second platoon, the +streaming guidon, lowered still, a little to his left and rear. Already +the men are opening out a trifle, for this is to be no charge upon +serried masses of disciplined troops, no crash of cavalry upon cavalry, +where the line which rides with the greater impetus, the closer touch, +the more accurate alignment, hurls the greater shock and weight upon the +foe. Here no naked sabre flames in air,--a useless blade in Indian +battle,--but all through the plunging rank are keen old campaigners +whose eyes blaze from underneath the slouching hat brims, whose muscular +brown hands grasp the pistol butt, who ride with close gripping thighs, +for well they know that once over the crest, "gallop" and "charge" will +follow in quick succession, and there will be but an instant in which to +see and think or plan. Indeed, from a cavalry point of view it really is +not a charge at all, not even a charge as foragers, but rather a wild +dash into and through a straggling, swarming village of Indian lodges, +every man for himself when once turned loose, the whole object being to +carry terror, panic, and confusion to the half-waking warriors, and so +cover the major's main effort, which is to whirl away with him every +pony in the valley. This done the red renegades are crippled for good +and all, and their outbreak is at an end. + +All eyes are on Cranston's gallant troop then as it goes sweeping up the +gentle slope. Already Truman's men are galloping front into line so as +to follow and support. Already Chrome is spurring eagerly forward to +watch the effect. Already Canker, grim, cynical, dissatisfied, but +obedient, is launching his leading troop well over to the right front, +at swift gallop, too, so as to head off such fugitives--Indians or +ponies--as may attempt to scurry away westward; but still the eyes of +all men seem to follow Cranston, for his, after all, is the perilous +part. Already Thunder Hawk and Bear have run back down the slope to leap +into saddle, for the earth begins to quiver and shake under the bounding +hoofs, and with another moment all the valley will wake to the ringing +battle-cry. "My God!" mutters little Sanders, lunging along after his +major, "why ain't I with my own instead of loafing here?" + +And now they see Cranston glancing back over his shoulder and carrying +hand to holster. Up like a centaur he bounds against the sky line, up +after him the long rank of ragged hat brims and blue-shirted, +broad-belted, manly forms, up the plunging line of hard-tugging bays, +their black tails streaming in the morning wind, and then Cranston's arm +flings up aloft; up into plain view streams and flaps the silken +guidon,--the stars and stripes in swallow-tailed miniature that the +troopers loved to see,--and then the thud gives way to thunder, for as +one man "C" troop strikes the gallop with the thronging Indian village +not five hundred yards ahead. + +Scattered over the low level between the receding bluffs and the rapid +stream, loosely covering a stretch of nearly half a mile along the +shores, with their ragged crown of pole tops wrapped in smoky hide or +canvas, their spreading bases littered with the rude crates, +"parfleches" and travois, some fourscore Indian wigwams burst into view +as the line darts over the crest. "Oh, murther! Six to wan at least," +gasps an old growler in the right platoon, and Davies whirls about in +saddle. "Silence there, Donovan!" is all he says. + +And now can be seen wild scurry and confusion. Four or five dingy forms +dart in and out among the tepees. Three or four Indian boys are lashing +in from the almost countless herd of ponies. Startled by the tremor and +thunder, the nearest of these sturdy little beasts, with tossing heads +and manes, have taken alarm, and are already beginning an aimless +scamper that in another moment will spread to the entire flock. Not a +moment to lose, indeed! One more backward glance does Cranston fling as +his magnificent bay quickens his stride, and the long line instantly +responds. One half nod, half smile to Davies, for the Parson rides like +moss trooper of old, with grim set face, despite the eager light in his +keen, blue-gray eyes. + +"Open out now a little, men! Gently, keep your rank!" for the chargers +are tugging madly, straining for a race. A terrified squaw, clasping her +baby to her breast, bursts from the nearest tepee, pauses one instant +as though paralyzed, and then, with unerring instinct, holding her +little one on high, runs straight forward, mutely appealing, straight +for the galloping line. "Open out! Look out for the kid! Let her +through, lads," are the low, hurried cautions. Somewhere on the near +skirt of the village a wild war-whoop rings out on the air, a mad cry of +warning, then bang, zip, comes the first shot from the tepees, whistling +over Cranston's shoulder and skimming a mile away down-stream. No need +of further caution now. Now is the time. Cranston's voice rings like the +bugler's clarion mingling in the order "Charge!" and the welkin rings, +the rocks re-echo to the grand burst of cheers with which "C" Troop goes +tearing, thrashing into the heart of the village, swallowed up instantly +in a dense cloud of dust. For a moment cheer and yell and rallying and +war-cry, mingling with the thunder of hoofs and the sharp crackling of +revolver and rifle, drown all other sounds. Then the screams of Indian +women and children add to the clamor, and, with slashing knives, the +startled braves hew their way out through the tepees. Then the thunder +is swelled by the mad rush of the pony herd away from the driving storm. +The cheer is renewed by Canker's men, yelling and hat waving at the +heels of the herd. The dust-cloud in the village is but a flimsy veil to +the dense volume that goes floating skyward and southward, for practised +hands have prevailed, and the red man's most precious possessions, all +but a scattered few stampeding to and fro among the wigwams, are swept +from his maddened sight. + +And then comes the rally on the flats beyond. Sweeping and circling in +the effort to control their excited horses, the troopers, exultant, come +reining up into line long pistol-shot south of the terror-stricken +village. Off to the west the great dust-cloud is slowly settling to +earth, and through it Truman's men, in perfect order, with carbines +advanced, can be seen moving by the flank, but interposing ever between +the village and the captured herds. Cranston, easily reining his pawing +charger, sits facing the reforming centre of his panting line. The +guidon-bearer is there all right and waves aloft the fluttering folds, +and the boy trumpeter tries to sound the recall, but makes a mess of it, +and throws the forming rank into convulsions of unrebuked chaff and +laughter. The captain is proud of his men and unbends for the occasion, +but, all the same, he eagerly counts the files, looking for this +familiar bearded face or that. Both sergeant platoon commanders are +there. The second and third platoons re-form without much delay and with +hardly a missing face. It's the first that proves to be the last. They +had to charge through the thickest part of the village,--the westward +side, where more Indians were awake and alert, roused by the cries of +the herd guards. The dust-cloud is still settling. Galloping forms still +issue from it and the western skirts of the village, from the clumps of +Cottonwoods, from under the banks, whither the mad dash of some horses +had carried their riders. But Cranston's face loses its smile, a world +of anxiety suddenly replaces it, for shots and yells ring from the midst +of the village still, and the chief of the first platoon is not here to +rally his men. + +"Who's missing there, sergeant?" he calls, spurring over to where a +trooper comes riding heavily forward, drooping a little as he rides. + +"Four or five, sir. Donovan was shot from his horse and the lieutenant +went back for him." + +"_Quick_, trumpeter! Ride to Captain Truman and tell him to whirl about +and help us. _Now_, men, follow for all you're worth!" + +And when the dust-cloud settles on the flats south of the Minneconjou +village, only one of "C" Troop remains to greet the eyes of the +battalion adjutant, sent back with Major Chrome's impatient query as to +why on earth the Eleventh doesn't come on. It is Sergeant Grant, who has +toppled out of saddle--dead. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + + +If there be any truth in the saying that a burnt child shuns the fire, +the two officers who led "C" troop in its dash on the village should +have been almost anywhere else, and at least ten of Cranston's men bore +the scars of previous battle, either in the South or on the frontier. +The captain was still reminded of his ugly wound, received the previous +summer, by sharp, burning twinges of pain. Davies, the junior, as we +know, had not yet recovered his strength, and had gone on this sudden +raid, stepping practically from a sick-bed to the saddle. Twice that +morning, as the captain looked with ill-concealed anxiety into the face +of his friend and subaltern, he noted its pallor, despite the expression +of stern determination. Had there been time he would covertly have +warned three or four "stalwarts" of the first platoon not to lose sight +of their lieutenant, and to hold themselves close in support, but there +was no time. Indeed, as the sequel proved, there was no need. Soldier +stories fly fast among the rank and file, and the men of "C" Troop had +heard from many a source how the young officer on his first campaign had +denied himself, stinted himself, starved himself, nearly, in order to +share his scant supply of food with the weak and suffering in his own +troop, and so they welcomed his presence with them now when the column +marched from the cantonment, and spoke among themselves their admiration +of the pluck of the young officer in being so soon again on duty. + +[Illustration: "LOOK OUT! DON'T HARM THE WOMEN." + +Page 431.] + +And so it happened that as the pace quickened that stirring June morning +and the long line swept down upon the rousing, shrieking village, and +the first shot came singing over their heads and the wild cheer leaped +to their lips as the trumpet sounded charge, while many troopers sought +their own course through and among the fire-spitting lodges, Sergeant +Grant with Donovan and two others drove their horses close at the heels +of the lieutenant's. Only squaws or children appeared among the tepees +as they dashed furiously in. "Look out! Don't harm the women!" they +heard him cry, as he held his own pistol hand well aloft, but in another +second a scowling, painted faced flashed one brief instant into view as +their leader went lunging by, a shot rang on the air, and flame and +smoke jetted from the lodge opening. Three pistols barked in answer and +Davies galloped on unhurt, but poor Donovan, with an Irish howl, dropped +his revolver, clapped his hands to his stomach as he toppled out of +saddle. "My God, fellers, I've got it," was his moan, as Davies, a +superb rider, quickly turned his horse about, and in the twinkling of an +eye leaped to the ground to the trooper's side. + +"Quick, sergeant. Quick, men, help me lift him on my saddle, I'm too +weak," was his almost breathless order, and gallantly did they answer +him. + +"Are ye badly hit, Jimmy?" gasped an honest Irish lad, as he strove to +raise him from the ground. But deathly pallor and staring, sightless +eyes were the sole reply. "My God, lieutenant, he's killed outright. +There's no use staying," cried another trooper. "Mount, sir, mount for +God's sake! They'll be on us in a minute." But tugging still at the limp +and lifeless form, Davies did not seem to hear. The fierce clamor of the +charge was receding. Already the second and third platoons had cleared +the village and were reining about and rallying on the flats up-stream. +Already the pony herds, driven full tilt by Canker's squadron, were out +of sight in the dense dust-cloud and could be heard thundering up the +valley. Only a portion of Truman's troop could be dimly seen through the +settling dust, but, worst of all, the warriors recovering from their +panic came rushing from their lodges, and in a moment all would be over +with the struggling little group of blue-coats. Fortunately, they were +at the western skirt of the village, and almost all the rallying braves +were running, rifle in hand, down to the southern edge, the direction of +the chase. Some few, springing upon the scattered ponies left among the +tepees, rode furiously away into the dust-cloud in the hope of +recapturing some of their stampeded stock, and so it happened that, +except for some shrieking women, only one or two Indians appeared aware +of the little knot of troopers still in their midst, but that was more +than enough. Davies's horse, pierced by a rifle bullet, went rolling in +agony upon the ground just as a devoted Irishman was trying to bolster +the almost exhausted officer into saddle, and, luckily for him, Davies +was borne to earth out of the way of the shots that came driving at them +from the surrounding lodges. "Save yourselves," he faintly called to the +remaining men. Already Grant had darted away for help, receiving his +death wound as he rode. Then down came another horse, while Donovan's, +snorting, tore away among the tepees, and then there was help for it. +The little Irishman, Carney, bending low, strove to drag his prostrate +leader, stunned by a kick from his dying horse, around behind the +nearest lodge, when he, too, was sent blindly stumbling forward and +sprawling in the dust, shot through and through from an unseen rifle not +ten feet away, and the gallant fellow never heard the furious cheer with +which "C" Troop came charging back to the rescue. + +It is one thing to dash into an Indian village; it is another to get out +of it. Wounded or unhorsed, any men left behind are doomed to cruel and +certain death. Within another minute, Cranston and his men came tearing +in, firing right and left at every dusky form that appeared. Within a +minute the prostrate bodies were found, and half a dozen men, Brannan +among them, had sprung from their saddles, while the others rode +blazing with their revolvers at the nearest lodges, some bringing their +carbines into play. But even within that minute the scalping-knife had +been at work, and poor Donovan's mutilated head lay in a pool of blood. +Short-lived triumph for the scalper, sneaking to shelter with his +hideous prize, for Cranston's pistol stretched him in his tracks, and +Sergeant Buckner's big charger knocked the foremost of the rescuing +warriors scrambling back between the lodges, where other troopers drove +their horses trampling them under foot. But every wigwam had its +garrison. The village swarmed with maddened braves, who now came rushing +to the scene, and, they on foot and the troopers in saddle, they with +their repeating rifles, the troopers with their pistols or +single-shooters, annihilation of the latter could be but a question of a +few moments. Even before Davies and his brave defenders could be lifted +to the saddle and led away, two or three more of Cranston's horses went +down, and Corporal Bertram was shot through both thighs. Then came the +effort to retire fighting, covering their dead and wounded. There was +only one way to go,--out across the westward flat, where the ponies were +peacefully grazing when the attacking column hove in sight. Even as he +shouted his orders to his savagely fighting troop, Cranston looked back +with keen anxiety. To what pitiless fire must they be exposed in +retreating over that prairie! Yet, with Indians on every hand within the +village, it was manifestly his duty to get out. "Go on with the +wounded!" he cried to the men afoot. "Go on! We'll cover you." And then +Davies slowly opened his eyes and began to look feebly about him. Oh, +if Truman would only come! Every second the fight waged fiercer, hotter, +and more men dropped as they backed slowly away. Down went Buckner's +horse. Down went the guidon, and then, when it seemed as though half the +troop must fall before they could reach the open field, the +half-frenzied, half-joyous cheer of Truman's men rose shrill above the +clamor, and again the dancing, howling Indians dove for cover underneath +the tepees as "F" Troop came thundering through. + +"By the Lord, but that's the hottest place I ever struck!" cried +Sergeant Buckner a moment later, as, slowly falling back now, most of +the men fighting on foot, with the led horses and the disabled soldiers +well beyond them, "C" Troop was making its way southwestward towards the +clump of Cottonwoods and willows, close along the stream. Truman's men, +after their spirited and successful charge, were now rallying well to +the north of the village beyond the ridge, where for the time being they +were safe from the Indian fire. But once more now the warriors in the +village were swarming along its western limit and, flat on their +bellies, firing vengefully on Cranston's retiring line, now three +hundred yards away, and every moment some horse would rear and plunge, +stung by the hissing lead, but only one more soldier had been hit. +Davies, faint and dizzy and only semi-conscious still, was riding slowly +away with Brannan's supporting arm about him. The bodies of Carney and +Donovan were thrown across led horses and lashed on with lariats, and +Cranston had just sent a corporal to tell the horse-holders to move more +quickly when, up the slopes to the north, the men caught sight of a +horse and rider darting toward them from the distant ridge over which +Truman's men had disappeared. Straight as an arrow's flight they came, +heedless of the fact that their course was along the western edge of the +Indian village and barely two hundred yards away. "My God, fellers, it's +little Millikin!" cried an excited trooper. "Ride wide, you young +idiot!" yelled another, but all to no purpose. The boy trumpeter who had +borne the message to Truman and charged with him through the village was +now on his homing flight to rejoin his own. Vengeful yells and +war-whoops rang from the village as warrior after warrior caught sight +of him and blazed away. Throwing himself out of saddle, Indian fashion, +and clinging like a monkey to the off side, the young dare-devil drove +straight onward, the bullets nipping the bunch grass and kicking up the +dust under his racer's flying feet, yet mercifully whizzing by him. +Running the gauntlet of more than half the length of the village, the +little rascal darted, grinning, through the cheering skirmish line, and +tumbled to his feet before his beloved chief. + +"Captain Truman's compliments, sir, and he'll rejoin you at the timber," +was his message, delivered while his quivering horse stood flicking his +long tail at a red seam in his silky coat where one bullet at least had +scored its way, and Cranston bade him take his horse--and no more such +fool chances--and get under cover straightway. + +But now in falling back the skirmish line had made an irregular half +wheel to the southward with a flying pivot toward the village, and the +Indians were darting or crawling out south of the tepees so as to get +an enfilading fire on the line. Cranston's quick eyes saw the danger and +warned his right skirmishers. "Back there! Fall back, you men! Run for +it!" he shouted; and to the jeering rage of the Indians the run began, +the men halting and refacing the village as soon as beyond danger of +flank fire, and then came still another excitement. Even while falling +steadily back, with wary eyes on the smoking lodge lines, the men at the +right became suddenly aware of a rush of several Indians to the point +where the troop had re-formed after its initial charge. "They're making +for the timber," was the first cry, for a few scattered, stunted trees +grew along the low ridge. Then came a yell from the rear, from the +sergeant in charge of the led horses. + +"It's one of our men lying there wounded. For God's sake save him!" and +that was enough. Every carbine along the line was brought to bear on the +stooping, crouching, scurrying warriors who had ventured so far out from +the sheltering tepees. Obedient to Davies's order, Brannan and two or +three men in saddle left the wounded to take care of themselves, and +spurred headlong across the prairie to the scene, and Cranston, catching +sight of the affair at the same instant, waved his cap in eager signal, +while his voice, now hoarse and choked, could hardly be heard in the +order "By the right flank." Truman's column of fours, reappearing at the +instant at the north, but well to the westward of the village, could not +imagine what that distant manoeuvre meant, but it was no time to ask +questions. "Gallop" was the order, and down they came. And so it +happened that barely twenty minutes after the first shot was fired the +comrade troops of the Eleventh were once more united, and, facing nearly +north, were in furious fight with an overwhelming force of Indians, +while Chrome, turning deaf ear to Sanders's supplications, was vainly +striving to round up a galloping herd of several hundred ponies full +three miles away. Picking up the body of Sergeant Grant, saved from +scalping and mutilation by the dash of Brannan and his squad, "C" Troop +was once more wearily retiring toward the timber along the Wakon, and +Truman deploying his dismounted skirmishers to their relief. + +And then, as the horses were huddled at last under the bank, and the +wounded were tenderly lowered to the shade of the willows, and the dead, +with soldier reverence, laid, blanket covered, under a spreading tree, +the captains met to compare notes and sum up the losses. Grave indeed +were their faces, for two of the best sergeants were killed as well as +five veteran troopers, and nearly a dozen were more or less severely +wounded. Davies, unscarred by bullet, lay faint from loss of blood, and +dizzy and dazed from the blow from his horse's hoof. The knife wound, +Red Dog's treacherous work, had reopened as a result of his violent +throw to earth, and there was no surgeon nearer than Chrome's battalion, +now out of sight far up the Ska. "Thank God! they've got few ponies +left," said Cranston, fervently. "We can hold them here until help +comes." + +And help was coming, hard and fast,--harder and faster than Cranston +dreamed, but not to them. Within the next quarter hour, greeted by +frantic acclamations from the hostile village, there rode into view on +the opposite bluff, and came shouting their war-song, brandishing +feathered lance or gleaming rifle, more than a hundred red +warriors,--Ogallallas, Brulés, Minneconjous all, with Red Dog himself, +escaped from durance at the agency, madly revelling in their midst. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + + +It was barely sunrise when Chrome's battalion struck the hostile camp +this hot June day, and two hours later the situation was comfortless +enough--for the strikers. Hampered with their wounded and having lost a +dozen horses killed, the two troops of the Eleventh on whom had devolved +the harsher share of the work had been compelled to halt in the timber +and stand off the now exultant Indians. With a hundred mounted warriors +at his back and as many more afoot in the village, Red Dog promptly took +the offensive, sent his yelling braves in big circle all around the +clump of timber in which Truman and Cranston had posted their men, cut +off communication with Chrome's party, now "doing herd guard duty half a +dozen miles up the Ska," as some of Cranston's men derisively said, and +then, little by little, established the dismounted braves in every +hollow, behind every little ridge or mound, and soon had a complete +circle of fire all about the wearied little force. As senior officer, +Captain Truman was now in command of the detachment, but between him +and Cranston there was a bond of cordial esteem and comradeship, and the +command was purely a matter of form. Each had had long years of +experience in frontier warfare, each knew just what had to be done, and +neither regarded the situation as either desperate or particularly +dangerous. It would have been an easy matter to cut their way out +anywhere but for the helpless wounded, who would be butchered to a man +if left behind. Here in the timber, with water in abundance, and +comparative shelter for the disabled men and for the horses under the +banks, they could remain until relief should reach them. This with +Chrome's two troops not very far away and their own old colonel, with +half the regiment, somewhere over in the hills to the southwest, they +felt very well assured ought to be only a matter of a few hours. "It was +big luck," said Truman, "that our little pack-train got in when it did. +Ten minutes later and they'd have been cut off and massacred." + +But the further advantage lay with the Indians that they just knew +exactly where Chrome was and Tintop, too, and knew that neither one was +making the first effort to relieve his surrounded comrades, Tintop +because he was twenty miles away and had no knowledge of what was going +on at the mouth of the Spirit River, and Chrome because he was utterly +rattled by the mounted warriors now beginning to appear in increasing +numbers around him. He had sustained no loss to speak of. None of his +men had been hit. Only two horses had been struck by their long-range +fire. He was, to use his own words, "Really provoked at Truman and +Cranston. They might know he needed them in holding such a big herd of +ponies." Poor Sanders was in a miserable state of anxiety. He begged the +major to let him take ten men and go back to find them, or even to let +him go back alone. He pointed out that they must have had a fierce +fight. He had found Sergeant Grant dead, and heard the fierce battling +in the villages where both troops were engaged, and then he had galloped +through the dust-cloud to Chrome, narrowly escaping death as he did so, +and told him the situation, confidently expecting that Chrome would turn +the ponies loose, rally his men and dash back to the village; but Chrome +did nothing of the kind. "They should have come to me," he said. "We're +the ones in need," then sent him with an order to Canker, who, out on +the right flank, was making the morning blue with blasphemy, and Sanders +poured his tale into Canker's ears, and begged him to come and make +Chrome understand the situation, and Canker replied that nothing short +of a pile-driver could hammer an idea into a skull as thick as Chrome's, +and nothing short of a blast get anything out of it. The man was a born +idiot and had no more idea how to command cavalry in the field than he, +Canker, had of teaching Sunday-school. Oddly enough, many of Canker's +contemporaries said the same of him, but one never knows and rarely +suspects half what one's brethren say or think of him. The valley was +black with ponies, the troopers were black with dust, and a pall as of +night hung over the herd, so dense that the sun rays were swallowed up +in its depths and gave but little light below, and tears of rage and +misery that started from Sanders's eyes trickled down through a sandy +desert on each sun-blistered cheek. He rode back to his temporary chief +just as an Indian bullet had whizzed in front of the major's nose and +made his eyes almost pop from his head. "Don't you see," he urged, +reproachfully, "how very much more they are around us? If Truman or +Cranston needed help they would have let us know long ago." + +After a brisk gallop of three or four miles up the valley of the Ska, +the troopers of the --th had permitted the stampeded ponies to take +things more leisurely, and so it resulted that by six o'clock many of +their number were stopping occasionally to nibble at the grass which +grew here luxuriantly, but there was, all the same, a steady, persistent +movement of the living mass,--an enforced migration at the rate of at +least three miles an hour. Well out on the foot-hills Canker's troop had +thrown its flankers, while the other in long skirmish line, with +appropriate reserves, interposed between the herd and possible Indian +attack from the north. The eastern banks of the Ska along here were high +and steep, and the stream flowed deep and rapid at their base, so attack +from that quarter was not to be dreaded. All the same, occasional +warriors could be seen along the bluff, scampering from point to point, +firing long-range chance shots at the officers or men distinguishable +through the edge of the dust-cloud, but venturing no closer. It was +Chrome's idea, as he frankly said, to keep moving southwestward until +Tintop's scouts should see the huge column of dust, and send forth to +meet and guide him with his prizes to the colonel's camp. Every +quarter-hour, therefore, was taking him farther and father away from his +corralled comrades down-stream, but he refused to see it. "Oh, they'll +come along all right, Sanders," he declared, as he saw how his +adjutant's eyes constantly gazed back beyond the dispersed line of +skirmishers, "and we'll have a regular jubilee when we meet your colonel +this evening. Some day, perhaps, you'll get a brevet for this." + +"Damn the brevet!" groaned the youngster. "Give me a sight of 'C' and +'F' Troops safe and sound, and I'd rather have it than any brevet in +creation." Then a brilliant idea struck him. "By the way, major, suppose +they don't come along, what will you do for breakfast and dinner? +They've got the pack-train--unless the Indians have." + +"By heavens, I never thought of the packs. They were way behind when we +struck the village," said the major, whipping out his watch. "It's 6.30 +now. Sanders, I reckon you'll have to go back and see what's become of +them. Take six or eight men from the reserves here and try to rejoin us +by eight." And glad enough to slip out from the shadows of that +overhanging pall, Sanders went, half a dozen Arizona "jayhawkers" riding +silently with him. + +And that was the last Major Chrome saw of his battalion adjutant, of the +"Eleventh" half of his battalion, and of all but one of the six +jayhawkers referred to, in many a long week. One of the latter made his +way back afoot in the course of half an hour, saying his horse was shot +under him in the valley, which was thick with Indians, and Chrome looked +yellow-white and a trifle undecided. But again the big herd of ponies +from some unseen cause was in rapid motion, loping away southwestward. +All the guards and flankers were on the run, and it was half an hour +before things quieted down again, and when eight o'clock came Canker +sent in word that there were dozens of Indians on the bluffs ahead where +the valley narrowed, and it would be well to halt and round up the herd +right there and wait for Cranston and Truman, and Chrome so ordered. +Presently the dust-cloud began to settle, and by and by, when it floated +slowly to earth again, half a dozen at a time, under cover of their +comrades' carbines, the troopers ventured to the stream to fill their +canteens and souse their grimy heads. There, peacefully grazing again, +were the Indian ponies by the hundreds and their dusty guardians by the +score; but, far as eye could see down the beautiful valley, not a sign +of Sanders, his party, his comrades of the Eleventh, or, worse than all, +of the pack-train, and Chrome and his people were getting hungry. + +There were still with him the sergeant and trumpeter who had brought the +despatch from Colonel Winthrop, and to them again did Chrome appeal for +an estimate of the probable distance and direction of the colonel's +camp. With an officer and twenty troopers as an escort they rode to the +summit of the nearest bluff on the western shore, and with their +field-glasses studied the landscape for miles. Far to the southwest lay +the placid valley, unvexed now by sign of hostile force of any kind, and +the sergeant indicated, some fifteen miles away, the butte near which +they made their crossing of the stream the previous day. Far to the west +and northwest rolled a wild, tumbling sea of prairie upland, wave after +wave of gray-green earth, spanned at the horizon by the black, +pine-covered range of the Medicine Hills, pierced nearly due west from +them by the deep slit the sergeant said was Slaughter Cove. To the +northwest they could trace the general course of the Wakon valley, +though the stream itself was nowhere in view, even among the broader +levels toward its mouth, for everything down the Ska beyond a point +three miles away was hidden from their sight by the bold cliffs that +jutted out almost into the foaming waters. "Somewhere off there, fifteen +or twenty miles," said the sergeant, pointing towards Slaughter Cove, +"the colonel is probably marching." He had pursued the warriors into the +hills after their heavy fight, and wouldn't let up on them till he ran +them back to the agency, but the camp where he had left his wounded, his +wagons, and supplies and their guard couldn't be more than twenty miles +farther up the valley. Of the Indian village they had attacked at +sunrise nothing could be seen. Eastward and south westward the opposite +bluffs cut off the view, and such Indians as watched them did so from +the concealment of the ridges and ravines. Chrome's triumphant rejoicing +of the early day was rapidly giving place to uneasiness. In the absence +of rations even martial fame is an empty thing. It was a bitter pill to +have to go down and consult with Canker, but he did not know what else +to do. Noon found him, watched by the lurking Indians among the bluffs, +still guarding his captured herd and waiting for Sanders to come along +with the pack-train. But there was no dinner for Chrome's command that +day, and, by nightfall, even the ponies were gone. + +Barely two hours after the triumphant appearance of Red Dog and his +reinforcements on the scene of the morning's fight, Truman and Cranston, +making the rounds together, came upon Davies among the rifle-pits on the +north front, instead of resting with the wounded under the banks. He was +still pallid and ill, but, having dressed and bandaged his wound and had +a refreshing dip in the stream, he had made his way out among the men. +He shook his head gravely in answer to Truman's suggestion that he ought +to be lying down. "We _are_ lying down all around here, sir," he said, +"and I can get more rest out here than under the banks." + +But Truman did not know that, weak as he was, the Parson was dividing +his time between the wounded and the effectives, ministering to the one +and cautioning the other, for the latter could not always resist the +temptation to fire at such Indians as appeared in view within five or +six hundred yards, and ammunition might be scarce before the siege was +ended. Grimly, but without uneasiness, the command watched Red Dog's +scientific manoeuvres in his "surround," the mounted warriors being +gradually replaced, except on the open prairie, by the bereaved +villagers. "Oh, we can stand off double their force easily," was the +confident saying of the old hands. "We have food, water, ammunition, and +a smart chance for more fighting," so what more could soldier ask? There +was even jollity in the little command, despite the losses of the early +morning. There was keen and lively interest in Red Dog's movements when, +by nine o'clock, it was seen that he was calling most of the mounted +warriors around him and could be heard haranguing them at the farther +end of the village. None of the lodges had been taken down,--there were +no ponies to haul them away,--but those nearest the southern end were +now deserted of women and children and used only as shelter for a few +lurking braves. Presently on every side the Indian prowlers opened sharp +fire on the troops, a long-range and hap-hazard fusillade, for what with +logs and earth, sand, trees, and river-banks and little wooded isles, +the defence was well covered, only some of the horses being where they +could be plainly seen. The bullets came zipping overhead or spitting +vengefully into the sand, doing little harm, yet teaching the troopers +to lie low; and then in the midst of it all Red Dog rode magnificently +away from the north end of the village, across the open prairie, heading +for some point far up the valley of the Wakon, and sixty braves rode +valiantly at his back. He was a good half-mile away from the defence, +but the troopers let drive a few shots, "for old acquaintance' sake," as +one of them expressed it, but without disturbing the pomp and dignity of +the procession. It was soon out of sight, and then the encircling fire +slackened. "Now, what on earth are they up to?" was the question. + +And in less than an hour after his disappearance there came new +excitement, and the men set up a cheer. Sharp firing was heard toward +the south. What could it mean but that their comrades of the --th were +fighting their way back to join them? Then four or five horsemen +appeared along the southward slopes, darting and dashing about as only +Indians ride, evidently firing at something between them and the Ska, +and Truman ordered a platoon to mount and drive away the Indians on that +front so as to open a road for the new-comers to enter. This was +accomplished with little loss, for the Indians broke from before the +spirited dash, but rallied, of course, far out on the flanks, and again +poured in their rapid fire from their repeating rifles, and then after a +while the troops could be seen slowly retiring, firing as they fell +back, some afoot now, and some leading and supporting in saddle others +who were evidently wounded, and finally, as these latter came within a +few hundred yards of the rifle-pits, the cry went up that it was +Lieutenant Sanders and some of the --th, and so it proved. Four more +wounded to care for, and Sanders, faint and heart-sick, among them. + +"I tried to get old Chrome to drop that herd and come back to you," he +moaned, "but it was useless. He wouldn't have let me come--only to get +him something to eat. Damn this having to fight Indians under office +soldiers anyhow!" And with this pithy protest on his blue lips the +little bantam fainted away. + +Then Chrome wasn't coming. Truman looked grave and Cranston angry. "No +matter. We can lick them endwise by staying just where we are," he said. +"Relief is bound to come to-night." + +Later that afternoon, under the shadows of the willows, there gathered a +little group, perhaps a score of officers and men, all who could be +spared from their stations in the rifle-pits, listening to the solemn +tones of one of their number reading the service for the burial of the +dead. Never did Cranston take the field without Margaret's stowing in +the corner of his saddlebag a little prayer-book of her church, and this +the captain had handed silently to Davies. Side by side the forms of the +two sergeants and their comrade troopers were laid in the sandy pit. +Reverently the bearded, war-worn men uncovered and stood with drooping +heads while their grave young officer read the solemn words. Here and +there along the big circle of their surrounding foe the faint distant +crack of the rifle punctuated the sentences as they fell from soldier +lips, and every moment a bullet whistled overhead. Somewhere down the +valley, borne on the wings of the breeze, the wail of Indian women +mourning their braves slain in the earlier battle echoed and almost +overwhelmed the solitary voice that rose in soldier tribute to the +soldier dead. Then with one brief, fervent prayer, the solemnly murmured +"Amen," carving no line, raising no stone, but tamping deep and heavy +the earth upon their blanket-shrouded forms, without the trooper +volleys, with only the faint soft winding of the trooper's last earthly +trumpet-call singing "lights out" to sadly listening ears, the little +group dispersed, each man going to his post. + +An hour later still and the bluffs were throwing long shadows across the +valley, and the crack of Indian rifles and occasional loud bark of the +carbine close at hand seemed growing more frequent, and watchers at the +outskirts became conscious of increasing excitement among the warriors +up the valley to the west as well as over to the south, and listening +men, laying their ears to earth, declared that there was tremor and +vibration, and dull distant thunder of myriad hoofs, and over in the +village there was hurrying to and fro and growing clamor of squaws and +children, and dusky women could be seen clutching their little ones and +speeding away towards the hills down-stream, while others began rapidly +tearing down the painted lodges of hide or cloth, and such Indians as +had no mount, but were skulking under the banks or among the bluffs +across the stream, could be seen leaping and crouching and racing back +toward the village, and presently there went up a shout from the +lookouts towards the upper Ska: "Big dust-cloud coming. Must be the pony +herd again!" And men began springing to their feet and scrambling out of +their shelters, and staring around them and waving their hats and +shouting congratulation and encouragement, and ducking suddenly as more +bullets came whistling in, and from a low rumble the sound rose to +distant thunder, and from that to nearer uproar, and Truman and Cranston +made a rush for their own herds, ordering the men to side line and +hopple instantly, for the surviving horses were excitedly sniffing the +air, pawing and snorting, and then there hove in sight up the valley the +wiry leaders of the herd, galloping wearily, behind them a dull, +dust-hidden, laboring mass, the main body of the Indian prizes swept +away at sunrise. But who and what were these darting along the flanks of +the coming host, lashing furiously in and out, ever guiding, +controlling, commanding even while hurrying on? No blue-shirted, +slouch-hatted, broad-belted troopers these! No cheering comrades of the +stalwart --th, but in their stead few, but far more skilful, the most +accomplished herdsmen in all creation,--Indians by the dozen. And then +at last, amid the yell and clamor and shot and shout and furious rush of +riderless steeds, came explanation of the mysterious foray up the Spirit +valley. Circling far to the west and south, riding like the wind when +once well out of sight of watching foes, the Ogallallas had swung around +between the Ska and Winthrop's distant column, threaded ravines and +depressions well known to them from boyish days, and finally creeping +behind the curtaining bluffs into full view of the great herd drowsily +nibbling in the broad, sunny valley, had burst with maddening yell and +waving blankets and banging rifles, with sudden fury from their covert, +tearing by the weary pickets, stampeding their horses, and so had gone +thundering down upon the startled herd and, skilfully encircling it from +the south, reckless of rallying cry and rapid shot from Canker's men, +had sent the whole pack, with many a cavalry charger too, whirling +before them in wild triumph down the echoing valley, back to the waiting +village whence they came. "Red Dog versus Chrome Yaller," wailed little +Sanders from his bed of leaves. "Who wouldn't have bet on the bay?" + +Vain the major's valiant effort to mount and follow. Forty at least of +his horses were swept away in the rush, his own among them; vain +long-range shots and Canker's vivid blasphemy. Black in the face with +rage, he mounted such men as had managed to restrain their horses and +went charging after, leaving Chrome to the care of his fellows. Vain the +rapid and telling fire opened upon herd and herders by Truman's men as +they came within range. Down went two or three yelling, painted +warriors, down a dozen ponies here and there, but on went the leaders, +plunging breast-deep into the stream, and, followed by the whole mass, +forded the Wakon in a flood of foam and splash and spray, losing only a +trivial few in the glorious effort, and then, sweeping well around the +rifle-pits of the command, were welcomed with mad rejoicing and acclaim +in the heart of the thronging village. + +Instantly now did they send forward their own skirmish line,--scores of +Indians crawling, snake-like, through the grass, and from all sides +pouring rapid fire in on Cranston's front to keep him and his fellows +from attempting to mount or attack, which, indeed, would have been a +hopeless effort. The timber rang with the fierce volleying, and in the +excitement and exposure that resulted four more of the little command +were shot, Truman himself receiving a painful wound in the side. For +half an hour there was yell and clamor and furious crash of firearms, +but all this time the lodges were rapidly disappearing, the Indian +households were piling their goods and chattels, their babies, the old +and the wounded and the helpless, even their dead, on travois and drag +of lodge-poles, and then, guided by old chiefs, whole families were +flitting away down the Ska, and finally, as darkness lowered on the +valley, and the last lodge was down and gone, and the last warriors drew +away from their front, and silence and peace settled down upon the +exhausted command, Cranston, laying his broad hand on Davies's shoulder, +looked into his tired eyes with a world of soldier trust and admiration +in his own, and said, "If there was such a thing with us as promoting a +man on the battlefield, my lad, this day's work would win it for you." + +And before the other could answer, far up the valley of the Wakon hailed +a trumpet call. Over from the bluffs across the stream another answered, +and man after man sprang from his blanket to give a welcome cheer. "We +might have known those beggars would have been in no such hurry to get +away," said Truman, faintly, "but for old Tintop's coming with the whole +command." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + + +They were discussing matters a week later at old Fort Scott, where two +little companies of the Fortieth kept watch and ward over the women and +children of their many comrades in the field. Barely mid-June now, yet +how all plans and projects for the summer had been changed. Guarded by +Chrome's "infantry," as his unhorsed troopers were jocularly described, +most of the wounded were being carried by short stages into Pawnee +Station, where a field hospital had been established. Truman and Sanders +were with these, but Winthrop, assuming command of all the cavalry that +was available at the forks, had gone on in pursuit of Red Dog's renegade +band. With him were Cranston and Davies; with him, too, were Hay and +Hastings. Only one officer of the Eleventh remained at Scott, the +captain of "A" Troop, in arrest awaiting trial. It was a time of sore +anxiety to wives and children, to some two or three sweethearts who had +happened there, and they showed it plainly. It was a time of strange +suspense and trouble to Captain Devers, but he hid it well. Few men +could better have portrayed the chafing, indignant soldier, robbed of +the right to lead his men to battle, than did Devers when his comrades +took the field. Hastings as first lieutenant went in command of "A" +Troop, but Devers had importuned head-quarters with letters and +telegrams imploring to be permitted to accompany the column. He asked +for only temporary release from arrest. He courted--he _demanded_ the +fullest investigation of his every act. He longed to meet his +accusers--his defamers, rather, and overthrow them before a jury of his +peers, but, as the court could not proceed now until the campaign was +over, why hold him chafing here? It was all capital, it was even +touching, but it "did not work." The general himself was far away in the +distant Big Horn; his adjutant-general could not act, and the +lieutenant-general in Chicago would not. Then, as Devers had been in +close arrest much over seven days, he demanded "extended limits," which +were readily accorded him. When "A" Troop marched away its captain's +only solace had been a long, closeted conference with Sergeant Haney, +who, as a consequence, had to gallop many a mile to overtake the troop. + +The news of Red Dog's escape and the bolt of the Ogallallas from +McPhail's bailiwick created consternation at Scott. With the cavalry and +all but one company of White's battalion gone from the agency there was +ample opportunity, but it had not been foreseen. Then, three days later, +by way of Pawnee, came the details of the fierce fighting on the Ska, +of Truman's wound and Sanders's, of Chrome's catastrophe, the only humor +in the situation being the contemplation of how Captain Canker must have +sworn. Then came hurried letters, pencilled in the field, and Leonard +himself took hers to Mrs. Cranston, and then went in search of Mrs. +Davies, whom he found at Darling's quarters, though Darling was not +there. The ladies were at luncheon, and the adjutant contented himself +with sending Mira's missive in. There was a letter for Captain Devers in +the well-known hand of Sergeant Haney. This was sent him by the orderly. +There were others for others, which were duly delivered and brought at +least momentary joy, but Mrs. Cranston's eyes were dancing with delight +when Leonard met her half an hour later. + +"I'm going to Mrs. Davies," she said. "I want to read her what the +captain says of her husband's conduct all through that fight of Monday +afternoon. He says he never saw anything calmer or braver in his life." + +"Yes, I remember our chaplain's indulging in some prognostication to +that end," said Leonard, gravely; "but, Mrs. Cranston, did you want to +see Mrs. Davies?" + +"Why, yes, assuredly." + +"Well, she isn't home,--I think you'll find her at Mrs. Darling's." + +But Mrs. Cranston's humor changed. She decided to wait and see her +later. She did not care to go to Mrs. Darling's; neither, as it +transpired, did she care to return home, at least not yet awhile. There +were people capable of believing of Mrs. Cranston that she had no +especial interest in Mrs. Davies, personally, and no genuine desire to +communicate to her the tidings which Mrs. Davies, perhaps, could hardly +appreciate. Mira had not once set foot within Mrs. Cranston's door since +their return from the cantonment, and there had been next to no +intercourse between them, and yet on this almost joyous afternoon +Margaret had eagerly seized upon this pretext of leaving Agatha Loomis +alone with Mr. Langston, who had returned that very day from some +investigation at Kearney and Cheyenne, and, after half an hour with Mr. +Leonard, had hastened to her door. He was still in the parlor when the +lady of the house came smilingly in an hour later,--she had been +visiting Mrs. Leonard the while,--but there was constraint in the air. +The boys were out with their ponies. There was no one to entertain him +during her absence but Miss Loomis, and Miss Loomis apparently must have +failed, for Langston's face had grown ten years older, and the moment +Mrs. Cranston left the room, on household cares intent, he must have +taken his leave, for when she returned from an inspection of the larder +in order to see if it would justify an invitation to stay and dine, the +parlor was empty. Langston had gone back to Braska, Miss Loomis to her +room. I regret to have to record it of Mrs. Cranston, but during the +following week she made more than one effort to induce her friend and +kinswoman to say what had happened to put so summary a stop to Mr. +Langston's visits, and that she wrote some peppery things to her +husband, the captain, in summing up her conclusions; she also looked +some, and I fear said some, to Miss Loomis herself, for one day, going +suddenly into Agatha's room, she surprised that young lady in the act of +packing her trunk. There ensued a scene which neither cared in +after-years to say much about. There were tears and reproaches on one +side, if not both, but Agatha's determination could not be changed. She +had made up her mind to leave Fort Scott, return to Chicago, and go she +did,--but not without Mrs. Cranston. + +In less than ten days there came a long letter from the captain. He and +his troop were destined, he said, to long months of scouting in the +distant Northwest. The general had told him as much. They might again +have to go to the Yellowstone, and it would be November before he could +hope to see the inside of a garrison. "So," said he, "stow away the +goods and chattels, leave them with the quartermaster, pack your trunk, +and take the boys and Agatha for another visit to the old folks at +home,--who are most eager to welcome you." When the Fourth of July came, +the Cranston boys, in the added glory of all their experiences at the +cantonment, were once more the envied centre of youthful attention at +Chicago. + +"We will have no more fighting this summer," said he, "for the Indians +have scattered," and "C" Troop did not; but there was abundant +opportunity for usefulness and distinction for "the prodigy," as +Cranston now generally referred in his home letters to Corporal Brannan, +whose devoted mother was almost the first to visit Margaret on her +arrival and overwhelm her with proffers of hospitality and with +questions about her boy. "C" Troop was detailed as escort to the +commanding general in a long tour he made to the Yellowstone Park, and +the prodigy's letters to that fond mother became more and more a cause +for rejoicing. Already had she learned to thrill with pride over the +accounts of his bravery and good conduct in the affairs at the agency +and the fighting on the Ska, but that, said she, was only as she knew he +would behave. From babyhood her boy had been conspicuous among his +fellows for absolute fearlessness and desperate courage, and her memory +was charged with a wealth of corroborative detail which that of his +fellows seemed to have lost. Those who were confidently appealed to were +polite and sympathetic, as became them when responding to a social +magnate of such prominence and influence, but they looked far from +confident and said satirical things when once away from her presence; +but then, no one knows how a boy is going to turn out. A few weeks and +the general himself would be home, and then, fresh from the +contemplation of the soldierly prowess and graces of her son, what could +he do less than have him commissioned a colonel or something and ordered +in on the staff, and then what store of fatted calves would not be +slaughtered in honor of this her son who was lost and was found, and who +had returned to her bringing his sheaves with him? If mother-dreams +could but come true all men would live and die immaculate, ennobled, +magnificently brave, steadfast, and commanding. And far away among the +fastnesses of the Yellowstone, living in close communion with nature, in +a glorious round of days, full of high health, courage, and hope, with +ambition fired, purpose strengthened, with freedom from care or +temptation, small wonder was it if Corporal Brannan's letters warranted +all her expectations. But those were the halcyon days of cavalry life, +not the typical. Our truest heroes are those who bear with equanimity +the heat and burden of the long, monotonous round of garrison life with +its petty tyrannies, exactions, exasperations, and bear them without a +break or murmur. It is a poor, poor soldier who cannot wax enthusiastic +on a full stomach--and a good horse--when serving in the field. + +But while "C" Troop was doing escort duty, and its captain's wife and +little ones were safe at home, "A" Troop, long handicapped by the +frailties of its commander and notorious for bad drill, was now striving +to win a new name under the lead of Bachelor Hastings and its grim +Benedick second lieutenant, whose fair young bride could hardly be said +to be safe at Scott, restored to the sympathetic circle of which +Mesdames Stone, Flight, and Darling were the guiding stars. Old Pegleg +seldom left his piazza now except to go to bed or dinner, and did not +much care what was said or done around him so long as he was left in +peace. The post surgeon had bolstered him up again, after a few days in +bed, so that he could sign papers, and while he retained the nominal +command of the garrison, Leonard was its virtual and actual head, for +when July came only one detachment of the Fortieth remained with the +band as guard. + +But that band was a host in itself, and why should women weep and mope +and mourn--with music and the dance so easily accessible? Mrs. Leonard's +letters to Mrs. Cranston became vividly interesting just about this +time. The hops were resumed, as well as the drives with friends in town. +Mr. Langston came no longer, but the bank and the Cattle Club poured +forth their homage. Messrs. Burtis, Courtenay, and Fowler were out twice +a week at least. Then Mr. Willett's beautiful team reappeared, and +presently Mr. Willett himself, and he had brought still another step +from the distant sea-shore. It is only the first step that counts, and +Mira had taken that. Mrs. Leonard thought she was learning another. She +danced as beautifully, dressed as divinely, smiled as bewitchingly, and +talked as inanely as ever. Mr. Leonard disapproved of Mr. Willett, but +that could not keep him off the post. When mid-July came Willett was +there almost every day. Twice he remained overnight, sleeping at the +sutler's. The chaplain had been to talk with Mr. Leonard, and had tried +to talk with Mira, but she fled from him in tears. What he said to her +was dreadful!--dreadful! and she should tell Mr. Davies about it just as +soon as he returned. "I," said the chaplain, gravely, "shall not wait +till then. I shall have to write and tell him now." + +Meantime Captain Devers occupied his quarters in gloomy state and twice +each day patrolled the garrison limits with the air of an injured man. +At other times he was writing long letters and reading those which came +to him by every mail, but none came now from the faithful henchman +Haney, far away on the Indian trail with Tintop's pursuing column. Red +Dog was known to be with a remnant of his band somewhere in the wild Bad +Lands to the north of the Ska, and the last heard from the colonel was +that he, with six troops of the Eleventh, was scouring the southern +limit of those dismal features of our frontier landscape, looking for +Red Dog not far to the north of Antelope Springs. Devers had been +truculent in his demand for speedy trial up to the third week in +July,--up to the twentieth of the month in fact,--but that day brought +telegraphic sensation. Tintop had found and struck Red Dog's camp at +dawn on the sixteenth, guided thither by Thunder Hawk himself, had +struck hard and heavily, scattering not only Red Dog's people to the +hills but destroying their village and burning another that from its +foul condition seemed to have been standing there all winter. Red Dog +himself was killed, fighting like a tiger, and "A" Troop under Hastings +and Davies had won the distinction of heading the charge, doing most of +the work, and losing more in killed and wounded than the others +combined. Hastings was shot through the arm and crippled. Corporal Boyd, +one of Devers's pets, was killed, so were two troopers, and Sergeant +Haney had received what was reported to be a mortal wound. Leaving a +small guard with his invalids and invoking aid from Major White's +infantry battalion, now garrisoning the stockade where the new post was +to be built, Tintop had gone on into the hills to continue the work of +breaking up the bands, Davies commanding "A" Troop, and not until the +thirtieth was he heard from again. + +But meantime Lieutenant Archer, of the general's staff, who had +accompanied the cavalry column, was staying with the wounded, and had +removed them from the smoking, malodorous neighborhood of the ruined +villages, and could be found, he wrote, with his charges at Antelope +Springs. This was news at which Leonard's eyes flashed. It was tidings +at which Devers turned very pale. The latter begged for authority to go +at his own expense and at once, and without a guard, though it involved +five days of buckboard driving or saddle work from Pawnee Station, to +join his wounded men. "Debarred," said he, "from the right to battle +with my men, I pray that I may at least be permitted to minister to +their needs,--they who have so gloriously maintained the honor and +credit of their troop." But the adjutant-general at department +head-quarters smiled sarcastically and said that this, with others of +Devers's letters and telegrams, deserved to be framed. August came, and +Devers again clamored to be brought to trial or relieved from arrest, +and two evenings later, as he sat in gloomy state upon his piazza, he +was amazed to see the adjutant turn grimly into the gate and calmly +stand attention before him. + +"Captain Devers," said he, "I am directed by the post commander to read +to you this despatch: + + "'COMMANDING OFFICER, FORT SCOTT: + + "'Notify Captain Devers that his letters have been received, + and that the court for his trial will convene not later than + the fifteenth instant. + + "'By command of General ----.'" + +And when it is remembered that he had persistently demanded prompt trial +it is surprising that the accused officer looked completely +disconcerted. The fact of the matter was Captain Devers had no idea that +the members and witnesses could be brought together again before +mid-September, if then. That night he sat up writing until very late, +and sent two messages away by wire. He was sorely troubled now, but +could he have seen the group gathered solemnly about the dying sergeant +far away at Antelope Springs, and heard his faint, whispered words as +Archer took them down, Devers would have stood aghast. + +A charming little informal dance was going on at the fort one August +evening about a week later. The Leonards would not attend them now, but +with five such belles as Mesdames Stone, Darling, Davies, Flight, and +Plodder, to say nothing of other lesser lights of the garrison galaxy, +there was no lack of womanly beauty, only the cavaliers were short. One +officer, an infantry subaltern, represented the martial element, the +other men were civilians. Courtenay had brought out two Eastern friends; +Burtis was on hand as usual, and Willett, metaphorically, at least, at +Mira's feet. The poor girl actually lacked the sense to see that his +infatuation was such that he had no eyes, ears, or senses left for any +one else. Possibly she gloried in his devotion. At all events he danced +with her again and again and watched her jealously when she danced with +others. At last towards eleven o'clock Leonard suddenly appeared at the +door of the dancing-room, holding an open letter in his hand, and +beckoned to his comrade. "I'll have to trouble you to come with me to +the quartermaster's storehouse," said he. "There is a chest there that +must be opened to-night." And though the lieutenant was surprised, he, +in common with everybody else in the Fortieth, had learned that Leonard +rarely opened his mouth except to speak by authority, and so went with +barely a word to the ladies left behind, nor did he return in ten +minutes, as he said he would. The old non-commissioned officer left in +charge of the "A" company stores was awaiting their coming with the +quartermaster sergeant. He looked troubled and perplexed when Leonard +handed him the key and bade him unlock and open Sergeant Haney's chest. +"I ought to have the orders of the company commander, sir," he began. "I +mean Captain Devers." + +"Captain Devers is not the commanding officer," said Leonard, quietly. +"Here is the written order of the owner, Sergeant Haney, and the +instructions of Lieutenant Hastings. The actual commanding officer of +the company is with it in the field." So no more was said. + +Down in the depths of the chest, among a roll of clothing, carefully +covered, but just as described in Hastings's letter, was found a leather +writing-case. "Lock the chest again," said Leonard, as this was handed +to him. "That is all we mean to disturb." And then he took the case to +the office, while the old trooper went to tell his captain what had +happened. Morning brought, as was to be expected, a letter from Devers +protesting against this new indignity. No property of his officers or +men should have been opened save in his presence, as he was but +temporarily suspended from his functions, and as to him the men would +look for the security of their effects. Lying in wait for Leonard as he +returned from the office, Devers demanded to be told what had been taken +from the sergeant's chest, and then went white as chalk when Leonard +calmly answered, "Certain stolen property, sir, including a map and +some written memoranda which will be required before the court-martial +that meets next week." + +But this was not all that was found in Brannan's case, the lock of which +had long since been forced. There was a valuable gold watch presented to +Chaplain Davies by the officers and men of his brigade at the close of +the war. There were letters which Leonard barely glanced at,--some +silly, sentimental trash addressed to some one's darling Bertie by his +devoted Mira. All this, opened in presence of a regimental comrade and +certified to by him, was replaced, carefully sealed, and then the case +was locked in the commissary safe. "That goes with me to Omaha Monday +next," said Leonard to the much-mystified officer, "and you may be +needed to corroborate my testimony. Keep all this to yourself." + +And, despite a vigorous cross-questioning, the youngster managed to hold +his own against even Captain Devers, whose suspicions, however, were now +fully aroused, and who obtained permission from Colonel Stone to visit +the telegraph-office at Braska, and there wired to a legal friend in +Omaha and to certain addresses in Washington, and on Friday came +telegraphic instructions permitting Captain Devers, for the purpose of +consulting with his counsel, to repair to Omaha at once, and he took the +midnight train. On Monday, as required, Leonard left, taking his prizes +with him, and on Wednesday the court met, with all but two members +present. Colonel Atherton inquired of the judge-advocate if he were +ready to proceed to business, and that officer replied that he was, but +that certain witnesses were still to arrive and the accused did not +seem to be in the building. A messenger to the hotel brought back word +that the captain breakfasted there that morning, had paid his bill and +gone out, his baggage being taken away by an expressman. This strange +news fluttered about from room to room at the headquarters building. The +members of the court fidgeted in their full-dress uniforms and smoked +and chatted and strolled about, calling on old acquaintances, and the +adjutant-general sent orderlies to and fro with inquiries. + +And then came the sensation of the year among military circles in the +old frontier department. The grave, dignified, soldierly chief of staff +appeared at the court-room door with a telegraphic despatch in his +twitching fingers. "Gentlemen," said he, "your services in this case +will not be needed. The accused is beyond our jurisdiction." + +There was a moment of intense silence, a look as of awe on many a face, +then came the question from one who knew not Devers: + +"Killed himself?" + +"No! Worse than that,--resigned under fire, and got it accepted." + +Later that day there were shown to certain officers some scraps and +letters that had been left in the wastebasket in Devers's room; among +them was a telegraphic despatch from Butte, Sunday, repeated from Scott +on Monday, apparently after Leonard left. It was to this effect: + + "Haney split. Secure box. McGrath found. Send hundred at + once." + +And while detectives hastened Butteward in quest of its signer, Howard, +only malediction followed its recipient, now speeding eastward fast as +steam could carry him. + +"By heaven!" said Leonard, in strange, unnatural excitement, "the +Eleventh have said all along that Devers could never be cornered, and I +believe they're right." + +But on the following morning the adjutant's black eyes glowed with even +greater wrath and amaze. They had gone to the station,--several of the +officers,--to meet the in-coming train on which certain of the witnesses +were expected, and there another despatch was handed, this time to +Leonard himself. He tore it open, read it, and then, handing it without +a word to Truman, turned bitterly away. + +And Truman, wondering, read, looked dazed an instant, then--understood. + + "Gone--with Willett--last night." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + + +All manner of men were gathered at the station of the Union Pacific in +Omaha that August morning. Some of the members of the court, thus +unexpectedly absolved from a disagreeable duty, had obtained brief leave +of absence and were going to spend a few days in the East before +returning to their commands. They were there to take the train. Others +had come to see them off; others, like Truman and Leonard, to welcome +the coming witnesses. Far up into the fastnesses of the Big Horn had +gone the couriers from the frontier forts, bearing brief orders that had +come by telegraph, and even Winthrop's command, having an almost idyllic +time of it hunting and fishing in the mountains, was required to yield +up some of its officers and men at the beck of the law. A long ride had +these fellows to Fetterman and thence over the Medicine Bow to Rock +Springs. Davies was of this party, but Cranston and Corporal Brannan had +a ride still longer. The bulk of the army of witnesses, oddly enough, +was marshalled by Lieutenant Archer at the field hospital at Pawnee, and +this distinguished young staff officer was coming "with blood in his +eye," as wrathful a man as lived and swore in army blue that long, +eventful summer. To think that he who so prided himself on plainscraft +should have been so utterly hoodwinked by Captain Differs, of all men, +was worse to him than gall and wormwood, but he came now fairly snapping +with righteous indignation, fresh from another study of the famous field +over which he rode with the last man to part with Lieutenant Davies the +night of the tragedy of Antelope Springs,--Devers's long-missing +sergeant, McGrath. + +Separated from his young officer in the gathering darkness by the +eagerly searching Indians, detected by them and shot through the leg, he +had taken refuge in a ravine until dawn, and then the cries of the +coyotes had attracted him to the scene of the massacre, and the sight of +his mutilated comrades had unmanned him utterly. Feeling sure the +Indians were still in the neighborhood, he had determined that if seen +he would adopt the plan told him by an old scout long months +before,--that of feigning insanity and boldly seeking their company. +Indians regard the insane as specially guarded by the Great Spirit and +look upon them with superstitious fear, but McGrath little dreamed how +narrow would become the border between the real and the feigned. Fleeing +in dismay from the sight of his slaughtered comrades, he had followed +the ravine to the timbered valley, lurked there two days and nights in +constant fear and nervous dread and suffering, and finally swooned from +exhaustion. When he waked with sudden, awful start, two Indian faces +were bending over him. Then he had fallen into the hands of the foe at +last. + +But he was in better luck than he had dared to dream. They were of a +peaceful band, wanderers from the fold of Red Cloud who had sought the +lower valley for peace and protection. They had a hunting lodge and led +him thither, and their squaws gave him food and ministered to him as +best they knew how in the mad fever that followed. McGrath never +realized how long he was ill, but when he came to himself it was bitter +cold and he was living somehow among these strange people,--a small +village of them in the heart of the Bad Lands. Not for months did he +recover strength. Not until May did he try to ride or walk beyond the +limits of their camp. They were poor; they had no spare ponies, and they +made him understand he was many, many "sleeps" from his friends with +hordes of marauding hostiles intervening, and so induced him to remain +with them in hiding until the rebellious tribes were driven from the +reservations and Red Dog himself fled to their fastness. Then again had +McGrath to remain in hiding, secreted by his humble friends, and there +he lay when Winthrop's bugles sounded the charge and his own old troop +came dashing in. He was so worn, ragged, and changed that he had +difficulty in making even "A" Troop know him, but, once they did, their +joy was boundless, for McGrath was a popular man, and the meeting +between him and Davies was something long to be remembered, for each +believed the other dead. Then, as the wounded were led back to the Ska +and he recovered strength and was happy in seeing his Indian protectors +lavishly fed, clothed, and rewarded, he began to talk of the events of +the campaign of the previous summer and to inquire why the captain was +away now; and then Hastings and Archer took him in hand, and later poor +stricken Haney, conscious of the approaching end, begged to see him, and +then came Haney's broken confession. No wonder Hastings and Archer were +confident they had Differs "done for" now. + +These, the wounded and convalescent, were still at Pawnee hospital +awaiting telegraphic summons from the judge-advocate, but Archer was +already on the ground, and Cranston and Davies and others, reunited, +presumably, the previous morning at Rock Springs Station, were due at +Omaha by this very train for which all hands were waiting. So was +another principal witness, who, however, might decline to testify +because of the danger of self-incrimination. The detectives sent to +Butte the previous day went too late. Langston's trailers were ahead of +them, and deserter Howard, in irons, was being forwarded under charge +of a corporal of infantry from Ransom, arrested two days before in a +restaurant at Butte. + +"Verily," said Truman, "there is quite a batch of interesting evidence +trundling over the Union Pacific to-day," and this was before he had +read that significant despatch from Scott. + +But when he read and had pondered over it a moment, the captain suddenly +left the company of his fellows and strode away after Leonard, now +gloomily pacing the platform a dozen yards away. + +"Man alive!" said he, "if they left last night what could they do but +take this train?" + +Leonard nodded, darkly. Then again, after a moment's silence, Truman +spoke. + +"Could he have been so mad, do you think, as not to have thought of +that,--of some one being on that train?" + +"No one at the fort knew. How was he to suspect when up to yesterday we +all supposed Davies would come down the Yellowstone." + +Truman shuddered. "She ought to be in now," said he. "Just think of the +tragedy there may have been." + +The train was late,--half an hour late, said the official at the +train-despatcher's office. No, there hadn't been any accident or +excitement up the road that he'd heard of. He really didn't know what +caused it. Did she reach and leave Braska on time? Yes, the delay +occurred this morning somewhere,--began after leaving Kearney. + +Then there had been no excitement, no tragedy farther up the road. There +was comfort in that, said Truman. But there had been a sensation at old +Fort Scott, such as these counsellors little dreamed of. + +For a brief time after their return from the cantonment Mrs. Davies and +her new friend, Mrs. Plodder, had kept house together. In those days +when so many of our officers were almost constantly in the field, it +became quite the thing for some of the ladies left at the garrisons to +club together, share expenses, and thereby economize. Old No. 12 was +still at Mira's service, but she couldn't bear the house, she said, and +so the ladies moved their furniture into an abandoned bachelor den next +to Flight's, and for a few days all went merrily. Then there came a +servants' squabble, and their cook differed with Mrs. Flight's +maid-of-all-work, and, refusing arbitration, was impudent to her +employers. Mrs. Plodder was an Amazon in whom there was no weakness. She +discharged the cook and sent her back to Braska. Then they "messed" with +Mrs. Flight, and about this time the hops began and the visits from town +and the drives, and Mrs. Plodder presently conceived it to be her duty +to remonstrate with Mira, who wept and stormed, and after a time, as +Willett's visits began to grow frequent, Mrs. Plodder said she would not +remain under the same roof with Mira, and moved over and kept house with +Mrs. Darling. The Cranston household had gone East some time before +this, and, as Mira could not bear the chaplain's worthy wife, and Mrs. +Stone had become estranged, and Mrs. Darling, with Mrs. Plodder, had +decided that she was openly encouraging Mr. Willett's devotions and told +her so, and as Mrs. Leonard held aloof from them, one and all, it must +be admitted that the poor brainless child was restricted in her choice +of friends and intimates. Davies had had but brief time in which to give +her instructions, and there is no use in setting forth their purport. He +asked Mrs. Cranston, if a possible thing, to give his wife the benefit +of her experience and aid her in any way Mira might need, and Margaret +warmly assured him that she was ready at any time and glad to be of any +and every service to Mrs. Davies, but even in so saying she felt well +assured that there was little hope of being of use. What made the matter +worse was that this summer Congress adjourned without making provision +for the pay of the army, even while expecting it to perform rather more +than its customary functions; but here Cranston stepped in and insisted +on placing at Mrs. Davies's disposal a certain sum in Courtenay's bank +at Braska. Davies could return it when Uncle Sam resumed payment, and so +Mira had been provided with a check-book and taught its use. She was, at +least, to have no financial anxieties. The regiment had to remain long +in the field and the Cranstons went home, as Davies expected and had +advised that Mira go with them to Chicago. Even if her people could not +make her welcome at Urbana, she could board there with former friends in +perfect comfort, and be ready to rejoin him by and by. Many and many an +army wife and mother had similarly to live a Bedouin life that summer. +One cavalry regiment, the --th, for instance, was scattered from +Cheyenne to Chicago, facing riotous mobs one month and chasing Indians +all over the upper Yellowstone the next. One thing Davies firmly yet +gently strove to impress upon Mira,--that her intimates at Scott were +not at all the women with whom a poor and debt-burdened officer's wife +should foregather. He begged her to be guided by Mrs. Cranston and Mrs. +Leonard, and wrote a brief line to the chaplain, commending Mira to his +care, and then he had to go. + +But once back at Scott, where she could sport the lovely toilets with +which her hopeful aunt had supplied her, Mira went the way of the +empty-headed. Admiration, adulation were to her as the breath of life. +So long as she was perfectly innocent of wrong intent how could +people--how dare people rebuke her? She told Willett the horrid things +Mrs. Darling, Mrs. Plodder, and Mrs. Stone were reported to have said, +and he replied that it was all because they envied her her beauty and +were jealous of the attentions she won. She almost told him what the +chaplain said, but that sent the burning blushes to her forehead, yet +she dreaded what the old soldier of the cross might have written to her +husband. She knew he would surely condemn the renewal of her association +with Mr. Willett, but so long as he wasn't there to say so, and so long +as she intended the association to be purely platonic, as a rebuke to +all who had rebuked her, she proposed to assume that no objection +existed. + +The news that he had been sent for and was coming in as a witness in +Captain Devers's court startled her inexpressibly, despite her conscious +rectitude. She told Willett that very evening, as they were driving +slowly among the willow-wooded islands, and he looked imploringly into +her eyes, and Mrs. Flight and Mr. Burtis on the back seat could see that +he was talking eagerly, earnestly, pleadingly, and that her eyes were +downcast, her cheeks aflame, and still they did not take alarm. "She's +too much in love with herself and her own good looks ever to do that +foolish thing," said Mrs. Flight to those who asked her why she didn't +warn her. Willett himself, so Burtis afterwards declared, had said in +answer to some friendly words of remonstrance on the Sunday night +preceding the meeting of the court, that the girl was as heartless and +cold as a stone. No one need worry on her account. It was plain to +Burtis that the young fellow was well-nigh insane about her, and he had +sent a letter ten days before to Langston urging him to come and look +after his kinsman; but Langston was far away at the time and never knew +that Willett had quit the sea-shore and gone back to the charmer in +mid-continent,--never knew, indeed no one ever knew until too late, that +it was she herself who baited the line that drew him there. + +There was a gathering at the post on Tuesday evening and all the few +society men were out from Braska. The ladies, in their summer toilets, +sat on the verandas and told one another and their visitors from town +how dreadful it was to be so long bereft of their husbands and +protectors, and Mrs. Flight and Mrs. Darling said they wished with all +their hearts the court had called some witnesses from the infantry. +Surely they knew as much about the matter as some of the cavalry who had +been summoned. There was Mrs. Davies who could expect her husband within +the week, while it might be months before they set eyes on theirs. They +seemed to take comfort in harping on this theme for Willett's benefit, +He sat near Mira's side, as she reclined languidly in her wicker chair, +his eyes glowing, his hands and lips twitching at times, listening and +occasionally addressing low-toned, eager words to her. "Mr. Davies will +have finished his testimony by Thursday at the latest," said Mrs. +Flight, decisively; "I heard Mrs. Leonard say so to the chaplain +to-day," and here she glanced meaningly at Mira; "so what's to prevent +his being here early Friday morning? I know I'd let no grass grow under +my feet." + +And Mira could only say she surely hoped so, but she couldn't tell. The +last letter from him was away up near the mouth of Powder River +somewhere, and he thought then they mightn't be home before November; +but she was plainly unwilling to discuss the matter, and with evident +relief took Willett's arm when the musicians presently were heard tuning +up at the hop-room. + +But it was noticed then how flushed and excited she looked, how quickly +she seemed to tire of the dance and went out on the veranda for cooler +air, and presently they were missed and were gone from the room the rest +of the evening, so that the hop broke up early, and the anxious women +hurrying homeward were incensed to find her in a dark, vine-covered +corner of the veranda of the quarters, Willett in close attendance. "I +didn't feel like dancing," was her sole explanation. "I begged Mr. +Willett to go back to you, but he wouldn't." And Burtis, later, had to +shout angrily for him before he could get him into the wagon and off for +town. + +She slept that night in the room adjoining Mrs. Flight's, and slept but +little, said that lady later. She seemed ablaze with nervous excitement +and utterly unlike her usual self,--placid and satisfied except when +subjected to reproof. She had gone thither right after the departure of +the men and shut her would-be mentor out. Mrs. Flight afterwards +declared she saw the coming catastrophe and was determined to avert it +if a possible thing, but Mira said she had a dreadful headache and +wouldn't talk. Mrs. Flight, considering that she had a duty to perform, +began, however, from outside. The result was a quarrel and Mira's +announcement from behind the door that she would not speak to Mrs. +Flight again. When Wednesday came she refused to leave her room. It had +been arranged that three of the ladies were to drive to town with the +sole cavalier left at the post, a lieutenant of the Fortieth, and Mira +was one of them, but they supposed she had abandoned the plan. To the +surprise of everybody she appeared, satchel in hand, arrayed in sober +travelling garb, and asked the driver of the ambulance to help their +servant bring out her trunk, and took her seat in the Concord while it +was being tossed into the boot. It was Mrs. Darling who ventured to ask +what it meant, and Mira calmly explained. She had determined to go and +meet her husband in Omaha. They were amazed, yet what could they do or +say? It was after luncheon-time and she merely urged that they should +drive rapidly so as to get her to the bank before it closed, and then +she left them, saying she would remain at the hotel at the station until +her train arrived. It was due soon after midnight. + +Before returning to the post the others, Mrs. Darling and Mrs. Plodder, +called upon Mira at the hotel, for they were oppressed with strange +fears. They strove to remonstrate with her, pointed out that Mr. Davies +would be with her in three days. Mira said it might not be for a week. +Well, wasn't it unusual for a lady to be going alone? Not at all. She +would sleep all the evening in her room, and the landlord would place +her in charge of the conductor. Surely Mrs. Plodder had come from Omaha +alone. That was different, said Mrs. Plodder, in rueful recognition of +the fact that a plain woman is exempted from annoyances which a beauty +has to suffer, yet would suffer indefinitely rather than be plain. "But, +_dear_ Mrs. Davies, is it not very expensive?" said Mrs. Darling. "Not +when I have passes all the way to Chicago," said Mira. So they had to +return to the fort at dusk, though Mrs. Plodder did suggest staying all +night and seeing her off. They had not set eyes on Willett. They both +entertained, though neither expressed, a hope that he was not to be of +the party. They asked for Willett casually when they met Mr. Burtis. +Burtis said with perfect truth that he was out at the ranch, that he had +hoped to be here to meet the ladies, but was called out by urgent +business. + +It was dark, and they were tired, hungry, and worried when they got back +to the post, and the lieutenant on escort found the ladies strangely +preoccupied and silent. The first thing on reaching home was to go in +search of the chaplain. As a devoted friend of Mr. Davies he should be +informed of this odd freak of Mira's, and, if there were any grounds for +their fears, there was still time to avert what would bring such awful +scandal about their social circle. They assumed that they were coming +back with sensational news, forgetful of the fact that garrison servants +helped pack Mira's trunk, and garrison eyes had seen it start with her +for town. The chaplain's wife knew all about it before two o'clock, and +the chaplain would have known it, too, had he not been long miles away +at the death-bed of an old soldier turned cow-boy. Not until after the +east-bound train was whistling far down the valley and the dawn was in +the sky did an inkling reach him. Somebody said he thought the least Mr. +Willett could have done was to come over and see how his best "puncher" +was getting on, and somebody else replied, in low tone, that any one +could see Willett had no thoughts for anything or anybody outside of +Fort Scott, whereupon somebody Number 1 replied that Willett had been at +his "shack" most of the afternoon, packing some things and burning +others, and had taken the midnight train at Duncan Switch, ten miles +west of Braska. + +And even while the news of his going was bringing strange comfort to the +good old man, who rejoiced that this wolf in the sheepfold was even +temporarily out of the way, there came a messenger from the distant post +and a packet was handed in for him. Some letters and a note from his +wife. + +"Expecting you home during the evening, I did not send these, but they +may be important. Mrs. Davies suddenly made up her mind to go to Omaha +this afternoon, and was to take the night train at Braska." Here the +other letters dropped to the floor, and the reader's eyes filled with +sudden consternation and dismay. Not until his ambulance had been +hitched and brought to the door did he cease his restless pacing to and +fro. Kneeling a brief moment at the bedside of the unconscious and +fast-failing sufferer, he bade his fellows hurried adieu and drove with +speed to town, a long eight miles. It was then broad daylight, but he +stirred up the sleepy telegraph operator and asked about wiring after +the train. "Grand Island's the place to catch 'em," said the operator. +"They breakfast there at seven." And the chaplain flushed and glanced +keenly at the man. Why should he speak of catching anybody or anything? +Was all the valley already aware of this shameful flight? The hotel +stood not a stone's throw away. There must be no unnecessary scandal +about this business. He needed to see the proprietor, and roused him, +too. Boniface came down anything but smiling, yet thawed a trifle at +sight of the man whom all Nebraska seemed to know and swear by. +Certainly, Mrs. Davies spent the evening at the hotel in her room, and +he put her aboard the sleeper at 12.20, the moment the train came in. He +had wired to Pawnee and secured her section and checked her trunk to +Omaha. She had her tickets, she said. Was Mr. Davies aboard or--anybody +else to meet her? Not that the landlord knew of. The porter showed her +in and said her section was ready. Everybody else was sound asleep, +apparently, but there were some soldiers in the forward cars. Some of +them got out and had a cup of coffee at the stand, and "piled aboard as +she pulled out." They had a prisoner, a deserter, in manacles. Then the +chaplain wired to Duncan Switch, and the answer came that Mr. Willett +left there, bound for Omaha, at midnight, and then he wired the +conductor of the train at Grand Island, and later to Leonard at Omaha, +then sat him down to wait and watch and pray. + +The sleeping-car, said the conductor afterwards, was fuller than usual +that night. Some officers got aboard at Rock Springs, and sat up quite +late, chatting with others who had boarded them at Butte and Pawnee. +There were five officers in all. One of them, who had not taken a berth, +went forward about ten o'clock and made a "roost" in the day car. The +conductor heard the others talking about it, and how the lieutenant +would never spend an unnecessary cent, and some of them thought he was +foolish, and others said he was right, and they respected him for it. +These gentlemen slept late, saying they would rather breakfast after +they got to Omaha. The lady who came aboard at Braska was the first one +up in the morning. She was astir with the sun, and came back from the +dressing-room as soon as the porter had made up her section, looking as +fresh and fair as the day. Presently a gentleman joined her,--a man he +had often seen on the road,--who travelled, as most cattlemen did in +those days, with a pass, and who boarded them at Duncan Switch, and went +at once to his berth. He seemed very much surprised to meet the lady, +but sat down and talked with her until we whistled for Grand Island, and +there, said the conductor, "as I bustled off the train, the operator +handed me a despatch just at same minute that the brakeman came to tell +me we had a cracked wheel on the smoker. One look at the wheel told me +that the car must be left behind, so I ordered out the passengers while +another car was being put on." + +But the telegram took more than one look. It puzzled him, said the +conductor. It was sent by the chaplain, a man he knew well, and in brief +words it said, "The lady in Section 7 is the wife of Lieutenant Davies, +Eleventh Cavalry. She needs escort to Omaha, where Lieutenant Leonard +will meet her. If any army officer is aboard, show him this and +introduce him. She should not leave the train." + +"Now, there were officers on the car, but they were not yet up," +continued the official. "Of course I supposed at once that she must be +out of her mind, and that was the trouble. Just at that moment I caught +sight of the young lieutenant who had spent the night in the forward +car. He was a tall, slender fellow, with thick, close-cropped brown +beard and clear blue eyes, and he had got that poor devil of a prisoner +and his guard together, and was fetching them back along the track to +the coffee-stand that happened to be right opposite where the sleeper +stopped. 'Will you read this, and see if you know what to make of it?' +said I, handing him the despatch, and then, as he stopped to read, my +brakeman asked me some question, and I turned around to answer, and +there, just stepping off the Pullman, was Mr. Willett, looking back and +giving his hand to the lady herself. The handcuffed prisoner was just +opposite them at the moment, between two soldiers, and then the next +thing I knew I heard an awful scream, and the lady had covered her face +with her hands and fallen back on the steps, right at the feet of an +officer who was just coming out, and the prisoner thought he saw a +chance, perhaps, and gave a spring and dove like a rat under the car, +the guard clumsily following, and Mr. Willett stared about him one +instant, with a face that turned the color of chalk, then he too gave a +sort of stifled exclamation, 'My God!' and sprang up the steps and over +the platform of the day-car and was out of sight in the flash of an eye. +We heard shouts of 'Halt, halt, or we fire!' from the guards on the +other side of the car, and then two quick shots a little distance away, +and another wail or cry from the lady, and then I felt some one brush by +me, and the lieutenant sprang to her side, lifted her in his arms as he +reached the steps, and carried her, without a word, into the car by an +open window, where she cowered and sobbed and shivered and moaned, and +he all the time bending over and striving to soothe and calm her." + +But when that train drew up at the station at Omaha an ambulance +received the bleeding, pain-distorted form of the prisoner Howard, shot +through the leg in his mad effort to escape. Leonard and Truman, +scanning every face as the passengers stepped off the cars, waved their +hands in greeting to the knot of officers on the sleeper platform, and +Leonard sprang aboard, inquiry in his snapping black eyes. They made way +silently for him to enter, and then he knew not whether to believe his +senses. + +"Leonard," said Davies, quietly, "my wife came on to surprise me at +Omaha, not expecting me this way. I supposed she'd already come in with +the Cranstons. She was hardly well enough for the journey. Will you +kindly order a carriage?" + +She was driven away in the very dust of the ambulance that was trundling +one poor wounded fellow to hospital, the conductor lamenting that a +woman so young and lovely should be thus afflicted. No one else aboard +that train could dream from Davies's words or manner that any other +explanation for her coming existed than that she was simply hastening to +Omaha to meet him. + +But no claimant appeared for the handsome leather bag and hat-box and +umbrella left in Section 10. + +A few days later when the witnesses were scattering back to their +stations, or going on brief leaves of absence before so doing, Cranston +took his soldierly-looking corporal, the recruit of the previous year, +to gladden the eyes of the mother so eagerly awaiting him in Chicago; +but before starting they had been summoned to the hospital where Howard +lay, where "Brannan" formally, though still with sorrow and reluctance, +identified him as Powlett. Leonard was there with the leather +writing-case and its contents, at sight of which Brannan's last barrier +of compunction fell, and Davies stood by the bedside, looking pale, +haggard, and ten years older, and Colonel Rand, the inspector of the +department, and another sad-faced fellow, Langston. And Archer was +there, and Hastings, when Sergeant Haney's formal confession was read. +There was little sensation over it. Everybody seemed to know just about +what it would be. He said nothing to directly accuse Captain Devers of +conspiracy, but Haney had been his first sergeant for five years, and +the devious ways of his troop commander had necessitated the existence +of a right bower who could swear straight and strong to what the captain +thought should be established. They got to know each other thoroughly, +and each lived in mortal dread of some betrayal on the other's part. +There was a squad of six or eight men in the troop which practically +"ran things," and Haney was its head. For years these men had triumphed +over all efforts to break their line, just as Devers had baffled those +which would have cornered him, but they could see plainly that the +captain was nearing the end of his "tether," and his downfall meant +theirs. The catastrophe of Antelope Springs brought matters to a climax. +Half the men in the troop heard Major Warren's orders to Devers, and all +knew he had slighted if not disobeyed them. This, if proved, meant ruin +to the ring, and the plan to shift the blame on Davies's shoulders,--to +make the investigating officer believe the troop had marched right down +along the ridge within supporting distance, and that Davies had become +terror-stricken and had hidden instead of instantly communicating with +his captain, was the result. Devers, indeed, boldly announced that as +his theory and explanation of the whole affair, and Haney, Finucane, +Boyd, and the intelligent Howard were there ready to swear to it and +save the captain the trouble. So long as Davies and McGrath never turned +up to combat the accusation all would go well. The captain didn't tell +them in so many words they must swear to the ridge trail as the one they +pursued the evening of the tragedy, but he did not oppose it. He asked +them for their recollection of the matter and made his map, as did Mr. +Archer his report, accordingly. + +Then when it was found that Recruit Brannan as well as certain old hands +resented the idea of Mr. Davies being held accountable, they had to +muzzle him. Brannan declared he would warn the lieutenant the moment he +returned to the troop, so they made up their minds that he must be +discredited, if not ruined. Howard said that there was in his +writing-case a sealed packet that contained evidence that would send him +to State's prison and "kill" him in the lieutenant's eyes; and this, +indeed, was no idle threat, for Powlett, fearing detection if he either +sold or kept the watch he had torn from Davies's pocket after the +cowardly assault, had sealed it in one package and tied Mira's gushing +letters in another, and long before had induced the unsuspecting boy to +promise to keep and guard them for him as a sacred trust. Only as a last +resort, said Haney, were they to exhibit the proofs of Brannan's +apparent criminality. Meantime, by sending him to the agency or tempting +him with liquor they hoped to keep him harmless. + +But Howard soon began striking for leadership. He held the secrets of +his captain and two of his sergeants and was safely out of the troubles +that involved him at home. (He had been wise enough to confide these to +no one and to make poor Brannan swear to preserve his secret.) He was +beginning to hear from relations and receive money from them. He began +to put on airs over everybody, captain and all, and though Haney hated, +and was jealous of his influence, he dared not offend him. They knew it +was he who was seen prowling about Davies's quarters, but they could not +account for it, and strove to make it appear that Brannan was the +culprit. And then he began "sparking" Robideau's daughter in town, and +had become moody, nervous, excitable; talked about mysterious spies and +trailers, and then, suddenly and unaccountably, deserted after a spree +in Braska that had cost him much money,--after a mad scrape in which he +had terrified Mrs. Davies and thrashed Mr. Willett. Who he was or what +he was Sergeant Haney didn't know, but that he was a villain with a +history and a capacity for further devilment was certain. Haney had +still more to tell. The captain had sent for him and told him of the +adjutant's being in conference with the chaplain and Mr. Davies, and he +felt sure it was about the Antelope Springs matter. He was sure they had +his map, the one on which Archer based his report, and that this would +some day be brought up in evidence against him. It was locked for the +night in the second drawer of the adjutant's desk, said he, and Haney +understood. The drawer was chiselled that night and the map and papers +taken, but not until the robbery was known all over the post did the +captain see the map and see that it wasn't his original at all, but +simply a copy. Except for information obtained in the memoranda, they +had robbed the desk to no purpose. + +Howard was gone before this, but there was Brannan's writing-case in +Haney's possession, why not throw further suspicion upon him? and so +there were the papers hidden in the hopes of further damning him should +he ever appear as a witness against them. For all this and much more the +poor dying sinner craved forgiveness, and, hearing promptly of the +confession, through Finucane, who had fled with horse, equipments, and +everything, Howard, in hiding and in want at Butte, wired to his +captain, hoping to extract more money, for Devers had been a thrifty, +and was regarded a wealthy, man. + +And then when this confession had been made known to the wounded +sufferer the chaplain spoke. "You see the case that is building up +against you, Powlett, and just as soon as you are able to sit or stand +the court will meet for your trial. You have assault with intent to +kill, at Bluff Siding if not at Urbana, highway robbery, theft, +desertion, conspiracy, and kindred crimes to answer for; would it not be +infinitely better that you should confess fully and at once? Even the +men whom you have so bitterly wronged join in no clamor against--they +would even spare--you." + +But Powlett was a villain game, and answered only with a sneer. It was +that packet of Mira's letters handed to Davies with his father's watch +that supplemented Brannan's story and told him all. Mira could not live +without adorers, could not resist the longing to flaunt her victims in +the faces of other girls, and Powlett was a conquest indeed until his +rascality at the institute became known. Then he had to flee, but such +was his infatuation that he returned in hopes of seeing her. She did +meet him in secret, for it was sweet to see his despair. She refused to +meet him again, however, and then he charged her with faithlessness and +demanded to be told the truth about Davies. If that fellow reappeared as +her lover he swore to kill him, and then she bade him go and never see +her more, with the result already known. And at Bluff Siding in the +crowd and confusion he might have killed Davies but for Brannan's +watchful eye and warding hand. That was the last pound that broke the +back of Brannan's feeling of friendship and gratitude. He would no more +of Powlett, yet remained true to his pledge of secrecy. Mira's dream of +joy and triumph as an army bride met its first rude shock when, under +her window at Scott, she heard stealthy footsteps and the soft, low +whistling of a familiar air, the signal with which he used to summon her +to their trysting-place at home. The mad fool thought either to recover +his ascendency over her or revenge himself by tormenting, and then, when +her husband was sent to the agency and he saw opportunity of meeting and +terrorizing her, he was infuriated with new jealousy by her flirtation +with Willett. Even there at Scott he must have written and made further +threats, for the freshest and newest of the precious collection of her +letters found in "Brannan's" case referred to something of the kind. +Driven to desperation, she wrote that she would expose him to her +husband and Captain Cranston if he again presumed to address her, and +finally wrote this last: + +"My husband will be here within forty-eight hours and I have fully +resolved to confess all to him: that you, who made the cowardly assault +and left him for dead at Urbana, and have been guilty of such abominable +crimes, are here, in this garrison, a soldier in his troop. If you +remain it is at your peril. On my knees I swear it." And with this +melodramatic conclusion Mira had really frightened him. He had sense +enough to know that, with all the other complications in which he was +involved, this exposure was more than he could stand. He made other +efforts to see and plead with her, but they were fruitless, and his own +melodramatic _coup_,--his last appearance, as he supposed, before her +eyes, then followed. After that, desertion. + +Davies read but two of these missives, the first and the last. He +restored them to her without a word. She was lying in the seclusion of +her shaded room at the hotel when he returned from the hospital, the +chaplain with him. They spoke few words together on the way, and parted +on the corridor, near her door, for there Davies turned and faced his +friend. + +"And you must go back to Scott to-night, sir?" + +"Yes." The chaplain was still grasping his hand and looking into the +sad, stern face with anxiety and tenderness and unspoken longing in his +eyes. "I will see to all you have charged me with." He placed his other +hand upon the broad shoulder before him. "My son, though I never met, I +knew, your father, and that told me what to look for in you." And now +the rich, deep voice was tremulous, and the kind old eyes were dim with +unshed tears. "The hand of the Lord has been laid in heaviness upon you, +but 'those whom He loveth He chasteneth.' Even could I lift the burden +of your sorrow as easily as I raise this hand, I should falter, because, +as I believe in God, so do I believe that through trial even such as +this your light shall yet shine before men so pure and strong that men +themselves shall be purer and stronger because of it." + +There was a moment's pause. Davies stood with bowed head. Cranston, +coming into the hall-way, stopped at sight of them and tiptoed back, +motioning to others to wait. Then the chaplain spoke again,-- + +"You will write--as soon as--you have decided?" + +"I have decided," was the low, calm answer. + +"And----?" + +"Yes, we go to-night. She is not too ill to move, and once at Urbana--no +one need know." + +"Do you mean----?" began the chaplain. + +"I mean," said Davies, looking calmly and with dry, tired eyes into the +chaplain's face, "that she is utterly alone in the world,--homeless, +friendless. Who knows but that her story may be true, despite +indications? What would be her fate if I were to fail her now? It was +'for better, for worse,' chaplain. I have tried to do my duty in the +past. God help me to do it to the end." + +The tears were running down the old clergyman's face when, around the +corner, he came suddenly on Cranston and his friends, and they seemed to +understand. + + * * * * * + +There was a new post commander at Scott when the first snows fell that +winter, for honest Pegleg had retired and Leonard had a colonel after +his own heart, and the Fortieth sang songs of praise when the campaign +was over, and moved into quarters and renewed acquaintances with their +families and "assurances" with the Eleventh when they happened to meet +along the Union Pacific, and said they sorely missed them at the post, +as probably they did, but the Eleventh didn't care to go back. It was +too near civilization, said Truman. Tintop had his warriors under his +own wing after the close of the fighting season, and they were having +grand times at Ransom. There this winter were most of the familiar names +and faces. The Cranstons, Trumans, and Hays, Boynton, Hastings, and +Sanders, battle-scarred heroes, most of them, and dozens of others in +the congenial circle; but Margaret Cranston sorely missed her boys, who +were big enough now to be at school, and far too big to be staying +around garrison. She missed, too, their fair teacher and her friend, but +Agatha Loomis firmly told her she had decided not to return to the +frontier now that she no longer had her pupils. To the unspeakable +indignation and grief of her cousin, she had chosen what Margaret termed +"a life of drudgery" as a teacher in Mrs. Forester's seminary for young +ladies, only a few miles out of Chicago. Even there had Langston +followed, but in vain. That, however, was a subject on which Margaret +had promised to dilate no more. She had done her best, she said, for +Agatha. She had striven to aid and abet this distinguished and worthy +gentleman in his suit. She thought the difference of some twenty-five +years between his age and her cousin's a feeble consideration as against +his sterling worth and wealth. Agatha owned that she respected and +esteemed him highly,--looked up to him, in fact,--but as a maid of +twenty looks up to the man of forty-five. She did not love and therefore +would not marry him. The whole regiment seemed to feel for him, but he +came to them no more. He was East again, and seeking resignation in the +one safe solace, hard and constant work. + +But the Davieses, where were they? Time and again was that question +asked. He hurried back for the grand chase they had in September when +Chief Joseph made his memorable rush cross continent. He left Mira at +Urbana installed in lodgings near her father's home. He went back to her +in December when the troops returned, and then came orders announcing +that Lieutenant Percy Davies, Eleventh Cavalry, was detailed on +temporary duty at division head-quarters. It was at this time that Aunt +Almira urgently offered him and her pretty niece, his wife, the +hospitality of her home, begging that he, her boy's friend and +fellow-soldier and admiration, should bring her and be their guest in +Chicago as long as they could possibly stay, and Aunt Almira was amazed +at the refusal, grateful, gentle, courteous though it was in every way. +Mira, junior, had been devoted to society when there before, was it +possible she had so soon tired of it all? Davies had some topographical +work to do, it soon transpired, for the lieutenant-general wanted +certain maps made of the Bad Lands traversed during the campaigns of the +two years, and the Gray Fox recommended the silent, observant young +graduate, whose field-notes had proved so accurate and complete. Not +oftener than once a week did Davies go in to consult the chief engineer +at head-quarters. The work he did in quiet at Urbana, and it might +detain him several months. Aunt Almira thought it really strange that he +could succeed in it at all. She was sure that the descriptions her boy +had given of the Bad Lands were so vividly accurate that he must know +them even better than did her nephew-in-law, the lieutenant. She asked +her husband if it did not seem almost as though Davies might be afraid +to have her lambkin take any part in it lest it should rob the officer +of the credit, but that hard-headed old railway-man thought not. He +shared her gratification in the wonderfully improved appearance of the +boy, and secretly marvelled at his apparent reformation. He had several +talks with him, gave her for him abundant money, so that on his home +visit he might dress as became his mother's son and enjoy himself like a +gentleman. He expected him to turn up speedily somewhere on a tremendous +drunk, and was rejoiced and surprised that he did not. Aunt Almira had +planned a grand dinner to which should be bidden the general and staff, +the Cranstons and others, all in honor of the home-coming of their +fellow-soldier, her son, and was utterly bewildered and crestfallen when +the latter laughingly told her to go ahead with the dinner, but count +him out; corporals didn't dine with their generals and captains, despite +the teachings of the modern military drama. The mother indignantly +protested. The son was firm. If her boy, said she, wasn't good enough to +sit at table with the President of the United States then she wasn't. If +that was the result of his joining the cavalry, the sooner he resigned +and quit the better, and then he saw the indignant tears and teased no +more, but took her in his arms and soothed and strove to explain. Soothe +he could, but explain he could not. She gave up the dinner until after +he had gone back to his regiment, for go he would, as he meant to be a +sergeant inside of two years, and when she found that the sole +difference between sergeant and corporal in our blessedly democratic +service was simply half an inch or so more of stripe on his trousers, +and brought him no nearer the commission and little farther from the +rank and file, she marvelled that the Department of War could be so +slow to appreciate a soldier ready to do so much for so little. Go back +to "C" Troop he would and did, and was proud of it, and her husband +comforted her by saying "Bran" was a man at last. + +But if the Eleventh heard but little of the Davieses for a time, they +had abundant news of Devers, and much comfort did he seem to find in +sending to them stacks of local papers, and in writing long, +argumentative letters in which he sought to convince his readers that he +was a wronged and injured man. When Trooper Howard came up for the trial +which resulted in his going in irons for a five years' tour in prison, +an effort was made to get Devers before the court as a witness, and a +_subpoena duces tecum_ was duly served upon him in his far distant +home within sight of the sounding sea, but it did not fetch him. Devers +explained that as a civilian he had no interest in the proceedings and +could not be required to obey the mandate of a purely military court, a +view in which the judiciary of the great republic, ever steadfast in the +principle that military must be subservient to the civil power, +virtually sustained him. It was perfectly competent for a court-martial +to summon a civilian witness, said the bench, but it had no recourse in +case the civilian treated both court and summons with contempt, and +Devers's fellow-citizens in the far East, headed by the editor of the +_Mooselemeguntic Mirror_, congratulated their returned hero on the +spirited and just rebuke he had administered to a satrapy which should +have no place among an enlightened people. Indeed, the _Mirror's_ +interviews and editorials were both full of brilliant mendacity just +now. Devers's story was in every issue, more or less of it, and West +Point jealousy was the theme of many a paragraphic fling. Brilliant, +daring, conspicuous as had been Devers's services during the civil war +and on the wild frontier, he had never succeeded in winning recognition, +owing to the persistent calumnies of his seniors, who, graduates of the +great national charity school on the Hudson, were leagued to down any +man whose ability, dash, and daring made him the object of their narrow +jealousy and the victim of their inordinate greed. After years of +patient service, loyal and dutiful, their distinguished fellow-citizen, +said the _Mirror_, had been relieved from his command on trumped-up +charges, and, though he pleaded hard to be allowed to go with them in +any capacity, even as an humble trooper in the ranks, his company took +the field on the late campaign without him, and, deprived of the +services of their beloved captain, met with grievous and irreparable +disaster. Even then his enemies were not silenced. The faithful soldiers +who clamored for the restoration of their captain were driven to death +or desertion. He himself begged to be confronted with his accusers, but +met denial, delay, and deceit at every hand. One pretext after another +was resorted to in postponing the meeting of the court, and at last, +worn out with long struggle against prejudice, injustice, and organized +enmity, he had thrown up his commission in a thankless service and +returned to the welcoming arms of his fellow-citizens. The _Mirror_, in +which Devers had a controlling interest, inquired whether the time had +not come for the recall of the amiable fossil then misrepresenting the +district in Congress, and the unanimous election of Colonel Devers as +his successor. The governor, needing the support of the _Mirror_ in a +coming campaign, gladly availed himself of the opportunity of rewarding +a war-tried veteran, and named the returning soldier an aide-de-camp +with the rank of colonel on his staff, and humble subalterns of +artillery from the two-battery post at the entrance of Mooselemeguntic +Bay looked with awe upon the future military committeeman of the --th +Congress, yet were charmed with his affability at the governor's ball, +where his new uniform fitted him better than did those of his associate +aides, and where the artillerymen heard things confirmatory of their +convictions that their comrades of the cavalry really had no idea how to +fight Indians. Devers was on the high-road to fame and Congress, and +might indeed have made successful run had the election occurred within +four months after his return, but four months was too long for him to +live without differing, and little by little the _Mirror_ became dimmed +and Devers's image faded out of public sight. + +Only once did it revive, and that was when, several years after, all on +a sudden there appeared in the columns of the army paper notice that a +bill had been introduced in Congress providing for the restoration to +the army, with the rank he would have held had he remained continuously +in the cavalry service, of Jared B. Devers, formerly captain Eleventh +Cavalry, who had tendered his resignation some years before owing to +disagreements with certain officers representing the West Point element, +which was hostile to him, and friends in Washington warned the Eleventh +that old Differs had strong political backing. + +And then did the Eleventh arise in its wrath. Good old Tintop had been +gathered to his fathers by that time. Riggs was rusting out of active +service, Pegleg was buried and Mrs. Pegleg was married again,--a +lieutenant this time; but there was no lack of men to remember how he +had managed by political influence at Washington to secure the +acceptance of his resignation the moment he saw how surely, if brought +to trial, the case would go against him, and the Eleventh published a +memorial, signed by almost every surviving officer who was with it in +the old days. The bill if passed would make Devers a major well up on +the list, for Warren was now lieutenant-colonel of the --th, Truman +major of the Fourth, Cranston senior captain, Boynton and Hastings were +junior troop commanders, Sanders a senior first and regimental +quartermaster. All these and other names appeared attached to the +remonstrance, and that bill was never even reported in committee. It was +learned that in the course of some years of differing with his business +associates, the gentle Devers, though still a colonel on his native +heath, had nearly wrecked the "Mirror" and his fortune with it, and so +bethought him of this scheme of restoration to the army. Leonard was by +this time an assistant adjutant-general, and prompt to act. There was a +jubilee at Ransom the evening after his despatch was received reporting +arrival of the regimental protest and the remarks thereon by members of +the military committee. The officers gathered in the club-room and drank +long life to Leonard and confusion to Devers, and then little Sanders +tuned up his guitar and sang. He was just back from leave, and a +popular lyric of the day was one they called "The Accent On," for the +last line of every verse was "with the accent on" some syllable of the +last word of the previous line. There was nothing especially poetic or +refined about the composition, but the newspapers were ringing the +changes on it. A popular comedian had sung and made much of it, and its +composer had presumably made something if not much out of it, and +Sanders was sure of laughter and applause when he sang it at the +"stags." One verse was of a man who came home in a maudlin state and his +wife remarked, "Well, you are beautiful. With the accent on the full." +Another was of a man who wanted unlimited credit at a bar and was told, +"I like not your arithmetic. With the accent on the tick." All very poor +literature, perhaps, but it amused, and this night after singing three +verses of the old song, Sanders "turned loose" on a verse of his own +which, when heard, the mess applauded and chorused to the echo, and +broke up singing again and again Sanders's telling hit in the last line: + + We had a cap in our corps + Who left us years ago, + Who never said a manly word + Nor struck a manly blow. + He never faced when he could dodge, + He only spoke to slur, + And now he is a colonel, + But the accent's on the cur. + +And that was Devers's requiem in the Eleventh Horse as well as in the +house of Congress. He never vexed them more. + +One of the old names was lacking on the list that accompanied the +remonstrance,--that of the man of whom, nearly a decade before, Devers +"only spoke to slur." Lieutenant Davies would not sign. He was with the +regiment too, but, just as of old, eschewed the club-room and all +gatherings of the kind. They had taken the paper to him and he read, +pondered, and said no. Gray it was, now captain of "I" Troop, with which +Davies was on duty as first lieutenant, who draughted the paper, and +confidently presented it to his subaltern. "Why not?" said he, in +surprise. "No man ever did more to injure you except perhaps----" And +here Gray broke off short in sudden confusion. + +"Perhaps that is why I prefer not to be quoted against him," said +Davies, quietly. And mentally kicking himself, as he expressed it, for +making such a "break" as in his bungling half allusion to the exception, +Gray hastened away to tell of it. His story came to unsympathetic ears. + +"In my opinion," said Sanders, "if you mean that other fellow, he didn't +injure Parson half as much as he hurt himself." + +That, too, was an old story in the Eleventh by this time. Six long +months was Davies absent from the regiment on his map-work at division +head-quarters. Then came the customary call to the field for another +season of scouting and campaigning, and he rejoined his troop, somewhat +pallid and graver looking, the result probably of long days of toil over +his drawing board. He was only a few hours at Ransom before they +marched, but the ladies wanted to know all about Mrs. Davies and what +she was to do in his absence. Mrs. Davies would remain at Urbana, said +he, where her father and sister dwelt, and those were indeed his +injunctions to her, and for a month after his departure she observed +them, then repaired to Chicago and Aunt Almira's roof. Davies by this +time was with his troop scouting near Yellowstone Park, far beyond reach +of telegrams or letters. Society was unusually gay that summer. There +was dancing, boating, dining, summer resorting, and one of the loveliest +of summer resorts within an hour's run of the great city was Forest +Glen, the seat of the famous seminary where Agatha Loomis was enjoying +the quiet of her vacation, and one night, strolling with Mrs. Forrester +over to the hotel to watch the dancers and hear the lovely music, she +came face to face in the soft moonlight with a couple so absorbed in +their conversation that not until they were actually brushing by did +they look up, and even Mrs. Forrester saw the sudden confusion and +dismay in their faces. The man turned white and made a hurried movement +as though to lift his hat. The woman flushed, almost angrily. Miss +Loomis bowed calmly and coldly and passed on without a word. + +The next day, however, she called at the Glen House, where the two +Almiras, aunt and niece, were spending the week, and asked for Mrs. +Percy Davies. Mrs. Davies was out. Miss Loomis wrote a few words in +pencil, slipped them into an envelope, sent that up, and the next day +called again, and Mrs. Davies begged to be excused. Miss Loomis sadly +went home, penned a long letter to Mrs. Davies, and on the following +morning sent it. In half an hour her messenger and note returned. Mrs. +Davies had left for home that morning. Urbana was not far away, and two +days later Miss Loomis was there inquiring for Mrs. Davies on her native +heath. She had not returned. She was visiting her aunt at Forest Glen, +and then Agatha knew she had come too late. She had striven to prove to +the poor empty-headed, empty-hearted girl that she had at least one +friend. She had hoped to plead, to point out the right, and, if +possible, save her from herself and the impending step, but all to no +purpose. Two years later, among the papers of her unhappy boy, a +sorrowing mother found two little notes written, like Beatrix Esmond's, +to lure her lover on. One was dated Fort Scott in the summer of '77. "We +are desolate again with all our soldiers in the field, but we pray for +happier days. Have you no new waltz music for us?" And this reached him +at the sea-shore. The second was posted on the railway and addressed to +his club in New York. "I am even more desolate than last year. Shall I +never hear from you again?" It contained a self-addressed envelope. And +that was why her boy postponed until later in the summer the voyage his +physician had advised, and why he lived apart from friends and kindred, +in Paris most of the time, until the death of his wretched companion +within a year of their flight. Then Langston, at his mother's prayer, +went over and fetched him home. It had been a year soon given over to +recrimination, bitter reproaches, and frequent and increasing +estrangement. Willett was but the moody wreck of his old self when +restored to the one faithful friend who clung to him as only mothers +will, in spite of all. + +The Eleventh was a thousand miles or so away the summer of poor Mira's +final escapade, and not until she was across the sea did the news reach +her husband. She wrote a few words of farewell such as would be expected +of her. "You never loved me," she said, "never understood me, and in +every way I was made to feel that I was only a burden, only a doll. You +have mured me here in prison, where I have no soul to sympathize with +me, and I can bear it no longer. You will not miss me. Indeed, I know +too well how soon you will find solace, and where. Henceforth I dedicate +my life to one who adores me, whose soul responds to every thought of +mine. Adieu." + +It was predicted about this time that Davies would resign, shoot +Willett, or study for the ministry. Many men thought that he bore his +wrongs so meekly that he had mistaken his calling. One man, a sergeant, +said as much in Corporal Brannan's presence, and the result was a scene +that called for the intervention of the guard and the adjudication of a +court-martial. Brannan lost his chevrons, but gained an enthusiastic +friend and champion in Cranston, who sifted out the cause of the +fight,--a matter scrupulously hidden from the court. Brannan went into +the Ute campaign the following year a sergeant, and out of the army with +an Indian bullet through his arm and into his chest, where the doctors +couldn't find it. Little by little the doting mother at home began to +learn how very far away that longed-for commission might be. Her boy +himself flouted the idea. "I haven't the education," he said, "and would +be ill at ease and out of place among them." And so the magnate was +steadily importuned, and when at last the young fellow came home after +the Milk River campaign, and generals like Sheridan and Crook praised +his pluck and devotion, and the doctors said he simply couldn't go back +to service, they got him his discharge,--a medal of honor came +later,--and presently in the long list of railway officials of the Q. R. +and X. appeared his name as assistant general passenger agent, and for a +couple of years the way that great corporation dealt out passes to the +army was a matter that finally came up at directors' meeting and led to +a preliminary to the Interstate Commerce Law of '87, and a restriction +of the powers of the assistant. But there was no longer any hitch in the +maternal schemes for elaborate dinners to generals and staff. They +enjoyed meeting "the sergeant," as he rejoiced in being called, as much +as he could wish, and if they did not quite look upon him as she did, as +the central figure, the one Prince Paramount of the late campaign, there +was at least warmth and cordiality and comradeship enough to gratify +even a mother's heart. + +But the Parson did not resign. He was away from the regiment again a +long month after Mira's flight, and again after her death, returning +suddenly on each occasion because of the imminence of Indian hostilities +which for a time seemed breaking out in new spots with every spring. +Between Cranston and himself there was ever the same firm and steadfast +friendship. He sought no intimacies anywhere, but in the same calm, +grave, consistent way he went about his duties in garrison, waking up to +something like enthusiasm or excitement only when "on the trail." For +three years after his brief absence in the summer of '79 he never left +his troop a day. A wonderfully good drill officer was the Parson, with a +powerful, ringing voice. "Make a splendid exhorter," said some of the +boys. He was an accurate tactician, too, and a man who had the faculty +of getting admirable results out of his command "without ever a cuss +word," said Truman, a thing which that old-time troop leader could not +understand. Davies lived hours in the open air, but read and studied +much. Popular he was not, and never cared to be; but, honored and +respected by one and all and loved by little children, he went his +earnest way, and little by little Margaret Cranston found herself +leaning more and more upon his opinions as to the pursuits and studies +of her boys, and would sit with her needle-work listening to the long +discussions between him and her husband, who read not much outside the +papers, and presently it got to be the established thing for the Parson +to read aloud to them when he came, and though Wilbur scandalized her by +going to sleep and snoring on two occasions, he soon began to wake up +and talk and discuss, and others, dropping in, either stayed to take +part in Cranston's impromptu lyceum or took their chatter elsewhere. The +second and third winters at old Laramie were some of the loveliest, said +Margaret afterwards, she ever knew, and Mr. Davies had become one of +themselves. His promotion to "I" Troop and transfer to a different post +was nothing short of a domestic calamity. + +But not until that promotion and transfer occurred--though who shall say +there was significance in the fact?--was Mrs. Cranston able to induce +Miss Loomis to visit the frontier again. They were together all the +summer of '81, at the sea-shore with the boys, while Captain Cranston +and Davies and others were scorching on the plains, and Miss Loomis +evidently needed rest and salt air and water. The next winter she gave +up her duties at the seminary and joined the Cranstons on a trip down +the Mississippi, eventually returning with her cousin to Wyoming, for +her health seemed to have suffered from the long confinement at the +school. Bob Gray, with "I" Troop, was away up at Fort McKinney then, but +an important court met at the old station down on the Platte, and, as +luck would have it, Lieutenant Davies was sent in as judge-advocate. + +Just why Mrs. Cranston should have made no mention to Miss Loomis of his +coming is a matter only a woman can explain, but she kept the matter to +herself until the evening of his arrival. It was their first meeting in +four years. The court was in session a month, and three evenings out of +four Davies spent as of old at Cranston's fireside. Sanders suggested +that the Parson seemed to be "taking notice" again. But Davies went back +to his station and Miss Loomis went on about her daily avocations, +reading aloud while Margaret's busy needle flew, or playing sweet old +melodies at the piano. The young officers were rather afraid of her. She +was "a somewhat superior old maid," said a youngster whom she had found +it expedient to repress. Some women declared her a trifle +unapproachable, unsympathetic perhaps, but even that did not seem to +disconcert her. Something happened ere long that did, however, for a few +months after adjournment of the court Davies reappeared at Laramie. He +had actually taken a leave of absence, and now he was at Cranston's six +evenings out of seven, and garrison gossip began in good earnest. Was +the Parson seeking solace where poor Mira always said he would? If so, +he had little to build on by way of encouragement. The Cranstons missed +him sorely when he went back to Gray, and Miss Loomis frankly referred +to him as "most instructive" and much broadened and improved. She missed +him as any one must miss so well-informed a companion. Four years before +she used to exasperate Margaret by standing up for him no matter what he +did; now she vexed her by refusing to see anything remarkable in him +whatever. Davies wrote with increasing frequency from Fort McKinney to +Mrs. Cranston, and Margaret always wanted to read the letters aloud, +which was bad generalship in a would-be match-maker. + +Then one day came the tidings that head-quarters and six troops were to +be stationed together, "C" and "I" among them, and Miss Loomis returned +to Chicago. "I'll never forgive you as long as I live," said Margaret. +"I know just why you won't stay, and you needn't have worried +yourself,--he's far too proud to importune a woman who won't listen +to--to reason." + +But Mrs. Cranston meant love, not reason, and the two are miles or +oceans apart. Mr. Davies might be too proud to worry a woman who +couldn't appreciate reason, but a woman worth the winning was worth the +wooing, and not a little of it. Business called him to Urbana several +days the following winter, and something kept him several weeks. He +resumed duty in the spring, steadfast as ever, but even less disposed +to take part in garrison affairs. Mrs. Cranston wrote fiercely and +frequently to Agatha, and, for aught I know, called her opprobrious +things. For another year she refused to return to them. Then came a +winter indeed of discontent, and the Eleventh was ordered to far away, +burning, blistering Arizona, all but Cranston's troop, excepted at the +last moment and detailed for service at the School of Application. +Agatha again came to stay with them, and here at last Margaret Cranston +learned the momentous fact that, after all these years, something had +happened: they were actually corresponding. + +She learned more within the fortnight that followed. One exquisite May +evening just as the sunset gun had fired and all the bordering walks and +piazzas were thronged with gayly-dressed groups, women and children +mainly, watching the scene on the parade, there was some stir among the +clerks and orderlies and a gentle movement over on the porch of the +colonel commanding. The long line of officers dispersed as usual at +dismissal of parade, and Cranston came strolling over homeward chatting +with his friend and next-door neighbor, Captain Blake, of the --th. +Blake's lovely wife was even then on Cranston's veranda, for she and +Miss Loomis seemed to have taken a fancy to each other from the moment +of their meeting. Margaret, as usual, met her hero at the steps, just as +a young officer came excitedly and hurriedly down the brick walk from +the colonel's. It was Blake who heard him calling some tidings to other +households and who hailed him as he neared them and was bustling by. + +"What's the row, Tommy?" + +"Big fight in Arizona," was the startling answer. "Captain Hastings and +Parson Davies killed." + +And Nannie Blake saw in amaze the light go out of her companion's eyes +and every vestige of color from her face. Her arms were about her in an +instant, and none too soon. Oh, the blessing of those clinging, +clustering vines! No one else saw how they had to fairly carry her +within doors, but Agatha's secret was revealed. + +There was little exaggeration in the first story of that savage battle +in the cańon. Many a gallant fellow lay stripped and bloated when the +relief party reached the scene a few days later, but Davies, though +pierced through and through, still lived, and was moved and borne away +weeks later to bracing mountain air, and found many a reason for wanting +to live for many a year. Two men had gone to him fast as trains could +speed, Cranston and our old friend the chaplain. It was the former who +within the week that followed that engagement announced another. It was +the latter who within the fortnight joined her hand in his, white, +feeble as it was, and poured out his very heart and soul in the fervent +prayer for blessing on this man and this woman now at last made one. + + * * * * * + +That seems a long time ago. The regiment is famous now for its troop +commanders,--stalwart fellows in the prime of life who have brought the +training of men and mounts to a point of excellence such enthusiasts as +Cranston only dreamed of in the old campaigning days, when there was +little opportunity for experiment or practice in any other branch of +the trooper's art than that developed on the trail of savage foe. +Already the men who were stripling soldiers in '76 are wearing +patriarchal--long since they assumed patronizing--airs towards those who +came too late to learn campaigning when the Indian was not hemmed in by +railways, but ruled the Plains, proud monarch of all he surveyed. +Already silver threads are streaking the beards and temples of even such +rollicking spirits as Sanders, while Boynton is gray as the chargers of +the troop he commands. Cranston's squadron was cheered to the skies when +it marched away from Chicago after its month of riot duty, and on the +plains of Evanston during the manoeuvres the visitors thronged to see +the feats in horsemanship displayed by the men of Davies's troop. Even +in the Eleventh he was held to be the most brilliant instructor as well +as the most judicious and successful troop commander. Old-time dragoons +simply couldn't understand it. Here was a man who would neither drink, +swear, nor flare up and boil over when things went wrong on drill, but +preserved a calm, even-tempered, dignified bearing at all times. True, +he had native gifts which were not shared by all his kind,--a deep, +resonant voice, a ringing word of command, a fine physique, an admirable +seat, and an easy, practised hand, all of which were combined with a +consummate knowledge of his art. He was equally at home in saddle or +squad-room, and at all times was friend and almost father to his men. +"A" Troop, once the worst-drilled in the Eleventh, and universally known +as the "Differentials," is now called "the Parson's Flock," but there is +no irreverence in the term, for soldiers honor men like him whose faith +is backed by courage long tried on many a field. There isn't a man in +Cranston's squadron who would not resent an affront to their pet troop +commander, as they would were the major himself the object of aspersion, +and as for Agatha, his wife,--Florence Nightingale was not more beloved. + +They were talking of it all the other evening, seated among the tents on +the broad, level prairie just before the separation for the winter +stations was announced. The old chaplain was there to say farewell to +his own stalwart son, now wearing his first shoulder-straps in the +regiment his father had known so long and well. "Sometimes," said the +dominie, "I look back almost wistfully on those old days with all their +danger and privation, and while the life our fellows lead to-day knows +little of the temptation and trial encountered twenty years ago, it +seems to lack its vim and vigor. Sometimes I almost wish my boy could +have begun--with you." + +Davies was silent a moment. "It was a hard experience," said he, +finally. "It seems odd to think that to some of us there was more peace +on the war-path than at home, more rest in the field than in the fort. +Perhaps the reason why one's sterner qualities were so constantly called +into play was that not only in action but in all the surroundings of our +daily life we seemed forever 'under fire.'" + + +THE END. + + + + +WORKS OF + +Captain Charles King, U.S.A. + +UNDER FIRE. Illustrated. Cloth, $1.25. +THE COLONEL'S DAUGHTER. Illustrated. Cloth, $1.25. +MARION'S FAITH. Illustrated. Cloth, $1.25. +CAPTAIN BLAKE. Illustrated. Cloth, $1.25. +FOES IN AMBUSH. Cloth, $1.25. +KITTY'S CONQUEST. Cloth, $1.00. +STARLIGHT RANCH, and OTHER STORIES. Cloth, $1.00. +LARAMIE; OR, THE QUEEN OF BEDLAM. Cloth, $1.00. +THE DESERTER, and FROM THE RANKS. Cloth, $1.00. +TWO SOLDIERS, and DUNRAVEN RANCH. Cloth, $1.00. +A SOLDIER'S SECRET, and AN ARMY PORTIA. Cloth, $1.00. +WARING'S PERIL. Cloth, $1.00. + +Editor of + +THE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS DINNER, and OTHER STORIES. Cloth, $1.25. +AN INITIAL EXPERIENCE, and OTHER STORIES. Cloth, $1.00. + +For sale by all Booksellers. + +J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, Philadelphia. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Under Fire, by Charles King + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNDER FIRE *** + +***** This file should be named 20101-8.txt or 20101-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/1/0/20101/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net. (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + +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 +http://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 http://www.pglaf.org. + + +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. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. 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 http://pglaf.org + +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 http://pglaf.org + +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: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is 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: + + http://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. diff --git a/20101-8.zip b/20101-8.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..02b6a22 --- /dev/null +++ b/20101-8.zip diff --git a/20101-h.zip b/20101-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..228f58a --- /dev/null +++ b/20101-h.zip diff --git a/20101-h/20101-h.htm b/20101-h/20101-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..a12cb9f --- /dev/null +++ b/20101-h/20101-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,14387 @@ +<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd"> + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"> + <head> + <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" /> + <title> + The Project Gutenberg eBook of Under Fire, by Capt. Charles King, U.S.A.. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + } /* page numbers */ + + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .blockquot{margin-left: 5%; margin-right: 10%;} + .sidenote {width: 20%; padding-bottom: .5em; padding-top: .5em; + padding-left: .5em; padding-right: .5em; margin-left: 1em; + float: right; clear: right; margin-top: 1em; + font-size: smaller; color: black; background: #eeeeee; border: dashed 1px;} + + .bb {border-bottom: solid 2px;} + .bl {border-left: solid 2px;} + .bt {border-top: solid 2px;} + .br {border-right: solid 2px;} + .bbox {border: solid 2px;} + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + .u {text-decoration: underline;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + .figcenter {margin: auto; text-align: center;} + + .figleft {float: left; clear: left; margin-left: 0; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: + 1em; margin-right: 1em; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .figright {float: right; clear: right; margin-left: 1em; margin-bottom: 1em; + margin-top: 1em; margin-right: 0; padding: 0; text-align: center;} + + .footnotes {border: dashed 1px;} + .footnote {margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-size: 0.9em;} + .footnote .label {position: absolute; right: 84%; text-align: right;} + .fnanchor {vertical-align: super; font-size: .8em; text-decoration: none;} + + .poem {margin-left:10%; margin-right:10%; text-align: left;} + .poem br {display: none;} + .poem .stanza {margin: 1em 0em 1em 0em;} + .poem span.i0 {display: block; margin-left: 0em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i2 {display: block; margin-left: 2em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i4 {display: block; margin-left: 4em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + .poem span.i6 {display: block; margin-left: 6em; padding-left: 3em; text-indent: -3em;} + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Under Fire, by Charles King + +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: Under Fire + +Author: Charles King + +Illustrator: C. B. Cox + +Release Date: December 14, 2006 [EBook #20101] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNDER FIRE *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net. (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + +</pre> + + + + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/illus004-1.jpg" width="500" height="284" alt="Red Dog's Arrest. + +Frontispiece. Page 264." title="" /> +<span class="caption">Red Dog's Arrest. + +<i>Frontispiece.</i> <i>Page 264.</i></span> +</div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h1>UNDER FIRE.</h1> + +<h3>BY</h3> + +<h2>CAPT. CHARLES KING, U.S.A.,</h2> + +<h4>AUTHOR OF "THE COLONEL'S DAUGHTER," "MARION'S FAITH," "CAPTAIN BLAKE," +ETC.</h4> + +<h3><i>WITH ILLUSTRATIONS</i></h3> + +<h2>BY C. B. COX.</h2> + + +<p>"A bad dhrill, a wake voice, an' a limp leg—thim three things are the +signs av a bad man."—<span class="smcap">Private Mulvaney.</span></p> + +<p class="center"> +PHILADELPHIA:<br /> +J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.<br /> +1895.<br /> +</p> + + +<p class="center"> +<span class="smcap">Copyright, 1894,<br /> +by<br /> +J. B. Lippincott Company.</span><br /> +<br /> +<br /> +<span class="smcap">Electrotyped and Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia, U.S.A.</span><br /> +</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h4>TO</h4> + +<h2>GENERAL WESLEY MERRITT,</h2> +<h4>U. S. ARMY,</h4> + +<h4>OUR HONORED COLONEL IN THE OLD DAYS AND A VALUED</h4> + +<h4>FRIEND THROUGH ALL THESE LATER</h4> + +<h4>YEARS, THIS STORY</h4> + +<h5>IS</h5> + +<h4><i>Inscribed</i>.</h4> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<p>Trancriber's note: Minor typos have been corrected, and ads moved to the +end of the book. Table of contents has been added to the HTML version.</p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2>Contents</h2> +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#PREFACE"><b>PREFACE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#UNDER_FIRE"><b>UNDER FIRE.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I"><b>CHAPTER I.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II"><b>CHAPTER II.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III"><b>CHAPTER III.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV"><b>CHAPTER IV.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V"><b>CHAPTER V.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI"><b>CHAPTER VI.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII"><b>CHAPTER VII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII"><b>CHAPTER VIII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX"><b>CHAPTER IX.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X"><b>CHAPTER X.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI"><b>CHAPTER XI.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII"><b>CHAPTER XII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII"><b>CHAPTER XIII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV"><b>CHAPTER XIV.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV"><b>CHAPTER XV.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI"><b>CHAPTER XVI.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII"><b>CHAPTER XVII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII"><b>CHAPTER XVIII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX"><b>CHAPTER XIX.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XX"><b>CHAPTER XX.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI"><b>CHAPTER XXI.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII"><b>CHAPTER XXII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII"><b>CHAPTER XXIII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV"><b>CHAPTER XXIV.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV"><b>CHAPTER XXV.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI"><b>CHAPTER XXVI.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII"><b>CHAPTER XXVII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVIII"><b>CHAPTER XXVIII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIX"><b>CHAPTER XXIX.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXX"><b>CHAPTER XXX.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXI"><b>CHAPTER XXXI.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXII"><b>CHAPTER XXXII.</b></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXXIII"><b>CHAPTER XXXIII.</b></a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="PREFACE" id="PREFACE"></a>PREFACE.</h2> + + +<p>It is ten years since "The Colonel's Daughter" ventured before the +public and found so many friends that "Marion's Faith" and later +"Captain Blake" set forth in reinforcement, and even then there came the +call for more. Pelham's old regiment was not the only one to contain +either odd, laughable, or lovable characters, so now the curtain is +raised on the Eleventh Horse,—a command as apocryphal as the —th, yet +equally distinguished in the eyes of those who trod the war-path twenty +years ago.</p> + +<p>C. K.</p> + +<p>October, 1894.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="UNDER_FIRE" id="UNDER_FIRE"></a>UNDER FIRE.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2> + + +<p>It was the last day of Captain Wilbur Cranston's leave of absence. For +three blissful months he had been visiting his old home in a bustling +Western city, happy in the happiness of his charming wife in this her +first long restoration to civilization since their marriage ten years +before; happy in the pride and joy of his father and mother in having +once more under their roof the soldier son who had won an honored name +in his profession, and in their delight in the exuberant health and +antics of two sturdy, plains-bred little Cranstons. The visit proved one +continuous round of home pleasures and social gayeties, for Margaret +Cranston had been a stanch favorite in the days of her girl- and +bellehood, and all her old friends, married and single, rose <i>en masse</i> +to welcome her return. Parties, dances, dinners, concerts, theatre and +opera, lectures, pictures, parks, drives and rides,—all the endless +resources of the metropolitan world had been laid at the feet of the +girl who, leaving them to follow her soldier lover to his exile and +wanderings, had returned in the fulness of time, in the flush of +womanhood, a proud wife and proud and happy mother. People could not +understand her choice at the time of her marriage: "Cranston's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> all +right, but the idea of going to live in a tent or dug-out," was the +popular way of putting it, and people were still unable to understand +how she could have ever found anything to enjoy in that wild life or to +make her wish to see it again. It was, therefore, incomprehensible to +society that she and her two bouncing boys were utterly overwhelmed with +distress at having to remain in so charming a circle, so happy a home, +when it came time for the captain to return. Society even resented it a +little. Juvenile society—feminine—took it amiss that the Cranston boys +should so scorn the arts of peace, and persist furthermore in saying the +buffalo and bear and wolves in the municipal "Zoo" were frauds as +compared with what they had seen "any day" all around them out on the +plains. Tremendous stories did these little Nimrods tell of the big game +on which they had tired of dining, but some of their tales were true, +and that's what made it so hard for junior society masculine, in which +there wasn't a boy who did not honestly and justly hate these young +frontiersmen, even while envying with all his civilized heart. Loud was +the merriment at school over the Cranstons' blunders in spelling and +arithmetic, but what—what was that as offset to their prowess on +pony-back, their skill with the bow and sling-shot, their store of +Indian trinkets, trophies, ay, even to the surreptitiously shown Indian +scalp? What was that to the tales of tremendous adventure in the land of +the Sioux and Apache,—the home of the bear and the buffalo? What +city-bred boy could "hold a candle" to the glaring halo about the head +of two who could claim personal acquaintance with the great war chiefs<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span> +Red Cloud and Spotted Tail?—who had actually been to ride and hunt with +that then just dawning demigod of American boyhood,—Buffalo Bill? Sneer +and scoff and cavil as did their little rivals for a time, calumny was +crushed and scoffers blighted that wonderful March morning when, before +the whole assembled school, there suddenly appeared that paragon of +plainsmen, that idol of all well-bred young Westerners, he whom only on +flaring posters or in the glare of the footlights had they been +permitted to see, and smiling, superbly handsome, king of scouts and +Indian-fighters, Buffalo Bill himself stepped into their midst and +clasped the little Cranstons, madly rejoicing, in his arms, while their +father, the cavalry captain, and even the dreaded teacher looked +approvingly on. It was after that episode of no avail for even the +sturdiest of their schoolmates to seek to belittle the Cranston fame. +Louis, the elder, could not invent a whopper so big as to tax the +credulity of the school. Buffalo Bill was "starring it" with his +theatrical company through the States that spring, playing some +blood-curdling, scalp-taking; hair-raising border drama which all boys +eager strove to see, and when his old chum and comrade, the captain, +went to call on him at his hotel, the great chief of scouts would not +rest until together they had gone to see his friends "the boys." That +other parents should have been pestered half to death as a result of +this visitation any one who knows boys has not to be told, and many were +the queries and complaints addressed to the laughing cavalryman upon +that score. Parents, as a rule, had no proper conception of the honest +merit and deserved fame of this transplanted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> hero, Bill,—were amazed +to learn from Cranston that he was no fraud at all, but a man whom he +and his regimental comrades swore by. A total change had come over the +spirit of the school-boys' dreams. Nothing but Indian raids, +buffalo-hunts, or terrific combats diversified the hour of recess. The +little girls chose romantic prairie names, were either Indian maidens or +ever-ready-to-be-rescued damsels in distress. The boys became +redoubtable chiefs or rival imitation scouts, but Louis Cranston alone +was permitted to play the <i>rôle</i> of Buffalo Bill; in his presence no +other boy dare attempt it.</p> + +<p>It was a revolutionized society long before that budding May morning on +which the captain had to take train for the far West, leaving wife and +little ones to his father's care until the long threatened and now +imminent campaign should be over. Then, should God spare his life +through what proved to be the fiercest and most fatal of ten fierce and +fatal summers, they should rejoin him at some distant frontier fort, and +the boys' triumphant reign at school be ended. Loudly did they clamor to +be taken with him. Stoutly did Louis maintain that his pony could keep +up with the swiftest racer in the regiment, and indirectly did he give +it to be understood at school that just as soon as the war really began +he'd be out with "C" troop as he had been in the past. The war had begun +and some savage fighting had already taken place, when the orders were +launched for the Eleventh Cavalry to concentrate for field service. +Cranston wired that he would give up the last ten days of his leave, and +Mrs. Cranston, brave, submissive, but weeping sore at times, set to +packing her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> soldier's trunk. It was their last evening together for +many a long month, and their friends knew it, and therefore, even if +they called to leave a sympathetic word with the grandparents, they did +not expect to see the captain and his wife. Once or twice the +gray-haired mother had come to twine her arms about her big boy's neck, +or to say that Mr. and Mrs. Somebody had just called, but wouldn't +intrude. It was, therefore, a surprise when towards nine o'clock she +came to announce a caller below,—a caller who begged not to be +denied,—Mrs. Barnard.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. <i>Barnard</i>!" exclaimed the army wife, in that tone in which +incredulity mingled with surprise tells to the observant ear that no +welcome awaits the announced one.</p> + +<p>"<i>Who is</i> Mrs. Barnard?" asked the trooper, looking up from the depths +of his big trunk.</p> + +<p>"Oh, her husband owns about half the tenth ward," said Mrs. Cranston the +elder, city bred, "and," hesitatingly, "you've often seen her in +church."</p> + +<p>"At church—yes," answered her daughter-in-law, "but no one ever sees +her anywhere else. She has never called on me, has she?"</p> + +<p>"No," said the elder lady. "They are old residents, though, and years +ago when the city was new your father and hers—indeed, her husband and +mine—were well acquainted, but we drifted apart as the city grew. She +was Almira Prendergast."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure I never heard of her when I was a girl, though, of course, I +was away at school a good deal. Every one knows her by sight now because +she's the most conspicuous woman in church. She dresses<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> magnificently," +said Mrs. Cranston the younger. "I couldn't help noticing her diamonds +last Sunday."</p> + +<p>"They must have been big, Meg," put in the captain, reflectively, as he +was getting himself out of his smoking-jacket. "Let's see,—ours is a +hundred-dollar pew down near the foot of the side aisle, and hers a +thousand-dollar box-stall just in front of the centre. Could they flash +all that distance? They'd be useful for signalling——"</p> + +<p>"Wilbur! I do wish you wouldn't mingle church and cavalry slang. It's +downright irreverent, and at the bottom of your heart you're anything +but an irreverent man."</p> + +<p>"I won't," said the captain, solemnly; "at least I'll try to separate +the ideas—they are a trifle incongruous—if you'll tell me how at that +distance you could mingle your devotions with appraisal of Mrs. +Barnard's diamonds."</p> + +<p>"I didn't. If you'd gone to church yourself you'd understand these +things. I couldn't help it. I simply happened to be next to her +afterwards—at communion."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I see," said Cranston, giving a jab at his thinning hair with the +thickest and stiffest of brushes. "That does bring us to close quarters, +doesn't it?" Then with provoking deliberation he rearranged his necktie +and began pulling on his coat. "Hum, let's see," he went on, his eyes +twinkling and his lips twitching ominously, "anything wrong about Mrs. +B., mother mine, or with the millionaire husband? No? I see: just some +of those people one meets at the Lord's table and nobody else's."</p> + +<p>"Wilbur!" exclaimed Mrs. Cranston, in tones of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> horror. "Indeed, indeed, +mamma, he isn't a bit like that out on the frontier. It's only when he +gets into civilized church circles that he says these outrageous things. +If you could hear him read the burial service over some of our poor +fellows as I have heard him, you'd know he lacked no reverence at all. +He's queer,—he always has been about these social distinctions. You +know and I know they are inevitable."</p> + +<p>But leaving wife and mother to deplore his conduct and comfort each +other with the assurance that he really knew better and wasn't as bad as +he painted himself, which was occasionally in lurid colors, as must be +admitted, Captain Cranston went down-stairs with a certain stiffness of +gait which his intimates were well aware was attributable entirely to a +war reminiscence of Pickett's parapet at Five Forks, but which nine out +of ten, uninitiated, ascribed to military <i>hauteur</i>. He was still +smiling his whimsical, teasing smile, for, though a devoted son, +husband, and father, Wilbur Cranston was at times a trial to his +feminine connections, and entertained on matters of church and state +some views that were incompatible with those of high society. With +opportunities second to none other when he joined the pioneer circle in +the early days, Mr. Cranston, senior, had but moderately prospered from +a worldly point of view. Eminent in his profession, he was destitute of +any instinct of accumulation. He was a man the whole county +honored,—whose word was his bond, whose purse-strings had never known a +knot,—who had made large moneys in the law and spent them in charity, +until now, occupying a social position at the top of the ladder, he +lived<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> but modestly in the house that was once the envy of all his +neighbors, many of whom once, and more than once, the beneficiaries of +his charity, now looked down upon him from the colossal heights of their +wheat elevators or sixteen-story office blocks. "The Cranstons were +among our oldest and best people," said Society; "it is too bad they are +so poor." For there had been a time when the old lawyer's health failed +and practice was forbidden, and when Wilbur, once the recipient of a +liberal allowance, felt called upon not only to resign that, but often +to help from a captain's pay. Better times had come, and the soldier son +had been able to make investments for himself and for his father in far +Western mining property that yielded good return; but even when known as +one of the few well-to-do men in his regiment, Cranston had persisted in +a certain simplicity of living that some people could not understand. +There were officers who had married wealthy women,—women whose gowns +were superb, whose parlors and tables were richly furnished, whose +household establishments put to shame those of three-fourths of their +companions; whereas Cranston, even when he was able to dress his family +fashionably and furnish his quarters elaborately, would not do it. +"Every year," said he, "some of our most promising young officers are +going to the devil because they or their wives try to dress or to +entertain as do their wealthy neighbors. It's all wrong, and I won't set +the example. It's getting to be the curse of our army, Meg, and if I had +my way I'd introduce a law the reverse of that in force in foreign +armies. Over there no officer can marry<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span> unless he and his bride-elect +can show that they will have over a certain income to live upon. In a +republican army like ours no man ought to be commissioned unless he will +agree to live on less than a fixed amount for each successive grade." +They called him "Crank Cranston" in the Eleventh for quite a while, but +without affecting in the faintest degree his sturdy stand. Margaret's +gowns continued simple and inexpensive, and their mode of living modest +as any subaltern's, and many women spoke of them as "close" and "mean," +but many men wished openly they had Cranston's moral courage. At home, +too, better times had come. There was the old homestead, and Mr. +Cranston as counsel of certain big corporations had his easy salary and +little work. There was no anxiety, but there should be, said he, no +extravagance.</p> + +<p>On the other hand, neighbor Barnard, who in by-gone days, tin +dinner-pail in hand, tramped cheerily by the lawyer's rose-trellised +home long hours before the household was awake, and who in his early +struggles to maintain his little lot and roof had often availed himself +of his neighbor's known liberality, had been surely and steadily +climbing to wealth and honors, was now among the ranking capitalists of +the great and growing city, and a few years back had been united in +marriage to the admiration of his early school days,—Almira +Prendergast, who, disdaining him in the early 50's and wedding the youth +of her choice, was overwhelmed with joy to find in the days of want and +widowhood, fifteen years later, that Barnard had been faithful to his +ideal, had remained single for her sake, and so at last had she +consented to accept<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span> him and the control of his household. A pew in the +"First Presbyterian" had been for years his habitual resort on the +Sabbath, but as time wore on and wealth accumulated and the lady of his +love assumed more and more the leadership in all matters, spiritual and +domestic, he saw his establishment blossoming into unaccustomed +splendor, he met new people, later comers from the distant East, and +dropped the old, the friends of his boy days. He never meant to. He was +engrossed in his affairs. He let Mrs. Barnard "run the machine," as he +used to phrase it, knowing nothing of that sort of thing himself, and +Almira's buxom beauty, attired now in splendor hitherto undreamed of, +was rapidly rising into prominence in the new and growing circle wherein +the old families revolved but seldom, but the errant orbits of Eastern +stars were quick entangled; and some few years after their marriage a +new and gorgeous edifice having been erected by the congregation of St. +Jude's, and a daughter having been born to Barnard, the man of money +heard without surprise and with little resistance his wife's change of +faith in revealed religion. St. Jude's, a parochial offspring of old and +established St. Paul's down-town, had become an ecclesiastical necessity +in the growing north side. The Cranstons transferred their pew, as did +others, to follow a favorite rector and his gospel closer to home. Mrs. +Barnard experienced a long projected change of heart because the +acknowledged leaders of the social circle herded thither, and Barnard +followed as his wife might lead. The great memorial window in the south +transept, through whose hallowed purpling the noon-day<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> sunshine +streamed rich and mellow on the gray head in that prominent central pew, +was the devout offering of Thomas Barnard and Almira, his wife, in +testimony of their abandonment of the faith of their fathers and the +adoption of that which in school days they had held to be idolatrous. +Wilbur Cranston well recalled how in his school days Tom Barnard's +honest, sturdy form went trudging by at nightfall from the long day's +labor with the railway gang of which he was "boss," but Tom was a +division superintendent when the lawyer's boy came home from West Point +on furlough just as the war dogs began their growling along the border +States. And now Tom Barnard owned all the tenth ward and most of the +railroad, did he? And it was Tom Barnard's wife, a fair, fat penitent in +sealskin and sables, who drove by in such a magnificent sleigh and style +to humble herself at the altar by the side of such as we, whose social +shoes she was as yet held unworthy to unlatch? Wilbur remembered how +once, some years before, when his father's affairs were straitened and +his own were cramped, when Meg and the baby actually and sorely needed +change, but she sturdily refused to leave him and go East because of the +expense, he had bethought him of Tom Barnard, the rising railway man, +and wrote him a personal note explaining the situation and asking +through his influence if such a thing as a pass for himself and wife +could be obtained over certain roads east of the Missouri, and the +answer came, written by a secretary, brief and to the point. Mr. Barnard +enclosed pass over the Q. R. & X. for Mr. Cranston and wife, but did not +feel in a position to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> ask favors of any other road. And now Tom +Barnard's wife had come almost at the last moment of his stay and begged +that he would not refuse to see her. What on earth could she want?</p> + +<p>A boy with a telegram had just entered and was at the open door as the +captain reached the hall. Under the gas lamp without Cranston saw the +carriage standing by the curb—a livery team, not the beautiful roans +that had caught his trooper eye the first Sunday of his leave when he +went to church with mother and Meg. The message was sharp and clear +enough in all conscience:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"We march at once. You can catch us at Fetterman.</p></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0"><span class="smcap">Gray</span>, <i>Adjutant</i>."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"So old Winthrop goes in command and Bob Gray as adjutant," he mused. +"Then I've no minute to waste."</p> + +<p>His step was quicker, his bearing unconsciously more erect and +soldierly, as he entered the parlor and found himself facing the lady.</p> + +<p>"I ask your pardon for keeping you waiting, Mrs. Barnard. I was in the +midst of packing when you came, as I must go West at once."</p> + +<p>She had not risen from the easy-chair,—a comfortable old family relic +which stood opposite the old-fashioned piano. She leaned forward, +however, so that the sealskin mantle, which the warmth of the room and +the length of her wait had prompted her to throw back, settled down from +her shoulders in rich and luxurious folds. She gave him, half extended, +a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> hand, which he lifted and lowered once after the fashion of the day +and then released. He remembered her now perfectly,—the Almira +Prendergast the big boys used to say was by long odds the prettiest girl +in the days when half a dozen big brick ward schools were all the town +afforded, but he did not say so, nor did she care to have him.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps I ought to begin by apologizing for taking up your time," she +said, as though not knowing how to begin; and then he saw that heavy +lines of grief and anxiety had eaten their way underneath her dark and +luminous eyes,—ravages that no tinsel could cover or wealth dislodge. +"Was it the driver you spoke to at the door? I heard you say wait. I had +already told him; but it isn't my carriage," she went on deprecatingly. +"Our horses cannot stand night work, the coachman says, and there's +always something the matter with them when they are most needed."</p> + +<p>She was looking at him appealingly, as though she hoped he might suggest +some way of helping her to say what had brought her thither—besides a +livery carriage; but Cranston had taken a seat and was waiting, the +telegram crushed in his hand. At last she spoke again.</p> + +<p>"You—went to West Point, didn't you?"</p> + +<p>"I? Yes."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, you could tell me, couldn't you, how to get my boy there?"</p> + +<p>"You mean by-and-by when he is old enough?"</p> + +<p>"No. I mean now,—at once,—this week in fact."</p> + +<p>"W—ell. That is hardly possible, Mrs. Barnard. Cadets are admitted only +in June or September,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> and only then when there's a vacancy in their +congressional district. But, pardon me. How old is your boy?"</p> + +<p>"He is twenty-one,—my eldest,—my first husband's."</p> + +<p>"And you wanted to make a soldier of him?" asked Cranston, smilingly.</p> + +<p>"Indeed, no! It's the last thing on earth I'd have chosen, nor would he, +I am sure, if he were in his right mind."</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, then I shouldn't worry about it, Mrs. Barnard. In this +country, you know, no one has to be a soldier unless he very much wants +to, and very often then he can't. And no boy who isn't in his right mind +could get into the Point even if given a cadetship. What made you think +of it?"</p> + +<p>"Why, it seemed—at least I was told—it was the only way out of the +trouble he is in. He—is already in the army, but I'm told it isn't so +bad if one is an officer."</p> + +<p>Cranston kept his face with admirable gravity.</p> + +<p>"Then I assume that he has enlisted. If he is only just twenty-one and +enlisted without your consent before his birthday, you can still have +him out."</p> + +<p>"Oh, we've tried that," said Mrs. Barnard, gravely, "but he had tried +twice before he was twenty-one, and they refused him until he brought +papers to prove his age. Then when he did enlist and we attempted to +have it annulled, they confronted us with these. They refused to believe +our lawyer."</p> + +<p>"Well, pardon me, which was right, the papers or the lawyer?"</p> + +<p>"The paper. It was my own letter; but I didn't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> suppose they had it +when—when we sought to have him released as not of legal age."</p> + +<p>Cranston smiled. "Was it Mr. Barnard's proposition or the lawyer's?"</p> + +<p>"Well, the lawyer said at first there was no other way that he knew of, +we'd have to do that. Of course you understand I wouldn't ordinarily +authorize an untruth, but—consider the degradation."</p> + +<p>"The degradation of—having to—authorize the untruth?"</p> + +<p>"No; of his enlisting,—becoming a soldier. I thought I'd had to suffer +a good deal, but I never looked for that."</p> + +<p>And then Cranston saw her eyes were full of tears.</p> + +<p>She had tried lawyers. She had used money. She had invoked the influence +of powerful friends. Each and everyone consulted assured her that the +case could be settled in a twinkling. They would get the boy discharged +at once. Then one after another all had failed, and then some one +suggested to see him, Cranston; he was a regular, perhaps he could help. +It was hard to think of her son as a soldier, but, said she, if he had +to be, for a time at least, why not get him out of where he was and put +him at West Point? She had come, she said, to tell Cranston the whole +story, and then he could have kicked himself for the momentary amusement +she had caused him.</p> + +<p>Ah, what an old, time-worn story of mother love, mother spoiling, mother +sorrow! Her bonny boy, her first-born, wild, impulsive, self-indulgent, +overindulged as was his father before him, he had gone the pace from +early youth; had been sent to and sent from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> one school after another; +had filled and forfeited half a dozen clerkships; tampered with cards +and drink and bad company. Mr. Barnard had been willing to do +anything—everything for him, but he had dishonored every effort, broken +every compact, failed in every trial, forfeited every trust. At last +there had been hot and furious words, expulsion from the house and home, +a life of recklessness, gambling and drinking on moneys wrung from her +until her patience and supplies both had given out. Then some darker +shadow,—arrest and incarceration, one more appeal to mother, one more, +on her knees, from mother to husband, a compromised case, a quashed +indictment, temporary residence at a resort for cure of inebriates—the +one condition exacted by Barnard—and prompt relapse, when discharged, +into his former habits,—disgraceful arrest because of some trouble into +which he had been led while drinking. This, all this she had borne, but +never dreamed, said she, that worse still could follow,—that he could +sink so low as to become a soldier.</p> + +<p>What Captain Cranston would have said to a man who had come to him with +such a tale, and with such unflattering conception of the profession he +was proud of, need not here be recorded. It was a mother, helpless, +sorrowing, and honest at least in her impression of the step taken by +her recreant boy. She had come craving help and counsel, not instruction +in the injustice of her estimates. Quivering, trembling, weeping, the +heart-sick woman in her magnificent robes had opened the flood-gates of +her soul and poured out to this comparative stranger the story of her +son's depravity. Aloft, two women listened awe-stricken to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> her sobs. +Cranston brought her water, made her drink a little wine, and bade her +take comfort, and amazed her by saying that at last her boy had shown a +gleam of manhood, a promise of redemption. She looked up through her +tears in sudden amaze. How was that possible? He must have been drunk +when he did it, and couldn't have been anything but drunk ever since. +Cranston patiently explained that so far from being drunk, the boy must +have been perfectly sober or they couldn't have taken him. He had been +frequently to the recruiting office, according to her account, and must +have been sober at such times, or they would have discouraged his coming +again. He couldn't have been drinking to any extent since enlistment or +he could not be where she said he was, and knew he was, on daily duty as +clerk in the office of the adjutant at the barracks. So far from its +indicating downfall, degradation, it was the one ray of hope of better +days. She looked at him, joy and incredulity mingling in her swimming +eyes. "Then why does everybody I've consulted, even our rector, urge me +to leave no stone unturned to get him out of it, even if we have to buy +him a place at West Point?" was her query. And again Cranston found it +hard to control his muscles—and his temper. Had it come to this?—that +here in his old home the accepted idea of the regular soldier was that +of something lower than the refuse of the prisons and reformatories? He +could only tell her that it was because they knew no better. Up to the +time of her boy's determination to enter the army had there been one +single moment in the last five years when he had been free from his +habits of drinking?<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span> asked Cranston. No, not one. And yet that step was +her conception of final degradation. What had occurred, he asked, to +make her feel renewed anxiety, to cause her to seek a cadetship for him? +Because the boy had written that recruits were soon to be sent to +cavalry regiments out on the plains, and he had asked to go. The thought +was terror. And Mrs. Barnard had learned that a congressman from the +interior of the State had a cadetship to dispose of, but he lived at +Urbana, the very place where poor Harry had spent his two months in the +retreat, and then had disbehaved so afterwards. And Mr. Goss, the +congressman, wanted references,—wanted him to pass examination, which +he could not do, because he's only been a little while at school. Harry +wrote a beautiful hand, and had read everything—everything, but he +hated anything like arithmetic as a study, and Cranston had to smile and +tell her that that in itself put West Point out of the question. But, +said he, if he has ambition and ability, why not encourage him to +persevere where he is and win commission from the ranks as many another +boy had done? Bless the mother heart! That, too, had occurred to her, +but they had told her it would take two years at least, whereas Harry +was a born leader, a born commander. That boy could step right out now +and command an army if need be, she said, and no doubt believed it; but +when she wrote to Mr. Cooper about it (and Mr. Cooper it seems was +Colonel Cooper, the boy's commanding officer), that gentleman replied +that while the young soldier had certainly conducted himself in a most +exemplary way and had given promise of being an ornament to the +service,—"He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> used those very words," said she, producing the colonel's +letter. "See, 'an ornament to the service,'"—still, the colonel could +hardly promise that the boy could rise above the grade of sergeant +inside of two years.</p> + +<p>Cranston recognized the handwriting, and took the letter. "I know +Colonel Cooper," he said, "and he means just exactly what he writes. +Mrs. Barnard, I am glad you came. I am glad to take a weight off your +mind. I wish your friends and advisers were here that I might say this +in their presence, especially our good rector, but I say to you with all +my heart, I congratulate you on the step your boy has taken. I honestly +believe he has done better for himself than you could do for him, and I +advise you to let him go and learn campaigning on the frontier. It will +make a man of him if anything will," and he added under his breath, "or +kill him."</p> + +<p>"And if you meet my boy, you'll help him? You'll be a friend to him?" +she smiled through her tears. "God bless you for so helping me."</p> + +<p>"I'll help him every way I know how," said Cranston.</p> + +<p>And so they parted. She infinitely comforted, he oddly impressed. But +Mrs. Barnard felt that fate was still against her and her boy when, four +weeks later, flashed the news of savage battle with the Sioux, of +Captain Cranston shot through the body and fearfully wounded in the +fierce encounter.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2> + + +<p>Fifty seats in the parquette had been reserved for the members of the +class graduated from West Point on the beautiful morning of the 12th of +June. The brilliant auditorium was thronged with friends of the young +fellows. Officers of the Academy were seated in the boxes, interested no +more in the play than in the enjoyment of "the boys" just released from +their four years of hard study and rigid discipline. Two of the chairs +were vacant almost until the close of the first act, then their owners +came in.</p> + +<p>"You fellows have missed a heap of fun," whispered a classmate. Then a +burst of laughter and applause drowned his words. "All the same we +didn't miss the train," was the reply as soon as the new-comer could +make himself heard, after the lowering of the curtain. "Poor old Dad! It +wasn't easy to let him go."</p> + +<p>"What took him off in such a devil of a hurry? We counted on his being +with us at the last supper."</p> + +<p>"Oh, the Parson don't take much stock in last suppers—of this kind," +answered the other in no irreverence of spirit, for the young fellow +spoke in genuine earnestness; "still, he couldn't have gone back on us +if it hadn't been for bad news from home."</p> + +<p>"What, his mother?"</p> + +<p>"No—o. It's a girl. He said he had to go."</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes, we knew all along he was engaged, though<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> he never said +anything about it. Parson never struck me as being one of the spoony +kind."</p> + +<p>"No, he wasn't a bit. He wrote to her every week, but her letters kept +coming all the time—regular continued stories; but he wouldn't stand +chaffing about them and didn't fancy remarks, so I quit."</p> + +<p>"Know anything about her? Ever see her picture?"</p> + +<p>"Once, by accident,—a mighty pretty girl, too,—but he never talked +about her; it wasn't his way. We lived together the last two years, and +I reckon there isn't anything I didn't tell him. I remember how you all +laughed at the idea of my taking up with 'Parson' Davies, but he's pure +gold."</p> + +<p>"There's no discount on that, Jimmy; but what a time it took to find it +out! If it weren't for the riding-hall we never would have known how +much there was to him. There may be some prettier riders than Parson, +but he's all round the best horseman in the class. What on earth did he +choose the infantry for?"</p> + +<p>"Something about that girl, I reckon. Looks to me as though he were +going to get married before he joined the regiment."</p> + +<p>"Sacrificing himself and his profession for the sake of a spoons, is it? +Well, thank God, I'm not in love, and I wish he weren't."</p> + +<p>Meantime the subject of this cadet chat, a tall, slender, serious-faced +young fellow, was sitting in one of the crowded cars of the night +express whistling away up the shores of the Hudson, shadowy yet +familiar, fifty miles to the hour. His new civilian dress—donned<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> that +morning for the first time—bore something of the cadet about it in its +trim adjustment to the lines of his erect, even gaunt figure. He sat +very straight, looking silently across the aisle out on the starlit +river to his left, and holding on his knees the new dark-blue cape and +an old travelling-bag. A lone woman in search of a seat had entered the +car at Harlem and passed by a dozen unsympathetic travellers, who made +no move to share the seat over which they sprawled aggressively. The +first to lift his satchel and make way for her was the tall, thin-faced +young man in the straw hat and pepper-and-salt suit. He rose and offered +her the inner half, which she accepted gratefully, then thanked him in +broken English for stowing her various bundles in the rack above.</p> + +<p>The conductor looked oddly at him as he unrolled his ticket.</p> + +<p>"Going through? Don't you want a sleeper?"</p> + +<p>"How much is a single berth to Chicago?"</p> + +<p>"Five dollars."</p> + +<p>"No. I'll get along here."</p> + +<p>Not until they reached Albany, after midnight, had he a seat to himself. +Meantime, finding his companion overcome by drowsiness and her poor old +head bobbing helplessly, he rolled his new cloak cape into a sort of +pillow, wedged it between her and the window seat, and bade her use it. +As they came in view of the brightly-lighted station she awoke with a +start and made a spring for her belongings. She had slept soundly ever +since they left Poughkeepsie, and was again profuse in gratitude. "We +stay here several minutes," said Mr. Davies. "Let me help you with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> your +bundles." And, unheeding her protest, he marched off with a bird-cage +and a big band-box. A burly German made a rush for the car the moment +she appeared upon the platform and lifted her off with vehement +osculatory welcome, Davies standing silently and patiently by the while, +then surrendering her traps to her legal protector. "He is such a kind +young man," said the smiling frau. "He gif me his seat. We have a sohn, +yust so old as you," she added, "but he is farder as Chick-ago. He is a +soldier, out by Fort Larmie."</p> + +<p>"Yes?" said Davies, smiling. "Then perhaps I'll see him some day. I +expect to be out there before long."</p> + +<p>"And you are a soldier, too! Ach Gott! ein offizier?" she exclaimed, in +consternation, born of German associations.</p> + +<p>"Not yet, though I suppose I shall be very soon. What is your boy's +regiment?"</p> + +<p>And, jabbering excitedly now, both at once, the two old people began +pouring their tale into his ears; told their boy's name,—"He was a +gorboral alretty,"—and they were justly proud, and Davies made them +happy by noting the name and company in his book and giving his own, +though he explained that he was not yet a lieutenant, only a +just-graduated cadet, but that if ever he found the corporal, he said, +he should tell him of his pleasant meeting with the old folks, and then, +after a cup of coffee at the restaurant counter, he returned to his own +thoughts and the car.</p> + +<p>Soon they were spinning up along the shining Mohawk, and still his +eyelids would not close. In his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> waistcoat-pocket lay a bulky letter, +the last of many in the same superscription—a prim, unformed, +school-girlish hand—that had come to him during the last two years of +his cadet life. Its predecessors, carefully wrapped and tied, were in +the old trunk somewhere ahead among the baggage. In his hand again was +the telegram that, reaching him at the moment when he was bidding adieu +to the academic shades he had grown so deeply to love, had determined +him in the already half-formed resolution to cut loose from his comrades +and the class festivities in New York and take the first train for the +far West.</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"<span class="smcap">Urbana</span>, June 12.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Doctor says come quick. Almira worse.</p></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"B."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>"B" was Almira's elder sister. Urbana, the home of his boy- and her +girlhood, the home where his father lived and died, pastor of the +village flock, a man whose devotion and patriotism during the great war +had won for himself the friendship of the leaders of the armies of the +West and for his only son, years afterwards, the prize of a cadetship at +West Point. Deeply religious in every fibre of his soul, the chaplain +had labored among the hospitals in the field from first to last, and +died not long after the close of the historic struggle, a martyr to the +cause. He died poor, too, as such men ever die, laying up no treasures +upon earth, where moth and rust and thieves are said to lessen treasure +there accumulated, yet where its accumulation seems the chief end of man +not spiritually constituted as was Davies, who was imposed upon by every +beat and beggar, tramp and drab, within reachable distance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> of Urbana. +Far and wide had spread abroad the words of his personal creed,—that he +would rather it were recorded against him that he had been duped a +million times than that one human being had left his door hungering. His +widow was not only merely penniless, she was helpless but for the strong +arms of her son, who slaved for her as the father had slaved for the +Union. Those were the days when pensions were few. It was too soon after +the war, and facts were fresher in men's minds. Percy did all the +farm-work by day and taught school by night until, in his twenty-first +year, he was sent to the Military Academy by the President himself, who +had known his father from the days of Donelson. It was told of the tall, +taciturn young man that he seriously contemplated resigning during his +fourth class year when he found that he could not send home the little +savings from his cadet pay. If the rule of the sacred commandment could +but be made to work both ways, and days would be indeed long in the land +the Lord our God had given to him who most honored his father and +mother, no life insurance company in all America would have hesitated in +Percy Davies's case, had the policy been millions and the premium unity. +A gentle woman was Mrs. Davies, but a distressingly helpless and +dependent one, and it was an old saying in Urbana that Davies had +married poor Salome Percy because if he didn't nobody would; not because +he stood in need of her, but because she was much in need of him. And +when, not long after his father's death, Percy appealed to a well-to-do +citizen on the widow's behalf, he was refused, and the brawny son and +heir<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> of the well-to-do citizen told of the incident, and was idiot +enough in Percy's presence to repeat this old village saw as the reason +of the refusal, it nearly led to tragedy. Seizing the first available +weapon, a flail, which he wielded with uncommon skill, in one mad moment +the indignant youth smote the other hip and thigh,—the first, and for +years the only, time he was ever known to lose control of himself. In +ten seconds the battered gossip was sprawled full length, and they who +would have rushed to tear his assailant away stood amazed to see him +tearfully imploring the pardon of the vanquished.</p> + +<p>And then as Percy grew in years and grace, working day and night that he +might obey that last sacred whispered injunction, "Take care of poor +mother," and Urbana grew in population and importance, one mortgage was +lifted by the sale of part of their little farm, and the home made more +comfortable for the ailing, querulous woman. She loved young folks, and +yet lacked the faculty of attracting them. Striving to interest some of +the village maids in her, Percy interested more than one in himself, and +among these was a rural beauty, by name Almira Quimby. She was only +sixteen, a romantic child with an exquisite complexion, big melting blue +eyes, and curling ringlets. She lived, said other village maids, "on +Sylvanus Cobb and slate-pencils." She devoured with avidity every bit of +sensational trash procurable in the public or post-office libraries, and +made eyes at the tall, strong school-master,—the best rider, reaper, +thresher in the field, and best reader and declaimer in the winter +lyceums. He was intellectually far ahead of his fellows, and his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span> father +had labored to teach him. He was "serious," which was our Western way of +saying he had strong religious views, and Almira became devoted in her +attentions at church, Bible-class, and Sunday-school. Still, he did not +become an adorer, and she began visiting the widow in her affliction, +and thereby seeing more and more of the widow's son. There were +strapping prairie beaux who would have given all they possessed for any +one of the soft, shy looks she stole at Percy Davies, and who began to +hate him vehemently as her fancy for him increased.</p> + +<p>He would have been of utterly unimpressionable material could he have +looked unmoved day after day upon her budding beauty, and it was not +long before Davies found himself strangely interested, and still he +would not speak. It was not until his appointment came, and he was +preparing to go to the Academy, that he owned himself vanquished. +Almira's red eyes and not entirely concealed emotion had told the mother +how the girl was grieving at the prospective loss of her first love, and +she with motherly solicitude took Percy to task. If he cared for Almira +why didn't he say so? With perfect truth the young man replied that he +couldn't help admiring her, but had struggled against it because he was +in no position to marry, and did not know when he would be. To this the +mother replied that she had grown very fond of Almira, and had learned +to depend upon her. She was not only very pretty but, what was much +better, a very good girl, and her father was as "well-to-do" as anybody +in Urbana, except the hotel-keeper. He could well afford to give her +part of the big farm and build them a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span> house near the widow's own roof. +She knew, or thought she knew, as do so many of us, just what her +neighbor could and should do, but overlooked the fact that old Quimby +had two sons and three daughters older than Almira. The fact that most +of them were married in no wise detracted from their expectations of +material aid from the "old man." The fact that he might care to take +unto himself a wife to replace the late incumbent now sleeping placidly +in Urbana's leafy cemetery was no more contemplated by them than by the +Widow Davies. But there was another widow in Sangamon County who knew +better and who wisely said naught. Almira's father was well off, said +Mrs. Davies. She had rich relations in the great metropolis of the +State. Her Aunt Almira was married to the manager of the Q. R. & X. +Railway,—the man who used to send father Davies an annual pass so long +as he lived. Mrs. Davies longed, she said, to see her son happily mated, +and then she would be glad to go and rest by the father's side under the +shadow of the soldier's monument. How it all happened would be too long, +too old, and by no means uncommon a story. When Percy Davies went to +West Point he left behind him a weeping maid who vowed that she would +wait for him a lifetime, if need be. It was really quite a romantic +parting, and the young man believed himself very deeply in love, and so +did Almira.</p> + +<p>And yet he was not easy in his mind. Percy Davies was old for his years. +He was going to the Point because of his father's strong predilection +for the graduates of that institution. The son had no especial<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> taste +for a military life. He was studious. He would far rather have gone to +some college or university and pursued a classical course, and then +studied for the law or the ministry. He had no means for such an end, +however, and accepted what was offered him on his father's account, with +no little uneasiness on his own. It was not his desire or purpose to +remain in the army. If he could honorably do so he meant to leave the +military service within the four years which his letter of appointment +stipulated he should serve after graduation. He doubted the propriety of +his accepting it under the circumstances, and he—looked upon by his +fellow-men and youths as the most enviable of their number—left his +home for the new life in no enviable frame of mind.</p> + +<p>For some months after his departure Almira fairly lived with the invalid +mother, and was faithful both to her and to the absent lover. Not a day +passed without her spending hours with the widow and discoursing on the +perfections of the absent one. Old Quimby, a hard-fisted, hard-headed +old democrat, had made no objection to the engagement, remarking that if +'twan't Davies 'twould be somebody else, and seeing as he was the +smartest lad at farming and schooling, and that it would be four years +anyhow, why, there was no call for him to worry. Then Urbana built a +bigger school-house and got a new teacher, and for two years saw naught +of Percy Davies. Property increasing in value, another slice of the +homestead lot had been sold, and with economy the widow could be +comfortable on her little income; but it was not long before the +gossips, dropping in to cheer her up a bit, began to tell of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> swains +who were making eyes at 'Mira, and then of 'Mira's growing consciousness +of her charms and fascinations. The second year of Percy's absence there +could be no doubt that three or four bucolical hearts were turned on her +account. Had there been just one devotee the absent lover's claims might +have been endangered, but there being several she was content in a +placid cowlike way in their attentions, and became less devoted to +mamma. With the second summer, however, Percy came home on cadet +furlough. The slight stoop was gone. An erect, martial carriage and +quick, springy step had replaced the somewhat plodding gait of the +school and farm. The sprouting beard and whiskers had vanished, and a +stiff moustache, which soon began to curl and twist becomingly, adorned +his upper lip. The "store clothes" of the Western town long since cast +aside, Davies appeared in stylish and trim-fitting civilian dress, but +resolutely declined all appeals to wear—except for mother's eyes—the +uniform of his famous corps. When he went on sunshiny Sundays to the +church that seemed hallowed to his father's memory, the spotless white +trousers and natty sack coat of dark-blue flannel were, however, so +military in their effect as to create, despite himself, almost the +effect of regimentals. Then he had acquired already an air and manner, a +polish that distinguished him at once above his fellow-townsmen, and +Almira's wavering allegiance gave place to new romance and fervor. The +old flame had found too little breath in his earnest, honest letters to +keep it alive. As for him, though he had belonged to what was termed the +"bachelor gang" at the Point and mingled but little<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> in ladies' society, +he was a close observer, and Percy Davies saw at a glance that though +more radiant in her rustic beauty than before, more appealing to the +senses in the flush of her health and unconscious grace, there was still +something besides the fashion of her gown that differed widely from the +beauties who thronged the gravelled walks, the shady groves, the tented +field of the national military academy. The swains of the winter gone by +were less in evidence now, and it pleased her anyhow during the two +months of his home stay to forget them one and all and cling only to +him. Changes came in the next two years—and trouble. Old Quimby married +again. Almira's home-life became unhappy. Quarrels ensued between the +new wife and the children. Reproaches fell from the lips of the failing +widow because of Almira's tacit acceptance of the devotions of young Mr. +Powlett, son of the resident physician of the sanitarium that was now +bringing so many patients to Urbana. A handsome, dare-devil sort of boy +was Powlett, who speedily cut out all the local beaux at the parties and +picnics which filled the summer of '75. A beautiful dancer was he, and +taught Almira to waltz and "glide" in a style never before seen in +Urbana, and that other couples first derided, then envied, then vainly +strove to imitate. That Urbana censors should go to the widow with +invidious comment upon Almira's misbehavior was a matter of course, and +that the widow should transmit their tales, not entirely without +embellishment and reproof, was only to be expected. Almira accepted both +with ill grace, was moved to tears and protest. She couldn't help it if +people admired her and liked to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> dance and walk and talk with her. She +must either submit to it or shut herself up and mope and not go out at +all. She thought Mrs. Davies most unjust, but she did not promise to +amend. Then the widow, finding Almira obdurate, was moved to write to +Percy advising him that he should caution her, who was only +light-hearted and thoughtless, and, to the widow's surprise, Percy +refused. He gravely wrote that Almira was but a child when she engaged +herself to him. She had seen nothing of the world or of other men, and +it was a matter he would not interfere with, and one that he desired his +mother to leave alone. This was simply incomprehensible. Urbana was very +gay that autumn and early winter. The sanitarium was the means of +bringing business to town, and a number of new stores were opened, and +new young men came to tend the counter and swell the parties, and still +young Powlett held supremacy, and everybody began to say that the cadet +was cut out, and Almira Quimby had gone over heart and soul to the new +claimant, when there came a cataclysm,—a scandal at the sanitarium, a +stir at the Palace Hotel, Urbana's new hostelry, the arrest of a +recently discharged patient by the name of Brannan, an afflicted young +man with what was described as an unconquerable mania for drink, and the +sudden disappearance of young Powlett. There was investigation and more +scandal. It transpired that this young Adonis had abused his father's +trust to the extent of smuggling liquor to certain patients and of +heaven only knew what else. Dr. Powlett resigned, crushed and +humiliated. Lawyers came and bailed out the other unfortunate, of whom +it soon was rumored<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> that he was Almira Quimby's own cousin, the son of +her rich city aunt, and that was the reason the lawyers and not the +relatives came. It was presently established that young Brannan was more +sinned against than sinning, and the holidays opened, with a fearful gap +in Urbana, for Almira's devoted lover, to the comfort of every +right-thinking maid and swain in Sangamon society, had fled, no one knew +whither.</p> + +<p>Two weeks later the Widow Davies lay at death's door. Her son was +telegraphed for, and came. His leave was for only one week,—even that a +most unusual concession, granted only because of his unimpeachable +conduct and his safe though not high standing in scholarship. His coming +seemed to give new life to the mother, and Almira vied with him in +attention and devotion. Urbana took it much to heart that after her +months of monopoly of Mr. Powlett, of whom the most damaging and +dreadful things were now told, she should so calmly and complacently +resume her apparent sway over this martial and dignified and superior +sort of person, the widow's son. Urbana fully meant that his eyes should +be opened just so soon as the mother's were closed. But Urbana found +that luck was dead against it. The widow began to mend,—the son it was +who was suddenly prostrated on the eve of his return to the Point.</p> + +<p>Leaving Almira at her father's door one night after seeing her safely +home, Davies was found lying in the high-road, senseless, an hour later, +and never, said Urbana, knew what hit him. Concussion of the brain was +feared, for he had evidently been assaulted in the dark from behind and +felled to earth by blows of some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> heavy, blunt instrument. Robbery was +evidently the motive, for his little store of money and the beautiful +and costly watch presented to his father at the close of the war were +gone. Almira had two patients now, and devotedly she attended them. When +in a fortnight Percy declared he must return, and did return to pass his +midwinter examination, she wore at last an engagement ring. Urbana did +not know that he had offered—and she had refused—freedom. Urbana did +not know that she declared she loved him as she never did before, and as +she never had another. Urbana resented it that he who was so soon to +occupy the exalted station of an officer of the regular army, and the +princely salary of something over a thousand dollars a year "with all +expenses paid,"—double the sum enjoyed by the head salesman of Miller & +Crofts,—should be so utterly deluded as to the frivolous character of +his betrothed, and means were taken to enlighten him. Anonymous letters +came to Cadet Davies of the graduating class, which that grave and +reverend senior committed, not to memory, but to flames. Whatever she +had been before his visit and mishap, Almira was all devotion now. In +May he wrote to her gravely and affectionately, bidding her remember +that he always felt that she had been pledged to him when too young to +know her own mind, that his must needs be a life of self-denial, +privation, and danger, that he must live with the utmost economy +consistent with his position as an officer, because his mother's comfort +must be a sacred charge so long as she lived, and that it might be years +before he could see his way to asking any woman to come and share his +lot. All this he had conscientiously<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> explained to her before, and she +had met it with tears and reproaches. She could help him live +economically. They could sell the homestead and take mother to live with +them. She would welcome the day when she could leave her father's roof, +now no longer a home to her. She knew it must be that he was tiring of +her,—that he had met some proud lady in the East, and his poor little +village maid was forgotten, etc. Now, in answer to this last letter, +virtually proffering release if she so desired, her response was +vehement. He would kill her with his cruelty and coldness. She had no +hope or ambition other than to share his lot, however humble. To be her +noble soldier, her hero Percy's bride, would be her heaven, and neither +gold nor grandeur nor princely mansion could tempt her from his side, +and she would welcome the grave if he proved false to her. It was all +the high-flown, emotional, melodramatic trash to be expected of an +ill-balanced girl whose pretty head was stuffed with the romance of the +country post-office type, and Davies sighed heavily as he read.</p> + +<p>He had planned to visit an old friend of his father's and see something +of New York harbor and city before turning his back on the East. Never +yet had he set foot in Gotham, and as it would be years before +opportunity might again be afforded him, he had weighed it all pro and +con, and decided that Dr. Iverson's advice and invitation should be +accepted. He would go with his classmates, spend the last evening with +them, and join the reverend doctor on the morrow. His mother, even in +her invalided state, urged that he should do so, but Almira heard the +plan with fresh<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> outburst of tears. There was to be a grand picnic of +all the beaux and belles of Urbana on the 18th. She had counted on +having her soldier lover in attendance on that occasion. She had told +him of it, and that was enough. She had declined all other invitations, +saying that Mr. Davies was to hasten thither the moment the graduating +exercises were over, and now to think of the triumph and malicious +delight of the other girls was intolerable. Her lover should fly to her +like homing-pigeon the instant he was released from prison. It was +tantamount to treason that he should purpose anything else. Almira +fretted herself into a fever. She wrote one long letter to the recreant +Parson, and her sister Be<i>ay</i>trice, as they called her, followed it up +with another still more alarming. Then, as he did not wire instant +submission, the telegram was sent. Old Quimby was on the platform at the +Urbana station as Davies sprang from the train. "Nothing much," said he, +in response to the young man's eager inquiry. "Some dam girl nonsense +she and Bee have cooked up between them. When they ain't devilling the +life out of their step-mother they're worrying somebody else. Oh, +yes!—'course the doctor's been humbugging for a week,—too glad to get +a chance of shovin' in a bill."</p> + +<p>Davies went gravely up the sunny street to his mother's home,—a meeting +that served to chase away the clouds, and then an hour later to Almira's +bower. Bee ushered him into a pretty room whose windows were overhung +with honeysuckle and pink chintz, and there in a great old-fashioned +rocking-chair reclined the lovely invalid, who greeted him with +outstretched<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> arms and rapturous cry, and who was sufficiently restored +to exhibit him at the Sunday-school picnic as originally planned. So far +as she was concerned, all went blithely as a marriage-bell until the +morning of July 5, when there came the fearful news of the massacre of +General Custer and his troops at the hands of the Sioux. That evening +the city papers said all officers on leave were hurrying to their +regiments, that reinforcements were being pushed to the front, that +recruits were needed at once; and the next day, followed by a mother's +prayers and a maiden's unavailing protest, Percy Davies was gone. Just +as his father did in '61, leaving all to pursue the path of duty, the +young soldier, though not yet commissioned, sped to the nearest army +post, and joined the first command <i>en route</i> for the field.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2> + + +<p>In the hot July sunshine, up the long vista of the street the flags hung +drooping, every one, with a single exception, at half staff. Over the +building where hearts were heaviest the colors soared highest; the +general commanding, until ordered from Washington, being debarred a +manifestation of mourning which the sovereign citizen adopts as a matter +of course. It was bitter disaster that had befallen the national arms +and involved so popular a commander with scores of his gallant men; the +stars and stripes that had been saluted all over town in honor of the +ever-glorious Fourth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> were now set at mid-height or draped with black. +The crowds that had gathered about the newspaper offices and department +head-quarters all the previous day were scattered, in the conviction +that little remained to be told, but there was a gathering at the +railway station to bid adieu to the battalion of infantry from the +neighboring fort, leaving by special train for the seat of war. They had +cheered the dusty fatigue uniforms as the cars rolled away, and many a +young fellow would gladly have gone with the boys in blue could he have +faced the social ban which a misguided public has established against +its most loyal servants, holding enlistment in the regular army as +virtual admission of general worthlessness. And now the crowds still +lingered under the glass roof of the big passenger shed, for word had +gone out that another train coming across the bridge was loaded with +more troops, and there was a fascination in watching these prospective +victims of the stake and scalping-knife. It had been a fierce campaign +thus far, and one in which the losses and vicissitudes both (there are +no honors to speak of) had been borne principally by the cavalry, but +now the "doughboys" with their "long toms" were being pushed to the +front. "Wait till Emma Jane gets her eye on ould Squattin' Bull," said +an Irish private, patting the butt of his rifle, as with head and +shoulders half-way out of the car window he confidentially addressed the +crowd. "It'll be the last spache he'll ever ax to hear."</p> + +<p>"That'll do there, Moriarty; get that gun inside," said a lieutenant, +briefly. And as Moriarty obeyed, with a grin and wink at the throng, the +laugh and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> cheer that went up were evidently for Private Pat and not for +his superior. It is the smiling face, not official gravity, that wins +the great heart of the people. The band which had headed the column on +the march in from the post, but was not to accompany it to the field, +was still waiting to give the next comers a fitting "send off." Two or +three staff officers in civilian dress stood in earnest talk with the +superintendent of the railway, a knot of curious citizens surrounding +them, eager to pick up any point with reference to the troops or their +transportation. Expectant eyes were cast towards the east where the +towers of the great bridge loomed in the shimmer and glare of the hot +noontide. "She ought to be here now," said the railway-man with an +impatient snap of his watch-case. "What keeps No. 5, Gus?" he asked of +an assistant hurrying by.</p> + +<p>The man hauled up short and touched his hat. "This just came at the +train-despatcher's office, sir," said he, as he handed up a slip of +paper, which the superintendent quickly read, a queer look coming into +his face as he did so.</p> + +<p>"Hu-m-m, gentlemen. This is something <i>you</i>'ll have to straighten out. +It doesn't seem to be in my line." And he handed the paper to Major +Ludlum, chief quartermaster of the department, who in turn read it, his +eyes filling with grave concern.</p> + +<p>"Recruits on No. 5 broke loose at Bluff Siding,—drunk—raiding the +saloon. Can't get 'em on train again. Can guards or police be sent?" It +was signed by the conductor.</p> + +<p>"Well," said Ludlum, disgustedly, "we might have known that would +happen. The idea of sending three<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> car-loads of raw recruits with only +one officer, and that one old Muffet. It's tempting Providence."</p> + +<p>"Why, I thought he had a lieutenant with him. Somebody said so at the +office this morning," said the department engineer officer.</p> + +<p>"Not even a lieutenant,—a cadet, if you like; graduated not a month +ago,—not yet commissioned. Some young cub just out of school, with +about as much idea how to handle drunken recruits as I have of dressing +a doll. Home on graduating leave and thought it his duty to volunteer is +all I can make out of it."</p> + +<p>"Well, bully for him!" spoke up the superintendent. "The boy's got the +right stuff in him if that's the case."</p> + +<p>"What's his name?" asked the engineer officer. "I knew most of this +year's class when I was there on duty."</p> + +<p>"Davies," said the quartermaster, consulting a notebook. "Remember him?"</p> + +<p>"Why,—yes,—vaguely. He was not in the section I had charge of," said +Captain Eustis. "One of the last men to attract attention,—Parson +Davies they called him, I believe. He was one of the Bible-class. Don't +think anybody knew him outside of the Sunday-school."</p> + +<p>"No wonder the recruits jumped the traces with no one but old Muffet and +a parson," said the quartermaster, disdainfully. "Now the question is, +what's to be done? Somebody's got to go over and pull them out of the +hole."</p> + +<p>The situation was indeed serious. Many of the commands now suddenly +ordered to take the field were so short of men that, after the manner of +doing things in the 70's, a detachment of undrilled recruits, one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> +hundred and eighty strong, was hurriedly tumbled aboard the cars at the +cavalry depot on the Mississippi, while others were shipped from the far +East for the Foot. Only one officer—a semi-invalided old trooper—could +be spared from Jefferson Barracks to accompany the batch. There was no +time to wait, and just an hour before the detachment started there +arrived at the office of the depot commander a tall, slim, solemn young +man in brand-new fatigue uniform,—that of the infantry,—who introduced +himself as Mr. Davies of the graduating class, who said he was not yet +assigned to a regiment, but having read that all officers were hastening +to join their commands before they got beyond communication in the +Indian country, thought it possible that he might be assigned to some +company in the field and didn't wish to be left behind. That night he +was seeing his first service. Colonel Cooper, the post commander, shook +him by the hand and presented him to old Muffet, who was in a devil of a +stew and glad of professional help, and then wired on ahead to the +general commanding across the Missouri, or to his representatives at +head-quarters,—he being in the field. All went well enough early in the +night, but, towards morning, whiskey had been smuggled aboard in +sufficient quantity to start the devil of mischief, and finally, at +Bluff Siding, just before reaching the Missouri bridge, overpowering the +unarmed and perhaps sympathetic sentries at the car doors, and defying +the orders of their sergeants, the half-drunken crowd swarmed out and +made a swoop upon a saloon across the side-track. In less time than it +takes to tell it every cubic foot of space of the bar-room was packed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> +with rioting humanity in grimy blue flannel. The proprietor, who had +stood his ground at the instant of initial impact, was now doubled up +underneath the counter; his shrieking family—Hibernians all, and +somewhat used to war's alarms, though hardly to the sight of raiding +boys in blue—had taken refuge in the privacy of their own apartments +above and behind the saloon itself, while within the reeking +establishment pandemonium had broken loose. Bottles, glasses, and raw +liquor were liberally besprinkling the heads and shoulders of the +surging throng. A brawny Irishman, mad with the joy of unlimited riot +and whiskey, was on top of the counter impartially cracking the heads of +all men within reach with the blows of a big wooden bung-starter. Four +or five who had found the trapdoor leading presumably to the supplies in +the cellar were furiously fighting back the crowd so as to admit of +their raising it and forcing a passage down the wooden flight. Poor +Muffet, vainly pleading and swearing, was scouting on the outskirts of +the crowd about the door-way, occasionally turning and shrieking orders +to some bewildered lance sergeant to find the lieutenant and tell him he +must get in there and do something, but the lieutenant was nowhere to be +seen. At a respectful distance the neighbors were looking curiously on, +half a dozen roustabouts from the wharf-boat moored under the bank, a +little batch of railway employés, a number of slatternly women, not +entirely unsympathetic, and perhaps half a dozen hands from a +neighboring saw-mill, but all these, combined with the townsfolk +hurrying to the scene, would have been powerless as opposed to the +sixscore drink-maddened<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> "toughs." Of the recruits, perhaps a dozen had +remained in the cars; of their non-commissioned officers, perhaps half a +dozen were trying to do something, but having no directing head or hand, +accomplishing little. It looked as though nothing but the bursting +asunder of that ramshackle building would liberate its human charge, for +even those who, battered, bleeding, and suffocated, would gladly have +escaped into outer air, were packed in, sardine-like, and incapable of +self-extrication. To the appeal of the conductor that he should regain +control of his men and prevent destruction of property, the luckless +Muffet plaintively responded, "My God, what can I do? I've done my best, +and nobody else has done anything. The only officer I've got has +deserted me."</p> + +<p>But even as he spoke, accompanied by a jutting and hissing and spraying, +by outburst of yells, jeers, maudlin laughter, there came sudden +vomiting forth of drenched and dripping forms. Over the heads of the +throng within, into the hot faces of the throng without the double door, +hurling them back from the battered entrance in sudden panic, a powerful +stream of cold water, shooting from unseen nozzle, broke up and +demoralized the drunken barrier. Skilfully directed into the heart of +the crowd at the door-way, then into the ruck and tumult within, it +first cleared a passage, then, torrent-like, swept away into it, +tumbling and swearing and cursing, but going, the last able-bodied +invader of saloon sanctity, bestowing upon its foul interior the first +thorough washing it ever received, driving the despoilers before it with +the force of a battering-ram, yet even then, unsatisfied, following up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> +its victory. With perhaps half a dozen soldiers and as many mill-hands +hauling on the slack of the hose behind him, through a north window came +the tall, slender, serious-faced person of Mr. Davies, a laughing young +lance corporal manning the butt with him, and, aiming low and driving +discipline and punishment at the rate of a gallon a second, <i>a +posteriori</i>, at the now drenched and scattering mob, and shouting, "Back +to the train! Back to your seats!" never did they cease their deluge +until the last laggard capable of locomotion took shelter within the +cars. Muffet, recoiling in time to escape both rush of men and muddy +water, stood shouting confirmatory orders from the platform the while. +Many a mob will face the shock of charging steel and hissing lead that +melts away before ridicule and squirted water. The <i>emeute</i> was ended +long before the police arrived, and Muffet had regained some measure of +his accustomed presence of mind. "Oh, we simply manned the saw-mill +hose," said he, in complacent acknowledgment of the congratulation of +the staff officials first to meet him. "It didn't take long to souse +them to their sober senses."</p> + +<p>Indeed, the three car-loads of dripping and bedraggled humanity, meekly +side-tracked under the guarding bayonets of the one company of infantry +left at the fort, found not a sympathetic eye among the lookers-on. An +ambulance had carted off to the hospital four or five, whose battered +skulls bore witness to the hammering powers of big Milligan and his +bung-starter. That redoubtable giant himself, weak from the shock of +having involuntarily gulped more water in a second than ever before he +had swallowed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> in weeks, was flattened out in a baggage-car. Two more of +the arriving reinforcements failed to appear to the public eye at the +scene of congratulation, and, as sometimes happens in even so well +regulated a family as our little army, these were the two who most +deserved any honors that were being bestowed,—Mr. Davies and his +assistant pipeman.</p> + +<p>Just as the last prostrate victim of that powerful combination—rum and +riot—had performed the frog's march to the baggage-car, the raving +saloon-keeper had been instructed to send his bill of damages to the +chief quartermaster across the bridge, the conductor had signalled "Go +ahead," and the young officer, ruefully scanning the wreck of his new +fatigue uniform, was clambering on the platform of the sleeper, when he +saw that the blood was dripping from the corporal's hand, despite the +big handkerchief wrapped about it.</p> + +<p>"Come in here, corporal," said he. "Let me look at that. How did it +happen?" And he led the way into the men's toilet-room of the sleeper.</p> + +<p>"I must have cut it with some of that broken glass at the window," was +the answer.</p> + +<p>He was paling now, drooping evidently from loss of blood. Quickly Mr. +Davies unrolled the bandage, and there, beside a little jagged gash, +disclosed a deep cut from which the blood was oozing. "Why, man," said +he, "that's as clean as though done with a razor. Did any one try to +knife you?"</p> + +<p>But the soldier made no answer. He sank limp upon a seat. Two civilian +travellers, in prompt sympathy, tendered flasks, and a stiff cup of +brandy brought back some vestige of the flitting color. Then<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> a young +lady came forward from the interior of the car. "Please let me help +you," she said. "My father was a surgeon and I know something about +these wounds." Davies gratefully gave way to her, and found himself +watching the swift, skilful touch of her slender white hands as she bent +over the work. It was finished in a minute, and then with calm decision +the girl spoke again. "I will take him back to our section. He needs +quiet for a while," said she, standing erect now and addressing herself +to Mr. Davies, and rather pointedly ignoring the younger civilian, whose +interjected remarks fell upon ears that were dainty but deaf. "I am with +Mrs. Cranston," said she, "whose husband is among the wounded. Do you +know him?—Captain Cranston?"</p> + +<p>"Only by reputation," answered Davies, raising his cap. "You are very +good to our men. Go with this young lady, corporal. I'll come as soon as +I can wash my hands."</p> + +<p>Hardly waiting, however, for his reply, the girl had passed her hand +underneath the soldier's arm and led him rearwards as the train slowly +rounded the long curve to the bridge embankment. Davies slipped out of +his sack coat and plunged his hands in the basin. "Would you mind +pumping for me?" he said to the nearest civilian, who with his companion +stood gazing admiringly after the girl. "My hands are covered with that +poor fellow's blood."</p> + +<p>"Certainly," was the prompt answer, as one of them grasped the +nickel-plated lever. The other and younger man turned to the ice-water +tank, rinsed the tumbler that had just been used to such good purpose, +poured<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span> out another stiff load of spirits, and with confident kindliness +held it out to the young officer.</p> + +<p>"Thank you," said Davies, shaking his head, "I never use it."</p> + +<p>"You don't?" was the surprised answer. "Why, I thought all army officers +drank."</p> + +<p>"That seems to be the general idea," was the quiet answer. "Much more +general than the practice, I hope. Thank you," he continued, as, drying +his hands, he quickly donned his coat and went on through the car. They +watched him a moment as he was presented to the elder of the two ladies, +one whose face, though still young, bore traces of grief and tears and +anxiety. They saw her look up and clasp his proffered hand, evidently +glad to meet one of her husband's cloth.</p> + +<p>"Now, if I'd only known about her husband's being one of the wounded, I +could have rung in there all right," said the younger of the two +travellers. "I haven't seen a prettier girl in all my wanderings,—but +she stood me off even on a dodge I never knew to fail."</p> + +<p>"You were too transparent, so to speak, Willett," said the elder. "She +couldn't help seeing you were trying to scrape acquaintance. All young +girls don't take to frivolity any more than all officers to whiskey."</p> + +<p>Willett, nettled at this palpable hit, spoke resentfully. "Oh, I dare +say they'd make a good team,—one's a prude and the other a prig."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not a very bad team, as you put it, my boy," was the answer, as +the elder thoughtfully regarded the two now in earnest conversation. +"But a girl who won't flirt isn't necessarily a prude, nor a man<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> who +won't drink a prig. If I were marrying again, I should be glad of a girl +like that for a wife. If I were soldiering again, I'd like that boy for +a sub."</p> + +<p>And just before leaving the train on its arrival at the Omaha station +the speaker went to Davies and held out his hand. "Lieutenant," said he, +"my name is Langston. I met and knew a number of West Pointers during +the war, and I am glad to have met you. If ever I can be of service to +you in my way,—and my duties carry me out here on the frontier very +often,—let me know."</p> + +<p>Never dreaming how it might be needed, Davies accepted the proffer of +services with all that the proffer implied.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2> + + +<p>Guarded by a detachment of veteran infantry, the recruits so turbulent +at noon were spiritless now in every sense of the word. Turning over his +charge, as well as his account of their conduct and of his own, to the +commander of the escort, Captain Muffet remained at department +head-quarters long enough to impress the officials thereat on duty with +his version of the riot at Bluff Siding,—its inciting cause and its +incisive cure. Then he went back to the cavalry depot and presumably +improved on his initial effort. The story of Muffet's wild ride with the +raw recruits and Muffet's method of quelling a mob was often told that +summer at the rear long after Lieutenant Davies and the recruits<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> in +question had gone to the front and were lost to all communication. The +officer who went in command from Omaha was an expert. He established a +sergeant's guard in each recruit car, with orders to flatten out the +first man who left his seat, rap every head that showed outside a window +when the train stopped, and so turned over the one hundred and +seventy-two that were turned over to him a sick and subdued lot by the +time they reached Fort Sanders the following afternoon. "This is Mr. +Davies,—Lieutenant Davies,—just graduated,—who's to go on with 'em," +said he to the commanding officer of that old army post, adding for his +private ear, "He's a tenderfoot and doesn't know anything but moral +suasion." To this conclusion Captain Tibbetts has been impelled by what +he had heard as well as by the events of the night. Mr. Davies, of whom +he knew nothing except what Muffet had to say, having been told that he +needn't bother about the men any more, had nevertheless bothered about +them, three or four at least, very much,—Lance Corporal Brannan to +begin with, who was slashed in the hand, and a couple of sorely battered +penitents in the middle car among them. No surgeon being with the +detachment, Davies had begged permission towards evening to fetch these +poor fellows back to the sleeper, where their hurts could be cleaned and +bandaged. Tibbetts said no, and two hours later yes. Meantime he had met +the ladies, one of whom, the elder, exhausted by the sleeplessness and +anxiety of forty-eight hours, was comforted by the despatch brought her +at Omaha to the effect that her husband was being sent in by easy stages +to Fort Fetterman,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span> where she could meet and nurse him, and she was now +finally and peacefully sleeping in her berth. The other, a slender, +graceful girl, with very soft dark eyes and grave, sweet, mobile face, +who sat and fanned Mrs. Cranston during the heat of the afternoon, had +next surprised the captain by re-dressing the ugly wound in the young +corporal's hand. Tibbetts knew Captain Cranston well by reputation. He +was one of the finest troop commanders of the cavalry arm, but Tibbetts +had never before met Mrs. Cranston and her companion now consigned to +his care.</p> + +<p>"You are well taught in first aid to the wounded," he said. "Where did +you learn?"</p> + +<p>"My father was Dr. Loomis, of the army," she answered, simply. "He +taught me when I was quite a child. He died, as I think perhaps you +know."</p> + +<p>"We all knew him, Miss Loomis," was the instant reply. "Even those who +never met him, personally, knew him as I did,—for his devotion to our +poor fellows in the fever epidemic. And your mother?"</p> + +<p>"Mother has been dead for years. I am alone now, but for my cousin +Margaret,—Mrs. Cranston. I am her companion."</p> + +<p>And the captain, himself aging in the service, and with daughters who +might be left as was this girl,—penniless,—understood, and bowed in +silent sympathy. It was the sight of the gash in Brannan's fist that +called him back to the business before him.</p> + +<p>"How did you get that?" he asked, with professional brevity, little +liking it—soldier bred as he was—that one of the new flock should thus +be parcelled out from his fellows and transported in a Pullman.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Climbing through the window of the saloon I—cut it, sir," was the +answer.</p> + +<p>"Yes—<i>there</i> perhaps," said Tibbetts, indicating the smaller gash, "but +this one,—clean cut like a knife. Whose knife?"</p> + +<p>Whereat Brannan looked confused and troubled. "I don't know, sir," he +finally said.</p> + +<p>"I believe you do know, and that you got it in that saloon row. A pretty +thing for a man like you to be mixed in."</p> + +<p>Whereat Brannan reddened still more, and looked as though he wanted to +speak yet feared to say. It was Miss Loomis who promptly took the word.</p> + +<p>"Indeed, captain, you don't understand. He was ordered in. He was +handling the hose pipe—the very first—with Mr. Davies." And here she +turned as though to seek the other pipeman, while Tibbetts +effusively—impulsively—began to make amends.</p> + +<p>"Well—well—well," said he. "That's a totally different matter. You got +your wound in a good cause, sir, and if I could find out who tried to +knife you, he'd repent it this night. Are you sure you don't know?"</p> + +<p>"I don't think anybody tried to cut me, sir," was the answer, after a +pause.</p> + +<p>"Didn't you see anybody with a knife?"</p> + +<p>But this Brannan wouldn't answer, and the captain, after a moment's +thought, went lurching through the grimy, swaying cars, hunted up the +two damaged recruits and gruffly bade them follow him. Davies looked up +gratefully as they entered the sleeping-car, but the captain did not +notice him. "I have reconsidered,"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> said he, "and brought these patients +to you, Miss Loomis," then turned abruptly away. It was the subaltern +who aided, and then who thanked the skilful, light-handed nurse, for the +poor fellows seemed both abashed and humbled. One of them, looking +furtively about, had caught sight of Brannan, sitting alone in a section +with his bandaged hand. Quick glance of recognition was exchanged. There +was an instant of question in the new-comer's eye. It was answered by +the corporal, who raised two fingers to his compressed lips one second, +then let them fall. But Davies saw,—saw also that when told by the +captain they might remain there in the roomier, cooler sleeper for a +time, the younger and more intelligent-looking of the two dropped into +the seat by Brannan's side. They chatted in low tone together, as the +night came on, their lips moving and their ears attent even though their +heads were turned apart,—communing as men commune who do not wish to be +thought in conversation.</p> + +<p>"We shall have supper at Grand Island," said the captain, presently, +"and coffee will be sent through the cars for the men. If you will +escort Mrs. Cranston and Miss Loomis, Mr. Davies, my sergeants will look +after the command." And Mr. Davies being subordinate and just out of +four years' training in which no man may hesitate to do just as a +superior may bid, obeyed his instructions, not unwilling, even though +smarting under vague sense of being given to understand he was of no +military use.</p> + +<p>Re-entering the car, refreshed after a hearty supper, and seeing his +fair charges to their section, Mr. Davies<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> caught sight of his invalids +still seated where he had left them, and looking weak and hungry.</p> + +<p>"Did they bring you no coffee? Have you had no supper?" he asked. And, +as a shake of the head was sole answer, he sallied forth. Appealing to +the sergeant in charge of the distribution of the cooked rations, he was +favored with the brief reply, "The captain didn't give me no orders." +Moreover, there didn't seem to be anything left. The captain was still +leisurely finishing his own supper, after having got the coffee started +on the train. The huge caldrons used for the purpose were already being +lifted off the cars, empty. Every drop had been spilled or swallowed by +the hungry and thirsty crowd. With quick decision Davies stepped to the +lunch-counter, loaded up with huge frontier sandwiches, doughnuts, and +hard-boiled eggs, and bade the manager draw a jug full of coffee and get +it, with some cups, milk, and sugar, on the sleeper at once. He came +forth laden, the Pullman porter with him, as the conductor was trolling, +"All aboard." Down the platform he went with the eyes of half the blue +coats on the cars upon him, and soldiers refreshed by food and coffee +are in more receptive mood than when dejected by hunger. Some men in the +third car who had heard his eager queries of the commissary sergeant +knew for whom those supplies were meant, others did not, and of these +latter one jocular and untutored Patlander sang out, "Bully for the +leftenint; 'tis he that knows how to look out for number wan." Whereat +there came furious shouts of "Shame!" "Shut up!" and inelegant and +opprobrious epithets, all at the expense of the impetuous son<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> of Erin +who had spoken too soon. Some one whacked his empty head with an equally +empty canteen and called him a Yap. Some one else, farther back, sang +out, "Three cheers for the lieutenant," and stentorian authority in +chevrons bellowed "Silence there, fore and aft!" and then, when instant +hush and awe rewarded the mandate, followed up the order with the +military Milesianism, "Youse fellers wants to keep your mouths shut +barrin' you're atin'." The wounded in the Pullman ate and drank +gratefully and heartily at the lieutenant's expense, and these are +matters the rank and file remember. Lance Corporal Brannan, made +comfortable for the night in the sleeper, had a few murmured words with +the dark-eyed and more intelligent-looking of the two recruits before +they were remanded to their own car for the night, where they went, and, +after the manner of their kind, one of them bragged not a little over +the bully supper they had had with the lieutenant. "Enjoy it while you +can, me bucks," was the caustic comment of a fellow-recruit who had all +the ear-marks and none of the credentials of previous service about him. +"It's the last of that sort of hobnobbing you'll ever see."</p> + +<p>For upwards of an hour during the night, while Mrs. Cranston lay +peacefully sleeping, Mr. Davies and Miss Loomis sat in conversation in +the opposite section. Tibbetts, who would fain have enjoyed such a +privilege, found no opportunity. Somewhere towards ten o'clock he came +quickly in. Davies read official matter in the captain's manner as he +approached the section, and rising, stood attention, cadet-like, when +addressed.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Davies, while I think everything will go<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span> quietly with those +fellows from this on, I wish to take all necessary precautions. I will +divide the night with you. After two o'clock I wish you to go through +the cars once every two hours and see that the recruits are quiet and +the guard alert, also to step outside to the platform when we stop at +stations. Better turn in now and get what sleep you can."</p> + +<p>But though promptly at two o'clock the young officer aroused the +captain, who was dozing in the smoking-room, he himself had had little +sleep. The events of the day, the novelty of his position, the desire to +see something of the strange, half-settled land so recently the +roaming-ground of Indian and buffalo through which they were steadily +rolling, and which lay outspread, weird and ghostly, in the summer +moonlight,—these and thoughts of home and the rapidly nearing +possibilities of frontier warfare, all combined to make him wakeful. He +was only getting sleepy when he should have been wide awake. Captain +Tibbetts was an old campaigner and awoke from his doze with a start, +shook himself together, and said he'd take a turn through the car before +undressing for the night. In a moment or two he returned, the first +sergeant with him, and this faithful old soldier was rewarded by a long +pull from the captain's canteen before returning to the recruit car.</p> + +<p>"Do you know anything about that young fellow,—ever meet him before?" +said Tibbetts, indicating with a nod the recruit corporal, who, with a +pillow under his head and his feet on the opposite seat, was now curled +up in slumber.</p> + +<p>"No, sir," answered Davies.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well, he's a man of good education and family, if I'm not mistaken. I'm +told he's been on duty as clerk at the depot, and 'twas he who made out +the rolls. It will be long before he can write again. Better leave him +at Sanders." As he spoke the captain was holding out the well-filled +flask in one hand, the cup in the other. Davies took neither. "Won't you +have a nip?" asked the senior. "It'll help you to keep awake."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, sir, I never have, and don't care to begin."</p> + +<p>Tibbetts began screwing on the cap, looking his man over as he did so.</p> + +<p>"I believe you're right," said he, "and if I were to begin over again +I'd do the same. But we were all taught the other way fifteen years +ago." He paused as though he half wanted to say more, but finally turned +away and disappeared in his section.</p> + +<p>Obedient to his instructions, Davies made frequent tours through the +cars, and scouted the outside of the train at every stop. The night +passed, however, in perfect peace. The dawn came hours before the train +was due at Sidney, where coffee was again to be served. Only one +incident occurred to give him food for new thought. Towards four o'clock +he returned to the sleeper after an absence of some ten minutes, just as +the train pulled slowly away from one of those little prairie stations, +and as he entered the dimly-lighted aisle he saw that Brannan was not in +his place. Standing at Mrs. Cranston's section farther on, a little +phial and medicine-glass in her hand, her dark hair falling in heavy +braids down her back, attired in a loose, warm wrapper, was Miss Loomis, +calm, yet evidently<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> anxious. Beyond her hovered Brannan, holding the +captain's flask.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" asked Davies. "Can I be of assistance?"</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Cranston woke up in some pain," was the answer. "I know just what +to do for her. Thank you, corporal, I believe we won't need the +flask.—He thought I needed it," said she, turning to Davies. And +Brannan, going to the captain's section, slipped his prize back into the +little russet leather satchel and shoved it underneath the berth. Davies +looked at him in some surprise, but made no comment.</p> + +<p>"I am sorry I was not here to help you," said he. "Did you have to wake +him,—Brannan?"</p> + +<p>"He was awake. A soldier was in here speaking with him when I heard Mrs. +Cranston, just after we stopped at the last station. We were there +several minutes, were we not?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, taking on water; but Captain Tibbetts gave orders that no man +should leave his car. Who was the man who came in here, corporal?" asked +he of Brannan.</p> + +<p>"I—I couldn't give his name, sir," was the answer, in evident +embarrassment. "He came in just the minute the lieutenant got off at the +station. He was only in here a few seconds, sir."</p> + +<p>"What did he want?" asked Davies.</p> + +<p>"He—wanted something of the captain, sir, but I told him the captain +was asleep."</p> + +<p>Davies hastened through the passage and across the jolting platform to +the next car ahead.</p> + +<p>"Sergeant," said he, "what man went through here into the sleeper when +we stopped last station?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No man, sir," said the non-commissioned officer, stoutly.</p> + +<p>"But there must have been—or no, perhaps he could have run along the +left side of the train from a forward car and jumped on the platform. I +didn't think of that. Did you see or hear no one?"</p> + +<p>"I heard some one on the platform of the sleeper, sir, but I thought it +was the lieutenant."</p> + +<p>Going forward Davies met with no better success. The guard at each door +was positive no man had gone out. Then, unless there were collusion on +the part of the sentries, he must have slipped through some window, said +Davies to himself. Miss Loomis was still up and rearranging Mrs. +Cranston's pillows when he returned.</p> + +<p>"Did you ascertain anything?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Nothing. They all deny any knowledge of such a thing."</p> + +<p>"Do you know, I thought there was something strange about it. The man +seemed hurried and excited, talked low and fast, and when Brannan +refused or seemed to refuse what was asked, I heard him say, 'Well, +you'll be a sorry man if you don't.'"</p> + +<p>But of this threat Brannan denied all knowledge whatsoever. Davies, +feeling sure that the young soldier was concealing something, decided to +ask no more questions inviting more lies, but to wait and report the +affair to the captain after breakfast. This time the sergeants did not +overlook the lance corporal in the distribution of coffee and rations. +Davies found that Miss Loomis had just finished dressing and bandaging +the wound when he returned to the sleeper shortly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> after they resumed +the journey. The soldier looked gratefully into her face as he turned +away, and murmured something the young officer could not hear. "Yes, I +understand," said Miss Loomis in reply.</p> + +<p>A moment later she accosted him. "I'm going to ask you something that +may sound very strange," she said, and her color heightened and the lids +swept quickly over her eyes, "yet—I believe you won't misunderstand. I +want you to do something—or rather <i>not</i> to do something—for me. You +were going to tell Captain Tibbetts about that affair of last +night,—that other soldier's coming in here, were you not?"</p> + +<p>"I certainly was."</p> + +<p>"Well—please don't."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2> + + +<p>A week later, with additional detachments of horse, foot, and recruits, +Mr. Davies found himself in camp on the sandy, sage-covered flats to the +west of old Fort Fetterman. Here, too, were gathered wagons and mules +laden with ammunition and supplies for the big column already in the +field far to the northward. Officers hurrying to the front from leave of +absence which they had promptly relinquished, newspaper correspondents, +packers, teamsters, scouts and would-be scouts, soldiers old and +soldiers new,—it was a strange and motley array, all awaiting the +coming of the cavalry command, which was to be their escort<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> through the +Indian-infested region that lay between them and the main supply camp +beyond Cloud Peak. Between them and the barren slopes to the northward +rolled the swollen Platte, its shallowest fords breast-deep. At rare +intervals, with his life in his hands and his despatches done up in +oil-skin, some solitary courier came galloping down to the opposite bank +and was hauled over by the rope ferry, the only means of dry +communication between the shores. One day, strongly guarded, there +arrived a little procession of ambulances and <i>travois</i>, bearing such of +the wounded as could stand such rude transportation,—but this was while +Davies with his recruits was still on his foot tramp through the passes +of the Medicine Bow,—and among these wounded was Captain Cranston, now +comfortably housed in the quarters of a brother officer who was with his +troop at the front, and there Davies found the two ladies, his +companions of the railway ride, duly installed as nurses. Almost the +first question asked by Miss Loomis was about her patient, the lance +corporal.</p> + +<p>"He is here with us," said Davies, "his hand still in a sling. That was +a deep cut and a bad one, but he's a plucky young fellow and declined to +be left behind at Sanders. He tells me, however, that the hospital +steward with us cannot compare in skill with the nurse he had on the +cars."</p> + +<p>Miss Loomis smiled. "You know I owe that to father," she said. Then, +with quick change of subject, "But I haven't congratulated you on your +assignment."</p> + +<p>"Is it here?—has it come?" he asked, eagerly. "I did not know. What +regiment?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p> + +<p>"To the Eleventh Cavalry,—Captain Cranston's own regiment."</p> + +<p>"The Eleventh Cavalry!" he exclaimed, surprise and pleasure in his face. +"I had not hoped for that; and yet——" a shadow falling and constraint +creeping into his tone. "I fear I ought to have gone into the infantry. +I had made every preparation. Where did you hear?"</p> + +<p>"About the orders? Why, from Colonel Denton. He came last evening to +call, and we were speaking of you. Haven't you been to see him yet? You +know that's an officer's first duty on coming to a post."</p> + +<p>"I came here first," answered Davies. "It seemed most natural. Of course +I was going to call on the commanding officer. Captain Tibbetts said he +would take me as soon as he came up, a little later. I got away earlier, +as I wanted to inquire for my letters, but I missed them after +all,—they had been sent over to camp. Are you sure about my being +assigned to the cavalry?"</p> + +<p>"There's no doubt about it. Colonel Denton said instructions came by +telegraph to notify you of your assignment to the Eleventh, and +directing you as having relinquished graduation leave to report to +Colonel Winthrop, now commanding the regiment in the field. Perhaps your +throwing up your leave and seeking instant service had something to do +with your good fortune,—if cavalry is really what you wanted."</p> + +<p>"It is certainly what I would most like," he answered; "and yet,—there +were reasons."</p> + +<p>She stood there in the door-way in her cool white dress looking so fresh +and dainty and fair to see; her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span> dark eyes had lighted with pleasure at +sight of her friend, and the flush was still on her soft and rounded +cheek. She was noting how his few days of marching and campaigning had +improved him, even at the expense of a sensitive complexion. Mr. +Davies's nose was peeling, as a result of a week's exposure to +blistering Wyoming suns, his eyes were red-rimmed too, in tribute to +alkali dust and water. The gloss was gone from his trim fatigue dress, a +red silk handkerchief had replaced the white starched collar, and a soft +drab felt hat the natty forage-cap. But he looked the more soldierly and +serviceable if less trim, and being tall, spare, and athletic, if not +particularly handsome, Mr. Davies was at least as presentable as the +average of his fellows now thronging the post, for bristling beards and +frontier scouting-dress banish all vestige of dandyism. But if she liked +him still better now that the week had wrought its changes, what could +be said of his impressions? Attractive as she had appeared in the grime +and dust and heat of the railway car, now in that dainty gown of cool +white lawn, open at the rounded throat, she saw with woman's unerring +eye the unspoken approval if not open admiration in his face. Not yet +nineteen, she had lived a busy, earnest, thoughtful life. The Cranstons +had known her from early maidenhood. She was a child in the Southern +garrison in the days of the great epidemic, when the young captain owed +his life to the doctor's skill and assiduous care. It was this that led +to the deep friendship between the two men, and to Cranston's assuming +the duties of guardian and protector after Loomis's lamented death. It +was this that determined her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> hastening to Mrs. Cranston the moment the +sad news came, and then accompanying her to the frontier. A mature head +was that on her young shoulders, but she who had so easily repelled the +advances of the admiring fellow-passenger on the train had been +attracted by the bearing and behavior of the young officer, who, +absorbed in his new cares and duties, had apparently noticed her hardly +at all. She and the train conductor and Mr. Langston, the elder of the +two civilians, at least, knew who was the inspiration of that effective +squelching given the rioting recruits, whatever impression might be +prevailing at department head-quarters or at Sanders. She, presumably, +had her duties as assistant to Mrs. Cranston at the bedside of the +sorely wounded officer. Davies, too, had matters requiring his attention +about the post, for the word had gone the rounds that they were to march +at dawn on the morrow. Yet here under the vine-sheltered portico they +lingered, chatting on all manner of topics. Mrs. Cranston came smilingly +to congratulate the young officer on his assignment to her husband's +regiment, to say the captain was dozing now and that she thought she +would lie down a while, but that Miss Loomis was not to think of coming +in out of the sweet summer air.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mr. Davies is only waiting for Captain Tibbetts to come up from +camp to call with him on the post commander," said Miss Loomis; "and +here comes the captain now," she continued, as a stalwart, full-bearded, +heavily-built fellow swung himself off his horse at the gate, and, +leaving him with his orderly, came forward with cordial inquiries for +his wounded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> comrade, and with a packet of letters, at least a dozen, +which he handed to the new lieutenant.</p> + +<p>"Seven of them addressed in the same fair, feminine hand, youngster," +said he, in the easy jocularity of the frontier. "That gives you dead +away."</p> + +<p>And the color that mounted to Mr. Davies's forehead, a cloud of +embarrassment, told plainly that the shot was a centre. He had not +recovered himself when the captain again turned, saying they must go to +the commanding officer's quarters at once or be too late.</p> + +<p>"Remember, you are to come and lunch with us, Mr. Davies," said the +captain's wife, as he was saying adieu.</p> + +<p>"I—I'm afraid I can't, Mrs. Cranston," was his answer. "We march so +soon, and I have so many preparations to make."</p> + +<p>"Preparations? Why, what on earth have you been doing ever since you +came up to the post?" asked his witless or too witty tormentor. "He's +simply eager to get off by himself somewhere and devour his ration of +spoon meat. I know how it is, Mrs. Cranston. I was there ten years ago." +And Davies's low-toned protestations were drowned in the jovial tones of +his burly comrade.</p> + +<p>"I'll come to say good-by to-night, perhaps," he stammered, as he was +led away, still clutching his packet; but Miss Loomis had turned and +gone within-doors before the visitors reached the gate.</p> + +<p>"I'm sorry to hear of it," said Captain Cranston, when later that +evening his wife was laughingly telling of Davies's betrayal and +confusion. "I always feel distressed to find a young fellow, just +entering<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> service, has already enlisted in one much more exacting. I was +in love when I graduated myself."</p> + +<p>And Davies didn't come to say adieu. He wrote a note to Mrs. Cranston +saying he found so many duties crowding on him at the last moment, so +many home letters to be written owing to his having left in such haste, +that it was impossible for him to leave camp. He begged her to say +good-by for him to Miss Loomis, whom he sincerely hoped he might meet +again, and with his best wishes for the captain's speedy recovery and +restoration to duty, he begged to subscribe himself her friend and most +obedient servant.</p> + +<p>"Now, I like that young fellow," said Mrs. Cranston, folding up the +letter, "only I didn't——"</p> + +<p>"Well, didn't what?" asked her companion, seeing that she had faltered +for a word.</p> + +<p>"Well—he didn't act at all like an engaged man,—like he ought to have +acted," said Mrs. Cranston, with honest disdain of masculine flirts or +malevolent rules of speech, due perhaps to long association with belles +of the Blue Grass country.</p> + +<p>"Why, I didn't think he was engaged," said Miss Loomis.</p> + +<p>"No,—and he didn't mean you to. But when one mail brings a man seven +letters from one girl, I've no use for him."</p> + +<p>"Well, I should much rather he had them of one than from seven different +girls," said Miss Loomis, smiling resolutely.</p> + +<p>"Oh, you're bound to uphold him, I see. All the same, I thought better +of him."</p> + +<p>"Ah?" And now in a very pretty, playful way did<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> Miss Loomis take her +companion's flushed face between two long, white, slender hands,—very +cool and dainty members were they,—and archly queried, "Are you +beginning to tire of your bargain, Lady Cranston? Are you planning +already to unload me, as the captain says, on somebody else?"</p> + +<p>The answer came with sudden vehemence and a hug. "You are much too good +for any man I know,—except Will, and you can't have him. And I'll never +let you go till the right one comes."</p> + +<p>After which outburst, and for over a week, did this young matron say +little more to Miss Loomis on the subject, but she must have enlivened +some hours of the captain's convalescence with her views on recent +graduates in general, and this one in particular, for when at last +letters came from the front announcing the arrival of the reinforcements +and the final cutting loose of the reorganized column from its base, the +prostrate warrior glanced up at his busy wife with an odd mixture of +merriment and concern in his haggard face.</p> + +<p>"To whose troop do you suppose your friend Davies has been assigned?"</p> + +<p>"Not to yours, surely. You have no vacancy."</p> + +<p>"No. I fear I wish I had,—every time I see my bulky senior sub in +saddle. But, of all men you know——"</p> + +<p>"Will Cranston! You don't mean Captain Devers?"</p> + +<p>"Yes,—Captain Differs, for a fact."</p> + +<p>"Well, then your <i>protégé</i> and Mr. Davies have gone into the same troop. +What a strange coincidence! Isn't it time Mrs. Barnard answered Agatha's +letter?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Time she answered it? Yes," replied Cranston, "yet not time for her +answer to get here. Poor lady! She was so distressed at the thought of +his going into the army. I hope that letter will comfort her. It ought +to. I doubt if he ever did an honest day's work before."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2> + + +<p>The battalion had halted at the foot of the slope, each troop closing up +on its predecessor and huddling in shivering silence. No trumpet +sounded; no word of command was heard. Every troop leader threw up his +hand when he thought he had gone far enough and rolled stiffly out of +saddle, his horse only too willingly standing stock-still the instant he +found himself no longer urged. "Dismount" either by signal or command +would have been an affront to a cavalry force two-thirds of whose array +seemed to be dismounted already, some towing along by taut bridle-rein +the famished relic of a once spirited charger, others comforting +themselves with the reflection that at least they had now only their own +carcass to care for, others still wishing they had not even that +responsibility, wondering how much longer their aggrieved stomachs might +have to struggle with the only pabulum upon which they had been allowed +to expend their gastric juices for over forty-eight hours, and suffering +the pangs of remorse, both physical and mental, in the poignant +consciousness that the cause of this distress<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> was the undigested +portion of some late faithful four-footed friend and companion, for the +command for rations had been reduced to horse meat on the hoof. Three +hundred miles from the nearest post when their supplies gave out, in the +heart of the Bad Lands and the height of the worst season of the year, +except midwinter, it had turned its back to the forts and its face to +the foe, true to its orders, still following the trail of the hostile +tribe,—the only hot thing it had struck for a week. "Live on the +country, there isn't anything else," were their orders, as they cut +loose from the main command, and their major—a reserved and +conservative fellow at other times—came away from the grim presence of +his commander with blasphemy on his bearded lips. The only human +habitation within scores of miles of his line of march were Indian +lodges, and both grass for the horses and game for the men had been +fired off the face of the earth by those active foemen before the +drenching wintry rain set in and chilled to the marrow the shelterless +forms of starving trooper and staggering steed.</p> + +<p>"Live on the country, indeed! Two antelope and ten prairie dogs was the +sum total of the game secured by the hunters in three days' pursuit. And +what are they," said Captain Truman, "among so many? Barley loaves and +Galilee perch might be made to go round in a bigger crowd in the days of +miracles, but this isn't Jordan's strand," he added, as he glanced +around at the dripping, desolate slopes, and then, fortified in his +opinion by the gloomy survey, concluded, with cavalry elegance, "not by +a damn sight."</p> + +<p>"What's the matter ahead, anyhow?" hailed a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> brother captain, up to his +shins in sticky mud, who had been making mental calculation as to how +many more hours of such wearing work and wretched weather it would take +to unhorse his entire company.</p> + +<p>"Don't know," was the short answer. Men fight, but they seldom talk on +empty stomachs.</p> + +<p>"Why, I thought I saw you talking with Hastings when he rode back." +Hastings being the battalion adjutant. "Didn't he say what they were +pow-wowing about?"</p> + +<p>"No, and I didn't ask. There was nothing to eat in sight, and that's the +only matter that interests my people just now. Just look at those poor +brutes!" And Truman heaved a sigh as he gazed about among his gaunt, +dejected horses, many of them so weak as barely to be able to stand.</p> + +<p>"My men are as bad off as the horses, pretty near," said Captain Devers, +the other. "There isn't one of them that hasn't turned his saddle-bags +inside out to-day for the last crumb of hard-tack. They're worn to skin +and bone. Three of them broke down entirely back there at the creek +crossing, and if there weren't Indians all round us, nothing would have +fetched them along. There goes Davies, coddling 'em again, damn it! That +man would spoil any troop——Mr. <i>Davies!</i>" he called, and a gaunt, wiry +fellow, with a stiff beard sprouting on his thin, haggard face, turned +away from a bedraggled trooper who had thrown himself in utter +abandonment among the dripping sage brush at the side of the trail, and +came to his troop commander.</p> + +<p>"I wish you wouldn't make such a fuss over those<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> men," said Devers, +petulantly. "Just leave 'em alone. They'll come out all right. This +coddling and petting isn't going to do any good. Soldiers are not like +sick children."</p> + +<p>"A good many of ours seem to feel that way just now, sir," said the +young officer. "I only thought to cheer him up a bit."</p> + +<p>"Well, when my men need nursing, Mr. Davies, I'll have you detailed in +that capacity, but be so good as to refrain from it otherwise. I don't +like it. That's all."</p> + +<p>Without a word Davies turned on his heel and went back to his horse. +Truman, looking after him with a not unkindly interest in his tired +eyes, saw that he swayed a little as he ploughed his way through the +thick and sticky mud. "That boy's as weak as a sick child himself, +Devers," said he. "You'll have to have a nurse for him before we get +in."</p> + +<p>"Well, it's his own fault, then. He had just as much in his haversack as +I had when we cut loose from the main column. I 'spose he's given it +away."</p> + +<p>"I know he has," was the curt rejoinder. "Neither of those two men could +stomach tough mule meat. I suppose that was the only way to get 'em +along."</p> + +<p>Devers turned gloomily about. Down in the bottom of his heart he felt +that in his annoyance at what he considered disregard of his +instructions he had spoken harshly and unjustly to a young officer of +whom he had heard many a word of praise during the hard and trying +campaign now drawing to a close. True, the words had fallen mainly from +the lips of those of the rank and file or from seniors whom he didn't +like.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> In some, cases, especially among the enlisted men, they would +appear to have been spoken for the captain's especial benefit. Devers, +while a painstaking officer and not unmindful of the care of his men, +was one who "lacked magnetism," to say the least, and never won from +them the enthusiastic homage they often lavished on others among their +superiors. The fact that Lieutenant Davies, finding Moore and Rupp +actually so weak from lack of food that they could hardly drag one leg +after another, had been sharing with them his own slender store of +provision was not the first thing the men had noted in his favor, but +that was no reason, thought Devers, why they should raise their voices +and glance covertly in his direction when referring to it. Devers was +one of the kind sometimes called unsympathetic, that is, he seemed so, +but it was more in manner than in fact, for few troop commanders in his +regiment were really more careful in providing for their men than he. +But these were days that tried men's tempers as well as their souls, and +the officer who could look back on that long campaign against the Sioux +without regretting some speech wrung from him by the exasperation +produced by incessant exposure, hardship, and finally by starvation, +were few indeed. Devers was honest enough to admit to himself at the +moment that he wished he hadn't said what he did say to Davies, but not +so honest as to confess it to any one else. Yet stealing a glance at the +young fellow whom he had humiliated, now wearily leaning against his +saddle, Devers would have been glad to find some way of making amends, +but, stealing another glance around another way after Truman, of whom he +was both<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> jealous and afraid, he hardened his heart. It is one thing to +say "I was in the wrong" to the victim, and quite another to admit it to +one's fellows. It is fear of what the world will say that keeps many a +man from righting many a wrong, and men, too, who wouldn't flinch in +front of a mile of batteries.</p> + +<p>Standing listlessly by their horses, the men of Devers's troop had, some +of them at least, been silent witnesses of the scene. One or two +officers also had marked and conjectured, though they had not heard, +what had taken place. Truman alone was cognizant of all, and, whatever +may have been his views, this was neither the time nor place to express +them. But he took occasion to stop as he was returning to the head of +his own troop and speak to the young officer in the case.</p> + +<p>"Davies," said he, kindly, "come over with me a moment. I've got a +little chunk of antelope in my saddle-bags, and you need it, man. We'll +all have something to eat to-night—<i>sure</i>. We'll make the Belle Fourche +by nine."</p> + +<p>Davies looked up gratefully. "I'm ever so much obliged, captain," he +began, "but I can't eat with all those poor fellows looking at me. +They're about done up."</p> + +<p>"Oh, it's rough, I know, but all they've got to do is tag along with the +column till night and then eat their fill. You haven't had enough to +live on, and may have work ahead. Here comes Hastings now."</p> + +<p>And as he spoke the battalion adjutant came spurring down from a low +ridge at the front fast as a miserably jaded horse could bear him. +Earlier in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span> campaign every man would have felt the thrill of coming +excitement,—a chase, a brush of some kind, perhaps,—but now all were +weak and weary. Even the Patlanders in Truman's troop, men of whom it +had often been said that they'd rather fight than eat, were no more full +of fight to-day than they were of food.</p> + +<p>"What's he want?" growled Devers, sauntering over to where the officer +stood. "We've left the Indians miles behind. Surely there can't be any +between us and the river."</p> + +<p>Many eyes were fixed on the coming horseman or on the little group of +scouts and soldiers surrounding the major, who, kneeling, was levelling +his field-glasses over the ridge at some objects far away, apparently +towards the southeast.</p> + +<p>"They're everywhere,—damn them!" was the curt answer, "except where we +want them. But he's looking off square to the left, not ahead."</p> + +<p>This was true. Whatever it might have been far to the front of the weary +column that caused the little squad of scouts to signal halt after their +first cautious peep over that ridge, the object at which so many were +now excitedly peering and pointing was at right angles to the direction +of the march. Yet did the advance keep well concealed against observant +eyes ahead, though why they should do so when every Indian in Dakota by +this time knew all about them, their movements, and those of the main +column farther over towards the Little Missouri, Truman couldn't +understand.</p> + +<p>"Have you ten horses that can stand a side scout?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> asked the adjutant, +urging his mud-spattered mount to the head of Devers's troop. He spoke +abruptly, and without salute, to his superior officer,—his own captain +at that.</p> + +<p>"What are we on but a side scout now?" demanded that officer, in the +surly tone the best of men may fall into under such circumstances.</p> + +<p>"That isn't the question," replied Mr. Hastings, "and we've no time for +points. Davies, it's your detail. There's something—we can't make out +what—over towards the river. Report to the major and I'll find your +party."</p> + +<p>"I doubt if my horse can stand any side scout," said Davies, slowly, +"but I am ready."</p> + +<p>"Oh, your horse's as good as any in the outfit," interposed the +adjutant, impatiently. "The major wants ten men from your troop at once, +captain,—the ten who have the strongest horses. It won't take 'em more +than a dozen miles out of the way, I reckon. The whole crowd would go, +only men and horses can barely make the day's march as it is."</p> + +<p>"See any Indians?" asked Truman, lounging up.</p> + +<p>"I haven't. Crounse and the scouts say they have, and it's likely +enough. Of course you've seen the pony tracks, and what's queer is that +many of them head over towards the very point where this smoke is +drifting from. Looks as if they'd jumped some wagons and burned them."</p> + +<p>Meantime, Mr. Davies had slowly mounted and was urging his reluctant +horse into some semblance of a canter. As the slope in front of him +steepened, however, both horse and rider abandoned the effort, and,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> +full fifty yards below the point where the battalion commander and his +scouts were in consultation, the lieutenant dismounted, and leaving his +steed unguarded to nibble at a patch of scant and sodden herbage that +had survived the Indian fires, he slowly climbed the ascent. "I am +ordered to report to you, sir," was all he had to say.</p> + +<p>The major lowered his field-glass and looked back over a broad, burly +shoulder garbed in canvas shooting-jacket. Not a stitch of uniform +graced his massive person from head to heel, yet soldier was manifest in +every gesture or attitude. A keen observer might have said that a shade +of disappointment crossed his fine, full-bearded face as he heard the +subaltern's voice, but no sign of it appeared in his tone when he spoke.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Davies, just take this glass and see what you make of that smoke +off yonder. The sun is getting low and it baffles me somewhat." Silently +the lieutenant obeyed, and creeping up towards the crest he knelt and +took a preliminary peep.</p> + +<p>Issuing from the Bad Lands the jaded column had been plodding all day +long, though with frequent enforced rests, through a rolling sea of +barren, turfless earth. What grass had carpeted its surface in the +spring had been burned off by sagacious Indians, bent on impeding by +every known device the march of troops through their lands,—and what +device the Indian does not know is little worth knowing. Under a +dripping leaden sky the earth lay desolate and repulsive. Miles away to +the north the dim, castellated buttes and pinnacles of the range were +still faintly visible, and the tortuous trail of the column of twos<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> +winding its way over wave after wave of barren prairie like the wake of +some terrestrial bark in a sea of mud. Far to the westward a jagged line +of hills, sharply defined, seemed to rear their crests from the general +level of the land, and somewhere along the eastern slope of that ridge, +and not far from where two twin-pointed buttes seemed peeping over at +these uncouth invaders, the main command of the expedition should have +passed earlier in the day, making for the crossing of the swift-running +stream that circled the northern border of some black, forbidding +heights lying like a dark patch upon the landscape at its southwestern +edge. Black as it looked, that was their one refuge. There alone dare +they hope to find food. Thither had been sent an advanced detail with +orders to buy at owners' prices flour, bacon, bread, coffee, anything +the outlying settlements might have for sale that would sustain life. +Men who had been living on horse or prairie-dog would not be fastidious. +Here, too, the major had hoped by night to bivouac his weary men, but it +seemed desperately far away. The march had been much impeded, and now, +far out on his left flank was something that could not be passed +uninvestigated. He, with his worn battalion of four troops, had been +detached from the main column three days previous with orders to follow +the trail of a war-party of Sioux, and smite them hip and thigh if he +could catch them in forty-eight hours; if not, to veer around for the +valley and rejoin the column at its bivouac among the foot-hills. There +they should rest and recuperate. The pursued Indians, fortunately, had +turned southward and gone jogging leisurely away towards their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> +reservations, until warned of the pursuit by ambitious young braves +still hovering about the troops in hope of slicing off the scalp of some +straggler. Then, every man for himself, they had apparently scattered +over the face of the country, laughing gleefully to think what fun the +white chief would have in deciding which trail to follow. The situation +on the third day out had been summarized by Crounse, the guide, about as +follows: "So long as this outfit pulls together it won't catch an +Indian; so soon as it doesn't pull together it'll catch hell," which +being interpreted meant that the four companies united were too strong +for the number of Indians within striking distance, or say three days' +march, but that if it were divided into little detachments, and sent +hither and yon in pursuit of such small parties as would then allow +themselves to be seen, the chances were that those pursuing squads would +one by one be lured beyond support, surrounded, cut off, and then +massacred to a man. The major and his officers, most of them, knew this +as well as Crounse. They knew, moreover, that even so large a command as +theirs had been cut off, surrounded, and massacred more than once in the +history of Sioux warfare, but then the Indians were massed, not +scattered helter-skelter all over the continent as was the case the end +of this eventful summer. Well did Major Warren understand that with such +broken-down horses and weakened men he could now effect little or +nothing against the Indians after whom he had been sent, even could he +overtake them, and his instructions were literally obeyed. It was high +time for him to restore his men to their comrades.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> He was making the +best of his way to the rendezvous, hoping almost against hope to reach +the welcome of the bivouac fires, and hot tins of coffee and toothsome +morsels of hard-tack and bacon, things they had not had a scrap of for +three days, and only occasional reminders of for the previous ten, when +lo! off to their flank, far to the southeast there appeared this +unwelcome yet importunate sign. Was it appeal for help or lure to +ambush? Who could say? Only one thing was certain,—a thick smoke +drifting westward from the clump of wallows and timber surrounding what +Crounse said was a spring could not be passed unheeded.</p> + +<p>"If we march the whole command over there, it will be another +twenty-four hours before we can reach the regiment. I don't think many +of the men, or horses either, can go that much longer without a bite," +said Mr. Hastings, the battalion adjutant, seeing in his senior's eye a +permission to speak.</p> + +<p>"Well, there are no settlements there and never have been," said +Crounse, "so it can't be cabins or shacks. Wagons it may be, but who'd +be damn fool enough to start a wagon-train up the valley this year of +all others, when every Indian at the reservation except old Spot is in +league with the hostiles? I can't believe it's wagons, yet it's on the +road full a mile this side of the river itself. What I'm afraid of is +that it's a plant. They want to coax us over there and cut us off, as +they did Custer." The major was silent and thoughtful. Davies, still +studying the distant objects, said not a word. Leading their horses, +eight troopers following a sergeant, all wet, weary, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> heaven only +knows how hungry, came slowly forward up the slope until they reached +the spot where Davies's horse was nibbling. Here the foremost halted +without a word, and the others grouped about him or, stopping short when +their leader did so, threw themselves on the wet ground reckless of cold +or rheumatism, as spiritless a squad as frontier warfare could well +develop. Valley Forge knew nothing like it. The retreat from Moscow +might have furnished a parallel.</p> + +<p>Leaving his horse to do as his jaded fancy might suggest, the battalion +adjutant, returning from his quest, came slowly to the major's side. +"I've picked out nine, sir. It was simply impossible to find another in +the whole two hundred. Some of these look barely able to stagger as it +is."</p> + +<p>"And it's Davies's detail?" asked the major, in low tone.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. He's the only sub in the battalion who hasn't been on +detachment duty since we left the Yellowstone, and his horse is able to +go. Look at him, actually kicking!"</p> + +<p>This was true. The sergeant's starving charger, showing a disposition to +poach on the little preserve that Davies's steed had pre-empted, was +rewarded by a sudden whirl about and flourish of two shod hoofs.</p> + +<p>"Davies," said the major, kindly, yet with quick decision, "I hate to +impose additional work on worn-out men, but we can't leave that matter +uninvestigated. I want you to ride over there and see what that smoke +means. I don't think Indians in any force are near, and ten men ought to +be enough to stand 'em off. If<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> it's nothing of consequence you can +follow on up-stream or camp as you please. If it's a wagon outfit +attacked, and there's anything left to help, do your best. We'll keep a +troop in supporting distance, and instead of marching straight for the +hills, I'll edge off here towards the river, sending Devers well out +towards you. We've got nearly three hours of daylight yet. Think you +understand?"</p> + +<p>"I think so, sir," said Davies, slowly replacing his glass, then looking +hesitatingly around.</p> + +<p>"Anything you want?" asked Warren.</p> + +<p>"Well, I should like to see Captain Truman just a minute, sir."</p> + +<p>"He's three hundred yards back there now, and time's precious. Can't I +do?" asked the major, not unkindly. "Want to leave anything?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir. It's of no consequence." And turning abruptly, Davies went +half sliding, half shuffling down the slippery slope, kicked the mud off +his boots, and briefly nodding to the sergeant, said "Mount," hoisted +himself into saddle, and led his little party silently away. One of the +men looked appealingly back towards Crounse.</p> + +<p>"Got any baccy, Jim?"</p> + +<p>"Not a pinch. I'd give my boots for a chew."</p> + +<p>Davies heard the appeal and turned to his sergeant. "Tell Dunn to come +up here alongside," said he, reaching down into his saddle-pocket; "I've +half a plug left, sergeant, and we'll divide."</p> + +<p>"It'll help the men as much as a square meal, sir," said the trooper, +gratefully; "but I never saw the lieutenant chew."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I don't, but it's some I fetched along for just such an emergency."</p> + +<p>Meantime the major and his party stood gazing silently after them. They +saw them winding away down the southward face of the long ridge and +crossing the shallow ravine at its foot. Beyond lay another long, low +spur of treeless prairie.</p> + +<p>"The Parson didn't seem over-anxious to go," muttered Mr. Hastings, as +though to himself.</p> + +<p>"Small blame to him!" promptly answered the major. "I don't blame any +man in this command for declining any invitation, except to dinner. +Hallo! What's that?"</p> + +<p>In Davies's little party the men had been seen passing some object from +one to the other. One or two who had ridden up alongside the young +officer touched their hats and fell back to their place. Suddenly two of +them left the squad and, urging their horses to such speed as they were +capable of, went at heavy plunging lope over the southern end of the +opposite ridge and disappeared from view.</p> + +<p>"Antelope, by jimminy! I thought I saw a buck's horns over that crest +yonder a minute ago," said an orderly.</p> + +<p>"Antelope be damned!" said Crounse, gritting his teeth. "If those men +knew this country as I do they'd think twice before they rode a hundred +yards away from the column. I wouldn't undertake to ride from here to +that butte yonder,—not for a beefsteak, I wouldn't,—God knows what +else I wouldn't do for that!"</p> + +<p>"Why, you can see the whole valley, and there ain't<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> an Indian in +sight," said the orderly trumpeter, disdainfully.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and it's just when you can't see one that a valley's most apt to +be full of 'em, kid," began the frontiersman, but the major cut him off.</p> + +<p>"Ride after Mr. Davies with my compliments, trumpeter, and tell him to +recall those men, and not to let them straggle, even after game."</p> + +<p>The trumpeter touched his ragged hat-brim and turned away to get his +horse, which he presently spurred to a sputtering lope, and went +clattering away on the trail.</p> + +<p>"We may as well mount now and push ahead," said the major, after a +moment's reflection. "Keep Davies in sight as much as possible, +Crounse." And so saying he went on and climbed stiffly into saddle, for +he, too, was wet and chilled and sore-spirited; but it was his business +to put the best face on matters in general, and the troopers, seeing the +major mount, got themselves to their horses without further order. None +of the horses, poor brutes, required holding, but stood there with +dejected crest, pasterns deep in the mud, too weak to wander even in +search of grass. Warren came riding slowly towards his men.</p> + +<p>"Captain Devers," said he, "I have sent Mr. Davies off to the left to +scout towards the valley. I wish you to follow his trail a mile, and +then to march due south by compass, keeping about midway between him and +us. Hold him in sight, if possible, and be ready to support him if he +should be attacked. We will back you. If all is quiet by the time you +strike the old road in the valley, turn west and follow on to camp."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p> + +<p>But Captain Devers was one of those officers who seemed never to grasp +an order at first hand. Even when it came in writing, clear, brief, and +explicit, he often required explanations. "I don't think I understand, +sir," he began, but Warren cut him short.</p> + +<p>"I should have been prepared for that," he exclaimed, giving way for the +first time to the generally peppery and irascible spirit of semi-starved +men. "Mount!" he ordered. "Captain Truman, lead the column,—Crounse +will show you the line. I will ride here awhile with Devers and show him +what's wanted."</p> + +<p>Now, it is one of the peculiarities of prairie landscape that where +whole counties may appear to be one general level or open slopes when +viewed from the distance, the face of the country is really cut up in +countless directions by ravines, watercourses and <i>coulées</i>, so that, +except in the level bottom-lands along a river-bed, it is next to +impossible to keep moving objects continually in view. Davies and his +little party were out of sight when the major reappeared on the ridge +with Devers's ragged troop at his heels. So, too, were the would-be +hunters. "Kid" Murray, the trumpeter, alone remained in view, and he had +just reached the crest of a parallel ridge somewhat lower and about a +quarter of a mile to the left.</p> + +<p>Then those at the head of column saw a strange thing. The young +trumpeter, instead of pushing forward on the trail, had suddenly reined +in. Bending forward in his saddle, he was gazing eagerly in the +direction taken by the antelope-stalkers; then, suddenly again, whirled +about and began frantically signalling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> to the column. They saw him +quickly swing his battered trumpet from behind his back and raise it to +his lips, sounding some call. Floating across the wind, over the bleak +and barren prairie, came almost together the muffled sound of two +rifle-shots, then the stirring trumpet signal,—<i>gallop</i>.</p> + +<p>"Away with you, Devers!" ordered the major. "Head Truman this way, Mr. +Hastings. Tell him to come on." And forty horsemen went laboring down +the gentle slope, lugging their rusty brown carbines, one by one, from +the mud-covered sockets.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2> + + +<p>Jaded as were the horses, it was only by vigorous spurring that they +were forced into anything like a gallop. Earlier in the campaign, only +with extreme difficulty could they have been held. In dispersed order, +spreading out, fan-like, to avoid the volleys of mud hurled back by the +leaders, the troop came struggling up to the opposite ridge, many of the +men loading as they rode, all with eager eyes and compressed lips +staring straight ahead for the first glance at what each knew must be +the foe. That no shot was to be dreaded from lurking Indians along the +ridge each reasoned from the fact that the trumpeter, after sounding his +signal and seeing them well on their way, had himself pushed on out of +sight. Once or twice the foremost<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> thought they heard other shots. All +reined up as they reached the crest, and this was what they saw:</p> + +<p>Far ahead, down towards the valley ran a long tongue or spur from the +high ground over which they had steadily been marching since the dawn. +Farther away, perhaps ten miles, a black fringe in the depths of the +valley marked the winding river-bed. Against this and the dull +background of the opposite rise a faint column of pale, blue-white smoke +was drifting slowly westward from a little patch of trees at least a +mile nearer them than the river. "That's Antelope Springs," said +Crounse, who knew every league of the valley. Straight towards this +point a little party of horse were now steadily moving, a dark spot upon +the slopes, and nearly a thousand yards away. They were gradually +descending to the valley along the eastern side of the long tongue +referred to, all ignorant, probably, of what might be going on upon the +other. Obedient to his orders then, Davies was riding by the shortest +line to the designated goal, and all with them thus far seemed tranquil +enough. But hardly half a mile to the right front of their supporting +comrades, afoot now, and stopping every minute to let drive a long-range +shot at some objects scurrying away over the slopes to the south, "the +Kid" was running, and ever and anon turning to beckon them on. One +glance told the experienced hands what those fleeing rascals +were,—Indians, fresh from some deviltry, their swift ponies bounding +over the little gullies and watercourses like so many goats. Once more +the troop spurred on, though every man realized the hopelessness of any +pursuit. The first thought in every mind was the fate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> of their two +venturesome comrades. Even "the Kid" could not be sure what that was as +they reached him. "They're just over around that point," he almost +sobbed in his excitement. "I saw the Indians sneaking up the ridge +yonder. They fired from there, and then rushed in with a yell, and I'm +afraid they've got 'em."</p> + +<p>Brief search was all that was needed. Not half a mile west of the little +party, and hidden from the sight and hearing of their comrades, the two +eager, hungry hunters had met their fate. Four lurking warriors,—part +of the daring band that, hanging about the battalion, watched its every +move, ever on the alert for just such opportunity as this—had lashed +their ponies to the gallop, darted along the winding ravine between the +two ridges until opposite the point where the hunters crossed, then +crawling to the top, had shot the poor fellows from their hidden covert, +and rushing in as they tumbled from their saddles, had quickly finished +the bloody work. One of the men, Mullen, a notable shot, seemed to have +been killed at the first fire, as he lay face downward, his hands +gripping the wet soil, his scalp torn from the bare and bleeding skull. +Phillips, his chum, had died fighting, and was riddled with shot and +lance wounds. His horse, too, was killed, while that of Mullen was +wandering helplessly about in a dazed sort of way, as though unable to +comprehend his own narrow escape. For once there had been no time for +further mutilation. Contenting themselves with the arms, ammunition, and +scalps of the troopers, the Indians had scurried away on the instant. +The whole affair had not lasted two minutes, yet there<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> on the open +prairie, in broad daylight, with a four-company battalion of horse not +six hundred yards away in one direction, and double their own number of +troopers riding along not six hundred yards away in another, they had +dared interpose between and swoop down upon their victims in their +fancied security. Devers was almost beside himself with grief and rage.</p> + +<p>"It's all that damned Sunday-school soldier's fault!" he burst forth. +"He's let these poor fellows ride slap into ambush, and gone off without +a thought of them." He would have said more, and in the full hearing of +the whole command, but the stern voice of the major checked him.</p> + +<p>"Hush, Devers, hush!" he ordered, as he rode into the midst of the pale +and excited group gathered about the lifeless forms. "Don't halt, +Truman," he ordered, as the senior captain came trotting up at the head +of the long straggling column. "Push right on and do your best to catch +those devils. I'll follow in a minute."</p> + +<p>Without either orders or permission six or eight of Devers's men spurred +into the nearest gaps in Truman's column,—and gaps were many,—others, +half dazed, hung about their captain.</p> + +<p>"Send a messenger to Mr. Davies and let him know what's happened," +continued the major, after a moment of painful thought. "Bury your dead +as quick as you can, then carry out your orders. Better halt Davies +until you're ready to move ahead." Saying this, and followed by his +orderly, the battalion commander spurred away towards a bedraggled party +of some<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> fifty dismounted men, some with horses meekly drooping at their +master's heels, several without even the shadow of a steed. Truman had +"fallen out" his utterly ineffective to form a guard for the sick and +unhorsed, Davies's two patients among them, and one of those now, in +weakness and excitement, crying like a child. A gray-haired lieutenant +was with the party striving to get this reserve into some kind of shape. +"Follow Captain Truman's trail to the river, Mr. Calvert," said the +major. "Bring your party along as well as you can. You'll find camp +somewhere up-stream. We'll have rations to meet you. I'll have to go on +now after the battalion,—what there is of it," he added to himself, his +teeth firmly set. "Was ever luck worse than this?"</p> + +<p>And thus was Captain Devers, as senior officer, left in command with the +troops that remained clustered about the still warm and bleeding bodies +of their murdered comrades, and his first order was characteristic. +"Ride after Mr. Davies, trumpeter. Tell him to halt his party where they +are, and say I wish to see him at once." Dashing the tears away from his +eyes, little Murray said, "Yes, sir," and mounted his horse. He was +starting when Devers called him again. "You needn't tell Mr. Davies +what's happened," he said. "It would demoralize him entirely;" adding in +an undertone that was none the less audible to the men around him, "He's +worse than demoralized now."</p> + +<p>Digging graves with hunting-knives and fingers as the only tools is +wearisome work. "What's the use of it anyhow?" reasoned the captain, +impatiently. "We simply can't dig anything but a shallow trench inside<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> +an hour with the means at hand. The coyotes would paw up the bodies, +sure, before we'd gone five miles. Better carry them along on these led +horses by the shortest route to the river. We're bound to find plenty of +rocks there that the wolves can't roll away." It wasn't the first time +the sad little command had had to "pack" their dead and wounded, and in +a quarter of an hour, with perhaps thirty men trailing along behind him, +Devers, instead of obeying his original instructions, was striking +straight across country for the river. And so it happened as nightfall +approached there were four parties of cavalry, widely dispersed, in the +gathering gloom of the desolate prairie. The major with about one +hundred men was still hurrying far to the southwest on the trail of the +Indians, hoping before dark to find them in sufficient force to halt and +show fight. Calvert with his invalid corps followed three miles in their +wake, and losing ground with every minute; then Devers, with about +thirty men in saddle and two dead on their <i>travois</i>, was slowly +plodding southward towards the stream. Davies's little squad, halted as +ordered, was now isolated from all, far over on the east side of the +jagged spur, over whose crest their lieutenant had just disappeared from +their sight, with Murray in attendance, riding wearily back to find his +captain, disturbed by contradictory orders and dishearted to see him in +march full a mile farther away than he supposed, and diverging from the +point of direction of his own party with every step. Time and again had +Devers, still fuming with nervous tension and mingled wrath and +pain,—hungry and savage, too, it must be borne in mind,—given vent to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> +some petulant expression because of the non-arrival of the young officer +whom he saw fit to hold responsible for the loss of his men; and when at +last Mr. Davies neared them, riding diagonally towards the troop from +the low divide to the east, Devers did not change the direction of his +little column so as to meet him half-way, but held on sullenly +southward. Observance of the major's orders would have carried him along +the trail of Davies's party until well across that ridge or spur, then +having gone the designated mile he should now be marching southward +along the ridge where he could, frequently at least, see both Davies's +squad and their distant objective-point,—that smouldering fire in the +valley. Marching as he was he could see neither.</p> + +<p>Presently coming to the head of one of those tortuous ravines washed out +from the general surface of the prairie by the melting snows of +centuries, and noting that if he kept to the eastward side he would have +to deflect a trifle to that direction, Devers inclined to his right, and +ten minutes later found it swinging around in front of him, already +broad and deep and obliquely crossing his path. Either he must dismount +and lead down the abrupt declivity and up the opposite bank, or, keeping +along the bluff, follow the windings of the ravine. One wrong step had +led with him to another. There is a fatality about such things that +besets the truest of men and bedevils the best intentions. The more he +followed the right bank the farther west of south it bore him, and +Devers hid his compass with his conscience in the breast of his +hunting-shirt, and found relief in renewed expletives. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> was Davies +who had to urge his horse to the lope to overtake the command so +steadily pulling away from him. He wondered who the poor fellows could +be who seemed to have given out and were being dragged along on the +<i>travois</i>, but it soon became necessary for him to descend into the +depths of the ravine, down along a tributary break, and then even in +nearing he lost sight of them until, after another canter and a hard +pull up the opposite slope, he came at last suddenly face to face with +his captain. Murray by this time, his horse entirely used up, was far to +the rear.</p> + +<p>"It's an hour since I sent for you, Mr. Davies," began the captain, +sternly. "What in God's name has kept you so long?"</p> + +<p>"I could come no quicker, sir," was the reply, given in respectful yet +remonstrative tone. "My horse——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, you've got the best horse in the battalion, and he carries the +lightest weight," said the captain, angrily; "physically and +intellectually both, by God!" he added to himself. "You must have been +far off your course to have been so long reaching me."</p> + +<p>"I was heading straight for the fire, captain,—straight as men could +go. I kept it in sight every minute from the time we crossed the crest +yonder," said Davies, his tired, haggard eyes looking squarely into +those of his commander instead of seeking sympathetic glance from the +pale, drawn faces of the silent troopers nearest him.</p> + +<p>"Well, then, that is your excuse, I suppose, for allowing men to +straggle in defiance of my orders."</p> + +<p>"It is partially so, sir, partially not. I knew these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> were the orders +early in the campaign, but ever since we ran out of rations Mullen and +Phillips, as well as dozens of other men in the regiment, have been out +hunting on the flanks every day. They never stopped to ask permission +this time. I never knew that they were gone until they were out of +sight. I supposed, of course, they wouldn't be away so long."</p> + +<p>"I have told you more than once, Mr. Davies, that you were reckless of +my instructions, and I've sent for you to show, once and for all, what +it has cost. Stand aside there!" he said sternly to the men, whom some +instinct of pity had prompted to gather between them and the stiffening +forms of the dead. "There are your hunters,—two of my best men, Mr. +Davies, and who but you is responsible for this?"</p> + +<p>For a moment the young officer gazed as though stricken with sudden +horror, his blue eyes staring, his gaunt, pinched features ghastly +white, and then Sergeant Haney and another trooper sprang from their +horses and ran to his side. Weak, worn, starved, he had quailed at the +dreadful sight, and was toppling head-foremost to the ground, swooning +away.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/illus103-1.jpg" width="500" height="285" alt=""There are your hunters,—two of my best men." + +Page 96." title="" /> +<span class="caption">"There are your hunters,—two of my best men." + +Page 96.</span> +</div> + +<p>When half an hour later the captain with his silent and gloomy party had +resumed his march for the river, only with the field-glasses could +occasional glimpses be had of the main command far away to the southwest +in the gathering dusk. Lieutenant Calvert, with his invalid corps, was +dragging wearily after them, something like two miles away over the +rolling surface, sometimes dipping out of sight among the swales and +<i>coulées</i>, sometimes crawling over some low wave, and Davies, restored +to consciousness and accompanied by<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> one of Devers's oldest troopers, +Sergeant McGrath, had once more ridden away to join his distant and +isolated party. Just before it grew too dark to see anything at all he +was faintly visible at the top of the divide where he and the sergeant +had halted, evidently searching in the gloom of the lowlands beyond for +sign of the squad he had left over an hour before. Then they disappeared +and were seen no more.</p> + +<p>Ten miles up-stream, around rousing camp-fires, in the thick of the +timber, the main body of the expedition—their lately starving +comrades—were holding high carnival. Men and horses were astonishing +their stomachs with dainties to which they had long been unaccustomed, +for wagons had come out from the settlements to meet them, pouring in +all the afternoon, and, mindful of his detached battalion, the colonel +had presently despatched three or four of these welcome loads, well +guarded, down the winding river in search of Warren, with instructions +to bivouac at once and feast, and at nightfall they had met him, halted +at the river after the luckless pursuit. The wagons were unloaded on the +spot, and two of them pushed on out to meet Calvert, and be loaded up +again with his exhausted plodders, while scouts, mounted on the draught +mules that had had so long and hard a pull all day, and yet were +stronger and fresher than the starving horses, were sent on down-stream +in search of Devers. With these latter went a pencilled note from the +battalion commander as follows:</p> + +<p>"Rations here in plenty. Unless you and Davies are used up, you'd better +come along to camp. We'll keep bright fires burning to guide you. I +presume<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> you've seen no Indians, or we'd have heard from you before +now."</p> + +<p>In sending this letter Major Warren assumed two things: first, that +Devers had carried out his orders, crossed the long spur that jutted +down almost to the stream at its deep concave bend, and then, moving +south, had kept Davies in sight, if not actually in touch. Second, that +Davies had carried out his orders, investigated the fire, and then +rejoined his captain. For, reasoned the major, had Davies been attacked, +Devers would have known it, supported him at once, and sent word to us. +Men instructed to watch for signals from the ridge had reported that +nothing had been seen, which surely would not have been the case had +Devers desired to communicate. He assumed further that Davies must now +be somewhere about the point where the spur sank to the general level of +the valley, some eight or nine miles down-stream, too far to send a +wagon in the dark where there was no road, but not too far for men to +march, with rations as their reward.</p> + +<p>"Ride straight for that point," said he to the sergeant who was to carry +the note, "and watch for their fires in case they have camped." And the +sergeant and his companions—two wiry troopers whom nothing seemed to +daunt or tire—had ridden away on their ambling mules, their own +stomachs warmed with hot coffee and bread and bacon, and their soldier +maws crammed with that most beneficent and comforting of frontier +luxuries,—navy plug. What was a night ride after their weeks of +marching to the joy of being first to announce full rations for all +hands! They had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> gone only half-way, perhaps four miles, when from +somewhere in the timber to their right front, certainly not more than +five hundred yards ahead, they came suddenly in view of something at +which each man instantly reined in, and the sergeant, springing from his +saddle, grabbed his mule by the nose. "Grab yours, too," he muttered, +hoarsely; "for God's sake don't let the damn fools bray." And in another +instant each of the astonished and protesting brutes was grabbed +accordingly.</p> + +<p>"Sure it must be the camp of 'B' Troop," said the other man, +resentfully. "Indians wouldn't be lighting camp-fires so close to us."</p> + +<p>"It can't be the captain," answered Sergeant Rice, with emphasis he well +remembered and spoke of long months later. "I heard the major's orders +to him, and he couldn't be this side of that point without having +disobeyed them."</p> + +<p>But just then, soft and faint, sad and plaintive and low, there came +floating on the night wind the familiar notes of the sweetest of trumpet +calls, and Rice turned to his comrades in amaze. "It <i>is</i> old Differs, +by Jupiter! Who but he would be sounding taps with Indians on every +side? Does the darn crank think that worn-out men can't go to sleep +without it?" Even the soldiers, then, were alive to some of the +captain's peculiarities. Even they could not do him justice. Even Rice +supposed that Devers, rejoicing in being once more freed from the +supervision of superior authority which he so cordially hated and so +persistently strove to evade, was celebrating the event by resuming the +sounding of unnecessary bugle calls, prohibited<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> for night use during +the recent campaign. But neither the sergeant nor his comrades dreamed +that it was in its other, in its saddest significance, the sweet old +call was sounding,—that Devers and his men were bidding the last +farewell, and piping "lights out" to them who rode forth gallantly at +morn, only at sundown to be numbered with the dead.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2> + + +<p>Morning dawned over the bivouacs along the stream in hilarity unknown +for previous weeks. The sun that for a fortnight had refused his face, +and sent wet skies to weep in sympathy with the hungering column, now +that the troopers no longer cared a rap whether he sulked or shone, came +forth in all his glory to surround and beam upon and shower +congratulation as do mundane friends who hold aloof when days are dark +and troublous, yet swarm like bees when dazzling and unexpected +prosperity bursts upon the lately fallen. Merrily rang the reveille as +"jocund day" came riding o'er the misty mountain-tops. With joke and +song and laughter answered the war-worn men, scores of whom had +alternately dozed and cooked and eaten and drunk all the live-long +night. Vain were counsels of captains and doctors. Soldier stomachs that +could tackle mule and horse meat could stand any load, said the boys, +and loaded accordingly. Cheer and laughter and merry-making, fun and +chaff and jollity, ran through the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> ranks, where all, but another sun +agone, was silence and despond. The rough campaign was practically over. +Only scattered bands of hostiles remained, in this part of the country +at least. Rest and recuperation for those "tatterdemalions" would be the +enforced order of the day for a month to come, for while they might +readily and speedily build up, it would take many a week to remount the +column or restore such horses as remained. Here among the Cottonwoods, +with fire and water and food at hand, the men could have loafed in +comfort and content a month, if need be; but here was no grass, and +barely a nibble of oats could be distributed for each surviving horse +from the scanty supply hurried forward the previous day. Before noon, +therefore, after another morning devoted principally to breakfasting, +the trumpets were sounding "boots and saddles." No need to sound "The +General" with its stirring summons to "Strike your tents and march +away," for tents had long months before been struck—by the pen of the +commander—from the list of camp equipage to be taken to the field. "We +were only waiting for Warren to come on," explained an aide of the +general to a regimental commander, "and we've sent him word to meet us +on the Birchwood farther up among the hills. We'll camp there to-night. +What kept him, do you suppose?"</p> + +<p>But the colonel couldn't imagine. Away down the valley to the eastward +Warren's men had slept, as they had marched, much later,—those of them +who could sleep at all, for all through the night there had been cause +of disturbance to more than a few of the command. It was late before the +demands of hunger were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> appeased. Little fires blazed all through the +timber, and men cooked and ate until they could eat and drink and cook +no more. Then the luxury of tobacco kept many awake. Then came advanced +troopers to say Devers was coming in, and despite the fact that two good +and gallant comrades would no more gather with them about the camp-fire, +there went up a cheer of welcome, and many men ran to meet the worn +arrivals, to take their horses to feed and water so that the masters +might be fed at once, and the major's first thought had been to welcome +his subordinate and fill him with comfort before requiring of him +detailed account of the day's doings. "I hardly expected you so soon," +he said; "but here's coffee all ready, baker's bread fresh in town +yesterday,—think of it!—and bacon and flapjacks. Your men must be +pretty tired."</p> + +<p>"They're about used up," said Devers; "but of course when we got your +instructions to come on we came."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I didn't mean you to come on if you were in camp for the night. Our +men would rather eat than sleep and we thought yours would; but +here—swallow this," said he, hospitably. "This is no time for business. +I haven't tasted anything so good as that coffee in years."</p> + +<p>"Thanks," said Devers, pulling gratefully at the steaming tin. "That +<i>is</i> good. I'm glad, for my part, you told us to come along," he went +on, reverting again to the subject of the major's note. "We shouldn't +have done anything of the kind, of course, otherwise,—especially with +Davies still out."</p> + +<p>"<i>What!</i> Isn't Davies with you?" asked Warren,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> with sudden anxiety and +suspicion. "Why, I thought——"</p> + +<p>"Well, we couldn't wait for him, you know, in face of your directions," +said the captain, his eyes glancing quickly, almost furtively, from one +to another of the bearded faces about him, for Truman, Hastings, +Calvert, and all the officers of the little command had gathered. "Of +course, I sent couriers right out to guide him——"</p> + +<p>"Why—what I meant was for you to bring him along," said the major, +gravely, yet not unkindly. "I felt sure, of course, you were within +communicating distance at least, even if he hadn't come in. What did +that smoke turn out to be when you got a closer look at it?"</p> + +<p>"We—didn't get any closer look," answered Devers, in apparent surprise. +"You ordered me to bury my dead and then go on. We had just buried them +when your next orders reached us,—to join you at once. These, of +course, superseded the others."</p> + +<p>There was profound silence. The major stood by the camp-fire, his hands +clasped behind his back, looking full in the face of the troop +commander, all the old sayings that he had ever heard with regard to +Devers crowding upon him now. When promoted to the regiment only just in +time to join it on this hard campaign, and when assigned to the command +of this battalion in which Devers was senior captain, the colonel +himself had said, "Be on your guard with Devers. He's the trickiest of +subordinates." Old Riggs, lieutenant-colonel commanding the Twelfth, had +remarked, "So Devers is in your battalion, is he? Well, when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> you want +him to do anything you stand over him while he's at it, or else do it +yourself." An intimate friend and classmate whom he had not seen for +years had given the new major this significant pointer: "There's a man +who could be one of the most valuable officers in service if he devoted +to obeying an order one-tenth the energy he throws into finding a way of +avoiding it." Yet, in the honesty and earnestness of his own character, +Warren was slow to suspect a fellow-soldier of disloyalty. The campaign +had gone on without special friction, though he remembered that he had +heard Hastings swearing <i>sotto voce</i> more than once at Devers's +cantankerous ways, and he recalled now two or three incidents—little +things—in which Devers claimed to have misunderstood instructions; but +this was so glaring, so gross a departure from both the spirit and +letter of the orders he had given when face to face with the captain, +that for a moment or two he was at a loss what to say. He was indignant, +too, but it was a rule of his to control his temper and never speak to a +subordinate in wrath. He had broken it that morning and was sorry; so +when at last he trusted himself to speak, he said,—</p> + +<p>"It must have been more than six hours ago that I told you to bury those +two men and then go on. Surely, captain, you could not have taken all +this time."</p> + +<p>"It was nearly five o'clock, sir, when you ordered me to bury my dead as +well as I could, and only a little after eight when we finished it; +meantime, we had to march seven or eight miles before we could find a +place where we could bury them at all well."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Why, I meant you to bury them right then and there, just where you +were, not go marching in search of a place."</p> + +<p>"But we couldn't bury them there; major, I had no tools to dig graves in +a hard prairie——"</p> + +<p>"Then you mean that you failed to go on after Davies,—failed to support +him?—that you haven't seen him since I gave those orders? My heaven, +Captain Devers! I told you never to let him out of your sight."</p> + +<p>"Oh, he wasn't out of sight until darkness,—that is, he was frequently +in sight. I not only saw, but communicated with him until that time."</p> + +<p>"Thank God for that, at least! If he wasn't attacked before dark he's +probably safe,—Indians are cowards in the dark. He ought to be coming +along presently, I suppose. He couldn't have been more than a mile or so +east of you."</p> + +<p>But to this observation, half query, half self-consolation, Captain +Devers made no verbal response. He bowed his head as he took a long swig +at his can of coffee, and then a big bite into a ham sandwich of +portentous size. The major and one or two others considered it a nod of +assent, and ascribed to ravenous hunger the captain's failure to respond +by word of mouth. Partially relieved of his anxiety on Davies's account +and unwilling to spoil a gentleman's first supper after such long +deprivation, the battalion commander turned away, saying,—</p> + +<p>"Well, eat and drink till you're comforted, anyhow, captain, then we can +hear all about it. I'll take a smoke meantime." Truman and Hastings +joined him<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> at a fallen Cottonwood a few yards away, and the three +puffed their pipes and thanked Providence for the mercies that had come +with the close of the day. And then the officer of the guard appeared to +ask a question about the posting of the pickets, and, leaving the others +with Devers, the major strode off with the officer through the timber to +satisfy himself as to the security of the horses for the night, and when +he returned—not having been gone ten minutes—Devers had disappeared.</p> + +<p>"I wanted to hear his report," said Warren, "and told him so. I supposed +he understood." To which neither of his subordinates made reply. When +ten minutes more elapsed and Devers did not come, Hastings, noting the +major's impatience, called to the orderly trumpeter sitting at the +neighboring fire,—</p> + +<p>"Raney, go and see if Captain Devers is over with his troop +anywhere,—the major desires to see him." Raney was gone full ten +minutes, and when he returned it was to say that Devers's first sergeant +said the captain had given orders that all talk must stop so that the +worn-out men could rest, and the captain himself, rolled in his blanket, +was already sound asleep.</p> + +<p>"Well, I swear!" exclaimed the major. "Didn't you understand me to say I +wanted to hear all about his march as soon as he finished supper?"</p> + +<p>"I certainly did," replied Captain Truman, with an accent on the I that +meant volumes.</p> + +<p>"So did I," growled Hastings; but he never could bear Devers, who was +persistently distorting or misunderstanding the orders the adjutant was +compelled to convey to him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well, let him sleep," said Warren, finally. "I suppose he's tired out, +and very probably Davies will speedily come in."</p> + +<p>But midnight came and no Davies. Out on the prairie—now dimly lighted +by the rays of the waning moon—the pickets at the east had descried no +moving objects. Every now and then the yelp of a coyote on one side of +camp would be echoed far over at the other. These, with an occasional +paw or snort from the side-lined herd, and the murmuring rush of the +river over its gravelly bed, were the only sounds that drifted to the +night-watchers from the sleeping bivouac. Towards one o'clock the +sergeant of the guard came out to take a peep. Later, about two, +Lieutenant Sanders, officer of the guard, a plucky little chap of whom +the men were especially fond, made his way around the chain of posts and +stayed some time peering with his glass over the dim vista of prairie to +the eastward.</p> + +<p>"I declare I thought I saw something moving out there," he muttered, +after long study. "Are you sure you've seen or heard nothing?" he +inquired of the silent sentry.</p> + +<p>"Not a thing, lieutenant, beyond coyotes or Indian signals, I can't tell +which. They keep at respectful distance, whatever they are."</p> + +<p>"Well, even if Mr. Davies's horses were too used up to come, the +couriers ought to have got back long ago. Tell them to find me as soon +as they come in," said he, and went back to his saddle pillow in the +heart of the grove. At its edge a solitary figure was standing gazing +out into the night.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span></p> + +<p>"That you, Sanders?" hailed a voice in low tone.</p> + +<p>"Yes," answered the lieutenant, shortly, for he recognized Devers and he +didn't like him.</p> + +<p>"Isn't Davies in yet?"</p> + +<p>"No, and it's two o'clock."</p> + +<p>"Oh, he'll turn up all right," said the captain, in airy confidence. "It +was all absurd sending him out to scout a smoke,—as if we hadn't seen +and smelled smoke enough this summer to last a lifetime. He's probably +camped down the valley somewhere, and they're all waiting for morning. +I'm not worrying about him."</p> + +<p>"No, I judge not," muttered Sanders to himself, as he trudged on in the +dark. "You're simply keeping awake for the fun of the thing." But even +Devers got to sleep at last, and when he woke it was with a sudden +start, with broad daylight streaming in his eyes, and stir and bustle +and low-toned orders and rapid movement among the men, and Hastings was +stirring him up with insubordinate boot and speaking in tones suggestive +of neither respect nor esteem.</p> + +<p>"Come, tumble up, captain; we're all wanted; Davies has been cut off and +massacred."</p> + +<p>Already his orderly had led up the captain's horse, pricking his ears +and sniffing excitedly around him, and with trembling hands the young +German was dragging out from among the blankets the captain's saddle, +the hot tears falling as he stooped. His own brother was of Davies's +party. Devers was on his feet in an instant, dismayed, and, buckling on +his revolver, he went striding through the trees to where Warren stood, +pale and distressed, questioning a haggard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span> trooper,—one of the +couriers sent on for Davies the previous evening. Devers burst in with +interrupting words, and was instantly coolly checked.</p> + +<p>"Never mind now, captain. Mount at once and get your men in saddle." Nor +would Warren see or speak with him, as with a hundred troopers at his +heels—all whose horses were even moderately fit for a ten-mile +trot—the major led the way down the valley, a few eager scouts +cantering on before. All Devers could learn as they jogged along was +that Tate, one of the couriers, had ridden in at seven on an exhausted +mule to say that not until after dawn had they found Davies's +party,—seven of them,—stone dead, stripped, scalped, gashed, mutilated +almost beyond recognition, far out on the slopes east of that fatal spur +over which the September sun had risen before he came, leaving his +stunned comrade trailing hopelessly behind.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2> + + +<p>The prairie sod was torn by the hoofs of a hundred ponies. That was +evident. All around a little sink in the surface at a distance of +several hundred yards the warriors must have dashed and circled for full +an hour. Here along the rim of the shallow basin, each behind the +bloated and stiffening carcass of his horse,—each surrounded by +threescore copper shells, showing that he had fought till hope and +ammunition both were gone,—lay the poor remains of the gallant boys who +had ridden silently away in obedience to their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> orders on the previous +afternoon,—recognizable now only by their teeth or some still ungashed +body mark. How long they had pluckily, cheerily held out, confident of +the speedy coming of the comrades from over that westward spur, and +therefore less miserly of their lead and eager to stretch some of their +yelling foes upon the sward, could now only be conjectured. Little by +little their fierce, defiant fire had slackened. Little by little +confidence had waned, and doubt and dread replaced it. Some, probably, +had been earlier shot by the storm of centring bullets; some, possibly, +had sent their last shot into the reeling brain,—death by one's own +hand being better at least than by slow and fiendish torture; and at +last, probably just at dusk, the triumphant savages were able to close +in upon their helpless prey and reap their reward of scalps and plunder +and wreak their fury on a mute and defenceless foe.</p> + +<p>But in a search of full an hour not a sign had Warren's best scouts +discovered of Davies or his companion. The Indian trail, that of a +war-party of at least fifty or sixty braves, led away southward again, +into and through the timber in the distant river bottom, and there it +became scattered, most of the party seeming to have ridden on towards +the reservation in the darkness of the night, while others turned +up-stream, and their pony-tracks led towards the point where Warren's +battalion had bivouacked. These were probably the causes of the flitting +shadows Sanders had detected far out on the prairie,—these the owls and +coyotes whose weird cries had at intervals disturbed the silence of the +night. Solemnly, sadly, now, the burial-parties labored. The soil was +comparatively<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> soft in the neighboring ravine,—much more so than higher +up the slopes where the two crack shots had fallen earlier in the +afternoon,—and here, with picket-pins and a spade or two which happened +to be with the pack-train, a trench was scooped out, into which the poor +remains were lowered and then covered with stones, dragged from the +depths of the neighboring <i>coulée</i>. It took some hours to finish the sad +duty, and meanwhile sharp-eyed scouts were busily occupied striving to +determine what had become of Davies and Sergeant McGrath.</p> + +<p>In this work the major himself took the lead, and here Devers's +statements had to be drawn upon. Old Indian-fighters pointed out many a +significant sign to sustain the theory that the fight must have lasted +full an hour,—the trampled condition of the turf,—the quantities of +shells lying behind every little hummock or ridge in the surrounding +prairie that commanded the position of the defence or afforded shelter +from its fire. Down in the very ravine in which the bodies were buried, +full four hundred yards from the scene of their desperate stand, the +soft, sandy soil was pawed and trodden by waiting war-ponies, whose +riders, lying flat on their stomachs along the bank above, had kept +their watch upon the besieged, firing whenever head or hand appeared +above their carcass fortification. The whole ingenuity of the Indian +plan became apparent as the situation was studied. Noting after ten +o'clock that morning that the battalion was no longer marching due +south, but had turned, heading southwest straight away for the landmark +of the valley,—that distant, black, pine-crested peak,—the lurking +warriors<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> had devised their scheme to lure a scouting detachment away +from the support of the column. Far down in the river bottom, ten miles +away to the left of the trail, they had built at the springs a "shack" +from the relics of some miner's outfit captured thereabouts earlier in +the summer, and waiting until the head of the column was approaching the +crest of the water-shed to the north, set fire to their pile and then +secreted their main body in a deep ravine to await results, while small +parties were thrown well forward to pick off venturesome individuals, if +only such rode out in reconnoissance. If the white chief "bit" and +detached a small party, then every effort was to be made to keep the +battalion occupied and interested,—to draw it along, if possible, +towards the southwest,—just a few daring spirits devoting themselves to +this duty, while the stronger party, keeping in hiding until they lured +it far beyond rescuing distance, gradually encircled the isolated squad +and at last pounced upon their prey. It is no new device. It was to +prevent just such a play that Warren had ordered Devers with his troop +to keep midway, holding Davies's little party in sight and support and +the main column in communication. Had Devers obeyed the instructions +given him and gone on down along that jutting spur instead of far to the +west of it, the catastrophe would have been averted,—the Indian attack, +even if attempted, could have been beaten off.</p> + +<p>In bitterness of spirit the major was riding over the field, too full of +exasperation as yet to trust himself to send for and speak to his +subordinate, even when he felt that he must hold conference with him in +order to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> determine how best to direct the search. Twice or thrice had +Devers essayed to open communication with his chief and impress him with +his views, but Warren had sent him word by Hastings to supervise at the +designated point—which he himself selected—the burial of the men, +while he, the major, went on with the search. Time and again it was +noted how often Devers would climb the bank and anxiously gaze off to +the west toward that fatal curtain,—the spur that separated him from +the sacrificed detachment the night before. What his thoughts were could +only be conjectured, but little Sanders seemed to hit pretty near the +mark when he confided to Hastings that Differs didn't seem to care a +damn whether Warren followed the Indian trail or not; what he was afraid +of was that the major would "get onto" his own. And indeed as the +morning wore on it began to look as though that were what the major was +bent on doing. The scouting-parties had come back with their report of +what they had found in the river bottom, and by this time Warren with +his escort was three miles over to the west and slowly searching along +the east face of the spur, peeping into every hollow and depression that +might shelter a human form and looking everywhere for the print of +horses' hoofs. At ten o'clock he had sent to Devers for some intelligent +non-commissioned officer who could point out about where they had last +seen Davies as he crossed the ridge returning to his men at sundown, but +Devers very plausibly responded that while it might not be difficult to +do so from where they parted, "just over on the west side," it couldn't +be reliably done from so far to the east. The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> reply must at least serve +to delay matters awhile, and every moment was of value to Devers.</p> + +<p>His own theory was that, as twilight was setting in as Davies recrossed +the ridge, everything beyond in the low grounds was in deep obscurity. +The attack had probably begun about the time the young officer, with +Murray, first crossed the ridge in obedience to the captain's orders to +report to him in person. Less than an hour, Devers thought, elapsed +before he could again have come within sight of the spot where he left +his little command. By that time all was practically over. In the +gathering darkness and in the glut and greed of their savage triumph the +Indians had crowded about the victims. Davies and the sergeant, +returning, had been allowed unmolested to make their way well down +toward the scene. The fire in the bottom was fed to lure them on (it was +still smouldering when Warren's men trotted thither in the morning), and +the two had either been captured alive and run off with the main body to +grace the stake at the scalp-dance to be held with fiendish rejoicing +somewhere beyond danger of interruption, or else, warned in some way, +the two had sought to escape, and had been headed off and killed in some +of the still unexplored ravines or <i>coulées</i> farther to the southwest. +In either case, provided the major did not persist in his investigation +and so discover how very far Devers had led his troop away from sight or +support of Davies's men, and how utterly he had failed to carry out his +orders, the captain felt tolerably confident that all the blame would be +landed where it properly belonged,—on the shoulders of the dead and +defenceless lieutenant, whose reluctance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> to undertake the duty many had +observed, and whose womanish swoon at sight of the slaughtered men had +not only proved his unfitness for frontier service, but long delayed his +return to his party. Devers had always said Davies was entirely +overrated by the colonel and Truman and others; he had held all summer +that the lieutenant was a "molly-coddle;" he had been reproved more than +once for what they termed his injustice to his subaltern, and now Davies +had proved just exactly what he knew he would prove,—a carpet knight, a +prayer-meeting soldier, with neither grit nor brawn nor backbone; and if +he was killed, at least he had died in time to save the regiment from +having to blush for him in the future. Devers had served throughout the +war of the rebellion in a regiment that saw no end of hard fighting, but +always when he happened to be on sick-leave or detached service of some +kind, for in all of his years of service no man in his grade or corps +had so seldom been under fire, either in the South or on the plains. +With abilities unquestioned and opportunities second to none, it was +nevertheless observed of him at the close of the four years' struggle +that there, at least, was a man who hadn't even mustering or recruiting +service to fall back upon when "brevets" went scattering broadcast over +the army, showering like the rain upon the just and the unjust. He had +lived all through it without having become distinguished for anything +that might become a man, winning a name for himself principally for +consummate skill in getting out of what he was told to do without +getting into a scrape or out of the service. He became a tremendous +paper-fighter in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span> days that followed, however, and like some of our +war generals, could find the weak points in the armor of his comrades if +he couldn't in that of the enemy. He became a club-room critic of other +fellows' campaigns, companies, or conduct, as probably the most +effective way of diverting attention from his own. He sneered at the war +record of every contemporary who had achieved rank superior to his own, +as with hardly an exception every one of them had done so, and made the +burden of his song among the younger men the blunders, faults, and +follies of the elders. Without a drop of Irish blood in his veins, he +inspired the belief that he must be own cousin to the newly-landed +Hibernian who announced himself as "agin the governmint," for post and +regimental commanders without exception found him the most adroit, +crafty, sinuous, and troublesome of captains,—one who was forever doing +something to try them, yet nothing on which they could try him. Well he +knew his unpopularity and sagely judged his opportunities. The liberties +he had dared with Warren he would not now have ventured with Riggs, or +Black Bill, or old Tintop, one and all of whom had learned to know him +well, and would have been prepared for some such betrayal of the trust +reposed in him.</p> + +<p>He had worried Black Bill—long time his post commander—to the verge of +exasperation with his perpetual hair-splitting and quibbling. He had +played his last trump with Tintop early in the campaign, and received +that grizzled veteran's rasping intimation that one more experiment +would lead to arrest and court-martial, and received it with every +appearance of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> amaze and pain, which might have been effective had not +Hastings been called upon beforehand to give his version of the affair +that led to it. It was one of those constantly recurring examples of +Devers's "cussedness" which led many a stout cavalry officer to set +forth just what he'd do with Devers if he only had him under his +command, yet the very men so confident they could bring him to time were +not infrequently the ones who subsequently found him too adroit for +their straightforward methods. Black Bill told Tintop that Devers was as +bad as the Irishman's flea,—put your thumb on him and he isn't there. +"I'll cinch him," said Tintop in reply, "if he tries any of his damned +nonsense on me." But with every intention of doing his level best, +"Topsy" little knew the infinite resources of the man.</p> + +<p>One of Devers's idiosyncrasies was a hatred of doing things as anybody +else did them. This in a service where absolute uniformity was expected +was prolific of no end of chafing. In every garrison where his troop was +stationed he had become notorious. If the other companies turned out in +white gloves at retreat, Devers's would come in gauntlets. When dress +parade, dismounted, was ordered at Fort Birney one mild November +evening, he marched his men out in arctics and fur caps, and claimed +that to be the proper full dress for the season. When Colonel Emerson in +regimental orders lauded the devotion of Sergeant Foley, who swam the +icy Missouri with despatches from Captain Cameron's beleaguered command, +and ordered a handsome collar to be made by the regimental saddler to be +worn thereafter by his gallant gray, now transferred<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> to the band +because of the cuts and scars he had received in that fierce campaign, +Devers similarly decorated Trumpeter Finnegan's bull terrier "Mike," who +swam the Mini Ska in pursuit of his master the night of the wintry dash +on Tall Bull's village, and gravely paraded "Mike" with the troop next +muster day. These and a score of similarly annoying yet hardly +punishable attempts to bring ridicule upon or run counter to the orders +of his commanders, had actually rendered some of his seniors so averse +to having him under them that it often resulted in his being given +independent details, lonely detachment duty, "one-company posts," and +similar isolation which almost any other officer would have shrunk from, +but that Devers really seemed to enjoy, and, from having been so much +his own commanding officer, he was all the less fitted to render prompt +and cheerful obedience to others when they again had to have him. With +any command greater than that of a single troop he had never been +intrusted. There was no end of speculation and chaff around the +camp-fires, therefore, early in the summer, when Devers, most +unwillingly, it was said, was hauled in from some outlying post where he +had nothing to do but hunt, eat, and sleep, and reported for duty on +what turned out to be the toughest of Indian campaigns. What was worse, +he was ordered to report to Tintop, and now, said the boys, there <i>will</i> +be fun.</p> + +<p>Well, there was. It took a week of persistent "cinching" to get Devers +and his troop to understand that they were no longer an independent +body, but must serve under the orders of a colonel or major. He had at +first been put in Bell's battalion, and every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> time the colonel pointed +out a fault Devers "thought" that was as Major Bell wanted it, and when +Bell called his attention to some irregularity, Devers had understood +Colonel Winthrop to say that that was the way it should be done. Bell +finally said that he'd be damned if he wouldn't rather have no command +at all than one with Devers in it. The first day Devers's horses were +herded to graze far out on the slopes,—five hundred yards beyond those +of any other troop,—and Tintop said he wished Captain Devers hereafter +not to allow his herd to be driven beyond those of the rest of the +regiment. Next day they were kicking up a dust not fifty yards from +Tintop's tent,—as far inside the cordon as they had been outside +before,—and Devers plausibly explained that he wanted to be sure he +wasn't too far away. The third day, after a long march with Indians on +every hand, Tintop ordered "double guards and side lines when the herds +went out to graze." The horses of the other troops were ridden out by +the men to good grazing-ground some five hundred yards from the bivouac +fires, and there the riders slipped off and the side lines were slipped +on; but Devers's horses were side-lined as soon as unsaddled, and then +the poor brutes, thus hobbled fore and aft, were driven, painfully +lurching, out to graze. Tintop boiled over at the sight of so +unhorsemanlike a proceeding and rode wrathfully at Devers to rebuke him. +"Why, colonel," said Devers, "I wouldn't have done it for the world, but +Mr. Gray was so positive in saying it must be done when they went out, I +couldn't do otherwise. Of course if he'd said when they <i>got</i> out I——" +And though Tintop swore savagely through his teeth that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> Devers knew +well just what was meant, as did every other troop commander, he +couldn't prove it. Next day, before the side lines were put on, in some +mysterious way Devers's herd was stampeded and ran six miles before they +could be rounded up, and he explained it was all because they weren't +side-lined in the first place, as they were always accustomed to being, +and as the regulations required they should be in the Indian country. +This was another thing to make Tintop blaspheme. Every day for a week +something was amiss, and, having gone to the length of his own tether, +Devers took to saying that it was all Mr. Davies's fault or Sergeant +Somebody's,—"Mr. Davies had just joined and was utterly inexperienced." +Then Tintop gave Devers positive orders not to content himself with +telling people to do thus and so, but to see that the orders were +obeyed, and Devers then took his pipe and his blankets and +ostentatiously spent hours of the afternoon out on the open prairie, a +monument to the severity and exactions of his colonel. And still the +horses, all of them, got far out on the foot-hills, and Tintop ordered +him a day or two later, when on Scalp Creek, not to let his herd get +more than half a mile away from the troop fires, as they had no tents, +and then Devers had his herd-guards build fires and boil coffee far out +on the prairie, and claimed that those were his troop fires, and +therefore his herd was within reasonable distance of them. Then Tintop +swore another oath and ordered Devers not to let his horses graze more +than half or less than quarter of a mile from his own head-quarters +fire, and as there followed a few days of hot weather, Devers sent his +herd<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> to the foot-hills again, claiming that there was no longer a +head-quarters fire to regulate by, which proved to be a fact, as in such +warm weather there was no need of one. Then, one day, Tintop in so many +words ordered the captain hereafter not to do as he thought, but simply +as his colonel said, and this led to the final incident, still more +side-splitting,—one that the boys in the regiment never tired of +telling. Tintop with his battalion was sent on a seven days' scout, +during which he ordered all the troop commanders, until further +instruction, not to permit their herds to graze more than five hundred +yards from camp. Three days later, what was his wrath to find Devers's +herd almost a mile away down the stream, and close by the tents of Major +Roome's battalion of Foot that had been for a week placidly awaiting the +return of the cavalry! Tintop had halted and unsaddled some distance +up-stream. There wasn't a shred of canvas with the regiment while on +this brisk raid, nor was there need of it in such perfect weather, and +Tintop with Gray by his side stood fuming in the midst of surrounding +cook fires, when Devers came placidly up in obedience to the summons of +the orderly, and many an ear was brought to bear and bets were given and +taken that this time Devers would catch it and no rebate. "How is it, +sir," demanded Tintop, "that in defiance of my positive orders you allow +your herd to go so far away?"</p> + +<p>"Why, colonel, you distinctly said they mustn't be herded over five +hundred yards from camp. Of course if I'd been allowed to think I +probably wouldn't have done it, but I sent mine down there accordingly. +That's the only <i>camp</i> I see,—this is only a bivouac."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> And all Tintop +could ejaculate in response was, "Well, may I be damned!"</p> + +<p>These and a host of similar stories had come to Warren's ears in the +course of the campaign, and he had laughed at them as had everybody +else, for after all no man could say that actual harm had occurred as a +result of Devers's experiments. So curiously are we constituted that +when it is only the commander who is braved or his adjutant who is +ruffled, the bulk of the line can bear it with equanimity. Therefore, +while Tintop, Black Bill, Riggs, and his seniors generally could never +refer to Devers except with sympathetic swear words, there were not a +few of the officers junior in rank to his who found no little fun in all +these incidents. Like most stories in or out of the army, they were +perhaps exaggerative, but, like smoke, they could not exist without +smouldering fire. If there were any speculation about Devers in the +regiment, it was as to how he would behave if he ever did get into a +fight, or what would happen in the event of his some day squirming out +of an order on which vital issues depended. "You'll go too far yet, +Devers," said a soldier who strove conscientiously to be his friend and +counsellor, "and when you do, where will be the commander under whom you +have ever served to say a good word for you?"</p> + +<p>And now on this fatal September morning that ominous warning was ringing +in his ears again and again. Down in the bottom of his brooding heart he +knew, and well knew, that had he obeyed, as he should have obeyed, +Warren's orders, this catastrophe could not have occurred, and that he +more than any other man on earth was responsible for the death of these<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> +gallant fellows, who, whether they looked up to him or not, were by the +stern discipline of the service dependent on him for the expected +support. If he could realize this, how much the quicker would others be +to attach the blame to him! how much the more necessary must it be to +lose no time in diverting suspicion elsewhere! The fatal propensity to +distort or disobey, which perhaps he could have downed had Tintop or +Riggs been there, he could not resist with Warren,—an envied +contemporary, presumably new to his idiosyncrasies. Nor would he, of +course, even with him, have disobeyed could he have foreseen the fatal +consequences. That would have been risking too much. But now that he had +disobeyed, and in all probability would be held accountable for the +catastrophe, his one road to safety and to acquittal lay in saddling all +possible responsibility on some one else,—preferably Davies. This, if +Davies were silent in death, would not be difficult. Whatsoever others +might think or say, they could prove nothing. If, however, Davies turned +up alive and alert, then matters might be grave indeed. No wonder he +climbed again and again the westward bank and levelled his glasses at +the dull-hued ridge against the brilliant westward sky, frequently +giving vent to loud denunciation of the leaders in the mismanaged +campaign. It was nearly ten o'clock before his dead were laid +away,—before anything occurred that looked like discovery of the +missing pair. Then came new excitement.</p> + +<p>Far down toward the point where the distant spur seemed to sink to the +general level of the prairie one or two of Warren's scouts could be seen +rapidly spurring,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> as though in answer to signals. Presently they, too, +began waving their hats to those searching higher up the ridge. Then all +disappeared over on the westward side. Something evidently had been +found, and Devers's men, their work completed, were grouped eagerly up +the bank. Over half an hour in mingled hope and suspense they waited, +and then there rode in a mounted messenger.</p> + +<p>"The major's compliments to Captain Devers," he said, "and he'll wait +for the captain and his troop over yonder. I'm to show the way."</p> + +<p>"Have they found anything?" asked Devers.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir,—Mr. Davies; but he's more dead than alive. There is no sign +of McGrath."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean Mr. Davies is wounded?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir. He seems just dazed-like."</p> + +<p>"That's what I said all along," spoke the captain, loudly, so that it +was heard by all the soldiers near at hand. "He never tried to rejoin +his detachment. He never had any nerve. He probably saw what was going +on and hid himself, never daring even to let us know. Damn these +psalm-singing, Sunday-go-to-meeting soldiers anyhow! Here, Howard," he +continued, turning to a young trooper who stood silently at his horse's +head, "you come with me. Lead on, corporal. Sergeant Haney, mount the +troop and follow." And with that the captain rode away.</p> + +<p>For a moment, as the men were bringing up their horses and leading them +into line, there was silence. Looking after the three horsemen now well +out on the prairie to the west, the party saw that the messenger was +riding some distance in advance, and that Howard,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> a recruit who joined +with the detachment early in the campaign, was now side by side and +evidently in conversation with the captain. It had been a summer of +campaigning in which not only the nicer distinctions as between officer +and man—not only all symbols of rank and uniform—had gradually +disappeared, but with them, little by little, some of the first +principles of good order and military discipline. Officers had been +heard openly condemning or covertly sneering at the seniors in command. +It was not strange that the rank and file should fall into similar ways.</p> + +<p>"Never had any nerve, is it?" muttered Private Dooley, after a moment. +"Boy and man I've soldiered in this regiment longer than you, Captain +Differs, and I know an officer and a gentleman when I see wan, and it's +the public opinion av more than wan private that there's more av both in +that young feller's starvin' stummick than in your whole damn overfed, +bow-legged carcass. How's that, Brannan?" said he, turning to his next +neighbor, a wan, sad-faced recruit.</p> + +<p>"Shut up there, Dooley!" ordered Sergeant Haney, briefly. "No more of +that! Count fours."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2> + + +<p>So far as the Eleventh and one or two other regiments were concerned, +that summer's campaign, so fraught with incident and tribulation, was +now at an end. It would take weeks and months of care to restore their +horses to serviceable condition. Others<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> were ordered up to replace the +worn-out command, and while an indomitable general pushed fresh columns +into the field to track the savages to their winter lairs, the ragged +troopers—for all the world like so many beggars a horseback, so many +mounted scarecrows—were ordered in to the big garrisons near the supply +depots to refit, recuperate, and restore to discipline. Some, officers +and men both, had been sent ahead, too weak or ill to remain in the +field, and among these, consigned to the tender care of the post surgeon +of Fort Cameron, was Lieutenant Davies, over whose condition the doctors +shook their heads. Brain fever was the malady, but his system was so +reduced by starvation and exposure that even a moderate fever would have +been most serious. Not until he had been gone nearly a month did the +regiment follow, and then, scattered in detachments to various posts, +became busily occupied in the work of rehabilitation. Cameron was a big +new frontier fort with few accommodations, over-crowded, too; yet, being +the nearest to the field of action, thither had Captain Wilbur Cranston +gone just as soon as he was convalescent and able to move. Thither with +him went his devoted wife and her devoted cousin and companion, Miss +Loomis, for whose reception the subalterns of the infantry guard +promptly gave up their frame quarters and moved into tents, and Cranston +was there on light duty in charge of the big corral of remount horses +when Davies was bundled in and established under Cranston's roof. There, +carefully treated by Dr. Glover and regularly visited, often tenderly +nursed, by Mrs. Cranston and her friend, the naturally strong +constitution of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> young officer triumphed and he began slowly to +mend. Meantime, as is or was the way, it fell to the lot of the gentle +and sympathetic army wives or maidens at the post to keep the distant +mother informed of her boy's slow progress toward recovery, and +presently to answer the importunate letters of another. Mrs. Cranston, a +shrewd observer, could not fail to note that as soon as her patient was +allowed to read at all it was his mother's letters, not the great packet +in Miss Quimby's unformed hand, that he eagerly opened. Then when at +last he did begin these latter the steady progress of his convalescence +was impaired. He became again feverish, restless, and depressed. Too ill +and weak as yet to write for himself, he read with grateful eyes his +mother's allusions to the kind and sympathetic missives sent her by Mrs. +Cranston, and occasionally, as happened, by Miss Loomis. Gladly, too, +did he avail himself of their services in reply. But when it became +necessary presently to answer those of his <i>fiancée</i>, there might have +been embarrassment but for Mrs. Cranston's tact. She had begun to feel a +strong interest in and respect for her patient. So, too, had her +husband, who came daily to sit by his bedside, but who avoided, as much +as possible, all reference to the closing days of the campaign.</p> + +<p>As yet the young officer had not been told of McGrath's disappearance, +and had not been encouraged to tell of his own experience. Indeed, there +was very little he could tell, but his story was frankly imparted to his +friend and comrade, Captain Cranston. Much seemed to be a total blank. +He spoke with a shudder of his last look at poor Mullen and Phillips, +and at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> the pale, drawn faces of Captain Devers and the troop,—of +another backward glance from near the top of the ridge, then of their +losing sight of Devers and his men, and pushing on to the deeper gloom +of the east valley. It was then too dark to see, and for half an hour he +and McGrath, weary and heart-sick, had scouted northeastward in search +of his party. They had seen some flashes as they began the descent and +rode in their direction, believing them to be signals, but soon all was +darkness, all silence, but for the sigh of the night wind. Conscious of +growing faintness, he suggested firing a shot or two as signals, and +McGrath obeyed. Then off to the southeast, far from the point where they +had seen the first flashes, the shots were answered and distant yells +were heard. McGrath considered this ominous, and asked him to wait in a +little ravine while he reconnoitred. In ten minutes two or three shots +rang out in the direction taken by the sergeant, and presently back he +came fast as a staggering horse could bear him, crying, "Indians! +Indians everywhere!" It was all up with Davies's party, and their only +hope was to hasten back to find the command; but the Indians came in +chase, and though they plied spur, their poor horses seemed too weak for +speed. How far they got he never knew, but remembered a sudden plunge, +his horse's going down, rolling all over him, and nothing more.</p> + +<p>"When you parted from Devers," asked Cranston one day, "how far was he +from the top of the ridge?—how far to the west?"</p> + +<p>And Davies answered, "At least two and a half or three miles."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p> + +<p>Over this did Cranston ponder long. It ill accorded with what they wrote +him from the front as Devers's story.</p> + +<p>"You write to Mr. Davies's mother, Agatha," Mrs. Cranston had said. "I +haven't time for both, but I'll take care of Miss Quimby." Just what +might be the tone and tenor of that young lady's letters to her +prostrate lover Mrs. Cranston could not positively say, as no one saw +them but himself, but she was ready to hazard a something more than mere +conjecture when Miss Quimby took to writing to her as well. As was her +wont when moved, Mrs. Margaret unbosomed herself to her lord. "I've no +patience with the girl," she said. "She'll worry him to death. If she +writes such silly, romantic trash to me, what mustn't she be saying to +him? What on earth can he ever have seen in her?"</p> + +<p>Now, that's just one thing no woman can find out,—what a man can see to +admire in one in whom she sees nothing. It didn't help matters that +Cranston, in his conservative, whimsical way, should counsel silence and +patience. What woman can be silent under strong provocation? What woman +can patiently abide the personal application of a general rule?</p> + +<p>"I don't suppose there ever was a match yet of which some woman didn't +say she couldn't see what he saw," said Cranston, deprecatingly; and +then, with one of his whimsical grins, began to add, "Let's see, wasn't +it Kitty Benton who said, when she heard of our engagement, that +she——" But he got no further in face of his wife's impetuous outbreak:</p> + +<p>"That's simply hateful in you, Wilbur, and you<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> know it as well as I do. +She knew me only slightly, for we were not in the same set at school at +all——"</p> + +<p>"Well,—still, didn't she know you rather better than you do Miss +Quimby, whom you never saw at all?"</p> + +<p>"I don't care. I know what she's like," answered Mrs. Meg, with flushing +cheeks. And that was really before poor Almira's first letter came, and +if Mrs. Cranston thought she was right before, she knew it when she read +now.</p> + +<p>The closing paragraph of a long, almost incoherent missive must suffice. +Even Cranston's lips twitched under the heavy thatch of his moustache as +he listened. Even we, who like Mrs. Cranston, must admit it wasn't quite +kind in her, no matter how natural, to read it afterward to Agatha +Loomis, who, although declining to read, did not quite decline to hear +at least a line or two.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"If you knew how I suffered—what tortures of anxiety, what +nights of sleeplessness and woe, tossing on fevered pillow, +tortured with visions of my beloved nobly fallen on the field +of battle and pining for the touch of this hand—you would +indeed pity me; but my father is inflexible. He refuses his +daughter the poor boon of flying to the stricken lover's +side,—her husband that is to be. In vain have I pointed out +that I ask no sweeter bliss than to share my Percy's lot, for +weal or woe, to live in the humblest cot, a tent, a hovel even, +with only a crust,—it meets only his scornful refusal. When my +arms are eagerly outstretched to enfold my soldier hero, I have +to be content with nursing day and night his afflicted mother,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> +whom for his sake I love as I would my own, had she not been +taken from me years ago when I was but an unsophisticated +child. When I think of you privileged to sit by his delirious +bedside, cooling his fevered brow, I envy you as I never +thought to envy any woman on earth since, long years ago, my +Percy blessed me with his love; and now if after all he should +be taken, or if some proud lady should win him from his simple +little village maid, there would be no refuge for me but the +grave."</p></div> + +<p>"Now," said Mrs. Cranston, "something besides the bedside is delirious +in that case. No wonder the poor fellow is picking up so slowly."</p> + +<p>"Well, wait a little," responded her conservative lord and master. +"Seems to me a man ought to rejoice in knowing that the arms of lovely +woman are outstretched in eagerness to enfold him. Now, if I were +he——"</p> + +<p>"Yes, if you were he I've no doubt you'd be off to Urbana by first +train; but this young man has some sense in his head" (here Cranston +began to finger his own skull tentatively), "and in losing his freedom +hasn't entirely parted with his wits."</p> + +<p>"Was that—my predicament?" asked Cranston, looking plaintively up.</p> + +<p>"Well, at least I have to do your thinking for you, and what you have to +do is help him here. Have you had any talk with him about—about what +Captain Truman and Mr. Gray wrote?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly not, Meg," answered Cranston, becoming grave at once, "and I +do not mean to until he is well enough to hear it."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Well, the more I know of him the more I know it's utterly untrue. +Hasn't anything been heard yet of Sergeant McGrath?"</p> + +<p>"Not a word. Even friendly Indians say they haven't an idea what could +have become of him." And Cranston's face was both anxious and troubled.</p> + +<p>The matter was indeed one to give him deep concern. The massacre of the +little detachment from Warren's battalion late in September—all of them +members of Devers's troop—had brought down sharp and deserved +criticism, and there was every prospect that the matter would be +officially investigated just as soon as the department commander could +turn his attention from the rounding up of the hostile band still at +large. Meantime, between Warren and his senior troop commander, Captain +Devers, strained relations existed,—the former holding to the theory +that the responsibility for the disaster lay with Devers and no one +else, the latter volubly, plausibly, incessantly protesting against the +imputation as utterly unjust, indeed, as utterly outrageous, and moving +heaven and earth to unload the entire blame on the shoulders of the +absent and defenceless.</p> + +<p>Now, as a rule this is an easy matter, almost as easy in the army as out +of it, and had his accuser been any other captain in the entire field +column, poor Davies might indeed have been prejudged; but with Devers it +was different. His idiosyncrasies were notorious. His whole mental and +moral fabric was one of antagonism to his fellows in general and his +seniors in particular. It was said, and generally said, of him that the +mere fact that everybody liked or respected a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> man was enough to set +Devers dead against him. The fact that Mr. Davies had thrown up his +graduating leave and sought instant service in the field as a result of +the tragedies of the early days of the campaign had won him instantly +the interest and good will of officers and men throughout the entire +command. He started well, so to speak, and his quiet, reticent, +observant, but unobtrusive ways favorably impressed his regimental +comrades and led to many a commendatory remark from veteran officers. +But there was universal comment, half humorous, half commiserating, upon +his assignment to Devers's troop, and Devers knew it. He treated the +young man with cool civility at first, but became speedily captious and +irritating, rebuking him openly in the presence and hearing of other +officers and of enlisted men for matters for which he was not justly +blamable. Old Winthrop spoke to Devers about it one day, and spoke +seriously. "You'll disgust that young gentleman with the service if +you're not careful, Devers," said he, "and be the means of depriving us +of a good officer."</p> + +<p>"That's just where I'm compelled to differ with you, colonel," was the +response, and it was this propensity for differing that had led to his +sobriquet. "I've had constant and daily opportunity of observing him, +and he's mistaken his vocation. That young man should be a missionary or +a Sunday-school superintendent. He's too pious for Indian fighting, +which is the only thing expected of us."</p> + +<p>But for weeks after there was no Indian fighting. What had become of the +swarms of red warriors that had swooped upon the front, flank, and rear +earlier in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> the campaign no one could say. Their trails led all over the +northwest, and the pursuing column pushed on night and day in dust and +sun-glare, in mud and rain, in pelting hail-storm and darkness, and +never once until late in the autumn could they again come within +striking distance. By that time the jaunty riders of the early +spring-tide were worn to skeletons; the mettlesome horses—those that +were left—barely able to stagger through weakness, exhaustion, and +starvation. Then like prairie wolves the warriors closed once more about +the jaded flanks, waiting, watching every chance of picking off the +stragglers. Just one day did Differs's troop get under fire,—a long way +from under, said satirical subalterns of a command that sustained some +losses,—but so scientifically did the captain handle his men that not a +trooper or horse was scratched. Mr. Davies on this occasion commanded a +platoon, dismounted on the skirmish line. It was his first affair, and +he kept his appropriate thirty paces in rear of his dispersed men to +watch and direct their fire, expecting that the enemy would charge or +attack or do something, he didn't know just what. He simply behaved as +he had been taught at skirmish drill at the Point,—was ready to do his +full duty, but having no experience in Indian battle, thought it his +business to wait orders, which was precisely what Differs had told him +to do, until attacked. All the same, when others twitted Devers on the +fact that his troop "didn't seem to get in," that officer did not +hesitate to respond that they'd have to settle that with their +admiration, Mr. Davies, who was commanding the fighting line, but +probably wasn't done saying his prayers. There was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> a lively, rattling +skirmish next morning between the rear-guard and the Indians, and at one +time things looked as though the thinned battalion of their comrades of +the —th might be cut off, and some of Devers's regiment thought the +rearmost troops ought to be deployed in support of the fellows who were +fighting off the warriors, who came charging after them over wave after +wave of prairie. But Devers couldn't see it in that light. He was +bringing up the rear of his own regiment. Indeed, not until the fatal +day of their <i>débouchement</i> from the Bad Lands and sighting the broad +valley of the Ska had Devers's men felt the sting of Indian lead, and +then he was not with them.</p> + +<p>And now while the worn and ragged commands lay basking day after day in +the warm October sunshine at Camp Recovery, and men for the time had +nothing to do but eat and sleep and discuss the events of the late +campaign, the Eleventh was in turmoil over the tragedy of Antelope +Springs.</p> + +<p>When Davies was finally found that morning by Warren's scouts, he was +lying in a depression of the prairie at least a mile to the west of the +point where that long—that fatally long—curtaining ridge sank into the +general level of the valley, and therefore full four and a half or five +miles away from the point where his little detachment had died fighting, +and very nearly two miles south, or west of south, of the point where he +and McGrath had last been seen by their comrades,—just at dusk,—just +at what looked to be the comb or crest of the ridge from the point where +Devers had halted his troop and made the dramatic display of his dead. +But what looked to be the crest from the west<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> was in point of fact not +the crest at all. Invisible to the halted command, there lay still +farther over to the eastward, where the spur seemed to broaden +considerably, a wave that overtopped the westward edge by a dozen feet +or more. Supposing from Devers's account that the trail of his command +could be found distinctly marked along the westward slope and close +under the crest, Warren was searching there with his scouts when +attracted by the signals two miles to the south announcing probably +important discoveries. He had found some Indian pony tracks, also those +of one shod horse, but dropped everything else to go at once in answer +to the signals. Then they had borne the unconscious officer +southeastward toward the clump of trees at the Springs, placed him in +the ambulance, and then came a courier from the general himself +directing Major Warren to report to him in person at Birchwood, thirty +miles away, and the major went, the ambulance following. And so, to his +unspeakable relief, Captain Devers was left once more the senior officer +on the ground to continue the search for McGrath, and in the conduct of +this he took excellent care that only himself and one or two of his +chosen should search any portion of the prairie that might involve +running over the trail west of the ravine which he had made the previous +day. The scouts and searching parties were kept in the valley and in the +timber along the river, not on the back track. <i>That</i> search Devers +conducted in person, and made a rough topographical sketch of the +neighborhood as it appeared in his eyes and as he wished it to appear in +those of others. Just before dusk, sounding the rally far up the spur, +he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> rode to the point where his two hunters had met their fate, and +there assembled his men, gathering some fifty troopers, and thence led +them in column of twos southward close under the spur and well to the +east of the ravine which on the previous day had partially caused his +wide departure from the line of direction indicated to him by the major. +It was therefore very late, and his men were very tired,—much too tired +to sit up and talk,—when they got to camp.</p> + +<p>Pursuing its homeward march, the main column under the general +commanding had gone on through the wild hill country, and not until +nearly a month had elapsed was the scene of the tragedy revisited. The +officer who went thither with an escort, and Captain Devers and Corporal +Finucane and Troopers Boyd and Howard, had had pointed out to him the +scene of the massacre itself, then, far up the spur, the spot where +Mullen and Phillips were shot, and from thence the trail of Davies's +little squad as it marched away on its fatal errand toward the Springs, +and the trails of the various parties. Off to the southwest went Truman +in chase of the murderers,—off after Truman went Calvert and the +invalid corps,—off straight to the south—to the river—along the +westward side of the ridge, far to the east of the ravine and close +under the crest, went another; that, he was assured, was the trail made +by Captain Devers. Many of these trails, said the officer's report, were +now dim and nearly effaced, "but there can be no mistaking that of +Captain Devers along the spur,—it is quite sharp and clear. It isn't +more than five hundred yards from the point where Mr. Davies and +Sergeant McGrath<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> had disappeared over the ridge to the nearest point on +the trail, where—while Captain Devers couldn't be sure—his troopers +are positive Mr. Davies had left to return to his men, and where they +are also positive the captain had again enjoined upon him the necessity +of vigilance, and reminded him that as it was growing dark he could no +longer see, and must therefore depend upon his lieutenant to keep him +informed of what was going on over on that side, as under his new orders +he, Captain Devers, must now go on and bury his dead. Mr. Davies and his +sergeant must have seen the attack just as soon as they got back across +the ridge, but what they did and why they had not instantly warned their +captain remains a mystery. At all events it would seem that Captain +Devers," so concluded the report, "had conscientiously carried out his +instructions, though he might perhaps, if unburdened with his dead, have +kept higher up towards the crest, and should perhaps have detached a +couple of flankers to keep communication, and so relied less on +Lieutenant Davies, who was at least inexperienced in frontier warfare." +The officer could not understand how it was that in broad daylight Major +Warren when searching had failed to see Devers's trail. It certainly was +there. And so the old, old story was told again. The absent it was who +had to take care of himself, and Devers was inferentially "whitewashed" +and Davies held to explain, when convalescent, and McGrath to +substantiate his statement if McGrath ever again turned up on earth. +Otherwise there could be no substantiation until the judgment day. Now, +McGrath, lost in the thick of an Indian fight, was as apt to be found<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> +alive, or found at all, as a pin in a mill-pond. Davies, broken by the +campaign and sore smitten with brain fever, had but one chance in a +hundred of recovery. All things considered, therefore, it may be +conceded that Captain Devers was a very gifted man.</p> + +<p>But Devers wasn't the first man, or the last, to count on another +fellow's death or disappearance to cloak his own crime. It gave him a +queer turn to hear that Cranston and his wife and niece had undertaken +the building up of the absent patient. He hated Cranston,—his junior as +an officer, but infinitely his superior as a soldier. He feared him when +word came out to the homeward marching command that Cranston said Davies +was on the mend and would soon be on the war-path. But he drew another +long breath of relief when there reached them the news that General +Sheridan himself had telegraphed directing Davies to hasten home, that +his mother was dying. When next that young officer appeared upon the +scene and reported for duty, it was in midwinter at Fort Scott, a big, +brilliant, sunshiny post, the head-quarters of an infantry regiment, the +station of a cavalry battalion, whose major, Warren, had gone on long +leave abroad, whose senior captain, Devers, was its commander <i>pro +tempore</i>, whose other captains, Cranston, Truman, and Hay, were present +for duty; so were most of their subalterns, so were most of the infantry +officers, so were the wives and families of nine-tenths of the array, +for it was a much-married garrison, and there was not a little talk and +speculation when it was announced that Lieutenant Davies would come +accompanied by his bride.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2> + + +<p>"The main objection to Fort Scott," said Winthrop, when one of his +battalions was finally ordered thither, "is that it's too fashionable +for my taste. What this regiment needs now is more drill and less +dinners." He loved to be epigrammatic. The head-quarters, staff, band, +and six troops had taken station at a big frontier post, two other +troops went with the lieutenant-colonel to a second post, so that that +officer could have a command, and two more with the senior major, but +the Interior Department had moved some thousands of the lately hostile +Indians down close to the line of the railway, where they could be more +readily fed and cared for. Great thereat was the alarm of the settlers, +and great the protest of the cattlemen, whose steers now roamed all over +the prairies within tempting distance of the restless young braves +across the reservation line. Scott was not a cavalry post at all. It had +no suitable stables, and only infantry ordinarily had been stationed +there since the completion of the railway, and thither Devers had been +sent when the final dissolution of the field column took place, and no +one of the field officers wanted him in his command, and he preferred to +be as usual,—alone. But then came the move of the Indians and the cry +of inadequate protection. Tintop had to part with two of his pet +companies—Cranston's and Hay's—at the reluctant orders from department +head-quarters. Still a fourth<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> had to be sent, and Truman was taken from +the lieutenant-colonel and Major Warren despatched from head-quarters to +Scott as commander of this cavalry battalion or squadron at the very +moment when he was clinching his arrangements for long leave of absence. +He went, commanded a month, but persisted in his application. Long years +of service entitled him to the indulgence and it was granted, but +neither the lieutenant-colonel nor senior major would consent to give up +the command of a post to go to Scott as a subordinate to old Colonel +Peleg Stone, an infantry veteran of many a war, both in garrison and in +the field. A shout of merriment was heard in the camp of the cavalry +when the original orders were read distributing the troops to stations. +"Old Pegleg's got his match at last," was the comment of the knowing +ones. "He can't worry Devers half as much as Devers will worry him." +Scott was the innermost and easternmost of all the stations to which the +three regiments of cavalry were distributed. The big, bustling, growing +cattle town of Braska lay but a few miles away. Thriving and populous +ranches surrounded the post on every side, replacing the buffalo, +antelope, and deer of the decade gone by with countless herds of horned +cattle. Braska sported a theatre, an assembly-room, restaurants, +concert-halls and banks—of all kinds. It had the unhallowed features of +the average frontier metropolis and some of the more agreeable traits of +an Eastern city. It contained a very large number of abandoned +characters who were not all half as bad as they were painted, and quite +an array of citizens of high repute who were not all as good as they +looked. As between<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> bad morals and bad manners, society seems to find it +easier to forgive the former, and most of the Eastern men who had come +West to embark in business had charming manners and were welcome +visitors at the fort, welcome companions at every party, picnic, and +dance, most hospitable entertainers in their turn when the fort people +went to town. During the long battle summer Fort Scott was garrisoned by +Colonel "Pegleg," the chaplain, the doctors, the adjutant and +quartermaster, the band, one company of his reliable old corps, the +Fortieth Foot, and the wives and children of pretty much all the rest of +the regiment. Famous campaigners were they of the Fortieth. They hadn't +missed a chance, winter or summer, for ten long years. They had tramped, +scouted, picketed, escorted, explored, surveyed, fought and bled all +over the great Northwest, some of the officers being so incessantly +abroad as to find themselves quite ill at ease at home, many of their +ladies declaring it a difficult matter to know their lords on the rare +occasions of their return, some few, indeed, being accused of having +forgotten them entirely in their absence. These were days the army +little knew before and will never know again,—the decade that followed +the war of the rebellion. Too old to take the field himself, the veteran +colonel at least could take his ease at home, and was quite placid and +content when he had the band to play for him, one company to guard and +"police" the post, and a host of women and children, bereft of their +natural protectors, fluttering about him. When all his companies were +home he had to spend hours at his desk overhauling ration and post and +forage returns, and as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> he was essentially a "red-tape" soldier,—one +who knew the regulations and recognized nothing else,—he made in busier +times his own life and those of his officers something of a burden. The +summer had been lovely at Scott. Thrice a week on sunshiny afternoons +the band played in its kiosk, and the gallants from town or the +neighboring ranches drove in with their stylish "turnouts" and called on +the ladies at the fort or took them driving over the hard prairie roads, +or danced with them on the waxed floor of the airy assembly-room. +"Really," said some of the ladies, "if it hadn't been for our friends +from town and the ranches I don't know what we should have done." What +some of them—ay, many of them—did was to gather their little broods +about them morn and night and pray to the Father in heaven for the life +and safety of the father in the field,—to lead pure and patient and +faithful lives, striving to keep their little house in order against his +coming, to teach his children to honor and love his name, to guard that +name from any and every possibility of reproach. What others did was to +accept most liberally the parting injunction, "not to mope, but try to +have a good time and be brave and cheerful," while the soldier went his +way. From this it was an easy step to accept as liberally the proffered +attention of the gentlemen with the charming manners from Braska and +Braska County. It was a gay post, a fashionable post, a frivolous post, +for the tone of garrison life depends immeasurably upon its social +leader, the wife of the commanding officer, and Mrs. Stone was but +little older than her husband's daughters. The latter were East at +school or visiting their own<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span> mother's relatives. The former had been a +belle at home and was glad to continue her belledom on the plains. There +were times when Mrs. Stone and the colonel lent the countenance of their +presence to charming little dinners and lunches, or after theatre to +suppers at the leading restaurant in town. There were times when some of +the ladies accepted refreshment there without such official +accompaniment. "Really, one had to drive very frequently to Braska even +if there was no actual shopping, for there was nowhere else to go," was +an oft-heard remark at Scott that summer. But breathes there a woman who +cannot find excuse for shopping? And shopping was hungry work and the +drive was long, the air keen, bracing, appetizing. What more natural +than that Mr. Courtenay and Mr. Fowler of the bank, Mr. Willett or Mr. +Burtis of the Cattle Club,—such charming dancers these,—should +sometimes, indeed frequently, suggest just a little bite, just a hot +bird and a cold bottle at Cresswell's? Such delicious salads as he could +concoct out of even canned shrimp or lobster, such capital oysters as +came to him, fresh, three times a week from Baltimore, such delicious +champagne, so carefully iced. What possible harm could there be in Mrs. +Flight and Mrs. Darling and Mrs. Watson's going together, mind you, and +lunching with their friends? "Why, the ladies at Fort Russell all do the +same thing every time they go to Cheyenne!" said Mrs. Flight, when taken +to task about it. "When I was up there visiting Fanny Turner last month +we thought <i>nothing</i> of it!" All the same Mrs. Wright and Mrs. Leonard +and others of their standard not only wouldn't go driving alone<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> with +the gentlemen from town, but declined to go to Cresswell's with anybody. +And Mrs. Wright's bonny face flushed and her eyes flashed when she said +why. As to what the ladies of the —th did out at Russell, that was not +her business. "Nevertheless," said Mrs. Wright, "I'll warrant you that +Mrs. Stannard, or Mrs. Freeman, or Mrs. Truscott did nothing of the +kind, and I don't care what Mrs. Flight says or Mrs. Turner does."</p> + +<p>And then the whole regiment came flocking home, and there was joy and +gladness unspeakable in many a little army household and some +modification thereof in others, and presently Devers and his troop +arrived after a long, long march, and Devers began giving "Pegleg" +something more to think about. The resources of the quartermaster's +department were insufficient to fill that ambitious dragoon's +requisitions. There wasn't anything he didn't want for his men, his +horses, or himself, and the next thing Pegleg knew he was involved just +as he was told he would be in a voluminous warfare with the troop +commander, and was minded of a saying attributed to the wag of the —th +Cavalry, a certain Lieutenant Blake, who knew Devers well and shared the +universal opinion of him. An officer had talked of challenging Devers in +by-gone days when vestiges of the code still lingered, but Blake scouted +the idea. "The only pistol he can fight with is the epistle," said +Blake. So Blake was another detestation of Devers, and doubtless for +good reason. He was forever getting a laugh on the captain when they +happened to come together, and, contentious and critical as he was, the +big dragoon couldn't abide being<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> laughed at. Somebody once referred to +Devers as reminding her of a Hercules on horseback, which prompted Blake +to respond, "Hercules! yes, by Jove, of the Farnese variety," whereat +there was a guffaw among the men present who knew anything of art, and a +general titter on every hand, for no one was ignorant of Devers's wide +physical departure from artistic lines. But Tom Hollis and others of his +ilk only caught the "far knees" part of it, which, however, was quite +enough. Blake would have been a comfort to old Stone this breezy, wintry +December, but in default of native wit to aid him wrestle with his acute +antagonist, the colonel begged that if only one more cavalryman should +be sent to the post in response to the new outcry for protection, he +should come in the shape of a field officer to straighten out Devers. +"He's got," said he, "too damn much individuality for me."</p> + +<p>And not only had more cavalry come, but the major had come and gone. If +anything, said Stone, Devers was more unbearable than before, as he now +had over two hundred men to represent instead of a little more than +fifty. Fort Scott was in the height of the holiday festivities, Captain +and Mrs. Cranston with Miss Loomis and the boys were just settling into +the new quarters when Lieutenant and Mrs. Davies were announced as <i>en +route</i> to join.</p> + +<p>And now arose a serious question. Who was to receive and entertain the +new-comers until they were able to furnish and move into their own +quarters? If any one, his own captain should be the first to tender +hospitality, but Captain Devers made no move whatsoever. He had a large +and interesting family of his own,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> which was sufficient excuse. There +were now two classmates of Davies at the post, both in the Fortieth, but +they were youngsters, only a few months in service, who roomed together +in the upper story of old Number Three, and lived at the bachelor mess, +which comprised the contract doctor, the sutler's clerk, and certain of +the quartermaster's employés. The boys would give "Dad" the best they +had and gladly, but they hadn't anything. Even the iron bunks on which +they slept were borrowed from the hospital. "How can a fellow invite a +bride to occupy his one room when he don't own C. and G. E. enough to +furnish a hen-coop?" And by C. and G. E., the army abbreviation for camp +and garrison equipage, the youngster meant to imply that he had no +furniture beyond a camp-chair and a trunk. Cranston himself would gladly +have taken them in but for two reasons,—he had not a vacant room under +his roof, and Margaret did not seem to wish it. It must be confessed +that there had been an outburst heard only by him—confided only to +him—when Mrs. Cranston received, a few weeks after the letter which +sadly told of Davies's mother's death, the brief and possibly +constrained note from her late patient announcing his approaching +marriage to Miss Quimby, who he said had been utterly devoted to poor +mother during her declining days and those of her brief but painful +illness. Margaret could not bear to speak of it to Miss Loomis. It was +Agatha herself who calmly asked, "And when is he to be married?" In +answering Mrs. Cranston found it impossible to conceal that she thought +it both quixotic and unnecessary. Miss Loomis quietly but decidedly took +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> opposite view. No honorable man could have done otherwise. They had +long been engaged. It was not only their own but his mother's choice. +She was young, beautiful, deeply in love with him. He had long been in +love with her. Doubtless they would be very happy, as they deserved to +be. Margaret flared up again: "I believe he's doing it as he does +everything else,—from sheer sense of duty, and that you advised him +to." A random shot which went nearer the mark than the archer supposed, +for Miss Loomis flushed in an instant, and made no reply. "Well!" said +Mrs. Cranston, "she longs only to share the humblest cot, the rudest +habitation with her beloved. We'll see how she'll take to frontier +life."</p> + +<p>A detachment of thirty troopers had been ordered kept at the new agency +eighty miles to the north, and thither to his supreme disgust had +Lieutenant Boynton of the Eleventh been banished in command, with the +promise of relief soon after Christmas. Cranston wrote asking permission +to use the lieutenant's vacated rooms for the new-comers, saying he +would provide servants and such fittings as would be needed. Boynton +wired back yes, of course, and the dreary bachelor den was made as +habitable as Mrs. Cranston's busy hands and brain could make it. Other +kindly women lent their aid, as well as pillow shams, towels, +comforters, bed linen, lamps, wardrobe, bureau, rocking-chairs, lounge, +etc. The Davieses were to breakfast and lunch with the Cranstons each +day, and to be invited round to dinner until their own cot was ready. +And in thus wise did traditional army hospitality vindicate itself. +There was that still unexplained<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> something hanging over Davies's head, +but as yet he knew nothing of it,—had never heard of the allegations so +vehemently, volubly laid at his door when Captain Devers had his own +portals to clear. Nor was the latter now given to faintest reference to +the matter. This at first glance may seem inconsistent, yet has its +explanation. As matters now stood there would be no further inquiry into +that wretched business. If Davies were once to know his good name had +been attacked, and that his explanation of his failure to reach his men +or give notice of their plight had been aspersed, somebody might put him +up to demanding a court of inquiry. Devers had even concluded it a +diplomatic move to treat the lieutenant with a courtesy hitherto +withheld. Mrs. Devers was already instructed to be particularly civil to +the bride.</p> + +<p>Another thing had Devers done, and done most diplomatically. Realizing +his own narrow escape and suspecting his unpopularity in the regiment, +though little dreaming (which of us does?) how ill he was really +regarded, the temporary battalion commander began making friends of the +mammon of unrighteousness, so to speak, and exerting himself to show his +juniors how courteous and considerate he could be in that capacity. As a +general rule it is the subaltern who makes the greatest outcry against +the disciplinary measures of his captain, or the captain who most +vehemently condemns the policy of his colonel, who proves in turn the +most inconsiderate and annoying of superiors. But Devers was +shrewd,—"wise in his generation." He knew his reign must be short at +best. He felt that he had a difficult rôle to play. He had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span> always been +an outspoken "company rights" man as opposed to the federalizing policy +of the battalion or regimental commander. He had bitterly resented in +the past any or all interference with his management of his troop, yet +had been an unsparing critic of everybody else's system, and, as we have +seen, a nimble and active opponent of anything like control on the part +of his commander. Of him it had been predicted that he would immediately +begin to "boss" the entire battalion and require his brother captains to +conform to his own ways of conducting troop affairs. He had always made +it a point to try to be cordial to other fellows' lieutenants, but was +never liked by his own. Mr. Hastings cordially hated him, but Hastings +had his peculiarities, too. As for the captains, Hay and Devers hadn't +been on speaking terms for two years. Truman could not like him, yet had +had no open rupture. Cranston and he were personally and officially +antagonistic. One and all, the officers regarded this detail under his +command as one of the most unpromising of their experience, and could +hardly contain themselves when Warren left. As for Warren, his relations +with the senior troop commander had been of the stiffest and most formal +character ever since the close of the campaign.</p> + +<p>But just as he had baffled his own commanders in the past, so now did +Devers baffle all. Far from interfering or assuming control, he did so +only when in actual command at mounted inspection or drill, and then in +the most courteous way of which he was capable. He declined to overhaul +or inspect the quarters or stables of the other troops, which, as +battalion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> commander, it was really his duty to do at least once a +month. "I have always held that the captain should not be spied upon," +he said, "and I have too much confidence in the ability and sense of +duty of you gentlemen to differ now."</p> + +<p>Hay was amazed, so was everybody up at head-quarters. Colonel Tintop +didn't know what to make of it. Cranston presently decided he had solved +the mystery, but kept his theory to himself. Truman, a little later, +arrived at a like conclusion, and was for giving it abroad, but Cranston +counselled reticence. An appeal to Truman's regimental pride was always +effective.</p> + +<p>"Never mind what's at the bottom of it all, old man. We're getting along +smoothly and swimmingly, just like a happy family. Let's keep up the +illusion and fool these fellows of the Fortieth awhile longer," said he, +and Truman promised. But these fellows of the Fortieth were not so +easily fooled. They had been on the campaign and knew a thing or two +themselves, and as Devers and the adjutant speedily locked horns again +and Devers said some unjustifiable things, the infantry retorted, and +the infantry weapon had a longer range. It was the very day of Davies's +arrival with his bride that this smouldering fire burst forth. Devers +was in the adjutant's office snarling about the neglect of the post +quartermaster to pay any attention to his requisitions. Now, it was an +aide-de-camp and a cavalry officer who had been sent to the scene of the +affair at Antelope Springs to compare the situation there with Devers's +description and rough sketch, and a cavalry officer who had written what +was practically<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> a vindication of Devers's course. Stung by the language +of the captain, the adjutant, himself a veteran soldier of years of war +service such as Devers had never rendered, looked up from his desk and +sharply asked what was Devers's complaint at the expense of his +regimental comrade,—the quartermaster.</p> + +<p>"What I mean," said Devers, "is simply this: that just so long as we +have to appeal to an infantry staff officer I can never get my stables +whitewashed."</p> + +<p>"We-l-l," said Mr. Leonard, looking his man squarely in the eye, "I am +inclined to think that the cavalry staff officer is sometimes given to +too much 'whitewashing,' and if an infantryman had been sent instead of +a cavalryman the most discreditable affair of the late campaign would +not have been, as it was, whitewashed entirely."</p> + +<p>"If somebody had whitewashed old Differs's face he couldn't have turned +a sicker shade," said Tommy Dot, the only other infantryman present at +the moment. Cranston was there, so was Devers's own lieutenant, Mr. +Hastings, and the thing couldn't be overlooked. The adjutant was as big +and powerful a man as Devers, more so if anything, and his black eyes +were snapping like coals, and his mouth was rigid as the jaws of a +steel-trap as he rose and squarely confronted the irate captain, and +Devers knew and knew well that more than his match was there before him.</p> + +<p>"This is something you'll have to answer for, Mr. Leonard," said he, in +tones that trembled, despite every effort at self-control. "You are +witness to the language, Captain Cranston, Mr. Hastings."</p> + +<p>"The language will be publicly repeated, sir," said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span> Leonard, "if you +desire more witnesses." But by this time the colonel at his desk in the +adjoining room seemed to catch a whiff of the impending crisis, and +could be heard calling his adjutant. "I'll return in a moment, sir," +said Leonard, and he did, but when he returned Devers was gone.</p> + +<p>And now the questions were, what will Devers do about it? and what will +Davies say when he hears what Devers has done? There could be no fight, +except on paper, for that was Devers's only field. He had gone forth in +evident wrath and excitement, bidding Cranston and Hastings to follow. +Hastings as his subaltern went without a word. Cranston said he had come +to transact certain business and would follow when that was done. Devers +was tramping up and down in front of his quarters; Hastings, with +embarrassed mien and moody face, leaning, his hands in his pockets, +against the fence.</p> + +<p>"What do you think of that as an insult to the cavalry?" asked Devers of +his junior, as Cranston with his usual deliberation came finally to the +spot.</p> + +<p>"I think it provoked, sir, by your slur on the infantry."</p> + +<p>"I merely generalized," answered Devers. "He insulted both Archer and +me." Archer, by the way, was the aide-de-camp in question.</p> + +<p>"Well, then I presume Archer and you can settle it," said Cranston, +coolly.</p> + +<p>"It's evident your sympathy for your patient has blinded your sense of +justice to—to the rest of the regiment. I looked for more loyalty from +you, Cranston."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It is my loyalty to the regiment and my sense of justice that refuse to +be blinded by you, Devers. I cannot reconcile Mr. Davies's story with +your report, and I do not see how Archer could, if indeed he ever saw +Davies's story or heard of it."</p> + +<p>"Captain Cranston, your <i>protégé</i> may thank heaven that I haven't yet +preferred charges against him for that affair," said Devers, white with +passion.</p> + +<p>"It has always been my belief, Captain Devers, that charges should have +been preferred, and the sooner that it is done the sooner will Davies be +cleared. I presume that you can want nothing further of me." And +Cranston walked calmly on.</p> + +<p>And that evening the bride arrived. "The Parson's" classmates drove over +to the railway to meet the happy pair and escort them to the post. The +ladies, one and all, had done their best to brighten up the absent +Boynton's quarters so as to make a fitting habitation for the new-comers +to their ranks. The officers had passed the word, as was the expression, +to keep from Davies, for the present at least, all mention of these +affairs in which his name was involved. Somebody at division +head-quarters must have had an eye on the situation, for there came a +letter from a trusted aide of the lieutenant-general to old "Pegleg" +reminding him of the gratitude we all owed the young man's noble father, +and bidding him lend a helping hand to Davies, and see that his life +wasn't made a burden to him by his troop commander. The general +evidently knew of Devers's idiosyncrasies, but Mrs. Devers herself came +early to join the circle of helping hands, and announced that she would +be there to welcome<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> the bride to her temporary nest; and she was there +in the crisp, cold starlight when the ambulance with its spanking team +drove briskly into the big quadrangle, and in warm furs and happy +blushes and half-shy delight, a very pretty girl was lifted from the +dark interior and presented to the little knot of hospitable friends +awaiting her coming.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2> + + +<p>Within the week of their arrival, thanks to the energetic movements of +Mr. Davies, the new couple were established in Number 12, the outermost +of the long row of officers' quarters, the one nearest the open prairie +and farthest from the official and social centre of the post, but the +best they could hope for on the rank of a junior lieutenant in a crowded +garrison. Even this roost was not to be entirely their own, for Acting +Assistant Surgeon Burroughs occupied the rear room aloft, and had he +chosen to fight for his rights, would probably have been accorded the +entire floor, but like everybody else he was eager to make everything +pleasant for the bride. Davies had expected no such luck, and had duly +explained to her that a combined dining-, sitting-, and bedroom, and an +out-door kitchen was absolutely all that they could expect, and more +than they were really entitled to. But Almira had enthusiastically +declared, as she had written, that even an Indian lodge in some vast +wilderness she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> would rather share with her Percy than a palace with a +prince royal. That there was a halo of romance about this marriage was +something everybody in the Fortieth had heard and many in the Eleventh +believed. All manner of theories and not a few stories had been put in +circulation, and no end of questions propounded of Captain Cranston's +household—who were believed to know all the facts—and not a few of the +fair bride herself, who showed no unreadiness to enter into particulars, +but had evidently been cautioned to curb her confidences. Taking a leaf +from the journalism of the day, let us congratulate the reader on having +now laid before him or her the first and only authentic record of the +facts in the case,—let us proudly await the commendation due their +herald.</p> + +<p>It was no part of Percy Davies's plan when he left the roof of his +devoted nurses at Cameron to return to the regiment within two months a +married man, but other forces had been at work. A halo of heroism had +been thrown about his head by the events of the summer. The papers of +his State had made much of his prompt and soldierly tender of service. +It was before the day of illustrated daily journalism, or his picture +might have appeared in several papers, all, presumably, copies from the +same photograph, and no two of them recognizably alike. According to +local predictions he was on the high-road to fame, rank, and promotion, +and Almira's romance was redoubled, and her importance in the community, +in her own eyes at least, immeasurably enhanced. One paper indeed had +referred poetically to the lovely bride from whose entwining arms at the +call of duty the heroic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> youth had torn himself, and the pen-picture +drawn of Almira was as flattering as the wood-cut might have been +frightful. Then something occurred that turned her head as nothing had +before. Who should write to her but rich Aunt Almira, her own dear dead +mother's long-talked-of sister, now the wife of the great railway +magnate, and Aunt Almira urged her niece to come and visit her, and +Almira went, as pretty a village maid as ever set foot in a Pullman car; +but Aunt Almira looked aghast at the rural cut of her garments, even +though she gasped with envy over her complexion. She drove her lovely +niece forthwith to a great mart where all manner of feminine wear was in +readiness for immediate donning, and Almira was in a heaven of bliss and +her aunt in corresponding spell of complacency over the improvement +instantly effected. This, however, was only a temporary arrangement. To +her own milliner, mantua-makers and modistes, and what not, the happy, +blushing girl was next transported, and Urbana looked upon her with envy +and delight when at the close of that changeful moon she was restored to +friends and fireside. Aunt Almira had given her niece a party, to which +came famous officers of the army, stationed in the city, to say nice +things to her about her hero lieutenant and honeyed words about herself. +There was a reception at which three cavaliers appeared in blue and +gold, with medals on their broad chests, great braids and loops of +glittering cord pendent from their armored shoulders. (Percy at that +time, in the rags of his first uniform and a shocking bad hat and the +wreck of a pair of soldier boots, cold and wet, faint and starving, was +staggering through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> the Bad Lands, dragging his skeleton horse behind +him.) A great military band was playing thrilling waltz music, and a +young lieutenant-colonel swung her twice around the whirling parlor and +helped her to champagne and praised her waltzing, which he declared +perfect,—and indeed she had enjoyed excellent teaching, but, alas! at +the hands of Powlett, not Percy, who would not dance at all. Yes, the +aide-de-camp helped her to champagne and more flattery. There was a +military wedding in a great cathedral church one evening where some of +Percy's classmates in glittering uniforms served as ushers and crowded +about her to talk of "Dad," as they called him, and to dance with her +and marvel among themselves later at her beauty, her unsophistication, +and at her being his choice. She went back to Urbana at the end of the +month, believing army life to be one long round of balls, parties, +music, dancing, champagne,—army men heroic gallants in gorgeous attire +who danced divinely and said the sweetest things ever whispered into +dainty ears. She went back with Aunt Almira's promise to provide still +more raiment for her <i>trousseau</i>, and finally with Aunt Almira's tearful +tale that her heart, too, was with the Eleventh, wherein her own beloved +boy, her idolized black sheep, was a trooper serving his country on a +private's pay and under the name of Brannan; and then, with a start, +Almira bethought her of certain wild, raving letters that she had left +hidden at home,—letters she had never spoken of to anybody,—letters +that had come to her from time to time in the spring and early summer +and then suddenly ceased, as Percy's had, entirely, for there were long +weeks that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> battle year when the field column was cut off from all +communication with friends and home, and these letters, too, had told of +Brannan,—told things she would not, could not tell Aunt Almira,—could +not indeed tell anybody, for her letters, though signed Bertie, were +written by another trooper, whose address was Howard.</p> + +<p>After such joys under Aunt Almira's roof, life at home became +insupportable. Mrs. Quimby said it was Almira herself, not the life. +Clash followed clash; there came sneers, tears, squabbles, rows, and at +last practical banishment. Old Quimby could stand it no longer. Almira +went to live with her prospective mother-in-law, who was not sorry, and +who, hearing for weeks only her side of the story, believed all she said +about home troubles and their inciting cause. She could not hear enough +about Percy, and so who so welcome as Almira, who never tired of the +topic, or of the telling of the officers she had met and all they had +said of him and of his spirited conduct. Even a great general, she said, +had been presented, and before all the company had drawn her to his +broad-sashed, button-studded bosom and kissed her mantling cheek, as was +his way with every pretty girl he met,—Almira did not mention that. And +then these two women, invalid mother and impatient daughter-in-law +elect, were drawn closely together by tidings of Percy's illness, +Percy's careful nursing, etc., then of Percy's slow convalescence. They +could not go to him, because Mrs. Davies was far too feeble. Almira +raved about going,—wanted to go,—wept, implored, and ranted, but her +father was implacable and Mrs. Davies opposed. The latter was sure +everything was being done that could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span> be done and she needed Almira. But +from the very first Almira was suspicious of Mrs. Cranston and Miss +Loomis, jealous of their attention, fearful of their influence. Percy, +she cried, not she, would prove faithless. She would gladly, willingly, +eagerly fly to his side, nurse him night and day, dwell with him in +bliss and a wigwam if need be; but he—he was cold—he was changing—he +would prove faithless to his humble, adoring village maid, and then +there would be nothing left for her but despair. Then as his +convalescence progressed she became insistent and Mrs. Davies weaker. +Almira poured forth her plaint to her aunt by letter. Aunt Almira gave +another dinner, to which some of the staff were bidden, and a mellow +symposium it was, and over the oft-replenished champagne glasses did the +kindly woman tell of Mrs. Davies's craving to see her boy once more, and +how the boy would ask no favors, though her husband, the magnate, +offered to send to the lieutenant passes all the way from Cheyenne. Two +Almiras prevailed, and the last month of the mother's life was blessed +and gladdened by the presence of her devoted son. Almost the last +promise asked of him was that there should be no delay in the marriage +of her dear children, as she called them, though the poor soul had many +a misgiving now as to whether Almira, after all, would prove a worthy +helpmate for her earnest, duteous son. Indeed, she at one time had +thought to ask that they might be united before her eyes, but Almira's +wedding garment wasn't ready, and Almira, who had urged all speed, was +not prepared for speed so great as that. She, too, secretly nourished +the idea of a military wedding and a big<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span> church. Davies never meant to +retreat from his obligation, but he had hoped to make the girl fully +understand what was before her,—what army life and its duties were +really like,—but his every effort to talk with her gravely and +earnestly met with reproach and tears. She didn't care what it was, all +she asked was to share his lot, no matter how poor, how humble. It was +he who, after for years making her love him so, was now doubting and +distrusting her. She knew how it would be when those other women, +instead of her, had been chosen to nurse and care for him. They had +usurped her place. They had undermined her. That—that Miss Loomis whom +he was holding up as a model to her—all this time! He'd break her +heart, and she'd just go—anywhere except home—and die. She had no +home. She had given up everybody—everything for him, and now he was +tiring of her. Well, it was pretty trying, but Davies strove to explain +and to undeceive. He didn't take her in his arms and kiss away her tears +as he ought to have done, and plead and pet and soothe as she planned he +should do, poor child. It wasn't his way. He strove to appeal to her +judgment and to her common sense, but could not reach them. And then +came to him the great sorrow of his mother's death, peaceful, placid, +hopeful though it was,—and then when she was laid away and he faced the +world again, he found that there were outstanding claims against the +homestead of which, through motives of kindness, both his mother and +himself had been kept in ignorance during her life. Unless he could pay +regularly the interest on a large sum the old place his father loved +must go. It had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> ever been Percy's plan to hold it, and in the fulness +of time to return perhaps to take his father's place in the church, at +any rate to strive to do so in the community. He had planned to lease it +until he and Almira should be ready to go to housekeeping there if she +remained faithful all these years, but now only by pinching could he +hope to save it at all.</p> + +<p>And this he explained, but it made no difference. She would help him +pinch and save and starve if need be. They could live on a crust, and +she could cook and bake and darn and sew and sweep for him. The one +thing she could no longer do was wait, for people were pestering to know +when she was to be married, and some girls had openly hinted that Percy +Davies had changed his mind. Then came the naming of the day, and, as he +was in deep mourning, to her bitter disappointment he said their wedding +must be very simple and quiet,—just a few friends present as witnesses. +She had projected on a smaller scale an imitation of the swell affair +she had seen in the fall, but Percy wouldn't even have a best man. Then +he told her gravely that as they must live so quietly he thought her +aunt should not lay out money on party and dinner dresses and expensive +trifles. Almira should dress very simply as became a poor soldier's +wife, and as he was in deep mourning, and they could not go to dances or +dinners or anything of the kind, that she should so notify her, but +Almira could not thwart her aunt, and Percy's brow darkened when the +trunks arrived. "I fear she looks in return for all this for various +things which I cannot possibly do for her son," said he. He had not seen +the boy for months, and did not know how<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> he might be withstanding the +temptations surrounding garrison life after long months of enforced +abstinence in the field.</p> + +<p>In the days of Davies's convalescence Cranston had told him of Mrs. +Barnard's call and of Brannan's story, and rejoiced that Brannan was +Miss Loomis's patient on the train, and that all through the campaign +the boy had borne himself well, and all this you may be sure did +Cranston write to Mrs. Barnard, and most gratefully was it all +acknowledged. She urged that as soon as possible now her son should be +transferred to Cranston's troop as a surer and simpler path to his +commission. After meeting and knowing the military gentlemen at +home,—people in whom she had taken no interest whatever until her +wayward son had taken to the army,—she had begun to picture him in a +staff uniform and on duty with the general at home, and, motherlike, was +eager to speed the consummation. And then Cranston's next letter told +her that her boy's best friend and adviser, Lieutenant Davies, was from +Urbana, and then very soon came the story of his engagement to Almira +Quimby, her own niece. It was then that Almira was sent for and became +Queen Paramount, for when do mothers cease to plan for wayward sons?</p> + +<p>And now the bride was actually there in the army. The ladies had +gathered to welcome her. The band had seranaded her the night of her +arrival. The colonel and his wife, captains and lieutenants by the +dozen, came to call, most of them with their better halves, some of the +latter refined, high-bred, cultured women, some simple-mannered, +warm-hearted army<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> girls who knew no home but the regiment, no life but +that on the plains. Some vapid, frivolous, and would-be fashionable, but +all full of kindly motive. She could have had luncheons, dinners, and +parties in her honor, and secretly moaned that it could not be, but Mr. +Davies's deep mourning prohibited. She had dined <i>en famille</i> and in +deep constraint at the Cranstons the evening after her coming, and not +all Mrs. Cranston's cheery, chatty, cordial way, or Miss Loomis's +courtesy and tact, could put poor Almira at her ease. She was set +against them from the start, and it made the feast an ordeal which both +Cranston and Davies would gladly have eliminated from memory could they +do so. The latter had never yet spoken reprovingly to his wife, but this +night he felt that something must be said. Just in proportion as her +manner to her hostess had been unresponsive and cold so had her +assumption of little wifely airs and proprietorship been comical. She +seemed bent on extracting from Percy public and frequent demonstration +of his lover-like side, and her appeals and endearments had furiously +embarrassed him. They went home early, met callers at their own door, +and were kept up late. That Mrs. Cranston should have turned and looked +inquiringly into Agatha Loomis's face the instant the door closed upon +them was to be expected. Her eyes were sparkling, her lips twitching +with the mental ebullition going on within; but Agatha turned abruptly +away. Mrs. Cranston then sought to search her husband's face, but the +captain was forearmed and chose to keep his back towards his better half +and to pull on his arctics and overcoat and gather up his little +hurricane lamp. The trumpet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span> was sounding first call for tattoo, and +though it was no concern of his, for Mr. Sanders, his cheery subaltern, +had just gone whistling by on his way to the troop quarters, Cranston +preferred to face the falling snow rather than those speaking, luminous, +quizzical, questioning, tormenting eyes, and so invented business for +the occasion. "Don't sit up for me, Meg," said he, and she knew he +simply would not be drawn into a discussion.</p> + +<p>But she had to talk to somebody, and what was Agatha for? Agatha had +palpably dodged and gone to her room, and would have been glad not to +come down again. She even went into the boys' room and romped with her +two young trooper cousins instead of allowing them to go to sleep. So up +came Mrs. Cranston and ordered her out, and then, when the girl would +have escaped and gone down-stairs again, Margaret confronted her in the +hall, placed her hands on her shoulders, and with a world of mingled +merriment and commiseration in her tone said, or rather asked,—</p> + +<p>"Well?"</p> + +<p>"Well what?"</p> + +<p>"What do you think now?"</p> + +<p>"Simply what I have maintained all along. That he did right."</p> + +<p>"But what do you think of—of her?"</p> + +<p>And Miss Loomis, shaking herself free, hurried by her friend and down +the stairs. She refused to say.</p> + +<p>Perhaps it might have been better had Mr. Davies postponed his first +marital lecture. It was very gentle, very brief, but Almira had seen his +vexation as they hastened home and had striven to avert the coming<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> +comments. She well knew wherein she had erred. Public endearments of any +kind by word or touch had already been pointed out to her as +unconventional in society. There were no people on the post in whose +presence he more dreaded such demonstration than the two ladies of +Cranston's household. There were no people in the world in whose +presence she was more bent upon making display of her possession. He had +interdicted the gown she longed to wear and indicated a simple black +silk. In this point she had to yield, but she had conquered on the +other, and now when he gravely reminded her of his caution, she declared +she thought these people were his intimate friends, his confidants,—not +mere society people,—and—of course—if he was ashamed to have them +see—how dear he was to her——Oh, but why go on with the rest? Sobs and +tears and swollen eyelids and sore lamentation, and pleas to be taken +home again if this was to be the beginning of their married life. Davies +knelt alone that night, and his prayer for guidance and strength came +from the depths of an anxious heart.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2> + + +<p>One of the first inquiries made by Mr. Davies was for Trooper Brannan. +"He is with the detachment up at the reservation," said Mr. Hastings. +"That's our Botany Bay. That's where Differs ships his bad eggs. Not +that Brannan was a bad egg, but that Differs so regarded him."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Had he been drinking or in any trouble?"</p> + +<p>"Well, not exactly trouble," said Hastings. "He didn't get along with +one or two of the sergeants. They made frequent complaint of his 'lip,' +and the old man seemed suspicious of him." Only one new hand or recruit +had been selected to go to the agency with Boynton's detachment, and +that was Brannan. He was sent to replace Fogarty, who broke his leg, +just about the time the other troops came. When Davies reported to his +troop and battalion commander for duty, Captain Differs received him +with much grave dignity,—with a certain air in which majestic courtesy +was mingled with that of forgiveness for injuries received, as though he +would say, "Let by-gones be by-gones. We'll make a fresh start, and in +consideration of your ills, inexperience, and the like, I'll try to +overlook your shortcomings in the field." Davies had never set eyes on +him from the moment of their parting at dusk that gloomy Dakota evening +to the northwest of the Springs,—from that evening to that of his +return. Totally ignorant of much that had taken place during his +illness, he was ready to serve his captain faithfully, even though he +felt that he could not like or trust him. They had but brief converse. +"Take all the time you need to get your quarters ready, Mr. Davies. You +and Hastings can divide the detail work of stables and roll-call between +you," said Devers. "Just remember we've got an infantry adjutant here +who's only too anxious to find fault and stir up trouble between us and +the post commander."</p> + +<p>Going into the troop office the day after his return, Davies was +surprised to see a dark-eyed, dark-haired,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> rather handsome young +soldier at the clerk's desk. He recognized him as one of the recruits +whom he had brought out in July, but of whom he had seen very little +during the campaign.</p> + +<p>"That's our new company clerk," said Hastings. "One of Differs's latest +pets. There are better clerks and better men in the troop. He relieved a +better man when he sent Moran up to the agency. But what Devers is +driving at is past finding out. There's been a total shaking up since +that—well, since the campaign."</p> + +<p>And that this was true Davies could see for himself. Never having known +the troop, except in the field on the worst of campaigns, it took him a +few days to become accustomed to the change. Some of the most prominent +of the troop sergeants were still on duty with it, but in their +spick-and-span uniforms and clean-shaven cheeks and chins he found them +greatly altered. The first sergeant was the same, and the relationship +between him and the captain seemed closer than ever. Haney recognized no +middleman in his dealings with the troop commander, and had long been +allowed to consider himself as of far more importance than a junior +lieutenant, a theory in which, perhaps, there was much to sustain him. +The manner of this magnate to the two subalterns, therefore, was just a +trifle independent. Two veteran corporals had stepped up to an +additional stripe vice Daly killed and McGrath missing in September. +Some new corporals had been "made." None of those whom Davies best knew +and most noticed during the summer were among them. He missed two or +three of the old hands and asked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span> for them. Sergeant Lutz had gone to +the agency. Corporal O'Brien had been reduced for a spree on the +home-coming and was serving as private in Boynton's detachment, and +Privates Sercomb and Riley were up there, too. The resultant vacancies +in the troop had been filled by raw recruits who were being +energetically licked into shape.</p> + +<p>When Cranston was asked why he supposed it had pleased Captain Devers to +send a recruit like Brannan up to the bleak and unwholesome life at the +agency, Cranston replied by saying, "Differs said it was to keep him out +of harm's way. Up there he couldn't get liquor, down here he could." +When Davies asked if Brannan had shown a disposition to drink since +getting back from the campaign, Cranston again used Devers's authority. +"Differs said he had,—two or three times." But when Cranston wrote to +Boynton, Boynton replied that young Brannan declared that he had been +totally abstemious since the day after they reached the post. The day of +their coming in, he arrived half frozen and all tired out, as he had +been kept back on wagon guard, and he was offered liquor by Sergeant +Haney himself, and drank several times, and was wretchedly ill all the +next day as a consequence,—so ill that it frightened him, and he swore +off more solemnly than before. Hastings said, in fact, that there was a +set in "A" troop, a clique that "stood in" with the first sergeant and +some of his favorites, and that no man outside of it could hope for +recognition and no one in it fear punishment. Brannan was not in it.</p> + +<p>It was a Wednesday night, as has been said, that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> Davies arrived, and +not until the following Wednesday could they be installed in their +quarters, which were being simply but prettily furnished. Private +Barnickel had assumed the duties of striker, and Mrs. Maloney's +strapping daughter Katty was now presiding in Boynton's kitchen as cook +and maid-of-all-work. A tenant had been found for the old house at home, +who was to pay a certain rental to Squire Quimby, which sum was to be +supplemented by a monthly payment from his son-in-law's scanty purse. +"We must live very simply and economically, my wife," said Davies. "At +the very least it will take me two whole years to pay principal and +interest and set us foot free; but we have few other debts. We can be +warm and comfortable. You have all the clothing you will be apt to need +for a good while, and I will get along with what I have." And Mira had +received the suggestion with all wifely grace. They went to chapel +together that first crisp, sunshiny, wintry Sunday, and all Fort +Scott—at least all that happened to be there assembled—remarked on +Almira's rich color—and furs—and on Davies's reverent manner. He was +the only man in the little congregation who actually knelt. The old +chaplain rejoiced that afternoon when the tall lieutenant came in at +Sunday-school, and, taking immediate charge of the most turbulent of his +classes,—the big boys,—held them both interested and respectful until +the close of the session. Almira came too, and made an impression on the +juvenile minds of some of the laundresses' children, who studied her +pretty face and new hat and garments with close attention; but it gave +her a headache<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> and she would rather not go to the evening service, she +said,—a service held more especially for the benefit of the soldiers +and their families, and but sparsely attended otherwise. Davies went, +however, and when he came home to their temporary quarters, found +Almira, all animation, chatting with Mrs. Flight and Mrs. Darling, to +whom she had been showing the contents of her big trunk. They were +called for presently by Mr. Sanders and his classmate Jervis, both of +whom had known the "Parson" in his cadet days, but from the somewhat +immeasurable altitude of a two years' start, yet they were the younger +looking now, gay, debonair bachelors, pillars of the social gatherings +at the post and most delightful partners, and, having completed their +duties with tattoo roll-call, they were now in search of these reigning +belles and an opportunity to talk over the hop projected for the coming +Wednesday night. Of course Mrs. Davies would come, said Jervis, but +Sanders's warning kick brought him to consciousness. "At least I +hope—we all hope you'll very soon be able to attend our parties, Mrs. +Davies. I suppose you've reformed the Parson and taught him to waltz." +Mira looked at her husband, and she knew not just what to say.</p> + +<p>Davies smiled gravely and said no, he feared that he was too old and +awkward to learn even at the Point, but that Mrs. Davies was very fond +of dancing, and by and by, perhaps, they would attend. Then the chat +flowed merrily on, of the lovely time that they had all enjoyed,—that +is, the garrison people had enjoyed all summer, and the pleasant +associations they had formed with the gentlemen from town, and how much +lovelier<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span> it would be now. And while they were talking, through the thin +partition which separated Mr. Boynton's official and personal quarters +from those of Lieutenant and Adjutant Leonard there came the sound of +sacred music,—Mrs. Leonard at her piano, her clear, true voice blending +with the deep resonant bass of her soldier husband and the sweet treble +of the children, and Davies stopped to listen. It was a hymn his father +loved, one they often sang at the old church at home,—</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Son of my soul, Thou Saviour dear."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>It brought sweet and sacred memories. It spoke of home and holy +influences, of mother love and father's blessing and children's hope and +faith. It filled his heart with reverence and his eyes with tears. The +babble and chat for an instant were silenced, and then Mrs. Darling +spoke.</p> + +<p>"The worst of these army quarters is that you can hear just what's going +on next door; but," she added, cheerfully, "you'll soon be where you +won't be bothered on one side, at least."</p> + +<p>Sanders gave a queer, quick glance at the speaker and then at Davies. +Jervis plunged into an immediate rhapsody on the subject of Mrs. +Leonard's children, whom he declared to be the best little beggars he +ever knew, unless it was Cranston's. "Of course," he added, +diplomatically, "I can safely praise them in your presence, ladies, as +you have none of your own."</p> + +<p>Then conversation languished, for Davies was silent and Mrs. Davies +uninspired. The visitors left and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> went laughing down the row, their gay +voices ringing in the frosty air.</p> + +<p>"How long had they been here, dear?" asked Davies as he returned to the +fireside.</p> + +<p>"The ladies? Oh, I don't know. Quite a little while. They were so +interested in everything,—so friendly. I quite forgot my headache while +they were here. Now it seems to be coming on again, and if you don't +mind I think I won't sit up,—unless somebody else is coming."</p> + +<p>"There will hardly be any more callers to-night," he answered, gravely. +"If your head aches you might be better for going early to bed, and I +will sit here and read awhile."</p> + +<p>But the wandering thoughts refused to be chained to the page before him. +His heart was full and vaguely troubled. "I shall be better for a turn +in the cold air," he thought, and so, throwing his cape over his +shoulders, he quietly left the house.</p> + +<p>It was just after ten, a still, sparkling winter's night. Across the +snowy level of the parade the long rows of wooden barracks lay dark and +silent, no lights burning except in the window of some company office or +first sergeant's room. Those were the days of "early to bed and early to +rise," and every man was supposed to be sleeping by ten so as to be up +and doing stable duty—or nothing—at dawn. Officers and ladies, the +privileged class of the army, made their own regulations as to domestic +hours of retiring. The enlisted man slept or was supposed to sleep "by +order." Mr. Davies, finding it essential to his comfort to sally forth +and imbibe free air, had no one to say him nay,—Mrs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span> Davies having +retired,—and might wander the live-long night about the post at will. +Trooper Blaney or Private Rentz, on the contrary, might toss for hours +on sleepless pillow, and could only grin and bear it. It meant so many +dollars "blind," or such other punishment as a court-martial might +inflict to a soldier caught out of barracks after the sound of the +signal to extinguish lights.</p> + +<p>Already, in the quarters of his next-door neighbor, the adjutant, the +parlor was darkened, and except for the studious head of the family, now +poring over some precious volume in the privacy of his den, the +household had gone aloft. Davies paused a moment, irresolute. To his +right the walk extended only a short distance. There were but two more +houses. To his left lay the main length of the line,—the colonel's, the +surgeon's, the cavalry commander's, and most of the captains'. +Cranston's roof, however, was one of the two to the right, and thither +Davies turned. Dim lights were burning in the little army parlor, as he +could see through the half-drawn curtain. A shadow flitted across the +dormer window above him,—Mrs. Cranston's. The other windows in the +upper floor were dark. He wanted to go in and commune with Cranston, the +man of all others whom he most liked, but he shrank from ringing their +bell at so late an hour. Elsewhere along the row many a window was +brilliantly illuminated and the social life of the post seemed in full +flow. The Cranstons were home-keeping folk as a rule, "not at all +sociable," said some of the dames of the Fortieth, and yet they were +highly regarded throughout the garrison.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p> + +<p>Except for a mere bow, as they were going to morning service, he had not +met Mrs. Cranston or Miss Loomis since the dinner of Thursday +evening,—the evening of Almira's provincial display of endearments, for +between Katty and Striker Barnickel they had been enabled to breakfast +at Boynton's quarters, and had lunched and dined elsewhere among the +many hospitably disposed throughout the garrison. Davies wanted to see +and talk with the captain, but to-night he shrank unaccountably from +meeting either of the ladies. It is under such circumstances that many a +man finds Fate unkind. Even as he stood there the hall door flew open +and a bright beam from the astral lamp within shot athwart the road. A +blithe voice called back in answer to some presumable remonstrance. +"What nonsense, Margaret! I can run over there as well as not and be +back in a moment." The door closed, and muffled in her long fur-lined +cloak, Miss Loomis was at the gate. "Why! Mr. Davies!" she exclaimed in +surprise.</p> + +<p>"I was just wondering whether I might venture to ring and ask for the +captain," he hesitatingly said. "I wanted very much to see him."</p> + +<p>"Captain Cranston is out. That is how it happens that <i>I</i> am going out," +she spoke, with prompt and cheery tone. "Old Sergeant Fritz is very low +to-night, and you'll find the captain there," and she indicated the way +to the married men's quarters over to the southwest. "I have to run over +to the hospital, for Louis's cough is very troublesome, and we happened +to be entirely out of medicine."</p> + +<p>"Well, my talk with the captain can wait, Miss<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> Loomis. Let me be your +orderly for to-night. What can I get for you?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed you shall not!" she answered, with quick decision. "I'm +accustomed to doing my own errands. Good-night." And with that she +turned independently away to where the dim lights in the hospital +glimmered at the eastward.</p> + +<p>"Then your ex-patient may at least trot along as escort," said he, as +promptly placing himself by her side and, army fashion, tendering his +arm.</p> + +<p>"No, thank you," she answered, resolutely muffling her cloak about her +and rebelling against the rising impulse of vexation, "I do not need +support, and indeed, Mr. Davies, I need no escort. I'm quite accustomed +to going about the post by myself. I—I would very much rather you went +on to see Captain Cranston, as was your intention."</p> + +<p>"And I would very much rather walk with you to the hospital," he +answered, with calm decision. "Come."</p> + +<p>She had stopped as though striving to dismiss him from her side, but he +ignored her wishes entirely. His lips were curving into something very +like a smile of amusement, and it nettled her.</p> + +<p>"To be perfectly frank with you, Mr. Davies, I wish now that I had made +a reconnoissance before venturing out so boldly. If there is anything I +hate it is this idea of burdening a man with escort duty. Just as though +one needed to be guarded at every step. It is the dependence of the +thing I despise,—a dependence that is entirely forced upon us."</p> + +<p>"Well, so long as the escort is not forced upon you,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> I hope you will +not despise it. I am going with you because, as it's after taps, you may +need help in rousing the steward. He was up all last night, I'm told, +with Fritz, and may be abed now."</p> + +<p>And so her protests, not her scruples, were silenced. Down the row they +rapidly walked, under the sparkling heavens, through the keen, +exhilarating air of the wintry prairie, passing, door by door, the +quarters of the officers of the garrison, some still brightly lighted, +others dark and silent. She was talking fast and with a nervous impulse +as they hurried by the colonel's, the broad portals of whose official +residence were just then thrown open to admit another party to join the +little circle sure every evening to be surrounding Mrs. Stone, and +welcoming voices and laughter floated out on the night. The moment +before they passed the gate whence he had issued forth barely three +minutes earlier. The hall light burned low as he left it, the parlor +shades were down. Almira presumably was nursing her headache in the +sanctity of the chamber at the rear. Boynton's upper story was occupied +by a junior subaltern of the Fortieth, who was believed to sleep there +at odd hours, but was generally to be found almost anywhere else.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Davies looked so well to-day," remarked Miss Loomis. "I hope she +finds her welcome pleasant."</p> + +<p>"She is very well, except for a headache that sent her early to bed +to-night," he answered. "And her welcome from everybody has been most +kind and cordial, and from none more so than from Mrs. Cranston and +yourself. You are always adding to the obligations I am under."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I shall quarrel with you some day if you talk of obligations, Mr. +Davies. But I'm so sorry to hear of her headache," she went on, quickly, +as though to prevent argument on the point. "The chapel does get very +hot and stuffy by evening service. Ought they not to air it after +Sunday-school?"</p> + +<p>"It would be a good plan. But my wife did not go to-night. Her headache +began earlier in the day. I thought the close atmosphere of the chapel +would only increase it and so counselled her remaining home."</p> + +<p>He remembered, however, that he had counselled her going early to bed, +but found her engrossed in her volatile callers on his return. It was +all very natural. Upon spirits like Almira's, communion with such gay +and frothy natures acted like champagne. He was trying to believe he was +glad she could be so readily benefited. The houses grew darker as they +approached the east end. Even the hall lamp was extinguished at Devers's +quarters, though there were lights aloft. Devers had a storm-door, +another instance of his individuality, as even the colonel's quarters +were not so embellished. It was a perfectly still night, not a whiff of +wind astir, and yet Davies could have sworn the storm-door swung slowly +open a foot or so as they neared the gate, then suddenly shut to. What +was more, he felt that his companion had seen and noted the same +circumstance, for she drew an instant closer to his side, then as +quickly seemed to recollect herself and edged away.</p> + +<p>Davies looked back over his shoulder. So certain was he that the +storm-door had been opened and closed by some unseen hand within the +wooden casing that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> he would have turned to investigate, but for his +companion. He could not well leave her. They had now reached the east +end, right in front of the set of quarters which were so soon to be his +own. The hospital loomed up dark and massive across an open space two +hundred yards away. Only a narrow foot-path had been cleared from the +end of the sidewalk to the main entrance of the big building. He had not +thought to put on his over-shoes, and so, letting Miss Loomis lead, +Davies fell behind. Now that they were away from ear-shot of the +quarters their talk languished. Davies at least was thinking of that +mysterious door and wondering if he should not have looked into the +matter then and there. Now it was too late. If some garrison prowler +were the cause, he had doubtless by this time taken alarm and slipped +away; if Captain Devers or any of his household were the "power behind," +then it was none of Davies's business. Hurrying up the creaking, +snapping steps of the hospital, they found the office-door locked. "I +more than suspected you would need me," said Davies. "Will you wait one +moment?" He tiptoed away through the long corridor, found the drowsy +attendant in the big ward, and learned that the steward had gone to his +little home in Sudstown, but would return in five minutes. It was nearer +fifteen when he came, and meantime Miss Loomis and her escort seated +themselves in the warm corridor and chatted in low tone as befitted the +time and place. In one of the little wards a suffering soldier was +moaning, evidently in penance for recent spree, and weakly imploring +drink of a stolid nurse.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Don't make a fellow mad with misery," they heard him plead. "You know +where to get it. You know it's worse than hell to have to choke off +short."</p> + +<p>"Of course I do," was the brutal answer. "If I'd never knew it before, +I'd learned it that night on the train when you could have sent me help +and wouldn't."</p> + +<p>"My God, Paine! you asked me to steal from the captain's flask. I simply +ask for what's my own——"</p> + +<p>But the voice was suddenly hushed, for, springing to his feet, Mr. +Davies hurried to the door. "Who is this—who have you here?" he asked. +"You—you? Brannan!"</p> + +<p>And then, as a slender, graceful, womanly shape came noiselessly in and +appeared by the lieutenant's side, quivering, shaking in an agony of +shame and misery and nervousness, the lonely patient threw himself over +towards the wall, and burying his distorted face in his arms, burst into +a passion of tears, the attendant meantime slinking out into the hall.</p> + +<p>"Come back here, my man," ordered Davies, in low, stern voice, while +Miss Loomis, without one instant of hesitation, threw off her cloak, +drew a chair to the bedside, and laid her soft white hand upon the +tumbled head of the wretched boy. Unwillingly, sullenly, the man obeyed.</p> + +<p>"You are Paine, of 'A' troop, are you not?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. And the captain's orders and the doctor's were that he +shouldn't have a drop."</p> + +<p>"Never mind that. When did he get here? How did he come?"</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 322px;"> +<img src="images/illus189-1.jpg" width="322" height="500" alt=""COME BACK HERE, MY MAN." + +Page 180." title="" /> +<span class="caption">"COME BACK HERE, MY MAN." + +Page 180.</span> +</div> + +<p>"With the mail-carrier this morning, from the agency, sir, and he'd been +drinking on the way and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> got to going harder as soon as he reached the +post. The captain ordered him confined and the doctor sent him here. But +my orders was——"</p> + +<p>"Never mind your orders. What I want to know is, who detailed you, and +when were you detailed for hospital duty?"</p> + +<p>"The captain sent me over, sir, after Brannan was taken in, and he's +been begging like that for a drink for an hour back."</p> + +<p>Meantime, with great sobs shaking his form, Brannan lay there saying no +articulate word. Miss Loomis gently drew an arm from underneath his +head. "Let me have your wrist, Brannan," she gently said. "You know your +old nurse of last summer, don't you?" And in another moment her +practised touch was on the sufferer's pulse. In silence Davies awaited +the result. Her eyes filled with grave anxiety as she counted the feeble +fluttering,—a mere shadow of the vigorous throb of a soldier's heart. +"This man ought not to be here—neglected," she murmured to Davies. +Then, rising, she turned to the attendant. "Go at once to Dr. Burroughs +and say that Miss Loomis asks him to come here as quick as he can."</p> + +<p>And Private Paine concluded it best to go without further words. The +steward, returning to his post, was met at the steps by the young +contract surgeon coming over from his corner on the run. A moment more +and the two stood in presence of the sufferer and of his nurse. She +smiled kindly upon the new-comers. "I sent for you, doctor, because I +knew you had not been informed of Brannan's state. His pulse——" and +here she lowered her voice so that only Burroughs and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> Davies could +hear,—"is so thin and wiry as to be almost gone. My father would say he +needed stimulant at once, and treatment later. See for yourself."</p> + +<p>And the daughter of the well-known and beloved old army surgeon knew her +ground and never faltered. Burroughs made brief examination and no +remonstrance. In another minute the steward was administering brandy and +water in a tablespoon while, anxious to re-establish himself, the young +doctor was explaining. "I had no previous knowledge of the case," he +stammered. "Captain Devers told me of the man's arrival and downfall, +and I ordered him into hospital at his request, and,—yes,—I did say no +stimulants of any kind. The captain so urged, and of course that would +be the customary mode of treatment in most cases, but in a case like +this, of course, had I been aware——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, certainly," she interposed, with the same gracious smile and +manner. "It was because I knew you hadn't been made aware. Now we'll +soon be able to make him comfortable, and then when he's on his feet +again he can tell us how it all happened." Again her white hand was laid +upon the haggard forehead. "Courage, Brannan. Don't worry. We'll get you +to sleep presently. Now, doctor, I want to send some medicine and a note +to Mrs. Cranston. With your permission I mean to stay here a while."</p> + +<p>"I will be your messenger, Miss Loomis," said Davies, "as the attendant +doesn't seem to have returned, and then I can let Mrs. Davies know that +I shall come here again, myself."</p> + +<p>As he sped along the row, note and medicine phial<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> in hand, Davies was +surprised to see his captain's storm-door wide open and a light shining +through the transom within. A light was moving through the parlor, too, +but Davies paid no further heed, left the note and medicine in Mrs. +Cranston's hands with brief explanatory word, then hurried back to +Boynton's quarters. He had turned down the light when he went out for +his walk and had left his wife in the darkness of her room, trying, +presumably, to go to sleep. He found the lights turned on again, and +Almira, a heavy shawl bundled about her shoulders, sitting with white, +scared face, trembling and twitching, at the big coal base-burner in +what was called the parlor.</p> + +<p>"Why, Mira!" he cried. "What has happened? Are you ill?" And he bent +over as though to fold her in his arms, but she shrank away.</p> + +<p>"Don't!" she cried. "I was frightened. You—you were gone so long. I +thought you'd never come back." Then to his utter amaze she burst into a +wild fit of hysterical weeping. "Oh, take me away,—take me away from +this dreadful place, or I shall die,—I shall die!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2> + + +<p>Mr. Davies was very late in returning to the hospital that night. For +nearly half an hour Almira sobbed and shivered and refused to be +comforted, and yet failed to explain. To his urgent plea to be told the +cause of her fright and distress she could give no intelligible reply. +"Oh, I don't know. I heard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> noises, or voices, or something. I was +all—all unstrung, I suppose. You—you talked to me so strangely, so +cruelly the other night, and I've—I've been thinking of it all day—all +day, and when you went away—and didn't come back, I—I thought all +sorts of things. I supposed you'd gone there, you know where,—to those +women,—those women who despise me and show it." It brought on fresh +moans and tragic wringing of hands, and new outpouring of salty tears +when he presently told her where he had been, but she would not listen +to the cause of his detention at the hospital. It was more than enough +that he had been out walking with her,—with <i>her</i>, in the dead of +night. That seemed the only fact she cared to grasp, and that she +crooned over with bitter wailing until his patience was exhausted.</p> + +<p>"This is childish and absurd!" he said. "It is unworthy of you, my wife, +and unjust to Miss Loomis as well as unjust to me. It is not possible +that this has caused all your terror and distress. What noises—what +sounds did you hear?"</p> + +<p>But these now she had forgotten. In the light of his confession, as she +termed it, all other calamities had faded into naught. He gradually +calmed her sufficiently to induce her to return to bed, but when he +announced that he must go again to the hospital to see how Brannan was +getting on, her lamentations were piteous. In vain he reminded her that +Brannan was her own cousin, the only son of her aunt and benefactress. +She would listen to none of it. Brannan was only an excuse to enable him +again to go and meet Miss Loomis, and finally, with white face and set, +rigid<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> lips, Davies turned and left the house, walking rapidly to the +hospital.</p> + +<p>Miss Loom is still bent over the patient, who seemed now dozing. Dr. +Burroughs sat beside her at the moment, but had been away, he explained, +to see old Fritz again. A new attendant, a shy, awkward young fellow +from Devers's troop, was hovering about the bedside, and Davies glanced +at him inquiringly. "What became of Paine?" he asked, and the steward +shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.</p> + +<p>"Captain Devers took him away," was the answer. The doctor arose and +stood by Davies a minute.</p> + +<p>"I don't know what to make of that captain of yours," he said. "Either +he or I will keep out of this hospital in future. He came here and +'raised Cain' with my steward to-night, all on account of Brannan; then +went over to the troop barracks foaming like a mad bull. I fancy he +means to make it rather lively for you."</p> + +<p>"Never mind me, doctor, so long as this poor boy's coming out all right. +How is he?"</p> + +<p>"Doing nicely now, but—I wish I'd understood the case before. I'm bound +to say Captain Devers misled me entirely. <i>She's</i> the doctor he needed," +said he, with a jerk of his head towards the grave, beautiful girl +bending over the soldier's pillow, one hand still slowly, tenderly +stroking back the dark hair about his temples.</p> + +<p>"Will you say good-night to her for me and escort her home? Mrs. Davies +is not well and I must return to her," said Davies, "that is,—unless I +am needed here."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span></p> + +<p>"No, go by all means. Only I may need you at the colonel's office in the +morning when this thing has to be fought out. Dodge your captain, +meantime, if you can."</p> + +<p>"I know of no reason why I should dodge him or anybody," said Davies, +with rising color. "I have done no wrong."</p> + +<p>But on the steps without, as he hurried away, the lieutenant met a man +who differed with him as to that—who differed with most people as to +everything, and that he had been working up the case in his own mind +against his subaltern there was no room for doubt.</p> + +<p>"By what right, sir, do you assume to over-ride my authority and undo my +orders? Time and again last summer I had occasion to caution you against +interference in the handling of the men and the management of the troop, +and now no sooner do you rejoin than here you are taking advantage of my +being probably abed and asleep to countermand my positive instructions +and overthrow my efforts at discipline."</p> + +<p>Without one word of reply Mr. Davies assumed the position of attention +and stood like a soldier before his furious commander. "I say again, +sir," began Devers, "that you have deliberately sought to deride my +authority and have connived at the disobedience of my orders. You knew +perfectly well what orders I had given in the case of Brannan, and you +dared to set them aside."</p> + +<p>Still not a word in reply.</p> + +<p>"This silence is contemptuous. Why don't you speak, sir?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I simply deny each and every allegation, Captain Devers."</p> + +<p>"Denial is ridiculous, Mr. Davies! Haven't I the evidence of my own +senses,—of the steward and the attendant? Don't I know? By God, +sir——"</p> + +<p>"One moment. Oblige me, captain. I wish to behave with all deference and +respect, but when you use blasphemy——"</p> + +<p>"Oh, blasphemy be damned! Don't attempt to teach me! I've had too much +of your puritanical, psalm-singing business. I condoned your wretched +misconduct of last September in the hope that you might do better, but +now the time has come for you to be given the lesson you deserve. Things +have reached a pretty pass when an officer who leads his men into ambush +and then deserts them in their extremity——"</p> + +<p>"Captain Devers!"</p> + +<p>"No dramatics now. You're not in the pulpit——" The steward came forth +at the moment, and with instant modulation of tone Devers went on. "You +may not realize what you have done, but you have done it all the same, +despite every effort of mine to teach you the proper course——What is +it, steward?" he broke off, as though suddenly aware of that official's +presence.</p> + +<p>"The doctor's compliments, sir, and the new man the captain has sent +over to relieve Paine seems to lack intelligence; he won't do at all as +an attendant."</p> + +<p>"Tell the doctor I sent the best I had, and that he begged to be +relieved because he couldn't serve so many masters. When the post +surgeon hears of this night's work he will doubtless have his say as to +the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> manner in which his subordinates have trifled with their duties. I +will make no change.—You appear to be waiting, Mr. Davies. That's all, +sir, for to-night. You may go."</p> + +<p>With a face almost as white as the snowy expanse of the parade, the +lieutenant still stood there, quivering with wrath and wrong. He looked +as though a torrent of reply were trembling on his lips, yet by supreme +effort he curbed the impulse. His chest heaved once or twice. His lips +were twitching. His hands were clenched and convulsive, but at last, +with one long look into his captain's eyes while the latter was going on +to say something about the necessity of his junior's accepting his +admonition in proper spirit, Davies turned abruptly and sprang down the +steps. Two soldiers stood there in the dusk, where they must have heard +every word that was said. One was the new company clerk, Howard, the +other Paine. Neither lifted a hand in salute to the officer. Both turned +their backs and feigned to be deeply interested in conversation of their +own.</p> + +<p>It was Mr. Hastings's duty that week to supervise reveille roll-call and +attend morning stables. He was surprised, therefore, as he went bounding +over the parade, to see his junior sub on the porch wrapped in a heavy +overcoat. Presently, after reporting to the post adjutant, as was the +local custom, the various officers came scattering back to their own +firesides, the infantry subs to turn in for another snooze, the cavalry +to swallow a cup of coffee before going down to stables. Sanders hailed +the lonely figure with characteristic levity.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Hello, Parson! Up for all day and meditating a sermon?"</p> + +<p>Davies ignored the question and went straight to business. "I want to +see Captain Cranston as soon as possible. Does he go to stables this +morning?"</p> + +<p>"Never misses 'em. What's up? Hope Mrs. Davies isn't ill."</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Davies isn't very well, but it's on personal business I want to +see the captain. I'll go down with him."</p> + +<p>"Come over to my house and have some coffee, or a cocktail," said +Sanders, with cheery hospitality. "Just what you need, old man. You look +as if you'd been dragged by the heels through a knot-hole."</p> + +<p>"Barnickel is making some coffee for me, thank you, Sanders. It will +pull me together all right, I fancy." And Sanders went whistling on. The +world and its cares, the flesh and the devil all dropped lightly on the +shoulders of this young sinner, and either rode there or fell to the +ground unnoticed. Garrison days were but a merry-go-round with him. "If +that's a specimen of the bridegroom cometh," said he to himself, "I've +got no more use for matrimony than I have for the catechism." And +doubtless to this gay and nonchalant spirit the deeply religious +temperament of the Parson seemed a sombre and repellent thing,—a thing +to be lamented, yet indulged as something too solemn or sacred for +remonstrance.</p> + +<p>The morning air was bitter and Davies felt his toes and fingers +tingling. The boards cracked and snapped under his tread, so, rather +than disturb Almira, he stepped out on the walk and began pacing up and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> +down, still burning with indignation over the events of the previous +night. There had been a fresh fall of snow Sunday morning, and though +the walks and paths were cleared, the soft white mantle lay like a +glistening carpet over the parade and prairie and along the slanting +roofs of the quarters. There was an open space of sixty feet from outer +wall to wall along officers' row, and a paling or picket fence, running +at right angles to the roadway in front, divided this space equally, so +that each set of quarters had its own yard. Davies had remarked with a +smile the previous evening, the contrast presented by the Leonards's +yard at the west end and his at the east of the double set in which they +lived. Leonard's yard was criss-crossed, cut up in every direction by +tracks of sled-runners and sturdy little rubber boots. His own lay like +a flawless sheet without even a kitten's footprint to mar its virgin +surface. Now as he strode rapidly westward again and came in front of +the Leonard playground, he noted once more the traces that spoke so +eloquently of happy, healthy childhood, of rosy cheeks and sparkling +eyes and merry laughter. Then he turned back to his own, still tramping +briskly in the endeavor to send the blood to his finger-tips, and then +coming in view of what at nightfall had been an unbroken coverlet of +snow, Davies stopped short, amazed. Straight from the corner at the +front where the fences met, straight as a lance, went the footprints of +a man, in long, unhesitating stride, to a point immediately underneath +the closed blinds of the window behind which his wife now lay placidly +sleeping. Davies stood and studied the tracks a moment, then went to the +point of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> meeting of the front fence,—a flat-topped affair,—with its +picketed offshoot. Beyond doubt the maker of those tracks had swung +himself over the fence at that point, dropped lightly to the ground +inside and gone straightway to that side window. There he must have +stood a moment or two, for the snow was trampled. Thence the tracks led +around to the back of the house. Returning to his gate and hall-way, +Davies tiptoed noiselessly through the little dining-room to the kitchen +in the shed at the back. There Barnickel was sleepily starting a fire, +and the door leading into his little den farther back discovered the +soldier blankets of his bunk tumbled over as though he had just arisen. +The door to the yard was still bolted. Davies slipped the bolt and +stepped out on the plank walk leading from the kitchen to the gate in +the rear fence. These had been tramped by many feet in that direction, +and by only one pair in the other. Coming around from the side of the +house were the tracks of the same foot gear, the heavy soldier arctics +worn then by officers and men alike, that he had marked at the front. +They led to a point underneath the rear or north window of Almira's +room, and there, after evident shifting and tramping of a minute or two, +had turned sharply away, led straight past the kitchen door and were +lost in the general run of those towards the gate.</p> + +<p>"What time did you come in to bed last night, Barnickel?" asked the +lieutenant, at the kitchen door.</p> + +<p>"About 10.30, sir. I'd been over to Sergeant Walsh's quarters. I went in +to see if the lieutenant wanted anything, sir, but he'd turned down the +lights and gone out."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes. And now did you hear any noise,—any footsteps?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir. Only Mrs. Davies, sir; she was stirring round, excited like, +and peeped out of her room to ask did I know where the lieutenant was."</p> + +<p>"Did you come in through the front hall or the back way?"</p> + +<p>"The back way, sir. There's standing orders against enlisted men +crossing the parade or bein' on the officers' sidewalk."</p> + +<p>Davies paused a minute. "Give me your broom," said he, and taking it +through the partly opened door he carefully turned the knob behind him, +swept away the traces leading to the rear window, swept and obliterated +those at the back and side, as far as and including those under the east +window, then, tossing the broom to the door, strode round the house to +the front just as stable call was pealing, and Captain Cranston in huge +beaver skin overcoat and cap came forth into the frosty day. The instant +he caught sight of Davies the captain hastened to him and drew his arm +within his own.</p> + +<p>"The very man I want to see, and you are waiting for me!"</p> + +<p>"Yes. I presume you know why."</p> + +<p>"I've heard. Come with me to stables, by way of the hospital. I want to +see how Brannan passed the night."</p> + +<p>"I cannot go in, captain. I am virtually forbidden further connection +with the case."</p> + +<p>"I understand, but I am not included in the order, and wouldn't heed it +if I were." Plainly Captain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> Cranston was in aggressive mood. Other +officers, issuing from their quarters, set forth across the parade, but +catching sight of the popular troop commander, pulled up as though to +wait for him, then looked surprised to see him earnestly talking with +the pale-faced subaltern, going straight on eastward. Directly in front +of Devers's house they met that officer himself, a bundle of papers in +his hand. In the "Tactics" of the day one of the foremost paragraphs +read, "Courtesy among military men being indispensable, it is enjoined +on all officers to salute each other on meeting, the junior tendering +the first salute," or words to that effect, but it was a rule far more +honored in the breach than the observance. The post commander was about +the only one to receive such recognition from his juniors, all others, +as a rule, contenting themselves with a jovial "'Morning, Jack." "How +are you, major?" and, possibly, an off-hand and perfunctory touch of the +cap. Only among sticklers for military propriety like Leonard was the +salute tendered to superiors. In nine cases out of ten it meant, when +given, that personal relations were strained. Approaching the battalion +commander Mr. Davies looked him straight in the eye and raised his +gloved right hand to the cap visor. Cranston, with the most off-hand nod +imaginable, gruffly and shortly said, "Good-morning," without so much as +a tempering "sir" or "captain," and hurried sturdily by. Devers flushed, +looked after the two an instant as though tempted to call, then turned +back across the parade and was presently swallowed up in the door-way of +the troop office.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span></p> + +<p>Leaving Davies outside, Cranston ran into the hospital, and presently +reappeared. "Sleeping quietly," said he, "and the poor devil would have +been in the terrors of delirium tremens if Devers's orders had been +carried out and the doctor hadn't been sent for. Now tell me the whole +story. Agatha has told me her version."</p> + +<p>Lashed tight to the heavy picket rope, the horses were revelling in the +keen morning air and slanting sunshine, nipping at each other's noses, +challenging, with sparkling eye and tip-tilted ear, each well-known face +and form of officer or man to caress or frolic, snapping and squealing +at each other across the line, occasionally rearing and plunging in +uncontrollable jollity. Bending to their work in their white stable +frocks and overalls, the men were making brush and currycomb fly over +the shining coats of their pets, carefully guarding, however, the long, +thick winter crop of hair, for no man could say how soon they might have +to take the field and face unsheltered the keen Dakota blasts. The +frosty quadrangle was merry with musical tap, tap of the metal comb, and +the snort and "<i>purr</i>" and paw of hoof of the spirited bays. Little +Sanders, an enthusiastic horseman, was darting in and out among his +charges, praising this man's work, condemning that, and occasionally +seizing brush and comb himself and giving a practical lesson to some +comparative novice. And, leaving matters for the nonce to his subaltern, +Cranston paced gravely up and down, Davies by his side, absorbed in +close converse. Captain Devers left his line to Mr. Hastings and did not +appear at stables at all. "That means<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> he's concocting an epistle," said +Hastings, with a grin. "He's hobnobbing with his new pet, Howard, and +somebody'll get the benefit of an official letter this morning."</p> + +<p>"We expect you to breakfast," said Cranston, as he bade the lieutenant +good-by at the gate, "and I hope Mrs. Davies is feeling all right now."</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Davies was not. She was so far from well that she had decided +to remain in bed. No, she wanted no breakfast, no doctor, no anybody. +All the same, Mrs. Cranston sent her a dainty tray on which was +displayed a most appetizing little feast, and Almira's resolution gave +way at sight of it. Wisely Mrs. Cranston refrained from calling, but +other women were presently on hand to cheer and sympathize when at ten +o'clock the commanding officer's orderly appeared with the commanding +officer's compliments and he desired to see Mr. Davies at the office.</p> + +<p>"Precisely as I told you," said Cranston, who was waiting for him on the +walk without. "It was best to let Devers make the attack. Now for the +defence."</p> + +<p>Colonel Stone was at his desk. "Come in, Cranston," he called, as he +caught sight of the soldier he so much liked. "I want to see you, too. +Er,—come in, Mr. Davies," he added in a tone less cordial and more +official. "Orderly, ask Mr. Leonard to step in here. Then shut the door +and remain outside. Er—sit down, gentlemen, er—sit down."</p> + +<p>And then in came Leonard, silent, even saturnine; a massive fellow with +a mind as broad as his shoulders, a head full of reading and research +and knowledge of his profession, but the quietest man in the garrison<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span> +withal, and Leonard simply bowed to the new-comers, dropped into the +chair indicated by his commander, then dropped his eyes upon the floor +and waited.</p> + +<p>Pegleg dandled a pencil, end for end, between his fingers a minute, +reflectively studying a knot-hole in the floor that yawned through a +corresponding breach in the matting. Then he flung the stump of a cigar +into a sawdust spittoon and began.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Davies, I sent for you and I also invited in Captain Cranston +because I want to hear your side of a singular case. In an official +letter to the post adjutant, Captain Devers charges that you went to the +post hospital last night, ordered the attendant out of the room, and +proceeded to usurp control of a patient under the doctor's care,—that +you deliberately overthrew his authority and actually told the attendant +his orders were of no account. This, if true, is a most serious matter, +but I have learned that there are many sides to a story. What is yours?"</p> + +<p>"As briefly as possible, colonel,—and just as I answered Captain +Devers,—I deny every such allegation."</p> + +<p>"Well, you certainly went to the hospital?"</p> + +<p>"I certainly did, sir; simply to get some medicine for Captain +Cranston's little son and without an idea that Brannan was there."</p> + +<p>"Then you didn't go with the purpose of seeing Brannan?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly not, sir. I believed him to be at the agency until I heard +his voice. I knew the young man well from an experience last summer and +during the campaign."</p> + +<p>"But what about ordering the attendant out?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span></p> + +<p>"That is absurd. I found—or rather"—and now the hot color of +embarrassment flew up to his pale forehead—"Miss Loomis, who is +experienced in such matters, found Brannan in very dangerous +plight,—his pulse nearly gone. He was verging, perhaps, on an attack of +delirium. She considered, as did I, that the doctor ought to see him at +once, and, as his quarters were at the nearest corner, barely two +hundred yards away, she told the attendant to hurry for him. I should +have done the same thing, but it was unnecessary. The attendant should +have returned at once, but——"</p> + +<p>"Well, didn't you undertake to administer brandy?"</p> + +<p>"Not at all, sir. The doctor himself ordered that on his arrival."</p> + +<p>"At your urging or suggestion?"</p> + +<p>"I certainly approved it, sir, but I did not urge."</p> + +<p>"Well, then, what does it mean—your having told the attendant his +orders were of no account?"</p> + +<p>"I did nothing of the kind, sir. The attendant once or twice began +talking about his orders, but I had no time to listen. I did say, never +mind your orders, or something like that, but he knew perfectly well +what I meant. I inferred what the orders were,—I simply had no time to +hear them."</p> + +<p>"Well, the attendant declares, or at least Captain Devers says he +declares, you twice choked him off when he tried to tell you what his +orders were by saying he shouldn't mind such orders. Here, Leonard, the +shortest way will be to read the whole letter. You do it." And slowly +Leonard took the official sheet and began.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"<span class="smcap">Post Adjutant, Fort Scott, Nebraska</span>.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"<span class="smcap">Sir</span>,—It is with extreme regret that I feel it necessary to +report to the commanding officer certain occurrences tending to +the overthrow of good order and military discipline in the +command. Yesterday morning there arrived from the Ogallalla +Agency, Trooper Brannan of Troop 'A,' Eleventh Calvary, who had +been ordered hither by Lieutenant Boynton as attendant or +escort to the mail-rider. First Sergeant Haney reported to me +at ten o'clock that the man had evidently been drinking on the +way and was in an advanced stage of intoxication. On +examination of the man I was convinced that he needed medical +attendance rather than incarceration, and, instead of sending +him to the guard-house, as is customary in such cases, caused +him to be taken to the hospital, where under Dr. Burroughs's +orders he was put to bed and an attendant from my troop was +detailed with instructions to see that no stimulants of any +kind were given him. All seemed to progress favorably until +shortly after taps, when Trooper Paine, the attendant in +question, reported to me that Lieutenant Davies, Eleventh +Calvary, entered the ward, accompanied by a member of the +household of Captain Cranston, declared the treatment of the +patient unjustifiable and ordered him, the attendant, out of +the room. On Paine's attempting to define his orders he was +abruptly silenced and again ordered to leave. Being on duty +under the instructions of superior authority, Trooper Paine +again strove to explain his orders, and this time was curtly +told that he should pay no heed to such instructions, and was +then sent out of the hospital. The trooper called the doctor on +his way and then, very properly, reported his embarrassing +dilemma to me. I closely questioned him, and there can be no +doubt as to the language imputed to Lieutenant Davies, whose +propensity to interfere in the discipline of the troop I had +frequent occasion to notice and rebuke during the campaign of +the past summer. As courteous and kindly admonition had no +effect, and as the officer in question has seen fit to treat my +words with apparent disdain, I am compelled to invoke the +support of the post commander in suppressing the spirit of +insubordination of which this is so flagrant an instance.</p></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"Very respectfully,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">"Your obedient servant,<br /></span> +<span class="i4">"<span class="smcap">Jared B. Devers</span>,<br /></span> +<span class="i6">"<i>Captain Eleventh Cavalry</i>."<br /></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></div></div> + +<p>When Leonard had finished reading he folded the paper and looked +dreamily at the cobweb in the corner. He wished to be understood as +having no opinion whatever to express. Cranston sat in silence with lips +compressed under his heavy moustache. Davies never moved. His blue eyes +were fixed unflinchingly on the swarthy face of the veteran adjutant +until the latter had finished reading, then sought the eye of his +commander as though for permission to speak.</p> + +<p>"Well, Captain Cranston, what do you think of the letter?" asked Pegleg, +after a moment's silence.</p> + +<p>"I think it very ingenious, sir."</p> + +<p>"Now, gentleman, the captain says that when he attempted to remonstrate +with Mr. Davies last night he was treated with absolute contempt, and, +Mr. Davies, he says that you refused to answer."</p> + +<p>"I strove to control my tongue and temper both, colonel, and <i>not</i> to +behave with disrespect. I did not answer him at once, but it was from no +lack of impulse to do so."</p> + +<p>Pegleg reflected a moment, then addressed himself to Cranston. "I +confess that this matter is one that causes me much embarrassment," said +he. "The post surgeon says that he was not aware of the man being sent +to the hospital at all, and that it was Dr. Burroughs's case. Dr. +Burroughs says he did not consider the man drunk, but took Captain +Devers's statement, as he knew the man well. Captain Devers asked that +he be put in hospital to keep him from drinking, because he knew the +prisoners got liquor whenever they had money, and it wouldn't be safe to +have him in the guard-house. Is there anything peculiar about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> this +Brannan?—any reason why he should be treated by his captain on a +different system?"</p> + +<p>"Colonel Stone," said Cranston, "I knew Brannan's mother, a wealthy and +prominent woman in society. Mr. Davies can perhaps tell you even more, +but I do not think Captain Devers knows anything of Brannan's past."</p> + +<p>Leonard's dark eyes came down from the cobweb and studied Cranston's +face as though he wished to ask a question, and Pegleg saw it. He leaned +on Leonard, and had grown to respect his judgment.</p> + +<p>"What were you about to ask?" said he.</p> + +<p>"Do you know anything about the antecedents of that new company clerk of +Captain Devers?" asked the adjutant, thus authorized.</p> + +<p>"Nothing whatever," said Cranston, wheeling round in his chair and +looking curiously at the big infantryman.</p> + +<p>"Well,—pardon me, Mr. Davies. Had you never met or known him?"</p> + +<p>"Never, except that he was one of the party of recruits I came out with +last summer."</p> + +<p>"But you knew Brannan, did you not?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, he was the man who handled a nozzle with me in showering a pack of +rioters among the recruits last June."</p> + +<p>"But I mean you knew him before that, did you not?"</p> + +<p>"Never," answered Davies, in surprise. "I never saw him in my life."</p> + +<p>And then Leonard in turn reddened and looked confused, and shut his jaws +like a clam.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Orderly," sang out the colonel, "go and give my compliments to Captain +Devers, and say I wish to see him." Then, turning to Cranston, "We may +as well get to the bottom of this business right here and now. I hate +trickery."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2> + + +<p>But, as on more than one previous occasion, Captain Devers was not +immediately to be found. He was not at his quarters, not at the store +nor the stables. Mr. Hastings said later that just after Cranston and +Davies went to the adjutant's office, Devers came from his house and +went over to the barracks. Sergeant Haney did not know where the captain +had gone. Not until 10.30 o'clock did the orderly succeed in finding +him, coming up the bluff from the river bottom, whither he had ridden, +he said, to look over the prospective ice crop. By that time Pegleg was +tired of waiting and had dismissed his visitors. They, however, were +recalled in a minute, and when Captain Devers was made acquainted with +Mr. Davies's positive denial of his allegations, Captain Devers promptly +shifted the responsibility to the shoulders of the attendant, Private +Paine, who had persisted, he said, in his story despite his, Devers's, +incredulity and stringent cross-examination. Bang went Pegleg's fist on +the bell. "Send for Private Paine, Troop 'A,'" said he. "I'm bound to +get to the bottom of this at once." And then while the orderly was gone +he began pacing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> the floor, occasionally stopping to drum on the +frost-covered window. Leonard shifted his seat to Cranston's side and +entered into low-toned chat with him and Davies, though neither seemed +in mood to talk. A natural question that had risen to their lips was why +Leonard seemed to think that Brannan was well known to Davies before his +enlistment, and this question Leonard had disposed of by saying that he +had been assured that this was the case, and that he would ask his +informant's permission to give his name. It was an officer and a friend +of Davies, and the statement was made in all apparent good faith. Devers +sat nervously in a chair feigning to read a newspaper, but every now and +then furtively watching the three. Presently the orderly came back. +Trooper Paine wasn't in the post: he'd gone with the market wagon to +town.</p> + +<p>"Captain Devers," said Pegleg, irritably, "you ought to have known this. +Why didn't you say he'd gone, instead of keeping us waiting here?"</p> + +<p>"I protest against the imputation, colonel," said Devers, to all +appearances much injured at such injustice. "The wagon rarely, if ever, +goes to town on Monday, and that Private Paine should have gone with it +is equally fortuitous."</p> + +<p>"Well, just as soon as that wagon gets back I wish to examine that man, +and I wish you, gentlemen, to be present, also Doctor Burroughs. You see +to it, Mr. Leonard."</p> + +<p>"I'll give instructions at once," said Leonard, rising quickly, and +then, with significant glance at Cranston, taking his cap and quitting +the office.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Then, Colonel Stone," said Devers, "I must ask, in justice to myself, +that one or two officers, who are friends of mine, may be present at the +inquisition. I am conscious of nothing but enemies in this office, and I +can expect no fair play."</p> + +<p>Stone whirled wrathfully upon him. "Your language is insubordinate, +Captain Devers, and there must be an immediate end to it. If you have +enemies here, they are of your own making. Bring any gentleman who will +consent to appear with you, and, meantime, sir, you may withdraw."</p> + +<p>"And leave the field in possession of my opponents, sir, and, like Sir +Peter Teazle, my character in their hands. There is a higher court than +a post commander," said Devers, white and trembling with mingled wrath +and apprehension, "and to that court I shall appeal."</p> + +<p>"You shall have every opportunity, sir," answered the colonel, with a +bang upon his bell, "and leave this office in arrest if I hear another +word.—Recall Mr. Leonard," said he to the orderly, who sprang in with +scared face as Devers went mumbling out, "Which way did he go?"</p> + +<p>"To the cavalry barks, sir," answered the Irish soldier, and Devers +caught the reply before he was fairly out of the hall. He turned whiter +still, for sudden suspicion flashed upon him. He halted as though more +than half disposed to again address his commander, but realized that +already he had gone too far. He looked again across the white level of +the parade and saw the tall, dark figure of the adjutant stalking +straight to the door of his own troop office,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> and as with anxiously +throbbing heart he walked away homewards, Devers watched his hated +persecutor, almost divining what was his purpose,—what would be his +first question. He saw him halt and the office-door open and Sergeant +Haney come forth. Haney, who could be flippant and independent in the +presence of his own lieutenants, stood like a statue before that dark, +saturnine face. Officer or man, no soldier in that garrison ever took a +liberty with Leonard. Devers realized that he had made a fatal error at +last. He almost realized—almost divined the very words of that brief, +curt interview.</p> + +<p>"Sergeant Haney, you must have known Trooper Paine would be needed at +the office this morning. How, then, did you select him to go to town?"</p> + +<p>And Haney, to use his own expression, "wilted."</p> + +<p>"Them was the captain's orders, sir."</p> + +<p>"Captain who?"</p> + +<p>"Captain Devers, sir."</p> + +<p>"That's all."</p> + +<p>And when Sergeant Haney was informed ten minutes later that the captain +wished to see him at his quarters at once, he realized that there were +breakers ahead in earnest, and went with his heart in his mouth. Later, +when he came forth after full confession of the adjutant's question and +his own compromising reply, the sergeant proceeded to the adjutant's +office, asked to see that gentleman, well known throughout the old army +as Black Larry, and nervously twitching his cap stood uneasily before +those penetrating eyes. "I've come to make a correction, sir. I +misunderstood the captain."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span></p> + +<p>"As to what?"</p> + +<p>"As to Paine. The captain told me he might be needed this morning. Then +he said he promised Paine he might go to town next trip of the +market-wagon. We were out of potatoes, sir, and there were fine ones in +market, so the captain said we'd better secure some without delay. I +took it he meant at once, and so the wagon went this morning and Paine +went along. I suppose I got it mixed, sir, but I thought the captain +meant Paine should go to-day."</p> + +<p>"Which wasn't at all what the captain meant you should think, eh?" said +Leonard, dryly.</p> + +<p>"No, sir. He says he meant to have him ready to go to see the colonel."</p> + +<p>"Exactly. I only marvel at your misunderstanding such explicit and +clear-cut orders," said Leonard, with calm sarcasm. "That will do, +sergeant, so far as you are concerned." And Haney walked away, well +content that when Paine and the wagon got back there would be something +more for "the ould man" to explain, or stand the consequences.</p> + +<p>But even Haney had only faint conception of his captain's squirming +powers. Not until evening stables was the wagon back from Braska. It was +loaded to the guards with fine Utah potatoes for the troop mess, and +there was no room for Trooper Paine. "You're wanted at the adjutant's +office at once," said the orderly to the wagon-driver, who was already +in conversation with Sergeant Haney, "and I'm to fetch you with me."</p> + +<p>"The man can't go till he's put up his team, young fellow," said Haney +to the infantry bugler.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p> + +<p>"He can when ould Pegleg's a-pullin', Misther Sergeant Haney, and he's +not to go anywhere else or talk with any one else furst off ayther," was +the significant answer,—another unpleasant item to impart to his now +wretchedly uneasy captain; and verily it seemed to Haney that the +halcyon days were done for good and all, when soon after dusk a little +squad from Cranston's troop, with Second Lieutenant Sanders in command, +rode briskly away on the Braska road, and it was speedily whispered +about the garrison that they were going to find Paine, drunk or sober, +dead or alive, and fetch him back to the post forthwith.</p> + +<p>"It takes a heap of nagging to get old Pegleg fully worked up," said the +fellows of the Fortieth that night, <i>à propos</i> of the snub given Devers, +and the pursuit by members of another troop of material witnesses, "but +when he locks horns in dead earnest, the other party's got to scratch +gravel; it's business and no quarter."</p> + +<p>Meantime, acting under the advice of Captain Cranston, Davies had +refrained from making any complaint of the language which Devers had +seen fit to use at his expense. "Leonard says that some other matters +should come up first, and Leonard knows. The colonel is after Devers +with a sharp stick now, and all these charges are to be sprung upon him +presently. You go on getting your quarters ready for Wednesday's +house-warming. By that time you'll be wanted on the witness-stand. +To-morrow, Tuesday, there'll be fun at the commanding officer's office +with a general court-martial looming up behind it. Meantime, hold your +peace."</p> + +<p>This was Monday evening, and when he returned,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> meditating, to his +temporary fireside, he found Mira surrounded by a swarm of post callers, +smiling and chatting, gracious and gay. He was in no mood for chatter +himself, but had to sit by and strive to be interested and sociable. +Most of their visitors had heard the story of Captain Devers's close +call at the office that morning, and not a few sought to hear the facts +of the case from the lips of an eye-witness. But Davies would not speak +of the matter at all, and, finding him intractable, some one asked if +Sanders had returned, and what success had attended his search for the +missing. It was nearly time for tattoo. Dr. Burroughs was among the +callers, and had just come over from the hospital. He had had no +addition to the list of patients. "On the contrary," said he, "I have a +man who might go to duty to-night were there need, and that is Miss +Loomis's patient, Brannan."</p> + +<p>"Oh, do tell us about that, Mr. Davies," appealed Mrs. Flight, who was +again on hand, well knowing that next to the colonel's, where she was +not entirely in the good graces of the lady of the house, garrison +society would be most apt to be found in force doing homage to the +bride. "We've heard all manner of conjectures already, and are so eager +to know the truth. <i>Was</i> he an old friend of her's, and <i>did</i> he send +and beg her to come to him?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Davies, promptly, "she got to the hospital by merest +accident. Louis Cranston's throat was sore, and he was coughing a great +deal. She went for medicine, and I happened to meet her on the way."</p> + +<p>"But they said there was such a romantic scene; he wept and clung to her +hand, and——"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span></p> + +<p>Here Burroughs opportunely and somewhat aggressively burst into a guffaw +of derisive laughter. "Miss Loomis is just one of those admirable +women," said he, "that empty-headed idiots prate about. I wish other +people had half her sense." A luckless way of essaying the defence of +the absent, for it reflected on many a woman present.</p> + +<p>"Fie! Dr. Burroughs," exclaimed Mrs. Flight. "Your blushes give you +away, even more than your words. Don't you be falling in love with Miss +Loomis. She's aiming higher than one room and a kitchen and a thousand a +year." Whereupon there was shrill laughter, and further accusation and +indignant protest from the ill-starred medico. And Davies, who ought to +have rejoiced in the loyalty of such admiration for his friend and +whilom nurse, was conscious of a pang of annoyance and aversion. The +entrance of the old chaplain and his wife, and dark, swarthy Leonard +with the handsome partner of his joys and sorrows, gave instant turn to +the conversation. In a very few minutes Mrs. Flight and two younger +matrons took their departure, Almira following them with rustic +regretfulness, and exchanging some whispered confidences at the door, +which brought new flush to Davies's anxious face. Mrs. Leonard was +speaking of a recent visit "up the road," as in those days the Union +Pacific in its westward climb to the Rockies was referred to. She had +had such a lovely visit to Fort Russell, and had so much to tell about +affairs in that particularly swell regiment, the —th, and the Truscotts +had entertained her at such a pretty dinner; Mrs. Truscott was charming, +and Mrs. Stannard was such a noble woman, and they were all so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> +interested in Mr. Ray's engagement. It was practically announced. He was +to be married to Miss Sanford—an heiress and a great catch—early in +June, and this led to the chaplain speaking of Ray, whom in days gone by +he was prone to look upon with little favor, if not indeed as a +ne'er-do-well. "I always feared that he would fall, and I am so rejoiced +in this new phase to his character."</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>I</i> met Mr. Ray!" exclaimed Almira, delightedly. "He was ordered in +to General Sheridan on some duty late in the summer, and some of the +young officers, Percy's classmates, said he was such a brave fellow."</p> + +<p>"What did the old officers say?" asked Leonard, with a twinkle in his +black eyes, but not the vestige of a grin under his heavy moustache.</p> + +<p>"They? Oh, I don't remember their saying anything about <i>him</i>. They said +lots of lovely things about Percy."</p> + +<p>"Yes. That's right. I can understand their omitting no opportunity of +doing that. One learns to be something of a courtier even in Chicago, +when on staff duty, and as for Washington, service there is a liberal +education in diplomacy. One never knows who may have the strongest pull +with the President in the event of a vacancy in the staff corps."</p> + +<p>"Leonard," said the chaplain, gravely, "you're a born cynic and a +pessimist to boot. Have we no generous impulses in the army?"</p> + +<p>"Lots of 'em. Lots of 'em, chaplain, especially in the line and on the +frontier, where we can afford to pat a fellow on the back, since we know +that's about the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> extent of the reward he'll ever get. It's when we're +in big society in the East, above all in Washington, one has to be +guarded in what he says, or first thing he knows he'll be hoisting some +fellow over his own head in a moment of enthusiasm. No. I know just how +you regard me, but I spent six weeks of a three months' leave in +Washington last winter, and sat night after night at the club, or day +after day among the army crowd at the Ebbitt, or in some fellow's den at +the Department, and never once did I hear one word of frank, outspoken, +fearless praise of some other fellow's work or deeds, unless it were to +his face. Ask a man flat-footed if that wasn't a capital scout of +Striker's last winter in the Tonto Basin, or if Jake Randlett hadn't +done a daring thing in going all alone through the Sioux country to drum +up Crow scouts for Crook's command, or what he thought of Billy Ray's +cutting his way out through the Cheyennes to bring help to Wayne last +June, and ten to one he'll hum and haw and say yes, he <i>did</i> hear +something about that, and now that I mentioned it he believed Striker or +Jake or Billy had really behaved quite creditably, but the whole tone +was significant of nothing like what some other fellow I might mention, +modesty only forbidding, would have done under similar circumstances.' +It's just the damnation of faint praise. The trouble with the whole gang +of those fellows seems to be a mortal dread lest somebody's eyes should +be deflected from the valor of the warriors at Washington to that of the +warriors on the plains. What recognition do you suppose Ray will ever +get for that feat? General Crook says it's useless to recommend him for +brevet, because the Senate<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span> wouldn't confirm it, and the reason they +won't is that those hangers-on about the capital don't mean to let such +rewards be given to the men on the frontier. And yet this sort of thing +doesn't happen only in Washington. It was a cavalry officer who said of +that very affair that Ray was simply a reckless fellow under a cloud, +with everything to gain and nothing to lose, and that doing a reckless +thing was just as much a matter of instinct with him as battle is to a +bull-dog."</p> + +<p>It was unusual to see Leonard warm up in this way. Besides the chaplain +and the silent host, there were three officers in the dreary little +bachelor den at the moment. Each and every one seemed surprised at the +adjutant's outbreak, but not one of them at the concluding revelation.</p> + +<p>"No need to ask who that was," said Captain Hay, with a prefatory +"Humph." "It savors of Devers from first to last. That man is a born +iconoclast. He pulls down everybody's idols and sneers at what he cannot +pull down,—our ideals."</p> + +<p>"Well, now let me ask you," said the chaplain, a man whose broad charity +led him at any and all times to the defence of the absent. "Without +detracting in the faintest degree from the heroism and value of Mr. +Ray's exploit, are there not degrees of personal bravery, are there not +possibilities of an order of courage higher even than his? As I recall +him, he was what I should term a fearless man, brave to a fault; but +have we not in the army tens and perhaps hundreds of honorable gentlemen +who are as keenly susceptible to the thrill of danger as Ray is +apparently dead to it? Have I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> not heard man after man say how his own +knees trembled or his comrade's cheek blanched at the whistle of the +first bullets of the battle? And as for this Indian campaigning, can +there be a warfare imagined in which the percentage of peril is so +great, the possibilities of ambush, surprise, sudden death in the midst +of fancied security so constant, the daily and nightly circumstances so +full of incessant nervous strain? Now, who is the better soldier,—the +really braver, or, perhaps better, the more courageous man,—he who +rides the trail utterly reckless of or insensible to its peril, or he +who, sighting danger in every bush, scenting death on every breeze, +looking every instant for the war-whoop, the death-wound, nevertheless +so bears himself with all his faculties in hand as to seem calm, serene, +confident, and stands ready for death or duty at any moment? I have +always held that the Christian gentleman was the highest type of the +highest order of courage; the man who replaced the fatalism of the +Mahometan with the sustaining faith of the soldier of the Cross. But I +see you think I'm in the pulpit and preaching again," said he, smiling +at Leonard. "We both warmed up to our hobby."</p> + +<p>They were silent a moment. Across the wintry night the trumpets were +singing the lullaby of the crowded garrison, and hurrying footsteps told +of belated subalterns speeding to their companies to supervise the +roll-calls. Leonard rose to his full height and threw his cloak over his +broad shoulders.</p> + +<p>"We are more in accord in this matter than you think, perhaps, chaplain; +only the man doesn't live who could be insensible to the danger of +cutting his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> way through a band of encircling Cheyennes. I've heard of +no braver deed in many a year than Ray's. I doubt if we'll hear of truer +grit or courage in many more."</p> + +<p>"Perhaps not, Leonard," said the chaplain, as the adjutant paused an +instant at the threshold to say he would return the moment he had +received the reports. "Perhaps not, nor would I say one word to +underrate the heroism of Ray's exploit; but when we do hear of another I +look to hear of it in some fellow as firm in his faith as he is in his +sense of honor and duty, and some day we shall see."</p> + +<p>But Leonard did not return in five minutes nor in ten, and Mrs. Leonard +grew anxious. "This never happens unless something unusual has +occurred." Captain Hay stepped through the hall and opened the outer +door.</p> + +<p>"There are lights dancing about over there on the parade near 'A' +Troop's quarters. I wonder what's up. Hullo, Sanders! That you? When did +you get back? Did you get your man?"</p> + +<p>"Got two of 'em," was the breezy answer. "T'other one disguised as a +gentleman in cits and just about starting on the night train for the +West,—the gifted Mr. Howard, clerk of 'A' Troop."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Davies was standing just within the parlor door at the moment, +blushing over the praises lavished on her by the chaplain's impulsive +helpmeet and trying hard to say civil and appropriate things to her +guests. The officers, one and all, had edged into the hall-way in +eagerness to hear the news.</p> + +<p>"What was it Mr. Sanders said?" asked Mrs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> Leonard, anxious to know +what detained her husband. Hay half turned.</p> + +<p>"He says they arrested two men, one of them apparently deserting, being +in civilian dress and aboard the train,—Captain Devers's new clerk, +Howard."</p> + +<p>And then every one in the parlor saw that Mrs. Davies was seized as with +sudden faintness. She turned very white and grasped at the nearest chair +for support. "I'm only dizzy, not ill, or I don't know what it is," she +protested, as they crowded round her, and Davies came quickly in, +conscious that something was amiss. Nor did she recover her color or her +calm. Nervous, fluttering answers only could she give to their +sympathetic inquiries, and when presently Leonard reappeared, cool and +imperturbable as ever, she was evidently relieved to see her guests +departing. The adjutant explained his detention by saying he had gone to +the colonel's with Sanders, who had galloped ahead, leaving his guard to +bring along the prisoners in an ambulance, Paine too drunk to be able to +move. They would hardly arrive before eleven.</p> + +<p>"The colonel desires to see you at the office at eight o'clock in the +morning," said he in low tone to Cranston. "Howard has been away all +day,—since guard-mounting, in fact,—and no report was made of it. +Devers has been notified that the colonel would investigate matters—the +whole business, in fact—early to-morrow."</p> + +<p>But who can tell what a day may bring forth? Devers, after a sleepless +night, filled with foreboding of the wrath to come as the result of that +impending investigation, sat nervously over his coffee while the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span> +trumpets were sounding first call for guard-mounting, and turned a shade +yellower at the ring of the front-door bell. The servant re-entered the +dining-room and announced that Lieutenant Leonard, the adjutant, +desired to speak to the captain. For a moment he could not rise. +Conscious of his own double-dealing, visions of arrest, charges, +court-martial—heaven knows what all—were floating before his startled +eyes, but go he had to. Summoning courage, bravado, or something, he +swaggered into the hall.</p> + +<p>"Oh—ah—step into the parlor, Mr. Leonard," said he, airily, "I presume +you're here on business." He was preparing to exhibit amaze—virtuous +and soldierly indignation—at the idea of having, all unheard and +unrepresented, been ordered into arrest on the prejudiced statement of a +swarm of hostile officers and sorely badgered and bullied members of his +troop. Well knowing himself to be tottering on the ragged edge of final +discovery, his duplicity exposed, his deceit established, he +nevertheless braced himself for the supreme effort to bluff to the very +last. Thanks to the storm-shed without, the hall was dark, and for a +moment he could only vaguely see the huge bulk of the infantryman +standing erect before him, the very attitude indicative of stern +official purpose.</p> + +<p>And then in sudden revulsion of feeling,—in a wild whirl of reviving +hope, courage, exultation,—he noticed that the adjutant was without his +sword, and listened, spell-bound, well-nigh incredulous and without +reply, to the brief official words which Mr. Leonard delivered, then +saluting, turned on his heel and left the house.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span></p> + +<p>"It is my duty to announce, sir, that Colonel Stone has had a stroke of +apoplexy or vertigo and is seriously ill. As senior captain, you are in +command of the post."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2> + + +<p>That beautiful wintry Tuesday morning was as placid and serene as nature +could make it, but Fort Scott was in a ferment. Whether stricken by +apoplexy, which was the first, or vertigo, which was the later, theory, +Colonel Peleg Stone had been found lying bleeding and unconscious at the +foot of the stairs, and almost at his parlor door, just after sick-call. +He had arisen early, said his tearful and terrified wife, saying that +matters of importance demanded his presence at the office before +guard-mounting. He had been wakeful and restless during the night. He +had called for hot water soon after reveille, and gone into his +dressing-room to shave. This was all she knew until aroused an hour +later by her frightened maid, with the tidings that the colonel was +lying speechless in the hall. Both doctors and Mr. Leonard were +summoned. Violence was hinted at, but the orderly pacing the front +piazza declared that no one had entered the front door since he came +over and rang the bell to report himself for duty just as soon as he had +finished breakfast. "For them was the colonel's orders when he dismissed +me last night." Just about sick-call he heard the sound of a heavy fall +inside, and presently "Jane come a-runnin',"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> and told him to rush for +the doctors. Alonzo, the colonel's colored body-servant who had followed +his fortunes a dozen years, was in the kitchen below stairs, and was +sure no one had come in from the rear. He, too, had heard the fall and +ran up with Jane, finding his master completely dressed, lying close to +the parlor door, with blood streaming from his nose and mouth. There +were heavy contusions on the forehead and face, caused probably by his +having plunged blindly forward down the stairs. Something in the +stertorous breathing suggested apoplexy, but the doctors soon decided +against that. It might have been vertigo, or he might simply have +tripped at the top and come diving head-foremost all the way down, but +his clothing was not in such disorder as that would cause, and neither +the orderly, nor Jane, nor Alonzo had heard more than one single crash +or thud. Had they examined the parlor and sitting-room to see if any one +could have been there hidden? was asked. No, there wasn't time. The +house was one of the big double sets of quarters, with hall-way and +staircase in the middle, as frequently planned in those days for the +commanding officer of the large frontier garrisons. Four large rooms +were on the ground floor for use as parlor, sitting-, and reception- and +dining-room, all abundantly furnished, as Mrs. Stone was well-to-do, and +there were hiding-places enough if some one had stolen in, like a thief +in the night. The broad contusion on the forehead might have been caused +by some blunt instrument, to be sure, said the senior surgeon, but he +thought it improbable. Only one thing was certain,—Pegleg was knocked +out. It might be several<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> days, possibly a week, before he could resume +duty. Captain Devers came over five minutes after the adjutant left him, +and was profuse in sympathy, sorrow, and proffers of aid. The despatch +sent to Department head-quarters that afternoon was a model of style, +but it did not reach the office until late in the afternoon, so late +that the general had gone home with his chief of staff, and not until +five o'clock was it placed in the hands of the latter, who took it at +once to his commander.</p> + +<p>"Whew!" said the chief. "It's bad enough to have Pegleg down, but think +of having Devers up, even for a week."</p> + +<p>"I don't see what we can do, sir," was the reply. "The +lieutenant-colonel of the Fortieth is on leave awaiting retirement, the +major on General Sheridan's staff. Major Warren, of the Eleventh, is +abroad, and Devers is the ranking captain."</p> + +<p>"Well, let it stand," said the general, after a while. "Leonard will +look after affairs in the Fortieth, and you look after Devers. If he +gets to cutting up any didoes, send him up to the reservation to +investigate the trouble up there; it's something after his own heart, I +reckon,—or send him anywhere, and let the command devolve on the next +captain until Stone's on deck again. Devers says he'll be up in a week."</p> + +<p>"That's just what makes me fear he won't be well in a month, and if he +isn't able to resume duty, Devers will say he only meant <i>sitting</i> up in +bed, probably."</p> + +<p>No matter what the opinion attaching to Captain Devers, however, the +fact remained that he was now in law and fact commanding officer of the +biggest post<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span> in the Platte Valley, and meant to make the most of his +opportunities. Leonard promptly asked to be relieved from duty as +post-adjutant, on the plausible ground that Captain Devers would +doubtless prefer to have one of his own cloth and corps in the office, +and Devers, well knowing how it would reflect upon him at Department +head-quarters, refused to change. "However strained may be our personal +relations, the good of the service demands that for the present they be +ignored. The differences between us can and shall be adjusted later on," +was the purport of his reply. Meantime Mr. Leonard could be assured that +he should in no wise be disturbed in his functions as regimental +adjutant, or hampered no more than was necessary in those that related +to the post. Leonard swore impressively as he read the reply to his +friends, Captain Pollock of the Fortieth, and Cranston of the Eleventh, +but said nothing to any one else.</p> + +<p>Davies was to relieve Hastings as troop duty officer for the week, and +assume charge of roll-calls and stables, all matters between himself and +his captain being incontinently shelved after conference with Cranston, +Truman, and Hay, until such time as somebody beside Devers should sit in +judgment on Devers's acts. The temporary post-commander spent very +little of Tuesday morning in the office. With official gravity he signed +the ration returns and such papers as were to be forwarded. "All matters +concerning the interior discipline of the companies I prefer leaving to +their proper commanders," said he, coldly, to the statuesque adjutant, +thereby hitting a self-comforting whack at the colonel, who rather liked +to interfere. "I have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> every confidence in the judgment of the captains +of the infantry, at least, and as for routine matters you will be +pleased to conduct them just as when Colonel Stone was on duty."</p> + +<p>Then he went forth to his own sanctum, the troop office, raising his fur +cap in acknowledgment of the sentry's shrill, "Turn out the guard; +commanding officer!" and once there established, he sent his orderly +with directions to the sergeant of the guard. In five minutes prisoner +Howard, conducted by an armed sentry, made his appearance, and was +received within the sanctum. "You may retire, sentry, until called. I'll +be responsible for this man," said he, and from that conference even +Sergeant Haney was excluded. The interview lasted twenty minutes, at the +end of which time Howard was remanded to the guard-house and Paine +brought over in his place. Howard swaggered insolently past the sergeant +of the guard on his return, and when told to get ready to go out to +work, replied, "I guess not, Johnny, unless you want to lose your +stripes." But Paine came "home" scared and abject. Men in quarters said +that both the captain and Sergeant Haney stormed at him until he didn't +know black from white, and the temporary company clerk, excluded from +the office during the conference, was called in finally to witness +Paine's signature to a paper, the contents of which he did not see at +all.</p> + +<p>All day Tuesday Davies was occupied in getting his furniture and traps +into Number 12, and Almira—pretty as a picture, and eagerly assisted by +her now intimate friends, Mesdames Flight and Darling—was tacking up +curtains, brackets, and knickknacks. Army<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> women have a gift of making +even a burrow look cheery and attractive, though they do accumulate an +amount of truck that becomes embarrassing in the inevitable event of a +move. On Wednesday, however, as has been said, his week of troop duty +was to begin, and at gun-fire he was up and dressed and ready for +business. Devers did not come down to stables. The first sergeant made +the various reports in somewhat off-hand and perfunctory style, but +Davies took, apparently, no notice of his manner, and, joining Captain +Cranston as soon as he had inspected the stables on the return of the +horses to their stalls, the two friends strolled slowly up the winding +road to the parade, the last officers to return homeward. Sick-call was +sounding as they passed the barracks, and Captain Devers met them on the +walk. Both officers saluted the post-commander, Davies in silence, +Cranston with an accompanying "Good-morning, sir." Devers responded in +the briefest possible way and went at once to business.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Davies, that man Brannan will be returned to the troop from +hospital this morning. See that he is immediately confined in the +guard-house." And then, with his orderly following, the commander went +his way. Sergeant Haney was standing not forty yards away on the +barrack-porch awaiting his captain's coming. Such instructions were +generally given by the company commander direct to the first sergeant, +and the purpose of making Davies the medium and Cranston the witness of +the order was apparent at a glance. Devers meant to inflict his +punishment not only upon the soldier, but upon those who dared either in +person<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span> or through some "member of the household" appear as the +soldier's friend.</p> + +<p>"What should I do, captain?" asked Davies, sadly. "Turn and carry the +order to the first sergeant at once?"</p> + +<p>Cranston looked back, saw Devers halt to say some words to the troop +farrier, and seized the opportunity.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and I will go with you to be ready to testify to your having +obeyed."</p> + +<p>Retracing their steps, the two approached the quarters. "Go no farther," +said Cranston, in low tone, as they got about half-way and were close to +where Devers stood. "Call the sergeant to you here." Davies did so, and +Devers whirled around in surprise. Haney came promptly, buttoning his +overcoat on the way. It wouldn't do to "slouch" in presence of Cranston, +whatsoever he might dare with a new lieutenant.</p> + +<p>"Sergeant," said Davies, "the captain orders that Trooper Brannan be +confined in the guard-house the moment he returns from hospital."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. I got the order, sir, last night," said Haney, forgetful in +Cranston's presence of the impulse to be flippant, and unconsciously +revealing just exactly what his captain meant to conceal. Davies turned +and looked at Cranston, and the latter, with a peculiar smile, linked +his arm in that of his friend and, carefully avoiding the spot where +Devers now stood watching them, led him away.</p> + +<p>This for a starter was significant, but more was to come. Guard mounting +was hurried through that morning, for the air was sharply cold and a +northerly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> wind was beginning to moan through the garrison and whirl the +snow in drifts over the desolate prairie. Captains Truman and Pollock, +the former as old and the latter as new officer of the day, appeared in +fur caps and heavy overcoats and stood at the desk where Colonel Pegleg +for months past had administered the affairs of the post. The former +raised his hand in salute as he said, "I report as old officer of the +day, sir," and tendered the guard report. Devers glanced at once at the +list of prisoners. Foremost were the familiar names of the old stagers, +the general prisoners undergoing sentence of court-martial. Then those +of the men sentenced to brief confinement by the minor or garrison +court. Then came the names of those awaiting trial, and opposite each +name in the column headed "Charges" was the word "Preferred," as was the +custom of the day, and this significant word appeared opposite the next +to the last name on the list, that of Howard, Troop "A."</p> + +<p>"Ah! What is the nature of the charges against prisoner Howard?" asked +Devers, blandly.</p> + +<p>"I haven't seen them, sir. I understand that they were prepared by +Lieutenant Sanders as directed by Colonel Stone."</p> + +<p>Devers tapped his bell and the orderly sprang in. "My compliments to the +adjutant," said he, and from the adjoining room, grave, stolid, and +imperturbable as ever, Leonard came in, pencil in hand, and stood at +attention without a word.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Leonard, have charges been preferred against Trooper Howard?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. Desertion. The specification alleges<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> that he was caught +aboard the west-bound train at Braska in civilian dress Monday evening."</p> + +<p>"Anything else?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir."</p> + +<p>"Captain Pollock, you may release Howard. He was in town with my +approbation and assent, looking for an absentee whose haunts he knew and +whose presence was required here. He says he boarded the train expecting +possibly to find him thereon, and wore civilian dress because his +uniform might have caused his rejection at places he wished to search."</p> + +<p>Captain Pollock touched his cap without a word.</p> + +<p>"You will also see that Paine and Brannan, recently confined, are sent +out to work with the police cart. Other orders as usual. You are +relieved, Captain Truman. That is all, Mr. Leonard."</p> + +<p>The talk that ensued among the officers of the calvary command when this +matter was detailed at the club room will have to be condensed. Davies +was not present. He never went there. Cranston was present for the first +time in weeks, for it was an establishment for which ordinarily he had +no use. He and Truman went thither because they knew that that was where +Sanders could be found, and there they found him. It was barely ten +o'clock, but this light-hearted young gentleman, together with three or +four kindred spirits of the Fortieth, was discussing, to the +accompaniment of hot Scotch, the relative values of hands dealt at +random from a grimy deck. That they should have taken to hot Scotch at +such an hour they explained by the statement that as they had to be up +with the dawn the day was already old, and that they should be playing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> +poker they didn't consider a matter calling for explanation of any kind. +It was "a way they had in the army" in those days when the other +three-quarters of the year was spent in sharp campaigning. Sanders +cheerfully dropped his hand as he had his money and told his story like +a little man.</p> + +<p>"We trotted or galloped all the way to town and found Paine soon after +six, drunk, of course,—too drunk to ride the spare horse, so while we +were waiting for an ambulance from the quartermaster's depot, I ran over +to the Cattle Club for a drink, and was chatting there with Willett and +Burtis,—by the way, I asked them both to drive out and dine with us +to-night and take in the hop later,—and presently in came a couple of +cattlemen from Cheyenne who knew everybody at Russell and were jolly, +pleasant fellows. They were going up on the evening freight, and we +loaded up a lunch-basket and went down to the depot to see them off in +the caboose. The Braska crowd did their best to send them home full, and +they were full, and nothing would do but we must go into the bar and +drink Roederer with them until the conductor came rushing in to say all +aboard. Then they snaked me on to the caboose platform when the train +was under way, pulled me inside and ran me half a mile up the track +before they could stop her again. But that half-mile did the business +for Mr. Howard. There he was spruce and dandified as you please, dressed +fit to kill in a bang-up better suit than I ever hope to own, trying to +sit behind a newspaper. They pulled Burtis aboard, too, and in the +scuffle he fell all over Howard, knocked his hat off, and I knew the +face in a second,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> and when I came off that car he came with me, by the +scruff of his neck, swearing and protesting and denying that he was +Howard, and threatening to have the law on me and appealing to the +cattlemen for rescue. By Jupiter, if it wasn't that I had been with them +long enough to make a favorable impression they would have rescued him, +too. They didn't half want to let him go, and he straggled hard to get +away as it was."</p> + +<p>Then Truman told him what Devers's orders and remarks were, and Sanders +fairly blazed with wrath. "It's the maddest kind of a lie," said he. +"That fellow had never looked for Paine or thought of such a thing. We +found where he had left his uniform and where he kept in hiding until +time to skip out and catch that train. He wasn't looking for anybody and +didn't care to see or be seen by anybody. If it wasn't a clear-cut case +of desertion may I be hanged. He had over two hundred dollars in his +clothes and fresh duds in his grip-sack."</p> + +<p>Long before mid-day, therefore, Sanders's words were being repeated from +mouth to mouth, and Trooper Howard, with pale face and starting eyes, +was shut up in the company office where only the captain and Sergeant +Haney could get at him, and Devers was there with his sergeant and +clerk, when just at 10.45 the telegraph operator came bulging into Mr. +Leonard's office.</p> + +<p>"An important despatch," said he, "for the commanding officer."</p> + +<p>Leonard took it, then hesitated. Under Colonel Stone his instructions +were to open and read at once, but the relations between him and the +captain temporarily<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> in command were neither confidential nor cordial. +"Take it to Captain Devers," said he, "and I will wait."</p> + +<p>Devers read the despatch with kindling eye. It was from department +head-quarters at Omaha, and said briefly,—</p> + +<p>"Send a discreet officer with twenty cavalrymen for temporary duty with +Boynton at the agency at once. Report action by wire."</p> + +<p>For a few minutes the captain sat in deep thought, then with head erect, +and with quick, confident step, left the barracks and went straight to +the adjutant's office. "Orderly," said he, "my compliments to Mr. Davies +and say I wish to see him at once."</p> + +<p>And so only a little more than an hour later, knowing absolutely nothing +of what might be going on at the agency, judging only from the reports +of the mail-carrier that there had been trouble between the agent and +some of Red Dog's people, and that the agent had determined to make +arrests, leaving his bride wildly weeping and protesting in the hands of +her devoted friends Mesdames Flight and Darling, yet commending her to +the guardianship of Captain and Mrs. Cranston, Percy Davies set forth +upon a bitter, wintry march of eighty miles, answering the call of duty +at the front, leaving wife and fireside, good name and character, to the +care of friends or foes who remained.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2> + + +<p>Long remembered at Fort Scott was the evening that followed Mr. Davies's +departure for the agency. Infantry and cavalry both, the garrison took +it much to heart that the detail should have devolved, of all men, upon +him. Not because he was comparatively young and inexperienced; not +because he was just back from long leave that had been necessitated by +long and serious illness, but solely and entirely because he had but +recently married a wife, and therefore shouldn't have been expected to +go,—should not have been torn from her side. The women opened the ball, +but the men were not slow in taking the floor. What Davies himself might +think no one knew, because Davies would not say. He received the order +of the post commander without a word, went home to his wife and sent +Barnickel to ask Captain Cranston to come to him as soon as possible. +Devers retired to his quarters and was not again seen until after +stables, when, scrupulously avoiding those of the other troops, he +visited his own lines, having previously sent his orderly to Mr. +Hastings to notify that gentleman that he should not require him to +attend stables this week, which was to have been Mr. Davies's, but would +expect him to superintend roll-calls. The temporary commanding officer +of the garrison and of the cavalry battalion appeared, therefore, in +solitary state in his capacity as captain of Troop "A." Officers who +passed him on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> the way to or from stables raised hand or cap in the +salute due the post commander, but few of them entered into +conversation. Old Dr. Rooke, the post surgeon, a man ten years Devers's +senior in the service, returning from a visit to Colonel Stone's +bedside, came face to face with the captain, and the captain stopped to +make inquiries. Rooke's face was grave.</p> + +<p>"He is semi-conscious and resting fairly well, but has received a severe +shock that has clouded his faculties. I cannot say when he will be up +again. I do not see any likelihood of his returning to duty for a +month."</p> + +<p>Devers's face expressed all proper concern and sympathy. "It is best, of +course, that I should know this, but the colonel's friends are numerous +in garrison, and it is something that would have a depressing effect. I +suggest, therefore, that you do not confide your fears to any one else. +It affects me painfully to hear it, though I had not the good fortune to +be in the colonel's good graces. We differed as to various official +matters."</p> + +<p>"I'm aware of that," said Rooke, dryly, "and I have felt more than half +constrained to remonstrate with you as to the confinement of Private +Brannan. He left the hospital in good condition, and with the +expectation of returning to his detachment and duty. Of course if new +charges have been lodged against him——"</p> + +<p>"New charges <i>have</i> been lodged against him, doctor. He was sent to the +hospital at my request that he might be restrained from liquor, which, +under the system pursued by Colonel Stone, could at any time be procured +by guard-house prisoners who had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> money. That he would be able to +indulge his propensity in your department had not, of course, occurred +to me as a possibility."</p> + +<p>"Any criticisms you have to make at the expense of my department will +receive due weight, I have no doubt, with my superiors, and you will +oblige me by addressing them upon the subject, not me. The post +commander expressed his entire approval of it, and to him and not to the +company commanders am I responsible, Captain Devers. This, however, I +will say, sir, that sooner than submit to further comment of this +character, I shall telegraph to department head-quarters requesting +instant relief from duty as post surgeon here, if you are to retain the +command."</p> + +<p>And Rooke had gauged his man. He knew perfectly well that this +application, coming on top of Stone's prostration, would lead to the +inevitable conclusion at head-quarters that the colonel could not return +to duty for some time, and the surgeon could not contentedly perform +duty under Devers as temporary commander. In other words, that Devers +was already beginning, as the general expressed it, "to cut up didoes," +and somebody—some field officer—would be at once detached, in all +probability, and sent from his proper post temporarily to take charge of +matters at Scott. On the other hand, if things worked smoothly and with +no apparent friction, Devers might hope to retain command for several +weeks, and that would be of inestimable benefit. What might not be +accomplished in that time? He was quick, yet not too precipitate, +therefore, in expressing grave and courteous disclaimer. No reflection +on Dr. Rooke's management was intended<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> or implied, though Dr. +Burroughs, the junior, had, in Devers's opinion, laid himself open to +criticism. Of course being somewhat inexperienced, the unwarrantable +interference of Lieutenant Davies and Miss Loomis had confused and +hampered him. Surely Dr. Rooke could not say that he, Devers, had ever +interfered. On the contrary, had he not incurred the enmity of officers +and ladies of his own regiment by making formal report to the post +commander of what he considered an unjustifiable encroachment on their +part upon the sacred precincts of the post surgeon? Rooke looked at him +from under his shaggy eyebrows, suspicious and unmollified. He was a +shrewd old Scotchman, and Devers protested too much.</p> + +<p>"So far as Miss Loomis and Mr. Davies are concerned," said he, "I have +no exceptions to take whatsoever. I knew the young lady's father well, +and I have faith in the young man. I hear he has been sent on some +temporary duty to the agency, captain, and had he consulted me I should +have advised against his going. The suffering and exposure of such duty +in such weather are more than many a rugged man can bear. Mr. Davies has +not yet half recovered his strength."</p> + +<p>"Then I wish I had known it, doctor," said Devers, diplomatically; "but +not knowing it, I could make no other selection. The orders called for a +discreet officer, and Mr. Davies's friends consider him discretion +itself. I have even been led to think he had too much discretion. The +orders said 'cavalrymen,' therefore I was limited to the officers of my +battalion. They said to report to Lieutenant Boynton, therefore I was +limited<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> to officers junior in rank to him, for no senior could be +required to do it. Mr. Boynton is a first lieutenant, and the only first +lieutenants junior to him here are Hastings, who is eminently +indiscreet, and Folsom, who is a martyr to rheumatism, as you very well +know. The only second lieutenants now on duty with us are Sanders, +Jervis, and Davies; certainly of the three Davies is the only one who +can be called discreet, and he was the only one who had not been on +scout or detached service of this character since he joined. I regret +having to break up his honeymooning, but even that is to be but +temporary, for so the orders said. I explain all this to you, doctor, +because I respect your rank and service, but I shall not condescend to +justify myself to my juniors."</p> + +<p>"And have you reported action yet by wire?" asked Rooke, critically.</p> + +<p>"Certainly," said Devers, but he reddened. Evidently there had been wide +spread talk over the selection already, and speculation as to what +department head-quarters would think of it. Evidently it was known that +he was ordered to report by telegraph, yet who could have "given it +away"? The despatch was still in his waistcoat-pocket, for Devers, +unlike his trimmer juniors, wore that unsoldierly garment underneath his +sack-coat. Even the adjutant had not seen the despatch, and the operator +was sworn to secrecy. He had reported by wire, and in these words: +"Discreet officer and twenty cavalrymen left post at noon with orders to +hasten to Ogallalla agency and report to Lieutenant Boynton for +temporary duty." This was sent at 1.15, and he had only just received +another inquiring name<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> of the officer detailed. This he did not mean to +answer until after five o'clock, by which time he knew the Omaha offices +would be deserted and Davies some thirty miles away. "The horses are +hard and sound," he had said to the silent subaltern. "You should reach +there Friday morning without fail and without fatigue, and ought to camp +to-night at Dismal River. It's a long thirty miles, but you can easily +make it." He meant Davies to be beyond recall in the event of +disapproval, and that point secure, he didn't much care what +head-quarters might think or the garrison say.</p> + +<p>And so Wednesday's sun went down red over the snow-streaked barren to +the west, and long, long before that the last vestige of Davies's little +party disappeared from view among the breaks and ravines in the low +range of treeless heights many a long desolate mile to the north, and +Almira's faithful comforters were still with her, and at dusk bustled +her over to Mrs. Darling's for change of scene and surroundings and tea +and a little music, and presently sleigh-bells were heard, and Mrs. +Flight screamed joyously at the window, "Oh, it's Mr. Willett and Mr. +Burtis with their lovely team, and they've come out for the hop!" And +before long Lieutenant Darling, accompanied by these very gentlemen, +came stamping in, and Sanders and Tommy Dot followed, and in the +firelight the little army parlor was a pretty picture as these gallants +entered and the lamps were lighted, and the gentlemen from town were +presented to Almira, and everybody thought it the proper thing to be +especially devoted to her by way of consoling her for this sudden and +heartless separation from her lord, and for nearly half an hour her +lovely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span> face maintained its expression of pathetic and unconquerable +woe; but Willett had seated himself at the piano, and he and Sanders and +Tommy Dot began singing with inimitable drollery some of the popular +melodies of the day, and presently, "to save her life," as she declared, +Almira could not resist joining in the laughter and applause, and then +Willett began telling of the new step they were dancing in the East,—he +had been home just long enough to attend a few parties,—and while Tommy +Dot played a waltz he essayed to teach it to Mrs. Darling,—a charming +partner ordinarily, but still she did not seem to catch the idea, and +Mrs. Flight was even less successful. Mira looked on with sparkling eyes +and new and uncontrollable eagerness. It was the very step she had +danced with the aides-de-camp in Chicago the previous September,—almost +the same that she had danced time and again with Mr. Powlett at Urbana, +and not a lady at Fort Scott had yet learned it. At last Sanders +spoke,—</p> + +<p>"Why, surely it is the glide step you were telling us about, Mrs. +Davies." And then Willett implored her to try it with him, and how could +she refuse? This was not a ball or party, it was only a dancing lesson; +and somehow, all in a moment, she was floating around that little parlor +on Willett's sustaining arm in long, graceful, gliding steps that seemed +admirably adapted to his, and Willett's face glowed with delight and +hers with pardonable triumph, for was she not showing the belles of the +army the latest thing out in the ball-rooms of fashionable society? And +Sanders and Darling applauded enthusiastically, and the ladies as +enthusiastically as they could, for one's charitable<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> impulses ooze all +too rapidly when the object looms suddenly as a rival. Sanders begged +presently to try with Mrs. Davies, while Mrs. Flight tried again with +Willett, and presently all were trying and gradually mastering the new +step, and when it was time to separate for dinner it was solemnly agreed +that they would tell no one of their practice, but that very night at +the hop they would simply paralyze the entire assemblage by dancing the +latest waltz step.</p> + +<p>"Now, Mrs. Davies," said Willett, "you've just <i>got</i> to go, if only just +once to show them how," and Darling and Sanders joined eagerly in the +plea. There was not actual unanimity as to the propriety and necessity +of the project, however. Mrs. Flight was doubtful, but did not openly +oppose, and Mrs. Darling said, of course dear Mrs. Davies must know that +it would certainly cause remark. But all through tea it cropped out +again and again, and after tea Willett and Sanders came back from the +mess dinner and renewed their supplications. It was, at least, decided +that Almira could not be left to mope alone, and as her lady friends had +to go to the hop, why, she might as well go and peep in and hear the +music at any rate. There were good friends, true friends of her own and +her husband, who would have been glad indeed to spend the evening with +her, either at her fireside or their own, whose cards and condolences +she found on her little hall table when, escorted to the door by Mr. +Willett, she went home at half-past eight, just to make some slight +change in her toilet, which, as it stood, was too funereal for so +festive an occasion.</p> + +<p>And so that night, while Davies and his men were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span> huddling about the +little camp-fires in the snow at Dismal River and a wintry blast was +whistling through the bare, brown limbs of the cottonwoods, there were +sounds of revelry at the big frontier post, spirited music, merry +laughter, the rhythmic beat of martial feet in the measures of the +dance, the rustle of silk, and the pit-a-pat of dainty slippers. Only +two or three households were unrepresented. It was the first hop Mrs. +Stone had missed. It was something that the chaplain and his wife did +not care for. It was a nuisance to Leonard, who loved his books and his +home. It bored more than one old warrior, who went, however, on account +of his wife and daughters, but Captain and Mrs. Devers were on hand, as +befitted the official heads, temporary, of post and martial society, and +the Cranstons with Agatha Loomis, after again going to see if they could +do anything for Mrs. Davies, and again finding her absent from home, +concluded to go over to the hop-room soon after taps, and the first +thing that met their eyes was the sight of Mira—Mrs. Davies—waltzing +down the waxed floor, and waltzing beautifully in the new step that was +coming into vogue while they were still at home, and waltzing on the +encircling arm of the appreciative Mr. Willett. Beyond doubt she was the +observed of all observers.</p> + +<p>It had all come about in the most natural and matter-of-fact way. Mira +had persisted for full an hour in her determination not to dance, but +again and again had Willett and Sanders implored,—Willett with eyes as +eloquent as his tongue. "None of these other ladies had yet really +learned the step. Everybody longed to see it. Everybody had heard how +beautifully<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> she danced it," and presently body after body came and +coaxed "just to show us," and so, really before she knew it, she was +again on Willett's arm, he murmuring praise and encouragement into her +pretty little pink ear, and everybody seemed to stop to watch them, and +then strove to imitate. And then Sanders implored her to give him just +one turn for the honor of the Eleventh, and then Jervis wouldn't be +denied, and Willett and Burtis came for more,—Willett again and again, +and so she danced until the last waltz died away, and her first hop in +the army had been one long, vivid triumph; Willett in his eagerness +forgetting an engagement to waltz with Mrs. Hay. "She will never forgive +me," he murmured to Almira, as he saw her home, "but," and his voice +sank lower, "I only wonder I did not forget all—but yours." And that +was one of the lovely things said to her that night she did not report +in her long, explanatory, self-exculpatory letter to Percy. It is +possibly surprising that she had sense enough not to tell it to Mrs. +Flight, whose lord was on duty as officer of the guard, and who had +accepted Almira's urgent invitation to come and spend what was left of +the night with her. Almira was timid, even afraid to be left alone. Like +two schoolgirls they chattered about the cosey fire in Almira's bedroom, +Mrs. Flight filling the young wife's ears with tales of the compliments +that had been passed upon her beauty, her grace, her dancing, her lovely +costume,—one of Aunt Almira's <i>modiste's</i> most charming creations, one +she assuredly would not have worn had Percy been there. Everybody had +praised her in one way or another, and many had done so to her face,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> +Captain and Mrs. Devers, even, taking heart, as they said, from seeing +her so delightfully occupied, came up to congratulate her on being the +belle of the ball and to express every manner of condolence for the +stern necessity which called her husband away. It was a piece of +diplomacy Almira was at a loss to answer.</p> + +<p>Of all the women present the two whose opinion she most dreaded and +toward whom she felt absolute aversion, neither congratulated nor +praised her in any way. Miss Loomis smiled and bowed and said, +"Good-evening, Mrs. Davies," in very cheery manner when they met in +promenade. Mrs. Cranston bowed and smiled gravely, stopped, and extended +her hand, which Almira, with heightened color and drooping eyelids, took +nervously.</p> + +<p>"I need not say how we deplore the orders, Mrs. Davies. I'm so sorry to +have missed you to-day. Won't you lunch and dine with us to-morrow and +talk over plans? We shall be so glad to have you."</p> + +<p>And Almira faltered that she had promised to lunch at Mrs. Darling's and +spend the afternoon, and was afraid she couldn't promise to come to +dinner, and Mrs. Cranston understood. They went home early, did the +Cranston's,—that is, early for Fort Scott,—whereas Mrs. Davies, +influenced by her energetic friends, danced until long after midnight, +and then sat up and talked it all over until long after two.</p> + +<p>"Willett's simply gone on you," was Mrs. Flight's significant remark. +"No wonder lots of our primmers looked blue to-night. Willett used to +dance with Mrs. Wright and Mrs. Hay all the time, but he hardly looked +at them to-night. And did you see the look<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span> Miss Loomis gave him when he +invited her? He says she snubbed him outright." No, Almira hadn't seen, +but she had caught almost every look that Willett gave her, and was +thinking more of those and of what he said, and of his plea that she +should be at Mrs. Darling's for luncheon next day,—they wouldn't drive +back to Braska until afternoon,—and of the ball they meant to give at +the railway hotel in town, to return the courtesies of their friends at +the fort. He was to lead the german, and might have to lead it with Mrs. +Courtenay of the bank, who was the leader of local society but couldn't +dance any more than he could fly, and if Mrs. Davies would only promise +to be there all would be bliss. Mrs. Davies had said she could not be +there. They were in mourning for Mr. Davies's mother, as Willett well +knew, and she expected Percy home within a week or ten days. Captain +Devers had assured her it couldn't be for longer, and indeed, oh, no! +she couldn't think of going to a ball in town.</p> + +<p>But she did think of it very much indeed. She thought of it, and the +dance of the evening gone, far more than she did of Percy and his party +now sleeping in the snow or shivering in the wind at Dismal River. She +wrote him one of her long letters Thursday morning, spending over an +hour in the effort, and an equal time in her toilet for the luncheon at +the Darlings. She was in the midst of this charming function, assisted +by Mrs. Flight, when the gong on the front door announced the coming of +a visitor. "I can't see anybody now, can I?" she hazarded to Mrs. +Flight, and Mrs. Flight thought she really wouldn't have time, and so +whispered to Katty, as that Milesian<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> maid-of-all-work bustled through +to answer the summons, "Mrs. Davies will have to be excused to callers," +and the parley at the hall door was brief enough. Almira and her +assistant listened,—as what woman would not?—heard the courteous, +cordial tone of inquiry for Mrs. Davies, and Katty's flurried "Begs to +be excused, mum," and there was no need of the question which Mrs. +Flight asked,—"Who was it, Katty?" for both knew Mrs. Cranston's voice.</p> + +<p>"I've done my best, Wilbur," said Meg, as she threw herself on the arm +of the big easy-chair in which her lord was reading the Chicago papers +before the snapping, sparkling fireplace. "She did not want to see me +last night, and she practically refused to see me this morning. She has +chosen her intimates, and it is a case of like unto like. We are not +congenial. Yet I so wanted to be a friend to him and to her."</p> + +<p>Cranston dropped his paper and threw his strong arm about her waist, and +when a man turns from the contemplation of his favorite journal to that +of the face of his wife her queendom is assured.</p> + +<p>"You've done all I could ask, dear," was his answer, "but we may have to +pocket our pride a little. She is very young and inexperienced. She goes +to Darlings' to-day, does she?—and that coxcomb Willett is to be there, +too." The <i>Times</i> slipped to the floor, forgotten, and Margaret, saying +nothing more, drew closer to his side and nestled her round, soft cheek +against his weather-beaten jowl, and Agatha, coming quickly in from her +supervision of the boys' lessons in the adjoining room, went back to the +book-littered table unnoticed. This frontier Darby and Joan, whose<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span> tin +wedding had passed and gone long months before, seemed spooning yet. +It's another "way we have in the army," and long may it live and linger.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2> + + +<p>Long remembered at the agency and among the lodges of the assembled +Sioux was the morning of the arrival of Lieutenant Davies with a squad +of half-frozen troopers at his back. The gale that swept the prairies on +Wednesday had died away. The mercury in the tubes at the trader's store +had sunk to the nethermost depths. The sundogs blazed in the eastern +sky, and even the rapids of the Running Water seemed turned to solid +blue. Borne on the wings of the blast, straight from the frozen pole, +the Ice King had swooped upon the sheltered valley. Cold as is the wide +frontier at such times, even among the gray heads, the old medicine-men, +the great-grandmothers of the tribes, huddling in the frowzy, +foul-smelling tepees, were legends of no such bitter, biting cold as +this. Cattle lying here and there stark and stiffened, hardy ponies, +long used to Dakota blizzards, even some among the Indian dogs had +succumbed to its severity, while over at the agent's, behind +double-listed doors and frost-covered sashes, around roaring coal fires +in red-hot stoves, the employés and their families herded together +almost as did the Indians, execrating the drop in the temperature one +minute even while thanking<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span> God for it the next. It was the main thing +that had interposed to save them from the vengeance of Red Dog's band.</p> + +<p>All through the desperate battling of the previous summer, even in the +face of fiercest triumph the Indians had known in years, one little band +of Sioux had kept faith with the white brother and refused all effort to +draw its young men to the war-path. For months, from early spring-tide, +against three columns of regular troops, the hostiles in the Big Horn +and Powder River countries had more than held their own, and under the +spell of Sitting Bull and led by such war chiefs as Crazy Horse and Gall +and Rain-in-the-Face, the turbulent spirits of nearly every tribe had +swelled the fighting force until at times six thousand warriors were in +the field engaged in bloody work. The whole Sioux nation seemed in arms. +Ogallalla and Brulé, Minneconjou, Uncapapa, Teton and Santee, Sans Arc +and Black Foot, leagued with their only rivals in plainscraft and +horsemanship and strategy, the Cheyennes, thronged to that wild and +beautiful land once the home of the Crows. Three columns had striven to +hem them in,—three thousand wagon-hampered soldiers to surround six +thousand free lances of the plains, and the Indians laughed them to +scorn. When the columns pressed too close they swarmed upon the nearest, +stung it, sent it staggering back; then watched for the next, and swept +it out of existence. They flew at Crook on the 17th of June and fought +him luringly, begging him to follow farther into their traps in the +cañon, but the Gray Fox knew them and divined the numbers that lurked in +hiding behind the bold<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span> green curtain of bluffs, and so slipped out of +the toils. They turned on Custer eight days later and left no tongue to +tell the tale. Three columns, against such energetic measures, fell back +to recruit and refit, and not until late in the season, doubled in +strength, could they resume the offensive. Then, the summer's work +accomplished, the warriors scattered, spoil laden, and the troops chased +madly hither and yon until brought up standing at the boundaries of Her +Britannic Majesty on the one side or those of the Indian Bureau on the +other. Across the border-land Sitting Bull snapped his fingers at his +pursuers. Across the reservation lines did many a jeering chief hurl +taunt and challenge at the baffled soldiery. When winter came on there +were still a few strong bands of Sioux and Cheyennes dancing to the +war-drums in the fastnesses of the Big Horn, whence Miles and Mackenzie +and the Frost King soon routed them; but most of the warriors who had +spent their season in saddle in the field were once more at home under +the sheltering wing of the Department of the Interior, while their +chiefs and leaders, their hands still red with the blood of Custer's +men, their wigwams freshly upholstered with cavalry scalps, went +eastward on their customary junket to the capital of the nation, to be +fed and fêted and lionized, to come back laden with more spoil, more +arms, ammunition, clothing, blankets, tobacco, kickshaws and trumpery +dear to the savage heart, rejoicing, even though they marvelled, at the +fatuity of a people that annually rewarded instead of punishing their +murderous work. They, the heroes of the summer's campaign, rode in +triumph through the very homes of their victims, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> weeping women and +children listened in amaze to the plaudits with which their townspeople +greeted the very savages who, not six months before, were hacking out +the last flutter of life, drinking the heart's blood, revelling in the +dying moan of beloved husband or father. Verily, we're a nation of odd +contradictions.</p> + +<p>And, just as a sojourn in Washington seems to turn many a white +brother's head, so did this, though with better reason, send the savage +homeward with boastful heart. He and his were welcomed back to the fold, +lavishly provided for, all manner of requests and demands hitherto +denied now smilingly honored. They came back lords of the soil, monarchs +of all they surveyed, scornful of all who were not with them in the +warfare of the summer gone by, and of these was the household of Spotted +Tail. Long time chief of the Brulés, he had kept faith with the whites, +his kith and kin were loyal to their obligations, and in so far as +example and influence could go they had held their tribe, all but the +more turbulent young men, out of the fight. There was a band that for +years had never "drawn a bead" on white man,—settler or soldier,—a +band that had furnished scouts and runners and trailers and had done +yeoman's work upon the reservations. These were now, as was to be +expected, of no more consequence in council lodge or tribal dance. +Snubbed by the war chiefs, sneered at by the young men, slighted by the +maidens, it was bad enough that they should have lost caste among their +own people, it was worse, and what made it infinitely worse that it was +so utterly characteristic, that these faithful allies and servants +should now find themselves neglected by the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> very government which they +had so earnestly supported. Back from the war-path, day after day, came +dozens of grinning, hand-shaking warriors lately in rebellion, and to +them, their squaws and children, with lavish hand the agency dealt out +blankets and calicoes, bacon and beef, coffee, flour, and sugar. Such +redoubtables as Red Dog, Little Big Man, Prowling Wolf, and Kills Asleep +were swaggering about, as were their young men, in plethora of savage +adornment and "store clothes." Their squaws and children were warm and +fat and garbed in attractive motley. Even their dogs were in better +fettle than the social exiles of the Spotted Tail school, now in rags +and dependent for their daily bread on what the agent would give them. +Three times it happened on ration days that Red Dog and Kills Asleep, +swaggering about the corral, told their followers to pick out and drive +away such cattle as were passably fat and presumably tender, leaving to +the silent loyals only a miserable batch of beeves which Lieutenant +Boynton described as "dried on the hoof." The agent said he couldn't +help it, "Red Dog and the likes of him are now high in favor at +Washington. They and their fellows could have me removed in a minute if +I interfered, and they know it. There is no lie at my expense their +interpreters wouldn't tell the inspectors, and against so many witnesses +what could I do?"</p> + +<p>"Do!" said Boynton, indignantly. "Do your duty, and I'll back you up. +I'll testify to the truth."</p> + +<p>And then the agent smiled sadly, but scornfully, and said another +truism. "What good would that do? From Sheridan down, what army +officer's statement has<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> any weight whatever with the Indian +Bureau,—when it isn't what it wants?"</p> + +<p>"Well," said Boynton, "it's a damned shame, and I mean to make a formal +report to department headquarters at once."</p> + +<p>And the agent said he wished he would, and Boynton did, but before that +document could reach Omaha there were other and more serious troubles. +Two Lance was the name given the chief of the little band that had stood +fast with Spotted Tail, and Two Lance had begged that he and his people +might be allowed to go back to where most of the Brulés lived, at the +old home on the White River. "This is no place for us," said he. "We are +poor, hungry, ragged, almost naked. We are jeered at. Even our maidens +are insulted by these our own people because we were taught to remain +true to the Great Father and take no part in the war. Now, behold, they +who killed his soldiers, murdered his settlers, and ravished his women +are fat and strong and rich. Their ponies are as the herds of buffalo in +our fathers' day, and we who served the great White Chief and protected +his children, we are a shame and a scorn. Let us go to him who never +broke a promise or told a lie and he will right us. Let us go back to +Sintogaliska—to Spotted Tail." But the agent said he had no authority. +It would be another moon before he could get it, and it might not come +then. If they pulled up stakes and went anyhow he would have to send the +white chief Boynton with his soldiers to fetch them back; and when Red +Dog and Kills Asleep heard of this they rode to the village of Two Lance +and jeered him anew and called<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span> him "White Heart" and "No Lance," and +some of Red Dog's young men said worse things to some of the Brulé girls +who stood shrouded in their ragged blankets, bidding them follow and be +the mothers of men and braves and warriors and not remain in the lodges +of faint hearted curs. There were Brulés there, young braves who longed +for battle then and there, and who leaped to their gaunt ponies and +shouted challenge and defiance, but Two Lance interposed. There must be +no fratricidal warring, said he. They would lay the matter before the +council fire of Sintogaliska,—he who had ruled the Brulés since first +the white tents of the soldiers gleamed along the Platte—Sintogaliska +who never lied. And this too was jeered and flouted. Sintogaliska, +indeed! Sintogaliska was a traitor, an old woman whom the white father +had bought with beads and candy. The warriors of the Sioux, the only men +fit to lead, were such as Red Dog and Kills Asleep. But still Two Lance +kept his temper and the public peace, and again he rode to the agent and +told his story, and Boynton fired up and said in common decency the +agent must do something to put a stop to Red Dog's insolence, and the +agent sent for Red Dog and bade him report himself at the agency +forthwith, and Red Dog replied that he would when he got ready, and if +the agent wanted him sooner, why, to come and get him, and Elk-at-Bay, +who brought his defiance, lunged in and laughed when he gave the +message, and helped himself to the cigars remaining in the agent's box +and swaggered out with them.</p> + +<p>That evening in sudden brawl and in plain view of Mr. McPhail, the +agent, one of Red Dog's braves<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> stabbed to the heart the lover of a +Brulé girl whom he had affronted.</p> + +<p>"Arrest him!" ordered McPhail, who then turned and ran in-doors,—after +his pistol, as he said, possibly forgetting that it was already on his +hip. Boynton and his men were at the picket-line grooming horses, three +hundred yards away at the moment, and the young brave mounted his pony +and dared any one to take him, and rode singing defiantly down the +snow-covered valley. Only the previous day the mail rider had gone on +his weekly trip, and now a special messenger was needed to convey the +agent's despatch to the railway, for the flimsy single wire to the +reservation was down and useless. The Indian who attempted to carry the +letter was pulled off his pony by frolicsome friends of the murderer and +treated to a cold bath in the Niobrara. Not until Sunday night did he +get back, half frozen, and tell his story. Meantime there was more +defiance, so another attempt was made. Sergeant Lutz said he'd +take it this time, and he rode through to Braska on a single +horse,—seventy-three miles in thirty hours. The Interior Department +asked immediate assistance of the War Department to make arrests, and +the general commanding at Omaha was instructed by wire to place a +sufficient force with the agent to enable him to overpower two or three +turbulent Indians. This sent Davies and twenty troopers to reinforce +Boynton, and the very day they started ushered in the coldest wave of +the winter and further tragedy at Ogallalla.</p> + +<p>Drunk and defiant, the exulting murderer with two or three reckless +friends had ridden up to the agency,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span> renewed their boasts and jeers and +yells, while Boynton and his men, as instructed by the agent, were over +at the village of Two Lance, a long mile away, rounding up their pony +herd to prevent the warriors making an assault on Red Dog's more distant +township. A shot rang out from somewhere among the agency buildings, and +the days of the boaster were numbered. Back, bearing the body, scurried +the trio of friends, and in less than an hour, in fury and transport and +grief and rage, the women were tearing their hair and prodding +themselves with knives, while the warriors, singing the death-song, were +painting themselves for battle. In vain the agent despatched messengers +to say he and his men were innocent of blood and would bring the +murderer of the murderer, some prowling Brulé, to vengeance. Swift +return couriers bade him beware,—Red Dog and all his band were coming +to avenge the deed. Boynton was summoned in hot haste. He and his party +came sweeping in on the foremost wave of the wind, and between the two a +vengeful band of two hundred seasoned warriors, veterans of many a +foray, were held at bay from Wednesday night. It was too cold even for +fighting.</p> + +<p>And Friday morning, after hardship and suffering there was no time to +tell, Lieutenant Davies with his party reached the threatened agency, +and was greeted with ringing cheers. That evening the grasp of the Ice +King was loosened by the soft touch of the south wind, and Red Dog rode +in state to the adjoining camp to claim the alliance of his brother +chiefs in his attempt to wrest from the agent the perpetrator of the +murder of his tribesman. That the dead Indian was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> himself a murderer +had no bearing on the matter, said Red Dog. He had simply knifed in +self-defence a beggarly Brulé who quarrelled with him over a girl. The +blood of Lone Wolf cried aloud for vengeance, and the agent should not +be permitted to harbor or conceal his slayer. "You've got no time to +lose," said Boynton, who had kept his scouts on the alert. "You should +arrest that old villain at once or he'll stir the whole reservation into +mutiny." The agent thought he could accomplish more by seeing him and +having a talk. "Indians are always ready for a talk," said he. "I'll +take Mr. Davies and a couple of men just for appearance's sake and ride +right over to the village. He's at Kills Asleep's now."</p> + +<p>Boynton argued, but the agent was afraid to adopt the only course an +Indian respects,—prompt and forceful measures. "Talk" means to him +delay, compromise, confession of weakness. "Well, if you must palaver," +said Boynton, finally, "take me along. I've had more to do with those +beggars than Davies, and," he added to himself, "I'll make it possible +to nab that fellow."</p> + +<p>A most impressive scene was that which met the eyes of the little party +as they rode to the village across the frozen stream. The moon was +shining almost at full in a clear and cloudless sky. The neighboring +slopes, the distant ridge, the broad level of the valley, all blanketed +in glistening snow. Half a mile away down-stream in one dark cluster of +jagged-topped cones lay the village of Red Dog's people. Away up-stream +a long mile, black against the westward slope, the corral and +storehouses, the school and office and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span> quarters of the agency, the +watch-lights twinkling like the stars above. Close at hand, loosely +huddled along the bank, the grimy, smoke-stained lodges of Kills +Asleep's sullen band, and in their midst, surrounded at respectful +distance by a squatted semicircle of old men and braves, all muffled in +their blankets, and by an outer rim of hags and crones and young squaws +and children and snarling dogs and shaggy ponies, there with trailing +war-bonnet and decked with paint and barbaric finery, his robe cast +aside,—there like an orator of old stood the Indian chief in the heat +of his impassioned appeal. All eyes were upon him, all ears drinking in +his words. Guttural grunts of approval rewarded each resounding period. +"You're too late," muttered Boynton. "He's been getting in his work to +good effect. You should have arrested him an hour ago."</p> + +<p>The agent reined in his panting horse and looked and listened. "He won't +talk to me now, I suppose. It would be an affront to his dignity to +interrupt. Best let him finish what he's begun. What shall we do +meantime?"</p> + +<p>"What you'd best do is to give me orders to nab the old sinner in my own +way and go back to the agency as quick as you can. Your life won't be +worth a pin in that crowd when he's done speaking. Go while there's yet +time and tell Mr. Davies to send me Sergeant Lutz and six men mounted. +Keep the rest under arms in the corral. I'll land Red Dog inside the +walls within an hour if you'll only say the word. Damn it, man! you've +<i>got</i> to, or your influence is gone."</p> + +<p>"He's got more influence now than I ever had, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> the whole Indiana +delegation backed me for the place," wailed McPhail. "What in heaven I +thought to gain by coming out here and taking such a job is more than I +can guess now. Every one said there was money in it; no one thought of +the danger. If my wife and kids were only safe at home I wouldn't care +so much. It's that that I'm thinking of. Can't we do this somehow +without bringing on a row?"</p> + +<p>"The row's here now and growing worse every minute. His own bucks are +ready for battle. He'll have every son of a squaw in this camp painting +himself chrome-yellow inside an hour, and he'll never rest till he's +harangued every village in the valley twixt this and morning. Our one +chance is to nab him midway when he rides from here to Little Big Man's +roost up-stream. Tell Lutz to meet me at the willows, and for God's sake +go!"</p> + +<p>And still the agent hesitated. Barely six months had he served in his +new and unaccustomed sphere. Old-world nations, either monarchies that +take no thought for the morrow's vote of the masses, or republics that +have outlived their illusions, suit their servants to the work in hand. +Uncle Sam, having hosts of importunate sons demanding recognition +irrespective of merit, and being as yet barely a centenarian, is at the +mercy of his clamorous and inconsiderate millions. Each salaried office +in his gift calls with each new administration for a new incumbent, +whose demanded qualifications are not "what can he do to improve the +service?" but "what has he done to benefit the party?" In this way do we +manufacture consuls who know next to nothing of the manners, customs,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span> +language, and business abroad, and agents who know even less of the +Indians at home.</p> + +<p>But the problem in hand was settled for the sorely troubled official in +a most unlooked-for way. Sharp-eyed squaws spied the little squad of +horsemen at the outskirts of the village, the agent in his wolf-skin +overcoat, the troopers in the army blue, with the collars of their +overcoats up about their ears, and some one ran to Red Dog with the +news. With all "the majesty of buried Denmark" he paused in his speech, +faced the intruders, then came striding slowly towards them, warriors, +women, squaws, and children opening out and making a lane for his royal +progress.</p> + +<p>"Whatever you do, no words with him here," whispered Boynton to the +agent, now trembling with excitement and nervous apprehension. "Stand to +your terms. He can talk with you only at your office,—the agency."</p> + +<p>With the stately war-bonnet of eagle feathers trailing down his back and +dragging along the ground, the chief came stalking on, never hastening, +never slackening his stride, and after him flocked the warriors and +women of the tribe, the men eager and defiant, the women trembling in +fearsome dread.</p> + +<p>"Shall we turn and ride away?" asked the agent, his blue lips twitching.</p> + +<p>"No. Face him now,—cool as you can. Look him straight in the eye. Make +no answer,—I'll do that. Ride slowly away when I say '<i>now</i>' and not +before. Advance carbine there, men! Fetch 'em up slowly."</p> + +<p>Ten feet away from them Red Dog halted and stood erect, drawn up to his +full height. Slowly he folded<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> his arms, and sternly he bent his gaze +upon the four white men. Silently his followers ranged up in big circle, +almost enveloping the stolid troopers. For a moment nothing was heard +but the shuffling of moccasined feet, the quick breathing or murmured +words of the squaws, the feeble wail of some Indian baby left to its own +devices in the parental lodge. Sniffing the tainted air the horses +shrank a bit, rallying under the prompt touch of the spur and standing +with erect, quivering ear and starting eyeball, staring at the coming +throng and uttering low snorts of fear. And then at last in the Dakota +tongue Red Dog hailed his visitors just as down the valley the +monotonous throb of the Indian drum began.</p> + +<p>"Why are these soldiers here?"</p> + +<p>To the agent it was, of course, unintelligible: he had been among the +tribe too short a time. Boynton understood, and in low tone muttered, +"Pay no attention to him whatever. Look around as though you were in +search of somebody you knew and wanted to see." Then aloud he called, +authoritively, "Come, step out there, some one of you who can speak +soldier English. Where's Elk? He'll do if you want to ask questions." +And presently Elk-at-Bay, he who bore the chieftain's message and +confiscated the agent's cigars, edged his way to the front, but with far +less truculence of mien than when the agent stood unsupported by +soldiers.</p> + +<p>"Red Dog asks why soldiers here," said he.</p> + +<p>"Tell him we're here to enjoy the scenery, if you know how to do it, and +minding our own business," was Boynton's reply.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Red Dog not speak to soldiers. He asks the man the Great Father sends +him."</p> + +<p>"Well, you tell him the agent of the Great Father will talk with him +there, at his office, and nowhere else," said Boynton, "and that +to-night's his last chance to hear what the Great Father has to say to +him."</p> + +<p>Unfolding his arms, the chief took a splendid stride forward. He +understood Boynton, as Boynton well knew, and now was preparing for an +outburst of oratory. The instant he opened his mouth to speak Boynton +turned to the agent and whispered, "Now," and coolly and indifferently +as he knew how, that official reined his broncho around and headed him +for the twinkling lights of the distant buildings. Red Dog began in +sonorous Dakota, with magnificent sweep of his bare, silver-banded arm, +and Boynton touched up his charger impatiently and rode a length closer, +his two troopers sitting like statues with the butts of their carbines +resting on the thigh, the muzzles well forward.</p> + +<p>"Red Dog wastes time and wind talking here. If he wants to be heard let +him go there," said Boynton, pointing to the distant agency. "Unless," +he added, with sarcastic emphasis,—"unless Red Dog's afraid." And then +he, too, reined deliberately about and signalled to his men to follow. +For a moment there was silence as Elk stumblingly put into Sioux the +lieutenant's ultimatum. Then came an outburst of wrath and invective. +Red Dog afraid, indeed! Loudly he called for his horse, and the crowd +gave way as a boy came running leading the chief's pet piebald. In an<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span> +instant, Indian fashion, he had thrust his heavily-beaded moccasin far +into the off-side stirrup and thrown his leggined left leg over the high +silver-tipped cantle, and the trained war pony began to bound and +curvet. Swinging over his head his beautiful new Winchester, Red Dog +rode furiously to and fro, haranguing the excited tribesmen, and +speedily more Indians were sitting hunched up in saddle, but darting +skilfully hither and yon, yelping shrill alarm. Others dashed away to +the distant village to rouse Red Dog's own people and summon the +warriors that remained. In fifteen minutes, at the head of three hundred +mounted braves, Red Dog was riding straight for the agency, his escort +gaining numbers with every rod. Red Dog afraid, indeed!</p> + +<p>Over the moonlit sweep of snow the watchers at the corral saw the coming +throng, a moving mass, black and ominous as the storm-cloud. Within the +buildings all hands were hastily barricading doors and windows and +bustling a few women and children, trembling and terrified, into the +cellars. Out in the corral in disciplined silence the troopers were +promptly mustering and forming line. Six or eight of the party that +arrived with Davies that morning having badly frozen fingers and toes +were told off to act as horse-holders. "We've simply to fight on the +defensive," said Boynton to his silent second in command, "and we'll +fight afoot. Thirty men can defend the corral and out-houses and the +front of the agency. The rest we'll put in the building. That's all +we've got."</p> + +<p>Away from the excited group at the office door a horseman turned and +spurred full speed for the hills<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span> far to the southwest. "Tell 'em we're +attacked by overpowering numbers," said McPhail, "and want instant +help,—all they can send us." There was no time to write despatches; the +shouts and taunts and shrill defiance of the coming troop already rang +in their ears.</p> + +<p>"Now then, McPhail," said Boynton, lunging up through the snow-drifts, +carbine in hand, "I've got my men at every loop and knot-hole, and those +beggars can't take this shop to-night. What I want is authority to +arrest that head devil the moment he gets here."</p> + +<p>"It will only infuriate them and make matters worse," pleaded the +representative of the Indian bureau.</p> + +<p>"Well, it's the only way to put an end to the row," said the soldier. +"The only thing in God's world those fellows respect is force and pluck. +You've temporized too long. Arrest him and tell his fellows to disperse +to their tepees in two minutes or we open fire."</p> + +<p>"How can you arrest him in front of all that array?" was the tremulous +question. "Do you suppose they'll permit it?"</p> + +<p>"That's my business," was Boynton's answer. "I don't mean to let that +gang come within three hundred yards, and you're a worse fool than I +thought if you overrule me. I'm going to ride out there now to halt them +at the creek. Then you order Red Dog forward with his interpreter and +bring him in here a prisoner. You've not an instant to lose," he +finished as a trooper came up at the run, Boynton's big bay trotting at +his heels. The lieutenant was in saddle in a second. "Are you agreed?" +he asked.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Why, they'll say we began it, lieutenant. They'll swear they were only +coming to talk. They've always been accustomed to come here whenever +they wanted to. We have only a handful of men; they've got a thousand +fighting braves within a day's call. My God! I can't risk my family!"</p> + +<p>"You've done that already with your confounded temporizing. Look there, +man. It's too late now. There's where I would have held them, along the +creek bank. Now they're swarming across."</p> + +<p>Singing, shouting, brandishing lance and rifle, their barbaric ornaments +gleaming in the frosty moonlight, some of the younger men darting to and +fro on their swift ponies, mad with excitement, on came the surging +crowd, led by the majestic figure of the big chief, jogging straight on +at the slow, characteristic amble of the Indian pony, his war-bonnet +trailing to the ground. From far and near, up and down the valley, dim, +ghostly, shadowy horsemen came darting to join the array. Close behind +Red Dog some rabid warrior began a wild war chant, and others took it +up. Somewhere along the throng a tom-tom began its rapid, monotonous +thump, and here, there, and everywhere the rattles played their weird, +stirring accompaniment.</p> + +<p>"Well, by God, McPhail! you may let them ride over you and yours, but +they can't ride over me and mine without a fight," said Boynton, now +wild with wrath. "That whole force will be swarming through the premises +in five minutes. Quick, Davies!" he cried. "Forward as skirmishers! +Cover that front! Ten men will do." And without further command, +scorning prescribed order of formation, but<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> with the quick intuition of +the American soldier,—the finest skirmisher in the world,—a little +party of troopers watching at the corral gate, sprang forth into the +moonlight and, opening out like a fan, carbines at trail or on the +shoulder, forward at full run they dashed, spreading as rapidly as they +possibly could to irregular intervals of something like ten yards from +man to man, and presently there interposed between the coming host and +the black group of buildings at their back this thin line of dismounted +men, halted in silence to await the orders of the tall, slender +subaltern officer, who, afoot like themselves, now stood some thirty +paces in rear of their centre, calmly confronting the advancing Indians. +Up to Davies's side rode Boynton, bent and whispered a word, then +spurred forward to the line, and there, reining in, raised to the full +length of his arm a gauntleted hand, palm to the front, and gave the +universal signal known by every Indian and frontiersman from Hudson's +Bay to the Gulf of California,—"Halt!"</p> + +<p>"Red Dog comes to talk with the Great Father's agent, not with you," +shouted Elk, lashing forward for a parley.</p> + +<p>"All right. Come on, you and Red Dog, but order your gang to stay where +they are. The agent will talk with Red Dog, but no one else."</p> + +<p>Without audible orders of any kind, the Indians had suddenly ceased +their clamor, and now, apparently, were quickly ranging up into long, +irregular line in rear of their chief. Presently, as Red Dog and Elk +conferred, there stretched across the snow-streaked prairie some three +hundred motley braves, mounted on<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> their war ponies, the flanks of the +line receiving constant additions from the direction of the distant +lodges. Then Elk again came forward, Red Dog sitting in statuesque +dignity in front of his tribesmen.</p> + +<p>"The white chief has his soldiers. The agent of the Great Father has his +men. Red Dog demands the right to bring an equal retinue," was doubtless +what the Indian wished to say and what in the homely metaphor of the +plains he made at once understood. "You got soldiers. Agent got heap. +Red Dog he say he bring heap same," was the way Elk put it, and Boynton +expected it.</p> + +<p>"Tell Red Dog the soldiers will fall back and the agent come half-way +out afoot. Red Dog and you dismount and come forward half-way. If your +people advance a step we fire. That's all."</p> + +<p>Another low-toned parley between the chief and his henchmen. Two minutes +of silent fidgeting along the line of mounted Indians. Like so many blue +statues the skirmishers stood or knelt, carbines advanced, every hammer +at full cock. Back in the shadows of the agency hearts were thumping +hard and all eyes were strained upon the scene at the east. The moon, +riding higher every moment, looked coldly down upon the valley. Elk came +forward again, and Red Dog's war-bonnet wagged first to right and then +to left. He was saying something in low tone to the braves at his back +and they were passing it along to the outer flanks of the line.</p> + +<p>"Red Dog says soldiers go back and agent come out and talk," said he.</p> + +<p>"All right so far, but does Red Dog agree to dismount? Does he agree to +hold his people where they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> are? Does he understand that if they advance +we fire? Here, Red Dog," said Boynton, riding forward half a dozen +yards, "you understand me well enough. If your crowd moves a pony length +forward we fire, and, mark you, any trick or treachery and down you go, +first man."</p> + +<p>To this Red Dog deigned no other response than a scowl.</p> + +<p>"Back up slowly, men, face to the front," said Boynton to his silent +line. "Hold 'em, Davies. I'll go back to McPhail."</p> + +<p>But when the agent was told the terms of the parley he refused. "Why, +he'd knife or pistol me just as the Modocs did the Peace Commissioners," +said he. "I won't step off the agency porch. We've got seven armed men +here. Let him bring seven, and you have your soldiers ready inside the +corral. Then if he wants to talk business he can see me here."</p> + +<p>By this time, slowly retiring and gradually closing toward the centre, +Davies and his skirmishers had come back within twenty yards of the +building. Boynton swore a round oath. "There's no help for it, Parson, +we've got to do as this chump decides. There's one chance yet. Get your +men back to their loop-holes and join me here. No man to fire, remember, +except as ordered."</p> + +<p>Quickly the troopers scurried back to their positions along the +stockade. Originally it had been intended to enclose all the buildings +within this defensive work, but the returning tourists were prompt to +express their disapprobation. Having just shaken hands with the Great +Father at Washington, they were suspicious of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> such an exhibition of +lack of confidence on the part of his agent. That the store-rooms should +have iron-barred windows was another ground for remark and remonstrance. +The red children refused to enter a stockade whose gates might be closed +behind them, or a room whose windows were barred. An inspector came out +and held a powwow and shook hands with everybody, and told the agent the +red children were lambs who would never harm him and he mustn't show +distrust. It hurt their sensitive natures. So the stockade only enclosed +the shed and stables, but it abutted, luckily, upon the agent's house +and office. Re-entering the house from the rear, after a few words of +instruction to Sergeant Lutz and his men, Davies pushed through +hurriedly to the front piazza. Red Dog in grand state, with an +interpreter at his left rear and seven stalwart braves aligned like a +general's staff six yards behind him, came riding with majestic dignity, +straight to the dark portico. Red Dog afraid, indeed! Turning his horse +over to an orderly and sending him within the stockade, Boynton ordered +the gate closed.</p> + +<p>"We'll have a breeze here in a minute," he whispered to Davies. "That +sinner means mischief. You watch him and the agent. I'll keep my eye on +the main body."</p> + +<p>Fifteen yards away, Red Dog halted and silently studied the shadowy +group on the agency porch. There stood the bureau's "ablegate," the +official interpreter by his side. In the door-way, dimly outlined, were +two of his assistants, men who had known the Sioux for years, but knew +not influential relatives in the East. Boynton ranged up close alongside +in hopes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span> of prompting the official. "He's beginning to look knee-sprung +already," whispered he to Davies, "but I'll brace him if I can." Just +behind the agent stood one of his police, and this was before the days +of an Indian police that, properly handled, proved valuable as +auxiliaries. Then Red Dog in slow, sonorous speech began to declaim.</p> + +<p>"Choke him off! Make him dismount and report at your office. He'll only +insult you where he is," whispered Boynton.</p> + +<p>"Red Dog says, as the agent didn't dare come and get him, he concluded +to come in and see whether the agent would dare take him," began the +interpreter, in trembling tones, the moment the Indian paused.</p> + +<p>"Too late, by God!" hissed Boynton between his set teeth. "He means to +blackguard the whole party right here and then ride off rejoicing."</p> + +<p>And Red Dog reined closer and began anew. Throwing back his +quill-embroidered robe, he lifted a muscular arm to heaven, and with +clinching fist and flashing eyes seemed to hurl invective straight in +the agent's face.</p> + +<p>"You dare demand the arrest of Red Dog, do you?" he thundered in his +native tongue, leaving hardly an instant for the interpreter. "Now hear +Red Dog's reply. The blood of one of our young men calls aloud for +vengeance. His slayer is here and you know him. Red Dog, backed by the +braves of every tribe at the reservation, comes to demand his surrender. +Give him up to us and your lives are safe. Refuse, and you, your wives +and children, are at the mercy of my young men. Red Dog dares and defies +the soldiers of the Great Father."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span></p> + +<p>Consciously or unconsciously, in the magnificence of his wrath, the +chief had ridden almost to the very edge of the porch and there shook +his clinched fist in the ghastly face of McPhail. The agent started back +amazed, terrified, for as though to emphasize his defiance Red Dog's +gleaming revolver was whipped suddenly from its sheath and flashed aloft +over his feathered head.</p> + +<p>And then there came sudden fury of excitement. A bound from the edge of +the porch, a fierce yell, an outburst of Indian war-cries, a surging +forward of the escort at the chieftain's back, a rush and scurry in the +offices, the slamming of doors, the flash and report of a dozen +revolvers, a distant roar and thunder of a thousand hoofs and chorus of +thrilling yells, a scream from the women and children in the cellars +below, a ringing cheer from the stockade, followed by the resonant bang, +bang of the cavalry carbine, and all in an instant a mad, whirling +maelstrom of struggle right at the steps, braves and ponies, soldiers +and scouts, all crashing together in a rage of battle, and then, bending +low to avoid the storm of well-aimed bullets from practised hands at the +stockade, some few warriors managed to dash, bleeding, away, just as a +determined little band of blue-coats, half a dozen in number, leaped +through the door-way and down the steps, blazing into the ruck as they +charged, and within another minute were coolly kneeling and firing at +the swarming, yelling, veering warriors, already checked in their wild +clash to the rescue, and within the little semicircle two furiously +straining forms, locked in each other's arms, were rolling over and over +on the trampled snow,—Red Dog, panting, raging, biting,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> cursing, but +firmly, desperately held in the clasp of an athletic soldier, for +without a word Percy Davies had leaped from the porch and borne the +Sioux chieftain struggling to the ground. Red Dog,—redder than ever +before, even on the bloody day of the Little Horn,—bound hand and feet +with cavalry lariats, spent that long winter's night a prisoner in the +hands of Boynton's men, while the prairie without was dotted with braves +and ponies, dropped by their cool, relentless aim. Red Dog at last had +had his day.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2> + + +<p>The blizzard that swept down on the broad valley of the Platte the night +of the hop,—the night Davies marched away,—though severe, had been of +short duration. A warm wind and a strong wind from the Arkansas met and +overthrew it, and pursued its decisive victory to the Dakota line. The +snow was "slumping," said the little Leonards, when Messrs. Burtis and +Willett drove out from Braska Friday afternoon and took Mrs. Davies and +Mrs. Darling sleighing up the valley. It was freezing, of course, again +by sundown, but judging from Mira's glowing cheeks the drive in the +exhilarating air had done her a deal of good, and she sat with Willett, +while Mrs. Darling faced the breeze at the side of his accomplished +associate. Many women watched the start and some saw the finish, and +none with more interest than Mrs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> Flight, who had never before been +left on such occasions, nor with more distress than Mrs. Cranston, who +knew not what to say. The party dined at the Darlings' quarters that +evening, and later some of the boys came to Leonard and asked if it +wouldn't be possible to have a few of the band in the hop-room. They +wanted to dance and Darling's house was too small. Leonard said they +knew the colonel's decision,—the bandsmen were expected to play once a +week as late as any one cared to dance in consideration of certain small +extra pay. If they played at any other time, they had a right to expect +compensation. He would not order them out. Messrs. Sanders and Dot and +Jervis could go and see the leader and arrange with him as to terms and +men, if they chose, and have their dance. It wasn't what the boys +expected; moreover, it was late, but they were young, energetic, and +enthusiastic. Three musicians were found and a dozen couples, and long +after midnight the lights and laughter and merry strains of music told +that the younger element of Scott was enjoying itself irrespective of +anything that might be going on at the almost forgotten agency. The +chaplain and his wife, going earlier in the evening to call and cheer +Almira, were met by Katty at the door and the information that "the +misthress was dinin' at Mrs. Darlin's." Katty was short with her +visitors for two reasons. She didn't approve of the dominie, as he was +not of the faith of her Irish fathers, and she did approve of Corporal +Lenihan, who had come to spend the evening. When, therefore, the worthy +couple announced that they would return later after making other calls +in order to see if there were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span> not something they could do for Mrs. +Davies, who must be dreadfully sad, Katty replied, "'Deed and they +needn't worry, for it's more'n <i>she</i> did." The stern discipline of the +post took Lenihan off to his troop at tattoo, but Katty lacked not for +company. "It wasn't becoming," said her mother, "that she should be left +to herself at the dead of night with no one but that lout Barnickel to +look after her." So she came up from Sudsville at taps to discuss Mrs. +Davies's tea and preserves and, incidentally, her character with her +blooming daughter, and Barnickel was sociably disposed, and the kitchen +congress was in animated session when at 11.30 <span class="smcap">p.m.</span> there came a sharp +ring at the bell.</p> + +<p>"Bless us! I didn't suppose they'd be home till long after midnight," +said Katty, as she scurried away. It wasn't the misthress, however; only +Mrs. Darling's maid, to say that Mrs. Davies would not come home; she +would spend the night at Mrs. Darling's, and Letty had come for her +things. This necessitated Mrs. Maloney's remaining all night to further +look after Katty, and what more natural than that they should light Mrs. +Davies's lamp and spend a blissful hour in her simply furnished but +pretty room, looking over the new gowns and garments and jimcracks, and +so absorbed were they in this occupation that they took no heed of time; +and so it happened that the good old chaplain, coming shortly after +midnight over from the hospital, whither he had been summoned to the +bedside of a sorely-stricken trooper, rejoiced to see that Mrs. Davies, +at least, had not gone to the dance, but was keeping wifely vigil in the +sanctity of her own room, praying, probably, for the safety of the loved +young<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> husband now on perilous duty eighty miles away. At the corner, at +the end of the long row of quarters, a solitary figure was standing. The +chaplain recognized the beaver overcoat in the soft moonlight and the +soldierly face under the forage-cap.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Cranston! Officer-of-the-day, I see. Just going the rounds?"</p> + +<p>"I was,—yes,—but I saw you coming, so waited. How's Hooker?"</p> + +<p>"Very low, poor fellow! Typhoid has him in tight grip. He's flighty +to-night. He thinks he's back on the summer campaign again, and his talk +is all of the Antelope Springs affair. Odd! this makes the third man to +come back from Boynton's party, two with typhoid fever and one with the +mail-carrier and a bottle,—Brannan I mean,—and they all talk about +that. From what I have gathered it would seem that Devers blamed Mr. +Davies for the whole tragedy, but the men, when their tongues are +loosened by fever or rum, lay loads of blame elsewhere."</p> + +<p>"Yes?" said Cranston, with deep interest, yet reluctant to talk of +regimental scandal with an outsider. "I should like to know what they +say."</p> + +<p>"Well, they say McGrath could tell a tale if he were alive, and that +Lutz and the men at the agency believe they were shoved up there because +they had said things which First Sergeant Haney overheard and reported +to the captain. It seemed queer, even to me, so many men going from +Devers's troop under command of somebody else's lieutenant, and now +Davies himself has gone, and suppose he should hear of this talk?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p> + +<p>"He will know what to do, chaplain. Davies has earnest friends who will +not see him further wronged, but just now, as you probably understand, +nothing can be done. Now excuse me a moment. I may have been mistaken, +but I thought I saw a man's figure hanging about the back gate of Number +Twelve as I came up the bluff from the wood-yard. I thought he went +through Davies's yard and that I'd see him crossing the parade when I +got to the corner, but not a soul was in sight and it is almost as light +as the day. If he didn't go through he must be in the shadows there of +the wood-shed. There's been some prowling, and though this isn't the +sort of night for that sort of thing, it's still possible. Will you +kindly wait here and watch the front and this side while I beat up the +rear?"</p> + +<p>Wonderingly the chaplain assented, and, with his sabre clanking at his +side, Cranston strode away northward along the line of white +picket-fence until he came to the high rear barrier of the row, one of +black unplaned boards, and around behind that he disappeared. Across the +intervening yard and through the open gate-way at the back the chaplain +could see a patch of the snow-clad valley, and watched for the +appearance of Cranston's sturdy form in that silvery gap.</p> + +<p>But another eye had also been alert. The very instant the figure of the +officer-of-the-day disappeared from view behind the high back fence, out +from the shadows of the shed there sprang a lithe, slender form, clad in +soldier overcoat, and, in less time than it takes to tell it, around it +darted behind the shed, was one instant poised at the top of the fence +that separated the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> yard of Davies's quarters from that of their +next-door neighbor, then noiselessly dropped out of sight on the other +side. The next minute Cranston appeared in the gap.</p> + +<p>Instead of shouting, fearful of disturbing the inmates, the chaplain +quit his post, hastened along the front to Davies's gate and around the +house to the rear, where he found Cranston searching.</p> + +<p>"There was a man. I saw him. He leaped the fence into the next yard. A +tall, slender fellow."</p> + +<p>But search in there and in its fellows revealed nothing. The prowler had +had time to skip from yard to yard, and nothing short of the services of +the entire guard would be apt to result in his capture.</p> + +<p>"I wish you had shouted to me. I could have grabbed him in Hay's yard," +said Cranston.</p> + +<p>"Well, I didn't like to for fear of startling Mrs. Davies," said the +chaplain, simply, and Cranston glanced quickly and queerly up at him +from under the visor of the little cavalry cap.</p> + +<p>"Why, she——" he began, then checked himself abruptly.</p> + +<p>"Could you give no description of him? Did he leave no trace?" asked +Captain Devers at the office next morning when the old +officer-of-the-day made his report.</p> + +<p>"No, sir, but the chaplain might. He saw him plainly,—said he was tall +and slender."</p> + +<p>And Captain Devers replied,—</p> + +<p>"Very good, sir. You're relieved," and then turned to the new incumbent, +Captain Rogers, of the infantry: "I wish especial attention given to +this matter, Captain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span> Rogers, and probably I shall take a turn with you +to-night after twelve."</p> + +<p>But that night long after twelve the whole post took a turn. It was +towards four <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> when the telegraph operator, who slept always beside +his instrument, came banging at the door of "A" Troop's office. It was +opened by an indignant Irish sergeant. "Go rout out the captain at once. +You know how to rouse him and I don't. There's hell to pay and the whole +crowd wanted." And Haney, who would have damned his impudence another +time, donned his clothes without an instant's delay, and together they +ran across the parade and brought up with a bang at Devers's storm-door.</p> + +<p>Agatha Loomis was probably a light sleeper. It was her tap at the +Cranstons' room that first roused them.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" cried Margaret, up in an instant and filled with no other +apprehension than that of more sore throat or cough in the nursery.</p> + +<p>"There's some excitement and running about the post. The office is +lighted and people are hurrying over there."</p> + +<p>Cranston looked at his watch,—4.15. Peering out of the dormer-window at +the front, he could see dark forms scurrying across the parade and +lights beginning to pop up here and there and everywhere along the row +of barracks. Hurriedly donning his stable dress and furs, he went down +to the hall-way, Margaret, pale and silent now, following. A man was +knocking at the door of the adjoining quarters, and Cranston recognized +the form of Lieutenant Jervis. "What's up?" he queried.</p> + +<p>"Big row at the agency," came the murmured reply.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span> "Reckon most +everybody will have to go." And though he spoke in low, guarded tone, +Margaret heard, and then clung to her husband's arm.</p> + +<p>"Again! so soon?" she cried. "Oh, God! Are we never to know one-half +year of peace?"</p> + +<p>Cranston led her into the warm little parlor and took her in his arms. +"I must go to head-quarters at once," he whispered. "Doubtless I should +have been there before; but don't borrow trouble, Meg, dear, wait until +I know what's to be done." Then he left her with Agatha and went his +way.</p> + +<p>The office was crowded. Devers sat in the colonel's chair pencilling +despatches to be sent to department head-quarters. Around him, sitting +or standing, were most of the officers of the garrison, either silently +regarding him or chatting in low tone. All that was known was that Sam +Poole, one of the best and most daring scouts employed at the agency, +had ridden into Braska about three o'clock, his horse nearly spent, with +the news that the whole gang of Sioux had risen in revolt and attacked +the agent. He left at 8.15 Friday night with McPhail's plea for instant +help and all they could send of it, but so deep were the drifts in +places and so exhausted was his horse that it had taken him all that +time to reach the railway. The wire was still down and he bore the +latest news. There could be no mistake: the attack had fairly begun +before he was out of hearing. The volleying and yelling beat anything +he'd heard since the battle at Slim Buttes in September. The +quartermaster in charge of the depot at Braska had despatches wired at +once to Omaha and another out to the fort. Devers was up in a few +minutes<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span> and had sent his orderly for certain of the officers, and the +noise of ringing or knocking along the row had roused others. Cranston +and Hay were not of those sent for, but Devers explained that he took it +for granted they were prepared to take the field with their troops at a +moment's notice, and did not care to disturb them until he knew what +they would be required to do. It would be several hours before orders +could reach them from Omaha, he reasoned, and he had no idea what the +orders would be. The whole command might be sent, or none of it. +Meantime vigorous preparations were going on in the store-rooms and +kitchens along the barrack row, "A" Troop's activity being conspicuous. +But without waiting for orders from their captains, the veteran first +sergeants of the other troops were getting everything in readiness, and +when Hay and Cranston walked over to the barracks to see how far +preparations were advanced, each had an approving word for his faithful +aide.</p> + +<p>But Omaha was wider awake than Devers supposed. The Gray Fox was in +possession of the news almost as soon as the post commanders, and he and +his adjutant-general were at the telegraph-office within half an hour. +"I will go by first train," said he. "Meantime we must start a big +force."</p> + +<p>And so before the reveille bugles were singing through the wintry +morning along the slopes of the Rockies, the telegraph had roused the +officers at all the posts along the railway for five hundred miles. +Russell, Sanders, and Sidney were up and astir with preparation. Special +trains were ordered to meet and convey their detachments of horse, foot, +and pack-trains,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span> so that a big command might concentrate at once at +Sidney and march thence, 'cross country, to the Ogallalla Agency, +Colonel Winthrop at their head. The commanding officer of Fort Scott was +directed to start three troops of cavalry and two companies of infantry +at once, with instructions to join Colonel Winthrop's column at the +Niobrara crossing, and, his own troop being now the smallest at the +post, owing to these details at the agency, Devers very properly decided +on sending everybody else's. Truman, Hay, and Cranston of the Eleventh +and Pollock and Muncey of the Fortieth were the captains ordered to +march forthwith. Before eight o'clock on Sunday morning the little +column had swung sturdily away over the prairies, and Captain Devers, +with his own attenuated troop and two companies of "doughboys," remained +to guard the post and its supplies, and take care of the invalid colonel +and the wives and children of the soldiers so summarily ordered into the +field.</p> + +<p>And now Almira could not lack sympathizers, for both Mrs. Flight and +Mrs. Darling had been called upon to say adieu to their respective +lords, who marched with their sturdy comrades in the wake of the +cavalry, guarding the few wagons which had to be taken; but these +gentlemen belonged to a famous regiment that had known no other history +since the day of its organization than that of constant active service. +The Fortieth was forever in the field,—its wives "perennially +grass-widowed," said the garrison wits,—its children so seldom blessed +with the sight of the paternal face as to be preternaturally wise in +picking out their own fathers. The Fortieth went as a matter of course.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span> +The two companies remaining behind looked upon that as a mere accident +that time would surely rectify. The two that went made the customary +appeal to the post commander for the release of certain untried and +unpunished of their weaker members who happened to be at the moment +languishing in the guard-house, and the plea prevailed. Hearing this, +the chaplain, backed by Dr. Burroughs, came to the office with another +plea. There was the young man Brannan confined in the guard-house since +Wednesday morning last, he knew not on what charges and begged to be +released from durance so utterly vile and permitted to go with the +command to the rescue of his comrades at the agency,—what there might +be left of them.</p> + +<p>But Devers replied that Brannan's troop was not going. Furthermore, he +intended to have Brannan brought before a garrison court on the morrow. +This was the sorrowful message the chaplain carried, and Brannan wrung +his hands. "I have violated no regulation, missed no roll-call, been +drunk on no duty. I did drink when half frozen on that hard ride from +the agency to the post. I drank after I got here, but drank no more and +behaved no worse than half a dozen others of the troop who were with me +at the store, and some of whom drank more, got drunk and were allowed to +sleep it off in quarters and nothing said about it. Why am I singled out +for punishment? Why is Paine—who went to town and had to be brought +back by a patrol—why is he released and allowed to go as wagoner, while +I am forbidden to go at all? There's surely something behind all this, +chaplain."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span></p> + +<p>And the dominie didn't say so to the man, but thought so to himself. He +was still talking with the prisoner when the sergeant of the guard came +and said he was sorry, but orders had just come for Brannan to be sent +to the quartermaster's corral at once to help load wagons, and the young +fellow, with tears in his eyes, was led mutely away. Cranston happened +to ride by the corral ten minutes later and caught sight of the pale, +fine-featured face, whose-eyes looked up at him wistfully, imploringly.</p> + +<p>"Why, Brannan," said he, "I had hoped to hear of your release by this +time. We march in less than an hour, and I fear nothing I can say to +Captain Devers will be apt to help you, but try to keep up good heart. +Say nothing about this confinement to your mother when you write, and +I'll ask Mr. Leonard to look out for you. He'll see that no great harm +comes."</p> + +<p>"It seems as if everything had gone against me, sir," said the boy, with +quivering lips. "I don't know why I can't get justice in this troop. If +Captain Devers thinks me so bad a soldier, why don't he let me transfer? +I've asked twice, and he refuses. It's my belief he's trying to drive me +to desert so as to get me out of the way—or destroy my character."</p> + +<p>"Hush, Brannan. You know that you ought not to talk to me in that way. +There's no time for words. I'll ask Mr. Hay to keep special lookout for +you. I know the general will overtake us to-morrow, and quick as +possible I'll have a word with him. Now, good-by, lad. Stand to your +guns a little longer and you're all right."</p> + +<p>"I'll try, sir, if you'll give my—give my respects to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span> Mr. Davies, and +say to Miss Loomis—God bless her." And with a choke in his voice the +young soldier turned suddenly away, dashing his sleeve over his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Get to work there, you, Brannan," growled Sergeant Haney before +Cranston was out of hearing. "No more palavering with officers out of +your own troop this day unless you want double trouble in it,—and be +damned to you," he added, in low and cautious tone, his eyes furtively +following the captain, now twenty yards away. And Cranston was riding +home to don his winter field rig and to a parting that he dreaded beyond +all description, for now, more than for many a long year, had Margaret +need of all her husband's love and encouragement and devotion.</p> + +<p>Sunday noon the detachment from Scott was across the railway and first +on march to the beleaguered agency. Sunday night they camped in the +breaks of the big divide, some fifteen miles north of Braska, and still +no tidings came from beyond the Niobrara. Restoring the telegraph line +as they went, digging it out from under the snow, the infantry trudged +along all day Monday, following the trail of their mounted comrades who +left them at dawn, and early Monday morning an ambulance drawn by six +spanking big brown mules whipped by them along the road, and the kindly +twinkling eyes of their old friend and fellow-campaigner, the general, +peered out at them. Away he went to overtake the foremost riders, with +just brief word or two and cordial grasp of the hand to the few officers +who hastened alongside. Without guard or escort, with only a single +aide-de-camp, with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span> his life in his hands as usual, the Gray Fox was +heading straight for the scene of danger. "Heard anything at all?" he +asked.</p> + +<p>"Not a thing." Who could tell whether man or woman was left to forward +word of any kind?</p> + +<p>Monday night the cavalry reached the snow-covered banks of the Niobrara, +and went into bivouac on the northern shore to await the coming of the +black speck that, just before dusk, could be seen far in their wake +picking a way through the drifts in its descent from the crest of the +divide. "It's the general, of course," said everybody, and the general +it was.</p> + +<p>"Anybody come ahead yet from Winthrop?" was his first question. No! The +Sidney road was covered in places by drifts that had lain unbroken ever +since the storm. "Any news from the agency?"</p> + +<p>Not a word, and it lay now barely a dozen miles away. Tuesday morning, +too impatient to wait for coming reinforcements, and confident he could +hold his own with the little force at hand, the Gray Fox pushed ahead. +All were up and off at the break of the wintry day, and at eight o'clock +had neared the top of the divide between the shallow, placid Niobrara +and the swift Chasing Water beyond. Little Sanders, trotting far in the +advance with three or four light riders, threw himself from his horse, +unslung his field-glass, and peered long and anxiously into the +northward valley. All seemed desolate and deserted. A smoke was drifting +lazily upward from the site of the distant agency; not from peaceful +chimney, but rising from a mass of smouldering ruins. The villages of +Red Dog, Kills Asleep, Little Big Man, even of Two Lance, had +disappeared,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span> and of the Ogallalla Agency not another vestige could be +seen but the grim outlines of the stockade.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2> + + +<p>When Sanders, with solemn face, turned to meet the general and report +his discovery, the difference between the young and the old campaigner +was told in their own words.</p> + +<p>"I'm afraid we're too late to save 'em, sir. Everything's wiped out but +the stockade."</p> + +<p>"If the stockade's left, they've saved themselves," was the answer, and +the Gray Fox was right. Long before the column reached the lowlands of +the valley horsemen could be seen spurring eagerly forward to meet it, +and the first-comer was Trooper O'Brien, who saluted the general with +all soldierly grace and the rest of the array with a sociable grin.</p> + +<p>"We're all right, general,—leastwise most of us is. Two of the boys is +killed, and Loot'n't Boynton's wounded,—and four others,—but the +women's all safe, and the agent—bad scran to him! Is there a doctor +along?" A doctor was along,—Burroughs,—riding with the senior captain +commanding the battalion, and Burroughs was hurried forward with Sanders +and a squad of men, while O'Brien, proud of his prominence, rode by the +general's side and told the story of the sharp and sudden fight.</p> + +<p>"They came down on us like a crowd of grasshoppers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span> so soon as it was +light enough to see anything, but they couldn't get near us without our +bowling over bucks and ponies. The prairie's dotted with the corpses of +the poor beggars, sir,—the ponies, that is; they never left an Indian. +We stood 'em off first rate. Loot'nant Boynton and Loot'nant Davies was +everywhere at once, and after trying two dashes the Indians gave it up +and kept at long range. They was a thousand strong at least, and Elk +came in with a white flag for a parley, and Mr. Boynton ordered him +back, but McPhail let him in. He said we must give up Red Dog or they'd +burn the agency over our heads and massacre every man, and McPhail was +for letting him go then, but Mr. Boynton and he had words over it, and +they kept him. That night was cloudy and the moon was hid, and sure +enough at ten o'clock they crawled in on the storehouse side and heaped +up timber under them flimsy pine boards, and no one could see them on +that side until everything was in a broad blaze. It was when trying to +bucket out the fire the lieut'nant was shot, and it was a roaring +conflagration in five minutes, and from that it spread to the agency and +the other shebangs, and it was all we could do to get the women and +children out of the cellars and into the corral, and them bucks firing +from every sage brush for a mile around. The whole thing was down by +midnight, but it didn't do them no good: we was really better off with +less to take care of and more men to do it with, and we had wather in +the well and rations for all hands, and the agent and his non-combatants +under cover in one corner of the stockade, and Red Dog tied up in +another. All Sunday they kept up a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span> long-range fire, and five or six +times made as though they was going to charge, but Loot'nant Davies was +on all four sides of that square from dawn till dark, sir, and they +never got within four hundred yards that we didn't drop them. Sure it +was just pie, general. The only trouble was, could they set fire to the +stockade at night? The loot'nant had buckets of water all around inside, +and every little while a patrol ran round on the outside, and half the +fellows kept watch at the loop-holes while the others slept, and Mr. +Davies had the office side of the stockade battened up with old wagons +and boxes and things to fill the gap. Faith, sir, he never seemed to +close an eye night or day until this blessed morning, when the valley +was clear of Indians and we knew it meant that the general was coming." +And as O'Brien told his tale to attentive ears, others of the little +garrison, lately beleaguered, joined the battalion, still steadily in +march, and found eager auditors everywhere along the jogging column. +Every one sorrowed at hearing of Boynton's serious wound, for he was a +soldierly, faithful fellow, albeit a trifle blunt and unsociable, but as +man after man spoke in lavish praise of Davies, of his plucky grapple +with the most redoubtable chief in the rebellious tribes, of his calm, +cool vigilance and skill in the conduct of the defence after the command +devolved upon him, Cranston's eyes sparkled, and Hay and Truman joined +in the chorus of congratulation.</p> + +<p>When at last the battalion unsaddled at the stream and the officers +pressed into the stockade to shake hands with the defenders, they found +Boynton and the wounded feebly rejoicing in Burroughs's hands and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span> +Davies tucked away in a corner under an old wagon, rolled in agency +blankets, sleeping the dreamless sleep of a tired child.</p> + +<p>"Don't disturb him for anything," said the general, with moistened eyes. +"They tell me he hasn't had an hour's rest since Friday. He's behaved +like a trump."</p> + +<p>That night our old friend Tintop came trotting in at the head of eight +strong troops of horse, some of his own, others of the —th Cavalry. +Behind them, with the wagons, came the infantry, supplementing the +little detachment of the Fortieth already on the ground,—the sturdy +trampers from Fort Scott. Next day the agent and his household, with the +other women and children, were bustled off to Braska until new quarters +should be built for them, and his red wards be rounded up, run down, and +returned to the arms of Uncle Sam by their natural oppressors, the +cavalry. Sending Red Dog in irons and Boynton and the wounded back to +Scott by easy stages, leaving four companies of the Fortieth to build +cantonments for themselves and their comrades, the Gray Fox took the +field with the residue of his force and set forth upon a winter campaign +in search of the now scattered and despondent Indians. The oratory of +Red Dog had borne its fruit. Four truculent bands had joined in the +outbreak at the agency and lost their leader, half a score of +mad-brained young warriors, scores of their best war ponies, but, what +was of most consequence, had burned up the whole store of agency +provisions and, with their squaws and children, were now lurking among +the trackless Bad Lands to the north, outcasts upon the face of the +frozen earth.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span></p> + +<p>The only Indians whose condition was not made materially worse as a +result of this ebullition were the Brulé band of Two Lance, who had +taken advantage of the general confusion to slip away to their old head +chief Sintogaliska. He might not be able to feed or clothe them, and the +agent at Sheridan might say he had no authority to help, but they would +at least be getting as much comfort as was accorded them at Ogallalla, +and less abuse.</p> + +<p>And then, while the soldiers were stalking the renegades, the +commissioner of Indian affairs sent out to stalk the soldiers. +Investigation as to the cause of this inexplicable outbreak was +demanded. Those very chiefs had left the capital in unbounded good humor +not two months before, and who was responsible for this sudden and +baleful change of heart? It was a matter soon and easily settled. In the +absence of military testimony to the contrary and the presence of so +unanimous a party as the agent and his assistants, the fault was laid on +the broad shoulders of the troopers. Devers rode over from Scott to +Braska to hear the evidence, Boynton being still in surgical bandage and +bondage, and without committing himself to anything absolutely +derogatory to Messrs. Boynton and Davies, was certainly understood to +raise no dissenting voice to the often expressed theory that but for the +impetuosity and interference of those two officers the whole trouble +could have been amicably settled by the authorities of the Indian +bureau. And with this most satisfactory conclusion the commissioner +returned to Washington. Red Dog was ordered released and restored to the +bosom of his family, and when the general had finally<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span> succeeded in +bringing in the scattered starvelings and the cavalry reappeared at the +site of the agency, the first thing whispered to Davies was, "Be on your +guard every moment. Look out for Red Dog!"</p> + +<p>The general never swore. He was in this respect the mate of Grant, his +old-time friend and regimental comrade, but he could "look swear words +by the gallon," said the adjutant of the Eleventh, whose own chief was +in no wise tongue-tied. It fell to the lot of Mr. Gray, sent forward +from the Bad Lands to announce the coming of the field column with all +its humbled captives, to be the first on returning to announce to the +Gray Fox that Red Dog had been released from durance at Fort Scott, +equipped anew by McPhail at Braska, and had ridden to the cantonment to +harangue such Indians as were already reassembling there, and to thunder +furious threats at the officers of the Fortieth. Three bitter weeks had +the Gray Fox and his faithful men been scoring the wild, wintry +fastnesses along the Wakpa-Schicha, and, just as the Indians obtained +through the bureau the vast supplies of ammunition with which to battle +the soldiers through the summer past, so now, while the War Department +was running down the renegades in the field, the Interior Department was +running down the soldiery at home. The troops came in with the +conviction that they had been seeing some hard and trying service, many +of them with frosted fingers, toes, or ears, and thinking they deserved +rather well of their country for having finally rounded up a thousand +warriors with all their families, ponies, and unsavory impedimenta, and +the general so informed them, and leaving a command of eight companies,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span> +equally divided among the horse and foot, to occupy the cantonments on +the Chasing Water and thereafter keep the Indians in check, he hastened +away to attend to important business in another lively section of his +big department. The agency buildings were being rapidly restored, which +was much more than could be said of its influence for good among the red +men, and presently McPhail and his family reappeared on the scene, shook +hands all around with the warriors who burned him out several weeks +before, slapped Elk at Bay on the back and called him a bully boy, and +promptly requested of the commanding officer of the new cantonment, +which was a mile away up stream, a guard of a lieutenant and twenty-five +men to be stationed at the agency itself. The major demurred, and the +agent wired to Washington with the usual result. Whatsoever slur upon +his actions McPhail had seen fit to cast at the expense of Mr. Davies +during the investigation recently referred to, he had heard enough to +convince him that the Indians spoke of that officer with awe and +reverence and as "heap brave," so the man he urgently asked for to +command his guard was the very one whom he had maligned. The +adjutant-general of the department could only transmit the order that +came from superior head-quarters within the week, and Lieutenant Davies, +just as he was expecting brief leave of absence to visit his wife at +Fort Scott, was detailed to the command of the permanent agency guard. +The Ides of March had come.</p> + +<p>And how had it fared with Mira and her sympathetic friends at Scott +during all these weeks of toil and march and scout? Two at a time the +officers had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span> been allowed to run in thither for a few days as soon as +their men and horses were made fairly comfortable at the cantonments. +Cranston and Hay went first, then Truman and Jervis, then came the turn +to which Sanders and the patient Parson had been looking forward, and +Sanders went alone. Already some of those fearless frontierswomen, the +amazons of the Fortieth, had come ahead with bag, baggage and babies and +moved into the log huts of their lords as contentedly as they would have +taken quarters at the Grand Central in Omaha, but Mesdames Flight and +Darling were not of the number. Indeed, there was no reason why they +should be, as it was settled that their companies were those designated +presently to return to Scott; so was Hay's troop, so presumably would be +the detached members of Devers's Troop, "A," as soon as he wrote and +called attention to the fact that nearly one-half his men were detained +eighty miles away where there was now an abundance of other soldiery, +and the truly remarkable thing was that he, always hitherto so quick to +find fault with or criticise the actions of his superiors, was keeping +utter silence, and so long as he made no protest no one else could. +Colonel Stone, still weak and dazed, was just beginning to hobble about +the post, and for six wonderful weeks had Devers succeeded in retaining +the command.</p> + +<p>"Your husband will be home any day," said Mrs. Darling to Mira, when +they got the news of the triumphant return of the command to the +cantonments. "He belongs here with his troop, so he's sure to come, and +then," she added, archly, "what will poor Willett do?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span></p> + +<p>That was a question occurring to many another mind and falling from many +another tongue. The rapture of Cranston's home-coming one sharp evening +in late February was dashed only by the sight of a blooming face at +Willett's side behind that stylish Eastern team. In the windings of the +road among the willow islands in the Platte he had come suddenly upon +them, he riding at rapid gallop, they dawdling with loosened reins. +Willett was bending eagerly toward her, talking earnestly. She sat with +downcast eyes that never saw the swift rider until he had almost passed +them by. Mrs. Darling, chatting with Mr. Burtis on the rear seat, was +the first to announce his coming, and with rare presence of mind to turn +and send sweetest smiles and beaming glances and the welcome of a waving +hand after the grim, bearded face that had no smile for their civilian +escorts and only grave courtesy for the ladies themselves. He would not +mar the joy of his home-coming by the faintest reference to what he had +seen, but Margaret read his honest eyes as she read her boys', and knew +that he must have met them on the way. For weeks she had seen the rapid +growth of the new intimacy and deplored it, and had no one to confer +with about it except Agatha, but Agatha flatly refused to open her lips +upon the subject. It was a mercy that Wilbur at last came home and +unloosed her tongue. As she pathetically said, "I simply could not +contain myself any longer."</p> + +<p>But if Mrs. Cranston had held her tongue, there was no lack of others +who had not, and foremost of these was Mrs. Flight, who spoke by the +card. For a fortnight or so the devotion of these two ladies, Mrs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span> +Flight and Mira, to one another had been of that seething and tireless +character that rendered them incapable of spending an hour apart, and +then came the little tiffs and coolnesses that betokened that this, too, +was inevitably going the way of all such feminine intimacies. Up to the +day of Mira's coming Mrs. Flight and Mrs. Darling had been inseparable +for as much as a week at a time. Both were young, pretty, and +empty-headed; neither was burdened with children nor ideas. Both were +healthy, one was wealthy, neither was wise. Mrs. Darling had the +advantage over Mrs. Flight in that she was able to entertain lavishly, +whereas Mrs. Flight could only entertain by personal charm and sprightly +chat. They were the reigning belles at Scott, and not only the young +officers at the post, but the young civilians in town, found great +pleasure in their society. There was capital sleighing for several +weeks, and Willett and Burtis came as often as every other day to take +the ladies an airing. At first it had been Mesdames Flight and Darling, +then the bride had to be invited because she was the bride, then because +she was a beauty, and finally because Willett would have no one else. +Then as it was generally at Darlings' they lunched, dined, danced, +supped, were wined and warmed and welcomed, it transpired that +Mrs. Flight found herself very frequently dropped from the +sleigh-rides,—only invited semi-occasionally, perhaps once in ten days, +when Burtis pointed out to Willett that they really must, you know, to +which the now infatuated Willett merely responded, "All right. You ask +her, then, and let her sit with you." No one but Mrs. Davies shared the +sleigh man's seat.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span></p> + +<p>During the fortnight that followed the departure of Lieutenant Davies, +Mrs. Flight had been devotion itself to her dear, bereaved friend, and, +having wept with her, slept with her, sleighed with her, bared her +innermost soul to her, and made herself, as she supposed, indispensable, +it was to be expected that Mrs. Flight could not look with equanimity +upon the discovery that she was not so indispensable after all. She had +started Mira on the road to conquest, never dreaming that she herself +would be the first overtaken and supplanted. She had thought hitherto no +possible harm could come of their taking an occasional drive with their +friends, especially as Mr. Flight expressed himself so grateful for the +attention shown his wife, and as she and Mrs. Darling seemed chosen +rather to the exclusion of the other women, but when Mira and not +herself became the invariable occupant of the seat by the swell +civilian's side, the indiscretion, not to say the impropriety of the +affair, became glaringly apparent. It is rarely from the contemplation +of our own, but rather from the errors of our neighbors, that our moral +lessons are drawn, and now that in all its nakedness the scandalous +nature of Mira's conduct was forced upon her attention, Mrs. Flight +reasoned, most logically, that she could be no true friend if she failed +to remonstrate and, if need be, admonish and reprove. She did so, and +Almira pouted and was grievously vexed. She didn't think so at all, +neither had Mrs. Flight until—until she began to be counted out. This +led to war, and from pointing the moral Mrs. Flight now turned to +adorning the tale with what "everybody was saying." Mira challenged her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> +authorities. "I know who you mean,—Mrs. Cranston and Miss Loomis. They +hate me and would say anything mean of me." Now, it was not Mrs. +Cranston and Miss Loomis at all. They had no more intimacy with Mrs. +Flight than they had with Mira, nor as much. They looked upon Mrs. +Flight as responsible in great measure for Almira's wrong start. They +under no circumstances would confide to Mrs. Flight what they thought of +Mrs. Davies, and Mrs. Flight knew it, still she was not unwilling to let +Mira suppose that she was now enjoying their confidences even while she +referred to other authorities by the dozen as condemning or deploring +Mira's conduct, and a stormy scene followed, ending in tears and +reproaches,—much heat, followed by chilling cold.</p> + +<p>For the following fortnight Almira's intimacy was transferred to Mrs. +Darling, and from going to spend the night with Mira, Mrs. Flight took +to revolving in mind her singular observations while she was there. +There had been a thrilling, a delicious, a mysterious and romantic +occurrence. Somebody twice came and whistled a strange, soft melody +under the window and tapped as with a cane, gently, stealthily, a signal +that sounded like Rattat <i>tat</i>, rattat <i>tat</i>, just once repeated, and +Mrs. Davies trembled all over and grew icily cold, and begged Mrs. +Flight to go to the window and say, "Go away, or I'll call the guard," +and when pressed for explanation Mira moaned hysterically and said, but +Mrs. Flight must never, never tell, that there was once a young man whom +she had known long before who had got desperate on her account, for she +couldn't return his love, and he had run away from home and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> enlisted, +and she feared that he was there now, though she had never seen him and +never wanted to see him, and it became Mrs. Flight's belief that it was +no one less than that handsome young fellow, Brannan, who Captain Devers +said was drinking himself to death. And now that Mira had withdrawn from +her the confidences of the month gone by and was recklessly driving the +road to ruin, flouting her admonitions, what more natural than that Mrs. +Flight should forget her own vows of secrecy and conclude it time to +seek other advice? Mrs. Darling would have been her first confidante in +this revelation, but they, too, had once been devotedly intimate and had +now drifted apart. They were no longer on anything more than merely +frigidly friendly terms, smiling and kissing in public and hiding +womanfully their wounds, yet confiding to friends how much they had been +disappointed in the other's character, if not actually deceived. Mrs. +Flight found a confidante in the chaplain's wife, a woman simply swamped +under an overload of best intentions. It was Bulwer who declared that +"It is difficult to say who do the most harm, enemies with the worst +intentions or friends with the best," but Bulwer, who had reason to know +what he was talking about, never lived at Scott in the Centennial times +or at old Camp Sandy in the Arizona "days of the empire," for then he +would have known no such difficulty in deciding. Just as the stanch old +chaplain was just such another God-fearing, God-serving, devil-downing +man as Davies's father, so was the chaplain's wife a counterpart of +Davies's mother, filled with the milk of human kindness still unturned, +and overflowing with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> best intentions uncontrollably effervescent. Had +she told her husband all might have been stopped right there, but, as +the demon of ill luck would have it, he had gone to a distant +convention. So she sallied forth, brimming with eagerness to snatch this +lovely brand from the burning, to turn this fair, motherless, guideless, +possibly guileless girl to the contemplation of her dangers, to the +knowledge of her peril, to banish Willett from the dove-cote,—wily hawk +that he was,—and settle forthwith the fate of that young scamp Brannan. +She did not find Almira until after dark, but meantime told her +thrilling tale to Mrs. Stone (now full panoplied for further social +triumphs, the colonel being on the mend, and herself so young as not to +have looked unmoved on those famous sleigh-rides, nor without envy on +Almira's blooming cheek), and from her side sped the chaplain's wife to +hunt up Captain Devers. In him she found a listener indeed in whom there +was no end of guile.</p> + +<p>This was just before Cranston's return. The ball to be given by the +townsfolk had been indefinitely postponed in deference to Colonel +Stone's condition and the absence of so many dancing men in the field, +but the weekly hops, although with thinned attendance, went regularly +on. Now there were several households who did not attend at all, among +them Cranston's, Leonard's, and Hay's. More civilians came out from +town, whom Devers welcomed affably and Hastings and the resident +"doughboys" entertained as best they could. No need to trouble +themselves: the visitors came to "dance with the grass widows at the +fort," and had no embarrassment other than richness. There<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span> were always +wall-flowers, but never in the person of pretty Mrs. Davies, to whom +"Phaeton" Willett's devotion was now the talk of all.</p> + +<p>It was just at this time, too, that there came to Braska a middle-aged +lawyer with all the ear-marks of the soldier about him, including a +white seam along his cheek that told of a close call his intimates knew +to have occurred at Spottsylvania. His name was Langston, and his first +visit to the post was the result of a letter of introduction to Captain +Cranston from a classmate in the East. Cranston had driven over to +Braska to seek him out on receipt of the letter enclosing Langston's +card, bade him hearty welcome to the West, and was surprised to hear +that his practice brought him frequently to the neighborhood. He asked +him out to dinner two weeks later, Captain and Mrs. Hay, Mrs. Davies, +and Mr. Hastings being invited to meet him, for almost his first +question had been for that soldierly young officer, the hero of the riot +on the train. Mrs. Davies pleaded previous engagement, but Captain and +Mrs. Cranston took the trouble to call and explain that this Mr. +Langston especially admired and asked for her husband, Mr. Davies, and +so Almira simply had to go. Hastings called for and escorted her. He was +a blunt fellow, who held that when the husband was away and the lady of +the house alone, no other man ought to set foot within the threshold, +and he waited on the porch. But the lady was not alone. Willett's sleigh +was in the trader's stable, and Willett himself biting his nails and +swearing in Almira's parlor while Mrs. Darling was putting the finishing +touches to Almira's toilet.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> Willett had driven out <i>solus</i> this time, +thinking to persuade Mrs. Davies to take a drive, with some other dames +playing propriety on the back seat, and, finding she was engaged for +dinner and could not go, lost a chance of scoring a point by asking the +other women anyhow, for by this time his infatuation had utterly +overcome his senses. Katty again appeared and begged the lieutenant to +step in wid Mr. Willett, and Hastings turned fiery red, scowled +malevolently, said "No," and took himself outside the gate, pacing up +and down like the orderly in front of Devers's quarters, a short +pistol-shot away, until Almira came fluttering out, Willett in close +attendance, Mrs. Darling mercifully following. Hastings bade the others +a gruff good-evening, silently tendered Mrs. Davies his arm, and led her +away with the sole remark "Aren't we late?" which gave her a chance to +talk the rest of the way.</p> + +<p>And though Langston sat on Mrs. Cranston's right, with the pretty bride +on his other side, so that he might descant about the absent Percy to +his heart's content, his eyes ever wandered across the simple table and +dwelt on Agatha Loomis's noble face. She had recognized him at once as +the one of the two civilians on the sleeper the previous June who had +not been suggestively and impertinently intrusive, yet she welcomed him +only formally even now because of that association. Langston had heard +the first mention of a Mrs. Davies with an inexplicable little pang, and +the further description of her with quick reaction, for his instant +thought was of Miss Loomis. The dinner dragged, despite every effort, +for Almira was distinctly and determinedly unresponsive. Margaret was +glad<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> when it was over, glad when Almira early went home, for matters +brightened somewhat with her disappearance. Langston paid his dinner +call with surprising promptitude, and then overjoyed "the ladies" with a +box of rarest roses expressed from Margaret's own beloved home. "I know +how many of these are meant for me," she said, with almost fierce +rejoicing. "Oh, Wilbur!" she cried that evening, as she nestled in his +arms in front of their cheery fire, "if only he is all they say of him, +and she should——"</p> + +<p>"Should what, Meg?" he densely queried.</p> + +<p>"Should—why, you know just as well as I do, and he has such a fine +practice, and comes from such an admirable family and all that."</p> + +<p>"Undoubtedly,—but where does Agatha come in?"</p> + +<p>"Wilbur, you are just as provokingly sluggish as our own Chicago +River,—what wouldn't I give for a sight of its dirty face sometimes +when—when you're away! Now, be honest. Don't you know he never could +have sent all that way for all those roses—just for me?"</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> would."</p> + +<p>"Oh, you,—you are——" but the entrance of Miss Loomis herself with +sorrow in her face blocked the conference.</p> + +<p>"Captain Cranston," she said, "Brannan has been sent to the guard-house +again. I know he has not been drinking. What can it possibly mean?"</p> + +<p>It meant, said Captain Devers, when respectfully approached upon the +subject in the morning, that on very strong circumstantial evidence he +had discovered the identity of the night prowler. Brannan certainly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span> +answered the description given by the chaplain, despite the chaplain's +assurance that he didn't believe it was Brannan, and Brannan, said +Devers, when not in the guard-house or hospital, had frequently been out +of his quarters at midnight.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2> + + +<p>Cranston's six days home-keeping sped all too swiftly away. It was now +definitely settled that his troop and Truman's were to remain +indefinitely on duty at the agency. The general hated the idea of +building cantonments there, and had urged that all the Indians be +concentrated at the White River reservation, but without avail,—the +Interior Department would have its way. Troops had to be drawn from all +the posts along the railroad to make up the new command at the +Ogallalla, and out of his own pocket Cranston was adding to the log +quarters assigned to him, for Margaret had promptly announced that she +would not remain at Scott, that where he dwelt was her dwelling, and +they had known far greater isolation and danger in the past. Indeed, +there was little danger of their going now, for in the presence of so +strong a force the Indians would be meek enough. Two log huts were +connected and thrown into one as rapidly as possible, and it was fully +decided that by the 25th of March Mrs. Cranston, Agatha Loomis, and the +boys were to join him at the cantonment. It was not a very difficult<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> +trip for such heroines as lived in those days in the army. Cranston's +strong spring wagon, fairly lined with buffalo-robes and blankets, would +carry them in perfect comfort from camp to camp. They would have an +escort and a baggage-wagon, spend the first night at Dismal River, the +next at Niobrara. Hastings would escort them, for he longed to get away +from Scott for a while and visit his comrades in the field. There was +nothing in the least unusual in it, said Margaret, in her home +letters,—for this had she married a soldier. The boys, of course, +gloried in the opportunity and bragged about it, or would brag about it +when they next got away from their kind in the army to their kind in +civil life,—boys who could only vainly long for such opportunities and +vaguely loathe those who had enjoyed them. As for Agatha, she accepted +the change of station with serene and philosophic silence until +cross-questioned as to her own intentions. "Why, certainly I mean to go +with Mrs. Cranston," she replied, with clear, wide-open eyes. "She will +have more need of me there than here—and I of her." Mr. Langston, who +drove out again to spend Sunday at the post, heard of the decision with +grave concern in his soldierly face, but in silence equal to her own.</p> + +<p>Some others of the ladies whose lords were thus detached to Ogallalla +preferred, however, to wait until the snow was gone. There was now +abundant room at Scott,—why leave it, with its warmth, its comfort, its +society and all, to go to a mud-chinked hovel at that ghastly spot where +the Indians danced and coyotes howled the live-long night? Of course if +there were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span> quarters in which a woman could live with even reasonable +comfort, that would be very different. Then their remaining at Scott +would be inexcusable. Mrs. Flight and Mrs. Darling were women who were +at variance on very many points of late, but openly in accord on this. +Indeed, almost every woman at Scott had all of a sudden been seized by +some strange lingual epidemic that manifested itself in the persistent +repetition of such expressions as "Of course no woman who could see her +way to any kind of a civilized house would be justified in not joining +her husband there instead of staying here." It was sure to attack them, +too, whenever Almira happened to be within ear-shot, for the news came +down one March morning that one officer at least was to have a very +comfortable little frame cottage,—the commander of the agency guard. It +would be finished in a week or two, and even the stoves, fuel, and much +of the furniture would be provided by the Indian bureau. Again did Mrs. +Cranston go and call on Mrs. Davies and warmly congratulate her, and say +that Captain Cranston's men who were packing up the troop property would +gladly box and pack her furniture too and send it out by their wagons, +and then she said there were six inside seats in the big Concord wagon +and it would afford so much pleasure if Mrs. Davies would go with them. +But Almira faltered unresponsively. Mr. Davies had not fully decided. It +was such a shock to her,—his being detained there. She had never +dreamed of his being away more than a week or ten days, if she had she +would have returned home to Urbana, but now it was nearly two months, +and really Mr. Davies would have<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> to come down and look after the +household affairs and matters that she didn't fully understand.</p> + +<p>Davies understood them well enough when he got the commissary and grocer +and butcher and baker and other bills that Mira had managed to run up, +both at Scott and at Braska. He went with grave face to Cranston. "I'm +afraid Mrs. Maloney and Katty have been taking advantage of my wife's +inexperience," said he, "and ordering all manner of things in all +possible quantities, and possibly, or probably, stocking the Maloney +larder at my expense. I simply cannot pay these and my home assessments +too."</p> + +<p>Cranston was a man of few words. "Davies," said he, after looking over +the accounts, "Mrs. Davies has been cheated right and left by those +people, but in any event you cannot keep up two establishments. Break up +the house at Scott at once, let her come out with my people and leave +the Maloneys and Barnickel—and Scott behind. Let my Braska banker be +yours for the present. A few mouths here will float you well above +water."</p> + +<p>And though Davies declined the offer of pecuniary aid, the very night of +Mrs. Cranston's visit the agency telegraph flashed to Mira a despatch +directing her to get ready to come on with them, whereat Mira fled in +tears to Mrs. Darling,—Mira, who, it may be remembered, longed to come +and cook and bake and darn and sweep and sew and share the merest hovel +with her Percy so long as she thought it just possible that he might yet +change his mind and leave his simple village maid no fate but lonely +grief and an early grave. Mira's enthusiasm for the bliss of frontier +life fled at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span> the contemplation of the utter isolation at the +agency,—with wild Indians and animals all around, and without Mrs. +Darling, without the lovely, cosey fireside confidences, without the +band, the hops, the sleigh-rides, not to mention the glowing devotions +of Mr. Willett.</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Darling rose to the occasion. From having been first favorite +in Scott social circles up to the time of Mira's coming she, with Mrs. +Stone and Mrs. Flight, was struggling now for second place. She felt +constrained to remind Mira that she was now a soldier's wife, and should +share a soldier's lot, especially a lot that included furnished +quarters. Other women had gone or were going to live in the log huts, +and it would never do to have it said of her, of Almira Davies, +that she had shrunk from joining her husband at the agency when +everything—everything was provided. Everything wasn't provided, by any +means, but in the largeness of her convictions woman sometimes drifts to +breadth of statement. The interview with Mrs. Darling proved but cold +comfort to poor Mira. She went homewards through the chill gloaming with +restless heart. There was a little parcel lying on her table, securely +wrapped and sealed. The post ambulance driver brought it out from +Braska, said Katty, "an' there was no address, 'twas only to be left for +Mrs. Davies," and Katty fain would have followed her mistress into her +chamber to see it opened, but Mira closed the door before she cut the +string. It contained some exquisite double violets and a tiny note +sealed as carefully as was the box.</p> + +<p>Before tattoo Mrs. Flight and other ladies hastened<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> in to offer their +congratulations. They were desolated at the thought of losing Mrs. +Davies, but rejoiced with her that she was so soon to be comfortably +housed with her devoted husband at the agency, and Mira's cheeks were +flaming, her eyes, full of a feverish excitement, flitted from one to +another. She had but very, very little to say. She was glad, oh, yes, so +glad, though it was dreadful to leave Fort Scott, where so many people +had been so kind to her,—dreadful.</p> + +<p>This was about the 20th and the general situation of affairs was +somewhat complicated. The bureau, resuming control over the Indians +reassembled at the agency, conferred no longer with the general who had +gathered them in, and for whose naked word they had more respect than +for all the formal treaties of agents or inspectors, but contented +itself with sending curt, crisp orders signed, however reluctantly, by +his superiors at Washington. The general, leaving matters at Ogallalla +where he had no influence, had gone after other malcontent braves in a +far corner of Wyoming. Colonel Peleg was beginning to evince a desire to +resume command, despite Rooke's knitted brows and reluctant answers. An +official from Sheridan's headquarters had just paid informal visit to +Scott, had had long talks with Stone, Leonard, and the chaplain, and a +very short one with the plausible Devers, and had gone back to Chicago. +He arrived at Scott within four days of Cranston's departure for the +agency, and within five of the re incarceration of Trooper Brannan on +charge of night prowling. He made very brief examination in Leonard's +office of Sergeants Haney and Finucane, Corporal Boyd and Trooper +Howard,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span> who were witnesses, so Devers said, to the frequent absences of +Trooper Brannan from quarters during the dead hours of the night, and +their expert testimony seemed to be given with much reluctance and to be +received with equal incredulity. He asked of Devers what his reasons +were for refusing to forward Brannan's application for transfer to +Cranston's troop, and Devers, much disturbed to find that this was +known, hesitated in his reply. He said he had not refused, he had merely +taken time to consider. The man had given him much trouble. Some +officers considered it all right for a captain under such circumstances +to shunt a reprobate off on some other company commander, but he +differed with them. He wanted to know something of the man's +antecedents. "Well," said the aide-de-camp, "Cranston knows all about +them and is willing to take him. You might relieve yourself of any +feeling of punctilio on that score."</p> + +<p>"Then Captain Cranston is your informant in this business, colonel," +said Devers, with an attempt at a sneer.</p> + +<p>"Not at all," said the aide-de-camp, placidly. "Brannan's mother told us +all about it. She is a very superior woman, and we dine there +occasionally."</p> + +<p>Devers stared blankly at the speaker just a moment, half incredulous, +half resentful, then at last he realized that it was no pleasantry on +the part of his visitor and, for once in his life, collapsed entirely.</p> + +<p>That night Brannan was released and bidden to go to his troop and be +patient. This time there was no doubt of his application being forwarded +to regimental head-quarters, and there's no doubt, said the chaplain,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> +who had a talk with him within an hour of his restoration to duty, that +a week would see him <i>en route</i> to join Cranston's troop at Ogallalla. +Devers was still commanding officer of the post, however, and gave the +chaplain to understand that so long as the man remained at Scott the +interests of discipline required that there should be no exhibition of +exuberant triumph on his part or of further interference on the part of +his spiritual sympathizers. He hated the chaplain by this time as much +as he feared Cranston. Something had told him that the aide-de-camp's +visit meant that the toils were tightening, and that even though the +Gray Fox was away his great superior, the lieutenant-general, had an eye +on the situation and an ear for the stories of his defamers. Devers felt +that the inspector came because of sudden and direct appeal from +Brannan's friends. He could not longer attribute it to Davies. Well, it +would take a week or ten days anyhow before Brannan's orders could come, +and a week was a long time to a man with a treacherous thirst.</p> + +<p>But what Devers only suspected and did not know was that in the long +consultation with Leonard that officer gave, by request, his version of +the altercation which had taken place between himself and Devers, and of +the events leading up to it. The staff officer brought with him the +original report of the investigation made of the Antelope Springs affair +and Devers's topographical sketch of the ground, trails and all, and +Leonard's black eyes burned as he studied it. The aide-de-camp had some +social calls to pay and left these papers in Leonard's hands while he +was gone. "I have made a tracing of that map, colonel," said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span> the +adjutant, when after two hours the official returned. "I hope you don't +object. I know you can't leave the originals with me."</p> + +<p>"That's all right," was the answer. "Say, Leonard, who's that young cit +with the swell team who came to take Mrs. Davies sleighing? I didn't +catch the name."</p> + +<p>"His name's Willett," said Leonard, briefly.</p> + +<p>"What's he doing here?"</p> + +<p>"Cattle."</p> + +<p>"Cattle in Braska, perhaps, but here, I mean."</p> + +<p>"I don't know," said Leonard to the officer. "I wish I did," said +Leonard to himself. "If I did—I'd smash him."</p> + +<p>Mr. Langston had driven out to the post with Willett that afternoon. He +had other calls to pay, and this was Saturday, a favorite day for +visiting at Braska. The Cranstons' house was topsy-turvy, everybody in +the midst of packing, but Langston had a box of <i>bon-bons</i> which the +ladies, or the boys, might enjoy as reminders of Chicago, and he rang. +Miss Loomis herself, in cap and apron, opened the door. Her shapely, +soft white hands were covered with the dust of books and papers she had +been busily storing in the boxes, and her face flushed, just a bit, at +sight of her visitor.</p> + +<p>"I cannot shake hands with you, Mr. Langston, and, as you see, we're all +at work, but welcome in. I'll call Mrs. Cranston."</p> + +<p>"No. Don't," he said, hurriedly. "I only came to offer these trifles. I +heard you were all busy packing and had hoped to hear that, after all, +you were not going up to that forsaken spot. Is it true?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Certainly. Wherever Captain Cranston goes there goes his wife, and +where she goes to live is my home and duty."</p> + +<p>He stood looking steadfastly into her brave, beautiful face. He was tall +and stalwart: she almost Juno-like in the grandeur of her form. He could +not conceal the admiration that glowed in his eyes. He could not, dare +not speak so soon the thoughts that had been surging in his brain, +springing up from his very heart. What would he not give could she but +accept the offer he longed to lay at her feet, that of a name, a love, a +home wherein she should reign as queen, not live as a dependent. Such +silences are eloquent. She turned quickly away. "Louis, tell mother Mr. +Langston has come out to say good-by," said she, and Mrs. Cranston, not +ten feet away, these being army quarters, had to appear.</p> + +<p>"I didn't mean to say good-by here exactly," said Langston. "I rather +planned to see you. I thought perhaps you'd honor me by breakfasting or +lunching with me in Braska on your way," he said, hesitatingly. "They +tell me ladies often——"</p> + +<p>"Well, we go direct. Ours is the through express, Mr. Langston," said +Mrs. Cranston, laughing, "and it's a hotel car we travel by. Braska is +some distance off the air line."</p> + +<p>"Braska doesn't seem to have been in your line at any time," he said, +after a moment's pause. "I hear of frequent visits on the part of the +other ladies, many of them, but you never honor us."</p> + +<p>"Oh, we sometimes go there for shopping."</p> + +<p>"But to Cresswell's, I mean, for luncheon or supper.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span> They say he gives +a very creditable spread, and as quite a number of the ladies go there +at times, and Willett and Burtis have a little party there to-night in +honor of some of your friends, I thought I might persuade you; but—of +course—if you do not go that way," he concluded, vaguely.</p> + +<p>"No, thank you, Mr. Langston, we do not—go that way."</p> + +<p>"But I shall see you, both, again before you start, I hope," he said, +addressing Mrs. Cranston, but palpably appealing to Miss Loomis in the +weakness of a strong man deeply in love.</p> + +<p>"It will be a pleasure," said Margaret, cordially. She wished him to +come. She meant him to come. She saw and forgave the wandering eyes. He +might come any day he pleased before the 25th. There would still be a +box or a trunk for him to sit on; but now, she concluded, artfully, she +must get right back to the boys a minute. They were trying on some +clothes that had just come from home, and she'd return very soon. So +saying she vanished. It was half an hour before she reappeared, and +Langston was on his knees in the parlor—packing books. It was the +sweetest work he had known in years.</p> + +<p>But when he was finally gone Margaret turned impulsively to Agatha. "Do +you think it possible that—that she <i>can</i> be going there—with +him—to-night? No matter who else goes. She cannot realize what she's +doing. Would you go—should I go to see her?"</p> + +<p>Miss Loomis stood at the window, leaning her forehead against the cold +pane and gazing silently out over the snowy expanse of the parade. "You +would be<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> too late, Margaret," she answered, presently, and drew back +from the folds of the heavy curtain, and Mrs. Cranston seemed to read in +her companion's face what was coming along the road.</p> + +<p>Two double sleighs drove briskly past the window. First came Stone's old +swan-head behind his sedate team of bays, but from a perfect nest of +robes and furs a gay party waved their hands in laughing salutation. +Mrs. Stone and Mrs. Flight on the back seat, Messrs. Darling and Tommy +Dot opposite them in the body of the sleigh. Captain Pollock in the +driver's perch with a fair companion whose husband was still detained at +the agency, but wanted her to have the best time possible instead of +moping at home. Then came Willett's stylish sleigh and team, Sanders on +the back seat with Mrs. Darling, Almira blooming in her accustomed place +by "Phaeton's" side. She neither bowed nor kissed her hand to Cranston's +window, but smiled sweetly up into her companion's eyes.</p> + +<p>Mr. Langston, meantime, was dining at the officers' mess, and presently +when Mrs. Leonard came over to see if she could not help her neighbor a +trifle in her packing, she unfolded some of the details of the Braska +plan. Messrs. Burtis and Willett desired to entertain some of their fort +friends in town; Colonel "Pegleg" was the only man at the post who owned +a sleigh; Mrs. Stone was invited as a matter of course, and accepted, +provided the colonel felt well enough to let her go, and it was duly +settled that six of the party should go in her sleigh. The rest was +easily arranged. Langston was only too glad to go out with Willett and +spend the hours until the return of the party in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span> calling and dining at +the post, hoping thereby to obtain more than one glance at and more than +a few words with Miss Loomis. It was nearly sundown when they started. +It would be eleven before they got back. Long before that hour the +lights in Cranston's quarters were out and all was silence and peace. +Langston, strolling by after making his evening calls, looked long, as +lovers will, at the window of the room he knew to be hers, then went +resignedly over to the store and took a hand with the officers at a game +for which at other times he had no use whatever,—pool. He had to do +something to while away the time until the sleigh-bells came tinkling +back, and that seemed to be the only thing going.</p> + +<p>But midnight came before the foremost sleigh. Pollock safely tooled his +party into the post as the twelve o'clock call was going the rounds. Oh, +they had had a blissful time! a glorious time! Such a delightful +supper,—partridges and celery and all manner of dainties from Chicago, +and such oyster patties! to say nothing of Roederer <i>ad libitum</i>. Then +they had danced, and then they had more supper, and then started home. +Willett would be along in a minute.</p> + +<p>But ten, twenty minutes sped and no Willett. Pegleg's horses, being +homeward bound, had possibly made phenomenal time, and Willett, +probably, was in no hurry. "It's about his last chance to have Mrs. +Davies beside him," laughed Mrs. Stone, "so he's making the most of it." +It was 12.30 when at last the bells of the New Yorker's sleigh were +heard tinkling faintly at the corner, and presently the party came +slowly into view. Only three now, and three silent,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> embarrassed if not +evidently agitated people, for they seemed to whip up and hurry by the +little knot of anxious faces gathered at the colonel's gate.</p> + +<p>"Where's Mr. Sanders?" was the cry.</p> + +<p>"Tell you in a minute!" shouted Willett, as he drove straight by to No. +12, where he sprang out, lifted Mira from the sleigh and almost bore her +to the gate, Mrs. Darling following. Already Mr. Darling was hastening +up the road to join his wife. At the door Willett simply had to turn +back to his spirited team, as they were standing unhitched, and Mrs. +Darling disappeared with Mira into the hall.</p> + +<p>"Where's Sanders? What kept you?" panted Darling, hastening up.</p> + +<p>"Hush! Don't make any fuss," muttered Willett. "He jumped out half a +mile back. Some drunken men, or soldiers perhaps, gave us a little +trouble. I'm going back after him now."</p> + +<p>"Hold on one minute till I see my wife and I'll go with you," sang out +Darling, as he ran into the house, where Mira had sunk nerveless into a +big chair and was wildly imploring Mrs. Darling not to leave her.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2> + + +<p>The Cranstons were ready to start on the 23d, but nothing was in +readiness at Mrs. Davies's. On the contrary, that lovely and most +interesting young woman was, according to her own account, as +transmitted to the garrison by her now devoted friend and nurse,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> Mrs. +Darling, in a state of prostration and could do nothing at all. Mr. +Davies had been telegraphed for and was coming, and Dr. Rooke said she +must be kept very quiet meanwhile,—so at least Mrs. Darling reported to +sympathetic friends who called to inquire and possibly hoped to see. +Bluff old Rooke himself was besieged with questions as to his fair +patient, the nature of her malady and the cause of the sudden shock, and +Rooke told some people not to bother her, others not to bother him, and +others still not to bother themselves about her. She'd come out all +right if left alone. It was Mrs. Cranston and Miss Loomis to whom he +delivered himself of the last mentioned. He liked them both, which was +more than he did most people, for this Æsculapian countryman of Carlyle +had much of that eminent writer's sharpness of vision and bluntness of +speech together with even more of his contempt for the bulk of his +fellow-men. "No, Mrs. Cranston," said he, "don't wait a day for her. +Start just as soon as you are ready, and don't give a thought to this +little flibberty gibbet." And so the Cranstons, with Miss Loomis, bade +farewell to Scott, and one radiant winter morning drove buoyantly away, +almost all of the officers and ladies being out to wave them adieu. +Hastings, with a brace of troopers, trotted alongside as they crossed +the Platte and reported the camp wagon well on its way to Dismal River. +"I never was so glad to leave a place in all my life," said Margaret to +her friend, as they glanced back from the crest of the distant ridge +that spanned the northern sky. "I never have been at a post where there +were so few people I cared for." The driver halted his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> strong team at a +level spot after a long, tortuous climb, and let the mules breathe a +moment while his passengers took their final peep at the dim, dingy +patch, far away upon the southward slopes beyond the willow-fringed +river, which indicated the site of old Fort Scott. Already the snow had +disappeared on many an open tract and lay deep only in the ravines and +gullies, on the ice coat of the stream and in the dense undergrowth of +the islands. To right and left for miles the broad valley lay beneath +their eyes, the rigid line of the railway cutting a sharp, narrow slit +across the level prairie in the lowlands, straight away eastward until +all was merged in the misty, impenetrable veil at the horizon, while +westward near the forks of the river, in long, graceful curve, it swept +around an elbow of the snow-mantled stream and disappeared among the +roofs and spires of far-away Braska. The boys, with the agile energy of +their kind, had leaped out to scamper about on the rimy buffalo-grass, +dull gray, dried and withered, yet full of nutriment for the little +droves of horned cattle already browsing placidly along the slopes where +but a few years before the Sioux and Cheyenne chased great herds of +bison. Hastings and his men were riding along a hundred yards or so in +front, and the two women were left to their own low-toned confidences.</p> + +<p>"I cannot help it," said Mrs. Cranston, "it may be uncharitable, unkind, +but I am simply glad she could not go with us. She does not like us,—me +at least. She has pointedly avoided me, and I half believe it was to +avoid going with us that she was taken ill. I only hope Wilbur will not +misunderstand the matter."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I think you are unjust, Margaret, in one thing at least. There was +certainly some severe fright or shock Saturday night."</p> + +<p>"Oh, a thing that might unstring a nervous, hysterical woman a few +hours, perhaps, but it is no case of nerves or hysteria with her. She's +a perfectly healthy country girl. Mrs. Darling, who isn't thoroughly +strong and well, seems to have been very little affected."</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Darling has been three years out here and is accustomed to +frontier life. Mrs. Davies, probably, never had such an experience +before, and she has been worried by these queer incidents that Mrs. +Leonard tells us of,—those midnight whistlings and tappings at her +window. Mrs. Davies is alone, her husband miles away at the agency. +Everything has tended to worry the girl. I honestly feel sorry for her, +Margaret. I'm sorry that she wouldn't let us be her friends."</p> + +<p>"You are full of excuse for her, Agatha, and down in the bottom of your +heart you know perfectly well she doesn't deserve it. I cannot forgive +her for this flirtation with Mr. Willett. I only welcomed the idea of +taking her with us because of the hope it gave me of breaking up that +affair."</p> + +<p>"Has it never occurred to you that she may have broken it off +herself?—that besides this queer adventure with those drunken fellows +there was something else to agitate her? Be just, Margaret. She came to +us utterly inexperienced, even ignorant. She hasn't much mind, I'll +admit, but she is innocent of wrong intent. Is it not possible that +driving home he may<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span> have spoken to her in a way she could not mistake, +and that that has had much to do with her prostration? If not, if she +did not then and there forbid his coming near her again, how do you +account for it that he has not once been out to the fort since +Saturday?"</p> + +<p>"Well, it's only three days, and the sleighing is practically ended."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but he hasn't let forty-eight hours pass hitherto without a visit, +so I'm told, and he has his buggy and wagon, and unless there was a +rupture of some kind was it not more than likely he would be out Sunday +or Monday? Wasn't it the proper thing, really, for him to call and +inquire for her?"</p> + +<p>But here the Concord rattled on again, the boys playing "giant strides" +hanging to the boot at the back, and the driver, poking his head around +the canvas wind-screen at the front, called out to Mrs. Cranston, +"There's two of our fellows coming a couple of miles ahead, mum." And +both ladies leaned from the wagon to strain their eyes in vain effort to +distinguish the forms and faces of the distant party, Margaret half +hoping that her soldier husband might have been able to stretch a point +and ride far down to meet her, Miss Loomis half divining who it must be, +and it was Miss Loomis who was right. Fifteen minutes further and the +Concord halted again, and Mr. Hastings, with Davies at his side, rode up +to the open door.</p> + +<p>Even at a glance one could see how much he was changed in the service of +those two months. The lines about his clear, thoughtful eyes had +deepened and his face was thinner, despite the full, heavy, +close-cropped<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span> beard, but there was no mistaking the joy with which he +met and welcomed his friends and nurses of that long autumn's +convalescence. He whipped off his gauntlets and flung them at Louis's +head, as the boys came dancing about his horse, and then extended both +hands in eager greeting to Mrs. Cranston, who was nearest him, and who +frankly grasped and shook them in hearty, cordial fashion.</p> + +<p>"Oh, how glad I am to see you!" she cried. "We thought to meet you at +our first camp I had no idea you could come so fast." And by this time +she had released his hands and he was bending farther in to extend the +right to Miss Loomis, who welcomed him with friendly warmth, yet with +that womanly reserve which seemed never separable from her.</p> + +<p>"We did not stop at the Niobrara," said he. "We came right through and +camped at Dismal River late last night. Did you see Mrs. Davies this +morning? How did you leave her?" he asked, with grave anxiety.</p> + +<p>"We left her very comfortable. Dr. Rooke said there was no occasion +whatever for anxiety," answered Mrs. Cranston, tactfully evading the +question as to "seeing her," and then, fearful lest he should be moved +to repeat it, plunging impetuously ahead. "She was looking so bright and +well, so lovely in fact, that none of us were prepared for her being +ill. Of course you'll hear all about the excitement and adventure they +met with, so I won't speak of it now. In deed, you know, we hardly know +anything more about it ourselves than you do, for both Mrs. Davies and +Mrs. Darling saw so little of what followed the first appearance of the +fellows. Mr. Sanders jumped<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span> right out among them, it seems, and gave +chase after some who ran. The one they afterwards captured was one of +your recruits, Paine by name, and Mr. Sanders can tell you all about it +when he gets back. He was sent up to Cheyenne. One or two men who have +disappeared entirely are the suspected ones, and he is after them."</p> + +<p>"But I don't understand," said Davies, gravely. "It seems incredible +that even drunken soldiers should have attempted an indignity to a party +of officers and ladies. Weren't you with them?"</p> + +<p>"No; we were in the midst of packing, you know, and we weren't going +anywhere. Indeed, it was an extraordinary thing and no one knows how to +account for it, but you'll hear all about it at the fort, and I know you +are eager to push ahead, and we'll see you so soon at the Ogallalla, so +just tell me how you left my husband and you may gallop on."</p> + +<p>How blithe and radiant was her face as she spoke! How could he suspect +the dread that lurked behind it,—the artfulness of her effort to escape +further questioning?</p> + +<p>"The captain's as well as ever and counting the hours until your +coming," he answered. "How thankful I am, for my wife's sake as well as +my own, that you and Miss Loomis are to be so near us! Think of our +having a house while the rest of you live in log huts! But if any sub +would exchange with me I'd gladly give him the agency guard and the +house and come and live in cantonments." Then with a parting shake of +the hand he waved them on. The driver cracked his whip, the boys +scrambled aboard, and away they went bowling on northward, while Davies +and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span> his single orderly turned again their horses' heads to the welcome +awaiting them at Scott.</p> + +<p>Margaret sank back in her seat with fluttering heart and a deep sigh of +relief. "Thank heaven, that's over, and I have told nothing of any +consequence, have I?" she murmured to her silent friend. "What will he +say or think when he learns the truth? But you were saying Mr. Willett +had not reappeared. For that matter neither had Mr. Burtis nor Mr. +Langston. I believe they'll all be out to the fort this very day. Mr. +Langston thought we were not to start, you know, until to-morrow."</p> + +<p>No answer to this observation. Miss Loomis was quite well aware of the +fact and had been, for her, an eager advocate of the earlier start the +moment it was declared that Almira could not attempt to move.</p> + +<p>"I didn't fib, did I?" asked Mrs. Cranston, after a moment of deep +thought.</p> + +<p>"No; you managed to control the examination quite successfully without +it."</p> + +<p>But people at Scott that afternoon were less skilful or less fortunate. +Arriving nearly ten hours earlier than he was expected, Mr. Davies +dismounted at his quarters and, tossing the reins to his orderly, +quickly and noiselessly entered. He expected to find his wife an invalid +in a darkened chamber. He strode in upon a cosey little party at +luncheon, Almira presiding at the tea things in a most becoming +<i>négligée</i>, and Mrs. Stone and Mrs. Darling nibbling at the dainties set +before them, rising in surprise and some confusion as the young wife +fluttered from her chair to the arms of her returned hero and becomingly +precipitated herself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span> upon his breast. The visitors managed to retire +soon after luncheon was over, despite Almira's evident desire to hold +one or both at her side, for in that brief quarter of an hour Davies +learned, as the result of questions that presently became insistent, +very much to deepen the grave anxiety in his grave face, very much that +made him impatient to hear from other witnesses.</p> + +<p>Over the interview between him and his now nervous and fluttering wife +we need not linger. She read disapproval, even distrust in his eyes, in +his grave, deep tones, and all the prostration of the three days +previous showed forcible symptoms of immediate return. She knew she was +going to be wretchedly ill again; she must have Mrs. Darling and Dr. +Rooke. Oh, why had they taken Dr. Burroughs away? he was so much nicer, +and Barnickel should go for Dr. Rooke at once; and Barnickel, who was +unpacking the lieutenant's saddle-bags and blanket roll, said he knew +the doctor had gone to town and there was no one but the steward about. +Mr. Sanders was just back, said he, and some gentlemen from town with +him; whereat Almira started nervously and with fear in her face, and +Davies took his cap and, presently, his leave.</p> + +<p>"I will ask Mrs. Darling to come to you at once," he said, gently, "but +I must go and see Mr. Sanders." He stooped and kissed her flushed +forehead and then turned slowly away. The instant he closed the hall +door behind him she crept to the parlor window, watching him as he +walked rapidly westward along the row; then, slipping the bolt, she flew +back to her room, searching in the bureau drawer an instant, drew<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> forth +two or three little notes, tied with silken ribbon, also a bunch of +faded violets. The next instant notes and violets were blazing in the +parlor base-burner.</p> + +<p>Davies went straight to Sanders's quarters. It was then only a little +after two and no one happened to be visible along the row. Over at the +barracks and office there was the customary drowsy silence that followed +the mid-day meal of men who had to be up with the dawn, and at stables, +drill, or exercise until the noon recall. But Mrs. Stone had hurried +home to her colonel and told him of Davies's arrival, and the colonel +was eager to see him. Mrs. Darling had similarly warned her consort, and +Darling was as eager to dodge.</p> + +<p>"Lieutenant Sanders has gone to report to Captain Devers," said the +striker who answered Davies's ring, and Davies said he would come in and +wait until his return. He wanted to get by himself and quietly think +over Almira's fragmentary and reluctant account and admissions +concerning this supper-party at Braska. He threw himself into Sanders's +big arm-chair drawn up in front of the stove, and leaned his head on his +thin, white hand. Trooper Hurley, Sanders's striker, acting under his +usual instructions, presently reappeared with a decanter of whiskey, +glasses, sugar, and spoon on a tray. "We're all torn up, sir, packing +the lieutenant's traps for the move, but here's everything but bitters, +or lemon, and I can get them in a moment, sir."</p> + +<p>Davies wearily thanked him, but waved the proffered refreshment aside. +Hurley deposited his tray on the table close to the lieutenant's elbow +and tiptoed out.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Did Mr. Sanders say he'd come back here?" called the visitor.</p> + +<p>"No, sir," said Hurley, poking his head back in the door-way; "but he +will, sir. He was sent for by Captain Devers before he had been ten +minutes in the post, and he went as soon as he could change his clothes +and get into uniform. Mr. Darling run in here just a few moments ago +after him, but he was gone. Mr. Willett fetched him out from town, sir, +along with some other gentlemen. They went over to the store."</p> + +<p>"I'll wait a few minutes," said Davies. So Hurley hospitably brought the +late papers and placed them within reach.</p> + +<p>"There's pipes and tobacco if the lieutenant would like to smoke, and +I'll be in the back room, sir, packing."</p> + +<p>"Did you hear whether Mr. Sanders had succeeded in arresting the other +men?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir, he didn't. They couldn't be found and hadn't been heard of in +Cheyenne, but Mr. Sanders said they had bought their tickets for there, +and that they were on the train as far as Sidney anyhow. I heard him say +that. They were a bad lot, sir, them two fellows, especially Howard. The +men in 'A' Troop say he made many a ball for Paine to throw, and that he +was the one that was always making trouble for Brannan."</p> + +<p>Davies bowed silently. He remembered Howard well all through the long +dismal summer, one of the very "likeliest looking" of the recruits, at +first glance, and almost the only one of the lot whom Captain Devers +seemed to fancy, yet Davies was surprised,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> when he rejoined after his +sick-leave, to find him in the troop office instead of the drill squad. +All through the regiment the story had gone the rounds of how Sanders +had arrested him on the train in "cits" and evident intent to desert, +and how Devers had ordered his release, virtually assuming +responsibility for the entire affair, and no man could account for +Devers's action in the matter except that it was Devers's, and therefore +bound to be different from that which any other officer would have +taken.</p> + +<p>And it was Howard who, this time at least, had deserted for good, taking +with him a garrison ne'er-do-well whose going was only a good riddance, +and leaving as a captive in the hands of Lieutenant Sanders the luckless +Paine, now languishing in the guard-house, while, under the orders of a +nervous and evidently anxious post commander, parties were searching +everywhere for the other two.</p> + +<p>From the somewhat garbled and excited account given by the ladies at the +luncheon-table, Davies had been able to gather only these +particulars,—that, as the second sleigh was coming along, oh, just a +little distance behind Colonel Stone's, and as they rounded a sharp turn +at the head of one of the islands, a brilliant light flashed from the +bank, so close to the horses that they shied violently, nearly toppling +Mrs. Davies out, and in this flash they distinctly saw the face and form +of a tall young man in dark slouch hat and civilian clothes, and the +expression on his face was so wicked, and he was so ghastly pale that it +looked like an apparition, and Mrs. Davies screamed and nearly fainted +from the fright and shock, and Mr. Willett, who was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> driving, made a +furious cut at the fellow with his whip, and then as the horses tore +away in fright the occupants of the sleigh had just time to catch a +glimpse of some soldier overcoats, and when at last Mr. Willett regained +control of his horses, Mrs. Darling cried out that they must go back for +Mr. Sanders. He had leaped right out among those brutes, and she was +sure she had heard shots. Mrs. Davies admitted that here she protested +against going back, so terribly was she frightened, but Mrs. Darling +said that they must do so and Willett said that they must, and go they +did, only to find the spot abandoned. Even when Willett called for +Sanders there was no answer, and then they were dreadfully alarmed for +fear he had met with violence, and Mrs. Darling took the reins while +Willett searched, and Mrs. Davies, as she admitted, cowered under the +buffalo robe, and then, all on a sudden, they heard the sound of angry +voices, heard some one furiously denouncing Mr. Willett for lashing a +gentleman with his whip, heard Willett curse the stranger for flashing a +match purposely to frighten his horses,—some sneering reply to the +effect that a man had a right to light a cigar on a public road, then +Willett's voice calling the man a liar, then heavy blows and scuffle, +and then Sanders came running up the road just in time, for the stranger +had Mr. Willett down in the snow and was throttling him. He sprang up +and dashed into the willows the instant he heard Sanders's voice, and +that was the last seen of him, for Sanders's first care was for the +civilian, who was bruised and choked, but, after all, not seriously +hurt. He helped Willett back to his seat, bade him drive the ladies at<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> +once to the fort, but said he was going after those marauders, for two +at least were soldiers. That was all. When Willett and Mr. Darling drove +back they found that he had captured Paine, too drunk to run well, and +that the others were gone. Next morning Trooper Howard was reported +absent, and that settled the identity of the man in civilian dress. Mr. +Willett had not been out at the post since the affair simply because he +was nursing a black eye and a sprained thumb.</p> + +<p>What Mrs. Darling and Mrs. Stone couldn't understand was what could +possibly have prompted the man Howard to stand right on that little +bank, close to the track, and there flash his phosphorus match. He must +have known it would scare the horses even if it did not terrify the +people. It was a reckless, diabolical thing to do, and then to think of +his daring to strike and beat Mr. Willett afterwards. Mrs. Darling was +full of indignation at his conduct; Mira was agitated, but had little to +say. She was thinking of the cross-questioning that was inevitable when +her supporters were gone.</p> + +<p>And now, sitting there in Sanders's easy-chair, Davies was pondering +over all that he had been told at the table, and the little that he had +wrung from her reluctant lips, putting them together with the frequent +questions asked him by the few women who had joined their husbands at +the cantonment,—questions so frequent and persistent as to whether he +often heard from his wife, and wasn't she soon coming, <i>very</i> soon, to +join him, that even to his unsuspicious nature they carried a +significance he could not down, and now it seemed that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span> Almira had gone +with a gay party to a supper and dance in town at a time when he +supposed that she was spending her hours with his friends, the +Cranstons, or in quiet and seclusion at her home. There, at least, he +showed his inexperience, for in nine cases out of ten the friends the +newly-arrived wife is surest to fancy in garrison are not those whose +praises her lord has been sounding for six months ahead. Of the hops and +dances and drives that had preceded this eventful evening he had as yet, +<i>mirabile dictu</i>, heard nothing beyond Mira's own meagre account. In +fact, he had no idea of them at all.</p> + +<p>He was worn and weary after the long, hard eighty-mile ride. The fire +was warm, the room still and peaceful; no sound broke the silence but +Hurley's occasional step and soft whistle out in the "linter" at the +rear where lay his packing-boxes. Possibly Davies may have become +drowsy, dreamy, as he reclined there. At all events he never moved as a +quick, nervous step came bounding across the veranda and into the hall. +The door burst open and a voice, surely a little tremulous and agitated, +spoke low and quickly.</p> + +<p>"Where are you, Sanders? Oh, say, will you do me a favor? I can't—at +least I don't want these other women to know. Was there ever such a +streak of hell's luck as this? He's home. I've got to go. Will you see +that Mrs. Davies gets this before to-night?"</p> + +<p>And in the dim light of the little bachelor den, Percy Davies, slowly +turning, was aware of a stylishly-dressed, handsome young civilian, +whose face, though pale and apparently bruised, was vaguely familiar to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> +him, in whose outstretched hand was a little box-shaped packet. Just +then another step came bounding into the hall-way, into the room, and +the lawful occupant of the quarters halted short at sight of the two +tall, slender forms confronting each other, one that of the civilian, +slowly recoiling toward the door with twitching, tremulous hands, and a +face livid as death, the other, in cavalry undress, with bearded, +haggard face, deeply lined, under whose heavy, bushy, overhanging brows +a pair of blue eyes were blazing. For a moment not a word was spoken, +then Davies broke the silence.</p> + +<p>"Sanders, this gentleman wishes you to see that that package is promptly +delivered to my wife, and I should be glad to see you as soon as +possible at my quarters."</p> + +<p>Not until the speaker had coolly stepped past them both and out of the +room had Sanders recovered sufficient presence of mind to sing out, "All +right, old man; I'll come." Then, as the outer door closed after the +retiring officer, he whirled on Willett.</p> + +<p>"You inveterate ass! How dare you haul me into this?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2> + + +<p>Among the gentlemen from Braska visiting the post that afternoon was Mr. +Langston, who drove thither full of eager anticipation, and hailed the +first glimpse of the bright hues of the flag with a thrill of hope and +joy. No spot in all God's green earth at that moment held in his eyes +such vivid charm and interest.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span> Ten minutes later no spot in all the +world seemed so barren and desolate. The sunshine, the sailing clouds in +the vault of blue, the chasing shadows along the slopes, the streaming +colors of blue and white and scarlet at the tip of the swaying staff, +the glint and sparkle of the accoutrements of the guard, the gaudy +lining of the troopers' capes, were absolutely unaltered, yet the light +had gone from his eyes—following the trail to the far Ogallalla. To him +who loves a woman with all his heart there is more beauty in a +mud-chinked hovel in a frontier fort where she may dwell than in all +"the castled crags" of storied Rhineland or the cloud-capped towers and +gorgeous palaces among the mirror lakes of Alpine Italy.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 319px;"> +<img src="images/illus335-1.jpg" width="319" height="500" alt=""For a moment not a word was spoken." + +Page 324." title="" /> +<span class="caption">"For a moment not a word was spoken." + +Page 324.</span> +</div> + +<p>Langston learned of the departure five minutes after he reached the +post, and lost all further interest in the day. He said he would "loaf" +at the club room until Burtis and Willett got through their calls, +which, said they, would occupy some hours,—two or three at least. +Indeed, Willett "didn't know but what he might stay out with Sanders +overnight" and let Burtis "tool the trap" back to Braska when he got +ready. When, therefore, in less than forty minutes Willett's team was +reported being hurriedly harnessed in the post trader's corral and that +gentleman himself came bustling in with a pale, scared face that +intensified the blue blotch under his eye, Langston was astonished. He +was listlessly turning over the leaves of a magazine at the moment and +seeking solace in a cigar. Willett looked nervously about him, bade the +attendant bring him some brandy and soda, and threw himself into a chair +in front of the stove.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span></p> + +<p>"You look used up, Willett," said the elder. "What's the matter? Seen +anything more of your midnight antagonist?"</p> + +<p>"No, by heaven! I wish I had. I believe the devil himself has gone in +league with the gang at this garrison. I never knew such a string of +mishaps in all my life. Say, are you ready to go back?"</p> + +<p>"Any time; but I thought you wanted to stay."</p> + +<p>"Oh, so did you when you came out, Langston, and now you don't, and I'm +simply in the same boat."</p> + +<p>The attendant brought him a tall glass and poured the soda hissing into +the brandy. Willett drank eagerly, then started for the door. "Come, +then," he called; "the trap's ready—or ought to be." Langston knew it +was not, so temporized.</p> + +<p>"How about Burtis?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Burtis? Oh, I don't know or care. He can get back just the best way he +knows how. There's an ambulance coming over to town to-night."</p> + +<p>"Well, I think you ought to let him know, Willett."</p> + +<p>"I have. I sent him word by Sanders, whom I just left."</p> + +<p>"Very well, then I'll go with you now. Only stop one minute at Sanders's +so that I can say good-by to him. He goes back to the agency to-morrow, +I believe."</p> + +<p>"Well, he isn't there. He's gone out to pay a call. Jump in."</p> + +<p>But as they drove around the level road towards the northwest gate, and +the long line of officers' quarters lay to their right front, two +officers could be seen in earnest conversation at the front gate of No. +12, the farthest away.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span></p> + +<p>"There's Sanders now," said Langston. "It won't take you five minutes +out of your own way. Turn over there, won't you?"</p> + +<p>"I can't. I—I've got to hurry, Langston. If you want to see him you can +jump out, and I'll wait for you outside the gate."</p> + +<p>"Well, if you're in a hurry that'll take much more time than if you +drove. I'd have to walk both ways, don't you see?" was the cool answer. +"Never mind, though; go ahead. Who's that with Sanders?"</p> + +<p>Willett, who had turned red with confusion at his own blunder, turned +redder at the question, then went gray again. "That's Lieutenant +Davies," said he, briefly.</p> + +<p>"Oh, then he's home. Why, how I'd like to meet him again! Here—just let +me out, will you? and you go ahead. I'll come back with Burtis."</p> + +<p>"No; come on with me, Langston. I'm in a devil of a fix and want your +advice."</p> + +<p>And as they bowled swiftly along homeward over the smooth, hard, prairie +road, Langston admitted to himself, as Willett falteringly unfolded his +tale, that the young man was indeed "in a devil of a fix,"—in what +Langston, who was an old soldier, found it more descriptive to say, a +damnable fix. He pondered over it a moment and then said, "I don't +understand what you want me to do, Willett," and his tone was very cold. +"I don't see how I can help you. From your own account you have behaved +either like a fool or a blackguard, and what I can't fathom is why +Davies's commanding officer, or some friend or comrade, did not warn you +off weeks ago."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span></p> + +<p>Now, admitting that in the absence of almost all his comrades in the +field, and that it was distinctly his duty to protect the honor and +interest of his regimental comrade, let us see to what extent Captain +Devers felt disposed to exercise his prerogative and act against this +indisputable wolf in the sheepfold. Precedents he did not lack. +Everybody had heard how Colonel Atherton, of the —th, had served a +would-be gallant whose attentions to a lady of the regiment, during the +prolonged absence of her husband in the field, had become the talk of a +big garrison. Everybody knew how old Tintop, when he made up his mind +that Lieutenant B—— was becoming infatuated with Mrs. Captain +Potiphar, calmly recommended B.'s immediate and indefinite detail at the +Shoshone Agency, an isolated nook in the heart of the Wind River country +where the mails got through only once a week in midwinter and no one but +the mail rider thought of trying to get out. Colonel Pegleg, in the days +of his original wife, had taken a fatherly interest in garrison matters, +and instituted a system of post government that was almost patriarchal, +especially when most of the men were absent in the field, but Mrs. Stone +the second was made of flimsier stuff, and fond of gladness and gayety, +dancing and feasting, and what she termed "an innocent flirtation" was +harmless occupation so long as her own queendom was unimpaired. There +can be no question, however, that she would long since have put her +husband on the trail of this new disturber of the garrison peace but for +the illness that followed Stone's sudden prostration. The command with +its powers having devolved upon Devers, she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span> could do nothing. It is a +hard thing for a man to find himself by reason of illness suddenly +stripped of the robe of command and forced to become only a lay figure, +but it is harder yet to many a woman whose social powers were dependent +mainly upon the rank of her husband to see herself, through his +prostration, suddenly set aside as though of only vicarious consequence. +Naturally, Mrs. Stone could not bear Captain Devers,—few of the women +could,—and it was only through his own wife that the gossip of the +garrison was apt to reach him, and Mrs. Devers had troubles of her own +that seemed to stifle to a great extent her interest in those of her +neighbors. She was neither young nor pretty; she shone not in society +and had no great ambition in that direction. She had seen Mr. Willett's +devotions to Mrs. Davies,—as who had not?—but with only languid +interest. Such things concerned her less than they did those belles of +the active list, who felt themselves thereby defrauded of attentions +that had been quite lavishly, even if impartially, bestowed up to the +time of Mrs. Davies's dawning on the social horizon. Actually, +therefore, Captain Devers was not so much to blame as Langston thought, +for of his own regiment only one officer was present to advise him, and +Hastings's advice, as that officer had long since been informed, would +be asked for when desired. In point of fact only three officers remained +at the post for whose opinions Devers entertained any respect, Leonard, +Rooke, and the chaplain, and he had quarrelled with the first and +second, and treated with indignity the third, so that no one of the +three now felt disposed to confer with him on any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span> subject. This would +not have deterred the chaplain in a matter of duty, however, for that +honest and stalwart soldier of the cross was as ready to battle with +himself as he was to take issue with the devil, but the chaplain had +been absent for long days, and returned only when it was supposed that +Mira would be whisked away to the agency with the Cranstons, and, safe +in Percy's sheltering arms, be beyond the reach of harm or temptation.</p> + +<p>There were other reasons, however, for Devers's inaction, and grave +ones. Ever since the ominous visit of the staff officer from division +head quarters he had felt that the ground was caving beneath his feet. +For years had he been skimming along on the very verge of serious +trouble, yet ever adroitly evading trial; always incurring censure, but +escaping court-martial. One after another he had alienated or betrayed +every commander under whom he had served. One after another he had lost +the respect of every officer with whom he associated, and now he +realized that if the regiment could but settle down somewhere for a few +months, there would speedily follow a crystallization of the sentiment +against him,—a deposit of all this floating mass of testimony now +apparently held in solution, and the true inwardness of the tragedy of +Antelope Springs, the falsity of his insinuations against Davies, the +trickery of his methods, one and all be brought to light. Already, +through Haney, he heard of the sensation created among the men by his +defence of Howard, and of the depth of feeling among the old hands +against this airy upstart recruit, not a year in service, who frequently +boasted that he had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span> more influence with "Cap." than all the rest of +them put together. Haney himself could not cipher out the secret of +Howard's importance, and was plainly and palpably jealous. Ever since +early in the campaign, when young Brannan was pointed out to Devers as +Miss Loomis's patient and as a trooper who wanted to get out of "A" +troop and into "C,"—ever since the colonel and the major began +interfering with Devers because of his open rebuke of Mr. Davies, it was +noticed that Howard, a mere raw recruit, could get the captain's private +ear at almost any time, and those were days when a soldier was not +supposed to address his company commander on any point until he had +first obtained the sanction of the first sergeant. Every man in the +troop knew that soon after their arrival at Scott, Howard began to get +letters from the East, and some of these contained money orders, which +he had cashed in Braska. Some men in the troop, notably that babbling +drunkard Paine, declared that in a little strong box he had brought with +him Howard had some letters tied up in ribbon that he watched with +jealous care. "New hands" who came out in the same batch of recruits +said that at St. Louis Arsenal, whither they were shipped on enlistment, +Brannan, Howard, and Paine had at first been very intimate, but that +some coldness had sprung up and Brannan kept aloof from them. They were +wild and full of "gall," Brannan was sad and sober. Howard used to write +lots of letters then to some girl, Paine said, and go off and post them +in obscure letter-boxes outside the gates when he could get leave, but +he had quit writing long since, Haney knew, for he watched the new +company<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span> clerk with jealous eyes. He knew and knew well that Howard was +savagely glad when Brannan was sent to the reservation with Boynton's +party. He noted that Howard became of a sudden fitful, restless, sullen, +and then reckless and negligent of his work and eager to go frequently +to Braska. Presently he heard things of him that made him believe Howard +was contemplating desertion, and no sooner had Lieutenant Davies arrived +than he became assured of it. "I had to serve under that damned, canting +Methodist preacher," said Howard, "and I won't have him nosing around +where I am. I'll desert first." Now, Haney had no objection to Howard's +"skipping,"—it would be good riddance to dangerous timber,—but he +wanted first to find out what was the secret of his dislike of Davies, +whom most of the men, and all the better ones, had learned to respect +and esteem. He plied Howard with questions, hints, suggestions, and +whiskey, but Howard's head, or stomach, was stronger than he thought, +and the liquor failed in the short time at his disposal to overcome it. +With a few months the result would have been different. Howard once +admitted, however, that he hated the lieutenant and had reason to, but +that was all that Haney ever wormed out of him, but he and others were +morally certain that Howard meant to desert when the very day of Paine's +trip to Braska the company clerk disappeared. They counted on his +court-martial and downfall when brought back to the post in "cits" by +Sanders's squad. They were amazed at the abortive outcome of the affair, +and then at last the gang that "had stood in with" the first sergeant as +the surest means of keeping on the right side of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span> captain began to +realize that here was a man with more "pull" than Haney, and the latter, +feeling his influence going, determined that the time had come to regain +it, cost what it might. He knew beyond peradventure who was the +mysterious night prowler, knew why Captain Devers had ordered Paine to +watch Brannan in hospital, he knew why, or believed he knew why, the +captain was so down on Brannan and so fiercely bent on breaking him or +driving him out. He knew that he could, if he would, lay before Mr. +Leonard certain damaging facts in connection with Brannan's two relapses +into drinking, and of Paine's detail to town that day when he was +needed, as they knew he would be needed, at the adjutant's office. He +required just one or two links more to make a chain so powerful he could +twist his troop commander in its coils and dictate the terms of their +future relations, but he needed Howard's testimony to complete the +chain, and the liquor with which he tempted him, in and out of the +office, at last began to take effect. Howard was getting more and more +reckless, sullen, savage. He would get up at night and drink and dress +and slip out of barracks and be gone an hour sometimes, yet so stealthy +was he that when Haney strove to trail him he turned on him like a tiger +and damned him for a spy, and still the sergeant felt that perseverance +and whiskey would bring him triumph yet, when all on a sudden came the +dramatic episode of that still Saturday night,—the flash that revealed +him for one instant to the frightened revellers in Willett's sleigh and +then covered his track in shadows impenetrable. All on a sudden Howard +had vanished,—deserted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span> in earnest this time, leaving his first +sergeant in a tangle of unfinished toils and his captain in sore +anxiety. It was the contemplation of his own meshes that blinded Devers +to those which Willett would have thrown over Mira's pretty, curly, +empty head.</p> + +<p>The conversation between Sanders and Davies was very brief and decidedly +grave. Sanders had at first assumed the light air of superiority of the +old cadet toward the plebe, and, to head off questioning, plunged into +that species of deprecatory and officious advice which is generally +prefaced by, "Now, my dear boy, let me as a friend," etc., etc. Like the +chaplain's wife, Sanders started with the best intentions, and just as +she had excited Mira's resentment so had Sanders aroused Davies's wrath.</p> + +<p>"Stop right there, Sanders, and say nothing about friendship until you +explain that scene. Where is the packet you were asked to deliver to my +wife?"</p> + +<p>"I haven't it. I wouldn't touch it. You don't suppose I'd be a party to +such a thing. The man was an ass to ask me, and I told him so."</p> + +<p>"He doubtless reasoned that a man who could accompany the wife of a +brother officer to a place of such miscellaneous character as +Cresswell's would not be above carrying secretly to her that which he +dare not send openly."</p> + +<p>"He had no right to judge by it, Davies! Lots of ladies go there,—and +Mrs. Stone matronized us."</p> + +<p>"No ladies of our regiment have ever gone there, Sanders, until you +accompanied my wife,—an inexperienced and ignorant child. What Mrs. +Stone or<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span> her associates may have seen fit to do is no concern of mine. +You know and I know that women like Mrs. Cranston, like Mrs. Truman, +like Mrs. Leonard or Mrs. Wright would not go there under any +circumstances, and the fact that a party of women from the fort was in +one room simply served to attract a party of—very different women to +the next."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll bust Cresswell's head for him inside of twenty-four hours," +exclaimed Sanders. "The idea of his daring to allow such people in there +at such a time!"</p> + +<p>"The idea of your not standing my friend—you, the only fellow-graduate +of my regiment here at the post—and preventing my wife's being taken +there at any time. Think of that, Sanders."</p> + +<p>"Why, damn it, Parson, don't be so brutally unjust. I supposed if you +cared a rap you'd have stopped it before."</p> + +<p>"Stopped it before? Why, Sanders, what are you saying? You don't mean +she—my wife—had been there before?" And all the indignation had gone +from Davies's face. It was now white, almost awe-stricken.</p> + +<p>For a moment Sanders knew not what to say. All at once there dawned upon +him the realization that now through him, in this utterly untoward, +clumsy, miserable way, was Davies for the first time being made aware of +what common, every-day rumor said of his wife. He would have cut his +tongue out rather than wilfully put in circulation a word of scandal, +yet it had been reserved for him to bring to a husband's ears the first +ill-omened tidings of a wife's misdoing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span></p> + +<p>"God forgive me, Davies, if I've blundered!" he burst out at last. "I'll +never forgive myself. I supposed—they all talked of it so fully—freely +together—I supposed you knew all about it. I never dreamed of harm in +it. Mrs. Flight—or rather Mrs. Darling and she together—occasionally +went there, and the other ladies had their husbands as a rule, or at +least sometimes, and there was good sleighing, you know, between here +and town, and absolutely nowhere else were the roads beaten. They sort +of had to go there, don't you see?"</p> + +<p>"Go there with whom?" said Davies, grasping the rail of the fence and +breathing hard.</p> + +<p>"Why, with Willett, of course; he was the only fellow that had a good +turnout. He used to come for them, I believe, and sometimes he had Mrs. +Darling and Mrs. Davies—he and Burtis—and sometimes Mrs. Flight."</p> + +<p>"And do you mean that they—that these four, went there to Cresswell's? +Do you know this, Sanders?"</p> + +<p>"Well," said Sanders, "they were all talking and laughing about it, +never dreaming of anything harmful or unbecoming. Why, Parson, old man, +you mustn't be too strait-laced out here. You know it's the way of the +West."</p> + +<p>But Davies threw out his hand as though imploring silence, seemed about +to speak again and ask another question, but finally turned without +another word, and leaving Sanders standing dejectedly at the gate, +re-entered his hall and closed the door behind him.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2> + + +<p>That night Dr. Rooke called twice at No. 12, and went away both times +saying opprobrious things about his fellow-men and women. The chaplain, +who had gone over to see Davies about three o'clock, presently went back +for his wife, and that good-hearted woman remained until late at night. +Mrs. Darling coming over in the early evening to congratulate dear Mira +again on her husband's return and invite them both to dinner on the +morrow, was met by Davies himself at the door, but not invited in. Her +sweet smiles and words of greeting and proffers of hospitality were +checked at sight of his stern, sad face. In brief words he told her Mrs. +Davies was too ill to receive callers or accept invitations, and in +response to her flurried "Is there anything in the world I can do?" +coldly answered that Mrs. Darling had already done—too much.</p> + +<p>In her natural and justifiable indignation, Mrs. Darling at once sought +Mrs. Stone and Mrs. Flight. "They had an awful scene, I'm sure," said +she, "for his face was as black as a storm, and I knew how it would be. +Some one's been blabbing and making matters infinitely worse than they +really were. What do you suppose will happen when he and Willett really +meet?"</p> + +<p>"They <i>have</i> met," cried Mrs. Flight, forgetful of her determination to +keep at odds with Mrs. Darling<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span> in the bliss of imparting exciting +news,—"they <i>have</i> met at Sanders's quarters, and there must have been +something dreadful, because Willett came out, oh, with such a face! and +went right over to the store and drove off to town. Sanders is all +broken up about something. Flighty says he wouldn't tell anybody." And +by "Flighty" the lady referred to her consort.</p> + +<p>The awful scene of Mrs. Darling's imagination was really not very +tragic. Almira had shut herself in her room in preparation for the +coming visits of the doctor and Mrs. Darling. Her tea-gown being a most +becoming garment, she was still enveloped in its soft and clinging +folds, and had let her long, lustrous hair fall rippling down her back. +She had once seen a queen of the emotional drama similarly gowned and +groomed and a lasting impression was the consequence. The tea-gown and +tumbling hair became Mira's conception of the proper make-up for wronged +and injured and deeply-suffering wifehood. She had prepared to deluge +the doctor with symptoms and Mrs. Darling with tears, but nearly an hour +went by and neither came. Katty was clearing away the luncheon table, +and to her Almira faintly appealed for tidings, and Katty said that the +masther had come in for a minute and walked up and down in the parlor +and gone to the front door himself to meet Mr. Sanders, and they were +talking out in front. When the second time her husband entered the house +she prepared to hide her face and refuse him a word, but he did not come +near her. She heard him pacing up and down, up and down, at first with +quick nervous stride and at last more slowly. Then he seemed to sit at +his desk and write. She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span> could hear him sigh heavily. What business had +he to sigh? She was suffering for lack of sympathy, nursing, tender +care. Why should he sit there sighing in that absurd fashion? She heard +him go to the kitchen and tell Barnickel to take that note to the +chaplain, and then he came back to write some more. She grew impatient, +lonely. She determined to bring him to her side, and if possible to her +feet again. Other men were abject enough; why should she be lorded over +in this way? She threw herself again upon her bed and covered her eyes +with her filmy handkerchief and faintly called "Percy!" As he did not +hear she tried again, louder, and still he did not seem to be at her +door listening for the slightest sign, and she was compelled to sit up +and call loudly, not for him but for Katty.</p> + +<p>And Katty, being out among the pots and pans and kettles, didn't hear +her at all; so Davies went and summoned the girl, instead of going to +Almira himself, as Almira thought he should have done. Presently Katty +came out. The misthress wanted to know was the doctor ever coming—and +Mrs. Darling? Then Davies entered the room and closed the door.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Rooke has not yet returned, Mira," he said. "Mrs. Darling with my +consent will not visit you again until you are experienced enough to +know right from wrong. You never told me of these visits with her to +Cresswell's or I should have forbidden them utterly. It never occurred +to me that you would be tempted to go thither or I should have warned +you. I do not blame you so much, my wife, as I do those who have so +misled you. There are some things I<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span> have been told that are past my +understanding, and that when you are well again I shall have to ask you +to explain. Now rest as well as you can. The doctor will come to you +just as soon as he returns to the post. Is there anything I can do to +help you?"</p> + +<p>But Mira burst into a wail. She didn't wish to see anybody—anybody but +the doctor and Mrs. Darling. It was cruel, heartless, brutal on his part +to come in and taunt and torment her when she was so helpless and ill. +It was wicked to cut her off from the only friends she loved or who had +been kind to her. She would have died of loneliness and misery while he +was gone if it hadn't been for Mrs. Darling and for her friends. <i>His</i> +friends hadn't come near her,—hadn't done anything for her, and now he +was angry because, when she was neglected and scorned by them, others +like Mrs. Darling had been good and kind to her. Oh, why couldn't she go +home to her dear old father and the sisters who loved her, and weep her +heart out on her m-m-mother's grave? Davies sadly realized that neither +argument nor appeal would help matters. He heard the chaplain's ring at +the outer door, and went to him with sore-laden heart. Later the two +left the fair invalid to the care of the chaplain's wife and went in +search of Leonard. Boynton, still unable to walk about, was occupying +his old quarters next to the adjutant's, and, propped up in an +easy-chair near the window, caught sight of his comrade, the captor of +Red Dog, and eagerly beckoned him in. Davies had to go and shake hands, +though at the moment he wished that he might avoid almost everybody.</p> + +<p>"Why, Parson, old boy, you can't stand that agency<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span> work. It's making an +old man of you now before half your time. You look ten years older. I +hope you're not ill."</p> + +<p>"No, not ill; a little tired and worn perhaps," said Davies. "We were +just going in to see Leonard."</p> + +<p>"Well, I wish you'd fetch him in here the first evening you can. There +are some things that I want to talk over with you two, things that +affect us both. Have you seen Differs?"</p> + +<p>"No, not yet. I'll report to him at guard-mounting in the morning. The +regulations say the first orderly hour, don't they?"</p> + +<p>"Yes,—but you'd better report your arrival to him the moment he comes +out of his house or else go to the office and do it. We've got a bone to +pick with him, Parson, and I don't want you to get into any outside +tangle. I'll be up and about in a couple of days, then we'll settle it +with him."</p> + +<p>For a man who had striven conscientiously to do his duty, it seemed to +Davies, as he rejoined the chaplain, that he had become involved in +tangles enough without seeking new ones. His friend had already rapped +at Leonard's door and been informed that the adjutant was over at his +office, so thither went the two, many eyes following them as they +crossed the broad, brown level of the parade. The snow had disappeared +entirely except in dirty hummocks along the pathways and walks whither +it had been shovelled after the heavy fall. The post looked even less +cheery and attractive than before. The few men moving about had the +listless air of soldiers with nothing to do, going fat and "soft" for +lack of vigorous exercise. Over in front<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span> of the colonel's quarters his +sedate bay team was waiting, and presently that veteran, with Mrs. Stone +and Tommy Dot and a striker in attendance, was aided down the steps and +into his open carriage for a drive.</p> + +<p>"Is it not late for them to take him out?" asked Davies. "Why don't they +make an earlier start?"</p> + +<p>"Ordinarily they have done so. To-day, though, he has been having a +conference with your captain; rather an extended and trying one, I +fancy, and not agreeable to either party. Captain Devers was leaving +there as I returned to yours. Davies, my friend, there is a man who is a +veritable Ishmael. His hand seems against every one and every man's hand +against him. You could never have wronged him,—what on earth has set +him against you?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed," was the earnest answer, "I do not know;" and then, solemnly, +Davies added, "Trouble seems the lot of many of us, yet even in one's +saddest hour it is impossible not to feel sorrow and pity for one like +him, who stands before his fellows an utterly friendless man."</p> + +<p>The adjutant rose with an eager light in his dark eyes at sight of the +two. "I have been hoping to see you, Davies," said he, "yet I knew you +would have much to detain you at home. Mrs. Davies is better, I hope?"</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Davies is not well, but I think the matter is not serious. I came +first to report my arrival from the reservation. Mrs. Davies will go +there with me just as soon as we can pack. Then the chaplain and I want +to consult you personally about some important matters. Have you a spare +half-hour?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Frankly, Davies, I haven't, and won't have until tattoo. There are some +reports here that will occupy me pretty much every minute. Is it +business that can wait until then?"</p> + +<p>"It will have to," said Davies.</p> + +<p>"Then let me get at once to the reason of my desiring to see you before +to-night. Captain Devers has been called upon by department +head-quarters to explain some discrepancies in an official report or +two, and I was present at the long interview between him and the colonel +this afternoon. Davies, have you ever seen a map or sketch of that +ground north of Antelope Springs where you had your adventure last +September?"</p> + +<p>"No," said Davies, wondering.</p> + +<p>"Then I want you to look at this, compare it with your recollections, +and tell me how accurate it is, especially as to the tracing of the +trails of the various parties."</p> + +<p>The short winter day was already waning and the light in the dingy +office growing dim. Leonard called for candles, then stretched a huge +white blotter upon a wide-topped stand and spread open upon it the filmy +sheet of tracing paper. An almost exact copy of Devers's map was thrown +into bold, black relief, and for the first time Percy Davies saw the +plan on which was based the report that, exonerating his captain, +inferentially held him accountable for the massacre of his comrades at +Antelope Springs.</p> + +<p>"Why! when was this made?" he asked, in grave surprise. "Whose work is +this?"</p> + +<p>"It was made while you were lying ill at Cranston's up at the old post," +said Leonard, calmly. "Had you never heard of the investigation?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Never."</p> + +<p>"The general sent Mr. Archer of his staff up there to go over the ground +with Devers and let him explain, if he could, why he got so far away +from you and your people as to permit that tragedy to occur, especially +after the orders he'd received from Major Warren. Devers cleared himself +by proving to Archer's satisfaction that he obeyed his orders exactly +and marched right along the ridge here. This trail, the one that runs +due south, just west of the summit of the divide, was made by Devers's +main command moving in support of you and your detachment. This one off +here"—and Leonard's pencil rode lightly along another that skirted a +ravine apparently two miles away from the ridge—"this one was made by +his command the next day after you had been found by Warren's men," and +Leonard was narrowly eying Davies as he spoke.</p> + +<p>"Pardon me, Mr. Leonard, it was just the other way," said Davies, +assuming that the adjutant in his personal ignorance of the facts was +stating a theory. "Captain Devers never approached the ridge that +evening. He was going farther away from it all the time. I had to gallop +to catch him. This, out here to the southwest, is what might be called +an approximation to his trail. I finally overtook him away out over here +somewhere, across the ravine," and Davies indicated with the point of a +pencil.</p> + +<p>"Well, then who made this trail up here on the ridge? You must have +crossed it twice before dark."</p> + +<p>"There was no such trail there, sir, nor was there any party to make it. +Everything in the battalion<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span> except my own little squad was away off to +the southwest, anywhere from two to ten miles."</p> + +<p>"You could swear to that, Davies? You remember it distinctly—despite +your illness?"</p> + +<p>"Swear to it? Certainly, sir," said Davies, with wonderment in his eyes. +"So could McGrath, who was with me, if he were only alive. So could +Devers himself, or Haney, or Finucane, or a dozen others of the command +who must know that wasn't their trail."</p> + +<p>"I fear me, Davies," said Leonard, gravely, "that some of the very men +you name have told it, if not sworn to it, the other way, and that your +captain has allowed it to be accepted as the basis of his release from +accountability."</p> + +<p>In the gloomy office the darkness was gathering thicker. At the head of +the table, his coat thrown over his arm, his hat in his folded hands, +stood the strong figure of the chaplain, his thoughtful brow shining in +the light of the candles the clerks had placed upon the board. His was +the first face to be seen by one entering the room from the hall-way, or +peering in at the window, for the figures of Leonard and Davies, their +backs to the entrance, were thrown in black silhouette against the +glare; but as Leonard spoke the two who had been bending over the work +drew slightly apart and gazed silently, significantly, into each other's +faces, Leonard calm, massive, masterful, Davies searching, questioning, +the light of a new and grave suspicion in his troubled eyes.</p> + +<p>And looking on this picture,—on this triumvirate,—there stood on the +porch without, close to the uncurtained window, a fourth form, heavy, +massive almost as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span> Leonard's, but far less soldierly. Then noiselessly +this latter turned to the hall-way, and with cautious step drew near the +open office door; the heavy arctics, which it was Devers's habit to wear +so long as the weather was even moderately cold, deadened the sound of +his footfalls, and now with beating heart the troop commander stood +listening to what he could catch of the conversation within.</p> + +<p>"It is absolutely false and misleading," said Davies, "and if it has +been used, as you say, to clear him or anybody else, it should be +exposed at once."</p> + +<p>"That," said the adjutant, in his deep, deliberate tone, "is precisely +what I believe, but needed your evidence to establish. Now you will +excuse me from further talk about this or anything else until, say, +after office hours to-morrow morning. I have much to attend to. If you +and the chaplain will meet me at ten o'clock, we can settle various +matters. Meantime I'll lock these papers in my desk." Across the dim +hall-way, as the two friends left the office, stood the door of the +sanctum of the post commander. It was just ajar, but there was no light +beyond, and to all appearances the room was as deserted as it was dark. +Rooke was just coming out of No. 12 as they returned thither.</p> + +<p>"I'm glad you're home, Mr. Davies, and I'll be gladder when you've got +that pretty little bunch of nerves and nonsense off my hands and off +this military reservation."</p> + +<p>"She will be well enough to travel—when?" asked Davies, as placidly as +he could. Even when the wife of one's bosom has been behaving +outrageously it isn't pleasant to hear it from one's neighbors, +unasked.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span></p> + +<p>"She could go to-morrow and be the better for it," said Rooke, bluntly. +"What she needs is a firm hand and a change of scene—and surroundings. +We're too volatile hereabouts." And this it seems was practically what +he had told Almira herself, much to her scandal and dismay. She +piteously asked why she couldn't see Dr. Burroughs; and was unfeelingly +told that there was no reason whatever, provided she started to-morrow; +that he was at Ogallalla and would be very glad to see her. "Once up +there," said the old cynic, "you can have Burroughs and lollipops to +your heart's content."</p> + +<p>"Oh, doctor, but think of the peril, the danger," she moaned.</p> + +<p>"Tut, woman, you'll be in no such danger there as here," he answered +brusquely; and Davies found her weeping dejectedly, but weeping to no +purpose. When morning came Barnickel and Katty were boxing up the lares +and penates, and toward nightfall Mira herself was meekly, though not +resignedly, bearing a hand. This indeed was not what she had pictured +army life to be. Davies and the chaplain were to have joined Leonard as +planned at ten o'clock. At nine the orderly came to the door of No. 12, +and said that Mr. Leonard would be very much obliged if Mr. Davies would +come to the office at once, and Davies went. Colonel Stone, as had been +arranged, was once more restored to his desk in the office, and though +looking gray and ten years older, was "on deck." He was absorbed in +turning over some official papers, so Davies did not disturb him. He +went into Leonard's den. The officer of the day was comparing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span> the list +of prisoners in the guard report with some memoranda on the adjutant's +desk, but presently finished, shook hands with Davies and said welcome +back to Scott, then went his way.</p> + +<p>The moment he was gone Leonard whirled about in his chair. "Davies, you +remember our locking those papers in this drawer last night?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly."</p> + +<p>"Well, look at it now, and as I found it ten minutes ago."</p> + +<p>The drawer was absolutely empty.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2> + + +<p>The closing week of March was marked by a furious snow-storm that swept +the big prairie like a besom, but plugged up every <i>coulée</i> and ravine. +For four days no communication had been held with the Ogallalla Agency. +The wires were down, the road impassable, and Mrs. Davies had reached +her new harbor of refuge none too soon. The quartermaster's ambulance +bore the couple half-way to the new station, and Cranston's Concord came +to meet and carry them the rest of the way. Mira's parting with her +devoted lady friends at Scott was cut short by a start at early dawn, +against which she rebelled faintly, but to no purpose. It had taken only +two days to pack their few belongings. They spent the last night of +their stay in Scott under Leonard's roof, and Mrs. Leonard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span> did her best +to cheer and gladden the mournful bride. It was of little avail, +however. Almira was dimly beginning to see that her conduct had cost her +the respect of those women most worth knowing, and that although the +dreaded interrogatories which Percy was to put to her as soon as she was +stronger were still in the future, his faith in and love for her, +whatsover they might have been, were seriously shattered. In manner he +was still grave, kind, and gentle almost as before, but everything like +tenderness had vanished. One question he said he must ask her before +they left Scott. Had she ever accepted any gifts or letters or anything +from Mr. Willett? And Almira answered that once he had sent her just a +few violets with a note inviting Mrs. Darling and her to drive with him +the next day, but she had tossed them into the fire long ago. Nothing +more, nothing else at any time? asked Davies, gravely, and Almira +answered no. How could he torment her with such unjust suspicions? Far +better would it be to let her return to the father and sisters who +longed for and missed her, to her peaceful home where down in the bottom +of her heart Mira knew she was not wanted by either father or sisters or +step-mother. Davies looked graver, but questioned no longer. The day +before their start Mr. Langston came out from Braska and inquired for +Davies, and told him how glad he was to renew his acquaintance, and +Davies greeted him with much reserve. This was the man who was +travelling with Willett the June gone by, and just as it had at first +affected Miss Loomis, so did the recollection now prejudice the officer +against him. Langston saw it, but went quietly on with the business in +hand.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span></p> + +<p>"I am the bearer of a note to you from Mr. Willett, whose people, at +least, are old friends of mine. He has gone home, at my advice, and it +will be against my advice if he return here within a year. If he should +do so, I wash my hands of him. It is not to make excuses for him or +Burtis that I have come, but to ask you about one matter. On his way +back to the agency your comrade Mr. Sanders came to town and heaped +reproaches on Willett and on the proprietor of the restaurant, alleging +that certain disreputable people were allowed to occupy the adjoining +dining-room while the party from the fort was dancing. Cresswell was +very indignant at the charge. He says that the party in the adjoining +room was the family of old Pierre Robideau, from Kearney,—just himself, +his wife and daughter, with a friend whom they called Mr. Powell, and it +was Mr. Powell who paid the bill.</p> + +<p>"Robideau is an old trader and trapper, but he and his people are honest +and respectable as any in Braska, and the young man with them was +supposed to be paying attention to the daughter. Robideau and his family +went back to Kearney that night after a week's visit to friends up here +in Braska. The daughter, Angie, had been here some time visiting a +school friend. We feel sure you have made no such statement to Mr. +Sanders without some strong ground of suspicion. May I ask how you heard +it so soon after your arrival?"</p> + +<p>"I heard it before I got here," said Davies, quietly, "though when it +was told me I had no idea my wife was one of the party. My orderly was +cold and tired and we stopped at the Scott station at the point where<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span> +the road crosses the railway to give him a cup of coffee and water the +horses. There were some trappers and plainsmen in there, and one of them +was telling with much gusto of the performances of a soldier of our +troop who deserted that night,—how he had chartered the adjoining room +to that in which the officers and ladies were dancing and had a whirl to +the officers' music with some ladies of his own choosing, and the girls +lassoed a waiter and hauled him into their room and got a bottle of the +officers' champagne——"</p> + +<p>"Pardon me, Mr. Davies, but do not these plainsmen rather like to tell +big stories at the expense of the officers,—the bigger the better?"</p> + +<p>"I believe so, and paid little attention to it at first, but among the +listeners was a scout who went through last summer's campaign with us +and did good service. He rode over to the post with me, and on the way +we met a sergeant and two men of 'A' Troop, returning from an +unsuccessful pursuit of deserters. They told the same story with some +additions, and said the fellow openly boasted in Braska that afternoon +that he was going to the dance. Then the scout admitted reluctantly that +he had heard the story from several sources, and gave the names of the +women who were said to have been introduced there, and they were not +Robideau's family. The sergeant had heard just what the scout had as to +the identity of the intruders. Then on my arrival at home I learned that +Mrs. Davies was one of the fort party, and Mrs. Stone and other ladies +who were present referred to some rude creatures in a neighboring room +who peeped and stared at the dancing. There was also awaiting me with my +mail<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span> an anonymous letter, which I burned without reading through. Next +I learned that the man who frightened them on the homeward way and then +deserted after a fracas with Mr. Willett was Howard, of 'A' Troop, and +that man's associations in town are matters of notoriety. That was the +chain that led to my belief in the story."</p> + +<p>Langston looked grave. "And Howard was probably Robideau's friend, +though Cresswell didn't know it! He had been paying court to Robideau's +daughter during her visit to Braska, always in civilian dress and always +claiming to be a civilian clerk in the quartermaster's department with a +salary of twelve hundred a year. I have seen her friends in town where +she visited, and they are very plain, honest, and well-to-do people, +whose daughter was sent to Illinois to school and met Angeline Robideau +there. They had another friend living in Cheyenne, and when they were up +there visiting her for a few days they said Mr. Powell was coming up to +spend one evening,—Powell is the name they all knew him by, and the +belief is that Angie was much fascinated by him, and had met him East +before meeting him here. Mr. Davies, I am glad to relieve your mind of +one uncomfortable theory in connection with this affair. I wish I could +extenuate or explain Willett's conduct as easily, but that young man is +a fool of the first magnitude."</p> + +<p>Davies had taken the note handed him by Langston and was mechanically +turning it and twisting it in his fingers. His impulse was to toss it, +as he had the anonymous billet, into the fire. There was something about +the handwriting of the former that was vaguely<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span> familiar to him even +through its disguise, but Willett's scrawling superscription he had +never seen. Something told him, however, that anything of which a man of +Langston's calibre chose to be the bearer was entitled to consideration. +He made no reply to Langston's closing words. He had fully made up his +mind as to what his course should be, and what was the extent of Mira's +misdoing. Just as he said to her, he blamed those who should have been +her advisers and protectors far more than he blamed her, and as to this +popinjay who had become infatuated with her beauty, though the +lieutenant's blood boiled in wrath and indignation, his calmer judgment +and his disciplined spirit tempered any and every expression. He had +spent long, wakeful, prayerful hours in the silence and solemnity of the +night, and no man knew the story of the struggle. He had trained himself +to meet this man who had so openly and persistently shown himself a +worshipper at the feet of his wife, and to meet him with cool contempt, +yet the same hot blood that rioted in his veins when, long years before, +he had downed the village scoffer who had ventured to ridicule his aged +mother, now prompted him to horsewhip Willett should he venture again to +visit the fort.</p> + +<p>It was relief, therefore, to hear that he had gone.</p> + +<p>At last he opened and read the note, a clumsy, cubbish attempt to +explain his language in Sanders's room, and to say the package was +absolutely nothing but some violets, to apologize for any and every +annoyance he might have caused Mr. and Mrs. Davies, for whom he +entertained nothing but sentiments of the most profound respect and +esteem, and begging if ever they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span> met again to be regarded as most +sincerely their friend, etc.</p> + +<p>"There is no answer," said Davies, as he finished it, a smile of +contempt on his lips. "You must have known there couldn't be, did you +not?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I fancied as much. He had no friend to carry it for him unless I +would, and the young idiot has gone off feeling profoundly wretched +about the whole business, as he deserves to. Had I been here, as an old +friend of his family, it would have been my right to warn him weeks ago, +and to put a stop to his foolishness if he was not to be advised. More +than that, Mr. Davies, I wish to say that ever since I met you on the +train last June I felt an interest in you that would have prompted me to +stand your friend in your absence whether I felt any interest in him or +not. I should like to know you better and to convince you that I meant +what I said when we parted there."</p> + +<p>And Davies at last held out a cordial hand.</p> + +<p>This was the afternoon before his early start, and though he left the +post feeling that he had gained a friend worth having, Davies did not +fully realize how dangerous a thing it was to leave a community of +women, none of whom he had sought to placate and some of whom he had +offended. Mrs. Darling had declared war against him, and Mrs. Stone, if +not Mrs. Flight, was in full sympathy with her. How dare he say they +were responsible for Mrs. Davies's flirtation? How dare he insinuate +that they had led her to the forbidden shades of Cresswell's? There was +a tempest in a teapot among Mrs. Stone's friends and associates over +Mrs. Darling's account of his rebuke to her, for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span> Mrs. Darling had +deftly managed to include Mrs. Stone and Mrs. Flight in the scope of his +condemnation, and very possibly old Peleg might have been wrought up to +pitch of sympathetic resentment but for the fact that he was +concentrating all of his shattered faculties on the mysterious robbery +of the adjutant's desk.</p> + +<p>Captain Devers, relieved at last from command of the post and +overshadowed by vague sense of official condemnation, was now, in +hopeful imitation of the Homeric Achilles, sulking in his tent. Invited +by Colonel Stone to appear at the office and give his counsel as to the +matter, Captain Devers had replied that in view of the discourtesies to +which he had been subjected at the hands of the adjutant he could hardly +be expected to care to visit the building except when compelled to do +so, and having been relieved from command under circumstances indicative +of disapproval of his methods, he should consider it indelicate on his +part to say what he thought of the matter in question.</p> + +<p>But the orderly trumpeter had told the sergeant-major that Captain +Devers was on the piazza looking in the adjutant's window when the +gentlemen were there examining the map, and that he entered the +hall-way. The sergeant-major told Mr. Leonard, and Leonard was actually +startled. He conveyed the information to Pegleg, and Pegleg sent his +compliments to Captain Devers with the information that his immediate +presence was desired, so Devers came, and shrewdly guessed what was the +cause. Certainly, he said, he went to the office to get certain papers +that he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span> had left in the commanding officer's desk. He did look in for +one instant through the adjutant's window, attracted by the unusual +sight of the adjutant, the chaplain, and his own subaltern, of whose +services he had been deprived, in apparent consultation. They were so +absorbed in talk that they did not hear him as he entered his own office +or when he left. Certainly he lit no candle; he needed none. He knew +just where his papers were, got them, and came away. Did he leave before +or after the others? Really, that was a matter he couldn't answer. He +was absorbed in his own reflections when he came out and couldn't say +whether the other gentlemen were there or not.</p> + +<p>Pegleg asked whether he had any theory as to the disappearance of the +batch of papers from Leonard's desk, and Devers said he had none +whatever, he didn't know how the matter could be supposed to interest +him. He did not inquire the means resorted to, but perhaps that was +unnecessary, as the drawer had evidently been forced by a heavy chisel +and the woodwork about the lock was crushed. Leonard glowered at him +with stormy eyes during the brief interview but, true to his notions of +subordination, asked no questions whatever. It was the colonel who +presently gave it up as a hopeless job and dismissed the cavalryman with +a brief, "Well, that will do, captain; I see you can't help us," and +Devers left with livid, twitching face. He had no fear of Stone, +weakened as he evidently was both physically and mentally by his recent +shock. It was that silent, gloomy thunder-cloud of an adjutant he +dreaded, and with good reason. There was an unsettled account between +these men and one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span> that Devers would have been glad indeed to drop, but +Leonard was a man who never let go. "I hate to have you leave just now," +he said to Davies, "for I know we shall need you presently."</p> + +<p>But once more there was a week of no communication with the Ogallalla +agency. Three days of blizzard and three of repairs before the flimsy +telegraph line could be used again. Mrs. Davies, busily occupied in +putting her new house in order, was aided by Mrs. McPhail and one of the +ladies from the cantonment, who, happening to be visiting the agent's +wife when the storm broke, found it pleasanter to remain there than go +back to the log huts across that mile of blast-swept prairie. The +Indians, with the stoicism of their race, huddled in their foul, smoky +tepees instead of swarming about the agency, and except Davies's +detachment none of the command appeared. It was therefore a rather busy +time for Mira, as there was abundant opportunity for conversation, and +both Mrs. McPhail and Mrs. Plodder rejoiced in so interested a listener. +The three seemed to be getting along together famously, a fact which +Davies noted with the same half-dreamy, half-amused smile. It was a +relief in seeing her really interested in setting her little house to +rights, but it was as evidently a relief to her that the otherwise +inevitable visitors were blockaded by the storm. Davies really did not +know which she dreaded most, the Cranstons or the Indians.</p> + +<p>It was the latter who were the first to call. The gale went down with +the sun one night, and the morning dawned clear and fine. Up with the +sun, true to his cavalry teaching, Davies had been out superintending<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span> +the grooming and feeding of his horses. He and Mira were at breakfast +and Mrs. Plodder had come to help. Trooper Gaffney was the household +cook for the time being, and a good one. The coffee was excellent, +despite the fact that Gaffney could get no cream, and condensed milk was +the only substitute obtainable. The steak was juicy and tender, as the +finest of the contractor's beef was sure to go to the agency itself, and +Gaffney's soda biscuits were enticing, whatsoever might be the +after-effect. The two ladies were chatting in very good spirits when one +considers the depths of woe from which Mira had so recently emerged, and +the lieutenant was beginning to take some comfort in the outlook, when +all on a sudden Mira turned a chalky white, screamed violently, and +cowered almost under the table, her face hidden in her hands. Davies's +instant thought was of the repeated whisper of warning that came to him +regarding Red Dog, but Mrs. Plodder's merry peal of laughter reassured +him, as he whirled to confront what proved to be the foe. There on the +porch without, crouching low, shading their eyes with their broad brown +paws, their painted faces almost flattened against the window, three +Indians, a brave and two squaws,—all innocent of any violation of +etiquette or decorum, but just as their kith and kin and instincts +taught them,—were staring hungrily into the room. To Eastern readers it +would have seemed bare, homely, plain in the last degree; to the +untutored minds of these children of the prairie it spoke of wealth, +luxury, and plenty. Peering over the shoulders of one of the squaws, +from its perch on her toil-bowed back, was a wee pappoose, its beady +little black<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span> eyes gleaming, its tiny face expressive of emotions that +in later years it would speedily learn to suppress,—wonderment and +interest. A thinly-clad girl of five or six clung to the mother with one +hand and clutched her little blanket with the other. They all looked +cold and hungry, and the big eyes wore that dumb, professionally +pathetic look which these born beggars are adepts in assuming.</p> + +<p>"Go 'way! Scat!" called Mrs. Plodder, with appropriate gesticulation as +she waved them aside. "You're darkening the room." But for answer the +visitors only huddled the closer and mournfully patted and rubbed the +region of their stomachs. Davies, laughing, went to the door and called +them in, which signal they promptly obeyed, and came trooping smilingly +after the stalking warrior, who took the lead as he would have taken +anything else. Mira by this time had backed into a corner, where she +cowered in terror, but Mrs. Plodder laughingly shook hands with the man +as Davies passed them in, and then blockaded him in an opposite corner +where he could not lay hands on anything they might give the squaws and +children. He wanted to shake hands with Mira, too, but she implored them +to keep him away. Davies took the little girl by the arm and led her to +his wife. "Do look at her, dear, and see what a pretty, intelligent face +she has. I want you to know how really friendly they mean to be." And +still Mira shrank and trembled. The younger woman was a Minneconjou +girl, with frank, attractive, almost pretty face. She dropped her +blanket from her head and let it fall about her calico-covered +shoulders, smiling affably<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> about her, but eying the breakfast things +appreciatively. Davies held out a lump of sugar to the baby, which that +embryo warrior grasped eagerly and thrust into his ready maw, and then +buttering one of Gaffney's biscuits and calling for a fresh supply, the +lieutenant, with Mrs. Plodder lending active aid, began feeding their +unbidden guests. Gaffney came in with a heaping platter of his +productions and a pitcher of maple syrup. "This is what they like, mum," +said he to the lady of the house. "Give that little kid a molasses +sandwhich and she'll be your friend for life. Heap walk? heap hungry?" +he continued, addressing the head of the family, in sympathetic tone.</p> + +<p>"Heap walk—plenty heap hungry," was the warrior's prompt response, with +appropriate pantomime and immediate lapse of dignity. Mrs. Plodder had +cut off a big slice of the steak and handed it to the mother with +reassuring gesture, but that well-disciplined wife passed it immediately +on to her lord, and in eloquent silence pleaded with open hand and eyes +for more. "The heathens!" exclaimed Mrs. Plodder. "We'd cure them of +that notion in no time, wouldn't we, Mrs. Davies?" But Mira was watching +the Minneconjou maiden, forgetful even of the adulation in the eyes of +the little five-year-old girl now licking the syrup off her slab of +soldier bread and gazing adoringly up into the shrinking donor's face. +Miss Minneconjou had caught sight of her own winsome face in a mirror +that hung in a stained-wood frame opposite Mira's seat, and with no +little shy giggling was revelling in the study of her charms even while +busily munching the big biscuit in her slender brown hand. Here was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> a +trait that formed a bond of sympathy, and Mira took courage. It is not +the contemplation of their nobler qualities, but their weaknesses, that +puts us on easy terms with our fellow-men. Breakfast promised to last a +long time. Gaffney, with the adaptability of the trooper of years of +service on the frontier, had been worming something of their visitors' +story out of them. The average Indian never wants to tell his name, but +gets a friend to give it for him. It proved, however, to be +Bear-Rides-Double who, with his wife, sister, and little ones, had +honored them with this early visit, and after riding double long years +among his people, this young chief had come afoot long miles to see the +Great Father's man and lodge a complaint. He had actually walked from +the Minneconjou village, five thousand yards away down-stream. But for +the chance of making a theatrical <i>coup</i> Bear-Rides-Double could easily +have borrowed a pony, even though his own were gone to pay a poker debt +incurred within thirty-six hours, and when he waked up the morning after +the protracted play he found that Pulls Hard and the half-breed "squaw +man" with whom he had been gambling had not only played him with cogged +dice, but plied him with drugged liquor, and then gone off with his war +ponies as well as the rest. He wanted the Great Father to redress his +wrongs, recover his stock, and give him another show with straight +cards, and then he'd show Pulls Hard and Sioux Pete a trick or two of +his own. Davies had proffered chairs during this recital, which Gaffney +managed between the sign language and a species of "pidgin English," +called "soldier Sioux," to interpret for him,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span> but the family preferred +to squat on the floor. Mrs. Plodder, tiring of the diplomatic features, +took Miss Minneconjou into Mira's room to show her the pretty gifts the +pale-face bride had brought with her, and Mira, with her five-year-old +friend toddling alongside, speedily followed. Davies strove to make the +double equestrian understand that he had no authority in the premises, +and that McPhail was the proper person to apply to, but the warrior +wished to deal only with his kind,—a heap brave chief,—the conqueror +of the redoubtable Red Dog. He could get more to eat through him in any +event, and in the midst of it all Gaffney came in from a brief visit to +his kitchen to say that Sioux Pete, the malefactor in question, was +actually in the corral at that moment trying to sell two ponies to the +sergeant of the guard. Leaving Gaffney to the duty of entertaining his +guests, Davies went out to investigate. Pete had come over from Red +Dog's camp with some of his plunder, and had no idea the complainant had +forestalled him. Pete spoke English,—that is, plains English,—but he +shrank a little at sight of the tall, grave-faced young officer of whom +Red Dog's people spoke with bated breath.</p> + +<p>"You want how much for these ponies?" asked the lieutenant, as though he +had heard the talk.</p> + +<p>"Tirty dollar."</p> + +<p>"Where are the others?"</p> + +<p>"No got."</p> + +<p>"You rode off with four ponies from the lodge of Bear-Rides-Double two +nights ago. Where are the other two?"</p> + +<p>Pete turned sickly gray. Could this white-faced<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> soldier read visions +and dreams and thoughts? Was he a medicine-man?</p> + +<p>"No got," he sullenly answered once more.</p> + +<p>"You will leave these two with me for safe-keeping," said Davies, "and +go and fetch the others at once, even if you have to take them from +Pulls Hard, and get back here with them at noon without fail. No, you +need not appeal to the agent, or I'll tell him that you loaded Bear with +drugged liquor and marked cards and cogged dice. Off with you, Pete," he +continued, and the half-breed rode away on his Cayuse pony with scared +face, and told in the camp of Red Dog that the young chief Davies was a +seer, a mind-reader as well as a brave who feared not to grapple their +war chief; and when he was gone, Bear-Rides-Double was summoned and +bidden to ride double if he could, but to go and sin no more with cogged +dice, and the Minneconjou looked with evident awe and wonderment upon +the grave, reticent cavalryman, and went away homeward on one of the +recovered ponies, his women-folk, laden with Mira's discarded finery and +leading the other, trudging contentedly along behind him afoot.</p> + +<p>"You'll be a heap bigger man among the Indians than the agent can ever +hope to be, lieutenant," said Gaffney, with an Irish grin.</p> + +<p>But Davies said nothing. Had he overstepped his authority? Would McPhail +approve? The point was soon settled. Through the hangers-on about the +store McPhail heard rumors flitting like lightning among the villages. +The young officer was a medicine-man, a mind-reader, and far and wide +the Indians<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span> spoke of him in fear and reverence. It might be a good +thing, said the canny Scot, to back him up and reap the benefit. "Just +so long as I can keep him here in charge of the guard we can run things +to suit ourselves, for no red-skin will dare buck against him."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2> + + +<p>For nearly a fortnight there was sunshine at the agency,—sunshine and +prosperity, and then came manifestation of that pride which goeth before +destruction. Because there were more of the Ogallalla tribe than of +others herded there when originally established the agency on the +Chasing Water had been given this name, but after the stirring events of +the winter and the revolt of Red Dog, it happened that rather more of +the Minneconjou and not a few of the Uncapapa backsliders were gathered +among the grimy tepees. Two Lance and his people, having made their way +to the fold of Spotted Tail, were permitted to abide with him as a +result of the earnest plea made in their behalf by the general in +command of the department. Young-Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses and some other +chiefs of the wiser—the peace element, had also been transferred, and +such Brulés as remained under the wing of McPhail were of the class old +Spot denounced as "devil-dreamers," men who would stir up a row in any +community, men he wouldn't entertain among the lodges of his people. The +Uncapapas were of Sitting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span> Bull's own tribe, malcontents almost to a +man, "mouth-fighters" who, like some recent exponents of Southern +oratory, were far more conspicuous after than during the battle days, +and between these breeders of devilment and the renegade Brulés, there +lay the village of Red Dog's reviving band,—three gangs of aboriginal +jail-birds who looked upon Red Dog's release as virtual confession on +part of the White Father that he dare not keep him, and they were only +waiting until the grass sprouted and their ponies could wax fat and +strong to take the war-path for another summer, and take all they could +carry with them when they did it. April had come. The last vestiges of +ice and snow were slipping away out of the broad, sun-kissed valley. Up +at the cantonments a stalwart infantry major had a battalion of the +Fortieth out along the prairie slopes for over two hours every morning, +drilling, drilling, drilling, until officers and men came +double-quicking in at 11.30, exuding profanity and perspiration from +every pore, but owning up to it, after a rub down and a rest and a +hearty dinner, that old Alex was a boss soldier who knew how to take the +conceit out of the cavalry, even if he did nearly have to run his +bandy-legs off, and the lean shanks of his men, in doing it. The cavalry +major was far less energetic. He sent his troops out under their +respective chiefs, and ambled around among them after a while making +audible comment to this captain and that, but never drawing sabre +himself. Cranston had a capital troop and was a born cavalryman who +needed neither coach nor spur and there were others nearly as good as +he, but each worked on his own system, whereas the doughboys pulled +together.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span> Not to be outdone, Davies laid out a riding-school back of +the agency corral, and every day had his detachment out for a vigorous +mounted gymnastic drill as well as another at platoon exercise. He was +wiry, athletic, and an enthusiastic teacher, and presently it was noted +that the Indians, who for a time hovered impartially all over the +prairies and slopes, watching the manœuvres of the soldiers, began +gathering in daily augmenting crowds about the agency grounds, +frequently applauding the leaping and hurdling, but only too readily +jeering the awkwardness of some of the men in mounting and dismounting +at the gallop, a thing they had learned and practised since early +boyhood. Then Cranston and the other troop leaders got to working down +toward the agency and, during the rests, moving close up to the corral +and watching the riding-school. It was capital work, said Cranston and +his contemporaries, though some jealous youngsters used to say to their +cynical selves that Parson probably "put up a prayer-meeting as a +stand-off." McPhail and his people began to come out and look on, and +Mira to watch from the window, for she still trembled and shrank at +sight of the savage painted faces and glittering eyes of the Indians, +and equally shrank from meeting the Cranstons. But presently Mrs. +Cranston and other women came driving over in their ambulances, the +generic term by which army carriages were known in the days when a +provident Congress first began curtailing the transportation facilities +of the line where, <i>sous entendu</i>, all great reformatory experiments +were tried, the staff being, of course, beyond even congressional +suspicion, and so it resulted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span> that about eleven o'clock every fine day +the biggest gathering of the people, red and white, in all the broad +valley of the Chasing Water, as far east as its confluence with the +shadowy Niobrara and thence to the shores of the Big Muddy, was that to +be found about the rectangular space where the Parson held forth to his +faithful squad.</p> + +<p>Now, McPhail came back to his recaptured children with conciliation for +his watchword, willing, eager to shake hands with one and all from Red +Dog down, or up, according to the proper plane of that warrior on the +scale of merit; but as he noted the humility of bearing exhibited by all +except a truculent few, and the evident awe with which even these looked +upon the stern and taciturn commander of his guard, the agent began, +like Mulvaney after his fifth drink, "to think scornful av elephints," +in other words, of the red wards of his bailiwick, and with McPhail to +"think scornful" was to act. Just in proportion as he was meek and +cringing before did he become arrogant and abusive now. There was no +Boynton on hand to warn him with what he termed brutal bluntness that he +was tempting Providence again. Even the worm will turn, and the +difference between the worm and the Indian is that one can anticipate +the former and prepare for the blow. Up to the 10th of April Red Dog had +held himself haughtily apart from the whites—agent, officers, troops, +and all, but there were half-breeds and scouts who warned them that the +humiliation of his capture still rankled in his bosom, and that a mad +thirst for revenge possessed him. "Watch him as you would a snake," said +old Spotted Tail himself, when he came<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span> down to visit the agency. "He +never sleeps without dreaming of vengeance." The agent told Davies what +the loyal old chief had said, and Davies looked grave, but made no +reply. He was thinking, however, of Mira's danger. Indians could not be +put under bonds to keep the peace, however: the Bureau's system being to +let them kill first and explain afterwards. It wasn't pleasing to the +relatives of the deceased or even to the army, but what were they among +so many?—the millions of Indian sympathizers dwelling at discreet +distance.</p> + +<p>One morning half a dozen ladies drove down from the cantonment, and +their wagons were ranged up close alongside the rail near the high +hurdle. Around them were thickly clustered a number of squaws and +children and a few Indian boys, though most of the men, old or young, +kept to their ponies around on the south and east sides. McPhail came +out later with his household, and really was not unprepared to find his +usual place, on a little raised platform, pre-empted by a score of +blanketed "reds." Mac had some odd views. He couldn't understand why the +soldiers should not be made to salute him as they did their own +officers, who, having occasionally to report to him for instructions, +might be considered as his inferiors. He liked to impress the ladies of +the cantonment with the extent of his power and authority, and had more +than once interrupted the proceedings in the ring by loudly-shouted +orders to some of the Indians on the other side. This annoyed Davies, +but he said nothing. McPhail spoke of the detachment as "My guard," +etc., and once or twice in the presence of the army<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> ladies had +addressed Davies in the crisp, curt tone of the superior officer, or +such imitation of it as he was enabled to compass, and this, too, the +young man had suffered without remark, though with a quiet smile. Seeing +the swarm of Indians on McPhail's platform, Mrs. Cranston and Miss +Loomis presently called to him to bring Mrs. McPhail to a seat in their +wagon, but the agent sprang up on the flimsy structure, sharply ordering +off the Indians right and left, and emphasizing his order with his boot +toes. Mac's twelve-year-old son, taking the cue from his father, +proceeded to deliver a vicious kick at a slowly-moving, blanketed form, +and the very next instant was screaming for help, flat on his back among +a swarm of Indian boys. All in a second the little savage had flashed +out of his blanket like lightning from a black cloud, and, grappling, +had hurled McPhail junior to earth. The agent made a furious lunge to +the rescue of his first-born, and the squaws and young girls scattered +shrieking at his charge. Startled and excited, the horses of Cranston's +wagon whirled sharply around, nearly capsizing the vehicle. Other horses +followed suit despite the efforts of their drivers, and in less than a +moment all the young braves on the opposite side came lashing their +ponies at mad gallop around the long rectangle just as McPhail +reappeared on the platform, bringing captive a furiously struggling +Indian boy screaming with rage and yelling for help. In less than that +moment too, it seemed, Percy Davies had leaped his horse over the +breast-high barrier and spurred to the heads of Cranston's team, seizing +the reins of the near horse. "Come right on," he shouted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span> to the driver. +"Let them follow me." Out through the surging, scurrying crowd he guided +them to the edge of the road, then, pointing to the cantonment, called +to the driver, "Home with you, quick!" And with hardly a glance at the +grateful occupants, whirling his horse about, he burst his way back +again through the excited crowd until he found himself at the edge of +the platform. Already a dozen Indians were furiously demanding the +release of the prisoner. Little McPhail had scudded for home; Mira's +white face had disappeared from her window. Some of the guard had darted +into the corral for their arms, others, unarmed, had pressed to the +support of the agent. Before Davies could reach him four warriors were +out of their blankets and high-pommelled saddles, and had hurled +themselves on McPhail. "Rescue! Help!" he screamed, with ashen face, +releasing the Indian boy and vainly striving to draw his revolver. Away +sped the escaped captive, darting between the legs of struggling braves, +sheltered by the robes of hurrying squaws; away, right, left, anywhere, +everywhere, scattered the blanketed, jabbering groups, leaving on the +scene of action only the agent, the quickly rallying guard, and upward +of fivescore of jeering, taunting screeching warriors, at least a dozen +of them now dismounted, dancing and brandishing knife and tomahawk, +rifle or revolver, about the still writhing group rolling upon the +wooden floor,—McPhail and his assailants. Into the midst of this mad +mellay sprang the cavalryman, turning loose his horse, which animal, +urged by shrill yells and slyly administered lashings, went tearing away +over the prairie. Right at the lieutenant's back,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span> almost as he had +fought his way with him, nozzle in hand, into the ruck of the rioting +crowd at Bluff Siding, striking out scientifically with his clinched +fists, charged young Brannan, only three days since transferred to the +agency guard. Vaulting the low rail and lunging in among the +devil-dreamers, came Sergeant Lutz and a squad of his fellow-troopers, +and in a dozen seconds, breathless and dust-begrimed, half stifled, but +practically unhurt, the agent was dragged from among the whirl of +moccasined feet and propped up, panting and swearing, against the rail, +while burly forms in trooper blue were hustling the half-raging, +half-jeering crowd of warriors off the platform. Even in the moment of +mad excitement they knew too much to use their weapons. Wise old heads +had been cautioning them against any deed of blood so long as the grass +was barely beginning to shoot. All they demanded was the instant release +of that boy, the chieftain's son, but incidentally, if McPhail insisted +on wrestling, they could not deny the Great Father's man or spare him +vigorous handling while about it. Davies had seized one brawny, muscular +throat and sent a gauntleted fist plump against the sweat-gleaming jaw +of a second brave. Brannan had backed him with half a dozen +well-delivered blows, but even these had evoked neither shot nor knife. +The instant the savages realized that it was the young commander of the +guard, they seemed to give way without further struggle, and so it +resulted that in a moment more every red-skin was off that sacred square +of board, and that a thick, deep semicircle of warriors, some few afoot, +but most of them astride their ponies,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span> glowered in silence now at the +tall soldier who, interposing between them and the victim of their rude +horse play, stood confronting them with grave, set, indomitable look in +his pale face, on which the sweat was already starting. Behind the +officer, leaping up on the platform, were now a little squad of his men, +and McPhail, fuming and raging malevolently. "Arrest those blackguards, +arrest them instantly, Davies! Every man of them, by God! They shall pay +for this or there's no power in Washington." But Davies never moved hand +or foot. Calmly eying the surrounding crowd, he was searching for some +familiar face among the scowling warriors. Some few were men well on in +years, others mere striplings. Some were still covertly fuming with rage +for battle, others slyly tittering at the agent's expense, but all faces +were turned in instant interest, all ears attent when Davies began to +speak. "Where is Charging Bear?" he asked. "What is the meaning of this +riot?"</p> + +<p>Probably not ten Indians in the throng could speak a dozen words of +reputable English; probably not ten, however, failed to read his +meaning.</p> + +<p>"Charging Bear is not here," suddenly spoke in deep guttural a grizzly +Indian, who urged his pony forward. "The son of McPhail struck and +kicked the son of White Wolf,—the son of a clerk struck the first-born +of a war chief, and the Great Father's man would punish, not the +striker, but the struck."</p> + +<p>"Nab that damned lying scoundrel, Davies. He put 'em up to this whole +business. He's another of your mission whelps. I know you, Thunder +Hawk," continued McPhail, his courage and his choler rising<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span> alike as he +saw that the Indians were slowly recoiling, and evidently meant no +further mischief. "I know you, and I order your arrest right here and +now. As for the young dog that attacked my son, I'll demand him of White +Wolf in half an hour with five hundred soldiers at my back."</p> + +<p>"Then bring your own, who gave the first blow, if you want him in +exchange. As for me," continued the old man, in calm dignity, "I have +done no wrong, but my people shall not be made to suffer because of me. +I know the power of the Great Father, but he would not demand my +surrender to such as you. Here is the chief to whom the Indian yields," +he said, turning to the lieutenant, and then, riding a pony length +closer, gravely swung his handsome repeating rifle from its +gayly-fringed sheath of skins and extended it, butt foremost, to Davies.</p> + +<p>But before that officer could receive the proffered rifle a warning cry +came from the outskirts of the swarm. There was instantaneous lashing of +quirts, a sudden scurry and rush, and like one great herd of elk smitten +with sudden panic, away surged and sped the entire throng, Thunder +Hawk's stampeded pony bearing him irresistibly away with the rest. Only +a cloud of dust settling slowly to earth remained to greet the long line +of Cranston's troop as it came sweeping in from the foot-hills at +thundering gallop. Far out across the prairie the manœuvring cavalry +had sniffed the "sign" of trouble at the agency, and his was the first +to answer the alarm.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII.</h2> + + +<p>Again was there scene of mad excitement among the Indian villages on the +Chasing Water. Again was Red Dog in saddle, exhorting, declaiming, +prophesying, but with no such ready result as during the winter days +gone by. It was one thing to rally to the standard of a war chief and +follow him on a raid against the agent of the Great Father when but a +handful of soldiers could back the authorities. It was quite another to +rise in revolt when five hundred war-trained blue-coats were aligned to +defend him. Within two hours after the exciting scene at the corral the +Indians in every band knew that McPhail had launched his ultimatum at +the little village of White Wolf. "Send in Chaska, the assailant of my +son, and Thunder Hawk, the boaster, or there is war between the Great +Father and you and yours."</p> + +<p>Already had Chaska and Chaska's mother, with three trusty friends, +mounted on swift ponies, been spirited away northward, with instructions +to ride all night through the devious trails of the Bad Lands, and never +draw rein until they reached the shelter of the Uncapapa lodges beyond +the Wakpa Schicha. Already had Red Dog dashed over to the lodge of +Thunder Hawk, offering him asylum in the heart of his tribe, and +pledging his uttermost brave to his defence. But the old Indian would +none of him. Long years before, a fatherless boy, he had been reared +and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span> taught by a priest of the Church of Rome,—is there a people they +do not know, a peril they do not dare?—and when finally his friend and +teacher and protector was gathered to his fathers and laid in the old +mission churchyard, the boy drifted back to his tribe, a mature and +thoughtful man, to find his kindred among the tents of the +Ogallallas,—among, worse luck, the malcontents of Red Cloud. From this +time on he had cast his lot with them, marrying, rearing children, yet +but slowly gaining influence among them. When his great and cruel chief +lured the garrison of a mountain stockade into the neighboring hills and +massacred every man, Hawk had refused to take part. His heart was not at +war with the whites. When swarms of the warriors left to join the great +renegade bands gathering under Crazy Horse and Gall to reinforce Sitting +Bull, Hawk had held aloof. "The people of Red Cloud," said he, "have no +grounds for war. The Great Father has done everything he promised them +and more," and Red Cloud called him dastard and squaw; but when an +Indian girl was missing from her lodge, and the gossips told how she had +been lured by a white soldier to the distant banks of the Laramie, Hawk +rode thither, rode into the presence of the post commander and told her +story and his, and found and brought her back to her people. He strove +to find the man for whose sake she had abandoned her father's lodge and +forfeited her good name. Hawk well knew how futile was her trust that +the white chief would ever claim her as his wife, but among so many +comrades he was concealed, and Hawk left his message. Sooner or later +his people should find the white man who had wrought<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span> the wrong and his +days were numbered. Every knife in all his band was whetted for that +particular scalp. And now again, when Indian blood had been fired by the +insult to the son of White Wolf, he stepped forward to interpose between +his people and the fury of the Great Father's man. He had repressed, not +incited the wrath of his brothers, but the agent in authority ruled +otherwise and demanded his surrender. His people would have fought to +save him. He would suffer willingly rather than that one drop of blood +should be spilt on his account. Refusing Red Dog's clamorous offer, +Thunder Hawk mounted his pony and, despite the wails and lamentations of +his village, rode forth in calm dignity to meet the coming soldiery, to +offer in silent submission his hands to the clinch of the steel.</p> + +<p>The recall had sounded at the cantonment, and mounted orderlies had +galloped out to bring in such troops as might have trotted too far away +for the sound. The infantry battalion, practising skirmish drill, had +quickly rallied, re-formed, and was marched within the log walls to +exchange blank for ball cartridge and await orders. The four cavalry +troops galloped back to their stables and dismounted, while their +officers gathered about the major commanding. Cranston to him had +briefly recounted the story of the excitement as he had heard it from +McPhail's lips. "I am bound to say, sir," said he, "that Mr. Davies did +not seem to agree with the agent in either his statements or his +conclusions. He considers the agent to have been the aggressor, and if +he is required to go to arrest Hawk and White Wolf's boy, it will be +with an unwilling hand."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Yes," said the major, coldly, "the trouble with Davies seems to be that +he has displayed similar unwillingness on previous occasions."</p> + +<p>The command of the cantonment had been given to this veteran field +officer of infantry, a man whose motto had been fight from boyhood on. +For ten days had he been hammering away here, hours at a time, to get +his own battalion in readiness for what he considered the inevitable +summer's work. He had fought every one of the dozen or more tribes of +plains Indians, and considered fighting their normal condition as it was +his own. He had made it his boast that during the previous summer his +battalion, day after day, had outmarched the cavalry, and even while the +statement was misleading, the boast was based on facts. The horses of +the cavalry, starved and staggering, worn to skin and bone, had to be +towed along instead of ridden, and the cavalry were therefore +handicapped. Yet there was not a trooper who did not honor the bluff +senior major, and none who really disliked him, except perhaps the +battalion commander of the cavalry, a gentleman whose gold leaves were +as dazzlingly new as the senior's were old and withered, and just about +to be changing into silver, the silver of the lieutenant-colonel. The +contrast between Major White's spirited handling of his battalion of +foot and Major Chrome's listless management of a similar body of horse +was vivid in the last degree. The latter and two of his troops belonged +to Atherton's fine regiment, the —th, the other two troops, Cranston's +and Truman's, were, as we know, of the Eleventh, and here in presence of +four officers of the latter's regiment, and a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span> dozen of the Fortieth +Foot and of the —th Horse,—here on the broad parade of the cantonment, +at high noon and in plain sight and hearing even of three or four +enlisted men, orderlies, horse-holders, etc., had the post commander +spoken words that meant nothing short of discredit, if not disgrace, to +the subaltern who was at that very instant riding away on a perilous as +well as thankless mission. Deep, embarrassed silence fell on one and all +of the major's hearers for a single instant. Cranston reddened with +indignation, little Sanders with wrath. Truman looked quickly and +curiously about him. All three were eager and ready to speak, yet by +common consent the duty devolved upon Cranston, who took the floor.</p> + +<p>"It would be idle, Major White, to feign ignorance of what you refer to, +but let me say right here and now that you have been utterly misled as +to that young officer's character, and I doubt if you properly estimate +that of his detractors."</p> + +<p>"I base my opinion on a cavalry report, Captain Cranston,—on Mr. +Archer's vindication of Captain Devers."</p> + +<p>"As one-sided a report as was ever written, sir, for the other side—Mr. +Davies—had never a hearing,—never even heard of the investigation +itself until a week ago, and is now bound to silence pending action at +department head-quarters; but meantime, sir, as a friend of his, and a +man who believes in him, I protest against any such impression as you +have received, and I ask you how it is that you can believe such a story +of an officer who, single-handed, arrested Red Dog in the face of his +followers? There has been an insidious<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span> influence at work against him +ever since last summer, and we of the Eleventh know just where to place +it."</p> + +<p>"If I've wronged him, Cranston, you know me well enough to know that +I'll make every amend possible. I have heard, I own, much more than +Archer's report, so have my brother officers, not only before the recent +outbreak in which he seems to have outwrestled Red Dog, but since. Since +his recent visit to Scott stories have come to our ears very much to his +discredit."</p> + +<p>"Not from Leonard, sir, I warrant you," interposed Cranston, hotly.</p> + +<p>"No, not from Leonard, for Leonard never talks against anybody, but from +officers at Scott who seem to speak by the card. There is general +indignation because of his affront to the wife of one of our number. If +your friend is so far above suspicion, and did not feel some sense of +the sentiment against him, why did he utterly shun the society of every +officer at the post-except the chaplain? It reminds me of that English +snob who was sent to Coventry for abandoning the Prince Imperial, and +then took refuge in the prayers of the Church."</p> + +<p>"Major White, there are reasons for Davies's conduct for which I will be +answerable, and which you could not fail to respect. The fault, sir, lay +on the other side. This is something that can't be discussed here, for a +woman's war is mixed up in it, but if I have any place in your esteem, +let me urge you to suspend judgment. While the responsibility for the +original wrong done Davies must rest in my regiment, there have been +later wrongs done him in yours, and I learn it for the first time +to-day."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span></p> + +<p>It was an impressive scene, this impromptu gathering at the foot of the +flag-staff while anxiously awaiting further tidings from the agency. +Over among the quarters the humid eyes of frightened women peered from +many a door-way, watching with fluttering hearts for sign of action. +Stacking arms in front of their barracks, the infantry had been sent in +to a hurried dinner, and the cavalry horses, saddled, still stood at the +lines, watched by a few troopers, while the rest were packing +saddle-bags and taking a bite on their own account. The sentries to the +eastward kept gazing over toward the grim stockade and the clustering +groups of Indian lodges far away down-stream. Ten minutes since a party +of a dozen troopers had been seen to ride slowly away from the agency in +the direction of White Wolf's tepees, a mile beyond; "Davies going to +demand the surrender" were the words that passed from mouth to mouth and +gave the text for the startling conversation that had just taken place, +a topic which was now by common consent dropped as having reached a +point where the utmost caution should be observed. Everybody seemed to +know in some mysterious way that the circulators of the new and +unflattering stories about Davies were not so much the invalid colonel +or Messrs. Flight and Darling of the Fortieth as their more voluble, +active, and dangerous helpmeets. Indeed, the very day Trooper Brannan +arrived, transferred by regimental orders from "A" to "C" troop, he +brought one letter from Mrs. Leonard to Mrs. Cranston, and two or three, +each, of the missives of Mesdames Stone, Flight, and Darling to ladies +at the cantonment. Mrs. Leonard's letter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span> said that her husband, the +adjutant, had been summoned by telegraph to General Sheridan's office in +Chicago, and he expected to be gone a week. No trace had been found of +the papers stolen from his desk, but it was undoubtedly on that business +that he had been sent for, and Mrs. Leonard felt confident that when he +returned it would be with news that full justice would at last be +awarded Mr. Davies for his conduct during the campaign as well as at the +agency, and Mrs. Leonard could not control the impulse to add, "If +justice could only be meted out to his accuser!—but will that man ever +get his deserts?"</p> + +<p>It must be owned that Mrs. Leonard had good grounds for being doubtful +on that point.</p> + +<p>Meantime how fared it with the embassy to White Wolf? Smarting under the +injury to his pride and person, McPhail had decided to inflict severe +humiliation on the red men prominent in the affair. First, White Wolf's +boy should be made to suffer, and then Thunder Hawk, who had dared to +oppose his views, should be ironed as an inciter of riot and placed +under guard. Knowing the feeling of veneration, almost of awe, with +which Davies was regarded by many of the Indians, he desired to avail +himself of the fact and send him to make the arrest, and at last Davies +asserted himself. Calmly, but positively, he refused. "My orders are +simply to protect the agency and the agent and his family from attack," +said he, "not to act as the agent's police."</p> + +<p>"Do you refuse to obey my orders?" asked McPhail, angrily.</p> + +<p>"You are not empowered to give me any orders, Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span> McPhail,—above all, +such orders. It is no question of obedience or disobedience."</p> + +<p>"Then I'll ask to have you relieved and sent to your regiment, and some +man sent here who will do his duty," said McPhail.</p> + +<p>"You cannot do it too soon, sir," was the answer. "It has been most +unwelcome from the start, and I shall now ask to be relieved in any +event."</p> + +<p>And so, finding Davies inflexible, Mr. McPhail had no alternative but to +go himself. He had sent his demand; it had met with no response. He must +attempt the arrest in person or become the laughing-stock of his Indian +wards. Here at last Davies had to back him. It might be true that the +officer would be sustained in his refusal to go and do his bidding, but +if the agent went in person the lieutenant would have to send a +detachment as a guard. Davies did more. He calmly informed McPhail that +he should place himself at the head of the party and protect him to the +extent of his ability; and so with the detachment as it marched away, +watched by many an anxious eye, rode McPhail with his agency +interpreter.</p> + +<p>And when barely half-way to the cluster of tepees among the Cottonwoods +at the point, there came to meet them in solitary state old Thunder Hawk +himself. He wore no barbaric finery. His pony was destitute of +trappings. He, himself, wore not even a revolver. Everything that might +speak of war or even self-defence was left behind. When within a hundred +yards of the foremost horsemen he reined in his pony and calmly awaited +their approach.</p> + +<p>Half a mile farther down the valley, clustered in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span> front of their +lodges, some of them lashing about on their excited ponies, could be +plainly seen the warriors of Red Dog's band, and that that hot-blooded +chief was in their midst could hardly be doubted, though he was too far +away for personal recognition. All at once the seething group seemed to +obey some word of command, for it heaved suddenly forward, and, +breasting its way through the scattering outskirts, just as it had +advanced on the agency that moonlit winter's night, the centre burst +into view, one accurate rank of mounted Indians, and in another moment, +wheeling and circling, all the individual horsemen came ranging into +line at the flanks, and, reinforced every moment by galloping braves +from the villages in the rear, Red Dog's big squadron, like Clan Alpine, +came sweeping up the vale. Borne on the breeze like one long wail of +foreboding, the weird chant of squaws and stay-behinds was wafted to the +ears of the agency party. Another instant and the song was taken up in +swelling chorus by the coming foe. McPhail, who had spurred eagerly +forward as Thunder Hawk halted, now irresolutely checked his horse and +glanced back, as though feeling for the support of the grim and silent +guard.</p> + +<p>"By God, Mr. Davies, I believe that traitor Red Dog means mischief!"</p> + +<p>Making no reply whatever, the lieutenant simply raised his sword arm in +signal to his party,—halt! whereat, sniffing the tainted breeze and +anxiously eyeing the distant cavalcade, the horses of Davies's party +stood nervously pawing and stamping. Evidently they liked the outlook as +little as did McPhail. And<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span> there, all alone, fifty yards out in their +front now, grave and motionless, still sat old Thunder Hawk.</p> + +<p>"Do you suppose they will try to rescue if we arrest him here?" asked +McPhail.</p> + +<p>"Very probably. They regard him as a martyr, and so do I," was the +answer.</p> + +<p>"Here! gallop to the cantonments for help at once," said McPhail to his +interpreter. "Say that Red Dog and his whole gang are coming," he +shouted, instantly reining about and looking anxiously back. Behind him, +nearly a thousand yards, lay the low, squat buildings of his official +station. Beyond that, nearly two thousand more, and but for the flag and +staff almost indistinguishable from the dull hues of the prairie, except +to Indian eye, lay the low log walls of the cantonment. Already signs of +alarm and bustle could be seen about the former. A buckboard was just +hurriedly driving off, full gallop, for the distant barracks, scudding +for shelter before the storm should break. Evidently Mrs. McPhail didn't +mean to stand siege in her cellars this time. Already Lutz, who remained +with the reserve, had mounted his men and was trotting out to the +support of the advance. Already the long, barbaric array of Red Dog's +band had come within rifle-range, and their clamoring chief, all +bristling with eagle feathers, rode up and down across their advancing +front, brandishing aloft his gleaming rifle. "Watch him as you would a +snake," indeed! Here he came once more in open, defiant hostility, bent +beyond possibility of doubt on instant attack should the agent attempt +to lay hands on Thunder Hawk.</p> + +<p>"Come in here, Hawk. I suppose you surrender!"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span> yelled McPhail, +nervously. Evidently something had to be done, and done at once.</p> + +<p>"Not to you," was the determined answer. "I will surrender to soldiers +when they demand, and to them only, and I'll await justice as their +prisoner and not as yours."</p> + +<p>"My God! Mr. Davies, you've <i>got</i> to do something!" wailed the agent, +shrinking still farther back now, as Red Dog's line unmistakably +quickened the pace and the earth began to quiver and tremble.</p> + +<p>"Take the men and fall back towards the agency, sir," said Davies, +quickly, sternly, and then without an instant's hesitation spurred +forward. As he rode he whipped off his right gauntlet, and then halting +within a horse-length of the silent warrior, held out his bare hand. +"Thunder Hawk, this is the hand of a friend. Will you ride with me and +turn Red Dog back?"</p> + +<p>"I will go with you wherever you say."</p> + +<p>Over among the lodges of Thunder Hawk's people the signs of intense +excitement were on the increase. Women and young girls had taken up the +weird war-song of the advancing array. Young men springing to their +ponies and no longer able to restrain their desire to act in his behalf, +all forgetful of his injunction, came galloping forth to join the band +of Red Dog riding to the rescue. Over at the agency, far to the rear, +there was mad flurry and consternation. Women and children of the few +employés, now that there was a military post within range, were +gathering up such valuables as they could carry and scurrying away along +the cantonment road. Conscious of his own impotence, McPhail had lost +the last vestige of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span> his truculent manner and, eagerly availing himself +of Davies's advice, turned nervously to the senior corporal of the +little squad of troopers and said, "Fall back! We've got to fall back to +the reserve." The corporal glanced first at him, irresolutely, then back +at the coming reserve now spurring forward with Lutz at their head, then +around at the whirl and turmoil and trouble in the villages, at Red +Dog's now "magnificently stern array," and finally at the two figures, +calmly, slowly riding straight at the very centre of the advancing line, +straight at the heart of Red Dog's chanting battalion; and then, when +McPhail nervously repeated his instructions, and, adding example to +precept, turned and strove to lead the party in retreat, briefly +addressed first his fellows and then the agent.</p> + +<p>"Stand fast, men!—You—go to hell!"</p> + +<p>A moment later and far out at the front now the two figures had halted, +a strange contrast. The man on the right, tall, slender, of athletic and +graceful build, clad in trim simple undress uniform of the cavalry, +sitting his horse as straight as a young pine; the other, bent, +blanket-robed, hunched up on his pony in the peculiarly ungraceful pose +of the Indian rider when at rest, but resolute and immovable; both +sublimely devoted in the duty now before them. When by the sweeping +advance of the Indian line these two, the young officer, the old +sub-chief, were brought nearly midway between the little party of +blue-coats and the great rank of red warriors, both men as by common +impulse threw upward the right hand, signalling "Stand where you are!" +to the coming line.</p> + +<p>And recognizing their challengers, little by little,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span> gradually reining +in, the Indians obeyed. Only Red Dog, followed closely by Elk, sullenly, +angrily continued the advance; his fierce eyes, avoiding Davies's calm +face, were bent glowering upon his fellow-tribesman.</p> + +<p>"Why is Thunder Hawk here?" was his demand in the Ogallalla tongue. "Is +he ally or prisoner of the soldiers?"</p> + +<p>"Thunder Hawk is their friend and the friend of his people. The white +chief came as his friend and brother to protect him from indignity. Now +as friends and brothers we stand between Red Dog and the wrong he would +do. Only over our bodies shall Red Dog move another lance-length against +the Great Father's people."</p> + +<p>Davies could not comprehend this talk, but there was no mistaking its +import or its effect on the rabid chief. Furiously Red Dog pressed +forward, his rifle still clutched in his sinewy hand.</p> + +<p>"Thunder Hawk is a traitor and a liar! He has sold himself to the +whites! He is their prisoner, and when they have used him they will iron +and brand and starve him. Even a sub-chief of the Dakotas shall not live +to be their tool. Thunder Hawk rides back with us at once or dies here +and now." And around came the ready weapon, muzzle to the front, with +Red Dog's hand at the guard.</p> + +<p>"Ride back to your men, lieutenant," muttered the old Indian. "You have +my word that I will join you as soon as I can, but this man is crazed. +He means to force a fight."</p> + +<p>"If that be so my place is here with you," was the answer. "What does he +demand?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span> "No parlying with your soldier friends," shouted Red Dog, +again in the Sioux tongue. Then, as though losing all control of himself +in his hatred of his captor, he dashed furiously at Davies. "Back!" he +shouted. "Back!" And he pointed with grand dramatic action up the +valley. "Back to your own people! This is Indian land." Then seeing that +his words fell on heedless ears and that Davies never relaxed his cool, +steadfast gaze into the raging red face, he fell into such English as he +knew. "Run or I kill."</p> + +<p>And then Lutz and his reserve, just reaching their comrades under +Corporal Clanton, saw a sudden flash of sunshine from the silver +mountings of the Indian's beautiful Winchester as it was whirled to the +brawny shoulder, saw sudden rear and plunge of Davies's spirited horse, +a grapple as though in mid-air, and with a mad cry of "My God! They'll +murder him!" young trooper Brannan dashed forward from the ranks just as +the shot from Red Dog's rifle whirled harmless into space, and horse and +man, the pride of the Ogallalla hostiles, were rolling in the dust, +overthrown by the officers heavier charger, while the butt of the +polished weapon, wrested from the warrior's grasp and wielded by +muscular hand, came down with resounding whack on the head of the +struggling chief, and for the second time, in the very face of his +astonished braves, Red Dog, the redoubtable, went sprawling to earth, +downed by the white chief whom he affected to despise.</p> + +<p>In the fierce mellay that followed the advantage lay with the first to +move. Lutz and his party had not really checked their gait, and so +leaped into the charge with a flying start. Sixteen ready troopers had +darted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span> forward to the support of their beloved young officer. Thunder +Hawk had lashed his pony so as to interpose between him and the rush of +the Indian band, but even as those red-skins nearest the centre, where +the drums and rattles were keeping up their low, threatening din, with +one impulse dashed forward to rescue the chief, those on the flanks, +far-seeing, held wisely back, even while around the prostrate chief +there raged for a brief, hot, furious moment a wild babel of threat and +execration, a mad whirl of brandishing knives and pistols and naked red +limbs and brawny arms in dusty blue, Hawk and two other stalwart Sioux +had thrown themselves between avenging blows and the young white chief, +standing afoot now with pale, set face, over his writhing victim. Lutz +and his men, lunging in among the lighter ponies, bore them back by +sheer force of weight. 'Only one or two shots were heard; even in that +frantic turmoil friend and foe alike seemed to realize that a battle +must be avoided so long as each side held possession of its own. And +then from the outskirts came loud yells of warning. By fives and tens +the mounted warriors melted hurriedly away, and presently all the broad +prairie to the eastward, back toward the lodges from which they came, +was alive with circling, darting, screaming red-skins, keeping up their +shrill appeal to brethren still hot-handed in the struggle for out from +behind the curtain of the agency corral swept the long column of +galloping horse under its curtaining cloud of dust, and down at full +speed came the whole squadron, far more than Red Dog's band dare tackle +in heady fight. Out from beneath his struggling pony they dragged him, +bleeding and bedaubed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span> with sweat and paint and blood, and when +presently as the long skirmish line of Cranston's troop swept over the +spot and drove before it all the mounted warriors, only two or three of +the faithful remained to share the fortunes of their fallen chief, for +like Thunder Hawk, Red Dog was the prisoner, not of the Great Father's +agent, who was somewhere far to the rear, but of the soldier chief of +the cantonments, who came galloping up in the wake of the cavalry, +wrathful, if anything, that the whole thing was over without a fight.</p> + +<p>And then, and not until nearly ten minutes after he had downed his man, +was it noticed that Mr. Davies had not recovered color, that he was too +faint to remount his horse.</p> + +<p>"What is it, lad?" murmured Cranston, with keen anxiety in his eyes.</p> + +<p>"I'm stabbed, captain. I—think you'd better not let Mrs. Davies know."</p> + +<p>But Davies need not have worried on that score. When a little later they +bore him, faint, unconscious from loss of blood, to his own roof at the +agency, there was lack of woman's nursing, there was dearth of woman's +tears,—Mira had fled with the McPhails with the first alarm, and was in +hiding somewhere up at the cantonment.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVIII" id="CHAPTER_XXVIII"></a>CHAPTER XXVIII.</h2> + + +<p>One soft spring morning, some two weeks later, a little knot of officers +had gathered about the Cranstons' quarters at the cantonment. Under an +awning of tent flies they were conning the papers that had just reached<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span> +them and eagerly discussing their contents. Mrs. Cranston, a shade of +anxiety on her winsome, sunburned face, was glancing quickly from one +speaker to another. Through the open door-way in the cool interior Miss +Loomis could be seen bending over the boys as they fidgeted at their +books. Neither felt like studying this day of days, for absorbing news, +and lots of it, had come. To begin with, a general court-martial had +been ordered to meet at Omaha for the trial of Captain Devers, Eleventh +Cavalry, and officers of high rank and distinction were to be his +judges. With Atherton as president of the court there could be no +"monkey business," said Mr. Sanders, by which that young gentleman was +understood to mean that there would be no trifling with the subject. It +was noticeable that neither Riggs nor Winthrop was of the detail, an +omission readily understood, as Devers would unquestionably object, as +was his privilege, to either or both on the ground of bias, prejudice, +or malice, which, whether sustained or not, would lead to their asking +to be excused from serving and so reducing the array. The court had been +ordered from division head-quarters by the lieutenant-general himself, +and its members, as a rule, were summoned from distant posts and +commands, so as to preclude the possibility of the accused captain +saying it was "packed" from the ranks of his enemies. In other words, +except Atherton, the court was made up entirely of officers who had +taken no part in the campaign of the previous summer. It was understood +that the charges were grave and numerous; rumors of misconduct in the +face of the enemy, disobedience of orders, misrepresentation of facts, +etc.,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span> being among the items mentioned. Major Warren had been summoned +from abroad a month earlier than he had planned to come. Colonel Peleg +Stone and Mr. Leonard had both been notified that they would be required +as witnesses, so had Captains Cranston, Truman and Hay, Lieutenants +Boynton, Hastings and Davies. The court could not meet before mid-May +because several of the members came from the department of Dakota, far +up the Missouri, but that it was to be a "clinch" at last was the +generally expressed sentiment. Devers had run to the end of his tether, +said Boynton, unfeelingly. "I could add a charge or two myself if I +didn't know he was loaded with them so deep that he can't stagger." +Boynton, limping still, had come back to resume command of the agency +guard, for Davies's wound had proved deep and serious. He had been +stabbed by Red Dog after that warrior was raised to his feet, after +Cranston's skirmishers had swept the field, after Davies thought the +struggle at an end, and was unprepared for the stealthy blow. Nothing +but Brannan's vigilance, and the warning cry which caused the lieutenant +to turn in the nick of time, had saved his life. Red Dog in irons lay in +the log guard-house. Thunder Hawk, on parole,—for White had dared the +wrath of the bureau and refused to let McPhail have him,—walked the +garrison at will. Mr. Davies, still weak and languid, lay in the big +hospital tent, really the most comfortable dwelling at the station, now +that the weather was growing warm, and there, attended by Burroughs and +ministered to by a pathetically pretty wife (who had somewhat recovered +from her panic, now that she was within the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span> stockade of a military post +with lots of men around to watch her and be fascinated), was on the road +to speedy convalescence. He was being allowed occasional visitors, and +while his own comrades vied in their attentions, nothing could exceed +the anxiety of old White, the major commanding. Twice did he have +Thunder Hawk recount to him the details of Davies's calm courage in this +second daring capture, red-handed, of the rebellious chief, and White +went to Cranston like the blunt, outspoken campaigner that he was.</p> + +<p>"It begins to look to me," said he, "as if this young fellow had been +most damnably backbitten. You can haul Devers before a court, but what +can we do with these women?"</p> + +<p>"You have never told me, major, what these women had to say against +him."</p> + +<p>"And I'm not going to," said White. "When a man's ashamed of having +believed a mean story, the sooner he buries it the better. Men like him +don't go round abusing their own wife or insulting anybody else's. It's +my belief that the swarm that buzzes around the throne there at Mrs. +Pegleg's ought to be muzzled, and if the old man hadn't lost his grip in +this seizure he's had, I'd tell him so."</p> + +<p>But this seizure of Pegleg's had indeed proved a serious matter. So far +from recovering his accustomed spirits, the old colonel seemed to grow +feebler and less inclined to move about with every day. One morning he +sent word to Captain Devers that he would not leave his bed, as he felt +too weak, and that night it was that Leonard got back from Chicago. When +told by Pollock, who met him at the railway station, that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span> Devers was +again in command, Leonard stepped into the telegraph-office and wrote a +message which he showed to nobody. Within thirty-six hours Lieutenant +Archer of the department staff reached Fort Scott with orders from the +general commanding. Captain Pollock was placed in command of the post +and Devers in close arrest. The next day Mr. Langston came out from +Braska and was closeted an hour with Leonard at the adjutant's office, +and then, taking advantage of a returning escort and ambulance, the +civilian lawyer left for the agency. Even while the group of officers at +Cranston's was eagerly discussing the news, he had made his bow to a +deeply blushing Mira over at the hospital tent, and was seated by +Davies's side. "Business first, pleasure afterwards," hummed Cranston to +himself when he heard of the arrival, and noted how Meg's bright eyes +dilated.</p> + +<p>"Business, indeed!" thought she. "I know the business that brings him +here, despite Agatha's assumption of sublime indifference."</p> + +<p>But grave though some of the older faces grew as the news was read, and +eager and excited as were some of the younger, it was not because of the +long-prophesied trial of Captain Devers. The papers, letters, and +despatches were full of detail of the serious condition of affairs to +the northwest. Inspired by the success of the Sioux in their grand +uprising of the previous year, and reasoning that they had little to +lose and everything to gain by similar methods, a big tribe had cut +loose from its reservation and taken the field, one band of it prudently +massacring all the white men to be found in their neighborhood as +necessary preliminary<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span> to the move. This was bad to begin with, but +worse was to follow. The other agencies were overrun by a number of +young Indians of what might be termed the unreconstructed class, and +these, excited by reports brought in by runners from the openly hostile, +were slipping off in scores to join them. Already had the epidemic +struck McPhail's "angels." Already had Mac, with long face and longer +story, been up to see Major White and beg for cavalry to be sent in +pursuit. White said it was preposterous. The renegades had two or three +days' start to begin with, and if pursued, all they had to do was to +hide in the Bad Lands and pick off their pursuers. Cavalry could only go +there in single file. Ten Indians could hold the narrow, tortuous trail +against ten hundred troops. Relations were strained between Mac and the +military anyhow. Everybody knew by this time that he had lied about +Boynton and Davies, and had striven to make it appear, and with no +little success, too, so far as Eastern newspapers were concerned, that +all the turbulence and rioting at Ogallalla was caused by the arrogance +of the army. Then Mac pointed out that if something weren't done to +drive those renegades back, all the young braves over at the big +reservation beyond the Mini Ska would follow suit. Already the cattlemen +were complaining. Already settlers were drifting in to Pawnee station +and Minden on the railway to the west, and besieging old Tintop at +regimental head-quarters at Fort Ransom, and stirring up "screamers" in +the columns of the infantile dailies at Butte and Braska, alleging +apathy on part of the authorities and cowardice on that of the cavalry. +Already letters had passed<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span> between the officers of the Eleventh at the +cantonment and their comrades at Ransom. "If we have to take the field +again this summer let us try to get together as a regiment and not be +split up in all manner of crowds," was the cry. What Cranston and Truman +dreaded, too, was that they might be squadroned with some of the —th +under Major Chrome. The —th was all right, but Chrome was so horribly +slow that his own comrades chafed under his command, and Atherton really +wanted him to retire and get "a live man" in his place. Truman, Hay, and +Cranston felt certain that it would not be a fortnight before they were +ordered into the field. Tintop and Gray were sure of it. Captain Fenton +and others at Ransom were talking of sending their families East, and +now the question that agitated Cranston was, what to do with his dear +ones? It was all well enough to have them at the cantonment while the +cavalry were there, but with all the troops in the field except a single +company of infantry, he did not dare leave them. They must go back to +Scott.</p> + +<p>No wonder then that Mrs. Cranston's bonny face was clouded this sweet +spring morning. No wonder the boys could not pin their vagrant thoughts +to the books before them while snatches of the low, eager talk came +drifting in through the open door. No wonder Miss Loomis went about her +work with conscious effort, but when told of the arrival of Robert +Langston, the woman in her knew he would not go until he had seen and +spoken with her.</p> + +<p>The day of Red Dog's capture was still fresh in the minds of Cranston's +household, as indeed in that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span> of every household at the cantonment. With +field-glasses they had marked the threatening gathering at the distant +village, and the ominous advance in line. Old White had his men in ranks +in less than no time, and the cavalry column, masked by the agency +buildings, was sent at brisk trot to the eastward, so that McPhail's +messenger, spurring at mad gallop for aid, met them midway. Cranston's +troop was instantly deployed into long skirmish line at the gallop, and +the affair was practically over by the time Major White, leaving the +infantry battalion to guard the post, had reached the scene. Meantime +the composure of the mothers and children left at the cantonment was in +no wise augmented by the panic-stricken guise of the arriving refugees, +Mrs. McPhail, with her children, and Mira being the first to appear. It +so happened that the Cranstons' bungalow, being near the eastern end of +the line, proved the natural refuge of the first wagon-load, and that +Mrs. Cranston and Miss Loomis were the angels who thus had to minister +to their weaker sisters. Even then, when nearly "dead with terror," as +she expressed it, Mira would gladly have gone somewhere else, but as +Mrs. McPhail promptly bundled herself and her youngsters out of the +wagon and under the shelter of the Cranstons' wing, there was nothing +left for Mira but to follow suit. Dr. Burroughs came promptly to see +what he could do for her. Both Mrs. Cranston and Miss Loomis mastered +their own anxiety in the effort to comfort these weaklings, and as no +sounds of battle came from the eastward, and the watchers on the roofs +reported Red Dog's people as scattering for their tepees before the +advance<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span> of the cavalry, comparative composure was gradually being +restored when the first messenger came in from the front, a corporal of +Cranston's troop, whom the boys hailed with eager acclaim.</p> + +<p>"Everything's all right, mum," he blithely saluted Mrs. Cranston. "We've +got old Red Dog again,—Lieutenant Davies nabbed him," he added, with +prompt recognition of Mira's lovely face. "They want Dr. Burroughs to +come down to the agency though." And as the doctor mounted the trooper +said something more in a low tone, glancing furtively at Mrs. Davies as +he did so. Burroughs nodded, but rode rapidly away, the corporal after +him. Mrs. McPhail became instantly lachrymose. Dr. Burroughs wanted at +the agency? That could mean only one thing,—Mr. McPhail must be +wounded, he was always so impetuous. In vain Mrs. Cranston strove to +soothe her. She ran out on the roadway in front and hailed the very next +party straggling in,—the wife and the cook of the agency clerk, +importuning them to say was Mac badly hurt.</p> + +<p>"Mac ain't hurt at all," said the new arrivals, hot after a long and +needless tramp. "How was he to get hurt? It's Loot'nant Davies that's +shot. Red Dog tried to kill him."</p> + +<p>And here Mira promptly and appropriately shrieked and fainted.</p> + +<p>Nor was she of use when presently restored to a limp and dejected +consciousness. Other messengers had come by this time. Dr. Burroughs had +examined Mr. Davies's hurts. He was stabbed, not shot. It was serious, +not dangerous. He was being made comfortable at home, where Captain +Cranston said it was perfectly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span> safe for Mrs. Davies to join him, and +the ambulance was speedily ready to take her to the bedside of her +wounded hero, but again poor Mira's nerves gave way. She could not go to +that dreadful place, so much nearer those frightful savages. Oh, why, +why hadn't they brought her Percy here? Even Mrs. McPhail was no such +coward as that. She drove back without her, and not for hours after was +Mira strong enough to go. By that time he was sleeping placidly when, +trembling still and pathetically pale, Mira was escorted to his bedside, +and that night Mrs. Cranston had her revenge.</p> + +<p>"Agatha Loomis," said she, "you declared all along that he did perfectly +right in marrying that—that—in marrying <i>her</i>. What do you say now?"</p> + +<p>And Miss Loomis said—nothing.</p> + +<p>They had been talking of Davies again this very morning before the mails +and Langston came. No sooner had he been well enough to move than he +asked to be sent up to the garrison. He was no longer commander of the +guard, and no longer entitled to the house. What was more, he must +decline to serve McPhail in any such capacity again, and had had a +letter written to department head-quarters representing the facts, and +one was received from the general promising that another officer should +be detailed immediately. Furthermore, Mr. Davies announced that Mrs. +Davies simply could not stand the life at that point. Then Boynton +expressed a desire to return to it, as he was now able to stump around a +little, and he enjoyed chaffing McPhail, and so the wounded second +lieutenant of Devers's troop was shifted to the hospital tent<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span> put up +for his accommodation at the cantonment, and there Mira was made far +more comfortable than many an army wife had been, awaiting the day when +they could with safety be started on the road to Scott, now his proper +station.</p> + +<p>"Langston's paying the Parson a mighty long visit," exclaimed Mr. +Sanders, unslinging his sabre and flopping down into the first +camp-chair on his way back from morning drill. "Mrs. Cranston, what do +you want to bet y'all go back to Scott inside of a week?"</p> + +<p>"I like it very much better here, especially as our going to Scott would +mean 'y'all' were to be again in the field," was the laughing reply.</p> + +<p>"Well, I like duty here better, but I do hanker for a waltz on that old +waxed floor. Think, we haven't had a dance since we came."</p> + +<p>"The men had some good music the other evening; why didn't you suggest a +waltz on the prairie to Mrs. Davies?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I did think of it. She looks bored to death. I saw her just now +as I came by. She was yawning in the shade of the tent fly while +Langston and the Parson were chatting inside." Why don't you and Miss +Loomis go over there and cheer her up sometimes? was the question he +checked just as it trembled on his lips. Some brief inspiration of +discretion warned him that that was ground too sacred for his blundering +intrusion. "She seems downright lonely," he concluded, somewhat lamely +and suggestively. "I don't think Mrs. Davies is cut out for this kind of +army life. Here comes Langston now."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span> He needn't have made that +announcement. Mrs. Cranston was watching, waiting for him, and she +glanced quickly to see where Miss Loomis was. That young lady, however, +never looked up from the slate whereon Louis's hieroglyphics were in mad +arithmetical tangle, even when she heard Langston's courteous greeting +to the lady of the house and his inquiries for the captain, and heard +them without evidence of any emotion whatsoever.</p> + +<p>"The captain is at the stables, Mr. Langston. We are so glad to see you. +I'll send him word in a moment. Do sit down and tell us all the news +from Braska," said Mrs. Cranston, hospitably.</p> + +<p>"I will do all that most gladly, Mrs. Cranston, but the matter on which +I desire to see him at once is urgent, and perhaps Mr. Sanders will walk +over to the stables with me. Then, may I not call and see you later?"</p> + +<p>"By all means! and will you not dine with us? A real campaign dinner, +you know, but we shall be so pleased to have you."</p> + +<p>Langston's face fairly glowed. "I'll be here in half an hour, if I may, +but I must see the captain at once, and will go. I trust—Miss +Loomis—is well."</p> + +<p>"Very well, and quite able to answer for herself," said Mrs. Cranston, +mischievously, while Langston's eyes eagerly searched the door-way and +dim interior; but Miss Loomis was nowhere in sight, and chose to appear +to be not within hearing.</p> + +<p>"Why didn't you come or speak?" said Meg, reproachfully, the moment he +was gone.</p> + +<p>"I was busy. These are school days," was the calm<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span> reply, one that would +have been no comfort to Langston, who walked rather ruefully on with the +subaltern. The business with Cranston proved interesting.</p> + +<p>"You have a young trooper, Brannan, whom I need to see confidentially, +and at once. May I do so, captain?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly. Send Corporal Brannan here," said the troop commander, +wondering what new complication had involved this wayward son; and +presently, erect and soldierly, with a fine tan on his cheek and +brand-new chevrons on his sleeves, "lanced for bravery in the field," as +the troopers expressed it in those days, the young soldier stood +attention before them.</p> + +<p>"You probably do not remember me, Corporal Brannan," said Langston, in +courteous tone, "but I remember you favorably and well for the day at +Bluff Siding last June." And the light in the young soldier's eyes +indicated that he recalled the civilian. "Your captain knows something +of the matter on which I wish to see you, and I have asked him to remain +here with us." And now an anxious, troubled look crept over Brannan's +face, some swift overshadowing from the coming cloud. "You have never +yet told any one whose knife it was that cut you that day."</p> + +<p>Brannan's lips moved and he turned even paler, but he said no word.</p> + +<p>"Well, corporal, the time seems to have come when instead of keeping +silence to protect another man you may have to speak for your own sake."</p> + +<p>Brannan glanced quickly, anxiously, from one face to another, from the +lawyer to his troop commander, as though appealing to the latter to say +how could that be. Presently he faltered, "I don't understand."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span> "Well, +I will tell you, in part at least. Your captain and I know something of +your past history, and I do not think you will have cause to regret that +fact. We know that you were at Dr. Powlett's at the time Mr. Davies was +assaulted and robbed near his Urbana home. You had there been on terms +of intimacy with young Powlett, who disappeared after much disreputable +doing. You soon enlisted, and were for a time very intimate with a +recruit, Howard, who corresponded with the description I have of +Powlett. You both had frequent letters,—you from your mother and he +from several sources. Then came a disagreement and you held yourself +apart from him and his new chum, a young fellow called Paine, and, while +you continued loyal to an old friendship and kept silent as to Howard's +past, he was less considerate of you. There was serious trouble between +yourself and Sergeant Haney and Howard the night you reached Fort Scott +after the campaign, and you were ordered confined. I have heard there at +Scott a story I do not believe. Will you not tell your captain and me +the real cause?"</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, it was about my writing-case," said the corporal, in low and +hesitant voice. "I kept mother's letters and some pictures and things I +valued in it. It went with me up to the Big Horn camp all right, but +when we started on the campaign and cut loose from the wagons I had to +turn it over to Sergeant Haney. I saw him lock it in the big company +chest, and the night we got into Scott with the wagons and that chest +was unloaded, over three months afterwards, I asked for it at once, and +I had been kept back with the wagons, and I'd been drinking a little, +for it was a bitter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span> cold march, and Haney and Howard gave me more +liquor and told me I'd better not take it until I'd quit drinking. We +had trouble that night later, and I was confined for abusing the +sergeant and being drunk, though I could prove I hadn't abused him, and +that it was just the other way, and that I was only slightly affected by +the liquor. The next day I sent word from the guard-house for my case, +and the reply came that the sergeant gave it to me the previous night. I +knew he hadn't and said so. They answered that I was drunk and must have +lost it, and that was all the satisfaction I got."</p> + +<p>"Why didn't you tell me about this at the time, Brannan?" asked +Cranston, kindly.</p> + +<p>"I meant to, sir, the moment I got out, but they fixed things so as to +send me direct from the guard-house with Lieutenant Boynton's detachment +to the agency, and when I wrote from there to Howard and Haney both, +they answered that they had a clue, and if I'd only keep quiet they'd +get it sure, and the man who stole it from me. I never told mother about +it,—it shamed me so. I was afraid the liquor was drugged, and—it might +be true, though I thought I knew everything that happened." Then he +stopped abruptly.</p> + +<p>"Go on," said Langston, with deep interest in his keen, shrewd face. +"There is even more to this than I thought. What followed?"</p> + +<p>"I got tired waiting, and there was a chance to go to Scott with the +mail rider and I took it, and a bitter cold ride it proved to be. We +couldn't get coffee on the way, the rider and I, but we could get +whiskey,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span> worse luck, for he had it with him, and so I had been drinking +when we reached the post, and made my demand of Haney. He put me off +with more liquor and soft words. Then I threatened to appeal to Captain +Cranston or Lieutenant Davies, and the next thing they had me in +hospital with Paine to watch me. I had been drinking enough to make me +mad with suffering for more by that time."</p> + +<p>"Well, did you never appeal to Captain Devers?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir; there was no use in doing that," said Brannan, coloring +uneasily as he spoke. "I beg Captain Cranston's pardon for saying so of +an officer, but no one could hope for justice in 'A' Troop unless he was +solid with Sergeant Haney."</p> + +<p>"And you have never seen your writing-case to this day?" continued +Langston.</p> + +<p>"Never, sir."</p> + +<p>"Well, one thing more. Now that you know Howard's character,—know him +to have deserted and to have striven to injure you in many a way, will +you still persist in saying he did not wield the knife that slashed +you?"</p> + +<p>"I have said, sir, that I knew no one in all the recruits who would have +used a knife on me."</p> + +<p>"True! You put it well, Brannan," said Langston, with a smile of deep +meaning, "and among simple-minded military folk the answer would be +enough, perhaps, but not to a lawyer. Would you declare that Howard did +not wield the knife that slashed you—but was meant for Lieutenant +Davies?"</p> + +<p>And Brannan colored still deeper. "I cannot say anything about him, sir; +at least not now."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span></p> + +<p>"Very well. Then it is useless to ask just now what you know of his +past?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir."</p> + +<p>"All right, Brannan. It is my belief that in the near future that +writing-case of yours will turn up, and I mean to stay to see it, for +when it does you'll need us both."</p> + +<p>But Langston's hope for a speedy and brilliant coup was dashed by the +news that came that very night. Forty-eight hours thereafter a little +caravan of army wagons, Concords and ambulances, with an infantry +escort, was slowly wending its way southward toward the welcoming roofs +of old Fort Scott, with the wives and children of several families, with +Mira and her newest friend, Mrs. Plodder, with the tall, martial-looking +civilian riding in close attendance on the Cranston's equipage, basking +in the life-giving sunshine and in the thrill and hope and sweet unrest +of an ever-growing love, devoted and insistent in spite of vague and +jealous dread, for there was not the feeblest flicker of encouragement +in Miss Loomis's calm and oft-averted eyes. Langston asked himself in +the still hours of the starlit night, camping on the banks of Dismal +River, was it possible that her heart was following some soldier in the +dusty column, riding hard, riding fast long miles away to the northwest +now, eager to overtake the comrade soldiery already on the flank of the +foe, and bear a trooper's part in the battle summer so suddenly to open. +Even Percy Davies, laughing at the feeble protest of Dr. Burroughs, and +heartily congratulated by old White himself, had donned his field dress +and climbed stiffly into saddle,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</a></span> to ride once more with the fighting +column, to the savage disappointment of his one red foe at the +cantonments, and the utter confusion of other foes at Scott.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIX" id="CHAPTER_XXIX"></a>CHAPTER XXIX.</h2> + + +<p>A hundred miles away,—a hundred as the crow flies, and not by the +tortuous route the cavalry had to follow, through a region that, all in +an hour's march, shifted its scene from the dull monotone of barren +waves of prairie to bold, beautiful heights and deep sheltered ravines +and cañons, the winding thread of the Mina Ska went foaming and leaping +over its stony bed, taking occasional cat-naps in wide, shadowy +shallows, only to wake up again to wilder riot under the frowning, +fir-crested cliffs of the Black Rock Range. For many a long, sunshiny +mile it had come floating placidly eastward, issuing from the great +water-shed of the continent, drifting leisurely between low-lying, +grassy banks all criss-crossed with ancient buffalo-trails, or the +recent footprints of long-horned cattle, past the broad plateau, crowded +by the wooden walls of Fort Ransom, past the roofs and spires of +bustling Butte, a prairie metropolis, a railway and cattle town that +rivalled Braska, past long miles of gleaming tangents of the +transcontinental railway until it met the bold bluffs east of Alkali +Station and was shouldered from its course and sent on long, tortuous +<i>détour</i> to the northeast, until, beyond the great reservation of the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</a></span> +red men in the loveliest hill country of the wild frontier, it once more +turned sharply eastward at the point described in the sonorous language +of the plains as "the Big Bend of the Mina Ska." Midway between its +sweeping curve near Alkali and the sharp deflection at the big bend +there came flowing into it from the westward, through the very heart of +the Dakota lands, the clear, translucent waters of the Wakpa Wakon,—the +Spirit River of the Sioux, all along whose storied shores for mouths had +clustered the thronging villages of the tribe, living through the long, +fierce winter in sheltered comfort, fed, warmed, inspired by the spoils +and stories of the great campaign the year gone by. But now as though by +magic had the tepees vanished. Only around the protecting agency, miles +to the west, miles deeper in among the tumbling hills, were the lodges +now clustered, hundreds of them, with their swarming occupants,—old +men, old crones, Indian mothers, wives, sweethearts, maids, young boys, +children, and pappooses,—all confidingly clinging to the protecting +hand of the Great Father and claiming his bounty; while the husbands and +fathers, the stalwart young warriors of the Sioux themselves, were +skulking through the Bad Lands across the Ska, eagerly, warily watching +the coming of the little cavalry column from the distant Chasing Water, +while even in greater numbers their wild red cohorts patrolled the deep +valley, the overhanging heights of the Ska itself, watching every move +of the coming force from Ransom, bent on luring both, if possible, far +within their borders, far in among those tangling, treacherous ravines +and cañons, and, there surrounding, to massacre the last man.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</a></span></p> + +<p>Southwestward, at Painted Lodge Butte, after a long, long march through +the heat and glare of the long June day, Colonel Winthrop had ordered +his men to bivouac for the night. Riding steadily eastward by the +"foot-hill" trail from Ransom, they had reached Willow Springs on Friday +noon, purposing to camp there until the following dawn, but so alarming +were the reports of the few fleeing settlers whom they met that the old +colonel decided after an hour's rest to push on again. Without being +trammelled by precise orders, the general tenor of his instructions was +to march on down the Ska, and strike and punish any Indian war-parties +he could find, and clear the valley as soon as possible. Major Chrome, +with four troops, two of the Eleventh, his own, and two of the —th, +Atherton's regiment, was ordered to march across country from the +Chasing Water, and join Winthrop in the valley of the Ska. One hundred +miles, as has been said, had Chrome to march to reach the valley at the +nearest point, nearly opposite the mouth of the Spirit River. Nearly two +hundred if he followed the stream would Tintop have to cover in going +from Fort Ransom to that point, but he had started on a Wednesday +morning, twenty-four hours ahead of Chrome. Each well knew he would +probably have to fight his way. Each meant, according to his own lights, +to do his best, and each resorted to measures radically different. +Winthrop, active, eager, nervous in temperament, pushed forward boldly, +rapidly, bent on "getting there," as he expressed it, and hitting hard +before the reds could slip back to their holes. Chrome, slow, +phlegmatic, cautious, advanced by carefully-studied marches, with scouts +far ahead and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</a></span> flankers far dispersed. Arguing that Winthrop, with one +hundred and fifty miles or more to go, and a bigger crowd to handle, and +with Indians on his flank every inch of the way, would not be able to +reach the Spirit River crossing inside of seven days,—Chrome parcelled +out his own march accordingly. Starting with all speed from the +cantonment, according to his instructions from Major White, he soon +slowed down to a pace more in accordance with his own views. "If we get +there Monday or Tuesday even," said he, "we'll be 'way ahead of Tintop." +And this was at the close of the second day's march, when he could point +to less than a total of forty-four miles covered. The country was still +open, the trails distinct, the Indians reported in the distance were in +small parties, probably from the Ogallalla reservation. To Cranston and +Truman, as well as to the captains of the —th, there seemed every +reason to push ahead. It was urged among them that, at last, Truman +should speak, and Truman did, as the captains of the —th positively +declined. "We have known Colonel Winthrop well, sir," said Truman, "and +we believe he will make long marches, perhaps forced marches, to throw +himself between the raiders and the reservation. Just as soon as a big +force gets there, they will scatter for the far north and northwest. The +only chance of punishing them is to get there at once while there is +still something left for them to kill or burn,—something to tempt them. +I fear, major, that unless we make better time we'll be too late for the +ball."</p> + +<p>Chrome listened placidly and without impatience of any kind. Yes, he +admitted, that was what White<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</a></span> himself said. White was fuming with wrath +because he wasn't given command of a field column instead of being sent +west to cover the Pawnee Station road. "Small blame to him!" muttered +Cranston. "Why on earth couldn't this tortoise have been left to that +work and old Whitey given to us?" No! Major Chrome meant to advance with +caution and deliberation. If the Indians saw them coming precipitately, +they might be equally precipitate in their flight, and thereby defeat +the general's plans of having Tintop get in their rear, at which +characteristic opinion Captain Canker, of the —th, a man of many moods, +but a fighter, turned gloomily away, and was heard soon afterwards +swearing viciously. It was the old story of the army of lions with a +sheep at their head.</p> + +<p>And then came a calm, cloudless, radiant June Sunday, a day as perfect +and serene aloft as was that June Sunday of the year gone by on whose +high noon there rose the mad clamor of the battle on the Little Horn, +whose pitiless sun looked fiercely down upon the slaughtered ranks of +Custer and his gallant Seventh, and just as the red went out of the +western sky, and the sharp, jagged line of the Warrior Buttes melted +into softer purple, there came galloping in from the distant outpost an +excited trooper, who gave a paper to Major Chrome. The officers were +seated about him at a tiny fire, and Cranston quickly lighted a candle +lantern and the major read. It was from the officer of the picket.</p> + +<p>"Thunder Hawk and Rides Double just in from over toward the Ska. They +say they have seen 'plenty warriors' all day and are sure there has been +a big fight<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</a></span> far across the valley. We could plainly see Indian +signal-smokes an hour ago, and Hawk says a heavy dust-cloud rose between +him and the sunset." It was signed "Davies."</p> + +<p>"Now, <i>there</i>, gentlemen!" said Chrome, "if we had pushed ahead any +faster Davies couldn't have kept up with us, and this evening he's +commanding the advance. If we had hurried, those Indians would have +hurried too and got clear away before Tintop could have got behind them +and struck them as he has. See how well it worked?" And Chrome glanced +contentedly about him.</p> + +<p>"That's all well enough, sir, so far as it goes," growled Captain +Canker, "but where do we come in on this campaign? What will be said of +our failure to get into the fight?"</p> + +<p>"What a growler you are, Canker! Why, man, in matters of this kind +individual ambition must give place to concerted plans. It's the <i>team</i> +work, the <i>combinations</i> that tell." And here the silent circle became +engrossed in pipes or in whittling, or in the contemplation of the very +ground at their feet, though from under the broad brims of their +scouting hats veteran campaigners exchanged meaning glances. Canker only +growled the more sulkily.</p> + +<p>"What I'm afraid of, Major Chrome, is that Colonel Winthrop may have +wanted us this very day, and forty miles wouldn't have reached him."</p> + +<p>"My heaven!" said Cranston, later that night, tossing upward his +clinched fists and nervous straining arms, "I feel like a man in a +nightmare. One long winter of incessant friction and undecided +clashings<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[Pg 413]</a></span> with Devers, and now this mad eagerness to be doing something +choked and smothered by this incubus at our head. If to-morrow brings no +relief I want to quit for good and all."</p> + +<p>But the long weeks of indecisive warfare, in camp as in the field, were +destined to have their climax at last. Well for the little battalion, +perhaps, was it, after all, that officers and men alike were boiling +over with repressed, pent-up fury for action, for when the morrow came +it called each soldier into line, and gave him giant work to do.</p> + +<p>Somewhere towards one o'clock in the morning, under the glitter and +sheen of the myriad stars overhead, while, all but the guard, the +troopers slept peacefully upon the prairie turf and, all but a few early +risers, their chargers, too, were drowsing undisturbed by the occasional +querulous yelp of the coyote,—somewhere, far out over the dim, shadowy +slopes to the westward, there rose upon the night the faint sound of a +trumpet call, seemingly miles away. In his extreme caution Chrome had +posted little parties full a mile out from the bivouac, north, east, and +west, and it was while slowly riding to the westernmost of these that +the officer of the guard first thought he heard the sound. A corporal of +Cranston's troop was at his heels. "Yes, sir," he said, in answer to the +low, eager question, as the two reined in their horses, "I could almost +swear I heard it. I couldn't make out the signal though—could only hear +a note or two." They found the picket alert, even excited. They, too, +had heard something very like a faint trumpet call very far to the west, +and Davies waited no longer.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[Pg 414]</a></span> "You remain here, corporal. I'll call the +captain." And in a few moments he was bending over Cranston. The latter +was awake in a minute, and together they hastened out afoot, past +snoring troopers or snorting steeds, and stood some hundred yards +outside the inner sentry line.</p> + +<p>"Hay left Scott with 'A' and 'I' troops Wednesday, as we know," said +Cranston, "but it's impossible he could have caught us yet, though he +took the cutoff. That night trumpeting's a trick of the —th. They tried +it twice last summer."</p> + +<p>"I know, sir, and may not that be some of them trying to find us?"</p> + +<p>"Well, hardly. You know Atherton only had one troop left at Russell, the +other five were sent up toward the Big Horn ten days ago. Listen! There +it goes again!"</p> + +<p>Yes, unmistakably, faint, far, but clear, the notes of a cavalry trumpet +could be heard, and, while Davies hurried to rouse the major, Cranston +stirred up his boy bugler. It took a minute or two to make Chrome +comprehend the situation. "Why," said he, "who'd be ass enough to be +marching or drilling with trumpet calls this hour of the night and in +the midst of a campaign?"</p> + +<p>Cranston reminded him how scattered troops of the —th, his own +regiment, had found each other by night the previous year; how Truscott +announced the coming of his relieving column to Wayne's beleaguered +squadron; and Chrome slowly found his legs and faculties, but wouldn't +believe his subordinates. He demanded the evidence of his own senses, +and unwillingly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[Pg 415]</a></span> accompanied them to the point beyond the lines, +Cranston's trumpeter sleepily following. It was full five minutes before +again the call was heard, and then it seemed farther away than before, +too far away for Chrome, who still could not believe it.</p> + +<p>"Let my trumpeter hail them," urged Cranston, "then they'll answer." But +Chrome said that wouldn't do; it would wake up or startle everybody in +camp, and so declined.</p> + +<p>"It's all your fancy," he said. "There are none of our fellows with +Tintop, and——"</p> + +<p>"But he knows you, with at least two troops of the —th, are somewhere +out here, sir, and he takes a regimental way of trying to communicate +with you. I beg you to listen one moment more. <i>There!</i>" And this time +even Chrome was convinced, and the next instant guards and pickets, +sleeping troopers, and drowsing steeds all came staggering to their +feet, roused by the shrill blast from Cranston's trumpet sounding +"Forward!"</p> + +<p>And half an hour later there came jogging wearily into camp, guided for +a time only by the call, and finally met and escorted by the picket, a +sergeant and trumpeter from old Tintop himself, and the letter they bore +put an end even to Chrome's inertness. In brief, terse words it told the +story. He and his command had had a sharp, stubborn fight with a big +force of hostiles that very day, with considerable loss to both. "If you +had been here with your men," Tintop said, "I believe we could have +cleaned them out entirely." The main body, however, had retired toward +the agency at the head of Spirit River, but a band of Uncapapas<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[Pg 416]</a></span> and +Minneconjous, that had cut loose from all, had gone on down the Ska, +making for a junction with some of Red Dog's people at the confluence of +the streams. Tintop held that Chrome must be there by this time, but if +detained from any cause this was to tell him to strike, strike hard and +instantly with every man at his back, and that he, Winthrop, would +support as soon as possible.</p> + +<p>Fording the Ska above the narrows of the valley, the faithful messengers +had plunged into the open country to the east, so as to keep well in +rear of the fleeing Indians, then sounding officers' call, the night +signal of the —th, as they came, rode eastward through the starlight, +scouring the broad prairies for the comrade column.</p> + +<p>Half an hour later the command was saddling. Coffee had been hurriedly +served. The packers were lashing their bulky sacks and boxes to the +<i>apparejos</i> and turning loose the patient little burden-bearers. Old +Thunder Hawk, grave and dignified, had been standing in consultation +with Chrome and his troop commanders. He knew the point where the +hostiles were probably in camp, and placed it, as did Tintop's scouts, +close to the confluence of the Wakpa Wakon and the Ska. Thunder Hawk was +of the Ogallallas, therefore not a tribesman of the renegades, but he +was a Sioux, and therefore a brother. He had counselled peace to his +people, and they had rewarded him with taunts and jeers. He had +accompanied the column, formally enrolled as a scout, and he would be +guide and adviser to the white chief, yet shrank from personal part in +the coming battle. He had been asked<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[Pg 417]</a></span> how many miles it was to the forks +and replied fifteen, "but," said he, "it is much farther by the way the +chief should go."</p> + +<p>"We want to go the shortest way," was Chrome's short reply. "The +quickest way to reach and strike them."</p> + +<p>Already Cranston seemed to divine what the old Indian meant to +counsel,—"The longest way round is the shortest way home," in fact, as +Hawk calmly explained. They knew the white soldiers were coming from +Ogallalla. They expected them from the southeast,—had seen them coming +from that direction and, falling back to the stream before them, were +watching for their coming on the following morn. Their scouts could not +be more than a few miles in front of them now. They would be up and away +the moment they heard of the near approach of the column. Then it would +be a stern chase into the heart of the hills, and there, reinforced by +renegades from all sides, they might be able to turn upon and overwhelm +their pursuers. There was only one likely way of striking them where +they were, and that was by making wide circuit to the north, fording the +Ska far behind their camp, and then, turning up-stream, attack them from +the north or northeast. Chrome saw the point and yielded. When at 1.30 +the little command mounted and moved away it was at brisk, steady walk, +"column half right," with the pole star high aloft but straight ahead. +Ten minutes out and they struck the trot. "Bedad!" said Trooper Riley, +at the rear of column, "Old Chrome Teller's had his nap out at last."</p> + +<p>Many's the time a cavalry column, after an all-night<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[Pg 418]</a></span> march, finds +itself jaded and drowsy just as a blithe young world is waking up to +hail the coming day. Far different is the feeling when, refreshed by a +few hours' sound and dreamless sleep, warmed with that soldier comfort, +coffee, and thrilled by the whispered news of "fight ahead," the troop +pricks eagerly on. Then the faint blush of the eastern sky, the cool +breath of the morning breeze, the dim gray light that steals across the +view, all are hailed with bounding pulse and kindling eyes. It was just +at the peep of day, after a glorious burst over the bounding turf, that +Chrome's little battalion, some two hundred and forty strong, riding in +broad column of fours, and guided by old Thunder Hawk himself, turned +squarely to the left at the head of a long, dark, winding ravine, and, +diminishing front to two abreast, and steadying down to the walk again, +dove out of sight among the tortuous depths. Thirty minutes more and the +Ska was foaming about the horses' bellies as they boldly forded the +stream, every man whipping out and raising carbine as his steed plunged +in. Then, turning southwestward, close under the bluffs of the Indian +shore, they rode within the reservation lines at last, with the dawn no +longer at the sabre hand, but at the bridle. Peering out through the dim +ghostly light, long miles to the south, were the Uncapapa scouts, +watching for the first sign of the coming of the column that, slipping +away from before them in the darkness of midnight, had ridden in wide +circuit around and across their front, burrowed into the earth at the +first blush of the morning sky, reappeared dripping on the left bank of +the bordering stream, the Rubicon of the reservation, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[Pg 419]</a></span> now was +swiftly bearing down upon the devoted village from a quarter utterly +unsuspected.</p> + +<p>"Just 4.15," said Cranston, glancing at his watch as soon as it was +possible to see. "How do you feel, Davies?"</p> + +<p>"Better than I have for a month, though tired. I told Burroughs no harm +could result. That scratch is almost entirely healed. How far ahead are +they supposed to be, captain? It'll be broad daylight, even in this deep +valley, in a quarter of an hour."</p> + +<p>Sanders, acting as Chrome's adjutant, came riding back from the head of +column at the very moment and reined about alongside his own troop +commander. "I'd rather be here in my old place, sir, and you're in big +luck to have it, Parson. The major says he wants to capture their whole +pony herd, if it takes three troops to do it, and 'C' is to charge the +village and rout out the bucks."</p> + +<p>It so happened that Cranston's troop was bringing up the rear of +column,—only the pack-mules and their guard being behind,—a long +distance behind at the moment, for the pace had been trot or lope for +ten miles until the command reached the shelter of the ravine.</p> + +<p>"I was in hopes there was no village," said Cranston; "that we'd only +strike the wickyups of a war-party. Do you mean village, Sanders?"</p> + +<p>"Thunder Hawk says he's afraid so, sir. He thinks the Uncapapas and +Minneconjous who were rounded up last fall really want to get away and +join the bulk of their tribe who are summering in Canada with Sitting +Bull. If so this was their chance, and they've got their women and +children with them."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[Pg 420]</a></span></p> + +<p>Cranston's face seemed to grow paler in the gray gathering light. +"There's no help for it, then," he said; "but I hate that sort of thing. +How near are we?"</p> + +<p>"Within two or three miles," Hawk says. "He and Bear and two others have +galloped out ahead. We'll know by the time we've reached that bluff +yonder." And he pointed to a magnificent rose-tipped palisade of rock +that jutted out across their path. "That's Good Heart Butte, and the +Wakon comes in just around it. It's ten to one we'll find them right +there. Where're you going, Cullen?" he called to a trooper who came +cantering back past the flank of the column.</p> + +<p>"To hurry up the pack-train, sir. It's the major's orders," sung out the +trooper, only momentarily checking his horse. It always annoys the +officers of a marching column to have messengers galloping up and down +along their flanks, but this was the major's own orderly, and no man +might rebuke but the chief himself.</p> + +<p>"Reckon I'd better get up to the front again," said Sanders, as he +spurred away and left the friends together. Cranston looked back at his +leading four. His veteran first sergeant was commanding a platoon, and +it was a junior sergeant who rode with the head of column, and next him +a stunted little Irish corporal, for by the inexorable rule of the +cavalry the shorter men rode at the flanks of the troop. Midway down the +column the guidon-bearer was just unfurling and shaking out its silken +folds, but without raising it so as to attract the attention of possible +spies. Forward, in the ranks of the two companies of the —th, uniforms +were rare and no guidons visible;—long campaigning<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[Pg 421]</a></span> in Arizona had +taught the uselessness of both in Indian warfare, but the Eleventh had +their traditions, as had the Seventh, and rode into action with a +certain old-fashioned style and circumstance that lent inspiration to +the scene. Turning out of column for a moment the captain rode slowly +alongside, looking over his men as they passed him by. There was always +something trim, elastic, jaunty about his troop, and they knew it, and +even on long marches in hard campaigns the men would instinctively +"brace up" and raise their heads and square their dusty shoulders when +they felt the captain's eye upon them. He couldn't help seeing how +eagerly and with what trust and faith in their leader many of his sixty +glanced at him as though to question what work he might have in hand for +them to-day. Side by side with the guidon-bearer rode Corporal Brannan. +"Another chance for our prodigy," smiled Cranston to himself. "I wonder +if it will be as warm in Chicago as it promises to be here. More than +one mother there will be kneeling little dreaming, even as she prays for +his safety, what scenes her boy may be battling through this day." The +thought sent a lump into his throat and softened the soldier light in +his eye. "You'd rather be here than at the agency guard, I fancy, +Brannan?"</p> + +<p>"Indeed I would, sir, if we get a fight out of 'em."</p> + +<p>"We'll get it, I think, and speedily, too. Look to your pistols, men. +We're to charge them."</p> + +<p>One could almost feel the thrill that leaped along the column. Every +horse seemed to start and paw and dance as though impatient for the +word. Some faces flushed, others lost a shade or two of tan, as some +faces<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[Pg 422]</a></span> will in presence of sudden peril or the news of stirring battle +just ahead. Out from the holsters came the blue-brown Colts, each man +twirling the cylinder, testing the hammer and trigger, and counting his +shots, even while holding the weapon steadfastly "muzzle up." Nervous +troopers have been known to kill a comrade or his horse at just such +times.</p> + +<p>"Look to it that each has six shots ready, and remember the old rules +now, men. Stop for nothing unless some one falls. Charge through and +rally on the farther side. Careful about the women and children if there +are any. Return pistol now." And here again came Sanders galloping back, +his face aglow, his eyes snapping.</p> + +<p>"Treed 'em, captain," he shouted, gleefully. "A thundering big, +loose-jointed village, too, tepees and all. It covers a ten-acre lot and +more. Must be a thousand ponies in the herd right around the point. The +major says to come ahead with 'C.'"</p> + +<p>Just here the ground was open and fairly level, the trail cutting across +a bend in the stream. Just ahead towered Good Heart Butte, with its +glistening, gilded crest throwing a black shadow half-way up the +billowing westward slopes. Over at the east across the stream, bold and +beautifully rounded, the bluffs went rolling away, knoll after knoll, +shoulder after shoulder heavily wooded and fringed at their bases and in +the deep ravines, and away over those natural ramparts, far out to the +southeast, still rode and peeped and peered the young braves, but ever +in the direction of the far Ogallalla, marvelling that no sign appeared +of the threatening foe. Not half a mile in front, along a low<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_423" id="Page_423">[Pg 423]</a></span> ridge, a +little group of scouts, Hawk, Bear, and two half-breed Sioux, were +lying, peeping at the village still sleeping in fancied security. +Chrome, riding a trifle heavily, and speaking with just a tinge of +excitement in his tone, came jogging back from the ridge to meet his men +just as Cranston's troop trotted up from the rear of column, parallel +with their comrades of the —th, at whose head rode Canker with that +injured expression on his face that was habitual to him at no time more +than when he thought somebody else was going to get into a fight ahead +of him. He couldn't understand why Chrome should have picked out +Cranston for the dash on the village and retained him for so much less +conspicuous a duty. Everybody, however, who knew Canker knew he had +absolutely no dash at all. Brave and determined he might be, but +Canker's idea of a charge was a steady advance in line, to be instantly +checked and corrected and done over again if the men lost either touch +or "dress."</p> + +<p>"We haven't a moment to lose, gentlemen," sang out the major. "The +village is already waking. Cranston, you charge through and stir 'em up +all you can. Truman, you support Cranston in line, but don't follow in +unless he's checked. Captain Canker, take the two troops and round up +that pony herd; it's half a mile long. Just as quick as you've rallied +beyond the village, Cranston, you face about and stand off any Indians +who rip out on that side. What I want is to drive every pony across the +Wakon and up the Ska valley, where we'll find support. Get them on the +jump and we're all right. Now I'll ride somewhere between Canker and +Truman. All ready now?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_424" id="Page_424">[Pg 424]</a></span> "What I want to know, major, is this," began +Canker, always on the lookout for some point or flaw.</p> + +<p>"Well, you can ask what you want as we advance, captain. Are you ready, +Cranston?"</p> + +<p>"Ay, ay, sir," answered Cranston, in the hearty, nautical fashion he so +much liked that it had become habitual with him.</p> + +<p>"Then shove ahead. We're backing you now. Now, Canker, what is it?"</p> + +<p>But no one else cared what Canker wanted. All eyes were on Cranston and +his troop. Quickening the pace he led the way, keeping in fours until +clear of the head of column, then rapidly forming line. "Now, Davies, +just keep them so," he ordered, as he rode diagonally over in front of +the first platoon, "while I gallop ahead and get a peep over that +ridge."</p> + +<p>Another minute and, curveting with impatience even after their +twenty-mile spurt, the handsome bays were dancing in one long line over +the springy turf, Davies and two stalwart sergeants in front of the +three platoons. They saw their soldierly leader whip off his hat as he +rode up the slope, rein cautiously in and peer eagerly over, saw him +gesticulating as he conferred with old Hawk, who lay on his stomach a +dozen yards farther to the front and to the right, where the ridge was a +little higher. Every man knew that just ahead of him, over that curtain, +lay in overwhelming force the mass of their red enemies. Not one of +their rank had yet set eyes on the point of attack. Not one man knew how +many lodges, much less how many braves, would leap into view the instant +they went bounding over the crest; yet not a soul faltered, for, turning +with<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_425" id="Page_425">[Pg 425]</a></span> confident, eager mien, their captain signalled come on, and Davies +ordered "Trot!"</p> + +<p>"It's all right, lads," cheerily rang Cranston's voice, as he rode +circling down to place himself at their head. "The ground's open and +level. We can go through like a blizzard. Draw pistol! Now, not a sound +till I say charge, but take the pace from me."</p> + +<p>Up the gentle slope they go, many horses already plunging and tugging at +their bits, the glorious excitement of the rider communicating itself, +as it must and will where horse and man are in sympathy. Right behind +Cranston rides his second sergeant commanding the second platoon, the +streaming guidon, lowered still, a little to his left and rear. Already +the men are opening out a trifle, for this is to be no charge upon +serried masses of disciplined troops, no crash of cavalry upon cavalry, +where the line which rides with the greater impetus, the closer touch, +the more accurate alignment, hurls the greater shock and weight upon the +foe. Here no naked sabre flames in air,—a useless blade in Indian +battle,—but all through the plunging rank are keen old campaigners +whose eyes blaze from underneath the slouching hat brims, whose muscular +brown hands grasp the pistol butt, who ride with close gripping thighs, +for well they know that once over the crest, "gallop" and "charge" will +follow in quick succession, and there will be but an instant in which to +see and think or plan. Indeed, from a cavalry point of view it really is +not a charge at all, not even a charge as foragers, but rather a wild +dash into and through a straggling, swarming village of Indian lodges, +every man for himself when once turned loose, the whole<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_426" id="Page_426">[Pg 426]</a></span> object being to +carry terror, panic, and confusion to the half-waking warriors, and so +cover the major's main effort, which is to whirl away with him every +pony in the valley. This done the red renegades are crippled for good +and all, and their outbreak is at an end.</p> + +<p>All eyes are on Cranston's gallant troop then as it goes sweeping up the +gentle slope. Already Truman's men are galloping front into line so as +to follow and support. Already Chrome is spurring eagerly forward to +watch the effect. Already Canker, grim, cynical, dissatisfied, but +obedient, is launching his leading troop well over to the right front, +at swift gallop, too, so as to head off such fugitives—Indians or +ponies—as may attempt to scurry away westward; but still the eyes of +all men seem to follow Cranston, for his, after all, is the perilous +part. Already Thunder Hawk and Bear have run back down the slope to leap +into saddle, for the earth begins to quiver and shake under the bounding +hoofs, and with another moment all the valley will wake to the ringing +battle-cry. "My God!" mutters little Sanders, lunging along after his +major, "why ain't I with my own instead of loafing here?"</p> + +<p>And now they see Cranston glancing back over his shoulder and carrying +hand to holster. Up like a centaur he bounds against the sky line, up +after him the long rank of ragged hat brims and blue-shirted, +broad-belted, manly forms, up the plunging line of hard-tugging bays, +their black tails streaming in the morning wind, and then Cranston's arm +flings up aloft; up into plain view streams and flaps the silken +guidon,—the stars and stripes in swallow-tailed miniature that the +troopers loved to see,—and then the thud gives way to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_427" id="Page_427">[Pg 427]</a></span> thunder, for as +one man "C" troop strikes the gallop with the thronging Indian village +not five hundred yards ahead.</p> + +<p>Scattered over the low level between the receding bluffs and the rapid +stream, loosely covering a stretch of nearly half a mile along the +shores, with their ragged crown of pole tops wrapped in smoky hide or +canvas, their spreading bases littered with the rude crates, +"parfleches" and travois, some fourscore Indian wigwams burst into view +as the line darts over the crest. "Oh, murther! Six to wan at least," +gasps an old growler in the right platoon, and Davies whirls about in +saddle. "Silence there, Donovan!" is all he says.</p> + +<p>And now can be seen wild scurry and confusion. Four or five dingy forms +dart in and out among the tepees. Three or four Indian boys are lashing +in from the almost countless herd of ponies. Startled by the tremor and +thunder, the nearest of these sturdy little beasts, with tossing heads +and manes, have taken alarm, and are already beginning an aimless +scamper that in another moment will spread to the entire flock. Not a +moment to lose, indeed! One more backward glance does Cranston fling as +his magnificent bay quickens his stride, and the long line instantly +responds. One half nod, half smile to Davies, for the Parson rides like +moss trooper of old, with grim set face, despite the eager light in his +keen, blue-gray eyes.</p> + +<p>"Open out now a little, men! Gently, keep your rank!" for the chargers +are tugging madly, straining for a race. A terrified squaw, clasping her +baby to her breast, bursts from the nearest tepee, pauses one<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_428" id="Page_428">[Pg 428]</a></span> instant +as though paralyzed, and then, with unerring instinct, holding her +little one on high, runs straight forward, mutely appealing, straight +for the galloping line. "Open out! Look out for the kid! Let her +through, lads," are the low, hurried cautions. Somewhere on the near +skirt of the village a wild war-whoop rings out on the air, a mad cry of +warning, then bang, zip, comes the first shot from the tepees, whistling +over Cranston's shoulder and skimming a mile away down-stream. No need +of further caution now. Now is the time. Cranston's voice rings like the +bugler's clarion mingling in the order "Charge!" and the welkin rings, +the rocks re-echo to the grand burst of cheers with which "C" Troop goes +tearing, thrashing into the heart of the village, swallowed up instantly +in a dense cloud of dust. For a moment cheer and yell and rallying and +war-cry, mingling with the thunder of hoofs and the sharp crackling of +revolver and rifle, drown all other sounds. Then the screams of Indian +women and children add to the clamor, and, with slashing knives, the +startled braves hew their way out through the tepees. Then the thunder +is swelled by the mad rush of the pony herd away from the driving storm. +The cheer is renewed by Canker's men, yelling and hat waving at the +heels of the herd. The dust-cloud in the village is but a flimsy veil to +the dense volume that goes floating skyward and southward, for practised +hands have prevailed, and the red man's most precious possessions, all +but a scattered few stampeding to and fro among the wigwams, are swept +from his maddened sight.</p> + +<p>And then comes the rally on the flats beyond.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_429" id="Page_429">[Pg 429]</a></span> Sweeping and circling in +the effort to control their excited horses, the troopers, exultant, come +reining up into line long pistol-shot south of the terror-stricken +village. Off to the west the great dust-cloud is slowly settling to +earth, and through it Truman's men, in perfect order, with carbines +advanced, can be seen moving by the flank, but interposing ever between +the village and the captured herds. Cranston, easily reining his pawing +charger, sits facing the reforming centre of his panting line. The +guidon-bearer is there all right and waves aloft the fluttering folds, +and the boy trumpeter tries to sound the recall, but makes a mess of it, +and throws the forming rank into convulsions of unrebuked chaff and +laughter. The captain is proud of his men and unbends for the occasion, +but, all the same, he eagerly counts the files, looking for this +familiar bearded face or that. Both sergeant platoon commanders are +there. The second and third platoons re-form without much delay and with +hardly a missing face. It's the first that proves to be the last. They +had to charge through the thickest part of the village,—the westward +side, where more Indians were awake and alert, roused by the cries of +the herd guards. The dust-cloud is still settling. Galloping forms still +issue from it and the western skirts of the village, from the clumps of +Cottonwoods, from under the banks, whither the mad dash of some horses +had carried their riders. But Cranston's face loses its smile, a world +of anxiety suddenly replaces it, for shots and yells ring from the midst +of the village still, and the chief of the first platoon is not here to +rally his men.</p> + +<p>"Who's missing there, sergeant?" he calls, spurring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_430" id="Page_430">[Pg 430]</a></span> over to where a +trooper comes riding heavily forward, drooping a little as he rides.</p> + +<p>"Four or five, sir. Donovan was shot from his horse and the lieutenant +went back for him."</p> + +<p>"<i>Quick</i>, trumpeter! Ride to Captain Truman and tell him to whirl about +and help us. <i>Now</i>, men, follow for all you're worth!"</p> + +<p>And when the dust-cloud settles on the flats south of the Minneconjou +village, only one of "C" Troop remains to greet the eyes of the +battalion adjutant, sent back with Major Chrome's impatient query as to +why on earth the Eleventh doesn't come on. It is Sergeant Grant, who has +toppled out of saddle—dead.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXX" id="CHAPTER_XXX"></a>CHAPTER XXX.</h2> + + +<p>If there be any truth in the saying that a burnt child shuns the fire, +the two officers who led "C" troop in its dash on the village should +have been almost anywhere else, and at least ten of Cranston's men bore +the scars of previous battle, either in the South or on the frontier. +The captain was still reminded of his ugly wound, received the previous +summer, by sharp, burning twinges of pain. Davies, the junior, as we +know, had not yet recovered his strength, and had gone on this sudden +raid, stepping practically from a sick-bed to the saddle. Twice that +morning, as the captain looked with ill-concealed anxiety into the face +of his friend and subaltern, he noted its pallor, despite the expression +of stern determination. Had there been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_431" id="Page_431">[Pg 431]</a></span> time he would covertly have +warned three or four "stalwarts" of the first platoon not to lose sight +of their lieutenant, and to hold themselves close in support, but there +was no time. Indeed, as the sequel proved, there was no need. Soldier +stories fly fast among the rank and file, and the men of "C" Troop had +heard from many a source how the young officer on his first campaign had +denied himself, stinted himself, starved himself, nearly, in order to +share his scant supply of food with the weak and suffering in his own +troop, and so they welcomed his presence with them now when the column +marched from the cantonment, and spoke among themselves their admiration +of the pluck of the young officer in being so soon again on duty.</p> + +<div class="figcenter" style="width: 500px;"> +<img src="images/illus443-1.jpg" width="500" height="283" alt=""Look out! Don't harm the women." + +Page 431." title="" /> +<span class="caption">"Look out! Don't harm the women." + +Page 431.</span> +</div> + +<p>And so it happened that as the pace quickened that stirring June morning +and the long line swept down upon the rousing, shrieking village, and +the first shot came singing over their heads and the wild cheer leaped +to their lips as the trumpet sounded charge, while many troopers sought +their own course through and among the fire-spitting lodges, Sergeant +Grant with Donovan and two others drove their horses close at the heels +of the lieutenant's. Only squaws or children appeared among the tepees +as they dashed furiously in. "Look out! Don't harm the women!" they +heard him cry, as he held his own pistol hand well aloft, but in another +second a scowling, painted faced flashed one brief instant into view as +their leader went lunging by, a shot rang on the air, and flame and +smoke jetted from the lodge opening. Three pistols barked in answer and +Davies galloped on unhurt, but poor Donovan, with an Irish howl, dropped +his revolver, clapped<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_432" id="Page_432">[Pg 432]</a></span> his hands to his stomach as he toppled out of +saddle. "My God, fellers, I've got it," was his moan, as Davies, a +superb rider, quickly turned his horse about, and in the twinkling of an +eye leaped to the ground to the trooper's side.</p> + +<p>"Quick, sergeant. Quick, men, help me lift him on my saddle, I'm too +weak," was his almost breathless order, and gallantly did they answer +him.</p> + +<p>"Are ye badly hit, Jimmy?" gasped an honest Irish lad, as he strove to +raise him from the ground. But deathly pallor and staring, sightless +eyes were the sole reply. "My God, lieutenant, he's killed outright. +There's no use staying," cried another trooper. "Mount, sir, mount for +God's sake! They'll be on us in a minute." But tugging still at the limp +and lifeless form, Davies did not seem to hear. The fierce clamor of the +charge was receding. Already the second and third platoons had cleared +the village and were reining about and rallying on the flats up-stream. +Already the pony herds, driven full tilt by Canker's squadron, were out +of sight in the dense dust-cloud and could be heard thundering up the +valley. Only a portion of Truman's troop could be dimly seen through the +settling dust, but, worst of all, the warriors recovering from their +panic came rushing from their lodges, and in a moment all would be over +with the struggling little group of blue-coats. Fortunately, they were +at the western skirt of the village, and almost all the rallying braves +were running, rifle in hand, down to the southern edge, the direction of +the chase. Some few, springing upon the scattered ponies left among the +tepees, rode furiously away into the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_433" id="Page_433">[Pg 433]</a></span> dust-cloud in the hope of +recapturing some of their stampeded stock, and so it happened that, +except for some shrieking women, only one or two Indians appeared aware +of the little knot of troopers still in their midst, but that was more +than enough. Davies's horse, pierced by a rifle bullet, went rolling in +agony upon the ground just as a devoted Irishman was trying to bolster +the almost exhausted officer into saddle, and, luckily for him, Davies +was borne to earth out of the way of the shots that came driving at them +from the surrounding lodges. "Save yourselves," he faintly called to the +remaining men. Already Grant had darted away for help, receiving his +death wound as he rode. Then down came another horse, while Donovan's, +snorting, tore away among the tepees, and then there was help for it. +The little Irishman, Carney, bending low, strove to drag his prostrate +leader, stunned by a kick from his dying horse, around behind the +nearest lodge, when he, too, was sent blindly stumbling forward and +sprawling in the dust, shot through and through from an unseen rifle not +ten feet away, and the gallant fellow never heard the furious cheer with +which "C" Troop came charging back to the rescue.</p> + +<p>It is one thing to dash into an Indian village; it is another to get out +of it. Wounded or unhorsed, any men left behind are doomed to cruel and +certain death. Within another minute, Cranston and his men came tearing +in, firing right and left at every dusky form that appeared. Within a +minute the prostrate bodies were found, and half a dozen men, Brannan +among them, had sprung from their saddles, while the others<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_434" id="Page_434">[Pg 434]</a></span> rode +blazing with their revolvers at the nearest lodges, some bringing their +carbines into play. But even within that minute the scalping-knife had +been at work, and poor Donovan's mutilated head lay in a pool of blood. +Short-lived triumph for the scalper, sneaking to shelter with his +hideous prize, for Cranston's pistol stretched him in his tracks, and +Sergeant Buckner's big charger knocked the foremost of the rescuing +warriors scrambling back between the lodges, where other troopers drove +their horses trampling them under foot. But every wigwam had its +garrison. The village swarmed with maddened braves, who now came rushing +to the scene, and, they on foot and the troopers in saddle, they with +their repeating rifles, the troopers with their pistols or +single-shooters, annihilation of the latter could be but a question of a +few moments. Even before Davies and his brave defenders could be lifted +to the saddle and led away, two or three more of Cranston's horses went +down, and Corporal Bertram was shot through both thighs. Then came the +effort to retire fighting, covering their dead and wounded. There was +only one way to go,—out across the westward flat, where the ponies were +peacefully grazing when the attacking column hove in sight. Even as he +shouted his orders to his savagely fighting troop, Cranston looked back +with keen anxiety. To what pitiless fire must they be exposed in +retreating over that prairie! Yet, with Indians on every hand within the +village, it was manifestly his duty to get out. "Go on with the +wounded!" he cried to the men afoot. "Go on! We'll cover you." And then +Davies slowly opened his eyes and began to look feebly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_435" id="Page_435">[Pg 435]</a></span> about him. Oh, +if Truman would only come! Every second the fight waged fiercer, hotter, +and more men dropped as they backed slowly away. Down went Buckner's +horse. Down went the guidon, and then, when it seemed as though half the +troop must fall before they could reach the open field, the +half-frenzied, half-joyous cheer of Truman's men rose shrill above the +clamor, and again the dancing, howling Indians dove for cover underneath +the tepees as "F" Troop came thundering through.</p> + +<p>"By the Lord, but that's the hottest place I ever struck!" cried +Sergeant Buckner a moment later, as, slowly falling back now, most of +the men fighting on foot, with the led horses and the disabled soldiers +well beyond them, "C" Troop was making its way southwestward towards the +clump of Cottonwoods and willows, close along the stream. Truman's men, +after their spirited and successful charge, were now rallying well to +the north of the village beyond the ridge, where for the time being they +were safe from the Indian fire. But once more now the warriors in the +village were swarming along its western limit and, flat on their +bellies, firing vengefully on Cranston's retiring line, now three +hundred yards away, and every moment some horse would rear and plunge, +stung by the hissing lead, but only one more soldier had been hit. +Davies, faint and dizzy and only semi-conscious still, was riding slowly +away with Brannan's supporting arm about him. The bodies of Carney and +Donovan were thrown across led horses and lashed on with lariats, and +Cranston had just sent a corporal to tell the horse-holders to move more +quickly when, up the slopes to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_436" id="Page_436">[Pg 436]</a></span> the north, the men caught sight of a +horse and rider darting toward them from the distant ridge over which +Truman's men had disappeared. Straight as an arrow's flight they came, +heedless of the fact that their course was along the western edge of the +Indian village and barely two hundred yards away. "My God, fellers, it's +little Millikin!" cried an excited trooper. "Ride wide, you young +idiot!" yelled another, but all to no purpose. The boy trumpeter who had +borne the message to Truman and charged with him through the village was +now on his homing flight to rejoin his own. Vengeful yells and +war-whoops rang from the village as warrior after warrior caught sight +of him and blazed away. Throwing himself out of saddle, Indian fashion, +and clinging like a monkey to the off side, the young dare-devil drove +straight onward, the bullets nipping the bunch grass and kicking up the +dust under his racer's flying feet, yet mercifully whizzing by him. +Running the gauntlet of more than half the length of the village, the +little rascal darted, grinning, through the cheering skirmish line, and +tumbled to his feet before his beloved chief.</p> + +<p>"Captain Truman's compliments, sir, and he'll rejoin you at the timber," +was his message, delivered while his quivering horse stood flicking his +long tail at a red seam in his silky coat where one bullet at least had +scored its way, and Cranston bade him take his horse—and no more such +fool chances—and get under cover straightway.</p> + +<p>But now in falling back the skirmish line had made an irregular half +wheel to the southward with a flying pivot toward the village, and the +Indians were darting<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_437" id="Page_437">[Pg 437]</a></span> or crawling out south of the tepees so as to get +an enfilading fire on the line. Cranston's quick eyes saw the danger and +warned his right skirmishers. "Back there! Fall back, you men! Run for +it!" he shouted; and to the jeering rage of the Indians the run began, +the men halting and refacing the village as soon as beyond danger of +flank fire, and then came still another excitement. Even while falling +steadily back, with wary eyes on the smoking lodge lines, the men at the +right became suddenly aware of a rush of several Indians to the point +where the troop had re-formed after its initial charge. "They're making +for the timber," was the first cry, for a few scattered, stunted trees +grew along the low ridge. Then came a yell from the rear, from the +sergeant in charge of the led horses.</p> + +<p>"It's one of our men lying there wounded. For God's sake save him!" and +that was enough. Every carbine along the line was brought to bear on the +stooping, crouching, scurrying warriors who had ventured so far out from +the sheltering tepees. Obedient to Davies's order, Brannan and two or +three men in saddle left the wounded to take care of themselves, and +spurred headlong across the prairie to the scene, and Cranston, catching +sight of the affair at the same instant, waved his cap in eager signal, +while his voice, now hoarse and choked, could hardly be heard in the +order "By the right flank." Truman's column of fours, reappearing at the +instant at the north, but well to the westward of the village, could not +imagine what that distant manoeuvre meant, but it was no time to ask +questions. "Gallop" was the order, and down they came.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_438" id="Page_438">[Pg 438]</a></span> And so it +happened that barely twenty minutes after the first shot was fired the +comrade troops of the Eleventh were once more united, and, facing nearly +north, were in furious fight with an overwhelming force of Indians, +while Chrome, turning deaf ear to Sanders's supplications, was vainly +striving to round up a galloping herd of several hundred ponies full +three miles away. Picking up the body of Sergeant Grant, saved from +scalping and mutilation by the dash of Brannan and his squad, "C" Troop +was once more wearily retiring toward the timber along the Wakon, and +Truman deploying his dismounted skirmishers to their relief.</p> + +<p>And then, as the horses were huddled at last under the bank, and the +wounded were tenderly lowered to the shade of the willows, and the dead, +with soldier reverence, laid, blanket covered, under a spreading tree, +the captains met to compare notes and sum up the losses. Grave indeed +were their faces, for two of the best sergeants were killed as well as +five veteran troopers, and nearly a dozen were more or less severely +wounded. Davies, unscarred by bullet, lay faint from loss of blood, and +dizzy and dazed from the blow from his horse's hoof. The knife wound, +Red Dog's treacherous work, had reopened as a result of his violent +throw to earth, and there was no surgeon nearer than Chrome's battalion, +now out of sight far up the Ska. "Thank God! they've got few ponies +left," said Cranston, fervently. "We can hold them here until help +comes."</p> + +<p>And help was coming, hard and fast,—harder and faster than Cranston +dreamed, but not to them. Within<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_439" id="Page_439">[Pg 439]</a></span> the next quarter hour, greeted by +frantic acclamations from the hostile village, there rode into view on +the opposite bluff, and came shouting their war-song, brandishing +feathered lance or gleaming rifle, more than a hundred red +warriors,—Ogallallas, Brulés, Minneconjous all, with Red Dog himself, +escaped from durance at the agency, madly revelling in their midst.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXI" id="CHAPTER_XXXI"></a>CHAPTER XXXI.</h2> + + +<p>It was barely sunrise when Chrome's battalion struck the hostile camp +this hot June day, and two hours later the situation was comfortless +enough—for the strikers. Hampered with their wounded and having lost a +dozen horses killed, the two troops of the Eleventh on whom had devolved +the harsher share of the work had been compelled to halt in the timber +and stand off the now exultant Indians. With a hundred mounted warriors +at his back and as many more afoot in the village, Red Dog promptly took +the offensive, sent his yelling braves in big circle all around the +clump of timber in which Truman and Cranston had posted their men, cut +off communication with Chrome's party, now "doing herd guard duty half a +dozen miles up the Ska," as some of Cranston's men derisively said, and +then, little by little, established the dismounted braves in every +hollow, behind every little ridge or mound, and soon had a complete +circle of fire all about the wearied little force. As senior officer, +Captain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_440" id="Page_440">[Pg 440]</a></span> Truman was now in command of the detachment, but between him +and Cranston there was a bond of cordial esteem and comradeship, and the +command was purely a matter of form. Each had had long years of +experience in frontier warfare, each knew just what had to be done, and +neither regarded the situation as either desperate or particularly +dangerous. It would have been an easy matter to cut their way out +anywhere but for the helpless wounded, who would be butchered to a man +if left behind. Here in the timber, with water in abundance, and +comparative shelter for the disabled men and for the horses under the +banks, they could remain until relief should reach them. This with +Chrome's two troops not very far away and their own old colonel, with +half the regiment, somewhere over in the hills to the southwest, they +felt very well assured ought to be only a matter of a few hours. "It was +big luck," said Truman, "that our little pack-train got in when it did. +Ten minutes later and they'd have been cut off and massacred."</p> + +<p>But the further advantage lay with the Indians that they just knew +exactly where Chrome was and Tintop, too, and knew that neither one was +making the first effort to relieve his surrounded comrades, Tintop +because he was twenty miles away and had no knowledge of what was going +on at the mouth of the Spirit River, and Chrome because he was utterly +rattled by the mounted warriors now beginning to appear in increasing +numbers around him. He had sustained no loss to speak of. None of his +men had been hit. Only two horses had been struck by their long-range +fire. He was, to use his own words, "Really provoked at Truman and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_441" id="Page_441">[Pg 441]</a></span> +Cranston. They might know he needed them in holding such a big herd of +ponies." Poor Sanders was in a miserable state of anxiety. He begged the +major to let him take ten men and go back to find them, or even to let +him go back alone. He pointed out that they must have had a fierce +fight. He had found Sergeant Grant dead, and heard the fierce battling +in the villages where both troops were engaged, and then he had galloped +through the dust-cloud to Chrome, narrowly escaping death as he did so, +and told him the situation, confidently expecting that Chrome would turn +the ponies loose, rally his men and dash back to the village; but Chrome +did nothing of the kind. "They should have come to me," he said. "We're +the ones in need," then sent him with an order to Canker, who, out on +the right flank, was making the morning blue with blasphemy, and Sanders +poured his tale into Canker's ears, and begged him to come and make +Chrome understand the situation, and Canker replied that nothing short +of a pile-driver could hammer an idea into a skull as thick as Chrome's, +and nothing short of a blast get anything out of it. The man was a born +idiot and had no more idea how to command cavalry in the field than he, +Canker, had of teaching Sunday-school. Oddly enough, many of Canker's +contemporaries said the same of him, but one never knows and rarely +suspects half what one's brethren say or think of him. The valley was +black with ponies, the troopers were black with dust, and a pall as of +night hung over the herd, so dense that the sun rays were swallowed up +in its depths and gave but little light below, and tears of rage and +misery that started from Sanders's eyes trickled down<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_442" id="Page_442">[Pg 442]</a></span> through a sandy +desert on each sun-blistered cheek. He rode back to his temporary chief +just as an Indian bullet had whizzed in front of the major's nose and +made his eyes almost pop from his head. "Don't you see," he urged, +reproachfully, "how very much more they are around us? If Truman or +Cranston needed help they would have let us know long ago."</p> + +<p>After a brisk gallop of three or four miles up the valley of the Ska, +the troopers of the —th had permitted the stampeded ponies to take +things more leisurely, and so it resulted that by six o'clock many of +their number were stopping occasionally to nibble at the grass which +grew here luxuriantly, but there was, all the same, a steady, persistent +movement of the living mass,—an enforced migration at the rate of at +least three miles an hour. Well out on the foot-hills Canker's troop had +thrown its flankers, while the other in long skirmish line, with +appropriate reserves, interposed between the herd and possible Indian +attack from the north. The eastern banks of the Ska along here were high +and steep, and the stream flowed deep and rapid at their base, so attack +from that quarter was not to be dreaded. All the same, occasional +warriors could be seen along the bluff, scampering from point to point, +firing long-range chance shots at the officers or men distinguishable +through the edge of the dust-cloud, but venturing no closer. It was +Chrome's idea, as he frankly said, to keep moving southwestward until +Tintop's scouts should see the huge column of dust, and send forth to +meet and guide him with his prizes to the colonel's camp. Every +quarter-hour, therefore, was taking him farther and father away from his +corralled<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_443" id="Page_443">[Pg 443]</a></span> comrades down-stream, but he refused to see it. "Oh, they'll +come along all right, Sanders," he declared, as he saw how his +adjutant's eyes constantly gazed back beyond the dispersed line of +skirmishers, "and we'll have a regular jubilee when we meet your colonel +this evening. Some day, perhaps, you'll get a brevet for this."</p> + +<p>"Damn the brevet!" groaned the youngster. "Give me a sight of 'C' and +'F' Troops safe and sound, and I'd rather have it than any brevet in +creation." Then a brilliant idea struck him. "By the way, major, suppose +they don't come along, what will you do for breakfast and dinner? +They've got the pack-train—unless the Indians have."</p> + +<p>"By heavens, I never thought of the packs. They were way behind when we +struck the village," said the major, whipping out his watch. "It's 6.30 +now. Sanders, I reckon you'll have to go back and see what's become of +them. Take six or eight men from the reserves here and try to rejoin us +by eight." And glad enough to slip out from the shadows of that +overhanging pall, Sanders went, half a dozen Arizona "jayhawkers" riding +silently with him.</p> + +<p>And that was the last Major Chrome saw of his battalion adjutant, of the +"Eleventh" half of his battalion, and of all but one of the six +jayhawkers referred to, in many a long week. One of the latter made his +way back afoot in the course of half an hour, saying his horse was shot +under him in the valley, which was thick with Indians, and Chrome looked +yellow-white and a trifle undecided. But again the big herd of ponies +from some unseen cause was in rapid motion,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_444" id="Page_444">[Pg 444]</a></span> loping away southwestward. +All the guards and flankers were on the run, and it was half an hour +before things quieted down again, and when eight o'clock came Canker +sent in word that there were dozens of Indians on the bluffs ahead where +the valley narrowed, and it would be well to halt and round up the herd +right there and wait for Cranston and Truman, and Chrome so ordered. +Presently the dust-cloud began to settle, and by and by, when it floated +slowly to earth again, half a dozen at a time, under cover of their +comrades' carbines, the troopers ventured to the stream to fill their +canteens and souse their grimy heads. There, peacefully grazing again, +were the Indian ponies by the hundreds and their dusty guardians by the +score; but, far as eye could see down the beautiful valley, not a sign +of Sanders, his party, his comrades of the Eleventh, or, worse than all, +of the pack-train, and Chrome and his people were getting hungry.</p> + +<p>There were still with him the sergeant and trumpeter who had brought the +despatch from Colonel Winthrop, and to them again did Chrome appeal for +an estimate of the probable distance and direction of the colonel's +camp. With an officer and twenty troopers as an escort they rode to the +summit of the nearest bluff on the western shore, and with their +field-glasses studied the landscape for miles. Far to the southwest lay +the placid valley, unvexed now by sign of hostile force of any kind, and +the sergeant indicated, some fifteen miles away, the butte near which +they made their crossing of the stream the previous day. Far to the west +and northwest rolled a wild, tumbling sea of prairie upland, wave after +wave of gray-green earth,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_445" id="Page_445">[Pg 445]</a></span> spanned at the horizon by the black, +pine-covered range of the Medicine Hills, pierced nearly due west from +them by the deep slit the sergeant said was Slaughter Cove. To the +northwest they could trace the general course of the Wakon valley, +though the stream itself was nowhere in view, even among the broader +levels toward its mouth, for everything down the Ska beyond a point +three miles away was hidden from their sight by the bold cliffs that +jutted out almost into the foaming waters. "Somewhere off there, fifteen +or twenty miles," said the sergeant, pointing towards Slaughter Cove, +"the colonel is probably marching." He had pursued the warriors into the +hills after their heavy fight, and wouldn't let up on them till he ran +them back to the agency, but the camp where he had left his wounded, his +wagons, and supplies and their guard couldn't be more than twenty miles +farther up the valley. Of the Indian village they had attacked at +sunrise nothing could be seen. Eastward and south westward the opposite +bluffs cut off the view, and such Indians as watched them did so from +the concealment of the ridges and ravines. Chrome's triumphant rejoicing +of the early day was rapidly giving place to uneasiness. In the absence +of rations even martial fame is an empty thing. It was a bitter pill to +have to go down and consult with Canker, but he did not know what else +to do. Noon found him, watched by the lurking Indians among the bluffs, +still guarding his captured herd and waiting for Sanders to come along +with the pack-train. But there was no dinner for Chrome's command that +day, and, by nightfall, even the ponies were gone.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_446" id="Page_446">[Pg 446]</a></span></p> + +<p>Barely two hours after the triumphant appearance of Red Dog and his +reinforcements on the scene of the morning's fight, Truman and Cranston, +making the rounds together, came upon Davies among the rifle-pits on the +north front, instead of resting with the wounded under the banks. He was +still pallid and ill, but, having dressed and bandaged his wound and had +a refreshing dip in the stream, he had made his way out among the men. +He shook his head gravely in answer to Truman's suggestion that he ought +to be lying down. "We <i>are</i> lying down all around here, sir," he said, +"and I can get more rest out here than under the banks."</p> + +<p>But Truman did not know that, weak as he was, the Parson was dividing +his time between the wounded and the effectives, ministering to the one +and cautioning the other, for the latter could not always resist the +temptation to fire at such Indians as appeared in view within five or +six hundred yards, and ammunition might be scarce before the siege was +ended. Grimly, but without uneasiness, the command watched Red Dog's +scientific manœuvres in his "surround," the mounted warriors being +gradually replaced, except on the open prairie, by the bereaved +villagers. "Oh, we can stand off double their force easily," was the +confident saying of the old hands. "We have food, water, ammunition, and +a smart chance for more fighting," so what more could soldier ask? There +was even jollity in the little command, despite the losses of the early +morning. There was keen and lively interest in Red Dog's movements when, +by nine o'clock, it was seen that he was calling most of the mounted +warriors<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_447" id="Page_447">[Pg 447]</a></span> around him and could be heard haranguing them at the farther +end of the village. None of the lodges had been taken down,—there were +no ponies to haul them away,—but those nearest the southern end were +now deserted of women and children and used only as shelter for a few +lurking braves. Presently on every side the Indian prowlers opened sharp +fire on the troops, a long-range and hap-hazard fusillade, for what with +logs and earth, sand, trees, and river-banks and little wooded isles, +the defence was well covered, only some of the horses being where they +could be plainly seen. The bullets came zipping overhead or spitting +vengefully into the sand, doing little harm, yet teaching the troopers +to lie low; and then in the midst of it all Red Dog rode magnificently +away from the north end of the village, across the open prairie, heading +for some point far up the valley of the Wakon, and sixty braves rode +valiantly at his back. He was a good half-mile away from the defence, +but the troopers let drive a few shots, "for old acquaintance' sake," as +one of them expressed it, but without disturbing the pomp and dignity of +the procession. It was soon out of sight, and then the encircling fire +slackened. "Now, what on earth are they up to?" was the question.</p> + +<p>And in less than an hour after his disappearance there came new +excitement, and the men set up a cheer. Sharp firing was heard toward +the south. What could it mean but that their comrades of the —th were +fighting their way back to join them? Then four or five horsemen +appeared along the southward slopes, darting and dashing about as only +Indians ride, evidently firing at something between them and the Ska,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_448" id="Page_448">[Pg 448]</a></span> +and Truman ordered a platoon to mount and drive away the Indians on that +front so as to open a road for the new-comers to enter. This was +accomplished with little loss, for the Indians broke from before the +spirited dash, but rallied, of course, far out on the flanks, and again +poured in their rapid fire from their repeating rifles, and then after a +while the troops could be seen slowly retiring, firing as they fell +back, some afoot now, and some leading and supporting in saddle others +who were evidently wounded, and finally, as these latter came within a +few hundred yards of the rifle-pits, the cry went up that it was +Lieutenant Sanders and some of the —th, and so it proved. Four more +wounded to care for, and Sanders, faint and heart-sick, among them.</p> + +<p>"I tried to get old Chrome to drop that herd and come back to you," he +moaned, "but it was useless. He wouldn't have let me come—only to get +him something to eat. Damn this having to fight Indians under office +soldiers anyhow!" And with this pithy protest on his blue lips the +little bantam fainted away.</p> + +<p>Then Chrome wasn't coming. Truman looked grave and Cranston angry. "No +matter. We can lick them endwise by staying just where we are," he said. +"Relief is bound to come to-night."</p> + +<p>Later that afternoon, under the shadows of the willows, there gathered a +little group, perhaps a score of officers and men, all who could be +spared from their stations in the rifle-pits, listening to the solemn +tones of one of their number reading the service for the burial of the +dead. Never did Cranston take the field<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_449" id="Page_449">[Pg 449]</a></span> without Margaret's stowing in +the corner of his saddlebag a little prayer-book of her church, and this +the captain had handed silently to Davies. Side by side the forms of the +two sergeants and their comrade troopers were laid in the sandy pit. +Reverently the bearded, war-worn men uncovered and stood with drooping +heads while their grave young officer read the solemn words. Here and +there along the big circle of their surrounding foe the faint distant +crack of the rifle punctuated the sentences as they fell from soldier +lips, and every moment a bullet whistled overhead. Somewhere down the +valley, borne on the wings of the breeze, the wail of Indian women +mourning their braves slain in the earlier battle echoed and almost +overwhelmed the solitary voice that rose in soldier tribute to the +soldier dead. Then with one brief, fervent prayer, the solemnly murmured +"Amen," carving no line, raising no stone, but tamping deep and heavy +the earth upon their blanket-shrouded forms, without the trooper +volleys, with only the faint soft winding of the trooper's last earthly +trumpet-call singing "lights out" to sadly listening ears, the little +group dispersed, each man going to his post.</p> + +<p>An hour later still and the bluffs were throwing long shadows across the +valley, and the crack of Indian rifles and occasional loud bark of the +carbine close at hand seemed growing more frequent, and watchers at the +outskirts became conscious of increasing excitement among the warriors +up the valley to the west as well as over to the south, and listening +men, laying their ears to earth, declared that there was tremor and +vibration, and dull distant thunder of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_450" id="Page_450">[Pg 450]</a></span> myriad hoofs, and over in the +village there was hurrying to and fro and growing clamor of squaws and +children, and dusky women could be seen clutching their little ones and +speeding away towards the hills down-stream, while others began rapidly +tearing down the painted lodges of hide or cloth, and such Indians as +had no mount, but were skulking under the banks or among the bluffs +across the stream, could be seen leaping and crouching and racing back +toward the village, and presently there went up a shout from the +lookouts towards the upper Ska: "Big dust-cloud coming. Must be the pony +herd again!" And men began springing to their feet and scrambling out of +their shelters, and staring around them and waving their hats and +shouting congratulation and encouragement, and ducking suddenly as more +bullets came whistling in, and from a low rumble the sound rose to +distant thunder, and from that to nearer uproar, and Truman and Cranston +made a rush for their own herds, ordering the men to side line and +hopple instantly, for the surviving horses were excitedly sniffing the +air, pawing and snorting, and then there hove in sight up the valley the +wiry leaders of the herd, galloping wearily, behind them a dull, +dust-hidden, laboring mass, the main body of the Indian prizes swept +away at sunrise. But who and what were these darting along the flanks of +the coming host, lashing furiously in and out, ever guiding, +controlling, commanding even while hurrying on? No blue-shirted, +slouch-hatted, broad-belted troopers these! No cheering comrades of the +stalwart —th, but in their stead few, but far more skilful, the most +accomplished<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_451" id="Page_451">[Pg 451]</a></span> herdsmen in all creation,—Indians by the dozen. And then +at last, amid the yell and clamor and shot and shout and furious rush of +riderless steeds, came explanation of the mysterious foray up the Spirit +valley. Circling far to the west and south, riding like the wind when +once well out of sight of watching foes, the Ogallallas had swung around +between the Ska and Winthrop's distant column, threaded ravines and +depressions well known to them from boyish days, and finally creeping +behind the curtaining bluffs into full view of the great herd drowsily +nibbling in the broad, sunny valley, had burst with maddening yell and +waving blankets and banging rifles, with sudden fury from their covert, +tearing by the weary pickets, stampeding their horses, and so had gone +thundering down upon the startled herd and, skilfully encircling it from +the south, reckless of rallying cry and rapid shot from Canker's men, +had sent the whole pack, with many a cavalry charger too, whirling +before them in wild triumph down the echoing valley, back to the waiting +village whence they came. "Red Dog versus Chrome Yaller," wailed little +Sanders from his bed of leaves. "Who wouldn't have bet on the bay?"</p> + +<p>Vain the major's valiant effort to mount and follow. Forty at least of +his horses were swept away in the rush, his own among them; vain +long-range shots and Canker's vivid blasphemy. Black in the face with +rage, he mounted such men as had managed to restrain their horses and +went charging after, leaving Chrome to the care of his fellows. Vain the +rapid and telling fire opened upon herd and herders by Truman's men as +they came within range. Down went two or three<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_452" id="Page_452">[Pg 452]</a></span> yelling, painted +warriors, down a dozen ponies here and there, but on went the leaders, +plunging breast-deep into the stream, and, followed by the whole mass, +forded the Wakon in a flood of foam and splash and spray, losing only a +trivial few in the glorious effort, and then, sweeping well around the +rifle-pits of the command, were welcomed with mad rejoicing and acclaim +in the heart of the thronging village.</p> + +<p>Instantly now did they send forward their own skirmish line,—scores of +Indians crawling, snake-like, through the grass, and from all sides +pouring rapid fire in on Cranston's front to keep him and his fellows +from attempting to mount or attack, which, indeed, would have been a +hopeless effort. The timber rang with the fierce volleying, and in the +excitement and exposure that resulted four more of the little command +were shot, Truman himself receiving a painful wound in the side. For +half an hour there was yell and clamor and furious crash of firearms, +but all this time the lodges were rapidly disappearing, the Indian +households were piling their goods and chattels, their babies, the old +and the wounded and the helpless, even their dead, on travois and drag +of lodge-poles, and then, guided by old chiefs, whole families were +flitting away down the Ska, and finally, as darkness lowered on the +valley, and the last lodge was down and gone, and the last warriors drew +away from their front, and silence and peace settled down upon the +exhausted command, Cranston, laying his broad hand on Davies's shoulder, +looked into his tired eyes with a world of soldier trust and admiration +in his own, and said, "If there was such a thing with us as promoting a +man on the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_453" id="Page_453">[Pg 453]</a></span> battlefield, my lad, this day's work would win it for you."</p> + +<p>And before the other could answer, far up the valley of the Wakon hailed +a trumpet call. Over from the bluffs across the stream another answered, +and man after man sprang from his blanket to give a welcome cheer. "We +might have known those beggars would have been in no such hurry to get +away," said Truman, faintly, "but for old Tintop's coming with the whole +command."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXII" id="CHAPTER_XXXII"></a>CHAPTER XXXII.</h2> + + +<p>They were discussing matters a week later at old Fort Scott, where two +little companies of the Fortieth kept watch and ward over the women and +children of their many comrades in the field. Barely mid-June now, yet +how all plans and projects for the summer had been changed. Guarded by +Chrome's "infantry," as his unhorsed troopers were jocularly described, +most of the wounded were being carried by short stages into Pawnee +Station, where a field hospital had been established. Truman and Sanders +were with these, but Winthrop, assuming command of all the cavalry that +was available at the forks, had gone on in pursuit of Red Dog's renegade +band. With him were Cranston and Davies; with him, too, were Hay and +Hastings. Only one officer of the Eleventh remained at Scott, the +captain of "A" Troop, in arrest awaiting trial. It was a time of sore +anxiety to wives and children, to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_454" id="Page_454">[Pg 454]</a></span> some two or three sweethearts who had +happened there, and they showed it plainly. It was a time of strange +suspense and trouble to Captain Devers, but he hid it well. Few men +could better have portrayed the chafing, indignant soldier, robbed of +the right to lead his men to battle, than did Devers when his comrades +took the field. Hastings as first lieutenant went in command of "A" +Troop, but Devers had importuned head-quarters with letters and +telegrams imploring to be permitted to accompany the column. He asked +for only temporary release from arrest. He courted—he <i>demanded</i> the +fullest investigation of his every act. He longed to meet his +accusers—his defamers, rather, and overthrow them before a jury of his +peers, but, as the court could not proceed now until the campaign was +over, why hold him chafing here? It was all capital, it was even +touching, but it "did not work." The general himself was far away in the +distant Big Horn; his adjutant-general could not act, and the +lieutenant-general in Chicago would not. Then, as Devers had been in +close arrest much over seven days, he demanded "extended limits," which +were readily accorded him. When "A" Troop marched away its captain's +only solace had been a long, closeted conference with Sergeant Haney, +who, as a consequence, had to gallop many a mile to overtake the troop.</p> + +<p>The news of Red Dog's escape and the bolt of the Ogallallas from +McPhail's bailiwick created consternation at Scott. With the cavalry and +all but one company of White's battalion gone from the agency there was +ample opportunity, but it had not been foreseen. Then, three days later, +by way of Pawnee, came the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_455" id="Page_455">[Pg 455]</a></span> details of the fierce fighting on the Ska, +of Truman's wound and Sanders's, of Chrome's catastrophe, the only humor +in the situation being the contemplation of how Captain Canker must have +sworn. Then came hurried letters, pencilled in the field, and Leonard +himself took hers to Mrs. Cranston, and then went in search of Mrs. +Davies, whom he found at Darling's quarters, though Darling was not +there. The ladies were at luncheon, and the adjutant contented himself +with sending Mira's missive in. There was a letter for Captain Devers in +the well-known hand of Sergeant Haney. This was sent him by the orderly. +There were others for others, which were duly delivered and brought at +least momentary joy, but Mrs. Cranston's eyes were dancing with delight +when Leonard met her half an hour later.</p> + +<p>"I'm going to Mrs. Davies," she said. "I want to read her what the +captain says of her husband's conduct all through that fight of Monday +afternoon. He says he never saw anything calmer or braver in his life."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I remember our chaplain's indulging in some prognostication to +that end," said Leonard, gravely; "but, Mrs. Cranston, did you want to +see Mrs. Davies?"</p> + +<p>"Why, yes, assuredly."</p> + +<p>"Well, she isn't home,—I think you'll find her at Mrs. Darling's."</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Cranston's humor changed. She decided to wait and see her +later. She did not care to go to Mrs. Darling's; neither, as it +transpired, did she care to return home, at least not yet awhile. There +were people capable of believing of Mrs. Cranston that she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_456" id="Page_456">[Pg 456]</a></span> had no +especial interest in Mrs. Davies, personally, and no genuine desire to +communicate to her the tidings which Mrs. Davies, perhaps, could hardly +appreciate. Mira had not once set foot within Mrs. Cranston's door since +their return from the cantonment, and there had been next to no +intercourse between them, and yet on this almost joyous afternoon +Margaret had eagerly seized upon this pretext of leaving Agatha Loomis +alone with Mr. Langston, who had returned that very day from some +investigation at Kearney and Cheyenne, and, after half an hour with Mr. +Leonard, had hastened to her door. He was still in the parlor when the +lady of the house came smilingly in an hour later,—she had been +visiting Mrs. Leonard the while,—but there was constraint in the air. +The boys were out with their ponies. There was no one to entertain him +during her absence but Miss Loomis, and Miss Loomis apparently must have +failed, for Langston's face had grown ten years older, and the moment +Mrs. Cranston left the room, on household cares intent, he must have +taken his leave, for when she returned from an inspection of the larder +in order to see if it would justify an invitation to stay and dine, the +parlor was empty. Langston had gone back to Braska, Miss Loomis to her +room. I regret to have to record it of Mrs. Cranston, but during the +following week she made more than one effort to induce her friend and +kinswoman to say what had happened to put so summary a stop to Mr. +Langston's visits, and that she wrote some peppery things to her +husband, the captain, in summing up her conclusions; she also looked +some, and I fear said some, to Miss<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_457" id="Page_457">[Pg 457]</a></span> Loomis herself, for one day, going +suddenly into Agatha's room, she surprised that young lady in the act of +packing her trunk. There ensued a scene which neither cared in +after-years to say much about. There were tears and reproaches on one +side, if not both, but Agatha's determination could not be changed. She +had made up her mind to leave Fort Scott, return to Chicago, and go she +did,—but not without Mrs. Cranston.</p> + +<p>In less than ten days there came a long letter from the captain. He and +his troop were destined, he said, to long months of scouting in the +distant Northwest. The general had told him as much. They might again +have to go to the Yellowstone, and it would be November before he could +hope to see the inside of a garrison. "So," said he, "stow away the +goods and chattels, leave them with the quartermaster, pack your trunk, +and take the boys and Agatha for another visit to the old folks at +home,—who are most eager to welcome you." When the Fourth of July came, +the Cranston boys, in the added glory of all their experiences at the +cantonment, were once more the envied centre of youthful attention at +Chicago.</p> + +<p>"We will have no more fighting this summer," said he, "for the Indians +have scattered," and "C" Troop did not; but there was abundant +opportunity for usefulness and distinction for "the prodigy," as +Cranston now generally referred in his home letters to Corporal Brannan, +whose devoted mother was almost the first to visit Margaret on her +arrival and overwhelm her with proffers of hospitality and with +questions about her boy. "C" Troop was detailed as escort to the +commanding general in a long tour he made to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_458" id="Page_458">[Pg 458]</a></span> Yellowstone Park, and +the prodigy's letters to that fond mother became more and more a cause +for rejoicing. Already had she learned to thrill with pride over the +accounts of his bravery and good conduct in the affairs at the agency +and the fighting on the Ska, but that, said she, was only as she knew he +would behave. From babyhood her boy had been conspicuous among his +fellows for absolute fearlessness and desperate courage, and her memory +was charged with a wealth of corroborative detail which that of his +fellows seemed to have lost. Those who were confidently appealed to were +polite and sympathetic, as became them when responding to a social +magnate of such prominence and influence, but they looked far from +confident and said satirical things when once away from her presence; +but then, no one knows how a boy is going to turn out. A few weeks and +the general himself would be home, and then, fresh from the +contemplation of the soldierly prowess and graces of her son, what could +he do less than have him commissioned a colonel or something and ordered +in on the staff, and then what store of fatted calves would not be +slaughtered in honor of this her son who was lost and was found, and who +had returned to her bringing his sheaves with him? If mother-dreams +could but come true all men would live and die immaculate, ennobled, +magnificently brave, steadfast, and commanding. And far away among the +fastnesses of the Yellowstone, living in close communion with nature, in +a glorious round of days, full of high health, courage, and hope, with +ambition fired, purpose strengthened, with freedom from care or +temptation,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_459" id="Page_459">[Pg 459]</a></span> small wonder was it if Corporal Brannan's letters warranted +all her expectations. But those were the halcyon days of cavalry life, +not the typical. Our truest heroes are those who bear with equanimity +the heat and burden of the long, monotonous round of garrison life with +its petty tyrannies, exactions, exasperations, and bear them without a +break or murmur. It is a poor, poor soldier who cannot wax enthusiastic +on a full stomach—and a good horse—when serving in the field.</p> + +<p>But while "C" Troop was doing escort duty, and its captain's wife and +little ones were safe at home, "A" Troop, long handicapped by the +frailties of its commander and notorious for bad drill, was now striving +to win a new name under the lead of Bachelor Hastings and its grim +Benedick second lieutenant, whose fair young bride could hardly be said +to be safe at Scott, restored to the sympathetic circle of which +Mesdames Stone, Flight, and Darling were the guiding stars. Old Pegleg +seldom left his piazza now except to go to bed or dinner, and did not +much care what was said or done around him so long as he was left in +peace. The post surgeon had bolstered him up again, after a few days in +bed, so that he could sign papers, and while he retained the nominal +command of the garrison, Leonard was its virtual and actual head, for +when July came only one detachment of the Fortieth remained with the +band as guard.</p> + +<p>But that band was a host in itself, and why should women weep and mope +and mourn—with music and the dance so easily accessible? Mrs. Leonard's +letters to Mrs. Cranston became vividly interesting just about<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_460" id="Page_460">[Pg 460]</a></span> this +time. The hops were resumed, as well as the drives with friends in town. +Mr. Langston came no longer, but the bank and the Cattle Club poured +forth their homage. Messrs. Burtis, Courtenay, and Fowler were out twice +a week at least. Then Mr. Willett's beautiful team reappeared, and +presently Mr. Willett himself, and he had brought still another step +from the distant sea-shore. It is only the first step that counts, and +Mira had taken that. Mrs. Leonard thought she was learning another. She +danced as beautifully, dressed as divinely, smiled as bewitchingly, and +talked as inanely as ever. Mr. Leonard disapproved of Mr. Willett, but +that could not keep him off the post. When mid-July came Willett was +there almost every day. Twice he remained overnight, sleeping at the +sutler's. The chaplain had been to talk with Mr. Leonard, and had tried +to talk with Mira, but she fled from him in tears. What he said to her +was dreadful!—dreadful! and she should tell Mr. Davies about it just as +soon as he returned. "I," said the chaplain, gravely, "shall not wait +till then. I shall have to write and tell him now."</p> + +<p>Meantime Captain Devers occupied his quarters in gloomy state and twice +each day patrolled the garrison limits with the air of an injured man. +At other times he was writing long letters and reading those which came +to him by every mail, but none came now from the faithful henchman +Haney, far away on the Indian trail with Tintop's pursuing column. Red +Dog was known to be with a remnant of his band somewhere in the wild Bad +Lands to the north of the Ska, and the last heard from the colonel was +that he, with six<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_461" id="Page_461">[Pg 461]</a></span> troops of the Eleventh, was scouring the southern +limit of those dismal features of our frontier landscape, looking for +Red Dog not far to the north of Antelope Springs. Devers had been +truculent in his demand for speedy trial up to the third week in +July,—up to the twentieth of the month in fact,—but that day brought +telegraphic sensation. Tintop had found and struck Red Dog's camp at +dawn on the sixteenth, guided thither by Thunder Hawk himself, had +struck hard and heavily, scattering not only Red Dog's people to the +hills but destroying their village and burning another that from its +foul condition seemed to have been standing there all winter. Red Dog +himself was killed, fighting like a tiger, and "A" Troop under Hastings +and Davies had won the distinction of heading the charge, doing most of +the work, and losing more in killed and wounded than the others +combined. Hastings was shot through the arm and crippled. Corporal Boyd, +one of Devers's pets, was killed, so were two troopers, and Sergeant +Haney had received what was reported to be a mortal wound. Leaving a +small guard with his invalids and invoking aid from Major White's +infantry battalion, now garrisoning the stockade where the new post was +to be built, Tintop had gone on into the hills to continue the work of +breaking up the bands, Davies commanding "A" Troop, and not until the +thirtieth was he heard from again.</p> + +<p>But meantime Lieutenant Archer, of the general's staff, who had +accompanied the cavalry column, was staying with the wounded, and had +removed them from the smoking, malodorous neighborhood of the ruined +villages, and could be found, he wrote, with his charges<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_462" id="Page_462">[Pg 462]</a></span> at Antelope +Springs. This was news at which Leonard's eyes flashed. It was tidings +at which Devers turned very pale. The latter begged for authority to go +at his own expense and at once, and without a guard, though it involved +five days of buckboard driving or saddle work from Pawnee Station, to +join his wounded men. "Debarred," said he, "from the right to battle +with my men, I pray that I may at least be permitted to minister to +their needs,—they who have so gloriously maintained the honor and +credit of their troop." But the adjutant-general at department +head-quarters smiled sarcastically and said that this, with others of +Devers's letters and telegrams, deserved to be framed. August came, and +Devers again clamored to be brought to trial or relieved from arrest, +and two evenings later, as he sat in gloomy state upon his piazza, he +was amazed to see the adjutant turn grimly into the gate and calmly +stand attention before him.</p> + +<p>"Captain Devers," said he, "I am directed by the post commander to read +to you this despatch:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'<span class="smcap">Commanding Officer, Fort Scott</span>:<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"'Notify Captain Devers that his letters have been received, +and that the court for his trial will convene not later than +the fifteenth instant.</p></div> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"'By command of General ——.'"<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And when it is remembered that he had persistently demanded prompt trial +it is surprising that the accused officer looked completely +disconcerted. The fact of the matter was Captain Devers had no idea that +the members and witnesses could be brought together again before +mid-September, if then. That night he sat up<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_463" id="Page_463">[Pg 463]</a></span> writing until very late, +and sent two messages away by wire. He was sorely troubled now, but +could he have seen the group gathered solemnly about the dying sergeant +far away at Antelope Springs, and heard his faint, whispered words as +Archer took them down, Devers would have stood aghast.</p> + +<p>A charming little informal dance was going on at the fort one August +evening about a week later. The Leonards would not attend them now, but +with five such belles as Mesdames Stone, Darling, Davies, Flight, and +Plodder, to say nothing of other lesser lights of the garrison galaxy, +there was no lack of womanly beauty, only the cavaliers were short. One +officer, an infantry subaltern, represented the martial element, the +other men were civilians. Courtenay had brought out two Eastern friends; +Burtis was on hand as usual, and Willett, metaphorically, at least, at +Mira's feet. The poor girl actually lacked the sense to see that his +infatuation was such that he had no eyes, ears, or senses left for any +one else. Possibly she gloried in his devotion. At all events he danced +with her again and again and watched her jealously when she danced with +others. At last towards eleven o'clock Leonard suddenly appeared at the +door of the dancing-room, holding an open letter in his hand, and +beckoned to his comrade. "I'll have to trouble you to come with me to +the quartermaster's storehouse," said he. "There is a chest there that +must be opened to-night." And though the lieutenant was surprised, he, +in common with everybody else in the Fortieth, had learned that Leonard +rarely opened his mouth except to speak by authority, and so went with +barely a word to the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_464" id="Page_464">[Pg 464]</a></span> ladies left behind, nor did he return in ten +minutes, as he said he would. The old non-commissioned officer left in +charge of the "A" company stores was awaiting their coming with the +quartermaster sergeant. He looked troubled and perplexed when Leonard +handed him the key and bade him unlock and open Sergeant Haney's chest. +"I ought to have the orders of the company commander, sir," he began. "I +mean Captain Devers."</p> + +<p>"Captain Devers is not the commanding officer," said Leonard, quietly. +"Here is the written order of the owner, Sergeant Haney, and the +instructions of Lieutenant Hastings. The actual commanding officer of +the company is with it in the field." So no more was said.</p> + +<p>Down in the depths of the chest, among a roll of clothing, carefully +covered, but just as described in Hastings's letter, was found a leather +writing-case. "Lock the chest again," said Leonard, as this was handed +to him. "That is all we mean to disturb." And then he took the case to +the office, while the old trooper went to tell his captain what had +happened. Morning brought, as was to be expected, a letter from Devers +protesting against this new indignity. No property of his officers or +men should have been opened save in his presence, as he was but +temporarily suspended from his functions, and as to him the men would +look for the security of their effects. Lying in wait for Leonard as he +returned from the office, Devers demanded to be told what had been taken +from the sergeant's chest, and then went white as chalk when Leonard +calmly answered, "Certain stolen property,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_465" id="Page_465">[Pg 465]</a></span> sir, including a map and +some written memoranda which will be required before the court-martial +that meets next week."</p> + +<p>But this was not all that was found in Brannan's case, the lock of which +had long since been forced. There was a valuable gold watch presented to +Chaplain Davies by the officers and men of his brigade at the close of +the war. There were letters which Leonard barely glanced at,—some +silly, sentimental trash addressed to some one's darling Bertie by his +devoted Mira. All this, opened in presence of a regimental comrade and +certified to by him, was replaced, carefully sealed, and then the case +was locked in the commissary safe. "That goes with me to Omaha Monday +next," said Leonard to the much-mystified officer, "and you may be +needed to corroborate my testimony. Keep all this to yourself."</p> + +<p>And, despite a vigorous cross-questioning, the youngster managed to hold +his own against even Captain Devers, whose suspicions, however, were now +fully aroused, and who obtained permission from Colonel Stone to visit +the telegraph-office at Braska, and there wired to a legal friend in +Omaha and to certain addresses in Washington, and on Friday came +telegraphic instructions permitting Captain Devers, for the purpose of +consulting with his counsel, to repair to Omaha at once, and he took the +midnight train. On Monday, as required, Leonard left, taking his prizes +with him, and on Wednesday the court met, with all but two members +present. Colonel Atherton inquired of the judge-advocate if he were +ready to proceed to business, and that officer replied that he was, but +that certain<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_466" id="Page_466">[Pg 466]</a></span> witnesses were still to arrive and the accused did not +seem to be in the building. A messenger to the hotel brought back word +that the captain breakfasted there that morning, had paid his bill and +gone out, his baggage being taken away by an expressman. This strange +news fluttered about from room to room at the headquarters building. The +members of the court fidgeted in their full-dress uniforms and smoked +and chatted and strolled about, calling on old acquaintances, and the +adjutant-general sent orderlies to and fro with inquiries.</p> + +<p>And then came the sensation of the year among military circles in the +old frontier department. The grave, dignified, soldierly chief of staff +appeared at the court-room door with a telegraphic despatch in his +twitching fingers. "Gentlemen," said he, "your services in this case +will not be needed. The accused is beyond our jurisdiction."</p> + +<p>There was a moment of intense silence, a look as of awe on many a face, +then came the question from one who knew not Devers:</p> + +<p>"Killed himself?"</p> + +<p>"No! Worse than that,—resigned under fire, and got it accepted."</p> + +<p>Later that day there were shown to certain officers some scraps and +letters that had been left in the wastebasket in Devers's room; among +them was a telegraphic despatch from Butte, Sunday, repeated from Scott +on Monday, apparently after Leonard left. It was to this effect:</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Haney split. Secure box. McGrath found. Send hundred at +once."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_467" id="Page_467">[Pg 467]</a></span></p></div> + +<p>And while detectives hastened Butteward in quest of its signer, Howard, +only malediction followed its recipient, now speeding eastward fast as +steam could carry him.</p> + +<p>"By heaven!" said Leonard, in strange, unnatural excitement, "the +Eleventh have said all along that Devers could never be cornered, and I +believe they're right."</p> + +<p>But on the following morning the adjutant's black eyes glowed with even +greater wrath and amaze. They had gone to the station,—several of the +officers,—to meet the in-coming train on which certain of the witnesses +were expected, and there another despatch was handed, this time to +Leonard himself. He tore it open, read it, and then, handing it without +a word to Truman, turned bitterly away.</p> + +<p>And Truman, wondering, read, looked dazed an instant, then—understood.</p> + +<div class="blockquot"><p>"Gone—with Willett—last night."</p></div> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXXIII.</h2> + + +<p>All manner of men were gathered at the station of the Union Pacific in +Omaha that August morning. Some of the members of the court, thus +unexpectedly absolved from a disagreeable duty, had obtained brief leave +of absence and were going to spend a few days in the East before +returning to their commands. They were there to take the train. Others +had come to see<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_468" id="Page_468">[Pg 468]</a></span> them off; others, like Truman and Leonard, to welcome +the coming witnesses. Far up into the fastnesses of the Big Horn had +gone the couriers from the frontier forts, bearing brief orders that had +come by telegraph, and even Winthrop's command, having an almost idyllic +time of it hunting and fishing in the mountains, was required to yield +up some of its officers and men at the beck of the law. A long ride had +these fellows to Fetterman and thence over the Medicine Bow to Rock +Springs. Davies was of this party, but Cranston and Corporal Brannan had +a ride still longer. The bulk of the army of witnesses, oddly enough, +was marshalled by Lieutenant Archer at the field hospital at Pawnee, and +this distinguished young staff officer was coming "with blood in his +eye," as wrathful a man as lived and swore in army blue that long, +eventful summer. To think that he who so prided himself on plainscraft +should have been so utterly hoodwinked by Captain Differs, of all men, +was worse to him than gall and wormwood, but he came now fairly snapping +with righteous indignation, fresh from another study of the famous field +over which he rode with the last man to part with Lieutenant Davies the +night of the tragedy of Antelope Springs,—Devers's long-missing +sergeant, McGrath.</p> + +<p>Separated from his young officer in the gathering darkness by the +eagerly searching Indians, detected by them and shot through the leg, he +had taken refuge in a ravine until dawn, and then the cries of the +coyotes had attracted him to the scene of the massacre, and the sight of +his mutilated comrades had unmanned him utterly. Feeling sure the +Indians were still in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_469" id="Page_469">[Pg 469]</a></span> the neighborhood, he had determined that if seen +he would adopt the plan told him by an old scout long months +before,—that of feigning insanity and boldly seeking their company. +Indians regard the insane as specially guarded by the Great Spirit and +look upon them with superstitious fear, but McGrath little dreamed how +narrow would become the border between the real and the feigned. Fleeing +in dismay from the sight of his slaughtered comrades, he had followed +the ravine to the timbered valley, lurked there two days and nights in +constant fear and nervous dread and suffering, and finally swooned from +exhaustion. When he waked with sudden, awful start, two Indian faces +were bending over him. Then he had fallen into the hands of the foe at +last.</p> + +<p>But he was in better luck than he had dared to dream. They were of a +peaceful band, wanderers from the fold of Red Cloud who had sought the +lower valley for peace and protection. They had a hunting lodge and led +him thither, and their squaws gave him food and ministered to him as +best they knew how in the mad fever that followed. McGrath never +realized how long he was ill, but when he came to himself it was bitter +cold and he was living somehow among these strange people,—a small +village of them in the heart of the Bad Lands. Not for months did he +recover strength. Not until May did he try to ride or walk beyond the +limits of their camp. They were poor; they had no spare ponies, and they +made him understand he was many, many "sleeps" from his friends with +hordes of marauding hostiles intervening, and so induced him to remain +with them in hiding<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_470" id="Page_470">[Pg 470]</a></span> until the rebellious tribes were driven from the +reservations and Red Dog himself fled to their fastness. Then again had +McGrath to remain in hiding, secreted by his humble friends, and there +he lay when Winthrop's bugles sounded the charge and his own old troop +came dashing in. He was so worn, ragged, and changed that he had +difficulty in making even "A" Troop know him, but, once they did, their +joy was boundless, for McGrath was a popular man, and the meeting +between him and Davies was something long to be remembered, for each +believed the other dead. Then, as the wounded were led back to the Ska +and he recovered strength and was happy in seeing his Indian protectors +lavishly fed, clothed, and rewarded, he began to talk of the events of +the campaign of the previous summer and to inquire why the captain was +away now; and then Hastings and Archer took him in hand, and later poor +stricken Haney, conscious of the approaching end, begged to see him, and +then came Haney's broken confession. No wonder Hastings and Archer were +confident they had Differs "done for" now.</p> + +<p>These, the wounded and convalescent, were still at Pawnee hospital +awaiting telegraphic summons from the judge-advocate, but Archer was +already on the ground, and Cranston and Davies and others, reunited, +presumably, the previous morning at Rock Springs Station, were due at +Omaha by this very train for which all hands were waiting. So was +another principal witness, who, however, might decline to testify +because of the danger of self-incrimination. The detectives sent to +Butte the previous day went too late. Langston's trailers were ahead of +them, and deserter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_471" id="Page_471">[Pg 471]</a></span> Howard, in irons, was being forwarded under charge +of a corporal of infantry from Ransom, arrested two days before in a +restaurant at Butte.</p> + +<p>"Verily," said Truman, "there is quite a batch of interesting evidence +trundling over the Union Pacific to-day," and this was before he had +read that significant despatch from Scott.</p> + +<p>But when he read and had pondered over it a moment, the captain suddenly +left the company of his fellows and strode away after Leonard, now +gloomily pacing the platform a dozen yards away.</p> + +<p>"Man alive!" said he, "if they left last night what could they do but +take this train?"</p> + +<p>Leonard nodded, darkly. Then again, after a moment's silence, Truman +spoke.</p> + +<p>"Could he have been so mad, do you think, as not to have thought of +that,—of some one being on that train?"</p> + +<p>"No one at the fort knew. How was he to suspect when up to yesterday we +all supposed Davies would come down the Yellowstone."</p> + +<p>Truman shuddered. "She ought to be in now," said he. "Just think of the +tragedy there may have been."</p> + +<p>The train was late,—half an hour late, said the official at the +train-despatcher's office. No, there hadn't been any accident or +excitement up the road that he'd heard of. He really didn't know what +caused it. Did she reach and leave Braska on time? Yes, the delay +occurred this morning somewhere,—began after leaving Kearney.</p> + +<p>Then there had been no excitement, no tragedy farther up the road. There +was comfort in that, said<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_472" id="Page_472">[Pg 472]</a></span> Truman. But there had been a sensation at old +Fort Scott, such as these counsellors little dreamed of.</p> + +<p>For a brief time after their return from the cantonment Mrs. Davies and +her new friend, Mrs. Plodder, had kept house together. In those days +when so many of our officers were almost constantly in the field, it +became quite the thing for some of the ladies left at the garrisons to +club together, share expenses, and thereby economize. Old No. 12 was +still at Mira's service, but she couldn't bear the house, she said, and +so the ladies moved their furniture into an abandoned bachelor den next +to Flight's, and for a few days all went merrily. Then there came a +servants' squabble, and their cook differed with Mrs. Flight's +maid-of-all-work, and, refusing arbitration, was impudent to her +employers. Mrs. Plodder was an Amazon in whom there was no weakness. She +discharged the cook and sent her back to Braska. Then they "messed" with +Mrs. Flight, and about this time the hops began and the visits from town +and the drives, and Mrs. Plodder presently conceived it to be her duty +to remonstrate with Mira, who wept and stormed, and after a time, as +Willett's visits began to grow frequent, Mrs. Plodder said she would not +remain under the same roof with Mira, and moved over and kept house with +Mrs. Darling. The Cranston household had gone East some time before +this, and, as Mira could not bear the chaplain's worthy wife, and Mrs. +Stone had become estranged, and Mrs. Darling, with Mrs. Plodder, had +decided that she was openly encouraging Mr. Willett's devotions and told +her so, and as Mrs. Leonard held aloof from them, one and all, it must +be admitted that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_473" id="Page_473">[Pg 473]</a></span> the poor brainless child was restricted in her choice +of friends and intimates. Davies had had but brief time in which to give +her instructions, and there is no use in setting forth their purport. He +asked Mrs. Cranston, if a possible thing, to give his wife the benefit +of her experience and aid her in any way Mira might need, and Margaret +warmly assured him that she was ready at any time and glad to be of any +and every service to Mrs. Davies, but even in so saying she felt well +assured that there was little hope of being of use. What made the matter +worse was that this summer Congress adjourned without making provision +for the pay of the army, even while expecting it to perform rather more +than its customary functions; but here Cranston stepped in and insisted +on placing at Mrs. Davies's disposal a certain sum in Courtenay's bank +at Braska. Davies could return it when Uncle Sam resumed payment, and so +Mira had been provided with a check-book and taught its use. She was, at +least, to have no financial anxieties. The regiment had to remain long +in the field and the Cranstons went home, as Davies expected and had +advised that Mira go with them to Chicago. Even if her people could not +make her welcome at Urbana, she could board there with former friends in +perfect comfort, and be ready to rejoin him by and by. Many and many an +army wife and mother had similarly to live a Bedouin life that summer. +One cavalry regiment, the —th, for instance, was scattered from +Cheyenne to Chicago, facing riotous mobs one month and chasing Indians +all over the upper Yellowstone the next. One thing Davies firmly yet +gently strove to impress upon Mira,—that her intimates<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_474" id="Page_474">[Pg 474]</a></span> at Scott were +not at all the women with whom a poor and debt-burdened officer's wife +should foregather. He begged her to be guided by Mrs. Cranston and Mrs. +Leonard, and wrote a brief line to the chaplain, commending Mira to his +care, and then he had to go.</p> + +<p>But once back at Scott, where she could sport the lovely toilets with +which her hopeful aunt had supplied her, Mira went the way of the +empty-headed. Admiration, adulation were to her as the breath of life. +So long as she was perfectly innocent of wrong intent how could +people—how dare people rebuke her? She told Willett the horrid things +Mrs. Darling, Mrs. Plodder, and Mrs. Stone were reported to have said, +and he replied that it was all because they envied her her beauty and +were jealous of the attentions she won. She almost told him what the +chaplain said, but that sent the burning blushes to her forehead, yet +she dreaded what the old soldier of the cross might have written to her +husband. She knew he would surely condemn the renewal of her association +with Mr. Willett, but so long as he wasn't there to say so, and so long +as she intended the association to be purely platonic, as a rebuke to +all who had rebuked her, she proposed to assume that no objection +existed.</p> + +<p>The news that he had been sent for and was coming in as a witness in +Captain Devers's court startled her inexpressibly, despite her conscious +rectitude. She told Willett that very evening, as they were driving +slowly among the willow-wooded islands, and he looked imploringly into +her eyes, and Mrs. Flight and Mr. Burtis on the back seat could see that +he was talking eagerly, earnestly, pleadingly, and that her eyes were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_475" id="Page_475">[Pg 475]</a></span> +downcast, her cheeks aflame, and still they did not take alarm. "She's +too much in love with herself and her own good looks ever to do that +foolish thing," said Mrs. Flight to those who asked her why she didn't +warn her. Willett himself, so Burtis afterwards declared, had said in +answer to some friendly words of remonstrance on the Sunday night +preceding the meeting of the court, that the girl was as heartless and +cold as a stone. No one need worry on her account. It was plain to +Burtis that the young fellow was well-nigh insane about her, and he had +sent a letter ten days before to Langston urging him to come and look +after his kinsman; but Langston was far away at the time and never knew +that Willett had quit the sea-shore and gone back to the charmer in +mid-continent,—never knew, indeed no one ever knew until too late, that +it was she herself who baited the line that drew him there.</p> + +<p>There was a gathering at the post on Tuesday evening and all the few +society men were out from Braska. The ladies, in their summer toilets, +sat on the verandas and told one another and their visitors from town +how dreadful it was to be so long bereft of their husbands and +protectors, and Mrs. Flight and Mrs. Darling said they wished with all +their hearts the court had called some witnesses from the infantry. +Surely they knew as much about the matter as some of the cavalry who had +been summoned. There was Mrs. Davies who could expect her husband within +the week, while it might be months before they set eyes on theirs. They +seemed to take comfort in harping on this theme for Willett's benefit, +He sat near Mira's side, as she reclined<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_476" id="Page_476">[Pg 476]</a></span> languidly in her wicker chair, +his eyes glowing, his hands and lips twitching at times, listening and +occasionally addressing low-toned, eager words to her. "Mr. Davies will +have finished his testimony by Thursday at the latest," said Mrs. +Flight, decisively; "I heard Mrs. Leonard say so to the chaplain +to-day," and here she glanced meaningly at Mira; "so what's to prevent +his being here early Friday morning? I know I'd let no grass grow under +my feet."</p> + +<p>And Mira could only say she surely hoped so, but she couldn't tell. The +last letter from him was away up near the mouth of Powder River +somewhere, and he thought then they mightn't be home before November; +but she was plainly unwilling to discuss the matter, and with evident +relief took Willett's arm when the musicians presently were heard tuning +up at the hop-room.</p> + +<p>But it was noticed then how flushed and excited she looked, how quickly +she seemed to tire of the dance and went out on the veranda for cooler +air, and presently they were missed and were gone from the room the rest +of the evening, so that the hop broke up early, and the anxious women +hurrying homeward were incensed to find her in a dark, vine-covered +corner of the veranda of the quarters, Willett in close attendance. "I +didn't feel like dancing," was her sole explanation. "I begged Mr. +Willett to go back to you, but he wouldn't." And Burtis, later, had to +shout angrily for him before he could get him into the wagon and off for +town.</p> + +<p>She slept that night in the room adjoining Mrs. Flight's, and slept but +little, said that lady later. She<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_477" id="Page_477">[Pg 477]</a></span> seemed ablaze with nervous excitement +and utterly unlike her usual self,—placid and satisfied except when +subjected to reproof. She had gone thither right after the departure of +the men and shut her would-be mentor out. Mrs. Flight afterwards +declared she saw the coming catastrophe and was determined to avert it +if a possible thing, but Mira said she had a dreadful headache and +wouldn't talk. Mrs. Flight, considering that she had a duty to perform, +began, however, from outside. The result was a quarrel and Mira's +announcement from behind the door that she would not speak to Mrs. +Flight again. When Wednesday came she refused to leave her room. It had +been arranged that three of the ladies were to drive to town with the +sole cavalier left at the post, a lieutenant of the Fortieth, and Mira +was one of them, but they supposed she had abandoned the plan. To the +surprise of everybody she appeared, satchel in hand, arrayed in sober +travelling garb, and asked the driver of the ambulance to help their +servant bring out her trunk, and took her seat in the Concord while it +was being tossed into the boot. It was Mrs. Darling who ventured to ask +what it meant, and Mira calmly explained. She had determined to go and +meet her husband in Omaha. They were amazed, yet what could they do or +say? It was after luncheon-time and she merely urged that they should +drive rapidly so as to get her to the bank before it closed, and then +she left them, saying she would remain at the hotel at the station until +her train arrived. It was due soon after midnight.</p> + +<p>Before returning to the post the others, Mrs. Darling and Mrs. Plodder, +called upon Mira at the hotel, for<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_478" id="Page_478">[Pg 478]</a></span> they were oppressed with strange +fears. They strove to remonstrate with her, pointed out that Mr. Davies +would be with her in three days. Mira said it might not be for a week. +Well, wasn't it unusual for a lady to be going alone? Not at all. She +would sleep all the evening in her room, and the landlord would place +her in charge of the conductor. Surely Mrs. Plodder had come from Omaha +alone. That was different, said Mrs. Plodder, in rueful recognition of +the fact that a plain woman is exempted from annoyances which a beauty +has to suffer, yet would suffer indefinitely rather than be plain. "But, +<i>dear</i> Mrs. Davies, is it not very expensive?" said Mrs. Darling. "Not +when I have passes all the way to Chicago," said Mira. So they had to +return to the fort at dusk, though Mrs. Plodder did suggest staying all +night and seeing her off. They had not set eyes on Willett. They both +entertained, though neither expressed, a hope that he was not to be of +the party. They asked for Willett casually when they met Mr. Burtis. +Burtis said with perfect truth that he was out at the ranch, that he had +hoped to be here to meet the ladies, but was called out by urgent +business.</p> + +<p>It was dark, and they were tired, hungry, and worried when they got back +to the post, and the lieutenant on escort found the ladies strangely +preoccupied and silent. The first thing on reaching home was to go in +search of the chaplain. As a devoted friend of Mr. Davies he should be +informed of this odd freak of Mira's, and, if there were any grounds for +their fears, there was still time to avert what would bring such awful +scandal about their social circle. They<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_479" id="Page_479">[Pg 479]</a></span> assumed that they were coming +back with sensational news, forgetful of the fact that garrison servants +helped pack Mira's trunk, and garrison eyes had seen it start with her +for town. The chaplain's wife knew all about it before two o'clock, and +the chaplain would have known it, too, had he not been long miles away +at the death-bed of an old soldier turned cow-boy. Not until after the +east-bound train was whistling far down the valley and the dawn was in +the sky did an inkling reach him. Somebody said he thought the least Mr. +Willett could have done was to come over and see how his best "puncher" +was getting on, and somebody else replied, in low tone, that any one +could see Willett had no thoughts for anything or anybody outside of +Fort Scott, whereupon somebody Number 1 replied that Willett had been at +his "shack" most of the afternoon, packing some things and burning +others, and had taken the midnight train at Duncan Switch, ten miles +west of Braska.</p> + +<p>And even while the news of his going was bringing strange comfort to the +good old man, who rejoiced that this wolf in the sheepfold was even +temporarily out of the way, there came a messenger from the distant post +and a packet was handed in for him. Some letters and a note from his +wife.</p> + +<p>"Expecting you home during the evening, I did not send these, but they +may be important. Mrs. Davies suddenly made up her mind to go to Omaha +this afternoon, and was to take the night train at Braska." Here the +other letters dropped to the floor, and the reader's eyes filled with +sudden consternation and dismay. Not until his ambulance had been +hitched<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_480" id="Page_480">[Pg 480]</a></span> and brought to the door did he cease his restless pacing to and +fro. Kneeling a brief moment at the bedside of the unconscious and +fast-failing sufferer, he bade his fellows hurried adieu and drove with +speed to town, a long eight miles. It was then broad daylight, but he +stirred up the sleepy telegraph operator and asked about wiring after +the train. "Grand Island's the place to catch 'em," said the operator. +"They breakfast there at seven." And the chaplain flushed and glanced +keenly at the man. Why should he speak of catching anybody or anything? +Was all the valley already aware of this shameful flight? The hotel +stood not a stone's throw away. There must be no unnecessary scandal +about this business. He needed to see the proprietor, and roused him, +too. Boniface came down anything but smiling, yet thawed a trifle at +sight of the man whom all Nebraska seemed to know and swear by. +Certainly, Mrs. Davies spent the evening at the hotel in her room, and +he put her aboard the sleeper at 12.20, the moment the train came in. He +had wired to Pawnee and secured her section and checked her trunk to +Omaha. She had her tickets, she said. Was Mr. Davies aboard or—anybody +else to meet her? Not that the landlord knew of. The porter showed her +in and said her section was ready. Everybody else was sound asleep, +apparently, but there were some soldiers in the forward cars. Some of +them got out and had a cup of coffee at the stand, and "piled aboard as +she pulled out." They had a prisoner, a deserter, in manacles. Then the +chaplain wired to Duncan Switch, and the answer came that Mr. Willett +left there, bound for Omaha, at midnight, and then he wired the +conductor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_481" id="Page_481">[Pg 481]</a></span> of the train at Grand Island, and later to Leonard at Omaha, +then sat him down to wait and watch and pray.</p> + +<p>The sleeping-car, said the conductor afterwards, was fuller than usual +that night. Some officers got aboard at Rock Springs, and sat up quite +late, chatting with others who had boarded them at Butte and Pawnee. +There were five officers in all. One of them, who had not taken a berth, +went forward about ten o'clock and made a "roost" in the day car. The +conductor heard the others talking about it, and how the lieutenant +would never spend an unnecessary cent, and some of them thought he was +foolish, and others said he was right, and they respected him for it. +These gentlemen slept late, saying they would rather breakfast after +they got to Omaha. The lady who came aboard at Braska was the first one +up in the morning. She was astir with the sun, and came back from the +dressing-room as soon as the porter had made up her section, looking as +fresh and fair as the day. Presently a gentleman joined her,—a man he +had often seen on the road,—who travelled, as most cattlemen did in +those days, with a pass, and who boarded them at Duncan Switch, and went +at once to his berth. He seemed very much surprised to meet the lady, +but sat down and talked with her until we whistled for Grand Island, and +there, said the conductor, "as I bustled off the train, the operator +handed me a despatch just at same minute that the brakeman came to tell +me we had a cracked wheel on the smoker. One look at the wheel told me +that the car must be left behind, so I ordered out the passengers while +another car was being put on."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_482" id="Page_482">[Pg 482]</a></span></p> + +<p>But the telegram took more than one look. It puzzled him, said the +conductor. It was sent by the chaplain, a man he knew well, and in brief +words it said, "The lady in Section 7 is the wife of Lieutenant Davies, +Eleventh Cavalry. She needs escort to Omaha, where Lieutenant Leonard +will meet her. If any army officer is aboard, show him this and +introduce him. She should not leave the train."</p> + +<p>"Now, there were officers on the car, but they were not yet up," +continued the official. "Of course I supposed at once that she must be +out of her mind, and that was the trouble. Just at that moment I caught +sight of the young lieutenant who had spent the night in the forward +car. He was a tall, slender fellow, with thick, close-cropped brown +beard and clear blue eyes, and he had got that poor devil of a prisoner +and his guard together, and was fetching them back along the track to +the coffee-stand that happened to be right opposite where the sleeper +stopped. 'Will you read this, and see if you know what to make of it?' +said I, handing him the despatch, and then, as he stopped to read, my +brakeman asked me some question, and I turned around to answer, and +there, just stepping off the Pullman, was Mr. Willett, looking back and +giving his hand to the lady herself. The handcuffed prisoner was just +opposite them at the moment, between two soldiers, and then the next +thing I knew I heard an awful scream, and the lady had covered her face +with her hands and fallen back on the steps, right at the feet of an +officer who was just coming out, and the prisoner thought he saw a +chance, perhaps, and gave a spring and dove like a rat under the car, +the guard<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_483" id="Page_483">[Pg 483]</a></span> clumsily following, and Mr. Willett stared about him one +instant, with a face that turned the color of chalk, then he too gave a +sort of stifled exclamation, 'My God!' and sprang up the steps and over +the platform of the day-car and was out of sight in the flash of an eye. +We heard shouts of 'Halt, halt, or we fire!' from the guards on the +other side of the car, and then two quick shots a little distance away, +and another wail or cry from the lady, and then I felt some one brush by +me, and the lieutenant sprang to her side, lifted her in his arms as he +reached the steps, and carried her, without a word, into the car by an +open window, where she cowered and sobbed and shivered and moaned, and +he all the time bending over and striving to soothe and calm her."</p> + +<p>But when that train drew up at the station at Omaha an ambulance +received the bleeding, pain-distorted form of the prisoner Howard, shot +through the leg in his mad effort to escape. Leonard and Truman, +scanning every face as the passengers stepped off the cars, waved their +hands in greeting to the knot of officers on the sleeper platform, and +Leonard sprang aboard, inquiry in his snapping black eyes. They made way +silently for him to enter, and then he knew not whether to believe his +senses.</p> + +<p>"Leonard," said Davies, quietly, "my wife came on to surprise me at +Omaha, not expecting me this way. I supposed she'd already come in with +the Cranstons. She was hardly well enough for the journey. Will you +kindly order a carriage?"</p> + +<p>She was driven away in the very dust of the ambulance that was trundling +one poor wounded fellow<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_484" id="Page_484">[Pg 484]</a></span> to hospital, the conductor lamenting that a +woman so young and lovely should be thus afflicted. No one else aboard +that train could dream from Davies's words or manner that any other +explanation for her coming existed than that she was simply hastening to +Omaha to meet him.</p> + +<p>But no claimant appeared for the handsome leather bag and hat-box and +umbrella left in Section 10.</p> + +<p>A few days later when the witnesses were scattering back to their +stations, or going on brief leaves of absence before so doing, Cranston +took his soldierly-looking corporal, the recruit of the previous year, +to gladden the eyes of the mother so eagerly awaiting him in Chicago; +but before starting they had been summoned to the hospital where Howard +lay, where "Brannan" formally, though still with sorrow and reluctance, +identified him as Powlett. Leonard was there with the leather +writing-case and its contents, at sight of which Brannan's last barrier +of compunction fell, and Davies stood by the bedside, looking pale, +haggard, and ten years older, and Colonel Rand, the inspector of the +department, and another sad-faced fellow, Langston. And Archer was +there, and Hastings, when Sergeant Haney's formal confession was read. +There was little sensation over it. Everybody seemed to know just about +what it would be. He said nothing to directly accuse Captain Devers of +conspiracy, but Haney had been his first sergeant for five years, and +the devious ways of his troop commander had necessitated the existence +of a right bower who could swear straight and strong to what the captain +thought should be established. They got to know each other thoroughly,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_485" id="Page_485">[Pg 485]</a></span> +and each lived in mortal dread of some betrayal on the other's part. +There was a squad of six or eight men in the troop which practically +"ran things," and Haney was its head. For years these men had triumphed +over all efforts to break their line, just as Devers had baffled those +which would have cornered him, but they could see plainly that the +captain was nearing the end of his "tether," and his downfall meant +theirs. The catastrophe of Antelope Springs brought matters to a climax. +Half the men in the troop heard Major Warren's orders to Devers, and all +knew he had slighted if not disobeyed them. This, if proved, meant ruin +to the ring, and the plan to shift the blame on Davies's shoulders,—to +make the investigating officer believe the troop had marched right down +along the ridge within supporting distance, and that Davies had become +terror-stricken and had hidden instead of instantly communicating with +his captain, was the result. Devers, indeed, boldly announced that as +his theory and explanation of the whole affair, and Haney, Finucane, +Boyd, and the intelligent Howard were there ready to swear to it and +save the captain the trouble. So long as Davies and McGrath never turned +up to combat the accusation all would go well. The captain didn't tell +them in so many words they must swear to the ridge trail as the one they +pursued the evening of the tragedy, but he did not oppose it. He asked +them for their recollection of the matter and made his map, as did Mr. +Archer his report, accordingly.</p> + +<p>Then when it was found that Recruit Brannan as well as certain old hands +resented the idea of Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_486" id="Page_486">[Pg 486]</a></span> Davies being held accountable, they had to +muzzle him. Brannan declared he would warn the lieutenant the moment he +returned to the troop, so they made up their minds that he must be +discredited, if not ruined. Howard said that there was in his +writing-case a sealed packet that contained evidence that would send him +to State's prison and "kill" him in the lieutenant's eyes; and this, +indeed, was no idle threat, for Powlett, fearing detection if he either +sold or kept the watch he had torn from Davies's pocket after the +cowardly assault, had sealed it in one package and tied Mira's gushing +letters in another, and long before had induced the unsuspecting boy to +promise to keep and guard them for him as a sacred trust. Only as a last +resort, said Haney, were they to exhibit the proofs of Brannan's +apparent criminality. Meantime, by sending him to the agency or tempting +him with liquor they hoped to keep him harmless.</p> + +<p>But Howard soon began striking for leadership. He held the secrets of +his captain and two of his sergeants and was safely out of the troubles +that involved him at home. (He had been wise enough to confide these to +no one and to make poor Brannan swear to preserve his secret.) He was +beginning to hear from relations and receive money from them. He began +to put on airs over everybody, captain and all, and though Haney hated, +and was jealous of his influence, he dared not offend him. They knew it +was he who was seen prowling about Davies's quarters, but they could not +account for it, and strove to make it appear that Brannan was the +culprit. And then he began "sparking" Robideau's daughter in town, and +had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_487" id="Page_487">[Pg 487]</a></span> become moody, nervous, excitable; talked about mysterious spies and +trailers, and then, suddenly and unaccountably, deserted after a spree +in Braska that had cost him much money,—after a mad scrape in which he +had terrified Mrs. Davies and thrashed Mr. Willett. Who he was or what +he was Sergeant Haney didn't know, but that he was a villain with a +history and a capacity for further devilment was certain. Haney had +still more to tell. The captain had sent for him and told him of the +adjutant's being in conference with the chaplain and Mr. Davies, and he +felt sure it was about the Antelope Springs matter. He was sure they had +his map, the one on which Archer based his report, and that this would +some day be brought up in evidence against him. It was locked for the +night in the second drawer of the adjutant's desk, said he, and Haney +understood. The drawer was chiselled that night and the map and papers +taken, but not until the robbery was known all over the post did the +captain see the map and see that it wasn't his original at all, but +simply a copy. Except for information obtained in the memoranda, they +had robbed the desk to no purpose.</p> + +<p>Howard was gone before this, but there was Brannan's writing-case in +Haney's possession, why not throw further suspicion upon him? and so +there were the papers hidden in the hopes of further damning him should +he ever appear as a witness against them. For all this and much more the +poor dying sinner craved forgiveness, and, hearing promptly of the +confession, through Finucane, who had fled with horse, equipments, and +everything, Howard, in hiding and in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_488" id="Page_488">[Pg 488]</a></span> want at Butte, wired to his +captain, hoping to extract more money, for Devers had been a thrifty, +and was regarded a wealthy, man.</p> + +<p>And then when this confession had been made known to the wounded +sufferer the chaplain spoke. "You see the case that is building up +against you, Powlett, and just as soon as you are able to sit or stand +the court will meet for your trial. You have assault with intent to +kill, at Bluff Siding if not at Urbana, highway robbery, theft, +desertion, conspiracy, and kindred crimes to answer for; would it not be +infinitely better that you should confess fully and at once? Even the +men whom you have so bitterly wronged join in no clamor against—they +would even spare—you."</p> + +<p>But Powlett was a villain game, and answered only with a sneer. It was +that packet of Mira's letters handed to Davies with his father's watch +that supplemented Brannan's story and told him all. Mira could not live +without adorers, could not resist the longing to flaunt her victims in +the faces of other girls, and Powlett was a conquest indeed until his +rascality at the institute became known. Then he had to flee, but such +was his infatuation that he returned in hopes of seeing her. She did +meet him in secret, for it was sweet to see his despair. She refused to +meet him again, however, and then he charged her with faithlessness and +demanded to be told the truth about Davies. If that fellow reappeared as +her lover he swore to kill him, and then she bade him go and never see +her more, with the result already known. And at Bluff Siding in the +crowd and confusion he might have killed Davies but for Brannan's +watchful eye<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_489" id="Page_489">[Pg 489]</a></span> and warding hand. That was the last pound that broke the +back of Brannan's feeling of friendship and gratitude. He would no more +of Powlett, yet remained true to his pledge of secrecy. Mira's dream of +joy and triumph as an army bride met its first rude shock when, under +her window at Scott, she heard stealthy footsteps and the soft, low +whistling of a familiar air, the signal with which he used to summon her +to their trysting-place at home. The mad fool thought either to recover +his ascendency over her or revenge himself by tormenting, and then, when +her husband was sent to the agency and he saw opportunity of meeting and +terrorizing her, he was infuriated with new jealousy by her flirtation +with Willett. Even there at Scott he must have written and made further +threats, for the freshest and newest of the precious collection of her +letters found in "Brannan's" case referred to something of the kind. +Driven to desperation, she wrote that she would expose him to her +husband and Captain Cranston if he again presumed to address her, and +finally wrote this last:</p> + +<p>"My husband will be here within forty-eight hours and I have fully +resolved to confess all to him: that you, who made the cowardly assault +and left him for dead at Urbana, and have been guilty of such abominable +crimes, are here, in this garrison, a soldier in his troop. If you +remain it is at your peril. On my knees I swear it." And with this +melodramatic conclusion Mira had really frightened him. He had sense +enough to know that, with all the other complications in which he was +involved, this exposure was more than he could stand. He made other +efforts to see and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_490" id="Page_490">[Pg 490]</a></span> plead with her, but they were fruitless, and his own +melodramatic <i>coup</i>,—his last appearance, as he supposed, before her +eyes, then followed. After that, desertion.</p> + +<p>Davies read but two of these missives, the first and the last. He +restored them to her without a word. She was lying in the seclusion of +her shaded room at the hotel when he returned from the hospital, the +chaplain with him. They spoke few words together on the way, and parted +on the corridor, near her door, for there Davies turned and faced his +friend.</p> + +<p>"And you must go back to Scott to-night, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Yes." The chaplain was still grasping his hand and looking into the +sad, stern face with anxiety and tenderness and unspoken longing in his +eyes. "I will see to all you have charged me with." He placed his other +hand upon the broad shoulder before him. "My son, though I never met, I +knew, your father, and that told me what to look for in you." And now +the rich, deep voice was tremulous, and the kind old eyes were dim with +unshed tears. "The hand of the Lord has been laid in heaviness upon you, +but 'those whom He loveth He chasteneth.' Even could I lift the burden +of your sorrow as easily as I raise this hand, I should falter, because, +as I believe in God, so do I believe that through trial even such as +this your light shall yet shine before men so pure and strong that men +themselves shall be purer and stronger because of it."</p> + +<p>There was a moment's pause. Davies stood with bowed head. Cranston, +coming into the hall-way, stopped at sight of them and tiptoed back, +motioning to others to wait. Then the chaplain spoke again,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_491" id="Page_491">[Pg 491]</a></span>—</p> + +<p>"You will write—as soon as—you have decided?"</p> + +<p>"I have decided," was the low, calm answer.</p> + +<p>"And——?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, we go to-night. She is not too ill to move, and once at Urbana—no +one need know."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean——?" began the chaplain.</p> + +<p>"I mean," said Davies, looking calmly and with dry, tired eyes into the +chaplain's face, "that she is utterly alone in the world,—homeless, +friendless. Who knows but that her story may be true, despite +indications? What would be her fate if I were to fail her now? It was +'for better, for worse,' chaplain. I have tried to do my duty in the +past. God help me to do it to the end."</p> + +<p>The tears were running down the old clergyman's face when, around the +corner, he came suddenly on Cranston and his friends, and they seemed to +understand.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>There was a new post commander at Scott when the first snows fell that +winter, for honest Pegleg had retired and Leonard had a colonel after +his own heart, and the Fortieth sang songs of praise when the campaign +was over, and moved into quarters and renewed acquaintances with their +families and "assurances" with the Eleventh when they happened to meet +along the Union Pacific, and said they sorely missed them at the post, +as probably they did, but the Eleventh didn't care to go back. It was +too near civilization, said Truman. Tintop had his warriors under his +own wing after the close of the fighting season, and they were having +grand times at Ransom. There this winter were most of the familiar names +and faces.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_492" id="Page_492">[Pg 492]</a></span> The Cranstons, Trumans, and Hays, Boynton, Hastings, and +Sanders, battle-scarred heroes, most of them, and dozens of others in +the congenial circle; but Margaret Cranston sorely missed her boys, who +were big enough now to be at school, and far too big to be staying +around garrison. She missed, too, their fair teacher and her friend, but +Agatha Loomis firmly told her she had decided not to return to the +frontier now that she no longer had her pupils. To the unspeakable +indignation and grief of her cousin, she had chosen what Margaret termed +"a life of drudgery" as a teacher in Mrs. Forester's seminary for young +ladies, only a few miles out of Chicago. Even there had Langston +followed, but in vain. That, however, was a subject on which Margaret +had promised to dilate no more. She had done her best, she said, for +Agatha. She had striven to aid and abet this distinguished and worthy +gentleman in his suit. She thought the difference of some twenty-five +years between his age and her cousin's a feeble consideration as against +his sterling worth and wealth. Agatha owned that she respected and +esteemed him highly,—looked up to him, in fact,—but as a maid of +twenty looks up to the man of forty-five. She did not love and therefore +would not marry him. The whole regiment seemed to feel for him, but he +came to them no more. He was East again, and seeking resignation in the +one safe solace, hard and constant work.</p> + +<p>But the Davieses, where were they? Time and again was that question +asked. He hurried back for the grand chase they had in September when +Chief Joseph made his memorable rush cross continent. He left<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_493" id="Page_493">[Pg 493]</a></span> Mira at +Urbana installed in lodgings near her father's home. He went back to her +in December when the troops returned, and then came orders announcing +that Lieutenant Percy Davies, Eleventh Cavalry, was detailed on +temporary duty at division head-quarters. It was at this time that Aunt +Almira urgently offered him and her pretty niece, his wife, the +hospitality of her home, begging that he, her boy's friend and +fellow-soldier and admiration, should bring her and be their guest in +Chicago as long as they could possibly stay, and Aunt Almira was amazed +at the refusal, grateful, gentle, courteous though it was in every way. +Mira, junior, had been devoted to society when there before, was it +possible she had so soon tired of it all? Davies had some topographical +work to do, it soon transpired, for the lieutenant-general wanted +certain maps made of the Bad Lands traversed during the campaigns of the +two years, and the Gray Fox recommended the silent, observant young +graduate, whose field-notes had proved so accurate and complete. Not +oftener than once a week did Davies go in to consult the chief engineer +at head-quarters. The work he did in quiet at Urbana, and it might +detain him several months. Aunt Almira thought it really strange that he +could succeed in it at all. She was sure that the descriptions her boy +had given of the Bad Lands were so vividly accurate that he must know +them even better than did her nephew-in-law, the lieutenant. She asked +her husband if it did not seem almost as though Davies might be afraid +to have her lambkin take any part in it lest it should rob the officer +of the credit, but that hard-headed old railway-man thought not. He +shared<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_494" id="Page_494">[Pg 494]</a></span> her gratification in the wonderfully improved appearance of the +boy, and secretly marvelled at his apparent reformation. He had several +talks with him, gave her for him abundant money, so that on his home +visit he might dress as became his mother's son and enjoy himself like a +gentleman. He expected him to turn up speedily somewhere on a tremendous +drunk, and was rejoiced and surprised that he did not. Aunt Almira had +planned a grand dinner to which should be bidden the general and staff, +the Cranstons and others, all in honor of the home-coming of their +fellow-soldier, her son, and was utterly bewildered and crestfallen when +the latter laughingly told her to go ahead with the dinner, but count +him out; corporals didn't dine with their generals and captains, despite +the teachings of the modern military drama. The mother indignantly +protested. The son was firm. If her boy, said she, wasn't good enough to +sit at table with the President of the United States then she wasn't. If +that was the result of his joining the cavalry, the sooner he resigned +and quit the better, and then he saw the indignant tears and teased no +more, but took her in his arms and soothed and strove to explain. Soothe +he could, but explain he could not. She gave up the dinner until after +he had gone back to his regiment, for go he would, as he meant to be a +sergeant inside of two years, and when she found that the sole +difference between sergeant and corporal in our blessedly democratic +service was simply half an inch or so more of stripe on his trousers, +and brought him no nearer the commission and little farther from the +rank and file, she marvelled that the Department of War could<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_495" id="Page_495">[Pg 495]</a></span> be so +slow to appreciate a soldier ready to do so much for so little. Go back +to "C" Troop he would and did, and was proud of it, and her husband +comforted her by saying "Bran" was a man at last.</p> + +<p>But if the Eleventh heard but little of the Davieses for a time, they +had abundant news of Devers, and much comfort did he seem to find in +sending to them stacks of local papers, and in writing long, +argumentative letters in which he sought to convince his readers that he +was a wronged and injured man. When Trooper Howard came up for the trial +which resulted in his going in irons for a five years' tour in prison, +an effort was made to get Devers before the court as a witness, and a +<i>subpœna duces tecum</i> was duly served upon him in his far distant +home within sight of the sounding sea, but it did not fetch him. Devers +explained that as a civilian he had no interest in the proceedings and +could not be required to obey the mandate of a purely military court, a +view in which the judiciary of the great republic, ever steadfast in the +principle that military must be subservient to the civil power, +virtually sustained him. It was perfectly competent for a court-martial +to summon a civilian witness, said the bench, but it had no recourse in +case the civilian treated both court and summons with contempt, and +Devers's fellow-citizens in the far East, headed by the editor of the +<i>Mooselemeguntic Mirror</i>, congratulated their returned hero on the +spirited and just rebuke he had administered to a satrapy which should +have no place among an enlightened people. Indeed, the <i>Mirror's</i> +interviews and editorials were both full of brilliant mendacity just +now. Devers's story<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_496" id="Page_496">[Pg 496]</a></span> was in every issue, more or less of it, and West +Point jealousy was the theme of many a paragraphic fling. Brilliant, +daring, conspicuous as had been Devers's services during the civil war +and on the wild frontier, he had never succeeded in winning recognition, +owing to the persistent calumnies of his seniors, who, graduates of the +great national charity school on the Hudson, were leagued to down any +man whose ability, dash, and daring made him the object of their narrow +jealousy and the victim of their inordinate greed. After years of +patient service, loyal and dutiful, their distinguished fellow-citizen, +said the <i>Mirror</i>, had been relieved from his command on trumped-up +charges, and, though he pleaded hard to be allowed to go with them in +any capacity, even as an humble trooper in the ranks, his company took +the field on the late campaign without him, and, deprived of the +services of their beloved captain, met with grievous and irreparable +disaster. Even then his enemies were not silenced. The faithful soldiers +who clamored for the restoration of their captain were driven to death +or desertion. He himself begged to be confronted with his accusers, but +met denial, delay, and deceit at every hand. One pretext after another +was resorted to in postponing the meeting of the court, and at last, +worn out with long struggle against prejudice, injustice, and organized +enmity, he had thrown up his commission in a thankless service and +returned to the welcoming arms of his fellow-citizens. The <i>Mirror</i>, in +which Devers had a controlling interest, inquired whether the time had +not come for the recall of the amiable fossil then misrepresenting the +district in Congress, and the unanimous<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_497" id="Page_497">[Pg 497]</a></span> election of Colonel Devers as +his successor. The governor, needing the support of the <i>Mirror</i> in a +coming campaign, gladly availed himself of the opportunity of rewarding +a war-tried veteran, and named the returning soldier an aide-de-camp +with the rank of colonel on his staff, and humble subalterns of +artillery from the two-battery post at the entrance of Mooselemeguntic +Bay looked with awe upon the future military committeeman of the —th +Congress, yet were charmed with his affability at the governor's ball, +where his new uniform fitted him better than did those of his associate +aides, and where the artillerymen heard things confirmatory of their +convictions that their comrades of the cavalry really had no idea how to +fight Indians. Devers was on the high-road to fame and Congress, and +might indeed have made successful run had the election occurred within +four months after his return, but four months was too long for him to +live without differing, and little by little the <i>Mirror</i> became dimmed +and Devers's image faded out of public sight.</p> + +<p>Only once did it revive, and that was when, several years after, all on +a sudden there appeared in the columns of the army paper notice that a +bill had been introduced in Congress providing for the restoration to +the army, with the rank he would have held had he remained continuously +in the cavalry service, of Jared B. Devers, formerly captain Eleventh +Cavalry, who had tendered his resignation some years before owing to +disagreements with certain officers representing the West Point element, +which was hostile to him, and friends in Washington warned the Eleventh +that old Differs had strong political backing.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_498" id="Page_498">[Pg 498]</a></span></p> + +<p>And then did the Eleventh arise in its wrath. Good old Tintop had been +gathered to his fathers by that time. Riggs was rusting out of active +service, Pegleg was buried and Mrs. Pegleg was married again,—a +lieutenant this time; but there was no lack of men to remember how he +had managed by political influence at Washington to secure the +acceptance of his resignation the moment he saw how surely, if brought +to trial, the case would go against him, and the Eleventh published a +memorial, signed by almost every surviving officer who was with it in +the old days. The bill if passed would make Devers a major well up on +the list, for Warren was now lieutenant-colonel of the —th, Truman +major of the Fourth, Cranston senior captain, Boynton and Hastings were +junior troop commanders, Sanders a senior first and regimental +quartermaster. All these and other names appeared attached to the +remonstrance, and that bill was never even reported in committee. It was +learned that in the course of some years of differing with his business +associates, the gentle Devers, though still a colonel on his native +heath, had nearly wrecked the "Mirror" and his fortune with it, and so +bethought him of this scheme of restoration to the army. Leonard was by +this time an assistant adjutant-general, and prompt to act. There was a +jubilee at Ransom the evening after his despatch was received reporting +arrival of the regimental protest and the remarks thereon by members of +the military committee. The officers gathered in the club-room and drank +long life to Leonard and confusion to Devers, and then little Sanders +tuned up his guitar and sang. He was just back from leave, and a +popular<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_499" id="Page_499">[Pg 499]</a></span> lyric of the day was one they called "The Accent On," for the +last line of every verse was "with the accent on" some syllable of the +last word of the previous line. There was nothing especially poetic or +refined about the composition, but the newspapers were ringing the +changes on it. A popular comedian had sung and made much of it, and its +composer had presumably made something if not much out of it, and +Sanders was sure of laughter and applause when he sang it at the +"stags." One verse was of a man who came home in a maudlin state and his +wife remarked, "Well, you are beautiful. With the accent on the full." +Another was of a man who wanted unlimited credit at a bar and was told, +"I like not your arithmetic. With the accent on the tick." All very poor +literature, perhaps, but it amused, and this night after singing three +verses of the old song, Sanders "turned loose" on a verse of his own +which, when heard, the mess applauded and chorused to the echo, and +broke up singing again and again Sanders's telling hit in the last line:</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">We had a cap in our corps<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Who left us years ago,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Who never said a manly word<br /></span> +<span class="i2">Nor struck a manly blow.<br /></span> +<span class="i0">He never faced when he could dodge,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">He only spoke to slur,<br /></span> +<span class="i0">And now he is a colonel,<br /></span> +<span class="i2">But the accent's on the cur.<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>And that was Devers's requiem in the Eleventh Horse as well as in the +house of Congress. He never vexed them more.</p> + +<p>One of the old names was lacking on the list that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_500" id="Page_500">[Pg 500]</a></span> accompanied the +remonstrance,—that of the man of whom, nearly a decade before, Devers +"only spoke to slur." Lieutenant Davies would not sign. He was with the +regiment too, but, just as of old, eschewed the club-room and all +gatherings of the kind. They had taken the paper to him and he read, +pondered, and said no. Gray it was, now captain of "I" Troop, with which +Davies was on duty as first lieutenant, who draughted the paper, and +confidently presented it to his subaltern. "Why not?" said he, in +surprise. "No man ever did more to injure you except perhaps——" And +here Gray broke off short in sudden confusion.</p> + +<p>"Perhaps that is why I prefer not to be quoted against him," said +Davies, quietly. And mentally kicking himself, as he expressed it, for +making such a "break" as in his bungling half allusion to the exception, +Gray hastened away to tell of it. His story came to unsympathetic ears.</p> + +<p>"In my opinion," said Sanders, "if you mean that other fellow, he didn't +injure Parson half as much as he hurt himself."</p> + +<p>That, too, was an old story in the Eleventh by this time. Six long +months was Davies absent from the regiment on his map-work at division +head-quarters. Then came the customary call to the field for another +season of scouting and campaigning, and he rejoined his troop, somewhat +pallid and graver looking, the result probably of long days of toil over +his drawing board. He was only a few hours at Ransom before they +marched, but the ladies wanted to know all about Mrs. Davies and what +she was to do in his absence.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_501" id="Page_501">[Pg 501]</a></span> Mrs. Davies would remain at Urbana, said +he, where her father and sister dwelt, and those were indeed his +injunctions to her, and for a month after his departure she observed +them, then repaired to Chicago and Aunt Almira's roof. Davies by this +time was with his troop scouting near Yellowstone Park, far beyond reach +of telegrams or letters. Society was unusually gay that summer. There +was dancing, boating, dining, summer resorting, and one of the loveliest +of summer resorts within an hour's run of the great city was Forest +Glen, the seat of the famous seminary where Agatha Loomis was enjoying +the quiet of her vacation, and one night, strolling with Mrs. Forrester +over to the hotel to watch the dancers and hear the lovely music, she +came face to face in the soft moonlight with a couple so absorbed in +their conversation that not until they were actually brushing by did +they look up, and even Mrs. Forrester saw the sudden confusion and +dismay in their faces. The man turned white and made a hurried movement +as though to lift his hat. The woman flushed, almost angrily. Miss +Loomis bowed calmly and coldly and passed on without a word.</p> + +<p>The next day, however, she called at the Glen House, where the two +Almiras, aunt and niece, were spending the week, and asked for Mrs. +Percy Davies. Mrs. Davies was out. Miss Loomis wrote a few words in +pencil, slipped them into an envelope, sent that up, and the next day +called again, and Mrs. Davies begged to be excused. Miss Loomis sadly +went home, penned a long letter to Mrs. Davies, and on the following +morning sent it. In half an hour her messenger and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_502" id="Page_502">[Pg 502]</a></span> note returned. Mrs. +Davies had left for home that morning. Urbana was not far away, and two +days later Miss Loomis was there inquiring for Mrs. Davies on her native +heath. She had not returned. She was visiting her aunt at Forest Glen, +and then Agatha knew she had come too late. She had striven to prove to +the poor empty-headed, empty-hearted girl that she had at least one +friend. She had hoped to plead, to point out the right, and, if +possible, save her from herself and the impending step, but all to no +purpose. Two years later, among the papers of her unhappy boy, a +sorrowing mother found two little notes written, like Beatrix Esmond's, +to lure her lover on. One was dated Fort Scott in the summer of '77. "We +are desolate again with all our soldiers in the field, but we pray for +happier days. Have you no new waltz music for us?" And this reached him +at the sea-shore. The second was posted on the railway and addressed to +his club in New York. "I am even more desolate than last year. Shall I +never hear from you again?" It contained a self-addressed envelope. And +that was why her boy postponed until later in the summer the voyage his +physician had advised, and why he lived apart from friends and kindred, +in Paris most of the time, until the death of his wretched companion +within a year of their flight. Then Langston, at his mother's prayer, +went over and fetched him home. It had been a year soon given over to +recrimination, bitter reproaches, and frequent and increasing +estrangement. Willett was but the moody wreck of his old self when +restored to the one faithful friend who clung to him as only mothers +will, in spite of all.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_503" id="Page_503">[Pg 503]</a></span></p> + +<p>The Eleventh was a thousand miles or so away the summer of poor Mira's +final escapade, and not until she was across the sea did the news reach +her husband. She wrote a few words of farewell such as would be expected +of her. "You never loved me," she said, "never understood me, and in +every way I was made to feel that I was only a burden, only a doll. You +have mured me here in prison, where I have no soul to sympathize with +me, and I can bear it no longer. You will not miss me. Indeed, I know +too well how soon you will find solace, and where. Henceforth I dedicate +my life to one who adores me, whose soul responds to every thought of +mine. Adieu."</p> + +<p>It was predicted about this time that Davies would resign, shoot +Willett, or study for the ministry. Many men thought that he bore his +wrongs so meekly that he had mistaken his calling. One man, a sergeant, +said as much in Corporal Brannan's presence, and the result was a scene +that called for the intervention of the guard and the adjudication of a +court-martial. Brannan lost his chevrons, but gained an enthusiastic +friend and champion in Cranston, who sifted out the cause of the +fight,—a matter scrupulously hidden from the court. Brannan went into +the Ute campaign the following year a sergeant, and out of the army with +an Indian bullet through his arm and into his chest, where the doctors +couldn't find it. Little by little the doting mother at home began to +learn how very far away that longed-for commission might be. Her boy +himself flouted the idea. "I haven't the education," he said, "and would +be ill at ease and out of place among them." And so the magnate was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_504" id="Page_504">[Pg 504]</a></span> +steadily importuned, and when at last the young fellow came home after +the Milk River campaign, and generals like Sheridan and Crook praised +his pluck and devotion, and the doctors said he simply couldn't go back +to service, they got him his discharge,—a medal of honor came +later,—and presently in the long list of railway officials of the Q. R. +and X. appeared his name as assistant general passenger agent, and for a +couple of years the way that great corporation dealt out passes to the +army was a matter that finally came up at directors' meeting and led to +a preliminary to the Interstate Commerce Law of '87, and a restriction +of the powers of the assistant. But there was no longer any hitch in the +maternal schemes for elaborate dinners to generals and staff. They +enjoyed meeting "the sergeant," as he rejoiced in being called, as much +as he could wish, and if they did not quite look upon him as she did, as +the central figure, the one Prince Paramount of the late campaign, there +was at least warmth and cordiality and comradeship enough to gratify +even a mother's heart.</p> + +<p>But the Parson did not resign. He was away from the regiment again a +long month after Mira's flight, and again after her death, returning +suddenly on each occasion because of the imminence of Indian hostilities +which for a time seemed breaking out in new spots with every spring. +Between Cranston and himself there was ever the same firm and steadfast +friendship. He sought no intimacies anywhere, but in the same calm, +grave, consistent way he went about his duties in garrison, waking up to +something like enthusiasm or excitement only when "on the trail." For +three<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_505" id="Page_505">[Pg 505]</a></span> years after his brief absence in the summer of '79 he never left +his troop a day. A wonderfully good drill officer was the Parson, with a +powerful, ringing voice. "Make a splendid exhorter," said some of the +boys. He was an accurate tactician, too, and a man who had the faculty +of getting admirable results out of his command "without ever a cuss +word," said Truman, a thing which that old-time troop leader could not +understand. Davies lived hours in the open air, but read and studied +much. Popular he was not, and never cared to be; but, honored and +respected by one and all and loved by little children, he went his +earnest way, and little by little Margaret Cranston found herself +leaning more and more upon his opinions as to the pursuits and studies +of her boys, and would sit with her needle-work listening to the long +discussions between him and her husband, who read not much outside the +papers, and presently it got to be the established thing for the Parson +to read aloud to them when he came, and though Wilbur scandalized her by +going to sleep and snoring on two occasions, he soon began to wake up +and talk and discuss, and others, dropping in, either stayed to take +part in Cranston's impromptu lyceum or took their chatter elsewhere. The +second and third winters at old Laramie were some of the loveliest, said +Margaret afterwards, she ever knew, and Mr. Davies had become one of +themselves. His promotion to "I" Troop and transfer to a different post +was nothing short of a domestic calamity.</p> + +<p>But not until that promotion and transfer occurred—though who shall say +there was significance in the fact?—was Mrs. Cranston able to induce +Miss Loomis<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_506" id="Page_506">[Pg 506]</a></span> to visit the frontier again. They were together all the +summer of '81, at the sea-shore with the boys, while Captain Cranston +and Davies and others were scorching on the plains, and Miss Loomis +evidently needed rest and salt air and water. The next winter she gave +up her duties at the seminary and joined the Cranstons on a trip down +the Mississippi, eventually returning with her cousin to Wyoming, for +her health seemed to have suffered from the long confinement at the +school. Bob Gray, with "I" Troop, was away up at Fort McKinney then, but +an important court met at the old station down on the Platte, and, as +luck would have it, Lieutenant Davies was sent in as judge-advocate.</p> + +<p>Just why Mrs. Cranston should have made no mention to Miss Loomis of his +coming is a matter only a woman can explain, but she kept the matter to +herself until the evening of his arrival. It was their first meeting in +four years. The court was in session a month, and three evenings out of +four Davies spent as of old at Cranston's fireside. Sanders suggested +that the Parson seemed to be "taking notice" again. But Davies went back +to his station and Miss Loomis went on about her daily avocations, +reading aloud while Margaret's busy needle flew, or playing sweet old +melodies at the piano. The young officers were rather afraid of her. She +was "a somewhat superior old maid," said a youngster whom she had found +it expedient to repress. Some women declared her a trifle +unapproachable, unsympathetic perhaps, but even that did not seem to +disconcert her. Something happened ere long that did, however, for a few +months after<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_507" id="Page_507">[Pg 507]</a></span> adjournment of the court Davies reappeared at Laramie. He +had actually taken a leave of absence, and now he was at Cranston's six +evenings out of seven, and garrison gossip began in good earnest. Was +the Parson seeking solace where poor Mira always said he would? If so, +he had little to build on by way of encouragement. The Cranstons missed +him sorely when he went back to Gray, and Miss Loomis frankly referred +to him as "most instructive" and much broadened and improved. She missed +him as any one must miss so well-informed a companion. Four years before +she used to exasperate Margaret by standing up for him no matter what he +did; now she vexed her by refusing to see anything remarkable in him +whatever. Davies wrote with increasing frequency from Fort McKinney to +Mrs. Cranston, and Margaret always wanted to read the letters aloud, +which was bad generalship in a would-be match-maker.</p> + +<p>Then one day came the tidings that head-quarters and six troops were to +be stationed together, "C" and "I" among them, and Miss Loomis returned +to Chicago. "I'll never forgive you as long as I live," said Margaret. +"I know just why you won't stay, and you needn't have worried +yourself,—he's far too proud to importune a woman who won't listen +to—to reason."</p> + +<p>But Mrs. Cranston meant love, not reason, and the two are miles or +oceans apart. Mr. Davies might be too proud to worry a woman who +couldn't appreciate reason, but a woman worth the winning was worth the +wooing, and not a little of it. Business called him to Urbana several +days the following winter, and something kept him several weeks. He +resumed duty in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_508" id="Page_508">[Pg 508]</a></span> the spring, steadfast as ever, but even less disposed +to take part in garrison affairs. Mrs. Cranston wrote fiercely and +frequently to Agatha, and, for aught I know, called her opprobrious +things. For another year she refused to return to them. Then came a +winter indeed of discontent, and the Eleventh was ordered to far away, +burning, blistering Arizona, all but Cranston's troop, excepted at the +last moment and detailed for service at the School of Application. +Agatha again came to stay with them, and here at last Margaret Cranston +learned the momentous fact that, after all these years, something had +happened: they were actually corresponding.</p> + +<p>She learned more within the fortnight that followed. One exquisite May +evening just as the sunset gun had fired and all the bordering walks and +piazzas were thronged with gayly-dressed groups, women and children +mainly, watching the scene on the parade, there was some stir among the +clerks and orderlies and a gentle movement over on the porch of the +colonel commanding. The long line of officers dispersed as usual at +dismissal of parade, and Cranston came strolling over homeward chatting +with his friend and next-door neighbor, Captain Blake, of the —th. +Blake's lovely wife was even then on Cranston's veranda, for she and +Miss Loomis seemed to have taken a fancy to each other from the moment +of their meeting. Margaret, as usual, met her hero at the steps, just as +a young officer came excitedly and hurriedly down the brick walk from +the colonel's. It was Blake who heard him calling some tidings to other +households and who hailed him as he neared them and was bustling by.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_509" id="Page_509">[Pg 509]</a></span></p> + +<p>"What's the row, Tommy?"</p> + +<p>"Big fight in Arizona," was the startling answer. "Captain Hastings and +Parson Davies killed."</p> + +<p>And Nannie Blake saw in amaze the light go out of her companion's eyes +and every vestige of color from her face. Her arms were about her in an +instant, and none too soon. Oh, the blessing of those clinging, +clustering vines! No one else saw how they had to fairly carry her +within doors, but Agatha's secret was revealed.</p> + +<p>There was little exaggeration in the first story of that savage battle +in the cañon. Many a gallant fellow lay stripped and bloated when the +relief party reached the scene a few days later, but Davies, though +pierced through and through, still lived, and was moved and borne away +weeks later to bracing mountain air, and found many a reason for wanting +to live for many a year. Two men had gone to him fast as trains could +speed, Cranston and our old friend the chaplain. It was the former who +within the week that followed that engagement announced another. It was +the latter who within the fortnight joined her hand in his, white, +feeble as it was, and poured out his very heart and soul in the fervent +prayer for blessing on this man and this woman now at last made one.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>That seems a long time ago. The regiment is famous now for its troop +commanders,—stalwart fellows in the prime of life who have brought the +training of men and mounts to a point of excellence such enthusiasts as +Cranston only dreamed of in the old campaigning days, when there was +little opportunity for experiment<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_510" id="Page_510">[Pg 510]</a></span> or practice in any other branch of +the trooper's art than that developed on the trail of savage foe. +Already the men who were stripling soldiers in '76 are wearing +patriarchal—long since they assumed patronizing—airs towards those who +came too late to learn campaigning when the Indian was not hemmed in by +railways, but ruled the Plains, proud monarch of all he surveyed. +Already silver threads are streaking the beards and temples of even such +rollicking spirits as Sanders, while Boynton is gray as the chargers of +the troop he commands. Cranston's squadron was cheered to the skies when +it marched away from Chicago after its month of riot duty, and on the +plains of Evanston during the manœuvres the visitors thronged to see +the feats in horsemanship displayed by the men of Davies's troop. Even +in the Eleventh he was held to be the most brilliant instructor as well +as the most judicious and successful troop commander. Old-time dragoons +simply couldn't understand it. Here was a man who would neither drink, +swear, nor flare up and boil over when things went wrong on drill, but +preserved a calm, even-tempered, dignified bearing at all times. True, +he had native gifts which were not shared by all his kind,—a deep, +resonant voice, a ringing word of command, a fine physique, an admirable +seat, and an easy, practised hand, all of which were combined with a +consummate knowledge of his art. He was equally at home in saddle or +squad-room, and at all times was friend and almost father to his men. +"A" Troop, once the worst-drilled in the Eleventh, and universally known +as the "Differentials," is now called "the Parson's Flock," but there is +no irreverence in the term,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_511" id="Page_511">[Pg 511]</a></span> for soldiers honor men like him whose faith +is backed by courage long tried on many a field. There isn't a man in +Cranston's squadron who would not resent an affront to their pet troop +commander, as they would were the major himself the object of aspersion, +and as for Agatha, his wife,—Florence Nightingale was not more beloved.</p> + +<p>They were talking of it all the other evening, seated among the tents on +the broad, level prairie just before the separation for the winter +stations was announced. The old chaplain was there to say farewell to +his own stalwart son, now wearing his first shoulder-straps in the +regiment his father had known so long and well. "Sometimes," said the +dominie, "I look back almost wistfully on those old days with all their +danger and privation, and while the life our fellows lead to-day knows +little of the temptation and trial encountered twenty years ago, it +seems to lack its vim and vigor. Sometimes I almost wish my boy could +have begun—with you."</p> + +<p>Davies was silent a moment. "It was a hard experience," said he, +finally. "It seems odd to think that to some of us there was more peace +on the war-path than at home, more rest in the field than in the fort. +Perhaps the reason why one's sterner qualities were so constantly called +into play was that not only in action but in all the surroundings of our +daily life we seemed forever 'under fire.'"</p> + + +<h4>THE END.</h4> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>WORKS OF</h2> + +<h3>Captain Charles King, U.S.A.</h3> + +<p> +<span class="smcap">Under Fire.</span> Illustrated. Cloth, $1.25.<br /> +<span class="smcap">The Colonel's Daughter.</span> Illustrated. Cloth, $1.25.<br /> +<span class="smcap">Marion's Faith.</span> Illustrated. Cloth, $1.25.<br /> +<span class="smcap">Captain Blake.</span> Illustrated. Cloth, $1.25.<br /> +<span class="smcap">Foes In Ambush.</span> Cloth, $1.25.<br /> +<span class="smcap">Kitty's Conquest.</span> Cloth, $1.00.<br /> +<span class="smcap">Starlight Ranch,</span> and <span class="smcap">Other Stories.</span> Cloth, $1.00.<br /> +<span class="smcap">Laramie; or, The Queen of Bedlam.</span> Cloth, $1.00.<br /> +<span class="smcap">The Deserter,</span> and <span class="smcap">From The Ranks.</span> Cloth, $1.00.<br /> +<span class="smcap">Two Soldiers</span>, and <span class="smcap">Dunraven Ranch.</span> Cloth, $1.00.<br /> +<span class="smcap">A Soldier's Secret</span>, and <span class="smcap">An Army Portia.</span> Cloth, $1.00.<br /> +<span class="smcap">Waring's Peril.</span> Cloth, $1.00.<br /> +</p> + +<h4>Editor of</h4> + +<p> +<span class="smcap">The Colonel's Christmas Dinner</span>, and <span class="smcap">Other Stories.</span> Cloth, $1.25.<br /> +<span class="smcap">An Initial Experience</span>, and <span class="smcap">Other Stories.</span> Cloth, $1.00.<br /> +</p> + +<p>For sale by all Booksellers.</p> + +<p>J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, <span class="smcap">Publishers</span>, Philadelphia.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Under Fire, by Charles King + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNDER FIRE *** + +***** This file should be named 20101-h.htm or 20101-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/1/0/20101/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net. (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + +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 +http://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 http://www.pglaf.org. + + +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. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. 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 http://pglaf.org + +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 http://pglaf.org + +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: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is 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: + + http://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. + + +</pre> + +</body> +</html> diff --git a/20101-h/images/illus004-1.jpg b/20101-h/images/illus004-1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..7f912fa --- /dev/null +++ b/20101-h/images/illus004-1.jpg diff --git a/20101-h/images/illus103-1.jpg b/20101-h/images/illus103-1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..fd28a97 --- /dev/null +++ b/20101-h/images/illus103-1.jpg diff --git a/20101-h/images/illus189-1.jpg b/20101-h/images/illus189-1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..3c269b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/20101-h/images/illus189-1.jpg diff --git a/20101-h/images/illus335-1.jpg b/20101-h/images/illus335-1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..41c979d --- /dev/null +++ b/20101-h/images/illus335-1.jpg diff --git a/20101-h/images/illus443-1.jpg b/20101-h/images/illus443-1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..d1f6661 --- /dev/null +++ b/20101-h/images/illus443-1.jpg diff --git a/20101.txt b/20101.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9475a59 --- /dev/null +++ b/20101.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14186 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Under Fire, by Charles King + +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: Under Fire + +Author: Charles King + +Illustrator: C. B. Cox + +Release Date: December 14, 2006 [EBook #20101] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNDER FIRE *** + + + + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net. (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: RED DOG'S ARREST. + +_Frontispiece._ _Page 264._] + + + + +UNDER FIRE. + +BY + +CAPT. CHARLES KING, U.S.A., + +AUTHOR OF "THE COLONEL'S DAUGHTER," "MARION'S FAITH," "CAPTAIN BLAKE," +ETC. + +_WITH ILLUSTRATIONS_ + +BY C. B. COX. + + +"A bad dhrill, a wake voice, an' a limp leg--thim three things are the +signs av a bad man."--PRIVATE MULVANEY. + +PHILADELPHIA: +J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. +1895. + + +COPYRIGHT, 1894, +BY +J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. + + +ELECTROTYPED AND PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA, +U.S.A. + + +TO + +GENERAL WESLEY MERRITT, +U.S. ARMY, + +OUR HONORED COLONEL IN THE OLD DAYS AND A VALUED + +FRIEND THROUGH ALL THESE LATER + +YEARS, THIS STORY + +IS + +Inscribed. + +Trancriber's note: Minor typos have been corrected, and ads moved to the +end of the book. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +It is ten years since "The Colonel's Daughter" ventured before the +public and found so many friends that "Marion's Faith" and later +"Captain Blake" set forth in reinforcement, and even then there came the +call for more. Pelham's old regiment was not the only one to contain +either odd, laughable, or lovable characters, so now the curtain is +raised on the Eleventh Horse,--a command as apocryphal as the --th, yet +equally distinguished in the eyes of those who trod the war-path twenty +years ago. + +C. K. + +October, 1894. + + + + +UNDER FIRE. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + + +It was the last day of Captain Wilbur Cranston's leave of absence. For +three blissful months he had been visiting his old home in a bustling +Western city, happy in the happiness of his charming wife in this her +first long restoration to civilization since their marriage ten years +before; happy in the pride and joy of his father and mother in having +once more under their roof the soldier son who had won an honored name +in his profession, and in their delight in the exuberant health and +antics of two sturdy, plains-bred little Cranstons. The visit proved one +continuous round of home pleasures and social gayeties, for Margaret +Cranston had been a stanch favorite in the days of her girl- and +bellehood, and all her old friends, married and single, rose _en masse_ +to welcome her return. Parties, dances, dinners, concerts, theatre and +opera, lectures, pictures, parks, drives and rides,--all the endless +resources of the metropolitan world had been laid at the feet of the +girl who, leaving them to follow her soldier lover to his exile and +wanderings, had returned in the fulness of time, in the flush of +womanhood, a proud wife and proud and happy mother. People could not +understand her choice at the time of her marriage: "Cranston's all +right, but the idea of going to live in a tent or dug-out," was the +popular way of putting it, and people were still unable to understand +how she could have ever found anything to enjoy in that wild life or to +make her wish to see it again. It was, therefore, incomprehensible to +society that she and her two bouncing boys were utterly overwhelmed with +distress at having to remain in so charming a circle, so happy a home, +when it came time for the captain to return. Society even resented it a +little. Juvenile society--feminine--took it amiss that the Cranston boys +should so scorn the arts of peace, and persist furthermore in saying the +buffalo and bear and wolves in the municipal "Zoo" were frauds as +compared with what they had seen "any day" all around them out on the +plains. Tremendous stories did these little Nimrods tell of the big game +on which they had tired of dining, but some of their tales were true, +and that's what made it so hard for junior society masculine, in which +there wasn't a boy who did not honestly and justly hate these young +frontiersmen, even while envying with all his civilized heart. Loud was +the merriment at school over the Cranstons' blunders in spelling and +arithmetic, but what--what was that as offset to their prowess on +pony-back, their skill with the bow and sling-shot, their store of +Indian trinkets, trophies, ay, even to the surreptitiously shown Indian +scalp? What was that to the tales of tremendous adventure in the land of +the Sioux and Apache,--the home of the bear and the buffalo? What +city-bred boy could "hold a candle" to the glaring halo about the head +of two who could claim personal acquaintance with the great war chiefs +Red Cloud and Spotted Tail?--who had actually been to ride and hunt with +that then just dawning demigod of American boyhood,--Buffalo Bill? Sneer +and scoff and cavil as did their little rivals for a time, calumny was +crushed and scoffers blighted that wonderful March morning when, before +the whole assembled school, there suddenly appeared that paragon of +plainsmen, that idol of all well-bred young Westerners, he whom only on +flaring posters or in the glare of the footlights had they been +permitted to see, and smiling, superbly handsome, king of scouts and +Indian-fighters, Buffalo Bill himself stepped into their midst and +clasped the little Cranstons, madly rejoicing, in his arms, while their +father, the cavalry captain, and even the dreaded teacher looked +approvingly on. It was after that episode of no avail for even the +sturdiest of their schoolmates to seek to belittle the Cranston fame. +Louis, the elder, could not invent a whopper so big as to tax the +credulity of the school. Buffalo Bill was "starring it" with his +theatrical company through the States that spring, playing some +blood-curdling, scalp-taking; hair-raising border drama which all boys +eager strove to see, and when his old chum and comrade, the captain, +went to call on him at his hotel, the great chief of scouts would not +rest until together they had gone to see his friends "the boys." That +other parents should have been pestered half to death as a result of +this visitation any one who knows boys has not to be told, and many were +the queries and complaints addressed to the laughing cavalryman upon +that score. Parents, as a rule, had no proper conception of the honest +merit and deserved fame of this transplanted hero, Bill,--were amazed +to learn from Cranston that he was no fraud at all, but a man whom he +and his regimental comrades swore by. A total change had come over the +spirit of the school-boys' dreams. Nothing but Indian raids, +buffalo-hunts, or terrific combats diversified the hour of recess. The +little girls chose romantic prairie names, were either Indian maidens or +ever-ready-to-be-rescued damsels in distress. The boys became +redoubtable chiefs or rival imitation scouts, but Louis Cranston alone +was permitted to play the _role_ of Buffalo Bill; in his presence no +other boy dare attempt it. + +It was a revolutionized society long before that budding May morning on +which the captain had to take train for the far West, leaving wife and +little ones to his father's care until the long threatened and now +imminent campaign should be over. Then, should God spare his life +through what proved to be the fiercest and most fatal of ten fierce and +fatal summers, they should rejoin him at some distant frontier fort, and +the boys' triumphant reign at school be ended. Loudly did they clamor to +be taken with him. Stoutly did Louis maintain that his pony could keep +up with the swiftest racer in the regiment, and indirectly did he give +it to be understood at school that just as soon as the war really began +he'd be out with "C" troop as he had been in the past. The war had begun +and some savage fighting had already taken place, when the orders were +launched for the Eleventh Cavalry to concentrate for field service. +Cranston wired that he would give up the last ten days of his leave, and +Mrs. Cranston, brave, submissive, but weeping sore at times, set to +packing her soldier's trunk. It was their last evening together for +many a long month, and their friends knew it, and therefore, even if +they called to leave a sympathetic word with the grandparents, they did +not expect to see the captain and his wife. Once or twice the +gray-haired mother had come to twine her arms about her big boy's neck, +or to say that Mr. and Mrs. Somebody had just called, but wouldn't +intrude. It was, therefore, a surprise when towards nine o'clock she +came to announce a caller below,--a caller who begged not to be +denied,--Mrs. Barnard. + +"Mrs. _Barnard_!" exclaimed the army wife, in that tone in which +incredulity mingled with surprise tells to the observant ear that no +welcome awaits the announced one. + +"_Who is_ Mrs. Barnard?" asked the trooper, looking up from the depths +of his big trunk. + +"Oh, her husband owns about half the tenth ward," said Mrs. Cranston the +elder, city bred, "and," hesitatingly, "you've often seen her in +church." + +"At church--yes," answered her daughter-in-law, "but no one ever sees +her anywhere else. She has never called on me, has she?" + +"No," said the elder lady. "They are old residents, though, and years +ago when the city was new your father and hers--indeed, her husband and +mine--were well acquainted, but we drifted apart as the city grew. She +was Almira Prendergast." + +"I'm sure I never heard of her when I was a girl, though, of course, I +was away at school a good deal. Every one knows her by sight now because +she's the most conspicuous woman in church. She dresses magnificently," +said Mrs. Cranston the younger. "I couldn't help noticing her diamonds +last Sunday." + +"They must have been big, Meg," put in the captain, reflectively, as he +was getting himself out of his smoking-jacket. "Let's see,--ours is a +hundred-dollar pew down near the foot of the side aisle, and hers a +thousand-dollar box-stall just in front of the centre. Could they flash +all that distance? They'd be useful for signalling----" + +"Wilbur! I do wish you wouldn't mingle church and cavalry slang. It's +downright irreverent, and at the bottom of your heart you're anything +but an irreverent man." + +"I won't," said the captain, solemnly; "at least I'll try to separate +the ideas--they are a trifle incongruous--if you'll tell me how at that +distance you could mingle your devotions with appraisal of Mrs. +Barnard's diamonds." + +"I didn't. If you'd gone to church yourself you'd understand these +things. I couldn't help it. I simply happened to be next to her +afterwards--at communion." + +"Oh, I see," said Cranston, giving a jab at his thinning hair with the +thickest and stiffest of brushes. "That does bring us to close quarters, +doesn't it?" Then with provoking deliberation he rearranged his necktie +and began pulling on his coat. "Hum, let's see," he went on, his eyes +twinkling and his lips twitching ominously, "anything wrong about Mrs. +B., mother mine, or with the millionaire husband? No? I see: just some +of those people one meets at the Lord's table and nobody else's." + +"Wilbur!" exclaimed Mrs. Cranston, in tones of horror. "Indeed, indeed, +mamma, he isn't a bit like that out on the frontier. It's only when he +gets into civilized church circles that he says these outrageous things. +If you could hear him read the burial service over some of our poor +fellows as I have heard him, you'd know he lacked no reverence at all. +He's queer,--he always has been about these social distinctions. You +know and I know they are inevitable." + +But leaving wife and mother to deplore his conduct and comfort each +other with the assurance that he really knew better and wasn't as bad as +he painted himself, which was occasionally in lurid colors, as must be +admitted, Captain Cranston went down-stairs with a certain stiffness of +gait which his intimates were well aware was attributable entirely to a +war reminiscence of Pickett's parapet at Five Forks, but which nine out +of ten, uninitiated, ascribed to military _hauteur_. He was still +smiling his whimsical, teasing smile, for, though a devoted son, +husband, and father, Wilbur Cranston was at times a trial to his +feminine connections, and entertained on matters of church and state +some views that were incompatible with those of high society. With +opportunities second to none other when he joined the pioneer circle in +the early days, Mr. Cranston, senior, had but moderately prospered from +a worldly point of view. Eminent in his profession, he was destitute of +any instinct of accumulation. He was a man the whole county +honored,--whose word was his bond, whose purse-strings had never known a +knot,--who had made large moneys in the law and spent them in charity, +until now, occupying a social position at the top of the ladder, he +lived but modestly in the house that was once the envy of all his +neighbors, many of whom once, and more than once, the beneficiaries of +his charity, now looked down upon him from the colossal heights of their +wheat elevators or sixteen-story office blocks. "The Cranstons were +among our oldest and best people," said Society; "it is too bad they are +so poor." For there had been a time when the old lawyer's health failed +and practice was forbidden, and when Wilbur, once the recipient of a +liberal allowance, felt called upon not only to resign that, but often +to help from a captain's pay. Better times had come, and the soldier son +had been able to make investments for himself and for his father in far +Western mining property that yielded good return; but even when known as +one of the few well-to-do men in his regiment, Cranston had persisted in +a certain simplicity of living that some people could not understand. +There were officers who had married wealthy women,--women whose gowns +were superb, whose parlors and tables were richly furnished, whose +household establishments put to shame those of three-fourths of their +companions; whereas Cranston, even when he was able to dress his family +fashionably and furnish his quarters elaborately, would not do it. +"Every year," said he, "some of our most promising young officers are +going to the devil because they or their wives try to dress or to +entertain as do their wealthy neighbors. It's all wrong, and I won't set +the example. It's getting to be the curse of our army, Meg, and if I had +my way I'd introduce a law the reverse of that in force in foreign +armies. Over there no officer can marry unless he and his bride-elect +can show that they will have over a certain income to live upon. In a +republican army like ours no man ought to be commissioned unless he will +agree to live on less than a fixed amount for each successive grade." +They called him "Crank Cranston" in the Eleventh for quite a while, but +without affecting in the faintest degree his sturdy stand. Margaret's +gowns continued simple and inexpensive, and their mode of living modest +as any subaltern's, and many women spoke of them as "close" and "mean," +but many men wished openly they had Cranston's moral courage. At home, +too, better times had come. There was the old homestead, and Mr. +Cranston as counsel of certain big corporations had his easy salary and +little work. There was no anxiety, but there should be, said he, no +extravagance. + +On the other hand, neighbor Barnard, who in by-gone days, tin +dinner-pail in hand, tramped cheerily by the lawyer's rose-trellised +home long hours before the household was awake, and who in his early +struggles to maintain his little lot and roof had often availed himself +of his neighbor's known liberality, had been surely and steadily +climbing to wealth and honors, was now among the ranking capitalists of +the great and growing city, and a few years back had been united in +marriage to the admiration of his early school days,--Almira +Prendergast, who, disdaining him in the early 50's and wedding the youth +of her choice, was overwhelmed with joy to find in the days of want and +widowhood, fifteen years later, that Barnard had been faithful to his +ideal, had remained single for her sake, and so at last had she +consented to accept him and the control of his household. A pew in the +"First Presbyterian" had been for years his habitual resort on the +Sabbath, but as time wore on and wealth accumulated and the lady of his +love assumed more and more the leadership in all matters, spiritual and +domestic, he saw his establishment blossoming into unaccustomed +splendor, he met new people, later comers from the distant East, and +dropped the old, the friends of his boy days. He never meant to. He was +engrossed in his affairs. He let Mrs. Barnard "run the machine," as he +used to phrase it, knowing nothing of that sort of thing himself, and +Almira's buxom beauty, attired now in splendor hitherto undreamed of, +was rapidly rising into prominence in the new and growing circle wherein +the old families revolved but seldom, but the errant orbits of Eastern +stars were quick entangled; and some few years after their marriage a +new and gorgeous edifice having been erected by the congregation of St. +Jude's, and a daughter having been born to Barnard, the man of money +heard without surprise and with little resistance his wife's change of +faith in revealed religion. St. Jude's, a parochial offspring of old and +established St. Paul's down-town, had become an ecclesiastical necessity +in the growing north side. The Cranstons transferred their pew, as did +others, to follow a favorite rector and his gospel closer to home. Mrs. +Barnard experienced a long projected change of heart because the +acknowledged leaders of the social circle herded thither, and Barnard +followed as his wife might lead. The great memorial window in the south +transept, through whose hallowed purpling the noon-day sunshine +streamed rich and mellow on the gray head in that prominent central pew, +was the devout offering of Thomas Barnard and Almira, his wife, in +testimony of their abandonment of the faith of their fathers and the +adoption of that which in school days they had held to be idolatrous. +Wilbur Cranston well recalled how in his school days Tom Barnard's +honest, sturdy form went trudging by at nightfall from the long day's +labor with the railway gang of which he was "boss," but Tom was a +division superintendent when the lawyer's boy came home from West Point +on furlough just as the war dogs began their growling along the border +States. And now Tom Barnard owned all the tenth ward and most of the +railroad, did he? And it was Tom Barnard's wife, a fair, fat penitent in +sealskin and sables, who drove by in such a magnificent sleigh and style +to humble herself at the altar by the side of such as we, whose social +shoes she was as yet held unworthy to unlatch? Wilbur remembered how +once, some years before, when his father's affairs were straitened and +his own were cramped, when Meg and the baby actually and sorely needed +change, but she sturdily refused to leave him and go East because of the +expense, he had bethought him of Tom Barnard, the rising railway man, +and wrote him a personal note explaining the situation and asking +through his influence if such a thing as a pass for himself and wife +could be obtained over certain roads east of the Missouri, and the +answer came, written by a secretary, brief and to the point. Mr. Barnard +enclosed pass over the Q. R. & X. for Mr. Cranston and wife, but did not +feel in a position to ask favors of any other road. And now Tom +Barnard's wife had come almost at the last moment of his stay and begged +that he would not refuse to see her. What on earth could she want? + +A boy with a telegram had just entered and was at the open door as the +captain reached the hall. Under the gas lamp without Cranston saw the +carriage standing by the curb--a livery team, not the beautiful roans +that had caught his trooper eye the first Sunday of his leave when he +went to church with mother and Meg. The message was sharp and clear +enough in all conscience: + + "We march at once. You can catch us at Fetterman. + + GRAY, _Adjutant_." + +"So old Winthrop goes in command and Bob Gray as adjutant," he mused. +"Then I've no minute to waste." + +His step was quicker, his bearing unconsciously more erect and +soldierly, as he entered the parlor and found himself facing the lady. + +"I ask your pardon for keeping you waiting, Mrs. Barnard. I was in the +midst of packing when you came, as I must go West at once." + +She had not risen from the easy-chair,--a comfortable old family relic +which stood opposite the old-fashioned piano. She leaned forward, +however, so that the sealskin mantle, which the warmth of the room and +the length of her wait had prompted her to throw back, settled down from +her shoulders in rich and luxurious folds. She gave him, half extended, +a hand, which he lifted and lowered once after the fashion of the day +and then released. He remembered her now perfectly,--the Almira +Prendergast the big boys used to say was by long odds the prettiest girl +in the days when half a dozen big brick ward schools were all the town +afforded, but he did not say so, nor did she care to have him. + +"Perhaps I ought to begin by apologizing for taking up your time," she +said, as though not knowing how to begin; and then he saw that heavy +lines of grief and anxiety had eaten their way underneath her dark and +luminous eyes,--ravages that no tinsel could cover or wealth dislodge. +"Was it the driver you spoke to at the door? I heard you say wait. I had +already told him; but it isn't my carriage," she went on deprecatingly. +"Our horses cannot stand night work, the coachman says, and there's +always something the matter with them when they are most needed." + +She was looking at him appealingly, as though she hoped he might suggest +some way of helping her to say what had brought her thither--besides a +livery carriage; but Cranston had taken a seat and was waiting, the +telegram crushed in his hand. At last she spoke again. + +"You--went to West Point, didn't you?" + +"I? Yes." + +"Well, then, you could tell me, couldn't you, how to get my boy there?" + +"You mean by-and-by when he is old enough?" + +"No. I mean now,--at once,--this week in fact." + +"W--ell. That is hardly possible, Mrs. Barnard. Cadets are admitted only +in June or September, and only then when there's a vacancy in their +congressional district. But, pardon me. How old is your boy?" + +"He is twenty-one,--my eldest,--my first husband's." + +"And you wanted to make a soldier of him?" asked Cranston, smilingly. + +"Indeed, no! It's the last thing on earth I'd have chosen, nor would he, +I am sure, if he were in his right mind." + +"Oh, well, then I shouldn't worry about it, Mrs. Barnard. In this +country, you know, no one has to be a soldier unless he very much wants +to, and very often then he can't. And no boy who isn't in his right mind +could get into the Point even if given a cadetship. What made you think +of it?" + +"Why, it seemed--at least I was told--it was the only way out of the +trouble he is in. He--is already in the army, but I'm told it isn't so +bad if one is an officer." + +Cranston kept his face with admirable gravity. + +"Then I assume that he has enlisted. If he is only just twenty-one and +enlisted without your consent before his birthday, you can still have +him out." + +"Oh, we've tried that," said Mrs. Barnard, gravely, "but he had tried +twice before he was twenty-one, and they refused him until he brought +papers to prove his age. Then when he did enlist and we attempted to +have it annulled, they confronted us with these. They refused to believe +our lawyer." + +"Well, pardon me, which was right, the papers or the lawyer?" + +"The paper. It was my own letter; but I didn't suppose they had it +when--when we sought to have him released as not of legal age." + +Cranston smiled. "Was it Mr. Barnard's proposition or the lawyer's?" + +"Well, the lawyer said at first there was no other way that he knew of, +we'd have to do that. Of course you understand I wouldn't ordinarily +authorize an untruth, but--consider the degradation." + +"The degradation of--having to--authorize the untruth?" + +"No; of his enlisting,--becoming a soldier. I thought I'd had to suffer +a good deal, but I never looked for that." + +And then Cranston saw her eyes were full of tears. + +She had tried lawyers. She had used money. She had invoked the influence +of powerful friends. Each and everyone consulted assured her that the +case could be settled in a twinkling. They would get the boy discharged +at once. Then one after another all had failed, and then some one +suggested to see him, Cranston; he was a regular, perhaps he could help. +It was hard to think of her son as a soldier, but, said she, if he had +to be, for a time at least, why not get him out of where he was and put +him at West Point? She had come, she said, to tell Cranston the whole +story, and then he could have kicked himself for the momentary amusement +she had caused him. + +Ah, what an old, time-worn story of mother love, mother spoiling, mother +sorrow! Her bonny boy, her first-born, wild, impulsive, self-indulgent, +overindulged as was his father before him, he had gone the pace from +early youth; had been sent to and sent from one school after another; +had filled and forfeited half a dozen clerkships; tampered with cards +and drink and bad company. Mr. Barnard had been willing to do +anything--everything for him, but he had dishonored every effort, broken +every compact, failed in every trial, forfeited every trust. At last +there had been hot and furious words, expulsion from the house and home, +a life of recklessness, gambling and drinking on moneys wrung from her +until her patience and supplies both had given out. Then some darker +shadow,--arrest and incarceration, one more appeal to mother, one more, +on her knees, from mother to husband, a compromised case, a quashed +indictment, temporary residence at a resort for cure of inebriates--the +one condition exacted by Barnard--and prompt relapse, when discharged, +into his former habits,--disgraceful arrest because of some trouble into +which he had been led while drinking. This, all this she had borne, but +never dreamed, said she, that worse still could follow,--that he could +sink so low as to become a soldier. + +What Captain Cranston would have said to a man who had come to him with +such a tale, and with such unflattering conception of the profession he +was proud of, need not here be recorded. It was a mother, helpless, +sorrowing, and honest at least in her impression of the step taken by +her recreant boy. She had come craving help and counsel, not instruction +in the injustice of her estimates. Quivering, trembling, weeping, the +heart-sick woman in her magnificent robes had opened the flood-gates of +her soul and poured out to this comparative stranger the story of her +son's depravity. Aloft, two women listened awe-stricken to her sobs. +Cranston brought her water, made her drink a little wine, and bade her +take comfort, and amazed her by saying that at last her boy had shown a +gleam of manhood, a promise of redemption. She looked up through her +tears in sudden amaze. How was that possible? He must have been drunk +when he did it, and couldn't have been anything but drunk ever since. +Cranston patiently explained that so far from being drunk, the boy must +have been perfectly sober or they couldn't have taken him. He had been +frequently to the recruiting office, according to her account, and must +have been sober at such times, or they would have discouraged his coming +again. He couldn't have been drinking to any extent since enlistment or +he could not be where she said he was, and knew he was, on daily duty as +clerk in the office of the adjutant at the barracks. So far from its +indicating downfall, degradation, it was the one ray of hope of better +days. She looked at him, joy and incredulity mingling in her swimming +eyes. "Then why does everybody I've consulted, even our rector, urge me +to leave no stone unturned to get him out of it, even if we have to buy +him a place at West Point?" was her query. And again Cranston found it +hard to control his muscles--and his temper. Had it come to this?--that +here in his old home the accepted idea of the regular soldier was that +of something lower than the refuse of the prisons and reformatories? He +could only tell her that it was because they knew no better. Up to the +time of her boy's determination to enter the army had there been one +single moment in the last five years when he had been free from his +habits of drinking? asked Cranston. No, not one. And yet that step was +her conception of final degradation. What had occurred, he asked, to +make her feel renewed anxiety, to cause her to seek a cadetship for him? +Because the boy had written that recruits were soon to be sent to +cavalry regiments out on the plains, and he had asked to go. The thought +was terror. And Mrs. Barnard had learned that a congressman from the +interior of the State had a cadetship to dispose of, but he lived at +Urbana, the very place where poor Harry had spent his two months in the +retreat, and then had disbehaved so afterwards. And Mr. Goss, the +congressman, wanted references,--wanted him to pass examination, which +he could not do, because he's only been a little while at school. Harry +wrote a beautiful hand, and had read everything--everything, but he +hated anything like arithmetic as a study, and Cranston had to smile and +tell her that that in itself put West Point out of the question. But, +said he, if he has ambition and ability, why not encourage him to +persevere where he is and win commission from the ranks as many another +boy had done? Bless the mother heart! That, too, had occurred to her, +but they had told her it would take two years at least, whereas Harry +was a born leader, a born commander. That boy could step right out now +and command an army if need be, she said, and no doubt believed it; but +when she wrote to Mr. Cooper about it (and Mr. Cooper it seems was +Colonel Cooper, the boy's commanding officer), that gentleman replied +that while the young soldier had certainly conducted himself in a most +exemplary way and had given promise of being an ornament to the +service,--"He used those very words," said she, producing the colonel's +letter. "See, 'an ornament to the service,'"--still, the colonel could +hardly promise that the boy could rise above the grade of sergeant +inside of two years. + +Cranston recognized the handwriting, and took the letter. "I know +Colonel Cooper," he said, "and he means just exactly what he writes. +Mrs. Barnard, I am glad you came. I am glad to take a weight off your +mind. I wish your friends and advisers were here that I might say this +in their presence, especially our good rector, but I say to you with all +my heart, I congratulate you on the step your boy has taken. I honestly +believe he has done better for himself than you could do for him, and I +advise you to let him go and learn campaigning on the frontier. It will +make a man of him if anything will," and he added under his breath, "or +kill him." + +"And if you meet my boy, you'll help him? You'll be a friend to him?" +she smiled through her tears. "God bless you for so helping me." + +"I'll help him every way I know how," said Cranston. + +And so they parted. She infinitely comforted, he oddly impressed. But +Mrs. Barnard felt that fate was still against her and her boy when, four +weeks later, flashed the news of savage battle with the Sioux, of +Captain Cranston shot through the body and fearfully wounded in the +fierce encounter. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + + +Fifty seats in the parquette had been reserved for the members of the +class graduated from West Point on the beautiful morning of the 12th of +June. The brilliant auditorium was thronged with friends of the young +fellows. Officers of the Academy were seated in the boxes, interested no +more in the play than in the enjoyment of "the boys" just released from +their four years of hard study and rigid discipline. Two of the chairs +were vacant almost until the close of the first act, then their owners +came in. + +"You fellows have missed a heap of fun," whispered a classmate. Then a +burst of laughter and applause drowned his words. "All the same we +didn't miss the train," was the reply as soon as the new-comer could +make himself heard, after the lowering of the curtain. "Poor old Dad! It +wasn't easy to let him go." + +"What took him off in such a devil of a hurry? We counted on his being +with us at the last supper." + +"Oh, the Parson don't take much stock in last suppers--of this kind," +answered the other in no irreverence of spirit, for the young fellow +spoke in genuine earnestness; "still, he couldn't have gone back on us +if it hadn't been for bad news from home." + +"What, his mother?" + +"No--o. It's a girl. He said he had to go." + +"Ah, yes, we knew all along he was engaged, though he never said +anything about it. Parson never struck me as being one of the spoony +kind." + +"No, he wasn't a bit. He wrote to her every week, but her letters kept +coming all the time--regular continued stories; but he wouldn't stand +chaffing about them and didn't fancy remarks, so I quit." + +"Know anything about her? Ever see her picture?" + +"Once, by accident,--a mighty pretty girl, too,--but he never talked +about her; it wasn't his way. We lived together the last two years, and +I reckon there isn't anything I didn't tell him. I remember how you all +laughed at the idea of my taking up with 'Parson' Davies, but he's pure +gold." + +"There's no discount on that, Jimmy; but what a time it took to find it +out! If it weren't for the riding-hall we never would have known how +much there was to him. There may be some prettier riders than Parson, +but he's all round the best horseman in the class. What on earth did he +choose the infantry for?" + +"Something about that girl, I reckon. Looks to me as though he were +going to get married before he joined the regiment." + +"Sacrificing himself and his profession for the sake of a spoons, is it? +Well, thank God, I'm not in love, and I wish he weren't." + +Meantime the subject of this cadet chat, a tall, slender, serious-faced +young fellow, was sitting in one of the crowded cars of the night +express whistling away up the shores of the Hudson, shadowy yet +familiar, fifty miles to the hour. His new civilian dress--donned that +morning for the first time--bore something of the cadet about it in its +trim adjustment to the lines of his erect, even gaunt figure. He sat +very straight, looking silently across the aisle out on the starlit +river to his left, and holding on his knees the new dark-blue cape and +an old travelling-bag. A lone woman in search of a seat had entered the +car at Harlem and passed by a dozen unsympathetic travellers, who made +no move to share the seat over which they sprawled aggressively. The +first to lift his satchel and make way for her was the tall, thin-faced +young man in the straw hat and pepper-and-salt suit. He rose and offered +her the inner half, which she accepted gratefully, then thanked him in +broken English for stowing her various bundles in the rack above. + +The conductor looked oddly at him as he unrolled his ticket. + +"Going through? Don't you want a sleeper?" + +"How much is a single berth to Chicago?" + +"Five dollars." + +"No. I'll get along here." + +Not until they reached Albany, after midnight, had he a seat to himself. +Meantime, finding his companion overcome by drowsiness and her poor old +head bobbing helplessly, he rolled his new cloak cape into a sort of +pillow, wedged it between her and the window seat, and bade her use it. +As they came in view of the brightly-lighted station she awoke with a +start and made a spring for her belongings. She had slept soundly ever +since they left Poughkeepsie, and was again profuse in gratitude. "We +stay here several minutes," said Mr. Davies. "Let me help you with your +bundles." And, unheeding her protest, he marched off with a bird-cage +and a big band-box. A burly German made a rush for the car the moment +she appeared upon the platform and lifted her off with vehement +osculatory welcome, Davies standing silently and patiently by the while, +then surrendering her traps to her legal protector. "He is such a kind +young man," said the smiling frau. "He gif me his seat. We have a sohn, +yust so old as you," she added, "but he is farder as Chick-ago. He is a +soldier, out by Fort Larmie." + +"Yes?" said Davies, smiling. "Then perhaps I'll see him some day. I +expect to be out there before long." + +"And you are a soldier, too! Ach Gott! ein offizier?" she exclaimed, in +consternation, born of German associations. + +"Not yet, though I suppose I shall be very soon. What is your boy's +regiment?" + +And, jabbering excitedly now, both at once, the two old people began +pouring their tale into his ears; told their boy's name,--"He was a +gorboral alretty,"--and they were justly proud, and Davies made them +happy by noting the name and company in his book and giving his own, +though he explained that he was not yet a lieutenant, only a +just-graduated cadet, but that if ever he found the corporal, he said, +he should tell him of his pleasant meeting with the old folks, and then, +after a cup of coffee at the restaurant counter, he returned to his own +thoughts and the car. + +Soon they were spinning up along the shining Mohawk, and still his +eyelids would not close. In his waistcoat-pocket lay a bulky letter, +the last of many in the same superscription--a prim, unformed, +school-girlish hand--that had come to him during the last two years of +his cadet life. Its predecessors, carefully wrapped and tied, were in +the old trunk somewhere ahead among the baggage. In his hand again was +the telegram that, reaching him at the moment when he was bidding adieu +to the academic shades he had grown so deeply to love, had determined +him in the already half-formed resolution to cut loose from his comrades +and the class festivities in New York and take the first train for the +far West. + + "URBANA, June 12. + + "Doctor says come quick. Almira worse. + + "B." + +"B" was Almira's elder sister. Urbana, the home of his boy- and her +girlhood, the home where his father lived and died, pastor of the +village flock, a man whose devotion and patriotism during the great war +had won for himself the friendship of the leaders of the armies of the +West and for his only son, years afterwards, the prize of a cadetship at +West Point. Deeply religious in every fibre of his soul, the chaplain +had labored among the hospitals in the field from first to last, and +died not long after the close of the historic struggle, a martyr to the +cause. He died poor, too, as such men ever die, laying up no treasures +upon earth, where moth and rust and thieves are said to lessen treasure +there accumulated, yet where its accumulation seems the chief end of man +not spiritually constituted as was Davies, who was imposed upon by every +beat and beggar, tramp and drab, within reachable distance of Urbana. +Far and wide had spread abroad the words of his personal creed,--that he +would rather it were recorded against him that he had been duped a +million times than that one human being had left his door hungering. His +widow was not only merely penniless, she was helpless but for the strong +arms of her son, who slaved for her as the father had slaved for the +Union. Those were the days when pensions were few. It was too soon after +the war, and facts were fresher in men's minds. Percy did all the +farm-work by day and taught school by night until, in his twenty-first +year, he was sent to the Military Academy by the President himself, who +had known his father from the days of Donelson. It was told of the tall, +taciturn young man that he seriously contemplated resigning during his +fourth class year when he found that he could not send home the little +savings from his cadet pay. If the rule of the sacred commandment could +but be made to work both ways, and days would be indeed long in the land +the Lord our God had given to him who most honored his father and +mother, no life insurance company in all America would have hesitated in +Percy Davies's case, had the policy been millions and the premium unity. +A gentle woman was Mrs. Davies, but a distressingly helpless and +dependent one, and it was an old saying in Urbana that Davies had +married poor Salome Percy because if he didn't nobody would; not because +he stood in need of her, but because she was much in need of him. And +when, not long after his father's death, Percy appealed to a well-to-do +citizen on the widow's behalf, he was refused, and the brawny son and +heir of the well-to-do citizen told of the incident, and was idiot +enough in Percy's presence to repeat this old village saw as the reason +of the refusal, it nearly led to tragedy. Seizing the first available +weapon, a flail, which he wielded with uncommon skill, in one mad moment +the indignant youth smote the other hip and thigh,--the first, and for +years the only, time he was ever known to lose control of himself. In +ten seconds the battered gossip was sprawled full length, and they who +would have rushed to tear his assailant away stood amazed to see him +tearfully imploring the pardon of the vanquished. + +And then as Percy grew in years and grace, working day and night that he +might obey that last sacred whispered injunction, "Take care of poor +mother," and Urbana grew in population and importance, one mortgage was +lifted by the sale of part of their little farm, and the home made more +comfortable for the ailing, querulous woman. She loved young folks, and +yet lacked the faculty of attracting them. Striving to interest some of +the village maids in her, Percy interested more than one in himself, and +among these was a rural beauty, by name Almira Quimby. She was only +sixteen, a romantic child with an exquisite complexion, big melting blue +eyes, and curling ringlets. She lived, said other village maids, "on +Sylvanus Cobb and slate-pencils." She devoured with avidity every bit of +sensational trash procurable in the public or post-office libraries, and +made eyes at the tall, strong school-master,--the best rider, reaper, +thresher in the field, and best reader and declaimer in the winter +lyceums. He was intellectually far ahead of his fellows, and his father +had labored to teach him. He was "serious," which was our Western way of +saying he had strong religious views, and Almira became devoted in her +attentions at church, Bible-class, and Sunday-school. Still, he did not +become an adorer, and she began visiting the widow in her affliction, +and thereby seeing more and more of the widow's son. There were +strapping prairie beaux who would have given all they possessed for any +one of the soft, shy looks she stole at Percy Davies, and who began to +hate him vehemently as her fancy for him increased. + +He would have been of utterly unimpressionable material could he have +looked unmoved day after day upon her budding beauty, and it was not +long before Davies found himself strangely interested, and still he +would not speak. It was not until his appointment came, and he was +preparing to go to the Academy, that he owned himself vanquished. +Almira's red eyes and not entirely concealed emotion had told the mother +how the girl was grieving at the prospective loss of her first love, and +she with motherly solicitude took Percy to task. If he cared for Almira +why didn't he say so? With perfect truth the young man replied that he +couldn't help admiring her, but had struggled against it because he was +in no position to marry, and did not know when he would be. To this the +mother replied that she had grown very fond of Almira, and had learned +to depend upon her. She was not only very pretty but, what was much +better, a very good girl, and her father was as "well-to-do" as anybody +in Urbana, except the hotel-keeper. He could well afford to give her +part of the big farm and build them a house near the widow's own roof. +She knew, or thought she knew, as do so many of us, just what her +neighbor could and should do, but overlooked the fact that old Quimby +had two sons and three daughters older than Almira. The fact that most +of them were married in no wise detracted from their expectations of +material aid from the "old man." The fact that he might care to take +unto himself a wife to replace the late incumbent now sleeping placidly +in Urbana's leafy cemetery was no more contemplated by them than by the +Widow Davies. But there was another widow in Sangamon County who knew +better and who wisely said naught. Almira's father was well off, said +Mrs. Davies. She had rich relations in the great metropolis of the +State. Her Aunt Almira was married to the manager of the Q. R. & X. +Railway,--the man who used to send father Davies an annual pass so long +as he lived. Mrs. Davies longed, she said, to see her son happily mated, +and then she would be glad to go and rest by the father's side under the +shadow of the soldier's monument. How it all happened would be too long, +too old, and by no means uncommon a story. When Percy Davies went to +West Point he left behind him a weeping maid who vowed that she would +wait for him a lifetime, if need be. It was really quite a romantic +parting, and the young man believed himself very deeply in love, and so +did Almira. + +And yet he was not easy in his mind. Percy Davies was old for his years. +He was going to the Point because of his father's strong predilection +for the graduates of that institution. The son had no especial taste +for a military life. He was studious. He would far rather have gone to +some college or university and pursued a classical course, and then +studied for the law or the ministry. He had no means for such an end, +however, and accepted what was offered him on his father's account, with +no little uneasiness on his own. It was not his desire or purpose to +remain in the army. If he could honorably do so he meant to leave the +military service within the four years which his letter of appointment +stipulated he should serve after graduation. He doubted the propriety of +his accepting it under the circumstances, and he--looked upon by his +fellow-men and youths as the most enviable of their number--left his +home for the new life in no enviable frame of mind. + +For some months after his departure Almira fairly lived with the invalid +mother, and was faithful both to her and to the absent lover. Not a day +passed without her spending hours with the widow and discoursing on the +perfections of the absent one. Old Quimby, a hard-fisted, hard-headed +old democrat, had made no objection to the engagement, remarking that if +'twan't Davies 'twould be somebody else, and seeing as he was the +smartest lad at farming and schooling, and that it would be four years +anyhow, why, there was no call for him to worry. Then Urbana built a +bigger school-house and got a new teacher, and for two years saw naught +of Percy Davies. Property increasing in value, another slice of the +homestead lot had been sold, and with economy the widow could be +comfortable on her little income; but it was not long before the +gossips, dropping in to cheer her up a bit, began to tell of the swains +who were making eyes at 'Mira, and then of 'Mira's growing consciousness +of her charms and fascinations. The second year of Percy's absence there +could be no doubt that three or four bucolical hearts were turned on her +account. Had there been just one devotee the absent lover's claims might +have been endangered, but there being several she was content in a +placid cowlike way in their attentions, and became less devoted to +mamma. With the second summer, however, Percy came home on cadet +furlough. The slight stoop was gone. An erect, martial carriage and +quick, springy step had replaced the somewhat plodding gait of the +school and farm. The sprouting beard and whiskers had vanished, and a +stiff moustache, which soon began to curl and twist becomingly, adorned +his upper lip. The "store clothes" of the Western town long since cast +aside, Davies appeared in stylish and trim-fitting civilian dress, but +resolutely declined all appeals to wear--except for mother's eyes--the +uniform of his famous corps. When he went on sunshiny Sundays to the +church that seemed hallowed to his father's memory, the spotless white +trousers and natty sack coat of dark-blue flannel were, however, so +military in their effect as to create, despite himself, almost the +effect of regimentals. Then he had acquired already an air and manner, a +polish that distinguished him at once above his fellow-townsmen, and +Almira's wavering allegiance gave place to new romance and fervor. The +old flame had found too little breath in his earnest, honest letters to +keep it alive. As for him, though he had belonged to what was termed the +"bachelor gang" at the Point and mingled but little in ladies' society, +he was a close observer, and Percy Davies saw at a glance that though +more radiant in her rustic beauty than before, more appealing to the +senses in the flush of her health and unconscious grace, there was still +something besides the fashion of her gown that differed widely from the +beauties who thronged the gravelled walks, the shady groves, the tented +field of the national military academy. The swains of the winter gone by +were less in evidence now, and it pleased her anyhow during the two +months of his home stay to forget them one and all and cling only to +him. Changes came in the next two years--and trouble. Old Quimby married +again. Almira's home-life became unhappy. Quarrels ensued between the +new wife and the children. Reproaches fell from the lips of the failing +widow because of Almira's tacit acceptance of the devotions of young Mr. +Powlett, son of the resident physician of the sanitarium that was now +bringing so many patients to Urbana. A handsome, dare-devil sort of boy +was Powlett, who speedily cut out all the local beaux at the parties and +picnics which filled the summer of '75. A beautiful dancer was he, and +taught Almira to waltz and "glide" in a style never before seen in +Urbana, and that other couples first derided, then envied, then vainly +strove to imitate. That Urbana censors should go to the widow with +invidious comment upon Almira's misbehavior was a matter of course, and +that the widow should transmit their tales, not entirely without +embellishment and reproof, was only to be expected. Almira accepted both +with ill grace, was moved to tears and protest. She couldn't help it if +people admired her and liked to dance and walk and talk with her. She +must either submit to it or shut herself up and mope and not go out at +all. She thought Mrs. Davies most unjust, but she did not promise to +amend. Then the widow, finding Almira obdurate, was moved to write to +Percy advising him that he should caution her, who was only +light-hearted and thoughtless, and, to the widow's surprise, Percy +refused. He gravely wrote that Almira was but a child when she engaged +herself to him. She had seen nothing of the world or of other men, and +it was a matter he would not interfere with, and one that he desired his +mother to leave alone. This was simply incomprehensible. Urbana was very +gay that autumn and early winter. The sanitarium was the means of +bringing business to town, and a number of new stores were opened, and +new young men came to tend the counter and swell the parties, and still +young Powlett held supremacy, and everybody began to say that the cadet +was cut out, and Almira Quimby had gone over heart and soul to the new +claimant, when there came a cataclysm,--a scandal at the sanitarium, a +stir at the Palace Hotel, Urbana's new hostelry, the arrest of a +recently discharged patient by the name of Brannan, an afflicted young +man with what was described as an unconquerable mania for drink, and the +sudden disappearance of young Powlett. There was investigation and more +scandal. It transpired that this young Adonis had abused his father's +trust to the extent of smuggling liquor to certain patients and of +heaven only knew what else. Dr. Powlett resigned, crushed and +humiliated. Lawyers came and bailed out the other unfortunate, of whom +it soon was rumored that he was Almira Quimby's own cousin, the son of +her rich city aunt, and that was the reason the lawyers and not the +relatives came. It was presently established that young Brannan was more +sinned against than sinning, and the holidays opened, with a fearful gap +in Urbana, for Almira's devoted lover, to the comfort of every +right-thinking maid and swain in Sangamon society, had fled, no one knew +whither. + +Two weeks later the Widow Davies lay at death's door. Her son was +telegraphed for, and came. His leave was for only one week,--even that a +most unusual concession, granted only because of his unimpeachable +conduct and his safe though not high standing in scholarship. His coming +seemed to give new life to the mother, and Almira vied with him in +attention and devotion. Urbana took it much to heart that after her +months of monopoly of Mr. Powlett, of whom the most damaging and +dreadful things were now told, she should so calmly and complacently +resume her apparent sway over this martial and dignified and superior +sort of person, the widow's son. Urbana fully meant that his eyes should +be opened just so soon as the mother's were closed. But Urbana found +that luck was dead against it. The widow began to mend,--the son it was +who was suddenly prostrated on the eve of his return to the Point. + +Leaving Almira at her father's door one night after seeing her safely +home, Davies was found lying in the high-road, senseless, an hour later, +and never, said Urbana, knew what hit him. Concussion of the brain was +feared, for he had evidently been assaulted in the dark from behind and +felled to earth by blows of some heavy, blunt instrument. Robbery was +evidently the motive, for his little store of money and the beautiful +and costly watch presented to his father at the close of the war were +gone. Almira had two patients now, and devotedly she attended them. When +in a fortnight Percy declared he must return, and did return to pass his +midwinter examination, she wore at last an engagement ring. Urbana did +not know that he had offered--and she had refused--freedom. Urbana did +not know that she declared she loved him as she never did before, and as +she never had another. Urbana resented it that he who was so soon to +occupy the exalted station of an officer of the regular army, and the +princely salary of something over a thousand dollars a year "with all +expenses paid,"--double the sum enjoyed by the head salesman of Miller & +Crofts,--should be so utterly deluded as to the frivolous character of +his betrothed, and means were taken to enlighten him. Anonymous letters +came to Cadet Davies of the graduating class, which that grave and +reverend senior committed, not to memory, but to flames. Whatever she +had been before his visit and mishap, Almira was all devotion now. In +May he wrote to her gravely and affectionately, bidding her remember +that he always felt that she had been pledged to him when too young to +know her own mind, that his must needs be a life of self-denial, +privation, and danger, that he must live with the utmost economy +consistent with his position as an officer, because his mother's comfort +must be a sacred charge so long as she lived, and that it might be years +before he could see his way to asking any woman to come and share his +lot. All this he had conscientiously explained to her before, and she +had met it with tears and reproaches. She could help him live +economically. They could sell the homestead and take mother to live with +them. She would welcome the day when she could leave her father's roof, +now no longer a home to her. She knew it must be that he was tiring of +her,--that he had met some proud lady in the East, and his poor little +village maid was forgotten, etc. Now, in answer to this last letter, +virtually proffering release if she so desired, her response was +vehement. He would kill her with his cruelty and coldness. She had no +hope or ambition other than to share his lot, however humble. To be her +noble soldier, her hero Percy's bride, would be her heaven, and neither +gold nor grandeur nor princely mansion could tempt her from his side, +and she would welcome the grave if he proved false to her. It was all +the high-flown, emotional, melodramatic trash to be expected of an +ill-balanced girl whose pretty head was stuffed with the romance of the +country post-office type, and Davies sighed heavily as he read. + +He had planned to visit an old friend of his father's and see something +of New York harbor and city before turning his back on the East. Never +yet had he set foot in Gotham, and as it would be years before +opportunity might again be afforded him, he had weighed it all pro and +con, and decided that Dr. Iverson's advice and invitation should be +accepted. He would go with his classmates, spend the last evening with +them, and join the reverend doctor on the morrow. His mother, even in +her invalided state, urged that he should do so, but Almira heard the +plan with fresh outburst of tears. There was to be a grand picnic of +all the beaux and belles of Urbana on the 18th. She had counted on +having her soldier lover in attendance on that occasion. She had told +him of it, and that was enough. She had declined all other invitations, +saying that Mr. Davies was to hasten thither the moment the graduating +exercises were over, and now to think of the triumph and malicious +delight of the other girls was intolerable. Her lover should fly to her +like homing-pigeon the instant he was released from prison. It was +tantamount to treason that he should purpose anything else. Almira +fretted herself into a fever. She wrote one long letter to the recreant +Parson, and her sister Be_ay_trice, as they called her, followed it up +with another still more alarming. Then, as he did not wire instant +submission, the telegram was sent. Old Quimby was on the platform at the +Urbana station as Davies sprang from the train. "Nothing much," said he, +in response to the young man's eager inquiry. "Some dam girl nonsense +she and Bee have cooked up between them. When they ain't devilling the +life out of their step-mother they're worrying somebody else. Oh, +yes!--'course the doctor's been humbugging for a week,--too glad to get +a chance of shovin' in a bill." + +Davies went gravely up the sunny street to his mother's home,--a meeting +that served to chase away the clouds, and then an hour later to Almira's +bower. Bee ushered him into a pretty room whose windows were overhung +with honeysuckle and pink chintz, and there in a great old-fashioned +rocking-chair reclined the lovely invalid, who greeted him with +outstretched arms and rapturous cry, and who was sufficiently restored +to exhibit him at the Sunday-school picnic as originally planned. So far +as she was concerned, all went blithely as a marriage-bell until the +morning of July 5, when there came the fearful news of the massacre of +General Custer and his troops at the hands of the Sioux. That evening +the city papers said all officers on leave were hurrying to their +regiments, that reinforcements were being pushed to the front, that +recruits were needed at once; and the next day, followed by a mother's +prayers and a maiden's unavailing protest, Percy Davies was gone. Just +as his father did in '61, leaving all to pursue the path of duty, the +young soldier, though not yet commissioned, sped to the nearest army +post, and joined the first command _en route_ for the field. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + + +In the hot July sunshine, up the long vista of the street the flags hung +drooping, every one, with a single exception, at half staff. Over the +building where hearts were heaviest the colors soared highest; the +general commanding, until ordered from Washington, being debarred a +manifestation of mourning which the sovereign citizen adopts as a matter +of course. It was bitter disaster that had befallen the national arms +and involved so popular a commander with scores of his gallant men; the +stars and stripes that had been saluted all over town in honor of the +ever-glorious Fourth were now set at mid-height or draped with black. +The crowds that had gathered about the newspaper offices and department +head-quarters all the previous day were scattered, in the conviction +that little remained to be told, but there was a gathering at the +railway station to bid adieu to the battalion of infantry from the +neighboring fort, leaving by special train for the seat of war. They had +cheered the dusty fatigue uniforms as the cars rolled away, and many a +young fellow would gladly have gone with the boys in blue could he have +faced the social ban which a misguided public has established against +its most loyal servants, holding enlistment in the regular army as +virtual admission of general worthlessness. And now the crowds still +lingered under the glass roof of the big passenger shed, for word had +gone out that another train coming across the bridge was loaded with +more troops, and there was a fascination in watching these prospective +victims of the stake and scalping-knife. It had been a fierce campaign +thus far, and one in which the losses and vicissitudes both (there are +no honors to speak of) had been borne principally by the cavalry, but +now the "doughboys" with their "long toms" were being pushed to the +front. "Wait till Emma Jane gets her eye on ould Squattin' Bull," said +an Irish private, patting the butt of his rifle, as with head and +shoulders half-way out of the car window he confidentially addressed the +crowd. "It'll be the last spache he'll ever ax to hear." + +"That'll do there, Moriarty; get that gun inside," said a lieutenant, +briefly. And as Moriarty obeyed, with a grin and wink at the throng, the +laugh and cheer that went up were evidently for Private Pat and not for +his superior. It is the smiling face, not official gravity, that wins +the great heart of the people. The band which had headed the column on +the march in from the post, but was not to accompany it to the field, +was still waiting to give the next comers a fitting "send off." Two or +three staff officers in civilian dress stood in earnest talk with the +superintendent of the railway, a knot of curious citizens surrounding +them, eager to pick up any point with reference to the troops or their +transportation. Expectant eyes were cast towards the east where the +towers of the great bridge loomed in the shimmer and glare of the hot +noontide. "She ought to be here now," said the railway-man with an +impatient snap of his watch-case. "What keeps No. 5, Gus?" he asked of +an assistant hurrying by. + +The man hauled up short and touched his hat. "This just came at the +train-despatcher's office, sir," said he, as he handed up a slip of +paper, which the superintendent quickly read, a queer look coming into +his face as he did so. + +"Hu-m-m, gentlemen. This is something _you_'ll have to straighten out. +It doesn't seem to be in my line." And he handed the paper to Major +Ludlum, chief quartermaster of the department, who in turn read it, his +eyes filling with grave concern. + +"Recruits on No. 5 broke loose at Bluff Siding,--drunk--raiding the +saloon. Can't get 'em on train again. Can guards or police be sent?" It +was signed by the conductor. + +"Well," said Ludlum, disgustedly, "we might have known that would +happen. The idea of sending three car-loads of raw recruits with only +one officer, and that one old Muffet. It's tempting Providence." + +"Why, I thought he had a lieutenant with him. Somebody said so at the +office this morning," said the department engineer officer. + +"Not even a lieutenant,--a cadet, if you like; graduated not a month +ago,--not yet commissioned. Some young cub just out of school, with +about as much idea how to handle drunken recruits as I have of dressing +a doll. Home on graduating leave and thought it his duty to volunteer is +all I can make out of it." + +"Well, bully for him!" spoke up the superintendent. "The boy's got the +right stuff in him if that's the case." + +"What's his name?" asked the engineer officer. "I knew most of this +year's class when I was there on duty." + +"Davies," said the quartermaster, consulting a notebook. "Remember him?" + +"Why,--yes,--vaguely. He was not in the section I had charge of," said +Captain Eustis. "One of the last men to attract attention,--Parson +Davies they called him, I believe. He was one of the Bible-class. Don't +think anybody knew him outside of the Sunday-school." + +"No wonder the recruits jumped the traces with no one but old Muffet and +a parson," said the quartermaster, disdainfully. "Now the question is, +what's to be done? Somebody's got to go over and pull them out of the +hole." + +The situation was indeed serious. Many of the commands now suddenly +ordered to take the field were so short of men that, after the manner of +doing things in the 70's, a detachment of undrilled recruits, one +hundred and eighty strong, was hurriedly tumbled aboard the cars at the +cavalry depot on the Mississippi, while others were shipped from the far +East for the Foot. Only one officer--a semi-invalided old trooper--could +be spared from Jefferson Barracks to accompany the batch. There was no +time to wait, and just an hour before the detachment started there +arrived at the office of the depot commander a tall, slim, solemn young +man in brand-new fatigue uniform,--that of the infantry,--who introduced +himself as Mr. Davies of the graduating class, who said he was not yet +assigned to a regiment, but having read that all officers were hastening +to join their commands before they got beyond communication in the +Indian country, thought it possible that he might be assigned to some +company in the field and didn't wish to be left behind. That night he +was seeing his first service. Colonel Cooper, the post commander, shook +him by the hand and presented him to old Muffet, who was in a devil of a +stew and glad of professional help, and then wired on ahead to the +general commanding across the Missouri, or to his representatives at +head-quarters,--he being in the field. All went well enough early in the +night, but, towards morning, whiskey had been smuggled aboard in +sufficient quantity to start the devil of mischief, and finally, at +Bluff Siding, just before reaching the Missouri bridge, overpowering the +unarmed and perhaps sympathetic sentries at the car doors, and defying +the orders of their sergeants, the half-drunken crowd swarmed out and +made a swoop upon a saloon across the side-track. In less time than it +takes to tell it every cubic foot of space of the bar-room was packed +with rioting humanity in grimy blue flannel. The proprietor, who had +stood his ground at the instant of initial impact, was now doubled up +underneath the counter; his shrieking family--Hibernians all, and +somewhat used to war's alarms, though hardly to the sight of raiding +boys in blue--had taken refuge in the privacy of their own apartments +above and behind the saloon itself, while within the reeking +establishment pandemonium had broken loose. Bottles, glasses, and raw +liquor were liberally besprinkling the heads and shoulders of the +surging throng. A brawny Irishman, mad with the joy of unlimited riot +and whiskey, was on top of the counter impartially cracking the heads of +all men within reach with the blows of a big wooden bung-starter. Four +or five who had found the trapdoor leading presumably to the supplies in +the cellar were furiously fighting back the crowd so as to admit of +their raising it and forcing a passage down the wooden flight. Poor +Muffet, vainly pleading and swearing, was scouting on the outskirts of +the crowd about the door-way, occasionally turning and shrieking orders +to some bewildered lance sergeant to find the lieutenant and tell him he +must get in there and do something, but the lieutenant was nowhere to be +seen. At a respectful distance the neighbors were looking curiously on, +half a dozen roustabouts from the wharf-boat moored under the bank, a +little batch of railway employes, a number of slatternly women, not +entirely unsympathetic, and perhaps half a dozen hands from a +neighboring saw-mill, but all these, combined with the townsfolk +hurrying to the scene, would have been powerless as opposed to the +sixscore drink-maddened "toughs." Of the recruits, perhaps a dozen had +remained in the cars; of their non-commissioned officers, perhaps half a +dozen were trying to do something, but having no directing head or hand, +accomplishing little. It looked as though nothing but the bursting +asunder of that ramshackle building would liberate its human charge, for +even those who, battered, bleeding, and suffocated, would gladly have +escaped into outer air, were packed in, sardine-like, and incapable of +self-extrication. To the appeal of the conductor that he should regain +control of his men and prevent destruction of property, the luckless +Muffet plaintively responded, "My God, what can I do? I've done my best, +and nobody else has done anything. The only officer I've got has +deserted me." + +But even as he spoke, accompanied by a jutting and hissing and spraying, +by outburst of yells, jeers, maudlin laughter, there came sudden +vomiting forth of drenched and dripping forms. Over the heads of the +throng within, into the hot faces of the throng without the double door, +hurling them back from the battered entrance in sudden panic, a powerful +stream of cold water, shooting from unseen nozzle, broke up and +demoralized the drunken barrier. Skilfully directed into the heart of +the crowd at the door-way, then into the ruck and tumult within, it +first cleared a passage, then, torrent-like, swept away into it, +tumbling and swearing and cursing, but going, the last able-bodied +invader of saloon sanctity, bestowing upon its foul interior the first +thorough washing it ever received, driving the despoilers before it with +the force of a battering-ram, yet even then, unsatisfied, following up +its victory. With perhaps half a dozen soldiers and as many mill-hands +hauling on the slack of the hose behind him, through a north window came +the tall, slender, serious-faced person of Mr. Davies, a laughing young +lance corporal manning the butt with him, and, aiming low and driving +discipline and punishment at the rate of a gallon a second, _a +posteriori_, at the now drenched and scattering mob, and shouting, "Back +to the train! Back to your seats!" never did they cease their deluge +until the last laggard capable of locomotion took shelter within the +cars. Muffet, recoiling in time to escape both rush of men and muddy +water, stood shouting confirmatory orders from the platform the while. +Many a mob will face the shock of charging steel and hissing lead that +melts away before ridicule and squirted water. The _emeute_ was ended +long before the police arrived, and Muffet had regained some measure of +his accustomed presence of mind. "Oh, we simply manned the saw-mill +hose," said he, in complacent acknowledgment of the congratulation of +the staff officials first to meet him. "It didn't take long to souse +them to their sober senses." + +Indeed, the three car-loads of dripping and bedraggled humanity, meekly +side-tracked under the guarding bayonets of the one company of infantry +left at the fort, found not a sympathetic eye among the lookers-on. An +ambulance had carted off to the hospital four or five, whose battered +skulls bore witness to the hammering powers of big Milligan and his +bung-starter. That redoubtable giant himself, weak from the shock of +having involuntarily gulped more water in a second than ever before he +had swallowed in weeks, was flattened out in a baggage-car. Two more of +the arriving reinforcements failed to appear to the public eye at the +scene of congratulation, and, as sometimes happens in even so well +regulated a family as our little army, these were the two who most +deserved any honors that were being bestowed,--Mr. Davies and his +assistant pipeman. + +Just as the last prostrate victim of that powerful combination--rum and +riot--had performed the frog's march to the baggage-car, the raving +saloon-keeper had been instructed to send his bill of damages to the +chief quartermaster across the bridge, the conductor had signalled "Go +ahead," and the young officer, ruefully scanning the wreck of his new +fatigue uniform, was clambering on the platform of the sleeper, when he +saw that the blood was dripping from the corporal's hand, despite the +big handkerchief wrapped about it. + +"Come in here, corporal," said he. "Let me look at that. How did it +happen?" And he led the way into the men's toilet-room of the sleeper. + +"I must have cut it with some of that broken glass at the window," was +the answer. + +He was paling now, drooping evidently from loss of blood. Quickly Mr. +Davies unrolled the bandage, and there, beside a little jagged gash, +disclosed a deep cut from which the blood was oozing. "Why, man," said +he, "that's as clean as though done with a razor. Did any one try to +knife you?" + +But the soldier made no answer. He sank limp upon a seat. Two civilian +travellers, in prompt sympathy, tendered flasks, and a stiff cup of +brandy brought back some vestige of the flitting color. Then a young +lady came forward from the interior of the car. "Please let me help +you," she said. "My father was a surgeon and I know something about +these wounds." Davies gratefully gave way to her, and found himself +watching the swift, skilful touch of her slender white hands as she bent +over the work. It was finished in a minute, and then with calm decision +the girl spoke again. "I will take him back to our section. He needs +quiet for a while," said she, standing erect now and addressing herself +to Mr. Davies, and rather pointedly ignoring the younger civilian, whose +interjected remarks fell upon ears that were dainty but deaf. "I am with +Mrs. Cranston," said she, "whose husband is among the wounded. Do you +know him?--Captain Cranston?" + +"Only by reputation," answered Davies, raising his cap. "You are very +good to our men. Go with this young lady, corporal. I'll come as soon as +I can wash my hands." + +Hardly waiting, however, for his reply, the girl had passed her hand +underneath the soldier's arm and led him rearwards as the train slowly +rounded the long curve to the bridge embankment. Davies slipped out of +his sack coat and plunged his hands in the basin. "Would you mind +pumping for me?" he said to the nearest civilian, who with his companion +stood gazing admiringly after the girl. "My hands are covered with that +poor fellow's blood." + +"Certainly," was the prompt answer, as one of them grasped the +nickel-plated lever. The other and younger man turned to the ice-water +tank, rinsed the tumbler that had just been used to such good purpose, +poured out another stiff load of spirits, and with confident kindliness +held it out to the young officer. + +"Thank you," said Davies, shaking his head, "I never use it." + +"You don't?" was the surprised answer. "Why, I thought all army officers +drank." + +"That seems to be the general idea," was the quiet answer. "Much more +general than the practice, I hope. Thank you," he continued, as, drying +his hands, he quickly donned his coat and went on through the car. They +watched him a moment as he was presented to the elder of the two ladies, +one whose face, though still young, bore traces of grief and tears and +anxiety. They saw her look up and clasp his proffered hand, evidently +glad to meet one of her husband's cloth. + +"Now, if I'd only known about her husband's being one of the wounded, I +could have rung in there all right," said the younger of the two +travellers. "I haven't seen a prettier girl in all my wanderings,--but +she stood me off even on a dodge I never knew to fail." + +"You were too transparent, so to speak, Willett," said the elder. "She +couldn't help seeing you were trying to scrape acquaintance. All young +girls don't take to frivolity any more than all officers to whiskey." + +Willett, nettled at this palpable hit, spoke resentfully. "Oh, I dare +say they'd make a good team,--one's a prude and the other a prig." + +"Perhaps not a very bad team, as you put it, my boy," was the answer, as +the elder thoughtfully regarded the two now in earnest conversation. +"But a girl who won't flirt isn't necessarily a prude, nor a man who +won't drink a prig. If I were marrying again, I should be glad of a girl +like that for a wife. If I were soldiering again, I'd like that boy for +a sub." + +And just before leaving the train on its arrival at the Omaha station +the speaker went to Davies and held out his hand. "Lieutenant," said he, +"my name is Langston. I met and knew a number of West Pointers during +the war, and I am glad to have met you. If ever I can be of service to +you in my way,--and my duties carry me out here on the frontier very +often,--let me know." + +Never dreaming how it might be needed, Davies accepted the proffer of +services with all that the proffer implied. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + + +Guarded by a detachment of veteran infantry, the recruits so turbulent +at noon were spiritless now in every sense of the word. Turning over his +charge, as well as his account of their conduct and of his own, to the +commander of the escort, Captain Muffet remained at department +head-quarters long enough to impress the officials thereat on duty with +his version of the riot at Bluff Siding,--its inciting cause and its +incisive cure. Then he went back to the cavalry depot and presumably +improved on his initial effort. The story of Muffet's wild ride with the +raw recruits and Muffet's method of quelling a mob was often told that +summer at the rear long after Lieutenant Davies and the recruits in +question had gone to the front and were lost to all communication. The +officer who went in command from Omaha was an expert. He established a +sergeant's guard in each recruit car, with orders to flatten out the +first man who left his seat, rap every head that showed outside a window +when the train stopped, and so turned over the one hundred and +seventy-two that were turned over to him a sick and subdued lot by the +time they reached Fort Sanders the following afternoon. "This is Mr. +Davies,--Lieutenant Davies,--just graduated,--who's to go on with 'em," +said he to the commanding officer of that old army post, adding for his +private ear, "He's a tenderfoot and doesn't know anything but moral +suasion." To this conclusion Captain Tibbetts has been impelled by what +he had heard as well as by the events of the night. Mr. Davies, of whom +he knew nothing except what Muffet had to say, having been told that he +needn't bother about the men any more, had nevertheless bothered about +them, three or four at least, very much,--Lance Corporal Brannan to +begin with, who was slashed in the hand, and a couple of sorely battered +penitents in the middle car among them. No surgeon being with the +detachment, Davies had begged permission towards evening to fetch these +poor fellows back to the sleeper, where their hurts could be cleaned and +bandaged. Tibbetts said no, and two hours later yes. Meantime he had met +the ladies, one of whom, the elder, exhausted by the sleeplessness and +anxiety of forty-eight hours, was comforted by the despatch brought her +at Omaha to the effect that her husband was being sent in by easy stages +to Fort Fetterman, where she could meet and nurse him, and she was now +finally and peacefully sleeping in her berth. The other, a slender, +graceful girl, with very soft dark eyes and grave, sweet, mobile face, +who sat and fanned Mrs. Cranston during the heat of the afternoon, had +next surprised the captain by re-dressing the ugly wound in the young +corporal's hand. Tibbetts knew Captain Cranston well by reputation. He +was one of the finest troop commanders of the cavalry arm, but Tibbetts +had never before met Mrs. Cranston and her companion now consigned to +his care. + +"You are well taught in first aid to the wounded," he said. "Where did +you learn?" + +"My father was Dr. Loomis, of the army," she answered, simply. "He +taught me when I was quite a child. He died, as I think perhaps you +know." + +"We all knew him, Miss Loomis," was the instant reply. "Even those who +never met him, personally, knew him as I did,--for his devotion to our +poor fellows in the fever epidemic. And your mother?" + +"Mother has been dead for years. I am alone now, but for my cousin +Margaret,--Mrs. Cranston. I am her companion." + +And the captain, himself aging in the service, and with daughters who +might be left as was this girl,--penniless,--understood, and bowed in +silent sympathy. It was the sight of the gash in Brannan's fist that +called him back to the business before him. + +"How did you get that?" he asked, with professional brevity, little +liking it--soldier bred as he was--that one of the new flock should thus +be parcelled out from his fellows and transported in a Pullman. + +"Climbing through the window of the saloon I--cut it, sir," was the +answer. + +"Yes--_there_ perhaps," said Tibbetts, indicating the smaller gash, "but +this one,--clean cut like a knife. Whose knife?" + +Whereat Brannan looked confused and troubled. "I don't know, sir," he +finally said. + +"I believe you do know, and that you got it in that saloon row. A pretty +thing for a man like you to be mixed in." + +Whereat Brannan reddened still more, and looked as though he wanted to +speak yet feared to say. It was Miss Loomis who promptly took the word. + +"Indeed, captain, you don't understand. He was ordered in. He was +handling the hose pipe--the very first--with Mr. Davies." And here she +turned as though to seek the other pipeman, while Tibbetts +effusively--impulsively--began to make amends. + +"Well--well--well," said he. "That's a totally different matter. You got +your wound in a good cause, sir, and if I could find out who tried to +knife you, he'd repent it this night. Are you sure you don't know?" + +"I don't think anybody tried to cut me, sir," was the answer, after a +pause. + +"Didn't you see anybody with a knife?" + +But this Brannan wouldn't answer, and the captain, after a moment's +thought, went lurching through the grimy, swaying cars, hunted up the +two damaged recruits and gruffly bade them follow him. Davies looked up +gratefully as they entered the sleeping-car, but the captain did not +notice him. "I have reconsidered," said he, "and brought these patients +to you, Miss Loomis," then turned abruptly away. It was the subaltern +who aided, and then who thanked the skilful, light-handed nurse, for the +poor fellows seemed both abashed and humbled. One of them, looking +furtively about, had caught sight of Brannan, sitting alone in a section +with his bandaged hand. Quick glance of recognition was exchanged. There +was an instant of question in the new-comer's eye. It was answered by +the corporal, who raised two fingers to his compressed lips one second, +then let them fall. But Davies saw,--saw also that when told by the +captain they might remain there in the roomier, cooler sleeper for a +time, the younger and more intelligent-looking of the two dropped into +the seat by Brannan's side. They chatted in low tone together, as the +night came on, their lips moving and their ears attent even though their +heads were turned apart,--communing as men commune who do not wish to be +thought in conversation. + +"We shall have supper at Grand Island," said the captain, presently, +"and coffee will be sent through the cars for the men. If you will +escort Mrs. Cranston and Miss Loomis, Mr. Davies, my sergeants will look +after the command." And Mr. Davies being subordinate and just out of +four years' training in which no man may hesitate to do just as a +superior may bid, obeyed his instructions, not unwilling, even though +smarting under vague sense of being given to understand he was of no +military use. + +Re-entering the car, refreshed after a hearty supper, and seeing his +fair charges to their section, Mr. Davies caught sight of his invalids +still seated where he had left them, and looking weak and hungry. + +"Did they bring you no coffee? Have you had no supper?" he asked. And, +as a shake of the head was sole answer, he sallied forth. Appealing to +the sergeant in charge of the distribution of the cooked rations, he was +favored with the brief reply, "The captain didn't give me no orders." +Moreover, there didn't seem to be anything left. The captain was still +leisurely finishing his own supper, after having got the coffee started +on the train. The huge caldrons used for the purpose were already being +lifted off the cars, empty. Every drop had been spilled or swallowed by +the hungry and thirsty crowd. With quick decision Davies stepped to the +lunch-counter, loaded up with huge frontier sandwiches, doughnuts, and +hard-boiled eggs, and bade the manager draw a jug full of coffee and get +it, with some cups, milk, and sugar, on the sleeper at once. He came +forth laden, the Pullman porter with him, as the conductor was trolling, +"All aboard." Down the platform he went with the eyes of half the blue +coats on the cars upon him, and soldiers refreshed by food and coffee +are in more receptive mood than when dejected by hunger. Some men in the +third car who had heard his eager queries of the commissary sergeant +knew for whom those supplies were meant, others did not, and of these +latter one jocular and untutored Patlander sang out, "Bully for the +leftenint; 'tis he that knows how to look out for number wan." Whereat +there came furious shouts of "Shame!" "Shut up!" and inelegant and +opprobrious epithets, all at the expense of the impetuous son of Erin +who had spoken too soon. Some one whacked his empty head with an equally +empty canteen and called him a Yap. Some one else, farther back, sang +out, "Three cheers for the lieutenant," and stentorian authority in +chevrons bellowed "Silence there, fore and aft!" and then, when instant +hush and awe rewarded the mandate, followed up the order with the +military Milesianism, "Youse fellers wants to keep your mouths shut +barrin' you're atin'." The wounded in the Pullman ate and drank +gratefully and heartily at the lieutenant's expense, and these are +matters the rank and file remember. Lance Corporal Brannan, made +comfortable for the night in the sleeper, had a few murmured words with +the dark-eyed and more intelligent-looking of the two recruits before +they were remanded to their own car for the night, where they went, and, +after the manner of their kind, one of them bragged not a little over +the bully supper they had had with the lieutenant. "Enjoy it while you +can, me bucks," was the caustic comment of a fellow-recruit who had all +the ear-marks and none of the credentials of previous service about him. +"It's the last of that sort of hobnobbing you'll ever see." + +For upwards of an hour during the night, while Mrs. Cranston lay +peacefully sleeping, Mr. Davies and Miss Loomis sat in conversation in +the opposite section. Tibbetts, who would fain have enjoyed such a +privilege, found no opportunity. Somewhere towards ten o'clock he came +quickly in. Davies read official matter in the captain's manner as he +approached the section, and rising, stood attention, cadet-like, when +addressed. + +"Mr. Davies, while I think everything will go quietly with those +fellows from this on, I wish to take all necessary precautions. I will +divide the night with you. After two o'clock I wish you to go through +the cars once every two hours and see that the recruits are quiet and +the guard alert, also to step outside to the platform when we stop at +stations. Better turn in now and get what sleep you can." + +But though promptly at two o'clock the young officer aroused the +captain, who was dozing in the smoking-room, he himself had had little +sleep. The events of the day, the novelty of his position, the desire to +see something of the strange, half-settled land so recently the +roaming-ground of Indian and buffalo through which they were steadily +rolling, and which lay outspread, weird and ghostly, in the summer +moonlight,--these and thoughts of home and the rapidly nearing +possibilities of frontier warfare, all combined to make him wakeful. He +was only getting sleepy when he should have been wide awake. Captain +Tibbetts was an old campaigner and awoke from his doze with a start, +shook himself together, and said he'd take a turn through the car before +undressing for the night. In a moment or two he returned, the first +sergeant with him, and this faithful old soldier was rewarded by a long +pull from the captain's canteen before returning to the recruit car. + +"Do you know anything about that young fellow,--ever meet him before?" +said Tibbetts, indicating with a nod the recruit corporal, who, with a +pillow under his head and his feet on the opposite seat, was now curled +up in slumber. + +"No, sir," answered Davies. + +"Well, he's a man of good education and family, if I'm not mistaken. I'm +told he's been on duty as clerk at the depot, and 'twas he who made out +the rolls. It will be long before he can write again. Better leave him +at Sanders." As he spoke the captain was holding out the well-filled +flask in one hand, the cup in the other. Davies took neither. "Won't you +have a nip?" asked the senior. "It'll help you to keep awake." + +"Thank you, sir, I never have, and don't care to begin." + +Tibbetts began screwing on the cap, looking his man over as he did so. + +"I believe you're right," said he, "and if I were to begin over again +I'd do the same. But we were all taught the other way fifteen years +ago." He paused as though he half wanted to say more, but finally turned +away and disappeared in his section. + +Obedient to his instructions, Davies made frequent tours through the +cars, and scouted the outside of the train at every stop. The night +passed, however, in perfect peace. The dawn came hours before the train +was due at Sidney, where coffee was again to be served. Only one +incident occurred to give him food for new thought. Towards four o'clock +he returned to the sleeper after an absence of some ten minutes, just as +the train pulled slowly away from one of those little prairie stations, +and as he entered the dimly-lighted aisle he saw that Brannan was not in +his place. Standing at Mrs. Cranston's section farther on, a little +phial and medicine-glass in her hand, her dark hair falling in heavy +braids down her back, attired in a loose, warm wrapper, was Miss Loomis, +calm, yet evidently anxious. Beyond her hovered Brannan, holding the +captain's flask. + +"What is it?" asked Davies. "Can I be of assistance?" + +"Mrs. Cranston woke up in some pain," was the answer. "I know just what +to do for her. Thank you, corporal, I believe we won't need the +flask.--He thought I needed it," said she, turning to Davies. And +Brannan, going to the captain's section, slipped his prize back into the +little russet leather satchel and shoved it underneath the berth. Davies +looked at him in some surprise, but made no comment. + +"I am sorry I was not here to help you," said he. "Did you have to wake +him,--Brannan?" + +"He was awake. A soldier was in here speaking with him when I heard Mrs. +Cranston, just after we stopped at the last station. We were there +several minutes, were we not?" + +"Yes, taking on water; but Captain Tibbetts gave orders that no man +should leave his car. Who was the man who came in here, corporal?" asked +he of Brannan. + +"I--I couldn't give his name, sir," was the answer, in evident +embarrassment. "He came in just the minute the lieutenant got off at the +station. He was only in here a few seconds, sir." + +"What did he want?" asked Davies. + +"He--wanted something of the captain, sir, but I told him the captain +was asleep." + +Davies hastened through the passage and across the jolting platform to +the next car ahead. + +"Sergeant," said he, "what man went through here into the sleeper when +we stopped last station?" + +"No man, sir," said the non-commissioned officer, stoutly. + +"But there must have been--or no, perhaps he could have run along the +left side of the train from a forward car and jumped on the platform. I +didn't think of that. Did you see or hear no one?" + +"I heard some one on the platform of the sleeper, sir, but I thought it +was the lieutenant." + +Going forward Davies met with no better success. The guard at each door +was positive no man had gone out. Then, unless there were collusion on +the part of the sentries, he must have slipped through some window, said +Davies to himself. Miss Loomis was still up and rearranging Mrs. +Cranston's pillows when he returned. + +"Did you ascertain anything?" she asked. + +"Nothing. They all deny any knowledge of such a thing." + +"Do you know, I thought there was something strange about it. The man +seemed hurried and excited, talked low and fast, and when Brannan +refused or seemed to refuse what was asked, I heard him say, 'Well, +you'll be a sorry man if you don't.'" + +But of this threat Brannan denied all knowledge whatsoever. Davies, +feeling sure that the young soldier was concealing something, decided to +ask no more questions inviting more lies, but to wait and report the +affair to the captain after breakfast. This time the sergeants did not +overlook the lance corporal in the distribution of coffee and rations. +Davies found that Miss Loomis had just finished dressing and bandaging +the wound when he returned to the sleeper shortly after they resumed +the journey. The soldier looked gratefully into her face as he turned +away, and murmured something the young officer could not hear. "Yes, I +understand," said Miss Loomis in reply. + +A moment later she accosted him. "I'm going to ask you something that +may sound very strange," she said, and her color heightened and the lids +swept quickly over her eyes, "yet--I believe you won't misunderstand. I +want you to do something--or rather _not_ to do something--for me. You +were going to tell Captain Tibbetts about that affair of last +night,--that other soldier's coming in here, were you not?" + +"I certainly was." + +"Well--please don't." + + + + +CHAPTER V. + + +A week later, with additional detachments of horse, foot, and recruits, +Mr. Davies found himself in camp on the sandy, sage-covered flats to the +west of old Fort Fetterman. Here, too, were gathered wagons and mules +laden with ammunition and supplies for the big column already in the +field far to the northward. Officers hurrying to the front from leave of +absence which they had promptly relinquished, newspaper correspondents, +packers, teamsters, scouts and would-be scouts, soldiers old and +soldiers new,--it was a strange and motley array, all awaiting the +coming of the cavalry command, which was to be their escort through the +Indian-infested region that lay between them and the main supply camp +beyond Cloud Peak. Between them and the barren slopes to the northward +rolled the swollen Platte, its shallowest fords breast-deep. At rare +intervals, with his life in his hands and his despatches done up in +oil-skin, some solitary courier came galloping down to the opposite bank +and was hauled over by the rope ferry, the only means of dry +communication between the shores. One day, strongly guarded, there +arrived a little procession of ambulances and _travois_, bearing such of +the wounded as could stand such rude transportation,--but this was while +Davies with his recruits was still on his foot tramp through the passes +of the Medicine Bow,--and among these wounded was Captain Cranston, now +comfortably housed in the quarters of a brother officer who was with his +troop at the front, and there Davies found the two ladies, his +companions of the railway ride, duly installed as nurses. Almost the +first question asked by Miss Loomis was about her patient, the lance +corporal. + +"He is here with us," said Davies, "his hand still in a sling. That was +a deep cut and a bad one, but he's a plucky young fellow and declined to +be left behind at Sanders. He tells me, however, that the hospital +steward with us cannot compare in skill with the nurse he had on the +cars." + +Miss Loomis smiled. "You know I owe that to father," she said. Then, +with quick change of subject, "But I haven't congratulated you on your +assignment." + +"Is it here?--has it come?" he asked, eagerly. "I did not know. What +regiment?" + +"To the Eleventh Cavalry,--Captain Cranston's own regiment." + +"The Eleventh Cavalry!" he exclaimed, surprise and pleasure in his face. +"I had not hoped for that; and yet----" a shadow falling and constraint +creeping into his tone. "I fear I ought to have gone into the infantry. +I had made every preparation. Where did you hear?" + +"About the orders? Why, from Colonel Denton. He came last evening to +call, and we were speaking of you. Haven't you been to see him yet? You +know that's an officer's first duty on coming to a post." + +"I came here first," answered Davies. "It seemed most natural. Of course +I was going to call on the commanding officer. Captain Tibbetts said he +would take me as soon as he came up, a little later. I got away earlier, +as I wanted to inquire for my letters, but I missed them after +all,--they had been sent over to camp. Are you sure about my being +assigned to the cavalry?" + +"There's no doubt about it. Colonel Denton said instructions came by +telegraph to notify you of your assignment to the Eleventh, and +directing you as having relinquished graduation leave to report to +Colonel Winthrop, now commanding the regiment in the field. Perhaps your +throwing up your leave and seeking instant service had something to do +with your good fortune,--if cavalry is really what you wanted." + +"It is certainly what I would most like," he answered; "and yet,--there +were reasons." + +She stood there in the door-way in her cool white dress looking so fresh +and dainty and fair to see; her dark eyes had lighted with pleasure at +sight of her friend, and the flush was still on her soft and rounded +cheek. She was noting how his few days of marching and campaigning had +improved him, even at the expense of a sensitive complexion. Mr. +Davies's nose was peeling, as a result of a week's exposure to +blistering Wyoming suns, his eyes were red-rimmed too, in tribute to +alkali dust and water. The gloss was gone from his trim fatigue dress, a +red silk handkerchief had replaced the white starched collar, and a soft +drab felt hat the natty forage-cap. But he looked the more soldierly and +serviceable if less trim, and being tall, spare, and athletic, if not +particularly handsome, Mr. Davies was at least as presentable as the +average of his fellows now thronging the post, for bristling beards and +frontier scouting-dress banish all vestige of dandyism. But if she liked +him still better now that the week had wrought its changes, what could +be said of his impressions? Attractive as she had appeared in the grime +and dust and heat of the railway car, now in that dainty gown of cool +white lawn, open at the rounded throat, she saw with woman's unerring +eye the unspoken approval if not open admiration in his face. Not yet +nineteen, she had lived a busy, earnest, thoughtful life. The Cranstons +had known her from early maidenhood. She was a child in the Southern +garrison in the days of the great epidemic, when the young captain owed +his life to the doctor's skill and assiduous care. It was this that led +to the deep friendship between the two men, and to Cranston's assuming +the duties of guardian and protector after Loomis's lamented death. It +was this that determined her hastening to Mrs. Cranston the moment the +sad news came, and then accompanying her to the frontier. A mature head +was that on her young shoulders, but she who had so easily repelled the +advances of the admiring fellow-passenger on the train had been +attracted by the bearing and behavior of the young officer, who, +absorbed in his new cares and duties, had apparently noticed her hardly +at all. She and the train conductor and Mr. Langston, the elder of the +two civilians, at least, knew who was the inspiration of that effective +squelching given the rioting recruits, whatever impression might be +prevailing at department head-quarters or at Sanders. She, presumably, +had her duties as assistant to Mrs. Cranston at the bedside of the +sorely wounded officer. Davies, too, had matters requiring his attention +about the post, for the word had gone the rounds that they were to march +at dawn on the morrow. Yet here under the vine-sheltered portico they +lingered, chatting on all manner of topics. Mrs. Cranston came smilingly +to congratulate the young officer on his assignment to her husband's +regiment, to say the captain was dozing now and that she thought she +would lie down a while, but that Miss Loomis was not to think of coming +in out of the sweet summer air. + +"Oh, Mr. Davies is only waiting for Captain Tibbetts to come up from +camp to call with him on the post commander," said Miss Loomis; "and +here comes the captain now," she continued, as a stalwart, full-bearded, +heavily-built fellow swung himself off his horse at the gate, and, +leaving him with his orderly, came forward with cordial inquiries for +his wounded comrade, and with a packet of letters, at least a dozen, +which he handed to the new lieutenant. + +"Seven of them addressed in the same fair, feminine hand, youngster," +said he, in the easy jocularity of the frontier. "That gives you dead +away." + +And the color that mounted to Mr. Davies's forehead, a cloud of +embarrassment, told plainly that the shot was a centre. He had not +recovered himself when the captain again turned, saying they must go to +the commanding officer's quarters at once or be too late. + +"Remember, you are to come and lunch with us, Mr. Davies," said the +captain's wife, as he was saying adieu. + +"I--I'm afraid I can't, Mrs. Cranston," was his answer. "We march so +soon, and I have so many preparations to make." + +"Preparations? Why, what on earth have you been doing ever since you +came up to the post?" asked his witless or too witty tormentor. "He's +simply eager to get off by himself somewhere and devour his ration of +spoon meat. I know how it is, Mrs. Cranston. I was there ten years ago." +And Davies's low-toned protestations were drowned in the jovial tones of +his burly comrade. + +"I'll come to say good-by to-night, perhaps," he stammered, as he was +led away, still clutching his packet; but Miss Loomis had turned and +gone within-doors before the visitors reached the gate. + +"I'm sorry to hear of it," said Captain Cranston, when later that +evening his wife was laughingly telling of Davies's betrayal and +confusion. "I always feel distressed to find a young fellow, just +entering service, has already enlisted in one much more exacting. I was +in love when I graduated myself." + +And Davies didn't come to say adieu. He wrote a note to Mrs. Cranston +saying he found so many duties crowding on him at the last moment, so +many home letters to be written owing to his having left in such haste, +that it was impossible for him to leave camp. He begged her to say +good-by for him to Miss Loomis, whom he sincerely hoped he might meet +again, and with his best wishes for the captain's speedy recovery and +restoration to duty, he begged to subscribe himself her friend and most +obedient servant. + +"Now, I like that young fellow," said Mrs. Cranston, folding up the +letter, "only I didn't----" + +"Well, didn't what?" asked her companion, seeing that she had faltered +for a word. + +"Well--he didn't act at all like an engaged man,--like he ought to have +acted," said Mrs. Cranston, with honest disdain of masculine flirts or +malevolent rules of speech, due perhaps to long association with belles +of the Blue Grass country. + +"Why, I didn't think he was engaged," said Miss Loomis. + +"No,--and he didn't mean you to. But when one mail brings a man seven +letters from one girl, I've no use for him." + +"Well, I should much rather he had them of one than from seven different +girls," said Miss Loomis, smiling resolutely. + +"Oh, you're bound to uphold him, I see. All the same, I thought better +of him." + +"Ah?" And now in a very pretty, playful way did Miss Loomis take her +companion's flushed face between two long, white, slender hands,--very +cool and dainty members were they,--and archly queried, "Are you +beginning to tire of your bargain, Lady Cranston? Are you planning +already to unload me, as the captain says, on somebody else?" + +The answer came with sudden vehemence and a hug. "You are much too good +for any man I know,--except Will, and you can't have him. And I'll never +let you go till the right one comes." + +After which outburst, and for over a week, did this young matron say +little more to Miss Loomis on the subject, but she must have enlivened +some hours of the captain's convalescence with her views on recent +graduates in general, and this one in particular, for when at last +letters came from the front announcing the arrival of the reinforcements +and the final cutting loose of the reorganized column from its base, the +prostrate warrior glanced up at his busy wife with an odd mixture of +merriment and concern in his haggard face. + +"To whose troop do you suppose your friend Davies has been assigned?" + +"Not to yours, surely. You have no vacancy." + +"No. I fear I wish I had,--every time I see my bulky senior sub in +saddle. But, of all men you know----" + +"Will Cranston! You don't mean Captain Devers?" + +"Yes,--Captain Differs, for a fact." + +"Well, then your _protege_ and Mr. Davies have gone into the same troop. +What a strange coincidence! Isn't it time Mrs. Barnard answered Agatha's +letter?" + +"Time she answered it? Yes," replied Cranston, "yet not time for her +answer to get here. Poor lady! She was so distressed at the thought of +his going into the army. I hope that letter will comfort her. It ought +to. I doubt if he ever did an honest day's work before." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + + +The battalion had halted at the foot of the slope, each troop closing up +on its predecessor and huddling in shivering silence. No trumpet +sounded; no word of command was heard. Every troop leader threw up his +hand when he thought he had gone far enough and rolled stiffly out of +saddle, his horse only too willingly standing stock-still the instant he +found himself no longer urged. "Dismount" either by signal or command +would have been an affront to a cavalry force two-thirds of whose array +seemed to be dismounted already, some towing along by taut bridle-rein +the famished relic of a once spirited charger, others comforting +themselves with the reflection that at least they had now only their own +carcass to care for, others still wishing they had not even that +responsibility, wondering how much longer their aggrieved stomachs might +have to struggle with the only pabulum upon which they had been allowed +to expend their gastric juices for over forty-eight hours, and suffering +the pangs of remorse, both physical and mental, in the poignant +consciousness that the cause of this distress was the undigested +portion of some late faithful four-footed friend and companion, for the +command for rations had been reduced to horse meat on the hoof. Three +hundred miles from the nearest post when their supplies gave out, in the +heart of the Bad Lands and the height of the worst season of the year, +except midwinter, it had turned its back to the forts and its face to +the foe, true to its orders, still following the trail of the hostile +tribe,--the only hot thing it had struck for a week. "Live on the +country, there isn't anything else," were their orders, as they cut +loose from the main command, and their major--a reserved and +conservative fellow at other times--came away from the grim presence of +his commander with blasphemy on his bearded lips. The only human +habitation within scores of miles of his line of march were Indian +lodges, and both grass for the horses and game for the men had been +fired off the face of the earth by those active foemen before the +drenching wintry rain set in and chilled to the marrow the shelterless +forms of starving trooper and staggering steed. + +"Live on the country, indeed! Two antelope and ten prairie dogs was the +sum total of the game secured by the hunters in three days' pursuit. And +what are they," said Captain Truman, "among so many? Barley loaves and +Galilee perch might be made to go round in a bigger crowd in the days of +miracles, but this isn't Jordan's strand," he added, as he glanced +around at the dripping, desolate slopes, and then, fortified in his +opinion by the gloomy survey, concluded, with cavalry elegance, "not by +a damn sight." + +"What's the matter ahead, anyhow?" hailed a brother captain, up to his +shins in sticky mud, who had been making mental calculation as to how +many more hours of such wearing work and wretched weather it would take +to unhorse his entire company. + +"Don't know," was the short answer. Men fight, but they seldom talk on +empty stomachs. + +"Why, I thought I saw you talking with Hastings when he rode back." +Hastings being the battalion adjutant. "Didn't he say what they were +pow-wowing about?" + +"No, and I didn't ask. There was nothing to eat in sight, and that's the +only matter that interests my people just now. Just look at those poor +brutes!" And Truman heaved a sigh as he gazed about among his gaunt, +dejected horses, many of them so weak as barely to be able to stand. + +"My men are as bad off as the horses, pretty near," said Captain Devers, +the other. "There isn't one of them that hasn't turned his saddle-bags +inside out to-day for the last crumb of hard-tack. They're worn to skin +and bone. Three of them broke down entirely back there at the creek +crossing, and if there weren't Indians all round us, nothing would have +fetched them along. There goes Davies, coddling 'em again, damn it! That +man would spoil any troop----Mr. _Davies!_" he called, and a gaunt, wiry +fellow, with a stiff beard sprouting on his thin, haggard face, turned +away from a bedraggled trooper who had thrown himself in utter +abandonment among the dripping sage brush at the side of the trail, and +came to his troop commander. + +"I wish you wouldn't make such a fuss over those men," said Devers, +petulantly. "Just leave 'em alone. They'll come out all right. This +coddling and petting isn't going to do any good. Soldiers are not like +sick children." + +"A good many of ours seem to feel that way just now, sir," said the +young officer. "I only thought to cheer him up a bit." + +"Well, when my men need nursing, Mr. Davies, I'll have you detailed in +that capacity, but be so good as to refrain from it otherwise. I don't +like it. That's all." + +Without a word Davies turned on his heel and went back to his horse. +Truman, looking after him with a not unkindly interest in his tired +eyes, saw that he swayed a little as he ploughed his way through the +thick and sticky mud. "That boy's as weak as a sick child himself, +Devers," said he. "You'll have to have a nurse for him before we get +in." + +"Well, it's his own fault, then. He had just as much in his haversack as +I had when we cut loose from the main column. I 'spose he's given it +away." + +"I know he has," was the curt rejoinder. "Neither of those two men could +stomach tough mule meat. I suppose that was the only way to get 'em +along." + +Devers turned gloomily about. Down in the bottom of his heart he felt +that in his annoyance at what he considered disregard of his +instructions he had spoken harshly and unjustly to a young officer of +whom he had heard many a word of praise during the hard and trying +campaign now drawing to a close. True, the words had fallen mainly from +the lips of those of the rank and file or from seniors whom he didn't +like. In some, cases, especially among the enlisted men, they would +appear to have been spoken for the captain's especial benefit. Devers, +while a painstaking officer and not unmindful of the care of his men, +was one who "lacked magnetism," to say the least, and never won from +them the enthusiastic homage they often lavished on others among their +superiors. The fact that Lieutenant Davies, finding Moore and Rupp +actually so weak from lack of food that they could hardly drag one leg +after another, had been sharing with them his own slender store of +provision was not the first thing the men had noted in his favor, but +that was no reason, thought Devers, why they should raise their voices +and glance covertly in his direction when referring to it. Devers was +one of the kind sometimes called unsympathetic, that is, he seemed so, +but it was more in manner than in fact, for few troop commanders in his +regiment were really more careful in providing for their men than he. +But these were days that tried men's tempers as well as their souls, and +the officer who could look back on that long campaign against the Sioux +without regretting some speech wrung from him by the exasperation +produced by incessant exposure, hardship, and finally by starvation, +were few indeed. Devers was honest enough to admit to himself at the +moment that he wished he hadn't said what he did say to Davies, but not +so honest as to confess it to any one else. Yet stealing a glance at the +young fellow whom he had humiliated, now wearily leaning against his +saddle, Devers would have been glad to find some way of making amends, +but, stealing another glance around another way after Truman, of whom he +was both jealous and afraid, he hardened his heart. It is one thing to +say "I was in the wrong" to the victim, and quite another to admit it to +one's fellows. It is fear of what the world will say that keeps many a +man from righting many a wrong, and men, too, who wouldn't flinch in +front of a mile of batteries. + +Standing listlessly by their horses, the men of Devers's troop had, some +of them at least, been silent witnesses of the scene. One or two +officers also had marked and conjectured, though they had not heard, +what had taken place. Truman alone was cognizant of all, and, whatever +may have been his views, this was neither the time nor place to express +them. But he took occasion to stop as he was returning to the head of +his own troop and speak to the young officer in the case. + +"Davies," said he, kindly, "come over with me a moment. I've got a +little chunk of antelope in my saddle-bags, and you need it, man. We'll +all have something to eat to-night--_sure_. We'll make the Belle Fourche +by nine." + +Davies looked up gratefully. "I'm ever so much obliged, captain," he +began, "but I can't eat with all those poor fellows looking at me. +They're about done up." + +"Oh, it's rough, I know, but all they've got to do is tag along with the +column till night and then eat their fill. You haven't had enough to +live on, and may have work ahead. Here comes Hastings now." + +And as he spoke the battalion adjutant came spurring down from a low +ridge at the front fast as a miserably jaded horse could bear him. +Earlier in the campaign every man would have felt the thrill of coming +excitement,--a chase, a brush of some kind, perhaps,--but now all were +weak and weary. Even the Patlanders in Truman's troop, men of whom it +had often been said that they'd rather fight than eat, were no more full +of fight to-day than they were of food. + +"What's he want?" growled Devers, sauntering over to where the officer +stood. "We've left the Indians miles behind. Surely there can't be any +between us and the river." + +Many eyes were fixed on the coming horseman or on the little group of +scouts and soldiers surrounding the major, who, kneeling, was levelling +his field-glasses over the ridge at some objects far away, apparently +towards the southeast. + +"They're everywhere,--damn them!" was the curt answer, "except where we +want them. But he's looking off square to the left, not ahead." + +This was true. Whatever it might have been far to the front of the weary +column that caused the little squad of scouts to signal halt after their +first cautious peep over that ridge, the object at which so many were +now excitedly peering and pointing was at right angles to the direction +of the march. Yet did the advance keep well concealed against observant +eyes ahead, though why they should do so when every Indian in Dakota by +this time knew all about them, their movements, and those of the main +column farther over towards the Little Missouri, Truman couldn't +understand. + +"Have you ten horses that can stand a side scout?" asked the adjutant, +urging his mud-spattered mount to the head of Devers's troop. He spoke +abruptly, and without salute, to his superior officer,--his own captain +at that. + +"What are we on but a side scout now?" demanded that officer, in the +surly tone the best of men may fall into under such circumstances. + +"That isn't the question," replied Mr. Hastings, "and we've no time for +points. Davies, it's your detail. There's something--we can't make out +what--over towards the river. Report to the major and I'll find your +party." + +"I doubt if my horse can stand any side scout," said Davies, slowly, +"but I am ready." + +"Oh, your horse's as good as any in the outfit," interposed the +adjutant, impatiently. "The major wants ten men from your troop at once, +captain,--the ten who have the strongest horses. It won't take 'em more +than a dozen miles out of the way, I reckon. The whole crowd would go, +only men and horses can barely make the day's march as it is." + +"See any Indians?" asked Truman, lounging up. + +"I haven't. Crounse and the scouts say they have, and it's likely +enough. Of course you've seen the pony tracks, and what's queer is that +many of them head over towards the very point where this smoke is +drifting from. Looks as if they'd jumped some wagons and burned them." + +Meantime, Mr. Davies had slowly mounted and was urging his reluctant +horse into some semblance of a canter. As the slope in front of him +steepened, however, both horse and rider abandoned the effort, and, +full fifty yards below the point where the battalion commander and his +scouts were in consultation, the lieutenant dismounted, and leaving his +steed unguarded to nibble at a patch of scant and sodden herbage that +had survived the Indian fires, he slowly climbed the ascent. "I am +ordered to report to you, sir," was all he had to say. + +The major lowered his field-glass and looked back over a broad, burly +shoulder garbed in canvas shooting-jacket. Not a stitch of uniform +graced his massive person from head to heel, yet soldier was manifest in +every gesture or attitude. A keen observer might have said that a shade +of disappointment crossed his fine, full-bearded face as he heard the +subaltern's voice, but no sign of it appeared in his tone when he spoke. + +"Mr. Davies, just take this glass and see what you make of that smoke +off yonder. The sun is getting low and it baffles me somewhat." Silently +the lieutenant obeyed, and creeping up towards the crest he knelt and +took a preliminary peep. + +Issuing from the Bad Lands the jaded column had been plodding all day +long, though with frequent enforced rests, through a rolling sea of +barren, turfless earth. What grass had carpeted its surface in the +spring had been burned off by sagacious Indians, bent on impeding by +every known device the march of troops through their lands,--and what +device the Indian does not know is little worth knowing. Under a +dripping leaden sky the earth lay desolate and repulsive. Miles away to +the north the dim, castellated buttes and pinnacles of the range were +still faintly visible, and the tortuous trail of the column of twos +winding its way over wave after wave of barren prairie like the wake of +some terrestrial bark in a sea of mud. Far to the westward a jagged line +of hills, sharply defined, seemed to rear their crests from the general +level of the land, and somewhere along the eastern slope of that ridge, +and not far from where two twin-pointed buttes seemed peeping over at +these uncouth invaders, the main command of the expedition should have +passed earlier in the day, making for the crossing of the swift-running +stream that circled the northern border of some black, forbidding +heights lying like a dark patch upon the landscape at its southwestern +edge. Black as it looked, that was their one refuge. There alone dare +they hope to find food. Thither had been sent an advanced detail with +orders to buy at owners' prices flour, bacon, bread, coffee, anything +the outlying settlements might have for sale that would sustain life. +Men who had been living on horse or prairie-dog would not be fastidious. +Here, too, the major had hoped by night to bivouac his weary men, but it +seemed desperately far away. The march had been much impeded, and now, +far out on his left flank was something that could not be passed +uninvestigated. He, with his worn battalion of four troops, had been +detached from the main column three days previous with orders to follow +the trail of a war-party of Sioux, and smite them hip and thigh if he +could catch them in forty-eight hours; if not, to veer around for the +valley and rejoin the column at its bivouac among the foot-hills. There +they should rest and recuperate. The pursued Indians, fortunately, had +turned southward and gone jogging leisurely away towards their +reservations, until warned of the pursuit by ambitious young braves +still hovering about the troops in hope of slicing off the scalp of some +straggler. Then, every man for himself, they had apparently scattered +over the face of the country, laughing gleefully to think what fun the +white chief would have in deciding which trail to follow. The situation +on the third day out had been summarized by Crounse, the guide, about as +follows: "So long as this outfit pulls together it won't catch an +Indian; so soon as it doesn't pull together it'll catch hell," which +being interpreted meant that the four companies united were too strong +for the number of Indians within striking distance, or say three days' +march, but that if it were divided into little detachments, and sent +hither and yon in pursuit of such small parties as would then allow +themselves to be seen, the chances were that those pursuing squads would +one by one be lured beyond support, surrounded, cut off, and then +massacred to a man. The major and his officers, most of them, knew this +as well as Crounse. They knew, moreover, that even so large a command as +theirs had been cut off, surrounded, and massacred more than once in the +history of Sioux warfare, but then the Indians were massed, not +scattered helter-skelter all over the continent as was the case the end +of this eventful summer. Well did Major Warren understand that with such +broken-down horses and weakened men he could now effect little or +nothing against the Indians after whom he had been sent, even could he +overtake them, and his instructions were literally obeyed. It was high +time for him to restore his men to their comrades. He was making the +best of his way to the rendezvous, hoping almost against hope to reach +the welcome of the bivouac fires, and hot tins of coffee and toothsome +morsels of hard-tack and bacon, things they had not had a scrap of for +three days, and only occasional reminders of for the previous ten, when +lo! off to their flank, far to the southeast there appeared this +unwelcome yet importunate sign. Was it appeal for help or lure to +ambush? Who could say? Only one thing was certain,--a thick smoke +drifting westward from the clump of wallows and timber surrounding what +Crounse said was a spring could not be passed unheeded. + +"If we march the whole command over there, it will be another +twenty-four hours before we can reach the regiment. I don't think many +of the men, or horses either, can go that much longer without a bite," +said Mr. Hastings, the battalion adjutant, seeing in his senior's eye a +permission to speak. + +"Well, there are no settlements there and never have been," said +Crounse, "so it can't be cabins or shacks. Wagons it may be, but who'd +be damn fool enough to start a wagon-train up the valley this year of +all others, when every Indian at the reservation except old Spot is in +league with the hostiles? I can't believe it's wagons, yet it's on the +road full a mile this side of the river itself. What I'm afraid of is +that it's a plant. They want to coax us over there and cut us off, as +they did Custer." The major was silent and thoughtful. Davies, still +studying the distant objects, said not a word. Leading their horses, +eight troopers following a sergeant, all wet, weary, and heaven only +knows how hungry, came slowly forward up the slope until they reached +the spot where Davies's horse was nibbling. Here the foremost halted +without a word, and the others grouped about him or, stopping short when +their leader did so, threw themselves on the wet ground reckless of cold +or rheumatism, as spiritless a squad as frontier warfare could well +develop. Valley Forge knew nothing like it. The retreat from Moscow +might have furnished a parallel. + +Leaving his horse to do as his jaded fancy might suggest, the battalion +adjutant, returning from his quest, came slowly to the major's side. +"I've picked out nine, sir. It was simply impossible to find another in +the whole two hundred. Some of these look barely able to stagger as it +is." + +"And it's Davies's detail?" asked the major, in low tone. + +"Yes, sir. He's the only sub in the battalion who hasn't been on +detachment duty since we left the Yellowstone, and his horse is able to +go. Look at him, actually kicking!" + +This was true. The sergeant's starving charger, showing a disposition to +poach on the little preserve that Davies's steed had pre-empted, was +rewarded by a sudden whirl about and flourish of two shod hoofs. + +"Davies," said the major, kindly, yet with quick decision, "I hate to +impose additional work on worn-out men, but we can't leave that matter +uninvestigated. I want you to ride over there and see what that smoke +means. I don't think Indians in any force are near, and ten men ought to +be enough to stand 'em off. If it's nothing of consequence you can +follow on up-stream or camp as you please. If it's a wagon outfit +attacked, and there's anything left to help, do your best. We'll keep a +troop in supporting distance, and instead of marching straight for the +hills, I'll edge off here towards the river, sending Devers well out +towards you. We've got nearly three hours of daylight yet. Think you +understand?" + +"I think so, sir," said Davies, slowly replacing his glass, then looking +hesitatingly around. + +"Anything you want?" asked Warren. + +"Well, I should like to see Captain Truman just a minute, sir." + +"He's three hundred yards back there now, and time's precious. Can't I +do?" asked the major, not unkindly. "Want to leave anything?" + +"No, sir. It's of no consequence." And turning abruptly, Davies went +half sliding, half shuffling down the slippery slope, kicked the mud off +his boots, and briefly nodding to the sergeant, said "Mount," hoisted +himself into saddle, and led his little party silently away. One of the +men looked appealingly back towards Crounse. + +"Got any baccy, Jim?" + +"Not a pinch. I'd give my boots for a chew." + +Davies heard the appeal and turned to his sergeant. "Tell Dunn to come +up here alongside," said he, reaching down into his saddle-pocket; "I've +half a plug left, sergeant, and we'll divide." + +"It'll help the men as much as a square meal, sir," said the trooper, +gratefully; "but I never saw the lieutenant chew." + +"I don't, but it's some I fetched along for just such an emergency." + +Meantime the major and his party stood gazing silently after them. They +saw them winding away down the southward face of the long ridge and +crossing the shallow ravine at its foot. Beyond lay another long, low +spur of treeless prairie. + +"The Parson didn't seem over-anxious to go," muttered Mr. Hastings, as +though to himself. + +"Small blame to him!" promptly answered the major. "I don't blame any +man in this command for declining any invitation, except to dinner. +Hallo! What's that?" + +In Davies's little party the men had been seen passing some object from +one to the other. One or two who had ridden up alongside the young +officer touched their hats and fell back to their place. Suddenly two of +them left the squad and, urging their horses to such speed as they were +capable of, went at heavy plunging lope over the southern end of the +opposite ridge and disappeared from view. + +"Antelope, by jimminy! I thought I saw a buck's horns over that crest +yonder a minute ago," said an orderly. + +"Antelope be damned!" said Crounse, gritting his teeth. "If those men +knew this country as I do they'd think twice before they rode a hundred +yards away from the column. I wouldn't undertake to ride from here to +that butte yonder,--not for a beefsteak, I wouldn't,--God knows what +else I wouldn't do for that!" + +"Why, you can see the whole valley, and there ain't an Indian in +sight," said the orderly trumpeter, disdainfully. + +"Yes, and it's just when you can't see one that a valley's most apt to +be full of 'em, kid," began the frontiersman, but the major cut him off. + +"Ride after Mr. Davies with my compliments, trumpeter, and tell him to +recall those men, and not to let them straggle, even after game." + +The trumpeter touched his ragged hat-brim and turned away to get his +horse, which he presently spurred to a sputtering lope, and went +clattering away on the trail. + +"We may as well mount now and push ahead," said the major, after a +moment's reflection. "Keep Davies in sight as much as possible, +Crounse." And so saying he went on and climbed stiffly into saddle, for +he, too, was wet and chilled and sore-spirited; but it was his business +to put the best face on matters in general, and the troopers, seeing the +major mount, got themselves to their horses without further order. None +of the horses, poor brutes, required holding, but stood there with +dejected crest, pasterns deep in the mud, too weak to wander even in +search of grass. Warren came riding slowly towards his men. + +"Captain Devers," said he, "I have sent Mr. Davies off to the left to +scout towards the valley. I wish you to follow his trail a mile, and +then to march due south by compass, keeping about midway between him and +us. Hold him in sight, if possible, and be ready to support him if he +should be attacked. We will back you. If all is quiet by the time you +strike the old road in the valley, turn west and follow on to camp." + +But Captain Devers was one of those officers who seemed never to grasp +an order at first hand. Even when it came in writing, clear, brief, and +explicit, he often required explanations. "I don't think I understand, +sir," he began, but Warren cut him short. + +"I should have been prepared for that," he exclaimed, giving way for the +first time to the generally peppery and irascible spirit of semi-starved +men. "Mount!" he ordered. "Captain Truman, lead the column,--Crounse +will show you the line. I will ride here awhile with Devers and show him +what's wanted." + +Now, it is one of the peculiarities of prairie landscape that where +whole counties may appear to be one general level or open slopes when +viewed from the distance, the face of the country is really cut up in +countless directions by ravines, watercourses and _coulees_, so that, +except in the level bottom-lands along a river-bed, it is next to +impossible to keep moving objects continually in view. Davies and his +little party were out of sight when the major reappeared on the ridge +with Devers's ragged troop at his heels. So, too, were the would-be +hunters. "Kid" Murray, the trumpeter, alone remained in view, and he had +just reached the crest of a parallel ridge somewhat lower and about a +quarter of a mile to the left. + +Then those at the head of column saw a strange thing. The young +trumpeter, instead of pushing forward on the trail, had suddenly reined +in. Bending forward in his saddle, he was gazing eagerly in the +direction taken by the antelope-stalkers; then, suddenly again, whirled +about and began frantically signalling to the column. They saw him +quickly swing his battered trumpet from behind his back and raise it to +his lips, sounding some call. Floating across the wind, over the bleak +and barren prairie, came almost together the muffled sound of two +rifle-shots, then the stirring trumpet signal,--_gallop_. + +"Away with you, Devers!" ordered the major. "Head Truman this way, Mr. +Hastings. Tell him to come on." And forty horsemen went laboring down +the gentle slope, lugging their rusty brown carbines, one by one, from +the mud-covered sockets. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + + +Jaded as were the horses, it was only by vigorous spurring that they +were forced into anything like a gallop. Earlier in the campaign, only +with extreme difficulty could they have been held. In dispersed order, +spreading out, fan-like, to avoid the volleys of mud hurled back by the +leaders, the troop came struggling up to the opposite ridge, many of the +men loading as they rode, all with eager eyes and compressed lips +staring straight ahead for the first glance at what each knew must be +the foe. That no shot was to be dreaded from lurking Indians along the +ridge each reasoned from the fact that the trumpeter, after sounding his +signal and seeing them well on their way, had himself pushed on out of +sight. Once or twice the foremost thought they heard other shots. All +reined up as they reached the crest, and this was what they saw: + +Far ahead, down towards the valley ran a long tongue or spur from the +high ground over which they had steadily been marching since the dawn. +Farther away, perhaps ten miles, a black fringe in the depths of the +valley marked the winding river-bed. Against this and the dull +background of the opposite rise a faint column of pale, blue-white smoke +was drifting slowly westward from a little patch of trees at least a +mile nearer them than the river. "That's Antelope Springs," said +Crounse, who knew every league of the valley. Straight towards this +point a little party of horse were now steadily moving, a dark spot upon +the slopes, and nearly a thousand yards away. They were gradually +descending to the valley along the eastern side of the long tongue +referred to, all ignorant, probably, of what might be going on upon the +other. Obedient to his orders then, Davies was riding by the shortest +line to the designated goal, and all with them thus far seemed tranquil +enough. But hardly half a mile to the right front of their supporting +comrades, afoot now, and stopping every minute to let drive a long-range +shot at some objects scurrying away over the slopes to the south, "the +Kid" was running, and ever and anon turning to beckon them on. One +glance told the experienced hands what those fleeing rascals +were,--Indians, fresh from some deviltry, their swift ponies bounding +over the little gullies and watercourses like so many goats. Once more +the troop spurred on, though every man realized the hopelessness of any +pursuit. The first thought in every mind was the fate of their two +venturesome comrades. Even "the Kid" could not be sure what that was as +they reached him. "They're just over around that point," he almost +sobbed in his excitement. "I saw the Indians sneaking up the ridge +yonder. They fired from there, and then rushed in with a yell, and I'm +afraid they've got 'em." + +Brief search was all that was needed. Not half a mile west of the little +party, and hidden from the sight and hearing of their comrades, the two +eager, hungry hunters had met their fate. Four lurking warriors,--part +of the daring band that, hanging about the battalion, watched its every +move, ever on the alert for just such opportunity as this--had lashed +their ponies to the gallop, darted along the winding ravine between the +two ridges until opposite the point where the hunters crossed, then +crawling to the top, had shot the poor fellows from their hidden covert, +and rushing in as they tumbled from their saddles, had quickly finished +the bloody work. One of the men, Mullen, a notable shot, seemed to have +been killed at the first fire, as he lay face downward, his hands +gripping the wet soil, his scalp torn from the bare and bleeding skull. +Phillips, his chum, had died fighting, and was riddled with shot and +lance wounds. His horse, too, was killed, while that of Mullen was +wandering helplessly about in a dazed sort of way, as though unable to +comprehend his own narrow escape. For once there had been no time for +further mutilation. Contenting themselves with the arms, ammunition, and +scalps of the troopers, the Indians had scurried away on the instant. +The whole affair had not lasted two minutes, yet there on the open +prairie, in broad daylight, with a four-company battalion of horse not +six hundred yards away in one direction, and double their own number of +troopers riding along not six hundred yards away in another, they had +dared interpose between and swoop down upon their victims in their +fancied security. Devers was almost beside himself with grief and rage. + +"It's all that damned Sunday-school soldier's fault!" he burst forth. +"He's let these poor fellows ride slap into ambush, and gone off without +a thought of them." He would have said more, and in the full hearing of +the whole command, but the stern voice of the major checked him. + +"Hush, Devers, hush!" he ordered, as he rode into the midst of the pale +and excited group gathered about the lifeless forms. "Don't halt, +Truman," he ordered, as the senior captain came trotting up at the head +of the long straggling column. "Push right on and do your best to catch +those devils. I'll follow in a minute." + +Without either orders or permission six or eight of Devers's men spurred +into the nearest gaps in Truman's column,--and gaps were many,--others, +half dazed, hung about their captain. + +"Send a messenger to Mr. Davies and let him know what's happened," +continued the major, after a moment of painful thought. "Bury your dead +as quick as you can, then carry out your orders. Better halt Davies +until you're ready to move ahead." Saying this, and followed by his +orderly, the battalion commander spurred away towards a bedraggled party +of some fifty dismounted men, some with horses meekly drooping at their +master's heels, several without even the shadow of a steed. Truman had +"fallen out" his utterly ineffective to form a guard for the sick and +unhorsed, Davies's two patients among them, and one of those now, in +weakness and excitement, crying like a child. A gray-haired lieutenant +was with the party striving to get this reserve into some kind of shape. +"Follow Captain Truman's trail to the river, Mr. Calvert," said the +major. "Bring your party along as well as you can. You'll find camp +somewhere up-stream. We'll have rations to meet you. I'll have to go on +now after the battalion,--what there is of it," he added to himself, his +teeth firmly set. "Was ever luck worse than this?" + +And thus was Captain Devers, as senior officer, left in command with the +troops that remained clustered about the still warm and bleeding bodies +of their murdered comrades, and his first order was characteristic. +"Ride after Mr. Davies, trumpeter. Tell him to halt his party where they +are, and say I wish to see him at once." Dashing the tears away from his +eyes, little Murray said, "Yes, sir," and mounted his horse. He was +starting when Devers called him again. "You needn't tell Mr. Davies +what's happened," he said. "It would demoralize him entirely;" adding in +an undertone that was none the less audible to the men around him, "He's +worse than demoralized now." + +Digging graves with hunting-knives and fingers as the only tools is +wearisome work. "What's the use of it anyhow?" reasoned the captain, +impatiently. "We simply can't dig anything but a shallow trench inside +an hour with the means at hand. The coyotes would paw up the bodies, +sure, before we'd gone five miles. Better carry them along on these led +horses by the shortest route to the river. We're bound to find plenty of +rocks there that the wolves can't roll away." It wasn't the first time +the sad little command had had to "pack" their dead and wounded, and in +a quarter of an hour, with perhaps thirty men trailing along behind him, +Devers, instead of obeying his original instructions, was striking +straight across country for the river. And so it happened as nightfall +approached there were four parties of cavalry, widely dispersed, in the +gathering gloom of the desolate prairie. The major with about one +hundred men was still hurrying far to the southwest on the trail of the +Indians, hoping before dark to find them in sufficient force to halt and +show fight. Calvert with his invalid corps followed three miles in their +wake, and losing ground with every minute; then Devers, with about +thirty men in saddle and two dead on their _travois_, was slowly +plodding southward towards the stream. Davies's little squad, halted as +ordered, was now isolated from all, far over on the east side of the +jagged spur, over whose crest their lieutenant had just disappeared from +their sight, with Murray in attendance, riding wearily back to find his +captain, disturbed by contradictory orders and dishearted to see him in +march full a mile farther away than he supposed, and diverging from the +point of direction of his own party with every step. Time and again had +Devers, still fuming with nervous tension and mingled wrath and +pain,--hungry and savage, too, it must be borne in mind,--given vent to +some petulant expression because of the non-arrival of the young officer +whom he saw fit to hold responsible for the loss of his men; and when at +last Mr. Davies neared them, riding diagonally towards the troop from +the low divide to the east, Devers did not change the direction of his +little column so as to meet him half-way, but held on sullenly +southward. Observance of the major's orders would have carried him along +the trail of Davies's party until well across that ridge or spur, then +having gone the designated mile he should now be marching southward +along the ridge where he could, frequently at least, see both Davies's +squad and their distant objective-point,--that smouldering fire in the +valley. Marching as he was he could see neither. + +Presently coming to the head of one of those tortuous ravines washed out +from the general surface of the prairie by the melting snows of +centuries, and noting that if he kept to the eastward side he would have +to deflect a trifle to that direction, Devers inclined to his right, and +ten minutes later found it swinging around in front of him, already +broad and deep and obliquely crossing his path. Either he must dismount +and lead down the abrupt declivity and up the opposite bank, or, keeping +along the bluff, follow the windings of the ravine. One wrong step had +led with him to another. There is a fatality about such things that +besets the truest of men and bedevils the best intentions. The more he +followed the right bank the farther west of south it bore him, and +Devers hid his compass with his conscience in the breast of his +hunting-shirt, and found relief in renewed expletives. It was Davies +who had to urge his horse to the lope to overtake the command so +steadily pulling away from him. He wondered who the poor fellows could +be who seemed to have given out and were being dragged along on the +_travois_, but it soon became necessary for him to descend into the +depths of the ravine, down along a tributary break, and then even in +nearing he lost sight of them until, after another canter and a hard +pull up the opposite slope, he came at last suddenly face to face with +his captain. Murray by this time, his horse entirely used up, was far to +the rear. + +"It's an hour since I sent for you, Mr. Davies," began the captain, +sternly. "What in God's name has kept you so long?" + +"I could come no quicker, sir," was the reply, given in respectful yet +remonstrative tone. "My horse----" + +"Oh, you've got the best horse in the battalion, and he carries the +lightest weight," said the captain, angrily; "physically and +intellectually both, by God!" he added to himself. "You must have been +far off your course to have been so long reaching me." + +"I was heading straight for the fire, captain,--straight as men could +go. I kept it in sight every minute from the time we crossed the crest +yonder," said Davies, his tired, haggard eyes looking squarely into +those of his commander instead of seeking sympathetic glance from the +pale, drawn faces of the silent troopers nearest him. + +"Well, then, that is your excuse, I suppose, for allowing men to +straggle in defiance of my orders." + +"It is partially so, sir, partially not. I knew these were the orders +early in the campaign, but ever since we ran out of rations Mullen and +Phillips, as well as dozens of other men in the regiment, have been out +hunting on the flanks every day. They never stopped to ask permission +this time. I never knew that they were gone until they were out of +sight. I supposed, of course, they wouldn't be away so long." + +"I have told you more than once, Mr. Davies, that you were reckless of +my instructions, and I've sent for you to show, once and for all, what +it has cost. Stand aside there!" he said sternly to the men, whom some +instinct of pity had prompted to gather between them and the stiffening +forms of the dead. "There are your hunters,--two of my best men, Mr. +Davies, and who but you is responsible for this?" + +For a moment the young officer gazed as though stricken with sudden +horror, his blue eyes staring, his gaunt, pinched features ghastly +white, and then Sergeant Haney and another trooper sprang from their +horses and ran to his side. Weak, worn, starved, he had quailed at the +dreadful sight, and was toppling head-foremost to the ground, swooning +away. + +[Illustration: "THERE ARE YOUR HUNTERS,--TWO OF MY BEST MEN." + +Page 96.] + +When half an hour later the captain with his silent and gloomy party had +resumed his march for the river, only with the field-glasses could +occasional glimpses be had of the main command far away to the southwest +in the gathering dusk. Lieutenant Calvert, with his invalid corps, was +dragging wearily after them, something like two miles away over the +rolling surface, sometimes dipping out of sight among the swales and +_coulees_, sometimes crawling over some low wave, and Davies, restored +to consciousness and accompanied by one of Devers's oldest troopers, +Sergeant McGrath, had once more ridden away to join his distant and +isolated party. Just before it grew too dark to see anything at all he +was faintly visible at the top of the divide where he and the sergeant +had halted, evidently searching in the gloom of the lowlands beyond for +sign of the squad he had left over an hour before. Then they disappeared +and were seen no more. + +Ten miles up-stream, around rousing camp-fires, in the thick of the +timber, the main body of the expedition--their lately starving +comrades--were holding high carnival. Men and horses were astonishing +their stomachs with dainties to which they had long been unaccustomed, +for wagons had come out from the settlements to meet them, pouring in +all the afternoon, and, mindful of his detached battalion, the colonel +had presently despatched three or four of these welcome loads, well +guarded, down the winding river in search of Warren, with instructions +to bivouac at once and feast, and at nightfall they had met him, halted +at the river after the luckless pursuit. The wagons were unloaded on the +spot, and two of them pushed on out to meet Calvert, and be loaded up +again with his exhausted plodders, while scouts, mounted on the draught +mules that had had so long and hard a pull all day, and yet were +stronger and fresher than the starving horses, were sent on down-stream +in search of Devers. With these latter went a pencilled note from the +battalion commander as follows: + +"Rations here in plenty. Unless you and Davies are used up, you'd better +come along to camp. We'll keep bright fires burning to guide you. I +presume you've seen no Indians, or we'd have heard from you before +now." + +In sending this letter Major Warren assumed two things: first, that +Devers had carried out his orders, crossed the long spur that jutted +down almost to the stream at its deep concave bend, and then, moving +south, had kept Davies in sight, if not actually in touch. Second, that +Davies had carried out his orders, investigated the fire, and then +rejoined his captain. For, reasoned the major, had Davies been attacked, +Devers would have known it, supported him at once, and sent word to us. +Men instructed to watch for signals from the ridge had reported that +nothing had been seen, which surely would not have been the case had +Devers desired to communicate. He assumed further that Davies must now +be somewhere about the point where the spur sank to the general level of +the valley, some eight or nine miles down-stream, too far to send a +wagon in the dark where there was no road, but not too far for men to +march, with rations as their reward. + +"Ride straight for that point," said he to the sergeant who was to carry +the note, "and watch for their fires in case they have camped." And the +sergeant and his companions--two wiry troopers whom nothing seemed to +daunt or tire--had ridden away on their ambling mules, their own +stomachs warmed with hot coffee and bread and bacon, and their soldier +maws crammed with that most beneficent and comforting of frontier +luxuries,--navy plug. What was a night ride after their weeks of +marching to the joy of being first to announce full rations for all +hands! They had gone only half-way, perhaps four miles, when from +somewhere in the timber to their right front, certainly not more than +five hundred yards ahead, they came suddenly in view of something at +which each man instantly reined in, and the sergeant, springing from his +saddle, grabbed his mule by the nose. "Grab yours, too," he muttered, +hoarsely; "for God's sake don't let the damn fools bray." And in another +instant each of the astonished and protesting brutes was grabbed +accordingly. + +"Sure it must be the camp of 'B' Troop," said the other man, +resentfully. "Indians wouldn't be lighting camp-fires so close to us." + +"It can't be the captain," answered Sergeant Rice, with emphasis he well +remembered and spoke of long months later. "I heard the major's orders +to him, and he couldn't be this side of that point without having +disobeyed them." + +But just then, soft and faint, sad and plaintive and low, there came +floating on the night wind the familiar notes of the sweetest of trumpet +calls, and Rice turned to his comrades in amaze. "It _is_ old Differs, +by Jupiter! Who but he would be sounding taps with Indians on every +side? Does the darn crank think that worn-out men can't go to sleep +without it?" Even the soldiers, then, were alive to some of the +captain's peculiarities. Even they could not do him justice. Even Rice +supposed that Devers, rejoicing in being once more freed from the +supervision of superior authority which he so cordially hated and so +persistently strove to evade, was celebrating the event by resuming the +sounding of unnecessary bugle calls, prohibited for night use during +the recent campaign. But neither the sergeant nor his comrades dreamed +that it was in its other, in its saddest significance, the sweet old +call was sounding,--that Devers and his men were bidding the last +farewell, and piping "lights out" to them who rode forth gallantly at +morn, only at sundown to be numbered with the dead. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + + +Morning dawned over the bivouacs along the stream in hilarity unknown +for previous weeks. The sun that for a fortnight had refused his face, +and sent wet skies to weep in sympathy with the hungering column, now +that the troopers no longer cared a rap whether he sulked or shone, came +forth in all his glory to surround and beam upon and shower +congratulation as do mundane friends who hold aloof when days are dark +and troublous, yet swarm like bees when dazzling and unexpected +prosperity bursts upon the lately fallen. Merrily rang the reveille as +"jocund day" came riding o'er the misty mountain-tops. With joke and +song and laughter answered the war-worn men, scores of whom had +alternately dozed and cooked and eaten and drunk all the live-long +night. Vain were counsels of captains and doctors. Soldier stomachs that +could tackle mule and horse meat could stand any load, said the boys, +and loaded accordingly. Cheer and laughter and merry-making, fun and +chaff and jollity, ran through the ranks, where all, but another sun +agone, was silence and despond. The rough campaign was practically over. +Only scattered bands of hostiles remained, in this part of the country +at least. Rest and recuperation for those "tatterdemalions" would be the +enforced order of the day for a month to come, for while they might +readily and speedily build up, it would take many a week to remount the +column or restore such horses as remained. Here among the Cottonwoods, +with fire and water and food at hand, the men could have loafed in +comfort and content a month, if need be; but here was no grass, and +barely a nibble of oats could be distributed for each surviving horse +from the scanty supply hurried forward the previous day. Before noon, +therefore, after another morning devoted principally to breakfasting, +the trumpets were sounding "boots and saddles." No need to sound "The +General" with its stirring summons to "Strike your tents and march +away," for tents had long months before been struck--by the pen of the +commander--from the list of camp equipage to be taken to the field. "We +were only waiting for Warren to come on," explained an aide of the +general to a regimental commander, "and we've sent him word to meet us +on the Birchwood farther up among the hills. We'll camp there to-night. +What kept him, do you suppose?" + +But the colonel couldn't imagine. Away down the valley to the eastward +Warren's men had slept, as they had marched, much later,--those of them +who could sleep at all, for all through the night there had been cause +of disturbance to more than a few of the command. It was late before the +demands of hunger were appeased. Little fires blazed all through the +timber, and men cooked and ate until they could eat and drink and cook +no more. Then the luxury of tobacco kept many awake. Then came advanced +troopers to say Devers was coming in, and despite the fact that two good +and gallant comrades would no more gather with them about the camp-fire, +there went up a cheer of welcome, and many men ran to meet the worn +arrivals, to take their horses to feed and water so that the masters +might be fed at once, and the major's first thought had been to welcome +his subordinate and fill him with comfort before requiring of him +detailed account of the day's doings. "I hardly expected you so soon," +he said; "but here's coffee all ready, baker's bread fresh in town +yesterday,--think of it!--and bacon and flapjacks. Your men must be +pretty tired." + +"They're about used up," said Devers; "but of course when we got your +instructions to come on we came." + +"Oh, I didn't mean you to come on if you were in camp for the night. Our +men would rather eat than sleep and we thought yours would; but +here--swallow this," said he, hospitably. "This is no time for business. +I haven't tasted anything so good as that coffee in years." + +"Thanks," said Devers, pulling gratefully at the steaming tin. "That +_is_ good. I'm glad, for my part, you told us to come along," he went +on, reverting again to the subject of the major's note. "We shouldn't +have done anything of the kind, of course, otherwise,--especially with +Davies still out." + +"_What!_ Isn't Davies with you?" asked Warren, with sudden anxiety and +suspicion. "Why, I thought----" + +"Well, we couldn't wait for him, you know, in face of your directions," +said the captain, his eyes glancing quickly, almost furtively, from one +to another of the bearded faces about him, for Truman, Hastings, +Calvert, and all the officers of the little command had gathered. "Of +course, I sent couriers right out to guide him----" + +"Why--what I meant was for you to bring him along," said the major, +gravely, yet not unkindly. "I felt sure, of course, you were within +communicating distance at least, even if he hadn't come in. What did +that smoke turn out to be when you got a closer look at it?" + +"We--didn't get any closer look," answered Devers, in apparent surprise. +"You ordered me to bury my dead and then go on. We had just buried them +when your next orders reached us,--to join you at once. These, of +course, superseded the others." + +There was profound silence. The major stood by the camp-fire, his hands +clasped behind his back, looking full in the face of the troop +commander, all the old sayings that he had ever heard with regard to +Devers crowding upon him now. When promoted to the regiment only just in +time to join it on this hard campaign, and when assigned to the command +of this battalion in which Devers was senior captain, the colonel +himself had said, "Be on your guard with Devers. He's the trickiest of +subordinates." Old Riggs, lieutenant-colonel commanding the Twelfth, had +remarked, "So Devers is in your battalion, is he? Well, when you want +him to do anything you stand over him while he's at it, or else do it +yourself." An intimate friend and classmate whom he had not seen for +years had given the new major this significant pointer: "There's a man +who could be one of the most valuable officers in service if he devoted +to obeying an order one-tenth the energy he throws into finding a way of +avoiding it." Yet, in the honesty and earnestness of his own character, +Warren was slow to suspect a fellow-soldier of disloyalty. The campaign +had gone on without special friction, though he remembered that he had +heard Hastings swearing _sotto voce_ more than once at Devers's +cantankerous ways, and he recalled now two or three incidents--little +things--in which Devers claimed to have misunderstood instructions; but +this was so glaring, so gross a departure from both the spirit and +letter of the orders he had given when face to face with the captain, +that for a moment or two he was at a loss what to say. He was indignant, +too, but it was a rule of his to control his temper and never speak to a +subordinate in wrath. He had broken it that morning and was sorry; so +when at last he trusted himself to speak, he said,-- + +"It must have been more than six hours ago that I told you to bury those +two men and then go on. Surely, captain, you could not have taken all +this time." + +"It was nearly five o'clock, sir, when you ordered me to bury my dead as +well as I could, and only a little after eight when we finished it; +meantime, we had to march seven or eight miles before we could find a +place where we could bury them at all well." + +"Why, I meant you to bury them right then and there, just where you +were, not go marching in search of a place." + +"But we couldn't bury them there; major, I had no tools to dig graves in +a hard prairie----" + +"Then you mean that you failed to go on after Davies,--failed to support +him?--that you haven't seen him since I gave those orders? My heaven, +Captain Devers! I told you never to let him out of your sight." + +"Oh, he wasn't out of sight until darkness,--that is, he was frequently +in sight. I not only saw, but communicated with him until that time." + +"Thank God for that, at least! If he wasn't attacked before dark he's +probably safe,--Indians are cowards in the dark. He ought to be coming +along presently, I suppose. He couldn't have been more than a mile or so +east of you." + +But to this observation, half query, half self-consolation, Captain +Devers made no verbal response. He bowed his head as he took a long swig +at his can of coffee, and then a big bite into a ham sandwich of +portentous size. The major and one or two others considered it a nod of +assent, and ascribed to ravenous hunger the captain's failure to respond +by word of mouth. Partially relieved of his anxiety on Davies's account +and unwilling to spoil a gentleman's first supper after such long +deprivation, the battalion commander turned away, saying,-- + +"Well, eat and drink till you're comforted, anyhow, captain, then we can +hear all about it. I'll take a smoke meantime." Truman and Hastings +joined him at a fallen Cottonwood a few yards away, and the three +puffed their pipes and thanked Providence for the mercies that had come +with the close of the day. And then the officer of the guard appeared to +ask a question about the posting of the pickets, and, leaving the others +with Devers, the major strode off with the officer through the timber to +satisfy himself as to the security of the horses for the night, and when +he returned--not having been gone ten minutes--Devers had disappeared. + +"I wanted to hear his report," said Warren, "and told him so. I supposed +he understood." To which neither of his subordinates made reply. When +ten minutes more elapsed and Devers did not come, Hastings, noting the +major's impatience, called to the orderly trumpeter sitting at the +neighboring fire,-- + +"Raney, go and see if Captain Devers is over with his troop +anywhere,--the major desires to see him." Raney was gone full ten +minutes, and when he returned it was to say that Devers's first sergeant +said the captain had given orders that all talk must stop so that the +worn-out men could rest, and the captain himself, rolled in his blanket, +was already sound asleep. + +"Well, I swear!" exclaimed the major. "Didn't you understand me to say I +wanted to hear all about his march as soon as he finished supper?" + +"I certainly did," replied Captain Truman, with an accent on the I that +meant volumes. + +"So did I," growled Hastings; but he never could bear Devers, who was +persistently distorting or misunderstanding the orders the adjutant was +compelled to convey to him. + +"Well, let him sleep," said Warren, finally. "I suppose he's tired out, +and very probably Davies will speedily come in." + +But midnight came and no Davies. Out on the prairie--now dimly lighted +by the rays of the waning moon--the pickets at the east had descried no +moving objects. Every now and then the yelp of a coyote on one side of +camp would be echoed far over at the other. These, with an occasional +paw or snort from the side-lined herd, and the murmuring rush of the +river over its gravelly bed, were the only sounds that drifted to the +night-watchers from the sleeping bivouac. Towards one o'clock the +sergeant of the guard came out to take a peep. Later, about two, +Lieutenant Sanders, officer of the guard, a plucky little chap of whom +the men were especially fond, made his way around the chain of posts and +stayed some time peering with his glass over the dim vista of prairie to +the eastward. + +"I declare I thought I saw something moving out there," he muttered, +after long study. "Are you sure you've seen or heard nothing?" he +inquired of the silent sentry. + +"Not a thing, lieutenant, beyond coyotes or Indian signals, I can't tell +which. They keep at respectful distance, whatever they are." + +"Well, even if Mr. Davies's horses were too used up to come, the +couriers ought to have got back long ago. Tell them to find me as soon +as they come in," said he, and went back to his saddle pillow in the +heart of the grove. At its edge a solitary figure was standing gazing +out into the night. + +"That you, Sanders?" hailed a voice in low tone. + +"Yes," answered the lieutenant, shortly, for he recognized Devers and he +didn't like him. + +"Isn't Davies in yet?" + +"No, and it's two o'clock." + +"Oh, he'll turn up all right," said the captain, in airy confidence. "It +was all absurd sending him out to scout a smoke,--as if we hadn't seen +and smelled smoke enough this summer to last a lifetime. He's probably +camped down the valley somewhere, and they're all waiting for morning. +I'm not worrying about him." + +"No, I judge not," muttered Sanders to himself, as he trudged on in the +dark. "You're simply keeping awake for the fun of the thing." But even +Devers got to sleep at last, and when he woke it was with a sudden +start, with broad daylight streaming in his eyes, and stir and bustle +and low-toned orders and rapid movement among the men, and Hastings was +stirring him up with insubordinate boot and speaking in tones suggestive +of neither respect nor esteem. + +"Come, tumble up, captain; we're all wanted; Davies has been cut off and +massacred." + +Already his orderly had led up the captain's horse, pricking his ears +and sniffing excitedly around him, and with trembling hands the young +German was dragging out from among the blankets the captain's saddle, +the hot tears falling as he stooped. His own brother was of Davies's +party. Devers was on his feet in an instant, dismayed, and, buckling on +his revolver, he went striding through the trees to where Warren stood, +pale and distressed, questioning a haggard trooper,--one of the +couriers sent on for Davies the previous evening. Devers burst in with +interrupting words, and was instantly coolly checked. + +"Never mind now, captain. Mount at once and get your men in saddle." Nor +would Warren see or speak with him, as with a hundred troopers at his +heels--all whose horses were even moderately fit for a ten-mile +trot--the major led the way down the valley, a few eager scouts +cantering on before. All Devers could learn as they jogged along was +that Tate, one of the couriers, had ridden in at seven on an exhausted +mule to say that not until after dawn had they found Davies's +party,--seven of them,--stone dead, stripped, scalped, gashed, mutilated +almost beyond recognition, far out on the slopes east of that fatal spur +over which the September sun had risen before he came, leaving his +stunned comrade trailing hopelessly behind. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + + +The prairie sod was torn by the hoofs of a hundred ponies. That was +evident. All around a little sink in the surface at a distance of +several hundred yards the warriors must have dashed and circled for full +an hour. Here along the rim of the shallow basin, each behind the +bloated and stiffening carcass of his horse,--each surrounded by +threescore copper shells, showing that he had fought till hope and +ammunition both were gone,--lay the poor remains of the gallant boys who +had ridden silently away in obedience to their orders on the previous +afternoon,--recognizable now only by their teeth or some still ungashed +body mark. How long they had pluckily, cheerily held out, confident of +the speedy coming of the comrades from over that westward spur, and +therefore less miserly of their lead and eager to stretch some of their +yelling foes upon the sward, could now only be conjectured. Little by +little their fierce, defiant fire had slackened. Little by little +confidence had waned, and doubt and dread replaced it. Some, probably, +had been earlier shot by the storm of centring bullets; some, possibly, +had sent their last shot into the reeling brain,--death by one's own +hand being better at least than by slow and fiendish torture; and at +last, probably just at dusk, the triumphant savages were able to close +in upon their helpless prey and reap their reward of scalps and plunder +and wreak their fury on a mute and defenceless foe. + +But in a search of full an hour not a sign had Warren's best scouts +discovered of Davies or his companion. The Indian trail, that of a +war-party of at least fifty or sixty braves, led away southward again, +into and through the timber in the distant river bottom, and there it +became scattered, most of the party seeming to have ridden on towards +the reservation in the darkness of the night, while others turned +up-stream, and their pony-tracks led towards the point where Warren's +battalion had bivouacked. These were probably the causes of the flitting +shadows Sanders had detected far out on the prairie,--these the owls and +coyotes whose weird cries had at intervals disturbed the silence of the +night. Solemnly, sadly, now, the burial-parties labored. The soil was +comparatively soft in the neighboring ravine,--much more so than higher +up the slopes where the two crack shots had fallen earlier in the +afternoon,--and here, with picket-pins and a spade or two which happened +to be with the pack-train, a trench was scooped out, into which the poor +remains were lowered and then covered with stones, dragged from the +depths of the neighboring _coulee_. It took some hours to finish the sad +duty, and meanwhile sharp-eyed scouts were busily occupied striving to +determine what had become of Davies and Sergeant McGrath. + +In this work the major himself took the lead, and here Devers's +statements had to be drawn upon. Old Indian-fighters pointed out many a +significant sign to sustain the theory that the fight must have lasted +full an hour,--the trampled condition of the turf,--the quantities of +shells lying behind every little hummock or ridge in the surrounding +prairie that commanded the position of the defence or afforded shelter +from its fire. Down in the very ravine in which the bodies were buried, +full four hundred yards from the scene of their desperate stand, the +soft, sandy soil was pawed and trodden by waiting war-ponies, whose +riders, lying flat on their stomachs along the bank above, had kept +their watch upon the besieged, firing whenever head or hand appeared +above their carcass fortification. The whole ingenuity of the Indian +plan became apparent as the situation was studied. Noting after ten +o'clock that morning that the battalion was no longer marching due +south, but had turned, heading southwest straight away for the landmark +of the valley,--that distant, black, pine-crested peak,--the lurking +warriors had devised their scheme to lure a scouting detachment away +from the support of the column. Far down in the river bottom, ten miles +away to the left of the trail, they had built at the springs a "shack" +from the relics of some miner's outfit captured thereabouts earlier in +the summer, and waiting until the head of the column was approaching the +crest of the water-shed to the north, set fire to their pile and then +secreted their main body in a deep ravine to await results, while small +parties were thrown well forward to pick off venturesome individuals, if +only such rode out in reconnoissance. If the white chief "bit" and +detached a small party, then every effort was to be made to keep the +battalion occupied and interested,--to draw it along, if possible, +towards the southwest,--just a few daring spirits devoting themselves to +this duty, while the stronger party, keeping in hiding until they lured +it far beyond rescuing distance, gradually encircled the isolated squad +and at last pounced upon their prey. It is no new device. It was to +prevent just such a play that Warren had ordered Devers with his troop +to keep midway, holding Davies's little party in sight and support and +the main column in communication. Had Devers obeyed the instructions +given him and gone on down along that jutting spur instead of far to the +west of it, the catastrophe would have been averted,--the Indian attack, +even if attempted, could have been beaten off. + +In bitterness of spirit the major was riding over the field, too full of +exasperation as yet to trust himself to send for and speak to his +subordinate, even when he felt that he must hold conference with him in +order to determine how best to direct the search. Twice or thrice had +Devers essayed to open communication with his chief and impress him with +his views, but Warren had sent him word by Hastings to supervise at the +designated point--which he himself selected--the burial of the men, +while he, the major, went on with the search. Time and again it was +noted how often Devers would climb the bank and anxiously gaze off to +the west toward that fatal curtain,--the spur that separated him from +the sacrificed detachment the night before. What his thoughts were could +only be conjectured, but little Sanders seemed to hit pretty near the +mark when he confided to Hastings that Differs didn't seem to care a +damn whether Warren followed the Indian trail or not; what he was afraid +of was that the major would "get onto" his own. And indeed as the +morning wore on it began to look as though that were what the major was +bent on doing. The scouting-parties had come back with their report of +what they had found in the river bottom, and by this time Warren with +his escort was three miles over to the west and slowly searching along +the east face of the spur, peeping into every hollow and depression that +might shelter a human form and looking everywhere for the print of +horses' hoofs. At ten o'clock he had sent to Devers for some intelligent +non-commissioned officer who could point out about where they had last +seen Davies as he crossed the ridge returning to his men at sundown, but +Devers very plausibly responded that while it might not be difficult to +do so from where they parted, "just over on the west side," it couldn't +be reliably done from so far to the east. The reply must at least serve +to delay matters awhile, and every moment was of value to Devers. + +His own theory was that, as twilight was setting in as Davies recrossed +the ridge, everything beyond in the low grounds was in deep obscurity. +The attack had probably begun about the time the young officer, with +Murray, first crossed the ridge in obedience to the captain's orders to +report to him in person. Less than an hour, Devers thought, elapsed +before he could again have come within sight of the spot where he left +his little command. By that time all was practically over. In the +gathering darkness and in the glut and greed of their savage triumph the +Indians had crowded about the victims. Davies and the sergeant, +returning, had been allowed unmolested to make their way well down +toward the scene. The fire in the bottom was fed to lure them on (it was +still smouldering when Warren's men trotted thither in the morning), and +the two had either been captured alive and run off with the main body to +grace the stake at the scalp-dance to be held with fiendish rejoicing +somewhere beyond danger of interruption, or else, warned in some way, +the two had sought to escape, and had been headed off and killed in some +of the still unexplored ravines or _coulees_ farther to the southwest. +In either case, provided the major did not persist in his investigation +and so discover how very far Devers had led his troop away from sight or +support of Davies's men, and how utterly he had failed to carry out his +orders, the captain felt tolerably confident that all the blame would be +landed where it properly belonged,--on the shoulders of the dead and +defenceless lieutenant, whose reluctance to undertake the duty many had +observed, and whose womanish swoon at sight of the slaughtered men had +not only proved his unfitness for frontier service, but long delayed his +return to his party. Devers had always said Davies was entirely +overrated by the colonel and Truman and others; he had held all summer +that the lieutenant was a "molly-coddle;" he had been reproved more than +once for what they termed his injustice to his subaltern, and now Davies +had proved just exactly what he knew he would prove,--a carpet knight, a +prayer-meeting soldier, with neither grit nor brawn nor backbone; and if +he was killed, at least he had died in time to save the regiment from +having to blush for him in the future. Devers had served throughout the +war of the rebellion in a regiment that saw no end of hard fighting, but +always when he happened to be on sick-leave or detached service of some +kind, for in all of his years of service no man in his grade or corps +had so seldom been under fire, either in the South or on the plains. +With abilities unquestioned and opportunities second to none, it was +nevertheless observed of him at the close of the four years' struggle +that there, at least, was a man who hadn't even mustering or recruiting +service to fall back upon when "brevets" went scattering broadcast over +the army, showering like the rain upon the just and the unjust. He had +lived all through it without having become distinguished for anything +that might become a man, winning a name for himself principally for +consummate skill in getting out of what he was told to do without +getting into a scrape or out of the service. He became a tremendous +paper-fighter in the days that followed, however, and like some of our +war generals, could find the weak points in the armor of his comrades if +he couldn't in that of the enemy. He became a club-room critic of other +fellows' campaigns, companies, or conduct, as probably the most +effective way of diverting attention from his own. He sneered at the war +record of every contemporary who had achieved rank superior to his own, +as with hardly an exception every one of them had done so, and made the +burden of his song among the younger men the blunders, faults, and +follies of the elders. Without a drop of Irish blood in his veins, he +inspired the belief that he must be own cousin to the newly-landed +Hibernian who announced himself as "agin the governmint," for post and +regimental commanders without exception found him the most adroit, +crafty, sinuous, and troublesome of captains,--one who was forever doing +something to try them, yet nothing on which they could try him. Well he +knew his unpopularity and sagely judged his opportunities. The liberties +he had dared with Warren he would not now have ventured with Riggs, or +Black Bill, or old Tintop, one and all of whom had learned to know him +well, and would have been prepared for some such betrayal of the trust +reposed in him. + +He had worried Black Bill--long time his post commander--to the verge of +exasperation with his perpetual hair-splitting and quibbling. He had +played his last trump with Tintop early in the campaign, and received +that grizzled veteran's rasping intimation that one more experiment +would lead to arrest and court-martial, and received it with every +appearance of amaze and pain, which might have been effective had not +Hastings been called upon beforehand to give his version of the affair +that led to it. It was one of those constantly recurring examples of +Devers's "cussedness" which led many a stout cavalry officer to set +forth just what he'd do with Devers if he only had him under his +command, yet the very men so confident they could bring him to time were +not infrequently the ones who subsequently found him too adroit for +their straightforward methods. Black Bill told Tintop that Devers was as +bad as the Irishman's flea,--put your thumb on him and he isn't there. +"I'll cinch him," said Tintop in reply, "if he tries any of his damned +nonsense on me." But with every intention of doing his level best, +"Topsy" little knew the infinite resources of the man. + +One of Devers's idiosyncrasies was a hatred of doing things as anybody +else did them. This in a service where absolute uniformity was expected +was prolific of no end of chafing. In every garrison where his troop was +stationed he had become notorious. If the other companies turned out in +white gloves at retreat, Devers's would come in gauntlets. When dress +parade, dismounted, was ordered at Fort Birney one mild November +evening, he marched his men out in arctics and fur caps, and claimed +that to be the proper full dress for the season. When Colonel Emerson in +regimental orders lauded the devotion of Sergeant Foley, who swam the +icy Missouri with despatches from Captain Cameron's beleaguered command, +and ordered a handsome collar to be made by the regimental saddler to be +worn thereafter by his gallant gray, now transferred to the band +because of the cuts and scars he had received in that fierce campaign, +Devers similarly decorated Trumpeter Finnegan's bull terrier "Mike," who +swam the Mini Ska in pursuit of his master the night of the wintry dash +on Tall Bull's village, and gravely paraded "Mike" with the troop next +muster day. These and a score of similarly annoying yet hardly +punishable attempts to bring ridicule upon or run counter to the orders +of his commanders, had actually rendered some of his seniors so averse +to having him under them that it often resulted in his being given +independent details, lonely detachment duty, "one-company posts," and +similar isolation which almost any other officer would have shrunk from, +but that Devers really seemed to enjoy, and, from having been so much +his own commanding officer, he was all the less fitted to render prompt +and cheerful obedience to others when they again had to have him. With +any command greater than that of a single troop he had never been +intrusted. There was no end of speculation and chaff around the +camp-fires, therefore, early in the summer, when Devers, most +unwillingly, it was said, was hauled in from some outlying post where he +had nothing to do but hunt, eat, and sleep, and reported for duty on +what turned out to be the toughest of Indian campaigns. What was worse, +he was ordered to report to Tintop, and now, said the boys, there _will_ +be fun. + +Well, there was. It took a week of persistent "cinching" to get Devers +and his troop to understand that they were no longer an independent +body, but must serve under the orders of a colonel or major. He had at +first been put in Bell's battalion, and every time the colonel pointed +out a fault Devers "thought" that was as Major Bell wanted it, and when +Bell called his attention to some irregularity, Devers had understood +Colonel Winthrop to say that that was the way it should be done. Bell +finally said that he'd be damned if he wouldn't rather have no command +at all than one with Devers in it. The first day Devers's horses were +herded to graze far out on the slopes,--five hundred yards beyond those +of any other troop,--and Tintop said he wished Captain Devers hereafter +not to allow his herd to be driven beyond those of the rest of the +regiment. Next day they were kicking up a dust not fifty yards from +Tintop's tent,--as far inside the cordon as they had been outside +before,--and Devers plausibly explained that he wanted to be sure he +wasn't too far away. The third day, after a long march with Indians on +every hand, Tintop ordered "double guards and side lines when the herds +went out to graze." The horses of the other troops were ridden out by +the men to good grazing-ground some five hundred yards from the bivouac +fires, and there the riders slipped off and the side lines were slipped +on; but Devers's horses were side-lined as soon as unsaddled, and then +the poor brutes, thus hobbled fore and aft, were driven, painfully +lurching, out to graze. Tintop boiled over at the sight of so +unhorsemanlike a proceeding and rode wrathfully at Devers to rebuke him. +"Why, colonel," said Devers, "I wouldn't have done it for the world, but +Mr. Gray was so positive in saying it must be done when they went out, I +couldn't do otherwise. Of course if he'd said when they _got_ out I----" +And though Tintop swore savagely through his teeth that Devers knew +well just what was meant, as did every other troop commander, he +couldn't prove it. Next day, before the side lines were put on, in some +mysterious way Devers's herd was stampeded and ran six miles before they +could be rounded up, and he explained it was all because they weren't +side-lined in the first place, as they were always accustomed to being, +and as the regulations required they should be in the Indian country. +This was another thing to make Tintop blaspheme. Every day for a week +something was amiss, and, having gone to the length of his own tether, +Devers took to saying that it was all Mr. Davies's fault or Sergeant +Somebody's,--"Mr. Davies had just joined and was utterly inexperienced." +Then Tintop gave Devers positive orders not to content himself with +telling people to do thus and so, but to see that the orders were +obeyed, and Devers then took his pipe and his blankets and +ostentatiously spent hours of the afternoon out on the open prairie, a +monument to the severity and exactions of his colonel. And still the +horses, all of them, got far out on the foot-hills, and Tintop ordered +him a day or two later, when on Scalp Creek, not to let his herd get +more than half a mile away from the troop fires, as they had no tents, +and then Devers had his herd-guards build fires and boil coffee far out +on the prairie, and claimed that those were his troop fires, and +therefore his herd was within reasonable distance of them. Then Tintop +swore another oath and ordered Devers not to let his horses graze more +than half or less than quarter of a mile from his own head-quarters +fire, and as there followed a few days of hot weather, Devers sent his +herd to the foot-hills again, claiming that there was no longer a +head-quarters fire to regulate by, which proved to be a fact, as in such +warm weather there was no need of one. Then, one day, Tintop in so many +words ordered the captain hereafter not to do as he thought, but simply +as his colonel said, and this led to the final incident, still more +side-splitting,--one that the boys in the regiment never tired of +telling. Tintop with his battalion was sent on a seven days' scout, +during which he ordered all the troop commanders, until further +instruction, not to permit their herds to graze more than five hundred +yards from camp. Three days later, what was his wrath to find Devers's +herd almost a mile away down the stream, and close by the tents of Major +Roome's battalion of Foot that had been for a week placidly awaiting the +return of the cavalry! Tintop had halted and unsaddled some distance +up-stream. There wasn't a shred of canvas with the regiment while on +this brisk raid, nor was there need of it in such perfect weather, and +Tintop with Gray by his side stood fuming in the midst of surrounding +cook fires, when Devers came placidly up in obedience to the summons of +the orderly, and many an ear was brought to bear and bets were given and +taken that this time Devers would catch it and no rebate. "How is it, +sir," demanded Tintop, "that in defiance of my positive orders you allow +your herd to go so far away?" + +"Why, colonel, you distinctly said they mustn't be herded over five +hundred yards from camp. Of course if I'd been allowed to think I +probably wouldn't have done it, but I sent mine down there accordingly. +That's the only _camp_ I see,--this is only a bivouac." And all Tintop +could ejaculate in response was, "Well, may I be damned!" + +These and a host of similar stories had come to Warren's ears in the +course of the campaign, and he had laughed at them as had everybody +else, for after all no man could say that actual harm had occurred as a +result of Devers's experiments. So curiously are we constituted that +when it is only the commander who is braved or his adjutant who is +ruffled, the bulk of the line can bear it with equanimity. Therefore, +while Tintop, Black Bill, Riggs, and his seniors generally could never +refer to Devers except with sympathetic swear words, there were not a +few of the officers junior in rank to his who found no little fun in all +these incidents. Like most stories in or out of the army, they were +perhaps exaggerative, but, like smoke, they could not exist without +smouldering fire. If there were any speculation about Devers in the +regiment, it was as to how he would behave if he ever did get into a +fight, or what would happen in the event of his some day squirming out +of an order on which vital issues depended. "You'll go too far yet, +Devers," said a soldier who strove conscientiously to be his friend and +counsellor, "and when you do, where will be the commander under whom you +have ever served to say a good word for you?" + +And now on this fatal September morning that ominous warning was ringing +in his ears again and again. Down in the bottom of his brooding heart he +knew, and well knew, that had he obeyed, as he should have obeyed, +Warren's orders, this catastrophe could not have occurred, and that he +more than any other man on earth was responsible for the death of these +gallant fellows, who, whether they looked up to him or not, were by the +stern discipline of the service dependent on him for the expected +support. If he could realize this, how much the quicker would others be +to attach the blame to him! how much the more necessary must it be to +lose no time in diverting suspicion elsewhere! The fatal propensity to +distort or disobey, which perhaps he could have downed had Tintop or +Riggs been there, he could not resist with Warren,--an envied +contemporary, presumably new to his idiosyncrasies. Nor would he, of +course, even with him, have disobeyed could he have foreseen the fatal +consequences. That would have been risking too much. But now that he had +disobeyed, and in all probability would be held accountable for the +catastrophe, his one road to safety and to acquittal lay in saddling all +possible responsibility on some one else,--preferably Davies. This, if +Davies were silent in death, would not be difficult. Whatsoever others +might think or say, they could prove nothing. If, however, Davies turned +up alive and alert, then matters might be grave indeed. No wonder he +climbed again and again the westward bank and levelled his glasses at +the dull-hued ridge against the brilliant westward sky, frequently +giving vent to loud denunciation of the leaders in the mismanaged +campaign. It was nearly ten o'clock before his dead were laid +away,--before anything occurred that looked like discovery of the +missing pair. Then came new excitement. + +Far down toward the point where the distant spur seemed to sink to the +general level of the prairie one or two of Warren's scouts could be seen +rapidly spurring, as though in answer to signals. Presently they, too, +began waving their hats to those searching higher up the ridge. Then all +disappeared over on the westward side. Something evidently had been +found, and Devers's men, their work completed, were grouped eagerly up +the bank. Over half an hour in mingled hope and suspense they waited, +and then there rode in a mounted messenger. + +"The major's compliments to Captain Devers," he said, "and he'll wait +for the captain and his troop over yonder. I'm to show the way." + +"Have they found anything?" asked Devers. + +"Yes, sir,--Mr. Davies; but he's more dead than alive. There is no sign +of McGrath." + +"Do you mean Mr. Davies is wounded?" + +"No, sir. He seems just dazed-like." + +"That's what I said all along," spoke the captain, loudly, so that it +was heard by all the soldiers near at hand. "He never tried to rejoin +his detachment. He never had any nerve. He probably saw what was going +on and hid himself, never daring even to let us know. Damn these +psalm-singing, Sunday-go-to-meeting soldiers anyhow! Here, Howard," he +continued, turning to a young trooper who stood silently at his horse's +head, "you come with me. Lead on, corporal. Sergeant Haney, mount the +troop and follow." And with that the captain rode away. + +For a moment, as the men were bringing up their horses and leading them +into line, there was silence. Looking after the three horsemen now well +out on the prairie to the west, the party saw that the messenger was +riding some distance in advance, and that Howard, a recruit who joined +with the detachment early in the campaign, was now side by side and +evidently in conversation with the captain. It had been a summer of +campaigning in which not only the nicer distinctions as between officer +and man--not only all symbols of rank and uniform--had gradually +disappeared, but with them, little by little, some of the first +principles of good order and military discipline. Officers had been +heard openly condemning or covertly sneering at the seniors in command. +It was not strange that the rank and file should fall into similar ways. + +"Never had any nerve, is it?" muttered Private Dooley, after a moment. +"Boy and man I've soldiered in this regiment longer than you, Captain +Differs, and I know an officer and a gentleman when I see wan, and it's +the public opinion av more than wan private that there's more av both in +that young feller's starvin' stummick than in your whole damn overfed, +bow-legged carcass. How's that, Brannan?" said he, turning to his next +neighbor, a wan, sad-faced recruit. + +"Shut up there, Dooley!" ordered Sergeant Haney, briefly. "No more of +that! Count fours." + + + + +CHAPTER X. + + +So far as the Eleventh and one or two other regiments were concerned, +that summer's campaign, so fraught with incident and tribulation, was +now at an end. It would take weeks and months of care to restore their +horses to serviceable condition. Others were ordered up to replace the +worn-out command, and while an indomitable general pushed fresh columns +into the field to track the savages to their winter lairs, the ragged +troopers--for all the world like so many beggars a horseback, so many +mounted scarecrows--were ordered in to the big garrisons near the supply +depots to refit, recuperate, and restore to discipline. Some, officers +and men both, had been sent ahead, too weak or ill to remain in the +field, and among these, consigned to the tender care of the post surgeon +of Fort Cameron, was Lieutenant Davies, over whose condition the doctors +shook their heads. Brain fever was the malady, but his system was so +reduced by starvation and exposure that even a moderate fever would have +been most serious. Not until he had been gone nearly a month did the +regiment follow, and then, scattered in detachments to various posts, +became busily occupied in the work of rehabilitation. Cameron was a big +new frontier fort with few accommodations, over-crowded, too; yet, being +the nearest to the field of action, thither had Captain Wilbur Cranston +gone just as soon as he was convalescent and able to move. Thither with +him went his devoted wife and her devoted cousin and companion, Miss +Loomis, for whose reception the subalterns of the infantry guard +promptly gave up their frame quarters and moved into tents, and Cranston +was there on light duty in charge of the big corral of remount horses +when Davies was bundled in and established under Cranston's roof. There, +carefully treated by Dr. Glover and regularly visited, often tenderly +nursed, by Mrs. Cranston and her friend, the naturally strong +constitution of the young officer triumphed and he began slowly to +mend. Meantime, as is or was the way, it fell to the lot of the gentle +and sympathetic army wives or maidens at the post to keep the distant +mother informed of her boy's slow progress toward recovery, and +presently to answer the importunate letters of another. Mrs. Cranston, a +shrewd observer, could not fail to note that as soon as her patient was +allowed to read at all it was his mother's letters, not the great packet +in Miss Quimby's unformed hand, that he eagerly opened. Then when at +last he did begin these latter the steady progress of his convalescence +was impaired. He became again feverish, restless, and depressed. Too ill +and weak as yet to write for himself, he read with grateful eyes his +mother's allusions to the kind and sympathetic missives sent her by Mrs. +Cranston, and occasionally, as happened, by Miss Loomis. Gladly, too, +did he avail himself of their services in reply. But when it became +necessary presently to answer those of his _fiancee_, there might have +been embarrassment but for Mrs. Cranston's tact. She had begun to feel a +strong interest in and respect for her patient. So, too, had her +husband, who came daily to sit by his bedside, but who avoided, as much +as possible, all reference to the closing days of the campaign. + +As yet the young officer had not been told of McGrath's disappearance, +and had not been encouraged to tell of his own experience. Indeed, there +was very little he could tell, but his story was frankly imparted to his +friend and comrade, Captain Cranston. Much seemed to be a total blank. +He spoke with a shudder of his last look at poor Mullen and Phillips, +and at the pale, drawn faces of Captain Devers and the troop,--of +another backward glance from near the top of the ridge, then of their +losing sight of Devers and his men, and pushing on to the deeper gloom +of the east valley. It was then too dark to see, and for half an hour he +and McGrath, weary and heart-sick, had scouted northeastward in search +of his party. They had seen some flashes as they began the descent and +rode in their direction, believing them to be signals, but soon all was +darkness, all silence, but for the sigh of the night wind. Conscious of +growing faintness, he suggested firing a shot or two as signals, and +McGrath obeyed. Then off to the southeast, far from the point where they +had seen the first flashes, the shots were answered and distant yells +were heard. McGrath considered this ominous, and asked him to wait in a +little ravine while he reconnoitred. In ten minutes two or three shots +rang out in the direction taken by the sergeant, and presently back he +came fast as a staggering horse could bear him, crying, "Indians! +Indians everywhere!" It was all up with Davies's party, and their only +hope was to hasten back to find the command; but the Indians came in +chase, and though they plied spur, their poor horses seemed too weak for +speed. How far they got he never knew, but remembered a sudden plunge, +his horse's going down, rolling all over him, and nothing more. + +"When you parted from Devers," asked Cranston one day, "how far was he +from the top of the ridge?--how far to the west?" + +And Davies answered, "At least two and a half or three miles." + +Over this did Cranston ponder long. It ill accorded with what they wrote +him from the front as Devers's story. + +"You write to Mr. Davies's mother, Agatha," Mrs. Cranston had said. "I +haven't time for both, but I'll take care of Miss Quimby." Just what +might be the tone and tenor of that young lady's letters to her +prostrate lover Mrs. Cranston could not positively say, as no one saw +them but himself, but she was ready to hazard a something more than mere +conjecture when Miss Quimby took to writing to her as well. As was her +wont when moved, Mrs. Margaret unbosomed herself to her lord. "I've no +patience with the girl," she said. "She'll worry him to death. If she +writes such silly, romantic trash to me, what mustn't she be saying to +him? What on earth can he ever have seen in her?" + +Now, that's just one thing no woman can find out,--what a man can see to +admire in one in whom she sees nothing. It didn't help matters that +Cranston, in his conservative, whimsical way, should counsel silence and +patience. What woman can be silent under strong provocation? What woman +can patiently abide the personal application of a general rule? + +"I don't suppose there ever was a match yet of which some woman didn't +say she couldn't see what he saw," said Cranston, deprecatingly; and +then, with one of his whimsical grins, began to add, "Let's see, wasn't +it Kitty Benton who said, when she heard of our engagement, that +she----" But he got no further in face of his wife's impetuous outbreak: + +"That's simply hateful in you, Wilbur, and you know it as well as I do. +She knew me only slightly, for we were not in the same set at school at +all----" + +"Well,--still, didn't she know you rather better than you do Miss +Quimby, whom you never saw at all?" + +"I don't care. I know what she's like," answered Mrs. Meg, with flushing +cheeks. And that was really before poor Almira's first letter came, and +if Mrs. Cranston thought she was right before, she knew it when she read +now. + +The closing paragraph of a long, almost incoherent missive must suffice. +Even Cranston's lips twitched under the heavy thatch of his moustache as +he listened. Even we, who like Mrs. Cranston, must admit it wasn't quite +kind in her, no matter how natural, to read it afterward to Agatha +Loomis, who, although declining to read, did not quite decline to hear +at least a line or two. + + "If you knew how I suffered--what tortures of anxiety, what + nights of sleeplessness and woe, tossing on fevered pillow, + tortured with visions of my beloved nobly fallen on the field + of battle and pining for the touch of this hand--you would + indeed pity me; but my father is inflexible. He refuses his + daughter the poor boon of flying to the stricken lover's + side,--her husband that is to be. In vain have I pointed out + that I ask no sweeter bliss than to share my Percy's lot, for + weal or woe, to live in the humblest cot, a tent, a hovel even, + with only a crust,--it meets only his scornful refusal. When my + arms are eagerly outstretched to enfold my soldier hero, I have + to be content with nursing day and night his afflicted mother, + whom for his sake I love as I would my own, had she not been + taken from me years ago when I was but an unsophisticated + child. When I think of you privileged to sit by his delirious + bedside, cooling his fevered brow, I envy you as I never + thought to envy any woman on earth since, long years ago, my + Percy blessed me with his love; and now if after all he should + be taken, or if some proud lady should win him from his simple + little village maid, there would be no refuge for me but the + grave." + +"Now," said Mrs. Cranston, "something besides the bedside is delirious +in that case. No wonder the poor fellow is picking up so slowly." + +"Well, wait a little," responded her conservative lord and master. +"Seems to me a man ought to rejoice in knowing that the arms of lovely +woman are outstretched in eagerness to enfold him. Now, if I were +he----" + +"Yes, if you were he I've no doubt you'd be off to Urbana by first +train; but this young man has some sense in his head" (here Cranston +began to finger his own skull tentatively), "and in losing his freedom +hasn't entirely parted with his wits." + +"Was that--my predicament?" asked Cranston, looking plaintively up. + +"Well, at least I have to do your thinking for you, and what you have to +do is help him here. Have you had any talk with him about--about what +Captain Truman and Mr. Gray wrote?" + +"Certainly not, Meg," answered Cranston, becoming grave at once, "and I +do not mean to until he is well enough to hear it." + +"Well, the more I know of him the more I know it's utterly untrue. +Hasn't anything been heard yet of Sergeant McGrath?" + +"Not a word. Even friendly Indians say they haven't an idea what could +have become of him." And Cranston's face was both anxious and troubled. + +The matter was indeed one to give him deep concern. The massacre of the +little detachment from Warren's battalion late in September--all of them +members of Devers's troop--had brought down sharp and deserved +criticism, and there was every prospect that the matter would be +officially investigated just as soon as the department commander could +turn his attention from the rounding up of the hostile band still at +large. Meantime, between Warren and his senior troop commander, Captain +Devers, strained relations existed,--the former holding to the theory +that the responsibility for the disaster lay with Devers and no one +else, the latter volubly, plausibly, incessantly protesting against the +imputation as utterly unjust, indeed, as utterly outrageous, and moving +heaven and earth to unload the entire blame on the shoulders of the +absent and defenceless. + +Now, as a rule this is an easy matter, almost as easy in the army as out +of it, and had his accuser been any other captain in the entire field +column, poor Davies might indeed have been prejudged; but with Devers it +was different. His idiosyncrasies were notorious. His whole mental and +moral fabric was one of antagonism to his fellows in general and his +seniors in particular. It was said, and generally said, of him that the +mere fact that everybody liked or respected a man was enough to set +Devers dead against him. The fact that Mr. Davies had thrown up his +graduating leave and sought instant service in the field as a result of +the tragedies of the early days of the campaign had won him instantly +the interest and good will of officers and men throughout the entire +command. He started well, so to speak, and his quiet, reticent, +observant, but unobtrusive ways favorably impressed his regimental +comrades and led to many a commendatory remark from veteran officers. +But there was universal comment, half humorous, half commiserating, upon +his assignment to Devers's troop, and Devers knew it. He treated the +young man with cool civility at first, but became speedily captious and +irritating, rebuking him openly in the presence and hearing of other +officers and of enlisted men for matters for which he was not justly +blamable. Old Winthrop spoke to Devers about it one day, and spoke +seriously. "You'll disgust that young gentleman with the service if +you're not careful, Devers," said he, "and be the means of depriving us +of a good officer." + +"That's just where I'm compelled to differ with you, colonel," was the +response, and it was this propensity for differing that had led to his +sobriquet. "I've had constant and daily opportunity of observing him, +and he's mistaken his vocation. That young man should be a missionary or +a Sunday-school superintendent. He's too pious for Indian fighting, +which is the only thing expected of us." + +But for weeks after there was no Indian fighting. What had become of the +swarms of red warriors that had swooped upon the front, flank, and rear +earlier in the campaign no one could say. Their trails led all over the +northwest, and the pursuing column pushed on night and day in dust and +sun-glare, in mud and rain, in pelting hail-storm and darkness, and +never once until late in the autumn could they again come within +striking distance. By that time the jaunty riders of the early +spring-tide were worn to skeletons; the mettlesome horses--those that +were left--barely able to stagger through weakness, exhaustion, and +starvation. Then like prairie wolves the warriors closed once more about +the jaded flanks, waiting, watching every chance of picking off the +stragglers. Just one day did Differs's troop get under fire,--a long way +from under, said satirical subalterns of a command that sustained some +losses,--but so scientifically did the captain handle his men that not a +trooper or horse was scratched. Mr. Davies on this occasion commanded a +platoon, dismounted on the skirmish line. It was his first affair, and +he kept his appropriate thirty paces in rear of his dispersed men to +watch and direct their fire, expecting that the enemy would charge or +attack or do something, he didn't know just what. He simply behaved as +he had been taught at skirmish drill at the Point,--was ready to do his +full duty, but having no experience in Indian battle, thought it his +business to wait orders, which was precisely what Differs had told him +to do, until attacked. All the same, when others twitted Devers on the +fact that his troop "didn't seem to get in," that officer did not +hesitate to respond that they'd have to settle that with their +admiration, Mr. Davies, who was commanding the fighting line, but +probably wasn't done saying his prayers. There was a lively, rattling +skirmish next morning between the rear-guard and the Indians, and at one +time things looked as though the thinned battalion of their comrades of +the --th might be cut off, and some of Devers's regiment thought the +rearmost troops ought to be deployed in support of the fellows who were +fighting off the warriors, who came charging after them over wave after +wave of prairie. But Devers couldn't see it in that light. He was +bringing up the rear of his own regiment. Indeed, not until the fatal +day of their _debouchement_ from the Bad Lands and sighting the broad +valley of the Ska had Devers's men felt the sting of Indian lead, and +then he was not with them. + +And now while the worn and ragged commands lay basking day after day in +the warm October sunshine at Camp Recovery, and men for the time had +nothing to do but eat and sleep and discuss the events of the late +campaign, the Eleventh was in turmoil over the tragedy of Antelope +Springs. + +When Davies was finally found that morning by Warren's scouts, he was +lying in a depression of the prairie at least a mile to the west of the +point where that long--that fatally long--curtaining ridge sank into the +general level of the valley, and therefore full four and a half or five +miles away from the point where his little detachment had died fighting, +and very nearly two miles south, or west of south, of the point where he +and McGrath had last been seen by their comrades,--just at dusk,--just +at what looked to be the comb or crest of the ridge from the point where +Devers had halted his troop and made the dramatic display of his dead. +But what looked to be the crest from the west was in point of fact not +the crest at all. Invisible to the halted command, there lay still +farther over to the eastward, where the spur seemed to broaden +considerably, a wave that overtopped the westward edge by a dozen feet +or more. Supposing from Devers's account that the trail of his command +could be found distinctly marked along the westward slope and close +under the crest, Warren was searching there with his scouts when +attracted by the signals two miles to the south announcing probably +important discoveries. He had found some Indian pony tracks, also those +of one shod horse, but dropped everything else to go at once in answer +to the signals. Then they had borne the unconscious officer +southeastward toward the clump of trees at the Springs, placed him in +the ambulance, and then came a courier from the general himself +directing Major Warren to report to him in person at Birchwood, thirty +miles away, and the major went, the ambulance following. And so, to his +unspeakable relief, Captain Devers was left once more the senior officer +on the ground to continue the search for McGrath, and in the conduct of +this he took excellent care that only himself and one or two of his +chosen should search any portion of the prairie that might involve +running over the trail west of the ravine which he had made the previous +day. The scouts and searching parties were kept in the valley and in the +timber along the river, not on the back track. _That_ search Devers +conducted in person, and made a rough topographical sketch of the +neighborhood as it appeared in his eyes and as he wished it to appear in +those of others. Just before dusk, sounding the rally far up the spur, +he rode to the point where his two hunters had met their fate, and +there assembled his men, gathering some fifty troopers, and thence led +them in column of twos southward close under the spur and well to the +east of the ravine which on the previous day had partially caused his +wide departure from the line of direction indicated to him by the major. +It was therefore very late, and his men were very tired,--much too tired +to sit up and talk,--when they got to camp. + +Pursuing its homeward march, the main column under the general +commanding had gone on through the wild hill country, and not until +nearly a month had elapsed was the scene of the tragedy revisited. The +officer who went thither with an escort, and Captain Devers and Corporal +Finucane and Troopers Boyd and Howard, had had pointed out to him the +scene of the massacre itself, then, far up the spur, the spot where +Mullen and Phillips were shot, and from thence the trail of Davies's +little squad as it marched away on its fatal errand toward the Springs, +and the trails of the various parties. Off to the southwest went Truman +in chase of the murderers,--off after Truman went Calvert and the +invalid corps,--off straight to the south--to the river--along the +westward side of the ridge, far to the east of the ravine and close +under the crest, went another; that, he was assured, was the trail made +by Captain Devers. Many of these trails, said the officer's report, were +now dim and nearly effaced, "but there can be no mistaking that of +Captain Devers along the spur,--it is quite sharp and clear. It isn't +more than five hundred yards from the point where Mr. Davies and +Sergeant McGrath had disappeared over the ridge to the nearest point on +the trail, where--while Captain Devers couldn't be sure--his troopers +are positive Mr. Davies had left to return to his men, and where they +are also positive the captain had again enjoined upon him the necessity +of vigilance, and reminded him that as it was growing dark he could no +longer see, and must therefore depend upon his lieutenant to keep him +informed of what was going on over on that side, as under his new orders +he, Captain Devers, must now go on and bury his dead. Mr. Davies and his +sergeant must have seen the attack just as soon as they got back across +the ridge, but what they did and why they had not instantly warned their +captain remains a mystery. At all events it would seem that Captain +Devers," so concluded the report, "had conscientiously carried out his +instructions, though he might perhaps, if unburdened with his dead, have +kept higher up towards the crest, and should perhaps have detached a +couple of flankers to keep communication, and so relied less on +Lieutenant Davies, who was at least inexperienced in frontier warfare." +The officer could not understand how it was that in broad daylight Major +Warren when searching had failed to see Devers's trail. It certainly was +there. And so the old, old story was told again. The absent it was who +had to take care of himself, and Devers was inferentially "whitewashed" +and Davies held to explain, when convalescent, and McGrath to +substantiate his statement if McGrath ever again turned up on earth. +Otherwise there could be no substantiation until the judgment day. Now, +McGrath, lost in the thick of an Indian fight, was as apt to be found +alive, or found at all, as a pin in a mill-pond. Davies, broken by the +campaign and sore smitten with brain fever, had but one chance in a +hundred of recovery. All things considered, therefore, it may be +conceded that Captain Devers was a very gifted man. + +But Devers wasn't the first man, or the last, to count on another +fellow's death or disappearance to cloak his own crime. It gave him a +queer turn to hear that Cranston and his wife and niece had undertaken +the building up of the absent patient. He hated Cranston,--his junior as +an officer, but infinitely his superior as a soldier. He feared him when +word came out to the homeward marching command that Cranston said Davies +was on the mend and would soon be on the war-path. But he drew another +long breath of relief when there reached them the news that General +Sheridan himself had telegraphed directing Davies to hasten home, that +his mother was dying. When next that young officer appeared upon the +scene and reported for duty, it was in midwinter at Fort Scott, a big, +brilliant, sunshiny post, the head-quarters of an infantry regiment, the +station of a cavalry battalion, whose major, Warren, had gone on long +leave abroad, whose senior captain, Devers, was its commander _pro +tempore_, whose other captains, Cranston, Truman, and Hay, were present +for duty; so were most of their subalterns, so were most of the infantry +officers, so were the wives and families of nine-tenths of the array, +for it was a much-married garrison, and there was not a little talk and +speculation when it was announced that Lieutenant Davies would come +accompanied by his bride. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + + +"The main objection to Fort Scott," said Winthrop, when one of his +battalions was finally ordered thither, "is that it's too fashionable +for my taste. What this regiment needs now is more drill and less +dinners." He loved to be epigrammatic. The head-quarters, staff, band, +and six troops had taken station at a big frontier post, two other +troops went with the lieutenant-colonel to a second post, so that that +officer could have a command, and two more with the senior major, but +the Interior Department had moved some thousands of the lately hostile +Indians down close to the line of the railway, where they could be more +readily fed and cared for. Great thereat was the alarm of the settlers, +and great the protest of the cattlemen, whose steers now roamed all over +the prairies within tempting distance of the restless young braves +across the reservation line. Scott was not a cavalry post at all. It had +no suitable stables, and only infantry ordinarily had been stationed +there since the completion of the railway, and thither Devers had been +sent when the final dissolution of the field column took place, and no +one of the field officers wanted him in his command, and he preferred to +be as usual,--alone. But then came the move of the Indians and the cry +of inadequate protection. Tintop had to part with two of his pet +companies--Cranston's and Hay's--at the reluctant orders from department +head-quarters. Still a fourth had to be sent, and Truman was taken from +the lieutenant-colonel and Major Warren despatched from head-quarters to +Scott as commander of this cavalry battalion or squadron at the very +moment when he was clinching his arrangements for long leave of absence. +He went, commanded a month, but persisted in his application. Long years +of service entitled him to the indulgence and it was granted, but +neither the lieutenant-colonel nor senior major would consent to give up +the command of a post to go to Scott as a subordinate to old Colonel +Peleg Stone, an infantry veteran of many a war, both in garrison and in +the field. A shout of merriment was heard in the camp of the cavalry +when the original orders were read distributing the troops to stations. +"Old Pegleg's got his match at last," was the comment of the knowing +ones. "He can't worry Devers half as much as Devers will worry him." +Scott was the innermost and easternmost of all the stations to which the +three regiments of cavalry were distributed. The big, bustling, growing +cattle town of Braska lay but a few miles away. Thriving and populous +ranches surrounded the post on every side, replacing the buffalo, +antelope, and deer of the decade gone by with countless herds of horned +cattle. Braska sported a theatre, an assembly-room, restaurants, +concert-halls and banks--of all kinds. It had the unhallowed features of +the average frontier metropolis and some of the more agreeable traits of +an Eastern city. It contained a very large number of abandoned +characters who were not all half as bad as they were painted, and quite +an array of citizens of high repute who were not all as good as they +looked. As between bad morals and bad manners, society seems to find it +easier to forgive the former, and most of the Eastern men who had come +West to embark in business had charming manners and were welcome +visitors at the fort, welcome companions at every party, picnic, and +dance, most hospitable entertainers in their turn when the fort people +went to town. During the long battle summer Fort Scott was garrisoned by +Colonel "Pegleg," the chaplain, the doctors, the adjutant and +quartermaster, the band, one company of his reliable old corps, the +Fortieth Foot, and the wives and children of pretty much all the rest of +the regiment. Famous campaigners were they of the Fortieth. They hadn't +missed a chance, winter or summer, for ten long years. They had tramped, +scouted, picketed, escorted, explored, surveyed, fought and bled all +over the great Northwest, some of the officers being so incessantly +abroad as to find themselves quite ill at ease at home, many of their +ladies declaring it a difficult matter to know their lords on the rare +occasions of their return, some few, indeed, being accused of having +forgotten them entirely in their absence. These were days the army +little knew before and will never know again,--the decade that followed +the war of the rebellion. Too old to take the field himself, the veteran +colonel at least could take his ease at home, and was quite placid and +content when he had the band to play for him, one company to guard and +"police" the post, and a host of women and children, bereft of their +natural protectors, fluttering about him. When all his companies were +home he had to spend hours at his desk overhauling ration and post and +forage returns, and as he was essentially a "red-tape" soldier,--one +who knew the regulations and recognized nothing else,--he made in busier +times his own life and those of his officers something of a burden. The +summer had been lovely at Scott. Thrice a week on sunshiny afternoons +the band played in its kiosk, and the gallants from town or the +neighboring ranches drove in with their stylish "turnouts" and called on +the ladies at the fort or took them driving over the hard prairie roads, +or danced with them on the waxed floor of the airy assembly-room. +"Really," said some of the ladies, "if it hadn't been for our friends +from town and the ranches I don't know what we should have done." What +some of them--ay, many of them--did was to gather their little broods +about them morn and night and pray to the Father in heaven for the life +and safety of the father in the field,--to lead pure and patient and +faithful lives, striving to keep their little house in order against his +coming, to teach his children to honor and love his name, to guard that +name from any and every possibility of reproach. What others did was to +accept most liberally the parting injunction, "not to mope, but try to +have a good time and be brave and cheerful," while the soldier went his +way. From this it was an easy step to accept as liberally the proffered +attention of the gentlemen with the charming manners from Braska and +Braska County. It was a gay post, a fashionable post, a frivolous post, +for the tone of garrison life depends immeasurably upon its social +leader, the wife of the commanding officer, and Mrs. Stone was but +little older than her husband's daughters. The latter were East at +school or visiting their own mother's relatives. The former had been a +belle at home and was glad to continue her belledom on the plains. There +were times when Mrs. Stone and the colonel lent the countenance of their +presence to charming little dinners and lunches, or after theatre to +suppers at the leading restaurant in town. There were times when some of +the ladies accepted refreshment there without such official +accompaniment. "Really, one had to drive very frequently to Braska even +if there was no actual shopping, for there was nowhere else to go," was +an oft-heard remark at Scott that summer. But breathes there a woman who +cannot find excuse for shopping? And shopping was hungry work and the +drive was long, the air keen, bracing, appetizing. What more natural +than that Mr. Courtenay and Mr. Fowler of the bank, Mr. Willett or Mr. +Burtis of the Cattle Club,--such charming dancers these,--should +sometimes, indeed frequently, suggest just a little bite, just a hot +bird and a cold bottle at Cresswell's? Such delicious salads as he could +concoct out of even canned shrimp or lobster, such capital oysters as +came to him, fresh, three times a week from Baltimore, such delicious +champagne, so carefully iced. What possible harm could there be in Mrs. +Flight and Mrs. Darling and Mrs. Watson's going together, mind you, and +lunching with their friends? "Why, the ladies at Fort Russell all do the +same thing every time they go to Cheyenne!" said Mrs. Flight, when taken +to task about it. "When I was up there visiting Fanny Turner last month +we thought _nothing_ of it!" All the same Mrs. Wright and Mrs. Leonard +and others of their standard not only wouldn't go driving alone with +the gentlemen from town, but declined to go to Cresswell's with anybody. +And Mrs. Wright's bonny face flushed and her eyes flashed when she said +why. As to what the ladies of the --th did out at Russell, that was not +her business. "Nevertheless," said Mrs. Wright, "I'll warrant you that +Mrs. Stannard, or Mrs. Freeman, or Mrs. Truscott did nothing of the +kind, and I don't care what Mrs. Flight says or Mrs. Turner does." + +And then the whole regiment came flocking home, and there was joy and +gladness unspeakable in many a little army household and some +modification thereof in others, and presently Devers and his troop +arrived after a long, long march, and Devers began giving "Pegleg" +something more to think about. The resources of the quartermaster's +department were insufficient to fill that ambitious dragoon's +requisitions. There wasn't anything he didn't want for his men, his +horses, or himself, and the next thing Pegleg knew he was involved just +as he was told he would be in a voluminous warfare with the troop +commander, and was minded of a saying attributed to the wag of the --th +Cavalry, a certain Lieutenant Blake, who knew Devers well and shared the +universal opinion of him. An officer had talked of challenging Devers in +by-gone days when vestiges of the code still lingered, but Blake scouted +the idea. "The only pistol he can fight with is the epistle," said +Blake. So Blake was another detestation of Devers, and doubtless for +good reason. He was forever getting a laugh on the captain when they +happened to come together, and, contentious and critical as he was, the +big dragoon couldn't abide being laughed at. Somebody once referred to +Devers as reminding her of a Hercules on horseback, which prompted Blake +to respond, "Hercules! yes, by Jove, of the Farnese variety," whereat +there was a guffaw among the men present who knew anything of art, and a +general titter on every hand, for no one was ignorant of Devers's wide +physical departure from artistic lines. But Tom Hollis and others of his +ilk only caught the "far knees" part of it, which, however, was quite +enough. Blake would have been a comfort to old Stone this breezy, wintry +December, but in default of native wit to aid him wrestle with his acute +antagonist, the colonel begged that if only one more cavalryman should +be sent to the post in response to the new outcry for protection, he +should come in the shape of a field officer to straighten out Devers. +"He's got," said he, "too damn much individuality for me." + +And not only had more cavalry come, but the major had come and gone. If +anything, said Stone, Devers was more unbearable than before, as he now +had over two hundred men to represent instead of a little more than +fifty. Fort Scott was in the height of the holiday festivities, Captain +and Mrs. Cranston with Miss Loomis and the boys were just settling into +the new quarters when Lieutenant and Mrs. Davies were announced as _en +route_ to join. + +And now arose a serious question. Who was to receive and entertain the +new-comers until they were able to furnish and move into their own +quarters? If any one, his own captain should be the first to tender +hospitality, but Captain Devers made no move whatsoever. He had a large +and interesting family of his own, which was sufficient excuse. There +were now two classmates of Davies at the post, both in the Fortieth, but +they were youngsters, only a few months in service, who roomed together +in the upper story of old Number Three, and lived at the bachelor mess, +which comprised the contract doctor, the sutler's clerk, and certain of +the quartermaster's employes. The boys would give "Dad" the best they +had and gladly, but they hadn't anything. Even the iron bunks on which +they slept were borrowed from the hospital. "How can a fellow invite a +bride to occupy his one room when he don't own C. and G. E. enough to +furnish a hen-coop?" And by C. and G. E., the army abbreviation for camp +and garrison equipage, the youngster meant to imply that he had no +furniture beyond a camp-chair and a trunk. Cranston himself would gladly +have taken them in but for two reasons,--he had not a vacant room under +his roof, and Margaret did not seem to wish it. It must be confessed +that there had been an outburst heard only by him--confided only to +him--when Mrs. Cranston received, a few weeks after the letter which +sadly told of Davies's mother's death, the brief and possibly +constrained note from her late patient announcing his approaching +marriage to Miss Quimby, who he said had been utterly devoted to poor +mother during her declining days and those of her brief but painful +illness. Margaret could not bear to speak of it to Miss Loomis. It was +Agatha herself who calmly asked, "And when is he to be married?" In +answering Mrs. Cranston found it impossible to conceal that she thought +it both quixotic and unnecessary. Miss Loomis quietly but decidedly took +the opposite view. No honorable man could have done otherwise. They had +long been engaged. It was not only their own but his mother's choice. +She was young, beautiful, deeply in love with him. He had long been in +love with her. Doubtless they would be very happy, as they deserved to +be. Margaret flared up again: "I believe he's doing it as he does +everything else,--from sheer sense of duty, and that you advised him +to." A random shot which went nearer the mark than the archer supposed, +for Miss Loomis flushed in an instant, and made no reply. "Well!" said +Mrs. Cranston, "she longs only to share the humblest cot, the rudest +habitation with her beloved. We'll see how she'll take to frontier +life." + +A detachment of thirty troopers had been ordered kept at the new agency +eighty miles to the north, and thither to his supreme disgust had +Lieutenant Boynton of the Eleventh been banished in command, with the +promise of relief soon after Christmas. Cranston wrote asking permission +to use the lieutenant's vacated rooms for the new-comers, saying he +would provide servants and such fittings as would be needed. Boynton +wired back yes, of course, and the dreary bachelor den was made as +habitable as Mrs. Cranston's busy hands and brain could make it. Other +kindly women lent their aid, as well as pillow shams, towels, +comforters, bed linen, lamps, wardrobe, bureau, rocking-chairs, lounge, +etc. The Davieses were to breakfast and lunch with the Cranstons each +day, and to be invited round to dinner until their own cot was ready. +And in thus wise did traditional army hospitality vindicate itself. +There was that still unexplained something hanging over Davies's head, +but as yet he knew nothing of it,--had never heard of the allegations so +vehemently, volubly laid at his door when Captain Devers had his own +portals to clear. Nor was the latter now given to faintest reference to +the matter. This at first glance may seem inconsistent, yet has its +explanation. As matters now stood there would be no further inquiry into +that wretched business. If Davies were once to know his good name had +been attacked, and that his explanation of his failure to reach his men +or give notice of their plight had been aspersed, somebody might put him +up to demanding a court of inquiry. Devers had even concluded it a +diplomatic move to treat the lieutenant with a courtesy hitherto +withheld. Mrs. Devers was already instructed to be particularly civil to +the bride. + +Another thing had Devers done, and done most diplomatically. Realizing +his own narrow escape and suspecting his unpopularity in the regiment, +though little dreaming (which of us does?) how ill he was really +regarded, the temporary battalion commander began making friends of the +mammon of unrighteousness, so to speak, and exerting himself to show his +juniors how courteous and considerate he could be in that capacity. As a +general rule it is the subaltern who makes the greatest outcry against +the disciplinary measures of his captain, or the captain who most +vehemently condemns the policy of his colonel, who proves in turn the +most inconsiderate and annoying of superiors. But Devers was +shrewd,--"wise in his generation." He knew his reign must be short at +best. He felt that he had a difficult role to play. He had always been +an outspoken "company rights" man as opposed to the federalizing policy +of the battalion or regimental commander. He had bitterly resented in +the past any or all interference with his management of his troop, yet +had been an unsparing critic of everybody else's system, and, as we have +seen, a nimble and active opponent of anything like control on the part +of his commander. Of him it had been predicted that he would immediately +begin to "boss" the entire battalion and require his brother captains to +conform to his own ways of conducting troop affairs. He had always made +it a point to try to be cordial to other fellows' lieutenants, but was +never liked by his own. Mr. Hastings cordially hated him, but Hastings +had his peculiarities, too. As for the captains, Hay and Devers hadn't +been on speaking terms for two years. Truman could not like him, yet had +had no open rupture. Cranston and he were personally and officially +antagonistic. One and all, the officers regarded this detail under his +command as one of the most unpromising of their experience, and could +hardly contain themselves when Warren left. As for Warren, his relations +with the senior troop commander had been of the stiffest and most formal +character ever since the close of the campaign. + +But just as he had baffled his own commanders in the past, so now did +Devers baffle all. Far from interfering or assuming control, he did so +only when in actual command at mounted inspection or drill, and then in +the most courteous way of which he was capable. He declined to overhaul +or inspect the quarters or stables of the other troops, which, as +battalion commander, it was really his duty to do at least once a +month. "I have always held that the captain should not be spied upon," +he said, "and I have too much confidence in the ability and sense of +duty of you gentlemen to differ now." + +Hay was amazed, so was everybody up at head-quarters. Colonel Tintop +didn't know what to make of it. Cranston presently decided he had solved +the mystery, but kept his theory to himself. Truman, a little later, +arrived at a like conclusion, and was for giving it abroad, but Cranston +counselled reticence. An appeal to Truman's regimental pride was always +effective. + +"Never mind what's at the bottom of it all, old man. We're getting along +smoothly and swimmingly, just like a happy family. Let's keep up the +illusion and fool these fellows of the Fortieth awhile longer," said he, +and Truman promised. But these fellows of the Fortieth were not so +easily fooled. They had been on the campaign and knew a thing or two +themselves, and as Devers and the adjutant speedily locked horns again +and Devers said some unjustifiable things, the infantry retorted, and +the infantry weapon had a longer range. It was the very day of Davies's +arrival with his bride that this smouldering fire burst forth. Devers +was in the adjutant's office snarling about the neglect of the post +quartermaster to pay any attention to his requisitions. Now, it was an +aide-de-camp and a cavalry officer who had been sent to the scene of the +affair at Antelope Springs to compare the situation there with Devers's +description and rough sketch, and a cavalry officer who had written what +was practically a vindication of Devers's course. Stung by the language +of the captain, the adjutant, himself a veteran soldier of years of war +service such as Devers had never rendered, looked up from his desk and +sharply asked what was Devers's complaint at the expense of his +regimental comrade,--the quartermaster. + +"What I mean," said Devers, "is simply this: that just so long as we +have to appeal to an infantry staff officer I can never get my stables +whitewashed." + +"We-l-l," said Mr. Leonard, looking his man squarely in the eye, "I am +inclined to think that the cavalry staff officer is sometimes given to +too much 'whitewashing,' and if an infantryman had been sent instead of +a cavalryman the most discreditable affair of the late campaign would +not have been, as it was, whitewashed entirely." + +"If somebody had whitewashed old Differs's face he couldn't have turned +a sicker shade," said Tommy Dot, the only other infantryman present at +the moment. Cranston was there, so was Devers's own lieutenant, Mr. +Hastings, and the thing couldn't be overlooked. The adjutant was as big +and powerful a man as Devers, more so if anything, and his black eyes +were snapping like coals, and his mouth was rigid as the jaws of a +steel-trap as he rose and squarely confronted the irate captain, and +Devers knew and knew well that more than his match was there before him. + +"This is something you'll have to answer for, Mr. Leonard," said he, in +tones that trembled, despite every effort at self-control. "You are +witness to the language, Captain Cranston, Mr. Hastings." + +"The language will be publicly repeated, sir," said Leonard, "if you +desire more witnesses." But by this time the colonel at his desk in the +adjoining room seemed to catch a whiff of the impending crisis, and +could be heard calling his adjutant. "I'll return in a moment, sir," +said Leonard, and he did, but when he returned Devers was gone. + +And now the questions were, what will Devers do about it? and what will +Davies say when he hears what Devers has done? There could be no fight, +except on paper, for that was Devers's only field. He had gone forth in +evident wrath and excitement, bidding Cranston and Hastings to follow. +Hastings as his subaltern went without a word. Cranston said he had come +to transact certain business and would follow when that was done. Devers +was tramping up and down in front of his quarters; Hastings, with +embarrassed mien and moody face, leaning, his hands in his pockets, +against the fence. + +"What do you think of that as an insult to the cavalry?" asked Devers of +his junior, as Cranston with his usual deliberation came finally to the +spot. + +"I think it provoked, sir, by your slur on the infantry." + +"I merely generalized," answered Devers. "He insulted both Archer and +me." Archer, by the way, was the aide-de-camp in question. + +"Well, then I presume Archer and you can settle it," said Cranston, +coolly. + +"It's evident your sympathy for your patient has blinded your sense of +justice to--to the rest of the regiment. I looked for more loyalty from +you, Cranston." + +"It is my loyalty to the regiment and my sense of justice that refuse to +be blinded by you, Devers. I cannot reconcile Mr. Davies's story with +your report, and I do not see how Archer could, if indeed he ever saw +Davies's story or heard of it." + +"Captain Cranston, your _protege_ may thank heaven that I haven't yet +preferred charges against him for that affair," said Devers, white with +passion. + +"It has always been my belief, Captain Devers, that charges should have +been preferred, and the sooner that it is done the sooner will Davies be +cleared. I presume that you can want nothing further of me." And +Cranston walked calmly on. + +And that evening the bride arrived. "The Parson's" classmates drove over +to the railway to meet the happy pair and escort them to the post. The +ladies, one and all, had done their best to brighten up the absent +Boynton's quarters so as to make a fitting habitation for the new-comers +to their ranks. The officers had passed the word, as was the expression, +to keep from Davies, for the present at least, all mention of these +affairs in which his name was involved. Somebody at division +head-quarters must have had an eye on the situation, for there came a +letter from a trusted aide of the lieutenant-general to old "Pegleg" +reminding him of the gratitude we all owed the young man's noble father, +and bidding him lend a helping hand to Davies, and see that his life +wasn't made a burden to him by his troop commander. The general +evidently knew of Devers's idiosyncrasies, but Mrs. Devers herself came +early to join the circle of helping hands, and announced that she would +be there to welcome the bride to her temporary nest; and she was there +in the crisp, cold starlight when the ambulance with its spanking team +drove briskly into the big quadrangle, and in warm furs and happy +blushes and half-shy delight, a very pretty girl was lifted from the +dark interior and presented to the little knot of hospitable friends +awaiting her coming. + + + + +CHAPTER XII. + + +Within the week of their arrival, thanks to the energetic movements of +Mr. Davies, the new couple were established in Number 12, the outermost +of the long row of officers' quarters, the one nearest the open prairie +and farthest from the official and social centre of the post, but the +best they could hope for on the rank of a junior lieutenant in a crowded +garrison. Even this roost was not to be entirely their own, for Acting +Assistant Surgeon Burroughs occupied the rear room aloft, and had he +chosen to fight for his rights, would probably have been accorded the +entire floor, but like everybody else he was eager to make everything +pleasant for the bride. Davies had expected no such luck, and had duly +explained to her that a combined dining-, sitting-, and bedroom, and an +out-door kitchen was absolutely all that they could expect, and more +than they were really entitled to. But Almira had enthusiastically +declared, as she had written, that even an Indian lodge in some vast +wilderness she would rather share with her Percy than a palace with a +prince royal. That there was a halo of romance about this marriage was +something everybody in the Fortieth had heard and many in the Eleventh +believed. All manner of theories and not a few stories had been put in +circulation, and no end of questions propounded of Captain Cranston's +household--who were believed to know all the facts--and not a few of the +fair bride herself, who showed no unreadiness to enter into particulars, +but had evidently been cautioned to curb her confidences. Taking a leaf +from the journalism of the day, let us congratulate the reader on having +now laid before him or her the first and only authentic record of the +facts in the case,--let us proudly await the commendation due their +herald. + +It was no part of Percy Davies's plan when he left the roof of his +devoted nurses at Cameron to return to the regiment within two months a +married man, but other forces had been at work. A halo of heroism had +been thrown about his head by the events of the summer. The papers of +his State had made much of his prompt and soldierly tender of service. +It was before the day of illustrated daily journalism, or his picture +might have appeared in several papers, all, presumably, copies from the +same photograph, and no two of them recognizably alike. According to +local predictions he was on the high-road to fame, rank, and promotion, +and Almira's romance was redoubled, and her importance in the community, +in her own eyes at least, immeasurably enhanced. One paper indeed had +referred poetically to the lovely bride from whose entwining arms at the +call of duty the heroic youth had torn himself, and the pen-picture +drawn of Almira was as flattering as the wood-cut might have been +frightful. Then something occurred that turned her head as nothing had +before. Who should write to her but rich Aunt Almira, her own dear dead +mother's long-talked-of sister, now the wife of the great railway +magnate, and Aunt Almira urged her niece to come and visit her, and +Almira went, as pretty a village maid as ever set foot in a Pullman car; +but Aunt Almira looked aghast at the rural cut of her garments, even +though she gasped with envy over her complexion. She drove her lovely +niece forthwith to a great mart where all manner of feminine wear was in +readiness for immediate donning, and Almira was in a heaven of bliss and +her aunt in corresponding spell of complacency over the improvement +instantly effected. This, however, was only a temporary arrangement. To +her own milliner, mantua-makers and modistes, and what not, the happy, +blushing girl was next transported, and Urbana looked upon her with envy +and delight when at the close of that changeful moon she was restored to +friends and fireside. Aunt Almira had given her niece a party, to which +came famous officers of the army, stationed in the city, to say nice +things to her about her hero lieutenant and honeyed words about herself. +There was a reception at which three cavaliers appeared in blue and +gold, with medals on their broad chests, great braids and loops of +glittering cord pendent from their armored shoulders. (Percy at that +time, in the rags of his first uniform and a shocking bad hat and the +wreck of a pair of soldier boots, cold and wet, faint and starving, was +staggering through the Bad Lands, dragging his skeleton horse behind +him.) A great military band was playing thrilling waltz music, and a +young lieutenant-colonel swung her twice around the whirling parlor and +helped her to champagne and praised her waltzing, which he declared +perfect,--and indeed she had enjoyed excellent teaching, but, alas! at +the hands of Powlett, not Percy, who would not dance at all. Yes, the +aide-de-camp helped her to champagne and more flattery. There was a +military wedding in a great cathedral church one evening where some of +Percy's classmates in glittering uniforms served as ushers and crowded +about her to talk of "Dad," as they called him, and to dance with her +and marvel among themselves later at her beauty, her unsophistication, +and at her being his choice. She went back to Urbana at the end of the +month, believing army life to be one long round of balls, parties, +music, dancing, champagne,--army men heroic gallants in gorgeous attire +who danced divinely and said the sweetest things ever whispered into +dainty ears. She went back with Aunt Almira's promise to provide still +more raiment for her _trousseau_, and finally with Aunt Almira's tearful +tale that her heart, too, was with the Eleventh, wherein her own beloved +boy, her idolized black sheep, was a trooper serving his country on a +private's pay and under the name of Brannan; and then, with a start, +Almira bethought her of certain wild, raving letters that she had left +hidden at home,--letters she had never spoken of to anybody,--letters +that had come to her from time to time in the spring and early summer +and then suddenly ceased, as Percy's had, entirely, for there were long +weeks that battle year when the field column was cut off from all +communication with friends and home, and these letters, too, had told of +Brannan,--told things she would not, could not tell Aunt Almira,--could +not indeed tell anybody, for her letters, though signed Bertie, were +written by another trooper, whose address was Howard. + +After such joys under Aunt Almira's roof, life at home became +insupportable. Mrs. Quimby said it was Almira herself, not the life. +Clash followed clash; there came sneers, tears, squabbles, rows, and at +last practical banishment. Old Quimby could stand it no longer. Almira +went to live with her prospective mother-in-law, who was not sorry, and +who, hearing for weeks only her side of the story, believed all she said +about home troubles and their inciting cause. She could not hear enough +about Percy, and so who so welcome as Almira, who never tired of the +topic, or of the telling of the officers she had met and all they had +said of him and of his spirited conduct. Even a great general, she said, +had been presented, and before all the company had drawn her to his +broad-sashed, button-studded bosom and kissed her mantling cheek, as was +his way with every pretty girl he met,--Almira did not mention that. And +then these two women, invalid mother and impatient daughter-in-law +elect, were drawn closely together by tidings of Percy's illness, +Percy's careful nursing, etc., then of Percy's slow convalescence. They +could not go to him, because Mrs. Davies was far too feeble. Almira +raved about going,--wanted to go,--wept, implored, and ranted, but her +father was implacable and Mrs. Davies opposed. The latter was sure +everything was being done that could be done and she needed Almira. But +from the very first Almira was suspicious of Mrs. Cranston and Miss +Loomis, jealous of their attention, fearful of their influence. Percy, +she cried, not she, would prove faithless. She would gladly, willingly, +eagerly fly to his side, nurse him night and day, dwell with him in +bliss and a wigwam if need be; but he--he was cold--he was changing--he +would prove faithless to his humble, adoring village maid, and then +there would be nothing left for her but despair. Then as his +convalescence progressed she became insistent and Mrs. Davies weaker. +Almira poured forth her plaint to her aunt by letter. Aunt Almira gave +another dinner, to which some of the staff were bidden, and a mellow +symposium it was, and over the oft-replenished champagne glasses did the +kindly woman tell of Mrs. Davies's craving to see her boy once more, and +how the boy would ask no favors, though her husband, the magnate, +offered to send to the lieutenant passes all the way from Cheyenne. Two +Almiras prevailed, and the last month of the mother's life was blessed +and gladdened by the presence of her devoted son. Almost the last +promise asked of him was that there should be no delay in the marriage +of her dear children, as she called them, though the poor soul had many +a misgiving now as to whether Almira, after all, would prove a worthy +helpmate for her earnest, duteous son. Indeed, she at one time had +thought to ask that they might be united before her eyes, but Almira's +wedding garment wasn't ready, and Almira, who had urged all speed, was +not prepared for speed so great as that. She, too, secretly nourished +the idea of a military wedding and a big church. Davies never meant to +retreat from his obligation, but he had hoped to make the girl fully +understand what was before her,--what army life and its duties were +really like,--but his every effort to talk with her gravely and +earnestly met with reproach and tears. She didn't care what it was, all +she asked was to share his lot, no matter how poor, how humble. It was +he who, after for years making her love him so, was now doubting and +distrusting her. She knew how it would be when those other women, +instead of her, had been chosen to nurse and care for him. They had +usurped her place. They had undermined her. That--that Miss Loomis whom +he was holding up as a model to her--all this time! He'd break her +heart, and she'd just go--anywhere except home--and die. She had no +home. She had given up everybody--everything for him, and now he was +tiring of her. Well, it was pretty trying, but Davies strove to explain +and to undeceive. He didn't take her in his arms and kiss away her tears +as he ought to have done, and plead and pet and soothe as she planned he +should do, poor child. It wasn't his way. He strove to appeal to her +judgment and to her common sense, but could not reach them. And then +came to him the great sorrow of his mother's death, peaceful, placid, +hopeful though it was,--and then when she was laid away and he faced the +world again, he found that there were outstanding claims against the +homestead of which, through motives of kindness, both his mother and +himself had been kept in ignorance during her life. Unless he could pay +regularly the interest on a large sum the old place his father loved +must go. It had ever been Percy's plan to hold it, and in the fulness +of time to return perhaps to take his father's place in the church, at +any rate to strive to do so in the community. He had planned to lease it +until he and Almira should be ready to go to housekeeping there if she +remained faithful all these years, but now only by pinching could he +hope to save it at all. + +And this he explained, but it made no difference. She would help him +pinch and save and starve if need be. They could live on a crust, and +she could cook and bake and darn and sew and sweep for him. The one +thing she could no longer do was wait, for people were pestering to know +when she was to be married, and some girls had openly hinted that Percy +Davies had changed his mind. Then came the naming of the day, and, as he +was in deep mourning, to her bitter disappointment he said their wedding +must be very simple and quiet,--just a few friends present as witnesses. +She had projected on a smaller scale an imitation of the swell affair +she had seen in the fall, but Percy wouldn't even have a best man. Then +he told her gravely that as they must live so quietly he thought her +aunt should not lay out money on party and dinner dresses and expensive +trifles. Almira should dress very simply as became a poor soldier's +wife, and as he was in deep mourning, and they could not go to dances or +dinners or anything of the kind, that she should so notify her, but +Almira could not thwart her aunt, and Percy's brow darkened when the +trunks arrived. "I fear she looks in return for all this for various +things which I cannot possibly do for her son," said he. He had not seen +the boy for months, and did not know how he might be withstanding the +temptations surrounding garrison life after long months of enforced +abstinence in the field. + +In the days of Davies's convalescence Cranston had told him of Mrs. +Barnard's call and of Brannan's story, and rejoiced that Brannan was +Miss Loomis's patient on the train, and that all through the campaign +the boy had borne himself well, and all this you may be sure did +Cranston write to Mrs. Barnard, and most gratefully was it all +acknowledged. She urged that as soon as possible now her son should be +transferred to Cranston's troop as a surer and simpler path to his +commission. After meeting and knowing the military gentlemen at +home,--people in whom she had taken no interest whatever until her +wayward son had taken to the army,--she had begun to picture him in a +staff uniform and on duty with the general at home, and, motherlike, was +eager to speed the consummation. And then Cranston's next letter told +her that her boy's best friend and adviser, Lieutenant Davies, was from +Urbana, and then very soon came the story of his engagement to Almira +Quimby, her own niece. It was then that Almira was sent for and became +Queen Paramount, for when do mothers cease to plan for wayward sons? + +And now the bride was actually there in the army. The ladies had +gathered to welcome her. The band had seranaded her the night of her +arrival. The colonel and his wife, captains and lieutenants by the +dozen, came to call, most of them with their better halves, some of the +latter refined, high-bred, cultured women, some simple-mannered, +warm-hearted army girls who knew no home but the regiment, no life but +that on the plains. Some vapid, frivolous, and would-be fashionable, but +all full of kindly motive. She could have had luncheons, dinners, and +parties in her honor, and secretly moaned that it could not be, but Mr. +Davies's deep mourning prohibited. She had dined _en famille_ and in +deep constraint at the Cranstons the evening after her coming, and not +all Mrs. Cranston's cheery, chatty, cordial way, or Miss Loomis's +courtesy and tact, could put poor Almira at her ease. She was set +against them from the start, and it made the feast an ordeal which both +Cranston and Davies would gladly have eliminated from memory could they +do so. The latter had never yet spoken reprovingly to his wife, but this +night he felt that something must be said. Just in proportion as her +manner to her hostess had been unresponsive and cold so had her +assumption of little wifely airs and proprietorship been comical. She +seemed bent on extracting from Percy public and frequent demonstration +of his lover-like side, and her appeals and endearments had furiously +embarrassed him. They went home early, met callers at their own door, +and were kept up late. That Mrs. Cranston should have turned and looked +inquiringly into Agatha Loomis's face the instant the door closed upon +them was to be expected. Her eyes were sparkling, her lips twitching +with the mental ebullition going on within; but Agatha turned abruptly +away. Mrs. Cranston then sought to search her husband's face, but the +captain was forearmed and chose to keep his back towards his better half +and to pull on his arctics and overcoat and gather up his little +hurricane lamp. The trumpet was sounding first call for tattoo, and +though it was no concern of his, for Mr. Sanders, his cheery subaltern, +had just gone whistling by on his way to the troop quarters, Cranston +preferred to face the falling snow rather than those speaking, luminous, +quizzical, questioning, tormenting eyes, and so invented business for +the occasion. "Don't sit up for me, Meg," said he, and she knew he +simply would not be drawn into a discussion. + +But she had to talk to somebody, and what was Agatha for? Agatha had +palpably dodged and gone to her room, and would have been glad not to +come down again. She even went into the boys' room and romped with her +two young trooper cousins instead of allowing them to go to sleep. So up +came Mrs. Cranston and ordered her out, and then, when the girl would +have escaped and gone down-stairs again, Margaret confronted her in the +hall, placed her hands on her shoulders, and with a world of mingled +merriment and commiseration in her tone said, or rather asked,-- + +"Well?" + +"Well what?" + +"What do you think now?" + +"Simply what I have maintained all along. That he did right." + +"But what do you think of--of her?" + +And Miss Loomis, shaking herself free, hurried by her friend and down +the stairs. She refused to say. + +Perhaps it might have been better had Mr. Davies postponed his first +marital lecture. It was very gentle, very brief, but Almira had seen his +vexation as they hastened home and had striven to avert the coming +comments. She well knew wherein she had erred. Public endearments of any +kind by word or touch had already been pointed out to her as +unconventional in society. There were no people on the post in whose +presence he more dreaded such demonstration than the two ladies of +Cranston's household. There were no people in the world in whose +presence she was more bent upon making display of her possession. He had +interdicted the gown she longed to wear and indicated a simple black +silk. In this point she had to yield, but she had conquered on the +other, and now when he gravely reminded her of his caution, she declared +she thought these people were his intimate friends, his confidants,--not +mere society people,--and--of course--if he was ashamed to have them +see--how dear he was to her----Oh, but why go on with the rest? Sobs and +tears and swollen eyelids and sore lamentation, and pleas to be taken +home again if this was to be the beginning of their married life. Davies +knelt alone that night, and his prayer for guidance and strength came +from the depths of an anxious heart. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. + + +One of the first inquiries made by Mr. Davies was for Trooper Brannan. +"He is with the detachment up at the reservation," said Mr. Hastings. +"That's our Botany Bay. That's where Differs ships his bad eggs. Not +that Brannan was a bad egg, but that Differs so regarded him." + +"Had he been drinking or in any trouble?" + +"Well, not exactly trouble," said Hastings. "He didn't get along with +one or two of the sergeants. They made frequent complaint of his 'lip,' +and the old man seemed suspicious of him." Only one new hand or recruit +had been selected to go to the agency with Boynton's detachment, and +that was Brannan. He was sent to replace Fogarty, who broke his leg, +just about the time the other troops came. When Davies reported to his +troop and battalion commander for duty, Captain Differs received him +with much grave dignity,--with a certain air in which majestic courtesy +was mingled with that of forgiveness for injuries received, as though he +would say, "Let by-gones be by-gones. We'll make a fresh start, and in +consideration of your ills, inexperience, and the like, I'll try to +overlook your shortcomings in the field." Davies had never set eyes on +him from the moment of their parting at dusk that gloomy Dakota evening +to the northwest of the Springs,--from that evening to that of his +return. Totally ignorant of much that had taken place during his +illness, he was ready to serve his captain faithfully, even though he +felt that he could not like or trust him. They had but brief converse. +"Take all the time you need to get your quarters ready, Mr. Davies. You +and Hastings can divide the detail work of stables and roll-call between +you," said Devers. "Just remember we've got an infantry adjutant here +who's only too anxious to find fault and stir up trouble between us and +the post commander." + +Going into the troop office the day after his return, Davies was +surprised to see a dark-eyed, dark-haired, rather handsome young +soldier at the clerk's desk. He recognized him as one of the recruits +whom he had brought out in July, but of whom he had seen very little +during the campaign. + +"That's our new company clerk," said Hastings. "One of Differs's latest +pets. There are better clerks and better men in the troop. He relieved a +better man when he sent Moran up to the agency. But what Devers is +driving at is past finding out. There's been a total shaking up since +that--well, since the campaign." + +And that this was true Davies could see for himself. Never having known +the troop, except in the field on the worst of campaigns, it took him a +few days to become accustomed to the change. Some of the most prominent +of the troop sergeants were still on duty with it, but in their +spick-and-span uniforms and clean-shaven cheeks and chins he found them +greatly altered. The first sergeant was the same, and the relationship +between him and the captain seemed closer than ever. Haney recognized no +middleman in his dealings with the troop commander, and had long been +allowed to consider himself as of far more importance than a junior +lieutenant, a theory in which, perhaps, there was much to sustain him. +The manner of this magnate to the two subalterns, therefore, was just a +trifle independent. Two veteran corporals had stepped up to an +additional stripe vice Daly killed and McGrath missing in September. +Some new corporals had been "made." None of those whom Davies best knew +and most noticed during the summer were among them. He missed two or +three of the old hands and asked for them. Sergeant Lutz had gone to +the agency. Corporal O'Brien had been reduced for a spree on the +home-coming and was serving as private in Boynton's detachment, and +Privates Sercomb and Riley were up there, too. The resultant vacancies +in the troop had been filled by raw recruits who were being +energetically licked into shape. + +When Cranston was asked why he supposed it had pleased Captain Devers to +send a recruit like Brannan up to the bleak and unwholesome life at the +agency, Cranston replied by saying, "Differs said it was to keep him out +of harm's way. Up there he couldn't get liquor, down here he could." +When Davies asked if Brannan had shown a disposition to drink since +getting back from the campaign, Cranston again used Devers's authority. +"Differs said he had,--two or three times." But when Cranston wrote to +Boynton, Boynton replied that young Brannan declared that he had been +totally abstemious since the day after they reached the post. The day of +their coming in, he arrived half frozen and all tired out, as he had +been kept back on wagon guard, and he was offered liquor by Sergeant +Haney himself, and drank several times, and was wretchedly ill all the +next day as a consequence,--so ill that it frightened him, and he swore +off more solemnly than before. Hastings said, in fact, that there was a +set in "A" troop, a clique that "stood in" with the first sergeant and +some of his favorites, and that no man outside of it could hope for +recognition and no one in it fear punishment. Brannan was not in it. + +It was a Wednesday night, as has been said, that Davies arrived, and +not until the following Wednesday could they be installed in their +quarters, which were being simply but prettily furnished. Private +Barnickel had assumed the duties of striker, and Mrs. Maloney's +strapping daughter Katty was now presiding in Boynton's kitchen as cook +and maid-of-all-work. A tenant had been found for the old house at home, +who was to pay a certain rental to Squire Quimby, which sum was to be +supplemented by a monthly payment from his son-in-law's scanty purse. +"We must live very simply and economically, my wife," said Davies. "At +the very least it will take me two whole years to pay principal and +interest and set us foot free; but we have few other debts. We can be +warm and comfortable. You have all the clothing you will be apt to need +for a good while, and I will get along with what I have." And Mira had +received the suggestion with all wifely grace. They went to chapel +together that first crisp, sunshiny, wintry Sunday, and all Fort +Scott--at least all that happened to be there assembled--remarked on +Almira's rich color--and furs--and on Davies's reverent manner. He was +the only man in the little congregation who actually knelt. The old +chaplain rejoiced that afternoon when the tall lieutenant came in at +Sunday-school, and, taking immediate charge of the most turbulent of his +classes,--the big boys,--held them both interested and respectful until +the close of the session. Almira came too, and made an impression on the +juvenile minds of some of the laundresses' children, who studied her +pretty face and new hat and garments with close attention; but it gave +her a headache and she would rather not go to the evening service, she +said,--a service held more especially for the benefit of the soldiers +and their families, and but sparsely attended otherwise. Davies went, +however, and when he came home to their temporary quarters, found +Almira, all animation, chatting with Mrs. Flight and Mrs. Darling, to +whom she had been showing the contents of her big trunk. They were +called for presently by Mr. Sanders and his classmate Jervis, both of +whom had known the "Parson" in his cadet days, but from the somewhat +immeasurable altitude of a two years' start, yet they were the younger +looking now, gay, debonair bachelors, pillars of the social gatherings +at the post and most delightful partners, and, having completed their +duties with tattoo roll-call, they were now in search of these reigning +belles and an opportunity to talk over the hop projected for the coming +Wednesday night. Of course Mrs. Davies would come, said Jervis, but +Sanders's warning kick brought him to consciousness. "At least I +hope--we all hope you'll very soon be able to attend our parties, Mrs. +Davies. I suppose you've reformed the Parson and taught him to waltz." +Mira looked at her husband, and she knew not just what to say. + +Davies smiled gravely and said no, he feared that he was too old and +awkward to learn even at the Point, but that Mrs. Davies was very fond +of dancing, and by and by, perhaps, they would attend. Then the chat +flowed merrily on, of the lovely time that they had all enjoyed,--that +is, the garrison people had enjoyed all summer, and the pleasant +associations they had formed with the gentlemen from town, and how much +lovelier it would be now. And while they were talking, through the thin +partition which separated Mr. Boynton's official and personal quarters +from those of Lieutenant and Adjutant Leonard there came the sound of +sacred music,--Mrs. Leonard at her piano, her clear, true voice blending +with the deep resonant bass of her soldier husband and the sweet treble +of the children, and Davies stopped to listen. It was a hymn his father +loved, one they often sang at the old church at home,-- + + "Son of my soul, Thou Saviour dear." + +It brought sweet and sacred memories. It spoke of home and holy +influences, of mother love and father's blessing and children's hope and +faith. It filled his heart with reverence and his eyes with tears. The +babble and chat for an instant were silenced, and then Mrs. Darling +spoke. + +"The worst of these army quarters is that you can hear just what's going +on next door; but," she added, cheerfully, "you'll soon be where you +won't be bothered on one side, at least." + +Sanders gave a queer, quick glance at the speaker and then at Davies. +Jervis plunged into an immediate rhapsody on the subject of Mrs. +Leonard's children, whom he declared to be the best little beggars he +ever knew, unless it was Cranston's. "Of course," he added, +diplomatically, "I can safely praise them in your presence, ladies, as +you have none of your own." + +Then conversation languished, for Davies was silent and Mrs. Davies +uninspired. The visitors left and went laughing down the row, their gay +voices ringing in the frosty air. + +"How long had they been here, dear?" asked Davies as he returned to the +fireside. + +"The ladies? Oh, I don't know. Quite a little while. They were so +interested in everything,--so friendly. I quite forgot my headache while +they were here. Now it seems to be coming on again, and if you don't +mind I think I won't sit up,--unless somebody else is coming." + +"There will hardly be any more callers to-night," he answered, gravely. +"If your head aches you might be better for going early to bed, and I +will sit here and read awhile." + +But the wandering thoughts refused to be chained to the page before him. +His heart was full and vaguely troubled. "I shall be better for a turn +in the cold air," he thought, and so, throwing his cape over his +shoulders, he quietly left the house. + +It was just after ten, a still, sparkling winter's night. Across the +snowy level of the parade the long rows of wooden barracks lay dark and +silent, no lights burning except in the window of some company office or +first sergeant's room. Those were the days of "early to bed and early to +rise," and every man was supposed to be sleeping by ten so as to be up +and doing stable duty--or nothing--at dawn. Officers and ladies, the +privileged class of the army, made their own regulations as to domestic +hours of retiring. The enlisted man slept or was supposed to sleep "by +order." Mr. Davies, finding it essential to his comfort to sally forth +and imbibe free air, had no one to say him nay,--Mrs. Davies having +retired,--and might wander the live-long night about the post at will. +Trooper Blaney or Private Rentz, on the contrary, might toss for hours +on sleepless pillow, and could only grin and bear it. It meant so many +dollars "blind," or such other punishment as a court-martial might +inflict to a soldier caught out of barracks after the sound of the +signal to extinguish lights. + +Already, in the quarters of his next-door neighbor, the adjutant, the +parlor was darkened, and except for the studious head of the family, now +poring over some precious volume in the privacy of his den, the +household had gone aloft. Davies paused a moment, irresolute. To his +right the walk extended only a short distance. There were but two more +houses. To his left lay the main length of the line,--the colonel's, the +surgeon's, the cavalry commander's, and most of the captains'. +Cranston's roof, however, was one of the two to the right, and thither +Davies turned. Dim lights were burning in the little army parlor, as he +could see through the half-drawn curtain. A shadow flitted across the +dormer window above him,--Mrs. Cranston's. The other windows in the +upper floor were dark. He wanted to go in and commune with Cranston, the +man of all others whom he most liked, but he shrank from ringing their +bell at so late an hour. Elsewhere along the row many a window was +brilliantly illuminated and the social life of the post seemed in full +flow. The Cranstons were home-keeping folk as a rule, "not at all +sociable," said some of the dames of the Fortieth, and yet they were +highly regarded throughout the garrison. + +Except for a mere bow, as they were going to morning service, he had not +met Mrs. Cranston or Miss Loomis since the dinner of Thursday +evening,--the evening of Almira's provincial display of endearments, for +between Katty and Striker Barnickel they had been enabled to breakfast +at Boynton's quarters, and had lunched and dined elsewhere among the +many hospitably disposed throughout the garrison. Davies wanted to see +and talk with the captain, but to-night he shrank unaccountably from +meeting either of the ladies. It is under such circumstances that many a +man finds Fate unkind. Even as he stood there the hall door flew open +and a bright beam from the astral lamp within shot athwart the road. A +blithe voice called back in answer to some presumable remonstrance. +"What nonsense, Margaret! I can run over there as well as not and be +back in a moment." The door closed, and muffled in her long fur-lined +cloak, Miss Loomis was at the gate. "Why! Mr. Davies!" she exclaimed in +surprise. + +"I was just wondering whether I might venture to ring and ask for the +captain," he hesitatingly said. "I wanted very much to see him." + +"Captain Cranston is out. That is how it happens that _I_ am going out," +she spoke, with prompt and cheery tone. "Old Sergeant Fritz is very low +to-night, and you'll find the captain there," and she indicated the way +to the married men's quarters over to the southwest. "I have to run over +to the hospital, for Louis's cough is very troublesome, and we happened +to be entirely out of medicine." + +"Well, my talk with the captain can wait, Miss Loomis. Let me be your +orderly for to-night. What can I get for you?" + +"Indeed you shall not!" she answered, with quick decision. "I'm +accustomed to doing my own errands. Good-night." And with that she +turned independently away to where the dim lights in the hospital +glimmered at the eastward. + +"Then your ex-patient may at least trot along as escort," said he, as +promptly placing himself by her side and, army fashion, tendering his +arm. + +"No, thank you," she answered, resolutely muffling her cloak about her +and rebelling against the rising impulse of vexation, "I do not need +support, and indeed, Mr. Davies, I need no escort. I'm quite accustomed +to going about the post by myself. I--I would very much rather you went +on to see Captain Cranston, as was your intention." + +"And I would very much rather walk with you to the hospital," he +answered, with calm decision. "Come." + +She had stopped as though striving to dismiss him from her side, but he +ignored her wishes entirely. His lips were curving into something very +like a smile of amusement, and it nettled her. + +"To be perfectly frank with you, Mr. Davies, I wish now that I had made +a reconnoissance before venturing out so boldly. If there is anything I +hate it is this idea of burdening a man with escort duty. Just as though +one needed to be guarded at every step. It is the dependence of the +thing I despise,--a dependence that is entirely forced upon us." + +"Well, so long as the escort is not forced upon you, I hope you will +not despise it. I am going with you because, as it's after taps, you may +need help in rousing the steward. He was up all last night, I'm told, +with Fritz, and may be abed now." + +And so her protests, not her scruples, were silenced. Down the row they +rapidly walked, under the sparkling heavens, through the keen, +exhilarating air of the wintry prairie, passing, door by door, the +quarters of the officers of the garrison, some still brightly lighted, +others dark and silent. She was talking fast and with a nervous impulse +as they hurried by the colonel's, the broad portals of whose official +residence were just then thrown open to admit another party to join the +little circle sure every evening to be surrounding Mrs. Stone, and +welcoming voices and laughter floated out on the night. The moment +before they passed the gate whence he had issued forth barely three +minutes earlier. The hall light burned low as he left it, the parlor +shades were down. Almira presumably was nursing her headache in the +sanctity of the chamber at the rear. Boynton's upper story was occupied +by a junior subaltern of the Fortieth, who was believed to sleep there +at odd hours, but was generally to be found almost anywhere else. + +"Mrs. Davies looked so well to-day," remarked Miss Loomis. "I hope she +finds her welcome pleasant." + +"She is very well, except for a headache that sent her early to bed +to-night," he answered. "And her welcome from everybody has been most +kind and cordial, and from none more so than from Mrs. Cranston and +yourself. You are always adding to the obligations I am under." + +"I shall quarrel with you some day if you talk of obligations, Mr. +Davies. But I'm so sorry to hear of her headache," she went on, quickly, +as though to prevent argument on the point. "The chapel does get very +hot and stuffy by evening service. Ought they not to air it after +Sunday-school?" + +"It would be a good plan. But my wife did not go to-night. Her headache +began earlier in the day. I thought the close atmosphere of the chapel +would only increase it and so counselled her remaining home." + +He remembered, however, that he had counselled her going early to bed, +but found her engrossed in her volatile callers on his return. It was +all very natural. Upon spirits like Almira's, communion with such gay +and frothy natures acted like champagne. He was trying to believe he was +glad she could be so readily benefited. The houses grew darker as they +approached the east end. Even the hall lamp was extinguished at Devers's +quarters, though there were lights aloft. Devers had a storm-door, +another instance of his individuality, as even the colonel's quarters +were not so embellished. It was a perfectly still night, not a whiff of +wind astir, and yet Davies could have sworn the storm-door swung slowly +open a foot or so as they neared the gate, then suddenly shut to. What +was more, he felt that his companion had seen and noted the same +circumstance, for she drew an instant closer to his side, then as +quickly seemed to recollect herself and edged away. + +Davies looked back over his shoulder. So certain was he that the +storm-door had been opened and closed by some unseen hand within the +wooden casing that he would have turned to investigate, but for his +companion. He could not well leave her. They had now reached the east +end, right in front of the set of quarters which were so soon to be his +own. The hospital loomed up dark and massive across an open space two +hundred yards away. Only a narrow foot-path had been cleared from the +end of the sidewalk to the main entrance of the big building. He had not +thought to put on his over-shoes, and so, letting Miss Loomis lead, +Davies fell behind. Now that they were away from ear-shot of the +quarters their talk languished. Davies at least was thinking of that +mysterious door and wondering if he should not have looked into the +matter then and there. Now it was too late. If some garrison prowler +were the cause, he had doubtless by this time taken alarm and slipped +away; if Captain Devers or any of his household were the "power behind," +then it was none of Davies's business. Hurrying up the creaking, +snapping steps of the hospital, they found the office-door locked. "I +more than suspected you would need me," said Davies. "Will you wait one +moment?" He tiptoed away through the long corridor, found the drowsy +attendant in the big ward, and learned that the steward had gone to his +little home in Sudstown, but would return in five minutes. It was nearer +fifteen when he came, and meantime Miss Loomis and her escort seated +themselves in the warm corridor and chatted in low tone as befitted the +time and place. In one of the little wards a suffering soldier was +moaning, evidently in penance for recent spree, and weakly imploring +drink of a stolid nurse. + +"Don't make a fellow mad with misery," they heard him plead. "You know +where to get it. You know it's worse than hell to have to choke off +short." + +"Of course I do," was the brutal answer. "If I'd never knew it before, +I'd learned it that night on the train when you could have sent me help +and wouldn't." + +"My God, Paine! you asked me to steal from the captain's flask. I simply +ask for what's my own----" + +But the voice was suddenly hushed, for, springing to his feet, Mr. +Davies hurried to the door. "Who is this--who have you here?" he asked. +"You--you? Brannan!" + +And then, as a slender, graceful, womanly shape came noiselessly in and +appeared by the lieutenant's side, quivering, shaking in an agony of +shame and misery and nervousness, the lonely patient threw himself over +towards the wall, and burying his distorted face in his arms, burst into +a passion of tears, the attendant meantime slinking out into the hall. + +"Come back here, my man," ordered Davies, in low, stern voice, while +Miss Loomis, without one instant of hesitation, threw off her cloak, +drew a chair to the bedside, and laid her soft white hand upon the +tumbled head of the wretched boy. Unwillingly, sullenly, the man obeyed. + +"You are Paine, of 'A' troop, are you not?" + +"Yes, sir. And the captain's orders and the doctor's were that he +shouldn't have a drop." + +"Never mind that. When did he get here? How did he come?" + +[Illustration: "COME BACK HERE, MY MAN." + +Page 180.] + +"With the mail-carrier this morning, from the agency, sir, and he'd been +drinking on the way and got to going harder as soon as he reached the +post. The captain ordered him confined and the doctor sent him here. But +my orders was----" + +"Never mind your orders. What I want to know is, who detailed you, and +when were you detailed for hospital duty?" + +"The captain sent me over, sir, after Brannan was taken in, and he's +been begging like that for a drink for an hour back." + +Meantime, with great sobs shaking his form, Brannan lay there saying no +articulate word. Miss Loomis gently drew an arm from underneath his +head. "Let me have your wrist, Brannan," she gently said. "You know your +old nurse of last summer, don't you?" And in another moment her +practised touch was on the sufferer's pulse. In silence Davies awaited +the result. Her eyes filled with grave anxiety as she counted the feeble +fluttering,--a mere shadow of the vigorous throb of a soldier's heart. +"This man ought not to be here--neglected," she murmured to Davies. +Then, rising, she turned to the attendant. "Go at once to Dr. Burroughs +and say that Miss Loomis asks him to come here as quick as he can." + +And Private Paine concluded it best to go without further words. The +steward, returning to his post, was met at the steps by the young +contract surgeon coming over from his corner on the run. A moment more +and the two stood in presence of the sufferer and of his nurse. She +smiled kindly upon the new-comers. "I sent for you, doctor, because I +knew you had not been informed of Brannan's state. His pulse----" and +here she lowered her voice so that only Burroughs and Davies could +hear,--"is so thin and wiry as to be almost gone. My father would say he +needed stimulant at once, and treatment later. See for yourself." + +And the daughter of the well-known and beloved old army surgeon knew her +ground and never faltered. Burroughs made brief examination and no +remonstrance. In another minute the steward was administering brandy and +water in a tablespoon while, anxious to re-establish himself, the young +doctor was explaining. "I had no previous knowledge of the case," he +stammered. "Captain Devers told me of the man's arrival and downfall, +and I ordered him into hospital at his request, and,--yes,--I did say no +stimulants of any kind. The captain so urged, and of course that would +be the customary mode of treatment in most cases, but in a case like +this, of course, had I been aware----" + +"Oh, certainly," she interposed, with the same gracious smile and +manner. "It was because I knew you hadn't been made aware. Now we'll +soon be able to make him comfortable, and then when he's on his feet +again he can tell us how it all happened." Again her white hand was laid +upon the haggard forehead. "Courage, Brannan. Don't worry. We'll get you +to sleep presently. Now, doctor, I want to send some medicine and a note +to Mrs. Cranston. With your permission I mean to stay here a while." + +"I will be your messenger, Miss Loomis," said Davies, "as the attendant +doesn't seem to have returned, and then I can let Mrs. Davies know that +I shall come here again, myself." + +As he sped along the row, note and medicine phial in hand, Davies was +surprised to see his captain's storm-door wide open and a light shining +through the transom within. A light was moving through the parlor, too, +but Davies paid no further heed, left the note and medicine in Mrs. +Cranston's hands with brief explanatory word, then hurried back to +Boynton's quarters. He had turned down the light when he went out for +his walk and had left his wife in the darkness of her room, trying, +presumably, to go to sleep. He found the lights turned on again, and +Almira, a heavy shawl bundled about her shoulders, sitting with white, +scared face, trembling and twitching, at the big coal base-burner in +what was called the parlor. + +"Why, Mira!" he cried. "What has happened? Are you ill?" And he bent +over as though to fold her in his arms, but she shrank away. + +"Don't!" she cried. "I was frightened. You--you were gone so long. I +thought you'd never come back." Then to his utter amaze she burst into a +wild fit of hysterical weeping. "Oh, take me away,--take me away from +this dreadful place, or I shall die,--I shall die!" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. + + +Mr. Davies was very late in returning to the hospital that night. For +nearly half an hour Almira sobbed and shivered and refused to be +comforted, and yet failed to explain. To his urgent plea to be told the +cause of her fright and distress she could give no intelligible reply. +"Oh, I don't know. I heard noises, or voices, or something. I was +all--all unstrung, I suppose. You--you talked to me so strangely, so +cruelly the other night, and I've--I've been thinking of it all day--all +day, and when you went away--and didn't come back, I--I thought all +sorts of things. I supposed you'd gone there, you know where,--to those +women,--those women who despise me and show it." It brought on fresh +moans and tragic wringing of hands, and new outpouring of salty tears +when he presently told her where he had been, but she would not listen +to the cause of his detention at the hospital. It was more than enough +that he had been out walking with her,--with _her_, in the dead of +night. That seemed the only fact she cared to grasp, and that she +crooned over with bitter wailing until his patience was exhausted. + +"This is childish and absurd!" he said. "It is unworthy of you, my wife, +and unjust to Miss Loomis as well as unjust to me. It is not possible +that this has caused all your terror and distress. What noises--what +sounds did you hear?" + +But these now she had forgotten. In the light of his confession, as she +termed it, all other calamities had faded into naught. He gradually +calmed her sufficiently to induce her to return to bed, but when he +announced that he must go again to the hospital to see how Brannan was +getting on, her lamentations were piteous. In vain he reminded her that +Brannan was her own cousin, the only son of her aunt and benefactress. +She would listen to none of it. Brannan was only an excuse to enable him +again to go and meet Miss Loomis, and finally, with white face and set, +rigid lips, Davies turned and left the house, walking rapidly to the +hospital. + +Miss Loom is still bent over the patient, who seemed now dozing. Dr. +Burroughs sat beside her at the moment, but had been away, he explained, +to see old Fritz again. A new attendant, a shy, awkward young fellow +from Devers's troop, was hovering about the bedside, and Davies glanced +at him inquiringly. "What became of Paine?" he asked, and the steward +shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. + +"Captain Devers took him away," was the answer. The doctor arose and +stood by Davies a minute. + +"I don't know what to make of that captain of yours," he said. "Either +he or I will keep out of this hospital in future. He came here and +'raised Cain' with my steward to-night, all on account of Brannan; then +went over to the troop barracks foaming like a mad bull. I fancy he +means to make it rather lively for you." + +"Never mind me, doctor, so long as this poor boy's coming out all right. +How is he?" + +"Doing nicely now, but--I wish I'd understood the case before. I'm bound +to say Captain Devers misled me entirely. _She's_ the doctor he needed," +said he, with a jerk of his head towards the grave, beautiful girl +bending over the soldier's pillow, one hand still slowly, tenderly +stroking back the dark hair about his temples. + +"Will you say good-night to her for me and escort her home? Mrs. Davies +is not well and I must return to her," said Davies, "that is,--unless I +am needed here." + +"No, go by all means. Only I may need you at the colonel's office in the +morning when this thing has to be fought out. Dodge your captain, +meantime, if you can." + +"I know of no reason why I should dodge him or anybody," said Davies, +with rising color. "I have done no wrong." + +But on the steps without, as he hurried away, the lieutenant met a man +who differed with him as to that--who differed with most people as to +everything, and that he had been working up the case in his own mind +against his subaltern there was no room for doubt. + +"By what right, sir, do you assume to over-ride my authority and undo my +orders? Time and again last summer I had occasion to caution you against +interference in the handling of the men and the management of the troop, +and now no sooner do you rejoin than here you are taking advantage of my +being probably abed and asleep to countermand my positive instructions +and overthrow my efforts at discipline." + +Without one word of reply Mr. Davies assumed the position of attention +and stood like a soldier before his furious commander. "I say again, +sir," began Devers, "that you have deliberately sought to deride my +authority and have connived at the disobedience of my orders. You knew +perfectly well what orders I had given in the case of Brannan, and you +dared to set them aside." + +Still not a word in reply. + +"This silence is contemptuous. Why don't you speak, sir?" + +"I simply deny each and every allegation, Captain Devers." + +"Denial is ridiculous, Mr. Davies! Haven't I the evidence of my own +senses,--of the steward and the attendant? Don't I know? By God, +sir----" + +"One moment. Oblige me, captain. I wish to behave with all deference and +respect, but when you use blasphemy----" + +"Oh, blasphemy be damned! Don't attempt to teach me! I've had too much +of your puritanical, psalm-singing business. I condoned your wretched +misconduct of last September in the hope that you might do better, but +now the time has come for you to be given the lesson you deserve. Things +have reached a pretty pass when an officer who leads his men into ambush +and then deserts them in their extremity----" + +"Captain Devers!" + +"No dramatics now. You're not in the pulpit----" The steward came forth +at the moment, and with instant modulation of tone Devers went on. "You +may not realize what you have done, but you have done it all the same, +despite every effort of mine to teach you the proper course----What is +it, steward?" he broke off, as though suddenly aware of that official's +presence. + +"The doctor's compliments, sir, and the new man the captain has sent +over to relieve Paine seems to lack intelligence; he won't do at all as +an attendant." + +"Tell the doctor I sent the best I had, and that he begged to be +relieved because he couldn't serve so many masters. When the post +surgeon hears of this night's work he will doubtless have his say as to +the manner in which his subordinates have trifled with their duties. I +will make no change.--You appear to be waiting, Mr. Davies. That's all, +sir, for to-night. You may go." + +With a face almost as white as the snowy expanse of the parade, the +lieutenant still stood there, quivering with wrath and wrong. He looked +as though a torrent of reply were trembling on his lips, yet by supreme +effort he curbed the impulse. His chest heaved once or twice. His lips +were twitching. His hands were clenched and convulsive, but at last, +with one long look into his captain's eyes while the latter was going on +to say something about the necessity of his junior's accepting his +admonition in proper spirit, Davies turned abruptly and sprang down the +steps. Two soldiers stood there in the dusk, where they must have heard +every word that was said. One was the new company clerk, Howard, the +other Paine. Neither lifted a hand in salute to the officer. Both turned +their backs and feigned to be deeply interested in conversation of their +own. + +It was Mr. Hastings's duty that week to supervise reveille roll-call and +attend morning stables. He was surprised, therefore, as he went bounding +over the parade, to see his junior sub on the porch wrapped in a heavy +overcoat. Presently, after reporting to the post adjutant, as was the +local custom, the various officers came scattering back to their own +firesides, the infantry subs to turn in for another snooze, the cavalry +to swallow a cup of coffee before going down to stables. Sanders hailed +the lonely figure with characteristic levity. + +"Hello, Parson! Up for all day and meditating a sermon?" + +Davies ignored the question and went straight to business. "I want to +see Captain Cranston as soon as possible. Does he go to stables this +morning?" + +"Never misses 'em. What's up? Hope Mrs. Davies isn't ill." + +"Mrs. Davies isn't very well, but it's on personal business I want to +see the captain. I'll go down with him." + +"Come over to my house and have some coffee, or a cocktail," said +Sanders, with cheery hospitality. "Just what you need, old man. You look +as if you'd been dragged by the heels through a knot-hole." + +"Barnickel is making some coffee for me, thank you, Sanders. It will +pull me together all right, I fancy." And Sanders went whistling on. The +world and its cares, the flesh and the devil all dropped lightly on the +shoulders of this young sinner, and either rode there or fell to the +ground unnoticed. Garrison days were but a merry-go-round with him. "If +that's a specimen of the bridegroom cometh," said he to himself, "I've +got no more use for matrimony than I have for the catechism." And +doubtless to this gay and nonchalant spirit the deeply religious +temperament of the Parson seemed a sombre and repellent thing,--a thing +to be lamented, yet indulged as something too solemn or sacred for +remonstrance. + +The morning air was bitter and Davies felt his toes and fingers +tingling. The boards cracked and snapped under his tread, so, rather +than disturb Almira, he stepped out on the walk and began pacing up and +down, still burning with indignation over the events of the previous +night. There had been a fresh fall of snow Sunday morning, and though +the walks and paths were cleared, the soft white mantle lay like a +glistening carpet over the parade and prairie and along the slanting +roofs of the quarters. There was an open space of sixty feet from outer +wall to wall along officers' row, and a paling or picket fence, running +at right angles to the roadway in front, divided this space equally, so +that each set of quarters had its own yard. Davies had remarked with a +smile the previous evening, the contrast presented by the Leonards's +yard at the west end and his at the east of the double set in which they +lived. Leonard's yard was criss-crossed, cut up in every direction by +tracks of sled-runners and sturdy little rubber boots. His own lay like +a flawless sheet without even a kitten's footprint to mar its virgin +surface. Now as he strode rapidly westward again and came in front of +the Leonard playground, he noted once more the traces that spoke so +eloquently of happy, healthy childhood, of rosy cheeks and sparkling +eyes and merry laughter. Then he turned back to his own, still tramping +briskly in the endeavor to send the blood to his finger-tips, and then +coming in view of what at nightfall had been an unbroken coverlet of +snow, Davies stopped short, amazed. Straight from the corner at the +front where the fences met, straight as a lance, went the footprints of +a man, in long, unhesitating stride, to a point immediately underneath +the closed blinds of the window behind which his wife now lay placidly +sleeping. Davies stood and studied the tracks a moment, then went to the +point of meeting of the front fence,--a flat-topped affair,--with its +picketed offshoot. Beyond doubt the maker of those tracks had swung +himself over the fence at that point, dropped lightly to the ground +inside and gone straightway to that side window. There he must have +stood a moment or two, for the snow was trampled. Thence the tracks led +around to the back of the house. Returning to his gate and hall-way, +Davies tiptoed noiselessly through the little dining-room to the kitchen +in the shed at the back. There Barnickel was sleepily starting a fire, +and the door leading into his little den farther back discovered the +soldier blankets of his bunk tumbled over as though he had just arisen. +The door to the yard was still bolted. Davies slipped the bolt and +stepped out on the plank walk leading from the kitchen to the gate in +the rear fence. These had been tramped by many feet in that direction, +and by only one pair in the other. Coming around from the side of the +house were the tracks of the same foot gear, the heavy soldier arctics +worn then by officers and men alike, that he had marked at the front. +They led to a point underneath the rear or north window of Almira's +room, and there, after evident shifting and tramping of a minute or two, +had turned sharply away, led straight past the kitchen door and were +lost in the general run of those towards the gate. + +"What time did you come in to bed last night, Barnickel?" asked the +lieutenant, at the kitchen door. + +"About 10.30, sir. I'd been over to Sergeant Walsh's quarters. I went in +to see if the lieutenant wanted anything, sir, but he'd turned down the +lights and gone out." + +"Yes. And now did you hear any noise,--any footsteps?" + +"No, sir. Only Mrs. Davies, sir; she was stirring round, excited like, +and peeped out of her room to ask did I know where the lieutenant was." + +"Did you come in through the front hall or the back way?" + +"The back way, sir. There's standing orders against enlisted men +crossing the parade or bein' on the officers' sidewalk." + +Davies paused a minute. "Give me your broom," said he, and taking it +through the partly opened door he carefully turned the knob behind him, +swept away the traces leading to the rear window, swept and obliterated +those at the back and side, as far as and including those under the east +window, then, tossing the broom to the door, strode round the house to +the front just as stable call was pealing, and Captain Cranston in huge +beaver skin overcoat and cap came forth into the frosty day. The instant +he caught sight of Davies the captain hastened to him and drew his arm +within his own. + +"The very man I want to see, and you are waiting for me!" + +"Yes. I presume you know why." + +"I've heard. Come with me to stables, by way of the hospital. I want to +see how Brannan passed the night." + +"I cannot go in, captain. I am virtually forbidden further connection +with the case." + +"I understand, but I am not included in the order, and wouldn't heed it +if I were." Plainly Captain Cranston was in aggressive mood. Other +officers, issuing from their quarters, set forth across the parade, but +catching sight of the popular troop commander, pulled up as though to +wait for him, then looked surprised to see him earnestly talking with +the pale-faced subaltern, going straight on eastward. Directly in front +of Devers's house they met that officer himself, a bundle of papers in +his hand. In the "Tactics" of the day one of the foremost paragraphs +read, "Courtesy among military men being indispensable, it is enjoined +on all officers to salute each other on meeting, the junior tendering +the first salute," or words to that effect, but it was a rule far more +honored in the breach than the observance. The post commander was about +the only one to receive such recognition from his juniors, all others, +as a rule, contenting themselves with a jovial "'Morning, Jack." "How +are you, major?" and, possibly, an off-hand and perfunctory touch of the +cap. Only among sticklers for military propriety like Leonard was the +salute tendered to superiors. In nine cases out of ten it meant, when +given, that personal relations were strained. Approaching the battalion +commander Mr. Davies looked him straight in the eye and raised his +gloved right hand to the cap visor. Cranston, with the most off-hand nod +imaginable, gruffly and shortly said, "Good-morning," without so much as +a tempering "sir" or "captain," and hurried sturdily by. Devers flushed, +looked after the two an instant as though tempted to call, then turned +back across the parade and was presently swallowed up in the door-way of +the troop office. + +Leaving Davies outside, Cranston ran into the hospital, and presently +reappeared. "Sleeping quietly," said he, "and the poor devil would have +been in the terrors of delirium tremens if Devers's orders had been +carried out and the doctor hadn't been sent for. Now tell me the whole +story. Agatha has told me her version." + +Lashed tight to the heavy picket rope, the horses were revelling in the +keen morning air and slanting sunshine, nipping at each other's noses, +challenging, with sparkling eye and tip-tilted ear, each well-known face +and form of officer or man to caress or frolic, snapping and squealing +at each other across the line, occasionally rearing and plunging in +uncontrollable jollity. Bending to their work in their white stable +frocks and overalls, the men were making brush and currycomb fly over +the shining coats of their pets, carefully guarding, however, the long, +thick winter crop of hair, for no man could say how soon they might have +to take the field and face unsheltered the keen Dakota blasts. The +frosty quadrangle was merry with musical tap, tap of the metal comb, and +the snort and "_purr_" and paw of hoof of the spirited bays. Little +Sanders, an enthusiastic horseman, was darting in and out among his +charges, praising this man's work, condemning that, and occasionally +seizing brush and comb himself and giving a practical lesson to some +comparative novice. And, leaving matters for the nonce to his subaltern, +Cranston paced gravely up and down, Davies by his side, absorbed in +close converse. Captain Devers left his line to Mr. Hastings and did not +appear at stables at all. "That means he's concocting an epistle," said +Hastings, with a grin. "He's hobnobbing with his new pet, Howard, and +somebody'll get the benefit of an official letter this morning." + +"We expect you to breakfast," said Cranston, as he bade the lieutenant +good-by at the gate, "and I hope Mrs. Davies is feeling all right now." + +But Mrs. Davies was not. She was so far from well that she had decided +to remain in bed. No, she wanted no breakfast, no doctor, no anybody. +All the same, Mrs. Cranston sent her a dainty tray on which was +displayed a most appetizing little feast, and Almira's resolution gave +way at sight of it. Wisely Mrs. Cranston refrained from calling, but +other women were presently on hand to cheer and sympathize when at ten +o'clock the commanding officer's orderly appeared with the commanding +officer's compliments and he desired to see Mr. Davies at the office. + +"Precisely as I told you," said Cranston, who was waiting for him on the +walk without. "It was best to let Devers make the attack. Now for the +defence." + +Colonel Stone was at his desk. "Come in, Cranston," he called, as he +caught sight of the soldier he so much liked. "I want to see you, too. +Er,--come in, Mr. Davies," he added in a tone less cordial and more +official. "Orderly, ask Mr. Leonard to step in here. Then shut the door +and remain outside. Er--sit down, gentlemen, er--sit down." + +And then in came Leonard, silent, even saturnine; a massive fellow with +a mind as broad as his shoulders, a head full of reading and research +and knowledge of his profession, but the quietest man in the garrison +withal, and Leonard simply bowed to the new-comers, dropped into the +chair indicated by his commander, then dropped his eyes upon the floor +and waited. + +Pegleg dandled a pencil, end for end, between his fingers a minute, +reflectively studying a knot-hole in the floor that yawned through a +corresponding breach in the matting. Then he flung the stump of a cigar +into a sawdust spittoon and began. + +"Mr. Davies, I sent for you and I also invited in Captain Cranston +because I want to hear your side of a singular case. In an official +letter to the post adjutant, Captain Devers charges that you went to the +post hospital last night, ordered the attendant out of the room, and +proceeded to usurp control of a patient under the doctor's care,--that +you deliberately overthrew his authority and actually told the attendant +his orders were of no account. This, if true, is a most serious matter, +but I have learned that there are many sides to a story. What is yours?" + +"As briefly as possible, colonel,--and just as I answered Captain +Devers,--I deny every such allegation." + +"Well, you certainly went to the hospital?" + +"I certainly did, sir; simply to get some medicine for Captain +Cranston's little son and without an idea that Brannan was there." + +"Then you didn't go with the purpose of seeing Brannan?" + +"Certainly not, sir. I believed him to be at the agency until I heard +his voice. I knew the young man well from an experience last summer and +during the campaign." + +"But what about ordering the attendant out?" + +"That is absurd. I found--or rather"--and now the hot color of +embarrassment flew up to his pale forehead--"Miss Loomis, who is +experienced in such matters, found Brannan in very dangerous +plight,--his pulse nearly gone. He was verging, perhaps, on an attack of +delirium. She considered, as did I, that the doctor ought to see him at +once, and, as his quarters were at the nearest corner, barely two +hundred yards away, she told the attendant to hurry for him. I should +have done the same thing, but it was unnecessary. The attendant should +have returned at once, but----" + +"Well, didn't you undertake to administer brandy?" + +"Not at all, sir. The doctor himself ordered that on his arrival." + +"At your urging or suggestion?" + +"I certainly approved it, sir, but I did not urge." + +"Well, then, what does it mean--your having told the attendant his +orders were of no account?" + +"I did nothing of the kind, sir. The attendant once or twice began +talking about his orders, but I had no time to listen. I did say, never +mind your orders, or something like that, but he knew perfectly well +what I meant. I inferred what the orders were,--I simply had no time to +hear them." + +"Well, the attendant declares, or at least Captain Devers says he +declares, you twice choked him off when he tried to tell you what his +orders were by saying he shouldn't mind such orders. Here, Leonard, the +shortest way will be to read the whole letter. You do it." And slowly +Leonard took the official sheet and began. + + "POST ADJUTANT, FORT SCOTT, NEBRASKA. + + "SIR,--It is with extreme regret that I feel it necessary to + report to the commanding officer certain occurrences tending to + the overthrow of good order and military discipline in the + command. Yesterday morning there arrived from the Ogallalla + Agency, Trooper Brannan of Troop 'A,' Eleventh Calvary, who had + been ordered hither by Lieutenant Boynton as attendant or + escort to the mail-rider. First Sergeant Haney reported to me + at ten o'clock that the man had evidently been drinking on the + way and was in an advanced stage of intoxication. On + examination of the man I was convinced that he needed medical + attendance rather than incarceration, and, instead of sending + him to the guard-house, as is customary in such cases, caused + him to be taken to the hospital, where under Dr. Burroughs's + orders he was put to bed and an attendant from my troop was + detailed with instructions to see that no stimulants of any + kind were given him. All seemed to progress favorably until + shortly after taps, when Trooper Paine, the attendant in + question, reported to me that Lieutenant Davies, Eleventh + Calvary, entered the ward, accompanied by a member of the + household of Captain Cranston, declared the treatment of the + patient unjustifiable and ordered him, the attendant, out of + the room. On Paine's attempting to define his orders he was + abruptly silenced and again ordered to leave. Being on duty + under the instructions of superior authority, Trooper Paine + again strove to explain his orders, and this time was curtly + told that he should pay no heed to such instructions, and was + then sent out of the hospital. The trooper called the doctor on + his way and then, very properly, reported his embarrassing + dilemma to me. I closely questioned him, and there can be no + doubt as to the language imputed to Lieutenant Davies, whose + propensity to interfere in the discipline of the troop I had + frequent occasion to notice and rebuke during the campaign of + the past summer. As courteous and kindly admonition had no + effect, and as the officer in question has seen fit to treat my + words with apparent disdain, I am compelled to invoke the + support of the post commander in suppressing the spirit of + insubordination of which this is so flagrant an instance. + + "Very respectfully, + "Your obedient servant, + "JARED B. DEVERS, + "_Captain Eleventh Cavalry_." + +When Leonard had finished reading he folded the paper and looked +dreamily at the cobweb in the corner. He wished to be understood as +having no opinion whatever to express. Cranston sat in silence with lips +compressed under his heavy moustache. Davies never moved. His blue eyes +were fixed unflinchingly on the swarthy face of the veteran adjutant +until the latter had finished reading, then sought the eye of his +commander as though for permission to speak. + +"Well, Captain Cranston, what do you think of the letter?" asked Pegleg, +after a moment's silence. + +"I think it very ingenious, sir." + +"Now, gentleman, the captain says that when he attempted to remonstrate +with Mr. Davies last night he was treated with absolute contempt, and, +Mr. Davies, he says that you refused to answer." + +"I strove to control my tongue and temper both, colonel, and _not_ to +behave with disrespect. I did not answer him at once, but it was from no +lack of impulse to do so." + +Pegleg reflected a moment, then addressed himself to Cranston. "I +confess that this matter is one that causes me much embarrassment," said +he. "The post surgeon says that he was not aware of the man being sent +to the hospital at all, and that it was Dr. Burroughs's case. Dr. +Burroughs says he did not consider the man drunk, but took Captain +Devers's statement, as he knew the man well. Captain Devers asked that +he be put in hospital to keep him from drinking, because he knew the +prisoners got liquor whenever they had money, and it wouldn't be safe to +have him in the guard-house. Is there anything peculiar about this +Brannan?--any reason why he should be treated by his captain on a +different system?" + +"Colonel Stone," said Cranston, "I knew Brannan's mother, a wealthy and +prominent woman in society. Mr. Davies can perhaps tell you even more, +but I do not think Captain Devers knows anything of Brannan's past." + +Leonard's dark eyes came down from the cobweb and studied Cranston's +face as though he wished to ask a question, and Pegleg saw it. He leaned +on Leonard, and had grown to respect his judgment. + +"What were you about to ask?" said he. + +"Do you know anything about the antecedents of that new company clerk of +Captain Devers?" asked the adjutant, thus authorized. + +"Nothing whatever," said Cranston, wheeling round in his chair and +looking curiously at the big infantryman. + +"Well,--pardon me, Mr. Davies. Had you never met or known him?" + +"Never, except that he was one of the party of recruits I came out with +last summer." + +"But you knew Brannan, did you not?" + +"Yes, he was the man who handled a nozzle with me in showering a pack of +rioters among the recruits last June." + +"But I mean you knew him before that, did you not?" + +"Never," answered Davies, in surprise. "I never saw him in my life." + +And then Leonard in turn reddened and looked confused, and shut his jaws +like a clam. + +"Orderly," sang out the colonel, "go and give my compliments to Captain +Devers, and say I wish to see him." Then, turning to Cranston, "We may +as well get to the bottom of this business right here and now. I hate +trickery." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. + + +But, as on more than one previous occasion, Captain Devers was not +immediately to be found. He was not at his quarters, not at the store +nor the stables. Mr. Hastings said later that just after Cranston and +Davies went to the adjutant's office, Devers came from his house and +went over to the barracks. Sergeant Haney did not know where the captain +had gone. Not until 10.30 o'clock did the orderly succeed in finding +him, coming up the bluff from the river bottom, whither he had ridden, +he said, to look over the prospective ice crop. By that time Pegleg was +tired of waiting and had dismissed his visitors. They, however, were +recalled in a minute, and when Captain Devers was made acquainted with +Mr. Davies's positive denial of his allegations, Captain Devers promptly +shifted the responsibility to the shoulders of the attendant, Private +Paine, who had persisted, he said, in his story despite his, Devers's, +incredulity and stringent cross-examination. Bang went Pegleg's fist on +the bell. "Send for Private Paine, Troop 'A,'" said he. "I'm bound to +get to the bottom of this at once." And then while the orderly was gone +he began pacing the floor, occasionally stopping to drum on the +frost-covered window. Leonard shifted his seat to Cranston's side and +entered into low-toned chat with him and Davies, though neither seemed +in mood to talk. A natural question that had risen to their lips was why +Leonard seemed to think that Brannan was well known to Davies before his +enlistment, and this question Leonard had disposed of by saying that he +had been assured that this was the case, and that he would ask his +informant's permission to give his name. It was an officer and a friend +of Davies, and the statement was made in all apparent good faith. Devers +sat nervously in a chair feigning to read a newspaper, but every now and +then furtively watching the three. Presently the orderly came back. +Trooper Paine wasn't in the post: he'd gone with the market wagon to +town. + +"Captain Devers," said Pegleg, irritably, "you ought to have known this. +Why didn't you say he'd gone, instead of keeping us waiting here?" + +"I protest against the imputation, colonel," said Devers, to all +appearances much injured at such injustice. "The wagon rarely, if ever, +goes to town on Monday, and that Private Paine should have gone with it +is equally fortuitous." + +"Well, just as soon as that wagon gets back I wish to examine that man, +and I wish you, gentlemen, to be present, also Doctor Burroughs. You see +to it, Mr. Leonard." + +"I'll give instructions at once," said Leonard, rising quickly, and +then, with significant glance at Cranston, taking his cap and quitting +the office. + +"Then, Colonel Stone," said Devers, "I must ask, in justice to myself, +that one or two officers, who are friends of mine, may be present at the +inquisition. I am conscious of nothing but enemies in this office, and I +can expect no fair play." + +Stone whirled wrathfully upon him. "Your language is insubordinate, +Captain Devers, and there must be an immediate end to it. If you have +enemies here, they are of your own making. Bring any gentleman who will +consent to appear with you, and, meantime, sir, you may withdraw." + +"And leave the field in possession of my opponents, sir, and, like Sir +Peter Teazle, my character in their hands. There is a higher court than +a post commander," said Devers, white and trembling with mingled wrath +and apprehension, "and to that court I shall appeal." + +"You shall have every opportunity, sir," answered the colonel, with a +bang upon his bell, "and leave this office in arrest if I hear another +word.--Recall Mr. Leonard," said he to the orderly, who sprang in with +scared face as Devers went mumbling out, "Which way did he go?" + +"To the cavalry barks, sir," answered the Irish soldier, and Devers +caught the reply before he was fairly out of the hall. He turned whiter +still, for sudden suspicion flashed upon him. He halted as though more +than half disposed to again address his commander, but realized that +already he had gone too far. He looked again across the white level of +the parade and saw the tall, dark figure of the adjutant stalking +straight to the door of his own troop office, and as with anxiously +throbbing heart he walked away homewards, Devers watched his hated +persecutor, almost divining what was his purpose,--what would be his +first question. He saw him halt and the office-door open and Sergeant +Haney come forth. Haney, who could be flippant and independent in the +presence of his own lieutenants, stood like a statue before that dark, +saturnine face. Officer or man, no soldier in that garrison ever took a +liberty with Leonard. Devers realized that he had made a fatal error at +last. He almost realized--almost divined the very words of that brief, +curt interview. + +"Sergeant Haney, you must have known Trooper Paine would be needed at +the office this morning. How, then, did you select him to go to town?" + +And Haney, to use his own expression, "wilted." + +"Them was the captain's orders, sir." + +"Captain who?" + +"Captain Devers, sir." + +"That's all." + +And when Sergeant Haney was informed ten minutes later that the captain +wished to see him at his quarters at once, he realized that there were +breakers ahead in earnest, and went with his heart in his mouth. Later, +when he came forth after full confession of the adjutant's question and +his own compromising reply, the sergeant proceeded to the adjutant's +office, asked to see that gentleman, well known throughout the old army +as Black Larry, and nervously twitching his cap stood uneasily before +those penetrating eyes. "I've come to make a correction, sir. I +misunderstood the captain." + +"As to what?" + +"As to Paine. The captain told me he might be needed this morning. Then +he said he promised Paine he might go to town next trip of the +market-wagon. We were out of potatoes, sir, and there were fine ones in +market, so the captain said we'd better secure some without delay. I +took it he meant at once, and so the wagon went this morning and Paine +went along. I suppose I got it mixed, sir, but I thought the captain +meant Paine should go to-day." + +"Which wasn't at all what the captain meant you should think, eh?" said +Leonard, dryly. + +"No, sir. He says he meant to have him ready to go to see the colonel." + +"Exactly. I only marvel at your misunderstanding such explicit and +clear-cut orders," said Leonard, with calm sarcasm. "That will do, +sergeant, so far as you are concerned." And Haney walked away, well +content that when Paine and the wagon got back there would be something +more for "the ould man" to explain, or stand the consequences. + +But even Haney had only faint conception of his captain's squirming +powers. Not until evening stables was the wagon back from Braska. It was +loaded to the guards with fine Utah potatoes for the troop mess, and +there was no room for Trooper Paine. "You're wanted at the adjutant's +office at once," said the orderly to the wagon-driver, who was already +in conversation with Sergeant Haney, "and I'm to fetch you with me." + +"The man can't go till he's put up his team, young fellow," said Haney +to the infantry bugler. + +"He can when ould Pegleg's a-pullin', Misther Sergeant Haney, and he's +not to go anywhere else or talk with any one else furst off ayther," was +the significant answer,--another unpleasant item to impart to his now +wretchedly uneasy captain; and verily it seemed to Haney that the +halcyon days were done for good and all, when soon after dusk a little +squad from Cranston's troop, with Second Lieutenant Sanders in command, +rode briskly away on the Braska road, and it was speedily whispered +about the garrison that they were going to find Paine, drunk or sober, +dead or alive, and fetch him back to the post forthwith. + +"It takes a heap of nagging to get old Pegleg fully worked up," said the +fellows of the Fortieth that night, _a propos_ of the snub given Devers, +and the pursuit by members of another troop of material witnesses, "but +when he locks horns in dead earnest, the other party's got to scratch +gravel; it's business and no quarter." + +Meantime, acting under the advice of Captain Cranston, Davies had +refrained from making any complaint of the language which Devers had +seen fit to use at his expense. "Leonard says that some other matters +should come up first, and Leonard knows. The colonel is after Devers +with a sharp stick now, and all these charges are to be sprung upon him +presently. You go on getting your quarters ready for Wednesday's +house-warming. By that time you'll be wanted on the witness-stand. +To-morrow, Tuesday, there'll be fun at the commanding officer's office +with a general court-martial looming up behind it. Meantime, hold your +peace." + +This was Monday evening, and when he returned, meditating, to his +temporary fireside, he found Mira surrounded by a swarm of post callers, +smiling and chatting, gracious and gay. He was in no mood for chatter +himself, but had to sit by and strive to be interested and sociable. +Most of their visitors had heard the story of Captain Devers's close +call at the office that morning, and not a few sought to hear the facts +of the case from the lips of an eye-witness. But Davies would not speak +of the matter at all, and, finding him intractable, some one asked if +Sanders had returned, and what success had attended his search for the +missing. It was nearly time for tattoo. Dr. Burroughs was among the +callers, and had just come over from the hospital. He had had no +addition to the list of patients. "On the contrary," said he, "I have a +man who might go to duty to-night were there need, and that is Miss +Loomis's patient, Brannan." + +"Oh, do tell us about that, Mr. Davies," appealed Mrs. Flight, who was +again on hand, well knowing that next to the colonel's, where she was +not entirely in the good graces of the lady of the house, garrison +society would be most apt to be found in force doing homage to the +bride. "We've heard all manner of conjectures already, and are so eager +to know the truth. _Was_ he an old friend of her's, and _did_ he send +and beg her to come to him?" + +"No," said Davies, promptly, "she got to the hospital by merest +accident. Louis Cranston's throat was sore, and he was coughing a great +deal. She went for medicine, and I happened to meet her on the way." + +"But they said there was such a romantic scene; he wept and clung to her +hand, and----" + +Here Burroughs opportunely and somewhat aggressively burst into a guffaw +of derisive laughter. "Miss Loomis is just one of those admirable +women," said he, "that empty-headed idiots prate about. I wish other +people had half her sense." A luckless way of essaying the defence of +the absent, for it reflected on many a woman present. + +"Fie! Dr. Burroughs," exclaimed Mrs. Flight. "Your blushes give you +away, even more than your words. Don't you be falling in love with Miss +Loomis. She's aiming higher than one room and a kitchen and a thousand a +year." Whereupon there was shrill laughter, and further accusation and +indignant protest from the ill-starred medico. And Davies, who ought to +have rejoiced in the loyalty of such admiration for his friend and +whilom nurse, was conscious of a pang of annoyance and aversion. The +entrance of the old chaplain and his wife, and dark, swarthy Leonard +with the handsome partner of his joys and sorrows, gave instant turn to +the conversation. In a very few minutes Mrs. Flight and two younger +matrons took their departure, Almira following them with rustic +regretfulness, and exchanging some whispered confidences at the door, +which brought new flush to Davies's anxious face. Mrs. Leonard was +speaking of a recent visit "up the road," as in those days the Union +Pacific in its westward climb to the Rockies was referred to. She had +had such a lovely visit to Fort Russell, and had so much to tell about +affairs in that particularly swell regiment, the --th, and the Truscotts +had entertained her at such a pretty dinner; Mrs. Truscott was charming, +and Mrs. Stannard was such a noble woman, and they were all so +interested in Mr. Ray's engagement. It was practically announced. He was +to be married to Miss Sanford--an heiress and a great catch--early in +June, and this led to the chaplain speaking of Ray, whom in days gone by +he was prone to look upon with little favor, if not indeed as a +ne'er-do-well. "I always feared that he would fall, and I am so rejoiced +in this new phase to his character." + +"Oh, _I_ met Mr. Ray!" exclaimed Almira, delightedly. "He was ordered in +to General Sheridan on some duty late in the summer, and some of the +young officers, Percy's classmates, said he was such a brave fellow." + +"What did the old officers say?" asked Leonard, with a twinkle in his +black eyes, but not the vestige of a grin under his heavy moustache. + +"They? Oh, I don't remember their saying anything about _him_. They said +lots of lovely things about Percy." + +"Yes. That's right. I can understand their omitting no opportunity of +doing that. One learns to be something of a courtier even in Chicago, +when on staff duty, and as for Washington, service there is a liberal +education in diplomacy. One never knows who may have the strongest pull +with the President in the event of a vacancy in the staff corps." + +"Leonard," said the chaplain, gravely, "you're a born cynic and a +pessimist to boot. Have we no generous impulses in the army?" + +"Lots of 'em. Lots of 'em, chaplain, especially in the line and on the +frontier, where we can afford to pat a fellow on the back, since we know +that's about the extent of the reward he'll ever get. It's when we're +in big society in the East, above all in Washington, one has to be +guarded in what he says, or first thing he knows he'll be hoisting some +fellow over his own head in a moment of enthusiasm. No. I know just how +you regard me, but I spent six weeks of a three months' leave in +Washington last winter, and sat night after night at the club, or day +after day among the army crowd at the Ebbitt, or in some fellow's den at +the Department, and never once did I hear one word of frank, outspoken, +fearless praise of some other fellow's work or deeds, unless it were to +his face. Ask a man flat-footed if that wasn't a capital scout of +Striker's last winter in the Tonto Basin, or if Jake Randlett hadn't +done a daring thing in going all alone through the Sioux country to drum +up Crow scouts for Crook's command, or what he thought of Billy Ray's +cutting his way out through the Cheyennes to bring help to Wayne last +June, and ten to one he'll hum and haw and say yes, he _did_ hear +something about that, and now that I mentioned it he believed Striker or +Jake or Billy had really behaved quite creditably, but the whole tone +was significant of nothing like what some other fellow I might mention, +modesty only forbidding, would have done under similar circumstances.' +It's just the damnation of faint praise. The trouble with the whole gang +of those fellows seems to be a mortal dread lest somebody's eyes should +be deflected from the valor of the warriors at Washington to that of the +warriors on the plains. What recognition do you suppose Ray will ever +get for that feat? General Crook says it's useless to recommend him for +brevet, because the Senate wouldn't confirm it, and the reason they +won't is that those hangers-on about the capital don't mean to let such +rewards be given to the men on the frontier. And yet this sort of thing +doesn't happen only in Washington. It was a cavalry officer who said of +that very affair that Ray was simply a reckless fellow under a cloud, +with everything to gain and nothing to lose, and that doing a reckless +thing was just as much a matter of instinct with him as battle is to a +bull-dog." + +It was unusual to see Leonard warm up in this way. Besides the chaplain +and the silent host, there were three officers in the dreary little +bachelor den at the moment. Each and every one seemed surprised at the +adjutant's outbreak, but not one of them at the concluding revelation. + +"No need to ask who that was," said Captain Hay, with a prefatory +"Humph." "It savors of Devers from first to last. That man is a born +iconoclast. He pulls down everybody's idols and sneers at what he cannot +pull down,--our ideals." + +"Well, now let me ask you," said the chaplain, a man whose broad charity +led him at any and all times to the defence of the absent. "Without +detracting in the faintest degree from the heroism and value of Mr. +Ray's exploit, are there not degrees of personal bravery, are there not +possibilities of an order of courage higher even than his? As I recall +him, he was what I should term a fearless man, brave to a fault; but +have we not in the army tens and perhaps hundreds of honorable gentlemen +who are as keenly susceptible to the thrill of danger as Ray is +apparently dead to it? Have I not heard man after man say how his own +knees trembled or his comrade's cheek blanched at the whistle of the +first bullets of the battle? And as for this Indian campaigning, can +there be a warfare imagined in which the percentage of peril is so +great, the possibilities of ambush, surprise, sudden death in the midst +of fancied security so constant, the daily and nightly circumstances so +full of incessant nervous strain? Now, who is the better soldier,--the +really braver, or, perhaps better, the more courageous man,--he who +rides the trail utterly reckless of or insensible to its peril, or he +who, sighting danger in every bush, scenting death on every breeze, +looking every instant for the war-whoop, the death-wound, nevertheless +so bears himself with all his faculties in hand as to seem calm, serene, +confident, and stands ready for death or duty at any moment? I have +always held that the Christian gentleman was the highest type of the +highest order of courage; the man who replaced the fatalism of the +Mahometan with the sustaining faith of the soldier of the Cross. But I +see you think I'm in the pulpit and preaching again," said he, smiling +at Leonard. "We both warmed up to our hobby." + +They were silent a moment. Across the wintry night the trumpets were +singing the lullaby of the crowded garrison, and hurrying footsteps told +of belated subalterns speeding to their companies to supervise the +roll-calls. Leonard rose to his full height and threw his cloak over his +broad shoulders. + +"We are more in accord in this matter than you think, perhaps, chaplain; +only the man doesn't live who could be insensible to the danger of +cutting his way through a band of encircling Cheyennes. I've heard of +no braver deed in many a year than Ray's. I doubt if we'll hear of truer +grit or courage in many more." + +"Perhaps not, Leonard," said the chaplain, as the adjutant paused an +instant at the threshold to say he would return the moment he had +received the reports. "Perhaps not, nor would I say one word to +underrate the heroism of Ray's exploit; but when we do hear of another I +look to hear of it in some fellow as firm in his faith as he is in his +sense of honor and duty, and some day we shall see." + +But Leonard did not return in five minutes nor in ten, and Mrs. Leonard +grew anxious. "This never happens unless something unusual has +occurred." Captain Hay stepped through the hall and opened the outer +door. + +"There are lights dancing about over there on the parade near 'A' +Troop's quarters. I wonder what's up. Hullo, Sanders! That you? When did +you get back? Did you get your man?" + +"Got two of 'em," was the breezy answer. "T'other one disguised as a +gentleman in cits and just about starting on the night train for the +West,--the gifted Mr. Howard, clerk of 'A' Troop." + +Mrs. Davies was standing just within the parlor door at the moment, +blushing over the praises lavished on her by the chaplain's impulsive +helpmeet and trying hard to say civil and appropriate things to her +guests. The officers, one and all, had edged into the hall-way in +eagerness to hear the news. + +"What was it Mr. Sanders said?" asked Mrs. Leonard, anxious to know +what detained her husband. Hay half turned. + +"He says they arrested two men, one of them apparently deserting, being +in civilian dress and aboard the train,--Captain Devers's new clerk, +Howard." + +And then every one in the parlor saw that Mrs. Davies was seized as with +sudden faintness. She turned very white and grasped at the nearest chair +for support. "I'm only dizzy, not ill, or I don't know what it is," she +protested, as they crowded round her, and Davies came quickly in, +conscious that something was amiss. Nor did she recover her color or her +calm. Nervous, fluttering answers only could she give to their +sympathetic inquiries, and when presently Leonard reappeared, cool and +imperturbable as ever, she was evidently relieved to see her guests +departing. The adjutant explained his detention by saying he had gone to +the colonel's with Sanders, who had galloped ahead, leaving his guard to +bring along the prisoners in an ambulance, Paine too drunk to be able to +move. They would hardly arrive before eleven. + +"The colonel desires to see you at the office at eight o'clock in the +morning," said he in low tone to Cranston. "Howard has been away all +day,--since guard-mounting, in fact,--and no report was made of it. +Devers has been notified that the colonel would investigate matters--the +whole business, in fact--early to-morrow." + +But who can tell what a day may bring forth? Devers, after a sleepless +night, filled with foreboding of the wrath to come as the result of that +impending investigation, sat nervously over his coffee while the +trumpets were sounding first call for guard-mounting, and turned a shade +yellower at the ring of the front-door bell. The servant re-entered the +dining-room and announced that Lieutenant Leonard, the adjutant, +desired to speak to the captain. For a moment he could not rise. +Conscious of his own double-dealing, visions of arrest, charges, +court-martial--heaven knows what all--were floating before his startled +eyes, but go he had to. Summoning courage, bravado, or something, he +swaggered into the hall. + +"Oh--ah--step into the parlor, Mr. Leonard," said he, airily, "I presume +you're here on business." He was preparing to exhibit amaze--virtuous +and soldierly indignation--at the idea of having, all unheard and +unrepresented, been ordered into arrest on the prejudiced statement of a +swarm of hostile officers and sorely badgered and bullied members of his +troop. Well knowing himself to be tottering on the ragged edge of final +discovery, his duplicity exposed, his deceit established, he +nevertheless braced himself for the supreme effort to bluff to the very +last. Thanks to the storm-shed without, the hall was dark, and for a +moment he could only vaguely see the huge bulk of the infantryman +standing erect before him, the very attitude indicative of stern +official purpose. + +And then in sudden revulsion of feeling,--in a wild whirl of reviving +hope, courage, exultation,--he noticed that the adjutant was without his +sword, and listened, spell-bound, well-nigh incredulous and without +reply, to the brief official words which Mr. Leonard delivered, then +saluting, turned on his heel and left the house. + +"It is my duty to announce, sir, that Colonel Stone has had a stroke of +apoplexy or vertigo and is seriously ill. As senior captain, you are in +command of the post." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. + + +That beautiful wintry Tuesday morning was as placid and serene as nature +could make it, but Fort Scott was in a ferment. Whether stricken by +apoplexy, which was the first, or vertigo, which was the later, theory, +Colonel Peleg Stone had been found lying bleeding and unconscious at the +foot of the stairs, and almost at his parlor door, just after sick-call. +He had arisen early, said his tearful and terrified wife, saying that +matters of importance demanded his presence at the office before +guard-mounting. He had been wakeful and restless during the night. He +had called for hot water soon after reveille, and gone into his +dressing-room to shave. This was all she knew until aroused an hour +later by her frightened maid, with the tidings that the colonel was +lying speechless in the hall. Both doctors and Mr. Leonard were +summoned. Violence was hinted at, but the orderly pacing the front +piazza declared that no one had entered the front door since he came +over and rang the bell to report himself for duty just as soon as he had +finished breakfast. "For them was the colonel's orders when he dismissed +me last night." Just about sick-call he heard the sound of a heavy fall +inside, and presently "Jane come a-runnin'," and told him to rush for +the doctors. Alonzo, the colonel's colored body-servant who had followed +his fortunes a dozen years, was in the kitchen below stairs, and was +sure no one had come in from the rear. He, too, had heard the fall and +ran up with Jane, finding his master completely dressed, lying close to +the parlor door, with blood streaming from his nose and mouth. There +were heavy contusions on the forehead and face, caused probably by his +having plunged blindly forward down the stairs. Something in the +stertorous breathing suggested apoplexy, but the doctors soon decided +against that. It might have been vertigo, or he might simply have +tripped at the top and come diving head-foremost all the way down, but +his clothing was not in such disorder as that would cause, and neither +the orderly, nor Jane, nor Alonzo had heard more than one single crash +or thud. Had they examined the parlor and sitting-room to see if any one +could have been there hidden? was asked. No, there wasn't time. The +house was one of the big double sets of quarters, with hall-way and +staircase in the middle, as frequently planned in those days for the +commanding officer of the large frontier garrisons. Four large rooms +were on the ground floor for use as parlor, sitting-, and reception- and +dining-room, all abundantly furnished, as Mrs. Stone was well-to-do, and +there were hiding-places enough if some one had stolen in, like a thief +in the night. The broad contusion on the forehead might have been caused +by some blunt instrument, to be sure, said the senior surgeon, but he +thought it improbable. Only one thing was certain,--Pegleg was knocked +out. It might be several days, possibly a week, before he could resume +duty. Captain Devers came over five minutes after the adjutant left him, +and was profuse in sympathy, sorrow, and proffers of aid. The despatch +sent to Department head-quarters that afternoon was a model of style, +but it did not reach the office until late in the afternoon, so late +that the general had gone home with his chief of staff, and not until +five o'clock was it placed in the hands of the latter, who took it at +once to his commander. + +"Whew!" said the chief. "It's bad enough to have Pegleg down, but think +of having Devers up, even for a week." + +"I don't see what we can do, sir," was the reply. "The +lieutenant-colonel of the Fortieth is on leave awaiting retirement, the +major on General Sheridan's staff. Major Warren, of the Eleventh, is +abroad, and Devers is the ranking captain." + +"Well, let it stand," said the general, after a while. "Leonard will +look after affairs in the Fortieth, and you look after Devers. If he +gets to cutting up any didoes, send him up to the reservation to +investigate the trouble up there; it's something after his own heart, I +reckon,--or send him anywhere, and let the command devolve on the next +captain until Stone's on deck again. Devers says he'll be up in a week." + +"That's just what makes me fear he won't be well in a month, and if he +isn't able to resume duty, Devers will say he only meant _sitting_ up in +bed, probably." + +No matter what the opinion attaching to Captain Devers, however, the +fact remained that he was now in law and fact commanding officer of the +biggest post in the Platte Valley, and meant to make the most of his +opportunities. Leonard promptly asked to be relieved from duty as +post-adjutant, on the plausible ground that Captain Devers would +doubtless prefer to have one of his own cloth and corps in the office, +and Devers, well knowing how it would reflect upon him at Department +head-quarters, refused to change. "However strained may be our personal +relations, the good of the service demands that for the present they be +ignored. The differences between us can and shall be adjusted later on," +was the purport of his reply. Meantime Mr. Leonard could be assured that +he should in no wise be disturbed in his functions as regimental +adjutant, or hampered no more than was necessary in those that related +to the post. Leonard swore impressively as he read the reply to his +friends, Captain Pollock of the Fortieth, and Cranston of the Eleventh, +but said nothing to any one else. + +Davies was to relieve Hastings as troop duty officer for the week, and +assume charge of roll-calls and stables, all matters between himself and +his captain being incontinently shelved after conference with Cranston, +Truman, and Hay, until such time as somebody beside Devers should sit in +judgment on Devers's acts. The temporary post-commander spent very +little of Tuesday morning in the office. With official gravity he signed +the ration returns and such papers as were to be forwarded. "All matters +concerning the interior discipline of the companies I prefer leaving to +their proper commanders," said he, coldly, to the statuesque adjutant, +thereby hitting a self-comforting whack at the colonel, who rather liked +to interfere. "I have every confidence in the judgment of the captains +of the infantry, at least, and as for routine matters you will be +pleased to conduct them just as when Colonel Stone was on duty." + +Then he went forth to his own sanctum, the troop office, raising his fur +cap in acknowledgment of the sentry's shrill, "Turn out the guard; +commanding officer!" and once there established, he sent his orderly +with directions to the sergeant of the guard. In five minutes prisoner +Howard, conducted by an armed sentry, made his appearance, and was +received within the sanctum. "You may retire, sentry, until called. I'll +be responsible for this man," said he, and from that conference even +Sergeant Haney was excluded. The interview lasted twenty minutes, at the +end of which time Howard was remanded to the guard-house and Paine +brought over in his place. Howard swaggered insolently past the sergeant +of the guard on his return, and when told to get ready to go out to +work, replied, "I guess not, Johnny, unless you want to lose your +stripes." But Paine came "home" scared and abject. Men in quarters said +that both the captain and Sergeant Haney stormed at him until he didn't +know black from white, and the temporary company clerk, excluded from +the office during the conference, was called in finally to witness +Paine's signature to a paper, the contents of which he did not see at +all. + +All day Tuesday Davies was occupied in getting his furniture and traps +into Number 12, and Almira--pretty as a picture, and eagerly assisted by +her now intimate friends, Mesdames Flight and Darling--was tacking up +curtains, brackets, and knickknacks. Army women have a gift of making +even a burrow look cheery and attractive, though they do accumulate an +amount of truck that becomes embarrassing in the inevitable event of a +move. On Wednesday, however, as has been said, his week of troop duty +was to begin, and at gun-fire he was up and dressed and ready for +business. Devers did not come down to stables. The first sergeant made +the various reports in somewhat off-hand and perfunctory style, but +Davies took, apparently, no notice of his manner, and, joining Captain +Cranston as soon as he had inspected the stables on the return of the +horses to their stalls, the two friends strolled slowly up the winding +road to the parade, the last officers to return homeward. Sick-call was +sounding as they passed the barracks, and Captain Devers met them on the +walk. Both officers saluted the post-commander, Davies in silence, +Cranston with an accompanying "Good-morning, sir." Devers responded in +the briefest possible way and went at once to business. + +"Mr. Davies, that man Brannan will be returned to the troop from +hospital this morning. See that he is immediately confined in the +guard-house." And then, with his orderly following, the commander went +his way. Sergeant Haney was standing not forty yards away on the +barrack-porch awaiting his captain's coming. Such instructions were +generally given by the company commander direct to the first sergeant, +and the purpose of making Davies the medium and Cranston the witness of +the order was apparent at a glance. Devers meant to inflict his +punishment not only upon the soldier, but upon those who dared either in +person or through some "member of the household" appear as the +soldier's friend. + +"What should I do, captain?" asked Davies, sadly. "Turn and carry the +order to the first sergeant at once?" + +Cranston looked back, saw Devers halt to say some words to the troop +farrier, and seized the opportunity. + +"Yes, and I will go with you to be ready to testify to your having +obeyed." + +Retracing their steps, the two approached the quarters. "Go no farther," +said Cranston, in low tone, as they got about half-way and were close to +where Devers stood. "Call the sergeant to you here." Davies did so, and +Devers whirled around in surprise. Haney came promptly, buttoning his +overcoat on the way. It wouldn't do to "slouch" in presence of Cranston, +whatsoever he might dare with a new lieutenant. + +"Sergeant," said Davies, "the captain orders that Trooper Brannan be +confined in the guard-house the moment he returns from hospital." + +"Yes, sir. I got the order, sir, last night," said Haney, forgetful in +Cranston's presence of the impulse to be flippant, and unconsciously +revealing just exactly what his captain meant to conceal. Davies turned +and looked at Cranston, and the latter, with a peculiar smile, linked +his arm in that of his friend and, carefully avoiding the spot where +Devers now stood watching them, led him away. + +This for a starter was significant, but more was to come. Guard mounting +was hurried through that morning, for the air was sharply cold and a +northerly wind was beginning to moan through the garrison and whirl the +snow in drifts over the desolate prairie. Captains Truman and Pollock, +the former as old and the latter as new officer of the day, appeared in +fur caps and heavy overcoats and stood at the desk where Colonel Pegleg +for months past had administered the affairs of the post. The former +raised his hand in salute as he said, "I report as old officer of the +day, sir," and tendered the guard report. Devers glanced at once at the +list of prisoners. Foremost were the familiar names of the old stagers, +the general prisoners undergoing sentence of court-martial. Then those +of the men sentenced to brief confinement by the minor or garrison +court. Then came the names of those awaiting trial, and opposite each +name in the column headed "Charges" was the word "Preferred," as was the +custom of the day, and this significant word appeared opposite the next +to the last name on the list, that of Howard, Troop "A." + +"Ah! What is the nature of the charges against prisoner Howard?" asked +Devers, blandly. + +"I haven't seen them, sir. I understand that they were prepared by +Lieutenant Sanders as directed by Colonel Stone." + +Devers tapped his bell and the orderly sprang in. "My compliments to the +adjutant," said he, and from the adjoining room, grave, stolid, and +imperturbable as ever, Leonard came in, pencil in hand, and stood at +attention without a word. + +"Mr. Leonard, have charges been preferred against Trooper Howard?" + +"Yes, sir. Desertion. The specification alleges that he was caught +aboard the west-bound train at Braska in civilian dress Monday evening." + +"Anything else?" + +"No, sir." + +"Captain Pollock, you may release Howard. He was in town with my +approbation and assent, looking for an absentee whose haunts he knew and +whose presence was required here. He says he boarded the train expecting +possibly to find him thereon, and wore civilian dress because his +uniform might have caused his rejection at places he wished to search." + +Captain Pollock touched his cap without a word. + +"You will also see that Paine and Brannan, recently confined, are sent +out to work with the police cart. Other orders as usual. You are +relieved, Captain Truman. That is all, Mr. Leonard." + +The talk that ensued among the officers of the calvary command when this +matter was detailed at the club room will have to be condensed. Davies +was not present. He never went there. Cranston was present for the first +time in weeks, for it was an establishment for which ordinarily he had +no use. He and Truman went thither because they knew that that was where +Sanders could be found, and there they found him. It was barely ten +o'clock, but this light-hearted young gentleman, together with three or +four kindred spirits of the Fortieth, was discussing, to the +accompaniment of hot Scotch, the relative values of hands dealt at +random from a grimy deck. That they should have taken to hot Scotch at +such an hour they explained by the statement that as they had to be up +with the dawn the day was already old, and that they should be playing +poker they didn't consider a matter calling for explanation of any kind. +It was "a way they had in the army" in those days when the other +three-quarters of the year was spent in sharp campaigning. Sanders +cheerfully dropped his hand as he had his money and told his story like +a little man. + +"We trotted or galloped all the way to town and found Paine soon after +six, drunk, of course,--too drunk to ride the spare horse, so while we +were waiting for an ambulance from the quartermaster's depot, I ran over +to the Cattle Club for a drink, and was chatting there with Willett and +Burtis,--by the way, I asked them both to drive out and dine with us +to-night and take in the hop later,--and presently in came a couple of +cattlemen from Cheyenne who knew everybody at Russell and were jolly, +pleasant fellows. They were going up on the evening freight, and we +loaded up a lunch-basket and went down to the depot to see them off in +the caboose. The Braska crowd did their best to send them home full, and +they were full, and nothing would do but we must go into the bar and +drink Roederer with them until the conductor came rushing in to say all +aboard. Then they snaked me on to the caboose platform when the train +was under way, pulled me inside and ran me half a mile up the track +before they could stop her again. But that half-mile did the business +for Mr. Howard. There he was spruce and dandified as you please, dressed +fit to kill in a bang-up better suit than I ever hope to own, trying to +sit behind a newspaper. They pulled Burtis aboard, too, and in the +scuffle he fell all over Howard, knocked his hat off, and I knew the +face in a second, and when I came off that car he came with me, by the +scruff of his neck, swearing and protesting and denying that he was +Howard, and threatening to have the law on me and appealing to the +cattlemen for rescue. By Jupiter, if it wasn't that I had been with them +long enough to make a favorable impression they would have rescued him, +too. They didn't half want to let him go, and he straggled hard to get +away as it was." + +Then Truman told him what Devers's orders and remarks were, and Sanders +fairly blazed with wrath. "It's the maddest kind of a lie," said he. +"That fellow had never looked for Paine or thought of such a thing. We +found where he had left his uniform and where he kept in hiding until +time to skip out and catch that train. He wasn't looking for anybody and +didn't care to see or be seen by anybody. If it wasn't a clear-cut case +of desertion may I be hanged. He had over two hundred dollars in his +clothes and fresh duds in his grip-sack." + +Long before mid-day, therefore, Sanders's words were being repeated from +mouth to mouth, and Trooper Howard, with pale face and starting eyes, +was shut up in the company office where only the captain and Sergeant +Haney could get at him, and Devers was there with his sergeant and +clerk, when just at 10.45 the telegraph operator came bulging into Mr. +Leonard's office. + +"An important despatch," said he, "for the commanding officer." + +Leonard took it, then hesitated. Under Colonel Stone his instructions +were to open and read at once, but the relations between him and the +captain temporarily in command were neither confidential nor cordial. +"Take it to Captain Devers," said he, "and I will wait." + +Devers read the despatch with kindling eye. It was from department +head-quarters at Omaha, and said briefly,-- + +"Send a discreet officer with twenty cavalrymen for temporary duty with +Boynton at the agency at once. Report action by wire." + +For a few minutes the captain sat in deep thought, then with head erect, +and with quick, confident step, left the barracks and went straight to +the adjutant's office. "Orderly," said he, "my compliments to Mr. Davies +and say I wish to see him at once." + +And so only a little more than an hour later, knowing absolutely nothing +of what might be going on at the agency, judging only from the reports +of the mail-carrier that there had been trouble between the agent and +some of Red Dog's people, and that the agent had determined to make +arrests, leaving his bride wildly weeping and protesting in the hands of +her devoted friends Mesdames Flight and Darling, yet commending her to +the guardianship of Captain and Mrs. Cranston, Percy Davies set forth +upon a bitter, wintry march of eighty miles, answering the call of duty +at the front, leaving wife and fireside, good name and character, to the +care of friends or foes who remained. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. + + +Long remembered at Fort Scott was the evening that followed Mr. Davies's +departure for the agency. Infantry and cavalry both, the garrison took +it much to heart that the detail should have devolved, of all men, upon +him. Not because he was comparatively young and inexperienced; not +because he was just back from long leave that had been necessitated by +long and serious illness, but solely and entirely because he had but +recently married a wife, and therefore shouldn't have been expected to +go,--should not have been torn from her side. The women opened the ball, +but the men were not slow in taking the floor. What Davies himself might +think no one knew, because Davies would not say. He received the order +of the post commander without a word, went home to his wife and sent +Barnickel to ask Captain Cranston to come to him as soon as possible. +Devers retired to his quarters and was not again seen until after +stables, when, scrupulously avoiding those of the other troops, he +visited his own lines, having previously sent his orderly to Mr. +Hastings to notify that gentleman that he should not require him to +attend stables this week, which was to have been Mr. Davies's, but would +expect him to superintend roll-calls. The temporary commanding officer +of the garrison and of the cavalry battalion appeared, therefore, in +solitary state in his capacity as captain of Troop "A." Officers who +passed him on the way to or from stables raised hand or cap in the +salute due the post commander, but few of them entered into +conversation. Old Dr. Rooke, the post surgeon, a man ten years Devers's +senior in the service, returning from a visit to Colonel Stone's +bedside, came face to face with the captain, and the captain stopped to +make inquiries. Rooke's face was grave. + +"He is semi-conscious and resting fairly well, but has received a severe +shock that has clouded his faculties. I cannot say when he will be up +again. I do not see any likelihood of his returning to duty for a +month." + +Devers's face expressed all proper concern and sympathy. "It is best, of +course, that I should know this, but the colonel's friends are numerous +in garrison, and it is something that would have a depressing effect. I +suggest, therefore, that you do not confide your fears to any one else. +It affects me painfully to hear it, though I had not the good fortune to +be in the colonel's good graces. We differed as to various official +matters." + +"I'm aware of that," said Rooke, dryly, "and I have felt more than half +constrained to remonstrate with you as to the confinement of Private +Brannan. He left the hospital in good condition, and with the +expectation of returning to his detachment and duty. Of course if new +charges have been lodged against him----" + +"New charges _have_ been lodged against him, doctor. He was sent to the +hospital at my request that he might be restrained from liquor, which, +under the system pursued by Colonel Stone, could at any time be procured +by guard-house prisoners who had money. That he would be able to +indulge his propensity in your department had not, of course, occurred +to me as a possibility." + +"Any criticisms you have to make at the expense of my department will +receive due weight, I have no doubt, with my superiors, and you will +oblige me by addressing them upon the subject, not me. The post +commander expressed his entire approval of it, and to him and not to the +company commanders am I responsible, Captain Devers. This, however, I +will say, sir, that sooner than submit to further comment of this +character, I shall telegraph to department head-quarters requesting +instant relief from duty as post surgeon here, if you are to retain the +command." + +And Rooke had gauged his man. He knew perfectly well that this +application, coming on top of Stone's prostration, would lead to the +inevitable conclusion at head-quarters that the colonel could not return +to duty for some time, and the surgeon could not contentedly perform +duty under Devers as temporary commander. In other words, that Devers +was already beginning, as the general expressed it, "to cut up didoes," +and somebody--some field officer--would be at once detached, in all +probability, and sent from his proper post temporarily to take charge of +matters at Scott. On the other hand, if things worked smoothly and with +no apparent friction, Devers might hope to retain command for several +weeks, and that would be of inestimable benefit. What might not be +accomplished in that time? He was quick, yet not too precipitate, +therefore, in expressing grave and courteous disclaimer. No reflection +on Dr. Rooke's management was intended or implied, though Dr. +Burroughs, the junior, had, in Devers's opinion, laid himself open to +criticism. Of course being somewhat inexperienced, the unwarrantable +interference of Lieutenant Davies and Miss Loomis had confused and +hampered him. Surely Dr. Rooke could not say that he, Devers, had ever +interfered. On the contrary, had he not incurred the enmity of officers +and ladies of his own regiment by making formal report to the post +commander of what he considered an unjustifiable encroachment on their +part upon the sacred precincts of the post surgeon? Rooke looked at him +from under his shaggy eyebrows, suspicious and unmollified. He was a +shrewd old Scotchman, and Devers protested too much. + +"So far as Miss Loomis and Mr. Davies are concerned," said he, "I have +no exceptions to take whatsoever. I knew the young lady's father well, +and I have faith in the young man. I hear he has been sent on some +temporary duty to the agency, captain, and had he consulted me I should +have advised against his going. The suffering and exposure of such duty +in such weather are more than many a rugged man can bear. Mr. Davies has +not yet half recovered his strength." + +"Then I wish I had known it, doctor," said Devers, diplomatically; "but +not knowing it, I could make no other selection. The orders called for a +discreet officer, and Mr. Davies's friends consider him discretion +itself. I have even been led to think he had too much discretion. The +orders said 'cavalrymen,' therefore I was limited to the officers of my +battalion. They said to report to Lieutenant Boynton, therefore I was +limited to officers junior in rank to him, for no senior could be +required to do it. Mr. Boynton is a first lieutenant, and the only first +lieutenants junior to him here are Hastings, who is eminently +indiscreet, and Folsom, who is a martyr to rheumatism, as you very well +know. The only second lieutenants now on duty with us are Sanders, +Jervis, and Davies; certainly of the three Davies is the only one who +can be called discreet, and he was the only one who had not been on +scout or detached service of this character since he joined. I regret +having to break up his honeymooning, but even that is to be but +temporary, for so the orders said. I explain all this to you, doctor, +because I respect your rank and service, but I shall not condescend to +justify myself to my juniors." + +"And have you reported action yet by wire?" asked Rooke, critically. + +"Certainly," said Devers, but he reddened. Evidently there had been wide +spread talk over the selection already, and speculation as to what +department head-quarters would think of it. Evidently it was known that +he was ordered to report by telegraph, yet who could have "given it +away"? The despatch was still in his waistcoat-pocket, for Devers, +unlike his trimmer juniors, wore that unsoldierly garment underneath his +sack-coat. Even the adjutant had not seen the despatch, and the operator +was sworn to secrecy. He had reported by wire, and in these words: +"Discreet officer and twenty cavalrymen left post at noon with orders to +hasten to Ogallalla agency and report to Lieutenant Boynton for +temporary duty." This was sent at 1.15, and he had only just received +another inquiring name of the officer detailed. This he did not mean to +answer until after five o'clock, by which time he knew the Omaha offices +would be deserted and Davies some thirty miles away. "The horses are +hard and sound," he had said to the silent subaltern. "You should reach +there Friday morning without fail and without fatigue, and ought to camp +to-night at Dismal River. It's a long thirty miles, but you can easily +make it." He meant Davies to be beyond recall in the event of +disapproval, and that point secure, he didn't much care what +head-quarters might think or the garrison say. + +And so Wednesday's sun went down red over the snow-streaked barren to +the west, and long, long before that the last vestige of Davies's little +party disappeared from view among the breaks and ravines in the low +range of treeless heights many a long desolate mile to the north, and +Almira's faithful comforters were still with her, and at dusk bustled +her over to Mrs. Darling's for change of scene and surroundings and tea +and a little music, and presently sleigh-bells were heard, and Mrs. +Flight screamed joyously at the window, "Oh, it's Mr. Willett and Mr. +Burtis with their lovely team, and they've come out for the hop!" And +before long Lieutenant Darling, accompanied by these very gentlemen, +came stamping in, and Sanders and Tommy Dot followed, and in the +firelight the little army parlor was a pretty picture as these gallants +entered and the lamps were lighted, and the gentlemen from town were +presented to Almira, and everybody thought it the proper thing to be +especially devoted to her by way of consoling her for this sudden and +heartless separation from her lord, and for nearly half an hour her +lovely face maintained its expression of pathetic and unconquerable +woe; but Willett had seated himself at the piano, and he and Sanders and +Tommy Dot began singing with inimitable drollery some of the popular +melodies of the day, and presently, "to save her life," as she declared, +Almira could not resist joining in the laughter and applause, and then +Willett began telling of the new step they were dancing in the East,--he +had been home just long enough to attend a few parties,--and while Tommy +Dot played a waltz he essayed to teach it to Mrs. Darling,--a charming +partner ordinarily, but still she did not seem to catch the idea, and +Mrs. Flight was even less successful. Mira looked on with sparkling eyes +and new and uncontrollable eagerness. It was the very step she had +danced with the aides-de-camp in Chicago the previous September,--almost +the same that she had danced time and again with Mr. Powlett at Urbana, +and not a lady at Fort Scott had yet learned it. At last Sanders +spoke,-- + +"Why, surely it is the glide step you were telling us about, Mrs. +Davies." And then Willett implored her to try it with him, and how could +she refuse? This was not a ball or party, it was only a dancing lesson; +and somehow, all in a moment, she was floating around that little parlor +on Willett's sustaining arm in long, graceful, gliding steps that seemed +admirably adapted to his, and Willett's face glowed with delight and +hers with pardonable triumph, for was she not showing the belles of the +army the latest thing out in the ball-rooms of fashionable society? And +Sanders and Darling applauded enthusiastically, and the ladies as +enthusiastically as they could, for one's charitable impulses ooze all +too rapidly when the object looms suddenly as a rival. Sanders begged +presently to try with Mrs. Davies, while Mrs. Flight tried again with +Willett, and presently all were trying and gradually mastering the new +step, and when it was time to separate for dinner it was solemnly agreed +that they would tell no one of their practice, but that very night at +the hop they would simply paralyze the entire assemblage by dancing the +latest waltz step. + +"Now, Mrs. Davies," said Willett, "you've just _got_ to go, if only just +once to show them how," and Darling and Sanders joined eagerly in the +plea. There was not actual unanimity as to the propriety and necessity +of the project, however. Mrs. Flight was doubtful, but did not openly +oppose, and Mrs. Darling said, of course dear Mrs. Davies must know that +it would certainly cause remark. But all through tea it cropped out +again and again, and after tea Willett and Sanders came back from the +mess dinner and renewed their supplications. It was, at least, decided +that Almira could not be left to mope alone, and as her lady friends had +to go to the hop, why, she might as well go and peep in and hear the +music at any rate. There were good friends, true friends of her own and +her husband, who would have been glad indeed to spend the evening with +her, either at her fireside or their own, whose cards and condolences +she found on her little hall table when, escorted to the door by Mr. +Willett, she went home at half-past eight, just to make some slight +change in her toilet, which, as it stood, was too funereal for so +festive an occasion. + +And so that night, while Davies and his men were huddling about the +little camp-fires in the snow at Dismal River and a wintry blast was +whistling through the bare, brown limbs of the cottonwoods, there were +sounds of revelry at the big frontier post, spirited music, merry +laughter, the rhythmic beat of martial feet in the measures of the +dance, the rustle of silk, and the pit-a-pat of dainty slippers. Only +two or three households were unrepresented. It was the first hop Mrs. +Stone had missed. It was something that the chaplain and his wife did +not care for. It was a nuisance to Leonard, who loved his books and his +home. It bored more than one old warrior, who went, however, on account +of his wife and daughters, but Captain and Mrs. Devers were on hand, as +befitted the official heads, temporary, of post and martial society, and +the Cranstons with Agatha Loomis, after again going to see if they could +do anything for Mrs. Davies, and again finding her absent from home, +concluded to go over to the hop-room soon after taps, and the first +thing that met their eyes was the sight of Mira--Mrs. Davies--waltzing +down the waxed floor, and waltzing beautifully in the new step that was +coming into vogue while they were still at home, and waltzing on the +encircling arm of the appreciative Mr. Willett. Beyond doubt she was the +observed of all observers. + +It had all come about in the most natural and matter-of-fact way. Mira +had persisted for full an hour in her determination not to dance, but +again and again had Willett and Sanders implored,--Willett with eyes as +eloquent as his tongue. "None of these other ladies had yet really +learned the step. Everybody longed to see it. Everybody had heard how +beautifully she danced it," and presently body after body came and +coaxed "just to show us," and so, really before she knew it, she was +again on Willett's arm, he murmuring praise and encouragement into her +pretty little pink ear, and everybody seemed to stop to watch them, and +then strove to imitate. And then Sanders implored her to give him just +one turn for the honor of the Eleventh, and then Jervis wouldn't be +denied, and Willett and Burtis came for more,--Willett again and again, +and so she danced until the last waltz died away, and her first hop in +the army had been one long, vivid triumph; Willett in his eagerness +forgetting an engagement to waltz with Mrs. Hay. "She will never forgive +me," he murmured to Almira, as he saw her home, "but," and his voice +sank lower, "I only wonder I did not forget all--but yours." And that +was one of the lovely things said to her that night she did not report +in her long, explanatory, self-exculpatory letter to Percy. It is +possibly surprising that she had sense enough not to tell it to Mrs. +Flight, whose lord was on duty as officer of the guard, and who had +accepted Almira's urgent invitation to come and spend what was left of +the night with her. Almira was timid, even afraid to be left alone. Like +two schoolgirls they chattered about the cosey fire in Almira's bedroom, +Mrs. Flight filling the young wife's ears with tales of the compliments +that had been passed upon her beauty, her grace, her dancing, her lovely +costume,--one of Aunt Almira's _modiste's_ most charming creations, one +she assuredly would not have worn had Percy been there. Everybody had +praised her in one way or another, and many had done so to her face, +Captain and Mrs. Devers, even, taking heart, as they said, from seeing +her so delightfully occupied, came up to congratulate her on being the +belle of the ball and to express every manner of condolence for the +stern necessity which called her husband away. It was a piece of +diplomacy Almira was at a loss to answer. + +Of all the women present the two whose opinion she most dreaded and +toward whom she felt absolute aversion, neither congratulated nor +praised her in any way. Miss Loomis smiled and bowed and said, +"Good-evening, Mrs. Davies," in very cheery manner when they met in +promenade. Mrs. Cranston bowed and smiled gravely, stopped, and extended +her hand, which Almira, with heightened color and drooping eyelids, took +nervously. + +"I need not say how we deplore the orders, Mrs. Davies. I'm so sorry to +have missed you to-day. Won't you lunch and dine with us to-morrow and +talk over plans? We shall be so glad to have you." + +And Almira faltered that she had promised to lunch at Mrs. Darling's and +spend the afternoon, and was afraid she couldn't promise to come to +dinner, and Mrs. Cranston understood. They went home early, did the +Cranston's,--that is, early for Fort Scott,--whereas Mrs. Davies, +influenced by her energetic friends, danced until long after midnight, +and then sat up and talked it all over until long after two. + +"Willett's simply gone on you," was Mrs. Flight's significant remark. +"No wonder lots of our primmers looked blue to-night. Willett used to +dance with Mrs. Wright and Mrs. Hay all the time, but he hardly looked +at them to-night. And did you see the look Miss Loomis gave him when he +invited her? He says she snubbed him outright." No, Almira hadn't seen, +but she had caught almost every look that Willett gave her, and was +thinking more of those and of what he said, and of his plea that she +should be at Mrs. Darling's for luncheon next day,--they wouldn't drive +back to Braska until afternoon,--and of the ball they meant to give at +the railway hotel in town, to return the courtesies of their friends at +the fort. He was to lead the german, and might have to lead it with Mrs. +Courtenay of the bank, who was the leader of local society but couldn't +dance any more than he could fly, and if Mrs. Davies would only promise +to be there all would be bliss. Mrs. Davies had said she could not be +there. They were in mourning for Mr. Davies's mother, as Willett well +knew, and she expected Percy home within a week or ten days. Captain +Devers had assured her it couldn't be for longer, and indeed, oh, no! +she couldn't think of going to a ball in town. + +But she did think of it very much indeed. She thought of it, and the +dance of the evening gone, far more than she did of Percy and his party +now sleeping in the snow or shivering in the wind at Dismal River. She +wrote him one of her long letters Thursday morning, spending over an +hour in the effort, and an equal time in her toilet for the luncheon at +the Darlings. She was in the midst of this charming function, assisted +by Mrs. Flight, when the gong on the front door announced the coming of +a visitor. "I can't see anybody now, can I?" she hazarded to Mrs. +Flight, and Mrs. Flight thought she really wouldn't have time, and so +whispered to Katty, as that Milesian maid-of-all-work bustled through +to answer the summons, "Mrs. Davies will have to be excused to callers," +and the parley at the hall door was brief enough. Almira and her +assistant listened,--as what woman would not?--heard the courteous, +cordial tone of inquiry for Mrs. Davies, and Katty's flurried "Begs to +be excused, mum," and there was no need of the question which Mrs. +Flight asked,--"Who was it, Katty?" for both knew Mrs. Cranston's voice. + +"I've done my best, Wilbur," said Meg, as she threw herself on the arm +of the big easy-chair in which her lord was reading the Chicago papers +before the snapping, sparkling fireplace. "She did not want to see me +last night, and she practically refused to see me this morning. She has +chosen her intimates, and it is a case of like unto like. We are not +congenial. Yet I so wanted to be a friend to him and to her." + +Cranston dropped his paper and threw his strong arm about her waist, and +when a man turns from the contemplation of his favorite journal to that +of the face of his wife her queendom is assured. + +"You've done all I could ask, dear," was his answer, "but we may have to +pocket our pride a little. She is very young and inexperienced. She goes +to Darlings' to-day, does she?--and that coxcomb Willett is to be there, +too." The _Times_ slipped to the floor, forgotten, and Margaret, saying +nothing more, drew closer to his side and nestled her round, soft cheek +against his weather-beaten jowl, and Agatha, coming quickly in from her +supervision of the boys' lessons in the adjoining room, went back to the +book-littered table unnoticed. This frontier Darby and Joan, whose tin +wedding had passed and gone long months before, seemed spooning yet. +It's another "way we have in the army," and long may it live and linger. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. + + +Long remembered at the agency and among the lodges of the assembled +Sioux was the morning of the arrival of Lieutenant Davies with a squad +of half-frozen troopers at his back. The gale that swept the prairies on +Wednesday had died away. The mercury in the tubes at the trader's store +had sunk to the nethermost depths. The sundogs blazed in the eastern +sky, and even the rapids of the Running Water seemed turned to solid +blue. Borne on the wings of the blast, straight from the frozen pole, +the Ice King had swooped upon the sheltered valley. Cold as is the wide +frontier at such times, even among the gray heads, the old medicine-men, +the great-grandmothers of the tribes, huddling in the frowzy, +foul-smelling tepees, were legends of no such bitter, biting cold as +this. Cattle lying here and there stark and stiffened, hardy ponies, +long used to Dakota blizzards, even some among the Indian dogs had +succumbed to its severity, while over at the agent's, behind +double-listed doors and frost-covered sashes, around roaring coal fires +in red-hot stoves, the employes and their families herded together +almost as did the Indians, execrating the drop in the temperature one +minute even while thanking God for it the next. It was the main thing +that had interposed to save them from the vengeance of Red Dog's band. + +All through the desperate battling of the previous summer, even in the +face of fiercest triumph the Indians had known in years, one little band +of Sioux had kept faith with the white brother and refused all effort to +draw its young men to the war-path. For months, from early spring-tide, +against three columns of regular troops, the hostiles in the Big Horn +and Powder River countries had more than held their own, and under the +spell of Sitting Bull and led by such war chiefs as Crazy Horse and Gall +and Rain-in-the-Face, the turbulent spirits of nearly every tribe had +swelled the fighting force until at times six thousand warriors were in +the field engaged in bloody work. The whole Sioux nation seemed in arms. +Ogallalla and Brule, Minneconjou, Uncapapa, Teton and Santee, Sans Arc +and Black Foot, leagued with their only rivals in plainscraft and +horsemanship and strategy, the Cheyennes, thronged to that wild and +beautiful land once the home of the Crows. Three columns had striven to +hem them in,--three thousand wagon-hampered soldiers to surround six +thousand free lances of the plains, and the Indians laughed them to +scorn. When the columns pressed too close they swarmed upon the nearest, +stung it, sent it staggering back; then watched for the next, and swept +it out of existence. They flew at Crook on the 17th of June and fought +him luringly, begging him to follow farther into their traps in the +canon, but the Gray Fox knew them and divined the numbers that lurked in +hiding behind the bold green curtain of bluffs, and so slipped out of +the toils. They turned on Custer eight days later and left no tongue to +tell the tale. Three columns, against such energetic measures, fell back +to recruit and refit, and not until late in the season, doubled in +strength, could they resume the offensive. Then, the summer's work +accomplished, the warriors scattered, spoil laden, and the troops chased +madly hither and yon until brought up standing at the boundaries of Her +Britannic Majesty on the one side or those of the Indian Bureau on the +other. Across the border-land Sitting Bull snapped his fingers at his +pursuers. Across the reservation lines did many a jeering chief hurl +taunt and challenge at the baffled soldiery. When winter came on there +were still a few strong bands of Sioux and Cheyennes dancing to the +war-drums in the fastnesses of the Big Horn, whence Miles and Mackenzie +and the Frost King soon routed them; but most of the warriors who had +spent their season in saddle in the field were once more at home under +the sheltering wing of the Department of the Interior, while their +chiefs and leaders, their hands still red with the blood of Custer's +men, their wigwams freshly upholstered with cavalry scalps, went +eastward on their customary junket to the capital of the nation, to be +fed and feted and lionized, to come back laden with more spoil, more +arms, ammunition, clothing, blankets, tobacco, kickshaws and trumpery +dear to the savage heart, rejoicing, even though they marvelled, at the +fatuity of a people that annually rewarded instead of punishing their +murderous work. They, the heroes of the summer's campaign, rode in +triumph through the very homes of their victims, and weeping women and +children listened in amaze to the plaudits with which their townspeople +greeted the very savages who, not six months before, were hacking out +the last flutter of life, drinking the heart's blood, revelling in the +dying moan of beloved husband or father. Verily, we're a nation of odd +contradictions. + +And, just as a sojourn in Washington seems to turn many a white +brother's head, so did this, though with better reason, send the savage +homeward with boastful heart. He and his were welcomed back to the fold, +lavishly provided for, all manner of requests and demands hitherto +denied now smilingly honored. They came back lords of the soil, monarchs +of all they surveyed, scornful of all who were not with them in the +warfare of the summer gone by, and of these was the household of Spotted +Tail. Long time chief of the Brules, he had kept faith with the whites, +his kith and kin were loyal to their obligations, and in so far as +example and influence could go they had held their tribe, all but the +more turbulent young men, out of the fight. There was a band that for +years had never "drawn a bead" on white man,--settler or soldier,--a +band that had furnished scouts and runners and trailers and had done +yeoman's work upon the reservations. These were now, as was to be +expected, of no more consequence in council lodge or tribal dance. +Snubbed by the war chiefs, sneered at by the young men, slighted by the +maidens, it was bad enough that they should have lost caste among their +own people, it was worse, and what made it infinitely worse that it was +so utterly characteristic, that these faithful allies and servants +should now find themselves neglected by the very government which they +had so earnestly supported. Back from the war-path, day after day, came +dozens of grinning, hand-shaking warriors lately in rebellion, and to +them, their squaws and children, with lavish hand the agency dealt out +blankets and calicoes, bacon and beef, coffee, flour, and sugar. Such +redoubtables as Red Dog, Little Big Man, Prowling Wolf, and Kills Asleep +were swaggering about, as were their young men, in plethora of savage +adornment and "store clothes." Their squaws and children were warm and +fat and garbed in attractive motley. Even their dogs were in better +fettle than the social exiles of the Spotted Tail school, now in rags +and dependent for their daily bread on what the agent would give them. +Three times it happened on ration days that Red Dog and Kills Asleep, +swaggering about the corral, told their followers to pick out and drive +away such cattle as were passably fat and presumably tender, leaving to +the silent loyals only a miserable batch of beeves which Lieutenant +Boynton described as "dried on the hoof." The agent said he couldn't +help it, "Red Dog and the likes of him are now high in favor at +Washington. They and their fellows could have me removed in a minute if +I interfered, and they know it. There is no lie at my expense their +interpreters wouldn't tell the inspectors, and against so many witnesses +what could I do?" + +"Do!" said Boynton, indignantly. "Do your duty, and I'll back you up. +I'll testify to the truth." + +And then the agent smiled sadly, but scornfully, and said another +truism. "What good would that do? From Sheridan down, what army +officer's statement has any weight whatever with the Indian +Bureau,--when it isn't what it wants?" + +"Well," said Boynton, "it's a damned shame, and I mean to make a formal +report to department headquarters at once." + +And the agent said he wished he would, and Boynton did, but before that +document could reach Omaha there were other and more serious troubles. +Two Lance was the name given the chief of the little band that had stood +fast with Spotted Tail, and Two Lance had begged that he and his people +might be allowed to go back to where most of the Brules lived, at the +old home on the White River. "This is no place for us," said he. "We are +poor, hungry, ragged, almost naked. We are jeered at. Even our maidens +are insulted by these our own people because we were taught to remain +true to the Great Father and take no part in the war. Now, behold, they +who killed his soldiers, murdered his settlers, and ravished his women +are fat and strong and rich. Their ponies are as the herds of buffalo in +our fathers' day, and we who served the great White Chief and protected +his children, we are a shame and a scorn. Let us go to him who never +broke a promise or told a lie and he will right us. Let us go back to +Sintogaliska--to Spotted Tail." But the agent said he had no authority. +It would be another moon before he could get it, and it might not come +then. If they pulled up stakes and went anyhow he would have to send the +white chief Boynton with his soldiers to fetch them back; and when Red +Dog and Kills Asleep heard of this they rode to the village of Two Lance +and jeered him anew and called him "White Heart" and "No Lance," and +some of Red Dog's young men said worse things to some of the Brule girls +who stood shrouded in their ragged blankets, bidding them follow and be +the mothers of men and braves and warriors and not remain in the lodges +of faint hearted curs. There were Brules there, young braves who longed +for battle then and there, and who leaped to their gaunt ponies and +shouted challenge and defiance, but Two Lance interposed. There must be +no fratricidal warring, said he. They would lay the matter before the +council fire of Sintogaliska,--he who had ruled the Brules since first +the white tents of the soldiers gleamed along the Platte--Sintogaliska +who never lied. And this too was jeered and flouted. Sintogaliska, +indeed! Sintogaliska was a traitor, an old woman whom the white father +had bought with beads and candy. The warriors of the Sioux, the only men +fit to lead, were such as Red Dog and Kills Asleep. But still Two Lance +kept his temper and the public peace, and again he rode to the agent and +told his story, and Boynton fired up and said in common decency the +agent must do something to put a stop to Red Dog's insolence, and the +agent sent for Red Dog and bade him report himself at the agency +forthwith, and Red Dog replied that he would when he got ready, and if +the agent wanted him sooner, why, to come and get him, and Elk-at-Bay, +who brought his defiance, lunged in and laughed when he gave the +message, and helped himself to the cigars remaining in the agent's box +and swaggered out with them. + +That evening in sudden brawl and in plain view of Mr. McPhail, the +agent, one of Red Dog's braves stabbed to the heart the lover of a +Brule girl whom he had affronted. + +"Arrest him!" ordered McPhail, who then turned and ran in-doors,--after +his pistol, as he said, possibly forgetting that it was already on his +hip. Boynton and his men were at the picket-line grooming horses, three +hundred yards away at the moment, and the young brave mounted his pony +and dared any one to take him, and rode singing defiantly down the +snow-covered valley. Only the previous day the mail rider had gone on +his weekly trip, and now a special messenger was needed to convey the +agent's despatch to the railway, for the flimsy single wire to the +reservation was down and useless. The Indian who attempted to carry the +letter was pulled off his pony by frolicsome friends of the murderer and +treated to a cold bath in the Niobrara. Not until Sunday night did he +get back, half frozen, and tell his story. Meantime there was more +defiance, so another attempt was made. Sergeant Lutz said he'd +take it this time, and he rode through to Braska on a single +horse,--seventy-three miles in thirty hours. The Interior Department +asked immediate assistance of the War Department to make arrests, and +the general commanding at Omaha was instructed by wire to place a +sufficient force with the agent to enable him to overpower two or three +turbulent Indians. This sent Davies and twenty troopers to reinforce +Boynton, and the very day they started ushered in the coldest wave of +the winter and further tragedy at Ogallalla. + +Drunk and defiant, the exulting murderer with two or three reckless +friends had ridden up to the agency, renewed their boasts and jeers and +yells, while Boynton and his men, as instructed by the agent, were over +at the village of Two Lance, a long mile away, rounding up their pony +herd to prevent the warriors making an assault on Red Dog's more distant +township. A shot rang out from somewhere among the agency buildings, and +the days of the boaster were numbered. Back, bearing the body, scurried +the trio of friends, and in less than an hour, in fury and transport and +grief and rage, the women were tearing their hair and prodding +themselves with knives, while the warriors, singing the death-song, were +painting themselves for battle. In vain the agent despatched messengers +to say he and his men were innocent of blood and would bring the +murderer of the murderer, some prowling Brule, to vengeance. Swift +return couriers bade him beware,--Red Dog and all his band were coming +to avenge the deed. Boynton was summoned in hot haste. He and his party +came sweeping in on the foremost wave of the wind, and between the two a +vengeful band of two hundred seasoned warriors, veterans of many a +foray, were held at bay from Wednesday night. It was too cold even for +fighting. + +And Friday morning, after hardship and suffering there was no time to +tell, Lieutenant Davies with his party reached the threatened agency, +and was greeted with ringing cheers. That evening the grasp of the Ice +King was loosened by the soft touch of the south wind, and Red Dog rode +in state to the adjoining camp to claim the alliance of his brother +chiefs in his attempt to wrest from the agent the perpetrator of the +murder of his tribesman. That the dead Indian was himself a murderer +had no bearing on the matter, said Red Dog. He had simply knifed in +self-defence a beggarly Brule who quarrelled with him over a girl. The +blood of Lone Wolf cried aloud for vengeance, and the agent should not +be permitted to harbor or conceal his slayer. "You've got no time to +lose," said Boynton, who had kept his scouts on the alert. "You should +arrest that old villain at once or he'll stir the whole reservation into +mutiny." The agent thought he could accomplish more by seeing him and +having a talk. "Indians are always ready for a talk," said he. "I'll +take Mr. Davies and a couple of men just for appearance's sake and ride +right over to the village. He's at Kills Asleep's now." + +Boynton argued, but the agent was afraid to adopt the only course an +Indian respects,--prompt and forceful measures. "Talk" means to him +delay, compromise, confession of weakness. "Well, if you must palaver," +said Boynton, finally, "take me along. I've had more to do with those +beggars than Davies, and," he added to himself, "I'll make it possible +to nab that fellow." + +A most impressive scene was that which met the eyes of the little party +as they rode to the village across the frozen stream. The moon was +shining almost at full in a clear and cloudless sky. The neighboring +slopes, the distant ridge, the broad level of the valley, all blanketed +in glistening snow. Half a mile away down-stream in one dark cluster of +jagged-topped cones lay the village of Red Dog's people. Away up-stream +a long mile, black against the westward slope, the corral and +storehouses, the school and office and quarters of the agency, the +watch-lights twinkling like the stars above. Close at hand, loosely +huddled along the bank, the grimy, smoke-stained lodges of Kills +Asleep's sullen band, and in their midst, surrounded at respectful +distance by a squatted semicircle of old men and braves, all muffled in +their blankets, and by an outer rim of hags and crones and young squaws +and children and snarling dogs and shaggy ponies, there with trailing +war-bonnet and decked with paint and barbaric finery, his robe cast +aside,--there like an orator of old stood the Indian chief in the heat +of his impassioned appeal. All eyes were upon him, all ears drinking in +his words. Guttural grunts of approval rewarded each resounding period. +"You're too late," muttered Boynton. "He's been getting in his work to +good effect. You should have arrested him an hour ago." + +The agent reined in his panting horse and looked and listened. "He won't +talk to me now, I suppose. It would be an affront to his dignity to +interrupt. Best let him finish what he's begun. What shall we do +meantime?" + +"What you'd best do is to give me orders to nab the old sinner in my own +way and go back to the agency as quick as you can. Your life won't be +worth a pin in that crowd when he's done speaking. Go while there's yet +time and tell Mr. Davies to send me Sergeant Lutz and six men mounted. +Keep the rest under arms in the corral. I'll land Red Dog inside the +walls within an hour if you'll only say the word. Damn it, man! you've +_got_ to, or your influence is gone." + +"He's got more influence now than I ever had, and the whole Indiana +delegation backed me for the place," wailed McPhail. "What in heaven I +thought to gain by coming out here and taking such a job is more than I +can guess now. Every one said there was money in it; no one thought of +the danger. If my wife and kids were only safe at home I wouldn't care +so much. It's that that I'm thinking of. Can't we do this somehow +without bringing on a row?" + +"The row's here now and growing worse every minute. His own bucks are +ready for battle. He'll have every son of a squaw in this camp painting +himself chrome-yellow inside an hour, and he'll never rest till he's +harangued every village in the valley twixt this and morning. Our one +chance is to nab him midway when he rides from here to Little Big Man's +roost up-stream. Tell Lutz to meet me at the willows, and for God's sake +go!" + +And still the agent hesitated. Barely six months had he served in his +new and unaccustomed sphere. Old-world nations, either monarchies that +take no thought for the morrow's vote of the masses, or republics that +have outlived their illusions, suit their servants to the work in hand. +Uncle Sam, having hosts of importunate sons demanding recognition +irrespective of merit, and being as yet barely a centenarian, is at the +mercy of his clamorous and inconsiderate millions. Each salaried office +in his gift calls with each new administration for a new incumbent, +whose demanded qualifications are not "what can he do to improve the +service?" but "what has he done to benefit the party?" In this way do we +manufacture consuls who know next to nothing of the manners, customs, +language, and business abroad, and agents who know even less of the +Indians at home. + +But the problem in hand was settled for the sorely troubled official in +a most unlooked-for way. Sharp-eyed squaws spied the little squad of +horsemen at the outskirts of the village, the agent in his wolf-skin +overcoat, the troopers in the army blue, with the collars of their +overcoats up about their ears, and some one ran to Red Dog with the +news. With all "the majesty of buried Denmark" he paused in his speech, +faced the intruders, then came striding slowly towards them, warriors, +women, squaws, and children opening out and making a lane for his royal +progress. + +"Whatever you do, no words with him here," whispered Boynton to the +agent, now trembling with excitement and nervous apprehension. "Stand to +your terms. He can talk with you only at your office,--the agency." + +With the stately war-bonnet of eagle feathers trailing down his back and +dragging along the ground, the chief came stalking on, never hastening, +never slackening his stride, and after him flocked the warriors and +women of the tribe, the men eager and defiant, the women trembling in +fearsome dread. + +"Shall we turn and ride away?" asked the agent, his blue lips twitching. + +"No. Face him now,--cool as you can. Look him straight in the eye. Make +no answer,--I'll do that. Ride slowly away when I say '_now_' and not +before. Advance carbine there, men! Fetch 'em up slowly." + +Ten feet away from them Red Dog halted and stood erect, drawn up to his +full height. Slowly he folded his arms, and sternly he bent his gaze +upon the four white men. Silently his followers ranged up in big circle, +almost enveloping the stolid troopers. For a moment nothing was heard +but the shuffling of moccasined feet, the quick breathing or murmured +words of the squaws, the feeble wail of some Indian baby left to its own +devices in the parental lodge. Sniffing the tainted air the horses +shrank a bit, rallying under the prompt touch of the spur and standing +with erect, quivering ear and starting eyeball, staring at the coming +throng and uttering low snorts of fear. And then at last in the Dakota +tongue Red Dog hailed his visitors just as down the valley the +monotonous throb of the Indian drum began. + +"Why are these soldiers here?" + +To the agent it was, of course, unintelligible: he had been among the +tribe too short a time. Boynton understood, and in low tone muttered, +"Pay no attention to him whatever. Look around as though you were in +search of somebody you knew and wanted to see." Then aloud he called, +authoritively, "Come, step out there, some one of you who can speak +soldier English. Where's Elk? He'll do if you want to ask questions." +And presently Elk-at-Bay, he who bore the chieftain's message and +confiscated the agent's cigars, edged his way to the front, but with far +less truculence of mien than when the agent stood unsupported by +soldiers. + +"Red Dog asks why soldiers here," said he. + +"Tell him we're here to enjoy the scenery, if you know how to do it, and +minding our own business," was Boynton's reply. + +"Red Dog not speak to soldiers. He asks the man the Great Father sends +him." + +"Well, you tell him the agent of the Great Father will talk with him +there, at his office, and nowhere else," said Boynton, "and that +to-night's his last chance to hear what the Great Father has to say to +him." + +Unfolding his arms, the chief took a splendid stride forward. He +understood Boynton, as Boynton well knew, and now was preparing for an +outburst of oratory. The instant he opened his mouth to speak Boynton +turned to the agent and whispered, "Now," and coolly and indifferently +as he knew how, that official reined his broncho around and headed him +for the twinkling lights of the distant buildings. Red Dog began in +sonorous Dakota, with magnificent sweep of his bare, silver-banded arm, +and Boynton touched up his charger impatiently and rode a length closer, +his two troopers sitting like statues with the butts of their carbines +resting on the thigh, the muzzles well forward. + +"Red Dog wastes time and wind talking here. If he wants to be heard let +him go there," said Boynton, pointing to the distant agency. "Unless," +he added, with sarcastic emphasis,--"unless Red Dog's afraid." And then +he, too, reined deliberately about and signalled to his men to follow. +For a moment there was silence as Elk stumblingly put into Sioux the +lieutenant's ultimatum. Then came an outburst of wrath and invective. +Red Dog afraid, indeed! Loudly he called for his horse, and the crowd +gave way as a boy came running leading the chief's pet piebald. In an +instant, Indian fashion, he had thrust his heavily-beaded moccasin far +into the off-side stirrup and thrown his leggined left leg over the high +silver-tipped cantle, and the trained war pony began to bound and +curvet. Swinging over his head his beautiful new Winchester, Red Dog +rode furiously to and fro, haranguing the excited tribesmen, and +speedily more Indians were sitting hunched up in saddle, but darting +skilfully hither and yon, yelping shrill alarm. Others dashed away to +the distant village to rouse Red Dog's own people and summon the +warriors that remained. In fifteen minutes, at the head of three hundred +mounted braves, Red Dog was riding straight for the agency, his escort +gaining numbers with every rod. Red Dog afraid, indeed! + +Over the moonlit sweep of snow the watchers at the corral saw the coming +throng, a moving mass, black and ominous as the storm-cloud. Within the +buildings all hands were hastily barricading doors and windows and +bustling a few women and children, trembling and terrified, into the +cellars. Out in the corral in disciplined silence the troopers were +promptly mustering and forming line. Six or eight of the party that +arrived with Davies that morning having badly frozen fingers and toes +were told off to act as horse-holders. "We've simply to fight on the +defensive," said Boynton to his silent second in command, "and we'll +fight afoot. Thirty men can defend the corral and out-houses and the +front of the agency. The rest we'll put in the building. That's all +we've got." + +Away from the excited group at the office door a horseman turned and +spurred full speed for the hills far to the southwest. "Tell 'em we're +attacked by overpowering numbers," said McPhail, "and want instant +help,--all they can send us." There was no time to write despatches; the +shouts and taunts and shrill defiance of the coming troop already rang +in their ears. + +"Now then, McPhail," said Boynton, lunging up through the snow-drifts, +carbine in hand, "I've got my men at every loop and knot-hole, and those +beggars can't take this shop to-night. What I want is authority to +arrest that head devil the moment he gets here." + +"It will only infuriate them and make matters worse," pleaded the +representative of the Indian bureau. + +"Well, it's the only way to put an end to the row," said the soldier. +"The only thing in God's world those fellows respect is force and pluck. +You've temporized too long. Arrest him and tell his fellows to disperse +to their tepees in two minutes or we open fire." + +"How can you arrest him in front of all that array?" was the tremulous +question. "Do you suppose they'll permit it?" + +"That's my business," was Boynton's answer. "I don't mean to let that +gang come within three hundred yards, and you're a worse fool than I +thought if you overrule me. I'm going to ride out there now to halt them +at the creek. Then you order Red Dog forward with his interpreter and +bring him in here a prisoner. You've not an instant to lose," he +finished as a trooper came up at the run, Boynton's big bay trotting at +his heels. The lieutenant was in saddle in a second. "Are you agreed?" +he asked. + +"Why, they'll say we began it, lieutenant. They'll swear they were only +coming to talk. They've always been accustomed to come here whenever +they wanted to. We have only a handful of men; they've got a thousand +fighting braves within a day's call. My God! I can't risk my family!" + +"You've done that already with your confounded temporizing. Look there, +man. It's too late now. There's where I would have held them, along the +creek bank. Now they're swarming across." + +Singing, shouting, brandishing lance and rifle, their barbaric ornaments +gleaming in the frosty moonlight, some of the younger men darting to and +fro on their swift ponies, mad with excitement, on came the surging +crowd, led by the majestic figure of the big chief, jogging straight on +at the slow, characteristic amble of the Indian pony, his war-bonnet +trailing to the ground. From far and near, up and down the valley, dim, +ghostly, shadowy horsemen came darting to join the array. Close behind +Red Dog some rabid warrior began a wild war chant, and others took it +up. Somewhere along the throng a tom-tom began its rapid, monotonous +thump, and here, there, and everywhere the rattles played their weird, +stirring accompaniment. + +"Well, by God, McPhail! you may let them ride over you and yours, but +they can't ride over me and mine without a fight," said Boynton, now +wild with wrath. "That whole force will be swarming through the premises +in five minutes. Quick, Davies!" he cried. "Forward as skirmishers! +Cover that front! Ten men will do." And without further command, +scorning prescribed order of formation, but with the quick intuition of +the American soldier,--the finest skirmisher in the world,--a little +party of troopers watching at the corral gate, sprang forth into the +moonlight and, opening out like a fan, carbines at trail or on the +shoulder, forward at full run they dashed, spreading as rapidly as they +possibly could to irregular intervals of something like ten yards from +man to man, and presently there interposed between the coming host and +the black group of buildings at their back this thin line of dismounted +men, halted in silence to await the orders of the tall, slender +subaltern officer, who, afoot like themselves, now stood some thirty +paces in rear of their centre, calmly confronting the advancing Indians. +Up to Davies's side rode Boynton, bent and whispered a word, then +spurred forward to the line, and there, reining in, raised to the full +length of his arm a gauntleted hand, palm to the front, and gave the +universal signal known by every Indian and frontiersman from Hudson's +Bay to the Gulf of California,--"Halt!" + +"Red Dog comes to talk with the Great Father's agent, not with you," +shouted Elk, lashing forward for a parley. + +"All right. Come on, you and Red Dog, but order your gang to stay where +they are. The agent will talk with Red Dog, but no one else." + +Without audible orders of any kind, the Indians had suddenly ceased +their clamor, and now, apparently, were quickly ranging up into long, +irregular line in rear of their chief. Presently, as Red Dog and Elk +conferred, there stretched across the snow-streaked prairie some three +hundred motley braves, mounted on their war ponies, the flanks of the +line receiving constant additions from the direction of the distant +lodges. Then Elk again came forward, Red Dog sitting in statuesque +dignity in front of his tribesmen. + +"The white chief has his soldiers. The agent of the Great Father has his +men. Red Dog demands the right to bring an equal retinue," was doubtless +what the Indian wished to say and what in the homely metaphor of the +plains he made at once understood. "You got soldiers. Agent got heap. +Red Dog he say he bring heap same," was the way Elk put it, and Boynton +expected it. + +"Tell Red Dog the soldiers will fall back and the agent come half-way +out afoot. Red Dog and you dismount and come forward half-way. If your +people advance a step we fire. That's all." + +Another low-toned parley between the chief and his henchmen. Two minutes +of silent fidgeting along the line of mounted Indians. Like so many blue +statues the skirmishers stood or knelt, carbines advanced, every hammer +at full cock. Back in the shadows of the agency hearts were thumping +hard and all eyes were strained upon the scene at the east. The moon, +riding higher every moment, looked coldly down upon the valley. Elk came +forward again, and Red Dog's war-bonnet wagged first to right and then +to left. He was saying something in low tone to the braves at his back +and they were passing it along to the outer flanks of the line. + +"Red Dog says soldiers go back and agent come out and talk," said he. + +"All right so far, but does Red Dog agree to dismount? Does he agree to +hold his people where they are? Does he understand that if they advance +we fire? Here, Red Dog," said Boynton, riding forward half a dozen +yards, "you understand me well enough. If your crowd moves a pony length +forward we fire, and, mark you, any trick or treachery and down you go, +first man." + +To this Red Dog deigned no other response than a scowl. + +"Back up slowly, men, face to the front," said Boynton to his silent +line. "Hold 'em, Davies. I'll go back to McPhail." + +But when the agent was told the terms of the parley he refused. "Why, +he'd knife or pistol me just as the Modocs did the Peace Commissioners," +said he. "I won't step off the agency porch. We've got seven armed men +here. Let him bring seven, and you have your soldiers ready inside the +corral. Then if he wants to talk business he can see me here." + +By this time, slowly retiring and gradually closing toward the centre, +Davies and his skirmishers had come back within twenty yards of the +building. Boynton swore a round oath. "There's no help for it, Parson, +we've got to do as this chump decides. There's one chance yet. Get your +men back to their loop-holes and join me here. No man to fire, remember, +except as ordered." + +Quickly the troopers scurried back to their positions along the +stockade. Originally it had been intended to enclose all the buildings +within this defensive work, but the returning tourists were prompt to +express their disapprobation. Having just shaken hands with the Great +Father at Washington, they were suspicious of such an exhibition of +lack of confidence on the part of his agent. That the store-rooms should +have iron-barred windows was another ground for remark and remonstrance. +The red children refused to enter a stockade whose gates might be closed +behind them, or a room whose windows were barred. An inspector came out +and held a powwow and shook hands with everybody, and told the agent the +red children were lambs who would never harm him and he mustn't show +distrust. It hurt their sensitive natures. So the stockade only enclosed +the shed and stables, but it abutted, luckily, upon the agent's house +and office. Re-entering the house from the rear, after a few words of +instruction to Sergeant Lutz and his men, Davies pushed through +hurriedly to the front piazza. Red Dog in grand state, with an +interpreter at his left rear and seven stalwart braves aligned like a +general's staff six yards behind him, came riding with majestic dignity, +straight to the dark portico. Red Dog afraid, indeed! Turning his horse +over to an orderly and sending him within the stockade, Boynton ordered +the gate closed. + +"We'll have a breeze here in a minute," he whispered to Davies. "That +sinner means mischief. You watch him and the agent. I'll keep my eye on +the main body." + +Fifteen yards away, Red Dog halted and silently studied the shadowy +group on the agency porch. There stood the bureau's "ablegate," the +official interpreter by his side. In the door-way, dimly outlined, were +two of his assistants, men who had known the Sioux for years, but knew +not influential relatives in the East. Boynton ranged up close alongside +in hopes of prompting the official. "He's beginning to look knee-sprung +already," whispered he to Davies, "but I'll brace him if I can." Just +behind the agent stood one of his police, and this was before the days +of an Indian police that, properly handled, proved valuable as +auxiliaries. Then Red Dog in slow, sonorous speech began to declaim. + +"Choke him off! Make him dismount and report at your office. He'll only +insult you where he is," whispered Boynton. + +"Red Dog says, as the agent didn't dare come and get him, he concluded +to come in and see whether the agent would dare take him," began the +interpreter, in trembling tones, the moment the Indian paused. + +"Too late, by God!" hissed Boynton between his set teeth. "He means to +blackguard the whole party right here and then ride off rejoicing." + +And Red Dog reined closer and began anew. Throwing back his +quill-embroidered robe, he lifted a muscular arm to heaven, and with +clinching fist and flashing eyes seemed to hurl invective straight in +the agent's face. + +"You dare demand the arrest of Red Dog, do you?" he thundered in his +native tongue, leaving hardly an instant for the interpreter. "Now hear +Red Dog's reply. The blood of one of our young men calls aloud for +vengeance. His slayer is here and you know him. Red Dog, backed by the +braves of every tribe at the reservation, comes to demand his surrender. +Give him up to us and your lives are safe. Refuse, and you, your wives +and children, are at the mercy of my young men. Red Dog dares and defies +the soldiers of the Great Father." + +Consciously or unconsciously, in the magnificence of his wrath, the +chief had ridden almost to the very edge of the porch and there shook +his clinched fist in the ghastly face of McPhail. The agent started back +amazed, terrified, for as though to emphasize his defiance Red Dog's +gleaming revolver was whipped suddenly from its sheath and flashed aloft +over his feathered head. + +And then there came sudden fury of excitement. A bound from the edge of +the porch, a fierce yell, an outburst of Indian war-cries, a surging +forward of the escort at the chieftain's back, a rush and scurry in the +offices, the slamming of doors, the flash and report of a dozen +revolvers, a distant roar and thunder of a thousand hoofs and chorus of +thrilling yells, a scream from the women and children in the cellars +below, a ringing cheer from the stockade, followed by the resonant bang, +bang of the cavalry carbine, and all in an instant a mad, whirling +maelstrom of struggle right at the steps, braves and ponies, soldiers +and scouts, all crashing together in a rage of battle, and then, bending +low to avoid the storm of well-aimed bullets from practised hands at the +stockade, some few warriors managed to dash, bleeding, away, just as a +determined little band of blue-coats, half a dozen in number, leaped +through the door-way and down the steps, blazing into the ruck as they +charged, and within another minute were coolly kneeling and firing at +the swarming, yelling, veering warriors, already checked in their wild +clash to the rescue, and within the little semicircle two furiously +straining forms, locked in each other's arms, were rolling over and over +on the trampled snow,--Red Dog, panting, raging, biting, cursing, but +firmly, desperately held in the clasp of an athletic soldier, for +without a word Percy Davies had leaped from the porch and borne the +Sioux chieftain struggling to the ground. Red Dog,--redder than ever +before, even on the bloody day of the Little Horn,--bound hand and feet +with cavalry lariats, spent that long winter's night a prisoner in the +hands of Boynton's men, while the prairie without was dotted with braves +and ponies, dropped by their cool, relentless aim. Red Dog at last had +had his day. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. + + +The blizzard that swept down on the broad valley of the Platte the night +of the hop,--the night Davies marched away,--though severe, had been of +short duration. A warm wind and a strong wind from the Arkansas met and +overthrew it, and pursued its decisive victory to the Dakota line. The +snow was "slumping," said the little Leonards, when Messrs. Burtis and +Willett drove out from Braska Friday afternoon and took Mrs. Davies and +Mrs. Darling sleighing up the valley. It was freezing, of course, again +by sundown, but judging from Mira's glowing cheeks the drive in the +exhilarating air had done her a deal of good, and she sat with Willett, +while Mrs. Darling faced the breeze at the side of his accomplished +associate. Many women watched the start and some saw the finish, and +none with more interest than Mrs. Flight, who had never before been +left on such occasions, nor with more distress than Mrs. Cranston, who +knew not what to say. The party dined at the Darlings' quarters that +evening, and later some of the boys came to Leonard and asked if it +wouldn't be possible to have a few of the band in the hop-room. They +wanted to dance and Darling's house was too small. Leonard said they +knew the colonel's decision,--the bandsmen were expected to play once a +week as late as any one cared to dance in consideration of certain small +extra pay. If they played at any other time, they had a right to expect +compensation. He would not order them out. Messrs. Sanders and Dot and +Jervis could go and see the leader and arrange with him as to terms and +men, if they chose, and have their dance. It wasn't what the boys +expected; moreover, it was late, but they were young, energetic, and +enthusiastic. Three musicians were found and a dozen couples, and long +after midnight the lights and laughter and merry strains of music told +that the younger element of Scott was enjoying itself irrespective of +anything that might be going on at the almost forgotten agency. The +chaplain and his wife, going earlier in the evening to call and cheer +Almira, were met by Katty at the door and the information that "the +misthress was dinin' at Mrs. Darlin's." Katty was short with her +visitors for two reasons. She didn't approve of the dominie, as he was +not of the faith of her Irish fathers, and she did approve of Corporal +Lenihan, who had come to spend the evening. When, therefore, the worthy +couple announced that they would return later after making other calls +in order to see if there were not something they could do for Mrs. +Davies, who must be dreadfully sad, Katty replied, "'Deed and they +needn't worry, for it's more'n _she_ did." The stern discipline of the +post took Lenihan off to his troop at tattoo, but Katty lacked not for +company. "It wasn't becoming," said her mother, "that she should be left +to herself at the dead of night with no one but that lout Barnickel to +look after her." So she came up from Sudsville at taps to discuss Mrs. +Davies's tea and preserves and, incidentally, her character with her +blooming daughter, and Barnickel was sociably disposed, and the kitchen +congress was in animated session when at 11.30 P.M. there came a sharp +ring at the bell. + +"Bless us! I didn't suppose they'd be home till long after midnight," +said Katty, as she scurried away. It wasn't the misthress, however; only +Mrs. Darling's maid, to say that Mrs. Davies would not come home; she +would spend the night at Mrs. Darling's, and Letty had come for her +things. This necessitated Mrs. Maloney's remaining all night to further +look after Katty, and what more natural than that they should light Mrs. +Davies's lamp and spend a blissful hour in her simply furnished but +pretty room, looking over the new gowns and garments and jimcracks, and +so absorbed were they in this occupation that they took no heed of time; +and so it happened that the good old chaplain, coming shortly after +midnight over from the hospital, whither he had been summoned to the +bedside of a sorely-stricken trooper, rejoiced to see that Mrs. Davies, +at least, had not gone to the dance, but was keeping wifely vigil in the +sanctity of her own room, praying, probably, for the safety of the loved +young husband now on perilous duty eighty miles away. At the corner, at +the end of the long row of quarters, a solitary figure was standing. The +chaplain recognized the beaver overcoat in the soft moonlight and the +soldierly face under the forage-cap. + +"Ah, Cranston! Officer-of-the-day, I see. Just going the rounds?" + +"I was,--yes,--but I saw you coming, so waited. How's Hooker?" + +"Very low, poor fellow! Typhoid has him in tight grip. He's flighty +to-night. He thinks he's back on the summer campaign again, and his talk +is all of the Antelope Springs affair. Odd! this makes the third man to +come back from Boynton's party, two with typhoid fever and one with the +mail-carrier and a bottle,--Brannan I mean,--and they all talk about +that. From what I have gathered it would seem that Devers blamed Mr. +Davies for the whole tragedy, but the men, when their tongues are +loosened by fever or rum, lay loads of blame elsewhere." + +"Yes?" said Cranston, with deep interest, yet reluctant to talk of +regimental scandal with an outsider. "I should like to know what they +say." + +"Well, they say McGrath could tell a tale if he were alive, and that +Lutz and the men at the agency believe they were shoved up there because +they had said things which First Sergeant Haney overheard and reported +to the captain. It seemed queer, even to me, so many men going from +Devers's troop under command of somebody else's lieutenant, and now +Davies himself has gone, and suppose he should hear of this talk?" + +"He will know what to do, chaplain. Davies has earnest friends who will +not see him further wronged, but just now, as you probably understand, +nothing can be done. Now excuse me a moment. I may have been mistaken, +but I thought I saw a man's figure hanging about the back gate of Number +Twelve as I came up the bluff from the wood-yard. I thought he went +through Davies's yard and that I'd see him crossing the parade when I +got to the corner, but not a soul was in sight and it is almost as light +as the day. If he didn't go through he must be in the shadows there of +the wood-shed. There's been some prowling, and though this isn't the +sort of night for that sort of thing, it's still possible. Will you +kindly wait here and watch the front and this side while I beat up the +rear?" + +Wonderingly the chaplain assented, and, with his sabre clanking at his +side, Cranston strode away northward along the line of white +picket-fence until he came to the high rear barrier of the row, one of +black unplaned boards, and around behind that he disappeared. Across the +intervening yard and through the open gate-way at the back the chaplain +could see a patch of the snow-clad valley, and watched for the +appearance of Cranston's sturdy form in that silvery gap. + +But another eye had also been alert. The very instant the figure of the +officer-of-the-day disappeared from view behind the high back fence, out +from the shadows of the shed there sprang a lithe, slender form, clad in +soldier overcoat, and, in less time than it takes to tell it, around it +darted behind the shed, was one instant poised at the top of the fence +that separated the yard of Davies's quarters from that of their +next-door neighbor, then noiselessly dropped out of sight on the other +side. The next minute Cranston appeared in the gap. + +Instead of shouting, fearful of disturbing the inmates, the chaplain +quit his post, hastened along the front to Davies's gate and around the +house to the rear, where he found Cranston searching. + +"There was a man. I saw him. He leaped the fence into the next yard. A +tall, slender fellow." + +But search in there and in its fellows revealed nothing. The prowler had +had time to skip from yard to yard, and nothing short of the services of +the entire guard would be apt to result in his capture. + +"I wish you had shouted to me. I could have grabbed him in Hay's yard," +said Cranston. + +"Well, I didn't like to for fear of startling Mrs. Davies," said the +chaplain, simply, and Cranston glanced quickly and queerly up at him +from under the visor of the little cavalry cap. + +"Why, she----" he began, then checked himself abruptly. + +"Could you give no description of him? Did he leave no trace?" asked +Captain Devers at the office next morning when the old +officer-of-the-day made his report. + +"No, sir, but the chaplain might. He saw him plainly,--said he was tall +and slender." + +And Captain Devers replied,-- + +"Very good, sir. You're relieved," and then turned to the new incumbent, +Captain Rogers, of the infantry: "I wish especial attention given to +this matter, Captain Rogers, and probably I shall take a turn with you +to-night after twelve." + +But that night long after twelve the whole post took a turn. It was +towards four A.M. when the telegraph operator, who slept always beside +his instrument, came banging at the door of "A" Troop's office. It was +opened by an indignant Irish sergeant. "Go rout out the captain at once. +You know how to rouse him and I don't. There's hell to pay and the whole +crowd wanted." And Haney, who would have damned his impudence another +time, donned his clothes without an instant's delay, and together they +ran across the parade and brought up with a bang at Devers's storm-door. + +Agatha Loomis was probably a light sleeper. It was her tap at the +Cranstons' room that first roused them. + +"What is it?" cried Margaret, up in an instant and filled with no other +apprehension than that of more sore throat or cough in the nursery. + +"There's some excitement and running about the post. The office is +lighted and people are hurrying over there." + +Cranston looked at his watch,--4.15. Peering out of the dormer-window at +the front, he could see dark forms scurrying across the parade and +lights beginning to pop up here and there and everywhere along the row +of barracks. Hurriedly donning his stable dress and furs, he went down +to the hall-way, Margaret, pale and silent now, following. A man was +knocking at the door of the adjoining quarters, and Cranston recognized +the form of Lieutenant Jervis. "What's up?" he queried. + +"Big row at the agency," came the murmured reply. "Reckon most +everybody will have to go." And though he spoke in low, guarded tone, +Margaret heard, and then clung to her husband's arm. + +"Again! so soon?" she cried. "Oh, God! Are we never to know one-half +year of peace?" + +Cranston led her into the warm little parlor and took her in his arms. +"I must go to head-quarters at once," he whispered. "Doubtless I should +have been there before; but don't borrow trouble, Meg, dear, wait until +I know what's to be done." Then he left her with Agatha and went his +way. + +The office was crowded. Devers sat in the colonel's chair pencilling +despatches to be sent to department head-quarters. Around him, sitting +or standing, were most of the officers of the garrison, either silently +regarding him or chatting in low tone. All that was known was that Sam +Poole, one of the best and most daring scouts employed at the agency, +had ridden into Braska about three o'clock, his horse nearly spent, with +the news that the whole gang of Sioux had risen in revolt and attacked +the agent. He left at 8.15 Friday night with McPhail's plea for instant +help and all they could send of it, but so deep were the drifts in +places and so exhausted was his horse that it had taken him all that +time to reach the railway. The wire was still down and he bore the +latest news. There could be no mistake: the attack had fairly begun +before he was out of hearing. The volleying and yelling beat anything +he'd heard since the battle at Slim Buttes in September. The +quartermaster in charge of the depot at Braska had despatches wired at +once to Omaha and another out to the fort. Devers was up in a few +minutes and had sent his orderly for certain of the officers, and the +noise of ringing or knocking along the row had roused others. Cranston +and Hay were not of those sent for, but Devers explained that he took it +for granted they were prepared to take the field with their troops at a +moment's notice, and did not care to disturb them until he knew what +they would be required to do. It would be several hours before orders +could reach them from Omaha, he reasoned, and he had no idea what the +orders would be. The whole command might be sent, or none of it. +Meantime vigorous preparations were going on in the store-rooms and +kitchens along the barrack row, "A" Troop's activity being conspicuous. +But without waiting for orders from their captains, the veteran first +sergeants of the other troops were getting everything in readiness, and +when Hay and Cranston walked over to the barracks to see how far +preparations were advanced, each had an approving word for his faithful +aide. + +But Omaha was wider awake than Devers supposed. The Gray Fox was in +possession of the news almost as soon as the post commanders, and he and +his adjutant-general were at the telegraph-office within half an hour. +"I will go by first train," said he. "Meantime we must start a big +force." + +And so before the reveille bugles were singing through the wintry +morning along the slopes of the Rockies, the telegraph had roused the +officers at all the posts along the railway for five hundred miles. +Russell, Sanders, and Sidney were up and astir with preparation. Special +trains were ordered to meet and convey their detachments of horse, foot, +and pack-trains, so that a big command might concentrate at once at +Sidney and march thence, 'cross country, to the Ogallalla Agency, +Colonel Winthrop at their head. The commanding officer of Fort Scott was +directed to start three troops of cavalry and two companies of infantry +at once, with instructions to join Colonel Winthrop's column at the +Niobrara crossing, and, his own troop being now the smallest at the +post, owing to these details at the agency, Devers very properly decided +on sending everybody else's. Truman, Hay, and Cranston of the Eleventh +and Pollock and Muncey of the Fortieth were the captains ordered to +march forthwith. Before eight o'clock on Sunday morning the little +column had swung sturdily away over the prairies, and Captain Devers, +with his own attenuated troop and two companies of "doughboys," remained +to guard the post and its supplies, and take care of the invalid colonel +and the wives and children of the soldiers so summarily ordered into the +field. + +And now Almira could not lack sympathizers, for both Mrs. Flight and +Mrs. Darling had been called upon to say adieu to their respective +lords, who marched with their sturdy comrades in the wake of the +cavalry, guarding the few wagons which had to be taken; but these +gentlemen belonged to a famous regiment that had known no other history +since the day of its organization than that of constant active service. +The Fortieth was forever in the field,--its wives "perennially +grass-widowed," said the garrison wits,--its children so seldom blessed +with the sight of the paternal face as to be preternaturally wise in +picking out their own fathers. The Fortieth went as a matter of course. +The two companies remaining behind looked upon that as a mere accident +that time would surely rectify. The two that went made the customary +appeal to the post commander for the release of certain untried and +unpunished of their weaker members who happened to be at the moment +languishing in the guard-house, and the plea prevailed. Hearing this, +the chaplain, backed by Dr. Burroughs, came to the office with another +plea. There was the young man Brannan confined in the guard-house since +Wednesday morning last, he knew not on what charges and begged to be +released from durance so utterly vile and permitted to go with the +command to the rescue of his comrades at the agency,--what there might +be left of them. + +But Devers replied that Brannan's troop was not going. Furthermore, he +intended to have Brannan brought before a garrison court on the morrow. +This was the sorrowful message the chaplain carried, and Brannan wrung +his hands. "I have violated no regulation, missed no roll-call, been +drunk on no duty. I did drink when half frozen on that hard ride from +the agency to the post. I drank after I got here, but drank no more and +behaved no worse than half a dozen others of the troop who were with me +at the store, and some of whom drank more, got drunk and were allowed to +sleep it off in quarters and nothing said about it. Why am I singled out +for punishment? Why is Paine--who went to town and had to be brought +back by a patrol--why is he released and allowed to go as wagoner, while +I am forbidden to go at all? There's surely something behind all this, +chaplain." + +And the dominie didn't say so to the man, but thought so to himself. He +was still talking with the prisoner when the sergeant of the guard came +and said he was sorry, but orders had just come for Brannan to be sent +to the quartermaster's corral at once to help load wagons, and the young +fellow, with tears in his eyes, was led mutely away. Cranston happened +to ride by the corral ten minutes later and caught sight of the pale, +fine-featured face, whose-eyes looked up at him wistfully, imploringly. + +"Why, Brannan," said he, "I had hoped to hear of your release by this +time. We march in less than an hour, and I fear nothing I can say to +Captain Devers will be apt to help you, but try to keep up good heart. +Say nothing about this confinement to your mother when you write, and +I'll ask Mr. Leonard to look out for you. He'll see that no great harm +comes." + +"It seems as if everything had gone against me, sir," said the boy, with +quivering lips. "I don't know why I can't get justice in this troop. If +Captain Devers thinks me so bad a soldier, why don't he let me transfer? +I've asked twice, and he refuses. It's my belief he's trying to drive me +to desert so as to get me out of the way--or destroy my character." + +"Hush, Brannan. You know that you ought not to talk to me in that way. +There's no time for words. I'll ask Mr. Hay to keep special lookout for +you. I know the general will overtake us to-morrow, and quick as +possible I'll have a word with him. Now, good-by, lad. Stand to your +guns a little longer and you're all right." + +"I'll try, sir, if you'll give my--give my respects to Mr. Davies, and +say to Miss Loomis--God bless her." And with a choke in his voice the +young soldier turned suddenly away, dashing his sleeve over his eyes. + +"Get to work there, you, Brannan," growled Sergeant Haney before +Cranston was out of hearing. "No more palavering with officers out of +your own troop this day unless you want double trouble in it,--and be +damned to you," he added, in low and cautious tone, his eyes furtively +following the captain, now twenty yards away. And Cranston was riding +home to don his winter field rig and to a parting that he dreaded beyond +all description, for now, more than for many a long year, had Margaret +need of all her husband's love and encouragement and devotion. + +Sunday noon the detachment from Scott was across the railway and first +on march to the beleaguered agency. Sunday night they camped in the +breaks of the big divide, some fifteen miles north of Braska, and still +no tidings came from beyond the Niobrara. Restoring the telegraph line +as they went, digging it out from under the snow, the infantry trudged +along all day Monday, following the trail of their mounted comrades who +left them at dawn, and early Monday morning an ambulance drawn by six +spanking big brown mules whipped by them along the road, and the kindly +twinkling eyes of their old friend and fellow-campaigner, the general, +peered out at them. Away he went to overtake the foremost riders, with +just brief word or two and cordial grasp of the hand to the few officers +who hastened alongside. Without guard or escort, with only a single +aide-de-camp, with his life in his hands as usual, the Gray Fox was +heading straight for the scene of danger. "Heard anything at all?" he +asked. + +"Not a thing." Who could tell whether man or woman was left to forward +word of any kind? + +Monday night the cavalry reached the snow-covered banks of the Niobrara, +and went into bivouac on the northern shore to await the coming of the +black speck that, just before dusk, could be seen far in their wake +picking a way through the drifts in its descent from the crest of the +divide. "It's the general, of course," said everybody, and the general +it was. + +"Anybody come ahead yet from Winthrop?" was his first question. No! The +Sidney road was covered in places by drifts that had lain unbroken ever +since the storm. "Any news from the agency?" + +Not a word, and it lay now barely a dozen miles away. Tuesday morning, +too impatient to wait for coming reinforcements, and confident he could +hold his own with the little force at hand, the Gray Fox pushed ahead. +All were up and off at the break of the wintry day, and at eight o'clock +had neared the top of the divide between the shallow, placid Niobrara +and the swift Chasing Water beyond. Little Sanders, trotting far in the +advance with three or four light riders, threw himself from his horse, +unslung his field-glass, and peered long and anxiously into the +northward valley. All seemed desolate and deserted. A smoke was drifting +lazily upward from the site of the distant agency; not from peaceful +chimney, but rising from a mass of smouldering ruins. The villages of +Red Dog, Kills Asleep, Little Big Man, even of Two Lance, had +disappeared, and of the Ogallalla Agency not another vestige could be +seen but the grim outlines of the stockade. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. + + +When Sanders, with solemn face, turned to meet the general and report +his discovery, the difference between the young and the old campaigner +was told in their own words. + +"I'm afraid we're too late to save 'em, sir. Everything's wiped out but +the stockade." + +"If the stockade's left, they've saved themselves," was the answer, and +the Gray Fox was right. Long before the column reached the lowlands of +the valley horsemen could be seen spurring eagerly forward to meet it, +and the first-comer was Trooper O'Brien, who saluted the general with +all soldierly grace and the rest of the array with a sociable grin. + +"We're all right, general,--leastwise most of us is. Two of the boys is +killed, and Loot'n't Boynton's wounded,--and four others,--but the +women's all safe, and the agent--bad scran to him! Is there a doctor +along?" A doctor was along,--Burroughs,--riding with the senior captain +commanding the battalion, and Burroughs was hurried forward with Sanders +and a squad of men, while O'Brien, proud of his prominence, rode by the +general's side and told the story of the sharp and sudden fight. + +"They came down on us like a crowd of grasshoppers so soon as it was +light enough to see anything, but they couldn't get near us without our +bowling over bucks and ponies. The prairie's dotted with the corpses of +the poor beggars, sir,--the ponies, that is; they never left an Indian. +We stood 'em off first rate. Loot'nant Boynton and Loot'nant Davies was +everywhere at once, and after trying two dashes the Indians gave it up +and kept at long range. They was a thousand strong at least, and Elk +came in with a white flag for a parley, and Mr. Boynton ordered him +back, but McPhail let him in. He said we must give up Red Dog or they'd +burn the agency over our heads and massacre every man, and McPhail was +for letting him go then, but Mr. Boynton and he had words over it, and +they kept him. That night was cloudy and the moon was hid, and sure +enough at ten o'clock they crawled in on the storehouse side and heaped +up timber under them flimsy pine boards, and no one could see them on +that side until everything was in a broad blaze. It was when trying to +bucket out the fire the lieut'nant was shot, and it was a roaring +conflagration in five minutes, and from that it spread to the agency and +the other shebangs, and it was all we could do to get the women and +children out of the cellars and into the corral, and them bucks firing +from every sage brush for a mile around. The whole thing was down by +midnight, but it didn't do them no good: we was really better off with +less to take care of and more men to do it with, and we had wather in +the well and rations for all hands, and the agent and his non-combatants +under cover in one corner of the stockade, and Red Dog tied up in +another. All Sunday they kept up a long-range fire, and five or six +times made as though they was going to charge, but Loot'nant Davies was +on all four sides of that square from dawn till dark, sir, and they +never got within four hundred yards that we didn't drop them. Sure it +was just pie, general. The only trouble was, could they set fire to the +stockade at night? The loot'nant had buckets of water all around inside, +and every little while a patrol ran round on the outside, and half the +fellows kept watch at the loop-holes while the others slept, and Mr. +Davies had the office side of the stockade battened up with old wagons +and boxes and things to fill the gap. Faith, sir, he never seemed to +close an eye night or day until this blessed morning, when the valley +was clear of Indians and we knew it meant that the general was coming." +And as O'Brien told his tale to attentive ears, others of the little +garrison, lately beleaguered, joined the battalion, still steadily in +march, and found eager auditors everywhere along the jogging column. +Every one sorrowed at hearing of Boynton's serious wound, for he was a +soldierly, faithful fellow, albeit a trifle blunt and unsociable, but as +man after man spoke in lavish praise of Davies, of his plucky grapple +with the most redoubtable chief in the rebellious tribes, of his calm, +cool vigilance and skill in the conduct of the defence after the command +devolved upon him, Cranston's eyes sparkled, and Hay and Truman joined +in the chorus of congratulation. + +When at last the battalion unsaddled at the stream and the officers +pressed into the stockade to shake hands with the defenders, they found +Boynton and the wounded feebly rejoicing in Burroughs's hands and +Davies tucked away in a corner under an old wagon, rolled in agency +blankets, sleeping the dreamless sleep of a tired child. + +"Don't disturb him for anything," said the general, with moistened eyes. +"They tell me he hasn't had an hour's rest since Friday. He's behaved +like a trump." + +That night our old friend Tintop came trotting in at the head of eight +strong troops of horse, some of his own, others of the --th Cavalry. +Behind them, with the wagons, came the infantry, supplementing the +little detachment of the Fortieth already on the ground,--the sturdy +trampers from Fort Scott. Next day the agent and his household, with the +other women and children, were bustled off to Braska until new quarters +should be built for them, and his red wards be rounded up, run down, and +returned to the arms of Uncle Sam by their natural oppressors, the +cavalry. Sending Red Dog in irons and Boynton and the wounded back to +Scott by easy stages, leaving four companies of the Fortieth to build +cantonments for themselves and their comrades, the Gray Fox took the +field with the residue of his force and set forth upon a winter campaign +in search of the now scattered and despondent Indians. The oratory of +Red Dog had borne its fruit. Four truculent bands had joined in the +outbreak at the agency and lost their leader, half a score of +mad-brained young warriors, scores of their best war ponies, but, what +was of most consequence, had burned up the whole store of agency +provisions and, with their squaws and children, were now lurking among +the trackless Bad Lands to the north, outcasts upon the face of the +frozen earth. + +The only Indians whose condition was not made materially worse as a +result of this ebullition were the Brule band of Two Lance, who had +taken advantage of the general confusion to slip away to their old head +chief Sintogaliska. He might not be able to feed or clothe them, and the +agent at Sheridan might say he had no authority to help, but they would +at least be getting as much comfort as was accorded them at Ogallalla, +and less abuse. + +And then, while the soldiers were stalking the renegades, the +commissioner of Indian affairs sent out to stalk the soldiers. +Investigation as to the cause of this inexplicable outbreak was +demanded. Those very chiefs had left the capital in unbounded good humor +not two months before, and who was responsible for this sudden and +baleful change of heart? It was a matter soon and easily settled. In the +absence of military testimony to the contrary and the presence of so +unanimous a party as the agent and his assistants, the fault was laid on +the broad shoulders of the troopers. Devers rode over from Scott to +Braska to hear the evidence, Boynton being still in surgical bandage and +bondage, and without committing himself to anything absolutely +derogatory to Messrs. Boynton and Davies, was certainly understood to +raise no dissenting voice to the often expressed theory that but for the +impetuosity and interference of those two officers the whole trouble +could have been amicably settled by the authorities of the Indian +bureau. And with this most satisfactory conclusion the commissioner +returned to Washington. Red Dog was ordered released and restored to the +bosom of his family, and when the general had finally succeeded in +bringing in the scattered starvelings and the cavalry reappeared at the +site of the agency, the first thing whispered to Davies was, "Be on your +guard every moment. Look out for Red Dog!" + +The general never swore. He was in this respect the mate of Grant, his +old-time friend and regimental comrade, but he could "look swear words +by the gallon," said the adjutant of the Eleventh, whose own chief was +in no wise tongue-tied. It fell to the lot of Mr. Gray, sent forward +from the Bad Lands to announce the coming of the field column with all +its humbled captives, to be the first on returning to announce to the +Gray Fox that Red Dog had been released from durance at Fort Scott, +equipped anew by McPhail at Braska, and had ridden to the cantonment to +harangue such Indians as were already reassembling there, and to thunder +furious threats at the officers of the Fortieth. Three bitter weeks had +the Gray Fox and his faithful men been scoring the wild, wintry +fastnesses along the Wakpa-Schicha, and, just as the Indians obtained +through the bureau the vast supplies of ammunition with which to battle +the soldiers through the summer past, so now, while the War Department +was running down the renegades in the field, the Interior Department was +running down the soldiery at home. The troops came in with the +conviction that they had been seeing some hard and trying service, many +of them with frosted fingers, toes, or ears, and thinking they deserved +rather well of their country for having finally rounded up a thousand +warriors with all their families, ponies, and unsavory impedimenta, and +the general so informed them, and leaving a command of eight companies, +equally divided among the horse and foot, to occupy the cantonments on +the Chasing Water and thereafter keep the Indians in check, he hastened +away to attend to important business in another lively section of his +big department. The agency buildings were being rapidly restored, which +was much more than could be said of its influence for good among the red +men, and presently McPhail and his family reappeared on the scene, shook +hands all around with the warriors who burned him out several weeks +before, slapped Elk at Bay on the back and called him a bully boy, and +promptly requested of the commanding officer of the new cantonment, +which was a mile away up stream, a guard of a lieutenant and twenty-five +men to be stationed at the agency itself. The major demurred, and the +agent wired to Washington with the usual result. Whatsoever slur upon +his actions McPhail had seen fit to cast at the expense of Mr. Davies +during the investigation recently referred to, he had heard enough to +convince him that the Indians spoke of that officer with awe and +reverence and as "heap brave," so the man he urgently asked for to +command his guard was the very one whom he had maligned. The +adjutant-general of the department could only transmit the order that +came from superior head-quarters within the week, and Lieutenant Davies, +just as he was expecting brief leave of absence to visit his wife at +Fort Scott, was detailed to the command of the permanent agency guard. +The Ides of March had come. + +And how had it fared with Mira and her sympathetic friends at Scott +during all these weeks of toil and march and scout? Two at a time the +officers had been allowed to run in thither for a few days as soon as +their men and horses were made fairly comfortable at the cantonments. +Cranston and Hay went first, then Truman and Jervis, then came the turn +to which Sanders and the patient Parson had been looking forward, and +Sanders went alone. Already some of those fearless frontierswomen, the +amazons of the Fortieth, had come ahead with bag, baggage and babies and +moved into the log huts of their lords as contentedly as they would have +taken quarters at the Grand Central in Omaha, but Mesdames Flight and +Darling were not of the number. Indeed, there was no reason why they +should be, as it was settled that their companies were those designated +presently to return to Scott; so was Hay's troop, so presumably would be +the detached members of Devers's Troop, "A," as soon as he wrote and +called attention to the fact that nearly one-half his men were detained +eighty miles away where there was now an abundance of other soldiery, +and the truly remarkable thing was that he, always hitherto so quick to +find fault with or criticise the actions of his superiors, was keeping +utter silence, and so long as he made no protest no one else could. +Colonel Stone, still weak and dazed, was just beginning to hobble about +the post, and for six wonderful weeks had Devers succeeded in retaining +the command. + +"Your husband will be home any day," said Mrs. Darling to Mira, when +they got the news of the triumphant return of the command to the +cantonments. "He belongs here with his troop, so he's sure to come, and +then," she added, archly, "what will poor Willett do?" + +That was a question occurring to many another mind and falling from many +another tongue. The rapture of Cranston's home-coming one sharp evening +in late February was dashed only by the sight of a blooming face at +Willett's side behind that stylish Eastern team. In the windings of the +road among the willow islands in the Platte he had come suddenly upon +them, he riding at rapid gallop, they dawdling with loosened reins. +Willett was bending eagerly toward her, talking earnestly. She sat with +downcast eyes that never saw the swift rider until he had almost passed +them by. Mrs. Darling, chatting with Mr. Burtis on the rear seat, was +the first to announce his coming, and with rare presence of mind to turn +and send sweetest smiles and beaming glances and the welcome of a waving +hand after the grim, bearded face that had no smile for their civilian +escorts and only grave courtesy for the ladies themselves. He would not +mar the joy of his home-coming by the faintest reference to what he had +seen, but Margaret read his honest eyes as she read her boys', and knew +that he must have met them on the way. For weeks she had seen the rapid +growth of the new intimacy and deplored it, and had no one to confer +with about it except Agatha, but Agatha flatly refused to open her lips +upon the subject. It was a mercy that Wilbur at last came home and +unloosed her tongue. As she pathetically said, "I simply could not +contain myself any longer." + +But if Mrs. Cranston had held her tongue, there was no lack of others +who had not, and foremost of these was Mrs. Flight, who spoke by the +card. For a fortnight or so the devotion of these two ladies, Mrs. +Flight and Mira, to one another had been of that seething and tireless +character that rendered them incapable of spending an hour apart, and +then came the little tiffs and coolnesses that betokened that this, too, +was inevitably going the way of all such feminine intimacies. Up to the +day of Mira's coming Mrs. Flight and Mrs. Darling had been inseparable +for as much as a week at a time. Both were young, pretty, and +empty-headed; neither was burdened with children nor ideas. Both were +healthy, one was wealthy, neither was wise. Mrs. Darling had the +advantage over Mrs. Flight in that she was able to entertain lavishly, +whereas Mrs. Flight could only entertain by personal charm and sprightly +chat. They were the reigning belles at Scott, and not only the young +officers at the post, but the young civilians in town, found great +pleasure in their society. There was capital sleighing for several +weeks, and Willett and Burtis came as often as every other day to take +the ladies an airing. At first it had been Mesdames Flight and Darling, +then the bride had to be invited because she was the bride, then because +she was a beauty, and finally because Willett would have no one else. +Then as it was generally at Darlings' they lunched, dined, danced, +supped, were wined and warmed and welcomed, it transpired that +Mrs. Flight found herself very frequently dropped from the +sleigh-rides,--only invited semi-occasionally, perhaps once in ten days, +when Burtis pointed out to Willett that they really must, you know, to +which the now infatuated Willett merely responded, "All right. You ask +her, then, and let her sit with you." No one but Mrs. Davies shared the +sleigh man's seat. + +During the fortnight that followed the departure of Lieutenant Davies, +Mrs. Flight had been devotion itself to her dear, bereaved friend, and, +having wept with her, slept with her, sleighed with her, bared her +innermost soul to her, and made herself, as she supposed, indispensable, +it was to be expected that Mrs. Flight could not look with equanimity +upon the discovery that she was not so indispensable after all. She had +started Mira on the road to conquest, never dreaming that she herself +would be the first overtaken and supplanted. She had thought hitherto no +possible harm could come of their taking an occasional drive with their +friends, especially as Mr. Flight expressed himself so grateful for the +attention shown his wife, and as she and Mrs. Darling seemed chosen +rather to the exclusion of the other women, but when Mira and not +herself became the invariable occupant of the seat by the swell +civilian's side, the indiscretion, not to say the impropriety of the +affair, became glaringly apparent. It is rarely from the contemplation +of our own, but rather from the errors of our neighbors, that our moral +lessons are drawn, and now that in all its nakedness the scandalous +nature of Mira's conduct was forced upon her attention, Mrs. Flight +reasoned, most logically, that she could be no true friend if she failed +to remonstrate and, if need be, admonish and reprove. She did so, and +Almira pouted and was grievously vexed. She didn't think so at all, +neither had Mrs. Flight until--until she began to be counted out. This +led to war, and from pointing the moral Mrs. Flight now turned to +adorning the tale with what "everybody was saying." Mira challenged her +authorities. "I know who you mean,--Mrs. Cranston and Miss Loomis. They +hate me and would say anything mean of me." Now, it was not Mrs. +Cranston and Miss Loomis at all. They had no more intimacy with Mrs. +Flight than they had with Mira, nor as much. They looked upon Mrs. +Flight as responsible in great measure for Almira's wrong start. They +under no circumstances would confide to Mrs. Flight what they thought of +Mrs. Davies, and Mrs. Flight knew it, still she was not unwilling to let +Mira suppose that she was now enjoying their confidences even while she +referred to other authorities by the dozen as condemning or deploring +Mira's conduct, and a stormy scene followed, ending in tears and +reproaches,--much heat, followed by chilling cold. + +For the following fortnight Almira's intimacy was transferred to Mrs. +Darling, and from going to spend the night with Mira, Mrs. Flight took +to revolving in mind her singular observations while she was there. +There had been a thrilling, a delicious, a mysterious and romantic +occurrence. Somebody twice came and whistled a strange, soft melody +under the window and tapped as with a cane, gently, stealthily, a signal +that sounded like Rattat _tat_, rattat _tat_, just once repeated, and +Mrs. Davies trembled all over and grew icily cold, and begged Mrs. +Flight to go to the window and say, "Go away, or I'll call the guard," +and when pressed for explanation Mira moaned hysterically and said, but +Mrs. Flight must never, never tell, that there was once a young man whom +she had known long before who had got desperate on her account, for she +couldn't return his love, and he had run away from home and enlisted, +and she feared that he was there now, though she had never seen him and +never wanted to see him, and it became Mrs. Flight's belief that it was +no one less than that handsome young fellow, Brannan, who Captain Devers +said was drinking himself to death. And now that Mira had withdrawn from +her the confidences of the month gone by and was recklessly driving the +road to ruin, flouting her admonitions, what more natural than that Mrs. +Flight should forget her own vows of secrecy and conclude it time to +seek other advice? Mrs. Darling would have been her first confidante in +this revelation, but they, too, had once been devotedly intimate and had +now drifted apart. They were no longer on anything more than merely +frigidly friendly terms, smiling and kissing in public and hiding +womanfully their wounds, yet confiding to friends how much they had been +disappointed in the other's character, if not actually deceived. Mrs. +Flight found a confidante in the chaplain's wife, a woman simply swamped +under an overload of best intentions. It was Bulwer who declared that +"It is difficult to say who do the most harm, enemies with the worst +intentions or friends with the best," but Bulwer, who had reason to know +what he was talking about, never lived at Scott in the Centennial times +or at old Camp Sandy in the Arizona "days of the empire," for then he +would have known no such difficulty in deciding. Just as the stanch old +chaplain was just such another God-fearing, God-serving, devil-downing +man as Davies's father, so was the chaplain's wife a counterpart of +Davies's mother, filled with the milk of human kindness still unturned, +and overflowing with best intentions uncontrollably effervescent. Had +she told her husband all might have been stopped right there, but, as +the demon of ill luck would have it, he had gone to a distant +convention. So she sallied forth, brimming with eagerness to snatch this +lovely brand from the burning, to turn this fair, motherless, guideless, +possibly guileless girl to the contemplation of her dangers, to the +knowledge of her peril, to banish Willett from the dove-cote,--wily hawk +that he was,--and settle forthwith the fate of that young scamp Brannan. +She did not find Almira until after dark, but meantime told her +thrilling tale to Mrs. Stone (now full panoplied for further social +triumphs, the colonel being on the mend, and herself so young as not to +have looked unmoved on those famous sleigh-rides, nor without envy on +Almira's blooming cheek), and from her side sped the chaplain's wife to +hunt up Captain Devers. In him she found a listener indeed in whom there +was no end of guile. + +This was just before Cranston's return. The ball to be given by the +townsfolk had been indefinitely postponed in deference to Colonel +Stone's condition and the absence of so many dancing men in the field, +but the weekly hops, although with thinned attendance, went regularly +on. Now there were several households who did not attend at all, among +them Cranston's, Leonard's, and Hay's. More civilians came out from +town, whom Devers welcomed affably and Hastings and the resident +"doughboys" entertained as best they could. No need to trouble +themselves: the visitors came to "dance with the grass widows at the +fort," and had no embarrassment other than richness. There were always +wall-flowers, but never in the person of pretty Mrs. Davies, to whom +"Phaeton" Willett's devotion was now the talk of all. + +It was just at this time, too, that there came to Braska a middle-aged +lawyer with all the ear-marks of the soldier about him, including a +white seam along his cheek that told of a close call his intimates knew +to have occurred at Spottsylvania. His name was Langston, and his first +visit to the post was the result of a letter of introduction to Captain +Cranston from a classmate in the East. Cranston had driven over to +Braska to seek him out on receipt of the letter enclosing Langston's +card, bade him hearty welcome to the West, and was surprised to hear +that his practice brought him frequently to the neighborhood. He asked +him out to dinner two weeks later, Captain and Mrs. Hay, Mrs. Davies, +and Mr. Hastings being invited to meet him, for almost his first +question had been for that soldierly young officer, the hero of the riot +on the train. Mrs. Davies pleaded previous engagement, but Captain and +Mrs. Cranston took the trouble to call and explain that this Mr. +Langston especially admired and asked for her husband, Mr. Davies, and +so Almira simply had to go. Hastings called for and escorted her. He was +a blunt fellow, who held that when the husband was away and the lady of +the house alone, no other man ought to set foot within the threshold, +and he waited on the porch. But the lady was not alone. Willett's sleigh +was in the trader's stable, and Willett himself biting his nails and +swearing in Almira's parlor while Mrs. Darling was putting the finishing +touches to Almira's toilet. Willett had driven out _solus_ this time, +thinking to persuade Mrs. Davies to take a drive, with some other dames +playing propriety on the back seat, and, finding she was engaged for +dinner and could not go, lost a chance of scoring a point by asking the +other women anyhow, for by this time his infatuation had utterly +overcome his senses. Katty again appeared and begged the lieutenant to +step in wid Mr. Willett, and Hastings turned fiery red, scowled +malevolently, said "No," and took himself outside the gate, pacing up +and down like the orderly in front of Devers's quarters, a short +pistol-shot away, until Almira came fluttering out, Willett in close +attendance, Mrs. Darling mercifully following. Hastings bade the others +a gruff good-evening, silently tendered Mrs. Davies his arm, and led her +away with the sole remark "Aren't we late?" which gave her a chance to +talk the rest of the way. + +And though Langston sat on Mrs. Cranston's right, with the pretty bride +on his other side, so that he might descant about the absent Percy to +his heart's content, his eyes ever wandered across the simple table and +dwelt on Agatha Loomis's noble face. She had recognized him at once as +the one of the two civilians on the sleeper the previous June who had +not been suggestively and impertinently intrusive, yet she welcomed him +only formally even now because of that association. Langston had heard +the first mention of a Mrs. Davies with an inexplicable little pang, and +the further description of her with quick reaction, for his instant +thought was of Miss Loomis. The dinner dragged, despite every effort, +for Almira was distinctly and determinedly unresponsive. Margaret was +glad when it was over, glad when Almira early went home, for matters +brightened somewhat with her disappearance. Langston paid his dinner +call with surprising promptitude, and then overjoyed "the ladies" with a +box of rarest roses expressed from Margaret's own beloved home. "I know +how many of these are meant for me," she said, with almost fierce +rejoicing. "Oh, Wilbur!" she cried that evening, as she nestled in his +arms in front of their cheery fire, "if only he is all they say of him, +and she should----" + +"Should what, Meg?" he densely queried. + +"Should--why, you know just as well as I do, and he has such a fine +practice, and comes from such an admirable family and all that." + +"Undoubtedly,--but where does Agatha come in?" + +"Wilbur, you are just as provokingly sluggish as our own Chicago +River,--what wouldn't I give for a sight of its dirty face sometimes +when--when you're away! Now, be honest. Don't you know he never could +have sent all that way for all those roses--just for me?" + +"_I_ would." + +"Oh, you,--you are----" but the entrance of Miss Loomis herself with +sorrow in her face blocked the conference. + +"Captain Cranston," she said, "Brannan has been sent to the guard-house +again. I know he has not been drinking. What can it possibly mean?" + +It meant, said Captain Devers, when respectfully approached upon the +subject in the morning, that on very strong circumstantial evidence he +had discovered the identity of the night prowler. Brannan certainly +answered the description given by the chaplain, despite the chaplain's +assurance that he didn't believe it was Brannan, and Brannan, said +Devers, when not in the guard-house or hospital, had frequently been out +of his quarters at midnight. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. + + +Cranston's six days home-keeping sped all too swiftly away. It was now +definitely settled that his troop and Truman's were to remain +indefinitely on duty at the agency. The general hated the idea of +building cantonments there, and had urged that all the Indians be +concentrated at the White River reservation, but without avail,--the +Interior Department would have its way. Troops had to be drawn from all +the posts along the railroad to make up the new command at the +Ogallalla, and out of his own pocket Cranston was adding to the log +quarters assigned to him, for Margaret had promptly announced that she +would not remain at Scott, that where he dwelt was her dwelling, and +they had known far greater isolation and danger in the past. Indeed, +there was little danger of their going now, for in the presence of so +strong a force the Indians would be meek enough. Two log huts were +connected and thrown into one as rapidly as possible, and it was fully +decided that by the 25th of March Mrs. Cranston, Agatha Loomis, and the +boys were to join him at the cantonment. It was not a very difficult +trip for such heroines as lived in those days in the army. Cranston's +strong spring wagon, fairly lined with buffalo-robes and blankets, would +carry them in perfect comfort from camp to camp. They would have an +escort and a baggage-wagon, spend the first night at Dismal River, the +next at Niobrara. Hastings would escort them, for he longed to get away +from Scott for a while and visit his comrades in the field. There was +nothing in the least unusual in it, said Margaret, in her home +letters,--for this had she married a soldier. The boys, of course, +gloried in the opportunity and bragged about it, or would brag about it +when they next got away from their kind in the army to their kind in +civil life,--boys who could only vainly long for such opportunities and +vaguely loathe those who had enjoyed them. As for Agatha, she accepted +the change of station with serene and philosophic silence until +cross-questioned as to her own intentions. "Why, certainly I mean to go +with Mrs. Cranston," she replied, with clear, wide-open eyes. "She will +have more need of me there than here--and I of her." Mr. Langston, who +drove out again to spend Sunday at the post, heard of the decision with +grave concern in his soldierly face, but in silence equal to her own. + +Some others of the ladies whose lords were thus detached to Ogallalla +preferred, however, to wait until the snow was gone. There was now +abundant room at Scott,--why leave it, with its warmth, its comfort, its +society and all, to go to a mud-chinked hovel at that ghastly spot where +the Indians danced and coyotes howled the live-long night? Of course if +there were quarters in which a woman could live with even reasonable +comfort, that would be very different. Then their remaining at Scott +would be inexcusable. Mrs. Flight and Mrs. Darling were women who were +at variance on very many points of late, but openly in accord on this. +Indeed, almost every woman at Scott had all of a sudden been seized by +some strange lingual epidemic that manifested itself in the persistent +repetition of such expressions as "Of course no woman who could see her +way to any kind of a civilized house would be justified in not joining +her husband there instead of staying here." It was sure to attack them, +too, whenever Almira happened to be within ear-shot, for the news came +down one March morning that one officer at least was to have a very +comfortable little frame cottage,--the commander of the agency guard. It +would be finished in a week or two, and even the stoves, fuel, and much +of the furniture would be provided by the Indian bureau. Again did Mrs. +Cranston go and call on Mrs. Davies and warmly congratulate her, and say +that Captain Cranston's men who were packing up the troop property would +gladly box and pack her furniture too and send it out by their wagons, +and then she said there were six inside seats in the big Concord wagon +and it would afford so much pleasure if Mrs. Davies would go with them. +But Almira faltered unresponsively. Mr. Davies had not fully decided. It +was such a shock to her,--his being detained there. She had never +dreamed of his being away more than a week or ten days, if she had she +would have returned home to Urbana, but now it was nearly two months, +and really Mr. Davies would have to come down and look after the +household affairs and matters that she didn't fully understand. + +Davies understood them well enough when he got the commissary and grocer +and butcher and baker and other bills that Mira had managed to run up, +both at Scott and at Braska. He went with grave face to Cranston. "I'm +afraid Mrs. Maloney and Katty have been taking advantage of my wife's +inexperience," said he, "and ordering all manner of things in all +possible quantities, and possibly, or probably, stocking the Maloney +larder at my expense. I simply cannot pay these and my home assessments +too." + +Cranston was a man of few words. "Davies," said he, after looking over +the accounts, "Mrs. Davies has been cheated right and left by those +people, but in any event you cannot keep up two establishments. Break up +the house at Scott at once, let her come out with my people and leave +the Maloneys and Barnickel--and Scott behind. Let my Braska banker be +yours for the present. A few mouths here will float you well above +water." + +And though Davies declined the offer of pecuniary aid, the very night of +Mrs. Cranston's visit the agency telegraph flashed to Mira a despatch +directing her to get ready to come on with them, whereat Mira fled in +tears to Mrs. Darling,--Mira, who, it may be remembered, longed to come +and cook and bake and darn and sweep and sew and share the merest hovel +with her Percy so long as she thought it just possible that he might yet +change his mind and leave his simple village maid no fate but lonely +grief and an early grave. Mira's enthusiasm for the bliss of frontier +life fled at the contemplation of the utter isolation at the +agency,--with wild Indians and animals all around, and without Mrs. +Darling, without the lovely, cosey fireside confidences, without the +band, the hops, the sleigh-rides, not to mention the glowing devotions +of Mr. Willett. + +But Mrs. Darling rose to the occasion. From having been first favorite +in Scott social circles up to the time of Mira's coming she, with Mrs. +Stone and Mrs. Flight, was struggling now for second place. She felt +constrained to remind Mira that she was now a soldier's wife, and should +share a soldier's lot, especially a lot that included furnished +quarters. Other women had gone or were going to live in the log huts, +and it would never do to have it said of her, of Almira Davies, +that she had shrunk from joining her husband at the agency when +everything--everything was provided. Everything wasn't provided, by any +means, but in the largeness of her convictions woman sometimes drifts to +breadth of statement. The interview with Mrs. Darling proved but cold +comfort to poor Mira. She went homewards through the chill gloaming with +restless heart. There was a little parcel lying on her table, securely +wrapped and sealed. The post ambulance driver brought it out from +Braska, said Katty, "an' there was no address, 'twas only to be left for +Mrs. Davies," and Katty fain would have followed her mistress into her +chamber to see it opened, but Mira closed the door before she cut the +string. It contained some exquisite double violets and a tiny note +sealed as carefully as was the box. + +Before tattoo Mrs. Flight and other ladies hastened in to offer their +congratulations. They were desolated at the thought of losing Mrs. +Davies, but rejoiced with her that she was so soon to be comfortably +housed with her devoted husband at the agency, and Mira's cheeks were +flaming, her eyes, full of a feverish excitement, flitted from one to +another. She had but very, very little to say. She was glad, oh, yes, so +glad, though it was dreadful to leave Fort Scott, where so many people +had been so kind to her,--dreadful. + +This was about the 20th and the general situation of affairs was +somewhat complicated. The bureau, resuming control over the Indians +reassembled at the agency, conferred no longer with the general who had +gathered them in, and for whose naked word they had more respect than +for all the formal treaties of agents or inspectors, but contented +itself with sending curt, crisp orders signed, however reluctantly, by +his superiors at Washington. The general, leaving matters at Ogallalla +where he had no influence, had gone after other malcontent braves in a +far corner of Wyoming. Colonel Peleg was beginning to evince a desire to +resume command, despite Rooke's knitted brows and reluctant answers. An +official from Sheridan's headquarters had just paid informal visit to +Scott, had had long talks with Stone, Leonard, and the chaplain, and a +very short one with the plausible Devers, and had gone back to Chicago. +He arrived at Scott within four days of Cranston's departure for the +agency, and within five of the re incarceration of Trooper Brannan on +charge of night prowling. He made very brief examination in Leonard's +office of Sergeants Haney and Finucane, Corporal Boyd and Trooper +Howard, who were witnesses, so Devers said, to the frequent absences of +Trooper Brannan from quarters during the dead hours of the night, and +their expert testimony seemed to be given with much reluctance and to be +received with equal incredulity. He asked of Devers what his reasons +were for refusing to forward Brannan's application for transfer to +Cranston's troop, and Devers, much disturbed to find that this was +known, hesitated in his reply. He said he had not refused, he had merely +taken time to consider. The man had given him much trouble. Some +officers considered it all right for a captain under such circumstances +to shunt a reprobate off on some other company commander, but he +differed with them. He wanted to know something of the man's +antecedents. "Well," said the aide-de-camp, "Cranston knows all about +them and is willing to take him. You might relieve yourself of any +feeling of punctilio on that score." + +"Then Captain Cranston is your informant in this business, colonel," +said Devers, with an attempt at a sneer. + +"Not at all," said the aide-de-camp, placidly. "Brannan's mother told us +all about it. She is a very superior woman, and we dine there +occasionally." + +Devers stared blankly at the speaker just a moment, half incredulous, +half resentful, then at last he realized that it was no pleasantry on +the part of his visitor and, for once in his life, collapsed entirely. + +That night Brannan was released and bidden to go to his troop and be +patient. This time there was no doubt of his application being forwarded +to regimental head-quarters, and there's no doubt, said the chaplain, +who had a talk with him within an hour of his restoration to duty, that +a week would see him _en route_ to join Cranston's troop at Ogallalla. +Devers was still commanding officer of the post, however, and gave the +chaplain to understand that so long as the man remained at Scott the +interests of discipline required that there should be no exhibition of +exuberant triumph on his part or of further interference on the part of +his spiritual sympathizers. He hated the chaplain by this time as much +as he feared Cranston. Something had told him that the aide-de-camp's +visit meant that the toils were tightening, and that even though the +Gray Fox was away his great superior, the lieutenant-general, had an eye +on the situation and an ear for the stories of his defamers. Devers felt +that the inspector came because of sudden and direct appeal from +Brannan's friends. He could not longer attribute it to Davies. Well, it +would take a week or ten days anyhow before Brannan's orders could come, +and a week was a long time to a man with a treacherous thirst. + +But what Devers only suspected and did not know was that in the long +consultation with Leonard that officer gave, by request, his version of +the altercation which had taken place between himself and Devers, and of +the events leading up to it. The staff officer brought with him the +original report of the investigation made of the Antelope Springs affair +and Devers's topographical sketch of the ground, trails and all, and +Leonard's black eyes burned as he studied it. The aide-de-camp had some +social calls to pay and left these papers in Leonard's hands while he +was gone. "I have made a tracing of that map, colonel," said the +adjutant, when after two hours the official returned. "I hope you don't +object. I know you can't leave the originals with me." + +"That's all right," was the answer. "Say, Leonard, who's that young cit +with the swell team who came to take Mrs. Davies sleighing? I didn't +catch the name." + +"His name's Willett," said Leonard, briefly. + +"What's he doing here?" + +"Cattle." + +"Cattle in Braska, perhaps, but here, I mean." + +"I don't know," said Leonard to the officer. "I wish I did," said +Leonard to himself. "If I did--I'd smash him." + +Mr. Langston had driven out to the post with Willett that afternoon. He +had other calls to pay, and this was Saturday, a favorite day for +visiting at Braska. The Cranstons' house was topsy-turvy, everybody in +the midst of packing, but Langston had a box of _bon-bons_ which the +ladies, or the boys, might enjoy as reminders of Chicago, and he rang. +Miss Loomis herself, in cap and apron, opened the door. Her shapely, +soft white hands were covered with the dust of books and papers she had +been busily storing in the boxes, and her face flushed, just a bit, at +sight of her visitor. + +"I cannot shake hands with you, Mr. Langston, and, as you see, we're all +at work, but welcome in. I'll call Mrs. Cranston." + +"No. Don't," he said, hurriedly. "I only came to offer these trifles. I +heard you were all busy packing and had hoped to hear that, after all, +you were not going up to that forsaken spot. Is it true?" + +"Certainly. Wherever Captain Cranston goes there goes his wife, and +where she goes to live is my home and duty." + +He stood looking steadfastly into her brave, beautiful face. He was tall +and stalwart: she almost Juno-like in the grandeur of her form. He could +not conceal the admiration that glowed in his eyes. He could not, dare +not speak so soon the thoughts that had been surging in his brain, +springing up from his very heart. What would he not give could she but +accept the offer he longed to lay at her feet, that of a name, a love, a +home wherein she should reign as queen, not live as a dependent. Such +silences are eloquent. She turned quickly away. "Louis, tell mother Mr. +Langston has come out to say good-by," said she, and Mrs. Cranston, not +ten feet away, these being army quarters, had to appear. + +"I didn't mean to say good-by here exactly," said Langston. "I rather +planned to see you. I thought perhaps you'd honor me by breakfasting or +lunching with me in Braska on your way," he said, hesitatingly. "They +tell me ladies often----" + +"Well, we go direct. Ours is the through express, Mr. Langston," said +Mrs. Cranston, laughing, "and it's a hotel car we travel by. Braska is +some distance off the air line." + +"Braska doesn't seem to have been in your line at any time," he said, +after a moment's pause. "I hear of frequent visits on the part of the +other ladies, many of them, but you never honor us." + +"Oh, we sometimes go there for shopping." + +"But to Cresswell's, I mean, for luncheon or supper. They say he gives +a very creditable spread, and as quite a number of the ladies go there +at times, and Willett and Burtis have a little party there to-night in +honor of some of your friends, I thought I might persuade you; but--of +course--if you do not go that way," he concluded, vaguely. + +"No, thank you, Mr. Langston, we do not--go that way." + +"But I shall see you, both, again before you start, I hope," he said, +addressing Mrs. Cranston, but palpably appealing to Miss Loomis in the +weakness of a strong man deeply in love. + +"It will be a pleasure," said Margaret, cordially. She wished him to +come. She meant him to come. She saw and forgave the wandering eyes. He +might come any day he pleased before the 25th. There would still be a +box or a trunk for him to sit on; but now, she concluded, artfully, she +must get right back to the boys a minute. They were trying on some +clothes that had just come from home, and she'd return very soon. So +saying she vanished. It was half an hour before she reappeared, and +Langston was on his knees in the parlor--packing books. It was the +sweetest work he had known in years. + +But when he was finally gone Margaret turned impulsively to Agatha. "Do +you think it possible that--that she _can_ be going there--with +him--to-night? No matter who else goes. She cannot realize what she's +doing. Would you go--should I go to see her?" + +Miss Loomis stood at the window, leaning her forehead against the cold +pane and gazing silently out over the snowy expanse of the parade. "You +would be too late, Margaret," she answered, presently, and drew back +from the folds of the heavy curtain, and Mrs. Cranston seemed to read in +her companion's face what was coming along the road. + +Two double sleighs drove briskly past the window. First came Stone's old +swan-head behind his sedate team of bays, but from a perfect nest of +robes and furs a gay party waved their hands in laughing salutation. +Mrs. Stone and Mrs. Flight on the back seat, Messrs. Darling and Tommy +Dot opposite them in the body of the sleigh. Captain Pollock in the +driver's perch with a fair companion whose husband was still detained at +the agency, but wanted her to have the best time possible instead of +moping at home. Then came Willett's stylish sleigh and team, Sanders on +the back seat with Mrs. Darling, Almira blooming in her accustomed place +by "Phaeton's" side. She neither bowed nor kissed her hand to Cranston's +window, but smiled sweetly up into her companion's eyes. + +Mr. Langston, meantime, was dining at the officers' mess, and presently +when Mrs. Leonard came over to see if she could not help her neighbor a +trifle in her packing, she unfolded some of the details of the Braska +plan. Messrs. Burtis and Willett desired to entertain some of their fort +friends in town; Colonel "Pegleg" was the only man at the post who owned +a sleigh; Mrs. Stone was invited as a matter of course, and accepted, +provided the colonel felt well enough to let her go, and it was duly +settled that six of the party should go in her sleigh. The rest was +easily arranged. Langston was only too glad to go out with Willett and +spend the hours until the return of the party in calling and dining at +the post, hoping thereby to obtain more than one glance at and more than +a few words with Miss Loomis. It was nearly sundown when they started. +It would be eleven before they got back. Long before that hour the +lights in Cranston's quarters were out and all was silence and peace. +Langston, strolling by after making his evening calls, looked long, as +lovers will, at the window of the room he knew to be hers, then went +resignedly over to the store and took a hand with the officers at a game +for which at other times he had no use whatever,--pool. He had to do +something to while away the time until the sleigh-bells came tinkling +back, and that seemed to be the only thing going. + +But midnight came before the foremost sleigh. Pollock safely tooled his +party into the post as the twelve o'clock call was going the rounds. Oh, +they had had a blissful time! a glorious time! Such a delightful +supper,--partridges and celery and all manner of dainties from Chicago, +and such oyster patties! to say nothing of Roederer _ad libitum_. Then +they had danced, and then they had more supper, and then started home. +Willett would be along in a minute. + +But ten, twenty minutes sped and no Willett. Pegleg's horses, being +homeward bound, had possibly made phenomenal time, and Willett, +probably, was in no hurry. "It's about his last chance to have Mrs. +Davies beside him," laughed Mrs. Stone, "so he's making the most of it." +It was 12.30 when at last the bells of the New Yorker's sleigh were +heard tinkling faintly at the corner, and presently the party came +slowly into view. Only three now, and three silent, embarrassed if not +evidently agitated people, for they seemed to whip up and hurry by the +little knot of anxious faces gathered at the colonel's gate. + +"Where's Mr. Sanders?" was the cry. + +"Tell you in a minute!" shouted Willett, as he drove straight by to No. +12, where he sprang out, lifted Mira from the sleigh and almost bore her +to the gate, Mrs. Darling following. Already Mr. Darling was hastening +up the road to join his wife. At the door Willett simply had to turn +back to his spirited team, as they were standing unhitched, and Mrs. +Darling disappeared with Mira into the hall. + +"Where's Sanders? What kept you?" panted Darling, hastening up. + +"Hush! Don't make any fuss," muttered Willett. "He jumped out half a +mile back. Some drunken men, or soldiers perhaps, gave us a little +trouble. I'm going back after him now." + +"Hold on one minute till I see my wife and I'll go with you," sang out +Darling, as he ran into the house, where Mira had sunk nerveless into a +big chair and was wildly imploring Mrs. Darling not to leave her. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. + + +The Cranstons were ready to start on the 23d, but nothing was in +readiness at Mrs. Davies's. On the contrary, that lovely and most +interesting young woman was, according to her own account, as +transmitted to the garrison by her now devoted friend and nurse, Mrs. +Darling, in a state of prostration and could do nothing at all. Mr. +Davies had been telegraphed for and was coming, and Dr. Rooke said she +must be kept very quiet meanwhile,--so at least Mrs. Darling reported to +sympathetic friends who called to inquire and possibly hoped to see. +Bluff old Rooke himself was besieged with questions as to his fair +patient, the nature of her malady and the cause of the sudden shock, and +Rooke told some people not to bother her, others not to bother him, and +others still not to bother themselves about her. She'd come out all +right if left alone. It was Mrs. Cranston and Miss Loomis to whom he +delivered himself of the last mentioned. He liked them both, which was +more than he did most people, for this AEsculapian countryman of Carlyle +had much of that eminent writer's sharpness of vision and bluntness of +speech together with even more of his contempt for the bulk of his +fellow-men. "No, Mrs. Cranston," said he, "don't wait a day for her. +Start just as soon as you are ready, and don't give a thought to this +little flibberty gibbet." And so the Cranstons, with Miss Loomis, bade +farewell to Scott, and one radiant winter morning drove buoyantly away, +almost all of the officers and ladies being out to wave them adieu. +Hastings, with a brace of troopers, trotted alongside as they crossed +the Platte and reported the camp wagon well on its way to Dismal River. +"I never was so glad to leave a place in all my life," said Margaret to +her friend, as they glanced back from the crest of the distant ridge +that spanned the northern sky. "I never have been at a post where there +were so few people I cared for." The driver halted his strong team at a +level spot after a long, tortuous climb, and let the mules breathe a +moment while his passengers took their final peep at the dim, dingy +patch, far away upon the southward slopes beyond the willow-fringed +river, which indicated the site of old Fort Scott. Already the snow had +disappeared on many an open tract and lay deep only in the ravines and +gullies, on the ice coat of the stream and in the dense undergrowth of +the islands. To right and left for miles the broad valley lay beneath +their eyes, the rigid line of the railway cutting a sharp, narrow slit +across the level prairie in the lowlands, straight away eastward until +all was merged in the misty, impenetrable veil at the horizon, while +westward near the forks of the river, in long, graceful curve, it swept +around an elbow of the snow-mantled stream and disappeared among the +roofs and spires of far-away Braska. The boys, with the agile energy of +their kind, had leaped out to scamper about on the rimy buffalo-grass, +dull gray, dried and withered, yet full of nutriment for the little +droves of horned cattle already browsing placidly along the slopes where +but a few years before the Sioux and Cheyenne chased great herds of +bison. Hastings and his men were riding along a hundred yards or so in +front, and the two women were left to their own low-toned confidences. + +"I cannot help it," said Mrs. Cranston, "it may be uncharitable, unkind, +but I am simply glad she could not go with us. She does not like us,--me +at least. She has pointedly avoided me, and I half believe it was to +avoid going with us that she was taken ill. I only hope Wilbur will not +misunderstand the matter." + +"I think you are unjust, Margaret, in one thing at least. There was +certainly some severe fright or shock Saturday night." + +"Oh, a thing that might unstring a nervous, hysterical woman a few +hours, perhaps, but it is no case of nerves or hysteria with her. She's +a perfectly healthy country girl. Mrs. Darling, who isn't thoroughly +strong and well, seems to have been very little affected." + +"Mrs. Darling has been three years out here and is accustomed to +frontier life. Mrs. Davies, probably, never had such an experience +before, and she has been worried by these queer incidents that Mrs. +Leonard tells us of,--those midnight whistlings and tappings at her +window. Mrs. Davies is alone, her husband miles away at the agency. +Everything has tended to worry the girl. I honestly feel sorry for her, +Margaret. I'm sorry that she wouldn't let us be her friends." + +"You are full of excuse for her, Agatha, and down in the bottom of your +heart you know perfectly well she doesn't deserve it. I cannot forgive +her for this flirtation with Mr. Willett. I only welcomed the idea of +taking her with us because of the hope it gave me of breaking up that +affair." + +"Has it never occurred to you that she may have broken it off +herself?--that besides this queer adventure with those drunken fellows +there was something else to agitate her? Be just, Margaret. She came to +us utterly inexperienced, even ignorant. She hasn't much mind, I'll +admit, but she is innocent of wrong intent. Is it not possible that +driving home he may have spoken to her in a way she could not mistake, +and that that has had much to do with her prostration? If not, if she +did not then and there forbid his coming near her again, how do you +account for it that he has not once been out to the fort since +Saturday?" + +"Well, it's only three days, and the sleighing is practically ended." + +"Yes, but he hasn't let forty-eight hours pass hitherto without a visit, +so I'm told, and he has his buggy and wagon, and unless there was a +rupture of some kind was it not more than likely he would be out Sunday +or Monday? Wasn't it the proper thing, really, for him to call and +inquire for her?" + +But here the Concord rattled on again, the boys playing "giant strides" +hanging to the boot at the back, and the driver, poking his head around +the canvas wind-screen at the front, called out to Mrs. Cranston, +"There's two of our fellows coming a couple of miles ahead, mum." And +both ladies leaned from the wagon to strain their eyes in vain effort to +distinguish the forms and faces of the distant party, Margaret half +hoping that her soldier husband might have been able to stretch a point +and ride far down to meet her, Miss Loomis half divining who it must be, +and it was Miss Loomis who was right. Fifteen minutes further and the +Concord halted again, and Mr. Hastings, with Davies at his side, rode up +to the open door. + +Even at a glance one could see how much he was changed in the service of +those two months. The lines about his clear, thoughtful eyes had +deepened and his face was thinner, despite the full, heavy, +close-cropped beard, but there was no mistaking the joy with which he +met and welcomed his friends and nurses of that long autumn's +convalescence. He whipped off his gauntlets and flung them at Louis's +head, as the boys came dancing about his horse, and then extended both +hands in eager greeting to Mrs. Cranston, who was nearest him, and who +frankly grasped and shook them in hearty, cordial fashion. + +"Oh, how glad I am to see you!" she cried. "We thought to meet you at +our first camp I had no idea you could come so fast." And by this time +she had released his hands and he was bending farther in to extend the +right to Miss Loomis, who welcomed him with friendly warmth, yet with +that womanly reserve which seemed never separable from her. + +"We did not stop at the Niobrara," said he. "We came right through and +camped at Dismal River late last night. Did you see Mrs. Davies this +morning? How did you leave her?" he asked, with grave anxiety. + +"We left her very comfortable. Dr. Rooke said there was no occasion +whatever for anxiety," answered Mrs. Cranston, tactfully evading the +question as to "seeing her," and then, fearful lest he should be moved +to repeat it, plunging impetuously ahead. "She was looking so bright and +well, so lovely in fact, that none of us were prepared for her being +ill. Of course you'll hear all about the excitement and adventure they +met with, so I won't speak of it now. In deed, you know, we hardly know +anything more about it ourselves than you do, for both Mrs. Davies and +Mrs. Darling saw so little of what followed the first appearance of the +fellows. Mr. Sanders jumped right out among them, it seems, and gave +chase after some who ran. The one they afterwards captured was one of +your recruits, Paine by name, and Mr. Sanders can tell you all about it +when he gets back. He was sent up to Cheyenne. One or two men who have +disappeared entirely are the suspected ones, and he is after them." + +"But I don't understand," said Davies, gravely. "It seems incredible +that even drunken soldiers should have attempted an indignity to a party +of officers and ladies. Weren't you with them?" + +"No; we were in the midst of packing, you know, and we weren't going +anywhere. Indeed, it was an extraordinary thing and no one knows how to +account for it, but you'll hear all about it at the fort, and I know you +are eager to push ahead, and we'll see you so soon at the Ogallalla, so +just tell me how you left my husband and you may gallop on." + +How blithe and radiant was her face as she spoke! How could he suspect +the dread that lurked behind it,--the artfulness of her effort to escape +further questioning? + +"The captain's as well as ever and counting the hours until your +coming," he answered. "How thankful I am, for my wife's sake as well as +my own, that you and Miss Loomis are to be so near us! Think of our +having a house while the rest of you live in log huts! But if any sub +would exchange with me I'd gladly give him the agency guard and the +house and come and live in cantonments." Then with a parting shake of +the hand he waved them on. The driver cracked his whip, the boys +scrambled aboard, and away they went bowling on northward, while Davies +and his single orderly turned again their horses' heads to the welcome +awaiting them at Scott. + +Margaret sank back in her seat with fluttering heart and a deep sigh of +relief. "Thank heaven, that's over, and I have told nothing of any +consequence, have I?" she murmured to her silent friend. "What will he +say or think when he learns the truth? But you were saying Mr. Willett +had not reappeared. For that matter neither had Mr. Burtis nor Mr. +Langston. I believe they'll all be out to the fort this very day. Mr. +Langston thought we were not to start, you know, until to-morrow." + +No answer to this observation. Miss Loomis was quite well aware of the +fact and had been, for her, an eager advocate of the earlier start the +moment it was declared that Almira could not attempt to move. + +"I didn't fib, did I?" asked Mrs. Cranston, after a moment of deep +thought. + +"No; you managed to control the examination quite successfully without +it." + +But people at Scott that afternoon were less skilful or less fortunate. +Arriving nearly ten hours earlier than he was expected, Mr. Davies +dismounted at his quarters and, tossing the reins to his orderly, +quickly and noiselessly entered. He expected to find his wife an invalid +in a darkened chamber. He strode in upon a cosey little party at +luncheon, Almira presiding at the tea things in a most becoming +_negligee_, and Mrs. Stone and Mrs. Darling nibbling at the dainties set +before them, rising in surprise and some confusion as the young wife +fluttered from her chair to the arms of her returned hero and becomingly +precipitated herself upon his breast. The visitors managed to retire +soon after luncheon was over, despite Almira's evident desire to hold +one or both at her side, for in that brief quarter of an hour Davies +learned, as the result of questions that presently became insistent, +very much to deepen the grave anxiety in his grave face, very much that +made him impatient to hear from other witnesses. + +Over the interview between him and his now nervous and fluttering wife +we need not linger. She read disapproval, even distrust in his eyes, in +his grave, deep tones, and all the prostration of the three days +previous showed forcible symptoms of immediate return. She knew she was +going to be wretchedly ill again; she must have Mrs. Darling and Dr. +Rooke. Oh, why had they taken Dr. Burroughs away? he was so much nicer, +and Barnickel should go for Dr. Rooke at once; and Barnickel, who was +unpacking the lieutenant's saddle-bags and blanket roll, said he knew +the doctor had gone to town and there was no one but the steward about. +Mr. Sanders was just back, said he, and some gentlemen from town with +him; whereat Almira started nervously and with fear in her face, and +Davies took his cap and, presently, his leave. + +"I will ask Mrs. Darling to come to you at once," he said, gently, "but +I must go and see Mr. Sanders." He stooped and kissed her flushed +forehead and then turned slowly away. The instant he closed the hall +door behind him she crept to the parlor window, watching him as he +walked rapidly westward along the row; then, slipping the bolt, she flew +back to her room, searching in the bureau drawer an instant, drew forth +two or three little notes, tied with silken ribbon, also a bunch of +faded violets. The next instant notes and violets were blazing in the +parlor base-burner. + +Davies went straight to Sanders's quarters. It was then only a little +after two and no one happened to be visible along the row. Over at the +barracks and office there was the customary drowsy silence that followed +the mid-day meal of men who had to be up with the dawn, and at stables, +drill, or exercise until the noon recall. But Mrs. Stone had hurried +home to her colonel and told him of Davies's arrival, and the colonel +was eager to see him. Mrs. Darling had similarly warned her consort, and +Darling was as eager to dodge. + +"Lieutenant Sanders has gone to report to Captain Devers," said the +striker who answered Davies's ring, and Davies said he would come in and +wait until his return. He wanted to get by himself and quietly think +over Almira's fragmentary and reluctant account and admissions +concerning this supper-party at Braska. He threw himself into Sanders's +big arm-chair drawn up in front of the stove, and leaned his head on his +thin, white hand. Trooper Hurley, Sanders's striker, acting under his +usual instructions, presently reappeared with a decanter of whiskey, +glasses, sugar, and spoon on a tray. "We're all torn up, sir, packing +the lieutenant's traps for the move, but here's everything but bitters, +or lemon, and I can get them in a moment, sir." + +Davies wearily thanked him, but waved the proffered refreshment aside. +Hurley deposited his tray on the table close to the lieutenant's elbow +and tiptoed out. + +"Did Mr. Sanders say he'd come back here?" called the visitor. + +"No, sir," said Hurley, poking his head back in the door-way; "but he +will, sir. He was sent for by Captain Devers before he had been ten +minutes in the post, and he went as soon as he could change his clothes +and get into uniform. Mr. Darling run in here just a few moments ago +after him, but he was gone. Mr. Willett fetched him out from town, sir, +along with some other gentlemen. They went over to the store." + +"I'll wait a few minutes," said Davies. So Hurley hospitably brought the +late papers and placed them within reach. + +"There's pipes and tobacco if the lieutenant would like to smoke, and +I'll be in the back room, sir, packing." + +"Did you hear whether Mr. Sanders had succeeded in arresting the other +men?" + +"No, sir, he didn't. They couldn't be found and hadn't been heard of in +Cheyenne, but Mr. Sanders said they had bought their tickets for there, +and that they were on the train as far as Sidney anyhow. I heard him say +that. They were a bad lot, sir, them two fellows, especially Howard. The +men in 'A' Troop say he made many a ball for Paine to throw, and that he +was the one that was always making trouble for Brannan." + +Davies bowed silently. He remembered Howard well all through the long +dismal summer, one of the very "likeliest looking" of the recruits, at +first glance, and almost the only one of the lot whom Captain Devers +seemed to fancy, yet Davies was surprised, when he rejoined after his +sick-leave, to find him in the troop office instead of the drill squad. +All through the regiment the story had gone the rounds of how Sanders +had arrested him on the train in "cits" and evident intent to desert, +and how Devers had ordered his release, virtually assuming +responsibility for the entire affair, and no man could account for +Devers's action in the matter except that it was Devers's, and therefore +bound to be different from that which any other officer would have +taken. + +And it was Howard who, this time at least, had deserted for good, taking +with him a garrison ne'er-do-well whose going was only a good riddance, +and leaving as a captive in the hands of Lieutenant Sanders the luckless +Paine, now languishing in the guard-house, while, under the orders of a +nervous and evidently anxious post commander, parties were searching +everywhere for the other two. + +From the somewhat garbled and excited account given by the ladies at the +luncheon-table, Davies had been able to gather only these +particulars,--that, as the second sleigh was coming along, oh, just a +little distance behind Colonel Stone's, and as they rounded a sharp turn +at the head of one of the islands, a brilliant light flashed from the +bank, so close to the horses that they shied violently, nearly toppling +Mrs. Davies out, and in this flash they distinctly saw the face and form +of a tall young man in dark slouch hat and civilian clothes, and the +expression on his face was so wicked, and he was so ghastly pale that it +looked like an apparition, and Mrs. Davies screamed and nearly fainted +from the fright and shock, and Mr. Willett, who was driving, made a +furious cut at the fellow with his whip, and then as the horses tore +away in fright the occupants of the sleigh had just time to catch a +glimpse of some soldier overcoats, and when at last Mr. Willett regained +control of his horses, Mrs. Darling cried out that they must go back for +Mr. Sanders. He had leaped right out among those brutes, and she was +sure she had heard shots. Mrs. Davies admitted that here she protested +against going back, so terribly was she frightened, but Mrs. Darling +said that they must do so and Willett said that they must, and go they +did, only to find the spot abandoned. Even when Willett called for +Sanders there was no answer, and then they were dreadfully alarmed for +fear he had met with violence, and Mrs. Darling took the reins while +Willett searched, and Mrs. Davies, as she admitted, cowered under the +buffalo robe, and then, all on a sudden, they heard the sound of angry +voices, heard some one furiously denouncing Mr. Willett for lashing a +gentleman with his whip, heard Willett curse the stranger for flashing a +match purposely to frighten his horses,--some sneering reply to the +effect that a man had a right to light a cigar on a public road, then +Willett's voice calling the man a liar, then heavy blows and scuffle, +and then Sanders came running up the road just in time, for the stranger +had Mr. Willett down in the snow and was throttling him. He sprang up +and dashed into the willows the instant he heard Sanders's voice, and +that was the last seen of him, for Sanders's first care was for the +civilian, who was bruised and choked, but, after all, not seriously +hurt. He helped Willett back to his seat, bade him drive the ladies at +once to the fort, but said he was going after those marauders, for two +at least were soldiers. That was all. When Willett and Mr. Darling drove +back they found that he had captured Paine, too drunk to run well, and +that the others were gone. Next morning Trooper Howard was reported +absent, and that settled the identity of the man in civilian dress. Mr. +Willett had not been out at the post since the affair simply because he +was nursing a black eye and a sprained thumb. + +What Mrs. Darling and Mrs. Stone couldn't understand was what could +possibly have prompted the man Howard to stand right on that little +bank, close to the track, and there flash his phosphorus match. He must +have known it would scare the horses even if it did not terrify the +people. It was a reckless, diabolical thing to do, and then to think of +his daring to strike and beat Mr. Willett afterwards. Mrs. Darling was +full of indignation at his conduct; Mira was agitated, but had little to +say. She was thinking of the cross-questioning that was inevitable when +her supporters were gone. + +And now, sitting there in Sanders's easy-chair, Davies was pondering +over all that he had been told at the table, and the little that he had +wrung from her reluctant lips, putting them together with the frequent +questions asked him by the few women who had joined their husbands at +the cantonment,--questions so frequent and persistent as to whether he +often heard from his wife, and wasn't she soon coming, _very_ soon, to +join him, that even to his unsuspicious nature they carried a +significance he could not down, and now it seemed that Almira had gone +with a gay party to a supper and dance in town at a time when he +supposed that she was spending her hours with his friends, the +Cranstons, or in quiet and seclusion at her home. There, at least, he +showed his inexperience, for in nine cases out of ten the friends the +newly-arrived wife is surest to fancy in garrison are not those whose +praises her lord has been sounding for six months ahead. Of the hops and +dances and drives that had preceded this eventful evening he had as yet, +_mirabile dictu_, heard nothing beyond Mira's own meagre account. In +fact, he had no idea of them at all. + +He was worn and weary after the long, hard eighty-mile ride. The fire +was warm, the room still and peaceful; no sound broke the silence but +Hurley's occasional step and soft whistle out in the "linter" at the +rear where lay his packing-boxes. Possibly Davies may have become +drowsy, dreamy, as he reclined there. At all events he never moved as a +quick, nervous step came bounding across the veranda and into the hall. +The door burst open and a voice, surely a little tremulous and agitated, +spoke low and quickly. + +"Where are you, Sanders? Oh, say, will you do me a favor? I can't--at +least I don't want these other women to know. Was there ever such a +streak of hell's luck as this? He's home. I've got to go. Will you see +that Mrs. Davies gets this before to-night?" + +And in the dim light of the little bachelor den, Percy Davies, slowly +turning, was aware of a stylishly-dressed, handsome young civilian, +whose face, though pale and apparently bruised, was vaguely familiar to +him, in whose outstretched hand was a little box-shaped packet. Just +then another step came bounding into the hall-way, into the room, and +the lawful occupant of the quarters halted short at sight of the two +tall, slender forms confronting each other, one that of the civilian, +slowly recoiling toward the door with twitching, tremulous hands, and a +face livid as death, the other, in cavalry undress, with bearded, +haggard face, deeply lined, under whose heavy, bushy, overhanging brows +a pair of blue eyes were blazing. For a moment not a word was spoken, +then Davies broke the silence. + +"Sanders, this gentleman wishes you to see that that package is promptly +delivered to my wife, and I should be glad to see you as soon as +possible at my quarters." + +Not until the speaker had coolly stepped past them both and out of the +room had Sanders recovered sufficient presence of mind to sing out, "All +right, old man; I'll come." Then, as the outer door closed after the +retiring officer, he whirled on Willett. + +"You inveterate ass! How dare you haul me into this?" + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII. + + +Among the gentlemen from Braska visiting the post that afternoon was Mr. +Langston, who drove thither full of eager anticipation, and hailed the +first glimpse of the bright hues of the flag with a thrill of hope and +joy. No spot in all God's green earth at that moment held in his eyes +such vivid charm and interest. Ten minutes later no spot in all the +world seemed so barren and desolate. The sunshine, the sailing clouds in +the vault of blue, the chasing shadows along the slopes, the streaming +colors of blue and white and scarlet at the tip of the swaying staff, +the glint and sparkle of the accoutrements of the guard, the gaudy +lining of the troopers' capes, were absolutely unaltered, yet the light +had gone from his eyes--following the trail to the far Ogallalla. To him +who loves a woman with all his heart there is more beauty in a +mud-chinked hovel in a frontier fort where she may dwell than in all +"the castled crags" of storied Rhineland or the cloud-capped towers and +gorgeous palaces among the mirror lakes of Alpine Italy. + +[Illustration: "FOR A MOMENT NOT A WORD WAS SPOKEN." + +Page 324.] + +Langston learned of the departure five minutes after he reached the +post, and lost all further interest in the day. He said he would "loaf" +at the club room until Burtis and Willett got through their calls, +which, said they, would occupy some hours,--two or three at least. +Indeed, Willett "didn't know but what he might stay out with Sanders +overnight" and let Burtis "tool the trap" back to Braska when he got +ready. When, therefore, in less than forty minutes Willett's team was +reported being hurriedly harnessed in the post trader's corral and that +gentleman himself came bustling in with a pale, scared face that +intensified the blue blotch under his eye, Langston was astonished. He +was listlessly turning over the leaves of a magazine at the moment and +seeking solace in a cigar. Willett looked nervously about him, bade the +attendant bring him some brandy and soda, and threw himself into a chair +in front of the stove. + +"You look used up, Willett," said the elder. "What's the matter? Seen +anything more of your midnight antagonist?" + +"No, by heaven! I wish I had. I believe the devil himself has gone in +league with the gang at this garrison. I never knew such a string of +mishaps in all my life. Say, are you ready to go back?" + +"Any time; but I thought you wanted to stay." + +"Oh, so did you when you came out, Langston, and now you don't, and I'm +simply in the same boat." + +The attendant brought him a tall glass and poured the soda hissing into +the brandy. Willett drank eagerly, then started for the door. "Come, +then," he called; "the trap's ready--or ought to be." Langston knew it +was not, so temporized. + +"How about Burtis?" he asked. + +"Burtis? Oh, I don't know or care. He can get back just the best way he +knows how. There's an ambulance coming over to town to-night." + +"Well, I think you ought to let him know, Willett." + +"I have. I sent him word by Sanders, whom I just left." + +"Very well, then I'll go with you now. Only stop one minute at Sanders's +so that I can say good-by to him. He goes back to the agency to-morrow, +I believe." + +"Well, he isn't there. He's gone out to pay a call. Jump in." + +But as they drove around the level road towards the northwest gate, and +the long line of officers' quarters lay to their right front, two +officers could be seen in earnest conversation at the front gate of No. +12, the farthest away. + +"There's Sanders now," said Langston. "It won't take you five minutes +out of your own way. Turn over there, won't you?" + +"I can't. I--I've got to hurry, Langston. If you want to see him you can +jump out, and I'll wait for you outside the gate." + +"Well, if you're in a hurry that'll take much more time than if you +drove. I'd have to walk both ways, don't you see?" was the cool answer. +"Never mind, though; go ahead. Who's that with Sanders?" + +Willett, who had turned red with confusion at his own blunder, turned +redder at the question, then went gray again. "That's Lieutenant +Davies," said he, briefly. + +"Oh, then he's home. Why, how I'd like to meet him again! Here--just let +me out, will you? and you go ahead. I'll come back with Burtis." + +"No; come on with me, Langston. I'm in a devil of a fix and want your +advice." + +And as they bowled swiftly along homeward over the smooth, hard, prairie +road, Langston admitted to himself, as Willett falteringly unfolded his +tale, that the young man was indeed "in a devil of a fix,"--in what +Langston, who was an old soldier, found it more descriptive to say, a +damnable fix. He pondered over it a moment and then said, "I don't +understand what you want me to do, Willett," and his tone was very cold. +"I don't see how I can help you. From your own account you have behaved +either like a fool or a blackguard, and what I can't fathom is why +Davies's commanding officer, or some friend or comrade, did not warn you +off weeks ago." + +Now, admitting that in the absence of almost all his comrades in the +field, and that it was distinctly his duty to protect the honor and +interest of his regimental comrade, let us see to what extent Captain +Devers felt disposed to exercise his prerogative and act against this +indisputable wolf in the sheepfold. Precedents he did not lack. +Everybody had heard how Colonel Atherton, of the --th, had served a +would-be gallant whose attentions to a lady of the regiment, during the +prolonged absence of her husband in the field, had become the talk of a +big garrison. Everybody knew how old Tintop, when he made up his mind +that Lieutenant B---- was becoming infatuated with Mrs. Captain +Potiphar, calmly recommended B.'s immediate and indefinite detail at the +Shoshone Agency, an isolated nook in the heart of the Wind River country +where the mails got through only once a week in midwinter and no one but +the mail rider thought of trying to get out. Colonel Pegleg, in the days +of his original wife, had taken a fatherly interest in garrison matters, +and instituted a system of post government that was almost patriarchal, +especially when most of the men were absent in the field, but Mrs. Stone +the second was made of flimsier stuff, and fond of gladness and gayety, +dancing and feasting, and what she termed "an innocent flirtation" was +harmless occupation so long as her own queendom was unimpaired. There +can be no question, however, that she would long since have put her +husband on the trail of this new disturber of the garrison peace but for +the illness that followed Stone's sudden prostration. The command with +its powers having devolved upon Devers, she could do nothing. It is a +hard thing for a man to find himself by reason of illness suddenly +stripped of the robe of command and forced to become only a lay figure, +but it is harder yet to many a woman whose social powers were dependent +mainly upon the rank of her husband to see herself, through his +prostration, suddenly set aside as though of only vicarious consequence. +Naturally, Mrs. Stone could not bear Captain Devers,--few of the women +could,--and it was only through his own wife that the gossip of the +garrison was apt to reach him, and Mrs. Devers had troubles of her own +that seemed to stifle to a great extent her interest in those of her +neighbors. She was neither young nor pretty; she shone not in society +and had no great ambition in that direction. She had seen Mr. Willett's +devotions to Mrs. Davies,--as who had not?--but with only languid +interest. Such things concerned her less than they did those belles of +the active list, who felt themselves thereby defrauded of attentions +that had been quite lavishly, even if impartially, bestowed up to the +time of Mrs. Davies's dawning on the social horizon. Actually, +therefore, Captain Devers was not so much to blame as Langston thought, +for of his own regiment only one officer was present to advise him, and +Hastings's advice, as that officer had long since been informed, would +be asked for when desired. In point of fact only three officers remained +at the post for whose opinions Devers entertained any respect, Leonard, +Rooke, and the chaplain, and he had quarrelled with the first and +second, and treated with indignity the third, so that no one of the +three now felt disposed to confer with him on any subject. This would +not have deterred the chaplain in a matter of duty, however, for that +honest and stalwart soldier of the cross was as ready to battle with +himself as he was to take issue with the devil, but the chaplain had +been absent for long days, and returned only when it was supposed that +Mira would be whisked away to the agency with the Cranstons, and, safe +in Percy's sheltering arms, be beyond the reach of harm or temptation. + +There were other reasons, however, for Devers's inaction, and grave +ones. Ever since the ominous visit of the staff officer from division +head quarters he had felt that the ground was caving beneath his feet. +For years had he been skimming along on the very verge of serious +trouble, yet ever adroitly evading trial; always incurring censure, but +escaping court-martial. One after another he had alienated or betrayed +every commander under whom he had served. One after another he had lost +the respect of every officer with whom he associated, and now he +realized that if the regiment could but settle down somewhere for a few +months, there would speedily follow a crystallization of the sentiment +against him,--a deposit of all this floating mass of testimony now +apparently held in solution, and the true inwardness of the tragedy of +Antelope Springs, the falsity of his insinuations against Davies, the +trickery of his methods, one and all be brought to light. Already, +through Haney, he heard of the sensation created among the men by his +defence of Howard, and of the depth of feeling among the old hands +against this airy upstart recruit, not a year in service, who frequently +boasted that he had more influence with "Cap." than all the rest of +them put together. Haney himself could not cipher out the secret of +Howard's importance, and was plainly and palpably jealous. Ever since +early in the campaign, when young Brannan was pointed out to Devers as +Miss Loomis's patient and as a trooper who wanted to get out of "A" +troop and into "C,"--ever since the colonel and the major began +interfering with Devers because of his open rebuke of Mr. Davies, it was +noticed that Howard, a mere raw recruit, could get the captain's private +ear at almost any time, and those were days when a soldier was not +supposed to address his company commander on any point until he had +first obtained the sanction of the first sergeant. Every man in the +troop knew that soon after their arrival at Scott, Howard began to get +letters from the East, and some of these contained money orders, which +he had cashed in Braska. Some men in the troop, notably that babbling +drunkard Paine, declared that in a little strong box he had brought with +him Howard had some letters tied up in ribbon that he watched with +jealous care. "New hands" who came out in the same batch of recruits +said that at St. Louis Arsenal, whither they were shipped on enlistment, +Brannan, Howard, and Paine had at first been very intimate, but that +some coldness had sprung up and Brannan kept aloof from them. They were +wild and full of "gall," Brannan was sad and sober. Howard used to write +lots of letters then to some girl, Paine said, and go off and post them +in obscure letter-boxes outside the gates when he could get leave, but +he had quit writing long since, Haney knew, for he watched the new +company clerk with jealous eyes. He knew and knew well that Howard was +savagely glad when Brannan was sent to the reservation with Boynton's +party. He noted that Howard became of a sudden fitful, restless, sullen, +and then reckless and negligent of his work and eager to go frequently +to Braska. Presently he heard things of him that made him believe Howard +was contemplating desertion, and no sooner had Lieutenant Davies arrived +than he became assured of it. "I had to serve under that damned, canting +Methodist preacher," said Howard, "and I won't have him nosing around +where I am. I'll desert first." Now, Haney had no objection to Howard's +"skipping,"--it would be good riddance to dangerous timber,--but he +wanted first to find out what was the secret of his dislike of Davies, +whom most of the men, and all the better ones, had learned to respect +and esteem. He plied Howard with questions, hints, suggestions, and +whiskey, but Howard's head, or stomach, was stronger than he thought, +and the liquor failed in the short time at his disposal to overcome it. +With a few months the result would have been different. Howard once +admitted, however, that he hated the lieutenant and had reason to, but +that was all that Haney ever wormed out of him, but he and others were +morally certain that Howard meant to desert when the very day of Paine's +trip to Braska the company clerk disappeared. They counted on his +court-martial and downfall when brought back to the post in "cits" by +Sanders's squad. They were amazed at the abortive outcome of the affair, +and then at last the gang that "had stood in with" the first sergeant as +the surest means of keeping on the right side of the captain began to +realize that here was a man with more "pull" than Haney, and the latter, +feeling his influence going, determined that the time had come to regain +it, cost what it might. He knew beyond peradventure who was the +mysterious night prowler, knew why Captain Devers had ordered Paine to +watch Brannan in hospital, he knew why, or believed he knew why, the +captain was so down on Brannan and so fiercely bent on breaking him or +driving him out. He knew that he could, if he would, lay before Mr. +Leonard certain damaging facts in connection with Brannan's two relapses +into drinking, and of Paine's detail to town that day when he was +needed, as they knew he would be needed, at the adjutant's office. He +required just one or two links more to make a chain so powerful he could +twist his troop commander in its coils and dictate the terms of their +future relations, but he needed Howard's testimony to complete the +chain, and the liquor with which he tempted him, in and out of the +office, at last began to take effect. Howard was getting more and more +reckless, sullen, savage. He would get up at night and drink and dress +and slip out of barracks and be gone an hour sometimes, yet so stealthy +was he that when Haney strove to trail him he turned on him like a tiger +and damned him for a spy, and still the sergeant felt that perseverance +and whiskey would bring him triumph yet, when all on a sudden came the +dramatic episode of that still Saturday night,--the flash that revealed +him for one instant to the frightened revellers in Willett's sleigh and +then covered his track in shadows impenetrable. All on a sudden Howard +had vanished,--deserted in earnest this time, leaving his first +sergeant in a tangle of unfinished toils and his captain in sore +anxiety. It was the contemplation of his own meshes that blinded Devers +to those which Willett would have thrown over Mira's pretty, curly, +empty head. + +The conversation between Sanders and Davies was very brief and decidedly +grave. Sanders had at first assumed the light air of superiority of the +old cadet toward the plebe, and, to head off questioning, plunged into +that species of deprecatory and officious advice which is generally +prefaced by, "Now, my dear boy, let me as a friend," etc., etc. Like the +chaplain's wife, Sanders started with the best intentions, and just as +she had excited Mira's resentment so had Sanders aroused Davies's wrath. + +"Stop right there, Sanders, and say nothing about friendship until you +explain that scene. Where is the packet you were asked to deliver to my +wife?" + +"I haven't it. I wouldn't touch it. You don't suppose I'd be a party to +such a thing. The man was an ass to ask me, and I told him so." + +"He doubtless reasoned that a man who could accompany the wife of a +brother officer to a place of such miscellaneous character as +Cresswell's would not be above carrying secretly to her that which he +dare not send openly." + +"He had no right to judge by it, Davies! Lots of ladies go there,--and +Mrs. Stone matronized us." + +"No ladies of our regiment have ever gone there, Sanders, until you +accompanied my wife,--an inexperienced and ignorant child. What Mrs. +Stone or her associates may have seen fit to do is no concern of mine. +You know and I know that women like Mrs. Cranston, like Mrs. Truman, +like Mrs. Leonard or Mrs. Wright would not go there under any +circumstances, and the fact that a party of women from the fort was in +one room simply served to attract a party of--very different women to +the next." + +"Then I'll bust Cresswell's head for him inside of twenty-four hours," +exclaimed Sanders. "The idea of his daring to allow such people in there +at such a time!" + +"The idea of your not standing my friend--you, the only fellow-graduate +of my regiment here at the post--and preventing my wife's being taken +there at any time. Think of that, Sanders." + +"Why, damn it, Parson, don't be so brutally unjust. I supposed if you +cared a rap you'd have stopped it before." + +"Stopped it before? Why, Sanders, what are you saying? You don't mean +she--my wife--had been there before?" And all the indignation had gone +from Davies's face. It was now white, almost awe-stricken. + +For a moment Sanders knew not what to say. All at once there dawned upon +him the realization that now through him, in this utterly untoward, +clumsy, miserable way, was Davies for the first time being made aware of +what common, every-day rumor said of his wife. He would have cut his +tongue out rather than wilfully put in circulation a word of scandal, +yet it had been reserved for him to bring to a husband's ears the first +ill-omened tidings of a wife's misdoing. + +"God forgive me, Davies, if I've blundered!" he burst out at last. "I'll +never forgive myself. I supposed--they all talked of it so fully--freely +together--I supposed you knew all about it. I never dreamed of harm in +it. Mrs. Flight--or rather Mrs. Darling and she together--occasionally +went there, and the other ladies had their husbands as a rule, or at +least sometimes, and there was good sleighing, you know, between here +and town, and absolutely nowhere else were the roads beaten. They sort +of had to go there, don't you see?" + +"Go there with whom?" said Davies, grasping the rail of the fence and +breathing hard. + +"Why, with Willett, of course; he was the only fellow that had a good +turnout. He used to come for them, I believe, and sometimes he had Mrs. +Darling and Mrs. Davies--he and Burtis--and sometimes Mrs. Flight." + +"And do you mean that they--that these four, went there to Cresswell's? +Do you know this, Sanders?" + +"Well," said Sanders, "they were all talking and laughing about it, +never dreaming of anything harmful or unbecoming. Why, Parson, old man, +you mustn't be too strait-laced out here. You know it's the way of the +West." + +But Davies threw out his hand as though imploring silence, seemed about +to speak again and ask another question, but finally turned without +another word, and leaving Sanders standing dejectedly at the gate, +re-entered his hall and closed the door behind him. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV. + + +That night Dr. Rooke called twice at No. 12, and went away both times +saying opprobrious things about his fellow-men and women. The chaplain, +who had gone over to see Davies about three o'clock, presently went back +for his wife, and that good-hearted woman remained until late at night. +Mrs. Darling coming over in the early evening to congratulate dear Mira +again on her husband's return and invite them both to dinner on the +morrow, was met by Davies himself at the door, but not invited in. Her +sweet smiles and words of greeting and proffers of hospitality were +checked at sight of his stern, sad face. In brief words he told her Mrs. +Davies was too ill to receive callers or accept invitations, and in +response to her flurried "Is there anything in the world I can do?" +coldly answered that Mrs. Darling had already done--too much. + +In her natural and justifiable indignation, Mrs. Darling at once sought +Mrs. Stone and Mrs. Flight. "They had an awful scene, I'm sure," said +she, "for his face was as black as a storm, and I knew how it would be. +Some one's been blabbing and making matters infinitely worse than they +really were. What do you suppose will happen when he and Willett really +meet?" + +"They _have_ met," cried Mrs. Flight, forgetful of her determination to +keep at odds with Mrs. Darling in the bliss of imparting exciting +news,--"they _have_ met at Sanders's quarters, and there must have been +something dreadful, because Willett came out, oh, with such a face! and +went right over to the store and drove off to town. Sanders is all +broken up about something. Flighty says he wouldn't tell anybody." And +by "Flighty" the lady referred to her consort. + +The awful scene of Mrs. Darling's imagination was really not very +tragic. Almira had shut herself in her room in preparation for the +coming visits of the doctor and Mrs. Darling. Her tea-gown being a most +becoming garment, she was still enveloped in its soft and clinging +folds, and had let her long, lustrous hair fall rippling down her back. +She had once seen a queen of the emotional drama similarly gowned and +groomed and a lasting impression was the consequence. The tea-gown and +tumbling hair became Mira's conception of the proper make-up for wronged +and injured and deeply-suffering wifehood. She had prepared to deluge +the doctor with symptoms and Mrs. Darling with tears, but nearly an hour +went by and neither came. Katty was clearing away the luncheon table, +and to her Almira faintly appealed for tidings, and Katty said that the +masther had come in for a minute and walked up and down in the parlor +and gone to the front door himself to meet Mr. Sanders, and they were +talking out in front. When the second time her husband entered the house +she prepared to hide her face and refuse him a word, but he did not come +near her. She heard him pacing up and down, up and down, at first with +quick nervous stride and at last more slowly. Then he seemed to sit at +his desk and write. She could hear him sigh heavily. What business had +he to sigh? She was suffering for lack of sympathy, nursing, tender +care. Why should he sit there sighing in that absurd fashion? She heard +him go to the kitchen and tell Barnickel to take that note to the +chaplain, and then he came back to write some more. She grew impatient, +lonely. She determined to bring him to her side, and if possible to her +feet again. Other men were abject enough; why should she be lorded over +in this way? She threw herself again upon her bed and covered her eyes +with her filmy handkerchief and faintly called "Percy!" As he did not +hear she tried again, louder, and still he did not seem to be at her +door listening for the slightest sign, and she was compelled to sit up +and call loudly, not for him but for Katty. + +And Katty, being out among the pots and pans and kettles, didn't hear +her at all; so Davies went and summoned the girl, instead of going to +Almira himself, as Almira thought he should have done. Presently Katty +came out. The misthress wanted to know was the doctor ever coming--and +Mrs. Darling? Then Davies entered the room and closed the door. + +"Dr. Rooke has not yet returned, Mira," he said. "Mrs. Darling with my +consent will not visit you again until you are experienced enough to +know right from wrong. You never told me of these visits with her to +Cresswell's or I should have forbidden them utterly. It never occurred +to me that you would be tempted to go thither or I should have warned +you. I do not blame you so much, my wife, as I do those who have so +misled you. There are some things I have been told that are past my +understanding, and that when you are well again I shall have to ask you +to explain. Now rest as well as you can. The doctor will come to you +just as soon as he returns to the post. Is there anything I can do to +help you?" + +But Mira burst into a wail. She didn't wish to see anybody--anybody but +the doctor and Mrs. Darling. It was cruel, heartless, brutal on his part +to come in and taunt and torment her when she was so helpless and ill. +It was wicked to cut her off from the only friends she loved or who had +been kind to her. She would have died of loneliness and misery while he +was gone if it hadn't been for Mrs. Darling and for her friends. _His_ +friends hadn't come near her,--hadn't done anything for her, and now he +was angry because, when she was neglected and scorned by them, others +like Mrs. Darling had been good and kind to her. Oh, why couldn't she go +home to her dear old father and the sisters who loved her, and weep her +heart out on her m-m-mother's grave? Davies sadly realized that neither +argument nor appeal would help matters. He heard the chaplain's ring at +the outer door, and went to him with sore-laden heart. Later the two +left the fair invalid to the care of the chaplain's wife and went in +search of Leonard. Boynton, still unable to walk about, was occupying +his old quarters next to the adjutant's, and, propped up in an +easy-chair near the window, caught sight of his comrade, the captor of +Red Dog, and eagerly beckoned him in. Davies had to go and shake hands, +though at the moment he wished that he might avoid almost everybody. + +"Why, Parson, old boy, you can't stand that agency work. It's making an +old man of you now before half your time. You look ten years older. I +hope you're not ill." + +"No, not ill; a little tired and worn perhaps," said Davies. "We were +just going in to see Leonard." + +"Well, I wish you'd fetch him in here the first evening you can. There +are some things that I want to talk over with you two, things that +affect us both. Have you seen Differs?" + +"No, not yet. I'll report to him at guard-mounting in the morning. The +regulations say the first orderly hour, don't they?" + +"Yes,--but you'd better report your arrival to him the moment he comes +out of his house or else go to the office and do it. We've got a bone to +pick with him, Parson, and I don't want you to get into any outside +tangle. I'll be up and about in a couple of days, then we'll settle it +with him." + +For a man who had striven conscientiously to do his duty, it seemed to +Davies, as he rejoined the chaplain, that he had become involved in +tangles enough without seeking new ones. His friend had already rapped +at Leonard's door and been informed that the adjutant was over at his +office, so thither went the two, many eyes following them as they +crossed the broad, brown level of the parade. The snow had disappeared +entirely except in dirty hummocks along the pathways and walks whither +it had been shovelled after the heavy fall. The post looked even less +cheery and attractive than before. The few men moving about had the +listless air of soldiers with nothing to do, going fat and "soft" for +lack of vigorous exercise. Over in front of the colonel's quarters his +sedate bay team was waiting, and presently that veteran, with Mrs. Stone +and Tommy Dot and a striker in attendance, was aided down the steps and +into his open carriage for a drive. + +"Is it not late for them to take him out?" asked Davies. "Why don't they +make an earlier start?" + +"Ordinarily they have done so. To-day, though, he has been having a +conference with your captain; rather an extended and trying one, I +fancy, and not agreeable to either party. Captain Devers was leaving +there as I returned to yours. Davies, my friend, there is a man who is a +veritable Ishmael. His hand seems against every one and every man's hand +against him. You could never have wronged him,--what on earth has set +him against you?" + +"Indeed," was the earnest answer, "I do not know;" and then, solemnly, +Davies added, "Trouble seems the lot of many of us, yet even in one's +saddest hour it is impossible not to feel sorrow and pity for one like +him, who stands before his fellows an utterly friendless man." + +The adjutant rose with an eager light in his dark eyes at sight of the +two. "I have been hoping to see you, Davies," said he, "yet I knew you +would have much to detain you at home. Mrs. Davies is better, I hope?" + +"Mrs. Davies is not well, but I think the matter is not serious. I came +first to report my arrival from the reservation. Mrs. Davies will go +there with me just as soon as we can pack. Then the chaplain and I want +to consult you personally about some important matters. Have you a spare +half-hour?" + +"Frankly, Davies, I haven't, and won't have until tattoo. There are some +reports here that will occupy me pretty much every minute. Is it +business that can wait until then?" + +"It will have to," said Davies. + +"Then let me get at once to the reason of my desiring to see you before +to-night. Captain Devers has been called upon by department +head-quarters to explain some discrepancies in an official report or +two, and I was present at the long interview between him and the colonel +this afternoon. Davies, have you ever seen a map or sketch of that +ground north of Antelope Springs where you had your adventure last +September?" + +"No," said Davies, wondering. + +"Then I want you to look at this, compare it with your recollections, +and tell me how accurate it is, especially as to the tracing of the +trails of the various parties." + +The short winter day was already waning and the light in the dingy +office growing dim. Leonard called for candles, then stretched a huge +white blotter upon a wide-topped stand and spread open upon it the filmy +sheet of tracing paper. An almost exact copy of Devers's map was thrown +into bold, black relief, and for the first time Percy Davies saw the +plan on which was based the report that, exonerating his captain, +inferentially held him accountable for the massacre of his comrades at +Antelope Springs. + +"Why! when was this made?" he asked, in grave surprise. "Whose work is +this?" + +"It was made while you were lying ill at Cranston's up at the old post," +said Leonard, calmly. "Had you never heard of the investigation?" + +"Never." + +"The general sent Mr. Archer of his staff up there to go over the ground +with Devers and let him explain, if he could, why he got so far away +from you and your people as to permit that tragedy to occur, especially +after the orders he'd received from Major Warren. Devers cleared himself +by proving to Archer's satisfaction that he obeyed his orders exactly +and marched right along the ridge here. This trail, the one that runs +due south, just west of the summit of the divide, was made by Devers's +main command moving in support of you and your detachment. This one off +here"--and Leonard's pencil rode lightly along another that skirted a +ravine apparently two miles away from the ridge--"this one was made by +his command the next day after you had been found by Warren's men," and +Leonard was narrowly eying Davies as he spoke. + +"Pardon me, Mr. Leonard, it was just the other way," said Davies, +assuming that the adjutant in his personal ignorance of the facts was +stating a theory. "Captain Devers never approached the ridge that +evening. He was going farther away from it all the time. I had to gallop +to catch him. This, out here to the southwest, is what might be called +an approximation to his trail. I finally overtook him away out over here +somewhere, across the ravine," and Davies indicated with the point of a +pencil. + +"Well, then who made this trail up here on the ridge? You must have +crossed it twice before dark." + +"There was no such trail there, sir, nor was there any party to make it. +Everything in the battalion except my own little squad was away off to +the southwest, anywhere from two to ten miles." + +"You could swear to that, Davies? You remember it distinctly--despite +your illness?" + +"Swear to it? Certainly, sir," said Davies, with wonderment in his eyes. +"So could McGrath, who was with me, if he were only alive. So could +Devers himself, or Haney, or Finucane, or a dozen others of the command +who must know that wasn't their trail." + +"I fear me, Davies," said Leonard, gravely, "that some of the very men +you name have told it, if not sworn to it, the other way, and that your +captain has allowed it to be accepted as the basis of his release from +accountability." + +In the gloomy office the darkness was gathering thicker. At the head of +the table, his coat thrown over his arm, his hat in his folded hands, +stood the strong figure of the chaplain, his thoughtful brow shining in +the light of the candles the clerks had placed upon the board. His was +the first face to be seen by one entering the room from the hall-way, or +peering in at the window, for the figures of Leonard and Davies, their +backs to the entrance, were thrown in black silhouette against the +glare; but as Leonard spoke the two who had been bending over the work +drew slightly apart and gazed silently, significantly, into each other's +faces, Leonard calm, massive, masterful, Davies searching, questioning, +the light of a new and grave suspicion in his troubled eyes. + +And looking on this picture,--on this triumvirate,--there stood on the +porch without, close to the uncurtained window, a fourth form, heavy, +massive almost as Leonard's, but far less soldierly. Then noiselessly +this latter turned to the hall-way, and with cautious step drew near the +open office door; the heavy arctics, which it was Devers's habit to wear +so long as the weather was even moderately cold, deadened the sound of +his footfalls, and now with beating heart the troop commander stood +listening to what he could catch of the conversation within. + +"It is absolutely false and misleading," said Davies, "and if it has +been used, as you say, to clear him or anybody else, it should be +exposed at once." + +"That," said the adjutant, in his deep, deliberate tone, "is precisely +what I believe, but needed your evidence to establish. Now you will +excuse me from further talk about this or anything else until, say, +after office hours to-morrow morning. I have much to attend to. If you +and the chaplain will meet me at ten o'clock, we can settle various +matters. Meantime I'll lock these papers in my desk." Across the dim +hall-way, as the two friends left the office, stood the door of the +sanctum of the post commander. It was just ajar, but there was no light +beyond, and to all appearances the room was as deserted as it was dark. +Rooke was just coming out of No. 12 as they returned thither. + +"I'm glad you're home, Mr. Davies, and I'll be gladder when you've got +that pretty little bunch of nerves and nonsense off my hands and off +this military reservation." + +"She will be well enough to travel--when?" asked Davies, as placidly as +he could. Even when the wife of one's bosom has been behaving +outrageously it isn't pleasant to hear it from one's neighbors, +unasked. + +"She could go to-morrow and be the better for it," said Rooke, bluntly. +"What she needs is a firm hand and a change of scene--and surroundings. +We're too volatile hereabouts." And this it seems was practically what +he had told Almira herself, much to her scandal and dismay. She +piteously asked why she couldn't see Dr. Burroughs; and was unfeelingly +told that there was no reason whatever, provided she started to-morrow; +that he was at Ogallalla and would be very glad to see her. "Once up +there," said the old cynic, "you can have Burroughs and lollipops to +your heart's content." + +"Oh, doctor, but think of the peril, the danger," she moaned. + +"Tut, woman, you'll be in no such danger there as here," he answered +brusquely; and Davies found her weeping dejectedly, but weeping to no +purpose. When morning came Barnickel and Katty were boxing up the lares +and penates, and toward nightfall Mira herself was meekly, though not +resignedly, bearing a hand. This indeed was not what she had pictured +army life to be. Davies and the chaplain were to have joined Leonard as +planned at ten o'clock. At nine the orderly came to the door of No. 12, +and said that Mr. Leonard would be very much obliged if Mr. Davies would +come to the office at once, and Davies went. Colonel Stone, as had been +arranged, was once more restored to his desk in the office, and though +looking gray and ten years older, was "on deck." He was absorbed in +turning over some official papers, so Davies did not disturb him. He +went into Leonard's den. The officer of the day was comparing the list +of prisoners in the guard report with some memoranda on the adjutant's +desk, but presently finished, shook hands with Davies and said welcome +back to Scott, then went his way. + +The moment he was gone Leonard whirled about in his chair. "Davies, you +remember our locking those papers in this drawer last night?" + +"Certainly." + +"Well, look at it now, and as I found it ten minutes ago." + +The drawer was absolutely empty. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV. + + +The closing week of March was marked by a furious snow-storm that swept +the big prairie like a besom, but plugged up every _coulee_ and ravine. +For four days no communication had been held with the Ogallalla Agency. +The wires were down, the road impassable, and Mrs. Davies had reached +her new harbor of refuge none too soon. The quartermaster's ambulance +bore the couple half-way to the new station, and Cranston's Concord came +to meet and carry them the rest of the way. Mira's parting with her +devoted lady friends at Scott was cut short by a start at early dawn, +against which she rebelled faintly, but to no purpose. It had taken only +two days to pack their few belongings. They spent the last night of +their stay in Scott under Leonard's roof, and Mrs. Leonard did her best +to cheer and gladden the mournful bride. It was of little avail, +however. Almira was dimly beginning to see that her conduct had cost her +the respect of those women most worth knowing, and that although the +dreaded interrogatories which Percy was to put to her as soon as she was +stronger were still in the future, his faith in and love for her, +whatsover they might have been, were seriously shattered. In manner he +was still grave, kind, and gentle almost as before, but everything like +tenderness had vanished. One question he said he must ask her before +they left Scott. Had she ever accepted any gifts or letters or anything +from Mr. Willett? And Almira answered that once he had sent her just a +few violets with a note inviting Mrs. Darling and her to drive with him +the next day, but she had tossed them into the fire long ago. Nothing +more, nothing else at any time? asked Davies, gravely, and Almira +answered no. How could he torment her with such unjust suspicions? Far +better would it be to let her return to the father and sisters who +longed for and missed her, to her peaceful home where down in the bottom +of her heart Mira knew she was not wanted by either father or sisters or +step-mother. Davies looked graver, but questioned no longer. The day +before their start Mr. Langston came out from Braska and inquired for +Davies, and told him how glad he was to renew his acquaintance, and +Davies greeted him with much reserve. This was the man who was +travelling with Willett the June gone by, and just as it had at first +affected Miss Loomis, so did the recollection now prejudice the officer +against him. Langston saw it, but went quietly on with the business in +hand. + +"I am the bearer of a note to you from Mr. Willett, whose people, at +least, are old friends of mine. He has gone home, at my advice, and it +will be against my advice if he return here within a year. If he should +do so, I wash my hands of him. It is not to make excuses for him or +Burtis that I have come, but to ask you about one matter. On his way +back to the agency your comrade Mr. Sanders came to town and heaped +reproaches on Willett and on the proprietor of the restaurant, alleging +that certain disreputable people were allowed to occupy the adjoining +dining-room while the party from the fort was dancing. Cresswell was +very indignant at the charge. He says that the party in the adjoining +room was the family of old Pierre Robideau, from Kearney,--just himself, +his wife and daughter, with a friend whom they called Mr. Powell, and it +was Mr. Powell who paid the bill. + +"Robideau is an old trader and trapper, but he and his people are honest +and respectable as any in Braska, and the young man with them was +supposed to be paying attention to the daughter. Robideau and his family +went back to Kearney that night after a week's visit to friends up here +in Braska. The daughter, Angie, had been here some time visiting a +school friend. We feel sure you have made no such statement to Mr. +Sanders without some strong ground of suspicion. May I ask how you heard +it so soon after your arrival?" + +"I heard it before I got here," said Davies, quietly, "though when it +was told me I had no idea my wife was one of the party. My orderly was +cold and tired and we stopped at the Scott station at the point where +the road crosses the railway to give him a cup of coffee and water the +horses. There were some trappers and plainsmen in there, and one of them +was telling with much gusto of the performances of a soldier of our +troop who deserted that night,--how he had chartered the adjoining room +to that in which the officers and ladies were dancing and had a whirl to +the officers' music with some ladies of his own choosing, and the girls +lassoed a waiter and hauled him into their room and got a bottle of the +officers' champagne----" + +"Pardon me, Mr. Davies, but do not these plainsmen rather like to tell +big stories at the expense of the officers,--the bigger the better?" + +"I believe so, and paid little attention to it at first, but among the +listeners was a scout who went through last summer's campaign with us +and did good service. He rode over to the post with me, and on the way +we met a sergeant and two men of 'A' Troop, returning from an +unsuccessful pursuit of deserters. They told the same story with some +additions, and said the fellow openly boasted in Braska that afternoon +that he was going to the dance. Then the scout admitted reluctantly that +he had heard the story from several sources, and gave the names of the +women who were said to have been introduced there, and they were not +Robideau's family. The sergeant had heard just what the scout had as to +the identity of the intruders. Then on my arrival at home I learned that +Mrs. Davies was one of the fort party, and Mrs. Stone and other ladies +who were present referred to some rude creatures in a neighboring room +who peeped and stared at the dancing. There was also awaiting me with my +mail an anonymous letter, which I burned without reading through. Next +I learned that the man who frightened them on the homeward way and then +deserted after a fracas with Mr. Willett was Howard, of 'A' Troop, and +that man's associations in town are matters of notoriety. That was the +chain that led to my belief in the story." + +Langston looked grave. "And Howard was probably Robideau's friend, +though Cresswell didn't know it! He had been paying court to Robideau's +daughter during her visit to Braska, always in civilian dress and always +claiming to be a civilian clerk in the quartermaster's department with a +salary of twelve hundred a year. I have seen her friends in town where +she visited, and they are very plain, honest, and well-to-do people, +whose daughter was sent to Illinois to school and met Angeline Robideau +there. They had another friend living in Cheyenne, and when they were up +there visiting her for a few days they said Mr. Powell was coming up to +spend one evening,--Powell is the name they all knew him by, and the +belief is that Angie was much fascinated by him, and had met him East +before meeting him here. Mr. Davies, I am glad to relieve your mind of +one uncomfortable theory in connection with this affair. I wish I could +extenuate or explain Willett's conduct as easily, but that young man is +a fool of the first magnitude." + +Davies had taken the note handed him by Langston and was mechanically +turning it and twisting it in his fingers. His impulse was to toss it, +as he had the anonymous billet, into the fire. There was something about +the handwriting of the former that was vaguely familiar to him even +through its disguise, but Willett's scrawling superscription he had +never seen. Something told him, however, that anything of which a man of +Langston's calibre chose to be the bearer was entitled to consideration. +He made no reply to Langston's closing words. He had fully made up his +mind as to what his course should be, and what was the extent of Mira's +misdoing. Just as he said to her, he blamed those who should have been +her advisers and protectors far more than he blamed her, and as to this +popinjay who had become infatuated with her beauty, though the +lieutenant's blood boiled in wrath and indignation, his calmer judgment +and his disciplined spirit tempered any and every expression. He had +spent long, wakeful, prayerful hours in the silence and solemnity of the +night, and no man knew the story of the struggle. He had trained himself +to meet this man who had so openly and persistently shown himself a +worshipper at the feet of his wife, and to meet him with cool contempt, +yet the same hot blood that rioted in his veins when, long years before, +he had downed the village scoffer who had ventured to ridicule his aged +mother, now prompted him to horsewhip Willett should he venture again to +visit the fort. + +It was relief, therefore, to hear that he had gone. + +At last he opened and read the note, a clumsy, cubbish attempt to +explain his language in Sanders's room, and to say the package was +absolutely nothing but some violets, to apologize for any and every +annoyance he might have caused Mr. and Mrs. Davies, for whom he +entertained nothing but sentiments of the most profound respect and +esteem, and begging if ever they met again to be regarded as most +sincerely their friend, etc. + +"There is no answer," said Davies, as he finished it, a smile of +contempt on his lips. "You must have known there couldn't be, did you +not?" + +"Well, I fancied as much. He had no friend to carry it for him unless I +would, and the young idiot has gone off feeling profoundly wretched +about the whole business, as he deserves to. Had I been here, as an old +friend of his family, it would have been my right to warn him weeks ago, +and to put a stop to his foolishness if he was not to be advised. More +than that, Mr. Davies, I wish to say that ever since I met you on the +train last June I felt an interest in you that would have prompted me to +stand your friend in your absence whether I felt any interest in him or +not. I should like to know you better and to convince you that I meant +what I said when we parted there." + +And Davies at last held out a cordial hand. + +This was the afternoon before his early start, and though he left the +post feeling that he had gained a friend worth having, Davies did not +fully realize how dangerous a thing it was to leave a community of +women, none of whom he had sought to placate and some of whom he had +offended. Mrs. Darling had declared war against him, and Mrs. Stone, if +not Mrs. Flight, was in full sympathy with her. How dare he say they +were responsible for Mrs. Davies's flirtation? How dare he insinuate +that they had led her to the forbidden shades of Cresswell's? There was +a tempest in a teapot among Mrs. Stone's friends and associates over +Mrs. Darling's account of his rebuke to her, for Mrs. Darling had +deftly managed to include Mrs. Stone and Mrs. Flight in the scope of his +condemnation, and very possibly old Peleg might have been wrought up to +pitch of sympathetic resentment but for the fact that he was +concentrating all of his shattered faculties on the mysterious robbery +of the adjutant's desk. + +Captain Devers, relieved at last from command of the post and +overshadowed by vague sense of official condemnation, was now, in +hopeful imitation of the Homeric Achilles, sulking in his tent. Invited +by Colonel Stone to appear at the office and give his counsel as to the +matter, Captain Devers had replied that in view of the discourtesies to +which he had been subjected at the hands of the adjutant he could hardly +be expected to care to visit the building except when compelled to do +so, and having been relieved from command under circumstances indicative +of disapproval of his methods, he should consider it indelicate on his +part to say what he thought of the matter in question. + +But the orderly trumpeter had told the sergeant-major that Captain +Devers was on the piazza looking in the adjutant's window when the +gentlemen were there examining the map, and that he entered the +hall-way. The sergeant-major told Mr. Leonard, and Leonard was actually +startled. He conveyed the information to Pegleg, and Pegleg sent his +compliments to Captain Devers with the information that his immediate +presence was desired, so Devers came, and shrewdly guessed what was the +cause. Certainly, he said, he went to the office to get certain papers +that he had left in the commanding officer's desk. He did look in for +one instant through the adjutant's window, attracted by the unusual +sight of the adjutant, the chaplain, and his own subaltern, of whose +services he had been deprived, in apparent consultation. They were so +absorbed in talk that they did not hear him as he entered his own office +or when he left. Certainly he lit no candle; he needed none. He knew +just where his papers were, got them, and came away. Did he leave before +or after the others? Really, that was a matter he couldn't answer. He +was absorbed in his own reflections when he came out and couldn't say +whether the other gentlemen were there or not. + +Pegleg asked whether he had any theory as to the disappearance of the +batch of papers from Leonard's desk, and Devers said he had none +whatever, he didn't know how the matter could be supposed to interest +him. He did not inquire the means resorted to, but perhaps that was +unnecessary, as the drawer had evidently been forced by a heavy chisel +and the woodwork about the lock was crushed. Leonard glowered at him +with stormy eyes during the brief interview but, true to his notions of +subordination, asked no questions whatever. It was the colonel who +presently gave it up as a hopeless job and dismissed the cavalryman with +a brief, "Well, that will do, captain; I see you can't help us," and +Devers left with livid, twitching face. He had no fear of Stone, +weakened as he evidently was both physically and mentally by his recent +shock. It was that silent, gloomy thunder-cloud of an adjutant he +dreaded, and with good reason. There was an unsettled account between +these men and one that Devers would have been glad indeed to drop, but +Leonard was a man who never let go. "I hate to have you leave just now," +he said to Davies, "for I know we shall need you presently." + +But once more there was a week of no communication with the Ogallalla +agency. Three days of blizzard and three of repairs before the flimsy +telegraph line could be used again. Mrs. Davies, busily occupied in +putting her new house in order, was aided by Mrs. McPhail and one of the +ladies from the cantonment, who, happening to be visiting the agent's +wife when the storm broke, found it pleasanter to remain there than go +back to the log huts across that mile of blast-swept prairie. The +Indians, with the stoicism of their race, huddled in their foul, smoky +tepees instead of swarming about the agency, and except Davies's +detachment none of the command appeared. It was therefore a rather busy +time for Mira, as there was abundant opportunity for conversation, and +both Mrs. McPhail and Mrs. Plodder rejoiced in so interested a listener. +The three seemed to be getting along together famously, a fact which +Davies noted with the same half-dreamy, half-amused smile. It was a +relief in seeing her really interested in setting her little house to +rights, but it was as evidently a relief to her that the otherwise +inevitable visitors were blockaded by the storm. Davies really did not +know which she dreaded most, the Cranstons or the Indians. + +It was the latter who were the first to call. The gale went down with +the sun one night, and the morning dawned clear and fine. Up with the +sun, true to his cavalry teaching, Davies had been out superintending +the grooming and feeding of his horses. He and Mira were at breakfast +and Mrs. Plodder had come to help. Trooper Gaffney was the household +cook for the time being, and a good one. The coffee was excellent, +despite the fact that Gaffney could get no cream, and condensed milk was +the only substitute obtainable. The steak was juicy and tender, as the +finest of the contractor's beef was sure to go to the agency itself, and +Gaffney's soda biscuits were enticing, whatsoever might be the +after-effect. The two ladies were chatting in very good spirits when one +considers the depths of woe from which Mira had so recently emerged, and +the lieutenant was beginning to take some comfort in the outlook, when +all on a sudden Mira turned a chalky white, screamed violently, and +cowered almost under the table, her face hidden in her hands. Davies's +instant thought was of the repeated whisper of warning that came to him +regarding Red Dog, but Mrs. Plodder's merry peal of laughter reassured +him, as he whirled to confront what proved to be the foe. There on the +porch without, crouching low, shading their eyes with their broad brown +paws, their painted faces almost flattened against the window, three +Indians, a brave and two squaws,--all innocent of any violation of +etiquette or decorum, but just as their kith and kin and instincts +taught them,--were staring hungrily into the room. To Eastern readers it +would have seemed bare, homely, plain in the last degree; to the +untutored minds of these children of the prairie it spoke of wealth, +luxury, and plenty. Peering over the shoulders of one of the squaws, +from its perch on her toil-bowed back, was a wee pappoose, its beady +little black eyes gleaming, its tiny face expressive of emotions that +in later years it would speedily learn to suppress,--wonderment and +interest. A thinly-clad girl of five or six clung to the mother with one +hand and clutched her little blanket with the other. They all looked +cold and hungry, and the big eyes wore that dumb, professionally +pathetic look which these born beggars are adepts in assuming. + +"Go 'way! Scat!" called Mrs. Plodder, with appropriate gesticulation as +she waved them aside. "You're darkening the room." But for answer the +visitors only huddled the closer and mournfully patted and rubbed the +region of their stomachs. Davies, laughing, went to the door and called +them in, which signal they promptly obeyed, and came trooping smilingly +after the stalking warrior, who took the lead as he would have taken +anything else. Mira by this time had backed into a corner, where she +cowered in terror, but Mrs. Plodder laughingly shook hands with the man +as Davies passed them in, and then blockaded him in an opposite corner +where he could not lay hands on anything they might give the squaws and +children. He wanted to shake hands with Mira, too, but she implored them +to keep him away. Davies took the little girl by the arm and led her to +his wife. "Do look at her, dear, and see what a pretty, intelligent face +she has. I want you to know how really friendly they mean to be." And +still Mira shrank and trembled. The younger woman was a Minneconjou +girl, with frank, attractive, almost pretty face. She dropped her +blanket from her head and let it fall about her calico-covered +shoulders, smiling affably about her, but eying the breakfast things +appreciatively. Davies held out a lump of sugar to the baby, which that +embryo warrior grasped eagerly and thrust into his ready maw, and then +buttering one of Gaffney's biscuits and calling for a fresh supply, the +lieutenant, with Mrs. Plodder lending active aid, began feeding their +unbidden guests. Gaffney came in with a heaping platter of his +productions and a pitcher of maple syrup. "This is what they like, mum," +said he to the lady of the house. "Give that little kid a molasses +sandwhich and she'll be your friend for life. Heap walk? heap hungry?" +he continued, addressing the head of the family, in sympathetic tone. + +"Heap walk--plenty heap hungry," was the warrior's prompt response, with +appropriate pantomime and immediate lapse of dignity. Mrs. Plodder had +cut off a big slice of the steak and handed it to the mother with +reassuring gesture, but that well-disciplined wife passed it immediately +on to her lord, and in eloquent silence pleaded with open hand and eyes +for more. "The heathens!" exclaimed Mrs. Plodder. "We'd cure them of +that notion in no time, wouldn't we, Mrs. Davies?" But Mira was watching +the Minneconjou maiden, forgetful even of the adulation in the eyes of +the little five-year-old girl now licking the syrup off her slab of +soldier bread and gazing adoringly up into the shrinking donor's face. +Miss Minneconjou had caught sight of her own winsome face in a mirror +that hung in a stained-wood frame opposite Mira's seat, and with no +little shy giggling was revelling in the study of her charms even while +busily munching the big biscuit in her slender brown hand. Here was a +trait that formed a bond of sympathy, and Mira took courage. It is not +the contemplation of their nobler qualities, but their weaknesses, that +puts us on easy terms with our fellow-men. Breakfast promised to last a +long time. Gaffney, with the adaptability of the trooper of years of +service on the frontier, had been worming something of their visitors' +story out of them. The average Indian never wants to tell his name, but +gets a friend to give it for him. It proved, however, to be +Bear-Rides-Double who, with his wife, sister, and little ones, had +honored them with this early visit, and after riding double long years +among his people, this young chief had come afoot long miles to see the +Great Father's man and lodge a complaint. He had actually walked from +the Minneconjou village, five thousand yards away down-stream. But for +the chance of making a theatrical _coup_ Bear-Rides-Double could easily +have borrowed a pony, even though his own were gone to pay a poker debt +incurred within thirty-six hours, and when he waked up the morning after +the protracted play he found that Pulls Hard and the half-breed "squaw +man" with whom he had been gambling had not only played him with cogged +dice, but plied him with drugged liquor, and then gone off with his war +ponies as well as the rest. He wanted the Great Father to redress his +wrongs, recover his stock, and give him another show with straight +cards, and then he'd show Pulls Hard and Sioux Pete a trick or two of +his own. Davies had proffered chairs during this recital, which Gaffney +managed between the sign language and a species of "pidgin English," +called "soldier Sioux," to interpret for him, but the family preferred +to squat on the floor. Mrs. Plodder, tiring of the diplomatic features, +took Miss Minneconjou into Mira's room to show her the pretty gifts the +pale-face bride had brought with her, and Mira, with her five-year-old +friend toddling alongside, speedily followed. Davies strove to make the +double equestrian understand that he had no authority in the premises, +and that McPhail was the proper person to apply to, but the warrior +wished to deal only with his kind,--a heap brave chief,--the conqueror +of the redoubtable Red Dog. He could get more to eat through him in any +event, and in the midst of it all Gaffney came in from a brief visit to +his kitchen to say that Sioux Pete, the malefactor in question, was +actually in the corral at that moment trying to sell two ponies to the +sergeant of the guard. Leaving Gaffney to the duty of entertaining his +guests, Davies went out to investigate. Pete had come over from Red +Dog's camp with some of his plunder, and had no idea the complainant had +forestalled him. Pete spoke English,--that is, plains English,--but he +shrank a little at sight of the tall, grave-faced young officer of whom +Red Dog's people spoke with bated breath. + +"You want how much for these ponies?" asked the lieutenant, as though he +had heard the talk. + +"Tirty dollar." + +"Where are the others?" + +"No got." + +"You rode off with four ponies from the lodge of Bear-Rides-Double two +nights ago. Where are the other two?" + +Pete turned sickly gray. Could this white-faced soldier read visions +and dreams and thoughts? Was he a medicine-man? + +"No got," he sullenly answered once more. + +"You will leave these two with me for safe-keeping," said Davies, "and +go and fetch the others at once, even if you have to take them from +Pulls Hard, and get back here with them at noon without fail. No, you +need not appeal to the agent, or I'll tell him that you loaded Bear with +drugged liquor and marked cards and cogged dice. Off with you, Pete," he +continued, and the half-breed rode away on his Cayuse pony with scared +face, and told in the camp of Red Dog that the young chief Davies was a +seer, a mind-reader as well as a brave who feared not to grapple their +war chief; and when he was gone, Bear-Rides-Double was summoned and +bidden to ride double if he could, but to go and sin no more with cogged +dice, and the Minneconjou looked with evident awe and wonderment upon +the grave, reticent cavalryman, and went away homeward on one of the +recovered ponies, his women-folk, laden with Mira's discarded finery and +leading the other, trudging contentedly along behind him afoot. + +"You'll be a heap bigger man among the Indians than the agent can ever +hope to be, lieutenant," said Gaffney, with an Irish grin. + +But Davies said nothing. Had he overstepped his authority? Would McPhail +approve? The point was soon settled. Through the hangers-on about the +store McPhail heard rumors flitting like lightning among the villages. +The young officer was a medicine-man, a mind-reader, and far and wide +the Indians spoke of him in fear and reverence. It might be a good +thing, said the canny Scot, to back him up and reap the benefit. "Just +so long as I can keep him here in charge of the guard we can run things +to suit ourselves, for no red-skin will dare buck against him." + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI. + + +For nearly a fortnight there was sunshine at the agency,--sunshine and +prosperity, and then came manifestation of that pride which goeth before +destruction. Because there were more of the Ogallalla tribe than of +others herded there when originally established the agency on the +Chasing Water had been given this name, but after the stirring events of +the winter and the revolt of Red Dog, it happened that rather more of +the Minneconjou and not a few of the Uncapapa backsliders were gathered +among the grimy tepees. Two Lance and his people, having made their way +to the fold of Spotted Tail, were permitted to abide with him as a +result of the earnest plea made in their behalf by the general in +command of the department. Young-Man-Afraid-of-His-Horses and some other +chiefs of the wiser--the peace element, had also been transferred, and +such Brules as remained under the wing of McPhail were of the class old +Spot denounced as "devil-dreamers," men who would stir up a row in any +community, men he wouldn't entertain among the lodges of his people. The +Uncapapas were of Sitting Bull's own tribe, malcontents almost to a +man, "mouth-fighters" who, like some recent exponents of Southern +oratory, were far more conspicuous after than during the battle days, +and between these breeders of devilment and the renegade Brules, there +lay the village of Red Dog's reviving band,--three gangs of aboriginal +jail-birds who looked upon Red Dog's release as virtual confession on +part of the White Father that he dare not keep him, and they were only +waiting until the grass sprouted and their ponies could wax fat and +strong to take the war-path for another summer, and take all they could +carry with them when they did it. April had come. The last vestiges of +ice and snow were slipping away out of the broad, sun-kissed valley. Up +at the cantonments a stalwart infantry major had a battalion of the +Fortieth out along the prairie slopes for over two hours every morning, +drilling, drilling, drilling, until officers and men came +double-quicking in at 11.30, exuding profanity and perspiration from +every pore, but owning up to it, after a rub down and a rest and a +hearty dinner, that old Alex was a boss soldier who knew how to take the +conceit out of the cavalry, even if he did nearly have to run his +bandy-legs off, and the lean shanks of his men, in doing it. The cavalry +major was far less energetic. He sent his troops out under their +respective chiefs, and ambled around among them after a while making +audible comment to this captain and that, but never drawing sabre +himself. Cranston had a capital troop and was a born cavalryman who +needed neither coach nor spur and there were others nearly as good as +he, but each worked on his own system, whereas the doughboys pulled +together. Not to be outdone, Davies laid out a riding-school back of +the agency corral, and every day had his detachment out for a vigorous +mounted gymnastic drill as well as another at platoon exercise. He was +wiry, athletic, and an enthusiastic teacher, and presently it was noted +that the Indians, who for a time hovered impartially all over the +prairies and slopes, watching the manoeuvres of the soldiers, began +gathering in daily augmenting crowds about the agency grounds, +frequently applauding the leaping and hurdling, but only too readily +jeering the awkwardness of some of the men in mounting and dismounting +at the gallop, a thing they had learned and practised since early +boyhood. Then Cranston and the other troop leaders got to working down +toward the agency and, during the rests, moving close up to the corral +and watching the riding-school. It was capital work, said Cranston and +his contemporaries, though some jealous youngsters used to say to their +cynical selves that Parson probably "put up a prayer-meeting as a +stand-off." McPhail and his people began to come out and look on, and +Mira to watch from the window, for she still trembled and shrank at +sight of the savage painted faces and glittering eyes of the Indians, +and equally shrank from meeting the Cranstons. But presently Mrs. +Cranston and other women came driving over in their ambulances, the +generic term by which army carriages were known in the days when a +provident Congress first began curtailing the transportation facilities +of the line where, _sous entendu_, all great reformatory experiments +were tried, the staff being, of course, beyond even congressional +suspicion, and so it resulted that about eleven o'clock every fine day +the biggest gathering of the people, red and white, in all the broad +valley of the Chasing Water, as far east as its confluence with the +shadowy Niobrara and thence to the shores of the Big Muddy, was that to +be found about the rectangular space where the Parson held forth to his +faithful squad. + +Now, McPhail came back to his recaptured children with conciliation for +his watchword, willing, eager to shake hands with one and all from Red +Dog down, or up, according to the proper plane of that warrior on the +scale of merit; but as he noted the humility of bearing exhibited by all +except a truculent few, and the evident awe with which even these looked +upon the stern and taciturn commander of his guard, the agent began, +like Mulvaney after his fifth drink, "to think scornful av elephints," +in other words, of the red wards of his bailiwick, and with McPhail to +"think scornful" was to act. Just in proportion as he was meek and +cringing before did he become arrogant and abusive now. There was no +Boynton on hand to warn him with what he termed brutal bluntness that he +was tempting Providence again. Even the worm will turn, and the +difference between the worm and the Indian is that one can anticipate +the former and prepare for the blow. Up to the 10th of April Red Dog had +held himself haughtily apart from the whites--agent, officers, troops, +and all, but there were half-breeds and scouts who warned them that the +humiliation of his capture still rankled in his bosom, and that a mad +thirst for revenge possessed him. "Watch him as you would a snake," said +old Spotted Tail himself, when he came down to visit the agency. "He +never sleeps without dreaming of vengeance." The agent told Davies what +the loyal old chief had said, and Davies looked grave, but made no +reply. He was thinking, however, of Mira's danger. Indians could not be +put under bonds to keep the peace, however: the Bureau's system being to +let them kill first and explain afterwards. It wasn't pleasing to the +relatives of the deceased or even to the army, but what were they among +so many?--the millions of Indian sympathizers dwelling at discreet +distance. + +One morning half a dozen ladies drove down from the cantonment, and +their wagons were ranged up close alongside the rail near the high +hurdle. Around them were thickly clustered a number of squaws and +children and a few Indian boys, though most of the men, old or young, +kept to their ponies around on the south and east sides. McPhail came +out later with his household, and really was not unprepared to find his +usual place, on a little raised platform, pre-empted by a score of +blanketed "reds." Mac had some odd views. He couldn't understand why the +soldiers should not be made to salute him as they did their own +officers, who, having occasionally to report to him for instructions, +might be considered as his inferiors. He liked to impress the ladies of +the cantonment with the extent of his power and authority, and had more +than once interrupted the proceedings in the ring by loudly-shouted +orders to some of the Indians on the other side. This annoyed Davies, +but he said nothing. McPhail spoke of the detachment as "My guard," +etc., and once or twice in the presence of the army ladies had +addressed Davies in the crisp, curt tone of the superior officer, or +such imitation of it as he was enabled to compass, and this, too, the +young man had suffered without remark, though with a quiet smile. Seeing +the swarm of Indians on McPhail's platform, Mrs. Cranston and Miss +Loomis presently called to him to bring Mrs. McPhail to a seat in their +wagon, but the agent sprang up on the flimsy structure, sharply ordering +off the Indians right and left, and emphasizing his order with his boot +toes. Mac's twelve-year-old son, taking the cue from his father, +proceeded to deliver a vicious kick at a slowly-moving, blanketed form, +and the very next instant was screaming for help, flat on his back among +a swarm of Indian boys. All in a second the little savage had flashed +out of his blanket like lightning from a black cloud, and, grappling, +had hurled McPhail junior to earth. The agent made a furious lunge to +the rescue of his first-born, and the squaws and young girls scattered +shrieking at his charge. Startled and excited, the horses of Cranston's +wagon whirled sharply around, nearly capsizing the vehicle. Other horses +followed suit despite the efforts of their drivers, and in less than a +moment all the young braves on the opposite side came lashing their +ponies at mad gallop around the long rectangle just as McPhail +reappeared on the platform, bringing captive a furiously struggling +Indian boy screaming with rage and yelling for help. In less than that +moment too, it seemed, Percy Davies had leaped his horse over the +breast-high barrier and spurred to the heads of Cranston's team, seizing +the reins of the near horse. "Come right on," he shouted to the driver. +"Let them follow me." Out through the surging, scurrying crowd he guided +them to the edge of the road, then, pointing to the cantonment, called +to the driver, "Home with you, quick!" And with hardly a glance at the +grateful occupants, whirling his horse about, he burst his way back +again through the excited crowd until he found himself at the edge of +the platform. Already a dozen Indians were furiously demanding the +release of the prisoner. Little McPhail had scudded for home; Mira's +white face had disappeared from her window. Some of the guard had darted +into the corral for their arms, others, unarmed, had pressed to the +support of the agent. Before Davies could reach him four warriors were +out of their blankets and high-pommelled saddles, and had hurled +themselves on McPhail. "Rescue! Help!" he screamed, with ashen face, +releasing the Indian boy and vainly striving to draw his revolver. Away +sped the escaped captive, darting between the legs of struggling braves, +sheltered by the robes of hurrying squaws; away, right, left, anywhere, +everywhere, scattered the blanketed, jabbering groups, leaving on the +scene of action only the agent, the quickly rallying guard, and upward +of fivescore of jeering, taunting screeching warriors, at least a dozen +of them now dismounted, dancing and brandishing knife and tomahawk, +rifle or revolver, about the still writhing group rolling upon the +wooden floor,--McPhail and his assailants. Into the midst of this mad +mellay sprang the cavalryman, turning loose his horse, which animal, +urged by shrill yells and slyly administered lashings, went tearing away +over the prairie. Right at the lieutenant's back, almost as he had +fought his way with him, nozzle in hand, into the ruck of the rioting +crowd at Bluff Siding, striking out scientifically with his clinched +fists, charged young Brannan, only three days since transferred to the +agency guard. Vaulting the low rail and lunging in among the +devil-dreamers, came Sergeant Lutz and a squad of his fellow-troopers, +and in a dozen seconds, breathless and dust-begrimed, half stifled, but +practically unhurt, the agent was dragged from among the whirl of +moccasined feet and propped up, panting and swearing, against the rail, +while burly forms in trooper blue were hustling the half-raging, +half-jeering crowd of warriors off the platform. Even in the moment of +mad excitement they knew too much to use their weapons. Wise old heads +had been cautioning them against any deed of blood so long as the grass +was barely beginning to shoot. All they demanded was the instant release +of that boy, the chieftain's son, but incidentally, if McPhail insisted +on wrestling, they could not deny the Great Father's man or spare him +vigorous handling while about it. Davies had seized one brawny, muscular +throat and sent a gauntleted fist plump against the sweat-gleaming jaw +of a second brave. Brannan had backed him with half a dozen +well-delivered blows, but even these had evoked neither shot nor knife. +The instant the savages realized that it was the young commander of the +guard, they seemed to give way without further struggle, and so it +resulted that in a moment more every red-skin was off that sacred square +of board, and that a thick, deep semicircle of warriors, some few afoot, +but most of them astride their ponies, glowered in silence now at the +tall soldier who, interposing between them and the victim of their rude +horse play, stood confronting them with grave, set, indomitable look in +his pale face, on which the sweat was already starting. Behind the +officer, leaping up on the platform, were now a little squad of his men, +and McPhail, fuming and raging malevolently. "Arrest those blackguards, +arrest them instantly, Davies! Every man of them, by God! They shall pay +for this or there's no power in Washington." But Davies never moved hand +or foot. Calmly eying the surrounding crowd, he was searching for some +familiar face among the scowling warriors. Some few were men well on in +years, others mere striplings. Some were still covertly fuming with rage +for battle, others slyly tittering at the agent's expense, but all faces +were turned in instant interest, all ears attent when Davies began to +speak. "Where is Charging Bear?" he asked. "What is the meaning of this +riot?" + +Probably not ten Indians in the throng could speak a dozen words of +reputable English; probably not ten, however, failed to read his +meaning. + +"Charging Bear is not here," suddenly spoke in deep guttural a grizzly +Indian, who urged his pony forward. "The son of McPhail struck and +kicked the son of White Wolf,--the son of a clerk struck the first-born +of a war chief, and the Great Father's man would punish, not the +striker, but the struck." + +"Nab that damned lying scoundrel, Davies. He put 'em up to this whole +business. He's another of your mission whelps. I know you, Thunder +Hawk," continued McPhail, his courage and his choler rising alike as he +saw that the Indians were slowly recoiling, and evidently meant no +further mischief. "I know you, and I order your arrest right here and +now. As for the young dog that attacked my son, I'll demand him of White +Wolf in half an hour with five hundred soldiers at my back." + +"Then bring your own, who gave the first blow, if you want him in +exchange. As for me," continued the old man, in calm dignity, "I have +done no wrong, but my people shall not be made to suffer because of me. +I know the power of the Great Father, but he would not demand my +surrender to such as you. Here is the chief to whom the Indian yields," +he said, turning to the lieutenant, and then, riding a pony length +closer, gravely swung his handsome repeating rifle from its +gayly-fringed sheath of skins and extended it, butt foremost, to Davies. + +But before that officer could receive the proffered rifle a warning cry +came from the outskirts of the swarm. There was instantaneous lashing of +quirts, a sudden scurry and rush, and like one great herd of elk smitten +with sudden panic, away surged and sped the entire throng, Thunder +Hawk's stampeded pony bearing him irresistibly away with the rest. Only +a cloud of dust settling slowly to earth remained to greet the long line +of Cranston's troop as it came sweeping in from the foot-hills at +thundering gallop. Far out across the prairie the manoeuvring cavalry +had sniffed the "sign" of trouble at the agency, and his was the first +to answer the alarm. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII. + + +Again was there scene of mad excitement among the Indian villages on the +Chasing Water. Again was Red Dog in saddle, exhorting, declaiming, +prophesying, but with no such ready result as during the winter days +gone by. It was one thing to rally to the standard of a war chief and +follow him on a raid against the agent of the Great Father when but a +handful of soldiers could back the authorities. It was quite another to +rise in revolt when five hundred war-trained blue-coats were aligned to +defend him. Within two hours after the exciting scene at the corral the +Indians in every band knew that McPhail had launched his ultimatum at +the little village of White Wolf. "Send in Chaska, the assailant of my +son, and Thunder Hawk, the boaster, or there is war between the Great +Father and you and yours." + +Already had Chaska and Chaska's mother, with three trusty friends, +mounted on swift ponies, been spirited away northward, with instructions +to ride all night through the devious trails of the Bad Lands, and never +draw rein until they reached the shelter of the Uncapapa lodges beyond +the Wakpa Schicha. Already had Red Dog dashed over to the lodge of +Thunder Hawk, offering him asylum in the heart of his tribe, and +pledging his uttermost brave to his defence. But the old Indian would +none of him. Long years before, a fatherless boy, he had been reared +and taught by a priest of the Church of Rome,--is there a people they +do not know, a peril they do not dare?--and when finally his friend and +teacher and protector was gathered to his fathers and laid in the old +mission churchyard, the boy drifted back to his tribe, a mature and +thoughtful man, to find his kindred among the tents of the +Ogallallas,--among, worse luck, the malcontents of Red Cloud. From this +time on he had cast his lot with them, marrying, rearing children, yet +but slowly gaining influence among them. When his great and cruel chief +lured the garrison of a mountain stockade into the neighboring hills and +massacred every man, Hawk had refused to take part. His heart was not at +war with the whites. When swarms of the warriors left to join the great +renegade bands gathering under Crazy Horse and Gall to reinforce Sitting +Bull, Hawk had held aloof. "The people of Red Cloud," said he, "have no +grounds for war. The Great Father has done everything he promised them +and more," and Red Cloud called him dastard and squaw; but when an +Indian girl was missing from her lodge, and the gossips told how she had +been lured by a white soldier to the distant banks of the Laramie, Hawk +rode thither, rode into the presence of the post commander and told her +story and his, and found and brought her back to her people. He strove +to find the man for whose sake she had abandoned her father's lodge and +forfeited her good name. Hawk well knew how futile was her trust that +the white chief would ever claim her as his wife, but among so many +comrades he was concealed, and Hawk left his message. Sooner or later +his people should find the white man who had wrought the wrong and his +days were numbered. Every knife in all his band was whetted for that +particular scalp. And now again, when Indian blood had been fired by the +insult to the son of White Wolf, he stepped forward to interpose between +his people and the fury of the Great Father's man. He had repressed, not +incited the wrath of his brothers, but the agent in authority ruled +otherwise and demanded his surrender. His people would have fought to +save him. He would suffer willingly rather than that one drop of blood +should be spilt on his account. Refusing Red Dog's clamorous offer, +Thunder Hawk mounted his pony and, despite the wails and lamentations of +his village, rode forth in calm dignity to meet the coming soldiery, to +offer in silent submission his hands to the clinch of the steel. + +The recall had sounded at the cantonment, and mounted orderlies had +galloped out to bring in such troops as might have trotted too far away +for the sound. The infantry battalion, practising skirmish drill, had +quickly rallied, re-formed, and was marched within the log walls to +exchange blank for ball cartridge and await orders. The four cavalry +troops galloped back to their stables and dismounted, while their +officers gathered about the major commanding. Cranston to him had +briefly recounted the story of the excitement as he had heard it from +McPhail's lips. "I am bound to say, sir," said he, "that Mr. Davies did +not seem to agree with the agent in either his statements or his +conclusions. He considers the agent to have been the aggressor, and if +he is required to go to arrest Hawk and White Wolf's boy, it will be +with an unwilling hand." + +"Yes," said the major, coldly, "the trouble with Davies seems to be that +he has displayed similar unwillingness on previous occasions." + +The command of the cantonment had been given to this veteran field +officer of infantry, a man whose motto had been fight from boyhood on. +For ten days had he been hammering away here, hours at a time, to get +his own battalion in readiness for what he considered the inevitable +summer's work. He had fought every one of the dozen or more tribes of +plains Indians, and considered fighting their normal condition as it was +his own. He had made it his boast that during the previous summer his +battalion, day after day, had outmarched the cavalry, and even while the +statement was misleading, the boast was based on facts. The horses of +the cavalry, starved and staggering, worn to skin and bone, had to be +towed along instead of ridden, and the cavalry were therefore +handicapped. Yet there was not a trooper who did not honor the bluff +senior major, and none who really disliked him, except perhaps the +battalion commander of the cavalry, a gentleman whose gold leaves were +as dazzlingly new as the senior's were old and withered, and just about +to be changing into silver, the silver of the lieutenant-colonel. The +contrast between Major White's spirited handling of his battalion of +foot and Major Chrome's listless management of a similar body of horse +was vivid in the last degree. The latter and two of his troops belonged +to Atherton's fine regiment, the --th, the other two troops, Cranston's +and Truman's, were, as we know, of the Eleventh, and here in presence of +four officers of the latter's regiment, and a dozen of the Fortieth +Foot and of the --th Horse,--here on the broad parade of the cantonment, +at high noon and in plain sight and hearing even of three or four +enlisted men, orderlies, horse-holders, etc., had the post commander +spoken words that meant nothing short of discredit, if not disgrace, to +the subaltern who was at that very instant riding away on a perilous as +well as thankless mission. Deep, embarrassed silence fell on one and all +of the major's hearers for a single instant. Cranston reddened with +indignation, little Sanders with wrath. Truman looked quickly and +curiously about him. All three were eager and ready to speak, yet by +common consent the duty devolved upon Cranston, who took the floor. + +"It would be idle, Major White, to feign ignorance of what you refer to, +but let me say right here and now that you have been utterly misled as +to that young officer's character, and I doubt if you properly estimate +that of his detractors." + +"I base my opinion on a cavalry report, Captain Cranston,--on Mr. +Archer's vindication of Captain Devers." + +"As one-sided a report as was ever written, sir, for the other side--Mr. +Davies--had never a hearing,--never even heard of the investigation +itself until a week ago, and is now bound to silence pending action at +department head-quarters; but meantime, sir, as a friend of his, and a +man who believes in him, I protest against any such impression as you +have received, and I ask you how it is that you can believe such a story +of an officer who, single-handed, arrested Red Dog in the face of his +followers? There has been an insidious influence at work against him +ever since last summer, and we of the Eleventh know just where to place +it." + +"If I've wronged him, Cranston, you know me well enough to know that +I'll make every amend possible. I have heard, I own, much more than +Archer's report, so have my brother officers, not only before the recent +outbreak in which he seems to have outwrestled Red Dog, but since. Since +his recent visit to Scott stories have come to our ears very much to his +discredit." + +"Not from Leonard, sir, I warrant you," interposed Cranston, hotly. + +"No, not from Leonard, for Leonard never talks against anybody, but from +officers at Scott who seem to speak by the card. There is general +indignation because of his affront to the wife of one of our number. If +your friend is so far above suspicion, and did not feel some sense of +the sentiment against him, why did he utterly shun the society of every +officer at the post-except the chaplain? It reminds me of that English +snob who was sent to Coventry for abandoning the Prince Imperial, and +then took refuge in the prayers of the Church." + +"Major White, there are reasons for Davies's conduct for which I will be +answerable, and which you could not fail to respect. The fault, sir, lay +on the other side. This is something that can't be discussed here, for a +woman's war is mixed up in it, but if I have any place in your esteem, +let me urge you to suspend judgment. While the responsibility for the +original wrong done Davies must rest in my regiment, there have been +later wrongs done him in yours, and I learn it for the first time +to-day." + +It was an impressive scene, this impromptu gathering at the foot of the +flag-staff while anxiously awaiting further tidings from the agency. +Over among the quarters the humid eyes of frightened women peered from +many a door-way, watching with fluttering hearts for sign of action. +Stacking arms in front of their barracks, the infantry had been sent in +to a hurried dinner, and the cavalry horses, saddled, still stood at the +lines, watched by a few troopers, while the rest were packing +saddle-bags and taking a bite on their own account. The sentries to the +eastward kept gazing over toward the grim stockade and the clustering +groups of Indian lodges far away down-stream. Ten minutes since a party +of a dozen troopers had been seen to ride slowly away from the agency in +the direction of White Wolf's tepees, a mile beyond; "Davies going to +demand the surrender" were the words that passed from mouth to mouth and +gave the text for the startling conversation that had just taken place, +a topic which was now by common consent dropped as having reached a +point where the utmost caution should be observed. Everybody seemed to +know in some mysterious way that the circulators of the new and +unflattering stories about Davies were not so much the invalid colonel +or Messrs. Flight and Darling of the Fortieth as their more voluble, +active, and dangerous helpmeets. Indeed, the very day Trooper Brannan +arrived, transferred by regimental orders from "A" to "C" troop, he +brought one letter from Mrs. Leonard to Mrs. Cranston, and two or three, +each, of the missives of Mesdames Stone, Flight, and Darling to ladies +at the cantonment. Mrs. Leonard's letter said that her husband, the +adjutant, had been summoned by telegraph to General Sheridan's office in +Chicago, and he expected to be gone a week. No trace had been found of +the papers stolen from his desk, but it was undoubtedly on that business +that he had been sent for, and Mrs. Leonard felt confident that when he +returned it would be with news that full justice would at last be +awarded Mr. Davies for his conduct during the campaign as well as at the +agency, and Mrs. Leonard could not control the impulse to add, "If +justice could only be meted out to his accuser!--but will that man ever +get his deserts?" + +It must be owned that Mrs. Leonard had good grounds for being doubtful +on that point. + +Meantime how fared it with the embassy to White Wolf? Smarting under the +injury to his pride and person, McPhail had decided to inflict severe +humiliation on the red men prominent in the affair. First, White Wolf's +boy should be made to suffer, and then Thunder Hawk, who had dared to +oppose his views, should be ironed as an inciter of riot and placed +under guard. Knowing the feeling of veneration, almost of awe, with +which Davies was regarded by many of the Indians, he desired to avail +himself of the fact and send him to make the arrest, and at last Davies +asserted himself. Calmly, but positively, he refused. "My orders are +simply to protect the agency and the agent and his family from attack," +said he, "not to act as the agent's police." + +"Do you refuse to obey my orders?" asked McPhail, angrily. + +"You are not empowered to give me any orders, Mr. McPhail,--above all, +such orders. It is no question of obedience or disobedience." + +"Then I'll ask to have you relieved and sent to your regiment, and some +man sent here who will do his duty," said McPhail. + +"You cannot do it too soon, sir," was the answer. "It has been most +unwelcome from the start, and I shall now ask to be relieved in any +event." + +And so, finding Davies inflexible, Mr. McPhail had no alternative but to +go himself. He had sent his demand; it had met with no response. He must +attempt the arrest in person or become the laughing-stock of his Indian +wards. Here at last Davies had to back him. It might be true that the +officer would be sustained in his refusal to go and do his bidding, but +if the agent went in person the lieutenant would have to send a +detachment as a guard. Davies did more. He calmly informed McPhail that +he should place himself at the head of the party and protect him to the +extent of his ability; and so with the detachment as it marched away, +watched by many an anxious eye, rode McPhail with his agency +interpreter. + +And when barely half-way to the cluster of tepees among the Cottonwoods +at the point, there came to meet them in solitary state old Thunder Hawk +himself. He wore no barbaric finery. His pony was destitute of +trappings. He, himself, wore not even a revolver. Everything that might +speak of war or even self-defence was left behind. When within a hundred +yards of the foremost horsemen he reined in his pony and calmly awaited +their approach. + +Half a mile farther down the valley, clustered in front of their +lodges, some of them lashing about on their excited ponies, could be +plainly seen the warriors of Red Dog's band, and that that hot-blooded +chief was in their midst could hardly be doubted, though he was too far +away for personal recognition. All at once the seething group seemed to +obey some word of command, for it heaved suddenly forward, and, +breasting its way through the scattering outskirts, just as it had +advanced on the agency that moonlit winter's night, the centre burst +into view, one accurate rank of mounted Indians, and in another moment, +wheeling and circling, all the individual horsemen came ranging into +line at the flanks, and, reinforced every moment by galloping braves +from the villages in the rear, Red Dog's big squadron, like Clan Alpine, +came sweeping up the vale. Borne on the breeze like one long wail of +foreboding, the weird chant of squaws and stay-behinds was wafted to the +ears of the agency party. Another instant and the song was taken up in +swelling chorus by the coming foe. McPhail, who had spurred eagerly +forward as Thunder Hawk halted, now irresolutely checked his horse and +glanced back, as though feeling for the support of the grim and silent +guard. + +"By God, Mr. Davies, I believe that traitor Red Dog means mischief!" + +Making no reply whatever, the lieutenant simply raised his sword arm in +signal to his party,--halt! whereat, sniffing the tainted breeze and +anxiously eyeing the distant cavalcade, the horses of Davies's party +stood nervously pawing and stamping. Evidently they liked the outlook as +little as did McPhail. And there, all alone, fifty yards out in their +front now, grave and motionless, still sat old Thunder Hawk. + +"Do you suppose they will try to rescue if we arrest him here?" asked +McPhail. + +"Very probably. They regard him as a martyr, and so do I," was the +answer. + +"Here! gallop to the cantonments for help at once," said McPhail to his +interpreter. "Say that Red Dog and his whole gang are coming," he +shouted, instantly reining about and looking anxiously back. Behind him, +nearly a thousand yards, lay the low, squat buildings of his official +station. Beyond that, nearly two thousand more, and but for the flag and +staff almost indistinguishable from the dull hues of the prairie, except +to Indian eye, lay the low log walls of the cantonment. Already signs of +alarm and bustle could be seen about the former. A buckboard was just +hurriedly driving off, full gallop, for the distant barracks, scudding +for shelter before the storm should break. Evidently Mrs. McPhail didn't +mean to stand siege in her cellars this time. Already Lutz, who remained +with the reserve, had mounted his men and was trotting out to the +support of the advance. Already the long, barbaric array of Red Dog's +band had come within rifle-range, and their clamoring chief, all +bristling with eagle feathers, rode up and down across their advancing +front, brandishing aloft his gleaming rifle. "Watch him as you would a +snake," indeed! Here he came once more in open, defiant hostility, bent +beyond possibility of doubt on instant attack should the agent attempt +to lay hands on Thunder Hawk. + +"Come in here, Hawk. I suppose you surrender!" yelled McPhail, +nervously. Evidently something had to be done, and done at once. + +"Not to you," was the determined answer. "I will surrender to soldiers +when they demand, and to them only, and I'll await justice as their +prisoner and not as yours." + +"My God! Mr. Davies, you've _got_ to do something!" wailed the agent, +shrinking still farther back now, as Red Dog's line unmistakably +quickened the pace and the earth began to quiver and tremble. + +"Take the men and fall back towards the agency, sir," said Davies, +quickly, sternly, and then without an instant's hesitation spurred +forward. As he rode he whipped off his right gauntlet, and then halting +within a horse-length of the silent warrior, held out his bare hand. +"Thunder Hawk, this is the hand of a friend. Will you ride with me and +turn Red Dog back?" + +"I will go with you wherever you say." + +Over among the lodges of Thunder Hawk's people the signs of intense +excitement were on the increase. Women and young girls had taken up the +weird war-song of the advancing array. Young men springing to their +ponies and no longer able to restrain their desire to act in his behalf, +all forgetful of his injunction, came galloping forth to join the band +of Red Dog riding to the rescue. Over at the agency, far to the rear, +there was mad flurry and consternation. Women and children of the few +employes, now that there was a military post within range, were +gathering up such valuables as they could carry and scurrying away along +the cantonment road. Conscious of his own impotence, McPhail had lost +the last vestige of his truculent manner and, eagerly availing himself +of Davies's advice, turned nervously to the senior corporal of the +little squad of troopers and said, "Fall back! We've got to fall back to +the reserve." The corporal glanced first at him, irresolutely, then back +at the coming reserve now spurring forward with Lutz at their head, then +around at the whirl and turmoil and trouble in the villages, at Red +Dog's now "magnificently stern array," and finally at the two figures, +calmly, slowly riding straight at the very centre of the advancing line, +straight at the heart of Red Dog's chanting battalion; and then, when +McPhail nervously repeated his instructions, and, adding example to +precept, turned and strove to lead the party in retreat, briefly +addressed first his fellows and then the agent. + +"Stand fast, men!--You--go to hell!" + +A moment later and far out at the front now the two figures had halted, +a strange contrast. The man on the right, tall, slender, of athletic and +graceful build, clad in trim simple undress uniform of the cavalry, +sitting his horse as straight as a young pine; the other, bent, +blanket-robed, hunched up on his pony in the peculiarly ungraceful pose +of the Indian rider when at rest, but resolute and immovable; both +sublimely devoted in the duty now before them. When by the sweeping +advance of the Indian line these two, the young officer, the old +sub-chief, were brought nearly midway between the little party of +blue-coats and the great rank of red warriors, both men as by common +impulse threw upward the right hand, signalling "Stand where you are!" +to the coming line. + +And recognizing their challengers, little by little, gradually reining +in, the Indians obeyed. Only Red Dog, followed closely by Elk, sullenly, +angrily continued the advance; his fierce eyes, avoiding Davies's calm +face, were bent glowering upon his fellow-tribesman. + +"Why is Thunder Hawk here?" was his demand in the Ogallalla tongue. "Is +he ally or prisoner of the soldiers?" + +"Thunder Hawk is their friend and the friend of his people. The white +chief came as his friend and brother to protect him from indignity. Now +as friends and brothers we stand between Red Dog and the wrong he would +do. Only over our bodies shall Red Dog move another lance-length against +the Great Father's people." + +Davies could not comprehend this talk, but there was no mistaking its +import or its effect on the rabid chief. Furiously Red Dog pressed +forward, his rifle still clutched in his sinewy hand. + +"Thunder Hawk is a traitor and a liar! He has sold himself to the +whites! He is their prisoner, and when they have used him they will iron +and brand and starve him. Even a sub-chief of the Dakotas shall not live +to be their tool. Thunder Hawk rides back with us at once or dies here +and now." And around came the ready weapon, muzzle to the front, with +Red Dog's hand at the guard. + +"Ride back to your men, lieutenant," muttered the old Indian. "You have +my word that I will join you as soon as I can, but this man is crazed. +He means to force a fight." + +"If that be so my place is here with you," was the answer. "What does he +demand?" "No parlying with your soldier friends," shouted Red Dog, +again in the Sioux tongue. Then, as though losing all control of himself +in his hatred of his captor, he dashed furiously at Davies. "Back!" he +shouted. "Back!" And he pointed with grand dramatic action up the +valley. "Back to your own people! This is Indian land." Then seeing that +his words fell on heedless ears and that Davies never relaxed his cool, +steadfast gaze into the raging red face, he fell into such English as he +knew. "Run or I kill." + +And then Lutz and his reserve, just reaching their comrades under +Corporal Clanton, saw a sudden flash of sunshine from the silver +mountings of the Indian's beautiful Winchester as it was whirled to the +brawny shoulder, saw sudden rear and plunge of Davies's spirited horse, +a grapple as though in mid-air, and with a mad cry of "My God! They'll +murder him!" young trooper Brannan dashed forward from the ranks just as +the shot from Red Dog's rifle whirled harmless into space, and horse and +man, the pride of the Ogallalla hostiles, were rolling in the dust, +overthrown by the officers heavier charger, while the butt of the +polished weapon, wrested from the warrior's grasp and wielded by +muscular hand, came down with resounding whack on the head of the +struggling chief, and for the second time, in the very face of his +astonished braves, Red Dog, the redoubtable, went sprawling to earth, +downed by the white chief whom he affected to despise. + +In the fierce mellay that followed the advantage lay with the first to +move. Lutz and his party had not really checked their gait, and so +leaped into the charge with a flying start. Sixteen ready troopers had +darted forward to the support of their beloved young officer. Thunder +Hawk had lashed his pony so as to interpose between him and the rush of +the Indian band, but even as those red-skins nearest the centre, where +the drums and rattles were keeping up their low, threatening din, with +one impulse dashed forward to rescue the chief, those on the flanks, +far-seeing, held wisely back, even while around the prostrate chief +there raged for a brief, hot, furious moment a wild babel of threat and +execration, a mad whirl of brandishing knives and pistols and naked red +limbs and brawny arms in dusty blue, Hawk and two other stalwart Sioux +had thrown themselves between avenging blows and the young white chief, +standing afoot now with pale, set face, over his writhing victim. Lutz +and his men, lunging in among the lighter ponies, bore them back by +sheer force of weight. 'Only one or two shots were heard; even in that +frantic turmoil friend and foe alike seemed to realize that a battle +must be avoided so long as each side held possession of its own. And +then from the outskirts came loud yells of warning. By fives and tens +the mounted warriors melted hurriedly away, and presently all the broad +prairie to the eastward, back toward the lodges from which they came, +was alive with circling, darting, screaming red-skins, keeping up their +shrill appeal to brethren still hot-handed in the struggle for out from +behind the curtain of the agency corral swept the long column of +galloping horse under its curtaining cloud of dust, and down at full +speed came the whole squadron, far more than Red Dog's band dare tackle +in heady fight. Out from beneath his struggling pony they dragged him, +bleeding and bedaubed with sweat and paint and blood, and when +presently as the long skirmish line of Cranston's troop swept over the +spot and drove before it all the mounted warriors, only two or three of +the faithful remained to share the fortunes of their fallen chief, for +like Thunder Hawk, Red Dog was the prisoner, not of the Great Father's +agent, who was somewhere far to the rear, but of the soldier chief of +the cantonments, who came galloping up in the wake of the cavalry, +wrathful, if anything, that the whole thing was over without a fight. + +And then, and not until nearly ten minutes after he had downed his man, +was it noticed that Mr. Davies had not recovered color, that he was too +faint to remount his horse. + +"What is it, lad?" murmured Cranston, with keen anxiety in his eyes. + +"I'm stabbed, captain. I--think you'd better not let Mrs. Davies know." + +But Davies need not have worried on that score. When a little later they +bore him, faint, unconscious from loss of blood, to his own roof at the +agency, there was lack of woman's nursing, there was dearth of woman's +tears,--Mira had fled with the McPhails with the first alarm, and was in +hiding somewhere up at the cantonment. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVIII. + + +One soft spring morning, some two weeks later, a little knot of officers +had gathered about the Cranstons' quarters at the cantonment. Under an +awning of tent flies they were conning the papers that had just reached +them and eagerly discussing their contents. Mrs. Cranston, a shade of +anxiety on her winsome, sunburned face, was glancing quickly from one +speaker to another. Through the open door-way in the cool interior Miss +Loomis could be seen bending over the boys as they fidgeted at their +books. Neither felt like studying this day of days, for absorbing news, +and lots of it, had come. To begin with, a general court-martial had +been ordered to meet at Omaha for the trial of Captain Devers, Eleventh +Cavalry, and officers of high rank and distinction were to be his +judges. With Atherton as president of the court there could be no +"monkey business," said Mr. Sanders, by which that young gentleman was +understood to mean that there would be no trifling with the subject. It +was noticeable that neither Riggs nor Winthrop was of the detail, an +omission readily understood, as Devers would unquestionably object, as +was his privilege, to either or both on the ground of bias, prejudice, +or malice, which, whether sustained or not, would lead to their asking +to be excused from serving and so reducing the array. The court had been +ordered from division head-quarters by the lieutenant-general himself, +and its members, as a rule, were summoned from distant posts and +commands, so as to preclude the possibility of the accused captain +saying it was "packed" from the ranks of his enemies. In other words, +except Atherton, the court was made up entirely of officers who had +taken no part in the campaign of the previous summer. It was understood +that the charges were grave and numerous; rumors of misconduct in the +face of the enemy, disobedience of orders, misrepresentation of facts, +etc., being among the items mentioned. Major Warren had been summoned +from abroad a month earlier than he had planned to come. Colonel Peleg +Stone and Mr. Leonard had both been notified that they would be required +as witnesses, so had Captains Cranston, Truman and Hay, Lieutenants +Boynton, Hastings and Davies. The court could not meet before mid-May +because several of the members came from the department of Dakota, far +up the Missouri, but that it was to be a "clinch" at last was the +generally expressed sentiment. Devers had run to the end of his tether, +said Boynton, unfeelingly. "I could add a charge or two myself if I +didn't know he was loaded with them so deep that he can't stagger." +Boynton, limping still, had come back to resume command of the agency +guard, for Davies's wound had proved deep and serious. He had been +stabbed by Red Dog after that warrior was raised to his feet, after +Cranston's skirmishers had swept the field, after Davies thought the +struggle at an end, and was unprepared for the stealthy blow. Nothing +but Brannan's vigilance, and the warning cry which caused the lieutenant +to turn in the nick of time, had saved his life. Red Dog in irons lay in +the log guard-house. Thunder Hawk, on parole,--for White had dared the +wrath of the bureau and refused to let McPhail have him,--walked the +garrison at will. Mr. Davies, still weak and languid, lay in the big +hospital tent, really the most comfortable dwelling at the station, now +that the weather was growing warm, and there, attended by Burroughs and +ministered to by a pathetically pretty wife (who had somewhat recovered +from her panic, now that she was within the stockade of a military post +with lots of men around to watch her and be fascinated), was on the road +to speedy convalescence. He was being allowed occasional visitors, and +while his own comrades vied in their attentions, nothing could exceed +the anxiety of old White, the major commanding. Twice did he have +Thunder Hawk recount to him the details of Davies's calm courage in this +second daring capture, red-handed, of the rebellious chief, and White +went to Cranston like the blunt, outspoken campaigner that he was. + +"It begins to look to me," said he, "as if this young fellow had been +most damnably backbitten. You can haul Devers before a court, but what +can we do with these women?" + +"You have never told me, major, what these women had to say against +him." + +"And I'm not going to," said White. "When a man's ashamed of having +believed a mean story, the sooner he buries it the better. Men like him +don't go round abusing their own wife or insulting anybody else's. It's +my belief that the swarm that buzzes around the throne there at Mrs. +Pegleg's ought to be muzzled, and if the old man hadn't lost his grip in +this seizure he's had, I'd tell him so." + +But this seizure of Pegleg's had indeed proved a serious matter. So far +from recovering his accustomed spirits, the old colonel seemed to grow +feebler and less inclined to move about with every day. One morning he +sent word to Captain Devers that he would not leave his bed, as he felt +too weak, and that night it was that Leonard got back from Chicago. When +told by Pollock, who met him at the railway station, that Devers was +again in command, Leonard stepped into the telegraph-office and wrote a +message which he showed to nobody. Within thirty-six hours Lieutenant +Archer of the department staff reached Fort Scott with orders from the +general commanding. Captain Pollock was placed in command of the post +and Devers in close arrest. The next day Mr. Langston came out from +Braska and was closeted an hour with Leonard at the adjutant's office, +and then, taking advantage of a returning escort and ambulance, the +civilian lawyer left for the agency. Even while the group of officers at +Cranston's was eagerly discussing the news, he had made his bow to a +deeply blushing Mira over at the hospital tent, and was seated by +Davies's side. "Business first, pleasure afterwards," hummed Cranston to +himself when he heard of the arrival, and noted how Meg's bright eyes +dilated. + +"Business, indeed!" thought she. "I know the business that brings him +here, despite Agatha's assumption of sublime indifference." + +But grave though some of the older faces grew as the news was read, and +eager and excited as were some of the younger, it was not because of the +long-prophesied trial of Captain Devers. The papers, letters, and +despatches were full of detail of the serious condition of affairs to +the northwest. Inspired by the success of the Sioux in their grand +uprising of the previous year, and reasoning that they had little to +lose and everything to gain by similar methods, a big tribe had cut +loose from its reservation and taken the field, one band of it prudently +massacring all the white men to be found in their neighborhood as +necessary preliminary to the move. This was bad to begin with, but +worse was to follow. The other agencies were overrun by a number of +young Indians of what might be termed the unreconstructed class, and +these, excited by reports brought in by runners from the openly hostile, +were slipping off in scores to join them. Already had the epidemic +struck McPhail's "angels." Already had Mac, with long face and longer +story, been up to see Major White and beg for cavalry to be sent in +pursuit. White said it was preposterous. The renegades had two or three +days' start to begin with, and if pursued, all they had to do was to +hide in the Bad Lands and pick off their pursuers. Cavalry could only go +there in single file. Ten Indians could hold the narrow, tortuous trail +against ten hundred troops. Relations were strained between Mac and the +military anyhow. Everybody knew by this time that he had lied about +Boynton and Davies, and had striven to make it appear, and with no +little success, too, so far as Eastern newspapers were concerned, that +all the turbulence and rioting at Ogallalla was caused by the arrogance +of the army. Then Mac pointed out that if something weren't done to +drive those renegades back, all the young braves over at the big +reservation beyond the Mini Ska would follow suit. Already the cattlemen +were complaining. Already settlers were drifting in to Pawnee station +and Minden on the railway to the west, and besieging old Tintop at +regimental head-quarters at Fort Ransom, and stirring up "screamers" in +the columns of the infantile dailies at Butte and Braska, alleging +apathy on part of the authorities and cowardice on that of the cavalry. +Already letters had passed between the officers of the Eleventh at the +cantonment and their comrades at Ransom. "If we have to take the field +again this summer let us try to get together as a regiment and not be +split up in all manner of crowds," was the cry. What Cranston and Truman +dreaded, too, was that they might be squadroned with some of the --th +under Major Chrome. The --th was all right, but Chrome was so horribly +slow that his own comrades chafed under his command, and Atherton really +wanted him to retire and get "a live man" in his place. Truman, Hay, and +Cranston felt certain that it would not be a fortnight before they were +ordered into the field. Tintop and Gray were sure of it. Captain Fenton +and others at Ransom were talking of sending their families East, and +now the question that agitated Cranston was, what to do with his dear +ones? It was all well enough to have them at the cantonment while the +cavalry were there, but with all the troops in the field except a single +company of infantry, he did not dare leave them. They must go back to +Scott. + +No wonder then that Mrs. Cranston's bonny face was clouded this sweet +spring morning. No wonder the boys could not pin their vagrant thoughts +to the books before them while snatches of the low, eager talk came +drifting in through the open door. No wonder Miss Loomis went about her +work with conscious effort, but when told of the arrival of Robert +Langston, the woman in her knew he would not go until he had seen and +spoken with her. + +The day of Red Dog's capture was still fresh in the minds of Cranston's +household, as indeed in that of every household at the cantonment. With +field-glasses they had marked the threatening gathering at the distant +village, and the ominous advance in line. Old White had his men in ranks +in less than no time, and the cavalry column, masked by the agency +buildings, was sent at brisk trot to the eastward, so that McPhail's +messenger, spurring at mad gallop for aid, met them midway. Cranston's +troop was instantly deployed into long skirmish line at the gallop, and +the affair was practically over by the time Major White, leaving the +infantry battalion to guard the post, had reached the scene. Meantime +the composure of the mothers and children left at the cantonment was in +no wise augmented by the panic-stricken guise of the arriving refugees, +Mrs. McPhail, with her children, and Mira being the first to appear. It +so happened that the Cranstons' bungalow, being near the eastern end of +the line, proved the natural refuge of the first wagon-load, and that +Mrs. Cranston and Miss Loomis were the angels who thus had to minister +to their weaker sisters. Even then, when nearly "dead with terror," as +she expressed it, Mira would gladly have gone somewhere else, but as +Mrs. McPhail promptly bundled herself and her youngsters out of the +wagon and under the shelter of the Cranstons' wing, there was nothing +left for Mira but to follow suit. Dr. Burroughs came promptly to see +what he could do for her. Both Mrs. Cranston and Miss Loomis mastered +their own anxiety in the effort to comfort these weaklings, and as no +sounds of battle came from the eastward, and the watchers on the roofs +reported Red Dog's people as scattering for their tepees before the +advance of the cavalry, comparative composure was gradually being +restored when the first messenger came in from the front, a corporal of +Cranston's troop, whom the boys hailed with eager acclaim. + +"Everything's all right, mum," he blithely saluted Mrs. Cranston. "We've +got old Red Dog again,--Lieutenant Davies nabbed him," he added, with +prompt recognition of Mira's lovely face. "They want Dr. Burroughs to +come down to the agency though." And as the doctor mounted the trooper +said something more in a low tone, glancing furtively at Mrs. Davies as +he did so. Burroughs nodded, but rode rapidly away, the corporal after +him. Mrs. McPhail became instantly lachrymose. Dr. Burroughs wanted at +the agency? That could mean only one thing,--Mr. McPhail must be +wounded, he was always so impetuous. In vain Mrs. Cranston strove to +soothe her. She ran out on the roadway in front and hailed the very next +party straggling in,--the wife and the cook of the agency clerk, +importuning them to say was Mac badly hurt. + +"Mac ain't hurt at all," said the new arrivals, hot after a long and +needless tramp. "How was he to get hurt? It's Loot'nant Davies that's +shot. Red Dog tried to kill him." + +And here Mira promptly and appropriately shrieked and fainted. + +Nor was she of use when presently restored to a limp and dejected +consciousness. Other messengers had come by this time. Dr. Burroughs had +examined Mr. Davies's hurts. He was stabbed, not shot. It was serious, +not dangerous. He was being made comfortable at home, where Captain +Cranston said it was perfectly safe for Mrs. Davies to join him, and +the ambulance was speedily ready to take her to the bedside of her +wounded hero, but again poor Mira's nerves gave way. She could not go to +that dreadful place, so much nearer those frightful savages. Oh, why, +why hadn't they brought her Percy here? Even Mrs. McPhail was no such +coward as that. She drove back without her, and not for hours after was +Mira strong enough to go. By that time he was sleeping placidly when, +trembling still and pathetically pale, Mira was escorted to his bedside, +and that night Mrs. Cranston had her revenge. + +"Agatha Loomis," said she, "you declared all along that he did perfectly +right in marrying that--that--in marrying _her_. What do you say now?" + +And Miss Loomis said--nothing. + +They had been talking of Davies again this very morning before the mails +and Langston came. No sooner had he been well enough to move than he +asked to be sent up to the garrison. He was no longer commander of the +guard, and no longer entitled to the house. What was more, he must +decline to serve McPhail in any such capacity again, and had had a +letter written to department head-quarters representing the facts, and +one was received from the general promising that another officer should +be detailed immediately. Furthermore, Mr. Davies announced that Mrs. +Davies simply could not stand the life at that point. Then Boynton +expressed a desire to return to it, as he was now able to stump around a +little, and he enjoyed chaffing McPhail, and so the wounded second +lieutenant of Devers's troop was shifted to the hospital tent put up +for his accommodation at the cantonment, and there Mira was made far +more comfortable than many an army wife had been, awaiting the day when +they could with safety be started on the road to Scott, now his proper +station. + +"Langston's paying the Parson a mighty long visit," exclaimed Mr. +Sanders, unslinging his sabre and flopping down into the first +camp-chair on his way back from morning drill. "Mrs. Cranston, what do +you want to bet y'all go back to Scott inside of a week?" + +"I like it very much better here, especially as our going to Scott would +mean 'y'all' were to be again in the field," was the laughing reply. + +"Well, I like duty here better, but I do hanker for a waltz on that old +waxed floor. Think, we haven't had a dance since we came." + +"The men had some good music the other evening; why didn't you suggest a +waltz on the prairie to Mrs. Davies?" + +"Well, I did think of it. She looks bored to death. I saw her just now +as I came by. She was yawning in the shade of the tent fly while +Langston and the Parson were chatting inside." Why don't you and Miss +Loomis go over there and cheer her up sometimes? was the question he +checked just as it trembled on his lips. Some brief inspiration of +discretion warned him that that was ground too sacred for his blundering +intrusion. "She seems downright lonely," he concluded, somewhat lamely +and suggestively. "I don't think Mrs. Davies is cut out for this kind of +army life. Here comes Langston now." He needn't have made that +announcement. Mrs. Cranston was watching, waiting for him, and she +glanced quickly to see where Miss Loomis was. That young lady, however, +never looked up from the slate whereon Louis's hieroglyphics were in mad +arithmetical tangle, even when she heard Langston's courteous greeting +to the lady of the house and his inquiries for the captain, and heard +them without evidence of any emotion whatsoever. + +"The captain is at the stables, Mr. Langston. We are so glad to see you. +I'll send him word in a moment. Do sit down and tell us all the news +from Braska," said Mrs. Cranston, hospitably. + +"I will do all that most gladly, Mrs. Cranston, but the matter on which +I desire to see him at once is urgent, and perhaps Mr. Sanders will walk +over to the stables with me. Then, may I not call and see you later?" + +"By all means! and will you not dine with us? A real campaign dinner, +you know, but we shall be so pleased to have you." + +Langston's face fairly glowed. "I'll be here in half an hour, if I may, +but I must see the captain at once, and will go. I trust--Miss +Loomis--is well." + +"Very well, and quite able to answer for herself," said Mrs. Cranston, +mischievously, while Langston's eyes eagerly searched the door-way and +dim interior; but Miss Loomis was nowhere in sight, and chose to appear +to be not within hearing. + +"Why didn't you come or speak?" said Meg, reproachfully, the moment he +was gone. + +"I was busy. These are school days," was the calm reply, one that would +have been no comfort to Langston, who walked rather ruefully on with the +subaltern. The business with Cranston proved interesting. + +"You have a young trooper, Brannan, whom I need to see confidentially, +and at once. May I do so, captain?" + +"Certainly. Send Corporal Brannan here," said the troop commander, +wondering what new complication had involved this wayward son; and +presently, erect and soldierly, with a fine tan on his cheek and +brand-new chevrons on his sleeves, "lanced for bravery in the field," as +the troopers expressed it in those days, the young soldier stood +attention before them. + +"You probably do not remember me, Corporal Brannan," said Langston, in +courteous tone, "but I remember you favorably and well for the day at +Bluff Siding last June." And the light in the young soldier's eyes +indicated that he recalled the civilian. "Your captain knows something +of the matter on which I wish to see you, and I have asked him to remain +here with us." And now an anxious, troubled look crept over Brannan's +face, some swift overshadowing from the coming cloud. "You have never +yet told any one whose knife it was that cut you that day." + +Brannan's lips moved and he turned even paler, but he said no word. + +"Well, corporal, the time seems to have come when instead of keeping +silence to protect another man you may have to speak for your own sake." + +Brannan glanced quickly, anxiously, from one face to another, from the +lawyer to his troop commander, as though appealing to the latter to say +how could that be. Presently he faltered, "I don't understand." "Well, +I will tell you, in part at least. Your captain and I know something of +your past history, and I do not think you will have cause to regret that +fact. We know that you were at Dr. Powlett's at the time Mr. Davies was +assaulted and robbed near his Urbana home. You had there been on terms +of intimacy with young Powlett, who disappeared after much disreputable +doing. You soon enlisted, and were for a time very intimate with a +recruit, Howard, who corresponded with the description I have of +Powlett. You both had frequent letters,--you from your mother and he +from several sources. Then came a disagreement and you held yourself +apart from him and his new chum, a young fellow called Paine, and, while +you continued loyal to an old friendship and kept silent as to Howard's +past, he was less considerate of you. There was serious trouble between +yourself and Sergeant Haney and Howard the night you reached Fort Scott +after the campaign, and you were ordered confined. I have heard there at +Scott a story I do not believe. Will you not tell your captain and me +the real cause?" + +"Well, sir, it was about my writing-case," said the corporal, in low and +hesitant voice. "I kept mother's letters and some pictures and things I +valued in it. It went with me up to the Big Horn camp all right, but +when we started on the campaign and cut loose from the wagons I had to +turn it over to Sergeant Haney. I saw him lock it in the big company +chest, and the night we got into Scott with the wagons and that chest +was unloaded, over three months afterwards, I asked for it at once, and +I had been kept back with the wagons, and I'd been drinking a little, +for it was a bitter cold march, and Haney and Howard gave me more +liquor and told me I'd better not take it until I'd quit drinking. We +had trouble that night later, and I was confined for abusing the +sergeant and being drunk, though I could prove I hadn't abused him, and +that it was just the other way, and that I was only slightly affected by +the liquor. The next day I sent word from the guard-house for my case, +and the reply came that the sergeant gave it to me the previous night. I +knew he hadn't and said so. They answered that I was drunk and must have +lost it, and that was all the satisfaction I got." + +"Why didn't you tell me about this at the time, Brannan?" asked +Cranston, kindly. + +"I meant to, sir, the moment I got out, but they fixed things so as to +send me direct from the guard-house with Lieutenant Boynton's detachment +to the agency, and when I wrote from there to Howard and Haney both, +they answered that they had a clue, and if I'd only keep quiet they'd +get it sure, and the man who stole it from me. I never told mother about +it,--it shamed me so. I was afraid the liquor was drugged, and--it might +be true, though I thought I knew everything that happened." Then he +stopped abruptly. + +"Go on," said Langston, with deep interest in his keen, shrewd face. +"There is even more to this than I thought. What followed?" + +"I got tired waiting, and there was a chance to go to Scott with the +mail rider and I took it, and a bitter cold ride it proved to be. We +couldn't get coffee on the way, the rider and I, but we could get +whiskey, worse luck, for he had it with him, and so I had been drinking +when we reached the post, and made my demand of Haney. He put me off +with more liquor and soft words. Then I threatened to appeal to Captain +Cranston or Lieutenant Davies, and the next thing they had me in +hospital with Paine to watch me. I had been drinking enough to make me +mad with suffering for more by that time." + +"Well, did you never appeal to Captain Devers?" + +"No, sir; there was no use in doing that," said Brannan, coloring +uneasily as he spoke. "I beg Captain Cranston's pardon for saying so of +an officer, but no one could hope for justice in 'A' Troop unless he was +solid with Sergeant Haney." + +"And you have never seen your writing-case to this day?" continued +Langston. + +"Never, sir." + +"Well, one thing more. Now that you know Howard's character,--know him +to have deserted and to have striven to injure you in many a way, will +you still persist in saying he did not wield the knife that slashed +you?" + +"I have said, sir, that I knew no one in all the recruits who would have +used a knife on me." + +"True! You put it well, Brannan," said Langston, with a smile of deep +meaning, "and among simple-minded military folk the answer would be +enough, perhaps, but not to a lawyer. Would you declare that Howard did +not wield the knife that slashed you--but was meant for Lieutenant +Davies?" + +And Brannan colored still deeper. "I cannot say anything about him, sir; +at least not now." + +"Very well. Then it is useless to ask just now what you know of his +past?" + +"Yes, sir." + +"All right, Brannan. It is my belief that in the near future that +writing-case of yours will turn up, and I mean to stay to see it, for +when it does you'll need us both." + +But Langston's hope for a speedy and brilliant coup was dashed by the +news that came that very night. Forty-eight hours thereafter a little +caravan of army wagons, Concords and ambulances, with an infantry +escort, was slowly wending its way southward toward the welcoming roofs +of old Fort Scott, with the wives and children of several families, with +Mira and her newest friend, Mrs. Plodder, with the tall, martial-looking +civilian riding in close attendance on the Cranston's equipage, basking +in the life-giving sunshine and in the thrill and hope and sweet unrest +of an ever-growing love, devoted and insistent in spite of vague and +jealous dread, for there was not the feeblest flicker of encouragement +in Miss Loomis's calm and oft-averted eyes. Langston asked himself in +the still hours of the starlit night, camping on the banks of Dismal +River, was it possible that her heart was following some soldier in the +dusty column, riding hard, riding fast long miles away to the northwest +now, eager to overtake the comrade soldiery already on the flank of the +foe, and bear a trooper's part in the battle summer so suddenly to open. +Even Percy Davies, laughing at the feeble protest of Dr. Burroughs, and +heartily congratulated by old White himself, had donned his field dress +and climbed stiffly into saddle, to ride once more with the fighting +column, to the savage disappointment of his one red foe at the +cantonments, and the utter confusion of other foes at Scott. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIX. + + +A hundred miles away,--a hundred as the crow flies, and not by the +tortuous route the cavalry had to follow, through a region that, all in +an hour's march, shifted its scene from the dull monotone of barren +waves of prairie to bold, beautiful heights and deep sheltered ravines +and canons, the winding thread of the Mina Ska went foaming and leaping +over its stony bed, taking occasional cat-naps in wide, shadowy +shallows, only to wake up again to wilder riot under the frowning, +fir-crested cliffs of the Black Rock Range. For many a long, sunshiny +mile it had come floating placidly eastward, issuing from the great +water-shed of the continent, drifting leisurely between low-lying, +grassy banks all criss-crossed with ancient buffalo-trails, or the +recent footprints of long-horned cattle, past the broad plateau, crowded +by the wooden walls of Fort Ransom, past the roofs and spires of +bustling Butte, a prairie metropolis, a railway and cattle town that +rivalled Braska, past long miles of gleaming tangents of the +transcontinental railway until it met the bold bluffs east of Alkali +Station and was shouldered from its course and sent on long, tortuous +_detour_ to the northeast, until, beyond the great reservation of the +red men in the loveliest hill country of the wild frontier, it once more +turned sharply eastward at the point described in the sonorous language +of the plains as "the Big Bend of the Mina Ska." Midway between its +sweeping curve near Alkali and the sharp deflection at the big bend +there came flowing into it from the westward, through the very heart of +the Dakota lands, the clear, translucent waters of the Wakpa Wakon,--the +Spirit River of the Sioux, all along whose storied shores for mouths had +clustered the thronging villages of the tribe, living through the long, +fierce winter in sheltered comfort, fed, warmed, inspired by the spoils +and stories of the great campaign the year gone by. But now as though by +magic had the tepees vanished. Only around the protecting agency, miles +to the west, miles deeper in among the tumbling hills, were the lodges +now clustered, hundreds of them, with their swarming occupants,--old +men, old crones, Indian mothers, wives, sweethearts, maids, young boys, +children, and pappooses,--all confidingly clinging to the protecting +hand of the Great Father and claiming his bounty; while the husbands and +fathers, the stalwart young warriors of the Sioux themselves, were +skulking through the Bad Lands across the Ska, eagerly, warily watching +the coming of the little cavalry column from the distant Chasing Water, +while even in greater numbers their wild red cohorts patrolled the deep +valley, the overhanging heights of the Ska itself, watching every move +of the coming force from Ransom, bent on luring both, if possible, far +within their borders, far in among those tangling, treacherous ravines +and canons, and, there surrounding, to massacre the last man. + +Southwestward, at Painted Lodge Butte, after a long, long march through +the heat and glare of the long June day, Colonel Winthrop had ordered +his men to bivouac for the night. Riding steadily eastward by the +"foot-hill" trail from Ransom, they had reached Willow Springs on Friday +noon, purposing to camp there until the following dawn, but so alarming +were the reports of the few fleeing settlers whom they met that the old +colonel decided after an hour's rest to push on again. Without being +trammelled by precise orders, the general tenor of his instructions was +to march on down the Ska, and strike and punish any Indian war-parties +he could find, and clear the valley as soon as possible. Major Chrome, +with four troops, two of the Eleventh, his own, and two of the --th, +Atherton's regiment, was ordered to march across country from the +Chasing Water, and join Winthrop in the valley of the Ska. One hundred +miles, as has been said, had Chrome to march to reach the valley at the +nearest point, nearly opposite the mouth of the Spirit River. Nearly two +hundred if he followed the stream would Tintop have to cover in going +from Fort Ransom to that point, but he had started on a Wednesday +morning, twenty-four hours ahead of Chrome. Each well knew he would +probably have to fight his way. Each meant, according to his own lights, +to do his best, and each resorted to measures radically different. +Winthrop, active, eager, nervous in temperament, pushed forward boldly, +rapidly, bent on "getting there," as he expressed it, and hitting hard +before the reds could slip back to their holes. Chrome, slow, +phlegmatic, cautious, advanced by carefully-studied marches, with scouts +far ahead and flankers far dispersed. Arguing that Winthrop, with one +hundred and fifty miles or more to go, and a bigger crowd to handle, and +with Indians on his flank every inch of the way, would not be able to +reach the Spirit River crossing inside of seven days,--Chrome parcelled +out his own march accordingly. Starting with all speed from the +cantonment, according to his instructions from Major White, he soon +slowed down to a pace more in accordance with his own views. "If we get +there Monday or Tuesday even," said he, "we'll be 'way ahead of Tintop." +And this was at the close of the second day's march, when he could point +to less than a total of forty-four miles covered. The country was still +open, the trails distinct, the Indians reported in the distance were in +small parties, probably from the Ogallalla reservation. To Cranston and +Truman, as well as to the captains of the --th, there seemed every +reason to push ahead. It was urged among them that, at last, Truman +should speak, and Truman did, as the captains of the --th positively +declined. "We have known Colonel Winthrop well, sir," said Truman, "and +we believe he will make long marches, perhaps forced marches, to throw +himself between the raiders and the reservation. Just as soon as a big +force gets there, they will scatter for the far north and northwest. The +only chance of punishing them is to get there at once while there is +still something left for them to kill or burn,--something to tempt them. +I fear, major, that unless we make better time we'll be too late for the +ball." + +Chrome listened placidly and without impatience of any kind. Yes, he +admitted, that was what White himself said. White was fuming with wrath +because he wasn't given command of a field column instead of being sent +west to cover the Pawnee Station road. "Small blame to him!" muttered +Cranston. "Why on earth couldn't this tortoise have been left to that +work and old Whitey given to us?" No! Major Chrome meant to advance with +caution and deliberation. If the Indians saw them coming precipitately, +they might be equally precipitate in their flight, and thereby defeat +the general's plans of having Tintop get in their rear, at which +characteristic opinion Captain Canker, of the --th, a man of many moods, +but a fighter, turned gloomily away, and was heard soon afterwards +swearing viciously. It was the old story of the army of lions with a +sheep at their head. + +And then came a calm, cloudless, radiant June Sunday, a day as perfect +and serene aloft as was that June Sunday of the year gone by on whose +high noon there rose the mad clamor of the battle on the Little Horn, +whose pitiless sun looked fiercely down upon the slaughtered ranks of +Custer and his gallant Seventh, and just as the red went out of the +western sky, and the sharp, jagged line of the Warrior Buttes melted +into softer purple, there came galloping in from the distant outpost an +excited trooper, who gave a paper to Major Chrome. The officers were +seated about him at a tiny fire, and Cranston quickly lighted a candle +lantern and the major read. It was from the officer of the picket. + +"Thunder Hawk and Rides Double just in from over toward the Ska. They +say they have seen 'plenty warriors' all day and are sure there has been +a big fight far across the valley. We could plainly see Indian +signal-smokes an hour ago, and Hawk says a heavy dust-cloud rose between +him and the sunset." It was signed "Davies." + +"Now, _there_, gentlemen!" said Chrome, "if we had pushed ahead any +faster Davies couldn't have kept up with us, and this evening he's +commanding the advance. If we had hurried, those Indians would have +hurried too and got clear away before Tintop could have got behind them +and struck them as he has. See how well it worked?" And Chrome glanced +contentedly about him. + +"That's all well enough, sir, so far as it goes," growled Captain +Canker, "but where do we come in on this campaign? What will be said of +our failure to get into the fight?" + +"What a growler you are, Canker! Why, man, in matters of this kind +individual ambition must give place to concerted plans. It's the _team_ +work, the _combinations_ that tell." And here the silent circle became +engrossed in pipes or in whittling, or in the contemplation of the very +ground at their feet, though from under the broad brims of their +scouting hats veteran campaigners exchanged meaning glances. Canker only +growled the more sulkily. + +"What I'm afraid of, Major Chrome, is that Colonel Winthrop may have +wanted us this very day, and forty miles wouldn't have reached him." + +"My heaven!" said Cranston, later that night, tossing upward his +clinched fists and nervous straining arms, "I feel like a man in a +nightmare. One long winter of incessant friction and undecided +clashings with Devers, and now this mad eagerness to be doing something +choked and smothered by this incubus at our head. If to-morrow brings no +relief I want to quit for good and all." + +But the long weeks of indecisive warfare, in camp as in the field, were +destined to have their climax at last. Well for the little battalion, +perhaps, was it, after all, that officers and men alike were boiling +over with repressed, pent-up fury for action, for when the morrow came +it called each soldier into line, and gave him giant work to do. + +Somewhere towards one o'clock in the morning, under the glitter and +sheen of the myriad stars overhead, while, all but the guard, the +troopers slept peacefully upon the prairie turf and, all but a few early +risers, their chargers, too, were drowsing undisturbed by the occasional +querulous yelp of the coyote,--somewhere, far out over the dim, shadowy +slopes to the westward, there rose upon the night the faint sound of a +trumpet call, seemingly miles away. In his extreme caution Chrome had +posted little parties full a mile out from the bivouac, north, east, and +west, and it was while slowly riding to the westernmost of these that +the officer of the guard first thought he heard the sound. A corporal of +Cranston's troop was at his heels. "Yes, sir," he said, in answer to the +low, eager question, as the two reined in their horses, "I could almost +swear I heard it. I couldn't make out the signal though--could only hear +a note or two." They found the picket alert, even excited. They, too, +had heard something very like a faint trumpet call very far to the west, +and Davies waited no longer. "You remain here, corporal. I'll call the +captain." And in a few moments he was bending over Cranston. The latter +was awake in a minute, and together they hastened out afoot, past +snoring troopers or snorting steeds, and stood some hundred yards +outside the inner sentry line. + +"Hay left Scott with 'A' and 'I' troops Wednesday, as we know," said +Cranston, "but it's impossible he could have caught us yet, though he +took the cutoff. That night trumpeting's a trick of the --th. They tried +it twice last summer." + +"I know, sir, and may not that be some of them trying to find us?" + +"Well, hardly. You know Atherton only had one troop left at Russell, the +other five were sent up toward the Big Horn ten days ago. Listen! There +it goes again!" + +Yes, unmistakably, faint, far, but clear, the notes of a cavalry trumpet +could be heard, and, while Davies hurried to rouse the major, Cranston +stirred up his boy bugler. It took a minute or two to make Chrome +comprehend the situation. "Why," said he, "who'd be ass enough to be +marching or drilling with trumpet calls this hour of the night and in +the midst of a campaign?" + +Cranston reminded him how scattered troops of the --th, his own +regiment, had found each other by night the previous year; how Truscott +announced the coming of his relieving column to Wayne's beleaguered +squadron; and Chrome slowly found his legs and faculties, but wouldn't +believe his subordinates. He demanded the evidence of his own senses, +and unwillingly accompanied them to the point beyond the lines, +Cranston's trumpeter sleepily following. It was full five minutes before +again the call was heard, and then it seemed farther away than before, +too far away for Chrome, who still could not believe it. + +"Let my trumpeter hail them," urged Cranston, "then they'll answer." But +Chrome said that wouldn't do; it would wake up or startle everybody in +camp, and so declined. + +"It's all your fancy," he said. "There are none of our fellows with +Tintop, and----" + +"But he knows you, with at least two troops of the --th, are somewhere +out here, sir, and he takes a regimental way of trying to communicate +with you. I beg you to listen one moment more. _There!_" And this time +even Chrome was convinced, and the next instant guards and pickets, +sleeping troopers, and drowsing steeds all came staggering to their +feet, roused by the shrill blast from Cranston's trumpet sounding +"Forward!" + +And half an hour later there came jogging wearily into camp, guided for +a time only by the call, and finally met and escorted by the picket, a +sergeant and trumpeter from old Tintop himself, and the letter they bore +put an end even to Chrome's inertness. In brief, terse words it told the +story. He and his command had had a sharp, stubborn fight with a big +force of hostiles that very day, with considerable loss to both. "If you +had been here with your men," Tintop said, "I believe we could have +cleaned them out entirely." The main body, however, had retired toward +the agency at the head of Spirit River, but a band of Uncapapas and +Minneconjous, that had cut loose from all, had gone on down the Ska, +making for a junction with some of Red Dog's people at the confluence of +the streams. Tintop held that Chrome must be there by this time, but if +detained from any cause this was to tell him to strike, strike hard and +instantly with every man at his back, and that he, Winthrop, would +support as soon as possible. + +Fording the Ska above the narrows of the valley, the faithful messengers +had plunged into the open country to the east, so as to keep well in +rear of the fleeing Indians, then sounding officers' call, the night +signal of the --th, as they came, rode eastward through the starlight, +scouring the broad prairies for the comrade column. + +Half an hour later the command was saddling. Coffee had been hurriedly +served. The packers were lashing their bulky sacks and boxes to the +_apparejos_ and turning loose the patient little burden-bearers. Old +Thunder Hawk, grave and dignified, had been standing in consultation +with Chrome and his troop commanders. He knew the point where the +hostiles were probably in camp, and placed it, as did Tintop's scouts, +close to the confluence of the Wakpa Wakon and the Ska. Thunder Hawk was +of the Ogallallas, therefore not a tribesman of the renegades, but he +was a Sioux, and therefore a brother. He had counselled peace to his +people, and they had rewarded him with taunts and jeers. He had +accompanied the column, formally enrolled as a scout, and he would be +guide and adviser to the white chief, yet shrank from personal part in +the coming battle. He had been asked how many miles it was to the forks +and replied fifteen, "but," said he, "it is much farther by the way the +chief should go." + +"We want to go the shortest way," was Chrome's short reply. "The +quickest way to reach and strike them." + +Already Cranston seemed to divine what the old Indian meant to +counsel,--"The longest way round is the shortest way home," in fact, as +Hawk calmly explained. They knew the white soldiers were coming from +Ogallalla. They expected them from the southeast,--had seen them coming +from that direction and, falling back to the stream before them, were +watching for their coming on the following morn. Their scouts could not +be more than a few miles in front of them now. They would be up and away +the moment they heard of the near approach of the column. Then it would +be a stern chase into the heart of the hills, and there, reinforced by +renegades from all sides, they might be able to turn upon and overwhelm +their pursuers. There was only one likely way of striking them where +they were, and that was by making wide circuit to the north, fording the +Ska far behind their camp, and then, turning up-stream, attack them from +the north or northeast. Chrome saw the point and yielded. When at 1.30 +the little command mounted and moved away it was at brisk, steady walk, +"column half right," with the pole star high aloft but straight ahead. +Ten minutes out and they struck the trot. "Bedad!" said Trooper Riley, +at the rear of column, "Old Chrome Teller's had his nap out at last." + +Many's the time a cavalry column, after an all-night march, finds +itself jaded and drowsy just as a blithe young world is waking up to +hail the coming day. Far different is the feeling when, refreshed by a +few hours' sound and dreamless sleep, warmed with that soldier comfort, +coffee, and thrilled by the whispered news of "fight ahead," the troop +pricks eagerly on. Then the faint blush of the eastern sky, the cool +breath of the morning breeze, the dim gray light that steals across the +view, all are hailed with bounding pulse and kindling eyes. It was just +at the peep of day, after a glorious burst over the bounding turf, that +Chrome's little battalion, some two hundred and forty strong, riding in +broad column of fours, and guided by old Thunder Hawk himself, turned +squarely to the left at the head of a long, dark, winding ravine, and, +diminishing front to two abreast, and steadying down to the walk again, +dove out of sight among the tortuous depths. Thirty minutes more and the +Ska was foaming about the horses' bellies as they boldly forded the +stream, every man whipping out and raising carbine as his steed plunged +in. Then, turning southwestward, close under the bluffs of the Indian +shore, they rode within the reservation lines at last, with the dawn no +longer at the sabre hand, but at the bridle. Peering out through the dim +ghostly light, long miles to the south, were the Uncapapa scouts, +watching for the first sign of the coming of the column that, slipping +away from before them in the darkness of midnight, had ridden in wide +circuit around and across their front, burrowed into the earth at the +first blush of the morning sky, reappeared dripping on the left bank of +the bordering stream, the Rubicon of the reservation, and now was +swiftly bearing down upon the devoted village from a quarter utterly +unsuspected. + +"Just 4.15," said Cranston, glancing at his watch as soon as it was +possible to see. "How do you feel, Davies?" + +"Better than I have for a month, though tired. I told Burroughs no harm +could result. That scratch is almost entirely healed. How far ahead are +they supposed to be, captain? It'll be broad daylight, even in this deep +valley, in a quarter of an hour." + +Sanders, acting as Chrome's adjutant, came riding back from the head of +column at the very moment and reined about alongside his own troop +commander. "I'd rather be here in my old place, sir, and you're in big +luck to have it, Parson. The major says he wants to capture their whole +pony herd, if it takes three troops to do it, and 'C' is to charge the +village and rout out the bucks." + +It so happened that Cranston's troop was bringing up the rear of +column,--only the pack-mules and their guard being behind,--a long +distance behind at the moment, for the pace had been trot or lope for +ten miles until the command reached the shelter of the ravine. + +"I was in hopes there was no village," said Cranston; "that we'd only +strike the wickyups of a war-party. Do you mean village, Sanders?" + +"Thunder Hawk says he's afraid so, sir. He thinks the Uncapapas and +Minneconjous who were rounded up last fall really want to get away and +join the bulk of their tribe who are summering in Canada with Sitting +Bull. If so this was their chance, and they've got their women and +children with them." + +Cranston's face seemed to grow paler in the gray gathering light. +"There's no help for it, then," he said; "but I hate that sort of thing. +How near are we?" + +"Within two or three miles," Hawk says. "He and Bear and two others have +galloped out ahead. We'll know by the time we've reached that bluff +yonder." And he pointed to a magnificent rose-tipped palisade of rock +that jutted out across their path. "That's Good Heart Butte, and the +Wakon comes in just around it. It's ten to one we'll find them right +there. Where're you going, Cullen?" he called to a trooper who came +cantering back past the flank of the column. + +"To hurry up the pack-train, sir. It's the major's orders," sung out the +trooper, only momentarily checking his horse. It always annoys the +officers of a marching column to have messengers galloping up and down +along their flanks, but this was the major's own orderly, and no man +might rebuke but the chief himself. + +"Reckon I'd better get up to the front again," said Sanders, as he +spurred away and left the friends together. Cranston looked back at his +leading four. His veteran first sergeant was commanding a platoon, and +it was a junior sergeant who rode with the head of column, and next him +a stunted little Irish corporal, for by the inexorable rule of the +cavalry the shorter men rode at the flanks of the troop. Midway down the +column the guidon-bearer was just unfurling and shaking out its silken +folds, but without raising it so as to attract the attention of possible +spies. Forward, in the ranks of the two companies of the --th, uniforms +were rare and no guidons visible;--long campaigning in Arizona had +taught the uselessness of both in Indian warfare, but the Eleventh had +their traditions, as had the Seventh, and rode into action with a +certain old-fashioned style and circumstance that lent inspiration to +the scene. Turning out of column for a moment the captain rode slowly +alongside, looking over his men as they passed him by. There was always +something trim, elastic, jaunty about his troop, and they knew it, and +even on long marches in hard campaigns the men would instinctively +"brace up" and raise their heads and square their dusty shoulders when +they felt the captain's eye upon them. He couldn't help seeing how +eagerly and with what trust and faith in their leader many of his sixty +glanced at him as though to question what work he might have in hand for +them to-day. Side by side with the guidon-bearer rode Corporal Brannan. +"Another chance for our prodigy," smiled Cranston to himself. "I wonder +if it will be as warm in Chicago as it promises to be here. More than +one mother there will be kneeling little dreaming, even as she prays for +his safety, what scenes her boy may be battling through this day." The +thought sent a lump into his throat and softened the soldier light in +his eye. "You'd rather be here than at the agency guard, I fancy, +Brannan?" + +"Indeed I would, sir, if we get a fight out of 'em." + +"We'll get it, I think, and speedily, too. Look to your pistols, men. +We're to charge them." + +One could almost feel the thrill that leaped along the column. Every +horse seemed to start and paw and dance as though impatient for the +word. Some faces flushed, others lost a shade or two of tan, as some +faces will in presence of sudden peril or the news of stirring battle +just ahead. Out from the holsters came the blue-brown Colts, each man +twirling the cylinder, testing the hammer and trigger, and counting his +shots, even while holding the weapon steadfastly "muzzle up." Nervous +troopers have been known to kill a comrade or his horse at just such +times. + +"Look to it that each has six shots ready, and remember the old rules +now, men. Stop for nothing unless some one falls. Charge through and +rally on the farther side. Careful about the women and children if there +are any. Return pistol now." And here again came Sanders galloping back, +his face aglow, his eyes snapping. + +"Treed 'em, captain," he shouted, gleefully. "A thundering big, +loose-jointed village, too, tepees and all. It covers a ten-acre lot and +more. Must be a thousand ponies in the herd right around the point. The +major says to come ahead with 'C.'" + +Just here the ground was open and fairly level, the trail cutting across +a bend in the stream. Just ahead towered Good Heart Butte, with its +glistening, gilded crest throwing a black shadow half-way up the +billowing westward slopes. Over at the east across the stream, bold and +beautifully rounded, the bluffs went rolling away, knoll after knoll, +shoulder after shoulder heavily wooded and fringed at their bases and in +the deep ravines, and away over those natural ramparts, far out to the +southeast, still rode and peeped and peered the young braves, but ever +in the direction of the far Ogallalla, marvelling that no sign appeared +of the threatening foe. Not half a mile in front, along a low ridge, a +little group of scouts, Hawk, Bear, and two half-breed Sioux, were +lying, peeping at the village still sleeping in fancied security. +Chrome, riding a trifle heavily, and speaking with just a tinge of +excitement in his tone, came jogging back from the ridge to meet his men +just as Cranston's troop trotted up from the rear of column, parallel +with their comrades of the --th, at whose head rode Canker with that +injured expression on his face that was habitual to him at no time more +than when he thought somebody else was going to get into a fight ahead +of him. He couldn't understand why Chrome should have picked out +Cranston for the dash on the village and retained him for so much less +conspicuous a duty. Everybody, however, who knew Canker knew he had +absolutely no dash at all. Brave and determined he might be, but +Canker's idea of a charge was a steady advance in line, to be instantly +checked and corrected and done over again if the men lost either touch +or "dress." + +"We haven't a moment to lose, gentlemen," sang out the major. "The +village is already waking. Cranston, you charge through and stir 'em up +all you can. Truman, you support Cranston in line, but don't follow in +unless he's checked. Captain Canker, take the two troops and round up +that pony herd; it's half a mile long. Just as quick as you've rallied +beyond the village, Cranston, you face about and stand off any Indians +who rip out on that side. What I want is to drive every pony across the +Wakon and up the Ska valley, where we'll find support. Get them on the +jump and we're all right. Now I'll ride somewhere between Canker and +Truman. All ready now?" "What I want to know, major, is this," began +Canker, always on the lookout for some point or flaw. + +"Well, you can ask what you want as we advance, captain. Are you ready, +Cranston?" + +"Ay, ay, sir," answered Cranston, in the hearty, nautical fashion he so +much liked that it had become habitual with him. + +"Then shove ahead. We're backing you now. Now, Canker, what is it?" + +But no one else cared what Canker wanted. All eyes were on Cranston and +his troop. Quickening the pace he led the way, keeping in fours until +clear of the head of column, then rapidly forming line. "Now, Davies, +just keep them so," he ordered, as he rode diagonally over in front of +the first platoon, "while I gallop ahead and get a peep over that +ridge." + +Another minute and, curveting with impatience even after their +twenty-mile spurt, the handsome bays were dancing in one long line over +the springy turf, Davies and two stalwart sergeants in front of the +three platoons. They saw their soldierly leader whip off his hat as he +rode up the slope, rein cautiously in and peer eagerly over, saw him +gesticulating as he conferred with old Hawk, who lay on his stomach a +dozen yards farther to the front and to the right, where the ridge was a +little higher. Every man knew that just ahead of him, over that curtain, +lay in overwhelming force the mass of their red enemies. Not one of +their rank had yet set eyes on the point of attack. Not one man knew how +many lodges, much less how many braves, would leap into view the instant +they went bounding over the crest; yet not a soul faltered, for, turning +with confident, eager mien, their captain signalled come on, and Davies +ordered "Trot!" + +"It's all right, lads," cheerily rang Cranston's voice, as he rode +circling down to place himself at their head. "The ground's open and +level. We can go through like a blizzard. Draw pistol! Now, not a sound +till I say charge, but take the pace from me." + +Up the gentle slope they go, many horses already plunging and tugging at +their bits, the glorious excitement of the rider communicating itself, +as it must and will where horse and man are in sympathy. Right behind +Cranston rides his second sergeant commanding the second platoon, the +streaming guidon, lowered still, a little to his left and rear. Already +the men are opening out a trifle, for this is to be no charge upon +serried masses of disciplined troops, no crash of cavalry upon cavalry, +where the line which rides with the greater impetus, the closer touch, +the more accurate alignment, hurls the greater shock and weight upon the +foe. Here no naked sabre flames in air,--a useless blade in Indian +battle,--but all through the plunging rank are keen old campaigners +whose eyes blaze from underneath the slouching hat brims, whose muscular +brown hands grasp the pistol butt, who ride with close gripping thighs, +for well they know that once over the crest, "gallop" and "charge" will +follow in quick succession, and there will be but an instant in which to +see and think or plan. Indeed, from a cavalry point of view it really is +not a charge at all, not even a charge as foragers, but rather a wild +dash into and through a straggling, swarming village of Indian lodges, +every man for himself when once turned loose, the whole object being to +carry terror, panic, and confusion to the half-waking warriors, and so +cover the major's main effort, which is to whirl away with him every +pony in the valley. This done the red renegades are crippled for good +and all, and their outbreak is at an end. + +All eyes are on Cranston's gallant troop then as it goes sweeping up the +gentle slope. Already Truman's men are galloping front into line so as +to follow and support. Already Chrome is spurring eagerly forward to +watch the effect. Already Canker, grim, cynical, dissatisfied, but +obedient, is launching his leading troop well over to the right front, +at swift gallop, too, so as to head off such fugitives--Indians or +ponies--as may attempt to scurry away westward; but still the eyes of +all men seem to follow Cranston, for his, after all, is the perilous +part. Already Thunder Hawk and Bear have run back down the slope to leap +into saddle, for the earth begins to quiver and shake under the bounding +hoofs, and with another moment all the valley will wake to the ringing +battle-cry. "My God!" mutters little Sanders, lunging along after his +major, "why ain't I with my own instead of loafing here?" + +And now they see Cranston glancing back over his shoulder and carrying +hand to holster. Up like a centaur he bounds against the sky line, up +after him the long rank of ragged hat brims and blue-shirted, +broad-belted, manly forms, up the plunging line of hard-tugging bays, +their black tails streaming in the morning wind, and then Cranston's arm +flings up aloft; up into plain view streams and flaps the silken +guidon,--the stars and stripes in swallow-tailed miniature that the +troopers loved to see,--and then the thud gives way to thunder, for as +one man "C" troop strikes the gallop with the thronging Indian village +not five hundred yards ahead. + +Scattered over the low level between the receding bluffs and the rapid +stream, loosely covering a stretch of nearly half a mile along the +shores, with their ragged crown of pole tops wrapped in smoky hide or +canvas, their spreading bases littered with the rude crates, +"parfleches" and travois, some fourscore Indian wigwams burst into view +as the line darts over the crest. "Oh, murther! Six to wan at least," +gasps an old growler in the right platoon, and Davies whirls about in +saddle. "Silence there, Donovan!" is all he says. + +And now can be seen wild scurry and confusion. Four or five dingy forms +dart in and out among the tepees. Three or four Indian boys are lashing +in from the almost countless herd of ponies. Startled by the tremor and +thunder, the nearest of these sturdy little beasts, with tossing heads +and manes, have taken alarm, and are already beginning an aimless +scamper that in another moment will spread to the entire flock. Not a +moment to lose, indeed! One more backward glance does Cranston fling as +his magnificent bay quickens his stride, and the long line instantly +responds. One half nod, half smile to Davies, for the Parson rides like +moss trooper of old, with grim set face, despite the eager light in his +keen, blue-gray eyes. + +"Open out now a little, men! Gently, keep your rank!" for the chargers +are tugging madly, straining for a race. A terrified squaw, clasping her +baby to her breast, bursts from the nearest tepee, pauses one instant +as though paralyzed, and then, with unerring instinct, holding her +little one on high, runs straight forward, mutely appealing, straight +for the galloping line. "Open out! Look out for the kid! Let her +through, lads," are the low, hurried cautions. Somewhere on the near +skirt of the village a wild war-whoop rings out on the air, a mad cry of +warning, then bang, zip, comes the first shot from the tepees, whistling +over Cranston's shoulder and skimming a mile away down-stream. No need +of further caution now. Now is the time. Cranston's voice rings like the +bugler's clarion mingling in the order "Charge!" and the welkin rings, +the rocks re-echo to the grand burst of cheers with which "C" Troop goes +tearing, thrashing into the heart of the village, swallowed up instantly +in a dense cloud of dust. For a moment cheer and yell and rallying and +war-cry, mingling with the thunder of hoofs and the sharp crackling of +revolver and rifle, drown all other sounds. Then the screams of Indian +women and children add to the clamor, and, with slashing knives, the +startled braves hew their way out through the tepees. Then the thunder +is swelled by the mad rush of the pony herd away from the driving storm. +The cheer is renewed by Canker's men, yelling and hat waving at the +heels of the herd. The dust-cloud in the village is but a flimsy veil to +the dense volume that goes floating skyward and southward, for practised +hands have prevailed, and the red man's most precious possessions, all +but a scattered few stampeding to and fro among the wigwams, are swept +from his maddened sight. + +And then comes the rally on the flats beyond. Sweeping and circling in +the effort to control their excited horses, the troopers, exultant, come +reining up into line long pistol-shot south of the terror-stricken +village. Off to the west the great dust-cloud is slowly settling to +earth, and through it Truman's men, in perfect order, with carbines +advanced, can be seen moving by the flank, but interposing ever between +the village and the captured herds. Cranston, easily reining his pawing +charger, sits facing the reforming centre of his panting line. The +guidon-bearer is there all right and waves aloft the fluttering folds, +and the boy trumpeter tries to sound the recall, but makes a mess of it, +and throws the forming rank into convulsions of unrebuked chaff and +laughter. The captain is proud of his men and unbends for the occasion, +but, all the same, he eagerly counts the files, looking for this +familiar bearded face or that. Both sergeant platoon commanders are +there. The second and third platoons re-form without much delay and with +hardly a missing face. It's the first that proves to be the last. They +had to charge through the thickest part of the village,--the westward +side, where more Indians were awake and alert, roused by the cries of +the herd guards. The dust-cloud is still settling. Galloping forms still +issue from it and the western skirts of the village, from the clumps of +Cottonwoods, from under the banks, whither the mad dash of some horses +had carried their riders. But Cranston's face loses its smile, a world +of anxiety suddenly replaces it, for shots and yells ring from the midst +of the village still, and the chief of the first platoon is not here to +rally his men. + +"Who's missing there, sergeant?" he calls, spurring over to where a +trooper comes riding heavily forward, drooping a little as he rides. + +"Four or five, sir. Donovan was shot from his horse and the lieutenant +went back for him." + +"_Quick_, trumpeter! Ride to Captain Truman and tell him to whirl about +and help us. _Now_, men, follow for all you're worth!" + +And when the dust-cloud settles on the flats south of the Minneconjou +village, only one of "C" Troop remains to greet the eyes of the +battalion adjutant, sent back with Major Chrome's impatient query as to +why on earth the Eleventh doesn't come on. It is Sergeant Grant, who has +toppled out of saddle--dead. + + + + +CHAPTER XXX. + + +If there be any truth in the saying that a burnt child shuns the fire, +the two officers who led "C" troop in its dash on the village should +have been almost anywhere else, and at least ten of Cranston's men bore +the scars of previous battle, either in the South or on the frontier. +The captain was still reminded of his ugly wound, received the previous +summer, by sharp, burning twinges of pain. Davies, the junior, as we +know, had not yet recovered his strength, and had gone on this sudden +raid, stepping practically from a sick-bed to the saddle. Twice that +morning, as the captain looked with ill-concealed anxiety into the face +of his friend and subaltern, he noted its pallor, despite the expression +of stern determination. Had there been time he would covertly have +warned three or four "stalwarts" of the first platoon not to lose sight +of their lieutenant, and to hold themselves close in support, but there +was no time. Indeed, as the sequel proved, there was no need. Soldier +stories fly fast among the rank and file, and the men of "C" Troop had +heard from many a source how the young officer on his first campaign had +denied himself, stinted himself, starved himself, nearly, in order to +share his scant supply of food with the weak and suffering in his own +troop, and so they welcomed his presence with them now when the column +marched from the cantonment, and spoke among themselves their admiration +of the pluck of the young officer in being so soon again on duty. + +[Illustration: "LOOK OUT! DON'T HARM THE WOMEN." + +Page 431.] + +And so it happened that as the pace quickened that stirring June morning +and the long line swept down upon the rousing, shrieking village, and +the first shot came singing over their heads and the wild cheer leaped +to their lips as the trumpet sounded charge, while many troopers sought +their own course through and among the fire-spitting lodges, Sergeant +Grant with Donovan and two others drove their horses close at the heels +of the lieutenant's. Only squaws or children appeared among the tepees +as they dashed furiously in. "Look out! Don't harm the women!" they +heard him cry, as he held his own pistol hand well aloft, but in another +second a scowling, painted faced flashed one brief instant into view as +their leader went lunging by, a shot rang on the air, and flame and +smoke jetted from the lodge opening. Three pistols barked in answer and +Davies galloped on unhurt, but poor Donovan, with an Irish howl, dropped +his revolver, clapped his hands to his stomach as he toppled out of +saddle. "My God, fellers, I've got it," was his moan, as Davies, a +superb rider, quickly turned his horse about, and in the twinkling of an +eye leaped to the ground to the trooper's side. + +"Quick, sergeant. Quick, men, help me lift him on my saddle, I'm too +weak," was his almost breathless order, and gallantly did they answer +him. + +"Are ye badly hit, Jimmy?" gasped an honest Irish lad, as he strove to +raise him from the ground. But deathly pallor and staring, sightless +eyes were the sole reply. "My God, lieutenant, he's killed outright. +There's no use staying," cried another trooper. "Mount, sir, mount for +God's sake! They'll be on us in a minute." But tugging still at the limp +and lifeless form, Davies did not seem to hear. The fierce clamor of the +charge was receding. Already the second and third platoons had cleared +the village and were reining about and rallying on the flats up-stream. +Already the pony herds, driven full tilt by Canker's squadron, were out +of sight in the dense dust-cloud and could be heard thundering up the +valley. Only a portion of Truman's troop could be dimly seen through the +settling dust, but, worst of all, the warriors recovering from their +panic came rushing from their lodges, and in a moment all would be over +with the struggling little group of blue-coats. Fortunately, they were +at the western skirt of the village, and almost all the rallying braves +were running, rifle in hand, down to the southern edge, the direction of +the chase. Some few, springing upon the scattered ponies left among the +tepees, rode furiously away into the dust-cloud in the hope of +recapturing some of their stampeded stock, and so it happened that, +except for some shrieking women, only one or two Indians appeared aware +of the little knot of troopers still in their midst, but that was more +than enough. Davies's horse, pierced by a rifle bullet, went rolling in +agony upon the ground just as a devoted Irishman was trying to bolster +the almost exhausted officer into saddle, and, luckily for him, Davies +was borne to earth out of the way of the shots that came driving at them +from the surrounding lodges. "Save yourselves," he faintly called to the +remaining men. Already Grant had darted away for help, receiving his +death wound as he rode. Then down came another horse, while Donovan's, +snorting, tore away among the tepees, and then there was help for it. +The little Irishman, Carney, bending low, strove to drag his prostrate +leader, stunned by a kick from his dying horse, around behind the +nearest lodge, when he, too, was sent blindly stumbling forward and +sprawling in the dust, shot through and through from an unseen rifle not +ten feet away, and the gallant fellow never heard the furious cheer with +which "C" Troop came charging back to the rescue. + +It is one thing to dash into an Indian village; it is another to get out +of it. Wounded or unhorsed, any men left behind are doomed to cruel and +certain death. Within another minute, Cranston and his men came tearing +in, firing right and left at every dusky form that appeared. Within a +minute the prostrate bodies were found, and half a dozen men, Brannan +among them, had sprung from their saddles, while the others rode +blazing with their revolvers at the nearest lodges, some bringing their +carbines into play. But even within that minute the scalping-knife had +been at work, and poor Donovan's mutilated head lay in a pool of blood. +Short-lived triumph for the scalper, sneaking to shelter with his +hideous prize, for Cranston's pistol stretched him in his tracks, and +Sergeant Buckner's big charger knocked the foremost of the rescuing +warriors scrambling back between the lodges, where other troopers drove +their horses trampling them under foot. But every wigwam had its +garrison. The village swarmed with maddened braves, who now came rushing +to the scene, and, they on foot and the troopers in saddle, they with +their repeating rifles, the troopers with their pistols or +single-shooters, annihilation of the latter could be but a question of a +few moments. Even before Davies and his brave defenders could be lifted +to the saddle and led away, two or three more of Cranston's horses went +down, and Corporal Bertram was shot through both thighs. Then came the +effort to retire fighting, covering their dead and wounded. There was +only one way to go,--out across the westward flat, where the ponies were +peacefully grazing when the attacking column hove in sight. Even as he +shouted his orders to his savagely fighting troop, Cranston looked back +with keen anxiety. To what pitiless fire must they be exposed in +retreating over that prairie! Yet, with Indians on every hand within the +village, it was manifestly his duty to get out. "Go on with the +wounded!" he cried to the men afoot. "Go on! We'll cover you." And then +Davies slowly opened his eyes and began to look feebly about him. Oh, +if Truman would only come! Every second the fight waged fiercer, hotter, +and more men dropped as they backed slowly away. Down went Buckner's +horse. Down went the guidon, and then, when it seemed as though half the +troop must fall before they could reach the open field, the +half-frenzied, half-joyous cheer of Truman's men rose shrill above the +clamor, and again the dancing, howling Indians dove for cover underneath +the tepees as "F" Troop came thundering through. + +"By the Lord, but that's the hottest place I ever struck!" cried +Sergeant Buckner a moment later, as, slowly falling back now, most of +the men fighting on foot, with the led horses and the disabled soldiers +well beyond them, "C" Troop was making its way southwestward towards the +clump of Cottonwoods and willows, close along the stream. Truman's men, +after their spirited and successful charge, were now rallying well to +the north of the village beyond the ridge, where for the time being they +were safe from the Indian fire. But once more now the warriors in the +village were swarming along its western limit and, flat on their +bellies, firing vengefully on Cranston's retiring line, now three +hundred yards away, and every moment some horse would rear and plunge, +stung by the hissing lead, but only one more soldier had been hit. +Davies, faint and dizzy and only semi-conscious still, was riding slowly +away with Brannan's supporting arm about him. The bodies of Carney and +Donovan were thrown across led horses and lashed on with lariats, and +Cranston had just sent a corporal to tell the horse-holders to move more +quickly when, up the slopes to the north, the men caught sight of a +horse and rider darting toward them from the distant ridge over which +Truman's men had disappeared. Straight as an arrow's flight they came, +heedless of the fact that their course was along the western edge of the +Indian village and barely two hundred yards away. "My God, fellers, it's +little Millikin!" cried an excited trooper. "Ride wide, you young +idiot!" yelled another, but all to no purpose. The boy trumpeter who had +borne the message to Truman and charged with him through the village was +now on his homing flight to rejoin his own. Vengeful yells and +war-whoops rang from the village as warrior after warrior caught sight +of him and blazed away. Throwing himself out of saddle, Indian fashion, +and clinging like a monkey to the off side, the young dare-devil drove +straight onward, the bullets nipping the bunch grass and kicking up the +dust under his racer's flying feet, yet mercifully whizzing by him. +Running the gauntlet of more than half the length of the village, the +little rascal darted, grinning, through the cheering skirmish line, and +tumbled to his feet before his beloved chief. + +"Captain Truman's compliments, sir, and he'll rejoin you at the timber," +was his message, delivered while his quivering horse stood flicking his +long tail at a red seam in his silky coat where one bullet at least had +scored its way, and Cranston bade him take his horse--and no more such +fool chances--and get under cover straightway. + +But now in falling back the skirmish line had made an irregular half +wheel to the southward with a flying pivot toward the village, and the +Indians were darting or crawling out south of the tepees so as to get +an enfilading fire on the line. Cranston's quick eyes saw the danger and +warned his right skirmishers. "Back there! Fall back, you men! Run for +it!" he shouted; and to the jeering rage of the Indians the run began, +the men halting and refacing the village as soon as beyond danger of +flank fire, and then came still another excitement. Even while falling +steadily back, with wary eyes on the smoking lodge lines, the men at the +right became suddenly aware of a rush of several Indians to the point +where the troop had re-formed after its initial charge. "They're making +for the timber," was the first cry, for a few scattered, stunted trees +grew along the low ridge. Then came a yell from the rear, from the +sergeant in charge of the led horses. + +"It's one of our men lying there wounded. For God's sake save him!" and +that was enough. Every carbine along the line was brought to bear on the +stooping, crouching, scurrying warriors who had ventured so far out from +the sheltering tepees. Obedient to Davies's order, Brannan and two or +three men in saddle left the wounded to take care of themselves, and +spurred headlong across the prairie to the scene, and Cranston, catching +sight of the affair at the same instant, waved his cap in eager signal, +while his voice, now hoarse and choked, could hardly be heard in the +order "By the right flank." Truman's column of fours, reappearing at the +instant at the north, but well to the westward of the village, could not +imagine what that distant manoeuvre meant, but it was no time to ask +questions. "Gallop" was the order, and down they came. And so it +happened that barely twenty minutes after the first shot was fired the +comrade troops of the Eleventh were once more united, and, facing nearly +north, were in furious fight with an overwhelming force of Indians, +while Chrome, turning deaf ear to Sanders's supplications, was vainly +striving to round up a galloping herd of several hundred ponies full +three miles away. Picking up the body of Sergeant Grant, saved from +scalping and mutilation by the dash of Brannan and his squad, "C" Troop +was once more wearily retiring toward the timber along the Wakon, and +Truman deploying his dismounted skirmishers to their relief. + +And then, as the horses were huddled at last under the bank, and the +wounded were tenderly lowered to the shade of the willows, and the dead, +with soldier reverence, laid, blanket covered, under a spreading tree, +the captains met to compare notes and sum up the losses. Grave indeed +were their faces, for two of the best sergeants were killed as well as +five veteran troopers, and nearly a dozen were more or less severely +wounded. Davies, unscarred by bullet, lay faint from loss of blood, and +dizzy and dazed from the blow from his horse's hoof. The knife wound, +Red Dog's treacherous work, had reopened as a result of his violent +throw to earth, and there was no surgeon nearer than Chrome's battalion, +now out of sight far up the Ska. "Thank God! they've got few ponies +left," said Cranston, fervently. "We can hold them here until help +comes." + +And help was coming, hard and fast,--harder and faster than Cranston +dreamed, but not to them. Within the next quarter hour, greeted by +frantic acclamations from the hostile village, there rode into view on +the opposite bluff, and came shouting their war-song, brandishing +feathered lance or gleaming rifle, more than a hundred red +warriors,--Ogallallas, Brules, Minneconjous all, with Red Dog himself, +escaped from durance at the agency, madly revelling in their midst. + + + + +CHAPTER XXXI. + + +It was barely sunrise when Chrome's battalion struck the hostile camp +this hot June day, and two hours later the situation was comfortless +enough--for the strikers. Hampered with their wounded and having lost a +dozen horses killed, the two troops of the Eleventh on whom had devolved +the harsher share of the work had been compelled to halt in the timber +and stand off the now exultant Indians. With a hundred mounted warriors +at his back and as many more afoot in the village, Red Dog promptly took +the offensive, sent his yelling braves in big circle all around the +clump of timber in which Truman and Cranston had posted their men, cut +off communication with Chrome's party, now "doing herd guard duty half a +dozen miles up the Ska," as some of Cranston's men derisively said, and +then, little by little, established the dismounted braves in every +hollow, behind every little ridge or mound, and soon had a complete +circle of fire all about the wearied little force. As senior officer, +Captain Truman was now in command of the detachment, but between him +and Cranston there was a bond of cordial esteem and comradeship, and the +command was purely a matter of form. Each had had long years of +experience in frontier warfare, each knew just what had to be done, and +neither regarded the situation as either desperate or particularly +dangerous. It would have been an easy matter to cut their way out +anywhere but for the helpless wounded, who would be butchered to a man +if left behind. Here in the timber, with water in abundance, and +comparative shelter for the disabled men and for the horses under the +banks, they could remain until relief should reach them. This with +Chrome's two troops not very far away and their own old colonel, with +half the regiment, somewhere over in the hills to the southwest, they +felt very well assured ought to be only a matter of a few hours. "It was +big luck," said Truman, "that our little pack-train got in when it did. +Ten minutes later and they'd have been cut off and massacred." + +But the further advantage lay with the Indians that they just knew +exactly where Chrome was and Tintop, too, and knew that neither one was +making the first effort to relieve his surrounded comrades, Tintop +because he was twenty miles away and had no knowledge of what was going +on at the mouth of the Spirit River, and Chrome because he was utterly +rattled by the mounted warriors now beginning to appear in increasing +numbers around him. He had sustained no loss to speak of. None of his +men had been hit. Only two horses had been struck by their long-range +fire. He was, to use his own words, "Really provoked at Truman and +Cranston. They might know he needed them in holding such a big herd of +ponies." Poor Sanders was in a miserable state of anxiety. He begged the +major to let him take ten men and go back to find them, or even to let +him go back alone. He pointed out that they must have had a fierce +fight. He had found Sergeant Grant dead, and heard the fierce battling +in the villages where both troops were engaged, and then he had galloped +through the dust-cloud to Chrome, narrowly escaping death as he did so, +and told him the situation, confidently expecting that Chrome would turn +the ponies loose, rally his men and dash back to the village; but Chrome +did nothing of the kind. "They should have come to me," he said. "We're +the ones in need," then sent him with an order to Canker, who, out on +the right flank, was making the morning blue with blasphemy, and Sanders +poured his tale into Canker's ears, and begged him to come and make +Chrome understand the situation, and Canker replied that nothing short +of a pile-driver could hammer an idea into a skull as thick as Chrome's, +and nothing short of a blast get anything out of it. The man was a born +idiot and had no more idea how to command cavalry in the field than he, +Canker, had of teaching Sunday-school. Oddly enough, many of Canker's +contemporaries said the same of him, but one never knows and rarely +suspects half what one's brethren say or think of him. The valley was +black with ponies, the troopers were black with dust, and a pall as of +night hung over the herd, so dense that the sun rays were swallowed up +in its depths and gave but little light below, and tears of rage and +misery that started from Sanders's eyes trickled down through a sandy +desert on each sun-blistered cheek. He rode back to his temporary chief +just as an Indian bullet had whizzed in front of the major's nose and +made his eyes almost pop from his head. "Don't you see," he urged, +reproachfully, "how very much more they are around us? If Truman or +Cranston needed help they would have let us know long ago." + +After a brisk gallop of three or four miles up the valley of the Ska, +the troopers of the --th had permitted the stampeded ponies to take +things more leisurely, and so it resulted that by six o'clock many of +their number were stopping occasionally to nibble at the grass which +grew here luxuriantly, but there was, all the same, a steady, persistent +movement of the living mass,--an enforced migration at the rate of at +least three miles an hour. Well out on the foot-hills Canker's troop had +thrown its flankers, while the other in long skirmish line, with +appropriate reserves, interposed between the herd and possible Indian +attack from the north. The eastern banks of the Ska along here were high +and steep, and the stream flowed deep and rapid at their base, so attack +from that quarter was not to be dreaded. All the same, occasional +warriors could be seen along the bluff, scampering from point to point, +firing long-range chance shots at the officers or men distinguishable +through the edge of the dust-cloud, but venturing no closer. It was +Chrome's idea, as he frankly said, to keep moving southwestward until +Tintop's scouts should see the huge column of dust, and send forth to +meet and guide him with his prizes to the colonel's camp. Every +quarter-hour, therefore, was taking him farther and father away from his +corralled comrades down-stream, but he refused to see it. "Oh, they'll +come along all right, Sanders," he declared, as he saw how his +adjutant's eyes constantly gazed back beyond the dispersed line of +skirmishers, "and we'll have a regular jubilee when we meet your colonel +this evening. Some day, perhaps, you'll get a brevet for this." + +"Damn the brevet!" groaned the youngster. "Give me a sight of 'C' and +'F' Troops safe and sound, and I'd rather have it than any brevet in +creation." Then a brilliant idea struck him. "By the way, major, suppose +they don't come along, what will you do for breakfast and dinner? +They've got the pack-train--unless the Indians have." + +"By heavens, I never thought of the packs. They were way behind when we +struck the village," said the major, whipping out his watch. "It's 6.30 +now. Sanders, I reckon you'll have to go back and see what's become of +them. Take six or eight men from the reserves here and try to rejoin us +by eight." And glad enough to slip out from the shadows of that +overhanging pall, Sanders went, half a dozen Arizona "jayhawkers" riding +silently with him. + +And that was the last Major Chrome saw of his battalion adjutant, of the +"Eleventh" half of his battalion, and of all but one of the six +jayhawkers referred to, in many a long week. One of the latter made his +way back afoot in the course of half an hour, saying his horse was shot +under him in the valley, which was thick with Indians, and Chrome looked +yellow-white and a trifle undecided. But again the big herd of ponies +from some unseen cause was in rapid motion, loping away southwestward. +All the guards and flankers were on the run, and it was half an hour +before things quieted down again, and when eight o'clock came Canker +sent in word that there were dozens of Indians on the bluffs ahead where +the valley narrowed, and it would be well to halt and round up the herd +right there and wait for Cranston and Truman, and Chrome so ordered. +Presently the dust-cloud began to settle, and by and by, when it floated +slowly to earth again, half a dozen at a time, under cover of their +comrades' carbines, the troopers ventured to the stream to fill their +canteens and souse their grimy heads. There, peacefully grazing again, +were the Indian ponies by the hundreds and their dusty guardians by the +score; but, far as eye could see down the beautiful valley, not a sign +of Sanders, his party, his comrades of the Eleventh, or, worse than all, +of the pack-train, and Chrome and his people were getting hungry. + +There were still with him the sergeant and trumpeter who had brought the +despatch from Colonel Winthrop, and to them again did Chrome appeal for +an estimate of the probable distance and direction of the colonel's +camp. With an officer and twenty troopers as an escort they rode to the +summit of the nearest bluff on the western shore, and with their +field-glasses studied the landscape for miles. Far to the southwest lay +the placid valley, unvexed now by sign of hostile force of any kind, and +the sergeant indicated, some fifteen miles away, the butte near which +they made their crossing of the stream the previous day. Far to the west +and northwest rolled a wild, tumbling sea of prairie upland, wave after +wave of gray-green earth, spanned at the horizon by the black, +pine-covered range of the Medicine Hills, pierced nearly due west from +them by the deep slit the sergeant said was Slaughter Cove. To the +northwest they could trace the general course of the Wakon valley, +though the stream itself was nowhere in view, even among the broader +levels toward its mouth, for everything down the Ska beyond a point +three miles away was hidden from their sight by the bold cliffs that +jutted out almost into the foaming waters. "Somewhere off there, fifteen +or twenty miles," said the sergeant, pointing towards Slaughter Cove, +"the colonel is probably marching." He had pursued the warriors into the +hills after their heavy fight, and wouldn't let up on them till he ran +them back to the agency, but the camp where he had left his wounded, his +wagons, and supplies and their guard couldn't be more than twenty miles +farther up the valley. Of the Indian village they had attacked at +sunrise nothing could be seen. Eastward and south westward the opposite +bluffs cut off the view, and such Indians as watched them did so from +the concealment of the ridges and ravines. Chrome's triumphant rejoicing +of the early day was rapidly giving place to uneasiness. In the absence +of rations even martial fame is an empty thing. It was a bitter pill to +have to go down and consult with Canker, but he did not know what else +to do. Noon found him, watched by the lurking Indians among the bluffs, +still guarding his captured herd and waiting for Sanders to come along +with the pack-train. But there was no dinner for Chrome's command that +day, and, by nightfall, even the ponies were gone. + +Barely two hours after the triumphant appearance of Red Dog and his +reinforcements on the scene of the morning's fight, Truman and Cranston, +making the rounds together, came upon Davies among the rifle-pits on the +north front, instead of resting with the wounded under the banks. He was +still pallid and ill, but, having dressed and bandaged his wound and had +a refreshing dip in the stream, he had made his way out among the men. +He shook his head gravely in answer to Truman's suggestion that he ought +to be lying down. "We _are_ lying down all around here, sir," he said, +"and I can get more rest out here than under the banks." + +But Truman did not know that, weak as he was, the Parson was dividing +his time between the wounded and the effectives, ministering to the one +and cautioning the other, for the latter could not always resist the +temptation to fire at such Indians as appeared in view within five or +six hundred yards, and ammunition might be scarce before the siege was +ended. Grimly, but without uneasiness, the command watched Red Dog's +scientific manoeuvres in his "surround," the mounted warriors being +gradually replaced, except on the open prairie, by the bereaved +villagers. "Oh, we can stand off double their force easily," was the +confident saying of the old hands. "We have food, water, ammunition, and +a smart chance for more fighting," so what more could soldier ask? There +was even jollity in the little command, despite the losses of the early +morning. There was keen and lively interest in Red Dog's movements when, +by nine o'clock, it was seen that he was calling most of the mounted +warriors around him and could be heard haranguing them at the farther +end of the village. None of the lodges had been taken down,--there were +no ponies to haul them away,--but those nearest the southern end were +now deserted of women and children and used only as shelter for a few +lurking braves. Presently on every side the Indian prowlers opened sharp +fire on the troops, a long-range and hap-hazard fusillade, for what with +logs and earth, sand, trees, and river-banks and little wooded isles, +the defence was well covered, only some of the horses being where they +could be plainly seen. The bullets came zipping overhead or spitting +vengefully into the sand, doing little harm, yet teaching the troopers +to lie low; and then in the midst of it all Red Dog rode magnificently +away from the north end of the village, across the open prairie, heading +for some point far up the valley of the Wakon, and sixty braves rode +valiantly at his back. He was a good half-mile away from the defence, +but the troopers let drive a few shots, "for old acquaintance' sake," as +one of them expressed it, but without disturbing the pomp and dignity of +the procession. It was soon out of sight, and then the encircling fire +slackened. "Now, what on earth are they up to?" was the question. + +And in less than an hour after his disappearance there came new +excitement, and the men set up a cheer. Sharp firing was heard toward +the south. What could it mean but that their comrades of the --th were +fighting their way back to join them? Then four or five horsemen +appeared along the southward slopes, darting and dashing about as only +Indians ride, evidently firing at something between them and the Ska, +and Truman ordered a platoon to mount and drive away the Indians on that +front so as to open a road for the new-comers to enter. This was +accomplished with little loss, for the Indians broke from before the +spirited dash, but rallied, of course, far out on the flanks, and again +poured in their rapid fire from their repeating rifles, and then after a +while the troops could be seen slowly retiring, firing as they fell +back, some afoot now, and some leading and supporting in saddle others +who were evidently wounded, and finally, as these latter came within a +few hundred yards of the rifle-pits, the cry went up that it was +Lieutenant Sanders and some of the --th, and so it proved. Four more +wounded to care for, and Sanders, faint and heart-sick, among them. + +"I tried to get old Chrome to drop that herd and come back to you," he +moaned, "but it was useless. He wouldn't have let me come--only to get +him something to eat. Damn this having to fight Indians under office +soldiers anyhow!" And with this pithy protest on his blue lips the +little bantam fainted away. + +Then Chrome wasn't coming. Truman looked grave and Cranston angry. "No +matter. We can lick them endwise by staying just where we are," he said. +"Relief is bound to come to-night." + +Later that afternoon, under the shadows of the willows, there gathered a +little group, perhaps a score of officers and men, all who could be +spared from their stations in the rifle-pits, listening to the solemn +tones of one of their number reading the service for the burial of the +dead. Never did Cranston take the field without Margaret's stowing in +the corner of his saddlebag a little prayer-book of her church, and this +the captain had handed silently to Davies. Side by side the forms of the +two sergeants and their comrade troopers were laid in the sandy pit. +Reverently the bearded, war-worn men uncovered and stood with drooping +heads while their grave young officer read the solemn words. Here and +there along the big circle of their surrounding foe the faint distant +crack of the rifle punctuated the sentences as they fell from soldier +lips, and every moment a bullet whistled overhead. Somewhere down the +valley, borne on the wings of the breeze, the wail of Indian women +mourning their braves slain in the earlier battle echoed and almost +overwhelmed the solitary voice that rose in soldier tribute to the +soldier dead. Then with one brief, fervent prayer, the solemnly murmured +"Amen," carving no line, raising no stone, but tamping deep and heavy +the earth upon their blanket-shrouded forms, without the trooper +volleys, with only the faint soft winding of the trooper's last earthly +trumpet-call singing "lights out" to sadly listening ears, the little +group dispersed, each man going to his post. + +An hour later still and the bluffs were throwing long shadows across the +valley, and the crack of Indian rifles and occasional loud bark of the +carbine close at hand seemed growing more frequent, and watchers at the +outskirts became conscious of increasing excitement among the warriors +up the valley to the west as well as over to the south, and listening +men, laying their ears to earth, declared that there was tremor and +vibration, and dull distant thunder of myriad hoofs, and over in the +village there was hurrying to and fro and growing clamor of squaws and +children, and dusky women could be seen clutching their little ones and +speeding away towards the hills down-stream, while others began rapidly +tearing down the painted lodges of hide or cloth, and such Indians as +had no mount, but were skulking under the banks or among the bluffs +across the stream, could be seen leaping and crouching and racing back +toward the village, and presently there went up a shout from the +lookouts towards the upper Ska: "Big dust-cloud coming. Must be the pony +herd again!" And men began springing to their feet and scrambling out of +their shelters, and staring around them and waving their hats and +shouting congratulation and encouragement, and ducking suddenly as more +bullets came whistling in, and from a low rumble the sound rose to +distant thunder, and from that to nearer uproar, and Truman and Cranston +made a rush for their own herds, ordering the men to side line and +hopple instantly, for the surviving horses were excitedly sniffing the +air, pawing and snorting, and then there hove in sight up the valley the +wiry leaders of the herd, galloping wearily, behind them a dull, +dust-hidden, laboring mass, the main body of the Indian prizes swept +away at sunrise. But who and what were these darting along the flanks of +the coming host, lashing furiously in and out, ever guiding, +controlling, commanding even while hurrying on? No blue-shirted, +slouch-hatted, broad-belted troopers these! No cheering comrades of the +stalwart --th, but in their stead few, but far more skilful, the most +accomplished herdsmen in all creation,--Indians by the dozen. And then +at last, amid the yell and clamor and shot and shout and furious rush of +riderless steeds, came explanation of the mysterious foray up the Spirit +valley. Circling far to the west and south, riding like the wind when +once well out of sight of watching foes, the Ogallallas had swung around +between the Ska and Winthrop's distant column, threaded ravines and +depressions well known to them from boyish days, and finally creeping +behind the curtaining bluffs into full view of the great herd drowsily +nibbling in the broad, sunny valley, had burst with maddening yell and +waving blankets and banging rifles, with sudden fury from their covert, +tearing by the weary pickets, stampeding their horses, and so had gone +thundering down upon the startled herd and, skilfully encircling it from +the south, reckless of rallying cry and rapid shot from Canker's men, +had sent the whole pack, with many a cavalry charger too, whirling +before them in wild triumph down the echoing valley, back to the waiting +village whence they came. "Red Dog versus Chrome Yaller," wailed little +Sanders from his bed of leaves. "Who wouldn't have bet on the bay?" + +Vain the major's valiant effort to mount and follow. Forty at least of +his horses were swept away in the rush, his own among them; vain +long-range shots and Canker's vivid blasphemy. Black in the face with +rage, he mounted such men as had managed to restrain their horses and +went charging after, leaving Chrome to the care of his fellows. Vain the +rapid and telling fire opened upon herd and herders by Truman's men as +they came within range. Down went two or three yelling, painted +warriors, down a dozen ponies here and there, but on went the leaders, +plunging breast-deep into the stream, and, followed by the whole mass, +forded the Wakon in a flood of foam and splash and spray, losing only a +trivial few in the glorious effort, and then, sweeping well around the +rifle-pits of the command, were welcomed with mad rejoicing and acclaim +in the heart of the thronging village. + +Instantly now did they send forward their own skirmish line,--scores of +Indians crawling, snake-like, through the grass, and from all sides +pouring rapid fire in on Cranston's front to keep him and his fellows +from attempting to mount or attack, which, indeed, would have been a +hopeless effort. The timber rang with the fierce volleying, and in the +excitement and exposure that resulted four more of the little command +were shot, Truman himself receiving a painful wound in the side. For +half an hour there was yell and clamor and furious crash of firearms, +but all this time the lodges were rapidly disappearing, the Indian +households were piling their goods and chattels, their babies, the old +and the wounded and the helpless, even their dead, on travois and drag +of lodge-poles, and then, guided by old chiefs, whole families were +flitting away down the Ska, and finally, as darkness lowered on the +valley, and the last lodge was down and gone, and the last warriors drew +away from their front, and silence and peace settled down upon the +exhausted command, Cranston, laying his broad hand on Davies's shoulder, +looked into his tired eyes with a world of soldier trust and admiration +in his own, and said, "If there was such a thing with us as promoting a +man on the battlefield, my lad, this day's work would win it for you." + +And before the other could answer, far up the valley of the Wakon hailed +a trumpet call. Over from the bluffs across the stream another answered, +and man after man sprang from his blanket to give a welcome cheer. "We +might have known those beggars would have been in no such hurry to get +away," said Truman, faintly, "but for old Tintop's coming with the whole +command." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXII. + + +They were discussing matters a week later at old Fort Scott, where two +little companies of the Fortieth kept watch and ward over the women and +children of their many comrades in the field. Barely mid-June now, yet +how all plans and projects for the summer had been changed. Guarded by +Chrome's "infantry," as his unhorsed troopers were jocularly described, +most of the wounded were being carried by short stages into Pawnee +Station, where a field hospital had been established. Truman and Sanders +were with these, but Winthrop, assuming command of all the cavalry that +was available at the forks, had gone on in pursuit of Red Dog's renegade +band. With him were Cranston and Davies; with him, too, were Hay and +Hastings. Only one officer of the Eleventh remained at Scott, the +captain of "A" Troop, in arrest awaiting trial. It was a time of sore +anxiety to wives and children, to some two or three sweethearts who had +happened there, and they showed it plainly. It was a time of strange +suspense and trouble to Captain Devers, but he hid it well. Few men +could better have portrayed the chafing, indignant soldier, robbed of +the right to lead his men to battle, than did Devers when his comrades +took the field. Hastings as first lieutenant went in command of "A" +Troop, but Devers had importuned head-quarters with letters and +telegrams imploring to be permitted to accompany the column. He asked +for only temporary release from arrest. He courted--he _demanded_ the +fullest investigation of his every act. He longed to meet his +accusers--his defamers, rather, and overthrow them before a jury of his +peers, but, as the court could not proceed now until the campaign was +over, why hold him chafing here? It was all capital, it was even +touching, but it "did not work." The general himself was far away in the +distant Big Horn; his adjutant-general could not act, and the +lieutenant-general in Chicago would not. Then, as Devers had been in +close arrest much over seven days, he demanded "extended limits," which +were readily accorded him. When "A" Troop marched away its captain's +only solace had been a long, closeted conference with Sergeant Haney, +who, as a consequence, had to gallop many a mile to overtake the troop. + +The news of Red Dog's escape and the bolt of the Ogallallas from +McPhail's bailiwick created consternation at Scott. With the cavalry and +all but one company of White's battalion gone from the agency there was +ample opportunity, but it had not been foreseen. Then, three days later, +by way of Pawnee, came the details of the fierce fighting on the Ska, +of Truman's wound and Sanders's, of Chrome's catastrophe, the only humor +in the situation being the contemplation of how Captain Canker must have +sworn. Then came hurried letters, pencilled in the field, and Leonard +himself took hers to Mrs. Cranston, and then went in search of Mrs. +Davies, whom he found at Darling's quarters, though Darling was not +there. The ladies were at luncheon, and the adjutant contented himself +with sending Mira's missive in. There was a letter for Captain Devers in +the well-known hand of Sergeant Haney. This was sent him by the orderly. +There were others for others, which were duly delivered and brought at +least momentary joy, but Mrs. Cranston's eyes were dancing with delight +when Leonard met her half an hour later. + +"I'm going to Mrs. Davies," she said. "I want to read her what the +captain says of her husband's conduct all through that fight of Monday +afternoon. He says he never saw anything calmer or braver in his life." + +"Yes, I remember our chaplain's indulging in some prognostication to +that end," said Leonard, gravely; "but, Mrs. Cranston, did you want to +see Mrs. Davies?" + +"Why, yes, assuredly." + +"Well, she isn't home,--I think you'll find her at Mrs. Darling's." + +But Mrs. Cranston's humor changed. She decided to wait and see her +later. She did not care to go to Mrs. Darling's; neither, as it +transpired, did she care to return home, at least not yet awhile. There +were people capable of believing of Mrs. Cranston that she had no +especial interest in Mrs. Davies, personally, and no genuine desire to +communicate to her the tidings which Mrs. Davies, perhaps, could hardly +appreciate. Mira had not once set foot within Mrs. Cranston's door since +their return from the cantonment, and there had been next to no +intercourse between them, and yet on this almost joyous afternoon +Margaret had eagerly seized upon this pretext of leaving Agatha Loomis +alone with Mr. Langston, who had returned that very day from some +investigation at Kearney and Cheyenne, and, after half an hour with Mr. +Leonard, had hastened to her door. He was still in the parlor when the +lady of the house came smilingly in an hour later,--she had been +visiting Mrs. Leonard the while,--but there was constraint in the air. +The boys were out with their ponies. There was no one to entertain him +during her absence but Miss Loomis, and Miss Loomis apparently must have +failed, for Langston's face had grown ten years older, and the moment +Mrs. Cranston left the room, on household cares intent, he must have +taken his leave, for when she returned from an inspection of the larder +in order to see if it would justify an invitation to stay and dine, the +parlor was empty. Langston had gone back to Braska, Miss Loomis to her +room. I regret to have to record it of Mrs. Cranston, but during the +following week she made more than one effort to induce her friend and +kinswoman to say what had happened to put so summary a stop to Mr. +Langston's visits, and that she wrote some peppery things to her +husband, the captain, in summing up her conclusions; she also looked +some, and I fear said some, to Miss Loomis herself, for one day, going +suddenly into Agatha's room, she surprised that young lady in the act of +packing her trunk. There ensued a scene which neither cared in +after-years to say much about. There were tears and reproaches on one +side, if not both, but Agatha's determination could not be changed. She +had made up her mind to leave Fort Scott, return to Chicago, and go she +did,--but not without Mrs. Cranston. + +In less than ten days there came a long letter from the captain. He and +his troop were destined, he said, to long months of scouting in the +distant Northwest. The general had told him as much. They might again +have to go to the Yellowstone, and it would be November before he could +hope to see the inside of a garrison. "So," said he, "stow away the +goods and chattels, leave them with the quartermaster, pack your trunk, +and take the boys and Agatha for another visit to the old folks at +home,--who are most eager to welcome you." When the Fourth of July came, +the Cranston boys, in the added glory of all their experiences at the +cantonment, were once more the envied centre of youthful attention at +Chicago. + +"We will have no more fighting this summer," said he, "for the Indians +have scattered," and "C" Troop did not; but there was abundant +opportunity for usefulness and distinction for "the prodigy," as +Cranston now generally referred in his home letters to Corporal Brannan, +whose devoted mother was almost the first to visit Margaret on her +arrival and overwhelm her with proffers of hospitality and with +questions about her boy. "C" Troop was detailed as escort to the +commanding general in a long tour he made to the Yellowstone Park, and +the prodigy's letters to that fond mother became more and more a cause +for rejoicing. Already had she learned to thrill with pride over the +accounts of his bravery and good conduct in the affairs at the agency +and the fighting on the Ska, but that, said she, was only as she knew he +would behave. From babyhood her boy had been conspicuous among his +fellows for absolute fearlessness and desperate courage, and her memory +was charged with a wealth of corroborative detail which that of his +fellows seemed to have lost. Those who were confidently appealed to were +polite and sympathetic, as became them when responding to a social +magnate of such prominence and influence, but they looked far from +confident and said satirical things when once away from her presence; +but then, no one knows how a boy is going to turn out. A few weeks and +the general himself would be home, and then, fresh from the +contemplation of the soldierly prowess and graces of her son, what could +he do less than have him commissioned a colonel or something and ordered +in on the staff, and then what store of fatted calves would not be +slaughtered in honor of this her son who was lost and was found, and who +had returned to her bringing his sheaves with him? If mother-dreams +could but come true all men would live and die immaculate, ennobled, +magnificently brave, steadfast, and commanding. And far away among the +fastnesses of the Yellowstone, living in close communion with nature, in +a glorious round of days, full of high health, courage, and hope, with +ambition fired, purpose strengthened, with freedom from care or +temptation, small wonder was it if Corporal Brannan's letters warranted +all her expectations. But those were the halcyon days of cavalry life, +not the typical. Our truest heroes are those who bear with equanimity +the heat and burden of the long, monotonous round of garrison life with +its petty tyrannies, exactions, exasperations, and bear them without a +break or murmur. It is a poor, poor soldier who cannot wax enthusiastic +on a full stomach--and a good horse--when serving in the field. + +But while "C" Troop was doing escort duty, and its captain's wife and +little ones were safe at home, "A" Troop, long handicapped by the +frailties of its commander and notorious for bad drill, was now striving +to win a new name under the lead of Bachelor Hastings and its grim +Benedick second lieutenant, whose fair young bride could hardly be said +to be safe at Scott, restored to the sympathetic circle of which +Mesdames Stone, Flight, and Darling were the guiding stars. Old Pegleg +seldom left his piazza now except to go to bed or dinner, and did not +much care what was said or done around him so long as he was left in +peace. The post surgeon had bolstered him up again, after a few days in +bed, so that he could sign papers, and while he retained the nominal +command of the garrison, Leonard was its virtual and actual head, for +when July came only one detachment of the Fortieth remained with the +band as guard. + +But that band was a host in itself, and why should women weep and mope +and mourn--with music and the dance so easily accessible? Mrs. Leonard's +letters to Mrs. Cranston became vividly interesting just about this +time. The hops were resumed, as well as the drives with friends in town. +Mr. Langston came no longer, but the bank and the Cattle Club poured +forth their homage. Messrs. Burtis, Courtenay, and Fowler were out twice +a week at least. Then Mr. Willett's beautiful team reappeared, and +presently Mr. Willett himself, and he had brought still another step +from the distant sea-shore. It is only the first step that counts, and +Mira had taken that. Mrs. Leonard thought she was learning another. She +danced as beautifully, dressed as divinely, smiled as bewitchingly, and +talked as inanely as ever. Mr. Leonard disapproved of Mr. Willett, but +that could not keep him off the post. When mid-July came Willett was +there almost every day. Twice he remained overnight, sleeping at the +sutler's. The chaplain had been to talk with Mr. Leonard, and had tried +to talk with Mira, but she fled from him in tears. What he said to her +was dreadful!--dreadful! and she should tell Mr. Davies about it just as +soon as he returned. "I," said the chaplain, gravely, "shall not wait +till then. I shall have to write and tell him now." + +Meantime Captain Devers occupied his quarters in gloomy state and twice +each day patrolled the garrison limits with the air of an injured man. +At other times he was writing long letters and reading those which came +to him by every mail, but none came now from the faithful henchman +Haney, far away on the Indian trail with Tintop's pursuing column. Red +Dog was known to be with a remnant of his band somewhere in the wild Bad +Lands to the north of the Ska, and the last heard from the colonel was +that he, with six troops of the Eleventh, was scouring the southern +limit of those dismal features of our frontier landscape, looking for +Red Dog not far to the north of Antelope Springs. Devers had been +truculent in his demand for speedy trial up to the third week in +July,--up to the twentieth of the month in fact,--but that day brought +telegraphic sensation. Tintop had found and struck Red Dog's camp at +dawn on the sixteenth, guided thither by Thunder Hawk himself, had +struck hard and heavily, scattering not only Red Dog's people to the +hills but destroying their village and burning another that from its +foul condition seemed to have been standing there all winter. Red Dog +himself was killed, fighting like a tiger, and "A" Troop under Hastings +and Davies had won the distinction of heading the charge, doing most of +the work, and losing more in killed and wounded than the others +combined. Hastings was shot through the arm and crippled. Corporal Boyd, +one of Devers's pets, was killed, so were two troopers, and Sergeant +Haney had received what was reported to be a mortal wound. Leaving a +small guard with his invalids and invoking aid from Major White's +infantry battalion, now garrisoning the stockade where the new post was +to be built, Tintop had gone on into the hills to continue the work of +breaking up the bands, Davies commanding "A" Troop, and not until the +thirtieth was he heard from again. + +But meantime Lieutenant Archer, of the general's staff, who had +accompanied the cavalry column, was staying with the wounded, and had +removed them from the smoking, malodorous neighborhood of the ruined +villages, and could be found, he wrote, with his charges at Antelope +Springs. This was news at which Leonard's eyes flashed. It was tidings +at which Devers turned very pale. The latter begged for authority to go +at his own expense and at once, and without a guard, though it involved +five days of buckboard driving or saddle work from Pawnee Station, to +join his wounded men. "Debarred," said he, "from the right to battle +with my men, I pray that I may at least be permitted to minister to +their needs,--they who have so gloriously maintained the honor and +credit of their troop." But the adjutant-general at department +head-quarters smiled sarcastically and said that this, with others of +Devers's letters and telegrams, deserved to be framed. August came, and +Devers again clamored to be brought to trial or relieved from arrest, +and two evenings later, as he sat in gloomy state upon his piazza, he +was amazed to see the adjutant turn grimly into the gate and calmly +stand attention before him. + +"Captain Devers," said he, "I am directed by the post commander to read +to you this despatch: + + "'COMMANDING OFFICER, FORT SCOTT: + + "'Notify Captain Devers that his letters have been received, + and that the court for his trial will convene not later than + the fifteenth instant. + + "'By command of General ----.'" + +And when it is remembered that he had persistently demanded prompt trial +it is surprising that the accused officer looked completely +disconcerted. The fact of the matter was Captain Devers had no idea that +the members and witnesses could be brought together again before +mid-September, if then. That night he sat up writing until very late, +and sent two messages away by wire. He was sorely troubled now, but +could he have seen the group gathered solemnly about the dying sergeant +far away at Antelope Springs, and heard his faint, whispered words as +Archer took them down, Devers would have stood aghast. + +A charming little informal dance was going on at the fort one August +evening about a week later. The Leonards would not attend them now, but +with five such belles as Mesdames Stone, Darling, Davies, Flight, and +Plodder, to say nothing of other lesser lights of the garrison galaxy, +there was no lack of womanly beauty, only the cavaliers were short. One +officer, an infantry subaltern, represented the martial element, the +other men were civilians. Courtenay had brought out two Eastern friends; +Burtis was on hand as usual, and Willett, metaphorically, at least, at +Mira's feet. The poor girl actually lacked the sense to see that his +infatuation was such that he had no eyes, ears, or senses left for any +one else. Possibly she gloried in his devotion. At all events he danced +with her again and again and watched her jealously when she danced with +others. At last towards eleven o'clock Leonard suddenly appeared at the +door of the dancing-room, holding an open letter in his hand, and +beckoned to his comrade. "I'll have to trouble you to come with me to +the quartermaster's storehouse," said he. "There is a chest there that +must be opened to-night." And though the lieutenant was surprised, he, +in common with everybody else in the Fortieth, had learned that Leonard +rarely opened his mouth except to speak by authority, and so went with +barely a word to the ladies left behind, nor did he return in ten +minutes, as he said he would. The old non-commissioned officer left in +charge of the "A" company stores was awaiting their coming with the +quartermaster sergeant. He looked troubled and perplexed when Leonard +handed him the key and bade him unlock and open Sergeant Haney's chest. +"I ought to have the orders of the company commander, sir," he began. "I +mean Captain Devers." + +"Captain Devers is not the commanding officer," said Leonard, quietly. +"Here is the written order of the owner, Sergeant Haney, and the +instructions of Lieutenant Hastings. The actual commanding officer of +the company is with it in the field." So no more was said. + +Down in the depths of the chest, among a roll of clothing, carefully +covered, but just as described in Hastings's letter, was found a leather +writing-case. "Lock the chest again," said Leonard, as this was handed +to him. "That is all we mean to disturb." And then he took the case to +the office, while the old trooper went to tell his captain what had +happened. Morning brought, as was to be expected, a letter from Devers +protesting against this new indignity. No property of his officers or +men should have been opened save in his presence, as he was but +temporarily suspended from his functions, and as to him the men would +look for the security of their effects. Lying in wait for Leonard as he +returned from the office, Devers demanded to be told what had been taken +from the sergeant's chest, and then went white as chalk when Leonard +calmly answered, "Certain stolen property, sir, including a map and +some written memoranda which will be required before the court-martial +that meets next week." + +But this was not all that was found in Brannan's case, the lock of which +had long since been forced. There was a valuable gold watch presented to +Chaplain Davies by the officers and men of his brigade at the close of +the war. There were letters which Leonard barely glanced at,--some +silly, sentimental trash addressed to some one's darling Bertie by his +devoted Mira. All this, opened in presence of a regimental comrade and +certified to by him, was replaced, carefully sealed, and then the case +was locked in the commissary safe. "That goes with me to Omaha Monday +next," said Leonard to the much-mystified officer, "and you may be +needed to corroborate my testimony. Keep all this to yourself." + +And, despite a vigorous cross-questioning, the youngster managed to hold +his own against even Captain Devers, whose suspicions, however, were now +fully aroused, and who obtained permission from Colonel Stone to visit +the telegraph-office at Braska, and there wired to a legal friend in +Omaha and to certain addresses in Washington, and on Friday came +telegraphic instructions permitting Captain Devers, for the purpose of +consulting with his counsel, to repair to Omaha at once, and he took the +midnight train. On Monday, as required, Leonard left, taking his prizes +with him, and on Wednesday the court met, with all but two members +present. Colonel Atherton inquired of the judge-advocate if he were +ready to proceed to business, and that officer replied that he was, but +that certain witnesses were still to arrive and the accused did not +seem to be in the building. A messenger to the hotel brought back word +that the captain breakfasted there that morning, had paid his bill and +gone out, his baggage being taken away by an expressman. This strange +news fluttered about from room to room at the headquarters building. The +members of the court fidgeted in their full-dress uniforms and smoked +and chatted and strolled about, calling on old acquaintances, and the +adjutant-general sent orderlies to and fro with inquiries. + +And then came the sensation of the year among military circles in the +old frontier department. The grave, dignified, soldierly chief of staff +appeared at the court-room door with a telegraphic despatch in his +twitching fingers. "Gentlemen," said he, "your services in this case +will not be needed. The accused is beyond our jurisdiction." + +There was a moment of intense silence, a look as of awe on many a face, +then came the question from one who knew not Devers: + +"Killed himself?" + +"No! Worse than that,--resigned under fire, and got it accepted." + +Later that day there were shown to certain officers some scraps and +letters that had been left in the wastebasket in Devers's room; among +them was a telegraphic despatch from Butte, Sunday, repeated from Scott +on Monday, apparently after Leonard left. It was to this effect: + + "Haney split. Secure box. McGrath found. Send hundred at + once." + +And while detectives hastened Butteward in quest of its signer, Howard, +only malediction followed its recipient, now speeding eastward fast as +steam could carry him. + +"By heaven!" said Leonard, in strange, unnatural excitement, "the +Eleventh have said all along that Devers could never be cornered, and I +believe they're right." + +But on the following morning the adjutant's black eyes glowed with even +greater wrath and amaze. They had gone to the station,--several of the +officers,--to meet the in-coming train on which certain of the witnesses +were expected, and there another despatch was handed, this time to +Leonard himself. He tore it open, read it, and then, handing it without +a word to Truman, turned bitterly away. + +And Truman, wondering, read, looked dazed an instant, then--understood. + + "Gone--with Willett--last night." + + + + +CHAPTER XXXIII. + + +All manner of men were gathered at the station of the Union Pacific in +Omaha that August morning. Some of the members of the court, thus +unexpectedly absolved from a disagreeable duty, had obtained brief leave +of absence and were going to spend a few days in the East before +returning to their commands. They were there to take the train. Others +had come to see them off; others, like Truman and Leonard, to welcome +the coming witnesses. Far up into the fastnesses of the Big Horn had +gone the couriers from the frontier forts, bearing brief orders that had +come by telegraph, and even Winthrop's command, having an almost idyllic +time of it hunting and fishing in the mountains, was required to yield +up some of its officers and men at the beck of the law. A long ride had +these fellows to Fetterman and thence over the Medicine Bow to Rock +Springs. Davies was of this party, but Cranston and Corporal Brannan had +a ride still longer. The bulk of the army of witnesses, oddly enough, +was marshalled by Lieutenant Archer at the field hospital at Pawnee, and +this distinguished young staff officer was coming "with blood in his +eye," as wrathful a man as lived and swore in army blue that long, +eventful summer. To think that he who so prided himself on plainscraft +should have been so utterly hoodwinked by Captain Differs, of all men, +was worse to him than gall and wormwood, but he came now fairly snapping +with righteous indignation, fresh from another study of the famous field +over which he rode with the last man to part with Lieutenant Davies the +night of the tragedy of Antelope Springs,--Devers's long-missing +sergeant, McGrath. + +Separated from his young officer in the gathering darkness by the +eagerly searching Indians, detected by them and shot through the leg, he +had taken refuge in a ravine until dawn, and then the cries of the +coyotes had attracted him to the scene of the massacre, and the sight of +his mutilated comrades had unmanned him utterly. Feeling sure the +Indians were still in the neighborhood, he had determined that if seen +he would adopt the plan told him by an old scout long months +before,--that of feigning insanity and boldly seeking their company. +Indians regard the insane as specially guarded by the Great Spirit and +look upon them with superstitious fear, but McGrath little dreamed how +narrow would become the border between the real and the feigned. Fleeing +in dismay from the sight of his slaughtered comrades, he had followed +the ravine to the timbered valley, lurked there two days and nights in +constant fear and nervous dread and suffering, and finally swooned from +exhaustion. When he waked with sudden, awful start, two Indian faces +were bending over him. Then he had fallen into the hands of the foe at +last. + +But he was in better luck than he had dared to dream. They were of a +peaceful band, wanderers from the fold of Red Cloud who had sought the +lower valley for peace and protection. They had a hunting lodge and led +him thither, and their squaws gave him food and ministered to him as +best they knew how in the mad fever that followed. McGrath never +realized how long he was ill, but when he came to himself it was bitter +cold and he was living somehow among these strange people,--a small +village of them in the heart of the Bad Lands. Not for months did he +recover strength. Not until May did he try to ride or walk beyond the +limits of their camp. They were poor; they had no spare ponies, and they +made him understand he was many, many "sleeps" from his friends with +hordes of marauding hostiles intervening, and so induced him to remain +with them in hiding until the rebellious tribes were driven from the +reservations and Red Dog himself fled to their fastness. Then again had +McGrath to remain in hiding, secreted by his humble friends, and there +he lay when Winthrop's bugles sounded the charge and his own old troop +came dashing in. He was so worn, ragged, and changed that he had +difficulty in making even "A" Troop know him, but, once they did, their +joy was boundless, for McGrath was a popular man, and the meeting +between him and Davies was something long to be remembered, for each +believed the other dead. Then, as the wounded were led back to the Ska +and he recovered strength and was happy in seeing his Indian protectors +lavishly fed, clothed, and rewarded, he began to talk of the events of +the campaign of the previous summer and to inquire why the captain was +away now; and then Hastings and Archer took him in hand, and later poor +stricken Haney, conscious of the approaching end, begged to see him, and +then came Haney's broken confession. No wonder Hastings and Archer were +confident they had Differs "done for" now. + +These, the wounded and convalescent, were still at Pawnee hospital +awaiting telegraphic summons from the judge-advocate, but Archer was +already on the ground, and Cranston and Davies and others, reunited, +presumably, the previous morning at Rock Springs Station, were due at +Omaha by this very train for which all hands were waiting. So was +another principal witness, who, however, might decline to testify +because of the danger of self-incrimination. The detectives sent to +Butte the previous day went too late. Langston's trailers were ahead of +them, and deserter Howard, in irons, was being forwarded under charge +of a corporal of infantry from Ransom, arrested two days before in a +restaurant at Butte. + +"Verily," said Truman, "there is quite a batch of interesting evidence +trundling over the Union Pacific to-day," and this was before he had +read that significant despatch from Scott. + +But when he read and had pondered over it a moment, the captain suddenly +left the company of his fellows and strode away after Leonard, now +gloomily pacing the platform a dozen yards away. + +"Man alive!" said he, "if they left last night what could they do but +take this train?" + +Leonard nodded, darkly. Then again, after a moment's silence, Truman +spoke. + +"Could he have been so mad, do you think, as not to have thought of +that,--of some one being on that train?" + +"No one at the fort knew. How was he to suspect when up to yesterday we +all supposed Davies would come down the Yellowstone." + +Truman shuddered. "She ought to be in now," said he. "Just think of the +tragedy there may have been." + +The train was late,--half an hour late, said the official at the +train-despatcher's office. No, there hadn't been any accident or +excitement up the road that he'd heard of. He really didn't know what +caused it. Did she reach and leave Braska on time? Yes, the delay +occurred this morning somewhere,--began after leaving Kearney. + +Then there had been no excitement, no tragedy farther up the road. There +was comfort in that, said Truman. But there had been a sensation at old +Fort Scott, such as these counsellors little dreamed of. + +For a brief time after their return from the cantonment Mrs. Davies and +her new friend, Mrs. Plodder, had kept house together. In those days +when so many of our officers were almost constantly in the field, it +became quite the thing for some of the ladies left at the garrisons to +club together, share expenses, and thereby economize. Old No. 12 was +still at Mira's service, but she couldn't bear the house, she said, and +so the ladies moved their furniture into an abandoned bachelor den next +to Flight's, and for a few days all went merrily. Then there came a +servants' squabble, and their cook differed with Mrs. Flight's +maid-of-all-work, and, refusing arbitration, was impudent to her +employers. Mrs. Plodder was an Amazon in whom there was no weakness. She +discharged the cook and sent her back to Braska. Then they "messed" with +Mrs. Flight, and about this time the hops began and the visits from town +and the drives, and Mrs. Plodder presently conceived it to be her duty +to remonstrate with Mira, who wept and stormed, and after a time, as +Willett's visits began to grow frequent, Mrs. Plodder said she would not +remain under the same roof with Mira, and moved over and kept house with +Mrs. Darling. The Cranston household had gone East some time before +this, and, as Mira could not bear the chaplain's worthy wife, and Mrs. +Stone had become estranged, and Mrs. Darling, with Mrs. Plodder, had +decided that she was openly encouraging Mr. Willett's devotions and told +her so, and as Mrs. Leonard held aloof from them, one and all, it must +be admitted that the poor brainless child was restricted in her choice +of friends and intimates. Davies had had but brief time in which to give +her instructions, and there is no use in setting forth their purport. He +asked Mrs. Cranston, if a possible thing, to give his wife the benefit +of her experience and aid her in any way Mira might need, and Margaret +warmly assured him that she was ready at any time and glad to be of any +and every service to Mrs. Davies, but even in so saying she felt well +assured that there was little hope of being of use. What made the matter +worse was that this summer Congress adjourned without making provision +for the pay of the army, even while expecting it to perform rather more +than its customary functions; but here Cranston stepped in and insisted +on placing at Mrs. Davies's disposal a certain sum in Courtenay's bank +at Braska. Davies could return it when Uncle Sam resumed payment, and so +Mira had been provided with a check-book and taught its use. She was, at +least, to have no financial anxieties. The regiment had to remain long +in the field and the Cranstons went home, as Davies expected and had +advised that Mira go with them to Chicago. Even if her people could not +make her welcome at Urbana, she could board there with former friends in +perfect comfort, and be ready to rejoin him by and by. Many and many an +army wife and mother had similarly to live a Bedouin life that summer. +One cavalry regiment, the --th, for instance, was scattered from +Cheyenne to Chicago, facing riotous mobs one month and chasing Indians +all over the upper Yellowstone the next. One thing Davies firmly yet +gently strove to impress upon Mira,--that her intimates at Scott were +not at all the women with whom a poor and debt-burdened officer's wife +should foregather. He begged her to be guided by Mrs. Cranston and Mrs. +Leonard, and wrote a brief line to the chaplain, commending Mira to his +care, and then he had to go. + +But once back at Scott, where she could sport the lovely toilets with +which her hopeful aunt had supplied her, Mira went the way of the +empty-headed. Admiration, adulation were to her as the breath of life. +So long as she was perfectly innocent of wrong intent how could +people--how dare people rebuke her? She told Willett the horrid things +Mrs. Darling, Mrs. Plodder, and Mrs. Stone were reported to have said, +and he replied that it was all because they envied her her beauty and +were jealous of the attentions she won. She almost told him what the +chaplain said, but that sent the burning blushes to her forehead, yet +she dreaded what the old soldier of the cross might have written to her +husband. She knew he would surely condemn the renewal of her association +with Mr. Willett, but so long as he wasn't there to say so, and so long +as she intended the association to be purely platonic, as a rebuke to +all who had rebuked her, she proposed to assume that no objection +existed. + +The news that he had been sent for and was coming in as a witness in +Captain Devers's court startled her inexpressibly, despite her conscious +rectitude. She told Willett that very evening, as they were driving +slowly among the willow-wooded islands, and he looked imploringly into +her eyes, and Mrs. Flight and Mr. Burtis on the back seat could see that +he was talking eagerly, earnestly, pleadingly, and that her eyes were +downcast, her cheeks aflame, and still they did not take alarm. "She's +too much in love with herself and her own good looks ever to do that +foolish thing," said Mrs. Flight to those who asked her why she didn't +warn her. Willett himself, so Burtis afterwards declared, had said in +answer to some friendly words of remonstrance on the Sunday night +preceding the meeting of the court, that the girl was as heartless and +cold as a stone. No one need worry on her account. It was plain to +Burtis that the young fellow was well-nigh insane about her, and he had +sent a letter ten days before to Langston urging him to come and look +after his kinsman; but Langston was far away at the time and never knew +that Willett had quit the sea-shore and gone back to the charmer in +mid-continent,--never knew, indeed no one ever knew until too late, that +it was she herself who baited the line that drew him there. + +There was a gathering at the post on Tuesday evening and all the few +society men were out from Braska. The ladies, in their summer toilets, +sat on the verandas and told one another and their visitors from town +how dreadful it was to be so long bereft of their husbands and +protectors, and Mrs. Flight and Mrs. Darling said they wished with all +their hearts the court had called some witnesses from the infantry. +Surely they knew as much about the matter as some of the cavalry who had +been summoned. There was Mrs. Davies who could expect her husband within +the week, while it might be months before they set eyes on theirs. They +seemed to take comfort in harping on this theme for Willett's benefit, +He sat near Mira's side, as she reclined languidly in her wicker chair, +his eyes glowing, his hands and lips twitching at times, listening and +occasionally addressing low-toned, eager words to her. "Mr. Davies will +have finished his testimony by Thursday at the latest," said Mrs. +Flight, decisively; "I heard Mrs. Leonard say so to the chaplain +to-day," and here she glanced meaningly at Mira; "so what's to prevent +his being here early Friday morning? I know I'd let no grass grow under +my feet." + +And Mira could only say she surely hoped so, but she couldn't tell. The +last letter from him was away up near the mouth of Powder River +somewhere, and he thought then they mightn't be home before November; +but she was plainly unwilling to discuss the matter, and with evident +relief took Willett's arm when the musicians presently were heard tuning +up at the hop-room. + +But it was noticed then how flushed and excited she looked, how quickly +she seemed to tire of the dance and went out on the veranda for cooler +air, and presently they were missed and were gone from the room the rest +of the evening, so that the hop broke up early, and the anxious women +hurrying homeward were incensed to find her in a dark, vine-covered +corner of the veranda of the quarters, Willett in close attendance. "I +didn't feel like dancing," was her sole explanation. "I begged Mr. +Willett to go back to you, but he wouldn't." And Burtis, later, had to +shout angrily for him before he could get him into the wagon and off for +town. + +She slept that night in the room adjoining Mrs. Flight's, and slept but +little, said that lady later. She seemed ablaze with nervous excitement +and utterly unlike her usual self,--placid and satisfied except when +subjected to reproof. She had gone thither right after the departure of +the men and shut her would-be mentor out. Mrs. Flight afterwards +declared she saw the coming catastrophe and was determined to avert it +if a possible thing, but Mira said she had a dreadful headache and +wouldn't talk. Mrs. Flight, considering that she had a duty to perform, +began, however, from outside. The result was a quarrel and Mira's +announcement from behind the door that she would not speak to Mrs. +Flight again. When Wednesday came she refused to leave her room. It had +been arranged that three of the ladies were to drive to town with the +sole cavalier left at the post, a lieutenant of the Fortieth, and Mira +was one of them, but they supposed she had abandoned the plan. To the +surprise of everybody she appeared, satchel in hand, arrayed in sober +travelling garb, and asked the driver of the ambulance to help their +servant bring out her trunk, and took her seat in the Concord while it +was being tossed into the boot. It was Mrs. Darling who ventured to ask +what it meant, and Mira calmly explained. She had determined to go and +meet her husband in Omaha. They were amazed, yet what could they do or +say? It was after luncheon-time and she merely urged that they should +drive rapidly so as to get her to the bank before it closed, and then +she left them, saying she would remain at the hotel at the station until +her train arrived. It was due soon after midnight. + +Before returning to the post the others, Mrs. Darling and Mrs. Plodder, +called upon Mira at the hotel, for they were oppressed with strange +fears. They strove to remonstrate with her, pointed out that Mr. Davies +would be with her in three days. Mira said it might not be for a week. +Well, wasn't it unusual for a lady to be going alone? Not at all. She +would sleep all the evening in her room, and the landlord would place +her in charge of the conductor. Surely Mrs. Plodder had come from Omaha +alone. That was different, said Mrs. Plodder, in rueful recognition of +the fact that a plain woman is exempted from annoyances which a beauty +has to suffer, yet would suffer indefinitely rather than be plain. "But, +_dear_ Mrs. Davies, is it not very expensive?" said Mrs. Darling. "Not +when I have passes all the way to Chicago," said Mira. So they had to +return to the fort at dusk, though Mrs. Plodder did suggest staying all +night and seeing her off. They had not set eyes on Willett. They both +entertained, though neither expressed, a hope that he was not to be of +the party. They asked for Willett casually when they met Mr. Burtis. +Burtis said with perfect truth that he was out at the ranch, that he had +hoped to be here to meet the ladies, but was called out by urgent +business. + +It was dark, and they were tired, hungry, and worried when they got back +to the post, and the lieutenant on escort found the ladies strangely +preoccupied and silent. The first thing on reaching home was to go in +search of the chaplain. As a devoted friend of Mr. Davies he should be +informed of this odd freak of Mira's, and, if there were any grounds for +their fears, there was still time to avert what would bring such awful +scandal about their social circle. They assumed that they were coming +back with sensational news, forgetful of the fact that garrison servants +helped pack Mira's trunk, and garrison eyes had seen it start with her +for town. The chaplain's wife knew all about it before two o'clock, and +the chaplain would have known it, too, had he not been long miles away +at the death-bed of an old soldier turned cow-boy. Not until after the +east-bound train was whistling far down the valley and the dawn was in +the sky did an inkling reach him. Somebody said he thought the least Mr. +Willett could have done was to come over and see how his best "puncher" +was getting on, and somebody else replied, in low tone, that any one +could see Willett had no thoughts for anything or anybody outside of +Fort Scott, whereupon somebody Number 1 replied that Willett had been at +his "shack" most of the afternoon, packing some things and burning +others, and had taken the midnight train at Duncan Switch, ten miles +west of Braska. + +And even while the news of his going was bringing strange comfort to the +good old man, who rejoiced that this wolf in the sheepfold was even +temporarily out of the way, there came a messenger from the distant post +and a packet was handed in for him. Some letters and a note from his +wife. + +"Expecting you home during the evening, I did not send these, but they +may be important. Mrs. Davies suddenly made up her mind to go to Omaha +this afternoon, and was to take the night train at Braska." Here the +other letters dropped to the floor, and the reader's eyes filled with +sudden consternation and dismay. Not until his ambulance had been +hitched and brought to the door did he cease his restless pacing to and +fro. Kneeling a brief moment at the bedside of the unconscious and +fast-failing sufferer, he bade his fellows hurried adieu and drove with +speed to town, a long eight miles. It was then broad daylight, but he +stirred up the sleepy telegraph operator and asked about wiring after +the train. "Grand Island's the place to catch 'em," said the operator. +"They breakfast there at seven." And the chaplain flushed and glanced +keenly at the man. Why should he speak of catching anybody or anything? +Was all the valley already aware of this shameful flight? The hotel +stood not a stone's throw away. There must be no unnecessary scandal +about this business. He needed to see the proprietor, and roused him, +too. Boniface came down anything but smiling, yet thawed a trifle at +sight of the man whom all Nebraska seemed to know and swear by. +Certainly, Mrs. Davies spent the evening at the hotel in her room, and +he put her aboard the sleeper at 12.20, the moment the train came in. He +had wired to Pawnee and secured her section and checked her trunk to +Omaha. She had her tickets, she said. Was Mr. Davies aboard or--anybody +else to meet her? Not that the landlord knew of. The porter showed her +in and said her section was ready. Everybody else was sound asleep, +apparently, but there were some soldiers in the forward cars. Some of +them got out and had a cup of coffee at the stand, and "piled aboard as +she pulled out." They had a prisoner, a deserter, in manacles. Then the +chaplain wired to Duncan Switch, and the answer came that Mr. Willett +left there, bound for Omaha, at midnight, and then he wired the +conductor of the train at Grand Island, and later to Leonard at Omaha, +then sat him down to wait and watch and pray. + +The sleeping-car, said the conductor afterwards, was fuller than usual +that night. Some officers got aboard at Rock Springs, and sat up quite +late, chatting with others who had boarded them at Butte and Pawnee. +There were five officers in all. One of them, who had not taken a berth, +went forward about ten o'clock and made a "roost" in the day car. The +conductor heard the others talking about it, and how the lieutenant +would never spend an unnecessary cent, and some of them thought he was +foolish, and others said he was right, and they respected him for it. +These gentlemen slept late, saying they would rather breakfast after +they got to Omaha. The lady who came aboard at Braska was the first one +up in the morning. She was astir with the sun, and came back from the +dressing-room as soon as the porter had made up her section, looking as +fresh and fair as the day. Presently a gentleman joined her,--a man he +had often seen on the road,--who travelled, as most cattlemen did in +those days, with a pass, and who boarded them at Duncan Switch, and went +at once to his berth. He seemed very much surprised to meet the lady, +but sat down and talked with her until we whistled for Grand Island, and +there, said the conductor, "as I bustled off the train, the operator +handed me a despatch just at same minute that the brakeman came to tell +me we had a cracked wheel on the smoker. One look at the wheel told me +that the car must be left behind, so I ordered out the passengers while +another car was being put on." + +But the telegram took more than one look. It puzzled him, said the +conductor. It was sent by the chaplain, a man he knew well, and in brief +words it said, "The lady in Section 7 is the wife of Lieutenant Davies, +Eleventh Cavalry. She needs escort to Omaha, where Lieutenant Leonard +will meet her. If any army officer is aboard, show him this and +introduce him. She should not leave the train." + +"Now, there were officers on the car, but they were not yet up," +continued the official. "Of course I supposed at once that she must be +out of her mind, and that was the trouble. Just at that moment I caught +sight of the young lieutenant who had spent the night in the forward +car. He was a tall, slender fellow, with thick, close-cropped brown +beard and clear blue eyes, and he had got that poor devil of a prisoner +and his guard together, and was fetching them back along the track to +the coffee-stand that happened to be right opposite where the sleeper +stopped. 'Will you read this, and see if you know what to make of it?' +said I, handing him the despatch, and then, as he stopped to read, my +brakeman asked me some question, and I turned around to answer, and +there, just stepping off the Pullman, was Mr. Willett, looking back and +giving his hand to the lady herself. The handcuffed prisoner was just +opposite them at the moment, between two soldiers, and then the next +thing I knew I heard an awful scream, and the lady had covered her face +with her hands and fallen back on the steps, right at the feet of an +officer who was just coming out, and the prisoner thought he saw a +chance, perhaps, and gave a spring and dove like a rat under the car, +the guard clumsily following, and Mr. Willett stared about him one +instant, with a face that turned the color of chalk, then he too gave a +sort of stifled exclamation, 'My God!' and sprang up the steps and over +the platform of the day-car and was out of sight in the flash of an eye. +We heard shouts of 'Halt, halt, or we fire!' from the guards on the +other side of the car, and then two quick shots a little distance away, +and another wail or cry from the lady, and then I felt some one brush by +me, and the lieutenant sprang to her side, lifted her in his arms as he +reached the steps, and carried her, without a word, into the car by an +open window, where she cowered and sobbed and shivered and moaned, and +he all the time bending over and striving to soothe and calm her." + +But when that train drew up at the station at Omaha an ambulance +received the bleeding, pain-distorted form of the prisoner Howard, shot +through the leg in his mad effort to escape. Leonard and Truman, +scanning every face as the passengers stepped off the cars, waved their +hands in greeting to the knot of officers on the sleeper platform, and +Leonard sprang aboard, inquiry in his snapping black eyes. They made way +silently for him to enter, and then he knew not whether to believe his +senses. + +"Leonard," said Davies, quietly, "my wife came on to surprise me at +Omaha, not expecting me this way. I supposed she'd already come in with +the Cranstons. She was hardly well enough for the journey. Will you +kindly order a carriage?" + +She was driven away in the very dust of the ambulance that was trundling +one poor wounded fellow to hospital, the conductor lamenting that a +woman so young and lovely should be thus afflicted. No one else aboard +that train could dream from Davies's words or manner that any other +explanation for her coming existed than that she was simply hastening to +Omaha to meet him. + +But no claimant appeared for the handsome leather bag and hat-box and +umbrella left in Section 10. + +A few days later when the witnesses were scattering back to their +stations, or going on brief leaves of absence before so doing, Cranston +took his soldierly-looking corporal, the recruit of the previous year, +to gladden the eyes of the mother so eagerly awaiting him in Chicago; +but before starting they had been summoned to the hospital where Howard +lay, where "Brannan" formally, though still with sorrow and reluctance, +identified him as Powlett. Leonard was there with the leather +writing-case and its contents, at sight of which Brannan's last barrier +of compunction fell, and Davies stood by the bedside, looking pale, +haggard, and ten years older, and Colonel Rand, the inspector of the +department, and another sad-faced fellow, Langston. And Archer was +there, and Hastings, when Sergeant Haney's formal confession was read. +There was little sensation over it. Everybody seemed to know just about +what it would be. He said nothing to directly accuse Captain Devers of +conspiracy, but Haney had been his first sergeant for five years, and +the devious ways of his troop commander had necessitated the existence +of a right bower who could swear straight and strong to what the captain +thought should be established. They got to know each other thoroughly, +and each lived in mortal dread of some betrayal on the other's part. +There was a squad of six or eight men in the troop which practically +"ran things," and Haney was its head. For years these men had triumphed +over all efforts to break their line, just as Devers had baffled those +which would have cornered him, but they could see plainly that the +captain was nearing the end of his "tether," and his downfall meant +theirs. The catastrophe of Antelope Springs brought matters to a climax. +Half the men in the troop heard Major Warren's orders to Devers, and all +knew he had slighted if not disobeyed them. This, if proved, meant ruin +to the ring, and the plan to shift the blame on Davies's shoulders,--to +make the investigating officer believe the troop had marched right down +along the ridge within supporting distance, and that Davies had become +terror-stricken and had hidden instead of instantly communicating with +his captain, was the result. Devers, indeed, boldly announced that as +his theory and explanation of the whole affair, and Haney, Finucane, +Boyd, and the intelligent Howard were there ready to swear to it and +save the captain the trouble. So long as Davies and McGrath never turned +up to combat the accusation all would go well. The captain didn't tell +them in so many words they must swear to the ridge trail as the one they +pursued the evening of the tragedy, but he did not oppose it. He asked +them for their recollection of the matter and made his map, as did Mr. +Archer his report, accordingly. + +Then when it was found that Recruit Brannan as well as certain old hands +resented the idea of Mr. Davies being held accountable, they had to +muzzle him. Brannan declared he would warn the lieutenant the moment he +returned to the troop, so they made up their minds that he must be +discredited, if not ruined. Howard said that there was in his +writing-case a sealed packet that contained evidence that would send him +to State's prison and "kill" him in the lieutenant's eyes; and this, +indeed, was no idle threat, for Powlett, fearing detection if he either +sold or kept the watch he had torn from Davies's pocket after the +cowardly assault, had sealed it in one package and tied Mira's gushing +letters in another, and long before had induced the unsuspecting boy to +promise to keep and guard them for him as a sacred trust. Only as a last +resort, said Haney, were they to exhibit the proofs of Brannan's +apparent criminality. Meantime, by sending him to the agency or tempting +him with liquor they hoped to keep him harmless. + +But Howard soon began striking for leadership. He held the secrets of +his captain and two of his sergeants and was safely out of the troubles +that involved him at home. (He had been wise enough to confide these to +no one and to make poor Brannan swear to preserve his secret.) He was +beginning to hear from relations and receive money from them. He began +to put on airs over everybody, captain and all, and though Haney hated, +and was jealous of his influence, he dared not offend him. They knew it +was he who was seen prowling about Davies's quarters, but they could not +account for it, and strove to make it appear that Brannan was the +culprit. And then he began "sparking" Robideau's daughter in town, and +had become moody, nervous, excitable; talked about mysterious spies and +trailers, and then, suddenly and unaccountably, deserted after a spree +in Braska that had cost him much money,--after a mad scrape in which he +had terrified Mrs. Davies and thrashed Mr. Willett. Who he was or what +he was Sergeant Haney didn't know, but that he was a villain with a +history and a capacity for further devilment was certain. Haney had +still more to tell. The captain had sent for him and told him of the +adjutant's being in conference with the chaplain and Mr. Davies, and he +felt sure it was about the Antelope Springs matter. He was sure they had +his map, the one on which Archer based his report, and that this would +some day be brought up in evidence against him. It was locked for the +night in the second drawer of the adjutant's desk, said he, and Haney +understood. The drawer was chiselled that night and the map and papers +taken, but not until the robbery was known all over the post did the +captain see the map and see that it wasn't his original at all, but +simply a copy. Except for information obtained in the memoranda, they +had robbed the desk to no purpose. + +Howard was gone before this, but there was Brannan's writing-case in +Haney's possession, why not throw further suspicion upon him? and so +there were the papers hidden in the hopes of further damning him should +he ever appear as a witness against them. For all this and much more the +poor dying sinner craved forgiveness, and, hearing promptly of the +confession, through Finucane, who had fled with horse, equipments, and +everything, Howard, in hiding and in want at Butte, wired to his +captain, hoping to extract more money, for Devers had been a thrifty, +and was regarded a wealthy, man. + +And then when this confession had been made known to the wounded +sufferer the chaplain spoke. "You see the case that is building up +against you, Powlett, and just as soon as you are able to sit or stand +the court will meet for your trial. You have assault with intent to +kill, at Bluff Siding if not at Urbana, highway robbery, theft, +desertion, conspiracy, and kindred crimes to answer for; would it not be +infinitely better that you should confess fully and at once? Even the +men whom you have so bitterly wronged join in no clamor against--they +would even spare--you." + +But Powlett was a villain game, and answered only with a sneer. It was +that packet of Mira's letters handed to Davies with his father's watch +that supplemented Brannan's story and told him all. Mira could not live +without adorers, could not resist the longing to flaunt her victims in +the faces of other girls, and Powlett was a conquest indeed until his +rascality at the institute became known. Then he had to flee, but such +was his infatuation that he returned in hopes of seeing her. She did +meet him in secret, for it was sweet to see his despair. She refused to +meet him again, however, and then he charged her with faithlessness and +demanded to be told the truth about Davies. If that fellow reappeared as +her lover he swore to kill him, and then she bade him go and never see +her more, with the result already known. And at Bluff Siding in the +crowd and confusion he might have killed Davies but for Brannan's +watchful eye and warding hand. That was the last pound that broke the +back of Brannan's feeling of friendship and gratitude. He would no more +of Powlett, yet remained true to his pledge of secrecy. Mira's dream of +joy and triumph as an army bride met its first rude shock when, under +her window at Scott, she heard stealthy footsteps and the soft, low +whistling of a familiar air, the signal with which he used to summon her +to their trysting-place at home. The mad fool thought either to recover +his ascendency over her or revenge himself by tormenting, and then, when +her husband was sent to the agency and he saw opportunity of meeting and +terrorizing her, he was infuriated with new jealousy by her flirtation +with Willett. Even there at Scott he must have written and made further +threats, for the freshest and newest of the precious collection of her +letters found in "Brannan's" case referred to something of the kind. +Driven to desperation, she wrote that she would expose him to her +husband and Captain Cranston if he again presumed to address her, and +finally wrote this last: + +"My husband will be here within forty-eight hours and I have fully +resolved to confess all to him: that you, who made the cowardly assault +and left him for dead at Urbana, and have been guilty of such abominable +crimes, are here, in this garrison, a soldier in his troop. If you +remain it is at your peril. On my knees I swear it." And with this +melodramatic conclusion Mira had really frightened him. He had sense +enough to know that, with all the other complications in which he was +involved, this exposure was more than he could stand. He made other +efforts to see and plead with her, but they were fruitless, and his own +melodramatic _coup_,--his last appearance, as he supposed, before her +eyes, then followed. After that, desertion. + +Davies read but two of these missives, the first and the last. He +restored them to her without a word. She was lying in the seclusion of +her shaded room at the hotel when he returned from the hospital, the +chaplain with him. They spoke few words together on the way, and parted +on the corridor, near her door, for there Davies turned and faced his +friend. + +"And you must go back to Scott to-night, sir?" + +"Yes." The chaplain was still grasping his hand and looking into the +sad, stern face with anxiety and tenderness and unspoken longing in his +eyes. "I will see to all you have charged me with." He placed his other +hand upon the broad shoulder before him. "My son, though I never met, I +knew, your father, and that told me what to look for in you." And now +the rich, deep voice was tremulous, and the kind old eyes were dim with +unshed tears. "The hand of the Lord has been laid in heaviness upon you, +but 'those whom He loveth He chasteneth.' Even could I lift the burden +of your sorrow as easily as I raise this hand, I should falter, because, +as I believe in God, so do I believe that through trial even such as +this your light shall yet shine before men so pure and strong that men +themselves shall be purer and stronger because of it." + +There was a moment's pause. Davies stood with bowed head. Cranston, +coming into the hall-way, stopped at sight of them and tiptoed back, +motioning to others to wait. Then the chaplain spoke again,-- + +"You will write--as soon as--you have decided?" + +"I have decided," was the low, calm answer. + +"And----?" + +"Yes, we go to-night. She is not too ill to move, and once at Urbana--no +one need know." + +"Do you mean----?" began the chaplain. + +"I mean," said Davies, looking calmly and with dry, tired eyes into the +chaplain's face, "that she is utterly alone in the world,--homeless, +friendless. Who knows but that her story may be true, despite +indications? What would be her fate if I were to fail her now? It was +'for better, for worse,' chaplain. I have tried to do my duty in the +past. God help me to do it to the end." + +The tears were running down the old clergyman's face when, around the +corner, he came suddenly on Cranston and his friends, and they seemed to +understand. + + * * * * * + +There was a new post commander at Scott when the first snows fell that +winter, for honest Pegleg had retired and Leonard had a colonel after +his own heart, and the Fortieth sang songs of praise when the campaign +was over, and moved into quarters and renewed acquaintances with their +families and "assurances" with the Eleventh when they happened to meet +along the Union Pacific, and said they sorely missed them at the post, +as probably they did, but the Eleventh didn't care to go back. It was +too near civilization, said Truman. Tintop had his warriors under his +own wing after the close of the fighting season, and they were having +grand times at Ransom. There this winter were most of the familiar names +and faces. The Cranstons, Trumans, and Hays, Boynton, Hastings, and +Sanders, battle-scarred heroes, most of them, and dozens of others in +the congenial circle; but Margaret Cranston sorely missed her boys, who +were big enough now to be at school, and far too big to be staying +around garrison. She missed, too, their fair teacher and her friend, but +Agatha Loomis firmly told her she had decided not to return to the +frontier now that she no longer had her pupils. To the unspeakable +indignation and grief of her cousin, she had chosen what Margaret termed +"a life of drudgery" as a teacher in Mrs. Forester's seminary for young +ladies, only a few miles out of Chicago. Even there had Langston +followed, but in vain. That, however, was a subject on which Margaret +had promised to dilate no more. She had done her best, she said, for +Agatha. She had striven to aid and abet this distinguished and worthy +gentleman in his suit. She thought the difference of some twenty-five +years between his age and her cousin's a feeble consideration as against +his sterling worth and wealth. Agatha owned that she respected and +esteemed him highly,--looked up to him, in fact,--but as a maid of +twenty looks up to the man of forty-five. She did not love and therefore +would not marry him. The whole regiment seemed to feel for him, but he +came to them no more. He was East again, and seeking resignation in the +one safe solace, hard and constant work. + +But the Davieses, where were they? Time and again was that question +asked. He hurried back for the grand chase they had in September when +Chief Joseph made his memorable rush cross continent. He left Mira at +Urbana installed in lodgings near her father's home. He went back to her +in December when the troops returned, and then came orders announcing +that Lieutenant Percy Davies, Eleventh Cavalry, was detailed on +temporary duty at division head-quarters. It was at this time that Aunt +Almira urgently offered him and her pretty niece, his wife, the +hospitality of her home, begging that he, her boy's friend and +fellow-soldier and admiration, should bring her and be their guest in +Chicago as long as they could possibly stay, and Aunt Almira was amazed +at the refusal, grateful, gentle, courteous though it was in every way. +Mira, junior, had been devoted to society when there before, was it +possible she had so soon tired of it all? Davies had some topographical +work to do, it soon transpired, for the lieutenant-general wanted +certain maps made of the Bad Lands traversed during the campaigns of the +two years, and the Gray Fox recommended the silent, observant young +graduate, whose field-notes had proved so accurate and complete. Not +oftener than once a week did Davies go in to consult the chief engineer +at head-quarters. The work he did in quiet at Urbana, and it might +detain him several months. Aunt Almira thought it really strange that he +could succeed in it at all. She was sure that the descriptions her boy +had given of the Bad Lands were so vividly accurate that he must know +them even better than did her nephew-in-law, the lieutenant. She asked +her husband if it did not seem almost as though Davies might be afraid +to have her lambkin take any part in it lest it should rob the officer +of the credit, but that hard-headed old railway-man thought not. He +shared her gratification in the wonderfully improved appearance of the +boy, and secretly marvelled at his apparent reformation. He had several +talks with him, gave her for him abundant money, so that on his home +visit he might dress as became his mother's son and enjoy himself like a +gentleman. He expected him to turn up speedily somewhere on a tremendous +drunk, and was rejoiced and surprised that he did not. Aunt Almira had +planned a grand dinner to which should be bidden the general and staff, +the Cranstons and others, all in honor of the home-coming of their +fellow-soldier, her son, and was utterly bewildered and crestfallen when +the latter laughingly told her to go ahead with the dinner, but count +him out; corporals didn't dine with their generals and captains, despite +the teachings of the modern military drama. The mother indignantly +protested. The son was firm. If her boy, said she, wasn't good enough to +sit at table with the President of the United States then she wasn't. If +that was the result of his joining the cavalry, the sooner he resigned +and quit the better, and then he saw the indignant tears and teased no +more, but took her in his arms and soothed and strove to explain. Soothe +he could, but explain he could not. She gave up the dinner until after +he had gone back to his regiment, for go he would, as he meant to be a +sergeant inside of two years, and when she found that the sole +difference between sergeant and corporal in our blessedly democratic +service was simply half an inch or so more of stripe on his trousers, +and brought him no nearer the commission and little farther from the +rank and file, she marvelled that the Department of War could be so +slow to appreciate a soldier ready to do so much for so little. Go back +to "C" Troop he would and did, and was proud of it, and her husband +comforted her by saying "Bran" was a man at last. + +But if the Eleventh heard but little of the Davieses for a time, they +had abundant news of Devers, and much comfort did he seem to find in +sending to them stacks of local papers, and in writing long, +argumentative letters in which he sought to convince his readers that he +was a wronged and injured man. When Trooper Howard came up for the trial +which resulted in his going in irons for a five years' tour in prison, +an effort was made to get Devers before the court as a witness, and a +_subpoena duces tecum_ was duly served upon him in his far distant +home within sight of the sounding sea, but it did not fetch him. Devers +explained that as a civilian he had no interest in the proceedings and +could not be required to obey the mandate of a purely military court, a +view in which the judiciary of the great republic, ever steadfast in the +principle that military must be subservient to the civil power, +virtually sustained him. It was perfectly competent for a court-martial +to summon a civilian witness, said the bench, but it had no recourse in +case the civilian treated both court and summons with contempt, and +Devers's fellow-citizens in the far East, headed by the editor of the +_Mooselemeguntic Mirror_, congratulated their returned hero on the +spirited and just rebuke he had administered to a satrapy which should +have no place among an enlightened people. Indeed, the _Mirror's_ +interviews and editorials were both full of brilliant mendacity just +now. Devers's story was in every issue, more or less of it, and West +Point jealousy was the theme of many a paragraphic fling. Brilliant, +daring, conspicuous as had been Devers's services during the civil war +and on the wild frontier, he had never succeeded in winning recognition, +owing to the persistent calumnies of his seniors, who, graduates of the +great national charity school on the Hudson, were leagued to down any +man whose ability, dash, and daring made him the object of their narrow +jealousy and the victim of their inordinate greed. After years of +patient service, loyal and dutiful, their distinguished fellow-citizen, +said the _Mirror_, had been relieved from his command on trumped-up +charges, and, though he pleaded hard to be allowed to go with them in +any capacity, even as an humble trooper in the ranks, his company took +the field on the late campaign without him, and, deprived of the +services of their beloved captain, met with grievous and irreparable +disaster. Even then his enemies were not silenced. The faithful soldiers +who clamored for the restoration of their captain were driven to death +or desertion. He himself begged to be confronted with his accusers, but +met denial, delay, and deceit at every hand. One pretext after another +was resorted to in postponing the meeting of the court, and at last, +worn out with long struggle against prejudice, injustice, and organized +enmity, he had thrown up his commission in a thankless service and +returned to the welcoming arms of his fellow-citizens. The _Mirror_, in +which Devers had a controlling interest, inquired whether the time had +not come for the recall of the amiable fossil then misrepresenting the +district in Congress, and the unanimous election of Colonel Devers as +his successor. The governor, needing the support of the _Mirror_ in a +coming campaign, gladly availed himself of the opportunity of rewarding +a war-tried veteran, and named the returning soldier an aide-de-camp +with the rank of colonel on his staff, and humble subalterns of +artillery from the two-battery post at the entrance of Mooselemeguntic +Bay looked with awe upon the future military committeeman of the --th +Congress, yet were charmed with his affability at the governor's ball, +where his new uniform fitted him better than did those of his associate +aides, and where the artillerymen heard things confirmatory of their +convictions that their comrades of the cavalry really had no idea how to +fight Indians. Devers was on the high-road to fame and Congress, and +might indeed have made successful run had the election occurred within +four months after his return, but four months was too long for him to +live without differing, and little by little the _Mirror_ became dimmed +and Devers's image faded out of public sight. + +Only once did it revive, and that was when, several years after, all on +a sudden there appeared in the columns of the army paper notice that a +bill had been introduced in Congress providing for the restoration to +the army, with the rank he would have held had he remained continuously +in the cavalry service, of Jared B. Devers, formerly captain Eleventh +Cavalry, who had tendered his resignation some years before owing to +disagreements with certain officers representing the West Point element, +which was hostile to him, and friends in Washington warned the Eleventh +that old Differs had strong political backing. + +And then did the Eleventh arise in its wrath. Good old Tintop had been +gathered to his fathers by that time. Riggs was rusting out of active +service, Pegleg was buried and Mrs. Pegleg was married again,--a +lieutenant this time; but there was no lack of men to remember how he +had managed by political influence at Washington to secure the +acceptance of his resignation the moment he saw how surely, if brought +to trial, the case would go against him, and the Eleventh published a +memorial, signed by almost every surviving officer who was with it in +the old days. The bill if passed would make Devers a major well up on +the list, for Warren was now lieutenant-colonel of the --th, Truman +major of the Fourth, Cranston senior captain, Boynton and Hastings were +junior troop commanders, Sanders a senior first and regimental +quartermaster. All these and other names appeared attached to the +remonstrance, and that bill was never even reported in committee. It was +learned that in the course of some years of differing with his business +associates, the gentle Devers, though still a colonel on his native +heath, had nearly wrecked the "Mirror" and his fortune with it, and so +bethought him of this scheme of restoration to the army. Leonard was by +this time an assistant adjutant-general, and prompt to act. There was a +jubilee at Ransom the evening after his despatch was received reporting +arrival of the regimental protest and the remarks thereon by members of +the military committee. The officers gathered in the club-room and drank +long life to Leonard and confusion to Devers, and then little Sanders +tuned up his guitar and sang. He was just back from leave, and a +popular lyric of the day was one they called "The Accent On," for the +last line of every verse was "with the accent on" some syllable of the +last word of the previous line. There was nothing especially poetic or +refined about the composition, but the newspapers were ringing the +changes on it. A popular comedian had sung and made much of it, and its +composer had presumably made something if not much out of it, and +Sanders was sure of laughter and applause when he sang it at the +"stags." One verse was of a man who came home in a maudlin state and his +wife remarked, "Well, you are beautiful. With the accent on the full." +Another was of a man who wanted unlimited credit at a bar and was told, +"I like not your arithmetic. With the accent on the tick." All very poor +literature, perhaps, but it amused, and this night after singing three +verses of the old song, Sanders "turned loose" on a verse of his own +which, when heard, the mess applauded and chorused to the echo, and +broke up singing again and again Sanders's telling hit in the last line: + + We had a cap in our corps + Who left us years ago, + Who never said a manly word + Nor struck a manly blow. + He never faced when he could dodge, + He only spoke to slur, + And now he is a colonel, + But the accent's on the cur. + +And that was Devers's requiem in the Eleventh Horse as well as in the +house of Congress. He never vexed them more. + +One of the old names was lacking on the list that accompanied the +remonstrance,--that of the man of whom, nearly a decade before, Devers +"only spoke to slur." Lieutenant Davies would not sign. He was with the +regiment too, but, just as of old, eschewed the club-room and all +gatherings of the kind. They had taken the paper to him and he read, +pondered, and said no. Gray it was, now captain of "I" Troop, with which +Davies was on duty as first lieutenant, who draughted the paper, and +confidently presented it to his subaltern. "Why not?" said he, in +surprise. "No man ever did more to injure you except perhaps----" And +here Gray broke off short in sudden confusion. + +"Perhaps that is why I prefer not to be quoted against him," said +Davies, quietly. And mentally kicking himself, as he expressed it, for +making such a "break" as in his bungling half allusion to the exception, +Gray hastened away to tell of it. His story came to unsympathetic ears. + +"In my opinion," said Sanders, "if you mean that other fellow, he didn't +injure Parson half as much as he hurt himself." + +That, too, was an old story in the Eleventh by this time. Six long +months was Davies absent from the regiment on his map-work at division +head-quarters. Then came the customary call to the field for another +season of scouting and campaigning, and he rejoined his troop, somewhat +pallid and graver looking, the result probably of long days of toil over +his drawing board. He was only a few hours at Ransom before they +marched, but the ladies wanted to know all about Mrs. Davies and what +she was to do in his absence. Mrs. Davies would remain at Urbana, said +he, where her father and sister dwelt, and those were indeed his +injunctions to her, and for a month after his departure she observed +them, then repaired to Chicago and Aunt Almira's roof. Davies by this +time was with his troop scouting near Yellowstone Park, far beyond reach +of telegrams or letters. Society was unusually gay that summer. There +was dancing, boating, dining, summer resorting, and one of the loveliest +of summer resorts within an hour's run of the great city was Forest +Glen, the seat of the famous seminary where Agatha Loomis was enjoying +the quiet of her vacation, and one night, strolling with Mrs. Forrester +over to the hotel to watch the dancers and hear the lovely music, she +came face to face in the soft moonlight with a couple so absorbed in +their conversation that not until they were actually brushing by did +they look up, and even Mrs. Forrester saw the sudden confusion and +dismay in their faces. The man turned white and made a hurried movement +as though to lift his hat. The woman flushed, almost angrily. Miss +Loomis bowed calmly and coldly and passed on without a word. + +The next day, however, she called at the Glen House, where the two +Almiras, aunt and niece, were spending the week, and asked for Mrs. +Percy Davies. Mrs. Davies was out. Miss Loomis wrote a few words in +pencil, slipped them into an envelope, sent that up, and the next day +called again, and Mrs. Davies begged to be excused. Miss Loomis sadly +went home, penned a long letter to Mrs. Davies, and on the following +morning sent it. In half an hour her messenger and note returned. Mrs. +Davies had left for home that morning. Urbana was not far away, and two +days later Miss Loomis was there inquiring for Mrs. Davies on her native +heath. She had not returned. She was visiting her aunt at Forest Glen, +and then Agatha knew she had come too late. She had striven to prove to +the poor empty-headed, empty-hearted girl that she had at least one +friend. She had hoped to plead, to point out the right, and, if +possible, save her from herself and the impending step, but all to no +purpose. Two years later, among the papers of her unhappy boy, a +sorrowing mother found two little notes written, like Beatrix Esmond's, +to lure her lover on. One was dated Fort Scott in the summer of '77. "We +are desolate again with all our soldiers in the field, but we pray for +happier days. Have you no new waltz music for us?" And this reached him +at the sea-shore. The second was posted on the railway and addressed to +his club in New York. "I am even more desolate than last year. Shall I +never hear from you again?" It contained a self-addressed envelope. And +that was why her boy postponed until later in the summer the voyage his +physician had advised, and why he lived apart from friends and kindred, +in Paris most of the time, until the death of his wretched companion +within a year of their flight. Then Langston, at his mother's prayer, +went over and fetched him home. It had been a year soon given over to +recrimination, bitter reproaches, and frequent and increasing +estrangement. Willett was but the moody wreck of his old self when +restored to the one faithful friend who clung to him as only mothers +will, in spite of all. + +The Eleventh was a thousand miles or so away the summer of poor Mira's +final escapade, and not until she was across the sea did the news reach +her husband. She wrote a few words of farewell such as would be expected +of her. "You never loved me," she said, "never understood me, and in +every way I was made to feel that I was only a burden, only a doll. You +have mured me here in prison, where I have no soul to sympathize with +me, and I can bear it no longer. You will not miss me. Indeed, I know +too well how soon you will find solace, and where. Henceforth I dedicate +my life to one who adores me, whose soul responds to every thought of +mine. Adieu." + +It was predicted about this time that Davies would resign, shoot +Willett, or study for the ministry. Many men thought that he bore his +wrongs so meekly that he had mistaken his calling. One man, a sergeant, +said as much in Corporal Brannan's presence, and the result was a scene +that called for the intervention of the guard and the adjudication of a +court-martial. Brannan lost his chevrons, but gained an enthusiastic +friend and champion in Cranston, who sifted out the cause of the +fight,--a matter scrupulously hidden from the court. Brannan went into +the Ute campaign the following year a sergeant, and out of the army with +an Indian bullet through his arm and into his chest, where the doctors +couldn't find it. Little by little the doting mother at home began to +learn how very far away that longed-for commission might be. Her boy +himself flouted the idea. "I haven't the education," he said, "and would +be ill at ease and out of place among them." And so the magnate was +steadily importuned, and when at last the young fellow came home after +the Milk River campaign, and generals like Sheridan and Crook praised +his pluck and devotion, and the doctors said he simply couldn't go back +to service, they got him his discharge,--a medal of honor came +later,--and presently in the long list of railway officials of the Q. R. +and X. appeared his name as assistant general passenger agent, and for a +couple of years the way that great corporation dealt out passes to the +army was a matter that finally came up at directors' meeting and led to +a preliminary to the Interstate Commerce Law of '87, and a restriction +of the powers of the assistant. But there was no longer any hitch in the +maternal schemes for elaborate dinners to generals and staff. They +enjoyed meeting "the sergeant," as he rejoiced in being called, as much +as he could wish, and if they did not quite look upon him as she did, as +the central figure, the one Prince Paramount of the late campaign, there +was at least warmth and cordiality and comradeship enough to gratify +even a mother's heart. + +But the Parson did not resign. He was away from the regiment again a +long month after Mira's flight, and again after her death, returning +suddenly on each occasion because of the imminence of Indian hostilities +which for a time seemed breaking out in new spots with every spring. +Between Cranston and himself there was ever the same firm and steadfast +friendship. He sought no intimacies anywhere, but in the same calm, +grave, consistent way he went about his duties in garrison, waking up to +something like enthusiasm or excitement only when "on the trail." For +three years after his brief absence in the summer of '79 he never left +his troop a day. A wonderfully good drill officer was the Parson, with a +powerful, ringing voice. "Make a splendid exhorter," said some of the +boys. He was an accurate tactician, too, and a man who had the faculty +of getting admirable results out of his command "without ever a cuss +word," said Truman, a thing which that old-time troop leader could not +understand. Davies lived hours in the open air, but read and studied +much. Popular he was not, and never cared to be; but, honored and +respected by one and all and loved by little children, he went his +earnest way, and little by little Margaret Cranston found herself +leaning more and more upon his opinions as to the pursuits and studies +of her boys, and would sit with her needle-work listening to the long +discussions between him and her husband, who read not much outside the +papers, and presently it got to be the established thing for the Parson +to read aloud to them when he came, and though Wilbur scandalized her by +going to sleep and snoring on two occasions, he soon began to wake up +and talk and discuss, and others, dropping in, either stayed to take +part in Cranston's impromptu lyceum or took their chatter elsewhere. The +second and third winters at old Laramie were some of the loveliest, said +Margaret afterwards, she ever knew, and Mr. Davies had become one of +themselves. His promotion to "I" Troop and transfer to a different post +was nothing short of a domestic calamity. + +But not until that promotion and transfer occurred--though who shall say +there was significance in the fact?--was Mrs. Cranston able to induce +Miss Loomis to visit the frontier again. They were together all the +summer of '81, at the sea-shore with the boys, while Captain Cranston +and Davies and others were scorching on the plains, and Miss Loomis +evidently needed rest and salt air and water. The next winter she gave +up her duties at the seminary and joined the Cranstons on a trip down +the Mississippi, eventually returning with her cousin to Wyoming, for +her health seemed to have suffered from the long confinement at the +school. Bob Gray, with "I" Troop, was away up at Fort McKinney then, but +an important court met at the old station down on the Platte, and, as +luck would have it, Lieutenant Davies was sent in as judge-advocate. + +Just why Mrs. Cranston should have made no mention to Miss Loomis of his +coming is a matter only a woman can explain, but she kept the matter to +herself until the evening of his arrival. It was their first meeting in +four years. The court was in session a month, and three evenings out of +four Davies spent as of old at Cranston's fireside. Sanders suggested +that the Parson seemed to be "taking notice" again. But Davies went back +to his station and Miss Loomis went on about her daily avocations, +reading aloud while Margaret's busy needle flew, or playing sweet old +melodies at the piano. The young officers were rather afraid of her. She +was "a somewhat superior old maid," said a youngster whom she had found +it expedient to repress. Some women declared her a trifle +unapproachable, unsympathetic perhaps, but even that did not seem to +disconcert her. Something happened ere long that did, however, for a few +months after adjournment of the court Davies reappeared at Laramie. He +had actually taken a leave of absence, and now he was at Cranston's six +evenings out of seven, and garrison gossip began in good earnest. Was +the Parson seeking solace where poor Mira always said he would? If so, +he had little to build on by way of encouragement. The Cranstons missed +him sorely when he went back to Gray, and Miss Loomis frankly referred +to him as "most instructive" and much broadened and improved. She missed +him as any one must miss so well-informed a companion. Four years before +she used to exasperate Margaret by standing up for him no matter what he +did; now she vexed her by refusing to see anything remarkable in him +whatever. Davies wrote with increasing frequency from Fort McKinney to +Mrs. Cranston, and Margaret always wanted to read the letters aloud, +which was bad generalship in a would-be match-maker. + +Then one day came the tidings that head-quarters and six troops were to +be stationed together, "C" and "I" among them, and Miss Loomis returned +to Chicago. "I'll never forgive you as long as I live," said Margaret. +"I know just why you won't stay, and you needn't have worried +yourself,--he's far too proud to importune a woman who won't listen +to--to reason." + +But Mrs. Cranston meant love, not reason, and the two are miles or +oceans apart. Mr. Davies might be too proud to worry a woman who +couldn't appreciate reason, but a woman worth the winning was worth the +wooing, and not a little of it. Business called him to Urbana several +days the following winter, and something kept him several weeks. He +resumed duty in the spring, steadfast as ever, but even less disposed +to take part in garrison affairs. Mrs. Cranston wrote fiercely and +frequently to Agatha, and, for aught I know, called her opprobrious +things. For another year she refused to return to them. Then came a +winter indeed of discontent, and the Eleventh was ordered to far away, +burning, blistering Arizona, all but Cranston's troop, excepted at the +last moment and detailed for service at the School of Application. +Agatha again came to stay with them, and here at last Margaret Cranston +learned the momentous fact that, after all these years, something had +happened: they were actually corresponding. + +She learned more within the fortnight that followed. One exquisite May +evening just as the sunset gun had fired and all the bordering walks and +piazzas were thronged with gayly-dressed groups, women and children +mainly, watching the scene on the parade, there was some stir among the +clerks and orderlies and a gentle movement over on the porch of the +colonel commanding. The long line of officers dispersed as usual at +dismissal of parade, and Cranston came strolling over homeward chatting +with his friend and next-door neighbor, Captain Blake, of the --th. +Blake's lovely wife was even then on Cranston's veranda, for she and +Miss Loomis seemed to have taken a fancy to each other from the moment +of their meeting. Margaret, as usual, met her hero at the steps, just as +a young officer came excitedly and hurriedly down the brick walk from +the colonel's. It was Blake who heard him calling some tidings to other +households and who hailed him as he neared them and was bustling by. + +"What's the row, Tommy?" + +"Big fight in Arizona," was the startling answer. "Captain Hastings and +Parson Davies killed." + +And Nannie Blake saw in amaze the light go out of her companion's eyes +and every vestige of color from her face. Her arms were about her in an +instant, and none too soon. Oh, the blessing of those clinging, +clustering vines! No one else saw how they had to fairly carry her +within doors, but Agatha's secret was revealed. + +There was little exaggeration in the first story of that savage battle +in the canon. Many a gallant fellow lay stripped and bloated when the +relief party reached the scene a few days later, but Davies, though +pierced through and through, still lived, and was moved and borne away +weeks later to bracing mountain air, and found many a reason for wanting +to live for many a year. Two men had gone to him fast as trains could +speed, Cranston and our old friend the chaplain. It was the former who +within the week that followed that engagement announced another. It was +the latter who within the fortnight joined her hand in his, white, +feeble as it was, and poured out his very heart and soul in the fervent +prayer for blessing on this man and this woman now at last made one. + + * * * * * + +That seems a long time ago. The regiment is famous now for its troop +commanders,--stalwart fellows in the prime of life who have brought the +training of men and mounts to a point of excellence such enthusiasts as +Cranston only dreamed of in the old campaigning days, when there was +little opportunity for experiment or practice in any other branch of +the trooper's art than that developed on the trail of savage foe. +Already the men who were stripling soldiers in '76 are wearing +patriarchal--long since they assumed patronizing--airs towards those who +came too late to learn campaigning when the Indian was not hemmed in by +railways, but ruled the Plains, proud monarch of all he surveyed. +Already silver threads are streaking the beards and temples of even such +rollicking spirits as Sanders, while Boynton is gray as the chargers of +the troop he commands. Cranston's squadron was cheered to the skies when +it marched away from Chicago after its month of riot duty, and on the +plains of Evanston during the manoeuvres the visitors thronged to see +the feats in horsemanship displayed by the men of Davies's troop. Even +in the Eleventh he was held to be the most brilliant instructor as well +as the most judicious and successful troop commander. Old-time dragoons +simply couldn't understand it. Here was a man who would neither drink, +swear, nor flare up and boil over when things went wrong on drill, but +preserved a calm, even-tempered, dignified bearing at all times. True, +he had native gifts which were not shared by all his kind,--a deep, +resonant voice, a ringing word of command, a fine physique, an admirable +seat, and an easy, practised hand, all of which were combined with a +consummate knowledge of his art. He was equally at home in saddle or +squad-room, and at all times was friend and almost father to his men. +"A" Troop, once the worst-drilled in the Eleventh, and universally known +as the "Differentials," is now called "the Parson's Flock," but there is +no irreverence in the term, for soldiers honor men like him whose faith +is backed by courage long tried on many a field. There isn't a man in +Cranston's squadron who would not resent an affront to their pet troop +commander, as they would were the major himself the object of aspersion, +and as for Agatha, his wife,--Florence Nightingale was not more beloved. + +They were talking of it all the other evening, seated among the tents on +the broad, level prairie just before the separation for the winter +stations was announced. The old chaplain was there to say farewell to +his own stalwart son, now wearing his first shoulder-straps in the +regiment his father had known so long and well. "Sometimes," said the +dominie, "I look back almost wistfully on those old days with all their +danger and privation, and while the life our fellows lead to-day knows +little of the temptation and trial encountered twenty years ago, it +seems to lack its vim and vigor. Sometimes I almost wish my boy could +have begun--with you." + +Davies was silent a moment. "It was a hard experience," said he, +finally. "It seems odd to think that to some of us there was more peace +on the war-path than at home, more rest in the field than in the fort. +Perhaps the reason why one's sterner qualities were so constantly called +into play was that not only in action but in all the surroundings of our +daily life we seemed forever 'under fire.'" + + +THE END. + + + + +WORKS OF + +Captain Charles King, U.S.A. + +UNDER FIRE. Illustrated. Cloth, $1.25. +THE COLONEL'S DAUGHTER. Illustrated. Cloth, $1.25. +MARION'S FAITH. Illustrated. Cloth, $1.25. +CAPTAIN BLAKE. Illustrated. Cloth, $1.25. +FOES IN AMBUSH. Cloth, $1.25. +KITTY'S CONQUEST. Cloth, $1.00. +STARLIGHT RANCH, and OTHER STORIES. Cloth, $1.00. +LARAMIE; OR, THE QUEEN OF BEDLAM. Cloth, $1.00. +THE DESERTER, and FROM THE RANKS. Cloth, $1.00. +TWO SOLDIERS, and DUNRAVEN RANCH. Cloth, $1.00. +A SOLDIER'S SECRET, and AN ARMY PORTIA. Cloth, $1.00. +WARING'S PERIL. Cloth, $1.00. + +Editor of + +THE COLONEL'S CHRISTMAS DINNER, and OTHER STORIES. Cloth, $1.25. +AN INITIAL EXPERIENCE, and OTHER STORIES. Cloth, $1.00. + +For sale by all Booksellers. + +J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, Philadelphia. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Under Fire, by Charles King + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK UNDER FIRE *** + +***** This file should be named 20101.txt or 20101.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/1/0/20101/ + +Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at +http://www.pgdp.net. (This file was produced from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/American +Libraries.) + + +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 +http://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 http://www.pglaf.org. + + +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. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. 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 http://pglaf.org + +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 http://pglaf.org + +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: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is 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: + + http://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. diff --git a/20101.zip b/20101.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..540a7c0 --- /dev/null +++ b/20101.zip diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c3c0c31 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #20101 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/20101) |
