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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/16557-8.txt b/16557-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..af4dfd5 --- /dev/null +++ b/16557-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7815 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Deserter, 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: The Deserter + +Author: Charles King + +Release Date: August 20, 2005 [EBook #16557] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DESERTER *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Janet Blenkinship and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +THE DESERTER, + +BY + +CAPT. CHARLES KING, U.S.A., + +AUTHOR OF "THE COLONEL'S DAUGHTER," "MARION'S FAITH," "KITTY'S +CONQUEST," ETC., ETC. + +Transcribers note +This e-book of The Deserter is based upon the edition found in The +Deserter, and From the Ranks. Two Novels, by Capt. Charles King. +Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1890. From the Ranks is also +available as a Project Gutenberg e-book. + +PHILADELPHIA: J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. + +1890 + +Copyright, 1887, by J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. + + + + +THE DESERTER. + + + + +PRELUDE. + + +Far up in the Northwest, along the banks of the broad, winding stream +the Sioux call the Elk, a train of white-topped army-wagons is slowly +crawling eastward. The October sun is hot at noon-day, and the dust from +the loose soil rises like heavy smoke and powders every face and form in +the guarding battalion so that features are wellnigh indistinguishable. +Four companies of stalwart, sinewy infantry, with their brown rifles +slung over the shoulder, are striding along in dispersed order, covering +the exposed southern flank from sudden attack, while farther out along +the ridge-line, and far to the front and rear, cavalry skirmishers and +scouts are riding to and fro, searching every hollow and ravine, peering +cautiously over every "divide," and signalling "halt" or "forward" as +the indications warrant. + +And yet not a hostile Indian has been seen; not one, even as distant +vedette, has appeared in range of the binoculars, since the scouts rode +in at daybreak to say that big bands were in the immediate neighborhood. +It has been a long, hard summer's work for the troops, and the Indians +have been, to all commands that boasted strength or swiftness, elusive +as the Irishman's flea of tradition. Only to those whose numbers were +weak or whose movements were hampered have they appeared in +fighting-trim. But combinations have been too much for them, and at last +they have been "herded" down to the Elk, have crossed, and are now +seeking to make their way, with women, children, tepees, dogs, +"travois," and the great pony herds, to the fastnesses of the Big Horn; +and now comes the opportunity for which an old Indian-fighter has been +anxiously waiting. In a big cantonment he has held the main body under +his command, while keeping out constant scouting-parties to the east and +north. He knows well that, true to their policy, the Indians will have +scattered into small bands capable of reassembling anywhere that signal +smokes may call them, and his orders are to watch all the crossings of +the Elk and nab them as they come into his district. He watches, despite +the fact that it is his profound conviction that the Indians will be no +such idiots as to come just where they are wanted, and he is in no wise +astonished when a courier comes in on jaded horse to tell him that they +have "doubled" on the other column and are now two or three days' march +away down stream, "making for the big bend." His own scouting-parties +are still out to the eastward: he can pick them up as he goes. He sends +the main body of his infantry, a regiment jocularly known as "The +Riflers," to push for a landing some fifty miles down-stream, scouting +the lower valley of the Sweet Root on the way. He sends his wagon-train, +guarded by four companies of foot and two of horsemen, by the only +practicable road to the bend, while he, with ten seasoned "troops" of +his pet regiment, the ----th Cavalry, starts forthwith on a long détour +in which he hopes to "round up" such bands as may have slipped away from +the general rush. Even as "boots and saddles" is sounding, other +couriers come riding in from Lieutenant Crane's party. He has struck the +trail of a big band. + +When the morning sun dawns on the picturesque valley in which the +cantonment nestled but the day before, it illumines an almost deserted +village, and brings no joy to the souls of some twoscore of embittered +civilians who had arrived only the day previous, and whose unanimous +verdict is that the army is a fraud and ought to be abolished. For four +months or more some three regiments had been camping, scouting, roughing +it thereabouts, with not a cent of pay. Then came the wildly exciting +tidings that a boat was on the way up the Missouri with a satrap of the +pay department, vast store of shekels, and a strong guard, and as a +consequence there would be some two thousand men around the cantonment +with pockets full of money and no one to help them spend it, and nothing +suitable to spend it on. It was a duty all citizens owed to the +Territory to hasten to the scene and gather in for local circulation all +that was obtainable of that disbursement; otherwise the curse of the +army might get ahead of them and the boys would gamble it away among +themselves or spend it for vile whiskey manufactured for their sole +benefit. Gallatin Valley was emptied of its prominent practitioners in +the game of poker. The stream was black with "Mackinaw" boats and other +craft. There was a rush for the cantonment that rivalled the multitudes +of the mining days, but all too late. The command was already packing up +when the first contingent arrived, and the commanding officer, +recognizing the fraternity at a glance, warned them outside the limits +of camp that night, declined their services as volunteers on the +impending campaign, and treated them with such calmly courteous +recognition of their true character that the Eastern press was speedily +filled with sneering comment on the hopelessness of ever subduing the +savage tribes of the Northwest when the government intrusts the duty to +upstart officers of the regular service whose sole conception of their +functions is to treat with insult and contempt the hardy frontiersman +whose mere presence with the command would be of incalculable benefit. +"We have it from indisputable authority," says _The Miner's Light_ of +Brandy Gap, "that when our esteemed fellow-citizen Hank Mulligan and +twenty gallant shots and riders like himself went in a body to +General---- at the cantonment and offered their services as volunteers +against the Sioux now devastating the homesteads and settlements of the +Upper Missouri and Yellowstone valleys, they were treated with haughty +and contemptuous refusal by that bandbox caricature of a soldier and +threatened with arrest if they did not quit the camp. When _will_ the +United States learn that its frontiers can never be purged of the Indian +scourges of our civilization until the conduct of affairs in the field +is intrusted to other hands than these martinets of the drill-ground? It +is needless to remark in this connection that the expedition led by +General---- has proved a complete failure, and that the Indians easily +escaped his clumsily-led forces." + +The gamblers, though baffled for the time being, of course "get square," +and more too, with the unfortunate general in this sort of warfare, but +they are a disgusted lot as they hang about the wagon-train as last of +all it is being hitched-in to leave camp. Some victims, of course, they +have secured, and there are no devices of commanding officers which can +protect their men against those sharks of the prairies when the men +themselves are bound to tempt Providence and play. There are two +scowling faces in the cavalry escort that has been left back with the +train, and Captain Hull, the commanding officer, has reprimanded +Sergeants Clancy and Gower in stinging terms for their absence from the +command during the night. There is little question where they spent it, +and both have been "cleaned out." What makes it worse, both have lost +money that belonged to other men in the command, and they are in bad +odor accordingly. + +The long day's march has tempered the joviality of the entire column. It +is near sundown, and still they keep plodding onward, making for a +grassy level on the river-bank a good mile farther. + +"Old Hull seems bound to leave the sports as far behind as possible, if +he has to march us until midnight," growls the battalion adjutant to his +immediate commander. "By thunder! one would think he was afraid they +would get in a lick at his own pile." + +"How much did you say he was carrying?" asks Captain Rayner, checking +his horse for a moment to look back over the valley at the long, +dust-enveloped column. + +"Nearly three thousand dollars in one wad." + +"How does he happen to have such a sum?" + +"Why, Crane left his pay-accounts with him. He drew all that was due his +men who are off with Crane,--twenty of them,--for they had signed the +rolls before going, and were expected back to-day. Then he has some six +hundred dollars company fund; and the men of his troop asked him to take +care of a good deal besides. The old man has been with them so many +years they look upon him as a father and trust him as implicitly as they +would a savings-bank." + +"That's all very well," answers Rayner; "but I wouldn't want to carry +any such sum with me." + +"It's different with Hull's men, captain. They are ordered in through +the posts and settlements. They have a three weeks' march ahead of them +when they get through their scout, and they want their money on the way. +It was only after they had drawn it that the news came of the Indians' +crossing and of our having to jump for the warpath. Everybody thought +yesterday morning that the campaign was about over so far as we are +concerned. Halloo! here comes young Hayne. Now, what does _he_ want?" + +Riding a quick, nervous little bay troop horse, a slim-built officer, +with boyish face, laughing blue eyes, and sunny hair, comes loping up +the long prairie wave; he shouts cheery greeting to one or two brother +subalterns who are plodding along beside their men, and exchanges some +merry chaff with Lieutenant Ross, who is prone to growl at the luck +which has kept him afoot and given to this favored youngster a "mount" +and a temporary staff position. The boy's spirits and fun seem to jar on +Rayner's nerves. He regards him blackly as he rides gracefully towards +the battalion commander, and with decidedly nonchalant ease of manner +and an "off-hand" salute that has an air about it of saying, "I do this +sort of thing because one has to, but it doesn't really mean anything, +you know," Mr. Hayne accosts his superior: + +"Ah, good-evening, captain. I have just come back from the front, and +Captain Hull directed me to give you his compliments and say that we +would camp in the bend yonder, and he would like you to post strong +pickets and have a double guard to-night." + +"Have _me_ post double guards! How the devil does he expect me to do +that after marching all day?" + +"I did not inquire, sir: he might have told me 'twas none of my +business, don't you know?" And Mr. Hayne has the insufferable hardihood +to wink at the battalion adjutant,--a youth of two years' longer service +than his own. + +"Well, Mr. Hayne, this is no matter for levity," says Rayner, angrily. +"What does Captain Hull mean to do with his own men, if I'm to do the +guard?" + +"That is another point, Captain Rayner, which I had not the requisite +effrontery to inquire into. Now, _you_ might ask him, but I couldn't, +don't you know?" responds Hayne, smiling amiably the while into the +wrathful face of his superior. It serves only to make the indignant +captain more wrathful; and no wonder. There has been no love lost +between the two since Hayne joined the Riflers early the previous year. +He came in from civil life, a city-bred boy, fresh from college, full of +spirits, pranks, fun of every kind; a wonderfully keen hand with the +billiard-cue; a knowing one at cards and such games of chance as college +boys excel at; a musician of no mean pretensions, and an irrepressible +leader in all the frolics and frivolities of his comrades. He had leaped +to popularity from the start. He was full of courtesy and gentleness to +women, and became a pet in social circles. He was frank, free, +off-handed with his associates, spending lavishly, "treating" with +boyish ostentation on all occasions, living quite _en grand seigneur_, +for he seemed to have a little money outside his pay,--"a windfall from +a good old duffer of an uncle," as he had explained it. His father, a +scholarly man who had been summoned to an important under-office in the +State Department during the War of the Rebellion, had lived out his +honored life in Washington and died poor, as such men must ever die. It +was his wish that his handsome, spirited, brave-hearted boy should enter +the army, and long after the sod had hardened over the father's +peaceful grave the young fellow donned his first uniform and went out to +join "The Riflers." High-spirited, joyous, full of laughing fun, he was +"Pet" Hayne before he had been among them six months. But within the +year he had made one or two enemies. It could not be said of him that he +showed that deference to rank and station which was expected of a junior +officer; and among the seniors were several whom he speedily designated +"unconscionable old duffers" and treated with as little semblance of +respect as a second lieutenant could exhibit and be permitted to live. +Rayner prophesied of him that, as he had no balance and was burning his +candle at both ends, he would come to grief in short order. Hayne +retorted that the only balance that Rayner had any respect for was one +at the banker's, and that it was notorious in Washington that the +captain's father had made most of his money in government contracts, and +that the captain's original commission in the regulars was secured +through well-paid Congressional influence. The fact that Rayner had +developed into a good officer did not wipe out the recollection of these +facts; and he could have throttled Hayne for reviving them. It was "a +game of give and take," said the youngster; and he "behaved himself" to +those who were at all decent in their manner to him. + +It was a thorn in Rayner's flesh, therefore, when Hayne joined from +leave of absence, after experiences not every officer would care to +encounter in getting back to his regiment, that Captain Hull should have +induced the general to detail him in place of the invalided field +quartermaster when the command was divided. Hayne would have been a +junior subaltern in Rayner's little battalion but for that detail, and +it annoyed the captain more seriously than he would confess. + +"It is all an outrage and a blunder to pick out a boy like that," he +growls between his set teeth as Hayne canters blithely away. "Here he's +been away from the regiment all summer long, having a big time and +getting head over ears in debt, I hear, and the moment he rejoins they +put him in charge of the wagon-train as field quartermaster. It's +putting a premium on being young and cheeky,--besides absenteeism," he +continues, growing blacker every minute. + +"Well, captain," answers his adjutant, injudiciously, "I think you don't +give Hayne credit for coming back on the jump the moment we were ordered +out. It was no fault of his he could not reach us. He took chances _I_ +wouldn't take." + +"Oh, yes! you kids all swear by Hayne because he's a good fellow and +sings a jolly song and plays the piano--and poker. One of these days +he'll swamp you all, sure as shooting. He's in debt _now_, and it'll +fetch him before you know it. What he needs is to be under a captain who +could discipline him a little. By Jove, I'd do it!" And Rayner's teeth +emphasize the assertion. + +The young adjutant thinks it advisable to say nothing that may provoke +further vehemence. All the same, he remembers Rayner's bitterness of +manner, and has abundant cause to. + +When the next morning breaks, chill and pallid, a change has come in the +aspect of affairs. During the earliest hour of the dawn the red light of +a light-draught river-boat startled the outlying pickets down-stream, +and the Far West, answering the muffled hail from shore, responded, +through the medium of a mate's stentorian tones, "News that'll rout you +fellows out." The sun is hardly peeping over the jagged outline of the +eastern hills when, with Rayner's entire battalion aboard, she is +steaming again down-stream, with orders to land at the mouth of the +Sweet Root. There the four companies will disembark in readiness to join +the rest of the regiment. + +All day long again the wagon-train twists and wriggles through an ashen +section of Les Mauvaises Terres. It is a tedious, trying march for +Hull's little command of troopers,--all that is now left to guard the +train. The captain is constantly out on the exposed flank, eagerly +scanning the rough country to the south, and expectant any moment of an +attack from that direction. He and his men, as well as the horses, +mules, and teamsters, are fairly tired out when at nightfall they park +the wagons in a big semicircle, with the broad river forming a shining +chord to the arc of white canvas. All the live-stock are safely herded +within the enclosure; a few reliable soldiers are posted well out to the +south and east, to guard against surprise, and the veteran Sergeant +Clancy is put in command of the sentries. The captain gives strict +injunctions as to the importance of these duties; for he is far from +easy in his mind over the situation. The Riflers, he knows, are over in +the valley of the Sweet Root. The steamer with Rayner's men is tied up +at the bank some five miles below, around the bend. The ----th are far +off to the northward across the Elk, as ordered, and must be expecting +on the morrow to make for the old Indian "ferry" opposite Battle Butte. +The main body of the Sioux are reported farther down stream, but he +feels it in his bones that there are numbers of them within signal, and +he wishes with all his heart the ----th were here. Still, the general +was sure he would stir up war-parties on the other shore. Individually, +he has had very little luck in scouting during the summer, and he cannot +help wishing he were with the rest of the crowd instead of here, +train-guarding. + +Presently Mr. Hayne appears, elastic and debonair as though he had not +been working like a horse all day. His voice sounds so full of cheer and +life that Hull looks up smilingly: + +"Well, youngster, you seem to love this frontier life." + +"Every bit of it, captain. I was cut out for the army, as father +thought." + +"We used to talk it over a good deal in the old days when I was +stationed around Washington," answers Hull. "Your father was the warmest +friend I had in civil circles, and he made it very pleasant for me. How +little we thought it would be my luck to have you for quartermaster!" + +"The fellows seemed struck all of a heap in the Riflers at the idea of +your applying for me, captain. I was ready to swear it was all on +father's account, and would have told them so, only Rayner happened to +be the first man to tackle me on the subject, and he was so crusty about +it I kept the whole thing to myself rather than give him any +satisfaction." + +"Larry, my boy, I'm no preacher, but I want to be the friend to you your +father was to me. You are full of enthusiasm and life and spirits, and +you love the army ways and have made yourself very popular with the +youngsters, but I'm afraid you are too careless and independent where +the seniors are concerned. Rayner is a good soldier; and you show him +very scant respect, I'm told." + +"Well, he's such an interfering fellow. They will all tell you I'm +respectful enough to--to the captains I like--" + +"That's just it, Lawrence. So long as you like a man your manner is what +it should be. What a young soldier ought to learn is to be courteous and +respectful to senior officers whether he likes them or not. It costs an +effort sometimes, but it tells. You never know what trouble you are +laying up for yourself in the army by bucking against men you don't +like. They may not be in position to resent it at the time, but the time +is mighty apt to come when they _will_ be, and then you are helpless." + +"Why, Captain Hull, I don't see it that way at all. It seems to me that +so long as an officer attends to his duty, minds his own business, and +behaves like a gentleman, no one can harm him; especially when all the +good fellows of the regiment are his friends, as they are mine, I think, +in the Riflers." + +"Ah, Hayne, it is a hard thing to teach a youngster that--that there are +men who find it very easy to make their juniors' lives a burden to them, +and without overstepping a regulation. It is harder yet to say that +friends in the army are a good deal like friends out of it: one only has +to get into serious trouble to find how few they are. God grant you may +never have to learn it, my boy, as many another has had to, by sharp +experience! Now we must get a good night's rest. You sleep like a log, I +see, and I can only take cat-naps. Confound this money! How I wish I +could get rid of it!" + +"Where do you keep it to-night?" + +"Right here in my saddle-bags under my head. Nobody can touch them that +I do not wake; and my revolver is here under the blanket. Hold on! Let's +take a look and see if everything is all right." He holds a little +camp-lantern over the bags, opens the flap, and peers in. "Yes,--all +serene. I got a big hunk of green sealing-wax from the paymaster and +sealed it all up in one package with the memorandum-list inside. It's +all safe so far,--even to the hunk of sealing-wax.--What is it, +sergeant?" + +A tall, soldierly, dark-eyed trooper appears at the door-way of the +little tent, and raises his gauntleted hand in salute. His language, +though couched in the phraseology of the soldier, tells both in choice +of words and in the intonation of every phrase that he is a man whose +antecedents have been far different from those of the majority of the +rank and file: + +"Will the captain permit me to take my horse and those of three or four +more men outside the corral? Sergeant Clancy says he has no authority to +allow it. We have found a patch of excellent grass, sir, and there is +hardly any left inside. I will sleep by my picket-pin, and one of us +will keep awake all the time, if the captain will permit." + +"How far away is it, sergeant?" + +"Not seventy-five yards, sir,--close to the river-bank east of us." + +"Very well. Send Sergeant Clancy here, and I'll give the necessary +orders." + +The soldier quietly salutes, and disappears in the gathering darkness. + +"That's what I like about that man Gower," says the captain, after a +moment's silence. "He is always looking out for his horse. If he were +not such a gambler and rake he would make a splendid first-sergeant. +Fine-looking fellow, isn't he?" + +"Yes, sir. That is a face that one couldn't well forget. Who was the +other sergeant you overhauled for getting fleeced by those sharps at the +cantonment?" + +"Clancy? He's on guard to-night. A very different character." + +"I don't know him by sight as yet. Well, good-night, sir. I'll take +myself off and go to my own tent." + + * * * * * + +Daybreak again, and far to the east the sky is all ablaze. The mist is +creeping from the silent shallows under the banks, but all is life and +vim along the shore. With cracking whip, tugging trace, sonorous +blasphemy, and ringing shout, the long train is whirling ahead almost at +the run. All is athrill with excitement, and bearded faces have a +strange, set look about the jaws, and eyes gleam with eager light and +peer searchingly from every rise far over to the southeast, where stands +a tumbling heap of hills against the lightening sky. "Off there, are +they?" says a burly trooper, dismounting hastily to tighten up the +"cinch" of his weather-beaten saddle. "We can make it quick enough, 's +soon as we get rid of these blasted wagons." And, swinging into saddle +again, he goes cantering down the slope, his charger snorting with +exhilaration in the keen morning air. + +Before dawn a courier has galloped into camp, bearing a despatch from +the commanding officer of the Riflers. It says but few words, but they +are full of meaning: "We have found a big party of hostiles. They are in +strong position, and have us at disadvantage. Rayner with his four +companies is hurrying to us. Leave all wagons with the boat under guard, +and come with every horse and man you can bring." + +Before seven o'clock the wagons are parked close along the bank beside +the Far West, and Hull, with all the men he can muster,--some fifty,--is +trotting ahead on the trail of Rayner's battalion. With him rides Mr. +Hayne, eager and enthusiastic. Before ten o'clock, far up along the +slopes they see the blue line of skirmishers, and the knots of reserves +farther down, all at a stand. In ten minutes they ride with foaming +reins in behind a low ridge on which, flat on their faces and cautiously +peering over the crest, some hundred infantrymen are disposed. Others, +officers and file-closers, are moving to and fro in rear. They are of +Rayner's battalion. Farther back, down in a ravine a dozen forms are +outstretched upon the turf, and others are bending over them, +ministering to the needs of those who are not past help already. Several +officers crowd around the leading horsemen, and Hull orders, "Halt, +dismount, and loosen girths." The grave faces show that the infantry has +had poor luck, and the situation is summarized in few words. The Indians +are in force occupying the ravines and ridges opposite them and +confronting the six companies farther over to the west. Two attacks have +been made, but the Indian fire swept every approach, and both were +unsuccessful. Several soldiers were shot dead, others severely wounded. +Lieutenant Warren's leg is shattered below the knee; Captain Blount is +killed. + +"Where's Rayner?" asks Hull, with grave face. + +"Just gone off with the chief to look at things over on the other front. +The colonel is hopping. He is bound to have those Indians out of there +or drop a-trying. They'll be back in a minute. The general had a rousing +fight with Dull Knife's people down the river last evening. You missed +it again, Hull: all the ----th were there but F and K,--and of course +old Firewater wants to make as big a hit here." + +"The ----th fighting down the river last night?" asks Hull, in amaze. + +"Yes,--swept clean round them and ran 'em into the stream, they say. I +wish we had them where we could see 'em at all. You don't get the +glimpse of a head, even; but all those rocks are lined with the beggars. +Damn them!" says the adjutant, feelingly. + +"We'll get our chance _here_, then," replies Hull, reflectively. "I'll +creep up and take a look at it. Take my horse, orderly." + +He is back in two minutes, graver than before, but his bearing is +spirited and firm. Hayne watches him with kindling eye. + +"You'll take me in with you when you charge?" he asks. + +"It is no place to charge there. The ground is all cut up with ravines +and gullies, and they've got a cross-fire that sweeps it clean. We'll +probably go in on the other flank; it's more open there. Here comes the +chief now." + +Two officers come riding hastily around a projecting point of the slope +and spur at rapid gait towards the spot where the cavalry have +dismounted and are breathing their horses. There is hardly time for +salutations. A gray-headed, keen-eyed, florid-faced old soldier is the +colonel, and he is snapping with electricity, apparently. + +"This way, Hull. Come right here, and I'll show you what you are to do." +And, followed by Rayner, Hull, and Hayne, the chief rides sharply over +to the extreme left of the position and points to the frowning ridge +across the intervening swale. + +"There, Hull: there are twenty or thirty of the rascals in there who get +a flank fire on us when we attack on our side. What I want you to do is +to mount your men, let them draw pistol and be all ready. Rayner, here, +will line the ridge to keep them down in front. I'll go back to the +right and order the attack at once. The moment we begin and you hear our +shots, you give a yell, and charge full tilt across there, so as to +drive out those fellows in that ravine. We can do the rest. Do you +understand?" + +"I understand, colonel; but--is it your order that I attempt to charge +mounted across that ground?" + +"Why, certainly! It isn't the best in the world, but you can make it. +They can't do very much damage to your men before you reach them. It's +_got_ to be done; it's the only way." + +"Very good, sir: that ends it!" is the calm, soldierly reply; and the +colonel goes bounding away. + +A moment later the troop is in saddle, eager, wiry, bronzed fellows +every one, and the revolvers are in hand and being carefully examined. +Then Captain Hull signals to Hayne, while Rayner and three or four +soldiers sit in silence, watching the man who is to lead the charge. He +dismounts at a little knoll a few feet away, tosses his reins to the +trumpeter, and steps to his saddle-bags. Hayne, too, dismounts. + +Taking his watch and chain from the pocket of his hunting-shirt, he +opens the saddle-bag on the near side and takes therefrom two +packets,--one heavily sealed,--which he hands to Hayne. + +"In case I--don't come back, you know what to do with these,--as I told +you last night." + +Hayne only looks imploringly at him: "You are not going to leave me +_here_, captain?" + +"Yes, Hayne. You can't go with us. Hark! There they go at the right. Are +the packages all right?" + +Hayne, with stunned faculties, thinking only of the charge he longs to +make,--not of the one he has to keep,--replies he knows not what. There +is a ringing bugle-call far off among the rocks to the westward; a +rousing cheer; a rattling volley. Rayner springs off to his men on the +hill-side. Hull spurs in front of his eager troop, holding high his +pistol-hand: + +"Now, men, follow till I drop; and then keep ahead! Come on!" + +There is a furious sputter of hoofs, a rush of excited steeds up the +gentle slope, a glad outburst of cheers as they sweep across the ridge +and out of sight, then the clamor and yell of frantic battle; and when +at last it dies away, the Riflers are panting over the hard-won position +and shaking hands with some few silent cavalrymen. They have carried the +ridge, captured the migrating village, squaws, ponies, travois, and +pappooses; their "long Toms" have sent many a stalwart warrior to the +mythical hunting-grounds, and the peppery colonel's triumph is complete. + +But Lawrence Hayne, with all the light gone from his brave young face, +stands mutely looking down, upon the stiffening frame of his father's +old friend, and his, who lies shot through the heart. + + + + +I. + + +In the Pullman car of the westward-bound express, half-way across the +continent, two passengers were gazing listlessly out over the wintry +landscape. It was a bitter morning in February. North and south the +treeless prairie rolled away in successive ridge and depression. The +snow lay deep in the dry ravines and streaked the sea-like surface with +jagged lines of foam between which lay broad spaces clean-swept by the +gale. Heavy masses of cloud, dark and forbidding, draped the sky from +zenith to horizon, and the air was thick with spiteful gusts and spits +of snow, crackling against the window-panes, making fierce dashes every +time a car door was hurriedly opened, and driving about the platforms +like a myriad swarm of fleecy and aggressive gnats raging for battle. +Every now and then, responsive to some wilder blast, a blinding white +cloud came whirling from the depths of the nearest gully and breaking +like spray over the snow fence along the line. Not a sign of life was +visible. The tiny mounds in the villages of the prairie-dogs seemed +blocked and frozen; even the trusty sentinel had "deserted post" and +huddled with his fellows for warmth and shelter in the bowels of the +earth. Fluttering owl and skulking coyote, too, had vanished from the +face of nature. Timid antelope--fleetest coursers of the prairie--and +stolid horned cattle had gone, none knew whither, nor cared to know +until the "blizzard" had subsided. Two heavy engines fought their way, +panting, into the very teeth of the gale and slowly wound the long train +after them up-grade among the foot-hills of the great plateau of the +Rockies. Once in a while, when stopping for a moment at some group of +brown-painted sheds and earth-battened shanties, the wind moaned and +howled among the iron braces and brake-chains beneath the car and made +such mournful noise that it was a relief to start once more and lose +sound of its wailing in the general rumble. As for the scenery, only as +a picture of shiver-provoking monotony and desolation would one care to +take a second look. + +And yet, some miles ahead, striving hard to reach the railway in time to +intercept this very train, a small battalion of cavalry was struggling +through the blasts, officers and men afoot and dragging their own +benumbed limbs and half-benumbed chargers through the drifts that lay +deep at the bottom of every "coulée." Some few soldiers remained in +saddle: they were too frozen to walk at all. Some few fell behind, and +would have thrown themselves flat upon the prairie in the lethargy that +is but premonition of death by freezing. Like men half deadened by +morphine, their rescue depended on heroic measures, humane in their +seeming brutality. Officers who at other times were all gentleness now +fell upon the hapless stragglers with kicks and blows. As the train drew +up at the platform of a station in mid-prairie, a horseman enveloped in +fur and frost and steam from his panting steed reined up beside the +leading engine and shouted to the occupants of the cab,-- + +"For God's sake hold on a few minutes. We've got a dozen frozen men with +us we must send on to Fort Warrener." And the train was held. + +Meantime, those far to the rear in the sleeper knew nothing of what was +going on ahead. The car was warm and comfortable, and most of its +occupants were apparently appreciative of its shelter and coseyness in +contrast with the cheerless scene without. A motherly-looking woman had +produced her knitting, and was blithely clicking away at her needles, +while her enterprising son, a youth of four summers and undaunted +confidence in human nature, tacked up and down the aisle and made +impetuous incursions on the various sections by turns, receiving such +modified welcome as could be accorded features streaked with mingled +candy and cinders, and fingers whose propensity to cling to whatsoever +they touched was due no more to instincts of a predatory nature than to +the adhesive properties of the glucose which formed so large a +constituent of the confections he had been industriously consuming since +early morning. Four men playing whist in the rearmost section, two or +three commercial travellers, whose intimacy with the porter and airs of +easy proprietorship told of an apparent controlling interest in the +road, a young man of reserved manners, reading in a section all by +himself, a baby sleeping quietly upon the seat opposite the two +passengers first mentioned, and a Maltese kitten curled up in the lap of +one of them, completed the list of occupants. + +The proximity of the baby and the kitten furnishes strong presumptive +evidence of the sex and general condition of the two passengers referred +to, and renders detail superfluous. A baby rarely travels without a +woman, or a kitten with a woman already encumbered with a baby. The baby +belonged to the elder passenger, the kitten to the younger. The one was +a buxom matron, the other a slender maid. In their ages there must have +been a difference of fifteen years; in feature there was still wider +disparity. The elder was a fine-looking woman, and one who prided +herself upon the Junoesque proportions which she occasionally exhibited +in a stroll for exercise up and down the aisle. Yet no one would call +her a beauty. Her eyes were of a somewhat fishy and uncertain blue; the +lids were tinged with an unornamental pink that told of irritation of +the adjacent interior surface and of possible irritability of temper. +Her complexion was of that mottled type which is so sore a trial to its +possessor and yet so inestimable a comfort to social rivals; but her +features were handsome, her teeth fine, her dress, bearing, and demeanor +those of a woman of birth and breeding, and yet one who might have +resented the intimation that she was not strikingly handsome. She looked +like a woman with a will of her own; her head was high, her step was +firm; it was of just such a walk as hers that Virgil wrote his "_vera +incessu patuit dea_," and she made the young man in the section by +himself think of that very passage as he glanced at her from under his +heavy, bushy eyebrows. She looked, moreover, like a woman with a +capacity for influencing people contrary to their will and judgment, and +with a decided fondness for the exercise of that unpopular function. +There was the air of _grande dame_ about her, despite the simplicity of +her dress, which, though of rich material, was severely plain. She wore +no jewelry. Her hands were snugly gloved, and undisfigured by the +distortions of any ring except the marriage circlet. Her manner attested +her a person of consequence in her social circle and one who realized +the fact. She had repelled, though without rudeness or discourtesy, the +garrulous efforts of the motherly knitter to be sociable. She had +promptly inspired the small, candy-crusted explorer with such awe that +he had refrained from further visits after his first confiding attempt +to poke a sticky finger through the baby's velvety cheek. She had spared +little scorn in her rejection of the _bourgeois_ advances of the +commercial traveller with the languishing eyes of Israel: he confided to +his comrades, in relating the incident, that she was smart enough to see +that it wasn't _her_ he was hankering to know, but the pretty sister by +her side; and when challenged to prove that they _were_ sisters,--a +statement which aroused the scepticism of his shrewd associates,--he had +replied, substantially,-- + +"How do I know? 'Cause I saw their pass before you was up this morning, +cully. It's for Mrs. Captain Rayner and sister, and they're going out +here to Fort Warrener. That's how I know." And the porter of the car had +confirmed the statement in the sanctity of the smoking-room. + +And yet--such is the uncertainty of feminine temperament--Mrs. Rayner +was no more incensed at the commercial "gent" because he had obtruded +his attentions than she was at the young man reading in his own section +because he had refrained. Nearly twenty-four hours had elapsed since +they crossed the Missouri, and in all that time not once had she +detected in him a glance that betrayed the faintest interest in her, +or--still more remarkable--in the unquestionably lovely girl at her +side. Intrusiveness she might resent, but indifference she would and +did. Who was this youth, she wondered, who not once had so much as +stolen a look at the sweet, bonny face of her maiden sister? Surely +'twas a face any man would love to gaze upon,--so fair, so exquisite in +contour and feature, so pearly in complexion, so lovely in the deep, +dark brown of its shaded eyes. + +The bold glances of the four card-players she had defiantly returned, +and vanquished. Those men, like the travelling gents, were creatures of +coarser mould; but her experienced eye told her the solitary occupant of +the opposite section was a gentleman. The clear cut of his pale +features, the white, slender hand and shapely foot, the style and finish +of his quiet travelling-dress, the soft modulation and refined tone of +his voice on the one occasion when she heard him reply to some +importunity of the train-boy with his endless round of equally +questionable figs and fiction, the book he was reading,--a volume of +Emerson,--all combined to speak of a culture and position equal to her +own. She had been over the trans-continental railways often enough to +know that it was permissible for gentlemen to render their +fellow-passengers some slight attention which would lead to mutual +introductions if desirable; and this man refused to see that the +opportunity was open to him. + +True, when first she took her survey of those who were to be her +fellow-travellers at the "transfer" on the Missouri, she decided that +here was one against whom it would be necessary to guard the approaches. +She had good and sufficient reasons for wanting no young man as +attractive in appearance as this one making himself interesting to +pretty Nellie on their journey. She had already decided what Nellie's +future was to be. Never, indeed, would she have taken her to the gay +frontier station whither she was now _en route_, had not that future +been already settled to her satisfaction. Nellie Travers, barely out of +school, was betrothed, and willingly so, to the man she, her devoted +elder sister, had especially chosen. Rare and most unlikely of +conditions! she had apparently fallen in love with the man picked out +for her by somebody else. She was engaged to Mrs. Rayner's fascinating +friend Mr. Steven Van Antwerp, a scion of an old and esteemed and +wealthy family; and Mr. Van Antwerp, who had been educated abroad, and +had a Heidelberg scar on his left cheek, and dark, lustrous eyes, and +wavy hair,--almost raven,--was a devoted lover, though fully fifteen +years Miss Nellie's senior. + +Full of bliss and comfort was Mrs. Rayner's soul as she journeyed +westward to rejoin her husband at the distant frontier post she had not +seen since the early spring. Army woman as she was, born and bred under +the shadow of the flag, a soldier's daughter, a soldier's wife, she had +other ambitions for her beautiful Nell. Worldly to the core, she herself +would never have married in the army but for the unusual circumstance of +a wealthy subaltern among the officers of her father's regiment. +Tradition had it that Mr. Rayner was not among the number of those who +sighed for Kate Travers's guarded smiles. Her earlier victims were kept +a-dangling until Rayner, too, succumbed, and then were sent adrift. She +meant that no penniless subaltern should carry off her "baby +sister,"--they had long been motherless,--and a season at the sea-shore +had done her work well. Steven Van Antwerp, with genuine distress and +loneliness, went back to his duties in Wall Street after seeing them +safely on their way to the West. "Guard her well for me," he whispered +to Mrs. Rayner. "I dread those fellows in buttons." And he shivered +unaccountably as he spoke. + +Nellie was pledged, therefore, and this youth in the Pullman was not one +of "those fellows in buttons," so far as Mrs. Rayner knew, but she was +ready to warn him off, and meant to do so, until, to her surprise, she +saw that he gave no symptom of a desire to approach. By noon of the +second day she was as determined to extract from him some sign of +interest as she had been determined to resent it. I can in no wise +explain or account for this. The fact is stated without remark. + +"What on earth can we be stopping so long here for?" was Mrs. Rayner's +somewhat petulant inquiry, addressed to no one in particular. There was +no reply. Miss Travers was busily twitching the ears of the kitten at +the moment and sparring with upraised finger at the threatening paw. + +"Do look out of the window, Nell, and see." + +"There is nothing to see, Kate,--nothing but whirling drifts and a big +water-tank all covered with ice. Br-r-r-r! how cold it looks!" she +answered, after vainly flattening her face against the inner pane. + +"There must be something the matter, though," persisted Mrs. Rayner. "We +have been here full five minutes, and we are behind time now. At this +rate we'll never get to Warrener to-night. I do wish the porter would +stay here where he belongs." + +The young man quietly laid down his book and arose. "I will inquire, +madame," he said, with grave courtesy. "You shall know in a moment." + +"How _very_ kind of you!" said the lady. "Indeed I must not trouble you. +I'm sure the porter will be here after a while." + +And even as she spoke, and as he was pulling on an overcoat, the train +rumbled off again. Then came an exclamation, this time from the younger: + +"Why, Kate! Look! see all these men,--and horses! Why, they are +soldiers,--cavalry! Oh, how I love to see them again! But, oh, how cold +they look!--frozen!" + +"Who _can_ they be?" said Mrs. Rayner, all vehement interest now, and +gazing eagerly from the window at the lowered heads of the horses and +the muffled figures in blue and fur. "What _can_ they be doing in the +field in such awful weather? I cannot recognize one of them, or tell +officers from men. Surely that must be Captain Wayne,--and Major +Stannard. Oh, what can it mean?" + +The young man had suddenly leaped to the window behind them, and was +gazing out with an eagerness and interest little less apparent than her +own, but in a moment the train had whisked them out of sight of the +storm-beaten troopers. Then he hurried to the rear window of the car, +and Mrs. Rayner as hastily followed. + +"_Do_ you know them?" she asked. + +"Yes. That _was_ Major Stannard. It is his battalion of the ----th +Cavalry, and they have been out scouting after renegade Cheyennes. +Pardon me, madame, I must go forward and see who have boarded the +train." + +He stopped at his section, and again she followed him, her eyes full of +anxiety. He was busy tugging at a flask in his travelling-bag. + +"You know them! Do you know--have you heard of any infantry being out? +Pardon me for detaining you, but I am very anxious. My husband is +Captain Rayner, of Fort Warrener." + +"No infantry have been sent, madame, I--have reason to know; at least, +none from Warrener." + +And with that he hurriedly bowed and left her. The next moment, flask in +hand, he was crossing the storm-swept platform and making his way to the +head of the train. + +"I believe he is an officer," said Mrs. Rayner to her sister. "Who else +would be apt to know about the movement of the troops? Did you notice +how gentle his manner was?--and he never smiled: he has such a sad face. +Yet he can't be an officer, or he would have made himself known to us +long ago." + +"Is there no name on the satchel?" asked Miss Travers, with pardonable +curiosity. "He has an interesting face,--not handsome." And a dreamy +look came into her deep eyes. She was thinking, no doubt, of a dark, +oval, _distingué_ face with raven hair and moustache. The youth in the +travelling-suit was not tall, like Steven,--not singularly, romantically +handsome, like Steven. Indeed, he was of less interest to her than to +her married sister. + +Mrs. Rayner could see no name on the satchel,--only two initials; and +they revealed very little. + +"I have half a mind to peep at the fly-leaf of that book," she said. "He +walked just like a soldier: but there isn't anything there to indicate +what he is," she continued, with a doubtful glance at the items +scattered about the now vacant section. "Why isn't that porter here? He +ought to know who people are." + +As though to answer her request, in came the porter, dishevelled and +breathless. He made straight for the satchel they had been scrutinizing, +and opened it without ceremony. Both ladies regarded this proceeding +with natural astonishment, and Mrs. Rayner was about to interfere and +question his right to search the luggage of passengers, when the man +turned hurriedly towards them, exhibiting a little bundle of +handkerchiefs, his broad Ethiopian face clouded with anxiety and +concern: + +"The gentleman told me to take all his handkerchiefs. We'se got a dozen +frozen soldiers in the baggage-car,--some of 'em mighty bad,--and +they'se tryin' to make 'em comfortable until they get to the fort." + +"Soldiers frozen! Why do you take them in the baggage-car?--such a barn +of a place! Why weren't they brought here, where we could make them warm +and care for them?" exclaimed Mrs. Rayner, in impulsive indignation. + +"Laws, ma'am! never do in the world to bring frozen people into a hot +car! Sure to make their ears an' noses drop off, that would! Got to keep +'em in the cold and pile snow around 'em. That gentleman sittin' +here,--he knows," he continued: "he's an officer, and him and the +doctor's workin' with 'em now." + +And Mrs. Rayner, vanquished by a statement of facts well known to her +yet forgotten in the first impetuosity of her criticism, relapsed into +the silence of temporary defeat. + +"He _is_ an officer, then," said Miss Travers, presently. "I wonder what +he belongs to." + +"Not to our regiment, I'm sure. Probably to the cavalry. He knew Major +Stannard and other officers whom we passed there." + +"Did he speak to them?" + +"No: there was no time. We were beyond hearing-distance when he ran to +the back door of the car; and there was no time before that. But it's +very odd!" + +"What's very odd?" + +"Why, his conduct. It is so strange that he has not made himself known +to us, if he's an officer." + +"Probably he doesn't know you--or we--are connected with the army, +Kate." + +"Oh, yes, he does. The porter knows perfectly well, and I told him just +before he left." + +"Yes, but he didn't know before that time, did he?" + +"He ought to have known," said Mrs. Rayner, uncompromisingly. "At least, +he should if he had taken the faintest interest. I mentioned Captain +Rayner so that he could not help hearing." + +This statement being one that Miss Travers could in no wise +contradict,--as it was one, indeed, that Mrs. Rayner could have +dispensed with as unnecessary,--the younger lady again betook herself to +silence and pulling the kitten's ears. + +"Even if he didn't know before," continued her sister, after a pause in +which she had apparently been brooding over the indifference of the +young man in question, "he ought to have made himself known after I told +him who I was." Another pause. "That's what I did it for," she wound up, +conclusively. + +"And that's what I thought," said Miss Travers, with a quiet smile. +"However, he had no time then: he was hurrying off to see whether any of +the soldiers had come on board. He took his flask with him, and +apparently was in haste to offer someone a drink. I'm sure that is what +papa used to do," she added, as she saw a frown gathering on her +sister's face. + +"What papa did just after the war--a time when everybody drank--is not +at all the proper thing now. Captain Rayner never touches it; and I +don't allow it in the house." + +"Still, I should think it a very useful article when a lot of frozen and +exhausted men are on one's hands," said Miss Travers. "That was but a +small flask he had, and I'm sure they will need more." + +There came a rush of cold air from the front, and the swinging door blew +open ahead of the porter, who was heard banging shut the outer portal. +Then he hurried in. + +"Can some of you gentlemen oblige me with some whiskey or brandy?" he +asked. "We've got some frozen soldiers aboard. Two of 'em are pretty +nearly gone." + +Two of the card-players dropped their hands and started for their +section at once. Before they could rummage in their bags for the +required article, Mrs. Rayner's voice was heard: "Take this, porter." +And she held forth a little silver flask. "I have more in my trunk if it +is needed," she added, while a blush mounted to her forehead as she saw +the quizzical smile on her sister's face. "You know I _always_ carry it +in travelling, Nellie,--in case of accident or illness; and I'm most +thankful I have it now." + +"Ever so much obliged, ma'am," said the porter, "but this would be only +a thimbleful, and I can get a quart bottle of this gentleman." + +"Where are they?" said the person thus referred to, as he came down the +aisle with a big brown bottle in his hand. "Come, Jim, let's go and see +what we can do. One of you gentlemen take my place in the game," he +continued, indicating the commercial gents, two of whom, nothing loath, +dropped into the vacated seats, while the others pushed on to the front +of the train. The porter hesitated one moment. + +"Yes, take my flask: I shouldn't feel satisfied without doing something. +And please say to the officer that I'm Mrs. Rayner,--Mrs. Captain +Rayner, of the infantry,--and ask if there isn't something I can do to +help." + +"Yes, ma'am; I will, ma'am. Oh, he knows who you are: I done told him +last night. He's goin' to Fort Warrener, too." And, touching his cap, +away went the porter. + +"There! He _did_ know all along," said Mrs. Rayner, triumphantly. "It is +most extraordinary!" + +"Well, is it the proper thing for people in the army to introduce +themselves when travelling? How are they to know it will be agreeable?" + +"Agreeable! Why, Nellie, it's _always_ done,--especially when ladies are +travelling without escort, as we are. The commonest civility should +prompt it; and officers always send their cards by the porter the moment +they find army ladies are on the train. I don't understand this one at +all,--especially--" But here she broke off abruptly. + +"Especially what?" asked Miss Nell, with an inspiration of maidenly +curiosity. + +"Especially nothing. Never mind now." And here the baby began to fidget, +and stir about, and stretch forth his chubby hands, and thrust his +knuckles in his eyes, and pucker up his face in alarming contortions +preparatory to a wail, and, after one or two soothing and tentative +sounds of "sh--sh--sh--sh" from the maternal lips, the matron abandoned +the attempt to induce a second nap, and picked him up in her arms, where +he presently began to take gracious notice of his pretty aunt and the +kitten. + +Two hours later, just as the porter had notified them that Warrener +Station would be in sight in five minutes, the young man of the +opposite section returned to the car. He looked tired, very anxious, +and his face was paler and the sad expression more pronounced than +before. The train-conductor stopped him to speak of some telegrams that +had been sent, and both ladies noted the respect which the railway +official threw into the tone in which he spoke. The card-players stopped +their game and went up to ask after the frozen men. It was not until the +whistle was sounding for the station that he stood before them and with +a grave and courteous bow held forth Mrs. Rayner's silver flask. + +"It was a blessing to one poor fellow at least, and I thank you for him, +madame," he said. + +"I have been so anxious. I wanted to do something. Did you not get my +message, Mr.----?" she asked, with intentional pause that he might +supply the missing name. + +"Indeed there was nothing we could ask of you," he answered, totally +ignoring the evident invitation. "I am greatly obliged to you for your +kindness, but we had abundant help, and you really could not have +reached the car in the face of this gale. Good-morning, madame." And +with that he raised his fur travelling-cap and quickly turned to his +section and busied himself strapping up his various belongings. + +"The man must be a woman-hater," she whispered to Miss Travers, "He's +going to get out here, too. Who _can_ he be?" + +There was still a moment before the train would stop at the platform, +and she was not to be beaten so easily. Bending partly across the aisle, +she spoke again: + +"You have been so kind to those poor fellows that I feel sure you must +be of the army. I think I told you I am Mrs. Rayner, of Fort Warrener. +May we not hope to see you there?" + +A deep flush rose to his forehead, suffusing his cheeks, and passed as +quickly away. His mouth twitched and trembled. Gazing at him in surprise +and trouble, Nellie Travers saw that his face was full of pain and was +turning white again. He half choked before he could reply: he spoke low, +and yet distinctly, and the words were full of sadness: + +"It--it is not probable that we shall meet at all." + +And with that he turned away. + + + + +II. + + +Even in the excitement attendant upon their reception at the station +neither Mrs. Rayner nor her sister could entirely recover from the +surprise and pain which the stranger's singular words had caused. So far +from feeling in the least rebuffed, Mrs. Rayner well understood from his +manner that not the faintest discourtesy was intended. There was not a +symptom of rudeness, not a vestige of irritation or haste, in his tone. +Deep embarrassment, inexpressible sadness even, she read in the brief +glimpse she had of his paling face. It was all a mystery to her and to +the girl seated in silence by her side. Both followed him with their +eyes as he hurried away to the rear of the car, and then, with joyous +shouts, three or four burly, fur-enveloped men came bursting in the +front door, and the two ladies, the baby, and the kitten were pounced +upon and surrounded by a group that grew larger every minute. Released +finally from the welcoming embrace of her stalwart husband, Mrs. Rayner +found time to present the other and younger officers to her sister. As +many as half a dozen had followed the captain in his wild rush upon the +car, and, while he and his baby boy were resuming acquaintanceship after +a separation of many long months, Miss Travers found herself the centre +of a circle of young officers who had braved the wintry blizzard in +their eagerness to do her proper homage. Her cheeks were aflame with +excitement and pleasure, her eyes dancing, and despite the fatigue of +her long journey she was looking dangerously pretty, as Captain Rayner +glanced for a moment from the baby's wondering eyes, took in the picture +like an instantaneous photograph, and then looked again into Mrs. +Rayner's smiling face. + +"You were wise in providing against possibilities as you did, Kate," he +said, with a significant nod of the head. "There are as many as a dozen +of them,--or at least there will be when the ----th gets back from the +field. Stannard is out yet with his battalion." + +"Oh, yes: we saw them at a station east of here. They looked frozen to +death; and there _are_ ever so many of the soldiers frozen. The +baggage-car is full of them. Didn't you know it?" + +"Not a word of it. We have been here for three mortal hours waiting at +the station, and any telegrams must have been sent right out to the +fort. The colonel is there, and he would have all arrangements made. +Here, Graham! Foster! Mrs. Rayner says there are a lot of frozen +cavalrymen forward in the baggage-car. Run ahead and see what is +necessary, will you? I'll be there in a minute, as soon as we've got +these ladies off the train." + +Two of the young gentlemen who had been hovering around Miss Travers +took themselves off without a moment's delay. The others remained to +help their senior officer. Out into the whirling eddies of snow, +bundling them up in the big, warm capes of their regulation overcoats, +the officers half led, half carried their precious charges. The captain +bore his son and heir; Lieutenant Ross escorted Mrs. Rayner; two others +devoted themselves exclusively to Miss Travers; a fourth picked up the +Maltese kitten. Two or three smart, trim-looking infantry soldiers +cleared the section of bags and bundles of shawls, and the entire party +was soon within the door-way of the waiting-room, where a red-hot +coal-stove glowed fierce welcome. Here the ladies were left for a +moment, while all the officers again bustled out into the storm and +fought their way against the northwest gale until they reached the +little crowd gathered about the door-way of the freight-sheds. A stout, +short, burly man in beaver overcoat and cap pushed through the knot of +half-numbed spectators and approached their leader: + +"We have only two ambulances, captain,--that is all there was at the +post when the despatch came,--and there are a dozen of these men, +besides Dr. Grimes, all more or less crippled, and Grimes has both hands +frozen. We must get them out at once. Can we take your wagon?" + +"Certainly, doctor. Take anything we have. If the storm holds, tell the +driver not to try to come back for us. We can make the ladies +comfortable here at the hotel for the night. Some of the officers have +to get back for duties this evening. The rest will have to stay. How did +they happen to get caught in such a freeze?" + +"They couldn't help it. Stannard had chased the Cheyennes across the +range, and was ordered to get back to the railway. It was twenty below +when they started, and they made three days' chase in that weather; but +no one seemed to care so long as they were on the trail. Then came the +change of wind, and a driving snow-storm, in which they lost the trail +as a matter of course; and then this blizzard struck them on the +back-track. Grimes is so exhausted that he could barely hold out until +he got here. He says he never could have brought them through from +Bluff Siding but for Mr. Hayne: he did everything." + +"Mr. Hayne! Was he with them?" + +"He was on the train, and came in at once to offer his services. Grimes +says he was invaluable." + +"But Mr. Hayne was East on leave: I _know_ he was. He was promoted to my +company last month,--confound the luck!--and was to have six months' +leave before joining. I wish it was six years. Where is he now?" And the +captain peered excitedly around from under his shaggy cap. Oddly, too, +his face was paling. + +"He left as soon as I took charge. I don't know where he's gone; but +it's God's mercy he was with these poor fellows. His skill and care have +done everything for them. Where did he get his knowledge?" + +"I've no idea," said Captain Rayner, gruffly, and in evident ill humor. +"He is the last man I expected to see this day or for days to come. Is +there anything else I can do, doctor?" + +"Nothing, thank you, captain." And the little surgeon hastened back to +his charges, followed by some of the younger officers, eager to be of +assistance in caring for their disabled comrades. Rayner himself +hesitated a moment, then turned about and trudged heavily back along the +wind-swept platform. The train had pulled away, and was out of sight in +the whirl of snow over the Western prairies. He went to his own +substantial wagon, and shouted to the driver, who sat muffled in buffalo +fur on the box,-- + +"Get around there to the freight-house and report to the doctor. There +are a lot of frozen cavalrymen to be taken out to the hospital. Don't +try to come back for us to-night: we'll stay here in town. Send the +quartermaster's team in for the trunks as soon as the storm is over and +the road clear. That's all." + +Then he rejoined the party at the waiting-room of the station, and Mrs. +Rayner noted instantly that all the cheeriness had gone and that a cloud +had settled on his face. She was a shrewd observer, and she knew him +well. Something more serious than a mishap to a squad of soldiers had +brought about the sudden change. He was all gladness, all rejoicing and +delight, when he clasped her and his baby boy in his arms but ten +minutes before, and now--something had occurred to bring him serious +discomfort. She rested her hand on his arm and looked questioningly in +his face. He avoided her glance, and quickly began to talk. She saw +that he desired to answer no questions just then, and wisely refrained. + +Meantime, Miss Travers was chatting blithely with two young gallants who +had returned to her side, and who had thrown off their heavy furs and +now stood revealed in their becoming undress uniforms. Mr. Ross had gone +to look over the rooms which the host of the railway hotel had offered +for the use of the party; the baby was yielding to the inevitable and +gradually condescending to notice the efforts of Mr. Foster to scrape +acquaintance; the kitten, with dainty step, and ears and tail erect, was +making a leisurely inspection of the premises, sniffing about the few +benches and chairs with which the bare room was burdened, and +reconnoitring the door leading to the hall-way with evident desire to +extend her researches in that direction. Presently that very door +opened, and in came two or three bundles of fur in masculine shape, and +with them two shaggy deer-hounds, who darted straight at the kitten. +There was a sudden flurry and scatter, a fury of spits and scratching, a +yelp of pain from one brute with lacerated nose, a sudden recoil of both +hounds, and then a fiery rush through the open door-way in pursuit of +puss. After the first gallant instinct of battle her nerve had given +out, and she had sought safety in flight. + +"Oh, don't let them hurt her!" cried Miss Travers, as she darted into +the hall and gazed despairingly up the stairway to the second story, +whither the dogs had vanished like a flash. Two of the young officers +sped to the rescue and turned the wrong way. Mrs. Rayner and the captain +followed her into the hall. A rush of canine feet and an excited chorus +of barks and yelps were heard aloft; then a stern voice ordering, "Down, +you brutes!" a sudden howl as though in response to a vigorous kick, and +an instant later, bearing the kitten, ruffled, terrified, and wildly +excited, yet unharmed, there came springing lightly down the steps the +young man in civilian dress who was their fellow-traveller on the +Pullman. Without a word he gave his prize into the dainty hands +outstretched to receive it, and, never stopping an instant, never +listening to the eager words of thanks from her pretty lips, he darted +back as quickly as he came, leaving Miss Travers suddenly stricken dumb. + +Captain Rayner turned sharply on his heel and stepped back into the +waiting-room. Mr. Ross nudged a brother lieutenant and whispered, "By +gad! that's awkward for Midas!" The two subalterns who had taken the +wrong turn at the top of the stairs reappeared there just as the +rescuer shot past them on his way back, and stood staring, first after +his disappearing form, and then at each other. Miss Travers, with wonder +and relief curiously mingled in her sweet face, clung to her restored +kitten and gazed vacantly up the stairs. + +Mrs. Rayner looked confusedly from one to the other, quickly noting the +constraint in the manner of every officer present and the sudden +disappearance of her husband. There was an odd silence for a moment: +then she spoke: + +"Mr. Ross, do you know that gentleman?" + +"I know who he is. Yes." + +"Who is he, then?" + +"He is your husband's new first lieutenant, Mrs. Rayner. That is Mr. +Hayne." + +"_That!_--Mr. Hayne?" she exclaimed, growing suddenly pale. + +"Certainly, madame. Had you never seen him before?" + +"Never; and I expected--I didn't expect to see such a--" And she broke +short off, confused and plainly distressed, turned abruptly, and left +the hall as had her husband. + + + + +III. + + +The officers of Fort Warrener were assembled, as was the daily morning +custom, in the presence of the colonel commanding. It had long been the +practice of that veteran soldier to require all his commissioned +subordinates to put in an appearance at his office immediately after the +ceremony of guard-mounting. He might have nothing to say to them, or he +might have a good deal; and he was a man capable of saying a good deal +in very few words, and meaning exactly what he said. It was his custom +to look up from his writing as each officer entered and respond to the +respectful salutation tendered him with an equally punctilious +"Good-morning, Captain Gregg," or "Good-morning, Mr. Blake,"--never +omitting the mention of the name, unless, as was sometimes tried, a +squad of them came in together and made their obeisance as a body. In +this event the colonel simply looked each man in the face, as though +taking mental note of the individual constituents of the group, and +contented himself with a "Good-morning, gentlemen." + +When in addition to six troops of his own regiment of cavalry there were +sent to the post a major and four companies of infantry, some of the +junior officers of the latter organization had suggested to their +comrades of the yellow stripes that as the colonel had no roll-call it +might be a matter of no great risk to "cut the _matinée_" on some of the +fiendishly cold mornings that soon set in; but the experiment was never +designedly tried, thanks, possibly, to the frank exposition of his +personal views as expressed by Lieutenant Blake, of the cavalry, who +said, "Try it if you are stagnating for want of a sensation, my genial +plodder, but not if you value the advice of one who has been there, so +to speak. The chief will spot you quicker than he can a missing shoe,--a +missing _horse_shoe, Johnny, let me elaborate for your +comprehension,--and the next question will be, 'Mr. Bluestrap, did you +intentionally absent yourself?' and _then_ how will you get out of it?" + +The _matinées_, so called, were by no means unpopular features of the +daily routine. The officers were permitted to bring their pipes or +cigars and take their after-breakfast smoke in the big, roomy office of +the commander, just as they were permitted to enjoy the post-prandial +whiff when at evening recitation in the same office they sat around the +room, chatting in low tones, for half an hour, while the colonel +received the reports of his adjutant, the surgeon, and the old and the +new officer of the day. Then any matters affecting the discipline or +instruction or general interests of the command were brought up; both +sides of the question were presented, if question arose; the decision +was rendered then and there, and the officers were dismissed for the day +with the customary "That's all, gentlemen." They left the office well +knowing that only in the event of some sudden emergency would they be +called thither again or disturbed in their daily vocations until the +same hour on the following morning. Meantime, they must be about their +work: drills, if weather permitted; stable-duty, no matter what the +weather; garrison courts, boards of survey, the big general court that +was perennially dispensing justice at the post, and the long list of +minor but none the less exacting demands on the time and attention of +the subalterns and company commanders. The colonel was a strict, even +severe, disciplinarian, but he was cool, deliberate, and just. He +"worked" his officers, and thereby incurred the criticism of a few, but +held the respect of all. He had been a splendid cavalry-commander in the +field of all others where his sterling qualities were sure to find +responsive appreciation in his officers and men,--on active and stirring +campaigns against the Indians,--and among his own regiment he knew that +deep in their hearts the ----th respected and believed in him, even +when they growled at garrison exactions which seemed uncalled for. The +infantry officers knew less of him as a sterling campaigner, and were +not so well pleased with his discipline. It was all right for him to +"rout out" every mother's son in the cavalry at reveille, because all +the cavalry officers had to go to stables soon afterwards,--that was all +they were fit for,--but what on earth was the use of getting them--the +infantry--out of their warm beds before sunrise on a wintry morning and +having no end of roll-calls and such things through the day, "just to +keep them busy"? The real objection--the main objection--to the +colonel's system was that it kept a large number of officers, most of +whom were educated gentlemen, hammering all day long at an endless +routine of trivial duties, allowing actually no time in which they could +read, study, or improve their minds; but, as ill luck would have it, the +three young gentlemen who decided to present to the colonel this view of +the case had been devoting what spare time they could find to a lively +game of poker down at "the store," and their petition for "more time to +themselves" brought down a reply from the oracular lips of the commander +that became immortal on the frontier and made the petitioners nearly +frantic. For a week the trio was the butt of all the wits at Fort +Warrener. And yet the entire commissioned force felt that they were +being kept at the grindstone because of the frivolity of these few +youngsters, and they did not like it. All the same the cavalrymen stuck +up for their colonel, and the infantrymen respected him, and the +_matinées_ were business-like and profitable. They were rarely +unpleasant in any feature; but this particular morning--two days after +the arrival of Mrs. Rayner and her sister--there had been a scene of +somewhat dramatic interest, and the groups of officers in breaking up +and going away could discuss nothing else. The colonel had requested one +of their number to remain, as he wished to speak to him further; and +that man was Lieutenant Hayne. + +Seven years had that young gentleman been a second lieutenant of the +regiment of infantry a detachment of which was now stationed at +Warrener. Only this very winter had promotion come to him; and, of all +companies in the regiment, he was gazetted to the first-lieutenancy of +Captain Rayner's. For a while the regiment when by itself could talk of +little else. Mr. Hayne had spent three or four years in the exile of a +little "two-company post" far up in the mountains. Except the officers +there stationed, none of his comrades had seen him during that time. No +one of them would like to admit that he would care to see him. And yet, +when once in a while they got to talking among themselves about him, and +the question was sometimes confidentially asked of comrades who came +down on leave from that isolated station, "How is Hayne doing?" or, +"What is Hayne doing?" the language in which he was referred to grew by +degrees far less truculent and confident than it had been when he first +went thither. Officers of other regiments rarely spoke to the "Riflers" +of Mr. Hayne. Unlike one or two others of their arm of the service, this +particular regiment of foot held the affairs of its officers as +regimental property in which outsiders had no concern. If they had +disagreements, they were kept to themselves; and even in a case which in +its day had attracted wide-spread attention the Riflers had long since +learned to shun all talk outside. It was evident to other commands that +the Hayne affair was a sore point and one on which they preferred +silence. And yet it was getting to be whispered around that the Riflers +were by no means so unanimous as they had been in their opinion of this +very officer. They were becoming divided among themselves; and what +complicated matters was the fact that those who felt their views +undergoing a reconstruction were compelled to admit that just in +proportion as the case of Mr. Hayne rose in their estimation the +reputation of another officer was bound to suffer; and that officer was +Captain Rayner. + +Between these two men not a word had been exchanged for five years,--not +a single word since the day when, with ashen face and broken accents, +but with stern purpose in every syllable, Lieutenant Hayne, standing in +the presence of nearly all the officers of his regiment, had hurled this +prophecy in his adversary's teeth: "Though it take me years, I will live +it down despite you; and you will wish to God you had bitten out your +perjured tongue before ever you told the lie that wrecked me." + +No wonder there was talk, and lots of it, in the "Riflers" and all +through the garrison when Rayner's first lieutenant suddenly threw up +his commission and retired to the mines he had located in Montana, and +Hayne, the "senior second," was promoted to the vacancy. Speculation as +to what would be the result was given a temporary rest by the news that +War Department orders had granted the subaltern six months' leave,--the +first he had sought in as many years. It was known that he had gone +East; but hardly had he been away a fortnight when there came the +trouble with the Cheyennes at the reservation,--a leap for liberty by +some fifty of the band, and an immediate rush of the cavalry in +pursuit. There were some bloody atrocities, as there always are. All the +troops in the department were ordered to be in readiness for instant +service, while the officials eagerly watched the reports to see which +way the desperate band would turn; and the next heard of Mr. Hayne was +the news that he had thrown up his leave and had hurried out to join his +company the moment the Eastern papers told of the trouble. It was all +practically settled by the time he reached the department; but the +spirit and intent of his action could not be doubted. And now here he +was at Warrener. That very morning during the _matinée_ he had entered +the office unannounced, walked up to the desk of the commander, and, +while every voice but his in the room was stilled, he quietly spoke: + +"Permit me to introduce myself, colonel,--Mr. Hayne. I desire to +relinquish my leave of absence and report for duty." + +The colonel quickly arose and extended his hand: + +"Mr. Hayne, I am especially glad to see you and to thank you here for +all your care and kindness to our men. The doctor tells me that many of +them would have had to suffer the loss of noses and ears, even of hands +and feet in some cases, but for your attention. Major Stannard will add +his thanks to mine when he returns. Take a seat, sir, for the present. +You are acquainted with the officers of your own regiment, doubtless. +Mr. Billings, introduce Mr. Hayne to ours." + +Whereat the adjutant courteously greeted the new-comer, presented a +small party of yellow-strapped shoulders, and then drew him into earnest +talk about the adventure of the train. It was noticed that Mr. Hayne +neither by word nor glance gave the slightest recognition of the +presence of the officers of his own regiment, and that they as +studiously avoided him. One or two of their number had, indeed, risen +and stepped forward, as though to offer him the civil greeting due to +one of their own cloth; but it was with evident doubt of the result. +They reddened when he met their tentative--which was that of a +gentleman--with a cold look of utter repudiation. He did not choose to +see them, and, of course, that ended it. + +Nor was his greeting hearty among the cavalrymen. There were only a few +present, as most of the ----th were still out in the field and marching +slowly homeward. The introductions were courteous and formal, there was +even constraint among some two or three, but there was civility and an +evident desire to refer to his services in behalf of their men. All such +attempts, however, Mr. Hayne waved aside by an immediate change of the +subject. It was plain that to them too, he had the manner of a man who +was at odds with the world and desired to make no friends. + +The colonel quickly noted the general silence and constraint, and +resolved to shorten it as much as possible. Dropping his pen, he wheeled +around in his chair with determined cheerfulness: + +"Mr. Hayne, you will need a day or two to look about before you select +quarters and get ready for work, I presume." + +"Thank you, colonel. No, sir. I shall move in this afternoon and be on +duty to-morrow morning," was the calm reply. + +There was an awkward pause for a moment. The officers looked blankly +from one to another, and then began craning their necks to search for +the post quartermaster, who sat an absorbed listener. Then the colonel +spoke again: + +"I appreciate your promptness, Mr. Hayne; but have you considered that +in choosing quarters according to your rank you will necessarily move +somebody out? We are crowded now, and many of your juniors are married, +and the ladies will want time to pack." + +An anxious silence again. Captain Rayner was gazing at his boot-toes and +trying to appear utterly indifferent; others leaned forward, as though +eager to hear the answer. A faint smile crossed Mr. Hayne's features: he +seemed rather to enjoy the situation: + +"I _have_ considered, colonel. I shall turn nobody out, and nobody need +be incommoded in the least." + +"Oh! then you will share quarters with some of the bachelors?" asked the +colonel, with evident relief. + +"No, sir;" and the answer was stern in tone, though perfectly +respectful: "I shall live as I have lived for years,--utterly alone." + +One could have heard a pin drop in the office,--even on the matted +floor. The colonel half rose: + +"Why, Mr. Hayne, there is not a vacant set of quarters in the garrison. +You will _have_ to move some one out if you decide to live alone." + +"There may be no quarters _in_ the post, sir, but, if you will permit +me, I can live near my company and yet in officers' quarters." + +"How so, sir?" + +"In the house out there on the edge of the garrison, facing the prairie. +It is within stone's-throw of the barracks of Company B, and is exactly +like those built for the officers in here along the parade." + +"Why, Mr. Hayne, no officers ever lived there. It is utterly out of the +way and isolated. I believe it was built for the sutler years ago, but +was bought in by the government afterwards.--Who lives there now, Mr. +Quartermaster?" + +"No one, sir. It is being used as a tailors' shop; half a dozen of the +company tailors work there; but I can send them back to their own +barracks. The house is in good repair, and, as Mr. Hayne says, exactly +like those built for officers' use." + +"And you mean you want to live there, alone, Mr. Hayne?" + +"I do, sir,--exactly." + +The colonel turned sharply to his desk once more. The strained silence +continued a moment. Then he faced his officers: + +"Mr. Hayne, will you remain a few moments? I wish to speak with +you.--Gentlemen, that is all this morning." And so the meeting +adjourned. + +While many of the cavalry officers strolled into the neighboring +club-and reading-room, it was noticed that their comrades of the +infantry lost no time at intermediate points, but took the shortest road +to the row of brown cottages known as the officers' quarters. The +feeling of constraint that had settled upon all was still apparent in +the group that entered the club-room, and for a moment no one spoke. +There was a general settling into easy-chairs and picking up of +newspapers without reference to age or date. No one seemed to want to +say anything, and yet every one felt it necessary to have some apparent +excuse for becoming absorbed in other matters. This was so evident to +Lieutenant Blake that he speedily burst into a laugh,--the first that +had been heard,--and when two or three heads popped out from behind +their printed screens to inquire into the cause of his mirth, that +light-hearted gentleman was seen sprawling his long legs apart and +gazing out of the window after the groups of infantrymen. + +"What do you see that's so intensely funny?" growled one of the elders +among the dragoons. + +"Nothing, old mole,--nothing," said Blake, turning suddenly about. "It +looks too much like a funeral procession for fun. What I'm chuckling at +is the absurdity of our coming in here like so many mutes in weepers. +It's none of _our_ funeral." + +"Strikes me the situation is damned awkward," growled "the mole" again. +"Here's a fellow comes in who's cut by his regiment and has placed ours +under lasting obligation before he gets inside the post." + +"Well, does any man here know the rights and wrongs of the case, +anyhow?" said a tall, bearded captain as he threw aside the paper which +he had not been reading, and rose impatiently to his feet. "It seems to +me, from the little I've heard of Mr. Hayne and the little I've seen, +that there is a broad variation between facts and appearances. He looks +like a gentleman." + +"No one _does_ know anything more of the matter than was known at the +time of the court-martial five years ago," answered "the mole." "Of +course you have heard all about that; and my experience is that when a +body of officers and gentlemen find, after due deliberation on the +evidence, that another has been guilty of conduct unbecoming an officer +and a gentleman, the chances are a hundred to one he has been doing +something disreputable, to say the least." + +"Then why wasn't he dismissed?" queried a young lieutenant. "The law +says he must be." + +"That's right, Dolly: pull your Ives and Benèt on 'em, and show you know +all about military law and courts-martial," said the captain, +crushingly. "It's one thing for a court to sentence, and another for the +President to approve. Hayne _was_ dismissed, so far as a court could do +it, but the President remitted the whole thing." + +"There was more to it than that, though, and you know it, Buxton," said +Blake. "Neither the department commander nor General Sherman thought the +evidence conclusive, and they said so,--especially old Gray Fox. And you +ask any of these fellows here now whether they believe Hayne was really +guilty, and I'll bet you that eight out of ten will flunk at the +question." + +"And yet they all cut him dead. That's _prima facie_ evidence of what +they think." + +"Cut be blowed! By gad, if any man asked me to testify on oath as to +where the cut lay, I should say he had cut _them_. Did you see how he +ignored Foster and Graham this morning?" + +"I did; and I thought it damned ungentlemanly in him. Those fellows did +the proper thing, and he ought to have acknowledged it," broke in a +third officer. + +"I'm not defending _that_ point; the Lord knows he has done nothing to +encourage civility with his own people; but there are two sides to every +story, and I asked their adjutant last fall, when there was some talk +of his company's being sent here, what Hayne's status was, and he told +me. There isn't a squarer man or sounder soldier in the army than the +adjutant of the Riflers; and he said that it was Hayne's stubborn pride +that more than anything else stood in the way of his restoration to +social standing. He had made it a rule that every one who was not for +him was against him, and refused to admit any man to his society who +would not first come to him of his own volition and say he believed him +utterly innocent. As that involved the necessity of their looking upon +Rayner as either perjured or grossly and persistently mistaken, no one +felt called upon to do it. Guilty or innocent, he has lived the life of +a Pariah ever since." + +"_I_ wanted to open out to him, to-day," said Captain Gregg, "but the +moment I began to speak of his great kindness to our men he froze as +stiff as Mulligan's ear. What was the use? I simply couldn't thaw an +icicle. What made him so effective in getting the frost out of them was +his capacity for absorbing it into his own system." + +"Well, here, gentlemen," said Buxton, impatiently, "we've got to face +this thing sooner or later, and may as well do it now. I know Rayner, +and like him, and don't believe he's the kind of man to wilfully wrong +another. I _don't_ know Mr. Hayne, and Mr. Hayne apparently don't want +to know me. _I_ think that where a man has been convicted of +dishonorable--disgraceful conduct and is cut by his whole regiment it is +our business to back the regiment, not the man. Now the question is, +where shall we draw the line in this case? It's none of our funeral, as +Blake says, but ordinarily it would be our duty to call upon this +officer. Shall we do it, now that he is in Coventry, or shall we leave +him to his own devices?" + +"I'll answer for myself, Buxton," said Blake, "and you can do as, you +please. Except that one thing, and the not unusual frivolities of a +youngster that occurred previous to his trial, I understand that his +character has been above reproach. So far as I can learn, he is a far +more reputable character than I am, and a better officer than most of +us. Growl all you want to, comrades mine: 'it's a way we have in the +army,' and I like it. So long as I include myself in these malodorous +comparisons, you needn't swear. It is my conviction that the Riflers +wouldn't say he was guilty to-day if they hadn't said so five years ago. +It is my information that he has paid every cent of the damages, whether +he caused them or not, and it is my intention to go and call upon Mr. +Hayne as soon as he's settled. I don't propose to influence any man in +his action; and excuse me, Buxton, I think you _did_." + +The captain looked wrathful. Blake was an oddity, of whom he rather +stood in awe, for there was no mistaking the popularity and respect in +which he was held in his own regiment. The ----th was somewhat +remarkable for being emphatically an "outspoken crowd," and for some +years, thanks to a leaven of strong and truthful men in whom this trait +was pronounced and sustained, it had grown to be the custom of all but a +few of the officers to discuss openly and fully all matters of +regimental policy and utterly to discountenance covert action of any +kind. Blake was thoroughly popular, and generally respected, despite a +tendency to rant and rattle on most occasions. Nevertheless, there were +signs of dissent as to the line of action he proposed, though it were +only for his own guidance. + +"And how do you suppose Rayner and the Riflers generally will regard +your calling on their black sheep?" asked Buxton, after a pause. + +"I don't know," said Blake, more seriously, and with a tone of concern. +"I like Rayner, and have found most of those fellows thorough gentlemen +and good friends. This will test the question thoroughly. I believe most +of them, except of course Rayner, would do the same were they in my +place. At all events, I mean to see." + +"What are you going to do, Gregg?" asked "the mole," wheeling suddenly +on his brother troop-commander. + +"I don't know," said Gregg, doubtfully. "I think I'll ask the colonel." + +"What do you suppose _he_ means to do?" + +"I don't know again; but I'll bet we all know as soon as he makes up his +mind; and he is making up his mind now,--or he's made it up, for there +goes Mr. Hayne, and here comes the orderly. Something's up already." + +Every head was turned to the door-way as the orderly's step was heard in +the outer hall, and every voice stilled to hear the message, it was so +unusual for the commanding officer to send for one of his subordinates +after the morning meeting. The soldier tapped at the panel, and at the +prompt "Come in" pushed it partly open and stood with one white-gloved +hand resting on the knob, the other raised to his cap-visor in salute. + +"Lieutenant Blake?" he asked, as he glanced around. + +"What is it?" asked Blake, stepping quickly from the window. + +"The commanding officer's compliments, sir, and could he see the +lieutenant one minute before the court meets?" + +"Coming at once," said Blake, as he pushed his way through the chairs, +and the orderly faced about and disappeared. + +"I'll bet it's about Hayne," was the apparently unanimous sentiment as +the cavalry party broke up and scattered for the morning's duties. Some +waited purposely to hear. + +The adjutant alone stood in the colonel's presence as Blake knocked and +entered. All others had gone. There was a moment's hesitation, and the +colonel paused and looked his man over before he spoke: + +"You will excuse my sending for you, Mr. Blake, when I tell you that it +is a matter that has to be decided at once. In this case you will +consider, too, that I want you to say yes or no exactly as you would to +a comrade of your own grade. If you were asked to meet Mr. Hayne at any +other house in the garrison than mine, would you desire to accept? You +are aware of all the circumstances, the adjutant tells me." + +"I am, sir, and have just announced my intention of calling upon him." + +"Then will you dine with us this evening to meet Mr. Hayne?" + +"I will do so with pleasure, sir." + + * * * * * + +It could hardly have been an hour afterwards when Mrs. Rayner entered +the library in her cosey home and found Miss Travers entertaining +herself with a book. + +"Have you written to Mr. Van Antwerp this morning?" she asked. "I +thought that was what you came here for." + +"I did mean to, but Mrs. Waldron has been here, and I was interrupted." + +"It is fully fifteen minutes since she left, Nellie. You might have +written two or three pages already; and you know that all manner of +visitors will be coming in by noon." + +"I was just thinking over something she told me. I'll write presently." + +"Mrs. Waldron is a woman who talks about everything and everybody. I +advise you to listen to her no more than you can help. What was it she +told you?" + +Miss Travers smiled roguishly: "Why should you want to know, Kate, if +you disapprove of her revelations?" + +"Oh," with visible annoyance, "it is to--I wanted to know so as to let +you see that it was something unfounded, as usual." + +"She said she had just been told that the colonel was going to give a +dinner-party this evening to Mr. Hayne." + +"What?" + +"She--said--she--had--just--been--told--that--the colonel--was going--to +give--a dinner-party--this evening--to Mr.--Hayne." + +"Who told her?" + +"Kate, I didn't ask." + +"Who are invited? None of _ours_?" + +"Kate, I don't know." + +"Where did she say she had heard it?" + +"She didn't say." + +Mrs. Rayner paused one moment, irresolute: "Didn't she tell you anything +more about it?" + +"Nothing, sister mine. Why should you feel such an interest in what Mrs. +Waldron says, if she's such a gossip?" And Miss Travers was evidently +having hard work to keep from laughing outright. + +"_You_ had better write your letter," said her big sister, and flounced +suddenly out of the room and up the stairs. + +A moment later she was at the parlor door with a wrap thrown over her +shoulders: "If Captain Rayner comes in, tell him I want particularly to +see him before he goes out again." + +"Where are you going, Kate?" + +"Oh, just over to Mrs. Waldron's a moment." + + + + +IV. + + +Facing the broad, bleak prairie, separated from it only by a rough, +unpainted picket fence, and flanked by uncouth structures of pine, one +of which was used as a storehouse for quartermaster's property, the +other as the post-trader's depository for skins and furs, there stood +the frame cottage which Mr. Hayne had chosen as his home. As has been +said, it was precisely like those built for the subaltern officers, so +far as material, plan, and dimensions were concerned. The locality made +the vast difference which really existed. Theirs stood all in a row, +fronting the grassy level of the parade, surrounded by verandas, +bordering on a well-kept gravel path and an equally well graded drive. +Clear, sparkling water rippled in tiny _acequias_ through the front +yards of each, and so furnished the moisture needed for the life of +various little shrubs and flowering plants. The surroundings were at +least "sociable," and there was companionship and jollity, with an +occasional tiff to keep things lively. The married officers, as a rule, +had chosen their quarters farthest from the entrance-gate and nearest +those of the colonel commanding. The bachelors, except the two or three +who were old in the service and had "rank" in lieu of encumbrances, were +all herded together along the eastern end, a situation that had +disadvantages as connected with duties which required the frequent +presence of the occupants at the court-martial rooms or at +head-quarters, and that was correspondingly far distant from the +barracks of the soldiers. It had its recommendations in being convenient +to the card-room and billiard-tables at "the store," and in embracing +within its limits one house which possessed mysterious interest in the +eyes of every woman and most of the men in the garrison: it was said to +be haunted. + +A sorely-perplexed man was the post quartermaster when the rumor came +out from the railway-station that Mr. Hayne had arrived and was coming +to report for duty. As a first lieutenant he would have choice of +quarters over every second lieutenant in the garrison: there were ten of +these young gentlemen, and four of the ten were married. Every set of +quarters had its occupants, and Hayne could move in nowhere, unless as +occupant of a room or two in the house of some comrade, without first +compelling others to move out. This proceeding would lead to vast +discomfort, occurring as it would in the dead of winter, and the +youngsters were naturally perturbed in spirit,--their wives especially +so. What made the prospects infinitely worse was the fact that the +cavalry bachelors were already living three in a house: the only spare +rooms were in the quarters of the second lieutenants of the infantry, +and they were not on speaking-terms with Mr. Hayne. Everything, +therefore, pointed to the probability of his "displacing" a junior, who +would in turn displace somebody else, and so they would go tumbling like +a row of bricks until the lowest and last was reached. All this would +involve no end of worry for the quartermaster, who even under the most +favorable circumstances is sure to be the least appreciated and most +abused officer under the commandant himself, and that worthy was simply +agasp with relief and joy when he heard Mr. Hayne's astonishing +announcement that he would take the quarters out on "Prairie Avenue." + +It was the talk of the garrison all that day. The ladies, especially, +had a good deal to say, because many of the men seemed averse to +expressing their views. "Quite the proper thing for Mr. Hayne to do," +was the apparent opinion of the majority of the young wives and mothers. +As a particularly kind and considerate thing it was not remarked by one +of them, though that view of the case went not entirely unrepresented. +In choosing to live there Mr. Hayne separated himself from +companionship. That, said some of the commentators,--men as well as +women,--he simply accepted as the virtue of necessity, and so there was +nothing to commend in his action. But Mr. Hayne was said to possess an +eye for the picturesque and beautiful. If so, he deliberately condemned +himself to the daily contemplation of a treeless barren, streaked in +occasional shallows with dingy patches of snow, ornamented only in spots +by abandoned old hats, boots, or tin cans blown beyond the jurisdiction +of the garrison police-parties. A line of telegraph-poles was all that +intervened between his fence and the low-lying hills of the eastern +horizon. Southeastward lay the distant roofs and the low, squat +buildings of the frontier town; southward the shallow valley of the +winding creek in which lay the long line of stables for the cavalry and +the great stacks of hay; while the row on which he chose to +live--"Prairie Avenue," as it was termed--was far worse at his end of it +than at the other. It covered the whole eastern front. The big, brown +hospital building stood at the northern end. Then came the quarters of +the surgeon and his assistants, then the snug home of the post trader, +then the "store" and its scattering appendages, then the +entrance-gateway, then a broad vacant space, through which the wind +swept like a hurricane, then the little shanty of the trader's fur house +and one or two hovel-like structures used by the tailors and cobbler of +the adjacent infantry companies. Then came the cottage itself: south of +it stood the quartermaster's store-room, back of which lay an extension +filled with ordnance stores, then other and similar sheds devoted to +commissary supplies, the post butcher-shop, the saddler's shop, then big +coal-sheds, and then the brow of the bluff, down which at a steep grade +plunged the road to the stables. It was as unprepossessing a place for a +home as ever was chosen by a man of education or position; and Mr. Hayne +was possessed of both. + +In garrison, despite the flat parade, there was a grand expanse of +country to be seen stretching away towards the snow-covered Rockies. +There was life and the sense of neighborliness to one's kind. Out on +Prairie Avenue all was wintry desolation, except when twice each day the +cavalry officers went plodding by on their way to and from the stables, +muffled up in their fur caps and coats, and hardly distinguishable from +so many bears, much less from one another. + +And yet Mr. Hayne smiled not unhappily as he glanced from his eastern +window at this group of burly warriors the afternoon succeeding his +dinner at the colonel's. He had been busy all day long unpacking books, +book-shelves, some few pictures which he loved, and his simple, +soldierly outfit of household goods, and getting them into shape. His +sole assistant was a Chinese servant, who worked rapidly and well, and +who seemed in no wise dismayed by the bleakness of their surroundings. +If anything, he was disposed to grin and indulge in high-pitched +commentaries in "pidgin English" upon the unaccustomed amount of room. +His master had been restricted to two rooms and a kitchen during the two +years he had served him. Now they had a house to themselves, and more +rooms than they knew what to do with. The quartermaster had sent a +detail of men to put up the stoves and move out the rubbish left by the +tailors; "Sam" had worked vigorously with soft soap, hot water, and a +big mop in sprucing up the rooms; the adjutant had sent a little note +during the morning, saying that the colonel would be glad to order him +any men he needed to put the quarters in proper shape, and that Captain +Rayner had expressed his readiness to send a detail from the company to +unload and unpack his boxes, etc., to which Mr. Hayne replied in person +that he thanked the commanding officer for his thoughtfulness, but that +he had very little to unpack, and needed no assistance beyond that +already afforded by the quartermaster's men. Mr. Billings could not help +noting that he made no allusion to that part of the letter which spoke +of Captain Rayner's offer. It increased his respect for Mr. Hayne's +perceptive powers. + +While every officer of the infantry battalion was ready to admit that +Mr. Hayne had rendered invaluable service to the men of the cavalry +regiment, they were not so unanimous in their opinion as to how it +should be acknowledged and requited by its officers. No one was prepared +for the announcement that the colonel had asked him to dinner and that +Blake and Billings were to meet him. Some few of their number thought it +going too far, but no one quite coincided with the vehement declaration +of Mrs. Rayner that it was an outrage and an affront aimed at the +regiment in general and at Captain Rayner in particular. She was an +energetic woman when aroused, and there was no doubt of her being very +much aroused as she sped from house to house to see what the other +ladies thought of it. Rayner's wealth and Mrs. Rayner's qualities had +made her an undoubted though not always popular leader in all social +matters in the Riflers. She was an authority, so to speak, and one who +knew it. Already there had been some points on which she had differed +with the colonel's wife, and it was plain to all that it was a difficult +thing for her to come down from being _the_ authority--the leader of the +social element of a garrison--and from the position of second or third +importance which she had been accorded when first assigned to the +station. There were many, indeed, who asserted that it was because she +found her new position unbearable that she decided on her long visit to +the East and departed thither before the Riflers had been at Warrener a +month. The colonel's wife had greeted her and her lovely sister with +charming grace on their arrival two days previous to the stirring event +of the dinner, and every one was looking forward to a probable series of +pleasant entertainments by the two households, even while wondering how +long the _entente cordiale_ would last,--when the colonel's invitation +to Mr. Hayne brought on an immediate crisis. It is safe to say that Mrs. +Rayner was madder than the captain her husband, who hardly knew how to +take it. He was by no means the best liked officer in his regiment, nor +the "deepest" and best informed, but he had a native shrewdness which +helped him. He noted even before his wife would speak of it to him the +gradual dying out of the bitter feeling that had once existed at Hayne's +expense. He felt, though it hurt him seriously to make inquiries, that +the man whom he had practically crushed and ruined in the long ago was +slowly but surely gaining strength even where he would not make friends. +Worse than all, he was beginning to doubt the evidence of his own senses +as the years receded, and unknown to any soul on earth, even his wife, +there was growing up deep down in his heart a gnawing, insidious, +ever-festering fear that after all, after all, he might have been +mistaken. And yet on the sacred oath of a soldier and a gentleman, +against the most searching cross-examination, again and again had he +most confidently and positively declared that he had both seen and heard +the fatal interview on which the whole case hinged. And as to the exact +language employed, he alone of those within earshot had lived to testify +for or against the accused: of the five soldiers who stood in that now +celebrated group, three were shot to death within the hour. He was +growing nervous, irritable, haggard; he was getting to hate the mere +mention of the case. The promotion of Hayne to his own company thrilled +him with an almost superstitious dismay. _Were_ his words coming true? +_Was_ it the judgment of an offended God that his hideous pride, +obstinacy, and old-time hatred of this officer were now to be revenged +by daily, hourly contact with the victim of his criminal persecution? He +had grown morbidly sensitive to any remarks as to Hayne's having "lived +down" the toils in which he had been encircled. Might he not "live down" +the ensnarer? He dreaded to see him,--though Rayner was no coward,--and +he feared day by day to hear of his restoration to fellowship in the +regiment, and yet would have given half his wealth to bring it about, +could it but have been accomplished without the dreadful admission, "I +was wrong. I was _utterly_ wrong." He had grown lavish in hospitality; +he had become almost aggressively open-handed to his comrades, and had +sought to press money upon men who in no wise needed it. He was as eager +to lend as some are to borrow, and his brother officers dubbed him +"Midas" not because everything he touched would turn to gold, but +because he would intrude his gold upon them at every turn. There were +some who borrowed; and these he struggled not to let repay. He seemed to +have an insane idea that if he could but get his regimental friends +bound to him pecuniarily he could control their opinions and actions. It +was making him sick at heart, and it made him in secret doubly +vindictive and bitter against the man he had doomed to years of +suffering. This showed out that very morning. Mrs. Rayner had begun to +talk, and he turned fiercely upon her: + +"Not a word on that subject, Kate, if you love me!--not even the mention +of his name! I must have peace in my own house. It is enough to have to +talk of it elsewhere." + +Talk of it he had to. The major early that morning asked him, as they +were going to the _matinée_,-- + +"Have you seen Hayne yet?" + +"Not since he reported on the parade yesterday," was the curt reply. + +"Well, I suppose you will send men to help him get those quarters in +habitable shape?" + +"I will, of course, major, if he ask it. I don't propose sending men to +do such work for an officer unless the request come." + +"He is entitled to that consideration, Rayner, and I think the men +should be sent to him. He is hardly likely to ask." + +"Then he is less likely to get them," said the captain, shortly, for, +except the post commander, he well knew that no officer could order it +to be done. He was angry at the major for interfering. They were old +associates, and had entered service almost at the same time, but his +friend had the better luck in promotion and was now his battalion +commander. Rayner made an excuse of stopping to speak with the officer +of the day, and the major went on without him. He was a quiet old +soldier: he wanted no disturbance with his troubled friend, and, like a +sensible man, he turned the matter over to their common superior, in a +very few words, before the arrival of the general audience. It was this +that had caused the colonel to turn quietly to Rayner and say, in the +most matter-of-fact way,-- + +"Oh, Captain Rayner, I presume Mr. Hayne will need three or four men to +help him get his quarters in shape. I suppose you have already thought +to send them?" + +And Rayner flushed, and stammered, "They have not gone yet, sir; but I +had--thought of it." + +Later, when the sergeant sent the required detail he reported to the +captain in the company office in five minutes: "The lieutenant's +compliments and thanks, but he does not need the men." + +The dinner at the colonel's, quiet as it was and with only eight at +table, was an affair of almost momentous importance to Mr. Hayne. It was +the first thing of the kind he had attended in five years; and though he +well knew for knew that it was intended by the cavalry commander more +especially as a recognition of the services rendered their suffering +men, he could not but rejoice in the courtesy and tact with which he was +received and entertained. The colonel's wife, the adjutant's, and those +of two captains away with the field battalion, were the four ladies who +were there to greet him when, escorted by Mr. Blake, he made his +appearance. How long--how very long--it seemed to him since he had sat +in the presence of refined and attractive women and listened to their +gay and animated chat! They seemed all such good friends, they made him +so thoroughly at home, and they showed so much tact and ease, that never +once did it seem apparent that they knew of his trouble in his own +regiment; and yet there was no actual avoidance of matters in which the +Riflers were generally interested. It was mainly of his brief visit to +the East, however, that they made him talk,--of the operas and theatres +he had attended, the pictures he had seen, the music that was most +popular; and when dinner was over their hostess led him to her piano, +and he played and sang for them again and again. His voice was soft and +sweet, and, though it was uncultivated, he sang with expression and +grace, playing with more skill but less feeling and effect than he sang. +Music and books had been the solace of lonely years, and he could easily +see that he had pleased them with his songs. He went home to the dreary +rookery out on Prairie Avenue and laughed at the howling wind. The bare +grimy walls and the dim kerosene lamp, even Sam's unmelodious snore in +the back room, sent no gloom to his soul. It had been a happy evening. +It had cost him a hard struggle to restrain the emotion which he had +felt at times; and when he withdrew, soon after the trumpets sounded +tattoo, and the ladies fell to discussing him, as women will, there was +but one verdict,--his manners were perfect. + +But the colonel said more than that. He had found him far better read +than any other officer of his age he had ever met; and one and all they +expressed the hope that they might see him frequently. No wonder it was +of momentous importance to him. It was the opening to a new life. It +meant that here at least he had met soldiers and gentlemen and their +fair and gracious wives who had welcomed him to their homes, and, though +they must have known that a pall of suspicion and crime had overshadowed +his past, they believed either that he was innocent of the grievous +charge or that his years of exile and suffering had amply atoned. It was +a happy evening indeed to him; but there was gloom at Captain Rayner's. + +The captain himself had gone out soon after tattoo. He found that the +parlor was filled with young visitors of both sexes, and he was in no +mood for merriment. Miss Travers was being welcomed to the post in +genuine army style, and was evidently enjoying it. Mrs. Rayner was +flitting nervously in and out of the parlor with a cloud upon her brow, +and for once in her life compelled to preserve temporary silence upon +the subject uppermost in her thoughts. She had been forbidden to speak +of it to her husband; yet she knew he had gone out again with every +probability of needing some one to talk to about the matter. She could +not well broach the topic in the parlor, because she was not at all sure +how Captain and Mrs. Gregg of the cavalry would take it; and they were +still there. She was a loyal wife; her husband's quarrel was hers, and +more too; and she was a woman of intuition even keener than that which +we so readily accord the sex. She knew, and knew well, that a hideous +doubt had been preying for a long time in her husband's heart of hearts, +and she knew still better that it would crush him to believe it was even +suspected by any one else. Right or wrong, the one thing for her to do, +she doubted not, was to maintain the original guilt against all comers, +and to lose no opportunity of feeding the flame that consumed Mr. +Hayne's record and reputation. He was guilty,--he must be guilty; and +though she was a Christian according to her view of the case,--a pillar +of the Church in matters of public charity and picturesque conformity to +all the rubric called for in the services, and much that it did +not,--she was unrelenting in her condemnation of Mr. Hayne. To those who +pointed out that he had made every atonement man could make, she +responded with the severity of conscious virtue that there could be no +atonement without repentance, and no repentance without humility. Mr. +Hayne's whole attitude was that of stubborn pride and resentment; his +atonement was that enforced by the unanimous verdict of his comrades; +and even if it were so that he had more than made amends for his crime, +the rules that held good for ordinary sinners were not applicable to an +officer of the army. _He_ must be a man above suspicion, incapable of +wrong or fraud, and once stained he was forever ineligible as a +gentleman. It was a subject on which she waxed declamatory rather too +often, and the youngsters of her own regiment wearied of it. As Mr. +Foster once expressed it in speaking of this very case, "Mrs. Rayner can +talk more charity and show less than any woman I know." So long as her +talk was aimed against any lurking tendency of their own to look upon +Hayne as a possible martyr, it fell at times on unappreciative ears, and +she was quick to see it and to choose her hearers; but here was a new +phase,--one that might rouse the latent _esprit de corps_ of the +Riflers,--and she was bent on striking while the iron was hot. If +anything would provoke unanimity of action and sentiment in the +regiment, this public recognition by the cavalry, in their very +presence, of the man they cut as a criminal, was the thing of all others +to do it; and she meant to head the revolt. + +Possibly Gregg and his modest helpmeet discovered that there was +something she desired to "spring" upon the meeting. The others present +were all of the infantry; and when Captain Rayner simply glanced in, +spoke hurried good-evenings, and went as hurriedly out again, Gregg was +sure of it, and marched his wife away. Then came Mrs. Rayner's +opportunity: + +"If it were not Captain Rayner's house, I could not have been even civil +to Captain Gregg. You heard what he said at the club this morning, I +suppose?" + +In one form or another, indeed, almost everybody _had_ heard. The +officers present maintained an embarrassed silence. Miss Travers looked +reproachfully at her flushed sister, but to no purpose. At last one of +the ladies remarked,-- + +"Well, of course I heard of it, but--I've heard so many different +versions. It seems to have grown somewhat since morning." + +"It sounds just like him, however," said Mrs. Rayner, "and I made +inquiry before speaking of it. He said he meant to invite Mr. Hayne to +his house to-morrow evening, and if the infantry didn't like it they +could stay away." + +"Well, now, Mrs. Rayner," protested Mr. Foster, "of course none of us +heard what he said exactly, but it is my experience that no conversation +was ever repeated without being exaggerated, and I've known old Gregg +for ever so long, and never heard him say a sharp thing yet. Why, he's +the mildest-mannered fellow in the whole ----th Cavalry. He would never +get into such a snarl as that would bring about him in five minutes." + +"Well, he said he would do just as the colonel did, anyway,--we have +that straight from cavalry authority,--and we all know what the colonel +has done. He has chosen to honor Mr. Hayne in the presence of the +officers who denounce him, and practically defies the opinion of the +Riflers." + +"But, Mrs. Rayner, I did not understand Gregg's remarks to be what you +say, exactly. Blake told me that when asked by somebody whether he was +going to call on Mr. Hayne, Gregg simply replied he didn't know,--he +would ask the colonel." + +"Very well. That means, he proposes to be guided by the colonel, or +nothing at all; and Captain Gregg is simply doing what the others will +do. They say to us, in so many words, 'We prefer the society of your +_bête noire_ to your own.' That's the way I look at it," said Mrs. +Rayner, in deep excitement. + +It was evident that, though none were prepared to endorse so extreme a +view, there was a strong feeling that the colonel had put an affront +upon the Riflers by his open welcome to Mr. Hayne. He had been exacting +before, and had caused a good deal of growling among the officers and +comment among the women. They were ready to find fault, and here was +strong provocation. Mr. Foster was a youth of unfortunate and unpopular +propensities. He should have held his tongue, instead of striving to +stem the tide. + +"I don't uphold Hayne any more than you do, Mrs. Rayner, but it seems to +me this is a case where the colonel has to make some acknowledgment of +Mr. Hayne's conduct--" + +"Very good. Let him write him a letter, then, thanking him in the name +of the regiment, but don't pick him up like this in the face of ours," +interrupted one of the juniors, who was seated near Miss Travers (a wise +stroke of policy: Mrs. Rayner invited him to breakfast); and there was a +chorus of approbation. + +"Well, hold on a moment," said Foster. "Hasn't the colonel had every one +of us to dinner more or less frequently?" + +"Admitted. But what's that to do with it?" + +"Hasn't he invariably invited each officer to dine with him in every +case where an officer has arrived?" + +"Granted. But what then?" + +"If he broke the rule or precedent in Mr. Hayne's case would he not +practically be saying that he endorsed the views of the court-martial as +opposed to those of the department commander, General Sherman, the +Secretary of War, the President of the United--" + +"Oh, make out your transfer papers, Foster. You ought to be in the +cavalry or some other disputatious branch of the service," burst in Mr. +Graham. + +"I declare, Mr. Foster, I never thought you would abandon your colors," +said Mrs. Rayner. + +"I haven't, madame, and you've no right to say so," said Foster, +indignantly. "I simply hold that any attempt to work up a regimental row +out of this thing will make bad infinitely worse, and I deprecate the +whole business." + +"I suppose you mean to intimate that Captain Rayner's position and that +of the regiment is bad,--all wrong,--that Mr. Hayne has been +persecuted," said Mrs. Rayner, with trembling lips and cheeks aflame. + +"Mrs. Rayner, you are unjust," said poor Foster. "I ought not to have +undertaken to explain or defend the colonel's act, perhaps, but I am not +disloyal to my regiment or my colors. What I want is to prevent further +trouble; and I know that anything like a concerted resentment of the +colonel's invitation will lead to infinite harm." + +"_You_ may cringe and bow and bear it if you choose; you may humble +yourself to such a piece of insolence; but rest assured there are plenty +of men and women in the Riflers who won't bear it, Mr. Foster; and for +one _I_ won't." She had risen to her full height now, and her eyes were +blazing. "For his own sake I trust the colonel will omit our names from +the next entertainment he gives. Nellie shan't--" + +"Oh, think, Mrs. Rayner!" interrupted one of the ladies; "they _must_ +give her a dinner or a reception." + +"Indeed they shall not! I refuse to enter the door of people who have +insulted my husband as they have." + +"Hush! Listen!" said Mr. Graham, springing towards the door. + +There was wondering silence an instant. + +"It is nothing but the trumpet sounding taps," said Mrs. Rayner, +hurriedly. + +But even as she spoke they rose to their feet. Muffled cries were heard, +borne in on the night wind,--a shot, then another, down in the +valley,--the quick peal of the cavalry trumpet. + +"It isn't taps. It's fire!" shouted Graham from the door-way. "Come on!" + + + + +V. + + +Down in the valley south of the post a broad glare was already shooting +upward and illumining the sky. One among a dozen little shanties and log +houses, the homes of the laundresses of the garrison and collectively +known as Sudsville, was a mass of flames. There was a rush of officers +across the parade, and the men, answering the alarum of the trumpet and +the shots and shouts of the sentries, came tearing from their quarters +and plunging down the hill. Among the first on the spot came the young +men who were of the party at Captain Rayner's, and Mr. Graham was ahead +of them all. It was plain to the most inexperienced eye that there was +hardly anything left to save in or about the burning shanty. All efforts +must be directed towards preventing the spread of the flames to those +adjoining. Half-clad women and children were rushing about, shrieking +with fright and excitement, and a few men were engaged in dragging +household goods and furniture from those tenements not yet reached by +the flames. Fire-apparatus there seemed to be none, though squads of men +speedily appeared with ladders, axes, and buckets, brought from the +different company quarters, and the arriving officers quickly formed the +bucket-lines and water dipped up from the icy creek began to fly from +hand to hand. Before anything like this was fairly under way, a scene of +semi-tragic, semi-comic intensity had been enacted in the presence of a +rapidly gathering audience. "It was worth more than the price of +admission to hear Blake tell it afterwards," said the officers, later. + +A tall, angular woman, frantic with excitement and terror, was dancing +about in the broad glare of the burning hut, tearing her hair, making +wild rushes at the flames from time to time as though intent on dragging +out some prized object that was being consumed before her eyes, and all +the time keeping up a volley of maledictions and abuse in lavish +Hibernian, apparently directed at a cowering object who sat in limp +helplessness upon a little heap of fire-wood, swaying from side to side +and moaning stupidly through the scorched and grimy hands in which his +face was hidden. His clothing was still smoking in places; his hair and +beard were singed to the roots; he was evidently seriously injured, and +the sympathizing soldiers who had gathered around him after deluging him +with snow and water were striving to get him to arise and go with them +to the hospital. A little girl, not ten years old, knelt sobbing and +terrified by his side. She, too, was scorched and singed, and the +soldiers had thrown rough blankets about her; but it was for her father, +not herself, she seemed worried to distraction. Some of the women were +striving to reassure and comfort her in their homely fashion, bidding +her cheer up,--the father was only stupid from drink, and would be all +right as soon as "the liquor was off of him." But the little one was +beyond consolation so long as he could not or would not speak in answer +to her entreaties. + +All this time, never pausing for breath, shrieking anathemas on her +drunken spouse, reproaches on her frightened child, and invocations to +all the blessed saints in heaven to reward the gintleman who had saved +her hoarded money,--a smoking packet that she hugged to her +breast,--Mrs. Clancy, "the saynior laundress of Company B," as she had +long styled herself, was prancing up and down through the gathering +crowd, her shrill voice overmastering all other clamor. The vigorous +efforts of the men, directed by cool-headed officers, soon beat back the +flames that were threatening the neighboring shanties, and levelled to +the ground what remained of Private Clancy's home. The fire was +extinguished almost as rapidly as it began, but the torrent of Mrs. +Clancy's eloquence was still unstemmed. The adjurations of sympathetic +sisters to "Howld yer whist," the authoritative admonition of some old +sergeant to "Stop your infernal noise," and the half-maudlin yet +appealing glances of her suffering lord were all insufficient to check +her. It was not until the quiet tones of the colonel were heard that she +began to cool down: "We've had enough of this, Mrs. Clancy: be still, +now, or we'll have to send you to the hospital in the coal-cart." Mrs. +Clancy knew that the colonel was a man of few words, and believed him to +be one of less sentiment. She was afraid of him, and concluded it time +to cease threats and abuse and come down to the more effective _rôle_ of +wronged and suffering womanhood,--a feat which she accomplished with the +consummate ease of long practice, for the rows in the Clancy household +were matters of garrison notoriety. The surgeon, too, had come, and, +after quick examination of Clancy's condition, had directed him to be +taken at once to the hospital; and thither his little daughter insisted +on following him, despite the efforts of some of the women to detain her +and dress her properly. + +Before returning to his quarters the colonel desired to know something +of the origin of the fire. There was testimony enough and to spare. +Every woman in Sudsville had a theory to express, and was eager to be +heard at once and to the exclusion of all others. It was not until he +had summarily ordered them to go to their homes and not come near him +that the colonel managed to get a clear statement from some of the men. + +Clancy had been away all the evening, drinking as usual, and Mrs. Clancy +was searching about Sudsville as much for sympathy and listeners as for +him. Little Kate, who knew her father's haunts, had guided him home, and +was striving to get him to his little sleeping-corner before her +mother's return, when in his drunken helplessness he fell against the +table, overturning the kerosene lamp, and the curtains were all aflame +in an instant. It was just after taps--or ten o'clock--when Kate's +shrieks aroused the inmates of Sudsville and started the cry of "Fire." +The flimsy structure of pine boards burned like so much tinder, and the +child and her stupefied father had been dragged forth only in time to +save their lives. The little one, after giving the alarm, had rushed +again into the house and was tugging at his senseless form when rescue +came for both,--none too soon. As for Mrs. Clancy, at the first note of +danger she had rushed screaming to the spot, but only in time to see the +whole interior ablaze and to howl frantically for some man to save her +money,--it was all in the green box under the bed. For husband and child +she had for the moment no thought. They were safely out of the fire by +the time she got there, and she screamed and fought like a fury against +the men who held her back when she would have plunged into the midst of +it. It took but a minute for one or two men to burst through the flimsy +wall with axes, to rescue the burning box and knock off the lid. It was +a sight to see when the contents were handed to her. She knelt, wept, +prayed, counted over bill after bill of smoking, steaming greenbacks, +until suddenly recalled to her senses by the eager curiosity and the +remarks of some of her fellow-women. That she kept money and a good deal +of it in her quarters had long been suspected and as fiercely denied; +but no one had dreamed of such a sum as was revealed. In her frenzy she +had shrieked that the savings of her lifetime were burning,--that there +was over three thousand dollars in the box; but she hid her treasure and +gasped and stammered and swore she was talking "wild-like." "They was +nothing but twos and wans," she vowed; yet there were women there who +declared that they had seen tens and twenties as she hurried them +through her trembling fingers, and Sudsville gossiped and talked for two +hours after she was led away, still moaning and shivering, to the +bedside of poor Clancy, who was the miserable cause of it all. The +colonel listened to the stories with such patience as could be accorded +to witnesses who desired to give prominence to their personal exploits +in subduing the flames and rescuing life and property. It was not until +he and the group of officers with him had been engaged some moments in +taking testimony that something was elicited which caused a new +sensation. + +It was not by the united efforts of Sudsville that Clancy and Kate had +been dragged from the flames, but by the individual dash and +determination of a single man: there was no discrepancy here, for the +ten or a dozen who were wildly rushing about the house made no effort to +burst into it until a young soldier leaped through their midst into the +blazing door-way, was seen to throw a blanket over some object within, +and the next minute appeared again, dragging a body through the flames. +Then they had sprung to his aid, and between them Kate and "the ould +man" were lifted into the open air. A moment later he had handed Mrs. +Clancy her packet of money, and--they hadn't seen him since. He was an +officer, said they,--a new one. They thought it must be the new +lieutenant of Company B; and the colonel looked quickly around and said +a few words to his adjutant, who started up the hill forthwith. A group +of officers and ladies were standing at the brow of the plateau east of +the guard-house, gazing down upon the scene below, and other ladies, +with their escorts, had gathered on a little knoll close by the road +that led to Prairie Avenue. It was past these that the adjutant walked +rapidly away, swinging his hurricane-lamp in his hand. + +"Which way now, Billings?" called one of the cavalry officers in the +group. + +"Over to Mr. Hayne's quarters," he shouted back, never stopping at all. + +A silence fell upon the group at mention of the name. They were the +ladies from Captain Rayner's and a few of their immediate friends. All +eyes followed the twinkling light as it danced away eastward towards the +gloomy coal-sheds. Then there was sudden and intense interest. The lamp +had come to a stand-still, was deposited on the ground, and by its dim +ray the adjutant could be seen bending over a dark object that was half +sitting, half reclining at the platform of the shed. Then came a shout, +"Come here, some of you." And most of the men ran to the spot. + +For a moment not one word was spoken in the watching group: then Miss +Travers's voice was heard: + +"What can it be? Why do they stop there?" + +She felt a sudden hand upon her wrist, and her sister's lips at her ear: + +"Come away, Nellie. I want to go home. Come!" + +"But, Kate, I must see what it means." + +"No: come! It's--it's only some other drunken man, probably. Come!" And +she strove to lead her. + +But the other ladies were curious too, and all, insensibly, were edging +over to the east as though eager to get in sight of the group. The +recumbent object had been raised, and was seen to be the dark figure of +a man whom the others began slowly to lead away. One of the group came +running back to them: it was Mr. Foster. + +"Come, ladies: I will escort you home, as the others are busy." + +"What is the matter, Mr. Foster?" was asked by half a dozen voices. + +"It was Mr. Hayne,--badly burned, I fear. He was trying to get home +after having saved poor Clancy." + +"You don't say so! Oh, isn't there something we can do? Can't we go +that way and be of some help?" was the eager petition of more than one +of the ladies. + +"Not now. They will have the doctor in a minute. He has not inhaled +flame; it is all external; but he was partly blinded and could not find +his way. He called to Billings when he heard him coming. I will get you +all home and then go back to him. Come!" And, offering his arm to Mrs. +Rayner, who was foremost in the direction he wanted to go,--the pathway +across the parade,--Mr. Foster led them on. Of course there was eager +talk and voluble sympathy; but Mrs. Rayner spoke not a word. The others +crowded around him with questions, and her silence passed unnoted except +by one. + +The moment they were inside the door and alone, Miss Travers turned to +her sister: "Kate, what was this man's crime?" + + + + +VI. + + +An unusual state of affairs existed at the big hospital for several +days: Mrs. Clancy had refused to leave the bedside of her beloved Mike, +and was permitted to remain. For a woman who was notorious as a virago +and bully, who had beaten little Kate from her babyhood and abused and +hammered her Michael until, between her and drink, he was but the wreck +of a stalwart manhood, Mrs. Clancy had developed a degree of devotion +that was utterly unexpected. In all the dozen years of their marital +relations no such trait could be recalled; and yet there had been many +an occasion within the past few years when Clancy's condition demanded +gentle nursing and close attention,--and never would have got it but for +faithful little Kate. The child idolized the broken-down man, and loved +him with a tenderness that his weakness seemed but to augment a +thousandfold, while it but served to infuriate her mother. In former +years, when he was Sergeant Clancy and a fine soldier, many was the time +he had intervened to save her from an undeserved thrashing; many a time +had he seized her in his strong arms and confronted the furious woman +with stern reproof. Between him and the child there had been the +tenderest love, for she was all that was left to him of four. In the old +days Mrs. Clancy had been the belle of the soldiers' balls, a +fine-looking woman, with indomitable powers as a dancer and +conversationalist and an envied reputation for outshining all her rivals +in dress and adornment. "She would ruin Clancy, that she would," was +the unanimous opinion of the soldiers' wives; but he seemed to minister +to her extravagance with unfailing good nature for two or three years. +He had been prudent, careful of his money, was a war-soldier with big +arrears of bounty and, tradition had it, a consummate skill in poker. He +was the moneyed man among the sergeants when the dashing relict of a +brother non-commissioned officer set her widow's cap for him and won. It +did not take many years for her to wheedle most of his money away; but +there was no cessation to the demand, no apparent limit to the supply. +Both were growing older, and now it became evident that Mrs. Clancy was +the elder of the two, and that the artificiality of her charms could not +stand the test of frontier life. No longer sought as the belle of the +soldiers' ball-rooms, she aspired to leadership among their wives and +families, and was accorded that pre-eminence rather than the fierce +battle which was sure to follow any revolt. She became avaricious,--some +said miserly,--and Clancy miserable. Then began the downward course. He +took to drink soon after his return from a long, hard summer's campaign +with the Indians. He lost his sergeant's stripes and went into the +ranks. There came a time when the new colonel forbade his re-enlistment +in the cavalry regiment in which he had served so many a long year. He +had been a brave and devoted soldier. He had a good friend in the +infantry, he said, who wouldn't go back on a poor fellow who took a drop +too much at times, and, to the surprise of many soldiers,--officers and +men,--he was brought to the recruiting officer one day, sober, +soldierly, and trimly dressed, and Captain Rayner expressed his desire +to have him enlisted for his company; and it was done. Mrs. Clancy was +accorded the quarters and rations of a laundress, as was then the +custom, and for a time--a very short time--Clancy seemed on the road to +promotion to his old grade. The enemy tripped him, aided by the +scoldings and abuse of his wife, and he never rallied. Some work was +found for him around the quartermaster's shops which saved him from +guard-duty or the guard-house. The infantry--officers and men--seemed to +feel for the poor, broken-down old fellow and to lay much of his woe to +the door of his wife. There was charity for his faults and sympathy for +his sorrows, but at last it had come to this. He was lying, sorely +injured, in the hospital, and there were times when he was apparently +delirious. At such times, said Mrs. Clancy, she alone could manage him; +and she urged that no other nurse could do more than excite or irritate +him. To the unspeakable grief of little Kate, she, too, was driven from +the sufferer's bedside and forbidden to come into the room except when +her mother gave permission. Clancy had originally been carried into the +general ward with the other patients, but the hospital steward two days +afterwards told the surgeon that the patient moaned and cried so at +night that the other sick men could not sleep, and offered to give up a +little room in his own part of the building. The burly doctor looked +surprised at this concession on the part of the steward, who was a man +tenacious of every perquisite and one who had made much complaint about +the crowded condition of the hospital wards and small rooms ever since +the frozen soldiers had come in. All the same the doctor asked for no +explanation, but gladly availed himself of the steward's offer. Clancy +was moved to this little room adjoining the steward's quarters +forthwith, and Mrs. Clancy was satisfied. + +Another thing had happened to excite remark and a good deal of it. +Nothing short of eternal damnation was Mrs. Clancy's frantic sentence on +the head of her unlucky spouse the night of the fire, when she was the +central figure of the picture and when hundreds of witnesses to her +words were grouped around. Correspondingly had she called down the +blessings of the Holy Virgin and all the saints upon the man who rescued +and returned to her that precious packet of money. Everybody heard her, +and it was out of the question for her to retract. Nevertheless, from +within an hour after Clancy's admission to the hospital not another word +of the kind escaped her lips. She was all patience and pity with the +injured man, and she shunned all allusion to his preserver and her +benefactor. The surgeon had been called away, after doing all in his +power to make Clancy comfortable,--he was needed elsewhere,--and only +two or three soldiers and a hospital nurse still remained by his +bedside, where Mrs. Clancy and little Kate were drying their tears and +receiving consolation from the steward's wife. The doctor had mentioned +a name as he went away, and it was seen that Clancy was striving to ask +a question. Sergeant Nolan bent down: + +"Lie quiet, Clancy, me boy: you _must_ be quiet, or you'll move the +bandages." + +"Who did he say was burned? who was he going to see?" gasped the +sufferer. + +"The new lieutenant, Clancy,--him that pulled ye out. He's a good one, +and it's Mrs. Clancy that'll tell ye the same." + +"Tell him what?" said she, turning about in sudden interest. + +"About the lieutenant's pulling him out of the fire and saving your +money." + +"Indeed yes! The blessings of all the saints be upon his beautiful head, +and--" + +"But _who_ was it? What was his name, I say?" vehemently interrupted +Clancy, half raising himself upon his elbow, and groaning with the +effort. "What was his name? I didn't see him." + +"Lieutenant Hayne, man." + +"Oh, my God!" gasped Clancy, and fell back as though struck a sudden +blow. + +She sprang to his side: "It's faint he is. Don't answer his questions, +sergeant! He's beside himself! Oh, will ye never stop talking to him and +lave him in pace? Go away, all of ye's,--go away, I say, or ye'll dhrive +him crazy wid yer--Be quiet, Mike! don't ye spake agin." And she laid a +broad red hand upon his face. He only groaned again, and threw his one +unbandaged arm across his darkened eyes, as though to hide from sight of +all. + +From that time on she made no mention of the name that so strangely +excited her stricken husband; but the watchers in the hospital the next +night declared that in his ravings Clancy kept calling for Lieutenant +Hayne. + +Stannard's battalion of the cavalry came marching into the post two days +after the fire, and created a diversion in the garrison talk, which for +one long day had been all of that dramatic incident and its attendant +circumstances. In social circles, among the officers and ladies, the +main topic was the conduct of Mr. Hayne and the injuries he had +sustained as a consequence of his gallant rescue. Among the enlisted men +and the denizens of Sudsville the talk was principally of the revelation +of Mrs. Clancy's hoard of greenbacks. But in both circles a singular +story was just beginning to creep around, and it was to the effect that +Clancy had cried aloud and fainted dead away and that Mrs. Clancy had +gone into hysterics when they were told that Lieutenant Hayne was the +man to whom the one owed his life and the other her money. Some one met +Captain Rayner on the sidewalk the morning Stannard came marching home, +and asked him if he had heard the queer story about Clancy. He had not, +and it was told him then and there. Rayner did not even attempt to laugh +at it or turn it off in any way. He looked dazed, stunned, for a moment, +turned very white and old-looking, and, hardly saying good-day to his +informant, faced about and went straight to his quarters. He was not +among the crowd that gathered to welcome the incoming cavalrymen that +bright, crisp, winter day; and that evening Mrs. Rayner went to the +hospital to ask what she could do for Clancy and his wife. Captain +Rayner always expected her to see that every care and attention was paid +to the sick and needy of his company, she explained to the doctor, who +could not recall having seen her on a similar errand before, although +sick and needy of Company B were not unknown in garrisons where he had +served with them. She spent a good while with Mrs. Clancy, whom she had +never noticed hitherto, much to the laundress's indignation, and +concerning whose conduct she had been known to express herself in terms +of extreme disapprobation. But in times of suffering such things are +forgotten: Mrs. Rayner was full of sympathy and interest; there was +nothing she was not eager to send them, and no thanks were necessary. +She could never do too much for the men of her husband's company. + +Yet there was a member of her husband's company on whom in his suffering +neither she nor the captain saw fit to call. Mr. Hayne's eyes were +seriously injured by the flames and heat, and he was now living in +darkness. It might be a month, said the doctor, before he could use his +eyes again. + +"Only think of that poor fellow, all alone out there on that ghastly +prairie and unable to read!" was the exclamation of one of the cavalry +ladies in Mrs. Rayner's presence; and, as there was an awkward silence +and somebody had to break it, Mrs. Rayner responded,-- + +"If I lived on Prairie Avenue I should consider blindness a blessing." + +It was an unfortunate remark. There was strong sympathy developing for +Hayne all through the garrison. Mrs. Rayner never meant that it should +have any such significance, but inside of twenty-four hours, in course +of which her language had been repeated some dozens of times and +distorted quite as many, the generally accepted version of the story was +that Mrs. Rayner, so far from expressing the faintest sympathy or sorrow +for Mr. Hayne's misfortune, so far from expressing the natural +gratification which a lady should feel that it was an officer of her +regiment who had reached the scene of danger ahead of the cavalry +officer of the guard, had said in so many words that Mr. Hayne ought to +be thankful that blindness was the worst thing that had come to him. + +There was little chance for harmony after that. Many men and some women, +of course, refused to believe it, and said they felt confident that she +had been misrepresented. Still, all knew by this time that Mrs. Rayner +was bitter against Hayne, and had heard of her denunciation of the +colonel's action. So, too, had the colonel heard that she openly +declared that she would refuse any invitation extended to her or to her +sister which might involve her accepting hospitality at his house. These +things _do_ get around in most astonishing ways. + +Then another complication arose: Hayne, too, was mixing matters. The +major commanding the battalion, a man in no wise connected with his +misfortunes, had gone to him and urged, with the doctor's full consent, +that he should be moved over into and become an inmate of his household +in garrison. He had a big, roomy house. His wife earnestly added her +entreaties to the major's, but all to no purpose: Mr. Hayne firmly +declined. He thanked the major; he rose and bent over the lady's hand +and thanked her with a voice that was full of gentleness and gratitude; +but he said that he had learned to live in solitude. Sam was accustomed +to all his ways, and he had every comfort he needed. His wants were few +and simple. She would not be content, and urged him further. He loved +reading: surely he would miss his books and would need some one to read +aloud to him, and there were so many ladies in the garrison who would be +glad to meet at her house and read to him by turns. He loved music, she +heard, and there was her piano, and she knew several who would be +delighted to come and play for him by the hour. He shook his head, and +the bandages hid the tears that came to his smarting eyes. He had made +arrangements to be read aloud to, he said; and as for music, that must +wait awhile. The kind woman retired dismayed,--she could not understand +such obduracy,--and her husband felt rebuffed. Stannard of the cavalry, +too, came in with his gentle wife. She was loved throughout the regiment +for her kindliness and grace of mind, as well as for her devotion to the +sick and suffering in the old days of the Indian wars, and Stannard had +made a similar proffer and been similarly refused, and he had gone away +indignant. He thought Mr. Hayne too bumptious to live; but he bore no +malice, and his wrath was soon over. Many of the cavalry officers called +in person and tendered their services, and were very civilly received, +but all offers were positively declined. Just what the infantry officers +should do was a momentous question. That they could no longer hold aloof +was a matter that was quickly settled, and three of their number went +through the chill gloaming of the wintry eve and sent in their cards by +Sam, who ushered them into the cheerless front room, while one of their +number followed to the door-way which led to the room in rear, in which, +still confined to his bed by the doctor's advice, the injured officer +was lying. It was Mr. Ross who went to the door and cleared his throat +and stood in the presence of the man to whom, more than five years +before, he had refused his hand. The others listened anxiously: + +"Mr. Hayne, this is Ross. I come with Foster and Graham to say how +deeply we regret your injuries, and to tender our sympathy and our +services." + +There was a dead silence for a moment. Foster and Graham stood with +hearts that beat unaccountably hard, looking at each other in +perplexity. Would he never reply? + +The answer came at last,--a question: + +"To what injuries do you allude, Mr. Ross?" + +Even in the twilight they could see the sudden flush of the Scotchman's +cheek. He was a blunt fellow, but, as the senior, had been chosen +spokesman for the three. The abrupt question staggered him. It was a +second or two before he could collect himself. + +"I mean the injuries at the fire," he replied. + +This time, no answer whatever. It was growing too painful. Ross looked +in bewilderment at the bandaged face, and again broke the silence: + +"We hope you won't deny us the right to be of service, Mr. Hayne. If +there is anything we can do that you need, or would like--" +hesitatingly. + +"You have nothing further to say?" asked the calm voice from the pillow. + +"I--don't know what else we _can_ say," faltered Ross, after an +instant's pause. + +The answer came, firm and prompt, but icily cool: + +"Then there is nothing that you can do." + +And the three took their departure, sore at heart. + +There were others of the infantry who had purposed going to see Hayne +that evening, but the story of Ross's experience put an end to it all. +It was plain that even now Mr. Hayne made the condition of the faintest +advance from his regimental comrades a full confession of error. He +would have no less. + +That evening the colonel sat by his bedside and had an earnest talk. He +ventured to expostulate with the invalid on his refusal to go to the +major's or to Stannard's. He could have so many comforts and delicacies +there that would be impossible here. He did not refer to edibles and +drinkables alone, he said, with a smile; but Hayne's patient face gave +no sign of relenting. He heard the colonel through, and then said, +slowly and firmly,-- + +"I have not acted hastily, sir: I appreciate their kindness, and am not +ungrateful. Five years ago my whole life was changed. From that time to +this I have done without a host of things that used to be indispensable, +and have abjured them one and all for a single luxury that I cannot live +without,--the luxury of utter independence,--the joy of knowing that I +owe no man anything,--the blessing of being beholden to no one on earth +for a single service I cannot pay for. It is the one luxury left me." + + + + +VII. + + +It was a clear winter's evening, sharply cold, about a week after the +fire, when, as Mrs. Rayner came down the stairway equipped for a walk, +and was passing the parlor door without stopping, Miss Travers caught +sight of and called to her,-- + +"Are you going walking, Kate? _Do_ wait a moment, and I'll go with you." + +Any one in the hall could have shared the author's privilege and seen +the expression of annoyance and confusion that appeared on Mrs. Rayner's +face: + +"I thought you _were_ out. Did not Mr. Graham take you walking?" + +"He did; but we wandered into Mrs. Waldron's, and she and the major +begged us to stay, and we had some music, and then the first call +sounded for retreat, and Mr. Graham had to go, so he brought me home. +I've had no walk, and need exercise." + +"But I don't like you to be out after sunset. That cough of yours--" + +"Disappeared the day after I got here, Kate, and there hasn't been a +vestige of it since. This high, dry climate put an end to it. No, I'll +be ready in one minute more. Do wait." + +Mrs. Rayner's hand was turning the knob while her sister was hurrying to +the front door and drawing on her heavy jacket as she did so. The former +faced her impatiently: + +"I don't think you are at all courteous to your visitors. You know just +as well as I do that Mr. Foster or Mr. Royce or some other of those +young officers are sure to be in just at this hour. You really are very +thoughtless, Nellie." + +Miss Travers stopped short in her preparations. + +"Kate Rayner," she began, impressively, "it was only night before last +that you rebuked me for sitting here with Mr. Blake at this very hour, +and asked me how I supposed Mr. Van Antwerp would like it. Now you--" + +"Fudge! I cannot stay and listen to such talk. If you _must_ go, wait a +few minutes until I get back. I--I want to make a short call. Then I'll +take you." + +"So do I want to make a short call,--over at the doctor's; and you are +going right to the hospital, are you not?" + +"How do you know I am?" asked Mrs. Rayner, reddening. + +"You _do_ go there every evening, it seems to me." + +"I don't. Who told you I did?" + +"Several people mentioned your kindness and attention to the Clancys, +Kate. I have heard it from many sources." + +"I wish people would mind their own affairs," wailed Mrs. Rayner, +peevishly. + +"So do I, Kate; but they never have, and never will, especially with an +engaged girl. I have more to complain of than you, but it doesn't make +me forlorn, whereas you look fearfully worried about nothing." + +"Who says I'm worried?" asked Mrs. Rayner, with sudden vehemence. + +"You look worried, Kate, and haven't been at all like yourself for +several days. Now, _why_ shouldn't I go to the hospital with you? Why do +you try to hide your going from me? Don't you know that I must have +heard the strange stories that are flitting about the garrison? Haven't +I asked you to set me right if I have been told a wrong one? Kate, you +are fretting yourself to death about something, and the captain looks +worried and ill. I cannot but think it has some connection with the case +of Mr. Hayne. Why should the Clancys--" + +"You have no right to think any such thing," answered her sister, +angrily. "We have suffered too much at his hands or on his account +already, and I never want to hear such words from your lips. It would +outrage Captain Rayner to hear that my sister, to whom he has given a +home and a welcome, was linking herself with those who side with +that--that thief." + +"Kate! Oh, how _can_ you use such words? How dare you speak so of an +officer? You would not tell me what he was accused of; but I tell you +that if it be theft I don't believe it,--and no one else--" + +There was a sudden footfall on the porch without, and a quick, sharp, +imperative knock at the door. Mrs. Rayner fled back along the hall +towards the dining-room. Miss Travers, hesitating but a second, opened +the door. + +It was the soldier telegraph-operator, with a despatch-envelope in his +hand: + +"It is for Mrs. Rayner, miss, and an answer is expected. Shall I wait?" + +Mrs. Rayner came hastily forward from her place of refuge within the +dining-room, took the envelope without a word, and passed into the +parlor, where, standing beneath the lamp, she tore it open, glanced +anxiously at its contents, then threw it with an exclamation of peevish +indignation upon the table: + +"You'll have to answer for yourself, Nellie. I cannot straighten your +affairs and mine too." And with that she was going; but Miss Travers +called her back. + +The message simply read, "No letter in four days. Is anything wrong? +Answer paid," and was addressed to Mrs. Rayner and signed S.V.A. + +"I think you have been extremely neglectful," said Mrs. Rayner, who had +turned and now stood watching the rising color and impatiently tapping +foot of her younger sister. Miss Travers bit her lips and compressed +them hard. There was an evident struggle in her mind between a desire to +make an impulsive and sweeping reply and an effort to control herself. + +"Will you answer a quiet question or two?" she finally asked. + +"You know perfectly well I will," was the sisterly rejoinder. + +"How long does it take a letter to go from here to New York?" + +"Five or six days, I suppose." + +Miss Travers stepped to the door, briefly told the soldier there was no +answer, thanked him for waiting, and returned. + +"You are not going to reply?" asked Mrs. Rayner, in amaze. + +"_I_ am not; and I inferred _you_ did not intend to. Now another +question. How many days have we been here?" + +"Eight or nine,--nine, it is." + +"You saw me post a letter to Mr. Van Antwerp as we left the Missouri, +did you not?" + +"Yes. At least I suppose so." + +"I wrote again as soon as we got settled here, three days after that, +did I not?" + +"You said you did," replied Mrs. Rayner, ungraciously. + +"And you, Kate, when you are yourself have been prompt to declare that I +say what I mean. Very probably it may have been four days from the time +that letter from the transfer reached Wall Street to the time the next +one could get to him from here, even had I written the night we arrived. +Possibly you forget that you forbade my doing so, and sent me to bed +early. Mr. Van Antwerp has simply failed to remember that I had gone +several hundred miles farther west; and even had I written on the train +twice a day, the letters would not have reached him uninterruptedly. By +this time he is beginning to get them fast enough. And as for you, Kate, +you are quite as unjust as he. It augurs badly for my future peace; +and--I am learning two lessons here, Kate." + +"What two, pray?" + +"That he can be foolishly unreliable in estimating a woman." + +"And the other?" + +"That you may be persistently unreliable in your judgment of a man." + +Verily, for a young woman with a sweet, girlish face, whom we saw but a +week agone twitching a kitten's ears and saying little or nothing, Miss +Travers was displaying unexpected fighting qualities. For a moment, Mrs. +Rayner glared at her in tremulous indignation and dismay. + +"You--you ought to be ashamed of yourself!" was her eventual outbreak. + +But to this there was no reply. Miss Travers moved quietly to the +door-way, turned and looked her angry sister in the eye, and said,-- + +"I shall give up the walk, and will go to my room. Excuse me to any +visitors this evening." + +"You are not going to write to him now, when you are angry, I hope?" + +"I shall not write to him until to-morrow, but when I do I shall tell +him this, Kate: that if he desire my confidence he will address his +complaints and inquiries to me. If I am old enough to be engaged to him, +in your opinion, I am equally old enough to attend to such details as +these, in my own." + +Mrs. Rayner stood one moment as though astounded; then she flew to the +door and relieved her surcharged bosom as follows, "Well, I pity the man +you marry, whether you are lucky enough to keep this one or not!" and +flounced indignantly out of the house. + +When Captain Rayner came in, half an hour afterwards, the parlor was +deserted. He was looking worn and dispirited. Finding no one on the +ground-floor, he went to the foot of the stairs, and called,-- + +"Kate." + +A door opened above: "Kate has gone out, captain." + +"Do you know where, Nellie?" + +"Over to the hospital, I think; though I cannot say." + +She heard him sigh deeply, move irresolutely about the hall for a +moment, then turn and go out. + +At his gate he found two figures dimly visible in the gathering +darkness: they had stopped on hearing his footstep. One was an officer +in uniform, wrapped in heavy overcoat, with a fur cap, and a bandage +over his eyes. The other was a Chinese servant, and it was the latter +who asked,-- + +"This Maje Waldlon's?" + +"No," said he, hastily. "Major Waldron's is the third door beyond." + +At the sound of his voice the officer quickly started, but spoke in low, +measured tone: "Straight ahead, Sam." And the Chinaman led him on. + +Rayner stood a moment watching them, bitter thoughts coursing through +his mind. Mr. Hayne was evidently sufficiently recovered to be up and +out for air, and now he was being invited again. This time it was his +old comrade Waldron who honored him. Probably it was another dinner. +Little by little, at this rate, the time would soon come when Mr. Hayne +would be asked everywhere and he and his correspondingly dropped. He +turned miserably away, and went back to the billiard-rooms at the store. +When Mrs. Rayner rang her bell for tea that evening he had not +reappeared, and she sent a messenger for him. + +It was a brilliant moonlit evening. A strong prairie gale had begun to +blow from the northwest, and was banging shutters and whirling pebbles +at a furious rate. At the sound of the trumpets wailing tattoo a brace +of young officers calling on the ladies took their leave. The captain +had retired to his den, or study, where he shut himself up a good deal +of late, and thither Mrs. Rayner followed him and closed the door after +her. Throwing a cloak over her shoulders, Miss Travers stepped out on +the piazza and gazed in delight upon the moonlit panorama,--the +snow-covered summits to the south and west, the rolling expanse of +upland prairie between, the rough outlines of the foot-hills softened in +the silvery light, the dark shadows of the barracks across the parade, +the twinkling lights of the sergeants as they took their stations, the +soldierly forms of the officers hastening to their companies far across +the frozen level. Suddenly she became aware of two forms coming down the +walk. They issued from Major Waldron's quarters, and the door closed +behind them. One was a young officer; the other, she speedily made out, +a Chinese servant, who was guiding his master. She knew the pair in an +instant, and her first impulse was to retire. Then she reflected that he +could not see, and she wanted to look: so she stayed. They had almost +reached her gate, when a wild blast whirled the officer's cape about his +ears and sent some sheets of music flying across the road. Leaving his +master at the fence, the Chinaman sped in pursuit; and the next thing +she noted was that Mr. Hayne's fur cap was blown from his head and that +he was groping for it helplessly. + +There was no one to call, no one to assist. She hesitated one minute, +looked anxiously around, then sprang to the gate, picked up the cap, +pulled it well down over the bandaged eyes, seized the young officer +firmly by the arm, drew him within the gate, and led him to the shelter +of the piazza. Once out of the fury of the gale, she could hear his +question, "Did you get it all, Sam?" + +"Not yet," she answered. Oh, how she longed for a deep contralto! "He is +coming. He will be here in a moment." + +"I am so sorry to have been a trouble to you," he began again, vaguely. + +"You are no trouble to me. I'm glad I was where I happened to see you +and could help." + +He spoke no more for a minute. She stood gazing at all that was visible +of the pale face below the darkened eyes. It was so clear-cut, so +refined in feature, and the lips under the sweeping blonde moustache, +though set and compressed, were delicate and pink. He turned his head +eagerly towards the parade; but Sam was still far away. The music had +scattered, and was leading him a lively dance. + +"Isn't my servant coming?" he asked, constrainedly. "I fear I'm keeping +you. Please do not wait. He will find me here. You were going +somewhere." + +"No,--unless it was here." She was trembling now. "Please be patient, +Mr.--Mr. Hayne. Sam may be a minute or two yet, and here you are out of +the wind." + +Again she looked in his face. He was listening eagerly to her words, as +though striving to "place" her voice. _Could_ she be mistaken? Was he, +too, not trembling? Beyond all doubt his lips were quivering now. + +"May I not know who it is that led me here?" he asked, gently. + +She hesitated, hardly knowing how to tell him. + +"Try and guess," she laughed, nervously. "But you couldn't. You do not +know my name. It is my good fortune, Mr. Hayne. You--you saved my +kitten; I--your cap." + +There was no mistaking his start. Beyond doubt he had winced as though +stung, and was now striving to grope his way to the railing. She divined +his purpose in an instant, and her slender hand was laid pleadingly yet +firmly on his arm. + +"Mr. Hayne, don't go. Don't think of going. Stay here until Sam comes. +He's coming now," she faltered. + +"Is this Captain Rayner's house?" he asked, hoarse and low. + +"No matter whose it is! I welcome you here. You shall not go," she +cried, impulsively, and both little hands were tagging at his arm. He +had found the railing, and was pulling himself towards the gate, but her +words, her clinging hands, were too persuasive. + +"I cannot realize this," he said. "I do not understand--" + +"Do not try to understand it, Mr. Hayne. If I am only a girl, I have a +right to think for myself. My father was a soldier,--I am Nellie +Travers,--and if he were alive I know well he would have had me do just +what I have done this night. Now won't you stay?" + +And light was beaming in through his darkened eyes and gladdening his +soul with a rapture he had not known for years. One instant he seized +and clasped her hand. "May God bless you!" was all he whispered, but so +softly that even she did not hear him. He bowed low over the slender +white hand, and stayed. + + + + +VIII. + + +March had come,--the month of gale and bluster, sleet and storm, in +almost every section of our broad domain,--and March at Warrener was to +the full as blustering and conscienceless as in New England. There were +a few days of sunshine during the first week; then came a fortnight of +raging snow-storms. The cavalry troops, officers and men, went about +their stable-duties as usual, but, except for roll-call on the porch of +the barracks and for guard-mounting over at the guard-house, all +military exercise seemed suspended. This meant livelier times for the +ladies, however, as the officers were enabled to devote just so many +more hours a day to their entertainment. There were two or three hops a +week over in the big assembly-room, and there was some talk of getting +up a german in honor of Miss Travers, but the strained relations +existing between Mrs. Rayner and the ladies of other families at the +post made the matter difficult of accomplishment. There were bright +little luncheon-, dinner-, and tea-parties, where the young officers and +the younger ladies met every day; and, besides all this, despite the +fact that Mrs. Rayner had at first shown a fixed determination to +discuss the rights and wrongs of "the Hayne affair," as it was now +beginning to be termed, with all comers who belonged to the Riflers, it +had grown to be a very general thing for the youngsters to drop in at +her house at all hours of the day; but that was because there were +attractions there which outweighed her combativeness. Then Rayner +himself overheard some comments on the mistake she was making, and +forbade her discussing the subject with the officers even of her own +regiment. She was indignant, and demanded a reason. He would name no +names, but told her that he had heard enough to convince him she was +doing him more harm than good, and, if anything, contributing to the +turn of the tide in Hayne's favor. Then she felt outraged and utterly +misjudged. It was a critical time for her, and if deprived of the use of +her main weapon of offence and defence the battle was sure to go amiss. +Sorely against her inclination, she obeyed her lord, for, as has been +said, she was a loyal wife, and for the time being the baby became the +recipient of her undivided attention. + +True to her declaration, she behaved so coldly and with such marked +distance of manner to the colonel and his wife when they met in society +immediately after the dinner that the colonel quietly told his wife she +need not give either dinner or reception in honor of Mrs. Rayner's +return. He would like to have her do something to welcome Miss Travers, +for he thought the girl had much of her father in her. He knew him well +in the old days before and during the war, and liked him. He liked her +looks and her sweet, unaffected, cheery manner. He liked the contrast +between her and her sister; for Miss Travers had listened in silence to +her sister's exposition of what her manner should be to the colonel and +his wife, and when they met she was bright and winsome. The colonel +stood and talked with her about her father, whom she could remember only +vaguely, but of whom she never tired of hearing; and that night Mrs. +Rayner rebuked her severely for her disloyalty to the captain, who had +given her a home. + +But when Mrs. Rayner heard that Major and Mrs. Waldron had invited Mr. +Hayne to dine with them, and had invited to meet him two of the cavalry +officers and their wives, she was incensed beyond measure. She and Mrs. +Waldron had a brief talk, as a result of which Mrs. Rayner refused to +speak to Mrs. Waldron at the evening party given by Mrs. Stannard in +honor of her and her sister. It was this that brought on the crisis. +Whatever was said between the men was not told. Major Waldron and +Captain Rayner had a long consultation, and they took no one into their +confidence; but Mrs. Rayner obeyed her husband, went to Mrs. Waldron and +apologized for her rudeness, and then went with her sister and returned +the call of the colonel's wife; but she chose a bright afternoon, when +she knew well the lady was not at home. + +She retired from the contest, apparently, as has been said, and took +much Christian consolation to herself from the fact that at so great a +sacrifice she was obeying her husband and doing the duty she owed to +him. In very truth, however, the contest was withdrawn from her by the +fact that for a week or more after his evening at the Waldrons' Mr. +Hayne did not reappear in garrison, and she had no cause to talk about +him. Officers visiting the house avoided mention of his name. Ladies of +the cavalry regiment calling upon Mrs. Rayner and Miss Travers +occasionally spoke of him and his devotion to the men and his bravery at +the fire, but rather as though they meant in a general way to compliment +the Riflers, not Mr. Hayne; and so she heard little of the man whose +existence was so sore a trial to her. What she would have said, what she +would have thought, had she known of the meeting between him and her +guarded Nellie, is beyond us to describe; but she never dreamed of such +a thing, and Miss Travers never dreamed of telling her,--for the +present, at least. Fortunately--or unfortunately--for the latter, it was +not so much of her relations with Mr. Hayne as of her relations with +half a dozen young bachelors that Mrs. Rayner speedily felt herself +compelled to complain. It was a blessed relief to the elder sister. Her +surcharged spirit was in sore need of an escape-valve. She was ready to +boil over in the mental ebullition consequent upon Mr. Hayne's reception +at the post, and with all the pent-up irritability which that episode +had generated she could not have contained herself and slept. But here +Miss Travers came to her relief. Her beauty, her winsome ways, her +unqualified delight in everything that was soldierly, speedily rendered +her vastly attractive to all the young officers in garrison. Graham and +Foster of the infantry, Merton, Webster, and Royce of the cavalry, +haunted the house at all manner of hours, and the captain bade them +welcome and urged them to come oftener and stay later, and told Mrs. +Rayner he wanted some kind of a supper or collation every night. He set +before his guests a good deal of wine, and drank a good deal more +himself than he had ever been known to do before, and they were keeping +very late hours at Rayner's, for, said the captain, "I don't care if +Nellie is engaged: she shall have a good time while she's here; and if +the boys know all about it,--goodness knows you've told them often +enough, Kate,--and they don't mind it, why, it's nobody's +business,--here, at least." + +What Mr. Van Antwerp might think or care was another matter. Rayner +never saw him, and did not know him. He rather resented it that Van +Antwerp had never written to him and asked his consent. As Mrs. Rayner's +husband and Nellie's brother-in-law, it seemed to him he stood _in loco +parentis_; but Mrs. Rayner managed the whole thing herself, and he was +not even consulted. If anything, he rather enjoyed the contemplation of +Van Antwerp's fidgety frame of mind as described to him by Mrs. Rayner +about the time it became apparent to her that Nellie was enjoying the +attentions of which she was so general an object, and that the captain +was sitting up later and drinking more wine than was good for him. She +was aware that the very number of Nell's admirers would probably prevent +her becoming entangled with any one of them, but she needed something to +scold about, and eagerly pitched upon this. She knew well that she could +not comfort her husband in the anxiety that was gnawing at his +heart-strings, but she was jealous of comfort that might come to him +from any other source, and the Lethe of wine and jolly companionship she +dreaded most of all. Long, long before, she had induced him to promise +that he would never offer the young officers spirits in his house. She +would not prohibit wine at table, she said; but she never thought of +there coming a time when he himself would seek consolation in the glass +and make up in quantity what it lacked in alcoholic strength. He was +impatient of all reproof now, and would listen to no talk; but Nellie +was years her junior,--more years than she would admit except at such +times as these, when she meant to admonish; and Nellie had to take it. + +Two weeks after their arrival at Warrener the burden of Mrs. Rayner's +song--morn, noon, and night--was, "What would Mr. Van Antwerp say if he +could but see this or hear that?" + +Can any reader recall an instance where the cause of an absent lover was +benefited by the ceaseless warning in a woman's ear, "Remember, you're +engaged"? The hero of antiquity who caused himself to be attended by a +shadowing slave whispering ever and only, "Remember, thou art mortal," +is a fine figure to contemplate--at this remote date. He, we are told, +admitted the need, submitted to the infliction. But lives there a woman +who will admit that she needs any instruction as to what her conduct +should be when the lord of her heart is away? Lives there a woman who, +submitting, because she cannot escape, to the constant reminder, "Thou +art engaged," will not resent it in her heart of hearts and possibly +revenge herself on the one alone whom she holds at her mercy? Left to +herself,--to her generosity, her conscience, her innate tenderness,--the +cause of the absent one will plead for itself, and, if it have even +faint foundation, hold its own. "With the best intentions in the world," +many an excellent cause has been ruined by the injudicious urgings of a +mother; but to talk an engaged girl into mutiny, rely on the +infallibility of two women,--a married sister or a maiden aunt. + +Just what Mr. Van Antwerp would have said could he have seen the +situation at Warrener is perhaps impossible to predict. Just what he did +say without seeing was, perhaps, the most unwise thing he could have +thought of: he urged Mrs. Rayner to keep reminding Nellie of her +promise. His had not been a life of unmixed joy. He was now nearly +thirty-five, and desperately in love with a pretty girl who had simply +bewitched him during the previous summer. It was not easy to approach +her then, he found, for her sister kept vigilant guard; but, once +satisfied of his high connections, his wealth, and his social standing, +the door was opened, and he was something more than welcomed, said the +gossips at the Surf House. What his past history had been, where and how +his life had been spent, were matters of less consequence, apparently, +than what he was now. He had been wild at college, as other boys had +been, she learned; he had tried the cattle-business in the West, she was +told; but there had been a quarrel with his father, a reconciliation, a +devoted mother, a long sojourn abroad,--Heidelberg,--a sudden summons to +return, the death of the father, and then the management of a valuable +estate fell to the son. There were other children, brother and sisters, +three in all, but Steven was the first-born and the mother's glory. She +was with him at the sea-side, and the first thing that moved Nellie +Travers to like him was his devotion to that white-haired woman who +seemed so happy in his care. Between that mother and Mrs. Rayner there +had speedily sprung up an acquaintance. She had vastly admired Nellie, +and during the first fortnight of their visit to the Surf House had +shown her many attentions. The illness of a daughter called her away, +and Mrs. Rayner announced that she, too, was going elsewhere, when Mr. +Van Antwerp himself returned, and Mrs. Rayner decided it was so late in +the season that they had better remain until it was time to go to town. +In October they spent a fortnight in the city, staying at the +Westminster, and he was assiduous in his attentions, taking them +everywhere, and lavishing flowers and bonbons upon Nell. Then Mrs. Van +Antwerp invited them to visit her at her own comfortable, old-fashioned +house down town, and Mrs. Rayner was eager to accept, but Nellie said +no; she would not do it: she could not accept Mr. Van Antwerp; she +liked, admired, and was attracted by him, but she felt that love him she +did not. He was devoted, but had tact and patience, and Mrs. Rayner at +last yielded to her demand and took her off in October to spend some +time in the interior of the State with relations of their mother, and +there, frequently, came Mr. Van Antwerp to see her and to urge his suit. +They were to have gone to Warrener immediately after the holidays, but +January came and Nellie had not surrendered. Another week in the city, a +long talk with the devoted old mother whose heart was so wrapped up in +her son's happiness and whose arms seemed yearning to enfold the lovely +girl, and Nellie was conquered. If not fully convinced of her love for +Mr. Van Antwerp, she was more than half in love with his mother. Her +promise was given, and then she seemed eager to get back to the +frontier which she had known and loved as a child. "I want to see the +mountains, the snow-peaks, the great rolling prairies, once more," she +said; and he had to consent. Man never urged more importunately than he +that the wedding should come off that very winter; but Nellie once more +said no; she could not and would not listen to an earlier date than the +summer to come. + +No one on earth knew with what sore foreboding and misery he let her go. +It was something that Mrs. Rayner could not help remarking,--his +unconquerable aversion to every mention of the army and of his own +slight experience on the frontier. He would not talk of it even with +Nellie, who was an enthusiast and had spent two years of her girlhood +almost under the shadow of Laramie Peak and loved the mere mention of +the Wyoming streams and valleys. In her husband's name Mrs. Rayner had +urged him to drop his business early in the spring and come to them for +a visit. He declared it was utterly impossible. Every moment of his time +must be given to the settling of estate affairs, so that he could be a +free man in the summer. He meant to take his bride abroad immediately +and spend a year or more in Europe. These were details which were +industriously circulated by Mrs. Rayner and speedily became garrison +property. It seemed to the men that in bringing her sister there engaged +she had violated all precedent to begin with, and in this instance, at +least, there was general complaint. Mr. Blake said it reminded him of +his early boyhood, when they used to take him to the great toy-stores at +Christmas: "Look all you like, long for it as much as you please, but +don't touch." Merton and Royce, of the cavalry, said it was simply a +challenge to any better fellow to cut in and cut out the Knickerbocker; +and, to do them justice, they did their best to carry out their theory. +Both they and their comrades of the Riflers were assiduous in their +attentions to Miss Travers, and other ladies, less favored, made +acrimonious comment in consequence. A maiden sister of one of the +veteran captains in the ----th, a damsel whose stern asceticism of +character was reflected in her features and grimly illustrated in her +dress, was moved to censure of her more attractive neighbor. "If I had +given my heart to a gentleman," said she, and her manner was indicative +of the long struggle which such a bestowal would cost both him and her, +"nothing on earth would induce _me_ to accept attentions from any one +else, not if _he_ were millions of miles away." + +But Nellie Travers was "accepting attentions" with laughing grace and +enjoying the society of these young fellows immensely. The house would +have been gloomy without her and "the boys," Rayner was prompt to admit, +for he was ill at ease and sorely worried, while his inflammable Kate +was fuming over the situation of her husband's affairs. Under ordinary +circumstances she would have seen very little to object to so long as +Nellie showed no preference for any one of her admirers at Warrener, and +unless peevish or perturbed in spirit would have made little allusion to +it. As matters stood, however, she was in a most querulous and excitable +mood: she could not rail at the real cause of her misery, and so, +woman-like, she was thankful for a pretext for uncorking the vials of +her wrath on somebody or something else. If the young matrons in +garrison who, with the two or three visiting maidens, were disposed to +rebel at Miss Nell's apparent absorption of all the available cavaliers +at the post, and call her a too lucky girl, could but have heard Mrs. +Rayner's nightly tirades and hourly rebukes, they might have realized +that here, as elsewhere, the rose had its stinging thorns. As for Miss +Travers, she confounded her sister by taking it all very submissively +and attempting no defence. Possibly conscience was telling her that she +deserved more than she was getting, or than she would be likely to get +until her sister heard of the adventure with Mr. Hayne. + +"By the way," said Mr. Royce one evening as they were stamping off the +snow and removing their heavy wraps in Rayner's hall-way after a series +of garrison calls, "Mrs. Waldron says she expects you to play for her +to-morrow afternoon, Miss Travers. Of course it will be my luck to be at +stables." + +"You hear better music every afternoon than I can give you, Mr. Royce." + +"Where, pray?" asked Mrs. Rayner, turning quickly upon them. + +Mr. Royce hesitated, and--with shame be it said--allowed Miss Travers to +meet the question: + +"At Mr. Hayne's, Kate." + +There was the same awkward silence that always followed the mention of +Hayne's name. Mrs. Rayner looked annoyed. It was evident that she wanted +more information,--wanted to ask, but was restrained. Royce determined +to be outspoken. + +"Several of us have got quite in the way of stopping there on our way +from afternoon stables," he said, very quietly. "Mr. Hayne has his +piano now, and has nearly recovered the full use of his eyes. He plays +well." + +Mrs. Rayner turned about once more, and, without saying so much as +good-night, went heavily up-stairs, leaving her escort to share with Mr. +Royce such welcome as the captain was ready to accord them. If forbidden +to talk on the subject nearest her heart, she would not speak at all. +She would have banged her door, but that would have waked baby. It stung +her to the quick to know that the cavalry officers were daily visitors +at Mr. Hayne's quarters. It was little comfort to know that the infantry +officers did not go, for she and they both knew that, except Major +Waldron, no one of their number was welcome under that roof unless he +would voluntarily come forward and say, "I believe you innocent." She +felt that but for the stand made by Hayne himself most of their number +would have received him into comradeship again by this time, and she +could hardly sleep that night from thinking over what she had heard. + +But could she have seen the figure that was slinking in the snow at the +rear door of Hayne's quarters that very evening, peering into the +lighted rooms, and at last, after many an irresolute turn, knocking +timidly for admission and then hiding behind the corner of the shed +until Sam came and poked his pig-tailed head out into the wintry +darkness in wondering effort to find the visitor, she would not have +slept at all. + +It was poor Clancy, once more mooning about the garrison and up to his +old tricks. Clancy had been drinking; but he wanted to know, "could he +spake with the lieutenant?" + + + + +IX. + + +"I have been reading over your letter of Thursday last, dear Steven," +wrote Miss Travers, "and there is much that I feel I ought to answer. +You and Kate are very much of a mind about the 'temptations' with which +I am surrounded; but you are far more imaginative than she is, and far +more courteous. There is so much about your letter that touches me +deeply that I want to be frank and fair in my reply. I have been dancing +all this evening, was out at dinner before that, and have made many +calls this afternoon; but, tired as I am, my letter must be written, +for to-morrow will be but the repetition of to-day. Is it that I am cold +and utterly heartless that I can sit and write so calmly in reply to +your fervent and appealing letter? Ah, Steven, it is what may be said of +me; but, if cold and heartless to you, I have certainly given no man at +this garrison the faintest reason to think that he has inspired any +greater interest in him. They are all kind, all very attentive. I have +told you how well Mr. Royce dances and Mr. Merton rides and Mr. Foster +reads and talks. They entertain me vastly, and I _do_ like it. More than +this, Steven, I am pleased with their evident admiration,--not alone +pleased and proud that they should admire me who am pledged to you,--not +that alone, I frankly confess, but because it in itself is pleasant. It +pleases me. Very possibly it is because I am vain. + +"And yet, though my hours are constantly occupied, though they are here +from morning till night, no one of them is more attentive than another. +There are five or six who come daily. There are some who do not come at +all. Am I a wretch, Steven? There are two or three that do not call who +I wish _would_ call. I would like to know them. + +"Yet they know--they could not help it, with Kate here, and I never +forget--that I am your promised wife. Steven, do you not sometimes +forget the conditions of that promise? Even now, again and again do I +not repeat to you that you ought to release me and free yourself? Of +course your impulse will be to say my heart is changing,--that I have +seen others whom I like better. No, I have seen no one I like as well. +But _is_ 'like' what you deserve,--what you ask? and is it not all I +have ever been able to promise you? Steven, bear me witness, for Kate is +bitterly unjust to me at times, I told you again and again last summer +and fall that I did not love you and ought not to think of being your +wife. Yet, poor, homeless, dependent as I am, how strong was the +temptation to say yes to your plea! You know that I did not and would +not until time and again your sweet mother, whom I _do_ love, and Kate, +who had been a mother to me, both declared that _that_ should make no +difference: the love would come: the happiest marriages the world over +were those in which the girl respected the man of her choice: love would +come, and come speedily, when once she was his wife. You yourself +declared you could wait in patience,--you would woo and win by and by. +Only promise to be your wife before returning to the frontier, and you +would be content. Steven, _are_ you content? You know you are not: you +know you are unhappy; and it is all, not because I am growing to love +some one else, but because I am not growing to love you. Heaven knows I +want to love you; for so long as you hold me to it my promise is sacred +and shall be kept. More than that, if you say that it is your will that +I seclude myself from these attentions, give up dancing, give up rides, +drives, walks, and even receiving visits, here, so be it. I will obey. +But write this to me, Steven,--not to Kate. I am too proud to ask her to +show me the letters I know she has received from you,--and there are +some she has not shown me,--but I cannot understand a man's complaining +to other persons of the conduct of the woman who is, or is to be, his +wife. Forgive me if I pain you: sometimes even to myself I seem old and +strange. I have lived so much alone, have had to think and do for myself +so many years while Kate has been away, that perhaps I'm not 'like other +girls;' but the respect I feel for you would be injured if I thought you +strove to guide or govern me through others; and of one thing be sure, +Steven, _I must honor and respect and look up to the man I marry_, love +or no love. + +"Once you said it would kill you if you believed I could be false to +you. If by that you meant that, having given my promise to you to be +your wife at some future time, I must school myself to love you, and +will be considered false if love do not come at my bidding or yours, I +say to you solemnly, release me now. I may not love, but I cannot and +will not deceive you, even by simulating love that does not exist. +Suppose that love were to be kindled in my heart. Suppose I were to +learn to care for some one here. You would be the first one to know it; +for I would tell you as soon as I knew it myself. _Then_ what could I +hope for,--or you? Surely you would not want to marry a girl who loved +another man. But is it much better to marry one who feels that she does +not love you? Think of it, Steven: I am very lonely, very far from +happy, very wretched over Kate's evident trouble and all the sorrow I am +bringing you and yours; but have I misled or deceived you in any one +thing? Once only has a word been spoken or a scene occurred that you +could perhaps have objected to. I told you the whole thing in my letter +of Sunday last, and why I had not told Kate. We have not met since that +night, Mr. Hayne and I, and may not; but he is a man whose story excites +my profound pity and sorrow, and he is one of the two or three I feel +that I would like to see more of. Is this being false to you or to my +promise? If so, Steven, you cannot say that I have not given you the +whole truth. + +"It is very late at night,--one o'clock,--and Kate is not yet asleep, +and the captain is still down-stairs, reading. He is not looking well at +all, and Kate is sorely anxious about him. It was his evidence that +brought years of ostracism and misery upon Lieutenant Hayne, and there +are vague indications that in his own regiment the officers are +beginning to believe that possibly he was not the guilty man. The +cavalry officers, of course, say nothing to us on the subject, and I +have never heard the full story. If he has been, as is suggested, the +victim of a scoundrel, and Captain Rayner was at fault in his evidence, +no punishment on earth could be too great for the villain who planned +his ruin, and no remorse could atone for Captain Rayner's share. I never +saw so sad a face on mortal man as Mr. Hayne's. Steven Van Antwerp, I +wish I _were_ a man! I would trace that mystery to the bitter end. + +"This is a strange letter to send to--to you; but I am a strange girl. +Already I am more than expecting you to write and release me +unconditionally; and you _ought_ to do it. I do not say I want it. + +"Faithfully, at least, yours, + +"NELLIE. + +"P.S.--Should you write to Kate, you are not to tell her, remember, of +my meeting with Mr. Hayne. Of course I am anxious to have your reply to +that letter; but it will be five days yet." + +An odd letter, indeed, for a girl not yet twenty, and not of a +hope-inspiring character; but when it reached Mr. Van Antwerp he did not +pale in reading it: his face was ghastly before he began. If anything, +he seemed relieved by some passages, though rejoiced by none. Then he +took from an inner pocket the letter that had reached him a few days +previous, and all alone in his room, late at night, he read it over +again, threw it upon the table at which he was sitting, then, with +passionate abandonment, buried his face in his arms and groaned aloud in +anguish. + +Two days after writing this letter Miss Travers was so unfortunate as to +hear a conversation in the dining-room which was not intended for her +ears. She had gone to her room immediately after breakfast, and, +glancing from her window, saw that the officers were just going to +head-quarters for the daily _matinée_. For half or three-quarters of an +hour, therefore, there could be no probable interruption; and she +decided to write an answer to the letter which came from Mr. Van Antwerp +the previous afternoon. A bright fire was burning in the old-fashioned +stove with which frontier quarters are warmed if not ornamented, and she +perched her little, slippered feet upon the hearth, took her portfolio +in her lap, and began. Mrs. Rayner was in the nursery, absorbed with the +baby and the nurse, when a servant came and announced that "a lady was +in the kitchen" and wanted to speak with the lady of the house. Mrs. +Rayner promptly responded that she was busy and couldn't be disturbed, +and wondered who it could be that came to her kitchen to see her. + +"Can I be of service, Kate?" called Miss Travers. "I will run down, if +you say so." + +"I wish you would," was the reply; and Miss Travers put aside her +writing. "Didn't she give any name?" asked Mrs. Rayner of the Abigail, +who was standing with her head just visible at the stairway, it being +one of the unconquerable tenets of frontier domestics to go no farther +than is absolutely necessary in conveying messages of any kind; and this +damsel, though new to the neighborhood, was native and to the manner +born in all the tricks of the trade. + +"She said you knew her name, ma'am. She's the lady from the hospital." + +"Here, Jane, take the baby! Never mind, Nellie: I must go!" And Mrs. +Rayner started with surprising alacrity; but as she passed her door Miss +Travers saw the look of deep anxiety on her face. + +A moment later she heard voices at the front door,--a party of ladies +who were going to spend the morning with the colonel's wife at some +"Dorcas society" work which many of them had embraced with enthusiasm. +"I want to see Miss Travers, just a minute," she heard a voice say, and +recognized the pleasant tones of Mrs. Curtis, the young wife of one of +the infantry officers: so a second time she put aside her writing, and +then ran down to the front door. Mrs. Curtis merely wanted to remind her +that she must be sure to come and spend the afternoon with her and bring +her music, and was dismayed to find that Miss Travers could not come +before stable-call: she had an engagement. "Of course: I might have +known it: you are besieged every hour. Well, can you come to-morrow? +Do." And, to-morrow being settled upon, and despite the fact that +several of the party waiting on the sidewalk looked cold and impatient, +Mrs. Curtis found it impossible to tear herself away until certain +utterly irrelevant matters had been lightly touched upon and lingeringly +abandoned. The officers were just beginning to pour forth from +head-quarters when the group of ladies finally got under way again and +Miss Travers closed the door. It was now useless to return to her +letter: so she strolled into the parlor just as she heard her sister's +voice at the kitchen door: + +"Come right in here, Mrs. Clancy. Now, quick, what is it?" + +And from the dining-room came the answer, hurried, half whispered, and +mysterious,-- + +"He's been drinkin' ever since he got out of hospital, ma'am, an' he's +worse than ever about Loot'nant Hayne. It's mischief he'll be doin', +ma'am: he's crazy-like--" + +"Mrs. Clancy, you _must_ watch him. You--Hush!" + +And here she stopped short, for, in astonishment at what she had already +heard, and in her instant effort to hear no more of what was so +evidently not intended for her, Miss Travers hurried from the parlor, +the swish of her skirts telling loudly of her presence there. She went +again to her room. What could it mean? Why was her proud, imperious Kate +holding secret interviews with this coarse and vulgar woman? What +concern was it of hers that Clancy should be "worse" about Mr. Hayne? It +could not mean that the mischief he would do was mischief _to_ the man +who had saved his life and his property. That was out of the question. +It could not mean that the poor, broken-down, drunken fellow had the +means in his power of further harming a man who had already been made to +suffer so much. Indeed, Kate's very exclamation, the very tone in which +she spoke, showed a distress of mind that arose from no fear for one +whom she hated as she hated Hayne. Her anxiety was personal. It was for +her husband and for herself she feared, or woman's tone and tongue never +yet revealed a secret. Nellie Travers stood in her room stunned and +bewildered, yet trying hard to recall and put together all the scattered +stories and rumors that had reached her about the strange conduct of +Clancy after he was taken to the hospital,--especially about his +heart-broken wail when told that it was Lieutenant Hayne who had rescued +him and little Kate from hideous death. Somewhere, somehow, this man was +connected with the mystery which encircled the long-hidden truth in +Hayne's trouble. Could it be possible that he did not realize it, and +that her sister had discovered it? Could it be--oh, heaven! _no!_--could +it be that Kate was standing between that lonely and friendless man and +the revelation that would set him right? She could not believe it of +her! She would not believe it of her sister! And yet what did Kate mean +by charging Mrs. Clancy to watch him,--that drunken husband? What could +it mean but that she was striving to prevent Mr. Hayne's ever hearing +the truth? She longed to learn more and solve the riddle once and for +all. They were still earnestly talking together down in the dining-room; +but she could not listen. Kate knew her so well that she had not closed +the door leading into the hall, though both she and the laundress of +Company B had lowered their voices. It was disgraceful at best, thought +Miss Travers, it was beneath her sister, that she should hold any +private conversation with a woman of that class. Confidences with such +were contamination. She half determined to rush down-stairs and put an +end to it, but was saved the scene: fresh young voices, hearty ringing +tones, and the stamp of heavy boot-heels were heard at the door; and as +Rayner entered, ushering in Royce and Graham, Mrs. Rayner and the +laundress fled once more to the kitchen. + +When the sisters found themselves alone again, it was late in the +evening. Mrs. Rayner came to Nellie's room and talked on various topics +for some little time, watching narrowly her sister's face. The young +girl hardly spoke at all. It was evident to the elder what her thoughts +must be. + +"I suppose you think I should explain Mrs. Clancy's agitation and +mysterious conduct, Nellie," she finally and suddenly said. + +"I do not want you to tell me anything, Kate, that you yourself do not +wish to tell me. You understand, of course, how I happened to be there?" + +"Oh, certainly. I wasn't thinking of that. You couldn't help hearing; +but you must have thought it queer,--her being so agitated, I mean." + +No answer. + +"Didn't you?" + +"I wasn't thinking of her at all." + +"What did you think, then?" half defiantly, yet trembling and growing +white. + +"I thought it strange that _you_ should be talking with her in such a +way." + +"She was worried about her husband,--his drinking so much,--and came to +consult me." + +"Why should she--and you--show such consternation at his connection with +the name of Mr. Hayne?" + +"Nellie, _that_ matter is one you know I cannot bear to talk of." ("Very +recently only," thought the younger.) "You once asked me to tell you +what Mr. Hayne's crime had been, and I answered that until you could +hear the whole story you could not understand the matter at all. We are +both worried about Clancy. He is not himself; he is wild and imaginative +when he's drinking. He has some strange fancies since the fire, and he +thinks he ought to do something to help the officer because he helped +him, and his head is full of Police Gazette stories, utterly without +foundation, and he thinks he can tell who the real culprits were,--or +something of that kind. It is utter nonsense. I have investigated the +whole thing,--heard the whole story. It is the trashiest, most +impossible thing you ever dreamed of, and would only make fearful +trouble if Mr. Hayne got hold of it." + +"Why?" + +"_Why?_ Because he is naturally vengeful and embittered, and he would +seize on any pretext to make it unpleasant for the officers who brought +about his trial." + +"Do you mean that what Clancy says in any way affects them?" asked Nell, +with quickening pulse and color. + +"It might, if there were a word of truth in it; but it is the maudlin +dream of a liquor-maddened brain. Mrs. Clancy and I both know that what +he says is utterly impossible. Indeed, he tells no two stories alike." + +"Has he told you anything?" + +"No; but she tells me everything." + +"How do you know she tells the truth?" + +"Nellie! Why should she deceive me? I have done everything for them." + +"I distrust her all the same; and you had better be warned in time. If +he has any theory, no matter how crack-brained, or if he knows anything +about the case and wants to tell it to Mr. Hayne, you are the last woman +on earth who should stand in the way." + +"Upon my word, Nellie Travers, this is going too far! One would think +you believed I wish to stand in the way of that young man's +restoration." + +"Kate, if you lift a hand or speak one word to prevent Clancy's seeing +Mr. Hayne and telling him everything he knows, you will make me +believe--precisely that." + +Captain Rayner heard sobbing and lamentation on the bedroom floor when +he came in a few moments after. Going aloft, he found Miss Travers's +door closed as usual, and his wife in voluble distress of mind. He +could only learn that she and Nellie had had a falling out, and that +Nell had behaved in a most unjust, disrespectful, and outrageous way. +She declined to give further particulars. + + + + +X. + + +Miss Travers had other reasons for wanting to be alone. That very +afternoon, just after stable-call, she found herself unoccupied for the +time being, and decided to go over and see Mrs. Waldron a few moments. +The servant admitted her to the little army parlor, and informed her +that Mrs. Waldron had stepped out, but would be home directly. A bright +wood fire was blazing on the hearth and throwing flickering lights and +shadows about the cosey room. The piano stood invitingly open, and on +the rack were some waltzes of Strauss she remembered having heard the +cavalry band play a night or two previous. Seating herself, she began to +try them, and speedily became interested. Her back being to the door, +she did not notice that another visitor was soon ushered in,--a man. She +continued slowly "picking out" the melody, for the light was growing dim +and it was with difficulty that she could distinguish the notes. Twice +she essayed a somewhat complicated passage, became entangled, bent down +and closely scanned the music, began again, once more became involved, +exclaimed impatiently, "How absurd!" and whirled about on the +piano-stool, to find herself facing Mr. Hayne. + +Now that the bandage was removed from his eyes it was no such easy +matter to meet him. Her sweet face flushed instantly as he bent low and +spoke her name. + +"I had no idea any one was here. It quite startled me," she said, as she +withdrew from his the hand she had mechanically extended to him. + +"It was my hope not to interrupt you," he answered, in the low, gentle +voice she had marked before. "You helped me when my music was all adrift +the other night: may I not help you find some of this?" + +"I wish you _would_ play, Mr. Hayne." + +"I will play for you gladly, Miss Travers, but waltz-music is not my +forte. Let me see what else there is here." And he began turning over +the sheets on the stand. + +"Are your eyes well enough to read music,--especially in such a dim +light?" she asked, with evident sympathy. + +"My eyes are doing very well,--better than my fingers, in fact,--and, as +I rarely play by note after I once learn a piece, the eyes make no +difference. What music do you like? I merely looked at this collection +thinking you might see something that pleased you." + +"Mrs. Ray told me you played Rubinstein so well,--that melody in F, for +one." + +"Did Mrs. Ray speak of that?"--his face brightening. "I'm glad they +found anything to enjoy in my music." + +"'They' found a great deal, Mr. Hayne, and there are a number who are +envious of their good fortune,--I, for one," she answered, blithely. +"Now play for me. Mrs. Waldron will be here in a minute." + +And when Mrs. Waldron came in, a little later, Miss Travers, seated in +an easy-chair and looking intently into the blaze, was listening as +intently to the soft, rich melodies that Mr. Hayne was playing. The +firelight was flickering on her shining hair; one slender white hand was +toying with the locket that hung at her throat, the other gently tapping +on the arm of the chair in unison with the music. And Mr. Hayne, seated +in the shadow, bent slightly over the key-board, absorbed in his +pleasant task, and playing as though all his soul were thrilling in his +finger-tips. Mrs. Waldron stood in silence at the door-way, watching the +unconscious pair with an odd yet comforted expression in her eyes. At +last, in one long, sweet, sighing chord, the melody softly died away, +and Mr. Hayne slowly turned and looked upon the girl. She seemed to have +wandered off into dream-land. For a moment there was no sound; then, +with a little shivering sigh, she roused herself. + +"It is simply exquisite," she said. "You have given me such a treat!" + +"I'm glad. I owe you a great deal more pleasure, Miss Travers." + +Mrs. Waldron hereat elevated her eyebrows. She would have slipped away +if she could, but she was a woman of substance, and as solid in flesh as +she was warm of heart. She did the only thing left to her,--came +cordially forward to welcome her two visitors and express her delight +that Miss Travers could have an opportunity of hearing Mr. Hayne play. +She soon succeeded in starting him again, and shortly thereafter managed +to slip out unnoticed. When he turned around a few minutes afterwards, +she had vanished. + +"Why, I had no idea she was gone!" exclaimed Miss Travers; and then the +color mounted to her brow. He must think her extremely absorbed in his +playing; and so indeed she was. + +"You are very fond of music, I see," he said, at a venture. + +"Yes, very; but I play very little and very badly. Pardon me, Mr. Hayne, +but you have played many years, have you not?" + +"Not so very many; but--there have been many in which I had little else +to do but practise." + +She reddened again. It was so unlike him, she thought, to refer to that +matter in speaking to her. He seemed to read her: + +"I speak of it only that I may say to you again what I began just before +Mrs. Waldron came. You gave me no opportunity to thank you the other +night, and I may not have another. You do not know what an event in my +life that meeting with you was; and you cannot know how I have gone over +your words again and again. Forgive me the embarrassment I see I cause +you, Miss Travers. We are so unlikely to meet at all that you can afford +to indulge me this once." He was smiling so gravely, sadly, now, and had +risen and was standing by her as she sat there in the big easy-chair, +still gazing into the fire, but listening for his every word. "In five +long years I have heard no words from a woman's lips that gave me such +joy and comfort as those you spoke so hurriedly and without +premeditation. Only those who know anything of what my past has been +could form any idea of the emotion with which I heard you. If I could +not have seen you to say how--how I thanked you, I would have had to +write. This explains what I said awhile ago: I owe you more pleasure +than I can ever give. But one thing was certain: I could not bear the +idea that you should not be told, and by me, how grateful your words +were to me,--how grateful I was to you. Again, may God bless you!" + +And now he turned abruptly away, awaiting no answer, reseated himself at +the piano and retouched the keys. But, though she sat motionless and +speechless, she knew that he had been trembling so violently and that +his hands were still so tremulous he could play no more. It was some +minutes that they sat thus, neither speaking; and as he regained his +self-control and began to attempt some simple little melodies, Mrs. +Waldron returned: + +"How very domestic you look, young people! Shall we light the lamps?" + +"I've stayed too long already," said Miss Travers, springing to her +feet. "Kate does not know I'm out, and will be wondering what has +become of her sister." She laughed nervously. "Thank you so much for the +music, Mr. Hayne!--Forgive my running off so suddenly; won't you, Mrs. +Waldron?" she asked, pleadingly, as she put her hand in hers; and as her +hostess reassured her she bent and kissed the girl's flushed cheek. Mr. +Hayne was still standing patiently by the centre-table. Once more she +turned, and caught his eye, flushed, half hesitated, then held out her +hand with quick impulse: + +"Good-evening, Mr. Hayne. I _shall_ hope to hear you play again." + +And, with pulses throbbing, and cheeks that still burned, she ran +quickly down the line to Captain Rayner's quarters, and was up-stairs +and in her room in another minute. + +This was an interview she would find it hard to tell to Kate. But told +it was, partially, and she was sitting now, late at night, hearing +through her closed door her sister's unmusical lamentations,--hearing +still ringing in her ears the reproaches heaped upon her when that +sister was quietly told that she and Mr. Hayne had met twice. And now +she was sitting there, true to herself and her resolution, telling Mr. +Van Antwerp all about it. Can one conjecture the sensations with which +he received and read that letter? + +Mr. Hayne, too, was having a wakeful night. He had gone to Mrs. +Waldron's to pay a dinner-call, with the result just told. He had one or +two other visits to make among the cavalry households in garrison, but, +after a few moments' chat with Mrs. Waldron, he decided that he +preferred going home. Sam had to call three times before Mr. Hayne +obeyed the summons to dinner that evening. The sun was going down behind +the great range to the southwest, and the trumpets were pealing +"retreat" on the frosty air, but Hayne's curtains were drawn, and he was +sitting before his fire, deep in thought, hearing nothing. The doctor +came in soon after he finished his solitary dinner, chatted with him +awhile, and smoked away at his pipe. He wanted to talk with Hayne about +some especial matter, and he found it hard work to begin. The more he +saw of his patient the better he liked him: he was interested in him, +and had been making inquiries. Without his pipe he found himself +uninspired. + +"Mr. Hayne, if you will permit, I'll fill up and blow another cloud. +Didn't you ever smoke?" + +"Yes. I was very fond of my cigar six or seven years ago." + +"And you gave it up?" asked the doctor, tugging away at the strings of +his little tobacco-pouch. + +"I gave up everything that was not an absolute necessity," said Hayne, +calmly. "Until I could get free of a big load there was no comfort in +anything. After that was gone I had no more use for such old friends +than certain other old friends seemed to have for me. It was a mutual +cut." + +"To the best of my belief, you were the gainer in both cases," said the +doctor, gruffly. "The longer I live the more I agree with Carlyle: the +men we live and move with are mostly fools." + +Hayne's face was as grave and quiet as ever: + +"These are hard lessons to learn, doctor. I presume few young fellows +thought more of human friendship than I did the first two years I was in +service." + +"Hayne," said the doctor, "sometimes I have thought you did not want to +talk about this matter to any soul on earth; but I am speaking from no +empty curiosity now. If you forbid it, I shall not intrude; but there +are some questions that, since knowing you, and believing in you as I +unquestionably do, I would like to ask. You seem bent on returning to +duty here to-morrow, though you might stay on sick report ten days yet; +and I want to stand between you and the possibility of annoyance and +trouble if I can." + +"You are kind, and I appreciate it, doctor; but do you think that the +colonel is a man who will be apt to let me suffer injustice at the hands +of any one here?" + +"I don't, indeed. He is full of sympathy for you, and I know he means +you shall have fair play; but a company commander has as many and as +intangible ways of making a man suffer as has a woman. How do you stand +with Rayner?" + +"Precisely where I stood five years ago. He is the most determined enemy +I have in the service, and will down me if he can; but I have learned a +good deal in my time. There is a grim sort of comfort now in knowing +that while he would gladly trip me I can make him miserable by being too +strong for him." + +"You still hold the same theory as to his evidence you did at the time +of the court? of course I have heard what you said to and of him." + +"I have never changed in that respect." + +"But supposing that--mind you, _I_ believe he was utterly mistaken in +what he thought he heard and saw,--supposing that all that was testified +to by him actually occurred, have you any theory that would point out +the real criminal?" + +"Only one. If that money was ever handed me that day at Battle Butte, +only one man could have made away with it; and it is useless to charge +it to him." + +"You mean Rayner?" + +"I _have_ to mean Rayner." + +"But you claim it never reached you?" + +"Certainly." + +"Yet every other package--memoranda and all--was handed you?" + +"Not only that, but Captain Hull handed me the money-packet with the +others,--took them all from his saddle-bags just before the charge. The +packet was sealed when he gave it to me, and when I broke the seal it +was stuffed with worthless blanks." + +"And you have never suspected a soldier,--a single messenger or +servant?" + +"Not one. Whom could I?" + +"Hayne, had you any knowledge of this man Clancy before?" + +"Clancy! The drunken fellow we pulled out of the fire?" + +"The same." + +"No; never to my knowledge saw or heard of him, except when he appeared +as witness at the court." + +"Yet he was with the ----th Cavalry at that very fight at Battle Butte. He +was a sergeant then, though not in Hull's troop." + +"Does he say he knew me? or does he talk of that affair?" asked the +lieutenant, with sudden interest. + +"Not that. He cannot be said to say anything; but he was wonderfully +affected over your rescuing him,--strangely so, one of the nurses +persists in telling me, though the steward and Mrs. Clancy declare it +was just drink and excitement. Still, I have drawn from him that he knew +you well by sight during that campaign; but he says he was not by when +Hull was killed." + +"Does he act as though he knew anything that could throw any light on +the matter?" + +"I cannot say. His wife declares he has been queer all winter,--hard +drinking,--and of course that is possible." + +"Sam told me there was a soldier here two nights ago who wanted to talk +with me, but the man was drunk, and he would not let him in or tell me. +He thought he wanted to borrow money." + +"I declare, I believe it was Clancy!" said the doctor. "If he wants to +see you and talk, let him. There's no telling but what even a +drink-racked brain may bring the matter to light." + +And long that night Mr. Hayne sat there thinking, partly of what the +doctor had said, but more of what had occurred during the late +afternoon. Midnight was called by the sentries. He went to his door and +looked out on the broad, bleak prairie, the moonlight glinting on the +tin roofing of the patch of buildings over at the station far across the +dreary level and glistening on the patches of snow that here and there +streaked the surface. It was all so cold and calm and still. His blood +was hot and fevered. Something invited him into the peace and purity of +the night. He threw on his overcoat and furs, and strolled up to the +gateway, past the silent and deserted store, whose lighted bar and +billiard-room was generally the last thing to close along Prairie +Avenue. There was not a glimmer of light about the quarters of the +trader or the surgeon's beyond. One or two faint gleams stole through +the blinds at the big hospital, and told of the night-watch by some +fevered bedside. He passed on around the fence and took a path that led +to the target-ranges north of the post and back of officers' row, +thinking deeply all the while; and finally, re-entering the garrison by +the west gate, he came down along the hard gravelled walk that passed in +circular sweeps the offices and the big house of the colonel commanding +and then bore straight away in front of the entire line. All was +darkness and quiet. He passed in succession the houses of the +field-officers of the cavalry, looked longingly at the darkened front of +Major Waldron's cottage, where he had lived so sweet an hour before the +setting of the last sun, then went on again and paused surprised in +front of Captain Rayner's. A bright light was still burning in the front +room on the second floor. Was she, too, awake and thinking of that +interview? He looked wistfully at the lace curtains that shrouded the +interior, and then the clank of a cavalry sabre sounded in his ears, and +a tall officer came springily across the road. + +"Who the devil's that?" was the blunt military greeting. + +"Mr. Hayne," was the quiet reply. + +"What? Mr. Hayne? Oh! Beg your pardon, man,--couldn't imagine who it was +mooning around out here after midnight." + +"I don't wonder," answered Hayne. "I am rather given to late hours, and +after reading a long time I often take a stroll before turning in." + +"Ah, yes: I see. Well, won't you drop in and chat awhile? I'm officer of +the day, and have to owl to-night." + +"Thanks, no, not this time; I must go to bed. Good-night, Mr. Blake." + +"Good-night to you, Mr. Hayne," said Blake, then stood gazing +perplexedly after him. "Now, my fine fellow," was his dissatisfied +query, "what on earth do you mean by prowling around Rayner's at this +hour of the night?" + + + + +XI. + + +It was very generally known throughout Fort Warrener by ten o'clock on +the following morning that Mr. Hayne had returned to duty and was one of +the first officers to appear at the _matinée_. Once more the colonel had +risen from his chair, taken him by the hand, and welcomed him. This time +he expressed the hope that nothing would now occur to prevent their +seeing him daily. + +"Won't you come in to the club-room?" asked Captain Gregg, afterwards. +"We will be pleased to have you." + +"Excuse me, captain, I shall be engaged all morning," answered Mr. +Hayne, and walked on down the row. Nearly all the officers were +strolling away in groups of three or four. Hayne walked past them all +with quick, soldierly step and almost aggressive manner, and was soon +far ahead, all by himself. Finding it an unprofitable subject, there had +been little talk between the two regiments as to what Mr. Hayne's status +should be on his reappearance. Everybody heard that he had somewhat +rudely spurned the advances of Ross and his companions. Indeed, Ross had +told the story with strong coloring to more than half the denizens of +officers' row. Evidently he desired no further friendship or intercourse +with his brother blue-straps; and only a few of the cavalry officers +found his society attractive. He played delightfully; he was well read; +but in general talk he was not entertaining. "Altogether too +sepulchral,--or at least funereal," explained the cavalry. "He never +laughs, and rarely smiles, and he's as glum as a Quaker meeting," was +another complaint. So a social success was hardly to be predicted for +Mr. Hayne. + +While he could not be invited where just a few infantry people were the +other guests, from a big general gathering or party he, of course, could +not be omitted; but there he would have his cavalry and medical friends +to talk to, and then there was Major Waldron. It was a grievous pity +that there should be such an element of embarrassment, but it couldn't +be helped. As the regimental adjutant had said, Hayne himself was the +main obstacle to his restoration to regimental friendship. No man who +piques himself on the belief that he is about to do a virtuous and +praiseworthy act will be apt to persevere when the object of his +benevolence treats him with cold contempt. If Mr. Hayne saw fit to +repudiate the civilities a few officers essayed to extend to him, no +others would subject themselves to similar rebuffs; and if he could +stand the _status quo_, why, the regiment could; and that, said the +Riflers, was the end of the matter. + +But it was not the end, by a good deal. Some few of the ladies of the +infantry, actuated by Mrs. Rayner's vehement exposition of the case, had +aligned themselves on her side as against the post commander, and by +their general conduct sought to convey to the colonel and to the ladies +who were present at the first dinner given Mr. Hayne thorough +disapproval of their course. This put the cavalry people on their mettle +and led to a division in the garrison; and as Major Waldron was, in Mrs. +Rayner's eyes, equally culpable with the colonel, it so resulted that +two or three infantry households, together with some unmarried +subalterns, were arrayed socially against their own battalion commander +as well as against the grand panjandrum at post head-quarters. If it had +not been for the determined attitude of Mr. Hayne himself, the garrison +might speedily have been resolved into two parties,--Hayne and +anti-Hayne sympathizers; but the whole bearing of that young man was +fiercely repellent of sympathy; he would have none of it. "Hayne's +position," said Major Waldron, "is practically this: he holds that no +man who has borne himself as he has during these five years--denied +himself everything that he might make up every cent that was lost, +though he was in no wise responsible for the loss--could by any +possibility have been guilty of the charges on which he was tried. From +this he will not abate one jot or tittle; and he refuses now to restore +to his friendship the men who repudiated him in his years of trouble, +except on their profession of faith in his entire innocence." Now, this +was something the cavalry could not do without some impeachment of the +evidence which was heaped up against the poor fellow at the time of the +trial; and it was something the infantry would not do, because thereby +they would virtually pronounce one at least of their own officers to +have repeatedly and persistently given false testimony. In the case of +Waldron and the cavalry, however, it was possible for Hayne to return +their calls of courtesy, because they, having never "sent him to +Coventry," received him precisely as they would receive any other +officer. With the Riflers it was different: having once "cut" him as +though by unanimous accord, and having taught the young officers joining +year after year to regard him as a criminal, _they_ could be restored to +Mr. Hayne's friendship, as has been said before, only "on confession of +error." Buxton and two or three of his stamp called or left their cards +on Mr. Hayne because their colonel had so done; but precisely as the +ceremony was performed, just so was it returned. Buxton was red with +wrath over what he termed Hayne's conceited and supercilious manner when +returning his call: "I called upon him like a gentleman, by thunder, +just to let him understand I wanted to help him out of the mire, and +told him if there was anything I could do for him that a gentleman +_could_ do, not to hesitate about letting me know; and when he came to +my house to-day, damned if he didn't patronize _me_!--talked to me about +the Plevna siege, and wanted to discuss Gourko and the Balkans or some +other fool thing: what in thunder have I to do with campaigns in +Turkey?--and I thought he meant those nigger soldiers the British have +in India,--Goorkhas, I know now,--and I _did_ tell him it was an awful +blunder, that only a Russian would make, to take those Sepoy fellows and +put 'em into a winter campaign. Of course I hadn't been booking up the +subject, and he had, and sprung it on me; and then, by gad, as he was +going, he said he had books and maps he would lend me, and if there was +anything he could do for me that a gentleman _could_ do, not to hesitate +about asking. Damn his impudence!" + +Poor Buxton! One of his idiosyncrasies was to talk wisely to the juniors +on the subject of European campaigns and to criticise the moves of +generals whose very names and centuries were entangling snares. His own +subalterns were, unfortunately for him, at the house when Hayne called, +and when he, as was his wont, began to expound on current military +topics. "A little learning," even, he had not, and the dangerous thing +that that would have been was supplanted by something quite as bad, if +not worse. He was trapped and thrown by the quiet-mannered infantry +subaltern, and it was all Messrs. Freeman and Royce could do to restrain +their impulse to rush after Hayne and embrace him. Buxton was cordially +detested by his "subs" and well knew they would tell the story of his +defeat, so he made a virtue of necessity and came out with his own +version. Theirs was far more ludicrous, and, while it made Mr. Hayne +famous, he gained another enemy. The ----th could not fail to notice how +soon after that all social recognition ceased between their bulky +captain and the pale, slender subaltern; and Mrs. Buxton and Mrs. Rayner +became suddenly infatuated with each other, while their lords were +seldom seen except together. + +All this time, however, Miss Travers was making friends throughout the +garrison. No one ever presumed to discuss the Hayne affair in her +presence, because of her relationship to the Rayners; and yet Mrs. +Waldron had told several people how delightfully she and Mr. Hayne had +spent an afternoon together. Did not Mrs. Rayner declare that Mrs. +Waldron was a woman who told everything she knew, or words to that +effect? It is safe to say that the garrison was greatly interested in +the story. How strange it was that he should have had a _tête-à-tête_ +with the sister of his bitterest foe! _When_ did they meet? Had they met +since? Would they meet again? All these were questions eagerly +discussed, yet never asked of the parties themselves, Mr. Hayne's +reputation for snubbing people standing him in excellent stead, and Miss +Travers's quiet dignity and reserve of manner being too much for those +who would have given a good deal to gain her confidence. But there was +Mrs. Rayner. She, at least, with all her high and mighty ways, was no +unapproachable creature when it came to finding out what she thought of +other people's conduct. So half a dozen, at least, had more or less +confidentially asked if she knew of Mr. Hayne and Miss Travers's +meeting. Indeed she did! and she had given Nellie her opinion of her +conduct very decidedly. It was Captain Rayner himself who interposed, +she said, and forbade her upbraiding Nellie any further. Nellie being +either in an adjoining room or up in her own on several occasions when +these queries were propounded to her sister, it goes without saying that +that estimable woman, after the manner of her sex, had elevated her +voice in responding, so that there was no possibility of the wicked +girl's failing to get the full benefit of the scourging she deserved. +Rayner had, indeed, positively forbidden her further rebuking Nellie; +but the man does not live who can prevent one woman's punishing another +so long as she can get within earshot, and Miss Travers was paying +dearly for her independence. + +It cannot be estimated just how great a disappointment her visit to the +frontier was proving to that young lady, simply because she kept her own +counsel. There were women in the garrison who longed to take her to +their hearts and homes, she was so fresh and pure and sweet and winning, +they said; but how could they, when her sister would recognize them only +by the coldest possible nod? Nellie was not happy, that was certain, +though she made no complaint, and though the young officers who were +daily her devotees declared she was bright and attractive as she could +be. There were still frequent dances and parties in the garrison, but +March was nearly spent, and the weather had been so vile and blustering +that they could not move beyond the limits of the post. April might +bring a change for the better in the weather, but Miss Travers wondered +how it could better her position. + +It is hard for a woman of spirit to be materially dependent on any one, +and Miss Travers was virtually dependent on her brother-in-law. The +little share of her father's hard savings was spent on her education. +Once free from school, she was bound to another apprenticeship, and +sister Kate, though indulgent, fond, and proud, lost no opportunity of +telling her how much she owed to Captain Rayner. It got to be a fearful +weight before the first summer was well over. It was the main secret of +her acceptance of Mr. Van Antwerp. And now, until she would consent to +name the day that should bind her for life to him, she had no home but +such as Kate Rayner could offer her; and Kate was bitterly offended at +her. There was just one chance to end it now and forever, and to relieve +her sister and the captain of the burden of her support. _Could_ she +make up her mind to do it? And Mr. Van Antwerp offered the opportunity. + +So far from breaking with her, as she half expected,--so far from being +even angry and reproachful on receiving the letter she had written +telling him all about her meetings with Mr. Hayne,--he had written again +and again, reproaching himself for his doubts and fears, begging her +forgiveness for having written and telegraphed to Kate, humbling himself +before her in the most abject way, and imploring her to reconsider her +determination and to let him write to Captain and Mrs. Rayner to return +to their Eastern home at once, that the marriage might take place +forthwith and he could bear her away to Europe in May. Letter after +letter came, eager, imploring, full of tenderest love and devotion, full +of the saddest apprehension, never reproaching, never doubting, never +commanding or restraining. The man had found the way to touch a woman +of her generous nature: he had left all to her; he was at her mercy; and +she knew well that he loved her fervently and that to lose her would +wellnigh break his heart. Could she say the word and be free? Surely, as +this man's wife there would be no serfdom; and, yet, could she wed a man +for whom she felt no spark of love? + +They went down to the creek one fine morning early in April. There had +been a sudden thaw of the snows up the gorges of the Rockies, and the +stream had overleaped its banks, spread over the lowlands, and flooded +some broad depressions in the prairie. Then, capricious as a woman's +moods, the wind whistled around from the north one night and bound the +lakelets in a band of ice. The skating was gorgeous, and all the pretty +ankles on the post were rejoicing in the opportunity before the setting +of another sun. Coming homeward at luncheon-time, Mrs. Rayner, Mrs. +Buxton, Miss Travers, and one or two others, escorted by a squad of +bachelors, strolled somewhat slowly along Prairie Avenue towards the +gate. It so happened that the married ladies were foremost in the little +party, when who should meet them but Mr. Hayne, coming from the east +gate! Mrs. Rayner and Mrs. Buxton, though passing him almost elbow to +elbow, looked straight ahead or otherwise avoided his eye. He raised his +forage-cap in general acknowledgment of the presence of ladies with the +officers, but glanced coldly from one to the other until his blue eyes +lighted on Miss Travers. No woman in that group could fail to note the +leap of sunshine and gladness to his face, the instant flush that rose +to his cheek. Miss Travers, herself, saw it quickly, as did the maiden +walking just behind her, and her heart bounded at the sight. She bowed +as their eyes met, spoke his name in low tone, and strove to hide her +face from Mr. Blake, who turned completely around and stole a sudden +glance at her. She could no more account for than she could control it, +but her face was burning. Mrs. Rayner, too, looked around and stared at +her, but this she met firmly, her dark eyes never quailing before the +angry glare in her sister's. Blake was beginning to like Hayne and to +dislike Mrs. Rayner, and he always _did_ like mischief. + +"You owe me a grudge, Miss Travers, if you did but know it," he said, so +that all could hear. + +"You, Mr. Blake! How can that be possible?" + +"I spoiled a serenade for you a few nights ago. I was officer of the +day, and caught sight of a man gazing up at your window after midnight. +I felt sure he was going to sing: so, like a good fellow, I ran over to +play an accompaniment, and then--would you believe it?--he wouldn't +sing, after all." + +She was white now. Her eyes were gazing almost imploringly at him. +Something warned him to hold his peace, and he broke off short. + +"_Who_ was it? Oh, _do_ tell us, Mr. Blake!" were the exclamations, Mrs. +Rayner being most impetuous in her demands. Again Blake caught the +appeal in Miss Travers's eyes. + +"That's what I want to know," he responded, mendaciously. "When I woke +up next morning, the whole thing was a dream, and I couldn't fix the +fellow at all." + +There was a chorus of disappointment and indignation. The idea of +spoiling such a gem of a sensation! But Blake took it all complacently, +until he got home. Then it began to worry him. + +Was it possible that she knew he was there? + +That night there was a disturbance in the garrison. Just after ten +o'clock, and while the sentries were calling off the hour, a woman's +shrieks and cries were heard over behind the quarters of Company B and +close to the cottage occupied by Lieutenant Hayne. The officers of the +guard ran to the spot with several men, and found Private Clancy +struggling and swearing in the grasp of two or three soldiers, while +Mrs. Clancy was imploring them not to let him go, he was wild-like +again; it was drink; he had the horrors, and was batin' her while she +was tryin' to get him home. And Clancy's appearance bore out her words. +He was wild and drunken; but he swore he meant no harm; he struggled +hard for freedom; he vowed he only wanted to see the lieutenant at his +quarters; and Mr. Hayne, lamp in hand, had come upon the scene, and was +striving to quiet the woman, who only screamed and protested the louder. +At his quiet order the soldiers released Clancy, and the man stood +patient and subordinate. + +"Did you want to see me, Clancy?" asked Mr. Hayne. + +"Askin' yer pardon, sir, I did," began the man, unsteadily, and +evidently struggling with the fumes of the liquor he had been drinking; +but before he could speak again, Mrs. Clancy's shrieks rang out on the +still air: + +"Oh, for the love of God, howld him, some o' ye's! He'll kill him! He's +mad, I say! Shure 'tis I that know him best. Oh, blessed Vargin, save +us! _Don't_ let him loose, Misther Foster!" she screamed to the officer +of the guard, who at that moment appeared on the full run. + +"What's the trouble?" he asked, breathlessly. + +"Clancy seems to have been drinking, and wants to talk with me about +something, Mr. Foster," said Hayne, quietly. "He belongs to my company, +and I will be responsible that he goes home. It is really Mrs. Clancy +that is making all the trouble." + +"Oh, for the love of God, hear him, now, whin the man was tearin' the +hair o' me this minute! Oh, howld him, men! Shure 'tis Captain Rayner +wud niver let him go." + +"What's the matter, Mrs. Clancy?" spoke a quick, stern voice, and +Rayner, with face white as a sheet, suddenly stood in their midst. + +"Oh, God be praised, it's here ye are, captin! Shure it's Clancy, sir, +dhrunk, sir, and runnin' round the garrison, and batin' me, sir." + +"Take him to the guard-house, Mr. Foster," was the stern, sudden order. +"Not a word, Clancy," as the man strove to speak. "Off with him; and if +he gives you any trouble, send for me." + +And as the poor fellow was led away, silence fell upon the group. Mrs. +Clancy began a wail of mingled relief and misery, which the captain +ordered her to cease and go home. More men came hurrying to the spot, +and presently the officer of the day. "It is all right now," said Rayner +to the latter. "One of my men--Clancy--was out here drunk and raising a +row. I have sent him to the guard-house. Go back to your quarters, men. +Come, captain, will you walk over home with me?" + +"Was Mr. Hayne here when the row occurred?" asked the cavalryman, +looking as though he wanted to hear something from the young officer who +stood a silent witness. + +"I don't know," replied Rayner. "It makes no difference, captain. It is +not a case of witnesses. I shan't prefer charges against the man. Come!" +And he drew him hastily away. + +Hayne stood watching them as they disappeared beyond the glimmer of his +lamp. Then a hand was placed on his arm: + +"Did you notice Captain Rayner's face,--his lips? He was ashen as +death." + +"Come in here with me," was the reply; and, turning, Hayne led the post +surgeon into the house. + + + + +XII. + + +There was an unusual scene at the _matinée_ the following morning. When +Captain Ray relieved Captain Gregg as officer of the day, and the two +were visiting the guard-house and turning over prisoners, they came upon +the last name on the list,--Clancy,--and Gregg turned to his regimental +comrade and said,-- + +"No charges are preferred against Clancy, at least none as yet, Captain +Ray; but his company commander requests that he be held here until he +can talk over his case with the colonel." + +"What's he in for?" demanded Captain Ray. + +"Getting drunk and raising a row and beating his wife," answered Gregg; +whereat there was a titter among the soldiers. + +"I never shtruck a woman in me life, sir," said poor Clancy. + +"Silence, Clancy!" ordered the sergeant of the guard. + +"No, I'm blessed if I believe that part of it, Clancy, drunk or no +drunk," said the new officer of the day.--"Take charge of him for the +present, sergeant." And away they went to the office. + +Captain Rayner was in conversation with the commanding officer as they +entered, and the colonel was saying,-- + +"It is not the proper way to handle the case, captain. If he has been +guilty of drunkenness and disorderly conduct he should be brought to +trial at once." + +"I admit that, sir; but the case is peculiar. It was Mrs. Clancy that +made all the noise. I feel sure that after he is perfectly sober I can +give him such a talking-to as will put a stop to this trouble." + +"Very well, sir. I am willing to let company commanders experiment at +least once or twice on their theories, so you can try the scheme; but we +of the ----th have had some years of experience with the Clancys, and +were not a little amused when they turned up again in our midst as +accredited members of your company." + +"Then, as I understand you, colonel, Clancy is not to be brought to +trial for this affair," suddenly spoke the post surgeon. + +Everybody looked up in surprise. "Pills" was the last man, ordinarily, +to take a hand in the "shop talk" at the morning meetings. + +"No, doctor. His captain thinks it unnecessary to prefer charges." + +"So do I, sir; and, as I saw the man both before and after his +confinement last night, I do not think it was necessary to confine +him." + +"The officer of the day says there was great disorder," said the +colonel, in surprise. + +"Ay, sir, so there was; and the thing reminds me of the stories they +used to tell on the New York police. It looked to me as though all the +row was raised by Mrs. Clancy, as Captain Rayner says; but the man was +arrested. That being the case, I would ask the captain for what specific +offence he ordered Clancy to the guard-house." + +Rayner again was pale as death. He glared at the doctor in amaze and +incredulity, while all the officers noted his agitation and were silent +in surprise. It was the colonel that came to the rescue: + +"Captain Rayner had abundant reason, doctor. It was after taps, though +only just after, and, whether causing the trouble or not, the man is the +responsible party, not the woman. The captain was right in causing his +arrest." + +Rayner looked up gratefully. + +"I submit to your decision, sir," said the surgeon, "and I apologize for +anything I may have asked that was beyond my province. Now I wish to ask +a question for my own guidance." + +"Go on, doctor." + +"In case an enlisted man of this command desire to see an officer of his +company,--or any other officer, for that matter,--is it a violation of +any military regulation for him to go to his quarters for that purpose?" + +Again was Rayner fearfully white and aged-looking. His lips moved as +though he would interrupt; but discipline prevailed. + +"No, doctor; and yet we have certain customs of service to prevent the +men going at all manner of hours and on frivolous errands: a soldier +asks his first sergeant's permission first, and if denied by him, and he +have what he considers good reason, he can report the whole case." + +"But suppose a man is not on company duty: must he hunt up his first +sergeant and ask permission to go and see some officer with whom he has +business?" + +"Well, hardly, in that case." + +"That's all, sir." And the doctor subsided. + +Among all the officers, as the meeting adjourned, the question was, +"What do you suppose 'Pills' was driving at?" + +There were two or three who knew. Captain Rayner went first to his +quarters, where he had a few moments' hurried consultation with his +wife; then they left the house together,--he to have a low-toned and +very stern talk to rather than with the abashed Clancy, who listened cap +in hand and with hanging head; she to visit the sick child of Mrs. +Flanigan, of Company K, whose quarters adjoined those to which the +Clancys had recently been assigned. When that Hibernian culprit returned +to his roof-tree, released from durance vile, he was surprised to +receive a kindly and sympathetic welcome from his captain's wife, who +with her own hand had mixed him some comforting drink and was planning +with Mrs. Clancy for their greater comfort. "If Clancy will only promise +to quit entirely!" interjected the partner of his joys and sorrows. + +Later that day, when the doctor had a little talk with Clancy, the +ex-dragoon declared he was going to reform for all he was worth. He was +only a distress to everybody when he drank. + +"All right, Clancy. And when you are perfectly yourself you can come and +see Lieutenant Hayne as soon as you like." + +"Loot'nant Hayne is it, sir? Shure I'd be beggin' his pardon for the +vexation I gave him last night." + +"But you have something you wanted to speak with him about. You said so +last night, Clancy," said the doctor, looking him squarely in the eye. + +"Shure I was dhrunk, sir. I didn't mane it," he answered; but he shrank +and cowered. + +The doctor turned and left him. + +"If it's only when he's drunk that conscience pricks him and the truth +will out, then we must have him drunk again," quoth this unprincipled +practitioner. + +That same afternoon Miss Travers found that a headache was the result of +confinement to an atmosphere somewhat heavily charged with electricity. +Mrs. Rayner seemed to bristle every time she approached her sister. +Possibly it was the heart, more than the head, that ached, but in either +case she needed relief from the exposed position she had occupied ever +since Kate's return from the Clancys' in the morning. She had been too +long under fire, and was wearied. Even the cheery visits of the garrison +gallants had proved of little avail, for Mrs. Rayner was in very ill +temper, and made snappish remarks to them which two of them resented and +speedily took themselves off. Later Miss Travers went to her room and +wrote a letter, and then the sunset gun shook the window, and twilight +settled down upon the still frozen earth. She bathed her heated +forehead and flushed cheeks, threw a warm cloak over her shoulders, and +came slowly down the stairs. Mrs. Rayner met her at the parlor door. + +"Kate, I am going for a walk, and shall stop and see Mrs. Waldron." + +"Quite an unnecessary piece of information. I saw him as well as you. He +has just gone there." + +Miss Travers flushed hot with indignation: + +"I have seen no one; and if you mean that Mr. Hayne has gone to Major +Waldron's, I shall not." + +"No: I'd meet him on the walk: it would only be a trifle more public." + +"You have no right to accuse me of the faintest expectation of meeting +him anywhere. I repeat, I had not thought of such a thing." + +"You might just as well do it. You cannot make your antagonism to my +husband much more pointed than you have already. And as for meeting Mr. +Hayne, the only advice I presume to give now is that for your own sake +you keep your blushes under better control than you did the last time +you met--that I know of." And, with this triumphant insult as a parting +shot, Mrs. Rayner wheeled and marched off through the parlor. + +What was a girl to do? Nellie Travers was not of the crying kind, and +was denied a vast amount of comfort in consequence. She stood a few +moments quivering under the lash of injustice and insult to which she +had been subjected. She longed for a breath of pure, fresh air; but +there would be no enjoyment even in that now. She needed sympathy and +help, if ever girl did, but where was she to find it? The women who most +attracted her and who would have warmly welcomed her at any time--the +women whom she would eagerly have gone to in her trouble--were +practically denied to her. Mrs. Rayner in her quarrel had declared war +against the cavalry, and Mrs. Stannard and Mrs. Ray, who had shown a +disposition to welcome Nellie warmly, were no longer callers at the +house. Mrs. Waldron, who was kind and motherly to the girl and loved to +have her with her, was so embarrassed by Mrs. Rayner's determined snubs +that she hardly knew how to treat the matter. She would no longer visit +Mrs. Rayner informally, as had been her custom, yet she wanted the girl +to come to her. If she went, Miss Travers well knew that on her return +to the house she would be received by a volley of sarcasms about her +preference for the society of people who were the avowed enemies of her +benefactors. If she remained in the house, it was to become in person +the target for her sister's undeserved sneers and censure. The situation +was becoming simply unbearable. Twice she began and twice she tore to +fragments the letter for which Mr. Van Antwerp was daily imploring, and +this evening she once more turned and slowly sought her room, threw off +her wraps, and took up her writing-desk. It was not yet dark. There was +still light enough for her purpose, if she went close to the window. +Every nerve was tingling with the sense of wrong and ignominy, every +throb of her heart but intensified the longing for relief from the +thraldom of her position. She saw only one path to lead her from such +crushing dependence. There was his last letter, received only that day, +urging, imploring her to leave Warrener forthwith. Mrs. Rayner had +declared to him her readiness to bring her East provided she would fix +an early date for the wedding. Was it not a future many a girl might +envy? Was he not tender, faithful, patient, devoted as man could be? Had +he not social position and competence? Was he not high-bred, courteous, +refined,--a gentleman in all his acts and words? Why could she not love +him, and be content? There on the desk lay a little scrap of note-paper; +there lay her pen; a dozen words only were necessary. One moment she +gazed longingly, wistfully, at the far-away, darkening heights of the +Rockies, watching the last rose-tinted gleams on the snowy peaks; then +with sudden impulse she seized her pen and drew the portfolio to the +window-seat. As she did so, a soldierly figure came briskly down the +walk; a pale, clear-cut face glanced up at her casement; a quick light +of recognition and pleasure flashed in his eyes; the little forage-cap +was raised with courteous grace, though the step never slackened, and +Miss Travers felt that her cheek, too, was flushing again, as Mr. Hayne +strode rapidly by. She stood there another moment, and then--it had +grown too dark to write. + +When Mrs. Rayner, after calling twice from the bottom of the stairs, +finally went up into her room and impatiently pushed open the door, all +was darkness except the glimmer from the hearth: + +"Nellie, where are you?" + +"Here," answered Miss Travers, starting up from the sofa. "I think I +must have been asleep." + +"Your head is hot as fire," said her sister, laying her firm white hand +upon the burning forehead. "I suppose you are going to be downright +ill, by way of diversion. Just understand one thing, Nellie: that doctor +does not come into my house." + +"What doctor?--not that I want one," asked Miss Travers, wearily. + +"Dr. Pease, the post surgeon, I mean. Of course you have heard how he is +mixing himself in my husband's affairs and making trouble with various +people." + +"I have heard nothing, Kate." + +"I don't wonder your friends are ashamed to tell you. Things have come +to a pretty pass, when officers are going around holding private +meetings with enlisted men!" + +"I hardly know the doctor at all, Kate, and cannot imagine what affairs +of your husband's he can interfere with." + +"It was he that put up Clancy to making the disturbance at Mr. Hayne's +last night and getting into the guard-house, and tried to prove that he +had a right to go there and that the captain had no right to arrest +him." + +"Was Clancy trying to see Mr. Hayne?" asked Miss Travers, quickly. + +"How should I know?" said her sister, pettishly. "He was drunk, and +probably didn't know what he was doing." + +"And Captain Rayner arrested him for--for trying to see Mr. Hayne?" + +"Captain Rayner arrested him for being drunk and creating a disturbance, +as it was his duty to arrest any soldier under such circumstances," +replied her sister, with majestic wrath, "and I will not tolerate it +that you should criticise his conduct." + +"I have made no criticism, Kate. I have simply made inquiry; but I have +learned what no one else could have made me believe." + +"Nellie Travers, be careful what you say, or what you insinuate. What do +you mean?" + +"I mean, Kate, that it is my belief that there is something at the +bottom of those stories of Clancy's strange talk when in the hospital. I +believe he thinks he knows something which would turn all suspicion from +Mr. Hayne to a totally different man. I believe that, for reasons which +I cannot fathom, you are determined Mr. Hayne shall not see him or hear +of it. It was you that sent Captain Rayner over there last night. Mrs. +Clancy came here at tattoo, and, from the time she left, you were at the +front door or window. You were the first to hear her cries, and came +running in to tell the captain to go at once. Kate, _why_ did you stand +there listening from the time she left the kitchen, unless you expected +to hear just what happened over there behind the company barracks?" + +Mrs. Rayner would give no answer. Anger, rage, retaliation, all in turn +were pictured on her furious face, but died away before the calm and +unconquerable gaze in her sister's eyes. For the first time in her life +Kate Rayner realized that her "baby Nell" had the stronger will of the +two. For one instant she contemplated vengeance. A torrent of invective +leaped readily to her lips. "Outrage," "ingrate," "insult," were the +first three distinguishable epithets applied to her sister or her +sister's words; then, "See if Mr. Van Antwerp will tolerate such +conduct. I'll write this very day," was the impotent threat that +followed; and finally, utterly defeated, thoroughly convinced that she +was powerless against her sister's reckless love of "fair play at any +price," she felt that her wrath was giving way to dismay, and turned and +fled, lest Nellie should see the flag of surrender on her paling cheeks. + + + + +XIII. + + +Two nights after this, as Captain Buxton was sulkily going the rounds of +the sentries he made a discovery which greatly enlivened an otherwise +uneventful tour as officer of the day. It had been his general custom on +such occasions to take the shortest way across the parade to the +guard-house, make brief and perfunctory inspection there, then go on +down the hill to the creek valley and successively visit the sentries +around the stables. If the night were wet or cold, he went back the same +way, ignoring the sentries at the coal-and store-sheds along Prairie +Avenue. This was a sharply cold night, and very dark, but equally still. +It was between twelve and one o'clock--nearer one than twelve--as he +climbed the hill on his homeward way, and, instead of taking the short +cut, turned northward and struck for the gloomy mass of sheds dimly +discernible some forty yards from the crest. He had heard other officers +speak of the fact that Mr. Hayne's lights were burning until long after +midnight, and that, dropping in there, they had found him seated at his +desk with a green shade over his eyes, studying by the aid of two +student-lamps; "boning to be a general, probably," was the comment of +captains of Buxton's calibre, who, having grown old in the service and +in their own ignorance, were fiercely intolerant of lieutenants who +strove to improve in professional reading instead of spending their time +making out the company muster-rolls and clothing-accounts, as they +should do. Buxton wanted to see for himself what the night-lights meant, +and was plunging heavily ahead through the darkness, when suddenly +brought to a stand by the sharp challenge of the sentry at the +coal-shed. He whispered the mystic countersign over the levelled bayonet +of the infantryman, swearing to himself at the regulation which puts an +officer in such a "stand-and-deliver" attitude for the time being, and +then, by way of getting square with the soldier for the sharply military +way in which his duty as sentry had been performed, the captain +proceeded to catechise him as to his orders. The soldier had been well +taught, and knew all his "responses" by rote,--far better than Buxton, +for that matter, as the latter was anything but an exemplar of +perfection in tactics or sentry duty; but this did not prevent Buxton's +snappishly telling him he was wrong in several points and contemptuously +inquiring where he had learned such trash. The soldier promptly but +respectfully responded that those were the exact instructions he had +received at the adjutant's school, and Buxton knew from experience that +he was getting on dangerous ground. He would have stuck to his point, +however, in default of something else to find fault with, but that the +crack of a whip, the crunching of hoofs, and a rattle of wheels out in +the darkness quickly diverted his attention. + +"What's that, sentry?" he sharply inquired. + +"A carriage, sir. Leastwise, I think it must be." + +"Why don't you know, sir? It must have been on your post." + +"No, sir; it was 'way off my post. It drove up to Lieutenant Hayne's +about half an hour ago." + +"Where'd it come from?" asked the captain, eagerly. + +"From town, sir, I suppose." And, leaving the sentry to his own +reflections, which, on the whole, were not complimentary to his superior +officer, Captain Buxton strode rapidly through the darkness to +Lieutenant Hayne's quarters. Bright lights were still burning within, +both on the ground-floor and in a room above. The sentries were just +beginning the call of one o'clock when he reached the gate and halted, +gazing inquisitively at the house front. Then he turned and listened to +the rattle of wheels growing faint in the distance as the team drove +away towards the prairie town. If Hayne had gone to town at that hour of +the night it was a most unusual proceeding, and he had not the +colonel's permission to absent himself from the post: of that the +officer of the day was certain. Then, again, he would not have gone and +left all his lights burning. No: that vehicle, whatever it was, had +brought somebody out to see him,--somebody who proposed to remain +several hours; otherwise the carriage would not have driven away. In +confirmation of this theory, he heard voices, cheery voices, in laughing +talk, and one of them made him prick up his ears. He heard the piano +crisply trilling a response to light, skilful fingers. He longed for a +peep within, and regretted that he had dropped Mr. Hayne from the list +of his acquaintance. He recognized Hayne's shadow, presently, thrown by +the lamp upon the curtained window, and wished that his visitor would +come similarly into view. He heard the clink of glasses, and saw the +shadow raise a wineglass to the lips, and Sam's Mongolian shape flitted +across the screen, bearing a tray with similar suggestive objects. What +meant this unheard-of conviviality on the part of the ascetic, the +hermit, the midnight-oil-burner, the scholarly recluse of the garrison? +Buxton stared with all his eyes and listened with all his ears, starting +guiltily when he heard a martial footstep coming quickly up the path, +and faced the intruder rather unsteadily. It was only the corporal of +the guard, and he glanced at his superior, brought his fur-gauntleted +hand in salute to the rifle on his shoulder, and passed on. The next +moment Buxton fairly gasped with amaze: he stared an instant at the +window as though transfixed, then ran after the corporal, called to him +in low, stealthy tone to come back noiselessly, drew him by the sleeve +to the front of Hayne's quarters, and pointed to the parlor window. Two +shadows were there now,--one easily recognizable as that of the young +officer in his snugly-fitting undress uniform, the other slender, +graceful, feminine. + +"What do you make that other shadow to be, corporal?" he whispered, +hoarsely and hurriedly. "_Look!_" And with that exclamation a shadowed +arm seemed to encircle the slender form, the moustached image to bend +low and mingle with the outlined luxuriance of tress that decked the +other's head, and then, together, with clasping arms, the shadows moved +from view. + +"What was the other, corporal?" he repeated. + +"Well, sir, I should say it was a young woman." + +Buxton could hardly wait until morning to see Rayner. When he passed the +latter's quarters half an hour later, all was darkness; though, had he +but known it, Rayner was not asleep. He was at the house before +guard-mounting, and had a confidential and evidently exciting talk with +the captain; and when he went, just as the trumpets were sounding, these +words were heard at the front door: + +"She never left until after daylight, when the same rig drove her back +to town. There was a stranger with her then." + +That morning both Rayner and Buxton looked hard at Mr. Hayne when he +came in to the _matinée_; but he was just as calm and quiet as ever, +and, having saluted the commanding officer, took a seat by Captain Gregg +and was soon occupied in conversation with him. Not a word was said by +the officer of the day about the mysterious visitor to the garrison the +previous night. With Captain Rayner, however, he was again in +conversation much of the day, and to him, not to his successor as +officer of the day, did he communicate all the details of the previous +night's adventure and his theories thereanent. + +Late that night, having occasion to step to his front door, convinced +that he heard stealthy footsteps on his piazza, Mr. Hayne could see +nobody in the darkness, but found his front gate open. He walked around +his little house; but not a man was visible. His heart was full of a new +and strange excitement that night, and, as before, he threw on his +overcoat and furs and took a rapid walk around the garrison, gazing up +into the starry heavens and drinking in great draughts of the pure, +bracing air. Returning, he came down along the front of officers' row, +and as he approached Rayner's quarters his eyes rested longingly upon +the window he knew to be hers now; but all was darkness. As he rapidly +neared the house, however, he became aware of two bulky figures at the +gate, and, as he walked briskly past, recognized the overcoats as those +of officers. One man was doubtless Rayner, the other he could not tell; +for both, the instant they recognized his step, seemed to avert their +heads. Once home again, he soon sought his room and pillow; but, long +before he could sleep, again and again a sweet vision seemed to come to +him: he _could not_ shut out the thought of Nellie Travers,--of how she +looked and what she said that very afternoon. + +He had gone to call at Mrs. Waldron's soon after dark. He was at the +piano, playing for her, when he became conscious that another lady had +entered the room, and, turning, saw Nellie Travers. He rose and bowed to +her, extending his hand as he did so, and knowing that his heart was +thumping and his color rising as he felt the soft, warm touch of her +slender fingers in his grasp. She, too, had flushed,--any one could see +it, though the lamps were not turned high, nor was the firelight strong. + +"Miss Travers has come to take tea very quietly with me, Mr. +Hayne,--she is so soon to return to the East,--and now I want you to +stay and join us. No one will be here but the major; and we will have a +lovely time with our music. You will, won't you?" + +"So soon to return to the East!" How harsh, how strange and unwelcome, +the words sounded! How they seemed to oppress him and prevent his reply! +He stood a moment dazed and vaguely worried: he could not explain it. He +looked from Mrs. Waldron's kind face to the sweet, flushed, lovely +features there so near him, and something told him that he could never +let them go and find even hope or content in life again. How, why had +she so strangely come into his lonely life, radiant, beautiful, +bewildering as some suddenly blazing star in the darkest corner of the +heavens? Whence had come this strange power that enthralled him? He +gazed into her sweet face, with its downcast, troubled eyes, and then, +in bewilderment, turned to Mrs. Waldron: + +"I--I had no idea Miss Travers was going East again just now. It seems +only a few days since she came." + +"It is over a month; but all the same this is a sudden decision. I knew +nothing of it until yesterday.--You said Mrs. Rayner was better to-day, +Nellie?" + +"Yes, a little; but she is far from well. I think the captain will go, +too, just as soon as he can arrange for leave of absence," was the +low-toned answer. He had released, or rather she had withdrawn, her +hand, and he still stood there, fascinated. His eyes could not quit +their gaze. She going away?--She? Oh, it _could_ not be! What--what +would life become without the sight of that radiant face, that slender, +graceful, girlish form? + +"Is not this very unexpected?" he struggled to say. "I thought--I heard +you were to spend several months here." + +"It _was_ so intended, Mr. Hayne; but my sister's health requires speedy +change. She has been growing worse ever since we came, and she will not +get well here." + +"And when do you go?" he asked, blankly. + +"Just as soon as we can pack; though we may wait two or three days for +a--for a telegram." + +There was a complete break in the conversation for a full quarter of a +minute,--not such a long time in itself, but unconventionally long under +such circumstances. Then Mrs. Waldron suddenly and remarkably arose: + +"I'll leave you to entertain Mr. Hayne a few moments, Nellie. I am the +slave of my cook, and she knows nothing of Mr. Hayne's being here to tea +with us: so I must tell her and avert disaster." + +And with this barefaced--statement on her lips and conscience, where it +rested with equal lightness, that exemplary lady quitted the room. In +the sanctity of the connubial chamber that evening, some hours later, +she thus explained her action to her silent spouse: + +"Right or wrong, I meant that those two young people should have a +chance to know each other. I have been convinced for three weeks that +she is being forced into this New York match, and for the last week that +she is wretchedly unhappy. You say you believe him a wronged and injured +man, only you can't prove it, and you have said that nothing could be +too good for him in this life as a reward for all his bravery and +fortitude under fearful trials. Then Nellie Travers isn't too good for +him, sweet as she is, and I don't care who calls me a matchmaker." + +But with Mrs. Waldron away the two appeared to have made but halting +progress towards friendship. With all her outspoken pluck at school and +at home, Miss Travers was strangely ill at ease and embarrassed now. Mr. +Hayne was the first to gain self-control and to endeavor to bring the +conversation back to a natural channel. It was a struggle; but he had +grown accustomed to struggles. He could not imagine that a girl whom he +had met only once or twice should have for him anything more than the +vaguest and most casual interest. He well knew by this time how deep and +vehement was the interest she had aroused in his heart; but it would +never do to betray himself so soon. He strove to interest her in +reference to the music she would hear, and to learn from her where they +were going. This she answered. They would go no farther East than St. +Louis or Chicago. They might go South as far as Nashville until mid-May. +As for the summer, it would depend on the captain and his leave of +absence. It was all vague and unsettled. Mrs. Rayner was so wretched +that her husband was convinced that she ought to leave for the States as +soon as possible, and of course "she" must go with her. All the +gladness, brightness, vivacity he had seen and heard of as her marked +characteristics seemed gone; and, yet, she wanted to speak with +him,--wanted to be with him. What could be wrong? he asked himself. It +was not until Mrs. Waldron's step was heard returning that she nerved +herself to sudden, almost desperate, effort. She startled him with her +vehemence: + +"Mr. Hayne, there is something I must tell you before I go. If no +opportunity occur, I'll write it." + +And those were the words that had been haunting him all the evening, for +they were not again alone, and he had no chance to ask a question. What +_could_ she mean? For years he had been living a life of stern +self-denial; but long before his promotion the last penny of the +obligation that, justly or otherwise, had been laid upon his shoulders +was paid with interest. He was a man free and self-respecting, strong, +resolute, and possessed of an independence that never would have been +his had his life run on in the same easy, trusting, happy-go-lucky style +in which he had spent the first two years of his army career. But in his +isolation he had allowed himself no thought of anything that could for a +moment distract him from the stern purpose to which he had devoted every +energy. He would win back, command, _compel_, the respect of his +comrades,--would bring to confusion those who had sought to pull him +down; and until that stood accomplished he would know no other claim. In +the exile of the mountain-station he saw no women but the wives of his +senior officers; and they merely bowed when they happened to meet him: +some did not even do that. Now at last he had met and yielded to the +first of two conquerors before whom even the bravest and the strongest +go down infallibly,--Love and Death. Suddenly, but irresistibly, the +sweet face and thrilling tones of that young girl had seized and filled +his heart, to the utter exclusion of every other passion; and just in +proportion to the emptiness and yearning of his life before their +meeting was the intensity of the love and longing that possessed him +now. It was useless to try and analyze the suddenness and subtilty of +its approach: the power of love had overmastered him. He could only +realize that it was here and he must obey. Late into the morning hours +he lay there, his brain whirling with its varied and bewildering +emotions. Win her he must, or the blackness and desolation of the past +five years would be as nothing compared with the misery of the years to +come. Woo her he would, and not without hope, if ever woman's eyes gave +proof of sympathy and trust. But now at last he realized that the time +had come when for her sake--not for his--he must adopt a new course. +Hitherto he had scorned and repelled all overtures that were not +prefaced by an expression of belief in his utter innocence in the past. +Hitherto he had chosen to live the life of an anchorite, and had abjured +the society of women. Hitherto he had refused the half-extended proffers +of comrades who had sought to continue the investigation of a chain of +circumstances that, complete, might have proved him a wronged and +defrauded man. The missing links were not beyond recovery in skilful +hands; but in the shock and horror which he felt on realizing that it +was not only possible but certain that a jury of his comrade officers +could deem him guilty of a low crime, he hid his face and turned from +all. _Now_ the time had come to reopen the case. He well knew that a +revulsion of feeling had set in which nothing but his own stubbornness +held in check. He knew that he had friends and sympathizers among +officers high in rank. He had only a few days before heard from Major +Waldron's lips a strong intimation that it was his duty to "come out of +his shell" and reassert himself. "You must remember this, Hayne," said +he: "you had been only two years in service when tried by court-martial. +You were an utter stranger to every member of that court. There was +nothing but the evidence to go upon, and that was all against you. The +court was made up of officers from other regiments, and was at least +impartial. The evidence was almost all from your own, and was presumably +well founded. You would call no witnesses for defence. You made your +almost defiant statement; refused counsel; refused advice; and what +could the court do but convict and sentence? Had I been a member of the +court I would have voted just as was done by the court; and yet I +believe you now an utterly innocent man." + +So, apparently, did the colonel regard him. So, too, did several of the +officers of the cavalry. So, too, would most of the youngsters of his +own regiment if he would only give them half a chance. In any event, the +score was wiped out now; he could afford to take a wife if a woman +learned to love him, and what wealth of tenderness and devotion was he +not ready to lavish on one who would! But he would offer no one a +tarnished name. First and foremost he must now stand up and fight that +calumny,--"come out of his shell," as Waldron had said, and give people +a chance to see what manner of man he was. God helping him, he would, +and that without delay. + + + + +XIV. + + +"The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley." Mrs. Rayner, +ill in mind and body, had yielded to her lord's entreaties and +determined to start eastward with her sister without delay. Packing was +already begun. Miss Travers had promised herself that she would within +thirty-six hours put Mr. Hayne in possession of certain facts or +theories which in her opinion bore strongly upon the "clearing up" of +the case against him; Mr. Hayne had determined that he would see Major +Waldron on the coming day and begin active efforts towards the +restoration of his social rights; the doctor had about decided on a new +project for inducing Clancy to unbosom himself of what he knew; Captain +Rayner--tired of the long struggle--was almost ready to welcome anything +which should establish his subaltern's innocence, and was on the point +of asking for six months' leave just as soon as he had arranged for +Clancy's final discharge from service: he had reasons for staying at the +post until that Hibernian household was fairly and squarely removed; and +Mrs. Clancy's plan was to take Mike to the distant East, "where she had +frinds." There were other schemes and projects, no doubt, but these +mainly concerned our leading characters, and one and all they were put +to the right-about by the events of the following day. + +The colonel, with his gruff second in command, Major Stannard, had been +under orders for several days to proceed on this particular date to a +large town a day's journey eastward by rail. A court-martial composed +mainly of field-officers was ordered there to assemble for the trial of +an old captain of cavalry whose propensity it was not so much to get +drunk as never to get drunk without concomitant publicity and discovery. +It was a rare thing for the old war-dog to take so much as a glass of +wine; he went for months without it; but the instant he began to drink +he was moved to do or say something disreputable, and that was the +trouble now. He was an unlucky old trooper, who had risen from the +lowest grades, fought with credit, and even, at times, commanded his +regiment, during the war; but war records could not save him when he +wouldn't save himself, and he had to go. The court was ordered, and the +result was a foregone conclusion. The colonel, his adjutant, and Major +Stannard were to drive to town during the afternoon and take the +east-bound train, leaving Major Waldron in command of the post; but +before guard-mounting a telegram was received which was sent from +department head-quarters the evening before, announcing that one of the +officers detailed for the court was seriously ill, and directing Major +Waldron to take his place. So it resulted in the post being left to the +command of the senior captain present for duty; and that man was Captain +Buxton. He had never had so big a command before in all his life. + +Major Waldron of course had to go home and make his preparations. Mr. +Hayne, therefore, had brief opportunity to speak with him. It was seen, +however, that they had a short talk together on the major's piazza, and +that when they parted the major shook him warmly and cordially by the +hand. Rayner, Buxton, Ross, and some juniors happened to be coming down +along the walk at the moment, and, seeing them, as though with pointed +meaning the major called out, so that all could hear,-- + +"By the way, Hayne, I wish you would drop in occasionally while I'm gone +and take Mrs. Waldron out for a walk or drive: my horses are always at +your service. And--a--I'll write to you about that matter the moment +I've had a chance to talk with the colonel,--to-morrow, probably." + +And Hayne touched his cap in parting salute, and went blithely off with +brightened eye and rising color. + +Buxton glowered after him a moment, and conversation suddenly ceased in +their party. Finally he blurted out,-- + +"Strikes me your major might do a good deal better by himself and his +regiment by standing up for its _morale_ and discipline than by openly +flaunting his favoritism for convicts in our faces. If I were in your +regiment I'd cut _him_." + +"You wouldn't have to," muttered one of the group to his neighbor: "the +cut would have been on the other side long ago." And the speaker was +Buxton's own subaltern. + +Rayner said nothing. His eyes were troubled and anxious, and he looked +after Hayne with an expression far more wearied than vindictive. + +"The major is fond of music, captain," said Mr. Ross, with mischievous +intent. "He hasn't been to the club since the night you sang 'Eileen +Alanna.' That was about the time Hayne's piano came." + +"Yes," put in Foster, "Mrs. Waldron says he goes and owls Hayne now +night after night just to hear him play." + +"It would be well for him, then, if he kept a better guard on Mr. +Hayne's _other_ visitors," said Buxton, with a black scowl. "I don't +know how you gentlemen in the Riflers look upon such matters, but in the +----th the man who dared to introduce a woman of the town into his +quarters would be kicked out in short order." + +"You don't mean to say that anybody accuses Hayne of that, do you?" +asked Ross, in amaze. + +"I do,--_just_ that. Only, I say this to you, it has but just come to +light, and only one or two know it. To prove it positively he's got to +be allowed more rope; for he got her out of the way last time before we +could clinch the matter. If he suspects it is known he won't repeat it; +if kept to ourselves he will probably try it again,--and be caught. Now +I charge you all to regard this as confidential." + +"But, Captain Buxton," said Ross, "this is so serious a matter that I +don't like to believe it. Who can prove such a story?" + +"Of course not, Mr. Ross. You are quite ready to treat a man as a thief, +but can't believe he'll do another thing that is disreputable. That is +characteristic of your style of reasoning," said Buxton, with biting +sarcasm. + +"You can't wither me with contempt, Captain Buxton. I have a right to my +opinion, and I have known Mr. Hayne for years, and if I _did_ believe +him guilty of one crime five years ago I'm not so ready to believe him +guilty of another now. This isn't--isn't like Hayne." + +"No, of course not, as I said before. Now, will you tell me, Mr. Ross, +just why Mr. Hayne chose that ramshackle old shanty out there on the +prairie, all by himself, unless it was to be where he could have his +chosen companions with him at night and no one be the wiser?" + +"I don't pretend to fathom his motives, sir; but I don't believe it was +for any such purpose as you seem to think." + +"In other words, you think I'm circulating baseless scandal, do you?" + +"I have said nothing of the kind; and I protest against your putting +words into my mouth I never used." + +"You intimated as much, anyhow, and you plainly don't believe it." + +"Well, I don't believe--that is, I don't see how it could happen." + +"Couldn't the woman drive out from town after dark, send the carriage +back, and have it call for her again in the morning?" asked Buxton. + +"Possibly. Still, it isn't a proved fact that a woman spent the night at +Hayne's, even if a carriage was seen coming out. You've got hold of some +Sudsville gossip, probably," replied Ross. + +"I have, have I? By God, sir, I'll teach you better manners before we +get through with this question. Do you know who saw the carriage, and +who saw the woman, both at Hayne's quarters?" + +"Certainly I don't! What I don't understand is how you should have been +made the recipient of the story." + +"Mr. Ross, just govern your tongue, sir, and remember you are speaking +to your superior officer, and don't venture to treat my statements with +disrespect hereafter. _I saw it myself!_" + +"_You!_" gulped Ross, while amaze and incredulity shot across his +startled face. + +"You!" exclaimed others of the group, in evident astonishment and +dismay. Rayner alone looked unchanged. It was no news to him, while to +every other man in the party it was a shock. Up to that instant the +prevailing belief had been, with Ross, that Buxton had found some +garrison gossip and was building an edifice thereon. His positive +statement, however, was too much for the most incredulous. + +"Now what have you to say?" he asked, in rude triumph. + +There was no answer for a moment; then Ross spoke: + +"Of course, Captain Buxton, I withdraw any expression of doubt. It never +occurred to me that you could have seen it. May I ask when and how?" + +"The last time I was officer of the day, sir; and Captain Rayner is my +witness as to the time. Others, whom I need not mention, saw it with me. +There is no mistake, sir. The woman was there." And Buxton stood +enjoying the effect. + +Ross looked white and dazed. He turned slowly away, hesitated, looked +back, then exclaimed,-- + +"You are sure it was--it was not some one that had a right to be there?" + +"How could it be?" said Buxton, gruffly. "You know he has not an +acquaintance in town, or here, who could be with him there at night." + +"Does the commanding officer know of it?" asked Mr. Royce, after a +moment's silence. + +"_I_ am the commanding officer, Mr. Royce," said Buxton, with majestic +dignity,--"at least I will be after twelve o'clock; and you may depend +upon it, gentlemen, this thing will not occur while I am in command +without its receiving the exact treatment it deserves. Remember, now, +not a word of this to anybody. You are as much interested as I am in +bringing to justice a man who will disgrace his uniform and his regiment +and insult every lady in the garrison by such an act. This sort of thing +of course will run him out of the service for good and all. We simply +have to be sure of our ground and make the evidence conclusive. Leave +that to me the next time it happens. I repeat, say nothing of this to +any one." + +But Rayner had already told his wife. + +Just as Major Waldron was driving off to the station that bright April +afternoon and his carriage was whirling through the east gate, the +driver caught sight of Lieutenant Hayne running up Prairie Avenue, +waving his hand and shouting to him. He reined in his spirited bays with +some difficulty, and Hayne finally caught up with them. + +"What is it, Hayne?" asked Waldron, with kindly interest, leaning out of +his carriage. + +"They will be back to-night, sir. Here is a telegram that has just +reached me." + +"I can't tell you how sorry I am not to be here to welcome them; but +Mrs. Waldron will be delighted, and she will come to call the moment you +let her know. Keep them till I get back, if you possibly can." + +"Ay, ay, sir. Good-by." + +"Good-by, Hayne. God bless you, and--good luck!" + +A little later that afternoon Mrs. Rayner had occasion to go into her +sister's room. It was almost sunset, and Nellie had been summoned +down-stairs to see visitors. Both the ladies were busy with their +packing,--Mrs. Rayner, as became an invalid, superintending, and Miss +Travers, as became the junior, doing all the work. It was rather trying +to pack all the trunks and receive visitors of both sexes at odd hours. +Some of her garrison acquaintances would have been glad to come and +help, but those whom she would have welcomed were not agreeable to the +lady of the house, and those the lady of the house would have chosen +were not agreeable to her. The relations between the sisters were +somewhat strained and unnatural, and had been growing more and more so +for several days past. Mrs. Rayner's desk was already packed away. She +wanted to send a note, and bethought her of her sister's portfolio. +Opening it, she drew out some paper and envelopes, and with the latter +came an envelope sealed and directed. One glance at its superscription +sent the blood to her cheek and fire to her eye. Was it possible? Was it +credible? Her pet, her baby sister, her pride and delight,--until she +found her stronger in will,--her proud-spirited, truthful Nell, was +beyond question corresponding with Lieutenant Hayne! Here was a note +addressed to him. How many more might not have been exchanged? +Ruthlessly now she explored the desk, searching for something from him, +but her scrutiny was vain. Oh, what could she say, what could she do, to +convey to her erring sister an adequate sense of the extent of her +displeasure? How could she bring her to realize the shame, the guilt, +the scandal, of her course? She, Nellie Travers, the betrothed wife of +Steven Van Antwerp, corresponding secretly with this--this scoundrel, +whose past, crime-laden as it had been, was as nothing compared to the +present with its degradation of vice? Ah! she had it! What would ever +move her as that could and must? + +When the trumpets rang out their sunset call and the boom of the evening +gun shook the windows in Fort Warrener and Nellie Travers came running +up-stairs again to her room, she started at the sight that met her eyes. +There stood Mrs. Rayner, like Juno in wrath inflexible, glaring at her +from the commanding height of which she was so proud, and pointing in +speechless indignation at the little note that lay upon the open +portfolio. + +For a moment neither spoke. Then Miss Travers, who had turned very +white, but whose blue eyes never flinched and whose lips were set and +whose little foot was tapping the carpet ominously, thus began: + +"Kate, I do not recognize your right to overhaul my desk or supervise my +correspondence." + +"Understand this first, Cornelia," said Mrs. Rayner, who hated the +baptismal name as much as did her sister, and used it only when she +desired to be especially and desperately impressive: "I found it by +accident. I never dreamed of such a possibility as this. I never, even +after what I have seen and heard, could have believed you guilty of +this; but, now that I have found it, I have the right to ask, what are +its contents?" + +"I decline to tell you." + +"Do you deny my right to inquire?" + +"I will not discuss that question now. The other is far graver. I will +not tell you, Kate, except this: there is no word there that an engaged +girl should not write." + +"Of that I mean to satisfy myself, or rather--" + +"You will not open it, Kate. No! Put that letter down! You have never +known me to prevaricate in the faintest degree, and you have no excuse +for doubting. I will furnish a copy of that for Mr. Van Antwerp at any +time; but you cannot see it." + +"You still persist in your wicked and unnatural intimacy with that man, +even after all that I have told you. Now for the last time hear me: I +have striven not to tell you this; I have striven not to sully your +thoughts by such a revelation; but, since nothing else will check you, +tell it I must, and what I tell you my husband told me in sacred +confidence, though soon enough it will be a scandal to the whole +garrison." + +And when darkness settled down on Fort Warrener that starlit April +evening and the first warm breeze from the south came sighing about the +casements and one by one the lights appeared along officers' row, there +was no light in Nellie Travers's window. The little note lay in ashes on +the hearth, and she, with burning, shame-stricken cheeks, with a black, +scorching, gnawing pain at her heart, was hiding her face in her pillow. + +And yet it was a jolly evening, after all,--that is, for some hours and +for some people. As Mrs. Rayner and her sister were so soon to go, +probably by the morrow's train if their section could be secured, the +garrison had decided to have an informal dance as a suitable farewell. +Their announcement of impending departure had come so suddenly and +unexpectedly that there was no time to prepare anything elaborate, such +as a german with favors, etc.; but good music and an extemporized supper +could be had without trouble. The colonel's wife and most of the cavalry +ladies, on consultation, had decided that it was the very thing to do, +and the young officers took hold with a will: they were always ready for +a dance. Now that Mrs. Rayner was really going, the quarrel should be +ignored, and the ladies would all be as pleasant to her as though +nothing had happened,--provided, of course, she dropped her absurd airs +of injured womanhood and behaved with courtesy. The colonel had had a +brief talk with his better half before starting for the train, and +suggested that it was very probable that Mrs. Rayner had seen the folly +of her ways by that time,--the captain certainly had been behaving as +though he regretted the estrangement,--and if encouraged by a +"let's-drop-the-whole-thing" sort of manner she would be glad to +reciprocate. He felt far less anxiety herein than he did in leaving the +post to the command of Captain Buxton. So scrupulously had he been +courteous to that intractable veteran that Buxton had no doubt in his +own mind that the colonel looked upon him as the model officer of the +regiment. It was singularly unfortunate that he should have to be left +in command, but his one or two seniors among the captains were away on +long leave, and there was no help for it. The colonel, seriously +disquieted, had a few words of earnest talk with him before leaving the +post, cautioning him so particularly not to interfere with any of the +established details and customs that Buxton got very much annoyed, and +showed it. + +"If your evidence were not imperatively necessary before this court, I +declare I believe I'd leave you behind," said the colonel to his +adjutant. "There is no telling what mischief Captain Buxton won't do if +left to himself." + +It must have been near midnight, and the hop was going along +beautifully, and Captain Rayner, who was officer of the day, was just +escorting his wife in to supper, and Nellie, although looking a trifle +tired and pale, was chatting brightly with a knot of young officers when +a corporal of the guard came to the door: "The commanding officer's +compliments, and he desires to see the officer of the day at once." + +There was a general laugh. "Isn't that Buxton all over? The colonel +would never think of sending for an officer in the dead of night, except +for a fire or alarm; but old Bux. begins putting on frills the moment he +gets a chance. Thank God, _I'm_ not on guard to-night!" said Mr. Royce. + +"What _can_ he want with you?" asked Mrs. Rayner, pettishly. "The idea +of one captain ordering another around like this!" + +"I'll be back in five minutes," said Rayner, as he picked up his sword +and disappeared. + +But ten minutes--fifteen--passed, and he came not. Mrs. Rayner grew +worried, and Mr. Blake led her out on the rude piazza to see what they +could see, and several others strolled out at the same time. The music +had ceased, and the night air was not too cold. Not a soul was in sight +out on the starlit parade. Not an unusual sound was heard. There was +nothing to indicate the faintest trouble; and yet Captain Buxton, the +commanding officer, had been called out by his "striker" or +soldier-servant before eleven o'clock, had not returned at all, and in +little over half an hour had sent for the officer of the day. What did +it mean? Questioning and talking thus among themselves, somebody said, +"Hark!" and held up a warning hand. + +Faint, far, muffled, there sounded on the night air a shot, then a +woman's scream; then all was still. + +"Mrs. Clancy again!" said one. + +"That was not Mrs. Clancy: 'twas a far different voice," answered Blake, +and tore away across the parade as fast as his long legs would carry +him. + +"Look! The guard are running too!" cried Mrs. Waldron. "What can it be?" +And, sure enough, the gleam of the rifles could be seen as the men ran +rapidly away in the direction of the east gate. Mrs. Rayner had grown +ghastly, and was looking at Miss Travers, who with white lips and +clinched hands stood leaning on one of the wooden posts and gazing with +all her eyes across the dim level. Others came hurrying out from the +hall. Other young officers ran in pursuit of the first starters. "What's +the matter? What's happened?" were the questions that flew from lip to +lip. + +"I--I must go home," faltered Mrs. Rayner. "Come, Nellie!" + +"Oh, don't go, Mrs. Rayner. It can't be anything serious." + +But, even as they urged, a man came running towards them. + +"Is the doctor here?" he panted. + +"Yes. What's the trouble?" asked Dr. Pease, as he squeezed his burly +form through the crowded door-way. + +"You're wanted, sir. Loot'nant Hayne's shot; an' Captain Rayner he's +hurt too, sir." + + + + +XV. + + +Straight as an arrow Mr. Blake had sped across the parade, darted +through the east gate, and, turning, had arrived breathless at the +wooden porch of Hayne's quarters. Two bewildered-looking members of the +guard were at the door. Blake pushed his way through the little hall-way +and into the dimly-lighted parlor, where a strange scene met his eyes: +Lieutenant Hayne lay senseless and white upon the lounge across the +room; a young and pretty woman, singularly like him in feature and in +the color of her abundant tresses, was kneeling beside him, chafing his +hands, imploring him to speak,--to look at her,--unmindful of the fact +that her feet were bare and that only a loose wrapper was thrown over +her white night-dress; Captain Rayner was seated in a chair, deathly +white, and striving to stanch the blood that flowed from a deep gash in +his temple and forehead; he seemed still stunned as by the force of the +blow that had felled him; and Buxton, speechless with amaze and heaven +only knows what other emotions, was glaring at a tall, athletic stranger +who, in stocking-feet, undershirt, and trousers, held by three +frightened-looking soldiers and covered by the carbine of a fourth, was +hurling defiance and denunciation at the commanding officer. A revolver +lay upon the floor at the feet of a corporal of the guard, who was +groaning in pain. A thin veil of powder-smoke floated through the room. +As Blake leaped in,--his cavalry shoulder-knots and helmet-cords +gleaming in the light,--a flash of recognition shot into the stranger's +eyes, and he curbed his fearful excitement and stopped short in his +wrath. + +"What devil's work is this?" demanded Blake, glaring intuitively at +Buxton. + +"These people resisted my guards, and had to take the consequences," +said Buxton, with surly--yet shaken--dignity. + +"What were the guards doing here? What, in God's name, are you doing +here?" demanded Blake, forgetful of all consideration of rank and +command in the face of such evident catastrophe. + +"I _ordered_ them here,--to enter and search." + +A pause. + +"Search what?--what for?" + +"For--a woman I had reason to believe he had brought out here from +town." + +"_What?_ You infernal idiot! Why, she's his own sister, and this +gentleman's wife!" + +The silence, broken only by the hard breathing of some of the excited +men and the moaning cry of the woman, was for a moment intense. + +"Isn't this Mr. Hurley?" asked Blake, suddenly, as though to make sure, +and turning one instant from his furious glare at his superior officer. +The stranger, still held, though no longer struggling, replied between +his set teeth,-- + +"Certainly. I've told him so." + +"By heaven, Buxton, is there no limit to your asininity? What fearful +work will you do next?" + +"I'll arrest _you_, sir, if you speak another disrespectful word!" +thundered Buxton, recovering consciousness that as commanding officer he +could defend himself against Blake's assault. + +"Do it and be---- you know what I _would_ say if a lady were not +present! Do it, if you think you can stand having this thing ventilated +by a court. Pah! I can't waste words on you. Who's gone for the doctor? +Here, you men, let go of Mr. Hurley now. Help me, Mr. Hurley, please. +Get your wife back to her room. Bring me some water, one of you." And +with that he was bending over Hayne and unbuttoning the fatigue-uniform +in which he was still dressed. Another moment, and the doctor had come +in, and with him half the young officers of the garrison. Rayner was led +away to his own quarters. Buxton, dazed and frightened now, ordered the +guards back to their post, and stood pondering over the enormity of his +blunder. No one spoke to him or paid the faintest attention other than +to elbow him out of the way occasionally. The doctor never so much as +noticed him. Blake had briefly recounted the catastrophe to those who +first arrived, and as the story went from mouth to mouth it grew no +better for Buxton. Once he turned short on Mr. Foster and in aggrieved +and sullen tone remarked,-- + +"I thought you fellows in the Riflers said he had no relations." + +"We weren't apt to be invited to meet them if he had; but I don't know +that anybody was in position to know anything about it. What's that got +to do with this affair, I'd like to hear?" + +At last somebody took him home. Mrs. Waldron, meantime, had arrived and +been admitted to Mrs. Hurley's room. The doctor refused to go to Captain +Rayner's, even when a messenger came from Mrs. Rayner herself. He +referred her to his assistant, Dr. Grimes. Hayne had regained +consciousness, but was sorely shaken. He had been floored by a blow from +the butt of a musket; but the report that he was shot proved happily +untrue. His right hand still lay near the hilt of his light sword: there +was little question that he had raised his weapon against a superior +officer and would have used it with telling effect. + +Few people slept that night along officers' row. Never had Warrener +heard of such excitement. Buxton knew not what to do. He paced the floor +in agony of mind, for he well understood that there was no shirking the +responsibility. From beginning to end he was the cause of the whole +catastrophe. He had gone so far as to order his corporal to fire, and he +knew it could be proved against him. Thank God, the perplexed corporal +had shot high, and the other men, barring the one who had saved Rayner +from a furious lunge of the lieutenant's sword, had used their weapons +as gingerly and reluctantly as possible. At the very least, he knew, an +investigation and fearful scandal must come of it. Night though it was, +he sent for the acting adjutant and several of his brother captains, +and, setting refreshments before them, besought their advice. He was +still commanding officer _de jure_, but he had lost all stomach for its +functions. He would have been glad to send for Blake and beg his pardon +for submitting to his insubordinate and abusive language, if that course +could have stopped inquiry; but he well knew that the whole thing would +be noised abroad in less than no time. At first he thought to give +orders against the telegraph-operator's sending any messages concerning +the matter; but that would have been only a temporary hinderance: he +could not control the instruments and operators in town, only three +miles away. He almost wished he had been knocked down, shot, or stabbed +in the _mêlée_; but he had kept in the rear when the skirmish began, and +Rayner and the corporal were the sufferers. They had been knocked +"endwise" by Mr. Hurley's practised fists after Hayne was struck down by +the corporal's musket. It was the universal sentiment among the officers +of the ----th as they scattered to their homes that Buxton had "wound +himself up this time, anyhow;" and no one had any sympathy for him,--not +one. The very best light in which he could tell the story only showed +the affair as a flagrant and inexcusable outrage. + +Captain Rayner, too, was in fearful plight. He had simply obeyed orders; +but all the old story of his persecution of Hayne would now be revived; +all men would see in his participation in the affair only additional +reason to adjudge him cruelly persistent in his hatred of the young +officer, and, in view of the utter ruthlessness and wrong of this +assault, would be more than ever confident of the falsity of his +position in the original case. As he was slowly led up-stairs to his +room and his tearful wife and silent sister-in-law bathed and cleansed +his wound, he saw with frightful clearness how the crush of +circumstances was now upon him and his good name. Great heaven! how +those words of Hayne's five years before rang, throbbed, burned, beat +like trip-hammers through his whirling brain! It seemed as though they +followed him and his fortunes like a curse. He sat silent, stunned, +awe-stricken at the force of the calamity that had befallen him. How +could he ever induce an officer and a gentleman to believe that he was +no instigator in this matter?--that it was all Buxton's doing, Buxton's +low imagination that had conceived the possibility of such a crime on +the part of Mr. Hayne, and Buxton's blundering, bull-headed abuse of +authority that had capped the fatal climax? It was some time before his +wife could get him to speak at all. She was hysterically bemoaning the +fate that had brought them into contact with such people, and from time +to time giving vent to the comforting assertion that never had there +been a cloud on their domestic or regimental sky until that wretch had +been assigned to the Riflers. She knew from the hurried and guarded +explanations of Dr. Grimes and one or two young officers who helped +Rayner home that the fracas had occurred at Mr. Hayne's,--that there had +been a mistake for which her husband was not responsible, but that +Captain Buxton was entirely to blame. But her husband's ashen face told +her a story of something far deeper: she knew that now he was involved +in fearful trouble, and, whatever may have been her innermost thoughts, +it was the first and irresistible impulse to throw all the blame upon +her scapegoat. Miss Travers, almost as pale and quite as silent as the +captain, was busying herself in helping her sister; but she could with +difficulty restrain her longing to bid her be silent. She, too, had +endeavored to learn from her escort on their hurried homeward rush +across the parade what the nature of the disturbance had been. She, too, +had suggested Clancy, but the officer by her side set his teeth as he +replied that he wished it had been Clancy. She had heard, too, the +message brought by a cavalry trumpeter from Mr. Blake: he wanted Captain +Ray to come to Mr. Hayne's as soon as he had seen Mrs. Ray safely home, +and would he please ask Mrs. Stannard to come with him at the same time? +Why should Mr. Blake want Mrs. Stannard at Mr. Hayne's? She saw Mr. +Foster run up and speak a few words to Mrs. Waldron, and heard that lady +reply, "Certainly. I will go with you now." What could it mean? At last, +as she was returning to her sister's room after a moment's absence, she +heard a question at which her heart stood still. It was Mrs. Rayner who +asked,-- + +"But the creature was there, was she not?" + +The answer sounded more like a moan of anguish: + +"The creature was his sister. It was her husband who--" + +But, as Captain Rayner buried his battered face in his hands at this +juncture, the rest of the sentence was inaudible. Miss Travers had heard +quite enough, however. She stood there one moment, appalled, dropped +upon the floor the bandage she had been making, turned and sought her +room, and was seen no more that night. + +Over the day or two that followed this affair the veil of silence may +best be drawn, in order to give time for the sediment of truth to settle +through the whirlpool of stories in violent circulation. The colonel +came back on the first train after the adjournment of the court, and +could hardly wait for that formality. Contrary to his custom of +"sleeping on" a question, he was in his office within half an hour after +his return to the post, and from that time until near tattoo was busily +occupied taking the statements of the active participants in the affair. +This was three days after its occurrence; and Captain Rayner, though up +and able to be about, had not left his quarters. Mrs. Rayner had +abandoned her trip to the East, for the present at least. Mr. Hayne +still lay weak and prostrate in his darkened room, attended hourly by +Dr. Pease, who feared brain-fever, and nursed assiduously by Mrs. +Hurley, for whom Mrs. Waldron, Mrs. Stannard, and many other ladies in +the garrison could not do enough to content themselves. Mr. Hurley's +wrist was badly sprained and in a sling; but the colonel went purposely +to call upon him and to shake his other hand, and he begged to be +permitted to see Mrs. Hurley, who came in pale and soft-eyed and with a +gentle demeanor that touched the colonel more than he could tell. Her +cheek flushed for a moment as he bent low over her hand and told her how +bitterly he regretted that his absence from the post had resulted in so +grievous an experience: it was not the welcome he and his regiment would +have given her had they known of her intended visit. To Mr. Hurley he +briefly said that he need not fear but that full justice would be meted +out to the instigator or instigators of the assault; but, as a something +to make partial amends for their suffering, he said that nothing now +could check the turn of the tide in their brother's favor. All the +cavalry officers except Buxton, all the infantry officers except Rayner, +had already been to call upon him since the night of the occurrence, and +had striven to show how distressed they were over the outrageous +blunders of their temporary commander. Buxton had written a note +expressive of a desire to see him and "explain," but was informed that +explanations from him simply aggravated the injury; and Rayner, crushed +and humiliated, was fairly in hiding in his room, too sick at heart to +want to see anybody, and waiting for the action of the authorities in +the confident expectation that nothing less than court-martial and +disgrace would be his share of the outcome. He would gladly have +resigned and gone at once, but that would have been resigning under +virtual charges: he _had_ to stay, and his wife had to stay with him, +and Nellie with her. By this time Nellie Travers did not want to go. She +had but one thought now,--to make amends to Mr. Hayne for the wrong her +thoughts had done him. It was time for Mr. Van Antwerp to come to the +wide West and look after his interests; but Mrs. Rayner had ceased to +urge, while he continued to implore her to bring Nellie East at once. +Almost any man as rich and independent as Steven Van Antwerp would have +gone to the scene and settled matters for himself. Singularly enough, +this one solution of the problem seemed never to occur to him as +feasible. + +Meantime, the colonel had patiently unravelled the threads and had +brought to light the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It made a +singularly simple story, after all but that was so much the worse for +Buxton. The only near relation Mr. Hayne had in the world was this one +younger sister, who six years before had married a manly, energetic +fellow, a civil engineer in the employ of an Eastern railway. During +Hayne's "mountain-station" exile Hurley had brought his wife to Denver, +where far better prospects awaited him. He won promotion in his +profession, and was now one of the principal engineers employed by a +road running new lines through the Colorado Rockies. Journeying to Salt +Lake, he came around by way of Warrener, so that his wife and he might +have a look at the brother she had not seen in years. Their train was +due there early in the afternoon, but was blocked by drifts and did not +reach the station until late at night. There they found a note from him +begging them to take a carriage they would find waiting for them and +come right out and spend the night at his quarters: he would send them +back in abundant time to catch the westward train in the morning. He +could not come in, because that involved the necessity of asking his +captain's permission, and they knew his relations with that captain. It +was her shadow Buxton had seen on the window-screen; and as none of +Buxton's acquaintances had ever mentioned that Hayne had any relations, +and as Hayne, in fact, had had no one for years to talk to about his +personal affairs, nobody but himself and the telegraph-operator at the +post really knew of their sudden visit. Buxton, being an unmitigated +cad, had put the worst interpretation on his discovery, and, in his +eagerness to clinch the evidence of conduct unbecoming an officer and a +gentleman upon Mr. Hayne, had taken no wise head into his confidence. +Never dreaming that the shadow could be that of a blood-relation, never +doubting that a fair, frail companion from the frontier town was the +explanation of Mr. Hayne's preference for that out-of-the way house and +late hours, he stated his discovery to Rayner as a positive fact, going +so far as to say that his sentries had recognized her as she drove away +in the carriage. If he had not been an ass as well as a cad, he would +have interviewed the driver of the carriage; but he had jumped at his +theory, and his sudden elevation to the command of the post gave him +opportunity to carry out his virtuous determination that no such +goings-on should disgrace his administration. He gave instructions to +certain soldier clerks and "daily-duty" men employed in the +quartermaster, commissary, and ordnance offices along Prairie Avenue to +keep their eyes open and let him know of any visitors coming out to +Hayne's by night, and if a lady came in a carriage he was to be called +at once. Mr. Hurley promised that on their return from Salt Lake they +would come back by way of Warrener and spend two days with Hayne, since +only an hour or two had they enjoyed of his company on their way West; +and the very day that the officers went off to the court came the +telegram saying the Hurleys would arrive that evening. Hayne had already +talked over their prospective visit with Major Waldron, and the latter +had told his wife; but all intercourse of a friendly character was at an +end between them and the Rayners and Buxtons; there were no more gossipy +chats among the ladies. Indeed, it so happened that only to one or two +people had Mrs. Waldron had time to mention that Mr. Hayne's sister was +coming, and neither the Rayners nor Buxtons had heard of it; neither had +Nellie Travers, for it was after the evening of her last visit that Mrs. +Waldron was told. + +Hayne ran with his telegram to the major, and the latter had introduced +himself and Major Stannard to Mrs. Hurley when, after a weary wait of +some hours, the train arrived. Blake, too, was there, on the lookout for +some friends, and he was presented to Mrs. Hurley while her husband was +attending to some matters about the baggage. The train went on eastward, +carrying the field-officers with it. Blake had to go with his friends +back to the post, and Mr. and Mrs. Hurley, after the former had attended +to some business and seen some railway associates of his at the hotel, +took the carriage they had had before and drove out to the garrison, +where Private Schweinkopf saw the lady rapturously welcomed by +Lieutenant Hayne and escorted into the house, while Mr. Hurley remained +settling with the driver out in the darkness. It was not long before the +commanding officer _pro tem_, was called from the hop-room, where the +dance was going on delightfully, and notified that the mysterious +visitor had again appeared, with evident intention of spending the +night, as the carriage had returned to town. "Why, certainly," reasoned +Buxton. "It's the very night he would choose, since everybody will be at +the hop: no one will be apt to interfere, and everybody will be +unusually drowsy and less inclined to take notice in the morning." Here +was ample opportunity for a brilliant stroke of work. He would first +satisfy himself she was there, then surround the house with sentries so +that she could not escape, while he, with the officer of the day and the +corporal of the guard, entered the house and confronted him and her. +_That_ would wind up Mr. Hayne's career beyond question: nothing short +of dismissal could result. Over he went, full of his project, listened +at Hayne's like the eaves-dropping sneak he was, saw again the shadow of +the graceful form and heard the silvery, happy laugh, and then it was +he sent for Rayner. It was near midnight when he led his forces to the +attack. A light was now burning in the second story, which he thought +must be Sam's; but the lights had been turned low in the parlor, and the +occupants had disappeared from sight and hearing. By inquiry he had +ascertained that Hayne's bedroom was just back of the parlor. A man was +stationed at the back door, others at the sides, with orders to arrest +any one who attempted to escape; then softly he stepped to the front +door, telling Rayner to follow him, and the corporal of the guard to +follow both. To his surprise, the door was unlocked, and a light was +burning in the hall. Never knocking, he stepped in, marched through the +hall into the parlor, which was empty, and, signalling "Come on" to his +followers, crossed the parlor and seized the knob of the bedroom door. +It was locked. Rayner, looking white and worried, stood just behind him, +and the corporal but a step farther back. Before Buxton could knock and +demand admission, which was his intention, quick footsteps came flying +down the stairs from the second story, and the trio wheeled about in +surprise, to find Mr. Hayne, dressed in his fatigue uniform, standing at +the threshold and staring at them with mingled astonishment, +incredulity, and indignation. A sudden light seemed to dawn upon him as +he glanced from one to the other. With a leap like a cat he threw +himself upon Buxton, hurled him back, and stood at the closed door +confronting them with blazing eyes and clinching fists. + +"Open that door, sir!" cried Buxton. "You have a woman hidden there. +Open, or stand aside." + +"You hounds! I'll kill the first man who dares enter!" was the furious +answer; and Hayne had snatched from the wall his long infantry sword and +flashed the blade in the lamplight. Rayner made a step forward, half +irresolute. Hayne leaped at him like a tiger. "Fire! Quick!" shouted +Buxton, in wild excitement. Bang! went the carbine, and the bullet +crashed through the plaster overhead, and, seeing the gleaming steel at +his superior's throat, the corporal had sent the heavy butt crashing +upon the lieutenant's skull only just in time: there would have been +murder in another second. The next instant he was standing on his own +head in the corner, seeing a multitude of twinkling, whirling stars, +from the midst of which Captain Rayner was reeling backward over a chair +and a number of soldiers were rushing upon a powerful picture of +furious manhood,--a stranger in shirt-sleeves, who had leaped from the +bedroom. + +Told as it was--as it had to be--all over the department, there seemed +but one thing to say, and that referred to Buxton: "Well! _isn't_ he a +phenomenal ass?" + + + + +XVI. + + +Mr. Hayne was up and around again. The springtime was coming, and the +prairie roads were good and dry, and the doctor had told him he must +live in the open air awhile and ride and walk and drive. He stood in no +want of "mounts," for three or four of his cavalry friends were ready to +lend him a saddle-horse any day. Mr. and Mrs. Hurley, after making many +pleasant acquaintances, had gone on to Denver, and Captain Buxton was +congratulating himself that he, at least, had not run foul of the +engineer's powerful fists. Buxton was not in arrest, for the case had +proved a singular "poser." It occurred during the temporary absence of +the colonel: _he_ could not well place the captain under arrest for +things he had done when acting as post commander. In obedience to his +orders from department head-quarters, he made his report of the affair, +and indicated that Captain Buxton's conduct had been inexcusable. Rayner +had done nothing but, as was proved, reluctantly obey the captain's +orders, so he could not be tried. Hayne, who had committed one of the +most serious crimes in the military catalogue,--that of drawing and +raising a weapon against an officer who was in discharge of his duty +(Rayner),--had the sympathy of the whole command, and nobody would +prefer charges against him. The general decided to have the report go up +to division head-quarters, and thence it went with its varied comments +and endorsements to Washington: and now a court of inquiry was talked +of. Meantime, poor bewildered Buxton was let severely alone. What made +him utterly miserable was the fact that in his own regiment, the ----th, +nobody spoke of it except as something that everybody knew was sure to +happen the moment he got in command. If it hadn't been that 'twould have +been something else. The only certainty was that Buxton would never lose +a chance of making an ass of himself. Instead of being furious with him, +the whole regiment--officers and men--simply ridiculed and laughed at +him. He had talked of preferring charges against Blake for +insubordination, and asked the adjutant what he thought of it. It was +the first time he had spoken to the adjutant for weeks, and the +adjutant rushed out of the office to tell the crowd to come in and "hear +Buxton's latest." It began to look as though nothing serious would ever +come of the affair, until Rayner reappeared and people saw how very ill +he was. Dr. Pease had been consulted; and it was settled that he as well +as his wife must go away for several months and have complete rest and +change. It was decided that they would leave by the 1st of May. All this +Mr. Hayne heard through his kind friend Mrs. Waldron. + +One day when he first began to sit up, and before he had been out at +all, she came and sat with him in his sunshiny parlor. There had been a +silence for a moment as she looked around upon the few pictures and upon +that bareness and coldness which, do what he will, no man can eradicate +from his abiding-place until he calls in the deft and dainty hand of +woman. + +"I shall be so glad when you have a wife, Mr. Hayne!" was her quiet +comment. + +"So shall I, Mrs. Waldron," was the response. + +"And isn't it high time we were beginning to hear of a choice? Forgive +my intrusiveness, but that was the very matter of which the major and I +were talking as he brought me over." + +"There is something to be done first, Mrs. Waldron," he answered. "I +cannot offer any woman a clouded name. It is not enough that people +should begin to believe that I was innocent and my persecutors utterly +in error, if not perjured. I must be able to show who was the real +culprit, and that is not easy. The doctor and I thought we saw a way not +long ago; but it proved delusive." And he sighed deeply. "I had expected +to see the major about it the very day he got back from the court; but +we have had no chance to talk." + +"Mr. Hayne," she said, impulsively, "a woman's intuition is not always +at fault. Tell me if you believe that any one on the post has any +inkling of the truth. I have a reason for asking." + +"I _did_ think it possible, Mrs. Waldron. I cannot be certain now; and +it's too late, anyway." + +"How, too late? What's too late?" + +He paused a moment, a deeper shadow than usual on his face; then he +lifted his head and looked fairly at her: + +"I should not have said that, Mrs. Waldron. It can never be too late. +But what I mean is that--just now I spoke of offering no woman a +clouded name. Even if it were unclouded, I could not offer it where I +would." + +"Because you have heard of the engagement?" was the quick, eager +question. There was no instant of doubt in the woman as to where the +offering would be made, if it only could. + +"I knew of the engagement only a day ago," he answered, with stern +effort at self-control. "Blake was speaking of her, and it came out all +of a sudden." + +He turned his head away again. It was more than Mrs. Waldron could +stand. She leaned impetuously towards him, and put her hand on his: + +"Mr. Hayne, that is no engagement of heart to heart. It is entirely a +thing of Mrs. Rayner's doing; and I _know_ it. She is +poor,--dependent,--and has been simply sold into bondage." + +"And you think she cares nothing for the position, the wealth and social +advantages, this would give her? Ah, Mrs. Waldron, consider." + +"I _have_ considered. Mr. Hayne, if I were a man, like you, that child +should never go back to him. And they are going next week. You _must_ +get well." + +It was remarked that Mr. Hayne was out surprisingly quick for a fellow +who had been so recently threatened with brain-fever. The Rayners were +to go East at once, so it was said, though the captain's leave of +absence had not yet been ordered. The colonel could grant him seven days +at any time, and he had telegraphic notification that there would be no +objection when the formal application reached the War Department. Rayner +called at the colonel's office and asked that he might be permitted to +start with his wife and sister. His second lieutenant would move in and +occupy his quarters and take care of all his personal effects during +their absence; and Lieutenant Hayne was a most thorough officer, and he +felt that in turning over his company to him he left it in excellent +hands. The colonel saw the misery in the captain's face, and he was +touched by both looks and words: + +"You must not take this last affair too much to heart, Captain Rayner. +We in the ----th have known Captain Buxton so many years that with us +there is no question as to where all the blame lies. It seems, too, to +be clearly understood by Mr. Hayne. As for your previous ideas of that +officer, I consider it too delicate a matter to speak of. You must see, +however, how entirely beyond reproach his general character appears to +have been. But here's another matter: Clancy's discharge has arrived. +Does the old fellow know you had requested it?" + +"No, sir," answered Rayner, with hesitation and embarrassment. "We +wanted to keep him straight, as I told you we would, and he would +probably get on a big tear if he knew his service-days were numbered. I +didn't look for its being granted for forty-eight hours yet." + +"Well, he will know it before night; and no doubt he will be badly cut +up. Clancy was a fine soldier before he married that harridan of a +woman." + +"She has made him a good wife since they came into the Riflers, colonel, +and has taken mighty good care of the old fellow." + +"It is more than she did in the ----th, sir. She was a handsome, showy +woman when I first saw her,--before my promotion to the regiment,--and +Clancy was one of the finest soldiers in the brigade the last year of +the war. She ran through all his money, though, and in the ----th we +looked upon her as the real cause of his break-down,--especially after +her affair with that sergeant who deserted. You've heard of him, +probably. He disappeared after the Battle Butte campaign, and we hoped +he'd run off with Mrs. Clancy; but he hadn't. She was there when we got +back, big as ever, and growing ugly." + +"Do you mean that Mrs. Clancy had a lover when she was in the ----th?" + +"Certainly, Captain Rayner. We supposed it was commonly known. He was a +fine-looking, black-eyed, dark-haired, dashing fellow, of good +education, a great swell among the men the short time he was with us, +and Mrs. Clancy made a dead set at him from the start. He never seemed +to care for _her_ very much." + +"This is something I never heard of," said Rayner, with grave face, "and +it will be a good deal of a shock to my wife, for she had arranged to +take her East with Clancy and Kate, and they were to invest their money +in some little business at her old home." + +"Yes: it was mainly on the woman's account we wouldn't re-enlist Clancy +in the ----th. We could stand him, but she was too much for us,--and for +the other sergeant, too. He avoided her before we started on the +campaign, I fancy. Odd! I can't think of his name.--Billings, what was +the name of that howling swell of a sergeant who was in Hull's troop at +Battle Butte,--time Hull was killed? I mean the man that Mrs. Clancy was +said to have eloped with." + +"Sergeant Gower, sir," said the adjutant, without looking up from his +work. He did look up, however, when a moment after the captain hurriedly +left the office, and he saw that Rayner's face was deathly white: it was +ghastly. + +"What took Rayner off so suddenly?" said the colonel, wheeling around in +his chair. + +"I don't know, sir, unless there was something to startle him in the +name." + +"Why should there be?" + +"There are those who think that Gower got away with more than his horse +and arms, colonel: he was not at Battle Butte, though, and that is what +made it a mystery." + +"Where was he then?" + +"Back with the wagon-train, sir; and he never got in sight of the Buttes +or Rayner's battalion. You know Rayner had four companies there." + +"I don't see how Gower could have taken the money, if that's what you +mean, if he never came up to the Buttes: Rayner swore it was there in +Hull's original package. Then, too, how could Gower's name affect him if +he had never seen him?" + +"Possibly he has heard something. Clancy has been talking." + +"I have looked into that," said the colonel. "Clancy denies knowing +anything,--says he was drunk and didn't know what he was talking about." + +All the same it was queer, thought the adjutant, and he greatly wanted +to see the doctor and talk with him; but by the time his office-work was +done the doctor had gone to town, and when he came back he was sent for +to the laundress's quarters, where Mrs. Clancy was in hysterics and +Michael had again been very bad. + +Soon after the captain's return to his quarters, it seems, a messenger +was sent from Mrs. Rayner requesting Mrs. Clancy to come and see her at +once. She was ushered up-stairs to madame's own apartment, much to Miss +Travers's surprise, and that young lady was further astonished, when +Mrs. Clancy reappeared, nearly an hour later, to see that she had been +weeping violently. The house was in some disorder, most of the trunks +being packed and in readiness for the start, and Miss Travers was +entertaining two or three young officers and waiting for her sister to +come down to luncheon. "The boys" were lachrymose over her prospective +departure,--at least they affected to be,--and were variously sprawled +about the parlor when Mrs. Clancy descended, and the inflamed condition +of her eyes and nose became apparent to all. There was much chaff and +fun, therefore, when Mrs. Rayner finally appeared, over the supposed +affliction of the big Irishwoman at the prospect of parting with her +patroness. Miss Travers saw with singular sensations that both the +captain and her usually self-reliant sister were annoyed and embarrassed +by the topic and strove to change it; but Foster's propensity for +mimicry and his ability to imitate Mrs. Clancy's combined brogue and +sniffle proved too much for their efforts. Kate was in a royally bad +temper by the time the youngsters left the house, and when Nellie would +have made some laughing allusion to the fun the young fellows had been +having over her morning caller, she was suddenly and tartly checked +with-- + +"We've had too much of that already. Just understand now that you have +no time to waste, if your packing is unfinished. We start to-morrow +afternoon." + +"Why, Kate! I had no idea we were to go for two days yet! Of course I +can be ready; but why did you not tell me before?" + +"I did not know it--at least it was not decided--until this morning, +after the captain came back from the office. There is nothing to prevent +our going, now that he has seen the colonel." + +"There was not before, Kate; for Mr. Billings told me yesterday morning, +and I told you, that the colonel had said you could start at once, and +you replied that the captain could not be ready for several days,--three +at least." + +"Well, now he _is_; and that ends it. Never mind what changed his mind." + +It was unsafe to trifle with Nellie Travers, as Mrs. Rayner might have +known. She saw that something had occurred to make the captain eager to +start at once; and then there was that immediate sending for Mrs. +Clancy, the long, secret talk up in Kate's room, the evident mental +disturbance of both feminines on their respective reappearances, and the +sudden announcement to her. While there could be no time to make formal +parting calls, there were still some two or three ladies in the garrison +whom she longed to see before saying adieu; and then there was Mr. +Hayne, whom she had wronged quite as bitterly as anyone else had wronged +him. He was out that day for the first time, and she longed to see him +and longed to fulfil the neglected promise. _That_ she must do at the +very least. If she could not see him, she must write, that he might +have the note before they went away. All these thoughts were rushing +through her brain as she busied herself about her little room, stowing +away dresses and dropping everything from time to time to dart into her +sister's room in answer to some querulous call. Yet never did she leave +without a quick glance from her window up and down the row. For whom was +she looking? + +It was just about dusk when she heard crying down-stairs,--a child, and +apparently in the kitchen. Mrs. Rayner was with the baby, and Miss +Travers started for the stairs, calling that she would go and see what +it meant. She was down in the hall before Mrs. Rayner's imperative and +repeated calls brought her to a full stop. + +"What is it?" she inquired. + +"You come back here and hold baby. I know perfectly what it is. It is +Kate Clancy; and she wants me. You can do nothing." + +Too late, madame! The intervening doors were opened, and in marched +cook, leading the poor little Irish girl, who was sobbing piteously. +Mrs. Rayner came down the stairs with all speed, bringing her burly son +and heir in her arms. She would have ordered Nell aloft, but what excuse +could she give? and Miss Travers was already bending over the child and +striving to still her heart-breaking cries. + +"What is it? Where's your father?" demanded Mrs. Rayner. + +"Oh, ma'am, I don't know. I came here to tell the captain. Shure he's +discharged, ma'am, an' his heart's broke entirely, an' mother says we're +all to go with the captain to-morrow, an' he swears he'll kill himself +before he'll go, an' I can't find him, ma'am. It's almost dark now." + +"Go back and tell your mother I want her instantly. We'll find your +father. Go!" she repeated, as the child shrank and hesitated. +"Here,--the front way!" And little Kate sped away into the shadows +across the dim level of the parade. + +Then the sisters faced each other. There was a fire in the younger's eye +that Mrs. Rayner would have escaped if she could. + +"Kate, it is to get Clancy away from the possibility of revealing what +he knows that you have planned this sudden move, and I _know_ it," said +Miss Travers. "You need not answer." + +She seized a wrap from the hat-rack and stepped to the door-way. Mrs. +Rayner threw herself after her. + +"Nellie, where are you going? What will you do?" + +"To Mrs. Waldron's, Kate; if need be, to Mr. Hayne's." + + * * * * * + +A bright fire was burning in Major Waldron's cosey parlor, where he and +his good wife were seated in earnest talk. It was just after sunset when +Mr. Hayne dropped in to pay his first visit after the few days in which +he had been confined to his quarters. He was looking thin, paler than +usual, and far more restless and eager in manner than of old. The +Waldrons welcomed him with more than usual warmth, and the major +speedily led the conversation up to the topic which was so near to his +heart. + +"You and I must see the doctor and have a triangular council over this +thing, Hayne. Three heads are better than none; and if, as he suspects, +old Clancy really knows anything when he's drunk that he cannot tell +when he's sober, I shall depart from Mrs. Waldron's principles and join +the doctor in his pet scheme of getting him drunk again. '_In vino +veritas_,' you know. And we ought to be about it, too, for it won't be +long before his discharge comes, and, once away, we should be in the +lurch." + +"There seems so little hope there, major. Even the colonel has called +him up and questioned him." + +"Ay, very true, but always when the old sergeant was sober. It is when +drunk that Clancy's conscience pricks him to tell what he either knows +or suspects." + +A light, quick footstep was heard on the piazza, the hall door opened, +and without knock or ring, bursting impetuously in upon them, there +suddenly appeared Miss Travers, her eyes dilated with excitement. At +sight of the group she stopped short, and colored to the very roots of +her shining hair. + +"How glad I am to see you, Nellie!" exclaimed Mrs. Waldron, as all rose +to greet her. An embarrassed, half-distraught reply was her only answer. +She had extended both hands to the elder lady; but now, startled, almost +stunned, at finding herself in the presence of the very man she most +wanted to see, she stood with downcast eyes, irresolute. He, too, had +not stepped forward,--had not offered his hand. She raised her blue eyes +for one quick glance, and saw his pale, pain-thinned face, read anew the +story of his patience, his suffering, his heroism, and realized how she +too had wronged him and that her very awkwardness and silence might tell +him that shameful fact. It was more than she could stand. + +"I came--purposely. I hoped to find you, Mr. Hayne. You--you remember +that I had something to tell you. It was about Clancy. You ought to see +him. I'm sure you ought, for he _must_ know--he or Mrs. +Clancy--something about your--your trouble; and I've just this minute +heard that they--that he's going away to-morrow; and you must find him +to-night, Mr. Hayne: indeed you must." + +Who can paint her as she stood there, blushing, pleading, eager, +frightened, yet determined? Who can picture the wild emotion in his +heart, reflected in his face? He stepped quickly to her side with the +light leaping to his eyes, his hands extended as though to grasp hers; +but it was Waldron that spoke first: + +"Where is he going?--how?" + +"Oh, with us, major. We go to-morrow, and they go with us. My sister has +some reason--I cannot fathom it. She wants them away from here, and +Clancy's discharge came to-day. He _must_ see him first," she said, +indicating Mr. Hayne by the nod of her pretty head. "They say Clancy has +run off and got away from his wife. He doesn't want to be discharged. +They cannot find him now; but perhaps Mr. Hayne can.--Mr. Hayne, try to. +You--you must." + +"Indeed we must, Hayne, and quick about it," said the major. "Now is our +chance, I verily believe. Let us get the doctor first; then little Kate +will best know where to look for Clancy. Come, man, get your overcoat." +And he hastened to the hall. + +Hayne followed as though in a dream, reached the threshold, turned, +looked back, made one quick step toward Miss Travers with outstretched +hand, then checked himself as suddenly. His yearning eyes seemed +fastened on her burning face, his lips quivered with the intensity of +his emotion. She raised her eyes and gave him one quick look, half +entreaty, half command; he seemed ineffectually struggling to speak,--to +thank her. One moment of irresolution, then, without a word of any kind, +he sprang to the door. She carried his parting glance in her heart of +hearts all night long. There was no mistaking what it told. + + + + +XVII. + + +The morning report of the following day showed some items under the head +of "Alterations" that involved several of the soldier characters of this +story. Ex-Sergeant Clancy had been dropped from the column of present +"on daily duty" and taken up on that of absent without leave. Lieutenant +Hayne was also reported absent. Dr. Pease and Lieutenant Billings drove +into the garrison from town just before the cavalry trumpets were +sounding first call for guard-mounting, and the adjutant sent one of the +musicians to give his compliments to Mr. Royce and ask him to mount the +guard for him, as he had just returned and had important business with +the colonel. The doctor and the adjutant together went into the +colonel's quarters, and for the first time on record the commanding +officer was not at the desk in his office when the shoulder-straps began +to gather for the _matinée_. + +Ten minutes after the usual time the adjutant darted in and plunged with +his characteristic impetuosity into the pile of passes and other papers +stacked up by the sergeant-major at his table. To all questions as to +where he had been and what was the matter with the colonel he replied, +with more than usual asperity of manner,--the asperity engendered of +some years of having to answer the host of questions propounded by +vacant minds at his own busiest hour of the day,--that the colonel would +tell them all about it himself; _he_ had no time for a word. The evident +manner of suppressed excitement, however, was something few failed to +note; and every man in the room felt certain that when the colonel came +there would be a revelation. It was with something bordering on +indignation, therefore, that the assemblage heard the words that +intimated to them that all might retire. The colonel had come in very +quietly, received the report of the officer of the day, relieved him, +and dismissed the new officer of the day with the brief formula, "Usual +orders, sir," then glanced quickly around the silent circle of grave, +bearded or boyish faces. His eyes rested for an instant with something +like shock and trouble upon one face, pale, haggard, with almost +bloodless lips, and yet full of fierce determination,--a face that +haunted him long afterwards, it was so full of agony, of suspense, +almost of pleading,--the face of Captain Rayner. + +Then, dispensing with the customary talk, he quietly spoke the +disappointing words,-- + +"I am somewhat late this morning, gentlemen, and several matters will +occupy my attention: so I will not detain you further." + +The crowd seemed to find their feet very slowly. There was visible +disinclination to go. Every man in some inexplicable way appeared to +know that there was a new mystery hanging over the garrison, and that +the colonel held the key. Every man felt that Billings had given him the +right to expect to be told all about it when the colonel came. Some +looked reproachfully at Billings, as though to remind him of their +expectations: Stannard, his old stand-by, passed him with a gruff +"Thought you said the colonel had something to tell us," and went out +with an air of injured and defrauded dignity. Rayner arose, and seemed +to be making preparations to depart with the others, and some of the +number, connecting him unerringly with the prevailing sensation, +appeared to hold back and wait for him to precede them and so secure to +themselves the satisfaction of knowing that, if it was a matter +connected with Rayner, they "had him along" and nothing could take place +without their hearing it. These men were very few, however; but Buxton +was one of them. Rayner's eyes were fixed upon the colonel and searching +for a sign, and it came,--a little motion of the hand and a nod of the +head that signified "Stay." Then, as Buxton and one or two of his stamp +still dallied irresolute, the colonel turned somewhat sharply to them: +"Was there any matter on which you wished to see me, gentlemen?" and, as +there was none, they _had_ to go. Then Rayner was alone with the +colonel; for Mr. Billings quickly arose, and, with a significant glance +at his commander, left the room and closed the door. + +Mrs. Rayner, gazing from her parlor windows, saw that all the officers +had come out except one,--her husband,--and with a moan of misery she +covered her face with her hands and sank upon the sofa. With cheeks as +white as her sister's, with eyes full of trouble and perplexity, but +tearless, Nellie Travers stepped quickly into the room and put a +trembling white hand upon the other's shoulder: + +"Kate, it is no time for so bitter an estrangement as this. I have done +simply what our soldier father would have done had he been here. I am +fully aware of what it must cost me. I knew when I did it that you would +never again welcome me to your home. Once East again, you and I can go +our ways; I won't burden you longer; but is it not better that you +should tell me in what way your husband or you can have been injured by +what I have done?" + +Mrs. Rayner impatiently shook away the hand. + +"I don't want to talk to you," was the blunt answer. "You have carried +out your threat and--ruined _us_: that's all." + +"What _can_ you mean? Do you want me to think that because Mr. Hayne's +innocence may be established your husband was the guilty man? Certainly +your manner leads to that inference; though his does not, by any means." + +"I don't want to talk, I tell you. You've had your way,--done your work. +You'll see soon enough the hideous web of trouble you've entangled +about my husband. Don't you dare say--don't you dare think"--and now she +rose with sudden fury--"that he was the--that he lost the money! But +that's what all others will think." + +"If that were true, Kate, there would be this difference between his +trouble and Mr. Hayne's: Captain Rayner would have wife, wealth, and +friends to help him bear the cross; Mr. Hayne has borne it five long +years unaided. I pray God the truth _has_ been brought to light." + +What fierce reply Mrs. Rayner might have given, who knows? but at that +instant a quick step was heard on the piazza, the door opened suddenly, +and Captain Rayner entered with a rush. The pallor had gone; a light of +eager, half-incredulous joy beamed from his eyes, he threw his cap upon +the floor, and his wife had risen and thrown her arms about his neck. + +"Have they found him?" was her breathless question. "_What_ has +happened? You look so different." + +"Found him? Yes; and he has told everything?" + +"Told--what?" + +"Told that he and Gower were the men. They took it all." + +"_Clancy!_--and Gower! The thieves, do you mean? Is that--is _that_ what +he confessed?" she asked, in wild wonderment, in almost stupefied amaze, +releasing him from her arms and stepping back, her eyes searching his +face. + +"Nothing else in the world, Kate. I don't understand it at all. I'm all +a-tremble yet. It clears Hayne utterly. It at least explains how I was +mistaken. But what--what could she have meant?" + +Mrs. Rayner stood like one in a dream, her eyes staring, her lips +quivering; and Nellie, with throbbing pulses and clasping hands, looked +eagerly from husband to wife, as though beseeching some explanation. + +"What did she mean? What _did_ she mean? I say again," asked Rayner, +pressing his hand to his forehead and gazing fixedly at his wife. + +A moment longer she stood there, as though a light--a long-hidden +truth--were slowly forcing itself upon her mind. Then, with impulsive +movement, she hurried through the dining-room, threw open the kitchen +door, and startled the domestics at their late breakfast. + +"Ryan," she called to the soldier-servant who rose hastily from the +table, "go and tell Mrs. Clancy I want her instantly. Do you understand? +Instantly!" And Ryan seized his forage-cap and vanished. + +It was perhaps ten minutes before he returned. When he did so it was +apparent that Mrs. Rayner had been crying copiously, and that Miss +Travers, too, was much affected. The captain was pacing the room with +nervous strides in mingled relief and agitation. All looked up expectant +as the soldier re-entered. He had the air of a man who knew he bore +tidings of vivid and mysterious interest, but he curbed the excitement +of his manner until it shone only through his snapping eyes, saluted, +and reported with professional gravity: + +"Mrs. Clancy's clean gone, sir." + +"Gone where?" + +"Nobody knows, sir. She's just lit out with her trunk and best clothes +some time last night." + +"Gone to her husband in town, maybe?" + +"No, sir. Clancy's all right: he was caught last evening, and hadn't +time to get more'n half drunk before they lodged him. Lootenant Hayne +got him, sir. They had him afore a justice of the peace early this +morning--" + +"Yes, I know all that. What I want is _Mrs._ Clancy. What has become of +her?" + +"Faith, I don't know, sir, but the women in Sudsville they all say she's +run away, sir,--taken her money and gone. She's afraid of Clancy's +peaching on her." + +"By heavens! the thing is clearing itself!" exclaimed Rayner to his +gasping and wild-eyed wife. "I must go to the colonel at once with his +news." And away he went. + +And then again, as the orderly retired, and the sisters were left alone, +Nellie Travers with trembling lips asked the question,-- + +"Have I done so much harm, after all, Kate?" + +"Oh, Nellie! Nellie! forgive me, for I have been nearly mad with +misery!" was Mrs. Rayner's answer, as she burst into a fresh paroxysm of +tears. "That--that woman has--has told me fearful lies." + +There was a strange scene that day at Warrener when, towards noon, two +carriages drove out from town and, entering the east gate, rolled over +towards the guard-house. The soldiers clustered about the barrack +porches and stared at the occupants. In the first--a livery hack from +town--were two sheriff's officers, while cowering on the back seat, his +hat pulled down over his eyes, was poor old Clancy, to whom clung +faithful little Kate. In the rear carriage--Major Waldron's--were Mr. +Hayne, the major, and a civilian whom some of the men had no difficulty +in recognizing as the official charged with the administration of +justice towards offenders against the peace. Many of the soldiers +strolled slowly up the road, in hopes of hearing all about the arrest, +and what it meant, from straggling members of the guard. All knew it +meant something more than a mere "break" on the part of Clancy; all felt +that it had some connection with the long-continued mystery that hung +about the name of Lieutenant Hayne. Then, too, it was being noised +abroad that Mrs. Clancy had "skipped" and between two suns had fled for +parts unknown. _She_ could be overhauled by telegraph if she had left on +either of the night freights or gone down towards Denver by the early +morning passenger-train; it would be easy enough to capture her if she +were "wanted," said the garrison; but what did it mean that Clancy was +pursued by officers of the post and brought back under charge of +officers of the law? He had had trouble enough, poor fellow! + +The officer of the guard looked wonderingly at the carriages and their +occupants. He saluted Major Waldron as the latter stepped briskly down. + +"You will take charge of Clancy, Mr. Graham," said the major. "His +discharge will be recalled: at least it will not take effect to-day. You +will be interested in knowing that his voluntary confession fully +establishes Mr. Hayne's innocence of the charges on which he was tried." + +Mr. Graham's face turned all manner of colors. He glanced at Hayne, who, +still seated in the carriage, was as calmly indifferent to him as ever: +he was gazing across the wide parade at the windows in officers' row. +Little Kate's sobs as the soldiers were helping her father from the +carriage suddenly recalled his wandering thoughts. He sprang to the +ground, stepped quickly to the child, and put his arms about her. + +"Clancy, tell her to come with us. Mrs. Waldron will take loving care of +her, and she shall come to see you every day. The guard-house is no +place for her to follow you. Tell her so, man, and she will go with +us.--Come, Katie, child!" And he bent tenderly over the sobbing little +waif. + +"Thank ye, sir. I know ye'll be good to her. Go with the lootenant, Kate +darlin'; go. Shure I'll be happier then." + +And, trembling, he bent and kissed her wet cheeks. She threw her arms +around his neck and clung to him in an agony of grief. Gently they +strove to disengage her clasping arms, but she shrieked and struggled, +and poor old Clancy broke down. There were sturdy soldiers standing by +who turned their heads away to hide the unbidden tears, and with a +quiver in his kind voice the major interposed: + +"Let her stay awhile: it will be better for both. Don't put him in the +prison-room, Graham. Keep them by themselves for a while. We will come +for her by and by." And then, before them all, he held forth his hand +and gave Clancy's a cordial grasp: + +"Cheer up, man. You've taken the right step at last. You are a free man +to-day, even if you are a prisoner for the time being. Better this a +thousand times than what you were." + +Hayne, too, spoke a few kind words in a low tone, and gave the old +soldier his hand at parting. Then the guard closed the door, and father +and daughter were left alone. As the groups around the guard-house began +to break up and move away, and the officers, re-entering the carriages, +drove over to head-quarters, a rollicking Irishman called to the +sergeant of the guard,-- + +"Does he know the ould woman's skipped, sargent? Shure you'd better tell +him. 'Twill cheer him, like." + +But when, a few moments after, the news was imparted to Clancy, the +effect was electric and startling. With one bound and a savage cry he +sprang to the door. The sergeant threw himself upon him and strove to +hold him back, but was no match for the frenzied man. Deaf to Kate's +entreaties and the sergeant's commands, he hurled him aside, leaped +through the door-way, shot like a deer past the lolling guardsmen on the +porch, and, turning sharply, went at the top of his speed down the hill +towards Sudsville before man could lay hand on him. The sentry on Number +One cocked his rifle and looked inquiringly at the officer of the guard, +who came running out. With a wild shriek little Kate threw herself upon +the sentry, clasping his knees and imploring him not to shoot. The +lieutenant and the sergeant both shouted, "Never mind! Don't fire!" and +with others of the guard rushed in pursuit. But, old and feeble as he +was, poor Clancy kept the lead, never swerving, never flagging, until he +reached the door-way of his abandoned cot; this he burst in, threw +himself upon his knees by the bedside, and dragged to light a little +wooden chest that stood by an open trap in the floor. One look sufficed: +the mere fact that the trap was open and the box exposed was enough. +With a wild cry of rage, despair, and baffled hatred, he clinched his +hands above his head, rose to his full height, and with a curse upon his +white lips, with glaring eyes and gasping breath, turned upon his +pursuers as they came running in, and hurled his fists at the foremost. +"Let me follow her, I say! She's gone with it all,--his money! Let me +go!" he shrieked; and then his eyes turned stony, a gasp, a clutch at +his throat, and, plunging headlong, he fell upon his face at their feet. + +Poor little Kate! The old man was, indeed, free at last. + + + + +XVIII. + + +There had been a scene of somewhat dramatic nature at the colonel's +office but a short time before, and one that had fewer witnesses. +Agitated, nervous, and eventually astonished as Captain Rayner had been +when the colonel had revealed to him the nature of Clancy's confession, +he was far more excited and tremulous when he returned a second time. +The commanding officer had been sitting deep in thought. It was but +natural that a man should show great emotion on learning that the +evidence he had given, which had condemned a brother officer to years of +solitary punishment, was now disproved. It was to be expected that +Rayner should be tremulous and excited. He had been looking worse and +worse for a long time past; and now that it was established that he must +have been mistaken in what he thought he saw and heard at Battle Butte, +it was to be expected that he should show the utmost consternation and +an immediate desire to make amends. He _had_ shown great emotion; he was +white and rigid as the colonel told him Clancy had made a full +confession; but the expression on his face when informed that the man +had admitted that he and Sergeant Gower were the only ones guilty of the +crime--that Clancy and Gower divided the guilt as they had the +money--was a puzzle to the colonel. Captain Rayner seemed daft: it was a +look of wild relief, half unbelief, half delight, that shot across his +haggard features. It was evident that _he had not heard at all what he +expected_. This was what puzzled the colonel. He had been pondering over +it ever since the captain's hurried departure "to tell his wife." + +"We--we had expected--made all preparations to take this afternoon's +train for the East," he stammered. "We are all torn up, all ready to +start, and the ladies ought to go; but I cannot feel like going in the +face of this." + +"There is no reason why you should not go, captain. I am told Mrs. +Rayner should leave at once. If need be, you can return from Chicago. +Everything will be attended to properly. Of course you will know what +to do towards Mr. Hayne. Indeed, I think it might be best for you to +go." + +But Rayner seemed hardly listening; and the colonel was not a man to +throw his words away. + +"You might see Mrs. Rayner at once, and return by and by," he said; and +Rayner gladly escaped, and went home with the wonderful news he had to +tell his wife. + +And now a second time he was back, and was urging upon the commanding +officer the necessity of telegraphing and capturing Mrs. Clancy. In +plain words he told the colonel he believed that she had escaped with +the greater part of the money. The colonel smiled: + +"That was attended to early this morning, captain. Hayne and the major +asked that she be secured, and the moment we found her fled it confirmed +their suspicions, and Billings sent despatches in every direction. She +can't get away! She was his temptress, and I mean to make her share all +the punishment." + +"Colonel," exclaimed Rayner, while beads of sweat stood out on his +forehead, "she is worse,--a thousand times worse! The woman is a fiend. +She is the devil in petticoats--and ingenuity. My God! sir, I have been +in torment for weeks past,--my poor wife and I. I have been criminally, +cowardly weak; but I did not know what to do,--where to turn,--how to +take it,--how to meet it. Let me tell you." And now great tears were +standing in his eyes and beginning to trickle down his cheeks. He dashed +them away. His lips were quivering, and he strode nervously up and down +the matted floor. "When you refused to left Clancy re-enlist in the +----th, two years after Battle Butte, he came to me and told me a story. +He, too, had declared, as I did, that he had seen the money-packages in +Hayne's hands; and he said the real reason he was kicked out of the +----th was because the officers and men took sides with Hayne and +thought he had sworn his reputation away. He begged me not to 'go back +on him' as his own regiment had, and I thought he was being persecuted +because he told the truth. God knows I fully believed Hayne guilty for +more than three years,--it is only within the last year or so I began to +have doubts; and so I took Clancy into B Company and soon made Mrs. +Clancy a laundress. But she made trouble for us all, and there was +something uncanny about them. She kept throwing out mysterious hints I +could not understand when rumors of them reached me; and at last came +the fire that burned them out, and then the stories of what Clancy had +said in his delirium; and then she came to my wife and told her a yarn +that--she swore to its truth, and nearly drove Mrs. Rayner wild with +anxiety. She swore that when Clancy got to drinking he imagined he had +seen _me_ take that money from Captain Hull's saddle-bags and replace +the sealed package: she said he was ready to swear that he and +Gower--the deserter--and two of our men, honorably discharged now and +living on ranches down in Nebraska, could all swear--would all swear--to +the same thing,--that I was the thief. 'Sure you know it couldn't be so, +ma'am; and yet he wants to go and tell Mr. Hayne,' she would say: +'there's the four of 'em would swear to it, though Gower's evidence +would be no good; but the two men could hurt the captain.' Her ingenuity +was devilish; for one of the men I had severely punished once in the +Black Hills, and both hated me and had sworn they would get even with me +yet. God help me, colonel! seeing every day the growing conviction that +Hayne was innocent, that somebody else _must_ be guilty, I thought, what +if this man _should_, in drunken gratitude to Hayne for saving his life, +go to him and tell him this story, then back it up before the officials +and call in these two others? I was weak, but it appalled me. I +determined to get him out of the way of such a possibility. I got his +discharge, and meantime strove to prevent his drinking or going near +Hayne. _She_ knew the real story he _would_ tell. This was her devilish +plan to keep me on watch against him. I never dreamed the real truth. +She swore to me that three hundred dollars was all the money they had. I +believed that when he confessed it would be what she declared. I never +dreamed that Clancy and his confederate were the thieves: I never +believed the money was taken until after Hayne received it. I saw how +Hayne's guilt was believed in even in the face of contradictory evidence +before the court. What would be the tendency if three men together were +to swear against me, now that everybody thought him wronged? I know very +well what you will think of my cowardice. I know you and your officers +will say I should have given him every chance,--should have courted +investigation; and I meant to do so, but first I wanted to hear from +those discharged men in Nebraska. The whole scheme would have been +exploded two months ago had I not been a coward; but night after night +something kept whispering to me, 'You have wrecked and ruined a +friendless young soldier's life. You shall be brought as low.'" + +The colonel was, as he afterwards remarked, hardly equal to the +occasion. He had as much contempt for moral weakness in a soldier as he +had for physical cowardice; but Rayner's almost abject recital of his +months of misery really left him nothing to say. Had the captain sought +to defend or justify any detail of his conduct, he would have pounced on +him like a panther. Twice the adjutant, sitting an absorbed and silent +listener, thought the chief on the verge of an outbreak; but it never +came. For some minutes after Rayner ceased the colonel sat steadily +regarding him. At last he spoke: + +"You have been so frank in your statement, captain, that I feel you +fully appreciate how such deplorable weakness must be regarded in an +officer. It is unnecessary for me to speak of that. The full particulars +of Clancy's confession are not yet with me. Major Waldron has it all in +writing, and Mr. Billings has merely told me the general features. Of +course you shall have a copy of it in good time. As you go East to-day +and have your wife and household to think for, it may be as well that +you do not attempt to see Mr. Hayne before starting. And this matter +will not be discussed." + +And so it happened that when the Rayners drove to the station that +bright afternoon, and a throng of ladies and officers gathered to see +them off, some of the youngsters going with them into town to await the +coming of the train, Nellie Travers had been surrounded by chattering +friends of both sexes, constantly occupied, and yet constantly looking +for the face of one who came not. For an hour before their departure +every tongue in garrison that wagged at all--and few there were that +wagged not--was discoursing on the exciting events of the +morning,--Hayne's emancipation from the last vestige of suspicion, +Clancy's capture, confession, and tragic death, Mrs. Clancy's flight and +probable future. At Rayner's, people spoke of these things very +guardedly, because every one saw that the captain was moved to the +depths of his nature. He was solemnity itself, and Mrs. Rayner watched +him with deep anxiety, fearful that he might be exposed to some +thoughtless or malicious questioning. Her surveillance was needless, +however: even Ross made no allusion to the events of the morning, though +he communicated to his fellows in the subsequent confidences of the +club-room that Midas looked as though he'd been pulled through a series +of knot-holes. "Looks more's though he were going to his own funeral +than on leave," he added. + +As for Hayne, he had been closeted with the colonel and Major Waldron +for some time after his return,--a conference that was broken in upon +by the startling news of Clancy's death. Then he had joined his friend +the doctor at the hospital, and was still there, striving to comfort +little Kate, who could not be induced to leave her father's rapidly +stiffening form, when Mrs. Waldron re-entered the room. Drawing the +child to her side and folding her motherly arms about her, she looked up +in Hayne's pale face: + +"They are going in five minutes. Don't you mean to see her?" + +"Not there,--not under his roof or in that crowd. I will go to the +station." + +"I must run over and say good-by in a moment,--when the carriage goes +around. Shall--shall I say you will come?" + +There was a light in his blue eyes she was just beginning to notice now +as she studied his face. A smile flickered one instant about the corners +of his mouth, and then he held out his hand: + +"She knows by this time, Mrs. Waldron." + +An hour later Mrs. Rayner was standing on the platform at the station, +Ross and others of her satellites hanging about her; Captain Rayner was +talking in subdued tones with one or two of the senior officers; Miss +Travers, looking feverishly pretty, was chatting busily with Royce and +Foster, though a close observer could have noted that her dark eyes +often sought the westward prairie over which wound the road to the +distant post. It was nearly train-time, and three or four horsemen could +be seen at various distances, while, far out towards the fort, long +skirmish-lines and fluttering guidons were sweeping over the slopes in +mimic war-array. + +"I have missed all this," she said, pointing to the scene; "and I do +love it so that it seems hard to go just as all the real soldier life is +beginning." + +"Goodness knows you've had offers enough to keep you here," said Foster, +with not the blithest laugh in the world. "Any girl who will go East and +marry a 'cit' and leave six or seven penniless subs sighing behind her, +I have my opinion of: she's eminently level-headed," he added, with +rueful and unexpected candor. + +"I have hopes of Miss Travers yet," boomed Royce, in his ponderous +basso,--"not personal hopes, Foster; you needn't feel for your +pistol,--but I believe that her heart is with the army, like the +soldier's daughter she is." And, audacious as was the speech and +deserving of instant rebuke, Mr. Royce was startled to see her reddening +vividly. He would have plunged into hasty apology, but Foster plucked +his sleeve: + +"Look who's coming, you galoot! She hasn't heard a word either of us has +said." + +And though Nellie Travers, noting the sudden silence, burst into an +immediate and utterly irrelevant lament over the loss of the Maltese +kitten,--which had not been seen all that day and was not to be found +when they came away,--it was useless. The effort was gallant, but the +flame in her cheeks betrayed her as, throwing his reins to the orderly +who followed him, Mr. Hayne dismounted at the platform and came directly +towards her. To Mrs. Rayner's unspeakable dismay, he walked up to the +trio, bowed low over the little gloved hand that was extended in answer +to the proffer of his own, and next she saw that Royce and Foster had, +as though by tacit consent, fallen back, and, _coram publico_, Mr. Hayne +was sole claimant of the regards of her baby sister. There was but one +comfort in the situation: the train was in sight. Forgetful, reckless +for the moment, of what was going on around her, she stood gazing at the +pair. No woman could fail to read the story; no woman could see his +face, his eyes, his whole attitude and expression, and not read therein +that old, old story that grows sweeter with every century of its life. +That he should be inspired with sudden, vehement love for her exquisite +Nell was something she could readily understand; but what--what meant +_her_ downcast eyes, the flutter of color on her soft and rounded cheek, +the shy uplifting of the fringed lids from time to time as though in +response to eager question or appeal? Heavens! would that train _never_ +come? The whistle was sounding in the distance, but it would take ages +to drag those heavy Pullmans up the grade from the bridge where they had +yet to stop. She could almost have darted forward, seized her sister by +the wrist, and whispered again the baleful reminder that of late had had +no mention between them,--"Thou art another's;" but in her distress her +weak blue eyes sought her husband's face. He saw it all, and shook his +head. Then there was nothing to be done. + +As the train came rumbling finally into the station, she saw him once +more clasp her sister's hand; then, with one long look into the sweet +face that was hidden from her jealous eyes, he raised his forage-cap and +stepped quickly back to where his horse was held. Her husband hastened +to her side: + +"Kate, I must speak to him. I don't care how he may take it; I cannot +go without it." + +They all watched the tall captain as he strode across the platform. +Every man in uniform seemed to know instinctively that Rayner at last +was seeking to make open reparation for the bitter wrong he had done. +One or two strove to begin a general chat and affect an interest in +something else, for Mrs. Rayner's benefit, but she, with trembling lips, +stood gazing after her husband and seemed to beg for silence. Then all +abandoned other occupation, and every man stood still and watched them. +Hayne had quickly swung into saddle, and had turned for one more look, +when he saw his captain with ashen face striding towards him, and heard +him call his name. + +"By Jove!" muttered Ross, "what command that fellow has over himself!" +for, scrupulously observant of military etiquette, Mr. Hayne on being +addressed by his superior officer had instantly dismounted, and now +stood silently facing him. Even at the distance, there were some who +thought they could see his features twitching; but his blue eyes were +calm and steady,--far clearer than they had been but a moment agone when +gazing good-by into the sweet face they worshipped. None could hear what +passed between them. The talk was very brief; but Ross almost gasped +with amaze, other officers looked at one another in utter astonishment, +and Mrs. Rayner fairly sobbed with excitement and emotion, when Mr. +Hayne was seen to hold forth his hand, and Rayner, grasping it eagerly +in both his own, shook it once, then strode hastily away towards the +rear of the train. His eyes were filled with tears he could not repress +and could not bear to show. + +That evening, as the train wound steadily eastward into the shadows of +the night, and they looked out in farewell upon the slopes they had last +seen when a wintry gale swept fiercely over the frozen surface and the +shallow ravines were streaked with snow, Kate Rayner, after a long talk +with her husband, and abandoning her boy to the sole guardianship of his +nurse, settled herself by Nellie's side, and Nellie knew that she either +sought confidences or had them to impart. Something of the old, +quizzical look was playing about the corner of her pretty mouth as her +elder sister, with feminine indirectness, began her verbal skirmishing +with the subject. It was some time before the question was reached which +led to her real objective: + +"Did he--did Mr. Hayne tell you much about Clancy?" + +"Not much. There was no time." + +"You had fully ten minutes, I'm sure. It seemed even longer." + +"Four by the clock, Kate." + +"Well, four, then. He must have had something of greater interest." + +No answer. Cheeks reddening, though. + +"Didn't he?"--persistently. + +"I will tell you what he told me of Clancy, Kate. Mrs. Clancy had +utterly deceived you as to what he had to tell, had she not?" + +"Utterly." And now it was Mrs. Rayner's turn to color painfully. + +"Mr. Hayne tells me that Clancy's confession really explained how +Captain Rayner was mistaken. It was not so much the captain's fault, +after all." + +"So Mr. Hayne told him. You knew they--you saw Mr. Hayne offer him his +hand, didn't you?" + +"I did not see: I knew he would." More vivid color, and much hesitation +now. + +"_Knew_ he would! Why, Nellie, what do you mean? He didn't tell you that +he was to see Captain Rayner. He couldn't have known." + +"But I knew, Kate; and I told him how the captain had suffered." + +"But how could you know that he would shake hands with him?" + +"He promised me." + +The silence was unbroken for a moment. Nellie Travers could hear the +beating of her own heart as she nestled closer to her sister and stole a +hand into hers. Mrs. Rayner was trying hard to be dutiful, stern, +unbending, to keep _her_ faith with the distant lover in the East, +whether Nell was true or no; but she had been so humbled, so changed, so +shaken, by the events of the past few weeks, that she felt all her old +spirit of guardianship ebbing away. "Must I give you up, Nell? and must +he, too?--Mr. Van Antwerp?" + +"He has not answered my last letter, Kate. It is nearly a week since I +have heard from him." + +"What did you write, Nellie?" + +"What I had done twice before,--that he ought to release me." + +"And--is Clancy's the only confession you have heard to-day?" + +"The only one." A pause: then, "I know what you mean, Kate; but he is +not the man to--to offer his love to a girl he knows is pledged to +another." + +"But if you were free, Nellie? Tell me." + +"I have no right to say, Kate; but"--and two big tears were welling up +into her brave eyes, as she clasped her hands and stretched them +yearningly before her--"shall I tell you what I think a girl would say +if she were free and had won his love?" + +"What, Nellie?" + +"She would say, 'Ay.' No woman with a heart could leave a man who has +borne so much and come through it all so bravely." + +Poor Mrs. Rayner! Humbled and chastened as she was, what refuge had she +but tears, and then--prayer? + + + + +XIX. + + +Within the week succeeding the departure of the Rayners and Miss +Travers, Lieutenant Hayne's brother-in-law and his remarkably attractive +sister were with him in garrison and helping him fit up the new quarters +which the colonel had rather insisted on his moving into and occupying, +even though two unmarried subalterns had to move out and make way for +him. This they seemed rather delighted to do. There was a prevailing +sentiment at Warrener that nothing was too good for Hayne nowadays; and +he took all this adulation so quietly and modestly that there was +difficulty in telling just how it affected him. Towards those who had +known him well in the days of his early service he still maintained a +dignity and reserve of manner that kept them at some distance. To +others, especially to the youngsters in the ----th as well as to those +in the Riflers, he unbent entirely, and was frank, unaffected, and +warm-hearted. He seemed to bask in the sunshine of the respect and +consideration accorded him on every side. Yet no one could say he seemed +happy. Courteous, grave far beyond his years, silent and thoughtful, he +impressed them all as a man who had suffered too much ever again to be +light-hearted. Then it was more than believed he had fallen deeply in +love with Nellie Travers; and that explained the rarity and sadness of +his smile. To the women he was a centre of intense and romantic +interest. Mrs. Waldron was an object of jealousy because of the priority +of her claims to his regard. Mrs. Hurley--the sweet sister who so +strongly resembled him--was the recipient of universal attention from +both sexes. Hayne and the Hurleys, indeed, would have been invited to +several places an evening could they have accepted. And yet, with it +all, Mr. Hayne seemed at times greatly preoccupied. He had a great deal +to think of. + +To begin with, the widow Clancy had been captured in one of the mining +towns, where she had sought refuge, and brought back by the civil +authorities, nearly three thousand dollars in greenbacks having been +found in her possession. She had fought like a fury and proved too much +for the sheriff's posse when first arrested, and not until three days +after her incarceration was the entire amount brought to light. There +was no question what ought to be done with it. Clancy's confession +established the fact that almost the entire amount was stolen from +Captain Hull nearly six years before, the night previous to his tragic +death at Battle Butte. Mrs. Clancy at first had furiously declared it +all a lie; but Waldron's and Billings's precaution in having Clancy's +entire story taken down by a notary public and sworn to before him +eventually broke her down. She made her miserable, whining admissions to +the sheriff's officers in town,--the colonel would not have her on the +post even as a prisoner,--and there she was still held, awaiting further +disclosures, while little Kate was lovingly cared for at Mrs. Waldron's. +Poor old Clancy was buried and on the way to be forgotten. + +What proved the hardest problem for the garrison to solve was the fact +that, while Mr. Hayne kept several of his old associates at a distance, +he had openly offered his hand to Rayner. This was something the Riflers +could not account for. The intensity of his feeling at the time of the +court-martial none could forget: the vehemence of his denunciation of +the captain was still fresh in the memory of those who heard it. Then +there were all those years in which Rayner had continued to crowd him to +the wall; and finally there was the almost tragic episode of Buxton's +midnight visitation, in which Rayner, willingly or not, had been in +attendance. Was it not odd that in the face of all these considerations +the first man to whom Mr. Hayne should have offered his hand was Captain +Rayner? Odd indeed! But then only one or two were made acquainted with +the full particulars of Clancy's confession, and none had heard Nellie +Travers's request. Touched as he was by the sight of Rayner's haggard +and trouble-worn face, relieved as he was by Clancy's revelation of the +web that had been woven to cover the tracks of the thieves and ensnare +the feet of the pursuers, Hayne could not have found it possible to +offer his hand; but when he bent over the tiny glove and looked into her +soft and brimming eyes at the moment of their parting he could not say +no to the one thing she asked of him: it was that if Rayner came to say, +"Forgive me," before they left, he would not repel him. + +There was one man in garrison whom Hayne cut entirely, and for whom no +one felt the faintest sympathy; and that, of course, was Buxton. With +Rayner gone, he hardly had an associate, though the _esprit de corps_ of +the ----th prompted the cavalry officers to be civil to him when he +appeared at the billiard-room. As Mr. Hurley was fond of the game, an +element of awkwardness was manifest the first time the young officers +appeared with their engineer friend. Hayne had not set foot in such a +place for five years, and quietly declined all invitations to take a cue +again. It was remembered of him that he played the prettiest game of +French caroms of all the officers at the station when he joined the +Riflers as a boy. Hurley could only stay a very short time, and the +subalterns were doing their best to make it lively for him. Some, +indeed, showed strong inclination to devote themselves to Mrs. Hurley; +but she was too busy with her brother's household affairs to detect +their projects. Hurley had turned very red and glared at Buxton the +first time the two met at the club-room, but the bulky captain speedily +found cover under which to retire, and never again showed himself in +general society until the engineer with the scientific attainments as a +boxer as well as road-builder was safely out of the post. + +And yet there came a day very soon when Mr. Hayne wished that he could +go to Buxton's quarters. He had in no wise changed his opinion of the +man himself, but the Rayners had not been gone a fortnight before Mrs. +Buxton began to tell the ladies of the charming letters she was +receiving from Mrs. Rayner,--all about their travels. There were many +things he longed to know, yet could not ask. + +There came to him a long and sorrowful letter from the captain himself, +but, beyond a few matters relating to the company and the transfer of +its property, it was all given up to a recapitulation of the troubles of +the past few years and to renewed expressions of his deep regret. Of the +ladies he made but casual mention. They were journeying down the +Mississippi on one of its big steamers when he wrote, and Mrs. Rayner +was able to enjoy the novelties of the trip, and was getting better, but +still required careful nursing. Miss Travers was devoted to her. They +would go to New Orleans, then possibly by sea around to New York, +arriving there about the 5th of June: that, however, was undecided. He +closed by asking Hayne to remind Major Waldron that his copy of Clancy's +confession had not yet reached him, and he was anxious to see it in +full. + +"The one thing lacking to complete the chain is Gower," said the major, +as he looked up over his spectacles. "It would be difficult to tell what +became of him. We get tidings of most of the deserters who were as +prominent among the men as he appears to have been; but I have made +inquiry, and so has the colonel, and not a word has ever been heard of +him since the night he appeared before Mrs. Clancy and handed over the +money to her. He was a strange character, from all accounts, and must +have had some conscience, after all. Do you remember him at all, Hayne?" + +"I remember him well. We made the march from the Big Horn over to Battle +Butte together, and he was a soldier one could not help remarking. Of +course I never had anything to say to him; but we heard he was an expert +gambler when the troop was over there at Miners' Delight." + +"Of course his testimony isn't necessary. Clancy and his wife between +them have cleared you, after burying you alive five years. But nothing +but his story could explain his singular conduct,--planning the whole +robbery, executing it with all the skill of a professional jail-bird, +deserting and covering several hundred miles with his plunder, then +daring to go to the old fort, find Mrs. Clancy, and surrender every +cent, the moment he heard of your trial. What a fiend that woman was! No +wonder she drove Clancy to drink!" + +"Will you send copies of her admission with Clancy's affidavits?" asked +Hayne. + +"Here they are in full," answered the major. "The colonel talks of +having them printed and strewn broadcast as warnings against 'snap +judgment' and too confident testimony in future." + +Divested of the legal encumbrances with which such documents are usually +weighted, Clancy's story ran substantially as follows: + +"I was sergeant in K troop, and Gower was in F. We had been stationed +together six months or so when ordered out on the Indian campaign that +summer. I was dead-broke. All my money was gone, and my wife kept +bothering me for more. I owed a lot of money around head-quarters, too, +and Gower knew it, and sometimes asked me what I was going to do when we +got back from the campaign. We were not good friends, him and I. There +was money dealings between us, and then there was talk about Mrs. Clancy +fancying him too much. The paymaster came up with a strong escort and +paid off the boys late in October, just as the expedition was breaking +up and going for home, and all the officers and men got four months' +pay. There was Lieutenant Crane and twenty men of F troop out on a +scout, but the lieutenant had left his pay-rolls with Captain Hull, and +the men had all signed before they started, and so the captain he drew +it all for them and put each man's money in an envelope marked with his +name, and the lieutenant's too, and then crowded it all into some bigger +envelopes. I was there where I could see it all, and Gower was watching +him close. 'It's a big pile the captain's got,' says he. 'I'd like to be +a road-agent and nab him.' When I told him it couldn't be over eleven +hundred dollars, he says, 'That's only part. He has his own pay, and six +hundred dollars company fund, and a wad of greenbacks he's been carryin' +around all summer. It's nigh on to four thousand dollars he's got in his +saddle-bags this day.' + +"And that night, instead of Lieutenant Crane's coming back, he sent word +he had found the trail of a big band of Indians, and the whole crowd +went in pursuit. There was four companies of infantry, under Captain +Rayner, and F and K troops,--what was left of them,--that were ordered +to stay by the wagons and bring them safely down; and we started with +them over towards Battle Butte, keeping south of the way the regiment +had gone to follow Mr. Crane. And the very next day Captain Rayner got +orders to bring his battalion to the river and get on the boat, while +the wagons kept on down the bank with us to guard them. And Mr. Hayne +was acting quartermaster, and he stayed with us; and him and Captain +Hull was together a good deal. There was some trouble, we heard, because +Captain Rayner thought another officer should have been made +quartermaster and Mr. Hayne should have stayed with his company, and +they had some words; but Captain Hull gave Mr. Hayne a horse and seemed +to keep him with him; and that night, in sight of Battle Butte, the +steamboat was out of sight ahead when we went into camp, and I was +sergeant of the guard and had my fire near the captain's tent, and twice +in the evening Gower came to me and said now was the time to lay hands +on the money and skip. At last he says to me, 'You are flat-broke, and +they'll all be down on you when you get back to the post. No man in +America wants five hundred dollars more than you do. I'll give you five +hundred in one hour from now if you'll get the captain out of his tent +for half an hour.' Almost everybody was asleep then; the captain was, +and so was Mr. Hayne, and he went on to tell me how he could do it. He'd +been watching the captain. It made such a big bundle, did the money, in +all the separate envelopes that he had done it all up different,--made a +memorandum of the amount due each man, and packed the greenbacks all +together in one solid pile,--his own money, the lieutenant's, and the +men's,--done it up in paper and tied it firmly and put big blotches of +green sealing-wax on it and sealed them with the seal on his +watch-chain. Says Gower, 'You get the captain out, as I tell you, and +I'll slip right in, get the money, stuff some other paper with a few +ones and twos in the package; his seal, his watch, and everything is +there in the saddle-bags under his head, and I can reseal and replace it +in five minutes, and he'll never suspect the loss until the command all +gets together again next week. By that time I'll be three hundred miles +away. Everybody will say 'twas Gower that robbed him, and you with your +five hundred will never be suspected.' I asked him how could he expect +the captain to go and leave so much money in his bags with no one to +guard it; and he said he'd bet on it if I did it right. The captain had +had no luck tracking Indians that summer, and the regiment was laughing +at him. He knew they were scattering every which way now, and was eager +to strike them. All I had to do was to creep in excited-like, wake him +up sudden, and tell him I was sure I had heard an Indian drum and their +scalp-dance song out beyond the pickets,--that they were over towards +Battle Butte, and he could hear them if he would come out on the +river-bank. 'He'd go quick,' says Gower, 'and think of nothing.' + +"And--I wouldn't believe it, but he did. He sprang up and went right out +with me, just flinging his overcoat round him; and he never seemed to +want to come in. The wind was blowing soft-like from the southeast, and +he stood there straining his ears trying to hear the sounds I told him +of; but at last he gave it up, and we went back to camp, and he took his +lantern and looked in his saddle-bags, and I shook for fear; but he +seemed to find everything all right, and in the next ten minutes he was +asleep, and Gower came and whispered to me, and I went with him, and he +gave me five hundred dollars, in twenties. 'Now you're bound,' says he; +'keep the sentries off while I get my horse.' And that's the last I ever +saw of him. Then a strange thing happened. 'Twas hardly daylight when a +courier came galloping up, and I called the captain, and he read the +despatch, and says he, 'By heaven, Clancy, you were right after all. +There _are_ Indians over there. Why didn't I trust your ears? Call up +the whole command. The Riflers have treed them at Battle Butte, and +Captain Rayner has gone with his battalion. We are to escort the wagons +to where the boat lies beyond the bend, and then push over with all the +horsemen we can take.' It was after daylight when we got started, but we +almost ran the wagons 'cross country to the boat, and there Captain Hull +took F troop and what there was of his own, leaving only ten men back +with the wagons; and not till then was Gower missed; but all were in +such a hurry to get to the Indians that no one paid attention. Mr. Hayne +he begged the captain to let him go too: so the train was left with the +wagon-master and the captain of the boat, and away we went. You know all +about the fight, and how 'twas Mr. Hayne the captain called to and gave +his watch and the two packages of money when he was ordered to charge. I +was right by his side; and I swore--God forgive me!--that through the +crack and tear in the paper I could see the layers of greenbacks, when I +knew 'twas only some ones and twos Gower had slipped in to make it look +right; and Captain Rayner stood there and saw the packet, too, and +Sergeant Walshe and Bugler White; but them two were killed with him: so +that 'twas only Captain Rayner and I was left as witnesses, and never +till we got to Laramie after the campaign did the trouble come. I never +dreamed of anything ever coming of it but that every one would say Gower +stole the money and deserted; but when the captain turned the packages +over to Mr. Hayne, and then got killed, and Mr. Hayne carried the +packages, with the watch, seal, saddle-bags, and all, in to Cheyenne, +and never opened them till he got there,--two weeks after, when we were +all scattered,--then they turned on him, his own officers did, and said +he stole it and gambled or sent it away in Cheyenne. + +"I had lost much of my money then, and Mrs. Clancy got the rest, and it +made me crazy to think of that poor young gentleman accused of it all; +but I was in for it, and knew it meant prison for years for me, and +perhaps they couldn't prove it on him. I got to drinking then, and told +Captain Rayner that the ----th was down on me for swearing away the +young officer's character; and then he took me to Company B when the +colonel wouldn't have me any more in the ----th; and one night when Mrs. +Clancy had been raising my hair and I wanted money to drink and she'd +give me none, little Kate told me her mother had lots of money in a box, +and that Sergeant Gower had come and given it to her while they were +getting settled in the new post after the Battle Butte campaign, and he +had made her promise to give it to me the moment I got back,--that +somebody was in trouble, and that I must save him; and I believed Kate, +and charged Mrs. Clancy with it, and she beat me and Kate, and swore it +was all a lie; and I never could get the money. And at last came the +fire; and it was the lieutenant that saved my life and Kate's, and +brought back to her all that pile of money through the flames. It broke +my heart then, and I vowed I'd go and tell him the truth; but they +wouldn't let me. She told me the captain said he would kill me if I +blabbed, and she would kill Kate. I didn't dare, until they told me my +discharge had come; and then I was glad when the lieutenant and the +major caught me in town. When they promised to take care of little Kate +I didn't care what happened to me. The money Mrs. Clancy has--except +perhaps two hundred dollars--all belongs to Lieutenant Hayne, since he +paid off every cent that was stolen from Captain Hull." + +Supplemented by Mrs. Clancy's rueful and incoherent admissions, Clancy's +story did its work. Mrs. Clancy could not long persist in her various +denials after her husband's confession was brought to her ears, and she +was totally unable to account satisfactorily for the possession of so +much money. Little Kate had been too young to grasp the full meaning of +what Gower said to her mother in that hurried interview; but her +reiterated statements that he came late at night, before the regiment +got home, and knocked at the door until he waked them up, and her mother +cried when he came in, he looked so different, and had spectacles, and a +patch on his cheek, and ranch clothes, and he only stayed a little +while, and told her mother he must go back to the mountains, the police +were on his track,--she knew now he spoke of having deserted,--and he +gave her mother lots of money, for she opened and counted it afterwards +and told her it must all go to papa to get some one out of trouble,--all +were so clear and circumstantial that at last the hardened woman began +to break down and make reluctant admissions. When an astute sheriff's +officer finally told her that he knew where he could lay hands on +Sergeant Gower, she surrendered utterly. So long as he was out of the +way,--could not be found,--she held out; but the prospect of dragging +into prison with her the man who had spurned her in years gone by and +was proof against her fascinations was too alluring. She told all she +could at his expense. He had ridden eastward after his desertion, and, +making his way down the Missouri, had stopped at Yankton and gone thence +to Kansas City, spending much of his money. He had reached Denver with +the rest, and there--she knew not how--had made or received more, when +he heard of the fact that Captain Hull had turned over his property to +Lieutenant Hayne just before he was killed, and that the lieutenant was +now to be tried for failing to account for it. He brought her enough to +cover all he had taken, but--here she lied--strove to persuade her to go +to San Francisco with him. She promised to think of it if he would leave +the money,--which he did, swearing he would come for her and it. That +was why she dared not tell Mike when he got home. He was so jealous of +her. + +To this part of her statement Mrs. Clancy stoutly adhered; but the +officers believed Kate. + +One other thing she told. Kate had declared he wore a heavy patch on his +right cheek and temple. Yes, Mrs. Clancy remembered it. Some scoundrels +had sought to rob him in Denver. He had to fight for life and money +both, and his share of the honors of the fray was a deep and clean cut +extending across the cheek-bone and up above the right ear. + +As these family revelations were told throughout the garrison and +comment of every kind was made thereon, there is reason for the belief +that Mrs. Buxton found no difficulty in filling her letters with +particulars of deep interest to her readers, who by this time had +carried out the programme indicated by Captain Rayner. Mid-June had +come; the ladies, apparently benefited by the sea-voyage, had landed in +New York and were speedily driven to their old quarters at the +Westminster; and while the captain went to head-quarters of the +department to report his arrival on leave and get his letters, a card +was sent up to Miss Travers which she read with cheeks that slightly +paled: + +"He is here, Kate." + +"Nellie, you--you won't throw him over, after all he has done and borne +for you?" + +"I shall keep my promise," was the answer. + + + + +XX. + + +"And so she's really going to marry Mr. Van Antwerp", said Mrs. Buxton +to Mrs. Waldron a few days later in the month of sunshine and roses. + +"I did not think it possible when she left," was the reply. "Why do you +say so now?" + +"Oh, Mrs. Rayner writes that the captain had to go to Washington on +some important family matters, and that she and Nellie were at the +sea-shore again, and Mr. Van Antwerp was with them from morning till +night. He looked so worn and haggard, she said, that Nellie could not +but take pity on him. Heavens! think of having five hundred thousand +dollars sighing its life away for you!--especially when he's handsome. +Mrs. Rayner made me promise to send it right back, because he would +never give her one before, but she sent his picture. It's splendid. +Wait, and I'll show you." And Mrs. Buxton darted into the house. + +When she reappeared, three or four young cavalrymen were at the gate, +chatting with Mrs. Waldron, and the picture was passed from hand to +hand, exciting varied comment. It was a simple _carte de visite_, of the +style once spoken of as vignette,--only the head and shoulders being +visible,--but it was the picture of a strong, clear-cut face, with +thick, wavy black hair just tingeing with gray, a drooping moustache, +and long English whiskers. The eyes were heavy-browed, and, though +partially shaded by the gold-rimmed _pince-nez_, were piercing and fine. +Mr. Van Antwerp was unquestionably a fine-looking man. + +"Here comes Hayne," said Royce. "Show it to him. He likes pictures; +though I wouldn't like this one if I were in his place." + +Mr. Hayne stopped in some surprise when hailed, greeted Mrs. Waldron +warmly, and bowed courteously to Mrs. Buxton, who was watching him +narrowly. + +"Want to see a picture of the man you ought to go and perforate?" asked +Webster, with that lofty indifference which youngsters have to the +ravages of the tender passion on subjects other than themselves. + +"To whom do you refer?" asked Hayne, smiling gravely, and little +imagining what was in store for him. + +"This," said Webster, holding out the card. Hayne took it, gave one +glance, started, seized it with both hands, studied it eagerly, while +his own face rapidly paled, then looked up with quick, searching eyes. + +"Who is this?" he asked. + +"The man who's engaged to Miss Travers,--Mr. Van Antwerp." + +"This--_this_--Mr. Van Antwerp!" exclaimed Hayne, his face white as a +sheet. "Here, take it, Royce!" And in an instant he had turned and gone. + +"Well, I'll be hanged if I knew he was _that_ hard hit," drawled +Webster. "Did you, Royce?" + +But Royce did not answer. + +A gorgeous moonlight is bathing the Jersey coast in sparkling silver. +The tumbling billows come thundering in to the shining strand, and +sending their hissing, seething, whirling waters, all shimmer and +radiance, to the very feet of the groups of spectators. There are +hundreds of people scattered here and there along the shingle, and among +the groups a pale-faced young man in tweed travelling-suit has made his +way to a point where he can command a view of all the passers-by. It is +nearly eleven o'clock before they begin to break up and seek the broad +corridors of the brilliantly-lighted hotel. A great military band of +nearly forty pieces is playing superbly at intervals, and every now and +then, as some stirring martial strains come thrilling through the air, a +young girl in a group near at hand beats time with her pretty foot and +seems to quiver with the influence of the soldier melodies. A tall, +dark-eyed, dark-haired man bends devotedly over her, but he, too, seems +to rise to his full height at times, and there is something in the +carriage and mien that tells that soldier songs have thrilled his veins +ere now. And this man the young traveller in gray watches as though his +eyes were fascinated. Standing in the shade of a little summer-house, he +never ceases his scrutiny of the group. + +At last the musicians go, and the people follow. The sands are soon +deserted; the great piazzas are emptied of their promenaders; the halls +and corridors are still patronized by the few belated chaperons and +their giddy charges. The music-loving girl has gone aloft to her room, +and her aunt, the third member of the group that so chained the +attention of the young map in gray, lingers for a moment to exchange a +few words with their cavalier. He seems in need of consolation. + +"Don't be, so down-hearted, Mr. Van Antwerp. It is very early in the +summer, and you have the whole season before you." + +"No, Mrs. Rayner: it is very different from last year. I cannot explain +it, but I know there has been a change. I feel as--as I used to in my +old, wild days when a change of luck was coming. It's like the gambler's +superstition; but I cannot shake it off. Something told me she was lost +to me when, you boarded that Pacific Express last February. I was a fool +ever to have let her go." + +"Is she still so determined?" + +"I cannot shake her resolution. She says that at the end of the year's +time originally agreed upon she will keep her promise; but she will +listen to no earlier marriage. I have about given up all hope. Something +again--that fearful something I cannot shake off--tells me that my only +chance lay in getting her to go with me this month. Once abroad with +her, I could make her happy; but--" + +He breaks off irresolutely, looking about him in the strange, hunted +manner she has noted once or twice already. + +"You are all unstrung, Mr. Van Antwerp. Why not go to bed and try and +sleep? You will be so much brighter to-morrow." + +"I cannot sleep. But don't let me keep you. I'll go out and smoke a +cigar. Good-night, Mrs. Rayner. Whatever comes of it all, I shall not +forget your kindness." + +So he turns away, and she still stands at the foot of the staircase, +watching him uneasily. He has aged greatly in the past few months. She +is shocked to see how gray, how fitful, nervous, irritable, he has +become. As he moves towards the door-way, she notes how thin his cheek +has grown, and wonders at the irresolution in his movements when he +reaches the broad piazza. He stands there an instant, the massive +door-way forming a frame for a picture _en silhouette_, his tall spare +figure thrown black upon the silver sea beyond. He looks up and down the +now-deserted galleries, fumbles in his pockets for his cigar-case, bites +off with nervous clip the end of a huge "Regalia," strikes a light, and +before the flame is half applied to his weed throws it away, then turns +sharply and strides out of sight towards the office. + +Another instant, and, as though in pursuit, a second figure, erect, +soldierly, with quick and bounding step strides across the glittering +moon-streak, and Mrs. Rayner's heart stands still. + +Only for an instant, though. She has seen and recognized Lawrence Hayne. +Concealed from them he is following Mr. Van Antwerp, and there can be +but one purpose in his coming here,--Nellie. But what can he want with +her--her rightful lover? She springs from the lower step on which she +has been standing, runs across the tessellated floor, and stops short in +the door-way, gazing after the two figures. She is startled to find them +close at hand,--one, Van Antwerp, close to the railing, facing towards +her, his features ghastly in the moonlight, his left hand resting, and +supporting him, on one of the tall wooden pillars; the other, Hayne, +with white clinching fists, advancing upon him. Above the low boom and +roar of the surf she distinctly hears the clear tenor ring of his voice +in the tone of command she last heard under the shadow of the Rockies, +two thousand miles away: + +"Halt!" + +No wonder a gentleman in civil life looks amazed at so peremptory a +summons from a total stranger. In his high indignation will he not +strike the impertinent subaltern to earth? As a well-bred woman, it +occurs to her that she ought to rush out and avert hostilities by +introducing them, or something; but she has no time to act. The next +words simply take her breath away: + +"Sergeant Gower, I arrest you as a deserter and thief! You deserted from +F troop, ----th Cavalry, at Battle Butte!" + +She sees the fearful gleam on the dark man's face; there is a sudden +spring, a clinch, a straining to and fro of two forms,--one tall, black, +snaky, the other light, lithe, agile, and trained; muttered curse, +panting breath, and then, sure as fate, the taller man is being borne +backward against the rail. She sees the dark arm suddenly relax its +grasp of the gray form and disappear an instant. Then, there it comes +again, and with it a gleam of steel. With one shriek of warning and +terror she springs towards them,--just in time. Hayne glances up, +catches the lifted wrist, hurls his whole weight upon the tottering +figure, and over goes the Knickerbocker prone upon the floor. Hayne +turns one instant: "Go in-doors, Mrs. Rayner. This is no place for you. +Leave him to me." + +And in that instant, before either can prevent, Steven Van Antwerp, +_alias_ Gower, springs to his feet, leaps over the balcony rail, and +disappears in the depths below. It is a descent of not more than ten +feet to the sands beyond the dark passage that underlies the piazza, but +he has gone down into the passage itself. When Mr. Hayne, running down +the steps, gains his way to the space beneath the piazza, no trace of +the fugitive can he find. + + * * * * * + +Nor does Mr. Van Antwerp appear at breakfast on the following morning, +nor again to any person known to this story. An officer of the ----th +Cavalry, spending a portion of the following winter in Paris, writes +that he met him face to face one day in the galleries of the Louvre. +Being in civilian costume, of course, and much changed in appearance +since he was a youth in the straps of a second lieutenant, it was +possible for him to take a good long look at the man he had not seen +since he wore the chevrons of a dashing sergeant in the Battle Butte +campaign. "He has grown almost white," wrote the lieutenant, "and I'm +told he has abandoned his business in New York and never will return to +the United States." + +Rayner, too, has grown gray. A telegram from his wife summoned him to +the sea-side from Washington the day after this strange adventure of +hers. He found her somewhat prostrate, his sister-in-law very pale and +quiet, and the clerks of the hotel unable to account for the +disappearance of Mr. Van Antwerp. Lieutenant Hayne, they said, had told +them he received news which compelled him to go back to New York at +once; but the gentleman's traps were all in his room. Mr. Hayne, too, +had gone to New York; and thither the captain followed. A letter came to +him at the Westminster which he read and handed in silence to Hayne. It +was as follows: + +"By the time this reaches you I shall be beyond reach of the law and on +my way to Europe to spend what may be left of my days. I hope they may +be few; for the punishment that has fallen upon me is more than I can +bear, though no more than I deserve. You have heard that my college days +were wild, and that after repeated warnings my father drove me from +home, sending me to Wyoming to embark in the cattle-business. I +preferred gambling, and lost what he gave me. There was nothing then +left but to enlist; and I joined the ----th. Mother still believed me in +or near Denver, and wrote regularly there. The life was horrible to me +after the luxury and lack of restraint I had enjoyed, and I meant to +desert. Chance threw in my way that temptation. I robbed poor Hull the +night before he was killed, repacked the paper so that even the torn +edges would show the greenbacks, resealed it,--all just as I have had to +hear through her pure and sacred lips it was finally told and her lover +saved. + +"God knows I was shocked when I heard in Denver he was to be tried for +the crime. I hastened to Cheyenne, not daring to show myself to him or +any one, and restored every cent of the money, placing it in Mrs. +Clancy's hands, as I dared not stay; but I had hoped to give it to +Clancy, who had not arrived. The police knew me, and I _had_ to go. I +gave every cent I had, and _walked_ back to Denver, then got word to +mother of my fearful danger; and, though she never knew I was a +deserter, she sent me money, and I came East and went abroad. Then my +whole life changed. I was appalled to think how low I had fallen. I +shunned companionship, studied, did well at Heidelberg; father forgave +me, and died; but God has not forgiven, and at the moment when I thought +my life redeemed this retribution overtakes me. + +"If I may ask anything, it is that mother may never know the truth. I +will tell her that Nellie could not love me, and I could not bear to +stay." + + * * * * * + +Some few weeks later that summer Miss Travers stood by the same balcony +rail, with an open letter in her hand. There was a soft flush on her +pretty, peachy cheek, and a far-away look in her sweet blue eyes. + +"What news from Warrener, Nellie?" asked Mrs. Rayner. + +"Fluffy has reappeared." + +"Indeed! Where?" + +"At Mr. Hayne's. He writes that as he returned, the moment he entered +the hall she came running up to him, arching her back and purring her +delight and welcoming him just as though she belonged there now; and--" + +"And what, Nellie?" + +"He says he means to keep her until I come to claim her." + + THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Deserter, by Charles King + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DESERTER *** + +***** This file should be named 16557-8.txt or 16557-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/5/5/16557/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Janet Blenkinship and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +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. 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Charles King. + </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; + } + + div.trans-note {border-style: solid; border-width: 1px; + margin: 3em 15%; padding: 1em; text-align: center;} + table {margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;} + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + .author {text-align: right; margin-right: 5%;} + .linenum {position: absolute; top: auto; left: 4%;} /* poetry number */ + .pagenum {position: absolute; left: 92%; font-size: smaller; text-align: right;} /* page numbers */ + + .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;} + + .caption {font-weight: bold;} + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<pre> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Deserter, 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: The Deserter + +Author: Charles King + +Release Date: August 20, 2005 [EBook #16557] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DESERTER *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Janet Blenkinship and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<p><a name="Page_0" id="Page_0"></a></p><p><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1"></a></p> + +<h1>THE DESERTER</h1> + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h2>CAPT. CHARLES KING, U.S.A.,</h2> + +<h4>AUTHOR OF "THE COLONEL'S DAUGHTER," "MARION'S FAITH," "KITTY'S +CONQUEST," ETC., ETC.</h4> + +<div class="trans-note"> + Transcriber's Note: This e-book of The Deserter is based upon the edition found in The Deserter,<br /> + and From the Ranks. Two Novels, by Capt. Charles King. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Company, 1890.<br /> + From the Ranks is also available as a Project Gutenberg e-book. + </div> + +<p class='center'>PHILADELPHIA:</p> + +<p class='center'>J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.</p> + +<p class='center'>1890</p> + +<p class='center'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2"></a>Copyright, 1887, by <span class="smcap">J.B. Lippincott Company</span>.</p> + +<h2><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3"></a></h2> + +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="TABLE OF CONTENTS"> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#PRELUDE">PRELUDE.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#I">CHAPTER I.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#II">CHAPTER II.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#III">CHAPTER III.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#V">CHAPTER V.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#X">CHAPTER X.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#XII">CHAPTER XII.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#XV">CHAPTER XV.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#XIX">CHAPTER XIX.</a></td></tr> +<tr><td align='left'><a href="#XX">CHAPTER XX.</a></td></tr> +</table></div> + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4"></a></p><p><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5"></a></p> + +<h2>THE DESERTER</h2> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<h2><a name="PRELUDE" id="PRELUDE"></a>PRELUDE.</h2> + + +<p>Far up in the Northwest, along the banks of the broad, winding stream +the Sioux call the Elk, a train of white-topped army-wagons is slowly +crawling eastward. The October sun is hot at noon-day, and the dust from +the loose soil rises like heavy smoke and powders every face and form in +the guarding battalion so that features are wellnigh indistinguishable. +Four companies of stalwart, sinewy infantry, with their brown rifles +slung over the shoulder, are striding along in dispersed order, covering +the exposed southern flank from sudden attack, while farther out along +the ridge-line, and far to the front and rear, cavalry skirmishers and +scouts are riding to and fro, searching every hollow and ravine, peering +cautiously over every "divide," and signalling "halt" or "forward" as +the indications warrant.</p> + +<p>And yet not a hostile Indian has been seen; not one, even as distant +vedette, has appeared in range of the binoculars, since the scouts rode +in at daybreak to say that big bands were in the immediate neighborhood. +It has been a long, hard summer's work for the troops, and the Indians +have been, to all commands that boasted strength or swiftness, elusive +as the Irishman's flea of tradition. Only to those whose numbers were +weak or whose movements were hampered have they appeared in +fighting-trim. But combinations have been too much for them, and at last +they have been "herded" down to the Elk, have crossed, and are now +seeking to make their way, with women, children, tepees, dogs, +"travois," and the great pony herds, to the fastnesses of the Big Horn; +and now comes the opportunity for which an old Indian-fighter has been +anxiously waiting. In a big cantonment he has held the main body under +his command, while keeping out constant scouting-parties to the east and +north. He knows well that, true to their policy, the<a name="Page_6" id="Page_6"></a> Indians will have +scattered into small bands capable of reassembling anywhere that signal +smokes may call them, and his orders are to watch all the crossings of +the Elk and nab them as they come into his district. He watches, despite +the fact that it is his profound conviction that the Indians will be no +such idiots as to come just where they are wanted, and he is in no wise +astonished when a courier comes in on jaded horse to tell him that they +have "doubled" on the other column and are now two or three days' march +away down stream, "making for the big bend." His own scouting-parties +are still out to the eastward: he can pick them up as he goes. He sends +the main body of his infantry, a regiment jocularly known as "The +Riflers," to push for a landing some fifty miles down-stream, scouting +the lower valley of the Sweet Root on the way. He sends his wagon-train, +guarded by four companies of foot and two of horsemen, by the only +practicable road to the bend, while he, with ten seasoned "troops" of +his pet regiment, the ——th Cavalry, starts forthwith on a long détour +in which he hopes to "round up" such bands as may have slipped away from +the general rush. Even as "boots and saddles" is sounding, other +couriers come riding in from Lieutenant Crane's party. He has struck the +trail of a big band.</p> + +<p>When the morning sun dawns on the picturesque valley in which the +cantonment nestled but the day before, it illumines an almost deserted +village, and brings no joy to the souls of some twoscore of embittered +civilians who had arrived only the day previous, and whose unanimous +verdict is that the army is a fraud and ought to be abolished. For four +months or more some three regiments had been camping, scouting, roughing +it thereabouts, with not a cent of pay. Then came the wildly exciting +tidings that a boat was on the way up the Missouri with a satrap of the +pay department, vast store of shekels, and a strong guard, and as a +consequence there would be some two thousand men around the cantonment +with pockets full of money and no one to help them spend it, and nothing +suitable to spend it on. It was a duty all citizens owed to the +Territory to hasten to the scene and gather in for local circulation all +that was obtainable of that disbursement; otherwise the curse of the +army might get ahead of them and the boys would gamble it away among +themselves or spend it for vile whiskey manufactured for their sole +benefit. Gallatin Valley was emptied of its prominent practitioners in +the game of poker. The stream was black with "Mackinaw" boats and other +craft. There was a rush for <a name="Page_7" id="Page_7"></a>the cantonment that rivalled the multitudes +of the mining days, but all too late. The command was already packing up +when the first contingent arrived, and the commanding officer, +recognizing the fraternity at a glance, warned them outside the limits +of camp that night, declined their services as volunteers on the +impending campaign, and treated them with such calmly courteous +recognition of their true character that the Eastern press was speedily +filled with sneering comment on the hopelessness of ever subduing the +savage tribes of the Northwest when the government intrusts the duty to +upstart officers of the regular service whose sole conception of their +functions is to treat with insult and contempt the hardy frontiersman +whose mere presence with the command would be of incalculable benefit. +"We have it from indisputable authority," says <i>The Miner's Light</i> of +Brandy Gap, "that when our esteemed fellow-citizen Hank Mulligan and +twenty gallant shots and riders like himself went in a body to +General—— at the cantonment and offered their services as volunteers +against the Sioux now devastating the homesteads and settlements of the +Upper Missouri and Yellowstone valleys, they were treated with haughty +and contemptuous refusal by that bandbox caricature of a soldier and +threatened with arrest if they did not quit the camp. When <i>will</i> the +United States learn that its frontiers can never be purged of the Indian +scourges of our civilization until the conduct of affairs in the field +is intrusted to other hands than these martinets of the drill-ground? It +is needless to remark in this connection that the expedition led by +General—— has proved a complete failure, and that the Indians easily +escaped his clumsily-led forces."</p> + +<p>The gamblers, though baffled for the time being, of course "get square," +and more too, with the unfortunate general in this sort of warfare, but +they are a disgusted lot as they hang about the wagon-train as last of +all it is being hitched-in to leave camp. Some victims, of course, they +have secured, and there are no devices of commanding officers which can +protect their men against those sharks of the prairies when the men +themselves are bound to tempt Providence and play. There are two +scowling faces in the cavalry escort that has been left back with the +train, and Captain Hull, the commanding officer, has reprimanded +Sergeants Clancy and Gower in stinging terms for their absence from the +command during the night. There is little question where they spent it, +and both have been "cleaned out." What makes it worse, both have <a name="Page_8" id="Page_8"></a>lost +money that belonged to other men in the command, and they are in bad +odor accordingly.</p> + +<p>The long day's march has tempered the joviality of the entire column. It +is near sundown, and still they keep plodding onward, making for a +grassy level on the river-bank a good mile farther.</p> + +<p>"Old Hull seems bound to leave the sports as far behind as possible, if +he has to march us until midnight," growls the battalion adjutant to his +immediate commander. "By thunder! one would think he was afraid they +would get in a lick at his own pile."</p> + +<p>"How much did you say he was carrying?" asks Captain Rayner, checking +his horse for a moment to look back over the valley at the long, +dust-enveloped column.</p> + +<p>"Nearly three thousand dollars in one wad."</p> + +<p>"How does he happen to have such a sum?"</p> + +<p>"Why, Crane left his pay-accounts with him. He drew all that was due his +men who are off with Crane,—twenty of them,—for they had signed the +rolls before going, and were expected back to-day. Then he has some six +hundred dollars company fund; and the men of his troop asked him to take +care of a good deal besides. The old man has been with them so many +years they look upon him as a father and trust him as implicitly as they +would a savings-bank."</p> + +<p>"That's all very well," answers Rayner; "but I wouldn't want to carry +any such sum with me."</p> + +<p>"It's different with Hull's men, captain. They are ordered in through +the posts and settlements. They have a three weeks' march ahead of them +when they get through their scout, and they want their money on the way. +It was only after they had drawn it that the news came of the Indians' +crossing and of our having to jump for the warpath. Everybody thought +yesterday morning that the campaign was about over so far as we are +concerned. Halloo! here comes young Hayne. Now, what does <i>he</i> want?"</p> + +<p>Riding a quick, nervous little bay troop horse, a slim-built officer, +with boyish face, laughing blue eyes, and sunny hair, comes loping up +the long prairie wave; he shouts cheery greeting to one or two brother +subalterns who are plodding along beside their men, and exchanges some +merry chaff with Lieutenant Ross, who is prone to growl at the luck +which has kept him afoot and given to this favored youngster a "mount" +and a temporary staff position. The boy's spirits and fun seem to jar on +Rayner's nerves. He regards him blackly as he rides gracefully towards +<a name="Page_9" id="Page_9"></a>the battalion commander, and with decidedly nonchalant ease of manner +and an "off-hand" salute that has an air about it of saying, "I do this +sort of thing because one has to, but it doesn't really mean anything, +you know," Mr. Hayne accosts his superior:</p> + +<p>"Ah, good-evening, captain. I have just come back from the front, and +Captain Hull directed me to give you his compliments and say that we +would camp in the bend yonder, and he would like you to post strong +pickets and have a double guard to-night."</p> + +<p>"Have <i>me</i> post double guards! How the devil does he expect me to do +that after marching all day?"</p> + +<p>"I did not inquire, sir: he might have told me 'twas none of my +business, don't you know?" And Mr. Hayne has the insufferable hardihood +to wink at the battalion adjutant,—a youth of two years' longer service +than his own.</p> + +<p>"Well, Mr. Hayne, this is no matter for levity," says Rayner, angrily. +"What does Captain Hull mean to do with his own men, if I'm to do the +guard?"</p> + +<p>"That is another point, Captain Rayner, which I had not the requisite +effrontery to inquire into. Now, <i>you</i> might ask him, but I couldn't, +don't you know?" responds Hayne, smiling amiably the while into the +wrathful face of his superior. It serves only to make the indignant +captain more wrathful; and no wonder. There has been no love lost +between the two since Hayne joined the Riflers early the previous year. +He came in from civil life, a city-bred boy, fresh from college, full of +spirits, pranks, fun of every kind; a wonderfully keen hand with the +billiard-cue; a knowing one at cards and such games of chance as college +boys excel at; a musician of no mean pretensions, and an irrepressible +leader in all the frolics and frivolities of his comrades. He had leaped +to popularity from the start. He was full of courtesy and gentleness to +women, and became a pet in social circles. He was frank, free, +off-handed with his associates, spending lavishly, "treating" with +boyish ostentation on all occasions, living quite <i>en grand seigneur</i>, +for he seemed to have a little money outside his pay,—"a windfall from +a good old duffer of an uncle," as he had explained it. His father, a +scholarly man who had been summoned to an important under-office in the +State Department during the War of the Rebellion, had lived out his +honored life in Washington and died poor, as such men must ever die. It +was his wish that his handsome, spirited, brave-hearted boy should enter +the army, and long after the sod had <a name="Page_10" id="Page_10"></a>hardened over the father's +peaceful grave the young fellow donned his first uniform and went out to +join "The Riflers." High-spirited, joyous, full of laughing fun, he was +"Pet" Hayne before he had been among them six months. But within the +year he had made one or two enemies. It could not be said of him that he +showed that deference to rank and station which was expected of a junior +officer; and among the seniors were several whom he speedily designated +"unconscionable old duffers" and treated with as little semblance of +respect as a second lieutenant could exhibit and be permitted to live. +Rayner prophesied of him that, as he had no balance and was burning his +candle at both ends, he would come to grief in short order. Hayne +retorted that the only balance that Rayner had any respect for was one +at the banker's, and that it was notorious in Washington that the +captain's father had made most of his money in government contracts, and +that the captain's original commission in the regulars was secured +through well-paid Congressional influence. The fact that Rayner had +developed into a good officer did not wipe out the recollection of these +facts; and he could have throttled Hayne for reviving them. It was "a +game of give and take," said the youngster; and he "behaved himself" to +those who were at all decent in their manner to him.</p> + +<p>It was a thorn in Rayner's flesh, therefore, when Hayne joined from +leave of absence, after experiences not every officer would care to +encounter in getting back to his regiment, that Captain Hull should have +induced the general to detail him in place of the invalided field +quartermaster when the command was divided. Hayne would have been a +junior subaltern in Rayner's little battalion but for that detail, and +it annoyed the captain more seriously than he would confess.</p> + +<p>"It is all an outrage and a blunder to pick out a boy like that," he +growls between his set teeth as Hayne canters blithely away. "Here he's +been away from the regiment all summer long, having a big time and +getting head over ears in debt, I hear, and the moment he rejoins they +put him in charge of the wagon-train as field quartermaster. It's +putting a premium on being young and cheeky,—besides absenteeism," he +continues, growing blacker every minute.</p> + +<p>"Well, captain," answers his adjutant, injudiciously, "I think you don't +give Hayne credit for coming back on the jump the moment we were ordered +out. It was no fault of his he could not reach us. He took chances <i>I</i> +wouldn't take."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes! you kids all swear by Hayne because he's a good <a name="Page_11" id="Page_11"></a>fellow and +sings a jolly song and plays the piano—and poker. One of these days +he'll swamp you all, sure as shooting. He's in debt <i>now</i>, and it'll +fetch him before you know it. What he needs is to be under a captain who +could discipline him a little. By Jove, I'd do it!" And Rayner's teeth +emphasize the assertion.</p> + +<p>The young adjutant thinks it advisable to say nothing that may provoke +further vehemence. All the same, he remembers Rayner's bitterness of +manner, and has abundant cause to.</p> + +<p>When the next morning breaks, chill and pallid, a change has come in the +aspect of affairs. During the earliest hour of the dawn the red light of +a light-draught river-boat startled the outlying pickets down-stream, +and the Far West, answering the muffled hail from shore, responded, +through the medium of a mate's stentorian tones, "News that'll rout you +fellows out." The sun is hardly peeping over the jagged outline of the +eastern hills when, with Rayner's entire battalion aboard, she is +steaming again down-stream, with orders to land at the mouth of the +Sweet Root. There the four companies will disembark in readiness to join +the rest of the regiment.</p> + +<p>All day long again the wagon-train twists and wriggles through an ashen +section of Les Mauvaises Terres. It is a tedious, trying march for +Hull's little command of troopers,—all that is now left to guard the +train. The captain is constantly out on the exposed flank, eagerly +scanning the rough country to the south, and expectant any moment of an +attack from that direction. He and his men, as well as the horses, +mules, and teamsters, are fairly tired out when at nightfall they park +the wagons in a big semicircle, with the broad river forming a shining +chord to the arc of white canvas. All the live-stock are safely herded +within the enclosure; a few reliable soldiers are posted well out to the +south and east, to guard against surprise, and the veteran Sergeant +Clancy is put in command of the sentries. The captain gives strict +injunctions as to the importance of these duties; for he is far from +easy in his mind over the situation. The Riflers, he knows, are over in +the valley of the Sweet Root. The steamer with Rayner's men is tied up +at the bank some five miles below, around the bend. The ——th are far +off to the northward across the Elk, as ordered, and must be expecting +on the morrow to make for the old Indian "ferry" opposite Battle Butte. +The main body of the Sioux are reported farther down stream, but he +feels it in his bones that there are numbers of them within signal, and +he wishes with all his heart the ——th were here.<a name="Page_12" id="Page_12"></a> Still, the general +was sure he would stir up war-parties on the other shore. Individually, +he has had very little luck in scouting during the summer, and he cannot +help wishing he were with the rest of the crowd instead of here, +train-guarding.</p> + +<p>Presently Mr. Hayne appears, elastic and debonair as though he had not +been working like a horse all day. His voice sounds so full of cheer and +life that Hull looks up smilingly:</p> + +<p>"Well, youngster, you seem to love this frontier life."</p> + +<p>"Every bit of it, captain. I was cut out for the army, as father +thought."</p> + +<p>"We used to talk it over a good deal in the old days when I was +stationed around Washington," answers Hull. "Your father was the warmest +friend I had in civil circles, and he made it very pleasant for me. How +little we thought it would be my luck to have you for quartermaster!"</p> + +<p>"The fellows seemed struck all of a heap in the Riflers at the idea of +your applying for me, captain. I was ready to swear it was all on +father's account, and would have told them so, only Rayner happened to +be the first man to tackle me on the subject, and he was so crusty about +it I kept the whole thing to myself rather than give him any +satisfaction."</p> + +<p>"Larry, my boy, I'm no preacher, but I want to be the friend to you your +father was to me. You are full of enthusiasm and life and spirits, and +you love the army ways and have made yourself very popular with the +youngsters, but I'm afraid you are too careless and independent where +the seniors are concerned. Rayner is a good soldier; and you show him +very scant respect, I'm told."</p> + +<p>"Well, he's such an interfering fellow. They will all tell you I'm +respectful enough to—to the captains I like—"</p> + +<p>"That's just it, Lawrence. So long as you like a man your manner is what +it should be. What a young soldier ought to learn is to be courteous and +respectful to senior officers whether he likes them or not. It costs an +effort sometimes, but it tells. You never know what trouble you are +laying up for yourself in the army by bucking against men you don't +like. They may not be in position to resent it at the time, but the time +is mighty apt to come when they <i>will</i> be, and then you are helpless."</p> + +<p>"Why, Captain Hull, I don't see it that way at all. It seems to me that +so long as an officer attends to his duty, minds his own busi<a name="Page_13" id="Page_13"></a>ness, and +behaves like a gentleman, no one can harm him; especially when all the +good fellows of the regiment are his friends, as they are mine, I think, +in the Riflers."</p> + +<p>"Ah, Hayne, it is a hard thing to teach a youngster that—that there are +men who find it very easy to make their juniors' lives a burden to them, +and without overstepping a regulation. It is harder yet to say that +friends in the army are a good deal like friends out of it: one only has +to get into serious trouble to find how few they are. God grant you may +never have to learn it, my boy, as many another has had to, by sharp +experience! Now we must get a good night's rest. You sleep like a log, I +see, and I can only take cat-naps. Confound this money! How I wish I +could get rid of it!"</p> + +<p>"Where do you keep it to-night?"</p> + +<p>"Right here in my saddle-bags under my head. Nobody can touch them that +I do not wake; and my revolver is here under the blanket. Hold on! Let's +take a look and see if everything is all right." He holds a little +camp-lantern over the bags, opens the flap, and peers in. "Yes,—all +serene. I got a big hunk of green sealing-wax from the paymaster and +sealed it all up in one package with the memorandum-list inside. It's +all safe so far,—even to the hunk of sealing-wax.—What is it, +sergeant?"</p> + +<p>A tall, soldierly, dark-eyed trooper appears at the door-way of the +little tent, and raises his gauntleted hand in salute. His language, +though couched in the phraseology of the soldier, tells both in choice +of words and in the intonation of every phrase that he is a man whose +antecedents have been far different from those of the majority of the +rank and file:</p> + +<p>"Will the captain permit me to take my horse and those of three or four +more men outside the corral? Sergeant Clancy says he has no authority to +allow it. We have found a patch of excellent grass, sir, and there is +hardly any left inside. I will sleep by my picket-pin, and one of us +will keep awake all the time, if the captain will permit."</p> + +<p>"How far away is it, sergeant?"</p> + +<p>"Not seventy-five yards, sir,—close to the river-bank east of us."</p> + +<p>"Very well. Send Sergeant Clancy here, and I'll give the necessary +orders."</p> + +<p>The soldier quietly salutes, and disappears in the gathering darkness.</p> + +<p>"That's what I like about that man Gower," says the captain, after <a name="Page_14" id="Page_14"></a>a +moment's silence. "He is always looking out for his horse. If he were +not such a gambler and rake he would make a splendid first-sergeant. +Fine-looking fellow, isn't he?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. That is a face that one couldn't well forget. Who was the +other sergeant you overhauled for getting fleeced by those sharps at the +cantonment?"</p> + +<p>"Clancy? He's on guard to-night. A very different character."</p> + +<p>"I don't know him by sight as yet. Well, good-night, sir. I'll take +myself off and go to my own tent."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Daybreak again, and far to the east the sky is all ablaze. The mist is +creeping from the silent shallows under the banks, but all is life and +vim along the shore. With cracking whip, tugging trace, sonorous +blasphemy, and ringing shout, the long train is whirling ahead almost at +the run. All is athrill with excitement, and bearded faces have a +strange, set look about the jaws, and eyes gleam with eager light and +peer searchingly from every rise far over to the southeast, where stands +a tumbling heap of hills against the lightening sky. "Off there, are +they?" says a burly trooper, dismounting hastily to tighten up the +"cinch" of his weather-beaten saddle. "We can make it quick enough, 's +soon as we get rid of these blasted wagons." And, swinging into saddle +again, he goes cantering down the slope, his charger snorting with +exhilaration in the keen morning air.</p> + +<p>Before dawn a courier has galloped into camp, bearing a despatch from +the commanding officer of the Riflers. It says but few words, but they +are full of meaning: "We have found a big party of hostiles. They are in +strong position, and have us at disadvantage. Rayner with his four +companies is hurrying to us. Leave all wagons with the boat under guard, +and come with every horse and man you can bring."</p> + +<p>Before seven o'clock the wagons are parked close along the bank beside +the Far West, and Hull, with all the men he can muster,—some fifty,—is +trotting ahead on the trail of Rayner's battalion. With him rides Mr. +Hayne, eager and enthusiastic. Before ten o'clock, far up along the +slopes they see the blue line of skirmishers, and the knots of reserves +farther down, all at a stand. In ten minutes they ride with foaming +reins in behind a low ridge on which, flat on their faces and cautiously +peering over the crest, some hundred infantrymen are disposed. Others, +officers and file-closers, are moving to and fro in rear.<a name="Page_15" id="Page_15"></a> They are of +Rayner's battalion. Farther back, down in a ravine a dozen forms are +outstretched upon the turf, and others are bending over them, +ministering to the needs of those who are not past help already. Several +officers crowd around the leading horsemen, and Hull orders, "Halt, +dismount, and loosen girths." The grave faces show that the infantry has +had poor luck, and the situation is summarized in few words. The Indians +are in force occupying the ravines and ridges opposite them and +confronting the six companies farther over to the west. Two attacks have +been made, but the Indian fire swept every approach, and both were +unsuccessful. Several soldiers were shot dead, others severely wounded. +Lieutenant Warren's leg is shattered below the knee; Captain Blount is +killed.</p> + +<p>"Where's Rayner?" asks Hull, with grave face.</p> + +<p>"Just gone off with the chief to look at things over on the other front. +The colonel is hopping. He is bound to have those Indians out of there +or drop a-trying. They'll be back in a minute. The general had a rousing +fight with Dull Knife's people down the river last evening. You missed +it again, Hull: all the ——th were there but F and K,—and of course +old Firewater wants to make as big a hit here."</p> + +<p>"The ——th fighting down the river last night?" asks Hull, in amaze.</p> + +<p>"Yes,—swept clean round them and ran 'em into the stream, they say. I +wish we had them where we could see 'em at all. You don't get the +glimpse of a head, even; but all those rocks are lined with the beggars. +Damn them!" says the adjutant, feelingly.</p> + +<p>"We'll get our chance <i>here</i>, then," replies Hull, reflectively. "I'll +creep up and take a look at it. Take my horse, orderly."</p> + +<p>He is back in two minutes, graver than before, but his bearing is +spirited and firm. Hayne watches him with kindling eye.</p> + +<p>"You'll take me in with you when you charge?" he asks.</p> + +<p>"It is no place to charge there. The ground is all cut up with ravines +and gullies, and they've got a cross-fire that sweeps it clean. We'll +probably go in on the other flank; it's more open there. Here comes the +chief now."</p> + +<p>Two officers come riding hastily around a projecting point of the slope +and spur at rapid gait towards the spot where the cavalry have +dismounted and are breathing their horses. There is hardly time for +<a name="Page_16" id="Page_16"></a>salutations. A gray-headed, keen-eyed, florid-faced old soldier is the +colonel, and he is snapping with electricity, apparently.</p> + +<p>"This way, Hull. Come right here, and I'll show you what you are to do." +And, followed by Rayner, Hull, and Hayne, the chief rides sharply over +to the extreme left of the position and points to the frowning ridge +across the intervening swale.</p> + +<p>"There, Hull: there are twenty or thirty of the rascals in there who get +a flank fire on us when we attack on our side. What I want you to do is +to mount your men, let them draw pistol and be all ready. Rayner, here, +will line the ridge to keep them down in front. I'll go back to the +right and order the attack at once. The moment we begin and you hear our +shots, you give a yell, and charge full tilt across there, so as to +drive out those fellows in that ravine. We can do the rest. Do you +understand?"</p> + +<p>"I understand, colonel; but—is it your order that I attempt to charge +mounted across that ground?"</p> + +<p>"Why, certainly! It isn't the best in the world, but you can make it. +They can't do very much damage to your men before you reach them. It's +<i>got</i> to be done; it's the only way."</p> + +<p>"Very good, sir: that ends it!" is the calm, soldierly reply; and the +colonel goes bounding away.</p> + +<p>A moment later the troop is in saddle, eager, wiry, bronzed fellows +every one, and the revolvers are in hand and being carefully examined. +Then Captain Hull signals to Hayne, while Rayner and three or four +soldiers sit in silence, watching the man who is to lead the charge. He +dismounts at a little knoll a few feet away, tosses his reins to the +trumpeter, and steps to his saddle-bags. Hayne, too, dismounts.</p> + +<p>Taking his watch and chain from the pocket of his hunting-shirt, he +opens the saddle-bag on the near side and takes therefrom two +packets,—one heavily sealed,—which he hands to Hayne.</p> + +<p>"In case I—don't come back, you know what to do with these,—as I told +you last night."</p> + +<p>Hayne only looks imploringly at him: "You are not going to leave me +<i>here</i>, captain?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, Hayne. You can't go with us. Hark! There they go at the right. Are +the packages all right?"</p> + +<p>Hayne, with stunned faculties, thinking only of the charge he longs to +make,—not of the one he has to keep,—replies he knows not what. There +is a ringing bugle-call far off among the rocks to the westward; <a name="Page_17" id="Page_17"></a>a +rousing cheer; a rattling volley. Rayner springs off to his men on the +hill-side. Hull spurs in front of his eager troop, holding high his +pistol-hand:</p> + +<p>"Now, men, follow till I drop; and then keep ahead! Come on!"</p> + +<p>There is a furious sputter of hoofs, a rush of excited steeds up the +gentle slope, a glad outburst of cheers as they sweep across the ridge +and out of sight, then the clamor and yell of frantic battle; and when +at last it dies away, the Riflers are panting over the hard-won position +and shaking hands with some few silent cavalrymen. They have carried the +ridge, captured the migrating village, squaws, ponies, travois, and +pappooses; their "long Toms" have sent many a stalwart warrior to the +mythical hunting-grounds, and the peppery colonel's triumph is complete.</p> + +<p>But Lawrence Hayne, with all the light gone from his brave young face, +stands mutely looking down, upon the stiffening frame of his father's +old friend, and his, who lies shot through the heart.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I.</h2> + + +<p>In the Pullman car of the westward-bound express, half-way across the +continent, two passengers were gazing listlessly out over the wintry +landscape. It was a bitter morning in February. North and south the +treeless prairie rolled away in successive ridge and depression. The +snow lay deep in the dry ravines and streaked the sea-like surface with +jagged lines of foam between which lay broad spaces clean-swept by the +gale. Heavy masses of cloud, dark and forbidding, draped the sky from +zenith to horizon, and the air was thick with spiteful gusts and spits +of snow, crackling against the window-panes, making fierce dashes every +time a car door was hurriedly opened, and driving about the platforms +like a myriad swarm of fleecy and aggressive gnats raging for battle. +Every now and then, responsive to some wilder blast, a blinding white +cloud came whirling from the depths of the nearest gully and breaking +like spray over the snow fence along the line. Not a sign of life was +visible. The tiny mounds in the villages of the prairie-dogs seemed +blocked and frozen; even the trusty sentinel had "deserted post" and +huddled with his fellows for warmth and shelter in the bowels of the +earth. Fluttering owl and skulking coyote, too, had <a name="Page_18" id="Page_18"></a>vanished from the +face of nature. Timid antelope—fleetest coursers of the prairie—and +stolid horned cattle had gone, none knew whither, nor cared to know +until the "blizzard" had subsided. Two heavy engines fought their way, +panting, into the very teeth of the gale and slowly wound the long train +after them up-grade among the foot-hills of the great plateau of the +Rockies. Once in a while, when stopping for a moment at some group of +brown-painted sheds and earth-battened shanties, the wind moaned and +howled among the iron braces and brake-chains beneath the car and made +such mournful noise that it was a relief to start once more and lose +sound of its wailing in the general rumble. As for the scenery, only as +a picture of shiver-provoking monotony and desolation would one care to +take a second look.</p> + +<p>And yet, some miles ahead, striving hard to reach the railway in time to +intercept this very train, a small battalion of cavalry was struggling +through the blasts, officers and men afoot and dragging their own +benumbed limbs and half-benumbed chargers through the drifts that lay +deep at the bottom of every "coulée." Some few soldiers remained in +saddle: they were too frozen to walk at all. Some few fell behind, and +would have thrown themselves flat upon the prairie in the lethargy that +is but premonition of death by freezing. Like men half deadened by +morphine, their rescue depended on heroic measures, humane in their +seeming brutality. Officers who at other times were all gentleness now +fell upon the hapless stragglers with kicks and blows. As the train drew +up at the platform of a station in mid-prairie, a horseman enveloped in +fur and frost and steam from his panting steed reined up beside the +leading engine and shouted to the occupants of the cab,—</p> + +<p>"For God's sake hold on a few minutes. We've got a dozen frozen men with +us we must send on to Fort Warrener." And the train was held.</p> + +<p>Meantime, those far to the rear in the sleeper knew nothing of what was +going on ahead. The car was warm and comfortable, and most of its +occupants were apparently appreciative of its shelter and coseyness in +contrast with the cheerless scene without. A motherly-looking woman had +produced her knitting, and was blithely clicking away at her needles, +while her enterprising son, a youth of four summers and undaunted +confidence in human nature, tacked up and down the aisle and made +impetuous incursions on the various sections by turns, receiving such +modified welcome as could be accorded features <a name="Page_19" id="Page_19"></a>streaked with mingled +candy and cinders, and fingers whose propensity to cling to whatsoever +they touched was due no more to instincts of a predatory nature than to +the adhesive properties of the glucose which formed so large a +constituent of the confections he had been industriously consuming since +early morning. Four men playing whist in the rearmost section, two or +three commercial travellers, whose intimacy with the porter and airs of +easy proprietorship told of an apparent controlling interest in the +road, a young man of reserved manners, reading in a section all by +himself, a baby sleeping quietly upon the seat opposite the two +passengers first mentioned, and a Maltese kitten curled up in the lap of +one of them, completed the list of occupants.</p> + +<p>The proximity of the baby and the kitten furnishes strong presumptive +evidence of the sex and general condition of the two passengers referred +to, and renders detail superfluous. A baby rarely travels without a +woman, or a kitten with a woman already encumbered with a baby. The baby +belonged to the elder passenger, the kitten to the younger. The one was +a buxom matron, the other a slender maid. In their ages there must have +been a difference of fifteen years; in feature there was still wider +disparity. The elder was a fine-looking woman, and one who prided +herself upon the Junoesque proportions which she occasionally exhibited +in a stroll for exercise up and down the aisle. Yet no one would call +her a beauty. Her eyes were of a somewhat fishy and uncertain blue; the +lids were tinged with an unornamental pink that told of irritation of +the adjacent interior surface and of possible irritability of temper. +Her complexion was of that mottled type which is so sore a trial to its +possessor and yet so inestimable a comfort to social rivals; but her +features were handsome, her teeth fine, her dress, bearing, and demeanor +those of a woman of birth and breeding, and yet one who might have +resented the intimation that she was not strikingly handsome. She looked +like a woman with a will of her own; her head was high, her step was +firm; it was of just such a walk as hers that Virgil wrote his "<i>vera +incessu patuit dea</i>," and she made the young man in the section by +himself think of that very passage as he glanced at her from under his +heavy, bushy eyebrows. She looked, moreover, like a woman with a +capacity for influencing people contrary to their will and judgment, and +with a decided fondness for the exercise of that unpopular function. +There was the air of <i>grande dame</i> about her, despite the simplicity of +her dress, which, though of rich material, was severely plain. She wore +no jewelry. Her <a name="Page_20" id="Page_20"></a>hands were snugly gloved, and undisfigured by the +distortions of any ring except the marriage circlet. Her manner attested +her a person of consequence in her social circle and one who realized +the fact. She had repelled, though without rudeness or discourtesy, the +garrulous efforts of the motherly knitter to be sociable. She had +promptly inspired the small, candy-crusted explorer with such awe that +he had refrained from further visits after his first confiding attempt +to poke a sticky finger through the baby's velvety cheek. She had spared +little scorn in her rejection of the <i>bourgeois</i> advances of the +commercial traveller with the languishing eyes of Israel: he confided to +his comrades, in relating the incident, that she was smart enough to see +that it wasn't <i>her</i> he was hankering to know, but the pretty sister by +her side; and when challenged to prove that they <i>were</i> sisters,—a +statement which aroused the scepticism of his shrewd associates,—he had +replied, substantially,—</p> + +<p>"How do I know? 'Cause I saw their pass before you was up this morning, +cully. It's for Mrs. Captain Rayner and sister, and they're going out +here to Fort Warrener. That's how I know." And the porter of the car had +confirmed the statement in the sanctity of the smoking-room.</p> + +<p>And yet—such is the uncertainty of feminine temperament—Mrs. Rayner +was no more incensed at the commercial "gent" because he had obtruded +his attentions than she was at the young man reading in his own section +because he had refrained. Nearly twenty-four hours had elapsed since +they crossed the Missouri, and in all that time not once had she +detected in him a glance that betrayed the faintest interest in her, +or—still more remarkable—in the unquestionably lovely girl at her +side. Intrusiveness she might resent, but indifference she would and +did. Who was this youth, she wondered, who not once had so much as +stolen a look at the sweet, bonny face of her maiden sister? Surely +'twas a face any man would love to gaze upon,—so fair, so exquisite in +contour and feature, so pearly in complexion, so lovely in the deep, +dark brown of its shaded eyes.</p> + +<p>The bold glances of the four card-players she had defiantly returned, +and vanquished. Those men, like the travelling gents, were creatures of +coarser mould; but her experienced eye told her the solitary occupant of +the opposite section was a gentleman. The clear cut of his pale +features, the white, slender hand and shapely foot, the style and finish +of his quiet travelling-dress, the soft modulation and refined tone of +his voice on the one occasion when she heard him reply to some +importunity <a name="Page_21" id="Page_21"></a>of the train-boy with his endless round of equally +questionable figs and fiction, the book he was reading,—a volume of +Emerson,—all combined to speak of a culture and position equal to her +own. She had been over the trans-continental railways often enough to +know that it was permissible for gentlemen to render their +fellow-passengers some slight attention which would lead to mutual +introductions if desirable; and this man refused to see that the +opportunity was open to him.</p> + +<p>True, when first she took her survey of those who were to be her +fellow-travellers at the "transfer" on the Missouri, she decided that +here was one against whom it would be necessary to guard the approaches. +She had good and sufficient reasons for wanting no young man as +attractive in appearance as this one making himself interesting to +pretty Nellie on their journey. She had already decided what Nellie's +future was to be. Never, indeed, would she have taken her to the gay +frontier station whither she was now <i>en route</i>, had not that future +been already settled to her satisfaction. Nellie Travers, barely out of +school, was betrothed, and willingly so, to the man she, her devoted +elder sister, had especially chosen. Rare and most unlikely of +conditions! she had apparently fallen in love with the man picked out +for her by somebody else. She was engaged to Mrs. Rayner's fascinating +friend Mr. Steven Van Antwerp, a scion of an old and esteemed and +wealthy family; and Mr. Van Antwerp, who had been educated abroad, and +had a Heidelberg scar on his left cheek, and dark, lustrous eyes, and +wavy hair,—almost raven,—was a devoted lover, though fully fifteen +years Miss Nellie's senior.</p> + +<p>Full of bliss and comfort was Mrs. Rayner's soul as she journeyed +westward to rejoin her husband at the distant frontier post she had not +seen since the early spring. Army woman as she was, born and bred under +the shadow of the flag, a soldier's daughter, a soldier's wife, she had +other ambitions for her beautiful Nell. Worldly to the core, she herself +would never have married in the army but for the unusual circumstance of +a wealthy subaltern among the officers of her father's regiment. +Tradition had it that Mr. Rayner was not among the number of those who +sighed for Kate Travers's guarded smiles. Her earlier victims were kept +a-dangling until Rayner, too, succumbed, and then were sent adrift. She +meant that no penniless subaltern should carry off her "baby +sister,"—they had long been motherless,—and a season at the sea-shore +had done her work well. Steven Van Antwerp, with genuine distress and +loneliness, went back to his duties in Wall Street after see<a name="Page_22" id="Page_22"></a>ing them +safely on their way to the West. "Guard her well for me," he whispered +to Mrs. Rayner. "I dread those fellows in buttons." And he shivered +unaccountably as he spoke.</p> + +<p>Nellie was pledged, therefore, and this youth in the Pullman was not one +of "those fellows in buttons," so far as Mrs. Rayner knew, but she was +ready to warn him off, and meant to do so, until, to her surprise, she +saw that he gave no symptom of a desire to approach. By noon of the +second day she was as determined to extract from him some sign of +interest as she had been determined to resent it. I can in no wise +explain or account for this. The fact is stated without remark.</p> + +<p>"What on earth can we be stopping so long here for?" was Mrs. Rayner's +somewhat petulant inquiry, addressed to no one in particular. There was +no reply. Miss Travers was busily twitching the ears of the kitten at +the moment and sparring with upraised finger at the threatening paw.</p> + +<p>"Do look out of the window, Nell, and see."</p> + +<p>"There is nothing to see, Kate,—nothing but whirling drifts and a big +water-tank all covered with ice. Br-r-r-r!? how cold it looks!" she +answered, after vainly flattening her face against the inner pane.</p> + +<p>"There must be something the matter, though," persisted Mrs. Rayner. "We +have been here full five minutes, and we are behind time now. At this +rate we'll never get to Warrener to-night. I do wish the porter would +stay here where he belongs."</p> + +<p>The young man quietly laid down his book and arose. "I will inquire, +madame," he said, with grave courtesy. "You shall know in a moment."</p> + +<p>"How <i>very</i> kind of you!" said the lady. "Indeed I must not trouble you. +I'm sure the porter will be here after a while."</p> + +<p>And even as she spoke, and as he was pulling on an overcoat, the train +rumbled off again. Then came an exclamation, this time from the younger:</p> + +<p>"Why, Kate! Look! see all these men,—and horses! Why, they are +soldiers,—cavalry! Oh, how I love to see them again! But, oh, how cold +they look!—frozen!"</p> + +<p>"Who <i>can</i> they be?" said Mrs. Rayner, all vehement interest now, and +gazing eagerly from the window at the lowered heads of the horses and +the muffled figures in blue and fur. "What <i>can</i> they be doing in the +field in such awful weather? I cannot recognize one of them, <a name="Page_23" id="Page_23"></a>or tell +officers from men. Surely that must be Captain Wayne,—and Major +Stannard. Oh, what can it mean?"</p> + +<p>The young man had suddenly leaped to the window behind them, and was +gazing out with an eagerness and interest little less apparent than her +own, but in a moment the train had whisked them out of sight of the +storm-beaten troopers. Then he hurried to the rear window of the car, +and Mrs. Rayner as hastily followed.</p> + +<p>"<i>Do</i> you know them?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes. That <i>was</i> Major Stannard. It is his battalion of the ——th +Cavalry, and they have been out scouting after renegade Cheyennes. +Pardon me, madame, I must go forward and see who have boarded the +train."</p> + +<p>He stopped at his section, and again she followed him, her eyes full of +anxiety. He was busy tugging at a flask in his travelling-bag.</p> + +<p>"You know them! Do you know—have you heard of any infantry being out? +Pardon me for detaining you, but I am very anxious. My husband is +Captain Rayner, of Fort Warrener."</p> + +<p>"No infantry have been sent, madame, I—have reason to know; at least, +none from Warrener."</p> + +<p>And with that he hurriedly bowed and left her. The next moment, flask in +hand, he was crossing the storm-swept platform and making his way to the +head of the train.</p> + +<p>"I believe he is an officer," said Mrs. Rayner to her sister. "Who else +would be apt to know about the movement of the troops? Did you notice +how gentle his manner was?—and he never smiled: he has such a sad face. +Yet he can't be an officer, or he would have made himself known to us +long ago."</p> + +<p>"Is there no name on the satchel?" asked Miss Travers, with pardonable +curiosity. "He has an interesting face,—not handsome." And a dreamy +look came into her deep eyes. She was thinking, no doubt, of a dark, +oval, <i>distingué</i> face with raven hair and moustache. The youth in the +travelling-suit was not tall, like Steven,—not singularly, romantically +handsome, like Steven. Indeed, he was of less interest to her than to +her married sister.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rayner could see no name on the satchel,—only two initials; and +they revealed very little.</p> + +<p>"I have half a mind to peep at the fly-leaf of that book," she said. "He +walked just like a soldier: but there isn't anything there to indi<a name="Page_24" id="Page_24"></a>cate +what he is," she continued, with a doubtful glance at the items +scattered about the now vacant section. "Why isn't that porter here? He +ought to know who people are."</p> + +<p>As though to answer her request, in came the porter, dishevelled and +breathless. He made straight for the satchel they had been scrutinizing, +and opened it without ceremony. Both ladies regarded this proceeding +with natural astonishment, and Mrs. Rayner was about to interfere and +question his right to search the luggage of passengers, when the man +turned hurriedly towards them, exhibiting a little bundle of +handkerchiefs, his broad Ethiopian face clouded with anxiety and +concern:</p> + +<p>"The gentleman told me to take all his handkerchiefs. We'se got a dozen +frozen soldiers in the baggage-car,—some of 'em mighty bad,—and +they'se tryin' to make 'em comfortable until they get to the fort."</p> + +<p>"Soldiers frozen! Why do you take them in the baggage-car?—such a barn +of a place! Why weren't they brought here, where we could make them warm +and care for them?" exclaimed Mrs. Rayner, in impulsive indignation.</p> + +<p>"Laws, ma'am! never do in the world to bring frozen people into a hot +car! Sure to make their ears an' noses drop off, that would! Got to keep +'em in the cold and pile snow around 'em. That gentleman sittin' +here,—he knows," he continued: "he's an officer, and him and the +doctor's workin' with 'em now."</p> + +<p>And Mrs. Rayner, vanquished by a statement of facts well known to her +yet forgotten in the first impetuosity of her criticism, relapsed into +the silence of temporary defeat.</p> + +<p>"He <i>is</i> an officer, then," said Miss Travers, presently. "I wonder what +he belongs to."</p> + +<p>"Not to our regiment, I'm sure. Probably to the cavalry. He knew Major +Stannard and other officers whom we passed there."</p> + +<p>"Did he speak to them?"</p> + +<p>"No: there was no time. We were beyond hearing-distance when he ran to +the back door of the car; and there was no time before that. But it's +very odd!"</p> + +<p>"What's very odd?"</p> + +<p>"Why, his conduct. It is so strange that he has not made himself known +to us, if he's an officer."</p> + +<p>"Probably he doesn't know you—or we—are connected with the army, +Kate."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25"></a>"Oh, yes, he does. The porter knows perfectly well, and I told him just +before he left."</p> + +<p>"Yes, but he didn't know before that time, did he?"</p> + +<p>"He ought to have known," said Mrs. Rayner, uncompromisingly. "At least, +he should if he had taken the faintest interest. I mentioned Captain +Rayner so that he could not help hearing."</p> + +<p>This statement being one that Miss Travers could in no wise +contradict,—as it was one, indeed, that Mrs. Rayner could have +dispensed with as unnecessary,—the younger lady again betook herself to +silence and pulling the kitten's ears.</p> + +<p>"Even if he didn't know before," continued her sister, after a pause in +which she had apparently been brooding over the indifference of the +young man in question, "he ought to have made himself known after I told +him who I was." Another pause. "That's what I did it for," she wound up, +conclusively.</p> + +<p>"And that's what I thought," said Miss Travers, with a quiet smile. +"However, he had no time then: he was hurrying off to see whether any of +the soldiers had come on board. He took his flask with him, and +apparently was in haste to offer someone a drink. I'm sure that is what +papa used to do," she added, as she saw a frown gathering on her +sister's face.</p> + +<p>"What papa did just after the war—a time when everybody drank—is not +at all the proper thing now. Captain Rayner never touches it; and I +don't allow it in the house."</p> + +<p>"Still, I should think it a very useful article when a lot of frozen and +exhausted men are on one's hands," said Miss Travers. "That was but a +small flask he had, and I'm sure they will need more."</p> + +<p>There came a rush of cold air from the front, and the swinging door blew +open ahead of the porter, who was heard banging shut the outer portal. +Then he hurried in.</p> + +<p>"Can some of you gentlemen oblige me with some whiskey or brandy?" he +asked. "We've got some frozen soldiers aboard. Two of 'em are pretty +nearly gone."</p> + +<p>Two of the card-players dropped their hands and started for their +section at once. Before they could rummage in their bags for the +required article, Mrs. Rayner's voice was heard: "Take this, porter." +And she held forth a little silver flask. "I have more in my trunk if it +is needed," she added, while a blush mounted to her forehead as she saw +the quizzical smile on her sister's face. "You know I<a name="Page_26" id="Page_26"></a> <i>always</i> carry it +in travelling, Nellie,—in case of accident or illness; and I'm most +thankful I have it now."</p> + +<p>"Ever so much obliged, ma'am," said the porter, "but this would be only +a thimbleful, and I can get a quart bottle of this gentleman."</p> + +<p>"Where are they?" said the person thus referred to, as he came down the +aisle with a big brown bottle in his hand. "Come, Jim, let's go and see +what we can do. One of you gentlemen take my place in the game," he +continued, indicating the commercial gents, two of whom, nothing loath, +dropped into the vacated seats, while the others pushed on to the front +of the train. The porter hesitated one moment.</p> + +<p>"Yes, take my flask: I shouldn't feel satisfied without doing something. +And please say to the officer that I'm Mrs. Rayner,—Mrs. Captain +Rayner, of the infantry,—and ask if there isn't something I can do to +help."</p> + +<p>"Yes, ma'am; I will, ma'am. Oh, he knows who you are: I done told him +last night. He's goin' to Fort Warrener, too." And, touching his cap, +away went the porter.</p> + +<p>"There! He <i>did</i> know all along," said Mrs. Rayner, triumphantly. "It is +most extraordinary!"</p> + +<p>"Well, is it the proper thing for people in the army to introduce +themselves when travelling? How are they to know it will be agreeable?"</p> + +<p>"Agreeable! Why, Nellie, it's <i>always</i> done,—especially when ladies are +travelling without escort, as we are. The commonest civility should +prompt it; and officers always send their cards by the porter the moment +they find army ladies are on the train. I don't understand this one at +all,—especially—" But here she broke off abruptly.</p> + +<p>"Especially what?" asked Miss Nell, with an inspiration of maidenly +curiosity.</p> + +<p>"Especially nothing. Never mind now." And here the baby began to fidget, +and stir about, and stretch forth his chubby hands, and thrust his +knuckles in his eyes, and pucker up his face in alarming contortions +preparatory to a wail, and, after one or two soothing and tentative +sounds of "sh—sh—sh—sh" from the maternal lips, the matron abandoned +the attempt to induce a second nap, and picked him up in her arms, where +he presently began to take gracious notice of his pretty aunt and the +kitten.</p> + +<p>Two hours later, just as the porter had notified them that Warrener +Station would be in sight in five minutes, the young man of the +oppo<a name="Page_27" id="Page_27"></a>site section returned to the car. He looked tired, very anxious, +and his face was paler and the sad expression more pronounced than +before. The train-conductor stopped him to speak of some telegrams that +had been sent, and both ladies noted the respect which the railway +official threw into the tone in which he spoke. The card-players stopped +their game and went up to ask after the frozen men. It was not until the +whistle was sounding for the station that he stood before them and with +a grave and courteous bow held forth Mrs. Rayner's silver flask.</p> + +<p>"It was a blessing to one poor fellow at least, and I thank you for him, +madame," he said.</p> + +<p>"I have been so anxious. I wanted to do something. Did you not get my +message, Mr.——?" she asked, with intentional pause that he might +supply the missing name.</p> + +<p>"Indeed there was nothing we could ask of you," he answered, totally +ignoring the evident invitation. "I am greatly obliged to you for your +kindness, but we had abundant help, and you really could not have +reached the car in the face of this gale. Good-morning, madame." And +with that he raised his fur travelling-cap and quickly turned to his +section and busied himself strapping up his various belongings.</p> + +<p>"The man must be a woman-hater," she whispered to Miss Travers, "He's +going to get out here, too. Who <i>can</i> he be?"</p> + +<p>There was still a moment before the train would stop at the platform, +and she was not to be beaten so easily. Bending partly across the aisle, +she spoke again:</p> + +<p>"You have been so kind to those poor fellows that I feel sure you must +be of the army. I think I told you I am Mrs. Rayner, of Fort Warrener. +May we not hope to see you there?"</p> + +<p>A deep flush rose to his forehead, suffusing his cheeks, and passed as +quickly away. His mouth twitched and trembled. Gazing at him in surprise +and trouble, Nellie Travers saw that his face was full of pain and was +turning white again. He half choked before he could reply: he spoke low, +and yet distinctly, and the words were full of sadness:</p> + +<p>"It—it is not probable that we shall meet at all."</p> + +<p>And with that he turned away.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28"></a></p> +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II.</h2> + + +<p>Even in the excitement attendant upon their reception at the station +neither Mrs. Rayner nor her sister could entirely recover from the +surprise and pain which the stranger's singular words had caused. So far +from feeling in the least rebuffed, Mrs. Rayner well understood from his +manner that not the faintest discourtesy was intended. There was not a +symptom of rudeness, not a vestige of irritation or haste, in his tone. +Deep embarrassment, inexpressible sadness even, she read in the brief +glimpse she had of his paling face. It was all a mystery to her and to +the girl seated in silence by her side. Both followed him with their +eyes as he hurried away to the rear of the car, and then, with joyous +shouts, three or four burly, fur-enveloped men came bursting in the +front door, and the two ladies, the baby, and the kitten were pounced +upon and surrounded by a group that grew larger every minute. Released +finally from the welcoming embrace of her stalwart husband, Mrs. Rayner +found time to present the other and younger officers to her sister. As +many as half a dozen had followed the captain in his wild rush upon the +car, and, while he and his baby boy were resuming acquaintanceship after +a separation of many long months, Miss Travers found herself the centre +of a circle of young officers who had braved the wintry blizzard in +their eagerness to do her proper homage. Her cheeks were aflame with +excitement and pleasure, her eyes dancing, and despite the fatigue of +her long journey she was looking dangerously pretty, as Captain Rayner +glanced for a moment from the baby's wondering eyes, took in the picture +like an instantaneous photograph, and then looked again into Mrs. +Rayner's smiling face.</p> + +<p>"You were wise in providing against possibilities as you did, Kate," he +said, with a significant nod of the head. "There are as many as a dozen +of them,—or at least there will be when the ——th gets back from the +field. Stannard is out yet with his battalion."</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes: we saw them at a station east of here. They looked frozen to +death; and there <i>are</i> ever so many of the soldiers frozen. The +baggage-car is full of them. Didn't you know it?"</p> + +<p>"Not a word of it. We have been here for three mortal hours waiting at +the station, and any telegrams must have been sent right out to the +fort. The colonel is there, and he would have all arrangements <a name="Page_29" id="Page_29"></a>made. +Here, Graham! Foster! Mrs. Rayner says there are a lot of frozen +cavalrymen forward in the baggage-car. Run ahead and see what is +necessary, will you? I'll be there in a minute, as soon as we've got +these ladies off the train."</p> + +<p>Two of the young gentlemen who had been hovering around Miss Travers +took themselves off without a moment's delay. The others remained to +help their senior officer. Out into the whirling eddies of snow, +bundling them up in the big, warm capes of their regulation overcoats, +the officers half led, half carried their precious charges. The captain +bore his son and heir; Lieutenant Ross escorted Mrs. Rayner; two others +devoted themselves exclusively to Miss Travers; a fourth picked up the +Maltese kitten. Two or three smart, trim-looking infantry soldiers +cleared the section of bags and bundles of shawls, and the entire party +was soon within the door-way of the waiting-room, where a red-hot +coal-stove glowed fierce welcome. Here the ladies were left for a +moment, while all the officers again bustled out into the storm and +fought their way against the northwest gale until they reached the +little crowd gathered about the door-way of the freight-sheds. A stout, +short, burly man in beaver overcoat and cap pushed through the knot of +half-numbed spectators and approached their leader:</p> + +<p>"We have only two ambulances, captain,—that is all there was at the +post when the despatch came,—and there are a dozen of these men, +besides Dr. Grimes, all more or less crippled, and Grimes has both hands +frozen. We must get them out at once. Can we take your wagon?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly, doctor. Take anything we have. If the storm holds, tell the +driver not to try to come back for us. We can make the ladies +comfortable here at the hotel for the night. Some of the officers have +to get back for duties this evening. The rest will have to stay. How did +they happen to get caught in such a freeze?"</p> + +<p>"They couldn't help it. Stannard had chased the Cheyennes across the +range, and was ordered to get back to the railway. It was twenty below +when they started, and they made three days' chase in that weather; but +no one seemed to care so long as they were on the trail. Then came the +change of wind, and a driving snow-storm, in which they lost the trail +as a matter of course; and then this blizzard struck them on the +back-track. Grimes is so exhausted that he could barely hold out until +he got here. He says he never could have brought <a name="Page_30" id="Page_30"></a>them through from +Bluff Siding but for Mr. Hayne: he did everything."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Hayne! Was he with them?"</p> + +<p>"He was on the train, and came in at once to offer his services. Grimes +says he was invaluable."</p> + +<p>"But Mr. Hayne was East on leave: I <i>know</i> he was. He was promoted to my +company last month,—confound the luck!—and was to have six months' +leave before joining. I wish it was six years. Where is he now?" And the +captain peered excitedly around from under his shaggy cap. Oddly, too, +his face was paling.</p> + +<p>"He left as soon as I took charge. I don't know where he's gone; but +it's God's mercy he was with these poor fellows. His skill and care have +done everything for them. Where did he get his knowledge?"</p> + +<p>"I've no idea," said Captain Rayner, gruffly, and in evident ill humor. +"He is the last man I expected to see this day or for days to come. Is +there anything else I can do, doctor?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing, thank you, captain." And the little surgeon hastened back to +his charges, followed by some of the younger officers, eager to be of +assistance in caring for their disabled comrades. Rayner himself +hesitated a moment, then turned about and trudged heavily back along the +wind-swept platform. The train had pulled away, and was out of sight in +the whirl of snow over the Western prairies. He went to his own +substantial wagon, and shouted to the driver, who sat muffled in buffalo +fur on the box,—</p> + +<p>"Get around there to the freight-house and report to the doctor. There +are a lot of frozen cavalrymen to be taken out to the hospital. Don't +try to come back for us to-night: we'll stay here in town. Send the +quartermaster's team in for the trunks as soon as the storm is over and +the road clear. That's all."</p> + +<p>Then he rejoined the party at the waiting-room of the station, and Mrs. +Rayner noted instantly that all the cheeriness had gone and that a cloud +had settled on his face. She was a shrewd observer, and she knew him +well. Something more serious than a mishap to a squad of soldiers had +brought about the sudden change. He was all gladness, all rejoicing and +delight, when he clasped her and his baby boy in his arms but ten +minutes before, and now—something had occurred to bring him serious +discomfort. She rested her hand on his arm and looked questioningly in +his face. He avoided her glance, and <a name="Page_31" id="Page_31"></a>quickly began to talk. She saw +that he desired to answer no questions just then, and wisely refrained.</p> + +<p>Meantime, Miss Travers was chatting blithely with two young gallants who +had returned to her side, and who had thrown off their heavy furs and +now stood revealed in their becoming undress uniforms. Mr. Ross had gone +to look over the rooms which the host of the railway hotel had offered +for the use of the party; the baby was yielding to the inevitable and +gradually condescending to notice the efforts of Mr. Foster to scrape +acquaintance; the kitten, with dainty step, and ears and tail erect, was +making a leisurely inspection of the premises, sniffing about the few +benches and chairs with which the bare room was burdened, and +reconnoitring the door leading to the hall-way with evident desire to +extend her researches in that direction. Presently that very door +opened, and in came two or three bundles of fur in masculine shape, and +with them two shaggy deer-hounds, who darted straight at the kitten. +There was a sudden flurry and scatter, a fury of spits and scratching, a +yelp of pain from one brute with lacerated nose, a sudden recoil of both +hounds, and then a fiery rush through the open door-way in pursuit of +puss. After the first gallant instinct of battle her nerve had given +out, and she had sought safety in flight.</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't let them hurt her!" cried Miss Travers, as she darted into +the hall and gazed despairingly up the stairway to the second story, +whither the dogs had vanished like a flash. Two of the young officers +sped to the rescue and turned the wrong way. Mrs. Rayner and the captain +followed her into the hall. A rush of canine feet and an excited chorus +of barks and yelps were heard aloft; then a stern voice ordering, "Down, +you brutes!" a sudden howl as though in response to a vigorous kick, and +an instant later, bearing the kitten, ruffled, terrified, and wildly +excited, yet unharmed, there came springing lightly down the steps the +young man in civilian dress who was their fellow-traveller on the +Pullman. Without a word he gave his prize into the dainty hands +outstretched to receive it, and, never stopping an instant, never +listening to the eager words of thanks from her pretty lips, he darted +back as quickly as he came, leaving Miss Travers suddenly stricken dumb.</p> + +<p>Captain Rayner turned sharply on his heel and stepped back into the +waiting-room. Mr. Ross nudged a brother lieutenant and whispered, "By +gad! that's awkward for Midas!" The two subalterns who had taken the +wrong turn at the top of the stairs reappeared there <a name="Page_32" id="Page_32"></a>just as the +rescuer shot past them on his way back, and stood staring, first after +his disappearing form, and then at each other. Miss Travers, with wonder +and relief curiously mingled in her sweet face, clung to her restored +kitten and gazed vacantly up the stairs.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rayner looked confusedly from one to the other, quickly noting the +constraint in the manner of every officer present and the sudden +disappearance of her husband. There was an odd silence for a moment: +then she spoke:</p> + +<p>"Mr. Ross, do you know that gentleman?"</p> + +<p>"I know who he is. Yes."</p> + +<p>"Who is he, then?"</p> + +<p>"He is your husband's new first lieutenant, Mrs. Rayner. That is Mr. +Hayne."</p> + +<p>"<i>That!</i>—Mr. Hayne?" she exclaimed, growing suddenly pale.</p> + +<p>"Certainly, madame. Had you never seen him before?"</p> + +<p>"Never; and I expected—I didn't expect to see such a—" And she broke +short off, confused and plainly distressed, turned abruptly, and left +the hall as had her husband.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III.</h2> + + +<p>The officers of Fort Warrener were assembled, as was the daily morning +custom, in the presence of the colonel commanding. It had long been the +practice of that veteran soldier to require all his commissioned +subordinates to put in an appearance at his office immediately after the +ceremony of guard-mounting. He might have nothing to say to them, or he +might have a good deal; and he was a man capable of saying a good deal +in very few words, and meaning exactly what he said. It was his custom +to look up from his writing as each officer entered and respond to the +respectful salutation tendered him with an equally punctilious +"Good-morning, Captain Gregg," or "Good-morning, Mr. Blake,"—never +omitting the mention of the name, unless, as was sometimes tried, a +squad of them came in together and made their obeisance as a body. In +this event the colonel simply looked each man in the face, as though +taking mental note of the individual constituents of the group, and +contented himself with a "Good-morning, gentlemen."</p> + +<p>When in addition to six troops of his own regiment of cavalry there were +sent to the post a major and four companies of infantry, <a name="Page_33" id="Page_33"></a>some of the +junior officers of the latter organization had suggested to their +comrades of the yellow stripes that as the colonel had no roll-call it +might be a matter of no great risk to "cut the <i>matinée</i>" on some of the +fiendishly cold mornings that soon set in; but the experiment was never +designedly tried, thanks, possibly, to the frank exposition of his +personal views as expressed by Lieutenant Blake, of the cavalry, who +said, "Try it if you are stagnating for want of a sensation, my genial +plodder, but not if you value the advice of one who has been there, so +to speak. The chief will spot you quicker than he can a missing shoe,—a +missing <i>horse</i>shoe, Johnny, let me elaborate for your +comprehension,—and the next question will be, 'Mr. Bluestrap, did you +intentionally absent yourself?' and <i>then</i> how will you get out of it?"</p> + +<p>The <i>matinées</i>, so called, were by no means unpopular features of the +daily routine. The officers were permitted to bring their pipes or +cigars and take their after-breakfast smoke in the big, roomy office of +the commander, just as they were permitted to enjoy the post-prandial +whiff when at evening recitation in the same office they sat around the +room, chatting in low tones, for half an hour, while the colonel +received the reports of his adjutant, the surgeon, and the old and the +new officer of the day. Then any matters affecting the discipline or +instruction or general interests of the command were brought up; both +sides of the question were presented, if question arose; the decision +was rendered then and there, and the officers were dismissed for the day +with the customary "That's all, gentlemen." They left the office well +knowing that only in the event of some sudden emergency would they be +called thither again or disturbed in their daily vocations until the +same hour on the following morning. Meantime, they must be about their +work: drills, if weather permitted; stable-duty, no matter what the +weather; garrison courts, boards of survey, the big general court that +was perennially dispensing justice at the post, and the long list of +minor but none the less exacting demands on the time and attention of +the subalterns and company commanders. The colonel was a strict, even +severe, disciplinarian, but he was cool, deliberate, and just. He +"worked" his officers, and thereby incurred the criticism of a few, but +held the respect of all. He had been a splendid cavalry-commander in the +field of all others where his sterling qualities were sure to find +responsive appreciation in his officers and men,—on active and stirring +campaigns against the Indians,—and among his own regiment he knew that +deep in their hearts the ——th respected and <a name="Page_34" id="Page_34"></a>believed in him, even +when they growled at garrison exactions which seemed uncalled for. The +infantry officers knew less of him as a sterling campaigner, and were +not so well pleased with his discipline. It was all right for him to +"rout out" every mother's son in the cavalry at reveille, because all +the cavalry officers had to go to stables soon afterwards,—that was all +they were fit for,—but what on earth was the use of getting them—the +infantry—out of their warm beds before sunrise on a wintry morning and +having no end of roll-calls and such things through the day, "just to +keep them busy"? The real objection—the main objection—to the +colonel's system was that it kept a large number of officers, most of +whom were educated gentlemen, hammering all day long at an endless +routine of trivial duties, allowing actually no time in which they could +read, study, or improve their minds; but, as ill luck would have it, the +three young gentlemen who decided to present to the colonel this view of +the case had been devoting what spare time they could find to a lively +game of poker down at "the store," and their petition for "more time to +themselves" brought down a reply from the oracular lips of the commander +that became immortal on the frontier and made the petitioners nearly +frantic. For a week the trio was the butt of all the wits at Fort +Warrener. And yet the entire commissioned force felt that they were +being kept at the grindstone because of the frivolity of these few +youngsters, and they did not like it. All the same the cavalrymen stuck +up for their colonel, and the infantrymen respected him, and the +<i>matinées</i> were business-like and profitable. They were rarely +unpleasant in any feature; but this particular morning—two days after +the arrival of Mrs. Rayner and her sister—there had been a scene of +somewhat dramatic interest, and the groups of officers in breaking up +and going away could discuss nothing else. The colonel had requested one +of their number to remain, as he wished to speak to him further; and +that man was Lieutenant Hayne.</p> + +<p>Seven years had that young gentleman been a second lieutenant of the +regiment of infantry a detachment of which was now stationed at +Warrener. Only this very winter had promotion come to him; and, of all +companies in the regiment, he was gazetted to the first-lieutenancy of +Captain Rayner's. For a while the regiment when by itself could talk of +little else. Mr. Hayne had spent three or four years in the exile of a +little "two-company post" far up in the mountains. Except the officers +there stationed, none of his comrades had seen him during that time. No +one of them would like to admit that <a name="Page_35" id="Page_35"></a>he would care to see him. And yet, +when once in a while they got to talking among themselves about him, and +the question was sometimes confidentially asked of comrades who came +down on leave from that isolated station, "How is Hayne doing?" or, +"What is Hayne doing?" the language in which he was referred to grew by +degrees far less truculent and confident than it had been when he first +went thither. Officers of other regiments rarely spoke to the "Riflers" +of Mr. Hayne. Unlike one or two others of their arm of the service, this +particular regiment of foot held the affairs of its officers as +regimental property in which outsiders had no concern. If they had +disagreements, they were kept to themselves; and even in a case which in +its day had attracted wide-spread attention the Riflers had long since +learned to shun all talk outside. It was evident to other commands that +the Hayne affair was a sore point and one on which they preferred +silence. And yet it was getting to be whispered around that the Riflers +were by no means so unanimous as they had been in their opinion of this +very officer. They were becoming divided among themselves; and what +complicated matters was the fact that those who felt their views +undergoing a reconstruction were compelled to admit that just in +proportion as the case of Mr. Hayne rose in their estimation the +reputation of another officer was bound to suffer; and that officer was +Captain Rayner.</p> + +<p>Between these two men not a word had been exchanged for five years,—not +a single word since the day when, with ashen face and broken accents, +but with stern purpose in every syllable, Lieutenant Hayne, standing in +the presence of nearly all the officers of his regiment, had hurled this +prophecy in his adversary's teeth: "Though it take me years, I will live +it down despite you; and you will wish to God you had bitten out your +perjured tongue before ever you told the lie that wrecked me."</p> + +<p>No wonder there was talk, and lots of it, in the "Riflers" and all +through the garrison when Rayner's first lieutenant suddenly threw up +his commission and retired to the mines he had located in Montana, and +Hayne, the "senior second," was promoted to the vacancy. Speculation as +to what would be the result was given a temporary rest by the news that +War Department orders had granted the subaltern six months' leave,—the +first he had sought in as many years. It was known that he had gone +East; but hardly had he been away a fortnight when there came the +trouble with the Cheyennes at the reservation,—a leap for liberty by +some fifty of the band, and an immediate <a name="Page_36" id="Page_36"></a>rush of the cavalry in +pursuit. There were some bloody atrocities, as there always are. All the +troops in the department were ordered to be in readiness for instant +service, while the officials eagerly watched the reports to see which +way the desperate band would turn; and the next heard of Mr. Hayne was +the news that he had thrown up his leave and had hurried out to join his +company the moment the Eastern papers told of the trouble. It was all +practically settled by the time he reached the department; but the +spirit and intent of his action could not be doubted. And now here he +was at Warrener. That very morning during the <i>matinée</i> he had entered +the office unannounced, walked up to the desk of the commander, and, +while every voice but his in the room was stilled, he quietly spoke:</p> + +<p>"Permit me to introduce myself, colonel,—Mr. Hayne. I desire to +relinquish my leave of absence and report for duty."</p> + +<p>The colonel quickly arose and extended his hand:</p> + +<p>"Mr. Hayne, I am especially glad to see you and to thank you here for +all your care and kindness to our men. The doctor tells me that many of +them would have had to suffer the loss of noses and ears, even of hands +and feet in some cases, but for your attention. Major Stannard will add +his thanks to mine when he returns. Take a seat, sir, for the present. +You are acquainted with the officers of your own regiment, doubtless. +Mr. Billings, introduce Mr. Hayne to ours."</p> + +<p>Whereat the adjutant courteously greeted the new-comer, presented a +small party of yellow-strapped shoulders, and then drew him into earnest +talk about the adventure of the train. It was noticed that Mr. Hayne +neither by word nor glance gave the slightest recognition of the +presence of the officers of his own regiment, and that they as +studiously avoided him. One or two of their number had, indeed, risen +and stepped forward, as though to offer him the civil greeting due to +one of their own cloth; but it was with evident doubt of the result. +They reddened when he met their tentative—which was that of a +gentleman—with a cold look of utter repudiation. He did not choose to +see them, and, of course, that ended it.</p> + +<p>Nor was his greeting hearty among the cavalrymen. There were only a few +present, as most of the ——th were still out in the field and marching +slowly homeward. The introductions were courteous and formal, there was +even constraint among some two or three, but there was civility and an +evident desire to refer to his services in behalf of their men. All such +attempts, however, Mr. Hayne waved aside by <a name="Page_37" id="Page_37"></a>an immediate change of the +subject. It was plain that to them too, he had the manner of a man who +was at odds with the world and desired to make no friends.</p> + +<p>The colonel quickly noted the general silence and constraint, and +resolved to shorten it as much as possible. Dropping his pen, he wheeled +around in his chair with determined cheerfulness:</p> + +<p>"Mr. Hayne, you will need a day or two to look about before you select +quarters and get ready for work, I presume."</p> + +<p>"Thank you, colonel. No, sir. I shall move in this afternoon and be on +duty to-morrow morning," was the calm reply.</p> + +<p>There was an awkward pause for a moment. The officers looked blankly +from one to another, and then began craning their necks to search for +the post quartermaster, who sat an absorbed listener. Then the colonel +spoke again:</p> + +<p>"I appreciate your promptness, Mr. Hayne; but have you considered that +in choosing quarters according to your rank you will necessarily move +somebody out? We are crowded now, and many of your juniors are married, +and the ladies will want time to pack."</p> + +<p>An anxious silence again. Captain Rayner was gazing at his boot-toes and +trying to appear utterly indifferent; others leaned forward, as though +eager to hear the answer. A faint smile crossed Mr. Hayne's features: he +seemed rather to enjoy the situation:</p> + +<p>"I <i>have</i> considered, colonel. I shall turn nobody out, and nobody need +be incommoded in the least."</p> + +<p>"Oh! then you will share quarters with some of the bachelors?" asked the +colonel, with evident relief.</p> + +<p>"No, sir;" and the answer was stern in tone, though perfectly +respectful: "I shall live as I have lived for years,—utterly alone."</p> + +<p>One could have heard a pin drop in the office,—even on the matted +floor. The colonel half rose:</p> + +<p>"Why, Mr. Hayne, there is not a vacant set of quarters in the garrison. +You will <i>have</i> to move some one out if you decide to live alone."</p> + +<p>"There may be no quarters <i>in</i> the post, sir, but, if you will permit +me, I can live near my company and yet in officers' quarters."</p> + +<p>"How so, sir?"</p> + +<p>"In the house out there on the edge of the garrison, facing the prairie. +It is within stone's-throw of the barracks of Company B, and is exactly +like those built for the officers in here along the parade."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38"></a>"Why, Mr. Hayne, no officers ever lived there. It is utterly out of the +way and isolated. I believe it was built for the sutler years ago, but +was bought in by the government afterwards.—Who lives there now, Mr. +Quartermaster?"</p> + +<p>"No one, sir. It is being used as a tailors' shop; half a dozen of the +company tailors work there; but I can send them back to their own +barracks. The house is in good repair, and, as Mr. Hayne says, exactly +like those built for officers' use."</p> + +<p>"And you mean you want to live there, alone, Mr. Hayne?"</p> + +<p>"I do, sir,—exactly."</p> + +<p>The colonel turned sharply to his desk once more. The strained silence +continued a moment. Then he faced his officers:</p> + +<p>"Mr. Hayne, will you remain a few moments? I wish to speak with +you.—Gentlemen, that is all this morning." And so the meeting +adjourned.</p> + +<p>While many of the cavalry officers strolled into the neighboring +club-and reading-room, it was noticed that their comrades of the +infantry lost no time at intermediate points, but took the shortest road +to the row of brown cottages known as the officers' quarters. The +feeling of constraint that had settled upon all was still apparent in +the group that entered the club-room, and for a moment no one spoke. +There was a general settling into easy-chairs and picking up of +newspapers without reference to age or date. No one seemed to want to +say anything, and yet every one felt it necessary to have some apparent +excuse for becoming absorbed in other matters. This was so evident to +Lieutenant Blake that he speedily burst into a laugh,—the first that +had been heard,—and when two or three heads popped out from behind +their printed screens to inquire into the cause of his mirth, that +light-hearted gentleman was seen sprawling his long legs apart and +gazing out of the window after the groups of infantrymen.</p> + +<p>"What do you see that's so intensely funny?" growled one of the elders +among the dragoons.</p> + +<p>"Nothing, old mole,—nothing," said Blake, turning suddenly about. "It +looks too much like a funeral procession for fun. What I'm chuckling at +is the absurdity of our coming in here like so many mutes in weepers. +It's none of <i>our</i> funeral."</p> + +<p>"Strikes me the situation is damned awkward," growled "the mole" again. +"Here's a fellow comes in who's cut by his regiment <a name="Page_39" id="Page_39"></a>and has placed ours +under lasting obligation before he gets inside the post."</p> + +<p>"Well, does any man here know the rights and wrongs of the case, +anyhow?" said a tall, bearded captain as he threw aside the paper which +he had not been reading, and rose impatiently to his feet. "It seems to +me, from the little I've heard of Mr. Hayne and the little I've seen, +that there is a broad variation between facts and appearances. He looks +like a gentleman."</p> + +<p>"No one <i>does</i> know anything more of the matter than was known at the +time of the court-martial five years ago," answered "the mole." "Of +course you have heard all about that; and my experience is that when a +body of officers and gentlemen find, after due deliberation on the +evidence, that another has been guilty of conduct unbecoming an officer +and a gentleman, the chances are a hundred to one he has been doing +something disreputable, to say the least."</p> + +<p>"Then why wasn't he dismissed?" queried a young lieutenant. "The law +says he must be."</p> + +<p>"That's right, Dolly: pull your Ives and Benèt on 'em, and show you know +all about military law and courts-martial," said the captain, +crushingly. "It's one thing for a court to sentence, and another for the +President to approve. Hayne <i>was</i> dismissed, so far as a court could do +it, but the President remitted the whole thing."</p> + +<p>"There was more to it than that, though, and you know it, Buxton," said +Blake. "Neither the department commander nor General Sherman thought the +evidence conclusive, and they said so,—especially old Gray Fox. And you +ask any of these fellows here now whether they believe Hayne was really +guilty, and I'll bet you that eight out of ten will flunk at the +question."</p> + +<p>"And yet they all cut him dead. That's <i>prima facie</i> evidence of what +they think."</p> + +<p>"Cut be blowed! By gad, if any man asked me to testify on oath as to +where the cut lay, I should say he had cut <i>them</i>. Did you see how he +ignored Foster and Graham this morning?"</p> + +<p>"I did; and I thought it damned ungentlemanly in him. Those fellows did +the proper thing, and he ought to have acknowledged it," broke in a +third officer.</p> + +<p>"I'm not defending <i>that</i> point; the Lord knows he has done nothing to +encourage civility with his own people; but there are two sides to every +story, and I asked their adjutant last fall, when there was <a name="Page_40" id="Page_40"></a>some talk +of his company's being sent here, what Hayne's status was, and he told +me. There isn't a squarer man or sounder soldier in the army than the +adjutant of the Riflers; and he said that it was Hayne's stubborn pride +that more than anything else stood in the way of his restoration to +social standing. He had made it a rule that every one who was not for +him was against him, and refused to admit any man to his society who +would not first come to him of his own volition and say he believed him +utterly innocent. As that involved the necessity of their looking upon +Rayner as either perjured or grossly and persistently mistaken, no one +felt called upon to do it. Guilty or innocent, he has lived the life of +a Pariah ever since."</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> wanted to open out to him, to-day," said Captain Gregg, "but the +moment I began to speak of his great kindness to our men he froze as +stiff as Mulligan's ear. What was the use? I simply couldn't thaw an +icicle. What made him so effective in getting the frost out of them was +his capacity for absorbing it into his own system."</p> + +<p>"Well, here, gentlemen," said Buxton, impatiently, "we've got to face +this thing sooner or later, and may as well do it now. I know Rayner, +and like him, and don't believe he's the kind of man to wilfully wrong +another. I <i>don't</i> know Mr. Hayne, and Mr. Hayne apparently don't want +to know me. <i>I</i> think that where a man has been convicted of +dishonorable—disgraceful conduct and is cut by his whole regiment it is +our business to back the regiment, not the man. Now the question is, +where shall we draw the line in this case? It's none of our funeral, as +Blake says, but ordinarily it would be our duty to call upon this +officer. Shall we do it, now that he is in Coventry, or shall we leave +him to his own devices?"</p> + +<p>"I'll answer for myself, Buxton," said Blake, "and you can do as, you +please. Except that one thing, and the not unusual frivolities of a +youngster that occurred previous to his trial, I understand that his +character has been above reproach. So far as I can learn, he is a far +more reputable character than I am, and a better officer than most of +us. Growl all you want to, comrades mine: 'it's a way we have in the +army,' and I like it. So long as I include myself in these malodorous +comparisons, you needn't swear. It is my conviction that the Riflers +wouldn't say he was guilty to-day if they hadn't said so five years ago. +It is my information that he has paid every cent of the damages, whether +he caused them or not, and it is my intention to go and call <a name="Page_41" id="Page_41"></a>upon Mr. +Hayne as soon as he's settled. I don't propose to influence any man in +his action; and excuse me, Buxton, I think you <i>did</i>."</p> + +<p>The captain looked wrathful. Blake was an oddity, of whom he rather +stood in awe, for there was no mistaking the popularity and respect in +which he was held in his own regiment. The ——th was somewhat +remarkable for being emphatically an "outspoken crowd," and for some +years, thanks to a leaven of strong and truthful men in whom this trait +was pronounced and sustained, it had grown to be the custom of all but a +few of the officers to discuss openly and fully all matters of +regimental policy and utterly to discountenance covert action of any +kind. Blake was thoroughly popular, and generally respected, despite a +tendency to rant and rattle on most occasions. Nevertheless, there were +signs of dissent as to the line of action he proposed, though it were +only for his own guidance.</p> + +<p>"And how do you suppose Rayner and the Riflers generally will regard +your calling on their black sheep?" asked Buxton, after a pause.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," said Blake, more seriously, and with a tone of concern. +"I like Rayner, and have found most of those fellows thorough gentlemen +and good friends. This will test the question thoroughly. I believe most +of them, except of course Rayner, would do the same were they in my +place. At all events, I mean to see."</p> + +<p>"What are you going to do, Gregg?" asked "the mole," wheeling suddenly +on his brother troop-commander.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," said Gregg, doubtfully. "I think I'll ask the colonel."</p> + +<p>"What do you suppose <i>he</i> means to do?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know again; but I'll bet we all know as soon as he makes up his +mind; and he is making up his mind now,—or he's made it up, for there +goes Mr. Hayne, and here comes the orderly. Something's up already."</p> + +<p>Every head was turned to the door-way as the orderly's step was heard in +the outer hall, and every voice stilled to hear the message, it was so +unusual for the commanding officer to send for one of his subordinates +after the morning meeting. The soldier tapped at the panel, and at the +prompt "Come in" pushed it partly open and stood with one white-gloved +hand resting on the knob, the other raised to his cap-visor in salute.</p> + +<p>"Lieutenant Blake?" he asked, as he glanced around.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42"></a>"What is it?" asked Blake, stepping quickly from the window.</p> + +<p>"The commanding officer's compliments, sir, and could he see the +lieutenant one minute before the court meets?"</p> + +<p>"Coming at once," said Blake, as he pushed his way through the chairs, +and the orderly faced about and disappeared.</p> + +<p>"I'll bet it's about Hayne," was the apparently unanimous sentiment as +the cavalry party broke up and scattered for the morning's duties. Some +waited purposely to hear.</p> + +<p>The adjutant alone stood in the colonel's presence as Blake knocked and +entered. All others had gone. There was a moment's hesitation, and the +colonel paused and looked his man over before he spoke:</p> + +<p>"You will excuse my sending for you, Mr. Blake, when I tell you that it +is a matter that has to be decided at once. In this case you will +consider, too, that I want you to say yes or no exactly as you would to +a comrade of your own grade. If you were asked to meet Mr. Hayne at any +other house in the garrison than mine, would you desire to accept? You +are aware of all the circumstances, the adjutant tells me."</p> + +<p>"I am, sir, and have just announced my intention of calling upon him."</p> + +<p>"Then will you dine with us this evening to meet Mr. Hayne?"</p> + +<p>"I will do so with pleasure, sir."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>It could hardly have been an hour afterwards when Mrs. Rayner entered +the library in her cosey home and found Miss Travers entertaining +herself with a book.</p> + +<p>"Have you written to Mr. Van Antwerp this morning?" she asked. "I +thought that was what you came here for."</p> + +<p>"I did mean to, but Mrs. Waldron has been here, and I was interrupted."</p> + +<p>"It is fully fifteen minutes since she left, Nellie. You might have +written two or three pages already; and you know that all manner of +visitors will be coming in by noon."</p> + +<p>"I was just thinking over something she told me. I'll write presently."</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Waldron is a woman who talks about everything and everybody. I +advise you to listen to her no more than you can help. What was it she +told you?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43"></a>Miss Travers smiled roguishly: "Why should you want to know, Kate, if +you disapprove of her revelations?"</p> + +<p>"Oh," with visible annoyance, "it is to—I wanted to know so as to let +you see that it was something unfounded, as usual."</p> + +<p>"She said she had just been told that the colonel was going to give a +dinner-party this evening to Mr. Hayne."</p> + +<p>"What?"</p> + +<p>"She—said—she—had—just—been—told—that—the colonel—was going—to +give—a dinner-party—this evening—to Mr.—Hayne."</p> + +<p>"Who told her?"</p> + +<p>"Kate, I didn't ask."</p> + +<p>"Who are invited? None of <i>ours</i>?"</p> + +<p>"Kate, I don't know."</p> + +<p>"Where did she say she had heard it?"</p> + +<p>"She didn't say."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rayner paused one moment, irresolute: "Didn't she tell you anything +more about it?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing, sister mine. Why should you feel such an interest in what Mrs. +Waldron says, if she's such a gossip?" And Miss Travers was evidently +having hard work to keep from laughing outright.</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> had better write your letter," said her big sister, and flounced +suddenly out of the room and up the stairs.</p> + +<p>A moment later she was at the parlor door with a wrap thrown over her +shoulders: "If Captain Rayner comes in, tell him I want particularly to +see him before he goes out again."</p> + +<p>"Where are you going, Kate?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, just over to Mrs. Waldron's a moment."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV.</h2> + + +<p>Facing the broad, bleak prairie, separated from it only by a rough, +unpainted picket fence, and flanked by uncouth structures of pine, one +of which was used as a storehouse for quartermaster's property, the +other as the post-trader's depository for skins and furs, there stood +the frame cottage which Mr. Hayne had chosen as his home. As has been +said, it was precisely like those built for the subaltern officers, so +far as material, plan, and dimensions were concerned. The locality made +the vast difference which really existed. Theirs stood all in a row, +fronting the grassy level of the parade, surrounded by verandas, +bordering on a <a name="Page_44" id="Page_44"></a>well-kept gravel path and an equally well graded drive. +Clear, sparkling water rippled in tiny <i>acequias</i> through the front +yards of each, and so furnished the moisture needed for the life of +various little shrubs and flowering plants. The surroundings were at +least "sociable," and there was companionship and jollity, with an +occasional tiff to keep things lively. The married officers, as a rule, +had chosen their quarters farthest from the entrance-gate and nearest +those of the colonel commanding. The bachelors, except the two or three +who were old in the service and had "rank" in lieu of encumbrances, were +all herded together along the eastern end, a situation that had +disadvantages as connected with duties which required the frequent +presence of the occupants at the court-martial rooms or at +head-quarters, and that was correspondingly far distant from the +barracks of the soldiers. It had its recommendations in being convenient +to the card-room and billiard-tables at "the store," and in embracing +within its limits one house which possessed mysterious interest in the +eyes of every woman and most of the men in the garrison: it was said to +be haunted.</p> + +<p>A sorely-perplexed man was the post quartermaster when the rumor came +out from the railway-station that Mr. Hayne had arrived and was coming +to report for duty. As a first lieutenant he would have choice of +quarters over every second lieutenant in the garrison: there were ten of +these young gentlemen, and four of the ten were married. Every set of +quarters had its occupants, and Hayne could move in nowhere, unless as +occupant of a room or two in the house of some comrade, without first +compelling others to move out. This proceeding would lead to vast +discomfort, occurring as it would in the dead of winter, and the +youngsters were naturally perturbed in spirit,—their wives especially +so. What made the prospects infinitely worse was the fact that the +cavalry bachelors were already living three in a house: the only spare +rooms were in the quarters of the second lieutenants of the infantry, +and they were not on speaking-terms with Mr. Hayne. Everything, +therefore, pointed to the probability of his "displacing" a junior, who +would in turn displace somebody else, and so they would go tumbling like +a row of bricks until the lowest and last was reached. All this would +involve no end of worry for the quartermaster, who even under the most +favorable circumstances is sure to be the least appreciated and most +abused officer under the commandant himself, and that worthy was simply +agasp with relief and joy <a name="Page_45" id="Page_45"></a>when he heard Mr. Hayne's astonishing +announcement that he would take the quarters out on "Prairie Avenue."</p> + +<p>It was the talk of the garrison all that day. The ladies, especially, +had a good deal to say, because many of the men seemed averse to +expressing their views. "Quite the proper thing for Mr. Hayne to do," +was the apparent opinion of the majority of the young wives and mothers. +As a particularly kind and considerate thing it was not remarked by one +of them, though that view of the case went not entirely unrepresented. +In choosing to live there Mr. Hayne separated himself from +companionship. That, said some of the commentators,—men as well as +women,—he simply accepted as the virtue of necessity, and so there was +nothing to commend in his action. But Mr. Hayne was said to possess an +eye for the picturesque and beautiful. If so, he deliberately condemned +himself to the daily contemplation of a treeless barren, streaked in +occasional shallows with dingy patches of snow, ornamented only in spots +by abandoned old hats, boots, or tin cans blown beyond the jurisdiction +of the garrison police-parties. A line of telegraph-poles was all that +intervened between his fence and the low-lying hills of the eastern +horizon. Southeastward lay the distant roofs and the low, squat +buildings of the frontier town; southward the shallow valley of the +winding creek in which lay the long line of stables for the cavalry and +the great stacks of hay; while the row on which he chose to +live—"Prairie Avenue," as it was termed—was far worse at his end of it +than at the other. It covered the whole eastern front. The big, brown +hospital building stood at the northern end. Then came the quarters of +the surgeon and his assistants, then the snug home of the post trader, +then the "store" and its scattering appendages, then the +entrance-gateway, then a broad vacant space, through which the wind +swept like a hurricane, then the little shanty of the trader's fur house +and one or two hovel-like structures used by the tailors and cobbler of +the adjacent infantry companies. Then came the cottage itself: south of +it stood the quartermaster's store-room, back of which lay an extension +filled with ordnance stores, then other and similar sheds devoted to +commissary supplies, the post butcher-shop, the saddler's shop, then big +coal-sheds, and then the brow of the bluff, down which at a steep grade +plunged the road to the stables. It was as unprepossessing a place for a +home as ever was chosen by a man of education or position; and Mr. Hayne +was possessed of both.</p> + +<p>In garrison, despite the flat parade, there was a grand expanse of +<a name="Page_46" id="Page_46"></a>country to be seen stretching away towards the snow-covered Rockies. +There was life and the sense of neighborliness to one's kind. Out on +Prairie Avenue all was wintry desolation, except when twice each day the +cavalry officers went plodding by on their way to and from the stables, +muffled up in their fur caps and coats, and hardly distinguishable from +so many bears, much less from one another.</p> + +<p>And yet Mr. Hayne smiled not unhappily as he glanced from his eastern +window at this group of burly warriors the afternoon succeeding his +dinner at the colonel's. He had been busy all day long unpacking books, +book-shelves, some few pictures which he loved, and his simple, +soldierly outfit of household goods, and getting them into shape. His +sole assistant was a Chinese servant, who worked rapidly and well, and +who seemed in no wise dismayed by the bleakness of their surroundings. +If anything, he was disposed to grin and indulge in high-pitched +commentaries in "pidgin English" upon the unaccustomed amount of room. +His master had been restricted to two rooms and a kitchen during the two +years he had served him. Now they had a house to themselves, and more +rooms than they knew what to do with. The quartermaster had sent a +detail of men to put up the stoves and move out the rubbish left by the +tailors; "Sam" had worked vigorously with soft soap, hot water, and a +big mop in sprucing up the rooms; the adjutant had sent a little note +during the morning, saying that the colonel would be glad to order him +any men he needed to put the quarters in proper shape, and that Captain +Rayner had expressed his readiness to send a detail from the company to +unload and unpack his boxes, etc., to which Mr. Hayne replied in person +that he thanked the commanding officer for his thoughtfulness, but that +he had very little to unpack, and needed no assistance beyond that +already afforded by the quartermaster's men. Mr. Billings could not help +noting that he made no allusion to that part of the letter which spoke +of Captain Rayner's offer. It increased his respect for Mr. Hayne's +perceptive powers.</p> + +<p>While every officer of the infantry battalion was ready to admit that +Mr. Hayne had rendered invaluable service to the men of the cavalry +regiment, they were not so unanimous in their opinion as to how it +should be acknowledged and requited by its officers. No one was prepared +for the announcement that the colonel had asked him to dinner and that +Blake and Billings were to meet him. Some few of their number thought it +going too far, but no one quite coincided with the <a name="Page_47" id="Page_47"></a>vehement declaration +of Mrs. Rayner that it was an outrage and an affront aimed at the +regiment in general and at Captain Rayner in particular. She was an +energetic woman when aroused, and there was no doubt of her being very +much aroused as she sped from house to house to see what the other +ladies thought of it. Rayner's wealth and Mrs. Rayner's qualities had +made her an undoubted though not always popular leader in all social +matters in the Riflers. She was an authority, so to speak, and one who +knew it. Already there had been some points on which she had differed +with the colonel's wife, and it was plain to all that it was a difficult +thing for her to come down from being <i>the</i> authority—the leader of the +social element of a garrison—and from the position of second or third +importance which she had been accorded when first assigned to the +station. There were many, indeed, who asserted that it was because she +found her new position unbearable that she decided on her long visit to +the East and departed thither before the Riflers had been at Warrener a +month. The colonel's wife had greeted her and her lovely sister with +charming grace on their arrival two days previous to the stirring event +of the dinner, and every one was looking forward to a probable series of +pleasant entertainments by the two households, even while wondering how +long the <i>entente cordiale</i> would last,—when the colonel's invitation +to Mr. Hayne brought on an immediate crisis. It is safe to say that Mrs. +Rayner was madder than the captain her husband, who hardly knew how to +take it. He was by no means the best liked officer in his regiment, nor +the "deepest" and best informed, but he had a native shrewdness which +helped him. He noted even before his wife would speak of it to him the +gradual dying out of the bitter feeling that had once existed at Hayne's +expense. He felt, though it hurt him seriously to make inquiries, that +the man whom he had practically crushed and ruined in the long ago was +slowly but surely gaining strength even where he would not make friends. +Worse than all, he was beginning to doubt the evidence of his own senses +as the years receded, and unknown to any soul on earth, even his wife, +there was growing up deep down in his heart a gnawing, insidious, +ever-festering fear that after all, after all, he might have been +mistaken. And yet on the sacred oath of a soldier and a gentleman, +against the most searching cross-examination, again and again had he +most confidently and positively declared that he had both seen and heard +the fatal interview on which the whole case hinged. And as to the exact +language employed, he alone of those within earshot had lived to testify +for or against the ac<a name="Page_48" id="Page_48"></a>cused: of the five soldiers who stood in that now +celebrated group, three were shot to death within the hour. He was +growing nervous, irritable, haggard; he was getting to hate the mere +mention of the case. The promotion of Hayne to his own company thrilled +him with an almost superstitious dismay. <i>Were</i> his words coming true? +<i>Was</i> it the judgment of an offended God that his hideous pride, +obstinacy, and old-time hatred of this officer were now to be revenged +by daily, hourly contact with the victim of his criminal persecution? He +had grown morbidly sensitive to any remarks as to Hayne's having "lived +down" the toils in which he had been encircled. Might he not "live down" +the ensnarer? He dreaded to see him,—though Rayner was no coward,—and +he feared day by day to hear of his restoration to fellowship in the +regiment, and yet would have given half his wealth to bring it about, +could it but have been accomplished without the dreadful admission, "I +was wrong. I was <i>utterly</i> wrong." He had grown lavish in hospitality; +he had become almost aggressively open-handed to his comrades, and had +sought to press money upon men who in no wise needed it. He was as eager +to lend as some are to borrow, and his brother officers dubbed him +"Midas" not because everything he touched would turn to gold, but +because he would intrude his gold upon them at every turn. There were +some who borrowed; and these he struggled not to let repay. He seemed to +have an insane idea that if he could but get his regimental friends +bound to him pecuniarily he could control their opinions and actions. It +was making him sick at heart, and it made him in secret doubly +vindictive and bitter against the man he had doomed to years of +suffering. This showed out that very morning. Mrs. Rayner had begun to +talk, and he turned fiercely upon her:</p> + +<p>"Not a word on that subject, Kate, if you love me!—not even the mention +of his name! I must have peace in my own house. It is enough to have to +talk of it elsewhere."</p> + +<p>Talk of it he had to. The major early that morning asked him, as they +were going to the <i>matinée</i>,—</p> + +<p>"Have you seen Hayne yet?"</p> + +<p>"Not since he reported on the parade yesterday," was the curt reply.</p> + +<p>"Well, I suppose you will send men to help him get those quarters in +habitable shape?"</p> + +<p>"I will, of course, major, if he ask it. I don't propose sending men to +do such work for an officer unless the request come."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49"></a>"He is entitled to that consideration, Rayner, and I think the men +should be sent to him. He is hardly likely to ask."</p> + +<p>"Then he is less likely to get them," said the captain, shortly, for, +except the post commander, he well knew that no officer could order it +to be done. He was angry at the major for interfering. They were old +associates, and had entered service almost at the same time, but his +friend had the better luck in promotion and was now his battalion +commander. Rayner made an excuse of stopping to speak with the officer +of the day, and the major went on without him. He was a quiet old +soldier: he wanted no disturbance with his troubled friend, and, like a +sensible man, he turned the matter over to their common superior, in a +very few words, before the arrival of the general audience. It was this +that had caused the colonel to turn quietly to Rayner and say, in the +most matter-of-fact way,—</p> + +<p>"Oh, Captain Rayner, I presume Mr. Hayne will need three or four men to +help him get his quarters in shape. I suppose you have already thought +to send them?"</p> + +<p>And Rayner flushed, and stammered, "They have not gone yet, sir; but I +had—thought of it."</p> + +<p>Later, when the sergeant sent the required detail he reported to the +captain in the company office in five minutes: "The lieutenant's +compliments and thanks, but he does not need the men."</p> + +<p>The dinner at the colonel's, quiet as it was and with only eight at +table, was an affair of almost momentous importance to Mr. Hayne. It was +the first thing of the kind he had attended in five years; and though he +well knew for knew that it was intended by the cavalry commander more +especially as a recognition of the services rendered their suffering +men, he could not but rejoice in the courtesy and tact with which he was +received and entertained. The colonel's wife, the adjutant's, and those +of two captains away with the field battalion, were the four ladies who +were there to greet him when, escorted by Mr. Blake, he made his +appearance. How long—how very long—it seemed to him since he had sat +in the presence of refined and attractive women and listened to their +gay and animated chat! They seemed all such good friends, they made him +so thoroughly at home, and they showed so much tact and ease, that never +once did it seem apparent that they knew of his trouble in his own +regiment; and yet there was no actual avoidance of matters in which the +Riflers were generally interested. It was mainly of his brief visit to +the East, however, that they made him talk,—of the <a name="Page_50" id="Page_50"></a>operas and theatres +he had attended, the pictures he had seen, the music that was most +popular; and when dinner was over their hostess led him to her piano, +and he played and sang for them again and again. His voice was soft and +sweet, and, though it was uncultivated, he sang with expression and +grace, playing with more skill but less feeling and effect than he sang. +Music and books had been the solace of lonely years, and he could easily +see that he had pleased them with his songs. He went home to the dreary +rookery out on Prairie Avenue and laughed at the howling wind. The bare +grimy walls and the dim kerosene lamp, even Sam's unmelodious snore in +the back room, sent no gloom to his soul. It had been a happy evening. +It had cost him a hard struggle to restrain the emotion which he had +felt at times; and when he withdrew, soon after the trumpets sounded +tattoo, and the ladies fell to discussing him, as women will, there was +but one verdict,—his manners were perfect.</p> + +<p>But the colonel said more than that. He had found him far better read +than any other officer of his age he had ever met; and one and all they +expressed the hope that they might see him frequently. No wonder it was +of momentous importance to him. It was the opening to a new life. It +meant that here at least he had met soldiers and gentlemen and their +fair and gracious wives who had welcomed him to their homes, and, though +they must have known that a pall of suspicion and crime had overshadowed +his past, they believed either that he was innocent of the grievous +charge or that his years of exile and suffering had amply atoned. It was +a happy evening indeed to him; but there was gloom at Captain Rayner's.</p> + +<p>The captain himself had gone out soon after tattoo. He found that the +parlor was filled with young visitors of both sexes, and he was in no +mood for merriment. Miss Travers was being welcomed to the post in +genuine army style, and was evidently enjoying it. Mrs. Rayner was +flitting nervously in and out of the parlor with a cloud upon her brow, +and for once in her life compelled to preserve temporary silence upon +the subject uppermost in her thoughts. She had been forbidden to speak +of it to her husband; yet she knew he had gone out again with every +probability of needing some one to talk to about the matter. She could +not well broach the topic in the parlor, because she was not at all sure +how Captain and Mrs. Gregg of the cavalry would take it; and they were +still there. She was a loyal wife; her husband's quarrel was hers, and +more too; and she was a woman of intuition <a name="Page_51" id="Page_51"></a>even keener than that which +we so readily accord the sex. She knew, and knew well, that a hideous +doubt had been preying for a long time in her husband's heart of hearts, +and she knew still better that it would crush him to believe it was even +suspected by any one else. Right or wrong, the one thing for her to do, +she doubted not, was to maintain the original guilt against all comers, +and to lose no opportunity of feeding the flame that consumed Mr. +Hayne's record and reputation. He was guilty,—he must be guilty; and +though she was a Christian according to her view of the case,—a pillar +of the Church in matters of public charity and picturesque conformity to +all the rubric called for in the services, and much that it did +not,—she was unrelenting in her condemnation of Mr. Hayne. To those who +pointed out that he had made every atonement man could make, she +responded with the severity of conscious virtue that there could be no +atonement without repentance, and no repentance without humility. Mr. +Hayne's whole attitude was that of stubborn pride and resentment; his +atonement was that enforced by the unanimous verdict of his comrades; +and even if it were so that he had more than made amends for his crime, +the rules that held good for ordinary sinners were not applicable to an +officer of the army. <i>He</i> must be a man above suspicion, incapable of +wrong or fraud, and once stained he was forever ineligible as a +gentleman. It was a subject on which she waxed declamatory rather too +often, and the youngsters of her own regiment wearied of it. As Mr. +Foster once expressed it in speaking of this very case, "Mrs. Rayner can +talk more charity and show less than any woman I know." So long as her +talk was aimed against any lurking tendency of their own to look upon +Hayne as a possible martyr, it fell at times on unappreciative ears, and +she was quick to see it and to choose her hearers; but here was a new +phase,—one that might rouse the latent <i>esprit de corps</i> of the +Riflers,—and she was bent on striking while the iron was hot. If +anything would provoke unanimity of action and sentiment in the +regiment, this public recognition by the cavalry, in their very +presence, of the man they cut as a criminal, was the thing of all others +to do it; and she meant to head the revolt.</p> + +<p>Possibly Gregg and his modest helpmeet discovered that there was +something she desired to "spring" upon the meeting. The others present +were all of the infantry; and when Captain Rayner simply glanced in, +spoke hurried good-evenings, and went as hurriedly out again, Gregg <a name="Page_52" id="Page_52"></a>was +sure of it, and marched his wife away. Then came Mrs. Rayner's +opportunity:</p> + +<p>"If it were not Captain Rayner's house, I could not have been even civil +to Captain Gregg. You heard what he said at the club this morning, I +suppose?"</p> + +<p>In one form or another, indeed, almost everybody <i>had</i> heard. The +officers present maintained an embarrassed silence. Miss Travers looked +reproachfully at her flushed sister, but to no purpose. At last one of +the ladies remarked,—</p> + +<p>"Well, of course I heard of it, but—I've heard so many different +versions. It seems to have grown somewhat since morning."</p> + +<p>"It sounds just like him, however," said Mrs. Rayner, "and I made +inquiry before speaking of it. He said he meant to invite Mr. Hayne to +his house to-morrow evening, and if the infantry didn't like it they +could stay away."</p> + +<p>"Well, now, Mrs. Rayner," protested Mr. Foster, "of course none of us +heard what he said exactly, but it is my experience that no conversation +was ever repeated without being exaggerated, and I've known old Gregg +for ever so long, and never heard him say a sharp thing yet. Why, he's +the mildest-mannered fellow in the whole ——th Cavalry. He would never +get into such a snarl as that would bring about him in five minutes."</p> + +<p>"Well, he said he would do just as the colonel did, anyway,—we have +that straight from cavalry authority,—and we all know what the colonel +has done. He has chosen to honor Mr. Hayne in the presence of the +officers who denounce him, and practically defies the opinion of the +Riflers."</p> + +<p>"But, Mrs. Rayner, I did not understand Gregg's remarks to be what you +say, exactly. Blake told me that when asked by somebody whether he was +going to call on Mr. Hayne, Gregg simply replied he didn't know,—he +would ask the colonel."</p> + +<p>"Very well. That means, he proposes to be guided by the colonel, or +nothing at all; and Captain Gregg is simply doing what the others will +do. They say to us, in so many words, 'We prefer the society of your +<i>bête noire</i> to your own.' That's the way I look at it," said Mrs. +Rayner, in deep excitement.</p> + +<p>It was evident that, though none were prepared to endorse so extreme a +view, there was a strong feeling that the colonel had put an affront +upon the Riflers by his open welcome to Mr. Hayne. He had <a name="Page_53" id="Page_53"></a>been exacting +before, and had caused a good deal of growling among the officers and +comment among the women. They were ready to find fault, and here was +strong provocation. Mr. Foster was a youth of unfortunate and unpopular +propensities. He should have held his tongue, instead of striving to +stem the tide.</p> + +<p>"I don't uphold Hayne any more than you do, Mrs. Rayner, but it seems to +me this is a case where the colonel has to make some acknowledgment of +Mr. Hayne's conduct—"</p> + +<p>"Very good. Let him write him a letter, then, thanking him in the name +of the regiment, but don't pick him up like this in the face of ours," +interrupted one of the juniors, who was seated near Miss Travers (a wise +stroke of policy: Mrs. Rayner invited him to breakfast); and there was a +chorus of approbation.</p> + +<p>"Well, hold on a moment," said Foster. "Hasn't the colonel had every one +of us to dinner more or less frequently?"</p> + +<p>"Admitted. But what's that to do with it?"</p> + +<p>"Hasn't he invariably invited each officer to dine with him in every +case where an officer has arrived?"</p> + +<p>"Granted. But what then?"</p> + +<p>"If he broke the rule or precedent in Mr. Hayne's case would he not +practically be saying that he endorsed the views of the court-martial as +opposed to those of the department commander, General Sherman, the +Secretary of War, the President of the United—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, make out your transfer papers, Foster. You ought to be in the +cavalry or some other disputatious branch of the service," burst in Mr. +Graham.</p> + +<p>"I declare, Mr. Foster, I never thought you would abandon your colors," +said Mrs. Rayner.</p> + +<p>"I haven't, madame, and you've no right to say so," said Foster, +indignantly. "I simply hold that any attempt to work up a regimental row +out of this thing will make bad infinitely worse, and I deprecate the +whole business."</p> + +<p>"I suppose you mean to intimate that Captain Rayner's position and that +of the regiment is bad,—all wrong,—that Mr. Hayne has been +persecuted," said Mrs. Rayner, with trembling lips and cheeks aflame.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Rayner, you are unjust," said poor Foster. "I ought not to have +undertaken to explain or defend the colonel's act, perhaps, but I am not +disloyal to my regiment or my colors. What I want is to <a name="Page_54" id="Page_54"></a>prevent further +trouble; and I know that anything like a concerted resentment of the +colonel's invitation will lead to infinite harm."</p> + +<p>"<i>You</i> may cringe and bow and bear it if you choose; you may humble +yourself to such a piece of insolence; but rest assured there are plenty +of men and women in the Riflers who won't bear it, Mr. Foster; and for +one <i>I</i> won't." She had risen to her full height now, and her eyes were +blazing. "For his own sake I trust the colonel will omit our names from +the next entertainment he gives. Nellie shan't—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, think, Mrs. Rayner!" interrupted one of the ladies; "they <i>must</i> +give her a dinner or a reception."</p> + +<p>"Indeed they shall not! I refuse to enter the door of people who have +insulted my husband as they have."</p> + +<p>"Hush! Listen!" said Mr. Graham, springing towards the door.</p> + +<p>There was wondering silence an instant.</p> + +<p>"It is nothing but the trumpet sounding taps," said Mrs. Rayner, +hurriedly.</p> + +<p>But even as she spoke they rose to their feet. Muffled cries were heard, +borne in on the night wind,—a shot, then another, down in the +valley,—the quick peal of the cavalry trumpet.</p> + +<p>"It isn't taps. It's fire!" shouted Graham from the door-way. "Come on!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V.</h2> + + +<p>Down in the valley south of the post a broad glare was already shooting +upward and illumining the sky. One among a dozen little shanties and log +houses, the homes of the laundresses of the garrison and collectively +known as Sudsville, was a mass of flames. There was a rush of officers +across the parade, and the men, answering the alarum of the trumpet and +the shots and shouts of the sentries, came tearing from their quarters +and plunging down the hill. Among the first on the spot came the young +men who were of the party at Captain Rayner's, and Mr. Graham was ahead +of them all. It was plain to the most inexperienced eye that there was +hardly anything left to save in or about the burning shanty. All efforts +must be directed towards preventing the spread of the flames to those +adjoining. Half-clad women and children were rushing about, shrieking +with fright and excitement, and a few men were engaged in dragging +household goods and furniture from those tenements not yet reached by +the flames. Fire-apparatus there seemed to be none, though squads of men +speedily appeared with <a name="Page_55" id="Page_55"></a>ladders, axes, and buckets, brought from the +different company quarters, and the arriving officers quickly formed the +bucket-lines and water dipped up from the icy creek began to fly from +hand to hand. Before anything like this was fairly under way, a scene of +semi-tragic, semi-comic intensity had been enacted in the presence of a +rapidly gathering audience. "It was worth more than the price of +admission to hear Blake tell it afterwards," said the officers, later.</p> + +<p>A tall, angular woman, frantic with excitement and terror, was dancing +about in the broad glare of the burning hut, tearing her hair, making +wild rushes at the flames from time to time as though intent on dragging +out some prized object that was being consumed before her eyes, and all +the time keeping up a volley of maledictions and abuse in lavish +Hibernian, apparently directed at a cowering object who sat in limp +helplessness upon a little heap of fire-wood, swaying from side to side +and moaning stupidly through the scorched and grimy hands in which his +face was hidden. His clothing was still smoking in places; his hair and +beard were singed to the roots; he was evidently seriously injured, and +the sympathizing soldiers who had gathered around him after deluging him +with snow and water were striving to get him to arise and go with them +to the hospital. A little girl, not ten years old, knelt sobbing and +terrified by his side. She, too, was scorched and singed, and the +soldiers had thrown rough blankets about her; but it was for her father, +not herself, she seemed worried to distraction. Some of the women were +striving to reassure and comfort her in their homely fashion, bidding +her cheer up,—the father was only stupid from drink, and would be all +right as soon as "the liquor was off of him." But the little one was +beyond consolation so long as he could not or would not speak in answer +to her entreaties.</p> + +<p>All this time, never pausing for breath, shrieking anathemas on her +drunken spouse, reproaches on her frightened child, and invocations to +all the blessed saints in heaven to reward the gintleman who had saved +her hoarded money,—a smoking packet that she hugged to her +breast,—Mrs. Clancy, "the saynior laundress of Company B," as she had +long styled herself, was prancing up and down through the gathering +crowd, her shrill voice overmastering all other clamor. The vigorous +efforts of the men, directed by cool-headed officers, soon beat back the +flames that were threatening the neighboring shanties, and levelled to +the ground what remained of Private Clancy's home. The fire was +extinguished almost as rapidly as it began, but the torrent of Mrs.<a name="Page_56" id="Page_56"></a> +Clancy's eloquence was still unstemmed. The adjurations of sympathetic +sisters to "Howld yer whist," the authoritative admonition of some old +sergeant to "Stop your infernal noise," and the half-maudlin yet +appealing glances of her suffering lord were all insufficient to check +her. It was not until the quiet tones of the colonel were heard that she +began to cool down: "We've had enough of this, Mrs. Clancy: be still, +now, or we'll have to send you to the hospital in the coal-cart." Mrs. +Clancy knew that the colonel was a man of few words, and believed him to +be one of less sentiment. She was afraid of him, and concluded it time +to cease threats and abuse and come down to the more effective <i>rôle</i> of +wronged and suffering womanhood,—a feat which she accomplished with the +consummate ease of long practice, for the rows in the Clancy household +were matters of garrison notoriety. The surgeon, too, had come, and, +after quick examination of Clancy's condition, had directed him to be +taken at once to the hospital; and thither his little daughter insisted +on following him, despite the efforts of some of the women to detain her +and dress her properly.</p> + +<p>Before returning to his quarters the colonel desired to know something +of the origin of the fire. There was testimony enough and to spare. +Every woman in Sudsville had a theory to express, and was eager to be +heard at once and to the exclusion of all others. It was not until he +had summarily ordered them to go to their homes and not come near him +that the colonel managed to get a clear statement from some of the men.</p> + +<p>Clancy had been away all the evening, drinking as usual, and Mrs. Clancy +was searching about Sudsville as much for sympathy and listeners as for +him. Little Kate, who knew her father's haunts, had guided him home, and +was striving to get him to his little sleeping-corner before her +mother's return, when in his drunken helplessness he fell against the +table, overturning the kerosene lamp, and the curtains were all aflame +in an instant. It was just after taps—or ten o'clock—when Kate's +shrieks aroused the inmates of Sudsville and started the cry of "Fire." +The flimsy structure of pine boards burned like so much tinder, and the +child and her stupefied father had been dragged forth only in time to +save their lives. The little one, after giving the alarm, had rushed +again into the house and was tugging at his senseless form when rescue +came for both,—none too soon. As for Mrs. Clancy, at the first note of +danger she had rushed screaming to the spot, but only in time to see the +whole interior ablaze and to howl frantically <a name="Page_57" id="Page_57"></a>for some man to save her +money,—it was all in the green box under the bed. For husband and child +she had for the moment no thought. They were safely out of the fire by +the time she got there, and she screamed and fought like a fury against +the men who held her back when she would have plunged into the midst of +it. It took but a minute for one or two men to burst through the flimsy +wall with axes, to rescue the burning box and knock off the lid. It was +a sight to see when the contents were handed to her. She knelt, wept, +prayed, counted over bill after bill of smoking, steaming greenbacks, +until suddenly recalled to her senses by the eager curiosity and the +remarks of some of her fellow-women. That she kept money and a good deal +of it in her quarters had long been suspected and as fiercely denied; +but no one had dreamed of such a sum as was revealed. In her frenzy she +had shrieked that the savings of her lifetime were burning,—that there +was over three thousand dollars in the box; but she hid her treasure and +gasped and stammered and swore she was talking "wild-like." "They was +nothing but twos and wans," she vowed; yet there were women there who +declared that they had seen tens and twenties as she hurried them +through her trembling fingers, and Sudsville gossiped and talked for two +hours after she was led away, still moaning and shivering, to the +bedside of poor Clancy, who was the miserable cause of it all. The +colonel listened to the stories with such patience as could be accorded +to witnesses who desired to give prominence to their personal exploits +in subduing the flames and rescuing life and property. It was not until +he and the group of officers with him had been engaged some moments in +taking testimony that something was elicited which caused a new +sensation.</p> + +<p>It was not by the united efforts of Sudsville that Clancy and Kate had +been dragged from the flames, but by the individual dash and +determination of a single man: there was no discrepancy here, for the +ten or a dozen who were wildly rushing about the house made no effort to +burst into it until a young soldier leaped through their midst into the +blazing door-way, was seen to throw a blanket over some object within, +and the next minute appeared again, dragging a body through the flames. +Then they had sprung to his aid, and between them Kate and "the ould +man" were lifted into the open air. A moment later he had handed Mrs. +Clancy her packet of money, and—they hadn't seen him since. He was an +officer, said they,—a new one. They thought it must be the new +lieutenant of Company B; and the colonel looked <a name="Page_58" id="Page_58"></a>quickly around and said +a few words to his adjutant, who started up the hill forthwith. A group +of officers and ladies were standing at the brow of the plateau east of +the guard-house, gazing down upon the scene below, and other ladies, +with their escorts, had gathered on a little knoll close by the road +that led to Prairie Avenue. It was past these that the adjutant walked +rapidly away, swinging his hurricane-lamp in his hand.</p> + +<p>"Which way now, Billings?" called one of the cavalry officers in the +group.</p> + +<p>"Over to Mr. Hayne's quarters," he shouted back, never stopping at all.</p> + +<p>A silence fell upon the group at mention of the name. They were the +ladies from Captain Rayner's and a few of their immediate friends. All +eyes followed the twinkling light as it danced away eastward towards the +gloomy coal-sheds. Then there was sudden and intense interest. The lamp +had come to a stand-still, was deposited on the ground, and by its dim +ray the adjutant could be seen bending over a dark object that was half +sitting, half reclining at the platform of the shed. Then came a shout, +"Come here, some of you." And most of the men ran to the spot.</p> + +<p>For a moment not one word was spoken in the watching group: then Miss +Travers's voice was heard:</p> + +<p>"What can it be? Why do they stop there?"</p> + +<p>She felt a sudden hand upon her wrist, and her sister's lips at her ear:</p> + +<p>"Come away, Nellie. I want to go home. Come!"</p> + +<p>"But, Kate, I must see what it means."</p> + +<p>"No: come! It's—it's only some other drunken man, probably. Come!" And +she strove to lead her.</p> + +<p>But the other ladies were curious too, and all, insensibly, were edging +over to the east as though eager to get in sight of the group. The +recumbent object had been raised, and was seen to be the dark figure of +a man whom the others began slowly to lead away. One of the group came +running back to them: it was Mr. Foster.</p> + +<p>"Come, ladies: I will escort you home, as the others are busy."</p> + +<p>"What is the matter, Mr. Foster?" was asked by half a dozen voices.</p> + +<p>"It was Mr. Hayne,—badly burned, I fear. He was trying to get home +after having saved poor Clancy."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59"></a>"You don't say so! Oh, isn't there something we can do? Can't we go +that way and be of some help?" was the eager petition of more than one +of the ladies.</p> + +<p>"Not now. They will have the doctor in a minute. He has not inhaled +flame; it is all external; but he was partly blinded and could not find +his way. He called to Billings when he heard him coming. I will get you +all home and then go back to him. Come!" And, offering his arm to Mrs. +Rayner, who was foremost in the direction he wanted to go,—the pathway +across the parade,—Mr. Foster led them on. Of course there was eager +talk and voluble sympathy; but Mrs. Rayner spoke not a word. The others +crowded around him with questions, and her silence passed unnoted except +by one.</p> + +<p>The moment they were inside the door and alone, Miss Travers turned to +her sister: "Kate, what was this man's crime?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI.</h2> + + +<p>An unusual state of affairs existed at the big hospital for several +days: Mrs. Clancy had refused to leave the bedside of her beloved Mike, +and was permitted to remain. For a woman who was notorious as a virago +and bully, who had beaten little Kate from her babyhood and abused and +hammered her Michael until, between her and drink, he was but the wreck +of a stalwart manhood, Mrs. Clancy had developed a degree of devotion +that was utterly unexpected. In all the dozen years of their marital +relations no such trait could be recalled; and yet there had been many +an occasion within the past few years when Clancy's condition demanded +gentle nursing and close attention,—and never would have got it but for +faithful little Kate. The child idolized the broken-down man, and loved +him with a tenderness that his weakness seemed but to augment a +thousandfold, while it but served to infuriate her mother. In former +years, when he was Sergeant Clancy and a fine soldier, many was the time +he had intervened to save her from an undeserved thrashing; many a time +had he seized her in his strong arms and confronted the furious woman +with stern reproof. Between him and the child there had been the +tenderest love, for she was all that was left to him of four. In the old +days Mrs. Clancy had been the belle of the soldiers' balls, a +fine-looking woman, with indomitable powers as a dancer and +conversationalist and an envied reputation for outshining all her rivals +in dress and adornment. "She <a name="Page_60" id="Page_60"></a>would ruin Clancy, that she would," was +the unanimous opinion of the soldiers' wives; but he seemed to minister +to her extravagance with unfailing good nature for two or three years. +He had been prudent, careful of his money, was a war-soldier with big +arrears of bounty and, tradition had it, a consummate skill in poker. He +was the moneyed man among the sergeants when the dashing relict of a +brother non-commissioned officer set her widow's cap for him and won. It +did not take many years for her to wheedle most of his money away; but +there was no cessation to the demand, no apparent limit to the supply. +Both were growing older, and now it became evident that Mrs. Clancy was +the elder of the two, and that the artificiality of her charms could not +stand the test of frontier life. No longer sought as the belle of the +soldiers' ball-rooms, she aspired to leadership among their wives and +families, and was accorded that pre-eminence rather than the fierce +battle which was sure to follow any revolt. She became avaricious,—some +said miserly,—and Clancy miserable. Then began the downward course. He +took to drink soon after his return from a long, hard summer's campaign +with the Indians. He lost his sergeant's stripes and went into the +ranks. There came a time when the new colonel forbade his re-enlistment +in the cavalry regiment in which he had served so many a long year. He +had been a brave and devoted soldier. He had a good friend in the +infantry, he said, who wouldn't go back on a poor fellow who took a drop +too much at times, and, to the surprise of many soldiers,—officers and +men,—he was brought to the recruiting officer one day, sober, +soldierly, and trimly dressed, and Captain Rayner expressed his desire +to have him enlisted for his company; and it was done. Mrs. Clancy was +accorded the quarters and rations of a laundress, as was then the +custom, and for a time—a very short time—Clancy seemed on the road to +promotion to his old grade. The enemy tripped him, aided by the +scoldings and abuse of his wife, and he never rallied. Some work was +found for him around the quartermaster's shops which saved him from +guard-duty or the guard-house. The infantry—officers and men—seemed to +feel for the poor, broken-down old fellow and to lay much of his woe to +the door of his wife. There was charity for his faults and sympathy for +his sorrows, but at last it had come to this. He was lying, sorely +injured, in the hospital, and there were times when he was apparently +delirious. At such times, said Mrs. Clancy, she alone could manage him; +and she urged that no other nurse could do more than excite or irritate +him. To the <a name="Page_61" id="Page_61"></a>unspeakable grief of little Kate, she, too, was driven from +the sufferer's bedside and forbidden to come into the room except when +her mother gave permission. Clancy had originally been carried into the +general ward with the other patients, but the hospital steward two days +afterwards told the surgeon that the patient moaned and cried so at +night that the other sick men could not sleep, and offered to give up a +little room in his own part of the building. The burly doctor looked +surprised at this concession on the part of the steward, who was a man +tenacious of every perquisite and one who had made much complaint about +the crowded condition of the hospital wards and small rooms ever since +the frozen soldiers had come in. All the same the doctor asked for no +explanation, but gladly availed himself of the steward's offer. Clancy +was moved to this little room adjoining the steward's quarters +forthwith, and Mrs. Clancy was satisfied.</p> + +<p>Another thing had happened to excite remark and a good deal of it. +Nothing short of eternal damnation was Mrs. Clancy's frantic sentence on +the head of her unlucky spouse the night of the fire, when she was the +central figure of the picture and when hundreds of witnesses to her +words were grouped around. Correspondingly had she called down the +blessings of the Holy Virgin and all the saints upon the man who rescued +and returned to her that precious packet of money. Everybody heard her, +and it was out of the question for her to retract. Nevertheless, from +within an hour after Clancy's admission to the hospital not another word +of the kind escaped her lips. She was all patience and pity with the +injured man, and she shunned all allusion to his preserver and her +benefactor. The surgeon had been called away, after doing all in his +power to make Clancy comfortable,—he was needed elsewhere,—and only +two or three soldiers and a hospital nurse still remained by his +bedside, where Mrs. Clancy and little Kate were drying their tears and +receiving consolation from the steward's wife. The doctor had mentioned +a name as he went away, and it was seen that Clancy was striving to ask +a question. Sergeant Nolan bent down:</p> + +<p>"Lie quiet, Clancy, me boy: you <i>must</i> be quiet, or you'll move the +bandages."</p> + +<p>"Who did he say was burned? who was he going to see?" gasped the +sufferer.</p> + +<p>"The new lieutenant, Clancy,—him that pulled ye out. He's a good one, +and it's Mrs. Clancy that'll tell ye the same."</p> + +<p>"Tell him what?" said she, turning about in sudden interest.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62"></a>"About the lieutenant's pulling him out of the fire and saving your +money."</p> + +<p>"Indeed yes! The blessings of all the saints be upon his beautiful head, +and—"</p> + +<p>"But <i>who</i> was it? What was his name, I say?" vehemently interrupted +Clancy, half raising himself upon his elbow, and groaning with the +effort. "What was his name? I didn't see him."</p> + +<p>"Lieutenant Hayne, man."</p> + +<p>"Oh, my God!" gasped Clancy, and fell back as though struck a sudden +blow.</p> + +<p>She sprang to his side: "It's faint he is. Don't answer his questions, +sergeant! He's beside himself! Oh, will ye never stop talking to him and +lave him in pace? Go away, all of ye's,—go away, I say, or ye'll dhrive +him crazy wid yer—Be quiet, Mike! don't ye spake agin." And she laid a +broad red hand upon his face. He only groaned again, and threw his one +unbandaged arm across his darkened eyes, as though to hide from sight of +all.</p> + +<p>From that time on she made no mention of the name that so strangely +excited her stricken husband; but the watchers in the hospital the next +night declared that in his ravings Clancy kept calling for Lieutenant +Hayne.</p> + +<p>Stannard's battalion of the cavalry came marching into the post two days +after the fire, and created a diversion in the garrison talk, which for +one long day had been all of that dramatic incident and its attendant +circumstances. In social circles, among the officers and ladies, the +main topic was the conduct of Mr. Hayne and the injuries he had +sustained as a consequence of his gallant rescue. Among the enlisted men +and the denizens of Sudsville the talk was principally of the revelation +of Mrs. Clancy's hoard of greenbacks. But in both circles a singular +story was just beginning to creep around, and it was to the effect that +Clancy had cried aloud and fainted dead away and that Mrs. Clancy had +gone into hysterics when they were told that Lieutenant Hayne was the +man to whom the one owed his life and the other her money. Some one met +Captain Rayner on the sidewalk the morning Stannard came marching home, +and asked him if he had heard the queer story about Clancy. He had not, +and it was told him then and there. Rayner did not even attempt to laugh +at it or turn it off in any way. He looked dazed, stunned, for a moment, +turned very white and old-looking, and, hardly saying good-day to his +informant, faced about and went <a name="Page_63" id="Page_63"></a>straight to his quarters. He was not +among the crowd that gathered to welcome the incoming cavalrymen that +bright, crisp, winter day; and that evening Mrs. Rayner went to the +hospital to ask what she could do for Clancy and his wife. Captain +Rayner always expected her to see that every care and attention was paid +to the sick and needy of his company, she explained to the doctor, who +could not recall having seen her on a similar errand before, although +sick and needy of Company B were not unknown in garrisons where he had +served with them. She spent a good while with Mrs. Clancy, whom she had +never noticed hitherto, much to the laundress's indignation, and +concerning whose conduct she had been known to express herself in terms +of extreme disapprobation. But in times of suffering such things are +forgotten: Mrs. Rayner was full of sympathy and interest; there was +nothing she was not eager to send them, and no thanks were necessary. +She could never do too much for the men of her husband's company.</p> + +<p>Yet there was a member of her husband's company on whom in his suffering +neither she nor the captain saw fit to call. Mr. Hayne's eyes were +seriously injured by the flames and heat, and he was now living in +darkness. It might be a month, said the doctor, before he could use his +eyes again.</p> + +<p>"Only think of that poor fellow, all alone out there on that ghastly +prairie and unable to read!" was the exclamation of one of the cavalry +ladies in Mrs. Rayner's presence; and, as there was an awkward silence +and somebody had to break it, Mrs. Rayner responded,—</p> + +<p>"If I lived on Prairie Avenue I should consider blindness a blessing."</p> + +<p>It was an unfortunate remark. There was strong sympathy developing for +Hayne all through the garrison. Mrs. Rayner never meant that it should +have any such significance, but inside of twenty-four hours, in course +of which her language had been repeated some dozens of times and +distorted quite as many, the generally accepted version of the story was +that Mrs. Rayner, so far from expressing the faintest sympathy or sorrow +for Mr. Hayne's misfortune, so far from expressing the natural +gratification which a lady should feel that it was an officer of her +regiment who had reached the scene of danger ahead of the cavalry +officer of the guard, had said in so many words that Mr. Hayne ought to +be thankful that blindness was the worst thing that had come to him.</p> + +<p>There was little chance for harmony after that. Many men and some women, +of course, refused to believe it, and said they felt confident <a name="Page_64" id="Page_64"></a>that she +had been misrepresented. Still, all knew by this time that Mrs. Rayner +was bitter against Hayne, and had heard of her denunciation of the +colonel's action. So, too, had the colonel heard that she openly +declared that she would refuse any invitation extended to her or to her +sister which might involve her accepting hospitality at his house. These +things <i>do</i> get around in most astonishing ways.</p> + +<p>Then another complication arose: Hayne, too, was mixing matters. The +major commanding the battalion, a man in no wise connected with his +misfortunes, had gone to him and urged, with the doctor's full consent, +that he should be moved over into and become an inmate of his household +in garrison. He had a big, roomy house. His wife earnestly added her +entreaties to the major's, but all to no purpose: Mr. Hayne firmly +declined. He thanked the major; he rose and bent over the lady's hand +and thanked her with a voice that was full of gentleness and gratitude; +but he said that he had learned to live in solitude. Sam was accustomed +to all his ways, and he had every comfort he needed. His wants were few +and simple. She would not be content, and urged him further. He loved +reading: surely he would miss his books and would need some one to read +aloud to him, and there were so many ladies in the garrison who would be +glad to meet at her house and read to him by turns. He loved music, she +heard, and there was her piano, and she knew several who would be +delighted to come and play for him by the hour. He shook his head, and +the bandages hid the tears that came to his smarting eyes. He had made +arrangements to be read aloud to, he said; and as for music, that must +wait awhile. The kind woman retired dismayed,—she could not understand +such obduracy,—and her husband felt rebuffed. Stannard of the cavalry, +too, came in with his gentle wife. She was loved throughout the regiment +for her kindliness and grace of mind, as well as for her devotion to the +sick and suffering in the old days of the Indian wars, and Stannard had +made a similar proffer and been similarly refused, and he had gone away +indignant. He thought Mr. Hayne too bumptious to live; but he bore no +malice, and his wrath was soon over. Many of the cavalry officers called +in person and tendered their services, and were very civilly received, +but all offers were positively declined. Just what the infantry officers +should do was a momentous question. That they could no longer hold aloof +was a matter that was quickly settled, and three of their number went +through the chill gloaming of the wintry eve and sent in their cards by +Sam, who ushered them into the <a name="Page_65" id="Page_65"></a>cheerless front room, while one of their +number followed to the door-way which led to the room in rear, in which, +still confined to his bed by the doctor's advice, the injured officer +was lying. It was Mr. Ross who went to the door and cleared his throat +and stood in the presence of the man to whom, more than five years +before, he had refused his hand. The others listened anxiously:</p> + +<p>"Mr. Hayne, this is Ross. I come with Foster and Graham to say how +deeply we regret your injuries, and to tender our sympathy and our +services."</p> + +<p>There was a dead silence for a moment. Foster and Graham stood with +hearts that beat unaccountably hard, looking at each other in +perplexity. Would he never reply?</p> + +<p>The answer came at last,—a question:</p> + +<p>"To what injuries do you allude, Mr. Ross?"</p> + +<p>Even in the twilight they could see the sudden flush of the Scotchman's +cheek. He was a blunt fellow, but, as the senior, had been chosen +spokesman for the three. The abrupt question staggered him. It was a +second or two before he could collect himself.</p> + +<p>"I mean the injuries at the fire," he replied.</p> + +<p>This time, no answer whatever. It was growing too painful. Ross looked +in bewilderment at the bandaged face, and again broke the silence:</p> + +<p>"We hope you won't deny us the right to be of service, Mr. Hayne. If +there is anything we can do that you need, or would like—" +hesitatingly.</p> + +<p>"You have nothing further to say?" asked the calm voice from the pillow.</p> + +<p>"I—don't know what else we <i>can</i> say," faltered Ross, after an +instant's pause.</p> + +<p>The answer came, firm and prompt, but icily cool:</p> + +<p>"Then there is nothing that you can do."</p> + +<p>And the three took their departure, sore at heart.</p> + +<p>There were others of the infantry who had purposed going to see Hayne +that evening, but the story of Ross's experience put an end to it all. +It was plain that even now Mr. Hayne made the condition of the faintest +advance from his regimental comrades a full confession of error. He +would have no less.</p> + +<p>That evening the colonel sat by his bedside and had an earnest talk. He +ventured to expostulate with the invalid on his refusal to go to the +<a name="Page_66" id="Page_66"></a>major's or to Stannard's. He could have so many comforts and delicacies +there that would be impossible here. He did not refer to edibles and +drinkables alone, he said, with a smile; but Hayne's patient face gave +no sign of relenting. He heard the colonel through, and then said, +slowly and firmly,—</p> + +<p>"I have not acted hastily, sir: I appreciate their kindness, and am not +ungrateful. Five years ago my whole life was changed. From that time to +this I have done without a host of things that used to be indispensable, +and have abjured them one and all for a single luxury that I cannot live +without,—the luxury of utter independence,—the joy of knowing that I +owe no man anything,—the blessing of being beholden to no one on earth +for a single service I cannot pay for. It is the one luxury left me."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII.</h2> + + +<p>It was a clear winter's evening, sharply cold, about a week after the +fire, when, as Mrs. Rayner came down the stairway equipped for a walk, +and was passing the parlor door without stopping, Miss Travers caught +sight of and called to her,—</p> + +<p>"Are you going walking, Kate? <i>Do</i> wait a moment, and I'll go with you."</p> + +<p>Any one in the hall could have shared the author's privilege and seen +the expression of annoyance and confusion that appeared on Mrs. Rayner's +face:</p> + +<p>"I thought you <i>were</i> out. Did not Mr. Graham take you walking?"</p> + +<p>"He did; but we wandered into Mrs. Waldron's, and she and the major +begged us to stay, and we had some music, and then the first call +sounded for retreat, and Mr. Graham had to go, so he brought me home. +I've had no walk, and need exercise."</p> + +<p>"But I don't like you to be out after sunset. That cough of yours—"</p> + +<p>"Disappeared the day after I got here, Kate, and there hasn't been a +vestige of it since. This high, dry climate put an end to it. No, I'll +be ready in one minute more. Do wait."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rayner's hand was turning the knob while her sister was hurrying to +the front door and drawing on her heavy jacket as she did so. The former +faced her impatiently:</p> + +<p>"I don't think you are at all courteous to your visitors. You <a name="Page_67" id="Page_67"></a>know just +as well as I do that Mr. Foster or Mr. Royce or some other of those +young officers are sure to be in just at this hour. You really are very +thoughtless, Nellie."</p> + +<p>Miss Travers stopped short in her preparations.</p> + +<p>"Kate Rayner," she began, impressively, "it was only night before last +that you rebuked me for sitting here with Mr. Blake at this very hour, +and asked me how I supposed Mr. Van Antwerp would like it. Now you—"</p> + +<p>"Fudge! I cannot stay and listen to such talk. If you <i>must</i> go, wait a +few minutes until I get back. I—I want to make a short call. Then I'll +take you."</p> + +<p>"So do I want to make a short call,—over at the doctor's; and you are +going right to the hospital, are you not?"</p> + +<p>"How do you know I am?" asked Mrs. Rayner, reddening.</p> + +<p>"You <i>do</i> go there every evening, it seems to me."</p> + +<p>"I don't. Who told you I did?"</p> + +<p>"Several people mentioned your kindness and attention to the Clancys, +Kate. I have heard it from many sources."</p> + +<p>"I wish people would mind their own affairs," wailed Mrs. Rayner, +peevishly.</p> + +<p>"So do I, Kate; but they never have, and never will, especially with an +engaged girl. I have more to complain of than you, but it doesn't make +me forlorn, whereas you look fearfully worried about nothing."</p> + +<p>"Who says I'm worried?" asked Mrs. Rayner, with sudden vehemence.</p> + +<p>"You look worried, Kate, and haven't been at all like yourself for +several days. Now, <i>why</i> shouldn't I go to the hospital with you? Why do +you try to hide your going from me? Don't you know that I must have +heard the strange stories that are flitting about the garrison? Haven't +I asked you to set me right if I have been told a wrong one? Kate, you +are fretting yourself to death about something, and the captain looks +worried and ill. I cannot but think it has some connection with the case +of Mr. Hayne. Why should the Clancys—"</p> + +<p>"You have no right to think any such thing," answered her sister, +angrily. "We have suffered too much at his hands or on his account +already, and I never want to hear such words from your lips. It would +outrage Captain Rayner to hear that my sister, to whom he has <a name="Page_68" id="Page_68"></a>given a +home and a welcome, was linking herself with those who side with +that—that thief."</p> + +<p>"Kate! Oh, how <i>can</i> you use such words? How dare you speak so of an +officer? You would not tell me what he was accused of; but I tell you +that if it be theft I don't believe it,—and no one else—"</p> + +<p>There was a sudden footfall on the porch without, and a quick, sharp, +imperative knock at the door. Mrs. Rayner fled back along the hall +towards the dining-room. Miss Travers, hesitating but a second, opened +the door.</p> + +<p>It was the soldier telegraph-operator, with a despatch-envelope in his +hand:</p> + +<p>"It is for Mrs. Rayner, miss, and an answer is expected. Shall I wait?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rayner came hastily forward from her place of refuge within the +dining-room, took the envelope without a word, and passed into the +parlor, where, standing beneath the lamp, she tore it open, glanced +anxiously at its contents, then threw it with an exclamation of peevish +indignation upon the table:</p> + +<p>"You'll have to answer for yourself, Nellie. I cannot straighten your +affairs and mine too." And with that she was going; but Miss Travers +called her back.</p> + +<p>The message simply read, "No letter in four days. Is anything wrong? +Answer paid," and was addressed to Mrs. Rayner and signed S.V.A.</p> + +<p>"I think you have been extremely neglectful," said Mrs. Rayner, who had +turned and now stood watching the rising color and impatiently tapping +foot of her younger sister. Miss Travers bit her lips and compressed +them hard. There was an evident struggle in her mind between a desire to +make an impulsive and sweeping reply and an effort to control herself.</p> + +<p>"Will you answer a quiet question or two?" she finally asked.</p> + +<p>"You know perfectly well I will," was the sisterly rejoinder.</p> + +<p>"How long does it take a letter to go from here to New York?"</p> + +<p>"Five or six days, I suppose."</p> + +<p>Miss Travers stepped to the door, briefly told the soldier there was no +answer, thanked him for waiting, and returned.</p> + +<p>"You are not going to reply?" asked Mrs. Rayner, in amaze.</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> am not; and I inferred <i>you</i> did not intend to. Now another +question. How many days have we been here?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69"></a>"Eight or nine,—nine, it is."</p> + +<p>"You saw me post a letter to Mr. Van Antwerp as we left the Missouri, +did you not?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. At least I suppose so."</p> + +<p>"I wrote again as soon as we got settled here, three days after that, +did I not?"</p> + +<p>"You said you did," replied Mrs. Rayner, ungraciously.</p> + +<p>"And you, Kate, when you are yourself have been prompt to declare that I +say what I mean. Very probably it may have been four days from the time +that letter from the transfer reached Wall Street to the time the next +one could get to him from here, even had I written the night we arrived. +Possibly you forget that you forbade my doing so, and sent me to bed +early. Mr. Van Antwerp has simply failed to remember that I had gone +several hundred miles farther west; and even had I written on the train +twice a day, the letters would not have reached him uninterruptedly. By +this time he is beginning to get them fast enough. And as for you, Kate, +you are quite as unjust as he. It augurs badly for my future peace; +and—I am learning two lessons here, Kate."</p> + +<p>"What two, pray?"</p> + +<p>"That he can be foolishly unreliable in estimating a woman."</p> + +<p>"And the other?"</p> + +<p>"That you may be persistently unreliable in your judgment of a man."</p> + +<p>Verily, for a young woman with a sweet, girlish face, whom we saw but a +week agone twitching a kitten's ears and saying little or nothing, Miss +Travers was displaying unexpected fighting qualities. For a moment, Mrs. +Rayner glared at her in tremulous indignation and dismay.</p> + +<p>"You—you ought to be ashamed of yourself!" was her eventual outbreak.</p> + +<p>But to this there was no reply. Miss Travers moved quietly to the +door-way, turned and looked her angry sister in the eye, and said,—</p> + +<p>"I shall give up the walk, and will go to my room. Excuse me to any +visitors this evening."</p> + +<p>"You are not going to write to him now, when you are angry, I hope?"</p> + +<p>"I shall not write to him until to-morrow, but when I do I shall <a name="Page_70" id="Page_70"></a>tell +him this, Kate: that if he desire my confidence he will address his +complaints and inquiries to me. If I am old enough to be engaged to him, +in your opinion, I am equally old enough to attend to such details as +these, in my own."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rayner stood one moment as though astounded; then she flew to the +door and relieved her surcharged bosom as follows, "Well, I pity the man +you marry, whether you are lucky enough to keep this one or not!" and +flounced indignantly out of the house.</p> + +<p>When Captain Rayner came in, half an hour afterwards, the parlor was +deserted. He was looking worn and dispirited. Finding no one on the +ground-floor, he went to the foot of the stairs, and called,—</p> + +<p>"Kate."</p> + +<p>A door opened above: "Kate has gone out, captain."</p> + +<p>"Do you know where, Nellie?"</p> + +<p>"Over to the hospital, I think; though I cannot say."</p> + +<p>She heard him sigh deeply, move irresolutely about the hall for a +moment, then turn and go out.</p> + +<p>At his gate he found two figures dimly visible in the gathering +darkness: they had stopped on hearing his footstep. One was an officer +in uniform, wrapped in heavy overcoat, with a fur cap, and a bandage +over his eyes. The other was a Chinese servant, and it was the latter +who asked,—</p> + +<p>"This Maje Waldlon's?"</p> + +<p>"No," said he, hastily. "Major Waldron's is the third door beyond."</p> + +<p>At the sound of his voice the officer quickly started, but spoke in low, +measured tone: "Straight ahead, Sam." And the Chinaman led him on.</p> + +<p>Rayner stood a moment watching them, bitter thoughts coursing through +his mind. Mr. Hayne was evidently sufficiently recovered to be up and +out for air, and now he was being invited again. This time it was his +old comrade Waldron who honored him. Probably it was another dinner. +Little by little, at this rate, the time would soon come when Mr. Hayne +would be asked everywhere and he and his correspondingly dropped. He +turned miserably away, and went back to the billiard-rooms at the store. +When Mrs. Rayner rang her bell for tea that evening he had not +reappeared, and she sent a messenger for him.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71"></a>It was a brilliant moonlit evening. A strong prairie gale had begun to +blow from the northwest, and was banging shutters and whirling pebbles +at a furious rate. At the sound of the trumpets wailing tattoo a brace +of young officers calling on the ladies took their leave. The captain +had retired to his den, or study, where he shut himself up a good deal +of late, and thither Mrs. Rayner followed him and closed the door after +her. Throwing a cloak over her shoulders, Miss Travers stepped out on +the piazza and gazed in delight upon the moonlit panorama,—the +snow-covered summits to the south and west, the rolling expanse of +upland prairie between, the rough outlines of the foot-hills softened in +the silvery light, the dark shadows of the barracks across the parade, +the twinkling lights of the sergeants as they took their stations, the +soldierly forms of the officers hastening to their companies far across +the frozen level. Suddenly she became aware of two forms coming down the +walk. They issued from Major Waldron's quarters, and the door closed +behind them. One was a young officer; the other, she speedily made out, +a Chinese servant, who was guiding his master. She knew the pair in an +instant, and her first impulse was to retire. Then she reflected that he +could not see, and she wanted to look: so she stayed. They had almost +reached her gate, when a wild blast whirled the officer's cape about his +ears and sent some sheets of music flying across the road. Leaving his +master at the fence, the Chinaman sped in pursuit; and the next thing +she noted was that Mr. Hayne's fur cap was blown from his head and that +he was groping for it helplessly.</p> + +<p>There was no one to call, no one to assist. She hesitated one minute, +looked anxiously around, then sprang to the gate, picked up the cap, +pulled it well down over the bandaged eyes, seized the young officer +firmly by the arm, drew him within the gate, and led him to the shelter +of the piazza. Once out of the fury of the gale, she could hear his +question, "Did you get it all, Sam?"</p> + +<p>"Not yet," she answered. Oh, how she longed for a deep contralto! "He is +coming. He will be here in a moment."</p> + +<p>"I am so sorry to have been a trouble to you," he began again, vaguely.</p> + +<p>"You are no trouble to me. I'm glad I was where I happened to see you +and could help."</p> + +<p>He spoke no more for a minute. She stood gazing at all that was visible +of the pale face below the darkened eyes. It was so clear-cut, <a name="Page_72" id="Page_72"></a>so +refined in feature, and the lips under the sweeping blonde moustache, +though set and compressed, were delicate and pink. He turned his head +eagerly towards the parade; but Sam was still far away. The music had +scattered, and was leading him a lively dance.</p> + +<p>"Isn't my servant coming?" he asked, constrainedly. "I fear I'm keeping +you. Please do not wait. He will find me here. You were going +somewhere."</p> + +<p>"No,—unless it was here." She was trembling now. "Please be patient, +Mr.—Mr. Hayne. Sam may be a minute or two yet, and here you are out of +the wind."</p> + +<p>Again she looked in his face. He was listening eagerly to her words, as +though striving to "place" her voice. <i>Could</i> she be mistaken? Was he, +too, not trembling? Beyond all doubt his lips were quivering now.</p> + +<p>"May I not know who it is that led me here?" he asked, gently.</p> + +<p>She hesitated, hardly knowing how to tell him.</p> + +<p>"Try and guess," she laughed, nervously. "But you couldn't. You do not +know my name. It is my good fortune, Mr. Hayne. You—you saved my +kitten; I—your cap."</p> + +<p>There was no mistaking his start. Beyond doubt he had winced as though +stung, and was now striving to grope his way to the railing. She divined +his purpose in an instant, and her slender hand was laid pleadingly yet +firmly on his arm.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Hayne, don't go. Don't think of going. Stay here until Sam comes. +He's coming now," she faltered.</p> + +<p>"Is this Captain Rayner's house?" he asked, hoarse and low.</p> + +<p>"No matter whose it is! I welcome you here. You shall not go," she +cried, impulsively, and both little hands were tagging at his arm. He +had found the railing, and was pulling himself towards the gate, but her +words, her clinging hands, were too persuasive.</p> + +<p>"I cannot realize this," he said. "I do not understand—"</p> + +<p>"Do not try to understand it, Mr. Hayne. If I am only a girl, I have a +right to think for myself. My father was a soldier,—I am Nellie +Travers,—and if he were alive I know well he would have had me do just +what I have done this night. Now won't you stay?"</p> + +<p>And light was beaming in through his darkened eyes and gladdening his +soul with a rapture he had not known for years. One instant he seized +and clasped her hand. "May God bless you!" was all he whispered, but so +softly that even she did not hear him. He bowed low over the slender +white hand, and stayed.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73"></a></p> +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII.</h2> + + +<p>March had come,—the month of gale and bluster, sleet and storm, in +almost every section of our broad domain,—and March at Warrener was to +the full as blustering and conscienceless as in New England. There were +a few days of sunshine during the first week; then came a fortnight of +raging snow-storms. The cavalry troops, officers and men, went about +their stable-duties as usual, but, except for roll-call on the porch of +the barracks and for guard-mounting over at the guard-house, all +military exercise seemed suspended. This meant livelier times for the +ladies, however, as the officers were enabled to devote just so many +more hours a day to their entertainment. There were two or three hops a +week over in the big assembly-room, and there was some talk of getting +up a german in honor of Miss Travers, but the strained relations +existing between Mrs. Rayner and the ladies of other families at the +post made the matter difficult of accomplishment. There were bright +little luncheon-, dinner-, and tea-parties, where the young officers and +the younger ladies met every day; and, besides all this, despite the +fact that Mrs. Rayner had at first shown a fixed determination to +discuss the rights and wrongs of "the Hayne affair," as it was now +beginning to be termed, with all comers who belonged to the Riflers, it +had grown to be a very general thing for the youngsters to drop in at +her house at all hours of the day; but that was because there were +attractions there which outweighed her combativeness. Then Rayner +himself overheard some comments on the mistake she was making, and +forbade her discussing the subject with the officers even of her own +regiment. She was indignant, and demanded a reason. He would name no +names, but told her that he had heard enough to convince him she was +doing him more harm than good, and, if anything, contributing to the +turn of the tide in Hayne's favor. Then she felt outraged and utterly +misjudged. It was a critical time for her, and if deprived of the use of +her main weapon of offence and defence the battle was sure to go amiss. +Sorely against her inclination, she obeyed her lord, for, as has been +said, she was a loyal wife, and for the time being the baby became the +recipient of her undivided attention.</p> + +<p>True to her declaration, she behaved so coldly and with such marked +distance of manner to the colonel and his wife when they met in society +<a name="Page_74" id="Page_74"></a>immediately after the dinner that the colonel quietly told his wife she +need not give either dinner or reception in honor of Mrs. Rayner's +return. He would like to have her do something to welcome Miss Travers, +for he thought the girl had much of her father in her. He knew him well +in the old days before and during the war, and liked him. He liked her +looks and her sweet, unaffected, cheery manner. He liked the contrast +between her and her sister; for Miss Travers had listened in silence to +her sister's exposition of what her manner should be to the colonel and +his wife, and when they met she was bright and winsome. The colonel +stood and talked with her about her father, whom she could remember only +vaguely, but of whom she never tired of hearing; and that night Mrs. +Rayner rebuked her severely for her disloyalty to the captain, who had +given her a home.</p> + +<p>But when Mrs. Rayner heard that Major and Mrs. Waldron had invited Mr. +Hayne to dine with them, and had invited to meet him two of the cavalry +officers and their wives, she was incensed beyond measure. She and Mrs. +Waldron had a brief talk, as a result of which Mrs. Rayner refused to +speak to Mrs. Waldron at the evening party given by Mrs. Stannard in +honor of her and her sister. It was this that brought on the crisis. +Whatever was said between the men was not told. Major Waldron and +Captain Rayner had a long consultation, and they took no one into their +confidence; but Mrs. Rayner obeyed her husband, went to Mrs. Waldron and +apologized for her rudeness, and then went with her sister and returned +the call of the colonel's wife; but she chose a bright afternoon, when +she knew well the lady was not at home.</p> + +<p>She retired from the contest, apparently, as has been said, and took +much Christian consolation to herself from the fact that at so great a +sacrifice she was obeying her husband and doing the duty she owed to +him. In very truth, however, the contest was withdrawn from her by the +fact that for a week or more after his evening at the Waldrons' Mr. +Hayne did not reappear in garrison, and she had no cause to talk about +him. Officers visiting the house avoided mention of his name. Ladies of +the cavalry regiment calling upon Mrs. Rayner and Miss Travers +occasionally spoke of him and his devotion to the men and his bravery at +the fire, but rather as though they meant in a general way to compliment +the Riflers, not Mr. Hayne; and so she heard little of the man whose +existence was so sore a trial to her. What she would have said, what she +would have thought, had she known of the meeting between <a name="Page_75" id="Page_75"></a>him and her +guarded Nellie, is beyond us to describe; but she never dreamed of such +a thing, and Miss Travers never dreamed of telling her,—for the +present, at least. Fortunately—or unfortunately—for the latter, it was +not so much of her relations with Mr. Hayne as of her relations with +half a dozen young bachelors that Mrs. Rayner speedily felt herself +compelled to complain. It was a blessed relief to the elder sister. Her +surcharged spirit was in sore need of an escape-valve. She was ready to +boil over in the mental ebullition consequent upon Mr. Hayne's reception +at the post, and with all the pent-up irritability which that episode +had generated she could not have contained herself and slept. But here +Miss Travers came to her relief. Her beauty, her winsome ways, her +unqualified delight in everything that was soldierly, speedily rendered +her vastly attractive to all the young officers in garrison. Graham and +Foster of the infantry, Merton, Webster, and Royce of the cavalry, +haunted the house at all manner of hours, and the captain bade them +welcome and urged them to come oftener and stay later, and told Mrs. +Rayner he wanted some kind of a supper or collation every night. He set +before his guests a good deal of wine, and drank a good deal more +himself than he had ever been known to do before, and they were keeping +very late hours at Rayner's, for, said the captain, "I don't care if +Nellie is engaged: she shall have a good time while she's here; and if +the boys know all about it,—goodness knows you've told them often +enough, Kate,—and they don't mind it, why, it's nobody's +business,—here, at least."</p> + +<p>What Mr. Van Antwerp might think or care was another matter. Rayner +never saw him, and did not know him. He rather resented it that Van +Antwerp had never written to him and asked his consent. As Mrs. Rayner's +husband and Nellie's brother-in-law, it seemed to him he stood <i>in loco +parentis</i>; but Mrs. Rayner managed the whole thing herself, and he was +not even consulted. If anything, he rather enjoyed the contemplation of +Van Antwerp's fidgety frame of mind as described to him by Mrs. Rayner +about the time it became apparent to her that Nellie was enjoying the +attentions of which she was so general an object, and that the captain +was sitting up later and drinking more wine than was good for him. She +was aware that the very number of Nell's admirers would probably prevent +her becoming entangled with any one of them, but she needed something to +scold about, and eagerly pitched upon this. She knew well that she could +not comfort her husband in the anxiety that was gnawing at his +heart-strings, but she was jealous of comfort <a name="Page_76" id="Page_76"></a>that might come to him +from any other source, and the Lethe of wine and jolly companionship she +dreaded most of all. Long, long before, she had induced him to promise +that he would never offer the young officers spirits in his house. She +would not prohibit wine at table, she said; but she never thought of +there coming a time when he himself would seek consolation in the glass +and make up in quantity what it lacked in alcoholic strength. He was +impatient of all reproof now, and would listen to no talk; but Nellie +was years her junior,—more years than she would admit except at such +times as these, when she meant to admonish; and Nellie had to take it.</p> + +<p>Two weeks after their arrival at Warrener the burden of Mrs. Rayner's +song—morn, noon, and night—was, "What would Mr. Van Antwerp say if he +could but see this or hear that?"</p> + +<p>Can any reader recall an instance where the cause of an absent lover was +benefited by the ceaseless warning in a woman's ear, "Remember, you're +engaged"? The hero of antiquity who caused himself to be attended by a +shadowing slave whispering ever and only, "Remember, thou art mortal," +is a fine figure to contemplate—at this remote date. He, we are told, +admitted the need, submitted to the infliction. But lives there a woman +who will admit that she needs any instruction as to what her conduct +should be when the lord of her heart is away? Lives there a woman who, +submitting, because she cannot escape, to the constant reminder, "Thou +art engaged," will not resent it in her heart of hearts and possibly +revenge herself on the one alone whom she holds at her mercy? Left to +herself,—to her generosity, her conscience, her innate tenderness,—the +cause of the absent one will plead for itself, and, if it have even +faint foundation, hold its own. "With the best intentions in the world," +many an excellent cause has been ruined by the injudicious urgings of a +mother; but to talk an engaged girl into mutiny, rely on the +infallibility of two women,—a married sister or a maiden aunt.</p> + +<p>Just what Mr. Van Antwerp would have said could he have seen the +situation at Warrener is perhaps impossible to predict. Just what he did +say without seeing was, perhaps, the most unwise thing he could have +thought of: he urged Mrs. Rayner to keep reminding Nellie of her +promise. His had not been a life of unmixed joy. He was now nearly +thirty-five, and desperately in love with a pretty girl who had simply +bewitched him during the previous summer. It was not easy to approach +her then, he found, for her sister kept vigilant guard; but, <a name="Page_77" id="Page_77"></a>once +satisfied of his high connections, his wealth, and his social standing, +the door was opened, and he was something more than welcomed, said the +gossips at the Surf House. What his past history had been, where and how +his life had been spent, were matters of less consequence, apparently, +than what he was now. He had been wild at college, as other boys had +been, she learned; he had tried the cattle-business in the West, she was +told; but there had been a quarrel with his father, a reconciliation, a +devoted mother, a long sojourn abroad,—Heidelberg,—a sudden summons to +return, the death of the father, and then the management of a valuable +estate fell to the son. There were other children, brother and sisters, +three in all, but Steven was the first-born and the mother's glory. She +was with him at the sea-side, and the first thing that moved Nellie +Travers to like him was his devotion to that white-haired woman who +seemed so happy in his care. Between that mother and Mrs. Rayner there +had speedily sprung up an acquaintance. She had vastly admired Nellie, +and during the first fortnight of their visit to the Surf House had +shown her many attentions. The illness of a daughter called her away, +and Mrs. Rayner announced that she, too, was going elsewhere, when Mr. +Van Antwerp himself returned, and Mrs. Rayner decided it was so late in +the season that they had better remain until it was time to go to town. +In October they spent a fortnight in the city, staying at the +Westminster, and he was assiduous in his attentions, taking them +everywhere, and lavishing flowers and bonbons upon Nell. Then Mrs. Van +Antwerp invited them to visit her at her own comfortable, old-fashioned +house down town, and Mrs. Rayner was eager to accept, but Nellie said +no; she would not do it: she could not accept Mr. Van Antwerp; she +liked, admired, and was attracted by him, but she felt that love him she +did not. He was devoted, but had tact and patience, and Mrs. Rayner at +last yielded to her demand and took her off in October to spend some +time in the interior of the State with relations of their mother, and +there, frequently, came Mr. Van Antwerp to see her and to urge his suit. +They were to have gone to Warrener immediately after the holidays, but +January came and Nellie had not surrendered. Another week in the city, a +long talk with the devoted old mother whose heart was so wrapped up in +her son's happiness and whose arms seemed yearning to enfold the lovely +girl, and Nellie was conquered. If not fully convinced of her love for +Mr. Van Antwerp, she was more than half in love with his mother. Her +promise was given, <a name="Page_78" id="Page_78"></a>and then she seemed eager to get back to the +frontier which she had known and loved as a child. "I want to see the +mountains, the snow-peaks, the great rolling prairies, once more," she +said; and he had to consent. Man never urged more importunately than he +that the wedding should come off that very winter; but Nellie once more +said no; she could not and would not listen to an earlier date than the +summer to come.</p> + +<p>No one on earth knew with what sore foreboding and misery he let her go. +It was something that Mrs. Rayner could not help remarking,—his +unconquerable aversion to every mention of the army and of his own +slight experience on the frontier. He would not talk of it even with +Nellie, who was an enthusiast and had spent two years of her girlhood +almost under the shadow of Laramie Peak and loved the mere mention of +the Wyoming streams and valleys. In her husband's name Mrs. Rayner had +urged him to drop his business early in the spring and come to them for +a visit. He declared it was utterly impossible. Every moment of his time +must be given to the settling of estate affairs, so that he could be a +free man in the summer. He meant to take his bride abroad immediately +and spend a year or more in Europe. These were details which were +industriously circulated by Mrs. Rayner and speedily became garrison +property. It seemed to the men that in bringing her sister there engaged +she had violated all precedent to begin with, and in this instance, at +least, there was general complaint. Mr. Blake said it reminded him of +his early boyhood, when they used to take him to the great toy-stores at +Christmas: "Look all you like, long for it as much as you please, but +don't touch." Merton and Royce, of the cavalry, said it was simply a +challenge to any better fellow to cut in and cut out the Knickerbocker; +and, to do them justice, they did their best to carry out their theory. +Both they and their comrades of the Riflers were assiduous in their +attentions to Miss Travers, and other ladies, less favored, made +acrimonious comment in consequence. A maiden sister of one of the +veteran captains in the ——th, a damsel whose stern asceticism of +character was reflected in her features and grimly illustrated in her +dress, was moved to censure of her more attractive neighbor. "If I had +given my heart to a gentleman," said she, and her manner was indicative +of the long struggle which such a bestowal would cost both him and her, +"nothing on earth would induce <i>me</i> to accept attentions from any one +else, not if <i>he</i> were millions of miles away."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79"></a>But Nellie Travers was "accepting attentions" with laughing grace and +enjoying the society of these young fellows immensely. The house would +have been gloomy without her and "the boys," Rayner was prompt to admit, +for he was ill at ease and sorely worried, while his inflammable Kate +was fuming over the situation of her husband's affairs. Under ordinary +circumstances she would have seen very little to object to so long as +Nellie showed no preference for any one of her admirers at Warrener, and +unless peevish or perturbed in spirit would have made little allusion to +it. As matters stood, however, she was in a most querulous and excitable +mood: she could not rail at the real cause of her misery, and so, +woman-like, she was thankful for a pretext for uncorking the vials of +her wrath on somebody or something else. If the young matrons in +garrison who, with the two or three visiting maidens, were disposed to +rebel at Miss Nell's apparent absorption of all the available cavaliers +at the post, and call her a too lucky girl, could but have heard Mrs. +Rayner's nightly tirades and hourly rebukes, they might have realized +that here, as elsewhere, the rose had its stinging thorns. As for Miss +Travers, she confounded her sister by taking it all very submissively +and attempting no defence. Possibly conscience was telling her that she +deserved more than she was getting, or than she would be likely to get +until her sister heard of the adventure with Mr. Hayne.</p> + +<p>"By the way," said Mr. Royce one evening as they were stamping off the +snow and removing their heavy wraps in Rayner's hall-way after a series +of garrison calls, "Mrs. Waldron says she expects you to play for her +to-morrow afternoon, Miss Travers. Of course it will be my luck to be at +stables."</p> + +<p>"You hear better music every afternoon than I can give you, Mr. Royce."</p> + +<p>"Where, pray?" asked Mrs. Rayner, turning quickly upon them.</p> + +<p>Mr. Royce hesitated, and—with shame be it said—allowed Miss Travers to +meet the question:</p> + +<p>"At Mr. Hayne's, Kate."</p> + +<p>There was the same awkward silence that always followed the mention of +Hayne's name. Mrs. Rayner looked annoyed. It was evident that she wanted +more information,—wanted to ask, but was restrained. Royce determined +to be outspoken.</p> + +<p>"Several of us have got quite in the way of stopping there on our way +from afternoon stables," he said, very quietly. "Mr. Hayne has <a name="Page_80" id="Page_80"></a>his +piano now, and has nearly recovered the full use of his eyes. He plays +well."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rayner turned about once more, and, without saying so much as +good-night, went heavily up-stairs, leaving her escort to share with Mr. +Royce such welcome as the captain was ready to accord them. If forbidden +to talk on the subject nearest her heart, she would not speak at all. +She would have banged her door, but that would have waked baby. It stung +her to the quick to know that the cavalry officers were daily visitors +at Mr. Hayne's quarters. It was little comfort to know that the infantry +officers did not go, for she and they both knew that, except Major +Waldron, no one of their number was welcome under that roof unless he +would voluntarily come forward and say, "I believe you innocent." She +felt that but for the stand made by Hayne himself most of their number +would have received him into comradeship again by this time, and she +could hardly sleep that night from thinking over what she had heard.</p> + +<p>But could she have seen the figure that was slinking in the snow at the +rear door of Hayne's quarters that very evening, peering into the +lighted rooms, and at last, after many an irresolute turn, knocking +timidly for admission and then hiding behind the corner of the shed +until Sam came and poked his pig-tailed head out into the wintry +darkness in wondering effort to find the visitor, she would not have +slept at all.</p> + +<p>It was poor Clancy, once more mooning about the garrison and up to his +old tricks. Clancy had been drinking; but he wanted to know, "could he +spake with the lieutenant?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX.</h2> + + +<p>"I have been reading over your letter of Thursday last, dear Steven," +wrote Miss Travers, "and there is much that I feel I ought to answer. +You and Kate are very much of a mind about the 'temptations' with which +I am surrounded; but you are far more imaginative than she is, and far +more courteous. There is so much about your letter that touches me +deeply that I want to be frank and fair in my reply. I have been dancing +all this evening, was out at dinner before that, and have made many +calls this afternoon; but, tired as I am, my <a name="Page_81" id="Page_81"></a>letter must be written, +for to-morrow will be but the repetition of to-day. Is it that I am cold +and utterly heartless that I can sit and write so calmly in reply to +your fervent and appealing letter? Ah, Steven, it is what may be said of +me; but, if cold and heartless to you, I have certainly given no man at +this garrison the faintest reason to think that he has inspired any +greater interest in him. They are all kind, all very attentive. I have +told you how well Mr. Royce dances and Mr. Merton rides and Mr. Foster +reads and talks. They entertain me vastly, and I <i>do</i> like it. More than +this, Steven, I am pleased with their evident admiration,—not alone +pleased and proud that they should admire me who am pledged to you,—not +that alone, I frankly confess, but because it in itself is pleasant. It +pleases me. Very possibly it is because I am vain.</p> + +<p>"And yet, though my hours are constantly occupied, though they are here +from morning till night, no one of them is more attentive than another. +There are five or six who come daily. There are some who do not come at +all. Am I a wretch, Steven? There are two or three that do not call who +I wish <i>would</i> call. I would like to know them.</p> + +<p>"Yet they know—they could not help it, with Kate here, and I never +forget—that I am your promised wife. Steven, do you not sometimes +forget the conditions of that promise? Even now, again and again do I +not repeat to you that you ought to release me and free yourself? Of +course your impulse will be to say my heart is changing,—that I have +seen others whom I like better. No, I have seen no one I like as well. +But <i>is</i> 'like' what you deserve,—what you ask? and is it not all I +have ever been able to promise you? Steven, bear me witness, for Kate is +bitterly unjust to me at times, I told you again and again last summer +and fall that I did not love you and ought not to think of being your +wife. Yet, poor, homeless, dependent as I am, how strong was the +temptation to say yes to your plea! You know that I did not and would +not until time and again your sweet mother, whom I <i>do</i> love, and Kate, +who had been a mother to me, both declared that <i>that</i> should make no +difference: the love would come: the happiest marriages the world over +were those in which the girl respected the man of her choice: love would +come, and come speedily, when once she was his wife. You yourself +declared you could wait in patience,—you would woo and win by and by. +Only promise to be your wife before returning to the frontier, and you +would be content. Steven, <i>are</i> you content? You know you are not: you +know you are unhappy; and <a name="Page_82" id="Page_82"></a>it is all, not because I am growing to love +some one else, but because I am not growing to love you. Heaven knows I +want to love you; for so long as you hold me to it my promise is sacred +and shall be kept. More than that, if you say that it is your will that +I seclude myself from these attentions, give up dancing, give up rides, +drives, walks, and even receiving visits, here, so be it. I will obey. +But write this to me, Steven,—not to Kate. I am too proud to ask her to +show me the letters I know she has received from you,—and there are +some she has not shown me,—but I cannot understand a man's complaining +to other persons of the conduct of the woman who is, or is to be, his +wife. Forgive me if I pain you: sometimes even to myself I seem old and +strange. I have lived so much alone, have had to think and do for myself +so many years while Kate has been away, that perhaps I'm not 'like other +girls;' but the respect I feel for you would be injured if I thought you +strove to guide or govern me through others; and of one thing be sure, +Steven, <i>I must honor and respect and look up to the man I marry</i>, love +or no love.</p> + +<p>"Once you said it would kill you if you believed I could be false to +you. If by that you meant that, having given my promise to you to be +your wife at some future time, I must school myself to love you, and +will be considered false if love do not come at my bidding or yours, I +say to you solemnly, release me now. I may not love, but I cannot and +will not deceive you, even by simulating love that does not exist. +Suppose that love were to be kindled in my heart. Suppose I were to +learn to care for some one here. You would be the first one to know it; +for I would tell you as soon as I knew it myself. <i>Then</i> what could I +hope for,—or you? Surely you would not want to marry a girl who loved +another man. But is it much better to marry one who feels that she does +not love you? Think of it, Steven: I am very lonely, very far from +happy, very wretched over Kate's evident trouble and all the sorrow I am +bringing you and yours; but have I misled or deceived you in any one +thing? Once only has a word been spoken or a scene occurred that you +could perhaps have objected to. I told you the whole thing in my letter +of Sunday last, and why I had not told Kate. We have not met since that +night, Mr. Hayne and I, and may not; but he is a man whose story excites +my profound pity and sorrow, and he is one of the two or three I feel +that I would like to see more of. Is this being false to you or to my +promise? If so, Steven, you cannot say that I have not given you the +whole truth.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83"></a>"It is very late at night,—one o'clock,—and Kate is not yet asleep, +and the captain is still down-stairs, reading. He is not looking well at +all, and Kate is sorely anxious about him. It was his evidence that +brought years of ostracism and misery upon Lieutenant Hayne, and there +are vague indications that in his own regiment the officers are +beginning to believe that possibly he was not the guilty man. The +cavalry officers, of course, say nothing to us on the subject, and I +have never heard the full story. If he has been, as is suggested, the +victim of a scoundrel, and Captain Rayner was at fault in his evidence, +no punishment on earth could be too great for the villain who planned +his ruin, and no remorse could atone for Captain Rayner's share. I never +saw so sad a face on mortal man as Mr. Hayne's. Steven Van Antwerp, I +wish I <i>were</i> a man! I would trace that mystery to the bitter end.</p> + +<p>"This is a strange letter to send to—to you; but I am a strange girl. +Already I am more than expecting you to write and release me +unconditionally; and you <i>ought</i> to do it. I do not say I want it.</p> + +<p class='center'>"Faithfully, at least, yours,</p> + +<p class='author'>"<span class="smcap">Nellie</span>.</p> + +<p>"P.S.—Should you write to Kate, you are not to tell her, remember, of +my meeting with Mr. Hayne. Of course I am anxious to have your reply to +that letter; but it will be five days yet."</p> + +<p>An odd letter, indeed, for a girl not yet twenty, and not of a +hope-inspiring character; but when it reached Mr. Van Antwerp he did not +pale in reading it: his face was ghastly before he began. If anything, +he seemed relieved by some passages, though rejoiced by none. Then he +took from an inner pocket the letter that had reached him a few days +previous, and all alone in his room, late at night, he read it over +again, threw it upon the table at which he was sitting, then, with +passionate abandonment, buried his face in his arms and groaned aloud in +anguish.</p> + +<p>Two days after writing this letter Miss Travers was so unfortunate as to +hear a conversation in the dining-room which was not intended for her +ears. She had gone to her room immediately after breakfast, and, +glancing from her window, saw that the officers were just going to +head-quarters for the daily <i>matinée</i>. For half or three-quarters of an +hour, therefore, there could be no probable interruption; and she +decided to write an answer to the letter which came from Mr. Van Antwerp +the previous afternoon. A bright fire was burning in the <a name="Page_84" id="Page_84"></a>old-fashioned +stove with which frontier quarters are warmed if not ornamented, and she +perched her little, slippered feet upon the hearth, took her portfolio +in her lap, and began. Mrs. Rayner was in the nursery, absorbed with the +baby and the nurse, when a servant came and announced that "a lady was +in the kitchen" and wanted to speak with the lady of the house. Mrs. +Rayner promptly responded that she was busy and couldn't be disturbed, +and wondered who it could be that came to her kitchen to see her.</p> + +<p>"Can I be of service, Kate?" called Miss Travers. "I will run down, if +you say so."</p> + +<p>"I wish you would," was the reply; and Miss Travers put aside her +writing. "Didn't she give any name?" asked Mrs. Rayner of the Abigail, +who was standing with her head just visible at the stairway, it being +one of the unconquerable tenets of frontier domestics to go no farther +than is absolutely necessary in conveying messages of any kind; and this +damsel, though new to the neighborhood, was native and to the manner +born in all the tricks of the trade.</p> + +<p>"She said you knew her name, ma'am. She's the lady from the hospital."</p> + +<p>"Here, Jane, take the baby! Never mind, Nellie: I must go!" And Mrs. +Rayner started with surprising alacrity; but as she passed her door Miss +Travers saw the look of deep anxiety on her face.</p> + +<p>A moment later she heard voices at the front door,—a party of ladies +who were going to spend the morning with the colonel's wife at some +"Dorcas society" work which many of them had embraced with enthusiasm. +"I want to see Miss Travers, just a minute," she heard a voice say, and +recognized the pleasant tones of Mrs. Curtis, the young wife of one of +the infantry officers: so a second time she put aside her writing, and +then ran down to the front door. Mrs. Curtis merely wanted to remind her +that she must be sure to come and spend the afternoon with her and bring +her music, and was dismayed to find that Miss Travers could not come +before stable-call: she had an engagement. "Of course: I might have +known it: you are besieged every hour. Well, can you come to-morrow? +Do." And, to-morrow being settled upon, and despite the fact that +several of the party waiting on the sidewalk looked cold and impatient, +Mrs. Curtis found it impossible to tear herself away until certain +utterly irrelevant matters had been lightly touched upon and lingeringly +abandoned. The officers were just beginning to pour forth from +head-quarters when the group of ladies <a name="Page_85" id="Page_85"></a>finally got under way again and +Miss Travers closed the door. It was now useless to return to her +letter: so she strolled into the parlor just as she heard her sister's +voice at the kitchen door:</p> + +<p>"Come right in here, Mrs. Clancy. Now, quick, what is it?"</p> + +<p>And from the dining-room came the answer, hurried, half whispered, and +mysterious,—</p> + +<p>"He's been drinkin' ever since he got out of hospital, ma'am, an' he's +worse than ever about Loot'nant Hayne. It's mischief he'll be doin', +ma'am: he's crazy-like—"</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Clancy, you <i>must</i> watch him. You—Hush!"</p> + +<p>And here she stopped short, for, in astonishment at what she had already +heard, and in her instant effort to hear no more of what was so +evidently not intended for her, Miss Travers hurried from the parlor, +the swish of her skirts telling loudly of her presence there. She went +again to her room. What could it mean? Why was her proud, imperious Kate +holding secret interviews with this coarse and vulgar woman? What +concern was it of hers that Clancy should be "worse" about Mr. Hayne? It +could not mean that the mischief he would do was mischief <i>to</i> the man +who had saved his life and his property. That was out of the question. +It could not mean that the poor, broken-down, drunken fellow had the +means in his power of further harming a man who had already been made to +suffer so much. Indeed, Kate's very exclamation, the very tone in which +she spoke, showed a distress of mind that arose from no fear for one +whom she hated as she hated Hayne. Her anxiety was personal. It was for +her husband and for herself she feared, or woman's tone and tongue never +yet revealed a secret. Nellie Travers stood in her room stunned and +bewildered, yet trying hard to recall and put together all the scattered +stories and rumors that had reached her about the strange conduct of +Clancy after he was taken to the hospital,—especially about his +heart-broken wail when told that it was Lieutenant Hayne who had rescued +him and little Kate from hideous death. Somewhere, somehow, this man was +connected with the mystery which encircled the long-hidden truth in +Hayne's trouble. Could it be possible that he did not realize it, and +that her sister had discovered it? Could it be—oh, heaven! <i>no!</i>—could +it be that Kate was standing between that lonely and friendless man and +the revelation that would set him right? She could not believe it of +her! She would not believe it of her sister! And yet what did Kate mean +by charging Mrs. Clancy to watch him,—that drunken <a name="Page_86" id="Page_86"></a>husband? What could +it mean but that she was striving to prevent Mr. Hayne's ever hearing +the truth? She longed to learn more and solve the riddle once and for +all. They were still earnestly talking together down in the dining-room; +but she could not listen. Kate knew her so well that she had not closed +the door leading into the hall, though both she and the laundress of +Company B had lowered their voices. It was disgraceful at best, thought +Miss Travers, it was beneath her sister, that she should hold any +private conversation with a woman of that class. Confidences with such +were contamination. She half determined to rush down-stairs and put an +end to it, but was saved the scene: fresh young voices, hearty ringing +tones, and the stamp of heavy boot-heels were heard at the door; and as +Rayner entered, ushering in Royce and Graham, Mrs. Rayner and the +laundress fled once more to the kitchen.</p> + +<p>When the sisters found themselves alone again, it was late in the +evening. Mrs. Rayner came to Nellie's room and talked on various topics +for some little time, watching narrowly her sister's face. The young +girl hardly spoke at all. It was evident to the elder what her thoughts +must be.</p> + +<p>"I suppose you think I should explain Mrs. Clancy's agitation and +mysterious conduct, Nellie," she finally and suddenly said.</p> + +<p>"I do not want you to tell me anything, Kate, that you yourself do not +wish to tell me. You understand, of course, how I happened to be there?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, certainly. I wasn't thinking of that. You couldn't help hearing; +but you must have thought it queer,—her being so agitated, I mean."</p> + +<p>No answer.</p> + +<p>"Didn't you?"</p> + +<p>"I wasn't thinking of her at all."</p> + +<p>"What did you think, then?" half defiantly, yet trembling and growing +white.</p> + +<p>"I thought it strange that <i>you</i> should be talking with her in such a +way."</p> + +<p>"She was worried about her husband,—his drinking so much,—and came to +consult me."</p> + +<p>"Why should she—and you—show such consternation at his connection with +the name of Mr. Hayne?"</p> + +<p>"Nellie, <i>that</i> matter is one you know I cannot bear to talk of." ("Very +recently only," thought the younger.) "You once asked me <a name="Page_87" id="Page_87"></a>to tell you +what Mr. Hayne's crime had been, and I answered that until you could +hear the whole story you could not understand the matter at all. We are +both worried about Clancy. He is not himself; he is wild and imaginative +when he's drinking. He has some strange fancies since the fire, and he +thinks he ought to do something to help the officer because he helped +him, and his head is full of Police Gazette stories, utterly without +foundation, and he thinks he can tell who the real culprits were,—or +something of that kind. It is utter nonsense. I have investigated the +whole thing,—heard the whole story. It is the trashiest, most +impossible thing you ever dreamed of, and would only make fearful +trouble if Mr. Hayne got hold of it."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"<i>Why?</i> Because he is naturally vengeful and embittered, and he would +seize on any pretext to make it unpleasant for the officers who brought +about his trial."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean that what Clancy says in any way affects them?" asked Nell, +with quickening pulse and color.</p> + +<p>"It might, if there were a word of truth in it; but it is the maudlin +dream of a liquor-maddened brain. Mrs. Clancy and I both know that what +he says is utterly impossible. Indeed, he tells no two stories alike."</p> + +<p>"Has he told you anything?"</p> + +<p>"No; but she tells me everything."</p> + +<p>"How do you know she tells the truth?"</p> + +<p>"Nellie! Why should she deceive me? I have done everything for them."</p> + +<p>"I distrust her all the same; and you had better be warned in time. If +he has any theory, no matter how crack-brained, or if he knows anything +about the case and wants to tell it to Mr. Hayne, you are the last woman +on earth who should stand in the way."</p> + +<p>"Upon my word, Nellie Travers, this is going too far! One would think +you believed I wish to stand in the way of that young man's +restoration."</p> + +<p>"Kate, if you lift a hand or speak one word to prevent Clancy's seeing +Mr. Hayne and telling him everything he knows, you will make me +believe—precisely that."</p> + +<p>Captain Rayner heard sobbing and lamentation on the bedroom floor when +he came in a few moments after. Going aloft, he found Miss Travers's +door closed as usual, and his wife in voluble distress <a name="Page_88" id="Page_88"></a>of mind. He +could only learn that she and Nellie had had a falling out, and that +Nell had behaved in a most unjust, disrespectful, and outrageous way. +She declined to give further particulars.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X.</h2> + + +<p>Miss Travers had other reasons for wanting to be alone. That very +afternoon, just after stable-call, she found herself unoccupied for the +time being, and decided to go over and see Mrs. Waldron a few moments. +The servant admitted her to the little army parlor, and informed her +that Mrs. Waldron had stepped out, but would be home directly. A bright +wood fire was blazing on the hearth and throwing flickering lights and +shadows about the cosey room. The piano stood invitingly open, and on +the rack were some waltzes of Strauss she remembered having heard the +cavalry band play a night or two previous. Seating herself, she began to +try them, and speedily became interested. Her back being to the door, +she did not notice that another visitor was soon ushered in,—a man. She +continued slowly "picking out" the melody, for the light was growing dim +and it was with difficulty that she could distinguish the notes. Twice +she essayed a somewhat complicated passage, became entangled, bent down +and closely scanned the music, began again, once more became involved, +exclaimed impatiently, "How absurd!" and whirled about on the +piano-stool, to find herself facing Mr. Hayne.</p> + +<p>Now that the bandage was removed from his eyes it was no such easy +matter to meet him. Her sweet face flushed instantly as he bent low and +spoke her name.</p> + +<p>"I had no idea any one was here. It quite startled me," she said, as she +withdrew from his the hand she had mechanically extended to him.</p> + +<p>"It was my hope not to interrupt you," he answered, in the low, gentle +voice she had marked before. "You helped me when my music was all adrift +the other night: may I not help you find some of this?"</p> + +<p>"I wish you <i>would</i> play, Mr. Hayne."</p> + +<p>"I will play for you gladly, Miss Travers, but waltz-music is not my +forte. Let me see what else there is here." And he began turning over +the sheets on the stand.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89"></a>"Are your eyes well enough to read music,—especially in such a dim +light?" she asked, with evident sympathy.</p> + +<p>"My eyes are doing very well,—better than my fingers, in fact,—and, as +I rarely play by note after I once learn a piece, the eyes make no +difference. What music do you like? I merely looked at this collection +thinking you might see something that pleased you."</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Ray told me you played Rubinstein so well,—that melody in F, for +one."</p> + +<p>"Did Mrs. Ray speak of that?"—his face brightening. "I'm glad they +found anything to enjoy in my music."</p> + +<p>"'They' found a great deal, Mr. Hayne, and there are a number who are +envious of their good fortune,—I, for one," she answered, blithely. +"Now play for me. Mrs. Waldron will be here in a minute."</p> + +<p>And when Mrs. Waldron came in, a little later, Miss Travers, seated in +an easy-chair and looking intently into the blaze, was listening as +intently to the soft, rich melodies that Mr. Hayne was playing. The +firelight was flickering on her shining hair; one slender white hand was +toying with the locket that hung at her throat, the other gently tapping +on the arm of the chair in unison with the music. And Mr. Hayne, seated +in the shadow, bent slightly over the key-board, absorbed in his +pleasant task, and playing as though all his soul were thrilling in his +finger-tips. Mrs. Waldron stood in silence at the door-way, watching the +unconscious pair with an odd yet comforted expression in her eyes. At +last, in one long, sweet, sighing chord, the melody softly died away, +and Mr. Hayne slowly turned and looked upon the girl. She seemed to have +wandered off into dream-land. For a moment there was no sound; then, +with a little shivering sigh, she roused herself.</p> + +<p>"It is simply exquisite," she said. "You have given me such a treat!"</p> + +<p>"I'm glad. I owe you a great deal more pleasure, Miss Travers."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Waldron hereat elevated her eyebrows. She would have slipped away +if she could, but she was a woman of substance, and as solid in flesh as +she was warm of heart. She did the only thing left to her,—came +cordially forward to welcome her two visitors and express her delight +that Miss Travers could have an opportunity of hearing Mr. Hayne play. +She soon succeeded in starting him again, and shortly thereafter managed +to slip out unnoticed. When he turned around a few minutes afterwards, +she had vanished.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90"></a>"Why, I had no idea she was gone!" exclaimed Miss Travers; and then the +color mounted to her brow. He must think her extremely absorbed in his +playing; and so indeed she was.</p> + +<p>"You are very fond of music, I see," he said, at a venture.</p> + +<p>"Yes, very; but I play very little and very badly. Pardon me, Mr. Hayne, +but you have played many years, have you not?"</p> + +<p>"Not so very many; but—there have been many in which I had little else +to do but practise."</p> + +<p>She reddened again. It was so unlike him, she thought, to refer to that +matter in speaking to her. He seemed to read her:</p> + +<p>"I speak of it only that I may say to you again what I began just before +Mrs. Waldron came. You gave me no opportunity to thank you the other +night, and I may not have another. You do not know what an event in my +life that meeting with you was; and you cannot know how I have gone over +your words again and again. Forgive me the embarrassment I see I cause +you, Miss Travers. We are so unlikely to meet at all that you can afford +to indulge me this once." He was smiling so gravely, sadly, now, and had +risen and was standing by her as she sat there in the big easy-chair, +still gazing into the fire, but listening for his every word. "In five +long years I have heard no words from a woman's lips that gave me such +joy and comfort as those you spoke so hurriedly and without +premeditation. Only those who know anything of what my past has been +could form any idea of the emotion with which I heard you. If I could +not have seen you to say how—how I thanked you, I would have had to +write. This explains what I said awhile ago: I owe you more pleasure +than I can ever give. But one thing was certain: I could not bear the +idea that you should not be told, and by me, how grateful your words +were to me,—how grateful I was to you. Again, may God bless you!"</p> + +<p>And now he turned abruptly away, awaiting no answer, reseated himself at +the piano and retouched the keys. But, though she sat motionless and +speechless, she knew that he had been trembling so violently and that +his hands were still so tremulous he could play no more. It was some +minutes that they sat thus, neither speaking; and as he regained his +self-control and began to attempt some simple little melodies, Mrs. +Waldron returned:</p> + +<p>"How very domestic you look, young people! Shall we light the lamps?"</p> + +<p>"I've stayed too long already," said Miss Travers, springing to her +<a name="Page_91" id="Page_91"></a>feet. "Kate does not know I'm out, and will be wondering what has +become of her sister." She laughed nervously. "Thank you so much for the +music, Mr. Hayne!—Forgive my running off so suddenly; won't you, Mrs. +Waldron?" she asked, pleadingly, as she put her hand in hers; and as her +hostess reassured her she bent and kissed the girl's flushed cheek. Mr. +Hayne was still standing patiently by the centre-table. Once more she +turned, and caught his eye, flushed, half hesitated, then held out her +hand with quick impulse:</p> + +<p>"Good-evening, Mr. Hayne. I <i>shall</i> hope to hear you play again."</p> + +<p>And, with pulses throbbing, and cheeks that still burned, she ran +quickly down the line to Captain Rayner's quarters, and was up-stairs +and in her room in another minute.</p> + +<p>This was an interview she would find it hard to tell to Kate. But told +it was, partially, and she was sitting now, late at night, hearing +through her closed door her sister's unmusical lamentations,—hearing +still ringing in her ears the reproaches heaped upon her when that +sister was quietly told that she and Mr. Hayne had met twice. And now +she was sitting there, true to herself and her resolution, telling Mr. +Van Antwerp all about it. Can one conjecture the sensations with which +he received and read that letter?</p> + +<p>Mr. Hayne, too, was having a wakeful night. He had gone to Mrs. +Waldron's to pay a dinner-call, with the result just told. He had one or +two other visits to make among the cavalry households in garrison, but, +after a few moments' chat with Mrs. Waldron, he decided that he +preferred going home. Sam had to call three times before Mr. Hayne +obeyed the summons to dinner that evening. The sun was going down behind +the great range to the southwest, and the trumpets were pealing +"retreat" on the frosty air, but Hayne's curtains were drawn, and he was +sitting before his fire, deep in thought, hearing nothing. The doctor +came in soon after he finished his solitary dinner, chatted with him +awhile, and smoked away at his pipe. He wanted to talk with Hayne about +some especial matter, and he found it hard work to begin. The more he +saw of his patient the better he liked him: he was interested in him, +and had been making inquiries. Without his pipe he found himself +uninspired.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Hayne, if you will permit, I'll fill up and blow another cloud. +Didn't you ever smoke?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. I was very fond of my cigar six or seven years ago."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92"></a>"And you gave it up?" asked the doctor, tugging away at the strings of +his little tobacco-pouch.</p> + +<p>"I gave up everything that was not an absolute necessity," said Hayne, +calmly. "Until I could get free of a big load there was no comfort in +anything. After that was gone I had no more use for such old friends +than certain other old friends seemed to have for me. It was a mutual +cut."</p> + +<p>"To the best of my belief, you were the gainer in both cases," said the +doctor, gruffly. "The longer I live the more I agree with Carlyle: the +men we live and move with are mostly fools."</p> + +<p>Hayne's face was as grave and quiet as ever:</p> + +<p>"These are hard lessons to learn, doctor. I presume few young fellows +thought more of human friendship than I did the first two years I was in +service."</p> + +<p>"Hayne," said the doctor, "sometimes I have thought you did not want to +talk about this matter to any soul on earth; but I am speaking from no +empty curiosity now. If you forbid it, I shall not intrude; but there +are some questions that, since knowing you, and believing in you as I +unquestionably do, I would like to ask. You seem bent on returning to +duty here to-morrow, though you might stay on sick report ten days yet; +and I want to stand between you and the possibility of annoyance and +trouble if I can."</p> + +<p>"You are kind, and I appreciate it, doctor; but do you think that the +colonel is a man who will be apt to let me suffer injustice at the hands +of any one here?"</p> + +<p>"I don't, indeed. He is full of sympathy for you, and I know he means +you shall have fair play; but a company commander has as many and as +intangible ways of making a man suffer as has a woman. How do you stand +with Rayner?"</p> + +<p>"Precisely where I stood five years ago. He is the most determined enemy +I have in the service, and will down me if he can; but I have learned a +good deal in my time. There is a grim sort of comfort now in knowing +that while he would gladly trip me I can make him miserable by being too +strong for him."</p> + +<p>"You still hold the same theory as to his evidence you did at the time +of the court? of course I have heard what you said to and of him."</p> + +<p>"I have never changed in that respect."</p> + +<p>"But supposing that—mind you, <i>I</i> believe he was utterly mistaken <a name="Page_93" id="Page_93"></a>in +what he thought he heard and saw,—supposing that all that was testified +to by him actually occurred, have you any theory that would point out +the real criminal?"</p> + +<p>"Only one. If that money was ever handed me that day at Battle Butte, +only one man could have made away with it; and it is useless to charge +it to him."</p> + +<p>"You mean Rayner?"</p> + +<p>"I <i>have</i> to mean Rayner."</p> + +<p>"But you claim it never reached you?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly."</p> + +<p>"Yet every other package—memoranda and all—was handed you?"</p> + +<p>"Not only that, but Captain Hull handed me the money-packet with the +others,—took them all from his saddle-bags just before the charge. The +packet was sealed when he gave it to me, and when I broke the seal it +was stuffed with worthless blanks."</p> + +<p>"And you have never suspected a soldier,—a single messenger or +servant?"</p> + +<p>"Not one. Whom could I?"</p> + +<p>"Hayne, had you any knowledge of this man Clancy before?"</p> + +<p>"Clancy! The drunken fellow we pulled out of the fire?"</p> + +<p>"The same."</p> + +<p>"No; never to my knowledge saw or heard of him, except when he appeared +as witness at the court."</p> + +<p>"Yet he was with the ——th Cavalry at that very fight at Battle Butte. He +was a sergeant then, though not in Hull's troop."</p> + +<p>"Does he say he knew me? or does he talk of that affair?" asked the +lieutenant, with sudden interest.</p> + +<p>"Not that. He cannot be said to say anything; but he was wonderfully +affected over your rescuing him,—strangely so, one of the nurses +persists in telling me, though the steward and Mrs. Clancy declare it +was just drink and excitement. Still, I have drawn from him that he knew +you well by sight during that campaign; but he says he was not by when +Hull was killed."</p> + +<p>"Does he act as though he knew anything that could throw any light on +the matter?"</p> + +<p>"I cannot say. His wife declares he has been queer all winter,—hard +drinking,—and of course that is possible."</p> + +<p>"Sam told me there was a soldier here two nights ago who wanted <a name="Page_94" id="Page_94"></a>to talk +with me, but the man was drunk, and he would not let him in or tell me. +He thought he wanted to borrow money."</p> + +<p>"I declare, I believe it was Clancy!" said the doctor. "If he wants to +see you and talk, let him. There's no telling but what even a +drink-racked brain may bring the matter to light."</p> + +<p>And long that night Mr. Hayne sat there thinking, partly of what the +doctor had said, but more of what had occurred during the late +afternoon. Midnight was called by the sentries. He went to his door and +looked out on the broad, bleak prairie, the moonlight glinting on the +tin roofing of the patch of buildings over at the station far across the +dreary level and glistening on the patches of snow that here and there +streaked the surface. It was all so cold and calm and still. His blood +was hot and fevered. Something invited him into the peace and purity of +the night. He threw on his overcoat and furs, and strolled up to the +gateway, past the silent and deserted store, whose lighted bar and +billiard-room was generally the last thing to close along Prairie +Avenue. There was not a glimmer of light about the quarters of the +trader or the surgeon's beyond. One or two faint gleams stole through +the blinds at the big hospital, and told of the night-watch by some +fevered bedside. He passed on around the fence and took a path that led +to the target-ranges north of the post and back of officers' row, +thinking deeply all the while; and finally, re-entering the garrison by +the west gate, he came down along the hard gravelled walk that passed in +circular sweeps the offices and the big house of the colonel commanding +and then bore straight away in front of the entire line. All was +darkness and quiet. He passed in succession the houses of the +field-officers of the cavalry, looked longingly at the darkened front of +Major Waldron's cottage, where he had lived so sweet an hour before the +setting of the last sun, then went on again and paused surprised in +front of Captain Rayner's. A bright light was still burning in the front +room on the second floor. Was she, too, awake and thinking of that +interview? He looked wistfully at the lace curtains that shrouded the +interior, and then the clank of a cavalry sabre sounded in his ears, and +a tall officer came springily across the road.</p> + +<p>"Who the devil's that?" was the blunt military greeting.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Hayne," was the quiet reply.</p> + +<p>"What? Mr. Hayne? Oh! Beg your pardon, man,—couldn't imagine who it was +mooning around out here after midnight."</p> + +<p>"I don't wonder," answered Hayne. "I am rather given to late <a name="Page_95" id="Page_95"></a>hours, and +after reading a long time I often take a stroll before turning in."</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes: I see. Well, won't you drop in and chat awhile? I'm officer of +the day, and have to owl to-night."</p> + +<p>"Thanks, no, not this time; I must go to bed. Good-night, Mr. Blake."</p> + +<p>"Good-night to you, Mr. Hayne," said Blake, then stood gazing +perplexedly after him. "Now, my fine fellow," was his dissatisfied +query, "what on earth do you mean by prowling around Rayner's at this +hour of the night?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI.</h2> + + +<p>It was very generally known throughout Fort Warrener by ten o'clock on +the following morning that Mr. Hayne had returned to duty and was one of +the first officers to appear at the <i>matinée</i>. Once more the colonel had +risen from his chair, taken him by the hand, and welcomed him. This time +he expressed the hope that nothing would now occur to prevent their +seeing him daily.</p> + +<p>"Won't you come in to the club-room?" asked Captain Gregg, afterwards. +"We will be pleased to have you."</p> + +<p>"Excuse me, captain, I shall be engaged all morning," answered Mr. +Hayne, and walked on down the row. Nearly all the officers were +strolling away in groups of three or four. Hayne walked past them all +with quick, soldierly step and almost aggressive manner, and was soon +far ahead, all by himself. Finding it an unprofitable subject, there had +been little talk between the two regiments as to what Mr. Hayne's status +should be on his reappearance. Everybody heard that he had somewhat +rudely spurned the advances of Ross and his companions. Indeed, Ross had +told the story with strong coloring to more than half the denizens of +officers' row. Evidently he desired no further friendship or intercourse +with his brother blue-straps; and only a few of the cavalry officers +found his society attractive. He played delightfully; he was well read; +but in general talk he was not entertaining. "Altogether too +sepulchral,—or at least funereal," explained the cavalry. "He never +laughs, and rarely smiles, and he's as glum as a Quaker meeting," was +another complaint. So a social success was hardly to be predicted for +Mr. Hayne.</p> + +<p>While he could not be invited where just a few infantry people <a name="Page_96" id="Page_96"></a>were the +other guests, from a big general gathering or party he, of course, could +not be omitted; but there he would have his cavalry and medical friends +to talk to, and then there was Major Waldron. It was a grievous pity +that there should be such an element of embarrassment, but it couldn't +be helped. As the regimental adjutant had said, Hayne himself was the +main obstacle to his restoration to regimental friendship. No man who +piques himself on the belief that he is about to do a virtuous and +praiseworthy act will be apt to persevere when the object of his +benevolence treats him with cold contempt. If Mr. Hayne saw fit to +repudiate the civilities a few officers essayed to extend to him, no +others would subject themselves to similar rebuffs; and if he could +stand the <i>status quo</i>, why, the regiment could; and that, said the +Riflers, was the end of the matter.</p> + +<p>But it was not the end, by a good deal. Some few of the ladies of the +infantry, actuated by Mrs. Rayner's vehement exposition of the case, had +aligned themselves on her side as against the post commander, and by +their general conduct sought to convey to the colonel and to the ladies +who were present at the first dinner given Mr. Hayne thorough +disapproval of their course. This put the cavalry people on their mettle +and led to a division in the garrison; and as Major Waldron was, in Mrs. +Rayner's eyes, equally culpable with the colonel, it so resulted that +two or three infantry households, together with some unmarried +subalterns, were arrayed socially against their own battalion commander +as well as against the grand panjandrum at post head-quarters. If it had +not been for the determined attitude of Mr. Hayne himself, the garrison +might speedily have been resolved into two parties,—Hayne and +anti-Hayne sympathizers; but the whole bearing of that young man was +fiercely repellent of sympathy; he would have none of it. "Hayne's +position," said Major Waldron, "is practically this: he holds that no +man who has borne himself as he has during these five years—denied +himself everything that he might make up every cent that was lost, +though he was in no wise responsible for the loss—could by any +possibility have been guilty of the charges on which he was tried. From +this he will not abate one jot or tittle; and he refuses now to restore +to his friendship the men who repudiated him in his years of trouble, +except on their profession of faith in his entire innocence." Now, this +was something the cavalry could not do without some impeachment of the +evidence which was heaped up against the poor fellow at the time of the +trial; and it was something the infantry <a name="Page_97" id="Page_97"></a>would not do, because thereby +they would virtually pronounce one at least of their own officers to +have repeatedly and persistently given false testimony. In the case of +Waldron and the cavalry, however, it was possible for Hayne to return +their calls of courtesy, because they, having never "sent him to +Coventry," received him precisely as they would receive any other +officer. With the Riflers it was different: having once "cut" him as +though by unanimous accord, and having taught the young officers joining +year after year to regard him as a criminal, <i>they</i> could be restored to +Mr. Hayne's friendship, as has been said before, only "on confession of +error." Buxton and two or three of his stamp called or left their cards +on Mr. Hayne because their colonel had so done; but precisely as the +ceremony was performed, just so was it returned. Buxton was red with +wrath over what he termed Hayne's conceited and supercilious manner when +returning his call: "I called upon him like a gentleman, by thunder, +just to let him understand I wanted to help him out of the mire, and +told him if there was anything I could do for him that a gentleman +<i>could</i> do, not to hesitate about letting me know; and when he came to +my house to-day, damned if he didn't patronize <i>me</i>!—talked to me about +the Plevna siege, and wanted to discuss Gourko and the Balkans or some +other fool thing: what in thunder have I to do with campaigns in +Turkey?—and I thought he meant those nigger soldiers the British have +in India,—Goorkhas, I know now,—and I <i>did</i> tell him it was an awful +blunder, that only a Russian would make, to take those Sepoy fellows and +put 'em into a winter campaign. Of course I hadn't been booking up the +subject, and he had, and sprung it on me; and then, by gad, as he was +going, he said he had books and maps he would lend me, and if there was +anything he could do for me that a gentleman <i>could</i> do, not to hesitate +about asking. Damn his impudence!"</p> + +<p>Poor Buxton! One of his idiosyncrasies was to talk wisely to the juniors +on the subject of European campaigns and to criticise the moves of +generals whose very names and centuries were entangling snares. His own +subalterns were, unfortunately for him, at the house when Hayne called, +and when he, as was his wont, began to expound on current military +topics. "A little learning," even, he had not, and the dangerous thing +that that would have been was supplanted by something quite as bad, if +not worse. He was trapped and thrown by the quiet-mannered infantry +subaltern, and it was all Messrs. Freeman and Royce could do to restrain +their impulse to rush after Hayne and <a name="Page_98" id="Page_98"></a>embrace him. Buxton was cordially +detested by his "subs" and well knew they would tell the story of his +defeat, so he made a virtue of necessity and came out with his own +version. Theirs was far more ludicrous, and, while it made Mr. Hayne +famous, he gained another enemy. The ——th could not fail to notice how +soon after that all social recognition ceased between their bulky +captain and the pale, slender subaltern; and Mrs. Buxton and Mrs. Rayner +became suddenly infatuated with each other, while their lords were +seldom seen except together.</p> + +<p>All this time, however, Miss Travers was making friends throughout the +garrison. No one ever presumed to discuss the Hayne affair in her +presence, because of her relationship to the Rayners; and yet Mrs. +Waldron had told several people how delightfully she and Mr. Hayne had +spent an afternoon together. Did not Mrs. Rayner declare that Mrs. +Waldron was a woman who told everything she knew, or words to that +effect? It is safe to say that the garrison was greatly interested in +the story. How strange it was that he should have had a <i>tête-à-tête</i> +with the sister of his bitterest foe! <i>When</i> did they meet? Had they met +since? Would they meet again? All these were questions eagerly +discussed, yet never asked of the parties themselves, Mr. Hayne's +reputation for snubbing people standing him in excellent stead, and Miss +Travers's quiet dignity and reserve of manner being too much for those +who would have given a good deal to gain her confidence. But there was +Mrs. Rayner. She, at least, with all her high and mighty ways, was no +unapproachable creature when it came to finding out what she thought of +other people's conduct. So half a dozen, at least, had more or less +confidentially asked if she knew of Mr. Hayne and Miss Travers's +meeting. Indeed she did! and she had given Nellie her opinion of her +conduct very decidedly. It was Captain Rayner himself who interposed, +she said, and forbade her upbraiding Nellie any further. Nellie being +either in an adjoining room or up in her own on several occasions when +these queries were propounded to her sister, it goes without saying that +that estimable woman, after the manner of her sex, had elevated her +voice in responding, so that there was no possibility of the wicked +girl's failing to get the full benefit of the scourging she deserved. +Rayner had, indeed, positively forbidden her further rebuking Nellie; +but the man does not live who can prevent one woman's punishing another +so long as she can get within earshot, and Miss Travers was paying +dearly for her independence.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99"></a>It cannot be estimated just how great a disappointment her visit to the +frontier was proving to that young lady, simply because she kept her own +counsel. There were women in the garrison who longed to take her to +their hearts and homes, she was so fresh and pure and sweet and winning, +they said; but how could they, when her sister would recognize them only +by the coldest possible nod? Nellie was not happy, that was certain, +though she made no complaint, and though the young officers who were +daily her devotees declared she was bright and attractive as she could +be. There were still frequent dances and parties in the garrison, but +March was nearly spent, and the weather had been so vile and blustering +that they could not move beyond the limits of the post. April might +bring a change for the better in the weather, but Miss Travers wondered +how it could better her position.</p> + +<p>It is hard for a woman of spirit to be materially dependent on any one, +and Miss Travers was virtually dependent on her brother-in-law. The +little share of her father's hard savings was spent on her education. +Once free from school, she was bound to another apprenticeship, and +sister Kate, though indulgent, fond, and proud, lost no opportunity of +telling her how much she owed to Captain Rayner. It got to be a fearful +weight before the first summer was well over. It was the main secret of +her acceptance of Mr. Van Antwerp. And now, until she would consent to +name the day that should bind her for life to him, she had no home but +such as Kate Rayner could offer her; and Kate was bitterly offended at +her. There was just one chance to end it now and forever, and to relieve +her sister and the captain of the burden of her support. <i>Could</i> she +make up her mind to do it? And Mr. Van Antwerp offered the opportunity.</p> + +<p>So far from breaking with her, as she half expected,—so far from being +even angry and reproachful on receiving the letter she had written +telling him all about her meetings with Mr. Hayne,—he had written again +and again, reproaching himself for his doubts and fears, begging her +forgiveness for having written and telegraphed to Kate, humbling himself +before her in the most abject way, and imploring her to reconsider her +determination and to let him write to Captain and Mrs. Rayner to return +to their Eastern home at once, that the marriage might take place +forthwith and he could bear her away to Europe in May. Letter after +letter came, eager, imploring, full of tenderest love and devotion, full +of the saddest apprehension, never reproaching, never doubting, never +commanding or restraining. The man had found the <a name="Page_100" id="Page_100"></a>way to touch a woman +of her generous nature: he had left all to her; he was at her mercy; and +she knew well that he loved her fervently and that to lose her would +wellnigh break his heart. Could she say the word and be free? Surely, as +this man's wife there would be no serfdom; and, yet, could she wed a man +for whom she felt no spark of love?</p> + +<p>They went down to the creek one fine morning early in April. There had +been a sudden thaw of the snows up the gorges of the Rockies, and the +stream had overleaped its banks, spread over the lowlands, and flooded +some broad depressions in the prairie. Then, capricious as a woman's +moods, the wind whistled around from the north one night and bound the +lakelets in a band of ice. The skating was gorgeous, and all the pretty +ankles on the post were rejoicing in the opportunity before the setting +of another sun. Coming homeward at luncheon-time, Mrs. Rayner, Mrs. +Buxton, Miss Travers, and one or two others, escorted by a squad of +bachelors, strolled somewhat slowly along Prairie Avenue towards the +gate. It so happened that the married ladies were foremost in the little +party, when who should meet them but Mr. Hayne, coming from the east +gate! Mrs. Rayner and Mrs. Buxton, though passing him almost elbow to +elbow, looked straight ahead or otherwise avoided his eye. He raised his +forage-cap in general acknowledgment of the presence of ladies with the +officers, but glanced coldly from one to the other until his blue eyes +lighted on Miss Travers. No woman in that group could fail to note the +leap of sunshine and gladness to his face, the instant flush that rose +to his cheek. Miss Travers, herself, saw it quickly, as did the maiden +walking just behind her, and her heart bounded at the sight. She bowed +as their eyes met, spoke his name in low tone, and strove to hide her +face from Mr. Blake, who turned completely around and stole a sudden +glance at her. She could no more account for than she could control it, +but her face was burning. Mrs. Rayner, too, looked around and stared at +her, but this she met firmly, her dark eyes never quailing before the +angry glare in her sister's. Blake was beginning to like Hayne and to +dislike Mrs. Rayner, and he always <i>did</i> like mischief.</p> + +<p>"You owe me a grudge, Miss Travers, if you did but know it," he said, so +that all could hear.</p> + +<p>"You, Mr. Blake! How can that be possible?"</p> + +<p>"I spoiled a serenade for you a few nights ago. I was officer of the +day, and caught sight of a man gazing up at your window after <a name="Page_101" id="Page_101"></a>midnight. +I felt sure he was going to sing: so, like a good fellow, I ran over to +play an accompaniment, and then—would you believe it?—he wouldn't +sing, after all."</p> + +<p>She was white now. Her eyes were gazing almost imploringly at him. +Something warned him to hold his peace, and he broke off short.</p> + +<p>"<i>Who</i> was it? Oh, <i>do</i> tell us, Mr. Blake!" were the exclamations, Mrs. +Rayner being most impetuous in her demands. Again Blake caught the +appeal in Miss Travers's eyes.</p> + +<p>"That's what I want to know," he responded, mendaciously. "When I woke +up next morning, the whole thing was a dream, and I couldn't fix the +fellow at all."</p> + +<p>There was a chorus of disappointment and indignation. The idea of +spoiling such a gem of a sensation! But Blake took it all complacently, +until he got home. Then it began to worry him.</p> + +<p>Was it possible that she knew he was there?</p> + +<p>That night there was a disturbance in the garrison. Just after ten +o'clock, and while the sentries were calling off the hour, a woman's +shrieks and cries were heard over behind the quarters of Company B and +close to the cottage occupied by Lieutenant Hayne. The officers of the +guard ran to the spot with several men, and found Private Clancy +struggling and swearing in the grasp of two or three soldiers, while +Mrs. Clancy was imploring them not to let him go, he was wild-like +again; it was drink; he had the horrors, and was batin' her while she +was tryin' to get him home. And Clancy's appearance bore out her words. +He was wild and drunken; but he swore he meant no harm; he struggled +hard for freedom; he vowed he only wanted to see the lieutenant at his +quarters; and Mr. Hayne, lamp in hand, had come upon the scene, and was +striving to quiet the woman, who only screamed and protested the louder. +At his quiet order the soldiers released Clancy, and the man stood +patient and subordinate.</p> + +<p>"Did you want to see me, Clancy?" asked Mr. Hayne.</p> + +<p>"Askin' yer pardon, sir, I did," began the man, unsteadily, and +evidently struggling with the fumes of the liquor he had been drinking; +but before he could speak again, Mrs. Clancy's shrieks rang out on the +still air:</p> + +<p>"Oh, for the love of God, howld him, some o' ye's! He'll kill him! He's +mad, I say! Shure 'tis I that know him best. Oh, blessed Vargin, save +us! <i>Don't</i> let him loose, Misther Foster!" she <a name="Page_102" id="Page_102"></a>screamed to the officer +of the guard, who at that moment appeared on the full run.</p> + +<p>"What's the trouble?" he asked, breathlessly.</p> + +<p>"Clancy seems to have been drinking, and wants to talk with me about +something, Mr. Foster," said Hayne, quietly. "He belongs to my company, +and I will be responsible that he goes home. It is really Mrs. Clancy +that is making all the trouble."</p> + +<p>"Oh, for the love of God, hear him, now, whin the man was tearin' the +hair o' me this minute! Oh, howld him, men! Shure 'tis Captain Rayner +wud niver let him go."</p> + +<p>"What's the matter, Mrs. Clancy?" spoke a quick, stern voice, and +Rayner, with face white as a sheet, suddenly stood in their midst.</p> + +<p>"Oh, God be praised, it's here ye are, captin! Shure it's Clancy, sir, +dhrunk, sir, and runnin' round the garrison, and batin' me, sir."</p> + +<p>"Take him to the guard-house, Mr. Foster," was the stern, sudden order. +"Not a word, Clancy," as the man strove to speak. "Off with him; and if +he gives you any trouble, send for me."</p> + +<p>And as the poor fellow was led away, silence fell upon the group. Mrs. +Clancy began a wail of mingled relief and misery, which the captain +ordered her to cease and go home. More men came hurrying to the spot, +and presently the officer of the day. "It is all right now," said Rayner +to the latter. "One of my men—Clancy—was out here drunk and raising a +row. I have sent him to the guard-house. Go back to your quarters, men. +Come, captain, will you walk over home with me?"</p> + +<p>"Was Mr. Hayne here when the row occurred?" asked the cavalryman, +looking as though he wanted to hear something from the young officer who +stood a silent witness.</p> + +<p>"I don't know," replied Rayner. "It makes no difference, captain. It is +not a case of witnesses. I shan't prefer charges against the man. Come!" +And he drew him hastily away.</p> + +<p>Hayne stood watching them as they disappeared beyond the glimmer of his +lamp. Then a hand was placed on his arm:</p> + +<p>"Did you notice Captain Rayner's face,—his lips? He was ashen as +death."</p> + +<p>"Come in here with me," was the reply; and, turning, Hayne led the post +surgeon into the house.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103"></a></p> +<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII.</h2> + + +<p>There was an unusual scene at the <i>matinée</i> the following morning. When +Captain Ray relieved Captain Gregg as officer of the day, and the two +were visiting the guard-house and turning over prisoners, they came upon +the last name on the list,—Clancy,—and Gregg turned to his regimental +comrade and said,—</p> + +<p>"No charges are preferred against Clancy, at least none as yet, Captain +Ray; but his company commander requests that he be held here until he +can talk over his case with the colonel."</p> + +<p>"What's he in for?" demanded Captain Ray.</p> + +<p>"Getting drunk and raising a row and beating his wife," answered Gregg; +whereat there was a titter among the soldiers.</p> + +<p>"I never shtruck a woman in me life, sir," said poor Clancy.</p> + +<p>"Silence, Clancy!" ordered the sergeant of the guard.</p> + +<p>"No, I'm blessed if I believe that part of it, Clancy, drunk or no +drunk," said the new officer of the day.—"Take charge of him for the +present, sergeant." And away they went to the office.</p> + +<p>Captain Rayner was in conversation with the commanding officer as they +entered, and the colonel was saying,—</p> + +<p>"It is not the proper way to handle the case, captain. If he has been +guilty of drunkenness and disorderly conduct he should be brought to +trial at once."</p> + +<p>"I admit that, sir; but the case is peculiar. It was Mrs. Clancy that +made all the noise. I feel sure that after he is perfectly sober I can +give him such a talking-to as will put a stop to this trouble."</p> + +<p>"Very well, sir. I am willing to let company commanders experiment at +least once or twice on their theories, so you can try the scheme; but we +of the ——th have had some years of experience with the Clancys, and +were not a little amused when they turned up again in our midst as +accredited members of your company."</p> + +<p>"Then, as I understand you, colonel, Clancy is not to be brought to +trial for this affair," suddenly spoke the post surgeon.</p> + +<p>Everybody looked up in surprise. "Pills" was the last man, ordinarily, +to take a hand in the "shop talk" at the morning meetings.</p> + +<p>"No, doctor. His captain thinks it unnecessary to prefer charges."</p> + +<p>"So do I, sir; and, as I saw the man both before and after his +<a name="Page_104" id="Page_104"></a>confinement last night, I do not think it was necessary to confine +him."</p> + +<p>"The officer of the day says there was great disorder," said the +colonel, in surprise.</p> + +<p>"Ay, sir, so there was; and the thing reminds me of the stories they +used to tell on the New York police. It looked to me as though all the +row was raised by Mrs. Clancy, as Captain Rayner says; but the man was +arrested. That being the case, I would ask the captain for what specific +offence he ordered Clancy to the guard-house."</p> + +<p>Rayner again was pale as death. He glared at the doctor in amaze and +incredulity, while all the officers noted his agitation and were silent +in surprise. It was the colonel that came to the rescue:</p> + +<p>"Captain Rayner had abundant reason, doctor. It was after taps, though +only just after, and, whether causing the trouble or not, the man is the +responsible party, not the woman. The captain was right in causing his +arrest."</p> + +<p>Rayner looked up gratefully.</p> + +<p>"I submit to your decision, sir," said the surgeon, "and I apologize for +anything I may have asked that was beyond my province. Now I wish to ask +a question for my own guidance."</p> + +<p>"Go on, doctor."</p> + +<p>"In case an enlisted man of this command desire to see an officer of his +company,—or any other officer, for that matter,—is it a violation of +any military regulation for him to go to his quarters for that purpose?"</p> + +<p>Again was Rayner fearfully white and aged-looking. His lips moved as +though he would interrupt; but discipline prevailed.</p> + +<p>"No, doctor; and yet we have certain customs of service to prevent the +men going at all manner of hours and on frivolous errands: a soldier +asks his first sergeant's permission first, and if denied by him, and he +have what he considers good reason, he can report the whole case."</p> + +<p>"But suppose a man is not on company duty: must he hunt up his first +sergeant and ask permission to go and see some officer with whom he has +business?"</p> + +<p>"Well, hardly, in that case."</p> + +<p>"That's all, sir." And the doctor subsided.</p> + +<p>Among all the officers, as the meeting adjourned, the question was, +"What do you suppose 'Pills' was driving at?"</p> + +<p>There were two or three who knew. Captain Rayner went first to his +quarters, where he had a few moments' hurried consultation with <a name="Page_105" id="Page_105"></a>his +wife; then they left the house together,—he to have a low-toned and +very stern talk to rather than with the abashed Clancy, who listened cap +in hand and with hanging head; she to visit the sick child of Mrs. +Flanigan, of Company K, whose quarters adjoined those to which the +Clancys had recently been assigned. When that Hibernian culprit returned +to his roof-tree, released from durance vile, he was surprised to +receive a kindly and sympathetic welcome from his captain's wife, who +with her own hand had mixed him some comforting drink and was planning +with Mrs. Clancy for their greater comfort. "If Clancy will only promise +to quit entirely!" interjected the partner of his joys and sorrows.</p> + +<p>Later that day, when the doctor had a little talk with Clancy, the +ex-dragoon declared he was going to reform for all he was worth. He was +only a distress to everybody when he drank.</p> + +<p>"All right, Clancy. And when you are perfectly yourself you can come and +see Lieutenant Hayne as soon as you like."</p> + +<p>"Loot'nant Hayne is it, sir? Shure I'd be beggin' his pardon for the +vexation I gave him last night."</p> + +<p>"But you have something you wanted to speak with him about. You said so +last night, Clancy," said the doctor, looking him squarely in the eye.</p> + +<p>"Shure I was dhrunk, sir. I didn't mane it," he answered; but he shrank +and cowered.</p> + +<p>The doctor turned and left him.</p> + +<p>"If it's only when he's drunk that conscience pricks him and the truth +will out, then we must have him drunk again," quoth this unprincipled +practitioner.</p> + +<p>That same afternoon Miss Travers found that a headache was the result of +confinement to an atmosphere somewhat heavily charged with electricity. +Mrs. Rayner seemed to bristle every time she approached her sister. +Possibly it was the heart, more than the head, that ached, but in either +case she needed relief from the exposed position she had occupied ever +since Kate's return from the Clancys' in the morning. She had been too +long under fire, and was wearied. Even the cheery visits of the garrison +gallants had proved of little avail, for Mrs. Rayner was in very ill +temper, and made snappish remarks to them which two of them resented and +speedily took themselves off. Later Miss Travers went to her room and +wrote a letter, and then the sunset gun shook the window, and twilight +settled down upon the still frozen <a name="Page_106" id="Page_106"></a>earth. She bathed her heated +forehead and flushed cheeks, threw a warm cloak over her shoulders, and +came slowly down the stairs. Mrs. Rayner met her at the parlor door.</p> + +<p>"Kate, I am going for a walk, and shall stop and see Mrs. Waldron."</p> + +<p>"Quite an unnecessary piece of information. I saw him as well as you. He +has just gone there."</p> + +<p>Miss Travers flushed hot with indignation:</p> + +<p>"I have seen no one; and if you mean that Mr. Hayne has gone to Major +Waldron's, I shall not."</p> + +<p>"No: I'd meet him on the walk: it would only be a trifle more public."</p> + +<p>"You have no right to accuse me of the faintest expectation of meeting +him anywhere. I repeat, I had not thought of such a thing."</p> + +<p>"You might just as well do it. You cannot make your antagonism to my +husband much more pointed than you have already. And as for meeting Mr. +Hayne, the only advice I presume to give now is that for your own sake +you keep your blushes under better control than you did the last time +you met—that I know of." And, with this triumphant insult as a parting +shot, Mrs. Rayner wheeled and marched off through the parlor.</p> + +<p>What was a girl to do? Nellie Travers was not of the crying kind, and +was denied a vast amount of comfort in consequence. She stood a few +moments quivering under the lash of injustice and insult to which she +had been subjected. She longed for a breath of pure, fresh air; but +there would be no enjoyment even in that now. She needed sympathy and +help, if ever girl did, but where was she to find it? The women who most +attracted her and who would have warmly welcomed her at any time—the +women whom she would eagerly have gone to in her trouble—were +practically denied to her. Mrs. Rayner in her quarrel had declared war +against the cavalry, and Mrs. Stannard and Mrs. Ray, who had shown a +disposition to welcome Nellie warmly, were no longer callers at the +house. Mrs. Waldron, who was kind and motherly to the girl and loved to +have her with her, was so embarrassed by Mrs. Rayner's determined snubs +that she hardly knew how to treat the matter. She would no longer visit +Mrs. Rayner informally, as had been her custom, yet she wanted the girl +to come to her. If she went, Miss Travers well knew that on her return +to the house she would be received by a volley of sarcasms about her +preference for the society of people who were the avowed enemies of her +benefactors. If <a name="Page_107" id="Page_107"></a>she remained in the house, it was to become in person +the target for her sister's undeserved sneers and censure. The situation +was becoming simply unbearable. Twice she began and twice she tore to +fragments the letter for which Mr. Van Antwerp was daily imploring, and +this evening she once more turned and slowly sought her room, threw off +her wraps, and took up her writing-desk. It was not yet dark. There was +still light enough for her purpose, if she went close to the window. +Every nerve was tingling with the sense of wrong and ignominy, every +throb of her heart but intensified the longing for relief from the +thraldom of her position. She saw only one path to lead her from such +crushing dependence. There was his last letter, received only that day, +urging, imploring her to leave Warrener forthwith. Mrs. Rayner had +declared to him her readiness to bring her East provided she would fix +an early date for the wedding. Was it not a future many a girl might +envy? Was he not tender, faithful, patient, devoted as man could be? Had +he not social position and competence? Was he not high-bred, courteous, +refined,—a gentleman in all his acts and words? Why could she not love +him, and be content? There on the desk lay a little scrap of note-paper; +there lay her pen; a dozen words only were necessary. One moment she +gazed longingly, wistfully, at the far-away, darkening heights of the +Rockies, watching the last rose-tinted gleams on the snowy peaks; then +with sudden impulse she seized her pen and drew the portfolio to the +window-seat. As she did so, a soldierly figure came briskly down the +walk; a pale, clear-cut face glanced up at her casement; a quick light +of recognition and pleasure flashed in his eyes; the little forage-cap +was raised with courteous grace, though the step never slackened, and +Miss Travers felt that her cheek, too, was flushing again, as Mr. Hayne +strode rapidly by. She stood there another moment, and then—it had +grown too dark to write.</p> + +<p>When Mrs. Rayner, after calling twice from the bottom of the stairs, +finally went up into her room and impatiently pushed open the door, all +was darkness except the glimmer from the hearth:</p> + +<p>"Nellie, where are you?"</p> + +<p>"Here," answered Miss Travers, starting up from the sofa. "I think I +must have been asleep."</p> + +<p>"Your head is hot as fire," said her sister, laying her firm white hand +upon the burning forehead. "I suppose you are going to be <a name="Page_108" id="Page_108"></a>downright +ill, by way of diversion. Just understand one thing, Nellie: that doctor +does not come into my house."</p> + +<p>"What doctor?—not that I want one," asked Miss Travers, wearily.</p> + +<p>"Dr. Pease, the post surgeon, I mean. Of course you have heard how he is +mixing himself in my husband's affairs and making trouble with various +people."</p> + +<p>"I have heard nothing, Kate."</p> + +<p>"I don't wonder your friends are ashamed to tell you. Things have come +to a pretty pass, when officers are going around holding private +meetings with enlisted men!"</p> + +<p>"I hardly know the doctor at all, Kate, and cannot imagine what affairs +of your husband's he can interfere with."</p> + +<p>"It was he that put up Clancy to making the disturbance at Mr. Hayne's +last night and getting into the guard-house, and tried to prove that he +had a right to go there and that the captain had no right to arrest +him."</p> + +<p>"Was Clancy trying to see Mr. Hayne?" asked Miss Travers, quickly.</p> + +<p>"How should I know?" said her sister, pettishly. "He was drunk, and +probably didn't know what he was doing."</p> + +<p>"And Captain Rayner arrested him for—for trying to see Mr. Hayne?"</p> + +<p>"Captain Rayner arrested him for being drunk and creating a disturbance, +as it was his duty to arrest any soldier under such circumstances," +replied her sister, with majestic wrath, "and I will not tolerate it +that you should criticise his conduct."</p> + +<p>"I have made no criticism, Kate. I have simply made inquiry; but I have +learned what no one else could have made me believe."</p> + +<p>"Nellie Travers, be careful what you say, or what you insinuate. What do +you mean?"</p> + +<p>"I mean, Kate, that it is my belief that there is something at the +bottom of those stories of Clancy's strange talk when in the hospital. I +believe he thinks he knows something which would turn all suspicion from +Mr. Hayne to a totally different man. I believe that, for reasons which +I cannot fathom, you are determined Mr. Hayne shall not see him or hear +of it. It was you that sent Captain Rayner over there last night. Mrs. +Clancy came here at tattoo, and, from the time she left, you were at the +front door or window. You were the first to hear <a name="Page_109" id="Page_109"></a>her cries, and came +running in to tell the captain to go at once. Kate, <i>why</i> did you stand +there listening from the time she left the kitchen, unless you expected +to hear just what happened over there behind the company barracks?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rayner would give no answer. Anger, rage, retaliation, all in turn +were pictured on her furious face, but died away before the calm and +unconquerable gaze in her sister's eyes. For the first time in her life +Kate Rayner realized that her "baby Nell" had the stronger will of the +two. For one instant she contemplated vengeance. A torrent of invective +leaped readily to her lips. "Outrage," "ingrate," "insult," were the +first three distinguishable epithets applied to her sister or her +sister's words; then, "See if Mr. Van Antwerp will tolerate such +conduct. I'll write this very day," was the impotent threat that +followed; and finally, utterly defeated, thoroughly convinced that she +was powerless against her sister's reckless love of "fair play at any +price," she felt that her wrath was giving way to dismay, and turned and +fled, lest Nellie should see the flag of surrender on her paling cheeks.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII.</h2> + + +<p>Two nights after this, as Captain Buxton was sulkily going the rounds of +the sentries he made a discovery which greatly enlivened an otherwise +uneventful tour as officer of the day. It had been his general custom on +such occasions to take the shortest way across the parade to the +guard-house, make brief and perfunctory inspection there, then go on +down the hill to the creek valley and successively visit the sentries +around the stables. If the night were wet or cold, he went back the same +way, ignoring the sentries at the coal-and store-sheds along Prairie +Avenue. This was a sharply cold night, and very dark, but equally still. +It was between twelve and one o'clock—nearer one than twelve—as he +climbed the hill on his homeward way, and, instead of taking the short +cut, turned northward and struck for the gloomy mass of sheds dimly +discernible some forty yards from the crest. He had heard other officers +speak of the fact that Mr. Hayne's lights were burning until long after +midnight, and that, dropping in there, they had found him seated at his +desk with a green shade over his eyes, studying by the aid of two +student-lamps; "boning to be a general, probably," was the comment of +captains of Buxton's calibre, who, having grown old in the service and +in their own ignorance, were fiercely intolerant of <a name="Page_110" id="Page_110"></a>lieutenants who +strove to improve in professional reading instead of spending their time +making out the company muster-rolls and clothing-accounts, as they +should do. Buxton wanted to see for himself what the night-lights meant, +and was plunging heavily ahead through the darkness, when suddenly +brought to a stand by the sharp challenge of the sentry at the +coal-shed. He whispered the mystic countersign over the levelled bayonet +of the infantryman, swearing to himself at the regulation which puts an +officer in such a "stand-and-deliver" attitude for the time being, and +then, by way of getting square with the soldier for the sharply military +way in which his duty as sentry had been performed, the captain +proceeded to catechise him as to his orders. The soldier had been well +taught, and knew all his "responses" by rote,—far better than Buxton, +for that matter, as the latter was anything but an exemplar of +perfection in tactics or sentry duty; but this did not prevent Buxton's +snappishly telling him he was wrong in several points and contemptuously +inquiring where he had learned such trash. The soldier promptly but +respectfully responded that those were the exact instructions he had +received at the adjutant's school, and Buxton knew from experience that +he was getting on dangerous ground. He would have stuck to his point, +however, in default of something else to find fault with, but that the +crack of a whip, the crunching of hoofs, and a rattle of wheels out in +the darkness quickly diverted his attention.</p> + +<p>"What's that, sentry?" he sharply inquired.</p> + +<p>"A carriage, sir. Leastwise, I think it must be."</p> + +<p>"Why don't you know, sir? It must have been on your post."</p> + +<p>"No, sir; it was 'way off my post. It drove up to Lieutenant Hayne's +about half an hour ago."</p> + +<p>"Where'd it come from?" asked the captain, eagerly.</p> + +<p>"From town, sir, I suppose." And, leaving the sentry to his own +reflections, which, on the whole, were not complimentary to his superior +officer, Captain Buxton strode rapidly through the darkness to +Lieutenant Hayne's quarters. Bright lights were still burning within, +both on the ground-floor and in a room above. The sentries were just +beginning the call of one o'clock when he reached the gate and halted, +gazing inquisitively at the house front. Then he turned and listened to +the rattle of wheels growing faint in the distance as the team drove +away towards the prairie town. If Hayne had gone to town at that hour of +the night it was a most unusual proceeding, and he had not <a name="Page_111" id="Page_111"></a>the +colonel's permission to absent himself from the post: of that the +officer of the day was certain. Then, again, he would not have gone and +left all his lights burning. No: that vehicle, whatever it was, had +brought somebody out to see him,—somebody who proposed to remain +several hours; otherwise the carriage would not have driven away. In +confirmation of this theory, he heard voices, cheery voices, in laughing +talk, and one of them made him prick up his ears. He heard the piano +crisply trilling a response to light, skilful fingers. He longed for a +peep within, and regretted that he had dropped Mr. Hayne from the list +of his acquaintance. He recognized Hayne's shadow, presently, thrown by +the lamp upon the curtained window, and wished that his visitor would +come similarly into view. He heard the clink of glasses, and saw the +shadow raise a wineglass to the lips, and Sam's Mongolian shape flitted +across the screen, bearing a tray with similar suggestive objects. What +meant this unheard-of conviviality on the part of the ascetic, the +hermit, the midnight-oil-burner, the scholarly recluse of the garrison? +Buxton stared with all his eyes and listened with all his ears, starting +guiltily when he heard a martial footstep coming quickly up the path, +and faced the intruder rather unsteadily. It was only the corporal of +the guard, and he glanced at his superior, brought his fur-gauntleted +hand in salute to the rifle on his shoulder, and passed on. The next +moment Buxton fairly gasped with amaze: he stared an instant at the +window as though transfixed, then ran after the corporal, called to him +in low, stealthy tone to come back noiselessly, drew him by the sleeve +to the front of Hayne's quarters, and pointed to the parlor window. Two +shadows were there now,—one easily recognizable as that of the young +officer in his snugly-fitting undress uniform, the other slender, +graceful, feminine.</p> + +<p>"What do you make that other shadow to be, corporal?" he whispered, +hoarsely and hurriedly. "<i>Look!</i>" And with that exclamation a shadowed +arm seemed to encircle the slender form, the moustached image to bend +low and mingle with the outlined luxuriance of tress that decked the +other's head, and then, together, with clasping arms, the shadows moved +from view.</p> + +<p>"What was the other, corporal?" he repeated.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, I should say it was a young woman."</p> + +<p>Buxton could hardly wait until morning to see Rayner. When he passed the +latter's quarters half an hour later, all was darkness; though, had he +but known it, Rayner was not asleep. He was at the house <a name="Page_112" id="Page_112"></a>before +guard-mounting, and had a confidential and evidently exciting talk with +the captain; and when he went, just as the trumpets were sounding, these +words were heard at the front door:</p> + +<p>"She never left until after daylight, when the same rig drove her back +to town. There was a stranger with her then."</p> + +<p>That morning both Rayner and Buxton looked hard at Mr. Hayne when he +came in to the <i>matinée</i>; but he was just as calm and quiet as ever, +and, having saluted the commanding officer, took a seat by Captain Gregg +and was soon occupied in conversation with him. Not a word was said by +the officer of the day about the mysterious visitor to the garrison the +previous night. With Captain Rayner, however, he was again in +conversation much of the day, and to him, not to his successor as +officer of the day, did he communicate all the details of the previous +night's adventure and his theories thereanent.</p> + +<p>Late that night, having occasion to step to his front door, convinced +that he heard stealthy footsteps on his piazza, Mr. Hayne could see +nobody in the darkness, but found his front gate open. He walked around +his little house; but not a man was visible. His heart was full of a new +and strange excitement that night, and, as before, he threw on his +overcoat and furs and took a rapid walk around the garrison, gazing up +into the starry heavens and drinking in great draughts of the pure, +bracing air. Returning, he came down along the front of officers' row, +and as he approached Rayner's quarters his eyes rested longingly upon +the window he knew to be hers now; but all was darkness. As he rapidly +neared the house, however, he became aware of two bulky figures at the +gate, and, as he walked briskly past, recognized the overcoats as those +of officers. One man was doubtless Rayner, the other he could not tell; +for both, the instant they recognized his step, seemed to avert their +heads. Once home again, he soon sought his room and pillow; but, long +before he could sleep, again and again a sweet vision seemed to come to +him: he <i>could not</i> shut out the thought of Nellie Travers,—of how she +looked and what she said that very afternoon.</p> + +<p>He had gone to call at Mrs. Waldron's soon after dark. He was at the +piano, playing for her, when he became conscious that another lady had +entered the room, and, turning, saw Nellie Travers. He rose and bowed to +her, extending his hand as he did so, and knowing that his heart was +thumping and his color rising as he felt the soft, warm touch of her +slender fingers in his grasp. She, too, had flushed,—any one could see +it, though the lamps were not turned high, nor was the firelight strong.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113"></a>"Miss Travers has come to take tea very quietly with me, Mr. +Hayne,—she is so soon to return to the East,—and now I want you to +stay and join us. No one will be here but the major; and we will have a +lovely time with our music. You will, won't you?"</p> + +<p>"So soon to return to the East!" How harsh, how strange and unwelcome, +the words sounded! How they seemed to oppress him and prevent his reply! +He stood a moment dazed and vaguely worried: he could not explain it. He +looked from Mrs. Waldron's kind face to the sweet, flushed, lovely +features there so near him, and something told him that he could never +let them go and find even hope or content in life again. How, why had +she so strangely come into his lonely life, radiant, beautiful, +bewildering as some suddenly blazing star in the darkest corner of the +heavens? Whence had come this strange power that enthralled him? He +gazed into her sweet face, with its downcast, troubled eyes, and then, +in bewilderment, turned to Mrs. Waldron:</p> + +<p>"I—I had no idea Miss Travers was going East again just now. It seems +only a few days since she came."</p> + +<p>"It is over a month; but all the same this is a sudden decision. I knew +nothing of it until yesterday.—You said Mrs. Rayner was better to-day, +Nellie?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, a little; but she is far from well. I think the captain will go, +too, just as soon as he can arrange for leave of absence," was the +low-toned answer. He had released, or rather she had withdrawn, her +hand, and he still stood there, fascinated. His eyes could not quit +their gaze. She going away?—She? Oh, it <i>could</i> not be! What—what +would life become without the sight of that radiant face, that slender, +graceful, girlish form?</p> + +<p>"Is not this very unexpected?" he struggled to say. "I thought—I heard +you were to spend several months here."</p> + +<p>"It <i>was</i> so intended, Mr. Hayne; but my sister's health requires speedy +change. She has been growing worse ever since we came, and she will not +get well here."</p> + +<p>"And when do you go?" he asked, blankly.</p> + +<p>"Just as soon as we can pack; though we may wait two or three days for +a—for a telegram."</p> + +<p>There was a complete break in the conversation for a full quarter of a +minute,—not such a long time in itself, but unconventionally long under +such circumstances. Then Mrs. Waldron suddenly and remarkably arose:</p> + +<p><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114"></a>"I'll leave you to entertain Mr. Hayne a few moments, Nellie. I am the +slave of my cook, and she knows nothing of Mr. Hayne's being here to tea +with us: so I must tell her and avert disaster."</p> + +<p>And with this barefaced—statement on her lips and conscience, where it +rested with equal lightness, that exemplary lady quitted the room. In +the sanctity of the connubial chamber that evening, some hours later, +she thus explained her action to her silent spouse:</p> + +<p>"Right or wrong, I meant that those two young people should have a +chance to know each other. I have been convinced for three weeks that +she is being forced into this New York match, and for the last week that +she is wretchedly unhappy. You say you believe him a wronged and injured +man, only you can't prove it, and you have said that nothing could be +too good for him in this life as a reward for all his bravery and +fortitude under fearful trials. Then Nellie Travers isn't too good for +him, sweet as she is, and I don't care who calls me a matchmaker."</p> + +<p>But with Mrs. Waldron away the two appeared to have made but halting +progress towards friendship. With all her outspoken pluck at school and +at home, Miss Travers was strangely ill at ease and embarrassed now. Mr. +Hayne was the first to gain self-control and to endeavor to bring the +conversation back to a natural channel. It was a struggle; but he had +grown accustomed to struggles. He could not imagine that a girl whom he +had met only once or twice should have for him anything more than the +vaguest and most casual interest. He well knew by this time how deep and +vehement was the interest she had aroused in his heart; but it would +never do to betray himself so soon. He strove to interest her in +reference to the music she would hear, and to learn from her where they +were going. This she answered. They would go no farther East than St. +Louis or Chicago. They might go South as far as Nashville until mid-May. +As for the summer, it would depend on the captain and his leave of +absence. It was all vague and unsettled. Mrs. Rayner was so wretched +that her husband was convinced that she ought to leave for the States as +soon as possible, and of course "she" must go with her. All the +gladness, brightness, vivacity he had seen and heard of as her marked +characteristics seemed gone; and, yet, she wanted to speak with +him,—wanted to be with him. What could be wrong? he asked himself. It +was not until Mrs. Waldron's step was heard returning that she nerved +herself to sudden, almost desperate, effort. She startled him with her +vehemence:</p> + +<p><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115"></a>"Mr. Hayne, there is something I must tell you before I go. If no +opportunity occur, I'll write it."</p> + +<p>And those were the words that had been haunting him all the evening, for +they were not again alone, and he had no chance to ask a question. What +<i>could</i> she mean? For years he had been living a life of stern +self-denial; but long before his promotion the last penny of the +obligation that, justly or otherwise, had been laid upon his shoulders +was paid with interest. He was a man free and self-respecting, strong, +resolute, and possessed of an independence that never would have been +his had his life run on in the same easy, trusting, happy-go-lucky style +in which he had spent the first two years of his army career. But in his +isolation he had allowed himself no thought of anything that could for a +moment distract him from the stern purpose to which he had devoted every +energy. He would win back, command, <i>compel</i>, the respect of his +comrades,—would bring to confusion those who had sought to pull him +down; and until that stood accomplished he would know no other claim. In +the exile of the mountain-station he saw no women but the wives of his +senior officers; and they merely bowed when they happened to meet him: +some did not even do that. Now at last he had met and yielded to the +first of two conquerors before whom even the bravest and the strongest +go down infallibly,—Love and Death. Suddenly, but irresistibly, the +sweet face and thrilling tones of that young girl had seized and filled +his heart, to the utter exclusion of every other passion; and just in +proportion to the emptiness and yearning of his life before their +meeting was the intensity of the love and longing that possessed him +now. It was useless to try and analyze the suddenness and subtilty of +its approach: the power of love had overmastered him. He could only +realize that it was here and he must obey. Late into the morning hours +he lay there, his brain whirling with its varied and bewildering +emotions. Win her he must, or the blackness and desolation of the past +five years would be as nothing compared with the misery of the years to +come. Woo her he would, and not without hope, if ever woman's eyes gave +proof of sympathy and trust. But now at last he realized that the time +had come when for her sake—not for his—he must adopt a new course. +Hitherto he had scorned and repelled all overtures that were not +prefaced by an expression of belief in his utter innocence in the past. +Hitherto he had chosen to live the life of an anchorite, and had abjured +the society of women. Hitherto he had refused the half-extended proffers +of comrades who had sought <a name="Page_116" id="Page_116"></a>to continue the investigation of a chain of +circumstances that, complete, might have proved him a wronged and +defrauded man. The missing links were not beyond recovery in skilful +hands; but in the shock and horror which he felt on realizing that it +was not only possible but certain that a jury of his comrade officers +could deem him guilty of a low crime, he hid his face and turned from +all. <i>Now</i> the time had come to reopen the case. He well knew that a +revulsion of feeling had set in which nothing but his own stubbornness +held in check. He knew that he had friends and sympathizers among +officers high in rank. He had only a few days before heard from Major +Waldron's lips a strong intimation that it was his duty to "come out of +his shell" and reassert himself. "You must remember this, Hayne," said +he: "you had been only two years in service when tried by court-martial. +You were an utter stranger to every member of that court. There was +nothing but the evidence to go upon, and that was all against you. The +court was made up of officers from other regiments, and was at least +impartial. The evidence was almost all from your own, and was presumably +well founded. You would call no witnesses for defence. You made your +almost defiant statement; refused counsel; refused advice; and what +could the court do but convict and sentence? Had I been a member of the +court I would have voted just as was done by the court; and yet I +believe you now an utterly innocent man."</p> + +<p>So, apparently, did the colonel regard him. So, too, did several of the +officers of the cavalry. So, too, would most of the youngsters of his +own regiment if he would only give them half a chance. In any event, the +score was wiped out now; he could afford to take a wife if a woman +learned to love him, and what wealth of tenderness and devotion was he +not ready to lavish on one who would! But he would offer no one a +tarnished name. First and foremost he must now stand up and fight that +calumny,—"come out of his shell," as Waldron had said, and give people +a chance to see what manner of man he was. God helping him, he would, +and that without delay.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV.</h2> + + +<p>"The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley." Mrs. Rayner, +ill in mind and body, had yielded to her lord's entreaties and +determined to start eastward with her sister without delay. Packing was +already begun. Miss Travers had promised herself that she <a name="Page_117" id="Page_117"></a>would within +thirty-six hours put Mr. Hayne in possession of certain facts or +theories which in her opinion bore strongly upon the "clearing up" of +the case against him; Mr. Hayne had determined that he would see Major +Waldron on the coming day and begin active efforts towards the +restoration of his social rights; the doctor had about decided on a new +project for inducing Clancy to unbosom himself of what he knew; Captain +Rayner—tired of the long struggle—was almost ready to welcome anything +which should establish his subaltern's innocence, and was on the point +of asking for six months' leave just as soon as he had arranged for +Clancy's final discharge from service: he had reasons for staying at the +post until that Hibernian household was fairly and squarely removed; and +Mrs. Clancy's plan was to take Mike to the distant East, "where she had +frinds." There were other schemes and projects, no doubt, but these +mainly concerned our leading characters, and one and all they were put +to the right-about by the events of the following day.</p> + +<p>The colonel, with his gruff second in command, Major Stannard, had been +under orders for several days to proceed on this particular date to a +large town a day's journey eastward by rail. A court-martial composed +mainly of field-officers was ordered there to assemble for the trial of +an old captain of cavalry whose propensity it was not so much to get +drunk as never to get drunk without concomitant publicity and discovery. +It was a rare thing for the old war-dog to take so much as a glass of +wine; he went for months without it; but the instant he began to drink +he was moved to do or say something disreputable, and that was the +trouble now. He was an unlucky old trooper, who had risen from the +lowest grades, fought with credit, and even, at times, commanded his +regiment, during the war; but war records could not save him when he +wouldn't save himself, and he had to go. The court was ordered, and the +result was a foregone conclusion. The colonel, his adjutant, and Major +Stannard were to drive to town during the afternoon and take the +east-bound train, leaving Major Waldron in command of the post; but +before guard-mounting a telegram was received which was sent from +department head-quarters the evening before, announcing that one of the +officers detailed for the court was seriously ill, and directing Major +Waldron to take his place. So it resulted in the post being left to the +command of the senior captain present for duty; and that man was Captain +Buxton. He had never had so big a command before in all his life.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118"></a>Major Waldron of course had to go home and make his preparations. Mr. +Hayne, therefore, had brief opportunity to speak with him. It was seen, +however, that they had a short talk together on the major's piazza, and +that when they parted the major shook him warmly and cordially by the +hand. Rayner, Buxton, Ross, and some juniors happened to be coming down +along the walk at the moment, and, seeing them, as though with pointed +meaning the major called out, so that all could hear,—</p> + +<p>"By the way, Hayne, I wish you would drop in occasionally while I'm gone +and take Mrs. Waldron out for a walk or drive: my horses are always at +your service. And—a—I'll write to you about that matter the moment +I've had a chance to talk with the colonel,—to-morrow, probably."</p> + +<p>And Hayne touched his cap in parting salute, and went blithely off with +brightened eye and rising color.</p> + +<p>Buxton glowered after him a moment, and conversation suddenly ceased in +their party. Finally he blurted out,—</p> + +<p>"Strikes me your major might do a good deal better by himself and his +regiment by standing up for its <i>morale</i> and discipline than by openly +flaunting his favoritism for convicts in our faces. If I were in your +regiment I'd cut <i>him</i>."</p> + +<p>"You wouldn't have to," muttered one of the group to his neighbor: "the +cut would have been on the other side long ago." And the speaker was +Buxton's own subaltern.</p> + +<p>Rayner said nothing. His eyes were troubled and anxious, and he looked +after Hayne with an expression far more wearied than vindictive.</p> + +<p>"The major is fond of music, captain," said Mr. Ross, with mischievous +intent. "He hasn't been to the club since the night you sang 'Eileen +Alanna.' That was about the time Hayne's piano came."</p> + +<p>"Yes," put in Foster, "Mrs. Waldron says he goes and owls Hayne now +night after night just to hear him play."</p> + +<p>"It would be well for him, then, if he kept a better guard on Mr. +Hayne's <i>other</i> visitors," said Buxton, with a black scowl. "I don't +know how you gentlemen in the Riflers look upon such matters, but in the +----th the man who dared to introduce a woman of the town into his +quarters would be kicked out in short order."</p> + +<p>"You don't mean to say that anybody accuses Hayne of that, do you?" +asked Ross, in amaze.</p> + +<p>"I do,—<i>just</i> that. Only, I say this to you, it has but just come to +light, and only one or two know it. To prove it positively he's got to +be allowed more rope; for he got her out of the way last time before <a name="Page_119" id="Page_119"></a>we +could clinch the matter. If he suspects it is known he won't repeat it; +if kept to ourselves he will probably try it again,—and be caught. Now +I charge you all to regard this as confidential."</p> + +<p>"But, Captain Buxton," said Ross, "this is so serious a matter that I +don't like to believe it. Who can prove such a story?"</p> + +<p>"Of course not, Mr. Ross. You are quite ready to treat a man as a thief, +but can't believe he'll do another thing that is disreputable. That is +characteristic of your style of reasoning," said Buxton, with biting +sarcasm.</p> + +<p>"You can't wither me with contempt, Captain Buxton. I have a right to my +opinion, and I have known Mr. Hayne for years, and if I <i>did</i> believe +him guilty of one crime five years ago I'm not so ready to believe him +guilty of another now. This isn't—isn't like Hayne."</p> + +<p>"No, of course not, as I said before. Now, will you tell me, Mr. Ross, +just why Mr. Hayne chose that ramshackle old shanty out there on the +prairie, all by himself, unless it was to be where he could have his +chosen companions with him at night and no one be the wiser?"</p> + +<p>"I don't pretend to fathom his motives, sir; but I don't believe it was +for any such purpose as you seem to think."</p> + +<p>"In other words, you think I'm circulating baseless scandal, do you?"</p> + +<p>"I have said nothing of the kind; and I protest against your putting +words into my mouth I never used."</p> + +<p>"You intimated as much, anyhow, and you plainly don't believe it."</p> + +<p>"Well, I don't believe—that is, I don't see how it could happen."</p> + +<p>"Couldn't the woman drive out from town after dark, send the carriage +back, and have it call for her again in the morning?" asked Buxton.</p> + +<p>"Possibly. Still, it isn't a proved fact that a woman spent the night at +Hayne's, even if a carriage was seen coming out. You've got hold of some +Sudsville gossip, probably," replied Ross.</p> + +<p>"I have, have I? By God, sir, I'll teach you better manners before we +get through with this question. Do you know who saw the carriage, and +who saw the woman, both at Hayne's quarters?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly I don't! What I don't understand is how you should have been +made the recipient of the story."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Ross, just govern your tongue, sir, and remember you are speaking +to your superior officer, and don't venture to treat my statements with +disrespect hereafter. <i>I saw it myself!</i>"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120"></a>"<i>You!</i>" gulped Ross, while amaze and incredulity shot across his +startled face.</p> + +<p>"You!" exclaimed others of the group, in evident astonishment and +dismay. Rayner alone looked unchanged. It was no news to him, while to +every other man in the party it was a shock. Up to that instant the +prevailing belief had been, with Ross, that Buxton had found some +garrison gossip and was building an edifice thereon. His positive +statement, however, was too much for the most incredulous.</p> + +<p>"Now what have you to say?" he asked, in rude triumph.</p> + +<p>There was no answer for a moment; then Ross spoke:</p> + +<p>"Of course, Captain Buxton, I withdraw any expression of doubt. It never +occurred to me that you could have seen it. May I ask when and how?"</p> + +<p>"The last time I was officer of the day, sir; and Captain Rayner is my +witness as to the time. Others, whom I need not mention, saw it with me. +There is no mistake, sir. The woman was there." And Buxton stood +enjoying the effect.</p> + +<p>Ross looked white and dazed. He turned slowly away, hesitated, looked +back, then exclaimed,—</p> + +<p>"You are sure it was—it was not some one that had a right to be there?"</p> + +<p>"How could it be?" said Buxton, gruffly. "You know he has not an +acquaintance in town, or here, who could be with him there at night."</p> + +<p>"Does the commanding officer know of it?" asked Mr. Royce, after a +moment's silence.</p> + +<p>"<i>I</i> am the commanding officer, Mr. Royce," said Buxton, with majestic +dignity,—"at least I will be after twelve o'clock; and you may depend +upon it, gentlemen, this thing will not occur while I am in command +without its receiving the exact treatment it deserves. Remember, now, +not a word of this to anybody. You are as much interested as I am in +bringing to justice a man who will disgrace his uniform and his regiment +and insult every lady in the garrison by such an act. This sort of thing +of course will run him out of the service for good and all. We simply +have to be sure of our ground and make the evidence conclusive. Leave +that to me the next time it happens. I repeat, say nothing of this to +any one."</p> + +<p>But Rayner had already told his wife.</p> + +<p>Just as Major Waldron was driving off to the station that bright<a name="Page_121" id="Page_121"></a> April +afternoon and his carriage was whirling through the east gate, the +driver caught sight of Lieutenant Hayne running up Prairie Avenue, +waving his hand and shouting to him. He reined in his spirited bays with +some difficulty, and Hayne finally caught up with them.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Hayne?" asked Waldron, with kindly interest, leaning out of +his carriage.</p> + +<p>"They will be back to-night, sir. Here is a telegram that has just +reached me."</p> + +<p>"I can't tell you how sorry I am not to be here to welcome them; but +Mrs. Waldron will be delighted, and she will come to call the moment you +let her know. Keep them till I get back, if you possibly can."</p> + +<p>"Ay, ay, sir. Good-by."</p> + +<p>"Good-by, Hayne. God bless you, and—good luck!"</p> + +<p>A little later that afternoon Mrs. Rayner had occasion to go into her +sister's room. It was almost sunset, and Nellie had been summoned +down-stairs to see visitors. Both the ladies were busy with their +packing,—Mrs. Rayner, as became an invalid, superintending, and Miss +Travers, as became the junior, doing all the work. It was rather trying +to pack all the trunks and receive visitors of both sexes at odd hours. +Some of her garrison acquaintances would have been glad to come and +help, but those whom she would have welcomed were not agreeable to the +lady of the house, and those the lady of the house would have chosen +were not agreeable to her. The relations between the sisters were +somewhat strained and unnatural, and had been growing more and more so +for several days past. Mrs. Rayner's desk was already packed away. She +wanted to send a note, and bethought her of her sister's portfolio. +Opening it, she drew out some paper and envelopes, and with the latter +came an envelope sealed and directed. One glance at its superscription +sent the blood to her cheek and fire to her eye. Was it possible? Was it +credible? Her pet, her baby sister, her pride and delight,—until she +found her stronger in will,—her proud-spirited, truthful Nell, was +beyond question corresponding with Lieutenant Hayne! Here was a note +addressed to him. How many more might not have been exchanged? +Ruthlessly now she explored the desk, searching for something from him, +but her scrutiny was vain. Oh, what could she say, what could she do, to +convey to her erring sister an adequate sense of the extent of her +displeasure? How could she bring her to realize the shame, the guilt, +the scandal, of her course?<a name="Page_122" id="Page_122"></a> She, Nellie Travers, the betrothed wife of +Steven Van Antwerp, corresponding secretly with this—this scoundrel, +whose past, crime-laden as it had been, was as nothing compared to the +present with its degradation of vice? Ah! she had it! What would ever +move her as that could and must?</p> + +<p>When the trumpets rang out their sunset call and the boom of the evening +gun shook the windows in Fort Warrener and Nellie Travers came running +up-stairs again to her room, she started at the sight that met her eyes. +There stood Mrs. Rayner, like Juno in wrath inflexible, glaring at her +from the commanding height of which she was so proud, and pointing in +speechless indignation at the little note that lay upon the open +portfolio.</p> + +<p>For a moment neither spoke. Then Miss Travers, who had turned very +white, but whose blue eyes never flinched and whose lips were set and +whose little foot was tapping the carpet ominously, thus began:</p> + +<p>"Kate, I do not recognize your right to overhaul my desk or supervise my +correspondence."</p> + +<p>"Understand this first, Cornelia," said Mrs. Rayner, who hated the +baptismal name as much as did her sister, and used it only when she +desired to be especially and desperately impressive: "I found it by +accident. I never dreamed of such a possibility as this. I never, even +after what I have seen and heard, could have believed you guilty of +this; but, now that I have found it, I have the right to ask, what are +its contents?"</p> + +<p>"I decline to tell you."</p> + +<p>"Do you deny my right to inquire?"</p> + +<p>"I will not discuss that question now. The other is far graver. I will +not tell you, Kate, except this: there is no word there that an engaged +girl should not write."</p> + +<p>"Of that I mean to satisfy myself, or rather—"</p> + +<p>"You will not open it, Kate. No! Put that letter down! You have never +known me to prevaricate in the faintest degree, and you have no excuse +for doubting. I will furnish a copy of that for Mr. Van Antwerp at any +time; but you cannot see it."</p> + +<p>"You still persist in your wicked and unnatural intimacy with that man, +even after all that I have told you. Now for the last time hear me: I +have striven not to tell you this; I have striven not to sully your +thoughts by such a revelation; but, since nothing else will check you, +tell it I must, and what I tell you my husband told me in sacred +<a name="Page_123" id="Page_123"></a>confidence, though soon enough it will be a scandal to the whole +garrison."</p> + +<p>And when darkness settled down on Fort Warrener that starlit April +evening and the first warm breeze from the south came sighing about the +casements and one by one the lights appeared along officers' row, there +was no light in Nellie Travers's window. The little note lay in ashes on +the hearth, and she, with burning, shame-stricken cheeks, with a black, +scorching, gnawing pain at her heart, was hiding her face in her pillow.</p> + +<p>And yet it was a jolly evening, after all,—that is, for some hours and +for some people. As Mrs. Rayner and her sister were so soon to go, +probably by the morrow's train if their section could be secured, the +garrison had decided to have an informal dance as a suitable farewell. +Their announcement of impending departure had come so suddenly and +unexpectedly that there was no time to prepare anything elaborate, such +as a german with favors, etc.; but good music and an extemporized supper +could be had without trouble. The colonel's wife and most of the cavalry +ladies, on consultation, had decided that it was the very thing to do, +and the young officers took hold with a will: they were always ready for +a dance. Now that Mrs. Rayner was really going, the quarrel should be +ignored, and the ladies would all be as pleasant to her as though +nothing had happened,—provided, of course, she dropped her absurd airs +of injured womanhood and behaved with courtesy. The colonel had had a +brief talk with his better half before starting for the train, and +suggested that it was very probable that Mrs. Rayner had seen the folly +of her ways by that time,—the captain certainly had been behaving as +though he regretted the estrangement,—and if encouraged by a +"let's-drop-the-whole-thing" sort of manner she would be glad to +reciprocate. He felt far less anxiety herein than he did in leaving the +post to the command of Captain Buxton. So scrupulously had he been +courteous to that intractable veteran that Buxton had no doubt in his +own mind that the colonel looked upon him as the model officer of the +regiment. It was singularly unfortunate that he should have to be left +in command, but his one or two seniors among the captains were away on +long leave, and there was no help for it. The colonel, seriously +disquieted, had a few words of earnest talk with him before leaving the +post, cautioning him so particularly not to interfere with any of the +established details and customs that Buxton got very much annoyed, and +showed it.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124"></a>"If your evidence were not imperatively necessary before this court, I +declare I believe I'd leave you behind," said the colonel to his +adjutant. "There is no telling what mischief Captain Buxton won't do if +left to himself."</p> + +<p>It must have been near midnight, and the hop was going along +beautifully, and Captain Rayner, who was officer of the day, was just +escorting his wife in to supper, and Nellie, although looking a trifle +tired and pale, was chatting brightly with a knot of young officers when +a corporal of the guard came to the door: "The commanding officer's +compliments, and he desires to see the officer of the day at once."</p> + +<p>There was a general laugh. "Isn't that Buxton all over? The colonel +would never think of sending for an officer in the dead of night, except +for a fire or alarm; but old Bux. begins putting on frills the moment he +gets a chance. Thank God, <i>I'm</i> not on guard to-night!" said Mr. Royce.</p> + +<p>"What <i>can</i> he want with you?" asked Mrs. Rayner, pettishly. "The idea +of one captain ordering another around like this!"</p> + +<p>"I'll be back in five minutes," said Rayner, as he picked up his sword +and disappeared.</p> + +<p>But ten minutes—fifteen—passed, and he came not. Mrs. Rayner grew +worried, and Mr. Blake led her out on the rude piazza to see what they +could see, and several others strolled out at the same time. The music +had ceased, and the night air was not too cold. Not a soul was in sight +out on the starlit parade. Not an unusual sound was heard. There was +nothing to indicate the faintest trouble; and yet Captain Buxton, the +commanding officer, had been called out by his "striker" or +soldier-servant before eleven o'clock, had not returned at all, and in +little over half an hour had sent for the officer of the day. What did +it mean? Questioning and talking thus among themselves, somebody said, +"Hark!" and held up a warning hand.</p> + +<p>Faint, far, muffled, there sounded on the night air a shot, then a +woman's scream; then all was still.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Clancy again!" said one.</p> + +<p>"That was not Mrs. Clancy: 'twas a far different voice," answered Blake, +and tore away across the parade as fast as his long legs would carry +him.</p> + +<p>"Look! The guard are running too!" cried Mrs. Waldron. "What can it be?" +And, sure enough, the gleam of the rifles could be seen <a name="Page_125" id="Page_125"></a>as the men ran +rapidly away in the direction of the east gate. Mrs. Rayner had grown +ghastly, and was looking at Miss Travers, who with white lips and +clinched hands stood leaning on one of the wooden posts and gazing with +all her eyes across the dim level. Others came hurrying out from the +hall. Other young officers ran in pursuit of the first starters. "What's +the matter? What's happened?" were the questions that flew from lip to +lip.</p> + +<p>"I—I must go home," faltered Mrs. Rayner. "Come, Nellie!"</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't go, Mrs. Rayner. It can't be anything serious."</p> + +<p>But, even as they urged, a man came running towards them.</p> + +<p>"Is the doctor here?" he panted.</p> + +<p>"Yes. What's the trouble?" asked Dr. Pease, as he squeezed his burly +form through the crowded door-way.</p> + +<p>"You're wanted, sir. Loot'nant Hayne's shot; an' Captain Rayner he's +hurt too, sir."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XV" id="XV"></a>XV.</h2> + + +<p>Straight as an arrow Mr. Blake had sped across the parade, darted +through the east gate, and, turning, had arrived breathless at the +wooden porch of Hayne's quarters. Two bewildered-looking members of the +guard were at the door. Blake pushed his way through the little hall-way +and into the dimly-lighted parlor, where a strange scene met his eyes: +Lieutenant Hayne lay senseless and white upon the lounge across the +room; a young and pretty woman, singularly like him in feature and in +the color of her abundant tresses, was kneeling beside him, chafing his +hands, imploring him to speak,—to look at her,—unmindful of the fact +that her feet were bare and that only a loose wrapper was thrown over +her white night-dress; Captain Rayner was seated in a chair, deathly +white, and striving to stanch the blood that flowed from a deep gash in +his temple and forehead; he seemed still stunned as by the force of the +blow that had felled him; and Buxton, speechless with amaze and heaven +only knows what other emotions, was glaring at a tall, athletic stranger +who, in stocking-feet, undershirt, and trousers, held by three +frightened-looking soldiers and covered by the carbine of a fourth, was +hurling defiance and denunciation at the commanding officer. A revolver +lay upon the floor at the feet of a corporal of the guard, who was +groaning in pain. A thin veil of powder-smoke floated through the room. +As Blake leaped in,—his cavalry shoulder-knots and helmet-cords +gleaming in the light,—a flash of recognition shot into the stranger's +<a name="Page_126" id="Page_126"></a>eyes, and he curbed his fearful excitement and stopped short in his +wrath.</p> + +<p>"What devil's work is this?" demanded Blake, glaring intuitively at +Buxton.</p> + +<p>"These people resisted my guards, and had to take the consequences," +said Buxton, with surly—yet shaken—dignity.</p> + +<p>"What were the guards doing here? What, in God's name, are you doing +here?" demanded Blake, forgetful of all consideration of rank and +command in the face of such evident catastrophe.</p> + +<p>"I <i>ordered</i> them here,—to enter and search."</p> + +<p>A pause.</p> + +<p>"Search what?—what for?"</p> + +<p>"For—a woman I had reason to believe he had brought out here from +town."</p> + +<p>"<i>What?</i> You infernal idiot! Why, she's his own sister, and this +gentleman's wife!"</p> + +<p>The silence, broken only by the hard breathing of some of the excited +men and the moaning cry of the woman, was for a moment intense.</p> + +<p>"Isn't this Mr. Hurley?" asked Blake, suddenly, as though to make sure, +and turning one instant from his furious glare at his superior officer. +The stranger, still held, though no longer struggling, replied between +his set teeth,—</p> + +<p>"Certainly. I've told him so."</p> + +<p>"By heaven, Buxton, is there no limit to your asininity? What fearful +work will you do next?"</p> + +<p>"I'll arrest <i>you</i>, sir, if you speak another disrespectful word!" +thundered Buxton, recovering consciousness that as commanding officer he +could defend himself against Blake's assault.</p> + +<p>"Do it and be—— you know what I <i>would</i> say if a lady were not +present! Do it, if you think you can stand having this thing ventilated +by a court. Pah! I can't waste words on you. Who's gone for the doctor? +Here, you men, let go of Mr. Hurley now. Help me, Mr. Hurley, please. +Get your wife back to her room. Bring me some water, one of you." And +with that he was bending over Hayne and unbuttoning the fatigue-uniform +in which he was still dressed. Another moment, and the doctor had come +in, and with him half the young officers of the garrison. Rayner was led +away to his own quarters. Buxton, dazed and frightened now, ordered the +guards back to their post, and stood pondering over the enormity of his +blunder. No one <a name="Page_127" id="Page_127"></a>spoke to him or paid the faintest attention other than +to elbow him out of the way occasionally. The doctor never so much as +noticed him. Blake had briefly recounted the catastrophe to those who +first arrived, and as the story went from mouth to mouth it grew no +better for Buxton. Once he turned short on Mr. Foster and in aggrieved +and sullen tone remarked,—</p> + +<p>"I thought you fellows in the Riflers said he had no relations."</p> + +<p>"We weren't apt to be invited to meet them if he had; but I don't know +that anybody was in position to know anything about it. What's that got +to do with this affair, I'd like to hear?"</p> + +<p>At last somebody took him home. Mrs. Waldron, meantime, had arrived and +been admitted to Mrs. Hurley's room. The doctor refused to go to Captain +Rayner's, even when a messenger came from Mrs. Rayner herself. He +referred her to his assistant, Dr. Grimes. Hayne had regained +consciousness, but was sorely shaken. He had been floored by a blow from +the butt of a musket; but the report that he was shot proved happily +untrue. His right hand still lay near the hilt of his light sword: there +was little question that he had raised his weapon against a superior +officer and would have used it with telling effect.</p> + +<p>Few people slept that night along officers' row. Never had Warrener +heard of such excitement. Buxton knew not what to do. He paced the floor +in agony of mind, for he well understood that there was no shirking the +responsibility. From beginning to end he was the cause of the whole +catastrophe. He had gone so far as to order his corporal to fire, and he +knew it could be proved against him. Thank God, the perplexed corporal +had shot high, and the other men, barring the one who had saved Rayner +from a furious lunge of the lieutenant's sword, had used their weapons +as gingerly and reluctantly as possible. At the very least, he knew, an +investigation and fearful scandal must come of it. Night though it was, +he sent for the acting adjutant and several of his brother captains, +and, setting refreshments before them, besought their advice. He was +still commanding officer <i>de jure</i>, but he had lost all stomach for its +functions. He would have been glad to send for Blake and beg his pardon +for submitting to his insubordinate and abusive language, if that course +could have stopped inquiry; but he well knew that the whole thing would +be noised abroad in less than no time. At first he thought to give +orders against the telegraph-operator's sending any messages concerning +the matter; but that would have been only a temporary hinderance: he +could not control the instruments and operators <a name="Page_128" id="Page_128"></a>in town, only three +miles away. He almost wished he had been knocked down, shot, or stabbed +in the <i>mêlée</i>; but he had kept in the rear when the skirmish began, and +Rayner and the corporal were the sufferers. They had been knocked +"endwise" by Mr. Hurley's practised fists after Hayne was struck down by +the corporal's musket. It was the universal sentiment among the officers +of the ——th as they scattered to their homes that Buxton had "wound +himself up this time, anyhow;" and no one had any sympathy for him,—not +one. The very best light in which he could tell the story only showed +the affair as a flagrant and inexcusable outrage.</p> + +<p>Captain Rayner, too, was in fearful plight. He had simply obeyed orders; +but all the old story of his persecution of Hayne would now be revived; +all men would see in his participation in the affair only additional +reason to adjudge him cruelly persistent in his hatred of the young +officer, and, in view of the utter ruthlessness and wrong of this +assault, would be more than ever confident of the falsity of his +position in the original case. As he was slowly led up-stairs to his +room and his tearful wife and silent sister-in-law bathed and cleansed +his wound, he saw with frightful clearness how the crush of +circumstances was now upon him and his good name. Great heaven! how +those words of Hayne's five years before rang, throbbed, burned, beat +like trip-hammers through his whirling brain! It seemed as though they +followed him and his fortunes like a curse. He sat silent, stunned, +awe-stricken at the force of the calamity that had befallen him. How +could he ever induce an officer and a gentleman to believe that he was +no instigator in this matter?—that it was all Buxton's doing, Buxton's +low imagination that had conceived the possibility of such a crime on +the part of Mr. Hayne, and Buxton's blundering, bull-headed abuse of +authority that had capped the fatal climax? It was some time before his +wife could get him to speak at all. She was hysterically bemoaning the +fate that had brought them into contact with such people, and from time +to time giving vent to the comforting assertion that never had there +been a cloud on their domestic or regimental sky until that wretch had +been assigned to the Riflers. She knew from the hurried and guarded +explanations of Dr. Grimes and one or two young officers who helped +Rayner home that the fracas had occurred at Mr. Hayne's,—that there had +been a mistake for which her husband was not responsible, but that +Captain Buxton was entirely to blame. But her husband's ashen face told +her a story of something far deeper: she knew that now he was <a name="Page_129" id="Page_129"></a>involved +in fearful trouble, and, whatever may have been her innermost thoughts, +it was the first and irresistible impulse to throw all the blame upon +her scapegoat. Miss Travers, almost as pale and quite as silent as the +captain, was busying herself in helping her sister; but she could with +difficulty restrain her longing to bid her be silent. She, too, had +endeavored to learn from her escort on their hurried homeward rush +across the parade what the nature of the disturbance had been. She, too, +had suggested Clancy, but the officer by her side set his teeth as he +replied that he wished it had been Clancy. She had heard, too, the +message brought by a cavalry trumpeter from Mr. Blake: he wanted Captain +Ray to come to Mr. Hayne's as soon as he had seen Mrs. Ray safely home, +and would he please ask Mrs. Stannard to come with him at the same time? +Why should Mr. Blake want Mrs. Stannard at Mr. Hayne's? She saw Mr. +Foster run up and speak a few words to Mrs. Waldron, and heard that lady +reply, "Certainly. I will go with you now." What could it mean? At last, +as she was returning to her sister's room after a moment's absence, she +heard a question at which her heart stood still. It was Mrs. Rayner who +asked,—</p> + +<p>"But the creature was there, was she not?"</p> + +<p>The answer sounded more like a moan of anguish:</p> + +<p>"The creature was his sister. It was her husband who—"</p> + +<p>But, as Captain Rayner buried his battered face in his hands at this +juncture, the rest of the sentence was inaudible. Miss Travers had heard +quite enough, however. She stood there one moment, appalled, dropped +upon the floor the bandage she had been making, turned and sought her +room, and was seen no more that night.</p> + +<p>Over the day or two that followed this affair the veil of silence may +best be drawn, in order to give time for the sediment of truth to settle +through the whirlpool of stories in violent circulation. The colonel +came back on the first train after the adjournment of the court, and +could hardly wait for that formality. Contrary to his custom of +"sleeping on" a question, he was in his office within half an hour after +his return to the post, and from that time until near tattoo was busily +occupied taking the statements of the active participants in the affair. +This was three days after its occurrence; and Captain Rayner, though up +and able to be about, had not left his quarters. Mrs. Rayner had +abandoned her trip to the East, for the present at least. Mr. Hayne +still lay weak and prostrate in his darkened room, attended hourly by +Dr. Pease, who feared brain-fever, and nursed assiduously <a name="Page_130" id="Page_130"></a>by Mrs. +Hurley, for whom Mrs. Waldron, Mrs. Stannard, and many other ladies in +the garrison could not do enough to content themselves. Mr. Hurley's +wrist was badly sprained and in a sling; but the colonel went purposely +to call upon him and to shake his other hand, and he begged to be +permitted to see Mrs. Hurley, who came in pale and soft-eyed and with a +gentle demeanor that touched the colonel more than he could tell. Her +cheek flushed for a moment as he bent low over her hand and told her how +bitterly he regretted that his absence from the post had resulted in so +grievous an experience: it was not the welcome he and his regiment would +have given her had they known of her intended visit. To Mr. Hurley he +briefly said that he need not fear but that full justice would be meted +out to the instigator or instigators of the assault; but, as a something +to make partial amends for their suffering, he said that nothing now +could check the turn of the tide in their brother's favor. All the +cavalry officers except Buxton, all the infantry officers except Rayner, +had already been to call upon him since the night of the occurrence, and +had striven to show how distressed they were over the outrageous +blunders of their temporary commander. Buxton had written a note +expressive of a desire to see him and "explain," but was informed that +explanations from him simply aggravated the injury; and Rayner, crushed +and humiliated, was fairly in hiding in his room, too sick at heart to +want to see anybody, and waiting for the action of the authorities in +the confident expectation that nothing less than court-martial and +disgrace would be his share of the outcome. He would gladly have +resigned and gone at once, but that would have been resigning under +virtual charges: he <i>had</i> to stay, and his wife had to stay with him, +and Nellie with her. By this time Nellie Travers did not want to go. She +had but one thought now,—to make amends to Mr. Hayne for the wrong her +thoughts had done him. It was time for Mr. Van Antwerp to come to the +wide West and look after his interests; but Mrs. Rayner had ceased to +urge, while he continued to implore her to bring Nellie East at once. +Almost any man as rich and independent as Steven Van Antwerp would have +gone to the scene and settled matters for himself. Singularly enough, +this one solution of the problem seemed never to occur to him as +feasible.</p> + +<p>Meantime, the colonel had patiently unravelled the threads and had +brought to light the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It made a +singularly simple story, after all but that was so much the worse for<a name="Page_131" id="Page_131"></a> +Buxton. The only near relation Mr. Hayne had in the world was this one +younger sister, who six years before had married a manly, energetic +fellow, a civil engineer in the employ of an Eastern railway. During +Hayne's "mountain-station" exile Hurley had brought his wife to Denver, +where far better prospects awaited him. He won promotion in his +profession, and was now one of the principal engineers employed by a +road running new lines through the Colorado Rockies. Journeying to Salt +Lake, he came around by way of Warrener, so that his wife and he might +have a look at the brother she had not seen in years. Their train was +due there early in the afternoon, but was blocked by drifts and did not +reach the station until late at night. There they found a note from him +begging them to take a carriage they would find waiting for them and +come right out and spend the night at his quarters: he would send them +back in abundant time to catch the westward train in the morning. He +could not come in, because that involved the necessity of asking his +captain's permission, and they knew his relations with that captain. It +was her shadow Buxton had seen on the window-screen; and as none of +Buxton's acquaintances had ever mentioned that Hayne had any relations, +and as Hayne, in fact, had had no one for years to talk to about his +personal affairs, nobody but himself and the telegraph-operator at the +post really knew of their sudden visit. Buxton, being an unmitigated +cad, had put the worst interpretation on his discovery, and, in his +eagerness to clinch the evidence of conduct unbecoming an officer and a +gentleman upon Mr. Hayne, had taken no wise head into his confidence. +Never dreaming that the shadow could be that of a blood-relation, never +doubting that a fair, frail companion from the frontier town was the +explanation of Mr. Hayne's preference for that out-of-the way house and +late hours, he stated his discovery to Rayner as a positive fact, going +so far as to say that his sentries had recognized her as she drove away +in the carriage. If he had not been an ass as well as a cad, he would +have interviewed the driver of the carriage; but he had jumped at his +theory, and his sudden elevation to the command of the post gave him +opportunity to carry out his virtuous determination that no such +goings-on should disgrace his administration. He gave instructions to +certain soldier clerks and "daily-duty" men employed in the +quartermaster, commissary, and ordnance offices along Prairie Avenue to +keep their eyes open and let him know of any visitors coming out to +Hayne's by night, and if a lady came in a carriage he was to be called +at once. Mr. Hurley promised that on their return <a name="Page_132" id="Page_132"></a>from Salt Lake they +would come back by way of Warrener and spend two days with Hayne, since +only an hour or two had they enjoyed of his company on their way West; +and the very day that the officers went off to the court came the +telegram saying the Hurleys would arrive that evening. Hayne had already +talked over their prospective visit with Major Waldron, and the latter +had told his wife; but all intercourse of a friendly character was at an +end between them and the Rayners and Buxtons; there were no more gossipy +chats among the ladies. Indeed, it so happened that only to one or two +people had Mrs. Waldron had time to mention that Mr. Hayne's sister was +coming, and neither the Rayners nor Buxtons had heard of it; neither had +Nellie Travers, for it was after the evening of her last visit that Mrs. +Waldron was told.</p> + +<p>Hayne ran with his telegram to the major, and the latter had introduced +himself and Major Stannard to Mrs. Hurley when, after a weary wait of +some hours, the train arrived. Blake, too, was there, on the lookout for +some friends, and he was presented to Mrs. Hurley while her husband was +attending to some matters about the baggage. The train went on eastward, +carrying the field-officers with it. Blake had to go with his friends +back to the post, and Mr. and Mrs. Hurley, after the former had attended +to some business and seen some railway associates of his at the hotel, +took the carriage they had had before and drove out to the garrison, +where Private Schweinkopf saw the lady rapturously welcomed by +Lieutenant Hayne and escorted into the house, while Mr. Hurley remained +settling with the driver out in the darkness. It was not long before the +commanding officer <i>pro tem</i>, was called from the hop-room, where the +dance was going on delightfully, and notified that the mysterious +visitor had again appeared, with evident intention of spending the +night, as the carriage had returned to town. "Why, certainly," reasoned +Buxton. "It's the very night he would choose, since everybody will be at +the hop: no one will be apt to interfere, and everybody will be +unusually drowsy and less inclined to take notice in the morning." Here +was ample opportunity for a brilliant stroke of work. He would first +satisfy himself she was there, then surround the house with sentries so +that she could not escape, while he, with the officer of the day and the +corporal of the guard, entered the house and confronted him and her. +<i>That</i> would wind up Mr. Hayne's career beyond question: nothing short +of dismissal could result. Over he went, full of his project, listened +at Hayne's like the eaves-dropping sneak he was, saw again the shadow of +the graceful form <a name="Page_133" id="Page_133"></a>and heard the silvery, happy laugh, and then it was +he sent for Rayner. It was near midnight when he led his forces to the +attack. A light was now burning in the second story, which he thought +must be Sam's; but the lights had been turned low in the parlor, and the +occupants had disappeared from sight and hearing. By inquiry he had +ascertained that Hayne's bedroom was just back of the parlor. A man was +stationed at the back door, others at the sides, with orders to arrest +any one who attempted to escape; then softly he stepped to the front +door, telling Rayner to follow him, and the corporal of the guard to +follow both. To his surprise, the door was unlocked, and a light was +burning in the hall. Never knocking, he stepped in, marched through the +hall into the parlor, which was empty, and, signalling "Come on" to his +followers, crossed the parlor and seized the knob of the bedroom door. +It was locked. Rayner, looking white and worried, stood just behind him, +and the corporal but a step farther back. Before Buxton could knock and +demand admission, which was his intention, quick footsteps came flying +down the stairs from the second story, and the trio wheeled about in +surprise, to find Mr. Hayne, dressed in his fatigue uniform, standing at +the threshold and staring at them with mingled astonishment, +incredulity, and indignation. A sudden light seemed to dawn upon him as +he glanced from one to the other. With a leap like a cat he threw +himself upon Buxton, hurled him back, and stood at the closed door +confronting them with blazing eyes and clinching fists.</p> + +<p>"Open that door, sir!" cried Buxton. "You have a woman hidden there. +Open, or stand aside."</p> + +<p>"You hounds! I'll kill the first man who dares enter!" was the furious +answer; and Hayne had snatched from the wall his long infantry sword and +flashed the blade in the lamplight. Rayner made a step forward, half +irresolute. Hayne leaped at him like a tiger. "Fire! Quick!" shouted +Buxton, in wild excitement. Bang! went the carbine, and the bullet +crashed through the plaster overhead, and, seeing the gleaming steel at +his superior's throat, the corporal had sent the heavy butt crashing +upon the lieutenant's skull only just in time: there would have been +murder in another second. The next instant he was standing on his own +head in the corner, seeing a multitude of twinkling, whirling stars, +from the midst of which Captain Rayner was reeling backward over a chair +and a number of soldiers were rush<a name="Page_134" id="Page_134"></a>ing upon a powerful picture of +furious manhood,—a stranger in shirt-sleeves, who had leaped from the +bedroom.</p> + +<p>Told as it was—as it had to be—all over the department, there seemed +but one thing to say, and that referred to Buxton: "Well! <i>isn't</i> he a +phenomenal ass?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a>XVI.</h2> + + +<p>Mr. Hayne was up and around again. The springtime was coming, and the +prairie roads were good and dry, and the doctor had told him he must +live in the open air awhile and ride and walk and drive. He stood in no +want of "mounts," for three or four of his cavalry friends were ready to +lend him a saddle-horse any day. Mr. and Mrs. Hurley, after making many +pleasant acquaintances, had gone on to Denver, and Captain Buxton was +congratulating himself that he, at least, had not run foul of the +engineer's powerful fists. Buxton was not in arrest, for the case had +proved a singular "poser." It occurred during the temporary absence of +the colonel: <i>he</i> could not well place the captain under arrest for +things he had done when acting as post commander. In obedience to his +orders from department head-quarters, he made his report of the affair, +and indicated that Captain Buxton's conduct had been inexcusable. Rayner +had done nothing but, as was proved, reluctantly obey the captain's +orders, so he could not be tried. Hayne, who had committed one of the +most serious crimes in the military catalogue,—that of drawing and +raising a weapon against an officer who was in discharge of his duty +(Rayner),—had the sympathy of the whole command, and nobody would +prefer charges against him. The general decided to have the report go up +to division head-quarters, and thence it went with its varied comments +and endorsements to Washington: and now a court of inquiry was talked +of. Meantime, poor bewildered Buxton was let severely alone. What made +him utterly miserable was the fact that in his own regiment, the ——th, +nobody spoke of it except as something that everybody knew was sure to +happen the moment he got in command. If it hadn't been that 'twould have +been something else. The only certainty was that Buxton would never lose +a chance of making an ass of himself. Instead of being furious with him, +the whole regiment—officers and men—simply ridiculed and laughed at +him. He had talked of preferring charges against Blake for +insubordination, and asked the adjutant what he thought of it. It was +the first <a name="Page_135" id="Page_135"></a>time he had spoken to the adjutant for weeks, and the +adjutant rushed out of the office to tell the crowd to come in and "hear +Buxton's latest." It began to look as though nothing serious would ever +come of the affair, until Rayner reappeared and people saw how very ill +he was. Dr. Pease had been consulted; and it was settled that he as well +as his wife must go away for several months and have complete rest and +change. It was decided that they would leave by the 1st of May. All this +Mr. Hayne heard through his kind friend Mrs. Waldron.</p> + +<p>One day when he first began to sit up, and before he had been out at +all, she came and sat with him in his sunshiny parlor. There had been a +silence for a moment as she looked around upon the few pictures and upon +that bareness and coldness which, do what he will, no man can eradicate +from his abiding-place until he calls in the deft and dainty hand of +woman.</p> + +<p>"I shall be so glad when you have a wife, Mr. Hayne!" was her quiet +comment.</p> + +<p>"So shall I, Mrs. Waldron," was the response.</p> + +<p>"And isn't it high time we were beginning to hear of a choice? Forgive +my intrusiveness, but that was the very matter of which the major and I +were talking as he brought me over."</p> + +<p>"There is something to be done first, Mrs. Waldron," he answered. "I +cannot offer any woman a clouded name. It is not enough that people +should begin to believe that I was innocent and my persecutors utterly +in error, if not perjured. I must be able to show who was the real +culprit, and that is not easy. The doctor and I thought we saw a way not +long ago; but it proved delusive." And he sighed deeply. "I had expected +to see the major about it the very day he got back from the court; but +we have had no chance to talk."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Hayne," she said, impulsively, "a woman's intuition is not always +at fault. Tell me if you believe that any one on the post has any +inkling of the truth. I have a reason for asking."</p> + +<p>"I <i>did</i> think it possible, Mrs. Waldron. I cannot be certain now; and +it's too late, anyway."</p> + +<p>"How, too late? What's too late?"</p> + +<p>He paused a moment, a deeper shadow than usual on his face; then he +lifted his head and looked fairly at her:</p> + +<p>"I should not have said that, Mrs. Waldron. It can never be too late. +But what I mean is that—just now I spoke of offering no woman <a name="Page_136" id="Page_136"></a>a +clouded name. Even if it were unclouded, I could not offer it where I +would."</p> + +<p>"Because you have heard of the engagement?" was the quick, eager +question. There was no instant of doubt in the woman as to where the +offering would be made, if it only could.</p> + +<p>"I knew of the engagement only a day ago," he answered, with stern +effort at self-control. "Blake was speaking of her, and it came out all +of a sudden."</p> + +<p>He turned his head away again. It was more than Mrs. Waldron could +stand. She leaned impetuously towards him, and put her hand on his:</p> + +<p>"Mr. Hayne, that is no engagement of heart to heart. It is entirely a +thing of Mrs. Rayner's doing; and I <i>know</i> it. She is +poor,—dependent,—and has been simply sold into bondage."</p> + +<p>"And you think she cares nothing for the position, the wealth and social +advantages, this would give her? Ah, Mrs. Waldron, consider."</p> + +<p>"I <i>have</i> considered. Mr. Hayne, if I were a man, like you, that child +should never go back to him. And they are going next week. You <i>must</i> +get well."</p> + +<p>It was remarked that Mr. Hayne was out surprisingly quick for a fellow +who had been so recently threatened with brain-fever. The Rayners were +to go East at once, so it was said, though the captain's leave of +absence had not yet been ordered. The colonel could grant him seven days +at any time, and he had telegraphic notification that there would be no +objection when the formal application reached the War Department. Rayner +called at the colonel's office and asked that he might be permitted to +start with his wife and sister. His second lieutenant would move in and +occupy his quarters and take care of all his personal effects during +their absence; and Lieutenant Hayne was a most thorough officer, and he +felt that in turning over his company to him he left it in excellent +hands. The colonel saw the misery in the captain's face, and he was +touched by both looks and words:</p> + +<p>"You must not take this last affair too much to heart, Captain Rayner. +We in the ——th have known Captain Buxton so many years that with us +there is no question as to where all the blame lies. It seems, too, to +be clearly understood by Mr. Hayne. As for your previous ideas of that +officer, I consider it too delicate a matter to speak of. You must see, +however, how entirely beyond reproach his general character appears to +have been. But here's another matter:<a name="Page_137" id="Page_137"></a> Clancy's discharge has arrived. +Does the old fellow know you had requested it?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir," answered Rayner, with hesitation and embarrassment. "We +wanted to keep him straight, as I told you we would, and he would +probably get on a big tear if he knew his service-days were numbered. I +didn't look for its being granted for forty-eight hours yet."</p> + +<p>"Well, he will know it before night; and no doubt he will be badly cut +up. Clancy was a fine soldier before he married that harridan of a +woman."</p> + +<p>"She has made him a good wife since they came into the Riflers, colonel, +and has taken mighty good care of the old fellow."</p> + +<p>"It is more than she did in the ——th, sir. She was a handsome, showy +woman when I first saw her,—before my promotion to the regiment,—and +Clancy was one of the finest soldiers in the brigade the last year of +the war. She ran through all his money, though, and in the ——th we +looked upon her as the real cause of his break-down,—especially after +her affair with that sergeant who deserted. You've heard of him, +probably. He disappeared after the Battle Butte campaign, and we hoped +he'd run off with Mrs. Clancy; but he hadn't. She was there when we got +back, big as ever, and growing ugly."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean that Mrs. Clancy had a lover when she was in the ——th?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly, Captain Rayner. We supposed it was commonly known. He was a +fine-looking, black-eyed, dark-haired, dashing fellow, of good +education, a great swell among the men the short time he was with us, +and Mrs. Clancy made a dead set at him from the start. He never seemed +to care for <i>her</i> very much."</p> + +<p>"This is something I never heard of," said Rayner, with grave face, "and +it will be a good deal of a shock to my wife, for she had arranged to +take her East with Clancy and Kate, and they were to invest their money +in some little business at her old home."</p> + +<p>"Yes: it was mainly on the woman's account we wouldn't re-enlist Clancy +in the ——th. We could stand him, but she was too much for us,—and for +the other sergeant, too. He avoided her before we started on the +campaign, I fancy. Odd! I can't think of his name.—Billings, what was +the name of that howling swell of a sergeant who was in Hull's troop at +Battle Butte,—time Hull was killed? I mean the man that Mrs. Clancy was +said to have eloped with."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138"></a>"Sergeant Gower, sir," said the adjutant, without looking up from his +work. He did look up, however, when a moment after the captain hurriedly +left the office, and he saw that Rayner's face was deathly white: it was +ghastly.</p> + +<p>"What took Rayner off so suddenly?" said the colonel, wheeling around in +his chair.</p> + +<p>"I don't know, sir, unless there was something to startle him in the +name."</p> + +<p>"Why should there be?"</p> + +<p>"There are those who think that Gower got away with more than his horse +and arms, colonel: he was not at Battle Butte, though, and that is what +made it a mystery."</p> + +<p>"Where was he then?"</p> + +<p>"Back with the wagon-train, sir; and he never got in sight of the Buttes +or Rayner's battalion. You know Rayner had four companies there."</p> + +<p>"I don't see how Gower could have taken the money, if that's what you +mean, if he never came up to the Buttes: Rayner swore it was there in +Hull's original package. Then, too, how could Gower's name affect him if +he had never seen him?"</p> + +<p>"Possibly he has heard something. Clancy has been talking."</p> + +<p>"I have looked into that," said the colonel. "Clancy denies knowing +anything,—says he was drunk and didn't know what he was talking about."</p> + +<p>All the same it was queer, thought the adjutant, and he greatly wanted +to see the doctor and talk with him; but by the time his office-work was +done the doctor had gone to town, and when he came back he was sent for +to the laundress's quarters, where Mrs. Clancy was in hysterics and +Michael had again been very bad.</p> + +<p>Soon after the captain's return to his quarters, it seems, a messenger +was sent from Mrs. Rayner requesting Mrs. Clancy to come and see her at +once. She was ushered up-stairs to madame's own apartment, much to Miss +Travers's surprise, and that young lady was further astonished, when +Mrs. Clancy reappeared, nearly an hour later, to see that she had been +weeping violently. The house was in some disorder, most of the trunks +being packed and in readiness for the start, and Miss Travers was +entertaining two or three young officers and waiting for her sister to +come down to luncheon. "The boys" were lachrymose over her prospective +departure,—at least they affected to be,—and were <a name="Page_139" id="Page_139"></a>variously sprawled +about the parlor when Mrs. Clancy descended, and the inflamed condition +of her eyes and nose became apparent to all. There was much chaff and +fun, therefore, when Mrs. Rayner finally appeared, over the supposed +affliction of the big Irishwoman at the prospect of parting with her +patroness. Miss Travers saw with singular sensations that both the +captain and her usually self-reliant sister were annoyed and embarrassed +by the topic and strove to change it; but Foster's propensity for +mimicry and his ability to imitate Mrs. Clancy's combined brogue and +sniffle proved too much for their efforts. Kate was in a royally bad +temper by the time the youngsters left the house, and when Nellie would +have made some laughing allusion to the fun the young fellows had been +having over her morning caller, she was suddenly and tartly checked +with—</p> + +<p>"We've had too much of that already. Just understand now that you have +no time to waste, if your packing is unfinished. We start to-morrow +afternoon."</p> + +<p>"Why, Kate! I had no idea we were to go for two days yet! Of course I +can be ready; but why did you not tell me before?"</p> + +<p>"I did not know it—at least it was not decided—until this morning, +after the captain came back from the office. There is nothing to prevent +our going, now that he has seen the colonel."</p> + +<p>"There was not before, Kate; for Mr. Billings told me yesterday morning, +and I told you, that the colonel had said you could start at once, and +you replied that the captain could not be ready for several days,—three +at least."</p> + +<p>"Well, now he <i>is</i>; and that ends it. Never mind what changed his mind."</p> + +<p>It was unsafe to trifle with Nellie Travers, as Mrs. Rayner might have +known. She saw that something had occurred to make the captain eager to +start at once; and then there was that immediate sending for Mrs. +Clancy, the long, secret talk up in Kate's room, the evident mental +disturbance of both feminines on their respective reappearances, and the +sudden announcement to her. While there could be no time to make formal +parting calls, there were still some two or three ladies in the garrison +whom she longed to see before saying adieu; and then there was Mr. +Hayne, whom she had wronged quite as bitterly as anyone else had wronged +him. He was out that day for the first time, and she longed to see him +and longed to fulfil the neglected promise. <i>That</i> she must do at the +very least. If she could not see him, she must write, <a name="Page_140" id="Page_140"></a>that he might +have the note before they went away. All these thoughts were rushing +through her brain as she busied herself about her little room, stowing +away dresses and dropping everything from time to time to dart into her +sister's room in answer to some querulous call. Yet never did she leave +without a quick glance from her window up and down the row. For whom was +she looking?</p> + +<p>It was just about dusk when she heard crying down-stairs,—a child, and +apparently in the kitchen. Mrs. Rayner was with the baby, and Miss +Travers started for the stairs, calling that she would go and see what +it meant. She was down in the hall before Mrs. Rayner's imperative and +repeated calls brought her to a full stop.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" she inquired.</p> + +<p>"You come back here and hold baby. I know perfectly what it is. It is +Kate Clancy; and she wants me. You can do nothing."</p> + +<p>Too late, madame! The intervening doors were opened, and in marched +cook, leading the poor little Irish girl, who was sobbing piteously. +Mrs. Rayner came down the stairs with all speed, bringing her burly son +and heir in her arms. She would have ordered Nell aloft, but what excuse +could she give? and Miss Travers was already bending over the child and +striving to still her heart-breaking cries.</p> + +<p>"What is it? Where's your father?" demanded Mrs. Rayner.</p> + +<p>"Oh, ma'am, I don't know. I came here to tell the captain. Shure he's +discharged, ma'am, an' his heart's broke entirely, an' mother says we're +all to go with the captain to-morrow, an' he swears he'll kill himself +before he'll go, an' I can't find him, ma'am. It's almost dark now."</p> + +<p>"Go back and tell your mother I want her instantly. We'll find your +father. Go!" she repeated, as the child shrank and hesitated. +"Here,—the front way!" And little Kate sped away into the shadows +across the dim level of the parade.</p> + +<p>Then the sisters faced each other. There was a fire in the younger's eye +that Mrs. Rayner would have escaped if she could.</p> + +<p>"Kate, it is to get Clancy away from the possibility of revealing what +he knows that you have planned this sudden move, and I <i>know</i> it," said +Miss Travers. "You need not answer."</p> + +<p>She seized a wrap from the hat-rack and stepped to the door-way. Mrs. +Rayner threw herself after her.</p> + +<p>"Nellie, where are you going? What will you do?"</p> + +<p>"To Mrs. Waldron's, Kate; if need be, to Mr. Hayne's."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141"></a>A bright fire was burning in Major Waldron's cosey parlor, where he and +his good wife were seated in earnest talk. It was just after sunset when +Mr. Hayne dropped in to pay his first visit after the few days in which +he had been confined to his quarters. He was looking thin, paler than +usual, and far more restless and eager in manner than of old. The +Waldrons welcomed him with more than usual warmth, and the major +speedily led the conversation up to the topic which was so near to his +heart.</p> + +<p>"You and I must see the doctor and have a triangular council over this +thing, Hayne. Three heads are better than none; and if, as he suspects, +old Clancy really knows anything when he's drunk that he cannot tell +when he's sober, I shall depart from Mrs. Waldron's principles and join +the doctor in his pet scheme of getting him drunk again. '<i>In vino +veritas</i>,' you know. And we ought to be about it, too, for it won't be +long before his discharge comes, and, once away, we should be in the +lurch."</p> + +<p>"There seems so little hope there, major. Even the colonel has called +him up and questioned him."</p> + +<p>"Ay, very true, but always when the old sergeant was sober. It is when +drunk that Clancy's conscience pricks him to tell what he either knows +or suspects."</p> + +<p>A light, quick footstep was heard on the piazza, the hall door opened, +and without knock or ring, bursting impetuously in upon them, there +suddenly appeared Miss Travers, her eyes dilated with excitement. At +sight of the group she stopped short, and colored to the very roots of +her shining hair.</p> + +<p>"How glad I am to see you, Nellie!" exclaimed Mrs. Waldron, as all rose +to greet her. An embarrassed, half-distraught reply was her only answer. +She had extended both hands to the elder lady; but now, startled, almost +stunned, at finding herself in the presence of the very man she most +wanted to see, she stood with downcast eyes, irresolute. He, too, had +not stepped forward,—had not offered his hand. She raised her blue eyes +for one quick glance, and saw his pale, pain-thinned face, read anew the +story of his patience, his suffering, his heroism, and realized how she +too had wronged him and that her very awkwardness and silence might tell +him that shameful fact. It was more than she could stand.</p> + +<p>"I came—purposely. I hoped to find you, Mr. Hayne. You—you remember +that I had something to tell you. It was about Clancy.<a name="Page_142" id="Page_142"></a> You ought to see +him. I'm sure you ought, for he <i>must</i> know—he or Mrs. +Clancy—something about your—your trouble; and I've just this minute +heard that they—that he's going away to-morrow; and you must find him +to-night, Mr. Hayne: indeed you must."</p> + +<p>Who can paint her as she stood there, blushing, pleading, eager, +frightened, yet determined? Who can picture the wild emotion in his +heart, reflected in his face? He stepped quickly to her side with the +light leaping to his eyes, his hands extended as though to grasp hers; +but it was Waldron that spoke first:</p> + +<p>"Where is he going?—how?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, with us, major. We go to-morrow, and they go with us. My sister has +some reason—I cannot fathom it. She wants them away from here, and +Clancy's discharge came to-day. He <i>must</i> see him first," she said, +indicating Mr. Hayne by the nod of her pretty head. "They say Clancy has +run off and got away from his wife. He doesn't want to be discharged. +They cannot find him now; but perhaps Mr. Hayne can.—Mr. Hayne, try to. +You—you must."</p> + +<p>"Indeed we must, Hayne, and quick about it," said the major. "Now is our +chance, I verily believe. Let us get the doctor first; then little Kate +will best know where to look for Clancy. Come, man, get your overcoat." +And he hastened to the hall.</p> + +<p>Hayne followed as though in a dream, reached the threshold, turned, +looked back, made one quick step toward Miss Travers with outstretched +hand, then checked himself as suddenly. His yearning eyes seemed +fastened on her burning face, his lips quivered with the intensity of +his emotion. She raised her eyes and gave him one quick look, half +entreaty, half command; he seemed ineffectually struggling to speak,—to +thank her. One moment of irresolution, then, without a word of any kind, +he sprang to the door. She carried his parting glance in her heart of +hearts all night long. There was no mistaking what it told.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a>XVII.</h2> + + +<p>The morning report of the following day showed some items under the head +of "Alterations" that involved several of the soldier characters of this +story. Ex-Sergeant Clancy had been dropped from the column of present +"on daily duty" and taken up on that of absent without leave. Lieutenant +Hayne was also reported absent. Dr. Pease and Lieutenant Billings drove +into the garrison from town just before the cavalry <a name="Page_143" id="Page_143"></a>trumpets were +sounding first call for guard-mounting, and the adjutant sent one of the +musicians to give his compliments to Mr. Royce and ask him to mount the +guard for him, as he had just returned and had important business with +the colonel. The doctor and the adjutant together went into the +colonel's quarters, and for the first time on record the commanding +officer was not at the desk in his office when the shoulder-straps began +to gather for the <i>matinée</i>.</p> + +<p>Ten minutes after the usual time the adjutant darted in and plunged with +his characteristic impetuosity into the pile of passes and other papers +stacked up by the sergeant-major at his table. To all questions as to +where he had been and what was the matter with the colonel he replied, +with more than usual asperity of manner,—the asperity engendered of +some years of having to answer the host of questions propounded by +vacant minds at his own busiest hour of the day,—that the colonel would +tell them all about it himself; <i>he</i> had no time for a word. The evident +manner of suppressed excitement, however, was something few failed to +note; and every man in the room felt certain that when the colonel came +there would be a revelation. It was with something bordering on +indignation, therefore, that the assemblage heard the words that +intimated to them that all might retire. The colonel had come in very +quietly, received the report of the officer of the day, relieved him, +and dismissed the new officer of the day with the brief formula, "Usual +orders, sir," then glanced quickly around the silent circle of grave, +bearded or boyish faces. His eyes rested for an instant with something +like shock and trouble upon one face, pale, haggard, with almost +bloodless lips, and yet full of fierce determination,—a face that +haunted him long afterwards, it was so full of agony, of suspense, +almost of pleading,—the face of Captain Rayner.</p> + +<p>Then, dispensing with the customary talk, he quietly spoke the +disappointing words,—</p> + +<p>"I am somewhat late this morning, gentlemen, and several matters will +occupy my attention: so I will not detain you further."</p> + +<p>The crowd seemed to find their feet very slowly. There was visible +disinclination to go. Every man in some inexplicable way appeared to +know that there was a new mystery hanging over the garrison, and that +the colonel held the key. Every man felt that Billings had given him the +right to expect to be told all about it when the colonel came. Some +looked reproachfully at Billings, as though to remind him of their +expectations: Stannard, his old stand-by, passed him with a <a name="Page_144" id="Page_144"></a>gruff +"Thought you said the colonel had something to tell us," and went out +with an air of injured and defrauded dignity. Rayner arose, and seemed +to be making preparations to depart with the others, and some of the +number, connecting him unerringly with the prevailing sensation, +appeared to hold back and wait for him to precede them and so secure to +themselves the satisfaction of knowing that, if it was a matter +connected with Rayner, they "had him along" and nothing could take place +without their hearing it. These men were very few, however; but Buxton +was one of them. Rayner's eyes were fixed upon the colonel and searching +for a sign, and it came,—a little motion of the hand and a nod of the +head that signified "Stay." Then, as Buxton and one or two of his stamp +still dallied irresolute, the colonel turned somewhat sharply to them: +"Was there any matter on which you wished to see me, gentlemen?" and, as +there was none, they <i>had</i> to go. Then Rayner was alone with the +colonel; for Mr. Billings quickly arose, and, with a significant glance +at his commander, left the room and closed the door.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rayner, gazing from her parlor windows, saw that all the officers +had come out except one,—her husband,—and with a moan of misery she +covered her face with her hands and sank upon the sofa. With cheeks as +white as her sister's, with eyes full of trouble and perplexity, but +tearless, Nellie Travers stepped quickly into the room and put a +trembling white hand upon the other's shoulder:</p> + +<p>"Kate, it is no time for so bitter an estrangement as this. I have done +simply what our soldier father would have done had he been here. I am +fully aware of what it must cost me. I knew when I did it that you would +never again welcome me to your home. Once East again, you and I can go +our ways; I won't burden you longer; but is it not better that you +should tell me in what way your husband or you can have been injured by +what I have done?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rayner impatiently shook away the hand.</p> + +<p>"I don't want to talk to you," was the blunt answer. "You have carried +out your threat and—ruined <i>us</i>: that's all."</p> + +<p>"What <i>can</i> you mean? Do you want me to think that because Mr. Hayne's +innocence may be established your husband was the guilty man? Certainly +your manner leads to that inference; though his does not, by any means."</p> + +<p>"I don't want to talk, I tell you. You've had your way,—done your work. +You'll see soon enough the hideous web of trouble you've <a name="Page_145" id="Page_145"></a>entangled +about my husband. Don't you dare say—don't you dare think"—and now she +rose with sudden fury—"that he was the—that he lost the money! But +that's what all others will think."</p> + +<p>"If that were true, Kate, there would be this difference between his +trouble and Mr. Hayne's: Captain Rayner would have wife, wealth, and +friends to help him bear the cross; Mr. Hayne has borne it five long +years unaided. I pray God the truth <i>has</i> been brought to light."</p> + +<p>What fierce reply Mrs. Rayner might have given, who knows? but at that +instant a quick step was heard on the piazza, the door opened suddenly, +and Captain Rayner entered with a rush. The pallor had gone; a light of +eager, half-incredulous joy beamed from his eyes, he threw his cap upon +the floor, and his wife had risen and thrown her arms about his neck.</p> + +<p>"Have they found him?" was her breathless question. "<i>What</i> has +happened? You look so different."</p> + +<p>"Found him? Yes; and he has told everything?"</p> + +<p>"Told—what?"</p> + +<p>"Told that he and Gower were the men. They took it all."</p> + +<p>"<i>Clancy!</i>—and Gower! The thieves, do you mean? Is that—is <i>that</i> what +he confessed?" she asked, in wild wonderment, in almost stupefied amaze, +releasing him from her arms and stepping back, her eyes searching his +face.</p> + +<p>"Nothing else in the world, Kate. I don't understand it at all. I'm all +a-tremble yet. It clears Hayne utterly. It at least explains how I was +mistaken. But what—what could she have meant?"</p> + +<p>Mrs. Rayner stood like one in a dream, her eyes staring, her lips +quivering; and Nellie, with throbbing pulses and clasping hands, looked +eagerly from husband to wife, as though beseeching some explanation.</p> + +<p>"What did she mean? What <i>did</i> she mean? I say again," asked Rayner, +pressing his hand to his forehead and gazing fixedly at his wife.</p> + +<p>A moment longer she stood there, as though a light—a long-hidden +truth—were slowly forcing itself upon her mind. Then, with impulsive +movement, she hurried through the dining-room, threw open the kitchen +door, and startled the domestics at their late breakfast.</p> + +<p>"Ryan," she called to the soldier-servant who rose hastily from the +table, "go and tell Mrs. Clancy I want her instantly. Do you understand? +Instantly!" And Ryan seized his forage-cap and vanished.</p> + +<p>It was perhaps ten minutes before he returned. When he did so it was +apparent that Mrs. Rayner had been crying copiously, and that<a name="Page_146" id="Page_146"></a> Miss +Travers, too, was much affected. The captain was pacing the room with +nervous strides in mingled relief and agitation. All looked up expectant +as the soldier re-entered. He had the air of a man who knew he bore +tidings of vivid and mysterious interest, but he curbed the excitement +of his manner until it shone only through his snapping eyes, saluted, +and reported with professional gravity:</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Clancy's clean gone, sir."</p> + +<p>"Gone where?"</p> + +<p>"Nobody knows, sir. She's just lit out with her trunk and best clothes +some time last night."</p> + +<p>"Gone to her husband in town, maybe?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir. Clancy's all right: he was caught last evening, and hadn't +time to get more'n half drunk before they lodged him. Lootenant Hayne +got him, sir. They had him afore a justice of the peace early this +morning—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know all that. What I want is <i>Mrs.</i> Clancy. What has become of +her?"</p> + +<p>"Faith, I don't know, sir, but the women in Sudsville they all say she's +run away, sir,—taken her money and gone. She's afraid of Clancy's +peaching on her."</p> + +<p>"By heavens! the thing is clearing itself!" exclaimed Rayner to his +gasping and wild-eyed wife. "I must go to the colonel at once with his +news." And away he went.</p> + +<p>And then again, as the orderly retired, and the sisters were left alone, +Nellie Travers with trembling lips asked the question,—</p> + +<p>"Have I done so much harm, after all, Kate?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Nellie! Nellie! forgive me, for I have been nearly mad with +misery!" was Mrs. Rayner's answer, as she burst into a fresh paroxysm of +tears. "That—that woman has—has told me fearful lies."</p> + +<p>There was a strange scene that day at Warrener when, towards noon, two +carriages drove out from town and, entering the east gate, rolled over +towards the guard-house. The soldiers clustered about the barrack +porches and stared at the occupants. In the first—a livery hack from +town—were two sheriff's officers, while cowering on the back seat, his +hat pulled down over his eyes, was poor old Clancy, to whom clung +faithful little Kate. In the rear carriage—Major Waldron's—were Mr. +Hayne, the major, and a civilian whom some of the men had no difficulty +in recognizing as the official charged with the administration of +justice towards offenders against the peace. Many of the soldiers +strolled <a name="Page_147" id="Page_147"></a>slowly up the road, in hopes of hearing all about the arrest, +and what it meant, from straggling members of the guard. All knew it +meant something more than a mere "break" on the part of Clancy; all felt +that it had some connection with the long-continued mystery that hung +about the name of Lieutenant Hayne. Then, too, it was being noised +abroad that Mrs. Clancy had "skipped" and between two suns had fled for +parts unknown. <i>She</i> could be overhauled by telegraph if she had left on +either of the night freights or gone down towards Denver by the early +morning passenger-train; it would be easy enough to capture her if she +were "wanted," said the garrison; but what did it mean that Clancy was +pursued by officers of the post and brought back under charge of +officers of the law? He had had trouble enough, poor fellow!</p> + +<p>The officer of the guard looked wonderingly at the carriages and their +occupants. He saluted Major Waldron as the latter stepped briskly down.</p> + +<p>"You will take charge of Clancy, Mr. Graham," said the major. "His +discharge will be recalled: at least it will not take effect to-day. You +will be interested in knowing that his voluntary confession fully +establishes Mr. Hayne's innocence of the charges on which he was tried."</p> + +<p>Mr. Graham's face turned all manner of colors. He glanced at Hayne, who, +still seated in the carriage, was as calmly indifferent to him as ever: +he was gazing across the wide parade at the windows in officers' row. +Little Kate's sobs as the soldiers were helping her father from the +carriage suddenly recalled his wandering thoughts. He sprang to the +ground, stepped quickly to the child, and put his arms about her.</p> + +<p>"Clancy, tell her to come with us. Mrs. Waldron will take loving care of +her, and she shall come to see you every day. The guard-house is no +place for her to follow you. Tell her so, man, and she will go with +us.—Come, Katie, child!" And he bent tenderly over the sobbing little +waif.</p> + +<p>"Thank ye, sir. I know ye'll be good to her. Go with the lootenant, Kate +darlin'; go. Shure I'll be happier then."</p> + +<p>And, trembling, he bent and kissed her wet cheeks. She threw her arms +around his neck and clung to him in an agony of grief. Gently they +strove to disengage her clasping arms, but she shrieked and struggled, +and poor old Clancy broke down. There were sturdy soldiers <a name="Page_148" id="Page_148"></a>standing by +who turned their heads away to hide the unbidden tears, and with a +quiver in his kind voice the major interposed:</p> + +<p>"Let her stay awhile: it will be better for both. Don't put him in the +prison-room, Graham. Keep them by themselves for a while. We will come +for her by and by." And then, before them all, he held forth his hand +and gave Clancy's a cordial grasp:</p> + +<p>"Cheer up, man. You've taken the right step at last. You are a free man +to-day, even if you are a prisoner for the time being. Better this a +thousand times than what you were."</p> + +<p>Hayne, too, spoke a few kind words in a low tone, and gave the old +soldier his hand at parting. Then the guard closed the door, and father +and daughter were left alone. As the groups around the guard-house began +to break up and move away, and the officers, re-entering the carriages, +drove over to head-quarters, a rollicking Irishman called to the +sergeant of the guard,—</p> + +<p>"Does he know the ould woman's skipped, sargent? Shure you'd better tell +him. 'Twill cheer him, like."</p> + +<p>But when, a few moments after, the news was imparted to Clancy, the +effect was electric and startling. With one bound and a savage cry he +sprang to the door. The sergeant threw himself upon him and strove to +hold him back, but was no match for the frenzied man. Deaf to Kate's +entreaties and the sergeant's commands, he hurled him aside, leaped +through the door-way, shot like a deer past the lolling guardsmen on the +porch, and, turning sharply, went at the top of his speed down the hill +towards Sudsville before man could lay hand on him. The sentry on Number +One cocked his rifle and looked inquiringly at the officer of the guard, +who came running out. With a wild shriek little Kate threw herself upon +the sentry, clasping his knees and imploring him not to shoot. The +lieutenant and the sergeant both shouted, "Never mind! Don't fire!" and +with others of the guard rushed in pursuit. But, old and feeble as he +was, poor Clancy kept the lead, never swerving, never flagging, until he +reached the door-way of his abandoned cot; this he burst in, threw +himself upon his knees by the bedside, and dragged to light a little +wooden chest that stood by an open trap in the floor. One look sufficed: +the mere fact that the trap was open and the box exposed was enough. +With a wild cry of rage, despair, and baffled hatred, he clinched his +hands above his head, rose to his full height, and with a curse upon his +white lips, with glaring eyes and gasping breath, turned upon his +pursuers as they came running <a name="Page_149" id="Page_149"></a>in, and hurled his fists at the foremost. +"Let me follow her, I say! She's gone with it all,—his money! Let me +go!" he shrieked; and then his eyes turned stony, a gasp, a clutch at +his throat, and, plunging headlong, he fell upon his face at their feet.</p> + +<p>Poor little Kate! The old man was, indeed, free at last.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a>XVIII.</h2> + + +<p>There had been a scene of somewhat dramatic nature at the colonel's +office but a short time before, and one that had fewer witnesses. +Agitated, nervous, and eventually astonished as Captain Rayner had been +when the colonel had revealed to him the nature of Clancy's confession, +he was far more excited and tremulous when he returned a second time. +The commanding officer had been sitting deep in thought. It was but +natural that a man should show great emotion on learning that the +evidence he had given, which had condemned a brother officer to years of +solitary punishment, was now disproved. It was to be expected that +Rayner should be tremulous and excited. He had been looking worse and +worse for a long time past; and now that it was established that he must +have been mistaken in what he thought he saw and heard at Battle Butte, +it was to be expected that he should show the utmost consternation and +an immediate desire to make amends. He <i>had</i> shown great emotion; he was +white and rigid as the colonel told him Clancy had made a full +confession; but the expression on his face when informed that the man +had admitted that he and Sergeant Gower were the only ones guilty of the +crime—that Clancy and Gower divided the guilt as they had the +money—was a puzzle to the colonel. Captain Rayner seemed daft: it was a +look of wild relief, half unbelief, half delight, that shot across his +haggard features. It was evident that <i>he had not heard at all what he +expected</i>. This was what puzzled the colonel. He had been pondering over +it ever since the captain's hurried departure "to tell his wife."</p> + +<p>"We—we had expected—made all preparations to take this afternoon's +train for the East," he stammered. "We are all torn up, all ready to +start, and the ladies ought to go; but I cannot feel like going in the +face of this."</p> + +<p>"There is no reason why you should not go, captain. I am told Mrs. +Rayner should leave at once. If need be, you can return from Chicago. +Everything will be attended to properly. Of course you <a name="Page_150" id="Page_150"></a>will know what +to do towards Mr. Hayne. Indeed, I think it might be best for you to +go."</p> + +<p>But Rayner seemed hardly listening; and the colonel was not a man to +throw his words away.</p> + +<p>"You might see Mrs. Rayner at once, and return by and by," he said; and +Rayner gladly escaped, and went home with the wonderful news he had to +tell his wife.</p> + +<p>And now a second time he was back, and was urging upon the commanding +officer the necessity of telegraphing and capturing Mrs. Clancy. In +plain words he told the colonel he believed that she had escaped with +the greater part of the money. The colonel smiled:</p> + +<p>"That was attended to early this morning, captain. Hayne and the major +asked that she be secured, and the moment we found her fled it confirmed +their suspicions, and Billings sent despatches in every direction. She +can't get away! She was his temptress, and I mean to make her share all +the punishment."</p> + +<p>"Colonel," exclaimed Rayner, while beads of sweat stood out on his +forehead, "she is worse,—a thousand times worse! The woman is a fiend. +She is the devil in petticoats—and ingenuity. My God! sir, I have been +in torment for weeks past,—my poor wife and I. I have been criminally, +cowardly weak; but I did not know what to do,—where to turn,—how to +take it,—how to meet it. Let me tell you." And now great tears were +standing in his eyes and beginning to trickle down his cheeks. He dashed +them away. His lips were quivering, and he strode nervously up and down +the matted floor. "When you refused to left Clancy re-enlist in the +----th, two years after Battle Butte, he came to me and told me a story. +He, too, had declared, as I did, that he had seen the money-packages in +Hayne's hands; and he said the real reason he was kicked out of the +----th was because the officers and men took sides with Hayne and +thought he had sworn his reputation away. He begged me not to 'go back +on him' as his own regiment had, and I thought he was being persecuted +because he told the truth. God knows I fully believed Hayne guilty for +more than three years,—it is only within the last year or so I began to +have doubts; and so I took Clancy into B Company and soon made Mrs. +Clancy a laundress. But she made trouble for us all, and there was +something uncanny about them. She kept throwing out mysterious hints I +could not understand when rumors of them reached me; and at last came +the fire that burned them out, and then the stories of what Clancy <a name="Page_151" id="Page_151"></a>had +said in his delirium; and then she came to my wife and told her a yarn +that—she swore to its truth, and nearly drove Mrs. Rayner wild with +anxiety. She swore that when Clancy got to drinking he imagined he had +seen <i>me</i> take that money from Captain Hull's saddle-bags and replace +the sealed package: she said he was ready to swear that he and +Gower—the deserter—and two of our men, honorably discharged now and +living on ranches down in Nebraska, could all swear—would all swear—to +the same thing,—that I was the thief. 'Sure you know it couldn't be so, +ma'am; and yet he wants to go and tell Mr. Hayne,' she would say: +'there's the four of 'em would swear to it, though Gower's evidence +would be no good; but the two men could hurt the captain.' Her ingenuity +was devilish; for one of the men I had severely punished once in the +Black Hills, and both hated me and had sworn they would get even with me +yet. God help me, colonel! seeing every day the growing conviction that +Hayne was innocent, that somebody else <i>must</i> be guilty, I thought, what +if this man <i>should</i>, in drunken gratitude to Hayne for saving his life, +go to him and tell him this story, then back it up before the officials +and call in these two others? I was weak, but it appalled me. I +determined to get him out of the way of such a possibility. I got his +discharge, and meantime strove to prevent his drinking or going near +Hayne. <i>She</i> knew the real story he <i>would</i> tell. This was her devilish +plan to keep me on watch against him. I never dreamed the real truth. +She swore to me that three hundred dollars was all the money they had. I +believed that when he confessed it would be what she declared. I never +dreamed that Clancy and his confederate were the thieves: I never +believed the money was taken until after Hayne received it. I saw how +Hayne's guilt was believed in even in the face of contradictory evidence +before the court. What would be the tendency if three men together were +to swear against me, now that everybody thought him wronged? I know very +well what you will think of my cowardice. I know you and your officers +will say I should have given him every chance,—should have courted +investigation; and I meant to do so, but first I wanted to hear from +those discharged men in Nebraska. The whole scheme would have been +exploded two months ago had I not been a coward; but night after night +something kept whispering to me, 'You have wrecked and ruined a +friendless young soldier's life. You shall be brought as low.'"</p> + +<p>The colonel was, as he afterwards remarked, hardly equal to the +<a name="Page_152" id="Page_152"></a>occasion. He had as much contempt for moral weakness in a soldier as he +had for physical cowardice; but Rayner's almost abject recital of his +months of misery really left him nothing to say. Had the captain sought +to defend or justify any detail of his conduct, he would have pounced on +him like a panther. Twice the adjutant, sitting an absorbed and silent +listener, thought the chief on the verge of an outbreak; but it never +came. For some minutes after Rayner ceased the colonel sat steadily +regarding him. At last he spoke:</p> + +<p>"You have been so frank in your statement, captain, that I feel you +fully appreciate how such deplorable weakness must be regarded in an +officer. It is unnecessary for me to speak of that. The full particulars +of Clancy's confession are not yet with me. Major Waldron has it all in +writing, and Mr. Billings has merely told me the general features. Of +course you shall have a copy of it in good time. As you go East to-day +and have your wife and household to think for, it may be as well that +you do not attempt to see Mr. Hayne before starting. And this matter +will not be discussed."</p> + +<p>And so it happened that when the Rayners drove to the station that +bright afternoon, and a throng of ladies and officers gathered to see +them off, some of the youngsters going with them into town to await the +coming of the train, Nellie Travers had been surrounded by chattering +friends of both sexes, constantly occupied, and yet constantly looking +for the face of one who came not. For an hour before their departure +every tongue in garrison that wagged at all—and few there were that +wagged not—was discoursing on the exciting events of the +morning,—Hayne's emancipation from the last vestige of suspicion, +Clancy's capture, confession, and tragic death, Mrs. Clancy's flight and +probable future. At Rayner's, people spoke of these things very +guardedly, because every one saw that the captain was moved to the +depths of his nature. He was solemnity itself, and Mrs. Rayner watched +him with deep anxiety, fearful that he might be exposed to some +thoughtless or malicious questioning. Her surveillance was needless, +however: even Ross made no allusion to the events of the morning, though +he communicated to his fellows in the subsequent confidences of the +club-room that Midas looked as though he'd been pulled through a series +of knot-holes. "Looks more's though he were going to his own funeral +than on leave," he added.</p> + +<p>As for Hayne, he had been closeted with the colonel and Major Waldron +for some time after his return,—a conference that was broken <a name="Page_153" id="Page_153"></a>in upon +by the startling news of Clancy's death. Then he had joined his friend +the doctor at the hospital, and was still there, striving to comfort +little Kate, who could not be induced to leave her father's rapidly +stiffening form, when Mrs. Waldron re-entered the room. Drawing the +child to her side and folding her motherly arms about her, she looked up +in Hayne's pale face:</p> + +<p>"They are going in five minutes. Don't you mean to see her?"</p> + +<p>"Not there,—not under his roof or in that crowd. I will go to the +station."</p> + +<p>"I must run over and say good-by in a moment,—when the carriage goes +around. Shall—shall I say you will come?"</p> + +<p>There was a light in his blue eyes she was just beginning to notice now +as she studied his face. A smile flickered one instant about the corners +of his mouth, and then he held out his hand:</p> + +<p>"She knows by this time, Mrs. Waldron."</p> + +<p>An hour later Mrs. Rayner was standing on the platform at the station, +Ross and others of her satellites hanging about her; Captain Rayner was +talking in subdued tones with one or two of the senior officers; Miss +Travers, looking feverishly pretty, was chatting busily with Royce and +Foster, though a close observer could have noted that her dark eyes +often sought the westward prairie over which wound the road to the +distant post. It was nearly train-time, and three or four horsemen could +be seen at various distances, while, far out towards the fort, long +skirmish-lines and fluttering guidons were sweeping over the slopes in +mimic war-array.</p> + +<p>"I have missed all this," she said, pointing to the scene; "and I do +love it so that it seems hard to go just as all the real soldier life is +beginning."</p> + +<p>"Goodness knows you've had offers enough to keep you here," said Foster, +with not the blithest laugh in the world. "Any girl who will go East and +marry a 'cit' and leave six or seven penniless subs sighing behind her, +I have my opinion of: she's eminently level-headed," he added, with +rueful and unexpected candor.</p> + +<p>"I have hopes of Miss Travers yet," boomed Royce, in his ponderous +basso,—"not personal hopes, Foster; you needn't feel for your +pistol,—but I believe that her heart is with the army, like the +soldier's daughter she is." And, audacious as was the speech and +deserving of instant rebuke, Mr. Royce was startled to see her reddening +vividly.<a name="Page_154" id="Page_154"></a> He would have plunged into hasty apology, but Foster plucked +his sleeve:</p> + +<p>"Look who's coming, you galoot! She hasn't heard a word either of us has +said."</p> + +<p>And though Nellie Travers, noting the sudden silence, burst into an +immediate and utterly irrelevant lament over the loss of the Maltese +kitten,—which had not been seen all that day and was not to be found +when they came away,—it was useless. The effort was gallant, but the +flame in her cheeks betrayed her as, throwing his reins to the orderly +who followed him, Mr. Hayne dismounted at the platform and came directly +towards her. To Mrs. Rayner's unspeakable dismay, he walked up to the +trio, bowed low over the little gloved hand that was extended in answer +to the proffer of his own, and next she saw that Royce and Foster had, +as though by tacit consent, fallen back, and, <i>coram publico</i>, Mr. Hayne +was sole claimant of the regards of her baby sister. There was but one +comfort in the situation: the train was in sight. Forgetful, reckless +for the moment, of what was going on around her, she stood gazing at the +pair. No woman could fail to read the story; no woman could see his +face, his eyes, his whole attitude and expression, and not read therein +that old, old story that grows sweeter with every century of its life. +That he should be inspired with sudden, vehement love for her exquisite +Nell was something she could readily understand; but what—what meant +<i>her</i> downcast eyes, the flutter of color on her soft and rounded cheek, +the shy uplifting of the fringed lids from time to time as though in +response to eager question or appeal? Heavens! would that train <i>never</i> +come? The whistle was sounding in the distance, but it would take ages +to drag those heavy Pullmans up the grade from the bridge where they had +yet to stop. She could almost have darted forward, seized her sister by +the wrist, and whispered again the baleful reminder that of late had had +no mention between them,—"Thou art another's;" but in her distress her +weak blue eyes sought her husband's face. He saw it all, and shook his +head. Then there was nothing to be done.</p> + +<p>As the train came rumbling finally into the station, she saw him once +more clasp her sister's hand; then, with one long look into the sweet +face that was hidden from her jealous eyes, he raised his forage-cap and +stepped quickly back to where his horse was held. Her husband hastened +to her side:</p> + +<p><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155"></a>"Kate, I must speak to him. I don't care how he may take it; I cannot +go without it."</p> + +<p>They all watched the tall captain as he strode across the platform. +Every man in uniform seemed to know instinctively that Rayner at last +was seeking to make open reparation for the bitter wrong he had done. +One or two strove to begin a general chat and affect an interest in +something else, for Mrs. Rayner's benefit, but she, with trembling lips, +stood gazing after her husband and seemed to beg for silence. Then all +abandoned other occupation, and every man stood still and watched them. +Hayne had quickly swung into saddle, and had turned for one more look, +when he saw his captain with ashen face striding towards him, and heard +him call his name.</p> + +<p>"By Jove!" muttered Ross, "what command that fellow has over himself!" +for, scrupulously observant of military etiquette, Mr. Hayne on being +addressed by his superior officer had instantly dismounted, and now +stood silently facing him. Even at the distance, there were some who +thought they could see his features twitching; but his blue eyes were +calm and steady,—far clearer than they had been but a moment agone when +gazing good-by into the sweet face they worshipped. None could hear what +passed between them. The talk was very brief; but Ross almost gasped +with amaze, other officers looked at one another in utter astonishment, +and Mrs. Rayner fairly sobbed with excitement and emotion, when Mr. +Hayne was seen to hold forth his hand, and Rayner, grasping it eagerly +in both his own, shook it once, then strode hastily away towards the +rear of the train. His eyes were filled with tears he could not repress +and could not bear to show.</p> + +<p>That evening, as the train wound steadily eastward into the shadows of +the night, and they looked out in farewell upon the slopes they had last +seen when a wintry gale swept fiercely over the frozen surface and the +shallow ravines were streaked with snow, Kate Rayner, after a long talk +with her husband, and abandoning her boy to the sole guardianship of his +nurse, settled herself by Nellie's side, and Nellie knew that she either +sought confidences or had them to impart. Something of the old, +quizzical look was playing about the corner of her pretty mouth as her +elder sister, with feminine indirectness, began her verbal skirmishing +with the subject. It was some time before the question was reached which +led to her real objective:</p> + +<p>"Did he—did Mr. Hayne tell you much about Clancy?"</p> + +<p>"Not much. There was no time."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156"></a>"You had fully ten minutes, I'm sure. It seemed even longer."</p> + +<p>"Four by the clock, Kate."</p> + +<p>"Well, four, then. He must have had something of greater interest."</p> + +<p>No answer. Cheeks reddening, though.</p> + +<p>"Didn't he?"—persistently.</p> + +<p>"I will tell you what he told me of Clancy, Kate. Mrs. Clancy had +utterly deceived you as to what he had to tell, had she not?"</p> + +<p>"Utterly." And now it was Mrs. Rayner's turn to color painfully.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Hayne tells me that Clancy's confession really explained how +Captain Rayner was mistaken. It was not so much the captain's fault, +after all."</p> + +<p>"So Mr. Hayne told him. You knew they—you saw Mr. Hayne offer him his +hand, didn't you?"</p> + +<p>"I did not see: I knew he would." More vivid color, and much hesitation +now.</p> + +<p>"<i>Knew</i> he would! Why, Nellie, what do you mean? He didn't tell you that +he was to see Captain Rayner. He couldn't have known."</p> + +<p>"But I knew, Kate; and I told him how the captain had suffered."</p> + +<p>"But how could you know that he would shake hands with him?"</p> + +<p>"He promised me."</p> + +<p>The silence was unbroken for a moment. Nellie Travers could hear the +beating of her own heart as she nestled closer to her sister and stole a +hand into hers. Mrs. Rayner was trying hard to be dutiful, stern, +unbending, to keep <i>her</i> faith with the distant lover in the East, +whether Nell was true or no; but she had been so humbled, so changed, so +shaken, by the events of the past few weeks, that she felt all her old +spirit of guardianship ebbing away. "Must I give you up, Nell? and must +he, too?—Mr. Van Antwerp?"</p> + +<p>"He has not answered my last letter, Kate. It is nearly a week since I +have heard from him."</p> + +<p>"What did you write, Nellie?"</p> + +<p>"What I had done twice before,—that he ought to release me."</p> + +<p>"And—is Clancy's the only confession you have heard to-day?"</p> + +<p>"The only one." A pause: then, "I know what you mean, Kate; but he is +not the man to—to offer his love to a girl he knows is pledged to +another."</p> + +<p>"But if you were free, Nellie? Tell me."</p> + +<p>"I have no right to say, Kate; but"—and two big tears were well<a name="Page_157" id="Page_157"></a>ing up +into her brave eyes, as she clasped her hands and stretched them +yearningly before her—"shall I tell you what I think a girl would say +if she were free and had won his love?"</p> + +<p>"What, Nellie?"</p> + +<p>"She would say, 'Ay.' No woman with a heart could leave a man who has +borne so much and come through it all so bravely."</p> + +<p>Poor Mrs. Rayner! Humbled and chastened as she was, what refuge had she +but tears, and then—prayer?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XIX" id="XIX"></a>XIX.</h2> + + +<p>Within the week succeeding the departure of the Rayners and Miss +Travers, Lieutenant Hayne's brother-in-law and his remarkably attractive +sister were with him in garrison and helping him fit up the new quarters +which the colonel had rather insisted on his moving into and occupying, +even though two unmarried subalterns had to move out and make way for +him. This they seemed rather delighted to do. There was a prevailing +sentiment at Warrener that nothing was too good for Hayne nowadays; and +he took all this adulation so quietly and modestly that there was +difficulty in telling just how it affected him. Towards those who had +known him well in the days of his early service he still maintained a +dignity and reserve of manner that kept them at some distance. To +others, especially to the youngsters in the ——th as well as to those +in the Riflers, he unbent entirely, and was frank, unaffected, and +warm-hearted. He seemed to bask in the sunshine of the respect and +consideration accorded him on every side. Yet no one could say he seemed +happy. Courteous, grave far beyond his years, silent and thoughtful, he +impressed them all as a man who had suffered too much ever again to be +light-hearted. Then it was more than believed he had fallen deeply in +love with Nellie Travers; and that explained the rarity and sadness of +his smile. To the women he was a centre of intense and romantic +interest. Mrs. Waldron was an object of jealousy because of the priority +of her claims to his regard. Mrs. Hurley—the sweet sister who so +strongly resembled him—was the recipient of universal attention from +both sexes. Hayne and the Hurleys, indeed, would have been invited to +several places an evening could they have accepted. And yet, with it +all, Mr. Hayne seemed at times greatly preoccupied. He had a great deal +to think of.</p> + +<p>To begin with, the widow Clancy had been captured in one of the <a name="Page_158" id="Page_158"></a>mining +towns, where she had sought refuge, and brought back by the civil +authorities, nearly three thousand dollars in greenbacks having been +found in her possession. She had fought like a fury and proved too much +for the sheriff's posse when first arrested, and not until three days +after her incarceration was the entire amount brought to light. There +was no question what ought to be done with it. Clancy's confession +established the fact that almost the entire amount was stolen from +Captain Hull nearly six years before, the night previous to his tragic +death at Battle Butte. Mrs. Clancy at first had furiously declared it +all a lie; but Waldron's and Billings's precaution in having Clancy's +entire story taken down by a notary public and sworn to before him +eventually broke her down. She made her miserable, whining admissions to +the sheriff's officers in town,—the colonel would not have her on the +post even as a prisoner,—and there she was still held, awaiting further +disclosures, while little Kate was lovingly cared for at Mrs. Waldron's. +Poor old Clancy was buried and on the way to be forgotten.</p> + +<p>What proved the hardest problem for the garrison to solve was the fact +that, while Mr. Hayne kept several of his old associates at a distance, +he had openly offered his hand to Rayner. This was something the Riflers +could not account for. The intensity of his feeling at the time of the +court-martial none could forget: the vehemence of his denunciation of +the captain was still fresh in the memory of those who heard it. Then +there were all those years in which Rayner had continued to crowd him to +the wall; and finally there was the almost tragic episode of Buxton's +midnight visitation, in which Rayner, willingly or not, had been in +attendance. Was it not odd that in the face of all these considerations +the first man to whom Mr. Hayne should have offered his hand was Captain +Rayner? Odd indeed! But then only one or two were made acquainted with +the full particulars of Clancy's confession, and none had heard Nellie +Travers's request. Touched as he was by the sight of Rayner's haggard +and trouble-worn face, relieved as he was by Clancy's revelation of the +web that had been woven to cover the tracks of the thieves and ensnare +the feet of the pursuers, Hayne could not have found it possible to +offer his hand; but when he bent over the tiny glove and looked into her +soft and brimming eyes at the moment of their parting he could not say +no to the one thing she asked of him: it was that if Rayner came to say, +"Forgive me," before they left, he would not repel him.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159"></a>There was one man in garrison whom Hayne cut entirely, and for whom no +one felt the faintest sympathy; and that, of course, was Buxton. With +Rayner gone, he hardly had an associate, though the <i>esprit de corps</i> of +the ——th prompted the cavalry officers to be civil to him when he +appeared at the billiard-room. As Mr. Hurley was fond of the game, an +element of awkwardness was manifest the first time the young officers +appeared with their engineer friend. Hayne had not set foot in such a +place for five years, and quietly declined all invitations to take a cue +again. It was remembered of him that he played the prettiest game of +French caroms of all the officers at the station when he joined the +Riflers as a boy. Hurley could only stay a very short time, and the +subalterns were doing their best to make it lively for him. Some, +indeed, showed strong inclination to devote themselves to Mrs. Hurley; +but she was too busy with her brother's household affairs to detect +their projects. Hurley had turned very red and glared at Buxton the +first time the two met at the club-room, but the bulky captain speedily +found cover under which to retire, and never again showed himself in +general society until the engineer with the scientific attainments as a +boxer as well as road-builder was safely out of the post.</p> + +<p>And yet there came a day very soon when Mr. Hayne wished that he could +go to Buxton's quarters. He had in no wise changed his opinion of the +man himself, but the Rayners had not been gone a fortnight before Mrs. +Buxton began to tell the ladies of the charming letters she was +receiving from Mrs. Rayner,—all about their travels. There were many +things he longed to know, yet could not ask.</p> + +<p>There came to him a long and sorrowful letter from the captain himself, +but, beyond a few matters relating to the company and the transfer of +its property, it was all given up to a recapitulation of the troubles of +the past few years and to renewed expressions of his deep regret. Of the +ladies he made but casual mention. They were journeying down the +Mississippi on one of its big steamers when he wrote, and Mrs. Rayner +was able to enjoy the novelties of the trip, and was getting better, but +still required careful nursing. Miss Travers was devoted to her. They +would go to New Orleans, then possibly by sea around to New York, +arriving there about the 5th of June: that, however, was undecided. He +closed by asking Hayne to remind Major Waldron that his copy of Clancy's +confession had not yet reached him, and he was anxious to see it in +full.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160"></a>"The one thing lacking to complete the chain is Gower," said the major, +as he looked up over his spectacles. "It would be difficult to tell what +became of him. We get tidings of most of the deserters who were as +prominent among the men as he appears to have been; but I have made +inquiry, and so has the colonel, and not a word has ever been heard of +him since the night he appeared before Mrs. Clancy and handed over the +money to her. He was a strange character, from all accounts, and must +have had some conscience, after all. Do you remember him at all, Hayne?"</p> + +<p>"I remember him well. We made the march from the Big Horn over to Battle +Butte together, and he was a soldier one could not help remarking. Of +course I never had anything to say to him; but we heard he was an expert +gambler when the troop was over there at Miners' Delight."</p> + +<p>"Of course his testimony isn't necessary. Clancy and his wife between +them have cleared you, after burying you alive five years. But nothing +but his story could explain his singular conduct,—planning the whole +robbery, executing it with all the skill of a professional jail-bird, +deserting and covering several hundred miles with his plunder, then +daring to go to the old fort, find Mrs. Clancy, and surrender every +cent, the moment he heard of your trial. What a fiend that woman was! No +wonder she drove Clancy to drink!"</p> + +<p>"Will you send copies of her admission with Clancy's affidavits?" asked +Hayne.</p> + +<p>"Here they are in full," answered the major. "The colonel talks of +having them printed and strewn broadcast as warnings against 'snap +judgment' and too confident testimony in future."</p> + +<p>Divested of the legal encumbrances with which such documents are usually +weighted, Clancy's story ran substantially as follows:</p> + +<p>"I was sergeant in K troop, and Gower was in F. We had been stationed +together six months or so when ordered out on the Indian campaign that +summer. I was dead-broke. All my money was gone, and my wife kept +bothering me for more. I owed a lot of money around head-quarters, too, +and Gower knew it, and sometimes asked me what I was going to do when we +got back from the campaign. We were not good friends, him and I. There +was money dealings between us, and then there was talk about Mrs. Clancy +fancying him too much. The paymaster came up with a strong escort and +paid off the boys late in October, just as the expedition was breaking +up and going for home, <a name="Page_161" id="Page_161"></a>and all the officers and men got four months' +pay. There was Lieutenant Crane and twenty men of F troop out on a +scout, but the lieutenant had left his pay-rolls with Captain Hull, and +the men had all signed before they started, and so the captain he drew +it all for them and put each man's money in an envelope marked with his +name, and the lieutenant's too, and then crowded it all into some bigger +envelopes. I was there where I could see it all, and Gower was watching +him close. 'It's a big pile the captain's got,' says he. 'I'd like to be +a road-agent and nab him.' When I told him it couldn't be over eleven +hundred dollars, he says, 'That's only part. He has his own pay, and six +hundred dollars company fund, and a wad of greenbacks he's been carryin' +around all summer. It's nigh on to four thousand dollars he's got in his +saddle-bags this day.'</p> + +<p>"And that night, instead of Lieutenant Crane's coming back, he sent word +he had found the trail of a big band of Indians, and the whole crowd +went in pursuit. There was four companies of infantry, under Captain +Rayner, and F and K troops,—what was left of them,—that were ordered +to stay by the wagons and bring them safely down; and we started with +them over towards Battle Butte, keeping south of the way the regiment +had gone to follow Mr. Crane. And the very next day Captain Rayner got +orders to bring his battalion to the river and get on the boat, while +the wagons kept on down the bank with us to guard them. And Mr. Hayne +was acting quartermaster, and he stayed with us; and him and Captain +Hull was together a good deal. There was some trouble, we heard, because +Captain Rayner thought another officer should have been made +quartermaster and Mr. Hayne should have stayed with his company, and +they had some words; but Captain Hull gave Mr. Hayne a horse and seemed +to keep him with him; and that night, in sight of Battle Butte, the +steamboat was out of sight ahead when we went into camp, and I was +sergeant of the guard and had my fire near the captain's tent, and twice +in the evening Gower came to me and said now was the time to lay hands +on the money and skip. At last he says to me, 'You are flat-broke, and +they'll all be down on you when you get back to the post. No man in +America wants five hundred dollars more than you do. I'll give you five +hundred in one hour from now if you'll get the captain out of his tent +for half an hour.' Almost everybody was asleep then; the captain was, +and so was Mr. Hayne, and he went on to tell me how he could do it. He'd +been watching the captain. It made such a big <a name="Page_162" id="Page_162"></a>bundle, did the money, in +all the separate envelopes that he had done it all up different,—made a +memorandum of the amount due each man, and packed the greenbacks all +together in one solid pile,—his own money, the lieutenant's, and the +men's,—done it up in paper and tied it firmly and put big blotches of +green sealing-wax on it and sealed them with the seal on his +watch-chain. Says Gower, 'You get the captain out, as I tell you, and +I'll slip right in, get the money, stuff some other paper with a few +ones and twos in the package; his seal, his watch, and everything is +there in the saddle-bags under his head, and I can reseal and replace it +in five minutes, and he'll never suspect the loss until the command all +gets together again next week. By that time I'll be three hundred miles +away. Everybody will say 'twas Gower that robbed him, and you with your +five hundred will never be suspected.' I asked him how could he expect +the captain to go and leave so much money in his bags with no one to +guard it; and he said he'd bet on it if I did it right. The captain had +had no luck tracking Indians that summer, and the regiment was laughing +at him. He knew they were scattering every which way now, and was eager +to strike them. All I had to do was to creep in excited-like, wake him +up sudden, and tell him I was sure I had heard an Indian drum and their +scalp-dance song out beyond the pickets,—that they were over towards +Battle Butte, and he could hear them if he would come out on the +river-bank. 'He'd go quick,' says Gower, 'and think of nothing.'</p> + +<p>"And—I wouldn't believe it, but he did. He sprang up and went right out +with me, just flinging his overcoat round him; and he never seemed to +want to come in. The wind was blowing soft-like from the southeast, and +he stood there straining his ears trying to hear the sounds I told him +of; but at last he gave it up, and we went back to camp, and he took his +lantern and looked in his saddle-bags, and I shook for fear; but he +seemed to find everything all right, and in the next ten minutes he was +asleep, and Gower came and whispered to me, and I went with him, and he +gave me five hundred dollars, in twenties. 'Now you're bound,' says he; +'keep the sentries off while I get my horse.' And that's the last I ever +saw of him. Then a strange thing happened. 'Twas hardly daylight when a +courier came galloping up, and I called the captain, and he read the +despatch, and says he, 'By heaven, Clancy, you were right after all. +There <i>are</i> Indians over there. Why didn't I trust your ears? Call up +the whole command. The Riflers have treed them at Battle Butte, and +Captain Rayner has gone with his battalion.<a name="Page_163" id="Page_163"></a> We are to escort the wagons +to where the boat lies beyond the bend, and then push over with all the +horsemen we can take.' It was after daylight when we got started, but we +almost ran the wagons 'cross country to the boat, and there Captain Hull +took F troop and what there was of his own, leaving only ten men back +with the wagons; and not till then was Gower missed; but all were in +such a hurry to get to the Indians that no one paid attention. Mr. Hayne +he begged the captain to let him go too: so the train was left with the +wagon-master and the captain of the boat, and away we went. You know all +about the fight, and how 'twas Mr. Hayne the captain called to and gave +his watch and the two packages of money when he was ordered to charge. I +was right by his side; and I swore—God forgive me!—that through the +crack and tear in the paper I could see the layers of greenbacks, when I +knew 'twas only some ones and twos Gower had slipped in to make it look +right; and Captain Rayner stood there and saw the packet, too, and +Sergeant Walshe and Bugler White; but them two were killed with him: so +that 'twas only Captain Rayner and I was left as witnesses, and never +till we got to Laramie after the campaign did the trouble come. I never +dreamed of anything ever coming of it but that every one would say Gower +stole the money and deserted; but when the captain turned the packages +over to Mr. Hayne, and then got killed, and Mr. Hayne carried the +packages, with the watch, seal, saddle-bags, and all, in to Cheyenne, +and never opened them till he got there,—two weeks after, when we were +all scattered,—then they turned on him, his own officers did, and said +he stole it and gambled or sent it away in Cheyenne.</p> + +<p>"I had lost much of my money then, and Mrs. Clancy got the rest, and it +made me crazy to think of that poor young gentleman accused of it all; +but I was in for it, and knew it meant prison for years for me, and +perhaps they couldn't prove it on him. I got to drinking then, and told +Captain Rayner that the ——th was down on me for swearing away the +young officer's character; and then he took me to Company B when the +colonel wouldn't have me any more in the ——th; and one night when Mrs. +Clancy had been raising my hair and I wanted money to drink and she'd +give me none, little Kate told me her mother had lots of money in a box, +and that Sergeant Gower had come and given it to her while they were +getting settled in the new post after the Battle Butte campaign, and he +had made her promise to give it to me the moment I got back,—that +somebody was in trouble, and that I must <a name="Page_164" id="Page_164"></a>save him; and I believed Kate, +and charged Mrs. Clancy with it, and she beat me and Kate, and swore it +was all a lie; and I never could get the money. And at last came the +fire; and it was the lieutenant that saved my life and Kate's, and +brought back to her all that pile of money through the flames. It broke +my heart then, and I vowed I'd go and tell him the truth; but they +wouldn't let me. She told me the captain said he would kill me if I +blabbed, and she would kill Kate. I didn't dare, until they told me my +discharge had come; and then I was glad when the lieutenant and the +major caught me in town. When they promised to take care of little Kate +I didn't care what happened to me. The money Mrs. Clancy has—except +perhaps two hundred dollars—all belongs to Lieutenant Hayne, since he +paid off every cent that was stolen from Captain Hull."</p> + +<p>Supplemented by Mrs. Clancy's rueful and incoherent admissions, Clancy's +story did its work. Mrs. Clancy could not long persist in her various +denials after her husband's confession was brought to her ears, and she +was totally unable to account satisfactorily for the possession of so +much money. Little Kate had been too young to grasp the full meaning of +what Gower said to her mother in that hurried interview; but her +reiterated statements that he came late at night, before the regiment +got home, and knocked at the door until he waked them up, and her mother +cried when he came in, he looked so different, and had spectacles, and a +patch on his cheek, and ranch clothes, and he only stayed a little +while, and told her mother he must go back to the mountains, the police +were on his track,—she knew now he spoke of having deserted,—and he +gave her mother lots of money, for she opened and counted it afterwards +and told her it must all go to papa to get some one out of trouble,—all +were so clear and circumstantial that at last the hardened woman began +to break down and make reluctant admissions. When an astute sheriff's +officer finally told her that he knew where he could lay hands on +Sergeant Gower, she surrendered utterly. So long as he was out of the +way,—could not be found,—she held out; but the prospect of dragging +into prison with her the man who had spurned her in years gone by and +was proof against her fascinations was too alluring. She told all she +could at his expense. He had ridden eastward after his desertion, and, +making his way down the Missouri, had stopped at Yankton and gone thence +to Kansas City, spending much of his money. He had reached Denver with +the rest, and there—she knew not how—had made or received more, when +he heard <a name="Page_165" id="Page_165"></a>of the fact that Captain Hull had turned over his property to +Lieutenant Hayne just before he was killed, and that the lieutenant was +now to be tried for failing to account for it. He brought her enough to +cover all he had taken, but—here she lied—strove to persuade her to go +to San Francisco with him. She promised to think of it if he would leave +the money,—which he did, swearing he would come for her and it. That +was why she dared not tell Mike when he got home. He was so jealous of +her.</p> + +<p>To this part of her statement Mrs. Clancy stoutly adhered; but the +officers believed Kate.</p> + +<p>One other thing she told. Kate had declared he wore a heavy patch on his +right cheek and temple. Yes, Mrs. Clancy remembered it. Some scoundrels +had sought to rob him in Denver. He had to fight for life and money +both, and his share of the honors of the fray was a deep and clean cut +extending across the cheek-bone and up above the right ear.</p> + +<p>As these family revelations were told throughout the garrison and +comment of every kind was made thereon, there is reason for the belief +that Mrs. Buxton found no difficulty in filling her letters with +particulars of deep interest to her readers, who by this time had +carried out the programme indicated by Captain Rayner. Mid-June had +come; the ladies, apparently benefited by the sea-voyage, had landed in +New York and were speedily driven to their old quarters at the +Westminster; and while the captain went to head-quarters of the +department to report his arrival on leave and get his letters, a card +was sent up to Miss Travers which she read with cheeks that slightly +paled:</p> + +<p>"He is here, Kate."</p> + +<p>"Nellie, you—you won't throw him over, after all he has done and borne +for you?"</p> + +<p>"I shall keep my promise," was the answer.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XX" id="XX"></a>XX.</h2> + + +<p>"And so she's really going to marry Mr. Van Antwerp", said Mrs. Buxton +to Mrs. Waldron a few days later in the month of sunshine and roses.</p> + +<p>"I did not think it possible when she left," was the reply. "Why do you +say so now?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, Mrs. Rayner writes that the captain had to go to Washing<a name="Page_166" id="Page_166"></a>ton on +some important family matters, and that she and Nellie were at the +sea-shore again, and Mr. Van Antwerp was with them from morning till +night. He looked so worn and haggard, she said, that Nellie could not +but take pity on him. Heavens! think of having five hundred thousand +dollars sighing its life away for you!—especially when he's handsome. +Mrs. Rayner made me promise to send it right back, because he would +never give her one before, but she sent his picture. It's splendid. +Wait, and I'll show you." And Mrs. Buxton darted into the house.</p> + +<p>When she reappeared, three or four young cavalrymen were at the gate, +chatting with Mrs. Waldron, and the picture was passed from hand to +hand, exciting varied comment. It was a simple <i>carte de visite</i>, of the +style once spoken of as vignette,—only the head and shoulders being +visible,—but it was the picture of a strong, clear-cut face, with +thick, wavy black hair just tingeing with gray, a drooping moustache, +and long English whiskers. The eyes were heavy-browed, and, though +partially shaded by the gold-rimmed <i>pince-nez</i>, were piercing and fine. +Mr. Van Antwerp was unquestionably a fine-looking man.</p> + +<p>"Here comes Hayne," said Royce. "Show it to him. He likes pictures; +though I wouldn't like this one if I were in his place."</p> + +<p>Mr. Hayne stopped in some surprise when hailed, greeted Mrs. Waldron +warmly, and bowed courteously to Mrs. Buxton, who was watching him +narrowly.</p> + +<p>"Want to see a picture of the man you ought to go and perforate?" asked +Webster, with that lofty indifference which youngsters have to the +ravages of the tender passion on subjects other than themselves.</p> + +<p>"To whom do you refer?" asked Hayne, smiling gravely, and little +imagining what was in store for him.</p> + +<p>"This," said Webster, holding out the card. Hayne took it, gave one +glance, started, seized it with both hands, studied it eagerly, while +his own face rapidly paled, then looked up with quick, searching eyes.</p> + +<p>"Who is this?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"The man who's engaged to Miss Travers,—Mr. Van Antwerp."</p> + +<p>"This—<i>this</i>—Mr. Van Antwerp!" exclaimed Hayne, his face white as a +sheet. "Here, take it, Royce!" And in an instant he had turned and gone.</p> + +<p>"Well, I'll be hanged if I knew he was <i>that</i> hard hit," drawled +Webster. "Did you, Royce?"</p> + +<p>But Royce did not answer.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167"></a>A gorgeous moonlight is bathing the Jersey coast in sparkling silver. +The tumbling billows come thundering in to the shining strand, and +sending their hissing, seething, whirling waters, all shimmer and +radiance, to the very feet of the groups of spectators. There are +hundreds of people scattered here and there along the shingle, and among +the groups a pale-faced young man in tweed travelling-suit has made his +way to a point where he can command a view of all the passers-by. It is +nearly eleven o'clock before they begin to break up and seek the broad +corridors of the brilliantly-lighted hotel. A great military band of +nearly forty pieces is playing superbly at intervals, and every now and +then, as some stirring martial strains come thrilling through the air, a +young girl in a group near at hand beats time with her pretty foot and +seems to quiver with the influence of the soldier melodies. A tall, +dark-eyed, dark-haired man bends devotedly over her, but he, too, seems +to rise to his full height at times, and there is something in the +carriage and mien that tells that soldier songs have thrilled his veins +ere now. And this man the young traveller in gray watches as though his +eyes were fascinated. Standing in the shade of a little summer-house, he +never ceases his scrutiny of the group.</p> + +<p>At last the musicians go, and the people follow. The sands are soon +deserted; the great piazzas are emptied of their promenaders; the halls +and corridors are still patronized by the few belated chaperons and +their giddy charges. The music-loving girl has gone aloft to her room, +and her aunt, the third member of the group that so chained the +attention of the young map in gray, lingers for a moment to exchange a +few words with their cavalier. He seems in need of consolation.</p> + +<p>"Don't be, so down-hearted, Mr. Van Antwerp. It is very early in the +summer, and you have the whole season before you."</p> + +<p>"No, Mrs. Rayner: it is very different from last year. I cannot explain +it, but I know there has been a change. I feel as—as I used to in my +old, wild days when a change of luck was coming. It's like the gambler's +superstition; but I cannot shake it off. Something told me she was lost +to me when, you boarded that Pacific Express last February. I was a fool +ever to have let her go."</p> + +<p>"Is she still so determined?"</p> + +<p>"I cannot shake her resolution. She says that at the end of the year's +time originally agreed upon she will keep her promise; but she will +listen to no earlier marriage. I have about given up all hope. Something +again—that fearful something I cannot shake off—tells me <a name="Page_168" id="Page_168"></a>that my only +chance lay in getting her to go with me this month. Once abroad with +her, I could make her happy; but—"</p> + +<p>He breaks off irresolutely, looking about him in the strange, hunted +manner she has noted once or twice already.</p> + +<p>"You are all unstrung, Mr. Van Antwerp. Why not go to bed and try and +sleep? You will be so much brighter to-morrow."</p> + +<p>"I cannot sleep. But don't let me keep you. I'll go out and smoke a +cigar. Good-night, Mrs. Rayner. Whatever comes of it all, I shall not +forget your kindness."</p> + +<p>So he turns away, and she still stands at the foot of the staircase, +watching him uneasily. He has aged greatly in the past few months. She +is shocked to see how gray, how fitful, nervous, irritable, he has +become. As he moves towards the door-way, she notes how thin his cheek +has grown, and wonders at the irresolution in his movements when he +reaches the broad piazza. He stands there an instant, the massive +door-way forming a frame for a picture <i>en silhouette</i>, his tall spare +figure thrown black upon the silver sea beyond. He looks up and down the +now-deserted galleries, fumbles in his pockets for his cigar-case, bites +off with nervous clip the end of a huge "Regalia," strikes a light, and +before the flame is half applied to his weed throws it away, then turns +sharply and strides out of sight towards the office.</p> + +<p>Another instant, and, as though in pursuit, a second figure, erect, +soldierly, with quick and bounding step strides across the glittering +moon-streak, and Mrs. Rayner's heart stands still.</p> + +<p>Only for an instant, though. She has seen and recognized Lawrence Hayne. +Concealed from them he is following Mr. Van Antwerp, and there can be +but one purpose in his coming here,—Nellie. But what can he want with +her—her rightful lover? She springs from the lower step on which she +has been standing, runs across the tessellated floor, and stops short in +the door-way, gazing after the two figures. She is startled to find them +close at hand,—one, Van Antwerp, close to the railing, facing towards +her, his features ghastly in the moonlight, his left hand resting, and +supporting him, on one of the tall wooden pillars; the other, Hayne, +with white clinching fists, advancing upon him. Above the low boom and +roar of the surf she distinctly hears the clear tenor ring of his voice +in the tone of command she last heard under the shadow of the Rockies, +two thousand miles away:</p> + +<p>"Halt!"</p> + +<p>No wonder a gentleman in civil life looks amazed at so peremptory <a name="Page_169" id="Page_169"></a>a +summons from a total stranger. In his high indignation will he not +strike the impertinent subaltern to earth? As a well-bred woman, it +occurs to her that she ought to rush out and avert hostilities by +introducing them, or something; but she has no time to act. The next +words simply take her breath away:</p> + +<p>"Sergeant Gower, I arrest you as a deserter and thief! You deserted from +F troop, ——th Cavalry, at Battle Butte!"</p> + +<p>She sees the fearful gleam on the dark man's face; there is a sudden +spring, a clinch, a straining to and fro of two forms,—one tall, black, +snaky, the other light, lithe, agile, and trained; muttered curse, +panting breath, and then, sure as fate, the taller man is being borne +backward against the rail. She sees the dark arm suddenly relax its +grasp of the gray form and disappear an instant. Then, there it comes +again, and with it a gleam of steel. With one shriek of warning and +terror she springs towards them,—just in time. Hayne glances up, +catches the lifted wrist, hurls his whole weight upon the tottering +figure, and over goes the Knickerbocker prone upon the floor. Hayne +turns one instant: "Go in-doors, Mrs. Rayner. This is no place for you. +Leave him to me."</p> + +<p>And in that instant, before either can prevent, Steven Van Antwerp, +<i>alias</i> Gower, springs to his feet, leaps over the balcony rail, and +disappears in the depths below. It is a descent of not more than ten +feet to the sands beyond the dark passage that underlies the piazza, but +he has gone down into the passage itself. When Mr. Hayne, running down +the steps, gains his way to the space beneath the piazza, no trace of +the fugitive can he find.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Nor does Mr. Van Antwerp appear at breakfast on the following morning, +nor again to any person known to this story. An officer of the ——th +Cavalry, spending a portion of the following winter in Paris, writes +that he met him face to face one day in the galleries of the Louvre. +Being in civilian costume, of course, and much changed in appearance +since he was a youth in the straps of a second lieutenant, it was +possible for him to take a good long look at the man he had not seen +since he wore the chevrons of a dashing sergeant in the Battle Butte +campaign. "He has grown almost white," wrote the lieutenant, "and I'm +told he has abandoned his business in New York and never will return to +the United States."</p> + +<p>Rayner, too, has grown gray. A telegram from his wife sum<a name="Page_170" id="Page_170"></a>moned him to +the sea-side from Washington the day after this strange adventure of +hers. He found her somewhat prostrate, his sister-in-law very pale and +quiet, and the clerks of the hotel unable to account for the +disappearance of Mr. Van Antwerp. Lieutenant Hayne, they said, had told +them he received news which compelled him to go back to New York at +once; but the gentleman's traps were all in his room. Mr. Hayne, too, +had gone to New York; and thither the captain followed. A letter came to +him at the Westminster which he read and handed in silence to Hayne. It +was as follows:</p> + +<p>"By the time this reaches you I shall be beyond reach of the law and on +my way to Europe to spend what may be left of my days. I hope they may +be few; for the punishment that has fallen upon me is more than I can +bear, though no more than I deserve. You have heard that my college days +were wild, and that after repeated warnings my father drove me from +home, sending me to Wyoming to embark in the cattle-business. I +preferred gambling, and lost what he gave me. There was nothing then +left but to enlist; and I joined the ——th. Mother still believed me in +or near Denver, and wrote regularly there. The life was horrible to me +after the luxury and lack of restraint I had enjoyed, and I meant to +desert. Chance threw in my way that temptation. I robbed poor Hull the +night before he was killed, repacked the paper so that even the torn +edges would show the greenbacks, resealed it,—all just as I have had to +hear through her pure and sacred lips it was finally told and her lover +saved.</p> + +<p>"God knows I was shocked when I heard in Denver he was to be tried for +the crime. I hastened to Cheyenne, not daring to show myself to him or +any one, and restored every cent of the money, placing it in Mrs. +Clancy's hands, as I dared not stay; but I had hoped to give it to +Clancy, who had not arrived. The police knew me, and I <i>had</i> to go. I +gave every cent I had, and <i>walked</i> back to Denver, then got word to +mother of my fearful danger; and, though she never knew I was a +deserter, she sent me money, and I came East and went abroad. Then my +whole life changed. I was appalled to think how low I had fallen. I +shunned companionship, studied, did well at Heidelberg; father forgave +me, and died; but God has not forgiven, and at the moment when I thought +my life redeemed this retribution overtakes me.</p> + +<p>"If I may ask anything, it is that mother may never know the <a name="Page_171" id="Page_171"></a>truth. I +will tell her that Nellie could not love me, and I could not bear to +stay."</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Some few weeks later that summer Miss Travers stood by the same balcony +rail, with an open letter in her hand. There was a soft flush on her +pretty, peachy cheek, and a far-away look in her sweet blue eyes.</p> + +<p>"What news from Warrener, Nellie?" asked Mrs. Rayner.</p> + +<p>"Fluffy has reappeared."</p> + +<p>"Indeed! Where?"</p> + +<p>"At Mr. Hayne's. He writes that as he returned, the moment he entered +the hall she came running up to him, arching her back and purring her +delight and welcoming him just as though she belonged there now; and—"</p> + +<p>"And what, Nellie?"</p> + +<p>"He says he means to keep her until I come to claim her."</p> + +<h3>THE END</h3> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Deserter, by Charles King + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DESERTER *** + +***** This file should be named 16557-h.htm or 16557-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/5/5/16557/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Janet Blenkinship and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +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. 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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: The Deserter + +Author: Charles King + +Release Date: August 20, 2005 [EBook #16557] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DESERTER *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Janet Blenkinship and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +THE DESERTER, + +BY + +CAPT. CHARLES KING, U.S.A., + +AUTHOR OF "THE COLONEL'S DAUGHTER," "MARION'S FAITH," "KITTY'S +CONQUEST," ETC., ETC. + +Transcribers note +This e-book of The Deserter is based upon the edition found in The +Deserter, and From the Ranks. Two Novels, by Capt. Charles King. +Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, 1890. From the Ranks is also +available as a Project Gutenberg e-book. + +PHILADELPHIA: J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. + +1890 + +Copyright, 1887, by J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. + + + + +THE DESERTER. + + + + +PRELUDE. + + +Far up in the Northwest, along the banks of the broad, winding stream +the Sioux call the Elk, a train of white-topped army-wagons is slowly +crawling eastward. The October sun is hot at noon-day, and the dust from +the loose soil rises like heavy smoke and powders every face and form in +the guarding battalion so that features are wellnigh indistinguishable. +Four companies of stalwart, sinewy infantry, with their brown rifles +slung over the shoulder, are striding along in dispersed order, covering +the exposed southern flank from sudden attack, while farther out along +the ridge-line, and far to the front and rear, cavalry skirmishers and +scouts are riding to and fro, searching every hollow and ravine, peering +cautiously over every "divide," and signalling "halt" or "forward" as +the indications warrant. + +And yet not a hostile Indian has been seen; not one, even as distant +vedette, has appeared in range of the binoculars, since the scouts rode +in at daybreak to say that big bands were in the immediate neighborhood. +It has been a long, hard summer's work for the troops, and the Indians +have been, to all commands that boasted strength or swiftness, elusive +as the Irishman's flea of tradition. Only to those whose numbers were +weak or whose movements were hampered have they appeared in +fighting-trim. But combinations have been too much for them, and at last +they have been "herded" down to the Elk, have crossed, and are now +seeking to make their way, with women, children, tepees, dogs, +"travois," and the great pony herds, to the fastnesses of the Big Horn; +and now comes the opportunity for which an old Indian-fighter has been +anxiously waiting. In a big cantonment he has held the main body under +his command, while keeping out constant scouting-parties to the east and +north. He knows well that, true to their policy, the Indians will have +scattered into small bands capable of reassembling anywhere that signal +smokes may call them, and his orders are to watch all the crossings of +the Elk and nab them as they come into his district. He watches, despite +the fact that it is his profound conviction that the Indians will be no +such idiots as to come just where they are wanted, and he is in no wise +astonished when a courier comes in on jaded horse to tell him that they +have "doubled" on the other column and are now two or three days' march +away down stream, "making for the big bend." His own scouting-parties +are still out to the eastward: he can pick them up as he goes. He sends +the main body of his infantry, a regiment jocularly known as "The +Riflers," to push for a landing some fifty miles down-stream, scouting +the lower valley of the Sweet Root on the way. He sends his wagon-train, +guarded by four companies of foot and two of horsemen, by the only +practicable road to the bend, while he, with ten seasoned "troops" of +his pet regiment, the ----th Cavalry, starts forthwith on a long detour +in which he hopes to "round up" such bands as may have slipped away from +the general rush. Even as "boots and saddles" is sounding, other +couriers come riding in from Lieutenant Crane's party. He has struck the +trail of a big band. + +When the morning sun dawns on the picturesque valley in which the +cantonment nestled but the day before, it illumines an almost deserted +village, and brings no joy to the souls of some twoscore of embittered +civilians who had arrived only the day previous, and whose unanimous +verdict is that the army is a fraud and ought to be abolished. For four +months or more some three regiments had been camping, scouting, roughing +it thereabouts, with not a cent of pay. Then came the wildly exciting +tidings that a boat was on the way up the Missouri with a satrap of the +pay department, vast store of shekels, and a strong guard, and as a +consequence there would be some two thousand men around the cantonment +with pockets full of money and no one to help them spend it, and nothing +suitable to spend it on. It was a duty all citizens owed to the +Territory to hasten to the scene and gather in for local circulation all +that was obtainable of that disbursement; otherwise the curse of the +army might get ahead of them and the boys would gamble it away among +themselves or spend it for vile whiskey manufactured for their sole +benefit. Gallatin Valley was emptied of its prominent practitioners in +the game of poker. The stream was black with "Mackinaw" boats and other +craft. There was a rush for the cantonment that rivalled the multitudes +of the mining days, but all too late. The command was already packing up +when the first contingent arrived, and the commanding officer, +recognizing the fraternity at a glance, warned them outside the limits +of camp that night, declined their services as volunteers on the +impending campaign, and treated them with such calmly courteous +recognition of their true character that the Eastern press was speedily +filled with sneering comment on the hopelessness of ever subduing the +savage tribes of the Northwest when the government intrusts the duty to +upstart officers of the regular service whose sole conception of their +functions is to treat with insult and contempt the hardy frontiersman +whose mere presence with the command would be of incalculable benefit. +"We have it from indisputable authority," says _The Miner's Light_ of +Brandy Gap, "that when our esteemed fellow-citizen Hank Mulligan and +twenty gallant shots and riders like himself went in a body to +General---- at the cantonment and offered their services as volunteers +against the Sioux now devastating the homesteads and settlements of the +Upper Missouri and Yellowstone valleys, they were treated with haughty +and contemptuous refusal by that bandbox caricature of a soldier and +threatened with arrest if they did not quit the camp. When _will_ the +United States learn that its frontiers can never be purged of the Indian +scourges of our civilization until the conduct of affairs in the field +is intrusted to other hands than these martinets of the drill-ground? It +is needless to remark in this connection that the expedition led by +General---- has proved a complete failure, and that the Indians easily +escaped his clumsily-led forces." + +The gamblers, though baffled for the time being, of course "get square," +and more too, with the unfortunate general in this sort of warfare, but +they are a disgusted lot as they hang about the wagon-train as last of +all it is being hitched-in to leave camp. Some victims, of course, they +have secured, and there are no devices of commanding officers which can +protect their men against those sharks of the prairies when the men +themselves are bound to tempt Providence and play. There are two +scowling faces in the cavalry escort that has been left back with the +train, and Captain Hull, the commanding officer, has reprimanded +Sergeants Clancy and Gower in stinging terms for their absence from the +command during the night. There is little question where they spent it, +and both have been "cleaned out." What makes it worse, both have lost +money that belonged to other men in the command, and they are in bad +odor accordingly. + +The long day's march has tempered the joviality of the entire column. It +is near sundown, and still they keep plodding onward, making for a +grassy level on the river-bank a good mile farther. + +"Old Hull seems bound to leave the sports as far behind as possible, if +he has to march us until midnight," growls the battalion adjutant to his +immediate commander. "By thunder! one would think he was afraid they +would get in a lick at his own pile." + +"How much did you say he was carrying?" asks Captain Rayner, checking +his horse for a moment to look back over the valley at the long, +dust-enveloped column. + +"Nearly three thousand dollars in one wad." + +"How does he happen to have such a sum?" + +"Why, Crane left his pay-accounts with him. He drew all that was due his +men who are off with Crane,--twenty of them,--for they had signed the +rolls before going, and were expected back to-day. Then he has some six +hundred dollars company fund; and the men of his troop asked him to take +care of a good deal besides. The old man has been with them so many +years they look upon him as a father and trust him as implicitly as they +would a savings-bank." + +"That's all very well," answers Rayner; "but I wouldn't want to carry +any such sum with me." + +"It's different with Hull's men, captain. They are ordered in through +the posts and settlements. They have a three weeks' march ahead of them +when they get through their scout, and they want their money on the way. +It was only after they had drawn it that the news came of the Indians' +crossing and of our having to jump for the warpath. Everybody thought +yesterday morning that the campaign was about over so far as we are +concerned. Halloo! here comes young Hayne. Now, what does _he_ want?" + +Riding a quick, nervous little bay troop horse, a slim-built officer, +with boyish face, laughing blue eyes, and sunny hair, comes loping up +the long prairie wave; he shouts cheery greeting to one or two brother +subalterns who are plodding along beside their men, and exchanges some +merry chaff with Lieutenant Ross, who is prone to growl at the luck +which has kept him afoot and given to this favored youngster a "mount" +and a temporary staff position. The boy's spirits and fun seem to jar on +Rayner's nerves. He regards him blackly as he rides gracefully towards +the battalion commander, and with decidedly nonchalant ease of manner +and an "off-hand" salute that has an air about it of saying, "I do this +sort of thing because one has to, but it doesn't really mean anything, +you know," Mr. Hayne accosts his superior: + +"Ah, good-evening, captain. I have just come back from the front, and +Captain Hull directed me to give you his compliments and say that we +would camp in the bend yonder, and he would like you to post strong +pickets and have a double guard to-night." + +"Have _me_ post double guards! How the devil does he expect me to do +that after marching all day?" + +"I did not inquire, sir: he might have told me 'twas none of my +business, don't you know?" And Mr. Hayne has the insufferable hardihood +to wink at the battalion adjutant,--a youth of two years' longer service +than his own. + +"Well, Mr. Hayne, this is no matter for levity," says Rayner, angrily. +"What does Captain Hull mean to do with his own men, if I'm to do the +guard?" + +"That is another point, Captain Rayner, which I had not the requisite +effrontery to inquire into. Now, _you_ might ask him, but I couldn't, +don't you know?" responds Hayne, smiling amiably the while into the +wrathful face of his superior. It serves only to make the indignant +captain more wrathful; and no wonder. There has been no love lost +between the two since Hayne joined the Riflers early the previous year. +He came in from civil life, a city-bred boy, fresh from college, full of +spirits, pranks, fun of every kind; a wonderfully keen hand with the +billiard-cue; a knowing one at cards and such games of chance as college +boys excel at; a musician of no mean pretensions, and an irrepressible +leader in all the frolics and frivolities of his comrades. He had leaped +to popularity from the start. He was full of courtesy and gentleness to +women, and became a pet in social circles. He was frank, free, +off-handed with his associates, spending lavishly, "treating" with +boyish ostentation on all occasions, living quite _en grand seigneur_, +for he seemed to have a little money outside his pay,--"a windfall from +a good old duffer of an uncle," as he had explained it. His father, a +scholarly man who had been summoned to an important under-office in the +State Department during the War of the Rebellion, had lived out his +honored life in Washington and died poor, as such men must ever die. It +was his wish that his handsome, spirited, brave-hearted boy should enter +the army, and long after the sod had hardened over the father's +peaceful grave the young fellow donned his first uniform and went out to +join "The Riflers." High-spirited, joyous, full of laughing fun, he was +"Pet" Hayne before he had been among them six months. But within the +year he had made one or two enemies. It could not be said of him that he +showed that deference to rank and station which was expected of a junior +officer; and among the seniors were several whom he speedily designated +"unconscionable old duffers" and treated with as little semblance of +respect as a second lieutenant could exhibit and be permitted to live. +Rayner prophesied of him that, as he had no balance and was burning his +candle at both ends, he would come to grief in short order. Hayne +retorted that the only balance that Rayner had any respect for was one +at the banker's, and that it was notorious in Washington that the +captain's father had made most of his money in government contracts, and +that the captain's original commission in the regulars was secured +through well-paid Congressional influence. The fact that Rayner had +developed into a good officer did not wipe out the recollection of these +facts; and he could have throttled Hayne for reviving them. It was "a +game of give and take," said the youngster; and he "behaved himself" to +those who were at all decent in their manner to him. + +It was a thorn in Rayner's flesh, therefore, when Hayne joined from +leave of absence, after experiences not every officer would care to +encounter in getting back to his regiment, that Captain Hull should have +induced the general to detail him in place of the invalided field +quartermaster when the command was divided. Hayne would have been a +junior subaltern in Rayner's little battalion but for that detail, and +it annoyed the captain more seriously than he would confess. + +"It is all an outrage and a blunder to pick out a boy like that," he +growls between his set teeth as Hayne canters blithely away. "Here he's +been away from the regiment all summer long, having a big time and +getting head over ears in debt, I hear, and the moment he rejoins they +put him in charge of the wagon-train as field quartermaster. It's +putting a premium on being young and cheeky,--besides absenteeism," he +continues, growing blacker every minute. + +"Well, captain," answers his adjutant, injudiciously, "I think you don't +give Hayne credit for coming back on the jump the moment we were ordered +out. It was no fault of his he could not reach us. He took chances _I_ +wouldn't take." + +"Oh, yes! you kids all swear by Hayne because he's a good fellow and +sings a jolly song and plays the piano--and poker. One of these days +he'll swamp you all, sure as shooting. He's in debt _now_, and it'll +fetch him before you know it. What he needs is to be under a captain who +could discipline him a little. By Jove, I'd do it!" And Rayner's teeth +emphasize the assertion. + +The young adjutant thinks it advisable to say nothing that may provoke +further vehemence. All the same, he remembers Rayner's bitterness of +manner, and has abundant cause to. + +When the next morning breaks, chill and pallid, a change has come in the +aspect of affairs. During the earliest hour of the dawn the red light of +a light-draught river-boat startled the outlying pickets down-stream, +and the Far West, answering the muffled hail from shore, responded, +through the medium of a mate's stentorian tones, "News that'll rout you +fellows out." The sun is hardly peeping over the jagged outline of the +eastern hills when, with Rayner's entire battalion aboard, she is +steaming again down-stream, with orders to land at the mouth of the +Sweet Root. There the four companies will disembark in readiness to join +the rest of the regiment. + +All day long again the wagon-train twists and wriggles through an ashen +section of Les Mauvaises Terres. It is a tedious, trying march for +Hull's little command of troopers,--all that is now left to guard the +train. The captain is constantly out on the exposed flank, eagerly +scanning the rough country to the south, and expectant any moment of an +attack from that direction. He and his men, as well as the horses, +mules, and teamsters, are fairly tired out when at nightfall they park +the wagons in a big semicircle, with the broad river forming a shining +chord to the arc of white canvas. All the live-stock are safely herded +within the enclosure; a few reliable soldiers are posted well out to the +south and east, to guard against surprise, and the veteran Sergeant +Clancy is put in command of the sentries. The captain gives strict +injunctions as to the importance of these duties; for he is far from +easy in his mind over the situation. The Riflers, he knows, are over in +the valley of the Sweet Root. The steamer with Rayner's men is tied up +at the bank some five miles below, around the bend. The ----th are far +off to the northward across the Elk, as ordered, and must be expecting +on the morrow to make for the old Indian "ferry" opposite Battle Butte. +The main body of the Sioux are reported farther down stream, but he +feels it in his bones that there are numbers of them within signal, and +he wishes with all his heart the ----th were here. Still, the general +was sure he would stir up war-parties on the other shore. Individually, +he has had very little luck in scouting during the summer, and he cannot +help wishing he were with the rest of the crowd instead of here, +train-guarding. + +Presently Mr. Hayne appears, elastic and debonair as though he had not +been working like a horse all day. His voice sounds so full of cheer and +life that Hull looks up smilingly: + +"Well, youngster, you seem to love this frontier life." + +"Every bit of it, captain. I was cut out for the army, as father +thought." + +"We used to talk it over a good deal in the old days when I was +stationed around Washington," answers Hull. "Your father was the warmest +friend I had in civil circles, and he made it very pleasant for me. How +little we thought it would be my luck to have you for quartermaster!" + +"The fellows seemed struck all of a heap in the Riflers at the idea of +your applying for me, captain. I was ready to swear it was all on +father's account, and would have told them so, only Rayner happened to +be the first man to tackle me on the subject, and he was so crusty about +it I kept the whole thing to myself rather than give him any +satisfaction." + +"Larry, my boy, I'm no preacher, but I want to be the friend to you your +father was to me. You are full of enthusiasm and life and spirits, and +you love the army ways and have made yourself very popular with the +youngsters, but I'm afraid you are too careless and independent where +the seniors are concerned. Rayner is a good soldier; and you show him +very scant respect, I'm told." + +"Well, he's such an interfering fellow. They will all tell you I'm +respectful enough to--to the captains I like--" + +"That's just it, Lawrence. So long as you like a man your manner is what +it should be. What a young soldier ought to learn is to be courteous and +respectful to senior officers whether he likes them or not. It costs an +effort sometimes, but it tells. You never know what trouble you are +laying up for yourself in the army by bucking against men you don't +like. They may not be in position to resent it at the time, but the time +is mighty apt to come when they _will_ be, and then you are helpless." + +"Why, Captain Hull, I don't see it that way at all. It seems to me that +so long as an officer attends to his duty, minds his own business, and +behaves like a gentleman, no one can harm him; especially when all the +good fellows of the regiment are his friends, as they are mine, I think, +in the Riflers." + +"Ah, Hayne, it is a hard thing to teach a youngster that--that there are +men who find it very easy to make their juniors' lives a burden to them, +and without overstepping a regulation. It is harder yet to say that +friends in the army are a good deal like friends out of it: one only has +to get into serious trouble to find how few they are. God grant you may +never have to learn it, my boy, as many another has had to, by sharp +experience! Now we must get a good night's rest. You sleep like a log, I +see, and I can only take cat-naps. Confound this money! How I wish I +could get rid of it!" + +"Where do you keep it to-night?" + +"Right here in my saddle-bags under my head. Nobody can touch them that +I do not wake; and my revolver is here under the blanket. Hold on! Let's +take a look and see if everything is all right." He holds a little +camp-lantern over the bags, opens the flap, and peers in. "Yes,--all +serene. I got a big hunk of green sealing-wax from the paymaster and +sealed it all up in one package with the memorandum-list inside. It's +all safe so far,--even to the hunk of sealing-wax.--What is it, +sergeant?" + +A tall, soldierly, dark-eyed trooper appears at the door-way of the +little tent, and raises his gauntleted hand in salute. His language, +though couched in the phraseology of the soldier, tells both in choice +of words and in the intonation of every phrase that he is a man whose +antecedents have been far different from those of the majority of the +rank and file: + +"Will the captain permit me to take my horse and those of three or four +more men outside the corral? Sergeant Clancy says he has no authority to +allow it. We have found a patch of excellent grass, sir, and there is +hardly any left inside. I will sleep by my picket-pin, and one of us +will keep awake all the time, if the captain will permit." + +"How far away is it, sergeant?" + +"Not seventy-five yards, sir,--close to the river-bank east of us." + +"Very well. Send Sergeant Clancy here, and I'll give the necessary +orders." + +The soldier quietly salutes, and disappears in the gathering darkness. + +"That's what I like about that man Gower," says the captain, after a +moment's silence. "He is always looking out for his horse. If he were +not such a gambler and rake he would make a splendid first-sergeant. +Fine-looking fellow, isn't he?" + +"Yes, sir. That is a face that one couldn't well forget. Who was the +other sergeant you overhauled for getting fleeced by those sharps at the +cantonment?" + +"Clancy? He's on guard to-night. A very different character." + +"I don't know him by sight as yet. Well, good-night, sir. I'll take +myself off and go to my own tent." + + * * * * * + +Daybreak again, and far to the east the sky is all ablaze. The mist is +creeping from the silent shallows under the banks, but all is life and +vim along the shore. With cracking whip, tugging trace, sonorous +blasphemy, and ringing shout, the long train is whirling ahead almost at +the run. All is athrill with excitement, and bearded faces have a +strange, set look about the jaws, and eyes gleam with eager light and +peer searchingly from every rise far over to the southeast, where stands +a tumbling heap of hills against the lightening sky. "Off there, are +they?" says a burly trooper, dismounting hastily to tighten up the +"cinch" of his weather-beaten saddle. "We can make it quick enough, 's +soon as we get rid of these blasted wagons." And, swinging into saddle +again, he goes cantering down the slope, his charger snorting with +exhilaration in the keen morning air. + +Before dawn a courier has galloped into camp, bearing a despatch from +the commanding officer of the Riflers. It says but few words, but they +are full of meaning: "We have found a big party of hostiles. They are in +strong position, and have us at disadvantage. Rayner with his four +companies is hurrying to us. Leave all wagons with the boat under guard, +and come with every horse and man you can bring." + +Before seven o'clock the wagons are parked close along the bank beside +the Far West, and Hull, with all the men he can muster,--some fifty,--is +trotting ahead on the trail of Rayner's battalion. With him rides Mr. +Hayne, eager and enthusiastic. Before ten o'clock, far up along the +slopes they see the blue line of skirmishers, and the knots of reserves +farther down, all at a stand. In ten minutes they ride with foaming +reins in behind a low ridge on which, flat on their faces and cautiously +peering over the crest, some hundred infantrymen are disposed. Others, +officers and file-closers, are moving to and fro in rear. They are of +Rayner's battalion. Farther back, down in a ravine a dozen forms are +outstretched upon the turf, and others are bending over them, +ministering to the needs of those who are not past help already. Several +officers crowd around the leading horsemen, and Hull orders, "Halt, +dismount, and loosen girths." The grave faces show that the infantry has +had poor luck, and the situation is summarized in few words. The Indians +are in force occupying the ravines and ridges opposite them and +confronting the six companies farther over to the west. Two attacks have +been made, but the Indian fire swept every approach, and both were +unsuccessful. Several soldiers were shot dead, others severely wounded. +Lieutenant Warren's leg is shattered below the knee; Captain Blount is +killed. + +"Where's Rayner?" asks Hull, with grave face. + +"Just gone off with the chief to look at things over on the other front. +The colonel is hopping. He is bound to have those Indians out of there +or drop a-trying. They'll be back in a minute. The general had a rousing +fight with Dull Knife's people down the river last evening. You missed +it again, Hull: all the ----th were there but F and K,--and of course +old Firewater wants to make as big a hit here." + +"The ----th fighting down the river last night?" asks Hull, in amaze. + +"Yes,--swept clean round them and ran 'em into the stream, they say. I +wish we had them where we could see 'em at all. You don't get the +glimpse of a head, even; but all those rocks are lined with the beggars. +Damn them!" says the adjutant, feelingly. + +"We'll get our chance _here_, then," replies Hull, reflectively. "I'll +creep up and take a look at it. Take my horse, orderly." + +He is back in two minutes, graver than before, but his bearing is +spirited and firm. Hayne watches him with kindling eye. + +"You'll take me in with you when you charge?" he asks. + +"It is no place to charge there. The ground is all cut up with ravines +and gullies, and they've got a cross-fire that sweeps it clean. We'll +probably go in on the other flank; it's more open there. Here comes the +chief now." + +Two officers come riding hastily around a projecting point of the slope +and spur at rapid gait towards the spot where the cavalry have +dismounted and are breathing their horses. There is hardly time for +salutations. A gray-headed, keen-eyed, florid-faced old soldier is the +colonel, and he is snapping with electricity, apparently. + +"This way, Hull. Come right here, and I'll show you what you are to do." +And, followed by Rayner, Hull, and Hayne, the chief rides sharply over +to the extreme left of the position and points to the frowning ridge +across the intervening swale. + +"There, Hull: there are twenty or thirty of the rascals in there who get +a flank fire on us when we attack on our side. What I want you to do is +to mount your men, let them draw pistol and be all ready. Rayner, here, +will line the ridge to keep them down in front. I'll go back to the +right and order the attack at once. The moment we begin and you hear our +shots, you give a yell, and charge full tilt across there, so as to +drive out those fellows in that ravine. We can do the rest. Do you +understand?" + +"I understand, colonel; but--is it your order that I attempt to charge +mounted across that ground?" + +"Why, certainly! It isn't the best in the world, but you can make it. +They can't do very much damage to your men before you reach them. It's +_got_ to be done; it's the only way." + +"Very good, sir: that ends it!" is the calm, soldierly reply; and the +colonel goes bounding away. + +A moment later the troop is in saddle, eager, wiry, bronzed fellows +every one, and the revolvers are in hand and being carefully examined. +Then Captain Hull signals to Hayne, while Rayner and three or four +soldiers sit in silence, watching the man who is to lead the charge. He +dismounts at a little knoll a few feet away, tosses his reins to the +trumpeter, and steps to his saddle-bags. Hayne, too, dismounts. + +Taking his watch and chain from the pocket of his hunting-shirt, he +opens the saddle-bag on the near side and takes therefrom two +packets,--one heavily sealed,--which he hands to Hayne. + +"In case I--don't come back, you know what to do with these,--as I told +you last night." + +Hayne only looks imploringly at him: "You are not going to leave me +_here_, captain?" + +"Yes, Hayne. You can't go with us. Hark! There they go at the right. Are +the packages all right?" + +Hayne, with stunned faculties, thinking only of the charge he longs to +make,--not of the one he has to keep,--replies he knows not what. There +is a ringing bugle-call far off among the rocks to the westward; a +rousing cheer; a rattling volley. Rayner springs off to his men on the +hill-side. Hull spurs in front of his eager troop, holding high his +pistol-hand: + +"Now, men, follow till I drop; and then keep ahead! Come on!" + +There is a furious sputter of hoofs, a rush of excited steeds up the +gentle slope, a glad outburst of cheers as they sweep across the ridge +and out of sight, then the clamor and yell of frantic battle; and when +at last it dies away, the Riflers are panting over the hard-won position +and shaking hands with some few silent cavalrymen. They have carried the +ridge, captured the migrating village, squaws, ponies, travois, and +pappooses; their "long Toms" have sent many a stalwart warrior to the +mythical hunting-grounds, and the peppery colonel's triumph is complete. + +But Lawrence Hayne, with all the light gone from his brave young face, +stands mutely looking down, upon the stiffening frame of his father's +old friend, and his, who lies shot through the heart. + + + + +I. + + +In the Pullman car of the westward-bound express, half-way across the +continent, two passengers were gazing listlessly out over the wintry +landscape. It was a bitter morning in February. North and south the +treeless prairie rolled away in successive ridge and depression. The +snow lay deep in the dry ravines and streaked the sea-like surface with +jagged lines of foam between which lay broad spaces clean-swept by the +gale. Heavy masses of cloud, dark and forbidding, draped the sky from +zenith to horizon, and the air was thick with spiteful gusts and spits +of snow, crackling against the window-panes, making fierce dashes every +time a car door was hurriedly opened, and driving about the platforms +like a myriad swarm of fleecy and aggressive gnats raging for battle. +Every now and then, responsive to some wilder blast, a blinding white +cloud came whirling from the depths of the nearest gully and breaking +like spray over the snow fence along the line. Not a sign of life was +visible. The tiny mounds in the villages of the prairie-dogs seemed +blocked and frozen; even the trusty sentinel had "deserted post" and +huddled with his fellows for warmth and shelter in the bowels of the +earth. Fluttering owl and skulking coyote, too, had vanished from the +face of nature. Timid antelope--fleetest coursers of the prairie--and +stolid horned cattle had gone, none knew whither, nor cared to know +until the "blizzard" had subsided. Two heavy engines fought their way, +panting, into the very teeth of the gale and slowly wound the long train +after them up-grade among the foot-hills of the great plateau of the +Rockies. Once in a while, when stopping for a moment at some group of +brown-painted sheds and earth-battened shanties, the wind moaned and +howled among the iron braces and brake-chains beneath the car and made +such mournful noise that it was a relief to start once more and lose +sound of its wailing in the general rumble. As for the scenery, only as +a picture of shiver-provoking monotony and desolation would one care to +take a second look. + +And yet, some miles ahead, striving hard to reach the railway in time to +intercept this very train, a small battalion of cavalry was struggling +through the blasts, officers and men afoot and dragging their own +benumbed limbs and half-benumbed chargers through the drifts that lay +deep at the bottom of every "coulee." Some few soldiers remained in +saddle: they were too frozen to walk at all. Some few fell behind, and +would have thrown themselves flat upon the prairie in the lethargy that +is but premonition of death by freezing. Like men half deadened by +morphine, their rescue depended on heroic measures, humane in their +seeming brutality. Officers who at other times were all gentleness now +fell upon the hapless stragglers with kicks and blows. As the train drew +up at the platform of a station in mid-prairie, a horseman enveloped in +fur and frost and steam from his panting steed reined up beside the +leading engine and shouted to the occupants of the cab,-- + +"For God's sake hold on a few minutes. We've got a dozen frozen men with +us we must send on to Fort Warrener." And the train was held. + +Meantime, those far to the rear in the sleeper knew nothing of what was +going on ahead. The car was warm and comfortable, and most of its +occupants were apparently appreciative of its shelter and coseyness in +contrast with the cheerless scene without. A motherly-looking woman had +produced her knitting, and was blithely clicking away at her needles, +while her enterprising son, a youth of four summers and undaunted +confidence in human nature, tacked up and down the aisle and made +impetuous incursions on the various sections by turns, receiving such +modified welcome as could be accorded features streaked with mingled +candy and cinders, and fingers whose propensity to cling to whatsoever +they touched was due no more to instincts of a predatory nature than to +the adhesive properties of the glucose which formed so large a +constituent of the confections he had been industriously consuming since +early morning. Four men playing whist in the rearmost section, two or +three commercial travellers, whose intimacy with the porter and airs of +easy proprietorship told of an apparent controlling interest in the +road, a young man of reserved manners, reading in a section all by +himself, a baby sleeping quietly upon the seat opposite the two +passengers first mentioned, and a Maltese kitten curled up in the lap of +one of them, completed the list of occupants. + +The proximity of the baby and the kitten furnishes strong presumptive +evidence of the sex and general condition of the two passengers referred +to, and renders detail superfluous. A baby rarely travels without a +woman, or a kitten with a woman already encumbered with a baby. The baby +belonged to the elder passenger, the kitten to the younger. The one was +a buxom matron, the other a slender maid. In their ages there must have +been a difference of fifteen years; in feature there was still wider +disparity. The elder was a fine-looking woman, and one who prided +herself upon the Junoesque proportions which she occasionally exhibited +in a stroll for exercise up and down the aisle. Yet no one would call +her a beauty. Her eyes were of a somewhat fishy and uncertain blue; the +lids were tinged with an unornamental pink that told of irritation of +the adjacent interior surface and of possible irritability of temper. +Her complexion was of that mottled type which is so sore a trial to its +possessor and yet so inestimable a comfort to social rivals; but her +features were handsome, her teeth fine, her dress, bearing, and demeanor +those of a woman of birth and breeding, and yet one who might have +resented the intimation that she was not strikingly handsome. She looked +like a woman with a will of her own; her head was high, her step was +firm; it was of just such a walk as hers that Virgil wrote his "_vera +incessu patuit dea_," and she made the young man in the section by +himself think of that very passage as he glanced at her from under his +heavy, bushy eyebrows. She looked, moreover, like a woman with a +capacity for influencing people contrary to their will and judgment, and +with a decided fondness for the exercise of that unpopular function. +There was the air of _grande dame_ about her, despite the simplicity of +her dress, which, though of rich material, was severely plain. She wore +no jewelry. Her hands were snugly gloved, and undisfigured by the +distortions of any ring except the marriage circlet. Her manner attested +her a person of consequence in her social circle and one who realized +the fact. She had repelled, though without rudeness or discourtesy, the +garrulous efforts of the motherly knitter to be sociable. She had +promptly inspired the small, candy-crusted explorer with such awe that +he had refrained from further visits after his first confiding attempt +to poke a sticky finger through the baby's velvety cheek. She had spared +little scorn in her rejection of the _bourgeois_ advances of the +commercial traveller with the languishing eyes of Israel: he confided to +his comrades, in relating the incident, that she was smart enough to see +that it wasn't _her_ he was hankering to know, but the pretty sister by +her side; and when challenged to prove that they _were_ sisters,--a +statement which aroused the scepticism of his shrewd associates,--he had +replied, substantially,-- + +"How do I know? 'Cause I saw their pass before you was up this morning, +cully. It's for Mrs. Captain Rayner and sister, and they're going out +here to Fort Warrener. That's how I know." And the porter of the car had +confirmed the statement in the sanctity of the smoking-room. + +And yet--such is the uncertainty of feminine temperament--Mrs. Rayner +was no more incensed at the commercial "gent" because he had obtruded +his attentions than she was at the young man reading in his own section +because he had refrained. Nearly twenty-four hours had elapsed since +they crossed the Missouri, and in all that time not once had she +detected in him a glance that betrayed the faintest interest in her, +or--still more remarkable--in the unquestionably lovely girl at her +side. Intrusiveness she might resent, but indifference she would and +did. Who was this youth, she wondered, who not once had so much as +stolen a look at the sweet, bonny face of her maiden sister? Surely +'twas a face any man would love to gaze upon,--so fair, so exquisite in +contour and feature, so pearly in complexion, so lovely in the deep, +dark brown of its shaded eyes. + +The bold glances of the four card-players she had defiantly returned, +and vanquished. Those men, like the travelling gents, were creatures of +coarser mould; but her experienced eye told her the solitary occupant of +the opposite section was a gentleman. The clear cut of his pale +features, the white, slender hand and shapely foot, the style and finish +of his quiet travelling-dress, the soft modulation and refined tone of +his voice on the one occasion when she heard him reply to some +importunity of the train-boy with his endless round of equally +questionable figs and fiction, the book he was reading,--a volume of +Emerson,--all combined to speak of a culture and position equal to her +own. She had been over the trans-continental railways often enough to +know that it was permissible for gentlemen to render their +fellow-passengers some slight attention which would lead to mutual +introductions if desirable; and this man refused to see that the +opportunity was open to him. + +True, when first she took her survey of those who were to be her +fellow-travellers at the "transfer" on the Missouri, she decided that +here was one against whom it would be necessary to guard the approaches. +She had good and sufficient reasons for wanting no young man as +attractive in appearance as this one making himself interesting to +pretty Nellie on their journey. She had already decided what Nellie's +future was to be. Never, indeed, would she have taken her to the gay +frontier station whither she was now _en route_, had not that future +been already settled to her satisfaction. Nellie Travers, barely out of +school, was betrothed, and willingly so, to the man she, her devoted +elder sister, had especially chosen. Rare and most unlikely of +conditions! she had apparently fallen in love with the man picked out +for her by somebody else. She was engaged to Mrs. Rayner's fascinating +friend Mr. Steven Van Antwerp, a scion of an old and esteemed and +wealthy family; and Mr. Van Antwerp, who had been educated abroad, and +had a Heidelberg scar on his left cheek, and dark, lustrous eyes, and +wavy hair,--almost raven,--was a devoted lover, though fully fifteen +years Miss Nellie's senior. + +Full of bliss and comfort was Mrs. Rayner's soul as she journeyed +westward to rejoin her husband at the distant frontier post she had not +seen since the early spring. Army woman as she was, born and bred under +the shadow of the flag, a soldier's daughter, a soldier's wife, she had +other ambitions for her beautiful Nell. Worldly to the core, she herself +would never have married in the army but for the unusual circumstance of +a wealthy subaltern among the officers of her father's regiment. +Tradition had it that Mr. Rayner was not among the number of those who +sighed for Kate Travers's guarded smiles. Her earlier victims were kept +a-dangling until Rayner, too, succumbed, and then were sent adrift. She +meant that no penniless subaltern should carry off her "baby +sister,"--they had long been motherless,--and a season at the sea-shore +had done her work well. Steven Van Antwerp, with genuine distress and +loneliness, went back to his duties in Wall Street after seeing them +safely on their way to the West. "Guard her well for me," he whispered +to Mrs. Rayner. "I dread those fellows in buttons." And he shivered +unaccountably as he spoke. + +Nellie was pledged, therefore, and this youth in the Pullman was not one +of "those fellows in buttons," so far as Mrs. Rayner knew, but she was +ready to warn him off, and meant to do so, until, to her surprise, she +saw that he gave no symptom of a desire to approach. By noon of the +second day she was as determined to extract from him some sign of +interest as she had been determined to resent it. I can in no wise +explain or account for this. The fact is stated without remark. + +"What on earth can we be stopping so long here for?" was Mrs. Rayner's +somewhat petulant inquiry, addressed to no one in particular. There was +no reply. Miss Travers was busily twitching the ears of the kitten at +the moment and sparring with upraised finger at the threatening paw. + +"Do look out of the window, Nell, and see." + +"There is nothing to see, Kate,--nothing but whirling drifts and a big +water-tank all covered with ice. Br-r-r-r! how cold it looks!" she +answered, after vainly flattening her face against the inner pane. + +"There must be something the matter, though," persisted Mrs. Rayner. "We +have been here full five minutes, and we are behind time now. At this +rate we'll never get to Warrener to-night. I do wish the porter would +stay here where he belongs." + +The young man quietly laid down his book and arose. "I will inquire, +madame," he said, with grave courtesy. "You shall know in a moment." + +"How _very_ kind of you!" said the lady. "Indeed I must not trouble you. +I'm sure the porter will be here after a while." + +And even as she spoke, and as he was pulling on an overcoat, the train +rumbled off again. Then came an exclamation, this time from the younger: + +"Why, Kate! Look! see all these men,--and horses! Why, they are +soldiers,--cavalry! Oh, how I love to see them again! But, oh, how cold +they look!--frozen!" + +"Who _can_ they be?" said Mrs. Rayner, all vehement interest now, and +gazing eagerly from the window at the lowered heads of the horses and +the muffled figures in blue and fur. "What _can_ they be doing in the +field in such awful weather? I cannot recognize one of them, or tell +officers from men. Surely that must be Captain Wayne,--and Major +Stannard. Oh, what can it mean?" + +The young man had suddenly leaped to the window behind them, and was +gazing out with an eagerness and interest little less apparent than her +own, but in a moment the train had whisked them out of sight of the +storm-beaten troopers. Then he hurried to the rear window of the car, +and Mrs. Rayner as hastily followed. + +"_Do_ you know them?" she asked. + +"Yes. That _was_ Major Stannard. It is his battalion of the ----th +Cavalry, and they have been out scouting after renegade Cheyennes. +Pardon me, madame, I must go forward and see who have boarded the +train." + +He stopped at his section, and again she followed him, her eyes full of +anxiety. He was busy tugging at a flask in his travelling-bag. + +"You know them! Do you know--have you heard of any infantry being out? +Pardon me for detaining you, but I am very anxious. My husband is +Captain Rayner, of Fort Warrener." + +"No infantry have been sent, madame, I--have reason to know; at least, +none from Warrener." + +And with that he hurriedly bowed and left her. The next moment, flask in +hand, he was crossing the storm-swept platform and making his way to the +head of the train. + +"I believe he is an officer," said Mrs. Rayner to her sister. "Who else +would be apt to know about the movement of the troops? Did you notice +how gentle his manner was?--and he never smiled: he has such a sad face. +Yet he can't be an officer, or he would have made himself known to us +long ago." + +"Is there no name on the satchel?" asked Miss Travers, with pardonable +curiosity. "He has an interesting face,--not handsome." And a dreamy +look came into her deep eyes. She was thinking, no doubt, of a dark, +oval, _distingue_ face with raven hair and moustache. The youth in the +travelling-suit was not tall, like Steven,--not singularly, romantically +handsome, like Steven. Indeed, he was of less interest to her than to +her married sister. + +Mrs. Rayner could see no name on the satchel,--only two initials; and +they revealed very little. + +"I have half a mind to peep at the fly-leaf of that book," she said. "He +walked just like a soldier: but there isn't anything there to indicate +what he is," she continued, with a doubtful glance at the items +scattered about the now vacant section. "Why isn't that porter here? He +ought to know who people are." + +As though to answer her request, in came the porter, dishevelled and +breathless. He made straight for the satchel they had been scrutinizing, +and opened it without ceremony. Both ladies regarded this proceeding +with natural astonishment, and Mrs. Rayner was about to interfere and +question his right to search the luggage of passengers, when the man +turned hurriedly towards them, exhibiting a little bundle of +handkerchiefs, his broad Ethiopian face clouded with anxiety and +concern: + +"The gentleman told me to take all his handkerchiefs. We'se got a dozen +frozen soldiers in the baggage-car,--some of 'em mighty bad,--and +they'se tryin' to make 'em comfortable until they get to the fort." + +"Soldiers frozen! Why do you take them in the baggage-car?--such a barn +of a place! Why weren't they brought here, where we could make them warm +and care for them?" exclaimed Mrs. Rayner, in impulsive indignation. + +"Laws, ma'am! never do in the world to bring frozen people into a hot +car! Sure to make their ears an' noses drop off, that would! Got to keep +'em in the cold and pile snow around 'em. That gentleman sittin' +here,--he knows," he continued: "he's an officer, and him and the +doctor's workin' with 'em now." + +And Mrs. Rayner, vanquished by a statement of facts well known to her +yet forgotten in the first impetuosity of her criticism, relapsed into +the silence of temporary defeat. + +"He _is_ an officer, then," said Miss Travers, presently. "I wonder what +he belongs to." + +"Not to our regiment, I'm sure. Probably to the cavalry. He knew Major +Stannard and other officers whom we passed there." + +"Did he speak to them?" + +"No: there was no time. We were beyond hearing-distance when he ran to +the back door of the car; and there was no time before that. But it's +very odd!" + +"What's very odd?" + +"Why, his conduct. It is so strange that he has not made himself known +to us, if he's an officer." + +"Probably he doesn't know you--or we--are connected with the army, +Kate." + +"Oh, yes, he does. The porter knows perfectly well, and I told him just +before he left." + +"Yes, but he didn't know before that time, did he?" + +"He ought to have known," said Mrs. Rayner, uncompromisingly. "At least, +he should if he had taken the faintest interest. I mentioned Captain +Rayner so that he could not help hearing." + +This statement being one that Miss Travers could in no wise +contradict,--as it was one, indeed, that Mrs. Rayner could have +dispensed with as unnecessary,--the younger lady again betook herself to +silence and pulling the kitten's ears. + +"Even if he didn't know before," continued her sister, after a pause in +which she had apparently been brooding over the indifference of the +young man in question, "he ought to have made himself known after I told +him who I was." Another pause. "That's what I did it for," she wound up, +conclusively. + +"And that's what I thought," said Miss Travers, with a quiet smile. +"However, he had no time then: he was hurrying off to see whether any of +the soldiers had come on board. He took his flask with him, and +apparently was in haste to offer someone a drink. I'm sure that is what +papa used to do," she added, as she saw a frown gathering on her +sister's face. + +"What papa did just after the war--a time when everybody drank--is not +at all the proper thing now. Captain Rayner never touches it; and I +don't allow it in the house." + +"Still, I should think it a very useful article when a lot of frozen and +exhausted men are on one's hands," said Miss Travers. "That was but a +small flask he had, and I'm sure they will need more." + +There came a rush of cold air from the front, and the swinging door blew +open ahead of the porter, who was heard banging shut the outer portal. +Then he hurried in. + +"Can some of you gentlemen oblige me with some whiskey or brandy?" he +asked. "We've got some frozen soldiers aboard. Two of 'em are pretty +nearly gone." + +Two of the card-players dropped their hands and started for their +section at once. Before they could rummage in their bags for the +required article, Mrs. Rayner's voice was heard: "Take this, porter." +And she held forth a little silver flask. "I have more in my trunk if it +is needed," she added, while a blush mounted to her forehead as she saw +the quizzical smile on her sister's face. "You know I _always_ carry it +in travelling, Nellie,--in case of accident or illness; and I'm most +thankful I have it now." + +"Ever so much obliged, ma'am," said the porter, "but this would be only +a thimbleful, and I can get a quart bottle of this gentleman." + +"Where are they?" said the person thus referred to, as he came down the +aisle with a big brown bottle in his hand. "Come, Jim, let's go and see +what we can do. One of you gentlemen take my place in the game," he +continued, indicating the commercial gents, two of whom, nothing loath, +dropped into the vacated seats, while the others pushed on to the front +of the train. The porter hesitated one moment. + +"Yes, take my flask: I shouldn't feel satisfied without doing something. +And please say to the officer that I'm Mrs. Rayner,--Mrs. Captain +Rayner, of the infantry,--and ask if there isn't something I can do to +help." + +"Yes, ma'am; I will, ma'am. Oh, he knows who you are: I done told him +last night. He's goin' to Fort Warrener, too." And, touching his cap, +away went the porter. + +"There! He _did_ know all along," said Mrs. Rayner, triumphantly. "It is +most extraordinary!" + +"Well, is it the proper thing for people in the army to introduce +themselves when travelling? How are they to know it will be agreeable?" + +"Agreeable! Why, Nellie, it's _always_ done,--especially when ladies are +travelling without escort, as we are. The commonest civility should +prompt it; and officers always send their cards by the porter the moment +they find army ladies are on the train. I don't understand this one at +all,--especially--" But here she broke off abruptly. + +"Especially what?" asked Miss Nell, with an inspiration of maidenly +curiosity. + +"Especially nothing. Never mind now." And here the baby began to fidget, +and stir about, and stretch forth his chubby hands, and thrust his +knuckles in his eyes, and pucker up his face in alarming contortions +preparatory to a wail, and, after one or two soothing and tentative +sounds of "sh--sh--sh--sh" from the maternal lips, the matron abandoned +the attempt to induce a second nap, and picked him up in her arms, where +he presently began to take gracious notice of his pretty aunt and the +kitten. + +Two hours later, just as the porter had notified them that Warrener +Station would be in sight in five minutes, the young man of the +opposite section returned to the car. He looked tired, very anxious, +and his face was paler and the sad expression more pronounced than +before. The train-conductor stopped him to speak of some telegrams that +had been sent, and both ladies noted the respect which the railway +official threw into the tone in which he spoke. The card-players stopped +their game and went up to ask after the frozen men. It was not until the +whistle was sounding for the station that he stood before them and with +a grave and courteous bow held forth Mrs. Rayner's silver flask. + +"It was a blessing to one poor fellow at least, and I thank you for him, +madame," he said. + +"I have been so anxious. I wanted to do something. Did you not get my +message, Mr.----?" she asked, with intentional pause that he might +supply the missing name. + +"Indeed there was nothing we could ask of you," he answered, totally +ignoring the evident invitation. "I am greatly obliged to you for your +kindness, but we had abundant help, and you really could not have +reached the car in the face of this gale. Good-morning, madame." And +with that he raised his fur travelling-cap and quickly turned to his +section and busied himself strapping up his various belongings. + +"The man must be a woman-hater," she whispered to Miss Travers, "He's +going to get out here, too. Who _can_ he be?" + +There was still a moment before the train would stop at the platform, +and she was not to be beaten so easily. Bending partly across the aisle, +she spoke again: + +"You have been so kind to those poor fellows that I feel sure you must +be of the army. I think I told you I am Mrs. Rayner, of Fort Warrener. +May we not hope to see you there?" + +A deep flush rose to his forehead, suffusing his cheeks, and passed as +quickly away. His mouth twitched and trembled. Gazing at him in surprise +and trouble, Nellie Travers saw that his face was full of pain and was +turning white again. He half choked before he could reply: he spoke low, +and yet distinctly, and the words were full of sadness: + +"It--it is not probable that we shall meet at all." + +And with that he turned away. + + + + +II. + + +Even in the excitement attendant upon their reception at the station +neither Mrs. Rayner nor her sister could entirely recover from the +surprise and pain which the stranger's singular words had caused. So far +from feeling in the least rebuffed, Mrs. Rayner well understood from his +manner that not the faintest discourtesy was intended. There was not a +symptom of rudeness, not a vestige of irritation or haste, in his tone. +Deep embarrassment, inexpressible sadness even, she read in the brief +glimpse she had of his paling face. It was all a mystery to her and to +the girl seated in silence by her side. Both followed him with their +eyes as he hurried away to the rear of the car, and then, with joyous +shouts, three or four burly, fur-enveloped men came bursting in the +front door, and the two ladies, the baby, and the kitten were pounced +upon and surrounded by a group that grew larger every minute. Released +finally from the welcoming embrace of her stalwart husband, Mrs. Rayner +found time to present the other and younger officers to her sister. As +many as half a dozen had followed the captain in his wild rush upon the +car, and, while he and his baby boy were resuming acquaintanceship after +a separation of many long months, Miss Travers found herself the centre +of a circle of young officers who had braved the wintry blizzard in +their eagerness to do her proper homage. Her cheeks were aflame with +excitement and pleasure, her eyes dancing, and despite the fatigue of +her long journey she was looking dangerously pretty, as Captain Rayner +glanced for a moment from the baby's wondering eyes, took in the picture +like an instantaneous photograph, and then looked again into Mrs. +Rayner's smiling face. + +"You were wise in providing against possibilities as you did, Kate," he +said, with a significant nod of the head. "There are as many as a dozen +of them,--or at least there will be when the ----th gets back from the +field. Stannard is out yet with his battalion." + +"Oh, yes: we saw them at a station east of here. They looked frozen to +death; and there _are_ ever so many of the soldiers frozen. The +baggage-car is full of them. Didn't you know it?" + +"Not a word of it. We have been here for three mortal hours waiting at +the station, and any telegrams must have been sent right out to the +fort. The colonel is there, and he would have all arrangements made. +Here, Graham! Foster! Mrs. Rayner says there are a lot of frozen +cavalrymen forward in the baggage-car. Run ahead and see what is +necessary, will you? I'll be there in a minute, as soon as we've got +these ladies off the train." + +Two of the young gentlemen who had been hovering around Miss Travers +took themselves off without a moment's delay. The others remained to +help their senior officer. Out into the whirling eddies of snow, +bundling them up in the big, warm capes of their regulation overcoats, +the officers half led, half carried their precious charges. The captain +bore his son and heir; Lieutenant Ross escorted Mrs. Rayner; two others +devoted themselves exclusively to Miss Travers; a fourth picked up the +Maltese kitten. Two or three smart, trim-looking infantry soldiers +cleared the section of bags and bundles of shawls, and the entire party +was soon within the door-way of the waiting-room, where a red-hot +coal-stove glowed fierce welcome. Here the ladies were left for a +moment, while all the officers again bustled out into the storm and +fought their way against the northwest gale until they reached the +little crowd gathered about the door-way of the freight-sheds. A stout, +short, burly man in beaver overcoat and cap pushed through the knot of +half-numbed spectators and approached their leader: + +"We have only two ambulances, captain,--that is all there was at the +post when the despatch came,--and there are a dozen of these men, +besides Dr. Grimes, all more or less crippled, and Grimes has both hands +frozen. We must get them out at once. Can we take your wagon?" + +"Certainly, doctor. Take anything we have. If the storm holds, tell the +driver not to try to come back for us. We can make the ladies +comfortable here at the hotel for the night. Some of the officers have +to get back for duties this evening. The rest will have to stay. How did +they happen to get caught in such a freeze?" + +"They couldn't help it. Stannard had chased the Cheyennes across the +range, and was ordered to get back to the railway. It was twenty below +when they started, and they made three days' chase in that weather; but +no one seemed to care so long as they were on the trail. Then came the +change of wind, and a driving snow-storm, in which they lost the trail +as a matter of course; and then this blizzard struck them on the +back-track. Grimes is so exhausted that he could barely hold out until +he got here. He says he never could have brought them through from +Bluff Siding but for Mr. Hayne: he did everything." + +"Mr. Hayne! Was he with them?" + +"He was on the train, and came in at once to offer his services. Grimes +says he was invaluable." + +"But Mr. Hayne was East on leave: I _know_ he was. He was promoted to my +company last month,--confound the luck!--and was to have six months' +leave before joining. I wish it was six years. Where is he now?" And the +captain peered excitedly around from under his shaggy cap. Oddly, too, +his face was paling. + +"He left as soon as I took charge. I don't know where he's gone; but +it's God's mercy he was with these poor fellows. His skill and care have +done everything for them. Where did he get his knowledge?" + +"I've no idea," said Captain Rayner, gruffly, and in evident ill humor. +"He is the last man I expected to see this day or for days to come. Is +there anything else I can do, doctor?" + +"Nothing, thank you, captain." And the little surgeon hastened back to +his charges, followed by some of the younger officers, eager to be of +assistance in caring for their disabled comrades. Rayner himself +hesitated a moment, then turned about and trudged heavily back along the +wind-swept platform. The train had pulled away, and was out of sight in +the whirl of snow over the Western prairies. He went to his own +substantial wagon, and shouted to the driver, who sat muffled in buffalo +fur on the box,-- + +"Get around there to the freight-house and report to the doctor. There +are a lot of frozen cavalrymen to be taken out to the hospital. Don't +try to come back for us to-night: we'll stay here in town. Send the +quartermaster's team in for the trunks as soon as the storm is over and +the road clear. That's all." + +Then he rejoined the party at the waiting-room of the station, and Mrs. +Rayner noted instantly that all the cheeriness had gone and that a cloud +had settled on his face. She was a shrewd observer, and she knew him +well. Something more serious than a mishap to a squad of soldiers had +brought about the sudden change. He was all gladness, all rejoicing and +delight, when he clasped her and his baby boy in his arms but ten +minutes before, and now--something had occurred to bring him serious +discomfort. She rested her hand on his arm and looked questioningly in +his face. He avoided her glance, and quickly began to talk. She saw +that he desired to answer no questions just then, and wisely refrained. + +Meantime, Miss Travers was chatting blithely with two young gallants who +had returned to her side, and who had thrown off their heavy furs and +now stood revealed in their becoming undress uniforms. Mr. Ross had gone +to look over the rooms which the host of the railway hotel had offered +for the use of the party; the baby was yielding to the inevitable and +gradually condescending to notice the efforts of Mr. Foster to scrape +acquaintance; the kitten, with dainty step, and ears and tail erect, was +making a leisurely inspection of the premises, sniffing about the few +benches and chairs with which the bare room was burdened, and +reconnoitring the door leading to the hall-way with evident desire to +extend her researches in that direction. Presently that very door +opened, and in came two or three bundles of fur in masculine shape, and +with them two shaggy deer-hounds, who darted straight at the kitten. +There was a sudden flurry and scatter, a fury of spits and scratching, a +yelp of pain from one brute with lacerated nose, a sudden recoil of both +hounds, and then a fiery rush through the open door-way in pursuit of +puss. After the first gallant instinct of battle her nerve had given +out, and she had sought safety in flight. + +"Oh, don't let them hurt her!" cried Miss Travers, as she darted into +the hall and gazed despairingly up the stairway to the second story, +whither the dogs had vanished like a flash. Two of the young officers +sped to the rescue and turned the wrong way. Mrs. Rayner and the captain +followed her into the hall. A rush of canine feet and an excited chorus +of barks and yelps were heard aloft; then a stern voice ordering, "Down, +you brutes!" a sudden howl as though in response to a vigorous kick, and +an instant later, bearing the kitten, ruffled, terrified, and wildly +excited, yet unharmed, there came springing lightly down the steps the +young man in civilian dress who was their fellow-traveller on the +Pullman. Without a word he gave his prize into the dainty hands +outstretched to receive it, and, never stopping an instant, never +listening to the eager words of thanks from her pretty lips, he darted +back as quickly as he came, leaving Miss Travers suddenly stricken dumb. + +Captain Rayner turned sharply on his heel and stepped back into the +waiting-room. Mr. Ross nudged a brother lieutenant and whispered, "By +gad! that's awkward for Midas!" The two subalterns who had taken the +wrong turn at the top of the stairs reappeared there just as the +rescuer shot past them on his way back, and stood staring, first after +his disappearing form, and then at each other. Miss Travers, with wonder +and relief curiously mingled in her sweet face, clung to her restored +kitten and gazed vacantly up the stairs. + +Mrs. Rayner looked confusedly from one to the other, quickly noting the +constraint in the manner of every officer present and the sudden +disappearance of her husband. There was an odd silence for a moment: +then she spoke: + +"Mr. Ross, do you know that gentleman?" + +"I know who he is. Yes." + +"Who is he, then?" + +"He is your husband's new first lieutenant, Mrs. Rayner. That is Mr. +Hayne." + +"_That!_--Mr. Hayne?" she exclaimed, growing suddenly pale. + +"Certainly, madame. Had you never seen him before?" + +"Never; and I expected--I didn't expect to see such a--" And she broke +short off, confused and plainly distressed, turned abruptly, and left +the hall as had her husband. + + + + +III. + + +The officers of Fort Warrener were assembled, as was the daily morning +custom, in the presence of the colonel commanding. It had long been the +practice of that veteran soldier to require all his commissioned +subordinates to put in an appearance at his office immediately after the +ceremony of guard-mounting. He might have nothing to say to them, or he +might have a good deal; and he was a man capable of saying a good deal +in very few words, and meaning exactly what he said. It was his custom +to look up from his writing as each officer entered and respond to the +respectful salutation tendered him with an equally punctilious +"Good-morning, Captain Gregg," or "Good-morning, Mr. Blake,"--never +omitting the mention of the name, unless, as was sometimes tried, a +squad of them came in together and made their obeisance as a body. In +this event the colonel simply looked each man in the face, as though +taking mental note of the individual constituents of the group, and +contented himself with a "Good-morning, gentlemen." + +When in addition to six troops of his own regiment of cavalry there were +sent to the post a major and four companies of infantry, some of the +junior officers of the latter organization had suggested to their +comrades of the yellow stripes that as the colonel had no roll-call it +might be a matter of no great risk to "cut the _matinee_" on some of the +fiendishly cold mornings that soon set in; but the experiment was never +designedly tried, thanks, possibly, to the frank exposition of his +personal views as expressed by Lieutenant Blake, of the cavalry, who +said, "Try it if you are stagnating for want of a sensation, my genial +plodder, but not if you value the advice of one who has been there, so +to speak. The chief will spot you quicker than he can a missing shoe,--a +missing _horse_shoe, Johnny, let me elaborate for your +comprehension,--and the next question will be, 'Mr. Bluestrap, did you +intentionally absent yourself?' and _then_ how will you get out of it?" + +The _matinees_, so called, were by no means unpopular features of the +daily routine. The officers were permitted to bring their pipes or +cigars and take their after-breakfast smoke in the big, roomy office of +the commander, just as they were permitted to enjoy the post-prandial +whiff when at evening recitation in the same office they sat around the +room, chatting in low tones, for half an hour, while the colonel +received the reports of his adjutant, the surgeon, and the old and the +new officer of the day. Then any matters affecting the discipline or +instruction or general interests of the command were brought up; both +sides of the question were presented, if question arose; the decision +was rendered then and there, and the officers were dismissed for the day +with the customary "That's all, gentlemen." They left the office well +knowing that only in the event of some sudden emergency would they be +called thither again or disturbed in their daily vocations until the +same hour on the following morning. Meantime, they must be about their +work: drills, if weather permitted; stable-duty, no matter what the +weather; garrison courts, boards of survey, the big general court that +was perennially dispensing justice at the post, and the long list of +minor but none the less exacting demands on the time and attention of +the subalterns and company commanders. The colonel was a strict, even +severe, disciplinarian, but he was cool, deliberate, and just. He +"worked" his officers, and thereby incurred the criticism of a few, but +held the respect of all. He had been a splendid cavalry-commander in the +field of all others where his sterling qualities were sure to find +responsive appreciation in his officers and men,--on active and stirring +campaigns against the Indians,--and among his own regiment he knew that +deep in their hearts the ----th respected and believed in him, even +when they growled at garrison exactions which seemed uncalled for. The +infantry officers knew less of him as a sterling campaigner, and were +not so well pleased with his discipline. It was all right for him to +"rout out" every mother's son in the cavalry at reveille, because all +the cavalry officers had to go to stables soon afterwards,--that was all +they were fit for,--but what on earth was the use of getting them--the +infantry--out of their warm beds before sunrise on a wintry morning and +having no end of roll-calls and such things through the day, "just to +keep them busy"? The real objection--the main objection--to the +colonel's system was that it kept a large number of officers, most of +whom were educated gentlemen, hammering all day long at an endless +routine of trivial duties, allowing actually no time in which they could +read, study, or improve their minds; but, as ill luck would have it, the +three young gentlemen who decided to present to the colonel this view of +the case had been devoting what spare time they could find to a lively +game of poker down at "the store," and their petition for "more time to +themselves" brought down a reply from the oracular lips of the commander +that became immortal on the frontier and made the petitioners nearly +frantic. For a week the trio was the butt of all the wits at Fort +Warrener. And yet the entire commissioned force felt that they were +being kept at the grindstone because of the frivolity of these few +youngsters, and they did not like it. All the same the cavalrymen stuck +up for their colonel, and the infantrymen respected him, and the +_matinees_ were business-like and profitable. They were rarely +unpleasant in any feature; but this particular morning--two days after +the arrival of Mrs. Rayner and her sister--there had been a scene of +somewhat dramatic interest, and the groups of officers in breaking up +and going away could discuss nothing else. The colonel had requested one +of their number to remain, as he wished to speak to him further; and +that man was Lieutenant Hayne. + +Seven years had that young gentleman been a second lieutenant of the +regiment of infantry a detachment of which was now stationed at +Warrener. Only this very winter had promotion come to him; and, of all +companies in the regiment, he was gazetted to the first-lieutenancy of +Captain Rayner's. For a while the regiment when by itself could talk of +little else. Mr. Hayne had spent three or four years in the exile of a +little "two-company post" far up in the mountains. Except the officers +there stationed, none of his comrades had seen him during that time. No +one of them would like to admit that he would care to see him. And yet, +when once in a while they got to talking among themselves about him, and +the question was sometimes confidentially asked of comrades who came +down on leave from that isolated station, "How is Hayne doing?" or, +"What is Hayne doing?" the language in which he was referred to grew by +degrees far less truculent and confident than it had been when he first +went thither. Officers of other regiments rarely spoke to the "Riflers" +of Mr. Hayne. Unlike one or two others of their arm of the service, this +particular regiment of foot held the affairs of its officers as +regimental property in which outsiders had no concern. If they had +disagreements, they were kept to themselves; and even in a case which in +its day had attracted wide-spread attention the Riflers had long since +learned to shun all talk outside. It was evident to other commands that +the Hayne affair was a sore point and one on which they preferred +silence. And yet it was getting to be whispered around that the Riflers +were by no means so unanimous as they had been in their opinion of this +very officer. They were becoming divided among themselves; and what +complicated matters was the fact that those who felt their views +undergoing a reconstruction were compelled to admit that just in +proportion as the case of Mr. Hayne rose in their estimation the +reputation of another officer was bound to suffer; and that officer was +Captain Rayner. + +Between these two men not a word had been exchanged for five years,--not +a single word since the day when, with ashen face and broken accents, +but with stern purpose in every syllable, Lieutenant Hayne, standing in +the presence of nearly all the officers of his regiment, had hurled this +prophecy in his adversary's teeth: "Though it take me years, I will live +it down despite you; and you will wish to God you had bitten out your +perjured tongue before ever you told the lie that wrecked me." + +No wonder there was talk, and lots of it, in the "Riflers" and all +through the garrison when Rayner's first lieutenant suddenly threw up +his commission and retired to the mines he had located in Montana, and +Hayne, the "senior second," was promoted to the vacancy. Speculation as +to what would be the result was given a temporary rest by the news that +War Department orders had granted the subaltern six months' leave,--the +first he had sought in as many years. It was known that he had gone +East; but hardly had he been away a fortnight when there came the +trouble with the Cheyennes at the reservation,--a leap for liberty by +some fifty of the band, and an immediate rush of the cavalry in +pursuit. There were some bloody atrocities, as there always are. All the +troops in the department were ordered to be in readiness for instant +service, while the officials eagerly watched the reports to see which +way the desperate band would turn; and the next heard of Mr. Hayne was +the news that he had thrown up his leave and had hurried out to join his +company the moment the Eastern papers told of the trouble. It was all +practically settled by the time he reached the department; but the +spirit and intent of his action could not be doubted. And now here he +was at Warrener. That very morning during the _matinee_ he had entered +the office unannounced, walked up to the desk of the commander, and, +while every voice but his in the room was stilled, he quietly spoke: + +"Permit me to introduce myself, colonel,--Mr. Hayne. I desire to +relinquish my leave of absence and report for duty." + +The colonel quickly arose and extended his hand: + +"Mr. Hayne, I am especially glad to see you and to thank you here for +all your care and kindness to our men. The doctor tells me that many of +them would have had to suffer the loss of noses and ears, even of hands +and feet in some cases, but for your attention. Major Stannard will add +his thanks to mine when he returns. Take a seat, sir, for the present. +You are acquainted with the officers of your own regiment, doubtless. +Mr. Billings, introduce Mr. Hayne to ours." + +Whereat the adjutant courteously greeted the new-comer, presented a +small party of yellow-strapped shoulders, and then drew him into earnest +talk about the adventure of the train. It was noticed that Mr. Hayne +neither by word nor glance gave the slightest recognition of the +presence of the officers of his own regiment, and that they as +studiously avoided him. One or two of their number had, indeed, risen +and stepped forward, as though to offer him the civil greeting due to +one of their own cloth; but it was with evident doubt of the result. +They reddened when he met their tentative--which was that of a +gentleman--with a cold look of utter repudiation. He did not choose to +see them, and, of course, that ended it. + +Nor was his greeting hearty among the cavalrymen. There were only a few +present, as most of the ----th were still out in the field and marching +slowly homeward. The introductions were courteous and formal, there was +even constraint among some two or three, but there was civility and an +evident desire to refer to his services in behalf of their men. All such +attempts, however, Mr. Hayne waved aside by an immediate change of the +subject. It was plain that to them too, he had the manner of a man who +was at odds with the world and desired to make no friends. + +The colonel quickly noted the general silence and constraint, and +resolved to shorten it as much as possible. Dropping his pen, he wheeled +around in his chair with determined cheerfulness: + +"Mr. Hayne, you will need a day or two to look about before you select +quarters and get ready for work, I presume." + +"Thank you, colonel. No, sir. I shall move in this afternoon and be on +duty to-morrow morning," was the calm reply. + +There was an awkward pause for a moment. The officers looked blankly +from one to another, and then began craning their necks to search for +the post quartermaster, who sat an absorbed listener. Then the colonel +spoke again: + +"I appreciate your promptness, Mr. Hayne; but have you considered that +in choosing quarters according to your rank you will necessarily move +somebody out? We are crowded now, and many of your juniors are married, +and the ladies will want time to pack." + +An anxious silence again. Captain Rayner was gazing at his boot-toes and +trying to appear utterly indifferent; others leaned forward, as though +eager to hear the answer. A faint smile crossed Mr. Hayne's features: he +seemed rather to enjoy the situation: + +"I _have_ considered, colonel. I shall turn nobody out, and nobody need +be incommoded in the least." + +"Oh! then you will share quarters with some of the bachelors?" asked the +colonel, with evident relief. + +"No, sir;" and the answer was stern in tone, though perfectly +respectful: "I shall live as I have lived for years,--utterly alone." + +One could have heard a pin drop in the office,--even on the matted +floor. The colonel half rose: + +"Why, Mr. Hayne, there is not a vacant set of quarters in the garrison. +You will _have_ to move some one out if you decide to live alone." + +"There may be no quarters _in_ the post, sir, but, if you will permit +me, I can live near my company and yet in officers' quarters." + +"How so, sir?" + +"In the house out there on the edge of the garrison, facing the prairie. +It is within stone's-throw of the barracks of Company B, and is exactly +like those built for the officers in here along the parade." + +"Why, Mr. Hayne, no officers ever lived there. It is utterly out of the +way and isolated. I believe it was built for the sutler years ago, but +was bought in by the government afterwards.--Who lives there now, Mr. +Quartermaster?" + +"No one, sir. It is being used as a tailors' shop; half a dozen of the +company tailors work there; but I can send them back to their own +barracks. The house is in good repair, and, as Mr. Hayne says, exactly +like those built for officers' use." + +"And you mean you want to live there, alone, Mr. Hayne?" + +"I do, sir,--exactly." + +The colonel turned sharply to his desk once more. The strained silence +continued a moment. Then he faced his officers: + +"Mr. Hayne, will you remain a few moments? I wish to speak with +you.--Gentlemen, that is all this morning." And so the meeting +adjourned. + +While many of the cavalry officers strolled into the neighboring +club-and reading-room, it was noticed that their comrades of the +infantry lost no time at intermediate points, but took the shortest road +to the row of brown cottages known as the officers' quarters. The +feeling of constraint that had settled upon all was still apparent in +the group that entered the club-room, and for a moment no one spoke. +There was a general settling into easy-chairs and picking up of +newspapers without reference to age or date. No one seemed to want to +say anything, and yet every one felt it necessary to have some apparent +excuse for becoming absorbed in other matters. This was so evident to +Lieutenant Blake that he speedily burst into a laugh,--the first that +had been heard,--and when two or three heads popped out from behind +their printed screens to inquire into the cause of his mirth, that +light-hearted gentleman was seen sprawling his long legs apart and +gazing out of the window after the groups of infantrymen. + +"What do you see that's so intensely funny?" growled one of the elders +among the dragoons. + +"Nothing, old mole,--nothing," said Blake, turning suddenly about. "It +looks too much like a funeral procession for fun. What I'm chuckling at +is the absurdity of our coming in here like so many mutes in weepers. +It's none of _our_ funeral." + +"Strikes me the situation is damned awkward," growled "the mole" again. +"Here's a fellow comes in who's cut by his regiment and has placed ours +under lasting obligation before he gets inside the post." + +"Well, does any man here know the rights and wrongs of the case, +anyhow?" said a tall, bearded captain as he threw aside the paper which +he had not been reading, and rose impatiently to his feet. "It seems to +me, from the little I've heard of Mr. Hayne and the little I've seen, +that there is a broad variation between facts and appearances. He looks +like a gentleman." + +"No one _does_ know anything more of the matter than was known at the +time of the court-martial five years ago," answered "the mole." "Of +course you have heard all about that; and my experience is that when a +body of officers and gentlemen find, after due deliberation on the +evidence, that another has been guilty of conduct unbecoming an officer +and a gentleman, the chances are a hundred to one he has been doing +something disreputable, to say the least." + +"Then why wasn't he dismissed?" queried a young lieutenant. "The law +says he must be." + +"That's right, Dolly: pull your Ives and Benet on 'em, and show you know +all about military law and courts-martial," said the captain, +crushingly. "It's one thing for a court to sentence, and another for the +President to approve. Hayne _was_ dismissed, so far as a court could do +it, but the President remitted the whole thing." + +"There was more to it than that, though, and you know it, Buxton," said +Blake. "Neither the department commander nor General Sherman thought the +evidence conclusive, and they said so,--especially old Gray Fox. And you +ask any of these fellows here now whether they believe Hayne was really +guilty, and I'll bet you that eight out of ten will flunk at the +question." + +"And yet they all cut him dead. That's _prima facie_ evidence of what +they think." + +"Cut be blowed! By gad, if any man asked me to testify on oath as to +where the cut lay, I should say he had cut _them_. Did you see how he +ignored Foster and Graham this morning?" + +"I did; and I thought it damned ungentlemanly in him. Those fellows did +the proper thing, and he ought to have acknowledged it," broke in a +third officer. + +"I'm not defending _that_ point; the Lord knows he has done nothing to +encourage civility with his own people; but there are two sides to every +story, and I asked their adjutant last fall, when there was some talk +of his company's being sent here, what Hayne's status was, and he told +me. There isn't a squarer man or sounder soldier in the army than the +adjutant of the Riflers; and he said that it was Hayne's stubborn pride +that more than anything else stood in the way of his restoration to +social standing. He had made it a rule that every one who was not for +him was against him, and refused to admit any man to his society who +would not first come to him of his own volition and say he believed him +utterly innocent. As that involved the necessity of their looking upon +Rayner as either perjured or grossly and persistently mistaken, no one +felt called upon to do it. Guilty or innocent, he has lived the life of +a Pariah ever since." + +"_I_ wanted to open out to him, to-day," said Captain Gregg, "but the +moment I began to speak of his great kindness to our men he froze as +stiff as Mulligan's ear. What was the use? I simply couldn't thaw an +icicle. What made him so effective in getting the frost out of them was +his capacity for absorbing it into his own system." + +"Well, here, gentlemen," said Buxton, impatiently, "we've got to face +this thing sooner or later, and may as well do it now. I know Rayner, +and like him, and don't believe he's the kind of man to wilfully wrong +another. I _don't_ know Mr. Hayne, and Mr. Hayne apparently don't want +to know me. _I_ think that where a man has been convicted of +dishonorable--disgraceful conduct and is cut by his whole regiment it is +our business to back the regiment, not the man. Now the question is, +where shall we draw the line in this case? It's none of our funeral, as +Blake says, but ordinarily it would be our duty to call upon this +officer. Shall we do it, now that he is in Coventry, or shall we leave +him to his own devices?" + +"I'll answer for myself, Buxton," said Blake, "and you can do as, you +please. Except that one thing, and the not unusual frivolities of a +youngster that occurred previous to his trial, I understand that his +character has been above reproach. So far as I can learn, he is a far +more reputable character than I am, and a better officer than most of +us. Growl all you want to, comrades mine: 'it's a way we have in the +army,' and I like it. So long as I include myself in these malodorous +comparisons, you needn't swear. It is my conviction that the Riflers +wouldn't say he was guilty to-day if they hadn't said so five years ago. +It is my information that he has paid every cent of the damages, whether +he caused them or not, and it is my intention to go and call upon Mr. +Hayne as soon as he's settled. I don't propose to influence any man in +his action; and excuse me, Buxton, I think you _did_." + +The captain looked wrathful. Blake was an oddity, of whom he rather +stood in awe, for there was no mistaking the popularity and respect in +which he was held in his own regiment. The ----th was somewhat +remarkable for being emphatically an "outspoken crowd," and for some +years, thanks to a leaven of strong and truthful men in whom this trait +was pronounced and sustained, it had grown to be the custom of all but a +few of the officers to discuss openly and fully all matters of +regimental policy and utterly to discountenance covert action of any +kind. Blake was thoroughly popular, and generally respected, despite a +tendency to rant and rattle on most occasions. Nevertheless, there were +signs of dissent as to the line of action he proposed, though it were +only for his own guidance. + +"And how do you suppose Rayner and the Riflers generally will regard +your calling on their black sheep?" asked Buxton, after a pause. + +"I don't know," said Blake, more seriously, and with a tone of concern. +"I like Rayner, and have found most of those fellows thorough gentlemen +and good friends. This will test the question thoroughly. I believe most +of them, except of course Rayner, would do the same were they in my +place. At all events, I mean to see." + +"What are you going to do, Gregg?" asked "the mole," wheeling suddenly +on his brother troop-commander. + +"I don't know," said Gregg, doubtfully. "I think I'll ask the colonel." + +"What do you suppose _he_ means to do?" + +"I don't know again; but I'll bet we all know as soon as he makes up his +mind; and he is making up his mind now,--or he's made it up, for there +goes Mr. Hayne, and here comes the orderly. Something's up already." + +Every head was turned to the door-way as the orderly's step was heard in +the outer hall, and every voice stilled to hear the message, it was so +unusual for the commanding officer to send for one of his subordinates +after the morning meeting. The soldier tapped at the panel, and at the +prompt "Come in" pushed it partly open and stood with one white-gloved +hand resting on the knob, the other raised to his cap-visor in salute. + +"Lieutenant Blake?" he asked, as he glanced around. + +"What is it?" asked Blake, stepping quickly from the window. + +"The commanding officer's compliments, sir, and could he see the +lieutenant one minute before the court meets?" + +"Coming at once," said Blake, as he pushed his way through the chairs, +and the orderly faced about and disappeared. + +"I'll bet it's about Hayne," was the apparently unanimous sentiment as +the cavalry party broke up and scattered for the morning's duties. Some +waited purposely to hear. + +The adjutant alone stood in the colonel's presence as Blake knocked and +entered. All others had gone. There was a moment's hesitation, and the +colonel paused and looked his man over before he spoke: + +"You will excuse my sending for you, Mr. Blake, when I tell you that it +is a matter that has to be decided at once. In this case you will +consider, too, that I want you to say yes or no exactly as you would to +a comrade of your own grade. If you were asked to meet Mr. Hayne at any +other house in the garrison than mine, would you desire to accept? You +are aware of all the circumstances, the adjutant tells me." + +"I am, sir, and have just announced my intention of calling upon him." + +"Then will you dine with us this evening to meet Mr. Hayne?" + +"I will do so with pleasure, sir." + + * * * * * + +It could hardly have been an hour afterwards when Mrs. Rayner entered +the library in her cosey home and found Miss Travers entertaining +herself with a book. + +"Have you written to Mr. Van Antwerp this morning?" she asked. "I +thought that was what you came here for." + +"I did mean to, but Mrs. Waldron has been here, and I was interrupted." + +"It is fully fifteen minutes since she left, Nellie. You might have +written two or three pages already; and you know that all manner of +visitors will be coming in by noon." + +"I was just thinking over something she told me. I'll write presently." + +"Mrs. Waldron is a woman who talks about everything and everybody. I +advise you to listen to her no more than you can help. What was it she +told you?" + +Miss Travers smiled roguishly: "Why should you want to know, Kate, if +you disapprove of her revelations?" + +"Oh," with visible annoyance, "it is to--I wanted to know so as to let +you see that it was something unfounded, as usual." + +"She said she had just been told that the colonel was going to give a +dinner-party this evening to Mr. Hayne." + +"What?" + +"She--said--she--had--just--been--told--that--the colonel--was going--to +give--a dinner-party--this evening--to Mr.--Hayne." + +"Who told her?" + +"Kate, I didn't ask." + +"Who are invited? None of _ours_?" + +"Kate, I don't know." + +"Where did she say she had heard it?" + +"She didn't say." + +Mrs. Rayner paused one moment, irresolute: "Didn't she tell you anything +more about it?" + +"Nothing, sister mine. Why should you feel such an interest in what Mrs. +Waldron says, if she's such a gossip?" And Miss Travers was evidently +having hard work to keep from laughing outright. + +"_You_ had better write your letter," said her big sister, and flounced +suddenly out of the room and up the stairs. + +A moment later she was at the parlor door with a wrap thrown over her +shoulders: "If Captain Rayner comes in, tell him I want particularly to +see him before he goes out again." + +"Where are you going, Kate?" + +"Oh, just over to Mrs. Waldron's a moment." + + + + +IV. + + +Facing the broad, bleak prairie, separated from it only by a rough, +unpainted picket fence, and flanked by uncouth structures of pine, one +of which was used as a storehouse for quartermaster's property, the +other as the post-trader's depository for skins and furs, there stood +the frame cottage which Mr. Hayne had chosen as his home. As has been +said, it was precisely like those built for the subaltern officers, so +far as material, plan, and dimensions were concerned. The locality made +the vast difference which really existed. Theirs stood all in a row, +fronting the grassy level of the parade, surrounded by verandas, +bordering on a well-kept gravel path and an equally well graded drive. +Clear, sparkling water rippled in tiny _acequias_ through the front +yards of each, and so furnished the moisture needed for the life of +various little shrubs and flowering plants. The surroundings were at +least "sociable," and there was companionship and jollity, with an +occasional tiff to keep things lively. The married officers, as a rule, +had chosen their quarters farthest from the entrance-gate and nearest +those of the colonel commanding. The bachelors, except the two or three +who were old in the service and had "rank" in lieu of encumbrances, were +all herded together along the eastern end, a situation that had +disadvantages as connected with duties which required the frequent +presence of the occupants at the court-martial rooms or at +head-quarters, and that was correspondingly far distant from the +barracks of the soldiers. It had its recommendations in being convenient +to the card-room and billiard-tables at "the store," and in embracing +within its limits one house which possessed mysterious interest in the +eyes of every woman and most of the men in the garrison: it was said to +be haunted. + +A sorely-perplexed man was the post quartermaster when the rumor came +out from the railway-station that Mr. Hayne had arrived and was coming +to report for duty. As a first lieutenant he would have choice of +quarters over every second lieutenant in the garrison: there were ten of +these young gentlemen, and four of the ten were married. Every set of +quarters had its occupants, and Hayne could move in nowhere, unless as +occupant of a room or two in the house of some comrade, without first +compelling others to move out. This proceeding would lead to vast +discomfort, occurring as it would in the dead of winter, and the +youngsters were naturally perturbed in spirit,--their wives especially +so. What made the prospects infinitely worse was the fact that the +cavalry bachelors were already living three in a house: the only spare +rooms were in the quarters of the second lieutenants of the infantry, +and they were not on speaking-terms with Mr. Hayne. Everything, +therefore, pointed to the probability of his "displacing" a junior, who +would in turn displace somebody else, and so they would go tumbling like +a row of bricks until the lowest and last was reached. All this would +involve no end of worry for the quartermaster, who even under the most +favorable circumstances is sure to be the least appreciated and most +abused officer under the commandant himself, and that worthy was simply +agasp with relief and joy when he heard Mr. Hayne's astonishing +announcement that he would take the quarters out on "Prairie Avenue." + +It was the talk of the garrison all that day. The ladies, especially, +had a good deal to say, because many of the men seemed averse to +expressing their views. "Quite the proper thing for Mr. Hayne to do," +was the apparent opinion of the majority of the young wives and mothers. +As a particularly kind and considerate thing it was not remarked by one +of them, though that view of the case went not entirely unrepresented. +In choosing to live there Mr. Hayne separated himself from +companionship. That, said some of the commentators,--men as well as +women,--he simply accepted as the virtue of necessity, and so there was +nothing to commend in his action. But Mr. Hayne was said to possess an +eye for the picturesque and beautiful. If so, he deliberately condemned +himself to the daily contemplation of a treeless barren, streaked in +occasional shallows with dingy patches of snow, ornamented only in spots +by abandoned old hats, boots, or tin cans blown beyond the jurisdiction +of the garrison police-parties. A line of telegraph-poles was all that +intervened between his fence and the low-lying hills of the eastern +horizon. Southeastward lay the distant roofs and the low, squat +buildings of the frontier town; southward the shallow valley of the +winding creek in which lay the long line of stables for the cavalry and +the great stacks of hay; while the row on which he chose to +live--"Prairie Avenue," as it was termed--was far worse at his end of it +than at the other. It covered the whole eastern front. The big, brown +hospital building stood at the northern end. Then came the quarters of +the surgeon and his assistants, then the snug home of the post trader, +then the "store" and its scattering appendages, then the +entrance-gateway, then a broad vacant space, through which the wind +swept like a hurricane, then the little shanty of the trader's fur house +and one or two hovel-like structures used by the tailors and cobbler of +the adjacent infantry companies. Then came the cottage itself: south of +it stood the quartermaster's store-room, back of which lay an extension +filled with ordnance stores, then other and similar sheds devoted to +commissary supplies, the post butcher-shop, the saddler's shop, then big +coal-sheds, and then the brow of the bluff, down which at a steep grade +plunged the road to the stables. It was as unprepossessing a place for a +home as ever was chosen by a man of education or position; and Mr. Hayne +was possessed of both. + +In garrison, despite the flat parade, there was a grand expanse of +country to be seen stretching away towards the snow-covered Rockies. +There was life and the sense of neighborliness to one's kind. Out on +Prairie Avenue all was wintry desolation, except when twice each day the +cavalry officers went plodding by on their way to and from the stables, +muffled up in their fur caps and coats, and hardly distinguishable from +so many bears, much less from one another. + +And yet Mr. Hayne smiled not unhappily as he glanced from his eastern +window at this group of burly warriors the afternoon succeeding his +dinner at the colonel's. He had been busy all day long unpacking books, +book-shelves, some few pictures which he loved, and his simple, +soldierly outfit of household goods, and getting them into shape. His +sole assistant was a Chinese servant, who worked rapidly and well, and +who seemed in no wise dismayed by the bleakness of their surroundings. +If anything, he was disposed to grin and indulge in high-pitched +commentaries in "pidgin English" upon the unaccustomed amount of room. +His master had been restricted to two rooms and a kitchen during the two +years he had served him. Now they had a house to themselves, and more +rooms than they knew what to do with. The quartermaster had sent a +detail of men to put up the stoves and move out the rubbish left by the +tailors; "Sam" had worked vigorously with soft soap, hot water, and a +big mop in sprucing up the rooms; the adjutant had sent a little note +during the morning, saying that the colonel would be glad to order him +any men he needed to put the quarters in proper shape, and that Captain +Rayner had expressed his readiness to send a detail from the company to +unload and unpack his boxes, etc., to which Mr. Hayne replied in person +that he thanked the commanding officer for his thoughtfulness, but that +he had very little to unpack, and needed no assistance beyond that +already afforded by the quartermaster's men. Mr. Billings could not help +noting that he made no allusion to that part of the letter which spoke +of Captain Rayner's offer. It increased his respect for Mr. Hayne's +perceptive powers. + +While every officer of the infantry battalion was ready to admit that +Mr. Hayne had rendered invaluable service to the men of the cavalry +regiment, they were not so unanimous in their opinion as to how it +should be acknowledged and requited by its officers. No one was prepared +for the announcement that the colonel had asked him to dinner and that +Blake and Billings were to meet him. Some few of their number thought it +going too far, but no one quite coincided with the vehement declaration +of Mrs. Rayner that it was an outrage and an affront aimed at the +regiment in general and at Captain Rayner in particular. She was an +energetic woman when aroused, and there was no doubt of her being very +much aroused as she sped from house to house to see what the other +ladies thought of it. Rayner's wealth and Mrs. Rayner's qualities had +made her an undoubted though not always popular leader in all social +matters in the Riflers. She was an authority, so to speak, and one who +knew it. Already there had been some points on which she had differed +with the colonel's wife, and it was plain to all that it was a difficult +thing for her to come down from being _the_ authority--the leader of the +social element of a garrison--and from the position of second or third +importance which she had been accorded when first assigned to the +station. There were many, indeed, who asserted that it was because she +found her new position unbearable that she decided on her long visit to +the East and departed thither before the Riflers had been at Warrener a +month. The colonel's wife had greeted her and her lovely sister with +charming grace on their arrival two days previous to the stirring event +of the dinner, and every one was looking forward to a probable series of +pleasant entertainments by the two households, even while wondering how +long the _entente cordiale_ would last,--when the colonel's invitation +to Mr. Hayne brought on an immediate crisis. It is safe to say that Mrs. +Rayner was madder than the captain her husband, who hardly knew how to +take it. He was by no means the best liked officer in his regiment, nor +the "deepest" and best informed, but he had a native shrewdness which +helped him. He noted even before his wife would speak of it to him the +gradual dying out of the bitter feeling that had once existed at Hayne's +expense. He felt, though it hurt him seriously to make inquiries, that +the man whom he had practically crushed and ruined in the long ago was +slowly but surely gaining strength even where he would not make friends. +Worse than all, he was beginning to doubt the evidence of his own senses +as the years receded, and unknown to any soul on earth, even his wife, +there was growing up deep down in his heart a gnawing, insidious, +ever-festering fear that after all, after all, he might have been +mistaken. And yet on the sacred oath of a soldier and a gentleman, +against the most searching cross-examination, again and again had he +most confidently and positively declared that he had both seen and heard +the fatal interview on which the whole case hinged. And as to the exact +language employed, he alone of those within earshot had lived to testify +for or against the accused: of the five soldiers who stood in that now +celebrated group, three were shot to death within the hour. He was +growing nervous, irritable, haggard; he was getting to hate the mere +mention of the case. The promotion of Hayne to his own company thrilled +him with an almost superstitious dismay. _Were_ his words coming true? +_Was_ it the judgment of an offended God that his hideous pride, +obstinacy, and old-time hatred of this officer were now to be revenged +by daily, hourly contact with the victim of his criminal persecution? He +had grown morbidly sensitive to any remarks as to Hayne's having "lived +down" the toils in which he had been encircled. Might he not "live down" +the ensnarer? He dreaded to see him,--though Rayner was no coward,--and +he feared day by day to hear of his restoration to fellowship in the +regiment, and yet would have given half his wealth to bring it about, +could it but have been accomplished without the dreadful admission, "I +was wrong. I was _utterly_ wrong." He had grown lavish in hospitality; +he had become almost aggressively open-handed to his comrades, and had +sought to press money upon men who in no wise needed it. He was as eager +to lend as some are to borrow, and his brother officers dubbed him +"Midas" not because everything he touched would turn to gold, but +because he would intrude his gold upon them at every turn. There were +some who borrowed; and these he struggled not to let repay. He seemed to +have an insane idea that if he could but get his regimental friends +bound to him pecuniarily he could control their opinions and actions. It +was making him sick at heart, and it made him in secret doubly +vindictive and bitter against the man he had doomed to years of +suffering. This showed out that very morning. Mrs. Rayner had begun to +talk, and he turned fiercely upon her: + +"Not a word on that subject, Kate, if you love me!--not even the mention +of his name! I must have peace in my own house. It is enough to have to +talk of it elsewhere." + +Talk of it he had to. The major early that morning asked him, as they +were going to the _matinee_,-- + +"Have you seen Hayne yet?" + +"Not since he reported on the parade yesterday," was the curt reply. + +"Well, I suppose you will send men to help him get those quarters in +habitable shape?" + +"I will, of course, major, if he ask it. I don't propose sending men to +do such work for an officer unless the request come." + +"He is entitled to that consideration, Rayner, and I think the men +should be sent to him. He is hardly likely to ask." + +"Then he is less likely to get them," said the captain, shortly, for, +except the post commander, he well knew that no officer could order it +to be done. He was angry at the major for interfering. They were old +associates, and had entered service almost at the same time, but his +friend had the better luck in promotion and was now his battalion +commander. Rayner made an excuse of stopping to speak with the officer +of the day, and the major went on without him. He was a quiet old +soldier: he wanted no disturbance with his troubled friend, and, like a +sensible man, he turned the matter over to their common superior, in a +very few words, before the arrival of the general audience. It was this +that had caused the colonel to turn quietly to Rayner and say, in the +most matter-of-fact way,-- + +"Oh, Captain Rayner, I presume Mr. Hayne will need three or four men to +help him get his quarters in shape. I suppose you have already thought +to send them?" + +And Rayner flushed, and stammered, "They have not gone yet, sir; but I +had--thought of it." + +Later, when the sergeant sent the required detail he reported to the +captain in the company office in five minutes: "The lieutenant's +compliments and thanks, but he does not need the men." + +The dinner at the colonel's, quiet as it was and with only eight at +table, was an affair of almost momentous importance to Mr. Hayne. It was +the first thing of the kind he had attended in five years; and though he +well knew for knew that it was intended by the cavalry commander more +especially as a recognition of the services rendered their suffering +men, he could not but rejoice in the courtesy and tact with which he was +received and entertained. The colonel's wife, the adjutant's, and those +of two captains away with the field battalion, were the four ladies who +were there to greet him when, escorted by Mr. Blake, he made his +appearance. How long--how very long--it seemed to him since he had sat +in the presence of refined and attractive women and listened to their +gay and animated chat! They seemed all such good friends, they made him +so thoroughly at home, and they showed so much tact and ease, that never +once did it seem apparent that they knew of his trouble in his own +regiment; and yet there was no actual avoidance of matters in which the +Riflers were generally interested. It was mainly of his brief visit to +the East, however, that they made him talk,--of the operas and theatres +he had attended, the pictures he had seen, the music that was most +popular; and when dinner was over their hostess led him to her piano, +and he played and sang for them again and again. His voice was soft and +sweet, and, though it was uncultivated, he sang with expression and +grace, playing with more skill but less feeling and effect than he sang. +Music and books had been the solace of lonely years, and he could easily +see that he had pleased them with his songs. He went home to the dreary +rookery out on Prairie Avenue and laughed at the howling wind. The bare +grimy walls and the dim kerosene lamp, even Sam's unmelodious snore in +the back room, sent no gloom to his soul. It had been a happy evening. +It had cost him a hard struggle to restrain the emotion which he had +felt at times; and when he withdrew, soon after the trumpets sounded +tattoo, and the ladies fell to discussing him, as women will, there was +but one verdict,--his manners were perfect. + +But the colonel said more than that. He had found him far better read +than any other officer of his age he had ever met; and one and all they +expressed the hope that they might see him frequently. No wonder it was +of momentous importance to him. It was the opening to a new life. It +meant that here at least he had met soldiers and gentlemen and their +fair and gracious wives who had welcomed him to their homes, and, though +they must have known that a pall of suspicion and crime had overshadowed +his past, they believed either that he was innocent of the grievous +charge or that his years of exile and suffering had amply atoned. It was +a happy evening indeed to him; but there was gloom at Captain Rayner's. + +The captain himself had gone out soon after tattoo. He found that the +parlor was filled with young visitors of both sexes, and he was in no +mood for merriment. Miss Travers was being welcomed to the post in +genuine army style, and was evidently enjoying it. Mrs. Rayner was +flitting nervously in and out of the parlor with a cloud upon her brow, +and for once in her life compelled to preserve temporary silence upon +the subject uppermost in her thoughts. She had been forbidden to speak +of it to her husband; yet she knew he had gone out again with every +probability of needing some one to talk to about the matter. She could +not well broach the topic in the parlor, because she was not at all sure +how Captain and Mrs. Gregg of the cavalry would take it; and they were +still there. She was a loyal wife; her husband's quarrel was hers, and +more too; and she was a woman of intuition even keener than that which +we so readily accord the sex. She knew, and knew well, that a hideous +doubt had been preying for a long time in her husband's heart of hearts, +and she knew still better that it would crush him to believe it was even +suspected by any one else. Right or wrong, the one thing for her to do, +she doubted not, was to maintain the original guilt against all comers, +and to lose no opportunity of feeding the flame that consumed Mr. +Hayne's record and reputation. He was guilty,--he must be guilty; and +though she was a Christian according to her view of the case,--a pillar +of the Church in matters of public charity and picturesque conformity to +all the rubric called for in the services, and much that it did +not,--she was unrelenting in her condemnation of Mr. Hayne. To those who +pointed out that he had made every atonement man could make, she +responded with the severity of conscious virtue that there could be no +atonement without repentance, and no repentance without humility. Mr. +Hayne's whole attitude was that of stubborn pride and resentment; his +atonement was that enforced by the unanimous verdict of his comrades; +and even if it were so that he had more than made amends for his crime, +the rules that held good for ordinary sinners were not applicable to an +officer of the army. _He_ must be a man above suspicion, incapable of +wrong or fraud, and once stained he was forever ineligible as a +gentleman. It was a subject on which she waxed declamatory rather too +often, and the youngsters of her own regiment wearied of it. As Mr. +Foster once expressed it in speaking of this very case, "Mrs. Rayner can +talk more charity and show less than any woman I know." So long as her +talk was aimed against any lurking tendency of their own to look upon +Hayne as a possible martyr, it fell at times on unappreciative ears, and +she was quick to see it and to choose her hearers; but here was a new +phase,--one that might rouse the latent _esprit de corps_ of the +Riflers,--and she was bent on striking while the iron was hot. If +anything would provoke unanimity of action and sentiment in the +regiment, this public recognition by the cavalry, in their very +presence, of the man they cut as a criminal, was the thing of all others +to do it; and she meant to head the revolt. + +Possibly Gregg and his modest helpmeet discovered that there was +something she desired to "spring" upon the meeting. The others present +were all of the infantry; and when Captain Rayner simply glanced in, +spoke hurried good-evenings, and went as hurriedly out again, Gregg was +sure of it, and marched his wife away. Then came Mrs. Rayner's +opportunity: + +"If it were not Captain Rayner's house, I could not have been even civil +to Captain Gregg. You heard what he said at the club this morning, I +suppose?" + +In one form or another, indeed, almost everybody _had_ heard. The +officers present maintained an embarrassed silence. Miss Travers looked +reproachfully at her flushed sister, but to no purpose. At last one of +the ladies remarked,-- + +"Well, of course I heard of it, but--I've heard so many different +versions. It seems to have grown somewhat since morning." + +"It sounds just like him, however," said Mrs. Rayner, "and I made +inquiry before speaking of it. He said he meant to invite Mr. Hayne to +his house to-morrow evening, and if the infantry didn't like it they +could stay away." + +"Well, now, Mrs. Rayner," protested Mr. Foster, "of course none of us +heard what he said exactly, but it is my experience that no conversation +was ever repeated without being exaggerated, and I've known old Gregg +for ever so long, and never heard him say a sharp thing yet. Why, he's +the mildest-mannered fellow in the whole ----th Cavalry. He would never +get into such a snarl as that would bring about him in five minutes." + +"Well, he said he would do just as the colonel did, anyway,--we have +that straight from cavalry authority,--and we all know what the colonel +has done. He has chosen to honor Mr. Hayne in the presence of the +officers who denounce him, and practically defies the opinion of the +Riflers." + +"But, Mrs. Rayner, I did not understand Gregg's remarks to be what you +say, exactly. Blake told me that when asked by somebody whether he was +going to call on Mr. Hayne, Gregg simply replied he didn't know,--he +would ask the colonel." + +"Very well. That means, he proposes to be guided by the colonel, or +nothing at all; and Captain Gregg is simply doing what the others will +do. They say to us, in so many words, 'We prefer the society of your +_bete noire_ to your own.' That's the way I look at it," said Mrs. +Rayner, in deep excitement. + +It was evident that, though none were prepared to endorse so extreme a +view, there was a strong feeling that the colonel had put an affront +upon the Riflers by his open welcome to Mr. Hayne. He had been exacting +before, and had caused a good deal of growling among the officers and +comment among the women. They were ready to find fault, and here was +strong provocation. Mr. Foster was a youth of unfortunate and unpopular +propensities. He should have held his tongue, instead of striving to +stem the tide. + +"I don't uphold Hayne any more than you do, Mrs. Rayner, but it seems to +me this is a case where the colonel has to make some acknowledgment of +Mr. Hayne's conduct--" + +"Very good. Let him write him a letter, then, thanking him in the name +of the regiment, but don't pick him up like this in the face of ours," +interrupted one of the juniors, who was seated near Miss Travers (a wise +stroke of policy: Mrs. Rayner invited him to breakfast); and there was a +chorus of approbation. + +"Well, hold on a moment," said Foster. "Hasn't the colonel had every one +of us to dinner more or less frequently?" + +"Admitted. But what's that to do with it?" + +"Hasn't he invariably invited each officer to dine with him in every +case where an officer has arrived?" + +"Granted. But what then?" + +"If he broke the rule or precedent in Mr. Hayne's case would he not +practically be saying that he endorsed the views of the court-martial as +opposed to those of the department commander, General Sherman, the +Secretary of War, the President of the United--" + +"Oh, make out your transfer papers, Foster. You ought to be in the +cavalry or some other disputatious branch of the service," burst in Mr. +Graham. + +"I declare, Mr. Foster, I never thought you would abandon your colors," +said Mrs. Rayner. + +"I haven't, madame, and you've no right to say so," said Foster, +indignantly. "I simply hold that any attempt to work up a regimental row +out of this thing will make bad infinitely worse, and I deprecate the +whole business." + +"I suppose you mean to intimate that Captain Rayner's position and that +of the regiment is bad,--all wrong,--that Mr. Hayne has been +persecuted," said Mrs. Rayner, with trembling lips and cheeks aflame. + +"Mrs. Rayner, you are unjust," said poor Foster. "I ought not to have +undertaken to explain or defend the colonel's act, perhaps, but I am not +disloyal to my regiment or my colors. What I want is to prevent further +trouble; and I know that anything like a concerted resentment of the +colonel's invitation will lead to infinite harm." + +"_You_ may cringe and bow and bear it if you choose; you may humble +yourself to such a piece of insolence; but rest assured there are plenty +of men and women in the Riflers who won't bear it, Mr. Foster; and for +one _I_ won't." She had risen to her full height now, and her eyes were +blazing. "For his own sake I trust the colonel will omit our names from +the next entertainment he gives. Nellie shan't--" + +"Oh, think, Mrs. Rayner!" interrupted one of the ladies; "they _must_ +give her a dinner or a reception." + +"Indeed they shall not! I refuse to enter the door of people who have +insulted my husband as they have." + +"Hush! Listen!" said Mr. Graham, springing towards the door. + +There was wondering silence an instant. + +"It is nothing but the trumpet sounding taps," said Mrs. Rayner, +hurriedly. + +But even as she spoke they rose to their feet. Muffled cries were heard, +borne in on the night wind,--a shot, then another, down in the +valley,--the quick peal of the cavalry trumpet. + +"It isn't taps. It's fire!" shouted Graham from the door-way. "Come on!" + + + + +V. + + +Down in the valley south of the post a broad glare was already shooting +upward and illumining the sky. One among a dozen little shanties and log +houses, the homes of the laundresses of the garrison and collectively +known as Sudsville, was a mass of flames. There was a rush of officers +across the parade, and the men, answering the alarum of the trumpet and +the shots and shouts of the sentries, came tearing from their quarters +and plunging down the hill. Among the first on the spot came the young +men who were of the party at Captain Rayner's, and Mr. Graham was ahead +of them all. It was plain to the most inexperienced eye that there was +hardly anything left to save in or about the burning shanty. All efforts +must be directed towards preventing the spread of the flames to those +adjoining. Half-clad women and children were rushing about, shrieking +with fright and excitement, and a few men were engaged in dragging +household goods and furniture from those tenements not yet reached by +the flames. Fire-apparatus there seemed to be none, though squads of men +speedily appeared with ladders, axes, and buckets, brought from the +different company quarters, and the arriving officers quickly formed the +bucket-lines and water dipped up from the icy creek began to fly from +hand to hand. Before anything like this was fairly under way, a scene of +semi-tragic, semi-comic intensity had been enacted in the presence of a +rapidly gathering audience. "It was worth more than the price of +admission to hear Blake tell it afterwards," said the officers, later. + +A tall, angular woman, frantic with excitement and terror, was dancing +about in the broad glare of the burning hut, tearing her hair, making +wild rushes at the flames from time to time as though intent on dragging +out some prized object that was being consumed before her eyes, and all +the time keeping up a volley of maledictions and abuse in lavish +Hibernian, apparently directed at a cowering object who sat in limp +helplessness upon a little heap of fire-wood, swaying from side to side +and moaning stupidly through the scorched and grimy hands in which his +face was hidden. His clothing was still smoking in places; his hair and +beard were singed to the roots; he was evidently seriously injured, and +the sympathizing soldiers who had gathered around him after deluging him +with snow and water were striving to get him to arise and go with them +to the hospital. A little girl, not ten years old, knelt sobbing and +terrified by his side. She, too, was scorched and singed, and the +soldiers had thrown rough blankets about her; but it was for her father, +not herself, she seemed worried to distraction. Some of the women were +striving to reassure and comfort her in their homely fashion, bidding +her cheer up,--the father was only stupid from drink, and would be all +right as soon as "the liquor was off of him." But the little one was +beyond consolation so long as he could not or would not speak in answer +to her entreaties. + +All this time, never pausing for breath, shrieking anathemas on her +drunken spouse, reproaches on her frightened child, and invocations to +all the blessed saints in heaven to reward the gintleman who had saved +her hoarded money,--a smoking packet that she hugged to her +breast,--Mrs. Clancy, "the saynior laundress of Company B," as she had +long styled herself, was prancing up and down through the gathering +crowd, her shrill voice overmastering all other clamor. The vigorous +efforts of the men, directed by cool-headed officers, soon beat back the +flames that were threatening the neighboring shanties, and levelled to +the ground what remained of Private Clancy's home. The fire was +extinguished almost as rapidly as it began, but the torrent of Mrs. +Clancy's eloquence was still unstemmed. The adjurations of sympathetic +sisters to "Howld yer whist," the authoritative admonition of some old +sergeant to "Stop your infernal noise," and the half-maudlin yet +appealing glances of her suffering lord were all insufficient to check +her. It was not until the quiet tones of the colonel were heard that she +began to cool down: "We've had enough of this, Mrs. Clancy: be still, +now, or we'll have to send you to the hospital in the coal-cart." Mrs. +Clancy knew that the colonel was a man of few words, and believed him to +be one of less sentiment. She was afraid of him, and concluded it time +to cease threats and abuse and come down to the more effective _role_ of +wronged and suffering womanhood,--a feat which she accomplished with the +consummate ease of long practice, for the rows in the Clancy household +were matters of garrison notoriety. The surgeon, too, had come, and, +after quick examination of Clancy's condition, had directed him to be +taken at once to the hospital; and thither his little daughter insisted +on following him, despite the efforts of some of the women to detain her +and dress her properly. + +Before returning to his quarters the colonel desired to know something +of the origin of the fire. There was testimony enough and to spare. +Every woman in Sudsville had a theory to express, and was eager to be +heard at once and to the exclusion of all others. It was not until he +had summarily ordered them to go to their homes and not come near him +that the colonel managed to get a clear statement from some of the men. + +Clancy had been away all the evening, drinking as usual, and Mrs. Clancy +was searching about Sudsville as much for sympathy and listeners as for +him. Little Kate, who knew her father's haunts, had guided him home, and +was striving to get him to his little sleeping-corner before her +mother's return, when in his drunken helplessness he fell against the +table, overturning the kerosene lamp, and the curtains were all aflame +in an instant. It was just after taps--or ten o'clock--when Kate's +shrieks aroused the inmates of Sudsville and started the cry of "Fire." +The flimsy structure of pine boards burned like so much tinder, and the +child and her stupefied father had been dragged forth only in time to +save their lives. The little one, after giving the alarm, had rushed +again into the house and was tugging at his senseless form when rescue +came for both,--none too soon. As for Mrs. Clancy, at the first note of +danger she had rushed screaming to the spot, but only in time to see the +whole interior ablaze and to howl frantically for some man to save her +money,--it was all in the green box under the bed. For husband and child +she had for the moment no thought. They were safely out of the fire by +the time she got there, and she screamed and fought like a fury against +the men who held her back when she would have plunged into the midst of +it. It took but a minute for one or two men to burst through the flimsy +wall with axes, to rescue the burning box and knock off the lid. It was +a sight to see when the contents were handed to her. She knelt, wept, +prayed, counted over bill after bill of smoking, steaming greenbacks, +until suddenly recalled to her senses by the eager curiosity and the +remarks of some of her fellow-women. That she kept money and a good deal +of it in her quarters had long been suspected and as fiercely denied; +but no one had dreamed of such a sum as was revealed. In her frenzy she +had shrieked that the savings of her lifetime were burning,--that there +was over three thousand dollars in the box; but she hid her treasure and +gasped and stammered and swore she was talking "wild-like." "They was +nothing but twos and wans," she vowed; yet there were women there who +declared that they had seen tens and twenties as she hurried them +through her trembling fingers, and Sudsville gossiped and talked for two +hours after she was led away, still moaning and shivering, to the +bedside of poor Clancy, who was the miserable cause of it all. The +colonel listened to the stories with such patience as could be accorded +to witnesses who desired to give prominence to their personal exploits +in subduing the flames and rescuing life and property. It was not until +he and the group of officers with him had been engaged some moments in +taking testimony that something was elicited which caused a new +sensation. + +It was not by the united efforts of Sudsville that Clancy and Kate had +been dragged from the flames, but by the individual dash and +determination of a single man: there was no discrepancy here, for the +ten or a dozen who were wildly rushing about the house made no effort to +burst into it until a young soldier leaped through their midst into the +blazing door-way, was seen to throw a blanket over some object within, +and the next minute appeared again, dragging a body through the flames. +Then they had sprung to his aid, and between them Kate and "the ould +man" were lifted into the open air. A moment later he had handed Mrs. +Clancy her packet of money, and--they hadn't seen him since. He was an +officer, said they,--a new one. They thought it must be the new +lieutenant of Company B; and the colonel looked quickly around and said +a few words to his adjutant, who started up the hill forthwith. A group +of officers and ladies were standing at the brow of the plateau east of +the guard-house, gazing down upon the scene below, and other ladies, +with their escorts, had gathered on a little knoll close by the road +that led to Prairie Avenue. It was past these that the adjutant walked +rapidly away, swinging his hurricane-lamp in his hand. + +"Which way now, Billings?" called one of the cavalry officers in the +group. + +"Over to Mr. Hayne's quarters," he shouted back, never stopping at all. + +A silence fell upon the group at mention of the name. They were the +ladies from Captain Rayner's and a few of their immediate friends. All +eyes followed the twinkling light as it danced away eastward towards the +gloomy coal-sheds. Then there was sudden and intense interest. The lamp +had come to a stand-still, was deposited on the ground, and by its dim +ray the adjutant could be seen bending over a dark object that was half +sitting, half reclining at the platform of the shed. Then came a shout, +"Come here, some of you." And most of the men ran to the spot. + +For a moment not one word was spoken in the watching group: then Miss +Travers's voice was heard: + +"What can it be? Why do they stop there?" + +She felt a sudden hand upon her wrist, and her sister's lips at her ear: + +"Come away, Nellie. I want to go home. Come!" + +"But, Kate, I must see what it means." + +"No: come! It's--it's only some other drunken man, probably. Come!" And +she strove to lead her. + +But the other ladies were curious too, and all, insensibly, were edging +over to the east as though eager to get in sight of the group. The +recumbent object had been raised, and was seen to be the dark figure of +a man whom the others began slowly to lead away. One of the group came +running back to them: it was Mr. Foster. + +"Come, ladies: I will escort you home, as the others are busy." + +"What is the matter, Mr. Foster?" was asked by half a dozen voices. + +"It was Mr. Hayne,--badly burned, I fear. He was trying to get home +after having saved poor Clancy." + +"You don't say so! Oh, isn't there something we can do? Can't we go +that way and be of some help?" was the eager petition of more than one +of the ladies. + +"Not now. They will have the doctor in a minute. He has not inhaled +flame; it is all external; but he was partly blinded and could not find +his way. He called to Billings when he heard him coming. I will get you +all home and then go back to him. Come!" And, offering his arm to Mrs. +Rayner, who was foremost in the direction he wanted to go,--the pathway +across the parade,--Mr. Foster led them on. Of course there was eager +talk and voluble sympathy; but Mrs. Rayner spoke not a word. The others +crowded around him with questions, and her silence passed unnoted except +by one. + +The moment they were inside the door and alone, Miss Travers turned to +her sister: "Kate, what was this man's crime?" + + + + +VI. + + +An unusual state of affairs existed at the big hospital for several +days: Mrs. Clancy had refused to leave the bedside of her beloved Mike, +and was permitted to remain. For a woman who was notorious as a virago +and bully, who had beaten little Kate from her babyhood and abused and +hammered her Michael until, between her and drink, he was but the wreck +of a stalwart manhood, Mrs. Clancy had developed a degree of devotion +that was utterly unexpected. In all the dozen years of their marital +relations no such trait could be recalled; and yet there had been many +an occasion within the past few years when Clancy's condition demanded +gentle nursing and close attention,--and never would have got it but for +faithful little Kate. The child idolized the broken-down man, and loved +him with a tenderness that his weakness seemed but to augment a +thousandfold, while it but served to infuriate her mother. In former +years, when he was Sergeant Clancy and a fine soldier, many was the time +he had intervened to save her from an undeserved thrashing; many a time +had he seized her in his strong arms and confronted the furious woman +with stern reproof. Between him and the child there had been the +tenderest love, for she was all that was left to him of four. In the old +days Mrs. Clancy had been the belle of the soldiers' balls, a +fine-looking woman, with indomitable powers as a dancer and +conversationalist and an envied reputation for outshining all her rivals +in dress and adornment. "She would ruin Clancy, that she would," was +the unanimous opinion of the soldiers' wives; but he seemed to minister +to her extravagance with unfailing good nature for two or three years. +He had been prudent, careful of his money, was a war-soldier with big +arrears of bounty and, tradition had it, a consummate skill in poker. He +was the moneyed man among the sergeants when the dashing relict of a +brother non-commissioned officer set her widow's cap for him and won. It +did not take many years for her to wheedle most of his money away; but +there was no cessation to the demand, no apparent limit to the supply. +Both were growing older, and now it became evident that Mrs. Clancy was +the elder of the two, and that the artificiality of her charms could not +stand the test of frontier life. No longer sought as the belle of the +soldiers' ball-rooms, she aspired to leadership among their wives and +families, and was accorded that pre-eminence rather than the fierce +battle which was sure to follow any revolt. She became avaricious,--some +said miserly,--and Clancy miserable. Then began the downward course. He +took to drink soon after his return from a long, hard summer's campaign +with the Indians. He lost his sergeant's stripes and went into the +ranks. There came a time when the new colonel forbade his re-enlistment +in the cavalry regiment in which he had served so many a long year. He +had been a brave and devoted soldier. He had a good friend in the +infantry, he said, who wouldn't go back on a poor fellow who took a drop +too much at times, and, to the surprise of many soldiers,--officers and +men,--he was brought to the recruiting officer one day, sober, +soldierly, and trimly dressed, and Captain Rayner expressed his desire +to have him enlisted for his company; and it was done. Mrs. Clancy was +accorded the quarters and rations of a laundress, as was then the +custom, and for a time--a very short time--Clancy seemed on the road to +promotion to his old grade. The enemy tripped him, aided by the +scoldings and abuse of his wife, and he never rallied. Some work was +found for him around the quartermaster's shops which saved him from +guard-duty or the guard-house. The infantry--officers and men--seemed to +feel for the poor, broken-down old fellow and to lay much of his woe to +the door of his wife. There was charity for his faults and sympathy for +his sorrows, but at last it had come to this. He was lying, sorely +injured, in the hospital, and there were times when he was apparently +delirious. At such times, said Mrs. Clancy, she alone could manage him; +and she urged that no other nurse could do more than excite or irritate +him. To the unspeakable grief of little Kate, she, too, was driven from +the sufferer's bedside and forbidden to come into the room except when +her mother gave permission. Clancy had originally been carried into the +general ward with the other patients, but the hospital steward two days +afterwards told the surgeon that the patient moaned and cried so at +night that the other sick men could not sleep, and offered to give up a +little room in his own part of the building. The burly doctor looked +surprised at this concession on the part of the steward, who was a man +tenacious of every perquisite and one who had made much complaint about +the crowded condition of the hospital wards and small rooms ever since +the frozen soldiers had come in. All the same the doctor asked for no +explanation, but gladly availed himself of the steward's offer. Clancy +was moved to this little room adjoining the steward's quarters +forthwith, and Mrs. Clancy was satisfied. + +Another thing had happened to excite remark and a good deal of it. +Nothing short of eternal damnation was Mrs. Clancy's frantic sentence on +the head of her unlucky spouse the night of the fire, when she was the +central figure of the picture and when hundreds of witnesses to her +words were grouped around. Correspondingly had she called down the +blessings of the Holy Virgin and all the saints upon the man who rescued +and returned to her that precious packet of money. Everybody heard her, +and it was out of the question for her to retract. Nevertheless, from +within an hour after Clancy's admission to the hospital not another word +of the kind escaped her lips. She was all patience and pity with the +injured man, and she shunned all allusion to his preserver and her +benefactor. The surgeon had been called away, after doing all in his +power to make Clancy comfortable,--he was needed elsewhere,--and only +two or three soldiers and a hospital nurse still remained by his +bedside, where Mrs. Clancy and little Kate were drying their tears and +receiving consolation from the steward's wife. The doctor had mentioned +a name as he went away, and it was seen that Clancy was striving to ask +a question. Sergeant Nolan bent down: + +"Lie quiet, Clancy, me boy: you _must_ be quiet, or you'll move the +bandages." + +"Who did he say was burned? who was he going to see?" gasped the +sufferer. + +"The new lieutenant, Clancy,--him that pulled ye out. He's a good one, +and it's Mrs. Clancy that'll tell ye the same." + +"Tell him what?" said she, turning about in sudden interest. + +"About the lieutenant's pulling him out of the fire and saving your +money." + +"Indeed yes! The blessings of all the saints be upon his beautiful head, +and--" + +"But _who_ was it? What was his name, I say?" vehemently interrupted +Clancy, half raising himself upon his elbow, and groaning with the +effort. "What was his name? I didn't see him." + +"Lieutenant Hayne, man." + +"Oh, my God!" gasped Clancy, and fell back as though struck a sudden +blow. + +She sprang to his side: "It's faint he is. Don't answer his questions, +sergeant! He's beside himself! Oh, will ye never stop talking to him and +lave him in pace? Go away, all of ye's,--go away, I say, or ye'll dhrive +him crazy wid yer--Be quiet, Mike! don't ye spake agin." And she laid a +broad red hand upon his face. He only groaned again, and threw his one +unbandaged arm across his darkened eyes, as though to hide from sight of +all. + +From that time on she made no mention of the name that so strangely +excited her stricken husband; but the watchers in the hospital the next +night declared that in his ravings Clancy kept calling for Lieutenant +Hayne. + +Stannard's battalion of the cavalry came marching into the post two days +after the fire, and created a diversion in the garrison talk, which for +one long day had been all of that dramatic incident and its attendant +circumstances. In social circles, among the officers and ladies, the +main topic was the conduct of Mr. Hayne and the injuries he had +sustained as a consequence of his gallant rescue. Among the enlisted men +and the denizens of Sudsville the talk was principally of the revelation +of Mrs. Clancy's hoard of greenbacks. But in both circles a singular +story was just beginning to creep around, and it was to the effect that +Clancy had cried aloud and fainted dead away and that Mrs. Clancy had +gone into hysterics when they were told that Lieutenant Hayne was the +man to whom the one owed his life and the other her money. Some one met +Captain Rayner on the sidewalk the morning Stannard came marching home, +and asked him if he had heard the queer story about Clancy. He had not, +and it was told him then and there. Rayner did not even attempt to laugh +at it or turn it off in any way. He looked dazed, stunned, for a moment, +turned very white and old-looking, and, hardly saying good-day to his +informant, faced about and went straight to his quarters. He was not +among the crowd that gathered to welcome the incoming cavalrymen that +bright, crisp, winter day; and that evening Mrs. Rayner went to the +hospital to ask what she could do for Clancy and his wife. Captain +Rayner always expected her to see that every care and attention was paid +to the sick and needy of his company, she explained to the doctor, who +could not recall having seen her on a similar errand before, although +sick and needy of Company B were not unknown in garrisons where he had +served with them. She spent a good while with Mrs. Clancy, whom she had +never noticed hitherto, much to the laundress's indignation, and +concerning whose conduct she had been known to express herself in terms +of extreme disapprobation. But in times of suffering such things are +forgotten: Mrs. Rayner was full of sympathy and interest; there was +nothing she was not eager to send them, and no thanks were necessary. +She could never do too much for the men of her husband's company. + +Yet there was a member of her husband's company on whom in his suffering +neither she nor the captain saw fit to call. Mr. Hayne's eyes were +seriously injured by the flames and heat, and he was now living in +darkness. It might be a month, said the doctor, before he could use his +eyes again. + +"Only think of that poor fellow, all alone out there on that ghastly +prairie and unable to read!" was the exclamation of one of the cavalry +ladies in Mrs. Rayner's presence; and, as there was an awkward silence +and somebody had to break it, Mrs. Rayner responded,-- + +"If I lived on Prairie Avenue I should consider blindness a blessing." + +It was an unfortunate remark. There was strong sympathy developing for +Hayne all through the garrison. Mrs. Rayner never meant that it should +have any such significance, but inside of twenty-four hours, in course +of which her language had been repeated some dozens of times and +distorted quite as many, the generally accepted version of the story was +that Mrs. Rayner, so far from expressing the faintest sympathy or sorrow +for Mr. Hayne's misfortune, so far from expressing the natural +gratification which a lady should feel that it was an officer of her +regiment who had reached the scene of danger ahead of the cavalry +officer of the guard, had said in so many words that Mr. Hayne ought to +be thankful that blindness was the worst thing that had come to him. + +There was little chance for harmony after that. Many men and some women, +of course, refused to believe it, and said they felt confident that she +had been misrepresented. Still, all knew by this time that Mrs. Rayner +was bitter against Hayne, and had heard of her denunciation of the +colonel's action. So, too, had the colonel heard that she openly +declared that she would refuse any invitation extended to her or to her +sister which might involve her accepting hospitality at his house. These +things _do_ get around in most astonishing ways. + +Then another complication arose: Hayne, too, was mixing matters. The +major commanding the battalion, a man in no wise connected with his +misfortunes, had gone to him and urged, with the doctor's full consent, +that he should be moved over into and become an inmate of his household +in garrison. He had a big, roomy house. His wife earnestly added her +entreaties to the major's, but all to no purpose: Mr. Hayne firmly +declined. He thanked the major; he rose and bent over the lady's hand +and thanked her with a voice that was full of gentleness and gratitude; +but he said that he had learned to live in solitude. Sam was accustomed +to all his ways, and he had every comfort he needed. His wants were few +and simple. She would not be content, and urged him further. He loved +reading: surely he would miss his books and would need some one to read +aloud to him, and there were so many ladies in the garrison who would be +glad to meet at her house and read to him by turns. He loved music, she +heard, and there was her piano, and she knew several who would be +delighted to come and play for him by the hour. He shook his head, and +the bandages hid the tears that came to his smarting eyes. He had made +arrangements to be read aloud to, he said; and as for music, that must +wait awhile. The kind woman retired dismayed,--she could not understand +such obduracy,--and her husband felt rebuffed. Stannard of the cavalry, +too, came in with his gentle wife. She was loved throughout the regiment +for her kindliness and grace of mind, as well as for her devotion to the +sick and suffering in the old days of the Indian wars, and Stannard had +made a similar proffer and been similarly refused, and he had gone away +indignant. He thought Mr. Hayne too bumptious to live; but he bore no +malice, and his wrath was soon over. Many of the cavalry officers called +in person and tendered their services, and were very civilly received, +but all offers were positively declined. Just what the infantry officers +should do was a momentous question. That they could no longer hold aloof +was a matter that was quickly settled, and three of their number went +through the chill gloaming of the wintry eve and sent in their cards by +Sam, who ushered them into the cheerless front room, while one of their +number followed to the door-way which led to the room in rear, in which, +still confined to his bed by the doctor's advice, the injured officer +was lying. It was Mr. Ross who went to the door and cleared his throat +and stood in the presence of the man to whom, more than five years +before, he had refused his hand. The others listened anxiously: + +"Mr. Hayne, this is Ross. I come with Foster and Graham to say how +deeply we regret your injuries, and to tender our sympathy and our +services." + +There was a dead silence for a moment. Foster and Graham stood with +hearts that beat unaccountably hard, looking at each other in +perplexity. Would he never reply? + +The answer came at last,--a question: + +"To what injuries do you allude, Mr. Ross?" + +Even in the twilight they could see the sudden flush of the Scotchman's +cheek. He was a blunt fellow, but, as the senior, had been chosen +spokesman for the three. The abrupt question staggered him. It was a +second or two before he could collect himself. + +"I mean the injuries at the fire," he replied. + +This time, no answer whatever. It was growing too painful. Ross looked +in bewilderment at the bandaged face, and again broke the silence: + +"We hope you won't deny us the right to be of service, Mr. Hayne. If +there is anything we can do that you need, or would like--" +hesitatingly. + +"You have nothing further to say?" asked the calm voice from the pillow. + +"I--don't know what else we _can_ say," faltered Ross, after an +instant's pause. + +The answer came, firm and prompt, but icily cool: + +"Then there is nothing that you can do." + +And the three took their departure, sore at heart. + +There were others of the infantry who had purposed going to see Hayne +that evening, but the story of Ross's experience put an end to it all. +It was plain that even now Mr. Hayne made the condition of the faintest +advance from his regimental comrades a full confession of error. He +would have no less. + +That evening the colonel sat by his bedside and had an earnest talk. He +ventured to expostulate with the invalid on his refusal to go to the +major's or to Stannard's. He could have so many comforts and delicacies +there that would be impossible here. He did not refer to edibles and +drinkables alone, he said, with a smile; but Hayne's patient face gave +no sign of relenting. He heard the colonel through, and then said, +slowly and firmly,-- + +"I have not acted hastily, sir: I appreciate their kindness, and am not +ungrateful. Five years ago my whole life was changed. From that time to +this I have done without a host of things that used to be indispensable, +and have abjured them one and all for a single luxury that I cannot live +without,--the luxury of utter independence,--the joy of knowing that I +owe no man anything,--the blessing of being beholden to no one on earth +for a single service I cannot pay for. It is the one luxury left me." + + + + +VII. + + +It was a clear winter's evening, sharply cold, about a week after the +fire, when, as Mrs. Rayner came down the stairway equipped for a walk, +and was passing the parlor door without stopping, Miss Travers caught +sight of and called to her,-- + +"Are you going walking, Kate? _Do_ wait a moment, and I'll go with you." + +Any one in the hall could have shared the author's privilege and seen +the expression of annoyance and confusion that appeared on Mrs. Rayner's +face: + +"I thought you _were_ out. Did not Mr. Graham take you walking?" + +"He did; but we wandered into Mrs. Waldron's, and she and the major +begged us to stay, and we had some music, and then the first call +sounded for retreat, and Mr. Graham had to go, so he brought me home. +I've had no walk, and need exercise." + +"But I don't like you to be out after sunset. That cough of yours--" + +"Disappeared the day after I got here, Kate, and there hasn't been a +vestige of it since. This high, dry climate put an end to it. No, I'll +be ready in one minute more. Do wait." + +Mrs. Rayner's hand was turning the knob while her sister was hurrying to +the front door and drawing on her heavy jacket as she did so. The former +faced her impatiently: + +"I don't think you are at all courteous to your visitors. You know just +as well as I do that Mr. Foster or Mr. Royce or some other of those +young officers are sure to be in just at this hour. You really are very +thoughtless, Nellie." + +Miss Travers stopped short in her preparations. + +"Kate Rayner," she began, impressively, "it was only night before last +that you rebuked me for sitting here with Mr. Blake at this very hour, +and asked me how I supposed Mr. Van Antwerp would like it. Now you--" + +"Fudge! I cannot stay and listen to such talk. If you _must_ go, wait a +few minutes until I get back. I--I want to make a short call. Then I'll +take you." + +"So do I want to make a short call,--over at the doctor's; and you are +going right to the hospital, are you not?" + +"How do you know I am?" asked Mrs. Rayner, reddening. + +"You _do_ go there every evening, it seems to me." + +"I don't. Who told you I did?" + +"Several people mentioned your kindness and attention to the Clancys, +Kate. I have heard it from many sources." + +"I wish people would mind their own affairs," wailed Mrs. Rayner, +peevishly. + +"So do I, Kate; but they never have, and never will, especially with an +engaged girl. I have more to complain of than you, but it doesn't make +me forlorn, whereas you look fearfully worried about nothing." + +"Who says I'm worried?" asked Mrs. Rayner, with sudden vehemence. + +"You look worried, Kate, and haven't been at all like yourself for +several days. Now, _why_ shouldn't I go to the hospital with you? Why do +you try to hide your going from me? Don't you know that I must have +heard the strange stories that are flitting about the garrison? Haven't +I asked you to set me right if I have been told a wrong one? Kate, you +are fretting yourself to death about something, and the captain looks +worried and ill. I cannot but think it has some connection with the case +of Mr. Hayne. Why should the Clancys--" + +"You have no right to think any such thing," answered her sister, +angrily. "We have suffered too much at his hands or on his account +already, and I never want to hear such words from your lips. It would +outrage Captain Rayner to hear that my sister, to whom he has given a +home and a welcome, was linking herself with those who side with +that--that thief." + +"Kate! Oh, how _can_ you use such words? How dare you speak so of an +officer? You would not tell me what he was accused of; but I tell you +that if it be theft I don't believe it,--and no one else--" + +There was a sudden footfall on the porch without, and a quick, sharp, +imperative knock at the door. Mrs. Rayner fled back along the hall +towards the dining-room. Miss Travers, hesitating but a second, opened +the door. + +It was the soldier telegraph-operator, with a despatch-envelope in his +hand: + +"It is for Mrs. Rayner, miss, and an answer is expected. Shall I wait?" + +Mrs. Rayner came hastily forward from her place of refuge within the +dining-room, took the envelope without a word, and passed into the +parlor, where, standing beneath the lamp, she tore it open, glanced +anxiously at its contents, then threw it with an exclamation of peevish +indignation upon the table: + +"You'll have to answer for yourself, Nellie. I cannot straighten your +affairs and mine too." And with that she was going; but Miss Travers +called her back. + +The message simply read, "No letter in four days. Is anything wrong? +Answer paid," and was addressed to Mrs. Rayner and signed S.V.A. + +"I think you have been extremely neglectful," said Mrs. Rayner, who had +turned and now stood watching the rising color and impatiently tapping +foot of her younger sister. Miss Travers bit her lips and compressed +them hard. There was an evident struggle in her mind between a desire to +make an impulsive and sweeping reply and an effort to control herself. + +"Will you answer a quiet question or two?" she finally asked. + +"You know perfectly well I will," was the sisterly rejoinder. + +"How long does it take a letter to go from here to New York?" + +"Five or six days, I suppose." + +Miss Travers stepped to the door, briefly told the soldier there was no +answer, thanked him for waiting, and returned. + +"You are not going to reply?" asked Mrs. Rayner, in amaze. + +"_I_ am not; and I inferred _you_ did not intend to. Now another +question. How many days have we been here?" + +"Eight or nine,--nine, it is." + +"You saw me post a letter to Mr. Van Antwerp as we left the Missouri, +did you not?" + +"Yes. At least I suppose so." + +"I wrote again as soon as we got settled here, three days after that, +did I not?" + +"You said you did," replied Mrs. Rayner, ungraciously. + +"And you, Kate, when you are yourself have been prompt to declare that I +say what I mean. Very probably it may have been four days from the time +that letter from the transfer reached Wall Street to the time the next +one could get to him from here, even had I written the night we arrived. +Possibly you forget that you forbade my doing so, and sent me to bed +early. Mr. Van Antwerp has simply failed to remember that I had gone +several hundred miles farther west; and even had I written on the train +twice a day, the letters would not have reached him uninterruptedly. By +this time he is beginning to get them fast enough. And as for you, Kate, +you are quite as unjust as he. It augurs badly for my future peace; +and--I am learning two lessons here, Kate." + +"What two, pray?" + +"That he can be foolishly unreliable in estimating a woman." + +"And the other?" + +"That you may be persistently unreliable in your judgment of a man." + +Verily, for a young woman with a sweet, girlish face, whom we saw but a +week agone twitching a kitten's ears and saying little or nothing, Miss +Travers was displaying unexpected fighting qualities. For a moment, Mrs. +Rayner glared at her in tremulous indignation and dismay. + +"You--you ought to be ashamed of yourself!" was her eventual outbreak. + +But to this there was no reply. Miss Travers moved quietly to the +door-way, turned and looked her angry sister in the eye, and said,-- + +"I shall give up the walk, and will go to my room. Excuse me to any +visitors this evening." + +"You are not going to write to him now, when you are angry, I hope?" + +"I shall not write to him until to-morrow, but when I do I shall tell +him this, Kate: that if he desire my confidence he will address his +complaints and inquiries to me. If I am old enough to be engaged to him, +in your opinion, I am equally old enough to attend to such details as +these, in my own." + +Mrs. Rayner stood one moment as though astounded; then she flew to the +door and relieved her surcharged bosom as follows, "Well, I pity the man +you marry, whether you are lucky enough to keep this one or not!" and +flounced indignantly out of the house. + +When Captain Rayner came in, half an hour afterwards, the parlor was +deserted. He was looking worn and dispirited. Finding no one on the +ground-floor, he went to the foot of the stairs, and called,-- + +"Kate." + +A door opened above: "Kate has gone out, captain." + +"Do you know where, Nellie?" + +"Over to the hospital, I think; though I cannot say." + +She heard him sigh deeply, move irresolutely about the hall for a +moment, then turn and go out. + +At his gate he found two figures dimly visible in the gathering +darkness: they had stopped on hearing his footstep. One was an officer +in uniform, wrapped in heavy overcoat, with a fur cap, and a bandage +over his eyes. The other was a Chinese servant, and it was the latter +who asked,-- + +"This Maje Waldlon's?" + +"No," said he, hastily. "Major Waldron's is the third door beyond." + +At the sound of his voice the officer quickly started, but spoke in low, +measured tone: "Straight ahead, Sam." And the Chinaman led him on. + +Rayner stood a moment watching them, bitter thoughts coursing through +his mind. Mr. Hayne was evidently sufficiently recovered to be up and +out for air, and now he was being invited again. This time it was his +old comrade Waldron who honored him. Probably it was another dinner. +Little by little, at this rate, the time would soon come when Mr. Hayne +would be asked everywhere and he and his correspondingly dropped. He +turned miserably away, and went back to the billiard-rooms at the store. +When Mrs. Rayner rang her bell for tea that evening he had not +reappeared, and she sent a messenger for him. + +It was a brilliant moonlit evening. A strong prairie gale had begun to +blow from the northwest, and was banging shutters and whirling pebbles +at a furious rate. At the sound of the trumpets wailing tattoo a brace +of young officers calling on the ladies took their leave. The captain +had retired to his den, or study, where he shut himself up a good deal +of late, and thither Mrs. Rayner followed him and closed the door after +her. Throwing a cloak over her shoulders, Miss Travers stepped out on +the piazza and gazed in delight upon the moonlit panorama,--the +snow-covered summits to the south and west, the rolling expanse of +upland prairie between, the rough outlines of the foot-hills softened in +the silvery light, the dark shadows of the barracks across the parade, +the twinkling lights of the sergeants as they took their stations, the +soldierly forms of the officers hastening to their companies far across +the frozen level. Suddenly she became aware of two forms coming down the +walk. They issued from Major Waldron's quarters, and the door closed +behind them. One was a young officer; the other, she speedily made out, +a Chinese servant, who was guiding his master. She knew the pair in an +instant, and her first impulse was to retire. Then she reflected that he +could not see, and she wanted to look: so she stayed. They had almost +reached her gate, when a wild blast whirled the officer's cape about his +ears and sent some sheets of music flying across the road. Leaving his +master at the fence, the Chinaman sped in pursuit; and the next thing +she noted was that Mr. Hayne's fur cap was blown from his head and that +he was groping for it helplessly. + +There was no one to call, no one to assist. She hesitated one minute, +looked anxiously around, then sprang to the gate, picked up the cap, +pulled it well down over the bandaged eyes, seized the young officer +firmly by the arm, drew him within the gate, and led him to the shelter +of the piazza. Once out of the fury of the gale, she could hear his +question, "Did you get it all, Sam?" + +"Not yet," she answered. Oh, how she longed for a deep contralto! "He is +coming. He will be here in a moment." + +"I am so sorry to have been a trouble to you," he began again, vaguely. + +"You are no trouble to me. I'm glad I was where I happened to see you +and could help." + +He spoke no more for a minute. She stood gazing at all that was visible +of the pale face below the darkened eyes. It was so clear-cut, so +refined in feature, and the lips under the sweeping blonde moustache, +though set and compressed, were delicate and pink. He turned his head +eagerly towards the parade; but Sam was still far away. The music had +scattered, and was leading him a lively dance. + +"Isn't my servant coming?" he asked, constrainedly. "I fear I'm keeping +you. Please do not wait. He will find me here. You were going +somewhere." + +"No,--unless it was here." She was trembling now. "Please be patient, +Mr.--Mr. Hayne. Sam may be a minute or two yet, and here you are out of +the wind." + +Again she looked in his face. He was listening eagerly to her words, as +though striving to "place" her voice. _Could_ she be mistaken? Was he, +too, not trembling? Beyond all doubt his lips were quivering now. + +"May I not know who it is that led me here?" he asked, gently. + +She hesitated, hardly knowing how to tell him. + +"Try and guess," she laughed, nervously. "But you couldn't. You do not +know my name. It is my good fortune, Mr. Hayne. You--you saved my +kitten; I--your cap." + +There was no mistaking his start. Beyond doubt he had winced as though +stung, and was now striving to grope his way to the railing. She divined +his purpose in an instant, and her slender hand was laid pleadingly yet +firmly on his arm. + +"Mr. Hayne, don't go. Don't think of going. Stay here until Sam comes. +He's coming now," she faltered. + +"Is this Captain Rayner's house?" he asked, hoarse and low. + +"No matter whose it is! I welcome you here. You shall not go," she +cried, impulsively, and both little hands were tagging at his arm. He +had found the railing, and was pulling himself towards the gate, but her +words, her clinging hands, were too persuasive. + +"I cannot realize this," he said. "I do not understand--" + +"Do not try to understand it, Mr. Hayne. If I am only a girl, I have a +right to think for myself. My father was a soldier,--I am Nellie +Travers,--and if he were alive I know well he would have had me do just +what I have done this night. Now won't you stay?" + +And light was beaming in through his darkened eyes and gladdening his +soul with a rapture he had not known for years. One instant he seized +and clasped her hand. "May God bless you!" was all he whispered, but so +softly that even she did not hear him. He bowed low over the slender +white hand, and stayed. + + + + +VIII. + + +March had come,--the month of gale and bluster, sleet and storm, in +almost every section of our broad domain,--and March at Warrener was to +the full as blustering and conscienceless as in New England. There were +a few days of sunshine during the first week; then came a fortnight of +raging snow-storms. The cavalry troops, officers and men, went about +their stable-duties as usual, but, except for roll-call on the porch of +the barracks and for guard-mounting over at the guard-house, all +military exercise seemed suspended. This meant livelier times for the +ladies, however, as the officers were enabled to devote just so many +more hours a day to their entertainment. There were two or three hops a +week over in the big assembly-room, and there was some talk of getting +up a german in honor of Miss Travers, but the strained relations +existing between Mrs. Rayner and the ladies of other families at the +post made the matter difficult of accomplishment. There were bright +little luncheon-, dinner-, and tea-parties, where the young officers and +the younger ladies met every day; and, besides all this, despite the +fact that Mrs. Rayner had at first shown a fixed determination to +discuss the rights and wrongs of "the Hayne affair," as it was now +beginning to be termed, with all comers who belonged to the Riflers, it +had grown to be a very general thing for the youngsters to drop in at +her house at all hours of the day; but that was because there were +attractions there which outweighed her combativeness. Then Rayner +himself overheard some comments on the mistake she was making, and +forbade her discussing the subject with the officers even of her own +regiment. She was indignant, and demanded a reason. He would name no +names, but told her that he had heard enough to convince him she was +doing him more harm than good, and, if anything, contributing to the +turn of the tide in Hayne's favor. Then she felt outraged and utterly +misjudged. It was a critical time for her, and if deprived of the use of +her main weapon of offence and defence the battle was sure to go amiss. +Sorely against her inclination, she obeyed her lord, for, as has been +said, she was a loyal wife, and for the time being the baby became the +recipient of her undivided attention. + +True to her declaration, she behaved so coldly and with such marked +distance of manner to the colonel and his wife when they met in society +immediately after the dinner that the colonel quietly told his wife she +need not give either dinner or reception in honor of Mrs. Rayner's +return. He would like to have her do something to welcome Miss Travers, +for he thought the girl had much of her father in her. He knew him well +in the old days before and during the war, and liked him. He liked her +looks and her sweet, unaffected, cheery manner. He liked the contrast +between her and her sister; for Miss Travers had listened in silence to +her sister's exposition of what her manner should be to the colonel and +his wife, and when they met she was bright and winsome. The colonel +stood and talked with her about her father, whom she could remember only +vaguely, but of whom she never tired of hearing; and that night Mrs. +Rayner rebuked her severely for her disloyalty to the captain, who had +given her a home. + +But when Mrs. Rayner heard that Major and Mrs. Waldron had invited Mr. +Hayne to dine with them, and had invited to meet him two of the cavalry +officers and their wives, she was incensed beyond measure. She and Mrs. +Waldron had a brief talk, as a result of which Mrs. Rayner refused to +speak to Mrs. Waldron at the evening party given by Mrs. Stannard in +honor of her and her sister. It was this that brought on the crisis. +Whatever was said between the men was not told. Major Waldron and +Captain Rayner had a long consultation, and they took no one into their +confidence; but Mrs. Rayner obeyed her husband, went to Mrs. Waldron and +apologized for her rudeness, and then went with her sister and returned +the call of the colonel's wife; but she chose a bright afternoon, when +she knew well the lady was not at home. + +She retired from the contest, apparently, as has been said, and took +much Christian consolation to herself from the fact that at so great a +sacrifice she was obeying her husband and doing the duty she owed to +him. In very truth, however, the contest was withdrawn from her by the +fact that for a week or more after his evening at the Waldrons' Mr. +Hayne did not reappear in garrison, and she had no cause to talk about +him. Officers visiting the house avoided mention of his name. Ladies of +the cavalry regiment calling upon Mrs. Rayner and Miss Travers +occasionally spoke of him and his devotion to the men and his bravery at +the fire, but rather as though they meant in a general way to compliment +the Riflers, not Mr. Hayne; and so she heard little of the man whose +existence was so sore a trial to her. What she would have said, what she +would have thought, had she known of the meeting between him and her +guarded Nellie, is beyond us to describe; but she never dreamed of such +a thing, and Miss Travers never dreamed of telling her,--for the +present, at least. Fortunately--or unfortunately--for the latter, it was +not so much of her relations with Mr. Hayne as of her relations with +half a dozen young bachelors that Mrs. Rayner speedily felt herself +compelled to complain. It was a blessed relief to the elder sister. Her +surcharged spirit was in sore need of an escape-valve. She was ready to +boil over in the mental ebullition consequent upon Mr. Hayne's reception +at the post, and with all the pent-up irritability which that episode +had generated she could not have contained herself and slept. But here +Miss Travers came to her relief. Her beauty, her winsome ways, her +unqualified delight in everything that was soldierly, speedily rendered +her vastly attractive to all the young officers in garrison. Graham and +Foster of the infantry, Merton, Webster, and Royce of the cavalry, +haunted the house at all manner of hours, and the captain bade them +welcome and urged them to come oftener and stay later, and told Mrs. +Rayner he wanted some kind of a supper or collation every night. He set +before his guests a good deal of wine, and drank a good deal more +himself than he had ever been known to do before, and they were keeping +very late hours at Rayner's, for, said the captain, "I don't care if +Nellie is engaged: she shall have a good time while she's here; and if +the boys know all about it,--goodness knows you've told them often +enough, Kate,--and they don't mind it, why, it's nobody's +business,--here, at least." + +What Mr. Van Antwerp might think or care was another matter. Rayner +never saw him, and did not know him. He rather resented it that Van +Antwerp had never written to him and asked his consent. As Mrs. Rayner's +husband and Nellie's brother-in-law, it seemed to him he stood _in loco +parentis_; but Mrs. Rayner managed the whole thing herself, and he was +not even consulted. If anything, he rather enjoyed the contemplation of +Van Antwerp's fidgety frame of mind as described to him by Mrs. Rayner +about the time it became apparent to her that Nellie was enjoying the +attentions of which she was so general an object, and that the captain +was sitting up later and drinking more wine than was good for him. She +was aware that the very number of Nell's admirers would probably prevent +her becoming entangled with any one of them, but she needed something to +scold about, and eagerly pitched upon this. She knew well that she could +not comfort her husband in the anxiety that was gnawing at his +heart-strings, but she was jealous of comfort that might come to him +from any other source, and the Lethe of wine and jolly companionship she +dreaded most of all. Long, long before, she had induced him to promise +that he would never offer the young officers spirits in his house. She +would not prohibit wine at table, she said; but she never thought of +there coming a time when he himself would seek consolation in the glass +and make up in quantity what it lacked in alcoholic strength. He was +impatient of all reproof now, and would listen to no talk; but Nellie +was years her junior,--more years than she would admit except at such +times as these, when she meant to admonish; and Nellie had to take it. + +Two weeks after their arrival at Warrener the burden of Mrs. Rayner's +song--morn, noon, and night--was, "What would Mr. Van Antwerp say if he +could but see this or hear that?" + +Can any reader recall an instance where the cause of an absent lover was +benefited by the ceaseless warning in a woman's ear, "Remember, you're +engaged"? The hero of antiquity who caused himself to be attended by a +shadowing slave whispering ever and only, "Remember, thou art mortal," +is a fine figure to contemplate--at this remote date. He, we are told, +admitted the need, submitted to the infliction. But lives there a woman +who will admit that she needs any instruction as to what her conduct +should be when the lord of her heart is away? Lives there a woman who, +submitting, because she cannot escape, to the constant reminder, "Thou +art engaged," will not resent it in her heart of hearts and possibly +revenge herself on the one alone whom she holds at her mercy? Left to +herself,--to her generosity, her conscience, her innate tenderness,--the +cause of the absent one will plead for itself, and, if it have even +faint foundation, hold its own. "With the best intentions in the world," +many an excellent cause has been ruined by the injudicious urgings of a +mother; but to talk an engaged girl into mutiny, rely on the +infallibility of two women,--a married sister or a maiden aunt. + +Just what Mr. Van Antwerp would have said could he have seen the +situation at Warrener is perhaps impossible to predict. Just what he did +say without seeing was, perhaps, the most unwise thing he could have +thought of: he urged Mrs. Rayner to keep reminding Nellie of her +promise. His had not been a life of unmixed joy. He was now nearly +thirty-five, and desperately in love with a pretty girl who had simply +bewitched him during the previous summer. It was not easy to approach +her then, he found, for her sister kept vigilant guard; but, once +satisfied of his high connections, his wealth, and his social standing, +the door was opened, and he was something more than welcomed, said the +gossips at the Surf House. What his past history had been, where and how +his life had been spent, were matters of less consequence, apparently, +than what he was now. He had been wild at college, as other boys had +been, she learned; he had tried the cattle-business in the West, she was +told; but there had been a quarrel with his father, a reconciliation, a +devoted mother, a long sojourn abroad,--Heidelberg,--a sudden summons to +return, the death of the father, and then the management of a valuable +estate fell to the son. There were other children, brother and sisters, +three in all, but Steven was the first-born and the mother's glory. She +was with him at the sea-side, and the first thing that moved Nellie +Travers to like him was his devotion to that white-haired woman who +seemed so happy in his care. Between that mother and Mrs. Rayner there +had speedily sprung up an acquaintance. She had vastly admired Nellie, +and during the first fortnight of their visit to the Surf House had +shown her many attentions. The illness of a daughter called her away, +and Mrs. Rayner announced that she, too, was going elsewhere, when Mr. +Van Antwerp himself returned, and Mrs. Rayner decided it was so late in +the season that they had better remain until it was time to go to town. +In October they spent a fortnight in the city, staying at the +Westminster, and he was assiduous in his attentions, taking them +everywhere, and lavishing flowers and bonbons upon Nell. Then Mrs. Van +Antwerp invited them to visit her at her own comfortable, old-fashioned +house down town, and Mrs. Rayner was eager to accept, but Nellie said +no; she would not do it: she could not accept Mr. Van Antwerp; she +liked, admired, and was attracted by him, but she felt that love him she +did not. He was devoted, but had tact and patience, and Mrs. Rayner at +last yielded to her demand and took her off in October to spend some +time in the interior of the State with relations of their mother, and +there, frequently, came Mr. Van Antwerp to see her and to urge his suit. +They were to have gone to Warrener immediately after the holidays, but +January came and Nellie had not surrendered. Another week in the city, a +long talk with the devoted old mother whose heart was so wrapped up in +her son's happiness and whose arms seemed yearning to enfold the lovely +girl, and Nellie was conquered. If not fully convinced of her love for +Mr. Van Antwerp, she was more than half in love with his mother. Her +promise was given, and then she seemed eager to get back to the +frontier which she had known and loved as a child. "I want to see the +mountains, the snow-peaks, the great rolling prairies, once more," she +said; and he had to consent. Man never urged more importunately than he +that the wedding should come off that very winter; but Nellie once more +said no; she could not and would not listen to an earlier date than the +summer to come. + +No one on earth knew with what sore foreboding and misery he let her go. +It was something that Mrs. Rayner could not help remarking,--his +unconquerable aversion to every mention of the army and of his own +slight experience on the frontier. He would not talk of it even with +Nellie, who was an enthusiast and had spent two years of her girlhood +almost under the shadow of Laramie Peak and loved the mere mention of +the Wyoming streams and valleys. In her husband's name Mrs. Rayner had +urged him to drop his business early in the spring and come to them for +a visit. He declared it was utterly impossible. Every moment of his time +must be given to the settling of estate affairs, so that he could be a +free man in the summer. He meant to take his bride abroad immediately +and spend a year or more in Europe. These were details which were +industriously circulated by Mrs. Rayner and speedily became garrison +property. It seemed to the men that in bringing her sister there engaged +she had violated all precedent to begin with, and in this instance, at +least, there was general complaint. Mr. Blake said it reminded him of +his early boyhood, when they used to take him to the great toy-stores at +Christmas: "Look all you like, long for it as much as you please, but +don't touch." Merton and Royce, of the cavalry, said it was simply a +challenge to any better fellow to cut in and cut out the Knickerbocker; +and, to do them justice, they did their best to carry out their theory. +Both they and their comrades of the Riflers were assiduous in their +attentions to Miss Travers, and other ladies, less favored, made +acrimonious comment in consequence. A maiden sister of one of the +veteran captains in the ----th, a damsel whose stern asceticism of +character was reflected in her features and grimly illustrated in her +dress, was moved to censure of her more attractive neighbor. "If I had +given my heart to a gentleman," said she, and her manner was indicative +of the long struggle which such a bestowal would cost both him and her, +"nothing on earth would induce _me_ to accept attentions from any one +else, not if _he_ were millions of miles away." + +But Nellie Travers was "accepting attentions" with laughing grace and +enjoying the society of these young fellows immensely. The house would +have been gloomy without her and "the boys," Rayner was prompt to admit, +for he was ill at ease and sorely worried, while his inflammable Kate +was fuming over the situation of her husband's affairs. Under ordinary +circumstances she would have seen very little to object to so long as +Nellie showed no preference for any one of her admirers at Warrener, and +unless peevish or perturbed in spirit would have made little allusion to +it. As matters stood, however, she was in a most querulous and excitable +mood: she could not rail at the real cause of her misery, and so, +woman-like, she was thankful for a pretext for uncorking the vials of +her wrath on somebody or something else. If the young matrons in +garrison who, with the two or three visiting maidens, were disposed to +rebel at Miss Nell's apparent absorption of all the available cavaliers +at the post, and call her a too lucky girl, could but have heard Mrs. +Rayner's nightly tirades and hourly rebukes, they might have realized +that here, as elsewhere, the rose had its stinging thorns. As for Miss +Travers, she confounded her sister by taking it all very submissively +and attempting no defence. Possibly conscience was telling her that she +deserved more than she was getting, or than she would be likely to get +until her sister heard of the adventure with Mr. Hayne. + +"By the way," said Mr. Royce one evening as they were stamping off the +snow and removing their heavy wraps in Rayner's hall-way after a series +of garrison calls, "Mrs. Waldron says she expects you to play for her +to-morrow afternoon, Miss Travers. Of course it will be my luck to be at +stables." + +"You hear better music every afternoon than I can give you, Mr. Royce." + +"Where, pray?" asked Mrs. Rayner, turning quickly upon them. + +Mr. Royce hesitated, and--with shame be it said--allowed Miss Travers to +meet the question: + +"At Mr. Hayne's, Kate." + +There was the same awkward silence that always followed the mention of +Hayne's name. Mrs. Rayner looked annoyed. It was evident that she wanted +more information,--wanted to ask, but was restrained. Royce determined +to be outspoken. + +"Several of us have got quite in the way of stopping there on our way +from afternoon stables," he said, very quietly. "Mr. Hayne has his +piano now, and has nearly recovered the full use of his eyes. He plays +well." + +Mrs. Rayner turned about once more, and, without saying so much as +good-night, went heavily up-stairs, leaving her escort to share with Mr. +Royce such welcome as the captain was ready to accord them. If forbidden +to talk on the subject nearest her heart, she would not speak at all. +She would have banged her door, but that would have waked baby. It stung +her to the quick to know that the cavalry officers were daily visitors +at Mr. Hayne's quarters. It was little comfort to know that the infantry +officers did not go, for she and they both knew that, except Major +Waldron, no one of their number was welcome under that roof unless he +would voluntarily come forward and say, "I believe you innocent." She +felt that but for the stand made by Hayne himself most of their number +would have received him into comradeship again by this time, and she +could hardly sleep that night from thinking over what she had heard. + +But could she have seen the figure that was slinking in the snow at the +rear door of Hayne's quarters that very evening, peering into the +lighted rooms, and at last, after many an irresolute turn, knocking +timidly for admission and then hiding behind the corner of the shed +until Sam came and poked his pig-tailed head out into the wintry +darkness in wondering effort to find the visitor, she would not have +slept at all. + +It was poor Clancy, once more mooning about the garrison and up to his +old tricks. Clancy had been drinking; but he wanted to know, "could he +spake with the lieutenant?" + + + + +IX. + + +"I have been reading over your letter of Thursday last, dear Steven," +wrote Miss Travers, "and there is much that I feel I ought to answer. +You and Kate are very much of a mind about the 'temptations' with which +I am surrounded; but you are far more imaginative than she is, and far +more courteous. There is so much about your letter that touches me +deeply that I want to be frank and fair in my reply. I have been dancing +all this evening, was out at dinner before that, and have made many +calls this afternoon; but, tired as I am, my letter must be written, +for to-morrow will be but the repetition of to-day. Is it that I am cold +and utterly heartless that I can sit and write so calmly in reply to +your fervent and appealing letter? Ah, Steven, it is what may be said of +me; but, if cold and heartless to you, I have certainly given no man at +this garrison the faintest reason to think that he has inspired any +greater interest in him. They are all kind, all very attentive. I have +told you how well Mr. Royce dances and Mr. Merton rides and Mr. Foster +reads and talks. They entertain me vastly, and I _do_ like it. More than +this, Steven, I am pleased with their evident admiration,--not alone +pleased and proud that they should admire me who am pledged to you,--not +that alone, I frankly confess, but because it in itself is pleasant. It +pleases me. Very possibly it is because I am vain. + +"And yet, though my hours are constantly occupied, though they are here +from morning till night, no one of them is more attentive than another. +There are five or six who come daily. There are some who do not come at +all. Am I a wretch, Steven? There are two or three that do not call who +I wish _would_ call. I would like to know them. + +"Yet they know--they could not help it, with Kate here, and I never +forget--that I am your promised wife. Steven, do you not sometimes +forget the conditions of that promise? Even now, again and again do I +not repeat to you that you ought to release me and free yourself? Of +course your impulse will be to say my heart is changing,--that I have +seen others whom I like better. No, I have seen no one I like as well. +But _is_ 'like' what you deserve,--what you ask? and is it not all I +have ever been able to promise you? Steven, bear me witness, for Kate is +bitterly unjust to me at times, I told you again and again last summer +and fall that I did not love you and ought not to think of being your +wife. Yet, poor, homeless, dependent as I am, how strong was the +temptation to say yes to your plea! You know that I did not and would +not until time and again your sweet mother, whom I _do_ love, and Kate, +who had been a mother to me, both declared that _that_ should make no +difference: the love would come: the happiest marriages the world over +were those in which the girl respected the man of her choice: love would +come, and come speedily, when once she was his wife. You yourself +declared you could wait in patience,--you would woo and win by and by. +Only promise to be your wife before returning to the frontier, and you +would be content. Steven, _are_ you content? You know you are not: you +know you are unhappy; and it is all, not because I am growing to love +some one else, but because I am not growing to love you. Heaven knows I +want to love you; for so long as you hold me to it my promise is sacred +and shall be kept. More than that, if you say that it is your will that +I seclude myself from these attentions, give up dancing, give up rides, +drives, walks, and even receiving visits, here, so be it. I will obey. +But write this to me, Steven,--not to Kate. I am too proud to ask her to +show me the letters I know she has received from you,--and there are +some she has not shown me,--but I cannot understand a man's complaining +to other persons of the conduct of the woman who is, or is to be, his +wife. Forgive me if I pain you: sometimes even to myself I seem old and +strange. I have lived so much alone, have had to think and do for myself +so many years while Kate has been away, that perhaps I'm not 'like other +girls;' but the respect I feel for you would be injured if I thought you +strove to guide or govern me through others; and of one thing be sure, +Steven, _I must honor and respect and look up to the man I marry_, love +or no love. + +"Once you said it would kill you if you believed I could be false to +you. If by that you meant that, having given my promise to you to be +your wife at some future time, I must school myself to love you, and +will be considered false if love do not come at my bidding or yours, I +say to you solemnly, release me now. I may not love, but I cannot and +will not deceive you, even by simulating love that does not exist. +Suppose that love were to be kindled in my heart. Suppose I were to +learn to care for some one here. You would be the first one to know it; +for I would tell you as soon as I knew it myself. _Then_ what could I +hope for,--or you? Surely you would not want to marry a girl who loved +another man. But is it much better to marry one who feels that she does +not love you? Think of it, Steven: I am very lonely, very far from +happy, very wretched over Kate's evident trouble and all the sorrow I am +bringing you and yours; but have I misled or deceived you in any one +thing? Once only has a word been spoken or a scene occurred that you +could perhaps have objected to. I told you the whole thing in my letter +of Sunday last, and why I had not told Kate. We have not met since that +night, Mr. Hayne and I, and may not; but he is a man whose story excites +my profound pity and sorrow, and he is one of the two or three I feel +that I would like to see more of. Is this being false to you or to my +promise? If so, Steven, you cannot say that I have not given you the +whole truth. + +"It is very late at night,--one o'clock,--and Kate is not yet asleep, +and the captain is still down-stairs, reading. He is not looking well at +all, and Kate is sorely anxious about him. It was his evidence that +brought years of ostracism and misery upon Lieutenant Hayne, and there +are vague indications that in his own regiment the officers are +beginning to believe that possibly he was not the guilty man. The +cavalry officers, of course, say nothing to us on the subject, and I +have never heard the full story. If he has been, as is suggested, the +victim of a scoundrel, and Captain Rayner was at fault in his evidence, +no punishment on earth could be too great for the villain who planned +his ruin, and no remorse could atone for Captain Rayner's share. I never +saw so sad a face on mortal man as Mr. Hayne's. Steven Van Antwerp, I +wish I _were_ a man! I would trace that mystery to the bitter end. + +"This is a strange letter to send to--to you; but I am a strange girl. +Already I am more than expecting you to write and release me +unconditionally; and you _ought_ to do it. I do not say I want it. + +"Faithfully, at least, yours, + +"NELLIE. + +"P.S.--Should you write to Kate, you are not to tell her, remember, of +my meeting with Mr. Hayne. Of course I am anxious to have your reply to +that letter; but it will be five days yet." + +An odd letter, indeed, for a girl not yet twenty, and not of a +hope-inspiring character; but when it reached Mr. Van Antwerp he did not +pale in reading it: his face was ghastly before he began. If anything, +he seemed relieved by some passages, though rejoiced by none. Then he +took from an inner pocket the letter that had reached him a few days +previous, and all alone in his room, late at night, he read it over +again, threw it upon the table at which he was sitting, then, with +passionate abandonment, buried his face in his arms and groaned aloud in +anguish. + +Two days after writing this letter Miss Travers was so unfortunate as to +hear a conversation in the dining-room which was not intended for her +ears. She had gone to her room immediately after breakfast, and, +glancing from her window, saw that the officers were just going to +head-quarters for the daily _matinee_. For half or three-quarters of an +hour, therefore, there could be no probable interruption; and she +decided to write an answer to the letter which came from Mr. Van Antwerp +the previous afternoon. A bright fire was burning in the old-fashioned +stove with which frontier quarters are warmed if not ornamented, and she +perched her little, slippered feet upon the hearth, took her portfolio +in her lap, and began. Mrs. Rayner was in the nursery, absorbed with the +baby and the nurse, when a servant came and announced that "a lady was +in the kitchen" and wanted to speak with the lady of the house. Mrs. +Rayner promptly responded that she was busy and couldn't be disturbed, +and wondered who it could be that came to her kitchen to see her. + +"Can I be of service, Kate?" called Miss Travers. "I will run down, if +you say so." + +"I wish you would," was the reply; and Miss Travers put aside her +writing. "Didn't she give any name?" asked Mrs. Rayner of the Abigail, +who was standing with her head just visible at the stairway, it being +one of the unconquerable tenets of frontier domestics to go no farther +than is absolutely necessary in conveying messages of any kind; and this +damsel, though new to the neighborhood, was native and to the manner +born in all the tricks of the trade. + +"She said you knew her name, ma'am. She's the lady from the hospital." + +"Here, Jane, take the baby! Never mind, Nellie: I must go!" And Mrs. +Rayner started with surprising alacrity; but as she passed her door Miss +Travers saw the look of deep anxiety on her face. + +A moment later she heard voices at the front door,--a party of ladies +who were going to spend the morning with the colonel's wife at some +"Dorcas society" work which many of them had embraced with enthusiasm. +"I want to see Miss Travers, just a minute," she heard a voice say, and +recognized the pleasant tones of Mrs. Curtis, the young wife of one of +the infantry officers: so a second time she put aside her writing, and +then ran down to the front door. Mrs. Curtis merely wanted to remind her +that she must be sure to come and spend the afternoon with her and bring +her music, and was dismayed to find that Miss Travers could not come +before stable-call: she had an engagement. "Of course: I might have +known it: you are besieged every hour. Well, can you come to-morrow? +Do." And, to-morrow being settled upon, and despite the fact that +several of the party waiting on the sidewalk looked cold and impatient, +Mrs. Curtis found it impossible to tear herself away until certain +utterly irrelevant matters had been lightly touched upon and lingeringly +abandoned. The officers were just beginning to pour forth from +head-quarters when the group of ladies finally got under way again and +Miss Travers closed the door. It was now useless to return to her +letter: so she strolled into the parlor just as she heard her sister's +voice at the kitchen door: + +"Come right in here, Mrs. Clancy. Now, quick, what is it?" + +And from the dining-room came the answer, hurried, half whispered, and +mysterious,-- + +"He's been drinkin' ever since he got out of hospital, ma'am, an' he's +worse than ever about Loot'nant Hayne. It's mischief he'll be doin', +ma'am: he's crazy-like--" + +"Mrs. Clancy, you _must_ watch him. You--Hush!" + +And here she stopped short, for, in astonishment at what she had already +heard, and in her instant effort to hear no more of what was so +evidently not intended for her, Miss Travers hurried from the parlor, +the swish of her skirts telling loudly of her presence there. She went +again to her room. What could it mean? Why was her proud, imperious Kate +holding secret interviews with this coarse and vulgar woman? What +concern was it of hers that Clancy should be "worse" about Mr. Hayne? It +could not mean that the mischief he would do was mischief _to_ the man +who had saved his life and his property. That was out of the question. +It could not mean that the poor, broken-down, drunken fellow had the +means in his power of further harming a man who had already been made to +suffer so much. Indeed, Kate's very exclamation, the very tone in which +she spoke, showed a distress of mind that arose from no fear for one +whom she hated as she hated Hayne. Her anxiety was personal. It was for +her husband and for herself she feared, or woman's tone and tongue never +yet revealed a secret. Nellie Travers stood in her room stunned and +bewildered, yet trying hard to recall and put together all the scattered +stories and rumors that had reached her about the strange conduct of +Clancy after he was taken to the hospital,--especially about his +heart-broken wail when told that it was Lieutenant Hayne who had rescued +him and little Kate from hideous death. Somewhere, somehow, this man was +connected with the mystery which encircled the long-hidden truth in +Hayne's trouble. Could it be possible that he did not realize it, and +that her sister had discovered it? Could it be--oh, heaven! _no!_--could +it be that Kate was standing between that lonely and friendless man and +the revelation that would set him right? She could not believe it of +her! She would not believe it of her sister! And yet what did Kate mean +by charging Mrs. Clancy to watch him,--that drunken husband? What could +it mean but that she was striving to prevent Mr. Hayne's ever hearing +the truth? She longed to learn more and solve the riddle once and for +all. They were still earnestly talking together down in the dining-room; +but she could not listen. Kate knew her so well that she had not closed +the door leading into the hall, though both she and the laundress of +Company B had lowered their voices. It was disgraceful at best, thought +Miss Travers, it was beneath her sister, that she should hold any +private conversation with a woman of that class. Confidences with such +were contamination. She half determined to rush down-stairs and put an +end to it, but was saved the scene: fresh young voices, hearty ringing +tones, and the stamp of heavy boot-heels were heard at the door; and as +Rayner entered, ushering in Royce and Graham, Mrs. Rayner and the +laundress fled once more to the kitchen. + +When the sisters found themselves alone again, it was late in the +evening. Mrs. Rayner came to Nellie's room and talked on various topics +for some little time, watching narrowly her sister's face. The young +girl hardly spoke at all. It was evident to the elder what her thoughts +must be. + +"I suppose you think I should explain Mrs. Clancy's agitation and +mysterious conduct, Nellie," she finally and suddenly said. + +"I do not want you to tell me anything, Kate, that you yourself do not +wish to tell me. You understand, of course, how I happened to be there?" + +"Oh, certainly. I wasn't thinking of that. You couldn't help hearing; +but you must have thought it queer,--her being so agitated, I mean." + +No answer. + +"Didn't you?" + +"I wasn't thinking of her at all." + +"What did you think, then?" half defiantly, yet trembling and growing +white. + +"I thought it strange that _you_ should be talking with her in such a +way." + +"She was worried about her husband,--his drinking so much,--and came to +consult me." + +"Why should she--and you--show such consternation at his connection with +the name of Mr. Hayne?" + +"Nellie, _that_ matter is one you know I cannot bear to talk of." ("Very +recently only," thought the younger.) "You once asked me to tell you +what Mr. Hayne's crime had been, and I answered that until you could +hear the whole story you could not understand the matter at all. We are +both worried about Clancy. He is not himself; he is wild and imaginative +when he's drinking. He has some strange fancies since the fire, and he +thinks he ought to do something to help the officer because he helped +him, and his head is full of Police Gazette stories, utterly without +foundation, and he thinks he can tell who the real culprits were,--or +something of that kind. It is utter nonsense. I have investigated the +whole thing,--heard the whole story. It is the trashiest, most +impossible thing you ever dreamed of, and would only make fearful +trouble if Mr. Hayne got hold of it." + +"Why?" + +"_Why?_ Because he is naturally vengeful and embittered, and he would +seize on any pretext to make it unpleasant for the officers who brought +about his trial." + +"Do you mean that what Clancy says in any way affects them?" asked Nell, +with quickening pulse and color. + +"It might, if there were a word of truth in it; but it is the maudlin +dream of a liquor-maddened brain. Mrs. Clancy and I both know that what +he says is utterly impossible. Indeed, he tells no two stories alike." + +"Has he told you anything?" + +"No; but she tells me everything." + +"How do you know she tells the truth?" + +"Nellie! Why should she deceive me? I have done everything for them." + +"I distrust her all the same; and you had better be warned in time. If +he has any theory, no matter how crack-brained, or if he knows anything +about the case and wants to tell it to Mr. Hayne, you are the last woman +on earth who should stand in the way." + +"Upon my word, Nellie Travers, this is going too far! One would think +you believed I wish to stand in the way of that young man's +restoration." + +"Kate, if you lift a hand or speak one word to prevent Clancy's seeing +Mr. Hayne and telling him everything he knows, you will make me +believe--precisely that." + +Captain Rayner heard sobbing and lamentation on the bedroom floor when +he came in a few moments after. Going aloft, he found Miss Travers's +door closed as usual, and his wife in voluble distress of mind. He +could only learn that she and Nellie had had a falling out, and that +Nell had behaved in a most unjust, disrespectful, and outrageous way. +She declined to give further particulars. + + + + +X. + + +Miss Travers had other reasons for wanting to be alone. That very +afternoon, just after stable-call, she found herself unoccupied for the +time being, and decided to go over and see Mrs. Waldron a few moments. +The servant admitted her to the little army parlor, and informed her +that Mrs. Waldron had stepped out, but would be home directly. A bright +wood fire was blazing on the hearth and throwing flickering lights and +shadows about the cosey room. The piano stood invitingly open, and on +the rack were some waltzes of Strauss she remembered having heard the +cavalry band play a night or two previous. Seating herself, she began to +try them, and speedily became interested. Her back being to the door, +she did not notice that another visitor was soon ushered in,--a man. She +continued slowly "picking out" the melody, for the light was growing dim +and it was with difficulty that she could distinguish the notes. Twice +she essayed a somewhat complicated passage, became entangled, bent down +and closely scanned the music, began again, once more became involved, +exclaimed impatiently, "How absurd!" and whirled about on the +piano-stool, to find herself facing Mr. Hayne. + +Now that the bandage was removed from his eyes it was no such easy +matter to meet him. Her sweet face flushed instantly as he bent low and +spoke her name. + +"I had no idea any one was here. It quite startled me," she said, as she +withdrew from his the hand she had mechanically extended to him. + +"It was my hope not to interrupt you," he answered, in the low, gentle +voice she had marked before. "You helped me when my music was all adrift +the other night: may I not help you find some of this?" + +"I wish you _would_ play, Mr. Hayne." + +"I will play for you gladly, Miss Travers, but waltz-music is not my +forte. Let me see what else there is here." And he began turning over +the sheets on the stand. + +"Are your eyes well enough to read music,--especially in such a dim +light?" she asked, with evident sympathy. + +"My eyes are doing very well,--better than my fingers, in fact,--and, as +I rarely play by note after I once learn a piece, the eyes make no +difference. What music do you like? I merely looked at this collection +thinking you might see something that pleased you." + +"Mrs. Ray told me you played Rubinstein so well,--that melody in F, for +one." + +"Did Mrs. Ray speak of that?"--his face brightening. "I'm glad they +found anything to enjoy in my music." + +"'They' found a great deal, Mr. Hayne, and there are a number who are +envious of their good fortune,--I, for one," she answered, blithely. +"Now play for me. Mrs. Waldron will be here in a minute." + +And when Mrs. Waldron came in, a little later, Miss Travers, seated in +an easy-chair and looking intently into the blaze, was listening as +intently to the soft, rich melodies that Mr. Hayne was playing. The +firelight was flickering on her shining hair; one slender white hand was +toying with the locket that hung at her throat, the other gently tapping +on the arm of the chair in unison with the music. And Mr. Hayne, seated +in the shadow, bent slightly over the key-board, absorbed in his +pleasant task, and playing as though all his soul were thrilling in his +finger-tips. Mrs. Waldron stood in silence at the door-way, watching the +unconscious pair with an odd yet comforted expression in her eyes. At +last, in one long, sweet, sighing chord, the melody softly died away, +and Mr. Hayne slowly turned and looked upon the girl. She seemed to have +wandered off into dream-land. For a moment there was no sound; then, +with a little shivering sigh, she roused herself. + +"It is simply exquisite," she said. "You have given me such a treat!" + +"I'm glad. I owe you a great deal more pleasure, Miss Travers." + +Mrs. Waldron hereat elevated her eyebrows. She would have slipped away +if she could, but she was a woman of substance, and as solid in flesh as +she was warm of heart. She did the only thing left to her,--came +cordially forward to welcome her two visitors and express her delight +that Miss Travers could have an opportunity of hearing Mr. Hayne play. +She soon succeeded in starting him again, and shortly thereafter managed +to slip out unnoticed. When he turned around a few minutes afterwards, +she had vanished. + +"Why, I had no idea she was gone!" exclaimed Miss Travers; and then the +color mounted to her brow. He must think her extremely absorbed in his +playing; and so indeed she was. + +"You are very fond of music, I see," he said, at a venture. + +"Yes, very; but I play very little and very badly. Pardon me, Mr. Hayne, +but you have played many years, have you not?" + +"Not so very many; but--there have been many in which I had little else +to do but practise." + +She reddened again. It was so unlike him, she thought, to refer to that +matter in speaking to her. He seemed to read her: + +"I speak of it only that I may say to you again what I began just before +Mrs. Waldron came. You gave me no opportunity to thank you the other +night, and I may not have another. You do not know what an event in my +life that meeting with you was; and you cannot know how I have gone over +your words again and again. Forgive me the embarrassment I see I cause +you, Miss Travers. We are so unlikely to meet at all that you can afford +to indulge me this once." He was smiling so gravely, sadly, now, and had +risen and was standing by her as she sat there in the big easy-chair, +still gazing into the fire, but listening for his every word. "In five +long years I have heard no words from a woman's lips that gave me such +joy and comfort as those you spoke so hurriedly and without +premeditation. Only those who know anything of what my past has been +could form any idea of the emotion with which I heard you. If I could +not have seen you to say how--how I thanked you, I would have had to +write. This explains what I said awhile ago: I owe you more pleasure +than I can ever give. But one thing was certain: I could not bear the +idea that you should not be told, and by me, how grateful your words +were to me,--how grateful I was to you. Again, may God bless you!" + +And now he turned abruptly away, awaiting no answer, reseated himself at +the piano and retouched the keys. But, though she sat motionless and +speechless, she knew that he had been trembling so violently and that +his hands were still so tremulous he could play no more. It was some +minutes that they sat thus, neither speaking; and as he regained his +self-control and began to attempt some simple little melodies, Mrs. +Waldron returned: + +"How very domestic you look, young people! Shall we light the lamps?" + +"I've stayed too long already," said Miss Travers, springing to her +feet. "Kate does not know I'm out, and will be wondering what has +become of her sister." She laughed nervously. "Thank you so much for the +music, Mr. Hayne!--Forgive my running off so suddenly; won't you, Mrs. +Waldron?" she asked, pleadingly, as she put her hand in hers; and as her +hostess reassured her she bent and kissed the girl's flushed cheek. Mr. +Hayne was still standing patiently by the centre-table. Once more she +turned, and caught his eye, flushed, half hesitated, then held out her +hand with quick impulse: + +"Good-evening, Mr. Hayne. I _shall_ hope to hear you play again." + +And, with pulses throbbing, and cheeks that still burned, she ran +quickly down the line to Captain Rayner's quarters, and was up-stairs +and in her room in another minute. + +This was an interview she would find it hard to tell to Kate. But told +it was, partially, and she was sitting now, late at night, hearing +through her closed door her sister's unmusical lamentations,--hearing +still ringing in her ears the reproaches heaped upon her when that +sister was quietly told that she and Mr. Hayne had met twice. And now +she was sitting there, true to herself and her resolution, telling Mr. +Van Antwerp all about it. Can one conjecture the sensations with which +he received and read that letter? + +Mr. Hayne, too, was having a wakeful night. He had gone to Mrs. +Waldron's to pay a dinner-call, with the result just told. He had one or +two other visits to make among the cavalry households in garrison, but, +after a few moments' chat with Mrs. Waldron, he decided that he +preferred going home. Sam had to call three times before Mr. Hayne +obeyed the summons to dinner that evening. The sun was going down behind +the great range to the southwest, and the trumpets were pealing +"retreat" on the frosty air, but Hayne's curtains were drawn, and he was +sitting before his fire, deep in thought, hearing nothing. The doctor +came in soon after he finished his solitary dinner, chatted with him +awhile, and smoked away at his pipe. He wanted to talk with Hayne about +some especial matter, and he found it hard work to begin. The more he +saw of his patient the better he liked him: he was interested in him, +and had been making inquiries. Without his pipe he found himself +uninspired. + +"Mr. Hayne, if you will permit, I'll fill up and blow another cloud. +Didn't you ever smoke?" + +"Yes. I was very fond of my cigar six or seven years ago." + +"And you gave it up?" asked the doctor, tugging away at the strings of +his little tobacco-pouch. + +"I gave up everything that was not an absolute necessity," said Hayne, +calmly. "Until I could get free of a big load there was no comfort in +anything. After that was gone I had no more use for such old friends +than certain other old friends seemed to have for me. It was a mutual +cut." + +"To the best of my belief, you were the gainer in both cases," said the +doctor, gruffly. "The longer I live the more I agree with Carlyle: the +men we live and move with are mostly fools." + +Hayne's face was as grave and quiet as ever: + +"These are hard lessons to learn, doctor. I presume few young fellows +thought more of human friendship than I did the first two years I was in +service." + +"Hayne," said the doctor, "sometimes I have thought you did not want to +talk about this matter to any soul on earth; but I am speaking from no +empty curiosity now. If you forbid it, I shall not intrude; but there +are some questions that, since knowing you, and believing in you as I +unquestionably do, I would like to ask. You seem bent on returning to +duty here to-morrow, though you might stay on sick report ten days yet; +and I want to stand between you and the possibility of annoyance and +trouble if I can." + +"You are kind, and I appreciate it, doctor; but do you think that the +colonel is a man who will be apt to let me suffer injustice at the hands +of any one here?" + +"I don't, indeed. He is full of sympathy for you, and I know he means +you shall have fair play; but a company commander has as many and as +intangible ways of making a man suffer as has a woman. How do you stand +with Rayner?" + +"Precisely where I stood five years ago. He is the most determined enemy +I have in the service, and will down me if he can; but I have learned a +good deal in my time. There is a grim sort of comfort now in knowing +that while he would gladly trip me I can make him miserable by being too +strong for him." + +"You still hold the same theory as to his evidence you did at the time +of the court? of course I have heard what you said to and of him." + +"I have never changed in that respect." + +"But supposing that--mind you, _I_ believe he was utterly mistaken in +what he thought he heard and saw,--supposing that all that was testified +to by him actually occurred, have you any theory that would point out +the real criminal?" + +"Only one. If that money was ever handed me that day at Battle Butte, +only one man could have made away with it; and it is useless to charge +it to him." + +"You mean Rayner?" + +"I _have_ to mean Rayner." + +"But you claim it never reached you?" + +"Certainly." + +"Yet every other package--memoranda and all--was handed you?" + +"Not only that, but Captain Hull handed me the money-packet with the +others,--took them all from his saddle-bags just before the charge. The +packet was sealed when he gave it to me, and when I broke the seal it +was stuffed with worthless blanks." + +"And you have never suspected a soldier,--a single messenger or +servant?" + +"Not one. Whom could I?" + +"Hayne, had you any knowledge of this man Clancy before?" + +"Clancy! The drunken fellow we pulled out of the fire?" + +"The same." + +"No; never to my knowledge saw or heard of him, except when he appeared +as witness at the court." + +"Yet he was with the ----th Cavalry at that very fight at Battle Butte. He +was a sergeant then, though not in Hull's troop." + +"Does he say he knew me? or does he talk of that affair?" asked the +lieutenant, with sudden interest. + +"Not that. He cannot be said to say anything; but he was wonderfully +affected over your rescuing him,--strangely so, one of the nurses +persists in telling me, though the steward and Mrs. Clancy declare it +was just drink and excitement. Still, I have drawn from him that he knew +you well by sight during that campaign; but he says he was not by when +Hull was killed." + +"Does he act as though he knew anything that could throw any light on +the matter?" + +"I cannot say. His wife declares he has been queer all winter,--hard +drinking,--and of course that is possible." + +"Sam told me there was a soldier here two nights ago who wanted to talk +with me, but the man was drunk, and he would not let him in or tell me. +He thought he wanted to borrow money." + +"I declare, I believe it was Clancy!" said the doctor. "If he wants to +see you and talk, let him. There's no telling but what even a +drink-racked brain may bring the matter to light." + +And long that night Mr. Hayne sat there thinking, partly of what the +doctor had said, but more of what had occurred during the late +afternoon. Midnight was called by the sentries. He went to his door and +looked out on the broad, bleak prairie, the moonlight glinting on the +tin roofing of the patch of buildings over at the station far across the +dreary level and glistening on the patches of snow that here and there +streaked the surface. It was all so cold and calm and still. His blood +was hot and fevered. Something invited him into the peace and purity of +the night. He threw on his overcoat and furs, and strolled up to the +gateway, past the silent and deserted store, whose lighted bar and +billiard-room was generally the last thing to close along Prairie +Avenue. There was not a glimmer of light about the quarters of the +trader or the surgeon's beyond. One or two faint gleams stole through +the blinds at the big hospital, and told of the night-watch by some +fevered bedside. He passed on around the fence and took a path that led +to the target-ranges north of the post and back of officers' row, +thinking deeply all the while; and finally, re-entering the garrison by +the west gate, he came down along the hard gravelled walk that passed in +circular sweeps the offices and the big house of the colonel commanding +and then bore straight away in front of the entire line. All was +darkness and quiet. He passed in succession the houses of the +field-officers of the cavalry, looked longingly at the darkened front of +Major Waldron's cottage, where he had lived so sweet an hour before the +setting of the last sun, then went on again and paused surprised in +front of Captain Rayner's. A bright light was still burning in the front +room on the second floor. Was she, too, awake and thinking of that +interview? He looked wistfully at the lace curtains that shrouded the +interior, and then the clank of a cavalry sabre sounded in his ears, and +a tall officer came springily across the road. + +"Who the devil's that?" was the blunt military greeting. + +"Mr. Hayne," was the quiet reply. + +"What? Mr. Hayne? Oh! Beg your pardon, man,--couldn't imagine who it was +mooning around out here after midnight." + +"I don't wonder," answered Hayne. "I am rather given to late hours, and +after reading a long time I often take a stroll before turning in." + +"Ah, yes: I see. Well, won't you drop in and chat awhile? I'm officer of +the day, and have to owl to-night." + +"Thanks, no, not this time; I must go to bed. Good-night, Mr. Blake." + +"Good-night to you, Mr. Hayne," said Blake, then stood gazing +perplexedly after him. "Now, my fine fellow," was his dissatisfied +query, "what on earth do you mean by prowling around Rayner's at this +hour of the night?" + + + + +XI. + + +It was very generally known throughout Fort Warrener by ten o'clock on +the following morning that Mr. Hayne had returned to duty and was one of +the first officers to appear at the _matinee_. Once more the colonel had +risen from his chair, taken him by the hand, and welcomed him. This time +he expressed the hope that nothing would now occur to prevent their +seeing him daily. + +"Won't you come in to the club-room?" asked Captain Gregg, afterwards. +"We will be pleased to have you." + +"Excuse me, captain, I shall be engaged all morning," answered Mr. +Hayne, and walked on down the row. Nearly all the officers were +strolling away in groups of three or four. Hayne walked past them all +with quick, soldierly step and almost aggressive manner, and was soon +far ahead, all by himself. Finding it an unprofitable subject, there had +been little talk between the two regiments as to what Mr. Hayne's status +should be on his reappearance. Everybody heard that he had somewhat +rudely spurned the advances of Ross and his companions. Indeed, Ross had +told the story with strong coloring to more than half the denizens of +officers' row. Evidently he desired no further friendship or intercourse +with his brother blue-straps; and only a few of the cavalry officers +found his society attractive. He played delightfully; he was well read; +but in general talk he was not entertaining. "Altogether too +sepulchral,--or at least funereal," explained the cavalry. "He never +laughs, and rarely smiles, and he's as glum as a Quaker meeting," was +another complaint. So a social success was hardly to be predicted for +Mr. Hayne. + +While he could not be invited where just a few infantry people were the +other guests, from a big general gathering or party he, of course, could +not be omitted; but there he would have his cavalry and medical friends +to talk to, and then there was Major Waldron. It was a grievous pity +that there should be such an element of embarrassment, but it couldn't +be helped. As the regimental adjutant had said, Hayne himself was the +main obstacle to his restoration to regimental friendship. No man who +piques himself on the belief that he is about to do a virtuous and +praiseworthy act will be apt to persevere when the object of his +benevolence treats him with cold contempt. If Mr. Hayne saw fit to +repudiate the civilities a few officers essayed to extend to him, no +others would subject themselves to similar rebuffs; and if he could +stand the _status quo_, why, the regiment could; and that, said the +Riflers, was the end of the matter. + +But it was not the end, by a good deal. Some few of the ladies of the +infantry, actuated by Mrs. Rayner's vehement exposition of the case, had +aligned themselves on her side as against the post commander, and by +their general conduct sought to convey to the colonel and to the ladies +who were present at the first dinner given Mr. Hayne thorough +disapproval of their course. This put the cavalry people on their mettle +and led to a division in the garrison; and as Major Waldron was, in Mrs. +Rayner's eyes, equally culpable with the colonel, it so resulted that +two or three infantry households, together with some unmarried +subalterns, were arrayed socially against their own battalion commander +as well as against the grand panjandrum at post head-quarters. If it had +not been for the determined attitude of Mr. Hayne himself, the garrison +might speedily have been resolved into two parties,--Hayne and +anti-Hayne sympathizers; but the whole bearing of that young man was +fiercely repellent of sympathy; he would have none of it. "Hayne's +position," said Major Waldron, "is practically this: he holds that no +man who has borne himself as he has during these five years--denied +himself everything that he might make up every cent that was lost, +though he was in no wise responsible for the loss--could by any +possibility have been guilty of the charges on which he was tried. From +this he will not abate one jot or tittle; and he refuses now to restore +to his friendship the men who repudiated him in his years of trouble, +except on their profession of faith in his entire innocence." Now, this +was something the cavalry could not do without some impeachment of the +evidence which was heaped up against the poor fellow at the time of the +trial; and it was something the infantry would not do, because thereby +they would virtually pronounce one at least of their own officers to +have repeatedly and persistently given false testimony. In the case of +Waldron and the cavalry, however, it was possible for Hayne to return +their calls of courtesy, because they, having never "sent him to +Coventry," received him precisely as they would receive any other +officer. With the Riflers it was different: having once "cut" him as +though by unanimous accord, and having taught the young officers joining +year after year to regard him as a criminal, _they_ could be restored to +Mr. Hayne's friendship, as has been said before, only "on confession of +error." Buxton and two or three of his stamp called or left their cards +on Mr. Hayne because their colonel had so done; but precisely as the +ceremony was performed, just so was it returned. Buxton was red with +wrath over what he termed Hayne's conceited and supercilious manner when +returning his call: "I called upon him like a gentleman, by thunder, +just to let him understand I wanted to help him out of the mire, and +told him if there was anything I could do for him that a gentleman +_could_ do, not to hesitate about letting me know; and when he came to +my house to-day, damned if he didn't patronize _me_!--talked to me about +the Plevna siege, and wanted to discuss Gourko and the Balkans or some +other fool thing: what in thunder have I to do with campaigns in +Turkey?--and I thought he meant those nigger soldiers the British have +in India,--Goorkhas, I know now,--and I _did_ tell him it was an awful +blunder, that only a Russian would make, to take those Sepoy fellows and +put 'em into a winter campaign. Of course I hadn't been booking up the +subject, and he had, and sprung it on me; and then, by gad, as he was +going, he said he had books and maps he would lend me, and if there was +anything he could do for me that a gentleman _could_ do, not to hesitate +about asking. Damn his impudence!" + +Poor Buxton! One of his idiosyncrasies was to talk wisely to the juniors +on the subject of European campaigns and to criticise the moves of +generals whose very names and centuries were entangling snares. His own +subalterns were, unfortunately for him, at the house when Hayne called, +and when he, as was his wont, began to expound on current military +topics. "A little learning," even, he had not, and the dangerous thing +that that would have been was supplanted by something quite as bad, if +not worse. He was trapped and thrown by the quiet-mannered infantry +subaltern, and it was all Messrs. Freeman and Royce could do to restrain +their impulse to rush after Hayne and embrace him. Buxton was cordially +detested by his "subs" and well knew they would tell the story of his +defeat, so he made a virtue of necessity and came out with his own +version. Theirs was far more ludicrous, and, while it made Mr. Hayne +famous, he gained another enemy. The ----th could not fail to notice how +soon after that all social recognition ceased between their bulky +captain and the pale, slender subaltern; and Mrs. Buxton and Mrs. Rayner +became suddenly infatuated with each other, while their lords were +seldom seen except together. + +All this time, however, Miss Travers was making friends throughout the +garrison. No one ever presumed to discuss the Hayne affair in her +presence, because of her relationship to the Rayners; and yet Mrs. +Waldron had told several people how delightfully she and Mr. Hayne had +spent an afternoon together. Did not Mrs. Rayner declare that Mrs. +Waldron was a woman who told everything she knew, or words to that +effect? It is safe to say that the garrison was greatly interested in +the story. How strange it was that he should have had a _tete-a-tete_ +with the sister of his bitterest foe! _When_ did they meet? Had they met +since? Would they meet again? All these were questions eagerly +discussed, yet never asked of the parties themselves, Mr. Hayne's +reputation for snubbing people standing him in excellent stead, and Miss +Travers's quiet dignity and reserve of manner being too much for those +who would have given a good deal to gain her confidence. But there was +Mrs. Rayner. She, at least, with all her high and mighty ways, was no +unapproachable creature when it came to finding out what she thought of +other people's conduct. So half a dozen, at least, had more or less +confidentially asked if she knew of Mr. Hayne and Miss Travers's +meeting. Indeed she did! and she had given Nellie her opinion of her +conduct very decidedly. It was Captain Rayner himself who interposed, +she said, and forbade her upbraiding Nellie any further. Nellie being +either in an adjoining room or up in her own on several occasions when +these queries were propounded to her sister, it goes without saying that +that estimable woman, after the manner of her sex, had elevated her +voice in responding, so that there was no possibility of the wicked +girl's failing to get the full benefit of the scourging she deserved. +Rayner had, indeed, positively forbidden her further rebuking Nellie; +but the man does not live who can prevent one woman's punishing another +so long as she can get within earshot, and Miss Travers was paying +dearly for her independence. + +It cannot be estimated just how great a disappointment her visit to the +frontier was proving to that young lady, simply because she kept her own +counsel. There were women in the garrison who longed to take her to +their hearts and homes, she was so fresh and pure and sweet and winning, +they said; but how could they, when her sister would recognize them only +by the coldest possible nod? Nellie was not happy, that was certain, +though she made no complaint, and though the young officers who were +daily her devotees declared she was bright and attractive as she could +be. There were still frequent dances and parties in the garrison, but +March was nearly spent, and the weather had been so vile and blustering +that they could not move beyond the limits of the post. April might +bring a change for the better in the weather, but Miss Travers wondered +how it could better her position. + +It is hard for a woman of spirit to be materially dependent on any one, +and Miss Travers was virtually dependent on her brother-in-law. The +little share of her father's hard savings was spent on her education. +Once free from school, she was bound to another apprenticeship, and +sister Kate, though indulgent, fond, and proud, lost no opportunity of +telling her how much she owed to Captain Rayner. It got to be a fearful +weight before the first summer was well over. It was the main secret of +her acceptance of Mr. Van Antwerp. And now, until she would consent to +name the day that should bind her for life to him, she had no home but +such as Kate Rayner could offer her; and Kate was bitterly offended at +her. There was just one chance to end it now and forever, and to relieve +her sister and the captain of the burden of her support. _Could_ she +make up her mind to do it? And Mr. Van Antwerp offered the opportunity. + +So far from breaking with her, as she half expected,--so far from being +even angry and reproachful on receiving the letter she had written +telling him all about her meetings with Mr. Hayne,--he had written again +and again, reproaching himself for his doubts and fears, begging her +forgiveness for having written and telegraphed to Kate, humbling himself +before her in the most abject way, and imploring her to reconsider her +determination and to let him write to Captain and Mrs. Rayner to return +to their Eastern home at once, that the marriage might take place +forthwith and he could bear her away to Europe in May. Letter after +letter came, eager, imploring, full of tenderest love and devotion, full +of the saddest apprehension, never reproaching, never doubting, never +commanding or restraining. The man had found the way to touch a woman +of her generous nature: he had left all to her; he was at her mercy; and +she knew well that he loved her fervently and that to lose her would +wellnigh break his heart. Could she say the word and be free? Surely, as +this man's wife there would be no serfdom; and, yet, could she wed a man +for whom she felt no spark of love? + +They went down to the creek one fine morning early in April. There had +been a sudden thaw of the snows up the gorges of the Rockies, and the +stream had overleaped its banks, spread over the lowlands, and flooded +some broad depressions in the prairie. Then, capricious as a woman's +moods, the wind whistled around from the north one night and bound the +lakelets in a band of ice. The skating was gorgeous, and all the pretty +ankles on the post were rejoicing in the opportunity before the setting +of another sun. Coming homeward at luncheon-time, Mrs. Rayner, Mrs. +Buxton, Miss Travers, and one or two others, escorted by a squad of +bachelors, strolled somewhat slowly along Prairie Avenue towards the +gate. It so happened that the married ladies were foremost in the little +party, when who should meet them but Mr. Hayne, coming from the east +gate! Mrs. Rayner and Mrs. Buxton, though passing him almost elbow to +elbow, looked straight ahead or otherwise avoided his eye. He raised his +forage-cap in general acknowledgment of the presence of ladies with the +officers, but glanced coldly from one to the other until his blue eyes +lighted on Miss Travers. No woman in that group could fail to note the +leap of sunshine and gladness to his face, the instant flush that rose +to his cheek. Miss Travers, herself, saw it quickly, as did the maiden +walking just behind her, and her heart bounded at the sight. She bowed +as their eyes met, spoke his name in low tone, and strove to hide her +face from Mr. Blake, who turned completely around and stole a sudden +glance at her. She could no more account for than she could control it, +but her face was burning. Mrs. Rayner, too, looked around and stared at +her, but this she met firmly, her dark eyes never quailing before the +angry glare in her sister's. Blake was beginning to like Hayne and to +dislike Mrs. Rayner, and he always _did_ like mischief. + +"You owe me a grudge, Miss Travers, if you did but know it," he said, so +that all could hear. + +"You, Mr. Blake! How can that be possible?" + +"I spoiled a serenade for you a few nights ago. I was officer of the +day, and caught sight of a man gazing up at your window after midnight. +I felt sure he was going to sing: so, like a good fellow, I ran over to +play an accompaniment, and then--would you believe it?--he wouldn't +sing, after all." + +She was white now. Her eyes were gazing almost imploringly at him. +Something warned him to hold his peace, and he broke off short. + +"_Who_ was it? Oh, _do_ tell us, Mr. Blake!" were the exclamations, Mrs. +Rayner being most impetuous in her demands. Again Blake caught the +appeal in Miss Travers's eyes. + +"That's what I want to know," he responded, mendaciously. "When I woke +up next morning, the whole thing was a dream, and I couldn't fix the +fellow at all." + +There was a chorus of disappointment and indignation. The idea of +spoiling such a gem of a sensation! But Blake took it all complacently, +until he got home. Then it began to worry him. + +Was it possible that she knew he was there? + +That night there was a disturbance in the garrison. Just after ten +o'clock, and while the sentries were calling off the hour, a woman's +shrieks and cries were heard over behind the quarters of Company B and +close to the cottage occupied by Lieutenant Hayne. The officers of the +guard ran to the spot with several men, and found Private Clancy +struggling and swearing in the grasp of two or three soldiers, while +Mrs. Clancy was imploring them not to let him go, he was wild-like +again; it was drink; he had the horrors, and was batin' her while she +was tryin' to get him home. And Clancy's appearance bore out her words. +He was wild and drunken; but he swore he meant no harm; he struggled +hard for freedom; he vowed he only wanted to see the lieutenant at his +quarters; and Mr. Hayne, lamp in hand, had come upon the scene, and was +striving to quiet the woman, who only screamed and protested the louder. +At his quiet order the soldiers released Clancy, and the man stood +patient and subordinate. + +"Did you want to see me, Clancy?" asked Mr. Hayne. + +"Askin' yer pardon, sir, I did," began the man, unsteadily, and +evidently struggling with the fumes of the liquor he had been drinking; +but before he could speak again, Mrs. Clancy's shrieks rang out on the +still air: + +"Oh, for the love of God, howld him, some o' ye's! He'll kill him! He's +mad, I say! Shure 'tis I that know him best. Oh, blessed Vargin, save +us! _Don't_ let him loose, Misther Foster!" she screamed to the officer +of the guard, who at that moment appeared on the full run. + +"What's the trouble?" he asked, breathlessly. + +"Clancy seems to have been drinking, and wants to talk with me about +something, Mr. Foster," said Hayne, quietly. "He belongs to my company, +and I will be responsible that he goes home. It is really Mrs. Clancy +that is making all the trouble." + +"Oh, for the love of God, hear him, now, whin the man was tearin' the +hair o' me this minute! Oh, howld him, men! Shure 'tis Captain Rayner +wud niver let him go." + +"What's the matter, Mrs. Clancy?" spoke a quick, stern voice, and +Rayner, with face white as a sheet, suddenly stood in their midst. + +"Oh, God be praised, it's here ye are, captin! Shure it's Clancy, sir, +dhrunk, sir, and runnin' round the garrison, and batin' me, sir." + +"Take him to the guard-house, Mr. Foster," was the stern, sudden order. +"Not a word, Clancy," as the man strove to speak. "Off with him; and if +he gives you any trouble, send for me." + +And as the poor fellow was led away, silence fell upon the group. Mrs. +Clancy began a wail of mingled relief and misery, which the captain +ordered her to cease and go home. More men came hurrying to the spot, +and presently the officer of the day. "It is all right now," said Rayner +to the latter. "One of my men--Clancy--was out here drunk and raising a +row. I have sent him to the guard-house. Go back to your quarters, men. +Come, captain, will you walk over home with me?" + +"Was Mr. Hayne here when the row occurred?" asked the cavalryman, +looking as though he wanted to hear something from the young officer who +stood a silent witness. + +"I don't know," replied Rayner. "It makes no difference, captain. It is +not a case of witnesses. I shan't prefer charges against the man. Come!" +And he drew him hastily away. + +Hayne stood watching them as they disappeared beyond the glimmer of his +lamp. Then a hand was placed on his arm: + +"Did you notice Captain Rayner's face,--his lips? He was ashen as +death." + +"Come in here with me," was the reply; and, turning, Hayne led the post +surgeon into the house. + + + + +XII. + + +There was an unusual scene at the _matinee_ the following morning. When +Captain Ray relieved Captain Gregg as officer of the day, and the two +were visiting the guard-house and turning over prisoners, they came upon +the last name on the list,--Clancy,--and Gregg turned to his regimental +comrade and said,-- + +"No charges are preferred against Clancy, at least none as yet, Captain +Ray; but his company commander requests that he be held here until he +can talk over his case with the colonel." + +"What's he in for?" demanded Captain Ray. + +"Getting drunk and raising a row and beating his wife," answered Gregg; +whereat there was a titter among the soldiers. + +"I never shtruck a woman in me life, sir," said poor Clancy. + +"Silence, Clancy!" ordered the sergeant of the guard. + +"No, I'm blessed if I believe that part of it, Clancy, drunk or no +drunk," said the new officer of the day.--"Take charge of him for the +present, sergeant." And away they went to the office. + +Captain Rayner was in conversation with the commanding officer as they +entered, and the colonel was saying,-- + +"It is not the proper way to handle the case, captain. If he has been +guilty of drunkenness and disorderly conduct he should be brought to +trial at once." + +"I admit that, sir; but the case is peculiar. It was Mrs. Clancy that +made all the noise. I feel sure that after he is perfectly sober I can +give him such a talking-to as will put a stop to this trouble." + +"Very well, sir. I am willing to let company commanders experiment at +least once or twice on their theories, so you can try the scheme; but we +of the ----th have had some years of experience with the Clancys, and +were not a little amused when they turned up again in our midst as +accredited members of your company." + +"Then, as I understand you, colonel, Clancy is not to be brought to +trial for this affair," suddenly spoke the post surgeon. + +Everybody looked up in surprise. "Pills" was the last man, ordinarily, +to take a hand in the "shop talk" at the morning meetings. + +"No, doctor. His captain thinks it unnecessary to prefer charges." + +"So do I, sir; and, as I saw the man both before and after his +confinement last night, I do not think it was necessary to confine +him." + +"The officer of the day says there was great disorder," said the +colonel, in surprise. + +"Ay, sir, so there was; and the thing reminds me of the stories they +used to tell on the New York police. It looked to me as though all the +row was raised by Mrs. Clancy, as Captain Rayner says; but the man was +arrested. That being the case, I would ask the captain for what specific +offence he ordered Clancy to the guard-house." + +Rayner again was pale as death. He glared at the doctor in amaze and +incredulity, while all the officers noted his agitation and were silent +in surprise. It was the colonel that came to the rescue: + +"Captain Rayner had abundant reason, doctor. It was after taps, though +only just after, and, whether causing the trouble or not, the man is the +responsible party, not the woman. The captain was right in causing his +arrest." + +Rayner looked up gratefully. + +"I submit to your decision, sir," said the surgeon, "and I apologize for +anything I may have asked that was beyond my province. Now I wish to ask +a question for my own guidance." + +"Go on, doctor." + +"In case an enlisted man of this command desire to see an officer of his +company,--or any other officer, for that matter,--is it a violation of +any military regulation for him to go to his quarters for that purpose?" + +Again was Rayner fearfully white and aged-looking. His lips moved as +though he would interrupt; but discipline prevailed. + +"No, doctor; and yet we have certain customs of service to prevent the +men going at all manner of hours and on frivolous errands: a soldier +asks his first sergeant's permission first, and if denied by him, and he +have what he considers good reason, he can report the whole case." + +"But suppose a man is not on company duty: must he hunt up his first +sergeant and ask permission to go and see some officer with whom he has +business?" + +"Well, hardly, in that case." + +"That's all, sir." And the doctor subsided. + +Among all the officers, as the meeting adjourned, the question was, +"What do you suppose 'Pills' was driving at?" + +There were two or three who knew. Captain Rayner went first to his +quarters, where he had a few moments' hurried consultation with his +wife; then they left the house together,--he to have a low-toned and +very stern talk to rather than with the abashed Clancy, who listened cap +in hand and with hanging head; she to visit the sick child of Mrs. +Flanigan, of Company K, whose quarters adjoined those to which the +Clancys had recently been assigned. When that Hibernian culprit returned +to his roof-tree, released from durance vile, he was surprised to +receive a kindly and sympathetic welcome from his captain's wife, who +with her own hand had mixed him some comforting drink and was planning +with Mrs. Clancy for their greater comfort. "If Clancy will only promise +to quit entirely!" interjected the partner of his joys and sorrows. + +Later that day, when the doctor had a little talk with Clancy, the +ex-dragoon declared he was going to reform for all he was worth. He was +only a distress to everybody when he drank. + +"All right, Clancy. And when you are perfectly yourself you can come and +see Lieutenant Hayne as soon as you like." + +"Loot'nant Hayne is it, sir? Shure I'd be beggin' his pardon for the +vexation I gave him last night." + +"But you have something you wanted to speak with him about. You said so +last night, Clancy," said the doctor, looking him squarely in the eye. + +"Shure I was dhrunk, sir. I didn't mane it," he answered; but he shrank +and cowered. + +The doctor turned and left him. + +"If it's only when he's drunk that conscience pricks him and the truth +will out, then we must have him drunk again," quoth this unprincipled +practitioner. + +That same afternoon Miss Travers found that a headache was the result of +confinement to an atmosphere somewhat heavily charged with electricity. +Mrs. Rayner seemed to bristle every time she approached her sister. +Possibly it was the heart, more than the head, that ached, but in either +case she needed relief from the exposed position she had occupied ever +since Kate's return from the Clancys' in the morning. She had been too +long under fire, and was wearied. Even the cheery visits of the garrison +gallants had proved of little avail, for Mrs. Rayner was in very ill +temper, and made snappish remarks to them which two of them resented and +speedily took themselves off. Later Miss Travers went to her room and +wrote a letter, and then the sunset gun shook the window, and twilight +settled down upon the still frozen earth. She bathed her heated +forehead and flushed cheeks, threw a warm cloak over her shoulders, and +came slowly down the stairs. Mrs. Rayner met her at the parlor door. + +"Kate, I am going for a walk, and shall stop and see Mrs. Waldron." + +"Quite an unnecessary piece of information. I saw him as well as you. He +has just gone there." + +Miss Travers flushed hot with indignation: + +"I have seen no one; and if you mean that Mr. Hayne has gone to Major +Waldron's, I shall not." + +"No: I'd meet him on the walk: it would only be a trifle more public." + +"You have no right to accuse me of the faintest expectation of meeting +him anywhere. I repeat, I had not thought of such a thing." + +"You might just as well do it. You cannot make your antagonism to my +husband much more pointed than you have already. And as for meeting Mr. +Hayne, the only advice I presume to give now is that for your own sake +you keep your blushes under better control than you did the last time +you met--that I know of." And, with this triumphant insult as a parting +shot, Mrs. Rayner wheeled and marched off through the parlor. + +What was a girl to do? Nellie Travers was not of the crying kind, and +was denied a vast amount of comfort in consequence. She stood a few +moments quivering under the lash of injustice and insult to which she +had been subjected. She longed for a breath of pure, fresh air; but +there would be no enjoyment even in that now. She needed sympathy and +help, if ever girl did, but where was she to find it? The women who most +attracted her and who would have warmly welcomed her at any time--the +women whom she would eagerly have gone to in her trouble--were +practically denied to her. Mrs. Rayner in her quarrel had declared war +against the cavalry, and Mrs. Stannard and Mrs. Ray, who had shown a +disposition to welcome Nellie warmly, were no longer callers at the +house. Mrs. Waldron, who was kind and motherly to the girl and loved to +have her with her, was so embarrassed by Mrs. Rayner's determined snubs +that she hardly knew how to treat the matter. She would no longer visit +Mrs. Rayner informally, as had been her custom, yet she wanted the girl +to come to her. If she went, Miss Travers well knew that on her return +to the house she would be received by a volley of sarcasms about her +preference for the society of people who were the avowed enemies of her +benefactors. If she remained in the house, it was to become in person +the target for her sister's undeserved sneers and censure. The situation +was becoming simply unbearable. Twice she began and twice she tore to +fragments the letter for which Mr. Van Antwerp was daily imploring, and +this evening she once more turned and slowly sought her room, threw off +her wraps, and took up her writing-desk. It was not yet dark. There was +still light enough for her purpose, if she went close to the window. +Every nerve was tingling with the sense of wrong and ignominy, every +throb of her heart but intensified the longing for relief from the +thraldom of her position. She saw only one path to lead her from such +crushing dependence. There was his last letter, received only that day, +urging, imploring her to leave Warrener forthwith. Mrs. Rayner had +declared to him her readiness to bring her East provided she would fix +an early date for the wedding. Was it not a future many a girl might +envy? Was he not tender, faithful, patient, devoted as man could be? Had +he not social position and competence? Was he not high-bred, courteous, +refined,--a gentleman in all his acts and words? Why could she not love +him, and be content? There on the desk lay a little scrap of note-paper; +there lay her pen; a dozen words only were necessary. One moment she +gazed longingly, wistfully, at the far-away, darkening heights of the +Rockies, watching the last rose-tinted gleams on the snowy peaks; then +with sudden impulse she seized her pen and drew the portfolio to the +window-seat. As she did so, a soldierly figure came briskly down the +walk; a pale, clear-cut face glanced up at her casement; a quick light +of recognition and pleasure flashed in his eyes; the little forage-cap +was raised with courteous grace, though the step never slackened, and +Miss Travers felt that her cheek, too, was flushing again, as Mr. Hayne +strode rapidly by. She stood there another moment, and then--it had +grown too dark to write. + +When Mrs. Rayner, after calling twice from the bottom of the stairs, +finally went up into her room and impatiently pushed open the door, all +was darkness except the glimmer from the hearth: + +"Nellie, where are you?" + +"Here," answered Miss Travers, starting up from the sofa. "I think I +must have been asleep." + +"Your head is hot as fire," said her sister, laying her firm white hand +upon the burning forehead. "I suppose you are going to be downright +ill, by way of diversion. Just understand one thing, Nellie: that doctor +does not come into my house." + +"What doctor?--not that I want one," asked Miss Travers, wearily. + +"Dr. Pease, the post surgeon, I mean. Of course you have heard how he is +mixing himself in my husband's affairs and making trouble with various +people." + +"I have heard nothing, Kate." + +"I don't wonder your friends are ashamed to tell you. Things have come +to a pretty pass, when officers are going around holding private +meetings with enlisted men!" + +"I hardly know the doctor at all, Kate, and cannot imagine what affairs +of your husband's he can interfere with." + +"It was he that put up Clancy to making the disturbance at Mr. Hayne's +last night and getting into the guard-house, and tried to prove that he +had a right to go there and that the captain had no right to arrest +him." + +"Was Clancy trying to see Mr. Hayne?" asked Miss Travers, quickly. + +"How should I know?" said her sister, pettishly. "He was drunk, and +probably didn't know what he was doing." + +"And Captain Rayner arrested him for--for trying to see Mr. Hayne?" + +"Captain Rayner arrested him for being drunk and creating a disturbance, +as it was his duty to arrest any soldier under such circumstances," +replied her sister, with majestic wrath, "and I will not tolerate it +that you should criticise his conduct." + +"I have made no criticism, Kate. I have simply made inquiry; but I have +learned what no one else could have made me believe." + +"Nellie Travers, be careful what you say, or what you insinuate. What do +you mean?" + +"I mean, Kate, that it is my belief that there is something at the +bottom of those stories of Clancy's strange talk when in the hospital. I +believe he thinks he knows something which would turn all suspicion from +Mr. Hayne to a totally different man. I believe that, for reasons which +I cannot fathom, you are determined Mr. Hayne shall not see him or hear +of it. It was you that sent Captain Rayner over there last night. Mrs. +Clancy came here at tattoo, and, from the time she left, you were at the +front door or window. You were the first to hear her cries, and came +running in to tell the captain to go at once. Kate, _why_ did you stand +there listening from the time she left the kitchen, unless you expected +to hear just what happened over there behind the company barracks?" + +Mrs. Rayner would give no answer. Anger, rage, retaliation, all in turn +were pictured on her furious face, but died away before the calm and +unconquerable gaze in her sister's eyes. For the first time in her life +Kate Rayner realized that her "baby Nell" had the stronger will of the +two. For one instant she contemplated vengeance. A torrent of invective +leaped readily to her lips. "Outrage," "ingrate," "insult," were the +first three distinguishable epithets applied to her sister or her +sister's words; then, "See if Mr. Van Antwerp will tolerate such +conduct. I'll write this very day," was the impotent threat that +followed; and finally, utterly defeated, thoroughly convinced that she +was powerless against her sister's reckless love of "fair play at any +price," she felt that her wrath was giving way to dismay, and turned and +fled, lest Nellie should see the flag of surrender on her paling cheeks. + + + + +XIII. + + +Two nights after this, as Captain Buxton was sulkily going the rounds of +the sentries he made a discovery which greatly enlivened an otherwise +uneventful tour as officer of the day. It had been his general custom on +such occasions to take the shortest way across the parade to the +guard-house, make brief and perfunctory inspection there, then go on +down the hill to the creek valley and successively visit the sentries +around the stables. If the night were wet or cold, he went back the same +way, ignoring the sentries at the coal-and store-sheds along Prairie +Avenue. This was a sharply cold night, and very dark, but equally still. +It was between twelve and one o'clock--nearer one than twelve--as he +climbed the hill on his homeward way, and, instead of taking the short +cut, turned northward and struck for the gloomy mass of sheds dimly +discernible some forty yards from the crest. He had heard other officers +speak of the fact that Mr. Hayne's lights were burning until long after +midnight, and that, dropping in there, they had found him seated at his +desk with a green shade over his eyes, studying by the aid of two +student-lamps; "boning to be a general, probably," was the comment of +captains of Buxton's calibre, who, having grown old in the service and +in their own ignorance, were fiercely intolerant of lieutenants who +strove to improve in professional reading instead of spending their time +making out the company muster-rolls and clothing-accounts, as they +should do. Buxton wanted to see for himself what the night-lights meant, +and was plunging heavily ahead through the darkness, when suddenly +brought to a stand by the sharp challenge of the sentry at the +coal-shed. He whispered the mystic countersign over the levelled bayonet +of the infantryman, swearing to himself at the regulation which puts an +officer in such a "stand-and-deliver" attitude for the time being, and +then, by way of getting square with the soldier for the sharply military +way in which his duty as sentry had been performed, the captain +proceeded to catechise him as to his orders. The soldier had been well +taught, and knew all his "responses" by rote,--far better than Buxton, +for that matter, as the latter was anything but an exemplar of +perfection in tactics or sentry duty; but this did not prevent Buxton's +snappishly telling him he was wrong in several points and contemptuously +inquiring where he had learned such trash. The soldier promptly but +respectfully responded that those were the exact instructions he had +received at the adjutant's school, and Buxton knew from experience that +he was getting on dangerous ground. He would have stuck to his point, +however, in default of something else to find fault with, but that the +crack of a whip, the crunching of hoofs, and a rattle of wheels out in +the darkness quickly diverted his attention. + +"What's that, sentry?" he sharply inquired. + +"A carriage, sir. Leastwise, I think it must be." + +"Why don't you know, sir? It must have been on your post." + +"No, sir; it was 'way off my post. It drove up to Lieutenant Hayne's +about half an hour ago." + +"Where'd it come from?" asked the captain, eagerly. + +"From town, sir, I suppose." And, leaving the sentry to his own +reflections, which, on the whole, were not complimentary to his superior +officer, Captain Buxton strode rapidly through the darkness to +Lieutenant Hayne's quarters. Bright lights were still burning within, +both on the ground-floor and in a room above. The sentries were just +beginning the call of one o'clock when he reached the gate and halted, +gazing inquisitively at the house front. Then he turned and listened to +the rattle of wheels growing faint in the distance as the team drove +away towards the prairie town. If Hayne had gone to town at that hour of +the night it was a most unusual proceeding, and he had not the +colonel's permission to absent himself from the post: of that the +officer of the day was certain. Then, again, he would not have gone and +left all his lights burning. No: that vehicle, whatever it was, had +brought somebody out to see him,--somebody who proposed to remain +several hours; otherwise the carriage would not have driven away. In +confirmation of this theory, he heard voices, cheery voices, in laughing +talk, and one of them made him prick up his ears. He heard the piano +crisply trilling a response to light, skilful fingers. He longed for a +peep within, and regretted that he had dropped Mr. Hayne from the list +of his acquaintance. He recognized Hayne's shadow, presently, thrown by +the lamp upon the curtained window, and wished that his visitor would +come similarly into view. He heard the clink of glasses, and saw the +shadow raise a wineglass to the lips, and Sam's Mongolian shape flitted +across the screen, bearing a tray with similar suggestive objects. What +meant this unheard-of conviviality on the part of the ascetic, the +hermit, the midnight-oil-burner, the scholarly recluse of the garrison? +Buxton stared with all his eyes and listened with all his ears, starting +guiltily when he heard a martial footstep coming quickly up the path, +and faced the intruder rather unsteadily. It was only the corporal of +the guard, and he glanced at his superior, brought his fur-gauntleted +hand in salute to the rifle on his shoulder, and passed on. The next +moment Buxton fairly gasped with amaze: he stared an instant at the +window as though transfixed, then ran after the corporal, called to him +in low, stealthy tone to come back noiselessly, drew him by the sleeve +to the front of Hayne's quarters, and pointed to the parlor window. Two +shadows were there now,--one easily recognizable as that of the young +officer in his snugly-fitting undress uniform, the other slender, +graceful, feminine. + +"What do you make that other shadow to be, corporal?" he whispered, +hoarsely and hurriedly. "_Look!_" And with that exclamation a shadowed +arm seemed to encircle the slender form, the moustached image to bend +low and mingle with the outlined luxuriance of tress that decked the +other's head, and then, together, with clasping arms, the shadows moved +from view. + +"What was the other, corporal?" he repeated. + +"Well, sir, I should say it was a young woman." + +Buxton could hardly wait until morning to see Rayner. When he passed the +latter's quarters half an hour later, all was darkness; though, had he +but known it, Rayner was not asleep. He was at the house before +guard-mounting, and had a confidential and evidently exciting talk with +the captain; and when he went, just as the trumpets were sounding, these +words were heard at the front door: + +"She never left until after daylight, when the same rig drove her back +to town. There was a stranger with her then." + +That morning both Rayner and Buxton looked hard at Mr. Hayne when he +came in to the _matinee_; but he was just as calm and quiet as ever, +and, having saluted the commanding officer, took a seat by Captain Gregg +and was soon occupied in conversation with him. Not a word was said by +the officer of the day about the mysterious visitor to the garrison the +previous night. With Captain Rayner, however, he was again in +conversation much of the day, and to him, not to his successor as +officer of the day, did he communicate all the details of the previous +night's adventure and his theories thereanent. + +Late that night, having occasion to step to his front door, convinced +that he heard stealthy footsteps on his piazza, Mr. Hayne could see +nobody in the darkness, but found his front gate open. He walked around +his little house; but not a man was visible. His heart was full of a new +and strange excitement that night, and, as before, he threw on his +overcoat and furs and took a rapid walk around the garrison, gazing up +into the starry heavens and drinking in great draughts of the pure, +bracing air. Returning, he came down along the front of officers' row, +and as he approached Rayner's quarters his eyes rested longingly upon +the window he knew to be hers now; but all was darkness. As he rapidly +neared the house, however, he became aware of two bulky figures at the +gate, and, as he walked briskly past, recognized the overcoats as those +of officers. One man was doubtless Rayner, the other he could not tell; +for both, the instant they recognized his step, seemed to avert their +heads. Once home again, he soon sought his room and pillow; but, long +before he could sleep, again and again a sweet vision seemed to come to +him: he _could not_ shut out the thought of Nellie Travers,--of how she +looked and what she said that very afternoon. + +He had gone to call at Mrs. Waldron's soon after dark. He was at the +piano, playing for her, when he became conscious that another lady had +entered the room, and, turning, saw Nellie Travers. He rose and bowed to +her, extending his hand as he did so, and knowing that his heart was +thumping and his color rising as he felt the soft, warm touch of her +slender fingers in his grasp. She, too, had flushed,--any one could see +it, though the lamps were not turned high, nor was the firelight strong. + +"Miss Travers has come to take tea very quietly with me, Mr. +Hayne,--she is so soon to return to the East,--and now I want you to +stay and join us. No one will be here but the major; and we will have a +lovely time with our music. You will, won't you?" + +"So soon to return to the East!" How harsh, how strange and unwelcome, +the words sounded! How they seemed to oppress him and prevent his reply! +He stood a moment dazed and vaguely worried: he could not explain it. He +looked from Mrs. Waldron's kind face to the sweet, flushed, lovely +features there so near him, and something told him that he could never +let them go and find even hope or content in life again. How, why had +she so strangely come into his lonely life, radiant, beautiful, +bewildering as some suddenly blazing star in the darkest corner of the +heavens? Whence had come this strange power that enthralled him? He +gazed into her sweet face, with its downcast, troubled eyes, and then, +in bewilderment, turned to Mrs. Waldron: + +"I--I had no idea Miss Travers was going East again just now. It seems +only a few days since she came." + +"It is over a month; but all the same this is a sudden decision. I knew +nothing of it until yesterday.--You said Mrs. Rayner was better to-day, +Nellie?" + +"Yes, a little; but she is far from well. I think the captain will go, +too, just as soon as he can arrange for leave of absence," was the +low-toned answer. He had released, or rather she had withdrawn, her +hand, and he still stood there, fascinated. His eyes could not quit +their gaze. She going away?--She? Oh, it _could_ not be! What--what +would life become without the sight of that radiant face, that slender, +graceful, girlish form? + +"Is not this very unexpected?" he struggled to say. "I thought--I heard +you were to spend several months here." + +"It _was_ so intended, Mr. Hayne; but my sister's health requires speedy +change. She has been growing worse ever since we came, and she will not +get well here." + +"And when do you go?" he asked, blankly. + +"Just as soon as we can pack; though we may wait two or three days for +a--for a telegram." + +There was a complete break in the conversation for a full quarter of a +minute,--not such a long time in itself, but unconventionally long under +such circumstances. Then Mrs. Waldron suddenly and remarkably arose: + +"I'll leave you to entertain Mr. Hayne a few moments, Nellie. I am the +slave of my cook, and she knows nothing of Mr. Hayne's being here to tea +with us: so I must tell her and avert disaster." + +And with this barefaced--statement on her lips and conscience, where it +rested with equal lightness, that exemplary lady quitted the room. In +the sanctity of the connubial chamber that evening, some hours later, +she thus explained her action to her silent spouse: + +"Right or wrong, I meant that those two young people should have a +chance to know each other. I have been convinced for three weeks that +she is being forced into this New York match, and for the last week that +she is wretchedly unhappy. You say you believe him a wronged and injured +man, only you can't prove it, and you have said that nothing could be +too good for him in this life as a reward for all his bravery and +fortitude under fearful trials. Then Nellie Travers isn't too good for +him, sweet as she is, and I don't care who calls me a matchmaker." + +But with Mrs. Waldron away the two appeared to have made but halting +progress towards friendship. With all her outspoken pluck at school and +at home, Miss Travers was strangely ill at ease and embarrassed now. Mr. +Hayne was the first to gain self-control and to endeavor to bring the +conversation back to a natural channel. It was a struggle; but he had +grown accustomed to struggles. He could not imagine that a girl whom he +had met only once or twice should have for him anything more than the +vaguest and most casual interest. He well knew by this time how deep and +vehement was the interest she had aroused in his heart; but it would +never do to betray himself so soon. He strove to interest her in +reference to the music she would hear, and to learn from her where they +were going. This she answered. They would go no farther East than St. +Louis or Chicago. They might go South as far as Nashville until mid-May. +As for the summer, it would depend on the captain and his leave of +absence. It was all vague and unsettled. Mrs. Rayner was so wretched +that her husband was convinced that she ought to leave for the States as +soon as possible, and of course "she" must go with her. All the +gladness, brightness, vivacity he had seen and heard of as her marked +characteristics seemed gone; and, yet, she wanted to speak with +him,--wanted to be with him. What could be wrong? he asked himself. It +was not until Mrs. Waldron's step was heard returning that she nerved +herself to sudden, almost desperate, effort. She startled him with her +vehemence: + +"Mr. Hayne, there is something I must tell you before I go. If no +opportunity occur, I'll write it." + +And those were the words that had been haunting him all the evening, for +they were not again alone, and he had no chance to ask a question. What +_could_ she mean? For years he had been living a life of stern +self-denial; but long before his promotion the last penny of the +obligation that, justly or otherwise, had been laid upon his shoulders +was paid with interest. He was a man free and self-respecting, strong, +resolute, and possessed of an independence that never would have been +his had his life run on in the same easy, trusting, happy-go-lucky style +in which he had spent the first two years of his army career. But in his +isolation he had allowed himself no thought of anything that could for a +moment distract him from the stern purpose to which he had devoted every +energy. He would win back, command, _compel_, the respect of his +comrades,--would bring to confusion those who had sought to pull him +down; and until that stood accomplished he would know no other claim. In +the exile of the mountain-station he saw no women but the wives of his +senior officers; and they merely bowed when they happened to meet him: +some did not even do that. Now at last he had met and yielded to the +first of two conquerors before whom even the bravest and the strongest +go down infallibly,--Love and Death. Suddenly, but irresistibly, the +sweet face and thrilling tones of that young girl had seized and filled +his heart, to the utter exclusion of every other passion; and just in +proportion to the emptiness and yearning of his life before their +meeting was the intensity of the love and longing that possessed him +now. It was useless to try and analyze the suddenness and subtilty of +its approach: the power of love had overmastered him. He could only +realize that it was here and he must obey. Late into the morning hours +he lay there, his brain whirling with its varied and bewildering +emotions. Win her he must, or the blackness and desolation of the past +five years would be as nothing compared with the misery of the years to +come. Woo her he would, and not without hope, if ever woman's eyes gave +proof of sympathy and trust. But now at last he realized that the time +had come when for her sake--not for his--he must adopt a new course. +Hitherto he had scorned and repelled all overtures that were not +prefaced by an expression of belief in his utter innocence in the past. +Hitherto he had chosen to live the life of an anchorite, and had abjured +the society of women. Hitherto he had refused the half-extended proffers +of comrades who had sought to continue the investigation of a chain of +circumstances that, complete, might have proved him a wronged and +defrauded man. The missing links were not beyond recovery in skilful +hands; but in the shock and horror which he felt on realizing that it +was not only possible but certain that a jury of his comrade officers +could deem him guilty of a low crime, he hid his face and turned from +all. _Now_ the time had come to reopen the case. He well knew that a +revulsion of feeling had set in which nothing but his own stubbornness +held in check. He knew that he had friends and sympathizers among +officers high in rank. He had only a few days before heard from Major +Waldron's lips a strong intimation that it was his duty to "come out of +his shell" and reassert himself. "You must remember this, Hayne," said +he: "you had been only two years in service when tried by court-martial. +You were an utter stranger to every member of that court. There was +nothing but the evidence to go upon, and that was all against you. The +court was made up of officers from other regiments, and was at least +impartial. The evidence was almost all from your own, and was presumably +well founded. You would call no witnesses for defence. You made your +almost defiant statement; refused counsel; refused advice; and what +could the court do but convict and sentence? Had I been a member of the +court I would have voted just as was done by the court; and yet I +believe you now an utterly innocent man." + +So, apparently, did the colonel regard him. So, too, did several of the +officers of the cavalry. So, too, would most of the youngsters of his +own regiment if he would only give them half a chance. In any event, the +score was wiped out now; he could afford to take a wife if a woman +learned to love him, and what wealth of tenderness and devotion was he +not ready to lavish on one who would! But he would offer no one a +tarnished name. First and foremost he must now stand up and fight that +calumny,--"come out of his shell," as Waldron had said, and give people +a chance to see what manner of man he was. God helping him, he would, +and that without delay. + + + + +XIV. + + +"The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft a-gley." Mrs. Rayner, +ill in mind and body, had yielded to her lord's entreaties and +determined to start eastward with her sister without delay. Packing was +already begun. Miss Travers had promised herself that she would within +thirty-six hours put Mr. Hayne in possession of certain facts or +theories which in her opinion bore strongly upon the "clearing up" of +the case against him; Mr. Hayne had determined that he would see Major +Waldron on the coming day and begin active efforts towards the +restoration of his social rights; the doctor had about decided on a new +project for inducing Clancy to unbosom himself of what he knew; Captain +Rayner--tired of the long struggle--was almost ready to welcome anything +which should establish his subaltern's innocence, and was on the point +of asking for six months' leave just as soon as he had arranged for +Clancy's final discharge from service: he had reasons for staying at the +post until that Hibernian household was fairly and squarely removed; and +Mrs. Clancy's plan was to take Mike to the distant East, "where she had +frinds." There were other schemes and projects, no doubt, but these +mainly concerned our leading characters, and one and all they were put +to the right-about by the events of the following day. + +The colonel, with his gruff second in command, Major Stannard, had been +under orders for several days to proceed on this particular date to a +large town a day's journey eastward by rail. A court-martial composed +mainly of field-officers was ordered there to assemble for the trial of +an old captain of cavalry whose propensity it was not so much to get +drunk as never to get drunk without concomitant publicity and discovery. +It was a rare thing for the old war-dog to take so much as a glass of +wine; he went for months without it; but the instant he began to drink +he was moved to do or say something disreputable, and that was the +trouble now. He was an unlucky old trooper, who had risen from the +lowest grades, fought with credit, and even, at times, commanded his +regiment, during the war; but war records could not save him when he +wouldn't save himself, and he had to go. The court was ordered, and the +result was a foregone conclusion. The colonel, his adjutant, and Major +Stannard were to drive to town during the afternoon and take the +east-bound train, leaving Major Waldron in command of the post; but +before guard-mounting a telegram was received which was sent from +department head-quarters the evening before, announcing that one of the +officers detailed for the court was seriously ill, and directing Major +Waldron to take his place. So it resulted in the post being left to the +command of the senior captain present for duty; and that man was Captain +Buxton. He had never had so big a command before in all his life. + +Major Waldron of course had to go home and make his preparations. Mr. +Hayne, therefore, had brief opportunity to speak with him. It was seen, +however, that they had a short talk together on the major's piazza, and +that when they parted the major shook him warmly and cordially by the +hand. Rayner, Buxton, Ross, and some juniors happened to be coming down +along the walk at the moment, and, seeing them, as though with pointed +meaning the major called out, so that all could hear,-- + +"By the way, Hayne, I wish you would drop in occasionally while I'm gone +and take Mrs. Waldron out for a walk or drive: my horses are always at +your service. And--a--I'll write to you about that matter the moment +I've had a chance to talk with the colonel,--to-morrow, probably." + +And Hayne touched his cap in parting salute, and went blithely off with +brightened eye and rising color. + +Buxton glowered after him a moment, and conversation suddenly ceased in +their party. Finally he blurted out,-- + +"Strikes me your major might do a good deal better by himself and his +regiment by standing up for its _morale_ and discipline than by openly +flaunting his favoritism for convicts in our faces. If I were in your +regiment I'd cut _him_." + +"You wouldn't have to," muttered one of the group to his neighbor: "the +cut would have been on the other side long ago." And the speaker was +Buxton's own subaltern. + +Rayner said nothing. His eyes were troubled and anxious, and he looked +after Hayne with an expression far more wearied than vindictive. + +"The major is fond of music, captain," said Mr. Ross, with mischievous +intent. "He hasn't been to the club since the night you sang 'Eileen +Alanna.' That was about the time Hayne's piano came." + +"Yes," put in Foster, "Mrs. Waldron says he goes and owls Hayne now +night after night just to hear him play." + +"It would be well for him, then, if he kept a better guard on Mr. +Hayne's _other_ visitors," said Buxton, with a black scowl. "I don't +know how you gentlemen in the Riflers look upon such matters, but in the +----th the man who dared to introduce a woman of the town into his +quarters would be kicked out in short order." + +"You don't mean to say that anybody accuses Hayne of that, do you?" +asked Ross, in amaze. + +"I do,--_just_ that. Only, I say this to you, it has but just come to +light, and only one or two know it. To prove it positively he's got to +be allowed more rope; for he got her out of the way last time before we +could clinch the matter. If he suspects it is known he won't repeat it; +if kept to ourselves he will probably try it again,--and be caught. Now +I charge you all to regard this as confidential." + +"But, Captain Buxton," said Ross, "this is so serious a matter that I +don't like to believe it. Who can prove such a story?" + +"Of course not, Mr. Ross. You are quite ready to treat a man as a thief, +but can't believe he'll do another thing that is disreputable. That is +characteristic of your style of reasoning," said Buxton, with biting +sarcasm. + +"You can't wither me with contempt, Captain Buxton. I have a right to my +opinion, and I have known Mr. Hayne for years, and if I _did_ believe +him guilty of one crime five years ago I'm not so ready to believe him +guilty of another now. This isn't--isn't like Hayne." + +"No, of course not, as I said before. Now, will you tell me, Mr. Ross, +just why Mr. Hayne chose that ramshackle old shanty out there on the +prairie, all by himself, unless it was to be where he could have his +chosen companions with him at night and no one be the wiser?" + +"I don't pretend to fathom his motives, sir; but I don't believe it was +for any such purpose as you seem to think." + +"In other words, you think I'm circulating baseless scandal, do you?" + +"I have said nothing of the kind; and I protest against your putting +words into my mouth I never used." + +"You intimated as much, anyhow, and you plainly don't believe it." + +"Well, I don't believe--that is, I don't see how it could happen." + +"Couldn't the woman drive out from town after dark, send the carriage +back, and have it call for her again in the morning?" asked Buxton. + +"Possibly. Still, it isn't a proved fact that a woman spent the night at +Hayne's, even if a carriage was seen coming out. You've got hold of some +Sudsville gossip, probably," replied Ross. + +"I have, have I? By God, sir, I'll teach you better manners before we +get through with this question. Do you know who saw the carriage, and +who saw the woman, both at Hayne's quarters?" + +"Certainly I don't! What I don't understand is how you should have been +made the recipient of the story." + +"Mr. Ross, just govern your tongue, sir, and remember you are speaking +to your superior officer, and don't venture to treat my statements with +disrespect hereafter. _I saw it myself!_" + +"_You!_" gulped Ross, while amaze and incredulity shot across his +startled face. + +"You!" exclaimed others of the group, in evident astonishment and +dismay. Rayner alone looked unchanged. It was no news to him, while to +every other man in the party it was a shock. Up to that instant the +prevailing belief had been, with Ross, that Buxton had found some +garrison gossip and was building an edifice thereon. His positive +statement, however, was too much for the most incredulous. + +"Now what have you to say?" he asked, in rude triumph. + +There was no answer for a moment; then Ross spoke: + +"Of course, Captain Buxton, I withdraw any expression of doubt. It never +occurred to me that you could have seen it. May I ask when and how?" + +"The last time I was officer of the day, sir; and Captain Rayner is my +witness as to the time. Others, whom I need not mention, saw it with me. +There is no mistake, sir. The woman was there." And Buxton stood +enjoying the effect. + +Ross looked white and dazed. He turned slowly away, hesitated, looked +back, then exclaimed,-- + +"You are sure it was--it was not some one that had a right to be there?" + +"How could it be?" said Buxton, gruffly. "You know he has not an +acquaintance in town, or here, who could be with him there at night." + +"Does the commanding officer know of it?" asked Mr. Royce, after a +moment's silence. + +"_I_ am the commanding officer, Mr. Royce," said Buxton, with majestic +dignity,--"at least I will be after twelve o'clock; and you may depend +upon it, gentlemen, this thing will not occur while I am in command +without its receiving the exact treatment it deserves. Remember, now, +not a word of this to anybody. You are as much interested as I am in +bringing to justice a man who will disgrace his uniform and his regiment +and insult every lady in the garrison by such an act. This sort of thing +of course will run him out of the service for good and all. We simply +have to be sure of our ground and make the evidence conclusive. Leave +that to me the next time it happens. I repeat, say nothing of this to +any one." + +But Rayner had already told his wife. + +Just as Major Waldron was driving off to the station that bright April +afternoon and his carriage was whirling through the east gate, the +driver caught sight of Lieutenant Hayne running up Prairie Avenue, +waving his hand and shouting to him. He reined in his spirited bays with +some difficulty, and Hayne finally caught up with them. + +"What is it, Hayne?" asked Waldron, with kindly interest, leaning out of +his carriage. + +"They will be back to-night, sir. Here is a telegram that has just +reached me." + +"I can't tell you how sorry I am not to be here to welcome them; but +Mrs. Waldron will be delighted, and she will come to call the moment you +let her know. Keep them till I get back, if you possibly can." + +"Ay, ay, sir. Good-by." + +"Good-by, Hayne. God bless you, and--good luck!" + +A little later that afternoon Mrs. Rayner had occasion to go into her +sister's room. It was almost sunset, and Nellie had been summoned +down-stairs to see visitors. Both the ladies were busy with their +packing,--Mrs. Rayner, as became an invalid, superintending, and Miss +Travers, as became the junior, doing all the work. It was rather trying +to pack all the trunks and receive visitors of both sexes at odd hours. +Some of her garrison acquaintances would have been glad to come and +help, but those whom she would have welcomed were not agreeable to the +lady of the house, and those the lady of the house would have chosen +were not agreeable to her. The relations between the sisters were +somewhat strained and unnatural, and had been growing more and more so +for several days past. Mrs. Rayner's desk was already packed away. She +wanted to send a note, and bethought her of her sister's portfolio. +Opening it, she drew out some paper and envelopes, and with the latter +came an envelope sealed and directed. One glance at its superscription +sent the blood to her cheek and fire to her eye. Was it possible? Was it +credible? Her pet, her baby sister, her pride and delight,--until she +found her stronger in will,--her proud-spirited, truthful Nell, was +beyond question corresponding with Lieutenant Hayne! Here was a note +addressed to him. How many more might not have been exchanged? +Ruthlessly now she explored the desk, searching for something from him, +but her scrutiny was vain. Oh, what could she say, what could she do, to +convey to her erring sister an adequate sense of the extent of her +displeasure? How could she bring her to realize the shame, the guilt, +the scandal, of her course? She, Nellie Travers, the betrothed wife of +Steven Van Antwerp, corresponding secretly with this--this scoundrel, +whose past, crime-laden as it had been, was as nothing compared to the +present with its degradation of vice? Ah! she had it! What would ever +move her as that could and must? + +When the trumpets rang out their sunset call and the boom of the evening +gun shook the windows in Fort Warrener and Nellie Travers came running +up-stairs again to her room, she started at the sight that met her eyes. +There stood Mrs. Rayner, like Juno in wrath inflexible, glaring at her +from the commanding height of which she was so proud, and pointing in +speechless indignation at the little note that lay upon the open +portfolio. + +For a moment neither spoke. Then Miss Travers, who had turned very +white, but whose blue eyes never flinched and whose lips were set and +whose little foot was tapping the carpet ominously, thus began: + +"Kate, I do not recognize your right to overhaul my desk or supervise my +correspondence." + +"Understand this first, Cornelia," said Mrs. Rayner, who hated the +baptismal name as much as did her sister, and used it only when she +desired to be especially and desperately impressive: "I found it by +accident. I never dreamed of such a possibility as this. I never, even +after what I have seen and heard, could have believed you guilty of +this; but, now that I have found it, I have the right to ask, what are +its contents?" + +"I decline to tell you." + +"Do you deny my right to inquire?" + +"I will not discuss that question now. The other is far graver. I will +not tell you, Kate, except this: there is no word there that an engaged +girl should not write." + +"Of that I mean to satisfy myself, or rather--" + +"You will not open it, Kate. No! Put that letter down! You have never +known me to prevaricate in the faintest degree, and you have no excuse +for doubting. I will furnish a copy of that for Mr. Van Antwerp at any +time; but you cannot see it." + +"You still persist in your wicked and unnatural intimacy with that man, +even after all that I have told you. Now for the last time hear me: I +have striven not to tell you this; I have striven not to sully your +thoughts by such a revelation; but, since nothing else will check you, +tell it I must, and what I tell you my husband told me in sacred +confidence, though soon enough it will be a scandal to the whole +garrison." + +And when darkness settled down on Fort Warrener that starlit April +evening and the first warm breeze from the south came sighing about the +casements and one by one the lights appeared along officers' row, there +was no light in Nellie Travers's window. The little note lay in ashes on +the hearth, and she, with burning, shame-stricken cheeks, with a black, +scorching, gnawing pain at her heart, was hiding her face in her pillow. + +And yet it was a jolly evening, after all,--that is, for some hours and +for some people. As Mrs. Rayner and her sister were so soon to go, +probably by the morrow's train if their section could be secured, the +garrison had decided to have an informal dance as a suitable farewell. +Their announcement of impending departure had come so suddenly and +unexpectedly that there was no time to prepare anything elaborate, such +as a german with favors, etc.; but good music and an extemporized supper +could be had without trouble. The colonel's wife and most of the cavalry +ladies, on consultation, had decided that it was the very thing to do, +and the young officers took hold with a will: they were always ready for +a dance. Now that Mrs. Rayner was really going, the quarrel should be +ignored, and the ladies would all be as pleasant to her as though +nothing had happened,--provided, of course, she dropped her absurd airs +of injured womanhood and behaved with courtesy. The colonel had had a +brief talk with his better half before starting for the train, and +suggested that it was very probable that Mrs. Rayner had seen the folly +of her ways by that time,--the captain certainly had been behaving as +though he regretted the estrangement,--and if encouraged by a +"let's-drop-the-whole-thing" sort of manner she would be glad to +reciprocate. He felt far less anxiety herein than he did in leaving the +post to the command of Captain Buxton. So scrupulously had he been +courteous to that intractable veteran that Buxton had no doubt in his +own mind that the colonel looked upon him as the model officer of the +regiment. It was singularly unfortunate that he should have to be left +in command, but his one or two seniors among the captains were away on +long leave, and there was no help for it. The colonel, seriously +disquieted, had a few words of earnest talk with him before leaving the +post, cautioning him so particularly not to interfere with any of the +established details and customs that Buxton got very much annoyed, and +showed it. + +"If your evidence were not imperatively necessary before this court, I +declare I believe I'd leave you behind," said the colonel to his +adjutant. "There is no telling what mischief Captain Buxton won't do if +left to himself." + +It must have been near midnight, and the hop was going along +beautifully, and Captain Rayner, who was officer of the day, was just +escorting his wife in to supper, and Nellie, although looking a trifle +tired and pale, was chatting brightly with a knot of young officers when +a corporal of the guard came to the door: "The commanding officer's +compliments, and he desires to see the officer of the day at once." + +There was a general laugh. "Isn't that Buxton all over? The colonel +would never think of sending for an officer in the dead of night, except +for a fire or alarm; but old Bux. begins putting on frills the moment he +gets a chance. Thank God, _I'm_ not on guard to-night!" said Mr. Royce. + +"What _can_ he want with you?" asked Mrs. Rayner, pettishly. "The idea +of one captain ordering another around like this!" + +"I'll be back in five minutes," said Rayner, as he picked up his sword +and disappeared. + +But ten minutes--fifteen--passed, and he came not. Mrs. Rayner grew +worried, and Mr. Blake led her out on the rude piazza to see what they +could see, and several others strolled out at the same time. The music +had ceased, and the night air was not too cold. Not a soul was in sight +out on the starlit parade. Not an unusual sound was heard. There was +nothing to indicate the faintest trouble; and yet Captain Buxton, the +commanding officer, had been called out by his "striker" or +soldier-servant before eleven o'clock, had not returned at all, and in +little over half an hour had sent for the officer of the day. What did +it mean? Questioning and talking thus among themselves, somebody said, +"Hark!" and held up a warning hand. + +Faint, far, muffled, there sounded on the night air a shot, then a +woman's scream; then all was still. + +"Mrs. Clancy again!" said one. + +"That was not Mrs. Clancy: 'twas a far different voice," answered Blake, +and tore away across the parade as fast as his long legs would carry +him. + +"Look! The guard are running too!" cried Mrs. Waldron. "What can it be?" +And, sure enough, the gleam of the rifles could be seen as the men ran +rapidly away in the direction of the east gate. Mrs. Rayner had grown +ghastly, and was looking at Miss Travers, who with white lips and +clinched hands stood leaning on one of the wooden posts and gazing with +all her eyes across the dim level. Others came hurrying out from the +hall. Other young officers ran in pursuit of the first starters. "What's +the matter? What's happened?" were the questions that flew from lip to +lip. + +"I--I must go home," faltered Mrs. Rayner. "Come, Nellie!" + +"Oh, don't go, Mrs. Rayner. It can't be anything serious." + +But, even as they urged, a man came running towards them. + +"Is the doctor here?" he panted. + +"Yes. What's the trouble?" asked Dr. Pease, as he squeezed his burly +form through the crowded door-way. + +"You're wanted, sir. Loot'nant Hayne's shot; an' Captain Rayner he's +hurt too, sir." + + + + +XV. + + +Straight as an arrow Mr. Blake had sped across the parade, darted +through the east gate, and, turning, had arrived breathless at the +wooden porch of Hayne's quarters. Two bewildered-looking members of the +guard were at the door. Blake pushed his way through the little hall-way +and into the dimly-lighted parlor, where a strange scene met his eyes: +Lieutenant Hayne lay senseless and white upon the lounge across the +room; a young and pretty woman, singularly like him in feature and in +the color of her abundant tresses, was kneeling beside him, chafing his +hands, imploring him to speak,--to look at her,--unmindful of the fact +that her feet were bare and that only a loose wrapper was thrown over +her white night-dress; Captain Rayner was seated in a chair, deathly +white, and striving to stanch the blood that flowed from a deep gash in +his temple and forehead; he seemed still stunned as by the force of the +blow that had felled him; and Buxton, speechless with amaze and heaven +only knows what other emotions, was glaring at a tall, athletic stranger +who, in stocking-feet, undershirt, and trousers, held by three +frightened-looking soldiers and covered by the carbine of a fourth, was +hurling defiance and denunciation at the commanding officer. A revolver +lay upon the floor at the feet of a corporal of the guard, who was +groaning in pain. A thin veil of powder-smoke floated through the room. +As Blake leaped in,--his cavalry shoulder-knots and helmet-cords +gleaming in the light,--a flash of recognition shot into the stranger's +eyes, and he curbed his fearful excitement and stopped short in his +wrath. + +"What devil's work is this?" demanded Blake, glaring intuitively at +Buxton. + +"These people resisted my guards, and had to take the consequences," +said Buxton, with surly--yet shaken--dignity. + +"What were the guards doing here? What, in God's name, are you doing +here?" demanded Blake, forgetful of all consideration of rank and +command in the face of such evident catastrophe. + +"I _ordered_ them here,--to enter and search." + +A pause. + +"Search what?--what for?" + +"For--a woman I had reason to believe he had brought out here from +town." + +"_What?_ You infernal idiot! Why, she's his own sister, and this +gentleman's wife!" + +The silence, broken only by the hard breathing of some of the excited +men and the moaning cry of the woman, was for a moment intense. + +"Isn't this Mr. Hurley?" asked Blake, suddenly, as though to make sure, +and turning one instant from his furious glare at his superior officer. +The stranger, still held, though no longer struggling, replied between +his set teeth,-- + +"Certainly. I've told him so." + +"By heaven, Buxton, is there no limit to your asininity? What fearful +work will you do next?" + +"I'll arrest _you_, sir, if you speak another disrespectful word!" +thundered Buxton, recovering consciousness that as commanding officer he +could defend himself against Blake's assault. + +"Do it and be---- you know what I _would_ say if a lady were not +present! Do it, if you think you can stand having this thing ventilated +by a court. Pah! I can't waste words on you. Who's gone for the doctor? +Here, you men, let go of Mr. Hurley now. Help me, Mr. Hurley, please. +Get your wife back to her room. Bring me some water, one of you." And +with that he was bending over Hayne and unbuttoning the fatigue-uniform +in which he was still dressed. Another moment, and the doctor had come +in, and with him half the young officers of the garrison. Rayner was led +away to his own quarters. Buxton, dazed and frightened now, ordered the +guards back to their post, and stood pondering over the enormity of his +blunder. No one spoke to him or paid the faintest attention other than +to elbow him out of the way occasionally. The doctor never so much as +noticed him. Blake had briefly recounted the catastrophe to those who +first arrived, and as the story went from mouth to mouth it grew no +better for Buxton. Once he turned short on Mr. Foster and in aggrieved +and sullen tone remarked,-- + +"I thought you fellows in the Riflers said he had no relations." + +"We weren't apt to be invited to meet them if he had; but I don't know +that anybody was in position to know anything about it. What's that got +to do with this affair, I'd like to hear?" + +At last somebody took him home. Mrs. Waldron, meantime, had arrived and +been admitted to Mrs. Hurley's room. The doctor refused to go to Captain +Rayner's, even when a messenger came from Mrs. Rayner herself. He +referred her to his assistant, Dr. Grimes. Hayne had regained +consciousness, but was sorely shaken. He had been floored by a blow from +the butt of a musket; but the report that he was shot proved happily +untrue. His right hand still lay near the hilt of his light sword: there +was little question that he had raised his weapon against a superior +officer and would have used it with telling effect. + +Few people slept that night along officers' row. Never had Warrener +heard of such excitement. Buxton knew not what to do. He paced the floor +in agony of mind, for he well understood that there was no shirking the +responsibility. From beginning to end he was the cause of the whole +catastrophe. He had gone so far as to order his corporal to fire, and he +knew it could be proved against him. Thank God, the perplexed corporal +had shot high, and the other men, barring the one who had saved Rayner +from a furious lunge of the lieutenant's sword, had used their weapons +as gingerly and reluctantly as possible. At the very least, he knew, an +investigation and fearful scandal must come of it. Night though it was, +he sent for the acting adjutant and several of his brother captains, +and, setting refreshments before them, besought their advice. He was +still commanding officer _de jure_, but he had lost all stomach for its +functions. He would have been glad to send for Blake and beg his pardon +for submitting to his insubordinate and abusive language, if that course +could have stopped inquiry; but he well knew that the whole thing would +be noised abroad in less than no time. At first he thought to give +orders against the telegraph-operator's sending any messages concerning +the matter; but that would have been only a temporary hinderance: he +could not control the instruments and operators in town, only three +miles away. He almost wished he had been knocked down, shot, or stabbed +in the _melee_; but he had kept in the rear when the skirmish began, and +Rayner and the corporal were the sufferers. They had been knocked +"endwise" by Mr. Hurley's practised fists after Hayne was struck down by +the corporal's musket. It was the universal sentiment among the officers +of the ----th as they scattered to their homes that Buxton had "wound +himself up this time, anyhow;" and no one had any sympathy for him,--not +one. The very best light in which he could tell the story only showed +the affair as a flagrant and inexcusable outrage. + +Captain Rayner, too, was in fearful plight. He had simply obeyed orders; +but all the old story of his persecution of Hayne would now be revived; +all men would see in his participation in the affair only additional +reason to adjudge him cruelly persistent in his hatred of the young +officer, and, in view of the utter ruthlessness and wrong of this +assault, would be more than ever confident of the falsity of his +position in the original case. As he was slowly led up-stairs to his +room and his tearful wife and silent sister-in-law bathed and cleansed +his wound, he saw with frightful clearness how the crush of +circumstances was now upon him and his good name. Great heaven! how +those words of Hayne's five years before rang, throbbed, burned, beat +like trip-hammers through his whirling brain! It seemed as though they +followed him and his fortunes like a curse. He sat silent, stunned, +awe-stricken at the force of the calamity that had befallen him. How +could he ever induce an officer and a gentleman to believe that he was +no instigator in this matter?--that it was all Buxton's doing, Buxton's +low imagination that had conceived the possibility of such a crime on +the part of Mr. Hayne, and Buxton's blundering, bull-headed abuse of +authority that had capped the fatal climax? It was some time before his +wife could get him to speak at all. She was hysterically bemoaning the +fate that had brought them into contact with such people, and from time +to time giving vent to the comforting assertion that never had there +been a cloud on their domestic or regimental sky until that wretch had +been assigned to the Riflers. She knew from the hurried and guarded +explanations of Dr. Grimes and one or two young officers who helped +Rayner home that the fracas had occurred at Mr. Hayne's,--that there had +been a mistake for which her husband was not responsible, but that +Captain Buxton was entirely to blame. But her husband's ashen face told +her a story of something far deeper: she knew that now he was involved +in fearful trouble, and, whatever may have been her innermost thoughts, +it was the first and irresistible impulse to throw all the blame upon +her scapegoat. Miss Travers, almost as pale and quite as silent as the +captain, was busying herself in helping her sister; but she could with +difficulty restrain her longing to bid her be silent. She, too, had +endeavored to learn from her escort on their hurried homeward rush +across the parade what the nature of the disturbance had been. She, too, +had suggested Clancy, but the officer by her side set his teeth as he +replied that he wished it had been Clancy. She had heard, too, the +message brought by a cavalry trumpeter from Mr. Blake: he wanted Captain +Ray to come to Mr. Hayne's as soon as he had seen Mrs. Ray safely home, +and would he please ask Mrs. Stannard to come with him at the same time? +Why should Mr. Blake want Mrs. Stannard at Mr. Hayne's? She saw Mr. +Foster run up and speak a few words to Mrs. Waldron, and heard that lady +reply, "Certainly. I will go with you now." What could it mean? At last, +as she was returning to her sister's room after a moment's absence, she +heard a question at which her heart stood still. It was Mrs. Rayner who +asked,-- + +"But the creature was there, was she not?" + +The answer sounded more like a moan of anguish: + +"The creature was his sister. It was her husband who--" + +But, as Captain Rayner buried his battered face in his hands at this +juncture, the rest of the sentence was inaudible. Miss Travers had heard +quite enough, however. She stood there one moment, appalled, dropped +upon the floor the bandage she had been making, turned and sought her +room, and was seen no more that night. + +Over the day or two that followed this affair the veil of silence may +best be drawn, in order to give time for the sediment of truth to settle +through the whirlpool of stories in violent circulation. The colonel +came back on the first train after the adjournment of the court, and +could hardly wait for that formality. Contrary to his custom of +"sleeping on" a question, he was in his office within half an hour after +his return to the post, and from that time until near tattoo was busily +occupied taking the statements of the active participants in the affair. +This was three days after its occurrence; and Captain Rayner, though up +and able to be about, had not left his quarters. Mrs. Rayner had +abandoned her trip to the East, for the present at least. Mr. Hayne +still lay weak and prostrate in his darkened room, attended hourly by +Dr. Pease, who feared brain-fever, and nursed assiduously by Mrs. +Hurley, for whom Mrs. Waldron, Mrs. Stannard, and many other ladies in +the garrison could not do enough to content themselves. Mr. Hurley's +wrist was badly sprained and in a sling; but the colonel went purposely +to call upon him and to shake his other hand, and he begged to be +permitted to see Mrs. Hurley, who came in pale and soft-eyed and with a +gentle demeanor that touched the colonel more than he could tell. Her +cheek flushed for a moment as he bent low over her hand and told her how +bitterly he regretted that his absence from the post had resulted in so +grievous an experience: it was not the welcome he and his regiment would +have given her had they known of her intended visit. To Mr. Hurley he +briefly said that he need not fear but that full justice would be meted +out to the instigator or instigators of the assault; but, as a something +to make partial amends for their suffering, he said that nothing now +could check the turn of the tide in their brother's favor. All the +cavalry officers except Buxton, all the infantry officers except Rayner, +had already been to call upon him since the night of the occurrence, and +had striven to show how distressed they were over the outrageous +blunders of their temporary commander. Buxton had written a note +expressive of a desire to see him and "explain," but was informed that +explanations from him simply aggravated the injury; and Rayner, crushed +and humiliated, was fairly in hiding in his room, too sick at heart to +want to see anybody, and waiting for the action of the authorities in +the confident expectation that nothing less than court-martial and +disgrace would be his share of the outcome. He would gladly have +resigned and gone at once, but that would have been resigning under +virtual charges: he _had_ to stay, and his wife had to stay with him, +and Nellie with her. By this time Nellie Travers did not want to go. She +had but one thought now,--to make amends to Mr. Hayne for the wrong her +thoughts had done him. It was time for Mr. Van Antwerp to come to the +wide West and look after his interests; but Mrs. Rayner had ceased to +urge, while he continued to implore her to bring Nellie East at once. +Almost any man as rich and independent as Steven Van Antwerp would have +gone to the scene and settled matters for himself. Singularly enough, +this one solution of the problem seemed never to occur to him as +feasible. + +Meantime, the colonel had patiently unravelled the threads and had +brought to light the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It made a +singularly simple story, after all but that was so much the worse for +Buxton. The only near relation Mr. Hayne had in the world was this one +younger sister, who six years before had married a manly, energetic +fellow, a civil engineer in the employ of an Eastern railway. During +Hayne's "mountain-station" exile Hurley had brought his wife to Denver, +where far better prospects awaited him. He won promotion in his +profession, and was now one of the principal engineers employed by a +road running new lines through the Colorado Rockies. Journeying to Salt +Lake, he came around by way of Warrener, so that his wife and he might +have a look at the brother she had not seen in years. Their train was +due there early in the afternoon, but was blocked by drifts and did not +reach the station until late at night. There they found a note from him +begging them to take a carriage they would find waiting for them and +come right out and spend the night at his quarters: he would send them +back in abundant time to catch the westward train in the morning. He +could not come in, because that involved the necessity of asking his +captain's permission, and they knew his relations with that captain. It +was her shadow Buxton had seen on the window-screen; and as none of +Buxton's acquaintances had ever mentioned that Hayne had any relations, +and as Hayne, in fact, had had no one for years to talk to about his +personal affairs, nobody but himself and the telegraph-operator at the +post really knew of their sudden visit. Buxton, being an unmitigated +cad, had put the worst interpretation on his discovery, and, in his +eagerness to clinch the evidence of conduct unbecoming an officer and a +gentleman upon Mr. Hayne, had taken no wise head into his confidence. +Never dreaming that the shadow could be that of a blood-relation, never +doubting that a fair, frail companion from the frontier town was the +explanation of Mr. Hayne's preference for that out-of-the way house and +late hours, he stated his discovery to Rayner as a positive fact, going +so far as to say that his sentries had recognized her as she drove away +in the carriage. If he had not been an ass as well as a cad, he would +have interviewed the driver of the carriage; but he had jumped at his +theory, and his sudden elevation to the command of the post gave him +opportunity to carry out his virtuous determination that no such +goings-on should disgrace his administration. He gave instructions to +certain soldier clerks and "daily-duty" men employed in the +quartermaster, commissary, and ordnance offices along Prairie Avenue to +keep their eyes open and let him know of any visitors coming out to +Hayne's by night, and if a lady came in a carriage he was to be called +at once. Mr. Hurley promised that on their return from Salt Lake they +would come back by way of Warrener and spend two days with Hayne, since +only an hour or two had they enjoyed of his company on their way West; +and the very day that the officers went off to the court came the +telegram saying the Hurleys would arrive that evening. Hayne had already +talked over their prospective visit with Major Waldron, and the latter +had told his wife; but all intercourse of a friendly character was at an +end between them and the Rayners and Buxtons; there were no more gossipy +chats among the ladies. Indeed, it so happened that only to one or two +people had Mrs. Waldron had time to mention that Mr. Hayne's sister was +coming, and neither the Rayners nor Buxtons had heard of it; neither had +Nellie Travers, for it was after the evening of her last visit that Mrs. +Waldron was told. + +Hayne ran with his telegram to the major, and the latter had introduced +himself and Major Stannard to Mrs. Hurley when, after a weary wait of +some hours, the train arrived. Blake, too, was there, on the lookout for +some friends, and he was presented to Mrs. Hurley while her husband was +attending to some matters about the baggage. The train went on eastward, +carrying the field-officers with it. Blake had to go with his friends +back to the post, and Mr. and Mrs. Hurley, after the former had attended +to some business and seen some railway associates of his at the hotel, +took the carriage they had had before and drove out to the garrison, +where Private Schweinkopf saw the lady rapturously welcomed by +Lieutenant Hayne and escorted into the house, while Mr. Hurley remained +settling with the driver out in the darkness. It was not long before the +commanding officer _pro tem_, was called from the hop-room, where the +dance was going on delightfully, and notified that the mysterious +visitor had again appeared, with evident intention of spending the +night, as the carriage had returned to town. "Why, certainly," reasoned +Buxton. "It's the very night he would choose, since everybody will be at +the hop: no one will be apt to interfere, and everybody will be +unusually drowsy and less inclined to take notice in the morning." Here +was ample opportunity for a brilliant stroke of work. He would first +satisfy himself she was there, then surround the house with sentries so +that she could not escape, while he, with the officer of the day and the +corporal of the guard, entered the house and confronted him and her. +_That_ would wind up Mr. Hayne's career beyond question: nothing short +of dismissal could result. Over he went, full of his project, listened +at Hayne's like the eaves-dropping sneak he was, saw again the shadow of +the graceful form and heard the silvery, happy laugh, and then it was +he sent for Rayner. It was near midnight when he led his forces to the +attack. A light was now burning in the second story, which he thought +must be Sam's; but the lights had been turned low in the parlor, and the +occupants had disappeared from sight and hearing. By inquiry he had +ascertained that Hayne's bedroom was just back of the parlor. A man was +stationed at the back door, others at the sides, with orders to arrest +any one who attempted to escape; then softly he stepped to the front +door, telling Rayner to follow him, and the corporal of the guard to +follow both. To his surprise, the door was unlocked, and a light was +burning in the hall. Never knocking, he stepped in, marched through the +hall into the parlor, which was empty, and, signalling "Come on" to his +followers, crossed the parlor and seized the knob of the bedroom door. +It was locked. Rayner, looking white and worried, stood just behind him, +and the corporal but a step farther back. Before Buxton could knock and +demand admission, which was his intention, quick footsteps came flying +down the stairs from the second story, and the trio wheeled about in +surprise, to find Mr. Hayne, dressed in his fatigue uniform, standing at +the threshold and staring at them with mingled astonishment, +incredulity, and indignation. A sudden light seemed to dawn upon him as +he glanced from one to the other. With a leap like a cat he threw +himself upon Buxton, hurled him back, and stood at the closed door +confronting them with blazing eyes and clinching fists. + +"Open that door, sir!" cried Buxton. "You have a woman hidden there. +Open, or stand aside." + +"You hounds! I'll kill the first man who dares enter!" was the furious +answer; and Hayne had snatched from the wall his long infantry sword and +flashed the blade in the lamplight. Rayner made a step forward, half +irresolute. Hayne leaped at him like a tiger. "Fire! Quick!" shouted +Buxton, in wild excitement. Bang! went the carbine, and the bullet +crashed through the plaster overhead, and, seeing the gleaming steel at +his superior's throat, the corporal had sent the heavy butt crashing +upon the lieutenant's skull only just in time: there would have been +murder in another second. The next instant he was standing on his own +head in the corner, seeing a multitude of twinkling, whirling stars, +from the midst of which Captain Rayner was reeling backward over a chair +and a number of soldiers were rushing upon a powerful picture of +furious manhood,--a stranger in shirt-sleeves, who had leaped from the +bedroom. + +Told as it was--as it had to be--all over the department, there seemed +but one thing to say, and that referred to Buxton: "Well! _isn't_ he a +phenomenal ass?" + + + + +XVI. + + +Mr. Hayne was up and around again. The springtime was coming, and the +prairie roads were good and dry, and the doctor had told him he must +live in the open air awhile and ride and walk and drive. He stood in no +want of "mounts," for three or four of his cavalry friends were ready to +lend him a saddle-horse any day. Mr. and Mrs. Hurley, after making many +pleasant acquaintances, had gone on to Denver, and Captain Buxton was +congratulating himself that he, at least, had not run foul of the +engineer's powerful fists. Buxton was not in arrest, for the case had +proved a singular "poser." It occurred during the temporary absence of +the colonel: _he_ could not well place the captain under arrest for +things he had done when acting as post commander. In obedience to his +orders from department head-quarters, he made his report of the affair, +and indicated that Captain Buxton's conduct had been inexcusable. Rayner +had done nothing but, as was proved, reluctantly obey the captain's +orders, so he could not be tried. Hayne, who had committed one of the +most serious crimes in the military catalogue,--that of drawing and +raising a weapon against an officer who was in discharge of his duty +(Rayner),--had the sympathy of the whole command, and nobody would +prefer charges against him. The general decided to have the report go up +to division head-quarters, and thence it went with its varied comments +and endorsements to Washington: and now a court of inquiry was talked +of. Meantime, poor bewildered Buxton was let severely alone. What made +him utterly miserable was the fact that in his own regiment, the ----th, +nobody spoke of it except as something that everybody knew was sure to +happen the moment he got in command. If it hadn't been that 'twould have +been something else. The only certainty was that Buxton would never lose +a chance of making an ass of himself. Instead of being furious with him, +the whole regiment--officers and men--simply ridiculed and laughed at +him. He had talked of preferring charges against Blake for +insubordination, and asked the adjutant what he thought of it. It was +the first time he had spoken to the adjutant for weeks, and the +adjutant rushed out of the office to tell the crowd to come in and "hear +Buxton's latest." It began to look as though nothing serious would ever +come of the affair, until Rayner reappeared and people saw how very ill +he was. Dr. Pease had been consulted; and it was settled that he as well +as his wife must go away for several months and have complete rest and +change. It was decided that they would leave by the 1st of May. All this +Mr. Hayne heard through his kind friend Mrs. Waldron. + +One day when he first began to sit up, and before he had been out at +all, she came and sat with him in his sunshiny parlor. There had been a +silence for a moment as she looked around upon the few pictures and upon +that bareness and coldness which, do what he will, no man can eradicate +from his abiding-place until he calls in the deft and dainty hand of +woman. + +"I shall be so glad when you have a wife, Mr. Hayne!" was her quiet +comment. + +"So shall I, Mrs. Waldron," was the response. + +"And isn't it high time we were beginning to hear of a choice? Forgive +my intrusiveness, but that was the very matter of which the major and I +were talking as he brought me over." + +"There is something to be done first, Mrs. Waldron," he answered. "I +cannot offer any woman a clouded name. It is not enough that people +should begin to believe that I was innocent and my persecutors utterly +in error, if not perjured. I must be able to show who was the real +culprit, and that is not easy. The doctor and I thought we saw a way not +long ago; but it proved delusive." And he sighed deeply. "I had expected +to see the major about it the very day he got back from the court; but +we have had no chance to talk." + +"Mr. Hayne," she said, impulsively, "a woman's intuition is not always +at fault. Tell me if you believe that any one on the post has any +inkling of the truth. I have a reason for asking." + +"I _did_ think it possible, Mrs. Waldron. I cannot be certain now; and +it's too late, anyway." + +"How, too late? What's too late?" + +He paused a moment, a deeper shadow than usual on his face; then he +lifted his head and looked fairly at her: + +"I should not have said that, Mrs. Waldron. It can never be too late. +But what I mean is that--just now I spoke of offering no woman a +clouded name. Even if it were unclouded, I could not offer it where I +would." + +"Because you have heard of the engagement?" was the quick, eager +question. There was no instant of doubt in the woman as to where the +offering would be made, if it only could. + +"I knew of the engagement only a day ago," he answered, with stern +effort at self-control. "Blake was speaking of her, and it came out all +of a sudden." + +He turned his head away again. It was more than Mrs. Waldron could +stand. She leaned impetuously towards him, and put her hand on his: + +"Mr. Hayne, that is no engagement of heart to heart. It is entirely a +thing of Mrs. Rayner's doing; and I _know_ it. She is +poor,--dependent,--and has been simply sold into bondage." + +"And you think she cares nothing for the position, the wealth and social +advantages, this would give her? Ah, Mrs. Waldron, consider." + +"I _have_ considered. Mr. Hayne, if I were a man, like you, that child +should never go back to him. And they are going next week. You _must_ +get well." + +It was remarked that Mr. Hayne was out surprisingly quick for a fellow +who had been so recently threatened with brain-fever. The Rayners were +to go East at once, so it was said, though the captain's leave of +absence had not yet been ordered. The colonel could grant him seven days +at any time, and he had telegraphic notification that there would be no +objection when the formal application reached the War Department. Rayner +called at the colonel's office and asked that he might be permitted to +start with his wife and sister. His second lieutenant would move in and +occupy his quarters and take care of all his personal effects during +their absence; and Lieutenant Hayne was a most thorough officer, and he +felt that in turning over his company to him he left it in excellent +hands. The colonel saw the misery in the captain's face, and he was +touched by both looks and words: + +"You must not take this last affair too much to heart, Captain Rayner. +We in the ----th have known Captain Buxton so many years that with us +there is no question as to where all the blame lies. It seems, too, to +be clearly understood by Mr. Hayne. As for your previous ideas of that +officer, I consider it too delicate a matter to speak of. You must see, +however, how entirely beyond reproach his general character appears to +have been. But here's another matter: Clancy's discharge has arrived. +Does the old fellow know you had requested it?" + +"No, sir," answered Rayner, with hesitation and embarrassment. "We +wanted to keep him straight, as I told you we would, and he would +probably get on a big tear if he knew his service-days were numbered. I +didn't look for its being granted for forty-eight hours yet." + +"Well, he will know it before night; and no doubt he will be badly cut +up. Clancy was a fine soldier before he married that harridan of a +woman." + +"She has made him a good wife since they came into the Riflers, colonel, +and has taken mighty good care of the old fellow." + +"It is more than she did in the ----th, sir. She was a handsome, showy +woman when I first saw her,--before my promotion to the regiment,--and +Clancy was one of the finest soldiers in the brigade the last year of +the war. She ran through all his money, though, and in the ----th we +looked upon her as the real cause of his break-down,--especially after +her affair with that sergeant who deserted. You've heard of him, +probably. He disappeared after the Battle Butte campaign, and we hoped +he'd run off with Mrs. Clancy; but he hadn't. She was there when we got +back, big as ever, and growing ugly." + +"Do you mean that Mrs. Clancy had a lover when she was in the ----th?" + +"Certainly, Captain Rayner. We supposed it was commonly known. He was a +fine-looking, black-eyed, dark-haired, dashing fellow, of good +education, a great swell among the men the short time he was with us, +and Mrs. Clancy made a dead set at him from the start. He never seemed +to care for _her_ very much." + +"This is something I never heard of," said Rayner, with grave face, "and +it will be a good deal of a shock to my wife, for she had arranged to +take her East with Clancy and Kate, and they were to invest their money +in some little business at her old home." + +"Yes: it was mainly on the woman's account we wouldn't re-enlist Clancy +in the ----th. We could stand him, but she was too much for us,--and for +the other sergeant, too. He avoided her before we started on the +campaign, I fancy. Odd! I can't think of his name.--Billings, what was +the name of that howling swell of a sergeant who was in Hull's troop at +Battle Butte,--time Hull was killed? I mean the man that Mrs. Clancy was +said to have eloped with." + +"Sergeant Gower, sir," said the adjutant, without looking up from his +work. He did look up, however, when a moment after the captain hurriedly +left the office, and he saw that Rayner's face was deathly white: it was +ghastly. + +"What took Rayner off so suddenly?" said the colonel, wheeling around in +his chair. + +"I don't know, sir, unless there was something to startle him in the +name." + +"Why should there be?" + +"There are those who think that Gower got away with more than his horse +and arms, colonel: he was not at Battle Butte, though, and that is what +made it a mystery." + +"Where was he then?" + +"Back with the wagon-train, sir; and he never got in sight of the Buttes +or Rayner's battalion. You know Rayner had four companies there." + +"I don't see how Gower could have taken the money, if that's what you +mean, if he never came up to the Buttes: Rayner swore it was there in +Hull's original package. Then, too, how could Gower's name affect him if +he had never seen him?" + +"Possibly he has heard something. Clancy has been talking." + +"I have looked into that," said the colonel. "Clancy denies knowing +anything,--says he was drunk and didn't know what he was talking about." + +All the same it was queer, thought the adjutant, and he greatly wanted +to see the doctor and talk with him; but by the time his office-work was +done the doctor had gone to town, and when he came back he was sent for +to the laundress's quarters, where Mrs. Clancy was in hysterics and +Michael had again been very bad. + +Soon after the captain's return to his quarters, it seems, a messenger +was sent from Mrs. Rayner requesting Mrs. Clancy to come and see her at +once. She was ushered up-stairs to madame's own apartment, much to Miss +Travers's surprise, and that young lady was further astonished, when +Mrs. Clancy reappeared, nearly an hour later, to see that she had been +weeping violently. The house was in some disorder, most of the trunks +being packed and in readiness for the start, and Miss Travers was +entertaining two or three young officers and waiting for her sister to +come down to luncheon. "The boys" were lachrymose over her prospective +departure,--at least they affected to be,--and were variously sprawled +about the parlor when Mrs. Clancy descended, and the inflamed condition +of her eyes and nose became apparent to all. There was much chaff and +fun, therefore, when Mrs. Rayner finally appeared, over the supposed +affliction of the big Irishwoman at the prospect of parting with her +patroness. Miss Travers saw with singular sensations that both the +captain and her usually self-reliant sister were annoyed and embarrassed +by the topic and strove to change it; but Foster's propensity for +mimicry and his ability to imitate Mrs. Clancy's combined brogue and +sniffle proved too much for their efforts. Kate was in a royally bad +temper by the time the youngsters left the house, and when Nellie would +have made some laughing allusion to the fun the young fellows had been +having over her morning caller, she was suddenly and tartly checked +with-- + +"We've had too much of that already. Just understand now that you have +no time to waste, if your packing is unfinished. We start to-morrow +afternoon." + +"Why, Kate! I had no idea we were to go for two days yet! Of course I +can be ready; but why did you not tell me before?" + +"I did not know it--at least it was not decided--until this morning, +after the captain came back from the office. There is nothing to prevent +our going, now that he has seen the colonel." + +"There was not before, Kate; for Mr. Billings told me yesterday morning, +and I told you, that the colonel had said you could start at once, and +you replied that the captain could not be ready for several days,--three +at least." + +"Well, now he _is_; and that ends it. Never mind what changed his mind." + +It was unsafe to trifle with Nellie Travers, as Mrs. Rayner might have +known. She saw that something had occurred to make the captain eager to +start at once; and then there was that immediate sending for Mrs. +Clancy, the long, secret talk up in Kate's room, the evident mental +disturbance of both feminines on their respective reappearances, and the +sudden announcement to her. While there could be no time to make formal +parting calls, there were still some two or three ladies in the garrison +whom she longed to see before saying adieu; and then there was Mr. +Hayne, whom she had wronged quite as bitterly as anyone else had wronged +him. He was out that day for the first time, and she longed to see him +and longed to fulfil the neglected promise. _That_ she must do at the +very least. If she could not see him, she must write, that he might +have the note before they went away. All these thoughts were rushing +through her brain as she busied herself about her little room, stowing +away dresses and dropping everything from time to time to dart into her +sister's room in answer to some querulous call. Yet never did she leave +without a quick glance from her window up and down the row. For whom was +she looking? + +It was just about dusk when she heard crying down-stairs,--a child, and +apparently in the kitchen. Mrs. Rayner was with the baby, and Miss +Travers started for the stairs, calling that she would go and see what +it meant. She was down in the hall before Mrs. Rayner's imperative and +repeated calls brought her to a full stop. + +"What is it?" she inquired. + +"You come back here and hold baby. I know perfectly what it is. It is +Kate Clancy; and she wants me. You can do nothing." + +Too late, madame! The intervening doors were opened, and in marched +cook, leading the poor little Irish girl, who was sobbing piteously. +Mrs. Rayner came down the stairs with all speed, bringing her burly son +and heir in her arms. She would have ordered Nell aloft, but what excuse +could she give? and Miss Travers was already bending over the child and +striving to still her heart-breaking cries. + +"What is it? Where's your father?" demanded Mrs. Rayner. + +"Oh, ma'am, I don't know. I came here to tell the captain. Shure he's +discharged, ma'am, an' his heart's broke entirely, an' mother says we're +all to go with the captain to-morrow, an' he swears he'll kill himself +before he'll go, an' I can't find him, ma'am. It's almost dark now." + +"Go back and tell your mother I want her instantly. We'll find your +father. Go!" she repeated, as the child shrank and hesitated. +"Here,--the front way!" And little Kate sped away into the shadows +across the dim level of the parade. + +Then the sisters faced each other. There was a fire in the younger's eye +that Mrs. Rayner would have escaped if she could. + +"Kate, it is to get Clancy away from the possibility of revealing what +he knows that you have planned this sudden move, and I _know_ it," said +Miss Travers. "You need not answer." + +She seized a wrap from the hat-rack and stepped to the door-way. Mrs. +Rayner threw herself after her. + +"Nellie, where are you going? What will you do?" + +"To Mrs. Waldron's, Kate; if need be, to Mr. Hayne's." + + * * * * * + +A bright fire was burning in Major Waldron's cosey parlor, where he and +his good wife were seated in earnest talk. It was just after sunset when +Mr. Hayne dropped in to pay his first visit after the few days in which +he had been confined to his quarters. He was looking thin, paler than +usual, and far more restless and eager in manner than of old. The +Waldrons welcomed him with more than usual warmth, and the major +speedily led the conversation up to the topic which was so near to his +heart. + +"You and I must see the doctor and have a triangular council over this +thing, Hayne. Three heads are better than none; and if, as he suspects, +old Clancy really knows anything when he's drunk that he cannot tell +when he's sober, I shall depart from Mrs. Waldron's principles and join +the doctor in his pet scheme of getting him drunk again. '_In vino +veritas_,' you know. And we ought to be about it, too, for it won't be +long before his discharge comes, and, once away, we should be in the +lurch." + +"There seems so little hope there, major. Even the colonel has called +him up and questioned him." + +"Ay, very true, but always when the old sergeant was sober. It is when +drunk that Clancy's conscience pricks him to tell what he either knows +or suspects." + +A light, quick footstep was heard on the piazza, the hall door opened, +and without knock or ring, bursting impetuously in upon them, there +suddenly appeared Miss Travers, her eyes dilated with excitement. At +sight of the group she stopped short, and colored to the very roots of +her shining hair. + +"How glad I am to see you, Nellie!" exclaimed Mrs. Waldron, as all rose +to greet her. An embarrassed, half-distraught reply was her only answer. +She had extended both hands to the elder lady; but now, startled, almost +stunned, at finding herself in the presence of the very man she most +wanted to see, she stood with downcast eyes, irresolute. He, too, had +not stepped forward,--had not offered his hand. She raised her blue eyes +for one quick glance, and saw his pale, pain-thinned face, read anew the +story of his patience, his suffering, his heroism, and realized how she +too had wronged him and that her very awkwardness and silence might tell +him that shameful fact. It was more than she could stand. + +"I came--purposely. I hoped to find you, Mr. Hayne. You--you remember +that I had something to tell you. It was about Clancy. You ought to see +him. I'm sure you ought, for he _must_ know--he or Mrs. +Clancy--something about your--your trouble; and I've just this minute +heard that they--that he's going away to-morrow; and you must find him +to-night, Mr. Hayne: indeed you must." + +Who can paint her as she stood there, blushing, pleading, eager, +frightened, yet determined? Who can picture the wild emotion in his +heart, reflected in his face? He stepped quickly to her side with the +light leaping to his eyes, his hands extended as though to grasp hers; +but it was Waldron that spoke first: + +"Where is he going?--how?" + +"Oh, with us, major. We go to-morrow, and they go with us. My sister has +some reason--I cannot fathom it. She wants them away from here, and +Clancy's discharge came to-day. He _must_ see him first," she said, +indicating Mr. Hayne by the nod of her pretty head. "They say Clancy has +run off and got away from his wife. He doesn't want to be discharged. +They cannot find him now; but perhaps Mr. Hayne can.--Mr. Hayne, try to. +You--you must." + +"Indeed we must, Hayne, and quick about it," said the major. "Now is our +chance, I verily believe. Let us get the doctor first; then little Kate +will best know where to look for Clancy. Come, man, get your overcoat." +And he hastened to the hall. + +Hayne followed as though in a dream, reached the threshold, turned, +looked back, made one quick step toward Miss Travers with outstretched +hand, then checked himself as suddenly. His yearning eyes seemed +fastened on her burning face, his lips quivered with the intensity of +his emotion. She raised her eyes and gave him one quick look, half +entreaty, half command; he seemed ineffectually struggling to speak,--to +thank her. One moment of irresolution, then, without a word of any kind, +he sprang to the door. She carried his parting glance in her heart of +hearts all night long. There was no mistaking what it told. + + + + +XVII. + + +The morning report of the following day showed some items under the head +of "Alterations" that involved several of the soldier characters of this +story. Ex-Sergeant Clancy had been dropped from the column of present +"on daily duty" and taken up on that of absent without leave. Lieutenant +Hayne was also reported absent. Dr. Pease and Lieutenant Billings drove +into the garrison from town just before the cavalry trumpets were +sounding first call for guard-mounting, and the adjutant sent one of the +musicians to give his compliments to Mr. Royce and ask him to mount the +guard for him, as he had just returned and had important business with +the colonel. The doctor and the adjutant together went into the +colonel's quarters, and for the first time on record the commanding +officer was not at the desk in his office when the shoulder-straps began +to gather for the _matinee_. + +Ten minutes after the usual time the adjutant darted in and plunged with +his characteristic impetuosity into the pile of passes and other papers +stacked up by the sergeant-major at his table. To all questions as to +where he had been and what was the matter with the colonel he replied, +with more than usual asperity of manner,--the asperity engendered of +some years of having to answer the host of questions propounded by +vacant minds at his own busiest hour of the day,--that the colonel would +tell them all about it himself; _he_ had no time for a word. The evident +manner of suppressed excitement, however, was something few failed to +note; and every man in the room felt certain that when the colonel came +there would be a revelation. It was with something bordering on +indignation, therefore, that the assemblage heard the words that +intimated to them that all might retire. The colonel had come in very +quietly, received the report of the officer of the day, relieved him, +and dismissed the new officer of the day with the brief formula, "Usual +orders, sir," then glanced quickly around the silent circle of grave, +bearded or boyish faces. His eyes rested for an instant with something +like shock and trouble upon one face, pale, haggard, with almost +bloodless lips, and yet full of fierce determination,--a face that +haunted him long afterwards, it was so full of agony, of suspense, +almost of pleading,--the face of Captain Rayner. + +Then, dispensing with the customary talk, he quietly spoke the +disappointing words,-- + +"I am somewhat late this morning, gentlemen, and several matters will +occupy my attention: so I will not detain you further." + +The crowd seemed to find their feet very slowly. There was visible +disinclination to go. Every man in some inexplicable way appeared to +know that there was a new mystery hanging over the garrison, and that +the colonel held the key. Every man felt that Billings had given him the +right to expect to be told all about it when the colonel came. Some +looked reproachfully at Billings, as though to remind him of their +expectations: Stannard, his old stand-by, passed him with a gruff +"Thought you said the colonel had something to tell us," and went out +with an air of injured and defrauded dignity. Rayner arose, and seemed +to be making preparations to depart with the others, and some of the +number, connecting him unerringly with the prevailing sensation, +appeared to hold back and wait for him to precede them and so secure to +themselves the satisfaction of knowing that, if it was a matter +connected with Rayner, they "had him along" and nothing could take place +without their hearing it. These men were very few, however; but Buxton +was one of them. Rayner's eyes were fixed upon the colonel and searching +for a sign, and it came,--a little motion of the hand and a nod of the +head that signified "Stay." Then, as Buxton and one or two of his stamp +still dallied irresolute, the colonel turned somewhat sharply to them: +"Was there any matter on which you wished to see me, gentlemen?" and, as +there was none, they _had_ to go. Then Rayner was alone with the +colonel; for Mr. Billings quickly arose, and, with a significant glance +at his commander, left the room and closed the door. + +Mrs. Rayner, gazing from her parlor windows, saw that all the officers +had come out except one,--her husband,--and with a moan of misery she +covered her face with her hands and sank upon the sofa. With cheeks as +white as her sister's, with eyes full of trouble and perplexity, but +tearless, Nellie Travers stepped quickly into the room and put a +trembling white hand upon the other's shoulder: + +"Kate, it is no time for so bitter an estrangement as this. I have done +simply what our soldier father would have done had he been here. I am +fully aware of what it must cost me. I knew when I did it that you would +never again welcome me to your home. Once East again, you and I can go +our ways; I won't burden you longer; but is it not better that you +should tell me in what way your husband or you can have been injured by +what I have done?" + +Mrs. Rayner impatiently shook away the hand. + +"I don't want to talk to you," was the blunt answer. "You have carried +out your threat and--ruined _us_: that's all." + +"What _can_ you mean? Do you want me to think that because Mr. Hayne's +innocence may be established your husband was the guilty man? Certainly +your manner leads to that inference; though his does not, by any means." + +"I don't want to talk, I tell you. You've had your way,--done your work. +You'll see soon enough the hideous web of trouble you've entangled +about my husband. Don't you dare say--don't you dare think"--and now she +rose with sudden fury--"that he was the--that he lost the money! But +that's what all others will think." + +"If that were true, Kate, there would be this difference between his +trouble and Mr. Hayne's: Captain Rayner would have wife, wealth, and +friends to help him bear the cross; Mr. Hayne has borne it five long +years unaided. I pray God the truth _has_ been brought to light." + +What fierce reply Mrs. Rayner might have given, who knows? but at that +instant a quick step was heard on the piazza, the door opened suddenly, +and Captain Rayner entered with a rush. The pallor had gone; a light of +eager, half-incredulous joy beamed from his eyes, he threw his cap upon +the floor, and his wife had risen and thrown her arms about his neck. + +"Have they found him?" was her breathless question. "_What_ has +happened? You look so different." + +"Found him? Yes; and he has told everything?" + +"Told--what?" + +"Told that he and Gower were the men. They took it all." + +"_Clancy!_--and Gower! The thieves, do you mean? Is that--is _that_ what +he confessed?" she asked, in wild wonderment, in almost stupefied amaze, +releasing him from her arms and stepping back, her eyes searching his +face. + +"Nothing else in the world, Kate. I don't understand it at all. I'm all +a-tremble yet. It clears Hayne utterly. It at least explains how I was +mistaken. But what--what could she have meant?" + +Mrs. Rayner stood like one in a dream, her eyes staring, her lips +quivering; and Nellie, with throbbing pulses and clasping hands, looked +eagerly from husband to wife, as though beseeching some explanation. + +"What did she mean? What _did_ she mean? I say again," asked Rayner, +pressing his hand to his forehead and gazing fixedly at his wife. + +A moment longer she stood there, as though a light--a long-hidden +truth--were slowly forcing itself upon her mind. Then, with impulsive +movement, she hurried through the dining-room, threw open the kitchen +door, and startled the domestics at their late breakfast. + +"Ryan," she called to the soldier-servant who rose hastily from the +table, "go and tell Mrs. Clancy I want her instantly. Do you understand? +Instantly!" And Ryan seized his forage-cap and vanished. + +It was perhaps ten minutes before he returned. When he did so it was +apparent that Mrs. Rayner had been crying copiously, and that Miss +Travers, too, was much affected. The captain was pacing the room with +nervous strides in mingled relief and agitation. All looked up expectant +as the soldier re-entered. He had the air of a man who knew he bore +tidings of vivid and mysterious interest, but he curbed the excitement +of his manner until it shone only through his snapping eyes, saluted, +and reported with professional gravity: + +"Mrs. Clancy's clean gone, sir." + +"Gone where?" + +"Nobody knows, sir. She's just lit out with her trunk and best clothes +some time last night." + +"Gone to her husband in town, maybe?" + +"No, sir. Clancy's all right: he was caught last evening, and hadn't +time to get more'n half drunk before they lodged him. Lootenant Hayne +got him, sir. They had him afore a justice of the peace early this +morning--" + +"Yes, I know all that. What I want is _Mrs._ Clancy. What has become of +her?" + +"Faith, I don't know, sir, but the women in Sudsville they all say she's +run away, sir,--taken her money and gone. She's afraid of Clancy's +peaching on her." + +"By heavens! the thing is clearing itself!" exclaimed Rayner to his +gasping and wild-eyed wife. "I must go to the colonel at once with his +news." And away he went. + +And then again, as the orderly retired, and the sisters were left alone, +Nellie Travers with trembling lips asked the question,-- + +"Have I done so much harm, after all, Kate?" + +"Oh, Nellie! Nellie! forgive me, for I have been nearly mad with +misery!" was Mrs. Rayner's answer, as she burst into a fresh paroxysm of +tears. "That--that woman has--has told me fearful lies." + +There was a strange scene that day at Warrener when, towards noon, two +carriages drove out from town and, entering the east gate, rolled over +towards the guard-house. The soldiers clustered about the barrack +porches and stared at the occupants. In the first--a livery hack from +town--were two sheriff's officers, while cowering on the back seat, his +hat pulled down over his eyes, was poor old Clancy, to whom clung +faithful little Kate. In the rear carriage--Major Waldron's--were Mr. +Hayne, the major, and a civilian whom some of the men had no difficulty +in recognizing as the official charged with the administration of +justice towards offenders against the peace. Many of the soldiers +strolled slowly up the road, in hopes of hearing all about the arrest, +and what it meant, from straggling members of the guard. All knew it +meant something more than a mere "break" on the part of Clancy; all felt +that it had some connection with the long-continued mystery that hung +about the name of Lieutenant Hayne. Then, too, it was being noised +abroad that Mrs. Clancy had "skipped" and between two suns had fled for +parts unknown. _She_ could be overhauled by telegraph if she had left on +either of the night freights or gone down towards Denver by the early +morning passenger-train; it would be easy enough to capture her if she +were "wanted," said the garrison; but what did it mean that Clancy was +pursued by officers of the post and brought back under charge of +officers of the law? He had had trouble enough, poor fellow! + +The officer of the guard looked wonderingly at the carriages and their +occupants. He saluted Major Waldron as the latter stepped briskly down. + +"You will take charge of Clancy, Mr. Graham," said the major. "His +discharge will be recalled: at least it will not take effect to-day. You +will be interested in knowing that his voluntary confession fully +establishes Mr. Hayne's innocence of the charges on which he was tried." + +Mr. Graham's face turned all manner of colors. He glanced at Hayne, who, +still seated in the carriage, was as calmly indifferent to him as ever: +he was gazing across the wide parade at the windows in officers' row. +Little Kate's sobs as the soldiers were helping her father from the +carriage suddenly recalled his wandering thoughts. He sprang to the +ground, stepped quickly to the child, and put his arms about her. + +"Clancy, tell her to come with us. Mrs. Waldron will take loving care of +her, and she shall come to see you every day. The guard-house is no +place for her to follow you. Tell her so, man, and she will go with +us.--Come, Katie, child!" And he bent tenderly over the sobbing little +waif. + +"Thank ye, sir. I know ye'll be good to her. Go with the lootenant, Kate +darlin'; go. Shure I'll be happier then." + +And, trembling, he bent and kissed her wet cheeks. She threw her arms +around his neck and clung to him in an agony of grief. Gently they +strove to disengage her clasping arms, but she shrieked and struggled, +and poor old Clancy broke down. There were sturdy soldiers standing by +who turned their heads away to hide the unbidden tears, and with a +quiver in his kind voice the major interposed: + +"Let her stay awhile: it will be better for both. Don't put him in the +prison-room, Graham. Keep them by themselves for a while. We will come +for her by and by." And then, before them all, he held forth his hand +and gave Clancy's a cordial grasp: + +"Cheer up, man. You've taken the right step at last. You are a free man +to-day, even if you are a prisoner for the time being. Better this a +thousand times than what you were." + +Hayne, too, spoke a few kind words in a low tone, and gave the old +soldier his hand at parting. Then the guard closed the door, and father +and daughter were left alone. As the groups around the guard-house began +to break up and move away, and the officers, re-entering the carriages, +drove over to head-quarters, a rollicking Irishman called to the +sergeant of the guard,-- + +"Does he know the ould woman's skipped, sargent? Shure you'd better tell +him. 'Twill cheer him, like." + +But when, a few moments after, the news was imparted to Clancy, the +effect was electric and startling. With one bound and a savage cry he +sprang to the door. The sergeant threw himself upon him and strove to +hold him back, but was no match for the frenzied man. Deaf to Kate's +entreaties and the sergeant's commands, he hurled him aside, leaped +through the door-way, shot like a deer past the lolling guardsmen on the +porch, and, turning sharply, went at the top of his speed down the hill +towards Sudsville before man could lay hand on him. The sentry on Number +One cocked his rifle and looked inquiringly at the officer of the guard, +who came running out. With a wild shriek little Kate threw herself upon +the sentry, clasping his knees and imploring him not to shoot. The +lieutenant and the sergeant both shouted, "Never mind! Don't fire!" and +with others of the guard rushed in pursuit. But, old and feeble as he +was, poor Clancy kept the lead, never swerving, never flagging, until he +reached the door-way of his abandoned cot; this he burst in, threw +himself upon his knees by the bedside, and dragged to light a little +wooden chest that stood by an open trap in the floor. One look sufficed: +the mere fact that the trap was open and the box exposed was enough. +With a wild cry of rage, despair, and baffled hatred, he clinched his +hands above his head, rose to his full height, and with a curse upon his +white lips, with glaring eyes and gasping breath, turned upon his +pursuers as they came running in, and hurled his fists at the foremost. +"Let me follow her, I say! She's gone with it all,--his money! Let me +go!" he shrieked; and then his eyes turned stony, a gasp, a clutch at +his throat, and, plunging headlong, he fell upon his face at their feet. + +Poor little Kate! The old man was, indeed, free at last. + + + + +XVIII. + + +There had been a scene of somewhat dramatic nature at the colonel's +office but a short time before, and one that had fewer witnesses. +Agitated, nervous, and eventually astonished as Captain Rayner had been +when the colonel had revealed to him the nature of Clancy's confession, +he was far more excited and tremulous when he returned a second time. +The commanding officer had been sitting deep in thought. It was but +natural that a man should show great emotion on learning that the +evidence he had given, which had condemned a brother officer to years of +solitary punishment, was now disproved. It was to be expected that +Rayner should be tremulous and excited. He had been looking worse and +worse for a long time past; and now that it was established that he must +have been mistaken in what he thought he saw and heard at Battle Butte, +it was to be expected that he should show the utmost consternation and +an immediate desire to make amends. He _had_ shown great emotion; he was +white and rigid as the colonel told him Clancy had made a full +confession; but the expression on his face when informed that the man +had admitted that he and Sergeant Gower were the only ones guilty of the +crime--that Clancy and Gower divided the guilt as they had the +money--was a puzzle to the colonel. Captain Rayner seemed daft: it was a +look of wild relief, half unbelief, half delight, that shot across his +haggard features. It was evident that _he had not heard at all what he +expected_. This was what puzzled the colonel. He had been pondering over +it ever since the captain's hurried departure "to tell his wife." + +"We--we had expected--made all preparations to take this afternoon's +train for the East," he stammered. "We are all torn up, all ready to +start, and the ladies ought to go; but I cannot feel like going in the +face of this." + +"There is no reason why you should not go, captain. I am told Mrs. +Rayner should leave at once. If need be, you can return from Chicago. +Everything will be attended to properly. Of course you will know what +to do towards Mr. Hayne. Indeed, I think it might be best for you to +go." + +But Rayner seemed hardly listening; and the colonel was not a man to +throw his words away. + +"You might see Mrs. Rayner at once, and return by and by," he said; and +Rayner gladly escaped, and went home with the wonderful news he had to +tell his wife. + +And now a second time he was back, and was urging upon the commanding +officer the necessity of telegraphing and capturing Mrs. Clancy. In +plain words he told the colonel he believed that she had escaped with +the greater part of the money. The colonel smiled: + +"That was attended to early this morning, captain. Hayne and the major +asked that she be secured, and the moment we found her fled it confirmed +their suspicions, and Billings sent despatches in every direction. She +can't get away! She was his temptress, and I mean to make her share all +the punishment." + +"Colonel," exclaimed Rayner, while beads of sweat stood out on his +forehead, "she is worse,--a thousand times worse! The woman is a fiend. +She is the devil in petticoats--and ingenuity. My God! sir, I have been +in torment for weeks past,--my poor wife and I. I have been criminally, +cowardly weak; but I did not know what to do,--where to turn,--how to +take it,--how to meet it. Let me tell you." And now great tears were +standing in his eyes and beginning to trickle down his cheeks. He dashed +them away. His lips were quivering, and he strode nervously up and down +the matted floor. "When you refused to left Clancy re-enlist in the +----th, two years after Battle Butte, he came to me and told me a story. +He, too, had declared, as I did, that he had seen the money-packages in +Hayne's hands; and he said the real reason he was kicked out of the +----th was because the officers and men took sides with Hayne and +thought he had sworn his reputation away. He begged me not to 'go back +on him' as his own regiment had, and I thought he was being persecuted +because he told the truth. God knows I fully believed Hayne guilty for +more than three years,--it is only within the last year or so I began to +have doubts; and so I took Clancy into B Company and soon made Mrs. +Clancy a laundress. But she made trouble for us all, and there was +something uncanny about them. She kept throwing out mysterious hints I +could not understand when rumors of them reached me; and at last came +the fire that burned them out, and then the stories of what Clancy had +said in his delirium; and then she came to my wife and told her a yarn +that--she swore to its truth, and nearly drove Mrs. Rayner wild with +anxiety. She swore that when Clancy got to drinking he imagined he had +seen _me_ take that money from Captain Hull's saddle-bags and replace +the sealed package: she said he was ready to swear that he and +Gower--the deserter--and two of our men, honorably discharged now and +living on ranches down in Nebraska, could all swear--would all swear--to +the same thing,--that I was the thief. 'Sure you know it couldn't be so, +ma'am; and yet he wants to go and tell Mr. Hayne,' she would say: +'there's the four of 'em would swear to it, though Gower's evidence +would be no good; but the two men could hurt the captain.' Her ingenuity +was devilish; for one of the men I had severely punished once in the +Black Hills, and both hated me and had sworn they would get even with me +yet. God help me, colonel! seeing every day the growing conviction that +Hayne was innocent, that somebody else _must_ be guilty, I thought, what +if this man _should_, in drunken gratitude to Hayne for saving his life, +go to him and tell him this story, then back it up before the officials +and call in these two others? I was weak, but it appalled me. I +determined to get him out of the way of such a possibility. I got his +discharge, and meantime strove to prevent his drinking or going near +Hayne. _She_ knew the real story he _would_ tell. This was her devilish +plan to keep me on watch against him. I never dreamed the real truth. +She swore to me that three hundred dollars was all the money they had. I +believed that when he confessed it would be what she declared. I never +dreamed that Clancy and his confederate were the thieves: I never +believed the money was taken until after Hayne received it. I saw how +Hayne's guilt was believed in even in the face of contradictory evidence +before the court. What would be the tendency if three men together were +to swear against me, now that everybody thought him wronged? I know very +well what you will think of my cowardice. I know you and your officers +will say I should have given him every chance,--should have courted +investigation; and I meant to do so, but first I wanted to hear from +those discharged men in Nebraska. The whole scheme would have been +exploded two months ago had I not been a coward; but night after night +something kept whispering to me, 'You have wrecked and ruined a +friendless young soldier's life. You shall be brought as low.'" + +The colonel was, as he afterwards remarked, hardly equal to the +occasion. He had as much contempt for moral weakness in a soldier as he +had for physical cowardice; but Rayner's almost abject recital of his +months of misery really left him nothing to say. Had the captain sought +to defend or justify any detail of his conduct, he would have pounced on +him like a panther. Twice the adjutant, sitting an absorbed and silent +listener, thought the chief on the verge of an outbreak; but it never +came. For some minutes after Rayner ceased the colonel sat steadily +regarding him. At last he spoke: + +"You have been so frank in your statement, captain, that I feel you +fully appreciate how such deplorable weakness must be regarded in an +officer. It is unnecessary for me to speak of that. The full particulars +of Clancy's confession are not yet with me. Major Waldron has it all in +writing, and Mr. Billings has merely told me the general features. Of +course you shall have a copy of it in good time. As you go East to-day +and have your wife and household to think for, it may be as well that +you do not attempt to see Mr. Hayne before starting. And this matter +will not be discussed." + +And so it happened that when the Rayners drove to the station that +bright afternoon, and a throng of ladies and officers gathered to see +them off, some of the youngsters going with them into town to await the +coming of the train, Nellie Travers had been surrounded by chattering +friends of both sexes, constantly occupied, and yet constantly looking +for the face of one who came not. For an hour before their departure +every tongue in garrison that wagged at all--and few there were that +wagged not--was discoursing on the exciting events of the +morning,--Hayne's emancipation from the last vestige of suspicion, +Clancy's capture, confession, and tragic death, Mrs. Clancy's flight and +probable future. At Rayner's, people spoke of these things very +guardedly, because every one saw that the captain was moved to the +depths of his nature. He was solemnity itself, and Mrs. Rayner watched +him with deep anxiety, fearful that he might be exposed to some +thoughtless or malicious questioning. Her surveillance was needless, +however: even Ross made no allusion to the events of the morning, though +he communicated to his fellows in the subsequent confidences of the +club-room that Midas looked as though he'd been pulled through a series +of knot-holes. "Looks more's though he were going to his own funeral +than on leave," he added. + +As for Hayne, he had been closeted with the colonel and Major Waldron +for some time after his return,--a conference that was broken in upon +by the startling news of Clancy's death. Then he had joined his friend +the doctor at the hospital, and was still there, striving to comfort +little Kate, who could not be induced to leave her father's rapidly +stiffening form, when Mrs. Waldron re-entered the room. Drawing the +child to her side and folding her motherly arms about her, she looked up +in Hayne's pale face: + +"They are going in five minutes. Don't you mean to see her?" + +"Not there,--not under his roof or in that crowd. I will go to the +station." + +"I must run over and say good-by in a moment,--when the carriage goes +around. Shall--shall I say you will come?" + +There was a light in his blue eyes she was just beginning to notice now +as she studied his face. A smile flickered one instant about the corners +of his mouth, and then he held out his hand: + +"She knows by this time, Mrs. Waldron." + +An hour later Mrs. Rayner was standing on the platform at the station, +Ross and others of her satellites hanging about her; Captain Rayner was +talking in subdued tones with one or two of the senior officers; Miss +Travers, looking feverishly pretty, was chatting busily with Royce and +Foster, though a close observer could have noted that her dark eyes +often sought the westward prairie over which wound the road to the +distant post. It was nearly train-time, and three or four horsemen could +be seen at various distances, while, far out towards the fort, long +skirmish-lines and fluttering guidons were sweeping over the slopes in +mimic war-array. + +"I have missed all this," she said, pointing to the scene; "and I do +love it so that it seems hard to go just as all the real soldier life is +beginning." + +"Goodness knows you've had offers enough to keep you here," said Foster, +with not the blithest laugh in the world. "Any girl who will go East and +marry a 'cit' and leave six or seven penniless subs sighing behind her, +I have my opinion of: she's eminently level-headed," he added, with +rueful and unexpected candor. + +"I have hopes of Miss Travers yet," boomed Royce, in his ponderous +basso,--"not personal hopes, Foster; you needn't feel for your +pistol,--but I believe that her heart is with the army, like the +soldier's daughter she is." And, audacious as was the speech and +deserving of instant rebuke, Mr. Royce was startled to see her reddening +vividly. He would have plunged into hasty apology, but Foster plucked +his sleeve: + +"Look who's coming, you galoot! She hasn't heard a word either of us has +said." + +And though Nellie Travers, noting the sudden silence, burst into an +immediate and utterly irrelevant lament over the loss of the Maltese +kitten,--which had not been seen all that day and was not to be found +when they came away,--it was useless. The effort was gallant, but the +flame in her cheeks betrayed her as, throwing his reins to the orderly +who followed him, Mr. Hayne dismounted at the platform and came directly +towards her. To Mrs. Rayner's unspeakable dismay, he walked up to the +trio, bowed low over the little gloved hand that was extended in answer +to the proffer of his own, and next she saw that Royce and Foster had, +as though by tacit consent, fallen back, and, _coram publico_, Mr. Hayne +was sole claimant of the regards of her baby sister. There was but one +comfort in the situation: the train was in sight. Forgetful, reckless +for the moment, of what was going on around her, she stood gazing at the +pair. No woman could fail to read the story; no woman could see his +face, his eyes, his whole attitude and expression, and not read therein +that old, old story that grows sweeter with every century of its life. +That he should be inspired with sudden, vehement love for her exquisite +Nell was something she could readily understand; but what--what meant +_her_ downcast eyes, the flutter of color on her soft and rounded cheek, +the shy uplifting of the fringed lids from time to time as though in +response to eager question or appeal? Heavens! would that train _never_ +come? The whistle was sounding in the distance, but it would take ages +to drag those heavy Pullmans up the grade from the bridge where they had +yet to stop. She could almost have darted forward, seized her sister by +the wrist, and whispered again the baleful reminder that of late had had +no mention between them,--"Thou art another's;" but in her distress her +weak blue eyes sought her husband's face. He saw it all, and shook his +head. Then there was nothing to be done. + +As the train came rumbling finally into the station, she saw him once +more clasp her sister's hand; then, with one long look into the sweet +face that was hidden from her jealous eyes, he raised his forage-cap and +stepped quickly back to where his horse was held. Her husband hastened +to her side: + +"Kate, I must speak to him. I don't care how he may take it; I cannot +go without it." + +They all watched the tall captain as he strode across the platform. +Every man in uniform seemed to know instinctively that Rayner at last +was seeking to make open reparation for the bitter wrong he had done. +One or two strove to begin a general chat and affect an interest in +something else, for Mrs. Rayner's benefit, but she, with trembling lips, +stood gazing after her husband and seemed to beg for silence. Then all +abandoned other occupation, and every man stood still and watched them. +Hayne had quickly swung into saddle, and had turned for one more look, +when he saw his captain with ashen face striding towards him, and heard +him call his name. + +"By Jove!" muttered Ross, "what command that fellow has over himself!" +for, scrupulously observant of military etiquette, Mr. Hayne on being +addressed by his superior officer had instantly dismounted, and now +stood silently facing him. Even at the distance, there were some who +thought they could see his features twitching; but his blue eyes were +calm and steady,--far clearer than they had been but a moment agone when +gazing good-by into the sweet face they worshipped. None could hear what +passed between them. The talk was very brief; but Ross almost gasped +with amaze, other officers looked at one another in utter astonishment, +and Mrs. Rayner fairly sobbed with excitement and emotion, when Mr. +Hayne was seen to hold forth his hand, and Rayner, grasping it eagerly +in both his own, shook it once, then strode hastily away towards the +rear of the train. His eyes were filled with tears he could not repress +and could not bear to show. + +That evening, as the train wound steadily eastward into the shadows of +the night, and they looked out in farewell upon the slopes they had last +seen when a wintry gale swept fiercely over the frozen surface and the +shallow ravines were streaked with snow, Kate Rayner, after a long talk +with her husband, and abandoning her boy to the sole guardianship of his +nurse, settled herself by Nellie's side, and Nellie knew that she either +sought confidences or had them to impart. Something of the old, +quizzical look was playing about the corner of her pretty mouth as her +elder sister, with feminine indirectness, began her verbal skirmishing +with the subject. It was some time before the question was reached which +led to her real objective: + +"Did he--did Mr. Hayne tell you much about Clancy?" + +"Not much. There was no time." + +"You had fully ten minutes, I'm sure. It seemed even longer." + +"Four by the clock, Kate." + +"Well, four, then. He must have had something of greater interest." + +No answer. Cheeks reddening, though. + +"Didn't he?"--persistently. + +"I will tell you what he told me of Clancy, Kate. Mrs. Clancy had +utterly deceived you as to what he had to tell, had she not?" + +"Utterly." And now it was Mrs. Rayner's turn to color painfully. + +"Mr. Hayne tells me that Clancy's confession really explained how +Captain Rayner was mistaken. It was not so much the captain's fault, +after all." + +"So Mr. Hayne told him. You knew they--you saw Mr. Hayne offer him his +hand, didn't you?" + +"I did not see: I knew he would." More vivid color, and much hesitation +now. + +"_Knew_ he would! Why, Nellie, what do you mean? He didn't tell you that +he was to see Captain Rayner. He couldn't have known." + +"But I knew, Kate; and I told him how the captain had suffered." + +"But how could you know that he would shake hands with him?" + +"He promised me." + +The silence was unbroken for a moment. Nellie Travers could hear the +beating of her own heart as she nestled closer to her sister and stole a +hand into hers. Mrs. Rayner was trying hard to be dutiful, stern, +unbending, to keep _her_ faith with the distant lover in the East, +whether Nell was true or no; but she had been so humbled, so changed, so +shaken, by the events of the past few weeks, that she felt all her old +spirit of guardianship ebbing away. "Must I give you up, Nell? and must +he, too?--Mr. Van Antwerp?" + +"He has not answered my last letter, Kate. It is nearly a week since I +have heard from him." + +"What did you write, Nellie?" + +"What I had done twice before,--that he ought to release me." + +"And--is Clancy's the only confession you have heard to-day?" + +"The only one." A pause: then, "I know what you mean, Kate; but he is +not the man to--to offer his love to a girl he knows is pledged to +another." + +"But if you were free, Nellie? Tell me." + +"I have no right to say, Kate; but"--and two big tears were welling up +into her brave eyes, as she clasped her hands and stretched them +yearningly before her--"shall I tell you what I think a girl would say +if she were free and had won his love?" + +"What, Nellie?" + +"She would say, 'Ay.' No woman with a heart could leave a man who has +borne so much and come through it all so bravely." + +Poor Mrs. Rayner! Humbled and chastened as she was, what refuge had she +but tears, and then--prayer? + + + + +XIX. + + +Within the week succeeding the departure of the Rayners and Miss +Travers, Lieutenant Hayne's brother-in-law and his remarkably attractive +sister were with him in garrison and helping him fit up the new quarters +which the colonel had rather insisted on his moving into and occupying, +even though two unmarried subalterns had to move out and make way for +him. This they seemed rather delighted to do. There was a prevailing +sentiment at Warrener that nothing was too good for Hayne nowadays; and +he took all this adulation so quietly and modestly that there was +difficulty in telling just how it affected him. Towards those who had +known him well in the days of his early service he still maintained a +dignity and reserve of manner that kept them at some distance. To +others, especially to the youngsters in the ----th as well as to those +in the Riflers, he unbent entirely, and was frank, unaffected, and +warm-hearted. He seemed to bask in the sunshine of the respect and +consideration accorded him on every side. Yet no one could say he seemed +happy. Courteous, grave far beyond his years, silent and thoughtful, he +impressed them all as a man who had suffered too much ever again to be +light-hearted. Then it was more than believed he had fallen deeply in +love with Nellie Travers; and that explained the rarity and sadness of +his smile. To the women he was a centre of intense and romantic +interest. Mrs. Waldron was an object of jealousy because of the priority +of her claims to his regard. Mrs. Hurley--the sweet sister who so +strongly resembled him--was the recipient of universal attention from +both sexes. Hayne and the Hurleys, indeed, would have been invited to +several places an evening could they have accepted. And yet, with it +all, Mr. Hayne seemed at times greatly preoccupied. He had a great deal +to think of. + +To begin with, the widow Clancy had been captured in one of the mining +towns, where she had sought refuge, and brought back by the civil +authorities, nearly three thousand dollars in greenbacks having been +found in her possession. She had fought like a fury and proved too much +for the sheriff's posse when first arrested, and not until three days +after her incarceration was the entire amount brought to light. There +was no question what ought to be done with it. Clancy's confession +established the fact that almost the entire amount was stolen from +Captain Hull nearly six years before, the night previous to his tragic +death at Battle Butte. Mrs. Clancy at first had furiously declared it +all a lie; but Waldron's and Billings's precaution in having Clancy's +entire story taken down by a notary public and sworn to before him +eventually broke her down. She made her miserable, whining admissions to +the sheriff's officers in town,--the colonel would not have her on the +post even as a prisoner,--and there she was still held, awaiting further +disclosures, while little Kate was lovingly cared for at Mrs. Waldron's. +Poor old Clancy was buried and on the way to be forgotten. + +What proved the hardest problem for the garrison to solve was the fact +that, while Mr. Hayne kept several of his old associates at a distance, +he had openly offered his hand to Rayner. This was something the Riflers +could not account for. The intensity of his feeling at the time of the +court-martial none could forget: the vehemence of his denunciation of +the captain was still fresh in the memory of those who heard it. Then +there were all those years in which Rayner had continued to crowd him to +the wall; and finally there was the almost tragic episode of Buxton's +midnight visitation, in which Rayner, willingly or not, had been in +attendance. Was it not odd that in the face of all these considerations +the first man to whom Mr. Hayne should have offered his hand was Captain +Rayner? Odd indeed! But then only one or two were made acquainted with +the full particulars of Clancy's confession, and none had heard Nellie +Travers's request. Touched as he was by the sight of Rayner's haggard +and trouble-worn face, relieved as he was by Clancy's revelation of the +web that had been woven to cover the tracks of the thieves and ensnare +the feet of the pursuers, Hayne could not have found it possible to +offer his hand; but when he bent over the tiny glove and looked into her +soft and brimming eyes at the moment of their parting he could not say +no to the one thing she asked of him: it was that if Rayner came to say, +"Forgive me," before they left, he would not repel him. + +There was one man in garrison whom Hayne cut entirely, and for whom no +one felt the faintest sympathy; and that, of course, was Buxton. With +Rayner gone, he hardly had an associate, though the _esprit de corps_ of +the ----th prompted the cavalry officers to be civil to him when he +appeared at the billiard-room. As Mr. Hurley was fond of the game, an +element of awkwardness was manifest the first time the young officers +appeared with their engineer friend. Hayne had not set foot in such a +place for five years, and quietly declined all invitations to take a cue +again. It was remembered of him that he played the prettiest game of +French caroms of all the officers at the station when he joined the +Riflers as a boy. Hurley could only stay a very short time, and the +subalterns were doing their best to make it lively for him. Some, +indeed, showed strong inclination to devote themselves to Mrs. Hurley; +but she was too busy with her brother's household affairs to detect +their projects. Hurley had turned very red and glared at Buxton the +first time the two met at the club-room, but the bulky captain speedily +found cover under which to retire, and never again showed himself in +general society until the engineer with the scientific attainments as a +boxer as well as road-builder was safely out of the post. + +And yet there came a day very soon when Mr. Hayne wished that he could +go to Buxton's quarters. He had in no wise changed his opinion of the +man himself, but the Rayners had not been gone a fortnight before Mrs. +Buxton began to tell the ladies of the charming letters she was +receiving from Mrs. Rayner,--all about their travels. There were many +things he longed to know, yet could not ask. + +There came to him a long and sorrowful letter from the captain himself, +but, beyond a few matters relating to the company and the transfer of +its property, it was all given up to a recapitulation of the troubles of +the past few years and to renewed expressions of his deep regret. Of the +ladies he made but casual mention. They were journeying down the +Mississippi on one of its big steamers when he wrote, and Mrs. Rayner +was able to enjoy the novelties of the trip, and was getting better, but +still required careful nursing. Miss Travers was devoted to her. They +would go to New Orleans, then possibly by sea around to New York, +arriving there about the 5th of June: that, however, was undecided. He +closed by asking Hayne to remind Major Waldron that his copy of Clancy's +confession had not yet reached him, and he was anxious to see it in +full. + +"The one thing lacking to complete the chain is Gower," said the major, +as he looked up over his spectacles. "It would be difficult to tell what +became of him. We get tidings of most of the deserters who were as +prominent among the men as he appears to have been; but I have made +inquiry, and so has the colonel, and not a word has ever been heard of +him since the night he appeared before Mrs. Clancy and handed over the +money to her. He was a strange character, from all accounts, and must +have had some conscience, after all. Do you remember him at all, Hayne?" + +"I remember him well. We made the march from the Big Horn over to Battle +Butte together, and he was a soldier one could not help remarking. Of +course I never had anything to say to him; but we heard he was an expert +gambler when the troop was over there at Miners' Delight." + +"Of course his testimony isn't necessary. Clancy and his wife between +them have cleared you, after burying you alive five years. But nothing +but his story could explain his singular conduct,--planning the whole +robbery, executing it with all the skill of a professional jail-bird, +deserting and covering several hundred miles with his plunder, then +daring to go to the old fort, find Mrs. Clancy, and surrender every +cent, the moment he heard of your trial. What a fiend that woman was! No +wonder she drove Clancy to drink!" + +"Will you send copies of her admission with Clancy's affidavits?" asked +Hayne. + +"Here they are in full," answered the major. "The colonel talks of +having them printed and strewn broadcast as warnings against 'snap +judgment' and too confident testimony in future." + +Divested of the legal encumbrances with which such documents are usually +weighted, Clancy's story ran substantially as follows: + +"I was sergeant in K troop, and Gower was in F. We had been stationed +together six months or so when ordered out on the Indian campaign that +summer. I was dead-broke. All my money was gone, and my wife kept +bothering me for more. I owed a lot of money around head-quarters, too, +and Gower knew it, and sometimes asked me what I was going to do when we +got back from the campaign. We were not good friends, him and I. There +was money dealings between us, and then there was talk about Mrs. Clancy +fancying him too much. The paymaster came up with a strong escort and +paid off the boys late in October, just as the expedition was breaking +up and going for home, and all the officers and men got four months' +pay. There was Lieutenant Crane and twenty men of F troop out on a +scout, but the lieutenant had left his pay-rolls with Captain Hull, and +the men had all signed before they started, and so the captain he drew +it all for them and put each man's money in an envelope marked with his +name, and the lieutenant's too, and then crowded it all into some bigger +envelopes. I was there where I could see it all, and Gower was watching +him close. 'It's a big pile the captain's got,' says he. 'I'd like to be +a road-agent and nab him.' When I told him it couldn't be over eleven +hundred dollars, he says, 'That's only part. He has his own pay, and six +hundred dollars company fund, and a wad of greenbacks he's been carryin' +around all summer. It's nigh on to four thousand dollars he's got in his +saddle-bags this day.' + +"And that night, instead of Lieutenant Crane's coming back, he sent word +he had found the trail of a big band of Indians, and the whole crowd +went in pursuit. There was four companies of infantry, under Captain +Rayner, and F and K troops,--what was left of them,--that were ordered +to stay by the wagons and bring them safely down; and we started with +them over towards Battle Butte, keeping south of the way the regiment +had gone to follow Mr. Crane. And the very next day Captain Rayner got +orders to bring his battalion to the river and get on the boat, while +the wagons kept on down the bank with us to guard them. And Mr. Hayne +was acting quartermaster, and he stayed with us; and him and Captain +Hull was together a good deal. There was some trouble, we heard, because +Captain Rayner thought another officer should have been made +quartermaster and Mr. Hayne should have stayed with his company, and +they had some words; but Captain Hull gave Mr. Hayne a horse and seemed +to keep him with him; and that night, in sight of Battle Butte, the +steamboat was out of sight ahead when we went into camp, and I was +sergeant of the guard and had my fire near the captain's tent, and twice +in the evening Gower came to me and said now was the time to lay hands +on the money and skip. At last he says to me, 'You are flat-broke, and +they'll all be down on you when you get back to the post. No man in +America wants five hundred dollars more than you do. I'll give you five +hundred in one hour from now if you'll get the captain out of his tent +for half an hour.' Almost everybody was asleep then; the captain was, +and so was Mr. Hayne, and he went on to tell me how he could do it. He'd +been watching the captain. It made such a big bundle, did the money, in +all the separate envelopes that he had done it all up different,--made a +memorandum of the amount due each man, and packed the greenbacks all +together in one solid pile,--his own money, the lieutenant's, and the +men's,--done it up in paper and tied it firmly and put big blotches of +green sealing-wax on it and sealed them with the seal on his +watch-chain. Says Gower, 'You get the captain out, as I tell you, and +I'll slip right in, get the money, stuff some other paper with a few +ones and twos in the package; his seal, his watch, and everything is +there in the saddle-bags under his head, and I can reseal and replace it +in five minutes, and he'll never suspect the loss until the command all +gets together again next week. By that time I'll be three hundred miles +away. Everybody will say 'twas Gower that robbed him, and you with your +five hundred will never be suspected.' I asked him how could he expect +the captain to go and leave so much money in his bags with no one to +guard it; and he said he'd bet on it if I did it right. The captain had +had no luck tracking Indians that summer, and the regiment was laughing +at him. He knew they were scattering every which way now, and was eager +to strike them. All I had to do was to creep in excited-like, wake him +up sudden, and tell him I was sure I had heard an Indian drum and their +scalp-dance song out beyond the pickets,--that they were over towards +Battle Butte, and he could hear them if he would come out on the +river-bank. 'He'd go quick,' says Gower, 'and think of nothing.' + +"And--I wouldn't believe it, but he did. He sprang up and went right out +with me, just flinging his overcoat round him; and he never seemed to +want to come in. The wind was blowing soft-like from the southeast, and +he stood there straining his ears trying to hear the sounds I told him +of; but at last he gave it up, and we went back to camp, and he took his +lantern and looked in his saddle-bags, and I shook for fear; but he +seemed to find everything all right, and in the next ten minutes he was +asleep, and Gower came and whispered to me, and I went with him, and he +gave me five hundred dollars, in twenties. 'Now you're bound,' says he; +'keep the sentries off while I get my horse.' And that's the last I ever +saw of him. Then a strange thing happened. 'Twas hardly daylight when a +courier came galloping up, and I called the captain, and he read the +despatch, and says he, 'By heaven, Clancy, you were right after all. +There _are_ Indians over there. Why didn't I trust your ears? Call up +the whole command. The Riflers have treed them at Battle Butte, and +Captain Rayner has gone with his battalion. We are to escort the wagons +to where the boat lies beyond the bend, and then push over with all the +horsemen we can take.' It was after daylight when we got started, but we +almost ran the wagons 'cross country to the boat, and there Captain Hull +took F troop and what there was of his own, leaving only ten men back +with the wagons; and not till then was Gower missed; but all were in +such a hurry to get to the Indians that no one paid attention. Mr. Hayne +he begged the captain to let him go too: so the train was left with the +wagon-master and the captain of the boat, and away we went. You know all +about the fight, and how 'twas Mr. Hayne the captain called to and gave +his watch and the two packages of money when he was ordered to charge. I +was right by his side; and I swore--God forgive me!--that through the +crack and tear in the paper I could see the layers of greenbacks, when I +knew 'twas only some ones and twos Gower had slipped in to make it look +right; and Captain Rayner stood there and saw the packet, too, and +Sergeant Walshe and Bugler White; but them two were killed with him: so +that 'twas only Captain Rayner and I was left as witnesses, and never +till we got to Laramie after the campaign did the trouble come. I never +dreamed of anything ever coming of it but that every one would say Gower +stole the money and deserted; but when the captain turned the packages +over to Mr. Hayne, and then got killed, and Mr. Hayne carried the +packages, with the watch, seal, saddle-bags, and all, in to Cheyenne, +and never opened them till he got there,--two weeks after, when we were +all scattered,--then they turned on him, his own officers did, and said +he stole it and gambled or sent it away in Cheyenne. + +"I had lost much of my money then, and Mrs. Clancy got the rest, and it +made me crazy to think of that poor young gentleman accused of it all; +but I was in for it, and knew it meant prison for years for me, and +perhaps they couldn't prove it on him. I got to drinking then, and told +Captain Rayner that the ----th was down on me for swearing away the +young officer's character; and then he took me to Company B when the +colonel wouldn't have me any more in the ----th; and one night when Mrs. +Clancy had been raising my hair and I wanted money to drink and she'd +give me none, little Kate told me her mother had lots of money in a box, +and that Sergeant Gower had come and given it to her while they were +getting settled in the new post after the Battle Butte campaign, and he +had made her promise to give it to me the moment I got back,--that +somebody was in trouble, and that I must save him; and I believed Kate, +and charged Mrs. Clancy with it, and she beat me and Kate, and swore it +was all a lie; and I never could get the money. And at last came the +fire; and it was the lieutenant that saved my life and Kate's, and +brought back to her all that pile of money through the flames. It broke +my heart then, and I vowed I'd go and tell him the truth; but they +wouldn't let me. She told me the captain said he would kill me if I +blabbed, and she would kill Kate. I didn't dare, until they told me my +discharge had come; and then I was glad when the lieutenant and the +major caught me in town. When they promised to take care of little Kate +I didn't care what happened to me. The money Mrs. Clancy has--except +perhaps two hundred dollars--all belongs to Lieutenant Hayne, since he +paid off every cent that was stolen from Captain Hull." + +Supplemented by Mrs. Clancy's rueful and incoherent admissions, Clancy's +story did its work. Mrs. Clancy could not long persist in her various +denials after her husband's confession was brought to her ears, and she +was totally unable to account satisfactorily for the possession of so +much money. Little Kate had been too young to grasp the full meaning of +what Gower said to her mother in that hurried interview; but her +reiterated statements that he came late at night, before the regiment +got home, and knocked at the door until he waked them up, and her mother +cried when he came in, he looked so different, and had spectacles, and a +patch on his cheek, and ranch clothes, and he only stayed a little +while, and told her mother he must go back to the mountains, the police +were on his track,--she knew now he spoke of having deserted,--and he +gave her mother lots of money, for she opened and counted it afterwards +and told her it must all go to papa to get some one out of trouble,--all +were so clear and circumstantial that at last the hardened woman began +to break down and make reluctant admissions. When an astute sheriff's +officer finally told her that he knew where he could lay hands on +Sergeant Gower, she surrendered utterly. So long as he was out of the +way,--could not be found,--she held out; but the prospect of dragging +into prison with her the man who had spurned her in years gone by and +was proof against her fascinations was too alluring. She told all she +could at his expense. He had ridden eastward after his desertion, and, +making his way down the Missouri, had stopped at Yankton and gone thence +to Kansas City, spending much of his money. He had reached Denver with +the rest, and there--she knew not how--had made or received more, when +he heard of the fact that Captain Hull had turned over his property to +Lieutenant Hayne just before he was killed, and that the lieutenant was +now to be tried for failing to account for it. He brought her enough to +cover all he had taken, but--here she lied--strove to persuade her to go +to San Francisco with him. She promised to think of it if he would leave +the money,--which he did, swearing he would come for her and it. That +was why she dared not tell Mike when he got home. He was so jealous of +her. + +To this part of her statement Mrs. Clancy stoutly adhered; but the +officers believed Kate. + +One other thing she told. Kate had declared he wore a heavy patch on his +right cheek and temple. Yes, Mrs. Clancy remembered it. Some scoundrels +had sought to rob him in Denver. He had to fight for life and money +both, and his share of the honors of the fray was a deep and clean cut +extending across the cheek-bone and up above the right ear. + +As these family revelations were told throughout the garrison and +comment of every kind was made thereon, there is reason for the belief +that Mrs. Buxton found no difficulty in filling her letters with +particulars of deep interest to her readers, who by this time had +carried out the programme indicated by Captain Rayner. Mid-June had +come; the ladies, apparently benefited by the sea-voyage, had landed in +New York and were speedily driven to their old quarters at the +Westminster; and while the captain went to head-quarters of the +department to report his arrival on leave and get his letters, a card +was sent up to Miss Travers which she read with cheeks that slightly +paled: + +"He is here, Kate." + +"Nellie, you--you won't throw him over, after all he has done and borne +for you?" + +"I shall keep my promise," was the answer. + + + + +XX. + + +"And so she's really going to marry Mr. Van Antwerp", said Mrs. Buxton +to Mrs. Waldron a few days later in the month of sunshine and roses. + +"I did not think it possible when she left," was the reply. "Why do you +say so now?" + +"Oh, Mrs. Rayner writes that the captain had to go to Washington on +some important family matters, and that she and Nellie were at the +sea-shore again, and Mr. Van Antwerp was with them from morning till +night. He looked so worn and haggard, she said, that Nellie could not +but take pity on him. Heavens! think of having five hundred thousand +dollars sighing its life away for you!--especially when he's handsome. +Mrs. Rayner made me promise to send it right back, because he would +never give her one before, but she sent his picture. It's splendid. +Wait, and I'll show you." And Mrs. Buxton darted into the house. + +When she reappeared, three or four young cavalrymen were at the gate, +chatting with Mrs. Waldron, and the picture was passed from hand to +hand, exciting varied comment. It was a simple _carte de visite_, of the +style once spoken of as vignette,--only the head and shoulders being +visible,--but it was the picture of a strong, clear-cut face, with +thick, wavy black hair just tingeing with gray, a drooping moustache, +and long English whiskers. The eyes were heavy-browed, and, though +partially shaded by the gold-rimmed _pince-nez_, were piercing and fine. +Mr. Van Antwerp was unquestionably a fine-looking man. + +"Here comes Hayne," said Royce. "Show it to him. He likes pictures; +though I wouldn't like this one if I were in his place." + +Mr. Hayne stopped in some surprise when hailed, greeted Mrs. Waldron +warmly, and bowed courteously to Mrs. Buxton, who was watching him +narrowly. + +"Want to see a picture of the man you ought to go and perforate?" asked +Webster, with that lofty indifference which youngsters have to the +ravages of the tender passion on subjects other than themselves. + +"To whom do you refer?" asked Hayne, smiling gravely, and little +imagining what was in store for him. + +"This," said Webster, holding out the card. Hayne took it, gave one +glance, started, seized it with both hands, studied it eagerly, while +his own face rapidly paled, then looked up with quick, searching eyes. + +"Who is this?" he asked. + +"The man who's engaged to Miss Travers,--Mr. Van Antwerp." + +"This--_this_--Mr. Van Antwerp!" exclaimed Hayne, his face white as a +sheet. "Here, take it, Royce!" And in an instant he had turned and gone. + +"Well, I'll be hanged if I knew he was _that_ hard hit," drawled +Webster. "Did you, Royce?" + +But Royce did not answer. + +A gorgeous moonlight is bathing the Jersey coast in sparkling silver. +The tumbling billows come thundering in to the shining strand, and +sending their hissing, seething, whirling waters, all shimmer and +radiance, to the very feet of the groups of spectators. There are +hundreds of people scattered here and there along the shingle, and among +the groups a pale-faced young man in tweed travelling-suit has made his +way to a point where he can command a view of all the passers-by. It is +nearly eleven o'clock before they begin to break up and seek the broad +corridors of the brilliantly-lighted hotel. A great military band of +nearly forty pieces is playing superbly at intervals, and every now and +then, as some stirring martial strains come thrilling through the air, a +young girl in a group near at hand beats time with her pretty foot and +seems to quiver with the influence of the soldier melodies. A tall, +dark-eyed, dark-haired man bends devotedly over her, but he, too, seems +to rise to his full height at times, and there is something in the +carriage and mien that tells that soldier songs have thrilled his veins +ere now. And this man the young traveller in gray watches as though his +eyes were fascinated. Standing in the shade of a little summer-house, he +never ceases his scrutiny of the group. + +At last the musicians go, and the people follow. The sands are soon +deserted; the great piazzas are emptied of their promenaders; the halls +and corridors are still patronized by the few belated chaperons and +their giddy charges. The music-loving girl has gone aloft to her room, +and her aunt, the third member of the group that so chained the +attention of the young map in gray, lingers for a moment to exchange a +few words with their cavalier. He seems in need of consolation. + +"Don't be, so down-hearted, Mr. Van Antwerp. It is very early in the +summer, and you have the whole season before you." + +"No, Mrs. Rayner: it is very different from last year. I cannot explain +it, but I know there has been a change. I feel as--as I used to in my +old, wild days when a change of luck was coming. It's like the gambler's +superstition; but I cannot shake it off. Something told me she was lost +to me when, you boarded that Pacific Express last February. I was a fool +ever to have let her go." + +"Is she still so determined?" + +"I cannot shake her resolution. She says that at the end of the year's +time originally agreed upon she will keep her promise; but she will +listen to no earlier marriage. I have about given up all hope. Something +again--that fearful something I cannot shake off--tells me that my only +chance lay in getting her to go with me this month. Once abroad with +her, I could make her happy; but--" + +He breaks off irresolutely, looking about him in the strange, hunted +manner she has noted once or twice already. + +"You are all unstrung, Mr. Van Antwerp. Why not go to bed and try and +sleep? You will be so much brighter to-morrow." + +"I cannot sleep. But don't let me keep you. I'll go out and smoke a +cigar. Good-night, Mrs. Rayner. Whatever comes of it all, I shall not +forget your kindness." + +So he turns away, and she still stands at the foot of the staircase, +watching him uneasily. He has aged greatly in the past few months. She +is shocked to see how gray, how fitful, nervous, irritable, he has +become. As he moves towards the door-way, she notes how thin his cheek +has grown, and wonders at the irresolution in his movements when he +reaches the broad piazza. He stands there an instant, the massive +door-way forming a frame for a picture _en silhouette_, his tall spare +figure thrown black upon the silver sea beyond. He looks up and down the +now-deserted galleries, fumbles in his pockets for his cigar-case, bites +off with nervous clip the end of a huge "Regalia," strikes a light, and +before the flame is half applied to his weed throws it away, then turns +sharply and strides out of sight towards the office. + +Another instant, and, as though in pursuit, a second figure, erect, +soldierly, with quick and bounding step strides across the glittering +moon-streak, and Mrs. Rayner's heart stands still. + +Only for an instant, though. She has seen and recognized Lawrence Hayne. +Concealed from them he is following Mr. Van Antwerp, and there can be +but one purpose in his coming here,--Nellie. But what can he want with +her--her rightful lover? She springs from the lower step on which she +has been standing, runs across the tessellated floor, and stops short in +the door-way, gazing after the two figures. She is startled to find them +close at hand,--one, Van Antwerp, close to the railing, facing towards +her, his features ghastly in the moonlight, his left hand resting, and +supporting him, on one of the tall wooden pillars; the other, Hayne, +with white clinching fists, advancing upon him. Above the low boom and +roar of the surf she distinctly hears the clear tenor ring of his voice +in the tone of command she last heard under the shadow of the Rockies, +two thousand miles away: + +"Halt!" + +No wonder a gentleman in civil life looks amazed at so peremptory a +summons from a total stranger. In his high indignation will he not +strike the impertinent subaltern to earth? As a well-bred woman, it +occurs to her that she ought to rush out and avert hostilities by +introducing them, or something; but she has no time to act. The next +words simply take her breath away: + +"Sergeant Gower, I arrest you as a deserter and thief! You deserted from +F troop, ----th Cavalry, at Battle Butte!" + +She sees the fearful gleam on the dark man's face; there is a sudden +spring, a clinch, a straining to and fro of two forms,--one tall, black, +snaky, the other light, lithe, agile, and trained; muttered curse, +panting breath, and then, sure as fate, the taller man is being borne +backward against the rail. She sees the dark arm suddenly relax its +grasp of the gray form and disappear an instant. Then, there it comes +again, and with it a gleam of steel. With one shriek of warning and +terror she springs towards them,--just in time. Hayne glances up, +catches the lifted wrist, hurls his whole weight upon the tottering +figure, and over goes the Knickerbocker prone upon the floor. Hayne +turns one instant: "Go in-doors, Mrs. Rayner. This is no place for you. +Leave him to me." + +And in that instant, before either can prevent, Steven Van Antwerp, +_alias_ Gower, springs to his feet, leaps over the balcony rail, and +disappears in the depths below. It is a descent of not more than ten +feet to the sands beyond the dark passage that underlies the piazza, but +he has gone down into the passage itself. When Mr. Hayne, running down +the steps, gains his way to the space beneath the piazza, no trace of +the fugitive can he find. + + * * * * * + +Nor does Mr. Van Antwerp appear at breakfast on the following morning, +nor again to any person known to this story. An officer of the ----th +Cavalry, spending a portion of the following winter in Paris, writes +that he met him face to face one day in the galleries of the Louvre. +Being in civilian costume, of course, and much changed in appearance +since he was a youth in the straps of a second lieutenant, it was +possible for him to take a good long look at the man he had not seen +since he wore the chevrons of a dashing sergeant in the Battle Butte +campaign. "He has grown almost white," wrote the lieutenant, "and I'm +told he has abandoned his business in New York and never will return to +the United States." + +Rayner, too, has grown gray. A telegram from his wife summoned him to +the sea-side from Washington the day after this strange adventure of +hers. He found her somewhat prostrate, his sister-in-law very pale and +quiet, and the clerks of the hotel unable to account for the +disappearance of Mr. Van Antwerp. Lieutenant Hayne, they said, had told +them he received news which compelled him to go back to New York at +once; but the gentleman's traps were all in his room. Mr. Hayne, too, +had gone to New York; and thither the captain followed. A letter came to +him at the Westminster which he read and handed in silence to Hayne. It +was as follows: + +"By the time this reaches you I shall be beyond reach of the law and on +my way to Europe to spend what may be left of my days. I hope they may +be few; for the punishment that has fallen upon me is more than I can +bear, though no more than I deserve. You have heard that my college days +were wild, and that after repeated warnings my father drove me from +home, sending me to Wyoming to embark in the cattle-business. I +preferred gambling, and lost what he gave me. There was nothing then +left but to enlist; and I joined the ----th. Mother still believed me in +or near Denver, and wrote regularly there. The life was horrible to me +after the luxury and lack of restraint I had enjoyed, and I meant to +desert. Chance threw in my way that temptation. I robbed poor Hull the +night before he was killed, repacked the paper so that even the torn +edges would show the greenbacks, resealed it,--all just as I have had to +hear through her pure and sacred lips it was finally told and her lover +saved. + +"God knows I was shocked when I heard in Denver he was to be tried for +the crime. I hastened to Cheyenne, not daring to show myself to him or +any one, and restored every cent of the money, placing it in Mrs. +Clancy's hands, as I dared not stay; but I had hoped to give it to +Clancy, who had not arrived. The police knew me, and I _had_ to go. I +gave every cent I had, and _walked_ back to Denver, then got word to +mother of my fearful danger; and, though she never knew I was a +deserter, she sent me money, and I came East and went abroad. Then my +whole life changed. I was appalled to think how low I had fallen. I +shunned companionship, studied, did well at Heidelberg; father forgave +me, and died; but God has not forgiven, and at the moment when I thought +my life redeemed this retribution overtakes me. + +"If I may ask anything, it is that mother may never know the truth. I +will tell her that Nellie could not love me, and I could not bear to +stay." + + * * * * * + +Some few weeks later that summer Miss Travers stood by the same balcony +rail, with an open letter in her hand. There was a soft flush on her +pretty, peachy cheek, and a far-away look in her sweet blue eyes. + +"What news from Warrener, Nellie?" asked Mrs. Rayner. + +"Fluffy has reappeared." + +"Indeed! Where?" + +"At Mr. Hayne's. He writes that as he returned, the moment he entered +the hall she came running up to him, arching her back and purring her +delight and welcoming him just as though she belonged there now; and--" + +"And what, Nellie?" + +"He says he means to keep her until I come to claim her." + + THE END + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Deserter, by Charles King + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DESERTER *** + +***** This file should be named 16557.txt or 16557.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/5/5/16557/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Janet Blenkinship and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +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. 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