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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/16558-8.txt b/16558-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d491560 --- /dev/null +++ b/16558-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7115 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of From the Ranks, 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: From the Ranks + +Author: Charles King + +Release Date: August 20, 2005 [EBook #16558] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM THE RANKS *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Janet Blenkinship and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +FROM THE RANKS. + +BY + +CAPT. CHARLES KING, U.S.A., + +AUTHOR OF "THE COLONEL'S DAUGHTER," "MARION'S FAITH," "KITTY'S +CONQUEST," ETC., ETC. + +Transcriber's note: +This e-book of From the Ranks 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. The Deserter is also +available as a Project Gutenberg e-book. + +PHILADELPHIA: + +J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. + +1890. + +Copyright, 1887, by J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. + + + + +FROM THE RANKS. + + + + +I. + + +A strange thing had happened at the old fort during the still watches of +the night. Even now, at nine in the morning, no one seemed to be in +possession of the exact circumstances. The officer of the day was +engaged in an investigation, and all that appeared to be generally known +was the bald statement that the sentry on "Number Five" had fired at +somebody or other about half after three; that he had fired by order of +the officer of the day, who was on his post at the time; and that now he +flatly refused to talk about the matter. + +Garrison curiosity, it is perhaps needless to say, was rather stimulated +than lulled by this announcement. An unusual number of officers were +chatting about head-quarters when Colonel Maynard came over to his +office. Several ladies, too, who had hitherto shown but languid interest +in the morning music of the band, had taken the trouble to stroll down +to the old quadrangle, ostensibly to see guard-mounting. Mrs. Maynard +was almost always on her piazza at this time, and her lovely daughter +was almost sure to be at the gate with two or three young fellows +lounging about her. This morning, however, not a soul appeared in front +of the colonel's quarters. + +Guard-mounting at the fort was not held until nine o'clock, contrary to +the somewhat general custom at other posts in our scattered army. +Colonel Maynard had ideas of his own upon the subject, and it was his +theory that everything worked more smoothly if he had finished a +leisurely breakfast before beginning office-work of any kind, and +neither the colonel nor his family cared to breakfast before eight +o'clock. In view of the fact that Mrs. Maynard had borne that name but a +very short time and that her knowledge of army life dated only from the +month of May, the garrison was disposed to consider her entitled to +much latitude of choice in such matters, even while it did say that she +was old enough to be above bride-like sentiment. The womenfolk at the +fort were of opinion that Mrs. Maynard was fifty. It must be conceded +that she was over forty, also that this was her second entry into the +bonds of matrimony. + +That no one should now appear on the colonel's piazza was obviously a +disappointment to several people. In some way or other most of the +breakfast tables at the post had been enlivened by accounts of the +mysterious shooting. The soldiers going the rounds with the +"police-cart," the butcher and grocer and baker from town, the old +milkwoman with her glistening cans, had all served as newsmongers from +kitchen to kitchen, and the story that came in with the coffee to the +lady of the house had lost nothing in bulk or bravery. The groups of +officers chatting and smoking in front of head-quarters gained +accessions every moment, while the ladies seemed more absorbed in chat +and confidences than in the sweet music of the band. + +What fairly exasperated some men was the fact that the old officer of +the day was not out on the parade where he belonged. Only the new +incumbent was standing there in statuesque pose as the band trooped +along the line, and the fact that the colonel had sent out word that the +ceremony would proceed without Captain Chester only served to add fuel +to the flame of popular conjecture. It was known that the colonel was +holding a consultation with closed doors with the old officer of the +day, and never before since he came to the regiment had the colonel been +known to look so pale and strange as when he glanced out for just one +moment and called his orderly. The soldier sprang up, saluted, received +his message, and, with every eye following him, sped off towards the old +stone guard-house. In three minutes he was on his way back, accompanied +by a corporal and private of the guard in full dress uniform. + +"That's Leary,--the man who fired the shot," said Captain Wilton to his +senior lieutenant, who stood by his side. + +"Belongs to B Company, doesn't he?" queried the subaltern. "Seems to me +I have heard Captain Armitage say he was one of his best men." + +"Yes. He's been in the regiment as long as I can remember. What on earth +can the colonel want him for? Near as I can learn, he only fired by +Chester's order." + +"And neither of them knows what he fired at." + +It was perhaps ten minutes more before Private Leary came forth from +the door-way of the colonel's office, nodded to the corporal, and, +raising their white-gloved hands in salute to the group of officers, the +two men tossed their rifles to the right shoulder and strode back to the +guard. + +Another moment, and the colonel himself opened his door and appeared in +the hall-way. He stopped abruptly, turned back and spoke a few words in +low tone, then hurried through the groups at the entrance, looking at no +man, avoiding their glances, and giving faint and impatient return to +the soldierly salutations that greeted him. The sweat was beaded on his +forehead; his lips were white, and his face full of a trouble and dismay +no man had ever seen there before. He spoke to no one, but walked +rapidly homeward, entered, and closed the gate and door behind him. + +For a moment there was silence in the group. Few men in the service were +better loved and honored than the veteran soldier who commanded the +----th Infantry; and it was with genuine concern that his officers saw +him so deeply and painfully affected,--for affected he certainly was. +Never before had his cheery voice denied them a cordial "Good-morning, +gentlemen." Never before had his blue eyes flinched. He had been their +comrade and commander in years of frontier service, and his bachelor +home had been the rendezvous of all genial spirits when in garrison. +They had missed him sorely when he went abroad on long leave the +previous year, and were almost indignant when they received the news +that he had met his fate in Italy and would return married. "She" was +the widow of a wealthy New-Yorker who had been dead some three years +only, and, though over forty, did not look her years to masculine eyes +when she reached the fort in May. After knowing her a week, the garrison +had decided to a man that the colonel had done wisely. Mrs. Maynard was +charming, courteous, handsome, and accomplished. Only among the women +were there still a few who resented their colonel's capture; and some of +these, oblivious of the fact that they had tempted him with relations of +their own, were sententious and severe in their condemnation of second +marriage; for the colonel, too, was indulging in a second experiment. Of +his first, only one man in the regiment, besides the commander, could +tell anything; and he, to the just indignation of almost everybody, +would not discuss the subject. It was rumored that in the old days when +Maynard was senior captain and Chester junior subaltern in their former +regiment the two had very little in common. It was known that the first +Mrs. Maynard, while still young and beautiful, had died abroad. It was +hinted that the resignation of a dashing lieutenant of the regiment, +which was synchronous with her departure for foreign shores, was +demanded by his brother officers; but it was useless asking Captain +Chester. He could not tell; and--wasn't it odd?--here was Chester again, +the only man in the colonel's confidence in an hour of evident trouble. + +"By Jove! what's gone wrong with the chief?" was the first exclamation +from one of the older officers. "I never saw him look so broken." + +As no explanation suggested itself, they began edging in towards the +office. The door stood open; a hand-bell banged; a clerk darted in from +the sergeant-major's rooms, and Captain Chester was revealed seated at +the colonel's desk. This in itself was sufficient to induce several +officers to stroll in and look inquiringly around. Captain Chester, +merely nodding, went on with some writing at which he was engaged. + +After a moment's awkward silence and uneasy glancing at one another, the +party seemed to arrive at the conclusion that it was time to speak. The +band had ceased, and the new guard had marched away behind its pealing +bugles. Lieutenant Hall winked at his comrades, strolled hesitatingly +over to the desk, balanced unsteadily on one leg, and, with his hands +sticking in his trousers-pockets and his forage-cap swinging from +protruding thumb and forefinger, cleared his throat, and, with marked +lack of confidence, accosted his absorbed superior: + +"Colonel gone home?" + +"Didn't you see him?" was the uncompromising reply; and the captain did +not deign to raise his head or eyes. + +"Well--er--yes, I suppose I did," said Mr. Hall, shifting uncomfortably +to his other leg, and prodding the floor with the toe of his boot. + +"Then that wasn't what you wanted to know, I presume," said Captain +Chester, signing his name with a vicious dab of the pen and bringing his +fist down with a thump on the blotting-pad, while he wheeled around in +his chair and looked squarely up into the perturbed features of the +junior. + +"No, it wasn't," answered Mr. Hall, in an injured tone, while an +audible snicker at the door added to his sense of discomfort. "What I +mainly wanted was to know could I go to town." + +"That matter is easily arranged, Mr. Hall. All you have to do is to get +out of that uncomfortable and unsoldierly position, stand in the +attitude in which you are certainly more at home and infinitely more +picturesque, proffer your request in respectful words, and there is no +question as to the result." + +"Oh! you're in command, then?" said Mr. Hall, slowly wriggling into the +position of the soldier and flushing through his bronzed cheeks. "I +thought the colonel might be only gone for a minute." + +"The colonel may not be back for a week; but you be here for +dress-parade all the same, and--Mr. Hall!" he called, as the young +officer was turning away. The latter faced about again. + +"Was Mr. Jerrold going with you to town?" + +"Yes, sir. He was to drive me in his dog-cart, and it's over here now." + +"Mr. Jerrold cannot go,--at least not until I have seen him." + +"Why, captain, he got the colonel's permission at breakfast this +morning." + +"That is true, no doubt, Mr. Hall." And the captain dropped his sharp +and captious manner, and his voice fell, as though in sympathy with the +cloud that settled on his face. "I cannot explain matters just now. +There are reasons why the permission is withdrawn for the time being. +The adjutant will notify him." And Captain Chester turned to his desk +again as the new officer of the day, guard-book in hand, entered to make +his report. + +"The usual orders, captain," said Chester, as he took the book from his +hand and looked over the list of prisoners. Then, in bold and rapid +strokes, he wrote across the page the customary certificate of the old +officer of the day, winding up with this remark: + +"He also inspected guard and visited sentries between 3 and 3.35 a.m. +The firing at 3.30 a.m. was by his order." + +Meantime, those officers who had entered and who had no immediate duty +to perform were standing or seated around the room, but all observing +profound silence. For a moment or two no sound was heard but the +scratching of the captain's pen. Then, with some embarrassment and +hesitancy, he laid it down and glanced around him. + +"Has any one here anything to ask,--any business to transact?" + +Two or three mentioned some routine matters that required the action of +the post-commander, but did so reluctantly, as though they preferred to +await the orders of the colonel himself. Captain Wilton, indeed, spoke +his sentiments: + +"I wanted to see Colonel Maynard about getting two men of my company +relieved from extra duty; but, as he isn't here, I fancy I had better +wait." + +"Not at all. Who are your men?--Have it done at once, Mr. Adjutant, and +supply their places from my company, if need be. Now is there anything +else?" + +The group was apparently "nonplussed," as the adjutant afterwards put +it, by such unlooked-for complaisance on the part of the usually +crotchety senior captain. Still, no one offered to lead the others and +leave the room. After a moment's nervous rapping with his knuckles on +the desk, Captain Chester again abruptly spoke: + +"Gentlemen, I am sorry to incommode you, but, if there be nothing more +that you desire to see me about, I shall go on with some other matters, +which--pardon me--do not require your presence." + +At this very broad hint the party slowly found their legs, and with much +wonderment and not a few resentful glances at their temporary commander +the officers sauntered to the door-way. There, however, several stopped +again, still reluctant to leave in the face of so pervading a mystery, +for Wilton turned. + +"Am I to understand that Colonel Maynard has left the post to be gone +any length of time?" he asked. + +"He has not yet gone. I do not know how long he will be gone or how soon +he will start. For pressing personal reasons he has turned over the +command to me; and, if he decide to remain away, of course some +field-officer will be ordered to come to head-quarters. For a day or two +you will have to worry along with me; but I shan't worry you more than I +can help. I've got mystery and mischief enough here to keep me busy, God +knows. Just ask Sloat to come back here to me, will you? And--Wilton, I +did not mean to be abrupt with you. I'm all upset to-day. Mr. Adjutant, +notify Mr. Jerrold at once that he must not leave the post until I have +seen him. It is the colonel's last order. Tell him so." + + + + +II. + + +The night before had been unusually dark. A thick veil of clouds +overspread the heavens and hid the stars. Moon there was none, for the +faint silver crescent that gleamed for a moment through the +swift-sailing wisps of vapor had dropped beneath the horizon soon after +tattoo, and the mournful strains of "taps," borne on the rising wind, +seemed to signal "extinguish lights" to the entire firmament as well as +to Fort Sibley. There was a dance of some kind at the quarters of one of +the staff-officers living far up the row on the southern terrace. +Chester heard the laughter and chat as the young officers and their +convoy of matrons and maids came tripping homeward after midnight. He +was a crusty old bachelor, to use his own description, and rarely +ventured into these scenes of social gayety, and, besides, he was +officer of the day, and it was a theory he was fond of expounding to +juniors that when on guard no soldier should permit himself to be drawn +from the scene of his duties. With his books and his pipe Chester whiled +away the lonely hours of the early night, and wondered if the wind would +blow up a rain or disperse the clouds entirely. Towards one o'clock a +light, bounding footstep approached his door, and the portal flew open +as a trim-built young fellow with laughing eyes and an air of exuberant +health and spirits came briskly in. It was Rollins, the junior second +lieutenant of the regiment, and Chester's own and only pet,--so said the +envious others. He was barely a year out of leading-strings at the +Point, and as full of hope and pluck and mischief as a colt. Moreover, +he was frank and teachable, said Chester, and didn't come to him with +the idea that he had nothing to learn and less to do. The boy won upon +his gruff captain from the very start, and, to the incredulous delight +of the whole regiment, within six months the old cynic had taken him +into his heart and home, and Mr. Rollins occupied a pleasant room under +Chester's roof-tree, and was the sole accredited sharer of the captain's +mess. To a youngster just entering service, whose ambition it was to +stick to business and make a record for zeal and efficiency, these were +manifest advantages. There were men in the regiment to whom such close +communion with a watchful senior would have been most embarrassing, and +Mr. Rollins's predecessor as second lieutenant of Chester's company was +one of these. Mr. Jerrold was a happy man when promotion took him from +under the wing of "Crusty Jake" and landed him in Company B. More than +that, it came just at a time when, after four years of loneliness and +isolation at an up-river stockade, his new company and his old one, +together with four others from the regiment, were ordered to join +head-quarters and the band at the most delightful station in the +Northwest. Here Mr. Rollins had reported for duty during the previous +autumn, and here they were with troops of other arms of the service, +enjoying the close proximity of all the good things of civilization. + +Chester looked up with a quizzical smile as his "plebe" came in: + +"Well, sir, how many dances had you with 'Sweet Alice, Ben Bolt'? Not +many, I fancy, with Mr. Jerrold monopolizing everything, as usual. By +gad! some good fellow could make a colossal fortune in buying that young +man at my valuation and selling him at his own." + +"Oh, come, now, captain," laughed Rollins, "Jerrold's no such slouch as +you make him out. He's lazy, and he likes to spoon, and he puts up with +a good deal of petting from the girls,--who wouldn't, if he could get +it?--but he is jolly and big-hearted, and don't put on any airs,--with +us, at least,--and the mess like him first-rate. 'Tain't his fault that +he's handsome and a regular lady-killer. You must admit that he had a +pretty tough four years of it up there at that cussed old Indian +graveyard, and it's only natural he should enjoy getting here, where +there are theatres and concerts and operas and dances and dinners--" + +"Yes, dances and dinners and daughters,--all delightful, I know, but no +excuse for a man's neglecting his manifest duty, as he is doing and has +been ever since we got here. Any other time the colonel would have +straightened him out; but no use trying it now, when both women in his +household are as big fools about the man as anybody in town,--bigger, +unless I'm a born idiot." And Chester rose excitedly. + +"I suppose he had Miss Renwick pretty much to himself to-night?" he +presently demanded, looking angrily and searchingly at his junior, as +though half expecting him to dodge the question. + +"Oh, yes. Why not? It's pretty evident she would rather dance and be +with him than with any one else: so what can a fellow do? Of course we +ask her to dance, and all that, and I think he wants us to; but I cannot +help feeling rather a bore to her, even if she is only eighteen, and +there are plenty of pleasant girls in the garrison who don't get any too +much attention, now we're so near a big city, and I like to be with +them." + +"Yes, and it's the _right_ thing for you to do, youngster. That's one +trait I despise in Jerrold. When we were up there at the stockade two +winters ago, and Captain Gray's little girl was there, he hung around +her from morning till night, and the poor little thing fairly beamed and +blossomed with delight. Look at her now, man! He don't go near her. He +hasn't had the decency to take her a walk, a drive, or anything, since +we got here. He began, from the moment we came, with that gang in town. +He was simply devoted to Miss Beaubien until Alice Renwick came; then he +dropped her like a hot brick. By the Eternal, Rollins, he hasn't gotten +off with _that_ old love yet, you mark my words. There's Indian blood in +her veins, and a look in her eye that makes me wriggle, sometimes. I +watched her last night at parade when she drove out here with that +copper-faced old squaw, her mother. For all her French and Italian +education and her years in New York and Paris, that girl's got a wild +streak in her somewhere. She sat there watching him as the officers +marched to the front, and then _her_, as he went up and joined Miss +Renwick; and there was a gleam of her white teeth and a flash in her +black eyes that made me think of the leap of a knife from the sheath. +Not but what 'twould serve him right if she did play him some devil's +trick. It's his own doing. Were any people out from town?" he suddenly +asked. + +"Yes, half a dozen or so," answered Mr. Rollins, who was pulling off his +boots and inserting his feet into easy slippers, while old "Crusty" +tramped excitedly up and down the floor. "Most of them stayed out here, +I think. Only one team went back across the bridge." + +"Whose was that?" + +"The Suttons', I believe. Young Cub Sutton was out with his sister and +another girl." + +"There's another damned fool!" growled Chester. "That boy has ten +thousand a year of his own, a beautiful home that will be his, a doting +mother and sister, and everything wealth can buy, and yet, by gad! he's +unhappy because he can't be a poor devil of a lieutenant, with nothing +but drills, debts, and rifle-practice to enliven him. That's what brings +him out here all the time. He'd swap places with you in a minute. Isn't +he very thick with Jerrold?" + +"Oh, yes, rather. Jerrold entertains him a good deal." + +"Which is returned with compound interest, I'll bet you. Mr. Jerrold +simply makes a convenience of him. He won't make love to his sister, +because the poor, rich, unsophisticated girl is as ugly as she is +ubiquitous. His majesty is fastidious, you see, and seeks only the +caress of beauty, and while he lives there at the Suttons' when he goes +to town, and dines and sleeps and smokes and wines there, and uses their +box at the opera-house, and is courted and flattered by the old lady +because dear Cubby worships the ground he walks on and poor Fanny Sutton +thinks him adorable, he turns his back on the girl at every dance +because she _can't_ dance, and leaves her to you fellows who have a +conscience and some idea of decency. He gives all _his_ devotions to +Nina Beaubien, who dances like a _coryphée_, and drops _her_ when Alice +Renwick comes with her glowing Spanish beauty. Oh, damn it, I'm an old +fool to get worked up over it as I do, but you young fellows don't see +what I see. You haven't seen what I've seen; and pray God you never may! +That's where the shoe pinches, Rollins. It is what he _reminds_ me +of--not so much what he _is_, I suppose--that I get rabid about. He is +for all the world like a man we had in the old regiment when you were in +swaddling-clothes; and I never look at Mamie Gray's sad, white face that +it doesn't bring back a girl I knew just then whose heart was broken by +just such a shallow, selfish, adorable scoun--No, I won't use _that_ +word in speaking of Jerrold; but it's what I fear. Rollins, you call him +generous. Well, so he is,--_lavish_, if you like, with his money and his +hospitality here in the post. Money comes easily to him, and goes; but +you boys misuse the term. _I_ call him selfish to the core, because he +can deny himself no luxury, no pleasure, though it may wring a woman's +life--or, more than that, her honor--to give it him." The captain was +tramping up and down the room now, as was his wont when excited; his +face was flushed, and his hand clinched. He turned suddenly and faced +the younger officer, who sat gazing uncomfortably at the rug in front of +the fireplace. + +"Rollins, some day I may tell you a story that I've kept to myself all +these years. You won't wonder at my feeling as I do about these +goings-on of your friend Jerrold when you hear it all, but it was just +such a man as he who ruined one woman, broke the heart of another, and +took the sunshine out of the life of two men from that day to this. One +of them was your colonel, the other your captain. Now go to bed. I'm +going out." And, throwing down his pipe, regardless of the scattering +sparks and ashes, Captain Chester strode into the hall-way, picked up +the first forage-cap he laid hands on, and banged himself out of the +front door. + +Mr. Rollins remained for some moments in the same attitude, still gazing +abstractedly at the rug, and listening to the nervous tramp of his +senior officer on the piazza without. Then he slowly and thoughtfully +went to his room, where his perturbed spirit was soon soothed in sleep. +His conscience being clear and his health perfect, there were no deep +cares to keep him tossing on a restless pillow. + +To Chester, however, sleep was impossible: he tramped the piazza a full +hour before he felt placid enough to go and inspect his guard. The +sentries were calling three o'clock, and the wind had died away, as he +started on his round. Dark as was the night, he carried no lantern. The +main garrison was well lighted by lamps, and the road circling the old +fort was broad, smooth, and bordered by a stone coping wall where it +skirted the precipitous descent into the river-bottom. As he passed down +the plank walk west of the quadrangle wherein lay the old barracks and +the stone quarters of the commanding officer and the low one-storied row +of bachelor dens, he could not help noting the silence and peace of the +night. Not a light was visible at any window as he strode down the line. +The challenge of the sentry at the old stone tower sounded unnecessarily +sharp and loud, and his response of "Officer of the day" was lower than +usual, as though rebuking the unseemly outcry. The guard came scrambling +out and formed hurriedly to receive him, but the captain's inspection +was of the briefest kind. Barely glancing along the prison corridor to +see that the bars were in place, he turned back into the night, and made +for the line of posts along the river-bank. The sentry at the high +bridge across the gorge, and the next one, well around to the southeast +flank, were successively visited and briefly questioned as to their +instructions, and then the captain plodded sturdily on until he came to +the sharp bend around the outermost angle of the fort and found himself +passing behind the quarters of the commanding officer, a substantial +two-storied stone house with mansard roof and dormer-windows. The road +in the rear was some ten feet below the level of the parade inside the +quadrangle, and consequently, as the house faced the parade, what was +the ground-floor from that front became the second story at the rear. +The kitchen, store-room, and servants' rooms were on this lower stage, +and opened upon the road; an outer stairway ran up to the centre door at +the back, but at the east and west flanks of the house the stone walls +stood without port or window except those above the eaves,--the dormers. +Light and air in abundance streamed through the broad Venetian windows +north and south when light and air were needed. This night, as usual, +all was tightly closed below, all darkness aloft as he glanced up at the +dormers high above his head. As he did so, his foot struck a sudden and +sturdy obstacle; he stumbled and pitched heavily forward, and found +himself sprawling at full length upon a ladder lying on the ground +almost in the middle of the roadway. + +"Damn those painters!" he growled between his set teeth. "They leave +their infernal man-traps around in the very hope of catching me, I +believe. Now, who but a painter would have left a ladder in such a place +as this?" + +Rising ruefully and rubbing a bruised knee with his hand, he limped +painfully ahead a few steps, until he came to the side-wall of the +colonel's house. Here a plank walk passed from the roadway along the +western wall until almost on a line with the front piazza, where by a +flight of steps it was carried up to the level of the parade. Here he +paused a moment to dust off his clothes and rearrange his belt and +sword. He stood leaning against the wall and facing the gray stone gable +end of the row of old-fashioned quarters that bounded the parade upon +the southwest. All was still darkness and silence. + +"Confound this sword!" he muttered again: "the thing made rattle and +racket enough to wake the dead. Wonder if I disturbed anybody at the +colonel's." + +As though in answer to his suggestion, there suddenly appeared, high on +the blank wall before him, the reflection of a faint light. Had a little +night-lamp been turned on in the front room of the upper story? The +gleam came from the north window on the side: he saw plainly the shadow +of the pretty lace curtains, looped loosely back. Then the shade was +gently raised, and there was for an instant the silhouette of a slender +hand and wrist, the shadow of a lace-bordered sleeve. Then the light +receded, as though carried back across the room, waned, as though slowly +extinguished, and the last shadows showed the curtains still looped +back, the rolling shade still raised. + +"I thought so," he growled. "One tumble like that is enough to wake the +Seven Sleepers, let alone a love-sick girl who is probably dreaming over +Jerrold's parting words. She is spirited and blue-blooded enough to have +more sense, too, that same superb brunette. Ah, Miss Alice, I wonder if +you think that fellow's love worth having. It is two hours since he left +you,--more than that,--and here you are awake yet,--cannot sleep,--want +more air, and have to come and raise your shade. No such warm night, +either." These were his reflections as he picked up his offending sword +and, more slowly and cautiously now, groped his way along the western +terrace. He passed the row of bachelor quarters, and was well out beyond +the limits of the fort before he came upon the next sentry,--"Number +Five,"--and recognized, in the stern "Who comes there?" and the sharp +rattle of the bayonet as it dropped to the charge, the well-known +challenge of Private Leary, one of the oldest and most reliable soldiers +in the regiment. + +"All right on your post, Leary?" he asked, after having given the +countersign. + +"All right, I _think_, sor; though if the captain had asked me that half +an hour ago I'd not have said so. It was so dark I couldn't see me hand +afore me face, sor; but about half-past two I was walkin' very slow down +back of the quarters, whin just close by Loot'nant Jerrold's back gate I +seen somethin' movin', and as I come softly along it riz up, an' sure I +thought 'twas the loot'nant himself, whin he seemed to catch sight o' me +or hear me, and he backed inside the gate an' shut it. I was sure 'twas +he, he was so tall and slim like, an' so I niver said a word until I got +to thinkin' over it, and then I couldn't spake. Sure if it had been the +loot'nant he wouldn't have backed away from a sintry; he'd 'a' come out +bold and given the countersign; but I didn't think o' that. It looked +like him in the dark, an' 'twas his quarters, an' I thought it _was_ +him, until I thought ag'in, and then, sor, I wint back and searched the +yard; but there was no one there." + +"Hm! Odd thing that, Leary! Why didn't you challenge at first?" + +"Sure, sor, he lept inside the fince quick as iver we set eyes on each +other. He was bendin' down, and I thought it was one of the hound pups +when I first sighted him." + +"And he hasn't been around since?" + +"No, sor, nor nobody, till the officer of the day came along." + +Chester walked away puzzled. Sibley was a most quiet and orderly +garrison. Night prowlers had never been heard from, especially over here +at the south and southwest fronts. The enlisted men going to or from +town passed across the big, high bridge or went at once to their own +quarters on the east and north. This southwestern terrace behind the +bachelors' row was the most secluded spot on the whole post,--so much so +that when a fire broke out there among the fuel-heaps one sharp winter's +night a year agone it had wellnigh enveloped the whole line before its +existence was discovered. Indeed, not until after this occurrence was a +sentry posted on that front at all; and, once ordered there, he had so +little to do and was so comparatively sure to be undisturbed that the +old soldiers eagerly sought the post in preference to any other, and +were given it as a peace privilege. For months, relief after relief +tramped around the fort and found the terrace post as humdrum and silent +as an empty church; but this night "Number Five" leaped suddenly into +notoriety. + +Instead of going home, Chester kept on across the plateau and took a +long walk on the northern side of the reservation, where the +quarter-master's stables and corrals were placed. He was affected by a +strange unrest. His talk with Rollins had roused the memories of years +long gone by,--of days when he, too, was young and full of hope and +faith, ay, full of love,--all lavished on one fair girl who knew it +well, but gently, almost entreatingly, repelled him. Her heart was +wrapped up in another, the Adonis of his day in the gay old seaboard +garrison. She was a soldier's child, barrack-born, simply taught, +knowing little of the vice and temptations, the follies and the frauds, +of the whirling life of civilization. A good and gentle mother had +reared her and been called hence. Her father, an officer whose sabre-arm +was left at Molino del Rey, and whose heart was crushed when the loving +wife was taken from him, turned to the child who so resembled her, and +centred there all his remaining love and life. He welcomed Chester to +his home, and tacitly favored his suit, but in his blindness never saw +how a few moonlit strolls on the old moss-grown parapet, a few evening +dances in the casemates with handsome, wooing, winning Will Forrester, +had done their work. She gave him all the wild, enthusiastic, +worshipping love of her girlish heart just about the time Captain and +Mrs. Maynard came back from leave, and then he grew cold and negligent +_there_, but lived at Maynard's fireside; and one day there came a +sensation,--a tragedy,--and Mrs. Maynard went away, and died abroad, and +a shocked and broken-hearted girl hid her face from all and pined at +home, and Mr. Forrester's resignation was sent from--no one knew just +where, and no one would have cared to know, except Maynard. He would +have followed him, pistol in hand, but Forrester gave him no chance. +Years afterwards Chester again sought her and offered her his love and +his name. It was useless, she told him, sadly. She lived only for her +father now, and would never leave him till he died, and then--she prayed +she might go too. Memories like this _will_ come up at such times in +these same "still watches of the night." Chester was in a moody frame of +mind when about half an hour later he came back past the guard-house. +The sergeant was standing near the lighted entrance, and the captain +called him: + +"There's a ladder lying back of the colonel's quarters on the roadway. +Some of those painters left it, I suppose. It's a wonder some of the +reliefs have not broken their necks over it going around to-night. Let +the next one pick it up and move it out of the way. Hasn't it been +reported?" + +"Not to me, sir. Corporal Schreiber has command of this relief, and he +has said nothing about it. Here he is, sir." + +"Didn't you see it or stumble over it when posting your relief, +corporal?" asked Chester. + +"No indeed, sir. I--I think the captain must have been mistaken in +thinking it a ladder. We would surely have struck it if it had been." + +"No mistake at all, corporal. I lifted it. It is a long, heavy +ladder,--over twenty feet, I should say." + +"There _is_ such a ladder back there, captain," said the sergeant, "but +it always hangs on the fence just behind the young officers' +quarters,--Bachelors' Row, sir, I mean." + +"And that ladder was there an hour ago when I went my rounds," said the +corporal, earnestly. "I had my hurricane-lamp, sir, and saw it on the +fence plainly. And there was nothing behind the colonel's at that hour." + +Chester turned away, thoughtful and silent. Without a word he walked +straight into the quadrangle, past the low line of stone buildings, the +offices of the adjutant and quartermaster, the home of the +sergeant-major, the club and billiard-room, past the long, piazza-shaded +row of bachelor quarters, and came upon the plank walk at the corner of +the colonel's fence. Ten more steps, and he stood stock-still at the +head of the flight of wooden stairs. + +There, dimly visible against the southern sky, its base on the plank +walk below him, its top resting upon the eaves midway between the +dormer-window and the roof of the piazza, so that one could step easily +from it into the one or on to the other, was the very ladder that half +an hour before was lying on the ground behind the house. + +His heart stood still. He seemed powerless to move,--even to think. Then +a slight noise roused him, and with every nerve tingling he crouched +ready for a spring. With quick, agile movements, noiseless as a cat, +sinuous and stealthy as a serpent, the dark figure of a man issued from +Alice Renwick's chamber window and came gliding down. + +One second more, and, almost as noiselessly, he reached the ground, then +quickly raised and turned the ladder, stepped with it to the edge of +the roadway, and peered around the angle as though to see that no sentry +was in sight, then vanished with his burden around the corner. Another +second, and down the steps went Chester, three at a bound, tip-toeing it +in pursuit. Ten seconds brought him close to the culprit,--a tall, +slender shadow. + +"You villain! Halt!" + +Down went the ladder on the dusty road. The hand that Chester had +clinched upon the broad shoulder was hurled aside. There was a sudden +whirl, a lightning blow that took the captain full in the chest and +staggered him back upon the treacherous and entangling rungs, and, ere +he could recover himself, the noiseless stranger had fairly whizzed into +space and vanished in the darkness up the road. Chester sprang in +pursuit. He heard the startled challenge of the sentry, and then Leary's +excited "Halt, I say! Halt!" and then he shouted,-- + +"Fire on him, Leary! Bring him down!" + +Bang went the ready rifle with sharp, sullen roar that woke the echoes +across the valley. Bang again, as Leary sent a second shot after the +first. Then, as the captain came panting to the spot, they followed up +the road. No sign of the runner. Attracted by the shots, the sergeant of +the guard and one or two men, lantern-bearing, came running to the +scene. Excitedly they searched up and down the road in mingled hope and +dread of finding the body of the marauder, or some clue or trace. +Nothing! Whoever he was, the fleet runner had vanished and made good his +escape. + +"Who could it have been, sir?" asked the sergeant of the officer of the +day. "Surely none of the men ever come round this way." + +"I don't know, sergeant; I don't know. Just take your lamp and see if +there is anything visible down there among the rocks. He may have been +hit and leaped the wall.--Do you think you hit him, Leary?" + +"I can't say, sor. He came by me like a flash. I had just a second's +look at him, and--Sure I niver saw such runnin'." + +"Could you see his face?" asked Chester, in a low tone, as the other men +moved away to search the rocks. + +"Not his face, sor. 'Twas too dark." + +"Was there--did he look like anybody you knew, or had seen?--anybody in +the command?" + +"Well, sor, not among the men, that is. There's none so tall and slim +both, and so light. Sure he must 'a' worn gums, sor. You couldn't hear +the whisper of a footfall." + +"But whom did he _seem_ to resemble?" + +"Well, if the captain will forgive me, sor, it's unwillin' I am to say +the worrd, but there's no one that tall and light and slim here, sor, +but Loot'nant Jerrold. Sure it couldn't be him, sor." + +"Leary, will you promise me something on your word as a man?" + +"I will, sor." + +"Say not one word of this matter to any one, except I tell you, or you +have to, before a court." + +"I promise, sor." + +"And I believe you. Tell the sergeant I will soon be back." + +With that he turned and walked down the road until once more he came to +the plank crossing and the passage-way between the colonel's and +Bachelors' Row. Here again he stopped short, and waited with bated +breath and scarcely-beating heart. The faint light he had seen before +again illumined the room and cast its gleam upon the old gray wall. Even +as he gazed, there came silently to the window a tall, white-robed form, +and a slender white hand seized and lowered the shade, noiselessly. +Then, as before, the light faded away; but--she was awake. + +Waiting one moment in silence, Captain Chester then sprang up the wooden +steps and passed under the piazza which ran the length of the bachelor +quarters. Half-way down the row he turned sharply to his left, opened +the green-painted door, and stood in a little dark hall-way. Taking his +match-box from his pocket, he struck a light, and by its glare quickly +read the card upon the first door-way to his right: + + "MR. HOWARD F. JERROLD, + + "----_th Infantry, U.S.A._" + +Opening this door, he bolted straight through the little parlor to the +bedroom in the rear. A dim light was burning on the mantel. The bed was +unruffled, untouched, and Mr. Jerrold was not there. + +Five minutes afterwards, Captain Chester, all alone, had laboriously and +cautiously dragged the ladder from the side to the rear of the colonel's +house, stretched it in the roadway where he had first stumbled upon it, +then returned to the searching-party on "Number Five." + +"Send two men to put that ladder back," he ordered. "It is where I told +you,--on the road behind the colonel's." + + + + +III. + + +When Mrs. Maynard came to Sibley in May and the officers with their +wives were making their welcoming call, she had with motherly pride and +pleasure yielded to their constant importunities and shown to one party +after another an album of photographs,--likenesses of her only daughter. +There were little _cartes de visite_ representing her in long dresses +and baby-caps; quaint little pictures of a chubby-faced, chubby-legged +infant a few months older; charming studies of a little girl with great +black eyes and delicate features; then of a tall, slender slip of a +maiden, decidedly foreign-looking; then of a sweet and pensive face, +with great dark eyes, long, beautiful curling lashes, and very heavy, +low-arched brows, exquisitely moulded mouth and chin, and most luxuriant +dark hair; then others, still older, in every variety of dress,--even in +fancy costume, such as the girl had worn at fair or masquerade. These +and others still had Mrs. Maynard shown them, with repressed pride and +pleasure and with sweet acknowledgment of their enthusiastic praises. +Alice still tarried in the East, visiting relatives whom she had not +seen since her father's death three years earlier, and, long before she +came to join her mother at Sibley and to enter upon the life she so +eagerly looked forward to, "'way out in the West, you know, with +officers and soldiers and the band, and buffalo and Indians all around +you," there was not an officer or an officer's wife who had not +delightedly examined that album. There was still another picture, but +that one had been shown to only a chosen few just one week after her +daughter's arrival, and rather an absurd scene had occurred, in which +that most estimable officer, Lieutenant Sloat, had figured as the hero. +A more simple-minded, well-intentioned fellow than Sloat there did not +live. He was so full of kindness and good nature and readiness to do +anything for anybody that it never seemed to occur to him that everybody +on earth was not just as ready to be equally accommodating. He was a +perpetual source of delight to the colonel, and one of the most loyal +and devoted of subalterns, despite the fact that his locks were long +silvered with the frosts of years and that he had fought through the war +of the rebellion and risen to the rank of a field-officer in Maynard's +old brigade. The most temperate of men, ordinarily, the colonel had one +anniversary he loved to celebrate, and Sloat was his stand-by when the +3d of July came round, just as he had been at his shoulder at that +supreme moment when, heedless of the fearful sweep of shell and canister +through their shattered ranks, Pickett's heroic Virginians breasted the +slope of Cemetery Hill and surged over the low stone wall into Cushing's +guns. Hard, stubborn fighting had Maynard's men to do that day, and for +serene courage and determination no man had beaten Sloat. Both officers +had bullet-hole mementos to carry from that field; both had won their +brevets for conspicuous gallantry, and Sloat was a happy and grateful +man when, years afterwards, his old commander secured him a lieutenancy +in the regular service. He was the colonel's henchman, although he never +had brains enough to win a place on the regimental staff, and when Mrs. +Maynard came he overwhelmed her with cumbrous compliments and incessant +calls. He was, to his confident belief, her chosen and accepted knight +for full two days after her arrival. Then Jerrold came back from a brief +absence, and, as in duty bound, went to pay his respects to his +colonel's wife; and that night there had been a singular scene. Mrs. +Maynard had stopped suddenly in her laughing chat with two ladies, had +started from her seat, wildly staring at the tall, slender subaltern who +entered the gateway, and then fell back in her chair, fairly swooning as +he made his bow. + +Sloat had rushed into the house to call the colonel and get some water, +while Mr. Jerrold stood paralyzed at so strange a reception of his first +call. Mrs. Maynard revived presently, explained that it was her heart, +or the heat, or something, and the ladies on their way home decided that +it was possibly the heart, it was certainly not the heat, it was +unquestionably something, and that something was Mr. Jerrold, for she +never took her eyes off him during the entire evening, and seemed unable +to shake off the fascination. Next day Jerrold dined there, and from +that time on he was a daily visitor. Every one noted Mrs. Maynard's +strong interest in him, but no one could account for it. She was old +enough to be his mother, said the garrison; but not until Alice Renwick +came did another consideration appear: he was singularly like the +daughter. Both were tall, lithe, slender; both had dark, lustrous eyes, +dark, though almost perfect, skin, exquisitely-chiselled features, and +slender, shapely hands and feet. Alice was "the picture of her father," +said Mrs. Maynard, and Mr. Renwick had lived all his life in New York; +while Mr. Jerrold was of an old Southern family, and his mother a Cuban +beauty who was the toast of the New Orleans clubs not many years before +the war. + +Poor Sloat! He did not fancy Jerrold, and was as jealous as so +unselfish a mortal could be of the immediate ascendency the young fellow +established in the colonel's household. It was bad enough before Alice +joined them; after that it was wellnigh unbearable. Then came the +3d-of-July dinner and the colonel's one annual jollification. No man +ever heard of Sloat's being intoxicated; he rarely drank at all; but +this evening the reminiscences of the day, the generous wine, the +unaccustomed elegance of all his surroundings, due to Mrs. Maynard's +taste and supervision, and the influence of Alice Kenwick's exquisite +beauty, had fairly carried him away. + +They were chatting in the parlor, while Miss Renwick was entertaining +some young-lady friends from town and listening to the band on the +parade. Sloat was expatiating on her grace and beauty and going over the +album for the twentieth time, when the colonel, with a twinkling eye, +remarked to Mrs. Maynard,-- + +"I think you ought to show Major[A] Sloat the 'Directoire' picture, my +dear." + +"Alice would never forgive me," said madame, laughing; "though I +consider it the most beautiful we have of her." + +"Oh, where is it?" "Oh, do let us see it, Mrs. Maynard!" was the chorus +of exclamations from the few ladies present. "Oh, I _insist_ on seeing +it, madame," was Sloat's characteristic contribution to the clamor. + +"I want you to understand it," said Mrs. Maynard, pleased, but still +hesitating. "We are very daft about Alice at home, you know, and it's +quite a wonder she has not been utterly spoiled by her aunts and uncles; +but this picture was a specialty. An artist friend of ours fairly _made_ +us have it taken in the wedding-dress worn by her grandmother. You know +the Josephine Beauharnais 'Directoire' style that was worn in seventeen +ninety-something. Her neck and shoulders are lovely, and that was why we +consented. I went, and so did the artist, and we posed her, and the +photograph is simply perfect of her face, and neck too, but when Alice +saw it she blushed furiously and forbade my having them finished. +Afterwards, though, she yielded when her aunt Kate and I begged so hard +and promised that none should be given away, and so just half a dozen +were finished. Indeed, the dress is by no means as _décolleté_ as many +girls wear theirs at dinner now in New York; but poor Alice was +scandalized when she saw it last month, and she never would let me put +one in the album." + +"Oh, _do_ go and get it, Mrs. Maynard!" pleaded the ladies. "Oh, +_please_ let me see it, Mrs. Maynard!" added Sloat; and at last the +mother-pride prevailed. Mrs. Maynard rustled up-stairs, and presently +returned holding in her hands a delicate silver frame in filigree-work, +a quaint foreign affair, and enclosed therein was a cabinet photograph +_en vignette_,--the head, neck, and shoulders of a beautiful girl; and +the dainty, diminutive, what-there-was-of-it waist of the old-fashioned +gown, sashed almost immediately under the exquisite bust, revealed quite +materially the cause of Alice Renwick's blushes. But a more beautiful +portrait was never photographed. The women fairly gasped with delight +and envy. Sloat could not restrain his impatience to get it in his own +hands, and finally he grasped it and then eyed it in rapture. It was two +minutes before he spoke a word, while the colonel sat laughing at his +worshipping gaze. Mrs. Maynard somewhat uneasily stretched forth her +hand, and the other ladies impatiently strove to regain possession. + +"Come, Major Sloat, you've surely had it long enough. _We_ want it +again." + +"Never!" said Sloat, with melodramatic intensity. "Never! This is my +ideal of perfection,--of divinity in woman. I will bear it home with me, +set it above my fireside, and adore it day and night." + +"Nonsense, Major Sloat!" said Mrs. Maynard, laughing, yet far from being +at her ease. "Come, I _must_ take it back. Alice may be in any minute +now, and if she knew I had betrayed her she would never forgive me. +Come, surrender!" And she strove to take it from him. + +But Sloat was in one of his utterly asinine moods. He would have been +perfectly willing to give any sum he possessed for so perfect a picture +as this. He never dreamed that there were good and sufficient reasons +why _no_ man should have it. He so loved and honored his colonel that he +was ready to lay down his life for any of his household. In laying claim +to this picture he honestly believed that it was the highest proof he +could give of his admiration and devotion. A tame surrender now meant +that his protestations were empty words. "Therefore," argued Sloat, "I +must stand firm." + +"Madame," said he, "I'd die first." And with that he began backing to +the door. + +Alarmed now, Mrs. Maynard sprang after him, and the little major leaped +upon a chair, his face aglow, jolly, rubicund, beaming with bliss and +triumph. She looked up, almost wringing her hands, and turned half +appealingly to the colonel, who was laughing heartily on the sofa, never +dreaming Sloat could be in earnest. + +"Here, I'll give you back the frame: I don't want that," said Sloat, and +began fumbling at the back of the photograph. This was too much for the +ladies. They, too, rushed to the rescue. One of them sprang to and shut +the door, the other seized and violently shook the back of his chair, +and Sloat leaped to the floor, still clinging to his prize, and laughing +as though he had never had so much entertainment in his life. The long +Venetian windows opened upon the piazza, and towards the nearest one he +retreated, holding aloft the precious gage and waving off the attacking +party with the other hand. He was within a yard of the blinds, when they +were suddenly thrown open, a tall, slender form stepped quickly in, one +hand seized the uplifted wrist, the other the picture, and in far less +time than it takes to tell it Mr. Jerrold had wrenched it away and, with +quiet bow, restored it to its rightful owner. + +"Oh, I say, now, Jerrold, that's downright unhandsome of you!" gasped +Sloat. "I'd have been on my way home with it." + +"Shut up, you fool!" was the sharp, hissing whisper. "Wait till I go +home, if you want to talk about it." And, as quickly as he came, Mr. +Jerrold slipped out again upon the piazza. + +Of course the story was told with varied comment all over the post. +Several officers were injudicious enough to chaff the old subaltern +about it, and--he was a little sore-headed the next day, anyway--the +usually placid Sloat grew the more indignant at Jerrold. He decided to +go and upbraid him; and, as ill luck would have it, they met before noon +on the steps of the club-room. + +"I want to say to you, Mr. Jerrold, that from an officer of your age to +one of mine I think your conduct last night a piece of impertinence." + +"I had a perfect right to do what I did," replied Jerrold, coolly. "You +were taking a most unwarrantable liberty in trying to carry off that +picture." + +"How did you know what it was? You had never seen it!" + +"There's where you are mistaken, Mr. Sloat" (and Jerrold purposely and +exasperatingly refused to recognize the customary _brevet_): "I had seen +it,--frequently." + +Two officers were standing by, and one of them turned sharply and faced +Jerrold as he spoke. It was his former company commander. Jerrold noted +the symptom, and flushed, but set his teeth doggedly. + +"Why, Mr. Jerrold! Mrs. Maynard said she never showed that to any one," +said Sloat, in much surprise. "You heard her, did you not, Captain +Chester?" + +"I did, certainly," was the reply. + +"All the same, I repeat what I've said," was Jerrold's sullen answer. "I +have seen it frequently, and, what's more--" He suddenly stopped. + +"Well, what's more?" said Sloat, suggestively. + +"Never mind. I don't care to talk of the matter," replied Jerrold, and +started to walk away. + +But Sloat was angry, nettled, jealous. He had meant to show his intense +loyalty and admiration for everything that was his colonel's, and had +been snubbed and called a fool by an officer many years, though not so +many "files," his junior. He never had liked him, and now there was an +air of conscious superiority about Jerrold that fairly exasperated him. +He angrily followed and called to him to stop, but Jerrold walked on. +Captain Chester stood still and watched them. The little man had almost +to run before he overtook the tall one. They were out of earshot when he +finally did so. There were a few words on both sides. Then Jerrold +shifted his light cane into his left hand, and Chester started forward, +half expecting a fracas. To his astonishment, the two officers shook +hands and parted. + +"Well," said he, as Sloat came back with an angry yet bewildered face, +"I'm glad you shook hands. I almost feared a row, and was just going to +stop it. So he apologized, did he?" + +"No, nothing like it." + +"Then what did you mean by shaking hands?" + +"That's nothing--never you mind," said Sloat, confusedly. "I haven't +forgiven him, by a good deal. The man's conceit is enough to disgust +anything--but a woman, I suppose," he finished, ruefully. + +"Well, it's none of my business, Sloat, but pardon my saying I don't see +what there was to bring about the apparent reconciliation. That +hand-shake meant something." + +"Oh, well--damn it! we had some words, and he--or I--Well, there's a +bet, and we shook hands on it." + +"Seems to me that's pretty serious business, Sloat,--a bet following +such a talk as you two have had. I hope--" + +"Well, captain," interrupted Sloat, "I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't +been mad as blazes; but I made it, and must stick to it,--that's all." + +"You wouldn't mind telling me what it was, I suppose?" + +"I can't; and that ends it." + +Captain Chester found food for much thought and speculation over this +incident. So far as he was concerned, the abrupt remark of Sloat by no +means ended it. In his distrust of Jerrold, he too had taken alarm at +the very substantial intimacy to which that young man was welcomed at +the colonel's quarters. Prior to his marriage old Maynard had not liked +him at all, but it was mainly because he had been so negligent of his +duties and so determined a beau in city society after his arrival at +Sibley. He had, indeed, threatened to have him transferred to a company +still on frontier service if he did not reform; but then the +rifle-practice season began, and Jerrold was a capital shot and sure to +be on the list of competitors for the Department team, so what was the +use? He would be ordered in for the rifle-camp anyway, and so the +colonel decided to keep him at head-quarters. This was in the summer of +the year gone by. Then came the colonel's long leave, his visit to +Europe, his meeting with his old friend, now the widow of the lamented +Renwick, their delightful winter together in Italy, his courtship, her +consent, their marriage and return to America. When Maynard came back to +Sibley and the old regiment, he was so jolly and content that every man +was welcomed at his house, and it was really a source of pride and +pleasure to him that his accomplished wife should find any of his young +officers so thoroughly agreeable as she pronounced Mr. Jerrold. Others +were soldierly, courteous, well bred, but he had the air of a foreign +court about him, she privately informed her lord; and it seems, indeed, +that in days gone by Mr. Jerrold's father had spent many years in France +and Spain, once as his country's representative near the throne. Though +the father died long before the boy was out of his knickerbockers, he +had left the impress of his grand manner, and Jerrold, to women of any +age, was at once a courtier and a knight. But the colonel never saw how +her eyes followed the tall young officer time and again. There were +women who soon noted it, and one of them said it was such a yearning, +longing look. _Was_ Mrs. Maynard really happy? they asked each other. +_Did_ she really want to see Alice mate with him, the handsome, the +dangerous, the selfish fellow they knew him to be? If not, could +anything be more imprudent than that they should be thrown together as +they were being, day after day? Had Alice wealth of her own? If not, did +the mother know that nothing would tempt Howard Jerrold into an alliance +with a dowerless daughter? These, and many more, were questions that +came up every day. The garrison could talk of little else; and Alice +Renwick had been there just three weeks, and was the acknowledged Queen +of Hearts at Sibley, when the rifle-competitions began again, and a +great array of officers and men from all over the Northwest came to the +post by every train, and their canvas tents dotted the broad prairie to +the north. + +One lovely evening in August, just before the practice began, Colonel +Maynard took his wife to drive out and see the camp. Mr. Jerrold and +Alice Renwick followed on horseback. The carriage was surrounded as it +halted near the range, and half a score of officers, old and young, were +chatting with Mrs. Maynard, while others gathered about the lovely girl +who sat there in the saddle. There came marching up from the railway a +small squad of soldiers, competitors arriving from the far West. Among +them--apparently their senior non-commissioned officer--was a tall +cavalry sergeant, superbly built, and with a bronzed and bearded and +swarthy face that seemed to tell of years of campaigning over mountain +and prairie. They were all men of perfect physique, all in the neat, +soldierly fatigue-dress of the regular service, some wearing the +spotless white stripes of the infantry, others the less artistic and +equally destructible yellow of the cavalry. Their swinging stride, erect +carriage, and clear and handsome eyes all spoke of the perfection of +health and soldierly development. Curious glances were turned to them as +they advanced, and Miss Renwick, catching sight of the party, +exclaimed,-- + +"Oh, who are these? And what a tall soldier that sergeant is!" + +"That sergeant, Miss Renwick," said a slow, deliberate voice, "is the +man I believe will knock Mr. Jerrold out of the first prize. That is +Sergeant McLeod." + +As though he heard his name pronounced, the tall cavalryman glanced for +the first time at the group, brought his rifle to the carry as if about +to salute, and was just stepping upon the roadside, where he came in +full view of the occupants of the carriage, when a sudden pallor shot +across his face, and he plunged heavily forward and went down like a +shot. Sympathetic officers and comrades surrounded the prostrate form in +an instant. The colonel himself sprang from his carriage and joined the +group; a blanket was quickly brought from a neighboring tent, and the +sergeant was borne thither and laid upon a cot. A surgeon felt his pulse +and looked inquiringly around: + +"Any of you cavalrymen know him well? Has he been affected this way +before?" + +A young corporal who had been bending anxiously over the sergeant +straightened up and saluted: + +"I know him well, sir, and have been with him five years. He's only had +one sick spell in all that time,--'twas just like this,--and then he +told me he'd been sunstruck once." + +"This is no case of sunstroke," said the doctor. "It looks more like the +heart. How long ago was the attack you speak of?" + +"Three years ago last April, sir. I remember it because we'd just got +into Fort Raines after a long scout. He'd been the solidest man in the +troop all through the cold and storm and snow we had in the mountains, +and we were in the reading-room, and he'd picked up a newspaper and was +reading while the rest of us were talking and laughing, and, first thing +we knew, he was down on the floor, just like he was to-night." + +"Hm!" said the surgeon. "Yes. That's plenty, steward. Give him that. +Raise his head a little, corporal. Now he'll come round all right." + +Driving homeward that night, Colonel Maynard musingly remarked,-- + +"Did you see that splendid fellow who fainted away?" + +"No," answered his wife, "you all gathered about him so quickly and +carried him away. I could not even catch a glimpse of him. But he had +recovered, had he not?" + +"Yes. Still, I was thinking what a singular fact it is that occasionally +a man slips through the surgeon's examinations with such a malady as +this. Now, here is one of the finest athletes and shots in the whole +army, a man who has been through some hard service and stirring fights, +has won a tip-top name for himself and was on the highroad to a +commission, and yet this will block him effectually." + +"Why, what is the trouble?" + +"Some affection of the heart. Why! Halloo! Stop, driver! Orderly, jump +down and run back there. Mrs. Maynard has dropped her fan.--What was it, +dear?" he asked, anxiously. "You started; and you are white, and +trembling." + +"I--I don't know, colonel. Let us go home. It will be over in a minute. +Where are Alice and Mr. Jerrold? Call them, please. She must not be out +riding after dark." + +But they were not in sight; and it was considerably after dark when they +reached the fort. Mr. Jerrold explained that his horse had picked up a +stone and he had had to walk him all the way. + + + + +IV. + + +There was no sleep for Captain Chester the rest of the night. He went +home, threw off his sword-belt, and seated himself in a big easy-chair +before his fireplace, deep in thought. Once or twice he arose and paced +restlessly up and down the room, as he had done in his excited talk with +Rollins some few hours before. Then he was simply angry and +argumentative,--or declamatory. Now he had settled down into a very +different frame of mind. He seemed awed,--stunned,--crushed. He had all +the bearing and mien of one who, having defiantly predicted a calamity, +was thunderstruck by the verification of his prophecy. In all his +determined arraignment of Mr. Jerrold, in all the harsh things he had +said and thought of him, he had never imagined any such depth of +scoundrelism as the revelations of the night foreshadowed. Chester +differed from many of his brotherhood: there was no room for rejoicing +in his heart that the worst he had ever said of Jerrold was unequal to +the apparent truth. He took no comfort to his soul that those who called +him cynical, crabbed, unjust, even malicious, would now be compelled to +admit he was right in his estimate. Like the best of us, Chester could +not ordinarily say "_Vade retro_" to the temptation to think, if not to +say, "Didn't I tell you so?" when in every-day affairs his oft-disputed +views were proved well founded. But in the face of such a catastrophe as +now appeared engulfing the fair fame of his regiment and the honor of +those whom his colonel held dear, Chester could feel only dismay and +grief. What was his duty in the light of the discoveries he had made? To +the best of his belief, he was the only man in the garrison who had +evidence of Jerrold's absence from his own quarters and of the presence +of _some one_ at _her_ window. He had taken prompt measures to prevent +its being suspected by others. He purposely sent his guards to search +along the cliff in the opposite direction while he went to Jerrold's +room and thence back to remove the tell-tale ladder. Should he tell +_any_ one until he had confronted Jerrold with the evidences of his +guilt, and, wringing from him his resignation, send him far from the +post before handing it in? Time and again he wished Frank Armitage were +here. The youngest captain in the regiment, Armitage had been for years +its adjutant and deep in the confidence of Colonel Maynard. He was a +thorough soldier, a strong, self-reliant, courageous man, and one for +whom Chester had ever felt a warm esteem. Armitage was on leave of +absence, however,--had been away some time on account of family matters, +and would not return, it was known, until he had effected the removal of +his mother and sister to the new home he had purchased for them in the +distant East. It was to his company that Jerrold had been promoted, and +there was friction from the very week that the handsome subaltern +joined. + +Armitage had long before "taken his measure," and was in no wise pleased +that so lukewarm a soldier should have come to him as senior subaltern. +They had a very plain talk, for Armitage was straightforward as a dart, +and then, as Jerrold showed occasional lapses, the captain shut down on +some of his most cherished privileges, and, to the indignation of +society, the failure of Mr. Jerrold to appear at one or two gatherings +where he was confidently expected was speedily laid at his captain's +door. The recent death of his father kept Armitage from appearing in +public, and, as neither he nor the major (who commanded the regiment +while Maynard was abroad) vouchsafed the faintest explanation, society +was allowed to form its own conclusions, and _did_,--to the effect that +Mr. Jerrold was a wronged and persecuted man. It was just as the +Maynards arrived at Sibley that Armitage departed on his leave, and, to +his unspeakable bliss, Mr. Jerrold succeeded to the command of his +company. This fact, coupled with the charming relations which were +straightway established with the colonel's family, placed him in a +position of independence and gave him opportunities he had never known +before. It was speedily evident that he was neglecting his military +duties,--that Company B was running down much faster than Armitage had +built it up,--and yet no man felt like speaking of it to the colonel, +who saw it only occasionally on dress-parade. Chester had just about +determined to write to Armitage himself and suggest his speedy return, +when this eventful night arrived. Now he fully made up his mind that it +must be done at once, and had seated himself at his desk, when the roar +of the sunrise gun and the blare of the bugles warned him that reveille +had come and he must again go to his guard. Before he returned to his +quarters another complication, even more embarrassing, had arisen, and +the letter to Armitage was postponed. + +He had received the "present" of his guard and verified the presence of +all his prisoners, when he saw Major Sloat still standing out in the +middle of the parade, where the adjutant usually received the reports of +the roll-calls. Several company officers, having made their reports, +were scurrying back to quarters for another snooze before breakfast-time +or to get their cup of coffee before going out to the range. Chester +strolled over towards him. + +"What's the matter, Sloat?" + +"Nothing much. The colonel told me to receive the reveille reports for +Hoyt this week. He's on general court-martial." + +"Yes, I know all that. I mean, what are you waiting for?" + +"Mr. Jerrold again. There's no report from his company." + +"Have you sent to wake him?" + +"No; I'll go myself, and do it thoroughly, too." And the little major +turned sharply away and walked direct to the low range of bachelor +quarters, dove under the piazza, and into the green door-way. + +Hardly knowing how to explain his action, Chester quickly followed, and +in less than a minute was standing in the self-same parlor which, by the +light of a flickering match, he had searched two hours before. Here he +halted and listened, while Sloat pushed on into the bedroom and was +heard vehemently apostrophizing some sleeper: + +"Does the government pay you for this sort of thing, I want to know? Get +up, Jerrold! This is the second time you've cut reveille in ten days. +Get up, I say!" And the major was vigorously shaking at something, for +the bed creaked and groaned. + +"Wake up! I say, I'm blowed if I'm going to get up here day after day +and have you sleeping. Wake, Nicodemus! Wake, you snoozing, snoring, +open-mouthed masher. Come, now; I mean it." + +A drowsy, disgusted yawn and stretch finally rewarded his efforts. Mr. +Jerrold at last opened his eyes, rolled over, yawned sulkily again, and +tried to evade his persecutor, but to no purpose. Like a little terrier, +Sloat hung on to him and worried and shook. + +"Oh, don't! damn it, don't!" growled the victim. "What do you want, +anyway? Has that infernal reveille gone?" + +"Yes, and you're absent again, and no report from B Company. By the holy +poker, if you don't turn out and get it and report to me on the parade +I'll spot the whole gang absent, and then no _matinée_ for you to-day, +my buck. Come, out with you! I mean it. Hall says you and he have an +engagement in town; and 'pon my soul I'll bust it if you don't come +out." + +And so, growling and complaining, and yet half laughing, Adonis rolled +from his couch and began to get into his clothes. Chester's blood ran +cold, then boiled. Think of a man who could laugh like that,--and +remember! _When_, how, had he returned to the house? Listen! + +"Confound you, Sloat, _I_ wouldn't rout _you_ out in this shabby way. +Why couldn't you let a man sleep? I'm tired half to death." + +"What have you done to tire you? Slept all yesterday afternoon, and +danced perhaps a dozen times at the doctor's last night. You've had more +sleep than I've had, begad! You took Miss Renwick home before 'twas +over, and mean it was of you, too, with all the fellows that wanted to +dance with her." + +"That wasn't my fault: Mrs. Maynard made her promise to be home at +twelve. You old cackler, that's what sticks in your crop yet. You are +persecuting me because they like me so much better than they do you," he +went on, laughingly now. "Come, now, Sloat, confess, it is all because +you're jealous. You couldn't have that picture, and I could." + +Chester fairly started. He had urgent need to see this young +gallant,--he was staying for that purpose,--but should he listen to +further talk like this? Too late to move, for Sloat's answer came like a +shot: + +"I bet you you _never_ could!" + +"But didn't I tell you I had?--a week ago?" + +"Ay, but I didn't believe it. You couldn't show it!" + +"Pshaw, man! Look here. Stop, though! Remember, _on your honor_, you +never tell." + +"On my honor, of course." + +"Well, there!" + +A drawer was opened. Chester heard a gulp of dismay, of genuine +astonishment and conviction mixed, as Sloat muttered some +half-articulate words and then came into the front room. Jerrold +followed, caught sight of Chester, and stopped short, with sudden and +angry change of color. + +"I did not know _you_ were here," he said. + +"It was to find where _you_ were that I came," was the quiet answer. + +There was a moment's silence. Sloat turned and looked at the two men in +utter surprise. Up to this time he had considered Jerrold's absence from +reveille as a mere dereliction of duty which was ascribable to the +laziness and indifference of the young officer. So far as lay in his +power, he meant to make him attend more strictly to business, and had +therefore come to his quarters and stirred him up. But there was no +thought of any serious trouble in his mind. His talk had all been +roughly good-humored until--until that bet was mentioned, and then it +became earnest. Now, as he glanced from one man to the other, he saw in +an instant that something new--something of unusual gravity--was +impending. Chester, buttoned to the throat in his dark uniform, +accurately gloved and belted, with pale, set, almost haggard face, was +standing by the centre-table under the drop-light. Jerrold, only half +dressed, his feet thrust into slippers, his fingers nervously working at +the studs of his dainty white shirt, had stopped short at his bedroom +door, and, with features that grew paler every second and a dark scowl +on his brow, was glowering at Chester. + +"Since when has it been the duty of the officer of the day to come +around and hunt up officers who don't happen to be out at reveille?" he +asked. + +"It is not your absence from reveille I want explained, Mr. Jerrold," +was the cold and deliberate answer. "I wanted you at 3.30 this morning, +and you were not and had not been here." + +An unmistakable start and shock; a quick, nervous, hunted glance around +the room, so cold and pallid in the early light of the August morning; a +clutch of Jerrold's slim brown hand at the bared throat. But he rallied +gamely, strode a step forward, and looked his superior full in the face. +Sloat marked the effort with which he cleared away the huskiness that +seemed to clog his larynx, but admired the spunk with which the young +officer returned the senior's shot: + +"What is your authority here, I would like to know? What business has +the officer of the day to want me or any other man not on guard? +Captain Chester, you seem to forget that I am no longer your second +lieutenant, and that I am a company commander like yourself. Do you come +by Colonel Maynard's order to search my quarters and question me? If so, +say so at once; if not, get out." And Jerrold's face was growing black +with wrath, and his big lustrous eyes were wide awake now and fairly +snapping. + +Chester leaned upon the table and deliberated a moment. He stood there +coldly, distrustfully eying the excited lieutenant, then turned to +Sloat: + +"I will be responsible for the roll-call of Company B this morning, +Sloat. I have a matter of grave importance to bring up to this--this +gentleman, and it is of a private nature. Will you let me see him +alone?" + +"Sloat," said Jerrold, "don't go yet. I want you to stay. These are my +quarters, and I recognize your right to come here in search of me, since +I was not at reveille; but I want a witness here to bear me out. I'm too +amazed yet--too confounded by this intrusion of Captain Chester's to +grasp the situation. I never heard of such a thing as this. Explain it, +if you can." + +"Mr. Jerrold, what I have to ask or say to you concerns you alone. It is +_not_ an official matter. It is as man to man I want to see you, alone +and at once. _Now_ will you let Major Sloat retire?" + +Silence for a moment. The angry flush on Jerrold's face was dying away, +and in its place an ashen pallor was spreading from throat to brow; his +lips were twitching ominously. Sloat looked in consternation at the +sudden change. + +"Shall I go?" he finally asked. + +Jerrold looked long, fixedly, searchingly in the set face of the officer +of the day, breathing hard and heavily. What he saw there Sloat could +not imagine. At last his hand dropped by his side; he made a little +motion with it, a slight wave towards the door, and again dropped it +nervously. His lips seemed to frame the word "Go," but he never glanced +at the man whom a moment before he so masterfully bade to stay; and +Sloat, sorely puzzled, left the room. + +Not until his footsteps had died out of hearing did Chester speak: + +"How soon can you leave the post?" + +"I don't understand you." + +"How soon can you pack up what you need to take and--get away?" + +"Get away where? What on earth do you mean?" + +"You _must_ know what I mean! You _must_ know that after last night's +work you quit the service at once and forever." + +"I don't know anything of the kind; and I defy you to prove the faintest +thing." But Jerrold's fingers were twitching, and his eyes had lost +their light. + +"Do you suppose I did not recognize you?" asked Chester. + +"When?--where?" gulped Jerrold. + +"When I seized you and you struck me!" + +"I never struck you. I don't know what you mean." + +"My God, man, let us end this useless fencing. The evidence I have of +your last night's scoundrelism would break the strongest record. For the +regiment's sake,--for the colonel's sake,--let us have no public +scandal. It's awful enough as the thing stands. Write your resignation, +give it to me, and leave,--before breakfast if you can." + +"I've done nothing to resign for. You know perfectly well I haven't." + +"Do you mean that such a crime--that a woman's ruin and disgrace--isn't +enough to drive you from the service?" asked Chester, tingling in every +nerve and longing to clinch the shapely, swelling throat in his +clutching fingers. "God of heaven, Jerrold! are you dead to all sense of +decency?" + +"Captain Chester, I won't be bullied this way. I may not be immaculate, +but no man on earth shall talk to me like this! I deny your +insinuations. I've done nothing to warrant your words, even if--if you +did come sneaking around here last night and find me absent. You can't +prove a thing. You----" + +"What! When I saw you,--almost caught you! By heaven! I wish the sentry +had killed you then and there. I never dreamed of such hardihood." + +"You've done nothing but dream. By Jove, I believe you're sleepwalking +yet. What on earth do you mean by catching and killing me? 'Pon my soul +I reckon you're crazy, Captain Chester." And color was gradually coming +back again to Jerrold's face, and confidence to his tone. + +"Enough of this, Mr. Jerrold. Knowing what you and I both know, do you +refuse to hand me your resignation?" + +"Of course I do." + +"Do you mean to deny to me where I saw you last night?" + +"I deny your right to question me. I deny anything,--everything. I +believe you simply thought you had a clue and could make me tell. +Suppose I _was_ out last night. I don't believe you know the faintest +thing about it." + +"Do you want me to report the whole thing to the colonel?" + +"Of course I don't. Naturally, I want him to know nothing about my being +out of quarters; and it's a thing that no officer would think of +reporting another for. You'll only win the contempt of every gentleman +in the regiment if you do it. What good will it do you?--Keep me from +going to town for a few days, I suppose. What earthly business is it of +yours, anyway?" + +"Jerrold, I can stand this no longer. I ought to shoot you in your +tracks, I believe. You've brought ruin and misery to the home of my +warmest friend, and dishonor to the whole service, and you talk of two +or three days' stoppage from going to town. If I can't bring you to your +senses, by God! the colonel shall." And he wheeled and left the room. + +For a moment Jerrold stood stunned and silent. It was useless to attempt +reply. The captain was far down the walk when he sprang to the door to +call him again. Then, hurrying back to the bedroom, he hastily dressed, +muttering angrily and anxiously to himself as he did so. He was thinking +deeply, too, and every movement betrayed nervousness and trouble. +Returning to the front door, he gazed out upon the parade, then took his +forage-cap and walked rapidly down towards the adjutant's office. The +orderly bugler was tilted up in a chair, leaning half asleep against the +whitewashed front, but his was a weasel nap, for he sprang up and +saluted as the young officer approached. + +"Where did Major Sloat go, orderly?" was the hurried question. + +"Over towards the stables, sir. Him and Captain Chester was here +together, and they're just gone." + +"Run over to the quarters of B Company and tell Merrick I want him right +away. Tell him to come to my quarters." And thither Mr. Jerrold +returned, seated himself at his desk, wrote several lines of a note, +tore it into fragments, began again, wrote another which seemed not +entirely satisfactory, and was in the midst of a third when there came a +quick step and a knock at the door. Opening the shutters, he glanced out +of the window. A gust of wind sent some of the papers whirling and +flying, and the bedroom door banged shut, but not before some few +half-sheets of paper had fluttered out upon the parade, where other +little flurries of the morning breeze sent them sailing over towards +the colonel's quarters. Anxious only for the coming of Merrick and no +one else, Mr. Jerrold no sooner saw who was at the front door than he +closed the shutters, called, "Come in!" and a short, squat, wiry little +man, dressed in the fatigue-uniform of the infantry, stood at the +door-way to the hall. + +"Come in here, Merrick," said the lieutenant, and Merrick came. + +"How much is it you owe me now?--thirty-odd dollars, I think?" + +"I believe it is, lieutenant," answered the man, with shifting eyes and +general uneasiness of mien. + +"You are not ready to pay it, I suppose; and you got it from me when we +left Fort Raines, to help you out of that scrape there." + +The soldier looked down and made no answer. + +"Merrick, I want a note taken to town at once. I want _you_ to take it +and get it to its address before eight o'clock. I want you to say no +word to a soul. Here's ten dollars. Hire old Murphy's horse across the +river and _go_. If you are put in the guard-house when you get back, +don't say a word; if you are tried by garrison court for crossing the +bridge or absence without leave, plead guilty, make no defence, and I'll +pay you double your fine and let you off the thirty dollars. But if you +fail me, or tell a soul of your errand, I'll write to--you know who, at +Raines. Do you understand, and agree?" + +"I do. Yessir." + +"Go and get ready, and be here in ten minutes." + +Meantime, Captain Chester had followed Sloat to the adjutant's office. +He was boiling over with indignation which he hardly knew how to +control. He found the gray-moustached subaltern tramping in great +perplexity up and down the room, and the instant he entered was greeted +with the inquiry,-- + +"What's gone wrong? What's Jerrold been doing?" + +"Don't ask me any questions, Sloat, but answer. It is a matter of honor. +_What_ was your bet with Jerrold?" + +"I oughtn't to tell that, Chester. Surely it cannot be a matter mixed up +with this." + +"I can't explain, Sloat. What I ask is unavoidable. Tell me about that +bet." + +"Why, he was so superior and airy, you know, and was trying to make me +feel that he was so much more intimate with them all at the colonel's, +and that he could have that picture for the mere asking; and I got mad, +and bet him he _never_ could." + +"Was that the day you shook hands on it?" + +"Yes." + +"And that was her picture--_the_ picture, then--he showed you this +morning." + +"Chester, you heard the conversation: you were there: you know that I'm +on honor not to tell." + +"Yes, I know. That's quite enough." + + + + +V. + + +Before seven o'clock that same morning Captain Chester had come to the +conclusion that only one course was left open for him. After the brief +talk with Sloat at the office he had increased the perplexity and +distress of that easily-muddled soldier by requesting his company in a +brief visit to the stables and corrals. A "square" and reliable old +veteran was the quartermaster sergeant who had charge of those +establishments; Chester had known him for years, and his fidelity and +honesty were matters the officers of his former regiment could not too +highly commend. When Sergeant Parks made an official statement there was +no shaking its solidity. He slept in a little box of a house close by +the entrance to the main stable, in which were kept the private horses +of several of the officers, and among them Mr. Jerrold's; and it was his +boast that, day or night, no horse left that stable without his +knowledge. The old man was superintending the morning labors of the +stable-hands, and looked up in surprise at so early a visit from the +officer of the day. + +"Were you here all last night, sergeant?" was Chester's abrupt question. + +"Certainly, sir, and up until one o'clock or more." + +"Were any horses out during the night,--any officers' horses, I mean?" + +"No, sir, not one." + +"I thought possibly some officers might have driven or ridden to town." + +"No, sir. The only horses that crossed this threshold going out last +night were Mr. Sutton's team from town. They were put up here until near +one o'clock, and then the doctor sent over for them. I locked up right +after that, and can swear nothing else went out." + +Chester entered the stable and looked curiously around. Presently his +eye lighted on a tall, rangy bay horse that was being groomed in a wide +stall near the door-way. + +"That's Mr. Jerrold's Roderick, isn't it?" + +"Yes, sir. He's fresh as a daisy, too,--hasn't been out for three +days,--and Mr. Jerrold's going to drive the dog-cart this morning." + +Chester turned away. + +"Sloat," said he, as they left the stable, "if Mr. Jerrold was away from +the post last night,--and you heard me say he was out of his +quarters,--could he have gone any way except afoot, after what you heard +Parks say?" + +"Gone in the Suttons' outfit, I suppose," was Sloat's cautious answer. + +"In which event he would have been seen by the sentry at the bridge, +would he not?" + +"Ought to have been, certainly." + +"Then we'll go back to the guard-house." And, wonderingly and +uncomfortably, Sloat followed. He had long since begun to wish he had +held his peace and said nothing about the confounded roll-call. He hated +rows of any kind. He didn't like Jerrold, but he would have crawled +_ventre à terre_ across the wide parade sooner than see a scandal in the +regiment he loved; and it was becoming apparent to his sluggish +faculties that it was no mere matter of absence from quarters that was +involving Jerrold. Chester was all aflame over that picture-business, he +remembered, and the whole drift of his present investigation was to +prove that Jerrold was _not_ absent from the post, but absent only from +his quarters. If so, where had he spent his time until nearly four? +Sloat's heart was heavy with vague apprehension. He knew that Jerrold +had borne Alice Renwick away from the party at an unusually early hour +for such things to break up. He knew that he and others had protested +against such desertion, but she declared it could not be helped. He +remembered another thing,--a matter that he thought of at the time, only +from another point of view. It now seemed to have significance bearing +on this very matter; for Chester suddenly asked,-- + +"Wasn't it rather odd that Miss Beaubien was not here at the dance? She +has never missed one, seems to me, since Jerrold began spooning with her +last year." + +"Why, she _was_ here." + +"She was? Are you sure? Rollins never spoke of it; and we had been +talking of her. I inferred from what he said that she was not there at +all. And I saw her drive homeward with her mother right after parade: so +it didn't occur to me that she could have come out again, all that +distance, in time for the dance. Singular! Why shouldn't Rollins have +told me?" + +Sloat grinned: a dreary sort of smile it was, too. "You go into society +so seldom you don't see these things. I've more than half suspected +Rollins of being quite ready to admire Miss Beaubien himself; and since +Jerrold dropped her he has had plenty of opportunity." + +"Great guns! I never thought of it! If I'd known she was to be there I'd +have gone myself last night. How did she behave to Miss Renwick?" + +"Why, sweet and smiling, and chipper as you please. If anything, I think +Miss Renwick was cold and distant to her. I couldn't make it out at +all." + +"And did Jerrold dance with her?" + +"Once, I think, and they had a talk out on the piazza,--just a minute. I +happened to be at the door, and couldn't help seeing it; and what got me +was this: Mr. Hall came out with Miss Renwick on his arm; they were +chatting and laughing as they passed me, but the moment she caught sight +of Jerrold and Miss Beaubien she stopped, and said, 'I think I won't +stay out here; it's too chilly,' or something like it, and went right +in; and then Jerrold dropped Miss Beaubien and went after her. He just +handed the young lady over to me, saying he was engaged for next dance, +and skipped." + +"How did she like that? Wasn't she furious?" + +"No. That's another thing that got me. She smiled after him, all +sweetness, and--well, she _did_ say, 'I count upon you,--you'll be +there,' and he nodded. Oh, she was bright as a button after that." + +"What did she mean?--be 'where,' do you suppose? Sloat, this all means +more to me, and to us all, than I can explain." + +"I don't know. I can't imagine." + +"Was it to see her again that night?" + +"I don't know at all. If it was, he fooled her, for he never went near +her again. Rollins put her in the carriage." + +"Whose? Did she come out with the Suttons?" + +"Why, certainly. I thought you knew that." + +"And neither old Madame Beaubien nor Mrs. Sutton with them? What was the +old squaw thinking of?" + +By this time they had neared the guard-house, where several of the men +were seated awaiting the call for the next relief. All arose at the +shout of the sentry on Number One, turning out the guard for the officer +of the day. Chester made hurried and impatient acknowledgment of the +salute, and called to the sergeant to send him the sentry who was at the +bridge at one o'clock. It turned out to be a young soldier who had +enlisted at the post only six months before and was already known as one +of the most intelligent and promising candidates for a corporalship in +the garrison. + +"Were you on duty at the bridge at one o'clock, Carey?" asked the +captain. + +"I was, sir. My relief went on at 11.45 and came off at 1.45." + +"What persons passed your post during that time?" + +"There was a squad or two of men coming back from town on pass. I halted +them, sir, and Corporal Murray came down and passed them in." + +"I don't mean coming from town. Who went the other way?" + +"Only one carriage, sir,--Mr. Sutton's." + +"Could you see who were in it?" + +"Certainly, sir: it was right under the lamp-post this end of the bridge +that I stood when I challenged. Lieutenant Rollins answered for them and +passed them out. He was sitting beside Mr. Sutton as they drove up, then +jumped out and gave me the countersign and bade them good-night right +there." + +"Rollins again," thought Chester. "Why did he keep this from me?" + +"Who were in the carriage?" he asked. + +"Mr. Sutton, sir, on the front seat, driving, and two young ladies on +the back seat." + +"Nobody else?" + +"Not a soul, sir. I could see in it plain as day. One lady was Miss +Sutton, and the other Miss Beaubien. I know I was surprised at seeing +the latter, because she drove home in her own carriage last evening +right after parade. I was on post there at that hour too, sir. The +second relief is on from 5.45 to 7.45." + +"That will do, Carey. I see your relief is forming now." + +As the officers walked away and Sloat silently plodded along beside his +dark-browed senior, the latter turned to him: + +"I should say that there was no way in which Mr. Jerrold could have gone +townwards last night. Should not you?" + +"He might have crossed the bridge while the third relief was on, and +got a horse at the other side." + +"He didn't do that, Sloat. I had already questioned the sentry on that +relief. It was the third that I inspected and visited this morning." + +"Well, how do you know he wanted to go to town? Why couldn't he have +gone up the river, or out to the range? Perhaps there was a little game +of 'draw' out at camp." + +"There was no light in camp, much less a little game of draw, after +eleven o'clock. You know well enough that there is nothing of that kind +going on with Gaines in command. That isn't Jerrold's game, even if +those fellows _were_ bent on ruining their eyesight and nerve and +spoiling the chance of getting the men on the division and army teams. I +wish it _were_ his game, instead of what it is!" + +"Still, Chester, he may have been out in the country somewhere. You seem +bent on the conviction he was up to mischief here, around this post. I +won't ask you what you mean; but there's more than one way of getting to +town if a man wants to very bad." + +"How? Of course he can take a skiff and row down the river; but he'd +never be back in time for reveille. There goes six o'clock, and I must +get home and shave and think this over. Keep your own counsel, no matter +who asks you. If you hear any questions or talk about shooting last +night, you know nothing, heard nothing, and saw nothing." + +"Shooting last night!" exclaimed Sloat, all agog with eagerness and +excitement now. "Where was it? Who was it?" + +But Chester turned a deaf ear upon him, and walked away. He wanted to +see Rollins, and went straight home. + +"Why didn't you tell me Miss Beaubien was out here last night?" was the +question he asked as soon as he had entered the room where, all aglow +from his cold bath, the youngster was dressing for breakfast. He colored +vividly, then laughed. + +"Well, you never gave me much chance to say anything, did you? You +talked all the time, as I remember, and suddenly vanished and slammed +the door. I would have told you had you asked me." But all the same it +was evident for the first time that here was a subject Rollins was shy +of mentioning. + +"Did you go down and see them across sentry post?" + +"Certainly. Jerrold asked me to. He said he had to take Miss Renwick +home, and was too tired to come back,--was going to turn in. I was glad +to do anything to be civil to the Suttons." + +"Why, I'd like to know? They have never invited you to the house or +shown you any attention whatever. You are not their style at all, +Rollins, and I'm glad of it. It wasn't for their sake you stayed there +until one o'clock instead of being here in bed. I wish--" and he looked +wistfully, earnestly, at his favorite now, "I wish I could think it +wasn't for the sake of Miss Beaubien's black eyes and aboriginal +beauty." + +"Look here, captain," said Rollins, with another rush of color to his +face; "you don't seem to fancy Miss Beaubien, and--she's a friend of +mine, and one I don't like to hear slightingly spoken of. You said a +good deal last night that--well, wasn't pleasant to hear." + +"I know it, Rollins. I beg your pardon. I didn't know then that you were +more than slightly acquainted with her. I'm an old bat, and go out very +little, but some things are pretty clear to my eyes, and--don't you be +falling in love with Nina Beaubien. That is no match for you." + +"I'm sure you never had a word to say against her father. The old +colonel was a perfect type of the French gentleman, from all I hear." + +"Yes, and her mother is as perfect a type of a Chippewa squaw, if she is +only a half-breed and claims to be only a sixteenth. Rollins, there's +Indian blood enough in Nina Beaubien's little finger to make me afraid +of her. She is strong as death in love or hate, and you must have seen +how she hung on Jerrold's every word all last winter. You must know she +is not the girl to be lightly dropped now." + +"She told me only a day or two ago they were the best of friends and had +never been anything else," said Rollins, hotly. + +"Has it gone that far, my boy? I had not thought it so bad, by any +means. It's no use talking with a man who has lost his heart: his reason +goes with it." And Chester turned away. + +"You don't know anything about it," was all poor Rollins could think of +as a suitable thing to shout after him; and it made no more impression +than it deserved. + +As has been said, Captain Chester had decided before seven o'clock that +but one course lay open to him in the matter as now developed. Had +Armitage been there he would have had an adviser, but there was no other +man whose counsel he eared to seek. Old Captain Gray was as bitter +against Jerrold as Chester himself, and with even better reason, for he +knew well the cause of his little daughter's listless manner and tearful +eyes. She had been all radiance and joy at the idea of coming to Sibley +and being near the great cities, but not one happy look had he seen in +her sweet and wistful face since the day of her arrival. Wilton, too, +was another captain who disliked Jerrold; and Chester's rugged sense of +fair play told him that it was not among the enemies of the young +officer that he should now seek advice, but that if he had a friend +among the older and wiser heads in the regiment it was due to him that +that older and wiser head be given a chance to think a little for +Jerrold's sake. And there was not one among the seniors whom he could +call upon. As he ran over their names, Chester for the first time +realized that his ex-subaltern had not a friend among the captains and +senior officers now on duty at the fort. His indifference to duties, his +airy foppishness, his conceit and self-sufficiency, had all served to +create a feeling against him; and this had been intensified by his +conduct since coming to Sibley. The youngsters still kept up jovial +relations with and professed to like him, but among the seniors there +were many men who had only a nod for him on meeting. Wilton had +epitomized the situation by saying he "had no use for a masher," and +poor old Gray had one day scowlingly referred to him as "the +professional beauty." + +In view of all this feeling, Chester would gladly have found some man to +counsel further delay; but there was none. He felt that he must inform +the colonel at once of the fact that Mr. Jerrold was absent from his +quarters at the time of the firing, of his belief that it was Jerrold +who struck him and sped past the sentry in the dark, and of his +conviction that the sooner the young officer was called to account for +his strange conduct the better. As to the episodes of the ladder, the +lights, and the form at the dormer-window, he meant, for the present at +least, to lock them in his heart. + +But he forgot that others too must have heard those shots, and that +others too would be making inquiries. + + + + +VI. + + +A lovely morning it was that beamed on Sibley and the broad and +beautiful valley of the Cloudwater when once the sun got fairly above +the moist horizon. Mist and vapor and heavy cloud all seemed swallowed +up in the gathering, glowing warmth, as though the King of Day had +risen athirst and drained the welcoming cup of nature. It must have +rained at least a little during the darkness of the night, for dew there +could have been none with skies so heavily overcast, and yet the short +smooth turf on the parade, the leaves upon the little shade-trees around +the quadrangle, and all the beautiful vines here on the trellis-work of +the colonel's veranda, shone and sparkled in the radiant light. The +roses in the little garden, and the old-fashioned morning-glory vines +over at the east side, were all a-glitter in the flooding sunshine when +the bugler came out from a glance at the clock in the adjutant's office +and sounded "sick-call" to the indifferent ear of the garrison. Once +each day, at 7.30 a.m., the doctor trudged across to the +hospital and looked over the half-dozen "hopelessly healthy" but +would-be invalids who wanted to get off guard duty or a morning at the +range. Thanks to the searching examination to which every soldier must +be subjected before he can enter the service of Uncle Sam, and to the +disciplined order of the lives of the men at Sibley, maladies of any +serious nature were almost unknown. It was a gloriously healthy post, as +everybody admitted, and, to judge from the specimen of young-womanhood +that came singing, "blithe and low," out among the roses this same +joyous morning, exuberant physical well-being was not restricted to the +men. + +A fairer picture never did dark beauty present than Alice Renwick, as +she bent among the bushes or reached high among the vines in search of +her favorite flowers. Tall, slender, willowy, yet with +exquisitely-rounded form; slim, dainty little hands and feet; graceful +arms and wrists all revealed in the flowing sleeves of her snowy, +web-like gown, fitting her and displaying her sinuous grace of form as +gowns so seldom do to-day. And then her face!--a glorious picture of +rich, ripe, tropical beauty, with its great, soulful, sunlit eyes, +heavily shaded though they were with those wondrous lashes; beautiful, +too, in contour as was the lithe body, and beautiful in every feature, +even to the rare and dewy curve of her red lips, half opened as she +sang. She was smiling to herself, as she crooned her soft, murmuring +melody, and every little while the great dark eyes glanced over towards +the shaded doors of Bachelors' Row. There was no one up to watch and +tell: why should she not look thither, and even stand one moment peering +under the veranda at a darkened window half-way down the row, as though +impatient at the non-appearance of some familiar signal? How came the +laggard late? How slept the knight while here his lady stood impatient? +She twined the leaves and roses in a fragrant knot, ran lightly within +and laid them on the snowy cloth beside the colonel's seat at table, +came forth and plucked some more and fastened them, blushing, blissful, +in the lace-fringed opening of her gown, through which, soft and creamy, +shone the perfect neck. + + "Daisy, tell my fortune, pray: + He loves me not,--he loves me," + +she blithely sang, then, hurrying to the gate, shaded her eyes with the +shapely hand and gazed intently. 'Twas nearing eight,--nearing +breakfast-time. But some one was coming. Horrid! Captain Chester, of all +men! Coming, of course, to see papa, and papa not yet down, and mamma +had a headache and had decided not to come down at all, she would +breakfast in her room. What girl on earth when looking and longing and +waiting for the coming of a graceful youth of twenty-six would be +anything but dismayed at the substitution therefor of a bulky, +heavy-hearted captain of forty-six, no matter if he were still +unmarried? And yet her smile was sweet and cordial. + +"Why, good-morning, Captain Chester. I'm so glad to see you this bright +day. Do come in and let me give you a rose. Papa will soon be down." And +she opened the gate and held forth one long, slim hand. He took it +slowly, as though in a dream, raising his forage-cap at the same time, +yet making no reply. He was looking at her far more closely than he +imagined. How fresh, how radiant, how fair and gracious and winning! +Every item of her attire was so pure and white and spotless; every fold +and curve of her gown seemed charged with subtile, delicate fragrance, +as faint and sweet as the shy and modest wood-violet's. She noted his +silence and his haggard eyes. She noted the intent gaze, and the color +mounted straightway to her forehead. + +"And have you no word of greeting for me?" she blithely laughed, +striving to break through the awkwardness of his reserve, "or are you +worn out with your night watch as officer of the day?" + +He fairly started. Had she seen him, then? Did she know it was he who +stood beneath her window, he who leaped in chase of that scoundrel, he +who stole away with that heavy tell-tale ladder? and, knowing all this, +could she stand there smiling in his face, the incarnation of maiden +innocence and beauty? Impossible! Yet what could she mean? + +"How did you know I had so long a vigil?" he asked, and the cold, +strained tone, the half-averted eyes, the pallor of his face, all struck +her at once. Instantly her manner changed: + +"Oh, forgive me, captain. I see you are all worn out; and I'm keeping +you here at the gate. Come to the piazza and sit down. I'll tell papa +you are here, for I know you want to see him." And she tripped lightly +away before he could reply, and rustled up the stairs. He could hear her +light tap at the colonel's door, and her soft, clear, flute-like voice: +"Papa, Captain Chester is here to see you." + +Papa indeed! She spoke to him and of him as though he were her own. He +treated her as though she were his flesh and blood,--as though he loved +her devotedly. Even before she came had not they been prepared for this? +Did not Mrs. Maynard tell them that Alice had become enthusiastically +devoted to her step-father and considered him the most knightly and +chivalric hero she had ever seen? He could hear the colonel's hearty and +loving tone in reply, and then she came fluttering down again: + +"Papa will be with you in five minutes, captain. But won't you let me +give you some coffee? It's all ready, and you look so tired,--even ill." + +"I have had a bad night," he answered, "but I'm growing old, and cannot +stand sleeplessness as you young people seem to." + +Was she faltering? He watched her eagerly, narrowly, almost wonderingly. +Not a trace of confusion, not a sign of fear; and yet had he not _seen_ +her, and that other figure? + +"I wish you could sleep as I do," was the prompt reply. "I was in the +land of dreams ten minutes after my head touched the pillow, and mamma +made me come home early last night because of our journey to-day. You +know we are going down to visit Aunt Grace, Colonel Maynard's sister, at +Lake Sablon, and mamma wanted me to be looking my freshest and best," +she said, "and I never heard a thing till reveille." + +His eyes, sad, penetrating, doubting,--yet self-doubting, too,--searched +her very soul. Unflinchingly the dark orbs looked into his,--even +pityingly; for she quickly spoke again: + +"Captain, _do_ come into the breakfast-room and have some coffee. You +have not breakfasted, I'm sure." + +He raised his hand as though to repel her offer,--even to put her aside. +He _must_ understand her. He _could_ not be hoodwinked in this way. + +"Pardon me, Miss Renwick, but did you hear nothing strange last night +or early this morning? Were you not disturbed at all?" + +"I? No, indeed!" True, her face had changed now, but there was no fear +in her eyes. It was a look of apprehension, perhaps, of concern and +curiosity mingled, for his tone betrayed that something had happened +which caused him agitation. + +"And you heard no shots fired?" + +"Shots! No! Oh, Captain Chester! what does it mean? _Who_ was shot? Tell +me!" + +And now, with paling face and wild apprehension in her eyes, she turned +and gazed beyond him, past the vines and the shady veranda, across the +sunshine of the parade and under the old piazza, searching that still +closed and darkened window. + +"Who?" she implored, her hands clasping nervously, her eyes returning +eagerly to his face. + +"It was not Mr. Jerrold," he answered, coldly. "He is unhurt, so far as +shot is concerned." + +"Then how is he hurt? Is he hurt at all?" she persisted; and then as she +met his gaze her eyes fell, and the burning blush of maiden shame surged +up to her forehead. She sank upon a seat and covered her face with her +hands. + +"I thought of Mr. Jerrold, naturally. He said he would be over early +this morning," was all she could find to say. + +"I have seen him, and presume he will come. To all appearances, he is +the last man to suffer from last night's affair," he went on, +relentlessly,--almost brutally,--but she never winced. "It is odd you +did not hear the shots. I thought yours was the northwest room,--this +one?" he indicated, pointing overhead. + +"So it is, and I slept there all last night and heard nothing,--not a +thing. _Do_ tell me what the trouble was." + +Then what was there for him to say? The colonel's footsteps were heard +upon the stair, and the colonel, with extended hand and beaming face and +cheery welcome, came forth from the open door-way: + +"Welcome, Chester! I'm glad you've come just in time for breakfast. Mrs. +Maynard won't be down. She slept badly last night, and is sleeping now. +What was the firing last night? I did not hear it at the time, but the +orderly and old Maria the cook were discussing it as I was shaving." + +"It is that I came to see you about, colonel. I am the man to hold +responsible." + +"No prisoners got away, I hope?" + +"No, sir. Nothing, I fear, that would seem to justify my action. I +ordered Number Five to fire." + +"Why, what on earth could have happened around there,--almost back of +us?" said the colonel, in surprise. + +"I do not know what had happened, or what was going to happen." And +Chester paused a moment, and glanced towards the door through which Miss +Renwick had retired as soon as the colonel arrived. The old soldier +seemed to understand the glance. "_She_ would not listen," he said, +proudly. + +"I know," explained Chester. "I think it best that no one but you should +hear anything of the matter for the present until I have investigated +further. It was nearly half-past three this morning as I got around here +on Five's post, inspecting sentinels, and came suddenly in the darkness +upon a man carrying a ladder on his shoulder. I ordered him to halt. The +reply was a violent blow, and the ladder and I were dropped at the same +instant, while the man sprang into space and darted off in the direction +of Number Five. I followed quick as I could, heard the challenge and the +cries of halt, and shouted to Leary to fire. He did, but missed his aim +in the haste and darkness, and the man got safely away. Of course there +is much talk and speculation about it around the post this morning, for +several people heard the shots besides the guard, and, although I told +Leary and others to say nothing, I know it is already generally known." + +"Oh, well, come in to breakfast," said the colonel. "We'll talk it over +there." + +"Pardon me, sir, I cannot. I must get back home before guard-mount, and +Rollins is probably waiting to see me now. I--I could not discuss it at +the table, for there are some singular features about the matter." + +"Why, in God's name, what?" asked the colonel, with sudden and deep +anxiety. + +"Well, sir, an officer of the garrison is placed in a compromising +position by this affair, and cannot or will not explain." + +"Who?" + +"Mr. Jerrold, sir." + +"Jerrold! Why, I got a note from him not ten minutes ago saying he had +an engagement in town and asking permission to go before guard-mounting, +if Mr. Hall was ready. Hall wanted to go with him, Jerrold wrote, but +Hall has not applied for permission to leave the post." + +"It is Jerrold who is compromised, colonel. I may be all wrong in my +suspicions, all wrong in reporting the matter to you at all, but in my +perplexity and distress I see no other way. Frankly, sir, the moment I +caught sight of the man he looked like Jerrold; and two minutes after +the shots were fired I inspected Jerrold's quarters. He was not there, +though the lamps were burning very low in the bedroom, and his bed had +not been occupied at all. When you see Leary, sir, he will tell you that +he also thought it must be Mr. Jerrold." + +"The young scapegrace!--been off to town, I suppose." + +"Colonel," said Chester, quickly, "you--not I--must decide that. I went +to his quarters after reveille, and he was then there, and resented my +visit and questions, admitted that he had been out during the night, but +refused to make any statement to me." + +"Well, Chester, I will haul him up after breakfast. Possibly he had been +up to the rifle-camp, or had driven to town after the doctor's party. Of +course _that_ must be stopped; but I'm glad you missed him. It, of +course, staggers a man's judgment to be knocked down, but if you had +killed him it might have been as serious for you as this knock-down blow +will be for him. That is the worst phase of the matter. What could he +have been thinking of? He must have been either drunk or mad; and he +rarely drank. Oh, dear, dear, dear, but that's very bad,--very +bad,--striking the officer of the day! Why, Chester, that's the worst +thing that's happened in the regiment since I took command of it. It's +about the worst thing that _could_ have happened to us. Of course he +must go in arrest. I'll see the adjutant right after breakfast. I'll be +over early, Chester." And with grave and worried face the colonel bade +him adieu. + +As he turned away, Chester heard him saying again to himself, "About the +worst thing he could have done!--the worst thing he could have done!" +And the captain's heart sank within him. What would the colonel say when +he knew how far, far worse was the foul wrong Mr. Jerrold had done to +him and his? + + + + +VII. + + +Before guard-mounting--almost half an hour before his usual time for +appearing at the office--Colonel Maynard hurried in to his desk, sent +the orderly for Captain Chester, and then the clerks in the +sergeant-major's room heard him close and lock the door. As the subject +of the shooting was already under discussion among the men there +assembled, this action on the part of the chief was considered highly +significant. It was hardly five minutes before Chester came, looked +surprised at finding the door locked, knocked, and was admitted. + +The look on the haggard face at the desk, the dumb misery in the eyes, +the wrath and horror in it all, carried him back twenty years to that +gloomy morning in the casemates when the story was passed around that +Captain Maynard had lost a wife and an intimate friend during the +previous night. Chester saw at a glance that, despite his precautions, +the blow had come, the truth been revealed at one fell swoop. + +"Lock the door again, Chester, and come here. I have some questions to +ask you." + +The captain silently took the chair which was indicated by a wave of the +colonel's hand, and waited. For a moment no word more was spoken. The +old soldier, white and trembling strangely, reseated himself at the +desk, and covered his face with his hands. Twice he drew them with +feebly stroking movement over his eyes, as though to rally the stunned +faculties and face the trying ordeal. Then a shiver passed through his +frame, and with sudden lift of the head he fixed his gaze on Chester's +face and launched the question,-- + +"Chester, is there any kindness to a man who has been through what I +have in telling only half a tale, as you have done?" + +The captain colored red. "I am at a loss to answer you, colonel," he +said, after brief reflection. "You know far more than you did half an +hour ago, and what I knew I could not bear to tell you as yet." + +"My God! my God! Tell me _all_, and tell me at once. Here, man, if you +need stimulant to your indignation and cannot speak without it, read +this. I found it, open, among the rose-bushes in the garden, where she +must have dropped it when out there with you. Read it. Tell me what it +means; for, God knows, I can't believe such a thing of her." + +He handed Chester a sheet of note-paper. It was moist and blurred on +the first page, but the inner pages, though damp, were in good +condition. The first, second, and third pages were closely covered in a +bold, nervous hand that Chester knew well. It was Jerrold's writing, +beyond a doubt, and Chester's face grew hot as he read, and his heart +turned cold as stone when he finished the last hurried line. + +"MY DARLING,-- + +"I _must_ see you, if only for a moment, before you leave. Do not let +this alarm you, for the more I think the more I am convinced it is only +a bluff, but Captain Chester discovered my absence early this morning +when spying around as usual, and now he claims to have knowledge of our +secret. Even if he was on the terrace when I got back, it was too dark +for him to recognize me, and it seems impossible that he can have got +any real clue. He suspects, perhaps, and thinks to force me to +confession; but I would guard your name with my life. Be wary. Act as +though there were nothing on earth between us, and if we cannot meet +until then I will be at the dépôt with the others to see you off, and +will then have a letter ready with full particulars and instructions. It +will be in the first thing I hand to you. Hide it until you can safely +read it. Your mother must not be allowed a glimmer of suspicion, and +then you are safe. As for me, even Chester cannot make the colonel turn +against me now. My jealous one, my fiery sweetheart, do you not realize +now that I was wise in showing her so much attention? A thousand kisses. +Come what may, they cannot rob us of the past. HOWARD. + +"I fear you heard and were alarmed by the shots just after I left you. +All was quiet when I got home." + +It was some seconds before Chester could control himself sufficiently to +speak. "I wish to God the bullet had gone through his heart!" he said. + +"It has gone through mine,--through mine! This will kill her mother. +Chester," cried the colonel, springing suddenly to his feet, "she must +not know it. She must not dream of it. I tell you it would stretch her +in the dust, _dead_, for she loves that child with all her strength, +with all her being, I believe, for it is two mother-loves in one. She +had a son, older than Alice by several years, her first-born,--her +glory, he was,--but the boy inherited the father's passionate and +impulsive nature. He loved a girl utterly beneath him, and would have +married her when he was only twenty. There is no question that he loved +her well, for he refused to give her up, no matter what his father +threatened. They tried to buy her off, and she scorned them. Then they +had a letter written, while he was sent abroad under pretence that he +should have his will if he came back in a year unchanged. By Jove, it +seems she was as much in love as he, and it broke her heart. She went +off and died somewhere, and he came back ahead of time because her +letters had ceased, and found it all out. There was an awful scene. He +cursed them both,--father and mother,--and left her senseless at his +feet; and from that day to this they never heard of him, never could get +the faintest report. It broke Renwick,--killed him, I guess, for he died +in two years; and as for the mother, you would not think that a woman so +apparently full of life and health was in desperate danger. She had some +organic trouble with the heart years ago, they tell her, and this +experience has developed it so that now any great emotion or sudden +shock is perilous. Do you not see how doubly fearful this comes to us? +Chester, I have weathered one awful storm, but I'm old and broken now. +This--this beats me. Tell me what to do." + +The captain was silent a few moments. He was thinking intently. + +"Does she know you have that letter?" he asked. + +Maynard shook his head: "I looked back as I came away. She was in the +parlor, singing softly to herself, at the very moment I picked it up, +lying open as it was right there among the roses, the first words +staring me in the face. I meant not to read it,--never dreamed it was +for her,--and had turned over the page to look for the superscription. +There was none, but there I saw the signature and that postscript about +the shots. That startled me, and I read it here just before you came, +and then could account for your conduct,--something I could not do +before. God of heaven! would any man believe it of her? It is +incredible! Chester, tell me everything you know now,--even everything +you suspect. I must see my way clear." + +And then the captain, with halting and reluctant tongue, told his story: +how he had stumbled on the ladder back of the colonel's quarters and +learned from Number Five that some one had been prowling back of +Bachelors' Row; how he returned there afterwards, found the ladder at +the side-wall, and saw the tall form issue from her window; how he had +given chase and been knocked breathless, and of his suspicions, and +Leary's, as to the identity of the stranger. + +The colonel bowed his head still deeper, and groaned aloud. But he had +still other questions to ask. + +"Did you see--any one else at the window?" + +"Not while he was there." + +"At any time, then,--before or after?" And the colonel's eyes would take +no denial. + +"I saw," faltered Chester, "nobody. The shade was pulled up while I was +standing there, after I had tripped on the ladder. I supposed the noise +of my stumble had awakened her." + +"And was that all? Did you see nothing more?" + +"Colonel, I _did_ see, afterwards, a woman's hand and arm closing the +shade." + +"My God! And she told me she slept the night through,--never waked or +heard a sound!" + +"Did you hear nothing yourself, colonel?" + +"Nothing. When she came home from the party she stopped a moment, saying +something to him at the door, then came into the library and kissed me +good-night. I shut up the house and went to bed about half-past twelve, +and her door was closed when I went to our room." + +"So there were two closed doors, yours and hers, and the broad hall +between you?" + +"Certainly. We have the doors open all night that lead into the rear +rooms, and their windows. This gives us abundant air. Alice always has +the hall door closed at night." + +"And Mrs. Maynard,--was she asleep?" + +"No. Mrs. Maynard was lying awake, and seemed a little restless and +disturbed. Some of the women had been giving her some hints about +Jerrold and fretting her. You know she took a strange fancy to him at +the start. It was simply because he reminded her so strongly of the boy +she had lost. She told me so. But after a little she began to discover +traits in him she did not like, and then his growing intimacy with Alice +worried her. She would have put a stop to the doctor's party,--to her +going with him, I mean,--but the engagement was made some days ago. Two +or three days since, she warned Alice not to trust him, she says; and it +is really as much on this as any other account that we decided to get +her away, off to see her aunt Grace. Oh, God! how blind we are! how +blind we are!" And poor old Maynard bowed his head and almost groaned +aloud. + +Chester rose, and, in his characteristic way, began tramping nervously +up and down. There was a knock at the door. "The adjutant's compliments, +and 'twas time for guard-mount. Would the colonel wish to see him before +he went out?" asked the orderly. + +"I ought to go, sir," said Chester. "I am old officer of the day, and +there will be just time for me to get into full uniform." + +"Let them go on without you," said Maynard. "I cannot spare you now. +Send word to that effect. Now,--now about this man,--this Jerrold. What +is the best thing we can do?--of course I know what he most +deserves;--but what is the _best_ thing under all the circumstances? Of +course my wife and Alice will leave to-day. She was still sleeping when +I left, and, pray God, is not dreaming of this. It was nearly two before +she closed her eyes last night; and I, too, slept badly. You have seen +him. What does he say?" + +"Denies everything,--anything,--challenges me to prove that he was +absent from his house more than five minutes,--indeed, I could not, for +he may have come in just after I left,--and pretended utter ignorance of +my meaning when I accused him of striking me before I ordered the sentry +to fire. Of course it is all useless now. When I confront him with this +letter he _must_ give in. Then let him resign and get away as quietly as +possible before the end of the week. No one need know the causes. Of +course shooting is what he deserves; but shooting demands explanation. +It is better for your name, hers, and all, that he should be allowed to +live than that the truth were suspected, as it would be if he were +killed. Indeed, sir, if I were you I would take them to Sablon, keep +them away for a fortnight, and leave him to me. It may be even judicious +to let him go on with all his duties as though nothing had happened, as +though he had simply been absent from reveille, and let the whole matter +drop like that until all remark and curiosity is lulled; then you can +send her back to Europe or the East,--time enough to decide on that; but +I will privately tell him he must quit the service in six months, and +show him why. It isn't the way it ought to be settled; it probably isn't +the way Armitage would do it; but it is the best thing that occurs to +me. One thing is certain: you and they ought to get away at once, and he +should not be permitted to see her again. I can run the post a few days +and explain matters after you go." + +The colonel sat in wretched silence a few moments; then he arose: + +"If it were not for _her_ danger,--her heart,--I would never drop the +matter here,--never! I would see it through to the bitter end. But you +are probably right as to the prudent course to take. I'll get them away +on the noon train: he thinks they do not start until later. Now I must +go and face it. My God, Chester! could you look at that child and +realize it? Even now, even now, sir, I believe--I believe, +someway--somehow--she is innocent." + +"God grant it, sir!" + +And then the colonel left the office, avoiding, as has been told, a word +with any man. Chester buttoned the tell-tale letter in an inner pocket, +after having first folded the sheet lengthwise and then enclosed it in a +long official envelope. The officers, wondering at the colonel's +distraught appearance, had come thronging in, hoping for information, +and then had gone, unsatisfied and disgusted, practically turned out by +their crabbed senior captain. The ladies, after chatting aimlessly about +the quadrangle for half an hour, had decided that Mrs. Maynard must be +ill, and, while most of them awaited the result, two of their number +went to the colonel's house and rang at the bell. A servant appeared: +"Mrs. Maynard wasn't very well this morning, and was breakfasting in her +room, and Miss Alice was with her, if the ladies would please excuse +them." And so the emissaries returned unsuccessful. Then, too, as we +have seen, despite his good intention of keeping matters hushed as much +as possible, Chester's nervous irritability had got the better of him, +and he had made damaging admissions to Wilton of the existence of a +cause of worriment and perplexity, and this Wilton told without +compunction. And then there was another excitement, that set all tongues +wagging. Every man had heard what Chester said, that Mr. Jerrold must +not quit the garrison until he had first come and seen the temporary +commanding officer, and Hall had speedily carried the news to his +friend. + +"Are _you_ ready to go?" asked Mr. Jerrold, who was lacing his boots in +the rear room. + +"No. I've got to go and get into 'cits' first." + +"All right. Go, and be lively! I'll wait for you at Murphy's, beyond the +bridge, provided you say nothing about it." + +"You don't mean you are going against orders?" + +"Going? Of course I am. I've got old Maynard's permission, and if +Chester means to revoke it he's got to get his adjutant here inside of +ten seconds. What you tell me isn't official. I'm off _now_!" + +And when the adjutant returned to Captain Chester it was with the +information that he was too late: Mr. Jerrold's dog-cart had crossed +the bridge five minutes earlier. + +Perhaps an hour later the colonel sent for Chester, and the captain went +to his house. The old soldier was pacing slowly up and down the parlor +floor. + +"I wanted you a moment. A singular thing has happened. You know that +'Directoire' cabinet photo of Alice? My wife always kept it on her +dressing-table, and this morning it's gone. That frame--the silver +filigree thing--was found behind a sofa-pillow in Alice's room, and she +declares she has no idea how it got there. Chester, is there any new +significance in this?" + +The captain bowed assent. + +"What is it?" + +"That photograph was seen by Major Sloat in Jerrold's bureau-drawer at +reveille this morning." + +And such was the situation at Sibley the August day the colonel took his +wife and her lovely daughter to visit Aunt Grace at Lake Sablon. + + + + +VIII. + + +In the big red omnibus that was slowly toiling over the dusty road +several passengers were making their way from the railway-station to the +hotel at Lake Sablon. Two of them were women of mature years, whose +dress and bearing betokened lives of ease and comfort; another was a +lovely brunette of less than twenty, the daughter, evidently, of one of +these ladies, and an object of loving pride to both. These three seemed +at home in their surroundings, and were absorbed in the packet of +letters and papers they had just received at the station. It was evident +that they were not new arrivals, as were the other passengers, who +studied them with the half-envious feelings with which new-comers at a +summer resort are apt to regard those who seem to have been long +established there, and who gathered from the scraps of conversation that +they had merely been over to say good-by to friends leaving on the very +train which brought in the rest of what we good Americans term "the +'bus-load." There were women among the newly-arrived who inspected the +dark girl with that calm, unflinching, impertinent scrutiny and +half-audibly whispered comment which, had they been of the opposite sex, +would have warranted their being kicked out of the conveyance, but which +was ignored by the fair object and her friends as completely as were +the commentators themselves. There were one or two men in the omnibus +who might readily have been forgiven an admiring glance or two at so +bright a vision of girlish beauty as was Miss Renwick this August +afternoon, and they _had_ looked; but the one who most attracted the +notice of Mrs. Maynard and Aunt Grace--a tall, stalwart, +distinguished-looking party in gray travelling-dress--had taken his seat +close to the door and was deep in the morning's paper before they were +fairly away from the station. + +Laying down the letter she had just finished reading, Mrs. Maynard +glanced at her daughter, who was still engaged in one of her own, and +evidently with deep interest. + +"From Fort Sibley, Alice?" + +"Yes, mamma, all three,--Miss Craven, Mrs. Hoyt, and--Mr. Jerrold. Would +you like to see it?" And, with rising color, she held forth the one in +her hand. + +"Not now," was the answer, with a smile that told of confidence and +gratification both. "It is about the german, I suppose?" + +"Yes. He thinks it outrageous that we should not be there,--says it is +to be the prettiest ever given at the fort, and that Mrs. Hoyt and Mrs. +Craven, who are the managers for the ladies, had asked him to lead. He +wants to know if we cannot possibly come." + +"Are you not very eager to go, Alice? I should be," said Aunt Grace, +with sympathetic interest. + +"Yes, I am," answered Miss Renwick, reflectively. "It had been arranged +that it should come off next week, when, as was supposed, we would be +home after this visit. It cannot be postponed, of course, because it is +given in honor of all the officers who are gathered there for the +rifle-competition, and that will be all over and done with to-day, and +they cannot stay beyond Tuesday next. We must give it up, auntie," and +she looked up smilingly, "and you have made it so lovely for me here +that I can do it without a sigh. Think of that!--an army german!--and +Fanny Craven says the favors are to be simply lovely. Yes, I _did_ want +to go, but papa said he felt unequal to it the moment he got back from +Chicago, day before yesterday, and he certainly does not look at all +well: so that ended it, and I wrote at once to Mrs. Hoyt. This is her +answer now." + +"What does she say?" + +"Oh, it is very kind of her: she wants me to come and be her guest if +the colonel is too ill to come and mamma will not leave him. She says +Mr. Hoyt will come down and escort me. But I would not like to go +without mamma," and the big dark eyes looked up wistfully, "and I know +she does not care to urge papa when he seems so indisposed to going." + +Mrs. Maynard's eyes were anxious and troubled now. She turned to her +sister-in-law: + +"Do you think he seems any better, Grace? I do not." + +"It is hard to say. He was so nervously anxious to get away to see the +general the very day you arrived here that there was not a moment in +which I could ask him about himself; and since his return he has avoided +all mention of it beyond saying it is nothing but indigestion and he +would be all right in a few days. I never knew him to suffer in that way +in my life. Is there any regimental matter that can be troubling him?" +she asked, in lower tone. + +"Nothing of any consequence whatever. Of course the officers feel +chagrined over their defeat in the rifle-match. They had expected to +stand very high, but Mr. Jerrold's shooting was unexpectedly below the +average, and it threw their team behind. But the colonel didn't make the +faintest allusion to it. That hasn't worried him anywhere near as much +as it has the others, I should judge." + +"I do not think it was all Mr. Jerrold's fault, mamma," said Miss +Renwick, with gentle reproach and a very becoming flush. "I'm going to +stand up for him, because I think they all blame him for other men's +poor work. He was not the only one on our team whose shooting was below +former scores." + +"They claim that none fell so far below their expectations as he, Alice. +You know I am no judge of such matters, but Mr. Hoyt and Captain Gray +both write the colonel that Mr. Jerrold had been taking no care of +himself whatever and was entirely out of form." + +"In any event I'm glad the cavalry did no better," was Miss Renwick's +loyal response. "You remember the evening we rode out to the range and +Captain Gray said that there was the man who would win the first prize +from Mr. Jerrold,--that tall cavalry sergeant who fainted +away,--Sergeant McLeod; don't you remember, mother? Well, he did not +even get a place, and Mr. Jerrold beat him easily." + +Something in her mother's eyes warned her to be guarded, and, in that +indefinable but unerring system of feminine telegraphy, called her +attention to the man sitting by the door. Looking quickly to her right, +Miss Renwick saw that he was intently regarding her. At the mention of +Fort Sibley the stranger had lowered his paper, revealing a bronzed face +clean-shaven except for the thick blonde moustache, and a pair of clear, +steady, searching blue eyes under heavy brows and lashes, and these eyes +were very deliberately yet respectfully fixed upon her own; nor were +they withdrawn in proper confusion when detected. It was Miss Renwick +whose eyes gave up the contest and returned in some sense of defeat to +her mother's face. + +"What letters have you for the colonel?" asked Mrs. Maynard, coming _au +secours_. + +"Three,--two of them from his devoted henchman Captain Chester, who +writes by every mail, I should imagine; and these he will go off into +some secluded nook with and come back looking blue and worried. Then +here's another, forwarded from Sibley, too. I do not know this hand. +Perhaps it is from Captain Armitage, who, they say, is to come back next +month. Poor Mr. Jerrold!" + +"Why poor Mr. Jerrold?" asked Aunt Grace, with laughing interest, as she +noted the expression on her niece's pretty face. + +"Because he can't bear Captain Armitage, and--" + +"Now, Alice!" said her mother, reprovingly. "You must not take his view +of the captain at all. Remember what the colonel said of him--" + +"Mother dear," protested Alice, laughing, "I have no doubt Captain +Armitage is the paragon of a soldier, but he is unquestionably a most +unpleasant and ungentlemanly person in his conduct to the young +officers. Mr. Hall has told me the same thing. I declare, I don't see +how they can speak to him at all, he has been so harsh and discourteous +and unjust." The color was rising in earnest now, but a warning glance +in her mother's eye seemed to check further words. There was an +instant's silence. Then Aunt Grace remarked,-- + +"Alice, your next-door neighbor has vanished. I think your vehemence has +frightened him." + +Surely enough, the big, blue-eyed man in tweeds had disappeared. During +this brief controversy he had quickly and noiselessly let himself out of +the open door, swung lightly to the ground, and was out of sight among +the trees. + +"Why, what a strange proceeding!" said Aunt Grace again. "We are fully a +mile and a half from the hotel, and he means to walk it in this glaring +sun." + +Evidently he did. The driver reined up at the moment in response to a +suggestion from some one in a forward seat, and there suddenly appeared +by the wayside, striding out from the shelter of the sumachs, the +athletic figure of the stranger. + +"Go ahead!" he called, in a deep chest-voice that had an unmistakable +ring to it,--the tone that one so readily recognizes in men accustomed +to prompt action and command. "I'm going across lots." And, swinging his +heavy stick, with quick, elastic steps and erect carriage the man in +gray plunged into a wood-path and was gone. + +"Alice," said Aunt Grace, again, "that man is an officer, I'm sure, and +you have driven him into exile and lonely wandering. I've seen so much +of them when visiting my brother in the old days before my marriage that +even in civilian dress it is easy to tell some of them. Just look at +that back, and those shoulders! He has been a soldier all his life. +Horrors! suppose it should be Captain Armitage himself!" + +Miss Renwick looked genuinely distressed, as well as vexed. Certainly no +officer but Captain Armitage would have had reason to leave the stage. +Certainly officers and their families occasionally visited Sablon in the +summer-time, but Captain Armitage could hardly be here. There was +comforting assurance in the very note she held in her hand. + +"It cannot be," she said, "because Mr. Jerrold writes that they have +just heard from him at Sibley. He is still at the sea-shore, and will +not return for a month. Mr. Jerrold says he implored Captain Chester to +let him have three days' leave to come down here and have a sail and a +picnic with us, and was told that it would be out of the question." + +"Did he tell you any other news?" asked Mrs. Maynard, looking up from +her letter again,--"anything about the german?" + +"He says he thinks it a shame we are to be away and--well, read it +yourself." And she placed it in her mother's hands, the dark eyes +seriously, anxiously studying her face as she read. Presently Mrs. +Maynard laid it down and looked again into her own, then, pointing to a +certain passage with her finger, handed it to her daughter. + +"Men were deceivers ever," she said, laughing, yet oracularly +significant. + +And Alice Renwick could not quite control the start with which she +read,-- + +"Mr. Jerrold is to lead with his old love, Nina Beaubien. They make a +capital pair, and she, of course, will be radiant--with Alice out of the +way." + +"That is something Mr. Jerrold failed to mention, is it not?" + +Miss Renwick's cheeks were flushed, and the dark eyes were filled with +sudden pain, as she answered,-- + +"I did not know she was there. She was to have gone to the Lakes the +same day we left." + +"She did go, Alice," said her mother, quietly, "but it was only for a +brief visit, it seems." + +The colonel was not at their cottage when the omnibus reached the lake. +Over at the hotel were the usual number of loungers gathered to see the +new arrivals, and Alice presently caught sight of the colonel coming +through the park. If anything, he looked more listless and dispirited +than he had before they left. She ran down the steps to meet him, +smiling brightly up into his worn and haggard face. + +"Are you feeling a little brighter, papa? Here are letters for you." + +He took them wearily, barely glancing at the superscriptions. + +"I had hoped for something more," he said, and passed on into the little +frame house which was his sister's summer home. "Is your mother here?" +he asked, looking back as he entered the door. + +"In the north room, with Aunt Grace, papa," she answered; and then once +more and with graver face she began to read Mr. Jerrold's letter. It was +a careful study she was making of it this time, and not altogether a +pleasant one. Aunt Grace came out and made some laughing remark at +seeing her still so occupied. She looked up, pluckily smiling despite a +sense of wounded pride, and answered,-- + +"I am only convincing myself that it was purely on general principles +that Mr. Jerrold seemed so anxious I should be there. He never wanted me +to lead with him at all." All the same it stung, and Aunt Grace saw and +knew it, and longed to take her to her heart and comfort her; but it was +better so. She was finding him out unaided. + +She was still studying over portions of that ingenious letter, when the +rustle of her aunt's gown indicated that she was rising. She saw her +move towards the steps, heard a quick, firm tread upon the narrow +planking, and glanced up in surprise. There, uncovering his +close-cropped head, stood the tall stranger, looking placidly up as he +addressed Aunt Grace: + +"Pardon me, can I see Colonel Maynard?" + +"He is at home. Pray come up and take a chair. I will let him know. +I--I felt sure you must be some friend of his when I saw you in the +stage," said the good lady, with manifest and apologetic uneasiness. + +"Yes," responded the stranger, as he quickly ascended the steps and +bowed before her, smiling quietly the while. "Let me introduce myself. I +am Captain Armitage, of the colonel's regiment." + +"There! I _knew_ it!" was Aunt Grace's response, as with both hands +uplifted in tragic despair she gave one horror-stricken glance at Alice +and rushed into the house. + +There was a moment's silence; then, with burning cheeks, but with brave +eyes that looked frankly into his, Alice Renwick arose, came straight up +to him, and held out her pretty hand. + +"Captain Armitage, I beg your pardon." + +He took the extended hand and gazed earnestly into her face, while a +kind--almost merry--smile lighted up his own. + +"Have the boys given me such an uncanny reputation as all that?" he +asked; and then, as though tickled with the comicality of the situation, +he began to laugh. "What ogres some of us old soldiers do become in the +course of years! Do you know, young lady, I might never have suspected +what a brute I was if it had not been for you? What a blessed thing it +was the colonel did not tell you I was coming! You would never have +given me this true insight into my character." + +But she saw nothing to laugh at, and would not laugh. Her lovely face +was still burning with blushes and dismay and full of trouble. + +"I do not look upon it lightly at all," she said. "It was unpardonable +in me to--to--" + +"To take so effective and convincing a method of telling a man of his +grievous sins! Not a bit of it. I like a girl who has the courage to +stand up for her friends. I shall congratulate Jerrold and Hall both +when I get back, lucky fellows that they are!" And evidently Captain +Armitage was deriving altogether too much jolly entertainment from her +awkwardness. She rallied and strove to put an end to it. + +"Indeed, Captain Armitage, I _do_ think the young officers sorely need +friends and advocates at times. I never would have knowingly spoken to +you of your personal responsibilities in the woes of Mr. Jerrold and Mr. +Hall, but since I have done so unwittingly I may as well define my +position, especially as you are so good-natured with it all." And here, +it must be admitted, Miss Renwick's beautiful eyes were shyly lifted to +his in a most telling way. Once there, they looked squarely into the +clear blue depths of his, and never flinched. "It seemed to me several +times at Sibley that the young officers deserved more consideration and +courtesy than their captains accorded them. It was not you alone that I +heard of." + +"I am profoundly gratified to learn that somebody else is a brute," he +answered, trying to look grave, but with that irrepressible merriment +twitching at the corners of his mouth and giving sudden gleams of his +firm white teeth through the thick moustache. "You are come to us just +in time, Miss Renwick, and if you will let me come and tell you all my +sorrows the next time the colonel pitches into me for something wrong in +B Company, I'll give you full permission to overhaul me for everything +or anything I say and do to the youngsters. Is it a bargain?" And he +held out his big, firm hand. + +"I think you are--very different from what I heard," was all her answer, +as she looked up in his eyes, twinkling as they were with fun. "Oh, we +are to shake hands on it as a bargain? Is that it? Very well, then." + + + + +IX. + + +When Captain Armitage left the cottage that night he did not go at once +to his own room. Brief as was the conversation he had enjoyed with Miss +Renwick, it was all that Fate vouchsafed him for that date at least. The +entire party went to tea together at the hotel, but immediately +thereafter the colonel carried Armitage away, and for two long hours +they were closeted over some letters that had come from Sibley, and when +the conference broke up and the wondering ladies saw the two men come +forth it was late,--almost ten o'clock,--and the captain did not venture +beyond the threshold of the sitting-room. He bowed and bade them a +somewhat ceremonious good-night. His eyes rested--lingered--on Miss +Renwick's uplifted face, and it was the picture he took with him into +the stillness of the summer night. + +The colonel accompanied him to the steps, and rested his hand upon the +broad gray shoulder. + +"God only knows how I have needed you, Armitage. This trouble has nearly +crushed me, and it seemed as though I were utterly alone. I had the +haunting fear that it was only weakness on my part and my love for my +wife that made me stand out against Chester's propositions. He can only +see guilt and conviction in every new phase of the case, and, though +you see how he tries to spare me, his letters give no hope of any other +conclusion." + +Armitage pondered a moment before he answered. Then he slowly spoke: + +"Chester has lived a lonely and an unhappy life. His first experience +after graduation was that wretched affair of which you have told me. Of +course I knew much of the particulars before, but not all. I respect +Chester as a soldier and a gentleman, and I like him and trust him as a +friend; but, Colonel Maynard, in a matter of such vital importance as +this, and one of such delicacy, I distrust, not his motives, but his +judgment. All his life, practically, he has been brooding over the +sorrow that came to him when your trouble came to you, and his mind is +grooved: he believes he sees mystery and intrigue in matters that others +might explain in an instant." + +"But think of all the array of evidence he has." + +"Enough, and more than enough, I admit, to warrant everything he has +thought or said of the man; but--" + +"He simply puts it this way. If he be guilty, can she be less? Is it +possible, Armitage, that you are unconvinced?" + +"Certainly I am unconvinced. The matter has not yet been sifted. As I +understand it, you have forbidden his confronting Jerrold with the +proofs of his rascality until I get there. Admitting the evidence of the +ladder, the picture, and the form at the window,--ay, the letter, +too,--I am yet to be convinced of one thing. You must remember that his +judgment is biassed by his early experiences. He fancies, that no woman +is proof against such fascinations as Jerrold's." + +"And your belief?" + +"Is that some women--_many_ women--are utterly above such a +possibility." + +Old Maynard wrung his comrade's hand. "You make me hope in spite of +myself,--my past experiences,--my very senses, Armitage. I have leaned +on you so many years that I missed you sorely when this trial came. If +you had been there, things might not have taken this shape. He looks +upon Chester--and it's one thing Chester hasn't forgiven in him--as a +meddling old granny; you remember the time he so spoke of him last year; +but he holds you in respect, or is afraid of you,--which in a man of his +calibre is about the same thing. It may not be too late for you to act. +Then when he is disposed of once and for all, I can know what must be +done--where she is concerned." + +"And under no circumstances can you question Mrs. Maynard?" + +"No! no! If she suspected anything of this it would kill her. In any +event, she must have no suspicion of it _now_." + +"But does she not ask? Has she no theory about the missing photograph? +Surely she must marvel over its disappearance." + +"She _does_; at least, she _did_; but--I'm ashamed to own it, +Armitage--we had to quiet her natural suspicions in some way, and I told +her that it was my doing,--that I took it to tease Alice, put the +photograph in the drawer of my desk, and hid the frame behind her +sofa-pillow. Chester knows of the arrangement, and we had settled that +when the picture was recovered from Mr. Jerrold he would send it to me." + +Armitage was silent. A frown settled on his forehead, and it was evident +that the statement was far from welcome to him. Presently he held forth +his hand. + +"Well, good-night, sir. I must go and have a quiet think over this. I +hope you will rest well. You need it, colonel." + +But Maynard only shook his head. His heart was too troubled for rest of +any kind. He stood gazing out towards the park, where the tall figure of +his ex-adjutant had disappeared among the trees. He heard the low-toned, +pleasant chat of the ladies in the sitting-room, but he was in no mood +to join them. He wished that Armitage had not gone, he felt such +strength and comparative hope in his presence; but it was plain that +even Armitage was confounded by the array of facts and circumstances +that he had so painfully and slowly communicated to him. The colonel +went drearily back to the room in which they had had their long +conference. His wife and sister both hailed him as he passed the +sitting-room door, and urged him to come and join them,--they wanted to +ask about Captain Armitage, with whom it was evident they were much +impressed; but he answered that he had some letters to put away, and he +must attend first to that. + +Among those that had been shown to the captain, mainly letters from +Chester telling of the daily events at the fort and of his surveillance +in the case of Jerrold, was one which Alice had brought him two days +before. This had seemed to him of unusual importance, as the others +contained nothing that tended to throw new light on the case. It said,-- + +"I am glad you have telegraphed for Armitage, and heartily approve your +decision to lay the whole case before him. I presume he can reach you by +Sunday, and that by Tuesday he will be here at the fort and ready to +act. This will be a great relief to me, for, do what I could to allay +it, there is no concealing the fact that much speculation and gossip is +afloat concerning the events of that unhappy night. Leary declares he +has been close-mouthed; the other men on guard know absolutely nothing, +and Captain Wilton is the only officer to whom in my distress of mind I +betrayed that there _was_ a mystery, and he has pledged himself to me to +say nothing. Sloat, too, has an inkling, and a big one, that Jerrold is +the suspected party; but I never dreamed that anything had been seen or +heard which in the faintest way connected _your_ household with the +matter, until yesterday. Then Leary admitted to me that two women, Mrs. +Clifford's cook and the doctor's nursery-maid, had asked him whether it +wasn't Lieutenant Jerrold he fired at, and if it was true that he was +trying to get in at the colonel's back door. Twice Mrs. Clifford has +asked me very significant questions, and three times to-day have +officers made remarks to me that indicated their knowledge of the +existence of some grave trouble. What makes matters worse is that +Jerrold, when twitted about his absence from reveille, loses his temper +and gets confused. There came near being a quarrel between him and +Rollins at the mess a day or two since. He was saying that the reason he +slept through roll-call was the fact that he had been kept up very late +at the doctor's party, and Rollins happened to come in at the moment and +blurted out that if he was up at all it must have been after he left the +party, and reminded him that he had left before midnight with Miss +Renwick. This completely staggered Jerrold, who grew confused and tried +to cover it with a display of anger. Now, two weeks ago Rollins was most +friendly to Jerrold and stood up for him when I assailed him, but ever +since that night he has had no word to say for him. When Jerrold played +wrathful and accused Rollins of mixing in other men's business, Rollins +bounced up to him like a young bull-terrier, and I believe there would +have been a row had not Sloat and Hoyt promptly interfered. Jerrold +apologized, and Rollins accepted the apology, but has avoided him ever +since,--won't speak of him to me, now that I have reason to want to draw +him out. As soon as Armitage gets here he can do what I cannot,--find +out just what and who is suspected and talked about. + +"Mr. Jerrold, of course, avoids me. He has been attending strictly to +his duty, and is evidently confounded that I did not press the matter of +his going to town as he did the day I forbade it. Mr. Hoyt's being too +late to see him personally gave me sufficient grounds on which to excuse +it; but he seems to understand that something is impending, and is +looking nervous and harassed. He has not renewed his request for leave +of absence to run down to Sablon. I told him curtly it was out of the +question." + +The colonel took a few strides up and down the room. It had come, then. +The good name of those he loved was already besmirched by garrison +gossip, and he knew that nothing but heroic measures could ever silence +scandal. Impulse and the innate sense of "fight" urged him to go at once +to the scene, leaving his wife and her fair daughter here under his +sister's roof; but Armitage and common sense said no. He had placed his +burden on those broad gray shoulders, and, though ill content to wait, +he felt that he was bound. Stowing away the letters, too nervous to +sleep, too worried to talk, he stole from the cottage, and, with hands +clasped behind his back, with low-bowed head he strolled forth into the +broad vista of moonlit road. + +There were bright lights still burning at the hotel, and gay voices came +floating through the summer air. The piano, too, was thrumming a waltz +in the parlor, and two or three couples were throwing embracing, +slowly-twirling shadows on the windows. Over in the bar-and +billiard-rooms the click of the balls and the refreshing rattle of +cracked ice told suggestively of the occupation of the inmates. Keeping +on beyond these distracting sounds, he slowly climbed a long, gradual +ascent to the "bench," or plateau above the wooded point on which were +grouped the glistening white buildings of the pretty summer resort, and, +having reached the crest, turned silently to gaze at the beauty of the +scene,--at the broad, flawless bosom of a summer lake all sheen and +silver from the unclouded moon. Far to the southeast it wound among the +bold and rock-ribbed bluffs rising from the forest growth at their base +to shorn and rounded summits. Miles away to the southward twinkled the +lights of one busy little town; others gleamed and sparkled over towards +the northern shore, close under the pole-star; while directly opposite +frowned a massive wall of palisaded rock, that threw, deep and heavy and +far from shore, its long reflection in the mirror of water. There was +not a breath of air stirring in the heavens, not a ripple on the face of +the waters beneath, save where, close under the bold headland down on +the other side, the signal-lights, white and crimson and green, creeping +slowly along in the shadows, revealed one of the packets ploughing her +steady way to the great marts below. Nearer at hand, just shaving the +long strip of sandy, wooded point that jutted far out into the lake, a +broad raft of timber, pushed by a hard-working, black-funnelled +stern-wheeler, was slowly forging its way to the outlet of the lake, its +shadowy edge sprinkled here and there with little sparks of lurid +red,--the pilot-lights that gave warning of its slow and silent coming. +Far down along the southern shore, under that black bluff-line, close to +the silver water-edge, a glowing meteor seemed whirling through the +night, and the low, distant rumble told of the "Atlantic Express" +thundering on its journey. Here, along with him on the level plateau, +were other roomy cottages, some dark, some still sending forth a guiding +ray; while long lines of white-washed fence gleamed ghostly in the +moonlight and were finally lost in the shadow of the great bluff that +abruptly shut in the entire point and plateau and shut out all further +sight of lake or land in that direction. Far beneath he could hear the +soft plash upon the sandy shore of the little wavelets that came +sweeping in the wake of the raft-boat and spending their tiny strength +upon the strand; far down on the hotel point he could still hear the +soft melody of the waltz; he remembered how the band used to play that +same air, and wondered why it was he used to like it; it jarred him now. +Presently the distant crack of a whip and the low rumble of wheels were +heard: the omnibus coming back from the station with passengers from the +night train. He was in no mood to see any one. He turned away and walked +northward along the edge of the bench, towards the deep shadow of the +great shoulder of the bluff, and presently he came to a long flight of +wooden stairs, leading from the plateau down to the hotel, and here he +stopped and seated himself awhile. He did not want to go home yet. He +wanted to be by himself,--to think and brood over his trouble. He saw +the omnibus go round the bend and roll up to the hotel door-way with its +load of pleasure-seekers, and heard the joyous welcome with which some +of their number were received by waiting friends, but life had little of +joy to him this night. He longed to go away,--anywhere, anywhere, could +he only leave this haunting misery behind. He was so proud of his +regiment; he had been so happy in bringing home to it his accomplished +and gracious wife; he had been so joyous in planning for the lovely +times Alice was to have,--the social successes, the girlish triumphs, +the garrison gayeties of which she was to be the queen,--and now, so +very, very soon, all had turned to ashes and desolation! She _was_ so +beautiful, so sweet, winning, graceful. Oh, God! _could_ it be that one +so gifted could possibly be so base? He rose in nervous misery and +clinched his hands high in air, then sat down again with hiding, +hopeless face, rocking to and fro as sways a man in mortal pain. It was +long before he rallied and again wearily arose. Most of the lights were +gone; silence had settled down upon the sleeping point; he was chilled +with the night air and the dew, and stiff and heavy as he tried to walk. +Down at the foot of the stairs he could see the night-watchman making +his rounds. He did not want to explain matters and talk with him: he +would go around. There was a steep pathway down into the ravine that +gave into the lake just beyond his sister's cottage, and this he sought +and followed, moving slowly and painfully, but finally reaching the +grassy level of the pathway that connected the cottages with the +wood-road up the bluff. Trees and shrubbery were thick on both sides, +and the path was shaded. He turned to his right, and came down until +once more he was in sight of the white walls of the hotel standing out +there on the point, until close at hand he could see the light of his +own cottage glimmering like faithful beacon through the trees; and then +he stopped short. + +A tall, slender figure--a man in dark, snug-fitting clothing--was +creeping stealthily up to the cottage window. + +The colonel held his breath: his heart thumped violently: he +waited,--watched. He saw the dark figure reach the blinds; he saw them +slowly, softly turned, and the faint light gleaming from within; he saw +the figure peering in between the slats, and then--God! was it +possible?--a low voice, a man's voice, whispering or hoarsely murmuring +a name: he heard a sudden movement within the room, as though the +occupant had heard and were replying, "Coming." His blood froze: it was +not Alice's room: it was his,--his and hers--his wife's,--and that was +surely her step approaching the window. Yes, the blind was quickly +opened. A white-robed figure stood at the casement. He could see, hear, +bear no more: with one mad rush he sprang from his lair and hurled +himself upon the shadowy stranger. + +"You hound! who are you?" + +But 'twas no shadow that he grasped. A muscular arm was round him in a +trice, a brawny hand at his throat, a twisting, sinewy leg was curled in +his, and he went reeling back upon the springy turf, stunned and +wellnigh breathless. + +When he could regain his feet and reach the casement the stranger had +vanished; but Mrs. Maynard lay there on the floor within, a white and +senseless heap. + + + + +X. + + +Perhaps it was as well for all parties that Frank Armitage concluded +that he must have another whiff of tobacco that night as an incentive to +the "think" he had promised himself. He had strolled through the park to +the grove of trees out on the point and seated himself in the shadows. +Here his reflections were speedily interrupted by the animated +flirtations of a few couples who, tiring of the dance, came out into the +coolness of the night and the seclusion of the grove, where their +murmured words and soft laughter soon gave the captain's nerves a strain +they could not bear. He broke cover and betook himself to the very edge +of the stone retaining wall out on the point. + +He wanted to think calmly and dispassionately; he meant to weigh all he +had read and heard and form his estimate of the gravity of the case +before going to bed. He meant to be impartial,--to judge her as he would +judge any other woman so compromised; but for the life of him he could +not. He bore with him the mute image of her lovely face, with its clear, +truthful, trustful dark eyes. He saw her as she stood before him on the +little porch when they shook hands on their laughing--or his +laughing--compact, for she would not laugh. How perfect she was!--her +radiant beauty, her uplifted eyes, so full of their self-reproach and +regret at the speech she had made at his expense! How exquisite was the +grace of her slender, rounded form as she stood there before him, one +slim hand half shyly extended to meet the cordial clasp of his own! He +wanted to judge and be just; but that image dismayed him. How could he +look on this picture and then--on that,--the one portrayed in the chain +of circumstantial evidence which the colonel had laid before him? It was +monstrous! it was treason to womanhood! One look in her eyes, superb in +their innocence, was too much for his determined impartiality. Armitage +gave himself a mental kick for what he termed his imbecility, and went +back to the hotel. + +"It's no use," he muttered. "I'm a slave of the weed, and can't be +philosophic without my pipe." + +Up to his little box of a room he climbed, found his pipe-case and +tobacco-pouch, and in five minutes was strolling out to the point once +more, when he came suddenly upon the night-watchman,--a personage of +whose functions and authority he was entirely ignorant. The man eyed +him narrowly, and essayed to speak. Not knowing him, and desiring to be +alone, Armitage pushed past, and was surprised to find that a hand was +on his shoulder and the man at his side before he had gone a rod. + +"Beg pardon, sir," said the watchman, gruffly, "but I don't know you. +Are you stopping at the hotel?" + +"I am," said Armitage, coolly, taking his pipe from his lips and blowing +a cloud over his other shoulder. "And who may you be?" + +"I am the watchman; and I do not remember seeing you come to-day." + +"Nevertheless I did." + +"On what train, sir?" + +"This afternoon's up-train." + +"You certainly were not on the omnibus when it got here." + +"Very true. I walked over from beyond the school-house." + +"You must excuse me, sir. I did not think of that; and the manager +requires me to know everybody. Is this Major Armitage?" + +"Armitage is my name, but I'm not a major." + +"Yes, sir; I'm glad to be set right. And the other gentleman,--him as +was inquiring for Colonel Maynard to-night? He's in the army, too, but +his name don't seem to be on the book. He only came in on the late +train." + +"Another man to see Colonel Maynard?" asked the captain, with sudden +interest. "Just come in, you say. I'm sure I've no idea. What was he +like?" + +"I don't know, sir. At first I thought you was him. The driver told me +he brought a gentleman over who asked some questions about Colonel +Maynard, but he didn't get aboard at the dépôt, and he didn't come down +to the hotel,--got off somewhere up there on the bench, and Jim didn't +see him." + +"Where's Jim?" said Armitage. "Come with me, watchman. I want to +interview him." + +Together they walked over to the barn, which the driver was just locking +up after making everything secure for the night. + +"Who was it inquiring for Colonel Maynard?" asked Armitage. + +"I don't know, sir," was the slow answer. "There was a man got aboard as +I was coming across the common there in the village at the station. +There were several passengers from the train, and some baggage: so he +may have started ahead on foot but afterwards concluded to ride. As +soon as I saw him get in I reined up and asked where he was going; he +had no baggage nor nuthin', and my orders are not to haul anybody except +people of the hotel: so he came right forward through the 'bus and took +the seat behind me and said 'twas all right, he was going to the hotel; +and he passed up a half-dollar. I told him that I couldn't take the +money,--that 'bus-fares were paid at the office,--and drove ahead. Then +he handed me a cigar, and pretty soon he asked me if there were many +people, and who had the cottages; and when I told him, he asked which +was Colonel Maynard's, but he didn't say he knew him, and the next thing +I knew was when we got here to the hotel he wasn't in the 'bus. He must +have stepped back through all those passengers and slipped off up there +on the bench. He was in it when we passed the little brown church up on +the hill." + +"What was he like?" + +"I couldn't see him plain. He stepped out from behind a tree as we drove +through the common, and came right into the 'bus. It was dark in there, +and all I know is he was tall and had on dark clothes. Some of the +people inside must have seen him better; but they are all gone to bed, I +suppose." + +"I will go over to the hotel and inquire, anyway," said Armitage, and +did so. The lights were turned down, and no one was there, but he could +hear voices chatting in quiet tones on the broad, sheltered veranda +without, and, going thither, found three or four men enjoying a quiet +smoke. Armitage was a man of action. He stepped at once to the group: + +"Pardon me, gentlemen, but did any of you come over in the omnibus from +the station to-night?" + +"I did, sir," replied one of the party, removing his cigar and twitching +off the ashes with his little finger, then looking up with the air of a +man expectant of question. + +"The watchman tells me a man came over who was making inquiries for +Colonel Maynard. May I ask if you saw or heard of such a person?" + +"A gentleman got in soon after we left the station, and when the driver +hailed him he went forward and took a seat near him. They had some +conversation, but I did not hear it. I only know that he got out again a +little while before we reached the hotel." + +"Could you see him, and describe him? I am a friend of Colonel +Maynard's, an officer of his regiment,--which will account for my +inquiry." + +"Well, yes, sir. I noticed he was very tall and slim, was dressed in +dark clothes, and wore a dark slouched hat well down over his forehead. +He was what I would call a military-looking man, for I noticed his walk +as he got off; but he wore big spectacles,--blue or brown glass, I +should say,--and had a heavy beard." + +"Which way did he go when he left the 'bus?" + +"He walked northward along the road at the edge of the bluff, right up +towards the cottages on the upper level," was the answer. + +Armitage thanked him for his courtesy, explained that he had left the +colonel only a short time before and that he was then expecting no +visitor, and if one had come it was perhaps necessary that he should be +hunted up and brought to the hotel. Then he left the porch and walked +hurriedly through the park towards its northernmost limit. There to his +left stood the broad roadway along which, nestling under shelter of the +bluff, was ranged the line of cottages, some two-storied, with balconies +and verandas, others low, single-storied affairs with a broad hall-way +in the middle of each and rooms on both north and south sides. +Farthermost north on the row, almost hidden in the trees, and nearest +the ravine, stood Aunt Grace's cottage, where were domiciled the +colonel's household. It was in the big bay-windowed north room that he +and the colonel had had their long conference earlier in the evening. +The south room, nearly opposite, was used as their parlor and +sitting-room. Aunt Grace and Miss Renwick slept in the little front +rooms north and south of the hall-way, and the lights in their rooms +were extinguished; so, too, was that in the parlor. All was darkness on +the south and east. All was silence and peace as Armitage approached; +but just as he reached the shadow of the stunted oak-tree growing in +front of the house his ears were startled by an agonized cry, a woman's +half-stifled shriek. He bounded up the steps, seized the knob of the +door and threw his weight against it. It was firmly bolted within. Loud +he thundered on the panels. "'Tis I,--Armitage!" he called. He heard the +quick patter of little feet; the bolt was slid, and he rushed in, almost +stumbling against a trembling, terror-stricken, yet welcoming +white-robed form,--Alice Renwick, barefooted, with her glorious wealth +of hair tumbling in dark luxuriance all down over the dainty +night-dress,--Alice Renwick, with pallid face and wild imploring eyes. + +"What is wrong?" he asked, in haste. + +"It's mother,--her room,--and it's locked, and she won't answer," was +the gasping reply. + +Armitage sprang to the rear of the hall, leaned one second against the +opposite wall, sent his foot with mighty impulse and muscled impact +against the opposing lock, and the door flew open with a crash. The next +instant Alice was bending over her senseless mother, and the captain was +giving a hand in much bewilderment to the panting colonel, who was +striving to clamber in at the window. The ministrations of Aunt Grace +and Alice were speedily sufficient to restore Mrs. Maynard. A +teaspoonful of brandy administered by the colonel's trembling hand +helped matters materially. Then he turned to Armitage. + +"Come outside," he said. + +Once again in the moonlight the two men faced each other. + +"Armitage, can you get a horse?" + +"Certainly. What then?" + +"Go to the station, get men, if possible, and head this fellow off. He +was here again to-night, and it was not Alice he called, but my--but +Mrs. Maynard. I saw him; I grappled with him right here at the +bay-window where _she_ met him, and he hurled me to grass as though I'd +been a child. _I_ want a horse! I want that man to-night. How did he get +away from Sibley?" + +"Do you mean--do you think it was Jerrold?" + +"Good God, yes! Who else could it be? Disguised, of course, and bearded; +but the figure, the carriage, were just the same, and he came to this +window,--to _her_ window,--and called, and she answered. My God, +Armitage, think of it!" + +"Come with me, colonel. You are all unstrung," was the captain's answer +as he led his broken friend away. At the front door he stopped one +moment, then ran up the steps and into the hall, where he tapped lightly +at the casement. + +"What is it?" was the low response from an invisible source. + +"Miss Alice?" + +"Yes." + +"The watchman is here now. I will send him around to the window to keep +guard until our return. The colonel is a little upset by the shock, and +I want to attend to him. We are going to the hotel a moment before I +bring him home. You are not afraid to have him leave you?" + +"Not now, captain." + +"Is Mrs. Maynard better?" + +"Yes. She hardly seems to know what has happened. Indeed, none of us do. +What was it?" + +"A tramp, looking for something to eat, tried to open the blinds, and +the colonel was out here and made a jump at him. They had a scuffle in +the shrubbery, and the tramp got away. It frightened your mother: that's +the sum of it, I think." + +"Is papa hurt?" + +"No: a little bruised and shaken, and mad as a hornet. I think perhaps +I'll get him quieted down and sleepy in a few minutes, if you and Mrs. +Maynard will be content to let him stay with me. I can talk almost any +man drowsy." + +"Mamma seems to worry for fear he is hurt." + +"Assure her solemnly that he hasn't a scratch. He is simply fighting +mad, and I'm going to try and find the tramp. Does Mrs. Maynard remember +how he looked?" + +"She could not see the face at all. She heard some one at the shutters, +and a voice, and supposed of course it was papa, and threw open the +blind." + +"Oh, I see. That's all, Miss Alice. I'll go back to the colonel. +Good-night!" And Armitage went forth with a lighter step. + +"One sensation knocked endwise, colonel. I have it on the best of +authority that Mrs. Maynard so fearlessly went to the window in answer +to the voice and noise at the shutters simply because she knew you were +out there somewhere and she supposed it was you. How simple these +mysteries become when a little daylight is let in on them, after all! +Come, I'm going to take you over to my room for a stiff glass of grog, +and then after his trampship while you go back to bed." + +"Armitage, you seem to make very light of this night's doings. What is +easier than to connect it all with the trouble at Sibley?" + +"Nothing was ever more easily explained than this thing, colonel, and +all I want now is a chance to get that tramp. Then I'll go to Sibley; +and 'pon my word I believe that mystery can be made as commonplace a +piece of petty larceny as this was of vagrancy. Come." + +But when Armitage left the colonel at a later hour and sought his own +room for a brief rest he was in no such buoyant mood. A night-search for +a tramp in the dense thickets among the bluffs and woods of Sablon +could hardly be successful. It was useless to make the attempt. He slept +but little during the cool August night, and early in the morning +mounted a horse and trotted over to the railway-station. + +"Has any train gone northward since last night?" he inquired at the +office. + +"None that stop here," was the answer. "The first train up comes along +at 11.56." + +"I want to send a despatch to Fort Sibley and get an answer without +delay. Can you work it for me?" + +The agent nodded, and pushed over a package of blanks. Armitage wrote +rapidly as follows: + +"CAPTAIN CHESTER, + +"Commanding Fort Sibley. + +"Is Jerrold there? Tell him I will arrive Tuesday. Answer. + + "F. ARMITAGE." + +It was along towards nine o'clock when the return message came clicking +in on the wires, was written out, and handed to the tall soldier with +the tired blue eyes. + +He read, started, crushed the paper in his hand, and turned from the +office. The answer was significant: + +"Lieutenant Jerrold left Sibley yesterday afternoon. Not yet returned. +Absent without leave this morning. + + "CHESTER." + + + + +XI. + + +Nature never vouchsafed to wearied man a lovelier day of rest than the +still Sunday on which Frank Armitage rode slowly back from the station. +The soft, mellow tone of the church-bell, tolling the summons for +morning service, floated out from the brown tower, and was echoed back +from the rocky cliff glistening in the August sunshine on the northern +bluff. Groups of villagers hung about the steps of the little sanctuary +and gazed with mild curiosity at the arriving parties from the cottages +and the hotel. The big red omnibus came up with a load of worshippers, +and farther away, down the vista of the road, Armitage could see others +on foot and in carriages, all wending their way to church. He was in no +mood to meet them. The story that he had been out pursuing a tramp +during the night was pretty thoroughly circulated by this time, he felt +assured, and every one would connect his early ride to the station, in +some way, with the adventure that the grooms, hostlers, cooks, and +kitchen-maids had all been dilating upon ever since daybreak. He dreaded +to meet the curious glances of the women, and the questions of the few +men whom he had taken so far into his confidence as to ask about the +mysterious person who came over in the stage with them. He reined up his +horse, and then, seeing a little pathway leading into the thick wood to +his right, he turned in thither and followed it some fifty yards among +bordering treasures of coreopsis and golden-rod and wild luxuriance of +vine and foliage. Dismounting in the shade, he threw the reins over his +arm and let his horse crop the juicy grasses, while he seated himself on +a little stump and fell to thinking again. He could hear the reverent +voices of one or two visitors strolling about among the peaceful, +flower-decked graves behind the little church and only a short +stone's-throw away through the shrubbery. He could hear the low, solemn +voluntary of the organ, and presently the glad outburst of young voices +in the opening hymn, but he knew that belated ones would still be coming +to church, and he would not come forth from his covert until all were +out of the way. Then, too, he was glad of a little longer time to think: +he did not want to tell the colonel the result of his morning +investigations. + +To begin with: the watchman, the driver, and the two men whom he had +questioned were all of an opinion as to the character of the stranger: +"he was a military man." The passengers described his voice as that of a +man of education and social position; the driver and passengers declared +his walk and carriage to be that of a soldier: he was taller, they said, +than the tall, stalwart Saxon captain, but by no means so heavily built. +As to age, they could not tell: his beard was black and curly,--no gray +hairs; his movements were quick and elastic; but his eyes were hidden by +those colored glasses, and his forehead by the slouch of that +broad-brimmed felt hat. + +At the station, while awaiting the answer to his despatch, Armitage had +questioned the agent as to whether any man of that description had +arrived by the night train from the north. He had seen none, he said, +but there was Larsen over at the post-office store, who came down on +that train; perhaps he could tell. Oddly enough, Mr. Larsen recalled +just such a party,--tall, slim, dark, dark-bearded, with blue glasses +and dark hat and clothes,--but he was bound for Lakeville, the station +beyond, and he remained in the car when he, Larsen, got off. Larsen +remembered the man well, because he sat in the rear corner of the +smoker and had nothing to say to anybody, but kept reading a newspaper; +and the way he came to take note of him was that while standing with two +friends at that end of the car they happened to be right around the man. +The Saturday evening train from the city is always crowded with people +from the river towns who have been up to market or the _matinées_, and +even the smoker was filled with standing men until they got some thirty +miles down. Larsen wanted to light a fresh cigar, and offered one to +each of his friends: then it was found they had no matches, and one of +them, who had been drinking a little and felt jovial, turned to the dark +stranger and asked him for a light, and the man, without speaking, +handed out a little silver match-box. It was just then that the +conductor came along, and Larsen saw his ticket. It was a "round trip" +to Lakeville: he was evidently going there for a visit, and therefore, +said Larsen, he didn't get off at Sablon Station, which was six miles +above. + +But Armitage knew better. It was evident that he had quietly slipped out +on the platform of the car after the regular passengers had got out of +the way, and let himself off into the darkness on the side opposite the +station. Thence he had an open and unimpeded walk of a few hundred yards +until he reached the common, and then, when overtaken by the hotel +omnibus, he could jump aboard and ride. There was only one road, only +one way over to the hotel, and he could not miss it. There was no doubt +now that, whoever he was, the night visitor had come down on the evening +train from the city; and his return ticket would indicate that he meant +to go back the way he came. It was half-past ten when that train +arrived. It was nearly midnight when the man appeared at the cottage +window. It was after two when Armitage gave up the search and went to +bed. It was possible for the man to have walked to Lakeville, six miles +south, and reached the station there in abundant time to take the +up-train which passed Sablon, without stopping, a little before +daybreak. If he took that train, and if he was Jerrold, he would have +been in the city before seven, and could have been at Fort Sibley before +or by eight o'clock. But Chester's despatch showed clearly that at +8.30--the hour for signing the company morning reports--Mr. Jerrold was +not at his post. Was he still in the neighborhood and waiting for the +noon train? If so, could he be confronted on the cars and accused of his +crime? He looked at his watch; it was nearly eleven, and he must push on +to the hotel before that hour, report to the colonel, then hasten back +to the station. He sprang to his feet, and was just about to mount, +when a vision of white and scarlet came suddenly into view. There, +within twenty feet of him, making her dainty way through the shrubbery +from the direction of the church, sunshine and shadow alternately +flitting across her lovely face and form, Alice Renwick stepped forth +into the pathway, and, shading her eyes with her hand, gazed along the +leafy lane towards the road, as though expectant of another's coming. +Then, attracted by the beauty of the golden-rod, she bent and busied +herself with gathering in the yellow sprays. Armitage, with one foot in +the stirrup, stood stock-still, half in surprise, half stunned by a +sudden and painful thought. Could it be that she was there in hopes of +meeting--any one? + +He retook his foot from the stirrup, and, relaxing the rein, still stood +gazing at her over his horse's back. That placid quadruped, whose years +had been spent in these pleasant by-ways and were too many to warrant an +exhibition of coltish surprise, promptly lowered his head and resumed +his occupation of grass-nibbling, making a little crunching noise which +Miss Renwick might have heard, but apparently did not. She was singing +very softly to herself,-- + + "Daisy, tell my fortune, pray: + He loves me not,--he loves me." + +And still Armitage stood and gazed, while she, absorbed in her pleasant +task, still pulled and plucked at the golden-rod. In all his life no +"vision of fair women" had been to him fair and sacred and exquisite as +this. Down to the tip of her arched and slender foot, peeping from +beneath the broidered hem of her snowy skirt, she stood the lady born +and bred, and his eyes looked on and worshipped her,--worshipped, yet +questioned, Why came she here? Absorbed, he released his hold on the +rein, and Dobbin, nothing loath, reached with his long, lean neck for +further herbage, and stepped in among the trees. Still stood his +negligent master, fascinated in his study of the lovely, graceful girl. +Again she raised her head and looked northward along the winding, shaded +wood-path. A few yards away were other great clusters of the wild +flowers she loved, more sun-kissed golden-rod, and, with a little murmur +of delight, gathering her dainty skirts in one hand, she flitted up the +pathway like an unconscious humming-bird garnering the sweets from every +blossom. A little farther on the pathway bent among the trees, and she +would be hidden from his sight; but still he stood and studied her +every movement, drank in the soft, cooing melody of her voice as she +sang, and then there came a sweet, solemn strain from the brown, sunlit +walls just visible through the trees, and reverent voices and the +resonant chords of the organ thrilled through the listening woods the +glorious anthem of the church militant. + +At the first notes she lifted up her queenly head and stood, listening +and appreciative. Then he saw her rounded throat swelling like a bird's, +and the rich, full tones of her voice rang out through the welcoming +sunshine, and the fluttering wrens, and proud red-breasted robins, and +rival song-queens, the brown-winged thrushes,--even the impudent +shrieking jays,--seemed to hush and listen. Dobbin, fairly astonished, +lifted up his hollow-eyed head and looked amazedly at the white +songstress whose scarlet sash and neck-ribbons gleamed in such vivid +contrast to the foliage about her. A wondering little "cotton-tail" +rabbit, shy and wild as a hawk, came darting through the bushes into the +sunshiny patchwork on the path, and then, uptilted and with quivering +ears and nostrils and wide-staring eyes, stood paralyzed with helpless +amaze, ignoring the tall man in gray as did the singer herself. Richer, +rounder, fuller grew the melody, as, abandoning herself to the impulse +of the sacred hour, she joined with all her girlish heart in the words +of praise and thanksgiving,--in the glad and triumphant chorus of the Te +Deum. From beginning to end she sang, now ringing and exultant, now soft +and plaintive, following the solemn words of the ritual,--sweet and low +and suppliant in the petition, "We therefore pray Thee help Thy servants +whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy precious blood," confident and exulting +in the declaration, "Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ," and then +rich with fearless trust and faith in the thrilling climax, "Let me +never be confounded." Armitage listened as one in a trance. From the +depth of her heart the girl had joined her glorious voice to the chorus +of praise and adoration, and now that all was stilled once more her head +had fallen forward on her bosom, her hands, laden with golden-rod, were +joined together: it seemed as though she were lost in prayer. + +And this was the girl, this the pure, God-worshipping, God-fearing +woman, who for one black instant he had dared to fancy had come here +expectant of a meeting with the man whose aim had been frustrated but +the night before! He could have thrown himself at her feet and implored +her pardon. He _did_ step forth, and then, hat in hand, baring his +proud Saxon head as his forefathers would have uncovered to their +monarch, he waited until she lifted up her eyes and saw him, and knew by +the look in his frank face that he had stood by, a mute listener to her +unstudied devotions. A lovely flush rose to her very temples, and her +eyes drooped their pallid lids until the long lashes swept the crimson +of her cheeks. + +"Have _you_ been here, captain? I never saw you," was her fluttering +question. + +"I rode in here on my way back from the station, not caring to meet all +the good people going to church. I felt like an outcast." + +"I, too, am a recreant to-day. It is the first time I have missed +service in a long while. Mamma felt too unstrung to come, and I had +given up the idea, but both she and Aunt Grace urged me. I was too late +for the omnibus, and walked up, and then I would not go in because +service was begun, and I wanted to be home again before noon. I cannot +bear to be late at church, or to leave it until everything is over, but +I can't be away from mother so long to-day. Shall we walk that way now?" + +"In a minute. I must find my horse. He is in here somewhere. Tell me how +the colonel is feeling, and Mrs. Maynard." + +"Both very nervous and worried, though I see nothing extraordinary in +the adventure. We read of poor hungry tramps everywhere, and they rarely +do harm." + +"I wonder a little at your venturing here in the wood-paths, after what +occurred last night." + +"Why, Captain Armitage, no one would harm me here, so close to the +church. Indeed, I never thought of such a thing until you mentioned it. +Did you discover anything about the man?" + +"Nothing definite; but I must be at the station again to meet the +up-train, and have to see the colonel meantime. Let me find Dobbin, or +whatever they call this venerable relic I'm riding, and then I'll escort +you home." + +But Dobbin had strayed deeper into the wood. It was some minutes before +the captain could find and catch him. The rich melody of sacred music +was again thrilling through the perfumed woods, the glad sunshine was +pouring its warmth and blessing over all the earth, glinting on bluff +and brake and palisaded cliff, the birds were all singing their +rivalling psaltery, and Nature seemed pouring forth its homage to the +Creator and Preserver of all on this His holy day, when Frank Armitage +once more reached the bowered lane where, fairest, sweetest sight of +all, his lady stood waiting him. She turned to him as she heard the +hoof-beat on the turf, and smiled. + +"Can we wait and hear that hymn through?" + +"Ay. Sing it." + +She looked suddenly in his face. Something in the very tone in which he +spoke startled her,--something deeper, more fervent, than she had ever +heard before,--and the expression in the steady, deep-blue eyes was +another revelation. Alice Renwick had a woman's intuition, and yet she +had not known this man a day. The color again mounted to her temples, +and her eyes fell after one quick glance. + +"I heard you joining in the Te Deum," he urged. "Sing once more: I love +it. There, they are just beginning again. Do you know the words?" + +She nodded, then raised her head, and her glad young voice carolled +through the listening woods: + + "Holy, holy, holy! All + Heaven's triumphant choir shall sing, + When the ransomed nations fall + At the footstool of their King: + Then shall saints and seraphim, + Hearts and voices, swell one hymn + Round the throne with full accord, + Holy, holy, holy Lord!" + +There was silence when the music ceased. She had turned her face towards +the church, and, as the melody died away in one prolonged, triumphant +chord, she still stood in reverent attitude, as though listening for the +words of benediction. He, too, was silent, but his eyes were fixed on +her. He was thirty-five, she not twenty. He had lived his soldier life +wifeless, but, like other soldiers, his heart had had its rubs and aches +in the days gone by. Years before he had thought life a black void when +the girl he fancied while yet he wore the Academic gray calmly told him +she preferred another. Nor had the intervening years been devoid of +their occasional yearnings for a mate of his own in the isolation of the +frontier or the monotony of garrison life; but flitting fancies had left +no trace upon his strong heart. The love of his life only dawned upon +him at this late day when he looked into her glorious eyes and his whole +soul went out in passionate worship of the fair girl whose presence +made that sunlit lane a heaven. Were he to live a thousand years, no +scene on earth could rival in his eyes the love-haunted woodland pathway +wherein like forest queen she stood, the sunshine and leafy shadows +dancing over her graceful form, the golden-rod enhancing her dark and +glowing beauty, the sacred influences of the day throwing their mystic +charm about her as though angels guarded and shielded her from harm. His +life had reached its climax; his fate was sealed; his heart and soul +were centred in one sweet girl,--and all in one brief hour in the +woodland lane at Sablon. + +She could not fail to see the deep emotion in his eyes as at last she +turned to break the silence. + +"Shall we go?" she said, simply. + +"It is time; but I wish we could remain." + +"You do not go to church very often at Sibley, do you?" + +"I have not, heretofore; but you would teach me to worship." "You _have_ +taught me," he muttered below his breath, as he extended a hand to +assist her down the sloping bank towards the avenue. She looked up +quickly once more, pleased, yet shy, and shifted her great bunch of +golden-rod so that she could lay her hand in his and lean upon its +steady strength down the incline; and so, hand in hand, with old Dobbin +ambling placidly behind, they passed out from the shaded pathway to the +glow and radiance of the sunlit road. + + + + +XII. + + +"Colonel Maynard, I admit everything you say as to the weight of the +evidence," said Frank Armitage, twenty minutes later, "but it is my +faith--understand me: my _faith_, I say--that she is utterly innocent. +As for that damnable letter, I do not believe it was ever written to +her. It is some other woman." + +"What other is there, or was there?" was the colonel's simple reply. + +"That is what I mean to find out. Will you have my baggage sent after me +to-night? I am going at once to the station, and thence to Sibley. I +will write you from there. If the midnight visitor should prove to have +been Jerrold, he can be made to explain. I have always held him to be a +conceited fop, but never either crack-brained or devoid of principle. +There is no time for explanation _now_. Good-by; and keep a good +lookout. That fellow may be here again." + +And in an hour more Armitage was skimming along the winding river-side +_en route_ to Sibley. He had searched the train from pilot to rear +platform, and no man who in the faintest degree resembled Mr. Jerrold +was on board. He had wired to Chester that he would reach the fort that +evening, but would not resume duty for a few days. He made another +search through the train as they neared the city, and still there was no +one who in stature or appearance corresponded with the descriptions +given him of the sinewy visitor. + +Late in the afternoon Chester received him as he alighted from the train +at the little station under the cliff. It was a beautiful day, and +numbers of people were driving or riding out to the fort, and the high +bridge over the gorge was constantly resounding to the thunder of hoofs. +Many others, too, had come out on the train; for the evening +dress-parade always attracted a swarm of visitors. A corporal of the +guard, with a couple of men, was on hand to keep vigilant eye on the +arrivals and to persuade certain proscribed parties to re-enter the cars +and go on, should they attempt to revisit the post, and the faces of +these were lighted up as they saw their old adjutant; but none others of +the garrison appeared. + +"Let us wait a moment and get these people out of the way," said +Armitage. "I want to talk with you. Is Jerrold back?" + +"Yes. He came in just ten minutes after I telegraphed to you, was +present at inspection, and if it had not been for your despatch this +morning I should not have known he had remained out of quarters. He +appeared to resent my having been to his quarters,--calls it spying, I +presume." + +"What permission had he to be away?" + +"I gave him leave to visit town on personal business yesterday +afternoon. He merely asked to be away a few hours to meet friends in +town, and Mr. Hall took tattoo roll-call for him. As I do not require +any other officer to report the time of his return, I did not exact it +of him; but of course no man can be away after midnight without special +permission, and he was gone all night. What is it, Armitage? Has he +followed her down there?" + +"Somebody was there last night and capsized the colonel pretty much as +he did you the night of the ladder episode," said Armitage, coolly. + +"By heaven! and I let him go!" + +"How do you know 'twas he?" + +"Who else could it be, Armitage?" + +"That's what the colonel asks; but it isn't clear to me yet awhile." + +"I wish it were less clear to me," said Chester, gloomily. "The worst +is that the story is spreading like a pestilence all over the post. The +women have got hold of it, and there is all manner of talk. I shouldn't +be surprised if Mrs. Hoyt had to be taken violently ill. She has written +to invite Miss Renwick to visit her, as it is certain that Colonel and +Mrs. Maynard cannot come, and Hoyt came to me in a horror of amaze +yesterday to know if there were any truth in the rumor that I had caught +a man coming out of Mrs. Maynard's window the other night. I would tell +him nothing, and he says the ladies declare they won't go to the german +if _she_ does. Heavens! I'm thankful you are come. The thing has been +driving me wild these last twelve hours. I wanted to go away myself. +_Is_ she coming up?" + +"No, she isn't; but let me say this, Chester: that whenever she is ready +to return I shall be ready to escort her." + +Chester looked at his friend in amazement, and without speaking. + +"Yes, I see you are astonished, but you may as well understand the +situation. I have heard all the colonel could tell, and have even seen +the letter, and since she left here a mysterious stranger has appeared +by night at Sablon, at the cottage window, though it happened to be her +mother's this time, and I don't believe Alice Renwick knows the first +thing about it." + +"Armitage, are you in love?" + +"Chester, I am in my sound senses. Now come and show me the ladder, and +where you found it, and tell me the whole story over again. I think it +grows interesting. One moment: has he that picture yet?" + +"I suppose so. I don't know. In these last few days everybody is +fighting shy of him. He thinks it is my doing, and looks black and sulky +at me, but is too proud or too much afraid of consequences to ask the +reason of the cold shoulders and averted looks. Gray has taken seven +days' leave and gone off with that little girl of his to place her with +relatives in the East. He has heard the stories, and it is presumed that +some of the women have told her. She was down sick here a day or two." + +"Well, now for the window and the ladder. I want to see the outside +through your eyes, and then I will view the interior with my own. The +colonel bids me do so." + +Together they slowly climbed the long stairway leading up the face of +the cliff. Chester stopped for a breathing-spell more than once. + +"You're all out of condition, man," said the younger captain, pausing +impatiently. "What has undone you?" + +"This trouble, and nothing else. By gad! it has unstrung the whole +garrison, I believe. You never saw our people fall off so in their +shooting. Of course we expected Jerrold to go to pieces, but nobody +else." + +"There were others that seemed to fall away, too. Where was that +cavalry-team that was expected to take the skirmish medal away from us?" + +"Sound as a dollar, every man, with the single exception of their big +sergeant. I don't like to make ugly comparisons to a man whom I believe +to be more than half interested in a woman, but it makes me think of the +old story about Medusa. One look at her face is too much for a man. That +Sergeant McLeod went to grass the instant he caught sight of her, and +never has picked up since." + +"Consider me considerably more than half interested in the woman in this +case, Chester: make all the comparisons that you like, provided they +illumine matters as you are doing now, and tell me more of this Sergeant +McLeod. What do you mean by his catching sight of her and going to +grass?" + +"I mean he fell flat on his face the moment he saw her, and hasn't been +in good form from that moment to this. The doctor says it's +heart-disease." + +"That's what the colonel says troubles Mrs. Maynard. She was senseless +and almost pulseless some minutes last night. What manner of man is +McLeod?" + +"A tall, slim, dark-eyed, swarthy fellow,--a man with a history and a +mystery, I judge." + +"A man with a history,--a mystery,--who is tall, slim, has dark eyes and +swarthy complexion, and faints away at sight of Miss Renwick, might be +said to possess peculiar characteristics,--family traits, some of them. +Of course you've kept an eye on McLeod. Where is he?" + +Chester stood leaning on the rail, breathing slowly and heavily. His +eyes dilated as he gazed at Armitage, who was surveying him coolly, +though the tone in which he spoke betrayed a new interest and a vivid +one. + +"I confess I never thought of him in connection with this affair," said +Chester. + +"There's the one essential point of difference between us," was the +reply. "You go in on the supposition that there is only one solution to +this thing, and that a woman must be dishonored to begin with. I believe +there can be several solutions, and that there is only one thing in the +lot that is at all impossible." + +"What's that?" + +"Miss Renwick's knowledge of that night's visitor, or of any other +secret or sin. I mean to work other theories first; and the McLeod trail +is a good one to start on. Where can I get a look at him?" + +"Somewhere out in the Rockies by this time. He was ordered back to his +troop five days ago, and they are out scouting at this moment, unless +I'm vastly mistaken. You have seen the morning despatches?" + +"About the Indians? Yes. Looks squally at the Spirit Rock reservation. +Do you mean that McLeod is there?" + +"That's where his troop ought to be by this time. There is too small a +force on the trail now, and more will have to go if a big outbreak is to +be prevented." + +"Then he has gone, and I cannot see him. Let me look at the window, +then." + +A few steps brought them to the terrace, and there, standing by the west +wall and looking up at the closed slats of the dormer-window, Captain +Chester retold the story of his night-adventure. Armitage listened +attentively, asking few questions. When it was finished, the latter +turned and walked to the rear door, which opened on the terrace. It was +locked. + +"The servants are having a holiday, I presume," he said. "So much the +better. Ask the quartermaster for the key of the front door, and I'll go +in while everybody is out looking at dress-parade. There goes first call +now. Let your orderly bring it to me here, will you?" + +Ten minutes later, with beating heart, he stood and uncovered his +handsome head and gazed silently, reverently around him. He was in her +room. + +It was dainty as her own dainty self. The dressing-table, the windows, +the pretty little white bed, the broad, inviting lounge, the work-table +and basket, the very wash-stand, were all trimmed and decked +alike,--white and yellow prevailing. White lace curtains draped the +window on the west--that fateful window--and the two that opened out on +the roof of the piazza. White lace curtains draped the bed, the +dressing-table, and the wash-stand; white lace, or some equally flimsy +and feminine material, hung about her book-shelves and work-table and +over the lounge; and bows of bright yellow ribbon were everywhere, +yellow pin-cushions and wall-pockets hung about the toilet-table, soft +yellow rugs lay at the bed-and lounge-side, and a sunshiny tone was +given to the whole apartment by the shades of yellow silk that hung +close to the windows. + +On the wall were some choice etchings and a few foreign photographs. On +the book-shelves were a few volumes of poetry, and the prose of George +Eliot and our own Hawthorne. Hanging on pegs in the corner of the simple +army room, covered by a curtain, were some heavy outer-garments,--an +ulster, a travelling coat and cape of English make, and one or two +dresses that were apparently too thick to be used at this season of the +year. He drew aside the curtain one moment, took a brief glance at the +garments, raised the hem of a skirt to his lips, and turned quickly +away. A door led from the room to the one behind it,--a spare bedroom, +evidently, that was lighted only from the back of the house and had no +side-window at all. Another door led to the hall, a broad, old-fashioned +affair, and crossing this he stood in the big front room occupied by the +colonel and his wife. This was furnished almost as luxuriously (from an +army point of view) as that of Miss Renwick, but not in white and +yellow. Armitage smiled to see the evidences of Mrs. Maynard's taste and +handiwork on every side. In the years he had been the old soldier's +adjutant nothing could have exceeded the simplicity with which the +colonel surrounded himself. Now it was something akin to Sybaritish +elegance, thought the captain; but all the same he made his deliberate +survey. There was the big dressing-table and bureau on which had stood +that ravished picture,--that photograph of the girl he loved which +others were able to speak of, and one man to appropriate feloniously, +while yet he had never seen it. His impulse was to go to Jerrold's +quarters and take him by the throat and demand it of him; but what right +had he? How knew he, even, that it was now there? In view of the words +that Chester had used towards him, Jerrold must know of the grievous +danger in which he stood. That photograph would prove most damaging +evidence if discovered. Very probably, after yielding to his vanity and +showing it to Sloat he meant to get it back. Very certainly, after +hearing Chester's words he must have determined to lose no time in +getting rid of it. He was no fool, if he was a coxcomb. + +Looking around the half-darkened room, Armitage lingered long over the +photographs which hung about the dressing-table and over the +mantel,--several prettily-framed duplicates of those already described +as appearing in the album. One after another he took them in his hands, +bore them to the window, and studied them attentively: some were not +replaced without a long, lingering kiss. He had not ventured to disturb +an item in her room. He would not touch the knob of a drawer or attempt +to open anything she had closed, but here in quarters where his colonel +could claim joint partnership he felt less sentiment or delicacy. He +closed the hall door and tried the lock, turning the knob to and fro. +Then he reopened the door and swung it upon its hinges. For a wonder, +neither lock nor hinges creaked. The door worked smoothly and with +little noise. Then he similarly tried the door of her room. It was in +equally good working order,--quite free from the squeak and complaint +with which quartermasters' locks and hinges are apt to do their +reluctant duty. The discovery pleased him. It was possible for one to +open and close these portals noiselessly, if need be, and without +disturbing sleepers in either room. Returning to the east chamber, he +opened the shades, so as to get more light, and his eye fell upon an old +album lying on a little table that stood by the bedside. There was a +night-lamp upon the table, too,--a little affair that could hold only a +thimbleful of oil and was intended, evidently, to keep merely a faint +glow during the night hours. Other volumes--a Bible, some devotional +books, like "The Changed Cross," and a Hymnal or two--were also there; +but the album stood most prominent, and Armitage curiously took it up +and opened it. + +There were only half a dozen photographs in the affair. It was rather a +case than an album, and was intended apparently for only a few family +pictures. There was but one that interested him, and this he examined +intently, almost excitedly. It represented a little girl of nine or ten +years,--Alice, undoubtedly,--with her arms clasped about the neck of a +magnificent St. Bernard dog and looking up into the handsome features of +a tall, slender, dark-eyed, black-haired boy of sixteen or thereabouts; +and the two were enough alike to be brother and sister. Who, then, was +this boy? + +Armitage took the photograph to the window and studied it carefully. +Parade was over, and the troops were marching back to their quarters. +The band was playing gloriously as it came tramping into the quadrangle, +and the captain could not but glance out at his own old company as in +compact column of fours it entered the grassy diamond and swung off +towards the barracks. He saw a knot of officers, too, turning the corner +by the adjutant's office, and for a moment he lowered the album to look. +Mr. Jerrold was not of the number that came sauntering up the walk, +dropping away by ones or twos as they reached their doors and unbuckled +their belts or removed their helmets in eager haste to get out of the +constraint of full dress. But in another moment Jerrold, too, appeared, +all alone, walking rapidly and nervously. Armitage watched him, and +could not but see how other men turned away or gave him the coolest +possible nod as he passed. The tall, slender lieutenant was handsomer +even than when he last saw him; and yet there was gloom and worry on the +dark beauty of his face. Nearer and nearer he came, and had passed the +quarters of the other officers and was almost at the door of his own, +when Armitage saw a little, wiry soldier in full dress uniform running +across the parade as though in pursuit. He recognized Merrick, one of +the scapegraces of his company, and wondered why he should be chasing +after his temporary commander. Just as Jerrold was turning under the +piazza the soldier seemed to make himself heard, and the lieutenant, +with an angry frown on his face, stopped and confronted him. + +"I told you not to come to me again," he said, so loud that every word +was audible to the captain standing by the open window above. "What do +you mean, sir, by following me in this way?" + +The reply was inaudible. Armitage could see the little soldier standing +in the respectful position of "attention," looking up and evidently +pleading. + +"I won't do it until I'm ready," was again heard in Jerrold's angry +tones, though this time the lieutenant glanced about, as though to see +if others were within earshot. There was no one, apparently, and he grew +more confident. "You've been drinking again to-day, Merrick; you're not +sober now; and I won't give you money to get maudlin and go to blabbing +secrets on. No, sir! Go back to your quarters, and stay there." + +The little soldier must indeed have been drinking, as the lieutenant +declared. Armitage saw that he hesitated, instead of obeying at once, +and that his flushed face was angrily working, then that he was arguing +with his superior and talking louder. This was contrary to all the +captain's ideas of proper discipline, even though he was indignant at +the officer for permitting himself to be placed in so false and +undignified a position. Jerrold's words, too, had acquired a wide +significance; but they were feeble as compared with the sudden outburst +that came from the soldier's lips: + +"By God, lieutenant, you bribed me to silence to cover your tracks, and +then you refuse to pay. If you don't want me to tell what I know, the +sooner you pay that money the better." + +This was more than Armitage could stand. He went down-stairs three at a +jump and out through the colonel's garden with quick, impetuous steps. +Jerrold's furious face turned ashen at the sight, and Merrick, with one +amazed and frightened look at his captain, faced about and slunk +silently away. To him Armitage paid no further attention. It was to the +officer he addressed himself: + +"Mr. Jerrold, I have heard pretty much all this conversation. It simply +adds to the evil report with which you have managed to surround +yourself. Step into your quarters. I must see you alone." + +Jerrold hesitated. He was thunderstruck by the sudden appearance of the +captain whom he had believed to be hundreds of miles away. He connected +his return unerringly with the web of trouble which had been weaving +about him of late. He conceived himself to have been most unjustly spied +upon and suspected, and was full of resentment at the conduct of Captain +Chester. But Chester was an old granny, who sometimes made blunders and +had to back down. It was a different thing when Armitage took hold. +Jerrold looked sulkily into the clear, stern, blue eyes a moment, and +the first impulse of rebellion wilted. He gave one irresolute glance +around the quadrangle, then motioned with his hand to the open door. +Something of the old, jaunty, Creole lightness of manner reasserted +itself. + +"After you, captain," he said. + + + + +XIII. + + +Once within-doors, it was too dark for Armitage to see the features of +his lieutenant; and he had his own reasons for desiring to read them. +Mr. Jerrold, on the other hand, seemed disposed to keep in the shadows +as much as possible. He made no movement to open the shutters of the one +window which admitted light from the front, and walked back to his +bedroom door, glanced in there as though to see that there were no +occupants, then carefully closed it as he returned to face his captain. +He took off his helmet and placed it on the centre-table, then, +thrusting his thumbs inside the handsome, gold-broidered sword-belt, +stood in a jaunty attitude but with a very uneasy look in his eyes to +hear what his senior might have to say. Between the two men an +invitation to sit would have been a superfluity. Neither had ever +remained long enough in the other's quarters, since the exchange of the +first calls when Jerrold came to the garrison, to render a chair at all +necessary. + +"Be good enough to strike a light, Mr. Jerrold," said Armitage, +presently, seeing that his unwilling host made no effort on his own +account. + +"I proposed going out at once, captain, and presume you cannot have any +very extended remarks to make." + +"You cannot see the writing I have to call your attention to without a +light. I shall detain you no longer than is necessary. Had you an +engagement?" + +"Nothing of great consequence. I presume it will keep." + +"It will have to. The matter I have come upon will admit no further +delay. Light your lamp, if you please." + +And Jerrold did so, slowly and with much reluctance. He wiped his +forehead vigorously the instant the flame began to splutter, but as the +clear, steady light of the argand gradually spread over the little room +Armitage could see the sweat again beading his forehead, and the dark +eyes were glancing nervously about, and the hands that were so firm and +steady and fine the year before and held the Springfield in so light yet +immovable an aim were twitching now. It was no wonder Jerrold's score +had dropped some thirty per cent. His nerve had gone to pieces. + +Armitage stood and watched him a moment. Then he slowly spoke: + +"I have no desire to allude to the subject of your conversation with +Merrick. It was to put an end to such a thing--not to avail myself of +any information it might give--that I hurried in. We will put that aside +and go at once to the matter that brings me back. You are aware, of +course, that your conduct has compromised a woman's name, and that the +garrison is talking of nothing else." + +Jerrold grasped the back of a chair with one slender brown hand, and +looked furtively about as though for some hope of escape. Something like +a startled gulp seemed to work his throat-muscles an instant; then he +stammered his reply: + +"I don't know what you mean." + +"You _do_ know what I mean. Captain Chester has already told you." + +"Captain Chester came in here and made an unauthorized inspection of my +quarters because he heard a shot fired by a sentry. I was out: I don't +deny that. But he proceeded to say all manner of insulting and +unwarrantable things, and tried to force me to hand in a resignation, +simply because I was out of quarters after taps. I could account for +_his_ doing something so idiotic, but I'm at a loss to comprehend your +taking it up." + +"The most serious allegation ever made against an officer of the +regiment is made against you, the senior lieutenant of my company, and +the evidence furnished me by the colonel and by Captain Chester is of +such a character that, unless you can refute it and clear her name, you +will have a settlement with me to start with, and your dismissal from +the regiment--" + +"Settlement with you? What concern have you in the matter?" interrupted +Jerrold. + +"Waste no words on that, Mr. Jerrold. Understand that where her name is +concerned no man on earth is more interested than I. Now answer me. You +were absent from your quarters for some hours after the doctor's party. +Somebody believed to have been you was seen and fired at for refusing to +halt at the order of Captain Chester at 3.30 in the morning. The ladder +that usually hung at your fence was found at the colonel's while you +were out, and that night a woman's name was compromised beyond repair +unless you can repair it. Unless you prove beyond peradventure where you +were both that night and last night,--prove beyond question that you +were not where you are believed to have been,--her name is stained and +yours blackened forever. There are other things you must fully explain; +but these first." + +Jerrold's face was growing gray and sickly. He stared at the stern eyes +before him, and could make no answer. His lips moved dryly, but made no +sound. + +"Come, I want to hear from you. Where were you, if not with, or seeking, +her? Name your place and witnesses." + +"By God, Captain Armitage, the army is no longer a place for a +gentleman, if his every movement is to be spied upon like this!" + +"The world is no place for a man of your stamp, is perhaps a better way +of putting it," said Armitage, whose fingers were twitching +convulsively, and whose whole frame quivered with the effort he was +making to restrain the rage and indignation that consumed him. He could +not--he would not--believe in her guilt. He must have this man's proof, +no matter how it might damn _him_ for good and all, no matter whom else +it might involve, so long as it cleared her precious name. He must be +patient, he must be calm and resolute; but the man's cold-blooded, +selfish, criminal concealment nearly maddened him. With infinite effort +he controlled himself, and went on: + +"But it is of her I'm thinking, not of you. It is the name you have +compromised and can clear, and should clear, even at the expense of your +own,--in fact, Mr. Jerrold, _must_ clear. Now will you tell me where you +were and how you can prove it?" + +"I decline to say. I won't be cross-questioned by men who have no +authority. Captain Chester said he would refer it to the colonel; and +when _he_ asks I will answer,--not until then." + +"I ask in his name. I am authorized by him, for he is not well enough to +meet the ordeal." + +"You say so, and I don't mean to dispute your word, Captain Armitage, +but I have a right to demand some proof. How am I to know he authorized +you?" + +"He himself gave me this letter, in your handwriting," said Armitage; +and, opening the long envelope, he held forth the missive over which the +poor old colonel had gone nearly wild. "He found it the morning they +left,--in her garden." + +If Jerrold's face had been gray before, it was simply ghastly now. He +recoiled from the sight after one fruitless effort to grasp the letter, +then rallied with unlooked-for spirit: + +"By heaven, Armitage, suppose I _did_ write that letter? What does it +prove but what I say,--that somebody has been prying and spying into my +affairs? How came the colonel by it, if not by fraud or treachery?" + +"He picked it up in the garden, I tell you,--among the rose-bushes, +where she--where Miss Renwick had been but a few moments before, and +where it might appear that she had dropped it." + +"_She!_ That letter! What had she to do with it? What right had she to +read it?" + +Armitage stepped impulsively forward. A glad, glorious light was +bursting upon his soul. He could almost have seized Jerrold's hand and +thanked him; but proofs--proofs were what he needed. It was not his mind +that was to be convinced, it was "society" that must be satisfied of her +utter innocence, that it might be enabled to say, "Well, I never for a +moment believed a word of it." Link by link the chain of circumstantial +evidence must be destroyed, and this was only one. + +"You mean that that letter was not intended for Miss Renwick?" he asked, +with eagerness he strove hard to repress. + +"It was never meant for anybody," said Jerrold, the color coming back to +his face and courage to his eyes. "That letter was never sent by me to +any woman. It's my writing, of course, I can't deny that; but I never +even meant it to go. If it left that desk it must have been stolen. I've +been hunting high and low for it. I knew that such a thing lying around +loose would be the cause of mischief. God! is _that_ what all this fuss +is about?" And he looked warily, yet with infinite anxiety, into his +captain's eyes. + +"There is far more to it, as you well know, sir," was the stern answer. +"For whom was this written, if not for her? It won't do to _half_ clear +her name." + +"Answer me this, Captain Armitage. Do you mean that that letter has +compromised Miss Renwick?--that it is she whose name has been involved, +and that it was of her that Chester meant to speak?" + +"Certainly it was,--and I too." + +There was an instant's silence; then Jerrold began to laugh nervously: + +"Oh, well, I fancy it isn't the first time the revered and respected +captain has got away off the track. All the same I do not mean to +overlook his language to me; and I may say right now, Captain Armitage, +that yours, too, calls for explanation." + +"You shall have it in short order, Mr. Jerrold, and the sooner you +understand the situation the better. So far as I am concerned, Miss +Renwick needed no defender; but, thanks to your mysterious and +unwarranted absence from quarters two very unlucky nights, and to other +circumstances I have no need to name, and to your _penchant_ for +letter-writing of a most suggestive character, it _is_ Miss Renwick +whose name has been brought into question here at this post, and most +prominently so. In plain words, Mr. Jerrold, you who brought this +trouble upon her by your own misconduct must clear her, no matter at +whose expense, or--" + +"Or what?" + +"I make no threats. I prefer that you should make the proper +explanations from a proper sense of what is due." + +"And suppose I say that no man is called upon to explain a situation +which has been distorted and misrepresented by the evil imagination of +his fellows?" + +"Then I may have to wring the truth out of you,--and _will_; but, for +her sake, I want as little publicity as possible. After this display on +your part, I am not bound to show you any consideration whatever. +Understand this, however: the array of evidence that you were +feloniously inside Colonel Maynard's quarters that night and at his +cottage window last night is of such a character that a court would +convict you unless your _alibi_ was conclusive. Leave the service you +certainly shall, unless this whole thing is cleared up." + +"I never was anywhere near Colonel Maynard's either last night or the +other night I was absent." + +"You will have to prove it. Mere denials won't help you in the face of +such evidence as we have that you were there the first time." + +"What evidence?" + +"The photograph that was stolen from Mrs. Maynard between two and four +o'clock that morning was seen in your drawer by Major Sloat at reveille. +You were fool enough to show it to him." + +"Captain Armitage, I shall be quite able to show, when the proper time +comes, that the photograph I showed Major Sloat was _not_ stolen: it was +given me." + +"That is beyond belief, Mr. Jerrold. Once and for all, understand this +case. You have compromised her good name by the very mystery of your +actions. You have it in your power to clear her by proving where you +were, since you were not near her,--by showing how you got that +photograph,--by explaining how you came to write so strange a letter. +Now I say to you, will you do it, instantly, or must we wring it from +you?" + +A sneering smile was the only answer for a moment; then,-- + +"I shall take great pleasure in confounding my enemies should the matter +be brought before a court,--I'm sure if the colonel can stand that sort +of thing I can,--but as for defending myself or anybody else from +utterly unjust and proofless suspicions, it's quite another thing." + +"Good God, Jerrold! do you realize what a position you are taking? Do +you--" + +"Oh, not at all, captain," was the airy reply, "not at all. It is not a +position I have taken: it is one into which you misguided conspirators +have forced me. I certainly am not required to compromise anybody else +in order to relieve a suspicion which you, not I, have created. How do +you know that there may not be some other woman whose name I propose to +guard? You have been really very flattering in your theories so far." + +Armitage could bear no more. The airy conceit and insolence of the man +overcame all self-restraint and resolution. With one bound he was at his +throat, his strong white hands grasping him in a sudden, vice-like grip, +then hurling him with stunning, thundering force to the floor. Down, +headlong, went the tall lieutenant, his sword clattering by his side, +his slim brown hands clutching wildly at anything that might bear him +up, and dragging with him in his catastrophe a rack of hunting-pouches, +antlers, and one heavy double-barrelled shot-gun. All came tumbling down +about the struggling form, and Armitage, glaring down at him with +clinching fists and rasping teeth, had only time to utter one deep-drawn +malediction when he noted that the struggles ceased and Jerrold lay +quite still. Then the blood began to ooze from a jagged cut near the +temple, and it was evident that the hammer of the gun had struck him. + +Another moment, and the door opened, and with anxious face Chester +strode into the room. "You haven't killed him, Armitage? Is it as bad as +that?" + +"Pick him up, and we'll get him on the bed. He's only stunned. I didn't +even hit him. Those things tumbled afterwards," said Armitage, as +between them they raised the dead weight of the slender Adonis in their +arms and bore him to the bedroom. Here they bathed the wound with cold +water and removed the uniform coat, and presently the lieutenant began +to revive and look about him. + +"Who struck me?" he faintly asked. + +"Your shot-gun fell on your head, but I threw you down, Jerrold. I'm +sorry I touched you, but you're lucky it was no worse. This thing is +going to raise a big bump here. Shall I send the doctor?" + +"No. I'll come round presently. We'll see about this thing afterwards." + +"Is there any friend you want to see? Shall I send word to anybody?" +asked Chester. + +"No. Don't let anybody come. Tell my striker to bring my breakfast; but +I want nothing to-night but to be let alone." + +"At least you will let me help you undress and get to bed?" said +Chester. + +"No. I wish you'd go,--both of you. I want quiet,--peace,--and there's +none of it with either of you." + +And so they left him. Later Captain Chester had gone to the quarters, +and, after much parleying from without, had gained admission. Jerrold's +head was bound in a bandage wet with arnica and water. He had been +solacing himself with a pipe and a whiskey toddy, and was in a not +unnaturally ugly mood. + +"You may consider yourself excused from duty until your face is well +again, by which time this matter will be decided. I admonish you to +remain here and not leave the post until it is." + +"You can prefer charges and see what you'll make of it," was the +vehement reply. "Devil a bit will I help you out of the thing, after +this night's work." + + + + +XIV. + + +Tuesday, and the day of the long-projected german had come; and if ever +a lot of garrison-people were wishing themselves well out of a flurry it +was the social circle at Sibley. Invitations had been sent to all the +prominent people in town who had shown any interest in the garrison +since the regiment's arrival; beautiful favors had been procured; an +elaborate supper had been prepared,--the ladies contributing their +efforts to the salads and other solids, the officers wisely confining +their donations to the wines. It was rumored that new and original +figures were to be danced, and much had been said about this feature in +town, and much speculation had been indulged in; but the Beaubien +residence had been closed until the previous day, Nina was away with her +mother and beyond reach of question, and Mr. Jerrold had not shown his +face in town since her departure. Nor was he accessible when visitors +inquired at the fort. They had never known such mysterious army people +in their lives. What on earth could induce them to be so close-mouthed +about a mere german? one might suppose they had something worth +concealing; and presently it became noised abroad that there was genuine +cause for perplexity, and possibly worse. + +To begin with, every one at Sibley now knew something of the night +adventure at the colonel's, and, as no one could give the true statement +of the case, the stories in circulation were gorgeous embellishments of +the actual facts. It would be useless, even if advisable, to attempt to +reproduce these wild theories, but never was army garrison so +tumultuously stirred by the whirlwind of rumor. It was no longer denied +for an instant that the absence of the colonel and his household was the +direct result of that night's discoveries; and when, to Mrs. Hoyt's +inexpressible relief, there came a prettily-worded note from Alice on +Monday evening informing her that neither the colonel nor her mother +felt well enough to return to Sibley for the german, and that she +herself preferred not to leave her mother at a time when she needed her +care, Mrs. Hoyt and her intimates, with whom she instantly conferred, +decided that there could be no doubt whatever that the colonel knew of +the affair, had forbidden their return, and was only waiting for further +evidence to decide what was to be done with his erring step-daughter. +Women talked with bated breath of the latest stories in circulation, of +Chester's moody silence and preoccupation, of Jerrold's ostracism, and +of Frank Armitage's sudden return. + +On Monday morning the captain had quietly appeared in uniform at the +office, and it was known that he had relinquished the remainder of his +leave of absence and resumed command of his company. There were men in +the garrison who well knew that it was because of the mystery +overhanging the colonel's household that Armitage had so suddenly +returned. They asked no questions and sought no explanation. All men +marked, however, that Jerrold was not at the office on Monday, and many +curiously looked at the morning report in the adjutant's office. No, he +was not in arrest; neither was he on sick-report. He was marked present +for duty, and yet he was not at the customary assembly of all the +commissioned officers at head-quarters. More mystery, and most +exasperating, too, it was known that Armitage and Jerrold had held a +brief talk in the latter's quarters soon after Sunday's evening parade, +and that the former had been reinforced for a time by Captain Chester, +with whom he was afterwards closeted. Officers who heard that he had +suddenly returned and was at Chester's went speedily to the latter's +quarters,--at least two or three did,--and were met by a servant at the +door, who said that the gentlemen had just gone out the back way. And, +sure enough, neither Chester nor Armitage came home until long after +taps; and then the colonel's cook told several people that the two +gentlemen had spent over an hour up-stairs in the colonel's and Miss +Alice's room and "was foolin' around the house till near ten o'clock." + +Another thing that added to the flame of speculation and curiosity was +this. Two of the ladies, returning from a moonlit stroll on the terrace +just after tattoo, came through the narrow passage-way on the west side +of the colonel's quarters, and there, at the foot of the little flight +of steps leading up to the parade, they came suddenly upon Captain +Chester, who was evidently only moderately pleased to see them and +nervously anxious to expedite their onward movement. With the perversity +of both sexes, however, they stopped to chat and inquire what he was +doing there, and in the midst of it all a faint light gleamed on the +opposite wall and the reflection of the curtains in Alice Renwick's +window was distinctly visible. Then a sturdy masculine shadow appeared, +and there was a rustling above, and then, with exasperating, mysterious, +and epigrammatic terseness, a deep voice propounded the utterly +senseless question,-- + +"How's that?" + +To which, in great embarrassment, Chester replied,-- + +"Hold on a minute. I'm talking with some interested spectators." + +Whereat the shadow of the big man shot out of sight, and the ladies +found that it was useless to remain,--there would be no further +developments so long as they did; and so they came away, with many a +lingering backward look. "But the idea of asking such a fool question as +'How's that?' Why couldn't the man _say_ what he meant?" It was +gathered, however, that Armitage and Chester had been making some +experiments that bore in some measure on the mystery. And all this time +Mr. Jerrold was in his quarters, only a stone's-throw away. How +interested _he_ must have been! + +But, while the garrison was relieved at knowing that Alice Renwick would +not be on hand for the german and it was being fondly hoped she might +never return to the post, there was still another grievous +embarrassment. How about Mr. Jerrold? + +He had been asked to lead when the german was first projected, and had +accepted. That was fully two weeks before; and now--no one knew just +what ought to be done. It was known that Nina Beaubien had returned on +the previous day from a brief visit to the upper lakes, and that she had +a costume of ravishing beauty in which to carry desolation to the hearts +of the garrison belles in leading that german with Mr. Jerrold. Old +Madame Beaubien had been reluctant, said her city friends, to return at +all. She heartily disapproved of Mr. Jerrold, and was bitterly set +against Nina's growing infatuation for him. But Nina was headstrong and +determined: moreover, she was far more than a match for her mother's +vigilance, and it was known at Sibley that two or three times the girl +had been out at the fort with the Suttons and other friends when the +old lady believed her in quarters totally different. Cub Sutton had +confided to Captain Wilton that Madame Beaubien was in total ignorance +of the fact that there was to be a party at the doctor's the night he +had driven out with Nina and his sister, and that Nina had "pulled the +wool over her mother's eyes" and made her believe she was going to spend +the evening with friends in town, naming a family with whom the +Beaubiens were intimate. A long drive always made the old lady sleepy, +and, as she had accompanied Nina to the fort that afternoon, she went +early to bed, having secured her wild birdling, as she supposed, from +possibility of further meetings with Jerrold. For nearly a week, said +Cub, Madame Beaubien had dogged Nina so that she could not get a moment +with the man with whom she was evidently so smitten, and the girl was +almost at her wits' end with seeing the depth of his flirtation with +Alice Renwick and the knowledge that on the morrow her mother would +spirit her off to the cool breezes and blue waves of the great lake. Cub +said she so worked on Fanny's feelings that they put up the scheme +together and made him bring them out. Gad! if old Maman only found it +out there'd be no more germans for Nina. She'd ship her off to the good +Sisters at Creve-Coeur and slap her into a convent and leave all her +money to the Church. + +And yet, said city society, old Maman idolized her beautiful daughter +and could deny her no luxury or indulgence. She dressed her superbly, +though with a somewhat barbaric taste where Nina's own good sense and +Eastern teaching did not interfere. What she feared was that the girl +would fall in love with some adventurer, or--what was quite as bad--some +army man who would carry her darling away to Arizona or other +inaccessible spot. Her plan was that Nina should marry here--at +home--some one of the staid young merchant princes rising into +prominence in the Western metropolis, and from the very outset Nina had +shown a singular infatuation for the buttons and straps and music and +heaven-knows-what-all out at the fort. She gloried in seeing her +daughter prominent in all scenes of social life. She rejoiced in her +triumphs, and took infinite pains with all preparations. She would have +set her foot against Nina's simply dancing the german at the fort with +Jerrold as a partner, but she could not resist it that the papers should +announce on Sunday morning that "the event of the season at Fort Sibley +was the german given last Tuesday night by the ladies of the garrison +and led by the lovely Miss Beaubien" with Lieutenant or Captain +Anybody. There were a dozen bright, graceful, winning women among the +dames and damsels at the fort, and Alice Renwick was a famous beauty by +this time. It was more than Maman Beaubien could withstand, that her +Nina should "lead" all these, and so her consent was won. Back they came +from Chequamegon, and the stately home on Summit Avenue reopened to +receive them. It was Monday noon when they returned, and by three +o'clock Fanny Sutton had told Nina Beaubien what she knew of the +wonderful rumors that were floating in from Sibley. She was more than +half disposed to be in love with Jerrold herself. She expected a proper +amount of womanly horror, incredulity, and indignation; but she was +totally unprepared for the outburst that followed. Nina was transformed +into a tragedy queen on the instant, and poor, simple-hearted, foolish +Fanny Sutton was almost scared out of her small wits by the fire of +denunciation and fury with which her story was greeted. She came home +with white, frightened face and hunted up Cub and told him that she had +been telling Nina some of the queer things the ladies had been saying +about Mr. Jerrold, and Nina almost tore her to pieces, and could he go +right out to the fort to see Mr. Jerrold? Nina wanted to send a note at +once; and if he couldn't go she had made her promise that she would get +somebody to go instantly and to come back and let her know before four +o'clock. Cub was always glad of an excuse to go out to the fort, but a +coldness had sprung up between him and Jerrold. He had heard the ugly +rumors in that mysterious way in which all such things are heard, and, +while his shallow pate could not quite conceive of such a monstrous +scandal and he did not believe half he heard, he sagely felt that in the +presence of so much smoke there was surely some fire, and avoided the +man from whom he had been inseparable. Of course he had not spoken to +him on the subject, and, singularly enough, this was the case with all +the officers at the post except Armitage and the commander. It was +understood that the matter was in Chester's hands, to do with as was +deemed best. It was believed that his resignation had been tendered; and +all these forty-eight hours since the story might be said to be fairly +before the public, Jerrold had been left much to himself, and was +presumably in the depths of dismay. + +One or two men, urged by their wives, who thought it was really time +something were done to let him understand he ought not to lead the +german, had gone to see him and been refused admission. Asked from +within what they wanted, the reply was somewhat difficult to frame, and +in both cases resolved itself into "Oh, about the german;" to which +Jerrold's voice was heard to say, "The german's all right. I'll lead if +I'm well enough and am not bothered to death meantime; but I've got some +private matters to attend to, and am not seeing anybody to-day." And +with this answer they were fain to be content. It had been settled, +however, that the officers were to tell Captain Chester at ten o'clock +that in their opinion Mr. Jerrold ought not to be permitted to attend so +long as this mysterious charge hung over him; and Mr. Rollins had been +notified that he must be ready to lead. + +Poor Rollins! He was in sore perplexity. He wanted nothing better than +to dance with Nina Beaubien. He wondered if she _would_ lead with him, +or would even come at all when she learned that Jerrold would be unable +to attend. "Sickness" was to be the ostensible cause, and in the youth +and innocence of his heart Rollins never supposed that Nina would hear +of all the other assignable reasons. He meant to ride in and call upon +her Monday evening; but, as ill luck would have it, old Sloat, who was +officer of the day, stepped on a round pebble as he was going down the +long flight to the railway-station, and sprained his ankle. Just at five +o'clock Rollins got orders to relieve him, and was returning from the +guard-house, when who should come driving in but Cub Sutton, and Cub +reined up and asked where he would be apt to find Mr. Jerrold. + +"He isn't well, and has been denying himself to all callers to-day," +said Rollins, shortly. + +"Well, I've got to see him, or at least get a note to him," said Cub. +"It's from Miss Beaubien, and requires an answer." + +"You know the way to his quarters, I presume," said Rollins, coldly: +"you have been there frequently. I will have a man hold your horse, or +you can tie him there at the rail, just as you please." + +"Thanks. I'll go over, I believe." And go he did, and poor Rollins was +unable to resist the temptation of watching whether the magic name of +Nina would open the door. It did not; but he saw Cub hand in the little +note through the shutters, and ere long there came another from within. +This Cub stowed in his waistcoat-pocket and drove off with, and Rollins +walked jealously homeward. But that evening he went through a worse +experience, and it was the last blow to his budding passion for +sparkling-eyed Nina. + +It was nearly tattoo, and a dark night, when Chester suddenly came in: + +"Rollins, you remember my telling you I was sure some of the men had +been getting liquor in from the shore down below the station and +'running it' that way? I believe we can nab the smuggler this evening. +There's a boat down there now. The corporal has just told me." + +Smuggling liquor was one of Chester's horrors. He surrounded the post +with a cordon of sentries who had no higher duty, apparently, than that +of preventing the entrance of alcohol in any form. He had run a +"red-cross" crusade against the post-trader's store in the matter of +light wines and small beer, claiming that only adulterated stuff was +sold to the men, and forbidding the sale of anything stronger than "pop" +over the trader's counter. Then, when it became apparent that liquor was +being brought on the reservation, he made vigorous efforts to break up +the practice. Colonel Maynard rather poohpoohed the whole business. It +was his theory that a man who was determined to have a drink might +better be allowed to take an honest one, _coram publico_, than a +smuggled and deleterious article; but he succumbed to the rule that only +"light wines and beer" should be sold at the store, and was lenient to +the poor devils who overloaded and deranged their stomachs in +consequence. But Chester no sooner found himself in command than he +launched into the crusade with redoubled energy, and spent hours of the +day and night trying to capture invaders of the reservation with a +bottle in their pockets. The bridge was guarded, so was the crossing of +the Cloudwater to the south, and so were the two roads entering from the +north and west; and yet there was liquor coming in, and, as though "to +give Chester a benefit," some of the men in barracks had a royal old +spree on Saturday night, and the captain was sorer-headed than any of +the participants in consequence. In some way he heard that a rowboat +came up at night and landed supplies of contraband down by the +river-side out of sight and hearing of the sentry at the +railway-station, and it was thither he hurriedly led Rollins this Monday +evening. + +They turned across the railway on reaching the bottom of the long +stairs, and scrambled down the rocky embankment on the other side, +Rollins following in reluctant silence and holding his sword so that it +would not rattle, but he had no faith in the theory of smugglers. He +felt in some vague and unsatisfactory way a sense of discomfort and +anxiety over his captain's late proceedings, and this stealthy descent +seemed fraught with ill omen. + +Once down in the flats, their footsteps made no noise in the yielding +sand, and all was silence save for the plash of the waters along the +shores. Far down the river were the reflections of one or two twinkling +lights, and close under the bank in the slack-water a few stars were +peeping at their own images, but no boat was there, and the captain led +still farther to a little copse of willow, and there, in the shadows, +sure enough, was a row-boat, with a little lantern dimly burning, half +hidden in the stern. + +Not only that, but as they halted at the edge of the willows the captain +put forth a warning hand and cautioned silence. No need. Rollins's +straining eyes were already fixed on two figures that were standing in +the shadows not ten feet away,--one that of a tall, slender man, the +other a young girl. It was a moment before Rollins could recognize +either; but in that moment the girl had turned suddenly, had thrown her +arms about the neck of the tall young man, and, with her head pillowed +on his breast, was gazing up in his face. + +"Kiss me once more, Howard. Then I must go," they heard her whisper. + +Rollins seized his captain's sleeve, and strove, sick at heart, to pull +him back; but Chester stoutly stood his ground. In the few seconds more +that they remained they saw his arms more closely enfold her. They saw +her turn at the brink, and, in an utter abandonment of rapturous, +passionate love, throw her arms again about his neck and stand on tiptoe +to reach his face with her warm lips. They could not fail to hear the +caressing tone of her every word, or to mark his receptive but gloomy +silence. They could not mistake the voice,--the form, shadowy though it +was. The girl was Nina Beaubien, and the man, beyond question, Howard +Jerrold. They saw him hand her into the light skiff and hurriedly kiss +her good-night. Once again, as though she could not leave him, her arms +were thrown about his neck and she clung to him with all her strength; +then the little boat swung slowly out into the stream, the sculls were +shipped, and with practised hand Nina Beaubien pulled forth into the +swirling waters of the river, and the faint light, like slowly-setting +star, floated downward with the sweeping tide and finally disappeared +beyond the point. + +Then Jerrold turned to leave, and Chester stepped forth and confronted +him: + +"Mr. Jerrold, did I not instruct you to confine yourself to your +quarters until satisfactory explanation was made of the absences with +which you are charged?" + +Jerrold started at the abrupt and unlooked-for greeting, but his answer +was prompt: + +"Not at all, sir. You gave me to understand that I was to remain +here--not to leave the post--until you had decided on certain points; +and, though I do not admit the justice of your course, and though you +have put me to grave inconvenience, I obeyed the order. I needed to go +to town to-day on urgent business, but, between you and Captain +Armitage, am in no condition to go. For all this, sir, there will come +proper retribution when my colonel returns. And now, sir, you are spying +upon me,--_spying_, I say,--and it only confirms what I said of you +before." + +"Silence, Mr. Jerrold! This is insubordination." + +"I don't care a damn what it is, sir! There is nothing contemptuous +enough for me to say of you or your conduct to me--" + +"Not another word, Mr. Jerrold! Go to your quarters in arrest.--Mr. +Rollins, you are witness to this language." + +But Rollins was not. Turning from the spot in blankness of heart before +a word was uttered between them, he followed the waning light with eyes +full of yearning and trouble; he trudged his way down along the sandy +shore until he came to the silent waters of the slough and could go no +farther; and then he sat him down and covered his face with his hands. +It was pretty hard to bear. + + + + +XV. + + +Tuesday still, and all manner of things had happened and were still to +happen in the hurrying hours that followed Sunday night. The garrison +woke at Tuesday's reveille in much perturbation of spirit, as has been +said, but by eight o'clock and breakfast-time one cause of perplexity +was at an end. Relief had come with Monday afternoon and Alice Renwick's +letter saying she would not attend the german, and now still greater +relief in the news that sped from mouth to mouth: Lieutenant Jerrold was +in close arrest. Armitage and Chester had been again in consultation +Monday night, said the gossips, and something new had been +discovered,--no one knew just what,--and the toils had settled upon +Jerrold's handsome head, and now he was to be tried. As usual in such +cases, the news came in through the kitchen, and most officers heard it +at the breakfast-table from the lips of their better halves, who could +hardly find words to express their sentiments as to the inability of +their lords to explain the new phase of the situation. When the first +sergeant of Company B came around to Captain Armitage with the +sick-book, soon after six in the morning, the captain briefly directed +him to transfer Lieutenant Jerrold on the morning report from present +for duty to "in arrest," and no sooner was it known at the quarters of +Company B than it began to work back to Officers' Row through the medium +of the servants and strikers. + +It was the sole topic of talk for a full hour. Many ladies who had +intended going to town by the early train almost perilled their chances +of catching the same in their eagerness to hear further details. + +But the shriek of the whistle far up the valley broke up the group that +was so busily chatting and speculating over in the quadrangle, and, with +shy yet curious eyes, the party of at least a dozen--matrons and maids, +wives or sisters of the officers--scurried past the darkened windows of +Mr. Jerrold's quarters, and through the mysterious passage west of the +colonel's silent house, and down the long stairs, just in time to catch +the train that whirled them away city-ward almost as soon as it had +disgorged the morning's mail. Chatting and laughing, and full of blithe +anticipation of the glories of the coming german, in preparation for +which most of their number had found it necessary to run in for just an +hour's shopping, they went jubilantly on their way. Shopping done, they +would all meet, take luncheon together at the "Woman's Exchange," return +to the post by the afternoon train, and have plenty of time for a little +nap before dressing for the german. Perhaps the most interesting +question now up for discussion was, who would lead with Mr. Rollins? The +train went puffing into the crowded dépôt: the ladies hastened forth, +and in a moment were on the street; cabs and carriages were passed in +disdain; a brisk walk of a block carried them to the main thoroughfare +and into the heart of the shopping district; a rush of hoofs and wheels +and pedestrians there encountered them, and the roar assailed their +sensitive and unaccustomed ears, yet high above it all pierced and +pealed the shrill voices of the newsboys darting here and there with +their eagerly-bought journals. But women bent on germans and shopping +have time and ears for no such news as that which demands the +publication of extras. Some of them never hear or heed the cry, "Indian +Massacree!" "Here y'are! All about the killin' of Major Thornton an' his +sojers!" "Extry!--extry!" It is not until they reach the broad portals +of the great Stewart of the West that one of their number, half +incredulously, buys a copy and reads aloud: "Major Thornton, ----th +Infantry, Captain Langham and Lieutenant Bliss, ----th Cavalry, and +thirty men, are killed. Captains Wright and Lane and Lieutenants Willard +and Brooks, ----th Cavalry, and some forty more men, are seriously +wounded. The rest of the command is corralled by an overwhelming force +of Indians, and their only hope is to hold out until help can reach +them. All troops along the line of the Union Pacific are already under +orders." + +"Oh, isn't it dreadful?" + +"Yes; but aren't you glad it wasn't Ours? Oh, look! there's Nina +Beaubien over there in her carriage. _Do_ let's find out if she's going +to lead with Rollins!" + +_Væ victis_! Far out in the glorious Park country in the heart of the +Centennial State a little band of blue-coats, sent to succor a perilled +agent, is making desperate stand against fearful odds. Less than two +hundred men has the wisdom of the Department sent forth through the +wilderness to find and, if need be, fight its way through five times its +weight in well-armed foes. The officers and men have no special quarrel +with those Indians, nor the Indians with them. Only two winters before, +when those same Indians were sick and starving, and their lying +go-betweens, the Bureau-employees, would give them neither food nor +justice, a small band made their way to the railway and were fed on +soldier food and their wrongs righted by soldier justice. But another +snarl has come now, and this time the Bureau-people are in a pickle, and +the army--ever between two fires at least, and thankful when it isn't +six--is ordered to send a little force and go out there and help the +agent maintain his authority. The very night before the column reaches +the borders of the reservation the leading chiefs come in camp to +interview the officers, shake hands, beg tobacco, and try on their +clothes, then go back to their braves and laugh as they tell there are +only a handful, and plan the morrow's ambuscade and massacre. _Væ +victis_! There are women and children among the garrisons along the +Union Pacific whose hearts have little room for thoughts of germans in +the horror of this morning's tidings. But Sibley is miles and miles +away, and, as Mrs. Wheeler says, aren't you glad it wasn't Ours? + +Out at the fort there is a different scene. The morning journals and the +clicking telegraph send a thrill throughout the whole command. The train +has barely whistled out of sight when the ringing notes of officers' +call resound through the quadrangle and out over the broader +drill-ground beyond. Wondering, but prompt, the staid captains and eager +subalterns come hurrying to head-quarters, and the band, that had come +forth and taken its station on the parade, all ready for guard-mount, +goes quickly back, while the men gather in big squads along the shaded +row of their quarters and watch the rapid assembly at the office. And +there old Chester, with kindling eyes, reads to the silent company the +brief official order. Ay, though it be miles and miles away, fast as +steam and wheel can take it, the good old regiment in all its sturdy +strength goes forth to join the rescue of the imprisoned comrades far in +the Colorado Rockies. "Have your entire command in readiness for +immediate field-service in the Department of the Platte. Special train +will be there to take you by noon at latest." And though many a man has +lost friend and comrade in the tragedy that calls them forth, and though +many a brow clouds for the moment with the bitter news of such useless +sacrifice, every eye brightens, every muscle seems to brace, every nerve +and pulse to throb and thrill with the glorious excitement of quick +assembly and coming action. Ay, we are miles and miles away; we leave +the dear old post, with homes and firesides, wives, children, and +sweethearts, all to the care of the few whom sickness or old wounds or +advancing years render unfit for hard, sharp marching; and, thank God! +we'll be there to take a hand and help those gallant fellows out of +their "corral" or to have one good blow at the cowardly hounds who lured +and lied to them. + +How the "assembly" rings on the morning air! How quick they spring to +ranks, those eager bearded faces and trim blue-clad forms! How buoyant +and brisk even the elders seem as the captains speed over to their +company quarters and the quick, stirring orders are given! "Field kits; +all the cooked rations you have on hand; overcoat, blanket, extra socks +and underclothes; every cartridge you've got; haversack and canteen, and +nothing else. Now get ready,--lively!" How irrepressible is the cheer +that goes up! How we pity the swells of the light battery who have to +stay! How wistful those fellows look, and how eagerly they throng about +the barracks, yearning to go, and, since that is denied, praying to be +of use in some way! Small wonder is it that all the bustle and +excitement penetrates the portals of Mr. Jerrold's darkened quarters, +and the shutters are thrown open and his bandaged head comes forth. + +"What is it, Harris?" he demands of a light-batteryman who is hurrying +past. + +"Orders for Colorado, sir. The regiment goes by special train. Major +Thornton's command's been massacred, and there's a big fight ahead." + +"My God! Here!--stop one moment. Run over to Company B and see if you +can find my servant, or Merrick, or somebody. If not, you come back +quick. I want to send a note to Captain Armitage." + +"I can take it, sir. We're not going. The band and the battery have to +stay." + +And Jerrold, with trembling hand and feverish haste, seats himself at +the same desk whence on that fatal morning he sent the note that wrought +such disaster; and as he rises and hands his missive forth, throwing +wide open the shutters as he does so, his bedroom doors fly open, and a +whirling gust of the morning wind sweeps through from rear to front, and +half a score of bills and billets, letters and scraps of paper, go +ballooning out upon the parade. + +"By heaven!" he mutters, "that's how it happened, is it? _Look_ at them +go!" for going they were, in spiral eddies or fluttering skips, up the +grassy "quad," and over among the rose-bushes of Alice Renwick's garden. +Over on the other side of the narrow, old-fashioned frontier fort the +men were bustling about, and their exultant, eager voices rang out on +the morning air. All was life and animation, and even in Jerrold's +selfish soul there rose responsive echo to the soldierly spirit that +seemed to pervade the whole command. It was their first summons to +active field-duty with prospective battle since he had joined, and, with +all his shortcomings as a "duty" officer in garrison and his many +frailties of character, Jerrold was not the man to lurk in the rear when +there was danger ahead. It dawned on him with sudden and crushing force +that now it lay in the power of his enemies to do him vital +injury,--that he could be held here at the post like a suspected felon, +a mark for every finger, a target for every tongue, while every other +officer of his regiment was hurrying with his men to take his knightly +share in the coming onset. It was intolerable, shameful. He paced the +floor of his little parlor in nervous misery, ever and anon gazing from +the window for sight of his captain. It was to him he had written, +urging that he be permitted a few moments' talk. "This is no time for a +personal misunderstanding," he wrote. "I must see you at once. I can +clear away the doubts, can explain my action; but, for heaven's sake, +intercede for me with Captain Chester that I may go with the command." + +As luck would have it, Armitage was with Chester at the office when the +letter was handed in. He opened it, gave a whistle of surprise, and +simply held it forth to the temporary commander. + +"Read that," he said. + +Chester frowned, but took the note and looked it curiously over. + +"I have no patience with the man now," he said. "Of course after what I +saw last night I begin to understand the nature of his defence; but we +don't want any such man in the regiment, after this. What's the use of +taking him with us?" + +"That isn't the point," said Armitage. "Now or never, possibly, is the +time to clear up this mystery. Of course Maynard will be up to join us +by the first train; and what won't it be worth to him to have positive +proof that all his fears were unfounded?" + +"Even if it wasn't Jerrold, there is still the fact that I saw a man +clambering out of her window. How is that to be cleared up?" said +Chester, gloomily. + +"That may come later, and won't be such a bugbear as you think. If you +were not worried into a morbid condition over all this trouble, you +would not look so seriously upon a thing which I regard as a piece of +mere night prowling, with a possible spice of romance." + +"What romance, I'd like to know?" + +"Never mind that now: I'm playing detective for the time being. Let me +see Jerrold for you and find out what he has to offer. Then you can +decide. Are you willing? All right! But remember this while I think of +it. You admit that the light you saw on the wall Sunday night was +exactly like that which you saw the night of your adventure, and that +the shadows were thrown in the same way. You thought that night that the +light was turned up and afterwards turned out in her room, and that it +was _her_ figure you saw at the window. Didn't you?" + +"Yes. What then?" + +"Well, I believe her statement that she saw and heard nothing until +reveille. I believe it was Mrs. Maynard who did the whole thing, without +Miss Renwick's knowing anything about it." + +"Why?" + +"Because I accomplished the feat with the aid of the little night-lamp +that I found by the colonel's bedside. It is my theory that Mrs. Maynard +was restless after the colonel finally fell asleep, that she heard your +tumble, and took her little lamp, crossed over into Miss Renwick's +room, opened the door without creaking, as I can do to your +satisfaction, found her sleeping quietly, but the room a trifle close +and warm, set her night-lamp down on the table, as I did, threw her +shadow on the wall, as I did, and opened the shade, as you thought her +daughter did. Then she withdrew, and left those doors open,--both hers +and her daughter's,--and the light, instead of being turned down, as you +thought, was simply carried back into her own room." + +"That is all possible. But how about the man in her room? Nothing was +stolen, though money and jewelry were lying around loose. If theft was +not the object, what was?" + +"Theft certainly was not, and I'm not prepared to say what was, but I +have reason to believe it wasn't Miss Renwick." + +"Anything to prove it?" + +"Yes; and, though time is precious and I cannot show you, you may take +my word for it. We must be off at noon, and both of us have much to do, +but there may be no other chance to talk, and before you leave this post +I want you to realize her utter innocence." + +"I want to, Armitage." + +"I know you do: so look here. We assume that the same man paid the night +visit both here and at Sablon, and that he wanted to see the same +person,--if he did not come to steal: do we not?" + +"Yes." + +"We know that at Sablon it was Mrs. Maynard he sought and called. The +colonel says so." + +"Yes." + +"Presumably, then, it was she--not her daughter--he had some reasons for +wanting to see here at Sibley. What is more, if he wanted to see Miss +Renwick there was nothing to prevent his going right into her window?" + +"Nothing." + +"Well, I believe I can prove he didn't; on the contrary, that he went +around by the roof of the porch to the colonel's room and tried there, +but found it risky on account of the blinds, and that finally he entered +the hall window,--what might be called neutral ground. The painters had +been at work there, as you said, two days before, and the paint on the +slats was not quite dry. The blinds and sills were the only things they +had touched up on that front, it seems, and nothing on the sides. Now, +on the fresh paint of the colonel's slats are the new imprints of +masculine thumb and fingers, and on the sill of the hall window is a +footprint that I know to be other than Jerrold's." + +"Why?" + +"Because he doesn't own such a thing as this track was made with, and I +don't know a man in this command who does. It was the handiwork of the +Tonto Apaches, and came from the other side of the continent." + +"You mean it was--?" + +"Exactly. An Indian moccasin." + +Meantime, Mr. Jerrold had been making hurried preparations, as he had +fully determined that at any cost he would go with the regiment. He had +been burning a number of letters, when Captain Armitage knocked and +hurriedly entered. Jerrold pushed forward a chair and plunged at once +into the matter at issue: + +"There is no time to waste, captain. I have sent to you to ask what I +can do to be released from arrest and permitted to go with the command." + +"Answer the questions I put to you the other night, and certify to your +answers; and of course you'll have to apologize to Captain Chester for +your last night's language." + +"That of course; though you will admit it looked like spying. Now let me +ask you, did he tell you who the lady was?" + +"No. I told him." + +"How did you know?" + +"By intuition, and my knowledge of previous circumstances." + +"We have no time to discuss it. I make no attempt to conceal it now; but +I ask that, on your honor, neither you nor he reveal it." + +"And continue to let the garrison believe that you were in Miss +Renwick's room that ghastly night?" asked Armitage, dryly. + +Jerrold flushed: "I have denied that, and I would have proved my _alibi_ +could I have done so without betraying a woman's secret. Must I tell?" + +"So far as I am concerned, Mr. Jerrold," said Armitage, with cold and +relentless meaning, "you not only must tell--you must _prove_--both that +night's doings and Saturday night's,--both that and how you obtained +that photograph." + +"My God! In one case it is a woman's name; in the other I have promised +on honor not to reveal it." + +"That ends it, then. You remain here in close arrest, and the charges +against you will be pushed to the bitter end. I will write them this +very hour." + + + + +XVI. + + +At ten o'clock that morning, shortly after a smiling interview with the +ladies of Fort Sibley, in which, with infinite spirit and the most +perfect self-control, Miss Beaubien had informed them that she had +promised to lead with Mr. Jerrold, and, since he was in duress, she +would lead with no one, and sent them off wondering and greatly excited, +there came running up to the carriage a telegraph messenger boy, who +handed her a despatch. + +"I was going up to the avenue, mum," he explained, "but I seen you +here." + +Nina's face paled as she tore it open and read the curt lines: + +"Come to me, here. Your help needed instantly." + +She sprang from the carriage. "Tell mother I have gone over to see some +Fort friends,--not to wait," she called to the coachman, well knowing he +would understand that she meant the ladies with whom she had been so +recently talking. Like a frightened deer she sped around the corner, +hailed the driver of a cab, lounging with his fellows along the walk, +ordered him to drive with all speed to Summit Avenue, and with beating +heart decided on her plan. Her glorious eyes were flashing: the native +courage and fierce determination of her race were working in her woman's +heart. She well knew that imminent danger threatened him. She had dared +everything for love of his mere presence, his sweet caress. What would +she not dare to save him, if save she could? He had not been true to +her. She knew, and knew well, that, whether sought or not, Alice Renwick +had been winning him from her, that he was wavering, that he had been +cold and negligent; but with all her soul and strength she loved him, +and believed him grand and brave and fine as he was beautiful. Now--now +was her opportunity. He needed her. His commission, his honor, depended +on her. He had intimated as much the night before,--had told her of the +accusations and suspicions that attached to him,--but made no mention of +the photograph. He had said that though nothing could drag from him a +word that would compromise _her_, _she_ might be called upon to stand +'twixt him and ruin; and now perhaps the hour had come. She could free, +exonerate, glorify him, and in doing so claim him for her own. Who, +after this, could stand 'twixt her and him? He loved her, though he +_had_ been cold; and she--? Had he bidden her bow her dusky head to +earth and kiss the print of his heel, she would have obeyed could she +but feel sure that her reward would be a simple touch of his hand, an +assurance that no other woman could find a moment's place in his love. +Verily, he had been doing desperate wooing in the long winter, for the +very depths of her nature were all athrob with love for him. And now he +could no longer plead that poverty withheld his offer of his hand. She +would soon be mistress of her own little fortune, and, at her mother's +death, of an independence. Go to him she would, and on wings of the +wind, and go she did. The cab released her at the gate to her home, and +went back with a double fare that set the driver to thinking. She sped +through the house, and out the rear doors, much to the amaze of cook and +others who were in consultation in the kitchen. She flew down a winding +flight of stairs to the level below, and her fairy feet went tripping +over the pavement of a plebeian street. A quick turn, and she was at a +little second-rate stable, whose proprietor knew her and started from +his chair. + +"What's wrong to-day, Miss Nina?" + +"I want the roan mare and light buggy again,--quick as you can. Your own +price at the old terms, Mr. Graves,--silence." + +He nodded, called to a subordinate, and in five minutes handed her into +the frail vehicle. An impatient chirrup and flap of the reins, and the +roan shot forth into the dusty road, leaving old Graves shaking his head +at the door. + +"I've known her ever since she was weaned," he muttered, "and she's a +wild bird, if ever there was one, but she's never been the like o' this +till last month." + +And the roan mare was covered with foam and sweat when Nina Beaubien +drove into the bustling fort, barely an hour after her receipt of +Jerrold's telegram. A few officers were gathered in front of +head-quarters, and there were curious looks from face to face as she was +recognized. Mr. Rollins was on the walk, giving some instructions to a +sergeant of his company, and never saw her until the buggy reined up +close behind him and, turning suddenly, he met her face to face as she +sprang lightly to the ground. The young fellow reddened to his eyes, and +would have recoiled, but she was mistress of the situation. She well +knew she had but to command and he would obey, or, at the most, if she +could no longer command she had only to implore, and he would be +powerless to withstand her entreaty. + +"I am glad _you_ are here, Mr. Rollins. You can help me.--Sergeant, +will you kindly hitch my horse at that post?--Now," she added, in low, +hurried tone, "come with me to Mr. Jerrold's." + +Rollins was too stupefied to answer. Silently he placed himself by her +side, and together they passed the group at the office. Miss Beaubien +nodded with something of her old archness and coquetry to the +cap-raising party, but never hesitated. Together they passed along the +narrow board walk, followed by curious eyes, and as they reached the +angle and stepped beneath the shelter of the piazza in front of the +long, low, green-blinded Bachelors' Row, there was sudden sensation in +the group. Mr. Jerrold appeared at the door of his quarters; Rollins +halted some fifty feet away, raised his cap, and left her; and, all +alone, with the eyes of Fort Sibley upon her, Nina Beaubien stepped +bravely forward to meet her lover. + +They saw him greet her at the door. Some of them turned away, unwilling +to look, and yet unwilling to go and not understand this new phase of +the mystery. Rollins, looking neither to right nor left, repassed them +and walked off with a set, savage look on his young face, and then, as +one or two still gazed, fascinated by this strange and daring +proceeding, others, too, turned back and, half ashamed of themselves for +such a yielding to curiosity, glanced furtively over at Jerrold's door. + +There they stood,--he, restrained by his arrest, unable to come forth; +she, restrained more by his barring form than by any consideration of +maidenly reserve, for, had he bidden, she would have gone within. She +had fully made up her mind that wherever he was, even were it behind the +sentinels and bars of the guard-house, she would demand that she be +taken to his side. He had handed out a chair, but she would not sit. +They saw her looking up into his face as he talked, and noted the eager +gesticulation, so characteristic of his Creole blood, that seemed to +accompany his rapid words. They saw her bending towards him, looking +eagerly up in his eyes, and occasionally casting indignant glances over +towards the group at the office, as though she would annihilate with her +wrath the persecutors of her hero. Then they saw her stretch forth both +her hands with a quick impulsive movement, and grasp his one instant, +looking so faithfully, steadfastly, loyally, into his clouded and +anxious face. Then she turned, and with quick, eager steps came tripping +towards them. They stood irresolute. Every man felt that it was +somebody's duty to step forward, meet her, and be her escort though the +party, but no one advanced. There was, if anything, a tendency to sidle +towards the office door, as though to leave the sidewalk unimpeded. But +she never sought to pass them by. With flashing eyes and crimson cheeks, +she bore straight upon them, and, with indignant emphasis upon every +word, accosted them: + +"Captain Wilton, Major Sloat, I wish to see Captain Chester at once. Is +he in the office?" + +"Certainly, Miss Beaubien. Shall I call him? or will you walk in?" And +both men were at her side in a moment. + +"Thanks. I will go right in,--if you will kindly show me to him." + +Another moment, and Armitage and Chester, deep in the midst of their +duties and surrounded by clerks and orderlies and assailed by half a +dozen questions in one and the same instant, looked up astonished as +Wilton stepped in and announced Miss Beaubien desiring to see Captain +Chester on immediate business. There was no time for conference. There +she stood in the door-way, and all tongues were hushed on the instant. +Chester rose and stepped forward with anxious courtesy. She did not +choose to see the extended hand. + +"It is you, alone, I wish to see, captain. Is it impossible here?" + +"I fear it is, Miss Beaubien; but we can walk out in the open air. I +feel that I know what it is you wish to say to me," he added, in a low +tone, took his cap from the peg on which it hung, and led the way. Again +she passed through the curious, but respectful group, and Jerrold, +watching furtively from his window, saw them come forth. + +The captain turned to her as soon as they were out of earshot: + +"I have no daughter of my own, my dear young lady, but if I had I could +not more thoroughly feel for you than I do. How can I help you?" + +The reply was unexpectedly spirited. He had thought to encourage and +sustain her, be sympathetic and paternal, but, as he afterwards ruefully +admitted, he "never did seem to get the hang of a woman's temperament." +Apparently sympathy was not the thing she needed. + +"It is late in the day to ask such a question, Captain Chester. You have +done great wrong and injustice. The question is now, will you undo it?" + +He was too surprised to speak for a moment. When his tongue was unloosed +he said,-- + +"I shall be glad to be convinced I was wrong." + +"I know little of army justice or army laws, Captain Chester, but when +a girl is compelled to take this step to rescue a friend there is +something brutal about them,--or the men who enforce them. Mr. Jerrold +tells me that he is arrested. I knew that last night, but not until this +morning did he consent to let me know that he would be court-martialled +unless he could prove where he was the night you were officer of the day +two weeks ago, and last Saturday night. He is too noble and good to +defend himself when by doing so he might harm me. But I am here to free +him from the cruel suspicion you have formed." She had quickened her +step, and in her impulsiveness and agitation they were almost at the end +of the walk. He hesitated, as though reluctant to go along under the +piazza, but she was imperious, and he yielded. "No, come!" she said. "I +mean that you shall hear the whole truth, and that at once. I do not +expect you to understand or condone my conduct, but you must acquit him. +We are engaged; and--I love him. He has enemies here, as I see all too +plainly, and they have prejudiced mother against him, and she has +forbidden my seeing him. I came out to the fort without her knowledge +one day, and it angered her. From that time she would not let me see him +alone. She watched every movement, and came with me wherever I drove. +She gave orders that I should never have any of our horses to drive or +ride alone,--I, whom father had indulged to the utmost and who had +ridden and driven at will from my babyhood. She came out to the fort +with me that evening for parade, and never even agreed to let me go out +to see some neighbors until she learned he was to escort Miss Renwick. +She had ordered me to be ready to go with her to Chequamagon the next +day, and I would not go until I had seen him. There had been a +misunderstanding. I got the Suttons to drive me out while mother +supposed me at the Laurents', and Mr. Jerrold promised to meet me east +of the bridge and drive in town with us, and I was to send him back in +Graves's buggy. He had been refused permission to leave the post, he +said, and could not cross the bridge, where the sentries would be sure +to recognize him, but, as it was our last chance of meeting, he risked +the discovery of his absence, never dreaming of such a thing as his +private rooms being inspected. He had a little skiff down in the willows +that he had used before, and by leaving the party at midnight he could +get home, change his dress, run down the bank and row down-stream to the +Point, there leave his skiff and climb up to the road. He met us there +at one o'clock, and the Suttons would never betray either of us, though +they did not know we were engaged. We sat in their parlor a quarter of +an hour after we got to town, and then 'twas time to go, and there was +only a little ten minutes' walk down to the stable. I had seen him such +a very short time, and I had so much to tell him." (Chester could have +burst into rapturous applause had she been an actress. Her cheeks were +aflame, her eyes full of fire and spirit, her bosom heaving, her little +foot tapping the ground, as she stood there leaning on the colonel's +fence and looking straight up in the perturbed veteran's face. She was +magnificent, he said to himself; and, in her bravery, self-sacrifice, +and indignation, she _was_.) "It was then after two, and I could just as +well go with him,--somebody had to bring the buggy back,--and Graves +himself hitched in his roan mare for me, and I drove out, picked up Mr. +Jerrold at the corner, and we came out here again through the darkness +together. Even when we got to the Point I did not let him go at once. It +was over an hour's drive. It was fully half-past three before we parted. +He sprang down the path to reach the river-side; and before he was +fairly in his boat and pulling up against the stream, I heard, far over +here somewhere, those two faint shots. That was the shooting he spoke of +in his letter to me,--not to her; and what business Colonel Maynard had +to read and exhibit to his officers a letter never intended for him I +cannot understand. Mr. Jerrold says it was not what he wanted it to be +at all, as he wrote hastily, so he wrote another, and sent that to me by +Merrick that morning after his absence was discovered. It probably blew +out of the window, as these other things did this morning. See for +yourself, captain." And she pointed to the two or three bills and scraps +that had evidently only recently fluttered in among the now neglected +roses. "Then when he was aroused at reveille and you threatened him with +punishment and held over his head the startling accusation that you knew +of our meeting and our secret, he was naturally infinitely distressed, +and could only write to warn me, and he managed to get in and say +good-by to me at the station. As for me, I was back home by five +o'clock, let myself noiselessly up to my room, and no one knew it but +the Suttons and old Graves, neither of whom would betray me. I had no +fear of the long dark road: I had ridden and driven as a child all over +these bluffs and prairies before there was any town worth mentioning, +and in days when my father and I found only friends--not enemies--here +at Sibley." + +"Miss Beaubien, let me protest against your accusation. It is not for +me to reprove your grave imprudence or recklessness; nor have I the +right to disapprove your choice of Mr. Jerrold. Let me say at once that +you have none but friends here; and if it ever should be known to what +lengths you went to save him, it will only make him more envied and you +more genuinely admired. I question your wisdom, but, upon my soul, I +admire your bravery and spirit. You have cleared him of a terrible +charge." + +A most disdainful and impatient shrug of her shapely shoulders was Miss +Beaubien's only answer to that allusion. The possibility of Mr. +Jerrold's being suspected of another entanglement was something she +would not tolerate: + +"I know nothing of other people's affairs. I simply speak of my own. Let +us end this as quickly as possible, captain. Now about Saturday night. +Mother had consented to our coming back for the german,--she enjoys +seeing me lead, it seems,--and she decided to pay a short visit to +relations at St. Croix, staying there Saturday night and over Sunday. +This would give us a chance to meet again, as he could spend the evening +in St. Croix and return by late train, and I wrote and asked him. He +came; we had a long talk in the summer-house in the garden, for mother +never dreamed of his being there, and unluckily he just missed the night +train and did not get back until inspection. It was impossible for him +to have been at Sablon; and he can furnish other proof, but would do +nothing until he had seen me." + +"Miss Beaubien, you have cleared him. I only wish that you could +clear--every one." + +"I am in no wise concerned in that other matter to which you have +alluded; neither is Mr. Jerrold. May I say to him at once that this ends +his persecution?" + +The captain smiled: "You certainly deserve to be the bearer of good +tidings. I wish he may appreciate it." + +Another moment, and she had left him and sped back to Jerrold's +door-way. He was there to meet her, and Chester looked with grim and +uncertain emotion at the radiance in her face. He had to get back to the +office and to pass them: so, as civilly as he could, considering the +weight of wrath and contempt he felt for the man, he stopped and spoke: + +"Your fair advocate has been all-powerful, Mr. Jerrold. I congratulate +you; and your arrest is at an end. Captain Armitage will require no +duty of you until we are aboard; but we've only half an hour. The train +is coming sharp at noon." + +"Train! What train! Where are you going?" she asked, a wild anxiety in +her eyes, a sudden pallor on her face. + +"We are ordered post-haste to Colorado, Nina, to rescue what is left of +Thornton's men. But for you I should have been left behind." + +"But for me!--left behind!" she cried. "Oh, Howard, Howard! have I +only--only won you to send you into danger? Oh, my darling! Oh, God! +Don't--don't go! They will kill you! It will kill me! Oh, what have I +done? what have I done?" + +"Nina, hush! My honor is with the regiment. I _must_ go, child. We'll be +back in a few weeks. Indeed, I fear 'twill all be over before we get +there. _Nina_, don't look so! Don't act so! Think where you are!" + +But she had borne too much, and the blow came all too soon,--too heavy. +She was wellnigh senseless when the Beaubien carriage came whirling into +the fort and old Maman rushed forth in voluble and rabid charge upon her +daughter. All too late! it was useless now. Her darling's heart was +weaned away, and her love lavished on that tall, objectionable young +soldier so soon to go forth to battle. Reproaches, tears, wrath, were +all in order, but were abandoned at sight of poor Nina's agony of grief. +Noon came, and the train, and with buoyant tread the gallant command +marched down the winding road and filed aboard the cars, and Howard +Jerrold, shame-stricken, humbled at the contemplation of his own +unworthiness, slowly unclasped her arms from about his neck, laid one +long kiss upon her white and quivering lips, took one brief look in the +great, dark, haunting, despairing eyes, and carried her wail of anguish +ringing in his ears as he sprang aboard and was whirled away. + +But there were women who deemed themselves worse off than Nina +Beaubien,--the wives and daughters and sweethearts whom she met that +morn in town; for when they got back to Sibley the regiment was miles +away. For them there was not even a kiss from the lips of those they +loved. Time and train waited for no woman. There were comrades battling +for life in the Colorado Rockies, and aid could not come too soon. + + + + +XVII. + + +Under the cloudless heavens, under the starlit skies, blessing the +grateful dew that cools the upland air and moistens the bunch-grass that +has been bleaching all day in the fierce rays of the summer sun, a +little column of infantry is swinging steadily southward. Long and +toilsome has been the march; hot, dusty, and parching the day. Halts +have been few and far between, and every man, from the colonel down, is +coated with a gray mask of powdered alkali, the contribution of a two +hours' tramp through Deadman's Cañon just before the sun went down. Now, +however, they are climbing the range. The morrow will bring them to the +broad and beautiful valley of the Spirit Wolf, and there they must have +news. Officers and men are footsore and weary, but no one begs for rest. +Colonel Maynard, riding ahead on a sorry hack he picked up at the +station two days' long march behind them, is eager to reach the springs +at Forest Glade before ordering bivouac for the night. A week agone no +one who saw him at Sablon would have thought the colonel fit for a march +like this; but he seems rejuvenate. His head is high, his eye as bright, +his bearing as full of spirit, as man's could possibly be at sixty, and +the whole regiment cheered him when he caught the column at Omaha. A +talk with Chester and Armitage seemed to have made a new man of him, and +to-night he is full of an energy that inspires the entire command. +Though they were farther away than many other troops ordered to the +scene, the fact that their station was on the railway and that they +could be sent by special trains to Omaha and thence to the West enabled +them to begin their rescue-march ahead of all the other foot-troops and +behind only the powerful command of cavalry that was whirled to the +scene the moment the authorities woke up to the fact that it should have +been sent in the first place. Old Maynard would give his very ears to +get to Thornton's corral ahead of them, but the cavalry has thirty-six +hours' start and four legs to two. Every moment he looks ahead expectant +of tidings from the front that shall tell him the ----th were there and +the remnant rescued. Even then, he knows, he and his long Springfields +will be needed. The cavalry can fight their way in to the succor of the +besieged, but once there will be themselves surrounded and too few in +numbers to begin aggressive movements. He and his will indeed be welcome +reinforcements; and so they trudge ahead. + +The moon is up and it is nearly ten o'clock when high up on the rolling +divide the springs are reached, and, barely waiting to quench their +thirst in the cooling waters, the wearied men roll themselves in their +blankets under the giant trees, and, guarded by a few outlying pickets, +are soon asleep. Most of the officers have sprawled around a little fire +and are burning their boot-leather thereat. The colonel, his adjutant, +and the doctor are curled up under a tent-fly that serves by day as a +wrap for the rations and cooking-kit they carry on pack-mule. Two +company commanders,--the Alpha and Omega of the ten, as Major Sloat +dubbed them,--the senior and junior in rank, Chester and Armitage by +name, have rolled themselves in their blankets under another tent-fly +and are chatting in low tones before dropping off to sleep. They have +been inseparable on the journey thus far, and the colonel has had two or +three long talks with them; but who knows what the morrow may bring +forth? There is still much to settle. + +One officer, he of the guard, is still afoot, and trudging about among +the trees, looking after his sentries. Another officer, also alone, is +sitting in silence smoking a pipe: it is Mr. Jerrold. + +Cleared though he is of the charges originally brought against him in +the minds of his colonel and Captain Chester, he has lost caste with his +fellows and with them. Only two or three men have been made aware of the +statement which acquitted him, but every one knows instinctively that he +was saved by Nina Beaubien, and that in accepting his release at her +hands he had put her to a cruel expense. Every man among his brother +officers knows in some way that he has been acquitted of having +compromised Alice Renwick's fair fame only by an _alibi_ that +correspondingly harmed another. The fact now generally known, that they +were betrothed, and that the engagement was openly announced, made no +difference. Without being able to analyze his conduct, the regiment was +satisfied that it had been selfish and contemptible; and that was enough +to warrant giving him the cold shoulder. He was quick to see and take +the hint, and, in bitter distress of mind, to withdraw himself from +their companionship. He had hoped and expected that his eagerness to go +with them on the wild and sudden campaign would reinstate him in their +good graces, but it failed utterly. "Any man would seek _that_," was the +verdict of the informal council held by the officers. "He would have +been a poltroon if he hadn't sought to go; but, while he isn't a +poltroon, he has done a contemptible thing." And so it stood. Rollins +had cut him dead, refused his hand, and denied him a chance to explain. +"Tell him he can't explain," was the savage reply he sent by the +adjutant, who consented to carry Jerrold's message in order that he +might have fair play. "He knows, without explanation, the wrong he has +done to more than one. I won't have anything to do with him." + +Others avoided him, and only coldly spoke to him when speech was +necessary. Chester treated him with marked aversion; the colonel would +not look at him; only Armitage--his captain--had a decent word for him +at any time, and even he was stern and cold. The most envied and +careless of the entire command, the Adonis, the beau, the crack shot, +the graceful leader in all garrison gayeties, the beautiful dancer, +rider, tennis-player, the adored of so many sentimental women at Sibley, +poor Jerrold had found his level, and his proud and sensitive though +selfish heart was breaking. + +Sitting alone under the trees, he had taken a sheet of paper from his +pocket-case and was writing by the light of the rising moon. One letter +was short and easily written, for with a few words he had brought it to +a close, then folded and in a bold and vigorous hand addressed it. The +other was far longer; and over this one, thinking deeply, erasing some +words and pondering much over others, he spent a long hour. It was +nearly midnight, and he was chilled to the heart, when he stiffly rose +and took his way among the blanketed groups to the camp-fire around +which so many of his wearied comrades were sleeping the sleep of the +tired soldier. Here he tore to fragments and scattered in the embers +some notes and letters that were in his pockets. They blazed up +brightly, and by the glare he stood one moment studying young Rollins's +smooth and placid features; then he looked around on the unconscious +circle of bronzed and bearded faces. There were many types of soldier +there,--men who had led brigades through the great war and gone back to +the humble bars of the line-officer at its close; men who had led fierce +charges against the swarming Indians in the rough old days of the first +prairie railways; men who had won distinction and honorable mention in +hard and trying frontier service; men who had their faults and foibles +and weaknesses like other men, and were aggressive or compliant, +strong-willed or yielding, overbearing or meek, as are their brethren in +other walks of life; men who were simple of heart, single in purpose and +ambition, diverse in characteristics, but unanimous in one trait,--no +meanness could live among them; and Jerrold's heart sank within him, +colder, lower, stonier than before, as he looked from face to face and +cast up mentally the sum of each man's character. His hospitality had +been boundless, his bounty lavish; one and all they had eaten of his +loaf and drunk of his cup; but was there among them one who could say of +him, "He is generous and I stand his friend"? Was there one of them, one +of theirs, for whom he had ever denied himself a pleasure, great or +small? He looked at poor old Gray, with his wrinkled, anxious face, and +thought of his distress of mind. Only a few thousands--not three years' +pay--had the veteran scraped and saved and stored away for his little +girl, whose heart was aching with its first cruel sorrow,--_his_ work, +_his_ undoing, his cursed, selfish greed for adulation, his reckless +love of love. The morrow's battle, if it came, might leave her orphaned +and alone, and, poor as it was, a father's pitying sympathy could not be +her help with the coming year. Would Gray mourn him if the fortune of +war made _him_ the victim? Would any one of those averted faces look +with pity and regret upon his stiffening form? Would there be any one on +earth to whom his death would be a sorrow, but Nina? Would it even be a +blow to her? She loved him wildly, he knew that; but _would_ she did she +but dream the truth? He knew her nature well. He knew how quickly such +burning love could turn to fiercest hate when convinced that the object +was utterly untrue. He had said nothing to her of the photograph, +nothing at all of Alice except to protest time and again that his +attentions to her were solely to win the good will of the colonel's +family and of the colonel himself, so that he might be proof against the +machinations of his foes. And yet had he not, that very night on which +he crossed the stream and let her peril her name and honor for one +stolen interview--had he not gone to her exultant welcome with a +traitorous knowledge gnawing at his heart? That very night, before they +parted at the colonel's door had he not lied to Alice Renwick?--had he +not denied the story of his devotion to Miss Beaubien, and was not his +practised eye watching eagerly the beautiful dark face for one sign that +the news was welcome, and so precipitate the avowal trembling on his +lips that it was _her_ he madly loved,--not Nina? Though she hurriedly +bade him good-night, though she was unprepared for any such +announcement, he well knew that Alice Renwick's heart fluttered at the +earnestness of his manner, and that he had indicated far more than he +had said. Fear--not love--had drawn him to Nina Beaubien that night, and +hope had centred on her more beautiful rival, when the discoveries of +the night involved him in the first trembling symptoms of the downfall +to come. And he was to have spent the morning with her, the woman to +whom he had lied in word, while she to whom he had lied in word and deed +was going from him, not to return until the german, and even then he +planned treachery. He meant to lead with Alice Renwick and claim that it +_must_ be with the colonel's daughter because the ladies of the garrison +were the givers. Then, he knew, Nina would not come at all, and, +possibly, might quarrel with him on that ground. What could have been an +easier solution of his troublous predicament? She would break their +secret engagement; he would refuse all reconciliation, and be free to +devote himself to Alice. But all these grave complications had arisen. +Alice would not come. Nina wrote demanding that he should lead with her, +and that he should meet her at St. Croix; and then came the crash. He +owed his safety to her self-sacrifice, and now must give up all hope of +Alice Renwick. He had accepted the announcement of their engagement. He +_could_ not do less, after all that had happened and the painful scene +at their parting. And yet would it not be a blessing to her if he were +killed? Even now in his self-abnegation and misery he did not fully +realize how mean he was,--how mean he seemed to others. He resented in +his heart what Sloat had said of him but the day before, little caring +whether he heard it or not: "It would be a mercy to that poor girl if +Jerrold were killed. He will break her heart with neglect, or drive her +mad with jealousy, inside of a year." But the regiment seemed to agree +with Sloat. + +And so in all that little band of comrades he could call no man friend. +One after another he looked upon the unconscious faces, cold and averted +in the oblivion of sleep, but not more cold, not more distrustful, than +when he had vainly sought among them one relenting glance in the early +moonlight that battle eve in bivouac. He threw his arms upward, shook +his head with hopeless gesture, then buried his face in the sleeves of +his rough campaign overcoat and strode blindly from their midst. + +Early in the morning, an hour before daybreak, the shivering out-post +crouching in a hollow to the southward catch sight of two dim figures +shooting suddenly up over a distant ridge,--horsemen, they know at a +glance,--and these two come loping down the moonlit trail over which two +nights before had marched the cavalry speeding to the rescue, over which +in an hour the regiment itself must be on the move. Old campaigners are +two of the picket, and they have been especially cautioned to be on the +lookout for couriers coming back along the trail. They spring to their +feet, in readiness to welcome or repel, as the sentry rings out his +sharp and sudden challenge. + +"Couriers from the corral," is the jubilant answer. "This Colonel +Maynard's outfit?" + +"Ay, ay, sonny," is the unmilitary but characteristic answer. "What's +your news?" + +"Got there in time, and saved what's left of 'em; but it's a hell-hole, +and you fellows are wanted quick as you can come,--thirty miles ahead. +Where's the colonel?" + +The corporal of the guard goes back to the bivouac, leading the two +arrivals. One is a scout, a plainsman born and bred, the other a +sergeant of cavalry. They dismount in the timber and picket their +horses, then follow on foot the lead of their companion of the guard. +While the corporal and the scout proceed to the wagon-fly and fumble at +the opening, the tall sergeant stands silently a little distance in +their rear, and the occupants of a neighboring shelter--the counterpart +of the colonel's--begin to stir, as though their light slumber had been +broken by the smothered sound of footsteps. One of them sits up and +peers out at the front, gazing earnestly at the tall figure standing +easily there in the flickering light. Then he hails in low tones: + +"That you, Mr. Jerrold? What is the matter?" + +And the tall figure faces promptly towards the hailing voice. The +spurred heels come together with a click, the gauntleted hand rises in +soldierly salute to the broad brim of the scouting-hat, and a deep voice +answers, respectfully,-- + +"It is not Mr. Jerrold, sir. It is Sergeant McLeod, ----th Cavalry, just +in with despatches." + +Armitage springs to his feet, sheds his shell of blankets, and steps +forth into the glade with his eyes fixed eagerly on the shadowy form in +front. He peers under the broad brim, as though striving to see the eyes +and features of the tall dragoon. + +"Did you get there in time?" he asks, half wondering whether that was +really the question uppermost in his mind. + +"In time to save the survivors, sir; but no attack will be made until +the infantry get there." + +"Were you not at Sibley last month?" asks the captain, quickly. + +"Yes, sir,--with the competitors." + +"You went back before your regimental team, did you not?" + +"I--No, sir: I went back with them." + +"You were relieved from duty at Sibley and ordered back before them, +were you not?" + +Even in the pallid light Armitage could see the hesitation, the flurry +of surprise and distress, in the sergeant's face. + +"Don't fear to tell me, man: I would rather hear it than any news you +could give me. I would rather know you were _not_ Sergeant McLeod than +any fact you could tell. Speak low, man, but tell me here and now. +Whatever motive you may have had for this disguise, whatever anger or +sorrows in the past, you must sink them now to save the honor of the +woman your madness has perilled. Answer me, for your sister's sake: are +you not Fred Renwick?" + +"Do you swear to me she is in danger?" + +"By all that's sacred; and you ought to know it." + +"I _am_ Fred Renwick. Now what can I do?" + + + + +XVIII. + + +The sun is not an hour high, but the bivouac at the springs is far +behind. With advance-guard and flankers well out, the regiment is +tramping its way, full of eagerness and spirit. The men can hardly +refrain from bursting into song, but, although at "route step," the fact +that Indian scouts have already been sighted scurrying from bluff to +bluff is sufficient to warn all hands to be silent and alert. Wilton +with his company is on the dangerous flank, and guards it well. Armitage +with Company B covers the advance, and his men are strung out in long +skirmish-line across the trail wherever the ground is sufficiently open +to admit of deployment. Where it is not, they spring ahead and explore +every point where Indian may lurk, and render ambuscade of the main +column impossible. With Armitage is McLeod, the cavalry sergeant who +made the night ride with the scout who bore the despatches. The scout +has galloped on towards the railway with news of the rescue, the +sergeant guides the infantry reinforcement. Observant men have noted +that Armitage and the sergeant have had a vast deal to say to each other +during the chill hours of the early morn. Others have noted that at the +first brief halt the captain rode back, called Colonel Maynard to one +side, and spoke to him in low tones. The colonel was seen to start with +astonishment. Then he said a few words to his second in command, and +rode forward with Armitage to join the advance. When the regiment moved +on again and the head of column hove in sight of the skirmishers, they +saw that the colonel, Armitage, and the sergeant of cavalry were riding +side by side, and that the officers were paying close attention to all +the dragoon was saying. All were eager to hear the particulars of the +condition of affairs at the corral, and all were disposed to be envious +of the mounted captain who could ride alongside the one participant in +the rescuing charge and get it all at first hand. The field-officers, of +course, were mounted, but every line-officer marched afoot with his men, +except that three horses had been picked up at the railway and impressed +by the quartermaster in case of need, and these were assigned to the +captains who happened to command the skirmishers and flankers. + +But no man had the faintest idea what manner of story that tall sergeant +was telling. It would have been of interest to every soldier in the +command, but to no one so much so as to the two who were his absorbed +listeners. Armitage, before their early march, had frankly and briefly +set before him his suspicions as to the case, and the trouble in which +Miss Renwick was involved. No time was to be lost. Any moment might find +them plunged in fierce battle; and who could foretell the results?--who +could say what might happen to prevent this her vindication ever +reaching the ears of her accusers? Some men wondered why it was that +Colonel Maynard sent his compliments to Captain Chester and begged that +at the next halt he would join him. The halt did not come for a long +hour, and when it did come it was very brief, but Chester received +another message, and went forward to find his colonel sitting in a +little grove with the cavalryman, while the orderly held their horses a +short space away. Armitage had gone forward to his advance, and Chester +showed no surprise at the sight of the sergeant seated side by side with +the colonel and in confidential converse with him. There was a quaint, +sly twinkle in Maynard's eyes as he greeted his old friend. + +"Chester," said he, "I want you to be better acquainted with my +step-son, Mr. Renwick. He has an apology to make to you." + +The tall soldier had risen the instant he caught sight of the newcomer, +and even at the half-playful tone of the colonel would relax in no +degree his soldierly sense of the proprieties. He stood erect and held +his hand at the salute, only very slowly lowering it to take the one so +frankly extended him by the captain, who, however, was grave and quiet. + +"I have suspected as much since daybreak," he said; "and no man is +gladder to know it is you than I am." + +"You would have known it before, sir, had I had the faintest idea of the +danger in which my foolhardiness had involved my sister. The colonel has +told you of my story. I have told him and Captain Armitage what led to +my mad freak at Sibley; and, while I have much to make amends for, I +want to apologize for the blow I gave you that night on the terrace. I +was far more scared than you were, sir." + +"I think we can afford to forgive him, Chester. He knocked us both out," +said the colonel. + +Chester bowed gravely. "That was the easiest part of the affair to +forgive," he said, "and it is hardly for me, I presume, to be the only +one to blame the sergeant for the trouble that has involved us all, +especially your household, colonel." + +"It was expensive masquerading, to say the least," replied the colonel; +"but he never realized the consequences until Armitage told him to-day. +You must hear his story in brief, Chester. It is needful that three or +four of us know it, so that some may be left to set things right at +Sibley. God grant us all safe return!" he added, piously, and with deep +emotion. "I can far better appreciate our home and happiness than I +could a month ago. Now, Renwick, tell the captain what you have told +us." + +And briefly it _was_ told: how in his youthful fury he had sworn never +again to set foot within the door of the father and mother who had so +wronged the poor girl he loved with boyish fervor; how he called down +the vengeance of heaven upon them in his frenzy and distress; how he had +sworn never again to set eyes on their faces. "May God strike me dead if +ever I return to this roof until she is avenged! May He deal with you as +you have dealt with her!" was the curse that flew from his wild lips, +and with that he left them, stunned. He went West, was soon penniless, +and, caring not what he did, seeking change, adventure, anything to take +him out of his past, he enlisted in the cavalry, and was speedily +drafted to the ----th, which was just starting forth on a stirring +summer campaign. He was a fine horseman, a fine shot, a man who +instantly attracted the notice of his officers: the campaign was full of +danger, adventure, rapid and constant marching, and before he knew it or +dreamed it possible he had become deeply interested in his new life. +Only in the monotony of a month or two in garrison that winter did the +service seem intolerable. His comrades were rough, in the main, but +thoroughly good-hearted, and he soon won their esteem. The spring sent +them again into the field; another stirring campaign, and here he won +his stripes, and words of praise from the lips of a veteran general +officer, as well as the promise of future reward; and then the love of +soldierly deeds and the thirst for soldierly renown took firm hold in +his breast. He began to turn towards the mother and father who had been +wrapped up in his future,--who loved him so devotedly. He was forgetting +his early and passionate love, and the bitter sorrow of her death was +losing fast its poignant power to steel him against his kindred. He knew +they could not but be proud of the record he had made in the ranks of +the gallant ----th, and then he shrank and shivered when he recalled the +dreadful words of his curse. He had made up his mind to write, implore +pardon for his hideous and unfilial language, and invoke their interest +in his career, when, returning to Fort Raines for supplies, he picked up +a New York paper in the reading-room and read the announcement of his +father's death, "whose health had been broken ever since the +disappearance of his only son, two years before." The memory of his +malediction had, indeed, come home to him, and he fell, stricken by a +sudden and unaccountable blow. It seemed as though his heart had given +one wild leap, then stopped forever. Things did not go so well after +this. He brooded over his words, and believed that an avenging God had +launched the bolt that killed the father as punishment to the stubborn +and recreant son. He then bethought him of his mother, of pretty Alice, +who had loved him so as a little girl. He could not bring himself to +write, but through inquiries he learned that the house was closed and +that they had gone abroad. He plodded on in his duties a trying year: +then came more lively field-work and reviving interest. He was +forgetting entirely the sting of his first great sorrow, and mourning +gravely the gulf he had placed 'twixt him and his. He thought time and +again of his cruel words, and something began to whisper to him he must +see that mother again at once, kiss her hand, and implore her +forgiveness, or she, too, would be stricken suddenly. He saved up his +money, hoping that after the summer's rifle-work at Sibley he might get +a furlough and go East; and the night he arrived at the fort, tired with +his long railway-journey and panting after a long and difficult climb +up-hill, his mother's face swam suddenly before his eyes, and he felt +himself going down. When they brought him to, he heard that the ladies +were Mrs. Maynard and her daughter Miss Renwick,--his own mother, +remarried, his own Alice, a grown young woman. This was, indeed, news to +put him in a flutter and spoil his shooting. He realized at once that +the gulf was wider than ever. How could he go to her now, the wife of a +colonel, and he an enlisted man? Like other soldiers, he forgot that the +line of demarcation was one of discipline, not of sympathy. He did not +realize what any soldier among his officers would gladly have told him, +that he was most worthy to reveal himself now,--a non-commissioned +officer whose record was an honor to himself and to his regiment, a +soldier of whom officers and comrades alike were proud. He never +dreamed--indeed, how few there are who do!--that a man of his character, +standing, and ability is honored and respected by the very men whom the +customs of the service require him to speak with only when spoken to. He +supposed that only as Fred Renwick could he extend his hand to one of +their number, whereas it was under his soldier name he won their trust +and admiration, and it was as Sergeant McLeod the officers of the ----th +were backing him for a commission that would make him what they deemed +him fit to be,--their equal. Unable to penetrate the armor of reserve +and discipline which separates the officer from the rank and file, he +never imagined that the colonel would have been the first to welcome him +had he known the truth. He believed that now his last chance of seeing +his mother was gone until that coveted commission was won. Then came +another blow: the doctor told him that with his heart-trouble he could +never pass the physical examination: he could not hope for preferment, +then, and _must_ see her as he was, and see her secretly and alone. Then +came blow after blow. His shooting had failed, so had that of others of +his regiment, and he was ordered to return in charge of the party early +on the morrow. The order reached him late in the evening, and before +breakfast-time on the following day he was directed to start with his +party for town, thence by rail to his distant post. That night, in +desperation, he made his plan. Twice before he had strolled down to the +post and with yearning eyes had studied every feature of the colonel's +house. He dared ask no questions of servants or of the men in garrison, +but he learned enough to know which rooms were theirs, and he had noted +that the windows were always open. If he could only see their loved +faces, kneel and kiss his mother's hand, pray God to forgive him, he +could go away believing that he had undone the spell and revoked the +malediction of his early youth. It was hazardous, but worth the danger. +He could go in peace and sin no more towards mother, at least; and then +if she mourned and missed him, could he not find it out some day and +make himself known to her after his discharge? He slipped out of camp, +leaving his boots behind, and wearing his light Apache moccasins and +flannel shirt and trousers. Danger to himself he had no great fear of. +If by any chance mother or sister should wake, he had but to stretch +forth his hand and say, "It is only I,--Fred." Danger to _them_ he never +dreamed of. + +Strong and athletic, despite his slender frame, he easily lifted the +ladder from Jerrold's fence, and, dodging the sentry when he spied him +at the gate, finally took it down back of the colonel's and raised it to +a rear window. By the strangest chance the window was closed, and he +could not budge it. Then he heard the challenge of a sentry around on +the east front, and had just time to slip down and lower the ladder when +he heard the rattle of a sword and knew it must be the officer of the +day. There was no time to carry off the ladder. He left it lying where +it was, and sprang down the steps towards the station. Soon he heard +Number Five challenge, and knew the officer had passed on: he waited +some time, but nothing occurred to indicate that the ladder was +discovered, and then, plucking up courage and with a muttered prayer for +guidance and protection, he stole up-hill again, raised the ladder to +the west wall, noiselessly ascended, peered in Alice's window and could +see a faint night-light burning in the hall beyond, but that all was +darkness there, stole around on the roof of the piazza to the hall +window, stepped noiselessly upon the sill, climbed over the lowered +sash, and found himself midway between the rooms. He could hear the +colonel's placid snoring and the regular breathing of the other +sleepers. No time was to be lost. Shading the little night-lamp with one +hand, he entered the open door, stole to the bedside, took one long look +at his mother's face, knelt, breathed upon, but barely brushed with his +trembling lips, the queenly white hand that lay upon the coverlet, +poured forth one brief prayer to God for protection and blessing for her +and forgiveness for him, retraced his steps, and caught sight of the +lovely picture of Alice in the Directoire costume. He longed for it and +could not resist. She had grown so beautiful, so exquisite. He took it, +frame and all, carried it into her room, slipped the card from its place +and hid it inside the breast of his shirt, stowed the frame away behind +her sofa-pillow, then looked long at the lovely picture she herself +made, lying there sleeping sweetly and peacefully amid the white +drapings of her dainty bed. Then 'twas time to go. He put the lamp back +in the hall, passed through her room, out at her window, and down the +ladder, and had it well on the way back to the hooks on Jerrold's fence +when seized and challenged by the officer of the day. Mad terror +possessed him then. He struck blindly, dashed off in panicky flight, +paid no heed to sentry's cry or whistling missile, but tore like a racer +up the path and never slackened speed till Sibley was far behind. + +When morning came, the order that they should go was temporarily +suspended: some prisoners were sent to a neighboring military prison, +and he was placed in charge, and on his return from this duty learned +that the colonel's family had gone to Sablon. The next thing there was +some strange talk that worried him,--a story that one of the men who had +a sweetheart who was second girl at Mrs. Hoyt's brought out to camp,--a +story that there was an officer who was too much in love with Alice to +keep away from the house even after the colonel so ordered, and that he +was prowling around the other night and the colonel ordered Leary to +shoot him,--Leary, who was on post on Number Five. He felt sure that +something was wrong,--felt sure that it was due to his night visit,--and +his first impulse was to find his mother and confide the truth to her. +He longed to see her again, and if harm had been done, to make himself +known and explain everything. Having no duties to detain him, he got a +pass to visit town and permission to be gone a day or more. On Saturday +evening he ran down to Sablon, drove over, as Captain Armitage had +already told them, and, peering in his mother's room, saw her, still up, +though in her nightdress. He never dreamed of the colonel's being out +and watching. He had "scouted" all those trees, and no one was nigh. +Then he softly called; she heard, and was coming to him, when again came +fierce attack: he had all a soldier's reverence for the person of the +colonel, and would never have harmed him had he known 'twas he: it was +the night watchman that had grappled with him, he supposed, and he had +no compunctions in sending him to grass. Then he fled again, knowing +that he had only made bad worse, walked all that night to the station +next north of Sablon,--a big town where the early morning train always +stopped,--and by ten on Sunday morning he was in uniform again and off +with his regimental comrades under orders to haste to their +station,--there was trouble with the Indians at Spirit Rock and the +----th were held in readiness. From beneath his scouting-shirt he drew a +flat packet, an Indian case, which he carefully unrolled, and there in +its folds of wrappings was the lovely Directoire photograph. + +Whose, then, was the one that Sloat had seen in Jerrold's room? It was +this that Armitage had gone forward to determine, and he found his +sad-eyed lieutenant with the skirmishers. + +"Jerrold," said he, with softened manner, "a strange thing is brought to +light this morning, and I lose no time in telling you. The man who was +seen at Maynard's quarters, coming from Miss Renwick's room, was her own +brother and the colonel's step-son. He was the man who took the +photograph from Mrs. Maynard's room, and has proved it this very +day,--this very hour." Jerrold glanced up in sudden surprise. "He is +with us now, and only one thing remains, which you can clear up. We are +going into action, and I may not get through, nor you, nor--who knows +who? Will you tell us now how you came by your copy of that photograph?" + +For answer Jerrold fumbled in his pocket a moment and drew forth two +letters: + +"I wrote these last night, and it was my intention to see that you had +them before it grew very hot. One is addressed to you, the other to Miss +Beaubien. You had better take them now," he said, wearily. "There may be +no time to talk after this. Send hers after it's over, and don't read +yours until then." + +"Why, I don't understand this, exactly," said Armitage, puzzled. "Can't +you tell me about the picture?" + +"No. I promised not to while I lived; but it's the simplest matter in +the world, and no one at the colonel's had any hand in it. They never +saw this one that I got to show Sloat. It is burned now. I said 'twas +given me. That was hardly the truth. I have paid for it dearly enough." + +"And this note explains it?" + +"Yes. You can read it to-morrow." + + + + +XIX. + + +And the morrow has come. Down in a deep and bluff-shadowed valley, hung +all around with picturesque crags and pine-crested heights, under a +cloudless September sun whose warmth is tempered by the +mountain-breeze, a thousand rough-looking, bronzed and bearded and +powder-blackened men are resting after battle. + +Here and there on distant ridge and point the cavalry vedettes keep +vigilant watch, against surprise or renewed attack. Down along the banks +of a clear, purling stream a sentry paces slowly by the brown line of +rifles, swivel-stacked in the sunshine. Men by the dozen are washing +their blistered feet and grimy hands and faces in the cool, refreshing +water; men by the dozen lie soundly sleeping, some in the broad glare, +some in the shade of the little clump of willows, all heedless of the +pestering swarms of flies. Out on the broad, grassy slopes, side-lined +and watched by keen-eyed guards, the herds of cavalry horses are quietly +grazing, forgetful of the wild excitement of yester-even. Every now and +then some one of them lifts his head, pricks up his ears, and snorts and +stamps suspiciously as he sniffs at the puffs of smoke that come +drifting up the valley from the fires a mile away. The waking men, too, +bestow an occasional comment on the odor which greets their nostrils. +Down-stream where the fires are burning are the blackened remnants of a +wagon-train: tires, bolts, and axles are lying about, but all wood-work +is in smouldering ashes; so, too, is all that remains of several +hundred-weight of stores and supplies destined originally to nourish the +Indians, but, by them, diverted to feed the fire. + +There is a big circle of seething flame and rolling smoke here, too,--a +malodorous neighborhood, around which fatigue-parties are working with +averted heads; and among them some surly and unwilling Indians, driven +to labor at the muzzle of threatening revolver or carbine, aid in +dragging to the flames carcass after carcass of horse and mule, and in +gathering together and throwing on the pyre an array of miscellaneous +soldier garments, blouses, shirts, and trousers, all more or less hacked +and blood-stained,--all of no more use to mortal wearer. + +Out on the southern slopes, just where a ravine crowded with wild-rose +bushes opens into the valley, more than half the command is gathered, +formed in rectangular lines about a number of shallow, elongated pits, +in each of which there lies the stiffening form of a comrade who but +yesterday joined in the battle-cheer that burst upon the valley with the +setting sun. Silent and reverent they stand in their rough campaign +garb. The escort of infantry "rests on arms;" the others bow their +uncovered heads, and it is the voice of the veteran colonel that, in +accents trembling with sympathy and emotion, renders the last tribute +to fallen comrades and lifts to heaven the prayers for the dead. Then +see! The mourning groups break away from the southern side; the brown +rifles of the escort are lifted in air; the listening rocks resound to +the sudden ring of the flashing volley; the soft, low, wailing good-by +of the trumpets goes floating up the vale, and soon the burial-parties +are left alone to cover the once familiar faces with the earth to which +the soldier must return, and the comrades who are left, foot and +dragoon, come marching, silent, back to camp. + +And when the old regiment begins its homeward journey, leaving the +well-won field to the fast-arriving commands and bidding hearty soldier +farewell to the cavalry comrades whose friendship they gained in the +front of a savage foe, the company that was the first to land its fire +in the fight goes back with diminished numbers and under command of its +second lieutenant. Alas, poor Jerrold! + +There is a solemn little group around the camp-fire the night before +they go. Frank Armitage, flat on his back, with a rifle-bullet through +his thigh, but taking things very coolly for all that, is having a quiet +conference with his colonel. Such of the wounded of the entire command +as are well enough to travel by easy stages to the railway go with +Maynard and the regiment in the morning, and Sergeant McLeod, with his +sabre-arm in a sling, is one of these. But the captain of Company B must +wait until the surgeons can lift him along in an ambulance and all fear +of fever has subsided. To the colonel and Chester he hands the note +which is all that is left to comfort poor Nina Beaubien. To them he +reads aloud the note addressed to himself: + +"You are right in saying that the matter of my possession of that +photograph should be explained. I seek no longer to palliate my action. +In making that puppyish bet with Sloat I _did_ believe that I could +induce Miss Renwick or her mother to let me have a copy; but I was +refused so positively that I knew it was useless. This simply added to +my desire to have one. The photographer was the same that took the +pictures and furnished the albums for our class at graduation, and I, +more than any one, had been instrumental in getting the order for him +against very active opposition. He had always professed the greatest +gratitude to me and a willingness to do anything for me. I wrote to him +in strict confidence, told him of the intimate and close relations +existing between the colonel's family and me, told him I wanted it to +enlarge and present to her mother on her approaching birthday, and +promised him that I would never reveal how I came by the picture so +long as I lived; and he sent me one,--just in time. Have I not paid +heavily for my sin?" + +No one spoke for a moment. Chester was the first to break the silence: + +"Poor fellow! He kept his word to the photographer; but what was it +worth to a woman?" + +There had been a week of wild anxiety and excitement at Sibley. It was +known through the columns of the press that the regiment had hurried +forward from the railway the instant it reached the Colorado trail, that +it could not hope to get through to the valley of the Spirit Wolf +without a fight, and that the moment it succeeded in joining hands with +the cavalry already there a vigorous attack would be made on the +Indians. The news of the rescue of the survivors of Thornton's command +came first, and with it the tidings that Maynard and his regiment were +met only thirty miles from the scene and were pushing forward. The next +news came two days later, and a wail went up even while men were shaking +hands and rejoicing over the gallant fight that had been made, and women +were weeping for joy and thanking God that those whom they held dearest +were safe. It was down among the wives of the sergeants and other +veterans that the blow struck hardest at Sibley; for the stricken +officers were unmarried men, while among the rank and file there were +several who never came back to the little ones who bore their name. +Company B had suffered most, for the Indians had charged fiercely on its +deployed but steadfast line. Armitage almost choked and broke down when +telling the colonel about it that night as he lay under the willows: "It +was the first smile I had seen on his face since I got back,--that with +which he looked up in my eyes and whispered good-by,--and died,--just +after we drove them back. My turn came later." Old Sloat, too, "had his +customary crack," as he expressed it,--a shot through the wrist that +made him hop and swear savagely until some of the men got to laughing at +the comical figure he cut, and then he turned and damned them with +hearty good will, and seemed all oblivious of the bullets that went +zipping past his frosting head. Young Rollins, to his inexpressible +pride and comfort, had a bullet-hole through his scouting-hat and +another through his shoulder-strap that raised a big welt on the white +skin beneath, but, to the detriment of promotion, no captain was killed, +and Jerrold gave the only file. + +The one question at Sibley was, "What will Nina Beaubien do?" + +She did nothing. She would see nobody from the instant the news came. +She had hardly slept at night,--was always awake at dawn and out at the +gate to get the earliest copy of the morning papers; but the news +reached them at nightfall, and when some of the ladies from the fort +drove in to offer their sympathy and condolence in the morning, and to +make tender inquiry, the answer at the door was that Miss Nina saw +nobody, that her mother alone was with her, and that "she was very +still." And so it went for some days. Then there came the return of the +command to Sibley; and hundreds of people went up from town to see the +six companies of the fort garrison march up the winding road amid the +thunder of welcome from the guns of the light battery and the exultant +strains of the band. Mrs. Maynard and Alice were the only ladies of the +circle who were not there: a son and brother had joined them, after long +absence, at Aunt Grace's cottage at Sablon, was the explanation, and the +colonel would bring them home in a few days, after he had attended to +some important matters at the fort. In the first place, Chester had to +see to it that the tongue of scandal was slit, so far as the colonel's +household was concerned, and all good people notified that no such thing +had happened as was popularly supposed (and "everybody" received the +announcement with the remark that she knew all along it couldn't be so), +and that a grievous and absurd but most mortifying blunder had been +made. It was a most unpleasant ghost to "down," the shadow of that +scandal, for it would come up to the surface of garrison chat at all +manner of confidential moments; but no man or woman could safely speak +of it to Chester. It was gradually assumed that he was the man who had +done all the blundering and that he was supersensitive on the subject. + +There was another thing never satisfactorily explained to some of the +garrison people, and that was Nina Beaubien's strange conduct. In less +than a week she was seen on the street in colors,--brilliant +colors,--when it was known she had ordered deep mourning, and then she +suddenly disappeared and went with her silent old mother abroad. To this +day no woman in society understands it, for when she came back, long, +long afterwards, it was a subject on which she would never speak. There +were one or two who ventured to ask, and the answer was, "For reasons +that concern me alone." But it took no great power of mental vision to +see that her heart wore black for him forever. + +His letter explained it all. She had received it with a paroxysm of +passionate grief and joy, kissed it, covered it with wildest caresses +before she began to read, and then, little by little, as the words +unfolded before her staring eyes, turned cold as stone: + +"It is my last night of life, Nina, and I am glad 'tis so. Proud and +sensitive as I am, the knowledge that every man in my regiment has +turned from me,--that I have not a friend among them,--that there is no +longer a place for me in their midst,--more than all, that I _deserve_ +their contempt,--has broken my heart. We will be in battle before the +setting of another sun. Any man who seeks death in Indian fight can find +it easily enough, and I can _compel_ their respect in spite of +themselves. They will not recognize me, living, as one of them; but +dying on the field, they have to place me on their roll of honor. + +"But now I turn to you. What have I been,--what am I,--to have won such +love as yours? May God in heaven forgive me for my past! All too late I +hate and despise the man I have been,--the man whom you loved. One last +act of justice remains. If I died without it you would mourn me +faithfully, tenderly, lovingly, for years, but if I tell the truth you +will see the utter unworthiness of the man, and your love will turn to +contempt. It is hard to do this, knowing that in doing it I kill the +only genuine regret and dry the only tear that would bless my memory; +but it is the one sacrifice I can make to complete my self-humiliation, +and it is the one thing that is left me that will free you. It will +sting at first, but, like the surgeon's knife, its cut is mercy. Nina, +the very night I came to you on the bluffs, the very night you perilled +your honor to have that parting interview, I went to you with a lie on +my lips. I had told _her_ we were nothing to each other,--you and I. +More than that, I was seeking her love; I hoped I could win her; and had +she loved me I would have turned from you to make her my wife. Nina, I +loved Alice Renwick. Good-by. Don't mourn for me after this." + + + + +XX. + + +They were having a family conclave at Sablon. The furlough granted +Sergeant McLeod on account of wound received in action with hostile +Indians would soon expire, and the question was, should he ask an +extension, apply for a discharge, or go back and rejoin his troop? It +was a matter on which there was much diversity of opinion. Mrs. Maynard +should naturally be permitted first choice, and to her wish there was +every reason for according deep and tender consideration. No words can +tell of the rapture of that reunion with her long-lost son. It was a +scene over which the colonel could never ponder without deep emotion. +The telegrams and letters by which he carefully prepared her for +Frederick's coming were all insufficient. She knew well that her boy +must have greatly changed and matured, but when this tall, bronzed, +bearded, stalwart man sprang from the old red omnibus and threw his one +serviceable arm around her trembling form, the mother was utterly +overcome. Alice left them alone together a full hour before even she +intruded, and little by little, as the days went by and Mrs. Maynard +realized that it was really her Fred who was whistling about, the +cottage or booming trooper songs in his great basso profundo, and +glorying in his regiment and the cavalry life he had led, a wonderful +content and joy shone in her handsome face. It was not until the colonel +announced that it was about time for them to think of going back to +Sibley that the cloud came. Fred said _he_ couldn't go. + +In fact, the colonel himself had been worrying a little over it. As Fred +Renwick, the tall distinguished young man in civilian costume, he would +be welcome anywhere; but, though his garb was that of the sovereign +citizen so long as his furlough lasted, there were but two weeks more of +it left, and officially he was nothing more nor less than Sergeant +McLeod, Troop B, ----th Cavalry, and there was no precedent for a +colonel's entertaining as an honored guest and social equal one of the +enlisted men of the army. He rather hoped that Fred would yield to his +mother's entreaties and apply for a discharge. His wound and the latent +trouble with his heart would probably render it an easy matter to +obtain; and yet he was ashamed of himself for the feeling. + +Then there was Alice. It was hardly to be supposed that so very high +bred a young woman would relish the idea of being seen around Fort +Sibley on the arm of her brother the sergeant; but, wonderful to relate, +Miss Alice took a radically different view of the whole situation. So +far from wishing Fred out of the army, she importuned him day after day +until he got out his best uniform, with its resplendent chevrons and +stripes of vivid yellow, and the yellow helmet-cords, though they were +but humble worsted, and when he came forth in that dress, with the +bronze medal on his left breast and the sharpshooter's silver cross, his +tall athletic figure showing to such advantage, his dark, Southern, +manly features so enhanced by contrast with his yellow facings, she +clapped her hands with a cry of delight and sprang into his one +available arm and threw her own about his neck and kissed him again and +again. Even mamma had to admit he looked astonishingly well; but Alice +declared she would never thereafter be reconciled to seeing him in +anything but a cavalry uniform. The colonel found her not at all of her +mother's way of thinking. She saw no reason why Fred should leave the +service. Other sergeants had won their commissions every year: why not +he? Even if it were some time in coming, was there shame or degradation +in being a cavalry sergeant? Not a bit of it! Fred himself was loath to +quit. He was getting a little homesick, too,--homesick for the boundless +life and space and air of the broad frontier,--homesick for the rapid +movement and vigorous hours in the saddle and on the scout. His arm was +healing, and such a delight of a letter had come from his captain, +telling him that the adjutant had just been to see him about the new +staff of the regiment. The gallant sergeant-major, a young Prussian of +marked ability, had been killed early in the campaign; the vacancy must +soon be filled, and the colonel and the adjutant both thought at once of +Sergeant McLeod. "I won't stand in your way, sergeant," wrote his troop +commander, "but you know that old Ryan is to be discharged at the end of +his sixth enlistment the 10th of next month; there is no man I would +sooner see in his place as first sergeant of my troop than yourself, and +I hate to lose you; but, as it will be for the gain and the good of the +whole regiment, you ought to accept the adjutant's offer. All the men +rejoice to hear you are recovering so fast, and all will be glad to see +Sergeant McLeod back again." + +Even Mrs. Maynard could not but see the pride and comfort this letter +gave her son. Her own longing was to have him established in some +business in the East; but he said frankly he had no taste for it, and +would only pine for the old life in the saddle. There were other +reasons, too, said he, why he felt that he could not go back to New +York, and his voice trembled, and Mrs. Maynard said no more. It was the +sole allusion he had made to the old, old sorrow, but it was plain that +the recovery was incomplete. The colonel and the doctor at Sibley +believed that Fred could be carried past the medical board by a little +management, and everything began to look as though he would have his +way. All they were waiting for, said the colonel, was to hear from +Armitage. He was still at Fort Russell with the head-quarters and +several troops of the ----th Cavalry: his wound was too severe for him +to travel farther for weeks to come, but he could write, and he had +been consulted. They were sitting under the broad piazza at Sablon, +looking out at the lovely, placid lake, and talking it over among +themselves. + +"I have always leaned on Armitage ever since I first came to the +regiment and found him adjutant," said the colonel. "I always found his +judgment clear; but since our last experience I have begun to look upon +him as infallible." + +Alice Renwick's face took on a flood of crimson as she sat there by her +brother's side, silent and attentive. Only within the week that followed +their return--the colonel's and her brother's--had the story of the +strange complication been revealed to them. Twice had she heard from +Fred's lips the story of Frank Armitage's greeting that frosty morning +at the springs. Time and again had she made her mother go over the +colonel's account of the confidence and faith he had expressed in there +being a simple explanation of the whole mystery, and of his indignant +refusal to attach one moment's suspicion to her. Shocked, stunned, +outraged as she felt at the mere fact that such a story had gained an +instant's credence in garrison circles, she was overwhelmed by the +weight of circumstantial evidence that had been arrayed against her. +Only little by little did her mother reveal it to her. Only after +several days did Fred repeat the story of his night adventure and his +theft of her picture, of his narrow escape, and of his subsequent visit +to the cottage. Only gradually had her mother revealed to her the +circumstances of Jerrold's wager with Sloat, and the direful +consequences; of his double absences the very nights on which Fred had +made his visits; of the suspicions that resulted, the accusations, and +his refusal to explain and clear her name. Mrs. Maynard felt vaguely +relieved to see how slight an impression the young man had made on her +daughter's heart. Alice seemed but little surprised to hear of the +engagement to Nina Beaubien, of her rush to his rescue, and their +romantic parting. The tragedy of his death hushed all further talk on +that subject. There was one on which she could not hear enough, and that +was about the man who had been most instrumental in the rescue of her +name and honor. Alice had only tender sorrow and no reproach for her +step-father when, after her mother told her the story of his sad +experience twenty years before, she related his distress of mind and +suspicion when he read Jerrold's letter. It was then that Alice said, +"And against that piece of evidence no man, I suppose, would hold me +guiltless." + +"You are wrong, dear," was her mother's answer. "It was powerless to +move Captain Armitage. He scouted the idea of your guilt from the moment +he set eyes on you, and never rested until he had overturned the last +atom of evidence. Even I had to explain," said her mother "simply to +confirm his theory of the light Captain Chester had seen and the shadows +and the form at the window. It was just exactly as Armitage reasoned it +out. I was wretched and wakeful, sleeping but fitfully, that night. I +arose and took some bromide about three o'clock and soon afterwards +heard a fall, or a noise like one. I thought of you and got up and went +in your room, and all was quiet there, but it seemed close and warm: so +I raised your shade, and then left both your door and mine open and went +back to bed. I dozed away presently, and then woke feeling all startled +again,--don't you know?--the sensation one experiences when aroused from +sleep, certain that there has been a strange and startling noise, and +yet unable to tell what it was? I lay still a moment, but the colonel +slept through it all, and I wondered at it. I knew there had been a +shot, or something, but could not bear to disturb him. At last I got up +again and went to your room to be sure you were all right, and you were +sleeping soundly still; but a breeze was beginning to blow and flap your +shade to and fro, so I drew it and went out, taking my lamp with me this +time and softly closing your door behind me. See how it all seemed to +fit in with everything else that had happened. It took a man with a will +of his own and an unshaken faith in woman to stand firm against such +evidence." + +And, though Alice Renwick was silent, she appreciated the fact none the +less. Day after day she clung to her stalwart brother's side. She had +ceased to ask questions about Captain Armitage and the strange greeting +after the first day or two, but, oddly enough, she could never let him +talk long of any subject but that campaign, of his ride with the captain +to the front, of the long talk they had had, and the stirring fight +and the magnificent way in which Armitage had handled his long +skirmish-line. He was enthusiastic in his praise of the tall Saxon +captain. He soon noted how silent and absorbed she sat when he was the +theme of discourse; he incidentally mentioned little things "he" had +said about "her" that morning, and marked how her color rose and her +eyes flashed quick, joyful, questioning glance at his face, then fell in +maiden shyness. He had speedily gauged the cause of that strange +excitement displayed by Armitage at seeing him the morning he rode in +with the scout. Now he was gauging, with infinite delight, the other +side of the question. The brother-like, he began to twit and tease her; +and that was the last of the confidences. + +All the same it was an eager group that surrounded the colonel the +evening he came down with the captain's letter. "It settles the thing in +my mind. We'll go back to Sibley to-morrow; and as for you, +Sergeant-Major Fred, your name has gone in for a commission, and I've no +doubt a very deserving sergeant will be spoiled in making a very +good-for-nothing second lieutenant. Get you back to your regiment, sir, +and call on Captain Armitage as soon as you reach Fort Russell, and tell +him you are much obliged. He has been blowing your trumpet for you +there; and, as some of those cavalrymen have sense enough to appreciate +the opinion of such a soldier as my ex-adjutant,--some of them, mind +you: I don't admit that all cavalrymen have sense enough to keep them +out of perpetual trouble,--you came in for a hearty endorsement, and +you'll probably be up before the next board for examination. Go and bone +your Constitution, and the Rule of Three, and who was the father of +Zebedee's children, and the order of the Ptolemies and the Seleucidæ, +and other such things that they'll be sure to ask you as indispensable +to the mental outfit of an Indian-fighter." It was evident that the +colonel was in joyous mood. But Alice was silent. She wanted to hear the +letter. He would have handed it to Frederick, but both Mrs. Maynard and +Aunt Grace clamored to hear it read aloud: so he cleared his throat and +began: + +"MY DEAR COLONEL,-- + +"Fred's chances for a commission are good, as the enclosed papers will +show you; but even were this not the case I would have but one thing to +say in answer to your letter: he should go back to his troop. + +"Whatever our friends and fellow-citizens may think on the subject, I +hold that the profession of the soldier is to the full as honorable as +any in civil life; and it is liable at any moment to be more useful. I +do not mean the officer alone. I say, and mean, the soldier. As for me, +I would rather be first sergeant of my troop or company, or +sergeant-major of my regiment, than any lieutenant in it except the +adjutant. Hope of promotion is all that can make a subaltern's life +endurable, but the staff-sergeant or the first sergeant, honored and +respected by his officers, decorated for bravery by Congress, and looked +up to by his comrades, is a king among men. The pay has nothing to do +with it. I say to Renwick, 'Come back as soon as your wound will let +you,' and I envy him the welcome that will be his. + +"As for me, I am even more eager to get back to you all; but things look +very dubious. The doctors shake their heads at anything under a month, +and say I'll be lucky if I eat my Thanksgiving dinner with you. If +trying to get well is going to help, October shall not be done with +before B Company will report me present again. + +"I need not tell you, my dear old friend, how I rejoice with you in +your--hum and haw and this is all about something else," goes on the +colonel, in malignant disregard of the longing looks in the eyes of +three women, all of whom are eager to hear the rest of it, and one of +whom wouldn't say so for worlds. "Write to me often. Remember me warmly +to the ladies of your household. I fear Miss Alice would despise this +wild, open prairie-country; there is no golden-rod here, and I so often +see her as--hum and hum and all that sort of talk of no interest to +anybody," says he, with a quizzical look over his "bows" at the lovely +face and form bending forward with forgetful eagerness to hear how "he +so often sees her." And there is a great bunch of golden-rod in her lap +now, and a vivid blush on her cheek. The colonel is waxing as frivolous +as Fred, and quite as great a tease. + +And then October comes, and Fred has gone, and the colonel and his +household are back at Sibley, where the garrison is enraptured at seeing +them, and where the women precipitate themselves upon them in tumultuous +welcome. If Alice cannot quite make up her mind to return the kisses, +and shrinks slightly from the rapturous embrace of some of the younger +and more impulsive of the sisterhood,--if Mrs. Maynard is a trifle more +distant and stately than was the case before they went away,--the +garrison does not resent it. The ladies don't wonder they feel indignant +at the way people behaved and talked; and each lady is sure that the +behavior and the talk were all somebody else's; not by any possible +chance could it be laid at the door of the speaker. And Alice is the +reigning belle beyond dispute, though there is only subdued gayety at +the fort, for the memory of their losses at the Spirit Wolf is still +fresh in the minds of the regiment. But no man alludes to the events of +the black August night, no woman is permitted to address either Mrs. +Maynard or her daughter on the subject. There are some who seek to be +confidential and who cautiously feel their way for an opening, but the +mental sparring is vain: there is an indefinable something that tells +the intruder, "Thus far, and no farther." Mrs. Maynard is courteous, +cordial, and hospitable, Alice sweet and gracious and sympathetic, even, +but confidential never. + +And then Captain Armitage, late in the month, comes home on crutches, +and his men give him a welcome that makes the rafters ring, and he +rejoices in it and thanks them from his heart; but there is a welcome +his eyes plead for that would mean to him far more than any other. How +wistfully he studies her face! How unmistakable is the love and worship +in every tone! How quickly the garrison sees it all, and how mad the +garrison is to see whether or not 'tis welcome to her! But Alice Renwick +is no maiden to be lightly won. The very thought that the garrison had +so easily given her over to Jerrold is enough to mantle her cheek with +indignant protest. She accepts his attentions, as she does those of the +younger officers, with consummate grace. She shows no preference, will +grant no favors. She makes fair distribution of her dances at the hops +at the fort and the parties in town. There are young civilians who begin +to be devoted in society and to come out to the fort on every possible +opportunity, and these, too, she welcomes with laughing grace and +cordiality. She is a glowing, radiant, gorgeous beauty this cool autumn, +and she rides and drives and dances, and, the women say, flirts, and +looks handsomer every day, and poor Armitage is beginning to look very +grave and depressed. "He wooes and wins not," is the cry. His wound has +almost healed, so far as the thigh is concerned, and his crutches are +discarded, but his heart is bleeding, and it tells on his general +condition. The doctors say he ought to be getting well faster, and so +they tell Miss Renwick,--at least somebody does; but still she relents +not, and it is something beyond the garrison's power of conjecture to +decide what the result will be. Into her pretty white-and-yellow room no +one penetrates except at her invitation, even when the garrison ladies +are spending the day at the colonel's; and even if they did there would +be no visible sign by which they could judge whether his flowers were +treasured or his picture honored above others. Into her brave and +beautiful nature none can gaze and say with any confidence either "she +loves" or "she loves not." Winter comes, with biting cold and blinding +snow, and still there is no sign. The joyous holidays, the glad New +Year, are almost at hand, and still there is no symptom of surrender. No +one dreams of the depth and reverence and gratitude and loyalty and +strength of the love that is burning in her heart until, all of a +sudden, in the most unexpected and astonishing way, it bursts forth in +sight of all. + +They had been down skating on the slough, a number of the youngsters and +the daughters of the garrison. Rollins was there, doing the devoted to +Mamie Gray, and already there were gossips whispering that she would +soon forget she ever knew such a beau as Jerrold in the new-found +happiness of another one; Hall was there with the doctor's pretty +daughter, and Mrs. Hoyt was matronizing the party, which would, of +course, have been incomplete without Alice. She had been skating hand in +hand with a devoted young subaltern in the artillery, and poor Armitage, +whose leg was unequal to skating, had been ruefully admiring the scene. +He had persuaded Sloat to go out and walk with him, and Sloat went; but +the hollow mockery of the whole thing became apparent to him after they +had been watching the skaters awhile, and he got chilled and wanted +Armitage to push ahead. The captain said he believed his leg was too +stiff for further tramping and would be the better for a rest; and Sloat +left him. + +Heavens! how beautiful she was, with her sparkling eyes and radiant +color, glowing with the graceful exercise! He sat there on an old log, +watching the skaters as they flew by him, and striving to keep up an +impartial interest, or an appearance of it, for the other girls. But the +red sun was going down, and twilight was on them all of a sudden, and he +could see nothing but that face and form. He closed his eyes a moment to +shut out the too eager glare of the glowing disk taking its last fierce +peep at them over the western bluffs, and as he closed them the same +vision came back,--the picture that had haunted his every living, +dreaming moment since the beautiful August Sunday in the woodland lane +at Sablon. With undying love, with changeless passion, his life was +given over to the fair, slender maiden he had seen in all the glory of +the sunshine and the golden-rod, standing with uplifted head, with all +her soul shining in her beautiful eyes and thrilling in her voice. Both +worshipping and worshipped was Alice Renwick as she sang her hymn of +praise in unison with the swelling chorus that floated through the trees +from the little brown church upon the hill. From that day she was Queen +Alice in every thought, and he her loyal, faithful knight for weal or +woe. + +Boom went the sunset gun far up on the parade above them. 'Twas +dinner-time, and the skaters were compelled to give up their pastime. +Armitage set his teeth at the entirely too devotional attitude of the +artilleryman as he slowly and lingeringly removed her skates, and turned +away in that utterly helpless frame of mind which will overtake the +strongest men on similar occasions. He had been sitting too long in the +cold, and was chilled through and stiff, and his wounded leg seemed +numb. Leaning heavily on his stout stick, he began slowly and painfully +the ascent to the railway, and chose for the purpose a winding path that +was far less steep, though considerably longer, than the sharp climb the +girls and their escorts made so light of. One after another the glowing +faces of the fair skaters appeared above the embankment, and their +gallants carefully convoyed them across the icy and slippery track to +the wooden platform beyond. Armitage, toiling slowly up his pathway, +heard their blithe laughter, and thought with no little bitterness that +it was a case of "out of sight out of mind" with him, as with better +men. What sense was there in his long devotion to her? Why stand between +her and the far more natural choice of a lover nearer her years? "Like +unto like" was Nature's law. It was flying in the face of Providence to +expect to win the love of one so young and fair, when others so young +and comely craved it. The sweat was beaded on his forehead as he neared +the top and came in sight of the platform. Yes, they had no thought for +him. Already Mrs. Hoyt was half-way up the wooden stairs, and the others +were scattered more or less between that point and the platform at the +station. Far down at the south end paced the fur-clad sentry. There it +was an easy step from the track to the boards, and there, with much +laughter but no difficulty, the young officers had lifted their fair +charges to the walk. All were chatting gayly as they turned away to take +the wooden causeway from the station to the stairs, and Miss Renwick was +among the foremost at the point where it left the platform. Here, +however, she glanced back and then about her, and then, bending down, +began fumbling at the buttons of her boot. + +"Oh, permit me, Miss Renwick," said her eager escort. "I will button +it." + +"Thanks, no. Please don't wait, good people. I'll be with you in an +instant." + +And so the other girls, absorbed in talk with their respective gallants, +passed her by, and then Alice Renwick again stood erect and looked +anxiously but quickly back. + +"Captain Armitage is not in sight, and we ought not to leave him. He may +not find it easy to climb to that platform," she said. + +"Armitage? Oh, he'll come on all right," answered the batteryman, with +easy assurance. "Maybe he has gone round by the road. Even if he hasn't, +I've seen him make that in one jump many a time. He's an active old +buffer for his years." + +"But his wound may prove too much for that jump now. Ah there he comes," +she answered, with evident relief; and just at the moment, too, the +forage-cap of the tall soldier rose slowly into view some distance up +the track, and he came walking slowly down on the sharp curve towards +the platform, the same sharp curve continuing on out of sight behind +him,--behind the high and rocky bluff. + +"He's taken the long way up," said the gunner. "Well, shall we go on?" + +"Not yet," she said, with eyes that were glowing strangely and a voice +that trembled. Her cheeks, too, were paling. "Mr. Stuart, I'm sure I +heard the roar of a train echoed back from the other side." + +"Nonsense, Miss Renwick! There's no train either way for two hours yet." + +But she had begun to edge her way back toward the platform, and he could +not but follow. Looking across the intervening space,--a rocky hollow +twenty feet in depth,--he could see that the captain had reached the +platform and was seeking for a good place to step up; then that he +lifted his right foot and placed it on the planking and with his cane +and the stiff and wounded left leg strove to push himself on. Had there +been a hand to help him, all would have been easy enough; but there was +none, and the plan would not work. Absorbed in his efforts, he could not +see Stuart; he did not see that Miss Renwick had left her companions and +was retracing her steps to get back to the platform. He heard a sudden +dull roar from the rocks across the stream; then a sharp, shrill whistle +just around the bluff. My God! a train, and that man there, alone, +helpless, deserted! Stuart gave a shout of agony: "Back! Roll back over +the bank!" Armitage glanced around; determined; gave one mighty effort; +the iron-ferruled stick slipped on the icy track, and down he went, +prone between the glistening rails, even as the black vomiting monster +came thundering round the bend. He had struck his head upon the iron, +and was stunned, not senseless, but scrambled to his hands and knees and +strove to crawl away. Even as he did so he heard a shriek of anguish in +his ears, and with one wild leap Alice Renwick came flying from the +platform in the very face of advancing death, and the next instant, her +arm clasped about his neck, his strong arms tightly clasping _her_, +they were lying side by side, bruised, stunned, but safe, in a welcoming +snow-drift half-way down the hither bank. + +When Stuart reached the scene, as soon as the engine and some +wrecking-cars had thundered by, he looked down upon a picture that +dispelled any lingering doubt in his mind. Armitage, clasping Queen +Alice to his heart, was half rising from the blessed mantlet of the +snow, and she, her head upon his broad shoulder, was smiling faintly up +into his face: then the glorious eyes closed in a death-like swoon. + + * * * * * + +Fort Sibley had its share of sensations that eventful year. Its crowning +triumph in the one that followed was the wedding in the early spring. Of +all the lovely women there assembled, the bride by common consent stood +unrivalled,--Queen Alice indeed. There was some difference of opinion +among authorities as to who was really the finest-looking and most +soldierly among the throng of officers in the conventional full-dress +uniform: many there were who gave the palm to the tall, dark, slender +lieutenant of cavalry who wore his shoulder-knots for the first time on +this occasion, and who, for a man from the ranks, seemed consummately at +home in the manifold and trying duties of a groomsman. Mrs. Maynard, +leaning on his arm at a later hour and looking up rapturously in his +bronzed features, had no divided opinion. While others had by no means +so readily forgotten or forgiven the mad freak that so nearly involved +them all in wretched misunderstanding, she had nothing but rejoicing in +his whole career. Proud of the gallant officer who had won the daughter +whom she loved so tenderly, she still believes, in the depths of the +boundless mother-love, that no man can quite surpass her soldier son. + + +[Footnote A: By act of Congress, officers may be addressed by the title +of the highest rank held by them in the volunteer service during the +war. The colonel always punctiliously so addressed his friend and +subordinate, although in the army his grade was simply that of first +lieutenant.] + + + THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of From the Ranks, by Charles King + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM THE RANKS *** + +***** This file should be named 16558-8.txt or 16558-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/5/5/16558/ + +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: From the Ranks + +Author: Charles King + +Release Date: August 20, 2005 [EBook #16558] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM THE RANKS *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Janet Blenkinship and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h1>FROM THE RANKS</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 From the Ranks 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 /> + The Deserter 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'>Copyright, 1887, by <span class="smcap">J.B. Lippincott Company</span>.</p> + +<h3>CONTENTS</h3> + +<div class='center'> +<table border="0" cellpadding="4" cellspacing="0" summary="TABLE OF CONTENTS"> +<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> + + + +<p><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170"></a></p> + +<p class='center'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171"></a></p> + + +<p><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172"></a><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173"></a></p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174"></a></p><p><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175"></a></p> +<h2>FROM THE RANKS.</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="I" id="I"></a>I.</h2> + + +<p>A strange thing had happened at the old fort during the still watches of +the night. Even now, at nine in the morning, no one seemed to be in +possession of the exact circumstances. The officer of the day was +engaged in an investigation, and all that appeared to be generally known +was the bald statement that the sentry on "Number Five" had fired at +somebody or other about half after three; that he had fired by order of +the officer of the day, who was on his post at the time; and that now he +flatly refused to talk about the matter.</p> + +<p>Garrison curiosity, it is perhaps needless to say, was rather stimulated +than lulled by this announcement. An unusual number of officers were +chatting about head-quarters when Colonel Maynard came over to his +office. Several ladies, too, who had hitherto shown but languid interest +in the morning music of the band, had taken the trouble to stroll down +to the old quadrangle, ostensibly to see guard-mounting. Mrs. Maynard +was almost always on her piazza at this time, and her lovely daughter +was almost sure to be at the gate with two or three young fellows +lounging about her. This morning, however, not a soul appeared in front +of the colonel's quarters.</p> + +<p>Guard-mounting at the fort was not held until nine o'clock, contrary to +the somewhat general custom at other posts in our scattered army. +Colonel Maynard had ideas of his own upon the subject, and it was his +theory that everything worked more smoothly if he had finished a +leisurely breakfast before beginning office-work of any kind, and +neither the colonel nor his family cared to breakfast before eight +o'clock. In view of the fact that Mrs. Maynard had borne that name but a +very short time and that her knowledge of army life dated only from the +month of May, the garrison was disposed to consider her en<a name="Page_176" id="Page_176"></a>titled to +much latitude of choice in such matters, even while it did say that she +was old enough to be above bride-like sentiment. The womenfolk at the +fort were of opinion that Mrs. Maynard was fifty. It must be conceded +that she was over forty, also that this was her second entry into the +bonds of matrimony.</p> + +<p>That no one should now appear on the colonel's piazza was obviously a +disappointment to several people. In some way or other most of the +breakfast tables at the post had been enlivened by accounts of the +mysterious shooting. The soldiers going the rounds with the +"police-cart," the butcher and grocer and baker from town, the old +milkwoman with her glistening cans, had all served as newsmongers from +kitchen to kitchen, and the story that came in with the coffee to the +lady of the house had lost nothing in bulk or bravery. The groups of +officers chatting and smoking in front of head-quarters gained +accessions every moment, while the ladies seemed more absorbed in chat +and confidences than in the sweet music of the band.</p> + +<p>What fairly exasperated some men was the fact that the old officer of +the day was not out on the parade where he belonged. Only the new +incumbent was standing there in statuesque pose as the band trooped +along the line, and the fact that the colonel had sent out word that the +ceremony would proceed without Captain Chester only served to add fuel +to the flame of popular conjecture. It was known that the colonel was +holding a consultation with closed doors with the old officer of the +day, and never before since he came to the regiment had the colonel been +known to look so pale and strange as when he glanced out for just one +moment and called his orderly. The soldier sprang up, saluted, received +his message, and, with every eye following him, sped off towards the old +stone guard-house. In three minutes he was on his way back, accompanied +by a corporal and private of the guard in full dress uniform.</p> + +<p>"That's Leary,—the man who fired the shot," said Captain Wilton to his +senior lieutenant, who stood by his side.</p> + +<p>"Belongs to B Company, doesn't he?" queried the subaltern. "Seems to me +I have heard Captain Armitage say he was one of his best men."</p> + +<p>"Yes. He's been in the regiment as long as I can remember. What on earth +can the colonel want him for? Near as I can learn, he only fired by +Chester's order."</p> + +<p>"And neither of them knows what he fired at."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177"></a>It was perhaps ten minutes more before Private Leary came forth from +the door-way of the colonel's office, nodded to the corporal, and, +raising their white-gloved hands in salute to the group of officers, the +two men tossed their rifles to the right shoulder and strode back to the +guard.</p> + +<p>Another moment, and the colonel himself opened his door and appeared in +the hall-way. He stopped abruptly, turned back and spoke a few words in +low tone, then hurried through the groups at the entrance, looking at no +man, avoiding their glances, and giving faint and impatient return to +the soldierly salutations that greeted him. The sweat was beaded on his +forehead; his lips were white, and his face full of a trouble and dismay +no man had ever seen there before. He spoke to no one, but walked +rapidly homeward, entered, and closed the gate and door behind him.</p> + +<p>For a moment there was silence in the group. Few men in the service were +better loved and honored than the veteran soldier who commanded the +----th Infantry; and it was with genuine concern that his officers saw +him so deeply and painfully affected,—for affected he certainly was. +Never before had his cheery voice denied them a cordial "Good-morning, +gentlemen." Never before had his blue eyes flinched. He had been their +comrade and commander in years of frontier service, and his bachelor +home had been the rendezvous of all genial spirits when in garrison. +They had missed him sorely when he went abroad on long leave the +previous year, and were almost indignant when they received the news +that he had met his fate in Italy and would return married. "She" was +the widow of a wealthy New-Yorker who had been dead some three years +only, and, though over forty, did not look her years to masculine eyes +when she reached the fort in May. After knowing her a week, the garrison +had decided to a man that the colonel had done wisely. Mrs. Maynard was +charming, courteous, handsome, and accomplished. Only among the women +were there still a few who resented their colonel's capture; and some of +these, oblivious of the fact that they had tempted him with relations of +their own, were sententious and severe in their condemnation of second +marriage; for the colonel, too, was indulging in a second experiment. Of +his first, only one man in the regiment, besides the commander, could +tell anything; and he, to the just indignation of almost everybody, +would not discuss the subject. It was rumored that in the old days when +Maynard was senior captain and Chester junior sub<a name="Page_178" id="Page_178"></a>altern in their former +regiment the two had very little in common. It was known that the first +Mrs. Maynard, while still young and beautiful, had died abroad. It was +hinted that the resignation of a dashing lieutenant of the regiment, +which was synchronous with her departure for foreign shores, was +demanded by his brother officers; but it was useless asking Captain +Chester. He could not tell; and—wasn't it odd?—here was Chester again, +the only man in the colonel's confidence in an hour of evident trouble.</p> + +<p>"By Jove! what's gone wrong with the chief?" was the first exclamation +from one of the older officers. "I never saw him look so broken."</p> + +<p>As no explanation suggested itself, they began edging in towards the +office. The door stood open; a hand-bell banged; a clerk darted in from +the sergeant-major's rooms, and Captain Chester was revealed seated at +the colonel's desk. This in itself was sufficient to induce several +officers to stroll in and look inquiringly around. Captain Chester, +merely nodding, went on with some writing at which he was engaged.</p> + +<p>After a moment's awkward silence and uneasy glancing at one another, the +party seemed to arrive at the conclusion that it was time to speak. The +band had ceased, and the new guard had marched away behind its pealing +bugles. Lieutenant Hall winked at his comrades, strolled hesitatingly +over to the desk, balanced unsteadily on one leg, and, with his hands +sticking in his trousers-pockets and his forage-cap swinging from +protruding thumb and forefinger, cleared his throat, and, with marked +lack of confidence, accosted his absorbed superior:</p> + +<p>"Colonel gone home?"</p> + +<p>"Didn't you see him?" was the uncompromising reply; and the captain did +not deign to raise his head or eyes.</p> + +<p>"Well—er—yes, I suppose I did," said Mr. Hall, shifting uncomfortably +to his other leg, and prodding the floor with the toe of his boot.</p> + +<p>"Then that wasn't what you wanted to know, I presume," said Captain +Chester, signing his name with a vicious dab of the pen and bringing his +fist down with a thump on the blotting-pad, while he wheeled around in +his chair and looked squarely up into the perturbed features of the +junior.</p> + +<p>"No, it wasn't," answered Mr. Hall, in an injured tone, while an +<a name="Page_179" id="Page_179"></a>audible snicker at the door added to his sense of discomfort. "What I +mainly wanted was to know could I go to town."</p> + +<p>"That matter is easily arranged, Mr. Hall. All you have to do is to get +out of that uncomfortable and unsoldierly position, stand in the +attitude in which you are certainly more at home and infinitely more +picturesque, proffer your request in respectful words, and there is no +question as to the result."</p> + +<p>"Oh! you're in command, then?" said Mr. Hall, slowly wriggling into the +position of the soldier and flushing through his bronzed cheeks. "I +thought the colonel might be only gone for a minute."</p> + +<p>"The colonel may not be back for a week; but you be here for +dress-parade all the same, and—Mr. Hall!" he called, as the young +officer was turning away. The latter faced about again.</p> + +<p>"Was Mr. Jerrold going with you to town?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. He was to drive me in his dog-cart, and it's over here now."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Jerrold cannot go,—at least not until I have seen him."</p> + +<p>"Why, captain, he got the colonel's permission at breakfast this +morning."</p> + +<p>"That is true, no doubt, Mr. Hall." And the captain dropped his sharp +and captious manner, and his voice fell, as though in sympathy with the +cloud that settled on his face. "I cannot explain matters just now. +There are reasons why the permission is withdrawn for the time being. +The adjutant will notify him." And Captain Chester turned to his desk +again as the new officer of the day, guard-book in hand, entered to make +his report.</p> + +<p>"The usual orders, captain," said Chester, as he took the book from his +hand and looked over the list of prisoners. Then, in bold and rapid +strokes, he wrote across the page the customary certificate of the old +officer of the day, winding up with this remark:</p> + +<p>"He also inspected guard and visited sentries between 3 and 3.35 +<span class="smcap">a.m.</span> The firing at 3.30 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span> was by his order."</p> + +<p>Meantime, those officers who had entered and who had no immediate duty +to perform were standing or seated around the room, but all observing +profound silence. For a moment or two no sound was heard but the +scratching of the captain's pen. Then, with some embarrassment and +hesitancy, he laid it down and glanced around him.</p> + +<p>"Has any one here anything to ask,—any business to transact?"</p> + +<p>Two or three mentioned some routine matters that required the <a name="Page_180" id="Page_180"></a>action of +the post-commander, but did so reluctantly, as though they preferred to +await the orders of the colonel himself. Captain Wilton, indeed, spoke +his sentiments:</p> + +<p>"I wanted to see Colonel Maynard about getting two men of my company +relieved from extra duty; but, as he isn't here, I fancy I had better +wait."</p> + +<p>"Not at all. Who are your men?—Have it done at once, Mr. Adjutant, and +supply their places from my company, if need be. Now is there anything +else?"</p> + +<p>The group was apparently "nonplussed," as the adjutant afterwards put +it, by such unlooked-for complaisance on the part of the usually +crotchety senior captain. Still, no one offered to lead the others and +leave the room. After a moment's nervous rapping with his knuckles on +the desk, Captain Chester again abruptly spoke:</p> + +<p>"Gentlemen, I am sorry to incommode you, but, if there be nothing more +that you desire to see me about, I shall go on with some other matters, +which—pardon me—do not require your presence."</p> + +<p>At this very broad hint the party slowly found their legs, and with much +wonderment and not a few resentful glances at their temporary commander +the officers sauntered to the door-way. There, however, several stopped +again, still reluctant to leave in the face of so pervading a mystery, +for Wilton turned.</p> + +<p>"Am I to understand that Colonel Maynard has left the post to be gone +any length of time?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"He has not yet gone. I do not know how long he will be gone or how soon +he will start. For pressing personal reasons he has turned over the +command to me; and, if he decide to remain away, of course some +field-officer will be ordered to come to head-quarters. For a day or two +you will have to worry along with me; but I shan't worry you more than I +can help. I've got mystery and mischief enough here to keep me busy, God +knows. Just ask Sloat to come back here to me, will you? And—Wilton, I +did not mean to be abrupt with you. I'm all upset to-day. Mr. Adjutant, +notify Mr. Jerrold at once that he must not leave the post until I have +seen him. It is the colonel's last order. Tell him so."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="II" id="II"></a>II.</h2> + + +<p>The night before had been unusually dark. A thick veil of clouds +overspread the heavens and hid the stars. Moon there was none, for <a name="Page_181" id="Page_181"></a>the +faint silver crescent that gleamed for a moment through the +swift-sailing wisps of vapor had dropped beneath the horizon soon after +tattoo, and the mournful strains of "taps," borne on the rising wind, +seemed to signal "extinguish lights" to the entire firmament as well as +to Fort Sibley. There was a dance of some kind at the quarters of one of +the staff-officers living far up the row on the southern terrace. +Chester heard the laughter and chat as the young officers and their +convoy of matrons and maids came tripping homeward after midnight. He +was a crusty old bachelor, to use his own description, and rarely +ventured into these scenes of social gayety, and, besides, he was +officer of the day, and it was a theory he was fond of expounding to +juniors that when on guard no soldier should permit himself to be drawn +from the scene of his duties. With his books and his pipe Chester whiled +away the lonely hours of the early night, and wondered if the wind would +blow up a rain or disperse the clouds entirely. Towards one o'clock a +light, bounding footstep approached his door, and the portal flew open +as a trim-built young fellow with laughing eyes and an air of exuberant +health and spirits came briskly in. It was Rollins, the junior second +lieutenant of the regiment, and Chester's own and only pet,—so said the +envious others. He was barely a year out of leading-strings at the +Point, and as full of hope and pluck and mischief as a colt. Moreover, +he was frank and teachable, said Chester, and didn't come to him with +the idea that he had nothing to learn and less to do. The boy won upon +his gruff captain from the very start, and, to the incredulous delight +of the whole regiment, within six months the old cynic had taken him +into his heart and home, and Mr. Rollins occupied a pleasant room under +Chester's roof-tree, and was the sole accredited sharer of the captain's +mess. To a youngster just entering service, whose ambition it was to +stick to business and make a record for zeal and efficiency, these were +manifest advantages. There were men in the regiment to whom such close +communion with a watchful senior would have been most embarrassing, and +Mr. Rollins's predecessor as second lieutenant of Chester's company was +one of these. Mr. Jerrold was a happy man when promotion took him from +under the wing of "Crusty Jake" and landed him in Company B. More than +that, it came just at a time when, after four years of loneliness and +isolation at an up-river stockade, his new company and his old one, +together with four others from the regiment, were ordered to join +head-quarters and the band at the most delightful station in the +Northwest. Here Mr. Rollins had <a name="Page_182" id="Page_182"></a>reported for duty during the previous +autumn, and here they were with troops of other arms of the service, +enjoying the close proximity of all the good things of civilization.</p> + +<p>Chester looked up with a quizzical smile as his "plebe" came in:</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, how many dances had you with 'Sweet Alice, Ben Bolt'? Not +many, I fancy, with Mr. Jerrold monopolizing everything, as usual. By +gad! some good fellow could make a colossal fortune in buying that young +man at my valuation and selling him at his own."</p> + +<p>"Oh, come, now, captain," laughed Rollins, "Jerrold's no such slouch as +you make him out. He's lazy, and he likes to spoon, and he puts up with +a good deal of petting from the girls,—who wouldn't, if he could get +it?—but he is jolly and big-hearted, and don't put on any airs,—with +us, at least,—and the mess like him first-rate. 'Tain't his fault that +he's handsome and a regular lady-killer. You must admit that he had a +pretty tough four years of it up there at that cussed old Indian +graveyard, and it's only natural he should enjoy getting here, where +there are theatres and concerts and operas and dances and dinners—"</p> + +<p>"Yes, dances and dinners and daughters,—all delightful, I know, but no +excuse for a man's neglecting his manifest duty, as he is doing and has +been ever since we got here. Any other time the colonel would have +straightened him out; but no use trying it now, when both women in his +household are as big fools about the man as anybody in town,—bigger, +unless I'm a born idiot." And Chester rose excitedly.</p> + +<p>"I suppose he had Miss Renwick pretty much to himself to-night?" he +presently demanded, looking angrily and searchingly at his junior, as +though half expecting him to dodge the question.</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes. Why not? It's pretty evident she would rather dance and be +with him than with any one else: so what can a fellow do? Of course we +ask her to dance, and all that, and I think he wants us to; but I cannot +help feeling rather a bore to her, even if she is only eighteen, and +there are plenty of pleasant girls in the garrison who don't get any too +much attention, now we're so near a big city, and I like to be with +them."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and it's the <i>right</i> thing for you to do, youngster. That's one +trait I despise in Jerrold. When we were up there at the stockade two +winters ago, and Captain Gray's little girl was there, he hung around +her from morning till night, and the poor little thing fairly beamed and +<a name="Page_183" id="Page_183"></a>blossomed with delight. Look at her now, man! He don't go near her. He +hasn't had the decency to take her a walk, a drive, or anything, since +we got here. He began, from the moment we came, with that gang in town. +He was simply devoted to Miss Beaubien until Alice Renwick came; then he +dropped her like a hot brick. By the Eternal, Rollins, he hasn't gotten +off with <i>that</i> old love yet, you mark my words. There's Indian blood in +her veins, and a look in her eye that makes me wriggle, sometimes. I +watched her last night at parade when she drove out here with that +copper-faced old squaw, her mother. For all her French and Italian +education and her years in New York and Paris, that girl's got a wild +streak in her somewhere. She sat there watching him as the officers +marched to the front, and then <i>her</i>, as he went up and joined Miss +Renwick; and there was a gleam of her white teeth and a flash in her +black eyes that made me think of the leap of a knife from the sheath. +Not but what 'twould serve him right if she did play him some devil's +trick. It's his own doing. Were any people out from town?" he suddenly +asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes, half a dozen or so," answered Mr. Rollins, who was pulling off his +boots and inserting his feet into easy slippers, while old "Crusty" +tramped excitedly up and down the floor. "Most of them stayed out here, +I think. Only one team went back across the bridge."</p> + +<p>"Whose was that?"</p> + +<p>"The Suttons', I believe. Young Cub Sutton was out with his sister and +another girl."</p> + +<p>"There's another damned fool!" growled Chester. "That boy has ten +thousand a year of his own, a beautiful home that will be his, a doting +mother and sister, and everything wealth can buy, and yet, by gad! he's +unhappy because he can't be a poor devil of a lieutenant, with nothing +but drills, debts, and rifle-practice to enliven him. That's what brings +him out here all the time. He'd swap places with you in a minute. Isn't +he very thick with Jerrold?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, yes, rather. Jerrold entertains him a good deal."</p> + +<p>"Which is returned with compound interest, I'll bet you. Mr. Jerrold +simply makes a convenience of him. He won't make love to his sister, +because the poor, rich, unsophisticated girl is as ugly as she is +ubiquitous. His majesty is fastidious, you see, and seeks only the +caress of beauty, and while he lives there at the Suttons' when he goes +to town, and dines and sleeps and smokes and wines there, and uses their +box at the opera-house, and is courted and flattered by the old <a name="Page_184" id="Page_184"></a>lady +because dear Cubby worships the ground he walks on and poor Fanny Sutton +thinks him adorable, he turns his back on the girl at every dance +because she <i>can't</i> dance, and leaves her to you fellows who have a +conscience and some idea of decency. He gives all <i>his</i> devotions to +Nina Beaubien, who dances like a <i>coryphée</i>, and drops <i>her</i> when Alice +Renwick comes with her glowing Spanish beauty. Oh, damn it, I'm an old +fool to get worked up over it as I do, but you young fellows don't see +what I see. You haven't seen what I've seen; and pray God you never may! +That's where the shoe pinches, Rollins. It is what he <i>reminds</i> me +of—not so much what he <i>is</i>, I suppose—that I get rabid about. He is +for all the world like a man we had in the old regiment when you were in +swaddling-clothes; and I never look at Mamie Gray's sad, white face that +it doesn't bring back a girl I knew just then whose heart was broken by +just such a shallow, selfish, adorable scoun—No, I won't use <i>that</i> +word in speaking of Jerrold; but it's what I fear. Rollins, you call him +generous. Well, so he is,—<i>lavish</i>, if you like, with his money and his +hospitality here in the post. Money comes easily to him, and goes; but +you boys misuse the term. <i>I</i> call him selfish to the core, because he +can deny himself no luxury, no pleasure, though it may wring a woman's +life—or, more than that, her honor—to give it him." The captain was +tramping up and down the room now, as was his wont when excited; his +face was flushed, and his hand clinched. He turned suddenly and faced +the younger officer, who sat gazing uncomfortably at the rug in front of +the fireplace.</p> + +<p>"Rollins, some day I may tell you a story that I've kept to myself all +these years. You won't wonder at my feeling as I do about these +goings-on of your friend Jerrold when you hear it all, but it was just +such a man as he who ruined one woman, broke the heart of another, and +took the sunshine out of the life of two men from that day to this. One +of them was your colonel, the other your captain. Now go to bed. I'm +going out." And, throwing down his pipe, regardless of the scattering +sparks and ashes, Captain Chester strode into the hall-way, picked up +the first forage-cap he laid hands on, and banged himself out of the +front door.</p> + +<p>Mr. Rollins remained for some moments in the same attitude, still gazing +abstractedly at the rug, and listening to the nervous tramp of his +senior officer on the piazza without. Then he slowly and thoughtfully +went to his room, where his perturbed spirit was soon soothed in <a name="Page_185" id="Page_185"></a>sleep. +His conscience being clear and his health perfect, there were no deep +cares to keep him tossing on a restless pillow.</p> + +<p>To Chester, however, sleep was impossible: he tramped the piazza a full +hour before he felt placid enough to go and inspect his guard. The +sentries were calling three o'clock, and the wind had died away, as he +started on his round. Dark as was the night, he carried no lantern. The +main garrison was well lighted by lamps, and the road circling the old +fort was broad, smooth, and bordered by a stone coping wall where it +skirted the precipitous descent into the river-bottom. As he passed down +the plank walk west of the quadrangle wherein lay the old barracks and +the stone quarters of the commanding officer and the low one-storied row +of bachelor dens, he could not help noting the silence and peace of the +night. Not a light was visible at any window as he strode down the line. +The challenge of the sentry at the old stone tower sounded unnecessarily +sharp and loud, and his response of "Officer of the day" was lower than +usual, as though rebuking the unseemly outcry. The guard came scrambling +out and formed hurriedly to receive him, but the captain's inspection +was of the briefest kind. Barely glancing along the prison corridor to +see that the bars were in place, he turned back into the night, and made +for the line of posts along the river-bank. The sentry at the high +bridge across the gorge, and the next one, well around to the southeast +flank, were successively visited and briefly questioned as to their +instructions, and then the captain plodded sturdily on until he came to +the sharp bend around the outermost angle of the fort and found himself +passing behind the quarters of the commanding officer, a substantial +two-storied stone house with mansard roof and dormer-windows. The road +in the rear was some ten feet below the level of the parade inside the +quadrangle, and consequently, as the house faced the parade, what was +the ground-floor from that front became the second story at the rear. +The kitchen, store-room, and servants' rooms were on this lower stage, +and opened upon the road; an outer stairway ran up to the centre door at +the back, but at the east and west flanks of the house the stone walls +stood without port or window except those above the eaves,—the dormers. +Light and air in abundance streamed through the broad Venetian windows +north and south when light and air were needed. This night, as usual, +all was tightly closed below, all darkness aloft as he glanced up at the +dormers high above his head. As he did so, his foot struck a sudden and +sturdy obstacle; he stumbled and pitched heavily forward, and <a name="Page_186" id="Page_186"></a>found +himself sprawling at full length upon a ladder lying on the ground +almost in the middle of the roadway.</p> + +<p>"Damn those painters!" he growled between his set teeth. "They leave +their infernal man-traps around in the very hope of catching me, I +believe. Now, who but a painter would have left a ladder in such a place +as this?"</p> + +<p>Rising ruefully and rubbing a bruised knee with his hand, he limped +painfully ahead a few steps, until he came to the side-wall of the +colonel's house. Here a plank walk passed from the roadway along the +western wall until almost on a line with the front piazza, where by a +flight of steps it was carried up to the level of the parade. Here he +paused a moment to dust off his clothes and rearrange his belt and +sword. He stood leaning against the wall and facing the gray stone gable +end of the row of old-fashioned quarters that bounded the parade upon +the southwest. All was still darkness and silence.</p> + +<p>"Confound this sword!" he muttered again: "the thing made rattle and +racket enough to wake the dead. Wonder if I disturbed anybody at the +colonel's."</p> + +<p>As though in answer to his suggestion, there suddenly appeared, high on +the blank wall before him, the reflection of a faint light. Had a little +night-lamp been turned on in the front room of the upper story? The +gleam came from the north window on the side: he saw plainly the shadow +of the pretty lace curtains, looped loosely back. Then the shade was +gently raised, and there was for an instant the silhouette of a slender +hand and wrist, the shadow of a lace-bordered sleeve. Then the light +receded, as though carried back across the room, waned, as though slowly +extinguished, and the last shadows showed the curtains still looped +back, the rolling shade still raised.</p> + +<p>"I thought so," he growled. "One tumble like that is enough to wake the +Seven Sleepers, let alone a love-sick girl who is probably dreaming over +Jerrold's parting words. She is spirited and blue-blooded enough to have +more sense, too, that same superb brunette. Ah, Miss Alice, I wonder if +you think that fellow's love worth having. It is two hours since he left +you,—more than that,—and here you are awake yet,—cannot sleep,—want +more air, and have to come and raise your shade. No such warm night, +either." These were his reflections as he picked up his offending sword +and, more slowly and cautiously now, groped his way along the western +terrace. He passed the row of bachelor quarters, and was well out beyond +the limits of the fort <a name="Page_187" id="Page_187"></a>before he came upon the next sentry,—"Number +Five,"—and recognized, in the stern "Who comes there?" and the sharp +rattle of the bayonet as it dropped to the charge, the well-known +challenge of Private Leary, one of the oldest and most reliable soldiers +in the regiment.</p> + +<p>"All right on your post, Leary?" he asked, after having given the +countersign.</p> + +<p>"All right, I <i>think</i>, sor; though if the captain had asked me that half +an hour ago I'd not have said so. It was so dark I couldn't see me hand +afore me face, sor; but about half-past two I was walkin' very slow down +back of the quarters, whin just close by Loot'nant Jerrold's back gate I +seen somethin' movin', and as I come softly along it riz up, an' sure I +thought 'twas the loot'nant himself, whin he seemed to catch sight o' me +or hear me, and he backed inside the gate an' shut it. I was sure 'twas +he, he was so tall and slim like, an' so I niver said a word until I got +to thinkin' over it, and then I couldn't spake. Sure if it had been the +loot'nant he wouldn't have backed away from a sintry; he'd 'a' come out +bold and given the countersign; but I didn't think o' that. It looked +like him in the dark, an' 'twas his quarters, an' I thought it <i>was</i> +him, until I thought ag'in, and then, sor, I wint back and searched the +yard; but there was no one there."</p> + +<p>"Hm! Odd thing that, Leary! Why didn't you challenge at first?"</p> + +<p>"Sure, sor, he lept inside the fince quick as iver we set eyes on each +other. He was bendin' down, and I thought it was one of the hound pups +when I first sighted him."</p> + +<p>"And he hasn't been around since?"</p> + +<p>"No, sor, nor nobody, till the officer of the day came along."</p> + +<p>Chester walked away puzzled. Sibley was a most quiet and orderly +garrison. Night prowlers had never been heard from, especially over here +at the south and southwest fronts. The enlisted men going to or from +town passed across the big, high bridge or went at once to their own +quarters on the east and north. This southwestern terrace behind the +bachelors' row was the most secluded spot on the whole post,—so much so +that when a fire broke out there among the fuel-heaps one sharp winter's +night a year agone it had wellnigh enveloped the whole line before its +existence was discovered. Indeed, not until after this occurrence was a +sentry posted on that front at all; and, once ordered there, he had so +little to do and was so comparatively sure to be undisturbed that the +old soldiers eagerly sought the post in preference to any other, <a name="Page_188" id="Page_188"></a>and +were given it as a peace privilege. For months, relief after relief +tramped around the fort and found the terrace post as humdrum and silent +as an empty church; but this night "Number Five" leaped suddenly into +notoriety.</p> + +<p>Instead of going home, Chester kept on across the plateau and took a +long walk on the northern side of the reservation, where the +quarter-master's stables and corrals were placed. He was affected by a +strange unrest. His talk with Rollins had roused the memories of years +long gone by,—of days when he, too, was young and full of hope and +faith, ay, full of love,—all lavished on one fair girl who knew it +well, but gently, almost entreatingly, repelled him. Her heart was +wrapped up in another, the Adonis of his day in the gay old seaboard +garrison. She was a soldier's child, barrack-born, simply taught, +knowing little of the vice and temptations, the follies and the frauds, +of the whirling life of civilization. A good and gentle mother had +reared her and been called hence. Her father, an officer whose sabre-arm +was left at Molino del Rey, and whose heart was crushed when the loving +wife was taken from him, turned to the child who so resembled her, and +centred there all his remaining love and life. He welcomed Chester to +his home, and tacitly favored his suit, but in his blindness never saw +how a few moonlit strolls on the old moss-grown parapet, a few evening +dances in the casemates with handsome, wooing, winning Will Forrester, +had done their work. She gave him all the wild, enthusiastic, +worshipping love of her girlish heart just about the time Captain and +Mrs. Maynard came back from leave, and then he grew cold and negligent +<i>there</i>, but lived at Maynard's fireside; and one day there came a +sensation,—a tragedy,—and Mrs. Maynard went away, and died abroad, and +a shocked and broken-hearted girl hid her face from all and pined at +home, and Mr. Forrester's resignation was sent from—no one knew just +where, and no one would have cared to know, except Maynard. He would +have followed him, pistol in hand, but Forrester gave him no chance. +Years afterwards Chester again sought her and offered her his love and +his name. It was useless, she told him, sadly. She lived only for her +father now, and would never leave him till he died, and then—she prayed +she might go too. Memories like this <i>will</i> come up at such times in +these same "still watches of the night." Chester was in a moody frame of +mind when about half an hour later he came back past the guard-house. +The sergeant was standing near the lighted entrance, and the captain +called him:</p> + +<p><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189"></a>"There's a ladder lying back of the colonel's quarters on the roadway. +Some of those painters left it, I suppose. It's a wonder some of the +reliefs have not broken their necks over it going around to-night. Let +the next one pick it up and move it out of the way. Hasn't it been +reported?"</p> + +<p>"Not to me, sir. Corporal Schreiber has command of this relief, and he +has said nothing about it. Here he is, sir."</p> + +<p>"Didn't you see it or stumble over it when posting your relief, +corporal?" asked Chester.</p> + +<p>"No indeed, sir. I—I think the captain must have been mistaken in +thinking it a ladder. We would surely have struck it if it had been."</p> + +<p>"No mistake at all, corporal. I lifted it. It is a long, heavy +ladder,—over twenty feet, I should say."</p> + +<p>"There <i>is</i> such a ladder back there, captain," said the sergeant, "but +it always hangs on the fence just behind the young officers' +quarters,—Bachelors' Row, sir, I mean."</p> + +<p>"And that ladder was there an hour ago when I went my rounds," said the +corporal, earnestly. "I had my hurricane-lamp, sir, and saw it on the +fence plainly. And there was nothing behind the colonel's at that hour."</p> + +<p>Chester turned away, thoughtful and silent. Without a word he walked +straight into the quadrangle, past the low line of stone buildings, the +offices of the adjutant and quartermaster, the home of the +sergeant-major, the club and billiard-room, past the long, piazza-shaded +row of bachelor quarters, and came upon the plank walk at the corner of +the colonel's fence. Ten more steps, and he stood stock-still at the +head of the flight of wooden stairs.</p> + +<p>There, dimly visible against the southern sky, its base on the plank +walk below him, its top resting upon the eaves midway between the +dormer-window and the roof of the piazza, so that one could step easily +from it into the one or on to the other, was the very ladder that half +an hour before was lying on the ground behind the house.</p> + +<p>His heart stood still. He seemed powerless to move,—even to think. Then +a slight noise roused him, and with every nerve tingling he crouched +ready for a spring. With quick, agile movements, noiseless as a cat, +sinuous and stealthy as a serpent, the dark figure of a man issued from +Alice Renwick's chamber window and came gliding down.</p> + +<p>One second more, and, almost as noiselessly, he reached the ground, then +quickly raised and turned the ladder, stepped with it to the edge <a name="Page_190" id="Page_190"></a>of +the roadway, and peered around the angle as though to see that no sentry +was in sight, then vanished with his burden around the corner. Another +second, and down the steps went Chester, three at a bound, tip-toeing it +in pursuit. Ten seconds brought him close to the culprit,—a tall, +slender shadow.</p> + +<p>"You villain! Halt!"</p> + +<p>Down went the ladder on the dusty road. The hand that Chester had +clinched upon the broad shoulder was hurled aside. There was a sudden +whirl, a lightning blow that took the captain full in the chest and +staggered him back upon the treacherous and entangling rungs, and, ere +he could recover himself, the noiseless stranger had fairly whizzed into +space and vanished in the darkness up the road. Chester sprang in +pursuit. He heard the startled challenge of the sentry, and then Leary's +excited "Halt, I say! Halt!" and then he shouted,—</p> + +<p>"Fire on him, Leary! Bring him down!"</p> + +<p>Bang went the ready rifle with sharp, sullen roar that woke the echoes +across the valley. Bang again, as Leary sent a second shot after the +first. Then, as the captain came panting to the spot, they followed up +the road. No sign of the runner. Attracted by the shots, the sergeant of +the guard and one or two men, lantern-bearing, came running to the +scene. Excitedly they searched up and down the road in mingled hope and +dread of finding the body of the marauder, or some clue or trace. +Nothing! Whoever he was, the fleet runner had vanished and made good his +escape.</p> + +<p>"Who could it have been, sir?" asked the sergeant of the officer of the +day. "Surely none of the men ever come round this way."</p> + +<p>"I don't know, sergeant; I don't know. Just take your lamp and see if +there is anything visible down there among the rocks. He may have been +hit and leaped the wall.—Do you think you hit him, Leary?"</p> + +<p>"I can't say, sor. He came by me like a flash. I had just a second's +look at him, and—Sure I niver saw such runnin'."</p> + +<p>"Could you see his face?" asked Chester, in a low tone, as the other men +moved away to search the rocks.</p> + +<p>"Not his face, sor. 'Twas too dark."</p> + +<p>"Was there—did he look like anybody you knew, or had seen?—anybody in +the command?"</p> + +<p>"Well, sor, not among the men, that is. There's none so tall and slim +both, and so light. Sure he must 'a' worn gums, sor. You couldn't hear +the whisper of a footfall."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191"></a>"But whom did he <i>seem</i> to resemble?"</p> + +<p>"Well, if the captain will forgive me, sor, it's unwillin' I am to say +the worrd, but there's no one that tall and light and slim here, sor, +but Loot'nant Jerrold. Sure it couldn't be him, sor."</p> + +<p>"Leary, will you promise me something on your word as a man?"</p> + +<p>"I will, sor."</p> + +<p>"Say not one word of this matter to any one, except I tell you, or you +have to, before a court."</p> + +<p>"I promise, sor."</p> + +<p>"And I believe you. Tell the sergeant I will soon be back."</p> + +<p>With that he turned and walked down the road until once more he came to +the plank crossing and the passage-way between the colonel's and +Bachelors' Row. Here again he stopped short, and waited with bated +breath and scarcely-beating heart. The faint light he had seen before +again illumined the room and cast its gleam upon the old gray wall. Even +as he gazed, there came silently to the window a tall, white-robed form, +and a slender white hand seized and lowered the shade, noiselessly. +Then, as before, the light faded away; but—she was awake.</p> + +<p>Waiting one moment in silence, Captain Chester then sprang up the wooden +steps and passed under the piazza which ran the length of the bachelor +quarters. Half-way down the row he turned sharply to his left, opened +the green-painted door, and stood in a little dark hall-way. Taking his +match-box from his pocket, he struck a light, and by its glare quickly +read the card upon the first door-way to his right:</p> + +<p class='center'>"<span class="smcap">Mr. Howard F. Jerrold</span>,</p> + +<p><span style="margin-left: 24em;">"——<i>th Infantry, U.S.A.</i>"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>Opening this door, he bolted straight through the little parlor to the +bedroom in the rear. A dim light was burning on the mantel. The bed was +unruffled, untouched, and Mr. Jerrold was not there.</p> + +<p>Five minutes afterwards, Captain Chester, all alone, had laboriously and +cautiously dragged the ladder from the side to the rear of the colonel's +house, stretched it in the roadway where he had first stumbled upon it, +then returned to the searching-party on "Number Five."</p> + +<p>"Send two men to put that ladder back," he ordered. "It is where I told +you,—on the road behind the colonel's."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192"></a></p> +<h2><a name="III" id="III"></a>III.</h2> + + +<p>When Mrs. Maynard came to Sibley in May and the officers with their +wives were making their welcoming call, she had with motherly pride and +pleasure yielded to their constant importunities and shown to one party +after another an album of photographs,—likenesses of her only daughter. +There were little <i>cartes de visite</i> representing her in long dresses +and baby-caps; quaint little pictures of a chubby-faced, chubby-legged +infant a few months older; charming studies of a little girl with great +black eyes and delicate features; then of a tall, slender slip of a +maiden, decidedly foreign-looking; then of a sweet and pensive face, +with great dark eyes, long, beautiful curling lashes, and very heavy, +low-arched brows, exquisitely moulded mouth and chin, and most luxuriant +dark hair; then others, still older, in every variety of dress,—even in +fancy costume, such as the girl had worn at fair or masquerade. These +and others still had Mrs. Maynard shown them, with repressed pride and +pleasure and with sweet acknowledgment of their enthusiastic praises. +Alice still tarried in the East, visiting relatives whom she had not +seen since her father's death three years earlier, and, long before she +came to join her mother at Sibley and to enter upon the life she so +eagerly looked forward to, "'way out in the West, you know, with +officers and soldiers and the band, and buffalo and Indians all around +you," there was not an officer or an officer's wife who had not +delightedly examined that album. There was still another picture, but +that one had been shown to only a chosen few just one week after her +daughter's arrival, and rather an absurd scene had occurred, in which +that most estimable officer, Lieutenant Sloat, had figured as the hero. +A more simple-minded, well-intentioned fellow than Sloat there did not +live. He was so full of kindness and good nature and readiness to do +anything for anybody that it never seemed to occur to him that everybody +on earth was not just as ready to be equally accommodating. He was a +perpetual source of delight to the colonel, and one of the most loyal +and devoted of subalterns, despite the fact that his locks were long +silvered with the frosts of years and that he had fought through the war +of the rebellion and risen to the rank of a field-officer in Maynard's +old brigade. The most temperate of men, ordinarily, the colonel had one +anniversary he loved to celebrate, and Sloat was his stand-by when the<a name="Page_193" id="Page_193"></a> +3d of July came round, just as he had been at his shoulder at that +supreme moment when, heedless of the fearful sweep of shell and canister +through their shattered ranks, Pickett's heroic Virginians breasted the +slope of Cemetery Hill and surged over the low stone wall into Cushing's +guns. Hard, stubborn fighting had Maynard's men to do that day, and for +serene courage and determination no man had beaten Sloat. Both officers +had bullet-hole mementos to carry from that field; both had won their +brevets for conspicuous gallantry, and Sloat was a happy and grateful +man when, years afterwards, his old commander secured him a lieutenancy +in the regular service. He was the colonel's henchman, although he never +had brains enough to win a place on the regimental staff, and when Mrs. +Maynard came he overwhelmed her with cumbrous compliments and incessant +calls. He was, to his confident belief, her chosen and accepted knight +for full two days after her arrival. Then Jerrold came back from a brief +absence, and, as in duty bound, went to pay his respects to his +colonel's wife; and that night there had been a singular scene. Mrs. +Maynard had stopped suddenly in her laughing chat with two ladies, had +started from her seat, wildly staring at the tall, slender subaltern who +entered the gateway, and then fell back in her chair, fairly swooning as +he made his bow.</p> + +<p>Sloat had rushed into the house to call the colonel and get some water, +while Mr. Jerrold stood paralyzed at so strange a reception of his first +call. Mrs. Maynard revived presently, explained that it was her heart, +or the heat, or something, and the ladies on their way home decided that +it was possibly the heart, it was certainly not the heat, it was +unquestionably something, and that something was Mr. Jerrold, for she +never took her eyes off him during the entire evening, and seemed unable +to shake off the fascination. Next day Jerrold dined there, and from +that time on he was a daily visitor. Every one noted Mrs. Maynard's +strong interest in him, but no one could account for it. She was old +enough to be his mother, said the garrison; but not until Alice Renwick +came did another consideration appear: he was singularly like the +daughter. Both were tall, lithe, slender; both had dark, lustrous eyes, +dark, though almost perfect, skin, exquisitely-chiselled features, and +slender, shapely hands and feet. Alice was "the picture of her father," +said Mrs. Maynard, and Mr. Renwick had lived all his life in New York; +while Mr. Jerrold was of an old Southern family, and his mother a Cuban +beauty who was the toast of the New Orleans clubs not many years before +the war.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194"></a>Poor Sloat! He did not fancy Jerrold, and was as jealous as so +unselfish a mortal could be of the immediate ascendency the young fellow +established in the colonel's household. It was bad enough before Alice +joined them; after that it was wellnigh unbearable. Then came the +3d-of-July dinner and the colonel's one annual jollification. No man +ever heard of Sloat's being intoxicated; he rarely drank at all; but +this evening the reminiscences of the day, the generous wine, the +unaccustomed elegance of all his surroundings, due to Mrs. Maynard's +taste and supervision, and the influence of Alice Kenwick's exquisite +beauty, had fairly carried him away.</p> + +<p>They were chatting in the parlor, while Miss Renwick was entertaining +some young-lady friends from town and listening to the band on the +parade. Sloat was expatiating on her grace and beauty and going over the +album for the twentieth time, when the colonel, with a twinkling eye, +remarked to Mrs. Maynard,—</p> + +<p>"I think you ought to show Major<a name="FNanchor_A_1" id="FNanchor_A_1"></a><a href="#Footnote_A_1" class="fnanchor">[A]</a> Sloat the 'Directoire' picture, my +dear."</p> + +<p>"Alice would never forgive me," said madame, laughing; "though I +consider it the most beautiful we have of her."</p> + +<p>"Oh, where is it?" "Oh, do let us see it, Mrs. Maynard!" was the chorus +of exclamations from the few ladies present. "Oh, I <i>insist</i> on seeing +it, madame," was Sloat's characteristic contribution to the clamor.</p> + +<p>"I want you to understand it," said Mrs. Maynard, pleased, but still +hesitating. "We are very daft about Alice at home, you know, and it's +quite a wonder she has not been utterly spoiled by her aunts and uncles; +but this picture was a specialty. An artist friend of ours fairly <i>made</i> +us have it taken in the wedding-dress worn by her grandmother. You know +the Josephine Beauharnais 'Directoire' style that was worn in seventeen +ninety-something. Her neck and shoulders are lovely, and that was why we +consented. I went, and so did the artist, and we posed her, and the +photograph is simply perfect of her face, and neck too, but when Alice +saw it she blushed furiously and forbade my having them finished. +Afterwards, though, she yielded when her aunt Kate and I begged so hard +and promised that <a name="Page_195" id="Page_195"></a>none should be given away, and so just half a dozen +were finished. Indeed, the dress is by no means as <i>décolleté</i> as many +girls wear theirs at dinner now in New York; but poor Alice was +scandalized when she saw it last month, and she never would let me put +one in the album."</p> + +<p>"Oh, <i>do</i> go and get it, Mrs. Maynard!" pleaded the ladies. "Oh, +<i>please</i> let me see it, Mrs. Maynard!" added Sloat; and at last the +mother-pride prevailed. Mrs. Maynard rustled up-stairs, and presently +returned holding in her hands a delicate silver frame in filigree-work, +a quaint foreign affair, and enclosed therein was a cabinet photograph +<i>en vignette</i>,—the head, neck, and shoulders of a beautiful girl; and +the dainty, diminutive, what-there-was-of-it waist of the old-fashioned +gown, sashed almost immediately under the exquisite bust, revealed quite +materially the cause of Alice Renwick's blushes. But a more beautiful +portrait was never photographed. The women fairly gasped with delight +and envy. Sloat could not restrain his impatience to get it in his own +hands, and finally he grasped it and then eyed it in rapture. It was two +minutes before he spoke a word, while the colonel sat laughing at his +worshipping gaze. Mrs. Maynard somewhat uneasily stretched forth her +hand, and the other ladies impatiently strove to regain possession.</p> + +<p>"Come, Major Sloat, you've surely had it long enough. <i>We</i> want it +again."</p> + +<p>"Never!" said Sloat, with melodramatic intensity. "Never! This is my +ideal of perfection,—of divinity in woman. I will bear it home with me, +set it above my fireside, and adore it day and night."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, Major Sloat!" said Mrs. Maynard, laughing, yet far from being +at her ease. "Come, I <i>must</i> take it back. Alice may be in any minute +now, and if she knew I had betrayed her she would never forgive me. +Come, surrender!" And she strove to take it from him.</p> + +<p>But Sloat was in one of his utterly asinine moods. He would have been +perfectly willing to give any sum he possessed for so perfect a picture +as this. He never dreamed that there were good and sufficient reasons +why <i>no</i> man should have it. He so loved and honored his colonel that he +was ready to lay down his life for any of his household. In laying claim +to this picture he honestly believed that it was the highest proof he +could give of his admiration and devotion. A tame surrender now meant +that his protestations were empty words. "Therefore," argued Sloat, "I +must stand firm."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196"></a>"Madame," said he, "I'd die first." And with that he began backing to +the door.</p> + +<p>Alarmed now, Mrs. Maynard sprang after him, and the little major leaped +upon a chair, his face aglow, jolly, rubicund, beaming with bliss and +triumph. She looked up, almost wringing her hands, and turned half +appealingly to the colonel, who was laughing heartily on the sofa, never +dreaming Sloat could be in earnest.</p> + +<p>"Here, I'll give you back the frame: I don't want that," said Sloat, and +began fumbling at the back of the photograph. This was too much for the +ladies. They, too, rushed to the rescue. One of them sprang to and shut +the door, the other seized and violently shook the back of his chair, +and Sloat leaped to the floor, still clinging to his prize, and laughing +as though he had never had so much entertainment in his life. The long +Venetian windows opened upon the piazza, and towards the nearest one he +retreated, holding aloft the precious gage and waving off the attacking +party with the other hand. He was within a yard of the blinds, when they +were suddenly thrown open, a tall, slender form stepped quickly in, one +hand seized the uplifted wrist, the other the picture, and in far less +time than it takes to tell it Mr. Jerrold had wrenched it away and, with +quiet bow, restored it to its rightful owner.</p> + +<p>"Oh, I say, now, Jerrold, that's downright unhandsome of you!" gasped +Sloat. "I'd have been on my way home with it."</p> + +<p>"Shut up, you fool!" was the sharp, hissing whisper. "Wait till I go +home, if you want to talk about it." And, as quickly as he came, Mr. +Jerrold slipped out again upon the piazza.</p> + +<p>Of course the story was told with varied comment all over the post. +Several officers were injudicious enough to chaff the old subaltern +about it, and—he was a little sore-headed the next day, anyway—the +usually placid Sloat grew the more indignant at Jerrold. He decided to +go and upbraid him; and, as ill luck would have it, they met before noon +on the steps of the club-room.</p> + +<p>"I want to say to you, Mr. Jerrold, that from an officer of your age to +one of mine I think your conduct last night a piece of impertinence."</p> + +<p>"I had a perfect right to do what I did," replied Jerrold, coolly. "You +were taking a most unwarrantable liberty in trying to carry off that +picture."</p> + +<p>"How did you know what it was? You had never seen it!"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197"></a>"There's where you are mistaken, Mr. Sloat" (and Jerrold purposely and +exasperatingly refused to recognize the customary <i>brevet</i>): "I had seen +it,—frequently."</p> + +<p>Two officers were standing by, and one of them turned sharply and faced +Jerrold as he spoke. It was his former company commander. Jerrold noted +the symptom, and flushed, but set his teeth doggedly.</p> + +<p>"Why, Mr. Jerrold! Mrs. Maynard said she never showed that to any one," +said Sloat, in much surprise. "You heard her, did you not, Captain +Chester?"</p> + +<p>"I did, certainly," was the reply.</p> + +<p>"All the same, I repeat what I've said," was Jerrold's sullen answer. "I +have seen it frequently, and, what's more—" He suddenly stopped.</p> + +<p>"Well, what's more?" said Sloat, suggestively.</p> + +<p>"Never mind. I don't care to talk of the matter," replied Jerrold, and +started to walk away.</p> + +<p>But Sloat was angry, nettled, jealous. He had meant to show his intense +loyalty and admiration for everything that was his colonel's, and had +been snubbed and called a fool by an officer many years, though not so +many "files," his junior. He never had liked him, and now there was an +air of conscious superiority about Jerrold that fairly exasperated him. +He angrily followed and called to him to stop, but Jerrold walked on. +Captain Chester stood still and watched them. The little man had almost +to run before he overtook the tall one. They were out of earshot when he +finally did so. There were a few words on both sides. Then Jerrold +shifted his light cane into his left hand, and Chester started forward, +half expecting a fracas. To his astonishment, the two officers shook +hands and parted.</p> + +<p>"Well," said he, as Sloat came back with an angry yet bewildered face, +"I'm glad you shook hands. I almost feared a row, and was just going to +stop it. So he apologized, did he?"</p> + +<p>"No, nothing like it."</p> + +<p>"Then what did you mean by shaking hands?"</p> + +<p>"That's nothing—never you mind," said Sloat, confusedly. "I haven't +forgiven him, by a good deal. The man's conceit is enough to disgust +anything—but a woman, I suppose," he finished, ruefully.</p> + +<p>"Well, it's none of my business, Sloat, but pardon my saying I don't see +what there was to bring about the apparent reconciliation. That +hand-shake meant something."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198"></a>"Oh, well—damn it! we had some words, and he—or I—Well, there's a +bet, and we shook hands on it."</p> + +<p>"Seems to me that's pretty serious business, Sloat,—a bet following +such a talk as you two have had. I hope—"</p> + +<p>"Well, captain," interrupted Sloat, "I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't +been mad as blazes; but I made it, and must stick to it,—that's all."</p> + +<p>"You wouldn't mind telling me what it was, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"I can't; and that ends it."</p> + +<p>Captain Chester found food for much thought and speculation over this +incident. So far as he was concerned, the abrupt remark of Sloat by no +means ended it. In his distrust of Jerrold, he too had taken alarm at +the very substantial intimacy to which that young man was welcomed at +the colonel's quarters. Prior to his marriage old Maynard had not liked +him at all, but it was mainly because he had been so negligent of his +duties and so determined a beau in city society after his arrival at +Sibley. He had, indeed, threatened to have him transferred to a company +still on frontier service if he did not reform; but then the +rifle-practice season began, and Jerrold was a capital shot and sure to +be on the list of competitors for the Department team, so what was the +use? He would be ordered in for the rifle-camp anyway, and so the +colonel decided to keep him at head-quarters. This was in the summer of +the year gone by. Then came the colonel's long leave, his visit to +Europe, his meeting with his old friend, now the widow of the lamented +Renwick, their delightful winter together in Italy, his courtship, her +consent, their marriage and return to America. When Maynard came back to +Sibley and the old regiment, he was so jolly and content that every man +was welcomed at his house, and it was really a source of pride and +pleasure to him that his accomplished wife should find any of his young +officers so thoroughly agreeable as she pronounced Mr. Jerrold. Others +were soldierly, courteous, well bred, but he had the air of a foreign +court about him, she privately informed her lord; and it seems, indeed, +that in days gone by Mr. Jerrold's father had spent many years in France +and Spain, once as his country's representative near the throne. Though +the father died long before the boy was out of his knickerbockers, he +had left the impress of his grand manner, and Jerrold, to women of any +age, was at once a courtier and a knight. But the colonel never saw how +her eyes followed the tall young officer time and again. There were +women who soon noted it, <a name="Page_199" id="Page_199"></a>and one of them said it was such a yearning, +longing look. <i>Was</i> Mrs. Maynard really happy? they asked each other. +<i>Did</i> she really want to see Alice mate with him, the handsome, the +dangerous, the selfish fellow they knew him to be? If not, could +anything be more imprudent than that they should be thrown together as +they were being, day after day? Had Alice wealth of her own? If not, did +the mother know that nothing would tempt Howard Jerrold into an alliance +with a dowerless daughter? These, and many more, were questions that +came up every day. The garrison could talk of little else; and Alice +Renwick had been there just three weeks, and was the acknowledged Queen +of Hearts at Sibley, when the rifle-competitions began again, and a +great array of officers and men from all over the Northwest came to the +post by every train, and their canvas tents dotted the broad prairie to +the north.</p> + +<p>One lovely evening in August, just before the practice began, Colonel +Maynard took his wife to drive out and see the camp. Mr. Jerrold and +Alice Renwick followed on horseback. The carriage was surrounded as it +halted near the range, and half a score of officers, old and young, were +chatting with Mrs. Maynard, while others gathered about the lovely girl +who sat there in the saddle. There came marching up from the railway a +small squad of soldiers, competitors arriving from the far West. Among +them—apparently their senior non-commissioned officer—was a tall +cavalry sergeant, superbly built, and with a bronzed and bearded and +swarthy face that seemed to tell of years of campaigning over mountain +and prairie. They were all men of perfect physique, all in the neat, +soldierly fatigue-dress of the regular service, some wearing the +spotless white stripes of the infantry, others the less artistic and +equally destructible yellow of the cavalry. Their swinging stride, erect +carriage, and clear and handsome eyes all spoke of the perfection of +health and soldierly development. Curious glances were turned to them as +they advanced, and Miss Renwick, catching sight of the party, +exclaimed,—</p> + +<p>"Oh, who are these? And what a tall soldier that sergeant is!"</p> + +<p>"That sergeant, Miss Renwick," said a slow, deliberate voice, "is the +man I believe will knock Mr. Jerrold out of the first prize. That is +Sergeant McLeod."</p> + +<p>As though he heard his name pronounced, the tall cavalryman glanced for +the first time at the group, brought his rifle to the carry <a name="Page_200" id="Page_200"></a>as if about +to salute, and was just stepping upon the roadside, where he came in +full view of the occupants of the carriage, when a sudden pallor shot +across his face, and he plunged heavily forward and went down like a +shot. Sympathetic officers and comrades surrounded the prostrate form in +an instant. The colonel himself sprang from his carriage and joined the +group; a blanket was quickly brought from a neighboring tent, and the +sergeant was borne thither and laid upon a cot. A surgeon felt his pulse +and looked inquiringly around:</p> + +<p>"Any of you cavalrymen know him well? Has he been affected this way +before?"</p> + +<p>A young corporal who had been bending anxiously over the sergeant +straightened up and saluted:</p> + +<p>"I know him well, sir, and have been with him five years. He's only had +one sick spell in all that time,—'twas just like this,—and then he +told me he'd been sunstruck once."</p> + +<p>"This is no case of sunstroke," said the doctor. "It looks more like the +heart. How long ago was the attack you speak of?"</p> + +<p>"Three years ago last April, sir. I remember it because we'd just got +into Fort Raines after a long scout. He'd been the solidest man in the +troop all through the cold and storm and snow we had in the mountains, +and we were in the reading-room, and he'd picked up a newspaper and was +reading while the rest of us were talking and laughing, and, first thing +we knew, he was down on the floor, just like he was to-night."</p> + +<p>"Hm!" said the surgeon. "Yes. That's plenty, steward. Give him that. +Raise his head a little, corporal. Now he'll come round all right."</p> + +<p>Driving homeward that night, Colonel Maynard musingly remarked,—</p> + +<p>"Did you see that splendid fellow who fainted away?"</p> + +<p>"No," answered his wife, "you all gathered about him so quickly and +carried him away. I could not even catch a glimpse of him. But he had +recovered, had he not?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. Still, I was thinking what a singular fact it is that occasionally +a man slips through the surgeon's examinations with such a malady as +this. Now, here is one of the finest athletes and shots in the whole +army, a man who has been through some hard service and stirring fights, +has won a tip-top name for himself and was on the highroad to a +commission, and yet this will block him effectually."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201"></a>"Why, what is the trouble?"</p> + +<p>"Some affection of the heart. Why! Halloo! Stop, driver! Orderly, jump +down and run back there. Mrs. Maynard has dropped her fan.—What was it, +dear?" he asked, anxiously. "You started; and you are white, and +trembling."</p> + +<p>"I—I don't know, colonel. Let us go home. It will be over in a minute. +Where are Alice and Mr. Jerrold? Call them, please. She must not be out +riding after dark."</p> + +<p>But they were not in sight; and it was considerably after dark when they +reached the fort. Mr. Jerrold explained that his horse had picked up a +stone and he had had to walk him all the way.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IV" id="IV"></a>IV.</h2> + + +<p>There was no sleep for Captain Chester the rest of the night. He went +home, threw off his sword-belt, and seated himself in a big easy-chair +before his fireplace, deep in thought. Once or twice he arose and paced +restlessly up and down the room, as he had done in his excited talk with +Rollins some few hours before. Then he was simply angry and +argumentative,—or declamatory. Now he had settled down into a very +different frame of mind. He seemed awed,—stunned,—crushed. He had all +the bearing and mien of one who, having defiantly predicted a calamity, +was thunderstruck by the verification of his prophecy. In all his +determined arraignment of Mr. Jerrold, in all the harsh things he had +said and thought of him, he had never imagined any such depth of +scoundrelism as the revelations of the night foreshadowed. Chester +differed from many of his brotherhood: there was no room for rejoicing +in his heart that the worst he had ever said of Jerrold was unequal to +the apparent truth. He took no comfort to his soul that those who called +him cynical, crabbed, unjust, even malicious, would now be compelled to +admit he was right in his estimate. Like the best of us, Chester could +not ordinarily say "<i>Vade retro</i>" to the temptation to think, if not to +say, "Didn't I tell you so?" when in every-day affairs his oft-disputed +views were proved well founded. But in the face of such a catastrophe as +now appeared engulfing the fair fame of his regiment and the honor of +those whom his colonel held dear, Chester could feel only dismay and +grief. What was his duty in the light of the discoveries he had made? To +the best of his belief, he was the only man in the garrison who had +evidence of Jerrold's absence from his own quarters and of the presence +of <i>some one</i> at <i>her</i><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202"></a> window. He had taken prompt measures to prevent +its being suspected by others. He purposely sent his guards to search +along the cliff in the opposite direction while he went to Jerrold's +room and thence back to remove the tell-tale ladder. Should he tell +<i>any</i> one until he had confronted Jerrold with the evidences of his +guilt, and, wringing from him his resignation, send him far from the +post before handing it in? Time and again he wished Frank Armitage were +here. The youngest captain in the regiment, Armitage had been for years +its adjutant and deep in the confidence of Colonel Maynard. He was a +thorough soldier, a strong, self-reliant, courageous man, and one for +whom Chester had ever felt a warm esteem. Armitage was on leave of +absence, however,—had been away some time on account of family matters, +and would not return, it was known, until he had effected the removal of +his mother and sister to the new home he had purchased for them in the +distant East. It was to his company that Jerrold had been promoted, and +there was friction from the very week that the handsome subaltern +joined.</p> + +<p>Armitage had long before "taken his measure," and was in no wise pleased +that so lukewarm a soldier should have come to him as senior subaltern. +They had a very plain talk, for Armitage was straightforward as a dart, +and then, as Jerrold showed occasional lapses, the captain shut down on +some of his most cherished privileges, and, to the indignation of +society, the failure of Mr. Jerrold to appear at one or two gatherings +where he was confidently expected was speedily laid at his captain's +door. The recent death of his father kept Armitage from appearing in +public, and, as neither he nor the major (who commanded the regiment +while Maynard was abroad) vouchsafed the faintest explanation, society +was allowed to form its own conclusions, and <i>did</i>,—to the effect that +Mr. Jerrold was a wronged and persecuted man. It was just as the +Maynards arrived at Sibley that Armitage departed on his leave, and, to +his unspeakable bliss, Mr. Jerrold succeeded to the command of his +company. This fact, coupled with the charming relations which were +straightway established with the colonel's family, placed him in a +position of independence and gave him opportunities he had never known +before. It was speedily evident that he was neglecting his military +duties,—that Company B was running down much faster than Armitage had +built it up,—and yet no man felt like speaking of it to the colonel, +who saw it only occasionally on dress-parade. Chester had just about +determined to write to Armitage him<a name="Page_203" id="Page_203"></a>self and suggest his speedy return, +when this eventful night arrived. Now he fully made up his mind that it +must be done at once, and had seated himself at his desk, when the roar +of the sunrise gun and the blare of the bugles warned him that reveille +had come and he must again go to his guard. Before he returned to his +quarters another complication, even more embarrassing, had arisen, and +the letter to Armitage was postponed.</p> + +<p>He had received the "present" of his guard and verified the presence of +all his prisoners, when he saw Major Sloat still standing out in the +middle of the parade, where the adjutant usually received the reports of +the roll-calls. Several company officers, having made their reports, +were scurrying back to quarters for another snooze before breakfast-time +or to get their cup of coffee before going out to the range. Chester +strolled over towards him.</p> + +<p>"What's the matter, Sloat?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing much. The colonel told me to receive the reveille reports for +Hoyt this week. He's on general court-martial."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know all that. I mean, what are you waiting for?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Jerrold again. There's no report from his company."</p> + +<p>"Have you sent to wake him?"</p> + +<p>"No; I'll go myself, and do it thoroughly, too." And the little major +turned sharply away and walked direct to the low range of bachelor +quarters, dove under the piazza, and into the green door-way.</p> + +<p>Hardly knowing how to explain his action, Chester quickly followed, and +in less than a minute was standing in the self-same parlor which, by the +light of a flickering match, he had searched two hours before. Here he +halted and listened, while Sloat pushed on into the bedroom and was +heard vehemently apostrophizing some sleeper:</p> + +<p>"Does the government pay you for this sort of thing, I want to know? Get +up, Jerrold! This is the second time you've cut reveille in ten days. +Get up, I say!" And the major was vigorously shaking at something, for +the bed creaked and groaned.</p> + +<p>"Wake up! I say, I'm blowed if I'm going to get up here day after day +and have you sleeping. Wake, Nicodemus! Wake, you snoozing, snoring, +open-mouthed masher. Come, now; I mean it."</p> + +<p>A drowsy, disgusted yawn and stretch finally rewarded his efforts. Mr. +Jerrold at last opened his eyes, rolled over, yawned sulkily again, <a name="Page_204" id="Page_204"></a>and +tried to evade his persecutor, but to no purpose. Like a little terrier, +Sloat hung on to him and worried and shook.</p> + +<p>"Oh, don't! damn it, don't!" growled the victim. "What do you want, +anyway? Has that infernal reveille gone?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, and you're absent again, and no report from B Company. By the holy +poker, if you don't turn out and get it and report to me on the parade +I'll spot the whole gang absent, and then no <i>matinée</i> for you to-day, +my buck. Come, out with you! I mean it. Hall says you and he have an +engagement in town; and 'pon my soul I'll bust it if you don't come +out."</p> + +<p>And so, growling and complaining, and yet half laughing, Adonis rolled +from his couch and began to get into his clothes. Chester's blood ran +cold, then boiled. Think of a man who could laugh like that,—and +remember! <i>When</i>, how, had he returned to the house? Listen!</p> + +<p>"Confound you, Sloat, <i>I</i> wouldn't rout <i>you</i> out in this shabby way. +Why couldn't you let a man sleep? I'm tired half to death."</p> + +<p>"What have you done to tire you? Slept all yesterday afternoon, and +danced perhaps a dozen times at the doctor's last night. You've had more +sleep than I've had, begad! You took Miss Renwick home before 'twas +over, and mean it was of you, too, with all the fellows that wanted to +dance with her."</p> + +<p>"That wasn't my fault: Mrs. Maynard made her promise to be home at +twelve. You old cackler, that's what sticks in your crop yet. You are +persecuting me because they like me so much better than they do you," he +went on, laughingly now. "Come, now, Sloat, confess, it is all because +you're jealous. You couldn't have that picture, and I could."</p> + +<p>Chester fairly started. He had urgent need to see this young +gallant,—he was staying for that purpose,—but should he listen to +further talk like this? Too late to move, for Sloat's answer came like a +shot:</p> + +<p>"I bet you you <i>never</i> could!"</p> + +<p>"But didn't I tell you I had?—a week ago?"</p> + +<p>"Ay, but I didn't believe it. You couldn't show it!"</p> + +<p>"Pshaw, man! Look here. Stop, though! Remember, <i>on your honor</i>, you +never tell."</p> + +<p>"On my honor, of course."</p> + +<p>"Well, there!"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205"></a>A drawer was opened. Chester heard a gulp of dismay, of genuine +astonishment and conviction mixed, as Sloat muttered some +half-articulate words and then came into the front room. Jerrold +followed, caught sight of Chester, and stopped short, with sudden and +angry change of color.</p> + +<p>"I did not know <i>you</i> were here," he said.</p> + +<p>"It was to find where <i>you</i> were that I came," was the quiet answer.</p> + +<p>There was a moment's silence. Sloat turned and looked at the two men in +utter surprise. Up to this time he had considered Jerrold's absence from +reveille as a mere dereliction of duty which was ascribable to the +laziness and indifference of the young officer. So far as lay in his +power, he meant to make him attend more strictly to business, and had +therefore come to his quarters and stirred him up. But there was no +thought of any serious trouble in his mind. His talk had all been +roughly good-humored until—until that bet was mentioned, and then it +became earnest. Now, as he glanced from one man to the other, he saw in +an instant that something new—something of unusual gravity—was +impending. Chester, buttoned to the throat in his dark uniform, +accurately gloved and belted, with pale, set, almost haggard face, was +standing by the centre-table under the drop-light. Jerrold, only half +dressed, his feet thrust into slippers, his fingers nervously working at +the studs of his dainty white shirt, had stopped short at his bedroom +door, and, with features that grew paler every second and a dark scowl +on his brow, was glowering at Chester.</p> + +<p>"Since when has it been the duty of the officer of the day to come +around and hunt up officers who don't happen to be out at reveille?" he +asked.</p> + +<p>"It is not your absence from reveille I want explained, Mr. Jerrold," +was the cold and deliberate answer. "I wanted you at 3.30 this morning, +and you were not and had not been here."</p> + +<p>An unmistakable start and shock; a quick, nervous, hunted glance around +the room, so cold and pallid in the early light of the August morning; a +clutch of Jerrold's slim brown hand at the bared throat. But he rallied +gamely, strode a step forward, and looked his superior full in the face. +Sloat marked the effort with which he cleared away the huskiness that +seemed to clog his larynx, but admired the spunk with which the young +officer returned the senior's shot:</p> + +<p>"What is your authority here, I would like to know? What business has +the officer of the day to want me or any other man not on <a name="Page_206" id="Page_206"></a>guard? +Captain Chester, you seem to forget that I am no longer your second +lieutenant, and that I am a company commander like yourself. Do you come +by Colonel Maynard's order to search my quarters and question me? If so, +say so at once; if not, get out." And Jerrold's face was growing black +with wrath, and his big lustrous eyes were wide awake now and fairly +snapping.</p> + +<p>Chester leaned upon the table and deliberated a moment. He stood there +coldly, distrustfully eying the excited lieutenant, then turned to +Sloat:</p> + +<p>"I will be responsible for the roll-call of Company B this morning, +Sloat. I have a matter of grave importance to bring up to this—this +gentleman, and it is of a private nature. Will you let me see him +alone?"</p> + +<p>"Sloat," said Jerrold, "don't go yet. I want you to stay. These are my +quarters, and I recognize your right to come here in search of me, since +I was not at reveille; but I want a witness here to bear me out. I'm too +amazed yet—too confounded by this intrusion of Captain Chester's to +grasp the situation. I never heard of such a thing as this. Explain it, +if you can."</p> + +<p>"Mr. Jerrold, what I have to ask or say to you concerns you alone. It is +<i>not</i> an official matter. It is as man to man I want to see you, alone +and at once. <i>Now</i> will you let Major Sloat retire?"</p> + +<p>Silence for a moment. The angry flush on Jerrold's face was dying away, +and in its place an ashen pallor was spreading from throat to brow; his +lips were twitching ominously. Sloat looked in consternation at the +sudden change.</p> + +<p>"Shall I go?" he finally asked.</p> + +<p>Jerrold looked long, fixedly, searchingly in the set face of the officer +of the day, breathing hard and heavily. What he saw there Sloat could +not imagine. At last his hand dropped by his side; he made a little +motion with it, a slight wave towards the door, and again dropped it +nervously. His lips seemed to frame the word "Go," but he never glanced +at the man whom a moment before he so masterfully bade to stay; and +Sloat, sorely puzzled, left the room.</p> + +<p>Not until his footsteps had died out of hearing did Chester speak:</p> + +<p>"How soon can you leave the post?"</p> + +<p>"I don't understand you."</p> + +<p>"How soon can you pack up what you need to take and—get away?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207"></a>"Get away where? What on earth do you mean?"</p> + +<p>"You <i>must</i> know what I mean! You <i>must</i> know that after last night's +work you quit the service at once and forever."</p> + +<p>"I don't know anything of the kind; and I defy you to prove the faintest +thing." But Jerrold's fingers were twitching, and his eyes had lost +their light.</p> + +<p>"Do you suppose I did not recognize you?" asked Chester.</p> + +<p>"When?—where?" gulped Jerrold.</p> + +<p>"When I seized you and you struck me!"</p> + +<p>"I never struck you. I don't know what you mean."</p> + +<p>"My God, man, let us end this useless fencing. The evidence I have of +your last night's scoundrelism would break the strongest record. For the +regiment's sake,—for the colonel's sake,—let us have no public +scandal. It's awful enough as the thing stands. Write your resignation, +give it to me, and leave,—before breakfast if you can."</p> + +<p>"I've done nothing to resign for. You know perfectly well I haven't."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean that such a crime—that a woman's ruin and disgrace—isn't +enough to drive you from the service?" asked Chester, tingling in every +nerve and longing to clinch the shapely, swelling throat in his +clutching fingers. "God of heaven, Jerrold! are you dead to all sense of +decency?"</p> + +<p>"Captain Chester, I won't be bullied this way. I may not be immaculate, +but no man on earth shall talk to me like this! I deny your +insinuations. I've done nothing to warrant your words, even if—if you +did come sneaking around here last night and find me absent. You can't +prove a thing. You——"</p> + +<p>"What! When I saw you,—almost caught you! By heaven! I wish the sentry +had killed you then and there. I never dreamed of such hardihood."</p> + +<p>"You've done nothing but dream. By Jove, I believe you're sleepwalking +yet. What on earth do you mean by catching and killing me? 'Pon my soul +I reckon you're crazy, Captain Chester." And color was gradually coming +back again to Jerrold's face, and confidence to his tone.</p> + +<p>"Enough of this, Mr. Jerrold. Knowing what you and I both know, do you +refuse to hand me your resignation?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I do."</p> + +<p>"Do you mean to deny to me where I saw you last night?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208"></a>"I deny your right to question me. I deny anything,—everything. I +believe you simply thought you had a clue and could make me tell. +Suppose I <i>was</i> out last night. I don't believe you know the faintest +thing about it."</p> + +<p>"Do you want me to report the whole thing to the colonel?"</p> + +<p>"Of course I don't. Naturally, I want him to know nothing about my being +out of quarters; and it's a thing that no officer would think of +reporting another for. You'll only win the contempt of every gentleman +in the regiment if you do it. What good will it do you?—Keep me from +going to town for a few days, I suppose. What earthly business is it of +yours, anyway?"</p> + +<p>"Jerrold, I can stand this no longer. I ought to shoot you in your +tracks, I believe. You've brought ruin and misery to the home of my +warmest friend, and dishonor to the whole service, and you talk of two +or three days' stoppage from going to town. If I can't bring you to your +senses, by God! the colonel shall." And he wheeled and left the room.</p> + +<p>For a moment Jerrold stood stunned and silent. It was useless to attempt +reply. The captain was far down the walk when he sprang to the door to +call him again. Then, hurrying back to the bedroom, he hastily dressed, +muttering angrily and anxiously to himself as he did so. He was thinking +deeply, too, and every movement betrayed nervousness and trouble. +Returning to the front door, he gazed out upon the parade, then took his +forage-cap and walked rapidly down towards the adjutant's office. The +orderly bugler was tilted up in a chair, leaning half asleep against the +whitewashed front, but his was a weasel nap, for he sprang up and +saluted as the young officer approached.</p> + +<p>"Where did Major Sloat go, orderly?" was the hurried question.</p> + +<p>"Over towards the stables, sir. Him and Captain Chester was here +together, and they're just gone."</p> + +<p>"Run over to the quarters of B Company and tell Merrick I want him right +away. Tell him to come to my quarters." And thither Mr. Jerrold +returned, seated himself at his desk, wrote several lines of a note, +tore it into fragments, began again, wrote another which seemed not +entirely satisfactory, and was in the midst of a third when there came a +quick step and a knock at the door. Opening the shutters, he glanced out +of the window. A gust of wind sent some of the papers whirling and +flying, and the bedroom door banged shut, but not before some few +half-sheets of paper had fluttered out upon the parade, where other +little <a name="Page_209" id="Page_209"></a>flurries of the morning breeze sent them sailing over towards +the colonel's quarters. Anxious only for the coming of Merrick and no +one else, Mr. Jerrold no sooner saw who was at the front door than he +closed the shutters, called, "Come in!" and a short, squat, wiry little +man, dressed in the fatigue-uniform of the infantry, stood at the +door-way to the hall.</p> + +<p>"Come in here, Merrick," said the lieutenant, and Merrick came.</p> + +<p>"How much is it you owe me now?—thirty-odd dollars, I think?"</p> + +<p>"I believe it is, lieutenant," answered the man, with shifting eyes and +general uneasiness of mien.</p> + +<p>"You are not ready to pay it, I suppose; and you got it from me when we +left Fort Raines, to help you out of that scrape there."</p> + +<p>The soldier looked down and made no answer.</p> + +<p>"Merrick, I want a note taken to town at once. I want <i>you</i> to take it +and get it to its address before eight o'clock. I want you to say no +word to a soul. Here's ten dollars. Hire old Murphy's horse across the +river and <i>go</i>. If you are put in the guard-house when you get back, +don't say a word; if you are tried by garrison court for crossing the +bridge or absence without leave, plead guilty, make no defence, and I'll +pay you double your fine and let you off the thirty dollars. But if you +fail me, or tell a soul of your errand, I'll write to—you know who, at +Raines. Do you understand, and agree?"</p> + +<p>"I do. Yessir."</p> + +<p>"Go and get ready, and be here in ten minutes."</p> + +<p>Meantime, Captain Chester had followed Sloat to the adjutant's office. +He was boiling over with indignation which he hardly knew how to +control. He found the gray-moustached subaltern tramping in great +perplexity up and down the room, and the instant he entered was greeted +with the inquiry,—</p> + +<p>"What's gone wrong? What's Jerrold been doing?"</p> + +<p>"Don't ask me any questions, Sloat, but answer. It is a matter of honor. +<i>What</i> was your bet with Jerrold?"</p> + +<p>"I oughtn't to tell that, Chester. Surely it cannot be a matter mixed up +with this."</p> + +<p>"I can't explain, Sloat. What I ask is unavoidable. Tell me about that +bet."</p> + +<p>"Why, he was so superior and airy, you know, and was trying to make me +feel that he was so much more intimate with them all at the colonel's, +and that he could have that picture for the mere asking; and I got mad, +and bet him he <i>never</i> could."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210"></a>"Was that the day you shook hands on it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"And that was her picture—<i>the</i> picture, then—he showed you this +morning."</p> + +<p>"Chester, you heard the conversation: you were there: you know that I'm +on honor not to tell."</p> + +<p>"Yes, I know. That's quite enough."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="V" id="V"></a>V.</h2> + + +<p>Before seven o'clock that same morning Captain Chester had come to the +conclusion that only one course was left open for him. After the brief +talk with Sloat at the office he had increased the perplexity and +distress of that easily-muddled soldier by requesting his company in a +brief visit to the stables and corrals. A "square" and reliable old +veteran was the quartermaster sergeant who had charge of those +establishments; Chester had known him for years, and his fidelity and +honesty were matters the officers of his former regiment could not too +highly commend. When Sergeant Parks made an official statement there was +no shaking its solidity. He slept in a little box of a house close by +the entrance to the main stable, in which were kept the private horses +of several of the officers, and among them Mr. Jerrold's; and it was his +boast that, day or night, no horse left that stable without his +knowledge. The old man was superintending the morning labors of the +stable-hands, and looked up in surprise at so early a visit from the +officer of the day.</p> + +<p>"Were you here all last night, sergeant?" was Chester's abrupt question.</p> + +<p>"Certainly, sir, and up until one o'clock or more."</p> + +<p>"Were any horses out during the night,—any officers' horses, I mean?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir, not one."</p> + +<p>"I thought possibly some officers might have driven or ridden to town."</p> + +<p>"No, sir. The only horses that crossed this threshold going out last +night were Mr. Sutton's team from town. They were put up here until near +one o'clock, and then the doctor sent over for them. I locked up right +after that, and can swear nothing else went out."</p> + +<p>Chester entered the stable and looked curiously around. Presently <a name="Page_211" id="Page_211"></a>his +eye lighted on a tall, rangy bay horse that was being groomed in a wide +stall near the door-way.</p> + +<p>"That's Mr. Jerrold's Roderick, isn't it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir. He's fresh as a daisy, too,—hasn't been out for three +days,—and Mr. Jerrold's going to drive the dog-cart this morning."</p> + +<p>Chester turned away.</p> + +<p>"Sloat," said he, as they left the stable, "if Mr. Jerrold was away from +the post last night,—and you heard me say he was out of his +quarters,—could he have gone any way except afoot, after what you heard +Parks say?"</p> + +<p>"Gone in the Suttons' outfit, I suppose," was Sloat's cautious answer.</p> + +<p>"In which event he would have been seen by the sentry at the bridge, +would he not?"</p> + +<p>"Ought to have been, certainly."</p> + +<p>"Then we'll go back to the guard-house." And, wonderingly and +uncomfortably, Sloat followed. He had long since begun to wish he had +held his peace and said nothing about the confounded roll-call. He hated +rows of any kind. He didn't like Jerrold, but he would have crawled +<i>ventre à terre</i> across the wide parade sooner than see a scandal in the +regiment he loved; and it was becoming apparent to his sluggish +faculties that it was no mere matter of absence from quarters that was +involving Jerrold. Chester was all aflame over that picture-business, he +remembered, and the whole drift of his present investigation was to +prove that Jerrold was <i>not</i> absent from the post, but absent only from +his quarters. If so, where had he spent his time until nearly four? +Sloat's heart was heavy with vague apprehension. He knew that Jerrold +had borne Alice Renwick away from the party at an unusually early hour +for such things to break up. He knew that he and others had protested +against such desertion, but she declared it could not be helped. He +remembered another thing,—a matter that he thought of at the time, only +from another point of view. It now seemed to have significance bearing +on this very matter; for Chester suddenly asked,—</p> + +<p>"Wasn't it rather odd that Miss Beaubien was not here at the dance? She +has never missed one, seems to me, since Jerrold began spooning with her +last year."</p> + +<p>"Why, she <i>was</i> here."</p> + +<p>"She was? Are you sure? Rollins never spoke of it; and we <a name="Page_212" id="Page_212"></a>had been +talking of her. I inferred from what he said that she was not there at +all. And I saw her drive homeward with her mother right after parade: so +it didn't occur to me that she could have come out again, all that +distance, in time for the dance. Singular! Why shouldn't Rollins have +told me?"</p> + +<p>Sloat grinned: a dreary sort of smile it was, too. "You go into society +so seldom you don't see these things. I've more than half suspected +Rollins of being quite ready to admire Miss Beaubien himself; and since +Jerrold dropped her he has had plenty of opportunity."</p> + +<p>"Great guns! I never thought of it! If I'd known she was to be there I'd +have gone myself last night. How did she behave to Miss Renwick?"</p> + +<p>"Why, sweet and smiling, and chipper as you please. If anything, I think +Miss Renwick was cold and distant to her. I couldn't make it out at +all."</p> + +<p>"And did Jerrold dance with her?"</p> + +<p>"Once, I think, and they had a talk out on the piazza,—just a minute. I +happened to be at the door, and couldn't help seeing it; and what got me +was this: Mr. Hall came out with Miss Renwick on his arm; they were +chatting and laughing as they passed me, but the moment she caught sight +of Jerrold and Miss Beaubien she stopped, and said, 'I think I won't +stay out here; it's too chilly,' or something like it, and went right +in; and then Jerrold dropped Miss Beaubien and went after her. He just +handed the young lady over to me, saying he was engaged for next dance, +and skipped."</p> + +<p>"How did she like that? Wasn't she furious?"</p> + +<p>"No. That's another thing that got me. She smiled after him, all +sweetness, and—well, she <i>did</i> say, 'I count upon you,—you'll be +there,' and he nodded. Oh, she was bright as a button after that."</p> + +<p>"What did she mean?—be 'where,' do you suppose? Sloat, this all means +more to me, and to us all, than I can explain."</p> + +<p>"I don't know. I can't imagine."</p> + +<p>"Was it to see her again that night?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know at all. If it was, he fooled her, for he never went near +her again. Rollins put her in the carriage."</p> + +<p>"Whose? Did she come out with the Suttons?"</p> + +<p>"Why, certainly. I thought you knew that."</p> + +<p>"And neither old Madame Beaubien nor Mrs. Sutton with them? What was the +old squaw thinking of?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213"></a>By this time they had neared the guard-house, where several of the men +were seated awaiting the call for the next relief. All arose at the +shout of the sentry on Number One, turning out the guard for the officer +of the day. Chester made hurried and impatient acknowledgment of the +salute, and called to the sergeant to send him the sentry who was at the +bridge at one o'clock. It turned out to be a young soldier who had +enlisted at the post only six months before and was already known as one +of the most intelligent and promising candidates for a corporalship in +the garrison.</p> + +<p>"Were you on duty at the bridge at one o'clock, Carey?" asked the +captain.</p> + +<p>"I was, sir. My relief went on at 11.45 and came off at 1.45."</p> + +<p>"What persons passed your post during that time?"</p> + +<p>"There was a squad or two of men coming back from town on pass. I halted +them, sir, and Corporal Murray came down and passed them in."</p> + +<p>"I don't mean coming from town. Who went the other way?"</p> + +<p>"Only one carriage, sir,—Mr. Sutton's."</p> + +<p>"Could you see who were in it?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly, sir: it was right under the lamp-post this end of the bridge +that I stood when I challenged. Lieutenant Rollins answered for them and +passed them out. He was sitting beside Mr. Sutton as they drove up, then +jumped out and gave me the countersign and bade them good-night right +there."</p> + +<p>"Rollins again," thought Chester. "Why did he keep this from me?"</p> + +<p>"Who were in the carriage?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Sutton, sir, on the front seat, driving, and two young ladies on +the back seat."</p> + +<p>"Nobody else?"</p> + +<p>"Not a soul, sir. I could see in it plain as day. One lady was Miss +Sutton, and the other Miss Beaubien. I know I was surprised at seeing +the latter, because she drove home in her own carriage last evening +right after parade. I was on post there at that hour too, sir. The +second relief is on from 5.45 to 7.45."</p> + +<p>"That will do, Carey. I see your relief is forming now."</p> + +<p>As the officers walked away and Sloat silently plodded along beside his +dark-browed senior, the latter turned to him:</p> + +<p>"I should say that there was no way in which Mr. Jerrold could have gone +townwards last night. Should not you?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214"></a>"He might have crossed the bridge while the third relief was on, and +got a horse at the other side."</p> + +<p>"He didn't do that, Sloat. I had already questioned the sentry on that +relief. It was the third that I inspected and visited this morning."</p> + +<p>"Well, how do you know he wanted to go to town? Why couldn't he have +gone up the river, or out to the range? Perhaps there was a little game +of 'draw' out at camp."</p> + +<p>"There was no light in camp, much less a little game of draw, after +eleven o'clock. You know well enough that there is nothing of that kind +going on with Gaines in command. That isn't Jerrold's game, even if +those fellows <i>were</i> bent on ruining their eyesight and nerve and +spoiling the chance of getting the men on the division and army teams. I +wish it <i>were</i> his game, instead of what it is!"</p> + +<p>"Still, Chester, he may have been out in the country somewhere. You seem +bent on the conviction he was up to mischief here, around this post. I +won't ask you what you mean; but there's more than one way of getting to +town if a man wants to very bad."</p> + +<p>"How? Of course he can take a skiff and row down the river; but he'd +never be back in time for reveille. There goes six o'clock, and I must +get home and shave and think this over. Keep your own counsel, no matter +who asks you. If you hear any questions or talk about shooting last +night, you know nothing, heard nothing, and saw nothing."</p> + +<p>"Shooting last night!" exclaimed Sloat, all agog with eagerness and +excitement now. "Where was it? Who was it?"</p> + +<p>But Chester turned a deaf ear upon him, and walked away. He wanted to +see Rollins, and went straight home.</p> + +<p>"Why didn't you tell me Miss Beaubien was out here last night?" was the +question he asked as soon as he had entered the room where, all aglow +from his cold bath, the youngster was dressing for breakfast. He colored +vividly, then laughed.</p> + +<p>"Well, you never gave me much chance to say anything, did you? You +talked all the time, as I remember, and suddenly vanished and slammed +the door. I would have told you had you asked me." But all the same it +was evident for the first time that here was a subject Rollins was shy +of mentioning.</p> + +<p>"Did you go down and see them across sentry post?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly. Jerrold asked me to. He said he had to take Miss<a name="Page_215" id="Page_215"></a> Renwick +home, and was too tired to come back,—was going to turn in. I was glad +to do anything to be civil to the Suttons."</p> + +<p>"Why, I'd like to know? They have never invited you to the house or +shown you any attention whatever. You are not their style at all, +Rollins, and I'm glad of it. It wasn't for their sake you stayed there +until one o'clock instead of being here in bed. I wish—" and he looked +wistfully, earnestly, at his favorite now, "I wish I could think it +wasn't for the sake of Miss Beaubien's black eyes and aboriginal +beauty."</p> + +<p>"Look here, captain," said Rollins, with another rush of color to his +face; "you don't seem to fancy Miss Beaubien, and—she's a friend of +mine, and one I don't like to hear slightingly spoken of. You said a +good deal last night that—well, wasn't pleasant to hear."</p> + +<p>"I know it, Rollins. I beg your pardon. I didn't know then that you were +more than slightly acquainted with her. I'm an old bat, and go out very +little, but some things are pretty clear to my eyes, and—don't you be +falling in love with Nina Beaubien. That is no match for you."</p> + +<p>"I'm sure you never had a word to say against her father. The old +colonel was a perfect type of the French gentleman, from all I hear."</p> + +<p>"Yes, and her mother is as perfect a type of a Chippewa squaw, if she is +only a half-breed and claims to be only a sixteenth. Rollins, there's +Indian blood enough in Nina Beaubien's little finger to make me afraid +of her. She is strong as death in love or hate, and you must have seen +how she hung on Jerrold's every word all last winter. You must know she +is not the girl to be lightly dropped now."</p> + +<p>"She told me only a day or two ago they were the best of friends and had +never been anything else," said Rollins, hotly.</p> + +<p>"Has it gone that far, my boy? I had not thought it so bad, by any +means. It's no use talking with a man who has lost his heart: his reason +goes with it." And Chester turned away.</p> + +<p>"You don't know anything about it," was all poor Rollins could think of +as a suitable thing to shout after him; and it made no more impression +than it deserved.</p> + +<p>As has been said, Captain Chester had decided before seven o'clock that +but one course lay open to him in the matter as now developed. Had +Armitage been there he would have had an adviser, but there was no other +man whose counsel he eared to seek. Old Captain Gray was as <a name="Page_216" id="Page_216"></a>bitter +against Jerrold as Chester himself, and with even better reason, for he +knew well the cause of his little daughter's listless manner and tearful +eyes. She had been all radiance and joy at the idea of coming to Sibley +and being near the great cities, but not one happy look had he seen in +her sweet and wistful face since the day of her arrival. Wilton, too, +was another captain who disliked Jerrold; and Chester's rugged sense of +fair play told him that it was not among the enemies of the young +officer that he should now seek advice, but that if he had a friend +among the older and wiser heads in the regiment it was due to him that +that older and wiser head be given a chance to think a little for +Jerrold's sake. And there was not one among the seniors whom he could +call upon. As he ran over their names, Chester for the first time +realized that his ex-subaltern had not a friend among the captains and +senior officers now on duty at the fort. His indifference to duties, his +airy foppishness, his conceit and self-sufficiency, had all served to +create a feeling against him; and this had been intensified by his +conduct since coming to Sibley. The youngsters still kept up jovial +relations with and professed to like him, but among the seniors there +were many men who had only a nod for him on meeting. Wilton had +epitomized the situation by saying he "had no use for a masher," and +poor old Gray had one day scowlingly referred to him as "the +professional beauty."</p> + +<p>In view of all this feeling, Chester would gladly have found some man to +counsel further delay; but there was none. He felt that he must inform +the colonel at once of the fact that Mr. Jerrold was absent from his +quarters at the time of the firing, of his belief that it was Jerrold +who struck him and sped past the sentry in the dark, and of his +conviction that the sooner the young officer was called to account for +his strange conduct the better. As to the episodes of the ladder, the +lights, and the form at the dormer-window, he meant, for the present at +least, to lock them in his heart.</p> + +<p>But he forgot that others too must have heard those shots, and that +others too would be making inquiries.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VI" id="VI"></a>VI.</h2> + + +<p>A lovely morning it was that beamed on Sibley and the broad and +beautiful valley of the Cloudwater when once the sun got fairly above +the moist horizon. Mist and vapor and heavy cloud all seemed swallowed +up in the gathering, glowing warmth, as though the King of<a name="Page_217" id="Page_217"></a> Day had +risen athirst and drained the welcoming cup of nature. It must have +rained at least a little during the darkness of the night, for dew there +could have been none with skies so heavily overcast, and yet the short +smooth turf on the parade, the leaves upon the little shade-trees around +the quadrangle, and all the beautiful vines here on the trellis-work of +the colonel's veranda, shone and sparkled in the radiant light. The +roses in the little garden, and the old-fashioned morning-glory vines +over at the east side, were all a-glitter in the flooding sunshine when +the bugler came out from a glance at the clock in the adjutant's office +and sounded "sick-call" to the indifferent ear of the garrison. Once +each day, at 7.30 <span class="smcap">a.m.</span>, the doctor trudged across to the +hospital and looked over the half-dozen "hopelessly healthy" but +would-be invalids who wanted to get off guard duty or a morning at the +range. Thanks to the searching examination to which every soldier must +be subjected before he can enter the service of Uncle Sam, and to the +disciplined order of the lives of the men at Sibley, maladies of any +serious nature were almost unknown. It was a gloriously healthy post, as +everybody admitted, and, to judge from the specimen of young-womanhood +that came singing, "blithe and low," out among the roses this same +joyous morning, exuberant physical well-being was not restricted to the +men.</p> + +<p>A fairer picture never did dark beauty present than Alice Renwick, as +she bent among the bushes or reached high among the vines in search of +her favorite flowers. Tall, slender, willowy, yet with +exquisitely-rounded form; slim, dainty little hands and feet; graceful +arms and wrists all revealed in the flowing sleeves of her snowy, +web-like gown, fitting her and displaying her sinuous grace of form as +gowns so seldom do to-day. And then her face!—a glorious picture of +rich, ripe, tropical beauty, with its great, soulful, sunlit eyes, +heavily shaded though they were with those wondrous lashes; beautiful, +too, in contour as was the lithe body, and beautiful in every feature, +even to the rare and dewy curve of her red lips, half opened as she +sang. She was smiling to herself, as she crooned her soft, murmuring +melody, and every little while the great dark eyes glanced over towards +the shaded doors of Bachelors' Row. There was no one up to watch and +tell: why should she not look thither, and even stand one moment peering +under the veranda at a darkened window half-way down the row, as though +impatient at the non-appearance of some familiar signal? How came the +laggard late? How slept the knight while here his lady stood im<a name="Page_218" id="Page_218"></a>patient? +She twined the leaves and roses in a fragrant knot, ran lightly within +and laid them on the snowy cloth beside the colonel's seat at table, +came forth and plucked some more and fastened them, blushing, blissful, +in the lace-fringed opening of her gown, through which, soft and creamy, +shone the perfect neck.</p> + +<p class='center'> +"Daisy, tell my fortune, pray:<br /> +He loves me not,—he loves me," +</p> + +<p>she blithely sang, then, hurrying to the gate, shaded her eyes with the +shapely hand and gazed intently. 'Twas nearing eight,—nearing +breakfast-time. But some one was coming. Horrid! Captain Chester, of all +men! Coming, of course, to see papa, and papa not yet down, and mamma +had a headache and had decided not to come down at all, she would +breakfast in her room. What girl on earth when looking and longing and +waiting for the coming of a graceful youth of twenty-six would be +anything but dismayed at the substitution therefor of a bulky, +heavy-hearted captain of forty-six, no matter if he were still +unmarried? And yet her smile was sweet and cordial.</p> + +<p>"Why, good-morning, Captain Chester. I'm so glad to see you this bright +day. Do come in and let me give you a rose. Papa will soon be down." And +she opened the gate and held forth one long, slim hand. He took it +slowly, as though in a dream, raising his forage-cap at the same time, +yet making no reply. He was looking at her far more closely than he +imagined. How fresh, how radiant, how fair and gracious and winning! +Every item of her attire was so pure and white and spotless; every fold +and curve of her gown seemed charged with subtile, delicate fragrance, +as faint and sweet as the shy and modest wood-violet's. She noted his +silence and his haggard eyes. She noted the intent gaze, and the color +mounted straightway to her forehead.</p> + +<p>"And have you no word of greeting for me?" she blithely laughed, +striving to break through the awkwardness of his reserve, "or are you +worn out with your night watch as officer of the day?"</p> + +<p>He fairly started. Had she seen him, then? Did she know it was he who +stood beneath her window, he who leaped in chase of that scoundrel, he +who stole away with that heavy tell-tale ladder? and, knowing all this, +could she stand there smiling in his face, the incarnation of maiden +innocence and beauty? Impossible! Yet what could she mean?</p> + +<p>"How did you know I had so long a vigil?" he asked, and the <a name="Page_219" id="Page_219"></a>cold, +strained tone, the half-averted eyes, the pallor of his face, all struck +her at once. Instantly her manner changed:</p> + +<p>"Oh, forgive me, captain. I see you are all worn out; and I'm keeping +you here at the gate. Come to the piazza and sit down. I'll tell papa +you are here, for I know you want to see him." And she tripped lightly +away before he could reply, and rustled up the stairs. He could hear her +light tap at the colonel's door, and her soft, clear, flute-like voice: +"Papa, Captain Chester is here to see you."</p> + +<p>Papa indeed! She spoke to him and of him as though he were her own. He +treated her as though she were his flesh and blood,—as though he loved +her devotedly. Even before she came had not they been prepared for this? +Did not Mrs. Maynard tell them that Alice had become enthusiastically +devoted to her step-father and considered him the most knightly and +chivalric hero she had ever seen? He could hear the colonel's hearty and +loving tone in reply, and then she came fluttering down again:</p> + +<p>"Papa will be with you in five minutes, captain. But won't you let me +give you some coffee? It's all ready, and you look so tired,—even ill."</p> + +<p>"I have had a bad night," he answered, "but I'm growing old, and cannot +stand sleeplessness as you young people seem to."</p> + +<p>Was she faltering? He watched her eagerly, narrowly, almost wonderingly. +Not a trace of confusion, not a sign of fear; and yet had he not <i>seen</i> +her, and that other figure?</p> + +<p>"I wish you could sleep as I do," was the prompt reply. "I was in the +land of dreams ten minutes after my head touched the pillow, and mamma +made me come home early last night because of our journey to-day. You +know we are going down to visit Aunt Grace, Colonel Maynard's sister, at +Lake Sablon, and mamma wanted me to be looking my freshest and best," +she said, "and I never heard a thing till reveille."</p> + +<p>His eyes, sad, penetrating, doubting,—yet self-doubting, too,—searched +her very soul. Unflinchingly the dark orbs looked into his,—even +pityingly; for she quickly spoke again:</p> + +<p>"Captain, <i>do</i> come into the breakfast-room and have some coffee. You +have not breakfasted, I'm sure."</p> + +<p>He raised his hand as though to repel her offer,—even to put her aside. +He <i>must</i> understand her. He <i>could</i> not be hoodwinked in this way.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220"></a>"Pardon me, Miss Renwick, but did you hear nothing strange last night +or early this morning? Were you not disturbed at all?"</p> + +<p>"I? No, indeed!" True, her face had changed now, but there was no fear +in her eyes. It was a look of apprehension, perhaps, of concern and +curiosity mingled, for his tone betrayed that something had happened +which caused him agitation.</p> + +<p>"And you heard no shots fired?"</p> + +<p>"Shots! No! Oh, Captain Chester! what does it mean? <i>Who</i> was shot? Tell +me!"</p> + +<p>And now, with paling face and wild apprehension in her eyes, she turned +and gazed beyond him, past the vines and the shady veranda, across the +sunshine of the parade and under the old piazza, searching that still +closed and darkened window.</p> + +<p>"Who?" she implored, her hands clasping nervously, her eyes returning +eagerly to his face.</p> + +<p>"It was not Mr. Jerrold," he answered, coldly. "He is unhurt, so far as +shot is concerned."</p> + +<p>"Then how is he hurt? Is he hurt at all?" she persisted; and then as she +met his gaze her eyes fell, and the burning blush of maiden shame surged +up to her forehead. She sank upon a seat and covered her face with her +hands.</p> + +<p>"I thought of Mr. Jerrold, naturally. He said he would be over early +this morning," was all she could find to say.</p> + +<p>"I have seen him, and presume he will come. To all appearances, he is +the last man to suffer from last night's affair," he went on, +relentlessly,—almost brutally,—but she never winced. "It is odd you +did not hear the shots. I thought yours was the northwest room,—this +one?" he indicated, pointing overhead.</p> + +<p>"So it is, and I slept there all last night and heard nothing,—not a +thing. <i>Do</i> tell me what the trouble was."</p> + +<p>Then what was there for him to say? The colonel's footsteps were heard +upon the stair, and the colonel, with extended hand and beaming face and +cheery welcome, came forth from the open door-way:</p> + +<p>"Welcome, Chester! I'm glad you've come just in time for breakfast. Mrs. +Maynard won't be down. She slept badly last night, and is sleeping now. +What was the firing last night? I did not hear it at the time, but the +orderly and old Maria the cook were discussing it as I was shaving."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221"></a>"It is that I came to see you about, colonel. I am the man to hold +responsible."</p> + +<p>"No prisoners got away, I hope?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir. Nothing, I fear, that would seem to justify my action. I +ordered Number Five to fire."</p> + +<p>"Why, what on earth could have happened around there,—almost back of +us?" said the colonel, in surprise.</p> + +<p>"I do not know what had happened, or what was going to happen." And +Chester paused a moment, and glanced towards the door through which Miss +Renwick had retired as soon as the colonel arrived. The old soldier +seemed to understand the glance. "<i>She</i> would not listen," he said, +proudly.</p> + +<p>"I know," explained Chester. "I think it best that no one but you should +hear anything of the matter for the present until I have investigated +further. It was nearly half-past three this morning as I got around here +on Five's post, inspecting sentinels, and came suddenly in the darkness +upon a man carrying a ladder on his shoulder. I ordered him to halt. The +reply was a violent blow, and the ladder and I were dropped at the same +instant, while the man sprang into space and darted off in the direction +of Number Five. I followed quick as I could, heard the challenge and the +cries of halt, and shouted to Leary to fire. He did, but missed his aim +in the haste and darkness, and the man got safely away. Of course there +is much talk and speculation about it around the post this morning, for +several people heard the shots besides the guard, and, although I told +Leary and others to say nothing, I know it is already generally known."</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, come in to breakfast," said the colonel. "We'll talk it over +there."</p> + +<p>"Pardon me, sir, I cannot. I must get back home before guard-mount, and +Rollins is probably waiting to see me now. I—I could not discuss it at +the table, for there are some singular features about the matter."</p> + +<p>"Why, in God's name, what?" asked the colonel, with sudden and deep +anxiety.</p> + +<p>"Well, sir, an officer of the garrison is placed in a compromising +position by this affair, and cannot or will not explain."</p> + +<p>"Who?"</p> + +<p>"Mr. Jerrold, sir."</p> + +<p>"Jerrold! Why, I got a note from him not ten minutes ago saying <a name="Page_222" id="Page_222"></a>he had +an engagement in town and asking permission to go before guard-mounting, +if Mr. Hall was ready. Hall wanted to go with him, Jerrold wrote, but +Hall has not applied for permission to leave the post."</p> + +<p>"It is Jerrold who is compromised, colonel. I may be all wrong in my +suspicions, all wrong in reporting the matter to you at all, but in my +perplexity and distress I see no other way. Frankly, sir, the moment I +caught sight of the man he looked like Jerrold; and two minutes after +the shots were fired I inspected Jerrold's quarters. He was not there, +though the lamps were burning very low in the bedroom, and his bed had +not been occupied at all. When you see Leary, sir, he will tell you that +he also thought it must be Mr. Jerrold."</p> + +<p>"The young scapegrace!—been off to town, I suppose."</p> + +<p>"Colonel," said Chester, quickly, "you—not I—must decide that. I went +to his quarters after reveille, and he was then there, and resented my +visit and questions, admitted that he had been out during the night, but +refused to make any statement to me."</p> + +<p>"Well, Chester, I will haul him up after breakfast. Possibly he had been +up to the rifle-camp, or had driven to town after the doctor's party. Of +course <i>that</i> must be stopped; but I'm glad you missed him. It, of +course, staggers a man's judgment to be knocked down, but if you had +killed him it might have been as serious for you as this knock-down blow +will be for him. That is the worst phase of the matter. What could he +have been thinking of? He must have been either drunk or mad; and he +rarely drank. Oh, dear, dear, dear, but that's very bad,—very +bad,—striking the officer of the day! Why, Chester, that's the worst +thing that's happened in the regiment since I took command of it. It's +about the worst thing that <i>could</i> have happened to us. Of course he +must go in arrest. I'll see the adjutant right after breakfast. I'll be +over early, Chester." And with grave and worried face the colonel bade +him adieu.</p> + +<p>As he turned away, Chester heard him saying again to himself, "About the +worst thing he could have done!—the worst thing he could have done!" +And the captain's heart sank within him. What would the colonel say when +he knew how far, far worse was the foul wrong Mr. Jerrold had done to +him and his?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223"></a></p> +<h2><a name="VII" id="VII"></a>VII.</h2> + + +<p>Before guard-mounting—almost half an hour before his usual time for +appearing at the office—Colonel Maynard hurried in to his desk, sent +the orderly for Captain Chester, and then the clerks in the +sergeant-major's room heard him close and lock the door. As the subject +of the shooting was already under discussion among the men there +assembled, this action on the part of the chief was considered highly +significant. It was hardly five minutes before Chester came, looked +surprised at finding the door locked, knocked, and was admitted.</p> + +<p>The look on the haggard face at the desk, the dumb misery in the eyes, +the wrath and horror in it all, carried him back twenty years to that +gloomy morning in the casemates when the story was passed around that +Captain Maynard had lost a wife and an intimate friend during the +previous night. Chester saw at a glance that, despite his precautions, +the blow had come, the truth been revealed at one fell swoop.</p> + +<p>"Lock the door again, Chester, and come here. I have some questions to +ask you."</p> + +<p>The captain silently took the chair which was indicated by a wave of the +colonel's hand, and waited. For a moment no word more was spoken. The +old soldier, white and trembling strangely, reseated himself at the +desk, and covered his face with his hands. Twice he drew them with +feebly stroking movement over his eyes, as though to rally the stunned +faculties and face the trying ordeal. Then a shiver passed through his +frame, and with sudden lift of the head he fixed his gaze on Chester's +face and launched the question,—</p> + +<p>"Chester, is there any kindness to a man who has been through what I +have in telling only half a tale, as you have done?"</p> + +<p>The captain colored red. "I am at a loss to answer you, colonel," he +said, after brief reflection. "You know far more than you did half an +hour ago, and what I knew I could not bear to tell you as yet."</p> + +<p>"My God! my God! Tell me <i>all</i>, and tell me at once. Here, man, if you +need stimulant to your indignation and cannot speak without it, read +this. I found it, open, among the rose-bushes in the garden, where she +must have dropped it when out there with you. Read it. Tell me what it +means; for, God knows, I can't believe such a thing of her."</p> + +<p>He handed Chester a sheet of note-paper. It was moist and blurred <a name="Page_224" id="Page_224"></a>on +the first page, but the inner pages, though damp, were in good +condition. The first, second, and third pages were closely covered in a +bold, nervous hand that Chester knew well. It was Jerrold's writing, +beyond a doubt, and Chester's face grew hot as he read, and his heart +turned cold as stone when he finished the last hurried line.</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">My Darling</span>,—</p> + +<p>"I <i>must</i> see you, if only for a moment, before you leave. Do not let +this alarm you, for the more I think the more I am convinced it is only +a bluff, but Captain Chester discovered my absence early this morning +when spying around as usual, and now he claims to have knowledge of our +secret. Even if he was on the terrace when I got back, it was too dark +for him to recognize me, and it seems impossible that he can have got +any real clue. He suspects, perhaps, and thinks to force me to +confession; but I would guard your name with my life. Be wary. Act as +though there were nothing on earth between us, and if we cannot meet +until then I will be at the dépôt with the others to see you off, and +will then have a letter ready with full particulars and instructions. It +will be in the first thing I hand to you. Hide it until you can safely +read it. Your mother must not be allowed a glimmer of suspicion, and +then you are safe. As for me, even Chester cannot make the colonel turn +against me now. My jealous one, my fiery sweetheart, do you not realize +now that I was wise in showing her so much attention? A thousand kisses. +Come what may, they cannot rob us of the past.</p> +<p class='author'><span class="smcap">Howard</span>.</p> + +<p>"I fear you heard and were alarmed by the shots just after I left you. +All was quiet when I got home."</p> + +<p>It was some seconds before Chester could control himself sufficiently to +speak. "I wish to God the bullet had gone through his heart!" he said.</p> + +<p>"It has gone through mine,—through mine! This will kill her mother. +Chester," cried the colonel, springing suddenly to his feet, "she must +not know it. She must not dream of it. I tell you it would stretch her +in the dust, <i>dead</i>, for she loves that child with all her strength, +with all her being, I believe, for it is two mother-loves in one. She +had a son, older than Alice by several years, her first-born,—her +glory, he was,—but the boy inherited the father's passionate and +im<a name="Page_225" id="Page_225"></a>pulsive nature. He loved a girl utterly beneath him, and would have +married her when he was only twenty. There is no question that he loved +her well, for he refused to give her up, no matter what his father +threatened. They tried to buy her off, and she scorned them. Then they +had a letter written, while he was sent abroad under pretence that he +should have his will if he came back in a year unchanged. By Jove, it +seems she was as much in love as he, and it broke her heart. She went +off and died somewhere, and he came back ahead of time because her +letters had ceased, and found it all out. There was an awful scene. He +cursed them both,—father and mother,—and left her senseless at his +feet; and from that day to this they never heard of him, never could get +the faintest report. It broke Renwick,—killed him, I guess, for he died +in two years; and as for the mother, you would not think that a woman so +apparently full of life and health was in desperate danger. She had some +organic trouble with the heart years ago, they tell her, and this +experience has developed it so that now any great emotion or sudden +shock is perilous. Do you not see how doubly fearful this comes to us? +Chester, I have weathered one awful storm, but I'm old and broken now. +This—this beats me. Tell me what to do."</p> + +<p>The captain was silent a few moments. He was thinking intently.</p> + +<p>"Does she know you have that letter?" he asked.</p> + +<p>Maynard shook his head: "I looked back as I came away. She was in the +parlor, singing softly to herself, at the very moment I picked it up, +lying open as it was right there among the roses, the first words +staring me in the face. I meant not to read it,—never dreamed it was +for her,—and had turned over the page to look for the superscription. +There was none, but there I saw the signature and that postscript about +the shots. That startled me, and I read it here just before you came, +and then could account for your conduct,—something I could not do +before. God of heaven! would any man believe it of her? It is +incredible! Chester, tell me everything you know now,—even everything +you suspect. I must see my way clear."</p> + +<p>And then the captain, with halting and reluctant tongue, told his story: +how he had stumbled on the ladder back of the colonel's quarters and +learned from Number Five that some one had been prowling back of +Bachelors' Row; how he returned there afterwards, found the ladder at +the side-wall, and saw the tall form issue from her window; how he had +given chase and been knocked breathless, and of his suspicions, and +Leary's, as to the identity of the stranger.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226"></a>The colonel bowed his head still deeper, and groaned aloud. But he had +still other questions to ask.</p> + +<p>"Did you see—any one else at the window?"</p> + +<p>"Not while he was there."</p> + +<p>"At any time, then,—before or after?" And the colonel's eyes would take +no denial.</p> + +<p>"I saw," faltered Chester, "nobody. The shade was pulled up while I was +standing there, after I had tripped on the ladder. I supposed the noise +of my stumble had awakened her."</p> + +<p>"And was that all? Did you see nothing more?"</p> + +<p>"Colonel, I <i>did</i> see, afterwards, a woman's hand and arm closing the +shade."</p> + +<p>"My God! And she told me she slept the night through,—never waked or +heard a sound!"</p> + +<p>"Did you hear nothing yourself, colonel?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing. When she came home from the party she stopped a moment, saying +something to him at the door, then came into the library and kissed me +good-night. I shut up the house and went to bed about half-past twelve, +and her door was closed when I went to our room."</p> + +<p>"So there were two closed doors, yours and hers, and the broad hall +between you?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly. We have the doors open all night that lead into the rear +rooms, and their windows. This gives us abundant air. Alice always has +the hall door closed at night."</p> + +<p>"And Mrs. Maynard,—was she asleep?"</p> + +<p>"No. Mrs. Maynard was lying awake, and seemed a little restless and +disturbed. Some of the women had been giving her some hints about +Jerrold and fretting her. You know she took a strange fancy to him at +the start. It was simply because he reminded her so strongly of the boy +she had lost. She told me so. But after a little she began to discover +traits in him she did not like, and then his growing intimacy with Alice +worried her. She would have put a stop to the doctor's party,—to her +going with him, I mean,—but the engagement was made some days ago. Two +or three days since, she warned Alice not to trust him, she says; and it +is really as much on this as any other account that we decided to get +her away, off to see her aunt Grace. Oh, God! how blind we are! how +blind we are!" And poor old Maynard bowed his head and almost groaned +aloud.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227"></a>Chester rose, and, in his characteristic way, began tramping nervously +up and down. There was a knock at the door. "The adjutant's compliments, +and 'twas time for guard-mount. Would the colonel wish to see him before +he went out?" asked the orderly.</p> + +<p>"I ought to go, sir," said Chester. "I am old officer of the day, and +there will be just time for me to get into full uniform."</p> + +<p>"Let them go on without you," said Maynard. "I cannot spare you now. +Send word to that effect. Now,—now about this man,—this Jerrold. What +is the best thing we can do?—of course I know what he most +deserves;—but what is the <i>best</i> thing under all the circumstances? Of +course my wife and Alice will leave to-day. She was still sleeping when +I left, and, pray God, is not dreaming of this. It was nearly two before +she closed her eyes last night; and I, too, slept badly. You have seen +him. What does he say?"</p> + +<p>"Denies everything,—anything,—challenges me to prove that he was +absent from his house more than five minutes,—indeed, I could not, for +he may have come in just after I left,—and pretended utter ignorance of +my meaning when I accused him of striking me before I ordered the sentry +to fire. Of course it is all useless now. When I confront him with this +letter he <i>must</i> give in. Then let him resign and get away as quietly as +possible before the end of the week. No one need know the causes. Of +course shooting is what he deserves; but shooting demands explanation. +It is better for your name, hers, and all, that he should be allowed to +live than that the truth were suspected, as it would be if he were +killed. Indeed, sir, if I were you I would take them to Sablon, keep +them away for a fortnight, and leave him to me. It may be even judicious +to let him go on with all his duties as though nothing had happened, as +though he had simply been absent from reveille, and let the whole matter +drop like that until all remark and curiosity is lulled; then you can +send her back to Europe or the East,—time enough to decide on that; but +I will privately tell him he must quit the service in six months, and +show him why. It isn't the way it ought to be settled; it probably isn't +the way Armitage would do it; but it is the best thing that occurs to +me. One thing is certain: you and they ought to get away at once, and he +should not be permitted to see her again. I can run the post a few days +and explain matters after you go."</p> + +<p>The colonel sat in wretched silence a few moments; then he arose:</p> + +<p>"If it were not for <i>her</i> danger,—her heart,—I would never drop <a name="Page_228" id="Page_228"></a>the +matter here,—never! I would see it through to the bitter end. But you +are probably right as to the prudent course to take. I'll get them away +on the noon train: he thinks they do not start until later. Now I must +go and face it. My God, Chester! could you look at that child and +realize it? Even now, even now, sir, I believe—I believe, +someway—somehow—she is innocent."</p> + +<p>"God grant it, sir!"</p> + +<p>And then the colonel left the office, avoiding, as has been told, a word +with any man. Chester buttoned the tell-tale letter in an inner pocket, +after having first folded the sheet lengthwise and then enclosed it in a +long official envelope. The officers, wondering at the colonel's +distraught appearance, had come thronging in, hoping for information, +and then had gone, unsatisfied and disgusted, practically turned out by +their crabbed senior captain. The ladies, after chatting aimlessly about +the quadrangle for half an hour, had decided that Mrs. Maynard must be +ill, and, while most of them awaited the result, two of their number +went to the colonel's house and rang at the bell. A servant appeared: +"Mrs. Maynard wasn't very well this morning, and was breakfasting in her +room, and Miss Alice was with her, if the ladies would please excuse +them." And so the emissaries returned unsuccessful. Then, too, as we +have seen, despite his good intention of keeping matters hushed as much +as possible, Chester's nervous irritability had got the better of him, +and he had made damaging admissions to Wilton of the existence of a +cause of worriment and perplexity, and this Wilton told without +compunction. And then there was another excitement, that set all tongues +wagging. Every man had heard what Chester said, that Mr. Jerrold must +not quit the garrison until he had first come and seen the temporary +commanding officer, and Hall had speedily carried the news to his +friend.</p> + +<p>"Are <i>you</i> ready to go?" asked Mr. Jerrold, who was lacing his boots in +the rear room.</p> + +<p>"No. I've got to go and get into 'cits' first."</p> + +<p>"All right. Go, and be lively! I'll wait for you at Murphy's, beyond the +bridge, provided you say nothing about it."</p> + +<p>"You don't mean you are going against orders?"</p> + +<p>"Going? Of course I am. I've got old Maynard's permission, and if +Chester means to revoke it he's got to get his adjutant here inside of +ten seconds. What you tell me isn't official. I'm off <i>now</i>!"</p> + +<p>And when the adjutant returned to Captain Chester it was with the +<a name="Page_229" id="Page_229"></a>information that he was too late: Mr. Jerrold's dog-cart had crossed +the bridge five minutes earlier.</p> + +<p>Perhaps an hour later the colonel sent for Chester, and the captain went +to his house. The old soldier was pacing slowly up and down the parlor +floor.</p> + +<p>"I wanted you a moment. A singular thing has happened. You know that +'Directoire' cabinet photo of Alice? My wife always kept it on her +dressing-table, and this morning it's gone. That frame—the silver +filigree thing—was found behind a sofa-pillow in Alice's room, and she +declares she has no idea how it got there. Chester, is there any new +significance in this?"</p> + +<p>The captain bowed assent.</p> + +<p>"What is it?"</p> + +<p>"That photograph was seen by Major Sloat in Jerrold's bureau-drawer at +reveille this morning."</p> + +<p>And such was the situation at Sibley the August day the colonel took his +wife and her lovely daughter to visit Aunt Grace at Lake Sablon.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="VIII" id="VIII"></a>VIII.</h2> + + +<p>In the big red omnibus that was slowly toiling over the dusty road +several passengers were making their way from the railway-station to the +hotel at Lake Sablon. Two of them were women of mature years, whose +dress and bearing betokened lives of ease and comfort; another was a +lovely brunette of less than twenty, the daughter, evidently, of one of +these ladies, and an object of loving pride to both. These three seemed +at home in their surroundings, and were absorbed in the packet of +letters and papers they had just received at the station. It was evident +that they were not new arrivals, as were the other passengers, who +studied them with the half-envious feelings with which new-comers at a +summer resort are apt to regard those who seem to have been long +established there, and who gathered from the scraps of conversation that +they had merely been over to say good-by to friends leaving on the very +train which brought in the rest of what we good Americans term "the +'bus-load." There were women among the newly-arrived who inspected the +dark girl with that calm, unflinching, impertinent scrutiny and +half-audibly whispered comment which, had they been of the opposite sex, +would have warranted their being kicked out of the conveyance, but which +was ignored by the fair object and her friends as completely <a name="Page_230" id="Page_230"></a>as were +the commentators themselves. There were one or two men in the omnibus +who might readily have been forgiven an admiring glance or two at so +bright a vision of girlish beauty as was Miss Renwick this August +afternoon, and they <i>had</i> looked; but the one who most attracted the +notice of Mrs. Maynard and Aunt Grace—a tall, stalwart, +distinguished-looking party in gray travelling-dress—had taken his seat +close to the door and was deep in the morning's paper before they were +fairly away from the station.</p> + +<p>Laying down the letter she had just finished reading, Mrs. Maynard +glanced at her daughter, who was still engaged in one of her own, and +evidently with deep interest.</p> + +<p>"From Fort Sibley, Alice?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, mamma, all three,—Miss Craven, Mrs. Hoyt, and—Mr. Jerrold. Would +you like to see it?" And, with rising color, she held forth the one in +her hand.</p> + +<p>"Not now," was the answer, with a smile that told of confidence and +gratification both. "It is about the german, I suppose?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. He thinks it outrageous that we should not be there,—says it is +to be the prettiest ever given at the fort, and that Mrs. Hoyt and Mrs. +Craven, who are the managers for the ladies, had asked him to lead. He +wants to know if we cannot possibly come."</p> + +<p>"Are you not very eager to go, Alice? I should be," said Aunt Grace, +with sympathetic interest.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I am," answered Miss Renwick, reflectively. "It had been arranged +that it should come off next week, when, as was supposed, we would be +home after this visit. It cannot be postponed, of course, because it is +given in honor of all the officers who are gathered there for the +rifle-competition, and that will be all over and done with to-day, and +they cannot stay beyond Tuesday next. We must give it up, auntie," and +she looked up smilingly, "and you have made it so lovely for me here +that I can do it without a sigh. Think of that!—an army german!—and +Fanny Craven says the favors are to be simply lovely. Yes, I <i>did</i> want +to go, but papa said he felt unequal to it the moment he got back from +Chicago, day before yesterday, and he certainly does not look at all +well: so that ended it, and I wrote at once to Mrs. Hoyt. This is her +answer now."</p> + +<p>"What does she say?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, it is very kind of her: she wants me to come and be her guest if +the colonel is too ill to come and mamma will not leave him.<a name="Page_231" id="Page_231"></a> She says +Mr. Hoyt will come down and escort me. But I would not like to go +without mamma," and the big dark eyes looked up wistfully, "and I know +she does not care to urge papa when he seems so indisposed to going."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Maynard's eyes were anxious and troubled now. She turned to her +sister-in-law:</p> + +<p>"Do you think he seems any better, Grace? I do not."</p> + +<p>"It is hard to say. He was so nervously anxious to get away to see the +general the very day you arrived here that there was not a moment in +which I could ask him about himself; and since his return he has avoided +all mention of it beyond saying it is nothing but indigestion and he +would be all right in a few days. I never knew him to suffer in that way +in my life. Is there any regimental matter that can be troubling him?" +she asked, in lower tone.</p> + +<p>"Nothing of any consequence whatever. Of course the officers feel +chagrined over their defeat in the rifle-match. They had expected to +stand very high, but Mr. Jerrold's shooting was unexpectedly below the +average, and it threw their team behind. But the colonel didn't make the +faintest allusion to it. That hasn't worried him anywhere near as much +as it has the others, I should judge."</p> + +<p>"I do not think it was all Mr. Jerrold's fault, mamma," said Miss +Renwick, with gentle reproach and a very becoming flush. "I'm going to +stand up for him, because I think they all blame him for other men's +poor work. He was not the only one on our team whose shooting was below +former scores."</p> + +<p>"They claim that none fell so far below their expectations as he, Alice. +You know I am no judge of such matters, but Mr. Hoyt and Captain Gray +both write the colonel that Mr. Jerrold had been taking no care of +himself whatever and was entirely out of form."</p> + +<p>"In any event I'm glad the cavalry did no better," was Miss Renwick's +loyal response. "You remember the evening we rode out to the range and +Captain Gray said that there was the man who would win the first prize +from Mr. Jerrold,—that tall cavalry sergeant who fainted +away,—Sergeant McLeod; don't you remember, mother? Well, he did not +even get a place, and Mr. Jerrold beat him easily."</p> + +<p>Something in her mother's eyes warned her to be guarded, and, in that +indefinable but unerring system of feminine telegraphy, called her +attention to the man sitting by the door. Looking quickly to her right, +Miss Renwick saw that he was intently regarding her. At the <a name="Page_232" id="Page_232"></a>mention of +Fort Sibley the stranger had lowered his paper, revealing a bronzed face +clean-shaven except for the thick blonde moustache, and a pair of clear, +steady, searching blue eyes under heavy brows and lashes, and these eyes +were very deliberately yet respectfully fixed upon her own; nor were +they withdrawn in proper confusion when detected. It was Miss Renwick +whose eyes gave up the contest and returned in some sense of defeat to +her mother's face.</p> + +<p>"What letters have you for the colonel?" asked Mrs. Maynard, coming <i>au +secours</i>.</p> + +<p>"Three,—two of them from his devoted henchman Captain Chester, who +writes by every mail, I should imagine; and these he will go off into +some secluded nook with and come back looking blue and worried. Then +here's another, forwarded from Sibley, too. I do not know this hand. +Perhaps it is from Captain Armitage, who, they say, is to come back next +month. Poor Mr. Jerrold!"</p> + +<p>"Why poor Mr. Jerrold?" asked Aunt Grace, with laughing interest, as she +noted the expression on her niece's pretty face.</p> + +<p>"Because he can't bear Captain Armitage, and—"</p> + +<p>"Now, Alice!" said her mother, reprovingly. "You must not take his view +of the captain at all. Remember what the colonel said of him—"</p> + +<p>"Mother dear," protested Alice, laughing, "I have no doubt Captain +Armitage is the paragon of a soldier, but he is unquestionably a most +unpleasant and ungentlemanly person in his conduct to the young +officers. Mr. Hall has told me the same thing. I declare, I don't see +how they can speak to him at all, he has been so harsh and discourteous +and unjust." The color was rising in earnest now, but a warning glance +in her mother's eye seemed to check further words. There was an +instant's silence. Then Aunt Grace remarked,—</p> + +<p>"Alice, your next-door neighbor has vanished. I think your vehemence has +frightened him."</p> + +<p>Surely enough, the big, blue-eyed man in tweeds had disappeared. During +this brief controversy he had quickly and noiselessly let himself out of +the open door, swung lightly to the ground, and was out of sight among +the trees.</p> + +<p>"Why, what a strange proceeding!" said Aunt Grace again. "We are fully a +mile and a half from the hotel, and he means to walk it in this glaring +sun."</p> + +<p>Evidently he did. The driver reined up at the moment in response <a name="Page_233" id="Page_233"></a>to a +suggestion from some one in a forward seat, and there suddenly appeared +by the wayside, striding out from the shelter of the sumachs, the +athletic figure of the stranger.</p> + +<p>"Go ahead!" he called, in a deep chest-voice that had an unmistakable +ring to it,—the tone that one so readily recognizes in men accustomed +to prompt action and command. "I'm going across lots." And, swinging his +heavy stick, with quick, elastic steps and erect carriage the man in +gray plunged into a wood-path and was gone.</p> + +<p>"Alice," said Aunt Grace, again, "that man is an officer, I'm sure, and +you have driven him into exile and lonely wandering. I've seen so much +of them when visiting my brother in the old days before my marriage that +even in civilian dress it is easy to tell some of them. Just look at +that back, and those shoulders! He has been a soldier all his life. +Horrors! suppose it should be Captain Armitage himself!"</p> + +<p>Miss Renwick looked genuinely distressed, as well as vexed. Certainly no +officer but Captain Armitage would have had reason to leave the stage. +Certainly officers and their families occasionally visited Sablon in the +summer-time, but Captain Armitage could hardly be here. There was +comforting assurance in the very note she held in her hand.</p> + +<p>"It cannot be," she said, "because Mr. Jerrold writes that they have +just heard from him at Sibley. He is still at the sea-shore, and will +not return for a month. Mr. Jerrold says he implored Captain Chester to +let him have three days' leave to come down here and have a sail and a +picnic with us, and was told that it would be out of the question."</p> + +<p>"Did he tell you any other news?" asked Mrs. Maynard, looking up from +her letter again,—"anything about the german?"</p> + +<p>"He says he thinks it a shame we are to be away and—well, read it +yourself." And she placed it in her mother's hands, the dark eyes +seriously, anxiously studying her face as she read. Presently Mrs. +Maynard laid it down and looked again into her own, then, pointing to a +certain passage with her finger, handed it to her daughter.</p> + +<p>"Men were deceivers ever," she said, laughing, yet oracularly +significant.</p> + +<p>And Alice Renwick could not quite control the start with which she +read,—</p> + +<p>"Mr. Jerrold is to lead with his old love, Nina Beaubien. They <a name="Page_234" id="Page_234"></a>make a +capital pair, and she, of course, will be radiant—with Alice out of the +way."</p> + +<p>"That is something Mr. Jerrold failed to mention, is it not?"</p> + +<p>Miss Renwick's cheeks were flushed, and the dark eyes were filled with +sudden pain, as she answered,—</p> + +<p>"I did not know she was there. She was to have gone to the Lakes the +same day we left."</p> + +<p>"She did go, Alice," said her mother, quietly, "but it was only for a +brief visit, it seems."</p> + +<p>The colonel was not at their cottage when the omnibus reached the lake. +Over at the hotel were the usual number of loungers gathered to see the +new arrivals, and Alice presently caught sight of the colonel coming +through the park. If anything, he looked more listless and dispirited +than he had before they left. She ran down the steps to meet him, +smiling brightly up into his worn and haggard face.</p> + +<p>"Are you feeling a little brighter, papa? Here are letters for you."</p> + +<p>He took them wearily, barely glancing at the superscriptions.</p> + +<p>"I had hoped for something more," he said, and passed on into the little +frame house which was his sister's summer home. "Is your mother here?" +he asked, looking back as he entered the door.</p> + +<p>"In the north room, with Aunt Grace, papa," she answered; and then once +more and with graver face she began to read Mr. Jerrold's letter. It was +a careful study she was making of it this time, and not altogether a +pleasant one. Aunt Grace came out and made some laughing remark at +seeing her still so occupied. She looked up, pluckily smiling despite a +sense of wounded pride, and answered,—</p> + +<p>"I am only convincing myself that it was purely on general principles +that Mr. Jerrold seemed so anxious I should be there. He never wanted me +to lead with him at all." All the same it stung, and Aunt Grace saw and +knew it, and longed to take her to her heart and comfort her; but it was +better so. She was finding him out unaided.</p> + +<p>She was still studying over portions of that ingenious letter, when the +rustle of her aunt's gown indicated that she was rising. She saw her +move towards the steps, heard a quick, firm tread upon the narrow +planking, and glanced up in surprise. There, uncovering his +close-cropped head, stood the tall stranger, looking placidly up as he +addressed Aunt Grace:</p> + +<p>"Pardon me, can I see Colonel Maynard?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235"></a>"He is at home. Pray come up and take a chair. I will let him know. +I—I felt sure you must be some friend of his when I saw you in the +stage," said the good lady, with manifest and apologetic uneasiness.</p> + +<p>"Yes," responded the stranger, as he quickly ascended the steps and +bowed before her, smiling quietly the while. "Let me introduce myself. I +am Captain Armitage, of the colonel's regiment."</p> + +<p>"There! I <i>knew</i> it!" was Aunt Grace's response, as with both hands +uplifted in tragic despair she gave one horror-stricken glance at Alice +and rushed into the house.</p> + +<p>There was a moment's silence; then, with burning cheeks, but with brave +eyes that looked frankly into his, Alice Renwick arose, came straight up +to him, and held out her pretty hand.</p> + +<p>"Captain Armitage, I beg your pardon."</p> + +<p>He took the extended hand and gazed earnestly into her face, while a +kind—almost merry—smile lighted up his own.</p> + +<p>"Have the boys given me such an uncanny reputation as all that?" he +asked; and then, as though tickled with the comicality of the situation, +he began to laugh. "What ogres some of us old soldiers do become in the +course of years! Do you know, young lady, I might never have suspected +what a brute I was if it had not been for you? What a blessed thing it +was the colonel did not tell you I was coming! You would never have +given me this true insight into my character."</p> + +<p>But she saw nothing to laugh at, and would not laugh. Her lovely face +was still burning with blushes and dismay and full of trouble.</p> + +<p>"I do not look upon it lightly at all," she said. "It was unpardonable +in me to—to—"</p> + +<p>"To take so effective and convincing a method of telling a man of his +grievous sins! Not a bit of it. I like a girl who has the courage to +stand up for her friends. I shall congratulate Jerrold and Hall both +when I get back, lucky fellows that they are!" And evidently Captain +Armitage was deriving altogether too much jolly entertainment from her +awkwardness. She rallied and strove to put an end to it.</p> + +<p>"Indeed, Captain Armitage, I <i>do</i> think the young officers sorely need +friends and advocates at times. I never would have knowingly spoken to +you of your personal responsibilities in the woes of Mr. Jerrold and Mr. +Hall, but since I have done so unwittingly I may as well define my +position, especially as you are so good-natured with it all." And here, +it must be admitted, Miss Renwick's beautiful eyes were shyly lifted to +his in a most telling way. Once there, they looked <a name="Page_236" id="Page_236"></a>squarely into the +clear blue depths of his, and never flinched. "It seemed to me several +times at Sibley that the young officers deserved more consideration and +courtesy than their captains accorded them. It was not you alone that I +heard of."</p> + +<p>"I am profoundly gratified to learn that somebody else is a brute," he +answered, trying to look grave, but with that irrepressible merriment +twitching at the corners of his mouth and giving sudden gleams of his +firm white teeth through the thick moustache. "You are come to us just +in time, Miss Renwick, and if you will let me come and tell you all my +sorrows the next time the colonel pitches into me for something wrong in +B Company, I'll give you full permission to overhaul me for everything +or anything I say and do to the youngsters. Is it a bargain?" And he +held out his big, firm hand.</p> + +<p>"I think you are—very different from what I heard," was all her answer, +as she looked up in his eyes, twinkling as they were with fun. "Oh, we +are to shake hands on it as a bargain? Is that it? Very well, then."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="IX" id="IX"></a>IX.</h2> + + +<p>When Captain Armitage left the cottage that night he did not go at once +to his own room. Brief as was the conversation he had enjoyed with Miss +Renwick, it was all that Fate vouchsafed him for that date at least. The +entire party went to tea together at the hotel, but immediately +thereafter the colonel carried Armitage away, and for two long hours +they were closeted over some letters that had come from Sibley, and when +the conference broke up and the wondering ladies saw the two men come +forth it was late,—almost ten o'clock,—and the captain did not venture +beyond the threshold of the sitting-room. He bowed and bade them a +somewhat ceremonious good-night. His eyes rested—lingered—on Miss +Renwick's uplifted face, and it was the picture he took with him into +the stillness of the summer night.</p> + +<p>The colonel accompanied him to the steps, and rested his hand upon the +broad gray shoulder.</p> + +<p>"God only knows how I have needed you, Armitage. This trouble has nearly +crushed me, and it seemed as though I were utterly alone. I had the +haunting fear that it was only weakness on my part and my love for my +wife that made me stand out against Chester's propositions. He can only +see guilt and conviction in every new phase of the case, <a name="Page_237" id="Page_237"></a>and, though +you see how he tries to spare me, his letters give no hope of any other +conclusion."</p> + +<p>Armitage pondered a moment before he answered. Then he slowly spoke:</p> + +<p>"Chester has lived a lonely and an unhappy life. His first experience +after graduation was that wretched affair of which you have told me. Of +course I knew much of the particulars before, but not all. I respect +Chester as a soldier and a gentleman, and I like him and trust him as a +friend; but, Colonel Maynard, in a matter of such vital importance as +this, and one of such delicacy, I distrust, not his motives, but his +judgment. All his life, practically, he has been brooding over the +sorrow that came to him when your trouble came to you, and his mind is +grooved: he believes he sees mystery and intrigue in matters that others +might explain in an instant."</p> + +<p>"But think of all the array of evidence he has."</p> + +<p>"Enough, and more than enough, I admit, to warrant everything he has +thought or said of the man; but—"</p> + +<p>"He simply puts it this way. If he be guilty, can she be less? Is it +possible, Armitage, that you are unconvinced?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly I am unconvinced. The matter has not yet been sifted. As I +understand it, you have forbidden his confronting Jerrold with the +proofs of his rascality until I get there. Admitting the evidence of the +ladder, the picture, and the form at the window,—ay, the letter, +too,—I am yet to be convinced of one thing. You must remember that his +judgment is biassed by his early experiences. He fancies, that no woman +is proof against such fascinations as Jerrold's."</p> + +<p>"And your belief?"</p> + +<p>"Is that some women—<i>many</i> women—are utterly above such a +possibility."</p> + +<p>Old Maynard wrung his comrade's hand. "You make me hope in spite of +myself,—my past experiences,—my very senses, Armitage. I have leaned +on you so many years that I missed you sorely when this trial came. If +you had been there, things might not have taken this shape. He looks +upon Chester—and it's one thing Chester hasn't forgiven in him—as a +meddling old granny; you remember the time he so spoke of him last year; +but he holds you in respect, or is afraid of you,—which in a man of his +calibre is about the same thing. It may not be too late for you to act. +Then when he is disposed of once and for all, I can know what must be +done—where she is concerned."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238"></a>"And under no circumstances can you question Mrs. Maynard?"</p> + +<p>"No! no! If she suspected anything of this it would kill her. In any +event, she must have no suspicion of it <i>now</i>."</p> + +<p>"But does she not ask? Has she no theory about the missing photograph? +Surely she must marvel over its disappearance."</p> + +<p>"She <i>does</i>; at least, she <i>did</i>; but—I'm ashamed to own it, +Armitage—we had to quiet her natural suspicions in some way, and I told +her that it was my doing,—that I took it to tease Alice, put the +photograph in the drawer of my desk, and hid the frame behind her +sofa-pillow. Chester knows of the arrangement, and we had settled that +when the picture was recovered from Mr. Jerrold he would send it to me."</p> + +<p>Armitage was silent. A frown settled on his forehead, and it was evident +that the statement was far from welcome to him. Presently he held forth +his hand.</p> + +<p>"Well, good-night, sir. I must go and have a quiet think over this. I +hope you will rest well. You need it, colonel."</p> + +<p>But Maynard only shook his head. His heart was too troubled for rest of +any kind. He stood gazing out towards the park, where the tall figure of +his ex-adjutant had disappeared among the trees. He heard the low-toned, +pleasant chat of the ladies in the sitting-room, but he was in no mood +to join them. He wished that Armitage had not gone, he felt such +strength and comparative hope in his presence; but it was plain that +even Armitage was confounded by the array of facts and circumstances +that he had so painfully and slowly communicated to him. The colonel +went drearily back to the room in which they had had their long +conference. His wife and sister both hailed him as he passed the +sitting-room door, and urged him to come and join them,—they wanted to +ask about Captain Armitage, with whom it was evident they were much +impressed; but he answered that he had some letters to put away, and he +must attend first to that.</p> + +<p>Among those that had been shown to the captain, mainly letters from +Chester telling of the daily events at the fort and of his surveillance +in the case of Jerrold, was one which Alice had brought him two days +before. This had seemed to him of unusual importance, as the others +contained nothing that tended to throw new light on the case. It said,—</p> + +<p>"I am glad you have telegraphed for Armitage, and heartily approve your +decision to lay the whole case before him. I presume he can reach you by +Sunday, and that by Tuesday he will be here at the <a name="Page_239" id="Page_239"></a>fort and ready to +act. This will be a great relief to me, for, do what I could to allay +it, there is no concealing the fact that much speculation and gossip is +afloat concerning the events of that unhappy night. Leary declares he +has been close-mouthed; the other men on guard know absolutely nothing, +and Captain Wilton is the only officer to whom in my distress of mind I +betrayed that there <i>was</i> a mystery, and he has pledged himself to me to +say nothing. Sloat, too, has an inkling, and a big one, that Jerrold is +the suspected party; but I never dreamed that anything had been seen or +heard which in the faintest way connected <i>your</i> household with the +matter, until yesterday. Then Leary admitted to me that two women, Mrs. +Clifford's cook and the doctor's nursery-maid, had asked him whether it +wasn't Lieutenant Jerrold he fired at, and if it was true that he was +trying to get in at the colonel's back door. Twice Mrs. Clifford has +asked me very significant questions, and three times to-day have +officers made remarks to me that indicated their knowledge of the +existence of some grave trouble. What makes matters worse is that +Jerrold, when twitted about his absence from reveille, loses his temper +and gets confused. There came near being a quarrel between him and +Rollins at the mess a day or two since. He was saying that the reason he +slept through roll-call was the fact that he had been kept up very late +at the doctor's party, and Rollins happened to come in at the moment and +blurted out that if he was up at all it must have been after he left the +party, and reminded him that he had left before midnight with Miss +Renwick. This completely staggered Jerrold, who grew confused and tried +to cover it with a display of anger. Now, two weeks ago Rollins was most +friendly to Jerrold and stood up for him when I assailed him, but ever +since that night he has had no word to say for him. When Jerrold played +wrathful and accused Rollins of mixing in other men's business, Rollins +bounced up to him like a young bull-terrier, and I believe there would +have been a row had not Sloat and Hoyt promptly interfered. Jerrold +apologized, and Rollins accepted the apology, but has avoided him ever +since,—won't speak of him to me, now that I have reason to want to draw +him out. As soon as Armitage gets here he can do what I cannot,—find +out just what and who is suspected and talked about.</p> + +<p>"Mr. Jerrold, of course, avoids me. He has been attending strictly to +his duty, and is evidently confounded that I did not press the matter of +his going to town as he did the day I forbade it. Mr. Hoyt's being <a name="Page_240" id="Page_240"></a>too +late to see him personally gave me sufficient grounds on which to excuse +it; but he seems to understand that something is impending, and is +looking nervous and harassed. He has not renewed his request for leave +of absence to run down to Sablon. I told him curtly it was out of the +question."</p> + +<p>The colonel took a few strides up and down the room. It had come, then. +The good name of those he loved was already besmirched by garrison +gossip, and he knew that nothing but heroic measures could ever silence +scandal. Impulse and the innate sense of "fight" urged him to go at once +to the scene, leaving his wife and her fair daughter here under his +sister's roof; but Armitage and common sense said no. He had placed his +burden on those broad gray shoulders, and, though ill content to wait, +he felt that he was bound. Stowing away the letters, too nervous to +sleep, too worried to talk, he stole from the cottage, and, with hands +clasped behind his back, with low-bowed head he strolled forth into the +broad vista of moonlit road.</p> + +<p>There were bright lights still burning at the hotel, and gay voices came +floating through the summer air. The piano, too, was thrumming a waltz +in the parlor, and two or three couples were throwing embracing, +slowly-twirling shadows on the windows. Over in the bar-and +billiard-rooms the click of the balls and the refreshing rattle of +cracked ice told suggestively of the occupation of the inmates. Keeping +on beyond these distracting sounds, he slowly climbed a long, gradual +ascent to the "bench," or plateau above the wooded point on which were +grouped the glistening white buildings of the pretty summer resort, and, +having reached the crest, turned silently to gaze at the beauty of the +scene,—at the broad, flawless bosom of a summer lake all sheen and +silver from the unclouded moon. Far to the southeast it wound among the +bold and rock-ribbed bluffs rising from the forest growth at their base +to shorn and rounded summits. Miles away to the southward twinkled the +lights of one busy little town; others gleamed and sparkled over towards +the northern shore, close under the pole-star; while directly opposite +frowned a massive wall of palisaded rock, that threw, deep and heavy and +far from shore, its long reflection in the mirror of water. There was +not a breath of air stirring in the heavens, not a ripple on the face of +the waters beneath, save where, close under the bold headland down on +the other side, the signal-lights, white and crimson and green, creeping +slowly along in the shadows, revealed one of the packets ploughing her +steady way to the great marts <a name="Page_241" id="Page_241"></a>below. Nearer at hand, just shaving the +long strip of sandy, wooded point that jutted far out into the lake, a +broad raft of timber, pushed by a hard-working, black-funnelled +stern-wheeler, was slowly forging its way to the outlet of the lake, its +shadowy edge sprinkled here and there with little sparks of lurid +red,—the pilot-lights that gave warning of its slow and silent coming. +Far down along the southern shore, under that black bluff-line, close to +the silver water-edge, a glowing meteor seemed whirling through the +night, and the low, distant rumble told of the "Atlantic Express" +thundering on its journey. Here, along with him on the level plateau, +were other roomy cottages, some dark, some still sending forth a guiding +ray; while long lines of white-washed fence gleamed ghostly in the +moonlight and were finally lost in the shadow of the great bluff that +abruptly shut in the entire point and plateau and shut out all further +sight of lake or land in that direction. Far beneath he could hear the +soft plash upon the sandy shore of the little wavelets that came +sweeping in the wake of the raft-boat and spending their tiny strength +upon the strand; far down on the hotel point he could still hear the +soft melody of the waltz; he remembered how the band used to play that +same air, and wondered why it was he used to like it; it jarred him now. +Presently the distant crack of a whip and the low rumble of wheels were +heard: the omnibus coming back from the station with passengers from the +night train. He was in no mood to see any one. He turned away and walked +northward along the edge of the bench, towards the deep shadow of the +great shoulder of the bluff, and presently he came to a long flight of +wooden stairs, leading from the plateau down to the hotel, and here he +stopped and seated himself awhile. He did not want to go home yet. He +wanted to be by himself,—to think and brood over his trouble. He saw +the omnibus go round the bend and roll up to the hotel door-way with its +load of pleasure-seekers, and heard the joyous welcome with which some +of their number were received by waiting friends, but life had little of +joy to him this night. He longed to go away,—anywhere, anywhere, could +he only leave this haunting misery behind. He was so proud of his +regiment; he had been so happy in bringing home to it his accomplished +and gracious wife; he had been so joyous in planning for the lovely +times Alice was to have,—the social successes, the girlish triumphs, +the garrison gayeties of which she was to be the queen,—and now, so +very, very soon, all had turned to ashes and desolation! She <i>was</i> so +beautiful, so sweet, winning, <a name="Page_242" id="Page_242"></a>graceful. Oh, God! <i>could</i> it be that one +so gifted could possibly be so base? He rose in nervous misery and +clinched his hands high in air, then sat down again with hiding, +hopeless face, rocking to and fro as sways a man in mortal pain. It was +long before he rallied and again wearily arose. Most of the lights were +gone; silence had settled down upon the sleeping point; he was chilled +with the night air and the dew, and stiff and heavy as he tried to walk. +Down at the foot of the stairs he could see the night-watchman making +his rounds. He did not want to explain matters and talk with him: he +would go around. There was a steep pathway down into the ravine that +gave into the lake just beyond his sister's cottage, and this he sought +and followed, moving slowly and painfully, but finally reaching the +grassy level of the pathway that connected the cottages with the +wood-road up the bluff. Trees and shrubbery were thick on both sides, +and the path was shaded. He turned to his right, and came down until +once more he was in sight of the white walls of the hotel standing out +there on the point, until close at hand he could see the light of his +own cottage glimmering like faithful beacon through the trees; and then +he stopped short.</p> + +<p>A tall, slender figure—a man in dark, snug-fitting clothing—was +creeping stealthily up to the cottage window.</p> + +<p>The colonel held his breath: his heart thumped violently: he +waited,—watched. He saw the dark figure reach the blinds; he saw them +slowly, softly turned, and the faint light gleaming from within; he saw +the figure peering in between the slats, and then—God! was it +possible?—a low voice, a man's voice, whispering or hoarsely murmuring +a name: he heard a sudden movement within the room, as though the +occupant had heard and were replying, "Coming." His blood froze: it was +not Alice's room: it was his,—his and hers—his wife's,—and that was +surely her step approaching the window. Yes, the blind was quickly +opened. A white-robed figure stood at the casement. He could see, hear, +bear no more: with one mad rush he sprang from his lair and hurled +himself upon the shadowy stranger.</p> + +<p>"You hound! who are you?"</p> + +<p>But 'twas no shadow that he grasped. A muscular arm was round him in a +trice, a brawny hand at his throat, a twisting, sinewy leg was curled in +his, and he went reeling back upon the springy turf, stunned and +wellnigh breathless.</p> + +<p>When he could regain his feet and reach the casement the stranger <a name="Page_243" id="Page_243"></a>had +vanished; but Mrs. Maynard lay there on the floor within, a white and +senseless heap.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="X" id="X"></a>X.</h2> + + +<p>Perhaps it was as well for all parties that Frank Armitage concluded +that he must have another whiff of tobacco that night as an incentive to +the "think" he had promised himself. He had strolled through the park to +the grove of trees out on the point and seated himself in the shadows. +Here his reflections were speedily interrupted by the animated +flirtations of a few couples who, tiring of the dance, came out into the +coolness of the night and the seclusion of the grove, where their +murmured words and soft laughter soon gave the captain's nerves a strain +they could not bear. He broke cover and betook himself to the very edge +of the stone retaining wall out on the point.</p> + +<p>He wanted to think calmly and dispassionately; he meant to weigh all he +had read and heard and form his estimate of the gravity of the case +before going to bed. He meant to be impartial,—to judge her as he would +judge any other woman so compromised; but for the life of him he could +not. He bore with him the mute image of her lovely face, with its clear, +truthful, trustful dark eyes. He saw her as she stood before him on the +little porch when they shook hands on their laughing—or his +laughing—compact, for she would not laugh. How perfect she was!—her +radiant beauty, her uplifted eyes, so full of their self-reproach and +regret at the speech she had made at his expense! How exquisite was the +grace of her slender, rounded form as she stood there before him, one +slim hand half shyly extended to meet the cordial clasp of his own! He +wanted to judge and be just; but that image dismayed him. How could he +look on this picture and then—on that,—the one portrayed in the chain +of circumstantial evidence which the colonel had laid before him? It was +monstrous! it was treason to womanhood! One look in her eyes, superb in +their innocence, was too much for his determined impartiality. Armitage +gave himself a mental kick for what he termed his imbecility, and went +back to the hotel.</p> + +<p>"It's no use," he muttered. "I'm a slave of the weed, and can't be +philosophic without my pipe."</p> + +<p>Up to his little box of a room he climbed, found his pipe-case and +tobacco-pouch, and in five minutes was strolling out to the point once +more, when he came suddenly upon the night-watchman,—a personage of +whose functions and authority he was entirely ignorant. The man <a name="Page_244" id="Page_244"></a>eyed +him narrowly, and essayed to speak. Not knowing him, and desiring to be +alone, Armitage pushed past, and was surprised to find that a hand was +on his shoulder and the man at his side before he had gone a rod.</p> + +<p>"Beg pardon, sir," said the watchman, gruffly, "but I don't know you. +Are you stopping at the hotel?"</p> + +<p>"I am," said Armitage, coolly, taking his pipe from his lips and blowing +a cloud over his other shoulder. "And who may you be?"</p> + +<p>"I am the watchman; and I do not remember seeing you come to-day."</p> + +<p>"Nevertheless I did."</p> + +<p>"On what train, sir?"</p> + +<p>"This afternoon's up-train."</p> + +<p>"You certainly were not on the omnibus when it got here."</p> + +<p>"Very true. I walked over from beyond the school-house."</p> + +<p>"You must excuse me, sir. I did not think of that; and the manager +requires me to know everybody. Is this Major Armitage?"</p> + +<p>"Armitage is my name, but I'm not a major."</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir; I'm glad to be set right. And the other gentleman,—him as +was inquiring for Colonel Maynard to-night? He's in the army, too, but +his name don't seem to be on the book. He only came in on the late +train."</p> + +<p>"Another man to see Colonel Maynard?" asked the captain, with sudden +interest. "Just come in, you say. I'm sure I've no idea. What was he +like?"</p> + +<p>"I don't know, sir. At first I thought you was him. The driver told me +he brought a gentleman over who asked some questions about Colonel +Maynard, but he didn't get aboard at the dépôt, and he didn't come down +to the hotel,—got off somewhere up there on the bench, and Jim didn't +see him."</p> + +<p>"Where's Jim?" said Armitage. "Come with me, watchman. I want to +interview him."</p> + +<p>Together they walked over to the barn, which the driver was just locking +up after making everything secure for the night.</p> + +<p>"Who was it inquiring for Colonel Maynard?" asked Armitage.</p> + +<p>"I don't know, sir," was the slow answer. "There was a man got aboard as +I was coming across the common there in the village at the station. +There were several passengers from the train, and some baggage: so he +may have started ahead on foot but afterwards concluded <a name="Page_245" id="Page_245"></a>to ride. As +soon as I saw him get in I reined up and asked where he was going; he +had no baggage nor nuthin', and my orders are not to haul anybody except +people of the hotel: so he came right forward through the 'bus and took +the seat behind me and said 'twas all right, he was going to the hotel; +and he passed up a half-dollar. I told him that I couldn't take the +money,—that 'bus-fares were paid at the office,—and drove ahead. Then +he handed me a cigar, and pretty soon he asked me if there were many +people, and who had the cottages; and when I told him, he asked which +was Colonel Maynard's, but he didn't say he knew him, and the next thing +I knew was when we got here to the hotel he wasn't in the 'bus. He must +have stepped back through all those passengers and slipped off up there +on the bench. He was in it when we passed the little brown church up on +the hill."</p> + +<p>"What was he like?"</p> + +<p>"I couldn't see him plain. He stepped out from behind a tree as we drove +through the common, and came right into the 'bus. It was dark in there, +and all I know is he was tall and had on dark clothes. Some of the +people inside must have seen him better; but they are all gone to bed, I +suppose."</p> + +<p>"I will go over to the hotel and inquire, anyway," said Armitage, and +did so. The lights were turned down, and no one was there, but he could +hear voices chatting in quiet tones on the broad, sheltered veranda +without, and, going thither, found three or four men enjoying a quiet +smoke. Armitage was a man of action. He stepped at once to the group:</p> + +<p>"Pardon me, gentlemen, but did any of you come over in the omnibus from +the station to-night?"</p> + +<p>"I did, sir," replied one of the party, removing his cigar and twitching +off the ashes with his little finger, then looking up with the air of a +man expectant of question.</p> + +<p>"The watchman tells me a man came over who was making inquiries for +Colonel Maynard. May I ask if you saw or heard of such a person?"</p> + +<p>"A gentleman got in soon after we left the station, and when the driver +hailed him he went forward and took a seat near him. They had some +conversation, but I did not hear it. I only know that he got out again a +little while before we reached the hotel."</p> + +<p>"Could you see him, and describe him? I am a friend of Colo<a name="Page_246" id="Page_246"></a>nel +Maynard's, an officer of his regiment,—which will account for my +inquiry."</p> + +<p>"Well, yes, sir. I noticed he was very tall and slim, was dressed in +dark clothes, and wore a dark slouched hat well down over his forehead. +He was what I would call a military-looking man, for I noticed his walk +as he got off; but he wore big spectacles,—blue or brown glass, I +should say,—and had a heavy beard."</p> + +<p>"Which way did he go when he left the 'bus?"</p> + +<p>"He walked northward along the road at the edge of the bluff, right up +towards the cottages on the upper level," was the answer.</p> + +<p>Armitage thanked him for his courtesy, explained that he had left the +colonel only a short time before and that he was then expecting no +visitor, and if one had come it was perhaps necessary that he should be +hunted up and brought to the hotel. Then he left the porch and walked +hurriedly through the park towards its northernmost limit. There to his +left stood the broad roadway along which, nestling under shelter of the +bluff, was ranged the line of cottages, some two-storied, with balconies +and verandas, others low, single-storied affairs with a broad hall-way +in the middle of each and rooms on both north and south sides. +Farthermost north on the row, almost hidden in the trees, and nearest +the ravine, stood Aunt Grace's cottage, where were domiciled the +colonel's household. It was in the big bay-windowed north room that he +and the colonel had had their long conference earlier in the evening. +The south room, nearly opposite, was used as their parlor and +sitting-room. Aunt Grace and Miss Renwick slept in the little front +rooms north and south of the hall-way, and the lights in their rooms +were extinguished; so, too, was that in the parlor. All was darkness on +the south and east. All was silence and peace as Armitage approached; +but just as he reached the shadow of the stunted oak-tree growing in +front of the house his ears were startled by an agonized cry, a woman's +half-stifled shriek. He bounded up the steps, seized the knob of the +door and threw his weight against it. It was firmly bolted within. Loud +he thundered on the panels. "'Tis I,—Armitage!" he called. He heard the +quick patter of little feet; the bolt was slid, and he rushed in, almost +stumbling against a trembling, terror-stricken, yet welcoming +white-robed form,—Alice Renwick, barefooted, with her glorious wealth +of hair tumbling in dark luxuriance all down over the dainty +night-dress,—Alice Renwick, with pallid face and wild imploring eyes.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247"></a>"What is wrong?" he asked, in haste.</p> + +<p>"It's mother,—her room,—and it's locked, and she won't answer," was +the gasping reply.</p> + +<p>Armitage sprang to the rear of the hall, leaned one second against the +opposite wall, sent his foot with mighty impulse and muscled impact +against the opposing lock, and the door flew open with a crash. The next +instant Alice was bending over her senseless mother, and the captain was +giving a hand in much bewilderment to the panting colonel, who was +striving to clamber in at the window. The ministrations of Aunt Grace +and Alice were speedily sufficient to restore Mrs. Maynard. A +teaspoonful of brandy administered by the colonel's trembling hand +helped matters materially. Then he turned to Armitage.</p> + +<p>"Come outside," he said.</p> + +<p>Once again in the moonlight the two men faced each other.</p> + +<p>"Armitage, can you get a horse?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly. What then?"</p> + +<p>"Go to the station, get men, if possible, and head this fellow off. He +was here again to-night, and it was not Alice he called, but my—but +Mrs. Maynard. I saw him; I grappled with him right here at the +bay-window where <i>she</i> met him, and he hurled me to grass as though I'd +been a child. <i>I</i> want a horse! I want that man to-night. How did he get +away from Sibley?"</p> + +<p>"Do you mean—do you think it was Jerrold?"</p> + +<p>"Good God, yes! Who else could it be? Disguised, of course, and bearded; +but the figure, the carriage, were just the same, and he came to this +window,—to <i>her</i> window,—and called, and she answered. My God, +Armitage, think of it!"</p> + +<p>"Come with me, colonel. You are all unstrung," was the captain's answer +as he led his broken friend away. At the front door he stopped one +moment, then ran up the steps and into the hall, where he tapped lightly +at the casement.</p> + +<p>"What is it?" was the low response from an invisible source.</p> + +<p>"Miss Alice?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"The watchman is here now. I will send him around to the window to keep +guard until our return. The colonel is a little upset by the shock, and +I want to attend to him. We are going to the hotel a moment before I +bring him home. You are not afraid to have him leave you?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248"></a>"Not now, captain."</p> + +<p>"Is Mrs. Maynard better?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. She hardly seems to know what has happened. Indeed, none of us do. +What was it?"</p> + +<p>"A tramp, looking for something to eat, tried to open the blinds, and +the colonel was out here and made a jump at him. They had a scuffle in +the shrubbery, and the tramp got away. It frightened your mother: that's +the sum of it, I think."</p> + +<p>"Is papa hurt?"</p> + +<p>"No: a little bruised and shaken, and mad as a hornet. I think perhaps +I'll get him quieted down and sleepy in a few minutes, if you and Mrs. +Maynard will be content to let him stay with me. I can talk almost any +man drowsy."</p> + +<p>"Mamma seems to worry for fear he is hurt."</p> + +<p>"Assure her solemnly that he hasn't a scratch. He is simply fighting +mad, and I'm going to try and find the tramp. Does Mrs. Maynard remember +how he looked?"</p> + +<p>"She could not see the face at all. She heard some one at the shutters, +and a voice, and supposed of course it was papa, and threw open the +blind."</p> + +<p>"Oh, I see. That's all, Miss Alice. I'll go back to the colonel. +Good-night!" And Armitage went forth with a lighter step.</p> + +<p>"One sensation knocked endwise, colonel. I have it on the best of +authority that Mrs. Maynard so fearlessly went to the window in answer +to the voice and noise at the shutters simply because she knew you were +out there somewhere and she supposed it was you. How simple these +mysteries become when a little daylight is let in on them, after all! +Come, I'm going to take you over to my room for a stiff glass of grog, +and then after his trampship while you go back to bed."</p> + +<p>"Armitage, you seem to make very light of this night's doings. What is +easier than to connect it all with the trouble at Sibley?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing was ever more easily explained than this thing, colonel, and +all I want now is a chance to get that tramp. Then I'll go to Sibley; +and 'pon my word I believe that mystery can be made as commonplace a +piece of petty larceny as this was of vagrancy. Come."</p> + +<p>But when Armitage left the colonel at a later hour and sought his own +room for a brief rest he was in no such buoyant mood. A night-search for +a tramp in the dense thickets among the bluffs and woods of<a name="Page_249" id="Page_249"></a> Sablon +could hardly be successful. It was useless to make the attempt. He slept +but little during the cool August night, and early in the morning +mounted a horse and trotted over to the railway-station.</p> + +<p>"Has any train gone northward since last night?" he inquired at the +office.</p> + +<p>"None that stop here," was the answer. "The first train up comes along +at 11.56."</p> + +<p>"I want to send a despatch to Fort Sibley and get an answer without +delay. Can you work it for me?"</p> + +<p>The agent nodded, and pushed over a package of blanks. Armitage wrote +rapidly as follows:</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">Captain Chester</span>,</p> + +<p>"Commanding Fort Sibley.</p> + +<p>"Is Jerrold there? Tell him I will arrive Tuesday. Answer.</p> + +<p class='author'>"<span class="smcap">F. Armitage</span>."</p> + +<p>It was along towards nine o'clock when the return message came clicking +in on the wires, was written out, and handed to the tall soldier with +the tired blue eyes.</p> + +<p>He read, started, crushed the paper in his hand, and turned from the +office. The answer was significant:</p> + +<p>"Lieutenant Jerrold left Sibley yesterday afternoon. Not yet returned. +Absent without leave this morning.</p> + +<p class='author'>"<span class="smcap">Chester</span>."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XI" id="XI"></a>XI.</h2> + + +<p>Nature never vouchsafed to wearied man a lovelier day of rest than the +still Sunday on which Frank Armitage rode slowly back from the station. +The soft, mellow tone of the church-bell, tolling the summons for +morning service, floated out from the brown tower, and was echoed back +from the rocky cliff glistening in the August sunshine on the northern +bluff. Groups of villagers hung about the steps of the little sanctuary +and gazed with mild curiosity at the arriving parties from the cottages +and the hotel. The big red omnibus came up with a load of worshippers, +and farther away, down the vista of the road, Armitage could see others +on foot and in carriages, all wending their way to church. He was in no +mood to meet them. The story that he had been out pursuing a tramp +during the night was pretty thoroughly circulated by this time, he felt +assured, and every one would connect his early ride to <a name="Page_250" id="Page_250"></a>the station, in +some way, with the adventure that the grooms, hostlers, cooks, and +kitchen-maids had all been dilating upon ever since daybreak. He dreaded +to meet the curious glances of the women, and the questions of the few +men whom he had taken so far into his confidence as to ask about the +mysterious person who came over in the stage with them. He reined up his +horse, and then, seeing a little pathway leading into the thick wood to +his right, he turned in thither and followed it some fifty yards among +bordering treasures of coreopsis and golden-rod and wild luxuriance of +vine and foliage. Dismounting in the shade, he threw the reins over his +arm and let his horse crop the juicy grasses, while he seated himself on +a little stump and fell to thinking again. He could hear the reverent +voices of one or two visitors strolling about among the peaceful, +flower-decked graves behind the little church and only a short +stone's-throw away through the shrubbery. He could hear the low, solemn +voluntary of the organ, and presently the glad outburst of young voices +in the opening hymn, but he knew that belated ones would still be coming +to church, and he would not come forth from his covert until all were +out of the way. Then, too, he was glad of a little longer time to think: +he did not want to tell the colonel the result of his morning +investigations.</p> + +<p>To begin with: the watchman, the driver, and the two men whom he had +questioned were all of an opinion as to the character of the stranger: +"he was a military man." The passengers described his voice as that of a +man of education and social position; the driver and passengers declared +his walk and carriage to be that of a soldier: he was taller, they said, +than the tall, stalwart Saxon captain, but by no means so heavily built. +As to age, they could not tell: his beard was black and curly,—no gray +hairs; his movements were quick and elastic; but his eyes were hidden by +those colored glasses, and his forehead by the slouch of that +broad-brimmed felt hat.</p> + +<p>At the station, while awaiting the answer to his despatch, Armitage had +questioned the agent as to whether any man of that description had +arrived by the night train from the north. He had seen none, he said, +but there was Larsen over at the post-office store, who came down on +that train; perhaps he could tell. Oddly enough, Mr. Larsen recalled +just such a party,—tall, slim, dark, dark-bearded, with blue glasses +and dark hat and clothes,—but he was bound for Lakeville, the station +beyond, and he remained in the car when he, Larsen, got off. Larsen +remembered the man well, because he sat in the rear corner of the +<a name="Page_251" id="Page_251"></a>smoker and had nothing to say to anybody, but kept reading a newspaper; +and the way he came to take note of him was that while standing with two +friends at that end of the car they happened to be right around the man. +The Saturday evening train from the city is always crowded with people +from the river towns who have been up to market or the <i>matinées</i>, and +even the smoker was filled with standing men until they got some thirty +miles down. Larsen wanted to light a fresh cigar, and offered one to +each of his friends: then it was found they had no matches, and one of +them, who had been drinking a little and felt jovial, turned to the dark +stranger and asked him for a light, and the man, without speaking, +handed out a little silver match-box. It was just then that the +conductor came along, and Larsen saw his ticket. It was a "round trip" +to Lakeville: he was evidently going there for a visit, and therefore, +said Larsen, he didn't get off at Sablon Station, which was six miles +above.</p> + +<p>But Armitage knew better. It was evident that he had quietly slipped out +on the platform of the car after the regular passengers had got out of +the way, and let himself off into the darkness on the side opposite the +station. Thence he had an open and unimpeded walk of a few hundred yards +until he reached the common, and then, when overtaken by the hotel +omnibus, he could jump aboard and ride. There was only one road, only +one way over to the hotel, and he could not miss it. There was no doubt +now that, whoever he was, the night visitor had come down on the evening +train from the city; and his return ticket would indicate that he meant +to go back the way he came. It was half-past ten when that train +arrived. It was nearly midnight when the man appeared at the cottage +window. It was after two when Armitage gave up the search and went to +bed. It was possible for the man to have walked to Lakeville, six miles +south, and reached the station there in abundant time to take the +up-train which passed Sablon, without stopping, a little before +daybreak. If he took that train, and if he was Jerrold, he would have +been in the city before seven, and could have been at Fort Sibley before +or by eight o'clock. But Chester's despatch showed clearly that at +8.30—the hour for signing the company morning reports—Mr. Jerrold was +not at his post. Was he still in the neighborhood and waiting for the +noon train? If so, could he be confronted on the cars and accused of his +crime? He looked at his watch; it was nearly eleven, and he must push on +to the hotel before that hour, report to the colonel, then hasten back +to the station. He sprang to his <a name="Page_252" id="Page_252"></a>feet, and was just about to mount, +when a vision of white and scarlet came suddenly into view. There, +within twenty feet of him, making her dainty way through the shrubbery +from the direction of the church, sunshine and shadow alternately +flitting across her lovely face and form, Alice Renwick stepped forth +into the pathway, and, shading her eyes with her hand, gazed along the +leafy lane towards the road, as though expectant of another's coming. +Then, attracted by the beauty of the golden-rod, she bent and busied +herself with gathering in the yellow sprays. Armitage, with one foot in +the stirrup, stood stock-still, half in surprise, half stunned by a +sudden and painful thought. Could it be that she was there in hopes of +meeting—any one?</p> + +<p>He retook his foot from the stirrup, and, relaxing the rein, still stood +gazing at her over his horse's back. That placid quadruped, whose years +had been spent in these pleasant by-ways and were too many to warrant an +exhibition of coltish surprise, promptly lowered his head and resumed +his occupation of grass-nibbling, making a little crunching noise which +Miss Renwick might have heard, but apparently did not. She was singing +very softly to herself,—</p> + +<p class='center'> +"Daisy, tell my fortune, pray:<br /> +He loves me not,—he loves me." +</p> + +<p>And still Armitage stood and gazed, while she, absorbed in her pleasant +task, still pulled and plucked at the golden-rod. In all his life no +"vision of fair women" had been to him fair and sacred and exquisite as +this. Down to the tip of her arched and slender foot, peeping from +beneath the broidered hem of her snowy skirt, she stood the lady born +and bred, and his eyes looked on and worshipped her,—worshipped, yet +questioned, Why came she here? Absorbed, he released his hold on the +rein, and Dobbin, nothing loath, reached with his long, lean neck for +further herbage, and stepped in among the trees. Still stood his +negligent master, fascinated in his study of the lovely, graceful girl. +Again she raised her head and looked northward along the winding, shaded +wood-path. A few yards away were other great clusters of the wild +flowers she loved, more sun-kissed golden-rod, and, with a little murmur +of delight, gathering her dainty skirts in one hand, she flitted up the +pathway like an unconscious humming-bird garnering the sweets from every +blossom. A little farther on the pathway bent among the trees, and she +would be hidden <a name="Page_253" id="Page_253"></a>from his sight; but still he stood and studied her +every movement, drank in the soft, cooing melody of her voice as she +sang, and then there came a sweet, solemn strain from the brown, sunlit +walls just visible through the trees, and reverent voices and the +resonant chords of the organ thrilled through the listening woods the +glorious anthem of the church militant.</p> + +<p>At the first notes she lifted up her queenly head and stood, listening +and appreciative. Then he saw her rounded throat swelling like a bird's, +and the rich, full tones of her voice rang out through the welcoming +sunshine, and the fluttering wrens, and proud red-breasted robins, and +rival song-queens, the brown-winged thrushes,—even the impudent +shrieking jays,—seemed to hush and listen. Dobbin, fairly astonished, +lifted up his hollow-eyed head and looked amazedly at the white +songstress whose scarlet sash and neck-ribbons gleamed in such vivid +contrast to the foliage about her. A wondering little "cotton-tail" +rabbit, shy and wild as a hawk, came darting through the bushes into the +sunshiny patchwork on the path, and then, uptilted and with quivering +ears and nostrils and wide-staring eyes, stood paralyzed with helpless +amaze, ignoring the tall man in gray as did the singer herself. Richer, +rounder, fuller grew the melody, as, abandoning herself to the impulse +of the sacred hour, she joined with all her girlish heart in the words +of praise and thanksgiving,—in the glad and triumphant chorus of the Te +Deum. From beginning to end she sang, now ringing and exultant, now soft +and plaintive, following the solemn words of the ritual,—sweet and low +and suppliant in the petition, "We therefore pray Thee help Thy servants +whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy precious blood," confident and exulting +in the declaration, "Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ," and then +rich with fearless trust and faith in the thrilling climax, "Let me +never be confounded." Armitage listened as one in a trance. From the +depth of her heart the girl had joined her glorious voice to the chorus +of praise and adoration, and now that all was stilled once more her head +had fallen forward on her bosom, her hands, laden with golden-rod, were +joined together: it seemed as though she were lost in prayer.</p> + +<p>And this was the girl, this the pure, God-worshipping, God-fearing +woman, who for one black instant he had dared to fancy had come here +expectant of a meeting with the man whose aim had been frustrated but +the night before! He could have thrown himself at her feet and implored +her pardon. He <i>did</i> step forth, and then, hat in hand, baring <a name="Page_254" id="Page_254"></a>his +proud Saxon head as his forefathers would have uncovered to their +monarch, he waited until she lifted up her eyes and saw him, and knew by +the look in his frank face that he had stood by, a mute listener to her +unstudied devotions. A lovely flush rose to her very temples, and her +eyes drooped their pallid lids until the long lashes swept the crimson +of her cheeks.</p> + +<p>"Have <i>you</i> been here, captain? I never saw you," was her fluttering +question.</p> + +<p>"I rode in here on my way back from the station, not caring to meet all +the good people going to church. I felt like an outcast."</p> + +<p>"I, too, am a recreant to-day. It is the first time I have missed +service in a long while. Mamma felt too unstrung to come, and I had +given up the idea, but both she and Aunt Grace urged me. I was too late +for the omnibus, and walked up, and then I would not go in because +service was begun, and I wanted to be home again before noon. I cannot +bear to be late at church, or to leave it until everything is over, but +I can't be away from mother so long to-day. Shall we walk that way now?"</p> + +<p>"In a minute. I must find my horse. He is in here somewhere. Tell me how +the colonel is feeling, and Mrs. Maynard."</p> + +<p>"Both very nervous and worried, though I see nothing extraordinary in +the adventure. We read of poor hungry tramps everywhere, and they rarely +do harm."</p> + +<p>"I wonder a little at your venturing here in the wood-paths, after what +occurred last night."</p> + +<p>"Why, Captain Armitage, no one would harm me here, so close to the +church. Indeed, I never thought of such a thing until you mentioned it. +Did you discover anything about the man?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing definite; but I must be at the station again to meet the +up-train, and have to see the colonel meantime. Let me find Dobbin, or +whatever they call this venerable relic I'm riding, and then I'll escort +you home."</p> + +<p>But Dobbin had strayed deeper into the wood. It was some minutes before +the captain could find and catch him. The rich melody of sacred music +was again thrilling through the perfumed woods, the glad sunshine was +pouring its warmth and blessing over all the earth, glinting on bluff +and brake and palisaded cliff, the birds were all singing their +rivalling psaltery, and Nature seemed pouring forth its homage to the +Creator and Preserver of all on this His holy day, when Frank<a name="Page_255" id="Page_255"></a> Armitage +once more reached the bowered lane where, fairest, sweetest sight of +all, his lady stood waiting him. She turned to him as she heard the +hoof-beat on the turf, and smiled.</p> + +<p>"Can we wait and hear that hymn through?"</p> + +<p>"Ay. Sing it."</p> + +<p>She looked suddenly in his face. Something in the very tone in which he +spoke startled her,—something deeper, more fervent, than she had ever +heard before,—and the expression in the steady, deep-blue eyes was +another revelation. Alice Renwick had a woman's intuition, and yet she +had not known this man a day. The color again mounted to her temples, +and her eyes fell after one quick glance.</p> + +<p>"I heard you joining in the Te Deum," he urged. "Sing once more: I love +it. There, they are just beginning again. Do you know the words?"</p> + +<p>She nodded, then raised her head, and her glad young voice carolled +through the listening woods:</p> + +<p> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">"Holy, holy, holy! All</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">Heaven's triumphant choir shall sing,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">When the ransomed nations fall</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 9em;">At the footstool of their King:</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Then shall saints and seraphim,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Hearts and voices, swell one hymn</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Round the throne with full accord,</span><br /> +<span style="margin-left: 8em;">Holy, holy, holy Lord!"</span><br /> +</p> + +<p>There was silence when the music ceased. She had turned her face towards +the church, and, as the melody died away in one prolonged, triumphant +chord, she still stood in reverent attitude, as though listening for the +words of benediction. He, too, was silent, but his eyes were fixed on +her. He was thirty-five, she not twenty. He had lived his soldier life +wifeless, but, like other soldiers, his heart had had its rubs and aches +in the days gone by. Years before he had thought life a black void when +the girl he fancied while yet he wore the Academic gray calmly told him +she preferred another. Nor had the intervening years been devoid of +their occasional yearnings for a mate of his own in the isolation of the +frontier or the monotony of garrison life; but flitting fancies had left +no trace upon his strong heart. The love of his life only dawned upon +him at this late day when he looked into her glorious eyes and his whole +soul went out in passionate worship of the fair <a name="Page_256" id="Page_256"></a>girl whose presence +made that sunlit lane a heaven. Were he to live a thousand years, no +scene on earth could rival in his eyes the love-haunted woodland pathway +wherein like forest queen she stood, the sunshine and leafy shadows +dancing over her graceful form, the golden-rod enhancing her dark and +glowing beauty, the sacred influences of the day throwing their mystic +charm about her as though angels guarded and shielded her from harm. His +life had reached its climax; his fate was sealed; his heart and soul +were centred in one sweet girl,—and all in one brief hour in the +woodland lane at Sablon.</p> + +<p>She could not fail to see the deep emotion in his eyes as at last she +turned to break the silence.</p> + +<p>"Shall we go?" she said, simply.</p> + +<p>"It is time; but I wish we could remain."</p> + +<p>"You do not go to church very often at Sibley, do you?"</p> + +<p>"I have not, heretofore; but you would teach me to worship." "You <i>have</i> +taught me," he muttered below his breath, as he extended a hand to +assist her down the sloping bank towards the avenue. She looked up +quickly once more, pleased, yet shy, and shifted her great bunch of +golden-rod so that she could lay her hand in his and lean upon its +steady strength down the incline; and so, hand in hand, with old Dobbin +ambling placidly behind, they passed out from the shaded pathway to the +glow and radiance of the sunlit road.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XII" id="XII"></a>XII.</h2> + + +<p>"Colonel Maynard, I admit everything you say as to the weight of the +evidence," said Frank Armitage, twenty minutes later, "but it is my +faith—understand me: my <i>faith</i>, I say—that she is utterly innocent. +As for that damnable letter, I do not believe it was ever written to +her. It is some other woman."</p> + +<p>"What other is there, or was there?" was the colonel's simple reply.</p> + +<p>"That is what I mean to find out. Will you have my baggage sent after me +to-night? I am going at once to the station, and thence to Sibley. I +will write you from there. If the midnight visitor should prove to have +been Jerrold, he can be made to explain. I have always held him to be a +conceited fop, but never either crack-brained or devoid of principle. +There is no time for explanation <i>now</i>. Good-by; and keep a good +lookout. That fellow may be here again."</p> + +<p>And in an hour more Armitage was skimming along the winding <a name="Page_257" id="Page_257"></a>river-side +<i>en route</i> to Sibley. He had searched the train from pilot to rear +platform, and no man who in the faintest degree resembled Mr. Jerrold +was on board. He had wired to Chester that he would reach the fort that +evening, but would not resume duty for a few days. He made another +search through the train as they neared the city, and still there was no +one who in stature or appearance corresponded with the descriptions +given him of the sinewy visitor.</p> + +<p>Late in the afternoon Chester received him as he alighted from the train +at the little station under the cliff. It was a beautiful day, and +numbers of people were driving or riding out to the fort, and the high +bridge over the gorge was constantly resounding to the thunder of hoofs. +Many others, too, had come out on the train; for the evening +dress-parade always attracted a swarm of visitors. A corporal of the +guard, with a couple of men, was on hand to keep vigilant eye on the +arrivals and to persuade certain proscribed parties to re-enter the cars +and go on, should they attempt to revisit the post, and the faces of +these were lighted up as they saw their old adjutant; but none others of +the garrison appeared.</p> + +<p>"Let us wait a moment and get these people out of the way," said +Armitage. "I want to talk with you. Is Jerrold back?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. He came in just ten minutes after I telegraphed to you, was +present at inspection, and if it had not been for your despatch this +morning I should not have known he had remained out of quarters. He +appeared to resent my having been to his quarters,—calls it spying, I +presume."</p> + +<p>"What permission had he to be away?"</p> + +<p>"I gave him leave to visit town on personal business yesterday +afternoon. He merely asked to be away a few hours to meet friends in +town, and Mr. Hall took tattoo roll-call for him. As I do not require +any other officer to report the time of his return, I did not exact it +of him; but of course no man can be away after midnight without special +permission, and he was gone all night. What is it, Armitage? Has he +followed her down there?"</p> + +<p>"Somebody was there last night and capsized the colonel pretty much as +he did you the night of the ladder episode," said Armitage, coolly.</p> + +<p>"By heaven! and I let him go!"</p> + +<p>"How do you know 'twas he?"</p> + +<p>"Who else could it be, Armitage?"</p> + +<p>"That's what the colonel asks; but it isn't clear to me yet awhile."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258"></a>"I wish it were less clear to me," said Chester, gloomily. "The worst +is that the story is spreading like a pestilence all over the post. The +women have got hold of it, and there is all manner of talk. I shouldn't +be surprised if Mrs. Hoyt had to be taken violently ill. She has written +to invite Miss Renwick to visit her, as it is certain that Colonel and +Mrs. Maynard cannot come, and Hoyt came to me in a horror of amaze +yesterday to know if there were any truth in the rumor that I had caught +a man coming out of Mrs. Maynard's window the other night. I would tell +him nothing, and he says the ladies declare they won't go to the german +if <i>she</i> does. Heavens! I'm thankful you are come. The thing has been +driving me wild these last twelve hours. I wanted to go away myself. +<i>Is</i> she coming up?"</p> + +<p>"No, she isn't; but let me say this, Chester: that whenever she is ready +to return I shall be ready to escort her."</p> + +<p>Chester looked at his friend in amazement, and without speaking.</p> + +<p>"Yes, I see you are astonished, but you may as well understand the +situation. I have heard all the colonel could tell, and have even seen +the letter, and since she left here a mysterious stranger has appeared +by night at Sablon, at the cottage window, though it happened to be her +mother's this time, and I don't believe Alice Renwick knows the first +thing about it."</p> + +<p>"Armitage, are you in love?"</p> + +<p>"Chester, I am in my sound senses. Now come and show me the ladder, and +where you found it, and tell me the whole story over again. I think it +grows interesting. One moment: has he that picture yet?"</p> + +<p>"I suppose so. I don't know. In these last few days everybody is +fighting shy of him. He thinks it is my doing, and looks black and sulky +at me, but is too proud or too much afraid of consequences to ask the +reason of the cold shoulders and averted looks. Gray has taken seven +days' leave and gone off with that little girl of his to place her with +relatives in the East. He has heard the stories, and it is presumed that +some of the women have told her. She was down sick here a day or two."</p> + +<p>"Well, now for the window and the ladder. I want to see the outside +through your eyes, and then I will view the interior with my own. The +colonel bids me do so."</p> + +<p>Together they slowly climbed the long stairway leading up the face of +the cliff. Chester stopped for a breathing-spell more than once.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259"></a>"You're all out of condition, man," said the younger captain, pausing +impatiently. "What has undone you?"</p> + +<p>"This trouble, and nothing else. By gad! it has unstrung the whole +garrison, I believe. You never saw our people fall off so in their +shooting. Of course we expected Jerrold to go to pieces, but nobody +else."</p> + +<p>"There were others that seemed to fall away, too. Where was that +cavalry-team that was expected to take the skirmish medal away from us?"</p> + +<p>"Sound as a dollar, every man, with the single exception of their big +sergeant. I don't like to make ugly comparisons to a man whom I believe +to be more than half interested in a woman, but it makes me think of the +old story about Medusa. One look at her face is too much for a man. That +Sergeant McLeod went to grass the instant he caught sight of her, and +never has picked up since."</p> + +<p>"Consider me considerably more than half interested in the woman in this +case, Chester: make all the comparisons that you like, provided they +illumine matters as you are doing now, and tell me more of this Sergeant +McLeod. What do you mean by his catching sight of her and going to +grass?"</p> + +<p>"I mean he fell flat on his face the moment he saw her, and hasn't been +in good form from that moment to this. The doctor says it's +heart-disease."</p> + +<p>"That's what the colonel says troubles Mrs. Maynard. She was senseless +and almost pulseless some minutes last night. What manner of man is +McLeod?"</p> + +<p>"A tall, slim, dark-eyed, swarthy fellow,—a man with a history and a +mystery, I judge."</p> + +<p>"A man with a history,—a mystery,—who is tall, slim, has dark eyes and +swarthy complexion, and faints away at sight of Miss Renwick, might be +said to possess peculiar characteristics,—family traits, some of them. +Of course you've kept an eye on McLeod. Where is he?"</p> + +<p>Chester stood leaning on the rail, breathing slowly and heavily. His +eyes dilated as he gazed at Armitage, who was surveying him coolly, +though the tone in which he spoke betrayed a new interest and a vivid +one.</p> + +<p>"I confess I never thought of him in connection with this affair," said +Chester.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260"></a>"There's the one essential point of difference between us," was the +reply. "You go in on the supposition that there is only one solution to +this thing, and that a woman must be dishonored to begin with. I believe +there can be several solutions, and that there is only one thing in the +lot that is at all impossible."</p> + +<p>"What's that?"</p> + +<p>"Miss Renwick's knowledge of that night's visitor, or of any other +secret or sin. I mean to work other theories first; and the McLeod trail +is a good one to start on. Where can I get a look at him?"</p> + +<p>"Somewhere out in the Rockies by this time. He was ordered back to his +troop five days ago, and they are out scouting at this moment, unless +I'm vastly mistaken. You have seen the morning despatches?"</p> + +<p>"About the Indians? Yes. Looks squally at the Spirit Rock reservation. +Do you mean that McLeod is there?"</p> + +<p>"That's where his troop ought to be by this time. There is too small a +force on the trail now, and more will have to go if a big outbreak is to +be prevented."</p> + +<p>"Then he has gone, and I cannot see him. Let me look at the window, +then."</p> + +<p>A few steps brought them to the terrace, and there, standing by the west +wall and looking up at the closed slats of the dormer-window, Captain +Chester retold the story of his night-adventure. Armitage listened +attentively, asking few questions. When it was finished, the latter +turned and walked to the rear door, which opened on the terrace. It was +locked.</p> + +<p>"The servants are having a holiday, I presume," he said. "So much the +better. Ask the quartermaster for the key of the front door, and I'll go +in while everybody is out looking at dress-parade. There goes first call +now. Let your orderly bring it to me here, will you?"</p> + +<p>Ten minutes later, with beating heart, he stood and uncovered his +handsome head and gazed silently, reverently around him. He was in her +room.</p> + +<p>It was dainty as her own dainty self. The dressing-table, the windows, +the pretty little white bed, the broad, inviting lounge, the work-table +and basket, the very wash-stand, were all trimmed and decked +alike,—white and yellow prevailing. White lace curtains draped the +window on the west—that fateful window—and the two that opened out on +the roof of the piazza. White lace curtains draped <a name="Page_261" id="Page_261"></a>the bed, the +dressing-table, and the wash-stand; white lace, or some equally flimsy +and feminine material, hung about her book-shelves and work-table and +over the lounge; and bows of bright yellow ribbon were everywhere, +yellow pin-cushions and wall-pockets hung about the toilet-table, soft +yellow rugs lay at the bed-and lounge-side, and a sunshiny tone was +given to the whole apartment by the shades of yellow silk that hung +close to the windows.</p> + +<p>On the wall were some choice etchings and a few foreign photographs. On +the book-shelves were a few volumes of poetry, and the prose of George +Eliot and our own Hawthorne. Hanging on pegs in the corner of the simple +army room, covered by a curtain, were some heavy outer-garments,—an +ulster, a travelling coat and cape of English make, and one or two +dresses that were apparently too thick to be used at this season of the +year. He drew aside the curtain one moment, took a brief glance at the +garments, raised the hem of a skirt to his lips, and turned quickly +away. A door led from the room to the one behind it,—a spare bedroom, +evidently, that was lighted only from the back of the house and had no +side-window at all. Another door led to the hall, a broad, old-fashioned +affair, and crossing this he stood in the big front room occupied by the +colonel and his wife. This was furnished almost as luxuriously (from an +army point of view) as that of Miss Renwick, but not in white and +yellow. Armitage smiled to see the evidences of Mrs. Maynard's taste and +handiwork on every side. In the years he had been the old soldier's +adjutant nothing could have exceeded the simplicity with which the +colonel surrounded himself. Now it was something akin to Sybaritish +elegance, thought the captain; but all the same he made his deliberate +survey. There was the big dressing-table and bureau on which had stood +that ravished picture,—that photograph of the girl he loved which +others were able to speak of, and one man to appropriate feloniously, +while yet he had never seen it. His impulse was to go to Jerrold's +quarters and take him by the throat and demand it of him; but what right +had he? How knew he, even, that it was now there? In view of the words +that Chester had used towards him, Jerrold must know of the grievous +danger in which he stood. That photograph would prove most damaging +evidence if discovered. Very probably, after yielding to his vanity and +showing it to Sloat he meant to get it back. Very certainly, after +hearing Chester's words he must have determined to lose no time in +getting rid of it. He was no fool, if he was a coxcomb.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262"></a>Looking around the half-darkened room, Armitage lingered long over the +photographs which hung about the dressing-table and over the +mantel,—several prettily-framed duplicates of those already described +as appearing in the album. One after another he took them in his hands, +bore them to the window, and studied them attentively: some were not +replaced without a long, lingering kiss. He had not ventured to disturb +an item in her room. He would not touch the knob of a drawer or attempt +to open anything she had closed, but here in quarters where his colonel +could claim joint partnership he felt less sentiment or delicacy. He +closed the hall door and tried the lock, turning the knob to and fro. +Then he reopened the door and swung it upon its hinges. For a wonder, +neither lock nor hinges creaked. The door worked smoothly and with +little noise. Then he similarly tried the door of her room. It was in +equally good working order,—quite free from the squeak and complaint +with which quartermasters' locks and hinges are apt to do their +reluctant duty. The discovery pleased him. It was possible for one to +open and close these portals noiselessly, if need be, and without +disturbing sleepers in either room. Returning to the east chamber, he +opened the shades, so as to get more light, and his eye fell upon an old +album lying on a little table that stood by the bedside. There was a +night-lamp upon the table, too,—a little affair that could hold only a +thimbleful of oil and was intended, evidently, to keep merely a faint +glow during the night hours. Other volumes—a Bible, some devotional +books, like "The Changed Cross," and a Hymnal or two—were also there; +but the album stood most prominent, and Armitage curiously took it up +and opened it.</p> + +<p>There were only half a dozen photographs in the affair. It was rather a +case than an album, and was intended apparently for only a few family +pictures. There was but one that interested him, and this he examined +intently, almost excitedly. It represented a little girl of nine or ten +years,—Alice, undoubtedly,—with her arms clasped about the neck of a +magnificent St. Bernard dog and looking up into the handsome features of +a tall, slender, dark-eyed, black-haired boy of sixteen or thereabouts; +and the two were enough alike to be brother and sister. Who, then, was +this boy?</p> + +<p>Armitage took the photograph to the window and studied it carefully. +Parade was over, and the troops were marching back to their quarters. +The band was playing gloriously as it came tramping into the quadrangle, +and the captain could not but glance out at his own old <a name="Page_263" id="Page_263"></a>company as in +compact column of fours it entered the grassy diamond and swung off +towards the barracks. He saw a knot of officers, too, turning the corner +by the adjutant's office, and for a moment he lowered the album to look. +Mr. Jerrold was not of the number that came sauntering up the walk, +dropping away by ones or twos as they reached their doors and unbuckled +their belts or removed their helmets in eager haste to get out of the +constraint of full dress. But in another moment Jerrold, too, appeared, +all alone, walking rapidly and nervously. Armitage watched him, and +could not but see how other men turned away or gave him the coolest +possible nod as he passed. The tall, slender lieutenant was handsomer +even than when he last saw him; and yet there was gloom and worry on the +dark beauty of his face. Nearer and nearer he came, and had passed the +quarters of the other officers and was almost at the door of his own, +when Armitage saw a little, wiry soldier in full dress uniform running +across the parade as though in pursuit. He recognized Merrick, one of +the scapegraces of his company, and wondered why he should be chasing +after his temporary commander. Just as Jerrold was turning under the +piazza the soldier seemed to make himself heard, and the lieutenant, +with an angry frown on his face, stopped and confronted him.</p> + +<p>"I told you not to come to me again," he said, so loud that every word +was audible to the captain standing by the open window above. "What do +you mean, sir, by following me in this way?"</p> + +<p>The reply was inaudible. Armitage could see the little soldier standing +in the respectful position of "attention," looking up and evidently +pleading.</p> + +<p>"I won't do it until I'm ready," was again heard in Jerrold's angry +tones, though this time the lieutenant glanced about, as though to see +if others were within earshot. There was no one, apparently, and he grew +more confident. "You've been drinking again to-day, Merrick; you're not +sober now; and I won't give you money to get maudlin and go to blabbing +secrets on. No, sir! Go back to your quarters, and stay there."</p> + +<p>The little soldier must indeed have been drinking, as the lieutenant +declared. Armitage saw that he hesitated, instead of obeying at once, +and that his flushed face was angrily working, then that he was arguing +with his superior and talking louder. This was contrary to all the +captain's ideas of proper discipline, even though he was indignant at +the officer for permitting himself to be placed in so false and +undignified a position. Jerrold's words, too, had acquired a wide +significance; but <a name="Page_264" id="Page_264"></a>they were feeble as compared with the sudden outburst +that came from the soldier's lips:</p> + +<p>"By God, lieutenant, you bribed me to silence to cover your tracks, and +then you refuse to pay. If you don't want me to tell what I know, the +sooner you pay that money the better."</p> + +<p>This was more than Armitage could stand. He went down-stairs three at a +jump and out through the colonel's garden with quick, impetuous steps. +Jerrold's furious face turned ashen at the sight, and Merrick, with one +amazed and frightened look at his captain, faced about and slunk +silently away. To him Armitage paid no further attention. It was to the +officer he addressed himself:</p> + +<p>"Mr. Jerrold, I have heard pretty much all this conversation. It simply +adds to the evil report with which you have managed to surround +yourself. Step into your quarters. I must see you alone."</p> + +<p>Jerrold hesitated. He was thunderstruck by the sudden appearance of the +captain whom he had believed to be hundreds of miles away. He connected +his return unerringly with the web of trouble which had been weaving +about him of late. He conceived himself to have been most unjustly spied +upon and suspected, and was full of resentment at the conduct of Captain +Chester. But Chester was an old granny, who sometimes made blunders and +had to back down. It was a different thing when Armitage took hold. +Jerrold looked sulkily into the clear, stern, blue eyes a moment, and +the first impulse of rebellion wilted. He gave one irresolute glance +around the quadrangle, then motioned with his hand to the open door. +Something of the old, jaunty, Creole lightness of manner reasserted +itself.</p> + +<p>"After you, captain," he said.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XIII" id="XIII"></a>XIII.</h2> + + +<p>Once within-doors, it was too dark for Armitage to see the features of +his lieutenant; and he had his own reasons for desiring to read them. +Mr. Jerrold, on the other hand, seemed disposed to keep in the shadows +as much as possible. He made no movement to open the shutters of the one +window which admitted light from the front, and walked back to his +bedroom door, glanced in there as though to see that there were no +occupants, then carefully closed it as he returned to face his captain. +He took off his helmet and placed it on the centre-table, then, +thrusting his thumbs inside the handsome, gold-broidered sword-belt, +stood in a jaunty attitude but with a very uneasy look in <a name="Page_265" id="Page_265"></a>his eyes to +hear what his senior might have to say. Between the two men an +invitation to sit would have been a superfluity. Neither had ever +remained long enough in the other's quarters, since the exchange of the +first calls when Jerrold came to the garrison, to render a chair at all +necessary.</p> + +<p>"Be good enough to strike a light, Mr. Jerrold," said Armitage, +presently, seeing that his unwilling host made no effort on his own +account.</p> + +<p>"I proposed going out at once, captain, and presume you cannot have any +very extended remarks to make."</p> + +<p>"You cannot see the writing I have to call your attention to without a +light. I shall detain you no longer than is necessary. Had you an +engagement?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing of great consequence. I presume it will keep."</p> + +<p>"It will have to. The matter I have come upon will admit no further +delay. Light your lamp, if you please."</p> + +<p>And Jerrold did so, slowly and with much reluctance. He wiped his +forehead vigorously the instant the flame began to splutter, but as the +clear, steady light of the argand gradually spread over the little room +Armitage could see the sweat again beading his forehead, and the dark +eyes were glancing nervously about, and the hands that were so firm and +steady and fine the year before and held the Springfield in so light yet +immovable an aim were twitching now. It was no wonder Jerrold's score +had dropped some thirty per cent. His nerve had gone to pieces.</p> + +<p>Armitage stood and watched him a moment. Then he slowly spoke:</p> + +<p>"I have no desire to allude to the subject of your conversation with +Merrick. It was to put an end to such a thing—not to avail myself of +any information it might give—that I hurried in. We will put that aside +and go at once to the matter that brings me back. You are aware, of +course, that your conduct has compromised a woman's name, and that the +garrison is talking of nothing else."</p> + +<p>Jerrold grasped the back of a chair with one slender brown hand, and +looked furtively about as though for some hope of escape. Something like +a startled gulp seemed to work his throat-muscles an instant; then he +stammered his reply:</p> + +<p>"I don't know what you mean."</p> + +<p>"You <i>do</i> know what I mean. Captain Chester has already told you."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266"></a>"Captain Chester came in here and made an unauthorized inspection of my +quarters because he heard a shot fired by a sentry. I was out: I don't +deny that. But he proceeded to say all manner of insulting and +unwarrantable things, and tried to force me to hand in a resignation, +simply because I was out of quarters after taps. I could account for +<i>his</i> doing something so idiotic, but I'm at a loss to comprehend your +taking it up."</p> + +<p>"The most serious allegation ever made against an officer of the +regiment is made against you, the senior lieutenant of my company, and +the evidence furnished me by the colonel and by Captain Chester is of +such a character that, unless you can refute it and clear her name, you +will have a settlement with me to start with, and your dismissal from +the regiment—"</p> + +<p>"Settlement with you? What concern have you in the matter?" interrupted +Jerrold.</p> + +<p>"Waste no words on that, Mr. Jerrold. Understand that where her name is +concerned no man on earth is more interested than I. Now answer me. You +were absent from your quarters for some hours after the doctor's party. +Somebody believed to have been you was seen and fired at for refusing to +halt at the order of Captain Chester at 3.30 in the morning. The ladder +that usually hung at your fence was found at the colonel's while you +were out, and that night a woman's name was compromised beyond repair +unless you can repair it. Unless you prove beyond peradventure where you +were both that night and last night,—prove beyond question that you +were not where you are believed to have been,—her name is stained and +yours blackened forever. There are other things you must fully explain; +but these first."</p> + +<p>Jerrold's face was growing gray and sickly. He stared at the stern eyes +before him, and could make no answer. His lips moved dryly, but made no +sound.</p> + +<p>"Come, I want to hear from you. Where were you, if not with, or seeking, +her? Name your place and witnesses."</p> + +<p>"By God, Captain Armitage, the army is no longer a place for a +gentleman, if his every movement is to be spied upon like this!"</p> + +<p>"The world is no place for a man of your stamp, is perhaps a better way +of putting it," said Armitage, whose fingers were twitching +convulsively, and whose whole frame quivered with the effort he was +making to restrain the rage and indignation that consumed him. He could +not—he would not—believe in her guilt. He must have this <a name="Page_267" id="Page_267"></a>man's proof, +no matter how it might damn <i>him</i> for good and all, no matter whom else +it might involve, so long as it cleared her precious name. He must be +patient, he must be calm and resolute; but the man's cold-blooded, +selfish, criminal concealment nearly maddened him. With infinite effort +he controlled himself, and went on:</p> + +<p>"But it is of her I'm thinking, not of you. It is the name you have +compromised and can clear, and should clear, even at the expense of your +own,—in fact, Mr. Jerrold, <i>must</i> clear. Now will you tell me where you +were and how you can prove it?"</p> + +<p>"I decline to say. I won't be cross-questioned by men who have no +authority. Captain Chester said he would refer it to the colonel; and +when <i>he</i> asks I will answer,—not until then."</p> + +<p>"I ask in his name. I am authorized by him, for he is not well enough to +meet the ordeal."</p> + +<p>"You say so, and I don't mean to dispute your word, Captain Armitage, +but I have a right to demand some proof. How am I to know he authorized +you?"</p> + +<p>"He himself gave me this letter, in your handwriting," said Armitage; +and, opening the long envelope, he held forth the missive over which the +poor old colonel had gone nearly wild. "He found it the morning they +left,—in her garden."</p> + +<p>If Jerrold's face had been gray before, it was simply ghastly now. He +recoiled from the sight after one fruitless effort to grasp the letter, +then rallied with unlooked-for spirit:</p> + +<p>"By heaven, Armitage, suppose I <i>did</i> write that letter? What does it +prove but what I say,—that somebody has been prying and spying into my +affairs? How came the colonel by it, if not by fraud or treachery?"</p> + +<p>"He picked it up in the garden, I tell you,—among the rose-bushes, +where she—where Miss Renwick had been but a few moments before, and +where it might appear that she had dropped it."</p> + +<p>"<i>She!</i> That letter! What had she to do with it? What right had she to +read it?"</p> + +<p>Armitage stepped impulsively forward. A glad, glorious light was +bursting upon his soul. He could almost have seized Jerrold's hand and +thanked him; but proofs—proofs were what he needed. It was not his mind +that was to be convinced, it was "society" that must be satisfied of her +utter innocence, that it might be enabled to say, "Well, I never <a name="Page_268" id="Page_268"></a>for a +moment believed a word of it." Link by link the chain of circumstantial +evidence must be destroyed, and this was only one.</p> + +<p>"You mean that that letter was not intended for Miss Renwick?" he asked, +with eagerness he strove hard to repress.</p> + +<p>"It was never meant for anybody," said Jerrold, the color coming back to +his face and courage to his eyes. "That letter was never sent by me to +any woman. It's my writing, of course, I can't deny that; but I never +even meant it to go. If it left that desk it must have been stolen. I've +been hunting high and low for it. I knew that such a thing lying around +loose would be the cause of mischief. God! is <i>that</i> what all this fuss +is about?" And he looked warily, yet with infinite anxiety, into his +captain's eyes.</p> + +<p>"There is far more to it, as you well know, sir," was the stern answer. +"For whom was this written, if not for her? It won't do to <i>half</i> clear +her name."</p> + +<p>"Answer me this, Captain Armitage. Do you mean that that letter has +compromised Miss Renwick?—that it is she whose name has been involved, +and that it was of her that Chester meant to speak?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly it was,—and I too."</p> + +<p>There was an instant's silence; then Jerrold began to laugh nervously:</p> + +<p>"Oh, well, I fancy it isn't the first time the revered and respected +captain has got away off the track. All the same I do not mean to +overlook his language to me; and I may say right now, Captain Armitage, +that yours, too, calls for explanation."</p> + +<p>"You shall have it in short order, Mr. Jerrold, and the sooner you +understand the situation the better. So far as I am concerned, Miss +Renwick needed no defender; but, thanks to your mysterious and +unwarranted absence from quarters two very unlucky nights, and to other +circumstances I have no need to name, and to your <i>penchant</i> for +letter-writing of a most suggestive character, it <i>is</i> Miss Renwick +whose name has been brought into question here at this post, and most +prominently so. In plain words, Mr. Jerrold, you who brought this +trouble upon her by your own misconduct must clear her, no matter at +whose expense, or—"</p> + +<p>"Or what?"</p> + +<p>"I make no threats. I prefer that you should make the proper +explanations from a proper sense of what is due."</p> + +<p>"And suppose I say that no man is called upon to explain a situa<a name="Page_269" id="Page_269"></a>tion +which has been distorted and misrepresented by the evil imagination of +his fellows?"</p> + +<p>"Then I may have to wring the truth out of you,—and <i>will</i>; but, for +her sake, I want as little publicity as possible. After this display on +your part, I am not bound to show you any consideration whatever. +Understand this, however: the array of evidence that you were +feloniously inside Colonel Maynard's quarters that night and at his +cottage window last night is of such a character that a court would +convict you unless your <i>alibi</i> was conclusive. Leave the service you +certainly shall, unless this whole thing is cleared up."</p> + +<p>"I never was anywhere near Colonel Maynard's either last night or the +other night I was absent."</p> + +<p>"You will have to prove it. Mere denials won't help you in the face of +such evidence as we have that you were there the first time."</p> + +<p>"What evidence?"</p> + +<p>"The photograph that was stolen from Mrs. Maynard between two and four +o'clock that morning was seen in your drawer by Major Sloat at reveille. +You were fool enough to show it to him."</p> + +<p>"Captain Armitage, I shall be quite able to show, when the proper time +comes, that the photograph I showed Major Sloat was <i>not</i> stolen: it was +given me."</p> + +<p>"That is beyond belief, Mr. Jerrold. Once and for all, understand this +case. You have compromised her good name by the very mystery of your +actions. You have it in your power to clear her by proving where you +were, since you were not near her,—by showing how you got that +photograph,—by explaining how you came to write so strange a letter. +Now I say to you, will you do it, instantly, or must we wring it from +you?"</p> + +<p>A sneering smile was the only answer for a moment; then,—</p> + +<p>"I shall take great pleasure in confounding my enemies should the matter +be brought before a court,—I'm sure if the colonel can stand that sort +of thing I can,—but as for defending myself or anybody else from +utterly unjust and proofless suspicions, it's quite another thing."</p> + +<p>"Good God, Jerrold! do you realize what a position you are taking? Do +you—"</p> + +<p>"Oh, not at all, captain," was the airy reply, "not at all. It is not a +position I have taken: it is one into which you misguided conspirators +have forced me. I certainly am not required to compromise anybody else +in order to relieve a suspicion which you, not I, have <a name="Page_270" id="Page_270"></a>created. How do +you know that there may not be some other woman whose name I propose to +guard? You have been really very flattering in your theories so far."</p> + +<p>Armitage could bear no more. The airy conceit and insolence of the man +overcame all self-restraint and resolution. With one bound he was at his +throat, his strong white hands grasping him in a sudden, vice-like grip, +then hurling him with stunning, thundering force to the floor. Down, +headlong, went the tall lieutenant, his sword clattering by his side, +his slim brown hands clutching wildly at anything that might bear him +up, and dragging with him in his catastrophe a rack of hunting-pouches, +antlers, and one heavy double-barrelled shot-gun. All came tumbling down +about the struggling form, and Armitage, glaring down at him with +clinching fists and rasping teeth, had only time to utter one deep-drawn +malediction when he noted that the struggles ceased and Jerrold lay +quite still. Then the blood began to ooze from a jagged cut near the +temple, and it was evident that the hammer of the gun had struck him.</p> + +<p>Another moment, and the door opened, and with anxious face Chester +strode into the room. "You haven't killed him, Armitage? Is it as bad as +that?"</p> + +<p>"Pick him up, and we'll get him on the bed. He's only stunned. I didn't +even hit him. Those things tumbled afterwards," said Armitage, as +between them they raised the dead weight of the slender Adonis in their +arms and bore him to the bedroom. Here they bathed the wound with cold +water and removed the uniform coat, and presently the lieutenant began +to revive and look about him.</p> + +<p>"Who struck me?" he faintly asked.</p> + +<p>"Your shot-gun fell on your head, but I threw you down, Jerrold. I'm +sorry I touched you, but you're lucky it was no worse. This thing is +going to raise a big bump here. Shall I send the doctor?"</p> + +<p>"No. I'll come round presently. We'll see about this thing afterwards."</p> + +<p>"Is there any friend you want to see? Shall I send word to anybody?" +asked Chester.</p> + +<p>"No. Don't let anybody come. Tell my striker to bring my breakfast; but +I want nothing to-night but to be let alone."</p> + +<p>"At least you will let me help you undress and get to bed?" said +Chester.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271"></a>"No. I wish you'd go,—both of you. I want quiet,—peace,—and there's +none of it with either of you."</p> + +<p>And so they left him. Later Captain Chester had gone to the quarters, +and, after much parleying from without, had gained admission. Jerrold's +head was bound in a bandage wet with arnica and water. He had been +solacing himself with a pipe and a whiskey toddy, and was in a not +unnaturally ugly mood.</p> + +<p>"You may consider yourself excused from duty until your face is well +again, by which time this matter will be decided. I admonish you to +remain here and not leave the post until it is."</p> + +<p>"You can prefer charges and see what you'll make of it," was the +vehement reply. "Devil a bit will I help you out of the thing, after +this night's work."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XIV" id="XIV"></a>XIV.</h2> + + +<p>Tuesday, and the day of the long-projected german had come; and if ever +a lot of garrison-people were wishing themselves well out of a flurry it +was the social circle at Sibley. Invitations had been sent to all the +prominent people in town who had shown any interest in the garrison +since the regiment's arrival; beautiful favors had been procured; an +elaborate supper had been prepared,—the ladies contributing their +efforts to the salads and other solids, the officers wisely confining +their donations to the wines. It was rumored that new and original +figures were to be danced, and much had been said about this feature in +town, and much speculation had been indulged in; but the Beaubien +residence had been closed until the previous day, Nina was away with her +mother and beyond reach of question, and Mr. Jerrold had not shown his +face in town since her departure. Nor was he accessible when visitors +inquired at the fort. They had never known such mysterious army people +in their lives. What on earth could induce them to be so close-mouthed +about a mere german? one might suppose they had something worth +concealing; and presently it became noised abroad that there was genuine +cause for perplexity, and possibly worse.</p> + +<p>To begin with, every one at Sibley now knew something of the night +adventure at the colonel's, and, as no one could give the true statement +of the case, the stories in circulation were gorgeous embellishments of +the actual facts. It would be useless, even if advisable, to attempt to +reproduce these wild theories, but never was army garrison so +tumultuously stirred by the whirlwind of rumor. It was no longer <a name="Page_272" id="Page_272"></a>denied +for an instant that the absence of the colonel and his household was the +direct result of that night's discoveries; and when, to Mrs. Hoyt's +inexpressible relief, there came a prettily-worded note from Alice on +Monday evening informing her that neither the colonel nor her mother +felt well enough to return to Sibley for the german, and that she +herself preferred not to leave her mother at a time when she needed her +care, Mrs. Hoyt and her intimates, with whom she instantly conferred, +decided that there could be no doubt whatever that the colonel knew of +the affair, had forbidden their return, and was only waiting for further +evidence to decide what was to be done with his erring step-daughter. +Women talked with bated breath of the latest stories in circulation, of +Chester's moody silence and preoccupation, of Jerrold's ostracism, and +of Frank Armitage's sudden return.</p> + +<p>On Monday morning the captain had quietly appeared in uniform at the +office, and it was known that he had relinquished the remainder of his +leave of absence and resumed command of his company. There were men in +the garrison who well knew that it was because of the mystery +overhanging the colonel's household that Armitage had so suddenly +returned. They asked no questions and sought no explanation. All men +marked, however, that Jerrold was not at the office on Monday, and many +curiously looked at the morning report in the adjutant's office. No, he +was not in arrest; neither was he on sick-report. He was marked present +for duty, and yet he was not at the customary assembly of all the +commissioned officers at head-quarters. More mystery, and most +exasperating, too, it was known that Armitage and Jerrold had held a +brief talk in the latter's quarters soon after Sunday's evening parade, +and that the former had been reinforced for a time by Captain Chester, +with whom he was afterwards closeted. Officers who heard that he had +suddenly returned and was at Chester's went speedily to the latter's +quarters,—at least two or three did,—and were met by a servant at the +door, who said that the gentlemen had just gone out the back way. And, +sure enough, neither Chester nor Armitage came home until long after +taps; and then the colonel's cook told several people that the two +gentlemen had spent over an hour up-stairs in the colonel's and Miss +Alice's room and "was foolin' around the house till near ten o'clock."</p> + +<p>Another thing that added to the flame of speculation and curiosity was +this. Two of the ladies, returning from a moonlit stroll on the terrace +just after tattoo, came through the narrow passage-way on the west <a name="Page_273" id="Page_273"></a>side +of the colonel's quarters, and there, at the foot of the little flight +of steps leading up to the parade, they came suddenly upon Captain +Chester, who was evidently only moderately pleased to see them and +nervously anxious to expedite their onward movement. With the perversity +of both sexes, however, they stopped to chat and inquire what he was +doing there, and in the midst of it all a faint light gleamed on the +opposite wall and the reflection of the curtains in Alice Renwick's +window was distinctly visible. Then a sturdy masculine shadow appeared, +and there was a rustling above, and then, with exasperating, mysterious, +and epigrammatic terseness, a deep voice propounded the utterly +senseless question,—</p> + +<p>"How's that?"</p> + +<p>To which, in great embarrassment, Chester replied,—</p> + +<p>"Hold on a minute. I'm talking with some interested spectators."</p> + +<p>Whereat the shadow of the big man shot out of sight, and the ladies +found that it was useless to remain,—there would be no further +developments so long as they did; and so they came away, with many a +lingering backward look. "But the idea of asking such a fool question as +'How's that?' Why couldn't the man <i>say</i> what he meant?" It was +gathered, however, that Armitage and Chester had been making some +experiments that bore in some measure on the mystery. And all this time +Mr. Jerrold was in his quarters, only a stone's-throw away. How +interested <i>he</i> must have been!</p> + +<p>But, while the garrison was relieved at knowing that Alice Renwick would +not be on hand for the german and it was being fondly hoped she might +never return to the post, there was still another grievous +embarrassment. How about Mr. Jerrold?</p> + +<p>He had been asked to lead when the german was first projected, and had +accepted. That was fully two weeks before; and now—no one knew just +what ought to be done. It was known that Nina Beaubien had returned on +the previous day from a brief visit to the upper lakes, and that she had +a costume of ravishing beauty in which to carry desolation to the hearts +of the garrison belles in leading that german with Mr. Jerrold. Old +Madame Beaubien had been reluctant, said her city friends, to return at +all. She heartily disapproved of Mr. Jerrold, and was bitterly set +against Nina's growing infatuation for him. But Nina was headstrong and +determined: moreover, she was far more than a match for her mother's +vigilance, and it was known at Sibley that two or three times the girl +had been out at the fort with the Suttons <a name="Page_274" id="Page_274"></a>and other friends when the +old lady believed her in quarters totally different. Cub Sutton had +confided to Captain Wilton that Madame Beaubien was in total ignorance +of the fact that there was to be a party at the doctor's the night he +had driven out with Nina and his sister, and that Nina had "pulled the +wool over her mother's eyes" and made her believe she was going to spend +the evening with friends in town, naming a family with whom the +Beaubiens were intimate. A long drive always made the old lady sleepy, +and, as she had accompanied Nina to the fort that afternoon, she went +early to bed, having secured her wild birdling, as she supposed, from +possibility of further meetings with Jerrold. For nearly a week, said +Cub, Madame Beaubien had dogged Nina so that she could not get a moment +with the man with whom she was evidently so smitten, and the girl was +almost at her wits' end with seeing the depth of his flirtation with +Alice Renwick and the knowledge that on the morrow her mother would +spirit her off to the cool breezes and blue waves of the great lake. Cub +said she so worked on Fanny's feelings that they put up the scheme +together and made him bring them out. Gad! if old Maman only found it +out there'd be no more germans for Nina. She'd ship her off to the good +Sisters at Creve-Coeur and slap her into a convent and leave all her +money to the Church.</p> + +<p>And yet, said city society, old Maman idolized her beautiful daughter +and could deny her no luxury or indulgence. She dressed her superbly, +though with a somewhat barbaric taste where Nina's own good sense and +Eastern teaching did not interfere. What she feared was that the girl +would fall in love with some adventurer, or—what was quite as bad—some +army man who would carry her darling away to Arizona or other +inaccessible spot. Her plan was that Nina should marry here—at +home—some one of the staid young merchant princes rising into +prominence in the Western metropolis, and from the very outset Nina had +shown a singular infatuation for the buttons and straps and music and +heaven-knows-what-all out at the fort. She gloried in seeing her +daughter prominent in all scenes of social life. She rejoiced in her +triumphs, and took infinite pains with all preparations. She would have +set her foot against Nina's simply dancing the german at the fort with +Jerrold as a partner, but she could not resist it that the papers should +announce on Sunday morning that "the event of the season at Fort Sibley +was the german given last Tuesday night by the ladies of the garrison +and led by the lovely Miss Beaubien" with<a name="Page_275" id="Page_275"></a> Lieutenant or Captain +Anybody. There were a dozen bright, graceful, winning women among the +dames and damsels at the fort, and Alice Renwick was a famous beauty by +this time. It was more than Maman Beaubien could withstand, that her +Nina should "lead" all these, and so her consent was won. Back they came +from Chequamegon, and the stately home on Summit Avenue reopened to +receive them. It was Monday noon when they returned, and by three +o'clock Fanny Sutton had told Nina Beaubien what she knew of the +wonderful rumors that were floating in from Sibley. She was more than +half disposed to be in love with Jerrold herself. She expected a proper +amount of womanly horror, incredulity, and indignation; but she was +totally unprepared for the outburst that followed. Nina was transformed +into a tragedy queen on the instant, and poor, simple-hearted, foolish +Fanny Sutton was almost scared out of her small wits by the fire of +denunciation and fury with which her story was greeted. She came home +with white, frightened face and hunted up Cub and told him that she had +been telling Nina some of the queer things the ladies had been saying +about Mr. Jerrold, and Nina almost tore her to pieces, and could he go +right out to the fort to see Mr. Jerrold? Nina wanted to send a note at +once; and if he couldn't go she had made her promise that she would get +somebody to go instantly and to come back and let her know before four +o'clock. Cub was always glad of an excuse to go out to the fort, but a +coldness had sprung up between him and Jerrold. He had heard the ugly +rumors in that mysterious way in which all such things are heard, and, +while his shallow pate could not quite conceive of such a monstrous +scandal and he did not believe half he heard, he sagely felt that in the +presence of so much smoke there was surely some fire, and avoided the +man from whom he had been inseparable. Of course he had not spoken to +him on the subject, and, singularly enough, this was the case with all +the officers at the post except Armitage and the commander. It was +understood that the matter was in Chester's hands, to do with as was +deemed best. It was believed that his resignation had been tendered; and +all these forty-eight hours since the story might be said to be fairly +before the public, Jerrold had been left much to himself, and was +presumably in the depths of dismay.</p> + +<p>One or two men, urged by their wives, who thought it was really time +something were done to let him understand he ought not to lead the +german, had gone to see him and been refused admission. Asked from +within what they wanted, the reply was somewhat difficult to <a name="Page_276" id="Page_276"></a>frame, and +in both cases resolved itself into "Oh, about the german;" to which +Jerrold's voice was heard to say, "The german's all right. I'll lead if +I'm well enough and am not bothered to death meantime; but I've got some +private matters to attend to, and am not seeing anybody to-day." And +with this answer they were fain to be content. It had been settled, +however, that the officers were to tell Captain Chester at ten o'clock +that in their opinion Mr. Jerrold ought not to be permitted to attend so +long as this mysterious charge hung over him; and Mr. Rollins had been +notified that he must be ready to lead.</p> + +<p>Poor Rollins! He was in sore perplexity. He wanted nothing better than +to dance with Nina Beaubien. He wondered if she <i>would</i> lead with him, +or would even come at all when she learned that Jerrold would be unable +to attend. "Sickness" was to be the ostensible cause, and in the youth +and innocence of his heart Rollins never supposed that Nina would hear +of all the other assignable reasons. He meant to ride in and call upon +her Monday evening; but, as ill luck would have it, old Sloat, who was +officer of the day, stepped on a round pebble as he was going down the +long flight to the railway-station, and sprained his ankle. Just at five +o'clock Rollins got orders to relieve him, and was returning from the +guard-house, when who should come driving in but Cub Sutton, and Cub +reined up and asked where he would be apt to find Mr. Jerrold.</p> + +<p>"He isn't well, and has been denying himself to all callers to-day," +said Rollins, shortly.</p> + +<p>"Well, I've got to see him, or at least get a note to him," said Cub. +"It's from Miss Beaubien, and requires an answer."</p> + +<p>"You know the way to his quarters, I presume," said Rollins, coldly: +"you have been there frequently. I will have a man hold your horse, or +you can tie him there at the rail, just as you please."</p> + +<p>"Thanks. I'll go over, I believe." And go he did, and poor Rollins was +unable to resist the temptation of watching whether the magic name of +Nina would open the door. It did not; but he saw Cub hand in the little +note through the shutters, and ere long there came another from within. +This Cub stowed in his waistcoat-pocket and drove off with, and Rollins +walked jealously homeward. But that evening he went through a worse +experience, and it was the last blow to his budding passion for +sparkling-eyed Nina.</p> + +<p>It was nearly tattoo, and a dark night, when Chester suddenly came in:</p> + +<p><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277"></a>"Rollins, you remember my telling you I was sure some of the men had +been getting liquor in from the shore down below the station and +'running it' that way? I believe we can nab the smuggler this evening. +There's a boat down there now. The corporal has just told me."</p> + +<p>Smuggling liquor was one of Chester's horrors. He surrounded the post +with a cordon of sentries who had no higher duty, apparently, than that +of preventing the entrance of alcohol in any form. He had run a +"red-cross" crusade against the post-trader's store in the matter of +light wines and small beer, claiming that only adulterated stuff was +sold to the men, and forbidding the sale of anything stronger than "pop" +over the trader's counter. Then, when it became apparent that liquor was +being brought on the reservation, he made vigorous efforts to break up +the practice. Colonel Maynard rather poohpoohed the whole business. It +was his theory that a man who was determined to have a drink might +better be allowed to take an honest one, <i>coram publico</i>, than a +smuggled and deleterious article; but he succumbed to the rule that only +"light wines and beer" should be sold at the store, and was lenient to +the poor devils who overloaded and deranged their stomachs in +consequence. But Chester no sooner found himself in command than he +launched into the crusade with redoubled energy, and spent hours of the +day and night trying to capture invaders of the reservation with a +bottle in their pockets. The bridge was guarded, so was the crossing of +the Cloudwater to the south, and so were the two roads entering from the +north and west; and yet there was liquor coming in, and, as though "to +give Chester a benefit," some of the men in barracks had a royal old +spree on Saturday night, and the captain was sorer-headed than any of +the participants in consequence. In some way he heard that a rowboat +came up at night and landed supplies of contraband down by the +river-side out of sight and hearing of the sentry at the +railway-station, and it was thither he hurriedly led Rollins this Monday +evening.</p> + +<p>They turned across the railway on reaching the bottom of the long +stairs, and scrambled down the rocky embankment on the other side, +Rollins following in reluctant silence and holding his sword so that it +would not rattle, but he had no faith in the theory of smugglers. He +felt in some vague and unsatisfactory way a sense of discomfort and +anxiety over his captain's late proceedings, and this stealthy descent +seemed fraught with ill omen.</p> + +<p>Once down in the flats, their footsteps made no noise in the yielding +<a name="Page_278" id="Page_278"></a>sand, and all was silence save for the plash of the waters along the +shores. Far down the river were the reflections of one or two twinkling +lights, and close under the bank in the slack-water a few stars were +peeping at their own images, but no boat was there, and the captain led +still farther to a little copse of willow, and there, in the shadows, +sure enough, was a row-boat, with a little lantern dimly burning, half +hidden in the stern.</p> + +<p>Not only that, but as they halted at the edge of the willows the captain +put forth a warning hand and cautioned silence. No need. Rollins's +straining eyes were already fixed on two figures that were standing in +the shadows not ten feet away,—one that of a tall, slender man, the +other a young girl. It was a moment before Rollins could recognize +either; but in that moment the girl had turned suddenly, had thrown her +arms about the neck of the tall young man, and, with her head pillowed +on his breast, was gazing up in his face.</p> + +<p>"Kiss me once more, Howard. Then I must go," they heard her whisper.</p> + +<p>Rollins seized his captain's sleeve, and strove, sick at heart, to pull +him back; but Chester stoutly stood his ground. In the few seconds more +that they remained they saw his arms more closely enfold her. They saw +her turn at the brink, and, in an utter abandonment of rapturous, +passionate love, throw her arms again about his neck and stand on tiptoe +to reach his face with her warm lips. They could not fail to hear the +caressing tone of her every word, or to mark his receptive but gloomy +silence. They could not mistake the voice,—the form, shadowy though it +was. The girl was Nina Beaubien, and the man, beyond question, Howard +Jerrold. They saw him hand her into the light skiff and hurriedly kiss +her good-night. Once again, as though she could not leave him, her arms +were thrown about his neck and she clung to him with all her strength; +then the little boat swung slowly out into the stream, the sculls were +shipped, and with practised hand Nina Beaubien pulled forth into the +swirling waters of the river, and the faint light, like slowly-setting +star, floated downward with the sweeping tide and finally disappeared +beyond the point.</p> + +<p>Then Jerrold turned to leave, and Chester stepped forth and confronted +him:</p> + +<p>"Mr. Jerrold, did I not instruct you to confine yourself to your +quarters until satisfactory explanation was made of the absences with +which you are charged?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279"></a>Jerrold started at the abrupt and unlooked-for greeting, but his answer +was prompt:</p> + +<p>"Not at all, sir. You gave me to understand that I was to remain +here—not to leave the post—until you had decided on certain points; +and, though I do not admit the justice of your course, and though you +have put me to grave inconvenience, I obeyed the order. I needed to go +to town to-day on urgent business, but, between you and Captain +Armitage, am in no condition to go. For all this, sir, there will come +proper retribution when my colonel returns. And now, sir, you are spying +upon me,—<i>spying</i>, I say,—and it only confirms what I said of you +before."</p> + +<p>"Silence, Mr. Jerrold! This is insubordination."</p> + +<p>"I don't care a damn what it is, sir! There is nothing contemptuous +enough for me to say of you or your conduct to me—"</p> + +<p>"Not another word, Mr. Jerrold! Go to your quarters in arrest.—Mr. +Rollins, you are witness to this language."</p> + +<p>But Rollins was not. Turning from the spot in blankness of heart before +a word was uttered between them, he followed the waning light with eyes +full of yearning and trouble; he trudged his way down along the sandy +shore until he came to the silent waters of the slough and could go no +farther; and then he sat him down and covered his face with his hands. +It was pretty hard to bear.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XV" id="XV"></a>XV.</h2> + + +<p>Tuesday still, and all manner of things had happened and were still to +happen in the hurrying hours that followed Sunday night. The garrison +woke at Tuesday's reveille in much perturbation of spirit, as has been +said, but by eight o'clock and breakfast-time one cause of perplexity +was at an end. Relief had come with Monday afternoon and Alice Renwick's +letter saying she would not attend the german, and now still greater +relief in the news that sped from mouth to mouth: Lieutenant Jerrold was +in close arrest. Armitage and Chester had been again in consultation +Monday night, said the gossips, and something new had been +discovered,—no one knew just what,—and the toils had settled upon +Jerrold's handsome head, and now he was to be tried. As usual in such +cases, the news came in through the kitchen, and most officers heard it +at the breakfast-table from the lips of their better halves, who could +hardly find words to express their sentiments as to the inability of +their lords to explain the new phase of the situation.<a name="Page_280" id="Page_280"></a> When the first +sergeant of Company B came around to Captain Armitage with the +sick-book, soon after six in the morning, the captain briefly directed +him to transfer Lieutenant Jerrold on the morning report from present +for duty to "in arrest," and no sooner was it known at the quarters of +Company B than it began to work back to Officers' Row through the medium +of the servants and strikers.</p> + +<p>It was the sole topic of talk for a full hour. Many ladies who had +intended going to town by the early train almost perilled their chances +of catching the same in their eagerness to hear further details.</p> + +<p>But the shriek of the whistle far up the valley broke up the group that +was so busily chatting and speculating over in the quadrangle, and, with +shy yet curious eyes, the party of at least a dozen—matrons and maids, +wives or sisters of the officers—scurried past the darkened windows of +Mr. Jerrold's quarters, and through the mysterious passage west of the +colonel's silent house, and down the long stairs, just in time to catch +the train that whirled them away city-ward almost as soon as it had +disgorged the morning's mail. Chatting and laughing, and full of blithe +anticipation of the glories of the coming german, in preparation for +which most of their number had found it necessary to run in for just an +hour's shopping, they went jubilantly on their way. Shopping done, they +would all meet, take luncheon together at the "Woman's Exchange," return +to the post by the afternoon train, and have plenty of time for a little +nap before dressing for the german. Perhaps the most interesting +question now up for discussion was, who would lead with Mr. Rollins? The +train went puffing into the crowded dépôt: the ladies hastened forth, +and in a moment were on the street; cabs and carriages were passed in +disdain; a brisk walk of a block carried them to the main thoroughfare +and into the heart of the shopping district; a rush of hoofs and wheels +and pedestrians there encountered them, and the roar assailed their +sensitive and unaccustomed ears, yet high above it all pierced and +pealed the shrill voices of the newsboys darting here and there with +their eagerly-bought journals. But women bent on germans and shopping +have time and ears for no such news as that which demands the +publication of extras. Some of them never hear or heed the cry, "Indian +Massacree!" "Here y'are! All about the killin' of Major Thornton an' his +sojers!" "Extry!—extry!" It is not until they reach the broad portals +of the great Stewart of the West that one of their number, half +incredulously, buys a copy and <a name="Page_281" id="Page_281"></a>reads aloud: "Major Thornton, ——th +Infantry, Captain Langham and Lieutenant Bliss, ——th Cavalry, and +thirty men, are killed. Captains Wright and Lane and Lieutenants Willard +and Brooks, ——th Cavalry, and some forty more men, are seriously +wounded. The rest of the command is corralled by an overwhelming force +of Indians, and their only hope is to hold out until help can reach +them. All troops along the line of the Union Pacific are already under +orders."</p> + +<p>"Oh, isn't it dreadful?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; but aren't you glad it wasn't Ours? Oh, look! there's Nina +Beaubien over there in her carriage. <i>Do</i> let's find out if she's going +to lead with Rollins!"</p> + +<p><i>Væ victis</i>! Far out in the glorious Park country in the heart of the +Centennial State a little band of blue-coats, sent to succor a perilled +agent, is making desperate stand against fearful odds. Less than two +hundred men has the wisdom of the Department sent forth through the +wilderness to find and, if need be, fight its way through five times its +weight in well-armed foes. The officers and men have no special quarrel +with those Indians, nor the Indians with them. Only two winters before, +when those same Indians were sick and starving, and their lying +go-betweens, the Bureau-employees, would give them neither food nor +justice, a small band made their way to the railway and were fed on +soldier food and their wrongs righted by soldier justice. But another +snarl has come now, and this time the Bureau-people are in a pickle, and +the army—ever between two fires at least, and thankful when it isn't +six—is ordered to send a little force and go out there and help the +agent maintain his authority. The very night before the column reaches +the borders of the reservation the leading chiefs come in camp to +interview the officers, shake hands, beg tobacco, and try on their +clothes, then go back to their braves and laugh as they tell there are +only a handful, and plan the morrow's ambuscade and massacre. <i>Væ +victis</i>! There are women and children among the garrisons along the +Union Pacific whose hearts have little room for thoughts of germans in +the horror of this morning's tidings. But Sibley is miles and miles +away, and, as Mrs. Wheeler says, aren't you glad it wasn't Ours?</p> + +<p>Out at the fort there is a different scene. The morning journals and the +clicking telegraph send a thrill throughout the whole command. The train +has barely whistled out of sight when the ringing notes of officers' +call resound through the quadrangle and out over the broader +drill-ground beyond. Wondering, but prompt, the staid captains and eager +subalterns come hurrying to head-quarters, and the band, that <a name="Page_282" id="Page_282"></a>had come +forth and taken its station on the parade, all ready for guard-mount, +goes quickly back, while the men gather in big squads along the shaded +row of their quarters and watch the rapid assembly at the office. And +there old Chester, with kindling eyes, reads to the silent company the +brief official order. Ay, though it be miles and miles away, fast as +steam and wheel can take it, the good old regiment in all its sturdy +strength goes forth to join the rescue of the imprisoned comrades far in +the Colorado Rockies. "Have your entire command in readiness for +immediate field-service in the Department of the Platte. Special train +will be there to take you by noon at latest." And though many a man has +lost friend and comrade in the tragedy that calls them forth, and though +many a brow clouds for the moment with the bitter news of such useless +sacrifice, every eye brightens, every muscle seems to brace, every nerve +and pulse to throb and thrill with the glorious excitement of quick +assembly and coming action. Ay, we are miles and miles away; we leave +the dear old post, with homes and firesides, wives, children, and +sweethearts, all to the care of the few whom sickness or old wounds or +advancing years render unfit for hard, sharp marching; and, thank God! +we'll be there to take a hand and help those gallant fellows out of +their "corral" or to have one good blow at the cowardly hounds who lured +and lied to them.</p> + +<p>How the "assembly" rings on the morning air! How quick they spring to +ranks, those eager bearded faces and trim blue-clad forms! How buoyant +and brisk even the elders seem as the captains speed over to their +company quarters and the quick, stirring orders are given! "Field kits; +all the cooked rations you have on hand; overcoat, blanket, extra socks +and underclothes; every cartridge you've got; haversack and canteen, and +nothing else. Now get ready,—lively!" How irrepressible is the cheer +that goes up! How we pity the swells of the light battery who have to +stay! How wistful those fellows look, and how eagerly they throng about +the barracks, yearning to go, and, since that is denied, praying to be +of use in some way! Small wonder is it that all the bustle and +excitement penetrates the portals of Mr. Jerrold's darkened quarters, +and the shutters are thrown open and his bandaged head comes forth.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Harris?" he demands of a light-batteryman who is hurrying +past.</p> + +<p>"Orders for Colorado, sir. The regiment goes by special train.<a name="Page_283" id="Page_283"></a> Major +Thornton's command's been massacred, and there's a big fight ahead."</p> + +<p>"My God! Here!—stop one moment. Run over to Company B and see if you +can find my servant, or Merrick, or somebody. If not, you come back +quick. I want to send a note to Captain Armitage."</p> + +<p>"I can take it, sir. We're not going. The band and the battery have to +stay."</p> + +<p>And Jerrold, with trembling hand and feverish haste, seats himself at +the same desk whence on that fatal morning he sent the note that wrought +such disaster; and as he rises and hands his missive forth, throwing +wide open the shutters as he does so, his bedroom doors fly open, and a +whirling gust of the morning wind sweeps through from rear to front, and +half a score of bills and billets, letters and scraps of paper, go +ballooning out upon the parade.</p> + +<p>"By heaven!" he mutters, "that's how it happened, is it? <i>Look</i> at them +go!" for going they were, in spiral eddies or fluttering skips, up the +grassy "quad," and over among the rose-bushes of Alice Renwick's garden. +Over on the other side of the narrow, old-fashioned frontier fort the +men were bustling about, and their exultant, eager voices rang out on +the morning air. All was life and animation, and even in Jerrold's +selfish soul there rose responsive echo to the soldierly spirit that +seemed to pervade the whole command. It was their first summons to +active field-duty with prospective battle since he had joined, and, with +all his shortcomings as a "duty" officer in garrison and his many +frailties of character, Jerrold was not the man to lurk in the rear when +there was danger ahead. It dawned on him with sudden and crushing force +that now it lay in the power of his enemies to do him vital +injury,—that he could be held here at the post like a suspected felon, +a mark for every finger, a target for every tongue, while every other +officer of his regiment was hurrying with his men to take his knightly +share in the coming onset. It was intolerable, shameful. He paced the +floor of his little parlor in nervous misery, ever and anon gazing from +the window for sight of his captain. It was to him he had written, +urging that he be permitted a few moments' talk. "This is no time for a +personal misunderstanding," he wrote. "I must see you at once. I can +clear away the doubts, can explain my action; but, for heaven's sake, +intercede for me with Captain Chester that I may go with the command."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284"></a>As luck would have it, Armitage was with Chester at the office when the +letter was handed in. He opened it, gave a whistle of surprise, and +simply held it forth to the temporary commander.</p> + +<p>"Read that," he said.</p> + +<p>Chester frowned, but took the note and looked it curiously over.</p> + +<p>"I have no patience with the man now," he said. "Of course after what I +saw last night I begin to understand the nature of his defence; but we +don't want any such man in the regiment, after this. What's the use of +taking him with us?"</p> + +<p>"That isn't the point," said Armitage. "Now or never, possibly, is the +time to clear up this mystery. Of course Maynard will be up to join us +by the first train; and what won't it be worth to him to have positive +proof that all his fears were unfounded?"</p> + +<p>"Even if it wasn't Jerrold, there is still the fact that I saw a man +clambering out of her window. How is that to be cleared up?" said +Chester, gloomily.</p> + +<p>"That may come later, and won't be such a bugbear as you think. If you +were not worried into a morbid condition over all this trouble, you +would not look so seriously upon a thing which I regard as a piece of +mere night prowling, with a possible spice of romance."</p> + +<p>"What romance, I'd like to know?"</p> + +<p>"Never mind that now: I'm playing detective for the time being. Let me +see Jerrold for you and find out what he has to offer. Then you can +decide. Are you willing? All right! But remember this while I think of +it. You admit that the light you saw on the wall Sunday night was +exactly like that which you saw the night of your adventure, and that +the shadows were thrown in the same way. You thought that night that the +light was turned up and afterwards turned out in her room, and that it +was <i>her</i> figure you saw at the window. Didn't you?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. What then?"</p> + +<p>"Well, I believe her statement that she saw and heard nothing until +reveille. I believe it was Mrs. Maynard who did the whole thing, without +Miss Renwick's knowing anything about it."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Because I accomplished the feat with the aid of the little night-lamp +that I found by the colonel's bedside. It is my theory that Mrs. Maynard +was restless after the colonel finally fell asleep, that she heard your +tumble, and took her little lamp, crossed over into Miss Renwick's +<a name="Page_285" id="Page_285"></a>room, opened the door without creaking, as I can do to your +satisfaction, found her sleeping quietly, but the room a trifle close +and warm, set her night-lamp down on the table, as I did, threw her +shadow on the wall, as I did, and opened the shade, as you thought her +daughter did. Then she withdrew, and left those doors open,—both hers +and her daughter's,—and the light, instead of being turned down, as you +thought, was simply carried back into her own room."</p> + +<p>"That is all possible. But how about the man in her room? Nothing was +stolen, though money and jewelry were lying around loose. If theft was +not the object, what was?"</p> + +<p>"Theft certainly was not, and I'm not prepared to say what was, but I +have reason to believe it wasn't Miss Renwick."</p> + +<p>"Anything to prove it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes; and, though time is precious and I cannot show you, you may take +my word for it. We must be off at noon, and both of us have much to do, +but there may be no other chance to talk, and before you leave this post +I want you to realize her utter innocence."</p> + +<p>"I want to, Armitage."</p> + +<p>"I know you do: so look here. We assume that the same man paid the night +visit both here and at Sablon, and that he wanted to see the same +person,—if he did not come to steal: do we not?"</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"We know that at Sablon it was Mrs. Maynard he sought and called. The +colonel says so."</p> + +<p>"Yes."</p> + +<p>"Presumably, then, it was she—not her daughter—he had some reasons for +wanting to see here at Sibley. What is more, if he wanted to see Miss +Renwick there was nothing to prevent his going right into her window?"</p> + +<p>"Nothing."</p> + +<p>"Well, I believe I can prove he didn't; on the contrary, that he went +around by the roof of the porch to the colonel's room and tried there, +but found it risky on account of the blinds, and that finally he entered +the hall window,—what might be called neutral ground. The painters had +been at work there, as you said, two days before, and the paint on the +slats was not quite dry. The blinds and sills were the only things they +had touched up on that front, it seems, and nothing on the sides. Now, +on the fresh paint of the colonel's slats are the <a name="Page_286" id="Page_286"></a>new imprints of +masculine thumb and fingers, and on the sill of the hall window is a +footprint that I know to be other than Jerrold's."</p> + +<p>"Why?"</p> + +<p>"Because he doesn't own such a thing as this track was made with, and I +don't know a man in this command who does. It was the handiwork of the +Tonto Apaches, and came from the other side of the continent."</p> + +<p>"You mean it was—?"</p> + +<p>"Exactly. An Indian moccasin."</p> + +<p>Meantime, Mr. Jerrold had been making hurried preparations, as he had +fully determined that at any cost he would go with the regiment. He had +been burning a number of letters, when Captain Armitage knocked and +hurriedly entered. Jerrold pushed forward a chair and plunged at once +into the matter at issue:</p> + +<p>"There is no time to waste, captain. I have sent to you to ask what I +can do to be released from arrest and permitted to go with the command."</p> + +<p>"Answer the questions I put to you the other night, and certify to your +answers; and of course you'll have to apologize to Captain Chester for +your last night's language."</p> + +<p>"That of course; though you will admit it looked like spying. Now let me +ask you, did he tell you who the lady was?"</p> + +<p>"No. I told him."</p> + +<p>"How did you know?"</p> + +<p>"By intuition, and my knowledge of previous circumstances."</p> + +<p>"We have no time to discuss it. I make no attempt to conceal it now; but +I ask that, on your honor, neither you nor he reveal it."</p> + +<p>"And continue to let the garrison believe that you were in Miss +Renwick's room that ghastly night?" asked Armitage, dryly.</p> + +<p>Jerrold flushed: "I have denied that, and I would have proved my <i>alibi</i> +could I have done so without betraying a woman's secret. Must I tell?"</p> + +<p>"So far as I am concerned, Mr. Jerrold," said Armitage, with cold and +relentless meaning, "you not only must tell—you must <i>prove</i>—both that +night's doings and Saturday night's,—both that and how you obtained +that photograph."</p> + +<p>"My God! In one case it is a woman's name; in the other I have promised +on honor not to reveal it."</p> + +<p>"That ends it, then. You remain here in close arrest, and the <a name="Page_287" id="Page_287"></a>charges +against you will be pushed to the bitter end. I will write them this +very hour."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XVI" id="XVI"></a>XVI.</h2> + + +<p>At ten o'clock that morning, shortly after a smiling interview with the +ladies of Fort Sibley, in which, with infinite spirit and the most +perfect self-control, Miss Beaubien had informed them that she had +promised to lead with Mr. Jerrold, and, since he was in duress, she +would lead with no one, and sent them off wondering and greatly excited, +there came running up to the carriage a telegraph messenger boy, who +handed her a despatch.</p> + +<p>"I was going up to the avenue, mum," he explained, "but I seen you +here."</p> + +<p>Nina's face paled as she tore it open and read the curt lines:</p> + +<p>"Come to me, here. Your help needed instantly."</p> + +<p>She sprang from the carriage. "Tell mother I have gone over to see some +Fort friends,—not to wait," she called to the coachman, well knowing he +would understand that she meant the ladies with whom she had been so +recently talking. Like a frightened deer she sped around the corner, +hailed the driver of a cab, lounging with his fellows along the walk, +ordered him to drive with all speed to Summit Avenue, and with beating +heart decided on her plan. Her glorious eyes were flashing: the native +courage and fierce determination of her race were working in her woman's +heart. She well knew that imminent danger threatened him. She had dared +everything for love of his mere presence, his sweet caress. What would +she not dare to save him, if save she could? He had not been true to +her. She knew, and knew well, that, whether sought or not, Alice Renwick +had been winning him from her, that he was wavering, that he had been +cold and negligent; but with all her soul and strength she loved him, +and believed him grand and brave and fine as he was beautiful. Now—now +was her opportunity. He needed her. His commission, his honor, depended +on her. He had intimated as much the night before,—had told her of the +accusations and suspicions that attached to him,—but made no mention of +the photograph. He had said that though nothing could drag from him a +word that would compromise <i>her</i>, <i>she</i> might be called upon to stand +'twixt him and ruin; and now perhaps the hour had come. She could free, +exonerate, glorify him, and in doing so claim him for her own. Who, +after this, could stand 'twixt her and him? He loved her, <a name="Page_288" id="Page_288"></a>though he +<i>had</i> been cold; and she—? Had he bidden her bow her dusky head to +earth and kiss the print of his heel, she would have obeyed could she +but feel sure that her reward would be a simple touch of his hand, an +assurance that no other woman could find a moment's place in his love. +Verily, he had been doing desperate wooing in the long winter, for the +very depths of her nature were all athrob with love for him. And now he +could no longer plead that poverty withheld his offer of his hand. She +would soon be mistress of her own little fortune, and, at her mother's +death, of an independence. Go to him she would, and on wings of the +wind, and go she did. The cab released her at the gate to her home, and +went back with a double fare that set the driver to thinking. She sped +through the house, and out the rear doors, much to the amaze of cook and +others who were in consultation in the kitchen. She flew down a winding +flight of stairs to the level below, and her fairy feet went tripping +over the pavement of a plebeian street. A quick turn, and she was at a +little second-rate stable, whose proprietor knew her and started from +his chair.</p> + +<p>"What's wrong to-day, Miss Nina?"</p> + +<p>"I want the roan mare and light buggy again,—quick as you can. Your own +price at the old terms, Mr. Graves,—silence."</p> + +<p>He nodded, called to a subordinate, and in five minutes handed her into +the frail vehicle. An impatient chirrup and flap of the reins, and the +roan shot forth into the dusty road, leaving old Graves shaking his head +at the door.</p> + +<p>"I've known her ever since she was weaned," he muttered, "and she's a +wild bird, if ever there was one, but she's never been the like o' this +till last month."</p> + +<p>And the roan mare was covered with foam and sweat when Nina Beaubien +drove into the bustling fort, barely an hour after her receipt of +Jerrold's telegram. A few officers were gathered in front of +head-quarters, and there were curious looks from face to face as she was +recognized. Mr. Rollins was on the walk, giving some instructions to a +sergeant of his company, and never saw her until the buggy reined up +close behind him and, turning suddenly, he met her face to face as she +sprang lightly to the ground. The young fellow reddened to his eyes, and +would have recoiled, but she was mistress of the situation. She well +knew she had but to command and he would obey, or, at the most, if she +could no longer command she had only to implore, and he would be +powerless to withstand her entreaty.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289"></a>"I am glad <i>you</i> are here, Mr. Rollins. You can help me.—Sergeant, +will you kindly hitch my horse at that post?—Now," she added, in low, +hurried tone, "come with me to Mr. Jerrold's."</p> + +<p>Rollins was too stupefied to answer. Silently he placed himself by her +side, and together they passed the group at the office. Miss Beaubien +nodded with something of her old archness and coquetry to the +cap-raising party, but never hesitated. Together they passed along the +narrow board walk, followed by curious eyes, and as they reached the +angle and stepped beneath the shelter of the piazza in front of the +long, low, green-blinded Bachelors' Row, there was sudden sensation in +the group. Mr. Jerrold appeared at the door of his quarters; Rollins +halted some fifty feet away, raised his cap, and left her; and, all +alone, with the eyes of Fort Sibley upon her, Nina Beaubien stepped +bravely forward to meet her lover.</p> + +<p>They saw him greet her at the door. Some of them turned away, unwilling +to look, and yet unwilling to go and not understand this new phase of +the mystery. Rollins, looking neither to right nor left, repassed them +and walked off with a set, savage look on his young face, and then, as +one or two still gazed, fascinated by this strange and daring +proceeding, others, too, turned back and, half ashamed of themselves for +such a yielding to curiosity, glanced furtively over at Jerrold's door.</p> + +<p>There they stood,—he, restrained by his arrest, unable to come forth; +she, restrained more by his barring form than by any consideration of +maidenly reserve, for, had he bidden, she would have gone within. She +had fully made up her mind that wherever he was, even were it behind the +sentinels and bars of the guard-house, she would demand that she be +taken to his side. He had handed out a chair, but she would not sit. +They saw her looking up into his face as he talked, and noted the eager +gesticulation, so characteristic of his Creole blood, that seemed to +accompany his rapid words. They saw her bending towards him, looking +eagerly up in his eyes, and occasionally casting indignant glances over +towards the group at the office, as though she would annihilate with her +wrath the persecutors of her hero. Then they saw her stretch forth both +her hands with a quick impulsive movement, and grasp his one instant, +looking so faithfully, steadfastly, loyally, into his clouded and +anxious face. Then she turned, and with quick, eager steps came tripping +towards them. They stood irresolute. Every man felt that it was +somebody's duty to step forward, meet her, <a name="Page_290" id="Page_290"></a>and be her escort though the +party, but no one advanced. There was, if anything, a tendency to sidle +towards the office door, as though to leave the sidewalk unimpeded. But +she never sought to pass them by. With flashing eyes and crimson cheeks, +she bore straight upon them, and, with indignant emphasis upon every +word, accosted them:</p> + +<p>"Captain Wilton, Major Sloat, I wish to see Captain Chester at once. Is +he in the office?"</p> + +<p>"Certainly, Miss Beaubien. Shall I call him? or will you walk in?" And +both men were at her side in a moment.</p> + +<p>"Thanks. I will go right in,—if you will kindly show me to him."</p> + +<p>Another moment, and Armitage and Chester, deep in the midst of their +duties and surrounded by clerks and orderlies and assailed by half a +dozen questions in one and the same instant, looked up astonished as +Wilton stepped in and announced Miss Beaubien desiring to see Captain +Chester on immediate business. There was no time for conference. There +she stood in the door-way, and all tongues were hushed on the instant. +Chester rose and stepped forward with anxious courtesy. She did not +choose to see the extended hand.</p> + +<p>"It is you, alone, I wish to see, captain. Is it impossible here?"</p> + +<p>"I fear it is, Miss Beaubien; but we can walk out in the open air. I +feel that I know what it is you wish to say to me," he added, in a low +tone, took his cap from the peg on which it hung, and led the way. Again +she passed through the curious, but respectful group, and Jerrold, +watching furtively from his window, saw them come forth.</p> + +<p>The captain turned to her as soon as they were out of earshot:</p> + +<p>"I have no daughter of my own, my dear young lady, but if I had I could +not more thoroughly feel for you than I do. How can I help you?"</p> + +<p>The reply was unexpectedly spirited. He had thought to encourage and +sustain her, be sympathetic and paternal, but, as he afterwards ruefully +admitted, he "never did seem to get the hang of a woman's temperament." +Apparently sympathy was not the thing she needed.</p> + +<p>"It is late in the day to ask such a question, Captain Chester. You have +done great wrong and injustice. The question is now, will you undo it?"</p> + +<p>He was too surprised to speak for a moment. When his tongue was unloosed +he said,—</p> + +<p>"I shall be glad to be convinced I was wrong."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291"></a>"I know little of army justice or army laws, Captain Chester, but when +a girl is compelled to take this step to rescue a friend there is +something brutal about them,—or the men who enforce them. Mr. Jerrold +tells me that he is arrested. I knew that last night, but not until this +morning did he consent to let me know that he would be court-martialled +unless he could prove where he was the night you were officer of the day +two weeks ago, and last Saturday night. He is too noble and good to +defend himself when by doing so he might harm me. But I am here to free +him from the cruel suspicion you have formed." She had quickened her +step, and in her impulsiveness and agitation they were almost at the end +of the walk. He hesitated, as though reluctant to go along under the +piazza, but she was imperious, and he yielded. "No, come!" she said. "I +mean that you shall hear the whole truth, and that at once. I do not +expect you to understand or condone my conduct, but you must acquit him. +We are engaged; and—I love him. He has enemies here, as I see all too +plainly, and they have prejudiced mother against him, and she has +forbidden my seeing him. I came out to the fort without her knowledge +one day, and it angered her. From that time she would not let me see him +alone. She watched every movement, and came with me wherever I drove. +She gave orders that I should never have any of our horses to drive or +ride alone,—I, whom father had indulged to the utmost and who had +ridden and driven at will from my babyhood. She came out to the fort +with me that evening for parade, and never even agreed to let me go out +to see some neighbors until she learned he was to escort Miss Renwick. +She had ordered me to be ready to go with her to Chequamagon the next +day, and I would not go until I had seen him. There had been a +misunderstanding. I got the Suttons to drive me out while mother +supposed me at the Laurents', and Mr. Jerrold promised to meet me east +of the bridge and drive in town with us, and I was to send him back in +Graves's buggy. He had been refused permission to leave the post, he +said, and could not cross the bridge, where the sentries would be sure +to recognize him, but, as it was our last chance of meeting, he risked +the discovery of his absence, never dreaming of such a thing as his +private rooms being inspected. He had a little skiff down in the willows +that he had used before, and by leaving the party at midnight he could +get home, change his dress, run down the bank and row down-stream to the +Point, there leave his skiff and climb up to the road. He met us there +at one o'clock, and the Suttons would <a name="Page_292" id="Page_292"></a>never betray either of us, though +they did not know we were engaged. We sat in their parlor a quarter of +an hour after we got to town, and then 'twas time to go, and there was +only a little ten minutes' walk down to the stable. I had seen him such +a very short time, and I had so much to tell him." (Chester could have +burst into rapturous applause had she been an actress. Her cheeks were +aflame, her eyes full of fire and spirit, her bosom heaving, her little +foot tapping the ground, as she stood there leaning on the colonel's +fence and looking straight up in the perturbed veteran's face. She was +magnificent, he said to himself; and, in her bravery, self-sacrifice, +and indignation, she <i>was</i>.) "It was then after two, and I could just as +well go with him,—somebody had to bring the buggy back,—and Graves +himself hitched in his roan mare for me, and I drove out, picked up Mr. +Jerrold at the corner, and we came out here again through the darkness +together. Even when we got to the Point I did not let him go at once. It +was over an hour's drive. It was fully half-past three before we parted. +He sprang down the path to reach the river-side; and before he was +fairly in his boat and pulling up against the stream, I heard, far over +here somewhere, those two faint shots. That was the shooting he spoke of +in his letter to me,—not to her; and what business Colonel Maynard had +to read and exhibit to his officers a letter never intended for him I +cannot understand. Mr. Jerrold says it was not what he wanted it to be +at all, as he wrote hastily, so he wrote another, and sent that to me by +Merrick that morning after his absence was discovered. It probably blew +out of the window, as these other things did this morning. See for +yourself, captain." And she pointed to the two or three bills and scraps +that had evidently only recently fluttered in among the now neglected +roses. "Then when he was aroused at reveille and you threatened him with +punishment and held over his head the startling accusation that you knew +of our meeting and our secret, he was naturally infinitely distressed, +and could only write to warn me, and he managed to get in and say +good-by to me at the station. As for me, I was back home by five +o'clock, let myself noiselessly up to my room, and no one knew it but +the Suttons and old Graves, neither of whom would betray me. I had no +fear of the long dark road: I had ridden and driven as a child all over +these bluffs and prairies before there was any town worth mentioning, +and in days when my father and I found only friends—not enemies—here +at Sibley."</p> + +<p>"Miss Beaubien, let me protest against your accusation. It is not <a name="Page_293" id="Page_293"></a>for +me to reprove your grave imprudence or recklessness; nor have I the +right to disapprove your choice of Mr. Jerrold. Let me say at once that +you have none but friends here; and if it ever should be known to what +lengths you went to save him, it will only make him more envied and you +more genuinely admired. I question your wisdom, but, upon my soul, I +admire your bravery and spirit. You have cleared him of a terrible +charge."</p> + +<p>A most disdainful and impatient shrug of her shapely shoulders was Miss +Beaubien's only answer to that allusion. The possibility of Mr. +Jerrold's being suspected of another entanglement was something she +would not tolerate:</p> + +<p>"I know nothing of other people's affairs. I simply speak of my own. Let +us end this as quickly as possible, captain. Now about Saturday night. +Mother had consented to our coming back for the german,—she enjoys +seeing me lead, it seems,—and she decided to pay a short visit to +relations at St. Croix, staying there Saturday night and over Sunday. +This would give us a chance to meet again, as he could spend the evening +in St. Croix and return by late train, and I wrote and asked him. He +came; we had a long talk in the summer-house in the garden, for mother +never dreamed of his being there, and unluckily he just missed the night +train and did not get back until inspection. It was impossible for him +to have been at Sablon; and he can furnish other proof, but would do +nothing until he had seen me."</p> + +<p>"Miss Beaubien, you have cleared him. I only wish that you could +clear—every one."</p> + +<p>"I am in no wise concerned in that other matter to which you have +alluded; neither is Mr. Jerrold. May I say to him at once that this ends +his persecution?"</p> + +<p>The captain smiled: "You certainly deserve to be the bearer of good +tidings. I wish he may appreciate it."</p> + +<p>Another moment, and she had left him and sped back to Jerrold's +door-way. He was there to meet her, and Chester looked with grim and +uncertain emotion at the radiance in her face. He had to get back to the +office and to pass them: so, as civilly as he could, considering the +weight of wrath and contempt he felt for the man, he stopped and spoke:</p> + +<p>"Your fair advocate has been all-powerful, Mr. Jerrold. I congratulate +you; and your arrest is at an end. Captain Armitage will <a name="Page_294" id="Page_294"></a>require no +duty of you until we are aboard; but we've only half an hour. The train +is coming sharp at noon."</p> + +<p>"Train! What train! Where are you going?" she asked, a wild anxiety in +her eyes, a sudden pallor on her face.</p> + +<p>"We are ordered post-haste to Colorado, Nina, to rescue what is left of +Thornton's men. But for you I should have been left behind."</p> + +<p>"But for me!—left behind!" she cried. "Oh, Howard, Howard! have I +only—only won you to send you into danger? Oh, my darling! Oh, God! +Don't—don't go! They will kill you! It will kill me! Oh, what have I +done? what have I done?"</p> + +<p>"Nina, hush! My honor is with the regiment. I <i>must</i> go, child. We'll be +back in a few weeks. Indeed, I fear 'twill all be over before we get +there. <i>Nina</i>, don't look so! Don't act so! Think where you are!"</p> + +<p>But she had borne too much, and the blow came all too soon,—too heavy. +She was wellnigh senseless when the Beaubien carriage came whirling into +the fort and old Maman rushed forth in voluble and rabid charge upon her +daughter. All too late! it was useless now. Her darling's heart was +weaned away, and her love lavished on that tall, objectionable young +soldier so soon to go forth to battle. Reproaches, tears, wrath, were +all in order, but were abandoned at sight of poor Nina's agony of grief. +Noon came, and the train, and with buoyant tread the gallant command +marched down the winding road and filed aboard the cars, and Howard +Jerrold, shame-stricken, humbled at the contemplation of his own +unworthiness, slowly unclasped her arms from about his neck, laid one +long kiss upon her white and quivering lips, took one brief look in the +great, dark, haunting, despairing eyes, and carried her wail of anguish +ringing in his ears as he sprang aboard and was whirled away.</p> + +<p>But there were women who deemed themselves worse off than Nina +Beaubien,—the wives and daughters and sweethearts whom she met that +morn in town; for when they got back to Sibley the regiment was miles +away. For them there was not even a kiss from the lips of those they +loved. Time and train waited for no woman. There were comrades battling +for life in the Colorado Rockies, and aid could not come too soon.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /><p><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295"></a></p> +<h2><a name="XVII" id="XVII"></a>XVII.</h2> + + +<p>Under the cloudless heavens, under the starlit skies, blessing the +grateful dew that cools the upland air and moistens the bunch-grass that +has been bleaching all day in the fierce rays of the summer sun, a +little column of infantry is swinging steadily southward. Long and +toilsome has been the march; hot, dusty, and parching the day. Halts +have been few and far between, and every man, from the colonel down, is +coated with a gray mask of powdered alkali, the contribution of a two +hours' tramp through Deadman's Cañon just before the sun went down. Now, +however, they are climbing the range. The morrow will bring them to the +broad and beautiful valley of the Spirit Wolf, and there they must have +news. Officers and men are footsore and weary, but no one begs for rest. +Colonel Maynard, riding ahead on a sorry hack he picked up at the +station two days' long march behind them, is eager to reach the springs +at Forest Glade before ordering bivouac for the night. A week agone no +one who saw him at Sablon would have thought the colonel fit for a march +like this; but he seems rejuvenate. His head is high, his eye as bright, +his bearing as full of spirit, as man's could possibly be at sixty, and +the whole regiment cheered him when he caught the column at Omaha. A +talk with Chester and Armitage seemed to have made a new man of him, and +to-night he is full of an energy that inspires the entire command. +Though they were farther away than many other troops ordered to the +scene, the fact that their station was on the railway and that they +could be sent by special trains to Omaha and thence to the West enabled +them to begin their rescue-march ahead of all the other foot-troops and +behind only the powerful command of cavalry that was whirled to the +scene the moment the authorities woke up to the fact that it should have +been sent in the first place. Old Maynard would give his very ears to +get to Thornton's corral ahead of them, but the cavalry has thirty-six +hours' start and four legs to two. Every moment he looks ahead expectant +of tidings from the front that shall tell him the ——th were there and +the remnant rescued. Even then, he knows, he and his long Springfields +will be needed. The cavalry can fight their way in to the succor of the +besieged, but once there will be themselves surrounded and too few in +numbers to begin aggressive movements. He and his will indeed be welcome +reinforcements; and so they trudge ahead.</p> + +<p>The moon is up and it is nearly ten o'clock when high up on the <a name="Page_296" id="Page_296"></a>rolling +divide the springs are reached, and, barely waiting to quench their +thirst in the cooling waters, the wearied men roll themselves in their +blankets under the giant trees, and, guarded by a few outlying pickets, +are soon asleep. Most of the officers have sprawled around a little fire +and are burning their boot-leather thereat. The colonel, his adjutant, +and the doctor are curled up under a tent-fly that serves by day as a +wrap for the rations and cooking-kit they carry on pack-mule. Two +company commanders,—the Alpha and Omega of the ten, as Major Sloat +dubbed them,—the senior and junior in rank, Chester and Armitage by +name, have rolled themselves in their blankets under another tent-fly +and are chatting in low tones before dropping off to sleep. They have +been inseparable on the journey thus far, and the colonel has had two or +three long talks with them; but who knows what the morrow may bring +forth? There is still much to settle.</p> + +<p>One officer, he of the guard, is still afoot, and trudging about among +the trees, looking after his sentries. Another officer, also alone, is +sitting in silence smoking a pipe: it is Mr. Jerrold.</p> + +<p>Cleared though he is of the charges originally brought against him in +the minds of his colonel and Captain Chester, he has lost caste with his +fellows and with them. Only two or three men have been made aware of the +statement which acquitted him, but every one knows instinctively that he +was saved by Nina Beaubien, and that in accepting his release at her +hands he had put her to a cruel expense. Every man among his brother +officers knows in some way that he has been acquitted of having +compromised Alice Renwick's fair fame only by an <i>alibi</i> that +correspondingly harmed another. The fact now generally known, that they +were betrothed, and that the engagement was openly announced, made no +difference. Without being able to analyze his conduct, the regiment was +satisfied that it had been selfish and contemptible; and that was enough +to warrant giving him the cold shoulder. He was quick to see and take +the hint, and, in bitter distress of mind, to withdraw himself from +their companionship. He had hoped and expected that his eagerness to go +with them on the wild and sudden campaign would reinstate him in their +good graces, but it failed utterly. "Any man would seek <i>that</i>," was the +verdict of the informal council held by the officers. "He would have +been a poltroon if he hadn't sought to go; but, while he isn't a +poltroon, he has done a contemptible thing." And so it stood. Rollins +had cut him dead, refused his hand, and denied him a chance to explain. +"Tell him he can't explain," was <a name="Page_297" id="Page_297"></a>the savage reply he sent by the +adjutant, who consented to carry Jerrold's message in order that he +might have fair play. "He knows, without explanation, the wrong he has +done to more than one. I won't have anything to do with him."</p> + +<p>Others avoided him, and only coldly spoke to him when speech was +necessary. Chester treated him with marked aversion; the colonel would +not look at him; only Armitage—his captain—had a decent word for him +at any time, and even he was stern and cold. The most envied and +careless of the entire command, the Adonis, the beau, the crack shot, +the graceful leader in all garrison gayeties, the beautiful dancer, +rider, tennis-player, the adored of so many sentimental women at Sibley, +poor Jerrold had found his level, and his proud and sensitive though +selfish heart was breaking.</p> + +<p>Sitting alone under the trees, he had taken a sheet of paper from his +pocket-case and was writing by the light of the rising moon. One letter +was short and easily written, for with a few words he had brought it to +a close, then folded and in a bold and vigorous hand addressed it. The +other was far longer; and over this one, thinking deeply, erasing some +words and pondering much over others, he spent a long hour. It was +nearly midnight, and he was chilled to the heart, when he stiffly rose +and took his way among the blanketed groups to the camp-fire around +which so many of his wearied comrades were sleeping the sleep of the +tired soldier. Here he tore to fragments and scattered in the embers +some notes and letters that were in his pockets. They blazed up +brightly, and by the glare he stood one moment studying young Rollins's +smooth and placid features; then he looked around on the unconscious +circle of bronzed and bearded faces. There were many types of soldier +there,—men who had led brigades through the great war and gone back to +the humble bars of the line-officer at its close; men who had led fierce +charges against the swarming Indians in the rough old days of the first +prairie railways; men who had won distinction and honorable mention in +hard and trying frontier service; men who had their faults and foibles +and weaknesses like other men, and were aggressive or compliant, +strong-willed or yielding, overbearing or meek, as are their brethren in +other walks of life; men who were simple of heart, single in purpose and +ambition, diverse in characteristics, but unanimous in one trait,—no +meanness could live among them; and Jerrold's heart sank within him, +colder, lower, stonier than before, as he looked from face to face and +cast up mentally the sum of <a name="Page_298" id="Page_298"></a>each man's character. His hospitality had +been boundless, his bounty lavish; one and all they had eaten of his +loaf and drunk of his cup; but was there among them one who could say of +him, "He is generous and I stand his friend"? Was there one of them, one +of theirs, for whom he had ever denied himself a pleasure, great or +small? He looked at poor old Gray, with his wrinkled, anxious face, and +thought of his distress of mind. Only a few thousands—not three years' +pay—had the veteran scraped and saved and stored away for his little +girl, whose heart was aching with its first cruel sorrow,—<i>his</i> work, +<i>his</i> undoing, his cursed, selfish greed for adulation, his reckless +love of love. The morrow's battle, if it came, might leave her orphaned +and alone, and, poor as it was, a father's pitying sympathy could not be +her help with the coming year. Would Gray mourn him if the fortune of +war made <i>him</i> the victim? Would any one of those averted faces look +with pity and regret upon his stiffening form? Would there be any one on +earth to whom his death would be a sorrow, but Nina? Would it even be a +blow to her? She loved him wildly, he knew that; but <i>would</i> she did she +but dream the truth? He knew her nature well. He knew how quickly such +burning love could turn to fiercest hate when convinced that the object +was utterly untrue. He had said nothing to her of the photograph, +nothing at all of Alice except to protest time and again that his +attentions to her were solely to win the good will of the colonel's +family and of the colonel himself, so that he might be proof against the +machinations of his foes. And yet had he not, that very night on which +he crossed the stream and let her peril her name and honor for one +stolen interview—had he not gone to her exultant welcome with a +traitorous knowledge gnawing at his heart? That very night, before they +parted at the colonel's door had he not lied to Alice Renwick?—had he +not denied the story of his devotion to Miss Beaubien, and was not his +practised eye watching eagerly the beautiful dark face for one sign that +the news was welcome, and so precipitate the avowal trembling on his +lips that it was <i>her</i> he madly loved,—not Nina? Though she hurriedly +bade him good-night, though she was unprepared for any such +announcement, he well knew that Alice Renwick's heart fluttered at the +earnestness of his manner, and that he had indicated far more than he +had said. Fear—not love—had drawn him to Nina Beaubien that night, and +hope had centred on her more beautiful rival, when the discoveries of +the night involved him in the first trembling symptoms of the downfall +to come. And he was to have <a name="Page_299" id="Page_299"></a>spent the morning with her, the woman to +whom he had lied in word, while she to whom he had lied in word and deed +was going from him, not to return until the german, and even then he +planned treachery. He meant to lead with Alice Renwick and claim that it +<i>must</i> be with the colonel's daughter because the ladies of the garrison +were the givers. Then, he knew, Nina would not come at all, and, +possibly, might quarrel with him on that ground. What could have been an +easier solution of his troublous predicament? She would break their +secret engagement; he would refuse all reconciliation, and be free to +devote himself to Alice. But all these grave complications had arisen. +Alice would not come. Nina wrote demanding that he should lead with her, +and that he should meet her at St. Croix; and then came the crash. He +owed his safety to her self-sacrifice, and now must give up all hope of +Alice Renwick. He had accepted the announcement of their engagement. He +<i>could</i> not do less, after all that had happened and the painful scene +at their parting. And yet would it not be a blessing to her if he were +killed? Even now in his self-abnegation and misery he did not fully +realize how mean he was,—how mean he seemed to others. He resented in +his heart what Sloat had said of him but the day before, little caring +whether he heard it or not: "It would be a mercy to that poor girl if +Jerrold were killed. He will break her heart with neglect, or drive her +mad with jealousy, inside of a year." But the regiment seemed to agree +with Sloat.</p> + +<p>And so in all that little band of comrades he could call no man friend. +One after another he looked upon the unconscious faces, cold and averted +in the oblivion of sleep, but not more cold, not more distrustful, than +when he had vainly sought among them one relenting glance in the early +moonlight that battle eve in bivouac. He threw his arms upward, shook +his head with hopeless gesture, then buried his face in the sleeves of +his rough campaign overcoat and strode blindly from their midst.</p> + +<p>Early in the morning, an hour before daybreak, the shivering out-post +crouching in a hollow to the southward catch sight of two dim figures +shooting suddenly up over a distant ridge,—horsemen, they know at a +glance,—and these two come loping down the moonlit trail over which two +nights before had marched the cavalry speeding to the rescue, over which +in an hour the regiment itself must be on the move. Old campaigners are +two of the picket, and they have been especially cautioned to be on the +lookout for couriers coming back along the trail.<a name="Page_300" id="Page_300"></a> They spring to their +feet, in readiness to welcome or repel, as the sentry rings out his +sharp and sudden challenge.</p> + +<p>"Couriers from the corral," is the jubilant answer. "This Colonel +Maynard's outfit?"</p> + +<p>"Ay, ay, sonny," is the unmilitary but characteristic answer. "What's +your news?"</p> + +<p>"Got there in time, and saved what's left of 'em; but it's a hell-hole, +and you fellows are wanted quick as you can come,—thirty miles ahead. +Where's the colonel?"</p> + +<p>The corporal of the guard goes back to the bivouac, leading the two +arrivals. One is a scout, a plainsman born and bred, the other a +sergeant of cavalry. They dismount in the timber and picket their +horses, then follow on foot the lead of their companion of the guard. +While the corporal and the scout proceed to the wagon-fly and fumble at +the opening, the tall sergeant stands silently a little distance in +their rear, and the occupants of a neighboring shelter—the counterpart +of the colonel's—begin to stir, as though their light slumber had been +broken by the smothered sound of footsteps. One of them sits up and +peers out at the front, gazing earnestly at the tall figure standing +easily there in the flickering light. Then he hails in low tones:</p> + +<p>"That you, Mr. Jerrold? What is the matter?"</p> + +<p>And the tall figure faces promptly towards the hailing voice. The +spurred heels come together with a click, the gauntleted hand rises in +soldierly salute to the broad brim of the scouting-hat, and a deep voice +answers, respectfully,—</p> + +<p>"It is not Mr. Jerrold, sir. It is Sergeant McLeod, ——th Cavalry, just +in with despatches."</p> + +<p>Armitage springs to his feet, sheds his shell of blankets, and steps +forth into the glade with his eyes fixed eagerly on the shadowy form in +front. He peers under the broad brim, as though striving to see the eyes +and features of the tall dragoon.</p> + +<p>"Did you get there in time?" he asks, half wondering whether that was +really the question uppermost in his mind.</p> + +<p>"In time to save the survivors, sir; but no attack will be made until +the infantry get there."</p> + +<p>"Were you not at Sibley last month?" asks the captain, quickly.</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir,—with the competitors."</p> + +<p>"You went back before your regimental team, did you not?"</p> + +<p>"I—No, sir: I went back with them."</p> + +<p><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301"></a>"You were relieved from duty at Sibley and ordered back before them, +were you not?"</p> + +<p>Even in the pallid light Armitage could see the hesitation, the flurry +of surprise and distress, in the sergeant's face.</p> + +<p>"Don't fear to tell me, man: I would rather hear it than any news you +could give me. I would rather know you were <i>not</i> Sergeant McLeod than +any fact you could tell. Speak low, man, but tell me here and now. +Whatever motive you may have had for this disguise, whatever anger or +sorrows in the past, you must sink them now to save the honor of the +woman your madness has perilled. Answer me, for your sister's sake: are +you not Fred Renwick?"</p> + +<p>"Do you swear to me she is in danger?"</p> + +<p>"By all that's sacred; and you ought to know it."</p> + +<p>"I <i>am</i> Fred Renwick. Now what can I do?"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XVIII" id="XVIII"></a>XVIII.</h2> + + +<p>The sun is not an hour high, but the bivouac at the springs is far +behind. With advance-guard and flankers well out, the regiment is +tramping its way, full of eagerness and spirit. The men can hardly +refrain from bursting into song, but, although at "route step," the fact +that Indian scouts have already been sighted scurrying from bluff to +bluff is sufficient to warn all hands to be silent and alert. Wilton +with his company is on the dangerous flank, and guards it well. Armitage +with Company B covers the advance, and his men are strung out in long +skirmish-line across the trail wherever the ground is sufficiently open +to admit of deployment. Where it is not, they spring ahead and explore +every point where Indian may lurk, and render ambuscade of the main +column impossible. With Armitage is McLeod, the cavalry sergeant who +made the night ride with the scout who bore the despatches. The scout +has galloped on towards the railway with news of the rescue, the +sergeant guides the infantry reinforcement. Observant men have noted +that Armitage and the sergeant have had a vast deal to say to each other +during the chill hours of the early morn. Others have noted that at the +first brief halt the captain rode back, called Colonel Maynard to one +side, and spoke to him in low tones. The colonel was seen to start with +astonishment. Then he said a few words to his second in command, and +rode forward with Armitage to join the advance. When the regiment moved +on again and the head of column <a name="Page_302" id="Page_302"></a>hove in sight of the skirmishers, they +saw that the colonel, Armitage, and the sergeant of cavalry were riding +side by side, and that the officers were paying close attention to all +the dragoon was saying. All were eager to hear the particulars of the +condition of affairs at the corral, and all were disposed to be envious +of the mounted captain who could ride alongside the one participant in +the rescuing charge and get it all at first hand. The field-officers, of +course, were mounted, but every line-officer marched afoot with his men, +except that three horses had been picked up at the railway and impressed +by the quartermaster in case of need, and these were assigned to the +captains who happened to command the skirmishers and flankers.</p> + +<p>But no man had the faintest idea what manner of story that tall sergeant +was telling. It would have been of interest to every soldier in the +command, but to no one so much so as to the two who were his absorbed +listeners. Armitage, before their early march, had frankly and briefly +set before him his suspicions as to the case, and the trouble in which +Miss Renwick was involved. No time was to be lost. Any moment might find +them plunged in fierce battle; and who could foretell the results?—who +could say what might happen to prevent this her vindication ever +reaching the ears of her accusers? Some men wondered why it was that +Colonel Maynard sent his compliments to Captain Chester and begged that +at the next halt he would join him. The halt did not come for a long +hour, and when it did come it was very brief, but Chester received +another message, and went forward to find his colonel sitting in a +little grove with the cavalryman, while the orderly held their horses a +short space away. Armitage had gone forward to his advance, and Chester +showed no surprise at the sight of the sergeant seated side by side with +the colonel and in confidential converse with him. There was a quaint, +sly twinkle in Maynard's eyes as he greeted his old friend.</p> + +<p>"Chester," said he, "I want you to be better acquainted with my +step-son, Mr. Renwick. He has an apology to make to you."</p> + +<p>The tall soldier had risen the instant he caught sight of the newcomer, +and even at the half-playful tone of the colonel would relax in no +degree his soldierly sense of the proprieties. He stood erect and held +his hand at the salute, only very slowly lowering it to take the one so +frankly extended him by the captain, who, however, was grave and quiet.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303"></a>"I have suspected as much since daybreak," he said; "and no man is +gladder to know it is you than I am."</p> + +<p>"You would have known it before, sir, had I had the faintest idea of the +danger in which my foolhardiness had involved my sister. The colonel has +told you of my story. I have told him and Captain Armitage what led to +my mad freak at Sibley; and, while I have much to make amends for, I +want to apologize for the blow I gave you that night on the terrace. I +was far more scared than you were, sir."</p> + +<p>"I think we can afford to forgive him, Chester. He knocked us both out," +said the colonel.</p> + +<p>Chester bowed gravely. "That was the easiest part of the affair to +forgive," he said, "and it is hardly for me, I presume, to be the only +one to blame the sergeant for the trouble that has involved us all, +especially your household, colonel."</p> + +<p>"It was expensive masquerading, to say the least," replied the colonel; +"but he never realized the consequences until Armitage told him to-day. +You must hear his story in brief, Chester. It is needful that three or +four of us know it, so that some may be left to set things right at +Sibley. God grant us all safe return!" he added, piously, and with deep +emotion. "I can far better appreciate our home and happiness than I +could a month ago. Now, Renwick, tell the captain what you have told +us."</p> + +<p>And briefly it <i>was</i> told: how in his youthful fury he had sworn never +again to set foot within the door of the father and mother who had so +wronged the poor girl he loved with boyish fervor; how he called down +the vengeance of heaven upon them in his frenzy and distress; how he had +sworn never again to set eyes on their faces. "May God strike me dead if +ever I return to this roof until she is avenged! May He deal with you as +you have dealt with her!" was the curse that flew from his wild lips, +and with that he left them, stunned. He went West, was soon penniless, +and, caring not what he did, seeking change, adventure, anything to take +him out of his past, he enlisted in the cavalry, and was speedily +drafted to the ——th, which was just starting forth on a stirring +summer campaign. He was a fine horseman, a fine shot, a man who +instantly attracted the notice of his officers: the campaign was full of +danger, adventure, rapid and constant marching, and before he knew it or +dreamed it possible he had become deeply interested in his new life. +Only in the monotony of a month or two in <a name="Page_304" id="Page_304"></a>garrison that winter did the +service seem intolerable. His comrades were rough, in the main, but +thoroughly good-hearted, and he soon won their esteem. The spring sent +them again into the field; another stirring campaign, and here he won +his stripes, and words of praise from the lips of a veteran general +officer, as well as the promise of future reward; and then the love of +soldierly deeds and the thirst for soldierly renown took firm hold in +his breast. He began to turn towards the mother and father who had been +wrapped up in his future,—who loved him so devotedly. He was forgetting +his early and passionate love, and the bitter sorrow of her death was +losing fast its poignant power to steel him against his kindred. He knew +they could not but be proud of the record he had made in the ranks of +the gallant ——th, and then he shrank and shivered when he recalled the +dreadful words of his curse. He had made up his mind to write, implore +pardon for his hideous and unfilial language, and invoke their interest +in his career, when, returning to Fort Raines for supplies, he picked up +a New York paper in the reading-room and read the announcement of his +father's death, "whose health had been broken ever since the +disappearance of his only son, two years before." The memory of his +malediction had, indeed, come home to him, and he fell, stricken by a +sudden and unaccountable blow. It seemed as though his heart had given +one wild leap, then stopped forever. Things did not go so well after +this. He brooded over his words, and believed that an avenging God had +launched the bolt that killed the father as punishment to the stubborn +and recreant son. He then bethought him of his mother, of pretty Alice, +who had loved him so as a little girl. He could not bring himself to +write, but through inquiries he learned that the house was closed and +that they had gone abroad. He plodded on in his duties a trying year: +then came more lively field-work and reviving interest. He was +forgetting entirely the sting of his first great sorrow, and mourning +gravely the gulf he had placed 'twixt him and his. He thought time and +again of his cruel words, and something began to whisper to him he must +see that mother again at once, kiss her hand, and implore her +forgiveness, or she, too, would be stricken suddenly. He saved up his +money, hoping that after the summer's rifle-work at Sibley he might get +a furlough and go East; and the night he arrived at the fort, tired with +his long railway-journey and panting after a long and difficult climb +up-hill, his mother's face swam suddenly before his eyes, and he felt +himself going down. When they brought him to, <a name="Page_305" id="Page_305"></a>he heard that the ladies +were Mrs. Maynard and her daughter Miss Renwick,—his own mother, +remarried, his own Alice, a grown young woman. This was, indeed, news to +put him in a flutter and spoil his shooting. He realized at once that +the gulf was wider than ever. How could he go to her now, the wife of a +colonel, and he an enlisted man? Like other soldiers, he forgot that the +line of demarcation was one of discipline, not of sympathy. He did not +realize what any soldier among his officers would gladly have told him, +that he was most worthy to reveal himself now,—a non-commissioned +officer whose record was an honor to himself and to his regiment, a +soldier of whom officers and comrades alike were proud. He never +dreamed—indeed, how few there are who do!—that a man of his character, +standing, and ability is honored and respected by the very men whom the +customs of the service require him to speak with only when spoken to. He +supposed that only as Fred Renwick could he extend his hand to one of +their number, whereas it was under his soldier name he won their trust +and admiration, and it was as Sergeant McLeod the officers of the ——th +were backing him for a commission that would make him what they deemed +him fit to be,—their equal. Unable to penetrate the armor of reserve +and discipline which separates the officer from the rank and file, he +never imagined that the colonel would have been the first to welcome him +had he known the truth. He believed that now his last chance of seeing +his mother was gone until that coveted commission was won. Then came +another blow: the doctor told him that with his heart-trouble he could +never pass the physical examination: he could not hope for preferment, +then, and <i>must</i> see her as he was, and see her secretly and alone. Then +came blow after blow. His shooting had failed, so had that of others of +his regiment, and he was ordered to return in charge of the party early +on the morrow. The order reached him late in the evening, and before +breakfast-time on the following day he was directed to start with his +party for town, thence by rail to his distant post. That night, in +desperation, he made his plan. Twice before he had strolled down to the +post and with yearning eyes had studied every feature of the colonel's +house. He dared ask no questions of servants or of the men in garrison, +but he learned enough to know which rooms were theirs, and he had noted +that the windows were always open. If he could only see their loved +faces, kneel and kiss his mother's hand, pray God to forgive him, he +could go away believing that he had undone the spell and revoked the +malediction <a name="Page_306" id="Page_306"></a>of his early youth. It was hazardous, but worth the danger. +He could go in peace and sin no more towards mother, at least; and then +if she mourned and missed him, could he not find it out some day and +make himself known to her after his discharge? He slipped out of camp, +leaving his boots behind, and wearing his light Apache moccasins and +flannel shirt and trousers. Danger to himself he had no great fear of. +If by any chance mother or sister should wake, he had but to stretch +forth his hand and say, "It is only I,—Fred." Danger to <i>them</i> he never +dreamed of.</p> + +<p>Strong and athletic, despite his slender frame, he easily lifted the +ladder from Jerrold's fence, and, dodging the sentry when he spied him +at the gate, finally took it down back of the colonel's and raised it to +a rear window. By the strangest chance the window was closed, and he +could not budge it. Then he heard the challenge of a sentry around on +the east front, and had just time to slip down and lower the ladder when +he heard the rattle of a sword and knew it must be the officer of the +day. There was no time to carry off the ladder. He left it lying where +it was, and sprang down the steps towards the station. Soon he heard +Number Five challenge, and knew the officer had passed on: he waited +some time, but nothing occurred to indicate that the ladder was +discovered, and then, plucking up courage and with a muttered prayer for +guidance and protection, he stole up-hill again, raised the ladder to +the west wall, noiselessly ascended, peered in Alice's window and could +see a faint night-light burning in the hall beyond, but that all was +darkness there, stole around on the roof of the piazza to the hall +window, stepped noiselessly upon the sill, climbed over the lowered +sash, and found himself midway between the rooms. He could hear the +colonel's placid snoring and the regular breathing of the other +sleepers. No time was to be lost. Shading the little night-lamp with one +hand, he entered the open door, stole to the bedside, took one long look +at his mother's face, knelt, breathed upon, but barely brushed with his +trembling lips, the queenly white hand that lay upon the coverlet, +poured forth one brief prayer to God for protection and blessing for her +and forgiveness for him, retraced his steps, and caught sight of the +lovely picture of Alice in the Directoire costume. He longed for it and +could not resist. She had grown so beautiful, so exquisite. He took it, +frame and all, carried it into her room, slipped the card from its place +and hid it inside the breast of his shirt, stowed the frame away behind +her sofa-pillow, then looked long at the lovely picture she her<a name="Page_307" id="Page_307"></a>self +made, lying there sleeping sweetly and peacefully amid the white +drapings of her dainty bed. Then 'twas time to go. He put the lamp back +in the hall, passed through her room, out at her window, and down the +ladder, and had it well on the way back to the hooks on Jerrold's fence +when seized and challenged by the officer of the day. Mad terror +possessed him then. He struck blindly, dashed off in panicky flight, +paid no heed to sentry's cry or whistling missile, but tore like a racer +up the path and never slackened speed till Sibley was far behind.</p> + +<p>When morning came, the order that they should go was temporarily +suspended: some prisoners were sent to a neighboring military prison, +and he was placed in charge, and on his return from this duty learned +that the colonel's family had gone to Sablon. The next thing there was +some strange talk that worried him,—a story that one of the men +who had a sweetheart who was second girl at Mrs. Hoyt's brought out to +camp,—a story that there was an officer who was too much in love +with Alice to keep away from the house even after the colonel so +ordered, and that he was prowling around the other night and the colonel +ordered Leary to shoot him,—Leary, who was on post on Number Five. +He felt sure that something was wrong,—felt sure that it was due +to his night visit,—and his first impulse was to find his mother +and confide the truth to her. He longed to see her again, and if harm +had been done, to make himself known and explain everything. Having no +duties to detain him, he got a pass to visit town and permission to be +gone a day or more. On Saturday evening he ran down to Sablon, drove +over, as Captain Armitage had already told them, and, peering in his +mother's room, saw her, still up, though in her nightdress. He never +dreamed of the colonel's being out and watching. He had "scouted" all +those trees, and no one was nigh. Then he softly called; she heard, and +was coming to him, when again came fierce attack: he had all a soldier's +reverence for the person of the colonel, and would never have harmed him +had he known 'twas he: it was the night watchman that had grappled with +him, he supposed, and he had no compunctions in sending him to grass. +Then he fled again, knowing that he had only made bad worse, walked all +that night to the station next north of Sablon,—a big town where +the early morning train always stopped,—and by ten on Sunday +morning he was in uniform again and off with his regimental comrades +under orders to haste to their station,—there was trouble with the +Indians at Spirit Rock <a name="Page_308" id="Page_308"></a>and the +——th were held in readiness. From beneath his scouting-shirt +he drew a flat packet, an Indian case, which he carefully unrolled, and +there in its folds of wrappings was the lovely Directoire +photograph.</p> + +<p>Whose, then, was the one that Sloat had seen in Jerrold's room? It was +this that Armitage had gone forward to determine, and he found his +sad-eyed lieutenant with the skirmishers.</p> + +<p>"Jerrold," said he, with softened manner, "a strange thing is brought to +light this morning, and I lose no time in telling you. The man who was +seen at Maynard's quarters, coming from Miss Renwick's room, was her own +brother and the colonel's step-son. He was the man who took the +photograph from Mrs. Maynard's room, and has proved it this very +day,—this very hour." Jerrold glanced up in sudden surprise. "He is +with us now, and only one thing remains, which you can clear up. We are +going into action, and I may not get through, nor you, nor—who knows +who? Will you tell us now how you came by your copy of that photograph?"</p> + +<p>For answer Jerrold fumbled in his pocket a moment and drew forth two +letters:</p> + +<p>"I wrote these last night, and it was my intention to see that you had +them before it grew very hot. One is addressed to you, the other to Miss +Beaubien. You had better take them now," he said, wearily. "There may be +no time to talk after this. Send hers after it's over, and don't read +yours until then."</p> + +<p>"Why, I don't understand this, exactly," said Armitage, puzzled. "Can't +you tell me about the picture?"</p> + +<p>"No. I promised not to while I lived; but it's the simplest matter in +the world, and no one at the colonel's had any hand in it. They never +saw this one that I got to show Sloat. It is burned now. I said 'twas +given me. That was hardly the truth. I have paid for it dearly enough."</p> + +<p>"And this note explains it?"</p> + +<p>"Yes. You can read it to-morrow."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XIX" id="XIX"></a>XIX.</h2> + + +<p>And the morrow has come. Down in a deep and bluff-shadowed valley, hung +all around with picturesque crags and pine-crested heights, under a +cloudless September sun whose warmth is tempered by the +<a name="Page_309" id="Page_309"></a>mountain-breeze, a thousand rough-looking, bronzed and bearded and +powder-blackened men are resting after battle.</p> + +<p>Here and there on distant ridge and point the cavalry vedettes keep +vigilant watch, against surprise or renewed attack. Down along the banks +of a clear, purling stream a sentry paces slowly by the brown line of +rifles, swivel-stacked in the sunshine. Men by the dozen are washing +their blistered feet and grimy hands and faces in the cool, refreshing +water; men by the dozen lie soundly sleeping, some in the broad glare, +some in the shade of the little clump of willows, all heedless of the +pestering swarms of flies. Out on the broad, grassy slopes, side-lined +and watched by keen-eyed guards, the herds of cavalry horses are quietly +grazing, forgetful of the wild excitement of yester-even. Every now and +then some one of them lifts his head, pricks up his ears, and snorts and +stamps suspiciously as he sniffs at the puffs of smoke that come +drifting up the valley from the fires a mile away. The waking men, too, +bestow an occasional comment on the odor which greets their nostrils. +Down-stream where the fires are burning are the blackened remnants of a +wagon-train: tires, bolts, and axles are lying about, but all wood-work +is in smouldering ashes; so, too, is all that remains of several +hundred-weight of stores and supplies destined originally to nourish the +Indians, but, by them, diverted to feed the fire.</p> + +<p>There is a big circle of seething flame and rolling smoke here, too,—a +malodorous neighborhood, around which fatigue-parties are working with +averted heads; and among them some surly and unwilling Indians, driven +to labor at the muzzle of threatening revolver or carbine, aid in +dragging to the flames carcass after carcass of horse and mule, and in +gathering together and throwing on the pyre an array of miscellaneous +soldier garments, blouses, shirts, and trousers, all more or less hacked +and blood-stained,—all of no more use to mortal wearer.</p> + +<p>Out on the southern slopes, just where a ravine crowded with wild-rose +bushes opens into the valley, more than half the command is gathered, +formed in rectangular lines about a number of shallow, elongated pits, +in each of which there lies the stiffening form of a comrade who but +yesterday joined in the battle-cheer that burst upon the valley with the +setting sun. Silent and reverent they stand in their rough campaign +garb. The escort of infantry "rests on arms;" the others bow their +uncovered heads, and it is the voice of the veteran colonel that, in +accents trembling with sympathy and emotion, renders the last <a name="Page_310" id="Page_310"></a>tribute +to fallen comrades and lifts to heaven the prayers for the dead. Then +see! The mourning groups break away from the southern side; the brown +rifles of the escort are lifted in air; the listening rocks resound to +the sudden ring of the flashing volley; the soft, low, wailing good-by +of the trumpets goes floating up the vale, and soon the burial-parties +are left alone to cover the once familiar faces with the earth to which +the soldier must return, and the comrades who are left, foot and +dragoon, come marching, silent, back to camp.</p> + +<p>And when the old regiment begins its homeward journey, leaving the +well-won field to the fast-arriving commands and bidding hearty soldier +farewell to the cavalry comrades whose friendship they gained in the +front of a savage foe, the company that was the first to land its fire +in the fight goes back with diminished numbers and under command of its +second lieutenant. Alas, poor Jerrold!</p> + +<p>There is a solemn little group around the camp-fire the night before +they go. Frank Armitage, flat on his back, with a rifle-bullet through +his thigh, but taking things very coolly for all that, is having a quiet +conference with his colonel. Such of the wounded of the entire command +as are well enough to travel by easy stages to the railway go with +Maynard and the regiment in the morning, and Sergeant McLeod, with his +sabre-arm in a sling, is one of these. But the captain of Company B must +wait until the surgeons can lift him along in an ambulance and all fear +of fever has subsided. To the colonel and Chester he hands the note +which is all that is left to comfort poor Nina Beaubien. To them he +reads aloud the note addressed to himself:</p> + +<p>"You are right in saying that the matter of my possession of that +photograph should be explained. I seek no longer to palliate my action. +In making that puppyish bet with Sloat I <i>did</i> believe that I could +induce Miss Renwick or her mother to let me have a copy; but I was +refused so positively that I knew it was useless. This simply added to +my desire to have one. The photographer was the same that took the +pictures and furnished the albums for our class at graduation, and I, +more than any one, had been instrumental in getting the order for him +against very active opposition. He had always professed the greatest +gratitude to me and a willingness to do anything for me. I wrote to him +in strict confidence, told him of the intimate and close relations +existing between the colonel's family and me, told him I wanted it to +enlarge and present to her mother on her approaching birthday, and +promised him that I would never reveal how I came by <a name="Page_311" id="Page_311"></a>the picture so +long as I lived; and he sent me one,—just in time. Have I not paid +heavily for my sin?"</p> + +<p>No one spoke for a moment. Chester was the first to break the silence:</p> + +<p>"Poor fellow! He kept his word to the photographer; but what was it +worth to a woman?"</p> + +<p>There had been a week of wild anxiety and excitement at Sibley. It was +known through the columns of the press that the regiment had hurried +forward from the railway the instant it reached the Colorado trail, that +it could not hope to get through to the valley of the Spirit Wolf +without a fight, and that the moment it succeeded in joining hands with +the cavalry already there a vigorous attack would be made on the +Indians. The news of the rescue of the survivors of Thornton's command +came first, and with it the tidings that Maynard and his regiment were +met only thirty miles from the scene and were pushing forward. The next +news came two days later, and a wail went up even while men were shaking +hands and rejoicing over the gallant fight that had been made, and women +were weeping for joy and thanking God that those whom they held dearest +were safe. It was down among the wives of the sergeants and other +veterans that the blow struck hardest at Sibley; for the stricken +officers were unmarried men, while among the rank and file there were +several who never came back to the little ones who bore their name. +Company B had suffered most, for the Indians had charged fiercely on its +deployed but steadfast line. Armitage almost choked and broke down when +telling the colonel about it that night as he lay under the willows: "It +was the first smile I had seen on his face since I got back,—that with +which he looked up in my eyes and whispered good-by,—and died,—just +after we drove them back. My turn came later." Old Sloat, too, "had his +customary crack," as he expressed it,—a shot through the wrist that +made him hop and swear savagely until some of the men got to laughing at +the comical figure he cut, and then he turned and damned them with +hearty good will, and seemed all oblivious of the bullets that went +zipping past his frosting head. Young Rollins, to his inexpressible +pride and comfort, had a bullet-hole through his scouting-hat and +another through his shoulder-strap that raised a big welt on the white +skin beneath, but, to the detriment of promotion, no captain was killed, +and Jerrold gave the only file.</p> + +<p>The one question at Sibley was, "What will Nina Beaubien do?"</p> + +<p><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312"></a>She did nothing. She would see nobody from the instant the news came. +She had hardly slept at night,—was always awake at dawn and out at the +gate to get the earliest copy of the morning papers; but the news +reached them at nightfall, and when some of the ladies from the fort +drove in to offer their sympathy and condolence in the morning, and to +make tender inquiry, the answer at the door was that Miss Nina saw +nobody, that her mother alone was with her, and that "she was very +still." And so it went for some days. Then there came the return of the +command to Sibley; and hundreds of people went up from town to see the +six companies of the fort garrison march up the winding road amid the +thunder of welcome from the guns of the light battery and the exultant +strains of the band. Mrs. Maynard and Alice were the only ladies of the +circle who were not there: a son and brother had joined them, after long +absence, at Aunt Grace's cottage at Sablon, was the explanation, and the +colonel would bring them home in a few days, after he had attended to +some important matters at the fort. In the first place, Chester had to +see to it that the tongue of scandal was slit, so far as the colonel's +household was concerned, and all good people notified that no such thing +had happened as was popularly supposed (and "everybody" received the +announcement with the remark that she knew all along it couldn't be so), +and that a grievous and absurd but most mortifying blunder had been +made. It was a most unpleasant ghost to "down," the shadow of that +scandal, for it would come up to the surface of garrison chat at all +manner of confidential moments; but no man or woman could safely speak +of it to Chester. It was gradually assumed that he was the man who had +done all the blundering and that he was supersensitive on the subject.</p> + +<p>There was another thing never satisfactorily explained to some of the +garrison people, and that was Nina Beaubien's strange conduct. In less +than a week she was seen on the street in colors,—brilliant +colors,—when it was known she had ordered deep mourning, and then she +suddenly disappeared and went with her silent old mother abroad. To this +day no woman in society understands it, for when she came back, long, +long afterwards, it was a subject on which she would never speak. There +were one or two who ventured to ask, and the answer was, "For reasons +that concern me alone." But it took no great power of mental vision to +see that her heart wore black for him forever.</p> + +<p>His letter explained it all. She had received it with a paroxysm of +passionate grief and joy, kissed it, covered it with wildest caresses +<a name="Page_313" id="Page_313"></a>before she began to read, and then, little by little, as the words +unfolded before her staring eyes, turned cold as stone:</p> + +<p>"It is my last night of life, Nina, and I am glad 'tis so. Proud and +sensitive as I am, the knowledge that every man in my regiment has +turned from me,—that I have not a friend among them,—that there is no +longer a place for me in their midst,—more than all, that I <i>deserve</i> +their contempt,—has broken my heart. We will be in battle before the +setting of another sun. Any man who seeks death in Indian fight can find +it easily enough, and I can <i>compel</i> their respect in spite of +themselves. They will not recognize me, living, as one of them; but +dying on the field, they have to place me on their roll of honor.</p> + +<p>"But now I turn to you. What have I been,—what am I,—to have won such +love as yours? May God in heaven forgive me for my past! All too late I +hate and despise the man I have been,—the man whom you loved. One last +act of justice remains. If I died without it you would mourn me +faithfully, tenderly, lovingly, for years, but if I tell the truth you +will see the utter unworthiness of the man, and your love will turn to +contempt. It is hard to do this, knowing that in doing it I kill the +only genuine regret and dry the only tear that would bless my memory; +but it is the one sacrifice I can make to complete my self-humiliation, +and it is the one thing that is left me that will free you. It will +sting at first, but, like the surgeon's knife, its cut is mercy. Nina, +the very night I came to you on the bluffs, the very night you perilled +your honor to have that parting interview, I went to you with a lie on +my lips. I had told <i>her</i> we were nothing to each other,—you and I. +More than that, I was seeking her love; I hoped I could win her; and had +she loved me I would have turned from you to make her my wife. Nina, I +loved Alice Renwick. Good-by. Don't mourn for me after this."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="XX" id="XX"></a>XX.</h2> + + +<p>They were having a family conclave at Sablon. The furlough granted +Sergeant McLeod on account of wound received in action with hostile +Indians would soon expire, and the question was, should he ask an +extension, apply for a discharge, or go back and rejoin his troop? It +was a matter on which there was much diversity of opinion. Mrs. Maynard +should naturally be permitted first choice, and to her wish there was +every reason for according deep and tender consideration.<a name="Page_314" id="Page_314"></a> No words can +tell of the rapture of that reunion with her long-lost son. It was a +scene over which the colonel could never ponder without deep emotion. +The telegrams and letters by which he carefully prepared her for +Frederick's coming were all insufficient. She knew well that her boy +must have greatly changed and matured, but when this tall, bronzed, +bearded, stalwart man sprang from the old red omnibus and threw his one +serviceable arm around her trembling form, the mother was utterly +overcome. Alice left them alone together a full hour before even she +intruded, and little by little, as the days went by and Mrs. Maynard +realized that it was really her Fred who was whistling about, the +cottage or booming trooper songs in his great basso profundo, and +glorying in his regiment and the cavalry life he had led, a wonderful +content and joy shone in her handsome face. It was not until the colonel +announced that it was about time for them to think of going back to +Sibley that the cloud came. Fred said <i>he</i> couldn't go.</p> + +<p>In fact, the colonel himself had been worrying a little over it. As Fred +Renwick, the tall distinguished young man in civilian costume, he would +be welcome anywhere; but, though his garb was that of the sovereign +citizen so long as his furlough lasted, there were but two weeks more of +it left, and officially he was nothing more nor less than Sergeant +McLeod, Troop B, ——th Cavalry, and there was no precedent for a +colonel's entertaining as an honored guest and social equal one of the +enlisted men of the army. He rather hoped that Fred would yield to his +mother's entreaties and apply for a discharge. His wound and the latent +trouble with his heart would probably render it an easy matter to +obtain; and yet he was ashamed of himself for the feeling.</p> + +<p>Then there was Alice. It was hardly to be supposed that so very high +bred a young woman would relish the idea of being seen around Fort +Sibley on the arm of her brother the sergeant; but, wonderful to relate, +Miss Alice took a radically different view of the whole situation. So +far from wishing Fred out of the army, she importuned him day after day +until he got out his best uniform, with its resplendent chevrons and +stripes of vivid yellow, and the yellow helmet-cords, though they were +but humble worsted, and when he came forth in that dress, with the +bronze medal on his left breast and the sharpshooter's silver cross, his +tall athletic figure showing to such advantage, his dark, Southern, +manly features so enhanced by contrast with his yellow facings, she +clapped her hands with a cry of delight and sprang into his one +avail<a name="Page_315" id="Page_315"></a>able arm and threw her own about his neck and kissed him again and +again. Even mamma had to admit he looked astonishingly well; but Alice +declared she would never thereafter be reconciled to seeing him in +anything but a cavalry uniform. The colonel found her not at all of her +mother's way of thinking. She saw no reason why Fred should leave the +service. Other sergeants had won their commissions every year: why not +he? Even if it were some time in coming, was there shame or degradation +in being a cavalry sergeant? Not a bit of it! Fred himself was loath to +quit. He was getting a little homesick, too,—homesick for the boundless +life and space and air of the broad frontier,—homesick for the rapid +movement and vigorous hours in the saddle and on the scout. His arm was +healing, and such a delight of a letter had come from his captain, +telling him that the adjutant had just been to see him about the new +staff of the regiment. The gallant sergeant-major, a young Prussian of +marked ability, had been killed early in the campaign; the vacancy must +soon be filled, and the colonel and the adjutant both thought at once of +Sergeant McLeod. "I won't stand in your way, sergeant," wrote his troop +commander, "but you know that old Ryan is to be discharged at the end of +his sixth enlistment the 10th of next month; there is no man I would +sooner see in his place as first sergeant of my troop than yourself, and +I hate to lose you; but, as it will be for the gain and the good of the +whole regiment, you ought to accept the adjutant's offer. All the men +rejoice to hear you are recovering so fast, and all will be glad to see +Sergeant McLeod back again."</p> + +<p>Even Mrs. Maynard could not but see the pride and comfort this letter +gave her son. Her own longing was to have him established in some +business in the East; but he said frankly he had no taste for it, and +would only pine for the old life in the saddle. There were other +reasons, too, said he, why he felt that he could not go back to New +York, and his voice trembled, and Mrs. Maynard said no more. It was the +sole allusion he had made to the old, old sorrow, but it was plain that +the recovery was incomplete. The colonel and the doctor at Sibley +believed that Fred could be carried past the medical board by a little +management, and everything began to look as though he would have his +way. All they were waiting for, said the colonel, was to hear from +Armitage. He was still at Fort Russell with the head-quarters and +several troops of the ——th Cavalry: his wound was too severe for him +to travel farther for weeks to come, but he could write, and he <a name="Page_316" id="Page_316"></a>had +been consulted. They were sitting under the broad piazza at Sablon, +looking out at the lovely, placid lake, and talking it over among +themselves.</p> + +<p>"I have always leaned on Armitage ever since I first came to the +regiment and found him adjutant," said the colonel. "I always found his +judgment clear; but since our last experience I have begun to look upon +him as infallible."</p> + +<p>Alice Renwick's face took on a flood of crimson as she sat there by her +brother's side, silent and attentive. Only within the week that followed +their return—the colonel's and her brother's—had the story of the +strange complication been revealed to them. Twice had she heard from +Fred's lips the story of Frank Armitage's greeting that frosty morning +at the springs. Time and again had she made her mother go over the +colonel's account of the confidence and faith he had expressed in there +being a simple explanation of the whole mystery, and of his indignant +refusal to attach one moment's suspicion to her. Shocked, stunned, +outraged as she felt at the mere fact that such a story had gained an +instant's credence in garrison circles, she was overwhelmed by the +weight of circumstantial evidence that had been arrayed against her. +Only little by little did her mother reveal it to her. Only after +several days did Fred repeat the story of his night adventure and his +theft of her picture, of his narrow escape, and of his subsequent visit +to the cottage. Only gradually had her mother revealed to her the +circumstances of Jerrold's wager with Sloat, and the direful +consequences; of his double absences the very nights on which Fred had +made his visits; of the suspicions that resulted, the accusations, and +his refusal to explain and clear her name. Mrs. Maynard felt vaguely +relieved to see how slight an impression the young man had made on her +daughter's heart. Alice seemed but little surprised to hear of the +engagement to Nina Beaubien, of her rush to his rescue, and their +romantic parting. The tragedy of his death hushed all further talk on +that subject. There was one on which she could not hear enough, and that +was about the man who had been most instrumental in the rescue of her +name and honor. Alice had only tender sorrow and no reproach for her +step-father when, after her mother told her the story of his sad +experience twenty years before, she related his distress of mind and +suspicion when he read Jerrold's letter. It was then that Alice said, +"And against that piece of evidence no man, I suppose, would hold me +guiltless."</p> + +<p>"You are wrong, dear," was her mother's answer. "It was power<a name="Page_317" id="Page_317"></a>less to +move Captain Armitage. He scouted the idea of your guilt from the moment +he set eyes on you, and never rested until he had overturned the last +atom of evidence. Even I had to explain," said her mother "simply to +confirm his theory of the light Captain Chester had seen and the shadows +and the form at the window. It was just exactly as Armitage reasoned it +out. I was wretched and wakeful, sleeping but fitfully, that night. I +arose and took some bromide about three o'clock and soon afterwards +heard a fall, or a noise like one. I thought of you and got up and went +in your room, and all was quiet there, but it seemed close and warm: so +I raised your shade, and then left both your door and mine open and went +back to bed. I dozed away presently, and then woke feeling all startled +again,—don't you know?—the sensation one experiences when aroused from +sleep, certain that there has been a strange and startling noise, and +yet unable to tell what it was? I lay still a moment, but the colonel +slept through it all, and I wondered at it. I knew there had been a +shot, or something, but could not bear to disturb him. At last I got up +again and went to your room to be sure you were all right, and you were +sleeping soundly still; but a breeze was beginning to blow and flap your +shade to and fro, so I drew it and went out, taking my lamp with me this +time and softly closing your door behind me. See how it all seemed to +fit in with everything else that had happened. It took a man with a will +of his own and an unshaken faith in woman to stand firm against such +evidence."</p> + +<p>And, though Alice Renwick was silent, she appreciated the fact none the +less. Day after day she clung to her stalwart brother's side. She had +ceased to ask questions about Captain Armitage and the strange greeting +after the first day or two, but, oddly enough, she could never let him +talk long of any subject but that campaign, of his ride with the captain +to the front, of the long talk they had had, and the stirring fight +and the magnificent way in which Armitage had handled his long +skirmish-line. He was enthusiastic in his praise of the tall Saxon +captain. He soon noted how silent and absorbed she sat when he was the +theme of discourse; he incidentally mentioned little things "he" had +said about "her" that morning, and marked how her color rose and her +eyes flashed quick, joyful, questioning glance at his face, then fell in +maiden shyness. He had speedily gauged the cause of that strange +excitement displayed by Armitage at seeing him the morning he rode in +with the scout. Now he was gauging, with infinite delight, the other +side of the question. The <a name="Page_318" id="Page_318"></a>brother-like, he began to twit and tease her; +and that was the last of the confidences.</p> + +<p>All the same it was an eager group that surrounded the colonel the +evening he came down with the captain's letter. "It settles the thing in +my mind. We'll go back to Sibley to-morrow; and as for you, +Sergeant-Major Fred, your name has gone in for a commission, and I've no +doubt a very deserving sergeant will be spoiled in making a very +good-for-nothing second lieutenant. Get you back to your regiment, sir, +and call on Captain Armitage as soon as you reach Fort Russell, and tell +him you are much obliged. He has been blowing your trumpet for you +there; and, as some of those cavalrymen have sense enough to appreciate +the opinion of such a soldier as my ex-adjutant,—some of them, mind +you: I don't admit that all cavalrymen have sense enough to keep them +out of perpetual trouble,—you came in for a hearty endorsement, and +you'll probably be up before the next board for examination. Go and bone +your Constitution, and the Rule of Three, and who was the father of +Zebedee's children, and the order of the Ptolemies and the Seleucidæ, +and other such things that they'll be sure to ask you as indispensable +to the mental outfit of an Indian-fighter." It was evident that the +colonel was in joyous mood. But Alice was silent. She wanted to hear the +letter. He would have handed it to Frederick, but both Mrs. Maynard and +Aunt Grace clamored to hear it read aloud: so he cleared his throat and +began:</p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">My dear Colonel</span>,—</p> + +<p>"Fred's chances for a commission are good, as the enclosed papers will +show you; but even were this not the case I would have but one thing to +say in answer to your letter: he should go back to his troop.</p> + +<p>"Whatever our friends and fellow-citizens may think on the subject, I +hold that the profession of the soldier is to the full as honorable as +any in civil life; and it is liable at any moment to be more useful. I +do not mean the officer alone. I say, and mean, the soldier. As for me, +I would rather be first sergeant of my troop or company, or +sergeant-major of my regiment, than any lieutenant in it except the +adjutant. Hope of promotion is all that can make a subaltern's life +endurable, but the staff-sergeant or the first sergeant, honored and +respected by his officers, decorated for bravery by Congress, and looked +up to by his comrades, is a king among men. The pay has nothing <a name="Page_319" id="Page_319"></a>to do +with it. I say to Renwick, 'Come back as soon as your wound will let +you,' and I envy him the welcome that will be his.</p> + +<p>"As for me, I am even more eager to get back to you all; but things look +very dubious. The doctors shake their heads at anything under a month, +and say I'll be lucky if I eat my Thanksgiving dinner with you. If +trying to get well is going to help, October shall not be done with +before B Company will report me present again.</p> + +<p>"I need not tell you, my dear old friend, how I rejoice with you in +your—hum and haw and this is all about something else," goes on the +colonel, in malignant disregard of the longing looks in the eyes of +three women, all of whom are eager to hear the rest of it, and one of +whom wouldn't say so for worlds. "Write to me often. Remember me warmly +to the ladies of your household. I fear Miss Alice would despise this +wild, open prairie-country; there is no golden-rod here, and I so often +see her as—hum and hum and all that sort of talk of no interest to +anybody," says he, with a quizzical look over his "bows" at the lovely +face and form bending forward with forgetful eagerness to hear how "he +so often sees her." And there is a great bunch of golden-rod in her lap +now, and a vivid blush on her cheek. The colonel is waxing as frivolous +as Fred, and quite as great a tease.</p> + +<p>And then October comes, and Fred has gone, and the colonel and his +household are back at Sibley, where the garrison is enraptured at seeing +them, and where the women precipitate themselves upon them in tumultuous +welcome. If Alice cannot quite make up her mind to return the kisses, +and shrinks slightly from the rapturous embrace of some of the younger +and more impulsive of the sisterhood,—if Mrs. Maynard is a trifle more +distant and stately than was the case before they went away,—the +garrison does not resent it. The ladies don't wonder they feel indignant +at the way people behaved and talked; and each lady is sure that the +behavior and the talk were all somebody else's; not by any possible +chance could it be laid at the door of the speaker. And Alice is the +reigning belle beyond dispute, though there is only subdued gayety at +the fort, for the memory of their losses at the Spirit Wolf is still +fresh in the minds of the regiment. But no man alludes to the events of +the black August night, no woman is permitted to address either Mrs. +Maynard or her daughter on the subject. There are some who seek to be +confidential and who cautiously feel their way for an opening, but the +mental sparring is vain: there is an indefinable something that tells +the intruder, "Thus far, and no <a name="Page_320" id="Page_320"></a>farther." Mrs. Maynard is courteous, +cordial, and hospitable, Alice sweet and gracious and sympathetic, even, +but confidential never.</p> + +<p>And then Captain Armitage, late in the month, comes home on crutches, +and his men give him a welcome that makes the rafters ring, and he +rejoices in it and thanks them from his heart; but there is a welcome +his eyes plead for that would mean to him far more than any other. How +wistfully he studies her face! How unmistakable is the love and worship +in every tone! How quickly the garrison sees it all, and how mad the +garrison is to see whether or not 'tis welcome to her! But Alice Renwick +is no maiden to be lightly won. The very thought that the garrison had +so easily given her over to Jerrold is enough to mantle her cheek with +indignant protest. She accepts his attentions, as she does those of the +younger officers, with consummate grace. She shows no preference, will +grant no favors. She makes fair distribution of her dances at the hops +at the fort and the parties in town. There are young civilians who begin +to be devoted in society and to come out to the fort on every possible +opportunity, and these, too, she welcomes with laughing grace and +cordiality. She is a glowing, radiant, gorgeous beauty this cool autumn, +and she rides and drives and dances, and, the women say, flirts, and +looks handsomer every day, and poor Armitage is beginning to look very +grave and depressed. "He wooes and wins not," is the cry. His wound has +almost healed, so far as the thigh is concerned, and his crutches are +discarded, but his heart is bleeding, and it tells on his general +condition. The doctors say he ought to be getting well faster, and so +they tell Miss Renwick,—at least somebody does; but still she relents +not, and it is something beyond the garrison's power of conjecture to +decide what the result will be. Into her pretty white-and-yellow room no +one penetrates except at her invitation, even when the garrison ladies +are spending the day at the colonel's; and even if they did there would +be no visible sign by which they could judge whether his flowers were +treasured or his picture honored above others. Into her brave and +beautiful nature none can gaze and say with any confidence either "she +loves" or "she loves not." Winter comes, with biting cold and blinding +snow, and still there is no sign. The joyous holidays, the glad New +Year, are almost at hand, and still there is no symptom of surrender. No +one dreams of the depth and reverence and gratitude and loyalty and +strength of the love that is burning in her heart until, all of a +sudden, <a name="Page_321" id="Page_321"></a>in the most unexpected and astonishing way, it bursts forth in +sight of all.</p> + +<p>They had been down skating on the slough, a number of the youngsters and +the daughters of the garrison. Rollins was there, doing the devoted to +Mamie Gray, and already there were gossips whispering that she would +soon forget she ever knew such a beau as Jerrold in the new-found +happiness of another one; Hall was there with the doctor's pretty +daughter, and Mrs. Hoyt was matronizing the party, which would, of +course, have been incomplete without Alice. She had been skating hand in +hand with a devoted young subaltern in the artillery, and poor Armitage, +whose leg was unequal to skating, had been ruefully admiring the scene. +He had persuaded Sloat to go out and walk with him, and Sloat went; but +the hollow mockery of the whole thing became apparent to him after they +had been watching the skaters awhile, and he got chilled and wanted +Armitage to push ahead. The captain said he believed his leg was too +stiff for further tramping and would be the better for a rest; and Sloat +left him.</p> + +<p>Heavens! how beautiful she was, with her sparkling eyes and radiant +color, glowing with the graceful exercise! He sat there on an old log, +watching the skaters as they flew by him, and striving to keep up an +impartial interest, or an appearance of it, for the other girls. But the +red sun was going down, and twilight was on them all of a sudden, and he +could see nothing but that face and form. He closed his eyes a moment to +shut out the too eager glare of the glowing disk taking its last fierce +peep at them over the western bluffs, and as he closed them the same +vision came back,—the picture that had haunted his every living, +dreaming moment since the beautiful August Sunday in the woodland lane +at Sablon. With undying love, with changeless passion, his life was +given over to the fair, slender maiden he had seen in all the glory of +the sunshine and the golden-rod, standing with uplifted head, with all +her soul shining in her beautiful eyes and thrilling in her voice. Both +worshipping and worshipped was Alice Renwick as she sang her hymn of +praise in unison with the swelling chorus that floated through the trees +from the little brown church upon the hill. From that day she was Queen +Alice in every thought, and he her loyal, faithful knight for weal or +woe.</p> + +<p>Boom went the sunset gun far up on the parade above them. 'Twas +dinner-time, and the skaters were compelled to give up their pastime. +Armitage set his teeth at the entirely too devotional attitude of <a name="Page_322" id="Page_322"></a>the +artilleryman as he slowly and lingeringly removed her skates, and turned +away in that utterly helpless frame of mind which will overtake the +strongest men on similar occasions. He had been sitting too long in the +cold, and was chilled through and stiff, and his wounded leg seemed +numb. Leaning heavily on his stout stick, he began slowly and painfully +the ascent to the railway, and chose for the purpose a winding path that +was far less steep, though considerably longer, than the sharp climb the +girls and their escorts made so light of. One after another the glowing +faces of the fair skaters appeared above the embankment, and their +gallants carefully convoyed them across the icy and slippery track to +the wooden platform beyond. Armitage, toiling slowly up his pathway, +heard their blithe laughter, and thought with no little bitterness that +it was a case of "out of sight out of mind" with him, as with better +men. What sense was there in his long devotion to her? Why stand between +her and the far more natural choice of a lover nearer her years? "Like +unto like" was Nature's law. It was flying in the face of Providence to +expect to win the love of one so young and fair, when others so young +and comely craved it. The sweat was beaded on his forehead as he neared +the top and came in sight of the platform. Yes, they had no thought for +him. Already Mrs. Hoyt was half-way up the wooden stairs, and the others +were scattered more or less between that point and the platform at the +station. Far down at the south end paced the fur-clad sentry. There it +was an easy step from the track to the boards, and there, with much +laughter but no difficulty, the young officers had lifted their fair +charges to the walk. All were chatting gayly as they turned away to take +the wooden causeway from the station to the stairs, and Miss Renwick was +among the foremost at the point where it left the platform. Here, +however, she glanced back and then about her, and then, bending down, +began fumbling at the buttons of her boot.</p> + +<p>"Oh, permit me, Miss Renwick," said her eager escort. "I will button +it."</p> + +<p>"Thanks, no. Please don't wait, good people. I'll be with you in an +instant."</p> + +<p>And so the other girls, absorbed in talk with their respective gallants, +passed her by, and then Alice Renwick again stood erect and looked +anxiously but quickly back.</p> + +<p>"Captain Armitage is not in sight, and we ought not to leave him. He may +not find it easy to climb to that platform," she said.</p> + +<p><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323"></a>"Armitage? Oh, he'll come on all right," answered the batteryman, with +easy assurance. "Maybe he has gone round by the road. Even if he hasn't, +I've seen him make that in one jump many a time. He's an active old +buffer for his years."</p> + +<p>"But his wound may prove too much for that jump now. Ah there he comes," +she answered, with evident relief; and just at the moment, too, the +forage-cap of the tall soldier rose slowly into view some distance up +the track, and he came walking slowly down on the sharp curve towards +the platform, the same sharp curve continuing on out of sight behind +him,—behind the high and rocky bluff.</p> + +<p>"He's taken the long way up," said the gunner. "Well, shall we go on?"</p> + +<p>"Not yet," she said, with eyes that were glowing strangely and a voice +that trembled. Her cheeks, too, were paling. "Mr. Stuart, I'm sure I +heard the roar of a train echoed back from the other side."</p> + +<p>"Nonsense, Miss Renwick! There's no train either way for two hours yet."</p> + +<p>But she had begun to edge her way back toward the platform, and he could +not but follow. Looking across the intervening space,—a rocky hollow +twenty feet in depth,—he could see that the captain had reached the +platform and was seeking for a good place to step up; then that he +lifted his right foot and placed it on the planking and with his cane +and the stiff and wounded left leg strove to push himself on. Had there +been a hand to help him, all would have been easy enough; but there was +none, and the plan would not work. Absorbed in his efforts, he could not +see Stuart; he did not see that Miss Renwick had left her companions and +was retracing her steps to get back to the platform. He heard a sudden +dull roar from the rocks across the stream; then a sharp, shrill whistle +just around the bluff. My God! a train, and that man there, alone, +helpless, deserted! Stuart gave a shout of agony: "Back! Roll back over +the bank!" Armitage glanced around; determined; gave one mighty effort; +the iron-ferruled stick slipped on the icy track, and down he went, +prone between the glistening rails, even as the black vomiting monster +came thundering round the bend. He had struck his head upon the iron, +and was stunned, not senseless, but scrambled to his hands and knees and +strove to crawl away. Even as he did so he heard a shriek of anguish in +his ears, and with one wild leap Alice Renwick came flying from the +platform in the very face of advancing death, and the next instant, her +arm <a name="Page_324" id="Page_324"></a>clasped about his neck, his strong arms tightly clasping <i>her</i>, +they were lying side by side, bruised, stunned, but safe, in a welcoming +snow-drift half-way down the hither bank.</p> + +<p>When Stuart reached the scene, as soon as the engine and some +wrecking-cars had thundered by, he looked down upon a picture that +dispelled any lingering doubt in his mind. Armitage, clasping Queen +Alice to his heart, was half rising from the blessed mantlet of the +snow, and she, her head upon his broad shoulder, was smiling faintly up +into his face: then the glorious eyes closed in a death-like swoon.</p> + +<hr style='width: 45%;' /> + +<p>Fort Sibley had its share of sensations that eventful year. Its crowning +triumph in the one that followed was the wedding in the early spring. Of +all the lovely women there assembled, the bride by common consent stood +unrivalled,—Queen Alice indeed. There was some difference of opinion +among authorities as to who was really the finest-looking and most +soldierly among the throng of officers in the conventional full-dress +uniform: many there were who gave the palm to the tall, dark, slender +lieutenant of cavalry who wore his shoulder-knots for the first time on +this occasion, and who, for a man from the ranks, seemed consummately at +home in the manifold and trying duties of a groomsman. Mrs. Maynard, +leaning on his arm at a later hour and looking up rapturously in his +bronzed features, had no divided opinion. While others had by no means +so readily forgotten or forgiven the mad freak that so nearly involved +them all in wretched misunderstanding, she had nothing but rejoicing in +his whole career. Proud of the gallant officer who had won the daughter +whom she loved so tenderly, she still believes, in the depths of the +boundless mother-love, that no man can quite surpass her soldier son.<br /><br /></p> +<p><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325"></a></p> + +<h4>THE END.</h4> + +<h4>FOOTNOTE</h4> +<div class='footnotes'> +<div class="footnote"><p><a name="Footnote_A_1" id="Footnote_A_1"></a><a href="#FNanchor_A_1"><span class="label">[A]</span></a> By act of Congress, officers may be addressed by the title +of the highest rank held by them in the volunteer service during the +war. The colonel always punctiliously so addressed his friend and +subordinate, although in the army his grade was simply that of first +lieutenant.</p></div></div> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of From the Ranks, by Charles King + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM THE RANKS *** + +***** This file should be named 16558-h.htm or 16558-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/5/5/16558/ + +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: From the Ranks + +Author: Charles King + +Release Date: August 20, 2005 [EBook #16558] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM THE RANKS *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Janet Blenkinship and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + + + +FROM THE RANKS. + +BY + +CAPT. CHARLES KING, U.S.A., + +AUTHOR OF "THE COLONEL'S DAUGHTER," "MARION'S FAITH," "KITTY'S +CONQUEST," ETC., ETC. + +Transcriber's note: +This e-book of From the Ranks 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. The Deserter is also +available as a Project Gutenberg e-book. + +PHILADELPHIA: + +J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. + +1890. + +Copyright, 1887, by J.B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY. + + + + +FROM THE RANKS. + + + + +I. + + +A strange thing had happened at the old fort during the still watches of +the night. Even now, at nine in the morning, no one seemed to be in +possession of the exact circumstances. The officer of the day was +engaged in an investigation, and all that appeared to be generally known +was the bald statement that the sentry on "Number Five" had fired at +somebody or other about half after three; that he had fired by order of +the officer of the day, who was on his post at the time; and that now he +flatly refused to talk about the matter. + +Garrison curiosity, it is perhaps needless to say, was rather stimulated +than lulled by this announcement. An unusual number of officers were +chatting about head-quarters when Colonel Maynard came over to his +office. Several ladies, too, who had hitherto shown but languid interest +in the morning music of the band, had taken the trouble to stroll down +to the old quadrangle, ostensibly to see guard-mounting. Mrs. Maynard +was almost always on her piazza at this time, and her lovely daughter +was almost sure to be at the gate with two or three young fellows +lounging about her. This morning, however, not a soul appeared in front +of the colonel's quarters. + +Guard-mounting at the fort was not held until nine o'clock, contrary to +the somewhat general custom at other posts in our scattered army. +Colonel Maynard had ideas of his own upon the subject, and it was his +theory that everything worked more smoothly if he had finished a +leisurely breakfast before beginning office-work of any kind, and +neither the colonel nor his family cared to breakfast before eight +o'clock. In view of the fact that Mrs. Maynard had borne that name but a +very short time and that her knowledge of army life dated only from the +month of May, the garrison was disposed to consider her entitled to +much latitude of choice in such matters, even while it did say that she +was old enough to be above bride-like sentiment. The womenfolk at the +fort were of opinion that Mrs. Maynard was fifty. It must be conceded +that she was over forty, also that this was her second entry into the +bonds of matrimony. + +That no one should now appear on the colonel's piazza was obviously a +disappointment to several people. In some way or other most of the +breakfast tables at the post had been enlivened by accounts of the +mysterious shooting. The soldiers going the rounds with the +"police-cart," the butcher and grocer and baker from town, the old +milkwoman with her glistening cans, had all served as newsmongers from +kitchen to kitchen, and the story that came in with the coffee to the +lady of the house had lost nothing in bulk or bravery. The groups of +officers chatting and smoking in front of head-quarters gained +accessions every moment, while the ladies seemed more absorbed in chat +and confidences than in the sweet music of the band. + +What fairly exasperated some men was the fact that the old officer of +the day was not out on the parade where he belonged. Only the new +incumbent was standing there in statuesque pose as the band trooped +along the line, and the fact that the colonel had sent out word that the +ceremony would proceed without Captain Chester only served to add fuel +to the flame of popular conjecture. It was known that the colonel was +holding a consultation with closed doors with the old officer of the +day, and never before since he came to the regiment had the colonel been +known to look so pale and strange as when he glanced out for just one +moment and called his orderly. The soldier sprang up, saluted, received +his message, and, with every eye following him, sped off towards the old +stone guard-house. In three minutes he was on his way back, accompanied +by a corporal and private of the guard in full dress uniform. + +"That's Leary,--the man who fired the shot," said Captain Wilton to his +senior lieutenant, who stood by his side. + +"Belongs to B Company, doesn't he?" queried the subaltern. "Seems to me +I have heard Captain Armitage say he was one of his best men." + +"Yes. He's been in the regiment as long as I can remember. What on earth +can the colonel want him for? Near as I can learn, he only fired by +Chester's order." + +"And neither of them knows what he fired at." + +It was perhaps ten minutes more before Private Leary came forth from +the door-way of the colonel's office, nodded to the corporal, and, +raising their white-gloved hands in salute to the group of officers, the +two men tossed their rifles to the right shoulder and strode back to the +guard. + +Another moment, and the colonel himself opened his door and appeared in +the hall-way. He stopped abruptly, turned back and spoke a few words in +low tone, then hurried through the groups at the entrance, looking at no +man, avoiding their glances, and giving faint and impatient return to +the soldierly salutations that greeted him. The sweat was beaded on his +forehead; his lips were white, and his face full of a trouble and dismay +no man had ever seen there before. He spoke to no one, but walked +rapidly homeward, entered, and closed the gate and door behind him. + +For a moment there was silence in the group. Few men in the service were +better loved and honored than the veteran soldier who commanded the +----th Infantry; and it was with genuine concern that his officers saw +him so deeply and painfully affected,--for affected he certainly was. +Never before had his cheery voice denied them a cordial "Good-morning, +gentlemen." Never before had his blue eyes flinched. He had been their +comrade and commander in years of frontier service, and his bachelor +home had been the rendezvous of all genial spirits when in garrison. +They had missed him sorely when he went abroad on long leave the +previous year, and were almost indignant when they received the news +that he had met his fate in Italy and would return married. "She" was +the widow of a wealthy New-Yorker who had been dead some three years +only, and, though over forty, did not look her years to masculine eyes +when she reached the fort in May. After knowing her a week, the garrison +had decided to a man that the colonel had done wisely. Mrs. Maynard was +charming, courteous, handsome, and accomplished. Only among the women +were there still a few who resented their colonel's capture; and some of +these, oblivious of the fact that they had tempted him with relations of +their own, were sententious and severe in their condemnation of second +marriage; for the colonel, too, was indulging in a second experiment. Of +his first, only one man in the regiment, besides the commander, could +tell anything; and he, to the just indignation of almost everybody, +would not discuss the subject. It was rumored that in the old days when +Maynard was senior captain and Chester junior subaltern in their former +regiment the two had very little in common. It was known that the first +Mrs. Maynard, while still young and beautiful, had died abroad. It was +hinted that the resignation of a dashing lieutenant of the regiment, +which was synchronous with her departure for foreign shores, was +demanded by his brother officers; but it was useless asking Captain +Chester. He could not tell; and--wasn't it odd?--here was Chester again, +the only man in the colonel's confidence in an hour of evident trouble. + +"By Jove! what's gone wrong with the chief?" was the first exclamation +from one of the older officers. "I never saw him look so broken." + +As no explanation suggested itself, they began edging in towards the +office. The door stood open; a hand-bell banged; a clerk darted in from +the sergeant-major's rooms, and Captain Chester was revealed seated at +the colonel's desk. This in itself was sufficient to induce several +officers to stroll in and look inquiringly around. Captain Chester, +merely nodding, went on with some writing at which he was engaged. + +After a moment's awkward silence and uneasy glancing at one another, the +party seemed to arrive at the conclusion that it was time to speak. The +band had ceased, and the new guard had marched away behind its pealing +bugles. Lieutenant Hall winked at his comrades, strolled hesitatingly +over to the desk, balanced unsteadily on one leg, and, with his hands +sticking in his trousers-pockets and his forage-cap swinging from +protruding thumb and forefinger, cleared his throat, and, with marked +lack of confidence, accosted his absorbed superior: + +"Colonel gone home?" + +"Didn't you see him?" was the uncompromising reply; and the captain did +not deign to raise his head or eyes. + +"Well--er--yes, I suppose I did," said Mr. Hall, shifting uncomfortably +to his other leg, and prodding the floor with the toe of his boot. + +"Then that wasn't what you wanted to know, I presume," said Captain +Chester, signing his name with a vicious dab of the pen and bringing his +fist down with a thump on the blotting-pad, while he wheeled around in +his chair and looked squarely up into the perturbed features of the +junior. + +"No, it wasn't," answered Mr. Hall, in an injured tone, while an +audible snicker at the door added to his sense of discomfort. "What I +mainly wanted was to know could I go to town." + +"That matter is easily arranged, Mr. Hall. All you have to do is to get +out of that uncomfortable and unsoldierly position, stand in the +attitude in which you are certainly more at home and infinitely more +picturesque, proffer your request in respectful words, and there is no +question as to the result." + +"Oh! you're in command, then?" said Mr. Hall, slowly wriggling into the +position of the soldier and flushing through his bronzed cheeks. "I +thought the colonel might be only gone for a minute." + +"The colonel may not be back for a week; but you be here for +dress-parade all the same, and--Mr. Hall!" he called, as the young +officer was turning away. The latter faced about again. + +"Was Mr. Jerrold going with you to town?" + +"Yes, sir. He was to drive me in his dog-cart, and it's over here now." + +"Mr. Jerrold cannot go,--at least not until I have seen him." + +"Why, captain, he got the colonel's permission at breakfast this +morning." + +"That is true, no doubt, Mr. Hall." And the captain dropped his sharp +and captious manner, and his voice fell, as though in sympathy with the +cloud that settled on his face. "I cannot explain matters just now. +There are reasons why the permission is withdrawn for the time being. +The adjutant will notify him." And Captain Chester turned to his desk +again as the new officer of the day, guard-book in hand, entered to make +his report. + +"The usual orders, captain," said Chester, as he took the book from his +hand and looked over the list of prisoners. Then, in bold and rapid +strokes, he wrote across the page the customary certificate of the old +officer of the day, winding up with this remark: + +"He also inspected guard and visited sentries between 3 and 3.35 a.m. +The firing at 3.30 a.m. was by his order." + +Meantime, those officers who had entered and who had no immediate duty +to perform were standing or seated around the room, but all observing +profound silence. For a moment or two no sound was heard but the +scratching of the captain's pen. Then, with some embarrassment and +hesitancy, he laid it down and glanced around him. + +"Has any one here anything to ask,--any business to transact?" + +Two or three mentioned some routine matters that required the action of +the post-commander, but did so reluctantly, as though they preferred to +await the orders of the colonel himself. Captain Wilton, indeed, spoke +his sentiments: + +"I wanted to see Colonel Maynard about getting two men of my company +relieved from extra duty; but, as he isn't here, I fancy I had better +wait." + +"Not at all. Who are your men?--Have it done at once, Mr. Adjutant, and +supply their places from my company, if need be. Now is there anything +else?" + +The group was apparently "nonplussed," as the adjutant afterwards put +it, by such unlooked-for complaisance on the part of the usually +crotchety senior captain. Still, no one offered to lead the others and +leave the room. After a moment's nervous rapping with his knuckles on +the desk, Captain Chester again abruptly spoke: + +"Gentlemen, I am sorry to incommode you, but, if there be nothing more +that you desire to see me about, I shall go on with some other matters, +which--pardon me--do not require your presence." + +At this very broad hint the party slowly found their legs, and with much +wonderment and not a few resentful glances at their temporary commander +the officers sauntered to the door-way. There, however, several stopped +again, still reluctant to leave in the face of so pervading a mystery, +for Wilton turned. + +"Am I to understand that Colonel Maynard has left the post to be gone +any length of time?" he asked. + +"He has not yet gone. I do not know how long he will be gone or how soon +he will start. For pressing personal reasons he has turned over the +command to me; and, if he decide to remain away, of course some +field-officer will be ordered to come to head-quarters. For a day or two +you will have to worry along with me; but I shan't worry you more than I +can help. I've got mystery and mischief enough here to keep me busy, God +knows. Just ask Sloat to come back here to me, will you? And--Wilton, I +did not mean to be abrupt with you. I'm all upset to-day. Mr. Adjutant, +notify Mr. Jerrold at once that he must not leave the post until I have +seen him. It is the colonel's last order. Tell him so." + + + + +II. + + +The night before had been unusually dark. A thick veil of clouds +overspread the heavens and hid the stars. Moon there was none, for the +faint silver crescent that gleamed for a moment through the +swift-sailing wisps of vapor had dropped beneath the horizon soon after +tattoo, and the mournful strains of "taps," borne on the rising wind, +seemed to signal "extinguish lights" to the entire firmament as well as +to Fort Sibley. There was a dance of some kind at the quarters of one of +the staff-officers living far up the row on the southern terrace. +Chester heard the laughter and chat as the young officers and their +convoy of matrons and maids came tripping homeward after midnight. He +was a crusty old bachelor, to use his own description, and rarely +ventured into these scenes of social gayety, and, besides, he was +officer of the day, and it was a theory he was fond of expounding to +juniors that when on guard no soldier should permit himself to be drawn +from the scene of his duties. With his books and his pipe Chester whiled +away the lonely hours of the early night, and wondered if the wind would +blow up a rain or disperse the clouds entirely. Towards one o'clock a +light, bounding footstep approached his door, and the portal flew open +as a trim-built young fellow with laughing eyes and an air of exuberant +health and spirits came briskly in. It was Rollins, the junior second +lieutenant of the regiment, and Chester's own and only pet,--so said the +envious others. He was barely a year out of leading-strings at the +Point, and as full of hope and pluck and mischief as a colt. Moreover, +he was frank and teachable, said Chester, and didn't come to him with +the idea that he had nothing to learn and less to do. The boy won upon +his gruff captain from the very start, and, to the incredulous delight +of the whole regiment, within six months the old cynic had taken him +into his heart and home, and Mr. Rollins occupied a pleasant room under +Chester's roof-tree, and was the sole accredited sharer of the captain's +mess. To a youngster just entering service, whose ambition it was to +stick to business and make a record for zeal and efficiency, these were +manifest advantages. There were men in the regiment to whom such close +communion with a watchful senior would have been most embarrassing, and +Mr. Rollins's predecessor as second lieutenant of Chester's company was +one of these. Mr. Jerrold was a happy man when promotion took him from +under the wing of "Crusty Jake" and landed him in Company B. More than +that, it came just at a time when, after four years of loneliness and +isolation at an up-river stockade, his new company and his old one, +together with four others from the regiment, were ordered to join +head-quarters and the band at the most delightful station in the +Northwest. Here Mr. Rollins had reported for duty during the previous +autumn, and here they were with troops of other arms of the service, +enjoying the close proximity of all the good things of civilization. + +Chester looked up with a quizzical smile as his "plebe" came in: + +"Well, sir, how many dances had you with 'Sweet Alice, Ben Bolt'? Not +many, I fancy, with Mr. Jerrold monopolizing everything, as usual. By +gad! some good fellow could make a colossal fortune in buying that young +man at my valuation and selling him at his own." + +"Oh, come, now, captain," laughed Rollins, "Jerrold's no such slouch as +you make him out. He's lazy, and he likes to spoon, and he puts up with +a good deal of petting from the girls,--who wouldn't, if he could get +it?--but he is jolly and big-hearted, and don't put on any airs,--with +us, at least,--and the mess like him first-rate. 'Tain't his fault that +he's handsome and a regular lady-killer. You must admit that he had a +pretty tough four years of it up there at that cussed old Indian +graveyard, and it's only natural he should enjoy getting here, where +there are theatres and concerts and operas and dances and dinners--" + +"Yes, dances and dinners and daughters,--all delightful, I know, but no +excuse for a man's neglecting his manifest duty, as he is doing and has +been ever since we got here. Any other time the colonel would have +straightened him out; but no use trying it now, when both women in his +household are as big fools about the man as anybody in town,--bigger, +unless I'm a born idiot." And Chester rose excitedly. + +"I suppose he had Miss Renwick pretty much to himself to-night?" he +presently demanded, looking angrily and searchingly at his junior, as +though half expecting him to dodge the question. + +"Oh, yes. Why not? It's pretty evident she would rather dance and be +with him than with any one else: so what can a fellow do? Of course we +ask her to dance, and all that, and I think he wants us to; but I cannot +help feeling rather a bore to her, even if she is only eighteen, and +there are plenty of pleasant girls in the garrison who don't get any too +much attention, now we're so near a big city, and I like to be with +them." + +"Yes, and it's the _right_ thing for you to do, youngster. That's one +trait I despise in Jerrold. When we were up there at the stockade two +winters ago, and Captain Gray's little girl was there, he hung around +her from morning till night, and the poor little thing fairly beamed and +blossomed with delight. Look at her now, man! He don't go near her. He +hasn't had the decency to take her a walk, a drive, or anything, since +we got here. He began, from the moment we came, with that gang in town. +He was simply devoted to Miss Beaubien until Alice Renwick came; then he +dropped her like a hot brick. By the Eternal, Rollins, he hasn't gotten +off with _that_ old love yet, you mark my words. There's Indian blood in +her veins, and a look in her eye that makes me wriggle, sometimes. I +watched her last night at parade when she drove out here with that +copper-faced old squaw, her mother. For all her French and Italian +education and her years in New York and Paris, that girl's got a wild +streak in her somewhere. She sat there watching him as the officers +marched to the front, and then _her_, as he went up and joined Miss +Renwick; and there was a gleam of her white teeth and a flash in her +black eyes that made me think of the leap of a knife from the sheath. +Not but what 'twould serve him right if she did play him some devil's +trick. It's his own doing. Were any people out from town?" he suddenly +asked. + +"Yes, half a dozen or so," answered Mr. Rollins, who was pulling off his +boots and inserting his feet into easy slippers, while old "Crusty" +tramped excitedly up and down the floor. "Most of them stayed out here, +I think. Only one team went back across the bridge." + +"Whose was that?" + +"The Suttons', I believe. Young Cub Sutton was out with his sister and +another girl." + +"There's another damned fool!" growled Chester. "That boy has ten +thousand a year of his own, a beautiful home that will be his, a doting +mother and sister, and everything wealth can buy, and yet, by gad! he's +unhappy because he can't be a poor devil of a lieutenant, with nothing +but drills, debts, and rifle-practice to enliven him. That's what brings +him out here all the time. He'd swap places with you in a minute. Isn't +he very thick with Jerrold?" + +"Oh, yes, rather. Jerrold entertains him a good deal." + +"Which is returned with compound interest, I'll bet you. Mr. Jerrold +simply makes a convenience of him. He won't make love to his sister, +because the poor, rich, unsophisticated girl is as ugly as she is +ubiquitous. His majesty is fastidious, you see, and seeks only the +caress of beauty, and while he lives there at the Suttons' when he goes +to town, and dines and sleeps and smokes and wines there, and uses their +box at the opera-house, and is courted and flattered by the old lady +because dear Cubby worships the ground he walks on and poor Fanny Sutton +thinks him adorable, he turns his back on the girl at every dance +because she _can't_ dance, and leaves her to you fellows who have a +conscience and some idea of decency. He gives all _his_ devotions to +Nina Beaubien, who dances like a _coryphee_, and drops _her_ when Alice +Renwick comes with her glowing Spanish beauty. Oh, damn it, I'm an old +fool to get worked up over it as I do, but you young fellows don't see +what I see. You haven't seen what I've seen; and pray God you never may! +That's where the shoe pinches, Rollins. It is what he _reminds_ me +of--not so much what he _is_, I suppose--that I get rabid about. He is +for all the world like a man we had in the old regiment when you were in +swaddling-clothes; and I never look at Mamie Gray's sad, white face that +it doesn't bring back a girl I knew just then whose heart was broken by +just such a shallow, selfish, adorable scoun--No, I won't use _that_ +word in speaking of Jerrold; but it's what I fear. Rollins, you call him +generous. Well, so he is,--_lavish_, if you like, with his money and his +hospitality here in the post. Money comes easily to him, and goes; but +you boys misuse the term. _I_ call him selfish to the core, because he +can deny himself no luxury, no pleasure, though it may wring a woman's +life--or, more than that, her honor--to give it him." The captain was +tramping up and down the room now, as was his wont when excited; his +face was flushed, and his hand clinched. He turned suddenly and faced +the younger officer, who sat gazing uncomfortably at the rug in front of +the fireplace. + +"Rollins, some day I may tell you a story that I've kept to myself all +these years. You won't wonder at my feeling as I do about these +goings-on of your friend Jerrold when you hear it all, but it was just +such a man as he who ruined one woman, broke the heart of another, and +took the sunshine out of the life of two men from that day to this. One +of them was your colonel, the other your captain. Now go to bed. I'm +going out." And, throwing down his pipe, regardless of the scattering +sparks and ashes, Captain Chester strode into the hall-way, picked up +the first forage-cap he laid hands on, and banged himself out of the +front door. + +Mr. Rollins remained for some moments in the same attitude, still gazing +abstractedly at the rug, and listening to the nervous tramp of his +senior officer on the piazza without. Then he slowly and thoughtfully +went to his room, where his perturbed spirit was soon soothed in sleep. +His conscience being clear and his health perfect, there were no deep +cares to keep him tossing on a restless pillow. + +To Chester, however, sleep was impossible: he tramped the piazza a full +hour before he felt placid enough to go and inspect his guard. The +sentries were calling three o'clock, and the wind had died away, as he +started on his round. Dark as was the night, he carried no lantern. The +main garrison was well lighted by lamps, and the road circling the old +fort was broad, smooth, and bordered by a stone coping wall where it +skirted the precipitous descent into the river-bottom. As he passed down +the plank walk west of the quadrangle wherein lay the old barracks and +the stone quarters of the commanding officer and the low one-storied row +of bachelor dens, he could not help noting the silence and peace of the +night. Not a light was visible at any window as he strode down the line. +The challenge of the sentry at the old stone tower sounded unnecessarily +sharp and loud, and his response of "Officer of the day" was lower than +usual, as though rebuking the unseemly outcry. The guard came scrambling +out and formed hurriedly to receive him, but the captain's inspection +was of the briefest kind. Barely glancing along the prison corridor to +see that the bars were in place, he turned back into the night, and made +for the line of posts along the river-bank. The sentry at the high +bridge across the gorge, and the next one, well around to the southeast +flank, were successively visited and briefly questioned as to their +instructions, and then the captain plodded sturdily on until he came to +the sharp bend around the outermost angle of the fort and found himself +passing behind the quarters of the commanding officer, a substantial +two-storied stone house with mansard roof and dormer-windows. The road +in the rear was some ten feet below the level of the parade inside the +quadrangle, and consequently, as the house faced the parade, what was +the ground-floor from that front became the second story at the rear. +The kitchen, store-room, and servants' rooms were on this lower stage, +and opened upon the road; an outer stairway ran up to the centre door at +the back, but at the east and west flanks of the house the stone walls +stood without port or window except those above the eaves,--the dormers. +Light and air in abundance streamed through the broad Venetian windows +north and south when light and air were needed. This night, as usual, +all was tightly closed below, all darkness aloft as he glanced up at the +dormers high above his head. As he did so, his foot struck a sudden and +sturdy obstacle; he stumbled and pitched heavily forward, and found +himself sprawling at full length upon a ladder lying on the ground +almost in the middle of the roadway. + +"Damn those painters!" he growled between his set teeth. "They leave +their infernal man-traps around in the very hope of catching me, I +believe. Now, who but a painter would have left a ladder in such a place +as this?" + +Rising ruefully and rubbing a bruised knee with his hand, he limped +painfully ahead a few steps, until he came to the side-wall of the +colonel's house. Here a plank walk passed from the roadway along the +western wall until almost on a line with the front piazza, where by a +flight of steps it was carried up to the level of the parade. Here he +paused a moment to dust off his clothes and rearrange his belt and +sword. He stood leaning against the wall and facing the gray stone gable +end of the row of old-fashioned quarters that bounded the parade upon +the southwest. All was still darkness and silence. + +"Confound this sword!" he muttered again: "the thing made rattle and +racket enough to wake the dead. Wonder if I disturbed anybody at the +colonel's." + +As though in answer to his suggestion, there suddenly appeared, high on +the blank wall before him, the reflection of a faint light. Had a little +night-lamp been turned on in the front room of the upper story? The +gleam came from the north window on the side: he saw plainly the shadow +of the pretty lace curtains, looped loosely back. Then the shade was +gently raised, and there was for an instant the silhouette of a slender +hand and wrist, the shadow of a lace-bordered sleeve. Then the light +receded, as though carried back across the room, waned, as though slowly +extinguished, and the last shadows showed the curtains still looped +back, the rolling shade still raised. + +"I thought so," he growled. "One tumble like that is enough to wake the +Seven Sleepers, let alone a love-sick girl who is probably dreaming over +Jerrold's parting words. She is spirited and blue-blooded enough to have +more sense, too, that same superb brunette. Ah, Miss Alice, I wonder if +you think that fellow's love worth having. It is two hours since he left +you,--more than that,--and here you are awake yet,--cannot sleep,--want +more air, and have to come and raise your shade. No such warm night, +either." These were his reflections as he picked up his offending sword +and, more slowly and cautiously now, groped his way along the western +terrace. He passed the row of bachelor quarters, and was well out beyond +the limits of the fort before he came upon the next sentry,--"Number +Five,"--and recognized, in the stern "Who comes there?" and the sharp +rattle of the bayonet as it dropped to the charge, the well-known +challenge of Private Leary, one of the oldest and most reliable soldiers +in the regiment. + +"All right on your post, Leary?" he asked, after having given the +countersign. + +"All right, I _think_, sor; though if the captain had asked me that half +an hour ago I'd not have said so. It was so dark I couldn't see me hand +afore me face, sor; but about half-past two I was walkin' very slow down +back of the quarters, whin just close by Loot'nant Jerrold's back gate I +seen somethin' movin', and as I come softly along it riz up, an' sure I +thought 'twas the loot'nant himself, whin he seemed to catch sight o' me +or hear me, and he backed inside the gate an' shut it. I was sure 'twas +he, he was so tall and slim like, an' so I niver said a word until I got +to thinkin' over it, and then I couldn't spake. Sure if it had been the +loot'nant he wouldn't have backed away from a sintry; he'd 'a' come out +bold and given the countersign; but I didn't think o' that. It looked +like him in the dark, an' 'twas his quarters, an' I thought it _was_ +him, until I thought ag'in, and then, sor, I wint back and searched the +yard; but there was no one there." + +"Hm! Odd thing that, Leary! Why didn't you challenge at first?" + +"Sure, sor, he lept inside the fince quick as iver we set eyes on each +other. He was bendin' down, and I thought it was one of the hound pups +when I first sighted him." + +"And he hasn't been around since?" + +"No, sor, nor nobody, till the officer of the day came along." + +Chester walked away puzzled. Sibley was a most quiet and orderly +garrison. Night prowlers had never been heard from, especially over here +at the south and southwest fronts. The enlisted men going to or from +town passed across the big, high bridge or went at once to their own +quarters on the east and north. This southwestern terrace behind the +bachelors' row was the most secluded spot on the whole post,--so much so +that when a fire broke out there among the fuel-heaps one sharp winter's +night a year agone it had wellnigh enveloped the whole line before its +existence was discovered. Indeed, not until after this occurrence was a +sentry posted on that front at all; and, once ordered there, he had so +little to do and was so comparatively sure to be undisturbed that the +old soldiers eagerly sought the post in preference to any other, and +were given it as a peace privilege. For months, relief after relief +tramped around the fort and found the terrace post as humdrum and silent +as an empty church; but this night "Number Five" leaped suddenly into +notoriety. + +Instead of going home, Chester kept on across the plateau and took a +long walk on the northern side of the reservation, where the +quarter-master's stables and corrals were placed. He was affected by a +strange unrest. His talk with Rollins had roused the memories of years +long gone by,--of days when he, too, was young and full of hope and +faith, ay, full of love,--all lavished on one fair girl who knew it +well, but gently, almost entreatingly, repelled him. Her heart was +wrapped up in another, the Adonis of his day in the gay old seaboard +garrison. She was a soldier's child, barrack-born, simply taught, +knowing little of the vice and temptations, the follies and the frauds, +of the whirling life of civilization. A good and gentle mother had +reared her and been called hence. Her father, an officer whose sabre-arm +was left at Molino del Rey, and whose heart was crushed when the loving +wife was taken from him, turned to the child who so resembled her, and +centred there all his remaining love and life. He welcomed Chester to +his home, and tacitly favored his suit, but in his blindness never saw +how a few moonlit strolls on the old moss-grown parapet, a few evening +dances in the casemates with handsome, wooing, winning Will Forrester, +had done their work. She gave him all the wild, enthusiastic, +worshipping love of her girlish heart just about the time Captain and +Mrs. Maynard came back from leave, and then he grew cold and negligent +_there_, but lived at Maynard's fireside; and one day there came a +sensation,--a tragedy,--and Mrs. Maynard went away, and died abroad, and +a shocked and broken-hearted girl hid her face from all and pined at +home, and Mr. Forrester's resignation was sent from--no one knew just +where, and no one would have cared to know, except Maynard. He would +have followed him, pistol in hand, but Forrester gave him no chance. +Years afterwards Chester again sought her and offered her his love and +his name. It was useless, she told him, sadly. She lived only for her +father now, and would never leave him till he died, and then--she prayed +she might go too. Memories like this _will_ come up at such times in +these same "still watches of the night." Chester was in a moody frame of +mind when about half an hour later he came back past the guard-house. +The sergeant was standing near the lighted entrance, and the captain +called him: + +"There's a ladder lying back of the colonel's quarters on the roadway. +Some of those painters left it, I suppose. It's a wonder some of the +reliefs have not broken their necks over it going around to-night. Let +the next one pick it up and move it out of the way. Hasn't it been +reported?" + +"Not to me, sir. Corporal Schreiber has command of this relief, and he +has said nothing about it. Here he is, sir." + +"Didn't you see it or stumble over it when posting your relief, +corporal?" asked Chester. + +"No indeed, sir. I--I think the captain must have been mistaken in +thinking it a ladder. We would surely have struck it if it had been." + +"No mistake at all, corporal. I lifted it. It is a long, heavy +ladder,--over twenty feet, I should say." + +"There _is_ such a ladder back there, captain," said the sergeant, "but +it always hangs on the fence just behind the young officers' +quarters,--Bachelors' Row, sir, I mean." + +"And that ladder was there an hour ago when I went my rounds," said the +corporal, earnestly. "I had my hurricane-lamp, sir, and saw it on the +fence plainly. And there was nothing behind the colonel's at that hour." + +Chester turned away, thoughtful and silent. Without a word he walked +straight into the quadrangle, past the low line of stone buildings, the +offices of the adjutant and quartermaster, the home of the +sergeant-major, the club and billiard-room, past the long, piazza-shaded +row of bachelor quarters, and came upon the plank walk at the corner of +the colonel's fence. Ten more steps, and he stood stock-still at the +head of the flight of wooden stairs. + +There, dimly visible against the southern sky, its base on the plank +walk below him, its top resting upon the eaves midway between the +dormer-window and the roof of the piazza, so that one could step easily +from it into the one or on to the other, was the very ladder that half +an hour before was lying on the ground behind the house. + +His heart stood still. He seemed powerless to move,--even to think. Then +a slight noise roused him, and with every nerve tingling he crouched +ready for a spring. With quick, agile movements, noiseless as a cat, +sinuous and stealthy as a serpent, the dark figure of a man issued from +Alice Renwick's chamber window and came gliding down. + +One second more, and, almost as noiselessly, he reached the ground, then +quickly raised and turned the ladder, stepped with it to the edge of +the roadway, and peered around the angle as though to see that no sentry +was in sight, then vanished with his burden around the corner. Another +second, and down the steps went Chester, three at a bound, tip-toeing it +in pursuit. Ten seconds brought him close to the culprit,--a tall, +slender shadow. + +"You villain! Halt!" + +Down went the ladder on the dusty road. The hand that Chester had +clinched upon the broad shoulder was hurled aside. There was a sudden +whirl, a lightning blow that took the captain full in the chest and +staggered him back upon the treacherous and entangling rungs, and, ere +he could recover himself, the noiseless stranger had fairly whizzed into +space and vanished in the darkness up the road. Chester sprang in +pursuit. He heard the startled challenge of the sentry, and then Leary's +excited "Halt, I say! Halt!" and then he shouted,-- + +"Fire on him, Leary! Bring him down!" + +Bang went the ready rifle with sharp, sullen roar that woke the echoes +across the valley. Bang again, as Leary sent a second shot after the +first. Then, as the captain came panting to the spot, they followed up +the road. No sign of the runner. Attracted by the shots, the sergeant of +the guard and one or two men, lantern-bearing, came running to the +scene. Excitedly they searched up and down the road in mingled hope and +dread of finding the body of the marauder, or some clue or trace. +Nothing! Whoever he was, the fleet runner had vanished and made good his +escape. + +"Who could it have been, sir?" asked the sergeant of the officer of the +day. "Surely none of the men ever come round this way." + +"I don't know, sergeant; I don't know. Just take your lamp and see if +there is anything visible down there among the rocks. He may have been +hit and leaped the wall.--Do you think you hit him, Leary?" + +"I can't say, sor. He came by me like a flash. I had just a second's +look at him, and--Sure I niver saw such runnin'." + +"Could you see his face?" asked Chester, in a low tone, as the other men +moved away to search the rocks. + +"Not his face, sor. 'Twas too dark." + +"Was there--did he look like anybody you knew, or had seen?--anybody in +the command?" + +"Well, sor, not among the men, that is. There's none so tall and slim +both, and so light. Sure he must 'a' worn gums, sor. You couldn't hear +the whisper of a footfall." + +"But whom did he _seem_ to resemble?" + +"Well, if the captain will forgive me, sor, it's unwillin' I am to say +the worrd, but there's no one that tall and light and slim here, sor, +but Loot'nant Jerrold. Sure it couldn't be him, sor." + +"Leary, will you promise me something on your word as a man?" + +"I will, sor." + +"Say not one word of this matter to any one, except I tell you, or you +have to, before a court." + +"I promise, sor." + +"And I believe you. Tell the sergeant I will soon be back." + +With that he turned and walked down the road until once more he came to +the plank crossing and the passage-way between the colonel's and +Bachelors' Row. Here again he stopped short, and waited with bated +breath and scarcely-beating heart. The faint light he had seen before +again illumined the room and cast its gleam upon the old gray wall. Even +as he gazed, there came silently to the window a tall, white-robed form, +and a slender white hand seized and lowered the shade, noiselessly. +Then, as before, the light faded away; but--she was awake. + +Waiting one moment in silence, Captain Chester then sprang up the wooden +steps and passed under the piazza which ran the length of the bachelor +quarters. Half-way down the row he turned sharply to his left, opened +the green-painted door, and stood in a little dark hall-way. Taking his +match-box from his pocket, he struck a light, and by its glare quickly +read the card upon the first door-way to his right: + + "MR. HOWARD F. JERROLD, + + "----_th Infantry, U.S.A._" + +Opening this door, he bolted straight through the little parlor to the +bedroom in the rear. A dim light was burning on the mantel. The bed was +unruffled, untouched, and Mr. Jerrold was not there. + +Five minutes afterwards, Captain Chester, all alone, had laboriously and +cautiously dragged the ladder from the side to the rear of the colonel's +house, stretched it in the roadway where he had first stumbled upon it, +then returned to the searching-party on "Number Five." + +"Send two men to put that ladder back," he ordered. "It is where I told +you,--on the road behind the colonel's." + + + + +III. + + +When Mrs. Maynard came to Sibley in May and the officers with their +wives were making their welcoming call, she had with motherly pride and +pleasure yielded to their constant importunities and shown to one party +after another an album of photographs,--likenesses of her only daughter. +There were little _cartes de visite_ representing her in long dresses +and baby-caps; quaint little pictures of a chubby-faced, chubby-legged +infant a few months older; charming studies of a little girl with great +black eyes and delicate features; then of a tall, slender slip of a +maiden, decidedly foreign-looking; then of a sweet and pensive face, +with great dark eyes, long, beautiful curling lashes, and very heavy, +low-arched brows, exquisitely moulded mouth and chin, and most luxuriant +dark hair; then others, still older, in every variety of dress,--even in +fancy costume, such as the girl had worn at fair or masquerade. These +and others still had Mrs. Maynard shown them, with repressed pride and +pleasure and with sweet acknowledgment of their enthusiastic praises. +Alice still tarried in the East, visiting relatives whom she had not +seen since her father's death three years earlier, and, long before she +came to join her mother at Sibley and to enter upon the life she so +eagerly looked forward to, "'way out in the West, you know, with +officers and soldiers and the band, and buffalo and Indians all around +you," there was not an officer or an officer's wife who had not +delightedly examined that album. There was still another picture, but +that one had been shown to only a chosen few just one week after her +daughter's arrival, and rather an absurd scene had occurred, in which +that most estimable officer, Lieutenant Sloat, had figured as the hero. +A more simple-minded, well-intentioned fellow than Sloat there did not +live. He was so full of kindness and good nature and readiness to do +anything for anybody that it never seemed to occur to him that everybody +on earth was not just as ready to be equally accommodating. He was a +perpetual source of delight to the colonel, and one of the most loyal +and devoted of subalterns, despite the fact that his locks were long +silvered with the frosts of years and that he had fought through the war +of the rebellion and risen to the rank of a field-officer in Maynard's +old brigade. The most temperate of men, ordinarily, the colonel had one +anniversary he loved to celebrate, and Sloat was his stand-by when the +3d of July came round, just as he had been at his shoulder at that +supreme moment when, heedless of the fearful sweep of shell and canister +through their shattered ranks, Pickett's heroic Virginians breasted the +slope of Cemetery Hill and surged over the low stone wall into Cushing's +guns. Hard, stubborn fighting had Maynard's men to do that day, and for +serene courage and determination no man had beaten Sloat. Both officers +had bullet-hole mementos to carry from that field; both had won their +brevets for conspicuous gallantry, and Sloat was a happy and grateful +man when, years afterwards, his old commander secured him a lieutenancy +in the regular service. He was the colonel's henchman, although he never +had brains enough to win a place on the regimental staff, and when Mrs. +Maynard came he overwhelmed her with cumbrous compliments and incessant +calls. He was, to his confident belief, her chosen and accepted knight +for full two days after her arrival. Then Jerrold came back from a brief +absence, and, as in duty bound, went to pay his respects to his +colonel's wife; and that night there had been a singular scene. Mrs. +Maynard had stopped suddenly in her laughing chat with two ladies, had +started from her seat, wildly staring at the tall, slender subaltern who +entered the gateway, and then fell back in her chair, fairly swooning as +he made his bow. + +Sloat had rushed into the house to call the colonel and get some water, +while Mr. Jerrold stood paralyzed at so strange a reception of his first +call. Mrs. Maynard revived presently, explained that it was her heart, +or the heat, or something, and the ladies on their way home decided that +it was possibly the heart, it was certainly not the heat, it was +unquestionably something, and that something was Mr. Jerrold, for she +never took her eyes off him during the entire evening, and seemed unable +to shake off the fascination. Next day Jerrold dined there, and from +that time on he was a daily visitor. Every one noted Mrs. Maynard's +strong interest in him, but no one could account for it. She was old +enough to be his mother, said the garrison; but not until Alice Renwick +came did another consideration appear: he was singularly like the +daughter. Both were tall, lithe, slender; both had dark, lustrous eyes, +dark, though almost perfect, skin, exquisitely-chiselled features, and +slender, shapely hands and feet. Alice was "the picture of her father," +said Mrs. Maynard, and Mr. Renwick had lived all his life in New York; +while Mr. Jerrold was of an old Southern family, and his mother a Cuban +beauty who was the toast of the New Orleans clubs not many years before +the war. + +Poor Sloat! He did not fancy Jerrold, and was as jealous as so +unselfish a mortal could be of the immediate ascendency the young fellow +established in the colonel's household. It was bad enough before Alice +joined them; after that it was wellnigh unbearable. Then came the +3d-of-July dinner and the colonel's one annual jollification. No man +ever heard of Sloat's being intoxicated; he rarely drank at all; but +this evening the reminiscences of the day, the generous wine, the +unaccustomed elegance of all his surroundings, due to Mrs. Maynard's +taste and supervision, and the influence of Alice Kenwick's exquisite +beauty, had fairly carried him away. + +They were chatting in the parlor, while Miss Renwick was entertaining +some young-lady friends from town and listening to the band on the +parade. Sloat was expatiating on her grace and beauty and going over the +album for the twentieth time, when the colonel, with a twinkling eye, +remarked to Mrs. Maynard,-- + +"I think you ought to show Major[A] Sloat the 'Directoire' picture, my +dear." + +"Alice would never forgive me," said madame, laughing; "though I +consider it the most beautiful we have of her." + +"Oh, where is it?" "Oh, do let us see it, Mrs. Maynard!" was the chorus +of exclamations from the few ladies present. "Oh, I _insist_ on seeing +it, madame," was Sloat's characteristic contribution to the clamor. + +"I want you to understand it," said Mrs. Maynard, pleased, but still +hesitating. "We are very daft about Alice at home, you know, and it's +quite a wonder she has not been utterly spoiled by her aunts and uncles; +but this picture was a specialty. An artist friend of ours fairly _made_ +us have it taken in the wedding-dress worn by her grandmother. You know +the Josephine Beauharnais 'Directoire' style that was worn in seventeen +ninety-something. Her neck and shoulders are lovely, and that was why we +consented. I went, and so did the artist, and we posed her, and the +photograph is simply perfect of her face, and neck too, but when Alice +saw it she blushed furiously and forbade my having them finished. +Afterwards, though, she yielded when her aunt Kate and I begged so hard +and promised that none should be given away, and so just half a dozen +were finished. Indeed, the dress is by no means as _decollete_ as many +girls wear theirs at dinner now in New York; but poor Alice was +scandalized when she saw it last month, and she never would let me put +one in the album." + +"Oh, _do_ go and get it, Mrs. Maynard!" pleaded the ladies. "Oh, +_please_ let me see it, Mrs. Maynard!" added Sloat; and at last the +mother-pride prevailed. Mrs. Maynard rustled up-stairs, and presently +returned holding in her hands a delicate silver frame in filigree-work, +a quaint foreign affair, and enclosed therein was a cabinet photograph +_en vignette_,--the head, neck, and shoulders of a beautiful girl; and +the dainty, diminutive, what-there-was-of-it waist of the old-fashioned +gown, sashed almost immediately under the exquisite bust, revealed quite +materially the cause of Alice Renwick's blushes. But a more beautiful +portrait was never photographed. The women fairly gasped with delight +and envy. Sloat could not restrain his impatience to get it in his own +hands, and finally he grasped it and then eyed it in rapture. It was two +minutes before he spoke a word, while the colonel sat laughing at his +worshipping gaze. Mrs. Maynard somewhat uneasily stretched forth her +hand, and the other ladies impatiently strove to regain possession. + +"Come, Major Sloat, you've surely had it long enough. _We_ want it +again." + +"Never!" said Sloat, with melodramatic intensity. "Never! This is my +ideal of perfection,--of divinity in woman. I will bear it home with me, +set it above my fireside, and adore it day and night." + +"Nonsense, Major Sloat!" said Mrs. Maynard, laughing, yet far from being +at her ease. "Come, I _must_ take it back. Alice may be in any minute +now, and if she knew I had betrayed her she would never forgive me. +Come, surrender!" And she strove to take it from him. + +But Sloat was in one of his utterly asinine moods. He would have been +perfectly willing to give any sum he possessed for so perfect a picture +as this. He never dreamed that there were good and sufficient reasons +why _no_ man should have it. He so loved and honored his colonel that he +was ready to lay down his life for any of his household. In laying claim +to this picture he honestly believed that it was the highest proof he +could give of his admiration and devotion. A tame surrender now meant +that his protestations were empty words. "Therefore," argued Sloat, "I +must stand firm." + +"Madame," said he, "I'd die first." And with that he began backing to +the door. + +Alarmed now, Mrs. Maynard sprang after him, and the little major leaped +upon a chair, his face aglow, jolly, rubicund, beaming with bliss and +triumph. She looked up, almost wringing her hands, and turned half +appealingly to the colonel, who was laughing heartily on the sofa, never +dreaming Sloat could be in earnest. + +"Here, I'll give you back the frame: I don't want that," said Sloat, and +began fumbling at the back of the photograph. This was too much for the +ladies. They, too, rushed to the rescue. One of them sprang to and shut +the door, the other seized and violently shook the back of his chair, +and Sloat leaped to the floor, still clinging to his prize, and laughing +as though he had never had so much entertainment in his life. The long +Venetian windows opened upon the piazza, and towards the nearest one he +retreated, holding aloft the precious gage and waving off the attacking +party with the other hand. He was within a yard of the blinds, when they +were suddenly thrown open, a tall, slender form stepped quickly in, one +hand seized the uplifted wrist, the other the picture, and in far less +time than it takes to tell it Mr. Jerrold had wrenched it away and, with +quiet bow, restored it to its rightful owner. + +"Oh, I say, now, Jerrold, that's downright unhandsome of you!" gasped +Sloat. "I'd have been on my way home with it." + +"Shut up, you fool!" was the sharp, hissing whisper. "Wait till I go +home, if you want to talk about it." And, as quickly as he came, Mr. +Jerrold slipped out again upon the piazza. + +Of course the story was told with varied comment all over the post. +Several officers were injudicious enough to chaff the old subaltern +about it, and--he was a little sore-headed the next day, anyway--the +usually placid Sloat grew the more indignant at Jerrold. He decided to +go and upbraid him; and, as ill luck would have it, they met before noon +on the steps of the club-room. + +"I want to say to you, Mr. Jerrold, that from an officer of your age to +one of mine I think your conduct last night a piece of impertinence." + +"I had a perfect right to do what I did," replied Jerrold, coolly. "You +were taking a most unwarrantable liberty in trying to carry off that +picture." + +"How did you know what it was? You had never seen it!" + +"There's where you are mistaken, Mr. Sloat" (and Jerrold purposely and +exasperatingly refused to recognize the customary _brevet_): "I had seen +it,--frequently." + +Two officers were standing by, and one of them turned sharply and faced +Jerrold as he spoke. It was his former company commander. Jerrold noted +the symptom, and flushed, but set his teeth doggedly. + +"Why, Mr. Jerrold! Mrs. Maynard said she never showed that to any one," +said Sloat, in much surprise. "You heard her, did you not, Captain +Chester?" + +"I did, certainly," was the reply. + +"All the same, I repeat what I've said," was Jerrold's sullen answer. "I +have seen it frequently, and, what's more--" He suddenly stopped. + +"Well, what's more?" said Sloat, suggestively. + +"Never mind. I don't care to talk of the matter," replied Jerrold, and +started to walk away. + +But Sloat was angry, nettled, jealous. He had meant to show his intense +loyalty and admiration for everything that was his colonel's, and had +been snubbed and called a fool by an officer many years, though not so +many "files," his junior. He never had liked him, and now there was an +air of conscious superiority about Jerrold that fairly exasperated him. +He angrily followed and called to him to stop, but Jerrold walked on. +Captain Chester stood still and watched them. The little man had almost +to run before he overtook the tall one. They were out of earshot when he +finally did so. There were a few words on both sides. Then Jerrold +shifted his light cane into his left hand, and Chester started forward, +half expecting a fracas. To his astonishment, the two officers shook +hands and parted. + +"Well," said he, as Sloat came back with an angry yet bewildered face, +"I'm glad you shook hands. I almost feared a row, and was just going to +stop it. So he apologized, did he?" + +"No, nothing like it." + +"Then what did you mean by shaking hands?" + +"That's nothing--never you mind," said Sloat, confusedly. "I haven't +forgiven him, by a good deal. The man's conceit is enough to disgust +anything--but a woman, I suppose," he finished, ruefully. + +"Well, it's none of my business, Sloat, but pardon my saying I don't see +what there was to bring about the apparent reconciliation. That +hand-shake meant something." + +"Oh, well--damn it! we had some words, and he--or I--Well, there's a +bet, and we shook hands on it." + +"Seems to me that's pretty serious business, Sloat,--a bet following +such a talk as you two have had. I hope--" + +"Well, captain," interrupted Sloat, "I wouldn't have done it if I hadn't +been mad as blazes; but I made it, and must stick to it,--that's all." + +"You wouldn't mind telling me what it was, I suppose?" + +"I can't; and that ends it." + +Captain Chester found food for much thought and speculation over this +incident. So far as he was concerned, the abrupt remark of Sloat by no +means ended it. In his distrust of Jerrold, he too had taken alarm at +the very substantial intimacy to which that young man was welcomed at +the colonel's quarters. Prior to his marriage old Maynard had not liked +him at all, but it was mainly because he had been so negligent of his +duties and so determined a beau in city society after his arrival at +Sibley. He had, indeed, threatened to have him transferred to a company +still on frontier service if he did not reform; but then the +rifle-practice season began, and Jerrold was a capital shot and sure to +be on the list of competitors for the Department team, so what was the +use? He would be ordered in for the rifle-camp anyway, and so the +colonel decided to keep him at head-quarters. This was in the summer of +the year gone by. Then came the colonel's long leave, his visit to +Europe, his meeting with his old friend, now the widow of the lamented +Renwick, their delightful winter together in Italy, his courtship, her +consent, their marriage and return to America. When Maynard came back to +Sibley and the old regiment, he was so jolly and content that every man +was welcomed at his house, and it was really a source of pride and +pleasure to him that his accomplished wife should find any of his young +officers so thoroughly agreeable as she pronounced Mr. Jerrold. Others +were soldierly, courteous, well bred, but he had the air of a foreign +court about him, she privately informed her lord; and it seems, indeed, +that in days gone by Mr. Jerrold's father had spent many years in France +and Spain, once as his country's representative near the throne. Though +the father died long before the boy was out of his knickerbockers, he +had left the impress of his grand manner, and Jerrold, to women of any +age, was at once a courtier and a knight. But the colonel never saw how +her eyes followed the tall young officer time and again. There were +women who soon noted it, and one of them said it was such a yearning, +longing look. _Was_ Mrs. Maynard really happy? they asked each other. +_Did_ she really want to see Alice mate with him, the handsome, the +dangerous, the selfish fellow they knew him to be? If not, could +anything be more imprudent than that they should be thrown together as +they were being, day after day? Had Alice wealth of her own? If not, did +the mother know that nothing would tempt Howard Jerrold into an alliance +with a dowerless daughter? These, and many more, were questions that +came up every day. The garrison could talk of little else; and Alice +Renwick had been there just three weeks, and was the acknowledged Queen +of Hearts at Sibley, when the rifle-competitions began again, and a +great array of officers and men from all over the Northwest came to the +post by every train, and their canvas tents dotted the broad prairie to +the north. + +One lovely evening in August, just before the practice began, Colonel +Maynard took his wife to drive out and see the camp. Mr. Jerrold and +Alice Renwick followed on horseback. The carriage was surrounded as it +halted near the range, and half a score of officers, old and young, were +chatting with Mrs. Maynard, while others gathered about the lovely girl +who sat there in the saddle. There came marching up from the railway a +small squad of soldiers, competitors arriving from the far West. Among +them--apparently their senior non-commissioned officer--was a tall +cavalry sergeant, superbly built, and with a bronzed and bearded and +swarthy face that seemed to tell of years of campaigning over mountain +and prairie. They were all men of perfect physique, all in the neat, +soldierly fatigue-dress of the regular service, some wearing the +spotless white stripes of the infantry, others the less artistic and +equally destructible yellow of the cavalry. Their swinging stride, erect +carriage, and clear and handsome eyes all spoke of the perfection of +health and soldierly development. Curious glances were turned to them as +they advanced, and Miss Renwick, catching sight of the party, +exclaimed,-- + +"Oh, who are these? And what a tall soldier that sergeant is!" + +"That sergeant, Miss Renwick," said a slow, deliberate voice, "is the +man I believe will knock Mr. Jerrold out of the first prize. That is +Sergeant McLeod." + +As though he heard his name pronounced, the tall cavalryman glanced for +the first time at the group, brought his rifle to the carry as if about +to salute, and was just stepping upon the roadside, where he came in +full view of the occupants of the carriage, when a sudden pallor shot +across his face, and he plunged heavily forward and went down like a +shot. Sympathetic officers and comrades surrounded the prostrate form in +an instant. The colonel himself sprang from his carriage and joined the +group; a blanket was quickly brought from a neighboring tent, and the +sergeant was borne thither and laid upon a cot. A surgeon felt his pulse +and looked inquiringly around: + +"Any of you cavalrymen know him well? Has he been affected this way +before?" + +A young corporal who had been bending anxiously over the sergeant +straightened up and saluted: + +"I know him well, sir, and have been with him five years. He's only had +one sick spell in all that time,--'twas just like this,--and then he +told me he'd been sunstruck once." + +"This is no case of sunstroke," said the doctor. "It looks more like the +heart. How long ago was the attack you speak of?" + +"Three years ago last April, sir. I remember it because we'd just got +into Fort Raines after a long scout. He'd been the solidest man in the +troop all through the cold and storm and snow we had in the mountains, +and we were in the reading-room, and he'd picked up a newspaper and was +reading while the rest of us were talking and laughing, and, first thing +we knew, he was down on the floor, just like he was to-night." + +"Hm!" said the surgeon. "Yes. That's plenty, steward. Give him that. +Raise his head a little, corporal. Now he'll come round all right." + +Driving homeward that night, Colonel Maynard musingly remarked,-- + +"Did you see that splendid fellow who fainted away?" + +"No," answered his wife, "you all gathered about him so quickly and +carried him away. I could not even catch a glimpse of him. But he had +recovered, had he not?" + +"Yes. Still, I was thinking what a singular fact it is that occasionally +a man slips through the surgeon's examinations with such a malady as +this. Now, here is one of the finest athletes and shots in the whole +army, a man who has been through some hard service and stirring fights, +has won a tip-top name for himself and was on the highroad to a +commission, and yet this will block him effectually." + +"Why, what is the trouble?" + +"Some affection of the heart. Why! Halloo! Stop, driver! Orderly, jump +down and run back there. Mrs. Maynard has dropped her fan.--What was it, +dear?" he asked, anxiously. "You started; and you are white, and +trembling." + +"I--I don't know, colonel. Let us go home. It will be over in a minute. +Where are Alice and Mr. Jerrold? Call them, please. She must not be out +riding after dark." + +But they were not in sight; and it was considerably after dark when they +reached the fort. Mr. Jerrold explained that his horse had picked up a +stone and he had had to walk him all the way. + + + + +IV. + + +There was no sleep for Captain Chester the rest of the night. He went +home, threw off his sword-belt, and seated himself in a big easy-chair +before his fireplace, deep in thought. Once or twice he arose and paced +restlessly up and down the room, as he had done in his excited talk with +Rollins some few hours before. Then he was simply angry and +argumentative,--or declamatory. Now he had settled down into a very +different frame of mind. He seemed awed,--stunned,--crushed. He had all +the bearing and mien of one who, having defiantly predicted a calamity, +was thunderstruck by the verification of his prophecy. In all his +determined arraignment of Mr. Jerrold, in all the harsh things he had +said and thought of him, he had never imagined any such depth of +scoundrelism as the revelations of the night foreshadowed. Chester +differed from many of his brotherhood: there was no room for rejoicing +in his heart that the worst he had ever said of Jerrold was unequal to +the apparent truth. He took no comfort to his soul that those who called +him cynical, crabbed, unjust, even malicious, would now be compelled to +admit he was right in his estimate. Like the best of us, Chester could +not ordinarily say "_Vade retro_" to the temptation to think, if not to +say, "Didn't I tell you so?" when in every-day affairs his oft-disputed +views were proved well founded. But in the face of such a catastrophe as +now appeared engulfing the fair fame of his regiment and the honor of +those whom his colonel held dear, Chester could feel only dismay and +grief. What was his duty in the light of the discoveries he had made? To +the best of his belief, he was the only man in the garrison who had +evidence of Jerrold's absence from his own quarters and of the presence +of _some one_ at _her_ window. He had taken prompt measures to prevent +its being suspected by others. He purposely sent his guards to search +along the cliff in the opposite direction while he went to Jerrold's +room and thence back to remove the tell-tale ladder. Should he tell +_any_ one until he had confronted Jerrold with the evidences of his +guilt, and, wringing from him his resignation, send him far from the +post before handing it in? Time and again he wished Frank Armitage were +here. The youngest captain in the regiment, Armitage had been for years +its adjutant and deep in the confidence of Colonel Maynard. He was a +thorough soldier, a strong, self-reliant, courageous man, and one for +whom Chester had ever felt a warm esteem. Armitage was on leave of +absence, however,--had been away some time on account of family matters, +and would not return, it was known, until he had effected the removal of +his mother and sister to the new home he had purchased for them in the +distant East. It was to his company that Jerrold had been promoted, and +there was friction from the very week that the handsome subaltern +joined. + +Armitage had long before "taken his measure," and was in no wise pleased +that so lukewarm a soldier should have come to him as senior subaltern. +They had a very plain talk, for Armitage was straightforward as a dart, +and then, as Jerrold showed occasional lapses, the captain shut down on +some of his most cherished privileges, and, to the indignation of +society, the failure of Mr. Jerrold to appear at one or two gatherings +where he was confidently expected was speedily laid at his captain's +door. The recent death of his father kept Armitage from appearing in +public, and, as neither he nor the major (who commanded the regiment +while Maynard was abroad) vouchsafed the faintest explanation, society +was allowed to form its own conclusions, and _did_,--to the effect that +Mr. Jerrold was a wronged and persecuted man. It was just as the +Maynards arrived at Sibley that Armitage departed on his leave, and, to +his unspeakable bliss, Mr. Jerrold succeeded to the command of his +company. This fact, coupled with the charming relations which were +straightway established with the colonel's family, placed him in a +position of independence and gave him opportunities he had never known +before. It was speedily evident that he was neglecting his military +duties,--that Company B was running down much faster than Armitage had +built it up,--and yet no man felt like speaking of it to the colonel, +who saw it only occasionally on dress-parade. Chester had just about +determined to write to Armitage himself and suggest his speedy return, +when this eventful night arrived. Now he fully made up his mind that it +must be done at once, and had seated himself at his desk, when the roar +of the sunrise gun and the blare of the bugles warned him that reveille +had come and he must again go to his guard. Before he returned to his +quarters another complication, even more embarrassing, had arisen, and +the letter to Armitage was postponed. + +He had received the "present" of his guard and verified the presence of +all his prisoners, when he saw Major Sloat still standing out in the +middle of the parade, where the adjutant usually received the reports of +the roll-calls. Several company officers, having made their reports, +were scurrying back to quarters for another snooze before breakfast-time +or to get their cup of coffee before going out to the range. Chester +strolled over towards him. + +"What's the matter, Sloat?" + +"Nothing much. The colonel told me to receive the reveille reports for +Hoyt this week. He's on general court-martial." + +"Yes, I know all that. I mean, what are you waiting for?" + +"Mr. Jerrold again. There's no report from his company." + +"Have you sent to wake him?" + +"No; I'll go myself, and do it thoroughly, too." And the little major +turned sharply away and walked direct to the low range of bachelor +quarters, dove under the piazza, and into the green door-way. + +Hardly knowing how to explain his action, Chester quickly followed, and +in less than a minute was standing in the self-same parlor which, by the +light of a flickering match, he had searched two hours before. Here he +halted and listened, while Sloat pushed on into the bedroom and was +heard vehemently apostrophizing some sleeper: + +"Does the government pay you for this sort of thing, I want to know? Get +up, Jerrold! This is the second time you've cut reveille in ten days. +Get up, I say!" And the major was vigorously shaking at something, for +the bed creaked and groaned. + +"Wake up! I say, I'm blowed if I'm going to get up here day after day +and have you sleeping. Wake, Nicodemus! Wake, you snoozing, snoring, +open-mouthed masher. Come, now; I mean it." + +A drowsy, disgusted yawn and stretch finally rewarded his efforts. Mr. +Jerrold at last opened his eyes, rolled over, yawned sulkily again, and +tried to evade his persecutor, but to no purpose. Like a little terrier, +Sloat hung on to him and worried and shook. + +"Oh, don't! damn it, don't!" growled the victim. "What do you want, +anyway? Has that infernal reveille gone?" + +"Yes, and you're absent again, and no report from B Company. By the holy +poker, if you don't turn out and get it and report to me on the parade +I'll spot the whole gang absent, and then no _matinee_ for you to-day, +my buck. Come, out with you! I mean it. Hall says you and he have an +engagement in town; and 'pon my soul I'll bust it if you don't come +out." + +And so, growling and complaining, and yet half laughing, Adonis rolled +from his couch and began to get into his clothes. Chester's blood ran +cold, then boiled. Think of a man who could laugh like that,--and +remember! _When_, how, had he returned to the house? Listen! + +"Confound you, Sloat, _I_ wouldn't rout _you_ out in this shabby way. +Why couldn't you let a man sleep? I'm tired half to death." + +"What have you done to tire you? Slept all yesterday afternoon, and +danced perhaps a dozen times at the doctor's last night. You've had more +sleep than I've had, begad! You took Miss Renwick home before 'twas +over, and mean it was of you, too, with all the fellows that wanted to +dance with her." + +"That wasn't my fault: Mrs. Maynard made her promise to be home at +twelve. You old cackler, that's what sticks in your crop yet. You are +persecuting me because they like me so much better than they do you," he +went on, laughingly now. "Come, now, Sloat, confess, it is all because +you're jealous. You couldn't have that picture, and I could." + +Chester fairly started. He had urgent need to see this young +gallant,--he was staying for that purpose,--but should he listen to +further talk like this? Too late to move, for Sloat's answer came like a +shot: + +"I bet you you _never_ could!" + +"But didn't I tell you I had?--a week ago?" + +"Ay, but I didn't believe it. You couldn't show it!" + +"Pshaw, man! Look here. Stop, though! Remember, _on your honor_, you +never tell." + +"On my honor, of course." + +"Well, there!" + +A drawer was opened. Chester heard a gulp of dismay, of genuine +astonishment and conviction mixed, as Sloat muttered some +half-articulate words and then came into the front room. Jerrold +followed, caught sight of Chester, and stopped short, with sudden and +angry change of color. + +"I did not know _you_ were here," he said. + +"It was to find where _you_ were that I came," was the quiet answer. + +There was a moment's silence. Sloat turned and looked at the two men in +utter surprise. Up to this time he had considered Jerrold's absence from +reveille as a mere dereliction of duty which was ascribable to the +laziness and indifference of the young officer. So far as lay in his +power, he meant to make him attend more strictly to business, and had +therefore come to his quarters and stirred him up. But there was no +thought of any serious trouble in his mind. His talk had all been +roughly good-humored until--until that bet was mentioned, and then it +became earnest. Now, as he glanced from one man to the other, he saw in +an instant that something new--something of unusual gravity--was +impending. Chester, buttoned to the throat in his dark uniform, +accurately gloved and belted, with pale, set, almost haggard face, was +standing by the centre-table under the drop-light. Jerrold, only half +dressed, his feet thrust into slippers, his fingers nervously working at +the studs of his dainty white shirt, had stopped short at his bedroom +door, and, with features that grew paler every second and a dark scowl +on his brow, was glowering at Chester. + +"Since when has it been the duty of the officer of the day to come +around and hunt up officers who don't happen to be out at reveille?" he +asked. + +"It is not your absence from reveille I want explained, Mr. Jerrold," +was the cold and deliberate answer. "I wanted you at 3.30 this morning, +and you were not and had not been here." + +An unmistakable start and shock; a quick, nervous, hunted glance around +the room, so cold and pallid in the early light of the August morning; a +clutch of Jerrold's slim brown hand at the bared throat. But he rallied +gamely, strode a step forward, and looked his superior full in the face. +Sloat marked the effort with which he cleared away the huskiness that +seemed to clog his larynx, but admired the spunk with which the young +officer returned the senior's shot: + +"What is your authority here, I would like to know? What business has +the officer of the day to want me or any other man not on guard? +Captain Chester, you seem to forget that I am no longer your second +lieutenant, and that I am a company commander like yourself. Do you come +by Colonel Maynard's order to search my quarters and question me? If so, +say so at once; if not, get out." And Jerrold's face was growing black +with wrath, and his big lustrous eyes were wide awake now and fairly +snapping. + +Chester leaned upon the table and deliberated a moment. He stood there +coldly, distrustfully eying the excited lieutenant, then turned to +Sloat: + +"I will be responsible for the roll-call of Company B this morning, +Sloat. I have a matter of grave importance to bring up to this--this +gentleman, and it is of a private nature. Will you let me see him +alone?" + +"Sloat," said Jerrold, "don't go yet. I want you to stay. These are my +quarters, and I recognize your right to come here in search of me, since +I was not at reveille; but I want a witness here to bear me out. I'm too +amazed yet--too confounded by this intrusion of Captain Chester's to +grasp the situation. I never heard of such a thing as this. Explain it, +if you can." + +"Mr. Jerrold, what I have to ask or say to you concerns you alone. It is +_not_ an official matter. It is as man to man I want to see you, alone +and at once. _Now_ will you let Major Sloat retire?" + +Silence for a moment. The angry flush on Jerrold's face was dying away, +and in its place an ashen pallor was spreading from throat to brow; his +lips were twitching ominously. Sloat looked in consternation at the +sudden change. + +"Shall I go?" he finally asked. + +Jerrold looked long, fixedly, searchingly in the set face of the officer +of the day, breathing hard and heavily. What he saw there Sloat could +not imagine. At last his hand dropped by his side; he made a little +motion with it, a slight wave towards the door, and again dropped it +nervously. His lips seemed to frame the word "Go," but he never glanced +at the man whom a moment before he so masterfully bade to stay; and +Sloat, sorely puzzled, left the room. + +Not until his footsteps had died out of hearing did Chester speak: + +"How soon can you leave the post?" + +"I don't understand you." + +"How soon can you pack up what you need to take and--get away?" + +"Get away where? What on earth do you mean?" + +"You _must_ know what I mean! You _must_ know that after last night's +work you quit the service at once and forever." + +"I don't know anything of the kind; and I defy you to prove the faintest +thing." But Jerrold's fingers were twitching, and his eyes had lost +their light. + +"Do you suppose I did not recognize you?" asked Chester. + +"When?--where?" gulped Jerrold. + +"When I seized you and you struck me!" + +"I never struck you. I don't know what you mean." + +"My God, man, let us end this useless fencing. The evidence I have of +your last night's scoundrelism would break the strongest record. For the +regiment's sake,--for the colonel's sake,--let us have no public +scandal. It's awful enough as the thing stands. Write your resignation, +give it to me, and leave,--before breakfast if you can." + +"I've done nothing to resign for. You know perfectly well I haven't." + +"Do you mean that such a crime--that a woman's ruin and disgrace--isn't +enough to drive you from the service?" asked Chester, tingling in every +nerve and longing to clinch the shapely, swelling throat in his +clutching fingers. "God of heaven, Jerrold! are you dead to all sense of +decency?" + +"Captain Chester, I won't be bullied this way. I may not be immaculate, +but no man on earth shall talk to me like this! I deny your +insinuations. I've done nothing to warrant your words, even if--if you +did come sneaking around here last night and find me absent. You can't +prove a thing. You----" + +"What! When I saw you,--almost caught you! By heaven! I wish the sentry +had killed you then and there. I never dreamed of such hardihood." + +"You've done nothing but dream. By Jove, I believe you're sleepwalking +yet. What on earth do you mean by catching and killing me? 'Pon my soul +I reckon you're crazy, Captain Chester." And color was gradually coming +back again to Jerrold's face, and confidence to his tone. + +"Enough of this, Mr. Jerrold. Knowing what you and I both know, do you +refuse to hand me your resignation?" + +"Of course I do." + +"Do you mean to deny to me where I saw you last night?" + +"I deny your right to question me. I deny anything,--everything. I +believe you simply thought you had a clue and could make me tell. +Suppose I _was_ out last night. I don't believe you know the faintest +thing about it." + +"Do you want me to report the whole thing to the colonel?" + +"Of course I don't. Naturally, I want him to know nothing about my being +out of quarters; and it's a thing that no officer would think of +reporting another for. You'll only win the contempt of every gentleman +in the regiment if you do it. What good will it do you?--Keep me from +going to town for a few days, I suppose. What earthly business is it of +yours, anyway?" + +"Jerrold, I can stand this no longer. I ought to shoot you in your +tracks, I believe. You've brought ruin and misery to the home of my +warmest friend, and dishonor to the whole service, and you talk of two +or three days' stoppage from going to town. If I can't bring you to your +senses, by God! the colonel shall." And he wheeled and left the room. + +For a moment Jerrold stood stunned and silent. It was useless to attempt +reply. The captain was far down the walk when he sprang to the door to +call him again. Then, hurrying back to the bedroom, he hastily dressed, +muttering angrily and anxiously to himself as he did so. He was thinking +deeply, too, and every movement betrayed nervousness and trouble. +Returning to the front door, he gazed out upon the parade, then took his +forage-cap and walked rapidly down towards the adjutant's office. The +orderly bugler was tilted up in a chair, leaning half asleep against the +whitewashed front, but his was a weasel nap, for he sprang up and +saluted as the young officer approached. + +"Where did Major Sloat go, orderly?" was the hurried question. + +"Over towards the stables, sir. Him and Captain Chester was here +together, and they're just gone." + +"Run over to the quarters of B Company and tell Merrick I want him right +away. Tell him to come to my quarters." And thither Mr. Jerrold +returned, seated himself at his desk, wrote several lines of a note, +tore it into fragments, began again, wrote another which seemed not +entirely satisfactory, and was in the midst of a third when there came a +quick step and a knock at the door. Opening the shutters, he glanced out +of the window. A gust of wind sent some of the papers whirling and +flying, and the bedroom door banged shut, but not before some few +half-sheets of paper had fluttered out upon the parade, where other +little flurries of the morning breeze sent them sailing over towards +the colonel's quarters. Anxious only for the coming of Merrick and no +one else, Mr. Jerrold no sooner saw who was at the front door than he +closed the shutters, called, "Come in!" and a short, squat, wiry little +man, dressed in the fatigue-uniform of the infantry, stood at the +door-way to the hall. + +"Come in here, Merrick," said the lieutenant, and Merrick came. + +"How much is it you owe me now?--thirty-odd dollars, I think?" + +"I believe it is, lieutenant," answered the man, with shifting eyes and +general uneasiness of mien. + +"You are not ready to pay it, I suppose; and you got it from me when we +left Fort Raines, to help you out of that scrape there." + +The soldier looked down and made no answer. + +"Merrick, I want a note taken to town at once. I want _you_ to take it +and get it to its address before eight o'clock. I want you to say no +word to a soul. Here's ten dollars. Hire old Murphy's horse across the +river and _go_. If you are put in the guard-house when you get back, +don't say a word; if you are tried by garrison court for crossing the +bridge or absence without leave, plead guilty, make no defence, and I'll +pay you double your fine and let you off the thirty dollars. But if you +fail me, or tell a soul of your errand, I'll write to--you know who, at +Raines. Do you understand, and agree?" + +"I do. Yessir." + +"Go and get ready, and be here in ten minutes." + +Meantime, Captain Chester had followed Sloat to the adjutant's office. +He was boiling over with indignation which he hardly knew how to +control. He found the gray-moustached subaltern tramping in great +perplexity up and down the room, and the instant he entered was greeted +with the inquiry,-- + +"What's gone wrong? What's Jerrold been doing?" + +"Don't ask me any questions, Sloat, but answer. It is a matter of honor. +_What_ was your bet with Jerrold?" + +"I oughtn't to tell that, Chester. Surely it cannot be a matter mixed up +with this." + +"I can't explain, Sloat. What I ask is unavoidable. Tell me about that +bet." + +"Why, he was so superior and airy, you know, and was trying to make me +feel that he was so much more intimate with them all at the colonel's, +and that he could have that picture for the mere asking; and I got mad, +and bet him he _never_ could." + +"Was that the day you shook hands on it?" + +"Yes." + +"And that was her picture--_the_ picture, then--he showed you this +morning." + +"Chester, you heard the conversation: you were there: you know that I'm +on honor not to tell." + +"Yes, I know. That's quite enough." + + + + +V. + + +Before seven o'clock that same morning Captain Chester had come to the +conclusion that only one course was left open for him. After the brief +talk with Sloat at the office he had increased the perplexity and +distress of that easily-muddled soldier by requesting his company in a +brief visit to the stables and corrals. A "square" and reliable old +veteran was the quartermaster sergeant who had charge of those +establishments; Chester had known him for years, and his fidelity and +honesty were matters the officers of his former regiment could not too +highly commend. When Sergeant Parks made an official statement there was +no shaking its solidity. He slept in a little box of a house close by +the entrance to the main stable, in which were kept the private horses +of several of the officers, and among them Mr. Jerrold's; and it was his +boast that, day or night, no horse left that stable without his +knowledge. The old man was superintending the morning labors of the +stable-hands, and looked up in surprise at so early a visit from the +officer of the day. + +"Were you here all last night, sergeant?" was Chester's abrupt question. + +"Certainly, sir, and up until one o'clock or more." + +"Were any horses out during the night,--any officers' horses, I mean?" + +"No, sir, not one." + +"I thought possibly some officers might have driven or ridden to town." + +"No, sir. The only horses that crossed this threshold going out last +night were Mr. Sutton's team from town. They were put up here until near +one o'clock, and then the doctor sent over for them. I locked up right +after that, and can swear nothing else went out." + +Chester entered the stable and looked curiously around. Presently his +eye lighted on a tall, rangy bay horse that was being groomed in a wide +stall near the door-way. + +"That's Mr. Jerrold's Roderick, isn't it?" + +"Yes, sir. He's fresh as a daisy, too,--hasn't been out for three +days,--and Mr. Jerrold's going to drive the dog-cart this morning." + +Chester turned away. + +"Sloat," said he, as they left the stable, "if Mr. Jerrold was away from +the post last night,--and you heard me say he was out of his +quarters,--could he have gone any way except afoot, after what you heard +Parks say?" + +"Gone in the Suttons' outfit, I suppose," was Sloat's cautious answer. + +"In which event he would have been seen by the sentry at the bridge, +would he not?" + +"Ought to have been, certainly." + +"Then we'll go back to the guard-house." And, wonderingly and +uncomfortably, Sloat followed. He had long since begun to wish he had +held his peace and said nothing about the confounded roll-call. He hated +rows of any kind. He didn't like Jerrold, but he would have crawled +_ventre a terre_ across the wide parade sooner than see a scandal in the +regiment he loved; and it was becoming apparent to his sluggish +faculties that it was no mere matter of absence from quarters that was +involving Jerrold. Chester was all aflame over that picture-business, he +remembered, and the whole drift of his present investigation was to +prove that Jerrold was _not_ absent from the post, but absent only from +his quarters. If so, where had he spent his time until nearly four? +Sloat's heart was heavy with vague apprehension. He knew that Jerrold +had borne Alice Renwick away from the party at an unusually early hour +for such things to break up. He knew that he and others had protested +against such desertion, but she declared it could not be helped. He +remembered another thing,--a matter that he thought of at the time, only +from another point of view. It now seemed to have significance bearing +on this very matter; for Chester suddenly asked,-- + +"Wasn't it rather odd that Miss Beaubien was not here at the dance? She +has never missed one, seems to me, since Jerrold began spooning with her +last year." + +"Why, she _was_ here." + +"She was? Are you sure? Rollins never spoke of it; and we had been +talking of her. I inferred from what he said that she was not there at +all. And I saw her drive homeward with her mother right after parade: so +it didn't occur to me that she could have come out again, all that +distance, in time for the dance. Singular! Why shouldn't Rollins have +told me?" + +Sloat grinned: a dreary sort of smile it was, too. "You go into society +so seldom you don't see these things. I've more than half suspected +Rollins of being quite ready to admire Miss Beaubien himself; and since +Jerrold dropped her he has had plenty of opportunity." + +"Great guns! I never thought of it! If I'd known she was to be there I'd +have gone myself last night. How did she behave to Miss Renwick?" + +"Why, sweet and smiling, and chipper as you please. If anything, I think +Miss Renwick was cold and distant to her. I couldn't make it out at +all." + +"And did Jerrold dance with her?" + +"Once, I think, and they had a talk out on the piazza,--just a minute. I +happened to be at the door, and couldn't help seeing it; and what got me +was this: Mr. Hall came out with Miss Renwick on his arm; they were +chatting and laughing as they passed me, but the moment she caught sight +of Jerrold and Miss Beaubien she stopped, and said, 'I think I won't +stay out here; it's too chilly,' or something like it, and went right +in; and then Jerrold dropped Miss Beaubien and went after her. He just +handed the young lady over to me, saying he was engaged for next dance, +and skipped." + +"How did she like that? Wasn't she furious?" + +"No. That's another thing that got me. She smiled after him, all +sweetness, and--well, she _did_ say, 'I count upon you,--you'll be +there,' and he nodded. Oh, she was bright as a button after that." + +"What did she mean?--be 'where,' do you suppose? Sloat, this all means +more to me, and to us all, than I can explain." + +"I don't know. I can't imagine." + +"Was it to see her again that night?" + +"I don't know at all. If it was, he fooled her, for he never went near +her again. Rollins put her in the carriage." + +"Whose? Did she come out with the Suttons?" + +"Why, certainly. I thought you knew that." + +"And neither old Madame Beaubien nor Mrs. Sutton with them? What was the +old squaw thinking of?" + +By this time they had neared the guard-house, where several of the men +were seated awaiting the call for the next relief. All arose at the +shout of the sentry on Number One, turning out the guard for the officer +of the day. Chester made hurried and impatient acknowledgment of the +salute, and called to the sergeant to send him the sentry who was at the +bridge at one o'clock. It turned out to be a young soldier who had +enlisted at the post only six months before and was already known as one +of the most intelligent and promising candidates for a corporalship in +the garrison. + +"Were you on duty at the bridge at one o'clock, Carey?" asked the +captain. + +"I was, sir. My relief went on at 11.45 and came off at 1.45." + +"What persons passed your post during that time?" + +"There was a squad or two of men coming back from town on pass. I halted +them, sir, and Corporal Murray came down and passed them in." + +"I don't mean coming from town. Who went the other way?" + +"Only one carriage, sir,--Mr. Sutton's." + +"Could you see who were in it?" + +"Certainly, sir: it was right under the lamp-post this end of the bridge +that I stood when I challenged. Lieutenant Rollins answered for them and +passed them out. He was sitting beside Mr. Sutton as they drove up, then +jumped out and gave me the countersign and bade them good-night right +there." + +"Rollins again," thought Chester. "Why did he keep this from me?" + +"Who were in the carriage?" he asked. + +"Mr. Sutton, sir, on the front seat, driving, and two young ladies on +the back seat." + +"Nobody else?" + +"Not a soul, sir. I could see in it plain as day. One lady was Miss +Sutton, and the other Miss Beaubien. I know I was surprised at seeing +the latter, because she drove home in her own carriage last evening +right after parade. I was on post there at that hour too, sir. The +second relief is on from 5.45 to 7.45." + +"That will do, Carey. I see your relief is forming now." + +As the officers walked away and Sloat silently plodded along beside his +dark-browed senior, the latter turned to him: + +"I should say that there was no way in which Mr. Jerrold could have gone +townwards last night. Should not you?" + +"He might have crossed the bridge while the third relief was on, and +got a horse at the other side." + +"He didn't do that, Sloat. I had already questioned the sentry on that +relief. It was the third that I inspected and visited this morning." + +"Well, how do you know he wanted to go to town? Why couldn't he have +gone up the river, or out to the range? Perhaps there was a little game +of 'draw' out at camp." + +"There was no light in camp, much less a little game of draw, after +eleven o'clock. You know well enough that there is nothing of that kind +going on with Gaines in command. That isn't Jerrold's game, even if +those fellows _were_ bent on ruining their eyesight and nerve and +spoiling the chance of getting the men on the division and army teams. I +wish it _were_ his game, instead of what it is!" + +"Still, Chester, he may have been out in the country somewhere. You seem +bent on the conviction he was up to mischief here, around this post. I +won't ask you what you mean; but there's more than one way of getting to +town if a man wants to very bad." + +"How? Of course he can take a skiff and row down the river; but he'd +never be back in time for reveille. There goes six o'clock, and I must +get home and shave and think this over. Keep your own counsel, no matter +who asks you. If you hear any questions or talk about shooting last +night, you know nothing, heard nothing, and saw nothing." + +"Shooting last night!" exclaimed Sloat, all agog with eagerness and +excitement now. "Where was it? Who was it?" + +But Chester turned a deaf ear upon him, and walked away. He wanted to +see Rollins, and went straight home. + +"Why didn't you tell me Miss Beaubien was out here last night?" was the +question he asked as soon as he had entered the room where, all aglow +from his cold bath, the youngster was dressing for breakfast. He colored +vividly, then laughed. + +"Well, you never gave me much chance to say anything, did you? You +talked all the time, as I remember, and suddenly vanished and slammed +the door. I would have told you had you asked me." But all the same it +was evident for the first time that here was a subject Rollins was shy +of mentioning. + +"Did you go down and see them across sentry post?" + +"Certainly. Jerrold asked me to. He said he had to take Miss Renwick +home, and was too tired to come back,--was going to turn in. I was glad +to do anything to be civil to the Suttons." + +"Why, I'd like to know? They have never invited you to the house or +shown you any attention whatever. You are not their style at all, +Rollins, and I'm glad of it. It wasn't for their sake you stayed there +until one o'clock instead of being here in bed. I wish--" and he looked +wistfully, earnestly, at his favorite now, "I wish I could think it +wasn't for the sake of Miss Beaubien's black eyes and aboriginal +beauty." + +"Look here, captain," said Rollins, with another rush of color to his +face; "you don't seem to fancy Miss Beaubien, and--she's a friend of +mine, and one I don't like to hear slightingly spoken of. You said a +good deal last night that--well, wasn't pleasant to hear." + +"I know it, Rollins. I beg your pardon. I didn't know then that you were +more than slightly acquainted with her. I'm an old bat, and go out very +little, but some things are pretty clear to my eyes, and--don't you be +falling in love with Nina Beaubien. That is no match for you." + +"I'm sure you never had a word to say against her father. The old +colonel was a perfect type of the French gentleman, from all I hear." + +"Yes, and her mother is as perfect a type of a Chippewa squaw, if she is +only a half-breed and claims to be only a sixteenth. Rollins, there's +Indian blood enough in Nina Beaubien's little finger to make me afraid +of her. She is strong as death in love or hate, and you must have seen +how she hung on Jerrold's every word all last winter. You must know she +is not the girl to be lightly dropped now." + +"She told me only a day or two ago they were the best of friends and had +never been anything else," said Rollins, hotly. + +"Has it gone that far, my boy? I had not thought it so bad, by any +means. It's no use talking with a man who has lost his heart: his reason +goes with it." And Chester turned away. + +"You don't know anything about it," was all poor Rollins could think of +as a suitable thing to shout after him; and it made no more impression +than it deserved. + +As has been said, Captain Chester had decided before seven o'clock that +but one course lay open to him in the matter as now developed. Had +Armitage been there he would have had an adviser, but there was no other +man whose counsel he eared to seek. Old Captain Gray was as bitter +against Jerrold as Chester himself, and with even better reason, for he +knew well the cause of his little daughter's listless manner and tearful +eyes. She had been all radiance and joy at the idea of coming to Sibley +and being near the great cities, but not one happy look had he seen in +her sweet and wistful face since the day of her arrival. Wilton, too, +was another captain who disliked Jerrold; and Chester's rugged sense of +fair play told him that it was not among the enemies of the young +officer that he should now seek advice, but that if he had a friend +among the older and wiser heads in the regiment it was due to him that +that older and wiser head be given a chance to think a little for +Jerrold's sake. And there was not one among the seniors whom he could +call upon. As he ran over their names, Chester for the first time +realized that his ex-subaltern had not a friend among the captains and +senior officers now on duty at the fort. His indifference to duties, his +airy foppishness, his conceit and self-sufficiency, had all served to +create a feeling against him; and this had been intensified by his +conduct since coming to Sibley. The youngsters still kept up jovial +relations with and professed to like him, but among the seniors there +were many men who had only a nod for him on meeting. Wilton had +epitomized the situation by saying he "had no use for a masher," and +poor old Gray had one day scowlingly referred to him as "the +professional beauty." + +In view of all this feeling, Chester would gladly have found some man to +counsel further delay; but there was none. He felt that he must inform +the colonel at once of the fact that Mr. Jerrold was absent from his +quarters at the time of the firing, of his belief that it was Jerrold +who struck him and sped past the sentry in the dark, and of his +conviction that the sooner the young officer was called to account for +his strange conduct the better. As to the episodes of the ladder, the +lights, and the form at the dormer-window, he meant, for the present at +least, to lock them in his heart. + +But he forgot that others too must have heard those shots, and that +others too would be making inquiries. + + + + +VI. + + +A lovely morning it was that beamed on Sibley and the broad and +beautiful valley of the Cloudwater when once the sun got fairly above +the moist horizon. Mist and vapor and heavy cloud all seemed swallowed +up in the gathering, glowing warmth, as though the King of Day had +risen athirst and drained the welcoming cup of nature. It must have +rained at least a little during the darkness of the night, for dew there +could have been none with skies so heavily overcast, and yet the short +smooth turf on the parade, the leaves upon the little shade-trees around +the quadrangle, and all the beautiful vines here on the trellis-work of +the colonel's veranda, shone and sparkled in the radiant light. The +roses in the little garden, and the old-fashioned morning-glory vines +over at the east side, were all a-glitter in the flooding sunshine when +the bugler came out from a glance at the clock in the adjutant's office +and sounded "sick-call" to the indifferent ear of the garrison. Once +each day, at 7.30 a.m., the doctor trudged across to the +hospital and looked over the half-dozen "hopelessly healthy" but +would-be invalids who wanted to get off guard duty or a morning at the +range. Thanks to the searching examination to which every soldier must +be subjected before he can enter the service of Uncle Sam, and to the +disciplined order of the lives of the men at Sibley, maladies of any +serious nature were almost unknown. It was a gloriously healthy post, as +everybody admitted, and, to judge from the specimen of young-womanhood +that came singing, "blithe and low," out among the roses this same +joyous morning, exuberant physical well-being was not restricted to the +men. + +A fairer picture never did dark beauty present than Alice Renwick, as +she bent among the bushes or reached high among the vines in search of +her favorite flowers. Tall, slender, willowy, yet with +exquisitely-rounded form; slim, dainty little hands and feet; graceful +arms and wrists all revealed in the flowing sleeves of her snowy, +web-like gown, fitting her and displaying her sinuous grace of form as +gowns so seldom do to-day. And then her face!--a glorious picture of +rich, ripe, tropical beauty, with its great, soulful, sunlit eyes, +heavily shaded though they were with those wondrous lashes; beautiful, +too, in contour as was the lithe body, and beautiful in every feature, +even to the rare and dewy curve of her red lips, half opened as she +sang. She was smiling to herself, as she crooned her soft, murmuring +melody, and every little while the great dark eyes glanced over towards +the shaded doors of Bachelors' Row. There was no one up to watch and +tell: why should she not look thither, and even stand one moment peering +under the veranda at a darkened window half-way down the row, as though +impatient at the non-appearance of some familiar signal? How came the +laggard late? How slept the knight while here his lady stood impatient? +She twined the leaves and roses in a fragrant knot, ran lightly within +and laid them on the snowy cloth beside the colonel's seat at table, +came forth and plucked some more and fastened them, blushing, blissful, +in the lace-fringed opening of her gown, through which, soft and creamy, +shone the perfect neck. + + "Daisy, tell my fortune, pray: + He loves me not,--he loves me," + +she blithely sang, then, hurrying to the gate, shaded her eyes with the +shapely hand and gazed intently. 'Twas nearing eight,--nearing +breakfast-time. But some one was coming. Horrid! Captain Chester, of all +men! Coming, of course, to see papa, and papa not yet down, and mamma +had a headache and had decided not to come down at all, she would +breakfast in her room. What girl on earth when looking and longing and +waiting for the coming of a graceful youth of twenty-six would be +anything but dismayed at the substitution therefor of a bulky, +heavy-hearted captain of forty-six, no matter if he were still +unmarried? And yet her smile was sweet and cordial. + +"Why, good-morning, Captain Chester. I'm so glad to see you this bright +day. Do come in and let me give you a rose. Papa will soon be down." And +she opened the gate and held forth one long, slim hand. He took it +slowly, as though in a dream, raising his forage-cap at the same time, +yet making no reply. He was looking at her far more closely than he +imagined. How fresh, how radiant, how fair and gracious and winning! +Every item of her attire was so pure and white and spotless; every fold +and curve of her gown seemed charged with subtile, delicate fragrance, +as faint and sweet as the shy and modest wood-violet's. She noted his +silence and his haggard eyes. She noted the intent gaze, and the color +mounted straightway to her forehead. + +"And have you no word of greeting for me?" she blithely laughed, +striving to break through the awkwardness of his reserve, "or are you +worn out with your night watch as officer of the day?" + +He fairly started. Had she seen him, then? Did she know it was he who +stood beneath her window, he who leaped in chase of that scoundrel, he +who stole away with that heavy tell-tale ladder? and, knowing all this, +could she stand there smiling in his face, the incarnation of maiden +innocence and beauty? Impossible! Yet what could she mean? + +"How did you know I had so long a vigil?" he asked, and the cold, +strained tone, the half-averted eyes, the pallor of his face, all struck +her at once. Instantly her manner changed: + +"Oh, forgive me, captain. I see you are all worn out; and I'm keeping +you here at the gate. Come to the piazza and sit down. I'll tell papa +you are here, for I know you want to see him." And she tripped lightly +away before he could reply, and rustled up the stairs. He could hear her +light tap at the colonel's door, and her soft, clear, flute-like voice: +"Papa, Captain Chester is here to see you." + +Papa indeed! She spoke to him and of him as though he were her own. He +treated her as though she were his flesh and blood,--as though he loved +her devotedly. Even before she came had not they been prepared for this? +Did not Mrs. Maynard tell them that Alice had become enthusiastically +devoted to her step-father and considered him the most knightly and +chivalric hero she had ever seen? He could hear the colonel's hearty and +loving tone in reply, and then she came fluttering down again: + +"Papa will be with you in five minutes, captain. But won't you let me +give you some coffee? It's all ready, and you look so tired,--even ill." + +"I have had a bad night," he answered, "but I'm growing old, and cannot +stand sleeplessness as you young people seem to." + +Was she faltering? He watched her eagerly, narrowly, almost wonderingly. +Not a trace of confusion, not a sign of fear; and yet had he not _seen_ +her, and that other figure? + +"I wish you could sleep as I do," was the prompt reply. "I was in the +land of dreams ten minutes after my head touched the pillow, and mamma +made me come home early last night because of our journey to-day. You +know we are going down to visit Aunt Grace, Colonel Maynard's sister, at +Lake Sablon, and mamma wanted me to be looking my freshest and best," +she said, "and I never heard a thing till reveille." + +His eyes, sad, penetrating, doubting,--yet self-doubting, too,--searched +her very soul. Unflinchingly the dark orbs looked into his,--even +pityingly; for she quickly spoke again: + +"Captain, _do_ come into the breakfast-room and have some coffee. You +have not breakfasted, I'm sure." + +He raised his hand as though to repel her offer,--even to put her aside. +He _must_ understand her. He _could_ not be hoodwinked in this way. + +"Pardon me, Miss Renwick, but did you hear nothing strange last night +or early this morning? Were you not disturbed at all?" + +"I? No, indeed!" True, her face had changed now, but there was no fear +in her eyes. It was a look of apprehension, perhaps, of concern and +curiosity mingled, for his tone betrayed that something had happened +which caused him agitation. + +"And you heard no shots fired?" + +"Shots! No! Oh, Captain Chester! what does it mean? _Who_ was shot? Tell +me!" + +And now, with paling face and wild apprehension in her eyes, she turned +and gazed beyond him, past the vines and the shady veranda, across the +sunshine of the parade and under the old piazza, searching that still +closed and darkened window. + +"Who?" she implored, her hands clasping nervously, her eyes returning +eagerly to his face. + +"It was not Mr. Jerrold," he answered, coldly. "He is unhurt, so far as +shot is concerned." + +"Then how is he hurt? Is he hurt at all?" she persisted; and then as she +met his gaze her eyes fell, and the burning blush of maiden shame surged +up to her forehead. She sank upon a seat and covered her face with her +hands. + +"I thought of Mr. Jerrold, naturally. He said he would be over early +this morning," was all she could find to say. + +"I have seen him, and presume he will come. To all appearances, he is +the last man to suffer from last night's affair," he went on, +relentlessly,--almost brutally,--but she never winced. "It is odd you +did not hear the shots. I thought yours was the northwest room,--this +one?" he indicated, pointing overhead. + +"So it is, and I slept there all last night and heard nothing,--not a +thing. _Do_ tell me what the trouble was." + +Then what was there for him to say? The colonel's footsteps were heard +upon the stair, and the colonel, with extended hand and beaming face and +cheery welcome, came forth from the open door-way: + +"Welcome, Chester! I'm glad you've come just in time for breakfast. Mrs. +Maynard won't be down. She slept badly last night, and is sleeping now. +What was the firing last night? I did not hear it at the time, but the +orderly and old Maria the cook were discussing it as I was shaving." + +"It is that I came to see you about, colonel. I am the man to hold +responsible." + +"No prisoners got away, I hope?" + +"No, sir. Nothing, I fear, that would seem to justify my action. I +ordered Number Five to fire." + +"Why, what on earth could have happened around there,--almost back of +us?" said the colonel, in surprise. + +"I do not know what had happened, or what was going to happen." And +Chester paused a moment, and glanced towards the door through which Miss +Renwick had retired as soon as the colonel arrived. The old soldier +seemed to understand the glance. "_She_ would not listen," he said, +proudly. + +"I know," explained Chester. "I think it best that no one but you should +hear anything of the matter for the present until I have investigated +further. It was nearly half-past three this morning as I got around here +on Five's post, inspecting sentinels, and came suddenly in the darkness +upon a man carrying a ladder on his shoulder. I ordered him to halt. The +reply was a violent blow, and the ladder and I were dropped at the same +instant, while the man sprang into space and darted off in the direction +of Number Five. I followed quick as I could, heard the challenge and the +cries of halt, and shouted to Leary to fire. He did, but missed his aim +in the haste and darkness, and the man got safely away. Of course there +is much talk and speculation about it around the post this morning, for +several people heard the shots besides the guard, and, although I told +Leary and others to say nothing, I know it is already generally known." + +"Oh, well, come in to breakfast," said the colonel. "We'll talk it over +there." + +"Pardon me, sir, I cannot. I must get back home before guard-mount, and +Rollins is probably waiting to see me now. I--I could not discuss it at +the table, for there are some singular features about the matter." + +"Why, in God's name, what?" asked the colonel, with sudden and deep +anxiety. + +"Well, sir, an officer of the garrison is placed in a compromising +position by this affair, and cannot or will not explain." + +"Who?" + +"Mr. Jerrold, sir." + +"Jerrold! Why, I got a note from him not ten minutes ago saying he had +an engagement in town and asking permission to go before guard-mounting, +if Mr. Hall was ready. Hall wanted to go with him, Jerrold wrote, but +Hall has not applied for permission to leave the post." + +"It is Jerrold who is compromised, colonel. I may be all wrong in my +suspicions, all wrong in reporting the matter to you at all, but in my +perplexity and distress I see no other way. Frankly, sir, the moment I +caught sight of the man he looked like Jerrold; and two minutes after +the shots were fired I inspected Jerrold's quarters. He was not there, +though the lamps were burning very low in the bedroom, and his bed had +not been occupied at all. When you see Leary, sir, he will tell you that +he also thought it must be Mr. Jerrold." + +"The young scapegrace!--been off to town, I suppose." + +"Colonel," said Chester, quickly, "you--not I--must decide that. I went +to his quarters after reveille, and he was then there, and resented my +visit and questions, admitted that he had been out during the night, but +refused to make any statement to me." + +"Well, Chester, I will haul him up after breakfast. Possibly he had been +up to the rifle-camp, or had driven to town after the doctor's party. Of +course _that_ must be stopped; but I'm glad you missed him. It, of +course, staggers a man's judgment to be knocked down, but if you had +killed him it might have been as serious for you as this knock-down blow +will be for him. That is the worst phase of the matter. What could he +have been thinking of? He must have been either drunk or mad; and he +rarely drank. Oh, dear, dear, dear, but that's very bad,--very +bad,--striking the officer of the day! Why, Chester, that's the worst +thing that's happened in the regiment since I took command of it. It's +about the worst thing that _could_ have happened to us. Of course he +must go in arrest. I'll see the adjutant right after breakfast. I'll be +over early, Chester." And with grave and worried face the colonel bade +him adieu. + +As he turned away, Chester heard him saying again to himself, "About the +worst thing he could have done!--the worst thing he could have done!" +And the captain's heart sank within him. What would the colonel say when +he knew how far, far worse was the foul wrong Mr. Jerrold had done to +him and his? + + + + +VII. + + +Before guard-mounting--almost half an hour before his usual time for +appearing at the office--Colonel Maynard hurried in to his desk, sent +the orderly for Captain Chester, and then the clerks in the +sergeant-major's room heard him close and lock the door. As the subject +of the shooting was already under discussion among the men there +assembled, this action on the part of the chief was considered highly +significant. It was hardly five minutes before Chester came, looked +surprised at finding the door locked, knocked, and was admitted. + +The look on the haggard face at the desk, the dumb misery in the eyes, +the wrath and horror in it all, carried him back twenty years to that +gloomy morning in the casemates when the story was passed around that +Captain Maynard had lost a wife and an intimate friend during the +previous night. Chester saw at a glance that, despite his precautions, +the blow had come, the truth been revealed at one fell swoop. + +"Lock the door again, Chester, and come here. I have some questions to +ask you." + +The captain silently took the chair which was indicated by a wave of the +colonel's hand, and waited. For a moment no word more was spoken. The +old soldier, white and trembling strangely, reseated himself at the +desk, and covered his face with his hands. Twice he drew them with +feebly stroking movement over his eyes, as though to rally the stunned +faculties and face the trying ordeal. Then a shiver passed through his +frame, and with sudden lift of the head he fixed his gaze on Chester's +face and launched the question,-- + +"Chester, is there any kindness to a man who has been through what I +have in telling only half a tale, as you have done?" + +The captain colored red. "I am at a loss to answer you, colonel," he +said, after brief reflection. "You know far more than you did half an +hour ago, and what I knew I could not bear to tell you as yet." + +"My God! my God! Tell me _all_, and tell me at once. Here, man, if you +need stimulant to your indignation and cannot speak without it, read +this. I found it, open, among the rose-bushes in the garden, where she +must have dropped it when out there with you. Read it. Tell me what it +means; for, God knows, I can't believe such a thing of her." + +He handed Chester a sheet of note-paper. It was moist and blurred on +the first page, but the inner pages, though damp, were in good +condition. The first, second, and third pages were closely covered in a +bold, nervous hand that Chester knew well. It was Jerrold's writing, +beyond a doubt, and Chester's face grew hot as he read, and his heart +turned cold as stone when he finished the last hurried line. + +"MY DARLING,-- + +"I _must_ see you, if only for a moment, before you leave. Do not let +this alarm you, for the more I think the more I am convinced it is only +a bluff, but Captain Chester discovered my absence early this morning +when spying around as usual, and now he claims to have knowledge of our +secret. Even if he was on the terrace when I got back, it was too dark +for him to recognize me, and it seems impossible that he can have got +any real clue. He suspects, perhaps, and thinks to force me to +confession; but I would guard your name with my life. Be wary. Act as +though there were nothing on earth between us, and if we cannot meet +until then I will be at the depot with the others to see you off, and +will then have a letter ready with full particulars and instructions. It +will be in the first thing I hand to you. Hide it until you can safely +read it. Your mother must not be allowed a glimmer of suspicion, and +then you are safe. As for me, even Chester cannot make the colonel turn +against me now. My jealous one, my fiery sweetheart, do you not realize +now that I was wise in showing her so much attention? A thousand kisses. +Come what may, they cannot rob us of the past. HOWARD. + +"I fear you heard and were alarmed by the shots just after I left you. +All was quiet when I got home." + +It was some seconds before Chester could control himself sufficiently to +speak. "I wish to God the bullet had gone through his heart!" he said. + +"It has gone through mine,--through mine! This will kill her mother. +Chester," cried the colonel, springing suddenly to his feet, "she must +not know it. She must not dream of it. I tell you it would stretch her +in the dust, _dead_, for she loves that child with all her strength, +with all her being, I believe, for it is two mother-loves in one. She +had a son, older than Alice by several years, her first-born,--her +glory, he was,--but the boy inherited the father's passionate and +impulsive nature. He loved a girl utterly beneath him, and would have +married her when he was only twenty. There is no question that he loved +her well, for he refused to give her up, no matter what his father +threatened. They tried to buy her off, and she scorned them. Then they +had a letter written, while he was sent abroad under pretence that he +should have his will if he came back in a year unchanged. By Jove, it +seems she was as much in love as he, and it broke her heart. She went +off and died somewhere, and he came back ahead of time because her +letters had ceased, and found it all out. There was an awful scene. He +cursed them both,--father and mother,--and left her senseless at his +feet; and from that day to this they never heard of him, never could get +the faintest report. It broke Renwick,--killed him, I guess, for he died +in two years; and as for the mother, you would not think that a woman so +apparently full of life and health was in desperate danger. She had some +organic trouble with the heart years ago, they tell her, and this +experience has developed it so that now any great emotion or sudden +shock is perilous. Do you not see how doubly fearful this comes to us? +Chester, I have weathered one awful storm, but I'm old and broken now. +This--this beats me. Tell me what to do." + +The captain was silent a few moments. He was thinking intently. + +"Does she know you have that letter?" he asked. + +Maynard shook his head: "I looked back as I came away. She was in the +parlor, singing softly to herself, at the very moment I picked it up, +lying open as it was right there among the roses, the first words +staring me in the face. I meant not to read it,--never dreamed it was +for her,--and had turned over the page to look for the superscription. +There was none, but there I saw the signature and that postscript about +the shots. That startled me, and I read it here just before you came, +and then could account for your conduct,--something I could not do +before. God of heaven! would any man believe it of her? It is +incredible! Chester, tell me everything you know now,--even everything +you suspect. I must see my way clear." + +And then the captain, with halting and reluctant tongue, told his story: +how he had stumbled on the ladder back of the colonel's quarters and +learned from Number Five that some one had been prowling back of +Bachelors' Row; how he returned there afterwards, found the ladder at +the side-wall, and saw the tall form issue from her window; how he had +given chase and been knocked breathless, and of his suspicions, and +Leary's, as to the identity of the stranger. + +The colonel bowed his head still deeper, and groaned aloud. But he had +still other questions to ask. + +"Did you see--any one else at the window?" + +"Not while he was there." + +"At any time, then,--before or after?" And the colonel's eyes would take +no denial. + +"I saw," faltered Chester, "nobody. The shade was pulled up while I was +standing there, after I had tripped on the ladder. I supposed the noise +of my stumble had awakened her." + +"And was that all? Did you see nothing more?" + +"Colonel, I _did_ see, afterwards, a woman's hand and arm closing the +shade." + +"My God! And she told me she slept the night through,--never waked or +heard a sound!" + +"Did you hear nothing yourself, colonel?" + +"Nothing. When she came home from the party she stopped a moment, saying +something to him at the door, then came into the library and kissed me +good-night. I shut up the house and went to bed about half-past twelve, +and her door was closed when I went to our room." + +"So there were two closed doors, yours and hers, and the broad hall +between you?" + +"Certainly. We have the doors open all night that lead into the rear +rooms, and their windows. This gives us abundant air. Alice always has +the hall door closed at night." + +"And Mrs. Maynard,--was she asleep?" + +"No. Mrs. Maynard was lying awake, and seemed a little restless and +disturbed. Some of the women had been giving her some hints about +Jerrold and fretting her. You know she took a strange fancy to him at +the start. It was simply because he reminded her so strongly of the boy +she had lost. She told me so. But after a little she began to discover +traits in him she did not like, and then his growing intimacy with Alice +worried her. She would have put a stop to the doctor's party,--to her +going with him, I mean,--but the engagement was made some days ago. Two +or three days since, she warned Alice not to trust him, she says; and it +is really as much on this as any other account that we decided to get +her away, off to see her aunt Grace. Oh, God! how blind we are! how +blind we are!" And poor old Maynard bowed his head and almost groaned +aloud. + +Chester rose, and, in his characteristic way, began tramping nervously +up and down. There was a knock at the door. "The adjutant's compliments, +and 'twas time for guard-mount. Would the colonel wish to see him before +he went out?" asked the orderly. + +"I ought to go, sir," said Chester. "I am old officer of the day, and +there will be just time for me to get into full uniform." + +"Let them go on without you," said Maynard. "I cannot spare you now. +Send word to that effect. Now,--now about this man,--this Jerrold. What +is the best thing we can do?--of course I know what he most +deserves;--but what is the _best_ thing under all the circumstances? Of +course my wife and Alice will leave to-day. She was still sleeping when +I left, and, pray God, is not dreaming of this. It was nearly two before +she closed her eyes last night; and I, too, slept badly. You have seen +him. What does he say?" + +"Denies everything,--anything,--challenges me to prove that he was +absent from his house more than five minutes,--indeed, I could not, for +he may have come in just after I left,--and pretended utter ignorance of +my meaning when I accused him of striking me before I ordered the sentry +to fire. Of course it is all useless now. When I confront him with this +letter he _must_ give in. Then let him resign and get away as quietly as +possible before the end of the week. No one need know the causes. Of +course shooting is what he deserves; but shooting demands explanation. +It is better for your name, hers, and all, that he should be allowed to +live than that the truth were suspected, as it would be if he were +killed. Indeed, sir, if I were you I would take them to Sablon, keep +them away for a fortnight, and leave him to me. It may be even judicious +to let him go on with all his duties as though nothing had happened, as +though he had simply been absent from reveille, and let the whole matter +drop like that until all remark and curiosity is lulled; then you can +send her back to Europe or the East,--time enough to decide on that; but +I will privately tell him he must quit the service in six months, and +show him why. It isn't the way it ought to be settled; it probably isn't +the way Armitage would do it; but it is the best thing that occurs to +me. One thing is certain: you and they ought to get away at once, and he +should not be permitted to see her again. I can run the post a few days +and explain matters after you go." + +The colonel sat in wretched silence a few moments; then he arose: + +"If it were not for _her_ danger,--her heart,--I would never drop the +matter here,--never! I would see it through to the bitter end. But you +are probably right as to the prudent course to take. I'll get them away +on the noon train: he thinks they do not start until later. Now I must +go and face it. My God, Chester! could you look at that child and +realize it? Even now, even now, sir, I believe--I believe, +someway--somehow--she is innocent." + +"God grant it, sir!" + +And then the colonel left the office, avoiding, as has been told, a word +with any man. Chester buttoned the tell-tale letter in an inner pocket, +after having first folded the sheet lengthwise and then enclosed it in a +long official envelope. The officers, wondering at the colonel's +distraught appearance, had come thronging in, hoping for information, +and then had gone, unsatisfied and disgusted, practically turned out by +their crabbed senior captain. The ladies, after chatting aimlessly about +the quadrangle for half an hour, had decided that Mrs. Maynard must be +ill, and, while most of them awaited the result, two of their number +went to the colonel's house and rang at the bell. A servant appeared: +"Mrs. Maynard wasn't very well this morning, and was breakfasting in her +room, and Miss Alice was with her, if the ladies would please excuse +them." And so the emissaries returned unsuccessful. Then, too, as we +have seen, despite his good intention of keeping matters hushed as much +as possible, Chester's nervous irritability had got the better of him, +and he had made damaging admissions to Wilton of the existence of a +cause of worriment and perplexity, and this Wilton told without +compunction. And then there was another excitement, that set all tongues +wagging. Every man had heard what Chester said, that Mr. Jerrold must +not quit the garrison until he had first come and seen the temporary +commanding officer, and Hall had speedily carried the news to his +friend. + +"Are _you_ ready to go?" asked Mr. Jerrold, who was lacing his boots in +the rear room. + +"No. I've got to go and get into 'cits' first." + +"All right. Go, and be lively! I'll wait for you at Murphy's, beyond the +bridge, provided you say nothing about it." + +"You don't mean you are going against orders?" + +"Going? Of course I am. I've got old Maynard's permission, and if +Chester means to revoke it he's got to get his adjutant here inside of +ten seconds. What you tell me isn't official. I'm off _now_!" + +And when the adjutant returned to Captain Chester it was with the +information that he was too late: Mr. Jerrold's dog-cart had crossed +the bridge five minutes earlier. + +Perhaps an hour later the colonel sent for Chester, and the captain went +to his house. The old soldier was pacing slowly up and down the parlor +floor. + +"I wanted you a moment. A singular thing has happened. You know that +'Directoire' cabinet photo of Alice? My wife always kept it on her +dressing-table, and this morning it's gone. That frame--the silver +filigree thing--was found behind a sofa-pillow in Alice's room, and she +declares she has no idea how it got there. Chester, is there any new +significance in this?" + +The captain bowed assent. + +"What is it?" + +"That photograph was seen by Major Sloat in Jerrold's bureau-drawer at +reveille this morning." + +And such was the situation at Sibley the August day the colonel took his +wife and her lovely daughter to visit Aunt Grace at Lake Sablon. + + + + +VIII. + + +In the big red omnibus that was slowly toiling over the dusty road +several passengers were making their way from the railway-station to the +hotel at Lake Sablon. Two of them were women of mature years, whose +dress and bearing betokened lives of ease and comfort; another was a +lovely brunette of less than twenty, the daughter, evidently, of one of +these ladies, and an object of loving pride to both. These three seemed +at home in their surroundings, and were absorbed in the packet of +letters and papers they had just received at the station. It was evident +that they were not new arrivals, as were the other passengers, who +studied them with the half-envious feelings with which new-comers at a +summer resort are apt to regard those who seem to have been long +established there, and who gathered from the scraps of conversation that +they had merely been over to say good-by to friends leaving on the very +train which brought in the rest of what we good Americans term "the +'bus-load." There were women among the newly-arrived who inspected the +dark girl with that calm, unflinching, impertinent scrutiny and +half-audibly whispered comment which, had they been of the opposite sex, +would have warranted their being kicked out of the conveyance, but which +was ignored by the fair object and her friends as completely as were +the commentators themselves. There were one or two men in the omnibus +who might readily have been forgiven an admiring glance or two at so +bright a vision of girlish beauty as was Miss Renwick this August +afternoon, and they _had_ looked; but the one who most attracted the +notice of Mrs. Maynard and Aunt Grace--a tall, stalwart, +distinguished-looking party in gray travelling-dress--had taken his seat +close to the door and was deep in the morning's paper before they were +fairly away from the station. + +Laying down the letter she had just finished reading, Mrs. Maynard +glanced at her daughter, who was still engaged in one of her own, and +evidently with deep interest. + +"From Fort Sibley, Alice?" + +"Yes, mamma, all three,--Miss Craven, Mrs. Hoyt, and--Mr. Jerrold. Would +you like to see it?" And, with rising color, she held forth the one in +her hand. + +"Not now," was the answer, with a smile that told of confidence and +gratification both. "It is about the german, I suppose?" + +"Yes. He thinks it outrageous that we should not be there,--says it is +to be the prettiest ever given at the fort, and that Mrs. Hoyt and Mrs. +Craven, who are the managers for the ladies, had asked him to lead. He +wants to know if we cannot possibly come." + +"Are you not very eager to go, Alice? I should be," said Aunt Grace, +with sympathetic interest. + +"Yes, I am," answered Miss Renwick, reflectively. "It had been arranged +that it should come off next week, when, as was supposed, we would be +home after this visit. It cannot be postponed, of course, because it is +given in honor of all the officers who are gathered there for the +rifle-competition, and that will be all over and done with to-day, and +they cannot stay beyond Tuesday next. We must give it up, auntie," and +she looked up smilingly, "and you have made it so lovely for me here +that I can do it without a sigh. Think of that!--an army german!--and +Fanny Craven says the favors are to be simply lovely. Yes, I _did_ want +to go, but papa said he felt unequal to it the moment he got back from +Chicago, day before yesterday, and he certainly does not look at all +well: so that ended it, and I wrote at once to Mrs. Hoyt. This is her +answer now." + +"What does she say?" + +"Oh, it is very kind of her: she wants me to come and be her guest if +the colonel is too ill to come and mamma will not leave him. She says +Mr. Hoyt will come down and escort me. But I would not like to go +without mamma," and the big dark eyes looked up wistfully, "and I know +she does not care to urge papa when he seems so indisposed to going." + +Mrs. Maynard's eyes were anxious and troubled now. She turned to her +sister-in-law: + +"Do you think he seems any better, Grace? I do not." + +"It is hard to say. He was so nervously anxious to get away to see the +general the very day you arrived here that there was not a moment in +which I could ask him about himself; and since his return he has avoided +all mention of it beyond saying it is nothing but indigestion and he +would be all right in a few days. I never knew him to suffer in that way +in my life. Is there any regimental matter that can be troubling him?" +she asked, in lower tone. + +"Nothing of any consequence whatever. Of course the officers feel +chagrined over their defeat in the rifle-match. They had expected to +stand very high, but Mr. Jerrold's shooting was unexpectedly below the +average, and it threw their team behind. But the colonel didn't make the +faintest allusion to it. That hasn't worried him anywhere near as much +as it has the others, I should judge." + +"I do not think it was all Mr. Jerrold's fault, mamma," said Miss +Renwick, with gentle reproach and a very becoming flush. "I'm going to +stand up for him, because I think they all blame him for other men's +poor work. He was not the only one on our team whose shooting was below +former scores." + +"They claim that none fell so far below their expectations as he, Alice. +You know I am no judge of such matters, but Mr. Hoyt and Captain Gray +both write the colonel that Mr. Jerrold had been taking no care of +himself whatever and was entirely out of form." + +"In any event I'm glad the cavalry did no better," was Miss Renwick's +loyal response. "You remember the evening we rode out to the range and +Captain Gray said that there was the man who would win the first prize +from Mr. Jerrold,--that tall cavalry sergeant who fainted +away,--Sergeant McLeod; don't you remember, mother? Well, he did not +even get a place, and Mr. Jerrold beat him easily." + +Something in her mother's eyes warned her to be guarded, and, in that +indefinable but unerring system of feminine telegraphy, called her +attention to the man sitting by the door. Looking quickly to her right, +Miss Renwick saw that he was intently regarding her. At the mention of +Fort Sibley the stranger had lowered his paper, revealing a bronzed face +clean-shaven except for the thick blonde moustache, and a pair of clear, +steady, searching blue eyes under heavy brows and lashes, and these eyes +were very deliberately yet respectfully fixed upon her own; nor were +they withdrawn in proper confusion when detected. It was Miss Renwick +whose eyes gave up the contest and returned in some sense of defeat to +her mother's face. + +"What letters have you for the colonel?" asked Mrs. Maynard, coming _au +secours_. + +"Three,--two of them from his devoted henchman Captain Chester, who +writes by every mail, I should imagine; and these he will go off into +some secluded nook with and come back looking blue and worried. Then +here's another, forwarded from Sibley, too. I do not know this hand. +Perhaps it is from Captain Armitage, who, they say, is to come back next +month. Poor Mr. Jerrold!" + +"Why poor Mr. Jerrold?" asked Aunt Grace, with laughing interest, as she +noted the expression on her niece's pretty face. + +"Because he can't bear Captain Armitage, and--" + +"Now, Alice!" said her mother, reprovingly. "You must not take his view +of the captain at all. Remember what the colonel said of him--" + +"Mother dear," protested Alice, laughing, "I have no doubt Captain +Armitage is the paragon of a soldier, but he is unquestionably a most +unpleasant and ungentlemanly person in his conduct to the young +officers. Mr. Hall has told me the same thing. I declare, I don't see +how they can speak to him at all, he has been so harsh and discourteous +and unjust." The color was rising in earnest now, but a warning glance +in her mother's eye seemed to check further words. There was an +instant's silence. Then Aunt Grace remarked,-- + +"Alice, your next-door neighbor has vanished. I think your vehemence has +frightened him." + +Surely enough, the big, blue-eyed man in tweeds had disappeared. During +this brief controversy he had quickly and noiselessly let himself out of +the open door, swung lightly to the ground, and was out of sight among +the trees. + +"Why, what a strange proceeding!" said Aunt Grace again. "We are fully a +mile and a half from the hotel, and he means to walk it in this glaring +sun." + +Evidently he did. The driver reined up at the moment in response to a +suggestion from some one in a forward seat, and there suddenly appeared +by the wayside, striding out from the shelter of the sumachs, the +athletic figure of the stranger. + +"Go ahead!" he called, in a deep chest-voice that had an unmistakable +ring to it,--the tone that one so readily recognizes in men accustomed +to prompt action and command. "I'm going across lots." And, swinging his +heavy stick, with quick, elastic steps and erect carriage the man in +gray plunged into a wood-path and was gone. + +"Alice," said Aunt Grace, again, "that man is an officer, I'm sure, and +you have driven him into exile and lonely wandering. I've seen so much +of them when visiting my brother in the old days before my marriage that +even in civilian dress it is easy to tell some of them. Just look at +that back, and those shoulders! He has been a soldier all his life. +Horrors! suppose it should be Captain Armitage himself!" + +Miss Renwick looked genuinely distressed, as well as vexed. Certainly no +officer but Captain Armitage would have had reason to leave the stage. +Certainly officers and their families occasionally visited Sablon in the +summer-time, but Captain Armitage could hardly be here. There was +comforting assurance in the very note she held in her hand. + +"It cannot be," she said, "because Mr. Jerrold writes that they have +just heard from him at Sibley. He is still at the sea-shore, and will +not return for a month. Mr. Jerrold says he implored Captain Chester to +let him have three days' leave to come down here and have a sail and a +picnic with us, and was told that it would be out of the question." + +"Did he tell you any other news?" asked Mrs. Maynard, looking up from +her letter again,--"anything about the german?" + +"He says he thinks it a shame we are to be away and--well, read it +yourself." And she placed it in her mother's hands, the dark eyes +seriously, anxiously studying her face as she read. Presently Mrs. +Maynard laid it down and looked again into her own, then, pointing to a +certain passage with her finger, handed it to her daughter. + +"Men were deceivers ever," she said, laughing, yet oracularly +significant. + +And Alice Renwick could not quite control the start with which she +read,-- + +"Mr. Jerrold is to lead with his old love, Nina Beaubien. They make a +capital pair, and she, of course, will be radiant--with Alice out of the +way." + +"That is something Mr. Jerrold failed to mention, is it not?" + +Miss Renwick's cheeks were flushed, and the dark eyes were filled with +sudden pain, as she answered,-- + +"I did not know she was there. She was to have gone to the Lakes the +same day we left." + +"She did go, Alice," said her mother, quietly, "but it was only for a +brief visit, it seems." + +The colonel was not at their cottage when the omnibus reached the lake. +Over at the hotel were the usual number of loungers gathered to see the +new arrivals, and Alice presently caught sight of the colonel coming +through the park. If anything, he looked more listless and dispirited +than he had before they left. She ran down the steps to meet him, +smiling brightly up into his worn and haggard face. + +"Are you feeling a little brighter, papa? Here are letters for you." + +He took them wearily, barely glancing at the superscriptions. + +"I had hoped for something more," he said, and passed on into the little +frame house which was his sister's summer home. "Is your mother here?" +he asked, looking back as he entered the door. + +"In the north room, with Aunt Grace, papa," she answered; and then once +more and with graver face she began to read Mr. Jerrold's letter. It was +a careful study she was making of it this time, and not altogether a +pleasant one. Aunt Grace came out and made some laughing remark at +seeing her still so occupied. She looked up, pluckily smiling despite a +sense of wounded pride, and answered,-- + +"I am only convincing myself that it was purely on general principles +that Mr. Jerrold seemed so anxious I should be there. He never wanted me +to lead with him at all." All the same it stung, and Aunt Grace saw and +knew it, and longed to take her to her heart and comfort her; but it was +better so. She was finding him out unaided. + +She was still studying over portions of that ingenious letter, when the +rustle of her aunt's gown indicated that she was rising. She saw her +move towards the steps, heard a quick, firm tread upon the narrow +planking, and glanced up in surprise. There, uncovering his +close-cropped head, stood the tall stranger, looking placidly up as he +addressed Aunt Grace: + +"Pardon me, can I see Colonel Maynard?" + +"He is at home. Pray come up and take a chair. I will let him know. +I--I felt sure you must be some friend of his when I saw you in the +stage," said the good lady, with manifest and apologetic uneasiness. + +"Yes," responded the stranger, as he quickly ascended the steps and +bowed before her, smiling quietly the while. "Let me introduce myself. I +am Captain Armitage, of the colonel's regiment." + +"There! I _knew_ it!" was Aunt Grace's response, as with both hands +uplifted in tragic despair she gave one horror-stricken glance at Alice +and rushed into the house. + +There was a moment's silence; then, with burning cheeks, but with brave +eyes that looked frankly into his, Alice Renwick arose, came straight up +to him, and held out her pretty hand. + +"Captain Armitage, I beg your pardon." + +He took the extended hand and gazed earnestly into her face, while a +kind--almost merry--smile lighted up his own. + +"Have the boys given me such an uncanny reputation as all that?" he +asked; and then, as though tickled with the comicality of the situation, +he began to laugh. "What ogres some of us old soldiers do become in the +course of years! Do you know, young lady, I might never have suspected +what a brute I was if it had not been for you? What a blessed thing it +was the colonel did not tell you I was coming! You would never have +given me this true insight into my character." + +But she saw nothing to laugh at, and would not laugh. Her lovely face +was still burning with blushes and dismay and full of trouble. + +"I do not look upon it lightly at all," she said. "It was unpardonable +in me to--to--" + +"To take so effective and convincing a method of telling a man of his +grievous sins! Not a bit of it. I like a girl who has the courage to +stand up for her friends. I shall congratulate Jerrold and Hall both +when I get back, lucky fellows that they are!" And evidently Captain +Armitage was deriving altogether too much jolly entertainment from her +awkwardness. She rallied and strove to put an end to it. + +"Indeed, Captain Armitage, I _do_ think the young officers sorely need +friends and advocates at times. I never would have knowingly spoken to +you of your personal responsibilities in the woes of Mr. Jerrold and Mr. +Hall, but since I have done so unwittingly I may as well define my +position, especially as you are so good-natured with it all." And here, +it must be admitted, Miss Renwick's beautiful eyes were shyly lifted to +his in a most telling way. Once there, they looked squarely into the +clear blue depths of his, and never flinched. "It seemed to me several +times at Sibley that the young officers deserved more consideration and +courtesy than their captains accorded them. It was not you alone that I +heard of." + +"I am profoundly gratified to learn that somebody else is a brute," he +answered, trying to look grave, but with that irrepressible merriment +twitching at the corners of his mouth and giving sudden gleams of his +firm white teeth through the thick moustache. "You are come to us just +in time, Miss Renwick, and if you will let me come and tell you all my +sorrows the next time the colonel pitches into me for something wrong in +B Company, I'll give you full permission to overhaul me for everything +or anything I say and do to the youngsters. Is it a bargain?" And he +held out his big, firm hand. + +"I think you are--very different from what I heard," was all her answer, +as she looked up in his eyes, twinkling as they were with fun. "Oh, we +are to shake hands on it as a bargain? Is that it? Very well, then." + + + + +IX. + + +When Captain Armitage left the cottage that night he did not go at once +to his own room. Brief as was the conversation he had enjoyed with Miss +Renwick, it was all that Fate vouchsafed him for that date at least. The +entire party went to tea together at the hotel, but immediately +thereafter the colonel carried Armitage away, and for two long hours +they were closeted over some letters that had come from Sibley, and when +the conference broke up and the wondering ladies saw the two men come +forth it was late,--almost ten o'clock,--and the captain did not venture +beyond the threshold of the sitting-room. He bowed and bade them a +somewhat ceremonious good-night. His eyes rested--lingered--on Miss +Renwick's uplifted face, and it was the picture he took with him into +the stillness of the summer night. + +The colonel accompanied him to the steps, and rested his hand upon the +broad gray shoulder. + +"God only knows how I have needed you, Armitage. This trouble has nearly +crushed me, and it seemed as though I were utterly alone. I had the +haunting fear that it was only weakness on my part and my love for my +wife that made me stand out against Chester's propositions. He can only +see guilt and conviction in every new phase of the case, and, though +you see how he tries to spare me, his letters give no hope of any other +conclusion." + +Armitage pondered a moment before he answered. Then he slowly spoke: + +"Chester has lived a lonely and an unhappy life. His first experience +after graduation was that wretched affair of which you have told me. Of +course I knew much of the particulars before, but not all. I respect +Chester as a soldier and a gentleman, and I like him and trust him as a +friend; but, Colonel Maynard, in a matter of such vital importance as +this, and one of such delicacy, I distrust, not his motives, but his +judgment. All his life, practically, he has been brooding over the +sorrow that came to him when your trouble came to you, and his mind is +grooved: he believes he sees mystery and intrigue in matters that others +might explain in an instant." + +"But think of all the array of evidence he has." + +"Enough, and more than enough, I admit, to warrant everything he has +thought or said of the man; but--" + +"He simply puts it this way. If he be guilty, can she be less? Is it +possible, Armitage, that you are unconvinced?" + +"Certainly I am unconvinced. The matter has not yet been sifted. As I +understand it, you have forbidden his confronting Jerrold with the +proofs of his rascality until I get there. Admitting the evidence of the +ladder, the picture, and the form at the window,--ay, the letter, +too,--I am yet to be convinced of one thing. You must remember that his +judgment is biassed by his early experiences. He fancies, that no woman +is proof against such fascinations as Jerrold's." + +"And your belief?" + +"Is that some women--_many_ women--are utterly above such a +possibility." + +Old Maynard wrung his comrade's hand. "You make me hope in spite of +myself,--my past experiences,--my very senses, Armitage. I have leaned +on you so many years that I missed you sorely when this trial came. If +you had been there, things might not have taken this shape. He looks +upon Chester--and it's one thing Chester hasn't forgiven in him--as a +meddling old granny; you remember the time he so spoke of him last year; +but he holds you in respect, or is afraid of you,--which in a man of his +calibre is about the same thing. It may not be too late for you to act. +Then when he is disposed of once and for all, I can know what must be +done--where she is concerned." + +"And under no circumstances can you question Mrs. Maynard?" + +"No! no! If she suspected anything of this it would kill her. In any +event, she must have no suspicion of it _now_." + +"But does she not ask? Has she no theory about the missing photograph? +Surely she must marvel over its disappearance." + +"She _does_; at least, she _did_; but--I'm ashamed to own it, +Armitage--we had to quiet her natural suspicions in some way, and I told +her that it was my doing,--that I took it to tease Alice, put the +photograph in the drawer of my desk, and hid the frame behind her +sofa-pillow. Chester knows of the arrangement, and we had settled that +when the picture was recovered from Mr. Jerrold he would send it to me." + +Armitage was silent. A frown settled on his forehead, and it was evident +that the statement was far from welcome to him. Presently he held forth +his hand. + +"Well, good-night, sir. I must go and have a quiet think over this. I +hope you will rest well. You need it, colonel." + +But Maynard only shook his head. His heart was too troubled for rest of +any kind. He stood gazing out towards the park, where the tall figure of +his ex-adjutant had disappeared among the trees. He heard the low-toned, +pleasant chat of the ladies in the sitting-room, but he was in no mood +to join them. He wished that Armitage had not gone, he felt such +strength and comparative hope in his presence; but it was plain that +even Armitage was confounded by the array of facts and circumstances +that he had so painfully and slowly communicated to him. The colonel +went drearily back to the room in which they had had their long +conference. His wife and sister both hailed him as he passed the +sitting-room door, and urged him to come and join them,--they wanted to +ask about Captain Armitage, with whom it was evident they were much +impressed; but he answered that he had some letters to put away, and he +must attend first to that. + +Among those that had been shown to the captain, mainly letters from +Chester telling of the daily events at the fort and of his surveillance +in the case of Jerrold, was one which Alice had brought him two days +before. This had seemed to him of unusual importance, as the others +contained nothing that tended to throw new light on the case. It said,-- + +"I am glad you have telegraphed for Armitage, and heartily approve your +decision to lay the whole case before him. I presume he can reach you by +Sunday, and that by Tuesday he will be here at the fort and ready to +act. This will be a great relief to me, for, do what I could to allay +it, there is no concealing the fact that much speculation and gossip is +afloat concerning the events of that unhappy night. Leary declares he +has been close-mouthed; the other men on guard know absolutely nothing, +and Captain Wilton is the only officer to whom in my distress of mind I +betrayed that there _was_ a mystery, and he has pledged himself to me to +say nothing. Sloat, too, has an inkling, and a big one, that Jerrold is +the suspected party; but I never dreamed that anything had been seen or +heard which in the faintest way connected _your_ household with the +matter, until yesterday. Then Leary admitted to me that two women, Mrs. +Clifford's cook and the doctor's nursery-maid, had asked him whether it +wasn't Lieutenant Jerrold he fired at, and if it was true that he was +trying to get in at the colonel's back door. Twice Mrs. Clifford has +asked me very significant questions, and three times to-day have +officers made remarks to me that indicated their knowledge of the +existence of some grave trouble. What makes matters worse is that +Jerrold, when twitted about his absence from reveille, loses his temper +and gets confused. There came near being a quarrel between him and +Rollins at the mess a day or two since. He was saying that the reason he +slept through roll-call was the fact that he had been kept up very late +at the doctor's party, and Rollins happened to come in at the moment and +blurted out that if he was up at all it must have been after he left the +party, and reminded him that he had left before midnight with Miss +Renwick. This completely staggered Jerrold, who grew confused and tried +to cover it with a display of anger. Now, two weeks ago Rollins was most +friendly to Jerrold and stood up for him when I assailed him, but ever +since that night he has had no word to say for him. When Jerrold played +wrathful and accused Rollins of mixing in other men's business, Rollins +bounced up to him like a young bull-terrier, and I believe there would +have been a row had not Sloat and Hoyt promptly interfered. Jerrold +apologized, and Rollins accepted the apology, but has avoided him ever +since,--won't speak of him to me, now that I have reason to want to draw +him out. As soon as Armitage gets here he can do what I cannot,--find +out just what and who is suspected and talked about. + +"Mr. Jerrold, of course, avoids me. He has been attending strictly to +his duty, and is evidently confounded that I did not press the matter of +his going to town as he did the day I forbade it. Mr. Hoyt's being too +late to see him personally gave me sufficient grounds on which to excuse +it; but he seems to understand that something is impending, and is +looking nervous and harassed. He has not renewed his request for leave +of absence to run down to Sablon. I told him curtly it was out of the +question." + +The colonel took a few strides up and down the room. It had come, then. +The good name of those he loved was already besmirched by garrison +gossip, and he knew that nothing but heroic measures could ever silence +scandal. Impulse and the innate sense of "fight" urged him to go at once +to the scene, leaving his wife and her fair daughter here under his +sister's roof; but Armitage and common sense said no. He had placed his +burden on those broad gray shoulders, and, though ill content to wait, +he felt that he was bound. Stowing away the letters, too nervous to +sleep, too worried to talk, he stole from the cottage, and, with hands +clasped behind his back, with low-bowed head he strolled forth into the +broad vista of moonlit road. + +There were bright lights still burning at the hotel, and gay voices came +floating through the summer air. The piano, too, was thrumming a waltz +in the parlor, and two or three couples were throwing embracing, +slowly-twirling shadows on the windows. Over in the bar-and +billiard-rooms the click of the balls and the refreshing rattle of +cracked ice told suggestively of the occupation of the inmates. Keeping +on beyond these distracting sounds, he slowly climbed a long, gradual +ascent to the "bench," or plateau above the wooded point on which were +grouped the glistening white buildings of the pretty summer resort, and, +having reached the crest, turned silently to gaze at the beauty of the +scene,--at the broad, flawless bosom of a summer lake all sheen and +silver from the unclouded moon. Far to the southeast it wound among the +bold and rock-ribbed bluffs rising from the forest growth at their base +to shorn and rounded summits. Miles away to the southward twinkled the +lights of one busy little town; others gleamed and sparkled over towards +the northern shore, close under the pole-star; while directly opposite +frowned a massive wall of palisaded rock, that threw, deep and heavy and +far from shore, its long reflection in the mirror of water. There was +not a breath of air stirring in the heavens, not a ripple on the face of +the waters beneath, save where, close under the bold headland down on +the other side, the signal-lights, white and crimson and green, creeping +slowly along in the shadows, revealed one of the packets ploughing her +steady way to the great marts below. Nearer at hand, just shaving the +long strip of sandy, wooded point that jutted far out into the lake, a +broad raft of timber, pushed by a hard-working, black-funnelled +stern-wheeler, was slowly forging its way to the outlet of the lake, its +shadowy edge sprinkled here and there with little sparks of lurid +red,--the pilot-lights that gave warning of its slow and silent coming. +Far down along the southern shore, under that black bluff-line, close to +the silver water-edge, a glowing meteor seemed whirling through the +night, and the low, distant rumble told of the "Atlantic Express" +thundering on its journey. Here, along with him on the level plateau, +were other roomy cottages, some dark, some still sending forth a guiding +ray; while long lines of white-washed fence gleamed ghostly in the +moonlight and were finally lost in the shadow of the great bluff that +abruptly shut in the entire point and plateau and shut out all further +sight of lake or land in that direction. Far beneath he could hear the +soft plash upon the sandy shore of the little wavelets that came +sweeping in the wake of the raft-boat and spending their tiny strength +upon the strand; far down on the hotel point he could still hear the +soft melody of the waltz; he remembered how the band used to play that +same air, and wondered why it was he used to like it; it jarred him now. +Presently the distant crack of a whip and the low rumble of wheels were +heard: the omnibus coming back from the station with passengers from the +night train. He was in no mood to see any one. He turned away and walked +northward along the edge of the bench, towards the deep shadow of the +great shoulder of the bluff, and presently he came to a long flight of +wooden stairs, leading from the plateau down to the hotel, and here he +stopped and seated himself awhile. He did not want to go home yet. He +wanted to be by himself,--to think and brood over his trouble. He saw +the omnibus go round the bend and roll up to the hotel door-way with its +load of pleasure-seekers, and heard the joyous welcome with which some +of their number were received by waiting friends, but life had little of +joy to him this night. He longed to go away,--anywhere, anywhere, could +he only leave this haunting misery behind. He was so proud of his +regiment; he had been so happy in bringing home to it his accomplished +and gracious wife; he had been so joyous in planning for the lovely +times Alice was to have,--the social successes, the girlish triumphs, +the garrison gayeties of which she was to be the queen,--and now, so +very, very soon, all had turned to ashes and desolation! She _was_ so +beautiful, so sweet, winning, graceful. Oh, God! _could_ it be that one +so gifted could possibly be so base? He rose in nervous misery and +clinched his hands high in air, then sat down again with hiding, +hopeless face, rocking to and fro as sways a man in mortal pain. It was +long before he rallied and again wearily arose. Most of the lights were +gone; silence had settled down upon the sleeping point; he was chilled +with the night air and the dew, and stiff and heavy as he tried to walk. +Down at the foot of the stairs he could see the night-watchman making +his rounds. He did not want to explain matters and talk with him: he +would go around. There was a steep pathway down into the ravine that +gave into the lake just beyond his sister's cottage, and this he sought +and followed, moving slowly and painfully, but finally reaching the +grassy level of the pathway that connected the cottages with the +wood-road up the bluff. Trees and shrubbery were thick on both sides, +and the path was shaded. He turned to his right, and came down until +once more he was in sight of the white walls of the hotel standing out +there on the point, until close at hand he could see the light of his +own cottage glimmering like faithful beacon through the trees; and then +he stopped short. + +A tall, slender figure--a man in dark, snug-fitting clothing--was +creeping stealthily up to the cottage window. + +The colonel held his breath: his heart thumped violently: he +waited,--watched. He saw the dark figure reach the blinds; he saw them +slowly, softly turned, and the faint light gleaming from within; he saw +the figure peering in between the slats, and then--God! was it +possible?--a low voice, a man's voice, whispering or hoarsely murmuring +a name: he heard a sudden movement within the room, as though the +occupant had heard and were replying, "Coming." His blood froze: it was +not Alice's room: it was his,--his and hers--his wife's,--and that was +surely her step approaching the window. Yes, the blind was quickly +opened. A white-robed figure stood at the casement. He could see, hear, +bear no more: with one mad rush he sprang from his lair and hurled +himself upon the shadowy stranger. + +"You hound! who are you?" + +But 'twas no shadow that he grasped. A muscular arm was round him in a +trice, a brawny hand at his throat, a twisting, sinewy leg was curled in +his, and he went reeling back upon the springy turf, stunned and +wellnigh breathless. + +When he could regain his feet and reach the casement the stranger had +vanished; but Mrs. Maynard lay there on the floor within, a white and +senseless heap. + + + + +X. + + +Perhaps it was as well for all parties that Frank Armitage concluded +that he must have another whiff of tobacco that night as an incentive to +the "think" he had promised himself. He had strolled through the park to +the grove of trees out on the point and seated himself in the shadows. +Here his reflections were speedily interrupted by the animated +flirtations of a few couples who, tiring of the dance, came out into the +coolness of the night and the seclusion of the grove, where their +murmured words and soft laughter soon gave the captain's nerves a strain +they could not bear. He broke cover and betook himself to the very edge +of the stone retaining wall out on the point. + +He wanted to think calmly and dispassionately; he meant to weigh all he +had read and heard and form his estimate of the gravity of the case +before going to bed. He meant to be impartial,--to judge her as he would +judge any other woman so compromised; but for the life of him he could +not. He bore with him the mute image of her lovely face, with its clear, +truthful, trustful dark eyes. He saw her as she stood before him on the +little porch when they shook hands on their laughing--or his +laughing--compact, for she would not laugh. How perfect she was!--her +radiant beauty, her uplifted eyes, so full of their self-reproach and +regret at the speech she had made at his expense! How exquisite was the +grace of her slender, rounded form as she stood there before him, one +slim hand half shyly extended to meet the cordial clasp of his own! He +wanted to judge and be just; but that image dismayed him. How could he +look on this picture and then--on that,--the one portrayed in the chain +of circumstantial evidence which the colonel had laid before him? It was +monstrous! it was treason to womanhood! One look in her eyes, superb in +their innocence, was too much for his determined impartiality. Armitage +gave himself a mental kick for what he termed his imbecility, and went +back to the hotel. + +"It's no use," he muttered. "I'm a slave of the weed, and can't be +philosophic without my pipe." + +Up to his little box of a room he climbed, found his pipe-case and +tobacco-pouch, and in five minutes was strolling out to the point once +more, when he came suddenly upon the night-watchman,--a personage of +whose functions and authority he was entirely ignorant. The man eyed +him narrowly, and essayed to speak. Not knowing him, and desiring to be +alone, Armitage pushed past, and was surprised to find that a hand was +on his shoulder and the man at his side before he had gone a rod. + +"Beg pardon, sir," said the watchman, gruffly, "but I don't know you. +Are you stopping at the hotel?" + +"I am," said Armitage, coolly, taking his pipe from his lips and blowing +a cloud over his other shoulder. "And who may you be?" + +"I am the watchman; and I do not remember seeing you come to-day." + +"Nevertheless I did." + +"On what train, sir?" + +"This afternoon's up-train." + +"You certainly were not on the omnibus when it got here." + +"Very true. I walked over from beyond the school-house." + +"You must excuse me, sir. I did not think of that; and the manager +requires me to know everybody. Is this Major Armitage?" + +"Armitage is my name, but I'm not a major." + +"Yes, sir; I'm glad to be set right. And the other gentleman,--him as +was inquiring for Colonel Maynard to-night? He's in the army, too, but +his name don't seem to be on the book. He only came in on the late +train." + +"Another man to see Colonel Maynard?" asked the captain, with sudden +interest. "Just come in, you say. I'm sure I've no idea. What was he +like?" + +"I don't know, sir. At first I thought you was him. The driver told me +he brought a gentleman over who asked some questions about Colonel +Maynard, but he didn't get aboard at the depot, and he didn't come down +to the hotel,--got off somewhere up there on the bench, and Jim didn't +see him." + +"Where's Jim?" said Armitage. "Come with me, watchman. I want to +interview him." + +Together they walked over to the barn, which the driver was just locking +up after making everything secure for the night. + +"Who was it inquiring for Colonel Maynard?" asked Armitage. + +"I don't know, sir," was the slow answer. "There was a man got aboard as +I was coming across the common there in the village at the station. +There were several passengers from the train, and some baggage: so he +may have started ahead on foot but afterwards concluded to ride. As +soon as I saw him get in I reined up and asked where he was going; he +had no baggage nor nuthin', and my orders are not to haul anybody except +people of the hotel: so he came right forward through the 'bus and took +the seat behind me and said 'twas all right, he was going to the hotel; +and he passed up a half-dollar. I told him that I couldn't take the +money,--that 'bus-fares were paid at the office,--and drove ahead. Then +he handed me a cigar, and pretty soon he asked me if there were many +people, and who had the cottages; and when I told him, he asked which +was Colonel Maynard's, but he didn't say he knew him, and the next thing +I knew was when we got here to the hotel he wasn't in the 'bus. He must +have stepped back through all those passengers and slipped off up there +on the bench. He was in it when we passed the little brown church up on +the hill." + +"What was he like?" + +"I couldn't see him plain. He stepped out from behind a tree as we drove +through the common, and came right into the 'bus. It was dark in there, +and all I know is he was tall and had on dark clothes. Some of the +people inside must have seen him better; but they are all gone to bed, I +suppose." + +"I will go over to the hotel and inquire, anyway," said Armitage, and +did so. The lights were turned down, and no one was there, but he could +hear voices chatting in quiet tones on the broad, sheltered veranda +without, and, going thither, found three or four men enjoying a quiet +smoke. Armitage was a man of action. He stepped at once to the group: + +"Pardon me, gentlemen, but did any of you come over in the omnibus from +the station to-night?" + +"I did, sir," replied one of the party, removing his cigar and twitching +off the ashes with his little finger, then looking up with the air of a +man expectant of question. + +"The watchman tells me a man came over who was making inquiries for +Colonel Maynard. May I ask if you saw or heard of such a person?" + +"A gentleman got in soon after we left the station, and when the driver +hailed him he went forward and took a seat near him. They had some +conversation, but I did not hear it. I only know that he got out again a +little while before we reached the hotel." + +"Could you see him, and describe him? I am a friend of Colonel +Maynard's, an officer of his regiment,--which will account for my +inquiry." + +"Well, yes, sir. I noticed he was very tall and slim, was dressed in +dark clothes, and wore a dark slouched hat well down over his forehead. +He was what I would call a military-looking man, for I noticed his walk +as he got off; but he wore big spectacles,--blue or brown glass, I +should say,--and had a heavy beard." + +"Which way did he go when he left the 'bus?" + +"He walked northward along the road at the edge of the bluff, right up +towards the cottages on the upper level," was the answer. + +Armitage thanked him for his courtesy, explained that he had left the +colonel only a short time before and that he was then expecting no +visitor, and if one had come it was perhaps necessary that he should be +hunted up and brought to the hotel. Then he left the porch and walked +hurriedly through the park towards its northernmost limit. There to his +left stood the broad roadway along which, nestling under shelter of the +bluff, was ranged the line of cottages, some two-storied, with balconies +and verandas, others low, single-storied affairs with a broad hall-way +in the middle of each and rooms on both north and south sides. +Farthermost north on the row, almost hidden in the trees, and nearest +the ravine, stood Aunt Grace's cottage, where were domiciled the +colonel's household. It was in the big bay-windowed north room that he +and the colonel had had their long conference earlier in the evening. +The south room, nearly opposite, was used as their parlor and +sitting-room. Aunt Grace and Miss Renwick slept in the little front +rooms north and south of the hall-way, and the lights in their rooms +were extinguished; so, too, was that in the parlor. All was darkness on +the south and east. All was silence and peace as Armitage approached; +but just as he reached the shadow of the stunted oak-tree growing in +front of the house his ears were startled by an agonized cry, a woman's +half-stifled shriek. He bounded up the steps, seized the knob of the +door and threw his weight against it. It was firmly bolted within. Loud +he thundered on the panels. "'Tis I,--Armitage!" he called. He heard the +quick patter of little feet; the bolt was slid, and he rushed in, almost +stumbling against a trembling, terror-stricken, yet welcoming +white-robed form,--Alice Renwick, barefooted, with her glorious wealth +of hair tumbling in dark luxuriance all down over the dainty +night-dress,--Alice Renwick, with pallid face and wild imploring eyes. + +"What is wrong?" he asked, in haste. + +"It's mother,--her room,--and it's locked, and she won't answer," was +the gasping reply. + +Armitage sprang to the rear of the hall, leaned one second against the +opposite wall, sent his foot with mighty impulse and muscled impact +against the opposing lock, and the door flew open with a crash. The next +instant Alice was bending over her senseless mother, and the captain was +giving a hand in much bewilderment to the panting colonel, who was +striving to clamber in at the window. The ministrations of Aunt Grace +and Alice were speedily sufficient to restore Mrs. Maynard. A +teaspoonful of brandy administered by the colonel's trembling hand +helped matters materially. Then he turned to Armitage. + +"Come outside," he said. + +Once again in the moonlight the two men faced each other. + +"Armitage, can you get a horse?" + +"Certainly. What then?" + +"Go to the station, get men, if possible, and head this fellow off. He +was here again to-night, and it was not Alice he called, but my--but +Mrs. Maynard. I saw him; I grappled with him right here at the +bay-window where _she_ met him, and he hurled me to grass as though I'd +been a child. _I_ want a horse! I want that man to-night. How did he get +away from Sibley?" + +"Do you mean--do you think it was Jerrold?" + +"Good God, yes! Who else could it be? Disguised, of course, and bearded; +but the figure, the carriage, were just the same, and he came to this +window,--to _her_ window,--and called, and she answered. My God, +Armitage, think of it!" + +"Come with me, colonel. You are all unstrung," was the captain's answer +as he led his broken friend away. At the front door he stopped one +moment, then ran up the steps and into the hall, where he tapped lightly +at the casement. + +"What is it?" was the low response from an invisible source. + +"Miss Alice?" + +"Yes." + +"The watchman is here now. I will send him around to the window to keep +guard until our return. The colonel is a little upset by the shock, and +I want to attend to him. We are going to the hotel a moment before I +bring him home. You are not afraid to have him leave you?" + +"Not now, captain." + +"Is Mrs. Maynard better?" + +"Yes. She hardly seems to know what has happened. Indeed, none of us do. +What was it?" + +"A tramp, looking for something to eat, tried to open the blinds, and +the colonel was out here and made a jump at him. They had a scuffle in +the shrubbery, and the tramp got away. It frightened your mother: that's +the sum of it, I think." + +"Is papa hurt?" + +"No: a little bruised and shaken, and mad as a hornet. I think perhaps +I'll get him quieted down and sleepy in a few minutes, if you and Mrs. +Maynard will be content to let him stay with me. I can talk almost any +man drowsy." + +"Mamma seems to worry for fear he is hurt." + +"Assure her solemnly that he hasn't a scratch. He is simply fighting +mad, and I'm going to try and find the tramp. Does Mrs. Maynard remember +how he looked?" + +"She could not see the face at all. She heard some one at the shutters, +and a voice, and supposed of course it was papa, and threw open the +blind." + +"Oh, I see. That's all, Miss Alice. I'll go back to the colonel. +Good-night!" And Armitage went forth with a lighter step. + +"One sensation knocked endwise, colonel. I have it on the best of +authority that Mrs. Maynard so fearlessly went to the window in answer +to the voice and noise at the shutters simply because she knew you were +out there somewhere and she supposed it was you. How simple these +mysteries become when a little daylight is let in on them, after all! +Come, I'm going to take you over to my room for a stiff glass of grog, +and then after his trampship while you go back to bed." + +"Armitage, you seem to make very light of this night's doings. What is +easier than to connect it all with the trouble at Sibley?" + +"Nothing was ever more easily explained than this thing, colonel, and +all I want now is a chance to get that tramp. Then I'll go to Sibley; +and 'pon my word I believe that mystery can be made as commonplace a +piece of petty larceny as this was of vagrancy. Come." + +But when Armitage left the colonel at a later hour and sought his own +room for a brief rest he was in no such buoyant mood. A night-search for +a tramp in the dense thickets among the bluffs and woods of Sablon +could hardly be successful. It was useless to make the attempt. He slept +but little during the cool August night, and early in the morning +mounted a horse and trotted over to the railway-station. + +"Has any train gone northward since last night?" he inquired at the +office. + +"None that stop here," was the answer. "The first train up comes along +at 11.56." + +"I want to send a despatch to Fort Sibley and get an answer without +delay. Can you work it for me?" + +The agent nodded, and pushed over a package of blanks. Armitage wrote +rapidly as follows: + +"CAPTAIN CHESTER, + +"Commanding Fort Sibley. + +"Is Jerrold there? Tell him I will arrive Tuesday. Answer. + + "F. ARMITAGE." + +It was along towards nine o'clock when the return message came clicking +in on the wires, was written out, and handed to the tall soldier with +the tired blue eyes. + +He read, started, crushed the paper in his hand, and turned from the +office. The answer was significant: + +"Lieutenant Jerrold left Sibley yesterday afternoon. Not yet returned. +Absent without leave this morning. + + "CHESTER." + + + + +XI. + + +Nature never vouchsafed to wearied man a lovelier day of rest than the +still Sunday on which Frank Armitage rode slowly back from the station. +The soft, mellow tone of the church-bell, tolling the summons for +morning service, floated out from the brown tower, and was echoed back +from the rocky cliff glistening in the August sunshine on the northern +bluff. Groups of villagers hung about the steps of the little sanctuary +and gazed with mild curiosity at the arriving parties from the cottages +and the hotel. The big red omnibus came up with a load of worshippers, +and farther away, down the vista of the road, Armitage could see others +on foot and in carriages, all wending their way to church. He was in no +mood to meet them. The story that he had been out pursuing a tramp +during the night was pretty thoroughly circulated by this time, he felt +assured, and every one would connect his early ride to the station, in +some way, with the adventure that the grooms, hostlers, cooks, and +kitchen-maids had all been dilating upon ever since daybreak. He dreaded +to meet the curious glances of the women, and the questions of the few +men whom he had taken so far into his confidence as to ask about the +mysterious person who came over in the stage with them. He reined up his +horse, and then, seeing a little pathway leading into the thick wood to +his right, he turned in thither and followed it some fifty yards among +bordering treasures of coreopsis and golden-rod and wild luxuriance of +vine and foliage. Dismounting in the shade, he threw the reins over his +arm and let his horse crop the juicy grasses, while he seated himself on +a little stump and fell to thinking again. He could hear the reverent +voices of one or two visitors strolling about among the peaceful, +flower-decked graves behind the little church and only a short +stone's-throw away through the shrubbery. He could hear the low, solemn +voluntary of the organ, and presently the glad outburst of young voices +in the opening hymn, but he knew that belated ones would still be coming +to church, and he would not come forth from his covert until all were +out of the way. Then, too, he was glad of a little longer time to think: +he did not want to tell the colonel the result of his morning +investigations. + +To begin with: the watchman, the driver, and the two men whom he had +questioned were all of an opinion as to the character of the stranger: +"he was a military man." The passengers described his voice as that of a +man of education and social position; the driver and passengers declared +his walk and carriage to be that of a soldier: he was taller, they said, +than the tall, stalwart Saxon captain, but by no means so heavily built. +As to age, they could not tell: his beard was black and curly,--no gray +hairs; his movements were quick and elastic; but his eyes were hidden by +those colored glasses, and his forehead by the slouch of that +broad-brimmed felt hat. + +At the station, while awaiting the answer to his despatch, Armitage had +questioned the agent as to whether any man of that description had +arrived by the night train from the north. He had seen none, he said, +but there was Larsen over at the post-office store, who came down on +that train; perhaps he could tell. Oddly enough, Mr. Larsen recalled +just such a party,--tall, slim, dark, dark-bearded, with blue glasses +and dark hat and clothes,--but he was bound for Lakeville, the station +beyond, and he remained in the car when he, Larsen, got off. Larsen +remembered the man well, because he sat in the rear corner of the +smoker and had nothing to say to anybody, but kept reading a newspaper; +and the way he came to take note of him was that while standing with two +friends at that end of the car they happened to be right around the man. +The Saturday evening train from the city is always crowded with people +from the river towns who have been up to market or the _matinees_, and +even the smoker was filled with standing men until they got some thirty +miles down. Larsen wanted to light a fresh cigar, and offered one to +each of his friends: then it was found they had no matches, and one of +them, who had been drinking a little and felt jovial, turned to the dark +stranger and asked him for a light, and the man, without speaking, +handed out a little silver match-box. It was just then that the +conductor came along, and Larsen saw his ticket. It was a "round trip" +to Lakeville: he was evidently going there for a visit, and therefore, +said Larsen, he didn't get off at Sablon Station, which was six miles +above. + +But Armitage knew better. It was evident that he had quietly slipped out +on the platform of the car after the regular passengers had got out of +the way, and let himself off into the darkness on the side opposite the +station. Thence he had an open and unimpeded walk of a few hundred yards +until he reached the common, and then, when overtaken by the hotel +omnibus, he could jump aboard and ride. There was only one road, only +one way over to the hotel, and he could not miss it. There was no doubt +now that, whoever he was, the night visitor had come down on the evening +train from the city; and his return ticket would indicate that he meant +to go back the way he came. It was half-past ten when that train +arrived. It was nearly midnight when the man appeared at the cottage +window. It was after two when Armitage gave up the search and went to +bed. It was possible for the man to have walked to Lakeville, six miles +south, and reached the station there in abundant time to take the +up-train which passed Sablon, without stopping, a little before +daybreak. If he took that train, and if he was Jerrold, he would have +been in the city before seven, and could have been at Fort Sibley before +or by eight o'clock. But Chester's despatch showed clearly that at +8.30--the hour for signing the company morning reports--Mr. Jerrold was +not at his post. Was he still in the neighborhood and waiting for the +noon train? If so, could he be confronted on the cars and accused of his +crime? He looked at his watch; it was nearly eleven, and he must push on +to the hotel before that hour, report to the colonel, then hasten back +to the station. He sprang to his feet, and was just about to mount, +when a vision of white and scarlet came suddenly into view. There, +within twenty feet of him, making her dainty way through the shrubbery +from the direction of the church, sunshine and shadow alternately +flitting across her lovely face and form, Alice Renwick stepped forth +into the pathway, and, shading her eyes with her hand, gazed along the +leafy lane towards the road, as though expectant of another's coming. +Then, attracted by the beauty of the golden-rod, she bent and busied +herself with gathering in the yellow sprays. Armitage, with one foot in +the stirrup, stood stock-still, half in surprise, half stunned by a +sudden and painful thought. Could it be that she was there in hopes of +meeting--any one? + +He retook his foot from the stirrup, and, relaxing the rein, still stood +gazing at her over his horse's back. That placid quadruped, whose years +had been spent in these pleasant by-ways and were too many to warrant an +exhibition of coltish surprise, promptly lowered his head and resumed +his occupation of grass-nibbling, making a little crunching noise which +Miss Renwick might have heard, but apparently did not. She was singing +very softly to herself,-- + + "Daisy, tell my fortune, pray: + He loves me not,--he loves me." + +And still Armitage stood and gazed, while she, absorbed in her pleasant +task, still pulled and plucked at the golden-rod. In all his life no +"vision of fair women" had been to him fair and sacred and exquisite as +this. Down to the tip of her arched and slender foot, peeping from +beneath the broidered hem of her snowy skirt, she stood the lady born +and bred, and his eyes looked on and worshipped her,--worshipped, yet +questioned, Why came she here? Absorbed, he released his hold on the +rein, and Dobbin, nothing loath, reached with his long, lean neck for +further herbage, and stepped in among the trees. Still stood his +negligent master, fascinated in his study of the lovely, graceful girl. +Again she raised her head and looked northward along the winding, shaded +wood-path. A few yards away were other great clusters of the wild +flowers she loved, more sun-kissed golden-rod, and, with a little murmur +of delight, gathering her dainty skirts in one hand, she flitted up the +pathway like an unconscious humming-bird garnering the sweets from every +blossom. A little farther on the pathway bent among the trees, and she +would be hidden from his sight; but still he stood and studied her +every movement, drank in the soft, cooing melody of her voice as she +sang, and then there came a sweet, solemn strain from the brown, sunlit +walls just visible through the trees, and reverent voices and the +resonant chords of the organ thrilled through the listening woods the +glorious anthem of the church militant. + +At the first notes she lifted up her queenly head and stood, listening +and appreciative. Then he saw her rounded throat swelling like a bird's, +and the rich, full tones of her voice rang out through the welcoming +sunshine, and the fluttering wrens, and proud red-breasted robins, and +rival song-queens, the brown-winged thrushes,--even the impudent +shrieking jays,--seemed to hush and listen. Dobbin, fairly astonished, +lifted up his hollow-eyed head and looked amazedly at the white +songstress whose scarlet sash and neck-ribbons gleamed in such vivid +contrast to the foliage about her. A wondering little "cotton-tail" +rabbit, shy and wild as a hawk, came darting through the bushes into the +sunshiny patchwork on the path, and then, uptilted and with quivering +ears and nostrils and wide-staring eyes, stood paralyzed with helpless +amaze, ignoring the tall man in gray as did the singer herself. Richer, +rounder, fuller grew the melody, as, abandoning herself to the impulse +of the sacred hour, she joined with all her girlish heart in the words +of praise and thanksgiving,--in the glad and triumphant chorus of the Te +Deum. From beginning to end she sang, now ringing and exultant, now soft +and plaintive, following the solemn words of the ritual,--sweet and low +and suppliant in the petition, "We therefore pray Thee help Thy servants +whom Thou hast redeemed with Thy precious blood," confident and exulting +in the declaration, "Thou art the King of Glory, O Christ," and then +rich with fearless trust and faith in the thrilling climax, "Let me +never be confounded." Armitage listened as one in a trance. From the +depth of her heart the girl had joined her glorious voice to the chorus +of praise and adoration, and now that all was stilled once more her head +had fallen forward on her bosom, her hands, laden with golden-rod, were +joined together: it seemed as though she were lost in prayer. + +And this was the girl, this the pure, God-worshipping, God-fearing +woman, who for one black instant he had dared to fancy had come here +expectant of a meeting with the man whose aim had been frustrated but +the night before! He could have thrown himself at her feet and implored +her pardon. He _did_ step forth, and then, hat in hand, baring his +proud Saxon head as his forefathers would have uncovered to their +monarch, he waited until she lifted up her eyes and saw him, and knew by +the look in his frank face that he had stood by, a mute listener to her +unstudied devotions. A lovely flush rose to her very temples, and her +eyes drooped their pallid lids until the long lashes swept the crimson +of her cheeks. + +"Have _you_ been here, captain? I never saw you," was her fluttering +question. + +"I rode in here on my way back from the station, not caring to meet all +the good people going to church. I felt like an outcast." + +"I, too, am a recreant to-day. It is the first time I have missed +service in a long while. Mamma felt too unstrung to come, and I had +given up the idea, but both she and Aunt Grace urged me. I was too late +for the omnibus, and walked up, and then I would not go in because +service was begun, and I wanted to be home again before noon. I cannot +bear to be late at church, or to leave it until everything is over, but +I can't be away from mother so long to-day. Shall we walk that way now?" + +"In a minute. I must find my horse. He is in here somewhere. Tell me how +the colonel is feeling, and Mrs. Maynard." + +"Both very nervous and worried, though I see nothing extraordinary in +the adventure. We read of poor hungry tramps everywhere, and they rarely +do harm." + +"I wonder a little at your venturing here in the wood-paths, after what +occurred last night." + +"Why, Captain Armitage, no one would harm me here, so close to the +church. Indeed, I never thought of such a thing until you mentioned it. +Did you discover anything about the man?" + +"Nothing definite; but I must be at the station again to meet the +up-train, and have to see the colonel meantime. Let me find Dobbin, or +whatever they call this venerable relic I'm riding, and then I'll escort +you home." + +But Dobbin had strayed deeper into the wood. It was some minutes before +the captain could find and catch him. The rich melody of sacred music +was again thrilling through the perfumed woods, the glad sunshine was +pouring its warmth and blessing over all the earth, glinting on bluff +and brake and palisaded cliff, the birds were all singing their +rivalling psaltery, and Nature seemed pouring forth its homage to the +Creator and Preserver of all on this His holy day, when Frank Armitage +once more reached the bowered lane where, fairest, sweetest sight of +all, his lady stood waiting him. She turned to him as she heard the +hoof-beat on the turf, and smiled. + +"Can we wait and hear that hymn through?" + +"Ay. Sing it." + +She looked suddenly in his face. Something in the very tone in which he +spoke startled her,--something deeper, more fervent, than she had ever +heard before,--and the expression in the steady, deep-blue eyes was +another revelation. Alice Renwick had a woman's intuition, and yet she +had not known this man a day. The color again mounted to her temples, +and her eyes fell after one quick glance. + +"I heard you joining in the Te Deum," he urged. "Sing once more: I love +it. There, they are just beginning again. Do you know the words?" + +She nodded, then raised her head, and her glad young voice carolled +through the listening woods: + + "Holy, holy, holy! All + Heaven's triumphant choir shall sing, + When the ransomed nations fall + At the footstool of their King: + Then shall saints and seraphim, + Hearts and voices, swell one hymn + Round the throne with full accord, + Holy, holy, holy Lord!" + +There was silence when the music ceased. She had turned her face towards +the church, and, as the melody died away in one prolonged, triumphant +chord, she still stood in reverent attitude, as though listening for the +words of benediction. He, too, was silent, but his eyes were fixed on +her. He was thirty-five, she not twenty. He had lived his soldier life +wifeless, but, like other soldiers, his heart had had its rubs and aches +in the days gone by. Years before he had thought life a black void when +the girl he fancied while yet he wore the Academic gray calmly told him +she preferred another. Nor had the intervening years been devoid of +their occasional yearnings for a mate of his own in the isolation of the +frontier or the monotony of garrison life; but flitting fancies had left +no trace upon his strong heart. The love of his life only dawned upon +him at this late day when he looked into her glorious eyes and his whole +soul went out in passionate worship of the fair girl whose presence +made that sunlit lane a heaven. Were he to live a thousand years, no +scene on earth could rival in his eyes the love-haunted woodland pathway +wherein like forest queen she stood, the sunshine and leafy shadows +dancing over her graceful form, the golden-rod enhancing her dark and +glowing beauty, the sacred influences of the day throwing their mystic +charm about her as though angels guarded and shielded her from harm. His +life had reached its climax; his fate was sealed; his heart and soul +were centred in one sweet girl,--and all in one brief hour in the +woodland lane at Sablon. + +She could not fail to see the deep emotion in his eyes as at last she +turned to break the silence. + +"Shall we go?" she said, simply. + +"It is time; but I wish we could remain." + +"You do not go to church very often at Sibley, do you?" + +"I have not, heretofore; but you would teach me to worship." "You _have_ +taught me," he muttered below his breath, as he extended a hand to +assist her down the sloping bank towards the avenue. She looked up +quickly once more, pleased, yet shy, and shifted her great bunch of +golden-rod so that she could lay her hand in his and lean upon its +steady strength down the incline; and so, hand in hand, with old Dobbin +ambling placidly behind, they passed out from the shaded pathway to the +glow and radiance of the sunlit road. + + + + +XII. + + +"Colonel Maynard, I admit everything you say as to the weight of the +evidence," said Frank Armitage, twenty minutes later, "but it is my +faith--understand me: my _faith_, I say--that she is utterly innocent. +As for that damnable letter, I do not believe it was ever written to +her. It is some other woman." + +"What other is there, or was there?" was the colonel's simple reply. + +"That is what I mean to find out. Will you have my baggage sent after me +to-night? I am going at once to the station, and thence to Sibley. I +will write you from there. If the midnight visitor should prove to have +been Jerrold, he can be made to explain. I have always held him to be a +conceited fop, but never either crack-brained or devoid of principle. +There is no time for explanation _now_. Good-by; and keep a good +lookout. That fellow may be here again." + +And in an hour more Armitage was skimming along the winding river-side +_en route_ to Sibley. He had searched the train from pilot to rear +platform, and no man who in the faintest degree resembled Mr. Jerrold +was on board. He had wired to Chester that he would reach the fort that +evening, but would not resume duty for a few days. He made another +search through the train as they neared the city, and still there was no +one who in stature or appearance corresponded with the descriptions +given him of the sinewy visitor. + +Late in the afternoon Chester received him as he alighted from the train +at the little station under the cliff. It was a beautiful day, and +numbers of people were driving or riding out to the fort, and the high +bridge over the gorge was constantly resounding to the thunder of hoofs. +Many others, too, had come out on the train; for the evening +dress-parade always attracted a swarm of visitors. A corporal of the +guard, with a couple of men, was on hand to keep vigilant eye on the +arrivals and to persuade certain proscribed parties to re-enter the cars +and go on, should they attempt to revisit the post, and the faces of +these were lighted up as they saw their old adjutant; but none others of +the garrison appeared. + +"Let us wait a moment and get these people out of the way," said +Armitage. "I want to talk with you. Is Jerrold back?" + +"Yes. He came in just ten minutes after I telegraphed to you, was +present at inspection, and if it had not been for your despatch this +morning I should not have known he had remained out of quarters. He +appeared to resent my having been to his quarters,--calls it spying, I +presume." + +"What permission had he to be away?" + +"I gave him leave to visit town on personal business yesterday +afternoon. He merely asked to be away a few hours to meet friends in +town, and Mr. Hall took tattoo roll-call for him. As I do not require +any other officer to report the time of his return, I did not exact it +of him; but of course no man can be away after midnight without special +permission, and he was gone all night. What is it, Armitage? Has he +followed her down there?" + +"Somebody was there last night and capsized the colonel pretty much as +he did you the night of the ladder episode," said Armitage, coolly. + +"By heaven! and I let him go!" + +"How do you know 'twas he?" + +"Who else could it be, Armitage?" + +"That's what the colonel asks; but it isn't clear to me yet awhile." + +"I wish it were less clear to me," said Chester, gloomily. "The worst +is that the story is spreading like a pestilence all over the post. The +women have got hold of it, and there is all manner of talk. I shouldn't +be surprised if Mrs. Hoyt had to be taken violently ill. She has written +to invite Miss Renwick to visit her, as it is certain that Colonel and +Mrs. Maynard cannot come, and Hoyt came to me in a horror of amaze +yesterday to know if there were any truth in the rumor that I had caught +a man coming out of Mrs. Maynard's window the other night. I would tell +him nothing, and he says the ladies declare they won't go to the german +if _she_ does. Heavens! I'm thankful you are come. The thing has been +driving me wild these last twelve hours. I wanted to go away myself. +_Is_ she coming up?" + +"No, she isn't; but let me say this, Chester: that whenever she is ready +to return I shall be ready to escort her." + +Chester looked at his friend in amazement, and without speaking. + +"Yes, I see you are astonished, but you may as well understand the +situation. I have heard all the colonel could tell, and have even seen +the letter, and since she left here a mysterious stranger has appeared +by night at Sablon, at the cottage window, though it happened to be her +mother's this time, and I don't believe Alice Renwick knows the first +thing about it." + +"Armitage, are you in love?" + +"Chester, I am in my sound senses. Now come and show me the ladder, and +where you found it, and tell me the whole story over again. I think it +grows interesting. One moment: has he that picture yet?" + +"I suppose so. I don't know. In these last few days everybody is +fighting shy of him. He thinks it is my doing, and looks black and sulky +at me, but is too proud or too much afraid of consequences to ask the +reason of the cold shoulders and averted looks. Gray has taken seven +days' leave and gone off with that little girl of his to place her with +relatives in the East. He has heard the stories, and it is presumed that +some of the women have told her. She was down sick here a day or two." + +"Well, now for the window and the ladder. I want to see the outside +through your eyes, and then I will view the interior with my own. The +colonel bids me do so." + +Together they slowly climbed the long stairway leading up the face of +the cliff. Chester stopped for a breathing-spell more than once. + +"You're all out of condition, man," said the younger captain, pausing +impatiently. "What has undone you?" + +"This trouble, and nothing else. By gad! it has unstrung the whole +garrison, I believe. You never saw our people fall off so in their +shooting. Of course we expected Jerrold to go to pieces, but nobody +else." + +"There were others that seemed to fall away, too. Where was that +cavalry-team that was expected to take the skirmish medal away from us?" + +"Sound as a dollar, every man, with the single exception of their big +sergeant. I don't like to make ugly comparisons to a man whom I believe +to be more than half interested in a woman, but it makes me think of the +old story about Medusa. One look at her face is too much for a man. That +Sergeant McLeod went to grass the instant he caught sight of her, and +never has picked up since." + +"Consider me considerably more than half interested in the woman in this +case, Chester: make all the comparisons that you like, provided they +illumine matters as you are doing now, and tell me more of this Sergeant +McLeod. What do you mean by his catching sight of her and going to +grass?" + +"I mean he fell flat on his face the moment he saw her, and hasn't been +in good form from that moment to this. The doctor says it's +heart-disease." + +"That's what the colonel says troubles Mrs. Maynard. She was senseless +and almost pulseless some minutes last night. What manner of man is +McLeod?" + +"A tall, slim, dark-eyed, swarthy fellow,--a man with a history and a +mystery, I judge." + +"A man with a history,--a mystery,--who is tall, slim, has dark eyes and +swarthy complexion, and faints away at sight of Miss Renwick, might be +said to possess peculiar characteristics,--family traits, some of them. +Of course you've kept an eye on McLeod. Where is he?" + +Chester stood leaning on the rail, breathing slowly and heavily. His +eyes dilated as he gazed at Armitage, who was surveying him coolly, +though the tone in which he spoke betrayed a new interest and a vivid +one. + +"I confess I never thought of him in connection with this affair," said +Chester. + +"There's the one essential point of difference between us," was the +reply. "You go in on the supposition that there is only one solution to +this thing, and that a woman must be dishonored to begin with. I believe +there can be several solutions, and that there is only one thing in the +lot that is at all impossible." + +"What's that?" + +"Miss Renwick's knowledge of that night's visitor, or of any other +secret or sin. I mean to work other theories first; and the McLeod trail +is a good one to start on. Where can I get a look at him?" + +"Somewhere out in the Rockies by this time. He was ordered back to his +troop five days ago, and they are out scouting at this moment, unless +I'm vastly mistaken. You have seen the morning despatches?" + +"About the Indians? Yes. Looks squally at the Spirit Rock reservation. +Do you mean that McLeod is there?" + +"That's where his troop ought to be by this time. There is too small a +force on the trail now, and more will have to go if a big outbreak is to +be prevented." + +"Then he has gone, and I cannot see him. Let me look at the window, +then." + +A few steps brought them to the terrace, and there, standing by the west +wall and looking up at the closed slats of the dormer-window, Captain +Chester retold the story of his night-adventure. Armitage listened +attentively, asking few questions. When it was finished, the latter +turned and walked to the rear door, which opened on the terrace. It was +locked. + +"The servants are having a holiday, I presume," he said. "So much the +better. Ask the quartermaster for the key of the front door, and I'll go +in while everybody is out looking at dress-parade. There goes first call +now. Let your orderly bring it to me here, will you?" + +Ten minutes later, with beating heart, he stood and uncovered his +handsome head and gazed silently, reverently around him. He was in her +room. + +It was dainty as her own dainty self. The dressing-table, the windows, +the pretty little white bed, the broad, inviting lounge, the work-table +and basket, the very wash-stand, were all trimmed and decked +alike,--white and yellow prevailing. White lace curtains draped the +window on the west--that fateful window--and the two that opened out on +the roof of the piazza. White lace curtains draped the bed, the +dressing-table, and the wash-stand; white lace, or some equally flimsy +and feminine material, hung about her book-shelves and work-table and +over the lounge; and bows of bright yellow ribbon were everywhere, +yellow pin-cushions and wall-pockets hung about the toilet-table, soft +yellow rugs lay at the bed-and lounge-side, and a sunshiny tone was +given to the whole apartment by the shades of yellow silk that hung +close to the windows. + +On the wall were some choice etchings and a few foreign photographs. On +the book-shelves were a few volumes of poetry, and the prose of George +Eliot and our own Hawthorne. Hanging on pegs in the corner of the simple +army room, covered by a curtain, were some heavy outer-garments,--an +ulster, a travelling coat and cape of English make, and one or two +dresses that were apparently too thick to be used at this season of the +year. He drew aside the curtain one moment, took a brief glance at the +garments, raised the hem of a skirt to his lips, and turned quickly +away. A door led from the room to the one behind it,--a spare bedroom, +evidently, that was lighted only from the back of the house and had no +side-window at all. Another door led to the hall, a broad, old-fashioned +affair, and crossing this he stood in the big front room occupied by the +colonel and his wife. This was furnished almost as luxuriously (from an +army point of view) as that of Miss Renwick, but not in white and +yellow. Armitage smiled to see the evidences of Mrs. Maynard's taste and +handiwork on every side. In the years he had been the old soldier's +adjutant nothing could have exceeded the simplicity with which the +colonel surrounded himself. Now it was something akin to Sybaritish +elegance, thought the captain; but all the same he made his deliberate +survey. There was the big dressing-table and bureau on which had stood +that ravished picture,--that photograph of the girl he loved which +others were able to speak of, and one man to appropriate feloniously, +while yet he had never seen it. His impulse was to go to Jerrold's +quarters and take him by the throat and demand it of him; but what right +had he? How knew he, even, that it was now there? In view of the words +that Chester had used towards him, Jerrold must know of the grievous +danger in which he stood. That photograph would prove most damaging +evidence if discovered. Very probably, after yielding to his vanity and +showing it to Sloat he meant to get it back. Very certainly, after +hearing Chester's words he must have determined to lose no time in +getting rid of it. He was no fool, if he was a coxcomb. + +Looking around the half-darkened room, Armitage lingered long over the +photographs which hung about the dressing-table and over the +mantel,--several prettily-framed duplicates of those already described +as appearing in the album. One after another he took them in his hands, +bore them to the window, and studied them attentively: some were not +replaced without a long, lingering kiss. He had not ventured to disturb +an item in her room. He would not touch the knob of a drawer or attempt +to open anything she had closed, but here in quarters where his colonel +could claim joint partnership he felt less sentiment or delicacy. He +closed the hall door and tried the lock, turning the knob to and fro. +Then he reopened the door and swung it upon its hinges. For a wonder, +neither lock nor hinges creaked. The door worked smoothly and with +little noise. Then he similarly tried the door of her room. It was in +equally good working order,--quite free from the squeak and complaint +with which quartermasters' locks and hinges are apt to do their +reluctant duty. The discovery pleased him. It was possible for one to +open and close these portals noiselessly, if need be, and without +disturbing sleepers in either room. Returning to the east chamber, he +opened the shades, so as to get more light, and his eye fell upon an old +album lying on a little table that stood by the bedside. There was a +night-lamp upon the table, too,--a little affair that could hold only a +thimbleful of oil and was intended, evidently, to keep merely a faint +glow during the night hours. Other volumes--a Bible, some devotional +books, like "The Changed Cross," and a Hymnal or two--were also there; +but the album stood most prominent, and Armitage curiously took it up +and opened it. + +There were only half a dozen photographs in the affair. It was rather a +case than an album, and was intended apparently for only a few family +pictures. There was but one that interested him, and this he examined +intently, almost excitedly. It represented a little girl of nine or ten +years,--Alice, undoubtedly,--with her arms clasped about the neck of a +magnificent St. Bernard dog and looking up into the handsome features of +a tall, slender, dark-eyed, black-haired boy of sixteen or thereabouts; +and the two were enough alike to be brother and sister. Who, then, was +this boy? + +Armitage took the photograph to the window and studied it carefully. +Parade was over, and the troops were marching back to their quarters. +The band was playing gloriously as it came tramping into the quadrangle, +and the captain could not but glance out at his own old company as in +compact column of fours it entered the grassy diamond and swung off +towards the barracks. He saw a knot of officers, too, turning the corner +by the adjutant's office, and for a moment he lowered the album to look. +Mr. Jerrold was not of the number that came sauntering up the walk, +dropping away by ones or twos as they reached their doors and unbuckled +their belts or removed their helmets in eager haste to get out of the +constraint of full dress. But in another moment Jerrold, too, appeared, +all alone, walking rapidly and nervously. Armitage watched him, and +could not but see how other men turned away or gave him the coolest +possible nod as he passed. The tall, slender lieutenant was handsomer +even than when he last saw him; and yet there was gloom and worry on the +dark beauty of his face. Nearer and nearer he came, and had passed the +quarters of the other officers and was almost at the door of his own, +when Armitage saw a little, wiry soldier in full dress uniform running +across the parade as though in pursuit. He recognized Merrick, one of +the scapegraces of his company, and wondered why he should be chasing +after his temporary commander. Just as Jerrold was turning under the +piazza the soldier seemed to make himself heard, and the lieutenant, +with an angry frown on his face, stopped and confronted him. + +"I told you not to come to me again," he said, so loud that every word +was audible to the captain standing by the open window above. "What do +you mean, sir, by following me in this way?" + +The reply was inaudible. Armitage could see the little soldier standing +in the respectful position of "attention," looking up and evidently +pleading. + +"I won't do it until I'm ready," was again heard in Jerrold's angry +tones, though this time the lieutenant glanced about, as though to see +if others were within earshot. There was no one, apparently, and he grew +more confident. "You've been drinking again to-day, Merrick; you're not +sober now; and I won't give you money to get maudlin and go to blabbing +secrets on. No, sir! Go back to your quarters, and stay there." + +The little soldier must indeed have been drinking, as the lieutenant +declared. Armitage saw that he hesitated, instead of obeying at once, +and that his flushed face was angrily working, then that he was arguing +with his superior and talking louder. This was contrary to all the +captain's ideas of proper discipline, even though he was indignant at +the officer for permitting himself to be placed in so false and +undignified a position. Jerrold's words, too, had acquired a wide +significance; but they were feeble as compared with the sudden outburst +that came from the soldier's lips: + +"By God, lieutenant, you bribed me to silence to cover your tracks, and +then you refuse to pay. If you don't want me to tell what I know, the +sooner you pay that money the better." + +This was more than Armitage could stand. He went down-stairs three at a +jump and out through the colonel's garden with quick, impetuous steps. +Jerrold's furious face turned ashen at the sight, and Merrick, with one +amazed and frightened look at his captain, faced about and slunk +silently away. To him Armitage paid no further attention. It was to the +officer he addressed himself: + +"Mr. Jerrold, I have heard pretty much all this conversation. It simply +adds to the evil report with which you have managed to surround +yourself. Step into your quarters. I must see you alone." + +Jerrold hesitated. He was thunderstruck by the sudden appearance of the +captain whom he had believed to be hundreds of miles away. He connected +his return unerringly with the web of trouble which had been weaving +about him of late. He conceived himself to have been most unjustly spied +upon and suspected, and was full of resentment at the conduct of Captain +Chester. But Chester was an old granny, who sometimes made blunders and +had to back down. It was a different thing when Armitage took hold. +Jerrold looked sulkily into the clear, stern, blue eyes a moment, and +the first impulse of rebellion wilted. He gave one irresolute glance +around the quadrangle, then motioned with his hand to the open door. +Something of the old, jaunty, Creole lightness of manner reasserted +itself. + +"After you, captain," he said. + + + + +XIII. + + +Once within-doors, it was too dark for Armitage to see the features of +his lieutenant; and he had his own reasons for desiring to read them. +Mr. Jerrold, on the other hand, seemed disposed to keep in the shadows +as much as possible. He made no movement to open the shutters of the one +window which admitted light from the front, and walked back to his +bedroom door, glanced in there as though to see that there were no +occupants, then carefully closed it as he returned to face his captain. +He took off his helmet and placed it on the centre-table, then, +thrusting his thumbs inside the handsome, gold-broidered sword-belt, +stood in a jaunty attitude but with a very uneasy look in his eyes to +hear what his senior might have to say. Between the two men an +invitation to sit would have been a superfluity. Neither had ever +remained long enough in the other's quarters, since the exchange of the +first calls when Jerrold came to the garrison, to render a chair at all +necessary. + +"Be good enough to strike a light, Mr. Jerrold," said Armitage, +presently, seeing that his unwilling host made no effort on his own +account. + +"I proposed going out at once, captain, and presume you cannot have any +very extended remarks to make." + +"You cannot see the writing I have to call your attention to without a +light. I shall detain you no longer than is necessary. Had you an +engagement?" + +"Nothing of great consequence. I presume it will keep." + +"It will have to. The matter I have come upon will admit no further +delay. Light your lamp, if you please." + +And Jerrold did so, slowly and with much reluctance. He wiped his +forehead vigorously the instant the flame began to splutter, but as the +clear, steady light of the argand gradually spread over the little room +Armitage could see the sweat again beading his forehead, and the dark +eyes were glancing nervously about, and the hands that were so firm and +steady and fine the year before and held the Springfield in so light yet +immovable an aim were twitching now. It was no wonder Jerrold's score +had dropped some thirty per cent. His nerve had gone to pieces. + +Armitage stood and watched him a moment. Then he slowly spoke: + +"I have no desire to allude to the subject of your conversation with +Merrick. It was to put an end to such a thing--not to avail myself of +any information it might give--that I hurried in. We will put that aside +and go at once to the matter that brings me back. You are aware, of +course, that your conduct has compromised a woman's name, and that the +garrison is talking of nothing else." + +Jerrold grasped the back of a chair with one slender brown hand, and +looked furtively about as though for some hope of escape. Something like +a startled gulp seemed to work his throat-muscles an instant; then he +stammered his reply: + +"I don't know what you mean." + +"You _do_ know what I mean. Captain Chester has already told you." + +"Captain Chester came in here and made an unauthorized inspection of my +quarters because he heard a shot fired by a sentry. I was out: I don't +deny that. But he proceeded to say all manner of insulting and +unwarrantable things, and tried to force me to hand in a resignation, +simply because I was out of quarters after taps. I could account for +_his_ doing something so idiotic, but I'm at a loss to comprehend your +taking it up." + +"The most serious allegation ever made against an officer of the +regiment is made against you, the senior lieutenant of my company, and +the evidence furnished me by the colonel and by Captain Chester is of +such a character that, unless you can refute it and clear her name, you +will have a settlement with me to start with, and your dismissal from +the regiment--" + +"Settlement with you? What concern have you in the matter?" interrupted +Jerrold. + +"Waste no words on that, Mr. Jerrold. Understand that where her name is +concerned no man on earth is more interested than I. Now answer me. You +were absent from your quarters for some hours after the doctor's party. +Somebody believed to have been you was seen and fired at for refusing to +halt at the order of Captain Chester at 3.30 in the morning. The ladder +that usually hung at your fence was found at the colonel's while you +were out, and that night a woman's name was compromised beyond repair +unless you can repair it. Unless you prove beyond peradventure where you +were both that night and last night,--prove beyond question that you +were not where you are believed to have been,--her name is stained and +yours blackened forever. There are other things you must fully explain; +but these first." + +Jerrold's face was growing gray and sickly. He stared at the stern eyes +before him, and could make no answer. His lips moved dryly, but made no +sound. + +"Come, I want to hear from you. Where were you, if not with, or seeking, +her? Name your place and witnesses." + +"By God, Captain Armitage, the army is no longer a place for a +gentleman, if his every movement is to be spied upon like this!" + +"The world is no place for a man of your stamp, is perhaps a better way +of putting it," said Armitage, whose fingers were twitching +convulsively, and whose whole frame quivered with the effort he was +making to restrain the rage and indignation that consumed him. He could +not--he would not--believe in her guilt. He must have this man's proof, +no matter how it might damn _him_ for good and all, no matter whom else +it might involve, so long as it cleared her precious name. He must be +patient, he must be calm and resolute; but the man's cold-blooded, +selfish, criminal concealment nearly maddened him. With infinite effort +he controlled himself, and went on: + +"But it is of her I'm thinking, not of you. It is the name you have +compromised and can clear, and should clear, even at the expense of your +own,--in fact, Mr. Jerrold, _must_ clear. Now will you tell me where you +were and how you can prove it?" + +"I decline to say. I won't be cross-questioned by men who have no +authority. Captain Chester said he would refer it to the colonel; and +when _he_ asks I will answer,--not until then." + +"I ask in his name. I am authorized by him, for he is not well enough to +meet the ordeal." + +"You say so, and I don't mean to dispute your word, Captain Armitage, +but I have a right to demand some proof. How am I to know he authorized +you?" + +"He himself gave me this letter, in your handwriting," said Armitage; +and, opening the long envelope, he held forth the missive over which the +poor old colonel had gone nearly wild. "He found it the morning they +left,--in her garden." + +If Jerrold's face had been gray before, it was simply ghastly now. He +recoiled from the sight after one fruitless effort to grasp the letter, +then rallied with unlooked-for spirit: + +"By heaven, Armitage, suppose I _did_ write that letter? What does it +prove but what I say,--that somebody has been prying and spying into my +affairs? How came the colonel by it, if not by fraud or treachery?" + +"He picked it up in the garden, I tell you,--among the rose-bushes, +where she--where Miss Renwick had been but a few moments before, and +where it might appear that she had dropped it." + +"_She!_ That letter! What had she to do with it? What right had she to +read it?" + +Armitage stepped impulsively forward. A glad, glorious light was +bursting upon his soul. He could almost have seized Jerrold's hand and +thanked him; but proofs--proofs were what he needed. It was not his mind +that was to be convinced, it was "society" that must be satisfied of her +utter innocence, that it might be enabled to say, "Well, I never for a +moment believed a word of it." Link by link the chain of circumstantial +evidence must be destroyed, and this was only one. + +"You mean that that letter was not intended for Miss Renwick?" he asked, +with eagerness he strove hard to repress. + +"It was never meant for anybody," said Jerrold, the color coming back to +his face and courage to his eyes. "That letter was never sent by me to +any woman. It's my writing, of course, I can't deny that; but I never +even meant it to go. If it left that desk it must have been stolen. I've +been hunting high and low for it. I knew that such a thing lying around +loose would be the cause of mischief. God! is _that_ what all this fuss +is about?" And he looked warily, yet with infinite anxiety, into his +captain's eyes. + +"There is far more to it, as you well know, sir," was the stern answer. +"For whom was this written, if not for her? It won't do to _half_ clear +her name." + +"Answer me this, Captain Armitage. Do you mean that that letter has +compromised Miss Renwick?--that it is she whose name has been involved, +and that it was of her that Chester meant to speak?" + +"Certainly it was,--and I too." + +There was an instant's silence; then Jerrold began to laugh nervously: + +"Oh, well, I fancy it isn't the first time the revered and respected +captain has got away off the track. All the same I do not mean to +overlook his language to me; and I may say right now, Captain Armitage, +that yours, too, calls for explanation." + +"You shall have it in short order, Mr. Jerrold, and the sooner you +understand the situation the better. So far as I am concerned, Miss +Renwick needed no defender; but, thanks to your mysterious and +unwarranted absence from quarters two very unlucky nights, and to other +circumstances I have no need to name, and to your _penchant_ for +letter-writing of a most suggestive character, it _is_ Miss Renwick +whose name has been brought into question here at this post, and most +prominently so. In plain words, Mr. Jerrold, you who brought this +trouble upon her by your own misconduct must clear her, no matter at +whose expense, or--" + +"Or what?" + +"I make no threats. I prefer that you should make the proper +explanations from a proper sense of what is due." + +"And suppose I say that no man is called upon to explain a situation +which has been distorted and misrepresented by the evil imagination of +his fellows?" + +"Then I may have to wring the truth out of you,--and _will_; but, for +her sake, I want as little publicity as possible. After this display on +your part, I am not bound to show you any consideration whatever. +Understand this, however: the array of evidence that you were +feloniously inside Colonel Maynard's quarters that night and at his +cottage window last night is of such a character that a court would +convict you unless your _alibi_ was conclusive. Leave the service you +certainly shall, unless this whole thing is cleared up." + +"I never was anywhere near Colonel Maynard's either last night or the +other night I was absent." + +"You will have to prove it. Mere denials won't help you in the face of +such evidence as we have that you were there the first time." + +"What evidence?" + +"The photograph that was stolen from Mrs. Maynard between two and four +o'clock that morning was seen in your drawer by Major Sloat at reveille. +You were fool enough to show it to him." + +"Captain Armitage, I shall be quite able to show, when the proper time +comes, that the photograph I showed Major Sloat was _not_ stolen: it was +given me." + +"That is beyond belief, Mr. Jerrold. Once and for all, understand this +case. You have compromised her good name by the very mystery of your +actions. You have it in your power to clear her by proving where you +were, since you were not near her,--by showing how you got that +photograph,--by explaining how you came to write so strange a letter. +Now I say to you, will you do it, instantly, or must we wring it from +you?" + +A sneering smile was the only answer for a moment; then,-- + +"I shall take great pleasure in confounding my enemies should the matter +be brought before a court,--I'm sure if the colonel can stand that sort +of thing I can,--but as for defending myself or anybody else from +utterly unjust and proofless suspicions, it's quite another thing." + +"Good God, Jerrold! do you realize what a position you are taking? Do +you--" + +"Oh, not at all, captain," was the airy reply, "not at all. It is not a +position I have taken: it is one into which you misguided conspirators +have forced me. I certainly am not required to compromise anybody else +in order to relieve a suspicion which you, not I, have created. How do +you know that there may not be some other woman whose name I propose to +guard? You have been really very flattering in your theories so far." + +Armitage could bear no more. The airy conceit and insolence of the man +overcame all self-restraint and resolution. With one bound he was at his +throat, his strong white hands grasping him in a sudden, vice-like grip, +then hurling him with stunning, thundering force to the floor. Down, +headlong, went the tall lieutenant, his sword clattering by his side, +his slim brown hands clutching wildly at anything that might bear him +up, and dragging with him in his catastrophe a rack of hunting-pouches, +antlers, and one heavy double-barrelled shot-gun. All came tumbling down +about the struggling form, and Armitage, glaring down at him with +clinching fists and rasping teeth, had only time to utter one deep-drawn +malediction when he noted that the struggles ceased and Jerrold lay +quite still. Then the blood began to ooze from a jagged cut near the +temple, and it was evident that the hammer of the gun had struck him. + +Another moment, and the door opened, and with anxious face Chester +strode into the room. "You haven't killed him, Armitage? Is it as bad as +that?" + +"Pick him up, and we'll get him on the bed. He's only stunned. I didn't +even hit him. Those things tumbled afterwards," said Armitage, as +between them they raised the dead weight of the slender Adonis in their +arms and bore him to the bedroom. Here they bathed the wound with cold +water and removed the uniform coat, and presently the lieutenant began +to revive and look about him. + +"Who struck me?" he faintly asked. + +"Your shot-gun fell on your head, but I threw you down, Jerrold. I'm +sorry I touched you, but you're lucky it was no worse. This thing is +going to raise a big bump here. Shall I send the doctor?" + +"No. I'll come round presently. We'll see about this thing afterwards." + +"Is there any friend you want to see? Shall I send word to anybody?" +asked Chester. + +"No. Don't let anybody come. Tell my striker to bring my breakfast; but +I want nothing to-night but to be let alone." + +"At least you will let me help you undress and get to bed?" said +Chester. + +"No. I wish you'd go,--both of you. I want quiet,--peace,--and there's +none of it with either of you." + +And so they left him. Later Captain Chester had gone to the quarters, +and, after much parleying from without, had gained admission. Jerrold's +head was bound in a bandage wet with arnica and water. He had been +solacing himself with a pipe and a whiskey toddy, and was in a not +unnaturally ugly mood. + +"You may consider yourself excused from duty until your face is well +again, by which time this matter will be decided. I admonish you to +remain here and not leave the post until it is." + +"You can prefer charges and see what you'll make of it," was the +vehement reply. "Devil a bit will I help you out of the thing, after +this night's work." + + + + +XIV. + + +Tuesday, and the day of the long-projected german had come; and if ever +a lot of garrison-people were wishing themselves well out of a flurry it +was the social circle at Sibley. Invitations had been sent to all the +prominent people in town who had shown any interest in the garrison +since the regiment's arrival; beautiful favors had been procured; an +elaborate supper had been prepared,--the ladies contributing their +efforts to the salads and other solids, the officers wisely confining +their donations to the wines. It was rumored that new and original +figures were to be danced, and much had been said about this feature in +town, and much speculation had been indulged in; but the Beaubien +residence had been closed until the previous day, Nina was away with her +mother and beyond reach of question, and Mr. Jerrold had not shown his +face in town since her departure. Nor was he accessible when visitors +inquired at the fort. They had never known such mysterious army people +in their lives. What on earth could induce them to be so close-mouthed +about a mere german? one might suppose they had something worth +concealing; and presently it became noised abroad that there was genuine +cause for perplexity, and possibly worse. + +To begin with, every one at Sibley now knew something of the night +adventure at the colonel's, and, as no one could give the true statement +of the case, the stories in circulation were gorgeous embellishments of +the actual facts. It would be useless, even if advisable, to attempt to +reproduce these wild theories, but never was army garrison so +tumultuously stirred by the whirlwind of rumor. It was no longer denied +for an instant that the absence of the colonel and his household was the +direct result of that night's discoveries; and when, to Mrs. Hoyt's +inexpressible relief, there came a prettily-worded note from Alice on +Monday evening informing her that neither the colonel nor her mother +felt well enough to return to Sibley for the german, and that she +herself preferred not to leave her mother at a time when she needed her +care, Mrs. Hoyt and her intimates, with whom she instantly conferred, +decided that there could be no doubt whatever that the colonel knew of +the affair, had forbidden their return, and was only waiting for further +evidence to decide what was to be done with his erring step-daughter. +Women talked with bated breath of the latest stories in circulation, of +Chester's moody silence and preoccupation, of Jerrold's ostracism, and +of Frank Armitage's sudden return. + +On Monday morning the captain had quietly appeared in uniform at the +office, and it was known that he had relinquished the remainder of his +leave of absence and resumed command of his company. There were men in +the garrison who well knew that it was because of the mystery +overhanging the colonel's household that Armitage had so suddenly +returned. They asked no questions and sought no explanation. All men +marked, however, that Jerrold was not at the office on Monday, and many +curiously looked at the morning report in the adjutant's office. No, he +was not in arrest; neither was he on sick-report. He was marked present +for duty, and yet he was not at the customary assembly of all the +commissioned officers at head-quarters. More mystery, and most +exasperating, too, it was known that Armitage and Jerrold had held a +brief talk in the latter's quarters soon after Sunday's evening parade, +and that the former had been reinforced for a time by Captain Chester, +with whom he was afterwards closeted. Officers who heard that he had +suddenly returned and was at Chester's went speedily to the latter's +quarters,--at least two or three did,--and were met by a servant at the +door, who said that the gentlemen had just gone out the back way. And, +sure enough, neither Chester nor Armitage came home until long after +taps; and then the colonel's cook told several people that the two +gentlemen had spent over an hour up-stairs in the colonel's and Miss +Alice's room and "was foolin' around the house till near ten o'clock." + +Another thing that added to the flame of speculation and curiosity was +this. Two of the ladies, returning from a moonlit stroll on the terrace +just after tattoo, came through the narrow passage-way on the west side +of the colonel's quarters, and there, at the foot of the little flight +of steps leading up to the parade, they came suddenly upon Captain +Chester, who was evidently only moderately pleased to see them and +nervously anxious to expedite their onward movement. With the perversity +of both sexes, however, they stopped to chat and inquire what he was +doing there, and in the midst of it all a faint light gleamed on the +opposite wall and the reflection of the curtains in Alice Renwick's +window was distinctly visible. Then a sturdy masculine shadow appeared, +and there was a rustling above, and then, with exasperating, mysterious, +and epigrammatic terseness, a deep voice propounded the utterly +senseless question,-- + +"How's that?" + +To which, in great embarrassment, Chester replied,-- + +"Hold on a minute. I'm talking with some interested spectators." + +Whereat the shadow of the big man shot out of sight, and the ladies +found that it was useless to remain,--there would be no further +developments so long as they did; and so they came away, with many a +lingering backward look. "But the idea of asking such a fool question as +'How's that?' Why couldn't the man _say_ what he meant?" It was +gathered, however, that Armitage and Chester had been making some +experiments that bore in some measure on the mystery. And all this time +Mr. Jerrold was in his quarters, only a stone's-throw away. How +interested _he_ must have been! + +But, while the garrison was relieved at knowing that Alice Renwick would +not be on hand for the german and it was being fondly hoped she might +never return to the post, there was still another grievous +embarrassment. How about Mr. Jerrold? + +He had been asked to lead when the german was first projected, and had +accepted. That was fully two weeks before; and now--no one knew just +what ought to be done. It was known that Nina Beaubien had returned on +the previous day from a brief visit to the upper lakes, and that she had +a costume of ravishing beauty in which to carry desolation to the hearts +of the garrison belles in leading that german with Mr. Jerrold. Old +Madame Beaubien had been reluctant, said her city friends, to return at +all. She heartily disapproved of Mr. Jerrold, and was bitterly set +against Nina's growing infatuation for him. But Nina was headstrong and +determined: moreover, she was far more than a match for her mother's +vigilance, and it was known at Sibley that two or three times the girl +had been out at the fort with the Suttons and other friends when the +old lady believed her in quarters totally different. Cub Sutton had +confided to Captain Wilton that Madame Beaubien was in total ignorance +of the fact that there was to be a party at the doctor's the night he +had driven out with Nina and his sister, and that Nina had "pulled the +wool over her mother's eyes" and made her believe she was going to spend +the evening with friends in town, naming a family with whom the +Beaubiens were intimate. A long drive always made the old lady sleepy, +and, as she had accompanied Nina to the fort that afternoon, she went +early to bed, having secured her wild birdling, as she supposed, from +possibility of further meetings with Jerrold. For nearly a week, said +Cub, Madame Beaubien had dogged Nina so that she could not get a moment +with the man with whom she was evidently so smitten, and the girl was +almost at her wits' end with seeing the depth of his flirtation with +Alice Renwick and the knowledge that on the morrow her mother would +spirit her off to the cool breezes and blue waves of the great lake. Cub +said she so worked on Fanny's feelings that they put up the scheme +together and made him bring them out. Gad! if old Maman only found it +out there'd be no more germans for Nina. She'd ship her off to the good +Sisters at Creve-Coeur and slap her into a convent and leave all her +money to the Church. + +And yet, said city society, old Maman idolized her beautiful daughter +and could deny her no luxury or indulgence. She dressed her superbly, +though with a somewhat barbaric taste where Nina's own good sense and +Eastern teaching did not interfere. What she feared was that the girl +would fall in love with some adventurer, or--what was quite as bad--some +army man who would carry her darling away to Arizona or other +inaccessible spot. Her plan was that Nina should marry here--at +home--some one of the staid young merchant princes rising into +prominence in the Western metropolis, and from the very outset Nina had +shown a singular infatuation for the buttons and straps and music and +heaven-knows-what-all out at the fort. She gloried in seeing her +daughter prominent in all scenes of social life. She rejoiced in her +triumphs, and took infinite pains with all preparations. She would have +set her foot against Nina's simply dancing the german at the fort with +Jerrold as a partner, but she could not resist it that the papers should +announce on Sunday morning that "the event of the season at Fort Sibley +was the german given last Tuesday night by the ladies of the garrison +and led by the lovely Miss Beaubien" with Lieutenant or Captain +Anybody. There were a dozen bright, graceful, winning women among the +dames and damsels at the fort, and Alice Renwick was a famous beauty by +this time. It was more than Maman Beaubien could withstand, that her +Nina should "lead" all these, and so her consent was won. Back they came +from Chequamegon, and the stately home on Summit Avenue reopened to +receive them. It was Monday noon when they returned, and by three +o'clock Fanny Sutton had told Nina Beaubien what she knew of the +wonderful rumors that were floating in from Sibley. She was more than +half disposed to be in love with Jerrold herself. She expected a proper +amount of womanly horror, incredulity, and indignation; but she was +totally unprepared for the outburst that followed. Nina was transformed +into a tragedy queen on the instant, and poor, simple-hearted, foolish +Fanny Sutton was almost scared out of her small wits by the fire of +denunciation and fury with which her story was greeted. She came home +with white, frightened face and hunted up Cub and told him that she had +been telling Nina some of the queer things the ladies had been saying +about Mr. Jerrold, and Nina almost tore her to pieces, and could he go +right out to the fort to see Mr. Jerrold? Nina wanted to send a note at +once; and if he couldn't go she had made her promise that she would get +somebody to go instantly and to come back and let her know before four +o'clock. Cub was always glad of an excuse to go out to the fort, but a +coldness had sprung up between him and Jerrold. He had heard the ugly +rumors in that mysterious way in which all such things are heard, and, +while his shallow pate could not quite conceive of such a monstrous +scandal and he did not believe half he heard, he sagely felt that in the +presence of so much smoke there was surely some fire, and avoided the +man from whom he had been inseparable. Of course he had not spoken to +him on the subject, and, singularly enough, this was the case with all +the officers at the post except Armitage and the commander. It was +understood that the matter was in Chester's hands, to do with as was +deemed best. It was believed that his resignation had been tendered; and +all these forty-eight hours since the story might be said to be fairly +before the public, Jerrold had been left much to himself, and was +presumably in the depths of dismay. + +One or two men, urged by their wives, who thought it was really time +something were done to let him understand he ought not to lead the +german, had gone to see him and been refused admission. Asked from +within what they wanted, the reply was somewhat difficult to frame, and +in both cases resolved itself into "Oh, about the german;" to which +Jerrold's voice was heard to say, "The german's all right. I'll lead if +I'm well enough and am not bothered to death meantime; but I've got some +private matters to attend to, and am not seeing anybody to-day." And +with this answer they were fain to be content. It had been settled, +however, that the officers were to tell Captain Chester at ten o'clock +that in their opinion Mr. Jerrold ought not to be permitted to attend so +long as this mysterious charge hung over him; and Mr. Rollins had been +notified that he must be ready to lead. + +Poor Rollins! He was in sore perplexity. He wanted nothing better than +to dance with Nina Beaubien. He wondered if she _would_ lead with him, +or would even come at all when she learned that Jerrold would be unable +to attend. "Sickness" was to be the ostensible cause, and in the youth +and innocence of his heart Rollins never supposed that Nina would hear +of all the other assignable reasons. He meant to ride in and call upon +her Monday evening; but, as ill luck would have it, old Sloat, who was +officer of the day, stepped on a round pebble as he was going down the +long flight to the railway-station, and sprained his ankle. Just at five +o'clock Rollins got orders to relieve him, and was returning from the +guard-house, when who should come driving in but Cub Sutton, and Cub +reined up and asked where he would be apt to find Mr. Jerrold. + +"He isn't well, and has been denying himself to all callers to-day," +said Rollins, shortly. + +"Well, I've got to see him, or at least get a note to him," said Cub. +"It's from Miss Beaubien, and requires an answer." + +"You know the way to his quarters, I presume," said Rollins, coldly: +"you have been there frequently. I will have a man hold your horse, or +you can tie him there at the rail, just as you please." + +"Thanks. I'll go over, I believe." And go he did, and poor Rollins was +unable to resist the temptation of watching whether the magic name of +Nina would open the door. It did not; but he saw Cub hand in the little +note through the shutters, and ere long there came another from within. +This Cub stowed in his waistcoat-pocket and drove off with, and Rollins +walked jealously homeward. But that evening he went through a worse +experience, and it was the last blow to his budding passion for +sparkling-eyed Nina. + +It was nearly tattoo, and a dark night, when Chester suddenly came in: + +"Rollins, you remember my telling you I was sure some of the men had +been getting liquor in from the shore down below the station and +'running it' that way? I believe we can nab the smuggler this evening. +There's a boat down there now. The corporal has just told me." + +Smuggling liquor was one of Chester's horrors. He surrounded the post +with a cordon of sentries who had no higher duty, apparently, than that +of preventing the entrance of alcohol in any form. He had run a +"red-cross" crusade against the post-trader's store in the matter of +light wines and small beer, claiming that only adulterated stuff was +sold to the men, and forbidding the sale of anything stronger than "pop" +over the trader's counter. Then, when it became apparent that liquor was +being brought on the reservation, he made vigorous efforts to break up +the practice. Colonel Maynard rather poohpoohed the whole business. It +was his theory that a man who was determined to have a drink might +better be allowed to take an honest one, _coram publico_, than a +smuggled and deleterious article; but he succumbed to the rule that only +"light wines and beer" should be sold at the store, and was lenient to +the poor devils who overloaded and deranged their stomachs in +consequence. But Chester no sooner found himself in command than he +launched into the crusade with redoubled energy, and spent hours of the +day and night trying to capture invaders of the reservation with a +bottle in their pockets. The bridge was guarded, so was the crossing of +the Cloudwater to the south, and so were the two roads entering from the +north and west; and yet there was liquor coming in, and, as though "to +give Chester a benefit," some of the men in barracks had a royal old +spree on Saturday night, and the captain was sorer-headed than any of +the participants in consequence. In some way he heard that a rowboat +came up at night and landed supplies of contraband down by the +river-side out of sight and hearing of the sentry at the +railway-station, and it was thither he hurriedly led Rollins this Monday +evening. + +They turned across the railway on reaching the bottom of the long +stairs, and scrambled down the rocky embankment on the other side, +Rollins following in reluctant silence and holding his sword so that it +would not rattle, but he had no faith in the theory of smugglers. He +felt in some vague and unsatisfactory way a sense of discomfort and +anxiety over his captain's late proceedings, and this stealthy descent +seemed fraught with ill omen. + +Once down in the flats, their footsteps made no noise in the yielding +sand, and all was silence save for the plash of the waters along the +shores. Far down the river were the reflections of one or two twinkling +lights, and close under the bank in the slack-water a few stars were +peeping at their own images, but no boat was there, and the captain led +still farther to a little copse of willow, and there, in the shadows, +sure enough, was a row-boat, with a little lantern dimly burning, half +hidden in the stern. + +Not only that, but as they halted at the edge of the willows the captain +put forth a warning hand and cautioned silence. No need. Rollins's +straining eyes were already fixed on two figures that were standing in +the shadows not ten feet away,--one that of a tall, slender man, the +other a young girl. It was a moment before Rollins could recognize +either; but in that moment the girl had turned suddenly, had thrown her +arms about the neck of the tall young man, and, with her head pillowed +on his breast, was gazing up in his face. + +"Kiss me once more, Howard. Then I must go," they heard her whisper. + +Rollins seized his captain's sleeve, and strove, sick at heart, to pull +him back; but Chester stoutly stood his ground. In the few seconds more +that they remained they saw his arms more closely enfold her. They saw +her turn at the brink, and, in an utter abandonment of rapturous, +passionate love, throw her arms again about his neck and stand on tiptoe +to reach his face with her warm lips. They could not fail to hear the +caressing tone of her every word, or to mark his receptive but gloomy +silence. They could not mistake the voice,--the form, shadowy though it +was. The girl was Nina Beaubien, and the man, beyond question, Howard +Jerrold. They saw him hand her into the light skiff and hurriedly kiss +her good-night. Once again, as though she could not leave him, her arms +were thrown about his neck and she clung to him with all her strength; +then the little boat swung slowly out into the stream, the sculls were +shipped, and with practised hand Nina Beaubien pulled forth into the +swirling waters of the river, and the faint light, like slowly-setting +star, floated downward with the sweeping tide and finally disappeared +beyond the point. + +Then Jerrold turned to leave, and Chester stepped forth and confronted +him: + +"Mr. Jerrold, did I not instruct you to confine yourself to your +quarters until satisfactory explanation was made of the absences with +which you are charged?" + +Jerrold started at the abrupt and unlooked-for greeting, but his answer +was prompt: + +"Not at all, sir. You gave me to understand that I was to remain +here--not to leave the post--until you had decided on certain points; +and, though I do not admit the justice of your course, and though you +have put me to grave inconvenience, I obeyed the order. I needed to go +to town to-day on urgent business, but, between you and Captain +Armitage, am in no condition to go. For all this, sir, there will come +proper retribution when my colonel returns. And now, sir, you are spying +upon me,--_spying_, I say,--and it only confirms what I said of you +before." + +"Silence, Mr. Jerrold! This is insubordination." + +"I don't care a damn what it is, sir! There is nothing contemptuous +enough for me to say of you or your conduct to me--" + +"Not another word, Mr. Jerrold! Go to your quarters in arrest.--Mr. +Rollins, you are witness to this language." + +But Rollins was not. Turning from the spot in blankness of heart before +a word was uttered between them, he followed the waning light with eyes +full of yearning and trouble; he trudged his way down along the sandy +shore until he came to the silent waters of the slough and could go no +farther; and then he sat him down and covered his face with his hands. +It was pretty hard to bear. + + + + +XV. + + +Tuesday still, and all manner of things had happened and were still to +happen in the hurrying hours that followed Sunday night. The garrison +woke at Tuesday's reveille in much perturbation of spirit, as has been +said, but by eight o'clock and breakfast-time one cause of perplexity +was at an end. Relief had come with Monday afternoon and Alice Renwick's +letter saying she would not attend the german, and now still greater +relief in the news that sped from mouth to mouth: Lieutenant Jerrold was +in close arrest. Armitage and Chester had been again in consultation +Monday night, said the gossips, and something new had been +discovered,--no one knew just what,--and the toils had settled upon +Jerrold's handsome head, and now he was to be tried. As usual in such +cases, the news came in through the kitchen, and most officers heard it +at the breakfast-table from the lips of their better halves, who could +hardly find words to express their sentiments as to the inability of +their lords to explain the new phase of the situation. When the first +sergeant of Company B came around to Captain Armitage with the +sick-book, soon after six in the morning, the captain briefly directed +him to transfer Lieutenant Jerrold on the morning report from present +for duty to "in arrest," and no sooner was it known at the quarters of +Company B than it began to work back to Officers' Row through the medium +of the servants and strikers. + +It was the sole topic of talk for a full hour. Many ladies who had +intended going to town by the early train almost perilled their chances +of catching the same in their eagerness to hear further details. + +But the shriek of the whistle far up the valley broke up the group that +was so busily chatting and speculating over in the quadrangle, and, with +shy yet curious eyes, the party of at least a dozen--matrons and maids, +wives or sisters of the officers--scurried past the darkened windows of +Mr. Jerrold's quarters, and through the mysterious passage west of the +colonel's silent house, and down the long stairs, just in time to catch +the train that whirled them away city-ward almost as soon as it had +disgorged the morning's mail. Chatting and laughing, and full of blithe +anticipation of the glories of the coming german, in preparation for +which most of their number had found it necessary to run in for just an +hour's shopping, they went jubilantly on their way. Shopping done, they +would all meet, take luncheon together at the "Woman's Exchange," return +to the post by the afternoon train, and have plenty of time for a little +nap before dressing for the german. Perhaps the most interesting +question now up for discussion was, who would lead with Mr. Rollins? The +train went puffing into the crowded depot: the ladies hastened forth, +and in a moment were on the street; cabs and carriages were passed in +disdain; a brisk walk of a block carried them to the main thoroughfare +and into the heart of the shopping district; a rush of hoofs and wheels +and pedestrians there encountered them, and the roar assailed their +sensitive and unaccustomed ears, yet high above it all pierced and +pealed the shrill voices of the newsboys darting here and there with +their eagerly-bought journals. But women bent on germans and shopping +have time and ears for no such news as that which demands the +publication of extras. Some of them never hear or heed the cry, "Indian +Massacree!" "Here y'are! All about the killin' of Major Thornton an' his +sojers!" "Extry!--extry!" It is not until they reach the broad portals +of the great Stewart of the West that one of their number, half +incredulously, buys a copy and reads aloud: "Major Thornton, ----th +Infantry, Captain Langham and Lieutenant Bliss, ----th Cavalry, and +thirty men, are killed. Captains Wright and Lane and Lieutenants Willard +and Brooks, ----th Cavalry, and some forty more men, are seriously +wounded. The rest of the command is corralled by an overwhelming force +of Indians, and their only hope is to hold out until help can reach +them. All troops along the line of the Union Pacific are already under +orders." + +"Oh, isn't it dreadful?" + +"Yes; but aren't you glad it wasn't Ours? Oh, look! there's Nina +Beaubien over there in her carriage. _Do_ let's find out if she's going +to lead with Rollins!" + +_Vae victis_! Far out in the glorious Park country in the heart of the +Centennial State a little band of blue-coats, sent to succor a perilled +agent, is making desperate stand against fearful odds. Less than two +hundred men has the wisdom of the Department sent forth through the +wilderness to find and, if need be, fight its way through five times its +weight in well-armed foes. The officers and men have no special quarrel +with those Indians, nor the Indians with them. Only two winters before, +when those same Indians were sick and starving, and their lying +go-betweens, the Bureau-employees, would give them neither food nor +justice, a small band made their way to the railway and were fed on +soldier food and their wrongs righted by soldier justice. But another +snarl has come now, and this time the Bureau-people are in a pickle, and +the army--ever between two fires at least, and thankful when it isn't +six--is ordered to send a little force and go out there and help the +agent maintain his authority. The very night before the column reaches +the borders of the reservation the leading chiefs come in camp to +interview the officers, shake hands, beg tobacco, and try on their +clothes, then go back to their braves and laugh as they tell there are +only a handful, and plan the morrow's ambuscade and massacre. _Vae +victis_! There are women and children among the garrisons along the +Union Pacific whose hearts have little room for thoughts of germans in +the horror of this morning's tidings. But Sibley is miles and miles +away, and, as Mrs. Wheeler says, aren't you glad it wasn't Ours? + +Out at the fort there is a different scene. The morning journals and the +clicking telegraph send a thrill throughout the whole command. The train +has barely whistled out of sight when the ringing notes of officers' +call resound through the quadrangle and out over the broader +drill-ground beyond. Wondering, but prompt, the staid captains and eager +subalterns come hurrying to head-quarters, and the band, that had come +forth and taken its station on the parade, all ready for guard-mount, +goes quickly back, while the men gather in big squads along the shaded +row of their quarters and watch the rapid assembly at the office. And +there old Chester, with kindling eyes, reads to the silent company the +brief official order. Ay, though it be miles and miles away, fast as +steam and wheel can take it, the good old regiment in all its sturdy +strength goes forth to join the rescue of the imprisoned comrades far in +the Colorado Rockies. "Have your entire command in readiness for +immediate field-service in the Department of the Platte. Special train +will be there to take you by noon at latest." And though many a man has +lost friend and comrade in the tragedy that calls them forth, and though +many a brow clouds for the moment with the bitter news of such useless +sacrifice, every eye brightens, every muscle seems to brace, every nerve +and pulse to throb and thrill with the glorious excitement of quick +assembly and coming action. Ay, we are miles and miles away; we leave +the dear old post, with homes and firesides, wives, children, and +sweethearts, all to the care of the few whom sickness or old wounds or +advancing years render unfit for hard, sharp marching; and, thank God! +we'll be there to take a hand and help those gallant fellows out of +their "corral" or to have one good blow at the cowardly hounds who lured +and lied to them. + +How the "assembly" rings on the morning air! How quick they spring to +ranks, those eager bearded faces and trim blue-clad forms! How buoyant +and brisk even the elders seem as the captains speed over to their +company quarters and the quick, stirring orders are given! "Field kits; +all the cooked rations you have on hand; overcoat, blanket, extra socks +and underclothes; every cartridge you've got; haversack and canteen, and +nothing else. Now get ready,--lively!" How irrepressible is the cheer +that goes up! How we pity the swells of the light battery who have to +stay! How wistful those fellows look, and how eagerly they throng about +the barracks, yearning to go, and, since that is denied, praying to be +of use in some way! Small wonder is it that all the bustle and +excitement penetrates the portals of Mr. Jerrold's darkened quarters, +and the shutters are thrown open and his bandaged head comes forth. + +"What is it, Harris?" he demands of a light-batteryman who is hurrying +past. + +"Orders for Colorado, sir. The regiment goes by special train. Major +Thornton's command's been massacred, and there's a big fight ahead." + +"My God! Here!--stop one moment. Run over to Company B and see if you +can find my servant, or Merrick, or somebody. If not, you come back +quick. I want to send a note to Captain Armitage." + +"I can take it, sir. We're not going. The band and the battery have to +stay." + +And Jerrold, with trembling hand and feverish haste, seats himself at +the same desk whence on that fatal morning he sent the note that wrought +such disaster; and as he rises and hands his missive forth, throwing +wide open the shutters as he does so, his bedroom doors fly open, and a +whirling gust of the morning wind sweeps through from rear to front, and +half a score of bills and billets, letters and scraps of paper, go +ballooning out upon the parade. + +"By heaven!" he mutters, "that's how it happened, is it? _Look_ at them +go!" for going they were, in spiral eddies or fluttering skips, up the +grassy "quad," and over among the rose-bushes of Alice Renwick's garden. +Over on the other side of the narrow, old-fashioned frontier fort the +men were bustling about, and their exultant, eager voices rang out on +the morning air. All was life and animation, and even in Jerrold's +selfish soul there rose responsive echo to the soldierly spirit that +seemed to pervade the whole command. It was their first summons to +active field-duty with prospective battle since he had joined, and, with +all his shortcomings as a "duty" officer in garrison and his many +frailties of character, Jerrold was not the man to lurk in the rear when +there was danger ahead. It dawned on him with sudden and crushing force +that now it lay in the power of his enemies to do him vital +injury,--that he could be held here at the post like a suspected felon, +a mark for every finger, a target for every tongue, while every other +officer of his regiment was hurrying with his men to take his knightly +share in the coming onset. It was intolerable, shameful. He paced the +floor of his little parlor in nervous misery, ever and anon gazing from +the window for sight of his captain. It was to him he had written, +urging that he be permitted a few moments' talk. "This is no time for a +personal misunderstanding," he wrote. "I must see you at once. I can +clear away the doubts, can explain my action; but, for heaven's sake, +intercede for me with Captain Chester that I may go with the command." + +As luck would have it, Armitage was with Chester at the office when the +letter was handed in. He opened it, gave a whistle of surprise, and +simply held it forth to the temporary commander. + +"Read that," he said. + +Chester frowned, but took the note and looked it curiously over. + +"I have no patience with the man now," he said. "Of course after what I +saw last night I begin to understand the nature of his defence; but we +don't want any such man in the regiment, after this. What's the use of +taking him with us?" + +"That isn't the point," said Armitage. "Now or never, possibly, is the +time to clear up this mystery. Of course Maynard will be up to join us +by the first train; and what won't it be worth to him to have positive +proof that all his fears were unfounded?" + +"Even if it wasn't Jerrold, there is still the fact that I saw a man +clambering out of her window. How is that to be cleared up?" said +Chester, gloomily. + +"That may come later, and won't be such a bugbear as you think. If you +were not worried into a morbid condition over all this trouble, you +would not look so seriously upon a thing which I regard as a piece of +mere night prowling, with a possible spice of romance." + +"What romance, I'd like to know?" + +"Never mind that now: I'm playing detective for the time being. Let me +see Jerrold for you and find out what he has to offer. Then you can +decide. Are you willing? All right! But remember this while I think of +it. You admit that the light you saw on the wall Sunday night was +exactly like that which you saw the night of your adventure, and that +the shadows were thrown in the same way. You thought that night that the +light was turned up and afterwards turned out in her room, and that it +was _her_ figure you saw at the window. Didn't you?" + +"Yes. What then?" + +"Well, I believe her statement that she saw and heard nothing until +reveille. I believe it was Mrs. Maynard who did the whole thing, without +Miss Renwick's knowing anything about it." + +"Why?" + +"Because I accomplished the feat with the aid of the little night-lamp +that I found by the colonel's bedside. It is my theory that Mrs. Maynard +was restless after the colonel finally fell asleep, that she heard your +tumble, and took her little lamp, crossed over into Miss Renwick's +room, opened the door without creaking, as I can do to your +satisfaction, found her sleeping quietly, but the room a trifle close +and warm, set her night-lamp down on the table, as I did, threw her +shadow on the wall, as I did, and opened the shade, as you thought her +daughter did. Then she withdrew, and left those doors open,--both hers +and her daughter's,--and the light, instead of being turned down, as you +thought, was simply carried back into her own room." + +"That is all possible. But how about the man in her room? Nothing was +stolen, though money and jewelry were lying around loose. If theft was +not the object, what was?" + +"Theft certainly was not, and I'm not prepared to say what was, but I +have reason to believe it wasn't Miss Renwick." + +"Anything to prove it?" + +"Yes; and, though time is precious and I cannot show you, you may take +my word for it. We must be off at noon, and both of us have much to do, +but there may be no other chance to talk, and before you leave this post +I want you to realize her utter innocence." + +"I want to, Armitage." + +"I know you do: so look here. We assume that the same man paid the night +visit both here and at Sablon, and that he wanted to see the same +person,--if he did not come to steal: do we not?" + +"Yes." + +"We know that at Sablon it was Mrs. Maynard he sought and called. The +colonel says so." + +"Yes." + +"Presumably, then, it was she--not her daughter--he had some reasons for +wanting to see here at Sibley. What is more, if he wanted to see Miss +Renwick there was nothing to prevent his going right into her window?" + +"Nothing." + +"Well, I believe I can prove he didn't; on the contrary, that he went +around by the roof of the porch to the colonel's room and tried there, +but found it risky on account of the blinds, and that finally he entered +the hall window,--what might be called neutral ground. The painters had +been at work there, as you said, two days before, and the paint on the +slats was not quite dry. The blinds and sills were the only things they +had touched up on that front, it seems, and nothing on the sides. Now, +on the fresh paint of the colonel's slats are the new imprints of +masculine thumb and fingers, and on the sill of the hall window is a +footprint that I know to be other than Jerrold's." + +"Why?" + +"Because he doesn't own such a thing as this track was made with, and I +don't know a man in this command who does. It was the handiwork of the +Tonto Apaches, and came from the other side of the continent." + +"You mean it was--?" + +"Exactly. An Indian moccasin." + +Meantime, Mr. Jerrold had been making hurried preparations, as he had +fully determined that at any cost he would go with the regiment. He had +been burning a number of letters, when Captain Armitage knocked and +hurriedly entered. Jerrold pushed forward a chair and plunged at once +into the matter at issue: + +"There is no time to waste, captain. I have sent to you to ask what I +can do to be released from arrest and permitted to go with the command." + +"Answer the questions I put to you the other night, and certify to your +answers; and of course you'll have to apologize to Captain Chester for +your last night's language." + +"That of course; though you will admit it looked like spying. Now let me +ask you, did he tell you who the lady was?" + +"No. I told him." + +"How did you know?" + +"By intuition, and my knowledge of previous circumstances." + +"We have no time to discuss it. I make no attempt to conceal it now; but +I ask that, on your honor, neither you nor he reveal it." + +"And continue to let the garrison believe that you were in Miss +Renwick's room that ghastly night?" asked Armitage, dryly. + +Jerrold flushed: "I have denied that, and I would have proved my _alibi_ +could I have done so without betraying a woman's secret. Must I tell?" + +"So far as I am concerned, Mr. Jerrold," said Armitage, with cold and +relentless meaning, "you not only must tell--you must _prove_--both that +night's doings and Saturday night's,--both that and how you obtained +that photograph." + +"My God! In one case it is a woman's name; in the other I have promised +on honor not to reveal it." + +"That ends it, then. You remain here in close arrest, and the charges +against you will be pushed to the bitter end. I will write them this +very hour." + + + + +XVI. + + +At ten o'clock that morning, shortly after a smiling interview with the +ladies of Fort Sibley, in which, with infinite spirit and the most +perfect self-control, Miss Beaubien had informed them that she had +promised to lead with Mr. Jerrold, and, since he was in duress, she +would lead with no one, and sent them off wondering and greatly excited, +there came running up to the carriage a telegraph messenger boy, who +handed her a despatch. + +"I was going up to the avenue, mum," he explained, "but I seen you +here." + +Nina's face paled as she tore it open and read the curt lines: + +"Come to me, here. Your help needed instantly." + +She sprang from the carriage. "Tell mother I have gone over to see some +Fort friends,--not to wait," she called to the coachman, well knowing he +would understand that she meant the ladies with whom she had been so +recently talking. Like a frightened deer she sped around the corner, +hailed the driver of a cab, lounging with his fellows along the walk, +ordered him to drive with all speed to Summit Avenue, and with beating +heart decided on her plan. Her glorious eyes were flashing: the native +courage and fierce determination of her race were working in her woman's +heart. She well knew that imminent danger threatened him. She had dared +everything for love of his mere presence, his sweet caress. What would +she not dare to save him, if save she could? He had not been true to +her. She knew, and knew well, that, whether sought or not, Alice Renwick +had been winning him from her, that he was wavering, that he had been +cold and negligent; but with all her soul and strength she loved him, +and believed him grand and brave and fine as he was beautiful. Now--now +was her opportunity. He needed her. His commission, his honor, depended +on her. He had intimated as much the night before,--had told her of the +accusations and suspicions that attached to him,--but made no mention of +the photograph. He had said that though nothing could drag from him a +word that would compromise _her_, _she_ might be called upon to stand +'twixt him and ruin; and now perhaps the hour had come. She could free, +exonerate, glorify him, and in doing so claim him for her own. Who, +after this, could stand 'twixt her and him? He loved her, though he +_had_ been cold; and she--? Had he bidden her bow her dusky head to +earth and kiss the print of his heel, she would have obeyed could she +but feel sure that her reward would be a simple touch of his hand, an +assurance that no other woman could find a moment's place in his love. +Verily, he had been doing desperate wooing in the long winter, for the +very depths of her nature were all athrob with love for him. And now he +could no longer plead that poverty withheld his offer of his hand. She +would soon be mistress of her own little fortune, and, at her mother's +death, of an independence. Go to him she would, and on wings of the +wind, and go she did. The cab released her at the gate to her home, and +went back with a double fare that set the driver to thinking. She sped +through the house, and out the rear doors, much to the amaze of cook and +others who were in consultation in the kitchen. She flew down a winding +flight of stairs to the level below, and her fairy feet went tripping +over the pavement of a plebeian street. A quick turn, and she was at a +little second-rate stable, whose proprietor knew her and started from +his chair. + +"What's wrong to-day, Miss Nina?" + +"I want the roan mare and light buggy again,--quick as you can. Your own +price at the old terms, Mr. Graves,--silence." + +He nodded, called to a subordinate, and in five minutes handed her into +the frail vehicle. An impatient chirrup and flap of the reins, and the +roan shot forth into the dusty road, leaving old Graves shaking his head +at the door. + +"I've known her ever since she was weaned," he muttered, "and she's a +wild bird, if ever there was one, but she's never been the like o' this +till last month." + +And the roan mare was covered with foam and sweat when Nina Beaubien +drove into the bustling fort, barely an hour after her receipt of +Jerrold's telegram. A few officers were gathered in front of +head-quarters, and there were curious looks from face to face as she was +recognized. Mr. Rollins was on the walk, giving some instructions to a +sergeant of his company, and never saw her until the buggy reined up +close behind him and, turning suddenly, he met her face to face as she +sprang lightly to the ground. The young fellow reddened to his eyes, and +would have recoiled, but she was mistress of the situation. She well +knew she had but to command and he would obey, or, at the most, if she +could no longer command she had only to implore, and he would be +powerless to withstand her entreaty. + +"I am glad _you_ are here, Mr. Rollins. You can help me.--Sergeant, +will you kindly hitch my horse at that post?--Now," she added, in low, +hurried tone, "come with me to Mr. Jerrold's." + +Rollins was too stupefied to answer. Silently he placed himself by her +side, and together they passed the group at the office. Miss Beaubien +nodded with something of her old archness and coquetry to the +cap-raising party, but never hesitated. Together they passed along the +narrow board walk, followed by curious eyes, and as they reached the +angle and stepped beneath the shelter of the piazza in front of the +long, low, green-blinded Bachelors' Row, there was sudden sensation in +the group. Mr. Jerrold appeared at the door of his quarters; Rollins +halted some fifty feet away, raised his cap, and left her; and, all +alone, with the eyes of Fort Sibley upon her, Nina Beaubien stepped +bravely forward to meet her lover. + +They saw him greet her at the door. Some of them turned away, unwilling +to look, and yet unwilling to go and not understand this new phase of +the mystery. Rollins, looking neither to right nor left, repassed them +and walked off with a set, savage look on his young face, and then, as +one or two still gazed, fascinated by this strange and daring +proceeding, others, too, turned back and, half ashamed of themselves for +such a yielding to curiosity, glanced furtively over at Jerrold's door. + +There they stood,--he, restrained by his arrest, unable to come forth; +she, restrained more by his barring form than by any consideration of +maidenly reserve, for, had he bidden, she would have gone within. She +had fully made up her mind that wherever he was, even were it behind the +sentinels and bars of the guard-house, she would demand that she be +taken to his side. He had handed out a chair, but she would not sit. +They saw her looking up into his face as he talked, and noted the eager +gesticulation, so characteristic of his Creole blood, that seemed to +accompany his rapid words. They saw her bending towards him, looking +eagerly up in his eyes, and occasionally casting indignant glances over +towards the group at the office, as though she would annihilate with her +wrath the persecutors of her hero. Then they saw her stretch forth both +her hands with a quick impulsive movement, and grasp his one instant, +looking so faithfully, steadfastly, loyally, into his clouded and +anxious face. Then she turned, and with quick, eager steps came tripping +towards them. They stood irresolute. Every man felt that it was +somebody's duty to step forward, meet her, and be her escort though the +party, but no one advanced. There was, if anything, a tendency to sidle +towards the office door, as though to leave the sidewalk unimpeded. But +she never sought to pass them by. With flashing eyes and crimson cheeks, +she bore straight upon them, and, with indignant emphasis upon every +word, accosted them: + +"Captain Wilton, Major Sloat, I wish to see Captain Chester at once. Is +he in the office?" + +"Certainly, Miss Beaubien. Shall I call him? or will you walk in?" And +both men were at her side in a moment. + +"Thanks. I will go right in,--if you will kindly show me to him." + +Another moment, and Armitage and Chester, deep in the midst of their +duties and surrounded by clerks and orderlies and assailed by half a +dozen questions in one and the same instant, looked up astonished as +Wilton stepped in and announced Miss Beaubien desiring to see Captain +Chester on immediate business. There was no time for conference. There +she stood in the door-way, and all tongues were hushed on the instant. +Chester rose and stepped forward with anxious courtesy. She did not +choose to see the extended hand. + +"It is you, alone, I wish to see, captain. Is it impossible here?" + +"I fear it is, Miss Beaubien; but we can walk out in the open air. I +feel that I know what it is you wish to say to me," he added, in a low +tone, took his cap from the peg on which it hung, and led the way. Again +she passed through the curious, but respectful group, and Jerrold, +watching furtively from his window, saw them come forth. + +The captain turned to her as soon as they were out of earshot: + +"I have no daughter of my own, my dear young lady, but if I had I could +not more thoroughly feel for you than I do. How can I help you?" + +The reply was unexpectedly spirited. He had thought to encourage and +sustain her, be sympathetic and paternal, but, as he afterwards ruefully +admitted, he "never did seem to get the hang of a woman's temperament." +Apparently sympathy was not the thing she needed. + +"It is late in the day to ask such a question, Captain Chester. You have +done great wrong and injustice. The question is now, will you undo it?" + +He was too surprised to speak for a moment. When his tongue was unloosed +he said,-- + +"I shall be glad to be convinced I was wrong." + +"I know little of army justice or army laws, Captain Chester, but when +a girl is compelled to take this step to rescue a friend there is +something brutal about them,--or the men who enforce them. Mr. Jerrold +tells me that he is arrested. I knew that last night, but not until this +morning did he consent to let me know that he would be court-martialled +unless he could prove where he was the night you were officer of the day +two weeks ago, and last Saturday night. He is too noble and good to +defend himself when by doing so he might harm me. But I am here to free +him from the cruel suspicion you have formed." She had quickened her +step, and in her impulsiveness and agitation they were almost at the end +of the walk. He hesitated, as though reluctant to go along under the +piazza, but she was imperious, and he yielded. "No, come!" she said. "I +mean that you shall hear the whole truth, and that at once. I do not +expect you to understand or condone my conduct, but you must acquit him. +We are engaged; and--I love him. He has enemies here, as I see all too +plainly, and they have prejudiced mother against him, and she has +forbidden my seeing him. I came out to the fort without her knowledge +one day, and it angered her. From that time she would not let me see him +alone. She watched every movement, and came with me wherever I drove. +She gave orders that I should never have any of our horses to drive or +ride alone,--I, whom father had indulged to the utmost and who had +ridden and driven at will from my babyhood. She came out to the fort +with me that evening for parade, and never even agreed to let me go out +to see some neighbors until she learned he was to escort Miss Renwick. +She had ordered me to be ready to go with her to Chequamagon the next +day, and I would not go until I had seen him. There had been a +misunderstanding. I got the Suttons to drive me out while mother +supposed me at the Laurents', and Mr. Jerrold promised to meet me east +of the bridge and drive in town with us, and I was to send him back in +Graves's buggy. He had been refused permission to leave the post, he +said, and could not cross the bridge, where the sentries would be sure +to recognize him, but, as it was our last chance of meeting, he risked +the discovery of his absence, never dreaming of such a thing as his +private rooms being inspected. He had a little skiff down in the willows +that he had used before, and by leaving the party at midnight he could +get home, change his dress, run down the bank and row down-stream to the +Point, there leave his skiff and climb up to the road. He met us there +at one o'clock, and the Suttons would never betray either of us, though +they did not know we were engaged. We sat in their parlor a quarter of +an hour after we got to town, and then 'twas time to go, and there was +only a little ten minutes' walk down to the stable. I had seen him such +a very short time, and I had so much to tell him." (Chester could have +burst into rapturous applause had she been an actress. Her cheeks were +aflame, her eyes full of fire and spirit, her bosom heaving, her little +foot tapping the ground, as she stood there leaning on the colonel's +fence and looking straight up in the perturbed veteran's face. She was +magnificent, he said to himself; and, in her bravery, self-sacrifice, +and indignation, she _was_.) "It was then after two, and I could just as +well go with him,--somebody had to bring the buggy back,--and Graves +himself hitched in his roan mare for me, and I drove out, picked up Mr. +Jerrold at the corner, and we came out here again through the darkness +together. Even when we got to the Point I did not let him go at once. It +was over an hour's drive. It was fully half-past three before we parted. +He sprang down the path to reach the river-side; and before he was +fairly in his boat and pulling up against the stream, I heard, far over +here somewhere, those two faint shots. That was the shooting he spoke of +in his letter to me,--not to her; and what business Colonel Maynard had +to read and exhibit to his officers a letter never intended for him I +cannot understand. Mr. Jerrold says it was not what he wanted it to be +at all, as he wrote hastily, so he wrote another, and sent that to me by +Merrick that morning after his absence was discovered. It probably blew +out of the window, as these other things did this morning. See for +yourself, captain." And she pointed to the two or three bills and scraps +that had evidently only recently fluttered in among the now neglected +roses. "Then when he was aroused at reveille and you threatened him with +punishment and held over his head the startling accusation that you knew +of our meeting and our secret, he was naturally infinitely distressed, +and could only write to warn me, and he managed to get in and say +good-by to me at the station. As for me, I was back home by five +o'clock, let myself noiselessly up to my room, and no one knew it but +the Suttons and old Graves, neither of whom would betray me. I had no +fear of the long dark road: I had ridden and driven as a child all over +these bluffs and prairies before there was any town worth mentioning, +and in days when my father and I found only friends--not enemies--here +at Sibley." + +"Miss Beaubien, let me protest against your accusation. It is not for +me to reprove your grave imprudence or recklessness; nor have I the +right to disapprove your choice of Mr. Jerrold. Let me say at once that +you have none but friends here; and if it ever should be known to what +lengths you went to save him, it will only make him more envied and you +more genuinely admired. I question your wisdom, but, upon my soul, I +admire your bravery and spirit. You have cleared him of a terrible +charge." + +A most disdainful and impatient shrug of her shapely shoulders was Miss +Beaubien's only answer to that allusion. The possibility of Mr. +Jerrold's being suspected of another entanglement was something she +would not tolerate: + +"I know nothing of other people's affairs. I simply speak of my own. Let +us end this as quickly as possible, captain. Now about Saturday night. +Mother had consented to our coming back for the german,--she enjoys +seeing me lead, it seems,--and she decided to pay a short visit to +relations at St. Croix, staying there Saturday night and over Sunday. +This would give us a chance to meet again, as he could spend the evening +in St. Croix and return by late train, and I wrote and asked him. He +came; we had a long talk in the summer-house in the garden, for mother +never dreamed of his being there, and unluckily he just missed the night +train and did not get back until inspection. It was impossible for him +to have been at Sablon; and he can furnish other proof, but would do +nothing until he had seen me." + +"Miss Beaubien, you have cleared him. I only wish that you could +clear--every one." + +"I am in no wise concerned in that other matter to which you have +alluded; neither is Mr. Jerrold. May I say to him at once that this ends +his persecution?" + +The captain smiled: "You certainly deserve to be the bearer of good +tidings. I wish he may appreciate it." + +Another moment, and she had left him and sped back to Jerrold's +door-way. He was there to meet her, and Chester looked with grim and +uncertain emotion at the radiance in her face. He had to get back to the +office and to pass them: so, as civilly as he could, considering the +weight of wrath and contempt he felt for the man, he stopped and spoke: + +"Your fair advocate has been all-powerful, Mr. Jerrold. I congratulate +you; and your arrest is at an end. Captain Armitage will require no +duty of you until we are aboard; but we've only half an hour. The train +is coming sharp at noon." + +"Train! What train! Where are you going?" she asked, a wild anxiety in +her eyes, a sudden pallor on her face. + +"We are ordered post-haste to Colorado, Nina, to rescue what is left of +Thornton's men. But for you I should have been left behind." + +"But for me!--left behind!" she cried. "Oh, Howard, Howard! have I +only--only won you to send you into danger? Oh, my darling! Oh, God! +Don't--don't go! They will kill you! It will kill me! Oh, what have I +done? what have I done?" + +"Nina, hush! My honor is with the regiment. I _must_ go, child. We'll be +back in a few weeks. Indeed, I fear 'twill all be over before we get +there. _Nina_, don't look so! Don't act so! Think where you are!" + +But she had borne too much, and the blow came all too soon,--too heavy. +She was wellnigh senseless when the Beaubien carriage came whirling into +the fort and old Maman rushed forth in voluble and rabid charge upon her +daughter. All too late! it was useless now. Her darling's heart was +weaned away, and her love lavished on that tall, objectionable young +soldier so soon to go forth to battle. Reproaches, tears, wrath, were +all in order, but were abandoned at sight of poor Nina's agony of grief. +Noon came, and the train, and with buoyant tread the gallant command +marched down the winding road and filed aboard the cars, and Howard +Jerrold, shame-stricken, humbled at the contemplation of his own +unworthiness, slowly unclasped her arms from about his neck, laid one +long kiss upon her white and quivering lips, took one brief look in the +great, dark, haunting, despairing eyes, and carried her wail of anguish +ringing in his ears as he sprang aboard and was whirled away. + +But there were women who deemed themselves worse off than Nina +Beaubien,--the wives and daughters and sweethearts whom she met that +morn in town; for when they got back to Sibley the regiment was miles +away. For them there was not even a kiss from the lips of those they +loved. Time and train waited for no woman. There were comrades battling +for life in the Colorado Rockies, and aid could not come too soon. + + + + +XVII. + + +Under the cloudless heavens, under the starlit skies, blessing the +grateful dew that cools the upland air and moistens the bunch-grass that +has been bleaching all day in the fierce rays of the summer sun, a +little column of infantry is swinging steadily southward. Long and +toilsome has been the march; hot, dusty, and parching the day. Halts +have been few and far between, and every man, from the colonel down, is +coated with a gray mask of powdered alkali, the contribution of a two +hours' tramp through Deadman's Canon just before the sun went down. Now, +however, they are climbing the range. The morrow will bring them to the +broad and beautiful valley of the Spirit Wolf, and there they must have +news. Officers and men are footsore and weary, but no one begs for rest. +Colonel Maynard, riding ahead on a sorry hack he picked up at the +station two days' long march behind them, is eager to reach the springs +at Forest Glade before ordering bivouac for the night. A week agone no +one who saw him at Sablon would have thought the colonel fit for a march +like this; but he seems rejuvenate. His head is high, his eye as bright, +his bearing as full of spirit, as man's could possibly be at sixty, and +the whole regiment cheered him when he caught the column at Omaha. A +talk with Chester and Armitage seemed to have made a new man of him, and +to-night he is full of an energy that inspires the entire command. +Though they were farther away than many other troops ordered to the +scene, the fact that their station was on the railway and that they +could be sent by special trains to Omaha and thence to the West enabled +them to begin their rescue-march ahead of all the other foot-troops and +behind only the powerful command of cavalry that was whirled to the +scene the moment the authorities woke up to the fact that it should have +been sent in the first place. Old Maynard would give his very ears to +get to Thornton's corral ahead of them, but the cavalry has thirty-six +hours' start and four legs to two. Every moment he looks ahead expectant +of tidings from the front that shall tell him the ----th were there and +the remnant rescued. Even then, he knows, he and his long Springfields +will be needed. The cavalry can fight their way in to the succor of the +besieged, but once there will be themselves surrounded and too few in +numbers to begin aggressive movements. He and his will indeed be welcome +reinforcements; and so they trudge ahead. + +The moon is up and it is nearly ten o'clock when high up on the rolling +divide the springs are reached, and, barely waiting to quench their +thirst in the cooling waters, the wearied men roll themselves in their +blankets under the giant trees, and, guarded by a few outlying pickets, +are soon asleep. Most of the officers have sprawled around a little fire +and are burning their boot-leather thereat. The colonel, his adjutant, +and the doctor are curled up under a tent-fly that serves by day as a +wrap for the rations and cooking-kit they carry on pack-mule. Two +company commanders,--the Alpha and Omega of the ten, as Major Sloat +dubbed them,--the senior and junior in rank, Chester and Armitage by +name, have rolled themselves in their blankets under another tent-fly +and are chatting in low tones before dropping off to sleep. They have +been inseparable on the journey thus far, and the colonel has had two or +three long talks with them; but who knows what the morrow may bring +forth? There is still much to settle. + +One officer, he of the guard, is still afoot, and trudging about among +the trees, looking after his sentries. Another officer, also alone, is +sitting in silence smoking a pipe: it is Mr. Jerrold. + +Cleared though he is of the charges originally brought against him in +the minds of his colonel and Captain Chester, he has lost caste with his +fellows and with them. Only two or three men have been made aware of the +statement which acquitted him, but every one knows instinctively that he +was saved by Nina Beaubien, and that in accepting his release at her +hands he had put her to a cruel expense. Every man among his brother +officers knows in some way that he has been acquitted of having +compromised Alice Renwick's fair fame only by an _alibi_ that +correspondingly harmed another. The fact now generally known, that they +were betrothed, and that the engagement was openly announced, made no +difference. Without being able to analyze his conduct, the regiment was +satisfied that it had been selfish and contemptible; and that was enough +to warrant giving him the cold shoulder. He was quick to see and take +the hint, and, in bitter distress of mind, to withdraw himself from +their companionship. He had hoped and expected that his eagerness to go +with them on the wild and sudden campaign would reinstate him in their +good graces, but it failed utterly. "Any man would seek _that_," was the +verdict of the informal council held by the officers. "He would have +been a poltroon if he hadn't sought to go; but, while he isn't a +poltroon, he has done a contemptible thing." And so it stood. Rollins +had cut him dead, refused his hand, and denied him a chance to explain. +"Tell him he can't explain," was the savage reply he sent by the +adjutant, who consented to carry Jerrold's message in order that he +might have fair play. "He knows, without explanation, the wrong he has +done to more than one. I won't have anything to do with him." + +Others avoided him, and only coldly spoke to him when speech was +necessary. Chester treated him with marked aversion; the colonel would +not look at him; only Armitage--his captain--had a decent word for him +at any time, and even he was stern and cold. The most envied and +careless of the entire command, the Adonis, the beau, the crack shot, +the graceful leader in all garrison gayeties, the beautiful dancer, +rider, tennis-player, the adored of so many sentimental women at Sibley, +poor Jerrold had found his level, and his proud and sensitive though +selfish heart was breaking. + +Sitting alone under the trees, he had taken a sheet of paper from his +pocket-case and was writing by the light of the rising moon. One letter +was short and easily written, for with a few words he had brought it to +a close, then folded and in a bold and vigorous hand addressed it. The +other was far longer; and over this one, thinking deeply, erasing some +words and pondering much over others, he spent a long hour. It was +nearly midnight, and he was chilled to the heart, when he stiffly rose +and took his way among the blanketed groups to the camp-fire around +which so many of his wearied comrades were sleeping the sleep of the +tired soldier. Here he tore to fragments and scattered in the embers +some notes and letters that were in his pockets. They blazed up +brightly, and by the glare he stood one moment studying young Rollins's +smooth and placid features; then he looked around on the unconscious +circle of bronzed and bearded faces. There were many types of soldier +there,--men who had led brigades through the great war and gone back to +the humble bars of the line-officer at its close; men who had led fierce +charges against the swarming Indians in the rough old days of the first +prairie railways; men who had won distinction and honorable mention in +hard and trying frontier service; men who had their faults and foibles +and weaknesses like other men, and were aggressive or compliant, +strong-willed or yielding, overbearing or meek, as are their brethren in +other walks of life; men who were simple of heart, single in purpose and +ambition, diverse in characteristics, but unanimous in one trait,--no +meanness could live among them; and Jerrold's heart sank within him, +colder, lower, stonier than before, as he looked from face to face and +cast up mentally the sum of each man's character. His hospitality had +been boundless, his bounty lavish; one and all they had eaten of his +loaf and drunk of his cup; but was there among them one who could say of +him, "He is generous and I stand his friend"? Was there one of them, one +of theirs, for whom he had ever denied himself a pleasure, great or +small? He looked at poor old Gray, with his wrinkled, anxious face, and +thought of his distress of mind. Only a few thousands--not three years' +pay--had the veteran scraped and saved and stored away for his little +girl, whose heart was aching with its first cruel sorrow,--_his_ work, +_his_ undoing, his cursed, selfish greed for adulation, his reckless +love of love. The morrow's battle, if it came, might leave her orphaned +and alone, and, poor as it was, a father's pitying sympathy could not be +her help with the coming year. Would Gray mourn him if the fortune of +war made _him_ the victim? Would any one of those averted faces look +with pity and regret upon his stiffening form? Would there be any one on +earth to whom his death would be a sorrow, but Nina? Would it even be a +blow to her? She loved him wildly, he knew that; but _would_ she did she +but dream the truth? He knew her nature well. He knew how quickly such +burning love could turn to fiercest hate when convinced that the object +was utterly untrue. He had said nothing to her of the photograph, +nothing at all of Alice except to protest time and again that his +attentions to her were solely to win the good will of the colonel's +family and of the colonel himself, so that he might be proof against the +machinations of his foes. And yet had he not, that very night on which +he crossed the stream and let her peril her name and honor for one +stolen interview--had he not gone to her exultant welcome with a +traitorous knowledge gnawing at his heart? That very night, before they +parted at the colonel's door had he not lied to Alice Renwick?--had he +not denied the story of his devotion to Miss Beaubien, and was not his +practised eye watching eagerly the beautiful dark face for one sign that +the news was welcome, and so precipitate the avowal trembling on his +lips that it was _her_ he madly loved,--not Nina? Though she hurriedly +bade him good-night, though she was unprepared for any such +announcement, he well knew that Alice Renwick's heart fluttered at the +earnestness of his manner, and that he had indicated far more than he +had said. Fear--not love--had drawn him to Nina Beaubien that night, and +hope had centred on her more beautiful rival, when the discoveries of +the night involved him in the first trembling symptoms of the downfall +to come. And he was to have spent the morning with her, the woman to +whom he had lied in word, while she to whom he had lied in word and deed +was going from him, not to return until the german, and even then he +planned treachery. He meant to lead with Alice Renwick and claim that it +_must_ be with the colonel's daughter because the ladies of the garrison +were the givers. Then, he knew, Nina would not come at all, and, +possibly, might quarrel with him on that ground. What could have been an +easier solution of his troublous predicament? She would break their +secret engagement; he would refuse all reconciliation, and be free to +devote himself to Alice. But all these grave complications had arisen. +Alice would not come. Nina wrote demanding that he should lead with her, +and that he should meet her at St. Croix; and then came the crash. He +owed his safety to her self-sacrifice, and now must give up all hope of +Alice Renwick. He had accepted the announcement of their engagement. He +_could_ not do less, after all that had happened and the painful scene +at their parting. And yet would it not be a blessing to her if he were +killed? Even now in his self-abnegation and misery he did not fully +realize how mean he was,--how mean he seemed to others. He resented in +his heart what Sloat had said of him but the day before, little caring +whether he heard it or not: "It would be a mercy to that poor girl if +Jerrold were killed. He will break her heart with neglect, or drive her +mad with jealousy, inside of a year." But the regiment seemed to agree +with Sloat. + +And so in all that little band of comrades he could call no man friend. +One after another he looked upon the unconscious faces, cold and averted +in the oblivion of sleep, but not more cold, not more distrustful, than +when he had vainly sought among them one relenting glance in the early +moonlight that battle eve in bivouac. He threw his arms upward, shook +his head with hopeless gesture, then buried his face in the sleeves of +his rough campaign overcoat and strode blindly from their midst. + +Early in the morning, an hour before daybreak, the shivering out-post +crouching in a hollow to the southward catch sight of two dim figures +shooting suddenly up over a distant ridge,--horsemen, they know at a +glance,--and these two come loping down the moonlit trail over which two +nights before had marched the cavalry speeding to the rescue, over which +in an hour the regiment itself must be on the move. Old campaigners are +two of the picket, and they have been especially cautioned to be on the +lookout for couriers coming back along the trail. They spring to their +feet, in readiness to welcome or repel, as the sentry rings out his +sharp and sudden challenge. + +"Couriers from the corral," is the jubilant answer. "This Colonel +Maynard's outfit?" + +"Ay, ay, sonny," is the unmilitary but characteristic answer. "What's +your news?" + +"Got there in time, and saved what's left of 'em; but it's a hell-hole, +and you fellows are wanted quick as you can come,--thirty miles ahead. +Where's the colonel?" + +The corporal of the guard goes back to the bivouac, leading the two +arrivals. One is a scout, a plainsman born and bred, the other a +sergeant of cavalry. They dismount in the timber and picket their +horses, then follow on foot the lead of their companion of the guard. +While the corporal and the scout proceed to the wagon-fly and fumble at +the opening, the tall sergeant stands silently a little distance in +their rear, and the occupants of a neighboring shelter--the counterpart +of the colonel's--begin to stir, as though their light slumber had been +broken by the smothered sound of footsteps. One of them sits up and +peers out at the front, gazing earnestly at the tall figure standing +easily there in the flickering light. Then he hails in low tones: + +"That you, Mr. Jerrold? What is the matter?" + +And the tall figure faces promptly towards the hailing voice. The +spurred heels come together with a click, the gauntleted hand rises in +soldierly salute to the broad brim of the scouting-hat, and a deep voice +answers, respectfully,-- + +"It is not Mr. Jerrold, sir. It is Sergeant McLeod, ----th Cavalry, just +in with despatches." + +Armitage springs to his feet, sheds his shell of blankets, and steps +forth into the glade with his eyes fixed eagerly on the shadowy form in +front. He peers under the broad brim, as though striving to see the eyes +and features of the tall dragoon. + +"Did you get there in time?" he asks, half wondering whether that was +really the question uppermost in his mind. + +"In time to save the survivors, sir; but no attack will be made until +the infantry get there." + +"Were you not at Sibley last month?" asks the captain, quickly. + +"Yes, sir,--with the competitors." + +"You went back before your regimental team, did you not?" + +"I--No, sir: I went back with them." + +"You were relieved from duty at Sibley and ordered back before them, +were you not?" + +Even in the pallid light Armitage could see the hesitation, the flurry +of surprise and distress, in the sergeant's face. + +"Don't fear to tell me, man: I would rather hear it than any news you +could give me. I would rather know you were _not_ Sergeant McLeod than +any fact you could tell. Speak low, man, but tell me here and now. +Whatever motive you may have had for this disguise, whatever anger or +sorrows in the past, you must sink them now to save the honor of the +woman your madness has perilled. Answer me, for your sister's sake: are +you not Fred Renwick?" + +"Do you swear to me she is in danger?" + +"By all that's sacred; and you ought to know it." + +"I _am_ Fred Renwick. Now what can I do?" + + + + +XVIII. + + +The sun is not an hour high, but the bivouac at the springs is far +behind. With advance-guard and flankers well out, the regiment is +tramping its way, full of eagerness and spirit. The men can hardly +refrain from bursting into song, but, although at "route step," the fact +that Indian scouts have already been sighted scurrying from bluff to +bluff is sufficient to warn all hands to be silent and alert. Wilton +with his company is on the dangerous flank, and guards it well. Armitage +with Company B covers the advance, and his men are strung out in long +skirmish-line across the trail wherever the ground is sufficiently open +to admit of deployment. Where it is not, they spring ahead and explore +every point where Indian may lurk, and render ambuscade of the main +column impossible. With Armitage is McLeod, the cavalry sergeant who +made the night ride with the scout who bore the despatches. The scout +has galloped on towards the railway with news of the rescue, the +sergeant guides the infantry reinforcement. Observant men have noted +that Armitage and the sergeant have had a vast deal to say to each other +during the chill hours of the early morn. Others have noted that at the +first brief halt the captain rode back, called Colonel Maynard to one +side, and spoke to him in low tones. The colonel was seen to start with +astonishment. Then he said a few words to his second in command, and +rode forward with Armitage to join the advance. When the regiment moved +on again and the head of column hove in sight of the skirmishers, they +saw that the colonel, Armitage, and the sergeant of cavalry were riding +side by side, and that the officers were paying close attention to all +the dragoon was saying. All were eager to hear the particulars of the +condition of affairs at the corral, and all were disposed to be envious +of the mounted captain who could ride alongside the one participant in +the rescuing charge and get it all at first hand. The field-officers, of +course, were mounted, but every line-officer marched afoot with his men, +except that three horses had been picked up at the railway and impressed +by the quartermaster in case of need, and these were assigned to the +captains who happened to command the skirmishers and flankers. + +But no man had the faintest idea what manner of story that tall sergeant +was telling. It would have been of interest to every soldier in the +command, but to no one so much so as to the two who were his absorbed +listeners. Armitage, before their early march, had frankly and briefly +set before him his suspicions as to the case, and the trouble in which +Miss Renwick was involved. No time was to be lost. Any moment might find +them plunged in fierce battle; and who could foretell the results?--who +could say what might happen to prevent this her vindication ever +reaching the ears of her accusers? Some men wondered why it was that +Colonel Maynard sent his compliments to Captain Chester and begged that +at the next halt he would join him. The halt did not come for a long +hour, and when it did come it was very brief, but Chester received +another message, and went forward to find his colonel sitting in a +little grove with the cavalryman, while the orderly held their horses a +short space away. Armitage had gone forward to his advance, and Chester +showed no surprise at the sight of the sergeant seated side by side with +the colonel and in confidential converse with him. There was a quaint, +sly twinkle in Maynard's eyes as he greeted his old friend. + +"Chester," said he, "I want you to be better acquainted with my +step-son, Mr. Renwick. He has an apology to make to you." + +The tall soldier had risen the instant he caught sight of the newcomer, +and even at the half-playful tone of the colonel would relax in no +degree his soldierly sense of the proprieties. He stood erect and held +his hand at the salute, only very slowly lowering it to take the one so +frankly extended him by the captain, who, however, was grave and quiet. + +"I have suspected as much since daybreak," he said; "and no man is +gladder to know it is you than I am." + +"You would have known it before, sir, had I had the faintest idea of the +danger in which my foolhardiness had involved my sister. The colonel has +told you of my story. I have told him and Captain Armitage what led to +my mad freak at Sibley; and, while I have much to make amends for, I +want to apologize for the blow I gave you that night on the terrace. I +was far more scared than you were, sir." + +"I think we can afford to forgive him, Chester. He knocked us both out," +said the colonel. + +Chester bowed gravely. "That was the easiest part of the affair to +forgive," he said, "and it is hardly for me, I presume, to be the only +one to blame the sergeant for the trouble that has involved us all, +especially your household, colonel." + +"It was expensive masquerading, to say the least," replied the colonel; +"but he never realized the consequences until Armitage told him to-day. +You must hear his story in brief, Chester. It is needful that three or +four of us know it, so that some may be left to set things right at +Sibley. God grant us all safe return!" he added, piously, and with deep +emotion. "I can far better appreciate our home and happiness than I +could a month ago. Now, Renwick, tell the captain what you have told +us." + +And briefly it _was_ told: how in his youthful fury he had sworn never +again to set foot within the door of the father and mother who had so +wronged the poor girl he loved with boyish fervor; how he called down +the vengeance of heaven upon them in his frenzy and distress; how he had +sworn never again to set eyes on their faces. "May God strike me dead if +ever I return to this roof until she is avenged! May He deal with you as +you have dealt with her!" was the curse that flew from his wild lips, +and with that he left them, stunned. He went West, was soon penniless, +and, caring not what he did, seeking change, adventure, anything to take +him out of his past, he enlisted in the cavalry, and was speedily +drafted to the ----th, which was just starting forth on a stirring +summer campaign. He was a fine horseman, a fine shot, a man who +instantly attracted the notice of his officers: the campaign was full of +danger, adventure, rapid and constant marching, and before he knew it or +dreamed it possible he had become deeply interested in his new life. +Only in the monotony of a month or two in garrison that winter did the +service seem intolerable. His comrades were rough, in the main, but +thoroughly good-hearted, and he soon won their esteem. The spring sent +them again into the field; another stirring campaign, and here he won +his stripes, and words of praise from the lips of a veteran general +officer, as well as the promise of future reward; and then the love of +soldierly deeds and the thirst for soldierly renown took firm hold in +his breast. He began to turn towards the mother and father who had been +wrapped up in his future,--who loved him so devotedly. He was forgetting +his early and passionate love, and the bitter sorrow of her death was +losing fast its poignant power to steel him against his kindred. He knew +they could not but be proud of the record he had made in the ranks of +the gallant ----th, and then he shrank and shivered when he recalled the +dreadful words of his curse. He had made up his mind to write, implore +pardon for his hideous and unfilial language, and invoke their interest +in his career, when, returning to Fort Raines for supplies, he picked up +a New York paper in the reading-room and read the announcement of his +father's death, "whose health had been broken ever since the +disappearance of his only son, two years before." The memory of his +malediction had, indeed, come home to him, and he fell, stricken by a +sudden and unaccountable blow. It seemed as though his heart had given +one wild leap, then stopped forever. Things did not go so well after +this. He brooded over his words, and believed that an avenging God had +launched the bolt that killed the father as punishment to the stubborn +and recreant son. He then bethought him of his mother, of pretty Alice, +who had loved him so as a little girl. He could not bring himself to +write, but through inquiries he learned that the house was closed and +that they had gone abroad. He plodded on in his duties a trying year: +then came more lively field-work and reviving interest. He was +forgetting entirely the sting of his first great sorrow, and mourning +gravely the gulf he had placed 'twixt him and his. He thought time and +again of his cruel words, and something began to whisper to him he must +see that mother again at once, kiss her hand, and implore her +forgiveness, or she, too, would be stricken suddenly. He saved up his +money, hoping that after the summer's rifle-work at Sibley he might get +a furlough and go East; and the night he arrived at the fort, tired with +his long railway-journey and panting after a long and difficult climb +up-hill, his mother's face swam suddenly before his eyes, and he felt +himself going down. When they brought him to, he heard that the ladies +were Mrs. Maynard and her daughter Miss Renwick,--his own mother, +remarried, his own Alice, a grown young woman. This was, indeed, news to +put him in a flutter and spoil his shooting. He realized at once that +the gulf was wider than ever. How could he go to her now, the wife of a +colonel, and he an enlisted man? Like other soldiers, he forgot that the +line of demarcation was one of discipline, not of sympathy. He did not +realize what any soldier among his officers would gladly have told him, +that he was most worthy to reveal himself now,--a non-commissioned +officer whose record was an honor to himself and to his regiment, a +soldier of whom officers and comrades alike were proud. He never +dreamed--indeed, how few there are who do!--that a man of his character, +standing, and ability is honored and respected by the very men whom the +customs of the service require him to speak with only when spoken to. He +supposed that only as Fred Renwick could he extend his hand to one of +their number, whereas it was under his soldier name he won their trust +and admiration, and it was as Sergeant McLeod the officers of the ----th +were backing him for a commission that would make him what they deemed +him fit to be,--their equal. Unable to penetrate the armor of reserve +and discipline which separates the officer from the rank and file, he +never imagined that the colonel would have been the first to welcome him +had he known the truth. He believed that now his last chance of seeing +his mother was gone until that coveted commission was won. Then came +another blow: the doctor told him that with his heart-trouble he could +never pass the physical examination: he could not hope for preferment, +then, and _must_ see her as he was, and see her secretly and alone. Then +came blow after blow. His shooting had failed, so had that of others of +his regiment, and he was ordered to return in charge of the party early +on the morrow. The order reached him late in the evening, and before +breakfast-time on the following day he was directed to start with his +party for town, thence by rail to his distant post. That night, in +desperation, he made his plan. Twice before he had strolled down to the +post and with yearning eyes had studied every feature of the colonel's +house. He dared ask no questions of servants or of the men in garrison, +but he learned enough to know which rooms were theirs, and he had noted +that the windows were always open. If he could only see their loved +faces, kneel and kiss his mother's hand, pray God to forgive him, he +could go away believing that he had undone the spell and revoked the +malediction of his early youth. It was hazardous, but worth the danger. +He could go in peace and sin no more towards mother, at least; and then +if she mourned and missed him, could he not find it out some day and +make himself known to her after his discharge? He slipped out of camp, +leaving his boots behind, and wearing his light Apache moccasins and +flannel shirt and trousers. Danger to himself he had no great fear of. +If by any chance mother or sister should wake, he had but to stretch +forth his hand and say, "It is only I,--Fred." Danger to _them_ he never +dreamed of. + +Strong and athletic, despite his slender frame, he easily lifted the +ladder from Jerrold's fence, and, dodging the sentry when he spied him +at the gate, finally took it down back of the colonel's and raised it to +a rear window. By the strangest chance the window was closed, and he +could not budge it. Then he heard the challenge of a sentry around on +the east front, and had just time to slip down and lower the ladder when +he heard the rattle of a sword and knew it must be the officer of the +day. There was no time to carry off the ladder. He left it lying where +it was, and sprang down the steps towards the station. Soon he heard +Number Five challenge, and knew the officer had passed on: he waited +some time, but nothing occurred to indicate that the ladder was +discovered, and then, plucking up courage and with a muttered prayer for +guidance and protection, he stole up-hill again, raised the ladder to +the west wall, noiselessly ascended, peered in Alice's window and could +see a faint night-light burning in the hall beyond, but that all was +darkness there, stole around on the roof of the piazza to the hall +window, stepped noiselessly upon the sill, climbed over the lowered +sash, and found himself midway between the rooms. He could hear the +colonel's placid snoring and the regular breathing of the other +sleepers. No time was to be lost. Shading the little night-lamp with one +hand, he entered the open door, stole to the bedside, took one long look +at his mother's face, knelt, breathed upon, but barely brushed with his +trembling lips, the queenly white hand that lay upon the coverlet, +poured forth one brief prayer to God for protection and blessing for her +and forgiveness for him, retraced his steps, and caught sight of the +lovely picture of Alice in the Directoire costume. He longed for it and +could not resist. She had grown so beautiful, so exquisite. He took it, +frame and all, carried it into her room, slipped the card from its place +and hid it inside the breast of his shirt, stowed the frame away behind +her sofa-pillow, then looked long at the lovely picture she herself +made, lying there sleeping sweetly and peacefully amid the white +drapings of her dainty bed. Then 'twas time to go. He put the lamp back +in the hall, passed through her room, out at her window, and down the +ladder, and had it well on the way back to the hooks on Jerrold's fence +when seized and challenged by the officer of the day. Mad terror +possessed him then. He struck blindly, dashed off in panicky flight, +paid no heed to sentry's cry or whistling missile, but tore like a racer +up the path and never slackened speed till Sibley was far behind. + +When morning came, the order that they should go was temporarily +suspended: some prisoners were sent to a neighboring military prison, +and he was placed in charge, and on his return from this duty learned +that the colonel's family had gone to Sablon. The next thing there was +some strange talk that worried him,--a story that one of the men who had +a sweetheart who was second girl at Mrs. Hoyt's brought out to camp,--a +story that there was an officer who was too much in love with Alice to +keep away from the house even after the colonel so ordered, and that he +was prowling around the other night and the colonel ordered Leary to +shoot him,--Leary, who was on post on Number Five. He felt sure that +something was wrong,--felt sure that it was due to his night visit,--and +his first impulse was to find his mother and confide the truth to her. +He longed to see her again, and if harm had been done, to make himself +known and explain everything. Having no duties to detain him, he got a +pass to visit town and permission to be gone a day or more. On Saturday +evening he ran down to Sablon, drove over, as Captain Armitage had +already told them, and, peering in his mother's room, saw her, still up, +though in her nightdress. He never dreamed of the colonel's being out +and watching. He had "scouted" all those trees, and no one was nigh. +Then he softly called; she heard, and was coming to him, when again came +fierce attack: he had all a soldier's reverence for the person of the +colonel, and would never have harmed him had he known 'twas he: it was +the night watchman that had grappled with him, he supposed, and he had +no compunctions in sending him to grass. Then he fled again, knowing +that he had only made bad worse, walked all that night to the station +next north of Sablon,--a big town where the early morning train always +stopped,--and by ten on Sunday morning he was in uniform again and off +with his regimental comrades under orders to haste to their +station,--there was trouble with the Indians at Spirit Rock and the +----th were held in readiness. From beneath his scouting-shirt he drew a +flat packet, an Indian case, which he carefully unrolled, and there in +its folds of wrappings was the lovely Directoire photograph. + +Whose, then, was the one that Sloat had seen in Jerrold's room? It was +this that Armitage had gone forward to determine, and he found his +sad-eyed lieutenant with the skirmishers. + +"Jerrold," said he, with softened manner, "a strange thing is brought to +light this morning, and I lose no time in telling you. The man who was +seen at Maynard's quarters, coming from Miss Renwick's room, was her own +brother and the colonel's step-son. He was the man who took the +photograph from Mrs. Maynard's room, and has proved it this very +day,--this very hour." Jerrold glanced up in sudden surprise. "He is +with us now, and only one thing remains, which you can clear up. We are +going into action, and I may not get through, nor you, nor--who knows +who? Will you tell us now how you came by your copy of that photograph?" + +For answer Jerrold fumbled in his pocket a moment and drew forth two +letters: + +"I wrote these last night, and it was my intention to see that you had +them before it grew very hot. One is addressed to you, the other to Miss +Beaubien. You had better take them now," he said, wearily. "There may be +no time to talk after this. Send hers after it's over, and don't read +yours until then." + +"Why, I don't understand this, exactly," said Armitage, puzzled. "Can't +you tell me about the picture?" + +"No. I promised not to while I lived; but it's the simplest matter in +the world, and no one at the colonel's had any hand in it. They never +saw this one that I got to show Sloat. It is burned now. I said 'twas +given me. That was hardly the truth. I have paid for it dearly enough." + +"And this note explains it?" + +"Yes. You can read it to-morrow." + + + + +XIX. + + +And the morrow has come. Down in a deep and bluff-shadowed valley, hung +all around with picturesque crags and pine-crested heights, under a +cloudless September sun whose warmth is tempered by the +mountain-breeze, a thousand rough-looking, bronzed and bearded and +powder-blackened men are resting after battle. + +Here and there on distant ridge and point the cavalry vedettes keep +vigilant watch, against surprise or renewed attack. Down along the banks +of a clear, purling stream a sentry paces slowly by the brown line of +rifles, swivel-stacked in the sunshine. Men by the dozen are washing +their blistered feet and grimy hands and faces in the cool, refreshing +water; men by the dozen lie soundly sleeping, some in the broad glare, +some in the shade of the little clump of willows, all heedless of the +pestering swarms of flies. Out on the broad, grassy slopes, side-lined +and watched by keen-eyed guards, the herds of cavalry horses are quietly +grazing, forgetful of the wild excitement of yester-even. Every now and +then some one of them lifts his head, pricks up his ears, and snorts and +stamps suspiciously as he sniffs at the puffs of smoke that come +drifting up the valley from the fires a mile away. The waking men, too, +bestow an occasional comment on the odor which greets their nostrils. +Down-stream where the fires are burning are the blackened remnants of a +wagon-train: tires, bolts, and axles are lying about, but all wood-work +is in smouldering ashes; so, too, is all that remains of several +hundred-weight of stores and supplies destined originally to nourish the +Indians, but, by them, diverted to feed the fire. + +There is a big circle of seething flame and rolling smoke here, too,--a +malodorous neighborhood, around which fatigue-parties are working with +averted heads; and among them some surly and unwilling Indians, driven +to labor at the muzzle of threatening revolver or carbine, aid in +dragging to the flames carcass after carcass of horse and mule, and in +gathering together and throwing on the pyre an array of miscellaneous +soldier garments, blouses, shirts, and trousers, all more or less hacked +and blood-stained,--all of no more use to mortal wearer. + +Out on the southern slopes, just where a ravine crowded with wild-rose +bushes opens into the valley, more than half the command is gathered, +formed in rectangular lines about a number of shallow, elongated pits, +in each of which there lies the stiffening form of a comrade who but +yesterday joined in the battle-cheer that burst upon the valley with the +setting sun. Silent and reverent they stand in their rough campaign +garb. The escort of infantry "rests on arms;" the others bow their +uncovered heads, and it is the voice of the veteran colonel that, in +accents trembling with sympathy and emotion, renders the last tribute +to fallen comrades and lifts to heaven the prayers for the dead. Then +see! The mourning groups break away from the southern side; the brown +rifles of the escort are lifted in air; the listening rocks resound to +the sudden ring of the flashing volley; the soft, low, wailing good-by +of the trumpets goes floating up the vale, and soon the burial-parties +are left alone to cover the once familiar faces with the earth to which +the soldier must return, and the comrades who are left, foot and +dragoon, come marching, silent, back to camp. + +And when the old regiment begins its homeward journey, leaving the +well-won field to the fast-arriving commands and bidding hearty soldier +farewell to the cavalry comrades whose friendship they gained in the +front of a savage foe, the company that was the first to land its fire +in the fight goes back with diminished numbers and under command of its +second lieutenant. Alas, poor Jerrold! + +There is a solemn little group around the camp-fire the night before +they go. Frank Armitage, flat on his back, with a rifle-bullet through +his thigh, but taking things very coolly for all that, is having a quiet +conference with his colonel. Such of the wounded of the entire command +as are well enough to travel by easy stages to the railway go with +Maynard and the regiment in the morning, and Sergeant McLeod, with his +sabre-arm in a sling, is one of these. But the captain of Company B must +wait until the surgeons can lift him along in an ambulance and all fear +of fever has subsided. To the colonel and Chester he hands the note +which is all that is left to comfort poor Nina Beaubien. To them he +reads aloud the note addressed to himself: + +"You are right in saying that the matter of my possession of that +photograph should be explained. I seek no longer to palliate my action. +In making that puppyish bet with Sloat I _did_ believe that I could +induce Miss Renwick or her mother to let me have a copy; but I was +refused so positively that I knew it was useless. This simply added to +my desire to have one. The photographer was the same that took the +pictures and furnished the albums for our class at graduation, and I, +more than any one, had been instrumental in getting the order for him +against very active opposition. He had always professed the greatest +gratitude to me and a willingness to do anything for me. I wrote to him +in strict confidence, told him of the intimate and close relations +existing between the colonel's family and me, told him I wanted it to +enlarge and present to her mother on her approaching birthday, and +promised him that I would never reveal how I came by the picture so +long as I lived; and he sent me one,--just in time. Have I not paid +heavily for my sin?" + +No one spoke for a moment. Chester was the first to break the silence: + +"Poor fellow! He kept his word to the photographer; but what was it +worth to a woman?" + +There had been a week of wild anxiety and excitement at Sibley. It was +known through the columns of the press that the regiment had hurried +forward from the railway the instant it reached the Colorado trail, that +it could not hope to get through to the valley of the Spirit Wolf +without a fight, and that the moment it succeeded in joining hands with +the cavalry already there a vigorous attack would be made on the +Indians. The news of the rescue of the survivors of Thornton's command +came first, and with it the tidings that Maynard and his regiment were +met only thirty miles from the scene and were pushing forward. The next +news came two days later, and a wail went up even while men were shaking +hands and rejoicing over the gallant fight that had been made, and women +were weeping for joy and thanking God that those whom they held dearest +were safe. It was down among the wives of the sergeants and other +veterans that the blow struck hardest at Sibley; for the stricken +officers were unmarried men, while among the rank and file there were +several who never came back to the little ones who bore their name. +Company B had suffered most, for the Indians had charged fiercely on its +deployed but steadfast line. Armitage almost choked and broke down when +telling the colonel about it that night as he lay under the willows: "It +was the first smile I had seen on his face since I got back,--that with +which he looked up in my eyes and whispered good-by,--and died,--just +after we drove them back. My turn came later." Old Sloat, too, "had his +customary crack," as he expressed it,--a shot through the wrist that +made him hop and swear savagely until some of the men got to laughing at +the comical figure he cut, and then he turned and damned them with +hearty good will, and seemed all oblivious of the bullets that went +zipping past his frosting head. Young Rollins, to his inexpressible +pride and comfort, had a bullet-hole through his scouting-hat and +another through his shoulder-strap that raised a big welt on the white +skin beneath, but, to the detriment of promotion, no captain was killed, +and Jerrold gave the only file. + +The one question at Sibley was, "What will Nina Beaubien do?" + +She did nothing. She would see nobody from the instant the news came. +She had hardly slept at night,--was always awake at dawn and out at the +gate to get the earliest copy of the morning papers; but the news +reached them at nightfall, and when some of the ladies from the fort +drove in to offer their sympathy and condolence in the morning, and to +make tender inquiry, the answer at the door was that Miss Nina saw +nobody, that her mother alone was with her, and that "she was very +still." And so it went for some days. Then there came the return of the +command to Sibley; and hundreds of people went up from town to see the +six companies of the fort garrison march up the winding road amid the +thunder of welcome from the guns of the light battery and the exultant +strains of the band. Mrs. Maynard and Alice were the only ladies of the +circle who were not there: a son and brother had joined them, after long +absence, at Aunt Grace's cottage at Sablon, was the explanation, and the +colonel would bring them home in a few days, after he had attended to +some important matters at the fort. In the first place, Chester had to +see to it that the tongue of scandal was slit, so far as the colonel's +household was concerned, and all good people notified that no such thing +had happened as was popularly supposed (and "everybody" received the +announcement with the remark that she knew all along it couldn't be so), +and that a grievous and absurd but most mortifying blunder had been +made. It was a most unpleasant ghost to "down," the shadow of that +scandal, for it would come up to the surface of garrison chat at all +manner of confidential moments; but no man or woman could safely speak +of it to Chester. It was gradually assumed that he was the man who had +done all the blundering and that he was supersensitive on the subject. + +There was another thing never satisfactorily explained to some of the +garrison people, and that was Nina Beaubien's strange conduct. In less +than a week she was seen on the street in colors,--brilliant +colors,--when it was known she had ordered deep mourning, and then she +suddenly disappeared and went with her silent old mother abroad. To this +day no woman in society understands it, for when she came back, long, +long afterwards, it was a subject on which she would never speak. There +were one or two who ventured to ask, and the answer was, "For reasons +that concern me alone." But it took no great power of mental vision to +see that her heart wore black for him forever. + +His letter explained it all. She had received it with a paroxysm of +passionate grief and joy, kissed it, covered it with wildest caresses +before she began to read, and then, little by little, as the words +unfolded before her staring eyes, turned cold as stone: + +"It is my last night of life, Nina, and I am glad 'tis so. Proud and +sensitive as I am, the knowledge that every man in my regiment has +turned from me,--that I have not a friend among them,--that there is no +longer a place for me in their midst,--more than all, that I _deserve_ +their contempt,--has broken my heart. We will be in battle before the +setting of another sun. Any man who seeks death in Indian fight can find +it easily enough, and I can _compel_ their respect in spite of +themselves. They will not recognize me, living, as one of them; but +dying on the field, they have to place me on their roll of honor. + +"But now I turn to you. What have I been,--what am I,--to have won such +love as yours? May God in heaven forgive me for my past! All too late I +hate and despise the man I have been,--the man whom you loved. One last +act of justice remains. If I died without it you would mourn me +faithfully, tenderly, lovingly, for years, but if I tell the truth you +will see the utter unworthiness of the man, and your love will turn to +contempt. It is hard to do this, knowing that in doing it I kill the +only genuine regret and dry the only tear that would bless my memory; +but it is the one sacrifice I can make to complete my self-humiliation, +and it is the one thing that is left me that will free you. It will +sting at first, but, like the surgeon's knife, its cut is mercy. Nina, +the very night I came to you on the bluffs, the very night you perilled +your honor to have that parting interview, I went to you with a lie on +my lips. I had told _her_ we were nothing to each other,--you and I. +More than that, I was seeking her love; I hoped I could win her; and had +she loved me I would have turned from you to make her my wife. Nina, I +loved Alice Renwick. Good-by. Don't mourn for me after this." + + + + +XX. + + +They were having a family conclave at Sablon. The furlough granted +Sergeant McLeod on account of wound received in action with hostile +Indians would soon expire, and the question was, should he ask an +extension, apply for a discharge, or go back and rejoin his troop? It +was a matter on which there was much diversity of opinion. Mrs. Maynard +should naturally be permitted first choice, and to her wish there was +every reason for according deep and tender consideration. No words can +tell of the rapture of that reunion with her long-lost son. It was a +scene over which the colonel could never ponder without deep emotion. +The telegrams and letters by which he carefully prepared her for +Frederick's coming were all insufficient. She knew well that her boy +must have greatly changed and matured, but when this tall, bronzed, +bearded, stalwart man sprang from the old red omnibus and threw his one +serviceable arm around her trembling form, the mother was utterly +overcome. Alice left them alone together a full hour before even she +intruded, and little by little, as the days went by and Mrs. Maynard +realized that it was really her Fred who was whistling about, the +cottage or booming trooper songs in his great basso profundo, and +glorying in his regiment and the cavalry life he had led, a wonderful +content and joy shone in her handsome face. It was not until the colonel +announced that it was about time for them to think of going back to +Sibley that the cloud came. Fred said _he_ couldn't go. + +In fact, the colonel himself had been worrying a little over it. As Fred +Renwick, the tall distinguished young man in civilian costume, he would +be welcome anywhere; but, though his garb was that of the sovereign +citizen so long as his furlough lasted, there were but two weeks more of +it left, and officially he was nothing more nor less than Sergeant +McLeod, Troop B, ----th Cavalry, and there was no precedent for a +colonel's entertaining as an honored guest and social equal one of the +enlisted men of the army. He rather hoped that Fred would yield to his +mother's entreaties and apply for a discharge. His wound and the latent +trouble with his heart would probably render it an easy matter to +obtain; and yet he was ashamed of himself for the feeling. + +Then there was Alice. It was hardly to be supposed that so very high +bred a young woman would relish the idea of being seen around Fort +Sibley on the arm of her brother the sergeant; but, wonderful to relate, +Miss Alice took a radically different view of the whole situation. So +far from wishing Fred out of the army, she importuned him day after day +until he got out his best uniform, with its resplendent chevrons and +stripes of vivid yellow, and the yellow helmet-cords, though they were +but humble worsted, and when he came forth in that dress, with the +bronze medal on his left breast and the sharpshooter's silver cross, his +tall athletic figure showing to such advantage, his dark, Southern, +manly features so enhanced by contrast with his yellow facings, she +clapped her hands with a cry of delight and sprang into his one +available arm and threw her own about his neck and kissed him again and +again. Even mamma had to admit he looked astonishingly well; but Alice +declared she would never thereafter be reconciled to seeing him in +anything but a cavalry uniform. The colonel found her not at all of her +mother's way of thinking. She saw no reason why Fred should leave the +service. Other sergeants had won their commissions every year: why not +he? Even if it were some time in coming, was there shame or degradation +in being a cavalry sergeant? Not a bit of it! Fred himself was loath to +quit. He was getting a little homesick, too,--homesick for the boundless +life and space and air of the broad frontier,--homesick for the rapid +movement and vigorous hours in the saddle and on the scout. His arm was +healing, and such a delight of a letter had come from his captain, +telling him that the adjutant had just been to see him about the new +staff of the regiment. The gallant sergeant-major, a young Prussian of +marked ability, had been killed early in the campaign; the vacancy must +soon be filled, and the colonel and the adjutant both thought at once of +Sergeant McLeod. "I won't stand in your way, sergeant," wrote his troop +commander, "but you know that old Ryan is to be discharged at the end of +his sixth enlistment the 10th of next month; there is no man I would +sooner see in his place as first sergeant of my troop than yourself, and +I hate to lose you; but, as it will be for the gain and the good of the +whole regiment, you ought to accept the adjutant's offer. All the men +rejoice to hear you are recovering so fast, and all will be glad to see +Sergeant McLeod back again." + +Even Mrs. Maynard could not but see the pride and comfort this letter +gave her son. Her own longing was to have him established in some +business in the East; but he said frankly he had no taste for it, and +would only pine for the old life in the saddle. There were other +reasons, too, said he, why he felt that he could not go back to New +York, and his voice trembled, and Mrs. Maynard said no more. It was the +sole allusion he had made to the old, old sorrow, but it was plain that +the recovery was incomplete. The colonel and the doctor at Sibley +believed that Fred could be carried past the medical board by a little +management, and everything began to look as though he would have his +way. All they were waiting for, said the colonel, was to hear from +Armitage. He was still at Fort Russell with the head-quarters and +several troops of the ----th Cavalry: his wound was too severe for him +to travel farther for weeks to come, but he could write, and he had +been consulted. They were sitting under the broad piazza at Sablon, +looking out at the lovely, placid lake, and talking it over among +themselves. + +"I have always leaned on Armitage ever since I first came to the +regiment and found him adjutant," said the colonel. "I always found his +judgment clear; but since our last experience I have begun to look upon +him as infallible." + +Alice Renwick's face took on a flood of crimson as she sat there by her +brother's side, silent and attentive. Only within the week that followed +their return--the colonel's and her brother's--had the story of the +strange complication been revealed to them. Twice had she heard from +Fred's lips the story of Frank Armitage's greeting that frosty morning +at the springs. Time and again had she made her mother go over the +colonel's account of the confidence and faith he had expressed in there +being a simple explanation of the whole mystery, and of his indignant +refusal to attach one moment's suspicion to her. Shocked, stunned, +outraged as she felt at the mere fact that such a story had gained an +instant's credence in garrison circles, she was overwhelmed by the +weight of circumstantial evidence that had been arrayed against her. +Only little by little did her mother reveal it to her. Only after +several days did Fred repeat the story of his night adventure and his +theft of her picture, of his narrow escape, and of his subsequent visit +to the cottage. Only gradually had her mother revealed to her the +circumstances of Jerrold's wager with Sloat, and the direful +consequences; of his double absences the very nights on which Fred had +made his visits; of the suspicions that resulted, the accusations, and +his refusal to explain and clear her name. Mrs. Maynard felt vaguely +relieved to see how slight an impression the young man had made on her +daughter's heart. Alice seemed but little surprised to hear of the +engagement to Nina Beaubien, of her rush to his rescue, and their +romantic parting. The tragedy of his death hushed all further talk on +that subject. There was one on which she could not hear enough, and that +was about the man who had been most instrumental in the rescue of her +name and honor. Alice had only tender sorrow and no reproach for her +step-father when, after her mother told her the story of his sad +experience twenty years before, she related his distress of mind and +suspicion when he read Jerrold's letter. It was then that Alice said, +"And against that piece of evidence no man, I suppose, would hold me +guiltless." + +"You are wrong, dear," was her mother's answer. "It was powerless to +move Captain Armitage. He scouted the idea of your guilt from the moment +he set eyes on you, and never rested until he had overturned the last +atom of evidence. Even I had to explain," said her mother "simply to +confirm his theory of the light Captain Chester had seen and the shadows +and the form at the window. It was just exactly as Armitage reasoned it +out. I was wretched and wakeful, sleeping but fitfully, that night. I +arose and took some bromide about three o'clock and soon afterwards +heard a fall, or a noise like one. I thought of you and got up and went +in your room, and all was quiet there, but it seemed close and warm: so +I raised your shade, and then left both your door and mine open and went +back to bed. I dozed away presently, and then woke feeling all startled +again,--don't you know?--the sensation one experiences when aroused from +sleep, certain that there has been a strange and startling noise, and +yet unable to tell what it was? I lay still a moment, but the colonel +slept through it all, and I wondered at it. I knew there had been a +shot, or something, but could not bear to disturb him. At last I got up +again and went to your room to be sure you were all right, and you were +sleeping soundly still; but a breeze was beginning to blow and flap your +shade to and fro, so I drew it and went out, taking my lamp with me this +time and softly closing your door behind me. See how it all seemed to +fit in with everything else that had happened. It took a man with a will +of his own and an unshaken faith in woman to stand firm against such +evidence." + +And, though Alice Renwick was silent, she appreciated the fact none the +less. Day after day she clung to her stalwart brother's side. She had +ceased to ask questions about Captain Armitage and the strange greeting +after the first day or two, but, oddly enough, she could never let him +talk long of any subject but that campaign, of his ride with the captain +to the front, of the long talk they had had, and the stirring fight +and the magnificent way in which Armitage had handled his long +skirmish-line. He was enthusiastic in his praise of the tall Saxon +captain. He soon noted how silent and absorbed she sat when he was the +theme of discourse; he incidentally mentioned little things "he" had +said about "her" that morning, and marked how her color rose and her +eyes flashed quick, joyful, questioning glance at his face, then fell in +maiden shyness. He had speedily gauged the cause of that strange +excitement displayed by Armitage at seeing him the morning he rode in +with the scout. Now he was gauging, with infinite delight, the other +side of the question. The brother-like, he began to twit and tease her; +and that was the last of the confidences. + +All the same it was an eager group that surrounded the colonel the +evening he came down with the captain's letter. "It settles the thing in +my mind. We'll go back to Sibley to-morrow; and as for you, +Sergeant-Major Fred, your name has gone in for a commission, and I've no +doubt a very deserving sergeant will be spoiled in making a very +good-for-nothing second lieutenant. Get you back to your regiment, sir, +and call on Captain Armitage as soon as you reach Fort Russell, and tell +him you are much obliged. He has been blowing your trumpet for you +there; and, as some of those cavalrymen have sense enough to appreciate +the opinion of such a soldier as my ex-adjutant,--some of them, mind +you: I don't admit that all cavalrymen have sense enough to keep them +out of perpetual trouble,--you came in for a hearty endorsement, and +you'll probably be up before the next board for examination. Go and bone +your Constitution, and the Rule of Three, and who was the father of +Zebedee's children, and the order of the Ptolemies and the Seleucidae, +and other such things that they'll be sure to ask you as indispensable +to the mental outfit of an Indian-fighter." It was evident that the +colonel was in joyous mood. But Alice was silent. She wanted to hear the +letter. He would have handed it to Frederick, but both Mrs. Maynard and +Aunt Grace clamored to hear it read aloud: so he cleared his throat and +began: + +"MY DEAR COLONEL,-- + +"Fred's chances for a commission are good, as the enclosed papers will +show you; but even were this not the case I would have but one thing to +say in answer to your letter: he should go back to his troop. + +"Whatever our friends and fellow-citizens may think on the subject, I +hold that the profession of the soldier is to the full as honorable as +any in civil life; and it is liable at any moment to be more useful. I +do not mean the officer alone. I say, and mean, the soldier. As for me, +I would rather be first sergeant of my troop or company, or +sergeant-major of my regiment, than any lieutenant in it except the +adjutant. Hope of promotion is all that can make a subaltern's life +endurable, but the staff-sergeant or the first sergeant, honored and +respected by his officers, decorated for bravery by Congress, and looked +up to by his comrades, is a king among men. The pay has nothing to do +with it. I say to Renwick, 'Come back as soon as your wound will let +you,' and I envy him the welcome that will be his. + +"As for me, I am even more eager to get back to you all; but things look +very dubious. The doctors shake their heads at anything under a month, +and say I'll be lucky if I eat my Thanksgiving dinner with you. If +trying to get well is going to help, October shall not be done with +before B Company will report me present again. + +"I need not tell you, my dear old friend, how I rejoice with you in +your--hum and haw and this is all about something else," goes on the +colonel, in malignant disregard of the longing looks in the eyes of +three women, all of whom are eager to hear the rest of it, and one of +whom wouldn't say so for worlds. "Write to me often. Remember me warmly +to the ladies of your household. I fear Miss Alice would despise this +wild, open prairie-country; there is no golden-rod here, and I so often +see her as--hum and hum and all that sort of talk of no interest to +anybody," says he, with a quizzical look over his "bows" at the lovely +face and form bending forward with forgetful eagerness to hear how "he +so often sees her." And there is a great bunch of golden-rod in her lap +now, and a vivid blush on her cheek. The colonel is waxing as frivolous +as Fred, and quite as great a tease. + +And then October comes, and Fred has gone, and the colonel and his +household are back at Sibley, where the garrison is enraptured at seeing +them, and where the women precipitate themselves upon them in tumultuous +welcome. If Alice cannot quite make up her mind to return the kisses, +and shrinks slightly from the rapturous embrace of some of the younger +and more impulsive of the sisterhood,--if Mrs. Maynard is a trifle more +distant and stately than was the case before they went away,--the +garrison does not resent it. The ladies don't wonder they feel indignant +at the way people behaved and talked; and each lady is sure that the +behavior and the talk were all somebody else's; not by any possible +chance could it be laid at the door of the speaker. And Alice is the +reigning belle beyond dispute, though there is only subdued gayety at +the fort, for the memory of their losses at the Spirit Wolf is still +fresh in the minds of the regiment. But no man alludes to the events of +the black August night, no woman is permitted to address either Mrs. +Maynard or her daughter on the subject. There are some who seek to be +confidential and who cautiously feel their way for an opening, but the +mental sparring is vain: there is an indefinable something that tells +the intruder, "Thus far, and no farther." Mrs. Maynard is courteous, +cordial, and hospitable, Alice sweet and gracious and sympathetic, even, +but confidential never. + +And then Captain Armitage, late in the month, comes home on crutches, +and his men give him a welcome that makes the rafters ring, and he +rejoices in it and thanks them from his heart; but there is a welcome +his eyes plead for that would mean to him far more than any other. How +wistfully he studies her face! How unmistakable is the love and worship +in every tone! How quickly the garrison sees it all, and how mad the +garrison is to see whether or not 'tis welcome to her! But Alice Renwick +is no maiden to be lightly won. The very thought that the garrison had +so easily given her over to Jerrold is enough to mantle her cheek with +indignant protest. She accepts his attentions, as she does those of the +younger officers, with consummate grace. She shows no preference, will +grant no favors. She makes fair distribution of her dances at the hops +at the fort and the parties in town. There are young civilians who begin +to be devoted in society and to come out to the fort on every possible +opportunity, and these, too, she welcomes with laughing grace and +cordiality. She is a glowing, radiant, gorgeous beauty this cool autumn, +and she rides and drives and dances, and, the women say, flirts, and +looks handsomer every day, and poor Armitage is beginning to look very +grave and depressed. "He wooes and wins not," is the cry. His wound has +almost healed, so far as the thigh is concerned, and his crutches are +discarded, but his heart is bleeding, and it tells on his general +condition. The doctors say he ought to be getting well faster, and so +they tell Miss Renwick,--at least somebody does; but still she relents +not, and it is something beyond the garrison's power of conjecture to +decide what the result will be. Into her pretty white-and-yellow room no +one penetrates except at her invitation, even when the garrison ladies +are spending the day at the colonel's; and even if they did there would +be no visible sign by which they could judge whether his flowers were +treasured or his picture honored above others. Into her brave and +beautiful nature none can gaze and say with any confidence either "she +loves" or "she loves not." Winter comes, with biting cold and blinding +snow, and still there is no sign. The joyous holidays, the glad New +Year, are almost at hand, and still there is no symptom of surrender. No +one dreams of the depth and reverence and gratitude and loyalty and +strength of the love that is burning in her heart until, all of a +sudden, in the most unexpected and astonishing way, it bursts forth in +sight of all. + +They had been down skating on the slough, a number of the youngsters and +the daughters of the garrison. Rollins was there, doing the devoted to +Mamie Gray, and already there were gossips whispering that she would +soon forget she ever knew such a beau as Jerrold in the new-found +happiness of another one; Hall was there with the doctor's pretty +daughter, and Mrs. Hoyt was matronizing the party, which would, of +course, have been incomplete without Alice. She had been skating hand in +hand with a devoted young subaltern in the artillery, and poor Armitage, +whose leg was unequal to skating, had been ruefully admiring the scene. +He had persuaded Sloat to go out and walk with him, and Sloat went; but +the hollow mockery of the whole thing became apparent to him after they +had been watching the skaters awhile, and he got chilled and wanted +Armitage to push ahead. The captain said he believed his leg was too +stiff for further tramping and would be the better for a rest; and Sloat +left him. + +Heavens! how beautiful she was, with her sparkling eyes and radiant +color, glowing with the graceful exercise! He sat there on an old log, +watching the skaters as they flew by him, and striving to keep up an +impartial interest, or an appearance of it, for the other girls. But the +red sun was going down, and twilight was on them all of a sudden, and he +could see nothing but that face and form. He closed his eyes a moment to +shut out the too eager glare of the glowing disk taking its last fierce +peep at them over the western bluffs, and as he closed them the same +vision came back,--the picture that had haunted his every living, +dreaming moment since the beautiful August Sunday in the woodland lane +at Sablon. With undying love, with changeless passion, his life was +given over to the fair, slender maiden he had seen in all the glory of +the sunshine and the golden-rod, standing with uplifted head, with all +her soul shining in her beautiful eyes and thrilling in her voice. Both +worshipping and worshipped was Alice Renwick as she sang her hymn of +praise in unison with the swelling chorus that floated through the trees +from the little brown church upon the hill. From that day she was Queen +Alice in every thought, and he her loyal, faithful knight for weal or +woe. + +Boom went the sunset gun far up on the parade above them. 'Twas +dinner-time, and the skaters were compelled to give up their pastime. +Armitage set his teeth at the entirely too devotional attitude of the +artilleryman as he slowly and lingeringly removed her skates, and turned +away in that utterly helpless frame of mind which will overtake the +strongest men on similar occasions. He had been sitting too long in the +cold, and was chilled through and stiff, and his wounded leg seemed +numb. Leaning heavily on his stout stick, he began slowly and painfully +the ascent to the railway, and chose for the purpose a winding path that +was far less steep, though considerably longer, than the sharp climb the +girls and their escorts made so light of. One after another the glowing +faces of the fair skaters appeared above the embankment, and their +gallants carefully convoyed them across the icy and slippery track to +the wooden platform beyond. Armitage, toiling slowly up his pathway, +heard their blithe laughter, and thought with no little bitterness that +it was a case of "out of sight out of mind" with him, as with better +men. What sense was there in his long devotion to her? Why stand between +her and the far more natural choice of a lover nearer her years? "Like +unto like" was Nature's law. It was flying in the face of Providence to +expect to win the love of one so young and fair, when others so young +and comely craved it. The sweat was beaded on his forehead as he neared +the top and came in sight of the platform. Yes, they had no thought for +him. Already Mrs. Hoyt was half-way up the wooden stairs, and the others +were scattered more or less between that point and the platform at the +station. Far down at the south end paced the fur-clad sentry. There it +was an easy step from the track to the boards, and there, with much +laughter but no difficulty, the young officers had lifted their fair +charges to the walk. All were chatting gayly as they turned away to take +the wooden causeway from the station to the stairs, and Miss Renwick was +among the foremost at the point where it left the platform. Here, +however, she glanced back and then about her, and then, bending down, +began fumbling at the buttons of her boot. + +"Oh, permit me, Miss Renwick," said her eager escort. "I will button +it." + +"Thanks, no. Please don't wait, good people. I'll be with you in an +instant." + +And so the other girls, absorbed in talk with their respective gallants, +passed her by, and then Alice Renwick again stood erect and looked +anxiously but quickly back. + +"Captain Armitage is not in sight, and we ought not to leave him. He may +not find it easy to climb to that platform," she said. + +"Armitage? Oh, he'll come on all right," answered the batteryman, with +easy assurance. "Maybe he has gone round by the road. Even if he hasn't, +I've seen him make that in one jump many a time. He's an active old +buffer for his years." + +"But his wound may prove too much for that jump now. Ah there he comes," +she answered, with evident relief; and just at the moment, too, the +forage-cap of the tall soldier rose slowly into view some distance up +the track, and he came walking slowly down on the sharp curve towards +the platform, the same sharp curve continuing on out of sight behind +him,--behind the high and rocky bluff. + +"He's taken the long way up," said the gunner. "Well, shall we go on?" + +"Not yet," she said, with eyes that were glowing strangely and a voice +that trembled. Her cheeks, too, were paling. "Mr. Stuart, I'm sure I +heard the roar of a train echoed back from the other side." + +"Nonsense, Miss Renwick! There's no train either way for two hours yet." + +But she had begun to edge her way back toward the platform, and he could +not but follow. Looking across the intervening space,--a rocky hollow +twenty feet in depth,--he could see that the captain had reached the +platform and was seeking for a good place to step up; then that he +lifted his right foot and placed it on the planking and with his cane +and the stiff and wounded left leg strove to push himself on. Had there +been a hand to help him, all would have been easy enough; but there was +none, and the plan would not work. Absorbed in his efforts, he could not +see Stuart; he did not see that Miss Renwick had left her companions and +was retracing her steps to get back to the platform. He heard a sudden +dull roar from the rocks across the stream; then a sharp, shrill whistle +just around the bluff. My God! a train, and that man there, alone, +helpless, deserted! Stuart gave a shout of agony: "Back! Roll back over +the bank!" Armitage glanced around; determined; gave one mighty effort; +the iron-ferruled stick slipped on the icy track, and down he went, +prone between the glistening rails, even as the black vomiting monster +came thundering round the bend. He had struck his head upon the iron, +and was stunned, not senseless, but scrambled to his hands and knees and +strove to crawl away. Even as he did so he heard a shriek of anguish in +his ears, and with one wild leap Alice Renwick came flying from the +platform in the very face of advancing death, and the next instant, her +arm clasped about his neck, his strong arms tightly clasping _her_, +they were lying side by side, bruised, stunned, but safe, in a welcoming +snow-drift half-way down the hither bank. + +When Stuart reached the scene, as soon as the engine and some +wrecking-cars had thundered by, he looked down upon a picture that +dispelled any lingering doubt in his mind. Armitage, clasping Queen +Alice to his heart, was half rising from the blessed mantlet of the +snow, and she, her head upon his broad shoulder, was smiling faintly up +into his face: then the glorious eyes closed in a death-like swoon. + + * * * * * + +Fort Sibley had its share of sensations that eventful year. Its crowning +triumph in the one that followed was the wedding in the early spring. Of +all the lovely women there assembled, the bride by common consent stood +unrivalled,--Queen Alice indeed. There was some difference of opinion +among authorities as to who was really the finest-looking and most +soldierly among the throng of officers in the conventional full-dress +uniform: many there were who gave the palm to the tall, dark, slender +lieutenant of cavalry who wore his shoulder-knots for the first time on +this occasion, and who, for a man from the ranks, seemed consummately at +home in the manifold and trying duties of a groomsman. Mrs. Maynard, +leaning on his arm at a later hour and looking up rapturously in his +bronzed features, had no divided opinion. While others had by no means +so readily forgotten or forgiven the mad freak that so nearly involved +them all in wretched misunderstanding, she had nothing but rejoicing in +his whole career. Proud of the gallant officer who had won the daughter +whom she loved so tenderly, she still believes, in the depths of the +boundless mother-love, that no man can quite surpass her soldier son. + + +[Footnote A: By act of Congress, officers may be addressed by the title +of the highest rank held by them in the volunteer service during the +war. The colonel always punctiliously so addressed his friend and +subordinate, although in the army his grade was simply that of first +lieutenant.] + + + THE END. + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of From the Ranks, by Charles King + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK FROM THE RANKS *** + +***** This file should be named 16558.txt or 16558.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/1/6/5/5/16558/ + +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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