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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Tonio, Son of the Sierras, 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: Tonio, Son of the Sierras
+       A Story of the Apache War
+
+Author: Charles King
+
+Illustrator: Charles J. Post
+
+Release Date: November 15, 2007 [EBook #23487]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK TONIO, SON OF THE SIERRAS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
+Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's Note: Minor typographical errors have been corrected
+without note. Dialect spellings, contractions and discrepancies have
+been retained.
+
+
+[Illustration: Tonio, Son of the Sierras, erect and slender.
+                                              _Frontispiece_]
+
+
+
+
+TONIO
+
+SON OF THE SIERRAS
+
+_A Story of the Apache War_
+
+
+
+By
+
+GENERAL CHARLES KING
+
+
+AUTHOR OF
+
+"NORMAN HOLT," "THE IRON BRIGADE,"
+"THE COLONEL'S DAUGHTER,"
+"A DAUGHTER OF THE SIOUX," ETC.
+
+
+Illustrations by
+
+CHARLES J. POST
+
+
+G. W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY
+PUBLISHERS      NEW YORK
+
+Copyright, 1906, by
+
+G. W. DILLINGHAM COMPANY
+
+_Entered at Stationers' Hall, London_
+_All rights reserved_
+
+Issued June, 1906.
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+                                                                 PAGE
+
+Tonio, Son of the Sierras, erect and slender    _Frontispiece_      8
+
+Scrambling down the adjacent slope every man for himself           81
+
+"Keep watch now all around, especially east and southeast"        175
+
+"They've opened on Case and Clancy"                               188
+
+
+
+
+TONIO
+
+SON OF THE SIERRAS
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+"Does it never rain here?" asked the Latest Arrival, with sudden shift
+of the matter under discussion.
+
+"How is that, Bentley?" said the officer addressed to the senior
+present, the surgeon. "You've been here longest."
+
+"Don't know, I'm sure," was the languid answer. "I've only been here
+three years. Try 'Tonio there. He was born hereabouts."
+
+So the eyes of the six men turned to the indicated authority, an Apache
+of uncertain age. He looked to be forty and might be nearer sixty. He
+stood five feet ten in his tiptoed moccasins, and weighed less than
+little Harris, who could not touch the beam at five feet five. Harris
+was the light weight of the --th Cavalry, in physique, at least, and
+by no means proud of the distinction. To offset the handicap of lack of
+stature and weight, and of almost cat-like elasticity of frame and
+movement, he saw fit to cultivate a deliberation and dignity of manner
+that in his cadet days had started the sobriquet of "Heavy," later
+altered to "Hefty"; and Hefty Harris he was to the very hour this story
+opens--a junior first lieutenant with four years' record of stirring
+service in the far West, in days when the telegraph had not yet strung
+the Arizona deserts, and the railway was undreamed of. He had only just
+returned to the post from a ten days' scout, 'Tonio, the Apache, being
+his chief trailer and chosen companion on this as on many a previous
+trip. The two made an odd combination, having little in common beyond
+that imperturbable self-poise and dignity. The two elsewhere had met
+with marked success in "locating" _rancherias_ of the hostile bands,
+and in following and finding marauding parties. The two were looked
+upon in southern Arizona as "the best in the business," and now,
+because other leaders had tried much and accomplished little, it had
+pleased the general commanding the Division of the Pacific to say to
+his subordinate, the general commanding the Department of Arizona, that
+as the "Tonto" Apaches and their fellows of the Sierra Blanca seemed
+too wily for his scouting parties sent out from Whipple Barracks, and
+the valley garrisons of McDowell and Verde, it might be well to detach
+Lieutenant Harris from his troop at old Camp Bowie and send him, with
+'Tonio, to report to the commanding officer at Camp Almy.
+
+Now the commanding general of Arizona had thought of that project
+himself, and rejected it for two reasons: first, that the officers and
+men on duty at Almy would possibly take it as a reflection; second,
+that 'Tonio would probably take it as an affront to himself. 'Tonio, be
+it understood, was of the Apache Mohave tribe, whose hunting grounds
+had long been the upper Verde and adjacent mountains. 'Tonio had no
+scruples as to scouting and shooting Chiricahuas and Sierra Blancas or
+the roving bands of Yaquis that sometimes ventured across the "Gadsden
+Purchase" from Mexico. 'Tonio had done vengeful work among these
+fellows. But now he was brought face to face with a far different
+proposition. The renegades of northern Arizona in the earliest of the
+seventies were mainly Tontos, but many a young brave of the Apache
+Mohave tribe had cast his lot with them. Many had taken their women and
+children, and 'Tonio would be hunting, possibly, his own flesh and
+blood. The junior general had ventured to remonstrate by letter, even
+when issuing the order indicated, but the senior stood to his
+prerogative with a tenacity that set the junior's teeth on edge, and
+started territorial and unbecoming comparisons between the division
+commander's firmness on the fighting line a decade earlier, and far
+behind it now. San Francisco was perhaps five hundred miles from the
+scene of hostilities, and those farthest away seldom fail to see
+clearer than those on the spot, and to think they know better, so
+Harris and his dusky henchman came up to Almy with little by way of
+welcome, and back from their first scout with nothing by way of result.
+Therefore, the sextette of officers that had been but lukewarm at the
+start became lavish in cordiality at the close. The failure of Harris,
+the favorite of the chieftain of the big Division, meant that no
+further criticism could attach to them. If Harris could accomplish
+nothing worth mention, what could be expected of others?
+
+Therefore, while awaiting the return of the courier sent up to
+Prescott, with report of what Harris had not accomplished, and asking
+instructions as to what the gentleman would have next, the commanding
+officer of the old post, built by California volunteers during the
+Civil War and garrisoned later by reluctant regulars, set a good
+example to his subordinates by doing his best to console the "casuals,"
+as visitors were officially rated, and his subordinates loyally
+followed suit.
+
+But Harris seemed unresponsive. Harris seemed almost sulky. Harris had
+added silence to dignity, and spent long hours of a sunny day sprawled
+in a hammock, smoking his pipe and studying 'Tonio, who squatted in the
+shade at the end of the narrow porch of the old officers' mess
+building, still more silent and absorbed than his young commander.
+
+And this was the condition of things when the Latest Arrival appeared
+on the scene, fresh from head-quarters, some ninety miles northwest and
+two thousand feet higher. He had come late the previous afternoon. He
+had skated down the flinty scarp of Misery Hill, with the wheels of his
+buckboard locked, and hauled up at the adjutant's in a cloud of dust
+and misapprehension, with barely time for a bath and a shave before
+dinner. He was a new aide-de-camp of the department commander. He had
+served him well and won his notice on Indian campaigns afar to the
+north in the Columbia valley, where gum boots and slickers were as
+indispensable as here they were superfluous. He had never been, he
+said, so dry in his life as when he scrambled from his mud-colored
+chariot to the steps of the official residence. The temporal wants had
+been spiritually removed, but not the impression. Now, some eighteen
+hours later, he wished to know if it never rained at Almy, and there
+was no white man could tell him. So, one and all, they looked to
+'Tonio, whose earliest recollections were of the immediate
+neighborhood.
+
+And 'Tonio proved a reluctant witness. Urged by Stannard, the senior
+captain referred to, Harris put the question in "Pidgin" Apache, and
+'Tonio, squatting still, gazed dreamily away toward the huge bulwark of
+Squadron Peak, and waited for respectful cessation of all talk before
+he would answer.
+
+At last he rose to his full height and, with a sweeping gesture the
+length of his arm, pointed to the domelike summit, dazzling in the
+slant of the evening sunshine, that seemingly overhung the dun-colored
+adobe corrals on the flats to the south, yet stood full five miles
+away. 'Tonio so seldom opened his lips to speak that the six men
+listened with attention they seldom gave to one another. Yet what
+'Tonio said was translatable only by Harris:
+
+"When the picacho hides his head in the clouds, then look for rain."
+
+"Lord," said the doctor, "I doubt if ever I've seen a cloud above
+it--much less on it! If it weren't for the creek yonder the whole post
+would shrivel up and blow away. Even the hygrometer's dead of
+disuse--or dry rot. But, talk of drying up, did you ever see the beat
+of him?" and the doctor was studying anatomy as displayed in this
+particular Apache.
+
+Five feet ten 'Tonio stood before them, not counting the thatch of his
+matted black hair, bound with white cotton turban. Five feet ten in
+height, but so gaunt and wiry that the ribs and bones seemed breaking
+through the tawny skin, that in flank and waist and the long sweep of
+his sinewy, fleshless legs, he rivalled the greyhound sprawled at his
+feet. "'Tonio has not half an ounce of fat in his hide," said Harris,
+in explaining his tireless work on the trail. "'Tonio can go sixty
+miles without a gulp of water and come out fresh as a daisy at the
+end." 'Tonio's eminently fit condition had been something Harris ever
+held in envy and emulation, yet on this recent scout even 'Tonio had
+failed him. 'Tonio had complained. To look at him as he stood there
+now, erect, slender, with deep chest and long, lank arms and legs,
+trammelled only by the white cotton breechclout that looped over the
+waist belt and trailed, fore and aft, below the bony knee, his back and
+shoulders covered by white _camisa_ unfastened at the throat and
+chest, his feet cased in deerskin moccasins, the long leggings of which
+hung in folds at the ankles, one could liken him only to the
+coyote--the half-famished wolf of the sage plain and barren, for even
+the greyhound knew thirst and fatigue,--knew how to stretch at full
+length and luxury in the shade, whereas 'Tonio, by day at least, stood
+or squatted. Never in all their long prowlings, by day or night, among
+the arid deserts or desolate ranges along the border, had Harris known
+his chief trailer and scout to hint at such a thing as weariness. Yet,
+within the week gone by, thrice had he declared himself unable to go
+farther. Did it mean that at last 'Tonio would purposely fail him, now
+that there were some of his own people among the renegades?
+
+'Tonio had stoutly denied such a weakness. The few young men with the
+hostiles, said he, were more Tonto than Mohave--fools who had offended
+their brothers and dishonored their tribe. Chiefs, medicine men, even
+the women, he said, disowned them. The braves would kill, and the women
+spurn, them on sight. 'Tonio pointed to the "hound" scouts with the
+Verde company--Hualpais, some of them--splendid specimens from the
+mountains; Apache Yumas, some of them, not quite the peer of the
+Hualpais; but many of them--most of them, in fact--Apache Mohaves,
+fiercest, surest trailers of the wild Red Rock country, familiar with
+every cañon and crag in all the rude range from Snow Lake to the Sierra
+Blanca. "All brothers," protested 'Tonio. "All soldiers. All braves,
+unafraid of a thousand Tontos, eager only to meet and punish their
+traitor fellows who had taken the White Chief's pay and bread, pledged
+their best services and then gone renegading to the fastnesses of the
+Mogollon," adding with scorn unspeakable, "taking _other_ women with
+them."
+
+And still Harris was not content. Harris had sent a runner back when
+the scout was but half finished, with a note to be relayed to Prescott,
+to tell the general of his ill success and his evil suspicions, and the
+chief being himself out a-hunting, what did his chief of staff do but
+order the Newly Arrived down to Almy to meet the home-coming party and
+see for himself--and his general!
+
+And of all men chosen to meddle in matters concerning "Hefty" Harris,
+perhaps the latest suitable, in some ways, was his classmate and
+comrade lieutenant, though in different arms of the service--Hal
+Willett of "The Lost and Strayed," so called from the fact that they
+had been sent to desert wilds in '65, scattered over three territories,
+and despite some hard fighting and many hard knocks, had never, said
+their detractors, been heard from since.
+
+Rivals they had been in cadet days and more than one pursuit. Rivals
+they still were in the field of arms, for the name Harris had won for
+himself in Arizona Willett had matched in the Columbia, and now, fresh
+from the ill-starred campaign of the Lava Beds, was one of the few men
+to get something better than hard knocks, censure and criticism. Until
+the previous evening, not since the day they parted at West Point had
+they set eyes one on the other, and, knowing nothing of what had gone
+before and never dreaming of what would come to pass, a benighted
+bureau officer had sent the one down to find out what was the matter
+with the other.
+
+And thereby hangs this tale.
+
+For, as luck would have it, there was even then stationed in that
+far-away land a luckless lieutenant-colonel of infantry who had started
+with good prospects in the Civil War, had early been given command of a
+brigade of volunteers and within the month had had his raw concourse of
+undrilled, undisciplined levies swept from under him in the first
+fierce onset at Shiloh. What else could have been expected of men to
+whom arms had been issued but ten days before, and who had not yet
+learned which end to bite from the cartridge? Hurled from his terrified
+horse, the general had been picked up senseless, to see no more of
+fighting until Stone's River, eight months later, where with a more
+seasoned command the same thing happened. And still he persisted, when
+well of an ugly wound, and, while juniors in years and length of
+service were now heading corps and divisions, with double stars on
+their shoulders, and he had to begin again with a brigade, he got into
+line for Chickamauga with his usual luck just within range of the fatal
+gap left by a senior in command--the gap through which poured the
+impetuous gray torrent of the Southland--and for the third time
+everything crumbled away in spite of him, while he was left for dead
+upon the field. He had done his best, as had other men, and had fared
+only the worst. It was a case of three times and out. The impatient
+North had no more use for names linked only with disaster. When,
+finally exchanged, he limped back to duty, they put him on courts,
+boards and other back-door business until the war was over, then sent
+him to the Pacific Slope, with the blanket brevet of March, 1865, and
+here he was, eight long years thereafter, "The General" by way of
+title, without the command; silver leaves where once gleamed the stars
+on his shoulders; silver streaks where once rippled chestnut and gold;
+wrinkled of visage and withered in shank; kindly, patient, yet
+pathetic; "functioning" a four-company post in a far-away desert, with
+grim mountain chains on east and west, and waters on every side of
+him, four long weeks and four thousand miles by mail route from home,
+and much longer by sea; with nothing to do but send out scouts, sign
+papers, sing an old song or two when the spirit moved him; with not a
+thing in his soldier past to be ashamed of, nothing much in his soldier
+present to rejoice in, nothing whatever in his soldier future to hope
+for, finding his companionship in the comrades about him, and his
+sweetest comfort in the unswerving love of a devoted wife, and their
+one unstinted pride and delight, Lilian, their only daughter--their
+only surviving child.
+
+Many of these eight years of what then was exile, while he, at first as
+a major of foot, was campaigning in regions long since reclaimed from
+savagery, and rusticating at frontier forts long since forgotten,
+Lilian and her mother had dwelt in lodgings at "The Bay" that the child
+might have the advantage of San Francisco's schools. Only once each
+year, until of late, had he been able to visit them, usually at
+Christmas-tide, but by every runner, courier, stage or post there came
+to them his cheery letters, bearing such old-time, outlandish
+post-marks or headings as "Lapwai," "Three Forks, Owyhee," and later
+"Hualpai," or "Hassayampa," until finally it became mild, civilized,
+pacific, even "Almy."
+
+The uniform of a general, that the law had let him wear just as long in
+peace as had been the war in years, was finally packed in camphorated
+hope of resurrection, and the garb of actual rank resumed in 1870. He
+could bear the title _ad infinitum_, but not the sign.
+
+The silver leaf, as said, had come to replace the worn and tarnished
+gold by '73, then mountain fever had seized and laid him by the heels,
+and then all the Indians in Arizona, or the army women out of it, could
+not dissuade Mrs. Archer from her duty. She and Lilian were the
+heroines of a buckboard ride from Drum Barracks to the Colorado, from
+the Colorado to Prescott, from Prescott down through wild and tortuous
+cañons to and beyond the valley of the Verde--to the wondering eyes of
+the waiting garrison and the welcoming arms of the fond husband and
+father at Almy.
+
+And this was but the week gone by, just before the "Newly Arrived" had
+reached Prescott--just before "Hefty" Harris had returned from scout.
+Not until this very morning--the first since their reunion of that
+warm, yet winter's evening of the previous day--had the two classmates
+set eyes on Miss Archer (it was as she rode away by her father's side
+for a canter up the valley), and not until this late afternoon, as the
+sun was dipping behind the black range of the Mazatzal, did they have
+opportunity to speak with her.
+
+Even as 'Tonio stood, silent and statuesque, while the doctor went on
+record as to the rainfall of the Verde watershed, there came suddenly
+into view, jogging quietly up the winding road from the lower ford,
+three riders, followed by half a pack of lagging, yapping hounds--"The
+Old Man," the maiden and the orderly--and all men on the wooden porch
+of the unpainted mess building, rose to their feet in deference to the
+united "powers above," rank and age, youth and beauty, and presently
+the commander was saying for the benefit of the two new-comers: "My
+daughter, gentlemen. Lilian, Mr. Harris, Mr. Willett."
+
+Inadvertently he had named them in the inverse order of rank--a small
+matter, though Willett had been promoted to his bar a year ahead of
+Harris. Otherwise, it was with a fair field and no favor the old-time
+rivals of cadet days stood for the first time in the presence of the
+only army girl at that moment to be found in the far-flung shadow of
+the Mazatzal--stood side by side, facing both the starter and the prize
+in what was destined to be the last great contest of their lives.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+"Come and dine with us this evening, you two," the "Old Man" was
+saying, a few minutes later. He had been home long enough to consult
+the "Commanding General," as he frequently referred to that smiling
+better half, and to compare notes as to the condition of the larder and
+cellar. He had flung conventionality to the winds, as most of us had to
+in early Arizona days. "You others," he said, "have suffered so often
+from my steaks and stories, you're glad not to be included. To-day I'm
+bidding only these two youngsters. You know our dining table holds only
+six. No, never mind about the call!" he interposed, with uplifted
+hands, one to receive the toddy Briggs was stirring for him, the other
+in kindly protest, for both the youngsters were on their feet
+confusedly striving to make it understood that they had only been
+waiting for the cool of the evening to come to pay their respects. "And
+never mind about spike tail and shirt fronts either--come just as you
+are!"
+
+"Indeed, I'll _have_ to, sir," said Willett, whose undress uniform
+fitted him like a glove and was cut and made by the then expert
+military artist of the far East. They had not taken it too kindly,
+these others in white cotton sack coats, hewed and stitched by the
+company tailor, or even in canvas shooting rig, as was Harris, that the
+young aide-de-camp, after brief siesta in the mid-day lazy hour, should
+have appeared among them all, fresh-shaved and tubbed, and in
+faultless, bran-new, spick-and-span cap and blouse and trousers, with
+black silk socks and low-cut patent leather "Oxford ties." Harris,
+hammock slung, and moodily studying 'Tonio, looked approvingly, but
+made no remark whatever. Stannard, ever blunt and short of speech, had
+shoved his hairy hands deep in his trousers' pockets, a thing no sub
+would twice venture in his presence, looked Willett over from head to
+foot, then, with a sniff, had turned away, but Bentley and Turner had
+indulged in whimsical protest, "Gad, man, but you put us all to shame,"
+said the surgeon. "I've seen no rig to match that since I came to this
+post. It's rarer than rain."
+
+"What _do_ you wear when you call on the commanding officer?" queried
+the Latest Arrival, with jovial good-nature. "Thank you, Briggs. That
+_was_ a good toddy."
+
+"Never had a family here until this week," said Bentley, "and such
+calling as I've done has been in what I happened to have on, and even
+then I've wished we dressed like 'Tonio there. Why, Mr. Willett, only
+once since I came to this post has there been an officer's daughter
+with us. Only twice has there been an officer's wife. Even Mrs. Archer
+wouldn't have tried it if the general hadn't been sick."
+
+Willett laughed again, good-naturedly as before. "Well," said he, "in
+the field 'The Lost and Strayed' didn't dandy much, but here I had not
+even unpacked my trunk; had a whole buckboard to myself after we left
+Captain Wickham at the Big Bug, so I just fetched 'em along. This is
+light, you see--nothing but serge," and he held forth his arm. "Up
+there, of course, we had no use for white. Gunboats and 'plebeskins'
+was full dress half the year round----" And just then it had occurred
+to him to put that question: "Does it never rain here?" and in so doing
+he had appealed rather to Stannard and his fellows of the line, quite
+as though he thought Bentley doing too much of the talk, especially
+since Bentley's bent was criticising. But Stannard, as we have seen,
+had referred back the question, whereat the doctor, defrauded of his
+game, yawned languidly and turned over the matter to 'Tonio, thus
+dragging Harris, all unwilling, into the tide of talk, and presently
+out of his hammock. Next thing noticed of him he had disappeared.
+
+To no man as yet, save the lieutenant-colonel commanding, had Willett
+told the purpose of his coming. Late the previous evening Archer had
+come to his office to receive the aide-de-camp, and there listened to
+his message. "The Old Man" looked up suddenly as he sat in the
+lamplight at the rude wooden table that served for his official desk,
+surprise and concern mingling in his kindly face.
+
+"The _general_ said that?" he asked.
+
+"No, sir: the adjutant-general who was left in charge. The general is
+away hunting."
+
+"I might have known that," said Archer to his inner self. To the
+aide-de-camp he merely bowed--bowed most courteously. He liked boys,
+and the Lord had seen fit to take back to himself the one lad poor
+Archer had liked most, and loved unspeakably.
+
+"I think I shall say--nothing of it," said he, presently, after some
+reflection, "and--you can find out, through Harris, all there is to be
+told."
+
+And not a word had he said, even to the post adjutant, from the moment
+of Willett's reporting to him at nine the night before, yet every man
+of the officers' mess knew well that something had sent the young staff
+officer to Almy--that something was to be looked into--and every man,
+including Harris, felt it in his bones that that something was the
+recent and unprofitable scout. That being the case, it placed them all
+on the defensive, and Willett, unhappily, upon his mettle.
+
+A silence fell upon the party when it was found Harris was gone. 'Tonio
+himself had risen again, had stood gazing awhile along the eastward
+mountains, tumbling up toward a brazen sky, then had slowly vanished
+from sight round the corner of the adobe wall.
+
+"Sticks closer'n a brother," said Stannard, epigrammatically, with a
+look at Turner, his comrade captain, whereat the latter shot a warning
+glance, first at Stannard, then toward the unconscious N.A., now
+hobnobbing with Briggs at the mess-room door.
+
+"Harris doesn't like the young swell! What's the matter, d'ye s'pose?"
+asked Bucketts, the post quartermaster, a man of much weight, but not
+too much discrimination.
+
+"Bosh! They're classmates and old chums," was Stannard's quick reply.
+"Harris is hipped because his scout was a fizzle, and he simply doesn't
+feel like talking."
+
+"All the same, he doesn't like Willett, classmate or no classmate. You
+mark my words," persisted the man of mops and brooms, and Stannard, who
+had seen the youngster's face as he turned away, knew well the
+quartermaster was right. Therefore was it his duty, for the sake of the
+regiment, said he, to stand by Harris as hailing from the cavalry. He
+scoffed at the quartermaster and began to pace the veranda. 'Twas high
+time for evening stables, and the brief and perfunctory grooming the
+short-coupled, stocky little mountain climbers daily received. The
+herds had been driven in, watering in the shallows as they forded the
+stream full fifteen minutes before. There were only the surgeon, the
+adjutant, the quartermaster, and Lieutenant Willett seated on the
+veranda when Harris presently came back, silent as before, but clad in
+undress uniform, as neat and trim as that of the Latest Arrival, if not
+so new. Then came General Archer, his daughter, and the meeting. Then,
+a few minutes later, the bid to dinner, and then, barely an hour from
+that time, the dinner itself--a function the classmates marched to
+almost arm in arm when either would rather have been without the other.
+
+The members of what there was of the mess, six officers in all, sat
+waiting the summons to their own board, and gazing idly after. Stannard,
+the only married captain whose wife had had the nerve to go to that
+desolate and distant station, was sitting under his own figurative vine
+and fig-tree represented by a pine veranda, about which neither vine
+nor fig nor other tree had ever been induced to grow, but that was not
+without other extravagances, since it represented to Uncle Sam an
+aggregate sum that could be best computed at a shilling a shingle.
+Stannard, hearing footsteps on the sandy soil, glanced up from the
+columns of an _Alta California_, ten days old, and growled through the
+adjacent blinds "They're coming now," whereat there was sound of
+rustling skirt within, and between the slats there came a glimpse of
+shining, big blue eyes, alive with womanly interest, and parted lips
+disclosing two opposing rows of almost perfect teeth, all the whiter by
+contrast with the sunburned, "sonsy" face that framed them. Together,
+yet separated, this Darby and Joan of the far frontier sat and watched
+the coming pair. "Isn't it good to see the real uniform again?" said
+she. "Isn't it absurd to think of trying a dinner here?" said he. Then
+both subsided as the two young officers stepped upon the resounding
+boards of the next veranda to the south, knocked at the commander's
+open door and were promptly welcomed.
+
+"Now, Luce, they're going to have a very _nice_ dinner," protested
+Mrs. Stannard. "I was in there helping over an hour, and Mrs. Archer's
+a wonder! Even if the dinner didn't amount to much, there would be
+Lilian."
+
+"They can't eat _her_," persisted, grimly, the man.
+
+"She looks sweet enough to eat," responded the woman. "You ought to see
+her. After a six hours' ride she looks fresh as a daisy, all creamy
+white with--but you wouldn't understand----"
+
+"What on earth kept them out so long?"
+
+"Didn't I tell you? Why, they went away to Bennett's ranch. Couldn't
+find a vestige of vegetables nearer. Mrs. Bennett has a little patch
+where she raises lettuce and radishes. The orderly carried a basket
+full of truck, and leaves and flowers, poppies and cactus, you know,
+and you've no idea how pretty they've made the table look."
+
+Stannard sniffed. "Take their Sauterne hot or lukewarm?" he asked.
+"Fancy a dinner without ice, fruit or cream!"
+
+"Of course they haven't white wine here, Luce! But there's claret--famous
+claret, too, and the water in the big _olla's_ even cooler than the
+spring. They'll have French dressing for the salad. They have tomato
+soup even _you_ couldn't growl at, and roast chicken, with real potatoes,
+and _petits pois_, and corn, and olives; then salad cool as the spring;
+then there's to be such an _omelette soufflée_--and coffee!--but it's
+the way the table _looks_, Luce!"
+
+"Men don't care how a thing looks, so long as it tastes right. How
+_does_ it look?"
+
+"So white and fresh, and sprinkled with green and purple and crimson,
+the leaves and the poppies, you know. She----" But Mrs. Stannard broke
+off suddenly. "What is it, Wettstein?" she asked, for their own
+particular _chef_, a German trooper, with elementary culinary gifts,
+appeared in the hallway.
+
+"It's Suey, mattam, says would Mrs. Stannard come over a minute. He's
+stuck, mattam."
+
+"Stuck! Heavens! how?" cried Mrs. Stannard, up at once in alarm, and
+vanishing through the dim light of the blanketed window. The presumably
+punctured Chinaman was even then in full flight for his own kitchen
+door, some fifty feet away, and Mrs. Stannard followed. No Roman in
+Rome's quarrel was ever more self-sacrificing than were our army women
+of the old days in their helpfulness. Had the hounds ravished the roast
+again, as once already had happened? If so, the Stannard dinner stood
+ready to replace it, even though she and her captain had to fall back
+on what could be borrowed from the troop kitchen. No, the oven door was
+open, the precious chickens, brown, basted and done to a turn, were
+waiting Suey's deft hands to shift them to the platter. (No need to
+heat it even on a December day.) Mrs. Stannard's quick and
+comprehensive glance took in every detail. The "stick" was obviously
+figurative--mere vernacular--yet something serious, for Suey's
+olive-brown skin was jaundiced with worry, and the face of Doyle, the
+soldier striker, as he came hurrying back from the banquet board, was
+beading with the sweat of mental torment. Soup, it seems, was already
+served, and Doyle burst forth, hoarse whispering, before ever he caught
+sight of the visiting angel.
+
+"Sure I _can't_, Suey! _The General's sittin' on it!_"
+
+And Suey's long-nailed Mongolian talons went up in despair as he turned
+appealingly to their rescuer.
+
+"Sitting on what, Doyle? Quick!" said Mrs. Stannard.
+
+"The sherry, ma'am! The doctor sent it over wid his comps to s'prise
+him, an' my orders was to fill the little glasses when I'd took in the
+soup, an' I put it under the barrel chair----"
+
+But Mrs. Stannard had heard enough. Even though convulsed with
+merriment, she seized a pencil and scribbled a little line on a card.
+"Give this to Mrs. Archer," she said, and a moment later, in the midst
+of his first story, the veteran was checked by these placid words from
+the head of the table:
+
+"Pardon me, dear, but you are on the lid of the wine cooler. Let Doyle
+get at it a moment."
+
+The general was not the nimblest-witted man in the service, but long
+experience had taught him the wisdom of prompt observance of any
+suggestion that came from his wife. Dropping his napkin, and the thread
+of his tale, he rose to his feet. Blushing furiously, Doyle bent, and
+with vigorous effort pried off a circular, perforated top, revealing a
+dark, cylindrical space beneath, from the depths of which he lifted a
+dripping bucket of galvanized iron, and sped, thus laden, away to the
+kitchen, to the music of Mrs. Archer's merry laughter and a guffaw of
+joy from the general's lips.
+
+"How came you to put it there, sir?" demanded he, a moment later, as
+Doyle circumnavigated the table, filling, as ordered, the five little
+glasses with fragrant Amontillado. "I must tell you, gentlemen, this is
+one of the pleasant surprises that most admirable woman yonder is
+forever putting up on me. Life would be a desert without such."
+
+"Indeed it wasn't mine!" expostulated madam, "though I'm deeply
+indebted to somebody. Who was it, Doyle?"
+
+"Docther Bentley, ma'am. He said I was to keep it dark, ma'am--'an' in
+the coolest place I could find----"
+
+But here the peals of laughter silenced the words and rang the glad
+tidings to listening, waiting ears in the kitchen that all was well.
+Mrs. Stannard scurried away to explain to her Luce, and the dinner went
+blithely on.
+
+"You did right, Doyle! you did right!" shouted the general, "and we'll
+drink the doctor's health. Keep it dark, indeed! Haw, haw, haw!" And
+then nothing would do but he must tell the story of this precious and
+particular chair. Furniture, even such as he bought at San Francisco,
+and would live to a green old age along the Pacific, came speedily to
+pieces in the hot, dry atmosphere of Arizona. Little enough there was
+of cabinet ware, to be sure, because of the cost of transportation; but
+such as there was, unless riveted in every seam and joint, fell apart
+at most inopportune moments. Bureaus and washstands, tables, sofas and
+chairs, were forever shedding some more or less important section, and
+the only reliable table was that built by the post carpenter, the
+quartermaster.
+
+And so these pioneers of our civilization, the men and women of the
+army, had had no little experience in cabinetmaking and upholstering.
+While the emigrants and settlers, secure under its wing, could turn
+swords into ploughshares and spears into pruning-hooks, as saith the
+Scriptures, their soldier folk turned clothing boxes into couches, soap
+boxes into cradles, and pork barrels into _fauteuils_. Chintz and
+calico, like charity, covered a multitude of sins, as declared in
+unsightly cracks and knotholes. The finest reclining chair in all Camp
+Almy belonged to the doctor, a composite of condemned stretchers and
+shelter tent. The best dining-room set was sawed out from sugar
+barrels, and, being stuffed with old newspapers and gayly covered with
+cheese cloth and calico, rivaled in comfort, if not in airy elegance,
+the twisted woodwork of Vienna. When it was known that Mrs. and Miss
+Archer had descended upon the camp, and their beloved commander had
+next to nothing by way of furniture with which to deck their army home,
+every officer hastened to place his household goods--such "C. and G.E."
+as did not belong to the hospital--at the general's disposal. The
+Stannards sent three riveted, cane-bottomed, dining-room chairs and
+their spare room outfit complete. Captain Turner, whose fair-complected
+partner had not yet ventured to these destructive suns, sent bedstead
+and bureau, the latter without knobs, but you could pry the drawers
+open with the point of a sabre. The post trader drove up from the store
+with a lot of odds and ends. Even the bachelors were keen to do
+something. All of which Mrs. Archer most gratefully and smilingly
+accepted and made mental note of for future return in kind. But, in
+spite of the Stannards' contribution, the general stood firmly to his
+prerogative and sat close on his throne--"The finest dining chair in
+all Arizona, sir," as he often declared. "Sawed out from a standard oak
+whiskey barrel at Old Port Buford in '58, according to my own ideas and
+lines, and sound as a dollar to-day, sir, and it's only been covered
+three times in all. Look at it!" And here, with a flourish, he would
+whip off the seat. "Combination chair and butler's pantry, sir. Used to
+keep my whiskey and tobacco there when the redskins had the run of the
+post and thought nothing of searching our quarters. And now Doyle's
+used it as the doctor prescribed, and then gone and forgotten it! Haw,
+haw, haw! By Jove, but that's capital sherry! Cool almost as if it had
+been iced! Harris, my boy, you don't drink!"
+
+There was a moment's silence. Then the young officer answered, simply,
+yet almost apologetically:
+
+"Why--I never have, sir."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+It happened at a moment when Willett, seated at the right of "the lady
+of the house," with Lilian at his dexter side, had caught the eye of
+his hostess, and, after the manner of the day, had raised his brimming
+sherry glass and, bowing low, was drinking to her health, a feat the
+general had thrice performed already. "If I'd only known of this,
+gentlemen," said their host, but a moment earlier, with resultant
+access of cordiality, "and could have found a drop of Angostura about
+the post, we'd have had a 'pick-me-up' before dinner, but d'you know
+I--I seldom have bitters about me. I've no use for cocktails. I never
+touch a drop of stingo before twelve at noon or after twelve at night.
+I agree with old Bluegrass. Bluegrass was post surgeon at the Presidio
+when the Second Artillery came out in '65, right on the heels of the
+war, and he did his best to welcome them--especially Breck, their
+adjutant, also a Kentuckian. Then he was ordered East, and he left
+Breck his blessing, his liquor case, and this admonition--Breck told it
+himself. 'Young man,' said he, 'I observe you drink cocktails. Now,
+take my advice and don't do it. You drink the bitters and they go to
+your nose and make it red. You drink the sugar and it goes to your
+brain and makes it wopsy, and so--you lose all the good effects of the
+whiskey'! Haw, haw, haw!" It was a story the genial old soldier much
+rejoiced in, one that Stannard had bet he would tell before dinner was
+half over, and it came with Doyle and the chickens. The kindly,
+wrinkled, beaming face, red with the fire of Arizona's suns, redder by
+contrast with the white mustache and imperial, was growing scarlet with
+the flame of Bentley's cherished wine, when in sudden surprise he noted
+that the junior officer present, seated alone at his right (there was
+no other girl in all Camp Almy to bid to the little feast, and Mrs.
+Stannard, in mourning for a brother, could not accept), had turned down
+the little sherry glass. Thirty years ago such a thing was as uncommon
+in the army as fifty years ago it was unheard of in civil life. For one
+instant after the young officer's embarrassed answer the veteran sat
+almost as though he had heard a rebuke. It was Mrs. Archer who came to
+the relief of an awkward situation. "Mr. Harris believes in keeping in
+training," she ventured lightly. "He could not excel in mountain
+scouting without it. The general's scouting days are over and we
+indulge him." Indeed, it wasn't long before it began to look as though
+the general were indulging himself. Claret presently succeeded the
+sherry, but not until Bentley's health had been drunk again and the
+orderly summoned from the front porch to go, with the general's
+compliments, and tell him so. "This claret," he then declared, "is some
+I saved from the dozen Barry & Patton put aboard the Montana when I
+came round to Yuma last year. It's older than Lilian," this with a fond
+and playful pinch at the rosy cheek beside him, "and almost as good. No
+diluting this, Mr. Willett," for he saw that young officer glancing
+from the empurpled glass to the single carafe that adorned the table,
+its mate having met dissolution when the general's chest was prematurely
+unloaded in Dead Man's Cañon _en route_ to the post. "Dilute your
+California crudities all you like, but not the red juice from the sunny
+vines of France. No, sir! Moreover, this and old Burgundy are the wines
+you must drink at blood heat. No Sauturnes or Hocks or champagnes for
+us fire worshippers in Arizona! Lilian here and my blessed wife yonder
+don't like these red wines for that reason. They want something to cool
+their dainty palates, but men, sir, and soldiers---- What's this,
+Bella, Bellisima? Salad--French dressing--and cool, too! Bravissima, my
+dear! How did you manage it? The olla? Why, of course! Cool anything.
+Cool my old head, if need be. Hey, Willett?"
+
+And all this time, when not chatting with the debonair officer at her
+side or saying a word to his bronzed, sun-dried, silently observant
+comrade opposite, Lilian's fond eyes forever sought her father's
+rubicund face, love and admiration in every glance. All this time, even
+while in cordial talk with her guests, Mrs. Archer never seemed to lose
+a look or word from her soldier liege; never once did her winsome smile
+or joyous laugh fail to reward his sallies; never once came there shade
+of anxiety upon her beaming face. "The General" was the head of that
+house, and they were his loyal subjects. They even sipped at the
+outermost ripple of the thimbleful of claret each had permitted Doyle
+to pour. Even when a loud "cloop" in the dark passageway to the kitchen
+told that another bottle was being opened as the omelet came in, borne
+aloft by white-robed Suey, crowned with red poppies and blue blazes,
+and set triumphantly before the mistress of the feast, Harris could
+detect no flutter of disapprobation. Even when, later still, the
+general's eager hand, stretching forth for the dusky flagon (it was
+sacrilege to sweep away those insignia of age and respectability),
+managed to capsize the candelabrum and sent the fluid "adamantine"
+spattering a treasured table-cloth (how quick the dash of the young
+trooper's hand upon the flame--and its extinction!), a gentle smile was
+the sole rebuke, followed by a "Thank you, Mr. Harris. I hope you
+didn't burn your hand! That's all my fault." The general declared it
+foolish to put candles on the table when we could have sconces by the
+dozen on the walls.
+
+Indeed, there must have been a dozen candles, not to mention the big
+lamps of forbidden kerosene upon shelf and sideboard, each backed by
+its reflector of glistening tin. "We were vain, you see," continued
+Mrs. Archer, "of our two old-fashioned heirlooms. Those quaint
+three-socket sticks were brought by the general's grandfather from
+England in Colonial days." It was so with everything they had, though
+they had so little. The massive silver forks, the worn old spoons, the
+squat little sugar bowl and creamer that came in later, all bore a
+crest and a single word. All had been "The General's" before ever that
+well-descended veteran had bent the knee in wooing. All had been stored
+in San Francisco until their coming to cheer his exile, but now were
+duly paraded in honor of their first guests at Almy, the young scout
+leader from the southern border, and his classmate, the new
+aide-de-camp of the commanding general; both, as was understood, to
+leave them on the morrow.
+
+And all this time, too, though the windows, Arizona fashion, were
+blanketed to exclude all heatful light throughout the day (those of the
+dining-room being hidden behind Navajo fabrics in black and white, and
+blue and crimson), the hallways were wide open that no breath of air
+might be lost. The hounds clustered whimpering and wondering at the
+doorways, front and rear, resentful of the vigilance with which the
+orderlies on duty withstood their dashes, they who long weeks and
+months had had the run of the house. Darkness had settled down upon the
+sandy parade. The lights gleamed along the opposite front, the long
+barracks of the soldiery, and the stars were glinting bright above the
+beetling pine crests beyond the murmuring stream. Over at the mess the
+surgeon, the adjutant, quartermaster, Captain Bonner of the infantry,
+with his subaltern, and solemn Captain Turner, sat on the veranda,
+smoked their pipes, and even while keeping up a semblance of talk, had
+an eye and an ear on the bungalow--the "Old Man's" quarters not three
+hundred feet away. The boom of his jovial laughter still rang out upon
+the air, and presently the tinkle of guitar, the swish of feminine
+garments, the rasp of chairs and the merry mingling of voices told that
+the little dinner party, the first the camp had ever known--for what is
+a dinner party without women--had quit the table and gathered on the
+porch. By this time, too, an unclouded moon had sailed aloft from
+behind the screen of eastward heights, and its beams were pouring
+slantwise upon the group, that portion of it, at least, that now was
+seated near the southern end. They who watched were not slow to see
+that Lilian had taken a chair within a few feet of the edge, with
+Willett still in close attendance. The red heart of the general's cigar
+was visible midway between the window and the central doorway, but the
+jovial host was wrapped in shade. The light from the doorway fell upon
+the white gown of Mrs. Archer and the trim, slender, undersized figure
+of Lieutenant Harris, standing before her. They heard the general's
+voice, cordial and resonant, uplifted presently in protest: "No, don't
+go yet, boy. Let 'Tonio take care of himself to-night. I want you both
+to hear Lilian sing. Here, orderly, you go find 'Tonio and give him my
+compliments--No! you just tell 'Tonio _I_ want to see him."
+
+The orderly with Archer, as with many another post commander, was the
+final resort, the cure-all, the infallible means of settlement of all
+matters in dispute. The orderly went and stood not on the order of his
+going. He knew not 'Tonio, nor where to find him, but he knew better
+than to say so--to say anything. He went straightway to the sergeant of
+the guard, than whom no man is supposed to know more what is going on
+about the post. That Harris might have the pleasure of hearing the
+promised song (he surely could not think of going now) the mess
+devoutly hoped, and were in nowise too content when the sound of
+moving, of people getting to their feet, and of Archer's jocund
+welcome, told that callers had come to join the recent revellers, and
+that meant, of course, the Stannards, for there was really no one else.
+And then it was remembered that Stannard had said that Mrs. Archer had
+asked that they should come over after dinner, since they could not
+well attend it. Lilian's singing was something all save these two young
+soldiers had already heard, enjoyed and longed to hear again, and the
+mess could not but wish that old Stannard had not been so exact in his
+interpretation, and punctual in his acceptance of that invitation.
+There followed a few minutes of general talk and laughter, and then
+Archer's voice was again dominant. Nothing would do but that the
+Stannards both come in and taste that famous claret (which neither
+desired _after_ dinner, however much it might then have been enjoyed).
+Then all went trooping in-doors again, all save Lilian and Lieutenant
+Harris, for presently these two came sauntering into the moonlight at
+the southward end of the veranda. The girl resumed her seat and guitar;
+the young officer the chair lately occupied by Willett, and here full
+ten minutes were they in conversation when the orderly came stalking
+back from the guard-house; the quintette came flocking forth from the
+hallway, and Willett, coming to resume his seat and chat, found his
+classmate in possession. It was the first opportunity that had fallen
+to Harris, and if Willett hoped or expected that he would rise and
+surrender in his favor he was doomed to disappointment. Harris never so
+much as turned his head.
+
+They were an odd contrast, these two young graduates of the nation's
+soldier school, as they looked to Captain Stannard that November night.
+He spoke of it to his wife and thought of it long after, for he, too,
+had come toward the little group a bit impatient, it must be owned, of
+the general's mellow monologue, and wearying of a conversation in which
+_he_ had no part. But here again Stannard found scant opportunity.
+Miss Archer, bending slightly forward, was, with much animation
+describing to Mr. Harris the brilliant ball given by the artillery at
+the Presidio just before they were hurried off to that fatal Modoc war.
+Harris, caring little for the affair, and possibly hearing little of
+what she was saying, sat as though drinking in every word, and gazing
+enthralled upon the beauty of her sweet young face. He, too, was
+bending forward, his lithe, slender, supple frame clad in the trim
+undress uniform of the day, his clear-cut face, with its thin, almost
+hollow cheeks, tanned brown by the blazing suns of the southern desert,
+his hair cropped close to his shapely head, his gray-blue eyes, large,
+full and steady, fixed unswerving upon her. Leaning on his elbow, one
+lean brown hand was toying with the sun-bleached ends of his mustache,
+the other, with the class ring gleaming in the moonlight, lay idly on
+his knee. Lacking stature, size or weight, the physical attributes that
+make a man impressive, he looked the picture of the young athlete, firm
+and fit and trained for speed and staying power, yet cold in his
+steel-like strength and quality.
+
+Overtopping him, standing where he, too, could hear and gaze, elegant
+in form, graceful in pose, and precise in dress, the picture of
+chivalric officer and gentleman, Hal Willett had the advantage of
+nearly six more inches in height, a presence that was at once
+commanding and assured, and a face as strikingly handsome as that of
+Harris was severely plain. Willett's eyes and hair were of a deep,
+lustrous brown, his eyebrows thick and heavily arched, his mouth soft,
+sensitive, with lips that were beautifully curved and teeth that were
+white and well-nigh perfect. His mustache, though long and curling, was
+carefully trained away so as to hide none of the charms that lurked
+beneath. He looked at once the knight of the ballroom and the
+battlefield, a man to make his mark in either contest, love or war, and
+make it he had. Life had been full of gifts to Harold Willett. He came
+from old border stock. His name was first of the presidential ten the
+year he entered the Point, first on the list of cadet corporals in the
+yearling June and first among the first sergeants the following year.
+An uncontradicted rumor had it that he could have been sergeant-major,
+but that he told the commandant his ambition lay in the senior
+captaincy, and first captain he had been named his first class summer,
+only to lose it late in August, the penalty of a rash and forbidden
+exploit for the sake of a smile, and possibly a caress, and lose it to
+the man who, starting at the foot of the list of his chevroned fellows
+two years before, had risen only to "late sergeant" of a centre company
+when they came from furlough, but, standing foremost in "Tactics," well
+up in every subject but French and drawing, and impeccable in conduct,
+won a captaincy in spite of his lack of inches. Graduating a dozen
+files ahead of his brilliant comrade, Harris had sought and won
+commission in the cavalry, was sent to duty in New Mexico and then in
+Arizona, ever roughing it in the deserts or the mountains until in
+physique he was hard as hickory, and in spirit wellnigh as elastic.
+Never until this recent experience in the Apache Mohave country had he
+shown symptom of discouragement. Now it was the more noticeable because
+coupled, it would seem, with distrust--distrust of him who had been for
+two years past an inseparable guide and even comrade, 'Tonio, "_gran
+capitan_" of Indian scouts.
+
+And even as he sat there absorbed in the sweet vision in the moonlight
+before him, studying the play of her sensitive lips, forgetful for the
+moment of all else about him, there fell across the glistening boarding
+at her feet the shadow of a turbaned head, at sight of which she
+started, with faint, half-suppressed cry of fright; then, as though
+ashamed, broke into a nervous little laugh. Harris was in an instant on
+his feet, and whirling, confronted 'Tonio, tall, gaunt, silent,
+impassive.
+
+"_Que quiere?_" he demanded, in the blunt vernacular of the service. It
+annoyed him that subordinate of his should thus appear unseen, unheard,
+unsummoned, and to her affright. He forgot the noiseless sand, the
+soft-soled moccasins, the native stealth; forgot at the moment the
+general's mandate and the orderly's mission. It flashed upon him at
+'Tonio's quiet answer, grave, unresentful, and in the Apache tongue.
+
+"My chief called me."
+
+"Pardon me just one moment, Miss Archer. I'll come back at once," said
+Harris, bending over the still trembling girl. Then, turning sharply
+and bidding 'Tonio follow, his eyes met those of Willett, smiling
+affably.
+
+"I'll keep it while you're gone, Hefty," said he, with laughing ease of
+manner, sliding promptly into the vacated seat. "Now, Miss Archer, if
+you'll be so good as to go right on where you left off, I'll be all
+gratitude and attention."
+
+Without answer, Harris stepped lightly over to where the general and
+Stannard were now deep in one-sided argument over the merits of a
+war-time leader, known well to men of the Union Army east or west; the
+general declaiming, the junior listening, unconvinced. It was one point
+on which they differed widely, one on which the general was apt to
+dilate when warmed by wine. He had had only moderate aid from Willett
+in disposing of two bottles of sound old claret, and one was enough to
+set the garrulous tongue to wagging. He would not cease at sight of
+Harris, standing silent and respectful before him. Stannard had to
+interpose and say, "You sent for 'Tonio, sir, as I happened to hear,"
+as indeed they all did, far and near, whereat the veteran turned.
+
+"Bless my soul, boy, so I did! What for, I wonder?"
+
+"To save my going over with night orders for the scouts, I think, sir,"
+said Harris promptly, "and, unless you wish to see him personally, I'll
+tell him now."
+
+"_Must_ you make so early a start, Harris? It's only thirty miles to
+the cañon."
+
+"I know, sir, but I need to be at Bennett's before sunrise. Their
+scouts would see us if we started later. We go on to the cañon after I
+have examined that neighborhood."
+
+"All right, then. Buckets will issue rations at once. Start when you
+think best. But now, Stannard, see here; if he was such a stayer and so
+energetic in Virginia, how do you account for----"
+
+But Harris had saluted and turned away, 'Tonio at his heels. As they
+passed the end of the veranda, where sat Lilian and her listener,
+Harris noted that the latter had drawn his chair much closer than he
+had dared, and was bending forward until the handsome dark head was
+almost over the fair hand toying with the guitar that lay idly in her
+lap. The modern vernacular for the successful squire of dames was then
+unknown. The girl, who had been leaning forward, all chat and animation
+when Harris sat there, now lay dreamily back in the rude but easy
+chair, her eyelids drooping, her long lashes sweeping the soft cheek,
+listening, drinking in the murmurous flow of Willett's almost inaudible
+words, and the stern young face of his classmate hardened in the
+moonlight, for Harris had seen and heard before. Briefly he gave his
+instructions to the silent Apache and closed with the sign, "I have
+spoken. That is all."
+
+But 'Tonio did not stir. Something, possibly, in Willett's devotional
+attitude vaguely troubled the girl, and, edging back in her chair, she
+had lifted a little slippered foot from the floor. The general at the
+moment was talking loud enough to drown other sounds about him. The
+aide-de-camp, his dark eyes glowing and riveted on those of the fair
+face so near him, seemed deaf to everything but his own eloquence. But
+the Indian had placed one hand on his young officer's wrist, and with
+the other stood pointing at some object coiled underneath Lilian's
+chair, not half an arm's length from the little foot that dangled in
+its silken stocking but a hand's-breadth from the floor. At that moment
+Willett bent impressively, still nearer, and instinctively Lilian moved
+a hand as though about to edge farther away. It was at this very
+instant that Harris spoke, his voice, absolutely calm, even to the
+semblance of a drawl, but every word told clear, distinct, and, in
+spite of its courtesy, commanding, compelling.
+
+"Miss Archer and--ah--Willett, be good enough to sit perfectly still a
+moment. Don't--move--a muscle!"
+
+Even the general, for a wonder, had ceased--for breath, perhaps--and
+sat speechless and startled, for noiseless and stealthy as a cat, with
+long strides, 'Tonio had skirted the edge of the veranda, and with
+agile spring was at the back of Lilian's chair. There he swooped
+instantly. There was sound of strident, rasping sk-r-r-r-rr: then a
+lightning snap, as of a whip. Something black and writhing went flying
+into the sand, and then squirming blindly away, and 'Tonio straightened
+to his full height, and without a word strode from the veranda.
+
+"In God's name, what was that?" cried the general, springing from his
+chair and hastening to his daughter's side.
+
+"Nothing but a snake, sir," said Harris quietly, strolling toward them.
+"_That_ one's done for, anyhow!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+An hour later the lights were out among the barracks, and the silence
+of the summerlike winter's night had settled on the garrison. Over at
+the Mess and office buildings all was darkness. Along the log and adobe
+façade of the officers' quarters, from occasional open doorways the
+gleam of lantern was thrown across the wooden verandas. The moonbeams
+flooded the sandy parade and the rough-hewn roofs and walls with
+tender, silvery radiance that put to shame the twinkling lights, down
+at the store on the lower flats, and the bleary eye of the big,
+triangular, glass-faced, iron-bound cresset at the log guard-house,
+perched at the edge of the mesa. Afar off, through dim vistas of the
+valley, the silver ribbon of the stream wound and twisted among the
+willows, but the heights, as a rule, were wrapped in the shadows of
+their own pines. A game of goodly proportion was going on down at the
+card room, a brace of ranchmen and prospectors, a venturesome "sub" and
+the "contract doctor" making up the party, but the general, his
+household and near neighbors had retired or were retiring for the
+night. Only the guard and the "owls" were "on deck." Army folk in those
+days and regions had a way of turning out at dawn for the cool of the
+morning, turning in at taps for the needed six hours' beauty sleep,
+lunching lightly at noon, snoozing drowsily an hour or two, then after
+tub and fresh linen, venturing forth, those who had to, for the
+afternoon duties. All social enjoyment, as a rule, began when the sun
+could not see, but had dropped back of the screen of the mountains.
+
+But there was still faint stir at the camp of the scouts, out beyond
+the corrals. Rations had been drawn at tattoo, and a limited portion
+issued to the lithe, swarthy fellows, squatted in semicircle in front
+of their chief, patiently awaiting their share, no man of their number
+opening so much as the end of a package, either of cartridge or
+cracker, until the last had his dole and all were served. It was known
+that before dawn they were again to set forth, whither, not even 'Tonio
+had been told, and 'Tonio had noted and felt it. Hitherto there had
+been counsel between his young commander and himself. This night there
+had been none. Instead, only half an hour after the exciting episode at
+the commanding officer's and the despatching of the intruding rattler,
+'Tonio had been summoned to the adjutant's office and then questioned
+by Lieutenant Willett, with _cargador_ Muñoz, not Lieutenant Harris,
+serving as interpreter. Hitherto 'Tonio had conducted his conference
+with the Great Father's captains with Lieutenant Harris translating. It
+was significant both to that officer and to 'Tonio that this time a
+pack train employé had been selected, his name having been suggested at
+head-quarters at Prescott, and an orderly sent for him early by way of
+caution, for Muñoz loved monte and mescal. Another significant thing
+was that Harris had declined an invitation to be present at 'Tonio's
+examination. "If Mr. Willett has any question to ask me," he said,
+"he'll find me at Dr. Bentley's," whither, indeed, he had repaired, as
+it were, awaiting summons.
+
+Moreover, it was patent to Stannard and Turner and Dr. Bentley, too,
+that Harris took it much amiss that Willett should at last disclose the
+fact that he was there to "investigate." He had said nothing of it the
+night before. He had put up at the adjutant's, after quite a long
+session at the Mess, an affair attended by Harris only an hour or so,
+and even then only as an absorbed listener, with other fellow-soldiers,
+to Willett's brilliant description of the recent campaign in the lava
+beds, culminating as it had in the brutal massacre by the Modocs of
+their would-be best friends, the peace commissioners, and General
+Canby. After taps, however, despite his long and dusty buckboard ride,
+Willett saw fit to "sit in" to the game almost always in progress down
+at the trader's store. Whereupon Stannard, Turner and Harris,
+non-participants ever, took themselves off to bed. It was not much of a
+game, said Strong, who was there, only Willett, Craney, Watson, Briggs
+and himself, and was remarkable for only one fact, that Case, the
+bookkeeper, who never before had seemed to care to play, had happened
+in late, looked curiously on a moment, and then, without having been
+presented to Willett, seemed desirous of taking a hand. Craney wondered
+if Case had been drinking again, but Willett took no notice. Willett
+was feeling very jolly, said Strong, and it was quite late when they
+finally quit.
+
+Harris was up with the sun looking over his pack train and observing
+'Tonio and his fellows. Willett did not turn out until office hours,
+when he had a conference with General Archer, ending in his expressing
+a wish to "look about" him for the day. He had asked no questions of
+Harris; had met him heartily, as classmates should, but with just a
+suspicion of superiority of manner that Harris could not like, and
+without a word of appreciation of the capital soldier work Harris had
+been doing.
+
+There was another reason why Harris resented Willett's investigating
+his scout that second evening. A total abstainer himself from boyhood,
+reared by a careful mother and aware for many a year that his father's
+occasional lapses were her perennial dread, Harris had set his canon
+against the practice from the day he doffed the gray at West Point, and
+never swerved from his creed after donning the blue. Not so with
+Willett. Not so with nine-tenths of his associates. Harris had seen,
+without remark, that Willett enjoyed the occasional beverages mixed for
+him at the Mess in the late afternoon, and again had noted that his
+comrade did quite his share this second evening toward finishing the
+doctor's sherry, though it was the "Old Man," after all, who "got away
+with" most of the Bordeaux. Twice after dinner Archer had ushered his
+guests within doors, once to try what was left of the claret, and
+later, after the snake episode, when some nerves might be in need of
+bracing, to sample some phenomenal Monongahela. Then when Harris was
+through, after saying good-night, he was presently followed by Willett,
+flushed in face and abrupt in manner. Miss Archer had been spirited off
+by her mother, and presumably gone to bed. She'd get used to snakes if
+she stayed long in Arizona, said Willett. What was the sense in scaring
+her, anyway? Why hadn't Harris quietly given him the tip? _He_ could
+have snapped Mr. Rattler's head off without anybody being the wiser,
+and Harris saw that the night-caps, taken on top of all that preceded,
+had tangled Willett's ideas, despite which fact Willett now announced
+that he had summoned the interpreter and desired Harris to send 'Tonio
+to the office for investigation at once.
+
+And Willett represented the commanding general, who knew nothing of
+what was going on, and Harris could only obey.
+
+It was a dramatic scene as it opened. Willett had not failed to hand a
+copy of his instructions to the post commander and had left entirely to
+his judgment the question as to whether the officers should be present.
+Archer had decided against it. 'Tonio might be alarmed. It were better,
+he said, that no one except the post adjutant, the interpreter, and
+Lieutenants Willett and Harris appear, and then Harris, whose letter
+from the field announcing the ill success of the scout was the original
+cause of the investigation, said he preferred to be excused. Harris did
+not wish to appear to 'Tonio in the light of an accuser, and Willett
+was secretly better content that his classmate should stay away.
+
+Down in the bottom of his heart Willett felt that four years of such
+experiences as Harris had encountered made him a far better judge of
+Apache methods and motives than he, Willett, could expect to be.
+Moreover, he knew well that, were he in Harris's place, he should
+resent it that an officer no higher in grade, and inferior in Arizona
+craft, should be sent to inquire into the conduct of his scout. It was
+just one of those things a tactless chief of staff would sometimes do;
+but, even though Willett appreciated, none the less did he welcome the
+order. It put him at once in position of ascendency over a classmate of
+whose record and success he was both jealous and afraid. If he had felt
+this earlier in the day the feeling was intensified now, for though he
+had seemed to some of the officers, to Archer and his family, especially
+to Lilian, far the more accomplished and attractive of the two, the
+entrance of that disturbing rattler on the scene had destroyed the
+equilibrium of affairs. Willett had had no experience with the venomous
+little reptile, Harris had had much, and Harris's utter _sang froid_,
+and cool, commanding words had averted what might have been a tragedy.
+One start, one sudden move of the girl at that critical moment might
+well have been fatal. The snake, alarmed and angered by previous stir
+and by Willett's approaches, was actually coiled for the spring. The
+tiny fangs would have fastened in a flash on that slender, unprotected
+ankle, and the rest could only be conjectured.
+
+And so, it was in no judicial mood that Willett began his questioning.
+Accustomed as he was to the hang-dog, dissolute specimens of degenerate
+red men he had seen in the Columbia country and the lava beds, he
+hardly knew what to make of 'Tonio, this ascetic of the mountains,
+clear eyed, trained to a fineness almost unhuman, all wire and sinew,
+an Indian withal who looked him straight and fearless in the eye, and
+held himself as proudly as ever did chieftain of the Aztecs or the
+Sioux. Summoned from the camp fire to this unsought council, finding
+himself confronted by strangers, missing his own friend and commander,
+and instinctively scenting accusation, 'Tonio stood and faced his
+judges without so much as a tremor.
+
+For a moment Willett sat and studied him. "Siwashes" of Puget's Sound,
+Klickatats of the Columbia, and scowling, beetle-browed Modocs of upper
+Nevada he had often met, and their shifting eyes dropped before the
+keen gaze of the dominant soldier, but this son of the Sierras never so
+much as suffered the twitch of a muscle, the droop of an eyelash. In
+the language of the "greaser" cargador, whose border vernacular had
+suffered through long contact with that of the gringo, "'Tonio didn't
+scare worth a damn, even when the lieutenant tried bulldozing," but
+that may merely have been the expression of civilian jealousy of
+military methods. Being in the pay and under the protection of the
+United States, 'Tonio could be called on for explanation at any time,
+only--there were two ways of calling.
+
+"Tell him," said Willett, "the chief-of-chiefs believes the Apache
+Mohaves are hiding in the Mogollon,--many of them--bucks, squaws and
+children, and he was sent to find them and to bring them to the
+reservation. Why did he fail?"
+
+Muñoz, as nearly as he could, put the question, but none too
+confidently.
+
+"Because my people were driven beyond sound of 'Tonio's voice," was the
+calm reply, the eyes for the officer, the words for the man, and Muñoz
+again translated.
+
+"How so? Was not word sent them by Arahawa?"
+
+"Arahawa said the white brother would come with food and presents to
+lead them home. What they saw was guns and scouts and soldiers.
+Therefore, they were afraid and fled. Soldiers with guns catch no
+Mohaves who fear. Therefore was it useless, and I tired."
+
+"Could _you_ have caught them and persuaded them had you gone alone?"
+And Willett asked as he had been instructed at headquarters.
+
+"Caught? Yes! Persuaded? No! They say white soldiers killed Comes
+Flying, brother to Chief Lone Pine."
+
+"How does he know Comes Flying was killed? We heard it only the night I
+reached Prescott. No one has told it--here." And now the officer's eyes
+were glittering. The adjutant shifted uneasily in his chair. This was
+news to him. Comes Flying stood second only to Lone Pine in the tribe,
+yet Camp Almy had not heard it. 'Tonio had told it not even to Harris.
+
+"The mountain eagle is 'Tonio's friend; the bear, the lynx, the birds
+are his brothers."
+
+"Then you _knew_ the Apache Mohaves were in the Verde Valley--and in
+Dead Man's Cañon as late as last week--that they had raided Stoner's
+Ranch?"
+
+"They were not there, nor did they raid Stoner's Ranch! My people
+stayed not even on the East Fork. They fled deep in the Mogollon."
+
+Willett gave vent to impatient "Pish!" The Indians he had known all
+lied, of course, but looked it. This man looked him full in the face,
+even as he lied, and looked the truth.
+
+"I'll show you why we know you lie," said he impulsively, but the
+adjutant held up a warning hand, saying, "Listen!"
+
+Through the open doorway, barred against unauthorized intruder by the
+single soldier, standing beyond earshot upon the level of the parade,
+there came the prolonged cry of a sentry at the upper end of the
+garrison. Number Three had repeated, but Number Four was impatient,
+imperative, and the yell came again: "Corporal of the Guard, Number
+Four!"
+
+"That _means_ something," said the adjutant, springing to his feet.
+"I'll be back in a minute if it doesn't," and away he went,
+swift-speeding under the flagstaff, and Muñoz followed straight to the
+base of the staff, where the trumpeter of the guard and three or four
+men from the barracks were already gathered, their own surreptitious,
+blanket-shrouded game for the moment forgotten. They were staring
+through the moonlight straight away to the northeastward chain of
+heights, rocky and precipitous, that spanned the valley in that
+direction, and suddenly two of them gave tongue:
+
+"There it is again! Didn't I tell you?"
+
+Far away among the pines at the crest a tiny blaze shot into the skies,
+brilliant even in the moonshine. "Signal fire, sure!" said three voices
+at once. "Signal fire, sure!" echoed other voices, as more men came
+running forth from the barracks to join the watchers on the parade.
+"Signal fire, sure, and right up over the Bennett Ranch--where the
+general was to-day!"
+
+"My God, I wonder have they jumped it! Yonder comes the
+corporal--back--running!"
+
+Back, indeed, and running and straight for the doctor's, where he could
+be heard banging at the open door. So away went the trumpeter, full
+tilt for tidings, and others, impatient, followed. Instead of coming
+back the trumpeter kept on, running still harder toward the brow of the
+hill and the post of Number Four. It was the corporal who called to his
+halting and anxious fellows:
+
+"It's Bennett's Ranch! His dago's in with the news--mos' dead down
+there on Number Four; says they've killed the whole family--'Patchie
+Mohaves!"
+
+There was awed silence one moment. Then a deep voice broke it, and all
+eyes turned on the speaker. 'Tonio.
+
+"Apache Mohave? No! _No!!_"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+Bennett's "dago," when halted by Number Four, was as limp a specimen of
+humanity as that drowsy young trooper had seen in all his soldier days.
+Bennett's dago was no stranger to the post, having occasionally come
+thither on errands for his employer, and semi-occasionally appeared
+without such semblance of authority, but, whether his mission was for
+master or man, it had never hitherto failed to lead to the store and
+monte. Small as was the garrison, and few as were the neighboring
+ranches, there was generally business enough to support two card rooms,
+one for officers and the "_gente fino_"--the trader, his partner, the
+chief packer, forage master, and an occasional rancher or prospector;
+the other, a big one, and often a riotous, for the soldiery, scouts,
+packers and riffraff of the frontier, and for this establishment
+Bennett's dago had an indescribable fascination. Here he had met and
+differed with Muñoz, the two coming to a knife duel, promptly
+suppressed by the gun butts of the guard. None the less was Muñoz
+called into requisition as interpreter, for between peril, exhaustion
+and defective English the "dago" could only splutter an unintelligible
+jargon that might have been Sicilian, Maltese, or Calabrian, but could
+not be Spanish. Bennett, it seems, had picked him up for dead on the
+Verde road, early in the spring of the year, and Mrs. Bennett had
+nursed the poor devil back to life. Then it turned out that he knew how
+to cook. Later it transpired that he had been with a Mexican "outfit,"
+prospecting for gold; had taken mountain fever, become a burden to
+them, and was left to look out for himself at a tank in Dead Man's
+Cañon. He paid for his keep in cooking and chores, said Bennett, and
+picked up enough English to enable him to get along about the ranch. He
+presently showed desire to care for the horses and mules and to ride
+them, and one day he disappeared with Bennett's best saddle mule and
+was gone forty-eight hours, and on his return gravely tendered Bennett
+a five-dollar gold piece in payment for his time and mule while away.
+He said he won it at monte, and it was proved that he had found his way
+to the card room, as a mule does to water, and, without knowledge of
+English, displayed consummate skill in the game; had played only two
+hours, had won twenty dollars and departed at dusk. But his winnings
+were in greenbacks and silver. Whence had come the gold? The trader's
+people said he stabled his mule; introduced himself as "Bennett's
+_mozo_--me," and "sat into" the game then in progress as though long
+accustomed; showing silver, mainly Mexican, the only credentials the
+players required. At sunset he quit, easy winner, and went without
+taking so much as a "snifter." Once having found the way, and the
+means, the dago came again and yet again, neither giving nor having
+trouble until he ran foul of Muñoz, the Mexican, whom he seemed to hate
+at sight. Whatever his lingo, or that employed by the polyglot Mexican,
+they understood each other, and the misunderstanding that followed was
+purely personal.
+
+Now, in spite of his craze for gambling the dago had points that
+appealed to Bennett. He found him valuable in many a way. He was almost
+doglike in his devotion to Bennett's wife and children. He was a
+"bang-up" cook, barring a heavy hand at first with _chile_ and onions.
+He patched up an old guitar of Mrs. Bennett's and strummed delightfully
+all manner of strange Mexican and Mediterranean melodies, and,
+encouraged by her, had even been betrayed into song. He was kind to the
+stock, and the mules took to him from the very start, which the two
+horses did not do. The dogs tolerated at first and then "tied" to him.
+So, too, the cat adored him. He got along smoothly with the one negro
+and two Maricopa Indian boys Bennett had brought with him from the
+Gila. He did not drink even when at the post, and in the course of six
+months had come to be a feature, almost a fixture of the ranch, yet
+"Dago" was the only name by which he was known, even among his
+benefactors. Bennett said he believed he had forgotten he ever had
+another.
+
+That very morning, showing all his white teeth, he had whipped off a
+battered old hat of Mexican straw at sight of the general and his fair
+daughter, had taken the basket while the orderly led the horses to the
+corral, had followed them about the little garden patch while Mrs.
+Bennett delightedly showed her lettuce and spinach and the gorgeous bed
+of poppies. Then he had brewed delicious chocolate, though condensed
+milk was poor substitute for whipped cream, and had prepared such an
+appetizing little luncheon, and had made himself so useful, that the
+general was moved to say to Bennett that any time the dago tired of his
+job he could find one at the fort. "I wonder he stays," said Bennett.
+"I only give him five dollars a month, even now, and he could get
+twenty, and unlimited monte, at the store; besides, he is mortal 'fraid
+of these 'Patchie Mohaves; hell knows why, and hides when he sees 'em
+coming."
+
+"Do they never bother you stealing or--some way?" asked the general,
+with an anxious glance at the two sturdy little ranchers, five and
+three-year-old Bennetts, rolling and wrestling in the sand, showing off
+for the benefit of the visitors.
+
+"'Patchie Mohaves?" asked Bennett, looking up in surprise. "Never have!
+You know I drove mule team to the agency two years ago, and sort of
+grew to them. Why, Minnie, now, thinks as much of them, or most, as she
+does of the boys at the post. They're a sort of police, sir. The Tontos
+don't dare come down so long as the Mohaves are about here."
+
+"I know," said the general reflectively. "Yet some few bucks drifted
+off to the Tontos, and the agent's been raising a row because so many
+of them roost down here instead of staying on the reservation, bringing
+in game. Did you know that two bands were out--women and all--without
+permits, and that was one thing that brought Lieutenant Harris and his
+scouts up here?"
+
+"Well, that accounts for our having seen none of them for over two
+weeks. They must have gone clean out to the Mesa. General," he
+continued anxiously, "they don't like their agent, or that agency.
+They're herded in there with Apache Yumas and sick Tontos and Sierra
+Blancas--fellows that get better treatment because they're bigger
+devils and raise merry hell. _I_ know 'em and the agent don't. I'd move
+in to the post if _they_ were out, but we're safe with the 'Patchie
+Mohaves."
+
+That was what poor Bennett was saying not twelve hours earlier, and now
+the homelike ranch had gone up in flames, and Bennett, wailed the dago,
+lay butchered among the ruins. So, too, the negro. The Maricopa boys
+had fled only, probably, to be run down and killed, but what had become
+of the poor, helpless little wife and mother, with her bonny, blue-eyed
+boys, God alone knew.
+
+By this time half the enlisted strength of the post was up and out and
+flocking to hear the tidings. Bentley, the surgeon, had shuffled over
+in his slippered feet and was giving Dago first aid to the demoralized
+in the shape of _aguardiente Americano_, that made him sputter and
+sneeze, but speedily braced him. The adjutant hurried over to call the
+commanding officer, passing Harris on the way, and Harris, already in
+campaign dress, was hastening to the camp of his scouts. Turner, silent
+and sombre, as was his wont, had elbowed his way through the throng and
+stood glowering at Dago and the beetled-browed Muñoz, as though
+weighing them in mental balance, and finding both wanting. Mrs.
+Stannard, through the blinds, had hailed the adjutant as he went
+bounding by to say the captain would be out in a moment. Already
+Wettstein had told them the fearful news. The adjutant stepped inside
+the open hallway at the general's and banged on the swinging door of
+the little front room, answered almost instantly by the subdued and
+gentle voice of Mrs. Archer from the head of the stairs. The general
+was sound asleep. Was it necessary to wake him?
+
+Strong expected as much. Not once a month did that genial veteran
+permit himself an over-indulgence, but, when he did, the quicker he
+slept it off the better. He had taken his night-cap and turned in
+betimes, so as to be up at reveille. But Strong knew what the "Old Man"
+would say to him later if he failed to rouse him now. "It's immediate,
+Mrs. Archer," said he. "We have bad news from Bennett's Ranch."
+
+A pale, frightened, white little face had come peering over the
+motherly shoulder at the moment, even whiter in the flickering light of
+Mrs. Archer's candle, and at sound of the name there went up a low cry
+of distress.
+
+"Oh, Mr. Strong, is it Mrs. Bennett--or the boys?"
+
+"We don't--know--yet, Miss Archer. The dago's here, scared to death;
+galloped all the way with a story of an Indian raid. I'm hoping it
+isn't as bad as he thinks. God forgive me the lie," he added under his
+breath.
+
+"But they haven't hurt _her?_ They surely would not hurt _her_!" came
+the piteous wail, as the girl clung to the rude balustrade, while her
+mother hastened to rouse the sleeping warrior. "Heaven pity her,"
+thought Strong, "unless they have killed her outright and _not_ carried
+her away."
+
+Then came a step in the hall behind him, and Willett was there, alert
+and resourceful. "Pray don't be troubled _yet_, Miss Archer," he called
+reassuringly, and barely noticing Strong. "The messenger's been
+stampeded before this, the men tell me. He's too badly scared to know
+the truth. It may be there's been a fire. I think there has, for the
+light could be seen, and so he imagined Indians and never stopped to
+see. I'm going right up there and will send back word. _Please_ don't
+worry yet!"
+
+How thoughtful he was for her, and for dear mamma! How kind! Strong
+knew full well that the light they had seen was the glare of no burning
+ranch, but a beacon far up in the hills--a signal fire, of course. The
+ranch lay in a deep valley ten miles to the north-east, with high
+ridges intervening. In the brilliant moonlight a glare that might
+otherwise have been seen on the sky would pass unnoted. Strong knew,
+deep down in his heart, that whatever the fate of the family, the ranch
+was a thing of the past, but Willett's words were soothing. It was
+better to let them go unquestioned.
+
+Then out came the general on the landing above, his towzled gray poll
+poking over the rail. "What is it, Strong? I'll be down quick as I can
+half dress." Indeed, he was losing no instant of time, though it cost
+him some items of toilet. With his feet in "flip-flaps," his legs in
+loose linen trousers, and buttoning a sack coat over his nightgown, the
+veteran was already shuffling downstairs. "Run back to your room,
+dear," he said, as he passed his little girl. "You shall know
+everything presently," and then in a moment was out in the free air of
+heaven, the two young officers with him.
+
+Briefly, cautiously, the adjutant murmured the dago's story, adding his
+fear as to its truth. Blankly Archer looked at them an instant, aghast,
+appalled, as well he might be, and for the moment unable or unwilling
+to trust himself to speak. There had been no time, he said, to souse
+his head in the big basin of cool water his wife would have given him.
+He was still heated, flushed, suddenly roused from heavy slumber, and
+by no means at his best. Strong knew just how to act in the premises
+and would have given him time to recover, but there was Willett, alert
+and insistent,--Willett who represented the commanding general, and
+whose words carried weight--Willett who was quick to seize the
+opportunity and to say:
+
+"This is just in line with what we thought at headquarters, sir, and
+the quicker I can get to the spot the better. With your consent,
+general, I'll push out at once with the scouts, and we'll get back word
+to you before daylight."
+
+And even Strong, loyal soul, had to admit later that the general's
+answer was practically "Yes, yes, by all means, Willett, and I'll send
+a troop in support," whereupon Willett darted away to the adjutant's
+quarters to doff his natty uniform and don something older and more
+suitable. Twenty minutes thereafter he had swung a leg over one of
+Stannard's troop horses and spurred away down to the north-eastward
+slope, toward the upper ford of the stream, where dimly in the distance
+another horseman could be seen, with a dozen shadowy, ghost-like forms
+gliding along in tireless jog trot in line with him--Harris and his
+mountain hounds, the Apache scouts, already _en route_ for the scene of
+disaster. Bentley, Stannard and Turner, standing at the edge of the
+bluff, with fourscore soldiers clustered about them, while others had
+gone with Dago to hear again his tale, gazed thoughtfully after the
+disappearing shadows and then at each other.
+
+"Humph!" said Stannard, in words meant for his fellows, but in tones
+that went farther. "There'll be conflict of authority now or _I'm_ a
+duffer!"
+
+Ten minutes they stood and watched; then came the orderly with the
+general's compliments, and he'd be glad to see Captain Stannard at
+once.
+
+"That means you're going, Stan," said the surgeon. "I suppose he'll
+send my assistant with you."
+
+They found the commanding officer on the porch of his quarters, very
+grave and quiet now, perfectly calm and self-possessed. The dago had
+squatted at the edge of the steps, his face bowed in his hands,
+shivering as though from cold. Muñoz slouched near by, eying him in
+aggressive contempt. Several sergeants, with many of the men, were
+grouped at respectful distance, eager and waiting the word. Strong was
+with the ladies, for Mrs. Stannard had dressed hurriedly and come over,
+and between them the two elders were gently striving to console or
+encourage Lilian, who had been quite overcome by the particulars as
+translated by Muñoz. The dago claimed that from his pallet, under the
+"linter" of the corral, he had been roused by the sudden yell at the
+ranch, followed by swift shooting, screams and cries of Mrs. Bennett
+and the children, the outburst of flame, and then he saw them, the
+Indians, coming for him, and he sprang on the best horse and lashed him
+all the way to the post.
+
+Stannard came at the moment, solid, stocky, and reliable--a man it was
+a comfort to look at in moments of peril or excitement, and such
+moments were frequent in the old days of the frontier. Silently he
+saluted, stood before the commander and received his brief
+orders--mount the troop, follow the scouts, and if it should appear
+that Mrs. Bennett and the children had been carried off by the Indians,
+to pursue and do his best to recapture. Rations would follow by mule
+train.
+
+Stannard had just one question to ask.
+
+"Shall I call on Mr. Harris or Mr. Willett for scouts, sir?" And even
+then it was noted that he named Harris first.
+
+"Why--on Mr. Harris. He is in command."
+
+"Very good, sir," said Stannard, and turned on his heel. Mrs. Stannard,
+hastily kissing Lilian's pale and tear-wet cheek, started to follow,
+but through the little knots of soldiery a strange figure came forcing
+a way, a lithe Apache on resentful mule--'Tonio, already back from the
+front, a little folded paper in his hand. Lashing the obstinate brute
+he bestrode, 'Tonio dove straight at the general, and all men waited to
+learn the tidings. Hastily Archer opened the paper, glanced it over in
+the moonlight, looked up, and nodded to Stannard.
+
+"Willett says from round the point they can see two more signal fires
+toward the north-east, just the way to the Apache Mohaves!"
+
+Then came a dramatic incident. Sitting his saddle mule like a chief of
+the Sioux, 'Tonio straightened to his full height, his strong face
+gleaming in the brilliant, silvery sheen, his bare right arm, with
+clinching fist uplifted, and in a voice that rang out like a clarion on
+the hushed and breathless night, shouted his response for his people:
+
+"Apache Mohave! No! _No!_ No!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+Barely a mile away to the north-east of the site of old Camp Almy a
+ridge of rock and shale stretches down from the foothills of the Black
+Mesa and shuts off all view of the rugged, and ofttimes jagged,
+landscape beyond--all save the peaks and precipitous cliffs of the
+Mogollon, and some of the pine-crested heights that hem the East Fork.
+Time was, toward the fag end of the Civil War, when the volunteers from
+the "Coast" kept a lookout on the point, a practice that yielded more
+scalps to the Indians than security to the inmates. The system,
+therefore, fell into disuse, and the post became unpopular because of
+the mutilated condition in which the pickets were twice found by the
+relief, and the amount of reliable information received from the point
+never quite paid for the cost. With the disappearance of the Tontos,
+who were not such fools as their Spanish name implied, the practice of
+stationing outlying sentries was dropped. The Tontos seemed to have
+abandoned the valley to their distant cousins, the Apache-Mohaves,
+whose presence there, in small, itinerant parties, was objected to less
+by the few scattered settlers than by the one badgered agent at the
+distant reservation.
+
+This, at least, was the case at first. Bennett and Sowerby, from above
+Camp Almy, and two others from below, found them friendly and
+peaceable. But presently complaints were heard from settlers over at
+McDowell, in the Verde Valley to the west, and other settlers away up
+the Verde toward Camp Sandy. Then Sowerby swore his stock was run off,
+and Bennett presently remained the only ranchman to stand up for them.
+The agent declared them contumacious and tricky. Other whites--Arizona
+white was then a reddish-brown--added their evil word to the
+official's. It was the old adage over again: "Give a dog a bad name,"
+etc., and the department commander had sent for scouts to coax them in,
+before despatching troops to enforce their coming, and Harris had found
+nobody--nothing but abandoned _rancherias_ and unsavory relics.
+
+And then had come the tidings of a clash--the killing of Comes Flying,
+son of a chief, and brother to a tribal leader, and then in reprisal,
+probably, the burning of Bennett's home and the butchery of Bennett.
+Then Harris had stayed not a moment, but, acting on the understanding
+of the previous evening, had gone forth at once.
+
+It is well to be prompt, yet oftentimes wise to be prompted. Post
+commanders like to be able to say in their reports, "I ordered" this,
+or "By my direction" that, and Harris had gone at the word of alarm
+without other word with the general.
+
+That Harris was to choose his own time was the understanding between
+them when they parted, almost affectingly, at night, for between the
+snake episode and the successive toddies the good old gentleman was
+quite effusive. There would have been, probably, no change in the
+instructions had Harris started at reveille or even at dawn. But to
+"pull out" at midnight, with the situation changed and without another
+word with the commander, was something open to criticism. Moreover,
+Harris knew it.
+
+But he had two reasons, neither of which might count with a court of
+his peers, but were of mighty account to him. 'Tonio had come to him
+actually ablaze with indignation. 'Tonio had said his people were
+accused when his people were innocent. 'Tonio had begged that they
+start at once, and he would show it was not Apache-Mohaves at fault. He
+would show who were the real raiders, and might even rescue the
+prisoners. So Harris never hesitated. Leaving a brief note in the hands
+of Dr. Bentley, he had ridden away with 'Tonio and a dozen of his best,
+only to be overtaken a mile or so out by the man of all others he least
+desired to see. Hal Willett was the second reason Harris had for
+wishing to get well away. If ever there came opportunity for a man to
+step in, and upon, another man's plans and purposes, Harold Willett
+could be relied upon to take it. Harris knew him of old, knew
+instinctively that, if a possible thing, his classmate, ever selfish
+and self-seeking, would rob him of the fruits of his long service with
+the scouts, and would not scruple in such an emergency to take over the
+command.
+
+Harris was right. Just as the leaders rounded the huge shoulder of
+hillside jutting so boldly to the bank of the stream, and were eagerly
+pointing to the two distant flames far up in the foothills, Willett
+came galloping to his side. "Signal fires, of course!" said he. "It's
+just as I said, and this fellow of yours denied. They're making for the
+Mesa. I'll send back word at once." With that he set to scribbling a
+note on a page of his scouting book, then again galloped forward,
+catching Harris and 'Tonio riding side by side.
+
+"Tell 'Tonio to take this straight to General Archer," said he.
+
+Then Harris turned on him:
+
+"I don't recognize your right to order my scouts about, Willett. I need
+'Tonio here."
+
+"You'll have him again in twenty minutes," was the conciliatory answer.
+"This is by Archer's own order, Harris. I've come straight from his
+side. Otherwise I'll interfere with you as little as possible."
+
+And Harris, with one look of distrust in his comrade's flushing face,
+turned quietly to 'Tonio, said barely ten words to his second, not one
+to his senior, then bitterly spurred ahead.
+
+He was not the first man in the profession of arms to realize what it
+is to faithfully and persistently labor to develop, instruct and
+discipline a body of men until he and they are working in absolute
+accord, all the intricate parts of the human machine nicely adjusted
+and moving without the faintest friction, and then to find himself at
+the eleventh hour set to one side, a stranger to his men and a rival to
+himself set in his stead, and be bidden to move on as a sort of martial
+second fiddle, while the credit and reward go to the new first violin.
+Nor was Harris the last by any manner of means. As General Archer had
+himself been heard to say, "One essential of military preferment is a
+knowledge of the game of euchre--your neighbor." Couple this with utter
+indifference to the rights of fellow-soldiers, and a catlike capacity
+to work by stealth in the dark, and there is no starry altitude to
+which one may not aspire. Harris made the same mistake older soldiers
+had sometimes made in higher commands, that of sticking to their own
+men, and duties, without keeping an eye on, and a friend at,
+headquarters. Anomalous as it may sound, the absent are ever wrong,
+even when "present for duty," where they should be. If Harris that
+night had only gone to headquarters instead of his camp; had stopped to
+see the general instead of starting promptly to the rescue, there would
+have been less to tell by way of a story.
+
+Possibly a realization of this had already come over him, as angering
+yet unswerving, he once again overtook the eager leaders among his
+scouts,--lean, wiry fellows, ever gliding swiftly on in that tireless
+Apache running walk. Once there again, he kept his broncho at the trot
+to hold his own, and a broncho trot, after a mile or two of warming up,
+becomes something besides monotonous. Away to the far front, the
+north-east, flickered the tiny blazes; guiding lights, as Willett would
+have it; bale fires, as Harris began to believe--fires set by
+confederates to blind the eye of the pursuit, or lure pursuers to a
+trap. Away to the far front, seven miles now, and deep in a nook of the
+foothills, lay the site of Bennett's ruined ranch, and thither, at top
+speed of his scouts, was the young leader pressing. Not even a dull
+glow in the heavens above, or a spark on the earth beneath, could the
+sharp-eyed scouts discover to tell of its lonely fate. Only the dago's
+horrified words, only the confirmative symptoms of these farther fires,
+had these fly-by-night rescuers to warrant their mission. The story had
+its probable side. Peaceable as had been the Apache-Mohaves, the fact
+that a clash had occurred between them and some of the agent's
+forces,--a clash in which Comes Flying had been killed,--might readily
+turn the scale and send them on the war-path. If so, the first and
+nearest whites were apt to be the victims. If so, Bennett and his
+beloved wife and boys might well have been murdered in their beds--or
+spared for a harsher fate. In any event, the first duty--the obvious
+one--for Harris and his scouts was to reach the spot with all speed;
+ascertain, if possible, the fate of the ranch folk, then act as their
+discoveries might direct. All this Harris was turning over in mind as
+he hurried ahead. The road, though little worn, was distinct, and now
+that they were out of the bottom and skirting the stony bed of a little
+mountain stream, quite firm and dry. Six miles an hour, easily, his
+swarthy, half-naked fellows were making without ever "turning a hair."
+His own lean broncho, long trained to such work, scrambled along in
+that odd, short-legged trot, and Harris himself, trained to perfection,
+hard and dry, all sinewy strength, rode easily along--he could have
+done almost as well afoot--at the head of his men, keeping them to
+their pace, yet never overdriving.
+
+But with Willett the case was different. For him there had been no hard
+and dry scouting. It had been wet work in the Columbia country. It had
+been "hunt-your-hole business" in the lava beds, where the hat that
+showed above the rocks was sure to get punctured. Then the month of
+feasting in that most lavish of cities, "'Frisco, the Golden," and the
+fortnight's voyage by sea, with further symposiums, and finally some
+hours of frontier hospitality at Prescott and at Almy, all had combined
+to spoil his condition, and before he had ridden forty minutes Hal
+Willett found himself blown and shaken. He lagged behind to regain
+breath, then galloped forward to lose it. He knew that Harris had left
+him in anger and indignation not unjustifiable. He knew he had not full
+warrant for his authority. He knew Harris was entitled to unhampered
+command, and that he had hampered. Yet, now, believing that Harris was
+pushing swiftly ahead as much to "shake" him as to reach the scene, he
+again dug spurs to his laboring troop horse, and came sputtering over
+the loose stones to the young leader's side.
+
+"Harris," he puffed, "this is no way to work your men. They'll be blown
+when you get there, and of no earthly use."
+
+"You don't know them," answered Harris, with exasperating calm, and
+without so much as a symptom of slowing up.
+
+"But--I know how it affects--me,--and I'm no novice at scouting."
+
+"You are to--this sort of thing, anyhow," was the uncompromising
+answer, and then with a cool, comprehensive glance that seemed to take
+in the entire man, he added, "You're out of training, Willett--the one
+thing a man has to watch out for in Apache work. Better let me leave a
+couple of men with you, and come on easily. You won't be very far
+behind us."
+
+And then, as bad luck would have it, 'Tonio came cantering up from the
+rear, his big, lop-eared mule protesting to the last, and 'Tonio bore a
+little folded paper.
+
+He was not versed in cavalry etiquette, this chieftain of the frontier,
+nor had he learned to read writing as he did men. The two officers at
+the moment were side by side, Willett on the right, his charger
+plunging and sweating with back set ears and distended nostrils; Harris
+on the left, his broncho jogging steadily, sturdily on, showing no
+symptom of weariness. "To Gran Capitan--Willett" were the general's
+words, it seems, when he sent 'Tonio on his way with the note, but in
+'Tonio's eyes Harris was "Gran Capitan," even though hailed at times as
+"_Capitan Chiquito_," and to Harris's left 'Tonio urged his mount and
+silently held forth the missive.
+
+There was never any question thereafter that it was meant for the
+other. Archer had his reasons. Willett was there as the aid, the
+representative, of the department commander, charged with an important
+duty. Willett had come to him, volunteered to go with the scouts, and
+he had bidden him God speed. Willett was the senior in rank as first
+lieutenant, promotions in the "Lost and Strayed" having been livelier
+than in the "Light Dragoons." Moreover, Willett had shown proper
+deference to him, the post commander, whereas, Harris, said he, in his
+first impulsive, self-excusing mood, even though warranted in going,
+had gone without a word. Sensitive and proud, the veteran of many
+fights and many sorrows, ruefully bethinking himself of Harris's
+abstinence and his own conviviality, saw fit to imagine Harris guilty
+of an intentional slight.
+
+Like noble old Newcombe, the gentlest and humblest-minded of men, "he
+was furious if anybody took a liberty with him," and in his sudden
+rousing and wrath this was what he thought Harris had done. It was to
+humble him rather than to exalt Willett that he ignored the one and
+hailed the other. "To Gran Capitan Willett," he said, and 'Tonio handed
+the missive to the one "gran capitan" he knew and served and loved.
+
+And Harris, never noting the pencil scrawl upon the back, proceeded to
+tear it open, when Willett stretched forth his hand:
+
+"I think you will find that is for me, Harris--an answer to what I
+wrote," and his words had the distinct ring of authority. Harris
+flushed, even in the moonlight; turned it over, read the unsteady
+characters, "Lieutenant Willett, A.D.C.," surrendered it without a
+word, and a second time drove ahead, while Willett reined up to read.
+
+It was ten minutes before Willett again overtook the pale-faced young
+officer at the front. Harris's mouth looked like a rigid gash, and his
+battered felt was pulled down over a deep-lined forehead, as with stern
+eyes he turned his head, but never his shoulder, in answer to his
+classmate's imperative call.
+
+"Rein in now, and listen to this, Harris. If you must have it, it's--by
+order."
+
+And Harris slowly checked his horse; silently inclined an ear.
+
+    "Lieutenant Willett, it says," began the senior, with the sweat
+    rolling into his eyes, "Your despatch received. The fires you
+    mention indicate further hostile parties, 'Tonio insists not
+    Mohaves. If not, must be Tontos. Therefore, move with caution.
+    Stannard just saddling. Use your discretion as to waiting for him.
+
+    "ARCHER, Commanding Post."
+
+Then Willett turned. He had begun to refold, but ceased, and held it
+forth. "Read it yourself, if you like." Harris's gauntlet came up in
+protest. He bit his lip hard, but said no word. The scouts were but
+white specks in the distance now. There was sudden cry, low, like that
+of the night-bird, and 'Tonio dug his moccasined heels in his lop-eared
+charger's ribs and drove out to the front, then turned in saddle,
+looked back at his chief and pointed. Both officers instantly followed.
+
+The trail led over a low spur, and the scouts had halted and were
+squatting at the crest. Straightway before them, possibly four miles, a
+dull red glow lay in the midst of the moonlight, with occasional
+tongues of lurid flame lazily lapping at some smouldering upright. The
+fire had spent its force; gorged itself on its prey and was sinking to
+sleep.
+
+"Come on then!" said Harris, speaking for the first time impetuously.
+"If you can't stand the pace let us shove ahead!"
+
+"And run slap into ambush? No. My orders are to move with caution.
+We've got to _feel_ our way now. Hold your hand, Harris--and your men."
+
+Barely fifty minutes had they been in coming these six miles from Almy.
+Barely fifty minutes thereafter, and with less than three miles more to
+their credit, halted for cautious reconnaissance, with the ruined ranch
+still a long mile away, there came sound of feeble hail from a patch of
+willows down by the brookside, and presently, in fearful plight, they
+dragged forth Bennett's colored man-of-all-work, unharmed, but half
+dead with terror. Yes, Indians had suddenly come in the early evening.
+First warning was from the Maricopa boy who came running from the
+spring, saying they had killed his brother. Bennett grabbed his gun and
+ran out to see, telling him, Rusty, to take a rifle and hurry with Mrs.
+Bennett and the children and hide in the willows down the creek. They
+heard firing and yelling, and 'twas all Rusty could do, he said, to
+keep Mrs. Bennett from running back to her husband, and the children
+from screaming aloud, but he made them go with him still farther down
+the valley, down to that patch yonder, and there they lay in hiding
+while the Indians burned the ranch, and seemed hunting everywhere for
+them, and at last things quieted down, but Mrs. Bennett was wild and
+crazy and crying to go back and find her husband, dead or alive, and he
+had to hold her. Just a few minutes ago, not fifteen minutes before,
+she broke away, and he found it was no use trying. She started to run
+back, telling him to save her boys. She kissed them both and went, and
+it wasn't five minutes after that before he heard her scream awfully,
+and the boys began to cry again, and then--then he saw two Indians
+coming running, and he knew they'd got her and were coming for the
+children, so what could he do but run and save himself?
+
+"Lead on where you left them!" ordered Harris instantly, never waiting
+for Willett to speak. Ten minutes brought them to the farther shelter,
+a dense little willow copse, empty and deserted. "Come on to the
+ranch," was the next order, but there Willett interposed.
+
+"Carefully now. Let your scouts open out and feel the way," he ordered,
+and Harris would not hear. Harris had thrown himself from his horse to
+lead the search. He never stopped to remount. He ran like a deer up the
+stony creek bed until he regained the road, his scouts following
+pell-mell, and in ten minutes more they found him bending over the
+lifeless body of brave, sturdy Jack Bennett, weltering in his blood at
+the side of the spring house, and with no sign of the hapless, helpless
+wife and mother anywhere.
+
+"By God, Hal Willett!" cried Harris, as he sprang to his feet, all
+dignity and deliberation thrown to the winds. "You may 'proceed with
+caution' all you damned please. 'Tonio and I go after that poor woman
+and her children. We'd have saved them _here_ if it hadn't been for
+you!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+The dawn was breaking in sickly pallor over the jagged scarp of the
+Mesa, bounding the chaotic labyrinth of bowlders, crag and cañon
+beneath. Far up the rugged valley, jutting from the faded fringe of
+pine, juniper and scrub oak that bearded the Mogollon, a solitary butte
+stood like sentry against the cloudless sky, its lofty crown of rock
+just faintly signalling the still distant coming of the heralds of the
+god of day. Here in the gloomy depths of the basin, and at the banks of
+the murmuring stream, all was still silence and despond. The
+smouldering ruins of Bennett's cosey home lay a mass of dull red coal,
+with smoke wreaths sailing idly aloft from charred beam or roof-tree.
+The mangled body of the stout frontiersman had been gathered into a
+trooper's blanket and lay there near the pathetic ruin of the house he
+had so hopefully builded, so bravely defended, for the wife and little
+ones. Half a dozen Indian scouts, silent and dejected, were squatting
+inert about the little garden, irrigated from the main _acequia_,
+where the heavy-headed poppies, many of them, were still nodding on
+their stalks, while others lay crushed and trampled. A little distance
+away down the stream a little troop of cavalry, in most business-like
+uniform, had dismounted and was watering some fifty thirsty horses,
+while its stocky commander, his hands thrust deep in the pockets of his
+riding breeches, his slouch hat pulled down to his brows, his booted
+foot kicking viciously at a clump of cactus, was listening impatiently
+to the words of the young aide-de-camp, who seemed far less at ease
+than when he trod the boards of the general's quarters some six hours
+earlier in the night.
+
+"Do I understand you then," and Stannard spoke with a certain asperity,
+"that Mr. Harris, with just two or three scouts, has gone out hunting
+on his own hook?--that even 'Tonio isn't with him?"
+
+"He claimed the right to go, and I told him to take half a dozen--half
+a score of the scouts, if need be, and leave the other half with me,
+only I drew the line at 'Tonio. I needed him here. He is the only
+Indian in the lot who understands enough English to catch my meaning
+and to translate. I could let Harris go, or 'Tonio, separately, but not
+both together. That left me powerless. Oh, yes, he objected. He said
+'Tonio had always been his right bower--always had worked with him and
+for him. But 'Tonio, not Harris, is the chief of scouts, the man they
+look to and obey. Now he and most of his followers are here to do your
+bidding. If Harris had been allowed his way, I'd have been probably
+alone."
+
+Stannard sniffed. "Which way'd he go?" he bluntly asked.
+
+"I'm not sure. We were going to trail the moment it was light enough to
+see. One thing is certain, they did not start in the direction of the
+signals, though they may have veered off that way. 'Tonio is the only
+one who claims to know anything. 'Tonio says 'Apache Tonto' was the
+murderer, not Apache-Mohave, and 'Tonio's in the sulks. Look at him!"
+
+Stannard glanced an instant toward the gaunt figure of the Apache,
+standing dejectedly apart from all others and gazing fixedly toward the
+dawn. The light was stronger now. The red was in the orient sky. The
+distant butte was all aglow with the radiance of the rising yet
+invisible sun. Stannard seemed more concerned in the whereabouts of Mr.
+Harris than in the worries of Mr. Willett. Again he returned to his
+questions.
+
+"Well, did Harris give any inkling of his purpose--whether he meant to
+follow the trail till he found captives and captors, or only till he
+found where it probably led to? I've got to act, and lose no time.
+Sergeant, tell the men to hurry with their coffee," he called, to the
+brown-eyed, dark-featured soldier who was coming forward at the moment.
+A salute was the only answer, as the sergeant turned about in his
+tracks and signalled to the boy trumpeter, holding his own and the
+captain's horse. Another moment and Stannard was in saddle.
+
+"Harris didn't say," was the guarded answer. "You know, I suppose, that
+he left the post without consulting the general, and he took it much
+amiss that, in compliance with the general's orders, I exercised
+certain authority after reaching him. Now you are here to take entire
+charge, I turn over the whole business to you. There's what's left of
+the scouts; there's what's left of the ranch; and there," with a glance
+at the blanket-shrouded form, "is what's left of the Bennetts. I'll jog
+back to the post by and by."
+
+"Oh, then you're not going on with us?" said Stannard, relieved in
+mind, he hardly knew why.
+
+"No, sir, I only rode out here to investigate and report. We, of
+course, hoped to save _some_thing."
+
+"Pity you hadn't spared yourself and not spoiled the pie," thought
+Stannard as he looked about him over the scene of desolation. The men
+were snapping their tin mugs and the refilled canteens to the saddle
+rings. The captain rode over to 'Tonio, a kindly light in his blue-gray
+eyes. He whipped off the right gauntlet and held forth his hand.
+
+"No Apache-Mohave!" said he stoutly. "Apache Tonto. Si! Now catch 'em
+Teniente Harris." Poor lingo that "pidgin" Indian of the desert and the
+long ago, but it served its purpose. 'Tonio grasped the proffered hand,
+a grateful gleam in his black eyes; warned with the other hand the
+captain's charger from certain tracks he had been jealously guarding;
+then pointed eagerly, here, there, in half a dozen places, where
+footprints were still unmarred in the powdery dust. "Si--si--Apache
+Tonto!" and the long, skinny finger darted, close to the ground, from
+one print to the other. "No Apache-Mohave! No!"
+
+"Then come! Mount!" called Stannard. "Leave a corporal and four men
+here as guard until the ambulance gets out from the post," he added, to
+the first sergeant. "Mount the troop, soon's you're ready. I'm going
+ahead with 'Tonio and the scouts. _Ugashi_, 'Tonio! Good-by, Mr.
+Willett. Take one of the men, if you need an orderly," he shouted back,
+over a flannel-shirted shoulder, innocent of badge or strap of any
+kind. In point of dress or equipment there was absolutely no difference
+between the captain of cavalry and his fifty men.
+
+A moment later, spreading out over the low ground like so many hounds
+throwing off for a scent, 'Tonio and his scouts were trotting away
+toward a dip in the rugged heights to the north-east, for thither, the
+moment it was light enough even faintly to see, the keen eyes of the
+Apaches had trailed the fugitives, and now with bounding feet they
+followed the sign, Tonio foremost, his mount discarded. Afoot, like his
+fellows, and bending low, pointing every now and then to half turned
+pebble, to broken twig or bruised weed, he drove ever eagerly forward,
+the stolid bearing of the Indian giving way with each successive minute
+to unusual, though repressed excitement. Thrice he signalled to
+Stannard and pointed to the crushed and beaten sand--to toe or heel or
+sole marks to which the Caucasian would have attached but faint
+importance had not the aborigine proclaimed rejoicefully
+"Apache-Mohave!" whereat Stannard shook his head and set his teeth and
+felt his choler rising.
+
+"Thought you swore Apache _Tonto_ awhile ago," said Stannard wrathfully.
+"Now you're saying Apache _Mohave_!"
+
+"Si! Si! Apache Tonto--kill--shoot. Apache-Mohave good Indian. Look,
+see, _carry_," and with hands and arms in eager gesture he strove to
+illustrate.
+
+Could he mean that they who killed Bennett were hostile Tontos, and
+that these who bore the poor widowed creature were of the Mohave blood?
+If so, why should 'Tonio seem really to rejoice? Had he not strenuously
+denied that his people took any part in the outrage? Was he not now
+insisting that they were active in bearing her away--probably to
+captivity and a fate too horrible? Stannard, riding close at his heels,
+his men still following in loose skirmish order until they should reach
+the ravine, studied him with varying emotion. Harris had certainly
+betrayed a fear that 'Tonio was but half-hearted in the matter of
+scouting after Apache-Mohaves. Now the suspected scout was trailing for
+all he was worth, with the pertinacity of the bloodhound.
+
+Broad daylight again, and the sun peering down from the crest of the
+great Mesa, and the morning growing hot, and some new hands already
+pulling eagerly at the canteens, despite their older comrades' warning.
+And still the advance went relentlessly on. They were climbing a
+rugged, stony ravine now, with bare shoulders of bluff overhanging in
+places, and presently, from a projecting ledge, Stannard was able to
+look back over the rude landscape of the lowlands. There to the west,
+stretching north and south, was the long, pine-crested bulwark of the
+Mazatzal, the deep, ragged rift of Dead Man's Cañon toward the upper
+end. Winding away southward, in the midst of the broad valley, the
+stream shone like burnished silver in the shallow reaches, or sparkled
+over rocky beds. Far to the south-west, the dull, dun-colored roofs and
+walls of the post could barely be discerned, even with the powerful
+binocular, against the brown barren of the low "bench" whereon it lay.
+Only the white lance of the flagstaff, and the glint of tin about the
+chimneys, betrayed its position. From north to far south-east ran the
+palisade-like crest of the Black Mesa, while the Sierra Ancha bound the
+basin firmly at the southward side. Deep in the ravines of the
+foothills, where little torrents frothed and tumbled in the spring
+tide, scant, thread-like rivulets came trickling now to join the gentle
+flood of the lower Tonto and the East Fork of the Verde, and, at one or
+two points along the Mesa, signal smokes were still puffing into the
+breathless air. Below them, possibly six miles away, yet looking almost
+within long rifle-shot, the square outline of the abandoned corral, the
+blackened ruin of the ranch, with the adjacent patches, irrigated,
+tilled, carefully tended--all Bennett's hard and hopeful toil gone for
+nothing--told their incontrovertible tale of savage hate and treachery.
+It was a sorry ending this, a wretched reward for the years of saving,
+self-denial and steadfast labor of him who had lived so long at amity
+among these children of the mountain and desert, giving them often of
+his food and raiment, asking only the right to build up a little lodge
+in this waste land of the world, where he need owe no man anything, yet
+have home and comfort and competence for those he loved, and a welcome
+for the wayfarer who should seek shelter at his door. It was the old,
+old story of many a pioneer and settler, worn so threadbare at the
+campfires of the cavalry that rough troopers wondered why it was that
+white men dared so much to win so little. Yet, through just such
+hardships, loneliness and peril our West was won, and they who own it
+now have little thought for those who gave it them.
+
+Stannard sighed as he closed his signal glass and turned again to the
+duty in hand. "What's the trouble?" he bluntly asked his faithful
+sergeant; lieutenants at the moment he had none.
+
+"Check, sir. All rock and half a dozen gullies. Scouts are trying three
+of them. Don't seem to know which way they went from here. Even a mule
+shoe makes no print."
+
+The troop, following its leader's example, without sound or signal had
+dismounted, and stood in long column of files adown the ravine. 'Tonio
+and his fellow-scouts had disappeared somewhere in the stony labyrinth
+ahead. Up this way, before the dawn, the dusky band must have led or
+driven their captives, two of Bennett's mules having been pressed into
+service. Up this way, not an hour behind them, must have followed
+Harris and his handful of allies, four Indians in all. Up this way,
+swift and unerring thus far, 'Tonio, backed by half a dozen half-naked
+young braves, had guided the cavalry, and never before, so said old
+Farrier Haney, who had 'listed in the troop at Prescott, and had served
+here with the previous regiment in '69--never before had he known
+'Tonio so excited, so vehement. Beyond all question, 'Tonio's heart was
+in the chase to-day.
+
+[Illustration: Scrambling down the adjacent slope every man for
+himself. Page 81]
+
+But this delay was most vexatious. Every moment lost to the pursuit was
+more than a minute gained by the pursued. Lighter by far and trained to
+mountain climbing, the Apache covers ground with agility almost
+goatlike. It was long after seven, said Stannard's watch, and not a
+glimpse had they caught of Indian other than their own. It was just
+half past the hour, and Stannard with an impatient snap of the
+watch-case was about thrusting it back in his pocket, when, far to the
+front, reëchoing, resounding among the rocks, two shots sounded in
+quick succession, followed in sudden sputter by half a dozen more.
+"Turn your horses over to Number Four, men!" shouted Stannard.
+"Sergeant Schreiber, remain in charge. The rest of you come on."
+
+Scrambling up a rocky hillside, he led on to the divide before him--the
+crest between two steep ravines--his men coming pell-mell and panting
+after, every now and then dislodging a stone and sending it clattering
+to the depths below. Two hundred yards ahead, at a sharp, angular
+point, one of the Yuma scouts stood frantically waving his hand, and
+thither Stannard turned his ponderous way. No lightweight he, and the
+pace and climb began to tell. Eager young soldiers were at his heels,
+but grim old Stauffer, the first sergeant, growled his orders not to
+crowd; hearing which their captain half turned with something like a
+grin: "Tumble ahead if you want to," was all he said, and tumble they
+did, for the firing was sharp and fierce and close at hand, augmented
+on a sudden as 'Tonio's little party reached the scene and swelled the
+clamor with their Springfields. Another moment and, springing from rock
+to rock, spreading out to the right and left as they came in view of a
+little fastness along the face of a cliff, the troopers went scrambling
+down the adjacent slope and, every man for himself, opened on what
+could be seen of the foe. Some men, possibly, never knew what they were
+firing at, but the big-barrelled Sharp's carbine made a glorious chorus
+to the sputtering fire of the scouts. Five hundred yards away, bending
+double, dodging from bowlder to bowlder, several swarthy Indians could
+be seen in full flight, apparently. Then old 'Tonio threw up a hand
+from across the stony chasm, signalled to his friends to cease, sprang
+over a low barrier of rock, disappeared one moment from view, then a
+few yards farther signalled "Come on." And on they went and came
+presently upon an excited, jabbering group at a little cleft in the
+hillside. A mule lay kicking in death agony down the slope. Another lay
+dead among the bowlders. An Apache warrior, face downward in a pool of
+blood, was sprawled in front of the cleft, and presently, from the
+cavelike entrance, came Lieutenant Harris and 'Tonio, bearing between
+them the form of an unconscious woman, and Stannard, as he came panting
+to the spot, ordering everybody to fall back and give her air, and
+somebody to bring a canteen, slapped Harris a hearty whack on the
+shoulder, whereat that silent young officer suddenly wilted and dropped
+like a log, and not until then was it seen he was shot--that his sleeve
+and shirt were dripping with blood.
+
+And just about that hour, less than thirty miles away, based on
+Lieutenant Willett's verbal report, the commanding officer of Camp Almy
+was writing a despatch to go by swift courier to department
+head-quarters--a report which closed with these words:
+
+    "The presence at this juncture of Lieutenant Willett, aide-de-camp
+    to the department commander, was of great value and importance, and
+    I trust that his decision to remain may meet approval. On the other
+    hand, it is with regret that I am constrained to express my
+    disapproval of the action of Lieutenant Harris, commanding scouts,
+    who left the post with his men immediately after the alarm and
+    without conference with me; was only overtaken by Lieutenant
+    Willett after going several miles, and, when informed of my
+    instructions, practically refused to be guided by them. Persuading
+    a few of the scouts to follow him, he left the detachment, in spite
+    of Lieutenant Willett's remonstrance, and started in pursuit of the
+    marauders. As these must largely outnumber him, it is not only
+    impossible that he should rescue the captives, but more than
+    probable he has paid for his rashness with his life."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+"The Gray Fox" had but just received his promotion to the star, jumping
+every colonel in the army. He had been doing mighty work among the
+recalcitrant Apaches at a time when other commanders were having hard
+luck in their respective fields--one, indeed, forfeiting his own
+honored and valued life through heeding the sophistries of the Peace
+Commissioners rather than the appeals of officers and men who long had
+known the Modocs. For long years the warriors of the Arizona deserts
+and mountains had bidden defiance to the methods of department
+commanders who fought them from their desks at Drum Barracks, or the
+Occidental, but George Crook came from years of successful campaigning
+after other tribes, and in person led his troopers to the scene of
+action. One after another the heads of noted chiefs were bowed, or
+laid, at his feet. The pioneers, the settlers, the ranchmen and miners
+took heart and hope again, and the marauders to the mountains. Then
+came "our friends the enemy," from the far East, with petition and
+prayer. Suspension of hostilities, on part of the troops at least, was
+ordered, while most excellently pious emissaries arrived inviting the
+warriors to come in, to be reasoned with, taught the error of their
+ways and persuaded to promise to be good. The astute Apache had no
+objection to such proceedings. He was certainly willing to have the
+soldier quit fighting, just as willing to come and hear exhortation and
+prayer, when coupled with presents and plenty to eat; most Indians
+would be. So the new general stepped aside, as ordered, and left the
+elders a fair field. "The Gray Fox" went hunting bear and deer, and
+while the Apache chieftains went down to the Gila to reap what they
+could from the lavish hands of the good and the gentle, their young men
+swooped on the stage roads and scattered ranches, and made hay after
+their own fashion while shone the sun of peace and promise. So happened
+it along the Verde and Salado that the Apache came down like the wolf
+on the fold, and so Harris had come up from the Southern Sierra, and
+'Tonio had sworn that, all signs to the contrary notwithstanding, his
+people were not, as the agent declared, the pillagers and pirates.
+"Apache-Mohave? _No!_ No!!"
+
+"The Gray Fox" had ventured to give his views to the War Department,
+which in turn had ventured to express itself to the Secretary of the
+Interior. But let us lose no time in following further. The Eastern
+press, and such of the Eastern public as had any leisure to devote to
+the subject, persisted in looking upon Indian affairs from the
+viewpoint and remoteness of Boston, where once upon a time Miles
+Standish and our Puritan forbears handled such matters in a manner
+anything but Puritanical. Nothing was left to the military arm of the
+Government but temporary submission, so, as has been said, "the Gray
+Fox" went off on a hunt for bear, mountain lions, and such big game as
+was reported to be awaiting him toward the Grand Cañon to the north. An
+adjutant-general of the old school was left in charge of the desk and
+the department, and all on a sudden found that while Peace and its
+commissioners held their sway far to the south, grim-visaged War had
+burst upon the northward valleys, and chaos had come again.
+
+The couriers bearing Archer's report to Prescott found others,
+similarly burdened, from the upper reservation, from Camp Sandy, and
+even from points to the west and south of department head-quarters, all
+telling of death and depredation. So, while the chief of staff ruefully
+digested these tidings at the office, the couriers proceeded to have a
+time in town, to the end that, when replies and instructions were in
+readiness to be sent out, only two of the six were in shape to take
+them, and Archer's runner--one of the frontier scouts, half Mexican,
+half Apache--was one of the two.
+
+Now, the chief of staff had been nearly three years in Arizona, had
+served in similar capacity to predecessors of "the Gray Fox," and
+naturally thought he understood the Apache, and the situation, far
+better than did his new commander, and the fact that he had allowed
+this conviction to be known had led to a degree of official friction
+between himself and the one aide-de-camp left that was fast verging on
+the personal. Bright, almost invariably the companion of the general in
+his journeyings, was even now with him, lost in the mountains ninety
+miles in one direction; Willett, the newly appointed aide-de-camp, was
+with the commander of Camp Almy, ninety miles away in another, while
+black-bearded Wickham stood alone at Prescott. Wickham had not been
+consulted when Willett was sent with confidential instructions to Almy.
+Wickham would have disapproved, and the chief of staff knew it. Wickham
+_had_ to be shown Archer's despatch, though the adjutant-general
+would gladly have concealed it, and now, in chagrin at the outcome of
+affairs at Almy, and in consternation at the ebullition all around him,
+the adjutant-­general was quite at a loss what to do. Wickham, if
+asked, would have said at once, "Send for General Crook," but that
+would be confession that he, the experienced, did not know how to
+handle the situation. So again he took no counsel with Wickham, but
+issued instructions in the name of the department commander and ordered
+them carried out forthwith.
+
+Then it transpired that only two couriers were fit to go. Thereupon,
+the commanding officer of the one cavalry troop at the post was ordered
+to detail three non-commissioned officers, with a brace of troopers
+apiece, as bearers of despatches to Date Creek, Wickenberg, Sandy and
+the reservation, while Sanchez, the Mexican-Apache Mercury, was ordered
+to hasten back to Almy by way of the Mazatzal. It was then but ten
+A.M., and to the annoyance of the adjutant-general, Sanchez shook his
+black mane and said something that sounded like _hasta la noche_--he
+wouldn't start till night. Asked why, the interpreter said he feared
+Apache Tontos, and being assured by the adjutant-general that no Tonto
+could be west of the Verde, intimated his conviction of the officer's
+misinformation by the only sign he knew as bearing on the matter--that
+of the forked tongue, which called for no interpreter, as it concisely
+said, You lie. Sanchez meant neither insult nor insolence, but the
+adjutant-general regarded it as both, ordered another sergeant and two
+men got ready at once to ride to Almy, and bade the interpreter take
+Sanchez to the post guard-house and turn him over for discipline to the
+officer of the day. The sergeant started forty minutes later, with his
+two men at his back, and just thirty-five minutes behind Sanchez, who
+left the station on the spur of the moment, and the interpreter with a
+cleft weasand. It is a mistake for one man to attempt the incarceration
+of an armed half-blood of the Indian race. Sanchez started in the lead,
+afoot, and, in spite of his fear of Tontos, kept it all the way to the
+Mazatzal, where, as was later learned, he abandoned the paths of
+rectitude and the trail to Almy, and joining a party of twenty young
+renegades, complacently watched the coming of that sergeant and
+detachment from behind the sheltering bowlders of Dead Man's Cañon, and
+thus it happened that the orders Archer had been expecting three long
+days and nights were destined never to get to him.
+
+It was this situation he had been puzzling over when at ten P.M. the
+officer of the day came in to say that new signal fires in the east
+were now being answered by others in the west, away over in the
+Mazatzal, and the general went forth to the northern edge of the
+"bench" to have a good look at them, wishing very much he had Stannard
+or Turner or "Capitan Chiquito"--little Harris--to help him guess their
+meaning.
+
+But Stannard, with his sturdy troop, was still far afield, scouting the
+fastnesses of the Mogollon in hopes still of overtaking the marauding
+band that had ruined Bennett's ranch, murdered its owner, and borne
+away into the wilds two helpless little settlers for whom a
+half-crazed, heart-broken woman at Almy was wailing night and day.
+Turner, following another route and clew, was exploring the Sierra
+Ancha south of Tonto Creek, and Lieutenant Harris, in fever and
+torment, was occupying an airy room in the post surgeon's quarters, the
+object of Bentley's ceaseless care, and of deep solicitude on part of
+the entire garrison.
+
+Borne in the arms of Stannard's men, poor young Mrs. Bennett, raving,
+had been carried back to the ruins, and thence by ambulance to the
+post. There now she lay with her reason almost gone, nursed by the
+hospital steward's wife, and visited frequently by three gentle women,
+whose hearts were wrung at sight of her grief. Mrs. Stannard sometimes
+spent hours in the effort to soothe and comfort her. Mrs. Archer was
+hardly less assiduous, but was beginning now to have anxieties of her
+own. Lilian, her beloved daughter, fancy free, as the mother had reason
+to know, up to the time of their coming to this far-away,
+out-of-the-way station, seemed dangerously near the point of losing her
+heart to that very attractive and presentable fellow, Willett, the
+aide-de-camp, and Mrs. Archer did not half like it.
+
+When the news was brought in to Almy that Mrs. Bennett had been
+recaptured, and that Lieutenant Harris was wounded in the fight which
+scattered her abductors, Willett was the first to mount and away to
+meet them. It was his orderly who came galloping back for the ambulance,
+and Willett who, before the arrival of the surgeon, had caused to be
+rigged up a capital litter on which, later, by easy stages his
+suffering classmate was borne to the post. Harris was indeed sorely
+hurt, so sorely that the faintest jar was agony. Harris was weak and
+pallid from suffering when lifted to his couch in the doctor's
+quarters, bearing it all with closed eyes and clinching teeth,
+suppressing every sound. The general was there to bear a hand and speak
+a word of cheer, all the time wishing it were possible to overtake the
+courier, by that time nearly twenty-four hours on his way to Prescott,
+that he might amend the wording of that report. He was for sending a
+"supplementary" that very evening, but who was there to send? Sanchez
+was the only available post courier. The scouts were away with the
+cavalry. Both troops were now afield. Barely a dozen horses were left
+at the post, and every able-bodied, ambitious cavalryman was with his
+comrades on the trail. They who remained were the extra duty men, or
+the weaklings. Moreover, when Archer spoke of it to Willett, the latter
+very diplomatically argued against it. Wait a day and something _worth_
+sending would surely turn up. Two such captains as Stannard and Turner
+could not fail to accomplish something. They could be counted on to
+find the hostiles and punish them wherever found. Moreover, as yet,
+there were only evil tidings to send, for so the wounding of Harris
+would be regarded, and the recapture of poor Mrs. Bennett without her
+children would hardly compensate. There was still another thing to be
+considered, but even Willett balked at saying this. He had said enough
+to induce Archer to hold his hand another day at least, so why use more
+ammunition until he had to?
+
+Two days, therefore, had gone by without news from the field column or
+further message to Prescott. Then it was easy to persuade Archer that
+it was best to wait the return of Sanchez, and, for Willett, those two
+days, especially the long, exquisite evenings, had been full of­ sweet
+and thrilling interest. "I should be more with Harris, I suppose you
+are thinking," he had said to Lilian Archer, "and there I would be,
+but--I cannot rid myself of the feeling that he would rather be alone.
+He always was peculiar, and I seem to worry rather than to help him."
+
+"But you were classmates," said she, "and I thought----"
+
+"Classmates, yes," he answered, "but never much together. Even
+classmates, you know, are not always intimates."
+
+"Still I should think that now--here----" she began again, her hand
+straying listlessly over the strings of her guitar, her slender fingers
+trying inaudible chords.
+
+He glanced over his shoulder to where Mrs. Archer and Mrs. Stannard,
+fast becoming warm friends, were in chat near the open doorway. Then
+his handsome head was lowered, and with it the deep, melodious voice.
+
+"Can you not think that here, and now, I might have greater need of
+every moment? Any hour may bring my marching orders."
+
+She drew back, just a little. This was only the evening after his
+return with the wounded. "You always welcome field orders," she
+ventured.
+
+"I always have--hitherto."
+
+The voice of Mrs. Archer was uplifted at this juncture, just a bit.
+"Lilian, dear, you and Mr. Willett would be wise to pull your chairs
+this way. I've never liked that corner since 'Tonio's discovery. Where
+_is_ 'Tonio, Mr. Willett?"
+
+"I wish I knew, Mrs. Archer," said Willett, rising and holding forth a
+hand to aid Miss Archer to her feet--something she did not need, yet
+took. "He was with Stannard when I left. He was with him when they
+rescued Mrs. Bennett. He was said to be all distress when he saw that
+Harris was hit--and then he disappeared. Stannard's last despatch said
+he had not rejoined."
+
+It was another beautiful, moonlit evening, and the post was very still.
+The men of Archer's two infantry companies were clustered about their
+log barracks or wandering away by twos and threes to the trader's store
+on the flats. The general was pacing the parade in earnest and murmured
+talk with the post adjutant. Bentley, the surgeon, was busy with his
+charges, having left Harris in a fitful, feverish doze. Not since the
+night of the calamity at Bennett's had the sentries reported sign of
+signal fire in the hills, but this night, before the last filament of
+gold had died at the top of the peak, Number Four had caught a glimpse
+of a tiny blaze afar over to the east, and instantly passed the word.
+Only half an hour it was observed, and then, away toward the
+south-east, an answering gleam burned for a moment against the black
+background of the Sierras. Then both went out as suddenly as they
+started.
+
+The general was dining at the moment, and, believing that the fires
+would not so soon be extinguished, the officer of the day had not at
+once reported them. He was at Archer's door as the veteran came forth,
+haranguing Willett, again his guest at dinner, but with anxious eyes
+turned at once to hear the report. "No matter what time it happens," he
+said, "hereafter, when signals are seen, let the guard notify me at
+once." And the officer retired musing over this bit of evidence that
+the commanding officer was growing a trifle irritable.
+
+It was soon after guard mount next day that two runners from Sandy had
+come in, weary and hungry. "'Patchie sign--_todas partes_," said the
+leader, after delivering his despatch. But he, too, was half Apache and
+had squirmed through without mishap. For two hours after reading Archer
+kept the contents to himself. The adjutant-general wished to consult
+him at Prescott. Ninety miles north-west by buckboard, through a
+country infested by hostile Indians! It was a trip he little cared to
+take and leave his wife and daughter here! At noon he had had to tell
+them, and tell Willett, who was teaching Lilian a fandango he had heard
+on the Colorado. Mother and daughter looked anxiously at each other and
+said nothing. It was decided he should wait until night before
+arranging when to start. Surely this night should bring news of some
+kind.
+
+And surely enough, at ten came the summons that took him, field-glass
+in hand, to the northward edge of the little mesa again. Somewhere in
+the direction of Diamond Butte, almost due east, one fire was brightly
+blazing. Over in the Mazatzal to the westward there were two, and even
+as they stood and studied them, Archer dropped his glasses at an
+exclamation of surprise from one of his officers, and there, gaunt and
+weary, yet erect and fearless, stood 'Tonio. Like a wraith he seemed to
+have blown in among them, and now patiently awaited the attention of
+the commander; yet, when accosted, all he would say in answer to
+question, for they knew not his native tongue, was "_Capitan Chiquito_!"
+
+So they led him to the doctor's quarters, and Bentley tiptoed in to see
+what Harris was doing. He was awake, in pain and fever, but clear-headed.
+"Of course I'm able to see 'Tonio," said he. "I _need_ to see him."
+Whereupon shufflings were heard in the hallway without, and presently
+in the dim lamplight 'Tonio knelt by the young chief's side, took the
+clutching white hand and laid it one instant on his head. To no other
+of their number had 'Tonio ever tendered such homage. Rising to his
+feet, he looked about him, his glittering eyes fixed one moment in mute
+appeal; another moment, and gloomily, they studied Willett's handsome
+face. Then he spoke, Harris half haltingly explaining. It began
+languidly on the latter's part. It quickly changed to excitement, then
+to vehement life. 'Tonio was telling of some sharp encounter wherein
+women and children had been slain, whereby the mountain tribes were all
+aroused, and then he had gone on to declare what Indian vengeance would
+demand. Impassioned, 'Tonio threw himself at the first pause on his
+knees by the side of the cot whereon lay his beloved _Capitan_, and it
+was to him he spoke. It was he who translated:
+
+"No one," said 'Tonio, "should venture beyond sentry post either day or
+night. Even now the rocks and woods about the station were full of
+foemen. Get ready to fight them and to take care of the women and
+children. They mean revenge! They mean attack! Renegade Apaches!" said
+he, "all renegade! Apache-Mohave, no!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+The night was still young. The conference at the surgeon's house was
+brief, for Bentley, fearing for his patient, hustled all but 'Tonio out
+into the open air just as soon as the Indian signalled "I have spoken,"
+which meant he would tell no more. Brief as it was, the interview had
+sent the wounded officer's pulse uphill by twenty beats, and Bentley
+knew what that meant. Still it had to be. 'Tonio brought tidings of
+ominous import, and the public safety demanded that his warning should
+be made known, and who was there to translate but Harris? "If it were
+only Chinook, now," said Willett, "I could have tackled it, but, except
+a few signs, Apache is beyond me."
+
+So while the doctor was giving sedatives to his patient, and the
+doctor's servant giving food to 'Tonio, Archer gathered his few
+remaining officers about him in the moonlight and discussed the
+situation. From 'Tonio's description, the affray that had aroused the
+Apaches far and wide had occurred three days earlier, just at dawn,
+among the rocky fastnesses of the Mogollon, perhaps "two sleeps" to the
+north-east, the very direction in which Stannard was scouting. But it
+wasn't Stannard's command. 'Tonio said the soldiers were from up the
+Verde, and the scouts were Hualpais, and then Archer understood.
+Between the Hualpais, finest and northernmost of the Arizona tribesmen,
+and the Tonto Apache there had long been feud. It was evident from
+'Tonio's description that a _rancheria_ of the latter had been
+surprised--"jumped" in the vernacular--just about dawn; that the
+Hualpais, rushing in, rejoicing in abundant breechloaders and
+cartridges, had shot right and left, scattering the fugitives and
+slaying the stay-behinds, who, crippled by wounds or cumbered by squaws
+and pappooses, could not get away. The soldiers, though only a hundred
+yards or so behind, were slow climbers as compared with the scouts, and
+though the few officers and men did what they could to stop the
+wretched killing, a few women and children were found among the dead,
+and the word was going the length of the Sierra, far to the south-east,
+and would never stop till it reached Sonora and Chihuahua, that the
+white chief had ordered his soldiers to kill, so they might as well die
+fighting.
+
+"If they were to concentrate now, first on Stannard, and then on
+Turner," said Archer--"ambuscade them in a cañon, say--I'm afraid we'd
+see few of their fellows again."
+
+"Or if they only knew their strength," spoke up the only captain left
+at the post, "and were to concentrate, say, five hundred fighting men
+upon us here, it's little the rest of the world would ever see of
+_us_."
+
+Archer turned half-angrily upon the speaker. "You never yet, Captain
+Bonner, have heard of Apaches attacking a garrisoned post, even though
+the garrison was smaller than ours, and I believe you never will. The
+question _I_ have to settle is how to send warning to our two field
+columns."
+
+For a moment there was none to offer suggestion. There were present
+only seven officers, all told, Bentley being still with his young
+patient. Anxious eyes were watching the little group, their white coats
+gleaming in the moonlight. Over at the barracks a score of soldiers,
+slipping from their bunks, clustered at the wide-open doors and
+windows. Over at the hospital two or three convalescents, with the
+steward and the nurse, sat gazing from the shaded piazza. Over at the
+commander's quarters Mrs. Archer, Mrs. Stannard and Lilian, sitting
+closer for comfort, murmured occasional words, but their eyes seldom
+quit their anxious scrutiny. To Mrs. Stannard it was no novel
+experience. To Mrs. Archer and her daughter, despite their longer years
+in the army, it was thrillingly new. In the utter silence on the line
+and throughout the garrison the rhythmic tramp of feet, muffled by
+distance, could not fail to catch their straining ears, and far over
+across the parade, behind the barracks, betrayed by the glint of the
+moonlight on sloping steel, a shadowy little detachment went striding
+away toward the nearest sentry post.
+
+"They are doubling the guard," said Mrs. Stannard. Then the group at
+the flagstaff broke up. Three officers went with the commander toward
+the office, others toward the company quarters. One came swiftly,
+purposely, toward the waiting trio. Lilian knew it was Willett even
+before they could recognize his walk and carriage. Mrs. Archer rose to
+meet him. All they yet knew was that 'Tonio was in with tidings of some
+kind--Doyle had told them that.
+
+"Tell us what you can," was all she said.
+
+"The time-honored tale of Indian uprising," said Willett airily.
+"Something I've heard every six weeks, I should say, since they gave me
+a sword."
+
+"But they've doubled the guard."
+
+"Only changed it, I fancy. The general wants some few cavalrymen for a
+scout in the Mazatzal."
+
+Mrs. Stannard knew better, but held her peace. The object at least was
+laudable, if not the lie. All three had risen now and were standing at
+the edge of the veranda, Mrs. Archer's gentle, anxious eyes following
+the soldierly form just vanishing within the shadows at the office,
+Lilian's gaze fixed upon the handsome features of the young soldier
+before her.
+
+"'Tonio brought news, did he not?" asked Mrs. Stannard.
+
+"'Tonio had to tell _some_thing, you know, to cover his mysterious
+movements. 'Tonio's story may be cock and bull for all we know. It is
+just such a yarn as I have heard told many a time and oft in the
+Columbia basin. Most Indians are born liars, and 'Tonio has everything
+to gain and nothing to lose in telling a believable whopper now. 'Tonio
+says his people are persecuted saints, and all others perjured sinners."
+
+And just then, through the silence of the night, there rose upon the
+air, distant yet distinct, the prolonged, anguished, heart-broken wail
+of a woman in dire distress--a Rachel mourning for her children, and
+refusing to be comforted. There was instant scraping of chairs on the
+hospital porch, and one or two shadows vanished within the dimly
+lighted doorway. "Oh, poor Mrs. Bennett!" cried Mrs. Archer. "I'm going
+over a little while. Come, Lilian."
+
+"Let me go with you," said Mrs. Stannard, ever sympathetic with young
+hearts and hopes. But Lilian had been well trained and--went, the two
+wives and mothers walking arm in arm in front, the other two, the girl
+of eighteen, the youth of twenty-five, gradually dropping behind. The
+elders entered the building, following the wife of the hospital
+steward; the juniors paced slowly onward to the edge of the low bluff
+overlooking the moonlit valley, with the shining stream murmuring over
+its shallows in the middle distance. Lilian's white hand still rested
+on the strong arm that drew it so closely to the soldier's side, and
+both were for the moment silent. He seemed strangely quiet and
+thoughtful, and she stood beside him now with downcast eyes and
+fluttering heart, for, as she would have followed her mother, he had
+bent his head and, almost in whisper, said:
+
+"Come--one minute. It may be my last chance."
+
+And the girl in her had yielded, as what girl would not?
+
+Presently he began to speak, and now his head was bowing low; his eyes,
+though she saw them not, were drinking in the lily-like beauty of the
+sweet, downcast face. One quick look she flashed at him as he began,
+then the long lashes swept her cheek.
+
+"I could not tell your mother the whole truth, just then," he began.
+"I've got to tell you something of it now. Until to-night I never knew
+what it was to--to shrink from news of action. Now--I know."
+
+She wanted to hear "why," even when her own heart was telling her. She
+wanted him to say, yet coquetted with her own desire. "Is--it serious
+news?" she faltered.
+
+"So serious that Stannard, or Turner, or both, may be in grave danger,
+and there's no one to go and warn them but--me!"
+
+"You?" and up came the troubled, beautiful eyes.
+
+"Yes. Ask yourself who else there is. The scouts are gone. Sanchez has
+not returned. There's but a baker's dozen of troopers and troop horses
+left at the post. The general needs to send a little party to explore
+the Mazatzal. 'Tonio can't be trusted. Harris has--practically--put
+himself out of it. Don't you know me well enough to know--I've got to
+go?"
+
+She was only just eighteen. She had lived her innocent life at that
+fond mother's side. She had read of knightly deeds in many an hour, and
+her heroes were such as Ivanhoe and William Wallace, Bayard and Philip
+Sidney, the Black Prince and Henry of the snow-white plume. Four days
+agone her heart had first stood still, then thrilled with girlish
+admiration when they told her how Harris had met his serious wound,
+and, for just that day, that soldierly young trooper was the centre of
+her stage. Then Willett returned, with a different version, and other
+things to murmur to her listening ears. Then Willett had been at
+leisure two--three--long days, and, save that mournful tragedy at the
+ranch, casting its spell over the entire post, sufficient in itself to
+strike terror to a girlish soul, to inspire it to seek strength and
+protection of the stronger arm, what else was there to occupy the heart
+of a young maid here at sun-baked, mud-colored, monotonous old Almy?
+The one thing that would transform a desert into paradise had blossomed
+in her fair, innocent, girlish bosom, and he who had marked the
+symptoms many a time knew that the pretty bird was fluttering to his
+hand. The one precaution needful was--no sudden shock--no word or deed
+to bring rude awakening.
+
+But even now she stood, trembling a bit, trying _not_ to believe that
+he must leave the post--must leave her, and on so dangerous a mission.
+She was silent because she knew not what to say, yet knew that what he
+had said almost turned her cold with dread. He saw the hesitancy, and
+struck again:
+
+"Must go--to-night."
+
+"Oh, Mr. Willett!" And now the little face, uplifted suddenly, was
+piteous as he could wish. It fell again for shame at her self-betrayal,
+for sheer helplessness and dismay, for the sudden realization of what
+the long days now would be without him, for what life might be if he
+never came back. With all her pride and strength and maidenly reserve
+she was struggling hard to fight back the sob that was rising to her
+throat, the tears that came welling to her eyes, but he _would_ have
+the tribute of both, and murmured again:
+
+"Lilian, little girl, don't you _know_ why I cannot bear to go--just
+yet?"
+
+And then, shaking from head to foot, she bowed her face upon her hands,
+and Willett's arms were around her in the instant, and after one little
+struggle, she nestled in a moment, sobbing, on his heart. She did not
+even see the sentry coming slowly up the path, and when girl or woman
+is blind to all about her but just one man, her love is overwhelming.
+
+It was he who whispered word of warning, as his lips pressed their
+kisses on her soft and wavy hair. It was he who calmly hailed the
+guardian of the night, asking if further sign had been seen, adding,
+"Runners may well be coming in to-night, just as did 'Tonio." It was he
+who promptly, cordially answered Mrs. Archer, calling Lilian from the
+angle of the hospital, kneeling instantly as though to fasten a
+loosened bootlace. And then, as he presently led his silent captive
+back toward the parade, talked laughingly of the sentry's broken
+English, imitating so well the accent of the Rhineland.
+
+"No word of this just yet," he murmured, ere they reached the general's
+door, and saw that veteran hospitably awaiting them. "It is so sudden,
+so sweet a surprise. Come what may now, I shall not go until I have
+seen _you_ again. What, general? Sangaree? I'd like it above all
+things!"
+
+Two horsemen came trotting across the parade, threw themselves from
+saddle, and one stepped swiftly to the group, his hand at the hat brim
+in salute.
+
+"Well, sergeant, you _have_ been prompt!" the general was saying. "You
+have your letter for Captain Turner?--and Woodrow is to follow Captain
+Stannard? Good again! Do most of your trailing by night. The Apaches
+are cowards in the dark, and you can't miss the trail. God be with you,
+my men! Your names go to General Crook in my first report!"
+
+Another moment and they were away, and two more had taken their
+place--two who waited while Mrs. Stannard pencilled a few hurried words
+to her "Luce," while Lilian, with a world of rapture, thanksgiving and
+rejoicing in her heart, was striving to regain self-control, and avoid
+her mother's eye, a thing she never before had done, nor would she now
+be doing but for that splendid, knightly, heroic, self-poised,
+soldierly fellow, standing so commandingly, gracefully there,
+conferring one minute with her soldier father, and the next--helping
+Mrs. Archer to more small talk and sangaree.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+The night had gone by without alarm. No further signals were seen. No
+runners came in. Poor Mrs. Bennett, under the influence of some
+soothing medicine, had fallen asleep. The doctor, coming in late from a
+visit to the hospital, found Harris still wakeful, but not so feverish,
+and 'Tonio, worn and wearied, stretched on a Navajo blanket, seemed
+sleeping soundly on the side piazza, just without the door. The general
+and Willett had sat and smoked, with an occasional toddy, until after
+the midnight call of the sentries, the former still expectant of the
+return of Sanchez; the latter pondering in mind certain theories of
+Wickham as to the Apache situation, to which at first he had paid
+little heed. If Wickham were right, then Sanchez might never have
+reached Prescott. If so, the general need never have to amend that
+report.
+
+And that the matter troubled Archer more than a little Willett was not
+too pleased to see. Moreover, it was evident that not only Bentley, the
+surgeon, but Strong, the young adjutant, Bucketts, the veteran cavalry
+subaltern doing duty as post quartermaster, and the three company
+officers of Archer's regiment stationed at Almy--all were determined to
+consider Harris decidedly in the light of the hero of the recent
+episode. It was a matter Willett would not discuss with them, nor, when
+they somewhat pointedly referred to Harris and his part in the affair,
+was it Willett's policy to say aught in deprecation. As "the
+representative of the commanding general" temporarily at the post, and
+observing the condition of affairs, it was his proper function to give
+all men his ear and none his tongue, to hear everything and say
+nothing. But the adjutant knew, and had not been able to keep entirely
+to himself, the fact that Sanchez was the bearer of a report adverse to
+Lieutenant Harris--that no modification thereof had been prepared--even
+after Harris was brought in dangerously wounded, the result of his
+daring effort to rescue an unfortunate woman from a fearful fate. The
+adjutant had gone so far as to hint to that much-loved lieutenant-colonel
+of infantry, Brevet Brigadier-General Archer, that he should be glad to
+write at his dictation a report setting Harris right, as surely as the
+other had set him wrong, and for the first time Strong found his
+commanding officer petulant and testy. It was exactly what Archer
+himself thought it his duty to do, yet he was annoyed that any one else
+should think so. Moreover, he had taken counsel with Willett, and
+Willett had said that he would be the last man to deny a classmate and
+comrade any honor justly his due, nor would he stand in the way of
+General Archer's writing anything he saw fit, _but_, as the officer
+present on the spot and cognizant of all the circumstances connected
+with Harris's going, _he_ had yet a report to make to the department
+commander.
+
+"Frankly, general," said he, "I do not wish to say what I know unless I
+have to--and your changing your report might make it necessary."
+
+This had occurred the night before 'Tonio's coming, and now, in the
+silence of midnight, as the two sat smoking on the veranda, while
+Lilian lay in her little white room listening in wordless rapture, in
+sweet unrest, to the murmurous sound of the deep voice that had
+enthralled her senses, while Mrs. Archer, wife and mother, slept the
+sleep of the just and the wearied, the old general turned again to that
+subject that weighed so heavily on his heart and soul.
+
+"By heaven, Willett," he said, "here it is midnight and no Sanchez. If
+he isn't in by mail-time to-morrow I'll have to send a party--or else a
+courier--to Prescott."
+
+"Does the mail usually reach you Sunday, sir?"
+
+"Hasn't failed once since my coming! They send it by way of McDowell,
+over on the Verde. If Sanchez isn't here, or the mail either, I'll know
+that 'Tonio was right, that we're hemmed in, and that they have killed
+our messengers. And they are expecting to hear from me at
+head-quarters, and probably wondering at my silence. Another thing to
+be explained."
+
+"Another?" said Willett.
+
+"Another. Of course I must straighten out that matter about Harris. I
+own I sent it under wrong im--impressions. I thought at first he had
+ignored my authority, but that was unjust. The more I think of it, the
+more I blame myself."
+
+"Then--how you must blame _me_!"
+
+"Well--no! You doubtless feel that he did ignore you and your authority,
+though I own it wasn't my intention that you should assume _command_
+over him. You are both young and you perhaps judge more sharply than I,
+but I've learned to know the fallibility of human judgment. I've
+suffered too much from it myself, and the fact stares me in the face
+that Harris knew just what ought to be done, and went and did it. He
+rescued that poor creature at the risk of his life, and he--deserves
+the credit of it."
+
+Willett was silent a moment. He seemed reluctant to speak. Finally and
+slowly he said:
+
+"General Archer, it is an ungracious thing to pull down another man's
+reputation, especially when, as in this case, Harris and I are
+classmates and I, at least, am _his_ friend. And, therefore, I still
+prefer to say nothing. I was in hopes that Captain Stannard and his
+fellows might be back by this time, with the Bennett boys for one
+thing, and with--the truth for another."
+
+"What truth?" demanded Archer.
+
+"The real truth--as I look upon it--the real credit of that rescue, you
+will find, sir, belongs to Stannard and his troop, with such little aid
+as they may have received from those who advised and guided them--the
+scouts. _But_ for Stannard the hostiles would have gotten away, not
+only with Mrs. Bennett, but with Harris. Harris made a hare-brained
+attempt to rescue her single-handed. He only succeeded in running his
+own neck into a noose. Your wisdom, and God's mercy, sent Stannard just
+in the nick of time, and there's the whole situation in a nut shell."
+
+For a moment Archer was silent. Who does not like to hear praise of his
+wisdom, especially when self-inclined to doubt it?
+
+"But the doctor tells me Harris had the Indians on the run before ever
+Stannard was sighted--that he and his handful of scouts alone attacked,
+defeated and drove them, that his scouts were chasing them and were
+mistaken themselves for hostiles, and were fired at by Stannard's men
+at long range."
+
+"Yes," said Willett, with calm deliberation. "That is just the story I
+should expect Harris to tell."
+
+And sore at heart, and far from satisfied, the general suggested a
+nightcap, and Willett presently left him, though not, as it
+subsequently transpired, for the adjutant's quarters and for bed. It
+was late the following day before his next appearance near the Archers.
+
+Sunday morning had come, as peaceful and serene as any that ever broke
+on New England village, and Sunday noon, hot and still, and many an
+hour since early sun up anxious eyes had scanned the old McDowell
+trail, visible in places many a mile before it disappeared among the
+foothills of the Mazatzal, but not a whiff of dust rewarded the eager
+watchers.
+
+Archer's binocular hung at the south-west pillar of the porch, and
+another swung at the northward veranda of the old log hospital. The
+road to Dead Man's Cañon wound along the west bank of the stream,
+sometimes fording it for a short cut, and that road, the one by which
+Sanchez should have come, was watched wellnigh as closely as the other.
+Nothing up to luncheon time had been seen or heard of human being
+moving without the limits of the post; nothing by Lilian Archer of her
+gallant of the night before.
+
+In times of such anxiety men gather and compare notes. The guard had
+been strengthened during the night, and its members sat long in the
+moonlight, chatting in low tone. The officer of the day, making the
+rounds toward two o'clock, noted that the lights were still burning at
+the store, and, sauntering thither, found a game going on in the common
+room--Dago seeking solace from his sorrows in limited monte with three
+or four employés and packers, while in the officers' room was still
+another, with only one officer present and participating. To Captain
+Bonner's surprise Lieutenant Willett, aide-de-camp, was "sitting in"
+with Bill Craney, the trader, Craney's brother-in-law and partner, Mr.
+Watts, Craney's bookkeeper, Mr. Case, a man of fair education and
+infirm character who had never, it was said, succeeded in holding any
+other position as long as six months. Here, as Craney admitted, he
+hadn't enough to occupy him three weeks out of the four, and, so long
+as he could tend to that much, he was welcome to "tank up" when he
+pleased. That clerk had been a gentleman, he said, and behaved himself
+like one now, even when he was drunk. The officers treated him with
+much consideration, but to no liquor. Willett, knowing nothing of his
+past, had been doing the opposite, and Mr. Case's monthly spree was
+apparently starting four days ahead of time. Moreover, Mr. Case seemed
+inspired by some further agent, for though unobtrusive, almost, as
+ever, he was possessed with a strange, feverish impulse to pit himself
+against Willett, and almost to ignore all others in the game. A fifth
+player was a stranded prospector whom Craney knew, and presumably
+vouched for. Luck must have been going Willett's way in violation of
+the adage, at the time of Bonner's entrance, for the table in front of
+him was stacked high with chips, and four men of the five were
+apparently getting excited.
+
+Bonner seldom played anything stronger than casino and cribbage, nor
+did he often waste an hour, night or day, in the card room. This night,
+however, he was wakeful, and had seen that which even made him a trifle
+nervous. He had visited every sentry post, finding his men alert and
+vigilant. 'Tonio's words had already been communicated to the guard,
+and self-preservation alone prompted every man to keep a sharp lookout.
+Bonner had noted as he stepped out on the side porch of his quarters,
+where hung the big earthen olla in its swathing bands, that 'Tonio lay,
+apparently sound asleep, at the side door of the doctor's quarters, and
+Bonner found himself pondering over the undoubted devotion of this
+silent, lonely son of the desert to the young soldier lying wounded
+within. Bonner left him as he found him. 'Tonio had not stirred. Barely
+twenty minutes thereafter, as he finished examination of the two
+sentries on the north front, and came down along the bank at the rear
+of the officers' quarters, he found Number Five, a Civil War veteran
+and, therefore, not easily excited, kneeling at the edge, with his
+rifle at "ready," gazing steadily toward a clump of willows at the
+stream bed, some five hundred feet away, listening so intently that the
+officer halted, rather than mortify him by coming on his post
+unchallenged. The brilliant moonlight made surrounding objects almost
+as light as day, and Bonner could see nothing unusual or unfamiliar
+along the sandy flat to the east. So, finally, he struck his scabbard
+against a rock by way of attracting Number Five's attention, and
+instantly the challenge came.
+
+"What was the matter, Five?" asked Bonner, after being advanced and
+recognized, and the answer threw little light upon the subject.
+
+"I wish I knew, sir, but there was some one--crying--down there in the
+bush--not five minutes ago."
+
+"Crying! You're crazy, Kerrigan!"
+
+"That's what _I_ said, sir, when first I heard it, but--whist now!"
+
+Both men bent their ears--the veteran sentry, the veteran company
+commander. Both had spent years in service, in the South in the war
+days, in the West ever since, and neither was easily alarmed.
+
+As sure as they stood there somebody was sobbing--a low,
+heart-breaking, half-stifled sound, down there somewhere among the
+willows, that for two hundred yards, at least, lined the stream. "Come
+with me," said the captain instantly, and together the two went
+plunging down the sandy slope and out over the flats beneath, and into
+the shadows at the brink, and up and down the low bank between the
+fords, and not a living being could they find.
+
+"What first caught your ear?" asked Bonner, as together, finally, they
+came plodding back.
+
+"Sure, I heard the captain come out on his side porch for a drink at
+the olla, sir, and saw him step over and look at the doctor's place
+before starting for the guard-house, and I knew he'd be around this way
+and was thinking to meet him up yonder where Number Four is, when I
+heard Six down here whistling to me, and when I went Six said as how
+the dogs way over at the store was barking a lot, and he said had I
+seen or heard anything in the willows--he's that young fellow that
+'listed back at Wickenburg after the stage holdup--and while we was
+talkin' he grabbed me and said, 'Listen! There's Indians out on the
+bluff! I heard 'em singing.' I told him he was scared, but when I came
+back along the bank I could have sworn I saw something go flashing into
+the willows from this side, an' then came the cryin', and then you,
+sir."
+
+Bonner turned straightway to his own quarters, to the side porch at the
+doctor's--and 'Tonio was gone. Peering within the open doorway, he saw
+the attendant nodding in his chair by the little table where dimly
+burned the nightlamp, close to the cot where Harris lay in feverish
+slumber. Next, the captain started for the post of Number Six, near the
+south-east corner of the rectangle, and there was the corporal and the
+relief, just marching away with "the young feller that 'listed in
+Wickenburg." A new sentry, another old soldier, had taken his place.
+There was nothing to do but tell him to keep a sharp lookout and report
+anything strange he saw or heard, particularly to be on lookout for
+'Tonio. Then he pushed on after the relief, and then, catching sight of
+the lights at the trader's, strode briskly over there and stopped a few
+minutes, asking himself should he tell Willett what had been heard, and
+incidentally to watch the game. Willett, however, was engrossed. His
+eyes were dilated and his cheeks were flushed, albeit his demeanor was
+almost affectedly cool and nonchalant, and Bonner had not been there
+five minutes before a queer thing happened. Willett, playing in
+remarkable luck, had raised heavily before the draw. Case, with
+unsteady hand, had shoved forward an equal stack. The prospector and
+Craney shook their heads and dropped out. Only three were playing when
+Willett, dealing, helped the cards according to their demands, and for
+himself "stood pat." It was too much for the brother-in-law, but the
+bookkeeper, who had been playing mainly against Willett, and apparently
+foolishly, now just as foolishly bet his little stack, for without a
+second's hesitation Willett raised him seventy-five dollars. It was a
+play calculated to drive out a small-salaried clerk. It was neither a
+generous nor a gentleman's play. It was, moreover, the highest play yet
+seen at Almy, where men were of only moderate means. Even Craney looked
+troubled, and Watts and the prospector exchanged murmured remonstrance.
+Then all were amazed when Case drew forth a flat wallet from an inner
+pocket, tossed it on the table, and simply said, "See--and raise
+_you_."
+
+Now there was audible word of warning. Watts looked as though he wished
+to interpose, but was checked instantly by Case himself. "Been saving
+that for--funer'l expenses," said he doggedly, "but I'm backin' this
+hand for _double_ what's in that."
+
+Craney lifted the wallet, shook it, and three fifty-dollar bills
+fluttered out upon the table. Willett looked steadily at Case one
+moment before he spoke:
+
+"Isn't this a trifle high for a gentleman's game?" said he.
+
+"That's what they said at Vancouver, two years ago, when you bluffed
+out that young banker's son."
+
+Willett half rose from his chair. "I _thought_ I'd seen your face
+before," said he.
+
+"What I want to know," said the bookkeeper instantly, all deference to
+rank or station vanished from tone and manner, "is, do you see my raise
+now?"
+
+There was a moment's silence, during which no man present seemed to
+breathe. Then slowly Willett spoke:
+
+"No, a straight isn't worth it." Whereupon there was a moment of
+embarrassed silence as the stakes were swept across the blanket-covered
+table, then a guffaw of rejoiceful mirth from the prospector. Case, as
+though carelessly, threw down his cards, face upwards, and there was
+not so much as a single pair.
+
+"The drinks are on me, oh, yes," said he, "but the joke's on the
+lieutenant."
+
+Yet when Bonner left, five minutes later and the game again was going
+on, there was no mirth in it. Nor was there mirth when the sun came
+peeping over the eastward range this cloudless Sabbath morning, shaming
+the bleary night lights at the store--the bleary eyes at the table.
+Bonner found them at it still an hour after reveille, and ventured to
+lay a hand on Willett's shoulder. "Can I speak with you a moment?" he
+said.
+
+Willett rose unsteadily, but with dignity unshaken by change of
+fortune. He had lost as heavily, by this time, as earlier he had won.
+
+"May I be pardoned for suggesting that you would be wise to get out of
+this and--a few hours' sleep? The general is up and worried. 'Tonio is
+gone!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+The fact that the post was cut off from the rest of the world, that
+neither runner from the field columns, courier from Prescott, nor mail
+rider from McDowell had succeeded in getting in, while 'Tonio, head
+trailer, had easily succeeded in getting out, was a combination
+calculated to promote serious reflection on part of the garrison this
+ideal Sunday morning. Perhaps it did, but so far as talk was concerned
+a very different fact ruled as first favorite. It was known all over
+the barracks by breakfast time that Case, the bookkeeper, had bluffed
+out the young swell from the Columbia who had come down to teach them
+how to play poker and fight Apaches. "Willett stock" among the rank and
+file had not been too high at the start, had been sinking fast since
+the affair at Bennett's Ranch, and was a drug in the market when the
+command, as was then the custom of the little army, turned out for
+inspection under arms, while Willett was turning in for a needed nap.
+Strong, his official host, knew instinctively where Willett must be,
+when he tumbled up to receive the reports at morning roll call and
+found the spare bed untouched. He said nothing, of course, even at
+guard mounting, when, together, he and Captain Bonner walked over to
+the office, where sat the post commander anxiously awaiting them. It
+seems that even after Bonner's friendly hint the game had not ceased at
+once. Willett had played on another hour in hopes that luck would
+change, but by seven Craney called a halt, said that he and Watts must
+quit, and intimated that Willett ought to. Case, though well along in
+liquor, still kept his head and lead, and would have played, but by
+this time Willett was writing I.O.U.'s. The prospector's cash was gone.
+The hitherto modest, retiring, silent man of the desk and ledgers had
+won heavily from the officer, yet only a trifle from his employers, and
+Craney suggested a recess until night. "Then we'll meet again--and
+settle," said Willett, half extending his hand.
+
+"You bet we'll settle," said Case, the bookkeeper, wholly ignoring it,
+and even then the fact was noted and thereafter remembered.
+
+"I think I won't go up t­o the post just now," said Willett to Craney.
+"Perhaps you have----"
+
+"Certainly, Mr. Willett. Come right in here," said the trader
+hospitably, leading the way into a darkened room. "Take a good nap;
+sleep as long as you want to. I'll send you in a tub if you like." The
+tub was gratefully accepted, and then they left him. At noon when the
+general asked Strong if Willett "wasn't feeling well," Strong said
+Willett had been up late and was probably still asleep. Bonner, it was
+known, had not turned in again after two o'clock, and the discovery
+that 'Tonio was missing. He was dozing on the porch in his easy-chair
+when first call sounded for reveille, and Lilian, like gentle-hearted
+Amelia, lay dreaming of her wearied knight as having kept vigil with
+the sentries to the break of day that she and those she loved might
+sleep in security, and now, of course, he must indeed be wearied.
+
+Therefore there came a surprise to her, and to the fond and watchful
+mother, when toward four o'clock in the afternoon Mrs. Stannard dropped
+in to chat with them awhile, and to tell about Harris, by whose bedside
+she had been sitting and reading for nearly two hours. Mrs. Archer
+welcomed the news. The doctor had promised to let her know as soon as
+he considered it wise for her to go, and the general was so anxious and
+disturbed on Mr. Harris's account. It so happened that the general,
+with a small escort, had ridden over to search the valley with glasses
+from the peak, and then the first thing Mrs. Stannard said was, "I
+thought that Mr. Willett might have been glad to go with the general."
+
+"And did he not?" asked Mrs. Archer, after one quick glance at Lilian's
+averted eyes.
+
+"Why, no," and now Mrs. Stannard hesitated; "I saw, at least I think I
+saw, him coming up from the river a little while ago. He may have been
+following 'Tonio's trail, you know. It was easy enough in the sand,
+they said, but once it reached the rocks along the stream-bed they lost
+it." Then wisely Mrs. Stannard changed the subject.
+
+But if she and they knew not where and how Willett had spent the night
+and hours of the day, they and Harris, by this time, were the only ones
+at Almy in such ignorance. Moreover, Almy was having a lot of fun out
+of it. No one had ever heard of Case's playing before in all the time
+he had silently, unobtrusively, gone about his daily doings at the
+post. Three weeks out of four he sat over the books and accounts, or
+some writing of his own, saying nothing to anybody unless addressed,
+then answering civilly, but in few words. The other week, just as
+quietly and unobtrusively, he was apt to be busy with his bottle,
+sometimes in the solitude of his little room, sometimes wandering by
+night down along the stream, sometimes stealing out to the herds,
+petting and crooning to the horses, sometimes slyly tendering the herd
+guard a drink, and always accompanied by a pack of the hounds, for by
+them he was held in reverence and esteem. He never accosted anybody,
+never even complained when a godless brace of soldier roughs robbed him
+of his bottle as he lay half-dozing to the lullaby of the babbling
+stream. He simply meandered a mile and got another.
+
+From this plane of inoffensive obscurity Case had sprung in one night
+to fame and, almost, to fortune. A single field had turned the chance
+of war, and the placid Sunday found him the most talked of man at the
+post. Rumor had it that he had quit five hundred dollars ahead of the
+game, and the most conservative estimate could not reduce it more than
+half. For the first time Camp Almy awoke to the conclusion that an
+experienced gambler was in their midst--one who had spared the soldier
+and his scanty pay that he might feed fat, eventually, on the officer.
+Rumor had it that Case's trunk contained a roulette wheel and faro
+"layout." In fine, long before orderly call at noon, in the whimsical
+humor of the garrison, he was no longer Case, the bookkeeper, but
+"Book, the Case Keeper," and every frontiersman, civil or military, in
+those days knew what that meant.
+
+And even as they exalted Case, who toward afternoon had disappeared
+from public gaze, refusing to be lionized, so would they have abased
+Willett, who likewise had concealed himself, on the plea of needed
+sleep, yet had done but little sleeping. Willett was haunted by a
+memory, and not pleasantly. The fact that he had lost over a month's
+pay troubled him less by far than that he had lost repute. He had
+suffered much in pocket, but more in prestige. He had been a successful
+player in the Columbia country, too much so for the good of scores of
+comrades, but especially himself. He could have found it in his heart
+to throttle that guffawing clown, whose rude bellow of rejoicing over
+Case's brilliant bluff and his own defeat, had brought even the dago
+and his fellows in staring wonderment to the open door. He would have
+pledged another month's pay could he have throttled the story he knew
+now would be going the rounds. He was even more humiliated--far
+more--than they knew. They all would have shouted had they seen the
+hand he laid down, but he had striven to carry it off jocosely, to say
+_he_ had only been bluffing, and was very properly caught at his own
+game. Oh, he had shown a game, sportsman-like front, and had striven to
+pass it all off as a matter that worried him not in the least, but
+Craney, clear-headed, believed otherwise, and Case, muddle-headed as he
+was by noon, knew better, and had his reasons for knowing--reasons as
+potent as were those that moved him wholly to ignore Willett's
+half-proffered hand.
+
+Case had nothing in particular to do all day, and could sleep if so
+minded. Willett, not knowing what moment he might be called upon to
+take active part in stirring service, should sleep, and so prepare
+himself, yet could not. Case's personality, and Case's one reference to
+Vancouver, two years previous, haunted and vexed him sorely. Where and
+under what circumstances had he seen the man? Only for three weeks had
+he been at the fine old post referred to, while a big court-martial was
+there in session, and he, with other subalterns, had come as witnesses.
+There had been dinners and dancing and fun and flirtation, both at the
+post and in Portland. There had been card-playing in which he was easy
+winner, and not a little of his winnings had gone for wine. There had
+been foolish things said in pink little ears, and even written in silly
+missives that now he would have been glad to recall, but--but no harm
+to him as yet had come from them. There had even been a girl whom he
+had never seen before nor since that visit, nor wanted to see again,
+nor hear from, yet from her he _had_ heard, and more than once--piteous,
+imploring little letters they were. But, heavens! he was busy hunting
+Indians when they began to come, and then they had ceased to find him,
+rather to his relief, but none of these episodes or epistles in any way
+included Case, yet somewhere he had seen him, somewhere he had heard
+his voice, and somewhere Case had marked his method of play. Case said
+Vancouver, but though two or three steep games had there or thereabouts
+occurred--games in which his soldier comrades had withdrawn as too big
+for them--he, with his luck and brilliancy, had dared to pursue to the
+end and came out envied as a winner. And still this did not seem to
+point to Case.
+
+Not two hours' sleep did Willett get that Sunday morning. He was awake,
+hot, feverish, and athirst at noon, craving ice, which could be seen in
+the mountains only a day's march away, but had never yet been made to
+last through the homeward journey. Craney brought him a cool and
+dripping canteen and some acetic acid, the best he could do, and had
+proffered bottled beer, cooled in the big olla and retailed at fifty
+cents, but Willett sought information rather than sleep, and indirectly
+inquired as to Case's antecedents. Inferentially, he wished Craney to
+understand that he believed Case to be a professional, and Craney
+blamable for permitting him to play. Craney saw the move and checkmated
+at once. "Case has had dozens of chances to play--dozens of 'em--since
+I brought him here from Prescott, and never before has he sat into
+anything bigger'n a dollar limit. He never _would_ play in the other
+room. He came out as quartermaster's clerk, nearly two years ago. With
+whom? Why, Major Ballard brought him out and had to turn him loose for
+drinking. No, Ballard was never at Vancouver. Then my bookkeeper got
+shot in a pay-day row and left the books in a muddle. I _had_ to
+hire Case to come and balance them--best accountant and bookkeeper I
+ever had--square to the marrow, though he wants one week off a month,
+and is absolutely stalwart t'other three, but he will not talk of his
+past. Ballard told me he came with tiptop letters from officers of rank
+in San Francisco, who said he was incorruptible, even when he drank,
+whereas my clerk, who had been a model of sobriety, robbed right and
+left. Case has gone off now, somewhere down among the willows, I
+reckon. He'll be drunk for three days, sobering three days, and
+straight the seventh. If you hadn't started him last night he'd be
+sober now. And if you hadn't come into it that family game would have
+stopped at one, with nobody the worse nor wiser. You said you had no
+use for a dollar limit game."
+
+There was no comfort, therefore, in Craney's visit. Willett took
+another cool bath, dressed about two, and being shown the path Case
+generally followed, sauntered away, quite as though he had nothing on
+his mind, and was presently lost beyond that same willowy screen. He at
+that time, at least, was not thinking of 'Tonio and the lost trail.
+
+At five the general, with Strong and Bonner, could be made out four
+miles away, riding back from the peak. "I'll go a moment and inquire
+for Mr. Harris," said Mrs. Archer, "and ask the doctor when _we_ may
+visit him." So, leaving Lilian with Mrs. Stannard, and intending to be
+gone but a few minutes, the gentle, anxious-hearted woman, sunshade in
+hand, went forth from the shelter of the low veranda into the slanting,
+unclouded rays, and presently tapped lightly at the doctor's open door.
+There was no answer, yet from somewhere within came sound of masculine
+voices. Entering the dark hall, she tapped again at the entrance to the
+doctor's sitting-room, or den. A Navajo blanket hung like a _portière_
+across the open space, for door there was none, and, as no one came in
+answer to her modest signal, she ventured to push the curtain a bit to
+one side and peer within. The room was but dimly lighted, all windows
+but one on the north side being heavily draped. The doctor's reclining
+chair and reading table, the latter littered with books, pamphlets and
+pipes, were visible through a reminiscent haze of not too fragrant
+tobacco smoke, for the old predominated over the new. A rude sideboard
+stood over against her, between the northward windows, and thereon was
+stationed a demi-john of goodly proportions, with outlying pickets in
+the way of glasses. Bentley himself, though one of the old school, was
+an abstemious man, and therefore enabled to have at all times a supply
+of reliable stimulant for such of his callers as were of opposite
+faith. That some of that ilk had recently favored him was presumptively
+evident, no more by the sideboard display than by the sound of voices
+from an inner room, where two or three were uplifted in discussion, and
+neither was the doctor's.
+
+Now, Mrs. Archer much wished to see young Harris, to assure him of
+their deep interest in his welfare, of their desire to be of service to
+him, and their reason for not earlier intruding. Gentle and unselfish
+though she was, there was distinct sense of chagrin that Mrs. Stannard,
+or any woman, should have anticipated her coming. The doctor had
+promised to say just how soon he could approve her seeing his patient,
+and it was the doctor's fault she had come no sooner. Not until days
+thereafter did she know that Harris had asked for Mrs. Stannard. Not
+for even a Christmas home-going would Mrs. Stannard have let her know
+it--but Mrs. Stannard was a rare, rare woman.
+
+But if the doctor thought it unwise that his patient should receive the
+visits of ministering angels such as she and they, what, said Mrs.
+Archer to her stupefied self, could Dr. Bentley mean by permitting the
+visits of such disturbers as these whose angering words came distinctly
+to her ears? She stood, half-dazed, unable for a moment to determine
+what to do--whether to enter at once--enter, and in the name of her
+husband, the commanding officer, enter emphatic protest against such
+exciting language at such a time, in such a presence--or whether to
+retire at once and hear no more of it. One voice, at the moment low and
+guarded, was that of a stranger--she had never heard it before. The
+other, however, she knew instantly as that of Harold Willett. No wonder
+she stood amazed, never doubting they were addressed to Harris, at the
+first words--Willett's words--to reach her ears!
+
+"You are in no condition now to talk to a gentleman, and I refuse to
+listen. You came here to lie about me--to undermine me, and I know it,
+and the quicker you go----"
+
+"I came here to speak God's truth and _you_ know it!" came the instant
+answer, and in instant relief she knew it was not the voice of Harris.
+"As to undermining--by God, it's to block _your_ undermining another
+and a better man I've come! If that isn't enough for you--to block your
+doing here--what you did to that poor girl at Portland----"
+
+But a rush and a scuffle, the sound of a blow, broke in upon the words,
+just as the attendant, affrighted, came running out, just as Dr.
+Bentley, astounded and indignant, came hurrying in. Mrs. Archer, in
+bewilderment, fell back into the sunshine, only presently to see
+Willett, flushed and furious, hasten forth from the rear door and turn
+straightway to the adjutant's quarters adjoining--only to be overtaken
+in a moment by the attendant, panting: "The doctor said would Mrs.
+Archer please come back one minute, he'd like to speak with her." And
+Mrs. Archer turned again and went.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+
+Ten minutes later, when the general and his little escort came dustily
+into the garrison, his first question on dismounting was for Willett,
+and it was Lilian who had to answer that she believed he was at Mr.
+Strong's. So thither, with but brief, though kindly, word with Mrs.
+Stannard, and as brief an expression of his satisfaction that Mrs.
+Archer had gone to see Harris, the veteran took his way. The horses
+were led to stables. The other officers, hastening homeward, bowing in
+hurried, perfunctory fashion to the ladies, turned again at sound of
+his voice, and all three together entered the adjutant's house, an
+orderly remaining at the door. Lilian looked anxiously after them and
+Mrs. Stannard inquiringly. "They have seen something, I know," said the
+girl, "and something father is puzzled about. He would not have come
+and gone without a kiss." Already Mrs. Stannard had noted his fond
+custom, had marked its omission now when, ever since luncheon, he had
+been away, and she, too, divined that he was preoccupied, even
+perplexed. But once already she had too quickly spoken her thoughts,
+and there must be no more of that. In three minutes the little party
+came forth again, Willett with them now, and, field-glasses in hand,
+away they strode to the northward edge of the plateau and went speedily
+along toward a point at the back of the hospital where there stood a
+little platform, railed about with untrimmed pine, a rustic lookout
+much affected by the men in the long evenings, but seldom visited when
+the sun was up. It took no time at all for half the remaining garrison
+to turn out and, at respectful distance, stand curiously watching them,
+and little more for the other half to come flocking out of doors. "Seen
+somethin' from way up on the Picacho," explained the orderly, as he
+jogged by with the heated horses, "an' came back akiting!"
+
+Two minutes more and the adjutant, Strong, came running from the
+platform. "Don't unsaddle," he shouted. "Bring those horses back and
+get some more! Send the escort up here at once!"
+
+The officers at the lookout had not even unslung their pistol belts,
+and Willett now was seen to set down his binocular and start away. The
+general called to him and he half turned and hurriedly answered: "Back
+just as quick as I can get my Colt, sir." He was unfastening his blouse
+at the throat as he went, and even at the distance men could see how
+hot and flushed he looked, while the others seemed so hard, "tried out"
+and fit for anything. Presently the half dozen horsemen, who had been
+with their chief to the Picacho, came trotting forth from the corral,
+followed by two or three led horses. Strong mounted the first to reach
+him and sent another to his quarters for Lieutenant Willett. Then
+Captain Bonner came strolling back as though quite unconcerned. "May as
+well get the men under arms," said he to his alert first sergeant, and
+away went every man of Company "C" on a run for the barracks.
+
+"Needn't wait for Willett," the general was heard calling to Strong,
+who, with a little party, sat in saddle eagerly awaiting orders. So
+down the slope they went, just as the doctor and Mrs. Archer, apprised
+in some way of the excitement, came forth and saw the dust cloud in
+their wake, and the snorting troop horse pawing the sand in front of
+Strong's. Old Bucketts, the quartermaster, came limping up the line,
+his florid features a deeper red, and all he could tell in answer to
+question was, "They see something beyond the Point. Who's that horse
+for, orderly?"
+
+"Loot'nt Willett, sir--said he'd be out in a minute."
+
+But the minutes proved long, and Bucketts went in to help, if need be,
+and to get information, if possible. Willett had kicked off his fine
+uniform trousers and ununiform Oxfords, and was cursing the striker who
+had hidden his scouting rig. "Why the devil didn't you go as you were?"
+asked Bucketts unsympathetically. "They're raising the dust far as the
+ford already. What's up, anyhow?"
+
+"Can't tell! Don't know! Nobody knows! They send scouts out--couriers
+out--messengers out, and spend hours wishing somebody'd come with news,
+and then when somebody's seen coming get rattled and send half the
+garrison out to meet----"
+
+But suddenly catching sight of the disapprobation on his caller's face,
+Willett broke off short. No wonder Buckett's looked astonished at such
+language from a staff officer. Nor was that veteran questioner long in
+sizing up the cause. It added nothing to his respect for Willett, and
+not a little to his concern. He knew by this time, as did almost every
+man except the post commander, how and where Willett spent the night
+and morning--knew that he had left the store only an hour or so
+previous, as though to follow and find the bookkeeper--knew that Case
+had been drinking, and saw now that Willett had been following suit.
+Without a word on that head, or another question as to the causes of
+the excitement, he stumped about the premises, busying himself in
+hunting for the missing items, and presently found them hanging under a
+calico curtain that Willett had already nearly torn down in
+unsuccessful, unseeing search. "Here you are," he said, tossing the
+garments on the bed. "Here's your pistol, Colt's 44; every chamber
+loaded and ready for business. You'll use a different belt when you've
+been a month in Arizona--and you'll shed top boots for 'Patchie
+moccasins. Let me help you, Willett. You're a bit blown. Here, douse
+your head in that----" and as he spoke Bucketts half filled a bowl and
+went limping out to the olla for more and cooler water, leaving Willett
+fussing at his riding breeches and damning Strong's striker for being
+away among the gaping, staring, empty-headed gang at the bluff at the
+moment he was most needed.
+
+As Bucketts was lifting the vessel from the cool depths of the hanging
+reservoir, he heard his name faintly called, and there, at the side
+door of the doctor's quarters, pale and suffering, barefooted and
+mantled with a sheet, his arm and shoulder bandaged, stood Harris.
+
+"Tell Willett to come out," he said. "I must see him before he goes."
+
+"You go back to bed. I'll tell him," but Harris stood his ground
+despite the fact that the attendant had laid a hand upon his unbound
+shoulder, and was begging him to return. Bucketts set the pitcher
+inside the door. "Here's cooler water, Willett," he said, "and here's
+Harris at the door--says he must see you before you start."
+
+Then, without waiting for answer, the quartermaster hurried along the
+path to the front in search of the doctor; saw him far over back of the
+hospital, heading for the platform; saw Mrs. Archer, on her own veranda
+by this time, in eager talk with Mrs. Stannard, and Lilian drooping at
+the corner pillar; hurried back to get his stick and to further rebuke
+Harris, when, afar down to the south-east came the sound of a shot,
+half-muffled by distance, and, gazing from the rear end of the little
+gallery, he saw, a mile or more away across the stream and skirting the
+willows, two horsemen coming at top speed; saw, emerging from the
+willows at the near side of the ford, a man who walked heavily through
+the yielding sand, holding his hand to his face. He, too, had heard the
+shot and was making, 'cross lots, for home. It was Case, the
+bookkeeper, disturbed, perhaps, said Bucketts, in his siesta among the
+willows and doing his best to gain shelter. Before Case could get a
+fourth of the way across the barren flat, tacking perceptibly among the
+cactus and grease wood, the riders burst in sight again and went
+lashing away to the store--two ranchmen or prospectors, said Bucketts,
+and they've been having the time of their life getting in. 'Tonio said
+the Tontos were all about them, and here was additional proof. The last
+Bucketts saw of Case he was lurching on toward the store, but, just
+then, buttoning his riding jacket and girding on his revolver belt, out
+came Willett.
+
+"Well, what is it?" was his brief, almost sullen question. And then
+came his classmate's answer--one that Bucketts long remembered.
+
+"You are going up the valley, I take it, and there is an alarm of some
+kind. Now, Willett, remember this: no matter what you have seen or
+suspect, the Apache-Mohaves had no part in the devil's work at
+Bennett's. I have 'Tonio's word for it, and will bring proofs."
+
+"Damn 'Tonio's word! He's a renegade and a deserter himself! He's
+playing a deep, double game, and you yourself suspected it three days
+ago. Now he's proved it. I've no time to talk." And impatiently he
+turned away and sprang for his horse. A moment more and he was in
+saddle, had set spurs to his excited mount, and then, full gallop, went
+tearing to the edge of the mesa, lifted his hat in salutation to the
+general, and dove down the slope, across the lower bench, away through
+an upper ford of the sluggish winter stream, and out upon the sandy
+flats beyond.
+
+"Rides well," said the general, looking after him.
+
+"_Rides_ very well," said the surgeon, looking after Strong. "Can you
+see anything yet, sir?"
+
+"Could see two horses ten minutes ago, with some running figures far up
+the valley. Can't make 'em out at all. Strong'll fetch 'em--Strong and
+Willett. Good stock there, doctor!"
+
+"Tiptop, where Strong is concerned," said the doctor grimly. The events
+of the earlier afternoon had tended to add to his disapprobation of the
+other. "There's something up at the store, sir, I think," he added,
+with a swift change of subject. "I saw men running that way just now.
+Here comes Bucketts!"
+
+And Bucketts came, hobbling sturdily. "It's two ranchmen, I think, and
+there was a shot down toward the south-east ten minutes ago."
+
+The general looked back. Down in front of the log barracks Bonner's
+company, in fatigue dress, had formed ranks, and the sergeants were
+distributing ammunition. Across the parade, the verandas of the Mess
+and office buildings were deserted, but one or two men stood staring
+toward the invisible plant of the trader. Close at hand, near the
+hospital and again lining the edge of the mesa, a score of yards
+farther to the left, a number of soldiers of the other company were
+eagerly watching developments. Even with the naked eye, two miles or
+more up the valley, Strong's little detachment, black dots of
+skirmishers, could occasionally be sighted pushing on northward, while,
+at heavy gallop, heading for the front, Willett was still in plain
+view; but, at the moment, nothing could be seen of the objects that
+were the original cause of the excitement.
+
+From the Picacho, it seems, both Strong and Bonner had made out through
+their glasses two tiny black dots in the direction of Bennett's ruined
+ranch, coming slowly toward the post, but still five or six miles away.
+From the platform, forty minutes later, two horsemen had distinctly
+been seen moving swiftly about, close to the willows that lined, in
+places, the rocky stream bed. More than this, the general was sure he
+had caught sight of three or four figures afoot, skipping actively
+about when moving at all. What he and his advisers believed was that
+Sergeant Woodrow and his comrades were, for some reason, trying to make
+their way back to Almy and had found Apaches barring the way. Therefore
+had Strong and his little party been sent forth to meet, to aid, to
+bring them in. Therefore had Willett, of his own motion this time, and
+without the delegated authority he bore when following Harris, set
+forth at speed to overtake them, forgetful, in the eagerness of the
+moment and the possible over-excitement of his faculties, that he had
+promised Archer to be back just as soon as he'd got his Colt--that
+calibre 44 Colt now belted at his hip, with every chamber loaded.
+
+And now as the eager watchers at the platform trained their glasses on
+the distant field, Bucketts, taking up the handsome binocular left by
+the aide-de-camp, had time to notice its fine silver mounting and the
+engraved "H. Willett, U.S.A.," in exactly the same script as that
+which adorned the revolver. Then, as he adjusted it to his eyes, it
+occurred to him to tell the doctor of Harris's coming to the side door,
+and of his most earnest language and manner, whereat the general turned
+sharply:
+
+"What's that? Harris said no Apache-Mohaves?"
+
+"No Apache-Mohaves in the affair at Bennett's Ranch, sir, on 'Tonio's
+authority, and Willett scoffed at both statement and 'Tonio."
+
+"By heaven," said Archer, "'Tonio was right in saying we were cut off,
+isolated here, and if he hadn't slipped away in that mysterious fashion
+I'd rather take his word than--than Willett's impressions. Where has
+Willett been--all morning--anyhow? He never came near me!"
+
+Everybody within earshot knew, and nobody answered. Archer looked
+queerly about him. Bonner and Briggs gazed fixedly through their
+glasses. Bucketts was absorbed in the adjustment of his. The doctor
+said he must go over and give Harris a rebuke for getting up, and
+started forthwith, and Archer, without further question, turned again
+to his survey. He was of the old army--and knew the signs.
+
+For a moment every living object up the valley seemed to be shut from
+view. Bonner, by way of changing the subject, had so far "white-lied"
+as to exclaim "There they are again!--er--no," but the ruse was
+unnecessary; Archer understood. Almost at the moment, however, came a
+sound from the open windows of the matron's room, adjoining the
+hospital, against which all present would willingly have closed their
+ears--the prolonged, heart-breaking, moaning cry of a woman robbed of
+all she held dearest--poor Mrs. Bennett waking once more to her direful
+sorrows, and filling the air with her hopeless wail. For a moment it
+dominated all other sound. "For heaven's sake, doctor," cried Archer to
+the assistant, "can't you and Bentley devise something to still that
+poor creature? Has she lost her mind, too?"
+
+"Sounds like it, sir. There's only one thing that will bring it
+back--that's those babies."
+
+"If anybody can get 'em it will be Stannard," answered the general
+prayerfully. "This, whatever it is, up the valley may be news from him
+and of them! God grant it!"
+
+"Look!" cried Bonner at the instant. "I see Willett! See him?--galloping
+up that---- Why, hell and blazes--I beg your pardon, general--he's 'way
+out beyond Strong's people! See 'em--down there by the willows? Where
+in---- Gad! d'ye see that? Why, his horse jumped and shied as if he'd----
+Look! He's running away! He's gone!"
+
+Gone he had. Not once again, before the going down of the sun, now just
+tangent to the western heights, did they catch sight of Willett or
+Willett's horse. One after another the watchers again found Strong
+within the field of vision and followed him down to and across the
+stream, and others of the mounted party were seen, some wearily
+following their officer, others moving about a point among the willows
+where last had been seen the two strangers whose odd movements led to
+the going forth of the searching party. But it was half an hour later,
+and light was growing dim in the valley, while the eastward crests of
+the Mogollon were all ablaze, when a single rider was made out coming
+homeward at speed. It was dusk at Almy when his panting horse struggled
+painfully up the slope and, dismounting, a weary rider saluted the post
+commander and handed him a note. By this time Mrs. Archer, Mrs.
+Stannard and Lilian, too, were on the platform, and the mother's arm
+stole instinctively about the daughter's slender waist, while every eye
+was on the general as he quickly opened, then slowly read aloud the
+pencilled words:
+
+    "We have the couriers safe. They are from up the Verde, badly
+    scared and worn out. Say they have been chased by Indians ever
+    since three o'clock, were almost out of ammunition. Lieutenant
+    Willett, venturing too far on the east side, while we were to the
+    west of the stream, must have encountered some of them. We heard
+    firing, and followed. Found his horse dead among the rocks and
+    Willett lying near, stunned, but certainly not shot. Could see
+    nothing of his assailants. Ambulance needed. Respectfully,
+
+    "STRONG."
+
+Mrs. Archer's arm wound still closer about her daughter's trembling
+form. Lilian said no word, but her face was white, her soft lips were
+quivering. Mrs. Stannard sympathetically closed in on the other side,
+as the general gave brief directions, and presently, between the two,
+the girl walked slowly away, only the general following with his eyes.
+Bentley went back once again to quietly tell the news to Harris, but
+was ready when the ambulance stopped at his door. Lilian had been
+persuaded to go and lie down, said Mrs. Archer, when her grave-faced
+husband came home at dark. "That is best," was all he said, but he
+turned and took his fond wife's face between his hands and kissed it
+thrice, then went forth again to meet the coming couriers. It seems
+their orders were to deliver their despatch in person to the commander
+of Camp Almy, and, sending them on for refreshments, he read by the
+light of a lantern the message from the commander of the District of
+the Verde. Young warriors by the hundred were out, said the agent at
+the reservation, even the Apache-Mohaves. Mail messengers, ranch people
+and others had been murdered close to Camp Sandy. Friendly Indians
+report soldiers killed in Dead Man's Cañon in revenge for death of
+Comes Flying, accidentally shot. Captain Tanner and Lieutenant Ray are
+out from Camps Sandy and Cameron, with strong commands, and will try to
+communicate with Almy. "Nothing has been heard of Lieutenant Harris and
+his scouts," said the despatch, "but rumors are rife as to Indian
+depredations near you. It is feared that in your advanced position you
+may be surrounded, and communication cut off, but no fears are
+entertained as to your ability to take care of yourself. If you still
+have cavalry scouting in the Tonto basin, warn them of conditions and
+report when possible."
+
+"So much for so much," said the general. "Now for Willett," and a mile
+farther out he met the ambulance coming in, Willett and the doctor
+aboard, the former with a broken collar-bone and a bad headache.
+Moreover, Willett was in vicious mood.
+
+"General Archer," said he, "the shot that killed my horse was meant for
+me, and the Indian who fired the shot was Harris's paragon, 'Tonio."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+
+That was a stirring night at Almy. The general, contrary to habit, was
+very grave and quiet, saying little, drinking nothing, even the
+customary toddy being declined. The doctor, also contrary to habit, was
+drinking a little and thinking a lot, but saying nothing. An abstemious
+man, as a rule, and a temperate man at all times, he seemed inclined to
+sample his Monongahela more than once before midnight, when, having
+gotten his patients to sleep, he tried to do likewise. "They are on an
+even keel again," said Bonner, referring to the two casuals, "and I am
+not sorry to see it." Evidently there had been comparison of notes
+between Strong and Bonner, and an agreement of some kind, for both held
+that Willett had exceeded his authority, as well as his discretion, in
+conducting a single-handed charge on an outnumbering enemy, secretly
+hidden behind rocks and ridges. Strong's men said that Lieutenant
+Willett, spurring hard, had called across the stream for them to follow
+him, and three of those nearest the bank plunged through the shallows
+and were barely three hundred yards behind him when, from their right
+front among the rocks at the foot of a bluff, the shot was fired that
+wounded the lieutenant's horse, which veered at once and ran away down
+among the willows. No, they hadn't charged. They turned, too. For all
+they knew, there might have been a thousand Apaches in hiding there,
+and when the lieutenant turned they turned. It was not until Lieutenant
+Strong and the rest of the men came up with them that they pushed ahead
+and found the officer and his horse lying among the rocks by the
+stream. Willett had been hurled out of saddle when the frenzied beast
+went suddenly down, and there he lay, stunned and bleeding, while the
+poor brute was quivering in the agonies of death.
+
+"Did you see anything of 'Tonio?" Strong was asked, as a matter of
+course.
+
+"Not so much as a shred of his breechclout," said Strong, "nor of any
+other Indian nearer than a mile away, and they were running for the
+rocks. It was too dark to do any trailing." But for the shot that
+killed Willett's horse, and the tremendous tales of the courier scouts,
+Strong would have been inclined to say there were not a dozen Indians
+in the north valley. "If there were more," said he, "and if they were
+really hostile, even though afoot as they were, was it likely that two
+couriers on worn-out horses could have escaped them? No," said Strong.
+"There is something about it we don't understand, neither does Willett,
+for all he's so positive."
+
+But Strong admitted that two things puzzled him. The horse was
+certainly shot, and Willett's Colt, the handsome revolver that he set
+such store by, was certainly gone. Willett, when he came to, had asked
+for it. He swore that he had drawn it from the holster, and was riding
+at "raise pistol" when the shot was fired--that he clutched it as his
+maddened horse tore blindly down the slope, and then, among the rocks,
+stumbled, staggered and fell. Now revolver, holster, "thimble belt" of
+cartridges--all were gone.
+
+The couriers were made to tell their tale while the doctor and his
+assistants were getting Willett to bed, and Willett, from several
+conditions, was not easy to soothe and quiet. He had not been sparing
+of the _spiritus frumenti_ that went with other medical supplies
+in the ambulance. Archer and the surgeon saw it, and said nothing. That
+was natural, possibly, under the circumstances, and could be controlled
+later. Archer cross-questioned the couriers at some length. They had
+not followed the Verde Valley southward. They had "lit out" along the
+Mesa road, toward Baker's Butte, until they found the trail by way of
+Hardscrabble and Granite Creek. They had succeeded in evading Apaches
+until the third day out, and after leaving the East Fork they saw
+smokes that made them wary, and once down in the Wild Rye Valley, and
+in sight of the old Picacho, they came upon recent Indian signs in the
+sand--moccasin tracks going down stream bed toward the post. Then they
+"chassayed," as they said, out into the open, midway to the foothills,
+so as to keep out of rifle range of both, and then Indians came
+a-running at them from the foothills, trying to head them off and take
+them alive, they supposed, and they had dismounted and fought and
+driven them back, and, oh, they must have killed three or four of 'em!
+and in fact had had to fight for their lives most of the afternoon.
+Archer listened, incredulous, puzzled. Frontiersmen's and fishermen's
+tales have much in common. These were men who had been employed three
+years, they said, by the agent at the upper reservation and had been
+detailed for courier duty with Colonel Pelham, commanding the district
+of the Verde. One was American, the other Mexican. Their story might be
+straight, but, with all the valor to which they laid claim, it seemed
+strange to Archer and his officers that two men could break their way
+through an encircling horde of hostiles such as they described, and
+hold a hundred fierce Apaches four long hours at bay.
+
+Harris was awake, and in highly nervous condition, and begging that he
+might be allowed to see and question these couriers, but both doctors,
+regular and contract, said no, not this night. And so, toward midnight,
+the couriers were permitted to go to bed. The doubled sentries were
+cautioned to observe the utmost vigilance. The lights were extinguished
+at the store, by way of telling everybody that neither game nor glass
+was to be had before the morrow. The general was urged by his devoted
+adherents, Bonner, Bucketts and Strong, to get such sleep as was
+possible, and the post was committed to the charge of Lieutenant
+Briggs, officer of the day. The lights were still burning low at the
+hospital and in the doctor's quarters and Strong's, as, with a look
+about the moonlit valley and a word to his sergeant, Bonner rejoined
+his comrades at the quartermaster's veranda.
+
+"Odd," said he, with a tilt of his head toward the quarters next
+beyond, "of all our little fighting force, so far the only casualties
+are with our two casuals."
+
+That was at one o'clock in the morning. At three, by which time all but
+the guard were presumably in bed, Mrs. Archer, lying anxious and
+wakeful, listening for the sound of sigh or sob from Lilian's little
+room and praying that sorrow might be averted from that beloved child,
+felt sure at last that she heard a footstep, and, stealing softly
+across the narrow hallway, found Lilian kneeling at the curtained
+window and gazing out upon the brilliant night. There was no reproach
+in the mother's murmured words. Well she knew what it portended that
+her daughter should be at this hour sleepless and striving, perhaps, to
+see the light from the window where her young hero lay prostrate and
+suffering. Not one word had they yet exchanged about him, but many a
+woman, even with mother love brimming over in her heart, would have
+upbraided, and many another would have "nagged." What other word have
+we for that feminine method, the resort of so very many, the remedy of
+so very few? But Mrs. Archer simply circled a loving arm about the
+slender form. "We're all on guard to-night, aren't we, daughter?" she
+murmured, fondly kissing the tear-wet cheek. "It was so long before
+your father dropped to sleep. Have you--heard anything?"
+
+Burying her face in the dear refuge of years, with her arms thrown
+instantly about her mother's neck, Lilian's sole answer was a shake of
+the bonny head. It was as much as saying, "You know that isn't the
+matter; yet, thank you for trying to think so--thank you for not asking
+me what is."
+
+"Well, _I_ did," murmured Mrs. Archer, slowly rising to her feet, and
+drawing Lilian with her. "I'm sure I heard low voices down there on the
+flat toward the ford. The sentries are more than usually watchful and
+taking note of everything. You know it was right out there Number Five
+heard the crying in the willows only last night." And all the time she
+was quietly leading her child back to the little white bed.
+
+Then suddenly Lilian stopped and lifted her head. "I hear now," said
+she. "It's coming!" Across the hall stealthily they sped, and together
+were presently peering from the southward window in Mrs. Archer's room.
+Two dim figures could be seen crossing the flat from the direction of
+the ford, coming straight for the low point of the mesa whereon stood
+the quarters of the commanding officer. Then they began breasting the
+slope, but exchanging no word. As they reached the top Mrs. Archer
+caught Lilian's hand. "It's an Indian--a runner, I believe. See, that's
+the corporal of the guard with him! It's a despatch of some kind!"
+
+And so it proved. Five minutes later, Briggs, officer of the day, was
+heard coming down the line; his sword clicked at the steps; his foot
+was on the veranda, but before he could knock, Mrs. Archer met him at
+the door.
+
+"We saw them coming," said she. "Is it a despatch--for the general?"
+
+"From Captain Turner," said he gravely. "I read it, hoping not to have
+to disturb the general, but--there's been a fight and some are wounded.
+Turner needs instructions."
+
+The army-bred woman needed no further word. She knew at once what had
+to be done. "Wake father, Lilian, dear," she gently called from the
+foot of the stairs. "Will you come in, Mr. Briggs? I can light up in a
+moment."
+
+"There's light in abundance out here, thank you, Mrs. Archer. Besides,
+I have our runner." And, turning back, he pointed to the steps where,
+still watched by Corporal Hicks, the dusky messenger squatted wearily.
+All Apaches looked alike to Hicks. His attitude was plainly indicative
+of a conviction that treachery of some kind was afoot, and this
+particular envoy had designs on his commander or that commander's wife.
+They could hear the veteran bustling about upstairs, hurriedly donning
+his uniform. Then came Strong, with his quick, bounding step, for
+Briggs had called him before disturbing the "Old Man." A moment later,
+by the clear light of the unclouded moon, Archer was hurriedly reading
+Turner's brief despatch.
+
+    BIVOUAC ON TORONTO CREEK, NOVEMBER 24TH, 187--.
+
+    POST ADJUTANT,
+    CAMP ALMY.
+
+    We have had two more brushes with Tonto Apaches, resulting in the
+    breaking up of two rancheri­as and the scattering of the band,
+    leaving several dead in each affair, also a few wounded bucks and
+    squaws that I had to leave, as we had no means of sending them to
+    the post or caring for them in any way. Sergeant Payne, Corporal
+    Smith, G, and Troopers Schreiter and Wenzel, wounded, are doing as
+    well as can be expected, but must remain at this point under a
+    small guard while we follow the renegades. The scouts report many
+    signs toward the Black Mesa, and we shall strike wherever we find
+    the hostiles, but I shall have but twenty-five men with me now, and
+    barely forty rounds per man. Instructions sent by bearer may reach
+    me among the foothills toward Diamond Butte. Otherwise, we shall
+    return by the way we came. Trooper Hanson, died of wounds in the
+    affair previously reported, was buried here.
+
+    Respectfully,
+
+    TURNER, Commanding.
+
+"Then the other runner failed to get in," said Archer gravely. "There
+was a fight before this. Turner's found a raft of Indians. This
+despatch is two days old now. Have we nobody who can talk with this
+Indian?"
+
+"Nobody, I fear, sir," answered Strong, bending over the scout and
+examining the brass identification tag worn by each of those regularly
+employed and mustered. "He's a Hualpai. No. 21. Even Harris doesn't
+know that tongue, sir."
+
+"If anybody here does, it's one of those two that got in from Verde
+last evening," said Archer reflectively. "Turner evidently had no idea
+the hostiles were all about us, and he thinks the previous despatch
+must have reached us. Corporal, go find the couriers and fetch them
+here. Be seated, gentlemen," he continued, in his courtly way, then
+turning from everybody, stepped out on the sandy level between his
+quarters and the office building, and began pacing slowly up and down.
+
+What was to be done? No word had come from Stannard. Stirring, yet
+disquieting news they now had from Turner, whose wounded lay in need of
+medical attention a long day's march through stony wilds, with jealous
+and savage eyes watching every trail. Here at Almy he had two companies
+of sturdy foot, capable of covering ground almost as fast as the
+cavalry, but wearing out shoe leather much faster. Twenty of these
+fellows could fight their way through to the Tonto, but might have just
+as many more wounded to care for, and be unable to transport them.
+Moreover, with so many hostiles on every side, was he justified in
+stripping the post of its defenders? It was no pleasant situation. It
+was more than perplexing. Presently he turned and, using such signs as
+he thought might be comprehensible, asked the impassive runner if he
+knew where the first fight took place, and the Hualpai, as would almost
+any Indian partially gathering the drift of a question, began a
+rambling reply, pointing as he spoke, with shifting finger, all over
+the range to the south-east.
+
+"Bella, dear, have we anything that this incomprehensible creature
+could eat?" asked Archer. "It may help matters." And presently the lady
+of the house appeared at the hall door again, with a tray in her hands.
+Briggs ceremoniously took it, and set huge slices of bread and jam
+before the gaunt mountaineer, who found his feet in an instant;
+received a slice on the palm of his outspread hand; lifted it
+cautiously, his yellow teeth showing hungrily; smelled it suspiciously,
+thrust forth his tongue, and slowly tasted the strange mixture on the
+surface; then, with confidence established, finished it in four gulps,
+and, like a greyhound, looked eagerly for more. Briggs laughed and
+pointed to the tray on the steps, but the Hualpai shook his head and
+drew back shyly.
+
+"You'll have to give it piece by piece, Briggs," said Strong. "His
+squaw would scoop the whole trayload into her skirt or blanket, but not
+a Hualpai brave."
+
+Approached in accordance with Hualpai views of table etiquette, the
+Indian ate greedily, and was still eating when the corporal came and,
+with him, the sleepy and dishevelled courier, the American. And now in
+the radiant moonlight the strange war council was resumed.
+
+"Ask him, if you can, where the first fight came off, and who was sent
+with the despatch," demanded the general of the new-comer, upon whom
+the Hualpai looked in recognition, but with neither light nor welcome
+in his piercing eyes. Question and answer in halting, uncanny speech
+progressed fitfully a moment. Then came the report:
+
+"He says there was a fight the first day out; another when they struck
+Tonto Creek, and two soldiers were killed."
+
+"And as to the first runner?"
+
+"He says 'Patchie Mohave brought it all way safe. This buck met him
+going back. He said he gave it to 'scout capitan' out by Picacho."
+
+"'Out by Picacho!''Scout capitan!' Who on earth does he mean?" asked
+Archer, with a sudden fear at heart.
+
+Once again, stumbling question, much gesticulation, many words in
+strange gutturals--and a name. Then the final report:
+
+"He means Apache-Mohave--'Tonio!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+
+Three anxious, watchful days went by, with anxious, watchful nights
+intervening, with no further tidings of 'Tonio or Stannard or Turner,
+of friend or foe from the outside world, and with only one attempt on
+part of the invisibly, yet perceptibly, surrounded garrison to
+communicate with the field columns. "Hualpai 21," the only designation
+he would own to (the real name, in the absence of some tribesman to
+speak for him, one could rarely learn from an Indian), was given his
+fill of food and rest, then, with a despatch to Turner, was sent forth
+Monday night south-eastward, the way he came, and bidden if he reached
+the rugged height known as El Caporal, some twelve miles to the
+south-east, and deemed it safe to do so, to send at sunrise three quick
+mirror flashes toward the flagstaff, repeating twice or thrice to be
+sure of its attracting attention. Hualpai 21 took with him one of those
+cheap little disks of looking-glass, cased in pewter, at that time
+found at every frontier store. He took also the injunction to give his
+despatch to Captain Turner or one of his men, but to no Indian
+whomsoever--'Tonio in particular. It was the last attempt of the week.
+
+For, from dawn until the sun was an hour high, the watchers watched in
+vain. Three signal glasses, telescope and binocular, were trained upon
+the heights and no one of them caught the faintest spark of reflected
+light. The nearest approach to a signal was seen by a corporal of the
+guard and sentry Number Six an hour after midnight, when, in quick
+succession, two faint, firefly flashes, unrepeated, were visible afar
+out due east of the Picacho, and they could have been caused in only
+two ways--somebody experimenting with a mirror and the moonbeams, the
+moon being then about three hours high and three-quarters full, or
+else, as they were ruddier than moonshine, somebody taking two quick
+shots, probably at somebody else. The corporal counted seconds up to
+twenty and more, and even in that breathless silence, heard not a sound
+to warrant the belief.
+
+Yet a few hours later that sun-blistered morning, the bookkeeper Case
+"blew in for a bottle," as he expressed it; remarked with engaging
+frankness that he believed he had still a day or so in which to taper,
+and would be home and on deck if the Apaches didn't get him meantime;
+and, being delicately invited to state where he had spent the night,
+replied as frankly as before, "Down at José Sanchez's," meaning thereby
+the down-stream resort two miles distant, where prospectors, packers
+and occasionally men from the post, in peace times, at least, went for
+unlimited mescal and monte. Since the death of Comes Flying, the
+disappearance of 'Patchie Sanchez (the runner, half-brother to Sanchez,
+the gambler), and the general outbreak among the Indians, it had been
+shunned as utterly unsafe, and reported abandoned. When cautioned by
+Watts against returning thither, Mr. Case replied that now that the
+Indians spurned it, for not even 'Tonio would set foot anywhere about
+the ranch, the ghost of the brother was seen there every night. He had
+seen it and it was an honest ghost, and a convivial spirit, which was
+why last night's bottle had lasted no longer. Moreover, Case said that
+when he was drinking he was only at home in half-bred society and
+couldn't live up to the high tone of the post. When told of Mr.
+Willett's further mishap, Case sobered for a moment in manner, and said
+Mr. Willett was unwise taking so many chances, and Mr. Willett would be
+in big luck if he got away from Almy without further puncture. Somebody
+else had been shot at last night. He and the ghost had heard it.
+
+This at the moment was regarded as semi-maudlin talk, but at morning
+office hour Watts was sent for, was told what the guard had seen, and
+asked what Case had really said, rumor being, as a rule, inaccurate.
+Then Archer rebuked Watts for letting Case go in his intoxicated
+condition, and it was decided to send a little party in search, in
+hopes of fetching him in and finding out more about the alleged
+shooting. The party found Case without any trouble. He sat singing to
+himself and swinging his legs from the table in the abandoned rookery,
+the half-emptied bottle on one side and a "monkey" of spring water on
+the other, scornful alike of danger or demands, but indomitably
+courteous. The party took a drink with him as promptly invited, but
+found him implacably bent on holding the position. Not until argument
+and whiskey both were exhausted would he listen to reason and the
+suggestion to return to the post. That being the only means to more
+whiskey, he started affably enough, but before going half a mile
+declared he had left or lent his revolver. "There's only one revolver
+at Camp Almy just like it," said he, with drunken dignity, and then,
+with sudden gravity, "an' that one--_isn't_ at Camp Almy."
+
+The infantry sergeant in command of the little party tried to wheedle
+Case out of his whim, but it was useless. Back he would go, and they,
+half supporting, had to go with him. From the drawer of the battered
+old table he drew the missing weapon to light, and it stood
+revealed--one of the famous Colt's 44, made soon after the Civil War to
+replace the percussion-capped "Navy" carried by most officers of the
+army until late in the '60's. In the hands of the cavalry at the
+moment, and for experimental purposes, were nickel-plated Smith and
+Wesson's of the same calibre, and nearly the same length of barrel,
+also one or two other patterns of the remodelled Colt. But, as Case
+said, this was a special make and model, differing slightly from any
+that Sergeant Joyce had ever yet seen; but not until later did the
+sergeant or his comrades attach any significance to Case's statement,
+"there's only one at Almy just like it."
+
+His weapon recovered, his mental balance slightly restored, and with
+the further inspiration of replenished flask ahead, Case made the
+difficult essay to tramp the two sandy miles back to the store and the
+still more difficult task of there accounting for himself and
+explaining his enigmatical sayings. Strong, as directed, strove to keep
+him to the point, but the one more drink Case declared indispensable on
+his final arrival at dusk sent flitting the last filaments of reason,
+and the poor fellow maundered off to sleep on his little cot in the
+darkened room, where he was bolted in and left for the night.
+
+"Only one pistol like it at the post, and that--isn't at the post,"
+Strong found himself repeating again and again that night, as, after
+Mrs. Archer and Mrs. Stannard had read their patient into a doze and
+taken their departure, the adjutant stood for a moment by Willet's
+bedside. "And now Willett has lost his, and presumably the Tontos, or
+perhaps the Apache-Mohaves, have got it!"
+
+They had wandered away in the darkness together, those two brave and
+tender-hearted army women, each with a keen anxiety of her own, each
+striving to be helpful to the other. Three invalids were there now at
+Almy to whom they were giving many hours of care and nursing. Poor Mrs.
+Bennett gained little in mental or bodily health. The fearful scenes of
+that long night of horror and rapine still seemed vividly before her in
+her few hours of fitful slumber, and were this state of things to
+continue long, said the doctor, insanity would be a merciful refuge. An
+hour or so each day these ministering angels gave to the young
+officers. Harris, severely shot, was mending fast, his perfect physical
+condition lending itself admirably to his restoration. Willett, but
+slightly injured, should be sitting up, with his shoulder in a frame
+and his arm in a sling, but he was mending only slowly, and had not a
+little fever. Harris, accustomed to self-denial, seemed to require no
+physical comforts. Willett, something of a Sybarite, craved iced drinks
+and cooling applications that gave more trouble, said Strong, than
+twenty Harrises. Willett had even gone so far as to suggest that the
+ladies must be tired of reading aloud, possibly Miss Lilian might
+relieve one or other, and possibly, hope whispered, both. Harris, who
+would have welcomed that presence and possibility as he would no other,
+had ventured nothing beyond the expression of a hope that Miss Archer
+was quite well.
+
+As for Miss Archer herself, what man can say just what thoughts,
+emotions, hopes and fears were rioting in that gentle and innocent, yet
+troubled heart. A very unheroic little heroine is this of ours. It was
+a time when she might well be thinking of the perils by which they and
+their defenders were encompassed round about, of the bereaved and
+broken-hearted woman crying to heaven for her murdered husband and her
+stolen children, of the scouts and couriers shot down from ambush in
+their efforts to reach them in their isolation or to creep through with
+messages to the columns afield, of the wounded lying with but scant
+attention and puny guard, weary marches away, of the comrades killed or
+died of wounds in fierce grapple with the warriors of the desert and
+the mountains--even of this young soldier within their gates, sore
+stricken in daring rescue of a helpless woman, he to whose coolness and
+command of self--and others--had saved her from the rattler's fang.
+Very possibly she did think of it--and often--and tried to think of
+them still oftener, but all the time, it must be owned, in her heart of
+hearts she was hearing again the soft, caressing tone of that deep,
+rich voice--"the words of love then spoken;" she saw again the lustrous
+eyes that shone and burned into hers despite their drooping lids, the
+graceful, gallant form of that picture of the knight and gentleman
+whose swift wooing had made such wondrous way. Lilian Archer was but a
+child in spite of years and schooling. She spent her earliest years
+within the shadow of the flag and the sound of the drum. She had seen
+nothing of garrison life from that morning in '61, when she had just
+passed her sixth birthday, when they were bundled aboard a wheezing
+river stern wheeler and floated for many a day and many and many a long
+mile down a muddy, twisting stream--her father so grave and anxious,
+and some of the officers with him so urgent and appealing. She could
+not understand why her mother should so often sit with tear-brimming
+eyes and clasp her to her bosom with the boy brother she so loved--and
+teased. Father's home was in a proud old border state, and they went
+there for a week or two, after that sorrowful day in St. Louis when
+three of father's old friends and comrades came for one last conference
+and then--a last good-by--two of them refusing his hand. They had
+resigned and followed their state. They had striven to take him with
+them to swell the ranks of the proud young army of the South. They had
+loved him well and he them, but there was something floating overhead,
+from the white staff at the stern, he held still dearer. One officer,
+who was most urgent in his pleadings, was her bonny "Uncle Barney,"
+mother's own brother, and when he left, without kiss for her or
+handclasp for the sad-faced soldier in the worn uniform of blue,
+mother's heart seemed almost breaking. Father took them to _his_
+father's old home, and left them there while he went to drilling
+militiamen north of the Ohio, and was presently made a colonel of
+volunteers. But the people who lived about them were all for the South,
+and they could not forgive mother for his taking sides against them;
+so, throughout the long bitter struggle, while he was at the front or
+suffering in Southern prison, as happened once, and from Northern
+suspicion, as happened much more than once, they lived in lodgings in a
+quiet little country town, where brother and she went hand in hand to
+school and saw little of the outer world and nothing of the war. Then
+at last came peace, and in '66 the reorganization of the army, and
+father--in a general's uniform on a major's pay. Then in '69 General
+Grant appointed brother a cadet, and all were so proud and hopeful when
+he left them for the Point. He was the image of Uncle Barney, who was
+killed leading his splendid brigade in one of the earliest battles in
+Virginia, and, like Uncle Barney, brother was high-spirited and
+impatient. Mathematics and demerit set him back in '70 and dropped him
+out entirely in '71, when father was weeks away across the deserts of
+Arizona, and they were in lodgings at San Francisco, and poor mother
+was nearly distraught with grief and anxiety. Brother never came back
+to them. He went straight, it seems, to the Brooklyn Navy-Yard;
+enlisted in the Marines, and, within five months thereafter, jumped
+from the deck of the "Yantic" in a swift tideway at Amoy, striving to
+aid a drowning shipmate, and was never seen again. That was the saddest
+Christmas they ever knew. Father had to return to his post, and all
+that year of '72 they wore deep mourning and went nowhere. During the
+spring of '73 mother was rallying a little, and loving army friends
+from the Presidio and Angel Islands, who used to come to see them so
+often, now sought to have Lilian visit them; but wisely Mrs. Archer
+kept her at her studies and her music and away from possible
+fascination of the garrison, and except, therefore, for two dances
+given by the artillery, and one charming, rose-bowered afternoon
+reception at Angel Island, Lilian had seen nothing of army life and
+next to nothing of army beaux, until in all the ardor and innocence of
+sweet, winsome, wholesome girlhood--buoyant, beautiful and in exuberant
+health and spirits, she was suddenly landed here at this out of the way
+station in uttermost Arizona, and brought face to face with love and
+destiny.
+
+For two days she had been hoping that mother would suggest that she,
+too, might come when they went for the afternoon visits to their
+wounded. But, though mother had twice taken her to sit a few minutes by
+the side of poor, frenzied Mrs. Bennett, there came no intimation that
+she might follow to the bedside of Lieutenant Willett, whose voice the
+child was longing to hear again, whose face she craved to see. No woman
+of heroic mould, perhaps, was Mrs. Archer. Hers was one of those fond,
+clinging natures, capable of any sacrifice for the husband or child she
+loved. She had turned her back on the home and the people so dear to
+her when unhesitatingly she followed the soldier husband she
+rapturously loved, and now, though she yearned to take her daughter to
+her heart and kiss away the wistful, pathetic, pleading look in the
+fond eyes that never before had appealed to her in vain, something told
+her it were best to let her fight it out, even to suffer, alone, than
+admit, even to her, the possibility of a growing love for this
+brilliant and dangerous young gallant, as to whom she had unwittingly
+heard such damning accusation. It had not taken Mrs. Archer long to
+learn that Case, nerved by drink, had appeared at Harris's bedside that
+Sunday afternoon, asking to speak with him alone, only to be speedily
+followed by Willett, and by the altercation she had overheard. Under
+the circumstances, as known to her, Mrs. Archer was thankful that,
+since he could not leave the post, Lieutenant Willett could not even
+leave his room. Not with her knowledge and consent should her gentle
+Lilian be again brought within the sphere of his influence.
+
+But Love that laughs at locksmiths was yet to find his way, and that
+right soon.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+
+Harris was up and fuming for action. With his wound unhealed and his
+arm utterly useless, he was insistent that he should be permitted to
+mount and ride. "What could you do?" asked Bentley. "The post is
+surrounded. Every trail and both roads are watched day and night. Your
+horse is all that's left you. 'Tonio is gone. 'Tonio has turned
+traitor!"
+
+"That," said Harris, "I will not believe for an instant."
+
+They brought General Archer to see him, and the grave-faced old soldier
+bent kindly over the impatient and incredulous junior. "It is even as
+Bentley tells you, lad," said he. "Only one messenger has been able to
+come or go through their lines since the demoralized pair that got in
+from Verde, and they can't be hired to try again. We are hemmed in and
+helpless until our cavalry return. Willett will tell you he saw 'Tonio
+fire the shot that killed his horse and was meant to kill him. 'Tonio
+has intercepted messengers between Turner and me, and killed, I
+believe, at least one messenger. You must be patient or you will throw
+yourself into a fever and set you back a month. We've simply got to act
+on the defensive, guard the post and the women until relief comes. By
+this time, of course, General Crook himself is somewhere in the field,
+and any moment may bring him; then our Apache friends, hereabouts, will
+have to hunt their holes."
+
+"General Archer," said Harris, commanding himself with evident effort
+and striving to speak with his accustomed deliberation, "I have not
+seen Willett, but, if I had, I should refuse to believe that 'Tonio
+fired at him. The Apache-Mohaves may be with the hostiles at last, but
+not 'Tonio. There is some reason for his absence that we cannot fathom.
+They may have killed him for his loyalty to us, but loyal he is at
+heart, no matter how much appearances are against him."
+
+"We'll hope so," said Archer, "but for the present, do as Bentley bids
+you and stay quiet," and the commander rose to go.
+
+But Harris, too, was on his feet, steadying himself with one hand on
+the back of his chair. "You will pardon me, will you not, sir, if I ask
+a question? You say you have been unable to communicate with Stannard
+or Turner. Stannard is, probably, too far away, but if Turner's wounded
+are over on Tonto Creek, he can be reached. Have you tried signalling?"
+
+"Signalling? We've got some flags and torches somewhere, but I believe
+that----"
+
+"I don't mean that, sir. No one with Turner would understand if we had.
+I mean smoke signals--Indian."
+
+"No," said Archer slowly. "No one but Indians could say what they
+meant, even if any one here knew their confounded code. Do you?"
+
+"I know enough at least to call 'Tonio; and unless he is dead or
+spirited away, he'll answer. Then we can get word to Turner."
+
+Archer turned back. He was almost at the door. "Do you mean he _would_
+answer--that he would come in here?"
+
+"If I may give my word that no one shall touch or harm him, he'll
+come--if alive and able."
+
+For a moment the general was silent. It was a grave question. In his
+eyes and those of his officers, 'Tonio stood attainted practically with
+treason. He had deserted in face of the enemy, joined forces with the
+enemy, shot as an enemy, conspired and acted as an enemy. He deserved
+to be hunted and shot down without trial, without mercy. Yet here was
+this young soldier, who had known him best and longest, full of
+boundless faith in him, demanding safe conduct for him on the honor of
+an officer and gentleman. If Archer gave his word it would be flying in
+the face of his entire command--what there was left of it, at
+least--and Archer's word was a thing not to be lightly given. "I must
+think of this awhile," said he. "It is a big proposition. You think
+_you_ can reach him?"
+
+"By night or day, sir, either; but it would have to be from the top of
+Squadron Peak."
+
+It was then late on Friday afternoon, the fifth day of what might he
+called the siege. Not a signal had come from without, not a sign from
+either command, not a symptom of surrounding Indian; yet a little party
+sent to search the rookery down stream, where Case declared he'd been
+entertaining the ghost of 'Patchie Sanchez, came back reporting that
+fresh moccasin and mule tracks were plainly visible about the premises
+and at the neighboring ford, also that the mule tracks led away back of
+the Picacho, as everybody persisted in calling the peak--in spite of
+the fact that from the north it presented no sharp point to the skies,
+but rather a bold and rounded poll. Squadron Peak was more "sonorous
+and appropriate," said the trooper who so named it, but now that
+troopers were scarce at Almy, there were none to do it that reverence.
+
+Old Sanchez--José--the former proprietor, had disappeared entirely, he
+and his brace of henchmen, after somewhere digging a treasure pit in
+the sand and therein "caching" their store of mescal, aguardiente, and
+certain other illicit valuables. It was conjectured that he had fled to
+the Verde Valley and taken refuge at McDowell until the storm blew
+over. But Craney was more than curious as to Case's guest, the ghost,
+and by Friday Case was sober and solemn and sick enough to be
+cross-questioned without show of resentment. Craney went so far as to
+ask Case wouldn't he like a little whiskey to steady his nerves--a
+cocktail to aid his appetite and stir his stomach? "Like it," said
+Case, "you bet I would--which is why I won't take it. Three days'
+liquor, two days' taper, one day suffer, then the water wagon for a
+spell. Thank you all the same, Mr. Craney. What can I do for you
+without the drink?"
+
+But when Craney mentioned Sanchez, the ghost and the drinking bout by
+night at the rookery, Case said he must have been nigher to jimjams
+than he'd got in a year. "I never saw any ghost," said he, and Craney
+had to give it up, and report his failure to the commanding officer.
+
+"Ever try threatening him with discharge?" asked Bucketts, by way of
+being helpful.
+
+"Ever try? I don't _have_ to try! The one time I started in on that lay
+he never let me finish; said all right, he'd go just as soon as he'd
+balanced the books. Then, by gad, it was all I could do to get him to
+stay. He is the most independent damn man I ever met. Says he knows
+he's a drunkard and nuisance one week out of four, and don't wonder I
+want to discharge him. Discharge him? I couldn't get along without him!
+Any time he wants a better job and plenty of society all he's got to do
+is go to Prescott. Discharge him! All I'm afraid of is he'll discharge
+himself!"
+
+So Bucketts dropped the subject and he and Strong went to report
+non-success to Archer just as the sun was going down and the peak, in
+lone grandeur, loomed up dazzling above the black drapery about its
+base, and Bonner, pacing up and down with his much-honored chief, saw
+the gloom deepen in his deep-set eyes. Only Lilian seemed able to win a
+smile from him, as she came and took him by the arm and led him away to
+dinner.
+
+Darkness settled down apace. The moon rose late and the stars were
+holding high carnival in consequence, for the skies were gorgeous in
+their deck of gold. Mrs. Stannard was dining with the Archers _en
+famille_, as she did now almost every evening, for the Archers would
+so have it, and Archer had been talking of Harris's proposition, and
+his determined stand for 'Tonio. Mrs. Archer shook her pretty head in
+negation. She could not see how any one who distrusted her general
+could himself be loyal. She had said the same of Secretary Stanton
+during the war, for one of that iron master's most masterly convictions
+was that every soldier, Southern born--even such as Thomas--must of
+necessity be a Southern sympathizer. 'Tonio must needs be a traitor
+since he avoided sight of, or speech with, her soldier who could do no
+wrong. And if Mrs. Archer believed in 'Tonio, on her husband's account,
+what must have been Lilian's conviction? she who had both father and
+lover--father and the husband soon to be, for of that Mrs. Archer had
+now no earthly doubt--the two men beyond all others combined who were
+dearest to Lilian on earth, both of them inimical to 'Tonio, one of
+them wellnigh his victim. It was Mrs. Stannard who listened in silence.
+She had longer known the Apache-Mohave, and as between 'Tonio and
+Willett it might well be a story with two sides.
+
+They had finished their coffee and were just coming forth upon the
+veranda into the exquisite evening air, and, as bidden by her father,
+Lilian had just begun to tune her guitar, when across the parade among
+the men seated along the low front of the barracks there was sudden
+start, sudden rush, and, from up the line of officers' quarters not
+many doors away, came agonized cry for help. Archer sprang to his feet
+and started, but Mrs. Archer, in a paroxysm of fear, thinking only of
+Indians and treachery, seized him by the arm, clung to and held him.
+Mrs. Stannard sprang within the hall and back with Archer's revolver
+which, without a word, she thrust into his hand. Then all three
+together started, for while fifty men came tearing headlong across the
+sandy level, making straight for the adjutant's quarters, Lilian, their
+little Lilian--the silent, sad-eyed, anxious child of the days and days
+gone by--heading everybody, was flying like a white-winged bird,
+straight along the line, and when the father reached her she had thrown
+herself upon a heap of burning, smouldering bedding, thrashing it with
+a wet blanket snatched from the olla, and then, with her own fair,
+white hands, was beating out the few sparks that remained about the
+sleeve and shoulder of a soaked and dishevelled gown, and brushing
+others from the hair and face of an unheroic, swathed and dripping
+figure--Harold Willett in the midst of the wreck of his cot, while
+Blitz, the striker, aided by Wettstein and the doctor's man, were
+stamping and swearing and tearing things to bits in the effort to down
+other incipient blazes. Between them they had dragged Willett from the
+midst of the flames and drenched him with a cataract from the olla. The
+rush of the men from the barracks made short work of the fire, but when
+Mrs. Archer and Mrs. Stannard, with throbbing hearts, bent over the
+scorched and smoking ruin on the south porch, a tousled brown head,
+with ghastly face, was clasped in Lilian's arms, pillowed on Lilian's
+fair, white bosom. Willett had fainted from fright, pain and reaction,
+and the unheroic, untried, unfearing girl had blistered her own fair
+hands, her own soft, rounded, clasping arms, yet saw and felt nothing
+but dread for his suffering and joy for his safety. Even the mother for
+a moment could not take her rescued darling from that fond, fearless,
+impassioned embrace. All in that desperate instant the veil of virgin
+shame had burned away. In the fierce heat and shock and peril the
+latent love force had burst its bonds, the budding lily had blossomed
+into womanhood.
+
+And upon that picture, pallid, weak and suffering, another neighbor,
+another pain-stricken young soldier gazed in silence, then turned
+unobtrusively away. There was no one to help him back to the reclining
+chair from which he had been startled at the almost frenzied shriek of
+alarm. There was no further talk--no thought of signals that night;
+Archer had had enough of fire. They bore the reviving officer,
+presently, to a vacant room in Stannard's quarters, and Lilian was led
+to her own. There were bandages about both hands and arms when next
+morning she appeared upon the gallery. They hid the red ravages on the
+fair, white skin, but what was there to veil the radiant light that
+shone in her eyes, the burning blushes that mantled her soft and
+rounded cheeks? Archer took her to his heart and kissed her and turned
+to his duty with a sigh. Mrs. Archer clung to and hovered about her,
+silent, for what was there to say? Mrs. Stannard came over, all smiles
+and sunshine, to announce that "He" had passed a comfortable night, and
+"His" first waking thoughts and words were for her, as indeed they
+should have been, and, so far as audible words were concerned, they
+possibly were. What else could Mrs. Stannard have said when she saw
+that winsome, yet appealing little face?
+
+And in such wise was our Lilian wooed; in such wise was she won.
+Contrary to Bentley's wishes, Willett had essayed to smoke, and so set
+his bed afire. Contrary to all convention, the love of the maiden had
+been the first to manifest itself to public eye, but Willett manfully
+rose to the occasion. In the midst of anxiety, uncertainty and danger
+there beamed one ray, at least, of radiant, unshadowed, buoyant hope
+and bliss and shy delight. Lilian Archer envied no girl on the face of
+the globe, no white-robed seraph in heaven; and for her sake others,
+too, strove hard to hope, to help, to shower good wishes and
+congratulation.
+
+"But to think of my little girl in love," said Archer, with brimming
+eyes. "Why, you--you won't be nineteen!"
+
+"And mother was but seventeen when she married you," softly laughed
+Lilian, snuggling to his side.
+
+"And Mr. Willett so far from his captaincy," sighed her mother.
+
+"Much nearer than father was to even a first lieutenancy when you
+married him," was the joyous answer. "_He_ was only a second
+lieutenant by brevet."
+
+"Well," said Mrs. Archer, "it seems different--somehow."
+
+And so it seemed to us. "All too brief a wooing," said poor Archer.
+"God send her longer wedded bliss!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+
+Moreover, as some one said in speaking of the sudden engagement, "It
+came about on a Friday evening, didn't it?" And then, too, when people
+were talking it over a few weeks later, as Mrs. Archer said, "it seemed
+different." Soldier folk sometimes have superstitions as surely as the
+sailor man is never without his, and a start on a voyage of love life,
+clearing port of a Friday evening, had its inauspicious side. But for
+the mishap that suddenly enveloped the happy man in flames at a moment
+when he was sprawled on his back with his whole right side, as it were,
+in a sling, Mr. Harold Willett might indeed have returned to duty and
+department headquarters with no other encumbrance than a mortgaged pay
+account, and it was not fair to Lilian to speak of her engagement as
+"announced" that Friday evening; but in her wondrous happiness she
+could find no fault with anything about it. It was all just perfect,
+just heavenly (where they neither give nor are given in marriage, which
+possibly accounts, as said our cynic, for so much that is heavenly
+about it). As an engagement, in fact, it did not exist until four days
+later, after other and equally important things had occurred, and we
+have merely taken Lilian's point of view, and left them out of that
+chapter and all consideration, as she did, so far as we are concerned,
+in order to have it all over and done with. But of course there had to
+be time for Willett to recover from the effects of the shock, to be
+clothed in his right mind and something less fragmentary than the
+relics of a _robe de nuit_, and a day in which to realize what had
+taken place. (I shrewdly suspect that our good friend Mrs. Stannard saw
+to it that Mr. Willett was informed of what Lilian had done and
+suffered on his account, if she did not dilate on what Lilian had
+betrayed.) And then came his very properly worded plea to be allowed to
+see her and thank her; and when there was equally proper demur on Mrs.
+Archer's part, Willett made his avowal in what even the mother held to
+be manly and convincing fashion, for, now that she knew that her
+darling's heart was gone--that it was too late to avert the
+inevitable--mother-like, she strove to see with her darling's eyes all
+that was good in him, and there was so _very_ much that was
+good-looking. She never even hinted to her husband, much less to
+Lilian, that she had heard the paragon most vehemently accused of most
+unmanly and unbecoming conduct (for what was Mr. Case, after all, but
+an irresponsible inebriate?), and she saw that her daughter's happiness
+was wrapped up in this brilliant and most presentable young soldier.
+Willett certainly gave many a promise of eminence in his career and
+profession, so she set herself at once to work to talk the general into
+complaisance, and he, who loved her with all his heart, and believed
+her the best, the bravest, fondest, truest wife in all the army (as
+indeed she might have been without being the wisest), and who could
+deny Lilian nothing from the time she turned his best silken sash into
+a swing for herself and Wauwataycha Two Bears, her tiny Sioux playmate,
+till now that she had set her heart on one Harold Willett for a
+husband, broke down and surrendered as ordered. But there was that in
+the old soldier's face as he took Willett's hand that made the junior
+wince more than did the grip, which was mild enough. "She will be just
+such another wife as is her blessed mother," said Archer. "Be good and
+true to her, Willett."
+
+"I will, so help me God!" said Willett solemnly, and then, at least, he
+meant it.
+
+There had been an awkward little conference, an impromptu affair, at
+the mess the morning after the alarm of fire. Willett stock had been
+running down before that episode, and went "plumb out of sight" for
+several hours. It was held by Bonner, Bucketts, Briggs and Strong a
+most womanish thing on his part to have raised such a row and then
+"wilted." It was Bentley, the most disgusted man at the post, who now
+came to the rescue. "He was dumped on the porch like a sack of
+potatoes," said he, "and probably suffered exquisite pain, let alone
+the burns and the shock." Then, bunglingly, as bachelors will, and
+bachelors two of them were, they began to talk of the revelation that
+met their eyes and what it portended. No one, as yet, had told "the Old
+Man" of Willett's night at the store, and now no man would do it.
+Bygones were bygones. Willett would be up in a week or so, the better,
+perhaps, for enforced rest and abstinence, and now, of course, there
+could and would be no more of--of that sort of thing, and all his
+better traits would shine by contrast with his probably temporary lapse
+into frivolity. Even then, however, they wondered what Harris would
+think, and speculated as to what he would say. Bucketts had not guessed
+amiss when he said there was no love lost between the classmates.
+Bucketts, and all, had seen how much both the young men had been
+attracted by Lilian's grace and beauty, and the sweet, girlish
+freshness that proved such a charm. Bucketts, and all, had been in, as
+usual, to see Harris, and found him, as he said, a trifle set back by
+the excitement, and therefore rather more grave and quiet even than
+usual, but they said no word of Lilian and--possibilities. He knew.
+Strong had seen him when he came, and looked, and stood inert one
+moment there, unable to be of use, and had turned slowly back to his
+room under Bentley's roof. Everybody knew it could not be more than a
+day or two before the affair would be announced as an engagement, and
+while every man felt that Willett had won a prize far beyond his
+deserts, there was not one that felt like tendering congratulation.
+
+But, as we said, there were other and important matters to claim the
+attention of the garrison, and just an hour before sunset that evening
+came the first. Case's week was up, and, sharp on time at noon on
+Saturday, Case came forth from his room, tubbed, trimmed and shaved,
+went silently to his desk and then turned to Mr. Craney to ask what had
+become of the mail.
+
+"Nary mail," said Craney. "Not a cuss got in or out for over a week."
+
+"Didn't Sanchez bring--anything from Prescott?"
+
+"Nothing but his ghost has even been heard of. You told of that."
+
+"I? Do you mean he hasn't been here--hasn't told you what's happened?"
+And Case's eyes were looking wild again.
+
+"What _has_ happened, Case? By gad, if you know, out with it, for
+no mother's son of us here has heard a thing for a week, and Sanchez
+has never set foot on the post."
+
+"Then send for Mr. Strong, quick," said Case, sinking into a chair, the
+sweat of weakness and distress of mind showing instantly on his brow,
+rare symptom in Arizona. And then, while somebody ran up to the post to
+summon the adjutant, Case, pressing his hands to his head, began
+striding up and down the low-ceilinged, half-darkened room. "Wait," he
+said, as Craney and Watts, excited and anxious, would have pressed him
+to begin. "Wait. Give me just three fingers," and the whiskey was
+handed forthwith. He downed it in two gulps, and presently the color
+began to come back to his cheeks, and then Strong came hurrying in. "Is
+Mr. Harris still here?--and that other specimen--Mr. Willett?" Case
+demanded on the instant. "That's well, anyhow! And the cavalry still
+out? That's bad. We want 'em here, _here_, I tell you, and quick, too!
+Gentlemen, this is no cock-and-bull story. There's enough Apaches back
+of us here in the Mazatzal to head off everybody from Prescott or
+McDowell. They've killed three parties--a dozen soldiers, perhaps--already,
+and they've cut off Prescott and Date Creek and Sandy, and murdered
+every courier that tried to get through. They headed off and killed the
+runners sent to find General Crook and give him the news, but worse
+than all, they've been down here begging the Sierra Blancas, and the
+bands of Deltchay and Eskiminzin--nearly eight hundred they'd make--to
+come up here and get between Turner and the post, eat him up in the
+cañons--he's had a lot killed and wounded already--and then turn on us.
+How do I _know_ it?" he demanded, in the midst of his excited harangue.
+"Sanchez told me--'Patchie Sanchez, the runner, last night. No--night
+before, or _some_ night. Right here, I thought; right here where you
+all heard! He said they'd ordered him ironed in Prescott for telling
+the truth, and he said the sergeant had orders to flog him with a
+bull-whip, and he killed the man that tried to flog him. You mean you
+didn't hear this? You didn't know it? You didn't see him?--that I've
+been dreaming as well as drunk? By God, drunk or dreaming, it's so! and
+that's why José Sanchez and the others lit out for McDowell! They were
+afraid to stay. 'Patchie says Deltchay and Skim are coming, sure,
+whether the Sierra Blancas join or not. All the cavalry are up on the
+Black Mesa 'cept Turner's troop, and now's their turn. Call me drunk,
+crazy, mad, _anything_ you like, but tell the general what I say! Tell
+him to get ready to fight like hell!"
+
+[Illustration: "Keep watch now all around, especially east and
+southeast." Page 175]
+
+And so it would seem Case, the bookkeeper, had "inside information,"
+and so it happened that, within an hour after sunset, once again the
+gray-haired commander and the wounded subaltern were in conference, and
+Case's strange story was told in full. "There's more than enough in it
+to demand our warning Turner," said Harris. "Can you get me up to
+Squadron Peak--to-night?"
+
+Just at tattoo the old-fashioned, yellow ambulance, drawn by a brace of
+mules, backed up at Bentley's quarters, and Harris was carefully lifted
+aboard. The general, with Strong and Bonner, stood at hand to say
+godspeed. "Promise him safe conduct," said the commander, as they drove
+away, and Harris touched his hat in acknowledgment. Briggs, with twenty
+stout foot soldiers, awaited them at the abandoned ranch. The doctor
+and two attendants accompanied him. The road for nearly four miles lay
+along the sandy flats, then went boring westward into the foothills,
+while a little worn branch turned off to the peak. Two-thirds of the
+way to the top the mules were able to pull the jolting vehicle, and
+from thence half a dozen brawny arms bore the young soldier on a
+stretcher to the summit. It was then after eleven, and the moon still
+behind the Mogollon, lowering black against the silvering skies full
+forty miles to the eastward. Already there was sufficient light to
+guide them, and a sergeant led on to a point where, surrounded by
+knee-high rocks, was a little blackened space where in bygone days many
+a signal fire had blazed, and here the men tossed the tinder, the pine
+cones and dead branches they had gathered on the climb. A match was
+applied. All crouched or stooped among the rocks, as the flames
+presently leaped on high, and gave ear to the quiet orders of the young
+soldier, practically in command. "Keep watch now, all round, especially
+east and south-east. It may be ten minutes before you get an answer,
+and there _may_ come a dozen. More fuel may be needed," whereat half a
+dozen dark forms silently backed away down the slope, and all men
+waited and watched. Harris, with one arm and shoulder still bandaged,
+and obviously weak, sat grasping at the corner a folded blanket and
+busily coaching Briggs, who listened, absorbed. Ten, twelve, fourteen
+the minutes rolled by. The silvery sheen spread higher over the
+eastward sky. The crest of the distant Mesa was just fringing with
+dazzling white, when two voices at once exclaimed: "There you are,
+sir!" And afar over to the south-east, the direction of Tonto Creek, a
+little ruddy spark appeared through the gloom, and a moment later still
+another was made out, farther to the left. In twenty minutes three were
+in sight. "Anywhere from fifteen to twenty miles away," said Harris, as
+he studied them with the signal glass, "and," he continued, "I looked
+for one much nearer."
+
+"There you have it, sir!" And almost opposite them, it seemed, and
+lower, straight away to the east, so near they could almost mark the
+waving of the flame, a fourth blaze burst into view.
+
+"That's more like it!" said Harris. "Now the blanket. Give me a boost,
+corporal," and with that, supported by the strong arm of one of the
+soldiers, he stepped upon the nearest rock, the blanket in his left
+hand. Briggs grabbed the opposite corner with his right, and the next
+moment a woollen curtain swung flat between the fires.
+
+"Now, Briggs, up!" and the hidden red eye was suddenly unmasked and
+glared out over the east. "Down!" and all toward the opposite fire was
+darkness again. Twice more was it raised and lowered. Then a five
+seconds' pause. Then twice again. "Thirty-two," said Harris. "'Tonio's
+old signal. Now watch for the answers!" From those at a distance there
+came no sign. The flare at each was steady. From the nearmost, almost
+instantly, came the desired response. It suddenly disappeared, and
+Harris, at second intervals, counted low, "One, two, three." Then came
+the red glow again, just a moment. Then darkness only for two seconds.
+Then light again. "It is 'Tonio," said he, "and that's his call to me.
+Now, Briggs, again! Slowly this time!"
+
+And very slowly was the blanket raised and lowered twice. Then came two
+or three quicker movements. Then the blaze spoke untrammelled, and all
+eyes were on 'Tonio's torch, and they who had heard ill of him--had
+doubted him--found themselves oddly drawn to him across the intervening
+miles of darkness. Twice, thrice slowly his light, too, was curtained.
+Then for a moment it burned clearer; then seemed suddenly to sputter
+out. Within a few seconds, far more swiftly than it rose, the signal
+fire vanished from sight, and Harris stepped quietly down. "That's
+all," said he, yet the doctor, at least, could read the suppressed
+exultation in his tone. Then, seeing inquiry and disappointment, both,
+in the eager eyes about him, the young officer added, "He understands.
+He's coming, or sending, in."
+
+"Did you promise him safe conduct?" asked Bentley.
+
+"He did not ask it," was the answer.
+
+Two hours later, once more safe at the post, the doctor had stowed his
+weary patient in bed, renewed the dressing and bandages, and was
+bidding him try to sleep, but Harris smiled. "You'll need me to
+translate," said he. "The general's message to Turner is being written
+now. Let us finish this while we're about it."
+
+Sure enough. Toward half-past one the sentries on Numbers Six and Seven
+set up a shout for the corporal of the guard, and an Indian girl,
+trembling a bit, was led to the office, and half the garrison knew that
+word was in from 'Tonio. The general took his messenger kindly by the
+hand. Food and chocolate were in readiness at the Mess, but she shook
+her head. "Capitan Chiquito," she insisted, and then was conducted up
+the line, and, shrinking not a little, was led into the doctor's
+quarters. There, at sight of Harris, she instantly stepped to his
+bedside, knelt, and taking his weary hand, placed it on her head. He
+whom 'Tonio held in reverence, his followers could but blindly obey.
+
+To his question in her own tongue, "Where is 'Tonio?" she answered,
+"Toward the moon, now two hands high. When it is straight above Pancha
+can reach him again." "Is 'Tonio well?" "'Tonio is well, but--others
+brought Pancha. They say they are afraid that soldiers shoot. They
+await Pancha's returning."
+
+Evidently, despite the kindness in every face, the girl still feared
+the white man and wished to be gone. "He has sent her, general," said
+Harris. "Whatever you wish to send now to Turner will go through, if
+'Tonio is not killed in the attempt."
+
+And so, with unexpected burden of food and gifts and with a brief
+despatch to Turner, bidding him hasten with his entire force, the
+dusky, fleet-footed daughter of the mountain was led back to the
+stream, went bounding lightly across from stone to stone, and
+disappeared among the shadows toward the east.
+
+"And now," said Harris, "Deltchay and Skiminzin may come as soon as
+they like. Turner will get here in time, and then--you may judge as to
+'Tonio."
+
+And this was Saturday night or rather Sunday morning, not yet one full
+week since Willett was brought in swearing he saw 'Tonio take
+deliberate aim at him, although only the horse was shot, and as matters
+stood in the gross and scope of garrison understanding, the weight of
+presumptive evidence was against the Apache, and there was more to
+come.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+
+As was to be expected, Lieutenant Harris was somewhat worse when time
+came for inspection Sunday morning, but Bentley said complete rest
+would soon restore him. The other interesting invalid, Lieutenant
+Willett, was correspondingly better, and was to sit up awhile later in
+the day. Inspection was held under arms and in fighting kit instead of
+full dress--the two companies looking like a pair of scanty platoons,
+so heavy was the drain for guard duty. From earliest dawn lookouts had
+been stationed on top of the adjutant's office at the south, and the
+hospital at the north edge of the parade, Bucketts having built for
+them a little wooden platform, with bench, shelf and sunshade, and
+there, with signal-service glasses, they scoured the barren wilds in
+every direction for sign of coming friend or foe.
+
+It was eleven o'clock when Bentley came forth with Mrs. Stannard from
+his morning visit to Willett. "Oh, he's doing as well as an overfed,
+under-trained animal has any right to," said he, in response to the
+inquiry in her soft blue eyes. "I still think some men have too much
+luck in this world of ours. Here's Willett, who doesn't begin to
+deserve it, getting everything that is good, and Harris, who deserves
+all the good that the army affords, gets all the hard knocks and
+setbacks. Here's Willett swearing that 'Tonio's a renegade, hostile,
+spy and a traitor, and Harris convinced that he is stanch and
+loyal--that Willett must be mistaken in saying he shot at him, and
+though everything I know of the Apaches or ever heard, and every bit of
+evidence is overwhelmingly in favor of Willett's statement, just from
+what I've seen of these two men I'm deciding with Harris."
+
+"You don't--feel confidence in Mr. Willett's--judgment?" she asked.
+
+For a moment he hesitated, then turned and squarely faced her. "I don't
+feel confidence in Mr. Willett. There, Mrs. Stannard! There are not ten
+women in the army to whom I'd trust myself to speak of this--or five
+women out of it--but I am not happy over the way things are going."
+
+"Don't you think he'll--learn to appreciate her?"
+
+"He shouldn't _have_ to learn! He should see it all at a glance, and
+thank God for the unmerited blessing."
+
+"Perhaps he does," said she, ever gentle, helpful, hopeful. "It is
+lovely the way he speaks to her--and I'm quite eager to see them this
+afternoon."
+
+What woman would not be? What man would not have been at his best at
+such a time, under such circumstances? The realization that he had won
+the fervent love of that fresh, pure, exquisite young heart was enough
+to thrill even a nature so utterly selfish as Willett's. It is the
+shallowest soul that most readily thrills, and what could be sweeter
+than the shy, yet rapturous love in the downcast eyes of Lilian Archer,
+when, as he had implored her mother, she was led that afternoon to the
+darkened room in which he sat, and, like knight of old, he took and
+bent over and kissed her trembling little hand. "I would kneel, too,"
+he murmured, even as her mother stood beside her, with swimming eyes,
+and as he looked up into the blushing face his own eyes were filled
+with unfeigned homage, admiration, even love, his deep voice with
+emotion that was sweet to woman's ear. "Heaven never made a lovelier
+lover than Hal Willett," once said a famous belle and beauty. "That's
+why so many of us like to listen."
+
+But these earnest, honest, inexperienced two--the whole-hearted army
+wife who had lived well-nigh quarter of a century in the undivided
+sunshine of an honest soldier's love, and this sweet, simple-hearted
+army girl who had never dreamed of or thought to know any love to
+compare with this--listened, spellbound, to Willett's almost eloquent
+avowal, and the last doubt or fear that Mrs. Archer entertained
+vanished like the morning mists before the sunshine.
+
+"I declare," she said to Mrs. Stannard, "I'm almost as much in love as
+Lilian," and indeed it seemed so, and might well be so, for never was
+queen's courtier so exquisite in deference, homage, tact, as, in that
+blissful week of honeymooning, was Hal Willett to the mother of his
+dainty love. As for Lilian, the arid, breezeless day was soft with
+scented zephyrs; the unpeopled air was athrill with the melody of
+countless song birds; the unsightly desert flowered with exquisite
+millions of buds and blossoms that craved the caress of her dainty
+hand, the pressure of her pretty foot. The sunburned square of the
+lonely little garrison, environed with swarthy foemen, cut off from the
+world, was alive with heroic knights in glittering armor and ladies in
+lace and loveliness, and all were her loyal, devoted subjects,
+revelling in her happiness, rejoicing in her smiles, serving her in
+homage and on bended knee, their thrice-blessed, beautiful, beloved
+queen. God never made a more radiantly happy girl than was our fairy
+Lilian that wonderful week. God be thanked it was so utterly blissful,
+since it had to be so brief!
+
+All day long the watchmen clung to their glaring stations, and Sunday
+went by without either alarm or excursion. All Sunday--Monday night,
+they scanned the dark depths of eastward basin, the lone reaches of the
+valley, the tumbling heights to the west. It was nine in the morning of
+the second day since the signalling from Squadron Peak when the cry
+went up from the roof of the office, "Signal smoke south-east!" and
+every glass at Almy was brought to bear within the minute, and half the
+garrison lined the lower edge of the mesa, and all men were listening
+for further tidings, when from the hospital came the stirring shout:
+"Smoke answer, west!" And there, plainly visible, and not five miles
+away among the pine-bearded foothills, in little puffs, singly and
+distinct, thick wreaths of gray-white smoke were sailing straight
+aloft. The waiting Apache of the Mazatzal was signalling the coming
+brother from the dark clefts of the Sierra Ancha. One hour later, just
+as ten was striking on the spiral of the office clock, two sudden shots
+were heard on the flats to the north-west, and the little herd of
+horses and mules, not two dozen in all, grazing under cover of the
+rifles of Sentries 3 and 4, came limping, lumbering in, fast as hoppled
+feet would permit and without sign of a herdsman. Number Three, a
+veteran of the war days, let drive with his fifty calibre Springfield,
+the gun of the day, and sent up a yell for "The Guard!"
+
+"Join your companies, men," said the general, in his placid way,
+whereat most of them went with a rush. "The north side first, Bonner,"
+he added, as the captain came hurrying to his chief. "They've sneaked
+up on the herd guard, I fancy. Send the picked shots out to the pits."
+
+Out on the flats to the west of the Verde road, full five hundred yards
+away from rock, tree or shelter, other than mere clump of cactus,
+pumpkin size, or bunch of dirty weed, there was lying a little heap of
+dingy white and brown, with a cow pony kicking at empty air in a
+shallow ditch--what was left of the half-breed herd guard and his
+mount. With most of the cavalry gone, the quartermaster had supplied
+their place with such mounted men as he could make available, and in
+broad daylight, within long rifle-shot of the sentry lines, the Apaches
+had squirmed out, snake-like, on their bellies, unseen, unsuspected;
+had picked off one of two watchers and stampeded the other. The
+skirmish line stumbled over the survivor, quaking among the willows in
+the stream bed, and kicked him out into the open to help bear home his
+murdered brother; then pushed out as far as the first ridge in hopes of
+a shot, and were rewarded with nothing better than a glimpse of
+vanishing breech-clouts. Falling slowly back, toward noon, Bonner
+posted two men in each of a dozen rifle-pits, some fifty yards outside
+the sentry lines, as a rule, and wherever view of the approaches could
+be had. Two of these were on little knolls to the south of the store,
+and here were Craney & Co. in full force, every man armed with a Henry
+rifle and a war-model Colt, "Mr. Case-Keeper Book," as Sergeant Clancy
+jovially hailed him, quite as formidable as his fellows, and every whit
+as cool. Craney held that he and his men had a right to be counted in
+among those told off to hold the fort, and Bonner smilingly assented.
+
+"You two seem to hit it off pretty well together," said he to Case and
+Clancy. "I reckon we'll Cossack you over yonder," and he pointed to a
+scooped-out little hummock nearest the stream, commanding much of the
+southward road and the trail along the willows, now facetiously termed
+the "Ghost Walk." It was an unusual assignment, or distribution, but it
+seemed to strike the fancy of both. In times of peril and at the
+fore-posts men think less of rank and more of repute. Clancy was known
+far and wide as a fearless Apache fighter, with a Gaines's
+Mill-Gettysburg record behind him. Case had never before been heard of
+afield, but his one exploit in the card room stamped him unerringly,
+said these frontier experts, as "a man of nerve." Clancy held out his
+big red hand. "Are ye with me?" said he. "Yours truly," said Case.
+"Then come on, Pitkeeper," said Clancy, "and we'll leave Book and Case
+behind."
+
+The general came jogging down at the moment, bestriding one of
+Bucketts's general utility beasts, watching the posting of the post
+defenders, and he screwed his eyelids down to a slit as he glared from
+under the brim of his then unorthodox slouch hat, and squinted after
+the combination of soldier and civilian stalking away to the assigned
+station. "What have you there, Bonner?" he asked, as he reined in.
+
+"'Erin go unum, E pluribus bragh,' sir, as Derby would have it." "The
+Celt and the Casekeeper," he added to himself. "Clancy and Case going
+gunning together as amicably as if they had never squabbled over a
+sutler's bill."
+
+"Queer lot--that man Case!" said the commanding officer reflectively.
+"His face bothers me sometimes, as though I must have seen or known him
+before, yet he tells me that he did not come to Vancouver until after I
+had left that department. Is he all straight again?"
+
+"Straight as the new toadsticker, general, and"--with a rueful look at
+that slender appendage--"a damned sight more useful. His ghost-herding
+spree was no end important. I've an idea Case can handle a gun as well
+as"--another _sotto voce_ now--"he can play a worthless hand."
+
+"Well," said Archer, as he glanced about him, "I don't believe, as a
+rule, in putting any but soldiers on post, but," as he considered the
+slender rank of infantry standing patiently at ease, barely a dozen all
+told, and then smiled at Craney and his belligerent force, only four in
+number, but each man a walking arsenal with two weapons and five shots
+to the soldiers' one, "there are no non-combatants in Indian warfare.
+Every man, woman and child may have to fight."
+
+Yet Archer felt no measure whatever of apprehension. One hundred good
+men and true, at least, were left to guard the post, and many of them
+battle-tried veterans. Not since the war days had the Apaches mustered
+in sufficient force and daring to attack a garrison. Still, Archer knew
+that if they only realized their strength in point of numbers, their
+skill in creeping close to their prey, their swiftness of foot, and the
+ease with which they could escape, all they needed was dash,
+determination and a leader, to enable them to creep upon the post in
+the darkness, and in one terrific moment swoop upon the officers'
+quarters, massacre every soul, and be off across the stream before the
+men in the barracks could rush to the rescue. They had talked it over
+at officers' mess--the general and Bonner and Bucketts and all, and
+figured out just how fifty white desperadoes could plan and accomplish
+the feat. It would be no trick at all to come up the valley in the
+screen of the willows, creep to the west bank, divide into six
+different squads, one for each set of quarters, crawl to the post of
+the drowsy sentry, shoot him full of arrows before he could cry out or
+load, then, all together, charge up the slope and into the flimsy
+houses, pistols in hand and knives in their teeth, and simply butcher
+the occupants as they lay in their beds. Doors, even if closed or
+bolted, which rarely happened, could be smashed in an instant--matches
+would light their way. It would be all over in much less time than it
+takes to tell it, and it might well happen but for two things--the
+Apache's dread of the dark and his fear of a possible hand-to-hand
+fight.
+
+Yet if Deltchay and Eskiminzin, with all their warriors were to
+reëforce these about them, with five hundred braves to the garrison's
+one hundred, even that dread might be overcome.
+
+And by Monday's sundown it was known that numbers of Apaches had
+crossed the valley ten miles away to the south--the telescope had told
+that--and not a word or sign had been vouchsafed by Turner, and Tuesday
+brought no better news. Then 'Tonio, said many a man, had played them
+false.
+
+Just at four o'clock Archer had arranged the dispositions for the
+night. Mrs. Stannard, with Mrs. Archer and Lilian, were to occupy the
+ground floor, north-west, room of his quarters--the one least exposed
+to flying bullets in case of attack. Mrs. Bennett and the matron were
+moved into a little room in the hospital. The soldiers' wives and
+children were to assemble in the barracks in case of alarm. The men in
+the outlying posts and pits were to be doubled at dusk--Bonner's
+company attending to that, while Briggs and his fellows were to sleep
+on their arms within the post. It now lacked but a few minutes of
+sunset. No further demonstration had occurred. Not an Indian had been
+seen within a radius of six miles, when, all on a sudden, there came a
+shot--then two, almost together, then a quick crackle and sputter of
+small-arms afar down the stream. "By Jove!" cried Bonner, from a perch
+by the lookout at the office. "They've opened on Case and Clancy!"
+
+[Illustration: "They've opened on Case and Clancy." Page 188]
+
+And that was but the opening, for within a minute, from on every side,
+from far out among the rocks to the west, from the sandhills across the
+stream, from little heaps of brush and weed and cactus in the flats,
+from the distant screen of the willows in the stream bed, little puffs
+of white sulphur smoke jutted into the slanting sunshine, and the
+pulseless air of declining day was suddenly set to stir and throb by
+the crackle of encircling musketry. And then was seen the wisdom of the
+veteran's defence. Few of the hostiles, as yet, had other than
+old-fashioned muzzle-loading rifles, and few that they owned were
+effective over six hundred yards. By stationing his better shots in
+rifle pits well forward from the buildings on every side, Archer easily
+held the foe at a distance so long as they dare not "rush" his
+outposts. Only on the east side were there pits less than three hundred
+yards from the mesa, but here there was a dismal flat beyond the creek,
+affording a minimum of cover, and hardly a bullet whistled in from any
+direction so as to reach the quarters. Once in a while a little puff of
+dust flew up from the sandy slope without, but even that was enough to
+demand that the women folk should keep under shelter, and at the moment
+the firing began Lilian and her mother were seated by Willett's
+reclining chair, and then Mrs. Stannard joined them, and, the windows
+being shaded, they never saw, among the first to reach the general at
+the mesa edge, Harris, the wounded officer, revolver in his unfettered
+hand.
+
+The first volleying over, only in single and scattered shots, as they
+reloaded, came the Indian fire. If the hope had been to strike dismay
+with a volume of sound such as native ears had not heard, the Apache
+was doomed to disappointment. Men who had heard the crash of
+Spottsylvania and Cold Harbor laughed at the puny crackle of two
+hundred muskets. Then presently the Springfields began deliberate
+reply, only an occasional shot, for only very rarely did so much as the
+tip of a turban appear, and then the sun had dropped below the Mazatzal
+and the valley was in shadow, and old Archer stood with grim, whimsical
+smile on his weather-beaten face, as, field-glass to his eyes, he
+scanned his outposts at the south where the firing seemed heaviest. It
+was a moment or two before he noticed Harris at all. When he did it was
+to utter a mild rebuke. "You should not be here, lad. You need rest.
+This is only fun."
+
+Yet not all fun. Strong came presently thumping back from beyond the
+store. He had borrowed Craney's Pinto pony and had been visiting the
+southward posts, and Pinto had been clipped by a bullet and was half
+frantic with the smart and scare combined. Moreover, Strong's fighting
+face was red and mad, as he thrashed the lagging pony up the slope.
+
+"It's Deltchay, sir, easy enough," said he, with sweeping salute, "and
+that isn't all"--this with almost challenging glance at Harris, who had
+dropped his pistol and was gazing intently through his binocular at an
+open, slanting space far out to the south-east, still blazing in the
+rays of the setting sun. "The man of all others that oughtn't to be
+there stood at that point of rocks not ten minutes ago--the man we sent
+for Turner, general--'Tonio himself!"
+
+Then both men, the gray-mustached commander, the angering adjutant,
+turned on the silent little subaltern, who stood there without having
+so much as changed his attitude or lowered his glass.
+
+"You hear that, Harris?" demanded Archer. And with calm respect, yet
+almost exasperating drawl, came the unlooked-for answer:
+
+"I was about to mention it--myself, sir. 'Tonio was certainly
+there--and Turner close behind him. Look for yourself, sir!"
+
+Look, indeed! Riding steadily down into the valley, still a long four
+miles away, came the extended line of half a cavalry troop in skirmish
+order, with the supports and reserves dotting the slope to their rear.
+"Turner, as sure as shooting," said the general--"and 'Tonio as his
+guide!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+
+The attack had ended almost as suddenly as it began. Darkness descended
+upon the valley and every vestige of the Apache was gone with the
+twilight. Long before time for tattoo the eager watchers in the
+down-stream posts could hear muffled hoofbeats and low-toned words of
+command along the still cautious skirmish line, and Turner came but
+slowly, first because he could see that there was no occasion for
+hurry; second, because, with his wounded to protect, there was every
+objection to haste. Between that steadily advancing array and these
+fire-spitting heaps of sand toward the post the Indians slid soundless
+away into the gloom of the foothills, and presently shouts of greeting
+and welcome re-echoed among the rocks, and Turner's men rode sturdily
+up to the fords. By ten the last litter had been shouldered through the
+swift waters and borne to the ready hospital, where Bentley and his
+assistants went busily to work. Six of the men and two Hualpai scouts
+had been more or less severely wounded, four of them being borne from
+Tonto Creek on improvised stretchers made from saplings and blankets.
+Shelter tents, or tentage of any kind, our men had no use for, save as
+sunshades, in Arizona.
+
+And with Turner came the first tidings to reach the beleaguered post
+since the couriers were brought in, with their belated tales, from up
+the Verde. Turner looked a trifle surprised at the warmth of his
+greeting. Turner had had little idea of their being so closely
+invested. Turner had sent two runners in with reports, and they both
+returned safely, saying, "Almy all right, but plenty Tonto everywhere!"
+One of them said he gave his despatch to 'Tonio, as he dare go no
+farther. One of them brought his back with him, and the third--Hualpai
+21, he supposed--had finally reached the post, as only two nights since
+an Apache-Mohave boy found his way to the Tonto Creek camp with the
+despatch recalling the cavalry. They started at dawn, wounded and all;
+had a long range fight with Tontos toward evening, and another next
+morning, but forged slowly and steadily ahead with only slight loss,
+and came in sight of the flag and the fracas late the second afternoon.
+Turner was glad to get back, he said, since it seems he was needed, but
+was no sooner back than he was eager to launch out again. Hadn't they
+heard? Why, there had been great doings up on the Mogollon. Old Gray
+Fox himself had taken the field and was out with all the horsemen from
+Whipple and Sandy, and Stannard had joined them, and they were ripping
+up the Tonto country in a way that bade fair to wind up the war. How
+had he heard? Why, _runners_--Apache-Mohaves--'Tonio's people.
+Kwonahelka and some of his ilk had managed to keep going between them,
+slipping through or skipping round the Tontos like so many "ghost
+goats." It was only here, round about Almy, the hostiles were too many
+for them!"
+
+"D'you mean you didn't _know_ the Apache-Mohaves were just as hostile
+as the rest?" asked Archer.
+
+"Apache-Mohaves!" exclaimed Turner, looking up in amaze from the hot
+supper set for him in the mess room. "Why, general, I couldn't have got
+along without 'em!"
+
+"This beats me!" said the chief, looking at the faces about him for
+support, and finding it in every one, for Harris had been remanded to
+bed. "Up here they have chased our couriers, blocked the runners, and
+'Tonio himself shot at Willett and killed his horse!"
+
+For a moment Turner was too much surprised to speak. Suddenly he called
+to the orderly at the doorway to send his sergeant, who was then at the
+adjutant's office adjoining. "I beg your pardon, general," he said,
+"but this seems incredible in view of our experiences. Why, some of
+them joined us and stayed with us day and night." Then as a bearded,
+sun-blistered face appeared at the doorway, and a sturdy form in
+hunting shirt of deerskin and long Apache leggings stood attention
+before them: "Sergeant, send 'Tonio here, and you come with him. You
+and he seem to understand each other."
+
+"'Tonio didn't come in, sir, nor the few that were with him. They hung
+back and quit at the Point."
+
+"Quit! Do you know what's the trouble?"
+
+"No, sir." But the soldier was obviously embarrassed. "I gather,
+though, from what I could understand, that 'Tonio thinks he's
+mistrusted. He says he will not come in till Big Chief comes himself.
+He means General Crook, sir."
+
+There was silence a moment. It was for the post commander to speak if
+anybody, and Archer sat studying the veteran trooper before him.
+Officers of experience knew the value of expert opinion to be had for
+the asking among sergeants with war records behind them, and Turner's
+right bower, into whose sanctum at barracks only his intimates
+ventured, save with cap in hand and "sir" on their lips, was a man of
+mark in the regiment.
+
+"Sergeant Malloy," said Archer, "did 'Tonio tell you why he was
+mistrusted?"
+
+"I think he was trying to, sir, but I am new at his language and none
+too good at signs."
+
+Again did it seem as though Malloy had understood more readily than he
+cared to admit, or would presume to say. It was very late. The day had
+been long and trying. With all its matter-of-fact, nonchalant ease of
+manner during the few hours under fire, the personnel of Camp Almy,
+officer and man, had been subjected to something of a strain night and
+day for nearly a week, and now was ready to turn in and sleep, but
+Archer and those with him were convinced that in Sergeant Malloy there
+lived a witness who, better even than Lieutenant Harris, could throw
+light on 'Tonio's singular and inexplicable behavior. There was not one
+of their number who did not believe, and in the absence of Harris would
+hesitate to say, that Willett had seen 'Tonio taking deliberate aim
+when the shot was fired that downed both his horse and himself. This
+was enough to warrant their doubt of 'Tonio's loyalty. All that was
+lacking was something to establish a motive--an explanation--for a
+murderous and treasonable deed. An unwilling witness was Sergeant
+Malloy, therefore the more persistent should be the examination, and
+after a moment's reflection Archer spoke again:
+
+"Sergeant, you have formed an impression, I think, and I should be glad
+to have the benefit of it. Did--he mean that--Lieutenant Harris
+distrusted him?"
+
+"No, sir." On this point the sergeant was confident.
+
+"Did he mention any one--in particular?"
+
+"I gathered that he thought that all the officers of the post, from the
+general down, with perhaps two exceptions, distrusted him."
+
+"And these two--were?"
+
+"Captain Stannard, sir, and Captain Turner."
+
+"I see," said Archer gravely. "Now, had anything happened--had anything
+been said or done to account for his--sensitiveness, we will call it?"
+
+Malloy hesitated. "The general understands, I hope, that I am answering
+only as to impressions. I might be mistaken as to his meaning, and he
+might have been mistaken as to the meaning of the officer in the case."
+
+"Then there has been a case? When and where?"
+
+There was impressive silence in the dimly lighted mess room as the
+impromptu council sat about the table, Turner, with the relics of his
+hearty supper, at the other end of it. Every man present seemed to feel
+that here at last the clew to 'Tonio's double dealing was to be found.
+The answer came readily enough:
+
+"At Bennett's Ranch, sir, the night it was burnt."
+
+"Why--what happened there?" And Archer was evidently surprised.
+
+"'Tonio said he was insulted before his own people--called a
+liar--struck with a gauntlet."
+
+"Struck? 'Tonio? A chief, and a son of a chief--of a line of chiefs, in
+fact! Why, what man could have been--mad enough to do that?"
+
+There was just a suspicion of satire, of humor, of possible malice in
+the answer, yet every one familiar with the traditions and the
+vocabulary--the nomenclature--of the old army of the old days, knew
+well the sergeant was well within his rights. Respect and regret
+intermingled were in tone and word as in his answer, all unwittingly,
+Malloy furnished the missing motive for 'Tonio's crime:
+
+"It wasn't one of the men, sir. It was Lieutenant--Lieutenant Willett."
+
+Then for a moment there was another silence. Bonner, Briggs and Strong
+exchanged quick glances. Archer's fine, clear-cut face took on a deeper
+shade, then he turned his chair to squarely face the sergeant.
+
+"Did he explain--how it came about?"
+
+"'Tonio said that he wished to go, and ought to go, with Lieutenant
+Harris--the lieutenant was his chief. Lieutenant Willett forbade, as I
+understand, and ordered him to stay, and he had to get Lieutenant
+Harris himself to explain the order before 'Tonio would obey. Then
+'Tonio says the lieutenant ordered him to do something, I could not
+tell what. 'Tonio answered by telling Lieutenant Willett not to step on
+some moccasin tracks, and the lieutenant surely couldn't have
+understood him, for he grew very angry and--but, indeed, general, it's
+more than I know that I've been telling----"
+
+But Archer had one more question to ask, and asked it, and when it was
+answered the council broke up with no man dissenting from the general
+belief in 'Tonio's attempted, yet baffled, revenge.
+
+"Did 'Tonio tell you of what happened later--of his attempt to shoot at
+Lieutenant Willett?"
+
+"Not a word or sign of that, sir!"
+
+And yet it was 'Tonio's people who kept the faith as to bearing
+messages and giving safe conduct to Archer's people in the field. It
+was all past Archer's comprehension and that of the officers present.
+There was no Gray Fox there who knew Indians as they knew themselves.
+There was no genial, straightforward "Big Chief Jake," the fearless
+soldier leader from the lower reservation, from Camp Apache and the San
+Carlos, the man on whom the Gray Fox leaned, the man whom the hostiles
+dreaded, the "friendlies" trusted, and all frontiersmen, soldier or
+civilian, swore by. They could have fathomed it. Even blunt old
+Stannard, had he been there, could have thrown some needed light on the
+vexed and gloomy question. But in all Camp Almy that night there was
+only one officer who, knowing few of these facts, nevertheless knew
+'Tonio so well, and so repented him of his own brief suspicion, that he
+would have called a halt to the order given Captain Turner within the
+hour--to send Sergeant Malloy, with a dozen men, as soon as the coast
+was clear of the hostile Apaches, to run down 'Tonio wherever he might
+be, to secure and bring him in, a prisoner bound, and if he sought to
+escape, to shoot him dead.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+
+An atmosphere of peace ineffable surrounded old Camp Almy. The Indians
+lately infesting the neighborhood seemed to have gone away into the
+mountain fastnesses. Turner had pushed little scouting parties
+cautiously into the foothills to the west and the rugged country
+eastward across the stream. Others had ventured down to the Peak and
+scaled it in search of signal smokes or fires. Others still had
+explored the valley toward Dead Man's Cañon, and back by way of
+Bennett's, without finding so much as a moccasin print. Even the
+Apache-Mohaves seemed to have gone from the neighborhood. Malloy with
+his chosen ten was still out, and a rumor was prevalent that their
+orders might keep them away some days, so no apprehension was felt at
+their continued absence.
+
+Another week was nearing an end. A runner, Hualpai, had come in from
+the far north-east, with despatches from Stannard. He was with General
+Crook and their comrades from the northward camps and stations. They
+had abundant supplies, had scattered and driven the Tontos, had made
+some prisoners of squaws and pappooses, who, even to the general,
+declared they knew not where the Bennett children had been hidden. The
+general was expecting to work southward along the Black Mesa to meet
+the column out from the Upper San Carlos under Major Randall ("Big
+Chief Jake," the aforementioned) and between them they meant to leave
+no stone unturned in the effort to find the boys. Stannard enclosed a
+letter for his bonny wife, and closed with a word by way of postscript
+over which Archer and the three B's found themselves pondering not a
+little.
+
+"Wish we had Harris and 'Tonio with us. Hope they are doing well. The
+general is anxious to meet and know them both."
+
+Harris was not well. His convalescence had been interrupted and
+impaired, as we have seen, and no man thrives bodily when heart and
+soul are sore within him; and, heart and soul, Harris was sore. He was
+sitting up, to be sure, but it was plain to be seen he was suffering.
+Mrs. Stannard, wise woman that she was, believed she knew something of
+the cause and held her peace. Dr. Bentley, believing also that he knew
+something of the cause, was not so thoroughly wise. Between Mrs.
+Bennett, his patients at the hospital, mostly convalescent, and this
+young knight, the doctor was having a busy time of it. Mrs. Bennett
+improved not at all, but had at least become less violent in her
+anguish. At times she seemed almost in a stupor, and Mrs. Stannard was
+beginning to wonder whether the matron, worn out with her lamentations,
+had been administering surreptitious opiates. Mrs. Archer's visits had
+become less frequent, because for long hours she had had to go and sit
+with Lilian and her crippled hero. But now that hero was up and out on
+the veranda, basking in the sunshine of love unutterable, though
+enjoined as yet to avoid the fervor of that of Arizona. Willett had
+never appeared to better advantage in his life than now, in modestly
+accepting congratulations, manfully asserting his unworthiness of the
+blessing that had come to him, and his determination, please God, to
+live a life of devotion to his new-found delight, this sweet floweret
+of the desert that so suddenly, so wonderfully, so dominantly had come
+to gladden, to bless, to inspire his career. Love is a marvellous
+beautifier, mental, moral and physical. In such pure and exquisite
+companionship, in the radiance of her presence, in the ecstasy of her
+sweet, shy, still half-timid caress, in the undoubted honesty of his
+resolution to be all her fondest wishes would have him, and in no
+easily shaken conviction that, even as he stood, he was a remarkably
+fine fellow, well calculated to make any girl happy, it was not
+difficult for Willett to rise superior to his past--to forget it, in
+fact, and to fancy himself for all times the high-minded, love-guided
+gentleman he stood to-day. Why should he not to the full rejoice in her
+delicious homage?--indulge her sweet rhapsodies?--encourage her fond
+day dreams? It was so easy now to be all deference and tenderness to
+the gentle mother he was soon to rob of her one darling, to be all
+respect and attention to the gallant old soldier father, to be
+everything that was exquisitely tender, fond, impassioned to this
+innocent and lovely girl, who trembled with delight at his kiss and
+clung in speechless rapture to his side. Life for him, even here at
+desolate Almy, had suddenly become a veritable heaven. Small wonder
+then that he quite forgot the purpose of his coming, the sordid events
+that preceded that most fortunate catastrophe, the fire,--forgot or
+thrust aside all consideration of the episode at the store, the
+encounter at Harris's bedside, the events of the evening when he was
+hurled headlong among the rocks, the victim of 'Tonio's vengeful aim.
+He had even ceased to remember that he had ever been capable of
+considering "Hefty" Harris a rival, that he had ever been capable of
+undermining or intriguing or inspiring an official report that
+reflected sorely on Harris as an officer and leader. In his present
+mood, in fine, forgetful of all his past, his heart was overflowing
+with the milk of human kindness, even to Harris, and, having
+successfully tricked him out of everything worth having at the post,
+was quite ready to forgive him and once more be the friend, comrade and
+classmate of his own imaginings.
+
+Harris alone had not come to congratulate him, but then, as Willett
+well knew, Harris could not. Mrs. Stannard and Dr. Bentley both
+reported him still too weak to walk about. He had had much fever and
+pain and loss of sleep, said they. But now, when in the soft light of
+this Friday evening, Willett essayed a stroll up the line, with Lilian
+almost dancing by his side, and with fond eyes following the graceful
+pair, he took it quite amiss that Harris did not come forth to envy,
+and to add his felicitations. Come to think of it, that very truthful
+woman, Mrs. Stannard (who never told even a society lie unless there
+was no way out of it), had brought no word from Harris, nor had Bentley
+mentioned such a thing, and this fact impressed itself upon the happy
+man as twice, thrice they slowly promenaded past the open door of the
+doctor's quarters without a glimpse of Harris, and, finally, on the
+fourth, the return trip, Willett in his exuberant bliss, would not be
+denied.
+
+"Harris! O--o--o--Hefty!" he shouted. "Come out and see a fellow!"
+
+For a moment, silence. Then, not so resonant but still clearly audible,
+for both men had voices that "carried" and were used to command:
+
+"Come in, if you will. Can't come out!"
+
+"I can't without leaving my convoy," was the return shout, but as
+Willett glanced down into the lovely face so near his shoulder, he
+found it paling just a bit, and troubled, not rejoiceful. "What is it,
+sweet? Don't you--care to see him?"
+
+"I think--I don't know--but--_he_ might not."
+
+It was too late. She would have led her lover away, for, young as she
+was, Lilian Archer had a woman's intuition, if not many a woman's wit.
+All on a sudden, unheard because of moccasined feet and the doctor's
+Indian matting, Harris stood in the doorway. He did not seem to look at
+Willett. His eyes at once sought her, and seemed closing to a slit as
+they encountered even the tempered light of declining day--the curious
+habit common to so many who have long scouted in the glare of desert
+suns. He hesitated not a moment. At sight of her he came quietly to the
+edge of the veranda and down the shallow steps, his face pale, as was
+to be expected, a grave smile upon his lips and even playing about the
+corners of those keen, blue-gray, unflinching eyes. He waited for no
+announcement or salutation from his brother officer--Mrs. Stannard and
+the doctor had told him the news two days before, and there had been
+ample time in which to digest it. Down in the depths of his heart he
+believed that Willett had planned this "_coup_" for his especial
+mortification, and down to the tip of his toes he longed to kick him
+for it, whereas in Willett's exuberant self-gratulation, the one
+thought at the moment was really a "Rejoice with me." That other men
+should envy was, of course, to be expected. What worth were any triumph
+without the joy of being envied!
+
+All his life he had been used to it. All his life, in childish sports,
+in boyish contest, on campus, rostrum, field or floor, among the lads
+at school, his fellows at the Point, his comrades in the service,
+wherever physical beauty, grace, skill and strength could prevail he
+had ever been easily winner, and when it came to women, what maid or
+matron had withstood his charm of manner? What man had ever yet
+prevailed against it? That others should long and strive for that which
+had come to him, unsought, unwooed, was something he could neither
+obviate nor deny. That was Nature's gift to him at birth. It was even
+magnanimous that, knowing this power, he should so often spare. Maids
+indeed might sigh at his indifference, but their solace lay in the
+eager offerings of other and less gifted men. Suffice it for him that
+at his beck the best of them would quit the shelter of other arms and
+come fluttering to his own. But now, of course, all this power of
+fascination must be sternly tempered, even suppressed. Henceforth he
+must be guarded. The winning of this pure young heart, the possession
+of this sweet and winsome nature, the lavish homage of this fresh and
+fervent love should steel his hitherto vagrant fancy against all
+would-be-willing victims. The time had come when other women must be
+bidden, if need be, to droop and die. Henceforth he had naught to offer
+them but the contemplation of his content and her unquestioned
+queendom.
+
+And so he could forgive it in Harris that he should come forth with no
+welcoming look for him, the conqueror, and only a yearning gaze for
+her. He could have felt quick resentment had Harris manifested nothing
+but rejoicing, even in expressing it. He had hated Harris when, deposed
+from his high rank as first captain of the Corps of Cadets, he had seen
+that far less showy soldier, his classmate, step easily into command
+and hold it with better discipline and ever-increasing respect from the
+entire battalion. The day of their departure from the Point had been to
+Willett an unforgotten, unforgiven lesson. It was the custom of the
+times--an unwritten, if unmilitary law--that on graduation day the
+class should appear at the mess hall at the dinner hour, and either
+singly or in little groups of two or three leave the building while the
+corps still sat at meat. It was even permitted that some should utter a
+word or two of farewell. Man after man Willett's fellows had taken
+their departure, and been accorded by the gray battalion a godspeed
+more or less thunderous as the individual was honored, popular, or
+merely a negative quantity. Willett had planned to be the last to
+leave, expectant of ovation that should out-thunder all others, but the
+officer in charge apparently would not see that regulations were being
+ignored, that cadets were on their feet about the head of certain
+tables, actually clinging to would-be going fellows, in unbecoming and
+unaccustomed "cits," while he was forcibly restrained by none. So,
+finally, waving his natty straw to table after table, he passed on to
+the broad-arched entrance, the clamor of voice and the battering of the
+old time iron stool beginning in kindly and cordial fashion--they would
+not send a dog away, those big-hearted fellows, without some show of
+friendliness--yet in all that array he numbered not one real friend,
+for self-seeking had ever been his creed and there was no man of their
+sturdy brotherhood that did not know it. Beneath the arch he turned and
+gazed once more over the familiar scene, his eyes dry and glittering,
+his throat dry and husky. Yearlings and some upper classmen were making
+lively play with stamp and stool, but the din was more perfunctory than
+powerful--nowhere near what had happened the moment before when two
+well-beloved fellows, with bowed heads and moistened eyes, had fairly
+rushed from the hall lest men should see that at last there had come
+realization that this was the parting of the ways, that the daily habit
+of four long years was shed forever, that to most of their number the
+greeting of the gray battalion would be given never again. But he had
+his wits about him, even then. He saw that now at last, with but four
+minutes left before the companies must rise and quit the hall, Harris
+was coming--the new-made first captain, adjutant and quartermaster
+escorting--the commandants of table all over the hall springing to
+their feet, and the wild rumble of hollow iron beginning the crescendo
+of swift-coming, stupendous thunder, and Willett stood and swung his
+hat, and classmates half-way down the slope turned back to see, and
+understood without seeing, that there was something back of it besides
+Willett. And then a tornado burst forth, as Harris, pale to the lips,
+halted at the door. His escort sprang aside, and to a man the battalion
+leaped to its feet and let go with voice and foot and hand, and the din
+was deafening. One moment he stood there, trembling with emotion,
+incapable of response, then whirled and darted down the steps, leaving
+Willett to acknowledge the tremendous ovation that speedily died
+away--almost to silence--ere he, too, turned and followed. "Good-by,
+fellows! God bless you!" shouted Willett, as though in final triumph.
+He had had the last word; had "taken the call," and the dramatic
+success of the day was his, or might have been, but for a most
+unprecedented incident.
+
+"Hush! hush! Shut up!" were the stern, sudden words with which the
+elders repressed the juniors who, impulsively, would have broken forth
+again. "Wait! Wait, you fellows!" was the cry, for on a sudden half a
+dozen stalwart gray coats had sprung from the door, regardless of the
+corporal on duty, disdainful of demerit, had hurled themselves on
+wet-eyed Harris, had heaved him up on their shoulders, with pinioned,
+arm-locked, helpless legs, and frantic, impotently battling fists, and
+borne him struggling up the steps and once more within the massive
+portals, and then pandemonium broke loose, for this was no divided
+honor--there was none to share it now. They bore him, vainly
+protesting, into the midst of the now risen battalion. They bore him
+forth into the June sunshine without. They surged about him under the
+trees and along the roadway, his halted classmates gazing back from the
+brow of the bluff, a swarm of spectators looking on, a stupefied group
+surging out from the officers' mess, conceiving that fire alone could
+account for the tumult. Then, over the uproar, could be heard the
+orders of the new captain. "Form your companies!" the shouts of the
+sergeants: "Fall in, men, fall in!" And then the demand: "March us
+back, Hefty! Take command once more!" "Start 'em back, Harris, for
+God's sake! I can never straighten 'em out," cried his half-laughing,
+half-sobbing successor, his first sergeant of the year gone by. He
+stood there prisoner, held by the staff and special duty men. He could
+not get away. Even the saturnine officer in charge stood a smiling
+observer, and, catching the young graduate's eye, waved approval and
+encouragement, and so there was no help for it. With a voice
+half-broken through emotion, he gave the old familiar commands that,
+three times a day for nearly ten long months previous, had sent them
+striding back through the gap between the old "Academic" and the gray
+gables of the Mess, and so on to the broad area of barracks beyond.
+Then, breaking away, he sprang over the eastward edge of the road,
+joined the waiting group of classmates at the crest of the hill, and
+with one long look at the disappearing gray and white column, turned
+his face to the winding road and the landing below, where the whistling
+ferryboat lay impatient of their coming--whither Willett had already
+gone.
+
+Was Willett thinking of that bygone scene this breathless evening in
+the heart of the desert valley, and the shadow of the westward
+mountain, as his once successful soldier rival came silently forward to
+grace his triumph in the field of love? Harris at least was not. His
+bearing was quite undramatic, simple, dignified. His greeting was
+almost too simple. "I can't give you my right hand, Miss Archer," said
+he, smiling gravely, "and I won't give a left-handed felicitation. It's
+my first opportunity," he continued, as he stood quietly before her,
+looking straight into her blushing face, "and I'm sorry it has to be in
+such shabby fashion." Then just as quietly and squarely he spoke to
+Willett, the gray-blue eyes looking keenly into the brown. "You are
+mightily to be congratulated, Willett," said he, "and we'll shake hands
+on it as soon as I have a hand to shake with."
+
+"I knew you would, old fellow!" said Willett, putting forth the
+unoccupied hand and laying it upon the other's shoulder, a
+well-remembered way of his when he wished to be effusive. "I'm coming
+round presently to have a talk--but couldn't help coaxing you out now."
+
+"How--_is_ your shoulder, Mr. Harris?" began our Lilian, all observant
+of physical ills. On these, at least, she could pour the balm of her
+sympathy.
+
+"Doing finely, thank you; and, pardon me, but the general is
+signalling. You're both wanted, I judge," and then, like the Union
+force at Second Bull Run, fell back in the best of order, in spite of
+the worst of blows.
+
+"I'll be with you again before a great while, Hefty, old boy," again
+called Willett over his shoulder, as though insistent on an invitation;
+but an assenting nod was all that came. The general had signalled to
+his children because of the concern in Bentley's face at sight of
+Harris confronting all that happiness, but Bentley need not have feared
+for him. He would not have feared could he have seen the little thing
+that happened. She had put forth a slender hand, half timidly, as
+Harris stepped backward. She was thinking even in the overmastering
+presence of this hero whom she worshipped, and to whose side she clung,
+of that moonlit evening on the veranda, of the hiss and skirr of the
+deadly rattler, of the peril that had menaced and the quick wit and
+nerve of him who had saved her, this very plain, sun-bleached, seasoned
+young knight, who seemed quite ready to risk life or limb in her
+defence, and who, said Willett, had lost most of his heart. It was
+foolish in him, with her Harold there; still it was something to be
+rewarded, somehow, and, womanlike, she tendered the contemplation of
+her inaccessibility in his rival's bliss. "You'll come to see us soon,
+Mr. Harris? I've so much to thank you for."
+
+"Just as soon as the doctor will let me, Miss Archer," was his entirely
+proper answer, and quite as properly our Lilian breathed a little sigh
+of relief, as, nestling closer still, she sped lightly homeward,
+clinging to her lover's side. It was so sweet to think of him as all
+her own.
+
+It is the mistake other and older girls so often make. Even as she
+prattled in her bliss, looking radiantly into the fond, soft brown eyes
+that melted into hers, the summons of a rival claimant came swiftly
+down the vale, and the sentry at the northward post and the loungers at
+the lookouts were already screwing their eyelids into focus on the
+little dust cloud popping up along the stream fringe of willow. Two
+couriers came presently jogging into view, and before the general sat
+in the famous butler's pantry chair at the family table, he had told
+the contents of two despatches from the Gray Fox in the field, and
+decided for the moment to say nothing of the third. With the first and
+second, reporting progress and enclosing despatches to be forwarded to
+Prescott, we have nothing to do. With the last we may feel less concern
+than did they. Mrs. Archer, scanning the clear-cut face of her soldier
+lord, as he came within range of the hallway lamp, knew perfectly well
+he had something to conceal, and with never an instant's doubt or
+hesitation set herself to aid him. Without her tact and skill that
+little dinner of four, the last they were to know in many a day, would
+have been a sorrowful feast, for Archer was sore troubled in spirit.
+Not until an hour later could she get him to herself, leaving Lilian
+and her handsome Harold to bill and coo unsupervised, and then she only
+smiled bravely up into his face and said, "Now tell me, dear."
+
+"It's that--that fool despatch I wrote about Harris coming like a
+curse, and chickens, home to roost." His hands were tremulous, his lips
+were twitching as he took from its envelope and unfolded a letter in
+the well-known hand of the field commander's favorite aide-de-camp.
+"Read it aloud," he said; "perhaps it won't sound quite so--reproachful
+from you." And obediently she read:
+
+    PERSONAL AND CONFIDENTIAL.
+
+    CAMP NEAR HEAD OF CHEVLON'S CREEK,
+
+    December 2, 187--.
+
+    DEAR GENERAL ARCHER:
+
+    Referring to the final paragraph of your despatch to Department
+    Head-quarters, dated November --th, General Crook directs me to say
+    that he was unaware of the instructions given Lieutenant Willett,
+    aide-de-camp, to proceed to Camp Almy, and practically authorizing
+    him to make certain investigations. It was far from his desire that
+    anything should be done to even inferentially reflect upon the
+    conduct of scouting parties from the post under your control. From
+    reliable sources General Crook has full information as to the cause
+    of the apparent ill success of Lieutenant Harris. Neither was he,
+    nor were his scouts, to blame. It is the general's intention to see
+    you before returning to Prescott and give you the facts in his
+    possession; but meantime Lieutenant Harris has his entire
+    confidence, and so have the few Apache-Mohave scouts, especially
+    'Tonio, all of whom, it is feared, have in some way incurred your
+    disfavor.
+
+    Captain Stannard is away at this moment, but will assure you as to
+    the value and gallantry of Harris's effort in behalf of poor Mrs.
+    Bennett, and also that 'Tonio is almost equally entitled to credit.
+    It was far from General Crook's intention that Lieutenant Harris
+    should be impeded or hampered in the least. Lieutenant Willett has
+    rendered distinguished service in the Columbia country, but is a
+    stranger to the situation and the Indians we have to deal with, and
+    should not be permitted in any way to interfere with Lieutenant
+    Harris.
+
+    Orders were sent Willett some ten days ago to join us in the field,
+    but the couriers, returned to-day, report that he was not at
+    Prescott. If he should be still in your neighborhood, kindly inform
+    him of the general's desire, and give him sufficient escort. We
+    move toward Camp Apache to-morrow, and Stannard is already ahead in
+    hopes of rescuing the Bennett boys.
+
+    With the general's warmest regards,
+
+    Yours as ever,
+
+    BRIGHT.
+
+"It's a very kind letter, dear," said she, kissing his wrinkled cheek.
+"General Crook wouldn't wound you for the world."
+
+"It isn't--that, Bella," he answered sadly. "I've wounded myself, and
+now I've got to send--him--with word of my orders as to 'Tonio."
+
+"Send him--word?" she faltered. "Do you mean----"
+
+"Certainly, dear. Who should go--but Willett?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+
+It was then lacking nearly an hour of tattoo. Already the arriving
+couriers, their mission executed, their wearied horses turned over to
+willing hands at stables, their hunger appeased at the troop kitchen,
+and the pent-up hankering for beer still unassuaged, were "filling up"
+at the expense of their fellows at the store, and wistfully looking on
+at the game.
+
+Muñoz, the ever-ready; Dago, the still demoralized, and one or two of
+their burro-bred community, were settled at monte, Dago and Muñoz eying
+each other like gladiators, and already a table had started at stud
+poker, that might readily develop into "draw." The barkeeper was a busy
+man, and had been given the tip to keep sober or lose the last hold he
+had on his job. The bookkeeper had for a few days past moved in silence
+about the premises, avoiding the common room as he would a lazaretto,
+avoiding even his kind. For most of the week he had been utterly unlike
+himself--strange, nervous, restless, starting at sudden sounds, abrupt
+in speech and manner, occasionally springing to the door and stepping
+forth into the sunlight, wandering about with hanging head and hands in
+pocket, coming back and slamming into his seat as though at odds with
+all creation, striving desperately to concentrate his thoughts on the
+columns of figures, and failing wretchedly. "Case is all broke up,"
+said Craney, "and damned if I know why. Last week he was the most
+popular man in Yavapai, or all Arizona for that matter." What Craney
+and his partner mortally feared was that Case would take to drinking
+again, with pay-day close at hand--the time of all others Case had
+never yet failed them, the time of all others when breach of faith
+could mean nothing short of breach of all business relations. But up to
+nine P.M. this night of prospective relaxation Case had been a stalwart.
+The test was yet to come.
+
+It was still half an hour of tattoo when old Bucketts came into
+Bentley's quarters and found that skilled practitioner replacing the
+bandages and sling on his patient's shoulder. The tidings brought by
+the couriers and given out by Archer had long since been digested.
+Bucketts had something new. "Doc," said he, "if you have anything to
+say or send to Stannard, now's your chance."
+
+"Don't call me 'Doc'!" snapped Bentley. "If there's anything I hate
+it's this curtailing of titles as though they were too good for the man
+that bears them. One of these days you'll get your double bars, if you
+don't die of over-eating, and then how will you like it to be called
+'cap'? How'd you like me to call you 'Buck' now? Who's going to
+Stannard?"
+
+"Pass the 'buck,'" said the quartermaster sententiously. "I apologize.
+But Willett starts at day-break--takes a sergeant, six men and a pack
+outfit--thought you'd like to know. Leaves us with mighty few cavalry,
+now that Malloy and his people are still out."
+
+"What keeps them?" asked Harris, looking up from Bentley's busy hands.
+"I never heard what they were after."
+
+"You never will," said Bucketts, "unless they stumble on it by
+accident," then colored under the look of surprise, almost of reproof,
+in the younger officer's face. It was not good that a post commander's
+instructions to his men at arms should be slightingly spoken of by one
+of his staff, and Bentley knew it; but Bucketts was already mentally
+kicking against those very instructions. Now he stood abashed and
+awkward. That Willett should be going seemed to Harris of small
+matter--a matter of course. He wished himself again in Willett's place.
+
+"How soon can you let _me_ be going?" he asked Bentley.
+
+"We could have had you out by this time if you'd only quit fretting,"
+was the gruff reply. "Well, I suppose Willett's glad of a chance to
+join his chief?" he said interrogatively, though never looking up.
+
+"Not unless looks belie him," was the answer.
+
+Bentley bent lower over his work. "No--physical hindrance that I know
+of," said he suggestively.
+
+"It's financial, I take it," said Bucketts sturdily. "Our investigator
+finds it--expensive--here at Almy."
+
+So the sore was rankling still, and that luckless order had hurt no one
+so much as him who bore it, and so those who might have been his
+friends were taking a certain malicious comfort in his discomfiture. It
+was not Willett's fault that he had come thus handicapped, but one
+thing added to another had made him the disliked of men. Was it in
+compensation for this that he stood so beloved of women? Then Bucketts,
+having thus relieved himself, ventured again a glance at Harris, and
+the younger soldier's eyes were on his, searching, questioning. It was
+for Bucketts to explain, and he did it thus:
+
+"Excuse me, Mr. Harris; I am not over-partial to this distinguished
+classmate of yours, and, to put it flatly, I'm no more his friend that
+he is yours. I'll say good-night." Whereupon this blunt official turned
+and quit the room, colliding at the door with an entering form, that of
+Strong, whose impact added to the quartermaster's distemper, for Strong
+was in a hurry, and half-savage mood.
+
+"Doctor," said he, bolting in, with scant apology to his staggered
+fellow staff officer, "Craney wants to know if you're coming down
+to-night. He's worried a bit about Case."
+
+"What's the matter with Case?" asked Bentley, barely looking up from
+the final tie of the sling, while Harris settled back in his chair.
+
+"That's what he wants to ask _you_. I don't know, except he says Case
+hasn't slept for six nights, and he'll be wild as a hawk when the
+paymaster gets here; wants you to give him something to make him sleep,
+I believe. I told him I'd tell you, and now the general's shooting off
+his quill at the office. Hope you're better, Harris. Good-night."
+
+"Reckon I'll have to go down awhile, anyhow. Harris, what Bucketts said
+was true, though he oughtn't to have said it. Willett has been playing
+late these last two nights, with Watts, principally, but Craney says he
+seemed oddly anxious to get Case into the game, and Case wouldn't
+play--wouldn't stay about the place while Willett was there--wouldn't
+have anything to do with him. Willett has lost quite a lot, I'm told,
+and now he's ordered off."
+
+Harris was still silent. He had no love for Willett, at best. He had
+had in their cadet days more reasons than one for his dislike. He had
+far more reason now, yet never dreamed of still another--that report to
+department head-quarters. But Willett was his classmate, and,
+outwardly, they were friends. Bentley and, in fact, all the officers at
+Almy were new-found acquaintances, well as some few were known to him
+by reputation. Still, it came to him something of a shock that Hal
+Willett should no sooner seem well enough to be about than he should
+turn directly from her good-night words--her kiss, perhaps--to the
+gambling table and its probable accompaniments. It boded ill for the
+happiness of that sweet girl's future, and as Harris sat brooding,
+Bentley, unheard, unnoted, slipped away, and presently, with brisk step
+and buoyant mien, Hal Willett himself came bounding in. Barely ten
+minutes ago Bucketts had given the impression that he seemed dejected,
+dispirited, yet Willett now was confidence and energy personified.
+
+"Hefty, old boy, how much cash have you got in hand? I want three
+hundred dollars."
+
+There was no answer for a moment. Well as Harris thought he knew
+Willett, this was a surprise.
+
+"What for?" were the exact words of the response, and neither in tone
+nor manner were there encouragement.
+
+"I've got to pull out at dawn, I suppose you've heard, and I shouldn't
+like to leave I.O.U.'s--here!" And now the cheery confidence seemed
+evaporating. Willett's face was shading.
+
+"Won't you sit down?" asked Harris reflectively. "I'd like to know
+something about--this."
+
+"There isn't time, Harris. I'm in a hole, so to speak. I hate to bother
+you, but I'd rather come to a classmate and old friend, who is in
+position, as I know, to help out, than give these fellows a chance to
+talk. Probably they've been talking already, and you've heard," and
+now, with something like a resumption of the old familiar manner of
+their boy days at the Point, Willett settled on the broad, flat arm of
+the reclining chair and threw his own arm, long and muscular, over the
+back. There had come to be a saying in the gray battalion, when Willett
+was seen strolling with a comrade, his arm caressingly encircling him,
+"Well, Willett's doing the bunco act again." Possibly it was the
+instinctive shrinking of the wounded shoulder; certain it was that
+Harris drew perceptibly away, and Willett noticed it. "I didn't hurt
+you, did I?" said he.
+
+"It's rather touchy yet," was the answer.
+
+"Well, say, Hefty, here's the situation. You don't play, so you won't
+appreciate, maybe, and I only play once in a good while, but they rung
+in a brace game on me. That fellow Case is no better'n a professional,
+and you saw for yourself here what a cad he could be. He got my money
+that Saturday night and Sunday, and since then, like the cad he is, has
+refused to play it out--give me a chance to get it back----"
+
+"Do you play with cads?" interrupted Harris.
+
+"Not when I know it--to start with," answered Willett, flushing and
+beginning to draw away. Obviously the affectionate and confidential
+method was a failure. "But when a man's got your money, cad or no cad,
+you want it back."
+
+"And Case has your three hundred dollars?"
+
+"Just about. Then I owe Craney and Watts quite a lot. I lost a hundred
+in cash in the first place. I never saw such luck in all my life! And
+now, instead of going back to Prescott, I've got to skip for the
+war-path. Watts says the money he gave me in chips he owes to others
+who were in the game at one time or other, and he needs currency, not
+I.O.U.'s. Looks like a regular _com_bine, doesn't it?"
+
+"You couldn't expect to win--everything there was in sight," said
+Harris quietly.
+
+Willett flushed again. He had slipped from the broad arm to the narrow
+camp chair recently occupied by the doctor. Harris was displaying
+unexpected resistance. Willett had been accustomed to speedier
+surrender to his advances.
+
+"It's more on that account than any other I hate to leave here with
+these things hanging over me," he answered moodily. Then, by way of
+expediting matters, "Time's mighty short--short as _I_ am--and
+Watts says you have a stack of greenbacks in the safe."
+
+Again silence a moment. Then Harris turned fully upon his visitor and
+spoke deliberately.
+
+"You ask me to do what I declared three years ago I never would do, and
+that I have refused to do ever since--loan a man money with which to
+gamble or pay gambling debts. I need this money, Willett, to send home.
+I've been saving and sending home ever since I joined, but that's not
+why I won't play--and don't drink."
+
+"Oh, we know how virtuous you are!" began Willett, with something like
+a sneer, but was checked with sudden, startling force. Harris almost
+sprang from his chair.
+
+"None of that, Willett!" he cried, his voice harsh with anger. "Your
+ways and mine are wide apart, but I'll stand no sneering. You come to
+me for help and you're going to get it, not because you scoff at my
+views, but in spite of it; not for your sake, but that of the old
+Academy. You and I are the only West Pointers at this post, bar the
+dear old general. You and I are classmates, and I know you, and
+_don't_ believe in you, but the money's yours for the asking. You
+say you come to me as an old friend, and I have never had faith in your
+friendship. I know how other men's and some women's names have suffered
+at your hands, and I don't know what you may have done to mine,
+but----" and now Harris was on his feet, standing over Willett--sitting
+there gripping the frail arms of a canvas-covered straddle-box, and
+looking up into the elder soldier's--the junior officer's--face in
+amaze. Never before had Willett been so braved by man or woman--"But
+your name shall be protected for just two reasons--and protected just
+so long as you can show you're worth it. But--Willett, I'm not
+preaching on drink or gambling now. There's another thing you've got to
+stop--or I'm done with you." And then Harris himself stopped short.
+
+"I don't know what you mean," began Willett, shifting uneasily.
+
+"You _do_ know what I mean! You've only to go back to your graduating
+June, when you were spooning day and night over a society flirt there
+at the hotel--a married woman at that--and your mantel-shelf was
+stacked high with unopened, unanswered letters from the poor girl you
+were engaged to. You were, Willett, in sight of God and man, so don't
+deny it! And she was telegraphing to me in pity to say was Harold
+sick--or what. She broke with you, of course, after you broke her
+heart. And you've been at that sort of thing ever since, unless the
+Division of the Pacific is a nest of liars--oh, bosh! I don't count
+Case, though it's like enough he told the truth. But now, Willett,
+you're _here_! and--what have we to expect at Almy?"
+
+"Damn my past all you like, Harris. No man's more ashamed of it than I,
+but don't damn my future!" And now Willett was on _his_ feet, his eyes
+snapping, his face aflame. "I was never so earnest in my life. [Small
+comfort that! thought Harris.] I never knew before what it was to be
+utterly in earnest. Stop it! Why, man, where have I--or you--ever known
+a girl like _her_? Stop it! Oh, here, Hefty, I can't talk as I feel.
+You _must_ see how different this is--how much this means to me! The
+man doesn't deserve to live that--that could be untrue to a girl like
+that?"
+
+"That's--sound enough," said poor Hefty. "But how long will you hold to
+it?"
+
+"So long as I live, Harris," was the solemn, the surprising answer.
+"God knows I mean it," and Willett held forth his hand.
+
+And Willett believed he meant it--firmly, solemnly believed he meant
+it, and his handsome face was never handsomer, never more eloquent of
+love, repentance, determination to do a man's manful part in
+furtherance of his devotion than at this moment when, in the dimly
+lighted, scantily furnished, low-ceilinged little room, these two men
+of different mould, these classmates of the nation's soldier school,
+stood and looked into each other's eyes, and slowly Harris began to
+stretch forth his left hand, then, stopping suddenly, slipped the right
+forearm from its broad white sling, steadied the elbow with his left,
+and slowly turned the thin, feeble fingers to meet the warm clasp of
+that before him.
+
+"It's one of 'Tonio's tricks," said he. "_Mano recto, mano cierto._
+Stick to that, Willett, and, by God, I'll stand by you in spite of
+everything I've ever thought or heard. Steady!"
+
+Somebody was at the door. Harris saw and checked the effusive thanks on
+Willett's lips.
+
+"What's that about 'Tonio?" said a ringing voice, as a "blouse" and
+buttons followed the blue sleeve into the field of vision, and the
+adjutant came slowly in. "Queer! D'you know I was thinking of him that
+very minute. Signal fire out south-east! Some Indians want to talk and
+afraid to come in. Turner's gone out with a squad to sample 'em.
+Willett, how soon are you coming over? The general's got the despatches
+ready."
+
+"Right away, if you like! What's it now?"
+
+"Ten twenty," said Strong, with a squint at his watch. "There's no
+hurry. He's writing personals now, and Bentley's just up from the
+store. There's news in of some kind from McDowell way, and Muñoz and
+Sanchez have jumped the game and quit. You'll probably have 'Patchie
+guides after all, Willett. Going down to the store after awhile?"
+
+"For a moment, perhaps, after I've said good-night at the general's,"
+answered Willett, anxious now to end the business and be away. But in
+came Bentley.
+
+"Get back to the office, Strong," said he; "the general wants you;
+Turner's in and says there's no one near the fire, no one to answer.
+All they found was this. The general thought you might understand it,
+Harris. It lay on a rock by the fire."
+
+He held forth a single feather, gray and white, tied with a bit of pink
+tape to a scrap of cardboard, torn from some cartridge case and folded
+over. Within, roughly traced in paint, were two figures--a 3 and a 2.
+
+"It means, 'Tonio," said Harris simply, "and he wants to talk. What has
+happened that he should be afraid to come in--here?"
+
+Willett heard and knew and would have stayed, but the doctor for once
+looked embarrassed, and Strong signalled Willet to come with him. "I'll
+be back presently, Hefty," said Willett significantly, and vanished.
+
+Even then Bentley faltered. "I'll let the general answer that," said
+he. "How can 'Tonio be summoned in?"
+
+"Only as I did, at the Peak, and on honor that he may go," was the
+answer. "Unless--I can go out to him."
+
+"You can't--to-night, anyhow! Is there no one else he'll meet who can
+understand him?"
+
+"Only one American--Case."
+
+"Humph!" was the answer, with a shrug and a keen, inquiring look in the
+doctor's eyes. "I've shown it to Case, and he says 'Tonio has only one
+object in life now, in or out of the post, and that is to square
+accounts with Willett, who was ass enough to strike him. This from
+Case, mind you, who, I believe, hates Willett himself. I've just got
+him stowed away for the night. Had to take him out of earshot of the
+store and put him in limbo at Craney's shack, where he can't hear
+what's going on. I gave him a dose that would flatten out St. Vitus
+himself. There'll be no budging Case this night unless--but that isn't
+likely."
+
+"Then I need to go and see the general," said Harris.
+
+"Then the general will come to see you--here. My word for it," said
+Bentley, and went his way.
+
+It was then nearly eleven. Five minutes later Willett, with relieved
+heart and elastic step, was hastening back to the general's quarters
+where sweet, yet tearful, welcome awaited him. An hour later he stepped
+forth into the starlight, turning to kiss his hand and wave silent
+good-night to a slender, shadowy form at the doorway, under the shelter
+of the gallery. Something in its pathetic droop and distress called him
+once again to her side, and with fond, clasping arms he drew the
+sobbing girl to his heart and pressed kiss after kiss upon the
+upturned, tear-wet little face. "Try to sleep, my darling!" he
+murmured. "Mother will wake you at four, and we'll have a moment before
+I go!"
+
+"Mother won't _have_ to wake me!" she cried, clinging to him the while.
+"Oh, Harold, if you only had not--to meet 'Tonio again!"
+
+"No fear of 'Tonio, sweetheart," he answered. "Now, go I _must_!" And
+so, with her kiss upon his lips, he left her to be led by loving mother
+hands to her little white room, and to her humble prayers, and the
+love-guarded pillow, where, lying wide-awake, still an hour later, she
+heard the shot and stifled scream that called a garrison to arms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+
+The early game at Craney's had languished that evening. It was too near
+pay-day--the wrong way--for money to be burning in soldier's pockets,
+and when the soldier has none the garrison hanger-on has no one to look
+to. The couriers from the field column, being comfortably filled and
+fairly well tired, meandered off with their martial chums at tattoo.
+The few ranchers and packers hovered about the monte table awhile,
+hopeful, perhaps, of a clash between Dago and Muñoz, but even this hope
+was crushed when, just about taps, two belated Mexicans, innocent or
+reckless of the proximity of signalling Indians across the stream, came
+mule-bestriding into the glare of the common room sconces and "olà'd,"
+for Sanchez, who hurried out to meet them, heard their excited tale,
+cashed in his few chips, and took himself and fellows off. "Barkeep"
+stuck his head through the port-hole to the adjoining sanctum where sat
+Craney, Watts, and that semi-military official known as the "contract
+doctor," expectant, possibly, of others coming, and told them of the
+"greasers'" doings, whereat Case, nervously, irritably pacing the
+floor, looked up in sudden interest and speedily plunged out into the
+darkness. Then Bentley had come, just at the time when the few packers
+and ranch folk were making a noise, and Case had reappeared, looking
+wilder, if anything, and declaring the greasers must have gone down to
+the old Sanchez place, Indian or no Indian. Then Bentley had felt his
+pulse and asked a lot of questions, and led him off into a corner for a
+little talk, and finally had prevailed on him to try to sleep in the
+vacant room at the "Shack," as Craney's own log-built cabin was called,
+and had led him away thither. He had never fairly gotten over the
+recent spree, said Craney. He would never explain what had induced him
+that Sunday afternoon to quit his old resort in the willows and go up
+to the officers' quarters, but go he had, for "Sudstown" had seen him,
+and had seen him later slinking back the longest way round to the
+store, keeping far from everybody, and looking badly shaken up. It was
+known, somehow, that he had been to the doctor's quarters, and, being
+half drunk, had got into Lieutenant Harris's room and there had made
+some noise and been ordered out. Rumor had it that there had been a
+scene between him and Lieutenant Willett, of which neither would speak,
+and the doctor had laid his commands on the attendant to know
+absolutely nothing about it--indeed, there was little he did know, save
+that there had been a disturbance. It was supposed at the store, and
+generally in the garrison, that Case had been drinking just enough to
+make him irresponsible, and in this condition he had ventured up to the
+post and made an ass of himself just when he was being trumpeted as a
+lion. Then, instead of having his spree out he had tried to taper,
+hence the highly nervous condition that had followed, which, instead of
+getting better, seemed getting worse.
+
+"I've fixed him," said Bentley, "provided he keeps his word," and then,
+bidding Craney good-night, had gone to garrison, and found the general
+perturbed over Turner's report and the story about Muñoz. Together they
+had gone to the store again, the general and his medicine-man, to have
+some half-breed interpret the message of the feather, but by this time
+none was left. Together they had looked in on Case and found him drowsy
+and indifferent, but both the commander and his faithful ally
+distinctly heard his half-mumbled words as to 'Tonio's one object in
+life ere they came away, satisfied that Case would be of no further use
+for another night and day. Then Bentley had hurried to his other
+patient with the result we have already noted, and a little later the
+general went with him for still another visit, to soothe and reassure
+Harris, for the invalid officer was mad to be up and doing. There was
+something in the air.
+
+Later still a stupid three-handed cribbage game was going on when,
+after eleven o'clock, Willett came briskly in. Strong had about given
+him up and was going home in spite of an unsettled account in his
+favor, which Willett had proposed to play off. They were all tired and
+ready for bed, and were only up because Willett was to leave and
+_should_ "square things" before leaving the post. The cribbage game
+stopped at sight of him. Craney went with him to the private desk in
+the inner office, whence in five minutes out he came, buoyant as
+before, declined to sit in again, laughingly said he'd take his revenge
+on the back trip later, called for a night-cap all round, bade
+everybody in the room a cordial good-night and good-by, and left with
+Strong at his heels.
+
+"By gad!" said Craney, "he may not play like a sport, but he pays like
+one, and a game one," and he locked a roll of treasury notes in his
+safe. Then he and Watts and the disappointed deputy doctor went off to
+bed, leaving "barkeep" to close up when the few loungers quit paying
+for drinks, and only in the common room was there further stir about
+the store. Arrived at the shack, as Craney declared in the morning, he
+had taken a candle and gone softly to the back room where he found Case
+in bed and either dozing or drowsy or drugged--at all events he cared
+not to speak. His hat, coat and trousers hung on a chair; his shoes
+were at the foot of the bed, his watch on the table by his side, his
+money was locked in the trader's safe. Some medicine and a spoon stood
+by the watch. There was no light in the room save that which Craney
+carried; the one window was blanketed; sufficient air came through the
+loopholes, and the window sash was down against the hound pups that
+would otherwise have had free entrance. Then Craney went to bed and
+almost immediately to sleep, and heard nothing until after one o'clock,
+when, with shocking news, men came banging at his double-locked and
+bolted door.
+
+Strong was one of the first to stir him, and Strong's face was white,
+as well it might be. As the sentries began calling midnight he had left
+Willett at the office, saying he must turn in for a few hours' rest.
+Willett, seemingly in excellent spirits, had been writing a few pages
+and addressing envelopes.
+
+"I'll follow in twenty minutes or so," said he, "for I, too, need a
+snooze. I'll be up as soon as I've finished a little business." Strong
+had gone almost immediately to his pillow and to sleep, and was roused
+by the corporal of the guard who had run in to call him with the news
+that Lieutenant Willett had been shot dead.
+
+At the moment of the shooting, so later said the guard, the waning
+moon, only a dull crescent, was up far enough above the eastward
+heights to throw a faint gleam over the valley. One of Turner's own men
+was on post at the south-east corner, and his yell for the corporal,
+instantly following the distant shot, was so excited and vehement that
+the infantry non-commissioned officer, who went at a run, was minded to
+rebuke him for raising such a row over a mere shooting scrape among the
+Mexican packers. "Packers, your granny!" said Number Six. "It's
+Lieutenant Willett that's shot, and I know it! He came down out of the
+office not twenty minutes ago and went straight out south for Craney's
+shack, and I'm betting he's done for."
+
+And so indeed it looked when they found him but few minutes later--the
+whole guard, save the relief on post, coming swift at the run to the
+corporal's cry, and the garrison turning out, thinking sure it was
+fire. Three hundred yards or so south and east of the shack they found
+him lying flat on his face, which seemed forced into the soil,
+senseless, and for the moment apparently dead. Even when they turned
+him over and dashed water into his face, and brushed away the sand,
+there was no sign of life, nor sign of shot wound. Not until the doctor
+came on the run, urged by breathless messenger, was the tiny
+bullet-hole found under the left armpit, and such blood as had escaped
+seemed absorbed by the underwear. Internal hemorrhage was feared as
+they unfastened his uniform and sought for further wound and found
+none. Craney bade them carry him to his own room, where there would be
+better light, and while some of them laid him on Craney's bed and
+others carefully scouted the surrounding willows for trace of the
+assassin, and others still went in and stirred up Case, sleeping
+heavily, stupidly, "like a hog," said an indignant few until told of
+the doctor's "dope." Then Bentley came and drove all but an attendant
+or two, and Strong and Craney, from the room, until the general
+arrived, his own face ashen, to ask what hope was left, got but a
+dubious headshake in reply, and then sat him down, buried his sorrowing
+white head in his hands, and began to upbraid himself:
+
+"It's all my fault--my doing," said he. "I see it all. I said the words
+that sent him!"
+
+And then to Bentley and Craney the veteran soldier told his story. He
+had had difficulty, as Bentley knew, in persuading Harris not to get
+up--not to attempt to find 'Tonio that night; to wait until day, when
+the Indian more easily might be reached. It was late when he left
+Harris, and was surprised to see lights at the office. There, all
+alone, was Willett, writing, and to Willett Archer told the message of
+the feather, and of Harris's eagerness to find 'Tonio at once.
+
+"Harris still holds that 'Tonio is utterly wronged, or at least utterly
+misunderstood," said he, "and that, Indian as he is, 'Tonio would not
+revenge himself on you as we supposed. 'Tonio knows he is suspected of
+the attempt to kill you, and yet wishes to come in and be tried. All he
+asks is fair play and trial before Crook himself. Then," continued
+Archer, "I asked Willett in so many words if it were true that he had
+struck 'Tonio with a gauntlet that night at Bennett's, and he said,
+reluctantly, it was--that 'Tonio had been insolent, insubordinate, that
+that was the way he had always dealt with such cases. Perhaps with men
+like 'Tonio it was all wrong, but he had never met Indians like 'Tonio
+before. I told him gravely that he had made a serious error, and that
+he should lose no time in getting word to 'Tonio that he realized this
+and desired to make amend. Willett said he would do it the very first
+time they met--that he knew how to bring 'Tonio in and would talk to
+him, man to man. I told him that it would be well to do this before
+quitting the valley, on his way out in the morning, perhaps. But, my
+God!" continued poor Archer, as he glanced at the senseless form over
+which physician and attendants were still working, "I never dreamed of
+his going out to-night. He said he should signal for a talk at the
+moment of starting with his escort, and so, probably, meet 'Tonio near
+the Peak."
+
+A solemn little gathering was this at the shack, while up at the
+quarters two sorrow-stricken women, Mrs. Archer and Mrs. Stannard, were
+striving to soothe and still poor Lilian, to whom the truth had had to
+be told. All the officers were up and astir, some of them conferring
+with their gray-faced commandant at the doorway, others heading the
+search over among the willows and down the stream. A strange fact had
+developed. Only one shot had been heard, only one shot hole had been
+discovered (and the probe indicated that the bullet, having struck a
+rib, had been deflected downward, where it was not yet located), but
+while this had produced shock and, possibly, temporary unconsciousness,
+it was another blow, one with a blunt instrument, probably more than
+one, upon the back of the head, that resulted in this prolonged stupor.
+Not once had Willett regained consciousness, nor, said Bentley, was it
+likely that he would. Bentley feared concussion of the brain.
+
+Turner, a capital trailer, with some of the best of his men, was
+working down stream, and all who knew Turner felt that no trace would
+be bunglingly trampled out. The few pathways along the west bank,
+through the willows, showed recent tracks on only one, where the
+Mexicans and half-breeds had scurried away toward the old Sanchez
+place. Already a strong party had been sent thither in search, but
+meantime Turner was looking, as he frankly said, "for 'Tonio's tracks
+about the ford," for within forty paces of the lower ford poor Willett
+was found, and in the minds of every man and woman who could hold a
+listener that night no other explanation was either sought or expected.
+The fact that both shores of the stream were stony above and below the
+spot--that it would be easy for an Indian to conceal them, would
+account for it if their footprints were lacking, but lacking they were
+not. In a dozen places about the ford and down the east bank, in a
+dozen places around the spot where lay the stricken officer, the
+earliest comers had seen and marked and protected against obliteration
+print after print of the moccasins of the Apache-Mohaves--'Tonio's own
+band. This in itself was wellnigh proof positive, but more was to come.
+
+Willett's trail was easily found and followed. Straight and swift he
+had gone across the flats from the post of Number Six, until within a
+hundred yards of the store, when, attracted possibly by the bleary
+lights still remaining in the barroom, he had veered that way until his
+footprints were merged with dozens of others in the path. Presently
+they were found again, passing between the store and the shack, around
+in rear of the low log building, where at that time, presumably,
+Craney, Watts and Case were asleep in their respective rooms. It seemed
+as though he had paused and moved about a little in rear of the shack
+as though in search of some one, and then had gone straight out beyond,
+heading for the nearest clump of willows south of the ford, and there
+it was found that the moccasin print overlaid that of the San Francisco
+boot and followed it up stream to where the torn and trampled sands,
+close to the brink, told of furious struggle. Moreover, this one
+moccasin print was wet and came over the stones and up the bank just
+about where Willett had reached it, and paused a moment or two before
+turning away. At this point the stream babbled over rocky shallows, and
+it was possible to cross by springing from rock to rock without wetting
+a sole, but whoever had crossed here had been hurried and incautious.
+One foot had missed, slipped or trailed, and its covering was soaking
+wet as it followed on up the bank. It was still wet enough to leave, as
+the lantern determined, a perceptible trace on the broad
+stepping-stones just below the placid pool at the ford, where the
+shores were low and sandy again--so wet, in fact, that the stain toward
+the opposite bank and on the farthermost stone became a splash so dark
+that the foremost sergeant, swinging his lantern aloft, sung out to his
+follower, "Watch out! It's blood!" and blood it proved to be--there and
+thereafter, down the opposite bank.
+
+Yet not a drop was seen on the sands where Willett fell. Then his
+assailants had not escaped unscathed. Unarmed as he was, the officer
+had made a desperate fight for life.
+
+"Now's the time to nab him!" said Turner, as he carried the report to
+Archer. "'Tonio has managed to elude Malloy's party, probably by
+leading them off on a false scent, but now we have blood to follow. Let
+me send out a platoon, mounted, and we may nail the gang before
+sunrise."
+
+It was then short of two o'clock, and while busy trailers followed on
+with their lanterns down the eastward bank, and were presently seen
+flitting like fireflies far south among the willows, Turner himself,
+with a score of his men, hastened back to quarters. There was saddling
+in hot haste, yet with the precision of long practice. By half past two
+all sight or sound of the trailers and the pursuing horsemen was lost
+in the distance, and a corporal, trotting back from the Sanchez place,
+reported that Muñoz and some of his fellows had joined in the search,
+and already with important result. Captain Turner sent him back with
+his compliments to the commanding officer.
+
+In the presence of Bonner, Bucketts and Strong, the general took the
+package, something heavy, bundled in the red silk handkerchief Turner
+had torn from his own brawny throat. A scrap of paper went fluttering
+to the ground, which the adjutant quickly recovered and handed to his
+chief, who read aloud in the dim candle light the words: "It might be
+well to keep this from Harris, at least to-night."
+
+Looking a trifle dazed, Archer unrolled the silken folds, and laid on
+the office table the handsome, silver-mounted Colt revolver of the old
+calibre 44 model Willett had lost that Sunday night of his perilous
+adventure up the valley. There it was, inscription and all, every
+visible chamber still loaded, its murderous leaden bullet showing in
+the candle light. Archer slowly drew back the hammer. The cylinder
+slowly revolved. The barrel-chamber swung as slowly into view, black,
+powder-stained, and--empty. One shot, then, had been fired and very
+recently. Who could have had it all this time but 'Tonio? Who else
+could have fired it?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+
+Turner and his men were gone all night, all the next day, and much of
+the night that followed. Then they began drifting back in squads of
+three or four. By noon the second day the captain himself, with the
+main body, returned, dispirited, mystified. They had lost the trail
+near the Picacho, found it again, lost it, found it, scoured the
+foothills and scouted the east face of the Mazatzal, and came back
+empty-handed. Willett's pistol was the only thing recovered, even with
+such aid as could be rendered by some of the Sanchez party, Muñoz and
+José being most energetic in their aid--"'Patchie" Sanchez being, of
+course, nowhere visible. 'Patchie had affairs of his own to answer for
+and explain against the homeward coming of the Big Chief Crook, and was
+shy of Saxon society in consequence.
+
+And Turner was plainly nettled and chagrined. He and his troop were
+about as expert trailers as could be found in our cavalry, which, in
+the old Arizona days, meant not a little. Turned believed that 'Tonio
+had dared to venture close to the sentry line, had lured his enemy to
+the fords, and there, aided by one or two of his band, had done him
+near to death, then fled for the fastnesses of the mountains. Turner
+believed that 'Tonio, or one of his people, was wounded and could be
+overtaken. The trail was easy as much as a mile down stream, and then
+became difficult. Turner had accepted the proffered aid of Muñoz and
+certain of their set. They were all up, it seems, by the time he
+reached the ranch, having been routed out earlier by the first
+explorers from the post, Sergeant Connelly and party, who stated that
+they found the "hull outfit asleep," this in spite of the fact that a
+game seemed to have been going on earlier in the night, for the
+paraphernalia were in evidence, also a moderate supply of liquid
+mescal.
+
+Now mescal in those days was not distilled north of the Gila--was
+brought by devious route, when brought at all, from Mexico, and
+"Greaser" packers, who were models of temperance when only Gringo
+whiskey or German beer could be had, would sometimes stampede at the
+mere whisper of mescal. Yet here was mescal, and here were some, at
+least, of the Sanchez "outfit," sober and fit for business. Then it
+must be that the three who lay stupefied had had money to invest at
+monte, and had been plied with mescal until both cash and consciousness
+had left them, and all this would account for the sudden hegira from
+the store the evening preceding the shooting.
+
+But in spite of their vehement assertions that 'Tonio had been
+signalling that very day--that they could point to the tracks of
+himself and his fellows in several places along the stream--these
+energetic and swarthy sons of the Incas could by no means find 'Tonio,
+or one of his tribe, when given the chance to lead and the backing of
+armed troopers. 'Tonio, well or wounded, was far too wary for them and,
+after hours of brag and bluster, not a vestige of him did they discover
+beyond a few scattered footprints and that one revolver, concerning
+which, it seems, Muñoz told sensational tales. He declared he had found
+it glinting in the moonlight just at the foot and to the right of the
+trail leading from the low ground to the summit of Squadron Peak. His
+story, indeed, was so positive and plausible that valuable time had
+been lost while some of Turner's most active troopers scaled the height
+in search of the fugitives whom Muñoz thought more than likely must be
+there, and José had agreed with him. Once well up among the rocks of
+the Mazatzal, after sunrise, these valued allies became bewildered and
+gave out, were handed a canteen and ration of crackers apiece and left
+to limp back to the shack, while Turner pushed on. They were at the
+store, recuperating, when his people reappeared at Almy, and each had
+derisive and uncomplimentary things to say of the other. Moreover,
+there was internal dissension among the Mexicans themselves. Dago's
+disgust with Muñoz seemed rekindled, while the sore-headed trio, done
+out of their money by aid of mescal, were slinking about the shack,
+looking unutterable things. When rogues fall out honest men profit, if
+they are wise and wakeful, and now, at a time when something of
+advantage might be learned, the interest of the garrison seemed centred
+about the general's quarters, whither Harold Willett had been borne,
+still senseless and in desperate case. Bentley could not say that he
+would live, yet had been heard to say he believed the bullet not yet
+cast that could kill him.
+
+There had been a difference between Archer and his surgeon. The shack
+was no place for a patient in such a plight. It was on low ground, hot
+and stuffy in spite of high ceilings. Bentley wished him borne on
+elastic litter to hospital. Archer said bear him to his quarters, Mrs.
+Archer _would_ have it, and it was so ordered and done. Bentley wished
+to find that bullet, the blunt, old-fashioned, soft lead plug, and find
+it he had, lying fortunately close under the skin, after traversing
+several inches of Willett's anatomy without piercing a vital organ. It
+was cut out with little time or trouble, and set aside, sealed for
+future reference. Fever, of course, set in, and where, asked Archer,
+could more devoted nurse or nurses be found, and, in the absence of the
+patient's own mother, what woman had better right?
+
+It wasn't so much _that_, said poor Bentley, as that they might overdo
+it--wear themselves out, and the patient, too. Willett was babbling in
+feverish delirium when his litter was borne into the general's dark
+hallway, and the patient thence to the white cot prepared for him,
+where Mrs. Archer and Mrs. Stannard at first were installed as nurses.
+Bentley shook his head over the arrangement, and later he spoke of it
+to Harris who sat thoughtful, troubled and ill at ease.
+
+Bentley had told him of the discovery of the revolver and the universal
+connection of 'Tonio with the attempted murder, and Harris bowed his
+head wearily upon his hands: "I will not believe it," was all he said.
+
+A sergeant and six men had gone with despatches and orders to find the
+field column along the Black Mesa. A runner had been sent to McDowell
+with the news, and another to Camp Sandy, where was Colonel Pelham, the
+district commander, giving details of the attempted assassination of
+the young staff officer, and warning all to arrest 'Tonio on sight. The
+affair was the one topic of talk in every barrack room, mess, and
+gathering at the post, and the subject of incessant comment and
+speculation at the store. That 'Tonio was the culprit no man was heard
+to express the faintest doubt. There were some who went so far as to
+say that _any_ man, officer, soldier or civilian, who dared to strike
+an Indian of 'Tonio's lineage had nothing less to expect. The one
+question was, how had 'Tonio succeeded in luring his victim, unarmed,
+to the spot, and why had he left his vengeance unfinished? The one man
+along officers' row to express dissent from public opinion was
+Lieutenant Harris; the one man at the store to sit in unresponsive
+silence was Mr. Case--the bookkeeper.
+
+Busy with his books, making up for the lost time, he said, sitting long
+hours at his desk, within earshot of almost everything, and hearing
+every theory expressed, he never so much as opened his lips upon the
+subject further than to say that, from all accounts, the lieutenant
+brought it on himself, and should never have ventured out alone, much
+less unarmed.
+
+"You didn't like him any too well yourself," bluntly hazarded Bonner,
+two days after the tragedy, and, somehow, a rumor of a row between them
+at the doctor's quarters was again in circulation.
+
+"I didn't," said Case, imperturbably. "But that score is settled."
+
+In the course of the prompt investigation made by Archer during the
+daylight hours that followed the affray, Bentley had deemed it a duty
+to tell the commander of the disturbance between Willett and Case,
+ascribing it to Case's vinous excitement after some transaction at
+cards, and though Archer believed the bookkeeper totally innocent of
+any part in the distressing affair that followed, both he and Bentley
+believed it due to everybody that Case's possible connection with it be
+looked into. With Craney they visited Case's own sanctum in the store
+building not two hours after the sound of the shot. There in its
+accustomed place was Case's revolver, every chamber loaded and a thin
+coating of dust on the grip. Case's pistol then had not been used.
+Bentley went in and examined the medicine glass--this was toward four
+o'clock--and apparently Case must have taken, said Bentley, at least
+four doses. That much at any rate was gone, and Case was sleeping so
+heavily he could hardly be roused--could hardly be kept awake, begged
+thickly, sluggishly, to be allowed to "sleep it off," as though he
+thought he must have been drinking again. Bentley brought out one of
+Case's boots, and the track it fitted could be found all over the
+flats, about the store, shack and stream, and proved nothing at all,
+for everybody knew he had been wandering aimlessly about for days and
+nights past. The window shade or blanket had been disarranged and the
+window had been raised a few inches, probably for air. Everything else
+was as Craney remembered seeing it before he turned in, and the
+inference was clear to every mind that Case had never left the room and
+probably, after the second dose, never left his bed.
+
+And now, from Turner down, all troopers lately afield in search of
+'Tonio were again at Almy, discomfited, disheartened. "Hunting for a
+needle in a haystack without a magnet," said Turner, "is no more
+fruitless than scouting for Apaches in these mountains without Apache
+scouts. There is only one way," said he, "to capture 'Tonio. 'Set a
+thief to catch a thief; set an Indian to catch an Indian.'" But the few
+Indian scouts assigned to Almy had all been drafted away with Stannard
+and the field columns in the Mogollon. "Even had they been available,"
+said Archer, who listened with gloomy brow, "Harris says no
+Apache-Mohave would betray 'Tonio, and no Apache-Yuma dare do it," and
+now, as never before, Archer had taken to long talks with Harris--who
+would gladly have had him keep away.
+
+"Youngster," said Bentley, looking his patient keenly over the second
+day after what had come to be called "the shooting," "I'm blessed if
+I'm not getting discouraged on your account. Here I have had you within
+reaching distance of 'fit for duty' twice, and both times you've gone
+back on me. It's my belief­ you'd be better anywhere else than here.
+Almy's too high strung for your temperament."
+
+"Get me once in saddle and I won't come back--or go back on you," said
+Harris. "How's Willett?"
+
+"High fever, tossing and talking--talking too damned much! You're
+sitting up much of the time day and night now. You need air and change,
+yet cannot stand jarring, or I'd take you driving."
+
+"Let me ride a mule."
+
+"I would, if I were sure of the brute behaving, but you never can tell
+what a mule will do, and now--there's no telling what Willett may say."
+
+"What do you mean?" asked Harris, though he had some reason to know.
+
+"Just this. He's muttering about matters none of us now want to hear,
+and want none of the Archers to hear. I've got Mrs. Archer out for a
+time, and going to get Mrs. Stannard in for a time, but there's that
+poor child upstairs going all to pieces for fear that beautiful boy may
+die, when--it's--it's--_damn_ it, it's my profound conviction it would
+be the best thing that could happen!" and with that Bentley turned
+about and strode heavily out of the house.
+
+Just at sunset that winter's evening, when all the eastward heights
+were a blaze of gold, and the far away fringe of the Mogollon was
+tipped with fire, and the rounded poll of Squadron Peak shone dazzling
+against the southward sky, the lookout on the scaffolding above the
+office set up a shout that brought half the garrison to its feet.
+
+"Horsemen coming! McDowell road!"
+
+It so happened that, just at the moment, Mrs. Stannard was walking
+slowly and thoughtfully from the direction of the hospital to her
+lonely roof. She had been to see Mrs. Bennett, whose general condition
+appeared a little more favorable, but who lay long hours moaning for
+those she had lost. Turner, coming in from the corrals, had joined Mrs.
+Stannard for a moment, but at sound of the alarm raised his cap and
+hurried straightway to the southward bluff. It might even mean a mail.
+The days were long to Mrs. Stannard and the nights were weary, for one
+anxiety followed another, and now, when she had so hoped that all might
+be gladness and sunshine for the sweet, unspoiled army girl, to whom
+her heart had so fondly opened, here at the very outset of her dream of
+love and delight, the grim Destroyer threatened, and even if Fate
+should spare the life of Harold Willett was it at all certain that that
+life would be what Lilian Archer deserved?
+
+All in three minutes that afternoon, while bending over the unconscious
+sufferer, replacing with cool, fresh linen the heated bandages on his
+brow, she had heard words that she fain would have stifled--that caused
+her to look up, startled, into Bentley's sombre face. She was thinking
+of the sorrows that encompassed her as she came slowly home, and then,
+as the cry sounded from the lookout station, and people came hurrying
+to their galleries, and Harris slowly felt his way to the open door,
+she noted how pallid and sad and worn was the keen young face, and,
+forgetful of her troubles, turned to say a word of cheer to him.
+
+"It used to mean the mail," said she, smiling brightly for his benefit,
+"but now no man can tell what a day may bring forth," she quoted. "The
+letters _I_ most want would be coming from the east. What would you
+have coming from the west?"
+
+"Anything to bring me word of 'Tonio," he answered, adding, though not
+for her ear, "and take me out of this." She stepped to the gallery and
+frankly took his hand, looking kindly, gravely at him with her sweet
+blue eyes.
+
+"You are not doing well, Mr. Harris. You are fretting too much, I fear.
+Tell me. You believe in 'Tonio thoroughly, don't you? So did Captain
+Stannard, and so should I. Do you believe he would have tried to
+kill--Mr. Willett?"
+
+"Mrs. Stannard, I _know_ he would not!"
+
+"Then I wish to ask you--something--something else. Was there--_is_
+there--any one who could--who would--_well_, who--had any reason?"
+
+For a moment he stood gazing at her, paler even than before, his stern
+young face full of strange emotion.
+
+"You have some reason for asking that, Mrs. Stannard," he said, almost
+below his breath. "You have heard--tell me; has he--has Willett told
+you anything?"
+
+"Nothing that connects any one with this crime, and yet, while I cannot
+tell you, and the doctor may not, I'll promise you this, Mr. Harris. If
+ever 'Tonio is accused and in danger, Mr. Willett has something to
+explain, and if he doesn't, then Dr. Bentley and I may have to."
+
+With that, almost abruptly, as though dreading further question, Mrs.
+Stannard turned away.
+
+Thirty minutes later, dusty and weary, five troopers rode slowly
+through the southward willows, across the sandy flats and up the slope
+to the adjutant's office, while the garrison, neglecting its evening
+meal, swarmed out to greet them. Six saddle-bags were crowded with
+letters and papers--the first in a fortnight--and the sergeant-major
+and his clerks went busily to work sorting out the mail, while Archer
+and his officers eagerly questioned the sergeant in charge. They were
+men of Captain Freeman's troop, all out scouting from McDowell. They
+camped last night at Silver Springs, fifty miles south-west, and came
+on from there while the captain and the troop turned back to the Verde
+Valley. No, they had neither seen nor heard of hostile Indians. All
+such seemed to have cleared out, for the time being at least. Had they
+met the Almy couriers on their way? Not one. They had come the lower
+trail by way of Standard Peak, where they had a signal station and
+guard now, where they left mail and rations for them, and then pushed
+on over into the valley. The Almy couriers took the short cut. No, they
+had seen nobody but some Mexicans, and hadn't much to say to them,
+'cause Sanchez--'Patchie Sanchez--had been caught and was in the
+guard-house at McDowell, charged with being mixed up in the shooting of
+Sergeant Graves. That, at least, was welcome news. Had anything been
+heard of General Crook? Yes, something. Apache-Mohave runners came in
+to the bivouac at Silver Springs, with despatches, before they left,
+and that was one reason the captain turned back. One of them was
+wounded. They'd had a scrimmage with Tontos, they said, but got through
+safely, barring just this one--'Tonio they called him--said he was a
+chief of the old tribe.
+
+"'Tonio there, and wounded!" cried Archer, while Strong and Bonner
+almost sprang to their feet, in surprise.
+
+"'Tonio, sir, certainly," said the sergeant. "The doctor had him
+dressing his wound when we came away. It was only slight."
+
+"Then," said the general, "by this time they've got my despatches, and
+'Tonio's a doomed Indian!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+
+The week was closing, the third of a mournful little series of
+seven-day happenings, the like of which Almy had never before
+experienced, and it was hoped might never know again. "The Moon of Many
+Woes," as later it transpired the Indians had named the night goddess
+of November, was a thing of the past. A new queen had come, hovering
+like silvery filament over the black barrier of the Mazatzal in a sky
+cloudless and glinting with myriad points of fire. The nights were cold
+and still, the days soft yet brilliant in the blaze of an unshrouded
+sun. An almost Sabbath-like calm hovered over the valley, for even
+signal smokes had ceased to blur the horizon. Not a hostile Indian had
+been heard of since the coming of Freeman's couriers. The brawling gang
+of "greaser" gamblers had stolen away from the "ghost ranch." Even the
+ghost himself seemed to walk no more. Something had happened to call
+the firm of Muñoz y Sanchez elsewhere, and Dago, darkly glowering and
+scowling about the store, where day and night the bookkeeper sat
+absorbed in accounts and letters, muttered many a _carramba_, and had
+even been goaded into explosive _carrajo_, because a defrauded
+soldiery, thirsting for revenge or restitution, persisted in connecting
+him with these skilled but quite unprincipled experts of the alluring
+game of monte, whereas Dago hated the sight of Muñoz, of whom he stood
+in dread.
+
+But while all men knew the "greasers" had gone, and many wondered why,
+and none at Almy could tell, there was abundant reason to believe they
+would soon reappear. Much news had been coming in--news from Crook's
+column along the Mogollon and the eastward foothills--good news, too,
+for far and wide the Indians were heeding his Gospel of Peace, which,
+tersely translated, read: "Come in and be fed. Stay out and be fought,"
+and by scores the mountain warriors, with their queerly assorted
+families, were flocking to the San Carlos and Apache reservations, and
+at last there seemed promise of a general burial of the hatchet. At
+last there was hope, wrote Stannard, that the Bennett boys would be
+restored. Good news, too, and stacks of mail, had come from Prescott
+and from far distant homes, but the bit of news that appealed to all
+but a chosen few at Camp Almy, as by all means the most important and
+welcome, was "The paymaster's coming!" The paymaster, indeed, after
+weeks of detention, was scheduled to be at the post by nightfall of the
+coming Tuesday or Wednesday, and Wednesday would usher in the old-time
+saturnalia of the south-western frontier, the joy of the laundress,
+soldier and sutler, the dread of every post and company commander from
+Her Majesty's dominion to the Mexican line--Pay Day.
+
+And stacks of letters and some few papers and magazines--by no manner
+of means all that were hopefully started--had come to the Archers and
+Mrs. Stannard and the exiles of official Almy, and stacks of letters
+were there for the slowly bettering young soldier lying helpless under
+the commander's roof, faithfully tended and devotedly nursed, the
+object of the fondest hope and love and prayer--Lieutenant Harold
+Willett, on detached service from "the Lost and Strayed," as
+aide-de-camp to the commanding general, Department of Arizona, who
+never yet since the day he left Vancouver Barracks had set eyes on him.
+Most of these letters, tied in tape, stood piled like bricks upon the
+mantel-shelf in the darkened quarters. Some few of them, in feminine
+superscription and bearing the Portland postmark, Dr. Bentley had seen
+fit to segregate and set aside. They had been placed for safe keeping
+in the hands of Mrs. Stannard, of whom, said Bentley, "there are not
+ten women of her sense in the whole service," which, said Lieutenant
+Blake, of Camp McDowell, when told of the fact, "is a most egregious
+exaggeration," and no woman there knew just what he meant. Blake at the
+moment was riding boot to boot with his captain, Freeman, for between
+the two there dwelt an attachment and understanding rarely seen between
+captain and subaltern, but Freeman guffawed at his junior's whimsical
+remark, and told it, just to try the effect on three of the four
+heroines then quartered at the camp. No one of their number was there
+who did not envy Mrs. Stannard her place in public estimation, but no
+one of them, could they have known, would have envied her the plight in
+which she found herself--joint custodian, with Bentley, of Hal
+Willett's unconscious confidences--compelled to see a young girl's
+rapturous love lavished upon a man so saturated with the incense of
+feminine idolatry as to be more than apt to underrate the priceless
+boon of a pure woman's heart-whole devotion.
+
+They had clipped short, and shaved, much of the hair from the back and
+left side of Harold's handsome head, where fell the blows that had
+stunned him, but as those severe contusions healed, and it transpired
+that the skull was sound, the doctor's main anxiety was transferred to
+the gunshot wound, which might well be serious in view of the amount of
+anatomy traversed, yet even that was healing, healthfully, steadily. "A
+beautiful constitution has this damned young Lovelace," said Bentley to
+Bucketts, in whom he had long since found a kindred spirit. "Just look
+at that!" and with a nod over his pipe stem, he indicated the bunch of
+letters forwarded from the Columbia. "Why don't you"--began Bucketts,
+but dropped it--he knew it was impossible. He knew, moreover, that when
+both mother and daughter have set their hearts on a single man,
+paterfamilias is powerless. "The whole family's infatuated," said
+Bentley, "and in his whole handsome carcase there isn't half the man in
+Willett that there is in that dried up little chap yonder."
+
+"The dried up little chap yonder," dismounting slowly and carefully
+from one of Turner's staidest troop horses, was the unappreciated
+Harris, returning from one of the first tentatives in saddle. Days
+before this, had he been permitted, Harris would have been up and away,
+he cared little whither. He wished to shake the dust of Almy from his
+deerskins, get back to the mountains and the war-path, get over the
+Mazatzal to McDowell and 'Tonio--'Tonio, his faithful friend and
+fellow-scout, now languishing presumably behind prison bars, awaiting
+the orders of the Chief of Chieftains in his case, for all pleadings
+were vain. The last barrier to belief in his guilt had gone with the
+recovery of the revolver and the exposure of the cock-and-bull story,
+said Archer, by which he had humbugged Freeman and Blake into believing
+he had really been slashed in hand-to-hand fight with Tonto Apaches.
+The first name spoken by Willett, after the fever had left him, and
+speedily he began to recover sense, was that of 'Tonio--'Tonio who had
+shot him.
+
+It had affected Harris to the point, almost, of relapse. He still
+fought vehemently against the story, declaring 'Tonio too high-minded,
+in spite of Indian blood and tradition, for a dirty bit of
+assassination. The brutal and bungling way in which the thing was done,
+said he, was enough to prove that 'Tonio had no hand in it. Thus could
+he talk to Bentley, at least, and even to Bucketts, who would listen,
+though he would not lie, and say he thought Harris right.
+
+None the less there had been amaze at McDowell when Archer's demand was
+received. 'Tonio had been taken to hospital on his arrival, kindly,
+skilfully cared for by the young post surgeon, while the couriers had
+been sent on to Prescott. 'Tonio's wound was a knife slash in the left
+arm, and another in the side. He had lost much blood and had little
+left to build up with. He was too weak to attempt escape, wrote Major
+Brown, the post commander, even if he knew he was under arrest, which
+he did not. "If I have to confine him it shall not be with such cattle
+as that half cad, half coyote, Sanchez," and Harris, being very
+improperly told of this missive, could almost have walked the weary
+miles to McDowell to fall upon the major's neck and bless him. "The
+very fact that 'Tonio was cut and slashed conflicts with every theory
+in the case," said he. "Who would have cut and slashed him but Willett,
+if 'Tonio attacked him, and Willett had no knife."
+
+And still Camp Almy clung to the belief that 'Tonio was Harold
+Willett's assailant and would-be murderer. Even Bonner, a conservative,
+had this to say: "Willett admits he struck 'Tonio. What Indian ever
+forgave that affront? He hates Willett as he loves Harris, and such an
+Indian love is almost as strong as his hate. We have some reason to
+think Willett no friend of Harris. 'Tonio went further and thought him
+an enemy. Couple that with his own grievance and there's more than
+sufficient motive for his crime."
+
+The topic was too one-sided to be mildly interesting. Moreover, the
+paymaster was coming, which overshadowed all minor considerations, and
+Turner was to take twenty men and meet him midway over to McDowell, and
+could have taken fifty had volunteers been called for, and the garrison
+to a man would have offered to sally forth, "with mattock and with
+spade" to patch up the crazy road that twisted through Picacho
+Pass--anything to get the man and his money to Camp Almy, for "devil a
+cent of four months' pay had the garrison, and more than double that,"
+said Sergeant Malloy, "is owin' me in I.O.U.'s that they wouldn't take
+for a treat at the store."
+
+The night before Turner's fellows were to start, Mr. Harris coming with
+the doctor slowly homeward from the mess room and listening again,
+disgustedly, to arguments against his attempting to ride back with the
+paymaster to see 'Tonio at McDowell, the two came suddenly upon Archer,
+just stepping forth into the pallid moonlight. The general pulled up
+short at sight of them, and Harris silently raised his cap, the
+old-time salutation to the post commander.
+
+"I was just about sending for you, Bentley," began the chief, as
+courteously he returned the salutation. "Bella thinks Willett's a bit
+flighty again, just now. Could you go in a moment? Come and take a
+chair, Harris," he added, as the doctor disappeared from the hallway.
+"We haven't seen you in a coon's age. What's this I hear about your
+wanting to go up to McDowell? Bentley says you're not yet strong
+enough."
+
+"It's to see 'Tonio, sir. I'm about the only friend he has left," and
+Harris would have ignored the proffered chair, but the general again
+indicated his wish, which meant compliance.
+
+"He'll need all he can get, I am afraid, my boy," and the answer was
+kind, even conciliatory. How was he ever going to admit to this
+uncompromising young campaigner that he had done him mighty wrong in
+his official despatch? Some time the boy must know it. Better know it
+through him, when it could be explained, perhaps condoned. They had
+exhausted the 'Tonio subject, so far as was possible between commander
+and subaltern. They had never yet talked it as man to man. When they
+did it would be on Archer's initiation, not that of Harris. The more
+the old soldier studied the young man the better he liked him. The less
+they discussed 'Tonio, the better Harris liked Archer. It was useless
+saying more. Harris silently took the chair at his senior's side and
+Archer continued:
+
+"If it would contribute to your strength as much as your peace of mind,
+I'd send you over in the forbidden ambulance, my boy"--how the voice
+trembled at the word that so often, so constantly in bygone days, was
+on his lips!--"but Bentley says 'not yet'--not even for a week, so what
+can an old fellow do?"
+
+"You are all that is kind--to me, general," was the grave answer, "and
+I hope to persuade Bentley before the paymaster goes back. If I do----"
+
+"If you do--that settles it---- What is it, dear?" he asked, half
+rising from his chair. Harris was already on his feet. Lilian, all in
+white, save the belt at her slim waist, stood at the doorway and had
+spoken.
+
+"Dr. Bentley asks that you come to him a moment, father. He is
+with--Mr. Willett." She saw who stood there by his side, and it was not
+so easy to say "Harold." Harris, bowing, would have backed from the
+veranda, but Archer interposed. "No, stay here awhile, lad; I--I want
+to talk with you. I'll be back in a moment."
+
+Very possibly he thought he could be. But the moment lengthened. Lilian
+had come slowly forth. Something had told her she was neither needed
+nor desired in the room just then. Even her mother, silently, had left
+the bedside and was hovering about the doorway. And now here was
+Harris. Lilian had matured a little, and paled not a little, in these
+few days of vigil and anxiety, but she was inexpressibly lovely as she
+stood and looked wistfully into his face. "You know he isn't quite so
+well to-day?" she said. "There's fever again. He craves ice so. What
+wouldn't I--we--give for some? What do you think he called me"--she
+gave a queer little nervous laugh--"just a moment ago as I was fanning
+him?"
+
+Harris did not answer. He would have hazarded "Sanctissima," possibly,
+as he stood there looking intently into her clear, soft eyes, with all
+their depth of tenderness and trust. Good God! Why should any man have
+to have a past, when love such as this was possible? "He called me
+Stella. Mother said he was dreaming of the pet dog he left at
+Vancouver, but his eyes were wide open--looking right up at me."
+
+Harris knew well who Stella was. The name was appended to many a letter
+and "wire" that came to him during First Class camp, and later, begging
+him to tell her of Mr. Willett, and now here was this fair girl
+virtually bidding him say he had known a Stella. He ground his teeth as
+he turned aside to set a chair for her. There had been others since
+Stella, unless all indications lied. What might she not say if she knew
+them all?
+
+"_I_ called my mother Topsy and Aunt Ophelia, both, when I was getting
+over typhoid and Uncle Tom's Cabin," said he.
+
+"Then Stella was only----" and the blue eyes were searching his.
+
+"Only a--you know I was nearly 'found' in French. What would you call
+the parallel to a _nom de plume_? _Nom de chien?_ _Nom de_--something
+visionary, at all events. He'll be sitting up day after to-morrow and
+telling you--all about it."
+
+She stood before him, with those pretty, slender, white hands loosely
+clasped, the clear, truthful, beautiful eyes looking straight into his
+sun-tanned, yet pallid face. No man in his time at the Point had ever
+known Harris to flinch at the truth or dodge an issue. "He is square as
+they make 'em," was the verdict of his classmates, and square he had
+been through his subaltern days, and now to be square meant the dealing
+to this sweet and trusting girl a blow that, while it might down his
+rival, would wreck her happiness. He now had dodged an issue at last,
+and then came the further trial:
+
+"Mr. Harris, dogs don't write. Harold's talking about Stella's
+_letters_, and says _you_ get them."
+
+He had dodged. He might as well flinch. The truth he would not tell
+her. A lie he could not tell her. He did, perhaps, the best he could
+for himself and the worst, perhaps, for her. He acted.
+
+"Don't believe a word of it, Miss Lilian. He's mooning yet."
+
+"Then--there wasn't any girl?--any letters?"
+
+"There's only one girl in creation he cares for."
+
+"But--Stella?" she persisted.
+
+"Never saw his Stella in all my life. What he needs is ice, and I'm
+going to see he gets it."
+
+With that he was gone, deaf to the words of relief the poor child would
+have spoken--trying to be deaf to the fierce upbraiding of conscience,
+and failing as he deserved, miserably.
+
+An hour later that evening, with a pack mule, blankets, old newspapers
+and a brace of cracker boxes, two half-tamed Mohaves were heading for
+the heights to the north-east, where water would freeze in the canteens
+these December nights, and the rock tanks were nearly solid ice. Two
+hours later while Harris, nervous, irritable, and filled with nameless
+self-reproach, was pacing the narrow veranda at the doctor's quarters,
+there was a stir at the southward end of the post, a sound of hoofbeats
+and footfalls, a running to and fro and lighting up at the office. An
+orderly came on the jump and banged at the adjutant's door, and Strong
+shuffled forth in the moonlight and joined other dark forms over at
+head-quarters. The sentries were calling the midnight hour without, and
+the doctor was snoring placidly within. It was barely ten minutes
+before Strong came back, in one of his hurries, and Harris hailed for
+the tidings.
+
+"Oh, _you'll_ be glad, I'm betting!" was the answer, half-rueful,
+half-relieved, for somehow Strong had "taken to" the doctor's
+guest--and to doubting his own. "Those galoots at McDowell let up on
+their watch, and 'Tonio's walked off--'gone where the woodbine
+twineth'--'Patchie Sanchez with him!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+
+That meant new trouble--trouble for Major Brown commanding the little
+two-company station--the "tuppenny post," his subaltern, Blake,
+derisively termed it--trouble for Blake, who was officer of the day,
+and was held on tenterhooks for many a day thereafter--trouble for
+Sergeant Collins, who was directly in command of the guard--"Collins
+_né_ Oolahan," as Freeman wrote him down, it having been discovered
+that this versatile Celt had served a previous enlistment in the "Lost
+and Strayed," when four of its companies were pioneering shortly after
+the war, where even the paymaster couldn't find them. Such of them as
+could be found in course of years were gathered up and sent to San
+Francisco for further exploration in other desert lands, but Oolahan
+and four of his fellows of Company "A," not having returned from wagon
+escort duty, were finally dropped as dead or deserted (those were days
+wherein nobody much cared which), whereas they were merely drunk at
+Cerbat. Under other names, as orthodox as the originals, they were now
+doing valorous and valuable service in other commands, Collins in
+particular proving a capital fighter and trooper, to the end that the
+best interests of the service were subserved by keeping a keen eye on
+his present and a "Nelson blind" on his past. Of the three soldiers
+thus involved at McDowell, Collins was the one who took it most to
+heart, for Collins had come to think ill of 'Tonio, whom at first he
+had championed. Collins despised 'Patchie Sanchez, whom he had known
+five years, and described as a "durrty cross betune a skunk and a
+spitbox," a greaser Indian who would knife his best friend. As for
+'Tonio, whom he had known ever since he came to Arizona in '65, and
+once held to be "the wan good Indian in it," 'Tonio had made him
+believe he too held Sanchez in contempt. Yet, to all appearance, the
+two, who up to this night had been confined entirely apart, had gone
+together. One of the counts in the unwritten indictments against
+McDowell was that its officers and men had lionized the dangerous
+Indian they were bidden to hold under careful guard, had held him
+without bond or shackle in a vacant room of the hospital, until that
+very day, when, stung by an inspector's comment, Brown ordered him at
+last into confinement with Sanchez, who was shackled to a post in the
+prison room. Yet all that was left of either was the "greaser's"
+chains. _Could_ there have been collusion?
+
+It meant more trouble for 'Tonio. Instead of facing investigation, as
+Harris declared he would, he had fled. It even meant more trouble for
+Harris, who, having stood his friend through thick and thin, proclaimed
+his innocence in spite of accumulation of evidence, now found himself
+utterly alone in his views and all Almy beginning to veer over to
+Willett. Willett, now able at last to recognize those about him, was
+sitting up a little to be nursed and petted and read to, a recovery in
+which the ice, for which Harris had sent his Indian followers forty
+miles, had played no unimportant part. Willett was now the object of
+devoted care and unspeakable interest, for all Almy hoped to hear the
+story of the assault with intent to kill. But Almy was doomed to
+disappointment. Beyond the expression of an unalterable conviction that
+he had been shot down from ambush by 'Tonio, hammered senseless, and
+left for dead, Willett declared he knew no more about it than they did.
+He seemed, in fact, to know as little of them as he knew of Stella,
+when at last the doctor gave him, without a word, the little packet
+held in trust by Mrs. Stannard. "He is muddle-headed yet," said
+Bentley, in explanation. "He'll know more after awhile, which is more
+than we may," was the mental addition, as he looked into Mrs.
+Stannard's doubtful eyes.
+
+But meanwhile further tidings had come from the San Carlos and beyond.
+"Big Chief Jake" had been doing some famous rounding up among the late
+recalcitrants. The General-in-Chief had given a feast to the incoming
+Indians, had shaken hands with their leaders, ordered rations for the
+families until the agency could again take them under its wing, had
+detailed escorts to conduct them by easy stages to the reservation set
+apart for them, but, as punctilious to the keeping of one part of a
+promise as to another, he sent forth his scouting parties to look up
+those Indians who had not come in, with strict orders to stick to it
+until the fate of the Bennett boys was definitely settled, and the
+scattered renegades were captured or destroyed. And this was why Mrs.
+Stannard was destined to wait still awhile longer for the home-coming
+of her beloved captain. This was why, within the week that followed
+their mission in quest of ice, three Indian scouts that were still
+"casuals" at Almy, set forth eastward, full panoplied for the field,
+with little Harris at their head.
+
+"Wouldn't you like to see Harold before you go?" Mrs. Archer had asked
+him when he called to say good-by. Her heart had warmed to him, as had
+Lilian's, in grateful appreciation of that gift of ice ("though of
+course Mr. Harris should know that now, under the circumstances, he
+really--well, it wasn't at all a matter to be spoken about, but dear
+Mrs. Stannard could see for herself that--it were quite as well that
+Mr. Harris got back to his duties"). Both mother and daughter, knowing
+well what it must have cost in time and labor, had thanked Harris very
+prettily, and fully meant all they said, which kept them from saying
+too much. It was but natural that his classmates should do anything for
+Harold.
+
+"Would he care to see me?" asked Harris, very quietly.
+
+"Well, he is sleeping just now, and he needs that so much. Lilian
+soothes him to sleep when no medicine can. He can't bear to have her
+out of his sight."
+
+"Then I think I should not disturb them," said Harris. "He'll be
+himself again before we are a week away, and you can say good-by for
+me, also to Miss Lilian, will you not?"
+
+It was thus he would have gone, but, as he turned away, compassion
+seized the mother's gentle heart, still bleeding--bleeding for her own
+beloved boy. After all, how could any young fellow help loving her
+Lilian? How could Harris help it? Why should she wish to seek to hold
+him aloof? "Come back one minute," she cried, half choking, then
+disappeared within.
+
+And so he turned again. He could not well refuse, and presently She
+came and smiled upon him and put her long, slim hand, cool from contact
+with iced towelling, into his hot, dry palm, and slipped the fingers
+slowly forth again, and spoke almost in whisper, lest the sleeper might
+hear her voice and know she had ventured forth and was conversing with
+some other man--all in that exaggerated precaution of word and manner
+that, whenever so much in love with one man, a girl so often observes
+toward others even ever so little in love with her.
+
+"You have been so good to--us, Mr. Harris, and I know how--he will
+thank you when he is able. Till then you must let me. _Good_-by!" Poor
+comfort at best, yet what one of us would not have sought it rather
+than nothing? And then she was gone lest he should awake and
+remember--or Harris should awake and--and forget. She was but a child,
+after all, and her fond and beloved mother little less so.
+
+And of such was Harris's leave taking, cool as his contribution to that
+happy rival's comfort, he thought, as he rode drearily away to the
+ford, with but a wave of the hand in response to the shout of Craney
+and Watts at the shack, while "Barkeep" and a few hangers-on stood
+gazing from under the canvas shade at the store, and Case, the silent
+bookkeeper, bent over his desk by the east window--the desk wherein
+still reposed that big calibre 44, with every chamber loaded and the
+handle more coated with dust.
+
+Half-way to the ford Harris's broncho stumbled and kicked up a muddy
+splash in the shallow pool. His rider reined him up sharply and spurred
+on; the three pack mules, following in file a scrawny Mexican on the
+bell horse, shied clear of the water cloud and emerged with dripping
+bellies from a deeper pool just to the left. The Indians, skipping
+dry-shod over the bowlders, a dozen yards below, turned their heads at
+sound of the stumble, and their keen eyes exchanged glances. Presently
+one of them shed his moccasins and waded in toward the mud cloud on the
+face of the rippling waters, and, while his companions stood at the
+bank, began searching in the knee-deep puddle. Presently again he
+swooped, thrust down a bare, brown arm almost to the shoulder, and drew
+forth a dripping object a foot long, covered with rust and mud. "Huh!"
+was all he said, as he splashed back to shore, exhibiting his prize to
+his fellows. Then together the three went a jog trot after Harris and
+held it up for his inspection. He took it curiously--an old-fashioned,
+war-time, percussion-capped Navy Colt--the pistol officers carried
+through the four years of battling in preference to the so-called Army
+Colt issued to the cavalry. "Some relic of the old volunteer days at
+Almy," said Harris to himself, and bade the Indian keep it. Nor did he
+think again of that pistol until many days later.
+
+That night they bivouacked among the tanks under Diamond Butte. Next
+day, toward sunset, as the smoke from the little cook fire went sailing
+aloft from the bank of a mountain stream that came tumbling from the
+Black Mesa, another little column of smoke answered from among the
+pines far up the heights. An Indian touched the young soldier's sleeve
+and pointed. Another moment and he was up, blanket in hand and
+signalling. That night the escaped prisoner, whom all commanders of
+posts or detachments were ordered to arrest wherever found, stood erect
+in the firelight, clasping hands with his young leader--'Tonio, the
+Apache-Mohave, and 'Tonio had a stirring tale to tell.
+
+Barely five days later still, Archer and his wife sat hand in hand in
+the cool veranda, taking the air. The sun was just down and the flag
+had just fluttered to its rest. From the open casement came the murmur
+of happy voices, one so very happy it thrilled their hearts. Across the
+barren parade the men were just breaking ranks after retreat
+inspection, and the officers were coming homeward, unbelting sword or
+sabre as they neared their doors, in the impatient fashion of the day.
+Strong, the adjutant, still precise and buckled, stalked up to his
+commander's steps, halted, saluted, and said: "All present, sir, and
+couriers coming up the valley."
+
+Archer rose to his feet and reached for his binocular. Forgetful of
+supper, many men began to gather at the edge of the bluff over by the
+office. A brace of sergeants had clambered to the lookout, and Mrs.
+Stannard, eager ever for news from her husband, came hurrying to join
+her friends. Twilight faded with almost tropical suddenness, but not
+before the coming riders could be recognized as troopers, and Mrs.
+Stannard's heart was praying they might be her Luce's men.
+
+"If you had your wish," said Archer, as he lowered the glass and turned
+to where the two friends stood, their arms entwining, "what would you
+ask for, Mrs. Stannard?"
+
+"My husband, I suppose," was the answer, "and yet--I've been sitting
+hours by poor Mrs. Bennett this day," and the blue eyes began to fill.
+
+"Heaven send us news of those little fellows soon," said Archer
+piously. "If not, I'm afraid her heart will break. Bentley says the
+faint hope is all that holds her. Listen to that!" he suddenly cried.
+"Listen!"
+
+Far down beyond the store somebody had set up a shout. Then, as they
+stood with beating hearts and straining ears, from the store itself
+went up another--three, four voices in unison--a shout that set every
+man along the edge of the mesa to swinging his hat. But a veteran
+sergeant, Bonner's level-headed right bower, sprang among them, with
+uplifted hand and voice. "Quiet, men! Don't yell! Wait!" Then he came
+hurrying across the parade, straight to his post commander. "What is
+it, sergeant?" was the anxious query, and at the very moment the riders
+came wearily jogging over the brow of the hill.
+
+"Couriers from General Crook, sir. They say the boys are found--safe."
+
+Bentley was there almost as the foremost horseman sprang from saddle.
+"Not a word of it to her--yet!" said he. "Wait until we know exactly.
+Go you, sergeant, and tell the steward on no account to let any one
+disturb her." And by this time Archer had torn open the letter handed
+him, and Doyle had come running out with a lamp. The expressions that
+chased each other over the general's features as he hurriedly read
+would have baffled an actor: first rejoicing, then amaze, then
+perplexity, if not trouble. "Can you tell us, dear?" was the gentle
+query that recalled him.
+
+"Read it--aloud," he said, and though her voice was tremulous, the tone
+was clear and the hush breathless. Even Lilian and her lover could hear
+every word.
+
+CAMP ON TONTO CREEK, December --, 5:30 A.M.
+
+DEAR GENERAL:
+
+Almy scores again. General Crook sends his best congratulations. The
+little Bennetts should be safely with you to-night. We see them as far
+as El Caporal. The general takes short cut for McDowell and thence
+home. Old Stannard never slept from the moment he got the word until he
+got the boys. Harris and 'Tonio located the rancheria and led
+unerringly. We are all happy.
+
+Yours in haste,
+
+BRIGHT.
+
+Even in her womanly joy over the rescue, there was wifely sympathy and
+instant understanding of her husband's swift-changing mood. The
+children were safe--that meant rejoicing for all. Stannard and his
+troop were the rescuers--that meant credit and triumph for Archer's
+post, and the general awarded it. But Harris and 'Tonio were the
+discoverers and leaders. 'Tonio, probably, was the man without whose
+aid nothing could have been accomplished. 'Tonio was the hero,
+therefore, in the eyes of the commanding general--'Tonio, the man whom
+Archer would have condemned and shot. This meant perplexity, if not
+worry, as she quickly saw, and went and nestled to his side. Did ever
+soldier have such contrary luck as did hers?
+
+But all were crowding about the couriers for particulars. "Yes," said
+the sturdy corporal, who was spokesman for the two, "the little fellows
+had been brought in a mule litter from way over toward Chevlon's Fork,
+straight to Crook's camp." Captain Stannard with most of his people
+would scout the country far as the Chiquito before returning.
+Lieutenant Harris and 'Tonio stayed with him, and the general's escort
+from "G" troop brought in the boys.
+
+And by ten o'clock another rider came loping in. The party with the
+litter were just behind, the tiny occupants worn out and sound asleep.
+"Take them straight to the hospital," said Dr. Bentley. "Mrs. Archer,
+Mrs. Stannard, will you come with me?"
+
+All Almy sat up late that night. Probably not a soldier eye was closed
+until long after eleven, and half the garrison clustered about the
+hospital, treading on tiptoe and speaking in whispers, as the little
+fellows were tenderly lifted from the litter, the weary mules were led
+away, and, in the arms of Mrs. Archer and Mrs. Stannard, the sleeping
+boys were borne, without word or sound, to the darkened room where, in
+the broad white bed that had been the hospital matron's, lay in the
+slumber of exhaustion their unconscious mother. Bentley closed the door
+behind them, noiselessly as possible. The steward and his wife, both
+with tear-brimming eyes, stood by to aid. Deft hands disrobed the
+sleeping little forms (Mrs. Archer nearly sobbing aloud at sight of
+their thinned and wasted limbs), and invested them in borrowed
+"nighties" from buxom Mrs. Kelly's store. Then, cautiously,
+noiselessly, the light coverlet was partly raised, the weary little
+curly heads were pillowed close beside the mother's, and then, leaving
+the night light turned low, stealthily they drew away and waited. "She
+never sleeps more'n an hour or two at a time," whispered the steward.
+"She'll be sure to wake before long," and so they lingered near the
+doorway, and Camp Almy, much of it, clustered in the moonlight without.
+Ten, fifteen minutes passed, and still there was no sound from the
+darkened room, and then, over at the guardhouse, the sentry on Number
+One started the call of eleven o'clock. Number Two, at the storehouse,
+took it up in his turn and trolled off his "All's well," and then it
+was Number Three's turn, out just under the edge of the bench, and
+Three muffled his voice and strove to turn it into a lullaby as he
+began, and, as the first words of the soldier watch cry came
+floating in through the partly open window, Mrs. Archer's hand
+stole forth and clasped that of Mrs. Stannard's, for the mother
+had begun to stir. Then, finger on lips, in tremulous excitement,
+those loving-hearted friends bent forward, and the watchers, five,
+listened and gazed, the women quivering with sympathy and emotion,
+for Mrs. Bennett's dark head was slowly lifting from the pillow,
+and then, all on a sudden went up a piercing cry--in a very agony of
+joy--incredulous, intolerable--"_Danny!_ DANNY! Oh, my God! Don't say
+I'm dreaming! And JIMMY!"
+
+And then, with lusty yowl, the younger of the startled cherubs entered
+his protest against this summary awakening, and the words of ecstatic
+thanksgiving were for the moment drowned in the chorus of infant
+lamentation. Even the rapture of restoration to mother arms was dimmed
+by consideration of present discomfort.
+
+But within were glad-hearted friends, weeping joyfully with her.
+Without were sturdy soldiers, shaking hands and slapping backs and
+shoulders in clumsy delight, and somebody was moved to say he'd bet the
+Old Man wouldn't care if it _was_ after taps, "and--Craney's was still
+open."
+
+And so by dozens they went trooping down, for, though cash was scant
+and the paymaster overdue, the rules were suspended and Craney bade
+"Barkeep" credit all comers who drank to Harris; and Case, the
+bookkeeper, with white and twitching face, waylaid such men as came
+from the escort with odd, insistent questioning. If 'Tonio was really
+leader in the rescue, had nothing been seen of 'Patchie Sanchez? Was
+Sanchez heard of--nowhere?--until, with his fifth free drink to the
+health of everybody concerned, Corporal Dooley turned on Case with
+"What the hell's it to you, anyhow, whether 'Tonio led or Sanchez's
+dead?" and Craney, listening and watching, turned to Watts and asked
+had Case begun again? If so, they couldn't too speedily check him.
+"Come up here, if you're a man," insisted Dooley, "and have wan on me
+to big little Harris and 'Tonio--'Tonio, bedad, even if he _did_ do up
+Loot'nent Willett!"
+
+Whereat, even in the noisy barroom there was sudden silence, save for
+responsive murmurs of 'Tonio's name, for strange sympathy had come
+sifting in from the columns afield. But Craney had heard in the
+adjoining room and was up in an instant, Watts following suit. This
+would never do. This was disloyalty to the best and gentlest and most
+courteous of post commanders, and no soldier should, no employé of his
+_could_, drink such a toast within Craney's doors. But he need not have
+feared. Promptly a big sergeant had interposed, and caught the corporal
+by the wrist, with thunderous "None of that, Dooley!" Prompt came
+Case's answer, though low-toned and guarded: "I'm drinking nothing,
+man, till after pay-day. _Then_ come at me and I'll settle it with you
+drink for drink."
+
+But Dooley's Irish blood was up, five fingers of tanglefoot tingling in
+each fist and bubbling in his brain. Struggling in the sergeant's
+grasp, he shouted his reply: "Settle be damned! How'd _you_ settle wid
+Willett for the girl he did you out? Bluffed him on a queen high, and
+called it square! You're nothin' but a bluffer, Case, an' all Vancouver
+knowed it!" In the instant of awkward, amazed silence that followed no
+man moved. Then, his face still whiter, his lips livid, Case turned to
+Sergeant Woodrow. "That man has no right to be heard here--much less to
+be wearing chevrons," said he. "His name's Quigley, a deserter from the
+Lost and Strayed!"
+
+It was then just midnight, and the sergeant of the guard, coming to
+close the festivities, went back with an unlooked-for prisoner, who,
+every inch of the way, cursed and foamed and fought, and swore hideous
+vengeance on Case for a cur and a coward, so that the fury of his
+denunciation reached even the general's quarters, where peace and
+congratulation were having sway, and lovers were still whispering ere
+parting for the night--reached even the ears of Willett himself,
+reclining blissfully at the open window, with Lilian's hand in his, her
+fair head pillowed on his shoulder. There in the open hearth lay the
+ashes of the letters, unread, unopened, that had come to accuse him,
+but even the fires of hell could not burn out the memory of the wrong
+that, after all, had tracked him here unerringly, for in the few
+half-drunken, all-damning words that reached him, Harold Willett heard
+the trumpeting of his own disgrace. His sin had found him out.
+
+And, barely an hour before, he had sworn to her that the Stella of whom
+he had babbled in his dreams was indeed but a favorite hound he had
+lost in the Columbia; that no Stella had penned a line to him in years,
+and, taking her sweet, upturned face between his palms, with the soft,
+tender brown eyes looking fondly down into the trustful, beautiful
+blue, he had said: "My darling, like other men, I have had fancies in
+boyish days, and even a flame or two, but never a love, _real_ love,
+until you came into my life. In a week now I must be with my general at
+Prescott, but every day, every moment of my absence, you will be the
+only girl in all the world to me. I shall shrink from the mere touch of
+another hand. I shall count the hours until you become my wife."
+
+And she believed him, utterly, poor soul. He even believed himself.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+
+The Gray Fox had returned to his own. The general commanding the
+department was spending a month at head-quarters--for him, who loved
+the mountains and the field, a most unusual thing. The wild tribes of
+Arizona, with the exception of one specially exempted band of
+Chiricahuas and a few hopeless desperadoes with a price on their heads,
+were gathered to their reservations--a most unheard-of thing in all
+previous annals of the territory--and a season of unprecedented gayety
+had dawned on the post of Fort Whipple and the adjacent martial
+settlement, the homes of the staff and their families. The general and
+his good wife, childless, and boundless in their hospitality, had
+opened their doors to army wayfarers. New officers were there from
+'Frisco and the States. Matrons and young women, new to Arizona, had
+come to enliven the once isolated posts of the desert and mountain.
+Major Dennis, of one supply department, was accompanied by a young and
+lovely and lively wife, who danced, if Dennis did not. Major Prime, of
+another, had recently been joined by his wife and two daughters,
+bright, vivacious girls, just out of school and into society, and,
+perhaps most important of all, Colonel and Mrs. Darrah, of the
+Infantry, had come, accompanied by their daughter Evelyn, as beautiful
+and dashing a belle as had ever bewildered the bachelors about the
+Golden Gate, and from every camp or post within a hundred miles or more
+junior officers had been called in to Prescott, on "Board,"
+court-martial duty or leave, until nearly a dozen were gathered, and
+while boards and courts dragged their slow length, and maps, reports
+and records of the recent campaign were being laboriously yawned over
+at odd intervals during the sunshiny days, far more thought and time
+and attention were being given to riding, driving, tramping and picnic
+parties--even croquet coming in for honorable mention--while every
+night had its "hop" and some nights their ball that lasted well toward
+morning, and for the first time in its history "head-quarters" was
+actually gay. Time had been in the recent past when a Fort Whipple hop
+consisted, as said a cynical chief commissary, in "putting on full
+uniform and watching Thompson dance a waltz," there being then but one
+officer at the station equipped with the requisite accomplishment. Now
+there were more dancers than girl partners. The latter were in their
+glory, and the married women in clover. "_Let_ them have a good time,"
+said the chief, when his pragmatical adjutant would have suggested
+sending some of them back to their posts to finish maps and reports
+they were only neglecting here. "But they'll be getting impatient at
+division head-quarters," said the man of tape and rule. It was a whip
+which often told on department commanders, but not on Crook. "_Let_
+them have a good time. Every one of those youngsters has been scouting
+and fighting and living on bacon and beans for the last six months, and
+I like to see them dance." The office-bred officer sighed, and wondered
+what the papers, or Congress, would say if they knew it. The
+service-tried soldier said he'd take all the raps and responsibility,
+and that ended it. So here were the young gallants of the cavalry and
+infantry, active, slender, sinewy, clear-eyed, bronze-cheeked fellows,
+as a rule, capital dancers and riders, all-round partners, too, though
+few had a penny laid by for a rainy day, and several had mortgaged pay
+accounts. There was Billy Ray, from Camp Cameron, who could outride a
+_vaquero_, and "Legs" Blake from McDowell, who could outclimb an
+Apache, and Stryker, of the scouts, who had won fame in a year, and
+"Lord" Mitchell, his classmate, whom the troopers laughed at for a fop
+the first few months, and then worshipped for his daring after the
+pitched battle at the Caves. There were three or four young benedicts
+with better halves in the far East, who had forgotten little of their
+dancing days, and not too much of their wooing, and there were lesser
+lights among the subs, and two or three captains still uncaught, and
+even one or two men of whom others spoke not too highly, like Craven,
+and "that man Gleason," to whom Blake would not speak at all. Then
+there were Steele and Kelly from Wickenberg and Date Creek, and Strong
+was to come up from Almy, bringing with him in chains the desperado,
+'Patchie Sanchez, secreted by his own people when charged with the
+killing of the interpreter, but tamely sold when a price was set on his
+head. And the commander sent still another missive to Archer, whom the
+luckier general held in especial affection, enclosing one from the good
+wife to Mrs. Archer, begging that she and Lilian should be their guests
+for a week, "and as long thereafter as practicable," that the
+engagement might be ratified and celebrated, "for we all think Mr.
+Willett the most fortunate of men."
+
+And then, of course, there were Wickham and Bright, the general's other
+aides, who were famous entertainers, and then, above all,
+perhaps--pitted for the first time against all the soldier beaux of
+Arizona--there was the general's latest acquisition, handsome,
+graceful, charming Hal Willett, who had, with characteristic modesty,
+made no mention of the fact that he was an engaged man until Mrs.
+Stannard's letter to Mrs. Crook told all about it, and we, who knew and
+loved Mrs. Stannard, knew just why she wrote, and never blamed her, as
+did Willett.
+
+The very night of the very day it came he was dancing gloriously with,
+and had been saying things to, Evelyn Darrah that she one day earlier
+had listened to with bated breath. Now his mustache swept her pretty
+ear as he lowered his head in the midst of the loveliest "glide," and
+murmured something more, whereat she had suddenly swung herself out of
+the circle of his arm, swept him a stately courtesy and fairly
+startled--_stunned_ him by the question: "Isn't that just a little
+high--for a gentleman's game, Mr. Willett?"
+
+The very words were enough to amaze him! "What on earth do you mean?"
+he demanded, as soon as he recovered self-control.
+
+"I mean," said she, straightening to her full height again, and looking
+him fairly in the eyes, "that for an engaged man you have exceeded, or,
+as you would say, 'raised the limit.'"
+
+There were dozens dancing, chatting, laughing about them, and some few
+watching, for his attentions, first to pretty Mrs. Dennis, and then the
+devotions by means of which he had swept aside all other suitors of
+Evelyn Darrah, had set all tongues to wagging. "The old Willett over
+again," said Bright, who had known him at the Point. Only that day had
+the mail come up from Almy and McDowell, and he ought to have known
+what it would betray. There must have been other letters--men's
+letters--for at mess there had been sly allusions to the fluctuations
+of fortune, the comparative values of "straights" and "pats," and this
+girl had turned and taunted him with the very words of that infernal,
+and he had hoped, forgotten game. Moreover, she, a brilliant,
+beautiful, practised woman of society, by no means the delicate and
+sensitive little desert flower whose worship he had won so readily, had
+dared to fence with him, had interested, piqued, fascinated, and now
+wellnigh bewitched him. He was not yet well of his wounds by any manner
+of means. He was still weak--far too weak to ride or climb or do much
+in the way of walking, but he could look, and be most interesting
+lolling in an invalid chair. Women had come and ministered to him in
+his convalescence, and pretty Mrs. Dennis had made quite a fool of
+herself, said certain elders, but when it came to cutting in for Evelyn
+Darrah, Willett had had to be up and doing, even finally, for her and
+her alone, as he murmured, daring to dance. There was nothing else he
+did so supremely well, and men and women watched them enviously,
+perhaps, yet delightedly, and men and women were watching now as he
+followed her to her seat, dropped to the one beside her, and bent
+absorbedly over her again, pale, agitated, and they saw her speaking,
+saw him vehemently pleading, saw him prevailing, for his pallor and
+emotion lent force to his impassioned words. Practised belle, coquette,
+flirt she might have been, but the woman is rare indeed who can utterly
+disbelieve, in face of such a combination, that she at least is loved.
+Stella's impassioned letters once lay in unbroken packages upon his
+mantel. Another star had risen and set, and sent its missives only to
+the ashes of his grate, and now this very night, hidden in his desk,
+lay long, close-written, criss-crossed, exquisite pages, the
+outpourings of a young and guileless and glorious nature, and they,
+too, lay, as did that early Stella's, unread, unheeded, almost
+undesired, for the man was inflamed by this dauntless woman's defiance
+of him, and the devil in him was urging: woo her, win her, conquer her,
+_crush_ her, come what may!
+
+That night was but one of several in quick succession. On every hand he
+had to smile, and say conventional words of thanks for the pointed and
+repeated congratulations showered upon him. Men and women went out of
+their way at every turn to remind him, as it were, that he was a
+mortgaged man; and yet, so strangely was he constituted, life for him
+at the moment seemed to have but one object worth attaining--Evelyn
+Darrah. Day and night he sought her, pursued her, and men began to shun
+him, and he never heeded. Women began to shrink from her, and she saw,
+yet, for to some there is the gambler's madness in the game, she _let_
+them shrink. What were their slights in comparison with the thrilling
+joy of this conquest? This man was at her feet, abject, pleading,
+praying. It was hers to spurn or sway him as she would. Never doubting
+her own power to turn him any instant adrift, she found delight in the
+passion of so virile, graceful, glorious a lover, the man of whom she
+had heard other women speak for three long years, and now he was
+hers--hers to do with as she dared--to break or make as was her
+caprice. What--what if men looked stern and women shrank? This was a
+game well worth the candle, let them sneer who would.
+
+What had promised to be a fortnight of jollification had become charged
+with matters of grave moment. Strong had arrived, bringing the shackled
+Sanchez, and, when hospitably bidden to stay a week and have some fun,
+he said he reckoned he ought to get back as quick as possible--"the Old
+Man had much to bother him," this in confidence to Bright. "The Old
+Man's coming up here," said Bright, "quick as the general can coax him,
+and he's just going to have a welcome that will warm the cockles of his
+heart," and then, like the loyal aide he was, Bright essayed to make
+Archer's adjutant see that while the general commanding had been
+constrained to differ with the commander at Camp, Almy, he personally
+held him in affection and esteem. "I'm afraid," said he, "General
+Archer thinks he is misunderstood about this 'Tonio business,
+and--and--Harris. Here's Willett, now, perfectly willing to drop the
+whole case against 'Tonio and say no more about it."
+
+"What?" said Strong, in amaze. "Why, at Almy he damned him time and
+again--swore he had twice tried to kill him. If he acquits 'Tonio, whom
+in God's name does he suspect?" asked Strong, a queer thought occurring
+to him as he recalled the furious words of the deserter Dooley, _alias_
+Quigley, another prisoner to be tried.
+
+Bright dodged. "The queer thing about it," said he, "is that Brown
+there, at McDowell, is demanding investigation, and says he believes
+there was collusion in camp--men who insist that 'Tonio's a trump. And
+now we have news from Harris, and he demands investigation, in 'Tonio's
+name--says there's a side to the story only 'Tonio can tell, and will
+tell only to the Big Chief."
+
+Strong pondered a moment. "There's more than one queer thing we can't
+fathom at Almy," said he. "Harris and 'Tonio never had anything to do
+with that Sanchez crowd. 'Tother Sanchez, and Muñoz, helped the chase
+of 'Tonio--did their best to catch him, and yet over at McDowell
+they're thick as thieves."
+
+"Not a bit of it! They never saw each other until--well, somebody made
+Brown believe the general would censure his showing favors to 'Tonio,
+so what does he do but order him in with Sanchez. That night both get
+away. Then 'Patchie's own people brought him back for cash. There isn't
+money or blood enough in all Arizona to tempt them to lay hands on
+'Tonio. Sanchez wants to talk with the general, says he can tell things
+the chief would like to know. Can he?"
+
+"How should I know?" asked Strong. "There's more of a mix in this
+business than I can straighten out. It looks to me as though more than
+one man had his grudge against this fine feathered bird that came down
+to show us how to tackle Apaches," and Bright changed the subject, as
+was his way when men or women ventured to question the methods of the
+Powers. All the same, he told his general of Strong's suspicions, and
+that night the general summoned both Sanchez and Strong, and there was
+a scene in the moonlight, down by the old log guard-house.
+
+Sanchez, heavily shackled and scared almost out of his wits in the
+belief that he would speedily be hanged, or shot to death, fell on his
+knees at sight of the tall, bearded commander, and strove to seize his
+hand. In the indescribable jargon of the Indo-Mexican frontier, he
+implored the general's mercy; he wailed that he was a poor and wronged
+and innocent man. He had no thought of killing--only inducing the
+interpreter to leave him, and the interpreter tried to shoot him. It
+was to save his own life he slashed at his guardian and ran, never
+knowing he had hurt him. He was frightened at McDowell; thought
+soldiers planned to lynch him. He dared not stay. He had filed his
+shackles and the window bars, and was watching opportunity to tear them
+loose and run, when 'Tonio was put in his cell. That night he saw his
+chance, climbed out and slid away to the mountains, just before the
+third relief was inspected, but he did not wake or tell 'Tonio. 'Tonio
+was a wicked Indian, who twice tried to kill Lieutenant Willett. 'Tonio
+should be hanged. 'Tonio's people hated Sanchez, because he "always
+friend to the Big Chief Crook and the Americanos." 'Tonio knew where to
+find him, it seems, and set Lieutenant Harris to catch him. Now, said
+Sanchez, if Big Chief only would let him go he would bring in two,
+three 'Patchie-Mohaves, 'Tonio's own people, who saw 'Tonio shoot and
+try to kill Teniente Willett--saw him shoot and club, shoot twice.
+Sanchez called on the Blessed Virgin and all the saints to witness his
+innocence, his entire truth, and the chief, with just one gesture of
+disbelief and disgust, turned quietly away.
+
+"You may as well tell him, Wickham," said he, and, with Bright at his
+side, strode back to head-quarters hill, leaving Strong and his senior
+aide to settle the matter.
+
+"You damned fool!" said Blackbeard contemptuously. "It wasn't 'Tonio;
+it was your own people gave you up. It wasn't 'Tonio; it was your own
+brother shot Teniente Willett. His own revolver was found at the spot.
+Your own people say he did it!"
+
+"Lie! Lie!" shrieked Sanchez, livid from fright and amaze. "José no
+have pistol that night. José lose him to Case--monte--two days before!
+_Case_ shoot him! _Case_ shoot him! Muñoz see him. 'Patchie-Mohave see
+him! Look, Señor Capitan, I bring them all--all say so."
+
+"I thought we'd be getting at bottom facts before we finished with our
+greaser gang," said Wickham, with no symptom of either surprise or
+emotion. "Very good, Sanchez. We'll give you the chance to swear to it
+and bring your witnesses. Take him in, sergeant, and keep this to
+yourself. Now bring out Dooley."
+
+Half an hour later, just as the midnight call of the sentries was going
+the rounds, Hal Willett, after whispered words of good-night to a tall
+and slender shadow at Darrah's door, came swiftly up the steps of his
+new quarters, and was surprised to find a little group at the adjoining
+veranda. Two civilians were there, one of whom he knew to be the
+sheriff. Strong was there and Wickham was giving some instructions in
+low tone to the three.
+
+"You start at dawn," were the words that caught Willett's ear, "and you
+should have him at Prescott within the week. Sure you need no further
+escort?"
+
+"Sure," was the sententious answer of the tall civilian, as he
+sauntered to the steps.
+
+"What is it?" asked Willett, at a venture.
+
+"Just a flyer, Willett," said Blackbeard, in the most off-hand manner
+imaginable. "Sanchez swears it was Case who shot you, and we're having
+him up to explain."
+
+For an instant four men stood watching Willett's face. Pale at almost
+any time of late, it seemed to have turned ashen in the pallid light
+about them. He swayed, too, a trifle, as though from sudden shock, and
+it was a second or two before he found his voice. Then:
+
+"What infernal rot! Didn't they find my own pistol, that 'Tonio had
+stolen, where his fellows or he had dropped it in their flight?"
+
+"O, Lord, yes," was the airy answer, "five miles away. But Harris found
+the real one, right there at the spot. Case won it from Sanchez just
+two days before. So he'll be here with 'Tonio the end of the week."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+
+That week was a bad one for Harold Willett. The general, taking Bright
+with him as usual, had whirled away in his stout spring wagon to
+supervise the re-establishment of the Indians lately in rebellion. The
+agent at the Verde reservation had developed symptoms of stampede that
+were later diagnosed and treated as insanity. It must be owned that he
+had lived through troublous times and had had experiences to try the
+nerve of a man of iron, which he was not. The general, after settling
+matters to his satisfaction at the reservation, purposed a descent on
+Colonel Pelham and Camp Sandy, for consultation with him and a
+conference with the troop and company commanders returned to their
+soldier honors, after their strenuous scout through the mountains. He
+left Wickham to represent him at headquarters and continue his
+investigation, and he left Willett to--recuperate, for already he had
+repented him of the impulse that led to the brilliant officer's
+appointment on his personal staff. Willett had been a valuable and
+distinguished soldier in that northern field, and only by these things
+had the general known him. That Willett was a many-sided man, that he
+could be an eager and ambitious officer when once afield, and a mere
+butterfly about the garrison, had not occurred to this simple-minded
+chief. The combination of terrier and lapdog is rare in the army.
+However, Willett was not yet fit for field service, and the Gray Fox
+meant that he should have fair play and a chance to redeem himself.
+
+"We couldn't send him away just now even if he were fit to ride," said
+Wickham confidentially to his brother aide-de-camp. "Dooley's trial
+begins presently, and he wants Willett as to character. But Archer and
+his household should be here by Friday. Then he'll have to behave."
+
+Willett, of course, knew that Archer had been sent for, was coming up
+and would probably bring Mrs. Archer and Lilian. According to his
+estimate, too, the family should be here some time Friday. Meantime he
+had a fortress to reduce whose garrison had already flung out signals
+of distress. "Evelyn Darrah may have been a flirt at 'Frisco," said
+Mrs. Crook, "and she's had more experience than most girls of her
+years, but she's not heartless, and that good-looking scamp knows it."
+
+"Have you talked with Mrs. Darrah?" asked a fair friend at a venture.
+
+"Talked with Kate Darrah! Of course I've talked with her! and told her
+just what people are saying and thinking, but Kate Darrah was just such
+a flirt when she was a girl. Kate Darrah many a time pulled the wool
+over her mother's eyes, and now hers is being pulled the same way. Evvy
+leads her mother by the nose."
+
+"Colonel Darrah, then," was the suggestion.
+
+"Dicky Darrah!" laughed Mrs. Crook, in merry disdain. "Dicky Darrah
+never dares oppose Evvy--let alone his wife. Kate Darrah says it just
+serves Hal Willett right. It's no fault of hers that he's daft about
+Evvy, who's simply bent on giving him a lesson he richly deserves. When
+the Archers come she'll drop it--and him."
+
+But the Archers came sooner than any one about Prescott deemed likely
+at all. Somebody said, and more than one somebody thought, that Mrs.
+Archer had had more than a hint as to what was going on. But never did
+Mrs. Archer look or admit it. The mail riders had resumed their trips.
+The paymaster had made his visit to McDowell and had safely traversed
+the Mazatzal and distributed his shekels at Almy. Almost every day
+there had been comings and goings, and though no letters bearing
+Willett's superscription went to Almy except by regular mail, even
+these, it seems, the pressure of his duties made brief and unlike what
+Lilian had looked for, so that the radiance had gone from her sweet
+face almost as quickly as it came. Even the girl who bravely insists
+that the beloved one is beyond doubt, and above suspicion, and all that
+is perfect, as Lilian strove to insist--even she will feel in her heart
+of hearts that there has been neglect, and neglect crushes.
+
+Archer saw and said nothing but "Get ready as quick as we can." They
+were looked for Friday noon. They were ushered into the general's
+hospitable quarters late Thursday evening, relayed on from the Agua
+Fria, after a good noonday rest in camp, and even in bidding them
+welcome, welcome over again, Mrs. Crook pointed to the brightly lighted
+assembly room down the winding roadway. "They're having a holiday dance
+to-night," said she to Lilian. "We'll toddle down after tea and take
+them all by surprise."
+
+For three days Willett had hardly been seen at the office, where indeed
+there was little for him to do, except perhaps read the letters that
+had begun to come again from various quarters. He had merely slept at
+home; he had simply lived at the Darrahs. He was hardly seen by any
+associates except dancing attendance upon this tall, imperious beauty,
+who, for her part, seemed now to accept his devotions as a matter of
+course, and to be regardless of public opinion. Begun in pique, or
+vanity, or devilment, whatever it may have been at the start, her
+indifference at first, her coquetry, her wiles, her defiance of his
+powers had spurred, fascinated and finally maddened him. Then, when she
+would have drawn back, his apparent, his acted or his actual
+desperation terrified her, and, all too late, her own battered heart
+cried out for relief. In spite of herself she found her resolution
+gone, her indifference rebuked, her strength wasted, sapped. She was
+yielding to him when she meant to scorn. She was clinging to him when
+she meant to spurn. And now the last night, the last of
+their--flirtation had come, and as she fluttered away on his arm to
+take their place in the dance, the cynosure of all eyes, Evelyn Darrah
+_knew_ that she was facing her fate, that before the midnight hour she
+must answer. He would so have it. Recklessly enough she had begun. What
+meant such affairs to her but a laugh? Yet, only the night before, as
+they stood murmuring in the shade at her father's doorway, and he was
+begging for some little word, touch, token--something to bid him hope
+in the hell of his despair, imploring her to see his engagement as he
+saw it--a something entered into in his enfeebled condition because he
+saw, everybody saw, that fair young girl's self-betrayal, and he had
+mistaken gratitude, pity, tenderness for love, until he, Harold
+Willett, had met _her_, Evelyn Darrah, and at last learned what it was
+to love, passionately, overwhelmingly--to love, to worship, to need, to
+crave, and then on a sudden she had felt herself seized in his clasp,
+and before she could, if she would, tear herself adrift, his lips,
+burning with eagerness, had sought and found hers--upraised. Then she
+had broken from his embrace, but not till then. _This_ morning she had
+pleaded headache and kept to her room. _This_ afternoon she had had to
+meet him, and could not repel, reproach, rebuke as she had at last
+meant to do. Others were ever about them then. There must be no scene,
+and he was quite capable of making one. And now this night he had come
+for her, yes, and for her answer. He was ready, he said, to resign from
+the staff at once, return to his regiment, break with the Archers,
+explaining that it was all--all a mistake, and then with her promise to
+be his wife, what spur would there not be to his ambition? He--but it
+all made her feverish--frantic! There was but one refuge--to dance,
+dance until her whirling brain and throbbing heart were exhausted in
+the wild exhilaration, to dance incessantly, with man after man who
+sought her, though few had opportunity owing to his persistence. And
+she had been dancing incessantly, as we danced in those days--galop,
+deux temps, redowa, waltz, the long, undulating, luxurious, sensuous
+sweep of the "glide," and men and women stood and watched them, time
+and again, when Willett claimed her--and he hardly had look or word for
+others--so wondrous was that harmony of motion, that grace and beauty
+of feature and of form. Then at last came exhaustion.
+
+There were some little clumps of cedars on the slope just south of the
+assembly hall, as it stood there on the low ground midway between the
+head-quarters houses on the ridge to the south, and the even less
+commodious cottages of the puny garrison. There was a boardwalk of
+creaking pine, leading across the shallow ravine, for it sometimes
+rained up here in the mountains, though it never seemed to in the deep,
+arid valleys to the east. Then there was a gravel path stretching away
+toward the garrison houses north and north-east, and one, still
+narrower and crookeder, winding up among the pines and cedars and
+disappearing over the top of the knoll, where the broad veranda of the
+general's mansion overlooked the entire scene. Sometimes when the
+evenings were warm and the dancers flushed, and sometimes even when
+there was no such excuse, young couples were wont to saunter out in the
+starlight for air and sentiment and "spooning." Already Willett knew
+the labyrinth, and welcomed the excuse to lead her forth, his arm
+almost supporting her. It was about eleven. The elders were absorbing
+mild refreshments at the moment. The musicians were glad of a rest, a
+sandwich and a cup of coffee, and a puff at a pipe before again
+resuming their melodious, if monotonous, labor. The windows of the
+assembly room were so near the ground that it was easy for these who
+did not attend the dances to supervise from without, and it often
+happened that a fringe of respectfully admiring spectators would
+surround the building until the late roll-call summoned the soldier
+circle away.
+
+And yet this Thursday night there were two or three little parties
+peering in at the southward windows, some of whom came down from the
+general's quarters very late. To Mrs. Crook's laughing suggestion that
+they should "toddle down after tea" Mrs. Archer had entered gentle
+protest. It was too late. They were not dressed. She feared Lilian was
+too tired. What mother would not oppose her precious daughter's making
+her appearance at a dance in travelling garb, after a day of driving?
+To her mother's protest Lilian had at first made no rejoinder. The
+flush of the first few minutes of welcomed arrival soon left her
+winsome face, and the resultant pallor emphasized her mother's
+edict--that she was too tired. But it was not long before they noted,
+all of them--father, mother and hostess--that her thoughts were only
+there at the dance, that her ears were attentive only to the strains of
+music that, once in a while, came wafting upward from the hall, and
+when a little later, refreshed by tea and a bountiful supper, they
+again returned to the parlor and the sound of the dance, Mrs. Crook
+caught the longing in Lilian's eyes.
+
+"Oh, come," she said, "let's just run down a few minutes and peep in;
+Lilian wants to see, and I'll send word in, sidewise, that will bring
+somebody out with a jump."
+
+They seized their wraps and started, Archer gallantly tendering his arm
+to the commander's wife, but she would none of it. "Nonsense! I've got
+to pilot _you_! That walk is steep and crooked and pitch dark when you
+get among the cedars. I want to chat with Mrs. Archer," and the old
+soldier thanked her in his heart. More than ever before he wished to
+have that arm about his own little girl this night. Was it possible she
+too felt the premonition that had come to him? Had her mother, after
+all, told her of the little hints they had received? Something had
+come. He could swear it. Something to make her strangely silent, but
+eager, fluttering, nervous--something that prompted her as they neared
+the building, and the little hand clinging to her father's arm shook
+with strange excitement, to bend forward close to their friend and
+hostess, and just as the latter was about to hail some young officer on
+the steps, Lilian interposed. "Oh--please," was all she said, but her
+fingers had caught the fluttering fold of the mantle, and Mrs. Crook
+turned at once. "You'd rather not?" she asked, with quick, sympathetic
+understanding. "I won't then. Plenty of time. Let's watch the dance
+first."
+
+And so saying she had marshalled them close to the southward windows,
+Lilian and her father at the near-most, she and Mrs. Archer going on to
+the next.
+
+It was Keler Beler's "Am Schoenen Rhein" they were playing at the
+moment, with its sweet, weird, luring, mournful, warning Lorelei
+_motif_ dominating in the waltz measure, and, with parted lips and
+clinging to her father's side, Lilian stood close to the window and
+looked and listened, saying not one word. There were but three couples
+dancing at the moment. There might as well have been but one for,
+within the hall and without, the eyes of all seemed fastened on that.
+Some strange caprice had prompted Evelyn Darrah to wear black that
+night--a grenadine, with cobweb lace and glinting spangles and sweeping
+train, the bodice cut low and displaying her shapely arms and neck and
+shoulders, enhancing the grace of her tall and slender form. Her dark
+hair was coiled in masses, yet here and there a curl or tendril fell
+upon the soft, polished skin, or floated about cheek and temple. Her
+eyelids, heavily lashed, veiled her downcast eyes. Her coral lips were
+slightly parted. Her almost queenly head was bowed as though to incline
+that little ear to catch the words he was eagerly pouring into it. Not
+a vestige of a smile was on either face, each was dark, sombre,
+beautiful, absorbed. His handsome head was bowed until the curling
+mustache swept her rounded, flushing cheek. In exquisite rhythm and
+harmony the two tall, graceful forms swayed in unison with the
+exquisite love music, every step, every motion perfectly attuned. It
+seemed as though no guiding were necessary. Slowly gliding, turning,
+reversing, he in his faultless uniform, she in her sweeping, diaphanous
+sable, seemed, without effort or the faintest exertion, fairly floating
+upon air. No wonder they sat or stood and gazed--these elders along the
+bordering benches--these others among the dancers--these few, wordless,
+at the windows. Then, with the Lorelei melody lingering to the last,
+the sweet, sad music died away and the waltz was ended. People began to
+move toward the doorway. "They're going for their bite and sup," said
+Mrs. Crook. "See, there go the bandsmen. Shall--_we_?"
+
+"I think not, if you don't mind," said Mrs. Archer with anxious glance
+at the other window, where Lilian still stood, looking straight at the
+doorway through which that couple had led and so many now were
+following. She had neither spoken nor moved, nor had he, her father.
+His back was toward them, but from the very pose of his head the wife
+well knew his eyes were fixed upon the face of his beloved child, with
+who can say what depth of sorrow, sympathy, yearning for her--with what
+passion of wrath and resentment for him. "Come," said Mrs. Crook
+briefly, for she, too, saw. Then Archer gently laid his hand upon the
+slender fingers that seemed clinching his arm, and with sudden little
+gasp or sob, and shiver, Lilian whirled upon him, her eyes big and dry
+and glittering. "Oh! wasn't it--didn't they dance--beautifully?" she
+cried, as he ground his teeth and turned to lead her away.
+
+And just at that instant--just as such things _will_ happen, who should
+come chirruping round the corner but the chaplain and his wife, with
+Mrs. Chief Quartermaster and a guest from Camp Sandy, just in time to
+stumble upon Mrs. Crook and Mrs. Archer vainly striving to dodge and
+get home. It was too late. They were captured, surrounded, pounced
+upon. "Oh, _when_ did you come?" "Oh, _how_ did you get here?" "Oh,
+_where_ is Lilian?" etc., etc., and Archer, never hesitating, quick was
+he in action ever, instantly turned about. "This way, sweetheart," he
+murmured, in the fond father love that welled from his great heart. A
+few strides carried them back into the darkness, around by the westward
+end, where the clamor of voices and clatter of cups and plates at the
+supper room drowned other sounds, and then in the darkness he led his
+darling, voiceless still, across the little wooden bridge and up the
+gentle slope among the cedars, hoping by a wide detour to dodge these
+importunates and lead his child to her own room, and there mount guard
+over her until the mother came. There is a sorrow that passeth
+understanding, and is known not of all men--the mute, helpless,
+impotent sorrow of the father who feels the heartache, and sees the
+suffering of a beloved child, and cannot even trust himself to speak of
+it.
+
+And Fate was still against them. The God that meant to cure was
+merciful and merciless as is the knife. Sinless as was this gentle
+flower, even she must suffer and endure, for here were obstacles again,
+even here across their path! They were upon them almost before they
+knew it, yet upon them unseen, unheard, for, absorbed in each other,
+this opposing couple knew nothing but their own affair, and well they
+might, for a sob was the first sound to catch the soldier's ear, a
+stifled cry, and then a deep, manly voice imploring, protesting, a
+torrent of murmured words, fond, assuring, caressing, passionate, a
+deluge of thrilling endearments, a mingling of sobs and kisses, for the
+woman's overcharged nature had broken under the strain, and in the
+refuge of his clasping arms was sobbing her heart out on this new
+lover's breast. Archer, raging, would have brushed them by, but Lilian
+held him. "Not that way; oh, not that way!" she whispered hoarsely. And
+then he understood, and together they fled back the way they came.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII.
+
+
+It was a merciful Providence, as many of the exiles later said, that
+brought the commanding general himself late that starlit evening back
+to Prescott. His stout mountain wagon, and special six-mule team had
+whirled him up from the Verde after the briefest of conferences with
+the cavalry colonel there in command. An Indian runner from Almy had
+reached them early that Thursday morning, announcing the return of
+Stannard and his troop, accompanied by Lieutenant Harris, 'Tonio and
+certain of the Apache-Mohaves, the arrest by civil authorities and
+attempted suicide of Case, and the further gathering under the wing of
+the law of José Sanchez, of Muñoz, and even of Dago, all of whom, it
+was said, were wanted at Prescott. Stannard found the Archers gone,
+found himself, as senior captain, temporarily in command of the post,
+and called upon to furnish military escort for the civil _posse
+comitatus_. Stannard was a soldier pure and simple. He would have shown
+as a mammoth bull in a china shop had he and his troop been at the
+moment in the Southern states, instead of the south-western territory.
+He stood ready to do any amount of arresting the government might
+order. He was entirely willing to send a subaltern and a score of
+troopers to convoy the entire party--sheriff and deputies, posse and
+prisoners--to the territorial capital, but, like the old war-horse he
+was, he balked, stiff-necked and stiff-legged, at the sheriff's demand
+that the escort should report to _him_--should be, in point of fact,
+under his orders.
+
+Not to put too fine a point upon it, Stannard had said he'd see him
+damned first, whereupon the sheriff refused to make the trip, and
+appealed to the territorial authorities, while Stannard sent a runner
+up to district head-quarters for instructions. Each messenger had
+nearly ninety miles to go, so the race was about even, despite the fact
+that the sheriff's couriers were mounted and Stannard's runner went
+afoot. The uninitiated would have backed the riders to win, but
+Stannard backed the runner. The former were deputies and white; the
+latter was Apache-Mohave and brown. The former had a road and a
+roadside ranch or two, whereat they might and did obtain rest and
+refreshment. The redskin had only a trail, and no temptations. The
+Apache won out in a walk, literally a jog-trot. Luck as well as pluck
+favored the latter, for he found the department, as well as the
+district, commander at Sandy, and Stannard's instructions were started
+back that very morning. "Come up yourself to Prescott," they said.
+"Bring Harris and 'Tonio and such of 'Tonio's people as are necessary.
+Come prepared to stay a week at least, and be sure that Mrs. Stannard
+comes with you. Use your own judgment as to route and escort. Offer the
+sheriff the protection, but by no manner of means the command, of your
+party."
+
+Having thus settled that question, the Gray Fox bethought him that it
+might be just as well to scoot for home, lest other councils should
+prevail about the capital. Such councils had prevailed, and in the
+recent past. He had still in mind the embarrassing episode of Willett's
+"instructed" descent upon Almy. In view of all the resultant
+complications he could not well forget it, and so, having finished his
+chat with Pelham, the tireless brigadier went bowling away by mountain
+road, the faithful Bright beside him, and was landed at his own door
+soon after eleven P.M. in abundant time to meet the situation on the
+morrow. Even in those days, when the stars went to the fighting force
+instead of the staff corps, it sometimes happened that a bureau officer
+had political wires to work.
+
+And there were other reasons why he had come not a moment too soon.
+People had so little to talk about in those far Western wilds that they
+who had, as related, unexpectedly met our hostess and her guest in the
+darkness, and learned from them that they and Archer and Lilian had
+been "looking on for ever so long," must needs hurry back to the
+ballroom and tell it over and again. "Why didn't you bring them in?"
+"Why didn't you make them come in?" were the questions impulsively
+asked and not easily answered. They couldn't make them come in! Mrs.
+Crook said they were far too tired! They had only just come down to see
+how gay and pretty it all looked, and hear the music a minute, before
+going to bed! Now they were going to bed!
+
+Then the people began looking for Willett and Evelyn Darrah. There were
+not a few who would have been glad to be able to tell _them_ this piece
+of news, but the bliss was denied. There was nothing unusual in dancers
+going out in the starlight, as had Willett and Evelyn. There was
+something odd about their not returning, however, and Mrs. Darrah
+presently whisked the colonel home to see about it. Then they did not
+return. They found the two on the dark piazza, just home, as said the
+daughter. She had a headache and could dance no more, and now would say
+good-night, which she said, and that left the colonel alone with
+Willett. The mother followed the daughter in-doors to see _if_ she knew
+of the arrival, and then to see _that_ she did. The father felt his way
+for a moment for some means of getting rid, without rudeness, of this
+disturbing young man, and found that he could not. Willett had
+something on his mind and, as soon as he saw it, Darrah was scared. In
+evident mental excitement Willett had followed, closed the door after
+her, then, pulling nervously at his mustache, had turned on the
+putative head of the house. "Colonel Darrah," he began in a moment, "I
+have something I feel I must say to you----"
+
+"Then _don'­t_, my boy, for God's sake!" said Darrah. "Say it to Mrs.
+Darrah, will you? She--er--settles all--this sort of thing for me. She
+understands--er--Evvy--if anybody does--I'm blessed if I can,
+and--er--if you don't mind, I--I--I think I'll say good-night. Have a
+smoke or a drink before you go?" he asked, in enforced and miserable
+recognition of the demands of hospitality. "No? Well, of course, you'd
+rather be back, I suppose," and so saying, he hoped to get Willett to
+go without being the one to either hear what Willett had to say or even
+to tell Willett what he knew--that at this very moment Lilian Archer,
+the girl to whom this young gallant's love and loyalty were
+pledged--was harbored there beneath their general's roof, where the
+lights were burning on the brow of the hill.
+
+So not for half an hour did Willett get the news. He would not return
+to the hop room. He did not go directly home. He dimly saw the mule
+team, at spanking trot, go rattling up the road; saw and heard it draw
+up at the general's, and then whisking back to the valley to deposit
+Bright. He divined at once that the chief must have returned and
+congratulated himself that he would not be expected to pay his duty
+until the morning, especially if he at once saw Bright. So upon his
+fellow staff officer he projected himself with proper welcome, and the
+first question Bright asked was: "How are the Archers?" It had not
+occurred to him that no mail had come up for nearly a week--that
+Willett did not know that they had started from Almy three days before.
+Then Wickham came in and briefly said: "Certainly. They're up at the
+general's. They were down at the dance awhile, looking on through the
+windows," whereat Harold Willett's handsome face went white.
+
+Late as it was he knew he should go over at once, and he did, and it
+was God's mercy, as Wickham said afterwards, that sent the bearded
+general, not the gray-haired, raging father to meet him at the door.
+There had been a minute of tearful, almost breathless, conference
+between the devoted couple before Archer released his wife from his
+arms, sent her in to Lilian, and then came down as calmly as he could
+to face his host and hostess. There had been a moment or two, in the
+sanctity of their chamber, in which this other devoted but childless
+couple--the Darby and Joan of the old army--conferred swiftly over the
+situation, the wife briefly telling the soldier spouse of what she had
+seen, heard and believed, and a glance at Archer had done the rest.
+Crook saw the anguish in the face of his old friend, and had only
+measurably succeeded in calming him when Willett's step was heard upon
+the veranda. The chief sprang to his feet. Archer would have followed,
+but with a silent, most significant gesture, the commander warned his
+comrade back. Then, closing the parlor door behind him, confronted the
+young officer in the silence and darkness of the veranda.
+
+What transpired in that brief interview was never told. Two or three
+couples, wearying of the dance, and wending their homeward way, saw the
+two tall, shadowy forms in the dim light, saw that one of them was
+standing strictly at attention, and knew thereby that the other must be
+the general, saw that the interview was very brief, for in a moment the
+caller raised a hand in salute, faced about, and went somewhat heavily
+down the steps and, avoiding both the main road and the pathway,
+disappeared in the direction of the bachelors' quarters under the hill.
+
+At ten the following morning a buckboard called at Willett's door, and
+that young officer drove away in travelling rig, with a valise by way
+of luggage, and when people inquired, as many did, and many more would
+have done had they followed their inclination, what took Willett away
+in such a hurry and--er--at such a time, all that black-bearded Wickham
+would say was, he heard it was a wagon. As for Bright, one might as
+well seek information of the Sphinx. There never was a man who, knowing
+all about a matter, could look, as more than one fair critic had been
+heard to say, so exasperatingly, idiotically ignorant. At noon,
+however, it was known that Willett's wagon stopped but a few moments on
+the plaza in the little mining town and capital, then shot away
+southward on the Hassayampa road.
+
+Three days later the array of "Casually at Post" on the morning report
+of Fort Whipple showed an increase of something like a score.
+Lieutenant Briggs with a sergeant and a dozen troopers rode in the
+previous evening, after turning over a quartette of dusky civilians at
+the calaboose, and leaving a guard at the hospital in charge of a
+pallid, nervous, suffering man, whom a big-hearted post surgeon
+received with compassionate care. The doctor had known him in better
+days. It was what was left of the recent lion of Camp Almy--Case the
+bookkeeper.
+
+Among the arrivals extraordinary at head-quarters on the hill were
+Captain and Mrs. Stannard of Camp Almy, Captain Bonner, Lieutenant
+Strong, post adjutant thereat, and then, as Bright's special guest, was
+Lieutenant "Hefty" Harris, of old Camp Bowie, and as Bright's special
+charge were 'Tonio, sometime chief of the Red Rock band of
+Apache-Mohaves, Kwonahelka, his associate and friend, with two young
+braves of the tribe, Kwonahelka's shy, silent wife and her ward, a
+motherless young Apache girl, sister to Comes Flying, he whose untimely
+taking off had so seriously complicated the Indian question in the
+district of the Verde. Bright had his Apache visitors comfortably
+stowed, and abundantly provided for, close to his own roof, and 'Tonio,
+charged with serious crimes against the peace and dignity of the people
+of the U.S. in general, and Arizona in particular, received with native
+dignity at the entrance to his canvas lodge callers and even
+congratulations--for great was the desire to see him--and, unbailed,
+unhampered, untrammelled by fetter, guard or shackle, calmly awaited
+his examination before the Great Chief with the coming of the morrow.
+Soldiers like Crook and the staff of his training knew 'Tonio and his
+lineage, and unlike Willett, valued his word.
+
+And early on that morrow Willett reappeared, delivered certain
+despatches at the office long before office hours, betook himself to
+his quarters for bath, shave and breakfast, and behind closed doors and
+shrouded windows, awaited the summons if needed to appear before the
+department commander. His narrative long since had been reduced to
+writing. Between him and black-bearded Wickham there had been one
+significant interview, never till long afterwards given even to
+intimates on the general's staff. As for 'Tonio, to no one less would
+he plead his cause than the department commander himself, the Great
+White Chief.
+
+Never in the chronicles of that sun-blistered land, home of the
+scorpion and rattlesnake, the Apache and tarantula, had that sun shone
+on scene so dramatic as that the Exiles long referred to as "'Tonio's
+Trial," and never, perhaps, was trial held with less of the panoply and
+observance of the law and more assurance of entire justice.
+
+It was a great chief trying a great chief. The powerful commander of
+the department sitting in judgment on the once powerful head of a
+warlike band, long since scattered, absorbed, merged in neighboring
+tribes, worn down in ceaseless battling against surrounding forces and
+implacable Fate. Crook knew the Indian as it was given few men to know
+him, and in his own simple, straightforward way generally dealt with
+the Indian direct. But here was a case, as he well understood, where he
+who had once moved the monarch of these silent, encircling mountains,
+stood accused of treachery to the hand that had fed, sheltered and
+uplifted him, to the Great Father whose service he had sought, to the
+white chiefs, old and young, whom he had sworn to obey. If guilty he
+deserved the extent of the law, if innocent, the fullest vindication of
+the highest power he and his people knew and recognized. To no mere
+captain or even post commander would 'Tonio plead. To no agency
+official would he trust himself or his cause. There was one soldier
+chief whom every Indian of the Pacific Slope knew well by reputation
+and by name--the chief who spoke ever with the straight tongue and told
+them only the truth--the chief who never broke his word or let others
+ignore it. "Gray Fox" they named him later among other tribes, but
+these of the Sierras spoke of him only as "Crook."
+
+On the greensward, close to the assembly hall in the low ground, the
+council lodge was pitched--two huge hospital tent flies having been
+stretched from tree to tree, braced on uprights; and there, in a little
+semi-circle, sat the general with his principal officers about
+him--gray-haired, pale-faced Archer, looking strangely sad and old, at
+his right--black-haired Wickham at his left, and high officials of the
+staff departments on either flank, the judge advocate of the department
+having a little table and chair at one side that all legal notes might
+be made. Half a dozen officers of the garrison, with Colonel Darrah at
+their head, grouped in rear of the council. Three or four orderlies
+stood about, but, by order, not a rifle or revolver could be found in
+the entire array. Seated to the right and left were officers prominent
+in the recent campaign--Stannard, Turner, Bonner, Strong and Harris
+among them, while at a distance, among the cedars and looking curiously
+on, were gathered the wives and families of the officers, with their
+guests and attendants--at a distance that the dignity of the occasion
+in the eyes of the Indian race might not be put in jeopardy by the
+presence of a woman.
+
+Further still, on the other side across the trickling brook, to the
+number of near two hundred, men, women and children, soldiers, citizens
+and strangers, all in silence awaited the first act of the drama--the
+coming of 'Tonio with his retinue, marshalled by that expert master of
+aboriginal ceremonies, Lieutenant Bright.
+
+And presently he came. No picturesque war bonnet distinguished him. No
+robe or mantle hung in stately folds about his form. 'Tonio sought not,
+as does his red brother of the plains, the theatrical aid of impressive
+costume. Tall, spare and erect, his sinewy legs and arms bare almost
+their entire length, his moccasins worn and faded, but his fillet,
+camisa and trailing breech-clout almost snowy white; destitute of
+plume, feather, necklace, armlet, ornament of any kind, unarmed, yet
+unafraid, with slow and measured stop the chief approached the council
+tent, three of his warriors in his train, and, escorted by Bright,
+turned squarely as he came before the outspread canvas, entered beneath
+its shade, and stopping midway across the greensward, his head upheld,
+his black eyes fixed in calm, reposeful trust upon the general's face,
+halted and stood simply before him, saying not a word.
+
+"'Tonio, will you be seated?" asked the general, and an orderly stepped
+forward with a camp chair. Even before the interpreter could translate,
+'Tonio understood, motioned the orderly aside, turned and signalled to
+his followers, who quickly settled to the ground and seated themselves,
+cross-legged, in half circle beneath him, but the chieftain, accused,
+would stand. On the dead silence that followed, all men listening with
+attentive ear, even the women and children across the little ravine,
+hushing their nervous giggle and chatter, 'Tonio's voice was presently
+uplifted, neither harsh nor guttural, but deep and almost musical. In
+the tongue of his people he spoke seven words, and there seemed no need
+of the interpreter's translation:
+
+"My father has sent for me. I am here."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII.
+
+
+A strange tribunal was this--"a method of procedure," as the acting
+judge advocate of this distant department took frequent occasion to
+tell us when the general wasn't around, "that would seem to have no
+warrant in law." Something to this effect being suggested to the
+general by the chief of the department staff, who went on to say that
+he supposed it was a case of "_Inter arma silent leges_," the general's
+beard, which hid his mouth, was observed to twitch, and the wrinkles at
+the corner of his steely-blue eyes followed suit. It was a way of his
+when trying _not_ to smile. Then Bright was heard to say that where the
+laws were silent, wise lawyers should he likewise, an epigram which
+long-legged Lieutenant Blake, of Camp McDowell, was delightedly and
+explosively repeating for the benefit of certain of the ladies looking
+on from among the cedars, even as 'Tonio appeared. Then no crier was
+needed to proclaim silence and declare this honorable court now open.
+Blake had come to Prescott ruefully expectant of official displeasure,
+and found it, so far as the chief of staff was concerned. But the
+general's greeting had been so cordial and kind that "Legs" took heart
+instanter. There was evidently something behind it.
+
+Mrs. Crook had marshalled her forces early that brilliant morning. Camp
+chairs and rugs had been sent down to the cedars, and with two of her
+favorites, Blake and Ray, in attendance, she and her guests from Camp
+Almy were seated where they could watch the proceedings and almost hear
+what was said. Many a curious glance was levelled in their direction,
+for by Mrs. Stannard's side sat Lilian Archer, pale almost as a calla,
+and rarely smiling or speaking, but, as all Fort Whipple could see, she
+was _there_, whereas Evelyn Darrah had not been out since the night of
+the dance. The colonel had explained, as he was probably bidden, that
+Evvy had contracted a severe cold, and her mother could not leave her.
+At least, said certain eager spectators, Willett must now be here, "for
+he is back from McDowell, or wherever he went." But even in this there
+was disappointment. The general had looked to that. Willett's
+accusation against the chieftain had been reduced to writing. It had
+all been carefully translated to 'Tonio, as had the reports of the post
+commanders of Camps Almy and McDowell. No further allegations had been,
+or were to be, made. With his witnesses in readiness, 'Tonio stood
+before the Great White Chief, the only man, save one, perhaps, to whom
+he would deign full explanation.
+
+And now, with the agency interpreter at his left and the agent himself
+seated among the officials, an eager and nervous listener, 'Tonio
+strode forward a pace or two, halted, looked calmly round upon the
+circle of expectant faces, then, the observed of every eye, the object
+of absorbed attention, with occasional use of a Spanish phrase, but, as
+a rule, speaking only in the dialect of the Apache, the tall chieftain
+began. With every few words he would pause, that the interpreter might
+repeat. It would be difficult, indeed, to translate his exact words or
+to portray their effect. To imitate the simple dignity of the aging
+warrior would be in itself a triumph of dramatic art.
+
+"My father has told me of the lies against my people--and me. My people
+are not many now, and we are poor, often hungry and homeless, and our
+hearts are sore. We believed the promise of our father and we strove to
+obey him, but while he was gone, and we knew not where to find him,
+others came, unlike him. Our enemies, the Tontos, were many and strong.
+Their agent gave them much meat and bread, but my people were denied.
+The Tontos jeered at them; their young braves taunted ours, and our
+young women were afraid. The Tontos killed our white brothers and
+burned their homes, and said it was we. Then the soldiers came to
+arrest Comes Flying, and Comes Flying was killed, and my people fled
+far in among the Red Rocks. They had done no wrong, but they were
+afraid. Then the Tontos killed our white brother, Bennett, always our
+friend, and burned his house and carried away his wife and children.
+Our young men were few, but they followed and fought the Tontos and got
+the woman and her little ones and tried to hide them away among the
+rocks until white soldiers could come, but there came more Tontos. They
+were too many, and they kept between the soldiers and Comes Flying's
+band. They killed two of our young men and got the woman once more, and
+then my young chief, Capitan Chiquito, followed, with only the braves
+you count on one hand, but he caught the Tontos and rescued the woman,
+and was shot. Gran Capitan Stannard brings me, and all his soldiers,
+and follows after the Tontos, but it was Capitan Chiquito who first
+reached her, and who would have saved her and her babies in their
+hiding-place, only he was held back--held back----" and with his head
+high and his black eyes sweeping the circle, 'Tonio stood and glared
+about him in search of an absent accuser. Then, with appeal in his
+gaze, he turned once more to the general.
+
+"It is as 'Tonio says," answered Crook, with grave inclination of the
+head. "His brother chief, Captain Stannard, sustains him. Is it not so,
+Stannard?"
+
+"Every word of it, sir!" was the blunt reply, as Stannard rose from his
+seat. "We found two Apache-Mohaves killed. We chased the Tontos into
+the mountains. Lieutenant Harris and 'Tonio, with Apache-Mohave scouts,
+rescued Mrs. Bennett, and led us." Whereat Archer's sad, white face was
+bowed upon his hands. Oh, that luckless despatch!
+
+"We are listening, 'Tonio," said the general, as Stannard slowly
+resumed his seat, looking almost disappointed that there had been none
+to contradict or doubt his view.
+
+"My father asks me why I left the camp after we had brought home our
+Capitan Chiquito. It was because my people came to the willows and
+called me. The sister of Comes Flying was weeping for her brother.
+Ramon and Alvarez were angered and talking battle and revenge, and
+Pancha came to warn me and to beg me come or there would be much
+trouble. My young men were doubly angered. They said the white brother
+had broken his promise, had feasted the Tontos and had starved them,
+had killed Comes Flying and driven our women and children to the
+mountains. They had seen more. They had seen their chief struck in the
+face with the glove of the young soldier chief--who is not here." And
+again the black eyes sought everywhere throughout the circle. "Ramon,
+Alvarez and others had vowed that he should die because of Comes Flying
+and of me. It was for this they played all so many hours with the
+riders from the Verde. They would head them off and hold them. The
+soldiers would come to rescue, and maybe the young chief. If so, they
+would lure him out beyond the others, and they did. I could not break
+their will. I saw their plan only just in time. They were in hiding
+among the rocks beyond the ridge, with only one or two in sight before
+them. He was galloping straight into their trap. There was just one way
+to save him and be true to our pledge to the Great Father. I shot to
+kill his horse, not him. My rifle would have carried just as true had
+it been aimed at his heart. He who struck me at the ranch--and
+denounced me here--owes his life to 'Tonio."
+
+In the dramatic pause that followed a murmur of sympathy and
+admiration, irrepressible, flew from lip to lip. He noted it, but gave
+no sign.
+
+"The young white chief says again I shot or sought to kill him that
+night at the ford. Again I could have done so, and again I sought to
+save. He was my enemy. He was"--and here, with affection all could see,
+the glittering eyes seemed to soften as they turned on Harris, sitting
+pale, silent and observant--"the enemy of this my brother and my
+friend. I would no longer go within the soldier lines. In spite of what
+I had done the white-haired chief ordered his soldiers to kill or take
+me prisoner. They could not find me, but I tried to warn my brother
+there was trouble--they would kill _his_ brother chief, then there
+would be fearful war, but my brother was wounded still and could not
+come.
+
+"Then the young stranger chief was lured out again by Sanchez--his
+people and mine. They swear to me they did not kill him--that the white
+man, Case, did that. He, too, hated him. But Sanchez lied to me. He
+promised to take back the pistol my people found the night I shot his
+horse, and he never did, nor messages I sent. So I know not who fired
+the shot, who clubbed him, _but_ Sanchez had that pistol--Sanchez lied
+to me! I was not that night so near as the Picacho, and when the
+soldiers came to find me I went farther, with two of my people. We met
+the Great Chief's couriers. We met more Tontos. We fought them back and
+I was wounded. They took me to McDowell, and no man was unkind until
+the night they put me in the iron cell with Sanchez, and he told me I
+should never see the Great Chief, my father; that I should hang for
+shooting the white chief, Willett. When I slept he was there. When I
+awakened he was gone, and the iron bars were gone. I went out into the
+night--into the mountains--until I found my young chief. Then the truth
+was told me. Then we followed, and found Sanchez. Then my people heard
+the story and helped me find the way to the cave where the boys were
+hidden. The Great Spirit of my fathers knows I have never broken my
+promise. That is all that 'Tonio can say. I have spoken."
+
+And then as he finished and the last word had been translated, all in
+language far less vivid than his native tongue, all men seemed to
+breathe a sigh of relief and seek instinctively to rise and gather
+about him. The general slowly found his feet, rose to his full height,
+stepped straightway forward to where the Indian stood, placed his left
+hand on the gaunt and bony shoulder, and with his ungloved right seized
+and grasped and held that of the elder chieftain, his own eyes
+twinkling, moistening, as he spoke.
+
+"'Tonio--Brother--the Great Father shall know, and if I live, all his
+people shall know, how deeply you have suffered, how truly you have
+stood our friend."
+
+And then, still clasping the warrior's hand, Crook turned to his
+officers, for by this time every man was on his feet, every eye was
+again upon them, every face lighted with interest, and many with
+emotion. Silently the general glanced about him, and at his signal
+Archer came forward, his handsome old head bared, his fine eyes
+filling. At his approach the commander drew back a step, releasing
+'Tonio's hand. Then the soldier who but a fortnight back had sought to
+prison, possibly to kill, this soldier of the desert and the mountain,
+following his superior's lead, held forth his hand, a thinned and
+trembling one, yet the clasp in which it took that sinewy brown one was
+one an Indian could never doubt. Looking straight into 'Tonio's
+fearless eyes, the veteran spoke: "'Tonio--Brother--I did you wrong. I
+beg your pardon and I ask your friendship."
+
+For a moment, silence, then for answer came but the single word:
+
+"_Hermano._"
+
+When presently hands unclasped and others began to gather about him, it
+was seen as Stannard came forward he had linked his arm in that of
+Harris, and would not be denied. The general caught sight of them, and
+a smile like sunshine lighted up his beaming face. "That's right,
+Stannard. This way, Capitan Chiquito! We all want you." And then,
+though by dozens now--officers, agent, interpreter and territorial
+officials--they were swarming about the impassive central figure, they
+gave way right and left that the two friends might meet, and 'Tonio,
+turning from Archer's handclasp, saw his young champion and leader, and
+the stern, dark features melted, the bold, fearless, challenging eyes
+softened on the instant. He would have sprung forward to some act of
+Indian homage, but Harris was too quick and checked him. Their eyes
+met. Then both hands--all four hands--went out at once.
+
+It was at this juncture, as certain of the department staff began to
+bethink themselves of important duties awaiting them at their offices,
+that one of the old-time characters of the old army, a field officer of
+distinction in the war days, was heard to express himself somewhat as
+follows: "Well, whereaway is Willett now?"--a question that had
+occurred to every member present, and to many a man and woman without
+the council, but this was its first audible expression.
+
+"Willett," said the general calmly, yet in tone that all beneath the
+canopy could hear, "made known to me days ago that he desired to
+withdraw his accusation, but I had my reason for insisting. As to the
+question, where is Willett?--he is here to testify, if need be, before
+a civil court. We have still to settle with Sanchez."
+
+Moreover, as the Indians finally moved away, Bright and Harris both
+escorting 'Tonio, there were emissaries of the agency at their heels,
+for in 'Tonio's train walked both Ramon and Alvarez, on whom it might
+be well to keep an eye.
+
+But 'Tonio's trial--"'Tonio's triumph," as Blake declared it--was not
+yet over for the day. The watchspring saws and tiny file found on
+Sanchez, when finally taken, had explained the method of that McDowell
+escape. With these and with bacon-rind to grease them, only a little
+time and labor had been needed, nor was there ever found proof against
+Corporal Collins, or the sentry, that either had connived at the
+subsequent escape of 'Tonio. He had awakened and found his undesired
+cellmate missing, and the window was clear. So that way he could have
+gone, though there were many who believed the door itself had been
+opened to him. In any event, he saw freedom without, and suspected
+wrong and treachery within. Why should he not go? Who was to blame him?
+Crook's cordiality to the accountable officer of the day, Lieutenant
+Blake, went far to show that he was far from resentful of the result.
+It really looked as though the Gray Fox would rather 'Tonio had never
+been confined.
+
+And later that winter's day, along toward sunset, another scene, far
+less dramatic and impressive, was enacted at the office of the sheriff,
+a mile away in town.
+
+An adobe wall, some seven feet high, surrounded the corral, and beneath
+the canvas awning on the southern side certain offenders against the
+peace and dignity of Yavapai County had been assembled under the eye of
+tobacco-chewing deputies. There were the Sanchez half-brothers,
+'Patchie and José, both shackled. There was Muñoz, similarly decked.
+There slouched Dago, unfettered, but carefully watched. There were two
+more of the riffraff of the redoubtable ghost ranch, and two of the
+victims of the more skilful play, and potent doping, of the
+proprietors. All were under surveillance, several under charges, but
+where was Case?
+
+It was Blackbeard who answered that question at five o'clock, when,
+from the post ambulance, he and Bright sprang forth, and presently
+aided to alight a very solemn-looking civilian, shaved, dressed and
+groomed with extreme care, but for pallor and nervousness, a
+reputable-looking criminal--Case. Accused with assault with attempt to
+kill, the bookkeeper, none the less, had been taken in charge by
+officers of the army, with the entire consent of the officers of the
+law, and Sanchez the elder, José, that is, weakened at the sight of
+him. He was sober and clothed in his right mind, as Wickham meant he
+should be. Moreover, he looked no longer afraid. Case had met his
+master at the game of bluff, and now, with nothing left to hope, had
+nothing left to dread.
+
+Short work the sheriff made of the matter in hand. There had been a
+killing down on the Agua Fria, and the killer was still at large. Here
+was only a bungling attempt to kill, and everybody concerned was at
+hand.
+
+"Case," said he shortly, "when you were brought here you swore it was
+'Tonio who shot Lieutenant Willett."
+
+"I didn't swear," said Case. "I stated; but either would have been
+wrong. I said it when myself accused and when I had been drinking. I am
+ready to tell everything I know."
+
+"Then wait a moment," answered the official, turning to a deputy, who
+pulled at an inner door, and said, "This way, gentlemen," whereat
+everybody filed out into the corral where there was far more room, and
+where presently they were joined by the agent and his interpreter, by a
+little group of officers, Stannard, Strong and Willett--the latter very
+pale and weary-looking. A moment later the gateway swung open and in
+walked Harris, with 'Tonio by his side and two tribesmen following. The
+gate was quickly closed in the face of an eager knot of townspeople,
+but at sight of the assembled party the Sanchez brothers cowered still
+farther back beneath the shelter, and the sheriff ordered José out into
+the light. He came, yellow-white, and cringing.
+
+"You said, first, that 'Tonio shot that man," and the sheriff pointed
+to Willett. "Did you lie?"
+
+"_Si_," gulped the Mexican.
+
+"Then who did it?"
+
+José shrank. His eyes furtively, quickly swept the group, then fell
+again.
+
+"You said Case--this man," said the sheriff, with a hand on Case's
+shoulder. "Did you lie again?"
+
+"He--he shoot, an' run away."
+
+"You lie, three times! Only one shot was fired and that from your own
+pistol. Here it is! Case never had it, for all you swore to it."
+
+"Muñoz saw him--shoot!"
+
+"That so, Muñoz? Come out here!" and a deputy collared and thrust him
+forth.
+
+"_Si_; Case," answered Muñoz miserably.
+
+And then at last the dago broke bounds. All the pent-up hatred of the
+months boiled over in his heart. All the fear vanished in presence of
+these supporters and at sight of these now abject bullies. Out he
+sprang, all vehement denunciation:
+
+"Lie!" said he--"damn lie! Muñoz hit!--Sanchez shoot! All try kill.
+Then run--run, for soldiers come!"
+
+It was then that Lieutenant Willett stepped forward and interposed.
+
+"Mr. Sheriff," said he, "whatever my earlier opinion on the subject, I
+know more now. I know it was not 'Tonio. I believe it was not
+this--this gentleman--Mr. Case. If you will favor me a moment I can
+make it clear to you, but"--and here the heavily lashed, mournful brown
+eyes sought the group of Mexicans--"I should hold--those fellows."
+
+And so, once more within the little office, Willett briefly told his
+tale. There were present Wickham, Bright and Harris, the sheriff and
+one deputy. "I should be glad to have you call in Mr. Case," said he.
+So Case was summoned and came and took a chair by the chimney and bowed
+his head upon his hands.
+
+"There had been a card transaction," said Willett. "I owed Mr. Case
+three hundred dollars, and he or his friends thought I was going to
+leave without settling. He sent me a note saying he wished to see me.
+It was midnight before I could go down. He had left the office, but
+hailed me from the window of Craney's shack. We met near the ford, had
+words, and I struck him--struck him twice, knocking him down, and then
+his friends, or followers, as I supposed, pitched upon me. I surely saw
+one Indian, and, knowing 'Tonio's--grievance, and being warned against
+him, that was the last idea I had, as I was knocked senseless. Mr.
+Sheriff, I refuse to enter any complaint against Mr. Case. He
+is--entirely blameless."
+
+"That seems to let _you_ out, Case," said the sheriff sententiously,
+but the bookkeeper never raised his head.
+
+"Is there anything else I can say--or do?" asked Willett, holding his
+natty forage-cap at the side of his head. "It should be done now,
+for--I am to leave here--to-night."
+
+It was then Case's turn. In an instant he was on his feet.
+
+"Going?" he demanded, a strange, hungry look in his eyes. "I'm not yet
+free, and I've got to speak with you."
+
+"There is no need," said Willett gravely. "I _know_."
+
+"You mean?--you heard----?"
+
+"My letters have told me--everything," was the quiet answer.
+
+"And you are going?"
+
+"Back to Portland--and to----"
+
+With that he would have turned, but Case sprang forward. There was
+perceptible start among the lookers-on. It might mean another attempt.
+The sheriff seized him, but Case, with feverish strength, shook himself
+loose, and Willett turned back, faced him, and waited for him to speak.
+It was a moment before Case could find breath, then came the words:
+
+"My God, man! Will you give me your word--your hand--on that?"
+
+For all answer Willett drew off the dainty glove of white lisle thread,
+took the outstretched hand of Case, wrung it, and turned in silence
+from the room.
+
+There were men who mounted and rode with him a mile or more that night,
+and came back silent and sorrowing, yet thinking better of Hal Willett
+than any of their number had ever thought before.
+
+"He has gone to do the one square thing that's left him," said Old
+Stannard, as the buckboard whirled away, "and his resignation goes with
+him."
+
+
+L'ENVOI.
+
+That was many a long year ago, and for many a month thereafter men and
+women at Whipple and Sandy, McDowell and Almy would talk for hours
+about Willett, his strange character, his broken career. It was not
+long before the truth, the whole truth, was known. Case for a time
+would not return to Almy. He found some work to keep him busy at
+Prescott, and would have had to do no work at all, said the agent of
+the Wells-Fargo, "if he'd kept his money, but he sent every damned cent
+of four hundred dollars to somebody up at Portland." He was forever on
+the lookout for the coming of the buckboard with the mail--we had no
+telegraph until '74--and his excitement over the receipt of certain
+letters and newspapers, along in mid-February, was something not soon
+to be forgotten. He had been sober and solemn as an anchorite for over
+six long weeks, and this night, to the joy of the gamblers in the
+Alcazar, insisted on "setting 'em up" for all hands, soldier and
+civilian; then, to their amaze, insisted further on their drinking to
+the health of Mr. and Mrs. Hal Willett, by gad! "for he's a square man
+at last."
+
+And the news lacked no confirmation at the barracks. There came a
+missive to Wickham; there was a message to the general; there was a
+very earnest message to 'Tonio; there was even a letter in Willett's
+hand to Evelyn Darrah. No one ever saw its contents save the girl to
+whom it was addressed, but there came nothing to be forwarded to the
+Archers at Camp Almy. From that night among the cedars Lilian never
+again saw Harold Willett. It was a pitifully insignificant little
+packet of letters the young officer found on his desk the morning of
+his return from the Hassayampa road. It contained only the pages he had
+penned to his Lily of the Desert. The earlier ones were fond,
+endearing, sweet as girl could ask, and had been rapturously welcomed,
+read and reread, kissed and fondled and treasured. The later ones were
+hurried, perfunctory, full of excuses, full, alas! of lies that he knew
+and that he hated himself for writing. There was not so much as a line
+from her, nor was one needed. Between the few words spoken by his
+general in the darkness of the veranda and that one conference with
+Wickham, Willett knew exactly what he had to face. Just as it had
+dawned upon him that breathless night at Almy, when the ravings of the
+Irish deserter told him that his sin had followed and had found him
+out, he realized here at Whipple that all was known and, for him, all
+was over. He had burned in vain the burning and accusing letters that
+poor girl in Portland had written him. Her mother at last, learning
+everything, had written to Crook, and, through Wickham, who had
+investigated both Case and the deserter Dooley, Willett received his
+_congé_. There should be no public break. It was to be announced that
+at his own request Lieutenant Willett stood relieved from duty as
+aide-de-camp to the department commander, and would proceed to rejoin
+his regiment in the Department of the Columbia; but even Wickham
+started with surprise and incredulity when, accompanying this
+application, at the close of 'Tonio's dramatic trial, Willett gravely
+handed him another paper--his resignation as an officer of the army.
+
+"I do not understand this as--demanded," said Blackbeard, looking
+quickly into Willett's pallid face.
+
+"You will, when you remember that my wife--and child--would hardly be
+acceptable in army circles," was the quiet reply.
+
+"You mean--you are going at once to marry her?"
+
+"What else should I do?" said Willett.
+
+And this it was that explained his unlooked-for escort beyond the
+borders of the little reservation, Stannard's words of commendation,
+and Case's ebullition at the Alcazar.
+
+Case had not many more. Craney coaxed him back to Almy after awhile,
+where every one from Archer down to the drum boys showed him many a
+kindness, and where from time to time he received letters that seemed
+to bring him comfort, in spite of the fact that Bonner, Bucketts and
+even gruff old Stannard, when they spoke of it at all, were given to
+saying that there was little happiness in store for the poor girl at
+Portland, for Willett was not made of the stuff that kept man faithful
+long to any one woman. It was rumored for awhile that the little
+family, having moved northward to one of the new and booming
+settlements on the Sound, were living in poverty and seclusion,
+Willett's wealthy kindred in the East scorning him, as was to be
+expected, for the _mésalliance_ and for his abandonment of the
+profession he was expected to adorn. But the embryo "Smart Set" and the
+tried old Service had little in common, at best. It was in the employ
+of the Engineer Corps that Willett found means to keep the wolf from
+the door, and the girl was happier longer than most people would have
+believed possible, for it was full three years before Willett's father
+died, and, relenting, willed him prosperity. Some time after that there
+came a tale of Evelyn Darrah, but, as the best authority would say,
+"that's another story."
+
+With Case, however, life seemed to have lost its inspiration. He
+wandered more and more from the paths of rectitude to those which
+meandered through the willows and the old ghost walk. The firm of
+Sanchez y Muñoz had gone to seed, the ranch to ashes, and the
+individual members to jail. Dago had accompanied Mrs. Bennett and the
+growing babies to her brother's ranch on the Agua Fria. The Indians had
+been gathered to their reservations, and 'Tonio, with Lieutenant
+Harris, has been assigned to service under the eye of the Great Chief
+himself. A new post, a big post, was projected nearer the reservation.
+It was rumored that Almy would then be abandoned and Case would not
+have even the ghost walk for his solitary moonings when the whiskey
+spell was on him, and the spells, though no more frequent, as the
+Scotchman would have it, were of longer duration. He had taken
+strongly, not strangely, to Stannard and his gentle wife, and it was to
+them he told at last the story of his troubles, and through them, long
+years after, it became known.
+
+He was doing well in Portland, had fallen deeply in love with, and was
+engaged to, as pretty a girl as ever was seen, good and gentle, too;
+but she was young, the belle of her set, a beautiful dancer, and Case
+could not dance. She loved gayety, pleasure, music, and in those days
+they picnicked over to Vancouver, and danced in a big barrack to the
+stirring strains of the band of the Lost and Strayed, and why shouldn't
+the Portland girls love to dance with the young officers? Why shouldn't
+Estelle enjoy dancing with such finished performers and partners? There
+was one at that time who outclassed them all, and in an evil day they
+met. It wasn't long before her fascination became infatuation, and
+either there or in Portland, or somewhere, they were forever meeting.
+It was not long before Case saw his world swept from before his eyes.
+He did his best with her, with her mother and friends, but she told him
+flatly that she loved Lieutenant Willett and would be no man's wife but
+his. That clinched Case's downfall--and hers, but not until after Case
+saw Willett at Camp Almy, and her mother's letters, and hers, began
+again to come, did he learn the worst. Then came Willett's devotions to
+Archer's gentle little daughter, and the rage within his soul
+overmastered him. He would not--he could not--bear to tell of Estelle's
+shame. He dare not, he owned it, oppose himself man to man, physically,
+to Willett, but he burned with desire for revenge. Sanchez and his kind
+were willing tools. Ramon and Alvarez, they told him, were thirsting
+for Willett's blood. It would be easy enough to shoulder it all on
+'Tonio, if the worst came to the worst. Sanchez had Case deep in his
+debt, for monte had fascinated him when in liquor. They did not know
+Willett had left with Craney payment in full for their financial
+differences. They insisted on his seeing Willett and making him pay
+before he left the post. Dago had the run of the garrison, and Dago
+took the few lines that told Willett if he was a man to come down to
+the ghost walk and settle, dollar for dollar, man to man, or the story
+of his Portland days should be told the Archers. Sanchez, Muñoz, and
+the two Apache-Mohaves were lurking there across the stream. Case
+watched for him from the rear window, saw him, and in spite of the
+doctor's precaution, counteracted by the whiskey he had hidden in an
+inner pocket, he slipped out in his stocking feet, took the path to the
+ford, and there met Willett face to face. It was all so easy. Sanchez
+knew 'Tonio was near, grieving that no answer came from Harris,
+signalling for a talk, ignorant of the fact that Sanchez had delivered
+neither the revolver nor the message. Case had with him only his knife,
+for he knew his confederates would be at hand. He vowed he did not know
+that they were bringing Ramon and Alvarez. Raging with jealousy, hate,
+desire for vengeance, and nerved by liquor, he had demanded his money.
+Willett contemptuously bade him seek it of his employer, and asked him
+how he dare doubt a gentleman, whereat, in a fury, Case told him, or
+started to tell him, why, and was knocked flat in a second. He sprang
+up, knife in hand, and rushed upon him a second time, only to be
+floored again, and the knife sent spinning. Willett seized it, and was
+standing over him, panting a bit, when felled by a crashing blow with a
+pistol-butt at the base of the skull. Then in terror Case fled the way
+he came, for he saw both Indians and Mexicans were on him, realized
+that murder was meant, and knew he would be involved unless he could
+instantly get back to his bed. Willett made a desperate fight, wounded
+Ramon, and might have killed him but for the timely shot from the
+pistol of José. Case heard it, and the cry for help as he ran. So quick
+was the response of the sentry and the guard that the assailants, too,
+fled in fear, leaving their work unfinished. They had no fear of their
+drugged countrymen at the ranch. They were ready to help the soldiers
+hunt the Indians, and did, but José had dropped the old Navy Colt at
+the ford. They bought Dago's silence for awhile, for he, too, hated
+Willett, and it was so easy to charge the crime to 'Tonio. But, when
+they fell out among themselves, and the pistol was found, and then Case
+was accused, Dago let loose on Muñoz, and the secret of the attempted
+murder was out.
+
+For a time thereafter Case felt dazed, benumbed; but, as Willett
+recovered, he took courage again, and more drink, and tried to shoot
+his worthless head off, he said, when they came to arrest him. But when
+he heard of Willett's doings at Prescott, and had been openly taunted
+by Dooley, he determined to lose his life another way, if need be, in
+bringing Willett to justice. He told it all to Wickham, and was amazed,
+yes, amazed at the result. He never dreamed that Willett at the
+eleventh hour would go to Estelle and make the only amend in his power.
+
+For that matter, neither did any one else cognizant of the fact,
+especially Harris, who, having been the unwilling recipient of all poor
+Eastern Stella's confidences in the past, believed Willett still
+haunted by memories of her, and knew not this new and innocent and
+confiding Star of the West. He had his own sorrows to bear, and his
+heart was bitter within him at sight of the woe in the sweet blue eyes
+of the girl who speedily went back to Almy, without ever having opened
+her heart to a soul except that devoted mother.
+
+While Evelyn Darrah kept her room as much as a week after Willett's
+going, it was a wonderful fact that, during a visit of four days,
+Lilian Archer appeared in public with her father, rode, drove, played
+croquet, though she managed to avoid two dinners and a dance. She was
+very quiet, it is true. "She never _did_ shine in society," said the
+Prime girls. But, under all this silence and fortitude, and the access
+of tenderness with which she clung to her father, Mrs. Stannard and
+others saw how near the little heart was to breaking, and there grew up
+among the exiles a feeling of love and admiration for this
+uncomplaining child, so suddenly grown old, that outlived the lives of
+most of them, for it has come down to those who, in the fulness of
+time, stepped into their places. They are gone now, nearly all--our
+bearded general and his beloved Mary, gruff old Stannard and his wise
+and winsome wife. Bright, Bonner, Bucketts, grim-visaged Turner,
+white-haired, noble Archer and his fond and cherished Bella, even
+Willett, but not, thank God, until better and brighter days had dawned
+on most of them, and of one of these days, and of 'Tonio, there is yet
+this to tell.
+
+There had been a year in which the Archers took their little girl
+abroad. The old regiment had been ordered to an eastern station, and
+the change was welcome, for with all her bravery, and despite their
+fondest care, she drooped in Arizona, and there came a longed-for
+opportunity they could not neglect. They were many moons away; they
+were for a time at regimental head-quarters on their return, and then,
+in days when nothing was so rare as advancement, came Archer's
+promotion to the colonelcy of the very regiment that had taken the
+stations of their former friends in Arizona. In a little less than two
+years from that eventful night among the cedars, the Archers, three,
+were once more welcomed to the general's roof, escorted the last ten
+miles of the dusty stage ride from the desert by Harris, whose letters
+to the general or to Mrs. Archer had been regular as the fortnightly
+mail. With the morrow he and 'Tonio were on hand to hail them, looking
+fit and spare and sinewy as ever they had of old, for these were
+strenuous days and stirring times in the Apache-haunted mountains--the
+Tontos had broken faith and were again afield.
+
+Camp Sandy on the Verde was the centre of the storm. Pelham and his
+cavalry had just been sent to other climes, marching overland to "the
+Plains." Archer was needed at once in command of the district, and was
+speedily there established, and thither too went Crook, with Bright to
+write his orders and despatches, with Harris and 'Tonio to head the
+scouts. Thither presently went Lilian and her mother. The post was
+large, the garrison ample. There was active service that their own
+white-haired general welcomed eagerly, for Crook meant to the full that
+his loyal old friend and supporter should have all the credit that the
+campaign might bring him. But campaigns conducted under daily
+telegraphic promptings from distant superiors were not the brisk and
+independent matters of a few years back. There were too many advisers
+within easy, if expensive, reaching distance--too many "Friends of the
+Indian," and far too few of the soldier, close in touch at court. Crook
+himself was looking vexed and worried. It is so hard to serve God and
+Mammon, to grapple with the foemen at the front, the Press and the
+Pulpit at the rear. At the very moment when he had the "hostiles"
+hemmed between converging columns and sure of capture, his hand was
+held by orders from the East. At the very moment when the warriors at
+the reservation should have been watched and guarded against exhorters
+from without, the latter got within, and a powerful band stampeded up
+the Red Rock country and were gone. The news reached Archer toward
+eleven, one winter's night, and at dawn he, in person, with Harris and
+'Tonio and twenty scouts and barely thirty mounted men, was climbing
+the rugged trail from the head of the Beaver in pursuit, leaving Bella
+and Lilian, brave, silent, yet tearful, at the post.
+
+It was nothing new, this going forth of veteran division and brigade
+commanders of the war days, with a handful of soldiery, to cope with a
+band of savages on their chosen ground. Barely two years before the
+Modocs had asked for a talk with the general commanding and killed him.
+Only the year previous the Cheyennes lured out a lieutenant-colonel,
+with but a lieutenant's command, and picked him off. And so, two nights
+later, there was weeping at old Sandy, for a runner was in long hours
+after sundown with the tidings that there had been a sharp and sudden
+skirmish among the rocks, that brave old Archer had been the first to
+fall, and that 'Tonio had been desperately wounded in the effort to
+save the veteran's life.
+
+They started them homeward within the week, Archer calm, conscious,
+suffering much, but as, the skilled surgeons told the wife and daughter
+who had rested not until they reached him, with good hope of recovery.
+It was 'Tonio for whom they felt the keenest apprehension. 'Tonio had
+received a bullet meant for the soldier who had once decreed his death,
+and Archer's anguish was more for him. With them, on the slow homeward
+way around by the old Wingate road, was Harris, sleepless from anxiety
+and distress, watching night and day by the side of his two heroes,
+filling all with wonderment at his endurance; and with Harris, much of
+the time, by the side of both father and father's self-devoted savior,
+was Lilian.
+
+They brought them back to Sandy. They nursed the general back to life
+and partial strength. But age and wounds and sorrows all had told on
+the Mohave chieftain, and slowly he sank, despite their every effort
+and the doctor's skill. They had pitched a little tent fly for him--he
+would not be borne within doors--and shaded it with brush and willow,
+yet left the southward view open so that he could look out upon the
+broad valley and see the shadows of the mountains steal across it as
+the sun went westering. He seemed to love to watch the morning flame on
+the bald summit of the huge peak so close at hand; it made him think of
+the Picacho about whose base he had sported as a boy. He seemed to love
+to see Ramon and Pancha hovering ever about him. He would look at them,
+take their hands, then place their hands together and hold them between
+his own. But most of all he loved to see Harris bending over him,
+moving about him, and when Lilian came and gave him drink and touched
+his fevered head, his glittering eyes would soften and follow her with
+such a world of wistfulness as though they would speak the longing of
+his heart. Then he would look from her to Harris, and from Harris back
+to her, in a way that sent the blushes surging to her forehead, and the
+sight of those blushes set that young soldier's heart to bounding.
+
+One beautiful afternoon, when the sun was slanting low and the great
+dome of the peak was all agleam with crimson and with gold, they were
+gathered about his shelter, for the spirit had been wandering and his
+strength was almost gone. Without the canvas, their women weeping with
+Pancha, their young men silent and sad, a group of the old band hovered
+along the slope of the low mesa. It was thought he could hardly survive
+the night, and with the sinking of the sun his mind seemed clouding
+more, and he called, over and over, for "Chiquito," who knelt there
+clinging to his hand. Even Archer had come, leaning heavily upon his
+crutches, and Bella, his wife, and Lilian--Lilian upon whom the dying
+eyes rested again and again. 'Tonio was now too weak to lift a hand; he
+could not signal; but something in his gaze seemed to call her to him
+irresistibly. He was breathing with such difficulty that the surgeon,
+bending over him on the other side of the pallet, slipped an arm
+beneath his shoulders, Harris from his side aiding, and together they
+slowly raised him almost to a sitting posture, his weary head resting
+on "Chiquito's" shoulder. But the eyes still sought Lilian, and Archer,
+watching, murmured to her, "Go."
+
+To take his other hand, feebly plucking at the light coverlet, she had
+to kneel so close to Harris that he could feel the swift throbbing of
+her heart against his arm, and 'Tonio, looking now into the two young
+faces so near together, so close to his own, began with all his
+remaining strength slowly drawing her little white hand toward the lean
+and sinewy fingers that clasped his right, whereat her bonny head
+drooped lower, her bosom heaved; she seemed at once to read his
+purpose, and, with the instinct of the maiden, to gently resist. But
+the almost instant reproach and pleading in the fading eyes melted and
+unnerved her. Harris, too, had seen, and noted, and understood, and his
+own heart, through all its sorrowing, was beating vehemently; his own
+right hand, without releasing 'Tonio's, crept forth in search of hers,
+and presently, trembling, but resisting no longer, the lily-white,
+slender fingers lay softly within the young soldier's clasp, and a big,
+hot tear fell upon the back of the brown and withered hand that, almost
+pulseless, drooped upon them both as though in benediction.
+
+Overcome with emotion, Mrs. Archer, watching, breathless, dropped her
+head upon her husband's shoulder and sobbed convulsively. The last
+brilliant, dazzling beams of the dying day had lifted from the crest of
+the huge dome that shut the valley, and left it dark and sombre; and
+'Tonio's eyes, turning upon it for the last time, seemed to note the
+change; and the flitting spirit, wandering back to the old, old boyish
+days, and the legends of his people, spoke once more. The gathering
+darkness, the plash upon his hand, the resemblance to the mountain that
+guarded his babyhood and youth, all probably had worked their spell,
+for the pallid lips began to move, and in the silence of the lowering
+night a few words in his native tongue were faintly heard, and hot
+tears gushed from the eyes of his young chief, friend and brother, as,
+in answer to the doctor's quick, questioning glance, Harris brokenly
+murmured the translation:
+
+"When the Picacho hides his head in the clouds, then will there be
+rain."
+
+And the clouds had lowered, and the day was done, and there was rain of
+tears from even soldier eyes for 'Tonio--Son of the Sierras.
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Tonio, Son of the Sierras, by Charles King
+
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