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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Waring's Peril, 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: Waring's Peril
+
+Author: Charles King
+
+Release Date: January 3, 2008 [EBook #24148]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WARING'S PERIL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+WARING'S PERIL.
+
+BY
+
+CAPT. CHARLES KING,
+
+U. S. ARMY,
+
+AUTHOR OF "THE COLONEL'S DAUGHTER," "FOES IN AMBUSH," "AN ARMY PORTIA,"
+"TWO SOLDIERS," "A SOLDIER'S SECRET," ETC.
+
+
+[Illustration: Publisher's logo]
+
+
+PHILADELPHIA:
+
+J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.
+
+1894.
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1893,
+BY
+J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.
+
+PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA.
+
+
+
+
+WARING'S PERIL.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+"Ananias!"
+
+"Ye-as, suh?"
+
+"What time is it?"
+
+"Gyahd-mountin' done gone, suh."
+
+"The devil it has! What do you mean, sir, by allowing me to sleep on in
+this shameless and unconscionable manner, when an indulgent government
+is suffering for my services? What sort of day is it, sir?"
+
+"Beautiful day, Mr. Waring."
+
+"Then go at once to Mr. Larkin and tell him he can't wear his new silk
+hat this morning,--I want it, and you fetch it. Don't allow him to ring
+in the old one on you. Tell him I mean the new 'spring style' he just
+brought from New York. Tell Mr. Ferry I want that new Hatfield suit of
+his, and you get Mr. Pierce's silk umbrella; then come back here and
+get my bath and my coffee. Stop there, Ananias! Give my pious regards
+to the commanding officer, sir, and tell him that there's no drill for
+'X' Battery this morning, as I'm to breakfast at Moreau's at eleven
+o'clock and go to the _matinée_ afterwards."
+
+"Beg pahdon, suh, but de cunnle's done ohdered review fo' de whole
+command, suh, right at nine o'clock."
+
+"So much the better. Then Captain Cram must stay, and won't need his
+swell team. Go right down to the stable and tell Jeffers I'll drive at
+nine-thirty."
+
+"But----"
+
+"No buts, you incorrigible rascal! I don't pay you a princely salary to
+raise obstacles. I don't pay you at all, sir, except at rare intervals
+and in moments of mental decrepitude. Go at once! Allez! Chassez!
+Skoot!"
+
+"But, lieutenant," says Ananias, his black face shining, his even white
+teeth all agleam, "Captain Cram stopped in on de way back from stables
+to say Glenco 'd sprained his foot and you was to ride de bay colt.
+_Please_ get up, suh. Boots and Saddles 'll soun' in ten minutes."
+
+"It won't, but if it does I'll brain the bugler. Tell him so. Tell
+Captain Cram he's entirely mistaken: I won't ride the bay colt--nor
+Glenco. I'm going driving, sir, with Captain Cram's own team and
+road-wagon. Tell _him_ so. Going in forty-five minutes by my watch.
+Where is it, sir?"
+
+"It ain't back from de jeweller's, suh, where you done lef' it day
+before yist'day; but his boy's hyuh now, suh, wid de bill for las' year.
+What shall I tell him?"
+
+"Tell him to go to--quarantine. No! Tell him the fever has broken out
+here again, sir, and not to call until ten o'clock next spring,--next
+mainspring they put in that watch. Go and get Mr. Merton's watch. Tell
+him I'll be sure to overstay in town if he doesn't send it, and then I
+can't take him up and introduce him to those ladies from Louisville
+to-morrow. Impress that on him, sir, unless he's gone and left it on his
+bureau, in which case impress the watch,--the watch, sir, in any case.
+No! Stop again, Ananias; _not_ in any case, only in the gold
+hunting-case; no other. Now then, vanish!"
+
+"But, lieutenant, 'fo' Gawd, suh, dey'll put you in arrest if you cuts
+drill dis time. Cunnle Braxton says to Captain Cram only two days ago,
+suh, dat----"
+
+But here a white arm shot out from a canopy of mosquito-netting, and
+first a boot-jack, then a slipper, then a heavy top-boot, came whizzing
+past the darky's dodging head, and, finding expostulation vain, that
+faithful servitor bolted out in search of some ally more potent, and
+found one, though not the one he sought or desired, just entering the
+adjoining room.
+
+A big fellow, too,--too big, in fact, to be seen wearing, as was the
+fashion in the sixties, the shell jacket of the light artillery. He had
+a full round body, and a full round ruddy face, and a little round
+visorless cap cocked on one side of a round bullet head, not very full
+of brains, perhaps, yet reputed to be fairly stocked with what is termed
+"horse sense." His bulky legs were thrust deep in long boots, and
+ornamented, so far as the skin-tight breeches of sky-blue were
+concerned, with a scarlet welt along the seam, a welt that his comrades
+were wont to say would make a white mark on his nose, so red and bulbous
+was that organ. He came noisily in from the broad veranda overlooking
+the parade-ground, glanced about on the disarray of the bachelor
+sitting-room, then whirled on Ananias.
+
+"Mr. Waring dressed?"
+
+"No-o, suh; jus' woke up, suh; ain't out o' bed yit."
+
+"The lazy vagabond! Just let me get at him a minute," said the big man,
+tramping over to the door-way as though bent on invading the chamber
+beyond. But Ananias had halted short at sight of the intruder, and stood
+there resolutely barring the way.
+
+"Beg pahdon, lieutenant, but Mr. Waring ain't had his bath yit. Can I
+mix de lieutenant a cocktail, suh?"
+
+"Can you? You black imp of Satan, why isn't it ready now, sir? Sure you
+could have seen I was as dhry as a lime-kiln from the time I came
+through the gate. Hware's the demijohn, you villain?"
+
+"Bein' refilled, suh, down to de sto', but dar's a little on de
+sideboa'd, suh," answered Ananias, edging over thither now that he had
+lured the invader away from the guarded door-way. "Take it straight,
+suh, o' wid bitters--o' toddy?"
+
+"Faith, I'll answer ye as Pat did the parson: I'll take it straight
+now, and then be drinkin' the toddy while your honor is mixin' the
+punch. Give me hold of it, you smudge! and tell your masther it's
+review,--full dress,--and it's time for him to be up. Has he had his two
+cocktails yet?"
+
+"The lieutenant doesn't care fo' any dis mawnin', suh. I'll fetch him
+his coffee in a minute. Did you see de cunnle's oade'ly, suh? He was
+lookin' fo' you a moment ago."
+
+The big red man was gulping down a big drink of the fiery liquor at the
+instant. He set the glass back on the sideboard with unsteady hand and
+glared at Ananias suspiciously.
+
+"Is it troot' you're tellin', nigger? Hwat did he say was wanted?"
+
+"Didn't say, suh, but de cunnle's in his office. Yawnduh comes de
+oade'ly, too, suh; guess he must have hyuhd you was over hyuh."
+
+The result of this announcement was not unexpected. The big man made a
+leap for the chamber door, only to find it slammed in his face from the
+other side.
+
+"Hwat the devil's the matter with your master this morning,
+Ananias?--Waring! Waring, I say! Let me in: the K. O.'s orderly is
+afther me, and all on account of your bringing me in at that hour last
+night.--Tell him I've gone, Ananias.--Let me in, Waring, there's a good
+fellow."
+
+"Go to blazes, Doyle!" is the unfeeling answer from the other side. "I'm
+bathing." And a vigorous splashing follows the announcement.
+
+"For the Lord's sake, Waring, let me in. Sure I can't see the colonel
+now. If I could stand him off until review and inspection's over and
+he's had his dhrink, he'd let the whole thing drop; but that blackguard
+of a sinthry has given us away. Sure I told you he would."
+
+"Then slide down the lightning-rod! Fly up the chimney! Evaporate! Dry
+up and blow away, but get _out_! You can't come in here."
+
+"Oh, for mercy's sake, Waring! Sure 'twas you that got me into the
+scrape. You know that I was dhrunk when you found me up the levee. You
+made me come down when I didn't want to. Hwat did I say to the man last
+night, anyhow?"
+
+"Say to him? Poor devil! why, you never can remember after you're drunk
+what you've been doing the night before. Some time it'll be the death
+of you. You abused him like a pickpocket,--the sergeant of the guard and
+everybody connected with it."
+
+"Oh, murther, murther, murther!" groaned the poor Irishman, sitting down
+and covering his face with his hands. "Sure they'll court-martial me
+this time without fail, and I know it. For God's sake, Waring, can't ye
+let a fellow in and say that I'm not here?"
+
+"Hyuh, dis way, lieutenant," whispered Ananias, mysteriously. "Slip out
+on de po'ch and into Mr. Pierce's room. I'll tell you when he's gone."
+And in a moment the huge bulk of the senior lieutenant of Light Battery
+"X" was being boosted through a window opening from the gallery into the
+bachelor den of the junior second lieutenant. No sooner was this done
+than the negro servant darted back, closed and bolted the long green
+Venetian blinds behind him, tiptoed to the bedroom door, and, softly
+tapping, called,--
+
+"Mr. Waring! Mr. Waring! get dressed quick as you can, suh; I'll lay out
+your uniform in hyuh."
+
+"I tell you, Ananias, I'm going to town, sir; not to any ridiculous
+review. Go and get what I ordered you. See that I'm properly dressed,
+sir, or I'll discharge you. Confound you, sir! there isn't a drop of
+Florida water in this bath, and none on my bureau. Go and rob Mr.
+Pierce,--or anybody."
+
+But Ananias was already gone. Darting out on the gallery, he took a
+header through the window of the adjoining quarters through which Mr.
+Doyle had escaped, snatched a long flask from the dressing-table, and
+was back in the twinkling of an eye.
+
+"What became of Mr. Doyle?" asked Waring, as he thrust a bare arm
+through a narrow aperture to receive the spoil. "Don't let him get
+drunk; _he's_ got to go to review, sir. If he doesn't, Colonel Braxton
+may be so inconsiderate as to inquire why both the lieutenants of 'X'
+Battery are missing. Take good care of him till the review, sir, then
+let him go to grass; and don't you dare leave me without Florida water
+again, if you have to burglarize the whole post. What's Mr. Doyle doing,
+sir?"
+
+"Peekin' froo de blin's in Mr. Pierce's room, suh; lookin' fo' de
+oade'ly. I done told him de cunnle was ahter him, but he ain't, suh,"
+chuckled Ananias. "I fixed it all right wid de gyahd dis mawnin', suh.
+Dey won' tell 'bout his cuttin' up las' night. He'd forgot de whole
+t'ing, suh; he allays does; he never does know what's happened de night
+befo'. He wouldn't 'a' known about dis, but I told his boy Jim to tell
+him 'bout it ahter stables. I told Jim to sweah dat dey'd repohted it to
+de cunnle."
+
+"Very well, Ananias; very well, sir; you're a credit to your name. Now
+go and carry out my orders. Don't forget Captain Cram's wagon. Tell
+Jeffers to be here with it on time." And the lieutenant returned to his
+bath without waiting for reply.
+
+"Ye-as, suh," was the subordinate answer, as Ananias promptly turned,
+and, whistling cheerily, went banging out upon the gallery and
+clattering down the open stairway to the brick-paved court below. Here
+he as promptly turned, and, noiseless as a cat, shot up the stairway,
+tiptoed back into the sitting-room, kicked off his low-heeled slippers,
+and rapidly, but with hardly an audible sound, resumed the work on which
+he had been engaged,--the arrangement of his master's kit.
+
+Already, faultlessly brushed, folded and hanging over the back of a
+chair close by the chamber door were the bright blue, scarlet-welted
+battery trousers then in vogue, very snug at the knee, very springy over
+the foot. Underneath them, spread over the square back of the chair, a
+dark-blue, single-breasted frock-coat, hanging nearly to the floor, its
+shoulders decked with huge epaulettes, to the right one of which were
+attached the braid and loops of a heavy gilt aiguillette whose
+glistening pendants were hung temporarily on the upper button. On the
+seat of the chair was folded a broad soft sash of red silk net, its
+tassels carefully spread. Beside it lay a pair of long buff gauntlets,
+new and spotless. At the door, brilliantly polished, stood a pair of
+buttoned gaiter boots, the heels decorated with small glistening brass
+spurs. In the corner, close at hand, leaned a long curved sabre, its
+gold sword-knot, its triple-guarded hilt, its steel scabbard and plated
+bands and rings, as well as the swivels and buckle of the black
+sword-belt, showing the perfection of finish in manufacture and care in
+keeping. From a round leather box Ananias now extracted a new gold-wire
+_fouragère_, which he softly wiped with a silk handkerchief, dandled
+lovingly an instant the glistening tassels, coiled it carefully upon
+the sash, then producing from the same box a long scarlet horsehair
+plume he first brushed it into shimmering freedom from the faintest knot
+or kink, then set it firmly through its socket into the front of a
+gold-braided shako whose black front was decked with the embroidered
+cross cannon of the regiment, surmounted by the arms of the United
+States. This he noiselessly placed upon the edge of the mantel, stepped
+back to complacently view his work, flicked off a possible speck of dust
+on the sleeve of the coat, touched with a chamois-skin the gold crescent
+of the nearest epaulette, then softly, noiselessly as before vanished
+through the door-way, tiptoed to the adjoining window, and peeked in.
+Mr. Doyle had thrown himself into Pierce's arm-chair, and was trying to
+read the morning paper.
+
+"Wunner what Mars'er Pierce will say when he gits back from breakfast,"
+was Ananias's comment, as he sped softly down the stairs, a broad grin
+on his black face, a grin that almost instantly gave place to
+preternatural solemnity and respect as, turning sharply on the sidewalk
+at the foot of the stairs, he came face to face with the battery
+commander. Ananias would have passed with a low obeisance, but the
+captain halted him short.
+
+"Where's Mr. Waring, sir?"
+
+"Dressin' fo' inspection, captain."
+
+"He is? I just heard in the mess-room that he didn't propose
+attending,--that he had an engagement to breakfast and was going in
+town."
+
+"Ye-as, suh, ye-as, suh, General Roosseau, suh, expected de lieutenant
+in to breakfast, but de moment he hyuhd 'twas review he ohdered me to
+git everything ready, suh. I's goin' for de bay colt now. Beg pahdon,
+captain, de lieutenant says is de captain goin' to wear gauntlets or
+gloves dis mawnin'? He wants to do just as de captain does, suh."
+
+What a merciful interposition of divine Providence it is that the
+African cannot blush! Captain Cram looked suspiciously at the earnest,
+unwinking, black face before him. Some memory of old college days
+flitted through his mind at the moment. "O Kunopes!" ("thou dog-faced
+one!") he caught himself muttering, but negro diplomacy was too much for
+him, and the innocence in the face of Ananias would have baffled a man
+far more suspicious. Cram was a fellow who loved his battery and his
+profession as few men loved before. He was full of big ideas in one way
+and little oddities in another. Undoubted ability had been at the bottom
+of his selection over the head of many a senior to command one of the
+light batteries when the general dismounting took place in '66. Unusual
+attractions of person had won him a wife with a fortune only a little
+later. The fortune had warranted a short leave abroad this very year.
+(He would not have taken a day over sixty, for fear of losing his light
+battery.) He had been a stickler for gauntlets on all mounted duty when
+he went away, and he came home converted to white wash-leather gloves
+because the British horse-artillery wore no other, "and they, sir, are
+the nattiest in the world." He could not tolerate an officer whose soul
+was not aflame with enthusiasm for battery duty, and so was perpetually
+at war with Waring, who dared to have other aspirations. He delighted in
+a man who took pride in his dress and equipment, and so rejoiced in
+Waring, who, more than any subaltern ever attached to "X," was the very
+glass of soldier fashion and mould of soldier form. He had dropped in at
+the bachelor mess just in time to hear some gabbling youngster blurt
+out a bet that Sam Waring would cut review and keep his tryst in town,
+and he had known him many a time to overpersuade his superiors into
+excusing him from duty on pretext of social claims, and more than once
+into pardoning deliberate absence. But he and the post commander had
+deemed it high time to block all that nonsense in future, and had so
+informed him, and were nonplussed at Waring's cheery acceptance of the
+implied rebuke and most airy, graceful, and immediate change of the
+subject. The whole garrison was chuckling over it by night.
+
+"Why, certainly, colonel," said he, "I _have_ been most derelict of late
+during the visit of all these charming people from the North; and that
+reminds me, some of them are going to drive out here to hear the band
+this afternoon and take a bite at my quarters. I was just on my way to
+beg Mrs. Braxton and Mrs. Cram to receive for me, when your orderly
+came. And, colonel, I want your advice about the champagne. Of course I
+needn't say I hope you both will honor me with your presence." Old Brax
+loved champagne and salad better than anything his profession afforded,
+and was disarmed at once. As for Cram, what could he say when the post
+commander dropped the matter? With all his daring disregard of orders
+and established customs, with all his consummate _sang-froid_ and what
+some called impudence and others "cheek," every superior under whom he
+had ever served had sooner or later become actually fond of Sam
+Waring,--even stern old Rounds,--"old Double Rounds" the boys called
+him, one of the martinets of the service, whose first experience with
+the fellow was as memorable as it was unexpected, and who wound up,
+after a vehement scoring of some two minutes' duration, during which
+Waring had stood patiently at attention with an expression of the
+liveliest sympathy and interest on his handsome face, by asking
+impressively, "Now, sir, what have you to say for yourself?"
+
+To which, with inimitable mixture of suavity and concern, Sam replied,
+"Nothing whatever, sir. I doubt if anything more could be said. I had no
+adequate idea of the extent of my misdoing. Have I your permission to
+sit down, sir, and think it over?"
+
+Rounds actually didn't know what to think, and still less what to say.
+Had he believed for an instant that the young gentleman was insincere,
+he would have had him in close arrest in the twinkling of an eye; but
+Waring's tone and words and manner were those of contrition itself. It
+was not possible that one of the boys should dare to be guying him, the
+implacable Rounds, "old Grand Rounds" of the Sixth Corps, old Double
+Rounds of the horse-artillery of the Peninsula days. Mrs. Rounds had her
+suspicions when told of the affair, but was silent, for of all the
+officers stationed in and around the old Southern city Sam Waring was by
+long odds the most graceful and accomplished dancer and german leader,
+the best informed on all manner of interesting matters,--social,
+musical, dramatic, fashionable,--the prime mover in garrison hops and
+parties, the connecting link between the families of the general and
+staff officers in town and the linesmen at the surrounding posts, the
+man whose dictum as to a dinner or luncheon and whose judgment as to a
+woman's toilet were most quoted and least questioned, the man whose word
+could almost make or mar an army girl's success; and good old Lady
+Rounds had two such encumbrances the first winter of their sojourn in
+the South, and two army girls among so many are subjects of not a little
+thought and care. If Mr. Waring had not led the second german with
+Margaret Rounds the mother's heart would have been well-nigh crushed. It
+was fear of some such catastrophe that kept her silent on the score of
+Waring's reply to her irate lord, for if Sam did mean to be impertinent,
+as he unquestionably could be, the colonel she knew would be merciless
+in his discipline and social amenities would be at instant end. Waring
+had covered her with maternal triumph and Margaret with bliss
+unutterable by leading the ante-Lenten german with the elder daughter
+and making her brief stay a month of infinite joy. The Rounds were
+ordered on to Texas, and Margaret's brief romance was speedily and
+properly forgotten in the devotions of a more solid if less fascinating
+fellow. To do Waring justice, he had paid the girl no more marked
+attention than he showed to any one else. He would have led the next
+german with Genevieve had there been another to lead, just as he had led
+previous affairs with other dames and damsels. It was one of the
+ninety-nine articles of his social faith that a girl should have a good
+time her first season, just as it was another that a bride should have a
+lovely wedding, a belle at least one offer a month, a married woman as
+much attention at an army ball as could be lavished on a bud. He prided
+himself on the fact that no woman at the army parties given that winter
+had remained a wall-flower. Among such a host of officers as was there
+assembled during the year that followed on the heels of the war it was
+no difficult matter, to be sure, to find partners for the thirty or
+forty ladies who honored those occasions with their presence. Of local
+belles there were none. It was far too soon after the bitter strife to
+hope for bliss so great as that. There were hardly any but army women to
+provide for, and even the bulkiest and least attractive of the lot was
+led out for the dance. Waring would go to any length to see them on the
+floor but that of being himself the partner. There the line was drawn
+irrevocably. The best dancer among the men, he simply would not dance
+except with the best dancers among the women. As to personal appearance
+and traits, it may be said first that Waring was a man of slender,
+graceful physique, with singularly well shaped hands and feet and a
+head and face that were almost too good-looking to be manly. Dark hazel
+eyes, dark brown hair, eyebrows, lashes, and a very heavy drooping
+moustache, a straight nose, a soft, sensitive mouth with even white
+teeth that were, however, rarely visible, a clear-cut chin, and with it
+all a soft, almost languid Southern intonation, musical, even
+ultra-refined, and he shrank like a woman from a coarse word or the
+utterance of an impure thought. He was a man whom many women admired, of
+whom some were afraid, whom many liked and trusted, for he could not be
+bribed to say a mean thing about one of their number, though he would
+sometimes be satirical to her very face. It was among the men that Sam
+Waring was hated or loved,--loved, laughed over, indulged, even spoiled,
+perhaps, to any and every extent, by the chosen few who were his chums
+and intimates, and absolutely hated by a very considerable element that
+was prominent in the army in those queer old days,--the array of
+officers who, by reason of birth, antecedents, lack of education or of
+social opportunities, were wanting in those graces of manner and
+language to which Waring had been accustomed from earliest boyhood. His
+people were Southerners, yet, not being slave-owners, had stood firm for
+the Union, and were exiled from the old home as a natural consequence in
+a war in which the South held all against who were not for her.
+Appointed a cadet and sent to the Military Academy in recognition of the
+loyalty of his immediate relatives, he was not graduated until the war
+was practically over, and then, gazetted to an infantry regiment, he was
+stationed for a time among the scenes of his boyhood, ostracized by his
+former friends and unable to associate with most of the war-worn
+officers among whom his lot was cast. It was a year of misery, that
+ended in long and dangerous illness, his final shipment to Washington on
+sick-leave, and then a winter of keen delight, a social campaign in
+which he won fame, honors, friends at court, and a transfer to the
+artillery, and then, joining his new regiment, he plunged with eagerness
+into the gayeties of city life. The blues were left behind with the cold
+facings of his former corps, and hope, life, duty, were all blended in
+hues as roseate as his new straps were red. It wasn't a month before all
+the best fellows in the batteries swore by Sam Waring and all the
+others at him, so that where there were five who liked there were at
+least twenty who didn't, and these made up in quantity what they lacked
+in quality.
+
+To sum up the situation, Lieutenant Doyle's expression was perhaps the
+most comprehensive, as giving the views of the great majority: "If I
+were his K. O. and this crowd the coort, he'd 'a' been kicked out of the
+service months ago."
+
+And yet, entertaining or expressing so hostile an opinion of the
+laughing lieutenant, Mr. Doyle did not hesitate to seek his society on
+many an occasion when he wasn't wanted, and to solace himself at
+Waring's sideboard at any hour of the day or night, for Waring kept what
+was known as "open house" to all comers, and the very men who wondered
+how he could afford it and who predicted his speedy swamping in a mire
+of debt and disgrace were the very ones who were most frequently to be
+found loafing about his gallery, smoking his tobacco and swigging his
+whiskey, a pretty sure sign that the occupant of the quarters, however,
+was absent. With none of their number had he ever had open quarrel.
+Remarks made at his expense and reported to him in moments of bibulous
+confidence he treated with gay disdain, often to the manifest
+disappointment of his informant. In his presence even the most reckless
+of their number were conscious of a certain restraint. Waring, as has
+been said, detested foul language, and had a very quiet but effective
+way of suppressing it, often without so much as uttering a word. These
+were the rough days of the army, the very roughest it ever knew, the
+days that intervened between the incessant strain and tension of the
+four years' battling and the slow gradual resumption of good order and
+military discipline. The rude speech and manners of the camp still
+permeated every garrison. The bulk of the commissioned force was made up
+of hard fighters, brave soldiers and loyal servants of the nation, to be
+sure, but as a class they had known no other life or language since the
+day of their muster-in. Of the line officers stationed in and around
+this Southern city in the lovely spring-tide of 186-, of a force
+aggregating twenty companies of infantry and cavalry, there were fifty
+captains and lieutenants appointed from the volunteers, the ranks, or
+civil life, to one graduated from West Point. The predominance was in
+favor of ex-sergeants, corporals, or company clerks,--good men and true
+when they wore the chevrons, but who, with a few marked and most
+admirable exceptions, proved to be utterly out of their element when
+promoted to a higher sphere. The entrance into their midst of Captain
+Cram with his swell light battery, with officers and men in scarlet
+plumes and full-dress uniforms, was a revelation to the sombre
+battalions whose officers had not yet even purchased their epaulettes
+and had seen no occasion to wear them. But when Cram and his lieutenants
+came swaggering about the garrison croquet-ground in natty shell
+jackets, Russian shoulder-knots, riding-breeches, boots, and spurs,
+there were not lacking those among the sturdy foot who looked upon the
+whole proceeding with great disfavor. Cram had two "rankers" with him
+when he came, but one had transferred out in favor of Waring, and now
+his battery was supplied with the full complement of subalterns,--Doyle,
+very much out of place, commanding the right section (as a platoon was
+called in those days), Waring commanding the left, Ferry serving as
+chief of caissons, and Pierce as battery adjutant and general utility
+man. Two of the officers were graduates of West Point and not yet three
+years out of the cadet uniform. Under these circumstances it was
+injudicious in Cram to sport in person the aiguillettes and thereby set
+an example to his subalterns which they were not slow to follow. With
+their gold hat-braids, cords, tassels, and epaulettes, with scarlet
+plumes and facings, he and his officers were already much more
+gorgeously bedecked than were their infantry friends. The post
+commander, old Rounds, had said nothing, because he had had his start in
+the light artillery and might have lived and died a captain had he not
+pushed for a volunteer regiment and fought his way up to a division
+command and a lieutenant-colonelcy of regulars at the close of the war,
+while his seniors who stuck to their own corps never rose beyond the
+possibilities of their arm of the service and probably never will. But
+Braxton, who succeeded as post commander, knew that in European armies
+and in the old Mexican War days the aiguillette was ordinarily the
+distinctive badge of general officers or those empowered to give orders
+in their name. It wasn't the proper thing for a linesman--battery,
+cavalry, or foot--to wear, said Brax, and he thought Cram was wrong in
+wearing it, even though some other battery officers did so. But Cram was
+just back from Britain.
+
+"Why, sir, look at the Life Guards! Look at the Horse Guards in London!
+Every officer and man wears the aiguillette." And Braxton was a Briton
+by birth and breeding, and that ended it,--at least so nearly ended it
+that Cram's diplomatic invitation to come up and try some Veuve
+Clicquot, extra dry, upon the merits of which he desired the colonel's
+opinion, had settled it for good and all. Braxton's officers who
+ventured to suggest that he trim the plumage of these popinjays only got
+snubbed, therefore, for the time being, and ordered to buy the infantry
+full dress forthwith, and Cram and his quartette continued to blaze
+forth in gilded panoply until long after Sam Waring led his last german
+within those echoing walls and his name lived only as a dim and
+mist-wreathed memory in the annals of old Jackson Barracks.
+
+But on this exquisite April morning no fellow in all the garrison was
+more prominent, if not more popular. Despite the slight jealousy
+existing between the rival arms of the service, there were good fellows
+and gallant men among the infantry officers at the post, who were as
+cordially disposed towards the gay lieutenant as were the comrades of
+his own (colored) cloth. This is the more remarkable because he was
+never known to make the faintest effort to conciliate anybody and was
+utterly indifferent to public opinion. It would have been fortune far
+better than his deserts, but for the fact that by nature he was most
+generous, courteous, and considerate. The soldiers of the battery were
+devoted to him. The servants, black or white, would run at any time to
+do his capricious will. The garrison children adored him. There was
+simply no subject under discussion at the barracks in those days on
+which such utter variety of opinion existed as the real character of
+Lieutenant Sam Waring. As to his habits there was none whatever. He was
+a _bon vivant_, a "swell," a lover of all that was sweet and fair and
+good and gracious in life. Self-indulgent, said everybody; selfish, said
+some; lazy, said many, who watched him day-dreaming through the haze of
+cigar-smoke until a drive, a hop, a ride, or an opera-party would call
+him into action. Slow, said the men, until they saw him catch Mrs.
+Winslow's runaway horse just at that ugly turn in the levee below the
+south tower. Cold-hearted, said many of the women, until Baby Brainard's
+fatal illness, when he watched by the little sufferer's side and brought
+her flowers and luscious fruit from town, and would sit at her mother's
+piano and play soft, sweet melodies and sing in low tremulous tone until
+the wearied eyelids closed and the sleep no potion could bring to that
+fever-racked brain would come at last for him to whom child-love was
+incense and music at once a passion and a prayer. Men who little knew
+and less liked him thought his enmity would be but light, and few men
+knew him so well as to realize that his friendship could be firm and
+true as steel.
+
+And so the garrison was mixed in its mind as to Mr. Waring, and among
+those who heard it said at the mess that he meant at all hazards to keep
+his engagement to breakfast in town there were some who really wished he
+might cut the suddenly-ordered review and thereby bring down upon his
+shapely, nonchalant head the wrath of Colonel Braxton.
+
+"Boots and Saddles" had sounded at the artillery barracks. Mr. Pierce,
+as battery officer of the day, had clattered off through the north
+gateway. The battery had marched with dancing plumes and clanking sabres
+out to the stables and gun-shed. The horses of Lieutenants Doyle and
+Ferry were waiting for their riders underneath the gallery of their
+quarters. Captain Cram, in much state, followed by his orderly bugler
+and guidon-bearer, all in full uniform, was riding slowly down the sunny
+side of the garrison, and at sight of him Doyle and Ferry, who were
+leisurely pulling on their gauntlets in front of their respective doors,
+hooked up their sabres and came clattering down their stairway; but no
+Waring had appeared. There, across the parade on the southern side, the
+bay colt, caparisoned in Waring's unimpeachable horse-equipments, was
+being led up and down in the shade of the quarters, Mr. Pierce's boy Jim
+officiating as groom, while his confrère Ananias, out of sight, was at
+the moment on his knees fastening the strap of his master's
+riding-trousers underneath the dainty gaiter boot, Mr. Waring the while
+surveying the proceeding over the rim of his coffee-cup.
+
+"Dar, suh. Now into de coat, quick! Yawnduh goes Captain Cram."
+
+"Ananias, how often have I told you that, howsoever necessary it might
+be for you to hurry, I never do? It's unbecoming an officer and a
+gentleman to hurry, sir."
+
+"But you's got to inspect yo' section, suh, befo' you can repote to
+Captain Cram. Please hurry wid de sash, suh." And, holding the belt
+extended with both hands, Ananias stood eager to clasp it around
+Waring's slender waist, but the lieutenant waved him away.
+
+"Get thee behind me, imp of Satan! Would you have me neglect one of the
+foremost articles of an artilleryman's faith? Never, sir! If there were
+a wrinkle in that sash it would cut a chasm in my reputation, sir." And,
+so saying, he stepped to the open door-way, threw the heavy tassel over
+and around the knob, kissed his hand jauntily to his battery commander,
+now riding down the opposite side of the parade, backed deliberately
+away the full length of the sash across the room, then, humming a
+favorite snatch from "Faust," deliberately wound himself into the bright
+crimson web, and, making a broad flat loop near the farther end and
+without stopping his song, nodded coolly to Ananias to come on with the
+belt. In the same calm and deliberate fashion he finished his military
+toilet, set his shako well forward on his forehead, the chin-strap
+hanging just below the under lip, pulled on the buff gauntlets, surveyed
+himself critically and leisurely in the glass, and then began slowly to
+descend the stairs.
+
+"Wait--jus' one moment, please, suh," implored Ananias, hastening after
+him. "Jus' happened to think of it, suh: Captain Cram's wearin' gloves
+dis mawnin'."
+
+"Ah! So much the more chance to come back here in ten minutes.--Whoa,
+coltikins: how are you this morning, sir? Think you could run away if I
+begged you to pretty hard? You'll try, won't you, old boy?" said Waring,
+stroking the glossy neck of the impatient bay.--"Now, Jim, let go. Never
+allow anybody to hold a horse for you when you mount. That's highly
+unprofessional, sir. That'll do." And, so saying, he swung himself into
+saddle, and, checking the bounds of his excited colt, rode calmly away
+to join the battery.
+
+Already the bandsmen were marching through the north gate on the way to
+the broad open field in which the manoeuvres were held. The adjutant,
+sergeant-major, and markers were following. Just outside the gate the
+post commander was seated on horseback, and Cram had reined in to speak
+with him. Now, in his blithest, cheeriest tones, Waring accosted them,
+raising his hand in salute as he did so:
+
+"Good-morning, colonel. Good-morning, Captain Cram. We're in luck
+to-day. Couldn't possibly have lovelier weather. I'm only sorry this
+came off so suddenly and I hadn't time to invite our friends out from
+town. They would have been so pleased to see the battalion;--the
+ceremonies."
+
+"H'm! There was plenty of time if you'd returned to the post at retreat
+yesterday, sir," growled old Braxton. "Everybody was notified who was
+here then. What time _did_ you get back, sir?"
+
+"Upon my word, colonel, I don't know. I never thought to look or
+inquire; but it was long after taps. Pardon me, though, I see I'm late
+inspecting." And in a moment he was riding quietly around among his
+teams and guns, narrowly scrutinizing each toggle, trace, and strap
+before taking station midway between his lead drivers, and then, as Cram
+approached, reporting, "Left section ready, sir."
+
+Meantime, the infantry companies were marching out through the gate and
+then ordering arms and resting until adjutant's call should sound.
+Drivers and cannoneers were dismounted to await the formation of the
+battalion line. Waring rode forward and in the most jovial off-hand way
+began telling Cram of the incidents of the previous day and his
+sight-seeing with the party of visitors from the North.
+
+"By the way, I promised Mr. Allerton that they should see that team of
+yours before they left: so, if you've no objection, the first morning
+you're on duty and can't go up, I'll take advantage of your invitation
+and drive Miss Allerton myself. Doesn't that court adjourn this week?"
+
+"I'm afraid not," said Cram, grimly. "It looks as though we'd have to
+sit to-day and to-morrow both."
+
+"Well, that's too bad! They all want to meet you again. Couldn't you
+come up this evening after stables? Hello! this won't do; our infantry
+friends will be criticising us: I see you're wearing gloves, and I'm in
+gauntlets. So is Doyle. We can't fit him out, I'm afraid, but I've just
+got some from New York exactly like yours. I'll trot back while we're
+waiting, if you don't object, and change them."
+
+Cram didn't want to say yes, yet didn't like to say no. He hesitated,
+and--was lost. In another moment, as though never imagining refusal were
+possible, Waring had quickly ridden away through the gate and
+disappeared behind the high brick wall.
+
+When the bugle sounded "mount," three minutes later, and the battery
+broke into column of pieces to march away to the manoeuvring grounds,
+Mr. Ferry left the line of caissons and took command of the rear
+section. All that the battery saw of Waring or his mount the rest of the
+morning was just after reaching the line, when the fiery colt came
+tearing riderless around the field, joyously dodging every attempt of
+the spectators to catch him, and revelling in the delight of kicking up
+his heels and showing off in the presence and sight of his envious
+friends in harness. Plunge though they might, the horses could not join;
+dodge though they might, the bipeds could not catch him. Review,
+inspection, and the long ceremonials of the morning went off without the
+junior first lieutenant of Battery "X," who, for his part, went off
+without ceremony of any kind, Cram's stylish team and wagon with him.
+That afternoon he reappeared driving about the barrack square, a pretty
+girl at his side, both engrossed in the music of the band and apparently
+oblivious of the bottled-up wrath of either battery or post commander.
+
+"Be gorra!" said Doyle, "I'd like to be in his place now, provided I
+didn't have to be in it to-morrow."
+
+But when the morrow came there came no Waring with it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+For twenty-four hours old Brax had been mad as a hornet. He was not much
+of a drillmaster or tactician, but he thought he was, and it delighted
+him to put his battalion through the form of review, the commands for
+which he had memorized thoroughly and delivered with resonant voice and
+with all proper emphasis. What he did not fancy, and indeed could not
+do, was the drudge-work of teaching the minutiæ of the school of the
+battalion, explaining each movement before undertaking its execution.
+This was a matter he delegated to one of his senior captains. For a
+week, therefore, in preparation for a possible visit on the part of the
+new brigadier-general or his inspector, the six companies of the
+regiment stationed at the post had been fairly well schooled in the
+ceremonies of review and parade, and so long as nothing more was
+required of them than a march past in quick time and a ten minutes'
+stand in line all might go well. The general had unexpectedly appeared
+one evening with only a single aide-de-camp, simply, as he explained, to
+return the calls of the officers of the garrison, six or eight of whom
+had known enough to present themselves and pay their respects in person
+when he arrived in town. Braxton swelled with gratified pride at the
+general's praise of the spick-span condition of the parade, the walks,
+roads, and visible quarters. But it was the very first old-time garrison
+the new chief had ever seen, a splendid fighting record with the
+volunteers during the war, and the advantage of taking sides for the
+Union from a doubtful State, having conspired to win him a star in the
+regular service only a year or two before.
+
+"We would have had out the battery and given you a salute, sir," said
+Brax, "had we known you were coming; but it's after retreat now. Next
+time, general, if you'll ride down some day, I'll be proud to give you a
+review of the whole command. We have a great big field back here."
+
+And the general had promised to come. This necessitated combined
+preparation, hence the order for full-dress rehearsal with battery and
+all, and then came confusion. Fresh from the command of his beautiful
+horse-battery and the dashing service with a cavalry division, Cram
+hated the idea of limping along, as he expressed it, behind a battalion
+of foot, and said so, and somebody told Brax he had said so,--more than
+one somebody, probably, for Brax had many an adviser to help keep him in
+trouble. The order that Cram should appear for instruction in review of
+infantry and artillery combined gave umbrage to the battery commander,
+and his reported remarks thereupon, renewed cause for displeasure to his
+garrison chief.
+
+"So far as we're concerned," said Cram, who wanted to utilize the good
+weather for battery drill, "we need no instruction, as we have done the
+trick time and again before; and if we hadn't, who in the bloody
+Fifty-First is there to teach us? Certainly not old Brax."
+
+All the same the order was obeyed, and Cram started out that loveliest
+of lovely spring mornings not entirely innocent of the conviction that
+he and his fellows were going to have some fun out of the thing before
+they got through with it. Not that he purposed putting any hitch or
+impediment in the way. He meant to do just exactly as he was bid; and
+so, when adjutant's call had sounded and the blue lines of the infantry
+were well out on the field, he followed in glittering column of pieces,
+his satin-coated horses dancing in sheer exuberance of spirits and his
+red-crested cannoneers sitting with folded arms, erect and statuesque,
+upon the ammunition-chests. Mrs. Cram, in her pretty basket phaeton,
+with Mrs. Lawrence, of the infantry, and several of the ladies of the
+garrison in ambulances or afoot, had taken station well to the front of
+the forming line. Then it became apparent that old Brax purposed to
+figure as the reviewing officer and had delegated Major Minor to command
+the troops. Now, Minor had been on mustering and disbursing duty most of
+the war, had never figured in a review with artillery before, and knew
+no more about battery tactics than Cram did of diplomacy. Mounted on a
+sedate old sorrel, borrowed from the quartermaster for the occasion,
+with an antiquated, brass-bound Jenifer saddle, minus breast-strap and
+housings of any kind, but equipped with his better half's brown leather
+bridle, Minor knew perfectly well he was only a guy, and felt indignant
+at Brax for putting him in so false a plight. He took his station,
+however, in front of the regimental colors, without stopping to think
+where the centre of the line might be after the battery came, and there
+awaited further developments. Cram kept nobody waiting, however: his
+leading team was close at the nimble heels of Captain Lawrence's company
+as it marched gayly forth to the music of the band. He formed sections
+at the trot the instant the ground was clear, then wheeled into line,
+passed well to the rear of the prolongation of the infantry rank, and by
+a beautiful countermarch came up to the front and halted exactly at the
+instant that Lawrence, with the left flank company, reached his post,
+each caisson accurately in trace of its piece, each team and carriage
+exactly at its proper interval, and with his crimson silk guidon on the
+right flank and little Pierce signalling "up" or "back" from a point
+outside where he could verify the alignment of the gun-wheels on the
+rank of the infantry, Cram was able to command "front" before little
+Drake, the adjutant, should have piped out his shrill "Guides posts."
+
+But Drake didn't pipe. There stood all the companies at support, each
+captain at the inner flank, and the guides with their inverted muskets
+still stolidly gazing along the line. It was time for him to pipe, but,
+instead of so doing, there he stuck at the extreme right, glaring down
+towards the now immovable battery and its serene commander, and the
+little adjutant's face was getting redder and puffier every minute.
+
+"Go ahead! What are you waiting for?" hoarsely whispered the senior
+captain.
+
+"Waiting for the battery to dress," was the stanch reply. Then aloud the
+shrill voice swept down the line: "Dress that battery to the right!"
+
+Cram looked over a glittering shoulder to the right of the line, where
+stood the diminutive infantryman. The battery had still its war
+allowance of horses, three teams to each carriage, lead, swing, and
+wheel, and that brought its captain far out to the front of the sombre
+blue rank of foot,--so far out, in fact, that he was about on line with
+Major Minor, though facing in opposite direction. Perfectly confident
+that he was exactly where he should be, yet equally determined to abide
+by any order he might receive, even though he fully understood the cause
+of Drake's delay, Cram promptly rode over to the guidon and ordered
+"Right dress," at which every driver's head and eyes were promptly
+turned, but not an inch of a wheel, for the alignment simply could not
+be improved. Then after commanding "front" the captain as deliberately
+trotted back to his post without so much as a glance at the irate staff
+officer. It was just at this juncture that the bay colt came tearing
+down the field, his mane and tail streaming in the breeze, his reins and
+stirrups dangling. In the course of his gyrations about the battery and
+the sympathetic plunging of the teams some slight disarrangement
+occurred. But when he presently decided on a rush for the stables, the
+captain re-established the alignment as coolly as before, and only
+noticed as he resumed his post that the basket phaeton and Mrs. Cram had
+gone. Alarmed, possibly, by the non-appearance of her warm friend Mr.
+Waring and the excited gambolings of his vagrant steed, she had promptly
+driven back to the main garrison to see if any accident had occurred,
+the colt meantime amusing himself in a game of fast-and-loose with the
+stable guard.
+
+Then it was that old Brax came down and took a hand. Riding to where
+Minor still sat on his patient sorrel, the senior bluntly inquired,--
+
+"What the devil's the matter?"
+
+"I don't know," said Minor.
+
+"Who does know?"
+
+"Well, Drake, possibly, or else he doesn't know anything. He's been
+trying to get Cram to dress his battery back."
+
+"Why, yes, confound it! he's a mile ahead of the line," said the
+colonel, and off he trotted to expostulate with the batteryman. "Captain
+Cram, isn't there room for your battery back of the line instead of in
+front of it?" inquired the chief, in tone both aggrieved and aggressive.
+
+"Lots, sir," answered Cram, cheerfully. "Just countermarched there."
+
+"Then I wish you'd oblige me by moving back at once, sir: you're
+delaying the whole ceremony here. I'm told Mr. Drake has twice ordered
+you to dress to the right."
+
+"I've heard it, sir, only once, but have dressed twice, so it's all
+right," responded Cram, as affably as though he had no other aim in life
+than to gratify the whims of his post commander.
+
+"Why, confound it, sir, it isn't all right by a da---- good deal! Here
+you are 'way out on line with Major Minor, and your battery's----  why,
+it isn't dressed on our rank at all, sir. Just look at it."
+
+Cram resumed the carry with the sabre he had lowered in salute, calmly
+reversed so as to face his battery, and, with preternatural gravity of
+mien, looked along his front. There midway between his lead drivers sat
+Mr. Doyle, his face well-nigh as red as his plume, his bleary eyes
+nearly popping out of his skull in his effort to repress the emotions
+excited by this colloquy. There midway between the lead drivers in the
+left section sat Mr. Ferry, gazing straight to the front over the
+erected ears of his handsome bay and doing his very best to keep a
+solemn face, though the unshaded corners of his boyish mouth were
+twitching with mischief and merriment. There, silent, disciplined, and
+rigid, sat the sergeants, drivers, and cannoneers of famous old Light
+Battery "X," all agog with interest in the proceedings and all looking
+as though they never heard a word.
+
+"I declare, sir," said Cram, with exasperating civility, "I can see
+nothing out of the way. Will you kindly indicate what is amiss?"
+
+This was too much for Ferry. In his effort to restrain his merriment
+and gulp down a rising flood of laughter there was heard an explosion
+that sounded something like the sudden collapse of an inflated paper
+bag, and old Brax, glaring angrily at the boy, now red in the face with
+mingled mirth and consternation, caught sudden idea from the sight. Was
+the battery laughing at--was the battery commander guying--him? Was it
+possible that they were profiting by his ignorance of their regulations?
+It put him on his guard and suggested a tentative.
+
+"Do you mean that you are right in being so far ahead of our line
+instead of dressed upon it?" asked he of the big blond soldier in the
+glittering uniform. "Where do you find authority for it?"
+
+"Oh, perfectly right, colonel. In fact, for six years past I've never
+seen it done any other way. You'll find the authority on page 562, Field
+Artillery Tactics of 1864."
+
+For a moment Brax was dumb; he had long heard of Cram as an expert in
+his own branch of the service; but presently he burst forth:
+
+"Well, in _our_ tactics there's reason for every blessed thing we do,
+but I'll be dinged if I can see rhyme or reason in such a formation as
+that. Why, sir, your one company takes up more room than my six,--makes
+twice as much of a show. Of course if a combined review is to show off
+the artillery it's all very well. However, go ahead, if you think you're
+right, sir; go ahead! I'll inquire into this later."
+
+"I know we're right, colonel; and as for the reason, you'll see it when
+you open ranks for review and we come to 'action front:' then our line
+will be exactly that of the infantry. Meantime, sir, it isn't for us to
+go ahead. We've gone as far as we can until your adjutant makes the next
+move."
+
+But Braxton had ridden away disgusted before Cram wound up his remarks.
+
+"Go on, Major Minor; just run this thing without reference to the
+battery. Damned if I understand their methods. Let Cram look after his
+own affairs; if he goes wrong, why--it's none of our concern."
+
+And so Minor had nodded "Go ahead" to Mr. Drake, and presently the whole
+command made its bow, so to speak, to Minor as its immediate chief, and
+then he drew sword and his untried voice became faintly audible. The
+orders "Prepare for review" and "To the rear open order" were instantly
+followed by a stentorian "Action front" down at the left, the instant
+leap and rush of some thirty nimble cannoneers, shouts of "Drive on!"
+the cracking of whips, the thunder and rumble of wheels, the thud of
+plunging hoofs. Forty-eight mettlesome horses in teams of two abreast
+went dancing briskly away to the rear, at sight of which Minor dropped
+his jaw and the point of his sword and sat gazing blankly after them,
+over the bowed head of his placid sorrel, wondering what on earth it
+meant that they should all be running away at the very instant when he
+expected them to brace up for review. But before he could give utterance
+to his thoughts eight glossy teams in almost simultaneous sweep to the
+left about came sharply around again. The black muzzles of the guns were
+pointed to the front, every axle exactly in the prolongation of his
+front rank, every little group of red-topped, red-trimmed cannoneers
+standing erect and square, the chiefs of section and of pieces sitting
+like statues on their handsome horses, the line of limbers accurately
+covering the guns, and, still farther back, Mr. Pierce could be heard
+shouting his orders for the alignment of the caissons. In the twinkling
+of an eye the rush and thunder were stilled, the battery without the
+twitch of a muscle stood ready for review, and old Brax, sitting in
+saddle at the reviewing point, watching the stirring sight with gloomy
+and cynical eye, was chafed still more to hear in a silvery voice from
+the group of ladies the unwelcome words, "Oh, wasn't that pretty!" He
+meant with all his heart to pull in some of the plumage of those
+confounded "woodpeckers," as he called them, before the day was over.
+
+In grim silence, therefore, he rode along the front of the battalion,
+taking little comfort in the neatness of their quaint old-fashioned
+garb, the single-breasted, long-skirted frock-coats, the bulging black
+felt hats looped up on one side and decked with skimpy black feather,
+the glistening shoulder-scales and circular breastplates, the polish of
+their black leather belts, cartridge- and cap-boxes and
+bayonet-scabbards. It was all trim and soldierly, but he was bottling up
+his sense of annoyance for the benefit of Cram and his people. Yet what
+could he say? Neither he nor Minor had ever before been brought into
+such relations with the light artillery, and he simply didn't know where
+to hit. Lots of things looked queer, but after this initial experience
+he felt it best to say nothing until he could light on a point that no
+one could gainsay, and he found it in front of the left section.
+
+"Where is Mr. Waring, sir?" he sternly asked.
+
+"I wish I knew, colonel. His horse came back without him, as you
+doubtless saw, and, as he hasn't appeared, I'm afraid of accident."
+
+"How did he come to leave his post, sir? I have no recollection of
+authorizing anything of the kind."
+
+"Certainly not, colonel. He rode back to his quarters with my consent
+before adjutant's call had sounded, and he should have been with us
+again in abundant time."
+
+"That young gentleman needs more discipline than he is apt to receive at
+this rate, Captain Cram, and I desire that you pay closer attention to
+his movements than you have done in the past.--Mr. Drake," he said to
+his adjutant, who was tripping around after his chief afoot, "call on
+Mr. Waring to explain his absence in writing and without delay.--This
+indifference to duty is something to which I am utterly unaccustomed,"
+continued Braxton, again addressing Cram, who preserved a most
+uncompromising serenity of countenance; and with this parting shot the
+colonel turned gruffly away and soon retook his station at the reviewing
+point.
+
+Then came the second hitch. Minor had had no experience whatever, as has
+been said, and he first tried to wheel into column of companies without
+closing ranks, whereupon every captain promptly cautioned "Stand fast,"
+and thereby banished the last remnant of Minor's senses. Seeing that
+something was wrong, he tried again, this time prefacing with "Pass in
+review," and still the captains were implacable. The nearest one, in a
+stage whisper, tried to make the major hear "Close order, first." But
+all the time Brax was losing more of his temper and Minor what was left
+of his head, and Brax came down like the wolf on the fold, gave the
+command to "Close order" himself, and was instantly echoed by Cram's
+powerful shout "Limber to the rear," followed by "Pieces left about!
+Caissons forward!" Then in the rumble and clank of the responding
+battery, Minor's next command was heard by only the right wing of the
+battalion, and the company wheels were ragged. So was the next part of
+the performance when he started to march in review, never waiting, of
+course, for the battery to wheel into column of sections. This omission,
+however, in no wise disconcerted Cram, who, following at rapid walk,
+soon gained on the rear of column, passing his post commander in
+beautiful order and with most accurate salute on the part of himself and
+officers, and, observing this, Minor took heart, and, recovering his
+senses to a certain extent, gave the command "Guide left" in abundant
+time to see that the new guides were accurately in trace, thereby
+insuring what he expected to find a beautiful wheel into line to the
+left, the commands for which movement he gave in louder and more
+confident tone, but was instantly nonplussed by seeing the battery wheel
+into line to the _right_ and move off in exactly the opposite direction
+from what he had expected. This was altogether too much for his
+equanimity. Digging his spurs into the flanks of the astonished sorrel,
+he darted off after Cram, waving his sword, and shouting,--
+
+"_Left_ into line wheel, captain. _Left_ into line wheel."
+
+In vain Mr. Pierce undertook to explain matters. Minor presumed that
+the artilleryman had made an actual blunder and was only enabled to
+correct it by a countermarch, and so rode back to his position in front
+of the centre of the reforming line, convinced that at last he had
+caught the battery commander.
+
+When Braxton, therefore, came down to make his criticisms and comments
+upon the conduct of the review, Minor was simply amazed to find that
+instead of being in error Cram had gone exactly right and as prescribed
+by his drill regulations in wheeling to the right and gaining ground to
+the rear before coming up on the line. He almost peevishly declared that
+he wished the colonel, if he proposed having a combined review, would
+assume command himself, as he didn't care to be bothered with
+combination tactics of which he had never had previous knowledge. Being
+of the same opinion, Braxton himself took hold, and the next
+performance, though somewhat erroneous in many respects, was a slight
+improvement on the first, though Braxton did not give time for the
+battery to complete one movement before he would rush it into another.
+When the officers assembled to compare notes during the rest after the
+second repetition, Minor growled that this was "a little better, yet not
+good," which led to some one suggesting in low tone that the major got
+his positives and comparatives worse mixed than his tactics, and
+inquiring further "whether it might not be well to dub him Minor Major."
+The laughter that followed this sally naturally reached the ears of the
+seniors, and so Brax never let up on the command until the review went
+off without an error of any appreciable weight, without, in fact, "a
+hitch in the fut or an unhitch in the harse," as Doyle expressed it. It
+was high noon when the battalion got back to barracks and the officers
+hung out their moist clothing to dry in the sun. It was near one when
+the battery men, officers and all, came steaming up from the stables,
+and there was the colonel's orderly with the colonel's compliments and
+desires to see Captain Cram before the big battery man had time to
+change his dress.
+
+Braxton's first performance on getting into cool habiliments was to go
+over to his office and hunt through the book-shelves for a volume in
+which he never before had felt the faintest interest,--the Light
+Artillery Tactics of 1864. There on his desk lay a stack of mail
+unopened, and Mr. Drake was already silently inditing the summary note
+to the culprit Waring. Brax wanted first to see with his own eyes the
+instructions for light artillery when reviewed with other troops,
+vaguely hoping that there might still he some point on which to catch
+his foeman on the hip. But if there were he did not find it. He was
+tactician enough to see that even if Cram had formed with his leading
+drivers on line with the infantry, as Braxton thought he should have
+done, neither of the two methods of forming into battery would then have
+got his guns where they belonged. Cram's interpretation of the text was
+backed by the custom of service, and there was no use criticising it
+further. And so, after discontentedly hunting through the dust-covered
+pages awhile in hopes of stumbling on some codicil or rebuttal, the
+colonel shut it with a disgusted snap and tossed the offending tome on
+the farthest table. At that moment Brax could have wished the board of
+officers who prepared the Light Artillery Tactics in the nethermost
+depths of the neighboring swamp. Then he turned on his silent staff
+officer,--a not unusual expedient.
+
+"Why on earth, Mr. Drake, didn't you look up that point, instead of
+making such a break before the whole command?"
+
+"I couldn't find anything about it in Casey, sir, anywhere," replied the
+perturbed young man. "I didn't know where else to look."
+
+"Well, you might have asked Mr. Ferry or Mr. Pierce. The Lord knows you
+waste enough time with 'em."
+
+"_You_ might have asked Captain Cram," was what Drake wanted to say, but
+wisely did not. He bit the end of his penholder instead, and bridled his
+tongue and temper.
+
+"The next time I have a review with a mounted battery, by George!" said
+the post commander, finally, bringing his fist down on the table with a
+crash, "I just--won't have it."
+
+He had brought down the pile of letters as well as his fist, and Drake
+sprang to gather them, replacing them on the desk and dexterously
+slipping a paper-cutter under the flap of each envelope as he did so. At
+the very first note he opened, Brax threw himself back in his chair with
+a long whistle of mingled amazement and concern, then turned suddenly on
+his adjutant.
+
+"What became of Mr. Waring? He wasn't hurt?"
+
+"Not a bit, sir, that I know of. He drove to town with Captain Cram's
+team,--at least I was told so,--and left that note for you there, sir."
+
+"He did!--left the post and left a note for me? Why!----" But here
+Braxton broke off short, tore open the note, and read:
+
+
+"MY DEAR COLONEL,--I trust you will overlook the informality of my going
+to town without previously consulting you. I had purposed, of course,
+asking your permission, but the mishap that befell me in the runaway of
+my horse prevented my appearance at the review, and had I waited your
+return from the field it would have compelled me to break my engagement
+with our friends the Allertons. Under the circumstances I felt sure of
+your complaisance.
+
+"As I hope to drive Miss Allerton down after the _matinée_, might it not
+be a good idea to have dress-parade and the band out? They have seen the
+battery drills, but are much more desirous of seeing the infantry.
+                    "Most sincerely yours,
+                                   "S. G. WARING."
+
+
+"Well, for consummate impudence this beats the Jews!" exclaimed Brax.
+"Orderly, my compliments to Captain Cram, and say I wish to see him at
+once, if he's back from stables."
+
+Now, as has been said, Cram had had no time to change to undress
+uniform, but Mrs. Cram had received the orderly's message, had informed
+that martial Mercury that the captain was not yet back from stables, and
+that she would tell him at once on his return. Well she knew that
+mischief was brewing, and her woman's wit was already enlisted in behalf
+of her friend. Hurriedly pencilling a note, she sent a messenger to her
+liege, still busy with his horses, to bid him come to her, if only for a
+moment, on his way to the office. And when he came, heated, tired, but
+bubbling over with eagerness to tell her of the fun they had been having
+with Brax, she met him with a cool tankard of "shandygaff," which he had
+learned to like in England among the horse-artillery fellows, and
+declared the very prince of drinks after active exercise in hot weather.
+He quaffed it eagerly, flung off his shako and kissed her gratefully,
+and burst all at once into laughing narration of the morning's work, but
+she checked him:
+
+"Ned, dear, don't stop for that yet. I know you're too full of tact to
+let Colonel Braxton see it was any fun for you, and he's waiting at the
+office. Something tells me it's about Mr. Waring. Now put yourself in
+Mr. Waring's place. Of course he ought never to have made that
+engagement until he had consulted you, but he never dreamed that there
+would be a review to-day, and so he invited the Allertons to breakfast
+with him at Moreau's and go to the _matinée_."
+
+"Why, that rascal Ananias said it was to breakfast at the general's,"
+interrupted the battery commander.
+
+"Well, perhaps he was invited there too. I believe I did hear something
+of that. But he had made this arrangement with the Allertons. Now, of
+course, if review were over at ten he could just about have time to
+dress and catch the eleven-o'clock car, but that would make it very
+late, and when Bay Billy broke away from Ananias nobody could catch him
+for over half an hour. Mr. Ferry had taken the section, Mr. Waring
+wasn't needed, and---- Why, Ned, when I drove in, fearing to
+find him injured, and saw him standing there the picture of
+consternation and despair, and he told me about his engagement, I said
+myself, 'Why don't you go now?' I told him it was what you surely would
+say if you were here. Neither of us thought the colonel would object, so
+long as you approved, and he wrote such a nice note. Why, Ned, he only
+just had time to change his dress and drive up with Jeffers----"
+
+"With Jeffers? With my--er--our team and wagon? Well, I like----"
+
+"Of course you like it, you old darling. She's such a dear girl, though
+just a little bit gushing, you know. Why, I said, certainly the team
+should go. But, Ned, here's what I'm afraid of. Mrs. Braxton saw it
+drive in at nine-thirty, just after Billy ran away, and she asked
+Jeffers who was going, and he told her Mr. Waring, and she has told the
+colonel, I'll wager. Now, what you have got to do is to explain that to
+him, so that he won't blame Mr. Waring."
+
+"The dickens I have! The most barefaced piece of impudence even Sam
+Waring was ever guilty of--to me, at least, though I've no doubt he's
+done worse a dozen times. Why, bless your heart, Nell, how can I
+explain? You might, but----"
+
+"But would you have me suppose my big soldier couldn't handle that
+matter as well as I? No, sir! Go and do it, sir. And, mind you, I'm
+going to invite them all up here to the gallery to hear the band play
+and have a cup of tea and a nibble when they come down this evening.
+He's going to drive the Allertons here."
+
+"Worse and more of it! Why, you conspiracy in petticoats, you'll be the
+ruin of me! Old Brax is boiling over now. If he dreams that Waring has
+been taking liberties with him he'll fetch him up so short----"
+
+"Exactly! You mustn't let him. You must tell him I sent him up with your
+team--yours, mind you--to keep his engagement, since it was impossible
+for him to come back to review ground. Of course he wouldn't expect him
+to appear afoot."
+
+"Don't know about that, Nell. I reckon that's the way he'll order out
+the whole gang of us next time. He's had his fill of mounted work
+to-day."
+
+"Well, if he should, you be sure to acquiesce gracefully now. Whatsoever
+you do, don't let him put Mr. Waring in arrest while Gwen Allerton is
+here. It would spoil--everything."
+
+"Oh, match-making, is it? Then I'll try." And so, vexed, but laughing,
+half indignant, yet wholly subordinate to the whim of his beloved better
+half, the captain hastened over, and found Colonel Braxton sitting with
+gloomy brow at his littered desk, his annoyance of the morning evidently
+forgotten in matters more serious.
+
+"Oh--er--Cram, come in, come in, man," said he, distractedly. "Here's a
+matter I want to see you about. It's--well, just take that letter and
+read. Sit down, sit down. Read, and tell me what we ought to do about
+it."
+
+And as Cram's blue eyes wandered over the written page they began to
+dilate. He read from start to finish, and then dropped his head into his
+hand, his elbow on his knee, his face full of perplexity and concern.
+
+"What do you think of it? Is there any truth----" and the colonel
+hesitated.
+
+"As to their being seen together, perhaps. As to the other,--the
+challenge,--I don't believe it."
+
+"Well, Cram, this is the second or third letter that has come to me in
+the same hand. Now, you must see to it that he returns and doesn't quit
+the post until this matter is arranged."
+
+"I'll attend to it, sir," was the answer.
+
+And so that evening, while Waring was slowly driving his friends about
+the shaded roads under the glistening white pillars of the rows of
+officers' quarters, chatting joyously with them and describing the
+objects so strange to their eyes, Mrs. Cram's "little foot-page" came to
+beg that they should alight a few minutes and take a cup of tea. They
+could not. The Allertons were engaged, and it was necessary to drive
+back at once to town, but they stopped for a moment to chat with their
+pretty hostess under the gallery, and then a moment later, as they
+rolled out of the resounding sally-port, an orderly ran up, saluted, and
+slipped a note in Waring's hand.
+
+"It is immediate, sir," was his explanation.
+
+"Ah! Miss Allerton, will you pardon me one moment?" said Waring, as he
+shifted whip and reins into the left hand and turned coolly up the levee
+road. Then with the right he forced open and held up the missive.
+
+It only said, "Whatsoever you do, be here before taps to-night. Come
+direct to me, and I will explain.
+                                     "Your friend,
+                                           "CRAM."
+
+"All right," said Waring, aloud. "My compliments to the captain, and
+say I'll be with him."
+
+But even with this injunction he failed to appear. Midnight came without
+a word from Waring, and the morning dawned and found him absent still.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+It was one of Sam Waring's oddities that, like the hero of "Happy
+Thoughts," other people's belongings seemed to suit him so much better
+than his own. The most immaculately dressed man in the regiment, he was
+never satisfied with the result of the efforts of the New York artists
+whom he favored with his custom and his criticism. He would wear three
+or four times a new coat just received from that metropolis, and spend
+not a little time, when not on duty or in uniform, in studying
+critically its cut and fit in the various mirrors that hung about his
+bachelor den, gayly humming some operatic air as he conducted the
+survey, and generally winding up with a wholesale denunciation of the
+cutter and an order to Ananias to go over and get some other fellow's
+coat, that he might try the effect of that. These were liberties he took
+only with his chums and intimates, to be sure, but they were liberties
+all the same, and it was delicious to hear the laugh with which he
+would tell how Pierce had to dress in uniform when he went up to the
+opera Thursday night, or how, after he had worn Ferry's stylish morning
+suit to make a round of calls in town and that young gentleman later on
+went up to see a pretty girl in whom he felt a growing interest, her
+hateful little sister had come in and commented on his "borrowing Mr.
+Waring's clothes." No man in the battery would ever think of refusing
+Sam the use of anything he possessed, and there were half a dozen young
+fellows in the infantry who were just as ready to pay tribute to his
+whims. Nor was it among the men alone that he found such indulgence.
+Mrs. Cram had not known him a fortnight when, with twinkling eyes and a
+betraying twitch about the corners of his mouth, he appeared one morning
+to say he had invited some friends down to luncheon at the officers'
+mess and the mess had no suitable china, therefore he would thank her to
+send over hers, also some table-cloths and napkins, and forks and
+spoons. When the Forty-Sixth Infantry were on their way to Texas and the
+officers' families were entertained over-night at the barracks and his
+rooms were to be occupied by the wife, sister, and daughters of Captain
+Craney, Waring sent the battery team and spring wagon to town with a
+note to Mrs. Converse, of the staff, telling her the ladies had said so
+much about the lovely way her spare rooms were furnished that he had
+decided to draw on her for wash-bowls, pitchers, mosquito-frames, nets
+and coverlets, blankets, pillows, slips, shams, and anything else she
+might think of. And Mrs. Converse loaded up the wagon accordingly. This
+was the more remarkable in her case because she was one of the women
+with whom he had never yet danced, which was tantamount to saying that
+in the opinion of this social bashaw Mrs. Converse was not considered a
+good partner, and, as the lady entertained very different views on that
+subject and was passionately fond of dancing, she had resented not a
+little the line thus drawn to her detriment. She not only loaned,
+however, all he asked for, but begged to be informed if there were not
+something more she could do to help entertain his visitors. Waring sent
+her some lovely flowers the next week, but failed to take her out even
+once at the staff german. Mrs. Cram was alternately aghast and
+delighted at what she perhaps justly called his incomparable impudence.
+They were coming out of church together one lovely morning during the
+winter. There was a crowd in the vestibule. Street dresses were then
+worn looped, yet there was a sudden sound of rip, rent, and tear, and a
+portly woman gathered up the trailing skirt of a costly silken gown and
+whirled with annihilation in her eyes upon the owner of the offending
+foot.
+
+"That is far too elegant a skirt to be worn unlooped, madame," said Mrs.
+Cram's imperturbable escort, in his most suave and dulcet tones, lifting
+a glossy silk hat and bowing profoundly. And Mrs. Cram laughed all the
+way back to barracks at the recollection of the utter discomfiture in
+the woman's face.
+
+These are mere specimen bricks from the fabric which Waring had builded
+in his few months of artillery service. The limits of the story are all
+too contracted to admit of extended detail. So, without further
+expansion, it may be said that when he drove up to town on this eventful
+April day in Cram's wagon and Larkin's hat and Ferry's Hatfield clothes,
+with Pierce's precious London umbrella by his side and Merton's watch
+in his pocket, he was as stylish and presentable a fellow as ever issued
+from a battery barrack, and Jeffers, Cram's English groom, mutely
+approved the general appearance of his prime favorite among the officers
+at the post, at most of whom he opened his eyes in cockney amaze, and
+critically noted the skill with which Mr. Waring tooled the spirited
+bays along the levee road.
+
+Nearly a mile above the barracks, midway between the long embankment to
+their left and the tall white picket fence surmounted by the olive-green
+foliage of magnolias and orange-trees on the other hand, they had come
+upon a series of deep mud-holes in the way, where the seepage-water from
+the rapidly-rising flood was turning the road-way into a pond. Stuck
+helplessly in the mud, an old-fashioned cabriolet was halted. Its driver
+was out and up to his knees thrashing vainly at his straining,
+staggering horse. The tortuous road-way was blocked, but Waring had been
+up and down the river-bank too many times both day and night to be
+daunted by a matter so trivial. He simply cautioned Jeffers to lean well
+over the inner wheel, guided his team obliquely up the slope of the
+levee, and drove quietly along its level top until abreast the scene of
+the wreck. One glance into the interior of the cab caused him suddenly
+to stop, to pass the reins back to Jeffers, to spring down the slope
+until he stood at the edge of the sea of mud. Here he raised his hat and
+cried,--
+
+"Madame Lascelles! madame! this is indeed lucky--for me. Let me get you
+out."
+
+At his call a slender, graceful woman who was gazing in anxiety and
+dismay from the opposite side of the cab and pleading with the driver
+not to beat his horse, turned suddenly, and a pair of lovely dark eyes
+lighted up at sight of his face. Her pallor, too, gave instant place to
+a warm flush. A pretty child at her side clapped her little hands and
+screamed with delight,--
+
+"_Maman! maman! C'est M'sieu_' Vayreeng; _c'est_ Sa-am."
+
+"Oh, Monsieur Wareeng! I'm so glad you've come! Do speak to that man! It
+is horrible the way he beat that poor horse.--_Mais non_, Nin Nin!" she
+cried, reproving the child, now stretching forth her little arms to her
+friend and striving to rise and leap to him.
+
+"I'd like to know how in hell I'm to get this cab out of such a hole as
+this if I don't beat him," exclaimed the driver, roughly. Then once
+more, "Dash blank dash your infernal hide! I'll learn you to balk with
+me again!" Then down came more furious lashes on the quivering hide, and
+the poor tortured brute began to back, thereby placing the frail
+four-wheeler in imminent danger of being upset.
+
+"Steady there! Hold your hand, sir! Don't strike that horse again. Just
+stand at his head a moment and keep quiet till I get these ladies out,"
+called Waring, in tone quiet yet commanding.
+
+"I'll get 'em out myself in my own way, if they'll only stop their
+infernal yellin'," was the coarse reply.
+
+"Oh, Monsieur Wareeng," exclaimed the lady in undertone, "the man has
+been drinking, I am sure. He has been so rude in his language."
+
+Waring waited for no more words. Looking quickly about him, he saw a
+plank lying on the levee slope. This he seized, thrust one end across
+the muddy hole until it rested in the cab, stepped lightly across, took
+the child in his arms, bore her to the embankment and set her down,
+then sprang back for her young mother, who, trembling slightly, rose and
+took his outstretched hand just as another lash fell on the horse's back
+and another lurch followed. Waring caught at the cab-rail with one hand,
+threw the other arm about her slender waist, and, fairly lifting little
+Madame over the wheel, sprang with her to the shore, and in an instant
+more had carried her, speechless and somewhat agitated, to the top of
+the levee.
+
+"Now," said he, "let me drive you and Nin Nin wherever you were going.
+Is it to market or church?"
+
+"_Mais non_--to _bonne maman's_, of whom it is the _fête_," cried the
+eager little one, despite her mother's stern orders of silence. "Look!"
+she exclaimed, showing her dainty little legs and feet in creamy silken
+hose and kid.
+
+It was "bonne maman," explained Madame, who had ordered the cab from
+town for them, never dreaming of the condition of the river road or
+suspecting that of the driver.
+
+"So much the happier for me," laughed Waring.--"Take the front seat,
+Jeffers.--Now, Nin Nin, _ma fleurette_, up with you!" And the delighted
+child was lifted to her perch in the stylish trap she had so often
+admired. "Now, madame," he continued, extending his hand.
+
+But Madame hung back, hesitant and blushing.
+
+"Oh, Monsieur Wareeng, I cannot, I must not. Is it not that some one
+shall extricate the cab?"
+
+"No one from this party, at least," laughed Waring, mischievously making
+the most of her idiomatic query. "Your driver is more _cochon_ than
+_cocher_, and if he drowns in that mud 'twill only serve him right. Like
+your famous compatriot, he'll have a chance to say, 'I will drown, and
+no one shall help me,' for all I care. The brute! _Allons!_ I will drive
+you to _bonne maman's_ of whom it is the _fête_. Bless that baby
+daughter! And Madame d'Hervilly shall bless Nin Nin's _tout dévoué_
+Sam."
+
+And Madame Lascelles found further remonstrance useless. She was lifted
+into the seat, by which time the driver, drunken and truculent, had
+waded after them.
+
+"Who's to pay for this?" was his surly question.
+
+"You, I fancy, as soon as your employer learns of your driving into that
+hole," was Waring's cool reply.
+
+"Well, by God, I want five dollars for my fare and trouble, and I want
+it right off." And, whip in hand, the burly, mud-covered fellow came
+lurching up the bank. Across the boggy street beyond the white picket
+fence the green blinds of a chamber window in an old-fashioned Southern
+house were thrown open, and two feminine faces peered forth, interested
+spectators of the scene.
+
+"Here, my man!" said Waring, in low tone, "you have earned no five
+dollars, and you know it. Get your cab out, come to Madame d'Hervilly's,
+where you were called, and whatever is your due will be paid you; but no
+more of this swearing or threatening,--not another word of it."
+
+"I want my money, I say, and I mean to have it. I'm not talking to you;
+I'm talking to the lady that hired me."
+
+"But I have not the money. It is for my mother--Madame d'Hervilly--to
+pay. You will come there."
+
+"I want it now, I say. I've got to hire teams to get my cab out. I got
+stalled here carrying you and your child, and I mean to have my pay
+right now, or I'll know the reason why. Your swell friend's got the
+money. It's none of my business how you pay him."
+
+But that ended the colloquy. Waring's fist landed with resounding whack
+under the cabman's jaw, and sent him rolling down into the mud below. He
+was up, floundering and furious, in less than a minute, cursing horribly
+and groping in the pocket of his overcoat.
+
+"It's a pistol, lieutenant. Look out!" cried Jeffers.
+
+There was a flash, a sharp report, a stifled cry from the cab, a scream
+of terror from the child. But Waring had leaped lightly aside, and
+before the half-drunken brute could cock his weapon for a second shot he
+was felled like a log, and the pistol wrested from his hand and hurled
+across the levee. Another blow crashed full in his face as he strove to
+find his feet, and this time his muddled senses warned him it were best
+to lie still.
+
+Two minutes more, when he lifted his battered head and strove to stanch
+the blood streaming from his nostrils, he saw the team driving briskly
+away up the crest of the levee; and, overcome by maudlin contemplation
+of his foeman's triumph and his own wretched plight, the cabman sat him
+down and wept aloud.
+
+And to his succor presently there came ministering angels from across
+the muddy way, one with a brogue, the other in a bandanna, and between
+the two he was escorted across a dry path to the magnolia-fringed
+enclosure, comforted with soothing applications without and within, and
+encouraged to tell his tale of woe. That he should wind it up with
+vehement expression of his ability to thrash a thousand swells like the
+one who had abused him, and a piratical prophecy that he'd drink his
+heart's blood within the week, was due not so much to confidence in his
+own powers, perhaps, as to the strength of the whiskey with which he had
+been liberally supplied. Then the lady of the house addressed her Ethiop
+maid-of-all-work:
+
+"Go you over to Anatole's now, 'Louette. Tell him if any of the byes are
+there I wahnt 'um. If Dawson is there, from the adjutant's office, I
+wahnt him quick. Tell him it's Mrs. Doyle, and never mind if he's been
+dhrinkin'; he shall have another dhrop here."
+
+And at her beck there presently appeared three or four besotted-looking
+specimens in the coarse undress uniform of the day, poor devils, absent
+without leave from their post below and hoping only to be able to beg
+or steal whiskey enough to stupefy them before the patrol should come
+and drag them away to the guard-house. Promise of liberal reward in
+shape of liquor was sufficient to induce three of their number to go out
+with the fuming cabman and help rescue his wretched brute and trap. The
+moment they were outside the gate she turned on the fourth, a pallid,
+sickly man, whose features were delicate, whose hands were white and
+slender, and whose whole appearance, despite glassy eyes and tremulous
+mouth and limbs, told the pathetic story of better days.
+
+"You're off ag'in, are you? Sure I heerd so, and you're mad for a dhrink
+now. Can ye write, Dawson, or must I brace you up furrst?"
+
+An imploring look, an unsteady gesture, alone answered.
+
+"Here, thin, wait! It's absinthe ye need, my buck. Go you into that room
+now and wash yourself, and I'll bring it, and whin the others come back
+for their whiskey I'll tell 'um you've gone. You're to do what I say,
+now, and Doyle will see you t'rough; if not, it's back to that hell in
+the guard-house you'll go, my word on it."
+
+"Oh, for God's sake, Mrs. Doyle----" began the poor wretch,
+imploringly, but the woman shut him off.
+
+"In there wid you! the others are coming." And, unbarring the front
+door, she presently admitted the trio returning to claim the fruits of
+their honest labor.
+
+"Is he gone? Did he tell you what happened?"
+
+"He's gone, yes," answered one: "he's gone to get square with the
+lieutenant and his cockney dog-robber. He says they both jumped on him
+and kicked his face in when he was down and unarmed and helpless. Was he
+lyin'?"
+
+"Oh, they bate him cruel. But did he tell you of the lady--who it was
+they took from him?"
+
+"Why, sure, the wife of that old Frenchman, Lascelles, that lives
+below,--her the lieutenant's been sparkin' this three months."
+
+"The very wan, mind ye!" replied the lady of the house, with significant
+emphasis and glance from her bleary eyes; "the very wan," she finished,
+with slow nodding accompaniment of the frowzy head. "And that's the kind
+of gintlemen that undertakes to hold up their heads over soldiers like
+Doyle. Here, byes, dhrink now, but be off ag'inst his coming. He'll be
+here any minute. Take this to comfort ye, but kape still about this till
+ye see me ag'in--or Doyle. Now run." And with scant ceremony the dreary
+party was hustled out through a paved court-yard to a gate-way opening
+on a side street. Houses were few and scattering so far below the heart
+of the city. The narrow strip of land between the great river and the
+swamp was cut up into walled enclosures, as a rule,--abandoned
+warehouses and cotton-presses, moss-grown one-storied frame structures,
+standing in the midst of desolate fields and decrepit fences. Only among
+the peaceful shades of the Ursuline convent and the warlike flanking
+towers at the barracks was there aught that spoke of anything but
+demoralization and decay. Back from the levee a block or two the double
+lines of strap-iron stretched over a wooden causeway between parallel
+wet ditches gave evidence of some kind of a railway, on which, at rare
+intervals, jogged a sleepy mule with a sleepier driver and a musty old
+rattle-trap of a car,--a car butting up against the animal's lazy hocks
+and rousing him occasionally to ringing and retaliatory kicks. Around
+the barracks the buildings were closer, mainly in the way of saloons;
+then came a mile-long northward stretch of track, with wet fields on
+either side, fringed along the river by solid structures and walled
+enclosures that told of days more prosperous than those which so closely
+followed the war. It was to one of these graceless drinking-shops and
+into the hands of a rascally "dago" known as Anatole that Mrs. Doyle
+commended her trio of allies, and being rid of them she turned back to
+her prisoner, their erstwhile companion. Absinthe wrought its work on
+his meek and pliant spirit, and the shaking hand was nerved to do the
+woman's work. At her dictation, with such corrections as his better
+education suggested, two letters were draughted, and with these in her
+hand she went aloft. In fifteen minutes she returned, placed one of
+these letters in an envelope already addressed to Monsieur Armand
+Lascelles, No.--Rue Royale, the other she handed to Dawson. It was
+addressed in neat and delicate feminine hand to Colonel Braxton, Jackson
+Barracks.
+
+"Now, Dawson, ye can't see her this day, and she don't want ye till you
+can come over here sober. Off wid ye now to barracks. They're all out
+at inspection yet, and will be for an hour. Lay this wid the colonel's
+mail on his desk, and thin go you to your own. Come to me this
+afthernoon for more dhrink if ye can tell me what he said and did when
+he read it. No! no more liquor now. That'll brace ye till dinnertime,
+and more would make ye dhrunk."
+
+Miserably he plodded away down the levee, while she, his ruler, throwing
+on a huge, dirty white sun-bonnet, followed presently in his tracks, and
+"shadowed" him until she saw him safely reach the portals of the
+barracks after one or two fruitless scouts into wayside bars in hope of
+finding some one to treat or trust him to a drink. Then, retracing her
+steps a few blocks, she rang sharply at the lattice gate opening into a
+cool and shaded enclosure, beyond which could be seen the white-pillared
+veranda of a long, low, Southern homestead. A grinning negro boy
+answered the summons.
+
+"It's you, is it, Alphonse? Is your mistress at home?"
+
+"No; gone town,--_chez Madame d'Hervilly_."
+
+"Madame Devillease, is it? Very well; you skip to town wid that note and
+get it in your master's hands before the cathedral clock strikes
+twelve, or ye'll suffer. There's a car in t'ree minutes."
+
+And then, well content with her morning's work, the consort of the
+senior first lieutenant of Light Battery "X" (a dame whose credentials
+were too clouded to admit of her reception or recognition within the
+limits of a regular garrison, where, indeed, to do him justice, Mr.
+Doyle never wished to see her, or, for that matter, anywhere else)
+betook herself to the magnolia-shaded cottage where she dwelt beyond the
+pale of military interference, and some hours later sent 'Louette to say
+to Doyle she wanted him, and Doyle obeyed. In his relief at finding the
+colonel had probably forgotten the peccadillo for which he expected
+punishment, in blissful possession of Mr. Waring's sitting-room and
+supplies now that Waring was absent, the big Irishman was preparing to
+spend the time in drinking his junior's health and whiskey and
+discoursing upon the enormity of his misconduct with all comers, when
+Ananias entered and informed him there was a lady below who wished to
+see him,--"lady" being the euphemism of the lately enfranchised for the
+females of their race. It was 'Louette with the mandate from her
+mistress, a mandate he dared not disregard.
+
+"Say I'll be along in a minute," was his reply, but he sighed and swore
+heavily, as he slowly reascended the stair. "Give me another dhrink,
+smut," he ordered Ananias, disregarding Ferry's suggestion, "Better
+drink no more till after dark." Then, swallowing his potion, he went
+lurching down the steps without another word. Ferry and Pierce stepped
+to the gallery and gazed silently after him as he veered around to the
+gate leading to the old war-hospital enclosure where the battery was
+quartered. Already his walk was perceptibly unsteady.
+
+"Keeps his head pretty well, even after his legs are gone," said Ferry.
+"Knows too much to go by the sally-port. He's sneaking out through the
+back gate."
+
+"Why, what does he go out there for, when he has the run of Waring's
+sideboard?"
+
+"Oh, didn't you hear? Mrs. Doyle sent for him."
+
+"That's it, is it? Sometimes I wonder which one of those two will kill
+the other."
+
+"Oh, he wouldn't dare. That fellow is an abject coward in the dark. He
+believes in ghosts, spooks, banshees, and wraiths,--everything
+uncanny,--and she'd haunt him if he laid his hands on her. There's only
+one thing that he'd be more afraid of than Bridget Doyle living, and
+that would be Bridget Doyle dead."
+
+"Why can't he get rid of her? What hold has she on him? This thing's an
+infernal scandal as it stands. She's only been here a month or so, and
+everybody in garrison knows all about her, and these doughboys don't
+make any bones about chaffing us on our lady friends."
+
+"Well, everybody supposed he had got rid of her years ago. He shook her
+when he was made first sergeant, just before the war. Why, I've heard
+some of the old stagers say there wasn't a finer-looking soldier in all
+the regiment than Jim Doyle when he married that specimen at
+Brownsville. Doyle, too, supposed she was dead until after he got his
+commission, then she reappeared and laid claim to him. It would have
+been an easy enough matter five years ago to prove she had forfeited all
+rights, but now he can't. Then she's got some confounded hold on him, I
+don't know what, but it's killing the poor beggar. Good thing for the
+regiment, though: so let it go."
+
+"Oh, I don't care a rap how soon we're rid of him or her,--the sooner
+the better; only I hate to hear these fellows laughing and sneering
+about Mrs. Doyle." And here the young fellow hesitated. "Ferry, you know
+I'm as fond of Sam Waring as any of you. I liked him better than any man
+in his class when we wore the gray. When they were yearlings we were
+plebes, and devilled and tormented by them most unmercifully day and
+night. I took to him then for his kindly, jolly ways. No one ever knew
+him to say or do a cross or brutal thing. I liked him more every year,
+and missed him when he was graduated. I rejoiced when he got his
+transfer to us. It's because I like him so much that I hate to hear
+these fellows making their little flings now."
+
+"What flings?" said Ferry.
+
+"Well, you know as much as I do. You've heard as much, too, I haven't a
+doubt."
+
+"Nobody's said anything about Sam Waring in my hearing that reflected on
+him in any way worth speaking of," said Ferry, yet not very stoutly.
+
+"Not on him so much, perhaps, as the world looks at this sort of thing,
+but on her. She's young, pretty, married to a man years her senior, a
+snuffy, frowzy old Frenchman. She's alone with her child and one or two
+servants from early morning till late evening, and with that weazened
+little monkey of a man the rest of the time. The only society she sees
+is the one or two gossipy old women of both sexes who live along the
+levee here. The only enjoyment she has is when she can get to her
+mother's up in town, or run up to the opera when she can get Lascelles
+to take her. That old mummy cares nothing for music and still less for
+the dance; she loves both, and so does Waring. _Monsieur le Mari_ goes
+out into the foyer between the acts to smoke his cigarette and gossip
+with other relics like himself. Waring has never missed a night she
+happened to be there for the last six weeks. I admit he is there many a
+time when she is not, but after he's had a few words with the ladies in
+the general's box, what becomes of him? I don't know, because I'm seldom
+there, but Dryden and Taggart and Jack Merton of the infantry can tell
+you. He is sitting by her in the D'Hervilly _loge grillée_ and going
+over the last act with her and rhapsodizing about Verdi, Bellini,
+Mozart, or Gounod,--Gounod especially and the garden-scene from
+'Faust.'"
+
+"Isn't her mother with her, and, being in mourning, doesn't she have to
+stay in her latticed loge instead of promenading in the foyer and
+drinking that two-headaches-for-a-picayune punch?" queried Ferry, eager
+for a diversion.
+
+"Suppose she is," answered Pierce, stoutly. "I'm a crank,--strait-laced,
+if you like. It's the fault of my bringing up. But I know, and you know,
+that that little woman, in her loneliness and in her natural longing for
+some congenial spirit to commune with, is simply falling madly in love
+with Sam Waring, and there will be tragedy here before we can stop it."
+
+"See here, Pierce," asked Ferry, "do you suppose Mrs. Cram would be so
+loyal a friend to Waring if she thought there was anything wrong in his
+attentions to Madame Lascelles? Do you suppose Cram himself wouldn't
+speak?"
+
+"He has spoken."
+
+"He has? To whom?"
+
+"To me, three days ago; said I had known Waring longest and best,
+perhaps was his most intimate friend, and he thought I ought to warn him
+of what people were saying."
+
+"What have you done?"
+
+"Nothing yet: simply because I know Sam Waring so well that I know just
+what he'd do,--go and pull the nose of the man who gossiped about him
+and her. Then we'd have a fight on our hands."
+
+"Well, we can fight, I suppose, can't we?"
+
+"Not without involving a woman's name."
+
+"Oh, good Lord, Pierce, was there ever a row without a woman _au fond_?"
+
+"That's a worm-eaten witticism, Ferry, and you're too decent a fellow,
+as a rule, to be cynical. I've got to speak to Waring, and I don't know
+how to do it. I want your advice."
+
+"Well, my advice is _Punch's_: Don't. Hello! here's Dryden. Thought you
+were on court duty up at head-quarters to-day, old man. Come in and have
+a wet?" Mr. Ferry had seen some happy days at Fortress Monroe when the
+ships of Her Majesty's navy lay off the Hygeia and the gallants of
+England lay to at the bar, and Ferry rejoiced in the vernacular of the
+United Service, so far as he could learn it, as practised abroad.
+
+"Thanks. Just had one over at Merton's. Hear you've been having review
+and all that sort of thing down here," said the infantryman, as he
+lolled back in an easy-chair and planted his boot-heels on the gallery
+rail. "Glad I got out of it. Court met and adjourned at ten, so I came
+home. How'd Waring get off?"
+
+"Huh!--Cram's wagon," laughed Ferry, rather uncomfortably, however.
+
+"Oh, Lord, yes, I know that. Didn't I see him driving Madame Lascelles
+up Rampart Street as I came down in the mule-car?"
+
+And then Pierce and Ferry looked at each other, startled.
+
+That evening, therefore, it was a comfort to both when Sam came tooling
+the stylish turnout through the sally-port and his battery chums caught
+sight of the Allertons. Pierce was just returning from stables, and
+Ferry was smoking a pipe of _perique_ on the broad gallery, and both
+hastened to don their best jackets and doff their best caps to these
+interesting and interested callers. Cram himself had gone off for a ride
+and a think. He always declared his ideas were clearer after a gallop.
+The band played charmingly. The ladies came out and made a picturesque
+croquet-party on the green carpet of the parade. The officers clustered
+about and offered laughing wagers on the game. A dozen romping children
+were playing joyously around the tall flag-staff. The air was rich with
+the fragrance of the magnolia and Cape jasmine, and glad with music and
+soft and merry voices. Then the stirring bugles rang out their lively
+summons to the batterymen beyond the wall. The drums of the infantry
+rolled and rattled their echoing clamor. The guard sprang into ranks,
+and their muskets, glistening in the slanting beams of the setting sun,
+clashed in simultaneous "present" to the red-sashed officer of the day,
+and that official raised his plumed hat to the lieutenant with the
+lovely girl by his side and the smiling elders on the back seat as the
+team once more made the circuit of the post on the back trip to town,
+and Miss Flora Allerton clasped her hands and looked enthusiastically up
+into her escort's face.
+
+"Oh," she cried, "isn't it all just too lovely for anything! Why, I
+think your life here must be like a dream."
+
+But Miss Allerton, as Mrs. Cram had said, sometimes gushed, and life at
+Jackson Barracks was no such dream as it appeared.
+
+The sun went down red and angry far across the tawny flood of the
+rushing river. The night lights were set at the distant bend below. The
+stars came peeping through a shifting filmy veil. The big trees on the
+levee and about the flanking towers began to whisper and complain and
+creak, and the rising wind sent long wisps of straggly cloud racing
+across the sky. The moon rose pallid and wan, hung for a while over the
+dense black mass of moss-grown cypress in the eastward swamp, then hid
+her face behind a heavy bank of clouds, as though reluctant to look upon
+the wrath to come, for a storm was rising fast and furious to break upon
+and deluge old Jackson Barracks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+When Jeffers came driving into barracks on his return from town, his
+first care, as became the trained groom, was for his horses, and he was
+rubbing them down and bedding their stalls for the night when the
+sergeant of the battery guard, lantern in hand, appeared at the door. It
+was not yet tattoo, but by this time the darkness was intense, the
+heavens were hid, and the wind was moaning about the stables and
+gun-shed and whistling away over the dismal expanse of flat, wet,
+ditch-tangled fields towards the swamp. But the cockney's spirits were
+blithe as the clouds were black. As was usual when he or any other
+servitor was in attendance on Waring, the reward had been munificent. He
+had lunched at Cassidy's at the lieutenant's expense while that officer
+and his friends were similarly occupied at the more exclusive Moreau's.
+He had stabled the team at the quartermaster's while he had personally
+attended the _matinée_ at the St. Charles, which was more to his taste
+than Booth and high tragedy. He had sauntered about the Tattersalls and
+smoked Waring's cigars and patronized the jockeys gathered there for the
+spring meeting on the Metairie, but promptly on time was awaiting the
+return of the party from their drive and lolling about the ladies'
+entrance to the St. Charles Hotel, when he became aware, as the lamps
+were being lighted and the dusk of the evening gave place to lively
+illumination, that two men had passed and repassed the open portals
+several times, and that they were eying him curiously, and chattering to
+each other in French. One of them he presently recognized as the little
+"frog-eater" who occupied the old house on the levee, Lascelles, the
+husband of the pretty Frenchwoman he and the lieutenant had dragged out
+of the mud that very morning and had driven up to the old D'Hervilly
+place on Rampart Street. Even as he was wondering how cabby got out of
+his scrape and chuckling with satisfaction over the scientific manner in
+which Mr. Waring had floored that worthy, Mr. Jeffers was surprised to
+find himself most civilly accosted by old Lascelles, who had been
+informed, he said, by Madame his wife, of the heroic services rendered
+her that morning by Monsieur Jeffers and Monsieur le Capitaine. He
+begged of the former the acceptance of the small _douceur_ which he
+slipped into the Englishman's accustomed palm, and inquired when he
+might hope to see the brave captain and disembarrass himself of his
+burden of gratitude.
+
+"Here they come now," said Jeffers, promptly pocketing the money and
+springing forward to knuckle his hat-brim and stand at the horses'
+heads. All grace and animation, Mr. Waring had assisted his friends to
+alight, had promised to join them in the ladies' parlor in ten minutes,
+had sprung to the seat again, signalling Jeffers to tumble up behind,
+and then had driven rapidly away through Carondelet Street to the broad
+avenue beyond. Here he tossed the reins to Jeffers, disappeared a
+moment, and came back with a little Indian-made basket filled to
+overflowing with exquisite double violets rich with fragrance.
+
+"Give this to Mrs. Cram for me, and tell the captain I'll drop in to
+thank him in a couple of hours, and---- Here, Jeffers," he said, and
+Jeffers had pocketed another greenback, and had driven briskly
+homeward, well content with the result of his day's labors, and without
+having mentioned to Mr. Waring the fact that Lascelles had been at the
+hotel making inquiries for him. A day so profitable and so pleasant
+Jeffers had not enjoyed since his arrival at the barracks, and he was
+humming away in high good humor, all reckless of the rising storm, when
+the gruff voice of Sergeant Schwartz disturbed him:
+
+"Chevvers, you will rebort at vonst to Captain Cram."
+
+"Who says I will?" said Jeffers, cheerfully, though bent on mischief,
+but was awed into instant silence at seeing that veteran step quickly
+back, stand attention, and raise his hand in salute, for there came Cram
+himself, Pierce with him.
+
+"Did Mr. Waring come back with you?" was the first question.
+
+"No, sir; Hi left Mr. Warink on Canal Street. 'E said 'e'd be back to
+thank the capt'in in a little while, sir, and 'e sent these for the
+capt'in's lady."
+
+Cram took the beautiful basket of violets with dubious hand, though his
+eyes kindled when he noted their profusion and fragrance. Nell loved
+violets, and it was like Waring to remember so bountifully her fondness
+for them.
+
+"What detained him? Did he send no word?"
+
+"'E said nothink, and sent nothink but the basket, sir. 'E said a couple
+of hours, now I think of it, sir. 'E was going back to the 'otel to dine
+with a lady and gent."
+
+For a moment Cram was silent. He glanced at Pierce, as much as to say,
+Have you no question to ask? but the youngster held his peace. The
+senior officer hated to inquire of his servant into the details of the
+day's doings. He was more than half indignant at Waring for having taken
+such advantage of even an implied permission as to drive off with his
+equipage and groom in so summary a way. Of course Nell had said, Take it
+and go, but Nell could have had no idea of the use to which the wagon
+was to be put. If Waring left the garrison with the intention of using
+the equipage to take Madame Lascelles driving, it was the most underhand
+and abominable thing he had ever heard of his doing. It was unlike him.
+It couldn't be true. Yet had not Braxton shown him the letter which
+said he was seen on the levee with her by his side? Had not Dryden
+further informed every man and woman and child with whom he held
+converse during the day that he had seen Waring with Cram's team driving
+Madame Lascelles up Rampart Street, and was not there a story already
+afloat that old Lascelles had forbidden him ever to darken his threshold
+again,--forbidden Madame to drive, dance, or even speak with him? And
+was there not already in the post commander's hand a note intimating
+that Monsieur Lascelles would certainly challenge Waring to instant and
+mortal combat if Waring had used the wagon as alleged? Jeffers must know
+about it, and could and should tell if required, but Cram simply could
+not and would not ask the groom to detail the movements of the
+gentleman. Had not Waring sent word he would be home in two hours and
+would come to see his battery commander at once? Did not that mean he
+would explain fully? Cram gulped down the query that rose to his lips.
+
+"All right, then, Pierce; we'll take these over to Mrs. Cram and have a
+bite ready for Waring on his return," said the stout-hearted fellow,
+and, in refusing to question his servant, missed the chance of averting
+catastrophe.
+
+And so they bore the beautiful cluster of violets, with its mute pledge
+of fidelity and full explanation, to his rejoicing Nell, and the trio
+sat and chatted, and one or two visitors came in for a while and then
+scurried home as the rain began to plash on the windows, and the bugles
+and drums and fifes sounded far away at tattoo and more than usually
+weird and mournful at taps, and finally ten-thirty came, by which time
+it had been raining torrents, and the wind was lashing the roaring river
+into foam, and the trees were bowing low before their master, and the
+levee road was a quagmire, and Cram felt convinced no cab could bring
+his subaltern home. Yet in his nervousness and anxiety he pulled on his
+boots, threw his gum coat over his uniform, tiptoed in to bend over
+Nell's sleeping form and whisper, should she wake, that he was going
+only to the sally-port or perhaps over to Waring's quarters, but she
+slept peacefully and never stirred, so noiselessly he slipped out on the
+gallery and down the stairs and stalked boldly out into the raging
+storm, guided by the dim light burning in Waring's room. Ananias was
+sleeping curled up on a rug in front of the open fireplace, and Cram
+stirred him up with his foot. The negro rolled lazily over, with a
+stretch and yawn.
+
+"Did Mr. Waring take any arms with him?" queried the captain.
+
+"Any whut, suh?" responded Ananias, rubbing his eyes and still only half
+awake.
+
+"Any pistol or knife?"
+
+"Lord, suh, no. Mr. Waring don't never carry anything o' dat sort."
+
+A student-lamp was burning low on the centre-table. There lay among the
+books and papers a couple of letters, evidently received that day, and
+still unopened. There lay Waring's cigar-case, a pretty trifle given him
+by some far-away friend, with three or four fragrant Havanas temptingly
+visible. There lay a late magazine, its pages still uncut. Cram looked
+at the dainty wall clock, ticking merrily away over the mantel.
+Eleven-thirty-five! Well, he was too anxious to sleep anyhow, why not
+wait a few minutes? Waring might come, probably would come. If no cab
+could make its way down by the levee road, there were the late cars from
+town; they had to make the effort anyhow. Cram stepped to the
+sideboard, mixed a mild toddy, sipped it reflectively, then lighted a
+cigar and threw himself into the easy-chair. Ananias, meantime, was up
+and astir. Seeing that Cram was looking about in search of a
+paper-cutter, the boy stepped forward and bent over the table.
+
+"De lieutenant always uses dis, suh," said he, lifting first one paper,
+then another, searching under each. "Don't seem to be yer now, suh.
+You've seen it, dough, captain,--dat cross-handled dagger wid de
+straight blade."
+
+"Yes, I know. Where is it?" asked Cram. "That'll do."
+
+"'Tain't yer, suh, now. Can't find it yer, nohow."
+
+"Well, then, Mr. Waring probably took a knife, after all."
+
+"No, suh, I don't t'ink so. I never knowed him to use it befo' away from
+de room."
+
+"Anybody else been here?" said Cram.
+
+"Oh, dey was all in yer, suh, dis arternoon, but Mr. Doyle he was sent
+for, suh, and had to go."
+
+A step and the rattle of a sword were heard on the gallery without. The
+door opened, and in came Merton of the infantry, officer of the day.
+
+"Hello, Waring!" he began. "Oh, it's you, is it, captain? Isn't Waring
+back? I saw the light, and came up to chin with him a moment. Beastly
+night, isn't it?"
+
+"Waring isn't back yet. I look for him by the eleven-thirty car,"
+answered the captain.
+
+"Why, that's in. No Waring there, but half a dozen poor devils, half
+drowned and half drunk, more'n half drunk, one of your men among 'em. We
+had to put him into the guard-house to keep him from murdering Dawson,
+the head-quarters clerk. There's been some kind of a row."
+
+"Sorry to hear that. Who is the man?"
+
+"Kane. He said Dawson was lying about his officer and he wouldn't stand
+it."
+
+"Kane!" exclaimed Cram, rising. "Why, he's one of our best. I never
+heard of his being riotous before."
+
+"He's riotous enough to-night. He wanted to lick all six of our fellows,
+and if I hadn't got there when I did they would probably have kicked him
+into a pulp. All were drunk; Kane, too, I should say; and as for
+Dawson, he was just limp."
+
+"Would you mind going down and letting me talk with Kane a moment? I
+never knew him to be troublesome before, though he sometimes drank a
+little. He was on pass this evening."
+
+"Well, it's raining cats and dogs, captain, but come along. If you can
+stand it I can."
+
+A few minutes later the sergeant of the guard threw open one of the
+wooden compartments in the guard-house, and there sat Kane, his face
+buried in his hands.
+
+"I ordered him locked in here by himself, because I feared our fellows
+would hammer him if he were turned in with them," explained Mr. Merton,
+and at sound of the voice the prisoner looked up and saw his commander,
+dripping with wet. Unsteadily he rose to his feet.
+
+"Captain," he began, thickly, "I'd never have done it in the world, sir,
+but that blackguard was drunk, sir, and slandering my officer, and I
+gave him fair warning to quit or I'd hit him, but he kept on."
+
+"Ye-es? And what did he say?"
+
+"He said--I wouldn't believe it, sir--that Mr. Doyle was that drunk
+that him and some other fellers had lifted him out of the mud and put
+him to bed up there at--up there at the house, sir, back of Anatole's
+place. I think the captain knows."
+
+"Ah, you should have steered clear of such company, Kane. Did this
+happen at Anatole's saloon?"
+
+"Yes, sir, and them fellers was making so much noise that the dago
+turned them all out and shut up the shop at eleven o'clock, and that's
+what made them follow me home in the car and abuse me all the way. I
+couldn't stand it, sir."
+
+"You would only have laughed at them if your better judgment hadn't been
+ruined by liquor. Sorry for you, Kane, but you've been drinking just
+enough to be a nuisance, and must stay where you are for the night.
+They'll be sorry for what they said in the morning.--Did you lock up the
+others, Mr. Merton?" he asked, as they turned away.
+
+"All but Dawson, sir. I took him over to the hospital and put a sentry
+over him. That fellow looks to be verging on jimjams, and I wouldn't be
+surprised if he'd been talking as Kane says." Merton might have added,
+"and it's probably true," but courtesy to his battery friend forbade.
+Cram did add mentally something to the same effect, but loyalty to his
+arm of the service kept him silent. At the flag-staff the two officers
+stopped.
+
+"Merton, oblige me by saying nothing as to the alleged language about
+Doyle, will you?"
+
+"Certainly, captain. Good-night."
+
+Then, as the officer of the day's lantern flickered away in one
+direction, Cram turned in the other, and presently went climbing up the
+stairs to the gallery leading to the quarters of his senior first
+lieutenant. A dim light was shining through the shutters. Cram knocked
+at the door; no answer. Opening it, he glanced in. The room was
+unoccupied. A cheap marine clock, ticking between the north windows over
+the wash-stand, indicated midnight, and the battery commander turned
+away in vexation of spirit. Lieutenant Doyle had no authority to be
+absent from the post.
+
+It was still dark and storming furiously when the bugles of the battery
+sounded the reveille, and by the light of the swinging lanterns the men
+marched away in their canvas stable rig, looking like a column of
+ghosts. Yet, despite the gale and the torrents of rain, Pierce was in no
+wise surprised to find Cram at his elbow when the horses were led out to
+water.
+
+"Groom in-doors this morning, Mr. Pierce. Is Waring home?"
+
+"No, sir; Ananias told me when he brought me up my coffee."
+
+"Hold the morning report, then, until I come to the office. I fear we
+have both first lieutenants to report absent to-day. You and I may have
+to go to town: so get your breakfast early. We will ride. I doubt if
+even an ambulance could get through. Tell me, Pierce, have you spoken to
+Waring about--about that matter we were discussing? Has he ever given
+you any idea that he had received warning of any kind from old
+Lascelles--or any of his friends?"
+
+"No, sir. I've had no chance to speak, to be sure, and, so far as I
+could observe, he and Mr. Lascelles seemed on very excellent terms only
+a few days ago."
+
+"Well, I wish I had spoken myself," said Cram, and turned away.
+
+That morning, with two first lieutenants absent without leave, the
+report of Light Battery "X" went into the adjutant's office just as its
+commander and his junior subaltern went out and silently mounted the
+dripping horses standing in front. The two orderlies, with their heads
+poked through the slit of their ponchos, briskly seated themselves in
+saddle, and then the colonel hurried forth just in time to hail,--
+
+"Oh, Cram! one minute." And Cram reined about and rode to the side of
+the post commander, who stood under the shelter of the broad gallery.
+
+"I wouldn't say anything about this to any one at head-quarters except
+Reynolds. There's no one else on the staff to whom Waring would apply,
+is there?"
+
+"No one, sir. Reynolds is the only man I can think of."
+
+"Will you send an orderly back with word as soon as you know?"
+
+"Yes, sir, the moment I hear. And-d--shall I send you word
+from--there?"--and Cram nodded northward, and then, in a lower
+tone,--"as to Doyle?"
+
+"Oh, damn Doyle! I don't care if he never----" But here the commander of
+the post regained control of himself, and with parting wave of the hand
+turned back to his office.
+
+Riding in single file up the levee, for the city road was one long pool,
+with the swollen river on their left, and the slanting torrents of rain
+obscuring all objects on the other hand, the party made its way for
+several squares without exchanging a word. Presently the leading file
+came opposite the high wall of the Lascelles place. The green latticed
+gate stood open,--an unusual thing,--and both officers bent low over
+their pommels and gazed along the dark, rainswept alley to the pillared
+portico dimly seen beyond. Not a soul was in sight. The water was
+already on a level with the banquette, and would soon be running across
+and into the gate. A vagabond dog skulking about the place gave vent to
+a mournful howl. A sudden thought struck the captain. He led the way
+down the slope and forded across to the north side, the others
+following.
+
+"Joyce," said he to his orderly, "dismount and go in there and ring at
+the door. Ask if Mr. Lascelles is home. If not, ask if Madame has any
+message she would like to send to town, or if we can be of any service."
+
+The soldier was gone but a moment, and came hurrying back, a negro boy,
+holding a long fold of matting over his head to shed the rain, chasing
+at his heels. It was Alphonse.
+
+"M'sieu' not yet of return," said he, in labored translation of his
+negro French, "and Madame remain chez Madame d'Hervilly. I am alone wiz
+my mudder, and she has fear."
+
+"Oh, it's all right, I fancy," said Cram, reassuringly. "They were
+caught by the storm, and wisely stayed up-town. I saw your gate open, so
+we stopped to inquire. We'll ride over to Madame d'Hervilly's and ask
+for them. How came your gate open?"
+
+"_Mo connais pas_; I dunno, sare. It was lock' last night."
+
+"Why, that's odd," said Cram. "Better bolt it now, or all the cattle
+along the levee will be in there. You can't lock out the water, though.
+Who had the key besides Mr. Lascelles or Madame?"
+
+"Nobody, sare; but there is muddy foots all over the piazza."
+
+"The devil! I'll have to look in for a moment."
+
+A nod to Pierce brought him too from the saddle, and the officers
+handed their reins to the orderlies. Then together they entered the gate
+and strode up the white shell walk, looking curiously about them through
+the dripping shrubbery. Again that dismal howl was raised, and Pierce,
+stopping with impatient exclamation, tore half a brick from the yielding
+border of the walk and sent it hurtling through the trees. With his tail
+between his legs, the brute darted from behind a sheltering bush,
+scurried away around the corner of the house, glancing fearfully back,
+then, halting at safe distance, squatted on his haunches and lifted up
+his mournful voice again.
+
+"Whose dog is that?" demanded Cram.
+
+"M'sieu' Philippe's: he not now here. He is de brudder to Monsieur."
+
+At the steps the captain bent and closely examined them and the floor of
+the low veranda to which they led. Both were disfigured with muddy
+footprints. Pierce would have gone still further in the investigation,
+but his senior held up a warning hand.
+
+"Two men have been here," he muttered. "They have tried the door and
+tried the blinds.--Where did you sleep last night, boy?" and with the
+words he turned suddenly on the negro. "Did you hear no sound?"
+
+"No, sare. I sleep in my bed,--'way back. No, I hear noting,--noting."
+And now the negro's face was twitching, his eyes staring. Something in
+the soldier's stern voice told him that there was tragedy in the air.
+
+"If this door is locked, go round and open it from within," said Cram,
+briefly. Then, as Alphonse disappeared around the north side, he stepped
+back to the shell walk and followed one of its branches around the
+other. An instant later Pierce heard him call. Hastening in his wake,
+the youngster came upon his captain standing under a window, one of
+whose blinds was hanging partly open, water standing in pools all around
+him.
+
+"Look here," was all he said, and pointed upward.
+
+The sill was above the level of their heads, but both could see that the
+sash was raised. All was darkness within.
+
+"Come with me," was Cram's next order, and the lieutenant followed.
+Alphonse was unlocking the front door, and now threw it open. Cram
+strode into the wide hall-way straight to a door of the east side. It
+was locked. "Open this, Alphonse," he said.
+
+"I have not the key. It is ever with M'sieu' Lascelles. It is his
+library."
+
+Cram stepped back, gave one vigorous kick with a heavy riding-boot, and
+the frail door flew open with a crash. For a moment the darkness was
+such that no object could be distinguished within. The negro servant
+hung back, trembling from some indefinable dread. The captain, his hand
+on the door-knob, stepped quickly into the gloomy apartment, Pierce
+close at his heels. A broad, flat-topped desk stood in the centre of the
+room. Some shelves and books were dimly visible against the wall. Some
+of the drawers of the desk were open, and there was a litter of papers
+on the desk, and others were strown in the big rattan chair, some on the
+floor. Two student-lamps could be dimly distinguished, one on the big
+desk, another on a little reading-table placed not far from the south
+window, whose blinds, half open, admitted almost the only light that
+entered the room. With its head near this reading-table and faintly
+visible, a bamboo lounge stretched its length towards the southward
+windows, where all was darkness, and something vague and
+indistinguishable lay extended upon the lounge. Cram marched half-way
+across the floor, then stopped short, glanced down, and stepped quickly
+to one side, shifting his heavily-booted feet as though to avoid some
+such muddy pool as those encountered without.
+
+"Take care," he whispered, and motioned warningly to Pierce. "Come here
+and open these shutters, Alphonse," were the next words. But once again
+that prolonged, dismal, mournful howl was heard under the south window,
+and the negro, seized with uncontrollable panic, turned back and clung
+trembling to the opposite wall.
+
+"Send one of the men for the post surgeon at once, then come back here,"
+said the captain, and Pierce hastened to the gate. As he returned, the
+west shutters were being thrown open. There was light when he re-entered
+the room, and this was what he saw. On the China matting, running from
+underneath the sofa, fed by heavy drops from above, a dark wet stain. On
+the lounge, stretched at full length, a stiffening human shape, a
+yellow-white, parchment-like face above the black clothing, a bluish,
+half-opened mouth whose yellow teeth showed savagely, a fallen chin and
+jaw, covered with the gray stubble of unshaved beard, and two staring,
+sightless, ghastly eyes fixed and upturned as though in agonized appeal.
+Stone-dead,--murdered, doubtless,--all that was left of the little
+Frenchman Lascelles.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+All that day the storm raged in fury; the levee road was blocked in
+places by the boughs torn from overhanging trees, and here, there, and
+everywhere turned into a quagmire by the torrents that could find no
+adequate egress to the northward swamps. For over a mile above the
+barracks it looked like one vast canal, and by nine o'clock it was
+utterly impassable. No cars were running on the dilapidated road to the
+"half-way house," whatever they might be doing beyond. There was only
+one means of communication between the garrison and the town, and that,
+on horseback along the crest of the levee, and people in the
+second-story windows of the store- and dwelling-houses along the
+other side of the way, driven aloft by the drenched condition of the
+ground floor, were surprised to see the number of times some Yankee
+soldier or other made the dismal trip. Cram, with a party of four, was
+perhaps the first. Before the dripping sentries of the old guard were
+relieved at nine o'clock every man and woman at the barracks was aware
+that foul murder had been done during the night, and that old Lascelles,
+slain by some unknown hand, slashed and hacked in a dozen places,
+according to the stories afloat, lay in his gloomy old library up the
+levee road, with a flood already a foot deep wiping out from the grounds
+about the house all traces of his assailants. Dr. Denslow, in examining
+the body, found just one deep, downward stab, entering above the upper
+rib and doubtless reaching the heart,--a stab made by a long, straight,
+sharp, two-edged blade. He had been dead evidently some hours when
+discovered by Cram, who had now gone to town to warn the authorities,
+old Brax meantime having taken upon himself the responsibility of
+placing a guard at the house, with orders to keep Alphonse and his
+mother in and everybody else out.
+
+It is hardly worth while to waste time on the various theories advanced
+in the garrison as to the cause and means of the dreadful climax. That
+Doyle should be away from the post provoked neither comment nor
+speculation: he was not connected in any way with the tragedy. But the
+fact that Mr. Waring was absent all night, coupled with the stories of
+his devotions to Madame, was to several minds _prima facie_ evidence
+that his was the bloody hand that wrought the deed,--that he was now a
+fugitive from justice, and Madame Lascelles, beyond doubt, the guilty
+partner of his flight. Everybody knew by this time of their being
+together much of the morning: how could people help knowing, when Dryden
+had seen them? In his elegantly jocular way, Dryden was already
+condoling with Ferry on the probable loss of his Hatfield clothes, and
+comforting him with the assurance that they always gave a feller a new
+black suit to be hanged in, so he might get his duds back after all,
+only they must get Waring first. Jeffers doubtless would have been
+besieged with questions but for Cram's foresight: his master had ordered
+him to accompany him to town.
+
+In silence a second time the little party rode away, passing the flooded
+homestead where lay the murdered man, then, farther on, gazing in mute
+curiosity at the closed shutters of the premises some infantry satirists
+had already christened "the dove-cot." What cared they for him or his
+objectionable helpmate? Still, they could not but note how gloomy and
+deserted it all appeared, with two feet of water lapping the garden
+wall. Summoned by his master, Jeffers knuckled his oil-skin hat-brim and
+pointed out the spot where Mr. Waring stood when he knocked the cabman
+into the mud, but Jeffers's tongue was tied and his cockney volubility
+gone. The tracks made by Cram's wagon up the slope were already washed
+out. Bending forward to dodge the blinding storm, the party pushed along
+the embankment until at last the avenues and alleys to their right gave
+proof of better drainage. At Rampart Street they separated, Pierce going
+on to report the tragedy to the police, Cram turning to his right and
+following the broad thoroughfare another mile, until Jeffers, indicating
+a big, old-fashioned, broad-galleried Southern house standing in the
+midst of grounds once trim and handsome, but now showing signs of
+neglect and penury, simply said, "'Ere, sir." And here the party
+dismounted.
+
+Cram entered the gate and pulled a clanging bell. The door was almost
+instantly opened by a colored girl, at whose side, with eager joyous
+face, was the pretty child he had seen so often playing about the
+Lascelles homestead, and the eager joyous look faded instantly away.
+
+"She t'ink it M'sieur Vareeng who comes to arrive," explained the
+smiling colored girl.
+
+"Ah! It is Madame d'Hervilly I wish to see," answered Cram, briefly.
+"Please take her my card." And, throwing off his dripping raincoat and
+tossing it to Jeffers, who had followed to the veranda, the captain
+stepped within the hall and held forth his hands to Nin Nin, begging her
+to come to him who was so good a friend of Mr. Waring. But she would
+not. The tears of disappointment were in the dark eyes as the little one
+turned and ran away. Cram could hear the gentle, soothing tones of the
+mother striving to console her child,--the one widowed and the other
+orphaned by the tidings he bore. Even then he noted how musical, how
+full of rich melody, was that soft Creole voice. And then Madame
+d'Hervilly appeared, a stately, dignified, picturesque gentlewoman of
+perhaps fifty years. She greeted him with punctilious civility, but with
+manner as distant as her words were few.
+
+"I have come on a trying errand," he began, when she held up a slender,
+jewelled hand.
+
+"_Pardon. Permettez._--Madame Lascelles," she called, and before Cram
+could find words to interpose, a servant was speeding to summon the very
+woman he had hoped not to have to see.
+
+"Oh, madame," he murmured low, hurriedly, "I deplore my ignorance. I
+cannot speak French. Try to understand me. Mr. Lascelles is home,
+dangerously stricken. I fear the worst. You must tell her."
+
+"'Ome! _Là bas? C'est impossible._"
+
+"It is true," he burst in, for the swish of silken skirt was heard down
+the long passage. "_Il est mort_,--_mort_" he whispered, mustering up
+what little French he knew and then cursing himself for an imbecile.
+
+"_Mort! O ciel!_" The words came with a shriek of anguish from the lips
+of the elder woman and were echoed by a scream from beyond. In an
+instant, wild-eyed, horror-stricken, Emilie Lascelles had sprung to her
+tottering mother's side.
+
+"When? What mean you?" she gasped.
+
+"Madame Lascelles," he sadly spoke, "I had hoped to spare you this, but
+it is too late now. Mr. Lascelles was found lying on the sofa in his
+library this morning. He had died hours before, during the night."
+
+And then he had to spring and catch the fainting woman in his arms. She
+was still moaning, and only semi-conscious, when the old family doctor
+and her brother, Pierre d'Hervilly, arrived.
+
+Half an hour later Cram astonished the aides-de-camp and other bored
+staff officials by appearing at the general loafing-room at
+head-quarters. To the chorus of inquiry as to what brought him up in
+such a storm he made brief reply, and then asked immediately to speak
+with the adjutant-general and Lieutenant Reynolds, and, to the disgust
+and mystification of all the others, he disappeared with these into an
+adjoining room. There he briefly told the former of the murder, and then
+asked for a word with the junior.
+
+Reynolds was a character. Tall, handsome, and distinguished, he had
+served throughout the war as a volunteer, doing no end of good work, and
+getting many a word of praise, but, as all his service was as a staff
+officer, it was his general who reaped the reward of his labors. He had
+risen, of course, to the rank of major in the staff in the volunteers,
+and everybody had prophesied that he would be appointed a major in the
+adjutant- or inspector-general's department in the permanent
+establishment. But there were not enough places by any means, and the
+few vacancies went to men who knew better how to work for themselves.
+"Take a lieutenancy now, and we will fix you by and by," was the
+suggestion, and so it resulted that here he was three years after the
+war wearing the modest strap of a second lieutenant, doing the duties
+and accepting the responsibilities of a far higher grade, and being
+patronized by seniors who were as much his inferiors in rank as they
+were in ability during the war days. Everybody said it was a shame, and
+nobody helped to better his lot. He was a man whose counsel was valuable
+on all manner of subjects. Among other things, he was well versed in all
+that pertained to the code of honor as it existed in the antebellum
+days,--had himself been "out," and, as was well known, had but recently
+officiated as second for an officer who had need of his services. He and
+Waring were friends from the start, and Cram counted on tidings of his
+absent subaltern in appealing to him. Great, therefore, was his
+consternation when in reply to his inquiry Reynolds promptly answered
+that he had neither seen nor heard from Waring in over forty-eight
+hours. This was a facer.
+
+"What's wrong, Cram?"
+
+"Read that," said the captain, placing a daintily-written note in the
+aide-de-camp's hand. It was brief, but explicit:
+
+"COLONEL BRAXTON: Twice have I warned you that the attentions of your
+Lieutenant Waring to Madame Lascelles meant mischief. This morning,
+under pretence of visiting her mother, she left the house in a cab, but
+in half an hour was seen driving with Mr. Waring. This has been, as I
+have reason to know, promptly carried to Monsieur Lascelles by people
+whom he had employed for the purpose. I could of told you last night
+that Monsieur Lascelles's friend had notified Lieutenant Waring that a
+duel would be exacted should he be seen with Madame again, and now it
+will certainly come. You have seen fit to scorn my warnings hitherto,
+the result is on your head." There was no signature whatever.
+
+"Who wrote this rot?" asked Reynolds. "It seems to me I've seen that
+hand before."
+
+"So have I, and pitched the trash into the fire, as I do everything
+anonymous that comes my way. But Brax says that this is the second or
+third, and he's worried about it, and thinks there may be truth in the
+story."
+
+"As to the duel, or as to the devotions to Madame?" asked Reynolds,
+calmly.
+
+"We-ll, both, and we thought you would be most apt to know whether a
+fight was on. Waring promised to return to the post at taps last night.
+Instead of that, he is gone,--God knows where,--and the old man, the
+reputed challenger, lies dead at his home. Isn't that ugly?"
+
+Reynolds's face grew very grave.
+
+"Who last saw Waring, that you know of?"
+
+"My man Jeffers left him on Canal Street just after dark last night. He
+was then going to dine with friends at the St. Charles."
+
+"The Allertons?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then wait till I see the chief, and I'll go with you. Say nothing about
+this matter yet."
+
+Reynolds was gone but a moment. A little later Cram and the aide were at
+the St. Charles rotunda, their cards sent up to the Allertons' rooms.
+Presently down came the bell-boy. Would the gentleman walk up to the
+parlor? This was awkward. They wanted to see Allerton himself, and Cram
+felt morally confident that Miss Flora Gwendolen would be on hand to
+welcome and chat with so distinguished a looking fellow as Reynolds.
+There was no help for it, however. It would be possible to draw off the
+head of the family after a brief call upon the ladies. Just as they were
+leaving the marble-floored rotunda, a short, swarthy man in
+"pepper-and-salt" business suit touched Cram on the arm, begged a word,
+and handed him a card.
+
+"A detective,--already?" asked Cram, in surprise.
+
+"I was with the chief when Lieutenant Pierce came in to report the
+matter," was the brief response, "and I came here to see your man. He is
+reluctant to tell what he knows without your consent. Could you have him
+leave the horses with your orderly below and come up here a moment?"
+
+"Why, certainly, if you wish; but I can't see why," said Cram,
+surprised.
+
+"You will see, sir, in a moment."
+
+And then Jeffers, with white, troubled face, appeared, and twisted his
+wet hat-brim in nervous worriment.
+
+"Now what do you want of him?" asked Cram.
+
+"Ask him, sir, who was the man who slipped a greenback into his hand at
+the ladies' entrance last evening. What did he want of him?"
+
+Jeffers turned a greenish yellow. His every impulse was to lie, and the
+detective saw it.
+
+"You need not lie, Jeffers," he said, very quietly. "It will do no good.
+I saw the men. I can tell your master who one of them was, and possibly
+lay my hands on the second when he is wanted; but I want you to tell and
+to explain what that greenback meant."
+
+Then Jeffers broke down and merely blubbered.
+
+"Hi meant no 'arm, sir. Hi never dreamed there was hanythink wrong.
+'Twas Mr. Lascelles, sir. 'E said 'e came to thank me for 'elping 'is
+lady, sir. Then 'e wanted to see Mr. Warink, sir."
+
+"Why didn't you tell me of this before?" demanded the captain, sternly.
+"You know what happened this morning."
+
+"Hi didn't want to 'ave Mr. Warink suspected, sir," was poor Jeffers's
+half-tearful explanation, as Mr. Allerton suddenly entered the little
+hall-way room.
+
+The grave, troubled faces caught his eye at once.
+
+"Is anything wrong?" he inquired, anxiously. "I hope Waring is all
+right. I tried to induce him not to start, but he said he had promised
+and must go."
+
+"What time did he leave you, Mr. Allerton?" asked Cram, controlling as
+much as possible the tremor of his voice.
+
+"Soon after the storm broke,--about nine-thirty, I should say. He tried
+to get a cab earlier, but the drivers wouldn't agree to go down for
+anything less than a small fortune. Luckily, his Creole friends had a
+carriage."
+
+"His what?"
+
+"His friends from near the barracks. They were here when we came down
+into the rotunda to smoke after dinner."
+
+Cram felt his legs and feet grow cold and a chill run up his spine.
+
+"Who were they? Did you catch their names?"
+
+"Only one. I was introduced only as they were about to drive away. A
+little old fellow with elaborate manners,--a Monsieur Lascelles."
+
+"And Waring drove away with him?"
+
+"Yes, with him and one other. Seemed to be a friend of Lascelles. Drove
+off in a closed carriage with a driver all done up in rubber and
+oil-skin who said he perfectly knew the road. Why, what's gone amiss?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+And all day long the storm beat upon the substantial buildings of the
+old barracks and flooded the low ground about the sheds and stables.
+Drills for the infantry were necessarily suspended, several sentries,
+even, being taken off their posts. The men clustered in the squad-rooms
+and listened with more or less credulity to the theories and
+confirmatory statements of fact as related by the imaginative or
+loquacious of their number. The majority of the officers gathered under
+the flaring lamp-lights at the sutler's store and occupied themselves
+pretty much as did their inferiors in grade, though poker and
+punch--specialties of Mr. Finkbein, the sutler--lent additional color to
+the stories in circulation.
+
+From this congress the better element of the commissioned force was
+absent, the names, nationalities, and idiomatic peculiarities of speech
+of the individual members being identical in most instances with those
+of their comrades in arms in the ranks. "Brax" had summoned Minor,
+Lawrence, Kinsey, and Dryden to hear what the post surgeon had to say on
+his return, but cautioned them to keep quiet. As a result of this
+precaution, the mystery of the situation became redoubled by one
+o'clock, and was intensified by two, when it was announced that Private
+Dawson had attempted to break away out of the hospital after a visit
+from the same doctor in his professional capacity. People were tempted
+out on their galleries in the driving storm, and colored servants
+flitted from kitchen to kitchen to gather or dispense new rumors, but
+nobody knew what to make of it when, soon after two, an orderly rode in
+from town dripping with mud and wet, delivered a note to the colonel,
+and took one from him to Mr. Ferry, now sole representative of the
+officers of Battery "X" present for duty. Ferry in return sent the
+bedraggled horseman on to the battery quarters with an order to the
+first sergeant, and in about fifteen minutes a sergeant and two men,
+mounted and each leading a spare horse, appeared under Ferry's gallery,
+and that officer proceeded to occupy one of the vacant saddles, and,
+followed by his party, went clattering out of the sally-port and
+splashing over to the levee. Stable-call sounded as usual at four
+o'clock, and, for the first time in the record of that disciplined
+organization since the devastating hand of Yellow Jack was laid upon it
+the previous year, no officer appeared to supervise the grooming and
+feeding. Two of them were at the post, however. Mr. Doyle, in arrest on
+charge of absence without leave, was escorted to his quarters about
+four-fifteen, and was promptly visited by sympathizing and inquisitive
+comrades from the Hotel Finkbein, while Mr. Ferry, who had effected the
+arrest, was detained making his report to the post commander. Night came
+on apace, the wind began to die away with the going down of the sun, the
+rain ceased to fall, a pallid moon began peering at odd intervals
+through rifts in the cloudy veil, when Cram rode splashing into
+barracks, worn with anxiety and care, at eleven o'clock, and, stopping
+only for a moment to take his wife in his arms and kiss her anxious face
+and shake his head in response to her eager query for news of Waring, he
+hurried down-stairs again and over to Doyle's quarters. All was darkness
+there, but he never hesitated. Tramping loudly over the gallery, he
+banged at the door, then, turning the knob, intending to burst right in,
+as was the way in the rough old days, was surprised to find the bolt
+set.
+
+"Doyle, open. I want to see you at once."
+
+All silence within.
+
+"Doyle, open, or, if you are too drunk to get up, I'll kick in the
+door."
+
+A groan, a whispered colloquy, then the rattle of bolt and chain. The
+door opened about an inch, and an oily Irish voice inquired,--
+
+"Hwat's wanted, capt'in?"
+
+"You here?" exclaimed Cram, in disgust. "What business have you in this
+garrison? If the colonel knew it, you'd be driven out at the point of
+the bayonet."
+
+"Sure where should wife be but at her husband's side whin he's sick and
+sufferin'? Didn't they root him out of bed and comfort this day and ride
+him down like a felon in all the storm? Sure it was the doughboys'
+orders, sir. I told Doyle the capt'in niver would have----"
+
+"Oh, be quiet: I must see Doyle, and at once."
+
+"Sure he's not able, capt'in. You know how it is wid him: he's that
+sinsitive he couldn't bear to talk of the disgrace he's bringin' on the
+capt'in and the batthery, and I knowed he'd been dhrinkin', sir, and I
+came back to look for him, but he'd got started, capt'in, and it's----"
+
+"Stop this talk! He wasn't drinking at all until you came back here to
+hound him. Open that door, or a file of the guard will."
+
+"Och! thin wait till I'm dressed, fur dacency's sake, capt'in. Sure I'll
+thry and wake him."
+
+And then more whispering, the clink of glass, maudlin protestation in
+Doyle's thick tones. Cram banged at the door and demanded instant
+obedience. Admitted at last, he strode to the side of an ordinary
+hospital cot, over which the mosquito-bar was now ostentatiously drawn,
+and upon which was stretched the bulky frame of the big Irishman, his
+red, blear-eyed, bloated face half covered in his arms. The close air
+reeked with the fumes of whiskey. In her distress lest Jim should take
+too much, the claimant of his name and protection had evidently been
+sequestrating a large share for herself.
+
+"How on earth did you get here? Your house was flooded all day," angrily
+asked Cram.
+
+"Sure we made a raft, sir,--'Louette and me,--and poled over to the
+levee, and I walked every fut of the way down to follow me husband, as I
+swore I would whin we was married. I'd 'a' come in Anatole's boat, sir,
+but 'twas gone,--gone since last night. Did ye know that, capt'in?"
+
+A groan and a feverish toss from the occupant of the narrow bed
+interrupted her.
+
+"Hush, Jim darlin'! Here's the capt'in to see you and tell you he's come
+back to have you roighted. Sure how could a poor fellow be expected to
+come home in all that awful storm this mornin', capt'in? 'Tis for not
+comin' the colonel had him under arrest; but I tell him the capt'in 'll
+see him through."
+
+But Cram pushed her aside as she still interposed between him and the
+bed.
+
+"Doyle, look up and answer. Doyle, I say!"
+
+Again vehement protestations, and now an outburst of tears and
+pleadings, from the woman.
+
+"Oh, he can't understand you, capt'in. Ah, don't be hard on him. Only
+this mornin' he was sayin' how the capt'in reminded him of the ould
+foine days whin the officers was all gintlemen and soldiers. He's truer
+to ye than all the rest of thim, sir. D'ye moind that, capt'in? Ye
+wouldn't belave it, mabby, but there's them that can tell ye Loot'nant
+Waring was no friend of yours, sir, and worse than that, if ould
+Lascelles could spake now--but there's thim left that can, glory be to
+God!"
+
+"Oh, for God's sake shut up!" spoke Cram, roughly, goaded beyond all
+patience. "Doyle, answer me!" And he shook him hard. "You were at the
+Pelican last night, and you saw Mr. Waring and spoke with him. What did
+he want of you? Where did he go? Who were with him? Was there any
+quarrel? Answer, I say! Do you know?" But maudlin moaning and
+incoherencies were all that Cram could extract from the prostrate man.
+Again the woman interposed, eager, tearful.
+
+"Sure he was there, capt'in, he _was_ there; he told me of it whin I
+fetched him home last night to git him out of the storm and away from
+that place; but he's too dhrunk now to talk. Sure there was no gittin'
+down here to barx for anybody. The cabman, sir, said no carriage could
+make it."
+
+"What cabman? That's one thing I want to know. Who is he? What became of
+him?"
+
+"Sure and how do I know, sir? He was a quiet, dacent man, sir; the same
+that Mr. Waring bate so cruel and made Jeffers kick and bate him too. I
+saw it all."
+
+"And was he at the Pelican last night? I must know."
+
+"Sure he was indade, sir. Doyle said so whin I fetched him home, and
+though he can't tell you now, sir, he told me thin. They all came down
+to the Pelican, sir, Waring and Lascelles and the other gintleman, and
+they had dhrink, and there was trouble between the Frenchman and
+Waring,--sure you can't blame him, wid his wife goin' on so wid the
+loot'nant all the last month,--and blows was struck, and Doyle
+interposed to stop it, sir, loike the gintleman that he is, and the
+cab-driver took a hand and pitched him out into the mud. Sure he'd been
+dhrinkin' a little, sir, and was aisy upset, but that's all he knows.
+The carriage drove away, and there was three of thim, and poor Doyle got
+caught out there in the mud and in the storm, and 'twas me wint out wid
+Dawson and another of the byes and fetched him in. And we niver heerd of
+the murther at all at all, sir, until I came down here to-day, that's
+God's troot', and he'll tell ye so whin he's sober," she ended,
+breathless, reckless of her descriptive confusion of Doyle and Divinity.
+
+And still the Irishman lay there, limp, soggy, senseless, and at last,
+dismayed and disheartened, the captain turned away.
+
+"Promise to sober him up by reveille, and you may stay. But hear this:
+if he cannot answer for himself by that time, out you go in the battery
+cart with a policeman to take you to the calaboose." And then he left.
+
+No sooner had his footsteps died away than the woman turned on her
+patient, now struggling to a sitting posture.
+
+"Lie still, you thafe and cur, and swear you to every word I say, unless
+you'd hang in his place. Dhrink this, now, and go to slape, and be riddy
+to tell the story I give ye in the mornin', or may the knife ye drove in
+that poor mummy's throat come back to cut your coward heart out."
+
+And Doyle, shivering, sobbing, crazed with drink and fear, covered his
+eyes with his hands and threw himself back on his hot and steaming
+pillow.
+
+The morning sun rose brilliant and cloudless as the horses of the
+battery came forth from the dark interior of the stable and, after
+watering at the long wooden trough on the platform, were led away by
+their white-frocked grooms, each section to its own picket-line. Ferry,
+supervising the duty, presently caught sight of the tall muscular form
+of his captain coming briskly around the corner, little Pierce tripping
+along by his side. Cram acknowledged the salute of the battery officer
+of the day in hurried fashion.
+
+"Good-morning, Ferry," he said. "Tell me, who were there when you got
+Doyle away from that woman yesterday?"
+
+"Only the three, sir,--Mr. and Mrs. Doyle and the negro girl."
+
+"No sign of anybody else?"
+
+"None, sir. I didn't go in the house at all. I rode in the gate and
+called for Doyle to come out. The woman tried to parley, but I refused
+to recognize her at all, and presently Doyle obeyed without any trouble
+whatever, though she kept up a tirade all the time and said he was too
+sick to ride, and all that, but he wasn't. He seemed dazed, but not
+drunk,--certainly not sick. He rode all right, only he shivered and
+crossed himself and moaned when he passed the Lascelles place, for that
+hound pup set up a howl just as we were opposite the gate. He was all
+trembling when we reached the post, and took a big drink the moment he
+got to his room."
+
+"Ye-es, he's been drinking ever since. I've just sent the doctor to see
+him. Let the corporal and one man of the guard go with the ambulance to
+escort Mrs. Doyle out of the garrison and take her home. She shall not
+stay."
+
+"Why, she's gone, sir," said Ferry. "The guard told me she went out of
+the back gate and up the track towards Anatole's--going for all she was
+worth--just after dawn."
+
+"The mischief she has! What can have started her? Did you see her
+yourself, Sergeant Bennett?" asked the captain of a stocky little Irish
+soldier standing at the moment with drawn sabre awaiting opportunity to
+speak to his commander.
+
+"Yes, sir," and the sabre came flashing up to the present. "She'd wint
+over to the hospital to get some medicine for the lieutenant just after
+our bugle sounded first call, and she came runnin' out as I wint to call
+the officer of the day, sir. She ran back to the lieutenant's quarters
+ahead of me, and was up only a minute or two whin down she came again
+wid some bundles, and away she wint to the north gate, runnin'
+wild-like. The steward told me a moment after of Dawson's escape."
+
+"Dawson! escaped from hospital?"
+
+"Yes, sir. They thought he was all right last evening when he was
+sleeping, and took the sentry off, and at four this morning he was
+gone."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+Forty-eight hours had passed, and not a trace had been found of
+Lieutenant Waring. The civil officers of the law had held grave converse
+with the seniors on duty at the barracks, and Cram's face was lined with
+anxiety and trouble. The formal inquest was held as the flood subsided,
+and the evidence of the post surgeon was most important. About the
+throat of the murdered man were indubitable marks of violence. The skin
+was torn as by finger-nails, the flesh bruised and discolored as by
+fiercely-grasping fingers. But death, said the doctor, was caused by the
+single stab. Driven downward with savage force, a sharp-pointed,
+two-edged, straight-bladed knife had pierced the heart, and all was over
+in an instant. One other wound there was, a slashing cut across the
+stomach, which had let a large amount of blood, but might possibly not
+have been mortal. What part the deceased had taken in the struggle could
+only be conjectured. A little five-chambered revolver which he
+habitually carried was found on the floor close at hand. Two charges had
+been recently fired, for the barrel was black with powder; but no one
+had heard a shot.
+
+The bar-keeper at the Pelican could throw but little light on the
+matter. The storm had broken, he said, with sudden fury. The rain dashed
+in torrents against his western front, and threatened to beat in the
+windows. He called to the two men who happened to be seated at a table
+to assist him, and was busy trying to get up the shutters, when
+Lieutenant Doyle joined them and rendered timely aid. He had frequently
+seen Doyle before during the previous month. Mrs. Doyle lived in the old
+Lemaître house in the block below, and he often supplied them with
+whiskey. They drank nothing but whiskey. As they ran in the side door
+they were surprised to see the lights of a carriage standing at the edge
+of the banquette, and the driver begged for shelter for his team, saying
+some gentlemen had gone inside. The bar-keeper opened a gate, and the
+driver put his horses under a shed in a paved court in the rear, then
+came in for a drink. Meantime, said the bar-keeper, whose name was
+Bonelli, three gentlemen who were laughing over their escape from the
+storm had ordered wine and gone into a private room, Doyle with them.
+The only one he knew was Monsieur Lascelles, though he had seen one of
+the others frequently as he rode by, and knew him to be an officer
+before Mr. Doyle slapped him on the back and hailed him as "Sammy, old
+buck!" or something like that. Mr. Doyle had been drinking, and the
+gentleman whispered to him not to intrude just then, and evidently
+wanted to get rid of him, but Mr. Lascelles, who had ordered the wine,
+demanded to be introduced, and would take no denial, and invited Mr.
+Doyle to join them, and ordered more wine. And then Bonelli saw that
+Lascelles himself was excited by drink,--the first time he had ever
+noticed it in the year he had known him. The third gentleman he had
+never seen before, and could only say he was dark and sallow and did not
+talk, except to urge the driver to make haste,--they must go on; but he
+spoke in a low tone with Mr. Lascelles as they went to the room, and
+presently the rain seemed to let up a little, though it blew hard, and
+the driver went out and looked around and then returned to the private
+room where the gentlemen were having their wine, and there was some
+angry talk, and he came out in a few minutes very mad; said he wouldn't
+be hired to drive that party any farther, or any other party, for that
+matter; that no carriage could go down the levee; and then he got out
+his team and drove back to town; and then Bonelli could hear sounds of
+altercation in the room, and Mr. Doyle's voice, very angry, and the
+strange gentleman came out, and one of the men who'd been waiting said
+he had a cab, if that would answer, and he'd fetch it right off, and by
+the time he got back it was raining hard again, and he took his cab in
+under the shed where the carriage had been, and a couple of soldiers
+from the barracks then came in, wet and cold, and begged for a drink,
+and Bonelli knew one of them, called Dawson, and trusted him, as he
+often had done before. When Dawson heard Lieutenant Doyle's drunken
+voice he said there'd be trouble getting him home, and he'd better fetch
+Mrs. Doyle, and while he was gone Lascelles came out, excited, and threw
+down a twenty-dollar bill and ordered more Krug and some brandy, and
+there was still loud talk, and when Bonelli carried in the bottles
+Doyle was sitting back in a chair, held down by the other officer, who
+was laughing at him, but nevertheless had a knife in hand,--a long,
+sharp, two-edged knife,--and Doyle was calling him names, and was very
+drunk, and soon after they all went out into the rear court, and Doyle
+made more noise, and the cab drove away around the corner, going down
+the levee through the pouring rain, one man on the box with the driver.
+That was the last he saw. Then Mrs. Doyle came in mad, and demanded her
+husband, and they found him reeling about the dark court, swearing and
+muttering, and Dawson and she took him off between them. This must have
+been before eleven o'clock; and that was absolutely all he knew.
+
+Then Mr. Allerton had told his story again, without throwing the
+faintest light on the proceedings; and the hack-driver was found, and
+frankly and fully told his: that Lascelles and another gentleman hired
+him about eight o'clock to drive them down to the former's place, which
+they said was several squares above the barracks. He said that he would
+have to charge them eight dollars such a night anywhere below the old
+cotton-press, where the pavement ended. But then they had delayed
+starting nearly an hour, and took another gentleman with them, and when
+driven by the storm to shelter at the Pelican saloon, three squares
+below where the pavement ended, and he asked for his money, saying he
+dare go no farther in the darkness and the flood, the Frenchman wouldn't
+pay, because he hadn't taken them all the way. He pointed out that he
+had to bring another gentleman and had to wait a long time, and demanded
+his eight dollars. The other gentleman, whom he found to be one of the
+officers at the barracks, slipped a bill into his hand and said it was
+all he had left, and if it wasn't enough he'd pay him the next time he
+came to town. But the others were very angry, and called him an Irish
+thief, and then the big soldier in uniform said he wouldn't have a man
+abused because he was Irish, and Lieutenant Waring, as he understood the
+name of this other officer to be, told him, the witness, to slip out and
+say no more, that he'd fix it all right, and that was the last he saw of
+the party, but he heard loud words and the sound of a scuffle as he
+drove away.
+
+And Madame d'Hervilly had given her testimony, which, translated, was
+to this effect. She had known the deceased these twenty years. He had
+been in the employ of her lamented husband, who died of the fever in
+'55, and Monsieur had succeeded to the business, and made money, and
+owned property in town, besides the old family residence on the levee
+below. He was wedded to Emilie only a little while before the war, and
+lived at home all through, but business languished then, they had to
+contribute much, and his younger brother, Monsieur Philippe, had cost
+him a great deal. Philippe was an officer in the Zouaves raised in 1861
+among the French Creoles, and marched with them to Columbus, and was
+wounded and came home to be nursed, and Emilie took care of him for
+weeks and months, and then he went back to the war and fought bravely,
+and was shot again and brought home, and this time Monsieur Lascelles
+did not want to have him down at the house; he said it cost too much to
+get the doctors down there: so he came under Madame's roof, and she was
+very fond of the boy, and Emilie would come sometimes and play and sing
+for him. When the war was over Monsieur Lascelles gave him money to go
+to Mexico with Maximilian, and when the French were recalled many
+deserted and came over to New Orleans, and Monsieur Lascelles was making
+very little money now, and had sold his town property, and he borrowed
+money of her to help, as he said, Philippe again, who came to visit him,
+and he was often worried by Philippe's letters begging for money. Seven
+thousand dollars now he owed her, and only last week had asked for more.
+Philippe was in Key West to buy an interest in some cigar-business.
+Monsieur Lascelles said if he could raise three thousand to reach
+Philippe this week they would all make money, but Emilie begged her not
+to, she was afraid it would all go, and on the very day before he was
+found dead he came to see her in the afternoon on Rampart Street, and
+Emilie had told her of Mr. Waring's kindness to her and to Nin Nin, and
+how she never could have got up after being dragged into the mud by that
+drunken cabman, "and she begged me to explain the matter to her husband,
+who was a little vexed with her because of Mr. Waring." But he spoke
+only about the money, and did not reply about Mr. Waring, except that
+he would see him and make proper acknowledgment of his civility. He
+seemed to think only of the money, and said Philippe had written again
+and must have help, and he was angry at Emilie because she would not
+urge with him, and Emilie wept, and he went away in anger, saying he had
+business to detain him in town until morning, when he would expect her
+to be ready to return with him.
+
+Much of this testimony was evoked by pointed queries of the officials,
+who seemed somewhat familiar with Lascelles's business and family
+affairs, and who then declared that they must question the stricken
+widow. Harsh and unfeeling as this may have seemed, there were probably
+reasons which atoned for it. She came in on the arm of the old family
+physician, looking like a drooping flower, with little Nin Nin clinging
+to her hand. She was so shocked and stunned that she could barely answer
+the questions put to her with all courtesy and gentleness of manner. No,
+she had never heard of any quarrel between Monsieur Lascelles and his
+younger brother. Yes, Philippe had been nursed by her through his
+wounds. She was fond of Philippe, but not so fond as was her husband.
+Mr. Lascelles would do anything for Philippe, deny himself anything
+almost. Asked if Monsieur Lascelles had not given some reason for his
+objection to Philippe's being nursed at his house when he came home the
+second time, she was embarrassed and distressed. She said Philippe was
+an impulsive boy, fancied himself in love with his brother's wife, and
+Armand saw something of this, and at last upbraided him, but very
+gently. There was no quarrel at all. Was there any one whom Monsieur
+Lascelles had been angered with on her account? She knew of none, but
+blushed, and blushed painfully. Had the deceased not recently objected
+to the attentions paid her by other gentlemen? There was a murmur of
+reproach among the hearers, but Madame answered unflinchingly, though
+with painful blushes and tears. Monsieur Lascelles had said nothing of
+disapproval until very recently; _au contraire_, he had much liked Mr.
+Waring. He was the only one of the officers at the barracks whom he had
+ever invited to the house, and he talked with him a great deal; had
+never, even to her, spoken of a quarrel with him because Mr. Waring had
+been so polite to her, until within a week or two; then--yes, he
+certainly had. Of her husband's business affairs, his papers, etc., she
+knew little. He always had certain moneys, though not large sums, with
+all his papers, in the drawers of his cabinet, and that they should be
+in so disturbed a state was not unusual. They were all in order, closed
+and locked, when he started for town the morning of that fatal day, but
+he often left them open and in disorder, only then locking his library
+door. When she left for town, two hours after him, the library door was
+open, also the side window. She could throw no light on the tragedy. She
+had no idea who the stranger could be. She had not seen Philippe for
+nearly a year, and believed him to be at Key West.
+
+Alphonse, the colored boy, was so terrified by the tragedy and by his
+detention under the same roof with the murdered man that his evidence
+was only dragged from him. Nobody suspected the poor fellow of
+complicity in the crime, yet he seemed to consider himself as on trial.
+He swore he had entered the library only once during the afternoon or
+evening, and that was to close the shutters when the storm broke. He
+left a lamp burning low in the hall, according to custom, though he felt
+sure his master and mistress would remain in town over-night rather
+than attempt to come down. He had slept soundly, as negroes will,
+despite the gale and the roar of the rain that drowned all other noises.
+It was late the next morning when his mother called him. The old mammy
+was frightened to see the front gate open, the deep water in the
+streets, and the muddy footprints on the veranda. She called Alphonse,
+who found that his master must have come in during the night, after all,
+for the lamp was taken from the hall table, the library door was closed
+and locked, so was the front door, also barred within, which it had not
+been when he went to bed. He tapped at the library, got no answer, so
+tiptoed to his master's bedroom; it was empty and undisturbed. Neither
+had Madame nor Mademoiselle Nin Nin been to their rooms. Then he was
+troubled, and then the soldiers came and called him out into the rain.
+They could tell the rest.
+
+Cram's story is already told, and he could add nothing. The officials
+tried to draw the batteryman out as to the relations existing between
+Lieutenant Waring and Madame, but got badly "bluffed." Cram said he had
+never seen anything in the faintest degree worthy of comment. Had he
+heard anything? Yes, but nothing worthy of consideration, much less of
+repetition. Had he not loaned Mr. Waring his team and carriage to drive
+Madame to town that morning? No. How did he get it, then? Took it! Was
+Monsieur Waring in the habit of helping himself to the property of his
+brother officers? Yes, whenever he felt like it, for they never
+objected. The legal official thought such spirit of _camaraderie_ in the
+light artillery must make life at the barracks something almost poetic,
+to which Cram responded, "Oh, at times absolutely idyllic." And the tilt
+ended with the civil functionary ruffled, and this was bad for the
+battery. Cram never had any policy whatsoever.
+
+Lieutenant Doyle was the next witness summoned, and a more
+God-forsaken-looking fellow never sat in a shell jacket. Still in
+arrest, physically, at the beck of old Braxton, and similarly hampered,
+intellectually, at the will of bold John Barleycorn, Mr. Doyle came
+before the civil authorities only upon formal subpoena served at post
+head-quarters. The post surgeon had straightened him up during the day,
+but was utterly perplexed at his condition. Mrs. Doyle's appearance in
+the neighborhood some weeks before had been the signal for a series of
+sprees on the Irishman's part that had on two occasions so prostrated
+him that Dr. Potts, an acting assistant surgeon, had been called in to
+prescribe for him, and, thanks to the vigorous constitution of his
+patient, had pulled him out in a few hours. But this time "Pills the
+Less" had found Doyle in a state bordering on terror, even when assured
+that the quantity of his potations had not warranted an approach to
+tremens. The post surgeon had been called in too, and "Pills the
+Pitiless," as he was termed, thanks to his unfailing prescription of
+quinine and blue mass in the shape and size of buckshot, having no
+previous acquaintance, in Doyle, with these attacks, poohpoohed the
+case, administered bromides and admonition in due proportion, and went
+off about more important business. Dr. Potts, however, stood by his big
+patient, wondering what should cause him to start in such terror at
+every step upon the stair without, and striving to bring sleep to eyes
+that had not closed the livelong night nor all the balmy, beautiful day.
+Once he asked if Doyle wished him to send for his wife, and was startled
+at the vehemence of the reply, "For God's sake, no!" and, shuddering,
+Doyle had hidden his face and turned away. Potts got him to eat
+something towards noon, and Doyle begged for more drink, but was
+refused. He was sober, yet shattered, when Mr. Drake suddenly appeared
+just about stable-call and bade him repair at once to the presence of
+the commanding officer. Then Potts _had_ to give him a drink, or he
+would never have got there. With the aid of a servant he was dressed,
+and, accompanied by the doctor, reached the office. Braxton looked him
+over coldly.
+
+"Mr. Doyle," said he, "the civil authorities have made requisition
+for----" But he had got no further when Doyle staggered, and but for the
+doctor's help might have fallen.
+
+"For God's sake, colonel, it isn't true! Sure I know nothing of it at
+all at all, sir. Indade, indade, I was blind dhrunk, colonel. Sure
+they'd swear a man's life away, sir, just because he was the one--he was
+the one that----"
+
+"Be silent, sir. You are not accused, that I know of. It is as a witness
+you are needed.--Is he in condition to testify, doctor?"
+
+"He is well enough, sir, to tell what he knows, but he claims to know
+nothing." And this, too, Doyle eagerly seconded, but was sent along in
+the ambulance, with the doctor to keep him out of mischief, and a
+parting shot to the effect that when the coroner was through with him
+the post commander would take hold again, so the colonel depressed more
+than the cocktail stimulated, and, as luck would have it, almost the
+first person to meet him inside the gloomy enclosure was his wife, and
+her few whispered words only added to his misery.
+
+The water still lay in pools about the premises, and the police had
+allowed certain of the neighbors to stream in and stare at the white
+walls and shaded windows, but only a favored few penetrated the hall-way
+and rooms where the investigation was being held. Doyle shook like one
+with the palsy as he ascended the little flight of steps and passed into
+the open door-way, still accompanied by "Little Pills." People looked at
+him with marked curiosity. He was questioned, re-questioned,
+cross-questioned, but the result was only a hopeless tangle. He really
+added nothing to the testimony of the hack-driver and Bonelli. In abject
+remorse and misery he begged them to understand he was drunk when he
+joined the party, got drunker, dimly remembered there was a quarrel, but
+he had no cause to quarrel with any one, and that was all; he never knew
+how he got home. He covered his face in his shaking hands at last, and
+seemed on the verge of a fit of crying.
+
+But then came sensation.
+
+Quietly rising from his seat, the official who so recently had had the
+verbal tilt with Cram held forth a rusty, cross-hilted, two-edged knife
+that looked as though it might have lain in the mud and wet for hours.
+
+"Have you ever seen this knife before?" he asked. And Doyle, lifting up
+his eyes one instant, groaned, shuddered, and said,--
+
+"Oh, my God, yes!"
+
+"Whose property is it or was it?"
+
+At first he would not reply. He moaned and shook. At last--
+
+"Sure the initials are on the top," he cried.
+
+But the official was relentless.
+
+"Tell us what they are and what they represent."
+
+People were crowding the hall-way and forcing themselves into the room.
+Cram and Ferry, curiously watching their ill-starred comrade, had
+exchanged glances of dismay when the knife was so suddenly produced. Now
+they bent breathlessly forward.
+
+The silence for the moment was oppressive.
+
+"If it's the knife I mane," he sobbed at last, desperately, miserably,
+"the letters are S. B. W., and it belongs to Lieutenant Waring of our
+bathery."
+
+But no questioning, however adroit, could elicit from him the faintest
+information as to how it got there. The last time he remembered seeing
+it, he said, was on Mr. Waring's table the morning of the review. A
+detective testified to having found it among the bushes under the window
+as the water receded. Ferry and the miserable Ananias were called, and
+they, too, had to identify the knife, and admit that neither had seen it
+about the room since Mr. Waring left for town. Of other witnesses
+called, came first the proprietor of the stable to which the cab
+belonged. Horse and cab, he said, covered with mud, were found under a
+shed two blocks below the French Market, and the only thing in the cab
+was a handsome silk umbrella, London make, which Lieutenant Pierce laid
+claim to. Mrs. Doyle swore that as she was going in search of her
+husband she met the cab just below the Pelican, driving furiously away,
+and that in the flash of lightning she recognized the driver as the man
+whom Lieutenant Waring had beaten that morning on the levee in front of
+her place. A stranger was seated beside him. There were two gentlemen
+inside, but she saw the face of only one,--Lieutenant Waring.
+
+Nobody else could throw any light on the matter. The doctor, recalled,
+declared the knife or dagger was shaped exactly as would have to be the
+one that gave the death-blow. Everything pointed to the fact that there
+had been a struggle, a deadly encounter, and that after the fatal work
+was done the murderer or murderers had left the doors locked and barred
+and escaped through the window, leaving the desk rifled and carrying
+away what money there was, possibly to convey the idea that it was only
+a vulgar murder and robbery, after all.
+
+Of other persons who might throw light upon the tragedy the following
+were missing: Lieutenant Waring, Private Dawson, the cabman, and the
+unrecognized stranger. So, too, was Anatole's boat.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+When four days and nights had passed away without a word or sign from
+Waring, the garrison had come to the conclusion that those officers or
+men of Battery "X" who still believed him innocent were idiots. So did
+the civil authorities; but those were days when the authorities of
+Louisiana commanded less respect from its educated people than did even
+the military. The police force, like the State, was undergoing a process
+called reconstruction, which might have been impressive in theory, but
+was ridiculous in practice. A reward had been offered by business
+associates of the deceased for the capture and conviction of the
+assassin. A distant relative of old Lascelles had come to take charge of
+the place until Monsieur Philippe should arrive. The latter's address
+had been found among old Armand's papers, and despatches, _via_ Havana,
+had been sent to him, also letters. Pierre d'Hervilly had taken the
+weeping widow and little Nin Nin to _bonne maman's_ to stay. Alphonse
+and his woolly-pated mother, true to negro superstitions, had decamped.
+Nothing would induce them to remain under the roof where foul murder had
+been done. "De hahnts" was what they were afraid of. And so the old
+white homestead, though surrounded on every side by curiosity-seekers
+and prying eyes, was practically deserted. Cram went about his duties
+with a heavy heart and light aid. Ferry and Pierce both commanded
+sections now, as Doyle remained in close arrest and "Pills the Less" in
+close attendance. Something was utterly wrong with the fellow. Mrs.
+Doyle had not again ventured to show her red nose within the limits of
+the "barx," as she called them, a hint from Braxton having proved
+sufficient; but that she was ever scouting the pickets no one could
+doubt. Morn, noon, and night she prowled about the neighborhood,
+employing the "byes," so she termed such stray sheep in army blue as a
+dhrop of Anatole's best would tempt, to carry scrawling notes to Jim,
+one of which, falling with its postman by the wayside and turned over by
+the guard to Captain Cram for transmittal, was addressed to Mister
+Loot'nt James Doyle, Lite Bothery X, Jaxun Barx, and brought the only
+laughter to his lips the big horse-artilleryman had known for nearly a
+week. Her customary Mercury, Dawson, had vanished from sight, dropped,
+with many another and often a better man, as a deserter.
+
+Over at Waring's abandoned quarters the shades were drawn and the green
+_jalousies_ bolted. Pierce stole in each day to see that everything,
+even to the augmented heap of letters, was undisturbed, and Ananias
+drooped in the court below and refused to be comforted. Cram had duly
+notified Waring's relatives, now living in New York, of his strange and
+sudden disappearance, but made no mention of the cloud of suspicion
+which had surrounded his name. Meantime, some legal friends of the
+family were overhauling the Lascelles papers, and a dark-complexioned,
+thick-set, active little civilian was making frequent trips between
+department head-quarters and barracks. At the former he compared notes
+with Lieutenant Reynolds, and at the latter with Braxton and Cram. The
+last interview Mr. Allerton had before leaving with his family for the
+North was with this same lively party, the detective who joined them
+that night at the St. Charles, and Allerton, being a man of much
+substance, had tapped his pocket-book significantly.
+
+"The difficulty just now is in having a talk with the widow," said this
+official to Cram and Reynolds, whom he had met by appointment on the
+Thursday following the eventful Saturday of Braxton's "combined" review.
+"She is too much prostrated. I've simply got to wait awhile, and
+meantime go about this other affair. Is there no way in which you can
+see her?"
+
+Cram relapsed into a brown study. Reynolds was poring over the note
+written to Braxton and comparing it with one he held in his hand,--an
+old one, and one that told an old, old story. "I know you'll say I have
+no right to ask this," it read, "but you're a gentleman, and I'm a
+friendless woman deserted by a worthless husband. My own people are
+ruined by the war, but even if they had money they wouldn't send any to
+me, for I offended them all by marrying a Yankee officer. God knows I am
+punished enough for that. But I was so young and innocent when he
+courted me. I ought to of left--I would of left him as soon as I found
+out how good-for-nothing he really was, only I was so much in love I
+couldn't. I was fastenated, I suppose. Now I've sold everything, but if
+you'll only lend me fifty dollars I'll work my fingers to the bone until
+I pay it. For the old home's sake, please do."
+
+"It's the same hand,--the same woman, Cram, beyond a doubt. She bled
+Waring for the old home's sake the first winter he was in the South. He
+told me all about it two years ago in Washington, when we heard of her
+the second time. Now she's followed him over here, or got here first,
+tried the same game probably, met with a refusal, and this anonymous
+note is her revenge. The man she married was a crack-brained weakling
+who got into the army the fag end of the war, fell in love with her
+pretty face, married her, then they quarrelled, and he drank himself
+into a muddle-head. She ran him into debt; then he gambled away
+government funds, bolted, was caught, and would have been tried and sent
+to jail, but some powerful relative saved him that, and simply had him
+dropped;--never heard of him again. She was about a month grass-widowed
+when Waring came on his first duty there. He had an uncongenial lot of
+brother officers for a two-company post, and really had known of this
+girl and her people before the war, and she appealed to him, first for
+sympathy and help, then charity, then blackmail, I reckon, from which
+his fever saved him. Then she struck some quartermaster or other and
+lived off him for a while; drifted over here, and no sooner did he
+arrive, all ignorant of her presence in or around New Orleans, than she
+began pestering him again. When he turned a deaf ear, she probably
+threatened, and then came these anonymous missives to you and Braxton.
+Yours always came by mail, you say. The odd thing about the
+colonel's--this one, at least--is that it was with his mail, but never
+came through the post-office."
+
+"That's all very interesting," said the little civilian, dryly, "but
+what we want is evidence to acquit him and convict somebody else of
+Lascelles's death. What has this to do with the other?"
+
+"This much: This letter came to Braxton by hand, not by mail,--by hand,
+probably direct from her. What hand had access to the office the day
+when the whole command was out at review? Certainly no outsider. The
+mail is opened and distributed on its arrival at nine o'clock by the
+chief clerk, or by the sergeant-major, if he happens to be there, though
+he's generally at guard mount. On this occasion he was out at review.
+Leary, chief clerk, tells Colonel Braxton he opened and distributed the
+mail, putting the colonel's on his desk; Root was with him and helped.
+The third clerk came in later; had been out all night, drinking. His
+name is Dawson. Dawson goes out again and gets fuller, and when next
+brought home is put in hospital under a sentry. Then he hears of the
+murder, bolts, and isn't heard from since, except as the man who helped
+Mrs. Doyle to get her husband home. _He_ is the fellow who brought that
+note. He knew something of its contents, for the murder terrified him,
+and he ran away. Find his trail, and you strike that of the woman who
+wrote these."
+
+"By the Lord, lieutenant, if you'll quit the army and take my place
+you'll make a name and a fortune."
+
+"And if you'll quit your place and take mine you'll get your _coup de
+grâce_ in some picayune Indian fight and be forgotten. So stay where you
+are; but find Dawson, find her, find what they know, and you'll be
+famous."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+That night, or very early next morning, there was pandemonium at the
+barracks. It was clear, still, beautiful. A soft April wind was drifting
+up from the lower coast, laden with the perfume of sweet olive and
+orange blossoms. Mrs. Cram, with one or two lady friends and a party of
+officers, had been chatting in low tone upon their gallery until after
+eleven, but elsewhere about the moonlit quadrangle all was silence when
+the second relief was posted. Far at the rear of the walled enclosure,
+where, in deference to the manners and customs of war as observed in the
+good old days whereof our seniors tell, the sutler's establishment was
+planted within easy hailing-distance of the guard-house, there was still
+the sound of modified revelry by night, and poker and whiskey punch had
+gathered their devotees in the grimy parlors of Mr. Finkbein, and here
+the belated ones tarried until long after midnight, as most of them
+were bachelors and had no better halves, as had Doyle, to fetch them
+home "out of the wet." Cram and his lieutenants, with the exception of
+Doyle, were never known to patronize this establishment, whatsoever they
+might do outside. They had separated before midnight, and little Pierce,
+after his customary peep into Waring's preserves, had closed the door,
+gone to his own room, to bed and to sleep. Ferry, as battery officer of
+the day, had made the rounds of the stables and gun-shed about one
+o'clock, and had encountered Captain Kinsey, of the infantry, coming in
+from his long tramp through the dew-wet field, returning from the
+inspection of the sentry-post at the big magazine.
+
+"No news of poor Sam yet, I suppose?" said Kinsey, sadly, as the two
+came strolling in together through the rear gate.
+
+"Nothing whatever," was Ferry's answer. "We cannot even form a
+conjecture, unless he, too, has been murdered. Think of there being a
+warrant out for his arrest,--for him, Sam Waring!"
+
+"Well," said Kinsey, "no other conclusion could he well arrived at,
+unless that poor brute Doyle did it in a drunken row. Pills says he
+never saw a man so terror-stricken as he seems to be. He's afraid to
+leave him, really, and Doyle's afraid to be alone,--thinks the old woman
+may get in."
+
+"She has no excuse for coming, captain," said Ferry. "When she told Cram
+she must see her husband to-day, that she was out of money and starving,
+the captain surprised her by handing her fifty dollars, which is much
+more than she'd have got from Doyle. She took it, of course, but that
+isn't what she wanted. She wants to get at him. She has money enough."
+
+"Yes, that woman's a terror, Ferry. Old Mrs. Murtagh, wife of my
+quartermaster sergeant, has been in the army twenty years, and says she
+knew her well,--knew all her people. She comes from a tough lot, and
+they had a bad reputation in Texas in the old days. Doyle's a totally
+different man since she turned up, Cram tells me. Hello! here's 'Pills
+the Less,'" he suddenly exclaimed, as they came opposite the west gate,
+leading to the hospital. "How's your patient, Doc?"
+
+"Well, he's sleeping at last. He seems worn out. It's the first time
+I've left him, but I'm used up and want a few hours' sleep. There isn't
+anything to drink in the room, even if he should wake, and Jim is
+sleeping or lying there by him."
+
+"Oh, he'll do all right now, I reckon," said the officer of the day,
+cheerfully. "Go and get your sleep. The old woman can't get at him
+unless she bribes my sentries or rides the air on a broomstick, like
+some other old witches I've read of. Ferry sleeps in the adjoining room,
+anyhow, so he can look out for her. Good-night, Doc." And so, on they
+went, glancing upward at the dim light just showing through the
+window-blinds in the gable end of Doyle's quarters, and halting at the
+foot of the stairs.
+
+"Come over and have a pipe with me, Ferry," said the captain. "It's too
+beautiful a night to turn in. I want to talk to you about Waring,
+anyhow. This thing weighs on my mind."
+
+"Done with you, for an hour, anyhow!" said Ferry. "Just wait a minute
+till I run up and get my baccy."
+
+Presently down came the young fellow again, meerschaum in hand, the
+moonlight glinting on his slender figure, so trim and jaunty in the
+battery dress. Kinsey looked him over with a smile of soldierly
+approval and a whimsical comment on the contrast between the appearance
+of this young artillery sprig and that of his own stout personality,
+clad as he was in a bulging blue flannel sack-coat, only distinguishable
+in cut and style from civilian garb by its having brass buttons and a
+pair of tarnished old shoulder-straps. Ferry was a swell. His shell
+jacket fitted like wax. The Russian shoulder-knots of twisted gold were
+of the handsomest make. The riding-breeches, top-boots, and spurs were
+such that even Waring could not criticise. His sabre gleamed in the
+moonbeams, and Kinsey's old leather-covered sword looked dingy by
+contrast. His belt fitted trim and taut, and was polished as his
+boot-tops; Kinsey's sank down over the left hip, and was worn brown. The
+sash Ferry sported as battery officer of the day was draped, West Point
+fashion, over the shoulder and around the waist, and accurately knotted
+and looped; Kinsey's old war-worn crimson net was slung
+higgledy-piggledy over his broad chest.
+
+"What swells you fellows are, Ferry!" he said, laughingly, as the
+youngster came dancing down. "Even old Doyle gets out here in his
+scarlet plume occasionally and puts us doughboys to shame. What's the
+use in trying to make such a rig as ours look soldierly? If it were not
+for the brass buttons our coats would make us look like parsons and our
+hats like monkeys. As for this undress, all that can be said in its
+favor is, you can't spoil it even by sleeping out on the levee in it, as
+I am sometimes tempted to do. Let's go out there now."
+
+It was perhaps quarter of two when they took their seats on the wooden
+bench under the trees, and, lighting their pipes, gazed out over the
+broad sweeping flood of the Mississippi, gleaming like a silvered shield
+in the moonlight. Far across at the opposite shore the low line of
+orange-groves and plantation houses and quarters was merged in one long
+streak of gloom, relieved only at intervals by twinkling light. Farther
+up-stream, like dozing sea-dogs, the fleet of monitors lay moored along
+the bank, with the masts and roofs of Algiers dimly outlined against the
+crescent sweep of lights that marked the levee of the great Southern
+metropolis, still prostrate from the savage buffeting of the war, yet so
+soon to rouse from lethargy, resume her sway, and, stretching forth her
+arms, to draw once again to her bosom the wealth and tribute, tenfold
+augmented, of the very heart of the nation, until, mistress of the
+commerce of a score of States, she should rival even New York in the
+volume of her trade. Below them, away to the east towards English Turn,
+rolled the tawny flood, each ripple and eddy and swirling pool crested
+with silver,--the twinkling lights at Chalmette barely distinguishable
+from dim, low-hanging stars. Midway the black hulk of some big ocean
+voyager was forging slowly, steadily towards them, the red light of the
+port side already obscured, the white and green growing with every
+minute more and more distinct, and, save the faint rustle of the leaves
+overhead, murmuring under the touch of the soft, southerly night wind,
+the plash of wavelet against the wooden pier, and the measured footfall
+of the sentry on the flagstone walk in front of the sally-port, not a
+sound was to be heard.
+
+For a while they smoked in silence, enjoying the beauty of the night,
+though each was thinking only of the storm that swept over the scene the
+Sunday previous and of the tragedy that was borne upon its wings. At
+last Kinsey shook himself together.
+
+"Ferry, sometimes I come out here for a quiet smoke and think. Did it
+ever occur to you what a fearful force, what illimitable power, there is
+sweeping by us here night after night with never a sound?"
+
+"Oh, you mean the Mississip," said Ferry, flippantly. "It would be a
+case of mops and brooms, I fancy, if she were to bust through the bank
+and sweep us out into the swamps."
+
+"Exactly! that's in case she broke loose, as you say; but even when in
+the shafts, as she is now, between the levees, how long would it take
+her to sweep a fellow from here out into the gulf, providing nothing
+interposed to stop him?"
+
+"Matter of simple mathematical calculation," said Ferry, practically.
+"They say it's an eight-mile current easy out there in the middle where
+she's booming. Look at that barrel scooting down yonder. Now, I'd lay a
+fiver I could cut loose from here at reveille and shoot the passes
+before taps and never pull a stroke. It's less than eighty miles down to
+the forts."
+
+"Well, then, a skiff like that that old Anatole's blaspheming about
+losing wouldn't take very long to ride over that route, would it?" said
+Kinsey, reflectively.
+
+"No, not if allowed to slide. But somebody'd be sure to put out and
+haul it in as a prize,--flotsam and what-you-may-call-'em. You see these
+old niggers all along here with their skiffs tacking on to every hit of
+drift-wood that's worth having."
+
+"But, Ferry, do you think they'd venture out in such a storm as Sunday
+last?--think anything could live in it short of a decked ship?"
+
+"No, probably not. Certainly not Anatole's boat."
+
+"Well, that's just what I'm afraid of, and what Cram and Reynolds
+dread."
+
+"Do they? Well, so far as that storm's concerned, it would have blown it
+down-stream until it came to the big bend below here to the east. Then,
+by rights, it ought to have blown against the left bank. But every inch
+of it has been scouted all the way to quarantine. The whole river was
+filled with drift, though, and it might have been wedged in a lot of
+logs and swept out anyhow. Splendid ship, that! Who is she, do you
+suppose?"
+
+The great black hull with its lofty tracery of masts and spars was now
+just about opposite the barracks, slowly and majestically ascending the
+stream.
+
+"One of those big British freight steamers that moor there below the
+French Market, I reckon. They seldom come up at night unless it's in the
+full of the moon, and even then they move with the utmost caution. See,
+she's slowing up now."
+
+"Hello! Listen! What's that?" exclaimed Ferry, starting to his feet.
+
+A distant, muffled cry. A distant shot. The sentry at the sally-port
+dashed through the echoing vault, then bang! came the loud roar of his
+piece, followed by the yell of--
+
+"Fire! fire! _The guard!_"
+
+With one spring Ferry was down the levee and darted like a deer across
+the road, Kinsey lumbering heavily after. Even as he sped through the
+stone-flagged way, the hoarse roar of the drum at the guard-house,
+followed instantly by the blare of the bugle from the battery quarters,
+sounded the stirring alarm. A shrill, agonized female voice was madly
+screaming for help. Guards and sentries were rushing to the scene, and
+flames were bursting from the front window of Doyle's quarters. Swift
+though Ferry ran, others were closer to the spot. Half a dozen active
+young soldiers, members of the infantry guard, had sprung to the rescue.
+When Ferry dashed up to the gallery he was just in time to stumble over
+a writhing and prostrate form, to help extinguish the blazing clothing
+of another, to seize his water-bucket and douse its contents over a
+third,--one yelling, the others stupefied by smoke--or something. In
+less time than it takes to tell it, daring fellows had ripped down the
+blazing shades and shutters, tossed them to the parade beneath, dumped a
+heap of soaked and smoking bedding out of the rear windows, splashed a
+few bucketfuls of water about the reeking room, and the fire was out.
+But the doctors were working their best to bring back the spark of life
+to two senseless forms, and to still the shrieks of agony that burst
+from the seared and blistered lips of Bridget Doyle.
+
+While willing hands bore these scorched semblances of humanity to
+neighboring rooms and tender-hearted women hurried to add their
+ministering touch, and old Braxton ordered the excited garrison back to
+quarters and bed, he, with Cram and Kinsey and Ferry, made prompt
+examination of the premises. On the table two whiskey-bottles, one
+empty, one nearly full, that Dr. Potts declared were not there when he
+left at one. On the mantel a phial of chloroform, which was also not
+there before. But a towel soaked with the stifling contents lay on the
+floor by Jim's rude pallet, and a handkerchief half soaked, half
+consumed, was on the chair which had stood by the bedside, among the
+fragments of an overturned kerosene lamp.
+
+A quick examination of the patients showed that Jim, the negro, had been
+chloroformed and was not burned at all, that Doyle was severely burned
+and had probably inhaled flames, and that the woman was crazed with
+drink, terror, and burns combined. It took the efforts of two or three
+men and the influence of powerful opiates to quiet her. Taxed with
+negligence or complicity on the part of the sentry, the sergeant of the
+guard repudiated the idea, and assured Colonel Braxton that it was an
+easy matter for any one to get either in or out of the garrison without
+encountering the sentry, and, taking his lantern, led the way out to the
+hospital grounds by a winding foot-path among the trees to a point in
+the high white picket fence where two slats had been shoved aside. Any
+one coming along the street without could pass far beyond the ken of the
+sentry at the west gate, and slip in with the utmost ease, and once
+inside, all that was necessary was to dodge possible reliefs and
+patrols. No sentry was posted at the gate through the wall that
+separated the garrison proper from the hospital grounds. Asked why he
+had not reported this, the sergeant smiled and said there were a dozen
+others just as convenient, so what was the use? He did not say, however,
+that he and his fellows had recourse to them night after night.
+
+It was three o'clock when the officers' families fairly got settled down
+again and back to their beds, and the silence of night once more reigned
+over Jackson Barracks. One would suppose that such a scene of terror and
+excitement was enough, and that now the trembling, frightened women
+might be allowed to sleep in peace; but it was not to be. Hardly had one
+of their number closed her eyes, hardly had all the flickering lights,
+save those at the hospital and guard-house, been downed again, when the
+strained nerves of the occupants of the officers' quadrangle were jumped
+into mad jangling once more and all the barracks aroused a second time,
+and this, too, by a woman's shriek of horror.
+
+Mrs. Conroy, a delicate, fragile little body, wife of a junior
+lieutenant of infantry occupying a set of quarters in the same building
+with, but at the opposite end from, Pierce and Waring, was found lying
+senseless at the head of the gallery stairs.
+
+When revived, amid tears and tremblings and incoherent exclamations she
+declared that she had gone down to the big ice-chest on the ground-floor
+to get some milk for her nervous and frightened child and was hurrying
+noiselessly up the stairs again,--the only means of communication
+between the first and second floors,--when, face to face, in front of
+his door, she came upon Mr. Waring, or his ghost; that his eyes were
+fixed and glassy; that he did not seem to see her even when he spoke,
+for speak he did. His voice sounded like a moan of anguish, she said,
+but the words were distinct: "Where is my knife? Who has taken my
+knife?"
+
+And then little Pierce, who had helped to raise and carry the stricken
+woman to her room, suddenly darted out on the gallery and ran along to
+the door he had closed four hours earlier. It was open. Striking a
+match, he hurried through into the chamber beyond, and there, face
+downward upon the bed, lay his friend and comrade Waring, moaning like
+one in the delirium of fever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+Lieutenant Reynolds was seated at his desk at department head-quarters
+about nine o'clock that morning when an orderly in light-battery dress
+dismounted at the banquette and came up the stairs three at a jump.
+"Captain Cram's compliments, sir, and this is immediate," he reported,
+as he held forth a note. Reynolds tore it open, read it hastily through,
+then said, "Go and fetch me a cab quick as you can," and disappeared in
+the general's room. Half an hour later he was spinning down the levee
+towards the French Market, and before ten o'clock was seated in the
+captain's cabin of the big British steamer Ambassador, which had arrived
+at her moorings during the night. Cram and Kinsey were already there,
+and to them the skipper was telling his story.
+
+Off the Tortugas, just about as they had shaped their course for the
+Belize, they were hailed by the little steamer Tampa, bound from New
+Orleans to Havana. The sea was calm, and a boat put off from the Tampa
+and came alongside, and presently a gentleman was assisted aboard. He
+seemed weak from illness, but explained that he was Lieutenant Waring,
+of the United States Artillery, had been accidentally carried off to
+sea, and the Ambassador was the first inward-bound ship they had sighted
+since crossing the bar. He would be most thankful for a passage back to
+New Orleans. Captain Baird had welcomed him with the heartiness of the
+British tar, and made him at home in his cabin. The lieutenant was
+evidently far from well, and seemed somewhat dazed and mentally
+distressed. He could give no account of his mishap other than that told
+him by the officers of the Tampa, which had lain to when overtaken by
+the gale on Saturday night, and on Sunday morning when they resumed
+their course down-stream they overhauled a light skiff and were
+surprised to find a man aboard, drenched and senseless. "The left side
+of his face was badly bruised and discolored, even when he came to us,"
+said Baird, "and he must have been slugged and robbed, for his watch,
+his seal-ring, and what little money he had were all gone." The second
+officer of the Tampa had fitted him out with a clean shirt, and the
+steward dried his clothing as best he could, but the coat was stained
+and clotted with blood. Mr. Waring had slept heavily much of the way
+back until they passed Pilot Town. Then he was up and dressed Thursday
+afternoon, and seemingly in better spirits, when he picked up a copy of
+the New Orleans _Picayune_ which the pilot had left aboard, and was
+reading that, when suddenly he started to his feet with an exclamation
+of amaze, and, when the captain turned to see what was the matter,
+Waring was ghastly pale and fearfully excited by something he had read.
+He hid the paper under his coat and sprang up on deck and paced
+nervously to and fro for hours, and began to grow so ill, apparently,
+that Captain Baird was much worried. At night he begged to be put ashore
+at the barracks instead of going on up to town, and Baird had become so
+troubled about him that he sent his second officer in the gig with him,
+landed him on the levee opposite the sally-port, and there, thanking
+them heartily, but declining further assistance, Waring had hurried
+through the entrance into the barrack square. Mr. Royce, the second
+officer, said there was considerable excitement, beating of drums and
+sounding of bugles, at the post, as they rowed towards the shore. He did
+not learn the cause. Captain Baird was most anxious to learn if the
+gentleman had safely reached his destination. Cram replied that he had,
+but in a state bordering on delirium and unable to give any coherent
+account of himself. He could tell he had been aboard the Ambassador and
+the Tampa, but that was about all.
+
+And then they told Baird that what Waring probably saw was Wednesday's
+paper with the details of the inquest on the body of Lascelles and the
+chain of evidence pointing to himself as the murderer. This caused
+honest Captain Baird to lay ten to one he wasn't, and five to one he'd
+never heard of it till he got the paper above Pilot Town. Whereupon all
+three officers clapped the Briton on the back and shook him by the hand
+and begged his company to dinner at the barracks and at Moreau's; and
+then, while Reynolds sped to the police-office and Kinsey back to
+Colonel Braxton, whom he represented at the interview, Cram remounted,
+and, followed by the faithful Jeffers, trotted up Rampart Street and
+sent in his card to Madame Lascelles, and Madame's maid brought back
+reply that she was still too shocked and stricken to receive visitors.
+So also did Madame d'Hervilly deny herself, and Cram rode home to Nell.
+
+"It is useless," he said. "She will not see me."
+
+"Then she shall see me," said Mrs. Cram.
+
+And so a second time did Jeffers make the trip to town that day, this
+time perched with folded arms in the rumble of the pony-phaeton.
+
+And while she was gone, the junior doctor was having the liveliest
+experience of his few years of service. Scorched and burned though she
+was, Mrs. Doyle's faculties seemed to have returned with renewed
+acuteness and force. She demanded to be taken to her husband's side, but
+the doctor sternly refused. She demanded to be told his condition, and
+was informed that it was so critical he must not be disturbed,
+especially by her, who was practically responsible for all his trouble.
+Then she insisted on knowing whether he was conscious and whether he had
+asked for a priest, and when informed that Father Foley had already
+arrived, it required the strength of four men to hold her. She raved
+like a maniac, and her screams appalled the garrison. But screams and
+struggles were all in vain. "Pills the Less" sent for his senior, and
+"Pills the Pitiless" more than ever deserved his name. He sent for a
+straitjacket, saw her securely stowed away in that and borne over to a
+vacant room in the old hospital, set the steward's wife on watch and a
+sentry at the door, went back to Waring's bedside, where Sam lay tossing
+in burning fever, murmured his few words of caution to Pierce and Ferry,
+then hastened back to where poor Doyle was gasping in agony of mind and
+body, clinging to the hand of the gentle soldier of the cross, gazing
+piteously into his father confessor's eyes, drinking in his words of
+exhortation, yet unable to make articulate reply. The flames had done
+their cruel work. Only in desperate pain could he speak again.
+
+It was nearly dark when Mrs. Cram came driving back to barracks,
+bringing Mr. Reynolds with her. Her eyes were dilated, her cheeks
+flushed with excitement, as she sprang from the low phaeton, and, with a
+murmured "Come to me as soon as you can" to her husband, she sped away
+up the stairs, leaving him to receive and entertain her passenger.
+
+"I, too, went to see Madame Lascelles late this afternoon," said
+Reynolds. "I wished to show her this."
+
+It was a copy of a despatch to the chief of police of New Orleans. It
+stated in effect that Philippe Lascelles had not been seen or heard of
+around Key West for over two weeks. It was believed that he had gone to
+Havana.
+
+"Can you get word of this to our friend the detective?" asked Cram.
+
+"I have wired already. He has gone to Georgia. What I hoped to do was to
+note the effect of this on Madame Lascelles; but she was too ill to see
+me. Luckily, Mrs. Cram was there, and I sent it up to her. She will tell
+you. Now I have to see Braxton."
+
+And then came a messenger to ask Cram to join the doctor at Doyle's
+quarters at once: so he scurried up-stairs to see Nell first and learn
+her tidings.
+
+"Did I not tell you?" she exclaimed, as he entered the parlor. "Philippe
+Lascelles was here that very night, and had been seen with his brother
+at the office on Royal Street twice before this thing happened, and
+they had trouble about money. Oh, I made her understand. I appealed to
+her as a woman to do what she could to right Mr. Waring, who was so
+generally believed to be the guilty man. I told her we had detectives
+tracing Philippe and would soon find how and when he reached New
+Orleans. Finally I showed her the despatch that Mr. Reynolds sent up,
+and at last she broke down, burst into tears, and said she, too, had
+learned since the inquest that Philippe was with her husband, and
+probably was the stranger referred to, that awful night. She even
+suspected it at the time, for she knew he came not to borrow but to
+demand money that was rightfully his, and also certain papers that
+Armand held and that now were gone. It was she who told me of Philippe's
+having been seen with Armand at the office, but she declared she could
+not believe that he would kill her husband. I pointed out the fact that
+Armand had fired two shots from his pistol, apparently, and that no
+bullet-marks had been found in the room where the quarrel took place,
+and that if his shots had taken effect on his antagonist he simply could
+not have been Waring, for though Waring had been bruised and beaten
+about the head, the doctor said there was no sign of bullet-mark about
+him anywhere. She recognized the truth of this, but still she said she
+believed that there was a quarrel or was to be a quarrel between her
+husband and Mr. Waring. Otherwise I believe her throughout. I believe
+that, no matter what romance there was about her nursing Philippe and
+his falling in love with her, she did not encourage him, did not call
+him here again, was true to her old husband. She is simply possessed
+with the idea that the quarrel which killed her husband was between
+himself and Mr. Waring, and that it occurred after Philippe had got his
+money and papers, and gone."
+
+"W-e-e-ll, Philippe will have a heap to explain when he is found," was
+Cram's reply. "Now I have to go to Doyle's. He is making some
+confession, I expect, to the priest."
+
+But Cram never dreamed for an instant what that was to be.
+
+That night poor Doyle's spirit took its flight, and the story of misery
+he had to tell, partly by scrawling with a pencil, partly by gesture in
+reply to question, partly in painfully-gasped sentences, a few words at
+a time, was practically this. Lascelles and his party did indeed leave
+him at the Pelican when he was so drunk he only vaguely knew what was
+going on or what had happened in the bar-room where they were drinking,
+but his wife had told him the whole story. Lascelles wanted more
+drink,--champagne; the bar-tender wanted to close up. They bought
+several bottles, however, and had them put in the cab, and Lascelles was
+gay and singing, and, instead of going directly home, insisted on
+stopping to make a call on the lady who occupied the upper floor of the
+house Doyle rented on the levee. Doyle rarely saw her, but she sometimes
+wrote to Lascelles and got Bridget to take the letters to him. She was
+setting her cap for the old Frenchman. "We called her Mrs. Dawson." The
+cabman drove very slowly through the storm as Doyle walked home along
+with Bridget and some man who was helping, and when they reached the
+gate there was the cab and Waring in it. The cab-driver was standing by
+his horse, swearing at the delay and saying he would charge double fare.
+Doyle had had trouble with his wife for many years, and renewed trouble
+lately because of two visits Lascelles had paid there, and that evening
+when she sent for him he was drinking in Waring's room, had been
+drinking during the day; he dreaded more trouble, and 'twas he who took
+Waring's knife, and still had it, he said, when he entered the gate, and
+no sooner did he see Lascelles at his door than he ordered him to leave.
+Lascelles refused to go. Doyle knocked him down, and the Frenchman
+sprang up, swearing vengeance. Lascelles fired two shots, and Doyle
+struck once,--with the knife,--and there lay Lascelles, dead, before
+Doyle could know or realize what he was doing. In fact, Doyle never did
+know. It was what his wife had told him, and life had been a hell to him
+ever since that woman came back. She had blackmailed him, more or less,
+ever since he got his commission, because of an old trouble he'd had in
+Texas.
+
+And this confession was written out for him, signed by Doyle on his
+dying bed, duly witnessed, and the civil authorities were promptly
+notified. Bridget Doyle was handed over to the police. Certain
+detectives out somewhere on the trail of somebody else were telegraphed
+to come in, and four days later, when the force of the fever was broken
+and Waring lay weak, languid, but returning to his senses, Cram and the
+doctor read the confession to their patient, and then started to their
+feet as he almost sprang from the bed.
+
+"It's an infernal lie!" he weakly cried. "I took that knife from Doyle
+and kept it. I myself saw Lascelles to his gate, safe and sound."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+The sunshine of an exquisite April morning was shimmering over the
+Louisiana lowlands as Battery "X" was "hitching in," and Mrs. Cram's
+pretty pony-phaeton came flashing through the garrison gate and reined
+up in front of the guns. A proud and happy woman was Mrs. Cram, and
+daintily she gathered the spotless, cream-colored reins and slanted her
+long English driving-whip at the exact angle prescribed by the vogue of
+the day. By her side, reclining luxuriously on his pillows, was Sam
+Waring, now senior first lieutenant of the battery, taking his first
+airing since his strange illness. Pallid and thin though he was, that
+young gentleman was evidently capable of appreciating to the fullest
+extent the devoted attentions of which he had been the object ever since
+his return. Stanch friend and fervent champion of her husband's most
+distinguished officer at any time, Mrs. Cram had thrown herself into his
+cause with a zeal that challenged the admiration even of the men whom
+she mercilessly snubbed because they had accepted the general verdict
+that Lascelles had died by Waring's hand. Had they met in the duello as
+practised in the South in those days, sword to sword, or armed with
+pistol at twelve paces, she would have shuddered, but maintained that as
+a soldier and gentleman Waring could not have refused his opponent's
+challenge, inexcusable though such challenge might have been. But that
+he could have stooped to vulgar, unregulated fracas, without seconds or
+the formality of the cartel, first with fists and those women's weapons,
+nails, then knives or stilettoes, as though he was some low dago or
+Sicilian,--why, that was simply and utterly incredible. None the less
+she was relieved and rejoiced, as were all Waring's friends, when the
+full purport of poor Doyle's dying confession was noised abroad. Even
+those who were sceptical were now silenced. For four days her comfort
+and relief had been inexpressible; and then came the hour when, with woe
+and trouble in his face, her husband returned to her from Waring's
+bedside with the incomprehensible tidings that he had utterly repudiated
+Doyle's confession,--had, indeed, said that which could probably only
+serve to renew the suspicion of his own guilt, or else justify the
+theory that he was demented.
+
+Though Cram and the doctor warned Waring not to talk, talk he would, to
+Pierce, to Ferry, to Ananias; and though these three were pledged by
+Cram to reveal to no one what Waring said, it plunged them in an agony
+of doubt and misgiving. Day after day had the patient told and re-told
+the story, and never could cross-questioning shake him in the least.
+Cram sent for Reynolds and took him into their confidence, and Reynolds
+heard the story and added his questions, but to no effect. From first to
+last he remembered every incident up to his parting with Lascelles at
+his own gateway. After that--nothing.
+
+His story, in brief, was as follows. He was both surprised and
+concerned, while smoking and chatting with Mr. Allerton in the rotunda
+of the St. Charles, to see Lascelles with a friend, evidently watching
+an opportunity of speaking with him. He had noticed about a week
+previous a marked difference in the old Frenchman's manner, and three
+days before the tragedy, when calling on his way from town to see
+Madame and Nin Nin, was informed that they were not at home, and
+Monsieur himself was the informant; nor did he, as heretofore, invite
+Waring to enter. Sam was a fellow who detested misunderstanding.
+Courteously, but positively, he demanded explanation. Lascelles shrugged
+his shoulders, but gave it. He had heard too much of Monsieur's
+attentions to Madame his wife, and desired their immediate
+discontinuance. He must request Monsieur's assurance that he would not
+again visit Beau Rivage, or else the reparation due a man of honor, etc.
+"Whereupon," said Waring, "I didn't propose to be outdone in civility,
+and therefore replied, in the best French I could command, 'Permit me to
+tender Monsieur--both. Monsieur's friends will find me at the
+barracks.'"
+
+"All the same," said Waring, "when I found Madame and Nin Nin stuck in
+the mud I did what I considered the proper thing, and drove them, _coram
+publico_, to 'bonne maman's,' never letting them see, of course, that
+there was any row on tap, and so when I saw the old fellow with a
+keen-looking party alongside I felt sure it meant mischief. I was
+utterly surprised, therefore, when Lascelles came up with hat off and
+hand extended, bowing low, praying pardon for the intrusion, but saying
+he could not defer another instant the desire to express his gratitude
+the most profound for my extreme courtesy to Madame and his beloved
+child. He had heard the whole story, and, to my confusion, insisted on
+going over all the details before Allerton, even to my heroism, as he
+called it, in knocking down that big bully of a cabman. I was confused,
+yet couldn't shake him off. He was persistent. He was abject. He begged
+to meet my friend, to present his, to open champagne and drink eternal
+friendship. He would change the name of his _château_--the rotten old
+rookery--from Beau Rivage to Belle Alliance. He would make this day a
+_fête_ in the calendar of the Lascelles family. And then it began to
+dawn on me that he had been drinking champagne before he came. I did not
+catch the name of the other gentleman, a much younger man. He was very
+ceremonious and polite, but distant. Then, in some way, came up the fact
+that I had been trying to get a cab to take me back to barracks, and
+then Lascelles declared that nothing could be more opportune. He had
+secured a carriage and was just going down with Monsieur. They had _des
+affaires_ to transact at once. He took me aside and said, 'In proof that
+you accept my _amende_, and in order that I may make to you my personal
+apologies, you must accept my invitation.' So go with them I did. I was
+all the time thinking of Cram's mysterious note bidding me return at
+taps. I couldn't imagine what was up, but I made my best endeavors to
+get a cab. None was to be had, so I was really thankful for this
+opportunity. All the way down Lascelles overwhelmed me with civilities,
+and I could only murmur and protest, and the other party only murmured
+approbation. He hardly spoke English at all. Then Lascelles insisted on
+a stop at the Pelican and on bumpers of champagne, and there, as luck
+would have it, was Doyle,--drunk, as usual, and determined to join the
+party; and though I endeavored to put him aside, Lascelles would not
+have it. He insisted on being presented to the comrade of his gallant
+friend, and in the private room where we went he overwhelmed Doyle with
+details of our grand reconciliation and with bumper after bumper of
+Krug. This enabled me to fight shy of the wine, but in ten minutes Doyle
+was fighting drunk, Lascelles tipsy. The driver came in for his pay,
+saying he would go no further. They had a row. Lascelles wouldn't pay;
+called him an Irish thief, and all that. I slipped my last V into the
+driver's hand and got him out somehow. Monsieur Philippes, or whatever
+his name was, said he would go out,--he'd get a cab in the neighborhood;
+and the next thing I knew, Lascelles and Doyle were in a fury of a row.
+Lascelles said all the Irish were knaves and blackguards and swindlers,
+and Doyle stumbled around after him. Out came a pistol! Out came a
+knife! I tripped Doyle and got him into a chair, and was so intent on
+pacifying him and telling him not to make a fool of himself that I
+didn't notice anything else. I handled him good-naturedly, got the knife
+away, and then was amazed to find that he had my own pet paper-cutter. I
+made them shake hands and make up. It was all a mistake, said Lascelles.
+But what made it a worse mistake, the old man _would_ order more wine,
+and, with it, brandy. He insisted on celebrating this second grand
+reconciliation, and then both got drunker, but the tall Frenchman had
+Lascelles's pistol and I had the knife, and then a cab came, and,
+though it was storming beastly and I had Ferry's duds on and Larkin's
+best tile and Pierce's umbrella, we bundled in somehow and drove on down
+the levee, leaving Doyle in the hands of that Amazon of a wife of his
+and a couple of doughboys who happened to be around there. Now Lascelles
+was all hilarity, singing, joking, confidential. Nothing would do but we
+must stop and call on a lovely woman, a _belle amie_. He could rely on
+our discretion, he said, laying his finger on his nose, and looking sly
+and coquettish, for all the world like some old _roué_ of a Frenchman.
+He must stop and see her and take her some wine. 'Indeed,' he said,
+mysteriously, 'it is a rendezvous.' Well, I was their guest; I had no
+money. What could I do? It was then after eleven, I should judge.
+Monsieur Philippes, or whatever his name was, gave orders to the driver.
+We pulled up, and then, to my surprise, I found we were at Doyle's. That
+ended it. I told them they must excuse me. They protested, but of course
+I couldn't go in there. So they took a couple of bottles apiece and went
+in the gate, and I settled myself for a nap and got it. I don't know how
+long I slept, but I was aroused by the devil's own tumult. A shot had
+been fired. Men and women both were screaming and swearing. Some one
+suddenly burst into the cab beside me, really pushed from behind, and
+then away we went through the mud and the rain; and the lightning was
+flashing now, and presently I could recognize Lascelles, raging.
+'Infâme!' 'Coquin!' 'Assassin!' were the mildest terms he was volleying
+at somebody; and then, recognizing me, he burst into maudlin tears,
+swore I was his only friend. He had been insulted, abused, denied
+reparation. Was he hurt? I inquired, and instinctively felt for my
+knife. It was still there where I'd hid it in the inside pocket of my
+overcoat. No hurt; not a blow. Did I suppose that he, a Frenchman, would
+pardon that or leave the spot until satisfaction had been exacted? Then
+I begged him to be calm and listen to me for a moment. I told him my
+plight,--that I had given my word to be at barracks that evening; that I
+had no money left, but I could go no further. Instantly he forgot his
+woes and became absorbed in my affairs. _'Parole d'honneur!_' he would
+see that mine was never unsullied. He himself would escort me to the
+_maison de_ Capitaine Cram. He would rejoice to say to that brave
+ennemi, Behold! here is thy lieutenant, of honor the most unsullied, of
+courage the most admirable, of heart the most magnanimous. The Lord only
+knows what he wouldn't have done had we not pulled up at his gate. There
+I helped him out on the banquette. He was steadied by his row, whatever
+it had been. He would not let me expose myself--even under Pierce's
+umbrella. He would not permit me to suffer 'from times so of the dog.'
+'You will drive Monsieur to his home and return here for me at once,' he
+ordered cabby, grasped both my hands with fervent good-night and the
+explanation that he had much haste, implored pardon for leaving me,--on
+the morrow he would call and explain everything,--then darted into the
+gate. We never could have parted on more friendly terms. I stood a
+moment to see that he safely reached his door, for a light was dimly
+burning in the hall, then turned to jump into the cab, but it wasn't
+there. Nothing was there. I jumped from the banquette into a berth
+aboard some steamer out at sea. They tell me the first thing I asked for
+was Pierce's umbrella and Larkin's hat."
+
+And this was the story that Waring maintained from first to last.
+"Pills" ventured a query as to whether the amount of Krug and Clicquot
+consumed might not have overthrown his mental equipoise. No, Sam
+declared, he drank very little. "The only bacchanalian thing I did was
+to join in a jovial chorus from a new French opera which Lascelles's
+friend piped up and I had heard in the North:
+
+
+     Oui, buvons, buvons encore!
+     S'il est un vin qu'on adore
+     De Paris à Macao,
+     C'est le Clicquot, c'est le Clicquot."
+
+
+Asked if he had formed any conjecture as to the identity of the
+stranger, Sam said no. The name sounded like "Philippes," but he
+couldn't be sure. But when told that there were rumors to the effect
+that Lascelles's younger brother had been seen with him twice or thrice
+of late, and that he had been in exile because, if anything, of a
+hopeless passion for Madame his sister-in-law, and that his name was
+Philippe, Waring looked dazed. Then a sudden light, as of newer, fresher
+memory, flashed up in his eyes. He seemed about to speak, but as
+suddenly controlled himself and turned his face to the wall. From that
+time on he was determinedly dumb about the stranger. What roused him to
+lively interest and conjecture, however, was Cram's query as to whether
+he had not recognized in the cabman, called in by the stranger, the very
+one whom he had "knocked endwise" and who had tried to shoot him that
+morning. "No," said Waring: "the man did not speak at all, that I
+noticed, and I did not once see his face, he was so bundled up against
+the storm." But if it was the same party, suggested he, it seemed hardly
+necessary to look any further in explanation of his own disappearance.
+Cabby had simply squared matters by knocking him senseless, helping
+himself to his watch and ring, and turning out his pockets, then
+hammering him until frightened off, and then, to cover his tracks,
+setting him afloat in Anatole's boat.
+
+"Perhaps cabby took a hand in the murder, too," suggested Sam, with
+eager interest. "You say he had disappeared,--gone with his plunder.
+Now, who else could have taken my knife?"
+
+Then Reynolds had something to tell him: that the "lady" who wrote the
+anonymous letters, the _belle amie_ whom Lascelles proposed to visit,
+the occupant of the upper floor of "the dove-cot," was none other than
+the blighted floweret who had appealed to him for aid and sympathy, for
+fifty dollars at first and later for more, the first year of his army
+service in the South, "for the sake of the old home." Then Waring grew
+even more excited and interested. "Pills" put a stop to further
+developments for a few days. He feared a relapse. But, in spite of
+"Pills," the developments, like other maladies, throve. The little
+detective came down again. He was oddly inquisitive about that _chanson
+à boire_ from "_Fleur de Thé_." Would Mr. Waring hum it for him? And
+Sam, now sitting up in his parlor, turned to his piano, and with long,
+slender, fragile-looking fingers rattled a lively prelude and then
+faintly quavered the rollicking words.
+
+"Odd," said Mr. Pepper, as they had grown to call him, "I heard that
+sung by a fellow up in Chartres Street two nights hand-running before
+this thing happened,--a merry cuss, too, with a rather loose hand on his
+shekels. Lots of people may know it, though, mayn't they?"
+
+"No, indeed, not down here," said Sam. "It only came out in New York
+within the last four months, and hasn't been South or West at all, that
+I know of. What did he look like?"
+
+"Well, what did the feller that was with you look like?"
+
+But here Sam's description grew vague. So Pepper went up to have a beer
+by himself at the _café chantant_ on Chartres Street, and didn't return
+for nearly a week.
+
+Meantime came this exquisite April morning and Sam's appearance in the
+pony-phaeton in front of Battery "X." Even the horses seemed to prick up
+their ears and be glad to see him. Grim old war sergeants rode up to
+touch their caps and express the hope that they'd soon have the
+lieutenant in command of the right section again,--"not but what
+Loot'n't Ferry's doing first-rate, sir,"--and for a few minutes, as his
+fair charioteer drove him around the battery, in his weak, languid
+voice, Waring indulged in a little of his own characteristic chaffing:
+
+"I expect you to bring this section up to top notch, Mr. Ferry, as I am
+constitutionally opposed to any work on my own account. I beg to call
+your attention, sir, to the fact that it's very bad form to appear with
+full-dress _schabraque_ on your horse when the battery is in fatigue.
+The red blanket, sir, the red blanket only should be used. Be good
+enough to stretch your traces there, right caisson. Yes, I thought so,
+swing trace is twisted. Carelessness, Mr. Ferry, and indifference to
+duty are things I won't tolerate. Your cheek-strap, too, sir, is an inch
+too long. Your bit will fall through that horse's mouth. This won't do,
+sir, not in my section, sir. I'll fine you a box of Partagas if it
+occurs again."
+
+But the blare of the bugle sounding "attention" announced the presence
+of the battery commander. Nell whipped up in an instant and whisked her
+invalid out of the way.
+
+"Good-morning, Captain Cram," said he, as he passed his smiling chief.
+"I regret to observe, sir, that things have been allowed to run down
+somewhat in my absence."
+
+"Oh, out with you, you combination of cheek and incapacity, or I'll run
+you down with the whole battery. Oh! Waring, some gentlemen in a
+carriage have just stopped at your quarters, all in black, too. Ah,
+here's the orderly now."
+
+And the card, black-bordered, handed into the phaeton, bore a name which
+blanched Waring's face:
+
+
+     +--------------------------------+
+     |                                |
+     |    _M. Philippe Lascelles_,    |
+     |                                |
+     |                                |
+     |                _N'lle Orléans_.|
+     +--------------------------------+
+
+
+"Why, what is it, Waring?" asked Cram, anxiously, bending down from his
+saddle.
+
+For a moment Waring was silent. Mrs. Cram felt her own hand trembling.
+
+"Can you turn the battery over to Ferry and come with me?" asked the
+lieutenant.
+
+"Certainly.--Bugler, report to Lieutenant Ferry and tell him I shall
+have to be absent for a while.--Drive on, Nell."
+
+When, five minutes later, Waring was assisted up the stair-way, Cram
+towering on his right, the little party came upon a group of
+strangers,--three gentlemen, one of whom stepped courteously forward,
+raising his hat in a black-gloved hand. He was of medium height,
+slender, erect, and soldierly in bearing; his face was dark and oval,
+his eyes large, deep, and full of light. He spoke mainly in English,
+but with marked accent, and the voice was soft and melodious:
+
+"I fear I have intrude. Have I the honor to address Lieutenant Waring? I
+am Philippe Lascelles."
+
+For a moment Waring was too amazed to speak. At last, with brightening
+face and holding forth his hand, he said,--
+
+"I am most glad to meet you,--to know that it was not you who drove down
+with us that night."
+
+"Alas, no! I left Armand but that very morning, returning to Havana,
+thence going to Santiago. It was not until five days ago the news
+reached me. It is of that stranger I come to ask."
+
+It was an odd council gathered there in Waring's room in the old
+barracks that April morning while Ferry was drilling the battery to his
+heart's content and the infantry companies were wearily going over the
+manual or bayonet exercise. Old Brax had been sent for, and came.
+Monsieur Lascelles's friends, both, like himself, soldiers of the South,
+were presented, and for their information Waring's story was again told,
+with only most delicate allusion to certain incidents which might be
+considered as reflecting on the character and dignity of the elder
+brother. And then Philippe told his. True, there had been certain
+transactions between Armand and himself. He had fully trusted his
+brother, a man of affairs, with the management of the little inheritance
+which he, a soldier, had no idea how to handle, and Armand's business
+had suffered greatly by the war. It was touching to see how in every
+word the younger strove to conceal the fact that the elder had
+misapplied the securities and had been practically faithless to his
+trust. Everything, he declared, had been finally settled as between them
+that very morning before his return to Havana. Armand had brought to him
+early all papers remaining in his possession and had paid him what was
+justly due. He knew, however, that Armand was now greatly embarrassed in
+his affairs. They had parted with fond embrace, the most affectionate of
+brothers. But Philippe had been seeing and hearing enough to make him
+gravely apprehensive as to Armand's future, to know that his business
+was rapidly going down-hill, that he had been raising money in various
+ways, speculating, and had fallen into the hands of sharpers, and yet
+Armand would not admit it, would not consent to accept help or to use
+his younger brother's property in any way. "The lawyer," said Philippe,
+"informed me that Beau Rivage was heavily mortgaged, and it is feared
+that there will be nothing left for Madame and Nin Nin, though, for that
+matter, they shall never want." What he had also urged, and he spoke
+with reluctance here, and owned it only because the detectives told him
+it was now well known, was that Armand had of late been playing the
+_rôle_ of _galant homme_, and that the woman in the case had fled. Of
+all this he felt, he said, bound to speak fully, because in coming here
+with his witnesses to meet Lieutenant Waring and his friends he had two
+objects in view. The first was to admit that he had accepted as fact the
+published reports that Lieutenant Waring was probably his brother's
+slayer; had hastened back to New Orleans to demand justice or obtain
+revenge; had here learned from the lawyers and police that there were
+now other and much more probable theories, having heard only one of
+which he had cried "Enough," and had come to pray the forgiveness of Mr.
+Waring for having believed an officer and a gentleman guilty of so foul
+a crime. Second, he had come to invoke his aid in running down the
+murderer. Philippe was affected almost to tears.
+
+"There is one question I must beg to ask Monsieur," said Waring, as the
+two clasped hands. "Is there not still a member of your family who
+entertains the idea that it was I who killed Armand Lascelles?"
+
+And Philippe was deeply embarrassed.
+
+"Ah, monsieur," he answered, "I could not venture to intrude myself upon
+a grief so sacred. I have not seen Madame, and who is there who
+could--who would--tell her of Armand's----" And Philippe broke off
+abruptly, with despairing shrug, and outward wave of his slender hand.
+
+"Let us try to see that she never does know," said Waring. "These are
+the men we need to find: the driver of the cab, the stranger whose name
+sounded so like yours, a tall, swarthy, black-haired, black-eyed fellow
+with pointed moustache----"
+
+"_C'est lui! c'est bien lui!_" exclaimed Lascelles,--"the very man who
+insisted on entering the private office where, Armand and I, we close
+our affairs that morning. His whispered words make my brother all of
+pale, and yet he go off humming to himself."
+
+"Oh, we'll nail him," said Cram. "Two of the best detectives in the
+South are on his trail now."
+
+And then came Ananias with a silver tray, champagne, and glasses (from
+Mrs. Cram), and the conference went on another hour before the guests
+went off.
+
+"Bless my soul!" said Brax, whose diameter seemed in no wise increased
+by the quart of Roederer he had swallowed with such gusto,--"bless my
+soul! and to think I believed that we were going to have a duel with
+some of those fellows a fortnight or so ago!"
+
+Then entered "Pills" and ordered Waring back to bed. He was sleeping
+placidly when, late that evening, Reynolds and Cram came tearing up the
+stair-way, full of great news; but the doctor said not to wake him.
+
+Meantime, how fared it with that bruised reed, the lone widow of the
+late Lieutenant Doyle? Poor old Jim had been laid away with military
+honors under the flag at Chalmette, and his faithful Bridget was
+spending the days in the public calaboose. Drunk and disorderly was the
+charge on which she had been arraigned, and, though she declared herself
+abundantly able to pay her fine twice over, Mr. Pepper had warned the
+authorities to keep her under lock and key and out of liquor, as her
+testimony would be of vital importance, if for nothing better than to
+send her up for perjury. Now she was alternately wheedling, cursing,
+coaxing, bribing; all to no purpose. The agent of the Lemaître property
+had swooped down on the dove-cot and found a beggarly array of empty
+bottles and a good deal of discarded feminine gear scattered about on
+both floors. One room in which certain detectives were vastly interested
+contained the unsavory relics of a late supper. Three or four empty
+champagne-bottles, some shattered glasses, and, what seemed most to
+attract them, various stubs of partially-consumed cigarettes, lay about
+the tables and floor. Adjoining this was the chamber which had been
+known as Mrs. Dawson's, and this, too, had been thoroughly explored.
+'Louette, who had disappeared after Doyle's tragic death, was found not
+far away, and the police thought it but fair that Mrs. Doyle should not
+be deprived of the services of her maid. Then came other additions,
+though confined in other sections of the city. Mr. Pepper wired that
+the party known as Monsieur Philippes had been run to earth and would
+reach town with him by train about the same time that another of the
+force returned from Mobile by boat, bringing a young man known as Dawson
+and wanted as a deserter, and a very sprightly young lady who appeared
+to move in a higher sphere of life, but was unquestionably his wife, for
+the officer could prove their marriage in South Carolina in the spring
+of '65. As Mr. Pepper expressed it when he reported to Reynolds, "It's
+almost a full hand, but, for a fact, it's only a bobtail flush. We need
+that cabman to fill."
+
+"How did you trace Philippes?" asked Reynolds.
+
+"Him? Oh, he was too darned musical. It was--what do you call it?--Flure
+de Tay that did for him. Why, he's the fellow that raised all the money
+and most of the h--ll for this old man Lascelles. He'd been sharping him
+for years."
+
+"Well, when can we bring this thing to a head?" asked the aide-de-camp.
+
+"_Poco tiempo!_ by Saturday, I reckon."
+
+But it came sooner.
+
+Waring was seated one lovely evening in a low reclining chair on Mrs.
+Cram's broad gallery, sipping contentedly at the cup of fragrant tea she
+had handed him. The band was playing, and a number of children were
+chasing about in noisy glee. The men were at supper, the officers, as a
+rule, at mess. For several minutes the semi-restored invalid had not
+spoken a word. In one of his customary day-dreams he had been calmly
+gazing at the shapely white hand of his hostess, "all queenly with its
+weight of rings."
+
+"Will you permit me to examine those rings a moment?" he said.
+
+"Why, certainly. No, you sit still, Mr. Waring," she replied, promptly
+rising, and, pulling them off her fingers, dropped them into his open
+palm. With the same dreamy expression on his clear-cut, pallid face, he
+turned them over and over, held them up to the light, finally selected
+one exquisite gem, and then, half rising, held forth the others. As she
+took them and still stood beside his chair as though patiently waiting,
+he glanced up.
+
+"Oh, beg pardon. You want this, I suppose?" and, handing her the dainty
+teacup, he calmly slipped the ring into his waistcoat-pocket and
+languidly murmured, "Thanks."
+
+"Well, I like that."
+
+"Yes? So do I, rather better than the others."
+
+"May I ask what you purpose doing with my ring?"
+
+"I was just thinking. I've ordered a new Amidon for Larkin, a new
+ninety-dollar suit for Ferry, and I shall be decidedly poor this month,
+even if we recover Merton's watch."
+
+"Oh, well, if it's only to pawn one, why not take a diamond?"
+
+"But it isn't."
+
+"What then, pray?"
+
+"Well, again I was just thinking--whether I could find another to match
+this up in town, or send this one--to her."
+
+"Mr. _Waring_! _Really?_" And now Mrs. Cram's bright eyes are dancing
+with eagerness and delight.
+
+For all answer, though his own eyes begin to moisten and swim, he draws
+from an inner pocket a dainty letter, post-marked from a far, far city
+to the northeast.
+
+"You _dear_ fellow! How can I tell you how glad I am! I haven't dared
+to ask you of her since we met at Washington, but--oh, my heart has been
+just full of her since--since this trouble came."
+
+"God bless the trouble! it was that that won her to me at last. I have
+loved her ever since I first saw her--long years ago."
+
+"Oh! _oh!_ OH! if Ned were only here! I'm wild to tell him. I may,
+mayn't I?"
+
+"Yes, the moment he comes."
+
+But Ned brought a crowd with him when he got back from town a little
+later. Reynolds was there, and Philippe Lascelles, and Mr. Pepper, and
+they had a tale to tell that must needs be condensed.
+
+They had all been present by invitation of the civil authorities at a
+very dramatic affair during the late afternoon,--the final lifting of
+the veil that hid from public view the "strange, eventful history" of
+the Lascelles tragedy. Cram was the spokesman by common consent. "With
+the exception of the Dawsons," said he, "none of the parties implicated
+knew up to the hour of his or her examination that any one of the others
+was to appear." Mrs. Dawson, eager to save her own pretty neck, had
+told her story without reservation. Dawson knew nothing.
+
+The story had been wrung from her piecemeal, but was finally told in
+full, and in the presence of the officers and civilians indicated. She
+had married in April, '65, to the scorn of her people, a young Yankee
+officer attached to the commissary department. She had starved all
+through the war. She longed for life, luxury, comforts. She had nothing
+but her beauty, he nothing but his pay. The extravagances of a month
+swamped him; the drink and desperation of the next ruined him. He
+maintained her in luxury at the best hotel only a few weeks, then all of
+his and much of Uncle Sam's money was gone. Inspection proved him a
+thief and embezzler. He fled, and she was abandoned to her own
+resources. She had none but her beauty and a gift of penmanship which
+covered the many sins of her orthography. She was given a clerkship, but
+wanted more money, and took it, blackmailing a quartermaster. She
+imposed on Waring, but he quickly found her out and absolutely refused
+afterwards to see her at all. She was piqued and angered, "a woman
+scorned," but not until he joined Battery "X" did opportunity present
+itself for revenge. She had secured a room under Mrs. Doyle's reputable
+roof, to be near the barracks, where she could support herself by
+writing for Mrs. Doyle and blackmailing those whom she lured, and where
+she could watch _him_, and, to her eager delight, she noted and prepared
+to make much of his attentions to Madame Lascelles. Incidentally, too,
+she might inveigle the susceptible Lascelles himself, on the principle
+that there's no fool like an old fool. Mrs. Doyle lent herself eagerly
+to the scheme. The letters began to pass to and fro again. Lascelles was
+fool enough to answer, and when, all on a sudden, Mrs. Doyle's
+"long-missing relative," as she called him, turned up, a pensioner on
+her charity, it was through the united efforts of the two women he got a
+situation as cab-driver at the stable up at the eastern skirt of the
+town. Dawson had enlisted to keep from starving, and, though she had no
+use for him as a husband, he would do to fetch and carry, and he dare
+not disobey. Twice when Doyle was battery officer of the day did this
+strangely-assorted pair of women entertain Lascelles at supper and
+fleece him out of what money he had. Then came Philippes with Lascelles
+in Mike's cab, as luck would have it, but they could not fleece
+Philippes. Old Lascelles was rapidly succumbing to Nita's fascinations
+when came the night of the terrible storm. Mike had got to drinking, and
+was laid low by the lieutenant. Mike and Bridget both vowed vengeance.
+But meantime Doyle himself had got wind of something that was going on,
+and he and his tyrant had a fearful row. He commanded her never to allow
+a man inside the premises when he was away, and, though brought home
+drunk that awful night, furiously ordered the Frenchman out, and might
+have assaulted them had not Bridget lassoed him with a chloroformed
+towel. That was the last he knew until another day. Lascelles,
+Philippes, and she, Mrs. Dawson, had already drunk a bottle of champagne
+when interrupted by Doyle's coming. Lascelles was tipsy, had snatched
+his pistol and fired a shot to frighten Doyle, but had only enraged him,
+and then he had to run for his cab. He was bundled in and Doyle disposed
+of. It was only three blocks down to Beau Rivage, and thither Mike drove
+them in all the storm. She did not know at the time of Waring's being in
+the cab. In less than fifteen minutes Mike was back and called
+excitedly for Bridget; had a hurried consultation with her; she seized a
+waterproof and ran out with him, but darted back and took the bottle of
+chloroform she had used on her husband, now lying limp and senseless on
+a sofa below, and then she disappeared. When half an hour passed and
+Lascelles failed to return with them, bringing certain papers of which
+he'd been speaking to Philippes, the latter declared there must be
+something wrong, and went out to reconnoitre despite the storm. He could
+see nothing. It was after midnight when Mrs. Doyle came rushing in,
+gasping, all out of breath "along of the storm," she said. She had been
+down the levee with Mike to find a cushion and lap-robe he dropped and
+couldn't afford to lose. They never could have found it at all "but for
+ould Lascelles lending them a lantern." He wanted Mike to bring down two
+bottles of champagne he'd left here, but it was storming so that he
+would not venture again, and Lieutenant Waring, she said, was going to
+spend the night with Lascelles at Beau Rivage: Mike couldn't drive any
+farther down towards the barracks. Lascelles sent word to Philippes that
+he'd bring up the papers first thing in the morning, if the storm
+lulled, and Philippes went out indignant at all the time lost, but Mike
+swore he'd not drive down again for a fortune. So the Frenchman got into
+the cab and went up with him to town. The moment he was gone Mrs. Doyle
+declared she was dead tired, used up, and drank huge goblets of the wine
+until she reeled off to her room, leaving an apron behind. Then Mrs.
+Dawson went to her own room, after putting out the lights, and when, two
+days later, she heard the awful news of the murder, knowing that
+investigation would follow and she and her sins be brought to light, she
+fled, for she had enough of his money in her possession, and poor
+demented Dawson, finding her gone, followed.
+
+Philippes's story corroborated this in every particular. The last he saw
+of the cab or of the cabman was near the house of the hook-and-ladder
+company east of the French Market. The driver there said his horse was
+dead beat and could do no more, so Philippes went into the market,
+succeeded in getting another cab by paying a big price, slept at
+Cassidy's, waited all the morning about Lascelles's place, and finally,
+having to return to the Northeast at once, he took the evening train on
+the Jackson road and never heard of the murder until ten days after. He
+was amazed at his arrest.
+
+And then came before his examiners a mere physical wreck,--the shadow of
+his former self,--caught at the high tide of a career of crime and
+debauchery, a much less bulky party than the truculent Jehu of Madame
+Lascelles's cab, yet no less important a witness than that same driver.
+He was accompanied by a priest. He had been brought hither in an
+ambulance from the Hôtel-Dieu, where he had been traced several days
+before and found almost at death's door. His confession was most
+important of all. He had struck Lieutenant Waring as that officer turned
+away from Lascelles's gate, intending only to down and then kick and
+hammer him, but he had struck with a lead-loaded rubber club, and he was
+horrified to see him drop like one dead. Then he lost his nerve and
+drove furiously back for Bridget. Together they returned, and found
+Waring lying there as he had left him on the dripping banquette. "You've
+killed him, Mike. There's only one thing to do," she said: "take his
+watch and everything valuable he has, and we'll throw him over on the
+levee." She herself took the knife from his overcoat-pocket, lest he
+should recover suddenly, and then, said the driver, "even as we were
+bending over him there came a sudden flash of lightning, and there was
+Lascelles bending over us, demanding to know what it meant. Then like
+another flash he seemed to realize what was up, sprang back, and drew
+pistol. He had caught us in the act. There was nothing else to do; we
+both sprang upon him. He fired, and hit me, but only in the arm, and
+before he could pull trigger again we both grappled him. I seized his
+gun, Bridget his throat, but he screamed and fought like a tiger, then
+wilted all of a sudden. I was scared and helpless, but she had her wits
+about her, and told me what to do. The lieutenant began to gasp and
+revive just then, so she soaked the handkerchief in chloroform and
+placed it over his mouth, and together we lifted him into the cab. Then
+we raised Lascelles and carried him in and laid him on his sofa, for he
+had left the door open and the lamp on the table. Bridget had been there
+before, and knew all about the house. We set the pistol back in his
+hand, but couldn't make the fingers grasp it. We ransacked the desk and
+got what money there was, locked and bolted the doors, and climbed out
+of the side window, under which she dropped the knife among the bushes.
+'They'll never suspect us in the world, Mike,' she said. 'It's the
+lieutenant's knife that did it, and, as he was going to fight him
+anyhow, he'll get the credit of it all.' Then we drove up the levee, put
+Waring in Anatole's boat, sculls and all, and shoved him off. 'I'll
+muzzle Jim,' she said. 'I'll make him believe 'twas he that did it when
+he was drunk.' She took most of the money, and the watch and ring. She
+said she could hide them until they'd be needed. Then I drove Philippes
+up to town until I began to get so sick and faint I could do no more. I
+turned the cab loose and got away to a house where I knew they'd take
+care of me, and from there, when my money was gone, they sent me to the
+hospital, thinking I was dying. I swear to God I never meant to more
+than get square with the lieutenant. I never struck Lascelles at all;
+'twas she who drove the knife into his heart."
+
+Then, exhausted, he was led into an adjoining room, and Mrs. Doyle was
+marched in, the picture of injured Irish innocence. For ten minutes,
+with wonderful effrontery and nerve, she denied all personal
+participation in the crime, and faced her inquisitors with brazen calm.
+Then the chief quietly turned and signalled. An officer led forward from
+one side the wreck of a cabman, supported by the priest; a door opened
+on the other, and, escorted by another policeman, Mrs. Dawson
+re-entered, holding in her hands outstretched a gingham apron on which
+were two deep stains the shape and size of a long, straight-bladed,
+two-edged knife. It was the apron that Bridget Doyle had worn that fatal
+night. One quick, furtive look at that, one glance at her trembling,
+shrinking, cowering kinsman, and, with an Irish howl of despair, a loud
+wail of "Mike, Mike, you've sworn your sister's life away!" she threw
+herself upon the floor, tearing madly at her hair. And so ended the
+mystery of Beau Rivage.
+
+There was silence a moment in Cram's pretty parlor when the captain had
+finished his story. Waring was the first to speak:
+
+"There is one point I wish they'd clear up."
+
+"What's that?" said Cram.
+
+"Who's got Merton's watch?"
+
+"Oh, by Jove! I quite forgot. It's all right, Waring. Anatole's place
+was 'pulled' last night, and he had her valuables all done up in a box.
+'To pay for his boat,' he said."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A quarter of a century has passed away since the scarlet plumes of Light
+Battery "X" were last seen dancing along the levee below New Orleans.
+Beau Rivage, old and moss-grown at the close of the war, fell into rapid
+decline after the tragedy of that April night. Heavily mortgaged, the
+property passed into other hands, but for years never found a tenant.
+Far and near the negroes spoke of the homestead as haunted, and none of
+their race could be induced to set foot within its gates. One night the
+sentry at the guard-house saw sudden light on the westward sky, and then
+a column of flame. Again the fire-alarm resounded among the echoing
+walls of the barracks; but when the soldiers reached the scene, a
+seething ruin was all that was left of the old Southern home. Somebody
+sent Cram a marked copy of a New Orleans paper, and in their cosey
+quarters at Fort Hamilton the captain read it aloud to his devoted Nell:
+"The old house has been vacant, an object of almost superstitious dread
+to the neighborhood," said the _Times_, "ever since the tragic death of
+Armand Lascelles in the spring of 1868. In police annals the affair was
+remarkable because of the extraordinary chain of circumstantial evidence
+which for a time seemed to fasten the murder upon an officer of the army
+then stationed at Jackson Barracks, but whose innocence was triumphantly
+established. Madame Lascelles, it is understood, is now educating her
+daughter in Paris, whither she removed immediately after her marriage a
+few months ago to Captain Philippe Lascelles, formerly of the
+Confederate army, a younger brother of her first husband."
+
+"Well," said Cram, "I'll have to send that to Waring. They're in Vienna
+by this time, I suppose. Look here, Nell; how was it that when we
+fellows were fretting about Waring's attentions to Madame, you should
+have been so serenely superior to it all, even when, as I know, the
+stories reached you?"
+
+"Ah, Ned, I knew a story worth two of those. He was in love with Natalie
+Maitland all the time."
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Waring's Peril, by Charles King
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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Waring's Peril, by Capt. Charles King.
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Waring's Peril, 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: Waring's Peril
+
+Author: Charles King
+
+Release Date: January 3, 2008 [EBook #24148]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WARING'S PERIL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p>
+
+<h1>WARING'S PERIL.</h1>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3>BY</h3>
+
+<h2>CAPT. CHARLES KING,</h2>
+
+<h3>U. S. ARMY,</h3>
+
+<h4>AUTHOR OF "THE COLONEL'S DAUGHTER," "FOES IN AMBUSH," "AN ARMY
+PORTIA," "TWO SOLDIERS," "A SOLDIER'S SECRET," ETC.</h4>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/logo.png" width='150' height='154' alt="Publisher's logo" /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h4>PHILADELPHIA:</h4>
+
+<h3>J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.</h3>
+
+<h4>1894.</h4>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h3><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1893,<br />by<br />J. B. Lippincott Company.</span></h3>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center"><span class="smcap">Printed by J. B. Lippincott Company, Philadelphia.</span></p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+
+<div class="index">
+<ul>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></li>
+<li><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></li>
+</ul>
+</div>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<h1>WARING'S PERIL.</h1>
+
+<hr class="smler" />
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+
+<p>"Ananias!"</p>
+
+<p>"Ye-as, suh?"</p>
+
+<p>"What time is it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Gyahd-mountin' done gone, suh."</p>
+
+<p>"The devil it has! What do you mean, sir, by allowing me to sleep on in
+this shameless and unconscionable manner, when an indulgent government
+is suffering for my services? What sort of day is it, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Beautiful day, Mr. Waring."</p>
+
+<p>"Then go at once to Mr. Larkin and tell him he can't wear his new silk
+hat this morning,&mdash;I want it, and you fetch it. Don't allow him to ring
+in the old one on you. Tell him I mean the new 'spring style' he just
+brought from New York. Tell Mr. Ferry I want that new Hatfield suit of
+his, and you get Mr. Pierce's silk umbrella; then come back here and
+get<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">[Pg 4]</a></span> my bath and my coffee. Stop there, Ananias! Give my pious regards
+to the commanding officer, sir, and tell him that there's no drill for
+'X' Battery this morning, as I'm to breakfast at Moreau's at eleven
+o'clock and go to the <i>matin&eacute;e</i> afterwards."</p>
+
+<p>"Beg pahdon, suh, but de cunnle's done ohdered review fo' de whole
+command, suh, right at nine o'clock."</p>
+
+<p>"So much the better. Then Captain Cram must stay, and won't need his
+swell team. Go right down to the stable and tell Jeffers I'll drive at
+nine-thirty."</p>
+
+<p>"But&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"No buts, you incorrigible rascal! I don't pay you a princely salary to
+raise obstacles. I don't pay you at all, sir, except at rare intervals
+and in moments of mental decrepitude. Go at once! Allez! Chassez!
+Skoot!"</p>
+
+<p>"But, lieutenant," says Ananias, his black face shining, his even white
+teeth all agleam, "Captain Cram stopped in on de way back from stables
+to say Glenco 'd sprained his foot and you was to ride de bay colt.
+<i>Please</i> get up, suh. Boots and Saddles 'll soun' in ten minutes."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">[Pg 5]</a></span></p><p>"It won't, but if it does I'll brain the bugler. Tell him so. Tell
+Captain Cram he's entirely mistaken: I won't ride the bay colt&mdash;nor
+Glenco. I'm going driving, sir, with Captain Cram's own team and
+road-wagon. Tell <i>him</i> so. Going in forty-five minutes by my watch.
+Where is it, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"It ain't back from de jeweller's, suh, where you done lef' it day
+before yist'day; but his boy's hyuh now, suh, wid de bill for las' year.
+What shall I tell him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Tell him to go to&mdash;quarantine. No! Tell him the fever has broken out
+here again, sir, and not to call until ten o'clock next spring,&mdash;next
+mainspring they put in that watch. Go and get Mr. Merton's watch. Tell
+him I'll be sure to overstay in town if he doesn't send it, and then I
+can't take him up and introduce him to those ladies from Louisville
+to-morrow. Impress that on him, sir, unless he's gone and left it on his
+bureau, in which case impress the watch,&mdash;the watch, sir, in any case.
+No! Stop again, Ananias; <i>not</i> in any case, only in the gold
+hunting-case; no other. Now then, vanish!"</p>
+
+<p>"But, lieutenant, 'fo' Gawd, suh, dey'll put you in arrest if you cuts
+drill dis time. Cunnle<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">[Pg 6]</a></span> Braxton says to Captain Cram only two days ago,
+suh, dat&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>But here a white arm shot out from a canopy of mosquito-netting, and
+first a boot-jack, then a slipper, then a heavy top-boot, came whizzing
+past the darky's dodging head, and, finding expostulation vain, that
+faithful servitor bolted out in search of some ally more potent, and
+found one, though not the one he sought or desired, just entering the
+adjoining room.</p>
+
+<p>A big fellow, too,&mdash;too big, in fact, to be seen wearing, as was the
+fashion in the sixties, the shell jacket of the light artillery. He had
+a full round body, and a full round ruddy face, and a little round
+visorless cap cocked on one side of a round bullet head, not very full
+of brains, perhaps, yet reputed to be fairly stocked with what is termed
+"horse sense." His bulky legs were thrust deep in long boots, and
+ornamented, so far as the skin-tight breeches of sky-blue were
+concerned, with a scarlet welt along the seam, a welt that his comrades
+were wont to say would make a white mark on his nose, so red and bulbous
+was that organ. He came noisily in from the broad veranda overlooking
+the parade-ground, glanced about on the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">[Pg 7]</a></span>disarray of the bachelor
+sitting-room, then whirled on Ananias.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Waring dressed?"</p>
+
+<p>"No-o, suh; jus' woke up, suh; ain't out o' bed yit."</p>
+
+<p>"The lazy vagabond! Just let me get at him a minute," said the big man,
+tramping over to the door-way as though bent on invading the chamber
+beyond. But Ananias had halted short at sight of the intruder, and stood
+there resolutely barring the way.</p>
+
+<p>"Beg pahdon, lieutenant, but Mr. Waring ain't had his bath yit. Can I
+mix de lieutenant a cocktail, suh?"</p>
+
+<p>"Can you? You black imp of Satan, why isn't it ready now, sir? Sure you
+could have seen I was as dhry as a lime-kiln from the time I came
+through the gate. Hware's the demijohn, you villain?"</p>
+
+<p>"Bein' refilled, suh, down to de sto', but dar's a little on de
+sideboa'd, suh," answered Ananias, edging over thither now that he had
+lured the invader away from the guarded door-way. "Take it straight,
+suh, o' wid bitters&mdash;o' toddy?"</p>
+
+<p>"Faith, I'll answer ye as Pat did the parson:<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">[Pg 8]</a></span> I'll take it straight
+now, and then be drinkin' the toddy while your honor is mixin' the
+punch. Give me hold of it, you smudge! and tell your masther it's
+review,&mdash;full dress,&mdash;and it's time for him to be up. Has he had his two
+cocktails yet?"</p>
+
+<p>"The lieutenant doesn't care fo' any dis mawnin', suh. I'll fetch him
+his coffee in a minute. Did you see de cunnle's oade'ly, suh? He was
+lookin' fo' you a moment ago."</p>
+
+<p>The big red man was gulping down a big drink of the fiery liquor at the
+instant. He set the glass back on the sideboard with unsteady hand and
+glared at Ananias suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>"Is it troot' you're tellin', nigger? Hwat did he say was wanted?"</p>
+
+<p>"Didn't say, suh, but de cunnle's in his office. Yawnduh comes de
+oade'ly, too, suh; guess he must have hyuhd you was over hyuh."</p>
+
+<p>The result of this announcement was not unexpected. The big man made a
+leap for the chamber door, only to find it slammed in his face from the
+other side.</p>
+
+<p>"Hwat the devil's the matter with your master this morning,
+Ananias?&mdash;Waring! Waring, I say! Let me in: the K. O.'s orderly<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span> is
+afther me, and all on account of your bringing me in at that hour last
+night.&mdash;Tell him I've gone, Ananias.&mdash;Let me in, Waring, there's a good
+fellow."</p>
+
+<p>"Go to blazes, Doyle!" is the unfeeling answer from the other side. "I'm
+bathing." And a vigorous splashing follows the announcement.</p>
+
+<p>"For the Lord's sake, Waring, let me in. Sure I can't see the colonel
+now. If I could stand him off until review and inspection's over and
+he's had his dhrink, he'd let the whole thing drop; but that blackguard
+of a sinthry has given us away. Sure I told you he would."</p>
+
+<p>"Then slide down the lightning-rod! Fly up the chimney! Evaporate! Dry
+up and blow away, but get <i>out</i>! You can't come in here."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, for mercy's sake, Waring! Sure 'twas you that got me into the
+scrape. You know that I was dhrunk when you found me up the levee. You
+made me come down when I didn't want to. Hwat did I say to the man last
+night, anyhow?"</p>
+
+<p>"Say to him? Poor devil! why, you never can remember after you're drunk
+what you've been doing the night before. Some time it'll<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span> be the death
+of you. You abused him like a pickpocket,&mdash;the sergeant of the guard and
+everybody connected with it."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, murther, murther, murther!" groaned the poor Irishman, sitting down
+and covering his face with his hands. "Sure they'll court-martial me
+this time without fail, and I know it. For God's sake, Waring, can't ye
+let a fellow in and say that I'm not here?"</p>
+
+<p>"Hyuh, dis way, lieutenant," whispered Ananias, mysteriously. "Slip out
+on de po'ch and into Mr. Pierce's room. I'll tell you when he's gone."
+And in a moment the huge bulk of the senior lieutenant of Light Battery
+"X" was being boosted through a window opening from the gallery into the
+bachelor den of the junior second lieutenant. No sooner was this done
+than the negro servant darted back, closed and bolted the long green
+Venetian blinds behind him, tiptoed to the bedroom door, and, softly
+tapping, called,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Waring! Mr. Waring! get dressed quick as you can, suh; I'll lay out
+your uniform in hyuh."</p>
+
+<p>"I tell you, Ananias, I'm going to town, sir; not to any ridiculous
+review. Go and get what<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span> I ordered you. See that I'm properly dressed,
+sir, or I'll discharge you. Confound you, sir! there isn't a drop of
+Florida water in this bath, and none on my bureau. Go and rob Mr.
+Pierce,&mdash;or anybody."</p>
+
+<p>But Ananias was already gone. Darting out on the gallery, he took a
+header through the window of the adjoining quarters through which Mr.
+Doyle had escaped, snatched a long flask from the dressing-table, and
+was back in the twinkling of an eye.</p>
+
+<p>"What became of Mr. Doyle?" asked Waring, as he thrust a bare arm
+through a narrow aperture to receive the spoil. "Don't let him get
+drunk; <i>he's</i> got to go to review, sir. If he doesn't, Colonel Braxton
+may be so inconsiderate as to inquire why both the lieutenants of 'X'
+Battery are missing. Take good care of him till the review, sir, then
+let him go to grass; and don't you dare leave me without Florida water
+again, if you have to burglarize the whole post. What's Mr. Doyle doing,
+sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Peekin' froo de blin's in Mr. Pierce's room, suh; lookin' fo' de
+oade'ly. I done told him de cunnle was ahter him, but he ain't, suh,"
+chuckled Ananias. "I fixed it all right wid de<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span> gyahd dis mawnin', suh.
+Dey won' tell 'bout his cuttin' up las' night. He'd forgot de whole
+t'ing, suh; he allays does; he never does know what's happened de night
+befo'. He wouldn't 'a' known about dis, but I told his boy Jim to tell
+him 'bout it ahter stables. I told Jim to sweah dat dey'd repohted it to
+de cunnle."</p>
+
+<p>"Very well, Ananias; very well, sir; you're a credit to your name. Now
+go and carry out my orders. Don't forget Captain Cram's wagon. Tell
+Jeffers to be here with it on time." And the lieutenant returned to his
+bath without waiting for reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Ye-as, suh," was the subordinate answer, as Ananias promptly turned,
+and, whistling cheerily, went banging out upon the gallery and
+clattering down the open stairway to the brick-paved court below. Here
+he as promptly turned, and, noiseless as a cat, shot up the stairway,
+tiptoed back into the sitting-room, kicked off his low-heeled slippers,
+and rapidly, but with hardly an audible sound, resumed the work on which
+he had been engaged,&mdash;the arrangement of his master's kit.</p>
+
+<p>Already, faultlessly brushed, folded and hanging over the back of a
+chair close by the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>chamber door were the bright blue, scarlet-welted
+battery trousers then in vogue, very snug at the knee, very springy over
+the foot. Underneath them, spread over the square back of the chair, a
+dark-blue, single-breasted frock-coat, hanging nearly to the floor, its
+shoulders decked with huge epaulettes, to the right one of which were
+attached the braid and loops of a heavy gilt aiguillette whose
+glistening pendants were hung temporarily on the upper button. On the
+seat of the chair was folded a broad soft sash of red silk net, its
+tassels carefully spread. Beside it lay a pair of long buff gauntlets,
+new and spotless. At the door, brilliantly polished, stood a pair of
+buttoned gaiter boots, the heels decorated with small glistening brass
+spurs. In the corner, close at hand, leaned a long curved sabre, its
+gold sword-knot, its triple-guarded hilt, its steel scabbard and plated
+bands and rings, as well as the swivels and buckle of the black
+sword-belt, showing the perfection of finish in manufacture and care in
+keeping. From a round leather box Ananias now extracted a new gold-wire
+<i>fourag&egrave;re</i>, which he softly wiped with a silk handkerchief, dandled
+lovingly an instant the glistening tassels, coiled it carefully upon<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>
+the sash, then producing from the same box a long scarlet horsehair
+plume he first brushed it into shimmering freedom from the faintest knot
+or kink, then set it firmly through its socket into the front of a
+gold-braided shako whose black front was decked with the embroidered
+cross cannon of the regiment, surmounted by the arms of the United
+States. This he noiselessly placed upon the edge of the mantel, stepped
+back to complacently view his work, flicked off a possible speck of dust
+on the sleeve of the coat, touched with a chamois-skin the gold crescent
+of the nearest epaulette, then softly, noiselessly as before vanished
+through the door-way, tiptoed to the adjoining window, and peeked in.
+Mr. Doyle had thrown himself into Pierce's arm-chair, and was trying to
+read the morning paper.</p>
+
+<p>"Wunner what Mars'er Pierce will say when he gits back from breakfast,"
+was Ananias's comment, as he sped softly down the stairs, a broad grin
+on his black face, a grin that almost instantly gave place to
+preternatural solemnity and respect as, turning sharply on the sidewalk
+at the foot of the stairs, he came face to face with the battery
+commander. Ananias would<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span> have passed with a low obeisance, but the
+captain halted him short.</p>
+
+<p>"Where's Mr. Waring, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Dressin' fo' inspection, captain."</p>
+
+<p>"He is? I just heard in the mess-room that he didn't propose
+attending,&mdash;that he had an engagement to breakfast and was going in
+town."</p>
+
+<p>"Ye-as, suh, ye-as, suh, General Roosseau, suh, expected de lieutenant
+in to breakfast, but de moment he hyuhd 'twas review he ohdered me to
+git everything ready, suh. I's goin' for de bay colt now. Beg pahdon,
+captain, de lieutenant says is de captain goin' to wear gauntlets or
+gloves dis mawnin'? He wants to do just as de captain does, suh."</p>
+
+<p>What a merciful interposition of divine Providence it is that the
+African cannot blush! Captain Cram looked suspiciously at the earnest,
+unwinking, black face before him. Some memory of old college days
+flitted through his mind at the moment. "O Kunopes!" ("thou dog-faced
+one!") he caught himself muttering, but negro diplomacy was too much for
+him, and the innocence in the face of Ananias would have baffled a man
+far more suspicious. Cram was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span> a fellow who loved his battery and his
+profession as few men loved before. He was full of big ideas in one way
+and little oddities in another. Undoubted ability had been at the bottom
+of his selection over the head of many a senior to command one of the
+light batteries when the general dismounting took place in '66. Unusual
+attractions of person had won him a wife with a fortune only a little
+later. The fortune had warranted a short leave abroad this very year.
+(He would not have taken a day over sixty, for fear of losing his light
+battery.) He had been a stickler for gauntlets on all mounted duty when
+he went away, and he came home converted to white wash-leather gloves
+because the British horse-artillery wore no other, "and they, sir, are
+the nattiest in the world." He could not tolerate an officer whose soul
+was not aflame with enthusiasm for battery duty, and so was perpetually
+at war with Waring, who dared to have other aspirations. He delighted in
+a man who took pride in his dress and equipment, and so rejoiced in
+Waring, who, more than any subaltern ever attached to "X," was the very
+glass of soldier fashion and mould of soldier form. He had dropped in at
+the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span> bachelor mess just in time to hear some gabbling youngster blurt
+out a bet that Sam Waring would cut review and keep his tryst in town,
+and he had known him many a time to overpersuade his superiors into
+excusing him from duty on pretext of social claims, and more than once
+into pardoning deliberate absence. But he and the post commander had
+deemed it high time to block all that nonsense in future, and had so
+informed him, and were nonplussed at Waring's cheery acceptance of the
+implied rebuke and most airy, graceful, and immediate change of the
+subject. The whole garrison was chuckling over it by night.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, certainly, colonel," said he, "I <i>have</i> been most derelict of late
+during the visit of all these charming people from the North; and that
+reminds me, some of them are going to drive out here to hear the band
+this afternoon and take a bite at my quarters. I was just on my way to
+beg Mrs. Braxton and Mrs. Cram to receive for me, when your orderly
+came. And, colonel, I want your advice about the champagne. Of course I
+needn't say I hope you both will honor me with your presence." Old Brax
+loved champagne and salad better than<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span> anything his profession afforded,
+and was disarmed at once. As for Cram, what could he say when the post
+commander dropped the matter? With all his daring disregard of orders
+and established customs, with all his consummate <i>sang-froid</i> and what
+some called impudence and others "cheek," every superior under whom he
+had ever served had sooner or later become actually fond of Sam
+Waring,&mdash;even stern old Rounds,&mdash;"old Double Rounds" the boys called
+him, one of the martinets of the service, whose first experience with
+the fellow was as memorable as it was unexpected, and who wound up,
+after a vehement scoring of some two minutes' duration, during which
+Waring had stood patiently at attention with an expression of the
+liveliest sympathy and interest on his handsome face, by asking
+impressively, "Now, sir, what have you to say for yourself?"</p>
+
+<p>To which, with inimitable mixture of suavity and concern, Sam replied,
+"Nothing whatever, sir. I doubt if anything more could be said. I had no
+adequate idea of the extent of my misdoing. Have I your permission to
+sit down, sir, and think it over?"</p>
+
+<p>Rounds actually didn't know what to think,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span> and still less what to say.
+Had he believed for an instant that the young gentleman was insincere,
+he would have had him in close arrest in the twinkling of an eye; but
+Waring's tone and words and manner were those of contrition itself. It
+was not possible that one of the boys should dare to be guying him, the
+implacable Rounds, "old Grand Rounds" of the Sixth Corps, old Double
+Rounds of the horse-artillery of the Peninsula days. Mrs. Rounds had her
+suspicions when told of the affair, but was silent, for of all the
+officers stationed in and around the old Southern city Sam Waring was by
+long odds the most graceful and accomplished dancer and german leader,
+the best informed on all manner of interesting matters,&mdash;social,
+musical, dramatic, fashionable,&mdash;the prime mover in garrison hops and
+parties, the connecting link between the families of the general and
+staff officers in town and the linesmen at the surrounding posts, the
+man whose dictum as to a dinner or luncheon and whose judgment as to a
+woman's toilet were most quoted and least questioned, the man whose word
+could almost make or mar an army girl's success; and good old Lady
+Rounds had two such encumbrances the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span> first winter of their sojourn in
+the South, and two army girls among so many are subjects of not a little
+thought and care. If Mr. Waring had not led the second german with
+Margaret Rounds the mother's heart would have been well-nigh crushed. It
+was fear of some such catastrophe that kept her silent on the score of
+Waring's reply to her irate lord, for if Sam did mean to be impertinent,
+as he unquestionably could be, the colonel she knew would be merciless
+in his discipline and social amenities would be at instant end. Waring
+had covered her with maternal triumph and Margaret with bliss
+unutterable by leading the ante-Lenten german with the elder daughter
+and making her brief stay a month of infinite joy. The Rounds were
+ordered on to Texas, and Margaret's brief romance was speedily and
+properly forgotten in the devotions of a more solid if less fascinating
+fellow. To do Waring justice, he had paid the girl no more marked
+attention than he showed to any one else. He would have led the next
+german with Genevieve had there been another to lead, just as he had led
+previous affairs with other dames and damsels. It was one of the
+ninety-nine articles of his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span> social faith that a girl should have a good
+time her first season, just as it was another that a bride should have a
+lovely wedding, a belle at least one offer a month, a married woman as
+much attention at an army ball as could be lavished on a bud. He prided
+himself on the fact that no woman at the army parties given that winter
+had remained a wall-flower. Among such a host of officers as was there
+assembled during the year that followed on the heels of the war it was
+no difficult matter, to be sure, to find partners for the thirty or
+forty ladies who honored those occasions with their presence. Of local
+belles there were none. It was far too soon after the bitter strife to
+hope for bliss so great as that. There were hardly any but army women to
+provide for, and even the bulkiest and least attractive of the lot was
+led out for the dance. Waring would go to any length to see them on the
+floor but that of being himself the partner. There the line was drawn
+irrevocably. The best dancer among the men, he simply would not dance
+except with the best dancers among the women. As to personal appearance
+and traits, it may be said first that Waring was a man of slender,
+graceful <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>physique, with singularly well shaped hands and feet and a
+head and face that were almost too good-looking to be manly. Dark hazel
+eyes, dark brown hair, eyebrows, lashes, and a very heavy drooping
+moustache, a straight nose, a soft, sensitive mouth with even white
+teeth that were, however, rarely visible, a clear-cut chin, and with it
+all a soft, almost languid Southern intonation, musical, even
+ultra-refined, and he shrank like a woman from a coarse word or the
+utterance of an impure thought. He was a man whom many women admired, of
+whom some were afraid, whom many liked and trusted, for he could not be
+bribed to say a mean thing about one of their number, though he would
+sometimes be satirical to her very face. It was among the men that Sam
+Waring was hated or loved,&mdash;loved, laughed over, indulged, even spoiled,
+perhaps, to any and every extent, by the chosen few who were his chums
+and intimates, and absolutely hated by a very considerable element that
+was prominent in the army in those queer old days,&mdash;the array of
+officers who, by reason of birth, antecedents, lack of education or of
+social opportunities, were wanting in those graces of manner and
+language to which<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span> Waring had been accustomed from earliest boyhood. His
+people were Southerners, yet, not being slave-owners, had stood firm for
+the Union, and were exiled from the old home as a natural consequence in
+a war in which the South held all against who were not for her.
+Appointed a cadet and sent to the Military Academy in recognition of the
+loyalty of his immediate relatives, he was not graduated until the war
+was practically over, and then, gazetted to an infantry regiment, he was
+stationed for a time among the scenes of his boyhood, ostracized by his
+former friends and unable to associate with most of the war-worn
+officers among whom his lot was cast. It was a year of misery, that
+ended in long and dangerous illness, his final shipment to Washington on
+sick-leave, and then a winter of keen delight, a social campaign in
+which he won fame, honors, friends at court, and a transfer to the
+artillery, and then, joining his new regiment, he plunged with eagerness
+into the gayeties of city life. The blues were left behind with the cold
+facings of his former corps, and hope, life, duty, were all blended in
+hues as roseate as his new straps were red. It wasn't a month before all
+the best fellows in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span> batteries swore by Sam Waring and all the
+others at him, so that where there were five who liked there were at
+least twenty who didn't, and these made up in quantity what they lacked
+in quality.</p>
+
+<p>To sum up the situation, Lieutenant Doyle's expression was perhaps the
+most comprehensive, as giving the views of the great majority: "If I
+were his K. O. and this crowd the coort, he'd 'a' been kicked out of the
+service months ago."</p>
+
+<p>And yet, entertaining or expressing so hostile an opinion of the
+laughing lieutenant, Mr. Doyle did not hesitate to seek his society on
+many an occasion when he wasn't wanted, and to solace himself at
+Waring's sideboard at any hour of the day or night, for Waring kept what
+was known as "open house" to all comers, and the very men who wondered
+how he could afford it and who predicted his speedy swamping in a mire
+of debt and disgrace were the very ones who were most frequently to be
+found loafing about his gallery, smoking his tobacco and swigging his
+whiskey, a pretty sure sign that the occupant of the quarters, however,
+was absent. With none of their number had he ever had open quarrel.
+Remarks made at his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span> expense and reported to him in moments of bibulous
+confidence he treated with gay disdain, often to the manifest
+disappointment of his informant. In his presence even the most reckless
+of their number were conscious of a certain restraint. Waring, as has
+been said, detested foul language, and had a very quiet but effective
+way of suppressing it, often without so much as uttering a word. These
+were the rough days of the army, the very roughest it ever knew, the
+days that intervened between the incessant strain and tension of the
+four years' battling and the slow gradual resumption of good order and
+military discipline. The rude speech and manners of the camp still
+permeated every garrison. The bulk of the commissioned force was made up
+of hard fighters, brave soldiers and loyal servants of the nation, to be
+sure, but as a class they had known no other life or language since the
+day of their muster-in. Of the line officers stationed in and around
+this Southern city in the lovely spring-tide of 186-, of a force
+aggregating twenty companies of infantry and cavalry, there were fifty
+captains and lieutenants appointed from the volunteers, the ranks, or
+civil life, to one graduated from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span> West Point. The predominance was in
+favor of ex-sergeants, corporals, or company clerks,&mdash;good men and true
+when they wore the chevrons, but who, with a few marked and most
+admirable exceptions, proved to be utterly out of their element when
+promoted to a higher sphere. The entrance into their midst of Captain
+Cram with his swell light battery, with officers and men in scarlet
+plumes and full-dress uniforms, was a revelation to the sombre
+battalions whose officers had not yet even purchased their epaulettes
+and had seen no occasion to wear them. But when Cram and his lieutenants
+came swaggering about the garrison croquet-ground in natty shell
+jackets, Russian shoulder-knots, riding-breeches, boots, and spurs,
+there were not lacking those among the sturdy foot who looked upon the
+whole proceeding with great disfavor. Cram had two "rankers" with him
+when he came, but one had transferred out in favor of Waring, and now
+his battery was supplied with the full complement of subalterns,&mdash;Doyle,
+very much out of place, commanding the right section (as a platoon was
+called in those days), Waring commanding the left, Ferry serving as
+chief of caissons, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span> Pierce as battery adjutant and general utility
+man. Two of the officers were graduates of West Point and not yet three
+years out of the cadet uniform. Under these circumstances it was
+injudicious in Cram to sport in person the aiguillettes and thereby set
+an example to his subalterns which they were not slow to follow. With
+their gold hat-braids, cords, tassels, and epaulettes, with scarlet
+plumes and facings, he and his officers were already much more
+gorgeously bedecked than were their infantry friends. The post
+commander, old Rounds, had said nothing, because he had had his start in
+the light artillery and might have lived and died a captain had he not
+pushed for a volunteer regiment and fought his way up to a division
+command and a lieutenant-colonelcy of regulars at the close of the war,
+while his seniors who stuck to their own corps never rose beyond the
+possibilities of their arm of the service and probably never will. But
+Braxton, who succeeded as post commander, knew that in European armies
+and in the old Mexican War days the aiguillette was ordinarily the
+distinctive badge of general officers or those empowered to give orders
+in their name. It<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span> wasn't the proper thing for a linesman&mdash;battery,
+cavalry, or foot&mdash;to wear, said Brax, and he thought Cram was wrong in
+wearing it, even though some other battery officers did so. But Cram was
+just back from Britain.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, sir, look at the Life Guards! Look at the Horse Guards in London!
+Every officer and man wears the aiguillette." And Braxton was a Briton
+by birth and breeding, and that ended it,&mdash;at least so nearly ended it
+that Cram's diplomatic invitation to come up and try some Veuve
+Clicquot, extra dry, upon the merits of which he desired the colonel's
+opinion, had settled it for good and all. Braxton's officers who
+ventured to suggest that he trim the plumage of these popinjays only got
+snubbed, therefore, for the time being, and ordered to buy the infantry
+full dress forthwith, and Cram and his quartette continued to blaze
+forth in gilded panoply until long after Sam Waring led his last german
+within those echoing walls and his name lived only as a dim and
+mist-wreathed memory in the annals of old Jackson Barracks.</p>
+
+<p>But on this exquisite April morning no fellow in all the garrison was
+more prominent, if not<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span> more popular. Despite the slight jealousy
+existing between the rival arms of the service, there were good fellows
+and gallant men among the infantry officers at the post, who were as
+cordially disposed towards the gay lieutenant as were the comrades of
+his own (colored) cloth. This is the more remarkable because he was
+never known to make the faintest effort to conciliate anybody and was
+utterly indifferent to public opinion. It would have been fortune far
+better than his deserts, but for the fact that by nature he was most
+generous, courteous, and considerate. The soldiers of the battery were
+devoted to him. The servants, black or white, would run at any time to
+do his capricious will. The garrison children adored him. There was
+simply no subject under discussion at the barracks in those days on
+which such utter variety of opinion existed as the real character of
+Lieutenant Sam Waring. As to his habits there was none whatever. He was
+a <i>bon vivant</i>, a "swell," a lover of all that was sweet and fair and
+good and gracious in life. Self-indulgent, said everybody; selfish, said
+some; lazy, said many, who watched him day-dreaming through the haze of
+cigar-smoke until a drive, a hop, a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span> ride, or an opera-party would call
+him into action. Slow, said the men, until they saw him catch Mrs.
+Winslow's runaway horse just at that ugly turn in the levee below the
+south tower. Cold-hearted, said many of the women, until Baby Brainard's
+fatal illness, when he watched by the little sufferer's side and brought
+her flowers and luscious fruit from town, and would sit at her mother's
+piano and play soft, sweet melodies and sing in low tremulous tone until
+the wearied eyelids closed and the sleep no potion could bring to that
+fever-racked brain would come at last for him to whom child-love was
+incense and music at once a passion and a prayer. Men who little knew
+and less liked him thought his enmity would be but light, and few men
+knew him so well as to realize that his friendship could be firm and
+true as steel.</p>
+
+<p>And so the garrison was mixed in its mind as to Mr. Waring, and among
+those who heard it said at the mess that he meant at all hazards to keep
+his engagement to breakfast in town there were some who really wished he
+might cut the suddenly-ordered review and thereby bring down upon his
+shapely, nonchalant head the wrath of Colonel Braxton.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span></p><p>"Boots and Saddles" had sounded at the artillery barracks. Mr. Pierce,
+as battery officer of the day, had clattered off through the north
+gateway. The battery had marched with dancing plumes and clanking sabres
+out to the stables and gun-shed. The horses of Lieutenants Doyle and
+Ferry were waiting for their riders underneath the gallery of their
+quarters. Captain Cram, in much state, followed by his orderly bugler
+and guidon-bearer, all in full uniform, was riding slowly down the sunny
+side of the garrison, and at sight of him Doyle and Ferry, who were
+leisurely pulling on their gauntlets in front of their respective doors,
+hooked up their sabres and came clattering down their stairway; but no
+Waring had appeared. There, across the parade on the southern side, the
+bay colt, caparisoned in Waring's unimpeachable horse-equipments, was
+being led up and down in the shade of the quarters, Mr. Pierce's boy Jim
+officiating as groom, while his confr&egrave;re Ananias, out of sight, was at
+the moment on his knees fastening the strap of his master's
+riding-trousers underneath the dainty gaiter boot, Mr. Waring the while
+surveying the proceeding over the rim of his coffee-cup.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Dar, suh. Now into de coat, quick! Yawnduh goes Captain Cram."</p>
+
+<p>"Ananias, how often have I told you that, howsoever necessary it might
+be for you to hurry, I never do? It's unbecoming an officer and a
+gentleman to hurry, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"But you's got to inspect yo' section, suh, befo' you can repote to
+Captain Cram. Please hurry wid de sash, suh." And, holding the belt
+extended with both hands, Ananias stood eager to clasp it around
+Waring's slender waist, but the lieutenant waved him away.</p>
+
+<p>"Get thee behind me, imp of Satan! Would you have me neglect one of the
+foremost articles of an artilleryman's faith? Never, sir! If there were
+a wrinkle in that sash it would cut a chasm in my reputation, sir." And,
+so saying, he stepped to the open door-way, threw the heavy tassel over
+and around the knob, kissed his hand jauntily to his battery commander,
+now riding down the opposite side of the parade, backed deliberately
+away the full length of the sash across the room, then, humming a
+favorite snatch from "Faust," deliberately wound himself into the bright
+crimson web, and, making a broad flat loop near the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span> farther end and
+without stopping his song, nodded coolly to Ananias to come on with the
+belt. In the same calm and deliberate fashion he finished his military
+toilet, set his shako well forward on his forehead, the chin-strap
+hanging just below the under lip, pulled on the buff gauntlets, surveyed
+himself critically and leisurely in the glass, and then began slowly to
+descend the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"Wait&mdash;jus' one moment, please, suh," implored Ananias, hastening after
+him. "Jus' happened to think of it, suh: Captain Cram's wearin' gloves
+dis mawnin'."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! So much the more chance to come back here in ten minutes.&mdash;Whoa,
+coltikins: how are you this morning, sir? Think you could run away if I
+begged you to pretty hard? You'll try, won't you, old boy?" said Waring,
+stroking the glossy neck of the impatient bay.&mdash;"Now, Jim, let go. Never
+allow anybody to hold a horse for you when you mount. That's highly
+unprofessional, sir. That'll do." And, so saying, he swung himself into
+saddle, and, checking the bounds of his excited colt, rode calmly away
+to join the battery.</p>
+
+<p>Already the bandsmen were marching through<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> the north gate on the way to
+the broad open field in which the man&oelig;uvres were held. The adjutant,
+sergeant-major, and markers were following. Just outside the gate the
+post commander was seated on horseback, and Cram had reined in to speak
+with him. Now, in his blithest, cheeriest tones, Waring accosted them,
+raising his hand in salute as he did so:</p>
+
+<p>"Good-morning, colonel. Good-morning, Captain Cram. We're in luck
+to-day. Couldn't possibly have lovelier weather. I'm only sorry this
+came off so suddenly and I hadn't time to invite our friends out from
+town. They would have been so pleased to see the battalion;&mdash;the
+ceremonies."</p>
+
+<p>"H'm! There was plenty of time if you'd returned to the post at retreat
+yesterday, sir," growled old Braxton. "Everybody was notified who was
+here then. What time <i>did</i> you get back, sir?"</p>
+
+<p>"Upon my word, colonel, I don't know. I never thought to look or
+inquire; but it was long after taps. Pardon me, though, I see I'm late
+inspecting." And in a moment he was riding quietly around among his
+teams and guns, narrowly scrutinizing each toggle, trace,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> and strap
+before taking station midway between his lead drivers, and then, as Cram
+approached, reporting, "Left section ready, sir."</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, the infantry companies were marching out through the gate and
+then ordering arms and resting until adjutant's call should sound.
+Drivers and cannoneers were dismounted to await the formation of the
+battalion line. Waring rode forward and in the most jovial off-hand way
+began telling Cram of the incidents of the previous day and his
+sight-seeing with the party of visitors from the North.</p>
+
+<p>"By the way, I promised Mr. Allerton that they should see that team of
+yours before they left: so, if you've no objection, the first morning
+you're on duty and can't go up, I'll take advantage of your invitation
+and drive Miss Allerton myself. Doesn't that court adjourn this week?"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm afraid not," said Cram, grimly. "It looks as though we'd have to
+sit to-day and to-morrow both."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that's too bad! They all want to meet you again. Couldn't you
+come up this evening after stables? Hello! this won't do; our infantry
+friends will be criticising us: I see<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> you're wearing gloves, and I'm in
+gauntlets. So is Doyle. We can't fit him out, I'm afraid, but I've just
+got some from New York exactly like yours. I'll trot back while we're
+waiting, if you don't object, and change them."</p>
+
+<p>Cram didn't want to say yes, yet didn't like to say no. He hesitated,
+and&mdash;was lost. In another moment, as though never imagining refusal were
+possible, Waring had quickly ridden away through the gate and
+disappeared behind the high brick wall.</p>
+
+<p>When the bugle sounded "mount," three minutes later, and the battery
+broke into column of pieces to march away to the man&oelig;uvring grounds,
+Mr. Ferry left the line of caissons and took command of the rear
+section. All that the battery saw of Waring or his mount the rest of the
+morning was just after reaching the line, when the fiery colt came
+tearing riderless around the field, joyously dodging every attempt of
+the spectators to catch him, and revelling in the delight of kicking up
+his heels and showing off in the presence and sight of his envious
+friends in harness. Plunge though they might, the horses could not join;
+dodge though they might, the bipeds could not catch him. Review,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>
+inspection, and the long ceremonials of the morning went off without the
+junior first lieutenant of Battery "X," who, for his part, went off
+without ceremony of any kind, Cram's stylish team and wagon with him.
+That afternoon he reappeared driving about the barrack square, a pretty
+girl at his side, both engrossed in the music of the band and apparently
+oblivious of the bottled-up wrath of either battery or post commander.</p>
+
+<p>"Be gorra!" said Doyle, "I'd like to be in his place now, provided I
+didn't have to be in it to-morrow."</p>
+
+<p>But when the morrow came there came no Waring with it.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+
+<p>For twenty-four hours old Brax had been mad as a hornet. He was not much
+of a drillmaster or tactician, but he thought he was, and it delighted
+him to put his battalion through the form of review, the commands for
+which he had memorized thoroughly and delivered with resonant voice and
+with all proper emphasis. What he did not fancy, and indeed could not
+do, was the drudge-work of teaching the minuti&aelig; of the school of the
+battalion, explaining each movement before undertaking its execution.
+This was a matter he delegated to one of his senior captains. For a
+week, therefore, in preparation for a possible visit on the part of the
+new brigadier-general or his inspector, the six companies of the
+regiment stationed at the post had been fairly well schooled in the
+ceremonies of review and parade, and so long as nothing more was
+required of them than a march past in quick time and a ten minutes'<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span>
+stand in line all might go well. The general had unexpectedly appeared
+one evening with only a single aide-de-camp, simply, as he explained, to
+return the calls of the officers of the garrison, six or eight of whom
+had known enough to present themselves and pay their respects in person
+when he arrived in town. Braxton swelled with gratified pride at the
+general's praise of the spick-span condition of the parade, the walks,
+roads, and visible quarters. But it was the very first old-time garrison
+the new chief had ever seen, a splendid fighting record with the
+volunteers during the war, and the advantage of taking sides for the
+Union from a doubtful State, having conspired to win him a star in the
+regular service only a year or two before.</p>
+
+<p>"We would have had out the battery and given you a salute, sir," said
+Brax, "had we known you were coming; but it's after retreat now. Next
+time, general, if you'll ride down some day, I'll be proud to give you a
+review of the whole command. We have a great big field back here."</p>
+
+<p>And the general had promised to come. This necessitated combined
+preparation, hence the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> order for full-dress rehearsal with battery and
+all, and then came confusion. Fresh from the command of his beautiful
+horse-battery and the dashing service with a cavalry division, Cram
+hated the idea of limping along, as he expressed it, behind a battalion
+of foot, and said so, and somebody told Brax he had said so,&mdash;more than
+one somebody, probably, for Brax had many an adviser to help keep him in
+trouble. The order that Cram should appear for instruction in review of
+infantry and artillery combined gave umbrage to the battery commander,
+and his reported remarks thereupon, renewed cause for displeasure to his
+garrison chief.</p>
+
+<p>"So far as we're concerned," said Cram, who wanted to utilize the good
+weather for battery drill, "we need no instruction, as we have done the
+trick time and again before; and if we hadn't, who in the bloody
+Fifty-First is there to teach us? Certainly not old Brax."</p>
+
+<p>All the same the order was obeyed, and Cram started out that loveliest
+of lovely spring mornings not entirely innocent of the conviction that
+he and his fellows were going to have some fun out of the thing before
+they got through with it. Not that he purposed putting any<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> hitch or
+impediment in the way. He meant to do just exactly as he was bid; and
+so, when adjutant's call had sounded and the blue lines of the infantry
+were well out on the field, he followed in glittering column of pieces,
+his satin-coated horses dancing in sheer exuberance of spirits and his
+red-crested cannoneers sitting with folded arms, erect and statuesque,
+upon the ammunition-chests. Mrs. Cram, in her pretty basket phaeton,
+with Mrs. Lawrence, of the infantry, and several of the ladies of the
+garrison in ambulances or afoot, had taken station well to the front of
+the forming line. Then it became apparent that old Brax purposed to
+figure as the reviewing officer and had delegated Major Minor to command
+the troops. Now, Minor had been on mustering and disbursing duty most of
+the war, had never figured in a review with artillery before, and knew
+no more about battery tactics than Cram did of diplomacy. Mounted on a
+sedate old sorrel, borrowed from the quartermaster for the occasion,
+with an antiquated, brass-bound Jenifer saddle, minus breast-strap and
+housings of any kind, but equipped with his better half's brown leather
+bridle, Minor knew perfectly well he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span> was only a guy, and felt indignant
+at Brax for putting him in so false a plight. He took his station,
+however, in front of the regimental colors, without stopping to think
+where the centre of the line might be after the battery came, and there
+awaited further developments. Cram kept nobody waiting, however: his
+leading team was close at the nimble heels of Captain Lawrence's company
+as it marched gayly forth to the music of the band. He formed sections
+at the trot the instant the ground was clear, then wheeled into line,
+passed well to the rear of the prolongation of the infantry rank, and by
+a beautiful countermarch came up to the front and halted exactly at the
+instant that Lawrence, with the left flank company, reached his post,
+each caisson accurately in trace of its piece, each team and carriage
+exactly at its proper interval, and with his crimson silk guidon on the
+right flank and little Pierce signalling "up" or "back" from a point
+outside where he could verify the alignment of the gun-wheels on the
+rank of the infantry, Cram was able to command "front" before little
+Drake, the adjutant, should have piped out his shrill "Guides posts."</p>
+
+<p>But Drake didn't pipe. There stood all the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> companies at support, each
+captain at the inner flank, and the guides with their inverted muskets
+still stolidly gazing along the line. It was time for him to pipe, but,
+instead of so doing, there he stuck at the extreme right, glaring down
+towards the now immovable battery and its serene commander, and the
+little adjutant's face was getting redder and puffier every minute.</p>
+
+<p>"Go ahead! What are you waiting for?" hoarsely whispered the senior
+captain.</p>
+
+<p>"Waiting for the battery to dress," was the stanch reply. Then aloud the
+shrill voice swept down the line: "Dress that battery to the right!"</p>
+
+<p>Cram looked over a glittering shoulder to the right of the line, where
+stood the diminutive infantryman. The battery had still its war
+allowance of horses, three teams to each carriage, lead, swing, and
+wheel, and that brought its captain far out to the front of the sombre
+blue rank of foot,&mdash;so far out, in fact, that he was about on line with
+Major Minor, though facing in opposite direction. Perfectly confident
+that he was exactly where he should be, yet equally determined to abide
+by any order he might receive, even though he fully understood the cause
+of Drake's delay, Cram promptly rode<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> over to the guidon and ordered
+"Right dress," at which every driver's head and eyes were promptly
+turned, but not an inch of a wheel, for the alignment simply could not
+be improved. Then after commanding "front" the captain as deliberately
+trotted back to his post without so much as a glance at the irate staff
+officer. It was just at this juncture that the bay colt came tearing
+down the field, his mane and tail streaming in the breeze, his reins and
+stirrups dangling. In the course of his gyrations about the battery and
+the sympathetic plunging of the teams some slight disarrangement
+occurred. But when he presently decided on a rush for the stables, the
+captain re-established the alignment as coolly as before, and only
+noticed as he resumed his post that the basket phaeton and Mrs. Cram had
+gone. Alarmed, possibly, by the non-appearance of her warm friend Mr.
+Waring and the excited gambolings of his vagrant steed, she had promptly
+driven back to the main garrison to see if any accident had occurred,
+the colt meantime amusing himself in a game of fast-and-loose with the
+stable guard.</p>
+
+<p>Then it was that old Brax came down and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span> took a hand. Riding to where
+Minor still sat on his patient sorrel, the senior bluntly inquired,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"What the devil's the matter?"</p>
+
+<p>"I don't know," said Minor.</p>
+
+<p>"Who does know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Drake, possibly, or else he doesn't know anything. He's been
+trying to get Cram to dress his battery back."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, yes, confound it! he's a mile ahead of the line," said the
+colonel, and off he trotted to expostulate with the batteryman. "Captain
+Cram, isn't there room for your battery back of the line instead of in
+front of it?" inquired the chief, in tone both aggrieved and aggressive.</p>
+
+<p>"Lots, sir," answered Cram, cheerfully. "Just countermarched there."</p>
+
+<p>"Then I wish you'd oblige me by moving back at once, sir: you're
+delaying the whole ceremony here. I'm told Mr. Drake has twice ordered
+you to dress to the right."</p>
+
+<p>"I've heard it, sir, only once, but have dressed twice, so it's all
+right," responded Cram, as affably as though he had no other aim in life
+than to gratify the whims of his post commander.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, confound it, sir, it isn't all right by a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> da&mdash;&mdash; good deal! Here
+you are 'way out on line with Major Minor, and your
+battery's&mdash;&mdash; why, it isn't dressed on our rank at all, sir.
+Just look at it."</p>
+
+<p>Cram resumed the carry with the sabre he had lowered in salute, calmly
+reversed so as to face his battery, and, with preternatural gravity of
+mien, looked along his front. There midway between his lead drivers sat
+Mr. Doyle, his face well-nigh as red as his plume, his bleary eyes
+nearly popping out of his skull in his effort to repress the emotions
+excited by this colloquy. There midway between the lead drivers in the
+left section sat Mr. Ferry, gazing straight to the front over the
+erected ears of his handsome bay and doing his very best to keep a
+solemn face, though the unshaded corners of his boyish mouth were
+twitching with mischief and merriment. There, silent, disciplined, and
+rigid, sat the sergeants, drivers, and cannoneers of famous old Light
+Battery "X," all agog with interest in the proceedings and all looking
+as though they never heard a word.</p>
+
+<p>"I declare, sir," said Cram, with exasperating civility, "I can see
+nothing out of the way. Will you kindly indicate what is amiss?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span></p><p>This was too much for Ferry. In his effort to restrain his merriment
+and gulp down a rising flood of laughter there was heard an explosion
+that sounded something like the sudden collapse of an inflated paper
+bag, and old Brax, glaring angrily at the boy, now red in the face with
+mingled mirth and consternation, caught sudden idea from the sight. Was
+the battery laughing at&mdash;was the battery commander guying&mdash;him? Was it
+possible that they were profiting by his ignorance of their regulations?
+It put him on his guard and suggested a tentative.</p>
+
+<p>"Do you mean that you are right in being so far ahead of our line
+instead of dressed upon it?" asked he of the big blond soldier in the
+glittering uniform. "Where do you find authority for it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, perfectly right, colonel. In fact, for six years past I've never
+seen it done any other way. You'll find the authority on page 562, Field
+Artillery Tactics of 1864."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Brax was dumb; he had long heard of Cram as an expert in
+his own branch of the service; but presently he burst forth:</p>
+
+<p>"Well, in <i>our</i> tactics there's reason for every<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span> blessed thing we do,
+but I'll be dinged if I can see rhyme or reason in such a formation as
+that. Why, sir, your one company takes up more room than my six,&mdash;makes
+twice as much of a show. Of course if a combined review is to show off
+the artillery it's all very well. However, go ahead, if you think you're
+right, sir; go ahead! I'll inquire into this later."</p>
+
+<p>"I know we're right, colonel; and as for the reason, you'll see it when
+you open ranks for review and we come to 'action front:' then our line
+will be exactly that of the infantry. Meantime, sir, it isn't for us to
+go ahead. We've gone as far as we can until your adjutant makes the next
+move."</p>
+
+<p>But Braxton had ridden away disgusted before Cram wound up his remarks.</p>
+
+<p>"Go on, Major Minor; just run this thing without reference to the
+battery. Damned if I understand their methods. Let Cram look after his
+own affairs; if he goes wrong, why&mdash;it's none of our concern."</p>
+
+<p>And so Minor had nodded "Go ahead" to Mr. Drake, and presently the whole
+command made its bow, so to speak, to Minor as its immediate chief, and
+then he drew sword and his untried<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> voice became faintly audible. The
+orders "Prepare for review" and "To the rear open order" were instantly
+followed by a stentorian "Action front" down at the left, the instant
+leap and rush of some thirty nimble cannoneers, shouts of "Drive on!"
+the cracking of whips, the thunder and rumble of wheels, the thud of
+plunging hoofs. Forty-eight mettlesome horses in teams of two abreast
+went dancing briskly away to the rear, at sight of which Minor dropped
+his jaw and the point of his sword and sat gazing blankly after them,
+over the bowed head of his placid sorrel, wondering what on earth it
+meant that they should all be running away at the very instant when he
+expected them to brace up for review. But before he could give utterance
+to his thoughts eight glossy teams in almost simultaneous sweep to the
+left about came sharply around again. The black muzzles of the guns were
+pointed to the front, every axle exactly in the prolongation of his
+front rank, every little group of red-topped, red-trimmed cannoneers
+standing erect and square, the chiefs of section and of pieces sitting
+like statues on their handsome horses, the line of limbers accurately
+covering the guns, and, still farther back, Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> Pierce could be heard
+shouting his orders for the alignment of the caissons. In the twinkling
+of an eye the rush and thunder were stilled, the battery without the
+twitch of a muscle stood ready for review, and old Brax, sitting in
+saddle at the reviewing point, watching the stirring sight with gloomy
+and cynical eye, was chafed still more to hear in a silvery voice from
+the group of ladies the unwelcome words, "Oh, wasn't that pretty!" He
+meant with all his heart to pull in some of the plumage of those
+confounded "woodpeckers," as he called them, before the day was over.</p>
+
+<p>In grim silence, therefore, he rode along the front of the battalion,
+taking little comfort in the neatness of their quaint old-fashioned
+garb, the single-breasted, long-skirted frock-coats, the bulging black
+felt hats looped up on one side and decked with skimpy black feather,
+the glistening shoulder-scales and circular breastplates, the polish of
+their black leather belts, cartridge- and cap-boxes and
+bayonet-scabbards. It was all trim and soldierly, but he was bottling up
+his sense of annoyance for the benefit of Cram and his people. Yet what
+could he say? Neither he nor Minor had ever before been brought into<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>
+such relations with the light artillery, and he simply didn't know where
+to hit. Lots of things looked queer, but after this initial experience
+he felt it best to say nothing until he could light on a point that no
+one could gainsay, and he found it in front of the left section.</p>
+
+<p>"Where is Mr. Waring, sir?" he sternly asked.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish I knew, colonel. His horse came back without him, as you
+doubtless saw, and, as he hasn't appeared, I'm afraid of accident."</p>
+
+<p>"How did he come to leave his post, sir? I have no recollection of
+authorizing anything of the kind."</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly not, colonel. He rode back to his quarters with my consent
+before adjutant's call had sounded, and he should have been with us
+again in abundant time."</p>
+
+<p>"That young gentleman needs more discipline than he is apt to receive at
+this rate, Captain Cram, and I desire that you pay closer attention to
+his movements than you have done in the past.&mdash;Mr. Drake," he said to
+his adjutant, who was tripping around after his chief afoot, "call on
+Mr. Waring to explain his absence in writing and without delay.&mdash;This
+indifference to duty is<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span> something to which I am utterly unaccustomed,"
+continued Braxton, again addressing Cram, who preserved a most
+uncompromising serenity of countenance; and with this parting shot the
+colonel turned gruffly away and soon retook his station at the reviewing
+point.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the second hitch. Minor had had no experience whatever, as has
+been said, and he first tried to wheel into column of companies without
+closing ranks, whereupon every captain promptly cautioned "Stand fast,"
+and thereby banished the last remnant of Minor's senses. Seeing that
+something was wrong, he tried again, this time prefacing with "Pass in
+review," and still the captains were implacable. The nearest one, in a
+stage whisper, tried to make the major hear "Close order, first." But
+all the time Brax was losing more of his temper and Minor what was left
+of his head, and Brax came down like the wolf on the fold, gave the
+command to "Close order" himself, and was instantly echoed by Cram's
+powerful shout "Limber to the rear," followed by "Pieces left about!
+Caissons forward!" Then in the rumble and clank of the responding
+battery, Minor's next command was heard by only the right<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span> wing of the
+battalion, and the company wheels were ragged. So was the next part of
+the performance when he started to march in review, never waiting, of
+course, for the battery to wheel into column of sections. This omission,
+however, in no wise disconcerted Cram, who, following at rapid walk,
+soon gained on the rear of column, passing his post commander in
+beautiful order and with most accurate salute on the part of himself and
+officers, and, observing this, Minor took heart, and, recovering his
+senses to a certain extent, gave the command "Guide left" in abundant
+time to see that the new guides were accurately in trace, thereby
+insuring what he expected to find a beautiful wheel into line to the
+left, the commands for which movement he gave in louder and more
+confident tone, but was instantly nonplussed by seeing the battery wheel
+into line to the <i>right</i> and move off in exactly the opposite direction
+from what he had expected. This was altogether too much for his
+equanimity. Digging his spurs into the flanks of the astonished sorrel,
+he darted off after Cram, waving his sword, and shouting,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Left</i> into line wheel, captain. <i>Left</i> into line wheel."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span></p><p>In vain Mr. Pierce undertook to explain matters. Minor presumed that
+the artilleryman had made an actual blunder and was only enabled to
+correct it by a countermarch, and so rode back to his position in front
+of the centre of the reforming line, convinced that at last he had
+caught the battery commander.</p>
+
+<p>When Braxton, therefore, came down to make his criticisms and comments
+upon the conduct of the review, Minor was simply amazed to find that
+instead of being in error Cram had gone exactly right and as prescribed
+by his drill regulations in wheeling to the right and gaining ground to
+the rear before coming up on the line. He almost peevishly declared that
+he wished the colonel, if he proposed having a combined review, would
+assume command himself, as he didn't care to be bothered with
+combination tactics of which he had never had previous knowledge. Being
+of the same opinion, Braxton himself took hold, and the next
+performance, though somewhat erroneous in many respects, was a slight
+improvement on the first, though Braxton did not give time for the
+battery to complete one movement before he would rush it into another.
+When the officers<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span> assembled to compare notes during the rest after the
+second repetition, Minor growled that this was "a little better, yet not
+good," which led to some one suggesting in low tone that the major got
+his positives and comparatives worse mixed than his tactics, and
+inquiring further "whether it might not be well to dub him Minor Major."
+The laughter that followed this sally naturally reached the ears of the
+seniors, and so Brax never let up on the command until the review went
+off without an error of any appreciable weight, without, in fact, "a
+hitch in the fut or an unhitch in the harse," as Doyle expressed it. It
+was high noon when the battalion got back to barracks and the officers
+hung out their moist clothing to dry in the sun. It was near one when
+the battery men, officers and all, came steaming up from the stables,
+and there was the colonel's orderly with the colonel's compliments and
+desires to see Captain Cram before the big battery man had time to
+change his dress.</p>
+
+<p>Braxton's first performance on getting into cool habiliments was to go
+over to his office and hunt through the book-shelves for a volume in
+which he never before had felt the faintest interest,&mdash;the Light
+Artillery Tactics of 1864.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> There on his desk lay a stack of mail
+unopened, and Mr. Drake was already silently inditing the summary note
+to the culprit Waring. Brax wanted first to see with his own eyes the
+instructions for light artillery when reviewed with other troops,
+vaguely hoping that there might still he some point on which to catch
+his foeman on the hip. But if there were he did not find it. He was
+tactician enough to see that even if Cram had formed with his leading
+drivers on line with the infantry, as Braxton thought he should have
+done, neither of the two methods of forming into battery would then have
+got his guns where they belonged. Cram's interpretation of the text was
+backed by the custom of service, and there was no use criticising it
+further. And so, after discontentedly hunting through the dust-covered
+pages awhile in hopes of stumbling on some codicil or rebuttal, the
+colonel shut it with a disgusted snap and tossed the offending tome on
+the farthest table. At that moment Brax could have wished the board of
+officers who prepared the Light Artillery Tactics in the nethermost
+depths of the neighboring swamp. Then he turned on his silent staff
+officer,&mdash;a not unusual expedient.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p><p>"Why on earth, Mr. Drake, didn't you look up that point, instead of
+making such a break before the whole command?"</p>
+
+<p>"I couldn't find anything about it in Casey, sir, anywhere," replied the
+perturbed young man. "I didn't know where else to look."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you might have asked Mr. Ferry or Mr. Pierce. The Lord knows you
+waste enough time with 'em."</p>
+
+<p>"<i>You</i> might have asked Captain Cram," was what Drake wanted to say, but
+wisely did not. He bit the end of his penholder instead, and bridled his
+tongue and temper.</p>
+
+<p>"The next time I have a review with a mounted battery, by George!" said
+the post commander, finally, bringing his fist down on the table with a
+crash, "I just&mdash;won't have it."</p>
+
+<p>He had brought down the pile of letters as well as his fist, and Drake
+sprang to gather them, replacing them on the desk and dexterously
+slipping a paper-cutter under the flap of each envelope as he did so. At
+the very first note he opened, Brax threw himself back in his chair with
+a long whistle of mingled amazement and concern, then turned suddenly on
+his adjutant.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span></p><p>"What became of Mr. Waring? He wasn't hurt?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not a bit, sir, that I know of. He drove to town with Captain Cram's
+team,&mdash;at least I was told so,&mdash;and left that note for you there, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"He did!&mdash;left the post and left a note for me? Why!&mdash;--" But here
+Braxton broke off short, tore open the note, and read:</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">My dear Colonel</span>,&mdash;I trust you will overlook the informality of my going
+to town without previously consulting you. I had purposed, of course,
+asking your permission, but the mishap that befell me in the runaway of
+my horse prevented my appearance at the review, and had I waited your
+return from the field it would have compelled me to break my engagement
+with our friends the Allertons. Under the circumstances I felt sure of
+your complaisance.</p>
+
+<p>"As I hope to drive Miss Allerton down after the <i>matin&eacute;e</i>, might it not
+be a good idea to have dress-parade and the band out? They have seen the
+battery drills, but are much more desirous of seeing the infantry.</p>
+
+<p class="center">"Most sincerely yours,<br />
+&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; "<span class="smcap">S. G. Waring</span>."</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p>
+
+<p>"Well, for consummate impudence this beats the Jews!" exclaimed Brax.
+"Orderly, my compliments to Captain Cram, and say I wish to see him at
+once, if he's back from stables."</p>
+
+<p>Now, as has been said, Cram had had no time to change to undress
+uniform, but Mrs. Cram had received the orderly's message, had informed
+that martial Mercury that the captain was not yet back from stables, and
+that she would tell him at once on his return. Well she knew that
+mischief was brewing, and her woman's wit was already enlisted in behalf
+of her friend. Hurriedly pencilling a note, she sent a messenger to her
+liege, still busy with his horses, to bid him come to her, if only for a
+moment, on his way to the office. And when he came, heated, tired, but
+bubbling over with eagerness to tell her of the fun they had been having
+with Brax, she met him with a cool tankard of "shandygaff," which he had
+learned to like in England among the horse-artillery fellows, and
+declared the very prince of drinks after active exercise in hot weather.
+He quaffed it eagerly, flung off his shako and kissed her gratefully,
+and burst all at once into laughing narration of the morning's work, but
+she checked him:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span></p><p>"Ned, dear, don't stop for that yet. I know you're too full of tact to
+let Colonel Braxton see it was any fun for you, and he's waiting at the
+office. Something tells me it's about Mr. Waring. Now put yourself in
+Mr. Waring's place. Of course he ought never to have made that
+engagement until he had consulted you, but he never dreamed that there
+would be a review to-day, and so he invited the Allertons to breakfast
+with him at Moreau's and go to the <i>matin&eacute;e</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, that rascal Ananias said it was to breakfast at the general's,"
+interrupted the battery commander.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, perhaps he was invited there too. I believe I did hear something
+of that. But he had made this arrangement with the Allertons. Now, of
+course, if review were over at ten he could just about have time to
+dress and catch the eleven-o'clock car, but that would make it very
+late, and when Bay Billy broke away from Ananias nobody could catch him
+for over half an hour. Mr. Ferry had taken the section, Mr. Waring
+wasn't needed, and&mdash;&mdash; Why, Ned, when I drove in, fearing to
+find him injured, and saw him standing there the picture of
+consternation and despair, and he told me about his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> engagement, I said
+myself, 'Why don't you go now?' I told him it was what you surely would
+say if you were here. Neither of us thought the colonel would object, so
+long as you approved, and he wrote such a nice note. Why, Ned, he only
+just had time to change his dress and drive up with Jeffers&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"With Jeffers? With my&mdash;er&mdash;our team and wagon? Well, I like&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Of course you like it, you old darling. She's such a dear girl, though
+just a little bit gushing, you know. Why, I said, certainly the team
+should go. But, Ned, here's what I'm afraid of. Mrs. Braxton saw it
+drive in at nine-thirty, just after Billy ran away, and she asked
+Jeffers who was going, and he told her Mr. Waring, and she has told the
+colonel, I'll wager. Now, what you have got to do is to explain that to
+him, so that he won't blame Mr. Waring."</p>
+
+<p>"The dickens I have! The most barefaced piece of impudence even Sam
+Waring was ever guilty of&mdash;to me, at least, though I've no doubt he's
+done worse a dozen times. Why, bless your heart, Nell, how can I
+explain? You might, but&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"But would you have me suppose my big<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> soldier couldn't handle that
+matter as well as I? No, sir! Go and do it, sir. And, mind you, I'm
+going to invite them all up here to the gallery to hear the band play
+and have a cup of tea and a nibble when they come down this evening.
+He's going to drive the Allertons here."</p>
+
+<p>"Worse and more of it! Why, you conspiracy in petticoats, you'll be the
+ruin of me! Old Brax is boiling over now. If he dreams that Waring has
+been taking liberties with him he'll fetch him up so short&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly! You mustn't let him. You must tell him I sent him up with your
+team&mdash;yours, mind you&mdash;to keep his engagement, since it was impossible
+for him to come back to review ground. Of course he wouldn't expect him
+to appear afoot."</p>
+
+<p>"Don't know about that, Nell. I reckon that's the way he'll order out
+the whole gang of us next time. He's had his fill of mounted work
+to-day."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, if he should, you be sure to acquiesce gracefully now. Whatsoever
+you do, don't let him put Mr. Waring in arrest while Gwen Allerton is
+here. It would spoil&mdash;everything."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, match-making, is it? Then I'll try."<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> And so, vexed, but laughing,
+half indignant, yet wholly subordinate to the whim of his beloved better
+half, the captain hastened over, and found Colonel Braxton sitting with
+gloomy brow at his littered desk, his annoyance of the morning evidently
+forgotten in matters more serious.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh&mdash;er&mdash;Cram, come in, come in, man," said he, distractedly. "Here's a
+matter I want to see you about. It's&mdash;well, just take that letter and
+read. Sit down, sit down. Read, and tell me what we ought to do about
+it."</p>
+
+<p>And as Cram's blue eyes wandered over the written page they began to
+dilate. He read from start to finish, and then dropped his head into his
+hand, his elbow on his knee, his face full of perplexity and concern.</p>
+
+<p>"What do you think of it? Is there any truth&mdash;&mdash;" and the colonel
+hesitated.</p>
+
+<p>"As to their being seen together, perhaps. As to the other,&mdash;the
+challenge,&mdash;I don't believe it."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, Cram, this is the second or third letter that has come to me in
+the same hand. Now, you must see to it that he returns and doesn't quit
+the post until this matter is arranged."</p>
+
+<p>"I'll attend to it, sir," was the answer.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p><p>And so that evening, while Waring was slowly driving his friends about
+the shaded roads under the glistening white pillars of the rows of
+officers' quarters, chatting joyously with them and describing the
+objects so strange to their eyes, Mrs. Cram's "little foot-page" came to
+beg that they should alight a few minutes and take a cup of tea. They
+could not. The Allertons were engaged, and it was necessary to drive
+back at once to town, but they stopped for a moment to chat with their
+pretty hostess under the gallery, and then a moment later, as they
+rolled out of the resounding sally-port, an orderly ran up, saluted, and
+slipped a note in Waring's hand.</p>
+
+<p>"It is immediate, sir," was his explanation.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! Miss Allerton, will you pardon me one moment?" said Waring, as he
+shifted whip and reins into the left hand and turned coolly up the levee
+road. Then with the right he forced open and held up the missive.</p>
+
+<p>It only said, "Whatsoever you do, be here before taps to-night. Come
+direct to me, and I will explain.</p>
+
+<p>
+"Your friend,<br />
+<br />
+"<span class="smcap">Cram.</span>"<br />
+</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span></p><p>"All right," said Waring, aloud. "My compliments to the captain, and
+say I'll be with him."</p>
+
+<p>But even with this injunction he failed to appear. Midnight came without
+a word from Waring, and the morning dawned and found him absent still.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+
+<p>It was one of Sam Waring's oddities that, like the hero of "Happy
+Thoughts," other people's belongings seemed to suit him so much better
+than his own. The most immaculately dressed man in the regiment, he was
+never satisfied with the result of the efforts of the New York artists
+whom he favored with his custom and his criticism. He would wear three
+or four times a new coat just received from that metropolis, and spend
+not a little time, when not on duty or in uniform, in studying
+critically its cut and fit in the various mirrors that hung about his
+bachelor den, gayly humming some operatic air as he conducted the
+survey, and generally winding up with a wholesale denunciation of the
+cutter and an order to Ananias to go over and get some other fellow's
+coat, that he might try the effect of that. These were liberties he took
+only with his chums and intimates, to be sure, but they were liberties
+all the same, and it<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span> was delicious to hear the laugh with which he
+would tell how Pierce had to dress in uniform when he went up to the
+opera Thursday night, or how, after he had worn Ferry's stylish morning
+suit to make a round of calls in town and that young gentleman later on
+went up to see a pretty girl in whom he felt a growing interest, her
+hateful little sister had come in and commented on his "borrowing Mr.
+Waring's clothes." No man in the battery would ever think of refusing
+Sam the use of anything he possessed, and there were half a dozen young
+fellows in the infantry who were just as ready to pay tribute to his
+whims. Nor was it among the men alone that he found such indulgence.
+Mrs. Cram had not known him a fortnight when, with twinkling eyes and a
+betraying twitch about the corners of his mouth, he appeared one morning
+to say he had invited some friends down to luncheon at the officers'
+mess and the mess had no suitable china, therefore he would thank her to
+send over hers, also some table-cloths and napkins, and forks and
+spoons. When the Forty-Sixth Infantry were on their way to Texas and the
+officers' families were entertained over-night at the barracks and his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>
+rooms were to be occupied by the wife, sister, and daughters of Captain
+Craney, Waring sent the battery team and spring wagon to town with a
+note to Mrs. Converse, of the staff, telling her the ladies had said so
+much about the lovely way her spare rooms were furnished that he had
+decided to draw on her for wash-bowls, pitchers, mosquito-frames, nets
+and coverlets, blankets, pillows, slips, shams, and anything else she
+might think of. And Mrs. Converse loaded up the wagon accordingly. This
+was the more remarkable in her case because she was one of the women
+with whom he had never yet danced, which was tantamount to saying that
+in the opinion of this social bashaw Mrs. Converse was not considered a
+good partner, and, as the lady entertained very different views on that
+subject and was passionately fond of dancing, she had resented not a
+little the line thus drawn to her detriment. She not only loaned,
+however, all he asked for, but begged to be informed if there were not
+something more she could do to help entertain his visitors. Waring sent
+her some lovely flowers the next week, but failed to take her out even
+once at the staff german. Mrs. Cram was alternately aghast and
+delighted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> at what she perhaps justly called his incomparable impudence.
+They were coming out of church together one lovely morning during the
+winter. There was a crowd in the vestibule. Street dresses were then
+worn looped, yet there was a sudden sound of rip, rent, and tear, and a
+portly woman gathered up the trailing skirt of a costly silken gown and
+whirled with annihilation in her eyes upon the owner of the offending
+foot.</p>
+
+<p>"That is far too elegant a skirt to be worn unlooped, madame," said Mrs.
+Cram's imperturbable escort, in his most suave and dulcet tones, lifting
+a glossy silk hat and bowing profoundly. And Mrs. Cram laughed all the
+way back to barracks at the recollection of the utter discomfiture in
+the woman's face.</p>
+
+<p>These are mere specimen bricks from the fabric which Waring had builded
+in his few months of artillery service. The limits of the story are all
+too contracted to admit of extended detail. So, without further
+expansion, it may be said that when he drove up to town on this eventful
+April day in Cram's wagon and Larkin's hat and Ferry's Hatfield clothes,
+with Pierce's precious London umbrella by his side<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span> and Merton's watch
+in his pocket, he was as stylish and presentable a fellow as ever issued
+from a battery barrack, and Jeffers, Cram's English groom, mutely
+approved the general appearance of his prime favorite among the officers
+at the post, at most of whom he opened his eyes in cockney amaze, and
+critically noted the skill with which Mr. Waring tooled the spirited
+bays along the levee road.</p>
+
+<p>Nearly a mile above the barracks, midway between the long embankment to
+their left and the tall white picket fence surmounted by the olive-green
+foliage of magnolias and orange-trees on the other hand, they had come
+upon a series of deep mud-holes in the way, where the seepage-water from
+the rapidly-rising flood was turning the road-way into a pond. Stuck
+helplessly in the mud, an old-fashioned cabriolet was halted. Its driver
+was out and up to his knees thrashing vainly at his straining,
+staggering horse. The tortuous road-way was blocked, but Waring had been
+up and down the river-bank too many times both day and night to be
+daunted by a matter so trivial. He simply cautioned Jeffers to lean well
+over the inner wheel, guided his team obliquely up the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> slope of the
+levee, and drove quietly along its level top until abreast the scene of
+the wreck. One glance into the interior of the cab caused him suddenly
+to stop, to pass the reins back to Jeffers, to spring down the slope
+until he stood at the edge of the sea of mud. Here he raised his hat and
+cried,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Madame Lascelles! madame! this is indeed lucky&mdash;for me. Let me get you
+out."</p>
+
+<p>At his call a slender, graceful woman who was gazing in anxiety and
+dismay from the opposite side of the cab and pleading with the driver
+not to beat his horse, turned suddenly, and a pair of lovely dark eyes
+lighted up at sight of his face. Her pallor, too, gave instant place to
+a warm flush. A pretty child at her side clapped her little hands and
+screamed with delight,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Maman! maman! C'est M'sieu</i>' Vayreeng; <i>c'est</i> Sa-am."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Monsieur Wareeng! I'm so glad you've come! Do speak to that man! It
+is horrible the way he beat that poor horse.&mdash;<i>Mais non</i>, Nin Nin!" she
+cried, reproving the child, now stretching forth her little arms to her
+friend and striving to rise and leap to him.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span></p><p>"I'd like to know how in hell I'm to get this cab out of such a hole as
+this if I don't beat him," exclaimed the driver, roughly. Then once
+more, "Dash blank dash your infernal hide! I'll learn you to balk with
+me again!" Then down came more furious lashes on the quivering hide, and
+the poor tortured brute began to back, thereby placing the frail
+four-wheeler in imminent danger of being upset.</p>
+
+<p>"Steady there! Hold your hand, sir! Don't strike that horse again. Just
+stand at his head a moment and keep quiet till I get these ladies out,"
+called Waring, in tone quiet yet commanding.</p>
+
+<p>"I'll get 'em out myself in my own way, if they'll only stop their
+infernal yellin'," was the coarse reply.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Monsieur Wareeng," exclaimed the lady in undertone, "the man has
+been drinking, I am sure. He has been so rude in his language."</p>
+
+<p>Waring waited for no more words. Looking quickly about him, he saw a
+plank lying on the levee slope. This he seized, thrust one end across
+the muddy hole until it rested in the cab, stepped lightly across, took
+the child in his arms, bore her to the embankment and set her<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span> down,
+then sprang back for her young mother, who, trembling slightly, rose and
+took his outstretched hand just as another lash fell on the horse's back
+and another lurch followed. Waring caught at the cab-rail with one hand,
+threw the other arm about her slender waist, and, fairly lifting little
+Madame over the wheel, sprang with her to the shore, and in an instant
+more had carried her, speechless and somewhat agitated, to the top of
+the levee.</p>
+
+<p>"Now," said he, "let me drive you and Nin Nin wherever you were going.
+Is it to market or church?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Mais non</i>&mdash;to <i>bonne maman's</i>, of whom it is the <i>f&ecirc;te</i>," cried the
+eager little one, despite her mother's stern orders of silence. "Look!"
+she exclaimed, showing her dainty little legs and feet in creamy silken
+hose and kid.</p>
+
+<p>It was "bonne maman," explained Madame, who had ordered the cab from
+town for them, never dreaming of the condition of the river road or
+suspecting that of the driver.</p>
+
+<p>"So much the happier for me," laughed Waring.&mdash;"Take the front seat,
+Jeffers.&mdash;Now, Nin Nin, <i>ma fleurette</i>, up with you!" And the delighted
+child was lifted to her perch in the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span> stylish trap she had so often
+admired. "Now, madame," he continued, extending his hand.</p>
+
+<p>But Madame hung back, hesitant and blushing.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Monsieur Wareeng, I cannot, I must not. Is it not that some one
+shall extricate the cab?"</p>
+
+<p>"No one from this party, at least," laughed Waring, mischievously making
+the most of her idiomatic query. "Your driver is more <i>cochon</i> than
+<i>cocher</i>, and if he drowns in that mud 'twill only serve him right. Like
+your famous compatriot, he'll have a chance to say, 'I will drown, and
+no one shall help me,' for all I care. The brute! <i>Allons!</i> I will drive
+you to <i>bonne maman's</i> of whom it is the <i>f&ecirc;te</i>. Bless that baby
+daughter! And Madame d'Hervilly shall bless Nin Nin's <i>tout d&eacute;vou&eacute;</i>
+Sam."</p>
+
+<p>And Madame Lascelles found further remonstrance useless. She was lifted
+into the seat, by which time the driver, drunken and truculent, had
+waded after them.</p>
+
+<p>"Who's to pay for this?" was his surly question.</p>
+
+<p>"You, I fancy, as soon as your employer learns of your driving into that
+hole," was Waring's cool reply.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span></p><p>"Well, by God, I want five dollars for my fare and trouble, and I want
+it right off." And, whip in hand, the burly, mud-covered fellow came
+lurching up the bank. Across the boggy street beyond the white picket
+fence the green blinds of a chamber window in an old-fashioned Southern
+house were thrown open, and two feminine faces peered forth, interested
+spectators of the scene.</p>
+
+<p>"Here, my man!" said Waring, in low tone, "you have earned no five
+dollars, and you know it. Get your cab out, come to Madame d'Hervilly's,
+where you were called, and whatever is your due will be paid you; but no
+more of this swearing or threatening,&mdash;not another word of it."</p>
+
+<p>"I want my money, I say, and I mean to have it. I'm not talking to you;
+I'm talking to the lady that hired me."</p>
+
+<p>"But I have not the money. It is for my mother&mdash;Madame d'Hervilly&mdash;to
+pay. You will come there."</p>
+
+<p>"I want it now, I say. I've got to hire teams to get my cab out. I got
+stalled here carrying you and your child, and I mean to have my pay
+right now, or I'll know the reason why. Your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> swell friend's got the
+money. It's none of my business how you pay him."</p>
+
+<p>But that ended the colloquy. Waring's fist landed with resounding whack
+under the cabman's jaw, and sent him rolling down into the mud below. He
+was up, floundering and furious, in less than a minute, cursing horribly
+and groping in the pocket of his overcoat.</p>
+
+<p>"It's a pistol, lieutenant. Look out!" cried Jeffers.</p>
+
+<p>There was a flash, a sharp report, a stifled cry from the cab, a scream
+of terror from the child. But Waring had leaped lightly aside, and
+before the half-drunken brute could cock his weapon for a second shot he
+was felled like a log, and the pistol wrested from his hand and hurled
+across the levee. Another blow crashed full in his face as he strove to
+find his feet, and this time his muddled senses warned him it were best
+to lie still.</p>
+
+<p>Two minutes more, when he lifted his battered head and strove to stanch
+the blood streaming from his nostrils, he saw the team driving briskly
+away up the crest of the levee; and, overcome by maudlin contemplation
+of his foeman's triumph and his own wretched plight, the cabman sat him
+down and wept aloud.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p><p>And to his succor presently there came ministering angels from across
+the muddy way, one with a brogue, the other in a bandanna, and between
+the two he was escorted across a dry path to the magnolia-fringed
+enclosure, comforted with soothing applications without and within, and
+encouraged to tell his tale of woe. That he should wind it up with
+vehement expression of his ability to thrash a thousand swells like the
+one who had abused him, and a piratical prophecy that he'd drink his
+heart's blood within the week, was due not so much to confidence in his
+own powers, perhaps, as to the strength of the whiskey with which he had
+been liberally supplied. Then the lady of the house addressed her Ethiop
+maid-of-all-work:</p>
+
+<p>"Go you over to Anatole's now, 'Louette. Tell him if any of the byes are
+there I wahnt 'um. If Dawson is there, from the adjutant's office, I
+wahnt him quick. Tell him it's Mrs. Doyle, and never mind if he's been
+dhrinkin'; he shall have another dhrop here."</p>
+
+<p>And at her beck there presently appeared three or four besotted-looking
+specimens in the coarse undress uniform of the day, poor devils, absent
+without leave from their post below and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span> hoping only to be able to beg
+or steal whiskey enough to stupefy them before the patrol should come
+and drag them away to the guard-house. Promise of liberal reward in
+shape of liquor was sufficient to induce three of their number to go out
+with the fuming cabman and help rescue his wretched brute and trap. The
+moment they were outside the gate she turned on the fourth, a pallid,
+sickly man, whose features were delicate, whose hands were white and
+slender, and whose whole appearance, despite glassy eyes and tremulous
+mouth and limbs, told the pathetic story of better days.</p>
+
+<p>"You're off ag'in, are you? Sure I heerd so, and you're mad for a dhrink
+now. Can ye write, Dawson, or must I brace you up furrst?"</p>
+
+<p>An imploring look, an unsteady gesture, alone answered.</p>
+
+<p>"Here, thin, wait! It's absinthe ye need, my buck. Go you into that room
+now and wash yourself, and I'll bring it, and whin the others come back
+for their whiskey I'll tell 'um you've gone. You're to do what I say,
+now, and Doyle will see you t'rough; if not, it's back to that hell in
+the guard-house you'll go, my word on it."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span></p><p>"Oh, for God's sake, Mrs. Doyle&mdash;&mdash;" began the poor wretch,
+imploringly, but the woman shut him off.</p>
+
+<p>"In there wid you! the others are coming." And, unbarring the front
+door, she presently admitted the trio returning to claim the fruits of
+their honest labor.</p>
+
+<p>"Is he gone? Did he tell you what happened?"</p>
+
+<p>"He's gone, yes," answered one: "he's gone to get square with the
+lieutenant and his cockney dog-robber. He says they both jumped on him
+and kicked his face in when he was down and unarmed and helpless. Was he
+lyin'?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, they bate him cruel. But did he tell you of the lady&mdash;who it was
+they took from him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, sure, the wife of that old Frenchman, Lascelles, that lives
+below,&mdash;her the lieutenant's been sparkin' this three months."</p>
+
+<p>"The very wan, mind ye!" replied the lady of the house, with significant
+emphasis and glance from her bleary eyes; "the very wan," she finished,
+with slow nodding accompaniment of the frowzy head. "And that's the kind
+of gintlemen that undertakes to hold up their<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> heads over soldiers like
+Doyle. Here, byes, dhrink now, but be off ag'inst his coming. He'll be
+here any minute. Take this to comfort ye, but kape still about this till
+ye see me ag'in&mdash;or Doyle. Now run." And with scant ceremony the dreary
+party was hustled out through a paved court-yard to a gate-way opening
+on a side street. Houses were few and scattering so far below the heart
+of the city. The narrow strip of land between the great river and the
+swamp was cut up into walled enclosures, as a rule,&mdash;abandoned
+warehouses and cotton-presses, moss-grown one-storied frame structures,
+standing in the midst of desolate fields and decrepit fences. Only among
+the peaceful shades of the Ursuline convent and the warlike flanking
+towers at the barracks was there aught that spoke of anything but
+demoralization and decay. Back from the levee a block or two the double
+lines of strap-iron stretched over a wooden causeway between parallel
+wet ditches gave evidence of some kind of a railway, on which, at rare
+intervals, jogged a sleepy mule with a sleepier driver and a musty old
+rattle-trap of a car,&mdash;a car butting up against the animal's lazy hocks
+and rousing him occasionally to ringing<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span> and retaliatory kicks. Around
+the barracks the buildings were closer, mainly in the way of saloons;
+then came a mile-long northward stretch of track, with wet fields on
+either side, fringed along the river by solid structures and walled
+enclosures that told of days more prosperous than those which so closely
+followed the war. It was to one of these graceless drinking-shops and
+into the hands of a rascally "dago" known as Anatole that Mrs. Doyle
+commended her trio of allies, and being rid of them she turned back to
+her prisoner, their erstwhile companion. Absinthe wrought its work on
+his meek and pliant spirit, and the shaking hand was nerved to do the
+woman's work. At her dictation, with such corrections as his better
+education suggested, two letters were draughted, and with these in her
+hand she went aloft. In fifteen minutes she returned, placed one of
+these letters in an envelope already addressed to Monsieur Armand
+Lascelles, No.&mdash;Rue Royale, the other she handed to Dawson. It was
+addressed in neat and delicate feminine hand to Colonel Braxton, Jackson
+Barracks.</p>
+
+<p>"Now, Dawson, ye can't see her this day, and she don't want ye till you
+can come over here<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> sober. Off wid ye now to barracks. They're all out
+at inspection yet, and will be for an hour. Lay this wid the colonel's
+mail on his desk, and thin go you to your own. Come to me this
+afthernoon for more dhrink if ye can tell me what he said and did when
+he read it. No! no more liquor now. That'll brace ye till dinnertime,
+and more would make ye dhrunk."</p>
+
+<p>Miserably he plodded away down the levee, while she, his ruler, throwing
+on a huge, dirty white sun-bonnet, followed presently in his tracks, and
+"shadowed" him until she saw him safely reach the portals of the
+barracks after one or two fruitless scouts into wayside bars in hope of
+finding some one to treat or trust him to a drink. Then, retracing her
+steps a few blocks, she rang sharply at the lattice gate opening into a
+cool and shaded enclosure, beyond which could be seen the white-pillared
+veranda of a long, low, Southern homestead. A grinning negro boy
+answered the summons.</p>
+
+<p>"It's you, is it, Alphonse? Is your mistress at home?"</p>
+
+<p>"No; gone town,&mdash;<i>chez Madame d'Hervilly</i>."</p>
+
+<p>"Madame Devillease, is it? Very well; you skip to town wid that note and
+get it in your<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span> master's hands before the cathedral clock strikes
+twelve, or ye'll suffer. There's a car in t'ree minutes."</p>
+
+<p>And then, well content with her morning's work, the consort of the
+senior first lieutenant of Light Battery "X" (a dame whose credentials
+were too clouded to admit of her reception or recognition within the
+limits of a regular garrison, where, indeed, to do him justice, Mr.
+Doyle never wished to see her, or, for that matter, anywhere else)
+betook herself to the magnolia-shaded cottage where she dwelt beyond the
+pale of military interference, and some hours later sent 'Louette to say
+to Doyle she wanted him, and Doyle obeyed. In his relief at finding the
+colonel had probably forgotten the peccadillo for which he expected
+punishment, in blissful possession of Mr. Waring's sitting-room and
+supplies now that Waring was absent, the big Irishman was preparing to
+spend the time in drinking his junior's health and whiskey and
+discoursing upon the enormity of his misconduct with all comers, when
+Ananias entered and informed him there was a lady below who wished to
+see him,&mdash;"lady" being the euphemism of the lately enfranchised for the
+females of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> their race. It was 'Louette with the mandate from her
+mistress, a mandate he dared not disregard.</p>
+
+<p>"Say I'll be along in a minute," was his reply, but he sighed and swore
+heavily, as he slowly reascended the stair. "Give me another dhrink,
+smut," he ordered Ananias, disregarding Ferry's suggestion, "Better
+drink no more till after dark." Then, swallowing his potion, he went
+lurching down the steps without another word. Ferry and Pierce stepped
+to the gallery and gazed silently after him as he veered around to the
+gate leading to the old war-hospital enclosure where the battery was
+quartered. Already his walk was perceptibly unsteady.</p>
+
+<p>"Keeps his head pretty well, even after his legs are gone," said Ferry.
+"Knows too much to go by the sally-port. He's sneaking out through the
+back gate."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what does he go out there for, when he has the run of Waring's
+sideboard?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, didn't you hear? Mrs. Doyle sent for him."</p>
+
+<p>"That's it, is it? Sometimes I wonder which one of those two will kill
+the other."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p><p>"Oh, he wouldn't dare. That fellow is an abject coward in the dark. He
+believes in ghosts, spooks, banshees, and wraiths,&mdash;everything
+uncanny,&mdash;and she'd haunt him if he laid his hands on her. There's only
+one thing that he'd be more afraid of than Bridget Doyle living, and
+that would be Bridget Doyle dead."</p>
+
+<p>"Why can't he get rid of her? What hold has she on him? This thing's an
+infernal scandal as it stands. She's only been here a month or so, and
+everybody in garrison knows all about her, and these doughboys don't
+make any bones about chaffing us on our lady friends."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, everybody supposed he had got rid of her years ago. He shook her
+when he was made first sergeant, just before the war. Why, I've heard
+some of the old stagers say there wasn't a finer-looking soldier in all
+the regiment than Jim Doyle when he married that specimen at
+Brownsville. Doyle, too, supposed she was dead until after he got his
+commission, then she reappeared and laid claim to him. It would have
+been an easy enough matter five years ago to prove she had forfeited all
+rights, but now he can't. Then she's got some confounded hold on him, I
+don't know what, but it's killing the poor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span> beggar. Good thing for the
+regiment, though: so let it go."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, I don't care a rap how soon we're rid of him or her,&mdash;the sooner
+the better; only I hate to hear these fellows laughing and sneering
+about Mrs. Doyle." And here the young fellow hesitated. "Ferry, you know
+I'm as fond of Sam Waring as any of you. I liked him better than any man
+in his class when we wore the gray. When they were yearlings we were
+plebes, and devilled and tormented by them most unmercifully day and
+night. I took to him then for his kindly, jolly ways. No one ever knew
+him to say or do a cross or brutal thing. I liked him more every year,
+and missed him when he was graduated. I rejoiced when he got his
+transfer to us. It's because I like him so much that I hate to hear
+these fellows making their little flings now."</p>
+
+<p>"What flings?" said Ferry.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, you know as much as I do. You've heard as much, too, I haven't a
+doubt."</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody's said anything about Sam Waring in my hearing that reflected on
+him in any way worth speaking of," said Ferry, yet not very stoutly.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span></p><p>"Not on him so much, perhaps, as the world looks at this sort of thing,
+but on her. She's young, pretty, married to a man years her senior, a
+snuffy, frowzy old Frenchman. She's alone with her child and one or two
+servants from early morning till late evening, and with that weazened
+little monkey of a man the rest of the time. The only society she sees
+is the one or two gossipy old women of both sexes who live along the
+levee here. The only enjoyment she has is when she can get to her
+mother's up in town, or run up to the opera when she can get Lascelles
+to take her. That old mummy cares nothing for music and still less for
+the dance; she loves both, and so does Waring. <i>Monsieur le Mari</i> goes
+out into the foyer between the acts to smoke his cigarette and gossip
+with other relics like himself. Waring has never missed a night she
+happened to be there for the last six weeks. I admit he is there many a
+time when she is not, but after he's had a few words with the ladies in
+the general's box, what becomes of him? I don't know, because I'm seldom
+there, but Dryden and Taggart and Jack Merton of the infantry can tell
+you. He is sitting by her in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>D'Hervilly <i>loge grill&eacute;e</i> and going
+over the last act with her and rhapsodizing about Verdi, Bellini,
+Mozart, or Gounod,&mdash;Gounod especially and the garden-scene from
+'Faust.'"</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't her mother with her, and, being in mourning, doesn't she have to
+stay in her latticed loge instead of promenading in the foyer and
+drinking that two-headaches-for-a-picayune punch?" queried Ferry, eager
+for a diversion.</p>
+
+<p>"Suppose she is," answered Pierce, stoutly. "I'm a crank,&mdash;strait-laced,
+if you like. It's the fault of my bringing up. But I know, and you know,
+that that little woman, in her loneliness and in her natural longing for
+some congenial spirit to commune with, is simply falling madly in love
+with Sam Waring, and there will be tragedy here before we can stop it."</p>
+
+<p>"See here, Pierce," asked Ferry, "do you suppose Mrs. Cram would be so
+loyal a friend to Waring if she thought there was anything wrong in his
+attentions to Madame Lascelles? Do you suppose Cram himself wouldn't
+speak?"</p>
+
+<p>"He has spoken."</p>
+
+<p>"He has? To whom?"</p>
+
+<p>"To me, three days ago; said I had known<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> Waring longest and best,
+perhaps was his most intimate friend, and he thought I ought to warn him
+of what people were saying."</p>
+
+<p>"What have you done?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing yet: simply because I know Sam Waring so well that I know just
+what he'd do,&mdash;go and pull the nose of the man who gossiped about him
+and her. Then we'd have a fight on our hands."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, we can fight, I suppose, can't we?"</p>
+
+<p>"Not without involving a woman's name."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, good Lord, Pierce, was there ever a row without a woman <i>au fond</i>?"</p>
+
+<p>"That's a worm-eaten witticism, Ferry, and you're too decent a fellow,
+as a rule, to be cynical. I've got to speak to Waring, and I don't know
+how to do it. I want your advice."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, my advice is <i>Punch's</i>: Don't. Hello! here's Dryden. Thought you
+were on court duty up at head-quarters to-day, old man. Come in and have
+a wet?" Mr. Ferry had seen some happy days at Fortress Monroe when the
+ships of Her Majesty's navy lay off the Hygeia and the gallants of
+England lay to at the bar, and Ferry rejoiced in the vernacular of<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> the
+United Service, so far as he could learn it, as practised abroad.</p>
+
+<p>"Thanks. Just had one over at Merton's. Hear you've been having review
+and all that sort of thing down here," said the infantryman, as he
+lolled back in an easy-chair and planted his boot-heels on the gallery
+rail. "Glad I got out of it. Court met and adjourned at ten, so I came
+home. How'd Waring get off?"</p>
+
+<p>"Huh!&mdash;Cram's wagon," laughed Ferry, rather uncomfortably, however.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Lord, yes, I know that. Didn't I see him driving Madame Lascelles
+up Rampart Street as I came down in the mule-car?"</p>
+
+<p>And then Pierce and Ferry looked at each other, startled.</p>
+
+<p>That evening, therefore, it was a comfort to both when Sam came tooling
+the stylish turnout through the sally-port and his battery chums caught
+sight of the Allertons. Pierce was just returning from stables, and
+Ferry was smoking a pipe of <i>perique</i> on the broad gallery, and both
+hastened to don their best jackets and doff their best caps to these
+interesting and interested callers. Cram himself had gone off for a ride
+and a think. He always declared his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> ideas were clearer after a gallop.
+The band played charmingly. The ladies came out and made a picturesque
+croquet-party on the green carpet of the parade. The officers clustered
+about and offered laughing wagers on the game. A dozen romping children
+were playing joyously around the tall flag-staff. The air was rich with
+the fragrance of the magnolia and Cape jasmine, and glad with music and
+soft and merry voices. Then the stirring bugles rang out their lively
+summons to the batterymen beyond the wall. The drums of the infantry
+rolled and rattled their echoing clamor. The guard sprang into ranks,
+and their muskets, glistening in the slanting beams of the setting sun,
+clashed in simultaneous "present" to the red-sashed officer of the day,
+and that official raised his plumed hat to the lieutenant with the
+lovely girl by his side and the smiling elders on the back seat as the
+team once more made the circuit of the post on the back trip to town,
+and Miss Flora Allerton clasped her hands and looked enthusiastically up
+into her escort's face.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh," she cried, "isn't it all just too lovely for anything! Why, I
+think your life here must be like a dream."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span></p><p>But Miss Allerton, as Mrs. Cram had said, sometimes gushed, and life at
+Jackson Barracks was no such dream as it appeared.</p>
+
+<p>The sun went down red and angry far across the tawny flood of the
+rushing river. The night lights were set at the distant bend below. The
+stars came peeping through a shifting filmy veil. The big trees on the
+levee and about the flanking towers began to whisper and complain and
+creak, and the rising wind sent long wisps of straggly cloud racing
+across the sky. The moon rose pallid and wan, hung for a while over the
+dense black mass of moss-grown cypress in the eastward swamp, then hid
+her face behind a heavy bank of clouds, as though reluctant to look upon
+the wrath to come, for a storm was rising fast and furious to break upon
+and deluge old Jackson Barracks.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+
+<p>When Jeffers came driving into barracks on his return from town, his
+first care, as became the trained groom, was for his horses, and he was
+rubbing them down and bedding their stalls for the night when the
+sergeant of the battery guard, lantern in hand, appeared at the door. It
+was not yet tattoo, but by this time the darkness was intense, the
+heavens were hid, and the wind was moaning about the stables and
+gun-shed and whistling away over the dismal expanse of flat, wet,
+ditch-tangled fields towards the swamp. But the cockney's spirits were
+blithe as the clouds were black. As was usual when he or any other
+servitor was in attendance on Waring, the reward had been munificent. He
+had lunched at Cassidy's at the lieutenant's expense while that officer
+and his friends were similarly occupied at the more exclusive Moreau's.
+He had stabled the team at the quartermaster's while he had personally
+attended the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span> <i>matin&eacute;e</i> at the St. Charles, which was more to his taste
+than Booth and high tragedy. He had sauntered about the Tattersalls and
+smoked Waring's cigars and patronized the jockeys gathered there for the
+spring meeting on the Metairie, but promptly on time was awaiting the
+return of the party from their drive and lolling about the ladies'
+entrance to the St. Charles Hotel, when he became aware, as the lamps
+were being lighted and the dusk of the evening gave place to lively
+illumination, that two men had passed and repassed the open portals
+several times, and that they were eying him curiously, and chattering to
+each other in French. One of them he presently recognized as the little
+"frog-eater" who occupied the old house on the levee, Lascelles, the
+husband of the pretty Frenchwoman he and the lieutenant had dragged out
+of the mud that very morning and had driven up to the old D'Hervilly
+place on Rampart Street. Even as he was wondering how cabby got out of
+his scrape and chuckling with satisfaction over the scientific manner in
+which Mr. Waring had floored that worthy, Mr. Jeffers was surprised to
+find himself most civilly accosted by old Lascelles, who had been<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>
+informed, he said, by Madame his wife, of the heroic services rendered
+her that morning by Monsieur Jeffers and Monsieur le Capitaine. He
+begged of the former the acceptance of the small <i>douceur</i> which he
+slipped into the Englishman's accustomed palm, and inquired when he
+might hope to see the brave captain and disembarrass himself of his
+burden of gratitude.</p>
+
+<p>"Here they come now," said Jeffers, promptly pocketing the money and
+springing forward to knuckle his hat-brim and stand at the horses'
+heads. All grace and animation, Mr. Waring had assisted his friends to
+alight, had promised to join them in the ladies' parlor in ten minutes,
+had sprung to the seat again, signalling Jeffers to tumble up behind,
+and then had driven rapidly away through Carondelet Street to the broad
+avenue beyond. Here he tossed the reins to Jeffers, disappeared a
+moment, and came back with a little Indian-made basket filled to
+overflowing with exquisite double violets rich with fragrance.</p>
+
+<p>"Give this to Mrs. Cram for me, and tell the captain I'll drop in to
+thank him in a couple of hours, and&mdash;&mdash; Here, Jeffers," he said, and
+Jeffers had pocketed another greenback, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> had driven briskly
+homeward, well content with the result of his day's labors, and without
+having mentioned to Mr. Waring the fact that Lascelles had been at the
+hotel making inquiries for him. A day so profitable and so pleasant
+Jeffers had not enjoyed since his arrival at the barracks, and he was
+humming away in high good humor, all reckless of the rising storm, when
+the gruff voice of Sergeant Schwartz disturbed him:</p>
+
+<p>"Chevvers, you will rebort at vonst to Captain Cram."</p>
+
+<p>"Who says I will?" said Jeffers, cheerfully, though bent on mischief,
+but was awed into instant silence at seeing that veteran step quickly
+back, stand attention, and raise his hand in salute, for there came Cram
+himself, Pierce with him.</p>
+
+<p>"Did Mr. Waring come back with you?" was the first question.</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir; Hi left Mr. Warink on Canal Street. 'E said 'e'd be back to
+thank the capt'in in a little while, sir, and 'e sent these for the
+capt'in's lady."</p>
+
+<p>Cram took the beautiful basket of violets with dubious hand, though his
+eyes kindled when<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> he noted their profusion and fragrance. Nell loved
+violets, and it was like Waring to remember so bountifully her fondness
+for them.</p>
+
+<p>"What detained him? Did he send no word?"</p>
+
+<p>"'E said nothink, and sent nothink but the basket, sir. 'E said a couple
+of hours, now I think of it, sir. 'E was going back to the 'otel to dine
+with a lady and gent."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Cram was silent. He glanced at Pierce, as much as to say,
+Have you no question to ask? but the youngster held his peace. The
+senior officer hated to inquire of his servant into the details of the
+day's doings. He was more than half indignant at Waring for having taken
+such advantage of even an implied permission as to drive off with his
+equipage and groom in so summary a way. Of course Nell had said, Take it
+and go, but Nell could have had no idea of the use to which the wagon
+was to be put. If Waring left the garrison with the intention of using
+the equipage to take Madame Lascelles driving, it was the most underhand
+and abominable thing he had ever heard of his doing. It was unlike him.
+It couldn't be true. Yet had not Braxton shown him the letter<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span> which
+said he was seen on the levee with her by his side? Had not Dryden
+further informed every man and woman and child with whom he held
+converse during the day that he had seen Waring with Cram's team driving
+Madame Lascelles up Rampart Street, and was not there a story already
+afloat that old Lascelles had forbidden him ever to darken his threshold
+again,&mdash;forbidden Madame to drive, dance, or even speak with him? And
+was there not already in the post commander's hand a note intimating
+that Monsieur Lascelles would certainly challenge Waring to instant and
+mortal combat if Waring had used the wagon as alleged? Jeffers must know
+about it, and could and should tell if required, but Cram simply could
+not and would not ask the groom to detail the movements of the
+gentleman. Had not Waring sent word he would be home in two hours and
+would come to see his battery commander at once? Did not that mean he
+would explain fully? Cram gulped down the query that rose to his lips.</p>
+
+<p>"All right, then, Pierce; we'll take these over to Mrs. Cram and have a
+bite ready for Waring on his return," said the stout-hearted<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> fellow,
+and, in refusing to question his servant, missed the chance of averting
+catastrophe.</p>
+
+<p>And so they bore the beautiful cluster of violets, with its mute pledge
+of fidelity and full explanation, to his rejoicing Nell, and the trio
+sat and chatted, and one or two visitors came in for a while and then
+scurried home as the rain began to plash on the windows, and the bugles
+and drums and fifes sounded far away at tattoo and more than usually
+weird and mournful at taps, and finally ten-thirty came, by which time
+it had been raining torrents, and the wind was lashing the roaring river
+into foam, and the trees were bowing low before their master, and the
+levee road was a quagmire, and Cram felt convinced no cab could bring
+his subaltern home. Yet in his nervousness and anxiety he pulled on his
+boots, threw his gum coat over his uniform, tiptoed in to bend over
+Nell's sleeping form and whisper, should she wake, that he was going
+only to the sally-port or perhaps over to Waring's quarters, but she
+slept peacefully and never stirred, so noiselessly he slipped out on the
+gallery and down the stairs and stalked boldly out into the raging
+storm, guided by the dim light burning in Waring's room. Ananias<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span> was
+sleeping curled up on a rug in front of the open fireplace, and Cram
+stirred him up with his foot. The negro rolled lazily over, with a
+stretch and yawn.</p>
+
+<p>"Did Mr. Waring take any arms with him?" queried the captain.</p>
+
+<p>"Any whut, suh?" responded Ananias, rubbing his eyes and still only half
+awake.</p>
+
+<p>"Any pistol or knife?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lord, suh, no. Mr. Waring don't never carry anything o' dat sort."</p>
+
+<p>A student-lamp was burning low on the centre-table. There lay among the
+books and papers a couple of letters, evidently received that day, and
+still unopened. There lay Waring's cigar-case, a pretty trifle given him
+by some far-away friend, with three or four fragrant Havanas temptingly
+visible. There lay a late magazine, its pages still uncut. Cram looked
+at the dainty wall clock, ticking merrily away over the mantel.
+Eleven-thirty-five! Well, he was too anxious to sleep anyhow, why not
+wait a few minutes? Waring might come, probably would come. If no cab
+could make its way down by the levee road, there were the late cars from
+town; they had to make the effort<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> anyhow. Cram stepped to the
+sideboard, mixed a mild toddy, sipped it reflectively, then lighted a
+cigar and threw himself into the easy-chair. Ananias, meantime, was up
+and astir. Seeing that Cram was looking about in search of a
+paper-cutter, the boy stepped forward and bent over the table.</p>
+
+<p>"De lieutenant always uses dis, suh," said he, lifting first one paper,
+then another, searching under each. "Don't seem to be yer now, suh.
+You've seen it, dough, captain,&mdash;dat cross-handled dagger wid de
+straight blade."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, I know. Where is it?" asked Cram. "That'll do."</p>
+
+<p>"'Tain't yer, suh, now. Can't find it yer, nohow."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, Mr. Waring probably took a knife, after all."</p>
+
+<p>"No, suh, I don't t'ink so. I never knowed him to use it befo' away from
+de room."</p>
+
+<p>"Anybody else been here?" said Cram.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, dey was all in yer, suh, dis arternoon, but Mr. Doyle he was sent
+for, suh, and had to go."</p>
+
+<p>A step and the rattle of a sword were heard on the gallery without. The
+door opened, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span> in came Merton of the infantry, officer of the day.</p>
+
+<p>"Hello, Waring!" he began. "Oh, it's you, is it, captain? Isn't Waring
+back? I saw the light, and came up to chin with him a moment. Beastly
+night, isn't it?"</p>
+
+<p>"Waring isn't back yet. I look for him by the eleven-thirty car,"
+answered the captain.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, that's in. No Waring there, but half a dozen poor devils, half
+drowned and half drunk, more'n half drunk, one of your men among 'em. We
+had to put him into the guard-house to keep him from murdering Dawson,
+the head-quarters clerk. There's been some kind of a row."</p>
+
+<p>"Sorry to hear that. Who is the man?"</p>
+
+<p>"Kane. He said Dawson was lying about his officer and he wouldn't stand
+it."</p>
+
+<p>"Kane!" exclaimed Cram, rising. "Why, he's one of our best. I never
+heard of his being riotous before."</p>
+
+<p>"He's riotous enough to-night. He wanted to lick all six of our fellows,
+and if I hadn't got there when I did they would probably have kicked him
+into a pulp. All were drunk;<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> Kane, too, I should say; and as for
+Dawson, he was just limp."</p>
+
+<p>"Would you mind going down and letting me talk with Kane a moment? I
+never knew him to be troublesome before, though he sometimes drank a
+little. He was on pass this evening."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it's raining cats and dogs, captain, but come along. If you can
+stand it I can."</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes later the sergeant of the guard threw open one of the
+wooden compartments in the guard-house, and there sat Kane, his face
+buried in his hands.</p>
+
+<p>"I ordered him locked in here by himself, because I feared our fellows
+would hammer him if he were turned in with them," explained Mr. Merton,
+and at sound of the voice the prisoner looked up and saw his commander,
+dripping with wet. Unsteadily he rose to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>"Captain," he began, thickly, "I'd never have done it in the world, sir,
+but that blackguard was drunk, sir, and slandering my officer, and I
+gave him fair warning to quit or I'd hit him, but he kept on."</p>
+
+<p>"Ye-es? And what did he say?"</p>
+
+<p>"He said&mdash;I wouldn't believe it, sir&mdash;that Mr.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> Doyle was that drunk
+that him and some other fellers had lifted him out of the mud and put
+him to bed up there at&mdash;up there at the house, sir, back of Anatole's
+place. I think the captain knows."</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, you should have steered clear of such company, Kane. Did this
+happen at Anatole's saloon?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, and them fellers was making so much noise that the dago
+turned them all out and shut up the shop at eleven o'clock, and that's
+what made them follow me home in the car and abuse me all the way. I
+couldn't stand it, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"You would only have laughed at them if your better judgment hadn't been
+ruined by liquor. Sorry for you, Kane, but you've been drinking just
+enough to be a nuisance, and must stay where you are for the night.
+They'll be sorry for what they said in the morning.&mdash;Did you lock up the
+others, Mr. Merton?" he asked, as they turned away.</p>
+
+<p>"All but Dawson, sir. I took him over to the hospital and put a sentry
+over him. That fellow looks to be verging on jimjams, and I wouldn't be
+surprised if he'd been talking as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span> Kane says." Merton might have added,
+"and it's probably true," but courtesy to his battery friend forbade.
+Cram did add mentally something to the same effect, but loyalty to his
+arm of the service kept him silent. At the flag-staff the two officers
+stopped.</p>
+
+<p>"Merton, oblige me by saying nothing as to the alleged language about
+Doyle, will you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly, captain. Good-night."</p>
+
+<p>Then, as the officer of the day's lantern flickered away in one
+direction, Cram turned in the other, and presently went climbing up the
+stairs to the gallery leading to the quarters of his senior first
+lieutenant. A dim light was shining through the shutters. Cram knocked
+at the door; no answer. Opening it, he glanced in. The room was
+unoccupied. A cheap marine clock, ticking between the north windows over
+the wash-stand, indicated midnight, and the battery commander turned
+away in vexation of spirit. Lieutenant Doyle had no authority to be
+absent from the post.</p>
+
+<p>It was still dark and storming furiously when the bugles of the battery
+sounded the reveille, and by the light of the swinging lanterns the men
+marched away in their canvas stable rig,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> looking like a column of
+ghosts. Yet, despite the gale and the torrents of rain, Pierce was in no
+wise surprised to find Cram at his elbow when the horses were led out to
+water.</p>
+
+<p>"Groom in-doors this morning, Mr. Pierce. Is Waring home?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir; Ananias told me when he brought me up my coffee."</p>
+
+<p>"Hold the morning report, then, until I come to the office. I fear we
+have both first lieutenants to report absent to-day. You and I may have
+to go to town: so get your breakfast early. We will ride. I doubt if
+even an ambulance could get through. Tell me, Pierce, have you spoken to
+Waring about&mdash;about that matter we were discussing? Has he ever given
+you any idea that he had received warning of any kind from old
+Lascelles&mdash;or any of his friends?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sir. I've had no chance to speak, to be sure, and, so far as I
+could observe, he and Mr. Lascelles seemed on very excellent terms only
+a few days ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I wish I had spoken myself," said Cram, and turned away.</p>
+
+<p>That morning, with two first lieutenants absent without leave, the
+report of Light Battery<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> "X" went into the adjutant's office just as its
+commander and his junior subaltern went out and silently mounted the
+dripping horses standing in front. The two orderlies, with their heads
+poked through the slit of their ponchos, briskly seated themselves in
+saddle, and then the colonel hurried forth just in time to hail,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, Cram! one minute." And Cram reined about and rode to the side of
+the post commander, who stood under the shelter of the broad gallery.</p>
+
+<p>"I wouldn't say anything about this to any one at head-quarters except
+Reynolds. There's no one else on the staff to whom Waring would apply,
+is there?"</p>
+
+<p>"No one, sir. Reynolds is the only man I can think of."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you send an orderly back with word as soon as you know?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir, the moment I hear. And-d&mdash;shall I send you word
+from&mdash;there?"&mdash;and Cram nodded northward, and then, in a lower
+tone,&mdash;"as to Doyle?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, damn Doyle! I don't care if he never&mdash;&mdash;" But here the commander of
+the post <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>regained control of himself, and with parting wave of the hand
+turned back to his office.</p>
+
+<p>Riding in single file up the levee, for the city road was one long pool,
+with the swollen river on their left, and the slanting torrents of rain
+obscuring all objects on the other hand, the party made its way for
+several squares without exchanging a word. Presently the leading file
+came opposite the high wall of the Lascelles place. The green latticed
+gate stood open,&mdash;an unusual thing,&mdash;and both officers bent low over
+their pommels and gazed along the dark, rainswept alley to the pillared
+portico dimly seen beyond. Not a soul was in sight. The water was
+already on a level with the banquette, and would soon be running across
+and into the gate. A vagabond dog skulking about the place gave vent to
+a mournful howl. A sudden thought struck the captain. He led the way
+down the slope and forded across to the north side, the others
+following.</p>
+
+<p>"Joyce," said he to his orderly, "dismount and go in there and ring at
+the door. Ask if Mr. Lascelles is home. If not, ask if Madame has any
+message she would like to send to town, or if we can be of any service."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p><p>The soldier was gone but a moment, and came hurrying back, a negro boy,
+holding a long fold of matting over his head to shed the rain, chasing
+at his heels. It was Alphonse.</p>
+
+<p>"M'sieu' not yet of return," said he, in labored translation of his
+negro French, "and Madame remain chez Madame d'Hervilly. I am alone wiz
+my mudder, and she has fear."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, it's all right, I fancy," said Cram, reassuringly. "They were
+caught by the storm, and wisely stayed up-town. I saw your gate open, so
+we stopped to inquire. We'll ride over to Madame d'Hervilly's and ask
+for them. How came your gate open?"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Mo connais pas</i>; I dunno, sare. It was lock' last night."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, that's odd," said Cram. "Better bolt it now, or all the cattle
+along the levee will be in there. You can't lock out the water, though.
+Who had the key besides Mr. Lascelles or Madame?"</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody, sare; but there is muddy foots all over the piazza."</p>
+
+<p>"The devil! I'll have to look in for a moment."</p>
+
+<p>A nod to Pierce brought him too from the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> saddle, and the officers
+handed their reins to the orderlies. Then together they entered the gate
+and strode up the white shell walk, looking curiously about them through
+the dripping shrubbery. Again that dismal howl was raised, and Pierce,
+stopping with impatient exclamation, tore half a brick from the yielding
+border of the walk and sent it hurtling through the trees. With his tail
+between his legs, the brute darted from behind a sheltering bush,
+scurried away around the corner of the house, glancing fearfully back,
+then, halting at safe distance, squatted on his haunches and lifted up
+his mournful voice again.</p>
+
+<p>"Whose dog is that?" demanded Cram.</p>
+
+<p>"M'sieu' Philippe's: he not now here. He is de brudder to Monsieur."</p>
+
+<p>At the steps the captain bent and closely examined them and the floor of
+the low veranda to which they led. Both were disfigured with muddy
+footprints. Pierce would have gone still further in the investigation,
+but his senior held up a warning hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Two men have been here," he muttered. "They have tried the door and
+tried the blinds.&mdash;Where did you sleep last night, boy?" and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> with the
+words he turned suddenly on the negro. "Did you hear no sound?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, sare. I sleep in my bed,&mdash;'way back. No, I hear noting,&mdash;noting."
+And now the negro's face was twitching, his eyes staring. Something in
+the soldier's stern voice told him that there was tragedy in the air.</p>
+
+<p>"If this door is locked, go round and open it from within," said Cram,
+briefly. Then, as Alphonse disappeared around the north side, he stepped
+back to the shell walk and followed one of its branches around the
+other. An instant later Pierce heard him call. Hastening in his wake,
+the youngster came upon his captain standing under a window, one of
+whose blinds was hanging partly open, water standing in pools all around
+him.</p>
+
+<p>"Look here," was all he said, and pointed upward.</p>
+
+<p>The sill was above the level of their heads, but both could see that the
+sash was raised. All was darkness within.</p>
+
+<p>"Come with me," was Cram's next order, and the lieutenant followed.
+Alphonse was unlocking the front door, and now threw it open. Cram
+strode into the wide hall-way straight to a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span> door of the east side. It
+was locked. "Open this, Alphonse," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"I have not the key. It is ever with M'sieu' Lascelles. It is his
+library."</p>
+
+<p>Cram stepped back, gave one vigorous kick with a heavy riding-boot, and
+the frail door flew open with a crash. For a moment the darkness was
+such that no object could be distinguished within. The negro servant
+hung back, trembling from some indefinable dread. The captain, his hand
+on the door-knob, stepped quickly into the gloomy apartment, Pierce
+close at his heels. A broad, flat-topped desk stood in the centre of the
+room. Some shelves and books were dimly visible against the wall. Some
+of the drawers of the desk were open, and there was a litter of papers
+on the desk, and others were strown in the big rattan chair, some on the
+floor. Two student-lamps could be dimly distinguished, one on the big
+desk, another on a little reading-table placed not far from the south
+window, whose blinds, half open, admitted almost the only light that
+entered the room. With its head near this reading-table and faintly
+visible, a bamboo lounge stretched its length towards the southward
+windows, where all was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> darkness, and something vague and
+indistinguishable lay extended upon the lounge. Cram marched half-way
+across the floor, then stopped short, glanced down, and stepped quickly
+to one side, shifting his heavily-booted feet as though to avoid some
+such muddy pool as those encountered without.</p>
+
+<p>"Take care," he whispered, and motioned warningly to Pierce. "Come here
+and open these shutters, Alphonse," were the next words. But once again
+that prolonged, dismal, mournful howl was heard under the south window,
+and the negro, seized with uncontrollable panic, turned back and clung
+trembling to the opposite wall.</p>
+
+<p>"Send one of the men for the post surgeon at once, then come back here,"
+said the captain, and Pierce hastened to the gate. As he returned, the
+west shutters were being thrown open. There was light when he re-entered
+the room, and this was what he saw. On the China matting, running from
+underneath the sofa, fed by heavy drops from above, a dark wet stain. On
+the lounge, stretched at full length, a stiffening human shape, a
+yellow-white, parchment-like face above the black clothing, a bluish,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span>
+half-opened mouth whose yellow teeth showed savagely, a fallen chin and
+jaw, covered with the gray stubble of unshaved beard, and two staring,
+sightless, ghastly eyes fixed and upturned as though in agonized appeal.
+Stone-dead,&mdash;murdered, doubtless,&mdash;all that was left of the little
+Frenchman Lascelles.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+
+<p>All that day the storm raged in fury; the levee road was blocked in
+places by the boughs torn from overhanging trees, and here, there, and
+everywhere turned into a quagmire by the torrents that could find no
+adequate egress to the northward swamps. For over a mile above the
+barracks it looked like one vast canal, and by nine o'clock it was
+utterly impassable. No cars were running on the dilapidated road to the
+"half-way house," whatever they might be doing beyond. There was only
+one means of communication between the garrison and the town, and that,
+on horseback along the crest of the levee, and people in the
+second-story windows of the store- and dwelling-houses along the
+other side of the way, driven aloft by the drenched condition of the
+ground floor, were surprised to see the number of times some Yankee
+soldier or other made the dismal trip. Cram, with a party of four, was
+perhaps the first. Before the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>dripping sentries of the old guard were
+relieved at nine o'clock every man and woman at the barracks was aware
+that foul murder had been done during the night, and that old Lascelles,
+slain by some unknown hand, slashed and hacked in a dozen places,
+according to the stories afloat, lay in his gloomy old library up the
+levee road, with a flood already a foot deep wiping out from the grounds
+about the house all traces of his assailants. Dr. Denslow, in examining
+the body, found just one deep, downward stab, entering above the upper
+rib and doubtless reaching the heart,&mdash;a stab made by a long, straight,
+sharp, two-edged blade. He had been dead evidently some hours when
+discovered by Cram, who had now gone to town to warn the authorities,
+old Brax meantime having taken upon himself the responsibility of
+placing a guard at the house, with orders to keep Alphonse and his
+mother in and everybody else out.</p>
+
+<p>It is hardly worth while to waste time on the various theories advanced
+in the garrison as to the cause and means of the dreadful climax. That
+Doyle should be away from the post provoked neither comment nor
+speculation: he was not connected in any way with the tragedy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> But the
+fact that Mr. Waring was absent all night, coupled with the stories of
+his devotions to Madame, was to several minds <i>prima facie</i> evidence
+that his was the bloody hand that wrought the deed,&mdash;that he was now a
+fugitive from justice, and Madame Lascelles, beyond doubt, the guilty
+partner of his flight. Everybody knew by this time of their being
+together much of the morning: how could people help knowing, when Dryden
+had seen them? In his elegantly jocular way, Dryden was already
+condoling with Ferry on the probable loss of his Hatfield clothes, and
+comforting him with the assurance that they always gave a feller a new
+black suit to be hanged in, so he might get his duds back after all,
+only they must get Waring first. Jeffers doubtless would have been
+besieged with questions but for Cram's foresight: his master had ordered
+him to accompany him to town.</p>
+
+<p>In silence a second time the little party rode away, passing the flooded
+homestead where lay the murdered man, then, farther on, gazing in mute
+curiosity at the closed shutters of the premises some infantry satirists
+had already christened "the dove-cot." What cared they for him or his
+objectionable helpmate? Still,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span> they could not but note how gloomy and
+deserted it all appeared, with two feet of water lapping the garden
+wall. Summoned by his master, Jeffers knuckled his oil-skin hat-brim and
+pointed out the spot where Mr. Waring stood when he knocked the cabman
+into the mud, but Jeffers's tongue was tied and his cockney volubility
+gone. The tracks made by Cram's wagon up the slope were already washed
+out. Bending forward to dodge the blinding storm, the party pushed along
+the embankment until at last the avenues and alleys to their right gave
+proof of better drainage. At Rampart Street they separated, Pierce going
+on to report the tragedy to the police, Cram turning to his right and
+following the broad thoroughfare another mile, until Jeffers, indicating
+a big, old-fashioned, broad-galleried Southern house standing in the
+midst of grounds once trim and handsome, but now showing signs of
+neglect and penury, simply said, "'Ere, sir." And here the party
+dismounted.</p>
+
+<p>Cram entered the gate and pulled a clanging bell. The door was almost
+instantly opened by a colored girl, at whose side, with eager joyous
+face, was the pretty child he had seen so often<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> playing about the
+Lascelles homestead, and the eager joyous look faded instantly away.</p>
+
+<p>"She t'ink it M'sieur Vareeng who comes to arrive," explained the
+smiling colored girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah! It is Madame d'Hervilly I wish to see," answered Cram, briefly.
+"Please take her my card." And, throwing off his dripping raincoat and
+tossing it to Jeffers, who had followed to the veranda, the captain
+stepped within the hall and held forth his hands to Nin Nin, begging her
+to come to him who was so good a friend of Mr. Waring. But she would
+not. The tears of disappointment were in the dark eyes as the little one
+turned and ran away. Cram could hear the gentle, soothing tones of the
+mother striving to console her child,&mdash;the one widowed and the other
+orphaned by the tidings he bore. Even then he noted how musical, how
+full of rich melody, was that soft Creole voice. And then Madame
+d'Hervilly appeared, a stately, dignified, picturesque gentlewoman of
+perhaps fifty years. She greeted him with punctilious civility, but with
+manner as distant as her words were few.</p>
+
+<p>"I have come on a trying errand," he began, when she held up a slender,
+jewelled hand.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span></p><p>"<i>Pardon. Permettez.</i>&mdash;Madame Lascelles," she called, and before Cram
+could find words to interpose, a servant was speeding to summon the very
+woman he had hoped not to have to see.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, madame," he murmured low, hurriedly, "I deplore my ignorance. I
+cannot speak French. Try to understand me. Mr. Lascelles is home,
+dangerously stricken. I fear the worst. You must tell her."</p>
+
+<p>"'Ome! <i>L&agrave; bas? C'est impossible.</i>"</p>
+
+<p>"It is true," he burst in, for the swish of silken skirt was heard down
+the long passage. "<i>Il est mort</i>,&mdash;<i>mort</i>" he whispered, mustering up
+what little French he knew and then cursing himself for an imbecile.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Mort! O ciel!</i>" The words came with a shriek of anguish from the lips
+of the elder woman and were echoed by a scream from beyond. In an
+instant, wild-eyed, horror-stricken, Emilie Lascelles had sprung to her
+tottering mother's side.</p>
+
+<p>"When? What mean you?" she gasped.</p>
+
+<p>"Madame Lascelles," he sadly spoke, "I had hoped to spare you this, but
+it is too late now. Mr. Lascelles was found lying on the sofa in his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>
+library this morning. He had died hours before, during the night."</p>
+
+<p>And then he had to spring and catch the fainting woman in his arms. She
+was still moaning, and only semi-conscious, when the old family doctor
+and her brother, Pierre d'Hervilly, arrived.</p>
+
+<p>Half an hour later Cram astonished the aides-de-camp and other bored
+staff officials by appearing at the general loafing-room at
+head-quarters. To the chorus of inquiry as to what brought him up in
+such a storm he made brief reply, and then asked immediately to speak
+with the adjutant-general and Lieutenant Reynolds, and, to the disgust
+and mystification of all the others, he disappeared with these into an
+adjoining room. There he briefly told the former of the murder, and then
+asked for a word with the junior.</p>
+
+<p>Reynolds was a character. Tall, handsome, and distinguished, he had
+served throughout the war as a volunteer, doing no end of good work, and
+getting many a word of praise, but, as all his service was as a staff
+officer, it was his general who reaped the reward of his labors. He had
+risen, of course, to the rank of major in<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> the staff in the volunteers,
+and everybody had prophesied that he would be appointed a major in the
+adjutant- or inspector-general's department in the permanent
+establishment. But there were not enough places by any means, and the
+few vacancies went to men who knew better how to work for themselves.
+"Take a lieutenancy now, and we will fix you by and by," was the
+suggestion, and so it resulted that here he was three years after the
+war wearing the modest strap of a second lieutenant, doing the duties
+and accepting the responsibilities of a far higher grade, and being
+patronized by seniors who were as much his inferiors in rank as they
+were in ability during the war days. Everybody said it was a shame, and
+nobody helped to better his lot. He was a man whose counsel was valuable
+on all manner of subjects. Among other things, he was well versed in all
+that pertained to the code of honor as it existed in the antebellum
+days,&mdash;had himself been "out," and, as was well known, had but recently
+officiated as second for an officer who had need of his services. He and
+Waring were friends from the start, and Cram counted on tidings of his
+absent subaltern in appealing to him. Great, therefore,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span> was his
+consternation when in reply to his inquiry Reynolds promptly answered
+that he had neither seen nor heard from Waring in over forty-eight
+hours. This was a facer.</p>
+
+<p>"What's wrong, Cram?"</p>
+
+<p>"Read that," said the captain, placing a daintily-written note in the
+aide-de-camp's hand. It was brief, but explicit:</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Colonel Braxton</span>: Twice have I warned you that the attentions of your
+Lieutenant Waring to Madame Lascelles meant mischief. This morning,
+under pretence of visiting her mother, she left the house in a cab, but
+in half an hour was seen driving with Mr. Waring. This has been, as I
+have reason to know, promptly carried to Monsieur Lascelles by people
+whom he had employed for the purpose. I could of told you last night
+that Monsieur Lascelles's friend had notified Lieutenant Waring that a
+duel would be exacted should he be seen with Madame again, and now it
+will certainly come. You have seen fit to scorn my warnings hitherto,
+the result is on your head." There was no signature whatever.</p>
+
+<p>"Who wrote this rot?" asked Reynolds. "It seems to me I've seen that
+hand before."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span></p><p>"So have I, and pitched the trash into the fire, as I do everything
+anonymous that comes my way. But Brax says that this is the second or
+third, and he's worried about it, and thinks there may be truth in the
+story."</p>
+
+<p>"As to the duel, or as to the devotions to Madame?" asked Reynolds,
+calmly.</p>
+
+<p>"We-ll, both, and we thought you would be most apt to know whether a
+fight was on. Waring promised to return to the post at taps last night.
+Instead of that, he is gone,&mdash;God knows where,&mdash;and the old man, the
+reputed challenger, lies dead at his home. Isn't that ugly?"</p>
+
+<p>Reynolds's face grew very grave.</p>
+
+<p>"Who last saw Waring, that you know of?"</p>
+
+<p>"My man Jeffers left him on Canal Street just after dark last night. He
+was then going to dine with friends at the St. Charles."</p>
+
+<p>"The Allertons?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes."</p>
+
+<p>"Then wait till I see the chief, and I'll go with you. Say nothing about
+this matter yet."</p>
+
+<p>Reynolds was gone but a moment. A little later Cram and the aide were at
+the St. Charles rotunda, their cards sent up to the Allertons' rooms.
+Presently down came the bell-boy.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span> Would the gentleman walk up to the
+parlor? This was awkward. They wanted to see Allerton himself, and Cram
+felt morally confident that Miss Flora Gwendolen would be on hand to
+welcome and chat with so distinguished a looking fellow as Reynolds.
+There was no help for it, however. It would be possible to draw off the
+head of the family after a brief call upon the ladies. Just as they were
+leaving the marble-floored rotunda, a short, swarthy man in
+"pepper-and-salt" business suit touched Cram on the arm, begged a word,
+and handed him a card.</p>
+
+<p>"A detective,&mdash;already?" asked Cram, in surprise.</p>
+
+<p>"I was with the chief when Lieutenant Pierce came in to report the
+matter," was the brief response, "and I came here to see your man. He is
+reluctant to tell what he knows without your consent. Could you have him
+leave the horses with your orderly below and come up here a moment?"</p>
+
+<p>"Why, certainly, if you wish; but I can't see why," said Cram,
+surprised.</p>
+
+<p>"You will see, sir, in a moment."</p>
+
+<p>And then Jeffers, with white, troubled face,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span> appeared, and twisted his
+wet hat-brim in nervous worriment.</p>
+
+<p>"Now what do you want of him?" asked Cram.</p>
+
+<p>"Ask him, sir, who was the man who slipped a greenback into his hand at
+the ladies' entrance last evening. What did he want of him?"</p>
+
+<p>Jeffers turned a greenish yellow. His every impulse was to lie, and the
+detective saw it.</p>
+
+<p>"You need not lie, Jeffers," he said, very quietly. "It will do no good.
+I saw the men. I can tell your master who one of them was, and possibly
+lay my hands on the second when he is wanted; but I want you to tell and
+to explain what that greenback meant."</p>
+
+<p>Then Jeffers broke down and merely blubbered.</p>
+
+<p>"Hi meant no 'arm, sir. Hi never dreamed there was hanythink wrong.
+'Twas Mr. Lascelles, sir. 'E said 'e came to thank me for 'elping 'is
+lady, sir. Then 'e wanted to see Mr. Warink, sir."</p>
+
+<p>"Why didn't you tell me of this before?" demanded the captain, sternly.
+"You know what happened this morning."</p>
+
+<p>"Hi didn't want to 'ave Mr. Warink suspected,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span> sir," was poor Jeffers's
+half-tearful explanation, as Mr. Allerton suddenly entered the little
+hall-way room.</p>
+
+<p>The grave, troubled faces caught his eye at once.</p>
+
+<p>"Is anything wrong?" he inquired, anxiously. "I hope Waring is all
+right. I tried to induce him not to start, but he said he had promised
+and must go."</p>
+
+<p>"What time did he leave you, Mr. Allerton?" asked Cram, controlling as
+much as possible the tremor of his voice.</p>
+
+<p>"Soon after the storm broke,&mdash;about nine-thirty, I should say. He tried
+to get a cab earlier, but the drivers wouldn't agree to go down for
+anything less than a small fortune. Luckily, his Creole friends had a
+carriage."</p>
+
+<p>"His what?"</p>
+
+<p>"His friends from near the barracks. They were here when we came down
+into the rotunda to smoke after dinner."</p>
+
+<p>Cram felt his legs and feet grow cold and a chill run up his spine.</p>
+
+<p>"Who were they? Did you catch their names?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only one. I was introduced only as they<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span> were about to drive away. A
+little old fellow with elaborate manners,&mdash;a Monsieur Lascelles."</p>
+
+<p>"And Waring drove away with him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, with him and one other. Seemed to be a friend of Lascelles. Drove
+off in a closed carriage with a driver all done up in rubber and
+oil-skin who said he perfectly knew the road. Why, what's gone amiss?"</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+
+<p>And all day long the storm beat upon the substantial buildings of the
+old barracks and flooded the low ground about the sheds and stables.
+Drills for the infantry were necessarily suspended, several sentries,
+even, being taken off their posts. The men clustered in the squad-rooms
+and listened with more or less credulity to the theories and
+confirmatory statements of fact as related by the imaginative or
+loquacious of their number. The majority of the officers gathered under
+the flaring lamp-lights at the sutler's store and occupied themselves
+pretty much as did their inferiors in grade, though poker and
+punch&mdash;specialties of Mr. Finkbein, the sutler&mdash;lent additional color to
+the stories in circulation.</p>
+
+<p>From this congress the better element of the commissioned force was
+absent, the names, nationalities, and idiomatic peculiarities of speech
+of the individual members being <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>identical in most instances with those
+of their comrades in arms in the ranks. "Brax" had summoned Minor,
+Lawrence, Kinsey, and Dryden to hear what the post surgeon had to say on
+his return, but cautioned them to keep quiet. As a result of this
+precaution, the mystery of the situation became redoubled by one
+o'clock, and was intensified by two, when it was announced that Private
+Dawson had attempted to break away out of the hospital after a visit
+from the same doctor in his professional capacity. People were tempted
+out on their galleries in the driving storm, and colored servants
+flitted from kitchen to kitchen to gather or dispense new rumors, but
+nobody knew what to make of it when, soon after two, an orderly rode in
+from town dripping with mud and wet, delivered a note to the colonel,
+and took one from him to Mr. Ferry, now sole representative of the
+officers of Battery "X" present for duty. Ferry in return sent the
+bedraggled horseman on to the battery quarters with an order to the
+first sergeant, and in about fifteen minutes a sergeant and two men,
+mounted and each leading a spare horse, appeared under Ferry's gallery,
+and that officer proceeded to occupy one of the vacant<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> saddles, and,
+followed by his party, went clattering out of the sally-port and
+splashing over to the levee. Stable-call sounded as usual at four
+o'clock, and, for the first time in the record of that disciplined
+organization since the devastating hand of Yellow Jack was laid upon it
+the previous year, no officer appeared to supervise the grooming and
+feeding. Two of them were at the post, however. Mr. Doyle, in arrest on
+charge of absence without leave, was escorted to his quarters about
+four-fifteen, and was promptly visited by sympathizing and inquisitive
+comrades from the Hotel Finkbein, while Mr. Ferry, who had effected the
+arrest, was detained making his report to the post commander. Night came
+on apace, the wind began to die away with the going down of the sun, the
+rain ceased to fall, a pallid moon began peering at odd intervals
+through rifts in the cloudy veil, when Cram rode splashing into
+barracks, worn with anxiety and care, at eleven o'clock, and, stopping
+only for a moment to take his wife in his arms and kiss her anxious face
+and shake his head in response to her eager query for news of Waring, he
+hurried down-stairs again and over to Doyle's quarters. All was darkness
+there,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> but he never hesitated. Tramping loudly over the gallery, he
+banged at the door, then, turning the knob, intending to burst right in,
+as was the way in the rough old days, was surprised to find the bolt
+set.</p>
+
+<p>"Doyle, open. I want to see you at once."</p>
+
+<p>All silence within.</p>
+
+<p>"Doyle, open, or, if you are too drunk to get up, I'll kick in the
+door."</p>
+
+<p>A groan, a whispered colloquy, then the rattle of bolt and chain. The
+door opened about an inch, and an oily Irish voice inquired,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Hwat's wanted, capt'in?"</p>
+
+<p>"You here?" exclaimed Cram, in disgust. "What business have you in this
+garrison? If the colonel knew it, you'd be driven out at the point of
+the bayonet."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure where should wife be but at her husband's side whin he's sick and
+sufferin'? Didn't they root him out of bed and comfort this day and ride
+him down like a felon in all the storm? Sure it was the doughboys'
+orders, sir. I told Doyle the capt'in niver would have&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, be quiet: I must see Doyle, and at once."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure he's not able, capt'in. You know how<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> it is wid him: he's that
+sinsitive he couldn't bear to talk of the disgrace he's bringin' on the
+capt'in and the batthery, and I knowed he'd been dhrinkin', sir, and I
+came back to look for him, but he'd got started, capt'in, and it's&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Stop this talk! He wasn't drinking at all until you came back here to
+hound him. Open that door, or a file of the guard will."</p>
+
+<p>"Och! thin wait till I'm dressed, fur dacency's sake, capt'in. Sure I'll
+thry and wake him."</p>
+
+<p>And then more whispering, the clink of glass, maudlin protestation in
+Doyle's thick tones. Cram banged at the door and demanded instant
+obedience. Admitted at last, he strode to the side of an ordinary
+hospital cot, over which the mosquito-bar was now ostentatiously drawn,
+and upon which was stretched the bulky frame of the big Irishman, his
+red, blear-eyed, bloated face half covered in his arms. The close air
+reeked with the fumes of whiskey. In her distress lest Jim should take
+too much, the claimant of his name and protection had evidently been
+sequestrating a large share for herself.</p>
+
+<p>"How on earth did you get here? Your house was flooded all day," angrily
+asked Cram.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span></p><p>"Sure we made a raft, sir,&mdash;'Louette and me,&mdash;and poled over to the
+levee, and I walked every fut of the way down to follow me husband, as I
+swore I would whin we was married. I'd 'a' come in Anatole's boat, sir,
+but 'twas gone,&mdash;gone since last night. Did ye know that, capt'in?"</p>
+
+<p>A groan and a feverish toss from the occupant of the narrow bed
+interrupted her.</p>
+
+<p>"Hush, Jim darlin'! Here's the capt'in to see you and tell you he's come
+back to have you roighted. Sure how could a poor fellow be expected to
+come home in all that awful storm this mornin', capt'in? 'Tis for not
+comin' the colonel had him under arrest; but I tell him the capt'in 'll
+see him through."</p>
+
+<p>But Cram pushed her aside as she still interposed between him and the
+bed.</p>
+
+<p>"Doyle, look up and answer. Doyle, I say!"</p>
+
+<p>Again vehement protestations, and now an outburst of tears and
+pleadings, from the woman.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he can't understand you, capt'in. Ah, don't be hard on him. Only
+this mornin' he was sayin' how the capt'in reminded him of the ould
+foine days whin the officers was all gintlemen and soldiers. He's truer
+to ye than all the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> rest of thim, sir. D'ye moind that, capt'in? Ye
+wouldn't belave it, mabby, but there's them that can tell ye Loot'nant
+Waring was no friend of yours, sir, and worse than that, if ould
+Lascelles could spake now&mdash;but there's thim left that can, glory be to
+God!"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, for God's sake shut up!" spoke Cram, roughly, goaded beyond all
+patience. "Doyle, answer me!" And he shook him hard. "You were at the
+Pelican last night, and you saw Mr. Waring and spoke with him. What did
+he want of you? Where did he go? Who were with him? Was there any
+quarrel? Answer, I say! Do you know?" But maudlin moaning and
+incoherencies were all that Cram could extract from the prostrate man.
+Again the woman interposed, eager, tearful.</p>
+
+<p>"Sure he was there, capt'in, he <i>was</i> there; he told me of it whin I
+fetched him home last night to git him out of the storm and away from
+that place; but he's too dhrunk now to talk. Sure there was no gittin'
+down here to barx for anybody. The cabman, sir, said no carriage could
+make it."</p>
+
+<p>"What cabman? That's one thing I want to know. Who is he? What became of
+him?"</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p><p>"Sure and how do I know, sir? He was a quiet, dacent man, sir; the same
+that Mr. Waring bate so cruel and made Jeffers kick and bate him too. I
+saw it all."</p>
+
+<p>"And was he at the Pelican last night? I must know."</p>
+
+<p>"Sure he was indade, sir. Doyle said so whin I fetched him home, and
+though he can't tell you now, sir, he told me thin. They all came down
+to the Pelican, sir, Waring and Lascelles and the other gintleman, and
+they had dhrink, and there was trouble between the Frenchman and
+Waring,&mdash;sure you can't blame him, wid his wife goin' on so wid the
+loot'nant all the last month,&mdash;and blows was struck, and Doyle
+interposed to stop it, sir, loike the gintleman that he is, and the
+cab-driver took a hand and pitched him out into the mud. Sure he'd been
+dhrinkin' a little, sir, and was aisy upset, but that's all he knows.
+The carriage drove away, and there was three of thim, and poor Doyle got
+caught out there in the mud and in the storm, and 'twas me wint out wid
+Dawson and another of the byes and fetched him in. And we niver heerd of
+the murther at all at all, sir, until I came down here to-day, that's
+God's<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span> troot', and he'll tell ye so whin he's sober," she ended,
+breathless, reckless of her descriptive confusion of Doyle and Divinity.</p>
+
+<p>And still the Irishman lay there, limp, soggy, senseless, and at last,
+dismayed and disheartened, the captain turned away.</p>
+
+<p>"Promise to sober him up by reveille, and you may stay. But hear this:
+if he cannot answer for himself by that time, out you go in the battery
+cart with a policeman to take you to the calaboose." And then he left.</p>
+
+<p>No sooner had his footsteps died away than the woman turned on her
+patient, now struggling to a sitting posture.</p>
+
+<p>"Lie still, you thafe and cur, and swear you to every word I say, unless
+you'd hang in his place. Dhrink this, now, and go to slape, and be riddy
+to tell the story I give ye in the mornin', or may the knife ye drove in
+that poor mummy's throat come back to cut your coward heart out."</p>
+
+<p>And Doyle, shivering, sobbing, crazed with drink and fear, covered his
+eyes with his hands and threw himself back on his hot and steaming
+pillow.</p>
+
+<p>The morning sun rose brilliant and cloudless<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span> as the horses of the
+battery came forth from the dark interior of the stable and, after
+watering at the long wooden trough on the platform, were led away by
+their white-frocked grooms, each section to its own picket-line. Ferry,
+supervising the duty, presently caught sight of the tall muscular form
+of his captain coming briskly around the corner, little Pierce tripping
+along by his side. Cram acknowledged the salute of the battery officer
+of the day in hurried fashion.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-morning, Ferry," he said. "Tell me, who were there when you got
+Doyle away from that woman yesterday?"</p>
+
+<p>"Only the three, sir,&mdash;Mr. and Mrs. Doyle and the negro girl."</p>
+
+<p>"No sign of anybody else?"</p>
+
+<p>"None, sir. I didn't go in the house at all. I rode in the gate and
+called for Doyle to come out. The woman tried to parley, but I refused
+to recognize her at all, and presently Doyle obeyed without any trouble
+whatever, though she kept up a tirade all the time and said he was too
+sick to ride, and all that, but he wasn't. He seemed dazed, but not
+drunk,&mdash;certainly not sick. He rode all right, only he shivered and
+crossed himself and moaned when he passed the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span> Lascelles place, for that
+hound pup set up a howl just as we were opposite the gate. He was all
+trembling when we reached the post, and took a big drink the moment he
+got to his room."</p>
+
+<p>"Ye-es, he's been drinking ever since. I've just sent the doctor to see
+him. Let the corporal and one man of the guard go with the ambulance to
+escort Mrs. Doyle out of the garrison and take her home. She shall not
+stay."</p>
+
+<p>"Why, she's gone, sir," said Ferry. "The guard told me she went out of
+the back gate and up the track towards Anatole's&mdash;going for all she was
+worth&mdash;just after dawn."</p>
+
+<p>"The mischief she has! What can have started her? Did you see her
+yourself, Sergeant Bennett?" asked the captain of a stocky little Irish
+soldier standing at the moment with drawn sabre awaiting opportunity to
+speak to his commander.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir," and the sabre came flashing up to the present. "She'd wint
+over to the hospital to get some medicine for the lieutenant just after
+our bugle sounded first call, and she came runnin' out as I wint to call
+the officer of the day, sir. She ran back to the lieutenant's <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>quarters
+ahead of me, and was up only a minute or two whin down she came again
+wid some bundles, and away she wint to the north gate, runnin'
+wild-like. The steward told me a moment after of Dawson's escape."</p>
+
+<p>"Dawson! escaped from hospital?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, sir. They thought he was all right last evening when he was
+sleeping, and took the sentry off, and at four this morning he was
+gone."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+
+<p>Forty-eight hours had passed, and not a trace had been found of
+Lieutenant Waring. The civil officers of the law had held grave converse
+with the seniors on duty at the barracks, and Cram's face was lined with
+anxiety and trouble. The formal inquest was held as the flood subsided,
+and the evidence of the post surgeon was most important. About the
+throat of the murdered man were indubitable marks of violence. The skin
+was torn as by finger-nails, the flesh bruised and discolored as by
+fiercely-grasping fingers. But death, said the doctor, was caused by the
+single stab. Driven downward with savage force, a sharp-pointed,
+two-edged, straight-bladed knife had pierced the heart, and all was over
+in an instant. One other wound there was, a slashing cut across the
+stomach, which had let a large amount of blood, but might possibly not
+have been mortal. What part the deceased had taken in the struggle could
+only be conjectured.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> A little five-chambered revolver which he
+habitually carried was found on the floor close at hand. Two charges had
+been recently fired, for the barrel was black with powder; but no one
+had heard a shot.</p>
+
+<p>The bar-keeper at the Pelican could throw but little light on the
+matter. The storm had broken, he said, with sudden fury. The rain dashed
+in torrents against his western front, and threatened to beat in the
+windows. He called to the two men who happened to be seated at a table
+to assist him, and was busy trying to get up the shutters, when
+Lieutenant Doyle joined them and rendered timely aid. He had frequently
+seen Doyle before during the previous month. Mrs. Doyle lived in the old
+Lema&icirc;tre house in the block below, and he often supplied them with
+whiskey. They drank nothing but whiskey. As they ran in the side door
+they were surprised to see the lights of a carriage standing at the edge
+of the banquette, and the driver begged for shelter for his team, saying
+some gentlemen had gone inside. The bar-keeper opened a gate, and the
+driver put his horses under a shed in a paved court in the rear, then
+came in for a drink. Meantime, said the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span> bar-keeper, whose name was
+Bonelli, three gentlemen who were laughing over their escape from the
+storm had ordered wine and gone into a private room, Doyle with them.
+The only one he knew was Monsieur Lascelles, though he had seen one of
+the others frequently as he rode by, and knew him to be an officer
+before Mr. Doyle slapped him on the back and hailed him as "Sammy, old
+buck!" or something like that. Mr. Doyle had been drinking, and the
+gentleman whispered to him not to intrude just then, and evidently
+wanted to get rid of him, but Mr. Lascelles, who had ordered the wine,
+demanded to be introduced, and would take no denial, and invited Mr.
+Doyle to join them, and ordered more wine. And then Bonelli saw that
+Lascelles himself was excited by drink,&mdash;the first time he had ever
+noticed it in the year he had known him. The third gentleman he had
+never seen before, and could only say he was dark and sallow and did not
+talk, except to urge the driver to make haste,&mdash;they must go on; but he
+spoke in a low tone with Mr. Lascelles as they went to the room, and
+presently the rain seemed to let up a little, though it blew hard, and
+the driver went out and looked around and then <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span>returned to the private
+room where the gentlemen were having their wine, and there was some
+angry talk, and he came out in a few minutes very mad; said he wouldn't
+be hired to drive that party any farther, or any other party, for that
+matter; that no carriage could go down the levee; and then he got out
+his team and drove back to town; and then Bonelli could hear sounds of
+altercation in the room, and Mr. Doyle's voice, very angry, and the
+strange gentleman came out, and one of the men who'd been waiting said
+he had a cab, if that would answer, and he'd fetch it right off, and by
+the time he got back it was raining hard again, and he took his cab in
+under the shed where the carriage had been, and a couple of soldiers
+from the barracks then came in, wet and cold, and begged for a drink,
+and Bonelli knew one of them, called Dawson, and trusted him, as he
+often had done before. When Dawson heard Lieutenant Doyle's drunken
+voice he said there'd be trouble getting him home, and he'd better fetch
+Mrs. Doyle, and while he was gone Lascelles came out, excited, and threw
+down a twenty-dollar bill and ordered more Krug and some brandy, and
+there was still loud talk, and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> when Bonelli carried in the bottles
+Doyle was sitting back in a chair, held down by the other officer, who
+was laughing at him, but nevertheless had a knife in hand,&mdash;a long,
+sharp, two-edged knife,&mdash;and Doyle was calling him names, and was very
+drunk, and soon after they all went out into the rear court, and Doyle
+made more noise, and the cab drove away around the corner, going down
+the levee through the pouring rain, one man on the box with the driver.
+That was the last he saw. Then Mrs. Doyle came in mad, and demanded her
+husband, and they found him reeling about the dark court, swearing and
+muttering, and Dawson and she took him off between them. This must have
+been before eleven o'clock; and that was absolutely all he knew.</p>
+
+<p>Then Mr. Allerton had told his story again, without throwing the
+faintest light on the proceedings; and the hack-driver was found, and
+frankly and fully told his: that Lascelles and another gentleman hired
+him about eight o'clock to drive them down to the former's place, which
+they said was several squares above the barracks. He said that he would
+have to charge them eight dollars such a night anywhere<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> below the old
+cotton-press, where the pavement ended. But then they had delayed
+starting nearly an hour, and took another gentleman with them, and when
+driven by the storm to shelter at the Pelican saloon, three squares
+below where the pavement ended, and he asked for his money, saying he
+dare go no farther in the darkness and the flood, the Frenchman wouldn't
+pay, because he hadn't taken them all the way. He pointed out that he
+had to bring another gentleman and had to wait a long time, and demanded
+his eight dollars. The other gentleman, whom he found to be one of the
+officers at the barracks, slipped a bill into his hand and said it was
+all he had left, and if it wasn't enough he'd pay him the next time he
+came to town. But the others were very angry, and called him an Irish
+thief, and then the big soldier in uniform said he wouldn't have a man
+abused because he was Irish, and Lieutenant Waring, as he understood the
+name of this other officer to be, told him, the witness, to slip out and
+say no more, that he'd fix it all right, and that was the last he saw of
+the party, but he heard loud words and the sound of a scuffle as he
+drove away.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p><p>And Madame d'Hervilly had given her testimony, which, translated, was
+to this effect. She had known the deceased these twenty years. He had
+been in the employ of her lamented husband, who died of the fever in
+'55, and Monsieur had succeeded to the business, and made money, and
+owned property in town, besides the old family residence on the levee
+below. He was wedded to Emilie only a little while before the war, and
+lived at home all through, but business languished then, they had to
+contribute much, and his younger brother, Monsieur Philippe, had cost
+him a great deal. Philippe was an officer in the Zouaves raised in 1861
+among the French Creoles, and marched with them to Columbus, and was
+wounded and came home to be nursed, and Emilie took care of him for
+weeks and months, and then he went back to the war and fought bravely,
+and was shot again and brought home, and this time Monsieur Lascelles
+did not want to have him down at the house; he said it cost too much to
+get the doctors down there: so he came under Madame's roof, and she was
+very fond of the boy, and Emilie would come sometimes and play and sing
+for him. When the war was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span> over Monsieur Lascelles gave him money to go
+to Mexico with Maximilian, and when the French were recalled many
+deserted and came over to New Orleans, and Monsieur Lascelles was making
+very little money now, and had sold his town property, and he borrowed
+money of her to help, as he said, Philippe again, who came to visit him,
+and he was often worried by Philippe's letters begging for money. Seven
+thousand dollars now he owed her, and only last week had asked for more.
+Philippe was in Key West to buy an interest in some cigar-business.
+Monsieur Lascelles said if he could raise three thousand to reach
+Philippe this week they would all make money, but Emilie begged her not
+to, she was afraid it would all go, and on the very day before he was
+found dead he came to see her in the afternoon on Rampart Street, and
+Emilie had told her of Mr. Waring's kindness to her and to Nin Nin, and
+how she never could have got up after being dragged into the mud by that
+drunken cabman, "and she begged me to explain the matter to her husband,
+who was a little vexed with her because of Mr. Waring." But he spoke
+only about the money, and did not reply about Mr. Waring, except that
+he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> would see him and make proper acknowledgment of his civility. He
+seemed to think only of the money, and said Philippe had written again
+and must have help, and he was angry at Emilie because she would not
+urge with him, and Emilie wept, and he went away in anger, saying he had
+business to detain him in town until morning, when he would expect her
+to be ready to return with him.</p>
+
+<p>Much of this testimony was evoked by pointed queries of the officials,
+who seemed somewhat familiar with Lascelles's business and family
+affairs, and who then declared that they must question the stricken
+widow. Harsh and unfeeling as this may have seemed, there were probably
+reasons which atoned for it. She came in on the arm of the old family
+physician, looking like a drooping flower, with little Nin Nin clinging
+to her hand. She was so shocked and stunned that she could barely answer
+the questions put to her with all courtesy and gentleness of manner. No,
+she had never heard of any quarrel between Monsieur Lascelles and his
+younger brother. Yes, Philippe had been nursed by her through his
+wounds. She was fond of Philippe, but not so fond as was her husband.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>
+Mr. Lascelles would do anything for Philippe, deny himself anything
+almost. Asked if Monsieur Lascelles had not given some reason for his
+objection to Philippe's being nursed at his house when he came home the
+second time, she was embarrassed and distressed. She said Philippe was
+an impulsive boy, fancied himself in love with his brother's wife, and
+Armand saw something of this, and at last upbraided him, but very
+gently. There was no quarrel at all. Was there any one whom Monsieur
+Lascelles had been angered with on her account? She knew of none, but
+blushed, and blushed painfully. Had the deceased not recently objected
+to the attentions paid her by other gentlemen? There was a murmur of
+reproach among the hearers, but Madame answered unflinchingly, though
+with painful blushes and tears. Monsieur Lascelles had said nothing of
+disapproval until very recently; <i>au contraire</i>, he had much liked Mr.
+Waring. He was the only one of the officers at the barracks whom he had
+ever invited to the house, and he talked with him a great deal; had
+never, even to her, spoken of a quarrel with him because Mr. Waring had
+been so polite to her, until within a week or two; then&mdash;yes, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>
+certainly had. Of her husband's business affairs, his papers, etc., she
+knew little. He always had certain moneys, though not large sums, with
+all his papers, in the drawers of his cabinet, and that they should be
+in so disturbed a state was not unusual. They were all in order, closed
+and locked, when he started for town the morning of that fatal day, but
+he often left them open and in disorder, only then locking his library
+door. When she left for town, two hours after him, the library door was
+open, also the side window. She could throw no light on the tragedy. She
+had no idea who the stranger could be. She had not seen Philippe for
+nearly a year, and believed him to be at Key West.</p>
+
+<p>Alphonse, the colored boy, was so terrified by the tragedy and by his
+detention under the same roof with the murdered man that his evidence
+was only dragged from him. Nobody suspected the poor fellow of
+complicity in the crime, yet he seemed to consider himself as on trial.
+He swore he had entered the library only once during the afternoon or
+evening, and that was to close the shutters when the storm broke. He
+left a lamp burning low in the hall, according to custom, though he felt
+sure his master and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span> mistress would remain in town over-night rather
+than attempt to come down. He had slept soundly, as negroes will,
+despite the gale and the roar of the rain that drowned all other noises.
+It was late the next morning when his mother called him. The old mammy
+was frightened to see the front gate open, the deep water in the
+streets, and the muddy footprints on the veranda. She called Alphonse,
+who found that his master must have come in during the night, after all,
+for the lamp was taken from the hall table, the library door was closed
+and locked, so was the front door, also barred within, which it had not
+been when he went to bed. He tapped at the library, got no answer, so
+tiptoed to his master's bedroom; it was empty and undisturbed. Neither
+had Madame nor Mademoiselle Nin Nin been to their rooms. Then he was
+troubled, and then the soldiers came and called him out into the rain.
+They could tell the rest.</p>
+
+<p>Cram's story is already told, and he could add nothing. The officials
+tried to draw the batteryman out as to the relations existing between
+Lieutenant Waring and Madame, but got badly "bluffed." Cram said he had
+never seen <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>anything in the faintest degree worthy of comment. Had he
+heard anything? Yes, but nothing worthy of consideration, much less of
+repetition. Had he not loaned Mr. Waring his team and carriage to drive
+Madame to town that morning? No. How did he get it, then? Took it! Was
+Monsieur Waring in the habit of helping himself to the property of his
+brother officers? Yes, whenever he felt like it, for they never
+objected. The legal official thought such spirit of <i>camaraderie</i> in the
+light artillery must make life at the barracks something almost poetic,
+to which Cram responded, "Oh, at times absolutely idyllic." And the tilt
+ended with the civil functionary ruffled, and this was bad for the
+battery. Cram never had any policy whatsoever.</p>
+
+<p>Lieutenant Doyle was the next witness summoned, and a more
+God-forsaken-looking fellow never sat in a shell jacket. Still in
+arrest, physically, at the beck of old Braxton, and similarly hampered,
+intellectually, at the will of bold John Barleycorn, Mr. Doyle came
+before the civil authorities only upon formal subp&oelig;na served at post
+head-quarters. The post surgeon had straightened him up during the day,
+but was utterly perplexed at his condition. Mrs.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span> Doyle's appearance in
+the neighborhood some weeks before had been the signal for a series of
+sprees on the Irishman's part that had on two occasions so prostrated
+him that Dr. Potts, an acting assistant surgeon, had been called in to
+prescribe for him, and, thanks to the vigorous constitution of his
+patient, had pulled him out in a few hours. But this time "Pills the
+Less" had found Doyle in a state bordering on terror, even when assured
+that the quantity of his potations had not warranted an approach to
+tremens. The post surgeon had been called in too, and "Pills the
+Pitiless," as he was termed, thanks to his unfailing prescription of
+quinine and blue mass in the shape and size of buckshot, having no
+previous acquaintance, in Doyle, with these attacks, poohpoohed the
+case, administered bromides and admonition in due proportion, and went
+off about more important business. Dr. Potts, however, stood by his big
+patient, wondering what should cause him to start in such terror at
+every step upon the stair without, and striving to bring sleep to eyes
+that had not closed the livelong night nor all the balmy, beautiful day.
+Once he asked if Doyle wished him to send for his wife, and was startled
+at the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> vehemence of the reply, "For God's sake, no!" and, shuddering,
+Doyle had hidden his face and turned away. Potts got him to eat
+something towards noon, and Doyle begged for more drink, but was
+refused. He was sober, yet shattered, when Mr. Drake suddenly appeared
+just about stable-call and bade him repair at once to the presence of
+the commanding officer. Then Potts <i>had</i> to give him a drink, or he
+would never have got there. With the aid of a servant he was dressed,
+and, accompanied by the doctor, reached the office. Braxton looked him
+over coldly.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Doyle," said he, "the civil authorities have made requisition
+for&mdash;&mdash;" But he had got no further when Doyle staggered, and but for the
+doctor's help might have fallen.</p>
+
+<p>"For God's sake, colonel, it isn't true! Sure I know nothing of it at
+all at all, sir. Indade, indade, I was blind dhrunk, colonel. Sure
+they'd swear a man's life away, sir, just because he was the one&mdash;he was
+the one that&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"Be silent, sir. You are not accused, that I know of. It is as a witness
+you are needed.&mdash;Is he in condition to testify, doctor?"</p>
+
+<p>"He is well enough, sir, to tell what he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> knows, but he claims to know
+nothing." And this, too, Doyle eagerly seconded, but was sent along in
+the ambulance, with the doctor to keep him out of mischief, and a
+parting shot to the effect that when the coroner was through with him
+the post commander would take hold again, so the colonel depressed more
+than the cocktail stimulated, and, as luck would have it, almost the
+first person to meet him inside the gloomy enclosure was his wife, and
+her few whispered words only added to his misery.</p>
+
+<p>The water still lay in pools about the premises, and the police had
+allowed certain of the neighbors to stream in and stare at the white
+walls and shaded windows, but only a favored few penetrated the hall-way
+and rooms where the investigation was being held. Doyle shook like one
+with the palsy as he ascended the little flight of steps and passed into
+the open door-way, still accompanied by "Little Pills." People looked at
+him with marked curiosity. He was questioned, re-questioned,
+cross-questioned, but the result was only a hopeless tangle. He really
+added nothing to the testimony of the hack-driver and Bonelli. In abject
+remorse and misery he begged them to understand he was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> drunk when he
+joined the party, got drunker, dimly remembered there was a quarrel, but
+he had no cause to quarrel with any one, and that was all; he never knew
+how he got home. He covered his face in his shaking hands at last, and
+seemed on the verge of a fit of crying.</p>
+
+<p>But then came sensation.</p>
+
+<p>Quietly rising from his seat, the official who so recently had had the
+verbal tilt with Cram held forth a rusty, cross-hilted, two-edged knife
+that looked as though it might have lain in the mud and wet for hours.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you ever seen this knife before?" he asked. And Doyle, lifting up
+his eyes one instant, groaned, shuddered, and said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, my God, yes!"</p>
+
+<p>"Whose property is it or was it?"</p>
+
+<p>At first he would not reply. He moaned and shook. At last&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Sure the initials are on the top," he cried.</p>
+
+<p>But the official was relentless.</p>
+
+<p>"Tell us what they are and what they represent."</p>
+
+<p>People were crowding the hall-way and forcing themselves into the room.
+Cram and Ferry, curiously watching their ill-starred comrade,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> had
+exchanged glances of dismay when the knife was so suddenly produced. Now
+they bent breathlessly forward.</p>
+
+<p>The silence for the moment was oppressive.</p>
+
+<p>"If it's the knife I mane," he sobbed at last, desperately, miserably,
+"the letters are S. B. W., and it belongs to Lieutenant Waring of our
+bathery."</p>
+
+<p>But no questioning, however adroit, could elicit from him the faintest
+information as to how it got there. The last time he remembered seeing
+it, he said, was on Mr. Waring's table the morning of the review. A
+detective testified to having found it among the bushes under the window
+as the water receded. Ferry and the miserable Ananias were called, and
+they, too, had to identify the knife, and admit that neither had seen it
+about the room since Mr. Waring left for town. Of other witnesses
+called, came first the proprietor of the stable to which the cab
+belonged. Horse and cab, he said, covered with mud, were found under a
+shed two blocks below the French Market, and the only thing in the cab
+was a handsome silk umbrella, London make, which Lieutenant Pierce laid
+claim to. Mrs. Doyle swore that as<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span> she was going in search of her
+husband she met the cab just below the Pelican, driving furiously away,
+and that in the flash of lightning she recognized the driver as the man
+whom Lieutenant Waring had beaten that morning on the levee in front of
+her place. A stranger was seated beside him. There were two gentlemen
+inside, but she saw the face of only one,&mdash;Lieutenant Waring.</p>
+
+<p>Nobody else could throw any light on the matter. The doctor, recalled,
+declared the knife or dagger was shaped exactly as would have to be the
+one that gave the death-blow. Everything pointed to the fact that there
+had been a struggle, a deadly encounter, and that after the fatal work
+was done the murderer or murderers had left the doors locked and barred
+and escaped through the window, leaving the desk rifled and carrying
+away what money there was, possibly to convey the idea that it was only
+a vulgar murder and robbery, after all.</p>
+
+<p>Of other persons who might throw light upon the tragedy the following
+were missing: Lieutenant Waring, Private Dawson, the cabman, and the
+unrecognized stranger. So, too, was Anatole's boat.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+
+<p>When four days and nights had passed away without a word or sign from
+Waring, the garrison had come to the conclusion that those officers or
+men of Battery "X" who still believed him innocent were idiots. So did
+the civil authorities; but those were days when the authorities of
+Louisiana commanded less respect from its educated people than did even
+the military. The police force, like the State, was undergoing a process
+called reconstruction, which might have been impressive in theory, but
+was ridiculous in practice. A reward had been offered by business
+associates of the deceased for the capture and conviction of the
+assassin. A distant relative of old Lascelles had come to take charge of
+the place until Monsieur Philippe should arrive. The latter's address
+had been found among old Armand's papers, and despatches, <i>via</i> Havana,
+had been sent to him, also letters. Pierre d'Hervilly had taken the
+weeping widow and little Nin Nin to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span><i>bonne maman's</i> to stay. Alphonse
+and his woolly-pated mother, true to negro superstitions, had decamped.
+Nothing would induce them to remain under the roof where foul murder had
+been done. "De hahnts" was what they were afraid of. And so the old
+white homestead, though surrounded on every side by curiosity-seekers
+and prying eyes, was practically deserted. Cram went about his duties
+with a heavy heart and light aid. Ferry and Pierce both commanded
+sections now, as Doyle remained in close arrest and "Pills the Less" in
+close attendance. Something was utterly wrong with the fellow. Mrs.
+Doyle had not again ventured to show her red nose within the limits of
+the "barx," as she called them, a hint from Braxton having proved
+sufficient; but that she was ever scouting the pickets no one could
+doubt. Morn, noon, and night she prowled about the neighborhood,
+employing the "byes," so she termed such stray sheep in army blue as a
+dhrop of Anatole's best would tempt, to carry scrawling notes to Jim,
+one of which, falling with its postman by the wayside and turned over by
+the guard to Captain Cram for transmittal, was addressed to Mister
+Loot'nt James Doyle,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span> Lite Bothery X, Jaxun Barx, and brought the only
+laughter to his lips the big horse-artilleryman had known for nearly a
+week. Her customary Mercury, Dawson, had vanished from sight, dropped,
+with many another and often a better man, as a deserter.</p>
+
+<p>Over at Waring's abandoned quarters the shades were drawn and the green
+<i>jalousies</i> bolted. Pierce stole in each day to see that everything,
+even to the augmented heap of letters, was undisturbed, and Ananias
+drooped in the court below and refused to be comforted. Cram had duly
+notified Waring's relatives, now living in New York, of his strange and
+sudden disappearance, but made no mention of the cloud of suspicion
+which had surrounded his name. Meantime, some legal friends of the
+family were overhauling the Lascelles papers, and a dark-complexioned,
+thick-set, active little civilian was making frequent trips between
+department head-quarters and barracks. At the former he compared notes
+with Lieutenant Reynolds, and at the latter with Braxton and Cram. The
+last interview Mr. Allerton had before leaving with his family for the
+North was with this same lively party, the detective who joined them
+that<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span> night at the St. Charles, and Allerton, being a man of much
+substance, had tapped his pocket-book significantly.</p>
+
+<p>"The difficulty just now is in having a talk with the widow," said this
+official to Cram and Reynolds, whom he had met by appointment on the
+Thursday following the eventful Saturday of Braxton's "combined" review.
+"She is too much prostrated. I've simply got to wait awhile, and
+meantime go about this other affair. Is there no way in which you can
+see her?"</p>
+
+<p>Cram relapsed into a brown study. Reynolds was poring over the note
+written to Braxton and comparing it with one he held in his hand,&mdash;an
+old one, and one that told an old, old story. "I know you'll say I have
+no right to ask this," it read, "but you're a gentleman, and I'm a
+friendless woman deserted by a worthless husband. My own people are
+ruined by the war, but even if they had money they wouldn't send any to
+me, for I offended them all by marrying a Yankee officer. God knows I am
+punished enough for that. But I was so young and innocent when he
+courted me. I ought to of left&mdash;I would of left him as soon as I found
+out how good-for-nothing he really was, only I was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span> so much in love I
+couldn't. I was fastenated, I suppose. Now I've sold everything, but if
+you'll only lend me fifty dollars I'll work my fingers to the bone until
+I pay it. For the old home's sake, please do."</p>
+
+<p>"It's the same hand,&mdash;the same woman, Cram, beyond a doubt. She bled
+Waring for the old home's sake the first winter he was in the South. He
+told me all about it two years ago in Washington, when we heard of her
+the second time. Now she's followed him over here, or got here first,
+tried the same game probably, met with a refusal, and this anonymous
+note is her revenge. The man she married was a crack-brained weakling
+who got into the army the fag end of the war, fell in love with her
+pretty face, married her, then they quarrelled, and he drank himself
+into a muddle-head. She ran him into debt; then he gambled away
+government funds, bolted, was caught, and would have been tried and sent
+to jail, but some powerful relative saved him that, and simply had him
+dropped;&mdash;never heard of him again. She was about a month grass-widowed
+when Waring came on his first duty there. He had an uncongenial lot of
+brother officers for a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>two-company post, and really had known of this
+girl and her people before the war, and she appealed to him, first for
+sympathy and help, then charity, then blackmail, I reckon, from which
+his fever saved him. Then she struck some quartermaster or other and
+lived off him for a while; drifted over here, and no sooner did he
+arrive, all ignorant of her presence in or around New Orleans, than she
+began pestering him again. When he turned a deaf ear, she probably
+threatened, and then came these anonymous missives to you and Braxton.
+Yours always came by mail, you say. The odd thing about the
+colonel's&mdash;this one, at least&mdash;is that it was with his mail, but never
+came through the post-office."</p>
+
+<p>"That's all very interesting," said the little civilian, dryly, "but
+what we want is evidence to acquit him and convict somebody else of
+Lascelles's death. What has this to do with the other?"</p>
+
+<p>"This much: This letter came to Braxton by hand, not by mail,&mdash;by hand,
+probably direct from her. What hand had access to the office the day
+when the whole command was out at review? Certainly no outsider. The
+mail is opened and distributed on its arrival at nine<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span> o'clock by the
+chief clerk, or by the sergeant-major, if he happens to be there, though
+he's generally at guard mount. On this occasion he was out at review.
+Leary, chief clerk, tells Colonel Braxton he opened and distributed the
+mail, putting the colonel's on his desk; Root was with him and helped.
+The third clerk came in later; had been out all night, drinking. His
+name is Dawson. Dawson goes out again and gets fuller, and when next
+brought home is put in hospital under a sentry. Then he hears of the
+murder, bolts, and isn't heard from since, except as the man who helped
+Mrs. Doyle to get her husband home. <i>He</i> is the fellow who brought that
+note. He knew something of its contents, for the murder terrified him,
+and he ran away. Find his trail, and you strike that of the woman who
+wrote these."</p>
+
+<p>"By the Lord, lieutenant, if you'll quit the army and take my place
+you'll make a name and a fortune."</p>
+
+<p>"And if you'll quit your place and take mine you'll get your <i>coup de
+gr&acirc;ce</i> in some picayune Indian fight and be forgotten. So stay where you
+are; but find Dawson, find her, find what they know, and you'll be
+famous."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+
+<p>That night, or very early next morning, there was pandemonium at the
+barracks. It was clear, still, beautiful. A soft April wind was drifting
+up from the lower coast, laden with the perfume of sweet olive and
+orange blossoms. Mrs. Cram, with one or two lady friends and a party of
+officers, had been chatting in low tone upon their gallery until after
+eleven, but elsewhere about the moonlit quadrangle all was silence when
+the second relief was posted. Far at the rear of the walled enclosure,
+where, in deference to the manners and customs of war as observed in the
+good old days whereof our seniors tell, the sutler's establishment was
+planted within easy hailing-distance of the guard-house, there was still
+the sound of modified revelry by night, and poker and whiskey punch had
+gathered their devotees in the grimy parlors of Mr. Finkbein, and here
+the belated ones tarried until long after midnight, as most of them
+were<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span> bachelors and had no better halves, as had Doyle, to fetch them
+home "out of the wet." Cram and his lieutenants, with the exception of
+Doyle, were never known to patronize this establishment, whatsoever they
+might do outside. They had separated before midnight, and little Pierce,
+after his customary peep into Waring's preserves, had closed the door,
+gone to his own room, to bed and to sleep. Ferry, as battery officer of
+the day, had made the rounds of the stables and gun-shed about one
+o'clock, and had encountered Captain Kinsey, of the infantry, coming in
+from his long tramp through the dew-wet field, returning from the
+inspection of the sentry-post at the big magazine.</p>
+
+<p>"No news of poor Sam yet, I suppose?" said Kinsey, sadly, as the two
+came strolling in together through the rear gate.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing whatever," was Ferry's answer. "We cannot even form a
+conjecture, unless he, too, has been murdered. Think of there being a
+warrant out for his arrest,&mdash;for him, Sam Waring!"</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Kinsey, "no other conclusion could he well arrived at,
+unless that poor brute Doyle did it in a drunken row. Pills says he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>
+never saw a man so terror-stricken as he seems to be. He's afraid to
+leave him, really, and Doyle's afraid to be alone,&mdash;thinks the old woman
+may get in."</p>
+
+<p>"She has no excuse for coming, captain," said Ferry. "When she told Cram
+she must see her husband to-day, that she was out of money and starving,
+the captain surprised her by handing her fifty dollars, which is much
+more than she'd have got from Doyle. She took it, of course, but that
+isn't what she wanted. She wants to get at him. She has money enough."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that woman's a terror, Ferry. Old Mrs. Murtagh, wife of my
+quartermaster sergeant, has been in the army twenty years, and says she
+knew her well,&mdash;knew all her people. She comes from a tough lot, and
+they had a bad reputation in Texas in the old days. Doyle's a totally
+different man since she turned up, Cram tells me. Hello! here's 'Pills
+the Less,'" he suddenly exclaimed, as they came opposite the west gate,
+leading to the hospital. "How's your patient, Doc?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, he's sleeping at last. He seems worn out. It's the first time
+I've left him, but I'm<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span> used up and want a few hours' sleep. There isn't
+anything to drink in the room, even if he should wake, and Jim is
+sleeping or lying there by him."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, he'll do all right now, I reckon," said the officer of the day,
+cheerfully. "Go and get your sleep. The old woman can't get at him
+unless she bribes my sentries or rides the air on a broomstick, like
+some other old witches I've read of. Ferry sleeps in the adjoining room,
+anyhow, so he can look out for her. Good-night, Doc." And so, on they
+went, glancing upward at the dim light just showing through the
+window-blinds in the gable end of Doyle's quarters, and halting at the
+foot of the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"Come over and have a pipe with me, Ferry," said the captain. "It's too
+beautiful a night to turn in. I want to talk to you about Waring,
+anyhow. This thing weighs on my mind."</p>
+
+<p>"Done with you, for an hour, anyhow!" said Ferry. "Just wait a minute
+till I run up and get my baccy."</p>
+
+<p>Presently down came the young fellow again, meerschaum in hand, the
+moonlight glinting on his slender figure, so trim and jaunty in the
+battery dress. Kinsey looked him over with a<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span> smile of soldierly
+approval and a whimsical comment on the contrast between the appearance
+of this young artillery sprig and that of his own stout personality,
+clad as he was in a bulging blue flannel sack-coat, only distinguishable
+in cut and style from civilian garb by its having brass buttons and a
+pair of tarnished old shoulder-straps. Ferry was a swell. His shell
+jacket fitted like wax. The Russian shoulder-knots of twisted gold were
+of the handsomest make. The riding-breeches, top-boots, and spurs were
+such that even Waring could not criticise. His sabre gleamed in the
+moonbeams, and Kinsey's old leather-covered sword looked dingy by
+contrast. His belt fitted trim and taut, and was polished as his
+boot-tops; Kinsey's sank down over the left hip, and was worn brown. The
+sash Ferry sported as battery officer of the day was draped, West Point
+fashion, over the shoulder and around the waist, and accurately knotted
+and looped; Kinsey's old war-worn crimson net was slung
+higgledy-piggledy over his broad chest.</p>
+
+<p>"What swells you fellows are, Ferry!" he said, laughingly, as the
+youngster came dancing down. "Even old Doyle gets out here in his<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>
+scarlet plume occasionally and puts us doughboys to shame. What's the
+use in trying to make such a rig as ours look soldierly? If it were not
+for the brass buttons our coats would make us look like parsons and our
+hats like monkeys. As for this undress, all that can be said in its
+favor is, you can't spoil it even by sleeping out on the levee in it, as
+I am sometimes tempted to do. Let's go out there now."</p>
+
+<p>It was perhaps quarter of two when they took their seats on the wooden
+bench under the trees, and, lighting their pipes, gazed out over the
+broad sweeping flood of the Mississippi, gleaming like a silvered shield
+in the moonlight. Far across at the opposite shore the low line of
+orange-groves and plantation houses and quarters was merged in one long
+streak of gloom, relieved only at intervals by twinkling light. Farther
+up-stream, like dozing sea-dogs, the fleet of monitors lay moored along
+the bank, with the masts and roofs of Algiers dimly outlined against the
+crescent sweep of lights that marked the levee of the great Southern
+metropolis, still prostrate from the savage buffeting of the war, yet so
+soon to rouse from lethargy, resume her sway, and, stretching forth her
+arms,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span> to draw once again to her bosom the wealth and tribute, tenfold
+augmented, of the very heart of the nation, until, mistress of the
+commerce of a score of States, she should rival even New York in the
+volume of her trade. Below them, away to the east towards English Turn,
+rolled the tawny flood, each ripple and eddy and swirling pool crested
+with silver,&mdash;the twinkling lights at Chalmette barely distinguishable
+from dim, low-hanging stars. Midway the black hulk of some big ocean
+voyager was forging slowly, steadily towards them, the red light of the
+port side already obscured, the white and green growing with every
+minute more and more distinct, and, save the faint rustle of the leaves
+overhead, murmuring under the touch of the soft, southerly night wind,
+the plash of wavelet against the wooden pier, and the measured footfall
+of the sentry on the flagstone walk in front of the sally-port, not a
+sound was to be heard.</p>
+
+<p>For a while they smoked in silence, enjoying the beauty of the night,
+though each was thinking only of the storm that swept over the scene the
+Sunday previous and of the tragedy that was borne upon its wings. At
+last Kinsey shook himself together.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p><p>"Ferry, sometimes I come out here for a quiet smoke and think. Did it
+ever occur to you what a fearful force, what illimitable power, there is
+sweeping by us here night after night with never a sound?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, you mean the Mississip," said Ferry, flippantly. "It would be a
+case of mops and brooms, I fancy, if she were to bust through the bank
+and sweep us out into the swamps."</p>
+
+<p>"Exactly! that's in case she broke loose, as you say; but even when in
+the shafts, as she is now, between the levees, how long would it take
+her to sweep a fellow from here out into the gulf, providing nothing
+interposed to stop him?"</p>
+
+<p>"Matter of simple mathematical calculation," said Ferry, practically.
+"They say it's an eight-mile current easy out there in the middle where
+she's booming. Look at that barrel scooting down yonder. Now, I'd lay a
+fiver I could cut loose from here at reveille and shoot the passes
+before taps and never pull a stroke. It's less than eighty miles down to
+the forts."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, then, a skiff like that that old Anatole's blaspheming about
+losing wouldn't take very long to ride over that route, would it?" said
+Kinsey, reflectively.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p><p>"No, not if allowed to slide. But somebody'd be sure to put out and
+haul it in as a prize,&mdash;flotsam and what-you-may-call-'em. You see these
+old niggers all along here with their skiffs tacking on to every hit of
+drift-wood that's worth having."</p>
+
+<p>"But, Ferry, do you think they'd venture out in such a storm as Sunday
+last?&mdash;think anything could live in it short of a decked ship?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, probably not. Certainly not Anatole's boat."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, that's just what I'm afraid of, and what Cram and Reynolds
+dread."</p>
+
+<p>"Do they? Well, so far as that storm's concerned, it would have blown it
+down-stream until it came to the big bend below here to the east. Then,
+by rights, it ought to have blown against the left bank. But every inch
+of it has been scouted all the way to quarantine. The whole river was
+filled with drift, though, and it might have been wedged in a lot of
+logs and swept out anyhow. Splendid ship, that! Who is she, do you
+suppose?"</p>
+
+<p>The great black hull with its lofty tracery of masts and spars was now
+just about opposite the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span> barracks, slowly and majestically ascending the
+stream.</p>
+
+<p>"One of those big British freight steamers that moor there below the
+French Market, I reckon. They seldom come up at night unless it's in the
+full of the moon, and even then they move with the utmost caution. See,
+she's slowing up now."</p>
+
+<p>"Hello! Listen! What's that?" exclaimed Ferry, starting to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>A distant, muffled cry. A distant shot. The sentry at the sally-port
+dashed through the echoing vault, then bang! came the loud roar of his
+piece, followed by the yell of&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"Fire! fire! <i>The guard!</i>"</p>
+
+<p>With one spring Ferry was down the levee and darted like a deer across
+the road, Kinsey lumbering heavily after. Even as he sped through the
+stone-flagged way, the hoarse roar of the drum at the guard-house,
+followed instantly by the blare of the bugle from the battery quarters,
+sounded the stirring alarm. A shrill, agonized female voice was madly
+screaming for help. Guards and sentries were rushing to the scene, and
+flames were bursting from the front window of Doyle's quarters. Swift
+though<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span> Ferry ran, others were closer to the spot. Half a dozen active
+young soldiers, members of the infantry guard, had sprung to the rescue.
+When Ferry dashed up to the gallery he was just in time to stumble over
+a writhing and prostrate form, to help extinguish the blazing clothing
+of another, to seize his water-bucket and douse its contents over a
+third,&mdash;one yelling, the others stupefied by smoke&mdash;or something. In
+less time than it takes to tell it, daring fellows had ripped down the
+blazing shades and shutters, tossed them to the parade beneath, dumped a
+heap of soaked and smoking bedding out of the rear windows, splashed a
+few bucketfuls of water about the reeking room, and the fire was out.
+But the doctors were working their best to bring back the spark of life
+to two senseless forms, and to still the shrieks of agony that burst
+from the seared and blistered lips of Bridget Doyle.</p>
+
+<p>While willing hands bore these scorched semblances of humanity to
+neighboring rooms and tender-hearted women hurried to add their
+ministering touch, and old Braxton ordered the excited garrison back to
+quarters and bed, he, with Cram and Kinsey and Ferry, made prompt
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>examination of the premises. On the table two whiskey-bottles, one
+empty, one nearly full, that Dr. Potts declared were not there when he
+left at one. On the mantel a phial of chloroform, which was also not
+there before. But a towel soaked with the stifling contents lay on the
+floor by Jim's rude pallet, and a handkerchief half soaked, half
+consumed, was on the chair which had stood by the bedside, among the
+fragments of an overturned kerosene lamp.</p>
+
+<p>A quick examination of the patients showed that Jim, the negro, had been
+chloroformed and was not burned at all, that Doyle was severely burned
+and had probably inhaled flames, and that the woman was crazed with
+drink, terror, and burns combined. It took the efforts of two or three
+men and the influence of powerful opiates to quiet her. Taxed with
+negligence or complicity on the part of the sentry, the sergeant of the
+guard repudiated the idea, and assured Colonel Braxton that it was an
+easy matter for any one to get either in or out of the garrison without
+encountering the sentry, and, taking his lantern, led the way out to the
+hospital grounds by a winding foot-path among the trees to a point in
+the high white picket fence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> where two slats had been shoved aside. Any
+one coming along the street without could pass far beyond the ken of the
+sentry at the west gate, and slip in with the utmost ease, and once
+inside, all that was necessary was to dodge possible reliefs and
+patrols. No sentry was posted at the gate through the wall that
+separated the garrison proper from the hospital grounds. Asked why he
+had not reported this, the sergeant smiled and said there were a dozen
+others just as convenient, so what was the use? He did not say, however,
+that he and his fellows had recourse to them night after night.</p>
+
+<p>It was three o'clock when the officers' families fairly got settled down
+again and back to their beds, and the silence of night once more reigned
+over Jackson Barracks. One would suppose that such a scene of terror and
+excitement was enough, and that now the trembling, frightened women
+might be allowed to sleep in peace; but it was not to be. Hardly had one
+of their number closed her eyes, hardly had all the flickering lights,
+save those at the hospital and guard-house, been downed again, when the
+strained nerves of the occupants of the officers' quadrangle were jumped
+into mad jangling once<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> more and all the barracks aroused a second time,
+and this, too, by a woman's shriek of horror.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Conroy, a delicate, fragile little body, wife of a junior
+lieutenant of infantry occupying a set of quarters in the same building
+with, but at the opposite end from, Pierce and Waring, was found lying
+senseless at the head of the gallery stairs.</p>
+
+<p>When revived, amid tears and tremblings and incoherent exclamations she
+declared that she had gone down to the big ice-chest on the ground-floor
+to get some milk for her nervous and frightened child and was hurrying
+noiselessly up the stairs again,&mdash;the only means of communication
+between the first and second floors,&mdash;when, face to face, in front of
+his door, she came upon Mr. Waring, or his ghost; that his eyes were
+fixed and glassy; that he did not seem to see her even when he spoke,
+for speak he did. His voice sounded like a moan of anguish, she said,
+but the words were distinct: "Where is my knife? Who has taken my
+knife?"</p>
+
+<p>And then little Pierce, who had helped to raise and carry the stricken
+woman to her room,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span> suddenly darted out on the gallery and ran along to
+the door he had closed four hours earlier. It was open. Striking a
+match, he hurried through into the chamber beyond, and there, face
+downward upon the bed, lay his friend and comrade Waring, moaning like
+one in the delirium of fever.</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+
+<p>Lieutenant Reynolds was seated at his desk at department head-quarters
+about nine o'clock that morning when an orderly in light-battery dress
+dismounted at the banquette and came up the stairs three at a jump.
+"Captain Cram's compliments, sir, and this is immediate," he reported,
+as he held forth a note. Reynolds tore it open, read it hastily through,
+then said, "Go and fetch me a cab quick as you can," and disappeared in
+the general's room. Half an hour later he was spinning down the levee
+towards the French Market, and before ten o'clock was seated in the
+captain's cabin of the big British steamer Ambassador, which had arrived
+at her moorings during the night. Cram and Kinsey were already there,
+and to them the skipper was telling his story.</p>
+
+<p>Off the Tortugas, just about as they had shaped their course for the
+Belize, they were hailed by the little steamer Tampa, bound from<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> New
+Orleans to Havana. The sea was calm, and a boat put off from the Tampa
+and came alongside, and presently a gentleman was assisted aboard. He
+seemed weak from illness, but explained that he was Lieutenant Waring,
+of the United States Artillery, had been accidentally carried off to
+sea, and the Ambassador was the first inward-bound ship they had sighted
+since crossing the bar. He would be most thankful for a passage back to
+New Orleans. Captain Baird had welcomed him with the heartiness of the
+British tar, and made him at home in his cabin. The lieutenant was
+evidently far from well, and seemed somewhat dazed and mentally
+distressed. He could give no account of his mishap other than that told
+him by the officers of the Tampa, which had lain to when overtaken by
+the gale on Saturday night, and on Sunday morning when they resumed
+their course down-stream they overhauled a light skiff and were
+surprised to find a man aboard, drenched and senseless. "The left side
+of his face was badly bruised and discolored, even when he came to us,"
+said Baird, "and he must have been slugged and robbed, for his watch,
+his seal-ring, and what little money<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> he had were all gone." The second
+officer of the Tampa had fitted him out with a clean shirt, and the
+steward dried his clothing as best he could, but the coat was stained
+and clotted with blood. Mr. Waring had slept heavily much of the way
+back until they passed Pilot Town. Then he was up and dressed Thursday
+afternoon, and seemingly in better spirits, when he picked up a copy of
+the New Orleans <i>Picayune</i> which the pilot had left aboard, and was
+reading that, when suddenly he started to his feet with an exclamation
+of amaze, and, when the captain turned to see what was the matter,
+Waring was ghastly pale and fearfully excited by something he had read.
+He hid the paper under his coat and sprang up on deck and paced
+nervously to and fro for hours, and began to grow so ill, apparently,
+that Captain Baird was much worried. At night he begged to be put ashore
+at the barracks instead of going on up to town, and Baird had become so
+troubled about him that he sent his second officer in the gig with him,
+landed him on the levee opposite the sally-port, and there, thanking
+them heartily, but declining further assistance, Waring had hurried
+through the entrance into the barrack square.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> Mr. Royce, the second
+officer, said there was considerable excitement, beating of drums and
+sounding of bugles, at the post, as they rowed towards the shore. He did
+not learn the cause. Captain Baird was most anxious to learn if the
+gentleman had safely reached his destination. Cram replied that he had,
+but in a state bordering on delirium and unable to give any coherent
+account of himself. He could tell he had been aboard the Ambassador and
+the Tampa, but that was about all.</p>
+
+<p>And then they told Baird that what Waring probably saw was Wednesday's
+paper with the details of the inquest on the body of Lascelles and the
+chain of evidence pointing to himself as the murderer. This caused
+honest Captain Baird to lay ten to one he wasn't, and five to one he'd
+never heard of it till he got the paper above Pilot Town. Whereupon all
+three officers clapped the Briton on the back and shook him by the hand
+and begged his company to dinner at the barracks and at Moreau's; and
+then, while Reynolds sped to the police-office and Kinsey back to
+Colonel Braxton, whom he represented at the interview, Cram remounted,
+and, followed by the faithful Jeffers,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> trotted up Rampart Street and
+sent in his card to Madame Lascelles, and Madame's maid brought back
+reply that she was still too shocked and stricken to receive visitors.
+So also did Madame d'Hervilly deny herself, and Cram rode home to Nell.</p>
+
+<p>"It is useless," he said. "She will not see me."</p>
+
+<p>"Then she shall see me," said Mrs. Cram.</p>
+
+<p>And so a second time did Jeffers make the trip to town that day, this
+time perched with folded arms in the rumble of the pony-phaeton.</p>
+
+<p>And while she was gone, the junior doctor was having the liveliest
+experience of his few years of service. Scorched and burned though she
+was, Mrs. Doyle's faculties seemed to have returned with renewed
+acuteness and force. She demanded to be taken to her husband's side, but
+the doctor sternly refused. She demanded to be told his condition, and
+was informed that it was so critical he must not be disturbed,
+especially by her, who was practically responsible for all his trouble.
+Then she insisted on knowing whether he was conscious and whether he had
+asked for a priest, and when informed that Father Foley had already
+arrived, it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>required the strength of four men to hold her. She raved
+like a maniac, and her screams appalled the garrison. But screams and
+struggles were all in vain. "Pills the Less" sent for his senior, and
+"Pills the Pitiless" more than ever deserved his name. He sent for a
+straitjacket, saw her securely stowed away in that and borne over to a
+vacant room in the old hospital, set the steward's wife on watch and a
+sentry at the door, went back to Waring's bedside, where Sam lay tossing
+in burning fever, murmured his few words of caution to Pierce and Ferry,
+then hastened back to where poor Doyle was gasping in agony of mind and
+body, clinging to the hand of the gentle soldier of the cross, gazing
+piteously into his father confessor's eyes, drinking in his words of
+exhortation, yet unable to make articulate reply. The flames had done
+their cruel work. Only in desperate pain could he speak again.</p>
+
+<p>It was nearly dark when Mrs. Cram came driving back to barracks,
+bringing Mr. Reynolds with her. Her eyes were dilated, her cheeks
+flushed with excitement, as she sprang from the low phaeton, and, with a
+murmured "Come to me as soon as you can" to her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span>husband, she sped away
+up the stairs, leaving him to receive and entertain her passenger.</p>
+
+<p>"I, too, went to see Madame Lascelles late this afternoon," said
+Reynolds. "I wished to show her this."</p>
+
+<p>It was a copy of a despatch to the chief of police of New Orleans. It
+stated in effect that Philippe Lascelles had not been seen or heard of
+around Key West for over two weeks. It was believed that he had gone to
+Havana.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you get word of this to our friend the detective?" asked Cram.</p>
+
+<p>"I have wired already. He has gone to Georgia. What I hoped to do was to
+note the effect of this on Madame Lascelles; but she was too ill to see
+me. Luckily, Mrs. Cram was there, and I sent it up to her. She will tell
+you. Now I have to see Braxton."</p>
+
+<p>And then came a messenger to ask Cram to join the doctor at Doyle's
+quarters at once: so he scurried up-stairs to see Nell first and learn
+her tidings.</p>
+
+<p>"Did I not tell you?" she exclaimed, as he entered the parlor. "Philippe
+Lascelles was here that very night, and had been seen with his brother
+at the office on Royal Street twice before<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> this thing happened, and
+they had trouble about money. Oh, I made her understand. I appealed to
+her as a woman to do what she could to right Mr. Waring, who was so
+generally believed to be the guilty man. I told her we had detectives
+tracing Philippe and would soon find how and when he reached New
+Orleans. Finally I showed her the despatch that Mr. Reynolds sent up,
+and at last she broke down, burst into tears, and said she, too, had
+learned since the inquest that Philippe was with her husband, and
+probably was the stranger referred to, that awful night. She even
+suspected it at the time, for she knew he came not to borrow but to
+demand money that was rightfully his, and also certain papers that
+Armand held and that now were gone. It was she who told me of Philippe's
+having been seen with Armand at the office, but she declared she could
+not believe that he would kill her husband. I pointed out the fact that
+Armand had fired two shots from his pistol, apparently, and that no
+bullet-marks had been found in the room where the quarrel took place,
+and that if his shots had taken effect on his antagonist he simply could
+not have been Waring, for though Waring had been bruised and<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> beaten
+about the head, the doctor said there was no sign of bullet-mark about
+him anywhere. She recognized the truth of this, but still she said she
+believed that there was a quarrel or was to be a quarrel between her
+husband and Mr. Waring. Otherwise I believe her throughout. I believe
+that, no matter what romance there was about her nursing Philippe and
+his falling in love with her, she did not encourage him, did not call
+him here again, was true to her old husband. She is simply possessed
+with the idea that the quarrel which killed her husband was between
+himself and Mr. Waring, and that it occurred after Philippe had got his
+money and papers, and gone."</p>
+
+<p>"W-e-e-ll, Philippe will have a heap to explain when he is found," was
+Cram's reply. "Now I have to go to Doyle's. He is making some
+confession, I expect, to the priest."</p>
+
+<p>But Cram never dreamed for an instant what that was to be.</p>
+
+<p>That night poor Doyle's spirit took its flight, and the story of misery
+he had to tell, partly by scrawling with a pencil, partly by gesture in
+reply to question, partly in painfully-gasped sentences, a few words at
+a time, was practically<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> this. Lascelles and his party did indeed leave
+him at the Pelican when he was so drunk he only vaguely knew what was
+going on or what had happened in the bar-room where they were drinking,
+but his wife had told him the whole story. Lascelles wanted more
+drink,&mdash;champagne; the bar-tender wanted to close up. They bought
+several bottles, however, and had them put in the cab, and Lascelles was
+gay and singing, and, instead of going directly home, insisted on
+stopping to make a call on the lady who occupied the upper floor of the
+house Doyle rented on the levee. Doyle rarely saw her, but she sometimes
+wrote to Lascelles and got Bridget to take the letters to him. She was
+setting her cap for the old Frenchman. "We called her Mrs. Dawson." The
+cabman drove very slowly through the storm as Doyle walked home along
+with Bridget and some man who was helping, and when they reached the
+gate there was the cab and Waring in it. The cab-driver was standing by
+his horse, swearing at the delay and saying he would charge double fare.
+Doyle had had trouble with his wife for many years, and renewed trouble
+lately because of two visits Lascelles had paid there, and that evening
+when she<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> sent for him he was drinking in Waring's room, had been
+drinking during the day; he dreaded more trouble, and 'twas he who took
+Waring's knife, and still had it, he said, when he entered the gate, and
+no sooner did he see Lascelles at his door than he ordered him to leave.
+Lascelles refused to go. Doyle knocked him down, and the Frenchman
+sprang up, swearing vengeance. Lascelles fired two shots, and Doyle
+struck once,&mdash;with the knife,&mdash;and there lay Lascelles, dead, before
+Doyle could know or realize what he was doing. In fact, Doyle never did
+know. It was what his wife had told him, and life had been a hell to him
+ever since that woman came back. She had blackmailed him, more or less,
+ever since he got his commission, because of an old trouble he'd had in
+Texas.</p>
+
+<p>And this confession was written out for him, signed by Doyle on his
+dying bed, duly witnessed, and the civil authorities were promptly
+notified. Bridget Doyle was handed over to the police. Certain
+detectives out somewhere on the trail of somebody else were telegraphed
+to come in, and four days later, when the force of the fever was broken
+and Waring lay weak, languid, but returning to his senses, Cram and the
+doctor<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span> read the confession to their patient, and then started to their
+feet as he almost sprang from the bed.</p>
+
+<p>"It's an infernal lie!" he weakly cried. "I took that knife from Doyle
+and kept it. I myself saw Lascelles to his gate, safe and sound."</p>
+
+<hr />
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span></p>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+
+<p>The sunshine of an exquisite April morning was shimmering over the
+Louisiana lowlands as Battery "X" was "hitching in," and Mrs. Cram's
+pretty pony-phaeton came flashing through the garrison gate and reined
+up in front of the guns. A proud and happy woman was Mrs. Cram, and
+daintily she gathered the spotless, cream-colored reins and slanted her
+long English driving-whip at the exact angle prescribed by the vogue of
+the day. By her side, reclining luxuriously on his pillows, was Sam
+Waring, now senior first lieutenant of the battery, taking his first
+airing since his strange illness. Pallid and thin though he was, that
+young gentleman was evidently capable of appreciating to the fullest
+extent the devoted attentions of which he had been the object ever since
+his return. Stanch friend and fervent champion of her husband's most
+distinguished officer at any time, Mrs. Cram had thrown herself into his
+cause with a zeal that challenged<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> the admiration even of the men whom
+she mercilessly snubbed because they had accepted the general verdict
+that Lascelles had died by Waring's hand. Had they met in the duello as
+practised in the South in those days, sword to sword, or armed with
+pistol at twelve paces, she would have shuddered, but maintained that as
+a soldier and gentleman Waring could not have refused his opponent's
+challenge, inexcusable though such challenge might have been. But that
+he could have stooped to vulgar, unregulated fracas, without seconds or
+the formality of the cartel, first with fists and those women's weapons,
+nails, then knives or stilettoes, as though he was some low dago or
+Sicilian,&mdash;why, that was simply and utterly incredible. None the less
+she was relieved and rejoiced, as were all Waring's friends, when the
+full purport of poor Doyle's dying confession was noised abroad. Even
+those who were sceptical were now silenced. For four days her comfort
+and relief had been inexpressible; and then came the hour when, with woe
+and trouble in his face, her husband returned to her from Waring's
+bedside with the incomprehensible tidings that he had utterly repudiated
+Doyle's confession,&mdash;had, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>indeed, said that which could probably only
+serve to renew the suspicion of his own guilt, or else justify the
+theory that he was demented.</p>
+
+<p>Though Cram and the doctor warned Waring not to talk, talk he would, to
+Pierce, to Ferry, to Ananias; and though these three were pledged by
+Cram to reveal to no one what Waring said, it plunged them in an agony
+of doubt and misgiving. Day after day had the patient told and re-told
+the story, and never could cross-questioning shake him in the least.
+Cram sent for Reynolds and took him into their confidence, and Reynolds
+heard the story and added his questions, but to no effect. From first to
+last he remembered every incident up to his parting with Lascelles at
+his own gateway. After that&mdash;nothing.</p>
+
+<p>His story, in brief, was as follows. He was both surprised and
+concerned, while smoking and chatting with Mr. Allerton in the rotunda
+of the St. Charles, to see Lascelles with a friend, evidently watching
+an opportunity of speaking with him. He had noticed about a week
+previous a marked difference in the old Frenchman's manner, and three
+days before the tragedy, when calling on his way from town to see<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>
+Madame and Nin Nin, was informed that they were not at home, and
+Monsieur himself was the informant; nor did he, as heretofore, invite
+Waring to enter. Sam was a fellow who detested misunderstanding.
+Courteously, but positively, he demanded explanation. Lascelles shrugged
+his shoulders, but gave it. He had heard too much of Monsieur's
+attentions to Madame his wife, and desired their immediate
+discontinuance. He must request Monsieur's assurance that he would not
+again visit Beau Rivage, or else the reparation due a man of honor, etc.
+"Whereupon," said Waring, "I didn't propose to be outdone in civility,
+and therefore replied, in the best French I could command, 'Permit me to
+tender Monsieur&mdash;both. Monsieur's friends will find me at the
+barracks.'"</p>
+
+<p>"All the same," said Waring, "when I found Madame and Nin Nin stuck in
+the mud I did what I considered the proper thing, and drove them, <i>coram
+publico</i>, to 'bonne maman's,' never letting them see, of course, that
+there was any row on tap, and so when I saw the old fellow with a
+keen-looking party alongside I felt sure it meant mischief. I was
+utterly surprised, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>therefore, when Lascelles came up with hat off and
+hand extended, bowing low, praying pardon for the intrusion, but saying
+he could not defer another instant the desire to express his gratitude
+the most profound for my extreme courtesy to Madame and his beloved
+child. He had heard the whole story, and, to my confusion, insisted on
+going over all the details before Allerton, even to my heroism, as he
+called it, in knocking down that big bully of a cabman. I was confused,
+yet couldn't shake him off. He was persistent. He was abject. He begged
+to meet my friend, to present his, to open champagne and drink eternal
+friendship. He would change the name of his <i>ch&acirc;teau</i>&mdash;the rotten old
+rookery&mdash;from Beau Rivage to Belle Alliance. He would make this day a
+<i>f&ecirc;te</i> in the calendar of the Lascelles family. And then it began to
+dawn on me that he had been drinking champagne before he came. I did not
+catch the name of the other gentleman, a much younger man. He was very
+ceremonious and polite, but distant. Then, in some way, came up the fact
+that I had been trying to get a cab to take me back to barracks, and
+then Lascelles declared that nothing could be more opportune. He had<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>
+secured a carriage and was just going down with Monsieur. They had <i>des
+affaires</i> to transact at once. He took me aside and said, 'In proof that
+you accept my <i>amende</i>, and in order that I may make to you my personal
+apologies, you must accept my invitation.' So go with them I did. I was
+all the time thinking of Cram's mysterious note bidding me return at
+taps. I couldn't imagine what was up, but I made my best endeavors to
+get a cab. None was to be had, so I was really thankful for this
+opportunity. All the way down Lascelles overwhelmed me with civilities,
+and I could only murmur and protest, and the other party only murmured
+approbation. He hardly spoke English at all. Then Lascelles insisted on
+a stop at the Pelican and on bumpers of champagne, and there, as luck
+would have it, was Doyle,&mdash;drunk, as usual, and determined to join the
+party; and though I endeavored to put him aside, Lascelles would not
+have it. He insisted on being presented to the comrade of his gallant
+friend, and in the private room where we went he overwhelmed Doyle with
+details of our grand reconciliation and with bumper after bumper of
+Krug. This enabled me to fight shy of the wine, but in ten minutes Doyle
+was<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> fighting drunk, Lascelles tipsy. The driver came in for his pay,
+saying he would go no further. They had a row. Lascelles wouldn't pay;
+called him an Irish thief, and all that. I slipped my last V into the
+driver's hand and got him out somehow. Monsieur Philippes, or whatever
+his name was, said he would go out,&mdash;he'd get a cab in the neighborhood;
+and the next thing I knew, Lascelles and Doyle were in a fury of a row.
+Lascelles said all the Irish were knaves and blackguards and swindlers,
+and Doyle stumbled around after him. Out came a pistol! Out came a
+knife! I tripped Doyle and got him into a chair, and was so intent on
+pacifying him and telling him not to make a fool of himself that I
+didn't notice anything else. I handled him good-naturedly, got the knife
+away, and then was amazed to find that he had my own pet paper-cutter. I
+made them shake hands and make up. It was all a mistake, said Lascelles.
+But what made it a worse mistake, the old man <i>would</i> order more wine,
+and, with it, brandy. He insisted on celebrating this second grand
+reconciliation, and then both got drunker, but the tall Frenchman had
+Lascelles's pistol and I had the knife, and then a cab came, and,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>
+though it was storming beastly and I had Ferry's duds on and Larkin's
+best tile and Pierce's umbrella, we bundled in somehow and drove on down
+the levee, leaving Doyle in the hands of that Amazon of a wife of his
+and a couple of doughboys who happened to be around there. Now Lascelles
+was all hilarity, singing, joking, confidential. Nothing would do but we
+must stop and call on a lovely woman, a <i>belle amie</i>. He could rely on
+our discretion, he said, laying his finger on his nose, and looking sly
+and coquettish, for all the world like some old <i>rou&eacute;</i> of a Frenchman.
+He must stop and see her and take her some wine. 'Indeed,' he said,
+mysteriously, 'it is a rendezvous.' Well, I was their guest; I had no
+money. What could I do? It was then after eleven, I should judge.
+Monsieur Philippes, or whatever his name was, gave orders to the driver.
+We pulled up, and then, to my surprise, I found we were at Doyle's. That
+ended it. I told them they must excuse me. They protested, but of course
+I couldn't go in there. So they took a couple of bottles apiece and went
+in the gate, and I settled myself for a nap and got it. I don't know how
+long I slept, but I was aroused by the devil's own tumult.<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span> A shot had
+been fired. Men and women both were screaming and swearing. Some one
+suddenly burst into the cab beside me, really pushed from behind, and
+then away we went through the mud and the rain; and the lightning was
+flashing now, and presently I could recognize Lascelles, raging.
+'Inf&acirc;me!' 'Coquin!' 'Assassin!' were the mildest terms he was volleying
+at somebody; and then, recognizing me, he burst into maudlin tears,
+swore I was his only friend. He had been insulted, abused, denied
+reparation. Was he hurt? I inquired, and instinctively felt for my
+knife. It was still there where I'd hid it in the inside pocket of my
+overcoat. No hurt; not a blow. Did I suppose that he, a Frenchman, would
+pardon that or leave the spot until satisfaction had been exacted? Then
+I begged him to be calm and listen to me for a moment. I told him my
+plight,&mdash;that I had given my word to be at barracks that evening; that I
+had no money left, but I could go no further. Instantly he forgot his
+woes and became absorbed in my affairs. <i>'Parole d'honneur!</i>' he would
+see that mine was never unsullied. He himself would escort me to the
+<i>maison de</i> Capitaine Cram. He would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span>rejoice to say to that brave
+ennemi, Behold! here is thy lieutenant, of honor the most unsullied, of
+courage the most admirable, of heart the most magnanimous. The Lord only
+knows what he wouldn't have done had we not pulled up at his gate. There
+I helped him out on the banquette. He was steadied by his row, whatever
+it had been. He would not let me expose myself&mdash;even under Pierce's
+umbrella. He would not permit me to suffer 'from times so of the dog.'
+'You will drive Monsieur to his home and return here for me at once,' he
+ordered cabby, grasped both my hands with fervent good-night and the
+explanation that he had much haste, implored pardon for leaving me,&mdash;on
+the morrow he would call and explain everything,&mdash;then darted into the
+gate. We never could have parted on more friendly terms. I stood a
+moment to see that he safely reached his door, for a light was dimly
+burning in the hall, then turned to jump into the cab, but it wasn't
+there. Nothing was there. I jumped from the banquette into a berth
+aboard some steamer out at sea. They tell me the first thing I asked for
+was Pierce's umbrella and Larkin's hat."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span></p><p>And this was the story that Waring maintained from first to last.
+"Pills" ventured a query as to whether the amount of Krug and Clicquot
+consumed might not have overthrown his mental equipoise. No, Sam
+declared, he drank very little. "The only bacchanalian thing I did was
+to join in a jovial chorus from a new French opera which Lascelles's
+friend piped up and I had heard in the North:</p>
+
+<div class="poem"><div class="stanza">
+<div>Oui, buvons, buvons encore!</div>
+<div>S'il est un vin qu'on adore</div>
+<div>De Paris &agrave; Macao,</div>
+<div>C'est le Clicquot, c'est le Clicquot."</div>
+</div></div>
+
+<p>Asked if he had formed any conjecture as to the identity of the
+stranger, Sam said no. The name sounded like "Philippes," but he
+couldn't be sure. But when told that there were rumors to the effect
+that Lascelles's younger brother had been seen with him twice or thrice
+of late, and that he had been in exile because, if anything, of a
+hopeless passion for Madame his sister-in-law, and that his name was
+Philippe, Waring looked dazed. Then a sudden light, as of newer, fresher
+memory, flashed up in his eyes. He seemed about to speak, but as
+suddenly <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>controlled himself and turned his face to the wall. From that
+time on he was determinedly dumb about the stranger. What roused him to
+lively interest and conjecture, however, was Cram's query as to whether
+he had not recognized in the cabman, called in by the stranger, the very
+one whom he had "knocked endwise" and who had tried to shoot him that
+morning. "No," said Waring: "the man did not speak at all, that I
+noticed, and I did not once see his face, he was so bundled up against
+the storm." But if it was the same party, suggested he, it seemed hardly
+necessary to look any further in explanation of his own disappearance.
+Cabby had simply squared matters by knocking him senseless, helping
+himself to his watch and ring, and turning out his pockets, then
+hammering him until frightened off, and then, to cover his tracks,
+setting him afloat in Anatole's boat.</p>
+
+<p>"Perhaps cabby took a hand in the murder, too," suggested Sam, with
+eager interest. "You say he had disappeared,&mdash;gone with his plunder.
+Now, who else could have taken my knife?"</p>
+
+<p>Then Reynolds had something to tell him: that the "lady" who wrote the
+anonymous letters, the <i>belle amie</i> whom Lascelles proposed to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> visit,
+the occupant of the upper floor of "the dove-cot," was none other than
+the blighted floweret who had appealed to him for aid and sympathy, for
+fifty dollars at first and later for more, the first year of his army
+service in the South, "for the sake of the old home." Then Waring grew
+even more excited and interested. "Pills" put a stop to further
+developments for a few days. He feared a relapse. But, in spite of
+"Pills," the developments, like other maladies, throve. The little
+detective came down again. He was oddly inquisitive about that <i>chanson
+&agrave; boire</i> from "<i>Fleur de Th&eacute;</i>." Would Mr. Waring hum it for him? And
+Sam, now sitting up in his parlor, turned to his piano, and with long,
+slender, fragile-looking fingers rattled a lively prelude and then
+faintly quavered the rollicking words.</p>
+
+<p>"Odd," said Mr. Pepper, as they had grown to call him, "I heard that
+sung by a fellow up in Chartres Street two nights hand-running before
+this thing happened,&mdash;a merry cuss, too, with a rather loose hand on his
+shekels. Lots of people may know it, though, mayn't they?"</p>
+
+<p>"No, indeed, not down here," said Sam. "It only came out in New York
+within the last<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span> four months, and hasn't been South or West at all, that
+I know of. What did he look like?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, what did the feller that was with you look like?"</p>
+
+<p>But here Sam's description grew vague. So Pepper went up to have a beer
+by himself at the <i>caf&eacute; chantant</i> on Chartres Street, and didn't return
+for nearly a week.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime came this exquisite April morning and Sam's appearance in the
+pony-phaeton in front of Battery "X." Even the horses seemed to prick up
+their ears and be glad to see him. Grim old war sergeants rode up to
+touch their caps and express the hope that they'd soon have the
+lieutenant in command of the right section again,&mdash;"not but what
+Loot'n't Ferry's doing first-rate, sir,"&mdash;and for a few minutes, as his
+fair charioteer drove him around the battery, in his weak, languid
+voice, Waring indulged in a little of his own characteristic chaffing:</p>
+
+<p>"I expect you to bring this section up to top notch, Mr. Ferry, as I am
+constitutionally opposed to any work on my own account. I beg to call
+your attention, sir, to the fact that it's very bad form to appear with
+full-dress <i>schabraque</i> on your horse when the battery is in fatigue.
+The<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span> red blanket, sir, the red blanket only should be used. Be good
+enough to stretch your traces there, right caisson. Yes, I thought so,
+swing trace is twisted. Carelessness, Mr. Ferry, and indifference to
+duty are things I won't tolerate. Your cheek-strap, too, sir, is an inch
+too long. Your bit will fall through that horse's mouth. This won't do,
+sir, not in my section, sir. I'll fine you a box of Partagas if it
+occurs again."</p>
+
+<p>But the blare of the bugle sounding "attention" announced the presence
+of the battery commander. Nell whipped up in an instant and whisked her
+invalid out of the way.</p>
+
+<p>"Good-morning, Captain Cram," said he, as he passed his smiling chief.
+"I regret to observe, sir, that things have been allowed to run down
+somewhat in my absence."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, out with you, you combination of cheek and incapacity, or I'll run
+you down with the whole battery. Oh! Waring, some gentlemen in a
+carriage have just stopped at your quarters, all in black, too. Ah,
+here's the orderly now."</p>
+
+<p>And the card, black-bordered, handed into the phaeton, bore a name which
+blanched Waring's face:</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="center"><img src="images/209.png" width='600' height='365' alt="visiting card, M. Philippe Lascelles, N'lle Orleans." /></div>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p>"Why, what is it, Waring?" asked Cram, anxiously, bending down from his
+saddle.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Waring was silent. Mrs. Cram felt her own hand trembling.</p>
+
+<p>"Can you turn the battery over to Ferry and come with me?" asked the
+lieutenant.</p>
+
+<p>"Certainly.&mdash;Bugler, report to Lieutenant Ferry and tell him I shall
+have to be absent for a while.&mdash;Drive on, Nell."</p>
+
+<p>When, five minutes later, Waring was assisted up the stair-way, Cram
+towering on his right, the little party came upon a group of
+strangers,&mdash;three gentlemen, one of whom stepped courteously forward,
+raising his hat in a black-gloved hand. He was of medium height,
+slender, erect, and soldierly in bearing; his face was dark and oval,
+his eyes large, deep, and full of light. He<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> spoke mainly in English,
+but with marked accent, and the voice was soft and melodious:</p>
+
+<p>"I fear I have intrude. Have I the honor to address Lieutenant Waring? I
+am Philippe Lascelles."</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Waring was too amazed to speak. At last, with brightening
+face and holding forth his hand, he said,&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>"I am most glad to meet you,&mdash;to know that it was not you who drove down
+with us that night."</p>
+
+<p>"Alas, no! I left Armand but that very morning, returning to Havana,
+thence going to Santiago. It was not until five days ago the news
+reached me. It is of that stranger I come to ask."</p>
+
+<p>It was an odd council gathered there in Waring's room in the old
+barracks that April morning while Ferry was drilling the battery to his
+heart's content and the infantry companies were wearily going over the
+manual or bayonet exercise. Old Brax had been sent for, and came.
+Monsieur Lascelles's friends, both, like himself, soldiers of the South,
+were presented, and for their information Waring's story was again told,
+with only most delicate allusion to certain <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>incidents which might be
+considered as reflecting on the character and dignity of the elder
+brother. And then Philippe told his. True, there had been certain
+transactions between Armand and himself. He had fully trusted his
+brother, a man of affairs, with the management of the little inheritance
+which he, a soldier, had no idea how to handle, and Armand's business
+had suffered greatly by the war. It was touching to see how in every
+word the younger strove to conceal the fact that the elder had
+misapplied the securities and had been practically faithless to his
+trust. Everything, he declared, had been finally settled as between them
+that very morning before his return to Havana. Armand had brought to him
+early all papers remaining in his possession and had paid him what was
+justly due. He knew, however, that Armand was now greatly embarrassed in
+his affairs. They had parted with fond embrace, the most affectionate of
+brothers. But Philippe had been seeing and hearing enough to make him
+gravely apprehensive as to Armand's future, to know that his business
+was rapidly going down-hill, that he had been raising money in various
+ways, speculating, and had fallen into the hands of sharpers, and yet<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span>
+Armand would not admit it, would not consent to accept help or to use
+his younger brother's property in any way. "The lawyer," said Philippe,
+"informed me that Beau Rivage was heavily mortgaged, and it is feared
+that there will be nothing left for Madame and Nin Nin, though, for that
+matter, they shall never want." What he had also urged, and he spoke
+with reluctance here, and owned it only because the detectives told him
+it was now well known, was that Armand had of late been playing the
+<i>r&ocirc;le</i> of <i>galant homme</i>, and that the woman in the case had fled. Of
+all this he felt, he said, bound to speak fully, because in coming here
+with his witnesses to meet Lieutenant Waring and his friends he had two
+objects in view. The first was to admit that he had accepted as fact the
+published reports that Lieutenant Waring was probably his brother's
+slayer; had hastened back to New Orleans to demand justice or obtain
+revenge; had here learned from the lawyers and police that there were
+now other and much more probable theories, having heard only one of
+which he had cried "Enough," and had come to pray the forgiveness of Mr.
+Waring for having believed an officer and a gentleman guilty of so<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span> foul
+a crime. Second, he had come to invoke his aid in running down the
+murderer. Philippe was affected almost to tears.</p>
+
+<p>"There is one question I must beg to ask Monsieur," said Waring, as the
+two clasped hands. "Is there not still a member of your family who
+entertains the idea that it was I who killed Armand Lascelles?"</p>
+
+<p>And Philippe was deeply embarrassed.</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, monsieur," he answered, "I could not venture to intrude myself upon
+a grief so sacred. I have not seen Madame, and who is there who
+could&mdash;who would&mdash;tell her of Armand's&mdash;&mdash;" And Philippe broke off
+abruptly, with despairing shrug, and outward wave of his slender hand.</p>
+
+<p>"Let us try to see that she never does know," said Waring. "These are
+the men we need to find: the driver of the cab, the stranger whose name
+sounded so like yours, a tall, swarthy, black-haired, black-eyed fellow
+with pointed moustache&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"<i>C'est lui! c'est bien lui!</i>" exclaimed Lascelles,&mdash;"the very man who
+insisted on entering the private office where, Armand and I, we close
+our affairs that morning. His whispered words<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span> make my brother all of
+pale, and yet he go off humming to himself."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, we'll nail him," said Cram. "Two of the best detectives in the
+South are on his trail now."</p>
+
+<p>And then came Ananias with a silver tray, champagne, and glasses (from
+Mrs. Cram), and the conference went on another hour before the guests
+went off.</p>
+
+<p>"Bless my soul!" said Brax, whose diameter seemed in no wise increased
+by the quart of Roederer he had swallowed with such gusto,&mdash;"bless my
+soul! and to think I believed that we were going to have a duel with
+some of those fellows a fortnight or so ago!"</p>
+
+<p>Then entered "Pills" and ordered Waring back to bed. He was sleeping
+placidly when, late that evening, Reynolds and Cram came tearing up the
+stair-way, full of great news; but the doctor said not to wake him.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime, how fared it with that bruised reed, the lone widow of the
+late Lieutenant Doyle? Poor old Jim had been laid away with military
+honors under the flag at Chalmette, and his faithful Bridget was
+spending the days in the public calaboose. Drunk and disorderly was the<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>
+charge on which she had been arraigned, and, though she declared herself
+abundantly able to pay her fine twice over, Mr. Pepper had warned the
+authorities to keep her under lock and key and out of liquor, as her
+testimony would be of vital importance, if for nothing better than to
+send her up for perjury. Now she was alternately wheedling, cursing,
+coaxing, bribing; all to no purpose. The agent of the Lema&icirc;tre property
+had swooped down on the dove-cot and found a beggarly array of empty
+bottles and a good deal of discarded feminine gear scattered about on
+both floors. One room in which certain detectives were vastly interested
+contained the unsavory relics of a late supper. Three or four empty
+champagne-bottles, some shattered glasses, and, what seemed most to
+attract them, various stubs of partially-consumed cigarettes, lay about
+the tables and floor. Adjoining this was the chamber which had been
+known as Mrs. Dawson's, and this, too, had been thoroughly explored.
+'Louette, who had disappeared after Doyle's tragic death, was found not
+far away, and the police thought it but fair that Mrs. Doyle should not
+be deprived of the services of her maid. Then came other additions,
+though<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span> confined in other sections of the city. Mr. Pepper wired that
+the party known as Monsieur Philippes had been run to earth and would
+reach town with him by train about the same time that another of the
+force returned from Mobile by boat, bringing a young man known as Dawson
+and wanted as a deserter, and a very sprightly young lady who appeared
+to move in a higher sphere of life, but was unquestionably his wife, for
+the officer could prove their marriage in South Carolina in the spring
+of '65. As Mr. Pepper expressed it when he reported to Reynolds, "It's
+almost a full hand, but, for a fact, it's only a bobtail flush. We need
+that cabman to fill."</p>
+
+<p>"How did you trace Philippes?" asked Reynolds.</p>
+
+<p>"Him? Oh, he was too darned musical. It was&mdash;what do you call it?&mdash;Flure
+de Tay that did for him. Why, he's the fellow that raised all the money
+and most of the h&mdash;ll for this old man Lascelles. He'd been sharping him
+for years."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, when can we bring this thing to a head?" asked the aide-de-camp.</p>
+
+<p>"<i>Poco tiempo!</i> by Saturday, I reckon."</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span></p><p>But it came sooner.</p>
+
+<p>Waring was seated one lovely evening in a low reclining chair on Mrs.
+Cram's broad gallery, sipping contentedly at the cup of fragrant tea she
+had handed him. The band was playing, and a number of children were
+chasing about in noisy glee. The men were at supper, the officers, as a
+rule, at mess. For several minutes the semi-restored invalid had not
+spoken a word. In one of his customary day-dreams he had been calmly
+gazing at the shapely white hand of his hostess, "all queenly with its
+weight of rings."</p>
+
+<p>"Will you permit me to examine those rings a moment?" he said.</p>
+
+<p>"Why, certainly. No, you sit still, Mr. Waring," she replied, promptly
+rising, and, pulling them off her fingers, dropped them into his open
+palm. With the same dreamy expression on his clear-cut, pallid face, he
+turned them over and over, held them up to the light, finally selected
+one exquisite gem, and then, half rising, held forth the others. As she
+took them and still stood beside his chair as though patiently waiting,
+he glanced up.</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, beg pardon. You want this, I suppose?"<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> and, handing her the dainty
+teacup, he calmly slipped the ring into his waistcoat-pocket and
+languidly murmured, "Thanks."</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I like that."</p>
+
+<p>"Yes? So do I, rather better than the others."</p>
+
+<p>"May I ask what you purpose doing with my ring?"</p>
+
+<p>"I was just thinking. I've ordered a new Amidon for Larkin, a new
+ninety-dollar suit for Ferry, and I shall be decidedly poor this month,
+even if we recover Merton's watch."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, well, if it's only to pawn one, why not take a diamond?"</p>
+
+<p>"But it isn't."</p>
+
+<p>"What then, pray?"</p>
+
+<p>"Well, again I was just thinking&mdash;whether I could find another to match
+this up in town, or send this one&mdash;to her."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. <i>Waring</i>! <i>Really?</i>" And now Mrs. Cram's bright eyes are dancing
+with eagerness and delight.</p>
+
+<p>For all answer, though his own eyes begin to moisten and swim, he draws
+from an inner pocket a dainty letter, post-marked from a far, far city
+to the northeast.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span></p><p>"You <i>dear</i> fellow! How can I tell you how glad I am! I haven't dared
+to ask you of her since we met at Washington, but&mdash;oh, my heart has been
+just full of her since&mdash;since this trouble came."</p>
+
+<p>"God bless the trouble! it was that that won her to me at last. I have
+loved her ever since I first saw her&mdash;long years ago."</p>
+
+<p>"Oh! <i>oh!</i> <span class="smaller">OH!</span> if Ned were only here! I'm wild to tell him. I may,
+mayn't I?"</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, the moment he comes."</p>
+
+<p>But Ned brought a crowd with him when he got back from town a little
+later. Reynolds was there, and Philippe Lascelles, and Mr. Pepper, and
+they had a tale to tell that must needs be condensed.</p>
+
+<p>They had all been present by invitation of the civil authorities at a
+very dramatic affair during the late afternoon,&mdash;the final lifting of
+the veil that hid from public view the "strange, eventful history" of
+the Lascelles tragedy. Cram was the spokesman by common consent. "With
+the exception of the Dawsons," said he, "none of the parties implicated
+knew up to the hour of his or her examination that any one of the others
+was to appear." Mrs. Dawson, eager to<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span> save her own pretty neck, had
+told her story without reservation. Dawson knew nothing.</p>
+
+<p>The story had been wrung from her piecemeal, but was finally told in
+full, and in the presence of the officers and civilians indicated. She
+had married in April, '65, to the scorn of her people, a young Yankee
+officer attached to the commissary department. She had starved all
+through the war. She longed for life, luxury, comforts. She had nothing
+but her beauty, he nothing but his pay. The extravagances of a month
+swamped him; the drink and desperation of the next ruined him. He
+maintained her in luxury at the best hotel only a few weeks, then all of
+his and much of Uncle Sam's money was gone. Inspection proved him a
+thief and embezzler. He fled, and she was abandoned to her own
+resources. She had none but her beauty and a gift of penmanship which
+covered the many sins of her orthography. She was given a clerkship, but
+wanted more money, and took it, blackmailing a quartermaster. She
+imposed on Waring, but he quickly found her out and absolutely refused
+afterwards to see her at all. She was piqued and angered, "a woman
+scorned," but not until he joined Battery "X" did <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span>opportunity present
+itself for revenge. She had secured a room under Mrs. Doyle's reputable
+roof, to be near the barracks, where she could support herself by
+writing for Mrs. Doyle and blackmailing those whom she lured, and where
+she could watch <i>him</i>, and, to her eager delight, she noted and prepared
+to make much of his attentions to Madame Lascelles. Incidentally, too,
+she might inveigle the susceptible Lascelles himself, on the principle
+that there's no fool like an old fool. Mrs. Doyle lent herself eagerly
+to the scheme. The letters began to pass to and fro again. Lascelles was
+fool enough to answer, and when, all on a sudden, Mrs. Doyle's
+"long-missing relative," as she called him, turned up, a pensioner on
+her charity, it was through the united efforts of the two women he got a
+situation as cab-driver at the stable up at the eastern skirt of the
+town. Dawson had enlisted to keep from starving, and, though she had no
+use for him as a husband, he would do to fetch and carry, and he dare
+not disobey. Twice when Doyle was battery officer of the day did this
+strangely-assorted pair of women entertain Lascelles at supper and
+fleece him out of what money he had. Then came Philippes with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>Lascelles
+in Mike's cab, as luck would have it, but they could not fleece
+Philippes. Old Lascelles was rapidly succumbing to Nita's fascinations
+when came the night of the terrible storm. Mike had got to drinking, and
+was laid low by the lieutenant. Mike and Bridget both vowed vengeance.
+But meantime Doyle himself had got wind of something that was going on,
+and he and his tyrant had a fearful row. He commanded her never to allow
+a man inside the premises when he was away, and, though brought home
+drunk that awful night, furiously ordered the Frenchman out, and might
+have assaulted them had not Bridget lassoed him with a chloroformed
+towel. That was the last he knew until another day. Lascelles,
+Philippes, and she, Mrs. Dawson, had already drunk a bottle of champagne
+when interrupted by Doyle's coming. Lascelles was tipsy, had snatched
+his pistol and fired a shot to frighten Doyle, but had only enraged him,
+and then he had to run for his cab. He was bundled in and Doyle disposed
+of. It was only three blocks down to Beau Rivage, and thither Mike drove
+them in all the storm. She did not know at the time of Waring's being in
+the cab. In less than fifteen<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> minutes Mike was back and called
+excitedly for Bridget; had a hurried consultation with her; she seized a
+waterproof and ran out with him, but darted back and took the bottle of
+chloroform she had used on her husband, now lying limp and senseless on
+a sofa below, and then she disappeared. When half an hour passed and
+Lascelles failed to return with them, bringing certain papers of which
+he'd been speaking to Philippes, the latter declared there must be
+something wrong, and went out to reconnoitre despite the storm. He could
+see nothing. It was after midnight when Mrs. Doyle came rushing in,
+gasping, all out of breath "along of the storm," she said. She had been
+down the levee with Mike to find a cushion and lap-robe he dropped and
+couldn't afford to lose. They never could have found it at all "but for
+ould Lascelles lending them a lantern." He wanted Mike to bring down two
+bottles of champagne he'd left here, but it was storming so that he
+would not venture again, and Lieutenant Waring, she said, was going to
+spend the night with Lascelles at Beau Rivage: Mike couldn't drive any
+farther down towards the barracks. Lascelles sent word to Philippes that
+he'd bring<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span> up the papers first thing in the morning, if the storm
+lulled, and Philippes went out indignant at all the time lost, but Mike
+swore he'd not drive down again for a fortune. So the Frenchman got into
+the cab and went up with him to town. The moment he was gone Mrs. Doyle
+declared she was dead tired, used up, and drank huge goblets of the wine
+until she reeled off to her room, leaving an apron behind. Then Mrs.
+Dawson went to her own room, after putting out the lights, and when, two
+days later, she heard the awful news of the murder, knowing that
+investigation would follow and she and her sins be brought to light, she
+fled, for she had enough of his money in her possession, and poor
+demented Dawson, finding her gone, followed.</p>
+
+<p>Philippes's story corroborated this in every particular. The last he saw
+of the cab or of the cabman was near the house of the hook-and-ladder
+company east of the French Market. The driver there said his horse was
+dead beat and could do no more, so Philippes went into the market,
+succeeded in getting another cab by paying a big price, slept at
+Cassidy's, waited all the morning about Lascelles's place, and finally,
+having to return to the Northeast at once, he<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> took the evening train on
+the Jackson road and never heard of the murder until ten days after. He
+was amazed at his arrest.</p>
+
+<p>And then came before his examiners a mere physical wreck,&mdash;the shadow of
+his former self,&mdash;caught at the high tide of a career of crime and
+debauchery, a much less bulky party than the truculent Jehu of Madame
+Lascelles's cab, yet no less important a witness than that same driver.
+He was accompanied by a priest. He had been brought hither in an
+ambulance from the H&ocirc;tel-Dieu, where he had been traced several days
+before and found almost at death's door. His confession was most
+important of all. He had struck Lieutenant Waring as that officer turned
+away from Lascelles's gate, intending only to down and then kick and
+hammer him, but he had struck with a lead-loaded rubber club, and he was
+horrified to see him drop like one dead. Then he lost his nerve and
+drove furiously back for Bridget. Together they returned, and found
+Waring lying there as he had left him on the dripping banquette. "You've
+killed him, Mike. There's only one thing to do," she said: "take his
+watch and everything valuable he has, and we'll throw him over on the
+levee." She herself<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span> took the knife from his overcoat-pocket, lest he
+should recover suddenly, and then, said the driver, "even as we were
+bending over him there came a sudden flash of lightning, and there was
+Lascelles bending over us, demanding to know what it meant. Then like
+another flash he seemed to realize what was up, sprang back, and drew
+pistol. He had caught us in the act. There was nothing else to do; we
+both sprang upon him. He fired, and hit me, but only in the arm, and
+before he could pull trigger again we both grappled him. I seized his
+gun, Bridget his throat, but he screamed and fought like a tiger, then
+wilted all of a sudden. I was scared and helpless, but she had her wits
+about her, and told me what to do. The lieutenant began to gasp and
+revive just then, so she soaked the handkerchief in chloroform and
+placed it over his mouth, and together we lifted him into the cab. Then
+we raised Lascelles and carried him in and laid him on his sofa, for he
+had left the door open and the lamp on the table. Bridget had been there
+before, and knew all about the house. We set the pistol back in his
+hand, but couldn't make the fingers grasp it. We ransacked the desk and
+got what money there was,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span> locked and bolted the doors, and climbed out
+of the side window, under which she dropped the knife among the bushes.
+'They'll never suspect us in the world, Mike,' she said. 'It's the
+lieutenant's knife that did it, and, as he was going to fight him
+anyhow, he'll get the credit of it all.' Then we drove up the levee, put
+Waring in Anatole's boat, sculls and all, and shoved him off. 'I'll
+muzzle Jim,' she said. 'I'll make him believe 'twas he that did it when
+he was drunk.' She took most of the money, and the watch and ring. She
+said she could hide them until they'd be needed. Then I drove Philippes
+up to town until I began to get so sick and faint I could do no more. I
+turned the cab loose and got away to a house where I knew they'd take
+care of me, and from there, when my money was gone, they sent me to the
+hospital, thinking I was dying. I swear to God I never meant to more
+than get square with the lieutenant. I never struck Lascelles at all;
+'twas she who drove the knife into his heart."</p>
+
+<p>Then, exhausted, he was led into an adjoining room, and Mrs. Doyle was
+marched in, the picture of injured Irish innocence. For ten minutes,
+with wonderful effrontery and nerve, she denied<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span> all personal
+participation in the crime, and faced her inquisitors with brazen calm.
+Then the chief quietly turned and signalled. An officer led forward from
+one side the wreck of a cabman, supported by the priest; a door opened
+on the other, and, escorted by another policeman, Mrs. Dawson
+re-entered, holding in her hands outstretched a gingham apron on which
+were two deep stains the shape and size of a long, straight-bladed,
+two-edged knife. It was the apron that Bridget Doyle had worn that fatal
+night. One quick, furtive look at that, one glance at her trembling,
+shrinking, cowering kinsman, and, with an Irish howl of despair, a loud
+wail of "Mike, Mike, you've sworn your sister's life away!" she threw
+herself upon the floor, tearing madly at her hair. And so ended the
+mystery of Beau Rivage.</p>
+
+<p>There was silence a moment in Cram's pretty parlor when the captain had
+finished his story. Waring was the first to speak:</p>
+
+<p>"There is one point I wish they'd clear up."</p>
+
+<p>"What's that?" said Cram.</p>
+
+<p>"Who's got Merton's watch?"</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, by Jove! I quite forgot. It's all right, Waring. Anatole's place
+was 'pulled' last night,<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span> and he had her valuables all done up in a box.
+'To pay for his boat,' he said."</p>
+
+<p class="center">*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*&nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp;*</p>
+
+<p>A quarter of a century has passed away since the scarlet plumes of Light
+Battery "X" were last seen dancing along the levee below New Orleans.
+Beau Rivage, old and moss-grown at the close of the war, fell into rapid
+decline after the tragedy of that April night. Heavily mortgaged, the
+property passed into other hands, but for years never found a tenant.
+Far and near the negroes spoke of the homestead as haunted, and none of
+their race could be induced to set foot within its gates. One night the
+sentry at the guard-house saw sudden light on the westward sky, and then
+a column of flame. Again the fire-alarm resounded among the echoing
+walls of the barracks; but when the soldiers reached the scene, a
+seething ruin was all that was left of the old Southern home. Somebody
+sent Cram a marked copy of a New Orleans paper, and in their cosey
+quarters at Fort Hamilton the captain read it aloud to his devoted Nell:
+"The old house has been vacant, an object of almost superstitious dread
+to the neighborhood," said the <i>Times</i>, "ever since the tragic<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span> death of
+Armand Lascelles in the spring of 1868. In police annals the affair was
+remarkable because of the extraordinary chain of circumstantial evidence
+which for a time seemed to fasten the murder upon an officer of the army
+then stationed at Jackson Barracks, but whose innocence was triumphantly
+established. Madame Lascelles, it is understood, is now educating her
+daughter in Paris, whither she removed immediately after her marriage a
+few months ago to Captain Philippe Lascelles, formerly of the
+Confederate army, a younger brother of her first husband."</p>
+
+<p>"Well," said Cram, "I'll have to send that to Waring. They're in Vienna
+by this time, I suppose. Look here, Nell; how was it that when we
+fellows were fretting about Waring's attentions to Madame, you should
+have been so serenely superior to it all, even when, as I know, the
+stories reached you?"</p>
+
+<p>"Ah, Ned, I knew a story worth two of those. He was in love with Natalie
+Maitland all the time."</p>
+
+<p class="tbrk">&nbsp;</p>
+
+<p class="center">THE END.</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Waring's Peril, by Charles King
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Waring's Peril, 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: Waring's Peril
+
+Author: Charles King
+
+Release Date: January 3, 2008 [EBook #24148]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WARING'S PERIL ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed
+Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was
+produced from images generously made available by The
+Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+WARING'S PERIL.
+
+BY
+
+CAPT. CHARLES KING,
+
+U. S. ARMY,
+
+AUTHOR OF "THE COLONEL'S DAUGHTER," "FOES IN AMBUSH," "AN ARMY PORTIA,"
+"TWO SOLDIERS," "A SOLDIER'S SECRET," ETC.
+
+
+[Illustration: Publisher's logo]
+
+
+PHILADELPHIA:
+
+J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.
+
+1894.
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1893,
+BY
+J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY.
+
+PRINTED BY J. B. LIPPINCOTT COMPANY, PHILADELPHIA.
+
+
+
+
+WARING'S PERIL.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+
+"Ananias!"
+
+"Ye-as, suh?"
+
+"What time is it?"
+
+"Gyahd-mountin' done gone, suh."
+
+"The devil it has! What do you mean, sir, by allowing me to sleep on in
+this shameless and unconscionable manner, when an indulgent government
+is suffering for my services? What sort of day is it, sir?"
+
+"Beautiful day, Mr. Waring."
+
+"Then go at once to Mr. Larkin and tell him he can't wear his new silk
+hat this morning,--I want it, and you fetch it. Don't allow him to ring
+in the old one on you. Tell him I mean the new 'spring style' he just
+brought from New York. Tell Mr. Ferry I want that new Hatfield suit of
+his, and you get Mr. Pierce's silk umbrella; then come back here and
+get my bath and my coffee. Stop there, Ananias! Give my pious regards
+to the commanding officer, sir, and tell him that there's no drill for
+'X' Battery this morning, as I'm to breakfast at Moreau's at eleven
+o'clock and go to the _matinee_ afterwards."
+
+"Beg pahdon, suh, but de cunnle's done ohdered review fo' de whole
+command, suh, right at nine o'clock."
+
+"So much the better. Then Captain Cram must stay, and won't need his
+swell team. Go right down to the stable and tell Jeffers I'll drive at
+nine-thirty."
+
+"But----"
+
+"No buts, you incorrigible rascal! I don't pay you a princely salary to
+raise obstacles. I don't pay you at all, sir, except at rare intervals
+and in moments of mental decrepitude. Go at once! Allez! Chassez!
+Skoot!"
+
+"But, lieutenant," says Ananias, his black face shining, his even white
+teeth all agleam, "Captain Cram stopped in on de way back from stables
+to say Glenco 'd sprained his foot and you was to ride de bay colt.
+_Please_ get up, suh. Boots and Saddles 'll soun' in ten minutes."
+
+"It won't, but if it does I'll brain the bugler. Tell him so. Tell
+Captain Cram he's entirely mistaken: I won't ride the bay colt--nor
+Glenco. I'm going driving, sir, with Captain Cram's own team and
+road-wagon. Tell _him_ so. Going in forty-five minutes by my watch.
+Where is it, sir?"
+
+"It ain't back from de jeweller's, suh, where you done lef' it day
+before yist'day; but his boy's hyuh now, suh, wid de bill for las' year.
+What shall I tell him?"
+
+"Tell him to go to--quarantine. No! Tell him the fever has broken out
+here again, sir, and not to call until ten o'clock next spring,--next
+mainspring they put in that watch. Go and get Mr. Merton's watch. Tell
+him I'll be sure to overstay in town if he doesn't send it, and then I
+can't take him up and introduce him to those ladies from Louisville
+to-morrow. Impress that on him, sir, unless he's gone and left it on his
+bureau, in which case impress the watch,--the watch, sir, in any case.
+No! Stop again, Ananias; _not_ in any case, only in the gold
+hunting-case; no other. Now then, vanish!"
+
+"But, lieutenant, 'fo' Gawd, suh, dey'll put you in arrest if you cuts
+drill dis time. Cunnle Braxton says to Captain Cram only two days ago,
+suh, dat----"
+
+But here a white arm shot out from a canopy of mosquito-netting, and
+first a boot-jack, then a slipper, then a heavy top-boot, came whizzing
+past the darky's dodging head, and, finding expostulation vain, that
+faithful servitor bolted out in search of some ally more potent, and
+found one, though not the one he sought or desired, just entering the
+adjoining room.
+
+A big fellow, too,--too big, in fact, to be seen wearing, as was the
+fashion in the sixties, the shell jacket of the light artillery. He had
+a full round body, and a full round ruddy face, and a little round
+visorless cap cocked on one side of a round bullet head, not very full
+of brains, perhaps, yet reputed to be fairly stocked with what is termed
+"horse sense." His bulky legs were thrust deep in long boots, and
+ornamented, so far as the skin-tight breeches of sky-blue were
+concerned, with a scarlet welt along the seam, a welt that his comrades
+were wont to say would make a white mark on his nose, so red and bulbous
+was that organ. He came noisily in from the broad veranda overlooking
+the parade-ground, glanced about on the disarray of the bachelor
+sitting-room, then whirled on Ananias.
+
+"Mr. Waring dressed?"
+
+"No-o, suh; jus' woke up, suh; ain't out o' bed yit."
+
+"The lazy vagabond! Just let me get at him a minute," said the big man,
+tramping over to the door-way as though bent on invading the chamber
+beyond. But Ananias had halted short at sight of the intruder, and stood
+there resolutely barring the way.
+
+"Beg pahdon, lieutenant, but Mr. Waring ain't had his bath yit. Can I
+mix de lieutenant a cocktail, suh?"
+
+"Can you? You black imp of Satan, why isn't it ready now, sir? Sure you
+could have seen I was as dhry as a lime-kiln from the time I came
+through the gate. Hware's the demijohn, you villain?"
+
+"Bein' refilled, suh, down to de sto', but dar's a little on de
+sideboa'd, suh," answered Ananias, edging over thither now that he had
+lured the invader away from the guarded door-way. "Take it straight,
+suh, o' wid bitters--o' toddy?"
+
+"Faith, I'll answer ye as Pat did the parson: I'll take it straight
+now, and then be drinkin' the toddy while your honor is mixin' the
+punch. Give me hold of it, you smudge! and tell your masther it's
+review,--full dress,--and it's time for him to be up. Has he had his two
+cocktails yet?"
+
+"The lieutenant doesn't care fo' any dis mawnin', suh. I'll fetch him
+his coffee in a minute. Did you see de cunnle's oade'ly, suh? He was
+lookin' fo' you a moment ago."
+
+The big red man was gulping down a big drink of the fiery liquor at the
+instant. He set the glass back on the sideboard with unsteady hand and
+glared at Ananias suspiciously.
+
+"Is it troot' you're tellin', nigger? Hwat did he say was wanted?"
+
+"Didn't say, suh, but de cunnle's in his office. Yawnduh comes de
+oade'ly, too, suh; guess he must have hyuhd you was over hyuh."
+
+The result of this announcement was not unexpected. The big man made a
+leap for the chamber door, only to find it slammed in his face from the
+other side.
+
+"Hwat the devil's the matter with your master this morning,
+Ananias?--Waring! Waring, I say! Let me in: the K. O.'s orderly is
+afther me, and all on account of your bringing me in at that hour last
+night.--Tell him I've gone, Ananias.--Let me in, Waring, there's a good
+fellow."
+
+"Go to blazes, Doyle!" is the unfeeling answer from the other side. "I'm
+bathing." And a vigorous splashing follows the announcement.
+
+"For the Lord's sake, Waring, let me in. Sure I can't see the colonel
+now. If I could stand him off until review and inspection's over and
+he's had his dhrink, he'd let the whole thing drop; but that blackguard
+of a sinthry has given us away. Sure I told you he would."
+
+"Then slide down the lightning-rod! Fly up the chimney! Evaporate! Dry
+up and blow away, but get _out_! You can't come in here."
+
+"Oh, for mercy's sake, Waring! Sure 'twas you that got me into the
+scrape. You know that I was dhrunk when you found me up the levee. You
+made me come down when I didn't want to. Hwat did I say to the man last
+night, anyhow?"
+
+"Say to him? Poor devil! why, you never can remember after you're drunk
+what you've been doing the night before. Some time it'll be the death
+of you. You abused him like a pickpocket,--the sergeant of the guard and
+everybody connected with it."
+
+"Oh, murther, murther, murther!" groaned the poor Irishman, sitting down
+and covering his face with his hands. "Sure they'll court-martial me
+this time without fail, and I know it. For God's sake, Waring, can't ye
+let a fellow in and say that I'm not here?"
+
+"Hyuh, dis way, lieutenant," whispered Ananias, mysteriously. "Slip out
+on de po'ch and into Mr. Pierce's room. I'll tell you when he's gone."
+And in a moment the huge bulk of the senior lieutenant of Light Battery
+"X" was being boosted through a window opening from the gallery into the
+bachelor den of the junior second lieutenant. No sooner was this done
+than the negro servant darted back, closed and bolted the long green
+Venetian blinds behind him, tiptoed to the bedroom door, and, softly
+tapping, called,--
+
+"Mr. Waring! Mr. Waring! get dressed quick as you can, suh; I'll lay out
+your uniform in hyuh."
+
+"I tell you, Ananias, I'm going to town, sir; not to any ridiculous
+review. Go and get what I ordered you. See that I'm properly dressed,
+sir, or I'll discharge you. Confound you, sir! there isn't a drop of
+Florida water in this bath, and none on my bureau. Go and rob Mr.
+Pierce,--or anybody."
+
+But Ananias was already gone. Darting out on the gallery, he took a
+header through the window of the adjoining quarters through which Mr.
+Doyle had escaped, snatched a long flask from the dressing-table, and
+was back in the twinkling of an eye.
+
+"What became of Mr. Doyle?" asked Waring, as he thrust a bare arm
+through a narrow aperture to receive the spoil. "Don't let him get
+drunk; _he's_ got to go to review, sir. If he doesn't, Colonel Braxton
+may be so inconsiderate as to inquire why both the lieutenants of 'X'
+Battery are missing. Take good care of him till the review, sir, then
+let him go to grass; and don't you dare leave me without Florida water
+again, if you have to burglarize the whole post. What's Mr. Doyle doing,
+sir?"
+
+"Peekin' froo de blin's in Mr. Pierce's room, suh; lookin' fo' de
+oade'ly. I done told him de cunnle was ahter him, but he ain't, suh,"
+chuckled Ananias. "I fixed it all right wid de gyahd dis mawnin', suh.
+Dey won' tell 'bout his cuttin' up las' night. He'd forgot de whole
+t'ing, suh; he allays does; he never does know what's happened de night
+befo'. He wouldn't 'a' known about dis, but I told his boy Jim to tell
+him 'bout it ahter stables. I told Jim to sweah dat dey'd repohted it to
+de cunnle."
+
+"Very well, Ananias; very well, sir; you're a credit to your name. Now
+go and carry out my orders. Don't forget Captain Cram's wagon. Tell
+Jeffers to be here with it on time." And the lieutenant returned to his
+bath without waiting for reply.
+
+"Ye-as, suh," was the subordinate answer, as Ananias promptly turned,
+and, whistling cheerily, went banging out upon the gallery and
+clattering down the open stairway to the brick-paved court below. Here
+he as promptly turned, and, noiseless as a cat, shot up the stairway,
+tiptoed back into the sitting-room, kicked off his low-heeled slippers,
+and rapidly, but with hardly an audible sound, resumed the work on which
+he had been engaged,--the arrangement of his master's kit.
+
+Already, faultlessly brushed, folded and hanging over the back of a
+chair close by the chamber door were the bright blue, scarlet-welted
+battery trousers then in vogue, very snug at the knee, very springy over
+the foot. Underneath them, spread over the square back of the chair, a
+dark-blue, single-breasted frock-coat, hanging nearly to the floor, its
+shoulders decked with huge epaulettes, to the right one of which were
+attached the braid and loops of a heavy gilt aiguillette whose
+glistening pendants were hung temporarily on the upper button. On the
+seat of the chair was folded a broad soft sash of red silk net, its
+tassels carefully spread. Beside it lay a pair of long buff gauntlets,
+new and spotless. At the door, brilliantly polished, stood a pair of
+buttoned gaiter boots, the heels decorated with small glistening brass
+spurs. In the corner, close at hand, leaned a long curved sabre, its
+gold sword-knot, its triple-guarded hilt, its steel scabbard and plated
+bands and rings, as well as the swivels and buckle of the black
+sword-belt, showing the perfection of finish in manufacture and care in
+keeping. From a round leather box Ananias now extracted a new gold-wire
+_fouragere_, which he softly wiped with a silk handkerchief, dandled
+lovingly an instant the glistening tassels, coiled it carefully upon
+the sash, then producing from the same box a long scarlet horsehair
+plume he first brushed it into shimmering freedom from the faintest knot
+or kink, then set it firmly through its socket into the front of a
+gold-braided shako whose black front was decked with the embroidered
+cross cannon of the regiment, surmounted by the arms of the United
+States. This he noiselessly placed upon the edge of the mantel, stepped
+back to complacently view his work, flicked off a possible speck of dust
+on the sleeve of the coat, touched with a chamois-skin the gold crescent
+of the nearest epaulette, then softly, noiselessly as before vanished
+through the door-way, tiptoed to the adjoining window, and peeked in.
+Mr. Doyle had thrown himself into Pierce's arm-chair, and was trying to
+read the morning paper.
+
+"Wunner what Mars'er Pierce will say when he gits back from breakfast,"
+was Ananias's comment, as he sped softly down the stairs, a broad grin
+on his black face, a grin that almost instantly gave place to
+preternatural solemnity and respect as, turning sharply on the sidewalk
+at the foot of the stairs, he came face to face with the battery
+commander. Ananias would have passed with a low obeisance, but the
+captain halted him short.
+
+"Where's Mr. Waring, sir?"
+
+"Dressin' fo' inspection, captain."
+
+"He is? I just heard in the mess-room that he didn't propose
+attending,--that he had an engagement to breakfast and was going in
+town."
+
+"Ye-as, suh, ye-as, suh, General Roosseau, suh, expected de lieutenant
+in to breakfast, but de moment he hyuhd 'twas review he ohdered me to
+git everything ready, suh. I's goin' for de bay colt now. Beg pahdon,
+captain, de lieutenant says is de captain goin' to wear gauntlets or
+gloves dis mawnin'? He wants to do just as de captain does, suh."
+
+What a merciful interposition of divine Providence it is that the
+African cannot blush! Captain Cram looked suspiciously at the earnest,
+unwinking, black face before him. Some memory of old college days
+flitted through his mind at the moment. "O Kunopes!" ("thou dog-faced
+one!") he caught himself muttering, but negro diplomacy was too much for
+him, and the innocence in the face of Ananias would have baffled a man
+far more suspicious. Cram was a fellow who loved his battery and his
+profession as few men loved before. He was full of big ideas in one way
+and little oddities in another. Undoubted ability had been at the bottom
+of his selection over the head of many a senior to command one of the
+light batteries when the general dismounting took place in '66. Unusual
+attractions of person had won him a wife with a fortune only a little
+later. The fortune had warranted a short leave abroad this very year.
+(He would not have taken a day over sixty, for fear of losing his light
+battery.) He had been a stickler for gauntlets on all mounted duty when
+he went away, and he came home converted to white wash-leather gloves
+because the British horse-artillery wore no other, "and they, sir, are
+the nattiest in the world." He could not tolerate an officer whose soul
+was not aflame with enthusiasm for battery duty, and so was perpetually
+at war with Waring, who dared to have other aspirations. He delighted in
+a man who took pride in his dress and equipment, and so rejoiced in
+Waring, who, more than any subaltern ever attached to "X," was the very
+glass of soldier fashion and mould of soldier form. He had dropped in at
+the bachelor mess just in time to hear some gabbling youngster blurt
+out a bet that Sam Waring would cut review and keep his tryst in town,
+and he had known him many a time to overpersuade his superiors into
+excusing him from duty on pretext of social claims, and more than once
+into pardoning deliberate absence. But he and the post commander had
+deemed it high time to block all that nonsense in future, and had so
+informed him, and were nonplussed at Waring's cheery acceptance of the
+implied rebuke and most airy, graceful, and immediate change of the
+subject. The whole garrison was chuckling over it by night.
+
+"Why, certainly, colonel," said he, "I _have_ been most derelict of late
+during the visit of all these charming people from the North; and that
+reminds me, some of them are going to drive out here to hear the band
+this afternoon and take a bite at my quarters. I was just on my way to
+beg Mrs. Braxton and Mrs. Cram to receive for me, when your orderly
+came. And, colonel, I want your advice about the champagne. Of course I
+needn't say I hope you both will honor me with your presence." Old Brax
+loved champagne and salad better than anything his profession afforded,
+and was disarmed at once. As for Cram, what could he say when the post
+commander dropped the matter? With all his daring disregard of orders
+and established customs, with all his consummate _sang-froid_ and what
+some called impudence and others "cheek," every superior under whom he
+had ever served had sooner or later become actually fond of Sam
+Waring,--even stern old Rounds,--"old Double Rounds" the boys called
+him, one of the martinets of the service, whose first experience with
+the fellow was as memorable as it was unexpected, and who wound up,
+after a vehement scoring of some two minutes' duration, during which
+Waring had stood patiently at attention with an expression of the
+liveliest sympathy and interest on his handsome face, by asking
+impressively, "Now, sir, what have you to say for yourself?"
+
+To which, with inimitable mixture of suavity and concern, Sam replied,
+"Nothing whatever, sir. I doubt if anything more could be said. I had no
+adequate idea of the extent of my misdoing. Have I your permission to
+sit down, sir, and think it over?"
+
+Rounds actually didn't know what to think, and still less what to say.
+Had he believed for an instant that the young gentleman was insincere,
+he would have had him in close arrest in the twinkling of an eye; but
+Waring's tone and words and manner were those of contrition itself. It
+was not possible that one of the boys should dare to be guying him, the
+implacable Rounds, "old Grand Rounds" of the Sixth Corps, old Double
+Rounds of the horse-artillery of the Peninsula days. Mrs. Rounds had her
+suspicions when told of the affair, but was silent, for of all the
+officers stationed in and around the old Southern city Sam Waring was by
+long odds the most graceful and accomplished dancer and german leader,
+the best informed on all manner of interesting matters,--social,
+musical, dramatic, fashionable,--the prime mover in garrison hops and
+parties, the connecting link between the families of the general and
+staff officers in town and the linesmen at the surrounding posts, the
+man whose dictum as to a dinner or luncheon and whose judgment as to a
+woman's toilet were most quoted and least questioned, the man whose word
+could almost make or mar an army girl's success; and good old Lady
+Rounds had two such encumbrances the first winter of their sojourn in
+the South, and two army girls among so many are subjects of not a little
+thought and care. If Mr. Waring had not led the second german with
+Margaret Rounds the mother's heart would have been well-nigh crushed. It
+was fear of some such catastrophe that kept her silent on the score of
+Waring's reply to her irate lord, for if Sam did mean to be impertinent,
+as he unquestionably could be, the colonel she knew would be merciless
+in his discipline and social amenities would be at instant end. Waring
+had covered her with maternal triumph and Margaret with bliss
+unutterable by leading the ante-Lenten german with the elder daughter
+and making her brief stay a month of infinite joy. The Rounds were
+ordered on to Texas, and Margaret's brief romance was speedily and
+properly forgotten in the devotions of a more solid if less fascinating
+fellow. To do Waring justice, he had paid the girl no more marked
+attention than he showed to any one else. He would have led the next
+german with Genevieve had there been another to lead, just as he had led
+previous affairs with other dames and damsels. It was one of the
+ninety-nine articles of his social faith that a girl should have a good
+time her first season, just as it was another that a bride should have a
+lovely wedding, a belle at least one offer a month, a married woman as
+much attention at an army ball as could be lavished on a bud. He prided
+himself on the fact that no woman at the army parties given that winter
+had remained a wall-flower. Among such a host of officers as was there
+assembled during the year that followed on the heels of the war it was
+no difficult matter, to be sure, to find partners for the thirty or
+forty ladies who honored those occasions with their presence. Of local
+belles there were none. It was far too soon after the bitter strife to
+hope for bliss so great as that. There were hardly any but army women to
+provide for, and even the bulkiest and least attractive of the lot was
+led out for the dance. Waring would go to any length to see them on the
+floor but that of being himself the partner. There the line was drawn
+irrevocably. The best dancer among the men, he simply would not dance
+except with the best dancers among the women. As to personal appearance
+and traits, it may be said first that Waring was a man of slender,
+graceful physique, with singularly well shaped hands and feet and a
+head and face that were almost too good-looking to be manly. Dark hazel
+eyes, dark brown hair, eyebrows, lashes, and a very heavy drooping
+moustache, a straight nose, a soft, sensitive mouth with even white
+teeth that were, however, rarely visible, a clear-cut chin, and with it
+all a soft, almost languid Southern intonation, musical, even
+ultra-refined, and he shrank like a woman from a coarse word or the
+utterance of an impure thought. He was a man whom many women admired, of
+whom some were afraid, whom many liked and trusted, for he could not be
+bribed to say a mean thing about one of their number, though he would
+sometimes be satirical to her very face. It was among the men that Sam
+Waring was hated or loved,--loved, laughed over, indulged, even spoiled,
+perhaps, to any and every extent, by the chosen few who were his chums
+and intimates, and absolutely hated by a very considerable element that
+was prominent in the army in those queer old days,--the array of
+officers who, by reason of birth, antecedents, lack of education or of
+social opportunities, were wanting in those graces of manner and
+language to which Waring had been accustomed from earliest boyhood. His
+people were Southerners, yet, not being slave-owners, had stood firm for
+the Union, and were exiled from the old home as a natural consequence in
+a war in which the South held all against who were not for her.
+Appointed a cadet and sent to the Military Academy in recognition of the
+loyalty of his immediate relatives, he was not graduated until the war
+was practically over, and then, gazetted to an infantry regiment, he was
+stationed for a time among the scenes of his boyhood, ostracized by his
+former friends and unable to associate with most of the war-worn
+officers among whom his lot was cast. It was a year of misery, that
+ended in long and dangerous illness, his final shipment to Washington on
+sick-leave, and then a winter of keen delight, a social campaign in
+which he won fame, honors, friends at court, and a transfer to the
+artillery, and then, joining his new regiment, he plunged with eagerness
+into the gayeties of city life. The blues were left behind with the cold
+facings of his former corps, and hope, life, duty, were all blended in
+hues as roseate as his new straps were red. It wasn't a month before all
+the best fellows in the batteries swore by Sam Waring and all the
+others at him, so that where there were five who liked there were at
+least twenty who didn't, and these made up in quantity what they lacked
+in quality.
+
+To sum up the situation, Lieutenant Doyle's expression was perhaps the
+most comprehensive, as giving the views of the great majority: "If I
+were his K. O. and this crowd the coort, he'd 'a' been kicked out of the
+service months ago."
+
+And yet, entertaining or expressing so hostile an opinion of the
+laughing lieutenant, Mr. Doyle did not hesitate to seek his society on
+many an occasion when he wasn't wanted, and to solace himself at
+Waring's sideboard at any hour of the day or night, for Waring kept what
+was known as "open house" to all comers, and the very men who wondered
+how he could afford it and who predicted his speedy swamping in a mire
+of debt and disgrace were the very ones who were most frequently to be
+found loafing about his gallery, smoking his tobacco and swigging his
+whiskey, a pretty sure sign that the occupant of the quarters, however,
+was absent. With none of their number had he ever had open quarrel.
+Remarks made at his expense and reported to him in moments of bibulous
+confidence he treated with gay disdain, often to the manifest
+disappointment of his informant. In his presence even the most reckless
+of their number were conscious of a certain restraint. Waring, as has
+been said, detested foul language, and had a very quiet but effective
+way of suppressing it, often without so much as uttering a word. These
+were the rough days of the army, the very roughest it ever knew, the
+days that intervened between the incessant strain and tension of the
+four years' battling and the slow gradual resumption of good order and
+military discipline. The rude speech and manners of the camp still
+permeated every garrison. The bulk of the commissioned force was made up
+of hard fighters, brave soldiers and loyal servants of the nation, to be
+sure, but as a class they had known no other life or language since the
+day of their muster-in. Of the line officers stationed in and around
+this Southern city in the lovely spring-tide of 186-, of a force
+aggregating twenty companies of infantry and cavalry, there were fifty
+captains and lieutenants appointed from the volunteers, the ranks, or
+civil life, to one graduated from West Point. The predominance was in
+favor of ex-sergeants, corporals, or company clerks,--good men and true
+when they wore the chevrons, but who, with a few marked and most
+admirable exceptions, proved to be utterly out of their element when
+promoted to a higher sphere. The entrance into their midst of Captain
+Cram with his swell light battery, with officers and men in scarlet
+plumes and full-dress uniforms, was a revelation to the sombre
+battalions whose officers had not yet even purchased their epaulettes
+and had seen no occasion to wear them. But when Cram and his lieutenants
+came swaggering about the garrison croquet-ground in natty shell
+jackets, Russian shoulder-knots, riding-breeches, boots, and spurs,
+there were not lacking those among the sturdy foot who looked upon the
+whole proceeding with great disfavor. Cram had two "rankers" with him
+when he came, but one had transferred out in favor of Waring, and now
+his battery was supplied with the full complement of subalterns,--Doyle,
+very much out of place, commanding the right section (as a platoon was
+called in those days), Waring commanding the left, Ferry serving as
+chief of caissons, and Pierce as battery adjutant and general utility
+man. Two of the officers were graduates of West Point and not yet three
+years out of the cadet uniform. Under these circumstances it was
+injudicious in Cram to sport in person the aiguillettes and thereby set
+an example to his subalterns which they were not slow to follow. With
+their gold hat-braids, cords, tassels, and epaulettes, with scarlet
+plumes and facings, he and his officers were already much more
+gorgeously bedecked than were their infantry friends. The post
+commander, old Rounds, had said nothing, because he had had his start in
+the light artillery and might have lived and died a captain had he not
+pushed for a volunteer regiment and fought his way up to a division
+command and a lieutenant-colonelcy of regulars at the close of the war,
+while his seniors who stuck to their own corps never rose beyond the
+possibilities of their arm of the service and probably never will. But
+Braxton, who succeeded as post commander, knew that in European armies
+and in the old Mexican War days the aiguillette was ordinarily the
+distinctive badge of general officers or those empowered to give orders
+in their name. It wasn't the proper thing for a linesman--battery,
+cavalry, or foot--to wear, said Brax, and he thought Cram was wrong in
+wearing it, even though some other battery officers did so. But Cram was
+just back from Britain.
+
+"Why, sir, look at the Life Guards! Look at the Horse Guards in London!
+Every officer and man wears the aiguillette." And Braxton was a Briton
+by birth and breeding, and that ended it,--at least so nearly ended it
+that Cram's diplomatic invitation to come up and try some Veuve
+Clicquot, extra dry, upon the merits of which he desired the colonel's
+opinion, had settled it for good and all. Braxton's officers who
+ventured to suggest that he trim the plumage of these popinjays only got
+snubbed, therefore, for the time being, and ordered to buy the infantry
+full dress forthwith, and Cram and his quartette continued to blaze
+forth in gilded panoply until long after Sam Waring led his last german
+within those echoing walls and his name lived only as a dim and
+mist-wreathed memory in the annals of old Jackson Barracks.
+
+But on this exquisite April morning no fellow in all the garrison was
+more prominent, if not more popular. Despite the slight jealousy
+existing between the rival arms of the service, there were good fellows
+and gallant men among the infantry officers at the post, who were as
+cordially disposed towards the gay lieutenant as were the comrades of
+his own (colored) cloth. This is the more remarkable because he was
+never known to make the faintest effort to conciliate anybody and was
+utterly indifferent to public opinion. It would have been fortune far
+better than his deserts, but for the fact that by nature he was most
+generous, courteous, and considerate. The soldiers of the battery were
+devoted to him. The servants, black or white, would run at any time to
+do his capricious will. The garrison children adored him. There was
+simply no subject under discussion at the barracks in those days on
+which such utter variety of opinion existed as the real character of
+Lieutenant Sam Waring. As to his habits there was none whatever. He was
+a _bon vivant_, a "swell," a lover of all that was sweet and fair and
+good and gracious in life. Self-indulgent, said everybody; selfish, said
+some; lazy, said many, who watched him day-dreaming through the haze of
+cigar-smoke until a drive, a hop, a ride, or an opera-party would call
+him into action. Slow, said the men, until they saw him catch Mrs.
+Winslow's runaway horse just at that ugly turn in the levee below the
+south tower. Cold-hearted, said many of the women, until Baby Brainard's
+fatal illness, when he watched by the little sufferer's side and brought
+her flowers and luscious fruit from town, and would sit at her mother's
+piano and play soft, sweet melodies and sing in low tremulous tone until
+the wearied eyelids closed and the sleep no potion could bring to that
+fever-racked brain would come at last for him to whom child-love was
+incense and music at once a passion and a prayer. Men who little knew
+and less liked him thought his enmity would be but light, and few men
+knew him so well as to realize that his friendship could be firm and
+true as steel.
+
+And so the garrison was mixed in its mind as to Mr. Waring, and among
+those who heard it said at the mess that he meant at all hazards to keep
+his engagement to breakfast in town there were some who really wished he
+might cut the suddenly-ordered review and thereby bring down upon his
+shapely, nonchalant head the wrath of Colonel Braxton.
+
+"Boots and Saddles" had sounded at the artillery barracks. Mr. Pierce,
+as battery officer of the day, had clattered off through the north
+gateway. The battery had marched with dancing plumes and clanking sabres
+out to the stables and gun-shed. The horses of Lieutenants Doyle and
+Ferry were waiting for their riders underneath the gallery of their
+quarters. Captain Cram, in much state, followed by his orderly bugler
+and guidon-bearer, all in full uniform, was riding slowly down the sunny
+side of the garrison, and at sight of him Doyle and Ferry, who were
+leisurely pulling on their gauntlets in front of their respective doors,
+hooked up their sabres and came clattering down their stairway; but no
+Waring had appeared. There, across the parade on the southern side, the
+bay colt, caparisoned in Waring's unimpeachable horse-equipments, was
+being led up and down in the shade of the quarters, Mr. Pierce's boy Jim
+officiating as groom, while his confrere Ananias, out of sight, was at
+the moment on his knees fastening the strap of his master's
+riding-trousers underneath the dainty gaiter boot, Mr. Waring the while
+surveying the proceeding over the rim of his coffee-cup.
+
+"Dar, suh. Now into de coat, quick! Yawnduh goes Captain Cram."
+
+"Ananias, how often have I told you that, howsoever necessary it might
+be for you to hurry, I never do? It's unbecoming an officer and a
+gentleman to hurry, sir."
+
+"But you's got to inspect yo' section, suh, befo' you can repote to
+Captain Cram. Please hurry wid de sash, suh." And, holding the belt
+extended with both hands, Ananias stood eager to clasp it around
+Waring's slender waist, but the lieutenant waved him away.
+
+"Get thee behind me, imp of Satan! Would you have me neglect one of the
+foremost articles of an artilleryman's faith? Never, sir! If there were
+a wrinkle in that sash it would cut a chasm in my reputation, sir." And,
+so saying, he stepped to the open door-way, threw the heavy tassel over
+and around the knob, kissed his hand jauntily to his battery commander,
+now riding down the opposite side of the parade, backed deliberately
+away the full length of the sash across the room, then, humming a
+favorite snatch from "Faust," deliberately wound himself into the bright
+crimson web, and, making a broad flat loop near the farther end and
+without stopping his song, nodded coolly to Ananias to come on with the
+belt. In the same calm and deliberate fashion he finished his military
+toilet, set his shako well forward on his forehead, the chin-strap
+hanging just below the under lip, pulled on the buff gauntlets, surveyed
+himself critically and leisurely in the glass, and then began slowly to
+descend the stairs.
+
+"Wait--jus' one moment, please, suh," implored Ananias, hastening after
+him. "Jus' happened to think of it, suh: Captain Cram's wearin' gloves
+dis mawnin'."
+
+"Ah! So much the more chance to come back here in ten minutes.--Whoa,
+coltikins: how are you this morning, sir? Think you could run away if I
+begged you to pretty hard? You'll try, won't you, old boy?" said Waring,
+stroking the glossy neck of the impatient bay.--"Now, Jim, let go. Never
+allow anybody to hold a horse for you when you mount. That's highly
+unprofessional, sir. That'll do." And, so saying, he swung himself into
+saddle, and, checking the bounds of his excited colt, rode calmly away
+to join the battery.
+
+Already the bandsmen were marching through the north gate on the way to
+the broad open field in which the manoeuvres were held. The adjutant,
+sergeant-major, and markers were following. Just outside the gate the
+post commander was seated on horseback, and Cram had reined in to speak
+with him. Now, in his blithest, cheeriest tones, Waring accosted them,
+raising his hand in salute as he did so:
+
+"Good-morning, colonel. Good-morning, Captain Cram. We're in luck
+to-day. Couldn't possibly have lovelier weather. I'm only sorry this
+came off so suddenly and I hadn't time to invite our friends out from
+town. They would have been so pleased to see the battalion;--the
+ceremonies."
+
+"H'm! There was plenty of time if you'd returned to the post at retreat
+yesterday, sir," growled old Braxton. "Everybody was notified who was
+here then. What time _did_ you get back, sir?"
+
+"Upon my word, colonel, I don't know. I never thought to look or
+inquire; but it was long after taps. Pardon me, though, I see I'm late
+inspecting." And in a moment he was riding quietly around among his
+teams and guns, narrowly scrutinizing each toggle, trace, and strap
+before taking station midway between his lead drivers, and then, as Cram
+approached, reporting, "Left section ready, sir."
+
+Meantime, the infantry companies were marching out through the gate and
+then ordering arms and resting until adjutant's call should sound.
+Drivers and cannoneers were dismounted to await the formation of the
+battalion line. Waring rode forward and in the most jovial off-hand way
+began telling Cram of the incidents of the previous day and his
+sight-seeing with the party of visitors from the North.
+
+"By the way, I promised Mr. Allerton that they should see that team of
+yours before they left: so, if you've no objection, the first morning
+you're on duty and can't go up, I'll take advantage of your invitation
+and drive Miss Allerton myself. Doesn't that court adjourn this week?"
+
+"I'm afraid not," said Cram, grimly. "It looks as though we'd have to
+sit to-day and to-morrow both."
+
+"Well, that's too bad! They all want to meet you again. Couldn't you
+come up this evening after stables? Hello! this won't do; our infantry
+friends will be criticising us: I see you're wearing gloves, and I'm in
+gauntlets. So is Doyle. We can't fit him out, I'm afraid, but I've just
+got some from New York exactly like yours. I'll trot back while we're
+waiting, if you don't object, and change them."
+
+Cram didn't want to say yes, yet didn't like to say no. He hesitated,
+and--was lost. In another moment, as though never imagining refusal were
+possible, Waring had quickly ridden away through the gate and
+disappeared behind the high brick wall.
+
+When the bugle sounded "mount," three minutes later, and the battery
+broke into column of pieces to march away to the manoeuvring grounds,
+Mr. Ferry left the line of caissons and took command of the rear
+section. All that the battery saw of Waring or his mount the rest of the
+morning was just after reaching the line, when the fiery colt came
+tearing riderless around the field, joyously dodging every attempt of
+the spectators to catch him, and revelling in the delight of kicking up
+his heels and showing off in the presence and sight of his envious
+friends in harness. Plunge though they might, the horses could not join;
+dodge though they might, the bipeds could not catch him. Review,
+inspection, and the long ceremonials of the morning went off without the
+junior first lieutenant of Battery "X," who, for his part, went off
+without ceremony of any kind, Cram's stylish team and wagon with him.
+That afternoon he reappeared driving about the barrack square, a pretty
+girl at his side, both engrossed in the music of the band and apparently
+oblivious of the bottled-up wrath of either battery or post commander.
+
+"Be gorra!" said Doyle, "I'd like to be in his place now, provided I
+didn't have to be in it to-morrow."
+
+But when the morrow came there came no Waring with it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+
+For twenty-four hours old Brax had been mad as a hornet. He was not much
+of a drillmaster or tactician, but he thought he was, and it delighted
+him to put his battalion through the form of review, the commands for
+which he had memorized thoroughly and delivered with resonant voice and
+with all proper emphasis. What he did not fancy, and indeed could not
+do, was the drudge-work of teaching the minutiae of the school of the
+battalion, explaining each movement before undertaking its execution.
+This was a matter he delegated to one of his senior captains. For a
+week, therefore, in preparation for a possible visit on the part of the
+new brigadier-general or his inspector, the six companies of the
+regiment stationed at the post had been fairly well schooled in the
+ceremonies of review and parade, and so long as nothing more was
+required of them than a march past in quick time and a ten minutes'
+stand in line all might go well. The general had unexpectedly appeared
+one evening with only a single aide-de-camp, simply, as he explained, to
+return the calls of the officers of the garrison, six or eight of whom
+had known enough to present themselves and pay their respects in person
+when he arrived in town. Braxton swelled with gratified pride at the
+general's praise of the spick-span condition of the parade, the walks,
+roads, and visible quarters. But it was the very first old-time garrison
+the new chief had ever seen, a splendid fighting record with the
+volunteers during the war, and the advantage of taking sides for the
+Union from a doubtful State, having conspired to win him a star in the
+regular service only a year or two before.
+
+"We would have had out the battery and given you a salute, sir," said
+Brax, "had we known you were coming; but it's after retreat now. Next
+time, general, if you'll ride down some day, I'll be proud to give you a
+review of the whole command. We have a great big field back here."
+
+And the general had promised to come. This necessitated combined
+preparation, hence the order for full-dress rehearsal with battery and
+all, and then came confusion. Fresh from the command of his beautiful
+horse-battery and the dashing service with a cavalry division, Cram
+hated the idea of limping along, as he expressed it, behind a battalion
+of foot, and said so, and somebody told Brax he had said so,--more than
+one somebody, probably, for Brax had many an adviser to help keep him in
+trouble. The order that Cram should appear for instruction in review of
+infantry and artillery combined gave umbrage to the battery commander,
+and his reported remarks thereupon, renewed cause for displeasure to his
+garrison chief.
+
+"So far as we're concerned," said Cram, who wanted to utilize the good
+weather for battery drill, "we need no instruction, as we have done the
+trick time and again before; and if we hadn't, who in the bloody
+Fifty-First is there to teach us? Certainly not old Brax."
+
+All the same the order was obeyed, and Cram started out that loveliest
+of lovely spring mornings not entirely innocent of the conviction that
+he and his fellows were going to have some fun out of the thing before
+they got through with it. Not that he purposed putting any hitch or
+impediment in the way. He meant to do just exactly as he was bid; and
+so, when adjutant's call had sounded and the blue lines of the infantry
+were well out on the field, he followed in glittering column of pieces,
+his satin-coated horses dancing in sheer exuberance of spirits and his
+red-crested cannoneers sitting with folded arms, erect and statuesque,
+upon the ammunition-chests. Mrs. Cram, in her pretty basket phaeton,
+with Mrs. Lawrence, of the infantry, and several of the ladies of the
+garrison in ambulances or afoot, had taken station well to the front of
+the forming line. Then it became apparent that old Brax purposed to
+figure as the reviewing officer and had delegated Major Minor to command
+the troops. Now, Minor had been on mustering and disbursing duty most of
+the war, had never figured in a review with artillery before, and knew
+no more about battery tactics than Cram did of diplomacy. Mounted on a
+sedate old sorrel, borrowed from the quartermaster for the occasion,
+with an antiquated, brass-bound Jenifer saddle, minus breast-strap and
+housings of any kind, but equipped with his better half's brown leather
+bridle, Minor knew perfectly well he was only a guy, and felt indignant
+at Brax for putting him in so false a plight. He took his station,
+however, in front of the regimental colors, without stopping to think
+where the centre of the line might be after the battery came, and there
+awaited further developments. Cram kept nobody waiting, however: his
+leading team was close at the nimble heels of Captain Lawrence's company
+as it marched gayly forth to the music of the band. He formed sections
+at the trot the instant the ground was clear, then wheeled into line,
+passed well to the rear of the prolongation of the infantry rank, and by
+a beautiful countermarch came up to the front and halted exactly at the
+instant that Lawrence, with the left flank company, reached his post,
+each caisson accurately in trace of its piece, each team and carriage
+exactly at its proper interval, and with his crimson silk guidon on the
+right flank and little Pierce signalling "up" or "back" from a point
+outside where he could verify the alignment of the gun-wheels on the
+rank of the infantry, Cram was able to command "front" before little
+Drake, the adjutant, should have piped out his shrill "Guides posts."
+
+But Drake didn't pipe. There stood all the companies at support, each
+captain at the inner flank, and the guides with their inverted muskets
+still stolidly gazing along the line. It was time for him to pipe, but,
+instead of so doing, there he stuck at the extreme right, glaring down
+towards the now immovable battery and its serene commander, and the
+little adjutant's face was getting redder and puffier every minute.
+
+"Go ahead! What are you waiting for?" hoarsely whispered the senior
+captain.
+
+"Waiting for the battery to dress," was the stanch reply. Then aloud the
+shrill voice swept down the line: "Dress that battery to the right!"
+
+Cram looked over a glittering shoulder to the right of the line, where
+stood the diminutive infantryman. The battery had still its war
+allowance of horses, three teams to each carriage, lead, swing, and
+wheel, and that brought its captain far out to the front of the sombre
+blue rank of foot,--so far out, in fact, that he was about on line with
+Major Minor, though facing in opposite direction. Perfectly confident
+that he was exactly where he should be, yet equally determined to abide
+by any order he might receive, even though he fully understood the cause
+of Drake's delay, Cram promptly rode over to the guidon and ordered
+"Right dress," at which every driver's head and eyes were promptly
+turned, but not an inch of a wheel, for the alignment simply could not
+be improved. Then after commanding "front" the captain as deliberately
+trotted back to his post without so much as a glance at the irate staff
+officer. It was just at this juncture that the bay colt came tearing
+down the field, his mane and tail streaming in the breeze, his reins and
+stirrups dangling. In the course of his gyrations about the battery and
+the sympathetic plunging of the teams some slight disarrangement
+occurred. But when he presently decided on a rush for the stables, the
+captain re-established the alignment as coolly as before, and only
+noticed as he resumed his post that the basket phaeton and Mrs. Cram had
+gone. Alarmed, possibly, by the non-appearance of her warm friend Mr.
+Waring and the excited gambolings of his vagrant steed, she had promptly
+driven back to the main garrison to see if any accident had occurred,
+the colt meantime amusing himself in a game of fast-and-loose with the
+stable guard.
+
+Then it was that old Brax came down and took a hand. Riding to where
+Minor still sat on his patient sorrel, the senior bluntly inquired,--
+
+"What the devil's the matter?"
+
+"I don't know," said Minor.
+
+"Who does know?"
+
+"Well, Drake, possibly, or else he doesn't know anything. He's been
+trying to get Cram to dress his battery back."
+
+"Why, yes, confound it! he's a mile ahead of the line," said the
+colonel, and off he trotted to expostulate with the batteryman. "Captain
+Cram, isn't there room for your battery back of the line instead of in
+front of it?" inquired the chief, in tone both aggrieved and aggressive.
+
+"Lots, sir," answered Cram, cheerfully. "Just countermarched there."
+
+"Then I wish you'd oblige me by moving back at once, sir: you're
+delaying the whole ceremony here. I'm told Mr. Drake has twice ordered
+you to dress to the right."
+
+"I've heard it, sir, only once, but have dressed twice, so it's all
+right," responded Cram, as affably as though he had no other aim in life
+than to gratify the whims of his post commander.
+
+"Why, confound it, sir, it isn't all right by a da---- good deal! Here
+you are 'way out on line with Major Minor, and your battery's----  why,
+it isn't dressed on our rank at all, sir. Just look at it."
+
+Cram resumed the carry with the sabre he had lowered in salute, calmly
+reversed so as to face his battery, and, with preternatural gravity of
+mien, looked along his front. There midway between his lead drivers sat
+Mr. Doyle, his face well-nigh as red as his plume, his bleary eyes
+nearly popping out of his skull in his effort to repress the emotions
+excited by this colloquy. There midway between the lead drivers in the
+left section sat Mr. Ferry, gazing straight to the front over the
+erected ears of his handsome bay and doing his very best to keep a
+solemn face, though the unshaded corners of his boyish mouth were
+twitching with mischief and merriment. There, silent, disciplined, and
+rigid, sat the sergeants, drivers, and cannoneers of famous old Light
+Battery "X," all agog with interest in the proceedings and all looking
+as though they never heard a word.
+
+"I declare, sir," said Cram, with exasperating civility, "I can see
+nothing out of the way. Will you kindly indicate what is amiss?"
+
+This was too much for Ferry. In his effort to restrain his merriment
+and gulp down a rising flood of laughter there was heard an explosion
+that sounded something like the sudden collapse of an inflated paper
+bag, and old Brax, glaring angrily at the boy, now red in the face with
+mingled mirth and consternation, caught sudden idea from the sight. Was
+the battery laughing at--was the battery commander guying--him? Was it
+possible that they were profiting by his ignorance of their regulations?
+It put him on his guard and suggested a tentative.
+
+"Do you mean that you are right in being so far ahead of our line
+instead of dressed upon it?" asked he of the big blond soldier in the
+glittering uniform. "Where do you find authority for it?"
+
+"Oh, perfectly right, colonel. In fact, for six years past I've never
+seen it done any other way. You'll find the authority on page 562, Field
+Artillery Tactics of 1864."
+
+For a moment Brax was dumb; he had long heard of Cram as an expert in
+his own branch of the service; but presently he burst forth:
+
+"Well, in _our_ tactics there's reason for every blessed thing we do,
+but I'll be dinged if I can see rhyme or reason in such a formation as
+that. Why, sir, your one company takes up more room than my six,--makes
+twice as much of a show. Of course if a combined review is to show off
+the artillery it's all very well. However, go ahead, if you think you're
+right, sir; go ahead! I'll inquire into this later."
+
+"I know we're right, colonel; and as for the reason, you'll see it when
+you open ranks for review and we come to 'action front:' then our line
+will be exactly that of the infantry. Meantime, sir, it isn't for us to
+go ahead. We've gone as far as we can until your adjutant makes the next
+move."
+
+But Braxton had ridden away disgusted before Cram wound up his remarks.
+
+"Go on, Major Minor; just run this thing without reference to the
+battery. Damned if I understand their methods. Let Cram look after his
+own affairs; if he goes wrong, why--it's none of our concern."
+
+And so Minor had nodded "Go ahead" to Mr. Drake, and presently the whole
+command made its bow, so to speak, to Minor as its immediate chief, and
+then he drew sword and his untried voice became faintly audible. The
+orders "Prepare for review" and "To the rear open order" were instantly
+followed by a stentorian "Action front" down at the left, the instant
+leap and rush of some thirty nimble cannoneers, shouts of "Drive on!"
+the cracking of whips, the thunder and rumble of wheels, the thud of
+plunging hoofs. Forty-eight mettlesome horses in teams of two abreast
+went dancing briskly away to the rear, at sight of which Minor dropped
+his jaw and the point of his sword and sat gazing blankly after them,
+over the bowed head of his placid sorrel, wondering what on earth it
+meant that they should all be running away at the very instant when he
+expected them to brace up for review. But before he could give utterance
+to his thoughts eight glossy teams in almost simultaneous sweep to the
+left about came sharply around again. The black muzzles of the guns were
+pointed to the front, every axle exactly in the prolongation of his
+front rank, every little group of red-topped, red-trimmed cannoneers
+standing erect and square, the chiefs of section and of pieces sitting
+like statues on their handsome horses, the line of limbers accurately
+covering the guns, and, still farther back, Mr. Pierce could be heard
+shouting his orders for the alignment of the caissons. In the twinkling
+of an eye the rush and thunder were stilled, the battery without the
+twitch of a muscle stood ready for review, and old Brax, sitting in
+saddle at the reviewing point, watching the stirring sight with gloomy
+and cynical eye, was chafed still more to hear in a silvery voice from
+the group of ladies the unwelcome words, "Oh, wasn't that pretty!" He
+meant with all his heart to pull in some of the plumage of those
+confounded "woodpeckers," as he called them, before the day was over.
+
+In grim silence, therefore, he rode along the front of the battalion,
+taking little comfort in the neatness of their quaint old-fashioned
+garb, the single-breasted, long-skirted frock-coats, the bulging black
+felt hats looped up on one side and decked with skimpy black feather,
+the glistening shoulder-scales and circular breastplates, the polish of
+their black leather belts, cartridge- and cap-boxes and
+bayonet-scabbards. It was all trim and soldierly, but he was bottling up
+his sense of annoyance for the benefit of Cram and his people. Yet what
+could he say? Neither he nor Minor had ever before been brought into
+such relations with the light artillery, and he simply didn't know where
+to hit. Lots of things looked queer, but after this initial experience
+he felt it best to say nothing until he could light on a point that no
+one could gainsay, and he found it in front of the left section.
+
+"Where is Mr. Waring, sir?" he sternly asked.
+
+"I wish I knew, colonel. His horse came back without him, as you
+doubtless saw, and, as he hasn't appeared, I'm afraid of accident."
+
+"How did he come to leave his post, sir? I have no recollection of
+authorizing anything of the kind."
+
+"Certainly not, colonel. He rode back to his quarters with my consent
+before adjutant's call had sounded, and he should have been with us
+again in abundant time."
+
+"That young gentleman needs more discipline than he is apt to receive at
+this rate, Captain Cram, and I desire that you pay closer attention to
+his movements than you have done in the past.--Mr. Drake," he said to
+his adjutant, who was tripping around after his chief afoot, "call on
+Mr. Waring to explain his absence in writing and without delay.--This
+indifference to duty is something to which I am utterly unaccustomed,"
+continued Braxton, again addressing Cram, who preserved a most
+uncompromising serenity of countenance; and with this parting shot the
+colonel turned gruffly away and soon retook his station at the reviewing
+point.
+
+Then came the second hitch. Minor had had no experience whatever, as has
+been said, and he first tried to wheel into column of companies without
+closing ranks, whereupon every captain promptly cautioned "Stand fast,"
+and thereby banished the last remnant of Minor's senses. Seeing that
+something was wrong, he tried again, this time prefacing with "Pass in
+review," and still the captains were implacable. The nearest one, in a
+stage whisper, tried to make the major hear "Close order, first." But
+all the time Brax was losing more of his temper and Minor what was left
+of his head, and Brax came down like the wolf on the fold, gave the
+command to "Close order" himself, and was instantly echoed by Cram's
+powerful shout "Limber to the rear," followed by "Pieces left about!
+Caissons forward!" Then in the rumble and clank of the responding
+battery, Minor's next command was heard by only the right wing of the
+battalion, and the company wheels were ragged. So was the next part of
+the performance when he started to march in review, never waiting, of
+course, for the battery to wheel into column of sections. This omission,
+however, in no wise disconcerted Cram, who, following at rapid walk,
+soon gained on the rear of column, passing his post commander in
+beautiful order and with most accurate salute on the part of himself and
+officers, and, observing this, Minor took heart, and, recovering his
+senses to a certain extent, gave the command "Guide left" in abundant
+time to see that the new guides were accurately in trace, thereby
+insuring what he expected to find a beautiful wheel into line to the
+left, the commands for which movement he gave in louder and more
+confident tone, but was instantly nonplussed by seeing the battery wheel
+into line to the _right_ and move off in exactly the opposite direction
+from what he had expected. This was altogether too much for his
+equanimity. Digging his spurs into the flanks of the astonished sorrel,
+he darted off after Cram, waving his sword, and shouting,--
+
+"_Left_ into line wheel, captain. _Left_ into line wheel."
+
+In vain Mr. Pierce undertook to explain matters. Minor presumed that
+the artilleryman had made an actual blunder and was only enabled to
+correct it by a countermarch, and so rode back to his position in front
+of the centre of the reforming line, convinced that at last he had
+caught the battery commander.
+
+When Braxton, therefore, came down to make his criticisms and comments
+upon the conduct of the review, Minor was simply amazed to find that
+instead of being in error Cram had gone exactly right and as prescribed
+by his drill regulations in wheeling to the right and gaining ground to
+the rear before coming up on the line. He almost peevishly declared that
+he wished the colonel, if he proposed having a combined review, would
+assume command himself, as he didn't care to be bothered with
+combination tactics of which he had never had previous knowledge. Being
+of the same opinion, Braxton himself took hold, and the next
+performance, though somewhat erroneous in many respects, was a slight
+improvement on the first, though Braxton did not give time for the
+battery to complete one movement before he would rush it into another.
+When the officers assembled to compare notes during the rest after the
+second repetition, Minor growled that this was "a little better, yet not
+good," which led to some one suggesting in low tone that the major got
+his positives and comparatives worse mixed than his tactics, and
+inquiring further "whether it might not be well to dub him Minor Major."
+The laughter that followed this sally naturally reached the ears of the
+seniors, and so Brax never let up on the command until the review went
+off without an error of any appreciable weight, without, in fact, "a
+hitch in the fut or an unhitch in the harse," as Doyle expressed it. It
+was high noon when the battalion got back to barracks and the officers
+hung out their moist clothing to dry in the sun. It was near one when
+the battery men, officers and all, came steaming up from the stables,
+and there was the colonel's orderly with the colonel's compliments and
+desires to see Captain Cram before the big battery man had time to
+change his dress.
+
+Braxton's first performance on getting into cool habiliments was to go
+over to his office and hunt through the book-shelves for a volume in
+which he never before had felt the faintest interest,--the Light
+Artillery Tactics of 1864. There on his desk lay a stack of mail
+unopened, and Mr. Drake was already silently inditing the summary note
+to the culprit Waring. Brax wanted first to see with his own eyes the
+instructions for light artillery when reviewed with other troops,
+vaguely hoping that there might still he some point on which to catch
+his foeman on the hip. But if there were he did not find it. He was
+tactician enough to see that even if Cram had formed with his leading
+drivers on line with the infantry, as Braxton thought he should have
+done, neither of the two methods of forming into battery would then have
+got his guns where they belonged. Cram's interpretation of the text was
+backed by the custom of service, and there was no use criticising it
+further. And so, after discontentedly hunting through the dust-covered
+pages awhile in hopes of stumbling on some codicil or rebuttal, the
+colonel shut it with a disgusted snap and tossed the offending tome on
+the farthest table. At that moment Brax could have wished the board of
+officers who prepared the Light Artillery Tactics in the nethermost
+depths of the neighboring swamp. Then he turned on his silent staff
+officer,--a not unusual expedient.
+
+"Why on earth, Mr. Drake, didn't you look up that point, instead of
+making such a break before the whole command?"
+
+"I couldn't find anything about it in Casey, sir, anywhere," replied the
+perturbed young man. "I didn't know where else to look."
+
+"Well, you might have asked Mr. Ferry or Mr. Pierce. The Lord knows you
+waste enough time with 'em."
+
+"_You_ might have asked Captain Cram," was what Drake wanted to say, but
+wisely did not. He bit the end of his penholder instead, and bridled his
+tongue and temper.
+
+"The next time I have a review with a mounted battery, by George!" said
+the post commander, finally, bringing his fist down on the table with a
+crash, "I just--won't have it."
+
+He had brought down the pile of letters as well as his fist, and Drake
+sprang to gather them, replacing them on the desk and dexterously
+slipping a paper-cutter under the flap of each envelope as he did so. At
+the very first note he opened, Brax threw himself back in his chair with
+a long whistle of mingled amazement and concern, then turned suddenly on
+his adjutant.
+
+"What became of Mr. Waring? He wasn't hurt?"
+
+"Not a bit, sir, that I know of. He drove to town with Captain Cram's
+team,--at least I was told so,--and left that note for you there, sir."
+
+"He did!--left the post and left a note for me? Why!----" But here
+Braxton broke off short, tore open the note, and read:
+
+
+"MY DEAR COLONEL,--I trust you will overlook the informality of my going
+to town without previously consulting you. I had purposed, of course,
+asking your permission, but the mishap that befell me in the runaway of
+my horse prevented my appearance at the review, and had I waited your
+return from the field it would have compelled me to break my engagement
+with our friends the Allertons. Under the circumstances I felt sure of
+your complaisance.
+
+"As I hope to drive Miss Allerton down after the _matinee_, might it not
+be a good idea to have dress-parade and the band out? They have seen the
+battery drills, but are much more desirous of seeing the infantry.
+                    "Most sincerely yours,
+                                   "S. G. WARING."
+
+
+"Well, for consummate impudence this beats the Jews!" exclaimed Brax.
+"Orderly, my compliments to Captain Cram, and say I wish to see him at
+once, if he's back from stables."
+
+Now, as has been said, Cram had had no time to change to undress
+uniform, but Mrs. Cram had received the orderly's message, had informed
+that martial Mercury that the captain was not yet back from stables, and
+that she would tell him at once on his return. Well she knew that
+mischief was brewing, and her woman's wit was already enlisted in behalf
+of her friend. Hurriedly pencilling a note, she sent a messenger to her
+liege, still busy with his horses, to bid him come to her, if only for a
+moment, on his way to the office. And when he came, heated, tired, but
+bubbling over with eagerness to tell her of the fun they had been having
+with Brax, she met him with a cool tankard of "shandygaff," which he had
+learned to like in England among the horse-artillery fellows, and
+declared the very prince of drinks after active exercise in hot weather.
+He quaffed it eagerly, flung off his shako and kissed her gratefully,
+and burst all at once into laughing narration of the morning's work, but
+she checked him:
+
+"Ned, dear, don't stop for that yet. I know you're too full of tact to
+let Colonel Braxton see it was any fun for you, and he's waiting at the
+office. Something tells me it's about Mr. Waring. Now put yourself in
+Mr. Waring's place. Of course he ought never to have made that
+engagement until he had consulted you, but he never dreamed that there
+would be a review to-day, and so he invited the Allertons to breakfast
+with him at Moreau's and go to the _matinee_."
+
+"Why, that rascal Ananias said it was to breakfast at the general's,"
+interrupted the battery commander.
+
+"Well, perhaps he was invited there too. I believe I did hear something
+of that. But he had made this arrangement with the Allertons. Now, of
+course, if review were over at ten he could just about have time to
+dress and catch the eleven-o'clock car, but that would make it very
+late, and when Bay Billy broke away from Ananias nobody could catch him
+for over half an hour. Mr. Ferry had taken the section, Mr. Waring
+wasn't needed, and---- Why, Ned, when I drove in, fearing to
+find him injured, and saw him standing there the picture of
+consternation and despair, and he told me about his engagement, I said
+myself, 'Why don't you go now?' I told him it was what you surely would
+say if you were here. Neither of us thought the colonel would object, so
+long as you approved, and he wrote such a nice note. Why, Ned, he only
+just had time to change his dress and drive up with Jeffers----"
+
+"With Jeffers? With my--er--our team and wagon? Well, I like----"
+
+"Of course you like it, you old darling. She's such a dear girl, though
+just a little bit gushing, you know. Why, I said, certainly the team
+should go. But, Ned, here's what I'm afraid of. Mrs. Braxton saw it
+drive in at nine-thirty, just after Billy ran away, and she asked
+Jeffers who was going, and he told her Mr. Waring, and she has told the
+colonel, I'll wager. Now, what you have got to do is to explain that to
+him, so that he won't blame Mr. Waring."
+
+"The dickens I have! The most barefaced piece of impudence even Sam
+Waring was ever guilty of--to me, at least, though I've no doubt he's
+done worse a dozen times. Why, bless your heart, Nell, how can I
+explain? You might, but----"
+
+"But would you have me suppose my big soldier couldn't handle that
+matter as well as I? No, sir! Go and do it, sir. And, mind you, I'm
+going to invite them all up here to the gallery to hear the band play
+and have a cup of tea and a nibble when they come down this evening.
+He's going to drive the Allertons here."
+
+"Worse and more of it! Why, you conspiracy in petticoats, you'll be the
+ruin of me! Old Brax is boiling over now. If he dreams that Waring has
+been taking liberties with him he'll fetch him up so short----"
+
+"Exactly! You mustn't let him. You must tell him I sent him up with your
+team--yours, mind you--to keep his engagement, since it was impossible
+for him to come back to review ground. Of course he wouldn't expect him
+to appear afoot."
+
+"Don't know about that, Nell. I reckon that's the way he'll order out
+the whole gang of us next time. He's had his fill of mounted work
+to-day."
+
+"Well, if he should, you be sure to acquiesce gracefully now. Whatsoever
+you do, don't let him put Mr. Waring in arrest while Gwen Allerton is
+here. It would spoil--everything."
+
+"Oh, match-making, is it? Then I'll try." And so, vexed, but laughing,
+half indignant, yet wholly subordinate to the whim of his beloved better
+half, the captain hastened over, and found Colonel Braxton sitting with
+gloomy brow at his littered desk, his annoyance of the morning evidently
+forgotten in matters more serious.
+
+"Oh--er--Cram, come in, come in, man," said he, distractedly. "Here's a
+matter I want to see you about. It's--well, just take that letter and
+read. Sit down, sit down. Read, and tell me what we ought to do about
+it."
+
+And as Cram's blue eyes wandered over the written page they began to
+dilate. He read from start to finish, and then dropped his head into his
+hand, his elbow on his knee, his face full of perplexity and concern.
+
+"What do you think of it? Is there any truth----" and the colonel
+hesitated.
+
+"As to their being seen together, perhaps. As to the other,--the
+challenge,--I don't believe it."
+
+"Well, Cram, this is the second or third letter that has come to me in
+the same hand. Now, you must see to it that he returns and doesn't quit
+the post until this matter is arranged."
+
+"I'll attend to it, sir," was the answer.
+
+And so that evening, while Waring was slowly driving his friends about
+the shaded roads under the glistening white pillars of the rows of
+officers' quarters, chatting joyously with them and describing the
+objects so strange to their eyes, Mrs. Cram's "little foot-page" came to
+beg that they should alight a few minutes and take a cup of tea. They
+could not. The Allertons were engaged, and it was necessary to drive
+back at once to town, but they stopped for a moment to chat with their
+pretty hostess under the gallery, and then a moment later, as they
+rolled out of the resounding sally-port, an orderly ran up, saluted, and
+slipped a note in Waring's hand.
+
+"It is immediate, sir," was his explanation.
+
+"Ah! Miss Allerton, will you pardon me one moment?" said Waring, as he
+shifted whip and reins into the left hand and turned coolly up the levee
+road. Then with the right he forced open and held up the missive.
+
+It only said, "Whatsoever you do, be here before taps to-night. Come
+direct to me, and I will explain.
+                                     "Your friend,
+                                           "CRAM."
+
+"All right," said Waring, aloud. "My compliments to the captain, and
+say I'll be with him."
+
+But even with this injunction he failed to appear. Midnight came without
+a word from Waring, and the morning dawned and found him absent still.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+
+It was one of Sam Waring's oddities that, like the hero of "Happy
+Thoughts," other people's belongings seemed to suit him so much better
+than his own. The most immaculately dressed man in the regiment, he was
+never satisfied with the result of the efforts of the New York artists
+whom he favored with his custom and his criticism. He would wear three
+or four times a new coat just received from that metropolis, and spend
+not a little time, when not on duty or in uniform, in studying
+critically its cut and fit in the various mirrors that hung about his
+bachelor den, gayly humming some operatic air as he conducted the
+survey, and generally winding up with a wholesale denunciation of the
+cutter and an order to Ananias to go over and get some other fellow's
+coat, that he might try the effect of that. These were liberties he took
+only with his chums and intimates, to be sure, but they were liberties
+all the same, and it was delicious to hear the laugh with which he
+would tell how Pierce had to dress in uniform when he went up to the
+opera Thursday night, or how, after he had worn Ferry's stylish morning
+suit to make a round of calls in town and that young gentleman later on
+went up to see a pretty girl in whom he felt a growing interest, her
+hateful little sister had come in and commented on his "borrowing Mr.
+Waring's clothes." No man in the battery would ever think of refusing
+Sam the use of anything he possessed, and there were half a dozen young
+fellows in the infantry who were just as ready to pay tribute to his
+whims. Nor was it among the men alone that he found such indulgence.
+Mrs. Cram had not known him a fortnight when, with twinkling eyes and a
+betraying twitch about the corners of his mouth, he appeared one morning
+to say he had invited some friends down to luncheon at the officers'
+mess and the mess had no suitable china, therefore he would thank her to
+send over hers, also some table-cloths and napkins, and forks and
+spoons. When the Forty-Sixth Infantry were on their way to Texas and the
+officers' families were entertained over-night at the barracks and his
+rooms were to be occupied by the wife, sister, and daughters of Captain
+Craney, Waring sent the battery team and spring wagon to town with a
+note to Mrs. Converse, of the staff, telling her the ladies had said so
+much about the lovely way her spare rooms were furnished that he had
+decided to draw on her for wash-bowls, pitchers, mosquito-frames, nets
+and coverlets, blankets, pillows, slips, shams, and anything else she
+might think of. And Mrs. Converse loaded up the wagon accordingly. This
+was the more remarkable in her case because she was one of the women
+with whom he had never yet danced, which was tantamount to saying that
+in the opinion of this social bashaw Mrs. Converse was not considered a
+good partner, and, as the lady entertained very different views on that
+subject and was passionately fond of dancing, she had resented not a
+little the line thus drawn to her detriment. She not only loaned,
+however, all he asked for, but begged to be informed if there were not
+something more she could do to help entertain his visitors. Waring sent
+her some lovely flowers the next week, but failed to take her out even
+once at the staff german. Mrs. Cram was alternately aghast and
+delighted at what she perhaps justly called his incomparable impudence.
+They were coming out of church together one lovely morning during the
+winter. There was a crowd in the vestibule. Street dresses were then
+worn looped, yet there was a sudden sound of rip, rent, and tear, and a
+portly woman gathered up the trailing skirt of a costly silken gown and
+whirled with annihilation in her eyes upon the owner of the offending
+foot.
+
+"That is far too elegant a skirt to be worn unlooped, madame," said Mrs.
+Cram's imperturbable escort, in his most suave and dulcet tones, lifting
+a glossy silk hat and bowing profoundly. And Mrs. Cram laughed all the
+way back to barracks at the recollection of the utter discomfiture in
+the woman's face.
+
+These are mere specimen bricks from the fabric which Waring had builded
+in his few months of artillery service. The limits of the story are all
+too contracted to admit of extended detail. So, without further
+expansion, it may be said that when he drove up to town on this eventful
+April day in Cram's wagon and Larkin's hat and Ferry's Hatfield clothes,
+with Pierce's precious London umbrella by his side and Merton's watch
+in his pocket, he was as stylish and presentable a fellow as ever issued
+from a battery barrack, and Jeffers, Cram's English groom, mutely
+approved the general appearance of his prime favorite among the officers
+at the post, at most of whom he opened his eyes in cockney amaze, and
+critically noted the skill with which Mr. Waring tooled the spirited
+bays along the levee road.
+
+Nearly a mile above the barracks, midway between the long embankment to
+their left and the tall white picket fence surmounted by the olive-green
+foliage of magnolias and orange-trees on the other hand, they had come
+upon a series of deep mud-holes in the way, where the seepage-water from
+the rapidly-rising flood was turning the road-way into a pond. Stuck
+helplessly in the mud, an old-fashioned cabriolet was halted. Its driver
+was out and up to his knees thrashing vainly at his straining,
+staggering horse. The tortuous road-way was blocked, but Waring had been
+up and down the river-bank too many times both day and night to be
+daunted by a matter so trivial. He simply cautioned Jeffers to lean well
+over the inner wheel, guided his team obliquely up the slope of the
+levee, and drove quietly along its level top until abreast the scene of
+the wreck. One glance into the interior of the cab caused him suddenly
+to stop, to pass the reins back to Jeffers, to spring down the slope
+until he stood at the edge of the sea of mud. Here he raised his hat and
+cried,--
+
+"Madame Lascelles! madame! this is indeed lucky--for me. Let me get you
+out."
+
+At his call a slender, graceful woman who was gazing in anxiety and
+dismay from the opposite side of the cab and pleading with the driver
+not to beat his horse, turned suddenly, and a pair of lovely dark eyes
+lighted up at sight of his face. Her pallor, too, gave instant place to
+a warm flush. A pretty child at her side clapped her little hands and
+screamed with delight,--
+
+"_Maman! maman! C'est M'sieu_' Vayreeng; _c'est_ Sa-am."
+
+"Oh, Monsieur Wareeng! I'm so glad you've come! Do speak to that man! It
+is horrible the way he beat that poor horse.--_Mais non_, Nin Nin!" she
+cried, reproving the child, now stretching forth her little arms to her
+friend and striving to rise and leap to him.
+
+"I'd like to know how in hell I'm to get this cab out of such a hole as
+this if I don't beat him," exclaimed the driver, roughly. Then once
+more, "Dash blank dash your infernal hide! I'll learn you to balk with
+me again!" Then down came more furious lashes on the quivering hide, and
+the poor tortured brute began to back, thereby placing the frail
+four-wheeler in imminent danger of being upset.
+
+"Steady there! Hold your hand, sir! Don't strike that horse again. Just
+stand at his head a moment and keep quiet till I get these ladies out,"
+called Waring, in tone quiet yet commanding.
+
+"I'll get 'em out myself in my own way, if they'll only stop their
+infernal yellin'," was the coarse reply.
+
+"Oh, Monsieur Wareeng," exclaimed the lady in undertone, "the man has
+been drinking, I am sure. He has been so rude in his language."
+
+Waring waited for no more words. Looking quickly about him, he saw a
+plank lying on the levee slope. This he seized, thrust one end across
+the muddy hole until it rested in the cab, stepped lightly across, took
+the child in his arms, bore her to the embankment and set her down,
+then sprang back for her young mother, who, trembling slightly, rose and
+took his outstretched hand just as another lash fell on the horse's back
+and another lurch followed. Waring caught at the cab-rail with one hand,
+threw the other arm about her slender waist, and, fairly lifting little
+Madame over the wheel, sprang with her to the shore, and in an instant
+more had carried her, speechless and somewhat agitated, to the top of
+the levee.
+
+"Now," said he, "let me drive you and Nin Nin wherever you were going.
+Is it to market or church?"
+
+"_Mais non_--to _bonne maman's_, of whom it is the _fete_," cried the
+eager little one, despite her mother's stern orders of silence. "Look!"
+she exclaimed, showing her dainty little legs and feet in creamy silken
+hose and kid.
+
+It was "bonne maman," explained Madame, who had ordered the cab from
+town for them, never dreaming of the condition of the river road or
+suspecting that of the driver.
+
+"So much the happier for me," laughed Waring.--"Take the front seat,
+Jeffers.--Now, Nin Nin, _ma fleurette_, up with you!" And the delighted
+child was lifted to her perch in the stylish trap she had so often
+admired. "Now, madame," he continued, extending his hand.
+
+But Madame hung back, hesitant and blushing.
+
+"Oh, Monsieur Wareeng, I cannot, I must not. Is it not that some one
+shall extricate the cab?"
+
+"No one from this party, at least," laughed Waring, mischievously making
+the most of her idiomatic query. "Your driver is more _cochon_ than
+_cocher_, and if he drowns in that mud 'twill only serve him right. Like
+your famous compatriot, he'll have a chance to say, 'I will drown, and
+no one shall help me,' for all I care. The brute! _Allons!_ I will drive
+you to _bonne maman's_ of whom it is the _fete_. Bless that baby
+daughter! And Madame d'Hervilly shall bless Nin Nin's _tout devoue_
+Sam."
+
+And Madame Lascelles found further remonstrance useless. She was lifted
+into the seat, by which time the driver, drunken and truculent, had
+waded after them.
+
+"Who's to pay for this?" was his surly question.
+
+"You, I fancy, as soon as your employer learns of your driving into that
+hole," was Waring's cool reply.
+
+"Well, by God, I want five dollars for my fare and trouble, and I want
+it right off." And, whip in hand, the burly, mud-covered fellow came
+lurching up the bank. Across the boggy street beyond the white picket
+fence the green blinds of a chamber window in an old-fashioned Southern
+house were thrown open, and two feminine faces peered forth, interested
+spectators of the scene.
+
+"Here, my man!" said Waring, in low tone, "you have earned no five
+dollars, and you know it. Get your cab out, come to Madame d'Hervilly's,
+where you were called, and whatever is your due will be paid you; but no
+more of this swearing or threatening,--not another word of it."
+
+"I want my money, I say, and I mean to have it. I'm not talking to you;
+I'm talking to the lady that hired me."
+
+"But I have not the money. It is for my mother--Madame d'Hervilly--to
+pay. You will come there."
+
+"I want it now, I say. I've got to hire teams to get my cab out. I got
+stalled here carrying you and your child, and I mean to have my pay
+right now, or I'll know the reason why. Your swell friend's got the
+money. It's none of my business how you pay him."
+
+But that ended the colloquy. Waring's fist landed with resounding whack
+under the cabman's jaw, and sent him rolling down into the mud below. He
+was up, floundering and furious, in less than a minute, cursing horribly
+and groping in the pocket of his overcoat.
+
+"It's a pistol, lieutenant. Look out!" cried Jeffers.
+
+There was a flash, a sharp report, a stifled cry from the cab, a scream
+of terror from the child. But Waring had leaped lightly aside, and
+before the half-drunken brute could cock his weapon for a second shot he
+was felled like a log, and the pistol wrested from his hand and hurled
+across the levee. Another blow crashed full in his face as he strove to
+find his feet, and this time his muddled senses warned him it were best
+to lie still.
+
+Two minutes more, when he lifted his battered head and strove to stanch
+the blood streaming from his nostrils, he saw the team driving briskly
+away up the crest of the levee; and, overcome by maudlin contemplation
+of his foeman's triumph and his own wretched plight, the cabman sat him
+down and wept aloud.
+
+And to his succor presently there came ministering angels from across
+the muddy way, one with a brogue, the other in a bandanna, and between
+the two he was escorted across a dry path to the magnolia-fringed
+enclosure, comforted with soothing applications without and within, and
+encouraged to tell his tale of woe. That he should wind it up with
+vehement expression of his ability to thrash a thousand swells like the
+one who had abused him, and a piratical prophecy that he'd drink his
+heart's blood within the week, was due not so much to confidence in his
+own powers, perhaps, as to the strength of the whiskey with which he had
+been liberally supplied. Then the lady of the house addressed her Ethiop
+maid-of-all-work:
+
+"Go you over to Anatole's now, 'Louette. Tell him if any of the byes are
+there I wahnt 'um. If Dawson is there, from the adjutant's office, I
+wahnt him quick. Tell him it's Mrs. Doyle, and never mind if he's been
+dhrinkin'; he shall have another dhrop here."
+
+And at her beck there presently appeared three or four besotted-looking
+specimens in the coarse undress uniform of the day, poor devils, absent
+without leave from their post below and hoping only to be able to beg
+or steal whiskey enough to stupefy them before the patrol should come
+and drag them away to the guard-house. Promise of liberal reward in
+shape of liquor was sufficient to induce three of their number to go out
+with the fuming cabman and help rescue his wretched brute and trap. The
+moment they were outside the gate she turned on the fourth, a pallid,
+sickly man, whose features were delicate, whose hands were white and
+slender, and whose whole appearance, despite glassy eyes and tremulous
+mouth and limbs, told the pathetic story of better days.
+
+"You're off ag'in, are you? Sure I heerd so, and you're mad for a dhrink
+now. Can ye write, Dawson, or must I brace you up furrst?"
+
+An imploring look, an unsteady gesture, alone answered.
+
+"Here, thin, wait! It's absinthe ye need, my buck. Go you into that room
+now and wash yourself, and I'll bring it, and whin the others come back
+for their whiskey I'll tell 'um you've gone. You're to do what I say,
+now, and Doyle will see you t'rough; if not, it's back to that hell in
+the guard-house you'll go, my word on it."
+
+"Oh, for God's sake, Mrs. Doyle----" began the poor wretch,
+imploringly, but the woman shut him off.
+
+"In there wid you! the others are coming." And, unbarring the front
+door, she presently admitted the trio returning to claim the fruits of
+their honest labor.
+
+"Is he gone? Did he tell you what happened?"
+
+"He's gone, yes," answered one: "he's gone to get square with the
+lieutenant and his cockney dog-robber. He says they both jumped on him
+and kicked his face in when he was down and unarmed and helpless. Was he
+lyin'?"
+
+"Oh, they bate him cruel. But did he tell you of the lady--who it was
+they took from him?"
+
+"Why, sure, the wife of that old Frenchman, Lascelles, that lives
+below,--her the lieutenant's been sparkin' this three months."
+
+"The very wan, mind ye!" replied the lady of the house, with significant
+emphasis and glance from her bleary eyes; "the very wan," she finished,
+with slow nodding accompaniment of the frowzy head. "And that's the kind
+of gintlemen that undertakes to hold up their heads over soldiers like
+Doyle. Here, byes, dhrink now, but be off ag'inst his coming. He'll be
+here any minute. Take this to comfort ye, but kape still about this till
+ye see me ag'in--or Doyle. Now run." And with scant ceremony the dreary
+party was hustled out through a paved court-yard to a gate-way opening
+on a side street. Houses were few and scattering so far below the heart
+of the city. The narrow strip of land between the great river and the
+swamp was cut up into walled enclosures, as a rule,--abandoned
+warehouses and cotton-presses, moss-grown one-storied frame structures,
+standing in the midst of desolate fields and decrepit fences. Only among
+the peaceful shades of the Ursuline convent and the warlike flanking
+towers at the barracks was there aught that spoke of anything but
+demoralization and decay. Back from the levee a block or two the double
+lines of strap-iron stretched over a wooden causeway between parallel
+wet ditches gave evidence of some kind of a railway, on which, at rare
+intervals, jogged a sleepy mule with a sleepier driver and a musty old
+rattle-trap of a car,--a car butting up against the animal's lazy hocks
+and rousing him occasionally to ringing and retaliatory kicks. Around
+the barracks the buildings were closer, mainly in the way of saloons;
+then came a mile-long northward stretch of track, with wet fields on
+either side, fringed along the river by solid structures and walled
+enclosures that told of days more prosperous than those which so closely
+followed the war. It was to one of these graceless drinking-shops and
+into the hands of a rascally "dago" known as Anatole that Mrs. Doyle
+commended her trio of allies, and being rid of them she turned back to
+her prisoner, their erstwhile companion. Absinthe wrought its work on
+his meek and pliant spirit, and the shaking hand was nerved to do the
+woman's work. At her dictation, with such corrections as his better
+education suggested, two letters were draughted, and with these in her
+hand she went aloft. In fifteen minutes she returned, placed one of
+these letters in an envelope already addressed to Monsieur Armand
+Lascelles, No.--Rue Royale, the other she handed to Dawson. It was
+addressed in neat and delicate feminine hand to Colonel Braxton, Jackson
+Barracks.
+
+"Now, Dawson, ye can't see her this day, and she don't want ye till you
+can come over here sober. Off wid ye now to barracks. They're all out
+at inspection yet, and will be for an hour. Lay this wid the colonel's
+mail on his desk, and thin go you to your own. Come to me this
+afthernoon for more dhrink if ye can tell me what he said and did when
+he read it. No! no more liquor now. That'll brace ye till dinnertime,
+and more would make ye dhrunk."
+
+Miserably he plodded away down the levee, while she, his ruler, throwing
+on a huge, dirty white sun-bonnet, followed presently in his tracks, and
+"shadowed" him until she saw him safely reach the portals of the
+barracks after one or two fruitless scouts into wayside bars in hope of
+finding some one to treat or trust him to a drink. Then, retracing her
+steps a few blocks, she rang sharply at the lattice gate opening into a
+cool and shaded enclosure, beyond which could be seen the white-pillared
+veranda of a long, low, Southern homestead. A grinning negro boy
+answered the summons.
+
+"It's you, is it, Alphonse? Is your mistress at home?"
+
+"No; gone town,--_chez Madame d'Hervilly_."
+
+"Madame Devillease, is it? Very well; you skip to town wid that note and
+get it in your master's hands before the cathedral clock strikes
+twelve, or ye'll suffer. There's a car in t'ree minutes."
+
+And then, well content with her morning's work, the consort of the
+senior first lieutenant of Light Battery "X" (a dame whose credentials
+were too clouded to admit of her reception or recognition within the
+limits of a regular garrison, where, indeed, to do him justice, Mr.
+Doyle never wished to see her, or, for that matter, anywhere else)
+betook herself to the magnolia-shaded cottage where she dwelt beyond the
+pale of military interference, and some hours later sent 'Louette to say
+to Doyle she wanted him, and Doyle obeyed. In his relief at finding the
+colonel had probably forgotten the peccadillo for which he expected
+punishment, in blissful possession of Mr. Waring's sitting-room and
+supplies now that Waring was absent, the big Irishman was preparing to
+spend the time in drinking his junior's health and whiskey and
+discoursing upon the enormity of his misconduct with all comers, when
+Ananias entered and informed him there was a lady below who wished to
+see him,--"lady" being the euphemism of the lately enfranchised for the
+females of their race. It was 'Louette with the mandate from her
+mistress, a mandate he dared not disregard.
+
+"Say I'll be along in a minute," was his reply, but he sighed and swore
+heavily, as he slowly reascended the stair. "Give me another dhrink,
+smut," he ordered Ananias, disregarding Ferry's suggestion, "Better
+drink no more till after dark." Then, swallowing his potion, he went
+lurching down the steps without another word. Ferry and Pierce stepped
+to the gallery and gazed silently after him as he veered around to the
+gate leading to the old war-hospital enclosure where the battery was
+quartered. Already his walk was perceptibly unsteady.
+
+"Keeps his head pretty well, even after his legs are gone," said Ferry.
+"Knows too much to go by the sally-port. He's sneaking out through the
+back gate."
+
+"Why, what does he go out there for, when he has the run of Waring's
+sideboard?"
+
+"Oh, didn't you hear? Mrs. Doyle sent for him."
+
+"That's it, is it? Sometimes I wonder which one of those two will kill
+the other."
+
+"Oh, he wouldn't dare. That fellow is an abject coward in the dark. He
+believes in ghosts, spooks, banshees, and wraiths,--everything
+uncanny,--and she'd haunt him if he laid his hands on her. There's only
+one thing that he'd be more afraid of than Bridget Doyle living, and
+that would be Bridget Doyle dead."
+
+"Why can't he get rid of her? What hold has she on him? This thing's an
+infernal scandal as it stands. She's only been here a month or so, and
+everybody in garrison knows all about her, and these doughboys don't
+make any bones about chaffing us on our lady friends."
+
+"Well, everybody supposed he had got rid of her years ago. He shook her
+when he was made first sergeant, just before the war. Why, I've heard
+some of the old stagers say there wasn't a finer-looking soldier in all
+the regiment than Jim Doyle when he married that specimen at
+Brownsville. Doyle, too, supposed she was dead until after he got his
+commission, then she reappeared and laid claim to him. It would have
+been an easy enough matter five years ago to prove she had forfeited all
+rights, but now he can't. Then she's got some confounded hold on him, I
+don't know what, but it's killing the poor beggar. Good thing for the
+regiment, though: so let it go."
+
+"Oh, I don't care a rap how soon we're rid of him or her,--the sooner
+the better; only I hate to hear these fellows laughing and sneering
+about Mrs. Doyle." And here the young fellow hesitated. "Ferry, you know
+I'm as fond of Sam Waring as any of you. I liked him better than any man
+in his class when we wore the gray. When they were yearlings we were
+plebes, and devilled and tormented by them most unmercifully day and
+night. I took to him then for his kindly, jolly ways. No one ever knew
+him to say or do a cross or brutal thing. I liked him more every year,
+and missed him when he was graduated. I rejoiced when he got his
+transfer to us. It's because I like him so much that I hate to hear
+these fellows making their little flings now."
+
+"What flings?" said Ferry.
+
+"Well, you know as much as I do. You've heard as much, too, I haven't a
+doubt."
+
+"Nobody's said anything about Sam Waring in my hearing that reflected on
+him in any way worth speaking of," said Ferry, yet not very stoutly.
+
+"Not on him so much, perhaps, as the world looks at this sort of thing,
+but on her. She's young, pretty, married to a man years her senior, a
+snuffy, frowzy old Frenchman. She's alone with her child and one or two
+servants from early morning till late evening, and with that weazened
+little monkey of a man the rest of the time. The only society she sees
+is the one or two gossipy old women of both sexes who live along the
+levee here. The only enjoyment she has is when she can get to her
+mother's up in town, or run up to the opera when she can get Lascelles
+to take her. That old mummy cares nothing for music and still less for
+the dance; she loves both, and so does Waring. _Monsieur le Mari_ goes
+out into the foyer between the acts to smoke his cigarette and gossip
+with other relics like himself. Waring has never missed a night she
+happened to be there for the last six weeks. I admit he is there many a
+time when she is not, but after he's had a few words with the ladies in
+the general's box, what becomes of him? I don't know, because I'm seldom
+there, but Dryden and Taggart and Jack Merton of the infantry can tell
+you. He is sitting by her in the D'Hervilly _loge grillee_ and going
+over the last act with her and rhapsodizing about Verdi, Bellini,
+Mozart, or Gounod,--Gounod especially and the garden-scene from
+'Faust.'"
+
+"Isn't her mother with her, and, being in mourning, doesn't she have to
+stay in her latticed loge instead of promenading in the foyer and
+drinking that two-headaches-for-a-picayune punch?" queried Ferry, eager
+for a diversion.
+
+"Suppose she is," answered Pierce, stoutly. "I'm a crank,--strait-laced,
+if you like. It's the fault of my bringing up. But I know, and you know,
+that that little woman, in her loneliness and in her natural longing for
+some congenial spirit to commune with, is simply falling madly in love
+with Sam Waring, and there will be tragedy here before we can stop it."
+
+"See here, Pierce," asked Ferry, "do you suppose Mrs. Cram would be so
+loyal a friend to Waring if she thought there was anything wrong in his
+attentions to Madame Lascelles? Do you suppose Cram himself wouldn't
+speak?"
+
+"He has spoken."
+
+"He has? To whom?"
+
+"To me, three days ago; said I had known Waring longest and best,
+perhaps was his most intimate friend, and he thought I ought to warn him
+of what people were saying."
+
+"What have you done?"
+
+"Nothing yet: simply because I know Sam Waring so well that I know just
+what he'd do,--go and pull the nose of the man who gossiped about him
+and her. Then we'd have a fight on our hands."
+
+"Well, we can fight, I suppose, can't we?"
+
+"Not without involving a woman's name."
+
+"Oh, good Lord, Pierce, was there ever a row without a woman _au fond_?"
+
+"That's a worm-eaten witticism, Ferry, and you're too decent a fellow,
+as a rule, to be cynical. I've got to speak to Waring, and I don't know
+how to do it. I want your advice."
+
+"Well, my advice is _Punch's_: Don't. Hello! here's Dryden. Thought you
+were on court duty up at head-quarters to-day, old man. Come in and have
+a wet?" Mr. Ferry had seen some happy days at Fortress Monroe when the
+ships of Her Majesty's navy lay off the Hygeia and the gallants of
+England lay to at the bar, and Ferry rejoiced in the vernacular of the
+United Service, so far as he could learn it, as practised abroad.
+
+"Thanks. Just had one over at Merton's. Hear you've been having review
+and all that sort of thing down here," said the infantryman, as he
+lolled back in an easy-chair and planted his boot-heels on the gallery
+rail. "Glad I got out of it. Court met and adjourned at ten, so I came
+home. How'd Waring get off?"
+
+"Huh!--Cram's wagon," laughed Ferry, rather uncomfortably, however.
+
+"Oh, Lord, yes, I know that. Didn't I see him driving Madame Lascelles
+up Rampart Street as I came down in the mule-car?"
+
+And then Pierce and Ferry looked at each other, startled.
+
+That evening, therefore, it was a comfort to both when Sam came tooling
+the stylish turnout through the sally-port and his battery chums caught
+sight of the Allertons. Pierce was just returning from stables, and
+Ferry was smoking a pipe of _perique_ on the broad gallery, and both
+hastened to don their best jackets and doff their best caps to these
+interesting and interested callers. Cram himself had gone off for a ride
+and a think. He always declared his ideas were clearer after a gallop.
+The band played charmingly. The ladies came out and made a picturesque
+croquet-party on the green carpet of the parade. The officers clustered
+about and offered laughing wagers on the game. A dozen romping children
+were playing joyously around the tall flag-staff. The air was rich with
+the fragrance of the magnolia and Cape jasmine, and glad with music and
+soft and merry voices. Then the stirring bugles rang out their lively
+summons to the batterymen beyond the wall. The drums of the infantry
+rolled and rattled their echoing clamor. The guard sprang into ranks,
+and their muskets, glistening in the slanting beams of the setting sun,
+clashed in simultaneous "present" to the red-sashed officer of the day,
+and that official raised his plumed hat to the lieutenant with the
+lovely girl by his side and the smiling elders on the back seat as the
+team once more made the circuit of the post on the back trip to town,
+and Miss Flora Allerton clasped her hands and looked enthusiastically up
+into her escort's face.
+
+"Oh," she cried, "isn't it all just too lovely for anything! Why, I
+think your life here must be like a dream."
+
+But Miss Allerton, as Mrs. Cram had said, sometimes gushed, and life at
+Jackson Barracks was no such dream as it appeared.
+
+The sun went down red and angry far across the tawny flood of the
+rushing river. The night lights were set at the distant bend below. The
+stars came peeping through a shifting filmy veil. The big trees on the
+levee and about the flanking towers began to whisper and complain and
+creak, and the rising wind sent long wisps of straggly cloud racing
+across the sky. The moon rose pallid and wan, hung for a while over the
+dense black mass of moss-grown cypress in the eastward swamp, then hid
+her face behind a heavy bank of clouds, as though reluctant to look upon
+the wrath to come, for a storm was rising fast and furious to break upon
+and deluge old Jackson Barracks.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+
+When Jeffers came driving into barracks on his return from town, his
+first care, as became the trained groom, was for his horses, and he was
+rubbing them down and bedding their stalls for the night when the
+sergeant of the battery guard, lantern in hand, appeared at the door. It
+was not yet tattoo, but by this time the darkness was intense, the
+heavens were hid, and the wind was moaning about the stables and
+gun-shed and whistling away over the dismal expanse of flat, wet,
+ditch-tangled fields towards the swamp. But the cockney's spirits were
+blithe as the clouds were black. As was usual when he or any other
+servitor was in attendance on Waring, the reward had been munificent. He
+had lunched at Cassidy's at the lieutenant's expense while that officer
+and his friends were similarly occupied at the more exclusive Moreau's.
+He had stabled the team at the quartermaster's while he had personally
+attended the _matinee_ at the St. Charles, which was more to his taste
+than Booth and high tragedy. He had sauntered about the Tattersalls and
+smoked Waring's cigars and patronized the jockeys gathered there for the
+spring meeting on the Metairie, but promptly on time was awaiting the
+return of the party from their drive and lolling about the ladies'
+entrance to the St. Charles Hotel, when he became aware, as the lamps
+were being lighted and the dusk of the evening gave place to lively
+illumination, that two men had passed and repassed the open portals
+several times, and that they were eying him curiously, and chattering to
+each other in French. One of them he presently recognized as the little
+"frog-eater" who occupied the old house on the levee, Lascelles, the
+husband of the pretty Frenchwoman he and the lieutenant had dragged out
+of the mud that very morning and had driven up to the old D'Hervilly
+place on Rampart Street. Even as he was wondering how cabby got out of
+his scrape and chuckling with satisfaction over the scientific manner in
+which Mr. Waring had floored that worthy, Mr. Jeffers was surprised to
+find himself most civilly accosted by old Lascelles, who had been
+informed, he said, by Madame his wife, of the heroic services rendered
+her that morning by Monsieur Jeffers and Monsieur le Capitaine. He
+begged of the former the acceptance of the small _douceur_ which he
+slipped into the Englishman's accustomed palm, and inquired when he
+might hope to see the brave captain and disembarrass himself of his
+burden of gratitude.
+
+"Here they come now," said Jeffers, promptly pocketing the money and
+springing forward to knuckle his hat-brim and stand at the horses'
+heads. All grace and animation, Mr. Waring had assisted his friends to
+alight, had promised to join them in the ladies' parlor in ten minutes,
+had sprung to the seat again, signalling Jeffers to tumble up behind,
+and then had driven rapidly away through Carondelet Street to the broad
+avenue beyond. Here he tossed the reins to Jeffers, disappeared a
+moment, and came back with a little Indian-made basket filled to
+overflowing with exquisite double violets rich with fragrance.
+
+"Give this to Mrs. Cram for me, and tell the captain I'll drop in to
+thank him in a couple of hours, and---- Here, Jeffers," he said, and
+Jeffers had pocketed another greenback, and had driven briskly
+homeward, well content with the result of his day's labors, and without
+having mentioned to Mr. Waring the fact that Lascelles had been at the
+hotel making inquiries for him. A day so profitable and so pleasant
+Jeffers had not enjoyed since his arrival at the barracks, and he was
+humming away in high good humor, all reckless of the rising storm, when
+the gruff voice of Sergeant Schwartz disturbed him:
+
+"Chevvers, you will rebort at vonst to Captain Cram."
+
+"Who says I will?" said Jeffers, cheerfully, though bent on mischief,
+but was awed into instant silence at seeing that veteran step quickly
+back, stand attention, and raise his hand in salute, for there came Cram
+himself, Pierce with him.
+
+"Did Mr. Waring come back with you?" was the first question.
+
+"No, sir; Hi left Mr. Warink on Canal Street. 'E said 'e'd be back to
+thank the capt'in in a little while, sir, and 'e sent these for the
+capt'in's lady."
+
+Cram took the beautiful basket of violets with dubious hand, though his
+eyes kindled when he noted their profusion and fragrance. Nell loved
+violets, and it was like Waring to remember so bountifully her fondness
+for them.
+
+"What detained him? Did he send no word?"
+
+"'E said nothink, and sent nothink but the basket, sir. 'E said a couple
+of hours, now I think of it, sir. 'E was going back to the 'otel to dine
+with a lady and gent."
+
+For a moment Cram was silent. He glanced at Pierce, as much as to say,
+Have you no question to ask? but the youngster held his peace. The
+senior officer hated to inquire of his servant into the details of the
+day's doings. He was more than half indignant at Waring for having taken
+such advantage of even an implied permission as to drive off with his
+equipage and groom in so summary a way. Of course Nell had said, Take it
+and go, but Nell could have had no idea of the use to which the wagon
+was to be put. If Waring left the garrison with the intention of using
+the equipage to take Madame Lascelles driving, it was the most underhand
+and abominable thing he had ever heard of his doing. It was unlike him.
+It couldn't be true. Yet had not Braxton shown him the letter which
+said he was seen on the levee with her by his side? Had not Dryden
+further informed every man and woman and child with whom he held
+converse during the day that he had seen Waring with Cram's team driving
+Madame Lascelles up Rampart Street, and was not there a story already
+afloat that old Lascelles had forbidden him ever to darken his threshold
+again,--forbidden Madame to drive, dance, or even speak with him? And
+was there not already in the post commander's hand a note intimating
+that Monsieur Lascelles would certainly challenge Waring to instant and
+mortal combat if Waring had used the wagon as alleged? Jeffers must know
+about it, and could and should tell if required, but Cram simply could
+not and would not ask the groom to detail the movements of the
+gentleman. Had not Waring sent word he would be home in two hours and
+would come to see his battery commander at once? Did not that mean he
+would explain fully? Cram gulped down the query that rose to his lips.
+
+"All right, then, Pierce; we'll take these over to Mrs. Cram and have a
+bite ready for Waring on his return," said the stout-hearted fellow,
+and, in refusing to question his servant, missed the chance of averting
+catastrophe.
+
+And so they bore the beautiful cluster of violets, with its mute pledge
+of fidelity and full explanation, to his rejoicing Nell, and the trio
+sat and chatted, and one or two visitors came in for a while and then
+scurried home as the rain began to plash on the windows, and the bugles
+and drums and fifes sounded far away at tattoo and more than usually
+weird and mournful at taps, and finally ten-thirty came, by which time
+it had been raining torrents, and the wind was lashing the roaring river
+into foam, and the trees were bowing low before their master, and the
+levee road was a quagmire, and Cram felt convinced no cab could bring
+his subaltern home. Yet in his nervousness and anxiety he pulled on his
+boots, threw his gum coat over his uniform, tiptoed in to bend over
+Nell's sleeping form and whisper, should she wake, that he was going
+only to the sally-port or perhaps over to Waring's quarters, but she
+slept peacefully and never stirred, so noiselessly he slipped out on the
+gallery and down the stairs and stalked boldly out into the raging
+storm, guided by the dim light burning in Waring's room. Ananias was
+sleeping curled up on a rug in front of the open fireplace, and Cram
+stirred him up with his foot. The negro rolled lazily over, with a
+stretch and yawn.
+
+"Did Mr. Waring take any arms with him?" queried the captain.
+
+"Any whut, suh?" responded Ananias, rubbing his eyes and still only half
+awake.
+
+"Any pistol or knife?"
+
+"Lord, suh, no. Mr. Waring don't never carry anything o' dat sort."
+
+A student-lamp was burning low on the centre-table. There lay among the
+books and papers a couple of letters, evidently received that day, and
+still unopened. There lay Waring's cigar-case, a pretty trifle given him
+by some far-away friend, with three or four fragrant Havanas temptingly
+visible. There lay a late magazine, its pages still uncut. Cram looked
+at the dainty wall clock, ticking merrily away over the mantel.
+Eleven-thirty-five! Well, he was too anxious to sleep anyhow, why not
+wait a few minutes? Waring might come, probably would come. If no cab
+could make its way down by the levee road, there were the late cars from
+town; they had to make the effort anyhow. Cram stepped to the
+sideboard, mixed a mild toddy, sipped it reflectively, then lighted a
+cigar and threw himself into the easy-chair. Ananias, meantime, was up
+and astir. Seeing that Cram was looking about in search of a
+paper-cutter, the boy stepped forward and bent over the table.
+
+"De lieutenant always uses dis, suh," said he, lifting first one paper,
+then another, searching under each. "Don't seem to be yer now, suh.
+You've seen it, dough, captain,--dat cross-handled dagger wid de
+straight blade."
+
+"Yes, I know. Where is it?" asked Cram. "That'll do."
+
+"'Tain't yer, suh, now. Can't find it yer, nohow."
+
+"Well, then, Mr. Waring probably took a knife, after all."
+
+"No, suh, I don't t'ink so. I never knowed him to use it befo' away from
+de room."
+
+"Anybody else been here?" said Cram.
+
+"Oh, dey was all in yer, suh, dis arternoon, but Mr. Doyle he was sent
+for, suh, and had to go."
+
+A step and the rattle of a sword were heard on the gallery without. The
+door opened, and in came Merton of the infantry, officer of the day.
+
+"Hello, Waring!" he began. "Oh, it's you, is it, captain? Isn't Waring
+back? I saw the light, and came up to chin with him a moment. Beastly
+night, isn't it?"
+
+"Waring isn't back yet. I look for him by the eleven-thirty car,"
+answered the captain.
+
+"Why, that's in. No Waring there, but half a dozen poor devils, half
+drowned and half drunk, more'n half drunk, one of your men among 'em. We
+had to put him into the guard-house to keep him from murdering Dawson,
+the head-quarters clerk. There's been some kind of a row."
+
+"Sorry to hear that. Who is the man?"
+
+"Kane. He said Dawson was lying about his officer and he wouldn't stand
+it."
+
+"Kane!" exclaimed Cram, rising. "Why, he's one of our best. I never
+heard of his being riotous before."
+
+"He's riotous enough to-night. He wanted to lick all six of our fellows,
+and if I hadn't got there when I did they would probably have kicked him
+into a pulp. All were drunk; Kane, too, I should say; and as for
+Dawson, he was just limp."
+
+"Would you mind going down and letting me talk with Kane a moment? I
+never knew him to be troublesome before, though he sometimes drank a
+little. He was on pass this evening."
+
+"Well, it's raining cats and dogs, captain, but come along. If you can
+stand it I can."
+
+A few minutes later the sergeant of the guard threw open one of the
+wooden compartments in the guard-house, and there sat Kane, his face
+buried in his hands.
+
+"I ordered him locked in here by himself, because I feared our fellows
+would hammer him if he were turned in with them," explained Mr. Merton,
+and at sound of the voice the prisoner looked up and saw his commander,
+dripping with wet. Unsteadily he rose to his feet.
+
+"Captain," he began, thickly, "I'd never have done it in the world, sir,
+but that blackguard was drunk, sir, and slandering my officer, and I
+gave him fair warning to quit or I'd hit him, but he kept on."
+
+"Ye-es? And what did he say?"
+
+"He said--I wouldn't believe it, sir--that Mr. Doyle was that drunk
+that him and some other fellers had lifted him out of the mud and put
+him to bed up there at--up there at the house, sir, back of Anatole's
+place. I think the captain knows."
+
+"Ah, you should have steered clear of such company, Kane. Did this
+happen at Anatole's saloon?"
+
+"Yes, sir, and them fellers was making so much noise that the dago
+turned them all out and shut up the shop at eleven o'clock, and that's
+what made them follow me home in the car and abuse me all the way. I
+couldn't stand it, sir."
+
+"You would only have laughed at them if your better judgment hadn't been
+ruined by liquor. Sorry for you, Kane, but you've been drinking just
+enough to be a nuisance, and must stay where you are for the night.
+They'll be sorry for what they said in the morning.--Did you lock up the
+others, Mr. Merton?" he asked, as they turned away.
+
+"All but Dawson, sir. I took him over to the hospital and put a sentry
+over him. That fellow looks to be verging on jimjams, and I wouldn't be
+surprised if he'd been talking as Kane says." Merton might have added,
+"and it's probably true," but courtesy to his battery friend forbade.
+Cram did add mentally something to the same effect, but loyalty to his
+arm of the service kept him silent. At the flag-staff the two officers
+stopped.
+
+"Merton, oblige me by saying nothing as to the alleged language about
+Doyle, will you?"
+
+"Certainly, captain. Good-night."
+
+Then, as the officer of the day's lantern flickered away in one
+direction, Cram turned in the other, and presently went climbing up the
+stairs to the gallery leading to the quarters of his senior first
+lieutenant. A dim light was shining through the shutters. Cram knocked
+at the door; no answer. Opening it, he glanced in. The room was
+unoccupied. A cheap marine clock, ticking between the north windows over
+the wash-stand, indicated midnight, and the battery commander turned
+away in vexation of spirit. Lieutenant Doyle had no authority to be
+absent from the post.
+
+It was still dark and storming furiously when the bugles of the battery
+sounded the reveille, and by the light of the swinging lanterns the men
+marched away in their canvas stable rig, looking like a column of
+ghosts. Yet, despite the gale and the torrents of rain, Pierce was in no
+wise surprised to find Cram at his elbow when the horses were led out to
+water.
+
+"Groom in-doors this morning, Mr. Pierce. Is Waring home?"
+
+"No, sir; Ananias told me when he brought me up my coffee."
+
+"Hold the morning report, then, until I come to the office. I fear we
+have both first lieutenants to report absent to-day. You and I may have
+to go to town: so get your breakfast early. We will ride. I doubt if
+even an ambulance could get through. Tell me, Pierce, have you spoken to
+Waring about--about that matter we were discussing? Has he ever given
+you any idea that he had received warning of any kind from old
+Lascelles--or any of his friends?"
+
+"No, sir. I've had no chance to speak, to be sure, and, so far as I
+could observe, he and Mr. Lascelles seemed on very excellent terms only
+a few days ago."
+
+"Well, I wish I had spoken myself," said Cram, and turned away.
+
+That morning, with two first lieutenants absent without leave, the
+report of Light Battery "X" went into the adjutant's office just as its
+commander and his junior subaltern went out and silently mounted the
+dripping horses standing in front. The two orderlies, with their heads
+poked through the slit of their ponchos, briskly seated themselves in
+saddle, and then the colonel hurried forth just in time to hail,--
+
+"Oh, Cram! one minute." And Cram reined about and rode to the side of
+the post commander, who stood under the shelter of the broad gallery.
+
+"I wouldn't say anything about this to any one at head-quarters except
+Reynolds. There's no one else on the staff to whom Waring would apply,
+is there?"
+
+"No one, sir. Reynolds is the only man I can think of."
+
+"Will you send an orderly back with word as soon as you know?"
+
+"Yes, sir, the moment I hear. And-d--shall I send you word
+from--there?"--and Cram nodded northward, and then, in a lower
+tone,--"as to Doyle?"
+
+"Oh, damn Doyle! I don't care if he never----" But here the commander of
+the post regained control of himself, and with parting wave of the hand
+turned back to his office.
+
+Riding in single file up the levee, for the city road was one long pool,
+with the swollen river on their left, and the slanting torrents of rain
+obscuring all objects on the other hand, the party made its way for
+several squares without exchanging a word. Presently the leading file
+came opposite the high wall of the Lascelles place. The green latticed
+gate stood open,--an unusual thing,--and both officers bent low over
+their pommels and gazed along the dark, rainswept alley to the pillared
+portico dimly seen beyond. Not a soul was in sight. The water was
+already on a level with the banquette, and would soon be running across
+and into the gate. A vagabond dog skulking about the place gave vent to
+a mournful howl. A sudden thought struck the captain. He led the way
+down the slope and forded across to the north side, the others
+following.
+
+"Joyce," said he to his orderly, "dismount and go in there and ring at
+the door. Ask if Mr. Lascelles is home. If not, ask if Madame has any
+message she would like to send to town, or if we can be of any service."
+
+The soldier was gone but a moment, and came hurrying back, a negro boy,
+holding a long fold of matting over his head to shed the rain, chasing
+at his heels. It was Alphonse.
+
+"M'sieu' not yet of return," said he, in labored translation of his
+negro French, "and Madame remain chez Madame d'Hervilly. I am alone wiz
+my mudder, and she has fear."
+
+"Oh, it's all right, I fancy," said Cram, reassuringly. "They were
+caught by the storm, and wisely stayed up-town. I saw your gate open, so
+we stopped to inquire. We'll ride over to Madame d'Hervilly's and ask
+for them. How came your gate open?"
+
+"_Mo connais pas_; I dunno, sare. It was lock' last night."
+
+"Why, that's odd," said Cram. "Better bolt it now, or all the cattle
+along the levee will be in there. You can't lock out the water, though.
+Who had the key besides Mr. Lascelles or Madame?"
+
+"Nobody, sare; but there is muddy foots all over the piazza."
+
+"The devil! I'll have to look in for a moment."
+
+A nod to Pierce brought him too from the saddle, and the officers
+handed their reins to the orderlies. Then together they entered the gate
+and strode up the white shell walk, looking curiously about them through
+the dripping shrubbery. Again that dismal howl was raised, and Pierce,
+stopping with impatient exclamation, tore half a brick from the yielding
+border of the walk and sent it hurtling through the trees. With his tail
+between his legs, the brute darted from behind a sheltering bush,
+scurried away around the corner of the house, glancing fearfully back,
+then, halting at safe distance, squatted on his haunches and lifted up
+his mournful voice again.
+
+"Whose dog is that?" demanded Cram.
+
+"M'sieu' Philippe's: he not now here. He is de brudder to Monsieur."
+
+At the steps the captain bent and closely examined them and the floor of
+the low veranda to which they led. Both were disfigured with muddy
+footprints. Pierce would have gone still further in the investigation,
+but his senior held up a warning hand.
+
+"Two men have been here," he muttered. "They have tried the door and
+tried the blinds.--Where did you sleep last night, boy?" and with the
+words he turned suddenly on the negro. "Did you hear no sound?"
+
+"No, sare. I sleep in my bed,--'way back. No, I hear noting,--noting."
+And now the negro's face was twitching, his eyes staring. Something in
+the soldier's stern voice told him that there was tragedy in the air.
+
+"If this door is locked, go round and open it from within," said Cram,
+briefly. Then, as Alphonse disappeared around the north side, he stepped
+back to the shell walk and followed one of its branches around the
+other. An instant later Pierce heard him call. Hastening in his wake,
+the youngster came upon his captain standing under a window, one of
+whose blinds was hanging partly open, water standing in pools all around
+him.
+
+"Look here," was all he said, and pointed upward.
+
+The sill was above the level of their heads, but both could see that the
+sash was raised. All was darkness within.
+
+"Come with me," was Cram's next order, and the lieutenant followed.
+Alphonse was unlocking the front door, and now threw it open. Cram
+strode into the wide hall-way straight to a door of the east side. It
+was locked. "Open this, Alphonse," he said.
+
+"I have not the key. It is ever with M'sieu' Lascelles. It is his
+library."
+
+Cram stepped back, gave one vigorous kick with a heavy riding-boot, and
+the frail door flew open with a crash. For a moment the darkness was
+such that no object could be distinguished within. The negro servant
+hung back, trembling from some indefinable dread. The captain, his hand
+on the door-knob, stepped quickly into the gloomy apartment, Pierce
+close at his heels. A broad, flat-topped desk stood in the centre of the
+room. Some shelves and books were dimly visible against the wall. Some
+of the drawers of the desk were open, and there was a litter of papers
+on the desk, and others were strown in the big rattan chair, some on the
+floor. Two student-lamps could be dimly distinguished, one on the big
+desk, another on a little reading-table placed not far from the south
+window, whose blinds, half open, admitted almost the only light that
+entered the room. With its head near this reading-table and faintly
+visible, a bamboo lounge stretched its length towards the southward
+windows, where all was darkness, and something vague and
+indistinguishable lay extended upon the lounge. Cram marched half-way
+across the floor, then stopped short, glanced down, and stepped quickly
+to one side, shifting his heavily-booted feet as though to avoid some
+such muddy pool as those encountered without.
+
+"Take care," he whispered, and motioned warningly to Pierce. "Come here
+and open these shutters, Alphonse," were the next words. But once again
+that prolonged, dismal, mournful howl was heard under the south window,
+and the negro, seized with uncontrollable panic, turned back and clung
+trembling to the opposite wall.
+
+"Send one of the men for the post surgeon at once, then come back here,"
+said the captain, and Pierce hastened to the gate. As he returned, the
+west shutters were being thrown open. There was light when he re-entered
+the room, and this was what he saw. On the China matting, running from
+underneath the sofa, fed by heavy drops from above, a dark wet stain. On
+the lounge, stretched at full length, a stiffening human shape, a
+yellow-white, parchment-like face above the black clothing, a bluish,
+half-opened mouth whose yellow teeth showed savagely, a fallen chin and
+jaw, covered with the gray stubble of unshaved beard, and two staring,
+sightless, ghastly eyes fixed and upturned as though in agonized appeal.
+Stone-dead,--murdered, doubtless,--all that was left of the little
+Frenchman Lascelles.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+
+All that day the storm raged in fury; the levee road was blocked in
+places by the boughs torn from overhanging trees, and here, there, and
+everywhere turned into a quagmire by the torrents that could find no
+adequate egress to the northward swamps. For over a mile above the
+barracks it looked like one vast canal, and by nine o'clock it was
+utterly impassable. No cars were running on the dilapidated road to the
+"half-way house," whatever they might be doing beyond. There was only
+one means of communication between the garrison and the town, and that,
+on horseback along the crest of the levee, and people in the
+second-story windows of the store- and dwelling-houses along the
+other side of the way, driven aloft by the drenched condition of the
+ground floor, were surprised to see the number of times some Yankee
+soldier or other made the dismal trip. Cram, with a party of four, was
+perhaps the first. Before the dripping sentries of the old guard were
+relieved at nine o'clock every man and woman at the barracks was aware
+that foul murder had been done during the night, and that old Lascelles,
+slain by some unknown hand, slashed and hacked in a dozen places,
+according to the stories afloat, lay in his gloomy old library up the
+levee road, with a flood already a foot deep wiping out from the grounds
+about the house all traces of his assailants. Dr. Denslow, in examining
+the body, found just one deep, downward stab, entering above the upper
+rib and doubtless reaching the heart,--a stab made by a long, straight,
+sharp, two-edged blade. He had been dead evidently some hours when
+discovered by Cram, who had now gone to town to warn the authorities,
+old Brax meantime having taken upon himself the responsibility of
+placing a guard at the house, with orders to keep Alphonse and his
+mother in and everybody else out.
+
+It is hardly worth while to waste time on the various theories advanced
+in the garrison as to the cause and means of the dreadful climax. That
+Doyle should be away from the post provoked neither comment nor
+speculation: he was not connected in any way with the tragedy. But the
+fact that Mr. Waring was absent all night, coupled with the stories of
+his devotions to Madame, was to several minds _prima facie_ evidence
+that his was the bloody hand that wrought the deed,--that he was now a
+fugitive from justice, and Madame Lascelles, beyond doubt, the guilty
+partner of his flight. Everybody knew by this time of their being
+together much of the morning: how could people help knowing, when Dryden
+had seen them? In his elegantly jocular way, Dryden was already
+condoling with Ferry on the probable loss of his Hatfield clothes, and
+comforting him with the assurance that they always gave a feller a new
+black suit to be hanged in, so he might get his duds back after all,
+only they must get Waring first. Jeffers doubtless would have been
+besieged with questions but for Cram's foresight: his master had ordered
+him to accompany him to town.
+
+In silence a second time the little party rode away, passing the flooded
+homestead where lay the murdered man, then, farther on, gazing in mute
+curiosity at the closed shutters of the premises some infantry satirists
+had already christened "the dove-cot." What cared they for him or his
+objectionable helpmate? Still, they could not but note how gloomy and
+deserted it all appeared, with two feet of water lapping the garden
+wall. Summoned by his master, Jeffers knuckled his oil-skin hat-brim and
+pointed out the spot where Mr. Waring stood when he knocked the cabman
+into the mud, but Jeffers's tongue was tied and his cockney volubility
+gone. The tracks made by Cram's wagon up the slope were already washed
+out. Bending forward to dodge the blinding storm, the party pushed along
+the embankment until at last the avenues and alleys to their right gave
+proof of better drainage. At Rampart Street they separated, Pierce going
+on to report the tragedy to the police, Cram turning to his right and
+following the broad thoroughfare another mile, until Jeffers, indicating
+a big, old-fashioned, broad-galleried Southern house standing in the
+midst of grounds once trim and handsome, but now showing signs of
+neglect and penury, simply said, "'Ere, sir." And here the party
+dismounted.
+
+Cram entered the gate and pulled a clanging bell. The door was almost
+instantly opened by a colored girl, at whose side, with eager joyous
+face, was the pretty child he had seen so often playing about the
+Lascelles homestead, and the eager joyous look faded instantly away.
+
+"She t'ink it M'sieur Vareeng who comes to arrive," explained the
+smiling colored girl.
+
+"Ah! It is Madame d'Hervilly I wish to see," answered Cram, briefly.
+"Please take her my card." And, throwing off his dripping raincoat and
+tossing it to Jeffers, who had followed to the veranda, the captain
+stepped within the hall and held forth his hands to Nin Nin, begging her
+to come to him who was so good a friend of Mr. Waring. But she would
+not. The tears of disappointment were in the dark eyes as the little one
+turned and ran away. Cram could hear the gentle, soothing tones of the
+mother striving to console her child,--the one widowed and the other
+orphaned by the tidings he bore. Even then he noted how musical, how
+full of rich melody, was that soft Creole voice. And then Madame
+d'Hervilly appeared, a stately, dignified, picturesque gentlewoman of
+perhaps fifty years. She greeted him with punctilious civility, but with
+manner as distant as her words were few.
+
+"I have come on a trying errand," he began, when she held up a slender,
+jewelled hand.
+
+"_Pardon. Permettez._--Madame Lascelles," she called, and before Cram
+could find words to interpose, a servant was speeding to summon the very
+woman he had hoped not to have to see.
+
+"Oh, madame," he murmured low, hurriedly, "I deplore my ignorance. I
+cannot speak French. Try to understand me. Mr. Lascelles is home,
+dangerously stricken. I fear the worst. You must tell her."
+
+"'Ome! _La bas? C'est impossible._"
+
+"It is true," he burst in, for the swish of silken skirt was heard down
+the long passage. "_Il est mort_,--_mort_" he whispered, mustering up
+what little French he knew and then cursing himself for an imbecile.
+
+"_Mort! O ciel!_" The words came with a shriek of anguish from the lips
+of the elder woman and were echoed by a scream from beyond. In an
+instant, wild-eyed, horror-stricken, Emilie Lascelles had sprung to her
+tottering mother's side.
+
+"When? What mean you?" she gasped.
+
+"Madame Lascelles," he sadly spoke, "I had hoped to spare you this, but
+it is too late now. Mr. Lascelles was found lying on the sofa in his
+library this morning. He had died hours before, during the night."
+
+And then he had to spring and catch the fainting woman in his arms. She
+was still moaning, and only semi-conscious, when the old family doctor
+and her brother, Pierre d'Hervilly, arrived.
+
+Half an hour later Cram astonished the aides-de-camp and other bored
+staff officials by appearing at the general loafing-room at
+head-quarters. To the chorus of inquiry as to what brought him up in
+such a storm he made brief reply, and then asked immediately to speak
+with the adjutant-general and Lieutenant Reynolds, and, to the disgust
+and mystification of all the others, he disappeared with these into an
+adjoining room. There he briefly told the former of the murder, and then
+asked for a word with the junior.
+
+Reynolds was a character. Tall, handsome, and distinguished, he had
+served throughout the war as a volunteer, doing no end of good work, and
+getting many a word of praise, but, as all his service was as a staff
+officer, it was his general who reaped the reward of his labors. He had
+risen, of course, to the rank of major in the staff in the volunteers,
+and everybody had prophesied that he would be appointed a major in the
+adjutant- or inspector-general's department in the permanent
+establishment. But there were not enough places by any means, and the
+few vacancies went to men who knew better how to work for themselves.
+"Take a lieutenancy now, and we will fix you by and by," was the
+suggestion, and so it resulted that here he was three years after the
+war wearing the modest strap of a second lieutenant, doing the duties
+and accepting the responsibilities of a far higher grade, and being
+patronized by seniors who were as much his inferiors in rank as they
+were in ability during the war days. Everybody said it was a shame, and
+nobody helped to better his lot. He was a man whose counsel was valuable
+on all manner of subjects. Among other things, he was well versed in all
+that pertained to the code of honor as it existed in the antebellum
+days,--had himself been "out," and, as was well known, had but recently
+officiated as second for an officer who had need of his services. He and
+Waring were friends from the start, and Cram counted on tidings of his
+absent subaltern in appealing to him. Great, therefore, was his
+consternation when in reply to his inquiry Reynolds promptly answered
+that he had neither seen nor heard from Waring in over forty-eight
+hours. This was a facer.
+
+"What's wrong, Cram?"
+
+"Read that," said the captain, placing a daintily-written note in the
+aide-de-camp's hand. It was brief, but explicit:
+
+"COLONEL BRAXTON: Twice have I warned you that the attentions of your
+Lieutenant Waring to Madame Lascelles meant mischief. This morning,
+under pretence of visiting her mother, she left the house in a cab, but
+in half an hour was seen driving with Mr. Waring. This has been, as I
+have reason to know, promptly carried to Monsieur Lascelles by people
+whom he had employed for the purpose. I could of told you last night
+that Monsieur Lascelles's friend had notified Lieutenant Waring that a
+duel would be exacted should he be seen with Madame again, and now it
+will certainly come. You have seen fit to scorn my warnings hitherto,
+the result is on your head." There was no signature whatever.
+
+"Who wrote this rot?" asked Reynolds. "It seems to me I've seen that
+hand before."
+
+"So have I, and pitched the trash into the fire, as I do everything
+anonymous that comes my way. But Brax says that this is the second or
+third, and he's worried about it, and thinks there may be truth in the
+story."
+
+"As to the duel, or as to the devotions to Madame?" asked Reynolds,
+calmly.
+
+"We-ll, both, and we thought you would be most apt to know whether a
+fight was on. Waring promised to return to the post at taps last night.
+Instead of that, he is gone,--God knows where,--and the old man, the
+reputed challenger, lies dead at his home. Isn't that ugly?"
+
+Reynolds's face grew very grave.
+
+"Who last saw Waring, that you know of?"
+
+"My man Jeffers left him on Canal Street just after dark last night. He
+was then going to dine with friends at the St. Charles."
+
+"The Allertons?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Then wait till I see the chief, and I'll go with you. Say nothing about
+this matter yet."
+
+Reynolds was gone but a moment. A little later Cram and the aide were at
+the St. Charles rotunda, their cards sent up to the Allertons' rooms.
+Presently down came the bell-boy. Would the gentleman walk up to the
+parlor? This was awkward. They wanted to see Allerton himself, and Cram
+felt morally confident that Miss Flora Gwendolen would be on hand to
+welcome and chat with so distinguished a looking fellow as Reynolds.
+There was no help for it, however. It would be possible to draw off the
+head of the family after a brief call upon the ladies. Just as they were
+leaving the marble-floored rotunda, a short, swarthy man in
+"pepper-and-salt" business suit touched Cram on the arm, begged a word,
+and handed him a card.
+
+"A detective,--already?" asked Cram, in surprise.
+
+"I was with the chief when Lieutenant Pierce came in to report the
+matter," was the brief response, "and I came here to see your man. He is
+reluctant to tell what he knows without your consent. Could you have him
+leave the horses with your orderly below and come up here a moment?"
+
+"Why, certainly, if you wish; but I can't see why," said Cram,
+surprised.
+
+"You will see, sir, in a moment."
+
+And then Jeffers, with white, troubled face, appeared, and twisted his
+wet hat-brim in nervous worriment.
+
+"Now what do you want of him?" asked Cram.
+
+"Ask him, sir, who was the man who slipped a greenback into his hand at
+the ladies' entrance last evening. What did he want of him?"
+
+Jeffers turned a greenish yellow. His every impulse was to lie, and the
+detective saw it.
+
+"You need not lie, Jeffers," he said, very quietly. "It will do no good.
+I saw the men. I can tell your master who one of them was, and possibly
+lay my hands on the second when he is wanted; but I want you to tell and
+to explain what that greenback meant."
+
+Then Jeffers broke down and merely blubbered.
+
+"Hi meant no 'arm, sir. Hi never dreamed there was hanythink wrong.
+'Twas Mr. Lascelles, sir. 'E said 'e came to thank me for 'elping 'is
+lady, sir. Then 'e wanted to see Mr. Warink, sir."
+
+"Why didn't you tell me of this before?" demanded the captain, sternly.
+"You know what happened this morning."
+
+"Hi didn't want to 'ave Mr. Warink suspected, sir," was poor Jeffers's
+half-tearful explanation, as Mr. Allerton suddenly entered the little
+hall-way room.
+
+The grave, troubled faces caught his eye at once.
+
+"Is anything wrong?" he inquired, anxiously. "I hope Waring is all
+right. I tried to induce him not to start, but he said he had promised
+and must go."
+
+"What time did he leave you, Mr. Allerton?" asked Cram, controlling as
+much as possible the tremor of his voice.
+
+"Soon after the storm broke,--about nine-thirty, I should say. He tried
+to get a cab earlier, but the drivers wouldn't agree to go down for
+anything less than a small fortune. Luckily, his Creole friends had a
+carriage."
+
+"His what?"
+
+"His friends from near the barracks. They were here when we came down
+into the rotunda to smoke after dinner."
+
+Cram felt his legs and feet grow cold and a chill run up his spine.
+
+"Who were they? Did you catch their names?"
+
+"Only one. I was introduced only as they were about to drive away. A
+little old fellow with elaborate manners,--a Monsieur Lascelles."
+
+"And Waring drove away with him?"
+
+"Yes, with him and one other. Seemed to be a friend of Lascelles. Drove
+off in a closed carriage with a driver all done up in rubber and
+oil-skin who said he perfectly knew the road. Why, what's gone amiss?"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+
+And all day long the storm beat upon the substantial buildings of the
+old barracks and flooded the low ground about the sheds and stables.
+Drills for the infantry were necessarily suspended, several sentries,
+even, being taken off their posts. The men clustered in the squad-rooms
+and listened with more or less credulity to the theories and
+confirmatory statements of fact as related by the imaginative or
+loquacious of their number. The majority of the officers gathered under
+the flaring lamp-lights at the sutler's store and occupied themselves
+pretty much as did their inferiors in grade, though poker and
+punch--specialties of Mr. Finkbein, the sutler--lent additional color to
+the stories in circulation.
+
+From this congress the better element of the commissioned force was
+absent, the names, nationalities, and idiomatic peculiarities of speech
+of the individual members being identical in most instances with those
+of their comrades in arms in the ranks. "Brax" had summoned Minor,
+Lawrence, Kinsey, and Dryden to hear what the post surgeon had to say on
+his return, but cautioned them to keep quiet. As a result of this
+precaution, the mystery of the situation became redoubled by one
+o'clock, and was intensified by two, when it was announced that Private
+Dawson had attempted to break away out of the hospital after a visit
+from the same doctor in his professional capacity. People were tempted
+out on their galleries in the driving storm, and colored servants
+flitted from kitchen to kitchen to gather or dispense new rumors, but
+nobody knew what to make of it when, soon after two, an orderly rode in
+from town dripping with mud and wet, delivered a note to the colonel,
+and took one from him to Mr. Ferry, now sole representative of the
+officers of Battery "X" present for duty. Ferry in return sent the
+bedraggled horseman on to the battery quarters with an order to the
+first sergeant, and in about fifteen minutes a sergeant and two men,
+mounted and each leading a spare horse, appeared under Ferry's gallery,
+and that officer proceeded to occupy one of the vacant saddles, and,
+followed by his party, went clattering out of the sally-port and
+splashing over to the levee. Stable-call sounded as usual at four
+o'clock, and, for the first time in the record of that disciplined
+organization since the devastating hand of Yellow Jack was laid upon it
+the previous year, no officer appeared to supervise the grooming and
+feeding. Two of them were at the post, however. Mr. Doyle, in arrest on
+charge of absence without leave, was escorted to his quarters about
+four-fifteen, and was promptly visited by sympathizing and inquisitive
+comrades from the Hotel Finkbein, while Mr. Ferry, who had effected the
+arrest, was detained making his report to the post commander. Night came
+on apace, the wind began to die away with the going down of the sun, the
+rain ceased to fall, a pallid moon began peering at odd intervals
+through rifts in the cloudy veil, when Cram rode splashing into
+barracks, worn with anxiety and care, at eleven o'clock, and, stopping
+only for a moment to take his wife in his arms and kiss her anxious face
+and shake his head in response to her eager query for news of Waring, he
+hurried down-stairs again and over to Doyle's quarters. All was darkness
+there, but he never hesitated. Tramping loudly over the gallery, he
+banged at the door, then, turning the knob, intending to burst right in,
+as was the way in the rough old days, was surprised to find the bolt
+set.
+
+"Doyle, open. I want to see you at once."
+
+All silence within.
+
+"Doyle, open, or, if you are too drunk to get up, I'll kick in the
+door."
+
+A groan, a whispered colloquy, then the rattle of bolt and chain. The
+door opened about an inch, and an oily Irish voice inquired,--
+
+"Hwat's wanted, capt'in?"
+
+"You here?" exclaimed Cram, in disgust. "What business have you in this
+garrison? If the colonel knew it, you'd be driven out at the point of
+the bayonet."
+
+"Sure where should wife be but at her husband's side whin he's sick and
+sufferin'? Didn't they root him out of bed and comfort this day and ride
+him down like a felon in all the storm? Sure it was the doughboys'
+orders, sir. I told Doyle the capt'in niver would have----"
+
+"Oh, be quiet: I must see Doyle, and at once."
+
+"Sure he's not able, capt'in. You know how it is wid him: he's that
+sinsitive he couldn't bear to talk of the disgrace he's bringin' on the
+capt'in and the batthery, and I knowed he'd been dhrinkin', sir, and I
+came back to look for him, but he'd got started, capt'in, and it's----"
+
+"Stop this talk! He wasn't drinking at all until you came back here to
+hound him. Open that door, or a file of the guard will."
+
+"Och! thin wait till I'm dressed, fur dacency's sake, capt'in. Sure I'll
+thry and wake him."
+
+And then more whispering, the clink of glass, maudlin protestation in
+Doyle's thick tones. Cram banged at the door and demanded instant
+obedience. Admitted at last, he strode to the side of an ordinary
+hospital cot, over which the mosquito-bar was now ostentatiously drawn,
+and upon which was stretched the bulky frame of the big Irishman, his
+red, blear-eyed, bloated face half covered in his arms. The close air
+reeked with the fumes of whiskey. In her distress lest Jim should take
+too much, the claimant of his name and protection had evidently been
+sequestrating a large share for herself.
+
+"How on earth did you get here? Your house was flooded all day," angrily
+asked Cram.
+
+"Sure we made a raft, sir,--'Louette and me,--and poled over to the
+levee, and I walked every fut of the way down to follow me husband, as I
+swore I would whin we was married. I'd 'a' come in Anatole's boat, sir,
+but 'twas gone,--gone since last night. Did ye know that, capt'in?"
+
+A groan and a feverish toss from the occupant of the narrow bed
+interrupted her.
+
+"Hush, Jim darlin'! Here's the capt'in to see you and tell you he's come
+back to have you roighted. Sure how could a poor fellow be expected to
+come home in all that awful storm this mornin', capt'in? 'Tis for not
+comin' the colonel had him under arrest; but I tell him the capt'in 'll
+see him through."
+
+But Cram pushed her aside as she still interposed between him and the
+bed.
+
+"Doyle, look up and answer. Doyle, I say!"
+
+Again vehement protestations, and now an outburst of tears and
+pleadings, from the woman.
+
+"Oh, he can't understand you, capt'in. Ah, don't be hard on him. Only
+this mornin' he was sayin' how the capt'in reminded him of the ould
+foine days whin the officers was all gintlemen and soldiers. He's truer
+to ye than all the rest of thim, sir. D'ye moind that, capt'in? Ye
+wouldn't belave it, mabby, but there's them that can tell ye Loot'nant
+Waring was no friend of yours, sir, and worse than that, if ould
+Lascelles could spake now--but there's thim left that can, glory be to
+God!"
+
+"Oh, for God's sake shut up!" spoke Cram, roughly, goaded beyond all
+patience. "Doyle, answer me!" And he shook him hard. "You were at the
+Pelican last night, and you saw Mr. Waring and spoke with him. What did
+he want of you? Where did he go? Who were with him? Was there any
+quarrel? Answer, I say! Do you know?" But maudlin moaning and
+incoherencies were all that Cram could extract from the prostrate man.
+Again the woman interposed, eager, tearful.
+
+"Sure he was there, capt'in, he _was_ there; he told me of it whin I
+fetched him home last night to git him out of the storm and away from
+that place; but he's too dhrunk now to talk. Sure there was no gittin'
+down here to barx for anybody. The cabman, sir, said no carriage could
+make it."
+
+"What cabman? That's one thing I want to know. Who is he? What became of
+him?"
+
+"Sure and how do I know, sir? He was a quiet, dacent man, sir; the same
+that Mr. Waring bate so cruel and made Jeffers kick and bate him too. I
+saw it all."
+
+"And was he at the Pelican last night? I must know."
+
+"Sure he was indade, sir. Doyle said so whin I fetched him home, and
+though he can't tell you now, sir, he told me thin. They all came down
+to the Pelican, sir, Waring and Lascelles and the other gintleman, and
+they had dhrink, and there was trouble between the Frenchman and
+Waring,--sure you can't blame him, wid his wife goin' on so wid the
+loot'nant all the last month,--and blows was struck, and Doyle
+interposed to stop it, sir, loike the gintleman that he is, and the
+cab-driver took a hand and pitched him out into the mud. Sure he'd been
+dhrinkin' a little, sir, and was aisy upset, but that's all he knows.
+The carriage drove away, and there was three of thim, and poor Doyle got
+caught out there in the mud and in the storm, and 'twas me wint out wid
+Dawson and another of the byes and fetched him in. And we niver heerd of
+the murther at all at all, sir, until I came down here to-day, that's
+God's troot', and he'll tell ye so whin he's sober," she ended,
+breathless, reckless of her descriptive confusion of Doyle and Divinity.
+
+And still the Irishman lay there, limp, soggy, senseless, and at last,
+dismayed and disheartened, the captain turned away.
+
+"Promise to sober him up by reveille, and you may stay. But hear this:
+if he cannot answer for himself by that time, out you go in the battery
+cart with a policeman to take you to the calaboose." And then he left.
+
+No sooner had his footsteps died away than the woman turned on her
+patient, now struggling to a sitting posture.
+
+"Lie still, you thafe and cur, and swear you to every word I say, unless
+you'd hang in his place. Dhrink this, now, and go to slape, and be riddy
+to tell the story I give ye in the mornin', or may the knife ye drove in
+that poor mummy's throat come back to cut your coward heart out."
+
+And Doyle, shivering, sobbing, crazed with drink and fear, covered his
+eyes with his hands and threw himself back on his hot and steaming
+pillow.
+
+The morning sun rose brilliant and cloudless as the horses of the
+battery came forth from the dark interior of the stable and, after
+watering at the long wooden trough on the platform, were led away by
+their white-frocked grooms, each section to its own picket-line. Ferry,
+supervising the duty, presently caught sight of the tall muscular form
+of his captain coming briskly around the corner, little Pierce tripping
+along by his side. Cram acknowledged the salute of the battery officer
+of the day in hurried fashion.
+
+"Good-morning, Ferry," he said. "Tell me, who were there when you got
+Doyle away from that woman yesterday?"
+
+"Only the three, sir,--Mr. and Mrs. Doyle and the negro girl."
+
+"No sign of anybody else?"
+
+"None, sir. I didn't go in the house at all. I rode in the gate and
+called for Doyle to come out. The woman tried to parley, but I refused
+to recognize her at all, and presently Doyle obeyed without any trouble
+whatever, though she kept up a tirade all the time and said he was too
+sick to ride, and all that, but he wasn't. He seemed dazed, but not
+drunk,--certainly not sick. He rode all right, only he shivered and
+crossed himself and moaned when he passed the Lascelles place, for that
+hound pup set up a howl just as we were opposite the gate. He was all
+trembling when we reached the post, and took a big drink the moment he
+got to his room."
+
+"Ye-es, he's been drinking ever since. I've just sent the doctor to see
+him. Let the corporal and one man of the guard go with the ambulance to
+escort Mrs. Doyle out of the garrison and take her home. She shall not
+stay."
+
+"Why, she's gone, sir," said Ferry. "The guard told me she went out of
+the back gate and up the track towards Anatole's--going for all she was
+worth--just after dawn."
+
+"The mischief she has! What can have started her? Did you see her
+yourself, Sergeant Bennett?" asked the captain of a stocky little Irish
+soldier standing at the moment with drawn sabre awaiting opportunity to
+speak to his commander.
+
+"Yes, sir," and the sabre came flashing up to the present. "She'd wint
+over to the hospital to get some medicine for the lieutenant just after
+our bugle sounded first call, and she came runnin' out as I wint to call
+the officer of the day, sir. She ran back to the lieutenant's quarters
+ahead of me, and was up only a minute or two whin down she came again
+wid some bundles, and away she wint to the north gate, runnin'
+wild-like. The steward told me a moment after of Dawson's escape."
+
+"Dawson! escaped from hospital?"
+
+"Yes, sir. They thought he was all right last evening when he was
+sleeping, and took the sentry off, and at four this morning he was
+gone."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+
+Forty-eight hours had passed, and not a trace had been found of
+Lieutenant Waring. The civil officers of the law had held grave converse
+with the seniors on duty at the barracks, and Cram's face was lined with
+anxiety and trouble. The formal inquest was held as the flood subsided,
+and the evidence of the post surgeon was most important. About the
+throat of the murdered man were indubitable marks of violence. The skin
+was torn as by finger-nails, the flesh bruised and discolored as by
+fiercely-grasping fingers. But death, said the doctor, was caused by the
+single stab. Driven downward with savage force, a sharp-pointed,
+two-edged, straight-bladed knife had pierced the heart, and all was over
+in an instant. One other wound there was, a slashing cut across the
+stomach, which had let a large amount of blood, but might possibly not
+have been mortal. What part the deceased had taken in the struggle could
+only be conjectured. A little five-chambered revolver which he
+habitually carried was found on the floor close at hand. Two charges had
+been recently fired, for the barrel was black with powder; but no one
+had heard a shot.
+
+The bar-keeper at the Pelican could throw but little light on the
+matter. The storm had broken, he said, with sudden fury. The rain dashed
+in torrents against his western front, and threatened to beat in the
+windows. He called to the two men who happened to be seated at a table
+to assist him, and was busy trying to get up the shutters, when
+Lieutenant Doyle joined them and rendered timely aid. He had frequently
+seen Doyle before during the previous month. Mrs. Doyle lived in the old
+Lemaitre house in the block below, and he often supplied them with
+whiskey. They drank nothing but whiskey. As they ran in the side door
+they were surprised to see the lights of a carriage standing at the edge
+of the banquette, and the driver begged for shelter for his team, saying
+some gentlemen had gone inside. The bar-keeper opened a gate, and the
+driver put his horses under a shed in a paved court in the rear, then
+came in for a drink. Meantime, said the bar-keeper, whose name was
+Bonelli, three gentlemen who were laughing over their escape from the
+storm had ordered wine and gone into a private room, Doyle with them.
+The only one he knew was Monsieur Lascelles, though he had seen one of
+the others frequently as he rode by, and knew him to be an officer
+before Mr. Doyle slapped him on the back and hailed him as "Sammy, old
+buck!" or something like that. Mr. Doyle had been drinking, and the
+gentleman whispered to him not to intrude just then, and evidently
+wanted to get rid of him, but Mr. Lascelles, who had ordered the wine,
+demanded to be introduced, and would take no denial, and invited Mr.
+Doyle to join them, and ordered more wine. And then Bonelli saw that
+Lascelles himself was excited by drink,--the first time he had ever
+noticed it in the year he had known him. The third gentleman he had
+never seen before, and could only say he was dark and sallow and did not
+talk, except to urge the driver to make haste,--they must go on; but he
+spoke in a low tone with Mr. Lascelles as they went to the room, and
+presently the rain seemed to let up a little, though it blew hard, and
+the driver went out and looked around and then returned to the private
+room where the gentlemen were having their wine, and there was some
+angry talk, and he came out in a few minutes very mad; said he wouldn't
+be hired to drive that party any farther, or any other party, for that
+matter; that no carriage could go down the levee; and then he got out
+his team and drove back to town; and then Bonelli could hear sounds of
+altercation in the room, and Mr. Doyle's voice, very angry, and the
+strange gentleman came out, and one of the men who'd been waiting said
+he had a cab, if that would answer, and he'd fetch it right off, and by
+the time he got back it was raining hard again, and he took his cab in
+under the shed where the carriage had been, and a couple of soldiers
+from the barracks then came in, wet and cold, and begged for a drink,
+and Bonelli knew one of them, called Dawson, and trusted him, as he
+often had done before. When Dawson heard Lieutenant Doyle's drunken
+voice he said there'd be trouble getting him home, and he'd better fetch
+Mrs. Doyle, and while he was gone Lascelles came out, excited, and threw
+down a twenty-dollar bill and ordered more Krug and some brandy, and
+there was still loud talk, and when Bonelli carried in the bottles
+Doyle was sitting back in a chair, held down by the other officer, who
+was laughing at him, but nevertheless had a knife in hand,--a long,
+sharp, two-edged knife,--and Doyle was calling him names, and was very
+drunk, and soon after they all went out into the rear court, and Doyle
+made more noise, and the cab drove away around the corner, going down
+the levee through the pouring rain, one man on the box with the driver.
+That was the last he saw. Then Mrs. Doyle came in mad, and demanded her
+husband, and they found him reeling about the dark court, swearing and
+muttering, and Dawson and she took him off between them. This must have
+been before eleven o'clock; and that was absolutely all he knew.
+
+Then Mr. Allerton had told his story again, without throwing the
+faintest light on the proceedings; and the hack-driver was found, and
+frankly and fully told his: that Lascelles and another gentleman hired
+him about eight o'clock to drive them down to the former's place, which
+they said was several squares above the barracks. He said that he would
+have to charge them eight dollars such a night anywhere below the old
+cotton-press, where the pavement ended. But then they had delayed
+starting nearly an hour, and took another gentleman with them, and when
+driven by the storm to shelter at the Pelican saloon, three squares
+below where the pavement ended, and he asked for his money, saying he
+dare go no farther in the darkness and the flood, the Frenchman wouldn't
+pay, because he hadn't taken them all the way. He pointed out that he
+had to bring another gentleman and had to wait a long time, and demanded
+his eight dollars. The other gentleman, whom he found to be one of the
+officers at the barracks, slipped a bill into his hand and said it was
+all he had left, and if it wasn't enough he'd pay him the next time he
+came to town. But the others were very angry, and called him an Irish
+thief, and then the big soldier in uniform said he wouldn't have a man
+abused because he was Irish, and Lieutenant Waring, as he understood the
+name of this other officer to be, told him, the witness, to slip out and
+say no more, that he'd fix it all right, and that was the last he saw of
+the party, but he heard loud words and the sound of a scuffle as he
+drove away.
+
+And Madame d'Hervilly had given her testimony, which, translated, was
+to this effect. She had known the deceased these twenty years. He had
+been in the employ of her lamented husband, who died of the fever in
+'55, and Monsieur had succeeded to the business, and made money, and
+owned property in town, besides the old family residence on the levee
+below. He was wedded to Emilie only a little while before the war, and
+lived at home all through, but business languished then, they had to
+contribute much, and his younger brother, Monsieur Philippe, had cost
+him a great deal. Philippe was an officer in the Zouaves raised in 1861
+among the French Creoles, and marched with them to Columbus, and was
+wounded and came home to be nursed, and Emilie took care of him for
+weeks and months, and then he went back to the war and fought bravely,
+and was shot again and brought home, and this time Monsieur Lascelles
+did not want to have him down at the house; he said it cost too much to
+get the doctors down there: so he came under Madame's roof, and she was
+very fond of the boy, and Emilie would come sometimes and play and sing
+for him. When the war was over Monsieur Lascelles gave him money to go
+to Mexico with Maximilian, and when the French were recalled many
+deserted and came over to New Orleans, and Monsieur Lascelles was making
+very little money now, and had sold his town property, and he borrowed
+money of her to help, as he said, Philippe again, who came to visit him,
+and he was often worried by Philippe's letters begging for money. Seven
+thousand dollars now he owed her, and only last week had asked for more.
+Philippe was in Key West to buy an interest in some cigar-business.
+Monsieur Lascelles said if he could raise three thousand to reach
+Philippe this week they would all make money, but Emilie begged her not
+to, she was afraid it would all go, and on the very day before he was
+found dead he came to see her in the afternoon on Rampart Street, and
+Emilie had told her of Mr. Waring's kindness to her and to Nin Nin, and
+how she never could have got up after being dragged into the mud by that
+drunken cabman, "and she begged me to explain the matter to her husband,
+who was a little vexed with her because of Mr. Waring." But he spoke
+only about the money, and did not reply about Mr. Waring, except that
+he would see him and make proper acknowledgment of his civility. He
+seemed to think only of the money, and said Philippe had written again
+and must have help, and he was angry at Emilie because she would not
+urge with him, and Emilie wept, and he went away in anger, saying he had
+business to detain him in town until morning, when he would expect her
+to be ready to return with him.
+
+Much of this testimony was evoked by pointed queries of the officials,
+who seemed somewhat familiar with Lascelles's business and family
+affairs, and who then declared that they must question the stricken
+widow. Harsh and unfeeling as this may have seemed, there were probably
+reasons which atoned for it. She came in on the arm of the old family
+physician, looking like a drooping flower, with little Nin Nin clinging
+to her hand. She was so shocked and stunned that she could barely answer
+the questions put to her with all courtesy and gentleness of manner. No,
+she had never heard of any quarrel between Monsieur Lascelles and his
+younger brother. Yes, Philippe had been nursed by her through his
+wounds. She was fond of Philippe, but not so fond as was her husband.
+Mr. Lascelles would do anything for Philippe, deny himself anything
+almost. Asked if Monsieur Lascelles had not given some reason for his
+objection to Philippe's being nursed at his house when he came home the
+second time, she was embarrassed and distressed. She said Philippe was
+an impulsive boy, fancied himself in love with his brother's wife, and
+Armand saw something of this, and at last upbraided him, but very
+gently. There was no quarrel at all. Was there any one whom Monsieur
+Lascelles had been angered with on her account? She knew of none, but
+blushed, and blushed painfully. Had the deceased not recently objected
+to the attentions paid her by other gentlemen? There was a murmur of
+reproach among the hearers, but Madame answered unflinchingly, though
+with painful blushes and tears. Monsieur Lascelles had said nothing of
+disapproval until very recently; _au contraire_, he had much liked Mr.
+Waring. He was the only one of the officers at the barracks whom he had
+ever invited to the house, and he talked with him a great deal; had
+never, even to her, spoken of a quarrel with him because Mr. Waring had
+been so polite to her, until within a week or two; then--yes, he
+certainly had. Of her husband's business affairs, his papers, etc., she
+knew little. He always had certain moneys, though not large sums, with
+all his papers, in the drawers of his cabinet, and that they should be
+in so disturbed a state was not unusual. They were all in order, closed
+and locked, when he started for town the morning of that fatal day, but
+he often left them open and in disorder, only then locking his library
+door. When she left for town, two hours after him, the library door was
+open, also the side window. She could throw no light on the tragedy. She
+had no idea who the stranger could be. She had not seen Philippe for
+nearly a year, and believed him to be at Key West.
+
+Alphonse, the colored boy, was so terrified by the tragedy and by his
+detention under the same roof with the murdered man that his evidence
+was only dragged from him. Nobody suspected the poor fellow of
+complicity in the crime, yet he seemed to consider himself as on trial.
+He swore he had entered the library only once during the afternoon or
+evening, and that was to close the shutters when the storm broke. He
+left a lamp burning low in the hall, according to custom, though he felt
+sure his master and mistress would remain in town over-night rather
+than attempt to come down. He had slept soundly, as negroes will,
+despite the gale and the roar of the rain that drowned all other noises.
+It was late the next morning when his mother called him. The old mammy
+was frightened to see the front gate open, the deep water in the
+streets, and the muddy footprints on the veranda. She called Alphonse,
+who found that his master must have come in during the night, after all,
+for the lamp was taken from the hall table, the library door was closed
+and locked, so was the front door, also barred within, which it had not
+been when he went to bed. He tapped at the library, got no answer, so
+tiptoed to his master's bedroom; it was empty and undisturbed. Neither
+had Madame nor Mademoiselle Nin Nin been to their rooms. Then he was
+troubled, and then the soldiers came and called him out into the rain.
+They could tell the rest.
+
+Cram's story is already told, and he could add nothing. The officials
+tried to draw the batteryman out as to the relations existing between
+Lieutenant Waring and Madame, but got badly "bluffed." Cram said he had
+never seen anything in the faintest degree worthy of comment. Had he
+heard anything? Yes, but nothing worthy of consideration, much less of
+repetition. Had he not loaned Mr. Waring his team and carriage to drive
+Madame to town that morning? No. How did he get it, then? Took it! Was
+Monsieur Waring in the habit of helping himself to the property of his
+brother officers? Yes, whenever he felt like it, for they never
+objected. The legal official thought such spirit of _camaraderie_ in the
+light artillery must make life at the barracks something almost poetic,
+to which Cram responded, "Oh, at times absolutely idyllic." And the tilt
+ended with the civil functionary ruffled, and this was bad for the
+battery. Cram never had any policy whatsoever.
+
+Lieutenant Doyle was the next witness summoned, and a more
+God-forsaken-looking fellow never sat in a shell jacket. Still in
+arrest, physically, at the beck of old Braxton, and similarly hampered,
+intellectually, at the will of bold John Barleycorn, Mr. Doyle came
+before the civil authorities only upon formal subpoena served at post
+head-quarters. The post surgeon had straightened him up during the day,
+but was utterly perplexed at his condition. Mrs. Doyle's appearance in
+the neighborhood some weeks before had been the signal for a series of
+sprees on the Irishman's part that had on two occasions so prostrated
+him that Dr. Potts, an acting assistant surgeon, had been called in to
+prescribe for him, and, thanks to the vigorous constitution of his
+patient, had pulled him out in a few hours. But this time "Pills the
+Less" had found Doyle in a state bordering on terror, even when assured
+that the quantity of his potations had not warranted an approach to
+tremens. The post surgeon had been called in too, and "Pills the
+Pitiless," as he was termed, thanks to his unfailing prescription of
+quinine and blue mass in the shape and size of buckshot, having no
+previous acquaintance, in Doyle, with these attacks, poohpoohed the
+case, administered bromides and admonition in due proportion, and went
+off about more important business. Dr. Potts, however, stood by his big
+patient, wondering what should cause him to start in such terror at
+every step upon the stair without, and striving to bring sleep to eyes
+that had not closed the livelong night nor all the balmy, beautiful day.
+Once he asked if Doyle wished him to send for his wife, and was startled
+at the vehemence of the reply, "For God's sake, no!" and, shuddering,
+Doyle had hidden his face and turned away. Potts got him to eat
+something towards noon, and Doyle begged for more drink, but was
+refused. He was sober, yet shattered, when Mr. Drake suddenly appeared
+just about stable-call and bade him repair at once to the presence of
+the commanding officer. Then Potts _had_ to give him a drink, or he
+would never have got there. With the aid of a servant he was dressed,
+and, accompanied by the doctor, reached the office. Braxton looked him
+over coldly.
+
+"Mr. Doyle," said he, "the civil authorities have made requisition
+for----" But he had got no further when Doyle staggered, and but for the
+doctor's help might have fallen.
+
+"For God's sake, colonel, it isn't true! Sure I know nothing of it at
+all at all, sir. Indade, indade, I was blind dhrunk, colonel. Sure
+they'd swear a man's life away, sir, just because he was the one--he was
+the one that----"
+
+"Be silent, sir. You are not accused, that I know of. It is as a witness
+you are needed.--Is he in condition to testify, doctor?"
+
+"He is well enough, sir, to tell what he knows, but he claims to know
+nothing." And this, too, Doyle eagerly seconded, but was sent along in
+the ambulance, with the doctor to keep him out of mischief, and a
+parting shot to the effect that when the coroner was through with him
+the post commander would take hold again, so the colonel depressed more
+than the cocktail stimulated, and, as luck would have it, almost the
+first person to meet him inside the gloomy enclosure was his wife, and
+her few whispered words only added to his misery.
+
+The water still lay in pools about the premises, and the police had
+allowed certain of the neighbors to stream in and stare at the white
+walls and shaded windows, but only a favored few penetrated the hall-way
+and rooms where the investigation was being held. Doyle shook like one
+with the palsy as he ascended the little flight of steps and passed into
+the open door-way, still accompanied by "Little Pills." People looked at
+him with marked curiosity. He was questioned, re-questioned,
+cross-questioned, but the result was only a hopeless tangle. He really
+added nothing to the testimony of the hack-driver and Bonelli. In abject
+remorse and misery he begged them to understand he was drunk when he
+joined the party, got drunker, dimly remembered there was a quarrel, but
+he had no cause to quarrel with any one, and that was all; he never knew
+how he got home. He covered his face in his shaking hands at last, and
+seemed on the verge of a fit of crying.
+
+But then came sensation.
+
+Quietly rising from his seat, the official who so recently had had the
+verbal tilt with Cram held forth a rusty, cross-hilted, two-edged knife
+that looked as though it might have lain in the mud and wet for hours.
+
+"Have you ever seen this knife before?" he asked. And Doyle, lifting up
+his eyes one instant, groaned, shuddered, and said,--
+
+"Oh, my God, yes!"
+
+"Whose property is it or was it?"
+
+At first he would not reply. He moaned and shook. At last--
+
+"Sure the initials are on the top," he cried.
+
+But the official was relentless.
+
+"Tell us what they are and what they represent."
+
+People were crowding the hall-way and forcing themselves into the room.
+Cram and Ferry, curiously watching their ill-starred comrade, had
+exchanged glances of dismay when the knife was so suddenly produced. Now
+they bent breathlessly forward.
+
+The silence for the moment was oppressive.
+
+"If it's the knife I mane," he sobbed at last, desperately, miserably,
+"the letters are S. B. W., and it belongs to Lieutenant Waring of our
+bathery."
+
+But no questioning, however adroit, could elicit from him the faintest
+information as to how it got there. The last time he remembered seeing
+it, he said, was on Mr. Waring's table the morning of the review. A
+detective testified to having found it among the bushes under the window
+as the water receded. Ferry and the miserable Ananias were called, and
+they, too, had to identify the knife, and admit that neither had seen it
+about the room since Mr. Waring left for town. Of other witnesses
+called, came first the proprietor of the stable to which the cab
+belonged. Horse and cab, he said, covered with mud, were found under a
+shed two blocks below the French Market, and the only thing in the cab
+was a handsome silk umbrella, London make, which Lieutenant Pierce laid
+claim to. Mrs. Doyle swore that as she was going in search of her
+husband she met the cab just below the Pelican, driving furiously away,
+and that in the flash of lightning she recognized the driver as the man
+whom Lieutenant Waring had beaten that morning on the levee in front of
+her place. A stranger was seated beside him. There were two gentlemen
+inside, but she saw the face of only one,--Lieutenant Waring.
+
+Nobody else could throw any light on the matter. The doctor, recalled,
+declared the knife or dagger was shaped exactly as would have to be the
+one that gave the death-blow. Everything pointed to the fact that there
+had been a struggle, a deadly encounter, and that after the fatal work
+was done the murderer or murderers had left the doors locked and barred
+and escaped through the window, leaving the desk rifled and carrying
+away what money there was, possibly to convey the idea that it was only
+a vulgar murder and robbery, after all.
+
+Of other persons who might throw light upon the tragedy the following
+were missing: Lieutenant Waring, Private Dawson, the cabman, and the
+unrecognized stranger. So, too, was Anatole's boat.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+
+When four days and nights had passed away without a word or sign from
+Waring, the garrison had come to the conclusion that those officers or
+men of Battery "X" who still believed him innocent were idiots. So did
+the civil authorities; but those were days when the authorities of
+Louisiana commanded less respect from its educated people than did even
+the military. The police force, like the State, was undergoing a process
+called reconstruction, which might have been impressive in theory, but
+was ridiculous in practice. A reward had been offered by business
+associates of the deceased for the capture and conviction of the
+assassin. A distant relative of old Lascelles had come to take charge of
+the place until Monsieur Philippe should arrive. The latter's address
+had been found among old Armand's papers, and despatches, _via_ Havana,
+had been sent to him, also letters. Pierre d'Hervilly had taken the
+weeping widow and little Nin Nin to _bonne maman's_ to stay. Alphonse
+and his woolly-pated mother, true to negro superstitions, had decamped.
+Nothing would induce them to remain under the roof where foul murder had
+been done. "De hahnts" was what they were afraid of. And so the old
+white homestead, though surrounded on every side by curiosity-seekers
+and prying eyes, was practically deserted. Cram went about his duties
+with a heavy heart and light aid. Ferry and Pierce both commanded
+sections now, as Doyle remained in close arrest and "Pills the Less" in
+close attendance. Something was utterly wrong with the fellow. Mrs.
+Doyle had not again ventured to show her red nose within the limits of
+the "barx," as she called them, a hint from Braxton having proved
+sufficient; but that she was ever scouting the pickets no one could
+doubt. Morn, noon, and night she prowled about the neighborhood,
+employing the "byes," so she termed such stray sheep in army blue as a
+dhrop of Anatole's best would tempt, to carry scrawling notes to Jim,
+one of which, falling with its postman by the wayside and turned over by
+the guard to Captain Cram for transmittal, was addressed to Mister
+Loot'nt James Doyle, Lite Bothery X, Jaxun Barx, and brought the only
+laughter to his lips the big horse-artilleryman had known for nearly a
+week. Her customary Mercury, Dawson, had vanished from sight, dropped,
+with many another and often a better man, as a deserter.
+
+Over at Waring's abandoned quarters the shades were drawn and the green
+_jalousies_ bolted. Pierce stole in each day to see that everything,
+even to the augmented heap of letters, was undisturbed, and Ananias
+drooped in the court below and refused to be comforted. Cram had duly
+notified Waring's relatives, now living in New York, of his strange and
+sudden disappearance, but made no mention of the cloud of suspicion
+which had surrounded his name. Meantime, some legal friends of the
+family were overhauling the Lascelles papers, and a dark-complexioned,
+thick-set, active little civilian was making frequent trips between
+department head-quarters and barracks. At the former he compared notes
+with Lieutenant Reynolds, and at the latter with Braxton and Cram. The
+last interview Mr. Allerton had before leaving with his family for the
+North was with this same lively party, the detective who joined them
+that night at the St. Charles, and Allerton, being a man of much
+substance, had tapped his pocket-book significantly.
+
+"The difficulty just now is in having a talk with the widow," said this
+official to Cram and Reynolds, whom he had met by appointment on the
+Thursday following the eventful Saturday of Braxton's "combined" review.
+"She is too much prostrated. I've simply got to wait awhile, and
+meantime go about this other affair. Is there no way in which you can
+see her?"
+
+Cram relapsed into a brown study. Reynolds was poring over the note
+written to Braxton and comparing it with one he held in his hand,--an
+old one, and one that told an old, old story. "I know you'll say I have
+no right to ask this," it read, "but you're a gentleman, and I'm a
+friendless woman deserted by a worthless husband. My own people are
+ruined by the war, but even if they had money they wouldn't send any to
+me, for I offended them all by marrying a Yankee officer. God knows I am
+punished enough for that. But I was so young and innocent when he
+courted me. I ought to of left--I would of left him as soon as I found
+out how good-for-nothing he really was, only I was so much in love I
+couldn't. I was fastenated, I suppose. Now I've sold everything, but if
+you'll only lend me fifty dollars I'll work my fingers to the bone until
+I pay it. For the old home's sake, please do."
+
+"It's the same hand,--the same woman, Cram, beyond a doubt. She bled
+Waring for the old home's sake the first winter he was in the South. He
+told me all about it two years ago in Washington, when we heard of her
+the second time. Now she's followed him over here, or got here first,
+tried the same game probably, met with a refusal, and this anonymous
+note is her revenge. The man she married was a crack-brained weakling
+who got into the army the fag end of the war, fell in love with her
+pretty face, married her, then they quarrelled, and he drank himself
+into a muddle-head. She ran him into debt; then he gambled away
+government funds, bolted, was caught, and would have been tried and sent
+to jail, but some powerful relative saved him that, and simply had him
+dropped;--never heard of him again. She was about a month grass-widowed
+when Waring came on his first duty there. He had an uncongenial lot of
+brother officers for a two-company post, and really had known of this
+girl and her people before the war, and she appealed to him, first for
+sympathy and help, then charity, then blackmail, I reckon, from which
+his fever saved him. Then she struck some quartermaster or other and
+lived off him for a while; drifted over here, and no sooner did he
+arrive, all ignorant of her presence in or around New Orleans, than she
+began pestering him again. When he turned a deaf ear, she probably
+threatened, and then came these anonymous missives to you and Braxton.
+Yours always came by mail, you say. The odd thing about the
+colonel's--this one, at least--is that it was with his mail, but never
+came through the post-office."
+
+"That's all very interesting," said the little civilian, dryly, "but
+what we want is evidence to acquit him and convict somebody else of
+Lascelles's death. What has this to do with the other?"
+
+"This much: This letter came to Braxton by hand, not by mail,--by hand,
+probably direct from her. What hand had access to the office the day
+when the whole command was out at review? Certainly no outsider. The
+mail is opened and distributed on its arrival at nine o'clock by the
+chief clerk, or by the sergeant-major, if he happens to be there, though
+he's generally at guard mount. On this occasion he was out at review.
+Leary, chief clerk, tells Colonel Braxton he opened and distributed the
+mail, putting the colonel's on his desk; Root was with him and helped.
+The third clerk came in later; had been out all night, drinking. His
+name is Dawson. Dawson goes out again and gets fuller, and when next
+brought home is put in hospital under a sentry. Then he hears of the
+murder, bolts, and isn't heard from since, except as the man who helped
+Mrs. Doyle to get her husband home. _He_ is the fellow who brought that
+note. He knew something of its contents, for the murder terrified him,
+and he ran away. Find his trail, and you strike that of the woman who
+wrote these."
+
+"By the Lord, lieutenant, if you'll quit the army and take my place
+you'll make a name and a fortune."
+
+"And if you'll quit your place and take mine you'll get your _coup de
+grace_ in some picayune Indian fight and be forgotten. So stay where you
+are; but find Dawson, find her, find what they know, and you'll be
+famous."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+
+That night, or very early next morning, there was pandemonium at the
+barracks. It was clear, still, beautiful. A soft April wind was drifting
+up from the lower coast, laden with the perfume of sweet olive and
+orange blossoms. Mrs. Cram, with one or two lady friends and a party of
+officers, had been chatting in low tone upon their gallery until after
+eleven, but elsewhere about the moonlit quadrangle all was silence when
+the second relief was posted. Far at the rear of the walled enclosure,
+where, in deference to the manners and customs of war as observed in the
+good old days whereof our seniors tell, the sutler's establishment was
+planted within easy hailing-distance of the guard-house, there was still
+the sound of modified revelry by night, and poker and whiskey punch had
+gathered their devotees in the grimy parlors of Mr. Finkbein, and here
+the belated ones tarried until long after midnight, as most of them
+were bachelors and had no better halves, as had Doyle, to fetch them
+home "out of the wet." Cram and his lieutenants, with the exception of
+Doyle, were never known to patronize this establishment, whatsoever they
+might do outside. They had separated before midnight, and little Pierce,
+after his customary peep into Waring's preserves, had closed the door,
+gone to his own room, to bed and to sleep. Ferry, as battery officer of
+the day, had made the rounds of the stables and gun-shed about one
+o'clock, and had encountered Captain Kinsey, of the infantry, coming in
+from his long tramp through the dew-wet field, returning from the
+inspection of the sentry-post at the big magazine.
+
+"No news of poor Sam yet, I suppose?" said Kinsey, sadly, as the two
+came strolling in together through the rear gate.
+
+"Nothing whatever," was Ferry's answer. "We cannot even form a
+conjecture, unless he, too, has been murdered. Think of there being a
+warrant out for his arrest,--for him, Sam Waring!"
+
+"Well," said Kinsey, "no other conclusion could he well arrived at,
+unless that poor brute Doyle did it in a drunken row. Pills says he
+never saw a man so terror-stricken as he seems to be. He's afraid to
+leave him, really, and Doyle's afraid to be alone,--thinks the old woman
+may get in."
+
+"She has no excuse for coming, captain," said Ferry. "When she told Cram
+she must see her husband to-day, that she was out of money and starving,
+the captain surprised her by handing her fifty dollars, which is much
+more than she'd have got from Doyle. She took it, of course, but that
+isn't what she wanted. She wants to get at him. She has money enough."
+
+"Yes, that woman's a terror, Ferry. Old Mrs. Murtagh, wife of my
+quartermaster sergeant, has been in the army twenty years, and says she
+knew her well,--knew all her people. She comes from a tough lot, and
+they had a bad reputation in Texas in the old days. Doyle's a totally
+different man since she turned up, Cram tells me. Hello! here's 'Pills
+the Less,'" he suddenly exclaimed, as they came opposite the west gate,
+leading to the hospital. "How's your patient, Doc?"
+
+"Well, he's sleeping at last. He seems worn out. It's the first time
+I've left him, but I'm used up and want a few hours' sleep. There isn't
+anything to drink in the room, even if he should wake, and Jim is
+sleeping or lying there by him."
+
+"Oh, he'll do all right now, I reckon," said the officer of the day,
+cheerfully. "Go and get your sleep. The old woman can't get at him
+unless she bribes my sentries or rides the air on a broomstick, like
+some other old witches I've read of. Ferry sleeps in the adjoining room,
+anyhow, so he can look out for her. Good-night, Doc." And so, on they
+went, glancing upward at the dim light just showing through the
+window-blinds in the gable end of Doyle's quarters, and halting at the
+foot of the stairs.
+
+"Come over and have a pipe with me, Ferry," said the captain. "It's too
+beautiful a night to turn in. I want to talk to you about Waring,
+anyhow. This thing weighs on my mind."
+
+"Done with you, for an hour, anyhow!" said Ferry. "Just wait a minute
+till I run up and get my baccy."
+
+Presently down came the young fellow again, meerschaum in hand, the
+moonlight glinting on his slender figure, so trim and jaunty in the
+battery dress. Kinsey looked him over with a smile of soldierly
+approval and a whimsical comment on the contrast between the appearance
+of this young artillery sprig and that of his own stout personality,
+clad as he was in a bulging blue flannel sack-coat, only distinguishable
+in cut and style from civilian garb by its having brass buttons and a
+pair of tarnished old shoulder-straps. Ferry was a swell. His shell
+jacket fitted like wax. The Russian shoulder-knots of twisted gold were
+of the handsomest make. The riding-breeches, top-boots, and spurs were
+such that even Waring could not criticise. His sabre gleamed in the
+moonbeams, and Kinsey's old leather-covered sword looked dingy by
+contrast. His belt fitted trim and taut, and was polished as his
+boot-tops; Kinsey's sank down over the left hip, and was worn brown. The
+sash Ferry sported as battery officer of the day was draped, West Point
+fashion, over the shoulder and around the waist, and accurately knotted
+and looped; Kinsey's old war-worn crimson net was slung
+higgledy-piggledy over his broad chest.
+
+"What swells you fellows are, Ferry!" he said, laughingly, as the
+youngster came dancing down. "Even old Doyle gets out here in his
+scarlet plume occasionally and puts us doughboys to shame. What's the
+use in trying to make such a rig as ours look soldierly? If it were not
+for the brass buttons our coats would make us look like parsons and our
+hats like monkeys. As for this undress, all that can be said in its
+favor is, you can't spoil it even by sleeping out on the levee in it, as
+I am sometimes tempted to do. Let's go out there now."
+
+It was perhaps quarter of two when they took their seats on the wooden
+bench under the trees, and, lighting their pipes, gazed out over the
+broad sweeping flood of the Mississippi, gleaming like a silvered shield
+in the moonlight. Far across at the opposite shore the low line of
+orange-groves and plantation houses and quarters was merged in one long
+streak of gloom, relieved only at intervals by twinkling light. Farther
+up-stream, like dozing sea-dogs, the fleet of monitors lay moored along
+the bank, with the masts and roofs of Algiers dimly outlined against the
+crescent sweep of lights that marked the levee of the great Southern
+metropolis, still prostrate from the savage buffeting of the war, yet so
+soon to rouse from lethargy, resume her sway, and, stretching forth her
+arms, to draw once again to her bosom the wealth and tribute, tenfold
+augmented, of the very heart of the nation, until, mistress of the
+commerce of a score of States, she should rival even New York in the
+volume of her trade. Below them, away to the east towards English Turn,
+rolled the tawny flood, each ripple and eddy and swirling pool crested
+with silver,--the twinkling lights at Chalmette barely distinguishable
+from dim, low-hanging stars. Midway the black hulk of some big ocean
+voyager was forging slowly, steadily towards them, the red light of the
+port side already obscured, the white and green growing with every
+minute more and more distinct, and, save the faint rustle of the leaves
+overhead, murmuring under the touch of the soft, southerly night wind,
+the plash of wavelet against the wooden pier, and the measured footfall
+of the sentry on the flagstone walk in front of the sally-port, not a
+sound was to be heard.
+
+For a while they smoked in silence, enjoying the beauty of the night,
+though each was thinking only of the storm that swept over the scene the
+Sunday previous and of the tragedy that was borne upon its wings. At
+last Kinsey shook himself together.
+
+"Ferry, sometimes I come out here for a quiet smoke and think. Did it
+ever occur to you what a fearful force, what illimitable power, there is
+sweeping by us here night after night with never a sound?"
+
+"Oh, you mean the Mississip," said Ferry, flippantly. "It would be a
+case of mops and brooms, I fancy, if she were to bust through the bank
+and sweep us out into the swamps."
+
+"Exactly! that's in case she broke loose, as you say; but even when in
+the shafts, as she is now, between the levees, how long would it take
+her to sweep a fellow from here out into the gulf, providing nothing
+interposed to stop him?"
+
+"Matter of simple mathematical calculation," said Ferry, practically.
+"They say it's an eight-mile current easy out there in the middle where
+she's booming. Look at that barrel scooting down yonder. Now, I'd lay a
+fiver I could cut loose from here at reveille and shoot the passes
+before taps and never pull a stroke. It's less than eighty miles down to
+the forts."
+
+"Well, then, a skiff like that that old Anatole's blaspheming about
+losing wouldn't take very long to ride over that route, would it?" said
+Kinsey, reflectively.
+
+"No, not if allowed to slide. But somebody'd be sure to put out and
+haul it in as a prize,--flotsam and what-you-may-call-'em. You see these
+old niggers all along here with their skiffs tacking on to every hit of
+drift-wood that's worth having."
+
+"But, Ferry, do you think they'd venture out in such a storm as Sunday
+last?--think anything could live in it short of a decked ship?"
+
+"No, probably not. Certainly not Anatole's boat."
+
+"Well, that's just what I'm afraid of, and what Cram and Reynolds
+dread."
+
+"Do they? Well, so far as that storm's concerned, it would have blown it
+down-stream until it came to the big bend below here to the east. Then,
+by rights, it ought to have blown against the left bank. But every inch
+of it has been scouted all the way to quarantine. The whole river was
+filled with drift, though, and it might have been wedged in a lot of
+logs and swept out anyhow. Splendid ship, that! Who is she, do you
+suppose?"
+
+The great black hull with its lofty tracery of masts and spars was now
+just about opposite the barracks, slowly and majestically ascending the
+stream.
+
+"One of those big British freight steamers that moor there below the
+French Market, I reckon. They seldom come up at night unless it's in the
+full of the moon, and even then they move with the utmost caution. See,
+she's slowing up now."
+
+"Hello! Listen! What's that?" exclaimed Ferry, starting to his feet.
+
+A distant, muffled cry. A distant shot. The sentry at the sally-port
+dashed through the echoing vault, then bang! came the loud roar of his
+piece, followed by the yell of--
+
+"Fire! fire! _The guard!_"
+
+With one spring Ferry was down the levee and darted like a deer across
+the road, Kinsey lumbering heavily after. Even as he sped through the
+stone-flagged way, the hoarse roar of the drum at the guard-house,
+followed instantly by the blare of the bugle from the battery quarters,
+sounded the stirring alarm. A shrill, agonized female voice was madly
+screaming for help. Guards and sentries were rushing to the scene, and
+flames were bursting from the front window of Doyle's quarters. Swift
+though Ferry ran, others were closer to the spot. Half a dozen active
+young soldiers, members of the infantry guard, had sprung to the rescue.
+When Ferry dashed up to the gallery he was just in time to stumble over
+a writhing and prostrate form, to help extinguish the blazing clothing
+of another, to seize his water-bucket and douse its contents over a
+third,--one yelling, the others stupefied by smoke--or something. In
+less time than it takes to tell it, daring fellows had ripped down the
+blazing shades and shutters, tossed them to the parade beneath, dumped a
+heap of soaked and smoking bedding out of the rear windows, splashed a
+few bucketfuls of water about the reeking room, and the fire was out.
+But the doctors were working their best to bring back the spark of life
+to two senseless forms, and to still the shrieks of agony that burst
+from the seared and blistered lips of Bridget Doyle.
+
+While willing hands bore these scorched semblances of humanity to
+neighboring rooms and tender-hearted women hurried to add their
+ministering touch, and old Braxton ordered the excited garrison back to
+quarters and bed, he, with Cram and Kinsey and Ferry, made prompt
+examination of the premises. On the table two whiskey-bottles, one
+empty, one nearly full, that Dr. Potts declared were not there when he
+left at one. On the mantel a phial of chloroform, which was also not
+there before. But a towel soaked with the stifling contents lay on the
+floor by Jim's rude pallet, and a handkerchief half soaked, half
+consumed, was on the chair which had stood by the bedside, among the
+fragments of an overturned kerosene lamp.
+
+A quick examination of the patients showed that Jim, the negro, had been
+chloroformed and was not burned at all, that Doyle was severely burned
+and had probably inhaled flames, and that the woman was crazed with
+drink, terror, and burns combined. It took the efforts of two or three
+men and the influence of powerful opiates to quiet her. Taxed with
+negligence or complicity on the part of the sentry, the sergeant of the
+guard repudiated the idea, and assured Colonel Braxton that it was an
+easy matter for any one to get either in or out of the garrison without
+encountering the sentry, and, taking his lantern, led the way out to the
+hospital grounds by a winding foot-path among the trees to a point in
+the high white picket fence where two slats had been shoved aside. Any
+one coming along the street without could pass far beyond the ken of the
+sentry at the west gate, and slip in with the utmost ease, and once
+inside, all that was necessary was to dodge possible reliefs and
+patrols. No sentry was posted at the gate through the wall that
+separated the garrison proper from the hospital grounds. Asked why he
+had not reported this, the sergeant smiled and said there were a dozen
+others just as convenient, so what was the use? He did not say, however,
+that he and his fellows had recourse to them night after night.
+
+It was three o'clock when the officers' families fairly got settled down
+again and back to their beds, and the silence of night once more reigned
+over Jackson Barracks. One would suppose that such a scene of terror and
+excitement was enough, and that now the trembling, frightened women
+might be allowed to sleep in peace; but it was not to be. Hardly had one
+of their number closed her eyes, hardly had all the flickering lights,
+save those at the hospital and guard-house, been downed again, when the
+strained nerves of the occupants of the officers' quadrangle were jumped
+into mad jangling once more and all the barracks aroused a second time,
+and this, too, by a woman's shriek of horror.
+
+Mrs. Conroy, a delicate, fragile little body, wife of a junior
+lieutenant of infantry occupying a set of quarters in the same building
+with, but at the opposite end from, Pierce and Waring, was found lying
+senseless at the head of the gallery stairs.
+
+When revived, amid tears and tremblings and incoherent exclamations she
+declared that she had gone down to the big ice-chest on the ground-floor
+to get some milk for her nervous and frightened child and was hurrying
+noiselessly up the stairs again,--the only means of communication
+between the first and second floors,--when, face to face, in front of
+his door, she came upon Mr. Waring, or his ghost; that his eyes were
+fixed and glassy; that he did not seem to see her even when he spoke,
+for speak he did. His voice sounded like a moan of anguish, she said,
+but the words were distinct: "Where is my knife? Who has taken my
+knife?"
+
+And then little Pierce, who had helped to raise and carry the stricken
+woman to her room, suddenly darted out on the gallery and ran along to
+the door he had closed four hours earlier. It was open. Striking a
+match, he hurried through into the chamber beyond, and there, face
+downward upon the bed, lay his friend and comrade Waring, moaning like
+one in the delirium of fever.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+
+Lieutenant Reynolds was seated at his desk at department head-quarters
+about nine o'clock that morning when an orderly in light-battery dress
+dismounted at the banquette and came up the stairs three at a jump.
+"Captain Cram's compliments, sir, and this is immediate," he reported,
+as he held forth a note. Reynolds tore it open, read it hastily through,
+then said, "Go and fetch me a cab quick as you can," and disappeared in
+the general's room. Half an hour later he was spinning down the levee
+towards the French Market, and before ten o'clock was seated in the
+captain's cabin of the big British steamer Ambassador, which had arrived
+at her moorings during the night. Cram and Kinsey were already there,
+and to them the skipper was telling his story.
+
+Off the Tortugas, just about as they had shaped their course for the
+Belize, they were hailed by the little steamer Tampa, bound from New
+Orleans to Havana. The sea was calm, and a boat put off from the Tampa
+and came alongside, and presently a gentleman was assisted aboard. He
+seemed weak from illness, but explained that he was Lieutenant Waring,
+of the United States Artillery, had been accidentally carried off to
+sea, and the Ambassador was the first inward-bound ship they had sighted
+since crossing the bar. He would be most thankful for a passage back to
+New Orleans. Captain Baird had welcomed him with the heartiness of the
+British tar, and made him at home in his cabin. The lieutenant was
+evidently far from well, and seemed somewhat dazed and mentally
+distressed. He could give no account of his mishap other than that told
+him by the officers of the Tampa, which had lain to when overtaken by
+the gale on Saturday night, and on Sunday morning when they resumed
+their course down-stream they overhauled a light skiff and were
+surprised to find a man aboard, drenched and senseless. "The left side
+of his face was badly bruised and discolored, even when he came to us,"
+said Baird, "and he must have been slugged and robbed, for his watch,
+his seal-ring, and what little money he had were all gone." The second
+officer of the Tampa had fitted him out with a clean shirt, and the
+steward dried his clothing as best he could, but the coat was stained
+and clotted with blood. Mr. Waring had slept heavily much of the way
+back until they passed Pilot Town. Then he was up and dressed Thursday
+afternoon, and seemingly in better spirits, when he picked up a copy of
+the New Orleans _Picayune_ which the pilot had left aboard, and was
+reading that, when suddenly he started to his feet with an exclamation
+of amaze, and, when the captain turned to see what was the matter,
+Waring was ghastly pale and fearfully excited by something he had read.
+He hid the paper under his coat and sprang up on deck and paced
+nervously to and fro for hours, and began to grow so ill, apparently,
+that Captain Baird was much worried. At night he begged to be put ashore
+at the barracks instead of going on up to town, and Baird had become so
+troubled about him that he sent his second officer in the gig with him,
+landed him on the levee opposite the sally-port, and there, thanking
+them heartily, but declining further assistance, Waring had hurried
+through the entrance into the barrack square. Mr. Royce, the second
+officer, said there was considerable excitement, beating of drums and
+sounding of bugles, at the post, as they rowed towards the shore. He did
+not learn the cause. Captain Baird was most anxious to learn if the
+gentleman had safely reached his destination. Cram replied that he had,
+but in a state bordering on delirium and unable to give any coherent
+account of himself. He could tell he had been aboard the Ambassador and
+the Tampa, but that was about all.
+
+And then they told Baird that what Waring probably saw was Wednesday's
+paper with the details of the inquest on the body of Lascelles and the
+chain of evidence pointing to himself as the murderer. This caused
+honest Captain Baird to lay ten to one he wasn't, and five to one he'd
+never heard of it till he got the paper above Pilot Town. Whereupon all
+three officers clapped the Briton on the back and shook him by the hand
+and begged his company to dinner at the barracks and at Moreau's; and
+then, while Reynolds sped to the police-office and Kinsey back to
+Colonel Braxton, whom he represented at the interview, Cram remounted,
+and, followed by the faithful Jeffers, trotted up Rampart Street and
+sent in his card to Madame Lascelles, and Madame's maid brought back
+reply that she was still too shocked and stricken to receive visitors.
+So also did Madame d'Hervilly deny herself, and Cram rode home to Nell.
+
+"It is useless," he said. "She will not see me."
+
+"Then she shall see me," said Mrs. Cram.
+
+And so a second time did Jeffers make the trip to town that day, this
+time perched with folded arms in the rumble of the pony-phaeton.
+
+And while she was gone, the junior doctor was having the liveliest
+experience of his few years of service. Scorched and burned though she
+was, Mrs. Doyle's faculties seemed to have returned with renewed
+acuteness and force. She demanded to be taken to her husband's side, but
+the doctor sternly refused. She demanded to be told his condition, and
+was informed that it was so critical he must not be disturbed,
+especially by her, who was practically responsible for all his trouble.
+Then she insisted on knowing whether he was conscious and whether he had
+asked for a priest, and when informed that Father Foley had already
+arrived, it required the strength of four men to hold her. She raved
+like a maniac, and her screams appalled the garrison. But screams and
+struggles were all in vain. "Pills the Less" sent for his senior, and
+"Pills the Pitiless" more than ever deserved his name. He sent for a
+straitjacket, saw her securely stowed away in that and borne over to a
+vacant room in the old hospital, set the steward's wife on watch and a
+sentry at the door, went back to Waring's bedside, where Sam lay tossing
+in burning fever, murmured his few words of caution to Pierce and Ferry,
+then hastened back to where poor Doyle was gasping in agony of mind and
+body, clinging to the hand of the gentle soldier of the cross, gazing
+piteously into his father confessor's eyes, drinking in his words of
+exhortation, yet unable to make articulate reply. The flames had done
+their cruel work. Only in desperate pain could he speak again.
+
+It was nearly dark when Mrs. Cram came driving back to barracks,
+bringing Mr. Reynolds with her. Her eyes were dilated, her cheeks
+flushed with excitement, as she sprang from the low phaeton, and, with a
+murmured "Come to me as soon as you can" to her husband, she sped away
+up the stairs, leaving him to receive and entertain her passenger.
+
+"I, too, went to see Madame Lascelles late this afternoon," said
+Reynolds. "I wished to show her this."
+
+It was a copy of a despatch to the chief of police of New Orleans. It
+stated in effect that Philippe Lascelles had not been seen or heard of
+around Key West for over two weeks. It was believed that he had gone to
+Havana.
+
+"Can you get word of this to our friend the detective?" asked Cram.
+
+"I have wired already. He has gone to Georgia. What I hoped to do was to
+note the effect of this on Madame Lascelles; but she was too ill to see
+me. Luckily, Mrs. Cram was there, and I sent it up to her. She will tell
+you. Now I have to see Braxton."
+
+And then came a messenger to ask Cram to join the doctor at Doyle's
+quarters at once: so he scurried up-stairs to see Nell first and learn
+her tidings.
+
+"Did I not tell you?" she exclaimed, as he entered the parlor. "Philippe
+Lascelles was here that very night, and had been seen with his brother
+at the office on Royal Street twice before this thing happened, and
+they had trouble about money. Oh, I made her understand. I appealed to
+her as a woman to do what she could to right Mr. Waring, who was so
+generally believed to be the guilty man. I told her we had detectives
+tracing Philippe and would soon find how and when he reached New
+Orleans. Finally I showed her the despatch that Mr. Reynolds sent up,
+and at last she broke down, burst into tears, and said she, too, had
+learned since the inquest that Philippe was with her husband, and
+probably was the stranger referred to, that awful night. She even
+suspected it at the time, for she knew he came not to borrow but to
+demand money that was rightfully his, and also certain papers that
+Armand held and that now were gone. It was she who told me of Philippe's
+having been seen with Armand at the office, but she declared she could
+not believe that he would kill her husband. I pointed out the fact that
+Armand had fired two shots from his pistol, apparently, and that no
+bullet-marks had been found in the room where the quarrel took place,
+and that if his shots had taken effect on his antagonist he simply could
+not have been Waring, for though Waring had been bruised and beaten
+about the head, the doctor said there was no sign of bullet-mark about
+him anywhere. She recognized the truth of this, but still she said she
+believed that there was a quarrel or was to be a quarrel between her
+husband and Mr. Waring. Otherwise I believe her throughout. I believe
+that, no matter what romance there was about her nursing Philippe and
+his falling in love with her, she did not encourage him, did not call
+him here again, was true to her old husband. She is simply possessed
+with the idea that the quarrel which killed her husband was between
+himself and Mr. Waring, and that it occurred after Philippe had got his
+money and papers, and gone."
+
+"W-e-e-ll, Philippe will have a heap to explain when he is found," was
+Cram's reply. "Now I have to go to Doyle's. He is making some
+confession, I expect, to the priest."
+
+But Cram never dreamed for an instant what that was to be.
+
+That night poor Doyle's spirit took its flight, and the story of misery
+he had to tell, partly by scrawling with a pencil, partly by gesture in
+reply to question, partly in painfully-gasped sentences, a few words at
+a time, was practically this. Lascelles and his party did indeed leave
+him at the Pelican when he was so drunk he only vaguely knew what was
+going on or what had happened in the bar-room where they were drinking,
+but his wife had told him the whole story. Lascelles wanted more
+drink,--champagne; the bar-tender wanted to close up. They bought
+several bottles, however, and had them put in the cab, and Lascelles was
+gay and singing, and, instead of going directly home, insisted on
+stopping to make a call on the lady who occupied the upper floor of the
+house Doyle rented on the levee. Doyle rarely saw her, but she sometimes
+wrote to Lascelles and got Bridget to take the letters to him. She was
+setting her cap for the old Frenchman. "We called her Mrs. Dawson." The
+cabman drove very slowly through the storm as Doyle walked home along
+with Bridget and some man who was helping, and when they reached the
+gate there was the cab and Waring in it. The cab-driver was standing by
+his horse, swearing at the delay and saying he would charge double fare.
+Doyle had had trouble with his wife for many years, and renewed trouble
+lately because of two visits Lascelles had paid there, and that evening
+when she sent for him he was drinking in Waring's room, had been
+drinking during the day; he dreaded more trouble, and 'twas he who took
+Waring's knife, and still had it, he said, when he entered the gate, and
+no sooner did he see Lascelles at his door than he ordered him to leave.
+Lascelles refused to go. Doyle knocked him down, and the Frenchman
+sprang up, swearing vengeance. Lascelles fired two shots, and Doyle
+struck once,--with the knife,--and there lay Lascelles, dead, before
+Doyle could know or realize what he was doing. In fact, Doyle never did
+know. It was what his wife had told him, and life had been a hell to him
+ever since that woman came back. She had blackmailed him, more or less,
+ever since he got his commission, because of an old trouble he'd had in
+Texas.
+
+And this confession was written out for him, signed by Doyle on his
+dying bed, duly witnessed, and the civil authorities were promptly
+notified. Bridget Doyle was handed over to the police. Certain
+detectives out somewhere on the trail of somebody else were telegraphed
+to come in, and four days later, when the force of the fever was broken
+and Waring lay weak, languid, but returning to his senses, Cram and the
+doctor read the confession to their patient, and then started to their
+feet as he almost sprang from the bed.
+
+"It's an infernal lie!" he weakly cried. "I took that knife from Doyle
+and kept it. I myself saw Lascelles to his gate, safe and sound."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+
+The sunshine of an exquisite April morning was shimmering over the
+Louisiana lowlands as Battery "X" was "hitching in," and Mrs. Cram's
+pretty pony-phaeton came flashing through the garrison gate and reined
+up in front of the guns. A proud and happy woman was Mrs. Cram, and
+daintily she gathered the spotless, cream-colored reins and slanted her
+long English driving-whip at the exact angle prescribed by the vogue of
+the day. By her side, reclining luxuriously on his pillows, was Sam
+Waring, now senior first lieutenant of the battery, taking his first
+airing since his strange illness. Pallid and thin though he was, that
+young gentleman was evidently capable of appreciating to the fullest
+extent the devoted attentions of which he had been the object ever since
+his return. Stanch friend and fervent champion of her husband's most
+distinguished officer at any time, Mrs. Cram had thrown herself into his
+cause with a zeal that challenged the admiration even of the men whom
+she mercilessly snubbed because they had accepted the general verdict
+that Lascelles had died by Waring's hand. Had they met in the duello as
+practised in the South in those days, sword to sword, or armed with
+pistol at twelve paces, she would have shuddered, but maintained that as
+a soldier and gentleman Waring could not have refused his opponent's
+challenge, inexcusable though such challenge might have been. But that
+he could have stooped to vulgar, unregulated fracas, without seconds or
+the formality of the cartel, first with fists and those women's weapons,
+nails, then knives or stilettoes, as though he was some low dago or
+Sicilian,--why, that was simply and utterly incredible. None the less
+she was relieved and rejoiced, as were all Waring's friends, when the
+full purport of poor Doyle's dying confession was noised abroad. Even
+those who were sceptical were now silenced. For four days her comfort
+and relief had been inexpressible; and then came the hour when, with woe
+and trouble in his face, her husband returned to her from Waring's
+bedside with the incomprehensible tidings that he had utterly repudiated
+Doyle's confession,--had, indeed, said that which could probably only
+serve to renew the suspicion of his own guilt, or else justify the
+theory that he was demented.
+
+Though Cram and the doctor warned Waring not to talk, talk he would, to
+Pierce, to Ferry, to Ananias; and though these three were pledged by
+Cram to reveal to no one what Waring said, it plunged them in an agony
+of doubt and misgiving. Day after day had the patient told and re-told
+the story, and never could cross-questioning shake him in the least.
+Cram sent for Reynolds and took him into their confidence, and Reynolds
+heard the story and added his questions, but to no effect. From first to
+last he remembered every incident up to his parting with Lascelles at
+his own gateway. After that--nothing.
+
+His story, in brief, was as follows. He was both surprised and
+concerned, while smoking and chatting with Mr. Allerton in the rotunda
+of the St. Charles, to see Lascelles with a friend, evidently watching
+an opportunity of speaking with him. He had noticed about a week
+previous a marked difference in the old Frenchman's manner, and three
+days before the tragedy, when calling on his way from town to see
+Madame and Nin Nin, was informed that they were not at home, and
+Monsieur himself was the informant; nor did he, as heretofore, invite
+Waring to enter. Sam was a fellow who detested misunderstanding.
+Courteously, but positively, he demanded explanation. Lascelles shrugged
+his shoulders, but gave it. He had heard too much of Monsieur's
+attentions to Madame his wife, and desired their immediate
+discontinuance. He must request Monsieur's assurance that he would not
+again visit Beau Rivage, or else the reparation due a man of honor, etc.
+"Whereupon," said Waring, "I didn't propose to be outdone in civility,
+and therefore replied, in the best French I could command, 'Permit me to
+tender Monsieur--both. Monsieur's friends will find me at the
+barracks.'"
+
+"All the same," said Waring, "when I found Madame and Nin Nin stuck in
+the mud I did what I considered the proper thing, and drove them, _coram
+publico_, to 'bonne maman's,' never letting them see, of course, that
+there was any row on tap, and so when I saw the old fellow with a
+keen-looking party alongside I felt sure it meant mischief. I was
+utterly surprised, therefore, when Lascelles came up with hat off and
+hand extended, bowing low, praying pardon for the intrusion, but saying
+he could not defer another instant the desire to express his gratitude
+the most profound for my extreme courtesy to Madame and his beloved
+child. He had heard the whole story, and, to my confusion, insisted on
+going over all the details before Allerton, even to my heroism, as he
+called it, in knocking down that big bully of a cabman. I was confused,
+yet couldn't shake him off. He was persistent. He was abject. He begged
+to meet my friend, to present his, to open champagne and drink eternal
+friendship. He would change the name of his _chateau_--the rotten old
+rookery--from Beau Rivage to Belle Alliance. He would make this day a
+_fete_ in the calendar of the Lascelles family. And then it began to
+dawn on me that he had been drinking champagne before he came. I did not
+catch the name of the other gentleman, a much younger man. He was very
+ceremonious and polite, but distant. Then, in some way, came up the fact
+that I had been trying to get a cab to take me back to barracks, and
+then Lascelles declared that nothing could be more opportune. He had
+secured a carriage and was just going down with Monsieur. They had _des
+affaires_ to transact at once. He took me aside and said, 'In proof that
+you accept my _amende_, and in order that I may make to you my personal
+apologies, you must accept my invitation.' So go with them I did. I was
+all the time thinking of Cram's mysterious note bidding me return at
+taps. I couldn't imagine what was up, but I made my best endeavors to
+get a cab. None was to be had, so I was really thankful for this
+opportunity. All the way down Lascelles overwhelmed me with civilities,
+and I could only murmur and protest, and the other party only murmured
+approbation. He hardly spoke English at all. Then Lascelles insisted on
+a stop at the Pelican and on bumpers of champagne, and there, as luck
+would have it, was Doyle,--drunk, as usual, and determined to join the
+party; and though I endeavored to put him aside, Lascelles would not
+have it. He insisted on being presented to the comrade of his gallant
+friend, and in the private room where we went he overwhelmed Doyle with
+details of our grand reconciliation and with bumper after bumper of
+Krug. This enabled me to fight shy of the wine, but in ten minutes Doyle
+was fighting drunk, Lascelles tipsy. The driver came in for his pay,
+saying he would go no further. They had a row. Lascelles wouldn't pay;
+called him an Irish thief, and all that. I slipped my last V into the
+driver's hand and got him out somehow. Monsieur Philippes, or whatever
+his name was, said he would go out,--he'd get a cab in the neighborhood;
+and the next thing I knew, Lascelles and Doyle were in a fury of a row.
+Lascelles said all the Irish were knaves and blackguards and swindlers,
+and Doyle stumbled around after him. Out came a pistol! Out came a
+knife! I tripped Doyle and got him into a chair, and was so intent on
+pacifying him and telling him not to make a fool of himself that I
+didn't notice anything else. I handled him good-naturedly, got the knife
+away, and then was amazed to find that he had my own pet paper-cutter. I
+made them shake hands and make up. It was all a mistake, said Lascelles.
+But what made it a worse mistake, the old man _would_ order more wine,
+and, with it, brandy. He insisted on celebrating this second grand
+reconciliation, and then both got drunker, but the tall Frenchman had
+Lascelles's pistol and I had the knife, and then a cab came, and,
+though it was storming beastly and I had Ferry's duds on and Larkin's
+best tile and Pierce's umbrella, we bundled in somehow and drove on down
+the levee, leaving Doyle in the hands of that Amazon of a wife of his
+and a couple of doughboys who happened to be around there. Now Lascelles
+was all hilarity, singing, joking, confidential. Nothing would do but we
+must stop and call on a lovely woman, a _belle amie_. He could rely on
+our discretion, he said, laying his finger on his nose, and looking sly
+and coquettish, for all the world like some old _roue_ of a Frenchman.
+He must stop and see her and take her some wine. 'Indeed,' he said,
+mysteriously, 'it is a rendezvous.' Well, I was their guest; I had no
+money. What could I do? It was then after eleven, I should judge.
+Monsieur Philippes, or whatever his name was, gave orders to the driver.
+We pulled up, and then, to my surprise, I found we were at Doyle's. That
+ended it. I told them they must excuse me. They protested, but of course
+I couldn't go in there. So they took a couple of bottles apiece and went
+in the gate, and I settled myself for a nap and got it. I don't know how
+long I slept, but I was aroused by the devil's own tumult. A shot had
+been fired. Men and women both were screaming and swearing. Some one
+suddenly burst into the cab beside me, really pushed from behind, and
+then away we went through the mud and the rain; and the lightning was
+flashing now, and presently I could recognize Lascelles, raging.
+'Infame!' 'Coquin!' 'Assassin!' were the mildest terms he was volleying
+at somebody; and then, recognizing me, he burst into maudlin tears,
+swore I was his only friend. He had been insulted, abused, denied
+reparation. Was he hurt? I inquired, and instinctively felt for my
+knife. It was still there where I'd hid it in the inside pocket of my
+overcoat. No hurt; not a blow. Did I suppose that he, a Frenchman, would
+pardon that or leave the spot until satisfaction had been exacted? Then
+I begged him to be calm and listen to me for a moment. I told him my
+plight,--that I had given my word to be at barracks that evening; that I
+had no money left, but I could go no further. Instantly he forgot his
+woes and became absorbed in my affairs. _'Parole d'honneur!_' he would
+see that mine was never unsullied. He himself would escort me to the
+_maison de_ Capitaine Cram. He would rejoice to say to that brave
+ennemi, Behold! here is thy lieutenant, of honor the most unsullied, of
+courage the most admirable, of heart the most magnanimous. The Lord only
+knows what he wouldn't have done had we not pulled up at his gate. There
+I helped him out on the banquette. He was steadied by his row, whatever
+it had been. He would not let me expose myself--even under Pierce's
+umbrella. He would not permit me to suffer 'from times so of the dog.'
+'You will drive Monsieur to his home and return here for me at once,' he
+ordered cabby, grasped both my hands with fervent good-night and the
+explanation that he had much haste, implored pardon for leaving me,--on
+the morrow he would call and explain everything,--then darted into the
+gate. We never could have parted on more friendly terms. I stood a
+moment to see that he safely reached his door, for a light was dimly
+burning in the hall, then turned to jump into the cab, but it wasn't
+there. Nothing was there. I jumped from the banquette into a berth
+aboard some steamer out at sea. They tell me the first thing I asked for
+was Pierce's umbrella and Larkin's hat."
+
+And this was the story that Waring maintained from first to last.
+"Pills" ventured a query as to whether the amount of Krug and Clicquot
+consumed might not have overthrown his mental equipoise. No, Sam
+declared, he drank very little. "The only bacchanalian thing I did was
+to join in a jovial chorus from a new French opera which Lascelles's
+friend piped up and I had heard in the North:
+
+
+     Oui, buvons, buvons encore!
+     S'il est un vin qu'on adore
+     De Paris a Macao,
+     C'est le Clicquot, c'est le Clicquot."
+
+
+Asked if he had formed any conjecture as to the identity of the
+stranger, Sam said no. The name sounded like "Philippes," but he
+couldn't be sure. But when told that there were rumors to the effect
+that Lascelles's younger brother had been seen with him twice or thrice
+of late, and that he had been in exile because, if anything, of a
+hopeless passion for Madame his sister-in-law, and that his name was
+Philippe, Waring looked dazed. Then a sudden light, as of newer, fresher
+memory, flashed up in his eyes. He seemed about to speak, but as
+suddenly controlled himself and turned his face to the wall. From that
+time on he was determinedly dumb about the stranger. What roused him to
+lively interest and conjecture, however, was Cram's query as to whether
+he had not recognized in the cabman, called in by the stranger, the very
+one whom he had "knocked endwise" and who had tried to shoot him that
+morning. "No," said Waring: "the man did not speak at all, that I
+noticed, and I did not once see his face, he was so bundled up against
+the storm." But if it was the same party, suggested he, it seemed hardly
+necessary to look any further in explanation of his own disappearance.
+Cabby had simply squared matters by knocking him senseless, helping
+himself to his watch and ring, and turning out his pockets, then
+hammering him until frightened off, and then, to cover his tracks,
+setting him afloat in Anatole's boat.
+
+"Perhaps cabby took a hand in the murder, too," suggested Sam, with
+eager interest. "You say he had disappeared,--gone with his plunder.
+Now, who else could have taken my knife?"
+
+Then Reynolds had something to tell him: that the "lady" who wrote the
+anonymous letters, the _belle amie_ whom Lascelles proposed to visit,
+the occupant of the upper floor of "the dove-cot," was none other than
+the blighted floweret who had appealed to him for aid and sympathy, for
+fifty dollars at first and later for more, the first year of his army
+service in the South, "for the sake of the old home." Then Waring grew
+even more excited and interested. "Pills" put a stop to further
+developments for a few days. He feared a relapse. But, in spite of
+"Pills," the developments, like other maladies, throve. The little
+detective came down again. He was oddly inquisitive about that _chanson
+a boire_ from "_Fleur de The_." Would Mr. Waring hum it for him? And
+Sam, now sitting up in his parlor, turned to his piano, and with long,
+slender, fragile-looking fingers rattled a lively prelude and then
+faintly quavered the rollicking words.
+
+"Odd," said Mr. Pepper, as they had grown to call him, "I heard that
+sung by a fellow up in Chartres Street two nights hand-running before
+this thing happened,--a merry cuss, too, with a rather loose hand on his
+shekels. Lots of people may know it, though, mayn't they?"
+
+"No, indeed, not down here," said Sam. "It only came out in New York
+within the last four months, and hasn't been South or West at all, that
+I know of. What did he look like?"
+
+"Well, what did the feller that was with you look like?"
+
+But here Sam's description grew vague. So Pepper went up to have a beer
+by himself at the _cafe chantant_ on Chartres Street, and didn't return
+for nearly a week.
+
+Meantime came this exquisite April morning and Sam's appearance in the
+pony-phaeton in front of Battery "X." Even the horses seemed to prick up
+their ears and be glad to see him. Grim old war sergeants rode up to
+touch their caps and express the hope that they'd soon have the
+lieutenant in command of the right section again,--"not but what
+Loot'n't Ferry's doing first-rate, sir,"--and for a few minutes, as his
+fair charioteer drove him around the battery, in his weak, languid
+voice, Waring indulged in a little of his own characteristic chaffing:
+
+"I expect you to bring this section up to top notch, Mr. Ferry, as I am
+constitutionally opposed to any work on my own account. I beg to call
+your attention, sir, to the fact that it's very bad form to appear with
+full-dress _schabraque_ on your horse when the battery is in fatigue.
+The red blanket, sir, the red blanket only should be used. Be good
+enough to stretch your traces there, right caisson. Yes, I thought so,
+swing trace is twisted. Carelessness, Mr. Ferry, and indifference to
+duty are things I won't tolerate. Your cheek-strap, too, sir, is an inch
+too long. Your bit will fall through that horse's mouth. This won't do,
+sir, not in my section, sir. I'll fine you a box of Partagas if it
+occurs again."
+
+But the blare of the bugle sounding "attention" announced the presence
+of the battery commander. Nell whipped up in an instant and whisked her
+invalid out of the way.
+
+"Good-morning, Captain Cram," said he, as he passed his smiling chief.
+"I regret to observe, sir, that things have been allowed to run down
+somewhat in my absence."
+
+"Oh, out with you, you combination of cheek and incapacity, or I'll run
+you down with the whole battery. Oh! Waring, some gentlemen in a
+carriage have just stopped at your quarters, all in black, too. Ah,
+here's the orderly now."
+
+And the card, black-bordered, handed into the phaeton, bore a name which
+blanched Waring's face:
+
+
+     +--------------------------------+
+     |                                |
+     |    _M. Philippe Lascelles_,    |
+     |                                |
+     |                                |
+     |                _N'lle Orleans_.|
+     +--------------------------------+
+
+
+"Why, what is it, Waring?" asked Cram, anxiously, bending down from his
+saddle.
+
+For a moment Waring was silent. Mrs. Cram felt her own hand trembling.
+
+"Can you turn the battery over to Ferry and come with me?" asked the
+lieutenant.
+
+"Certainly.--Bugler, report to Lieutenant Ferry and tell him I shall
+have to be absent for a while.--Drive on, Nell."
+
+When, five minutes later, Waring was assisted up the stair-way, Cram
+towering on his right, the little party came upon a group of
+strangers,--three gentlemen, one of whom stepped courteously forward,
+raising his hat in a black-gloved hand. He was of medium height,
+slender, erect, and soldierly in bearing; his face was dark and oval,
+his eyes large, deep, and full of light. He spoke mainly in English,
+but with marked accent, and the voice was soft and melodious:
+
+"I fear I have intrude. Have I the honor to address Lieutenant Waring? I
+am Philippe Lascelles."
+
+For a moment Waring was too amazed to speak. At last, with brightening
+face and holding forth his hand, he said,--
+
+"I am most glad to meet you,--to know that it was not you who drove down
+with us that night."
+
+"Alas, no! I left Armand but that very morning, returning to Havana,
+thence going to Santiago. It was not until five days ago the news
+reached me. It is of that stranger I come to ask."
+
+It was an odd council gathered there in Waring's room in the old
+barracks that April morning while Ferry was drilling the battery to his
+heart's content and the infantry companies were wearily going over the
+manual or bayonet exercise. Old Brax had been sent for, and came.
+Monsieur Lascelles's friends, both, like himself, soldiers of the South,
+were presented, and for their information Waring's story was again told,
+with only most delicate allusion to certain incidents which might be
+considered as reflecting on the character and dignity of the elder
+brother. And then Philippe told his. True, there had been certain
+transactions between Armand and himself. He had fully trusted his
+brother, a man of affairs, with the management of the little inheritance
+which he, a soldier, had no idea how to handle, and Armand's business
+had suffered greatly by the war. It was touching to see how in every
+word the younger strove to conceal the fact that the elder had
+misapplied the securities and had been practically faithless to his
+trust. Everything, he declared, had been finally settled as between them
+that very morning before his return to Havana. Armand had brought to him
+early all papers remaining in his possession and had paid him what was
+justly due. He knew, however, that Armand was now greatly embarrassed in
+his affairs. They had parted with fond embrace, the most affectionate of
+brothers. But Philippe had been seeing and hearing enough to make him
+gravely apprehensive as to Armand's future, to know that his business
+was rapidly going down-hill, that he had been raising money in various
+ways, speculating, and had fallen into the hands of sharpers, and yet
+Armand would not admit it, would not consent to accept help or to use
+his younger brother's property in any way. "The lawyer," said Philippe,
+"informed me that Beau Rivage was heavily mortgaged, and it is feared
+that there will be nothing left for Madame and Nin Nin, though, for that
+matter, they shall never want." What he had also urged, and he spoke
+with reluctance here, and owned it only because the detectives told him
+it was now well known, was that Armand had of late been playing the
+_role_ of _galant homme_, and that the woman in the case had fled. Of
+all this he felt, he said, bound to speak fully, because in coming here
+with his witnesses to meet Lieutenant Waring and his friends he had two
+objects in view. The first was to admit that he had accepted as fact the
+published reports that Lieutenant Waring was probably his brother's
+slayer; had hastened back to New Orleans to demand justice or obtain
+revenge; had here learned from the lawyers and police that there were
+now other and much more probable theories, having heard only one of
+which he had cried "Enough," and had come to pray the forgiveness of Mr.
+Waring for having believed an officer and a gentleman guilty of so foul
+a crime. Second, he had come to invoke his aid in running down the
+murderer. Philippe was affected almost to tears.
+
+"There is one question I must beg to ask Monsieur," said Waring, as the
+two clasped hands. "Is there not still a member of your family who
+entertains the idea that it was I who killed Armand Lascelles?"
+
+And Philippe was deeply embarrassed.
+
+"Ah, monsieur," he answered, "I could not venture to intrude myself upon
+a grief so sacred. I have not seen Madame, and who is there who
+could--who would--tell her of Armand's----" And Philippe broke off
+abruptly, with despairing shrug, and outward wave of his slender hand.
+
+"Let us try to see that she never does know," said Waring. "These are
+the men we need to find: the driver of the cab, the stranger whose name
+sounded so like yours, a tall, swarthy, black-haired, black-eyed fellow
+with pointed moustache----"
+
+"_C'est lui! c'est bien lui!_" exclaimed Lascelles,--"the very man who
+insisted on entering the private office where, Armand and I, we close
+our affairs that morning. His whispered words make my brother all of
+pale, and yet he go off humming to himself."
+
+"Oh, we'll nail him," said Cram. "Two of the best detectives in the
+South are on his trail now."
+
+And then came Ananias with a silver tray, champagne, and glasses (from
+Mrs. Cram), and the conference went on another hour before the guests
+went off.
+
+"Bless my soul!" said Brax, whose diameter seemed in no wise increased
+by the quart of Roederer he had swallowed with such gusto,--"bless my
+soul! and to think I believed that we were going to have a duel with
+some of those fellows a fortnight or so ago!"
+
+Then entered "Pills" and ordered Waring back to bed. He was sleeping
+placidly when, late that evening, Reynolds and Cram came tearing up the
+stair-way, full of great news; but the doctor said not to wake him.
+
+Meantime, how fared it with that bruised reed, the lone widow of the
+late Lieutenant Doyle? Poor old Jim had been laid away with military
+honors under the flag at Chalmette, and his faithful Bridget was
+spending the days in the public calaboose. Drunk and disorderly was the
+charge on which she had been arraigned, and, though she declared herself
+abundantly able to pay her fine twice over, Mr. Pepper had warned the
+authorities to keep her under lock and key and out of liquor, as her
+testimony would be of vital importance, if for nothing better than to
+send her up for perjury. Now she was alternately wheedling, cursing,
+coaxing, bribing; all to no purpose. The agent of the Lemaitre property
+had swooped down on the dove-cot and found a beggarly array of empty
+bottles and a good deal of discarded feminine gear scattered about on
+both floors. One room in which certain detectives were vastly interested
+contained the unsavory relics of a late supper. Three or four empty
+champagne-bottles, some shattered glasses, and, what seemed most to
+attract them, various stubs of partially-consumed cigarettes, lay about
+the tables and floor. Adjoining this was the chamber which had been
+known as Mrs. Dawson's, and this, too, had been thoroughly explored.
+'Louette, who had disappeared after Doyle's tragic death, was found not
+far away, and the police thought it but fair that Mrs. Doyle should not
+be deprived of the services of her maid. Then came other additions,
+though confined in other sections of the city. Mr. Pepper wired that
+the party known as Monsieur Philippes had been run to earth and would
+reach town with him by train about the same time that another of the
+force returned from Mobile by boat, bringing a young man known as Dawson
+and wanted as a deserter, and a very sprightly young lady who appeared
+to move in a higher sphere of life, but was unquestionably his wife, for
+the officer could prove their marriage in South Carolina in the spring
+of '65. As Mr. Pepper expressed it when he reported to Reynolds, "It's
+almost a full hand, but, for a fact, it's only a bobtail flush. We need
+that cabman to fill."
+
+"How did you trace Philippes?" asked Reynolds.
+
+"Him? Oh, he was too darned musical. It was--what do you call it?--Flure
+de Tay that did for him. Why, he's the fellow that raised all the money
+and most of the h--ll for this old man Lascelles. He'd been sharping him
+for years."
+
+"Well, when can we bring this thing to a head?" asked the aide-de-camp.
+
+"_Poco tiempo!_ by Saturday, I reckon."
+
+But it came sooner.
+
+Waring was seated one lovely evening in a low reclining chair on Mrs.
+Cram's broad gallery, sipping contentedly at the cup of fragrant tea she
+had handed him. The band was playing, and a number of children were
+chasing about in noisy glee. The men were at supper, the officers, as a
+rule, at mess. For several minutes the semi-restored invalid had not
+spoken a word. In one of his customary day-dreams he had been calmly
+gazing at the shapely white hand of his hostess, "all queenly with its
+weight of rings."
+
+"Will you permit me to examine those rings a moment?" he said.
+
+"Why, certainly. No, you sit still, Mr. Waring," she replied, promptly
+rising, and, pulling them off her fingers, dropped them into his open
+palm. With the same dreamy expression on his clear-cut, pallid face, he
+turned them over and over, held them up to the light, finally selected
+one exquisite gem, and then, half rising, held forth the others. As she
+took them and still stood beside his chair as though patiently waiting,
+he glanced up.
+
+"Oh, beg pardon. You want this, I suppose?" and, handing her the dainty
+teacup, he calmly slipped the ring into his waistcoat-pocket and
+languidly murmured, "Thanks."
+
+"Well, I like that."
+
+"Yes? So do I, rather better than the others."
+
+"May I ask what you purpose doing with my ring?"
+
+"I was just thinking. I've ordered a new Amidon for Larkin, a new
+ninety-dollar suit for Ferry, and I shall be decidedly poor this month,
+even if we recover Merton's watch."
+
+"Oh, well, if it's only to pawn one, why not take a diamond?"
+
+"But it isn't."
+
+"What then, pray?"
+
+"Well, again I was just thinking--whether I could find another to match
+this up in town, or send this one--to her."
+
+"Mr. _Waring_! _Really?_" And now Mrs. Cram's bright eyes are dancing
+with eagerness and delight.
+
+For all answer, though his own eyes begin to moisten and swim, he draws
+from an inner pocket a dainty letter, post-marked from a far, far city
+to the northeast.
+
+"You _dear_ fellow! How can I tell you how glad I am! I haven't dared
+to ask you of her since we met at Washington, but--oh, my heart has been
+just full of her since--since this trouble came."
+
+"God bless the trouble! it was that that won her to me at last. I have
+loved her ever since I first saw her--long years ago."
+
+"Oh! _oh!_ OH! if Ned were only here! I'm wild to tell him. I may,
+mayn't I?"
+
+"Yes, the moment he comes."
+
+But Ned brought a crowd with him when he got back from town a little
+later. Reynolds was there, and Philippe Lascelles, and Mr. Pepper, and
+they had a tale to tell that must needs be condensed.
+
+They had all been present by invitation of the civil authorities at a
+very dramatic affair during the late afternoon,--the final lifting of
+the veil that hid from public view the "strange, eventful history" of
+the Lascelles tragedy. Cram was the spokesman by common consent. "With
+the exception of the Dawsons," said he, "none of the parties implicated
+knew up to the hour of his or her examination that any one of the others
+was to appear." Mrs. Dawson, eager to save her own pretty neck, had
+told her story without reservation. Dawson knew nothing.
+
+The story had been wrung from her piecemeal, but was finally told in
+full, and in the presence of the officers and civilians indicated. She
+had married in April, '65, to the scorn of her people, a young Yankee
+officer attached to the commissary department. She had starved all
+through the war. She longed for life, luxury, comforts. She had nothing
+but her beauty, he nothing but his pay. The extravagances of a month
+swamped him; the drink and desperation of the next ruined him. He
+maintained her in luxury at the best hotel only a few weeks, then all of
+his and much of Uncle Sam's money was gone. Inspection proved him a
+thief and embezzler. He fled, and she was abandoned to her own
+resources. She had none but her beauty and a gift of penmanship which
+covered the many sins of her orthography. She was given a clerkship, but
+wanted more money, and took it, blackmailing a quartermaster. She
+imposed on Waring, but he quickly found her out and absolutely refused
+afterwards to see her at all. She was piqued and angered, "a woman
+scorned," but not until he joined Battery "X" did opportunity present
+itself for revenge. She had secured a room under Mrs. Doyle's reputable
+roof, to be near the barracks, where she could support herself by
+writing for Mrs. Doyle and blackmailing those whom she lured, and where
+she could watch _him_, and, to her eager delight, she noted and prepared
+to make much of his attentions to Madame Lascelles. Incidentally, too,
+she might inveigle the susceptible Lascelles himself, on the principle
+that there's no fool like an old fool. Mrs. Doyle lent herself eagerly
+to the scheme. The letters began to pass to and fro again. Lascelles was
+fool enough to answer, and when, all on a sudden, Mrs. Doyle's
+"long-missing relative," as she called him, turned up, a pensioner on
+her charity, it was through the united efforts of the two women he got a
+situation as cab-driver at the stable up at the eastern skirt of the
+town. Dawson had enlisted to keep from starving, and, though she had no
+use for him as a husband, he would do to fetch and carry, and he dare
+not disobey. Twice when Doyle was battery officer of the day did this
+strangely-assorted pair of women entertain Lascelles at supper and
+fleece him out of what money he had. Then came Philippes with Lascelles
+in Mike's cab, as luck would have it, but they could not fleece
+Philippes. Old Lascelles was rapidly succumbing to Nita's fascinations
+when came the night of the terrible storm. Mike had got to drinking, and
+was laid low by the lieutenant. Mike and Bridget both vowed vengeance.
+But meantime Doyle himself had got wind of something that was going on,
+and he and his tyrant had a fearful row. He commanded her never to allow
+a man inside the premises when he was away, and, though brought home
+drunk that awful night, furiously ordered the Frenchman out, and might
+have assaulted them had not Bridget lassoed him with a chloroformed
+towel. That was the last he knew until another day. Lascelles,
+Philippes, and she, Mrs. Dawson, had already drunk a bottle of champagne
+when interrupted by Doyle's coming. Lascelles was tipsy, had snatched
+his pistol and fired a shot to frighten Doyle, but had only enraged him,
+and then he had to run for his cab. He was bundled in and Doyle disposed
+of. It was only three blocks down to Beau Rivage, and thither Mike drove
+them in all the storm. She did not know at the time of Waring's being in
+the cab. In less than fifteen minutes Mike was back and called
+excitedly for Bridget; had a hurried consultation with her; she seized a
+waterproof and ran out with him, but darted back and took the bottle of
+chloroform she had used on her husband, now lying limp and senseless on
+a sofa below, and then she disappeared. When half an hour passed and
+Lascelles failed to return with them, bringing certain papers of which
+he'd been speaking to Philippes, the latter declared there must be
+something wrong, and went out to reconnoitre despite the storm. He could
+see nothing. It was after midnight when Mrs. Doyle came rushing in,
+gasping, all out of breath "along of the storm," she said. She had been
+down the levee with Mike to find a cushion and lap-robe he dropped and
+couldn't afford to lose. They never could have found it at all "but for
+ould Lascelles lending them a lantern." He wanted Mike to bring down two
+bottles of champagne he'd left here, but it was storming so that he
+would not venture again, and Lieutenant Waring, she said, was going to
+spend the night with Lascelles at Beau Rivage: Mike couldn't drive any
+farther down towards the barracks. Lascelles sent word to Philippes that
+he'd bring up the papers first thing in the morning, if the storm
+lulled, and Philippes went out indignant at all the time lost, but Mike
+swore he'd not drive down again for a fortune. So the Frenchman got into
+the cab and went up with him to town. The moment he was gone Mrs. Doyle
+declared she was dead tired, used up, and drank huge goblets of the wine
+until she reeled off to her room, leaving an apron behind. Then Mrs.
+Dawson went to her own room, after putting out the lights, and when, two
+days later, she heard the awful news of the murder, knowing that
+investigation would follow and she and her sins be brought to light, she
+fled, for she had enough of his money in her possession, and poor
+demented Dawson, finding her gone, followed.
+
+Philippes's story corroborated this in every particular. The last he saw
+of the cab or of the cabman was near the house of the hook-and-ladder
+company east of the French Market. The driver there said his horse was
+dead beat and could do no more, so Philippes went into the market,
+succeeded in getting another cab by paying a big price, slept at
+Cassidy's, waited all the morning about Lascelles's place, and finally,
+having to return to the Northeast at once, he took the evening train on
+the Jackson road and never heard of the murder until ten days after. He
+was amazed at his arrest.
+
+And then came before his examiners a mere physical wreck,--the shadow of
+his former self,--caught at the high tide of a career of crime and
+debauchery, a much less bulky party than the truculent Jehu of Madame
+Lascelles's cab, yet no less important a witness than that same driver.
+He was accompanied by a priest. He had been brought hither in an
+ambulance from the Hotel-Dieu, where he had been traced several days
+before and found almost at death's door. His confession was most
+important of all. He had struck Lieutenant Waring as that officer turned
+away from Lascelles's gate, intending only to down and then kick and
+hammer him, but he had struck with a lead-loaded rubber club, and he was
+horrified to see him drop like one dead. Then he lost his nerve and
+drove furiously back for Bridget. Together they returned, and found
+Waring lying there as he had left him on the dripping banquette. "You've
+killed him, Mike. There's only one thing to do," she said: "take his
+watch and everything valuable he has, and we'll throw him over on the
+levee." She herself took the knife from his overcoat-pocket, lest he
+should recover suddenly, and then, said the driver, "even as we were
+bending over him there came a sudden flash of lightning, and there was
+Lascelles bending over us, demanding to know what it meant. Then like
+another flash he seemed to realize what was up, sprang back, and drew
+pistol. He had caught us in the act. There was nothing else to do; we
+both sprang upon him. He fired, and hit me, but only in the arm, and
+before he could pull trigger again we both grappled him. I seized his
+gun, Bridget his throat, but he screamed and fought like a tiger, then
+wilted all of a sudden. I was scared and helpless, but she had her wits
+about her, and told me what to do. The lieutenant began to gasp and
+revive just then, so she soaked the handkerchief in chloroform and
+placed it over his mouth, and together we lifted him into the cab. Then
+we raised Lascelles and carried him in and laid him on his sofa, for he
+had left the door open and the lamp on the table. Bridget had been there
+before, and knew all about the house. We set the pistol back in his
+hand, but couldn't make the fingers grasp it. We ransacked the desk and
+got what money there was, locked and bolted the doors, and climbed out
+of the side window, under which she dropped the knife among the bushes.
+'They'll never suspect us in the world, Mike,' she said. 'It's the
+lieutenant's knife that did it, and, as he was going to fight him
+anyhow, he'll get the credit of it all.' Then we drove up the levee, put
+Waring in Anatole's boat, sculls and all, and shoved him off. 'I'll
+muzzle Jim,' she said. 'I'll make him believe 'twas he that did it when
+he was drunk.' She took most of the money, and the watch and ring. She
+said she could hide them until they'd be needed. Then I drove Philippes
+up to town until I began to get so sick and faint I could do no more. I
+turned the cab loose and got away to a house where I knew they'd take
+care of me, and from there, when my money was gone, they sent me to the
+hospital, thinking I was dying. I swear to God I never meant to more
+than get square with the lieutenant. I never struck Lascelles at all;
+'twas she who drove the knife into his heart."
+
+Then, exhausted, he was led into an adjoining room, and Mrs. Doyle was
+marched in, the picture of injured Irish innocence. For ten minutes,
+with wonderful effrontery and nerve, she denied all personal
+participation in the crime, and faced her inquisitors with brazen calm.
+Then the chief quietly turned and signalled. An officer led forward from
+one side the wreck of a cabman, supported by the priest; a door opened
+on the other, and, escorted by another policeman, Mrs. Dawson
+re-entered, holding in her hands outstretched a gingham apron on which
+were two deep stains the shape and size of a long, straight-bladed,
+two-edged knife. It was the apron that Bridget Doyle had worn that fatal
+night. One quick, furtive look at that, one glance at her trembling,
+shrinking, cowering kinsman, and, with an Irish howl of despair, a loud
+wail of "Mike, Mike, you've sworn your sister's life away!" she threw
+herself upon the floor, tearing madly at her hair. And so ended the
+mystery of Beau Rivage.
+
+There was silence a moment in Cram's pretty parlor when the captain had
+finished his story. Waring was the first to speak:
+
+"There is one point I wish they'd clear up."
+
+"What's that?" said Cram.
+
+"Who's got Merton's watch?"
+
+"Oh, by Jove! I quite forgot. It's all right, Waring. Anatole's place
+was 'pulled' last night, and he had her valuables all done up in a box.
+'To pay for his boat,' he said."
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+A quarter of a century has passed away since the scarlet plumes of Light
+Battery "X" were last seen dancing along the levee below New Orleans.
+Beau Rivage, old and moss-grown at the close of the war, fell into rapid
+decline after the tragedy of that April night. Heavily mortgaged, the
+property passed into other hands, but for years never found a tenant.
+Far and near the negroes spoke of the homestead as haunted, and none of
+their race could be induced to set foot within its gates. One night the
+sentry at the guard-house saw sudden light on the westward sky, and then
+a column of flame. Again the fire-alarm resounded among the echoing
+walls of the barracks; but when the soldiers reached the scene, a
+seething ruin was all that was left of the old Southern home. Somebody
+sent Cram a marked copy of a New Orleans paper, and in their cosey
+quarters at Fort Hamilton the captain read it aloud to his devoted Nell:
+"The old house has been vacant, an object of almost superstitious dread
+to the neighborhood," said the _Times_, "ever since the tragic death of
+Armand Lascelles in the spring of 1868. In police annals the affair was
+remarkable because of the extraordinary chain of circumstantial evidence
+which for a time seemed to fasten the murder upon an officer of the army
+then stationed at Jackson Barracks, but whose innocence was triumphantly
+established. Madame Lascelles, it is understood, is now educating her
+daughter in Paris, whither she removed immediately after her marriage a
+few months ago to Captain Philippe Lascelles, formerly of the
+Confederate army, a younger brother of her first husband."
+
+"Well," said Cram, "I'll have to send that to Waring. They're in Vienna
+by this time, I suppose. Look here, Nell; how was it that when we
+fellows were fretting about Waring's attentions to Madame, you should
+have been so serenely superior to it all, even when, as I know, the
+stories reached you?"
+
+"Ah, Ned, I knew a story worth two of those. He was in love with Natalie
+Maitland all the time."
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Waring's Peril, by Charles King
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