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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/24148-8.txt b/24148-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..bc69102 --- /dev/null +++ b/24148-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4934 @@ +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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WARING'S PERIL *** + +***** This file should be named 24148-8.txt or 24148-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/1/4/24148/ + +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.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Charles King. + </title> + <style type="text/css"> +/*<![CDATA[ XML blockout */ +<!-- + p { margin-top: .75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em; + } + h1,h2,h3,h4,h5,h6 { + text-align: center; /* all headings centered */ + clear: both; + } + hr { width: 33%; + margin-top: 2em; + margin-bottom: 2em; + margin-left: auto; + margin-right: auto; + clear: both; + } + + body{margin-left: 10%; + margin-right: 10%; + } + + hr.smler { width: 10%; } + + .pagenum { /* uncomment the next line for invisible page numbers */ + /* visibility: hidden; */ + position: absolute; + left: 92%; + font-size: smaller; + text-align: right; + text-indent: 0px; + } /* page numbers */ + + .center {text-align: center;} + .smaller {font-size: smaller;} + .smcap {font-variant: small-caps;} + + .right {text-align: right;} + .tbrk { margin-top: 2.75em; + text-align: justify; + margin-bottom: .75em;} + + /* index */ + + div.index ul li { padding-top: 1em ;text-align: center; } + + div.index ul ul ul, div.index ul li ul li { padding: 0; text-align: left; } + + div.index ul { list-style: none; margin: 0; } + + div.index ul, div.index ul ul ul li { display: inline; } + + // --> + /* XML end ]]>*/ + </style> + </head> +<body> + + +<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"> </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"> </p> + +<div class="center"><img src="images/logo.png" width='150' height='154' alt="Publisher's logo" /></div> + +<p class="tbrk"> </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"> </p> + +<h3><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1893,<br />by<br />J. B. Lippincott Company.</span></h3> + +<p class="tbrk"> </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"> </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,—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>matinée</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——"</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—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—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; <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——"</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,—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—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,—full dress,—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?—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.—Tell him I've gone, Ananias.—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,—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,—</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,—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,—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>fouragère</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,—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,—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?"</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,—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<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,—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<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,—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<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—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.</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,—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 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.</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—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.—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.</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 manœuvres 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;—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—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 manœuvring 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 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'<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,—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,—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,—</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—— 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."</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—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.</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,—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—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.—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<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,—</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,—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,—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—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,—at least I was told so,—and left that note for you there, sir."</p> + +<p>"He did!—left the post and left a note for me? Why!—--" But here +Braxton broke off short, tore open the note, and read:</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </p> + +<p>"<span class="smcap">My dear Colonel</span>,—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>matinée</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 /> + "<span class="smcap">S. G. Waring</span>."</p> + +<p class="tbrk"> </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>matinée</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—— 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——"</p> + +<p>"With Jeffers? With my—er—our team and wagon? Well, I like——"</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—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——"</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——"</p> + +<p>"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."</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—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—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."</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——" and the colonel +hesitated.</p> + +<p>"As to their being seen together, perhaps. As to the other,—the +challenge,—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,—</p> + +<p>"Madame Lascelles! madame! this is indeed lucky—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,—</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.—<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>—to <i>bonne maman's</i>, of whom it is the <i>fête</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.—"Take the front seat, +Jeffers.—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>fête</i>. Bless that baby +daughter! And Madame d'Hervilly shall bless Nin Nin's <i>tout dévoué</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,—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—Madame d'Hervilly—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——" 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—who it was +they took from him?"</p> + +<p>"Why, sure, the wife of that old Frenchman, Lascelles, that lives +below,—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—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<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.—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,—<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,—"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,—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."</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,—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 grillée</i> and going +over the last act with her and rhapsodizing about Verdi, Bellini, +Mozart, or Gounod,—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,—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,—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!—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>matinée</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—— 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,—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,—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—I wouldn't believe it, sir—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—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.—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—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?"</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,—</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—shall I send you word +from—there?"—and Cram nodded northward, and then, in a lower +tone,—"as to Doyle?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, damn Doyle! I don't care if he never——" 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,—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.</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.—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,—'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.</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,—murdered, doubtless,—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,—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,—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,—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>—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>Là 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>,—<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,—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,—God knows where,—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,—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,—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,—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—specialties of Mr. Finkbein, the sutler—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,—</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——"</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——"</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,—'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?"</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—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,—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<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,—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,—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—going for all she was +worth—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 +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<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,—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 <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,—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.</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—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 subpœna 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——" 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—he was +the one that——"</p> + +<p>"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?"</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,—</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—</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,—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,—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<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,—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 <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—this one, at least—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,—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 +grâce</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,—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,—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,—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,—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,—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?—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—</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,—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.</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,—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?"</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,—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,—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.</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,—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, <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—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—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>château</i>—the rotten old +rookery—from Beau Rivage to Belle Alliance. He would make this day a +<i>fête</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,—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,—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>roué</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. +'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. <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—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."</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 à 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,—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 +à boire</i> from "<i>Fleur de Thé</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,—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>café 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,—"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:</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"> </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"> </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.—Bugler, report to Lieutenant Ferry and tell him I shall +have to be absent for a while.—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,—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,—</p> + +<p>"I am most glad to meet you,—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>rôle</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—who would—tell her of Armand's——" 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——"</p> + +<p>"<i>C'est lui! c'est bien lui!</i>" 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<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,—"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 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<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—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."</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—whether I could find another to match +this up in town, or send this one—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—oh, my heart has been +just full of her since—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—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,—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,—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<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">* * * * * *</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"> </p> + +<p class="center">THE END.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Waring's Peril, by Charles King + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WARING'S PERIL *** + +***** This file should be named 24148-h.htm or 24148-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/1/4/24148/ + +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.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: 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 + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WARING'S PERIL *** + +***** This file should be named 24148.txt or 24148.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/4/1/4/24148/ + +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.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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