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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/32311-8.txt b/32311-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..dc3b5f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/32311-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8313 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Soldier's Trial, 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: A Soldier's Trial + An Episode of the Canteen Crusade + + +Author: Charles King + + + +Release Date: May 9, 2010 [eBook #32311] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SOLDIER'S TRIAL*** + + +E-text prepared by Mary Meehan and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images +generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries +(http://www.archive.org/details/americana) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 32311-h.htm or 32311-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32311/32311-h/32311-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32311/32311-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/American Libraries. See + http://www.archive.org/details/soldierstrial00kingrich + + + + + +A SOLDIER'S TRIAL + +An Episode of the Canteen Crusade + +by + +GENERAL CHARLES KING + +Author of "A Daughter of the Sioux," "Comrades in Arms," "The Medal of +Honor," Etc. + + + + + + + +New York +The Hobart Company +1905 + +Copyright, 1905, +by the Hobart Company + + + + +Brig.-Gen. Frederick D. Grant, U.S.A., says: "It is distressing that the +prosperity of the keepers of vile resorts is due to the activity of good +and worthy though misguided citizens, who have succeeded in abolishing +the canteen in the army." + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER I. TWO ANNOUNCEMENTS + + CHAPTER II. A FACE FROM THE PHILIPPINES + + CHAPTER III. A NIGHT AT NAPLES + + CHAPTER IV. "SHE IS COMING HERE!" + + CHAPTER V. PREMONITORY SYMPTOMS + + CHAPTER VI. A BRIDE--AND A BEAU + + CHAPTER VII. THE WOLF IN THE SHEEPFOLD + + CHAPTER VIII. ACCUSING LETTERS + + CHAPTER IX. AN INVITATION--TO GO + + CHAPTER X. A GATHERING STORM + + CHAPTER XI. DEEPER IN THE TOILS + + CHAPTER XII. WHAT THE WOMEN TOLD THE MAJOR + + CHAPTER XIII. WORST DEED OF HIS LIFE + + CHAPTER XIV. REACTION + + CHAPTER XV. RETRIBUTION + + CHAPTER XVI. MY LADY'S MAID + + CHAPTER XVII. A MOMENTOUS DAY + + CHAPTER XVIII. BLENKE COVERS HIS TRACKS + + CHAPTER XIX. AGAIN THE SALOON + + CHAPTER XX. A MOTHER'S DREAD + + CHAPTER XXI. LOVE'S LAST APPEAL + + CHAPTER XXII. THE LOST FOUND + + CHAPTER XXIII. A WELCOME PERIL + + CHAPTER XXIV. CRISIS + + CHAPTER XXV. BLACK WOLF'S BATTLE + + CHAPTER XXVI. TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION + + CHAPTER XXVII. EXEUNT OMNES + + + + +A SOLDIER'S TRIAL + + + + +CHAPTER I + +TWO ANNOUNCEMENTS + + +The war with Spain was at an end, and so were the hopes and aspirations +of many a warrior. For several reasons Colonel Ray of the ----th +Kentucky was a disappointed man. One of the best soldiers doing duty +with the volunteers, he had had some of the worst luck. Through long +years of service in the regular cavalry he had borne the reputation of +being a most energetic and valuable officer. He had won a name as an +Indian fighter the Indians themselves respected. He had campaigned all +over the frontier before the railways came and conquered. He knew +Arizona and New Mexico even better than his native State, and was known +from the upper Missouri to the lower Colorado far more generally than in +the "blue grass" country of his boy days. Apache and Arapahoe, Comanche +and Cheyenne, Sioux and Shoshone, they all had met, and many had +measured spear with, the dark-eyed, curly-headed Kentucky +light-horseman. He bore the scars of more than one sharp encounter; had +given more than he had received, yet found himself in no wise blessed +with profit or promotion. The Civil War was fairly ended when he stepped +from the Point into his first commission. Over thirty years had he done +valiant and faithful duty in the line, yet was he only just wearing the +gold leaves as junior major of his regiment, when the long-expected +happened in the spring of '98, and the nation called out its first levy +of volunteers. Slow as had been his advancement, it was phenomenally +swift as compared with that of classmates who, choosing the artillery +arm, had languished those thirty years in the line of file closers. Ray +had no complaint to make. He was even rejoiceful in his luck when called +to Kentucky to command one of her regiments of volunteer infantry. He +was, indeed, among the few envied men in the army where so very few have +anything to excite the cupidity of their kind. His record and reputation +were things no man could undermine, though some might underestimate. His +temperament was sweet and sunny. He had long been happily, most happily, +married. His wife was charming, admired, and beloved. His children were +all a father's heart could wish. Health and competence had always been +theirs. They had, indeed, for years known the joys of moderate wealth, +for Mrs. Ray had brought her husband something besides beauty and grace, +physical and spiritual. The Marion Sanford of the Centennial year of '76 +was reputed an heiress, and the children that had come in course of time +to bless their union were certainly born to the purple. But army people +of those days lived long years in the far West, had to trust their +business affairs to agents in the far East, and some agents could not +stand such prosperity. Mrs. Ray's property was mainly in real estate, +some of which became gradually unproductive. Then there came the +financial storm of '93, and a subsequent flitting of financial agents, +some to the convenient Canadas, some to the Spanish Main. + +Then another thing happened, almost whimsical in the way of retributive +justice where Mrs. Ray's relatives were concerned. That the resultant +burden should have been saddled on her cavalry husband was perhaps not +quite so diverting. There were several of Mrs. Ray's nearest of kin who +had by no means approved of her marriage in the army, and to a nameless, +moneyless subaltern at that. "He will make ducks and drakes of her +fortune," said they. "He will drink and gamble it away," said certain +others. Ray had possibly heard, had probably expected this. At all +events he had steadfastly declined to use his wife's money. He had gone +so far as to grieve her not a little by very gently, but very firmly, +declining to undertake the management of her property. That was all left +in the hands of her people. It was the agent of their choice who made +ducks and drakes of much of it, as well as of their own, and, at the +time the Spanish War broke out, from his pay as major in the line of the +army "Billy" Ray was contributing to the support of certain of the +children of his former detractors. + +Then came partial relief. "Sandy" Ray, their eldest son, commissioned +like his father in the cavalry, was no longer to be provided for. +Indeed, he was sending every month a certain quarter of his salary +direct to his mother to repay her for moneys advanced for him when they +were much needed. Maidie Ray, their lovely dark-eyed daughter, had +married the man of her choice, a well-to-do young New Yorker of most +excellent family. There was only Billy, Junior, among their olive +branches now to be provided for until he could look out for himself. +There was even prospect of his being sent to West Point within the year +to make a try at that which had proved too hard a problem for his +unmathematical elder brother, for Sandy had worn cadet gray long enough +to get much of the practical teaching of our famous school, though he +could not assimilate the requisite amount of the theoretical. It was the +year after the surrender of Santiago and the muster out of most of the +State volunteers that, in the goodness of his heart, Colonel Ray turned +to Marion, his wife, and said: + +"Why not have Beth and 'Cilla come to us?"--and thereby hangs very much +of this tale. + +"Beth," be it said at once, did not come, for, even in her reduced +circumstances and somewhat mature years, this excellent woman was sought +by an old admirer, once deemed ineligible. Beth wrote thankfully and +appreciatively to Uncle Will and dear Aunt Marion: "The Doctor has +returned to New Jersey and--the old subject." There was now no stern +parent to say him nay, and she--could not. But Priscilla would gladly +and gratefully come, and, whether or no Priscilla was grateful, +Priscilla proved assuredly glad, for Priscilla was a woman with a +mission and long in search of a field. Priscilla had often marveled at +Aunt Marion's blindness in not having earlier looked to her as the best +possible guide, example, and companion for Aunt Marion's most +interesting if much-indulged brood. Priscilla never doubted her powers, +and never dreamed of the instant protests developed when, in mischievous +mood, probably, papa had suggested having Cousin 'Cilla come to the +frontier to help mother school the little Rays. All their recollections +of that prematurely mature young kinswoman were somewhat appalling. They +regarded her as healthy children are sure to look upon an elder cousin +who seeks ever to improve her opportunities and their moral nature. Life +had had no greater trial to the trio than those rare and even +regrettable visits to mother's home and kindred where first they learned +to know the superior gifts and graces of Cousin 'Cil. + +It has been said that Colonel Ray, the Spanish part of the war ended, +was a disappointed man, and that so was many another. Never waiting to +see what might result from the general rally of the Filipino insurgents, +following speedily the first general scatter, the government swiftly +mustered out all the State volunteers not actually on duty in the +distant islands, filled up the regulars with raw recruits, and shipped +them straightway, undisciplined, undrilled, across the wide Pacific. +Then new regiments of volunteers were authorized,--National volunteers, +instead of State,--and, though their field officers as a rule were +chosen from the regular service, there were by no means enough to go +around among the many deserving applicants. The forty odd colonelcies +went, in most cases, to the right men, but there were many "left," and +Billy Ray was one. He had had no luck whatever with his Kentucky +regiment. He had been sent to Chickamauga, and thence to Florida, and +thence nowhere worth mentioning. They saw no service without the States; +heard no hostile bullets whistle; found, like most of the State +volunteers, they were to have no part in the Cuban campaign, and, that +being the case, they wished to go home. They hadn't enlisted to play +soldier, said they, and much as they admired and honored Colonel Ray, +they could not be made to love soldier life that had no fighting. "Give +us a chance to _do_ something," was their cry, "and we'll stay till hell +freezes over; but no more of this sort of thing for us." Ray had tried +hard to keep alive regimental interest and enthusiasm, but few could +feel either interest or enthusiasm in a daily routine of drill, parade, +and police duty in a hot, malarious Southern camp under Southern summer +skies. Other regiments about them were getting orders to go home for +muster out, and some of these individual Kentuckians had begun to go, +too. If Ray could have moved them a few miles away from the other camps, +and close to the sparkling sea water, things might have gone better, but +his original brigade commander, a regular whom he knew, and who knew +him, had gotten orders for the Philippines, and gone. + +He was succeeded by a brigadier whom Ray had never heard of, nor +apparently had anybody else outside the contracted limits of his +commonwealth, and this gentleman, having never before served with +troops, and knowing nothing about modern military conditions, had +imbibed his impressions from foreign pictorial papers. His conception of +the functions of a general officer found concrete form in a daily +circuit of his camps, mounted and accompanied by his full staff and +escort. When not so occupied he sat in much state under the fly of his +marquee, and had his colonels come and stand attention and listen to his +homilies on the military art, which differed from anything they had +previously conceived upon the subject. It was this unschooled, unskilled +brigadier who turned down Ray's appeal to march his regiment five miles +over to the seashore. The colonel of over thirty years' practical +experience was being lectured by the general who had none. The +unterrified Kentucky rank and file took to guying their civilian +star-bearer. There were presently demonstrations that Ray could neither +foresee nor prevent. The general thought he could and should, and so +informed him, and likewise the division commander. Ray demanded +investigation. The division commander sought to smooth matters over, and +failed. Ray resigned in disgust, sought orders to his own regiment, and +found himself once again at the head of his squadron of regular troopers +in the midst of scenes he loved. But his soul longed for action. He was +offered a lieutenant-colonelcy of one of the national regiments of +volunteers, but that was a step down, not up. It would have placed him +under a colonel ten years younger than himself, and he said he preferred +the gold leaves in the regulars to the silver in the volunteers, which +ended for the present his prospects. Maidie's wedding, too, had +something to do with the decision. But now that was over with, and here +were he and Marion occupying delightful quarters at old Fort +Minneconjou, with every prospect of soon being sent to the Philippines, +where their colonel was commanding a division in the field, leaving +Major Ray to look after the post, its men, and its military morals. Here +it was, in the bracing air of the Dakotas and within range of the bold +foothills and remoter pine-crested heights of the Sagamore, that they +opened their hearts and doors to Mrs. Billy's niece, Priscilla Sanford, +and affairs at Minneconjou, stagnant a while after the departure of the +----d Infantry, once more became alive with interest, for Miss 'Cilla, +as has been said, was a woman with a mission and, as perhaps should be +said, with some thirty years to her credit, rather more than she had +dollars. + +Time had been when, with abundant means and few cares, Miss Sanford +busied herself in local charities and became a social power in her +community. But with loss of money came lack of appreciation. She who had +long managed the Mission kindergarten, and mainly financed it, was +presently superseded as president of the board. She who had ever been +foremost in the counsels of the Infants' Home and the St. Mary's Guild +found herself gradually slighted in the matter of entertainments, etc., +though still graciously permitted to do most of the clerical work. + +For nearly a dozen years she had served as secretary and treasurer of +the Young Woman's Church Aid and Temperance Union, a beneficent +organization that still held many meetings but few converts. It had the +backing of three or four wealthy congregations, however, and the control +of a generous fund. When the year '94 was ushered in and the victims of +the panic of '93 were enumerated, the case of Priscilla Sanford had +excited prompt and rather widespread interest; but the sympathy that +might have been as readily accorded was tempered by the reflection that +Miss Sanford had ever been what they termed "bossy," by which it was by +no means meant to imply that bovine sluggishness and submission were +Miss Sanford's marked characteristics, for Miss Sanford was energy +personified in petticoats. It had been moved, seconded and carried, in a +spasm of feminine generosity, that the secretary and treasurer should be +paid a salary, small, to be sure, but something, and Priscilla Sanford, +who had labored without fee or financial reward a dozen years, was +permitted to hold the position as a salaried official just one year +longer, by which time it was determined that Miss Sanford had really +been secretary much too long, and, anyhow, that somebody else stood much +more in need of it. So Priscilla's party found itself outvoted at the +annual election, and the Young Woman's Church Aid ceased, except in +name, to be a temperance union. With much that was intemperate in tone +and language, the union burst its bonds and flew to pieces, one or more +to each congregation. Then Priscilla tried her hand at writing for the +various journals of the clerical order. Some few published, but none +paid for, her contributions. Then Aunt Marion began sending occasional +drafts that were not to be mentioned to anybody. Then came Priscilla's +bid to join Uncle Will and Aunt Marion at Minneconjou, and +then--Priscilla herself. + +She had been there barely forty-eight hours when there arrived from the +Philippines a bulky letter from Lieutenant Sandy Ray, eldest son and +hope and heir, dated "Camp Lawton, Benguet." It had been nearly three +months on the way. It brought tidings that made his mother's soft cheek +pale with anxiety and caused Colonel Ray to look up startled as he read +it, to go over and take his wife in his arms, lead her to the sofa, and +hold her close as he went on with the final pages--a boy's rhapsody over +a boy's first love: + + MY OWN MUMMIE:--Not until I could send you the inclosed, the + portrait, and by no means flattering one, of the loveliest girl + that ever lived, could I write to tell you of my almost delirious + happiness. But _look_ at her--_look_ at her, and see for yourself + and rejoice with me, best, blessedest, dearest of mothers, that + this exquisite creature loves me--_me_, your no 'count, ranch boy + Sandy--loves _me_, and will soon, please God, be my own wife. + Mother, mother, I have hardly slept in my wild joy, and now I can + hardly wait for your approval and blessing. Dad will love and + admire her, I know, but mothers, they say, never think any woman + good enough for their boys, while I--I could kiss the very ground + she treads so lightly. I almost worship the very glove she left me + for a souvenir. + + As yet I can't quite realize my wondrous luck. Why, Mummie, the + other fellows were simply mad about her during her brief stay at + Manila. Quite a lot of us, you know, were ordered there when poor + Jack Bender was court-martialed. He got a stay of proceedings of + some kind, so while the witnesses should have been back with + General Young here, they were dancing attendance on her, and the + way I got the inside track was, when her parents had to go over to + Japan, I coaxed a ten days' leave out of the General and went with + them--her father, mother and her own sweet self--on the _Hancock_ + to Nagasaki, and came back desolate on the--I don't know what. + + I met her at a dance at the Club. She attracted me the instant I + set eyes on her, so like is she to Maidie, only darker, perhaps, + and taller, and a bit more slender. But her eyes, hair, teeth, + coloring, are all so like Maidie's. Her features, perhaps, are more + regular. Shannon, of the Twenty-third, was doing the devoted, and + he presented me. She danced like a sylph, she danced right into my + heart, Mummie, and there she lives and reigns and has her being--my + queen! my queen! + + Oh, what nonsense this must sound to you! All my wise resolutions + as to young men marrying on lieutenant's pay thrown to the wind! + That, however, need not worry us. The major, her father, is + well-to-do, and she's an only child; but this is sordid. It is + _she_ that I love, and the man does not live who could see and know + her and not worship. Why, even our old friend Captain Dwight was + fascinated and didn't half like it that I should have gone with her + to Nagasaki, and he was stiff as a ramrod when I came back. But to + return to her father. He, of course, doesn't expect to remain in + the army after the war. He was made major and quartermaster, I + presume because of his financial experience and worth, and he was + so patriotic he felt he had to get into the field as something. He + is a Texan by long residence, if not birth; owns two or three + ranches, and his wife, my darling's mother, is a Spanish lady whom + he met years ago in Cuba, then Seņorita de la Cruz y Mendoza y + Fronteras, etc., etc., but she, my lady, never speaks of this. She + is simplicity and sweetness itself. She bears her father's honored + name, and that alone, except for her own Christian name, the + sweetest ever--Inez. + + The major's health has suffered much in Manila, but it is hoped + that six weeks in Japan may restore him entirely. If not, they will + take the homeward voyage by way of Vancouver in one of the fine + ships of the Empress line instead of our crowded transports. + Hundreds of State volunteers are going back by every one of these + and, being discharged, or as good as discharged, they consider + themselves relieved from all discipline--which makes it unpleasant + for families of officers. They (the Farrells) may winter in + 'Frisco, where I hope to join them in the spring, and where you + will be sure to see them when you and Dad and the squadron embark + for the Islands. There won't be anything left of the insurrection, + or much of the insurrectos, at the rate things are going, by the + time you come, but meanwhile, like the loving Mummie you are, write + to them, especially to _her_, that your future daughter may know a + loving welcome awaits her. She seems timid as to that and fears you + may not like her, and Dad will, of course, write to Major Farrell, + who is as keen a lover of horses as ever he was, and who owns some + of the finest blooded stock ever seen in the South. This letter + goes registered because of the priceless photograph, which was + taken at Hong Kong, Inez tells me, just after their voyage over, + when she was looking like a fright. Being registered, it must go + slowly and may be long in reaching you, but fancy your Sandy's joy, + if you can. Send this to Maidie, if you will, for I have no time to + write to both. I am commanding my troop and we march at dawn for + the mountains, and may be weeks now in the jungle, chasing + Aguinaldo. Several of our fellows have broken down and had to go to + the sea or back to Corregidor, even over to Japan, to recuperate, + but I feel like a fighting cock and am going in now to win a name + for myself, and for her, that you'll all be proud of. One thing I + can tell you proudly, mother dear: never since that day at the + Presidio, ever so much more than a year ago, have I let even a sip + of wine pass my lips, the first and only teetotaler among the Rays, + and perhaps _that_ has something to do with my perfect physical + trim. I owe you this, and have gladly kept the faith. Now in my + new-found happiness I feel as if I could keep that and every other + faith to the end. Lovingly, devotedly, your boy, + + SANFORD RAY. + + P. S.--Inez says it should not be announced until you all have + approved, whereas I wished and would be for shouting the news from + the housetops. There is a chance of getting this to you quicker + than I thought. Captain Dwight has never been himself since + Bender's trial and conviction. General Young wanted him to take + sick leave last month and go to Japan, but he wouldn't. Now he's + fairly broken down and has to be left behind, so this will go to + Manila with him. I wonder--I can't help wondering--what he'd think + if he knew what was in it. The fellows do say she could have had + him and his money, yet she chose your boy, SANDY. + +For a moment after reading the final page Colonel Ray sat in silence. +Aloft could be heard the firm footfalls of Miss Sanford as she bustled +about her room unpacking her belated trunks. Within, with merry snap and +sparkle, the fresh-heaped wood fire blazed in the broad open fireplace. +Without, the orderly trumpeter, away over by the flagstaff, was winding +the last note of stable call. The late afternoon sunshine flooded the +valley of the Minneconjou. The mountain air, cool, bracing, redolent of +pine and cedar, stirred the tracery of the white curtains at the open +southward window and fluttered the silken folds of the standard and +guidons at the parlor archway. Anxiously the mother heart was throbbing +by his side, and the fond eyes sought the soldier's strong, storm-beaten +face. Then she noted the look of bewilderment in his gaze, for again he +was studying that postscript. Then suddenly he stretched forth his hand, +took from the little pile of newspapers on a chair a copy of a recent +army journal, swiftly turned over a page or two, searching the columns +with half doubtful eyes; then, finding what he needed, thumbed the +paragraph and held it where she could easily see. "Read that," said Ray, +and Marion read aloud: + + "SAN FRANCISCO, ---- 18.--Among the arrivals at the Occidental by + the _Sheridan_ from Manila and Nagasaki are Major, Mrs. and Miss + Farrell and Captain Oswald M. Dwight, the latter of the --th + Cavalry. Major Farrell, Quartermaster U. S. Volunteers, is the + owner of valuable properties in Texas, whither he is soon to + return. Captain Dwight, one of the most distinguished of our + squadron leaders, is rapidly recuperating from serious illness + contracted in the Philippines. The voyage proved a blessing in more + ways than one, for the dinner given by Major and Mrs. Farrell last + night, to a select coterie at the Bohemian Club, was to announce + the engagement of their lovely daughter, Inez, to this gallant + trooper, who won his spurs in the Apache campaign of the '80's, and + the sympathy of hosts of friends on the Pacific coast in the death + of his devoted wife six years ago. They will now rejoice with him + in his joy, and unite with us in wishing him and his young and + beautiful bride all possible felicity." + +Mrs. Ray turned, all amaze, incredulity and distress; then, with +something like a sob, buried her face on the sturdy blue shoulder. There +was suspicious moisture about her husband's blinking eyes, and he for a +moment could hardly trust himself to speak. + +"Is it--_our_ boy now, dear?" he gently asked, and her head came up at +the instant, her blue eyes welling over with indignant tears: + +"Oh, Will," she answered, "you know well what I'm thinking. It is of +_her_--of Margaret--it is of _their_ boy--poor little motherless Jim!" + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A FACE FROM THE PHILIPPINES + + +The man did not live who could say, much less think, that Oswald Dwight +did not devotedly love his devoted wife and had not deeply, even +desolately, mourned her untimely death. Margaret Welland was not a woman +to be soon forgotten. For six years she had been the object almost of +reverence among the officers and men of her husband's regiment, almost +of worship among the women. Gentle, generous, and charitable, gifted +with many a physical charm and almost every spiritual grace, she had +lived her brief life in the army an uncrowned queen, and died a +martyr--almost a saint. For long weeks afterward the women would weep at +mere mention of her name. The casket that bore the fragile, lifeless +form and that of her infant daughter to their final rest was literally +buried in flowers that were wet with tears. Strong men, too, turned +aside or hid their faces in trembling hands when with bowed head Oswald +Dwight was led by, clasping to his breast his sobbing little boy. There +were some who said that Dwight could never have pulled up again if it +hadn't been for Jimmy. It was long months before the stricken soldier +was restored to them. It was longer still before little Jim returned, +and every day meantime, after Dwight's appearance, regularly as he rose +and went silently about his duties, the father wrote his letter to be +read aloud to his only living child, and the one thing that spurred the +merry-hearted little fellow to his studies was the longing to read and +to answer for himself. Jim's first missive to his father, penned by his +own infinite labor, was the event of the second winter at Fort Riley, +for it was shown in succession to nearly every comrade and to every even +remotely sympathetic woman at the post. There were maidens there who +would fain have consoled the tall, distinguished, dark-eyed trooper, so +interesting in his depth of melancholy, so eligible as a catch, for +Dwight, for an army man, was oddly well to do. Obstinately, however, he +refused all consolation from even such a sympathetic source, and would +for long brook no companion on his solitary walks or rides. All his talk +now was of his boy. All his thoughts, plans, projects, seemed centering +on little Jim, who, for the time being, had to be housed among his +mother's people. He was still too young for the care of a soldier-father +who any day might be compelled to take the field. But then came station +at Fort Riley, with its big garrison, its school and its society, and +then the yearning at his heart could no longer be denied. The Wellands +nearly cried their eyes out when Oswald, toward the end of the third +"leave" since Margaret's death, told them that the time for which he had +scrupulously sought to prepare them had come at last: he must have his +boy--he could not live without him. + +Then when Jimmy came it seemed as though an entire garrison had started +in to spoil him. He was the merriest, sunniest, friendliest little chap, +frank, brave and even beautiful, with all his mother's lovely coloring, +with her deep, heavily-lashed, soulful, violet eyes, with her soft +curling brown hair, with her sweet, sensitive mouth and pretty white +teeth. No wonder big Oswald used to set him on his knee and look long +into the smiling little face, so fond and trustful, yet filled with +vague wonderment why daddy should so wistfully gaze at him; and then +with relief, Jim knew not why, when the strong arms would suddenly draw +the lithe, slender little body to that broad and heaving chest and hold +it there, close strained, while bearded lips sought and kissed again and +again the sunny curls. Dwight just lived for that boy, said Fort Riley, +small blame to him! Dwight made little Jim his friend, his confidant, +his companion. Jim had his own little pony as soon as he could safely +bestride one. Jim had his own little camp bed in the room opening off +his father's. Jim had his own shower bath rigged up in his own closet. +Jim had his regular setting-up drill and calisthenics, with daddy +himself for teacher, his rub-down and his soldier toilet, with daddy to +teach him breathing exercises that took the oxygen deep down into his +lungs and sent the red blood whirling through his sinewy little frame. +Jimmy had his own racket for tennis, his own target rifle, his own +kites, tops, marbles, soldiers of every conceivable size, costume and +corps, his own railway tracks and trains, his own books and bookshelves, +his own desk and study table--pretty much everything a boy could have +except his own way, which he was the better without, and his own +mother--without whom boy life can never be complete. + +Fort Riley could be censorious, Heaven knows, when cause existed, and +sometimes when it didn't; but, save the cherished thought of certain +sentimental women that little Jim should have a mother's care as well as +a father's, Fort Riley had few critics so unwise as to question Dwight's +methods with his boy. Jim did not lack for playfellows of his own +age--the fort was full of them and they as full of mischief and +merriment as even army boys are apt to be; but, though at school and in +the "all-round" sports of boyhood Jim mingled with them unreservedly, +the father had made it his business to know most of them well before he +brought Jim to take his initiation among them. There were some few whose +homes Jim was cautioned not to visit. There were some whom, even on +rainy days when the railway was in successful operation all over the +second story, Jim was not permitted to invite to join his +fellow-operatives. A few carping critics there were who thought such +indulgence would be sure to spoil any boy, but, under his father's eye +and guided by his father's hand, Jim worked and studied quite as +steadily as he played. The staff of the little army household was made +up mainly of former trooper Hentzler and his buxom wife, Hentzler being +butler, steward, and valet, Frau Hentzler cook and housemaid. Mrs. +Feeny, of the troop, was their laundress, and Trooper Mehl "boots," +striker and groom. But it was Dwight himself who roused his boy for his +morning bath and exercise, who sat with him through his study hour, saw +him off to school; walked, rode, drove, sometimes shot and fished with +him, going for the purpose far up the Smoky Hill. It was Dwight who read +with him after their evening tea and who finally knelt with him night +after night before he tucked the little fellow into his white bed, +imploring God's guidance for himself, God's blessing for his boy. + +And so never again had they been separated, Dwight and his boy, until +the squadron sailed for Manila and little Jim, refusing to be comforted, +had been left with his mother's kindred until matters should shape +themselves in the Philippines. But the shaping process that might have +been a matter only of months, had the army found no other enemy than the +insurgents and their climate, proved long and costly in life, limb, and +treasure, thanks to the aid and comfort given that enemy by our +fellow-men at home. Dwight had led his squadron through a campaign +fierce in its occasional fighting, but well-nigh fatal through hardship +and heat prostration to many besides himself. Dwight had had to turn +over his command to Captain Gridley, his next in rank, and go to the sea +and Corregidor for rest and recuperation. What good effects might have +been obtained were offset by the court-martial of an officer whose mind, +it was believed, had been affected by sunstroke, yet Captain Dwight was +compelled to appear and remain some time in Manila to testify against +him. He returned to the field little benefited by the enforced +separation from his fellows, and speedily showed symptoms of returning +prostration that led the general commanding to order him again to the +seashore and recommend his being sent on a sea voyage. It was during +this voyage that, after four wonderful days at Nagasaki, he found +himself daily, almost hourly, in the presence of Inez Farrell, as +beautiful and graceful a girl as ever his eyes had seen. He was strong +neither physically nor mentally. He was still an invalid when they met +on the veranda of the old hotel overlooking that wonderful land-locked +harbor. He had by no means forgotten the impression created by her +beauty and her lissome grace when dancing at the club at Manila. He was +invited by Major Farrell to be one of their little party on a rickshaw +ride over the green hills to Mogi. It was an ideal day. It was an ideal +night, with the moon nearing full as they sat later on the upper +veranda, gazing out upon the riding lights of the shipping +thick-clustered on the placid bosom of the bay. It was followed by other +nights as beautiful both ashore and at sea. He was twenty years her +senior, yet she seemed to look for him, wait for him, prefer him in +every way to younger officers, also homeward bound, and these youngsters +left him to his fate. + +What time he was not walking the deck, with her little hand resting on +his arm, or flung in long, low steamer chair close to hers, where he +could watch the wondrous beauty of her face and feel the spell of her +soft, languorous, lovely eyes, Dwight found himself in converse with her +father, a patriotic quartermaster, the owner of valuable properties in +the Lone Star State, to which he must speedily return--his "boys," two +nephews, were not trained to business, said he, and they, too, had been +seeing service and unsettling their minds and habits with the volunteers +that didn't get to Cuba. His daughter was his chief anxiety, he +admitted. She had her mother's luxurious Spanish temperament; needed a +guiding hand--a husband to whom she could look up with respect and +honor, not a callow youngster with no ideas beyond scheming for +promotion and better pay. Several of these young chaps had been buzzing +about her at Manila, but she had "turned them all down," said Farrell. +She had sense and power of observation with all her possibly romantic +admiration for soldiers, but what she really admired was the real +soldier--a man fit to command and lead, a man with a record behind him, +not an uncertainty ahead. Dwight's seat, at the request of the veteran +general officer going with them to the States, had been at the captain's +table, but Dwight soon effected--at least Farrell effected and Dwight +got the _dis_credit of it--a transfer with the officer who had been +seated at the side of Inez Farrell, and Dwight's mental condition can +perhaps be judged of by the fact that he never noticed that General Hume +thereafter not once addressed him on the voyage. + +Enough said. Oswald Dwight's many friends throughout the service read +with much surprise, most of them with vague disquietude and some few +with downright dismay, the announcement of the marriage at Los Angeles, +by the Right Reverend the Bishop of the Diocese, assisted by the Very +Reverend Fathers Moran and Finley, at the Church of the Immaculate +Conception, of Inez, only daughter of Major and Quartermaster James +O'Donohue Farrell, U. S. V., of Santa Rosita, Texas, and Maria Mercedes +de la Cruz y Mendoza y Fronteras, his wife, to Captain Oswald M. Dwight, +--th U. S. Cavalry. + +When the happy pair set forth upon their wedding journey some comment +was created by the fact that, while they went to New Orleans, the +parents of the bride did not go to Texas, as had been planned. Moreover, +the major, it seems, had not anticipated that orders honorably +discharging him from the volunteer service would meet him within the +week of his arrival within the Golden Gate. Officers of the Department +Staff, interrogated on the subject, said little but looked volumes. +Major Blake, of the Cavalry, an old and intimate friend of the Rays, was +understood to say that it was a wonder the major had been honorably +discharged at all. Farrell, who was to have gone to his Texas property, +found that certain mines in Mexico demanded immediate looking after. +Indeed, it was this fact that precipitated an earlier marriage than Miss +Farrell, whose trousseau was by no means in readiness, had for a moment +contemplated. Farrell said he might be as much as six months in the +mountains beyond Guadalajara and other places. The seņora had, of +course, wealthy kindred with whom she could stay at Mexico or Vera Cruz, +but the hitch was about Inez, who, said her father, was so Americanized +that she couldn't get along with her mother's people--they were forever +at swords' points, and what more natural than that the ardent swain +should promptly urge immediate union; then the Farrells could go their +way in peace and he could bear away his beautiful bride to the Atlantic +seaboard, to be made known to his people, and to embrace little Jim. To +this Inez responded coyly that she could not think of such a plan. She +could not go back to San Francisco, a bride, in the gowns she wore while +there as Miss Farrell. Then said Dwight, we'll go straight to New +Orleans, where her mother had many friends and kinsfolk, where the best +of modistes abound, where everything a bride could possibly wear could +surely be found, and Farrell added his dictum to the pleadings of the +groom-elect. The plan appealed to him most, as it would cost him least. + +When Farrell gave them his tearful benediction and farewell, ten +thousand dollars of Dwight's money was stowed away in bills of exchange +on the City of Mexico for investment in the fabulous mines of the +Sierras, and Dwight's signature was on the back of one or two bills left +in the hands of Farrell's friends and correspondents at the Bank of +California, purely, of course, for safe-keeping. And so they went on +their respective ways, Farrell not soon to be seen in God's country +again. + +Three months later, with little Jim at his side and the young +step-mother dawdling along after them in her easy carriage, Captain +Dwight was tramping through Switzerland. The surgeons had said in so +many words he must not return to the Philippines for half a year, and +neither before nor after his marriage had a word reached him from the +Rays, who were his next-door neighbors and Margaret's most devoted +friends until Jimmy was nearly two years old. Even thereafter, though +stationed far apart, Marion Ray and Margaret Dwight had kept up their +correspondence almost to the end. Dwight, indeed, had seen barely half a +dozen of his former comrades, and that only by accident and in haste. +There had come since his second marriage the usual number of cards in +response to the wedding announcement sent to so many friends both in and +out of the army. There had come a curiously unusual dearth of letters of +congratulation. But every man was on the move, he persuaded himself. +Everybody was either busy in the Philippines or voyaging to or from +them. They, too, were moving from pillar to post, and letters must be +miscarrying, so few, for instance, had come from Father-in-law Farrell, +and those that did come made no mention of matters Farrell could hardly +have ignored, and that Dwight had rather counted on. + +Still, Dwight's health was mending every week. Inez had seen so much of +foreign life in her younger days she could not be expected to care to go +poking about, as he did with Jimmy, into all manner of odd nooks and +corners. Father and son once more were hand in hand--hand in glove--for +hours each day, and but for a shyness Jim would surely soon get over--a +queer, silent shrinking from his beautiful young mother--but for this +and one or two little worries due to the non-appearance of letters that +ought to have come and doubtless would come, Dwight strove to persuade +himself that he was again a happy and an enviable man. + +Then came a day that left its impress on them all. There had been +something very like demur on part of the Welland family when Dwight +first announced his intention of taking Jimmy with them to see the Old +World. What would Inez--they spoke her name with effort--think of such a +plan? Was not a young bride justified in expecting the undivided +attention of her husband? Would not any girl, placed as she was, prefer +a honeymoon unclouded by the presence of the children of her +predecessor? Inez had not warmed to her other kindred by marriage; could +she be expected to welcome and, all at once, to warm to little Jim? +Conscientiously and consistently they had tried to like Inez, and could +not. She was beautiful; she was appealing; she was apparently all desire +to please, but she was not convincing. The more they saw of her the less +they liked, but Dwight's infatuation was complete. And still he would +have his boy, and they spoke at last. He had answered by summoning her +to the room--a strange proceeding--and bidding her speak for him, and +she did. She said her heart had yearned for little Jim ever since the +captain first began to tell of him, and when she realized later how +utterly the father's heart was bound up in his boy, she had prayed for +guidance that she might prove a second mother to the little fellow, and +it was her earnest desire that the lad might come with them. How else +was she to hope to win his trust, his affection? There was nothing left +for them to say; but the dread and desolation that fell upon the +household when, for the second time, they were compelled to part with +Margaret's boy, no one but the Wellands was permitted to know. + +Inez, who had been a model sailor on the Pacific, kept much to her +stateroom on the gray Atlantic, though the voyage was unusually placid. +Nor had she later made much effort in her quest for Jimmy's trust and +affection. She could not climb mountains, pedal wheels or ride +quadrupeds. She cared little for scenery--she had seen so much in her +girlhood. She admitted feeling languid and inert. Perhaps mountain air +was not congenial. She would be better when they got to sunny Italy. She +wished there to see everything and to live in the open air--it was what +the doctor said the captain must do--and then she was always exquisitely +gowned and ready to meet them when in the late afternoon they came home, +all aglow, with just time to get out of their tweeds and into dinner +dress. Then Jimmy went early to bed, and she had the long beautiful +evenings with her husband. But now they were in sunny Italy and, except +to drive in beauteous toilets and dine in evening garb still more +resplendent, Inez had no interest in her surroundings and but little in +Jim. They were to sail for home, taking the _Hohenzollern_ at Naples, +after the Easter week in Rome. They had been driving much of the day and +dining early on the balcony of their hotel, looking out upon the +glorious view toward Sorrento and Capri, with grim Vesuvius, +smoke-crowned, in the middle distance. Any moment, said their host, they +should sight the graceful hull of their expected steamer cleaving the +blue beyond the rocky scarp of Posilipo, when Jimmy, gazing steadily +through the glass at the crowding fleet of shipping off the Dogana, +spoke excitedly: "It is our flag, daddy, and the funnel has three +stripes!" + +"A transport," said his father, who had been bending over Inez. "She +must have come in while we were driving." Yet, even as he spoke, +anxiously, tenderly, he was studying her face. + +"Then--that was one of our officers that spoke to you, mamma?" said Jim, +turning quickly, eagerly toward her. + +She had been unusually inert and silent since their return, had herself +suggested dinner on the balcony. It would save the bother of dressing, +and then repacking, since they might have to go on board any hour that +evening. She had been gazing listlessly out over the beautiful bay, +almost dazzling in the rays of the setting sun. Now she suddenly +started, shivered, but almost as suddenly, quickly rallied. + +"Spoke to _me_, Jimmy! Why, child, you've been dreaming!" + +"Why, no, mamma! Don't you remember--while daddy was in at the bank?" +and the boy's big violet eyes turned full upon her. The white hands +gripped the arm of her reclining chair, but she laughed lightly, and the +words came quick. + +"Jimmy boy, you were sound asleep on the front seat. Don't you remember, +Oswald, dear?" + +Dwight, too, laughed merrily. "Surely! Why, little man, your peepers +were shut and you were curled up like a pussy cat----" + +"But I'd waked up, daddy. Mamma gave a little scream and I thought +somebody'd hurt her, and there was this gentleman with his hat raised, +just standing and staring at her till she bent over and said something +quick----" + +"Well, of all the _traeumbilder_ I ever heard!" and Mrs. Dwight's pearly +teeth gleamed through rosy lips as she laughed delightedly, merrily. +"Why, Jimmy boy, I had to shake you awake when I saw papa coming. That's +what I bent forward for. You called him for something, dear, or I +shouldn't have disturbed him." + +"Certainly, I wanted him to see those Italian cavalry officers coming +by, and his eyes could hardly open in time. Just look at 'em now." + +They were, indeed, worth looking at--big and violet, blue and round and +full of wonderment, of incredulity--almost of shock and distress--gazing +fixedly upon the lovely, laughing face of the girl in the deep reclining +chair. + +And then, soft stepping, apologetic, salver in hand, a waiter appeared +at the long Venetian window. Dwight took the card, read, and fairly +cried aloud: + +"By all that's jolly, Inez, it's Sandy Ray!" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A NIGHT AT NAPLES + + +There was a joyous time at the Salone Margherita that evening. Homeward +bound, the _Burnside_, from Manila to New York _via_ Suez, had anchored +that morning off the Dogana quay, and twoscore officers and ladies and a +numerous contingent of discharged soldiers had come swarming ashore to +see what they could of Naples before again proceeding on the morrow. The +fact that most of the officers were invalided home, convalescing from +wounds or severe illness, seemed but moderately to cloud their +enjoyment. By six o'clock most of their number had heard that Dwight of +the cavalry, with his bride, was at the Grand, whither several went at +once before ordering dinner. First to arrive, alone, and looking pallid +and ill, was a young soldier in civilian dress, who seemed nervously +impatient at the delay that followed the sending up of his card, and by +no means delighted when three or four of his fellows came in and +followed suit before his own was acknowledged. So uncompanionable, +indeed, was he that he stepped outside to the southward terrace as +though to avoid these others, and, but for the cards, the observant +_portier_ might have thought them strangers to each other. The late +arrivals, as a rule, were garbed in khaki, just as they had come away +from Manila, and were objects of polite curiosity to the elegantly +capped, cloaked and uniformed Italian officers sauntering in from the +Piazza Umberto, many of whom saluted courteously, though few could tell +from the dress worn by the Americans which was officer and which was +private soldier. + +It was full fifteen minutes before Captain Dwight appeared, though +little Jim had come bounding down the carpeted stairway all joy at +seeing a face or two he well remembered, and in meeting new friends, who +were unspeakably welcome because they were soldiers, American soldiers, +_our_ soldiers. Father, he said, would be down in a moment. Mamma was +not quite well, over-tired, perhaps, from the long drive and day at +sight-seeing and shopping. Even when Dwight appeared, shaking hands most +cordially, rejoicefully, with all, and, indeed, nearly embracing Sandy +Ray, whom he had known since that young gentleman's babyhood, it was a +disappointment to all his visitors that he seemed worried and harassed. +Mrs. Dwight, he explained, had not benefited as they had hoped by the +journeyings abroad, and she had just had something like a sinking spell. +They would have to excuse her a while. She'd be down later. "But you, +too, Sandy boy! What a tough time you must have been having! I hadn't +heard of your being ill. I haven't heard anything, in fact. Your father +hasn't written to me at all. What has been the matter?" + +And then it appeared that Sandy had been ailing for weeks on top of a +not very serious wound, "wasn't at all fit," yet didn't wish to come +home--had been ordered out of the Islands, in fact. And then, as it +further appeared, when Dwight turned, looking for little Jim, all +eagerness that Sandy should see how splendidly the lad was grown and +developed since their parting in Arizona years ago, when Jimmy was just +beginning to toddle about and talk, there stood the boy, his big blue +eyes fixed on the pallid, solemn face of Lieutenant Ray with a look of +bewilderment and trouble. Fowne of the Engineers spoke of it later to +Foster, who just at that moment had seized Jimmy and swung him to his +shoulder, where, instead of gleefully pounding his captor's head and +laughing merrily, as of old he would have done, Jimmy was straining his +violet blue eyes again, staring after Ray, whom a waiter, bearing his +card, had summoned to follow him. Three or four of the laughing party at +the moment had surrounded Dwight, compelling him with their chatter, so +that he stood with a hand still extended toward the spot where Jimmy had +been standing, and did not even see that Ray had been summoned and was +gone. Question and answer were flying thick and fast, for full five +minutes before, looking about him, Dwight missed his boy. Foster, +finding the little fellow unresponsive, at least, had presently set him +down, and then, plunging eagerly into the talk over the latest newspaper +tidings of the doings of the Islands--of Otis's probable home-coming and +MacArthur's succeeding to the command, of what could be looked for at +Samar and Mindanao--he, too, had lost sight of the lad. "Hullo!" said +Dwight, "Jimmy has taken possession of Ray. Well, that's as it should +be. How was Gridley when you last saw him, Foster? And tell me about the +Gillettes. They were mighty kind to me when I was so knocked out after +Bender's trial. Fit now? I should say so! Never felt finer in my life. +I'm going back to Manila just as soon as I can place my wife and Jimmy, +no matter what the doctors say." + +And so it happened that, for ten minutes or more, neither Lieutenant Ray +nor little Jim was greatly missed. But then Dwight began bethinking him +it was high time for Inez to appear. She had promised to come down and +meet his old comrades. Only a few minutes would be needed, she declared, +in which "to prink a bit." She had been looking so white, or yellow, +rather--so wan and weak, yet, after a bumper of champagne, had rallied +gallantly, had bidden him run down to meet them and keep them +entertained. She'd soon be there. That was now full twenty minutes back, +and these fellows were getting impatient for dinner. The head waiter was +even now announcing that their table was in readiness. Excusing himself +a moment, Dwight hastened from the salon and ran swiftly up to their +apartments. She was not there. He went out upon the gallery--the last +look by day over that incomparable panorama of earth and sea and sky, +for the sun was just kissing the far westward wave and throwing a glow +of ruddy gold all over the Vesuvian shore. The waiter was clearing the +table. Would the signor finish his wine? The signor needed none. Since +that heat prostration in Luzon, Dwight found that a single glass would +sometimes go to his head, and so when Inez was fatigued on land or ill +at sea, and on her account he had ordered champagne, he merely sipped +it, as it were, for her sake. There stood the generous flask still +beaded with its icy dew, but most of its contents were gone. So was +Inez. That waiter had then the proverbial "cheek" of his class--to drink +half their wine and offer the signor the dregs. No, he wished no wine. +Where was the signora? The signora, with the signorino, said the waiter, +had been there but the moment before. The signora had reëntered her +apartment as the signor ascended. Dwight tapped at her window, and +presently her voice answered him, in apparent exasperation. She had been +having "no end of bother" changing her gown. She couldn't come down to +meet his friends in the dusty traveling suit she had worn all day. She +had hunted through two trunks before she found what she needed, and was +so sorry for the delay, but she heard the party was to dine there. She +had a maid to help her now, so she was trying to look her best and be +worthy of him. Could he help in some way? Oh, dear no. Run back to them, +there's a good boy, and in a few minutes she would be there. + +So Dwight returned to the laughing party and went with them to their +table and sat with them--an odd group in their service-worn suits of +khaki amid the sumptuously attired guests in the brilliant room. Yet +even among the wearers of the handsome Italian uniform the incessant +glances toward the American party were far from critical. These men had +but recently seen sharp service, and soldiers respect and envy soldier +achievement. It was Dwight who first missed and asked for Ray. Ray? Why, +Ray wasn't of our party. Ray wasn't of any party, in fact. Ray was "off +his feed, if not off his base." The fellow was utterly hipped, said +Foster. "No more like his father than I to Hercules, and nobody knows +why." Ray came ashore with the rest of the crowd, had business at Cook's +Bank, wandered off by himself and had been mooning by himself most of +the voyage. Foster buried his muzzle deep in his brimming glass of +Chianti and didn't care a billy what had become of young Ray. Gone back +to the ship, probably, to sit and sulk the rest of the voyage. Obviously +the quartette was out for pleasure, and Ray would have been a +spoil-sport. None the less, Dwight felt that he should find him, if +possible, and so went to the office. But assuredly, said the smiling, +gold-banded official, the tenente departed as they were all in +conversation. The tenente wished not to disturb them. The signorino went +with him to his carriage and, behold! the signorino himself! Jimmy, +indeed, came through the portal at the moment from the Piazza Umberto +side, but not the blithe, bounding, joyous Jimmy of the morning. The +young face was clouded with a look the father never before had seen, and +when he called and Jimmy suddenly turned and saw him, though the bright +eyes lighted instantly with all the old love--perhaps, too, with some +relief--the cloud did not entirely vanish, nor did the boy come +bounding. He ran; he took his father's hand and looked up in his face, +and when he was asked what he had done with Mr. Ray, said slowly: "Why, +daddy, he isn't a bit like what I 'sposed he'd be. He only spoke to +mamma a minute or two, and--I guess he isn't well. He didn't have time +to speak to me--he hardly said good-by, or--anything." + +"Oh, then mamma saw Mr. Ray! I'm glad of that," said Dwight, though +remembering she had not mentioned it. + +"Yes, on the gallery," said Jimmy. "At least, I suppose so. He came out +through the corridor, and then mamma sent me after him with the gloves +he had left. I wanted to ask him----" hesitated Jimmy. He did not know +whether to go on or not, but he need not have worried. Papa had suddenly +turned from him, turned to meet his new mamma--his beautiful young +mamma, who, with bared neck and arms, in dinner toilet, was coming +slowly and with trailing skirts down the broad and carpeted stairway and +looking more radiant and beautiful than Jimmy ever before had seen her; +she whom, a few minutes earlier, he had found on the gallery pallid and +excited, trembling from weakness, perhaps. Now she had diamonds in her +ears and at her creamy throat, diamonds flashing in her corsage. There +were shimmer and spangle and firefly sparklings in the lustrous folds of +her gown. There were starlight twinklings from the bands of those +wondrous, dainty, high-heeled little "slipper shoes," as Jimmy called +them. There were glowworm gems in the dark masses of her luxuriant hair. +There were rich and precious stones upon her slender, clasping fingers, +for Dwight had been lavish to an extent he only now began to realize, +for, though his heart leaped in unison with the instant admiration and +worship in his eyes, it ached in strange, dull foreboding and reproach +for the thought that instantly seized him: How utterly unlike Margaret! + +A moment later and the men in khaki were being presented. They had +sprung to their feet at sight of the radiant vision in the doorway, +where for a moment Inez seemed to hesitate. Beautiful she was beyond +question, with the rich, dusky beauty of the passionate South, and they +who gazed upon her marveled not at the lover worship in Dwight's +deep-set eyes--at the pride with which he watched her gracious, +graceful, yet half-appealing and timid acknowledgment of their soldier +homage. They made way for her, and would have it that she should sit +with them as they lingered a few moments over their wine. And then +Farnham, their senior present, raised his glass to her with a word of +soldier compliment and greeting, after the manner of the days of his +forefathers, and they joined in the toast, one and all, and Inez blushed +and beamed upon them, and looked up into her husband's eyes as though +begging that he should speak for her, and sipped just the tiniest ripple +from the brimming glass of champagne. They had not too much time, for +boxes had been reserved for all their party at the Salone Margherita, +and could not--would not Mrs. Dwight and the captain join them? Several +of the ladies from the transport were to be with them, and now it would +be incomplete without Mrs. Dwight. Again the deep, dark, lustrous eyes +sought the husband's face, as though she would say in this, as in +everything, he must decide. The transport was to proceed at dawn. The +_Hohenzollern_ could not be going earlier. How she _would_ shine, this +bird of paradise, among those simply-garbed army women who perforce were +limited to such toilets as could be evolved from the little steamer +trunks. It was Dwight who negatived the project. She would be utterly +overdressed for the place and the occasion, but he based his regrets +upon the long and fatiguing day, the packing that had to be done, the +coming at any moment of their ship. Even now she was announced, said +Jimmy, hastening in. And so the others went their way without the +Dwights and joined their fellow-voyagers in their revel, the merriest +group in all that laughing company, and only once or twice did someone, +some gentle-hearted woman, speak the thought that more than once or +twice occurred to many present: Why should Sandy Ray have withdrawn from +all companionship? Someone said he had returned to the steamer--alone. + +It was long after midnight when they came rippling back to the huge bulk +of the troopship, with silver raining from the blades of their oars into +the sparkling bosom of that wondrous bay. A joyous little flotilla of +Neapolitan water craft was theirs, for they had chartered several of the +clumsy, unwieldly looking, yet most serviceable barklings, each with its +dusky, brown-throated oarsman. They had spent some merry hours after the +long, hot voyage through Indian seas and under torrid skies. They had +heard much catchy music that all could appreciate and few words, +fortunately, that any could understand. They were chatting and singing +and recalling the brilliant scene, the dazzling lights, the lustrous +corridor and stairway of pure white marble, the coaxing, wheedling swarm +of beggar children, the sharp and ever-recurrent contrast between +splendid opulence and squalid misery, and as they circled under the +massive overhang of their stanch and trusty ship, and one after another +each merry boatload came again in full view of the frowning cone of old +Vesuvius, belching lurid flame and billowing ruddy streams of molten +lava from its crest, some sweet-voiced woman in the foremost boat +uplifted her heart in the barcarole from "Masaniello": "Behold how +brightly breaks the morning," and, though morning was yet some hours +away, here but a league or two across the star-reflecting deep and under +the shoulder of the mountain furnace lay the vine-covered walls of +Portici, where first was trilled that exquisite welcome to Aurora. And +so with music and merriment and laughter, homeward bound from distant +service in defense of a beloved flag, they came trooping up the side, +the opulence of their gladness all the sharper contrast to the dull +apathy of one lone watcher who shrank from their approach and sought +seclusion across the deck and in the shadow of the long boat. + +Ray was not in his stateroom when Foster bustled thither to inquire. Ray +had returned some hours before, said the ship's official on duty. Ray +was not found, however, until nearly four bells, when Foster, who had +smoked too much to feel sleepy and wished to "stay up and see Vesuvius, +anyhow," made an extended inspection of the silent deck. Foster had +taken it amiss that Ray should seem so downhearted and be so +uncompanionable. Foster felt that the time had come when, in the absence +of Sandy's own, he (Foster) should assume paternal rights, or at least +those of elder brother, and take the youngster to task. Here and there +about the big ship he found, in knots of two or three, silent or +conversing in low tone, comrades of the commissioned list or of the +ranks, unwilling to seek their berths so long as so gorgeous a panorama +lasted. These were ranged along the starboard side, where best they +could study that superb sweep of shore line, of light and shadow, of +slope and mountain, of curving strand--white, flashing in the moonbeams, +of twinkling villages low-lying, of distant, rock-ribbed isles, but +among these worshipers there was no Ray. + +It was over on the other--the dark, the port--side, and all alone, +sprawled in a steamer chair he had lugged to the upper deck and the +shadow of the big boat, that Foster came upon the lad. His field glasses +were in his hand; his eyes fixed dreamily upon the dwindling, +diminishing night lights of the westward suburbs, and Foster hailed +brusquely. It was time to jar the boy out of his mooning: + +"Hello, Sandy! Where on earth have you been all night?" + +"Nowhere," was the short reply. + +"Where on sea then, if you will be captious?" + +"Oh, admiring scenery," and Sandy yawned suggestively. + +"Scenery is all on t'other side, man! Nothing here but ships and shore +lights." + +"Well--that's what I'm--looking at." + +Foster turned sulkily. He disliked being "stood off" by anybody, +especially a youngster. Dimly in the soft moonlight the sleeping city +lay outspread before him. Standing on the rail, grasping a stanchion, he +could see, save where the charthouse and huge funnel interposed, the +entire sweep from Posilipo at the west around almost to Sorrento. Ray, +seated under the shadow of the long boat, could see only from Posilipo +to a low-lying cluster of lights almost at the water's edge. That then +was the Piazza Umberto, and those few twinkling, starlike sparkles to +the left, dancing so merrily on the intervening wave--those were from +some still open casements at the Grand. Then Foster saw what Sandy Ray +was looking for, and turned and left him. + +At dawn they were weighing anchor, but the big ship had not yet swung +her nose to the west when Foster again appeared on the dripping deck and +again found Ray almost at the same spot. Some of the same lights, a very +few, were still faintly to be seen to the west of the Piazza, and Ray's +signal glasses were lifted to his eyes. Aloft the sentinel stars were +paling, their night watch ended. Ashore, along the quays and basin and +about the Dogana, the lantern lights told of the stir of coming day and +departing shipping. Beyond the heavy smoke all about the lone and +threatening mountain, the skies were taking on a rose hue of their own +that dulled the glow of the sluggish streams rolling ever down those +scarred and desolate slopes. Near by in silvery chime ship after ship +announced the passing of the night hours, the birth of the infant day, +and a long, light-girdled shape, floating easily close at hand on the +swelling tide, slowly changed from shadowy black to gray, from gray to +violet, and finally--as the still invisible sun peered long leagues away +beyond the Italian mountains, beyond the Adriatic wave, above the dim +Ægean shore, and sent his flashing signals through the upper ether--from +cream to snowy white, there lay the _Hohenzollern_, "all a taunto and +impatient" for her westward voyage for "Gib," for the Azores, for home, +and they of the bulkier, heavier transport envied possibly the lithe and +lissome build of the famous pleasure craft, once the pride of the old +German Lloyds. She might follow in the run past Ischia and Sicily. She +would lead far in the chase for Sandy Hook. + +"Been up all night, Sandy?" hailed Foster sharply, believing it high +time to break in upon these romantic moonings. + +"No," said the young soldier slowly. "I've been--down." + +"Poor boy," thought Foster, as he turned away. "He looks it! Poor, +nonsensical, damn little fool!" + +Yet Foster was not so very big, so very wise, so very safe and sure. He +had yet to know for himself much that Ray knew now. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +"SHE IS COMING HERE!" + + +The valley of the Minneconjou was looking its loveliest in the joyous +sunshine of mid-May. The post had been enlarged to meet the needs of the +increasing garrison. A colonel of infantry had been sent to assume +command, there being now two of his battalions at the station and only +one squadron, of four troops, of Ray's old regiment, the --th Cavalry. +At any moment our friend of that name and many years, now become +lieutenant-colonel in his own right, could expect orders for the +Philippines, and he was ready as ever, though there were just a few +reasons why he hated to go. It had been decided that Marion, his wife, +hitherto his almost inseparable companion, should not venture to Manila. +The detail at most would not exceed two years. It might cover only one, +for it was certain that, with the coming enlargement of the army, Ray +would soon be promoted to the full rank of colonel, and that would +probably bring him home again, for, as things had been going in Samar +and Mindanao, colonels were in that sort of campaigning about as useful +as most of them in church. Keen young captains and lieutenants were in +demand. Field officers, so-called, were of less account in the field +than in fortified places. Occasionally a sizable column--a major's +command perhaps--would push forth into the jungle, where it speedily had +to split up into small detachments, probing in single file, and in +pursuit of scattering bands of ladrones or banditti, the bamboo or the +mountain trail. Moreover, much of the vim and spirit had been taken out +of the soldiery, officers and men, old and young, by the fate of the +more daring and energetic of their number, who had fallen victims, not +to lance or bullet of lurking foe at the front, but rather "the slings +and arrows of outrageous fortune" at the rear. A powerful party at home +had shown far more concern over the alleged ill-treatment of the few +insurgent bands than their actual treachery to our men-at-arms. Officers +and men listened in silence to the public rebukes and sentences +administered to the leaders who had shed their gloves and fought the +insurrecto with weapons far more effective, yet infinitely less deadly, +than fire and steel. Officers and men in silence set forth upon their +next ordered expedition, and in silence returned and announced the +result--practically nothing. Elusive and flitting little bands of native +warriors, vanishing like shadows among the thickets, were not to be +trapped by the methods prescribed for dealing with an army arrayed in +front of Washington. "Don't come unless you have to," wrote Major Blake +from the hospital at Manila to Billy Ray at Minneconjou. "The +courts-martial of Hill and Dale and Langham have taken the heart out of +our fellows. The young officers say they dare not go out for fear they +might do some damage somewhere." + +So Ray, who had fought Indians all over the West for many a +year--sometimes, it is true, coming in for a Puritanical scorching from +press and pulpit in far New England, where, two hundred years ago, with +prayerful zest our forefathers burned witches at the stake and put +Pequots to the sword--now found himself shrinking from the task of +tackling savages with gloves who treated men without mercy. Marion, as +has been said, was not to accompany him to the Islands and be near to +counsel and to comfort. She was not too well now, and had had many an +anxiety. Billy, Junior, when he should have been studying for West +Point, had been spooning over a pretty girl not yet in long dresses, and +Sandy, their firstborn, the soldier boy, had come home from the Islands +wounded in body and soul. The scar of the bullet would not be long +healing, but the sting of that other shock and sorrow, who could say +what that might yet import? for Sandy would not speak of it. Sandy would +not so much as refer to his brief dream of bliss and the girl that +inspired it. Sandy had come to them at Minneconjou to recuperate, +detached from his own regiment "for such light duty as he might be able +to perform" with his father's squadron of the old --th. Sandy was a sad +and silent man. "Let him alone to beat it out in time," said the +soldier-father. "It is the only way." But Marion's mother heart yearned +over her boy and his wordless sorrowing. He must have loved that +beautiful but unprincipled creature with all his fervent young heart. + +Colonel Stone, who was now in command at Minneconjou, had known the Rays +for years and was firmly their friend. Without so much as a hint from +any source, he had divined that Sandy's low spirits were not the result +of that bullet wound. He could not but note the solicitude with which +his cavalry friend and oft-time fellow-campaigner regarded the silent +young soldier, his eldest son. Colonel Stone had suggested at first that +Sandy be put at surveying the reservation--something to keep him long +hours each day in the open air. But barely six months had elapsed since +the Engineers, under orders from department headquarters, had completed +with chain, rod and transit thorough plotting of the six mile square, to +the end that a very finely finished map was received almost at the time +the colonel first broached the subject. Sandy could not yet take part in +the sharp mounted drills that were his father's delight. Something had +to be done to give him measurably congenial occupation. He could not +play tennis, croquet or billiards. He would not play poker or find +solace in Scotch highballs. He might have derived some comfort from +reading and study, but Priscilla was beset with desire to prescribe his +reading and guide his studies, for Priscilla, being several years his +senior in age and many volumes his superior in reading, was ever mindful +of the mission which no conscientious woman should be without. Priscilla +had thought to start a school for the children of the garrison, but +found that many of the elders were driven every day to town and its high +school, while most of the mites were corraled each morning in the +basement of the post chapel, pupils of a sergeant schoolmaster whose +success had been quite remarkable, so much so that parents were +reluctant--and their progeny rebellious--when other and more modern +methods, Priscilla's, were suggested. It must be owned that the little +ones from the start found Miss Sanford unsympathetic, if not impossible. +Children love being catechized as little as do their elders, and they +resented it that this somewhat prim, yet by no means unprepossessing, +spinster should consider it her duty and her privilege to cross-question +them as to their infantile responsibilities and, all uninvited, to +undertake supervision of their noisy sports. Finding no opening for a +day school, Miss Sanford had sought to interest the weans in an +afternoon reading class. The first day or two the major's spacious +quarters were well filled, so were the children with alluring goodies +they could thoroughly appreciate. But when sermons began to take the +place of sandwiches, and moral admonitions and questionings were +administered in lieu of lemonade and lady-fingers, Miss Sanford's +kindergarten dissolved in air and the would-be gentle monitress in +disappointed tears. Uncle Will had whimsically striven to console her +with the promise of better luck when school stopped in June, but Aunt +Marion had smilingly though silently shaken her head. She knew +Priscilla's propensities of old. She had convictions, said Aunt Marion, +and theories as to how children should be taught to see the serious side +of life. Priscilla was suffering from an accumulation of pent-up zeal +and enthusiasm that was yet to find an outlet. + +Then one day the outlet came. + +Lieutenant Parker, "Exchange officer," so-called, was suddenly ordered +to duty at West Point, and Colonel Stone asked Sandy Ray if he would +take his place. "Strictly speaking," said he, "I should name one of my +own officers, but I have other work for all of them, and lots of it. You +have really very little else just now that you can do, except, perhaps, +go to stables." + +Now, if there was one institution more than another at Minneconjou +against which Priscilla Sanford had set her seal, it was the post +Exchange. In all her months of residence under Uncle Will's, the +major's, roof, never once had the others there sheltered forgotten the +day of her first acquaintance with the subject. Sandy was still beyond +seas, but Billy, Junior, was of the household when, just as they took +their place at table for luncheon, the husband and father spoke: + +"Maidie wife, they have some capital cider at the Canteen and I ordered +some sent over." + +Miss Sanford looked up inquiringly over her poised spoonful of soup. + +"The--Canteen?" she asked. + +"Yes. The Post Exchange, it is called officially. It's the post shop, +restaurant, club, amusement hall, etc.," answered the head of the house, +while Marion, his wife, glanced just a trifle nervously at her niece. + +"But why--Canteen? It isn't, is it, a--bar?" And Miss Sanford's tone +betrayed the depth of her disapprobation of the name. + +"Yes, and no," said Uncle Will pleasantly, his dark eyes twinkling under +their heavy brows and lashes. He rather liked to have 'Cilla mount her +successive hobbies, and thought it better, as a rule, to let her air her +theories first in the sanctity of the family circle. "After +experimenting a hundred years or so we found it wiser to prescribe the +drinks as well as the meats of our men, and to provide a place for them +at home where they can have rational amusement and refreshment, rather +than send them out into the world where they get the worst of +everything." + +"But, uncle, do you mean you let--you encourage--these young soldiers +to--drink?" And the slender gold chain of Miss Sanford's intellectual +_pince nez_ began to quiver, as did the lady's sensitive nostrils. + +"Encourage? No! Let? Yes, so long as it is nothing but sound beer or +light wine--things we buy for them from the most reliable dealers and +provide them practically at cost. You see they have their own clubroom, +and billiards, checkers, chess, dominoes, coffee, cake and sandwiches. +It keeps them here. It helps and contents them. They can't drink more +than is good for them." + +"Is it good for them that they should drink--at all?" demanded +Priscilla. + +"Possibly not. The ascetic in everything would be, physically perhaps, +the ideal soldier. But precious few soldiers are ascetics, though many +are total abstainers." + +"Then why not all, since it is best for so many?" + +"Because, 'Cilla, a large number refuse to be abstainers, and we can't +make them. They won't enlist or serve if such conditions are imposed. If +forbidden to use mild and carefully selected stimulant here they will go +elsewhere and get the vilest the frontier can furnish, to the ruin of +their stomachs, reputation and moral nature. We teach temperance--not +intolerance." + +But Priscilla had been reared in the shadow of the stanch old +Calvanistic church and the strictest of schools. + +"I--cannot see how you dare place such temptation in their way," said +she. "You thereby take their souls in the hollow of your hand and become +responsible----Oh!"--with a shudder of genuine distress and +repugnance--"I knew--I had heard--there was drinking; but I never +supposed it was countenanced, _encouraged_ by--by those who ought to be +their shield against such temptation and trouble." And here Priscilla's +words were oddly reminiscent of the editorial columns of the _Banner of +Light_ and certain other most excellent organs of the Prohibition +element. + +"We do it to keep them from vastly worse temptation and trouble, +Priscilla," said the veteran soldier kindly, and signaling Marion not to +interpose. "You are right, dear, in the abstract, but we have to deal +with men as we find them. We would be glad indeed of ideals, but the +ideal doesn't, as a rule, enlist." + +"The Bible teaches us it stingeth like an adder," said Priscilla +solemnly, with suggestive glance at Billy, Junior, whom she but +yesterday had rebuked for sipping claret at the colonel's dinner. + +"The Bible also tells us Who turned water into wine at a certain +marriage feast," said Uncle Will, his mustache twitching. + +Whereat Priscilla flushed; the tears started to her eyes; she arose and +left the table, her soup unfinished. It was one thing to quote the +Scriptures in support of her views; it was quite another to array them +on the other side. When Aunt Marion went to Priscilla's room a little +later, with a tray of tea and comfits and a word of gentle +expostulation, she found her niece in anything but melting mood. To +Priscilla's mind such argument as Uncle Will's was impious. To Aunt +Marion's suggestion that at least it was from like authority with her +own, Priscilla could find no better reply than "That's different." + +Down in her heart of hearts Priscilla thought it a grave mistake on part +of somebody that the episode of the marriage of Cana of Galilee had any +place in Holy Writ. Indeed it may be hazarded that, long schooled by the +_Banner_ and the eloquent lessons of her favorite preachers, Priscilla +could have listened with becoming modesty, but no surprise, had it been +suggested that she undertake the preparation of an expurgated edition of +the Word. + +At the date of this initial clash Uncle Will was still commanding the +post. Stone, with the Sixty-first, came later. Priscilla, finding her +uncle ever smilingly tolerant of her views, but never shaken in his own, +had first essayed an inspection of the Canteen--she would not call it +the Exchange--and then had descended upon the chaplain--a gentle divine, +gifted with much faith but little force, a kindly, sweet-tempered cleric +ever ready to follow if never to lead in good work that demanded +personal push and energy. Priscilla had spent sleepless hours in thought +over the situation. She could not abolish the Canteen since the law +("The law _and_ the prophets," said Uncle Will, though Priscilla would +not hear) sustained it. She could, she reasoned, conduct a rival +establishment that should wean the soldier from the false faith to the +true, and to this end she sought the aid of the cassock. + +Uncle Will had taken her, at her request, to see the objectionable +institution, and she had peered curiously about the cozy interior. At +sight of their much honored squadron leader, the few troopers at the +tables, busy with checkers, dominoes or billiards, had sprung to +attention, facing him and the grave-eyed lady by his side, and there +stood in soldierly respect. Ray smilingly acknowledged their homage, +bade them go on with their games; he merely wished his niece from the +East "to see how we manage to live in the West." Then he showed her the +bookshelves and the reading room with its illustrated weeklies and +magazines, the well-furnished writing tables whereat certain young +soldiers were working at their letters home; the refreshment counter, +with its appetizing little stack of sandwiches and polished urn of +steaming coffee, and all this Priscilla saw without sign of surrender. +What she looked for she did not find--symptoms of the inevitable +intoxication and debauchery to be expected wherever liquor was sold or +used. Some of the men had half-emptied beer glasses at their elbow. Two +German non-commissioned officers were sipping appreciatively the wine of +their native Rhineland as they chatted in quiet comfort over their +little table at the window. A veteran sergeant stepped forward and +begged the honor of tendering the colonel and the lady a glass of their +wine, and again every man was on his feet as Ray drank to their health, +and Priscilla thanked their entertainers and said she would be glad of a +little coffee--she never used wine. She was silent as she came away--all +was so orderly, so cheery; the men seemed so content with their +surroundings, so pleased that "the colonel" (never did they forget his +volunteer title) should come to see them. She owned that--yes--they +looked very--decent _now_, but--but, it was only the first step; it was +what it all _led_ to, said she, that made it so dangerous, so dreadful! +Indeed, the mere fact that all was so well ordered made it, presumably, +to Priscilla's mind, all the more alluring and terrible. It was the +devil's way always, she had been taught--imperceptible, inviting, +insidious. Priscilla prayed long that night and pondered. She had almost +decided on a campaign of conquest and overthrow, when the new commander +came, and in Colonel Stone she found an obstacle quite as firm as Uncle +Will--and far less tolerant. + +Meantime, however, Priscilla had organized her "Soldiers' Advancement +Association"; had started in a vacant set of quarters a rival to the +Canteen, where even better coffee and sandwiches could be had and much +more improving conversation, but no beer, and Priscilla was presently in +the seventh heaven; so many soldiers came she had to send for more seats +and more supplies. Every evening after dinner, putting behind her the +unworthy, if worldly, impulse to go and join in the music or the dance, +Priscilla met her martial friends and pupils, learned their soldier +names, something of their history and much of their needs. The chaplain +at first was quite assiduous in his attendance, but the chaplain, she +speedily decided, was slow, prosy, unconvincing. He did not seem to +_stir_ them as they should be stirred, and when one night the kindly old +gentleman failed to come, and his goodwife sent word she feared her +husband had caught a heavy cold, Priscilla took the Word, as the French +would say; read the chapter of her choice; expounded vehemently after +the manner of her favorite exhorters, and came home radiant. No less +than six of the men had come to her to thank her for her soul-stirring +words, and to say that if they had had such teaching as that in their +past they would never have brought sorrow to a mother's heart, as some +of them feared they had. Uncle Will's eyebrows went up significantly +when Priscilla named her converts, and once or twice, as he sat writing +to Blake that night in his little den, sounds as of irrepressible +chuckling came from that sanctum, and Marion slipped in to say a word of +caution. Priscilla, however, at last had found her opportunity and could +not be laughed out of it. The chaplain was warned, he said, that +exposure to the wintry night air was hazardous, and he was reluctantly +compelled to withdraw, and Priscilla, by no means reluctantly, to part +with him. She was in desperate earnest and in the full tide of apparent +success, with all Minneconjou watching with absorbed if mischievous +interest. Priscilla's mourners' bench, it must be owned, was graced by +the presence of one or two veteran troopers, the mention of whose names +was enough to start the risibilities of that godless array, "the Mess." +There was Shaughnessy, who had served six enlistments and never kept the +chevrons six months at a time. There was Kelly, the "champeen +thrumpether," who could blow "Taps" that would bring tears to your eyes +one day and maledictions on his head the next. There was Costigan, who +had been "bobtailed" out of two of the best regiments of infantry of the +service, and only "taken on" in Ray's old troop by special permission, +because of his undeniable valor in Indian campaign and the fact that +when he let whisky alone there was not a neater, nattier soldier, Horse, +Foot or Dragoon, to be found in the field. Priscilla had indeed gathered +in some of the reprobates, and sought to reach more. She begged that, in +accordance with their plaintive request, the inmates of the guard-house, +immortal "Company Q," might be allowed the benefit and privileges of the +Association. Had not He said He came not to call the just but the +sinners to repentance? and, as Uncle Will whimsically remarked, "If what +Priscilla wants are sinners--she's got 'em." + +And this was the state of things when Stone arrived; took command, +reinforced the garrison with eight stout companies and band of the +Sixty-first, and the guard-house with a score of military malefactors +who, hearing of Miss Sanford's Soldiers' Advancement Association, begged +leave to partake of its blessings, including the coffee and sandwiches. +Then Stone suddenly "tumbled to the scheme," as Billy, Junior, a fierce +skeptic from the start, described it. Then Stone himself attended a +meeting, to the obvious embarrassment of the congregation, though +Priscilla beamed upon him in the sudden belief that here indeed was a +heart worth the moving. What Stone saw was quite enough to convince him +of the utter absurdity of permitting the further attendance of, at +least, the guard-house contingent, but he would not wound Priscilla or, +without abundant reason, disturb the edifice builded under Ray's +administration. The Association might even have lived and thrived +another week on Priscilla's ministrations--and at Ray's expense--for +daily coffee and sandwiches for all comers, forty odd, at least, was +proving costly. It was "Company Q" itself that broke it up. The +privilege and the darkness combined enabled certain of its unhallowed +spirits to smuggle whisky into the prison room, and, thus stimulated, a +gifted ex-professional of the "dramatic line" set up a wonderfully if +wickedly witty burlesque of the evening's lecture, to the irrepressible, +and presently uproarious, mirth of his fellow-jailbirds. It was just +what Stone was expecting, and so far from ordering it stopped, he sent +for Ray and bade him listen. Then the post and the squadron commander +shook hands in silence. "You see for yourself," said Stone. "I, too, +have been expecting it," said Ray. Then the guard was sent in. The +impious revel was suddenly and summarily squelched. Then Ray gently told +Priscilla the sinners could come no more, but mercifully would not tell +her much, at least, that he had heard. So the Soldiers' Advancement +Association retrograded in numbers to less than half, and then, as +others not at the moment under guard took alarm, to less than a dozen. +But Priscilla wrapped herself up in the nine that were left, and, as all +barrack room was now needed, for these they fitted up a little apartment +in the basement of the major's quarters, and then came Sandy Ray, as has +been said, and spring was turning to summer, and Priscilla's band of +stalwarts had been reduced to six, and of these six the apple of her +spiritual eye was Blenke. + +One of the recruits, regimental and bibli-classical, was Blenke, but +already a marked man. Small of stature, lithe, slender and sinewy, with +dainty little hands and feet, with pallid face and regular features and +great big, mournful brown eyes that looked pleadingly into those of his +superiors, Blenke wore the uniform of a private with the ease and grace +and care of a dandy subaltern. Blenke's gloves and shoes could not be +furnished by the quartermaster's department; they did not deal in such +small sizes; but Blenke brought with him all he could need of such items +for months to come. Blenke was a silent fellow in barracks. Blenke never +whistled or sang. Blenke rarely spoke and never smiled. It was not that +Blenke's face was set in gloom, but an air of gentle melancholy hung +ever about him. He made no intimates, sought no confidences and gave +none among the men. Whatever he was put to do he did surprisingly well. +Corporal Donovan, detailed to drill him when he, with the rest of the +little party, arrived, informed the first sergeant that "that young +feller knew more settin'-up drill than any non-com at the post." So it +proved also with the manual of arms. Blenke was an expert. When put into +a squad for aiming and position drill, Blenke had nothing to learn, and +his shooting and gallery practice was on a par with the best. They sent +him out to the rifle range west of the post and there he "qualified" at +known distance and excelled at the silhouettes, and still he declared he +had never before "taken a blanket." He learned his drill and shooting +with the militia, he said; gave "clerk" as his occupation and wrote a +beautiful hand, though his spelling at times might be criticised. Blenke +had a watch, card-case, shirts, shoes and underwear that told of better +days. Blenke, apparently, had no vices. He neither drank, smoked, +chewed, gambled nor, unless closely pressed as to his past, was he +believed to lie. Blenke looked about him a bit before going either to +church or town. Then Blenke began appearing regularly at chapel service, +and then, modestly, sought permission to enter Miss Sanford's Soldiers' +Advancement Association, where speedily he attracted the especial notice +of that devoted and devotional young woman. Then Blenke offered his +services as writer, copyist, etc., and Priscilla, being much occupied, +gladly installed him at a desk whereat he spent much time when not +elsewhere on duty, and all the while, neat, handy, silent, unobtrusive, +yet seeing everything with those deep, mournful, watchful eyes, Blenke +found means to make himself more and more useful, and presently to +communicate the fact that though his present lot was humble there had +been "advantages" in the past, there were ambitions for the future. To +begin with, he wished to transfer into the cavalry. He knew little, he +said, of the relative merits of those arms before enlisting. He had seen +much since, he said, to convince him that for a young man of spirit the +cavalry offered opportunities not to be looked for in the infantry. +This, he judged, would not displease the squadron commander, whose +influence through Miss Sanford he earnestly sought, and so it resulted +that Blenke, little by little, was far more frequently to be found about +the major's quarters than his own. + +Ray did not like it. Neither did Blenke's captain, yet neither wished to +throw cold water on Priscilla's efforts, and really nothing could be +less obtrusive or more precise and soldierly than Blenke. He never +presumed to speak except in answer to questions. He was scrupulous in +dress, bearing, conduct and military courtesy. His salute was precision +itself. His captain really wished to make him a corporal, but a veteran +first sergeant respectfully protested. "The men wouldn't stand for it, +sir, and him not two months in the company." Sandy Ray, who came home in +mood to carp at anything, liked it least of all that he should be +forever encountering Blenke about the lower floor or around the walks +and quarters. But Priscilla was forever talking of Blenke's helpfulness, +his piety, high character, and his modest hopes. Blenke was beginning to +talk with her about studying for a commission. Blenke was beginning to +be disliked among the men because he ignored them so. + +Then one day came the expected. Lieutenant-Colonel Ray, --th Cavalry, +was ordered to proceed at once to San Francisco, and thence by transport +to Manila. Then came tidings of deaths in the Islands, and retirements +at home, and, six months sooner than he had hoped for such a thing, +Oswald Dwight saw the gold leaves of a major dangling before his mental +vision, and the night before Colonel Ray was to bid his loved ones +good-by and take train for the coast, and he and Marion, arm in arm, +were coming home from some parting calls, they saw Blenke standing at +their gate, a telegraphic message in his hand; Priscilla and Billy, +Junior, following, closed upon the elders as Ray tore open the envelope. +Blenke, having delivered it, stood scrupulously at attention just beyond +the gate, gazing with his mournful eyes straight out at the flagstaff in +the middle of the parade. Ray read, turned a bit pale, and glanced +hurriedly about him as though in search of someone. Sandy was not in +sight. He was busy with the affairs of the Canteen. + +"What is it, Will?" asked Marion anxiously, her gloved hand trembling a +bit upon his arm. + +"Of all things--queer," said Ray. "Dwight gets my squadron, and--_she's_ +coming with him." + +Then unaccountably Private Blenke's forage-cap, always worn well +forward, tilted off and fell at his feet. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +PREMONITORY SYMPTOMS + + +Colonel Ray was no coward, but it must be owned that he was glad to be +well away from Minneconjou before the coming of the Dwights. What +troubled him most was, not how Sandy, his eldest boy, but how Marion, +his beloved wife, might suffer. Never to either father or mother had the +young officer spoken the name of the second Mrs. Dwight. Never since his +coming to Minneconjou had he referred to his infatuation of the previous +year, nor had he even remotely mentioned the meeting at Naples. They +knew of it, of course. There were so many aboard the transport who had +heard all there was to hear about it, and some of these many could not +be expected to keep it to themselves. Sandy, indeed, reached the post +only a day or two in advance of this interesting piece of news. Marion +heard it before her husband and refrained from telling him, in hopes +that Sandy himself would open his heart and tell her all there was to be +told; but presently it dawned upon her that the boy shrank from the very +mention of "that woman's" name--then that Will, too, had heard the +story, and not from Sandy, and then that each feared to tell the other. +Then as of old, she nestled into her husband's arms, and there, in her +refuge, said: + +"After all, Will, isn't it better he should have seen her and--had done +with it?" + +"If only he has done with it," thought the colonel, as he watched the +young soldier going doggedly about his duties. "If only he _has_ done +with it!" he thought again, when he saw the red burning on the young +fellow's cheek that told he knew at last of the impending arrival. But +the boy had shown splendid nerve and grit in that vital matter of the +gradual repayment of the moneys lost through his neglect at the Presidio +in '98. He had shown such manliness in abjuring wine after that one +almost excusable lapse so long ago. A boy who could keep himself so +thoroughly in hand, said the colonel, in two cardinal points, can be +counted on to keep his head even when he may have lost his heart. No. +Ray had trusted Sandy thoroughly in the past, and Sandy had thoroughly +justified it. Ray meant as thoroughly to trust now to the manfulness and +honor of his son. Pride, too, would help the lad even were "that woman" +to seek to lure him again. + +But it was hard to leave Marion to meet the Dwights. In all her army +life, with the possible exception of Grace Truscott, never had Marion +met a woman for whom she felt such depth of affection and regard as for +Margaret Dwight. The two, as has been said, were devoted friends, and +when Margaret died, leaving her husband, crushed and heartbroken, and +that idol of her heart, little Jim, it is doubtful if among her own +people she was mourned as utterly as she was by Mrs. Ray. In the years +that followed Marion was forever planning for the little fellow's +future, and pouring forth a perfect flood of sympathy for that bereaved +soldier, his father. It came as a shock inexpressible that Oswald +Dwight, after six years' brooding, had married again, and had given +Margaret's place to--what?--a girl, young, beautiful, obscure, +unprincipled--the girl whom her own Sandy had rapturously, loved and +implicitly believed in. And now Marion was called upon to meet this +woman in "the fierce white light that beats upon" garrison life--see her +daily, hourly, possibly as a next-door neighbor, and no husband's arm or +counsel to lean upon. + +Nor was this all. It had been arranged that the families of officers +ordered on foreign service should retain quarters at the station from +which said officers took their departure, provided the quarters were not +actually needed by the garrison. Three out of five the big army posts +had been left with but a detachment to guard them. Minneconjou was an +exception. Hither had come Stone, with two battalions of Foot. +Headquarters, staff, band and one squadron of the cavalry had been +there, but band and headquarters were now shifted to Niobrara. How +Marion wished the squadron could have gone, too! But that was not to be. +There were still the four troops at the station, and the Rays were still +quartered in the big, roomy house to the right of the post +commander's--Marion, her sons, her niece and their two servants. There +was even abundant space for her niece's diminishing Advancement +Association--the secretary's desk and the mournful-eyed young secretary +being much in evidence at the basement window on the north side. Three +sets, the colonel's and the flanking field officers', had been built +with high piazzas and well-lighted basements beneath; all the others +were squat on the hard prairie ground. Stone had two majors with him, +both junior to Ray and the post surgeon, so they had taken root in the +lines and, for army men, were quite content. All on a sudden one day the +new major, Dwight, drove out from the railway station in town, reported +with soldierly precision to Colonel Stone, and accepted the promptly +tendered invitation to be the colonel's guest until ready to occupy his +own quarters. Dwight came earlier than had been expected; explained that +he "came ahead to select quarters," would send Mrs. Dwight the +measurements of the rooms, then ask for a week's leave to return and +fetch her with their goods, carpets and variegated chattels from +Chicago. Had any letters or dispatches been received for him? None? +Dwight looked queer and grave. Indeed, Stone, who had heard much of him +and had met him once or twice in by-gone days, confessed to his wife +that Dwight must have "gone off" not a little in more ways than one. Was +it the old sorrow or--the new wife--or, mayhap, the sunstroke in the +Pampangas? + +That afternoon Marion Ray, seated on the vine-shaded piazza, writing to +her husband, looked up suddenly at sound of a footstep and, startled and +for a moment speechless, gazed into the once familiar features of +Margaret Dwight's once devoted husband. She was slow to rise and hold +forth her hand, so strange was the expression in his tired eyes. When +she could speak it was to say, though her heart fluttered, "Welcome +again, Major Dwight, but I'm so sorry Will is not here, too! It is +barely a week since he started." + +"I have hurried," was the answer, as he took her hand. "I am so tired of +leave, of dawdling, of--almost everything. I'm wild to get to work--to +_work_ again, Mrs. Ray! That's what a man must have." + +All the old strength and repose of manner had gone. She was shocked and +troubled at the change, and hurried on in her words lest he should see +it. + +"And how is my boy--our little Jim? And--I hope Mrs. Dwight is well, +and--we're to see her soon," she ventured. + +"Mrs. Dwight is looking remarkably well, though she and I are anxious +about her mother. Indeed, I had hoped to find dispatches--or +something--here from Major Farrell," and surely Dwight's face betrayed +rather more than his words. "Jimmy's in fine trim," he hurried on. "They +got to be fast friends voyaging. They were up on deck all the homeward +way, whereas I'm a very poor sailor. I could hardly, hold up my head +from the time we left Gibraltar." + +"I'm glad of that--friendship," said Marion gravely, guardedly, for +already, in the friendship Minneconjou had been hearing of, little Jim +was not included. The _Hohenzollern_, after a stop-over at Algiers, had +been boarded at Gibraltar by two crestfallen gentlemen in khaki and a +quandary. The transport had preceded the liner into the shadow of the +sleeping lion just thirty hours, and, steaming on to sea before the +latter was signaled, found some hours out that Foster and Gibson had +been unaccountably left behind. At their own expense, their soldier +wardrobe and toilet replenished by a score of jovial Britons who had +also contributed to their detention, these two warriors completed their +voyage, and Gibson said he was practically alone, for, from morn till +nearly midnight, from off Cadiz until held up at quarantine, Foster had +been dancing attendance on the lovely Mrs. Dwight, the captain being +much of the time down with _mal de mer_. + +Now, Sandy had merely referred to "two fellows left at 'Gib,'" without +going into particulars. Sandy, of course, could not be expected to know +what might have transpired on the _Hohenzollern_. Sandy had said nothing +about the Dwights at Naples. Sandy had not mentioned even Jimmy, and so +long as he shrank from the subject the mother wisely would not question. +She was glad now that Sandy was not at home, that he was busy with his +accounts over at the Exchange. She was glad that Priscilla was not +within earshot, that she was busy with her Bible class on the floor +below. Priscilla, Aunt Marion owned, was inquisitive at times, and her +theory of a mission among men was not limited to the rank and file. +Priscilla had ambitions embracing the moral improvement of every officer +from "C.O. to sub.," and Priscilla had heard things somewhere about the +post that set her to asking all manner of questions of her aunt, +questions that set the mother heart to fluttering lest Priscilla next +might direct her batteries on Sandy. No good could come from that, she +knew, for one of Sandy's earliest antipathies had been Cousin 'Cil, whom +he called a preacher in petticoats. Sandy was civil to her now, but by +no means inviting, and Priscilla took it much amiss that her cousin +rather held aloof, refused to argue the canteen question with her, and +could not be drawn into doctrinal discussion of any kind. + +Below stairs could be heard the low hum of voices through the open +casement. Priscilla had been reading aloud to her soldier wards, but +police and stable call would presently be sounding--the signal that, +save the secretary, would take away her pupils, and Aunt Marion hoped +Priscilla might not appear upon the scene before Dwight departed, yet +longed to hear him tell of little Jim, and Dwight seemed intent only on +telling her of Inez--Inez and her perfections. Dwight seemed to feel +that he must make this devoted friend of his first wife fully aware of +the manifold perfections of the second. To all she listened with such +attention as she could command, but when again she asked for Jim and +whether he was greatly grown and whether he was studious,--or what,--for +well she remembered all Margaret's cherished plans for her boy, again +Dwight responded with what Inez said and Inez thought. Inez so loved +him. Inez so delighted in having him with her in her walks and rides. +Inez thought him so keen, so quick, so intelligent. Inez admired his +eyes, his face, his slender boyish beauty. Inez could not say enough in +praise of him. It was Inez this and Inez that. There would only be three +of them, said he, when they came to Minneconjou,--Inez, Jim and himself. +They would have no use, said he, for the big house occupied by the Rays. +He really preferred one of the sets of captain's quarters. Marion had +been wondering whether Inez would not prefer to occupy these--whether, +in fine, they would not have to move out and give the Dwights +possession, but Dwight said no. In fact, he would not decide what set to +take, now that he had seen them, until Inez herself arrived; whereat +Mrs. Ray breathed freer. + +And then the bugles blared across the broad parade and the white stable +frocks began to dot the distant and severe faįade of the frontier +barracks, and 'Cilla's pupils came forth and hastened to their duties, +and, catching sight of Colonel Stone and certain of his officers wending +their way to the club, Dwight took his leave and started for the steps. +He would see Mrs. Ray again within a day, he said. He was eager to see +Sandy, who, somehow, had not seemed himself when they met at Naples. And +then Priscilla's even tones were heard below, and the low-pitched, +murmurous voice of the deferential secretary, and Marion would have +detained the major, she hardly knew why, but he was nervously saying +adieu and hurriedly descending the steps just as Miss Sanford and her +assistant issued from beneath. At sight of the strange officer +Priscilla's glasses went up for deliberate survey, the secretary's hand +in quick salute. At sound of his name, as Mrs. Ray spoke a word in +parting, Miss Sanford's face beamed with instant interest, the +secretary's paled with as instant emotion. Standing in the slant of the +afternoon sunshine, where Mrs. Ray could not but distinctly see him, +Private Blenke had turned yellow-white as unbleached cotton and was +biting his lips to control their twitching. Then, without a word, the +moment Dwight went his way, Blenke faced about and bolted another. + +Miss Sanford followed the major with curious eyes, then turned to resume +certain instructions to her satellite, and behold, he was scurrying away +across the parade in pursuit of the earlier departures. "Why, I--hadn't +half finished," said she, as she turned to her aunt. "What took him off +in such a hurry?" + +There was none to answer, however, for Mrs. Ray had turned back to her +letters; and on the following day Dwight hastened to Chicago. Within the +week came Colonel Stone, with a face eloquent of perplexity. + +"Mrs. Ray," said he, "this is simply unaccountable, but Major Dwight +writes me that, after all, he shall have to claim the privilege of his +rank and--this set of quarters. It seems that Mrs. Dwight is now +expecting her mother and others to pay her an extended visit as soon as +she is settled, and captain's quarters would not be large enough." + +Which was how it happened that, two days later, the goods and chattels +of the Rays were being stowed in another and much smaller tenement some +distance down the line. There was a very good set--a really roomier +set--that Priscilla much preferred only two doors away from that which +they were vacating, but Aunt Marion would have none of it. She had made +neither comment nor remonstrance when Stone came in with his unwelcome +news. She would say nothing about it now. That she should retain the +quarters of a field officer was something to be accorded as a courtesy; +it could not be demanded as a right, save at certain large posts with +small garrisons. But men and women who knew Marion Ray, and they who +knew her honored her, felt confident of one thing, that she was intent +on getting as far away from the coming household as lay in her power to +do. Sandy was but a second lieutenant still and entitled by law to only +one room and a kitchen. They were in luck, perhaps, in finding so good +and new and commodious a set of quarters as these to which they were +assigned. + +Sandy had not opened his head on the subject of Major and Mrs. Dwight, +even when, at their instance, he, his mother and their household had +been dispossessed. Sandy had found an easy horse and, with the consent +of the surgeon, had begun to spend some hours in saddle again when not +at the "shop." Then Priscilla, believing lonely brooding to be a bad +thing for any man, found means to a mount and surprised him one day by +appearing in habit and saddle ready to ride. For the life of him Sandy +could not look pleased at the prospect. Five years earlier, when +Priscilla was well-to-do, he might have found excuse to avoid or to +leave her. Now, in the days of her dependence, he could and would not; +but he proved a silent companion. + +Across the fords and just at the eastern edge of the reservation they +passed on their return some ramshackle buildings, only two of which +showed signs of recent human occupation, and Priscilla spoke of their +abandoned look and then--wished she had refrained. + +"Time was," said Sandy, "when they were bustling and lively enough. We +had no Exchange then, and the men wandered out here for their beer, and +here parted with their money and their hopes. Here they were drugged +till their last cent was wheedled or bullied out of them. Then they were +kicked out in the cold to take their punishment at the fort. Then it was +our _men_ that went to ruin. Now, as you see, it is only the ranch." + +It was useless arguing with people so narrow-minded as her cousins, +thought poor 'Cilla, as she sharply touched her broncho with the lash +and drove him hock deep through the foaming waters. What all men should +see was that alcohol in any form was an enemy to be shunned and set +aside, a thing never to be tampered with or tolerated, and here were +sane and, in many ways, excellent people--people who had been to her +most loving and kind and charitable--who were willing to concede that +what she said might all be true, but were equally convinced that what +she would do was utterly impracticable--people who themselves eschewed +the use of wine, yet blindly persisted in providing it for these +children of the nation, the soldiers, because, as they said, most of the +soldiers could not be made to see the harm in malt or mild wine and +would drink vilest whisky if deprived of them. She considered Sandy a +scoffer, whereas Sandy did not scoff at all. He simply cited facts. She +longed for opportunity to convert him to her views and believed +implicitly that if he could but be made to listen he would surely see +the light, but whenever Cilla brought her batteries to bear he +confounded her with some such incontrovertible truth as this or--changed +the subject. This day she had planned a coup, and he had met her, +unexpectedly, more than halfway. By the time she had regained her +self-control they were past the sentry line and well within the post. + +"I want to have a _real_ talk with you, Sandy," she said, as he swung +her to the ground in front of their old quarters, where still they lived +while fitting up the new. + +"You'll have to do it all, 'Cil, if it's Canteen you're hitting at," was +the answer, as he led the way up the broad steps; then stopped suddenly, +his young face darkening. + +A slender, soldierly form had suddenly issued from the hallway at the +sound of voices, and there stood Blenke, hand at cap visor, the mournful +eyes in mingled depth of respect and appeal, fixed upon his young +superior. It was plain to see that Lieutenant Ray little relished the +sight. Blenke's desk and duties had been confined to the floor below. +Blenke had no occupation or right on the upper deck. Mechanically the +subaltern returned the salute, but there were both suspicion and +displeasure in his voice as, almost sharply, he inquired: + +"What is it, Blenke? Why are you here?" + +"By accident, sir," was the prompt reply, subordination and sorrow +mingling in tone, as mournful as the mournful eyes. "I was leaving when +I thought my name was called--that Mrs. Ray had called me, and I turned +back. There seems to be no one here--yet the door was wide open." + +"I cannot imagine who could have called you--or why," answered Ray +coldly, never relaxing his odd scrutiny of those dark, reproachful eyes. +"But, first call has sounded. I won't keep you." + +Blenke saluted. One quick glance he shot at the flushing face of his +friend and teacher, as though to say, "Plead for me"; then lithe and +quick he went bounding down the steps, Priscilla looking after him. Ray +pushed on into the dismantled hallway--into the parlor where rugs and +carpets were rolled and heaped and curtains stripped from the rods. He +passed through into the little room where stood his father's desk and +bookcase, "the den" now doubly lonely and forlorn. He passed swiftly +through the dining-room and into the rear hallway, where wide open stood +the door to the basement stairway. It proved nothing, however, that that +door was unbolted and ajar. In the work of packing and moving the men +had been going and coming all the afternoon. Sandy came again to the +front and followed Priscilla to the second story. Mother was not in her +room, the room that soon in all probability would be hers--the girl-wife +of his father's old friend--the girl-wife whose name Sandy Ray had +ceased to whisper even to himself. He turned back and Priscilla stood +confronting him at the doorway. + +"What is it, Sandy? Why should you be so--annoyed at Blenke's believing +he was called back?" + +"Because I don't believe _him_" said Sandy bluntly, "and--I don't like +prowling." + +"Oh, how can you be so unfair? Blenke is no prowler, Sandy!" said +Priscilla, in fervent reproach. "Blenke is a born gentleman, and I know +it, and so will you when you hear his story." + +"Oh, fudge!" said Sandy, as he turned impatiently away, entered his own +room and slammed the door. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A BRIDE--AND A BEAU + + +Colonel and Mrs. Stone in the course of the following fortnight had +occasion twice, as the society columns expressed it, to "entertain at +dinner for" Major and Mrs. Oswald Dwight, and Mrs. Dwight was the topic +of all tongues at Minneconjou before she had been two days at the post. +They arrived on a Saturday evening; were met at the station by the +hospitable Stones; driven at once to the quarters of that efficient and +valuable commanding officer; were the recipients on Sunday of many +calls, the guests of honor at dinner Monday evening, at which function +they met three of the senior officers and the adjutant of the +Sixty-first, each accompanied by his better half; were again on dinner +duty Tuesday evening to meet eight others prominent in the military +social swim, and at nine o'clock were escorted to the hop room, where +the regimental band and practically all the officers and ladies of the +garrison were arrayed to welcome them and where until midnight the dance +moved merrily on. + +To neither dinner was Mrs. Ray invited. She preferred not to make a +formal call on Sunday, and when, accompanied by Priscilla and her eldest +son, she appeared at the colonel's quarters on Monday afternoon, Mrs. +Dwight and Mrs. Stone had not yet returned from a drive. As little Jim +had spent a long hour that morning with his and his own mother's old +friend--Dwight himself bringing him over--it is within the bounds of +possibility that the drive had been mentioned. The major had remained +but a few moments. He was obviously nervous and ill at ease. He had that +matter of his change of mind about the quarters to explain, and Marion +had desired that he say nothing whatever about it. It was his right. He +was bound to consult his wife's wishes before those of any other woman, +so why refer to it? But Dwight haplessly stumbled on. There was still +something to be said. Mrs. Dwight had expected to have her mother and +two cousins with her all summer and September, but Major Farrell found +it impossible to leave Mexico after all. Mrs. Farrell could not think of +leaving him, especially as his health had suffered very much, thanks to +their enforced sojourn in an unsanitary section of old Manila. It +appeared that the major was even an applicant for a pension on that +ground--a strange proceeding with one so overcharged with mining stock +and cattle profits. It might be a month or six weeks yet before the rest +of the family came, but Mrs. Dwight was eager to get settled under her +own roof where they would be an incumbrance to nobody, and she was going +that very day with Mrs. Stone in search of servants. Only a maid had +come with them, a maid whose ministrations Inez declared she _must_ have +if expected to appear to any advantage in the society to which her +husband was accustomed. Mrs. Stone knew of a good cook in town at the +hotel whom Mrs. Dwight might tempt away, and then the major had to hurry +to the station to superintend the unloading of their car of furniture. + +Not until Tuesday night at the reception, therefore, did the Rays meet +Mrs. Dwight. Mother and son again came together, Marion in simple +evening toilet, Sandy, as required of all officers for that occasion, in +full-dress uniform. Mrs. Dwight stood at the colonel's left. The +adjutant, facing her, made all the presentations. She was gowned again, +as she was that night at Naples, beautifully, extravagantly, and her +jewels were, as then, too much in evidence. She had been looking, so +remarked her hostess, somewhat pale and sallow during the day, but there +was no lack of color, of radiance, of sparkle now. Her face was +exquisite in its dark beauty, wondrous in its witchery. Her smile was +sweetness itself, and many a woman envied her those perfect teeth rather +more than the diamonds. Her soft Southern accent lent a charm of its own +to her few words of gracious welcome and acknowledgment. It was noted +that she said very little, that she repeated much; but what she said was +so sweetly said, and the meaning smile lent so very much more to make it +all impressive. Her very attitude was one of supple, sinuous grace, and, +whatsoever may have been lacking in the form and variety of her verbal +response to Minneconjou's welcome, there could be no warrant for saying +that she did not look, at least, her part. Women stood and watched her +and marked the play of her slender little hands, the unconscious, +languorous use of her beautiful fan, and women marked how alert, too, +were the wonderful dark eyes--how, even as they meltingly and feelingly +were uplifted to greet each newcomer, they saw each comer before that +comer stood in her presence. She was at her best when Mrs. Ray, pausing +first to greet Mrs. Stone and the colonel, was passed on to the star of +the evening, and the smiling adjutant, with unpremeditated preference in +his tone, announced "Mrs. Ray, Mrs. Dwight; your predecessor at the head +of our squadron." And then for the first time that night the bride +stepped forward, if only a single pace, and, as though her heart went +with it, her hand seemed to leap forward in impulsive greeting. + +"I have known Mrs. Ray ever since I first met Major Dwight," said she, +with such wealth of gladness in her tone. She never seemed to see the +young officer standing with pale, unsmiling face, awaiting his turn to +be advanced to the presence. "I cannot begin to say how glad I am to +meet her--at last," she continued. And Marion Ray, thoroughbred woman of +society, if not of the world, stood in quiet, smiling grace and dignity, +listening--without a sign of rancor to the swift patter of words from +the beautiful lips of the girl who had played havoc with her firstborn's +honest young heart, studying the beauty of the newcomer's wondrous face, +and wondering, as mothers will, that even a lover could see therein a +resemblance to her own daughter--her dark-eyed Maidie. She hoped that by +this time Sandy, too, would see that he had been blind. She responded +without embarrassment or effort. Not for a royal ransom would she let +this fascinator see that her son had ever so far taken her seriously +enough to speak, even to his mother, of a possible admiration. + +"The major was very long our near neighbor," she said. "And it is good +to have him with us again--and to welcome Mrs. Dwight." Then her hand +was extended to Major Dwight as, still smiling and chatting, she seemed +imperceptibly sidling toward him; and then Sandy emerged into the field +of vision. "So glad to see Mrs. Dwight again," said he, in off-hand +assumption of jovial indifference. "Gibson's here, you know. He'll be +trotting past the grandstand presently." And though the little hand, +slipped into his, gave faint, fluttering, tentative pressure, he edged +along, yielding place to 'Cilla and Will, the next comers, and +precipitated himself on Dwight. There was unmistakable glance of +reproach, perhaps even of pain, from those glorious eyes as the young +officer passed unfaltering on, but it was instant; it was unseen by the +aging and adoring soldier at her side. + +And in this wise was the dreaded meeting accomplished with no one +possibly the wiser, with no one warned by word or sign of the +complications and catastrophes to come. + +It took Major Dwight but four or five days to set his own house in order +and move his birdling into the pretty cage he had planned for her. +Willing hands by dozens, both officers and troopers, had wrought with +him in the transformation. Beautiful rugs, carpets, and curtains, rare +in army parlors, had been lavishly provided--this, too, despite +well-founded rumors that Dwight had no such bank account to-day as that +he owned to at Manila. Saying no word upon the subject, Marion Ray had +noted, nevertheless, how much more expensive and luxurious were the +surroundings of Inez than had been those of wise and provident Margaret +Dwight. They gave their first dinner, did the Dwights, one week from the +date of Colonel Stone's first, and to this was Marion bidden. She had +not expected it, had not provided herself with a previous engagement, +_had_ to accept or decline at once, and accepted. + +"Mother," said Sandy, coming in at the moment, "have you seen--has +anything been seen of a blouse of mine sent home Tuesday evening? I +can't find it, yet the troop tailor swears he left it here himself." + +"Who received it?" asked Mrs. Ray. "We were all home dressing for the +reception." + +"Why, that's the queer part of it," was the answer. "He says he found +the back door open, knocked twice and nobody answered, so he walked in +the kitchen, laid the bundle on the table and came out and shut the door +after him." + +Mrs. Ray thought a moment. "I gave Sarah permission to be out, and +Minnie was up here helping us. That may have accounted for his knock +being unanswered. You went down before I did, 'Cilla," she continued, +turning to her niece, who was busy at the desk. "Was Sarah back then? I +thought I heard you speak to someone." + +"To two of the Bible class," said 'Cilla. "They came to say we couldn't +have the use of that little room back of the chapel. I don't understand +it at all. We offered to clean it out and store the boxes in the cellar, +but----" And 'Cilla shrugged her shoulders. She had begun to believe +that the chaplain was jealous of her influence over certain intractables +in the garrison, and was aiming to thwart her. This view Mrs. Ray could +not share. She presently put down her pen and passed out into the +dining-room. + +"It's a dark little hole at best, Pris," said Sandy, "and I offered you +a good bright room at the Exchange--the very one your paragon used for +about the same purpose when he was stationed here." Sandy _would_ tilt +at his cousin's fad at times, and this was a time, for Sandy had been +crotchety for a week. + +"My paragon, as you call him--my ideal of the soldier as we saw him +after Porto Rico," answered 'Cilla, with dignity and precision, "held +his classes there when the rest of the building was not what it is +to-day--a rumshop." + +"Not a drop of rum to be had on the premises now, Pris--though there +might have been then." + +"I don't believe it! _My_ general was an ascetic. No one ever heard of +his using liquor--and wine is only liquor in another form." + +"Come to the library and I'll show you what your General Ascetic wrote +of himself after he was so horribly shot in the Sioux campaign. He said +he owed his recovery to a winter in California and drinking plenty of +good red wine that made blood." + +But Priscilla knew that Sandy "had the papers to prove it," and +preferred not to see them, lest her ideals come tumbling. "That might +have been necessary and by physician's prescription," said she. "What I +condemn is its usage when there is no excuse. I should feel that I was +enticing my class into temptation if I led them daily to the Canteen, +and most of them feel as I do about it. Blenke, for instance--though you +don't believe in him, Sandy--when I told him of your offer, he said he +would rather not set foot under that roof." + +"When was that?" asked Sandy curiously, seeing a chance for a palpable +hit. "He was sent to Leavenworth with the guard of those deserters +Wednesday morning, and I didn't have it to offer to you until Tuesday +afternoon." + +"He came that evening to say he was ordered away with the guard detail. +Two of my men have gone. You can see for yourself, Sandy, that for any +important duty the total abstainer is chosen." + +But Mr. Ray did not answer. He was thinking intently. "Was Blenke one of +the two you--spoke of, 'Cilla?" he presently asked. + +"No. He came by himself just after they'd gone. He took his leave a very +few minutes later. We heard you coming down." + +"And where did you receive your visitors, Pris?" + +"I spoke with them at the rear door--what other place was there? since +you dislike my having soldiers come to the house. Why, Sandy Ray! what +are you thinking of? You don't mean----" + +"Hush!" said Sandy. There were footsteps at the front and laughing +voices, and a bang at the gongbell. Minnie, the housemaid, fluttered +through the hallway. "Are the ladies at home?" "Mrs. Stone and Mrs. +Dwight!" stage-whispered Priscilla, but in an instant Sandy Ray had +found his feet and followed his mother, who was interviewing cook at the +kitchen door. "Mrs. Stone and Mrs. Dwight," he echoed, waited until Mrs. +Ray had gone to greet the callers, then bolted through the sacred +precincts of Sarah's own domain and into the afternoon sunshine beyond. +There Minnie presently fetched her young master his broad-brimmed +campaign hat, wondering why he should look so pale. Making wide detour, +Sandy found himself presently within hail of the club. It was but an +hour before sunset. The cavalry people were just coming back from +stables to supper. There were not five officers on the broad veranda, +but among them stood a man in civilian dress, whose back had a strangely +familiar look and whose voice, when he whirled about and shouted +greeting, sent a thrill of astonishment not unmixed with wrath, nerve +racking, through the young soldier's slender frame. + +"Hullo, Sandy! Got over being grumpy yet? Come up and see a fellow." + +What brought Stanley Foster, of all men, here to Minneconjou now? + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE WOLF IN THE SHEEPFOLD + + +A week rolled on and matters at Minneconjou had become electric. The +weather was superb. The sun rose in a cloudless sky long hours before +society, as represented at our frontier city and station, followed suit, +shook off the fetters of sleep and began bestirring itself for the day. +And days were long in that northern latitude, long enough for even the +most ambitious and enthusiastic of commanding officers intent on the +instruction and development of the force intrusted to his care. Yet the +days seemed hardly long enough for Oswald Dwight, whose first difference +with the post commander was on the subject of morning gunfire and the +reveille. To the scandal of the cavalry service, let it be recorded that +in the point at issue, without exception the members of Minneconjou's +mounted service sided with the easy-going infantryman at the head of +affairs, and against their own immediate leader--the over-energetic, the +nervously pushing, prodding, spurring, stirring squadron commander. + +During the sweet summer months, all along the broad lands of the +Dakotas, the morning gun thundered its salutation to the newborn day as +the hands of the clock so nearly lapped at half-past five. What Dwight +demanded of Colonel Stone was permission to rout out the cavalry at +half-past four. It was broad daylight, said he. It was the cool and +beautiful time of the day. The men could have their coffee at once, then +march to stables, lead to water,--the steeds having been already fed by +the stable guard,--groom for twenty minutes, march back to barracks, get +their matutinal scrub, a hearty breakfast and be out to squadron drill +when all was still fresh, sparkling and exhilarating before the mountain +breeze, the lowland dust, or indeed before garrison society, was astir; +then they could all be back in time for guard-mounting and the +multifarious drills and duties of the morning. Dwight found his people +well up in saddle work, as was to be expected of men long led by so +genuine a trooper as "Billy" Ray, but they were correspondingly slack in +foot and sabre drill, and Dwight in his day had been one of the famous +drillmasters of the --th, and seemed beset with desire to keep up the +record now. "What would you be doing from nine to noon?" asked Stone, +strumming the desk with his finger tips and studying curiously the pale, +keen, eager face of the cavalryman. + +"Company drill afoot, sabre drill, setting up--almost anything!" was the +impatient answer. "These men are soft, sluggish, torpid. Troopers should +be all wire and catgut. I want to put those four commands in perfect +trim for anything, Colonel, and I can't do it under five hours' drill a +day." + +But Stone shook his head. There was no occasion he maintained, for +robbing them of an hour of their sleep. They had to work harder than his +men, anyhow, and, if anything, should be given more sleep, not less. + +"Then put them to bed at ten o'clock--or nine, if need be," said Dwight, +impatient of demur; but Stone proved obdurate. "I see no reason for so +radical a change," said he, to the relief of the juniors, who feared +Dwight's vehement onward nature might prevail over the placidity of +Stone; and so the new-made major was fain to content himself with +sounding mess call right after reveille, then "Boots and Saddles" in +place of "Stables," and, by dispensing with morning grooming, getting +his troops into line on the flats to the south and starting a humming +squadron drill before seven o'clock. + +Time had been in the long-ago happy days when it was quite the thing for +Mrs. Ray, Mrs. Truscott, Margaret Dwight, and other women of the old +regiment to ride, drive, or stroll out to the ground and watch their +soldier-husbands through much of the morning's dashing drill. The effect +was good in more ways than one. It keyed up the pride of the men and +kept down the profanity of their mentors, some of whom, as was a way in +the old days of the mounted service, _would_ break out with sudden and +startling blasphemy when things went wildly amiss. It is easy on foot to +bring instant order out of apparent chaos. The stark command "Halt!" +does the business; but, given tenscore, high-strung, grain-fed, spirited +steeds, tearing at their bits and lunging full gallop in mad race for a +charge, it often happens that neither voice nor trumpet, nor tugging, +straining bridle arm can prevail, and it is then the air rings with +expletives. No one ever heard Truscott swear. He was a model of +self-control. Dwight, too, had been renowned for the success with which +he handled horses and men and maintained his personal serenity. But +Marion Ray more times than a few in the earlier days of her married life +had cause to blush for Billy, who, the idol of his men and perhaps the +most magnetic drillmaster and troop leader in the regiment, so lost +himself in the enthusiasm and dash of squadron drill at the trot or +gallop, that his Blue Grass exhortations could be heard over the thunder +of a thousand hoofs, to the entire delight of the sorrel troop, the +sympathetic joy of their rivals and the speechless dismay of the pious. + +"Tut-tut-tut!" was a dear old chaplain wont to say; "is it not strange +that so good a man can use such very bad language?" Yet Captain Ray in +private life shrank from profanity as he did from punch. On mounted +drill it rippled from his lips with unconscious, unpremeditated fluency. + +Just as in the old days, therefore, wives, sisters, and sweethearts of +the dashing horsemen of Minneconjou were now riding, driving, or +strolling out to the edge of the drill ground and enjoying the spirited +scene. It gave them an hour of bracing air and sparkling dew and early +sunshine and a wonderful appetite for breakfast. Mrs. Ray did not go. +Neither her husband nor her son had now any part in the panorama, and, +looking from her window she could see all she cared to see of what might +be going on--and more. The sound of Sandy's boot-heels overhead told her +that he, too, was up and observant, though Sandy, when Priscilla, as +usual precipitate, managed to refer to it at the breakfast table, +parried the tongue thrust with a tale about "best light for shaving." + +No, there were none of Mrs. Ray's little household who went forth to see +the early squadron drill, but there were others--many others--and most +observed, if not most observant of these, was the beautiful young wife +of the squadron commander and her invariable escort, Dwight's former +fellow-campaigner, their fellow-voyager of the _Hohenzollern_, and now +their very appreciative guest, Captain Stanley Foster, only just +promoted to his troop in the --th Cavalry and waiting orders at +Minneconjou. + +Mrs. Dwight was not much given to walking. She could dance untiringly +for hours, but other pedestrianism wearied her. Mrs. Dwight was as yet +even less given to riding. She explained that the major preferred she +should wait a while until her horse and English horse equipment came. +Lieutenant Scott, who had met her in Manila, said he had a little +tan-colored Whitman that would just suit her, whereat Mrs. Dwight, +between paling and coloring, took on something of a tan shade over her +dusky beauty and faltered that "the Major preferred the English--to the +forked-seat--for a lady." It would seem as though she desired it +forgotten that her normal way of riding was astride, whereas more than +half her auditors, the officers at least, regarded that as the proper +and rational seat for her sex. Mrs. Dwight, caring neither to walk nor +to ride, therefore was quite content to appear for two or three +successive mornings in a lovely little phaeton with a pony-built team in +front, a pygmy "tiger" behind and a presentable swain beside her. The +fourth morning brought a rain and no drill, the fifth no rain nor Mrs. +Dwight, nor did she again appear at that early hour despite the fact +that the drills daily became more dashing and picturesque. Her interest, +she explained, had been rather on her husband's account, but she knew so +little about such matters she felt her inferiority to _real_ army ladies +who had been born and bred to and understood it, and then after dancing +so late she wondered how anybody _could_ be up so early. + +The major himself, probably, could not have stood it, but he, not being +a dancing man, had taken to skipping away to bed at or before eleven on +such nights as Minneconjou tripped the light fantastic toe, but "Inez so +loved to dance" he considerately left her to finish it, with Foster to +fetch her home; which Foster did. + +But, of the few elders at Minneconjou who had personal knowledge of +Dwight's prowess as a cavalry drillmaster in by-gone days, and of the +many who, being told thereof, had gone forth to see and to enjoy, there +lived now not one who had not suffered disappointment. So far from being +the calm, masterful, yet spirited teacher and leader, clear and explicit +in his instructions and serene and self-controlled where men and horses +became nervous and fidgety, Dwight proved strangely petulant and +querulous. His tone and manner were complaining, nagging, even snarling. +Nothing seemed to please him. Troop leaders, subalterns and sergeants +were forever coming in for a rasping, and each successive day the +command paced slowly, sedately homeward, cooling off after a hot drill, +looking more and more sullen and disgusted. Officers dismounted at the +Club, quaffed "shandygaff" and sometimes even "Scotch and soda" in +silent sense of exasperation. The men rode away to stables, rubbed down +and, as they plied the wisps, said opprobrious things between their set +teeth. As for the horses, they took counsel together when turned out to +herd and settled it to their satisfaction that something was sorely +amiss with the major--who had at last begun to swear. + +And something was sorely amiss with Dwight, as anyone who noted his +brilliant, restless eyes, his haggard face and fitful manner could not +fail to see. It was at this stage of the proceedings, as Stone squarely +owned up later, that he as post commander should have taken Dwight to +task, even to the extent of administering correction. But the strongest +soldier is sometimes disarmed at sight of a fellow's suffering, and, for +fear of adding one pang, will suppress a needed word. Thus it happens +that occasionally a commander passes unrebuked a soldier's fault. Thus +it happens time and again that men, stern and unflinching in dealing +with their fellows, submit in silence to years of a woman's abuse, +because "she's such a sufferer." + +But here was something Stone might, and possibly should, have done and +thereby measurably cleared the social sky and surely earned Dwight's +silent gratitude, and this Stone did not do, even though spurred thereto +by a clear-visioned wife, and that was--say a word of admonition to +Captain Foster. + +He deserved it. All Minneconjou was a unit on that head. He was as +utterly out of place there as a cat in a creamery. They who had heard +the story of his attentions to Mrs. Dwight during the _Hohenzollern's_ +run from Gibraltar to Governor's Island were disturbed by his sudden and +unheralded appearance at the post, and distressed that Dwight should be +among the first to welcome him, and the one, and at first the only one, +to invite him to a room under his roof. Men looked every which way but +at each other and held their tongues when it was announced that Foster +was the guest of the Dwights. Women looked into each other's eyes and +gasped and said all manner of things as the news went round. Yet what, +at first at least, was there to block the plan? The infantry officers +felt that _they_ must not take the initiative; it was purely a cavalry +affair. Dwight and Foster had served together several years. Dwight +possibly did feel, as he too often took occasion to say, more than +grateful to Foster for "his courtesy to Mrs. Dwight while I was cooped +up in my stateroom." Two or three cavalry chums, taking secret counsel +together, hit upon a blundering, clumsy, best-intentioned scheme, and +Washburn, who couldn't bear Foster and had never foregathered with him, +was deputed, as the only captain with spare rooms and no family, to take +the bull by the horns and the unwanted visitor to his ingle nook, which +Washburn did with simulated joviality and about as follows: + +"Say, old man, _you_ don't want to be roosting in a dove-cote while the +birds are billing and cooing. You can't have any fun at Dwight's. You'll +get nothing but Apollinaris between meals. Come to my shack, where +there's a room--and a demijohn--all ready for you," which bid proved, +unhappily, none too alluring. Foster thanked him with a glint in his +eye. "Dwight asked me long ago," said he, which was the petrified truth, +though Dwight's words were perfunctory, and the invitation one of those +things so often said to a man when the sayer hopes to Heaven he's seeing +the last of him. + +But now that Foster _was_ here, his guest, nothing could exceed the glow +of Dwight's hospitality. It was painful to note the eagerness with which +he sought to assure all Minneconjou of his long-standing friendship for +Foster in face of the fact that some of the squadron well knew they had +never met in Margaret's day, and were never really comrades thereafter. +Moreover, they were men of utterly divergent mold and temperament. +Dwight had been reared in the shadow of the flag, a soldier by birth, +lineage and education. Foster had come in from civil life, after a not +too creditable career at college. He had come, moreover, with the repute +of being a Squire of Dames in "swagger" Eastern society. He danced well, +dressed well, and talked well--when he felt like it. He "knew a lot," +said men who knew little outside of the army. + +He knew enough, at all events, to realize that army society would be far +less tolerant of a "squire" of his kind than had been that of Gotham, +and during his decade of service that, at least, had not been held as +his principal fault. A semi-cynical manner, a propensity for stirring +fellows on their sore points, a pronounced selfishness and an assumed +intimacy with men who disliked him were the things that most conspired +to make him unpopular. He had ability; he could be agreeable, but +indolence and indifference dwarfed his powers. It was not until he came +under the spell of this dark girl's grace and beauty that Stanley Foster +had succeeded in doing anything worthy of mention. Now he was being +mentioned far more than he wished, and, though he heard it not, he knew. + +But they went to a dance the night of the day he came, and Dwight gave a +dinner the next night, and another the next. Then there had to be others +given in return, and morn, noon, afternoon and evening, Foster found +himself at the side of Mrs. Dwight. What could she do? He came to stay +only three days, but the week went by, and so, possibly, did his orders. +Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday they were out at morning drill. Then the +pretty phaeton and its lovely occupant and her vigilant convoy came no +more. Inez said she "looked like a fright at that hour of the morning, +anyway," in which statement most women agreed. Possibly it was that that +stayed her. + +However, a second Sunday had come since Foster's advent, and the +squadron was having a rest and the chaplain holding service, and Major +Dwight, as was his wont, came, book in one hand and little Jim clinging +fondly to the other, to kneel among the worshipers, to reverently follow +the beautiful service, his boy snuggling to his side and reading aloud +from the same page. It was the service Margaret had loved, and taught +her husband to honor, and had won his promise that Jimmy should ever be +led to it, and loyally, devoted, had the father fulfilled the promise, +even after the young wife came to wean him from much that Margaret had +inspired. Inez this day came not with them. To begin with, Inez had been +reared in the fold of the Mother Church, and, though years had served to +loose the bonds and possibly sap what little she ever had of faith, she +had sought, at least, no substitute. Obediently had she gone at first +with her soldier-husband and looked, in the eyes of his kith and kin, +the picture of meek piety and adoration as she followed the new, strange +ritual. But, once away from family observation, Inez had found refuge in +hebdomadal headaches that came with the Lord's Day and kept her from +church. She was "feeling far from well this morning," said Dwight, in +answer to queries, and had been persuaded to remain in bed. So he and +Jimmy had come to church and Foster had gone to the Club to write some +letters and wire to Washington, and all were "present or accounted for," +as Captain Washburn grimly announced at the Club. It was a lovely warm +Sunday, too, and the old chaplain was effective as a reader. The choir +was capital, despite Priscilla's criticisms, and the attendance was +large. Army folk, as a rule, flock but sparsely to the sanctuary, but +Minneconjou had not a few devout church people, even in the ranks, +Blenke being so earnest in his piety that when detailed for Sunday guard +he never failed to effect an exchange, even though it cost him two tours +for one. Furthermore, it was communion service, and unusually long. + +Marion Ray had entered early--Sandy, pale-faced and thin, at her side; +and together they had knelt, mother and son, and then sat silently +awaiting the "Processional." When Dwight and Jimmy walked up the aisle +and took a pew on the other side and nearer the altar, Marion had smiled +fond greeting to the little fellow, and he had answered. Twice as she +gazed at them later, Dwight's arm about Jimmy's curly head, his sinewy +hand resting on the further shoulder and drawing him to his side, heavy +tears welled up into the blue eyes of the tender-hearted woman. Never +yet had that strong, sinewy hand been uplifted to inflict the lightest +chastisement on Margaret's beloved boy. Only the day before on his +regular visit, nestling to her knee and telling her laughingly how +Sergeant Shock, the schoolmaster, had walloped Scotty Burns, the band +leader's eldest hope, Jimmy had looked up suddenly into her eyes. "Why, +Aunt Marion," he said, "only think! I've never known what it was to be +whipped. Can you fancy daddy's ever using a strap on me?" + +"God forbid!" she shuddered, not knowing why, thinking perhaps only what +agonies that would have cost Margaret, and then Priscilla had come in +and their confidences ceased. Priscilla was firm in her theory that +children were too much petted and coddled nowadays, and that more of the +rod and less of rhubarb was what they needed. + +Suddenly, just after the second lesson, while the rich ringing voices of +the soldier choir were chanting the "Gloria," little Jim was seen to bow +his head and burrow for his handkerchief. Dwight looked down, bent over +him, whispered a word or two, smiled encouragement and fond assurance, +and, blushing very much, with downcast eyes and his face half hidden in +cambric, the lad came forth and hastened down the aisle and out into the +brilliant sunshine beyond. + +"Nose-bleed," whispered Dwight to Mrs. Stone, who leaned back, +sympathetically, from her pew. "It sometimes seizes him just that way." + +And the stately service went uninterruptedly on, and Jimmy over home, +and little more was said of the incident until the coming of another +day. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +ACCUSING LETTERS + + +For a week Miss Priscilla Sanford had been in a state of mind bordering +on the ecstatic. For months letters of portentous size, bearing the +stamp of a great and powerful organization of Christian women, had been +left at her door, and many an hour had that energetic maiden been +devoting to correspondence with boards, committees, secretaries, etc., +adding much to the burden of the mail orderly, and not a little to his +malevolence. A dour and unsocial Scot was McPherson, as he called +himself, but there was wisdom in the selection, for Kennedy, his +predecessor, was as genial as Mac was glum, and Kennedy's fall from +grace was due mainly to his amiable weakness for the opposite sex, a +trait that had led to his lingering far too long in the early spring +mornings--and many a "storm house"--along the row, and to concomitant +complaint. Letters delayed, letters even diverted from their proper +destination, had been all too often charged to him, for more than one +housemaid, not to mention a mistress or two, was possessed of a devil of +curiosity as to the correspondence of many another, and Kennedy was too +much interested in all of them to be austere. Not so McPherson. There +was not another of his clan, there were but three of his nationality, in +the entire garrison, for seldom, save under the flag of Great Britain, +is the Scot in peace time a soldier. Mac had served his native country +in the "Forty Twa"; had come to the States a time-expired man; had met +his fate, married, and been bereft and deserted within two years, and, +like many another man, he had sought in the profession of arms the peace +denied him at the domestic fireside. Uncle Sam employs no recruiting +solicitors; he needs none, for the petticoat drives to his ranks more +men than he will take. Something of Mac's history was made known to his +colonel, and when Kennedy had to be replaced, although Mac had not been +a year in the regiment, Stone issued his mandate. "_There's_ the man for +the place," said he to the adjutant. "There'll be no peeping and prying +with that red-headed Sawny in charge." + +Priscilla had not been slow to note the substitution, nor to divine the +cause. Priscilla had much disapproved of Kennedy, and Kennedy of her. +"That prayin', pryin', pesterin' old maid beyant," he described her to +the surgeon's becapped and bewitching Kathleen, the belle of the +non-commissioned officers' ball. Priscilla found in Presbyterian Mac a +far more promising subject, and was aggrieved and dismayed at her lack +of success. McPherson would only stand at salute, frigidly respectful, +but as icily impenetrable. Mac scented mischief at the outset. He had +heard much among the men about Miss Sanford's kindergarten, the Bible +class, the prayer meetings, and her persistent preachings against the +Canteen. Now, Mac himself disapproved of that institution, and hearing +of this--I fear me Sandy told her, and for motives altogether +mischievous--Miss Sanford had lain in wait for Mac, and held him one +brief moment in converse at the door. The story of that episode +delighted Minneconjou and the minority, let us say, when it was later +told in Congress. + +"I'm so glad to hear, McPherson," said Miss Sanford, beaming upon him, +as she took from his hand the little packet of letters, "that you, too, +are one of the right sort of soldiers. Now, tell me why _you_ disapprove +of the Canteen," for Priscilla was sending that day another long letter +of experiences to the _Banner of Light_; and the reply came, prompt, +unflinching, uncompromising, but--most unsatisfactory: + +"Because, mem, ye canna get a drap o' whusky." + +And so saying McPherson was all simple sincerity. Bred to its use in the +raw fogs of his native glen, accustomed to his modest daily tot even +when on "sentry go" at the Castle, or the water gate at Gibraltar, he +and his comrades of the Black Watch had been reared in the broad faith +that teaches temperance, not intolerance. Their canteen sergeant set the +limit, not the pace, and doubtless Mac in 'listing for a soldier in the +land of liberty had looked perhaps for even greater license. Beer he +called "swipes," and despised. Rhine wine, tasted but once, set his grim +face awry, and presently townward. Mac's one peccadillo since joining at +Minneconjou was a rantin', roarin' drunk in Silver Hill that cost Uncle +Sam three days of his services, and the Highlander three months of his +pay. There were fines both military and municipal. In disgust Mac swore +off. He "had na use for a consairn that compelled a mon to walk three +miles to get a wee drappie--and lose three months' siller." + +But Priscilla was undaunted still. She had written glowingly, +enthusiastically, unceasingly, of all her efforts to promote the cause +of temperance among the nation's soldiery. She had told much of her +converts to total abstinence, and little of their backsliding. She had +managed, through Blenke and others, to get a transcript of the daily +guard report, and the punishments awarded by the summary and general +courts-martial. Minneconjou had now a garrison of some eight hundred +men, with a big and bustling frontier town only a few miles away. Thanks +to the system of the post Exchange and the careful supervision, both of +its customers and its supplies, drunkenness had been reduced almost to a +minimum. Not one out of one hundred men was in confinement, either +awaiting or serving sentence. Not more than ten in two months had been +fined for minor breaches of discipline due to drink. Some old topers, +relics of the sutler-shop days of the army, were still to be found, men +whose stomachs could not be always appeased by mild measures, and +demanded the coarser stimulant--in bottles smuggled from town; but every +case, however mild, had been made, it seems, the text for one of +Priscilla's vivid letters descriptive of the depravity still rampant in +the army, and due entirely to the presence of that blot upon Christian +civilization--the Canteen. + +And well had they served their purpose. In fancied security, knowing +that their methods had resulted in the greatest good to the greatest +number, the officers on duty with troops had read with smiling tolerance +marked copies of Eastern papers detailing the concerted efforts of the +crusaders against the post Exchange. Congress had been memorialized. +Congress had good naturedly listened to the successive readings of a +bill abolishing the system and forbidding the sale of either beer or +wine at any military post in the United States. Then, brimful, bustling +with excitement, and rejoicing, Priscilla read that her letters had been +largely instrumental in winning over certain of the opposition, and that +when the question came to a vote the noble leaders of a noble cause +would be present in force, and when the House sat, there--there would +they sit and watch, and woe betide the advocate of the arch fiend rum +that dare vote against their sacred measure. Before the army could +realize what was coming, the House sat in judgment on the bill, the +Society sat in judgment on the House; its members glanced casually at +the subject and fearfully at the galleries and--succumbed. "The Senate +will kill it, anyhow, so we might as well make ourselves solid,--it's +only the army, anyway," was the expression of one long-headed +legislator. Priscilla screamed--squealed rather--in ecstasy over the +telegram brought her at breakfast, threw the paper to Sandy and herself +into a _pas seul_ that fairly amazed Aunt Marion and scandalized the +cat. But, when a week or so later the Senate, too, quailed before the +basilisk eyes in the galleries, and the bill went to the President and +became at once a law, it is safe to say that, for one memorable day, +Miss Sanford not unwarrantably looked upon herself as of infinitely more +consequence than the commanding officer. + +Then, in the midst of the amaze and bewilderment that fell upon the +fort, came sensation. Colonel Stone sent for Sandy Ray, nodded +"withdraw" to his adjutant, who closed the door behind him, and then +looked up with somber eyes at the pale-faced young fellow before him. + +"Your occupation's gone, Sandy," said he sorrowfully. "They've pulled +from under us the best prop to order and discipline that ever we had. It +hasn't been a square deal. They won by methods we couldn't hope to meet, +and,"--drawing forth certain newspaper clippings,--"here are specimens. +For your father's sake, I liked you before I grew to like you for your +own; but if your father himself were here, and head of the house instead +of yourself, I'd have to hold him to account as I must hold you. +Read--that." + +And Sandy, turning paler still, and quivering with mingled wrath and +shame, stood and read somewhat as follows: + + At Fort Minneconjou the situation is even worse. We have it from + indisputable authority that, so far from seeking to check the evil + among their men, officers of the highest rank freely mingle with + them at the garrison saloon, and urge and incite them to drink. Is + it to be wondered at, therefore, that the sickening scenes depicted + by our correspondent are of almost daily occurrence?--that young + lads, fresh from the pure influences of peaceful homes, the + mother's blessing still echoing in their ears, the mother's kiss + still warm upon their brows, are forced to witness such revolting + crimes, to hear such ribald oaths, and gradually, through the + example of officers seeking doubtless to increase the revenue + derived from the sale of the vile poisons they purchase at + wholesale from equally vile distillers, and in the hope of winning + the favor of these all-powerful superiors, to forget the teachings + of home, the prayers of parents and kindred, and to yield to the + tempter and become in turn slaves of the soul-destroying habit, + helpless victims of rum? How long, O Lord, how long will the + representatives of a free and enlightened people continue to + sanction such infamy? + +"That's one of a dozen editorials," said the colonel. "What most +concerns us is the one of a dozen letters on which it is based. Now, +look at this." And Sandy read. + + FORT MINNECONJOU, S. D., _May 30, 19--_. + + EDITOR BANNER OF LIGHT: + + Since My Last, of a Week Ago, No Less Than Seven Soldiers, Men Who, + Could They Be Divorced From Drink, Would Be Ornaments To The + Service of Their Country, Have Been Thrown Into the Garrison + Prison, Or Hauled Before Their Judges,--these Latter the Very Men + who advocate and encourage the sale of intoxicants,--to receive + their punishment for various crimes and misdemeanors committed + while under the influence of drink. And so it goes. They, the + helpless victims, must suffer the consequences of the crimes of + their officers, who are able to divide each month the profits of + their nefarious traffic, and go utterly unwhipped of justice. Only + two days ago, speaking of this matter after morning service, one of + our veteran soldiers said, with tears in his eyes, "If the + Christian people of this land only dreamed what sins were being + committed under cover of the devil-inspired Canteen, they would + rise up as one man and demand its extinction." But, as I said + before, so long as their most popular officers are permitted + unrebuked to meet them, and carouse with them, and thereby teach + and inspire the young and thoughtless soldier to drink, what can we + accomplish? The sights and sounds, the fearful scenes and frightful + curses to which I have been witness here, all due to the demon that + lurks within that protected rum hole opposite my window, would + appall a Christian community--which this is not. + +Sandy turned to the wrapper, his lips almost as gray as his young face. +It was the copy of a letter from the pastor of a church in a far Eastern +city, inclosing five newspaper clippings, and calling upon the Secretary +of War to order the instant court-martial and dismissal of the military +officers responsible for the abominable state of affairs existing at +Fort Minneconjou; which letter the Secretary had respectfully referred +to the Commanding General, Department of the Middle West, for +"investigation and report," which paper and inclosures that official had +respectfully referred to the commanding officer, Fort Minneconjou, with +similar demand. Stone had received, read, remarked and--sent for Sandy. + +An hour later, as Miss Sanford was sallying forth on "an errand of +mercy," as she had usually heard such missions described,--she was going +to the post hospital with a fresh supply of temperance tracts and a +small box of cherries,--she encountered her cousin at the door, and +something in his face made her own lose color. The Dwights' phaeton came +bowling down the road at the moment, Mrs. Dwight bowing and smiling +bewitchingly, Captain Foster gallantly lifting his derby, for, when +others could not wear it, Foster favored civilian dress. Miss Sanford +responded vaguely, Sandy not at all. Possibly he did not wish to see. +Possibly, said Priscilla to herself, it is _that_ that has so upset him. +She hoped, indeed, it might be that, and not that which, almost +instantly, she feared. He said no word at all, merely motioned to her to +turn back. Priscilla was accustomed to dominate, not to domination, but +she saw the look of the father in the stern young face before her. Uncle +Will she knew was the mildest of men in his dealings with women, until +fully aroused. Then Uncle Will became dangerous, and looked very much as +did Sandy now. The first question as he practically backed her into the +little army parlor was, "Is mother home?" + +Priscilla looked aloft. "In her room," she said. + +"Then I cannot--speak to you now," said Sandy. "Colonel Stone has called +me to account for one of the five inclosures to this paper. Before I +answer we've got to have, you and I, a clear understanding, and before +we can have that you must read these, and think over what other slanders +you have written." + +"I was going to the hospital," faltered Priscilla. "Sullivan's +worse--and Blenke's been so queer----" + +"The hospital, Sullivan, and Blenke can wait," said Sandy firmly, though +his voice was shaking. "Colonel Stone and I cannot. I shall say nothing +to mother of this as yet. Be ready to see me here at twelve o'clock. +Mother will not be home." + +So saying, and leaving in her hands the fateful packet, Ray turned +abruptly and left the house, Priscilla mounting slowly to her room. + +It still lacked an hour to noon, and she had time to read and to think. +It was past the hour at which Jimmy Dwight generally came running in to +say good-morning to Aunt Marion, but Jimmy had not come. Out on the +sunlit parade a dozen garrison boys and girls were in the midst of a +shouting, shrieking, frolicsome game of "Pull-Away," and Jimmy, usually +one of the blithest and merriest, was not there. Priscilla had noted +this when, from the little veranda of the lieutenant's quarters but a +few minutes before, she had been disapprovingly watching the sport--it +was so uninstructive, thought Priscilla. She could not, from the window +at the side, see much of the parade. Over against it, midway along the +barrack line of the northeast front, she could see the Exchange +building, could see Sandy more than halfway across, walking even more +swiftly, stiffly, than ever. She saw the few loungers and convalescents, +sunning themselves on the southern benches, rising to their feet at the +approach of the young officer. She could hear the tramp of the two +battalions and the majors' ringing commands, exercising, one on the +plain to the south where Dwight's squadron disported itself before +breakfast, the other out on the parade. She could hear faintly the fine +band of the infantry practicing at the assembly room adjoining the +Exchange. From the open window of Sandy's room, across the hall, she +could have seen the deserted veranda of the officers' club. Half an hour +hence it would be swarming with thirsty and perspiring gentlemen in +khaki just in from a lively drill. She felt rather than saw what was +said in that relentless paper on her dressing table, and she shrank from +the opening and reading. Sandy's face had told her what to expect. +Sandy's tongue had spoken of slanders--slanders that well she realized, +like curses, had come home to roost. She could not say, even to herself, +that what she had written was never meant for public eyes. She had +hoped--she had meant--it should be published, and that all good +Christian men and women, readers of the _Banner of Light_, should +approve and applaud her righteous efforts in behalf of so great and +glorious a cause. But it had not occurred to her that the _Banner_ +would ever find its way to so godless a community as this at +Minneconjou--where her statements might be challenged. She was stunned, +temporarily, by this most unlooked-for catastrophe. Uncle Will and Aunt +Marion had been her best friends and benefactors, and, even though duty +demanded that she should make clear to them how deeply they erred in +their attitude on so vital a question as that of the Canteen, she knew, +and well knew, that what she had written in the enthusiasm of her faith, +the intensity of her zeal, was far from warrantable by the cold facts in +the case. She followed Sandy with her eyes as he neared the +veranda,--saw the hands of the half dozen men go up in salute,--saw him +suddenly turn and, facing west, salute in turn, and then the colonel +marched into her field of vision, and the veteran of the Civil War and +the subaltern of a few skirmishes stood a moment in conference, then +strode away together toward the townward gate and the "auxiliary" +guard-house, the orderly following after. + +And then she heard her aunt's voice at her door. + +"Have you seen anything of Jimmy this morning, 'Cilla? It's strange he +has not come," and then cook from the kitchen appeared at the landing. +"That young man, mum, Mr. Blenke, would like to speak with Miss Sanford +a minute." And, leaving the papers on her bureau, glad of a respite, +Priscilla hastened down. + +Blenke's big mournful brown eyes had of late been darker than ever, and +dark circles had sunk in beneath them. Blenke's sallow face had taken on +an even sallower hue. "Nothing but indigestion and lack of exercise," +said the junior doctor, of whom Priscilla had made inquiries. "The man +spends his leisure hours moping or mooning around by himself. He ought +to be made to play ball, tennis, spar, ride, wrestle, or something. He's +a day-dreamer--maybe a pipe-dreamer," hazarded he, in conclusion, with a +queer look at Priscilla, who had flushed indignantly at the insinuation. +Blenke had sorrowfully and virtuously repelled that insinuation the +moment she brought it to his attention, but circumstances had been +combining to make her uneasy about her paragon. If not a "pipe-dreamer," +Blenke was becoming odd and nervous, queer, and twitchy. To-day he came +with a plea she had never heard him make before. Blenke, who never +drank, gambled, smoked, swore, or otherwise misconducted himself, had +come to tell Miss Sanford in the best of language that he had urgent +need of ten dollars and two days' pass. The pass his captain had signed +on the spot, but he wouldn't stand for the ten dollars. Blenke would +tell Miss Sanford all about it on his return, but now there was not a +moment to lose unless he lose also the train to Rapid City. Would Miss +Sanford help him? + +Priscilla had but ten dollars to her name, but swiftly she sped upstairs +to get it. The bugle was sounding the recall from drill as she entered +her little room, unlocked an upper drawer of the dressing-table, and +found the two bills in her slender _portemonnaie_. The batch of official +papers, with the portentous, red ink-lined, third indorsement uppermost, +still stared at her from the prim, white-covered top, and impatiently +she thrust it into the shallow pocket of the summer skirt and hastened +away downstairs. Blenke's eyes were eloquent with subdued sadness, +mystery, and gratitude as he received the money and turned away. The +children out in front on the parade, with shrill shouting and laughter, +had just gone racing away toward the eastward gate, and as their clamor +died in the distance Priscilla's quick ear caught the sound of sobbing +and a piteous wail for help. + +Ever sympathetic with those in distress, she hurried through the +hallway, out through the gate and there, crouched at the foot of the +little shade tree at the edge of the parade, with blood streaming +through the clutching fingers from a slashing cut at the edge of the +left eye, was little George Thornton, son of a junior officer of +infantry. Priscilla in an instant was bending over him. + +"What is it, Georgie, dear? Oh, how _did_ you get so cruel a hurt?" + +Sobs and screams were at first the only answer. Clasping her kerchief to +the wound with her right hand, and leading the little fellow, half +running, with the left, she guided him homeward, where presently a badly +frightened brace of women, mother and housemaid, busily hindered her +skilled fingers in bathing and bandaging the cut. It was not long before +the bleeding was stanched, the patient soothed and comforted and the +maid had gone for the doctor. Meanwhile the mother, too, had made her +demand, "Who--who could have done this?" And to every such query there +was but one answer, "Jimmy Dwight." + +"Surely not on purpose!" ventured Priscilla, in the interest of peace, +truth, and justice, only to receive with vehement emphasis the +to-be-expected answer of the stung, angered, and irresponsible child. + +"He _did_, I tell you! We were racin', an'--an' when I was gettin' past +him, he just whacked me with all his might." + +The boys had all disappeared, when presently Priscilla again came forth, +homeward bound. They had swarmed over to the stables, where some troop +horses had broken away from their herd, and were having a hilarious time +of it, but one or two little girls were slowly returning, and to the +foremost of these Priscilla addressed herself for information. Was Jimmy +Dwight with the other boys? Yes, he had only come out a few minutes ago. +Had they seen how Georgie Thornton was hurt? They had not. _They_ had +started with the foremost, and George and Jimmy had run back after a +ball, and so got behind. But presently came Kitty Blair, and Kitty _had_ +seen. Tiring of the chase she had dropped out as the last boys went +bounding by her, and Jimmy Dwight was swinging his jacket, and he just +slashed Georgie Thornton right in the face with it. Yes, she was sure. +Millie Cross had seen it, too, and had run home to tell her mother. + +Thoughtfully, with downcast eyes, Priscilla retraced her steps. Orderly +and mess call were sounding now, and with a start she remembered that +this was the moment set by Sandy for her explanation as to the clipping, +and, glancing up in sudden fright, she found standing at the doorway, +the accusing papers in hand, not her cousin, but her cousin's mother, +her hostess and her benefactress--Marion Ray. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +AN INVITATION--TO GO + + +Between early morning drills and the fact that Jimmy was now quite big +and old enough to look after himself, the father's supervision of the +morning tub, rub, and toilet had ceased, and there was but time for a +hug and a word before the major swallowed his solitary cup of coffee, +swung into saddle, and trotted away. On this eventful morning he had +kept his men at their work rather longer than usual and to no good +purpose. In common with the rest of the garrison, Dwight had heard the +fate of the Canteen, and heard it without remark. An abstemious man, he +preferred that others should be the same, but other far more pressing +matters were uppermost in his mind; matters here at Minneconjou--matters +in far-away Mexico, where an importunate father-in-law, after making +ducks and drakes of the thousands liberally supplied him, was now +demanding more, or "all would be lost." Then it transpired that a lawyer +in town had been retained, by certain of that father-in-law's creditors, +to press Major Dwight for payment of the same, or with evidence of +fraudulent doings on part of Mr. Farrell. To meet this lawyer, Dwight +had ridden to town right after drill, and up to noon had not returned. +Foster and Mrs. Dwight, driving thither in the pretty phaeton, with the +pygmy tiger, were surprised, possibly disconcerted--to see his orderly +with the two horses patiently waiting in front of the office. Possibly +that had something to do with their return soon after twelve o'clock. +Possibly there was design in Foster's selection of that hour of the day +to visit the office of the post Exchange, still in active operation +along all its accustomed lines, awaiting official orders, so far as +comforting fluids were concerned, to close. At all events, there were no +witnesses to a scene,--and but few to certain very audible words,--that +became memorable in the chronicles of Fort Minneconjou from that day +forth. + +It will be remembered that Priscilla saw the meeting between the post +commander and his Exchange officer, and their move in company toward the +townward gate. But at that distance it was not to be expected that she +could see the deep concern in the colonel's face or hear anything of the +conversation that passed between them. It was barely an hour since their +brief interview at the office. The colonel then looked solemn enough, +but now the concern and smoldering wrath in his deep-set eyes exceeded +anything his adjutant had ever seen or that Sandy Ray deemed possible in +a soldier usually so placid and philosophical. + +"Come with me, Mr. Ray," said Stone, in the hearing of the listening +men. "There's a matter I want to talk over." Then, once fairly out of +earshot, and after a glance to see that his orderly was well to the +rear, "Sandy, were you at your office yesterday morning?" + +"No, sir; I was at church." + +"Ah, yes. I should have known. _I_ used to go, too, while I had a +mother," sighed the colonel. "But that was very long ago." Then, with +sudden energy, "You wouldn't know whether--er--Captain Foster had been +over here at the Exchange--writing letters? Ah--er--who would?" + +"Sergeant Bates, sir, probably." + +"It's a bit of business I don't like, Sandy. Nobody but my adjutant +knows, though some may guess, and I'm going to tell you because----" + +"I wish you _wouldn't_, sir. I--own I don't like Captain Foster," was +the blunt interruption. + +"I've got to, lad, for I may have to act! But it was your father who +spake there, and you have known Foster longer and perhaps better than +any man here--Major Dwight possibly excepted. There are reasons why I +_can't_ ask Dwight." + +"Then, Colonel," and with face still graver the young officer turned +appealingly to his commander, "all the more I ask you--don't ask me." + +"See here, Ray," said the colonel, halting short. "No, keep back, +orderly, I don't want you!" he added with impatient wave of the hand. +"There's a piece of devilment going on at this post that it's my +business to stop before it gets too late. Pray God it isn't too late +_yet_! That man has no business here as Dwight's guest. He has no +business here at all. He isn't straight. He tells everybody he can't +imagine where his orders have gone, and that he's been wiring everywhere +to find them. This morning I find that he's lying. Yesterday he left +Dwight's house to write letters at the Club, as he said, and send more +dispatches. He stayed there only about fifteen minutes, until church was +fairly started. Then he said he wanted some keg beer which can't be had +at the Club, and so he left, saying he'd go to the Canteen and finish +the beer and his letters at your desk. That's almost the last they saw +of him, but before eleven he went through the east gate and down to old +Sergeant Sweeny's on the south flats. Sweeny served with him seven years +ago, and he's laid up with rheumatism. The second relief started just at +eleven, and the first problem the recruit on No. 4 had to deal with, +before the relief that left him was fairly out of sight, was what to do +with a gentleman, in civilian dress who was crossing his post. The +sentry stopped him, and the stranger said: 'I'm Captain Foster, staying +at Major Dwight's,' and went on in the back way. If Sweeny confirms this +story I shall send for Captain Foster and--until this is settled never +mind about that other matter. Er--have you seen Miss Sanford?" + +"Yes, sir," answered Ray, half choking, "and--she was to answer me fully +at twelve o'clock." + +"Well--er--I may be able to see Sergeant Bates and perhaps you again. I +won't take you farther. Wait for me at your desk, will you?" + +A distant horseman, trotting swiftly homeward, splashed through the ford +at the moment; but long before he reached the gate the colonel had gone +on through upon his regular daily tramp, making the rounds of the big +wide-spreading post. The young officer, silent and pale, had gone back +to his office. The sentry at the gate presented arms as the tall +haggard-looking rider came trotting in, sitting very erect and squarely +down in the saddle. At the parting of the roads he suddenly reined in +and dismounted. "Take him to the stables and get your dinner, Gribble," +said he to the trumpeter boy. "I shall not ride again to-day." Then, +with grave, anxious, downcast face, went striding up the southward line +to his quarters at the farther end--the quarters that had been the +Rays'. + +On the gallery of Lieutenant Thornton's were two or three young army +wives and mothers, who ceased chatting and somewhat curiously studied +the coming officer. In brief, absent-minded fashion he lifted his cap +and passed them by. Young Dr. Wallen was just coming forth and calling +cheerily to them. "Oh, he'll do very nicely now. Miss Sanford handled +him admirably;" then, "Oh, beg a thousand pardons, Major," as he bumped +sideways into the tall soldier passing by. + +"Who's hurt?" asked Dwight with scant interest. + +"Why--er--Georgie Thornton got a little--er--gash playing. His mother +was scared a bit, and I was coming that way and she called me in. The +eye isn't injured." + +"Why--how'd it happen?" + +"Oh, er--well, I don't know, exactly," answered Wallen, in deep +confusion. "Some boy scrap--mishap--accident, probably, +and--er--good-day," he finished lamely, as he darted off. + +Queer, thought Dwight. Is everybody seeking to avoid me? He only vaguely +heard, and for the moment gave little heed to, the angry words that +followed him from the open doorway. "Ask your boy how it happened, Major +Dwight," for the mother was suffering still, and some natures, +suffering, _will_ spit and scratch. Not then, but just a little later, +as Jimmy came bounding gladly to meet him and to seize his hand, did +Dwight remember Mrs. Thornton's words, and looking down into the joyous, +beaming, flushing face, with the big, wide-open, violet eyes, the father +questioned: + +"What's this about Georgie Thornton? How was he cut?" + +"Georgie? Cut? Why, daddy, I didn't know it. Is he hurt?" + +"You don't, Jim? Why, they told me to ask you, as though _you_ would +know. Weren't you with him?" + +"Why, yes, daddy. I--I got out late," and here the young face began to +cloud. "And then--such fun!" and the laughter once more came bubbling +joyously from his happy heart. "Some 'B' Troop horses got loose, and we +all ran to see the round-up, and we were hinder-most at the start, +Georgie and I, but _I_ caught 'em, and got there with the foremost, an' +I guess he got tired and went home because we ran away from him, +really." + +But already the father's attention was diverted. His eyes were following +Stanley Foster, who, dancing lightly down the steps, waved his hand with +exuberant cordiality to the pair as he crossed the road and struck out +over the parade. + +"When that fellow begins putting his hand on my shoulder or patting my +back or calling me old chap I know he's playing to 'do' me some way," +once said a brother officer of Foster's, and Sandy Ray was thinking of +it when three minutes later Foster came bounding breezily in, +confidence, cordiality, and jovial good-fellowship beaming from his +well-groomed visage: + +"Sandy, old boy, lend me a horse this afternoon, will you?" + +Ray was alone at his desk. The bare little army office, with its few +maps and ornamental calendars adorning the unpapered walls, its +barrack-built table and chairs, its stacks of letter-files, boxes and +tins of samples, was an uninviting place at best, yet had never hitherto +appeared inhospitable. Even under the management of the still +half-crippled cavalryman, himself an abstainer from the cup that +sometimes cheers, and a partaker of a cup that always saddens, there had +ever been frank and cordial greeting for visiting comrades, followed +usually by invitation to taste the good cheer of the Canteen and +suggest, if possible, additional improvement. But it was a lack-luster +eye that turned on the entering officer this day. Sergeant Bates had but +just left the room after having, in answer to question, briefly stated +that no one but Captain Foster had visited the lieutenant's office +during church time Sunday. The captain had merely tasted the beer, +glanced about him, and then departed. No, not the way he came, the +parade side. The captain had looked into the reading-room and through +the billiard-room, which latter was closed on account of the day, and +had strolled out through the rear doorway, a short cut to the east gate. +That, then, seemed to complete the chain of evidence described by the +colonel, and the heart of Sandy Ray was seething when Foster bustled in, +while his voice, when presently there came reply, was as icily cold. All +the same he turned in his revolving chair and looked his visitor +straight in the eye, as he arose. + +"What do you want him for?" + +Foster flushed. He read unerringly the intense dislike in the young +officer's gaze, but he dissembled: + +"To ride, 'bout four o'clock," was the matter-of-course reply. + +"Major Dwight said both his horses were at your disposal. He's only had +one out to-day. Is Mrs. Dwight going to ride the other?" + +Foster's eyelids shut to a narrow slit. His mustache began to bristle at +the ends. Now the red was flitting and his face was turning sallow. + +"While I consider that none of your business, Mr. Ray--yes!" + +"Then," said Sandy, his cheek white, his lips set, his eyes aflame, "you +can't have mine." + +The low hum of voices, the gurgle of laughter drifting through the +stove-pipe hole and through the crevices of the pine partition from the +lounging-room beyond, seemed to die away almost at the moment. Ray had +hardly uplifted his voice. For an instant a silence fell on the facing +pair in the Exchange office--the one rather tall, fair, stylishly garbed +in the latest civilian fashion; the other short, slender, trimly built, +with dark curling hair and snapping black-brown eyes; both men trembling +now, but neither dropping an eyelid. Then with clinching fist and fiery +eyes the elder took a step forward. He was throwing off the mask. He was +speaking angrily, audibly: + +"By Heaven, Ray, if I didn't happen to know that you are, or had been, +madly in love with Mrs. Dwight, I--I'd consider that an insult." + +"Well," came the ready response, "why not so consider it--anyhow?" + +In an instant the larger, heavier, stronger man had hurled himself on +the slender junior and, one sinewy hand on the back of the neck, the +other at the throat, Foster shook him furiously--but only for a second. +No sooner did Ray feel himself seized than he "let go" with both fists, +and both fists found their mark on Foster's face--one swing, the right, +stinging him on the unguarded jaw. Two more followed in the flash of a +second, and Foster, stunned and amazed, dropped his hold and for a +second recoiled. In blind fury the next moment he rushed again, Ray +springing lightly aside, whirling and sending his right with electric +snap square to the already smarting jowl--a blow that staggered yet did +not fell the stronger man, the man who even in his rage managed +partially, at least, to recover his wits, for as he straightened up he +held forth protesting hand and panted: "Stop! Not now. They hear us, and +by the God that made me you'll hear from me. You dare to strike--your +superior officer!" + +"Superior be damned!" shouted Ray, raging for battle and reckless of +consequence. "You rank me two grades on the roster, but you're miles +behind as a man. Come again, if you dare, you cad!" And like a young +bantam the army-bred lad was dancing eagerly about, forgetful of his +lameness and watching like a cat his bulky antagonist. + +"Not here, I say, nor with blackguard weapons you seem to know how to +handle; but--next time we meet, young man--next time!" + +"Next time, this time, _any_ time!" shouted Ray. "And mind you, you +villain, make your will before you meet me!" + +"And meantime, Captain Foster," came the stern commanding words from the +threshold, where suddenly stood the colonel, "pack your belongings and +quit the post. There, sir," and significantly he shook an open telegram, +"there, sir, are your orders." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A GATHERING STORM + + +Minneconjou that afternoon was the vortex of a revolving storm of +sensation, speculation, and excitement. The few men at the Club spoke +with bated breath and shrugging shoulders, with hands thrust deep in +side pockets and with occasional semi-hysterical giggle. Men at the +Canteen retailed in whispers, and with possibly unconscious +editorialisms of their own, the story of the encounter at the office as +heard through the partition in their own premises. Women along the line +of officers' quarters and women among the humbler homes of the married +soldiers went flitting from door to door gathering in wide-eyed, +gossiping groups, + + "For the colonel's lady and Judy O'Grady + Are sisters under their skins." + +There were three women, however, prominent in this chronicle and others +not individually mentioned, who kept within doors and bounds until the +sun was well down behind the Sagamore and the line was formed for +parade. Even then Mrs. Dwight did not appear, but Mrs. Ray sat for a +while with Sandy on the little veranda, and a very red-eyed Priscilla +went forth, as she said, for needed exercise. Just what had passed +between her aunt and herself was never referred to outside of the +family. Mrs. Ray, it seems, had also heard the childish wail of +distress, had come down to inquire the cause, but not until Priscilla +had succeeded in leading the little sufferer home. Then in the hall, +probably, Marion had picked up the official batch of papers; thought it +something of Sandy's, for open official wrappers of newspaper clippings +are not privileged communications and he who runs upon them may read. +Presumably Mrs. Ray had read, and, if so, the meekest, mildest of women +in her place would have had a rod in pickle for Priscilla when that +energetic maiden returned. It had at least one point in favor of Sandy. +It relieved him from the necessity of "interviewing" his cousin. But for +the life of him Sandy Ray could not be kind or cordial to Priscilla for +many a day. She wrote to him, at her aunt's demand, a letter to be shown +to the colonel commanding, and a portion of this letter appeared in his +returned indorsement. She admitted that the only instance of officers +"carousing" with and tempting the men to drink was when Uncle Will took +her to see the Canteen and sipped his glass of Rhenish when the +sergeants drank his health. "But," was the ingenuous argument, "if Uncle +Will, who is so abstemious and conscientious, could do that much, I +naturally reasoned that others whom I knew to be neither abstemious nor, +in such matters conscientious, would do infinitely more, and therefore +considered my statement justifiable in view of the vital importance of +the matter under discussion." As to the other points in her allegation, +Priscilla had no better or broader foundation. It was one of those +instances of "justifiable vericide" wherein many a worthy woman, and +man, has soothed a protesting conscience with "the end justifies the +means." + +But Priscilla had to promise also to write full confession to the +_Banner of Light_, and it was sent registered. Aunt Marion saw to that; +and duly received but never, even in part, was it published--that would +be doing violence to editorial ethics. + +At three o'clock that afternoon the colonel's adjutant had called +ceremoniously at the quarters of Major Dwight, and at four o'clock the +colonel's ambulance had followed. Half a thousand eyes, probably, +followed that official vehicle as it whirled away townward, a raging +captain of cavalry being the sole occupant of the interior, the driver +and an orderly conversing in low tones at the front. Major Dwight had +come forth with his guest, escorted him down the steps to the waiting +wagon, had ostentatiously shaken hands with him twice--thrice; had even +held him in conversation as though reluctant to part, and had then gone +stalking over to the colonel's quarters with twitching lips and fingers +to demand an explanation of this summary expulsion of his guest. If +Captain Foster was to be ordered off the post because of a personal +encounter with Lieutenant Ray, what was to be done with Mr. Ray? was +what the major wished to know, and Colonel Stone, instead of snubbing, +censuring or sending him back in arrest, went halfway down the steps to +meet him, took him by the hand and said, "I've been expecting you, +major, and have much to tell you," beckoned the adjutant to follow and +led on into an inner room. The post surgeon was also there, by +invitation. + +"Major Dwight," said Stone, "I have asked these gentlemen to be present +as witnesses to what I have to tell you, and if there's any man of your +own corps you'd like to have present, my orderly will fetch him at once. +No? Then I'll proceed. I assume you wish to know why Captain Foster was +formally invited to proceed on his way this afternoon. You fancy, I +believe, and he possibly--probably--told you, it was for attacking +Lieutenant Ray at the Canteen. It was not. There are several reasons, +and the moment I have told you enough I wish you to say stop. I do not +like your fr--your guest, but I desire to say no more at his expense +than may be absolutely necessary. Do you understand?" + +Dwight bowed gravely. "I think I do, sir," was his answer, and the party +settled into chairs and for the moment into silence. + +Then Stone began again: + +"When Captain Foster arrived here he took occasion to tell me he had +just dropped in for a day or two--that he was expecting his orders any +moment. Connor, lieutenant-colonel commanding the --th, is a classmate +of mine, and in writing me two weeks ago he spoke of the shortage of +officers. He said that Foster's application for a month's delay had been +negatived by him and that he was then expecting him any moment. Thursday +last came another letter. Short as he was of officers, three of his best +had been taken away for court-martial duty. Foster's troop was commanded +by a sergeant, and going to seed. Foster was apparently lost, for a copy +of his order to report without delay had been there a week. His adjutant +had wired to Foster's address and got no answer. That evening, as it +happened, I met Foster again, and he went out of his way to tell me he +couldn't imagine what had become of his orders. He had left directions +with his home people to open everything that came and wire him here at +once, and nothing had come, at least to him. This was queer. Friday he +repeated it. That afternoon at the telegraph office in town the operator +asked me if a Captain Foster was at the post. Three messages had come +for him, two calling for reply, and he had sent by wire, at least, no +answer. Two, said the operator, were from New York, saying important +orders were there, and what should they do with them? Now, I don't like +double dealing, Dwight. I at once wired Connor that his lost captain was +found--here--claiming to be without orders. Connor probably wired the +War Department, and on Monday noon came this." Saying which, the colonel +took from his desk and held forth a telegram, which Dwight solemnly +received and read, then sat one moment in silence. It was from the War +Department, Washington, and as follows: + + COMMANDING OFFICER, + + Fort Minneconjou. + + If Captain Stanley Foster, --th Cavalry, is still at your post + notify him that his orders were sent June ---- to his address, New + York City. Secwar directs that he proceed at once to Fort Wister + and report to his regimental commander for duty. Acknowledge + receipt and report action. + +"Secwar" being the official telegraphic abbreviation for Secretary of +War, that order was beyond appeal. Without a word Dwight carefully +refolded the message, arose, and handed it to the post commander. Then, +after a moment's pause, straightening up, he spoke. + +"I have been wrong, sir, and I--beg your pardon. I, too, had been led to +suppose he was awaiting orders. Moreover, he led me to suppose his +virtual expulsion was due to his resenting insulting language from +Lieutenant Ray. I--will you?--have I your permission, sir, to be absent +from parade and the post this evening?" + +The surgeon bent quickly forward, his eyes on Stone. The colonel +started, faltered, then, pulling himself together, arose, once more +extended his hand, which Dwight took mechanically, and then, after a +moment's reflection, spoke: + +"Major Dwight, I have the highest respect for you as a soldier and as a +man, but I ask you to withdraw that request. Frankly, sir, it is my +desire that you do not quit the post--to-night." + +A moment later when the door had closed upon the tall, spare, almost +angular form, the colonel mopped his brow and said: "If I let that man +go he'll follow Foster to the station and throttle him--he so hates a +liar and a lie." + +"I thought Foster got away in time for the Flyer," said the doctor, +after a pause. He had been intently watching Dwight's every move and +gesture. + +"In plenty of time," answered the colonel, "though he planned it +otherwise, and don't know it even now. He was scheming to miss to-day's +Overland and so wait until to-morrow, but I sent the adjutant, with a +man to help him pack, and the word that the ambulance would call for him +at four. He _could_ decline the help, but he couldn't the ambulance. +Now, as luck would have it, they wire me that the Flyer's five hours +late." + +"If that's the case at Valentine," said the adjutant, "she'll be six +behind by the time she strikes Minneconjou." + +"Then," said Dr. Waring, "we may not have seen the last of Stanley +Foster. Is Ray, too, confined to the post?" + +"No," said the colonel, "I hadn't thought about that at all." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +DEEPER IN THE TOILS + + +Dress parade went off that evening in somewhat perfunctory fashion. Even +the alert and soldierly adjutant had a preoccupied air. Stone rejoiced +in his three battalions, as they really were--the cavalry squadron +consisting, like the infantry units, of four companies--and ordinarily +loved to hold them quite a while at the manual, and later for the march +past. This evening he ordered but a few casual shifts and dispensed +entirely with the review. Almost every piazza had its little group of +spectators. The walk was lined with visitors, the roadway with vehicles +from town, and Stone had never seemed to notice them. What he did notice +was that Dwight, standing stark and alone in front of the center of his +squadron, began swaying before the sergeant's reports were rendered, and +was obviously faint and ill. It was on his account entirely that Stone +curtailed the stately ceremony, and thereby disappointed spectators. He +took the major by the arm and walked with him to his door and left him +there with promise to send the surgeon without delay. Dwight declared +the doctor unnecessary, but thanked most earnestly his commanding +officer. A pert young woman in cap and ribbons met them at the threshold +with the information that Madame had partaken of a _tisane_ and begged +that she might not be intruded upon, as it was Dr. Wallen's mandate that +she should sleep, if a possible thing. Stone looked queerly, sharply, at +her and turned away. The major made no reply to her remarks, but desired +that Master James be sent to him as soon as he returned. It seems that +Jimmy had accompanied Sergeant French, a keen angler, to a trout stream +up in the Sagamore Range early in the afternoon. It might be late before +they returned. "Lucky thing, that!" thought the colonel, as he hastened +homeward to lay aside his full uniform, the orderly, meantime, speeding +over to the post surgeon's. + +"What do you make of him?" asked the colonel, an hour later, as the +senior medical officer came lumbering up the steps. + +"He seems, physically, all right now," was the answer. "There is no +functional disorder. He's sound as a dollar as far as our tests can +determine, but Dwight has been under a strain, as we know, and +then--there's that Luzon sunstroke. Any time, almost, that may lead to +such symptoms as you noted at parade." + +"Lucky Dwight isn't a drinking man," said Stone grimly. "There won't be +any more _Banner of Light_ descriptions of our depravity for a time, +anyhow; but--fancy the story _that_ would make in expert hands--and a +Prohibition sheet. God grant no worse scandal come to us," he added +piously, and in guarded tone, as the surgeon took his leave. + +It was barely nine o'clock when, some garrison callers having departed, +Mrs. Stone picked up a light wrap and said she believed she would stroll +down the line and see Mrs. Ray. Everybody by this time had heard of the +fracas at the office of the post Exchange at noonday, and the few who +had caught sight of the left side of Foster's face bore testimony to the +fact that Sandy Ray had lost little, if any, of one science he picked up +at the Point. Mrs. Ray would surely be feeling anxious and distressed, +said Mrs. Stone, even though everyone assured her, in manner if not in +words, that public sympathy was all with Sandy. + +"I believe I'll go, too," said Stone. "I'm feeling woozy to-night." So, +arm in arm, this Darby and Joan of the frontier betook themselves down +the row, past many an open casement and doorway, softly lighted, with +whispering couples in the shadows and laughing, chatting groups upon the +steps, with the tinkle of mandolin and guitar to mingle with the soft +murmur of voices, despite many a hospitable bid to "Come and join us," +the couple kept sturdily on and found, just as they expected, that other +sympathetic souls had been before them, that Mrs. Ray was still holding +quite a reception, Priscilla and Sandy being conspicuous by their +absence, Priscilla having retired with a throbbing headache, Sandy, +still tingling and nervous, having sent for his horse but a short time +before and gone for a ride. They stayed quite a while, did the Stones, +and Mrs. Ray seemed gladdened and comforted by their coming. It meant so +much just then. Indeed, the bugles were sounding the ten o'clock call +when finally they took their leave, and Sandy had not returned. True, he +had then been gone little over an hour, and he could ride but slowly, +though he declared he had neither strained a muscle nor started anew the +trouble in the old wound. Perhaps it was too soon to be sure, but at all +events a ride, a gentle amble on a nimble, easy horse over the elastic +turf in the soft, summer moonlight would soothe and quiet him more than +anything else, so, wisely, Marion had interposed no objection. + +Taps sounded and the lights were lowered in the barracks and the +sentries called off half-past ten o'clock, and still there had come no +sign of the westbound Flyer, far over the southward waves of prairie, +slowly breasting the long upgrade to the Pass. The big compound engine +of the Midland Pacific had a deep-toned, melodious, flute-like signal, +utterly different to the ear-piercing shriek of the old-fashioned +railway whistle, and on still evenings the sharp, rhythmical beat of the +exhaust, the steady rumble of the heavy Pullmans, and the occasional +blast, rich and mellow, of the misnamed whistle could be followed +westward for many a mile, until at last the echoes of the signal died +away among the cliffs and caņons of the frowning Sagamore. + +Some distance out across the rolling prairie, a mile or more beyond the +Minneconjou, was the siding of a deserted station, once built there by +the quartermaster's department with the idea of making a much shorter +haul for supplies than that afforded by the broad and fairly level road +from town. The wear and tear on mules, harness and running gear +consequent upon the up-hill and down-dale character of the road, and the +unprecedented volume of blasphemy supposedly necessary to successful +fording of the Minneconjou, within earshot of the pious-minded at the +post, led to eventual abandonment of that route in favor of the far +longer but undeniably safer line to Silver Hill. It was a fine sight on +clear evenings to see the long trail of electric lights gleaming white +against the darkness, come rounding a distant bluff to the east, and +then, skirting for a mile or so the south bank of the Minneconjou, go +alternately burrowing and bridging the prairie divides and hollows until +finally lost behind the sharp spur known as Two-Mile Ridge. The Flyer +had a way of waiting at Omaha for the last of the express trains of five +great railways bringing their loads from Chicago and St. Louis, all +scheduled to reach Council Bluffs about the same hour, and some one or +more of them being frequently behind. The Midland could make up no time +between the Missouri and the Minneconjou, so light was the roadbed, so +heavy the traffic, so many the stops. It was not until beyond the +Sagamore the Flyer began to deserve its name. Due at Silver Hill this +year of which we write as early as 5:30, the Flyer not infrequently +stopped for supper as late as eleven, and not until eleven this night +did the sentry on the southward front hear the big compound tooting for +the crossings at Bonner's Bluff, and see the long line of electrics come +gleaming into view far down the eastward valley. + +Private O'Shea, sentry on No. 3, overlooking the flats whereon stood the +stables, was straining his ears to catch the expected call of eleven +o'clock from No. 2, and watching the distant trail of lights, and was +able to say next morning that the Flyer was just shoving its nose behind +Two-Mile Ridge as the second call, that of eleven o'clock, started +round. The moon in its first quarter, though bright and clear, was then +dipping low in the west and objects were by no means as distinct as they +had been when he came on post soon after nine and saw Lieutenant Ray set +forth, mounted, up the Minneconjou. O'Shea remembered that Hogan, who +took care of the lieutenant's horse, had come back across his post, and +they had had a brief talk about him, Hogan saying the lieutenant wasn't +half satisfied with having blackened the eyes of a bigger man. "He was +that savage and snappy he rowed me for keeping him so long waiting, +when, dear knows, he couldn't have stood at the back gate ten minutes." +O'Shea owned that he and Hogan, "all the fellers, for that matter," had +wished their little bantam of a canteen officer could have had two +minutes more at "the big feller." Foster had no friends among the +enlisted men at the fort. It presently became a question whether or no +he had not enemies. Hogan was just saying the lieutenant told him not to +sit up for him when they became aware of someone approaching, heard the +rattle of a sword, and saw the officer of the guard barely forty yards +away, whereat Hogan skipped for the stables. Then came the next +important point in O'Shea's statement. Just as the tail lights of the +big train disappeared behind the ridge he heard the sudden single blast +of the whistle sounding the old-time signal "down-brakes," noted the +instant change from the loud, pulsing exhaust to the scream of escaping +steam, heard even the squeal and grind of the tightly clamped wheels as +the Flyer slowed down to a standstill. He was wondering what had +happened when the third relief came round and Private Schmitz took his +place on post, as subsequently he replaced O'Shea on the stand. + +Schmitz was an honest Teuton, but by no means brilliant. Schmitz told a +straightforward tale, and one that had strange and significant bearing +on the case that became presently of paramount interest at Minneconjou. +Schmitz said that he heard the train going on westward after the relief +had disappeared, and that, just after the call of 11:30, he walked way +up to the far end of his post, the west end, came slowly back, and when +about in rear of Lieutenant Ray's quarters he heard a sort of cough down +the slope toward the stables and saw a dark form approaching. He +challenged in low tone, as he had been taught. The answer was, "Officer +of the post," and before he could think how to say, "Advance and be +recognized," the officer said, "Lieutenant Ray, sentry," and went on +without stopping. When asked to describe the officer, Schmitz said the +moon was then "owudt" and it was pretty dark, but it was a "leetle, +schmall yentleman. He walk and talk and look yust like Lieutenant Ray +effrey day does." Questioned as to the dress, he said the lieutenant +wore his "kempyne hat bulled down ofer his eyes--his blue blouse mid +shoulder straps, poots unt bants." He added that, though the officer +hadn't come nearer him than fifteen feet, if it wasn't Lieutenant Ray, +who was it? Schmitz stood pat on this proposition, and that was all that +could be elicited from him, except that the Herr Lieutenant had gone +through the back gate to his quarters. + +About the same hour the telephone in the quartermaster's office, the +only telephone the United States would permit or, at least, pay for at +the post, set up a sharp ringing, that finally roused from his heavy +slumber a veteran employee serving as clerk. Shuffling to the instrument +in his slippers, the clerk desired to be informed what in sheol Silver +Hill wanted waking people that hour of the night? The reply was a +question. The Argenta's livery stableman wished to know if anything had +been seen of a horse and buggy of his at the fort. A gent had hired one +just about dark, said he, a gent who said he'd be back about ten, and +who hadn't come. The gent had had supper in his room at the Argenta and +had ordered his traps sent to the railway station to meet the Flyer. +They said at the hotel office that he was a Captain Foster, whereat the +clerk became interested, notified the stableman that he would make +immediate inquiry at the guard-house, and did, and the guard said that +neither Foster nor his buggy had been seen about the post. The clerk was +beginning to dribble this through the 'phone, when he was suddenly cut +off by the counter announcement: "Oh, it's all right! The rig's just +back. Cap took the Flyer west and sent a boy home with it. Never even +got change for the ten dollars he deposited." + +But when mine host of the Argenta came back from seeing the Flyer off +for the west he, too, had questions to ask as to Foster. Did the office +clerk see anything of him? Nothing. "Queer," said Boniface, "we gave his +hand baggage to the Pullman porter, as directed, but his trunk is there +yet. Reckon I'll have to wire after him and tell the conductor to send +them things back by No. 5." + +And this, before he went to bed, the landlord proceeded to do, but no +Captain Foster appeared during the night to claim the trunk or +remonstrate about the luggage; nor came there any answer to the dispatch +to the Flyer until the following morning, when there was handed the +proprietor a slip somewhat as follows: + + Man calling himself Captain Foster put aboard last night at Fort + Siding, slugged and robbed. Taking him on to Wister. Physician in + charge. Better notify police. + +This was about eight o'clock, at which time the old guard was cleaning +up about the guard-house and the companies detailed for the new were +assembling in front of their quarters, and the officer of the guard, a +young lieutenant recently joined from civil life, new to his trade and +strange to the traditions of the army, was cross-questioning a reluctant +corporal about an unauthorized item of equipment found tucked into his +cartridge belt when the guard paraded at reveille--an officer's gauntlet +of the style worn in the cavalry a year before this time. The corporal +explained that it had been picked up by No. 3 just before his relief was +taken off post at 5:15, that it had been handed him, the corporal, just +before sentry's shout of "Turn out the guard!" at the approach of the +officer of the day, and he had stowed it there for want of a better +place and before he had had time to examine it. + +But No. 3, it seems, had _had_ time to examine, and had told some of his +mates of his discovery. They had gone to Corporal Clancy to see for +themselves, and had been told to go about their business, which led to +more talk that finally reached the lieutenant's ears. Clancy had had a +clatter with the sergeant and had been refused permission to go to his +quarters anywhere, for a strange story was flitting about the post +concerning two or three men of "B" Troop who had been out late the +previous night, had got liquor over at a vile resort far across the +Minneconjou, and a little southwest of town, and had had a sanguinary +fight of some kind, for Sullivan was badly cut and Connelly had a nasty +eye, and there was something black and ugly back of it they were trying +to hide, unless veteran sergeants were in error; and finally the +sergeant of the guard told the lieutenant of the story and said he +believed Corporal Clancy was secreting evidence that might be of value, +whereupon Clancy was ordered into the presence and told to produce that +gauntlet. + +But neither lieutenant nor sergeant dreamed of what was before them when +Clancy at last reluctantly complied, dragging from beneath his blouse +what had been a dainty bit of military finery, a soft white gauntlet, +that bore within the cuff the inscription, "Sanford Ray," and that +without was soaked and stained with blood. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +WHAT THE WOMEN TOLD THE MAJOR + + +It was another lovely summer morning, sweet, moist and still. The +squadron had been out as usual, but the drill had been anything but +snappy or spirited. Every officer knew, and most men decided, that +something was weighing heavily on the major's mind, for, though he +labored conscientiously through his duties, comments and corrections +were few, and, to the surprise of all, he even dismissed the troops some +few minutes before the sounding of the recall. Captain Washburn looked +back over his shoulder at the tall, spare, sinewy figure riding slowly, +even dejectedly, with downcast eyes and troubled visage, back toward the +big quarters at the end of the row, and shook his own head as he +marveled what would be the outcome of all this foreboding. Minneconjou +had breathed freer, for all its subdued chatter, over the elimination of +Captain Foster from the column of probabilities. Minneconjou had seen +little of the lovely Mrs. Dwight of late, for though she appeared at +every dance, several dinners and on many a drive, few women had speech +with her, thanks to Foster's incessant supervision, and, looking at +another woman without unlimited conversation is not "seeing" her as +understood in feminine society. Since Foster's departure the previous +day only the doctor and the maid had been admitted to the presence of +Mrs. Dwight, though there had been callers with "kind inquiries." It was +now time for guard-mounting and the busy routine of another day. One +after another prettily gowned matrons and maids began to appear on the +verandas and flit from door to door, and the band marched forth and took +its station on the parade and the details were being inspected by the +sergeants in front of their quarters, while, well over toward the west +end of the big quadrilateral, a dozen army-bred lads of various ages, +from fourteen down to five, were gleefully surrounding a pair of Indian +ponies recently bought for the doctor's twin boys. Prominent in the +group, Jimmy Dwight, ever a prime favorite, was bestriding the more +promising of the pair, a wall-eyed, surly-looking pinto, and, as perhaps +the most accomplished horseman in the lot, was trying to make the +unwilling brute show his paces, a thing that only an Indian, as a rule, +can successfully do. Officers on their way to their company duty stopped +to see the fun. The adjutant paused before signaling to the drum major +and said a laughing word of caution to the merry crowd, lest their +gleeful shouts and laughter should disturb the dignity of the coming +ceremony. The senior surgeon, coming forth from his quarters, Silver +Hill's morning journal just received, open in his hand, moved an +adjournment to the rear of the administration building. But the colonel +himself, likewise provided by a rushing newsboy with a fresh copy of our +morning contemporary, sallied forth from his gate and shouted +encouragement to the plucky little rider. "Stick to him, Jimmy boy, and +you others don't yell so; keep quiet, and the pony will tire of +kicking." + +Then he and the doctor fell into converse over the telegraphic headline, +and then the bugles pealed adjutant's call, the band crashed merrily +into "Hands Across the Sea," and the details of the twelve companies +came marching jauntily forth upon the green. The colonel, with soldierly +appreciation in his eyes, stood watching the sharp, snappy formation of +the line, the paper dangling unheeded from his thumb and forefinger, +while the surgeon, more alive to the news of the day than the niceties +of military duty, turned over the outer page, began to scan the +headlines of the inner column, as suddenly, impulsively, unthinkingly +startled the colonel by the exclamation "God!" Stone whirled about in +sudden anxiety. For a moment the doctor simply stared and read, then +glanced at the post commander, and, without a word, handed him the +sheet. Stone, too, stared, started, looked quickly into the surgeon's +face, and then said: "Let's get inside." So together these veterans of +their respective corps quit the field and the sight of men and boys and +went to confer within the depth of the vine-shaded veranda. + +At that same moment the tall, gaunt form of Major Dwight was seen to +issue from the front doorway of the first quarters on the southward +line, the field officer's roomy house, and, looking neither to the right +nor the left, straight, stern and rigidly erect, he strode forth upon +the grassy parade, heading for the merry group about the ponies. The +band had ceased its spirited march music. The adjutant had assigned +officers and non-commissioned officers to their posts. The lieutenant +commanding had ordered "Inspection arms!" and once again the strain of +sweet music swept across the green carpeted quadrangle, and Marion Ray, +seated on her piazza far down the line, chatting with a neighbor who had +just dropped in, lifted her head and listened. It was one of Margaret's +old favorites, a song she used to sing and loved to sing, a song played +by many an army band for many a year, and it seemed never to grow +wearisome or stale--"Happy Be Thy Dreams." With her thoughts all of +Margaret and her eyes following her thoughts, she arose, stepped to the +rail, looking for little Jim, whom she had recently seen but seldom, and +then caught sight of the major a long distance away, bearing straight +and swift upon the romping group at the westward end of the parade. +Barely twenty minutes before, as she was giving Sandy his coffee, for +Sandy had come down late after a restless, almost sleepless night, she +had heard Dwight's deep tones at the front gate in earnest conversation +with Priscilla, who now had entirely disappeared. More than once of late +the two had been in talk over some of Priscilla's schemes, but the +housemaid said she thought Miss Sanford had gone now with the major down +the row, perhaps to Lieutenant Thornton's. Why should they go thither? +Priscilla had been so very silent, subdued and, it was hoped, contrite +since the exposure of her correspondence with the _Banner_ that Mrs. Ray +marveled at her early resumption of the old dominant way; for, though +low-voiced and almost reluctant, for her, Priscilla's words to the major +had been spoken firmly, unflinchingly. Only two or three of these words +had reached the ears of her aunt; the others were not sufficiently loud +or articulate, but whatever they were, they had led to immediate action, +for the major had departed, Priscilla with him, and, anxiously, inspired +partially by the music, partially by some indefinable sense of something +going sadly amiss, something that should be stopped at once, Marion +stepped forward, gazed eastward down the row and saw Priscilla in close +conversation with little Mrs. Thornton, only five doors away, and then, +all in a flash, she remembered---- + +Sandy, before starting for his office, had gone back to his room. He at +least was on hand and ready to act in case she needed him, but as yet +she did not call. Forgetful, for the moment, of her visitor, she stood +clasping the rail and staring, inert and even possibly fascinated, along +the westward line, following intently and with startled, troubled eyes +the major's movements. Others, too, had noted both among the spectators +along that front and among the laughing lads themselves. By this time +the ponies had been favored with new riders and the riders with every +conceivable suggestion as to what to attempt. Jimmy had given place to +Harold Winn, and rejoicefully was bidding him clamp tighter with his +legs and knees and keep his hands down on the withers, but too late. A +sudden lunge with his heels, a dive with his shaggy head, and the spunky +little brute, half-savage as a result of all-savage training, had +propelled his would-be conqueror sprawling to the edge of the gleaming +waters of the _acequia_, and a shout of mingled delight and derision +went up from a dozen boy throats, and Jimmy, helping his playmate, +unhurt but shaken, to his feet, caught sight of the loved form speeding +toward them over the green, and, bubbling over with fun, laughter, high +health and spirits, just as of old went bounding joyously, confidently, +to meet him. + +Of just what was passing in Oswald Dwight's bewildered mind that morning +God alone could judge and tell. All his soldier life he had loved truth +and hated a lie. All his fond and confident teaching of his only boy, +Margaret's darling and his hope and pride, had been to speak the truth, +frankly, fearlessly, fully, first, last and all the time. "Never fear to +come to me with anything you may have done. Never let anything tempt you +to swerve from the truth and the whole truth. Nothing you can ever say +or do will ever so hurt me as will a lie." And so, fearlessly and fully, +from the time Jim had begun to prattle he had learned to own his little +faults, sure of sympathy and forgiveness. He had learned to strive to +conquer them for the sake of the love and trust that was so unfailing, +and in response to the grave but ever gentle admonition, and it had been +the father's fond belief for years that between him and his only son +there lived utter confidence and faith, that Jim would ever shrink from +a lie and never from him. Between the two, father and son, never had +there seemed to come a shadow, until of late that darkly beautiful face +had for the time, at least, replaced--that other. Since then, time and +again when Dwight spoke of his pride and trust in Jim, the new wife had +listened, unresponsive. Since that last night in Naples, whenever Dwight +spoke of his confidence in Jimmy's word she had sometimes looked up +appealingly, timidly, as though she longed to believe as he believed, +yet could not--quite. Sometimes she had looked away. Once or twice she +had ventured a faint negation. Jimmy would not _deliberately_ tell a +falsehood; oh, she was _sure_ of that, but, like all children, she said, +when suddenly accused, the impulse would be to deny, would it not? and +then--had not the major observed?--did he not remember--that Jimmy was +just a bit--imaginative? Dwight puzzled over her apparent unbelief. + +But very recently he had noticed other little things that vaguely +worried him. Could it be that, as his boy grew older and mingled more +with other boys, he was learning to be influenced more by them and less +by the father? Could it be that he was seeing, hearing, things, to speak +of which he dared not? There might be things of which he would be +ashamed. Certainly the father had seen at times, since the homeward +voyage, a certain hesitancy on part of the son, and within the past few +days, for the first time in Jimmy's life, Dwight had noted symptoms of +something like avoidance, concealment, embarrassment, _some_thing that +told his jealous, over-anxious heart the boy no longer utterly confided +in the man. It was late the previous evening when the little fellow had +returned with his stanch friend, Sergeant French, and a fine string of +trout, happy, radiant, proud of his success, but so tired he could +hardly keep his eyes open long enough to undress and get to bed. Dwight +had met him at the door, cautioning silence on mamma's account, and the +young face that beamed up at his, all delight and eagerness at first, +clouded almost instantly at the word. Jimmy did not even care for the +tempting supper set aside for him--he had had such a big lunch, he said, +in smothered tone, as he prattled eagerly to his father and showed his +finny prizes, and sipped at his glass of milk. But Dwight had been +brooding over little things that had come to him since Foster's assisted +emigration. He had returned straight from his conference with Stone and +the surgeon to find Inez reduced to the sofa and smelling salts--to tell +her at once that their guest was gone, not because of a fracas with Ray, +as Foster had furiously declared, but because of telegraphic orders from +Washington that had come, possibly, as the result of Foster's own +telegraphic inquiries of Saturday and Sunday. Not for a star would +Dwight let his wife suppose that Foster's protracted visit had given him +the least uneasiness! But the maid, that pert and flippant young person +so much in evidence about the house, so indispensable to Inez, so +intangibly a nuisance to him, kept flitting in and out, with her +persistent, "Madame should compose herself"; "Madame should not try to +talk." + +The "young person's" nationality, Dwight believed, was Swiss-Italian, +rather than French. They had picked her up in Milan, but her +professional interests, it seems, were advanced by the adoption of +French methods and mannerisms. She had early striven to establish +herself as companion rather than maid, to be called Mademoiselle rather +than Félicie, but the dragoon had sharply drawn the line, and in the +beginning, at least, the man was master. As ills accumulated, however, +and masculine strength deferred to feminine weakness, he succumbed to +their wishes, with the result that the ascendency of the domestic was +becoming a matter of gossip. Once established at the post, Félicie's +swift methods of acquiring knowledge of all that was going on about her, +and unlimited means of imparting the same to her mistress, had quite +speedily established confidential relations to which the putative master +of the house was a stranger. There is a garrison "Service of Security +and Information" that differs widely from that of the field--and is even +more comprehensive. + +Félicie had heard the various versions of the affray at Ray's office. +Félicie had heard of the lamentable affair of Georgie Thornton's injury +and its cause, and Félicie had been quick to see and suggest how this +incident might be utilized in case Master James could not be persuaded +to forget that, when he came hurrying in from church the previous day, +mamma, who had been too ill to arise at ten o'clock, was in most +becoming morning toilet _tęte-ā-tęte_ with Captain Foster in the parlor. +Félicie had even assured Madame that she could and would influence +Master James accordingly, and this, too, after one unsuccessful attempt +on Sunday. Félicie had fairly flown, all sympathy and helpfulness, to +fetch Master James fresh, cool water, towels, ice for the back of his +neck, a preventive the most assured for nose-bleed, and all this despite +Jimmy's repellent silence, for the lad shrank from her instinctively. +She had then striven to coax him to promise that he would mention to no +man that mamma was dressed and downstairs: it would so annoy the doctor, +who had said she should remain in bed, and, indeed, she (Félicie) and +the dear captain had remonstrated with mamma, and were even then +striving to persuade mamma to return to her room, as later she had to +when--Master James came so hurriedly in. The only response had been a +blank look of bewilderment and dislike and an uncompromising: "Well, +'spose somebody _asks_ me?" + +All this, of course, was known at the moment only to the three; but, as +luck would have it, when Dwight came walking slowly homeward from church +with Mrs. Ray, communion service ended, Jim had run to meet them, the +nose-bleed already forgotten, and, to the father's "I hope you didn't +disturb mamma, my boy. She was trying hard to sleep," the little man had +promptly, impulsively responded: "No, indeed, daddy, mamma is up and +dressed----" And then he remembered, faltered, blushed. + +Dwight did not question his boy about his new mamma. That was another +thing from which the father shrank. He saw the lad's sudden confusion, +and knew that something was being held back, but it was something that +should be held back. In all his teachings as to utter frankness, truth, +confidence, he, of course, had never meant that his boy should be a +tale-bearer--above all that he should ever come with tales of his new +mamma; yet Dwight, unfortunately, had never given him to understand that +there were matters, now that the boy was growing older and observant, +concerning which no confidences were expected or invited. But it had set +him to thinking--to questioning Inez as to her sudden recovery, and +again, more pointedly that Monday afternoon between the hour of his +visit with the colonel and his ominous symptoms at parade, thereby +bringing on a fit of nerves for her and a swimming of the head for +himself. It was while he was waiting for Jimmy's home-coming that +Félicie--ostentatiously bustling to and fro, all sympathy for Madame in +her prostration and anxiety as to M'sieu, the Commandant--had contrived +to intimate that Monsieur James had been so imprudent as to rush, all +ensanguined, into the presence of Madame, and now and under such +circumstances, and in virgin modesty, Félicie's eyelids drooped, "Madame +should be spared all possibility of shock or emotion." Under any other +circumstances with what a thrill would he have listened to her words! +Did not Monsieur conceive? And Madame's heart and sympathies so +all-responsive! Had they not already been lacerated by the story of the +suffering of the little George, an infant, oh, heaven, the most amiable! +But assuredly Monsieur James had apprised his father of all that had +taken place. He, too, was an infant the most amiable, and Dwight, +overwrought and bewildered, before Jimmy went to his bed that night, had +again asked him what all this meant about Georgie Thornton, and, looking +squarely into his father's face, with Margaret's soul speaking from his +clear, unflinching, fearless eyes, the little man had said again, "Why, +daddy, I haven't an idea! I didn't even _hear_ he was hurt until you +told me." + +Then had come a morning's drill following an almost sleepless night, and +during drill he had rebuked young Thornton for the faults of his +platoon, and after drill had lectured him a bit for seeming neglect or +indifference, and even of sullen acceptance of deserved criticism. Then, +suddenly, remembering, he ceased his rebuke, turned the subject and +asked how was George, and then as they were parting, again asked how it +happened, and was again startled by the words: "Ask your own boy, sir," +for Thornton, like many an older, stronger, wiser man, accepted +unchallenged the views of his wife. Jim had had his breakfast and was +gone by the time Dwight reached home, but Félicie, in answer to +question, with infinite regret and becoming reluctance owned that Miss +Sanford and other witnesses of the unfortunate affair united in saying +that Monsieur James had, in a moment of boyish petulance perhaps, swung +his jacket full in the face of Monsieur George, never thinking, +doubtless, of the cruel, sharp-edged, metal button that should so nearly +cut out the eye; and then, terrified at the sight of so much blood, was +it not natural that any child should run from the sight and try to +forget, and perhaps _might_ forget, and so deny? + +Dwight listened in a daze, spurning the toothsome breakfast set before +him; then, rising, took his cap, left the house without another word +and, hastening thither, found Priscilla Sanford on the veranda at the +Rays'. + +As she herself subsequently admitted to her aunt, Priscilla, who had +been bred to the doctrine of original sin and innate propensity for +evil, who had long thought that the major stood sorely in ignorance as +to Jimmy's spiritual needs, and who herself stood solemnly convinced of +the truth of the Thornton story, now conceived it her duty to fully and +unreservedly answer the major's questions. Had she witnessed the affair? +She had in great part, she said, little considering that of the most +essential part, the actual blow or slash, she had seen nothing. Was it +true that his son was--the assailant? Priscilla answered that, though +she was not at that instant where she could herself _see_ the blow, she +an instant later saw everything, and the relative position of the boys +was such that there was no room for doubt it was James who struck. She +heard the scream when near the door and at once ran out. And had not +Jimmy stopped to offer aid or--do anything? No, Jimmy had rushed on as +though bent on overtaking the leaders, as though he never heard what, +much farther away, she had heard distinctly. And then Priscilla owned +that the look of agony in the father's face was such that her resolution +well-nigh failed her. + +But, unhappily, not quite. There are possibly no people so possessed +with the devil of meddling in the management of other people's children +as those who never had any, or else have been phenomenal failures in the +rearing of their own. Dwight asked her presently to go with him to the +Thorntons', which she did, beginning to tremble now as her eyes studied +his face. Mrs. Thornton was on the veranda. Young hopeful, with bandaged +forehead, was blissfully chasing a little terrier pup about the yard. +She, too, began to tremble; the little wrath and resentment left was +oozing from her finger tips as Dwight lifted his cap from the lined and +haggard brow and she saw the infinite trouble in his deep-set eyes. But +he gave her no time to speak. + +"I have come," he said, "to express my deep sorrow at what I must now +believe my son has done. I should have come before had--had----" He +stumbled miserably. Then, with sudden effort, "I will see Mr. Thornton +and make my acknowledgments later, and see the doctor, but first----" +Then abruptly he bent, caught Georgie by an arm, lifted the bandage just +enough to see the adhesive plaster underneath, muttered something under +his breath, dropped his hand by his side, looked appealingly one instant +in Priscilla's eyes as though he would ask one more question, never +heeding, perhaps never hearing, Mrs. Thornton's: "Oh, Major, I'm sure +Jimmy could not have meant it!" Womanlike, all vehemence in accusation +at first, all insistence in extenuation now that vengeance threatened. +The next moment Dwight was gone, and Priscilla dare not follow the first +impulse of her heart to run home and tell Aunt Marion and Sandy, or to +run after him. She saw the major turn stiffly in at his own gate, far up +the row, saw Aunt Marion come forth, and, like guilty things, the maiden +of mature years, the mother of immature mind, held there, shrinking, not +knowing what to look for--what to do. They, too, saw Dwight come forth +again; but none of the anxious eyes along that anxious line had +witnessed what had befallen in the few minutes Dwight spent in presence +of his wife. That was known, until some days later, only to Félicie. + +She was still abed, sipping her chocolate, and looking but a shade +lighter, when he abruptly entered. She could almost have screamed at +sight of his twitching face, but he held up warning hand. + +"Just a moment, Inez. You had come home--you were on the veranda, I +believe; did you see--anything of that--that trouble among the boys +yesterday?" + +She had seen nothing. She was listening at the moment with downcast lids +and heaving bosom to Foster's eager, hurried words. She had heard the +shouts of merriment, and faintly heard the screams, and had not even +looked to see the cause, but Félicie had found no inapt pupil. Inez +buried her face in her jeweled hands. Under the filmy veiling of her +dainty nightdress Dwight could see the pretty shoulders beginning to +heave convulsively. Was she sobbing? Stepping closer, he repeated the +question. "I _must_ know," said he. + +"Ah, Oswald--how--how can I? You love him so! You love him so much more +than--me, and he--he hates me! He shrinks from me! He would not shrink +from--poisoning you--against me!" + +"Inez, this is childish! Tell me at once what you know--why +you--distrust him?" + +Again the sobs, the convulsive shoulder-heaving before she would speak, +and, as though fired with wrath inexpressible, Dwight started for the +door. Then she called him. Félicie was there, all distress, anxiety, +concern for Madame. Indeed, Monsieur should refrain--at such a time, and +then there were two to talk, each supplementing--reminding the other. It +was true that little Monsieur James could not seem to respond to the +love of his young mother, this angel, and he was rude and insolent to +Félicie, who adored him, and he--he so hurt and distressed Captain +Foster, who was goodness itself to him. It was for rudely, positively +contradicting the captain she, Inez, had been compelled to send James to +his room and require him to remain there until his father's return, not +thinking how long the father would be gone on his visit to town, and +even then James was obstinate; he would not apologize, although she had +striven, and Félicie, too, to make him understand how his father would +grieve that the son he so loved could so affront his guest; and they +feared, they feared James deceived sometimes his noble father. The +Naples incident was brought up again, and Jimmy's odd insistence that an +officer had spoken to and frightened her, and then--those little things +he had told on the homeward voyage (Heaven knows how true they were!) +and then, oh, it wrung their hearts to see the father's grief, but when +Jimmy denied all knowledge of the injury to Georgie Thornton, they knew +and Jimmy knew--he _must_ have known--it was his own doing. Leaving them +both in tears, the father flung himself from, the room and down the +stairs, and with his brain afire went straightway in search of his son. +Good God! To think that, after all his years of hope and prayer and +faith and pride--of careful teaching and utter trust--that it should +come to this, that the boy on whom his great heart was centered should +after all--after all prove a coward and a liar! His eyes seemed clouded. +He saw only as through a lurid glass. The sunlight in the crisp, +delicious air was clear as crystal, yet there was a blur that seemed to +overshadow every object. There was a ringing in his ears that dulled the +sweet strains of the song his wife, his own wife, his love, his +treasure, Jimmy's mother, used to sing, for now he never heard it. His +temples throbbed; his head seemed burning, yet the face was ashen. The +twitching lips, bitten into gashes, were blue between the savage teeth +marks, and yet at sight of the straight, soldierly form he loved, little +Jim had quit his fellows and, to the music of his mother's song--just as +of old, beaming, joyous, confident, brimming over with fun and +health--had come bounding to meet him. + +It had been the father's way at such times to halt, to bend forward with +outstretched arms, almost as he had done in Jimmy's earliest toddling +baby boyhood, but he never halted now. Erect and stern he moved straight +on. It was the boy who suddenly faltered, whose fond, happy, radiant +face grew suddenly white and seemed to cloud with dread, whose eager +bounding ceased as he neared his sire, and, though the hands as of old +went forth to clasp the hand that never yet had failed them, for the +first time in his glad young life Jimmy Dwight looked in vain for the +love and welcome that had ever been his, for the first time his brave +young heart well-nigh ceased its beating, for the first time he seemed +to shrink from his father's gaze. + +And in fear, too, but not for himself; oh, never for himself! Vaguely, +strangely, of late he had begun to feel that all was not well with the +father he so loved, and now the look in his father's face was terrible. +"Oh, daddy!" he cried, a great sob welling up in his throat, but the +answering word checked him instantly, checked his anxious query, turned +his dread at the instant into relief, almost into joy. It was not then +that his father was ill and stricken. It was that he was angry--angry, +and at him, and in the flash of a second, in that one hoarse +word--"Home!" he knew what it must be, and though his lips quivered and +his eyes filled and again the sobs came surging from his breast, just as +of old, all confidence that his word could not be questioned, he strove +to find his father's hand, even as homeward now, with Inez and her +hellcat of a handmaid peeping trembling through the slats, the father +striding, the little fellow fairly running before, the two went hurrying +on, and Jimmy, looking back, found tongue, and his one thought found +words: + +"Oh, daddy, indeed I wasn't--impudent to Captain Foster--to mamma, at +least, I didn't mean it! They _were_ there in the parlor when I ran in +from church, and he wanted me to promise----" + +And then Marion Ray, far down the line, with one cry for Sandy, sprang +forward to the gate, for Oswald Dwight, with heavy hand, had struck his +little son across the face and stretched him on the turf. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +WORST DEED OF HIS LIFE + + +There was no one near enough to reach them at the moment. Jimmy was on +his feet again in an instant, dazed, half-stunned, breathless, but still +unbelieving. Father could not have heard. Father would surely hear; but +now the father's hand had seized his arm, and, when the boy again began +to gasp his plea, it was almost dragging him across the _acequia_. Blood +was beginning to trickle from the corner of the piteous little mouth. +There was foam upon the set and livid lips of the man. "Silence! You've +lied enough!" was the savage order, as Dwight thrust the boy through the +gate. "Not there, sir!" as Jimmy, dumbly striving to show his loyalty, +his obedience, his unshaken trust, would have run on up the steps. "To +the cellar!" and in fury he pointed to the walk that circled the house, +and Jimmy hurried on. They had vanished from sight as Marion Ray, with +terror in her eyes, came almost running up the row, Priscilla and Mrs. +Thornton staring, speechless and miserable, after her. A lone trooper, +an humble private soldier, riding in from the westward gate, had sprung +from saddle, thrown the reins over a post and, with consternation in his +face, had started after them. It was young Hogan, faithful henchman of +the Rays, still borne on the rolls of Ray's old squadron. They were in +the cellar, under the rear of the quarters, when he reached them, and +Jimmy's jacket was lying on the floor, while the lad, with streaming, +pleading eyes, was looking up in his father's face. + +"Your shirt, too, sir!" Dwight ordered, as Hogan came bounding in. + +"For the love o' God, Major, don't bate the boy! Sure he never knew he +did it, sir. I saw----" + +"Out of here, you!" was the furious answer. "Out or I'll----" And in his +blind rage the officer grasped the unresisting soldier by the throat and +hurled him through the doorway whence he came. "Off with that shirt!" he +again shouted, as he turned. It was already almost off. Ah, how white +and smooth and firm was that slender, quivering little body, as, for the +last time the streaming eyes were imploringly uplifted, the slender arms +upraised, the sobbing prayer poured forth only to be heard--only to be +heard. + +"Face the window! Turn your back, sir!" was the sole answer through the +set teeth, while with sinewy hand the father swung a yard-long strip of +leather, some discarded stirrup strap the boys had left upon the bench, +and poor Hogan, with a cry and curse upon his lips, rushed again to the +front in search of aid. One savage swish, one sharp, cruel, crashing +snap, one half-stifled, piteous scream, and then the doorway was +suddenly darkened, the maddened man was thrust aside, and, breathless, +panting, but determined and defiant, Marion Ray had flung herself upon +the bent and shrinking child, her fond arms clasping the bared and +quivering back to her wildly throbbing heart, her own brave form thrust +between her precious charge and the again uplifted scourge. "Jimmy boy, +my darling!" she sobbed, as strong and safe and sure she held him. Then, +with her blue eyes blazing, she turned on him. + +"Oswald Dwight, are you mad?" + +Then again the door was darkened as Sandy Ray came limping in. One +glance was enough. The strap was wrenched from the father's hand and +hurled to the open, empty, black-mouthed furnace. Then both hands were +needed, for Dwight, just as on Monday evening at parade, had begun to +sway and was groping for support. There was no one to interpose, no one +to interfere, when Marion Ray, having at last stilled poor Jimmy's heavy +sobbing and bathed his face and hands and helped him to dress, led him +unresisting away to her little home, for Madame "in her condition"--as +Félicie explained individually to the dozen men and women who thronged +the major's quarters that unhappy morning--was prostrated, desolated, +distracted by the tragedy that had come to arrive. It was as well, +perhaps, that at last it manifested itself what monster was this who +held this angel in bondage--the monster himself, meantime, having been +led to his room by Dr. Wallen. There, half-dazed, half-raving, he +resisted and declaimed until at last their measures took effect, both +doctors being with him now, and he was partially disrobed and compelled +to lie down upon the bed. There one or both of them sat and watched the +rest of the livelong day. There, finally, after nightfall a trained +nurse took station with attendants in readiness in the hallway, for +delirium had set in and Dwight's condition was declared critical. + +Bad as it was, this was by no means the sole topic of talk for +Minneconjou's seething population. Among the women, Mrs. Ray stood +foremost as heroine of the occasion, and half the feminine element of +the garrison had been to call and congratulate and praise her before the +day was done. But Marion was in no mood for either. It had come to her +as a vital question what to do with Priscilla. Sandy had charged his +cousin in so many words with having deliberately incited Major Dwight to +his furious and unreasoning assault, so Sandy regarded it, upon his only +son, and Sandy had for a week or more been looking upon Dwight as a +wronged and injured man. Priscilla, as we know, had virtually and +virtuously admitted much of her error to Aunt Marion, but persisted that +though they both, Mrs. Thornton and she, considered that it was high +time Jimmy was punished instead of petted, they never dreamed to what +length the father would go. "Punished for what?" indignantly demanded +Aunt Marion. "For his having so cruelly hurt Georgie Thornton, and then +denying all knowledge of it," was the reply. Words are inadequate to +describe the indignation with which Mrs. Ray heard and answered. Jimmy +never knew it at the time or heard, until late that night, of what had +happened. Hogan, and others for that matter, saw the entire affair. +Jimmy was whirling his English-made jacket about his head as he raced in +pursuit of the leader, never realizing that Georgie Thornton, swift +almost as himself, was close at his right hand. The button had cut its +keen-edged way without so much as a shock or pause. Jimmy never even +suspected it. In that, as in everything else, said she, he had told his +father the entire truth, though Mrs. Ray herself hardly dreamed how much +he had to tell. So by noontime Priscilla had again shut herself in her +room to ponder over the miscarriage of her excellent intentions, and to +pray, as well she might, for future guidance. + +But while at the Rays', and possibly at the Dwights', there was little +thought or talk of any other topic all the morning, all over the +garrison was buzzing a second story that started soon after the newsboy +from town, cantering out on his cow pony just before guard-mounting, +sold his three dozen _Stars_ inside of an hour and sent him back for +more. The colonel and surgeon were first to receive and read. Dwight +received, but never read, and other majors, captains and subalterns--not +to mention non-commissioned officers and privates--chased the newsboy in +eagerness to buy. It was a paragraph on an inside page, modest and +moderate enough in itself--for the frontier press has learned to know +the army and not to defame it--but it stirred a sensation at Minneconjou +its editor refused to start in town. In brief, it was as follows: + + ASSAULT ALLEGED + + Just as we go to press a dispatch is received from a representative + of the STAR, who left last night on the westbound Flyer. The train + was flagged at Fort Siding and boarded, with the assistance of a + ranchman, by Captain Stanley Foster, of the Cavalry, lately + visiting friends at Minneconjou. The officer was bruised, bleeding, + and well-nigh exhausted, but managed to tell that he had been held + up while driving, had been forcibly carried out on the open + prairie, and brutally beaten by ruffians whom he declares to be + soldiers, all strangers to him with one exception. The captain + names as ringleader a prominent and well-known young officer of the + post. + + Dr. Fowler, of Sagamore Heights, was called by wire, met the train + at the Pass, and went on with the injured man. The story, of + course, sounds incredible, and cannot as yet be substantiated. + +It was just after lunch time when a messenger came to the Rays. The +surgeon asked if the lieutenant could come to Major Dwight a moment, and +the doctor himself met Sandy at the door. The veteran's face was very +grave. He had known the young officer but a few months. He had known his +father long. "Are you feeling fit for a hard interview?" he asked. + +"If need be. What's the matter?" + +"Dwight is in a fearful frame of mind, and the Lord only knows how it is +to end. Dwight realizes now that Jimmy was entirely innocent of any +knowledge of that thing the Thorntons charged him with. Your mother sent +Hogan and a trumpeter up here. Both had seen the whole affair, and +Dwight _would_ see them. He never could have rested till he got the +facts. We have persuaded him that he must not question his wife, and +that French cat says she cannot leave her mistress an instant. He's +raging now to see you, and I reckon it's no use trying more sedatives +until you are off his mind. Will you come in?" + +Ray pondered a moment, then, "Go ahead," said he. + +They found Dwight pacing the floor like a caged and raging lion. He +whirled on the two the moment they entered, Wallen vainly preaching +self-control and moderation. The misery in the man's face killed the +last vestige of Ray's antipathy. It was something indescribable. + +"Sandy, I'm in hell, but--it's the truth, the whole truth, and nothing +but the truth I must have. Did you--before you joined us at the Grand in +Naples--did you meet--did you see Mrs. Dwight?" + +"Yes," said Ray. + +Dwight halted, resting his shaking hand on the back of a chair, and the +shake went down through the back and legs to the very floor. + +"Where? How?" + +"In front of Cook's Bank. Mrs. Dwight was in an open carriage; why +shouldn't I speak to her?" And the head went up and back, so like his +father. + +"No reason whatever, but why should she lie? Tell me that! Why should +she swear that my boy, Margaret's boy, lied? Oh, my God, tell me that!" + +"Major, Major!" pleaded Wallen, with outstretched hand. "This will never +do. This----" + +"Let him alone," said the senior bluntly. "It's got to come." + +"Because," said Ray, looking straight at his man, "I was fool enough to +fall in love with her the same time you did at Manila. Perhaps she +thought I'd be blackguard enough to follow her after she became your +wife." + +"You--you met her--called upon her--at the Grand, I remember." + +"I did, and I'd do the same thing again. I wanted my letters, and I had +a right to them. She said that she had burned them all, and that ended +it. There's never been a line between us since. I have never seen her +since--when I could decently avoid it. I hope to God I'll never have to +see her--again." + +"There, there, Dwight, that's more than enough," said Dr. Waring, +watching narrowly the working features. "Thank you, Ray. Nothing more +could be asked or expected." Then, _sotto voce_, "Get out quick!" and +Ray, every nerve athrill, passed forth into the hallway, passed another +door, which quickly opened, and out came Félicie, finger on lip, eyes +dilated, one hand held forth in eager appeal. + +"Oh, Monsieur--Mr. Ray, just one second, I implore--Madame implores. She +beg to see you." And the hand just grazed his arm, as he burst +impetuously, angrily by. "You go to ----" was on his furious lip, but he +bit the words in twain and bolted down the stairs and out into the open +air, mopping his heated brow. + +The adjutant was coming swiftly up the row. He had hastened forth from a +vine-covered piazza well toward the eastward end just as Ray, with heart +still hammering, came limping again into the glare of the sunlight. As +they neared each other--the staff officer with quick, springy step, the +subaltern somewhat halting and lame--the latter caught sight of a sabre +swinging at the senior's hip. What but one thing at that hour of the day +could this portend? One moment brought the answer: + +"Mr. Ray, I reg----" with reddened cheek and blinking eyes, began the +adjutant, who liked him well. Then, with sudden effort, "I--you are +hereby placed in close arrest and confined to your quarters--by order of +Colonel Stone." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +REACTION + + +That colonel was a very unhappy man. "All the devils in the calendar," +said he, "have broken loose here at Minneconjou. My cavalry commander +has gone stark, staring mad, and it takes four men to hold him. His wife +cannot stay under the same roof and live, says the maid. Madame must +repose herself, or die. Mrs. Stone says she might take the mistress +under our roof, but she'll be damned if she'll take the maid--at least +she meant that. I said it. The maid says the mistress will die if they +are separated an instant, which suggests a happy end to one of our +troubles, and the cause of all the rest; and to cap the climax, Billy +Ray's boy has done the maddest thing ever dreamed of in Dakota. Why, +doctor, I tell you it _can't_ be doubted! Foster wires the +identification was complete. He dropped the handkerchief that hid his +face. Department Headquarters wired at once to slap him in arrest and +investigate, and the further we look the worse it looks for Ray--and +then, by gad, he denies the whole thing and demands a court-martial! Was +ever a man so mixed as I am!" + +It was even as Stone said. Dwight was for the time being, at least, as +mad as a maniac. "Brain fever," said the wiseacres about the post, +"superinduced by sunstroke abroad and scandal at home." Since Tuesday +night he had recognized no one, had raved or muttered almost +incessantly, and at times had struggled fiercely with his attendants in +the effort to leave his bed. Mrs. Dwight's room adjoined that in which +he lay, and Félicie had incurred the wrath of the doctor by urging that +Madame's condition demanded that Monsieur be removed to hospital or to +some remote apartment about the neighborhood. To take him to hospital +meant that a score of sick or semi-convalescents should be disturbed. If +Madame could not sleep where she was, let Madame move. There was nothing +on earth the matter with, Madame but nerves--and a nuisance in shape of +a maid, said the doctor, whereat Félicie had proclaimed him, too, a +monster, and fled to Madame. Mrs. Stone had indeed come and offered Mrs. +Dwight shelter under the colonel's roof, but she said at the same time +the colonel drew the line at the maid, and told Wallen he would not +tolerate that bunch of frippery and impudence. Mrs. Dwight was in dread +and misery. What _could_ have happened to so prostrate her beloved +husband? No, a thousand times no, she could not think of leaving him! +What she needed was restoratives--something to give her strength that +she might hie to his bedside and tenderly nurse and care for him. She +had had too much restorative, swore Wallen, when he heard this tale. +"We've shut off the champagne with which that hussy had been dosing +her--not that she didn't demand it--and now it's Katzenjammer as much as +anything else. If anybody is to move, let the maid move her to the spare +room on the floor below--where Foster slept." But Inez could not think +of moving so far from her husband's side. + +Of Dwight's sudden insanity (so most of Minneconjou regarded it) and his +furious treatment of little Jim the garrison spoke with bated breath and +infinite compassion and distress. Nothing but mental derangement could +account for it. Mrs. Thornton and Priscilla, it may be conjectured, did +not confide to their neighbors any too much of their share in the +matter, Mrs. Thornton assuring all who questioned her that _she_ had +done her _best_ to assure the major that Jimmy could not possibly have +purposely or knowingly struck her boy, which was partially true; and +Priscilla had declined all conversation on the subject, save with her +aunt, and Mrs. Ray, it may be surmised, was not the woman to tell +broadcast of her niece's responsibility in the premises, whatever she +might later say to Oswald Dwight. Moreover, Marion Ray was not then in +mood to talk confidentially with anyone outside of her own doors, for +the misfortune--the wrong--that had come to Sandy had well-nigh +overwhelmed her. + +Like the man he was, Stone had called at the house the moment she +intimated through his own messenger that she was in readiness to see +him. The adjutant before returning to report his action to the post +commander had so far departed from the strict letter of his duty as to +confidentially inform the dazed young officer that the order had come by +wire from St. Paul. It was not the colonel's doing. + +Sandy was in his room, "cooling off," as he said, when, with all his own +troubles and others' deeds upon his head and clouding his honest old +face, the post commander himself came in, took the mother's hand and led +her to a seat. "It can't upset you more than it has me, my friend," said +he. "I s'pose the explanation of it all is that they met +somehow--accidentally, perhaps--renewed the quarrel; Sandy was possibly +getting the worst of it and the men, whoever they were, couldn't stand +that, for they worshiped him, and pitched in. There are few of our +fellows, especially in the cavalry, that don't just love Sandy. There +are some here that hate Foster," and then Stone stopped, astounded, +confused, for Marion Ray, with rising color, interrupted: + +"Why, Colonel Stone, you speak as though you thought it possible that my +son _could_ have been concerned in this affair!" + +For an instant the colonel struggled for words, his red face mottling in +the violence of his emotion. + +"Why, how can I help it, Mrs. Ray, with all I have heard? But--but I'm +more than glad you don't. What does he say?" + +"That he never dreamed of such a thing," was the brief answer, and Stone +hitched half a dozen different ways in his chair. + +"Colonel Leale, Department Inspector, was on that train," said Stone +slowly, "and reported Foster's story verbatim, I suppose, to department +headquarters, where the arrest was ordered at once, and they demand that +we apprehend the confederates. The general's away, and there isn't a man +at headquarters that smelt powder in the Civil War--or they'd know +confederates weren't so precious easy to apprehend. The men who might +have been implicated all swear they were in town at the time and can +prove an alibi; and unless Sandy will tell, who can?" + +"You still speak as though he could have had something to do with the +assault, Colonel. I'll call him to speak for himself." So Sandy came +down. Colonel and subaltern were left together, and Marion, with sore, +wounded and anxious heart, stepped into her own little snuggery to look +at the picture of her far-away husband (ah, how she missed him and +needed him!) and of Maidie, her sweet and winsome daughter, now Mrs. +Stuyvesant of Gotham, of Sandy in the cadet uniform of his yearling days +and the khaki of Manila, of Billy, Junior, now far away studying for the +entrance exams at the famous Academy. Of the four beings she most +devotedly loved, only one was with her now, her deeply, doubly wronged +Sandy, whose impetuous, indignant tones she could hear so distinctly as +he told his own story to the colonel's sympathetic ear. So distinctly +indeed could she hear her own boy that for a moment she failed to hear +Margaret's little Jim, standing patiently, pathetically at the +threshold; but at sight of his sorrowful face her arms went out to him +instantly. Jim could think--speak--of nothing but his father, his father +who, they all told him, was so ill that he would not know his own +blessed boy, who could not have known him or himself or anybody that +dreadful morning! Love and anxiety, utter trust and forgiveness, were +uppermost in the loyal little heart, and Marion, speechless, held and +rocked him in her arms as she listened to his broken words and to the +sound of the brave young voice in the parlor. Oh, what would she _not_ +have to tell in that next letter to her husband, now so many a weary +league of land and sea beyond possibility of call! + +A badgered man was Stone, as he tramped back homeward, taking a short +cut across the parade, ostensibly to look at the patchwork along the +_acequia_, the morning's task of the fatigue details, but only too +obviously to avoid the eyes and greetings of the many women along the +row. Sandy Ray's story was told in utter sincerity, so far as Stone +could judge. Yet how was it to help him? Sandy admitted having set forth +westward up the valley, having ridden lazily out beyond the butts of the +rifle range, and then over the southward range to the prairie. He was +gone fully two hours, he said. The moon was so low when he returned +that, after leaving his horse with the man in the stables, he could only +barely see the sentry on No. 3 some distance up the post, and the sentry +apparently did not see--he certainly did not challenge--him at all. That +was bad. It would have been so much better if No. 3 had seen, recognized +and could vouch for him. Stone did not tell Sandy of the sentry's story. +He wished to think that over. Sandy said that the sentry at the stables +was some distance down his post and the only man with whom he spoke was +this unrecognized soldier, presumably on duty at the quartermaster's +stables, where the lieutenant's mount was kept and cared for. No, Sandy +didn't know his name, he didn't even notice him particularly. Two or +three men, he thought, were smoking their pipes at the corral corner, +away from stables, as required, and one of these had come forward as he +neared the gate, and asked should he take the lieutenant's horse. Ray +thanked him, dismounted and turned away. Now, what bothered the colonel +was that both the sergeant in charge and each one of the four men +previously questioned declared he did not know the hour at which +Lieutenant Ray returned. They had gone to bed at or before 10:30, +leaving the door on the bolt, so that Hogan or the lieutenant himself +could easily enter. One man, in fact, went so far as to say that coming +down from the Canteen about 10:30 he could have sworn almost it was +Lieutenant Ray who was slowly climbing the slope to the post of No. 3, +and the rear of the officers' quarters. This accorded in a degree with +the statement of Schmitz. What good was Sandy's story to do him if +Foster firmly adhered to the statement made to the Department Inspector? + +There was to have been a dance at the Assembly room Tuesday evening, but +no one seemed to feel like dancing even among an indomitable few of the +lassies and younger officers with whom, lads and lassies both, Sandy Ray +had been vastly popular. The night wore on, dark, overcast, with the +wind blowing fitfully from the Sagamore, slamming doors in resounding +hallways and carrying the watch calls of the sentries weirdly over the +eastward prairie. Earlier in the evening little groups appeared in some +few of the verandas, but gradually broke up and went within doors long +before the signal "Lights out." The officer of the day and the adjutant, +under instruction from the post commander, had been questioning the +three worthies who had been out the night before about the time of the +alleged assault on Captain Foster. To a man they stoutly maintained that +the signs and scars of battle, borne by one or two of their number, were +due entirely to the free-for-all affair that occurred at that +disreputable dive southwest of Silver Hill, some four miles away from +the post. Virtuously were they indignant that anyone should suppose that +they were in any way concerned in so abominable a transaction as the +"doing-up" of an officer of the army who so recently had been the guest +of their honored major. But two of them were troopers with shady +records, men who had been but a short time at the station, and one of +these had formerly served an enlistment in Dwight's old regiment, the +--th. The adjutant was of opinion that he must have known Foster in +those days and might well have been one of quite a number of men, none +of whom liked and some of whom hated the imperious and abusive +lieutenant. The --th had had few of Foster's stamp since the days of +Canker and Gleason, and his case was therefore the more conspicuous. The +two officers were talking of this as slowly they strolled homeward up +the northwest side of the parade, when, faint and wind-buffeted, the +call of the sentry at the main gate caught their ears. No. 2 wanted the +corporal and No. 1 promptly echoed, although already the corporal was +going on the jump. There was a ring and vim to the cry that told its own +story. The sentry saw something that demanded instant attention. It was +not half a minute before the corporal came racing back to the +guard-house, nor a full minute before the bugler of the guard came +chasing in pursuit of the officer of the day. "A fire, sir," he cried, +"'way out beyond the Flats!" + +Together the officers hastened eastward across the parade, and even +before they reached the gate the cause of the alarm became visible. The +low-hanging, swift-driven clouds blackening the valley were taking on a +lurid glare, and, once at the gate the fire could be distinctly seen. +"Well, if that isn't a blessing!" cried the adjutant gleefully. "It's +Skid's old hog ranch, as sure as you're born!" + +It was useless, of course, to send aid even if aid had been desirable. +Ever since Silver Hill became the county seat and a mining town of much +importance, Skidmore's dive had been the bane of the community. Driven +from town by a vigilance committee made up of the best citizens, the +divekeeper had resumed business beyond the corporate limits and at a +point where he could draw custom from three different sources, the town, +the fort and the agency, for only a few miles beyond the Cheyenne were +the supply depot and buildings of the Minneconjou tribe, their brethren +of Brulé being far over to the southeast and the Ogalallas at Red Cloud. +Many a desperate deed had been charged to the gang ever hovering about +these unsavory walls of Skidmore's, many a poor fellow had been beaten +and drugged and robbed, more than one good soldier had met his +death-blow in brutal affray beneath its grimy roof, and still it lived, +detested but unhampered. There was no good reason why the fort should +send a soul to the rescue of such a concern. There was many a reason why +the town would not. Stone ordered a sergeant with a small party to ride +over, "See if any of our men are there and find out what has taken place +and the extent of the damage," which he hoped was total, "and report on +your return." + +It was after twelve when they got back, bringing a grimy fellow-soldier +who had had a narrow escape, the gratifying intelligence that there +wasn't so much as a shingle left unconsumed, and the unwelcome +announcement that the proprietor said he didn't care a damn. He had +leased and was going to open up next week, anyhow, in the old rookeries +at the ford, right under the nose of Uncle Sam, yet without his +jurisdiction. They brought, also, rather a remarkable piece of news--the +wife and daughter of the manager had been rescued from burning alive by +one of the colonel's own men--Private Blenke, of Company "C." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +RETRIBUTION + + +Whoever it was who planned or placed Fort Minneconjou, one blunder at +least could be laid at his door--that it had enabled the enemy to +"locate" almost at the door of the fort. An odd condition of things was +this that resulted from the discovery of precious metals in the +magnificent tract misnamed the Black Hills--black presumably only in the +dead of winter, when their pine-crested peaks and ridges stood boldly +against the dazzling white of the Dakota snows. In '75 the Sioux had +bartered their secret to chance explorers, and Custer came down with his +scouting columns and confirmed the glittering rumor. In '76 the Sioux +squared accounts with Custer afar to the northwest in the affair of the +Little Big Horn, but while they were about it the miner and settler +swarmed in behind and staked out claims and cities from which they could +never be driven, for Crook's starved horses and starving men were +fortunately so numerous they kept the southward tribes of the savage +confederation too busy to bother with settlers. _They_ could be settled +later, after the warriors had dealt by Crook as they did by Custer. When +winter came, however, with Sitting Bull and the Uncapapas thrust beyond +the British line, and Crazy Horse, raving, done to death by the steel of +the guard he so magnificently defied, with Red Cloud disarmed and +deposed, with Dull Knife disabled, with Lame Deer doubled up by the +sturdy Fifth Infantry, and old Two Moons hiding his light in some +obscure refuge of the wilderness, and the old men, the women and +children herded on the reservation under the rifles of the army and the +young men scattered or slain, there was nothing left for the +hard-fighting, proud-spirited lords of the Hills--Ogalalla, Brulé and +Minneconjou--but sullen acceptance of the great father's terms; and in +this wise came Silver Hill to the heart of the fair valley, nestling +under the screen of the Sagamore and its eastward spurs and the shield +of Uncle Sam, who sliced off for military purposes a block from the +Minneconjou reserve, and by way of compliment and consolation named the +cantonment therein established after the tribe thereof dispossessed. All +went swimmingly for the emigrant, the miner, the settler and the +subsequent supremacy of the white man until in course of time a big post +had to be built to replace the old log barracks, and from motives of +economy, in order to reduce to a minimum the expense of hauling supplies +and materials of the quartermaster's department, the new buildings were +planted at the extreme eastern edge of the reservation, and before the +first coat of paint was dry on the lintels the opposite bank of the +stream, a short pistol shot from the line, was planted thick with +shacks, shanties and saloons, and every known device of the devil to +prey upon the soldier. + +In the five years that followed, that particular quarter section of what +soon became South Dakota was a storm center of villainy, especially when +the bi-monthly payday came round. By scores the soldiers were drugged +and robbed, by dozens they were beaten and bullied. By twos and threes +they were set upon, slugged and not infrequently someone was murdered. +No jury could be found in those days to convict a civilian of any crime +against the life or property of a servant of Uncle Sam. There came a +time when two of the best men of the garrison, veteran sergeants, having +been shot to death in cold blood by a brace of desperadoes in front of +Skidmore's saloon, the garrison turned out almost to a man. The +murderers fled to town on the horses of their victims; fifty troopers +followed, while over fifty tore Skidmore's to shreds. Silver Hill had a +riot that night, in which two deputy marshals bit the dust; so did two +or three troopers, but that didn't matter. The majesty of the law that +turned the original murderers loose had been violated by a brutal and +ungovernable soldiery, six of whom were later surrendered to be tried +for their crimes by a jury of their sworn enemies, while their +commanding officer was tried for his commission by a jury of his peers. +The soldiers were sent to civil prison and the colonel to military +Coventry--estopped from further promotion, and Silver Hill (pronounced +with an "e" in those days) for as much as a month exulted and rejoiced +with exceeding joy. Then a new general came to the command. Then Silver +Hill thrust its hands deep in its pockets and whistled in dismay, for +the general's first deed was to order Minneconjou's big garrison into +summer camp long marches away, to leave only men enough at the post to +take care of the property and thus to defraud the denizens of fringing +settlement, known to the Army as Thugtown, of some thousands _per +mensem_ of hard-earned cash--very hard. Moreover, when winter set in, +the garrison was distributed much to the betterment of Meade, Laramie, +Robinson, Niobrara, etc., and to the howling protest of the sturdy +settlers of Silver Hill, "thus robbed," said their eloquent +representative in Congress assembled, "of the protection assured them by +the national government." It was rich to hear the appalling description +given that December of the perils and privations of the people of the +southwestern section of the Dakotas. The Sioux were on the point of +rising and butchering the helpless and scattered settlers, said Senator +Bullion, and to do the county justice it must be owned that it did its +level best to stir up the Minneconjous, but those "troubled waters" had +been stirred too much in the past and refused now to boil over at the +beck of the politicians, so what could not be done in one way was worked +in another. The cat, in shape of the command, came back, and with the +onward march of civilization men and women of a higher class were drawn +to Silver Hill, and the "e" from the last part of its name. + +And then in army circles there came to the front a man with a head on +his shoulders and a hand on the steering gear. In the interest of +civilization and civilian dealers Congress had cleaned out the old-time +sutler shop, which was no deplorable loss, and transferred the traffic +of his successor, the post trader, to his ubiquitous rival, the +publican. "The soldier's pay comes from the people and should return to +the people," said the advocates of the measure, and the soldier +non-voter, having about as many friends at the seat of government as a +crow in a corn field, matters at Minneconjou speedily became bad as +ever, for, reform having started at Silver Hill, the gamblers and +harpies being kicked from its corporate limits, these philosophers,--the +flotsam and jetsam of the frontier,--lost little cash and less time +before settling again, and in greater numbers, on the skirts of Uncle +Sam. + +And then it was that, after a year or two of turmoil and trouble, "in +our day there lived a man" who solved the problem, dealt rum, the flesh +and the devil the worst blow known to the combination, and started under +the auspices of the post Exchange the common sense and only successful +system ever tried in the army, known to the Press and its civilian +readers by the name of the Canteen. + +And then again after a few years of peace, prosperity and contentment, +good order and discipline, after the man whose monument is inscribed +"The Soldier's Friend," his good work finished, was gathered to his +fathers, the resultant years of thought and experiment were overthrown +in a day. A congress of women over-mastered a congress of men. Exit the +Canteen: Re-enter the grog shop, the hell and the hog ranch. Burned out +at the borders of Silver Hill, the way blazed for him and his vile +retinue of swindlers and strumpets by the best intentions that ever +paved the streets of sheol, back to the gates of Fort Minneconjou came +the saloon and its concomitants--and the day of order and discipline was +done. + +"I wouldn't say a word against it," protested Colonel Stone to the +grave-faced Inspector sent out from St. Paul to investigate the first +killing, "if, when they shut up _our_ shop they had shut up _those_!" +and with clinching fist he struck savagely at empty space and the +swarming row of ramshackle tenements beyond the stream. "Of what earthly +good was it to anybody, I ask you,--except the distiller and dealer in +liquors,--to close our guarded, homelike tables and reopen that +unlimited unlicensed hell?" + +A new road to Silver Hill, albeit roundabout, had become a necessity. +The old well-worn beeline through by way of the ford had become +impracticable for women and children and self-respecting people in +general. It was skirted for some two hundred yards by tenements and +tenants not easily described in these pages. The colonel had been jeered +at by painted sirens at upper windows. Priscilla Sanford, starting one +morning to town, turned crimson at the shrill acclaim of the scarlet +sisterhood, two of whom had kissed their hands to her. Stone, when he +heard of it, would have leveled the shack with the ground, but the +mournful plight of his predecessor, condemned for not preventing what +Stone would almost precipitate, gave him timely pause. Sandy might have +sallied forth and shot somebody not feminine, but Sandy was still in +arrest. The paymaster had come and gone. So had most of the money; so, +worse luck, after two days of salooning, had gone no less than fifty of +the garrison. In nearly two years Minneconjou had not had as many +desertions as resulted from those two days. + +But, sorrowful to relate, among the first to go and the last to be heard +from were two of Priscilla's trusties--gone no man could say +whither--and in addition to this catastrophe something had strangely, +surely gone amiss with her paragon, Blenke--Blenke the scholarly, Blenke +the writer and linguist--and Priscilla's world was reeling under her +well-shod feet. + +To begin with, how came Blenke, the impeccable, the would-be candidate +for transfer to the cavalry and aspirant for commission, to be +sojourning even for an hour at so disreputable a spot as Skidmore's? +Blenke, it will be remembered, had a forty-eight hour pass to enable him +to visit Rapid City on important personal business. Blenke was supposed +to have taken the westbound Flyer on Monday--the Flyer that flew five +hours late. Blenke was supposed to be spending all Tuesday, or most of +it, in the heart of the Hills. Blenke was not due at the post until the +afternoon of Wednesday, and was not expected to leave Rapid City until +Wednesday morning; yet here he was, of all places in the world, at that +hog ranch on Tuesday night. Stone sent a patrol over at 1 A. M. with a +spare horse and invitation for Private Blenke to return at once and +account for his eccentric orbit at office hours in the morning. The +patrol trotted over, nothing loath, but Blenke had disappeared. "Gone to +town for a doctor," said the abandoned few still groping about the +smoldering ruins. So the patrol returned without him. It was represented +that Blenke had scorched his face, singed off his eyebrows and burned +his hands in his gallant essay to save the women. But this was all +hearsay evidence. + +When Blenke did appear on Wednesday afternoon his hands were bandaged, +his face was disfigured a bit, but his eyes were as deep and mournful, +his dignity and self-poise quite as unimpeachable, as before. He seemed +grieved, indeed, that his captain and colonel both so sharply questioned +him. He had intended going to Rapid City, but at the last moment in town +received information rendering his visit unnecessary, indeed +inadvisable. A man with whom he had had business associations in the +past, and who owed him much money, had been there, but had headed him +off by promising to meet him in Silver Hill. The train came, but not the +man, yet the conductor said such a man had boarded the train at the +Junction and must have dropped off as they slowed up for town after +passing Bonner's Bluff. Blenke had spent most of Monday night and all of +Tuesday in further search. Tuesday evening came a clue. The evasive +"party" had been seen at Skid's drinking heavily, and Blenke hastened +thither in partial disguise, he said, and was there when late Tuesday +night the shrieks from Skidmore's private quarters told of peril. The +drunken crowd in the bar at first took no heed. Shrieks were things of +frequent occurrence, but Blenke had rushed, found the shack all ablaze +within, and with difficulty and much personal risk had succeeded in +pulling out Mrs. Skidmore and her terrified child. + +Blenke by manner, not by words, continued to convey to his inquisitors +that he took it much amiss that a soldier who had done such credit to +his uniform and the service should on his return be subjected to such +rigid cross-questioning, and be treated with such obvious suspicion. But +both colonel and captain had more to ask. Had he seen aught of the trio +from the fort who claimed to have spent Monday evening at Skidmore's? +Blenke declared he had not. He had spent that evening searching about +town; but he had heard of them, yes. There was no little talk among the +cowboys, tramps, toughs, and ranchmen in and about Skidmore's concerning +a party of soldiers that had been there hours Monday evening "raising +the devil." There had been a rough-and-tumble fight, too, but Blenke +virtuously disclaimed all personal knowledge of the men or their +misdemeanors. Asked to name some of the places he had visited Monday +evening and Tuesday in town, Blenke unhesitatingly mentioned as many as +a dozen. The adjutant jotted them down, and when the colonel sent an +officer in to investigate, it was found that Blenke's statement, like +his manner, was irreproachable. Moreever, it was found by the testimony +of certain hangers-on at Skidmore's that the story told by the +incarcerated trio was equally true. They had been seen about the +premises, drinking, card-playing, loafing, early in the evening, and +"off and on" all of the evening, until toward 10:30 o'clock they became +so ugly and quarrelsome and had so little money left that Skid refused +them further admission, even to wash the blood from their battered +faces. If the purpose of the examination was to connect these men, any +of them, with the assault upon Foster, it had certainly failed. + +Even when Foster's verbatim statement came, duly type-written and +vouched for, and further examination was made, and Blenke and the three +worthies were further investigated, nothing was admitted and little +learned. Foster's statement was read by the adjutant and received in +grim silence by the colonel and one or two seniors called in for the +occasion. Smarting under the indignity with which he had been treated, +said Foster, and finding the Flyer would not be along before ten or +half-past ten, he decided to take a buggy, drive out to the post and +seek an interview with the colonel and certain other officers. It was +due to his honor that his statement be heard. He ordered his traps sent +to the train, so that if delayed he could drive thither at once, or even +have the ranchman caretaker at Fort Siding "flag the train." Barely two +miles out from town he overtook some soldiers apparently drunk; one of +them reeled almost under his horse's nose; he pulled up in dismay, and +instantly they attacked him on all sides at once. He was knocked +senseless, and when he came to himself they were all out on the +southward prairie. He could see the lights of the fort far away. He was +propped against a wheel and they were wrangling among themselves. He was +bleeding, dazed, had been cruelly beaten, but his wits were returning. +The moonlight was clear, and suddenly, in a row that broke out among +them, they fell upon each other, and a young, slight-looking man, who +seemed to be their leader, in striving to quell the row, lost the +handkerchief that hid his face. His light raincoat was torn open, +revealing the uniform of a lieutenant of cavalry. The form, features, +the dark little mustache, all that he could see, were certainly those of +Lieutenant Ray. Staggering to his feet, he unhappily drew their +attention again to himself, and then he was slugged and knocked +senseless and knew no more until he was being helped aboard the Pullman. +One of the men he vaguely remembered having seen before, but the only +one of the party he could have recognized was Lieutenant Ray. All +Minneconjou, he said, knew of the fracas between them that day; but few, +perhaps, had heard the lieutenant's threats, and in this brutal fashion +had he fulfilled them. + +Copies of this, of course, had gone to Department Headquarters. The +commander was expected back at the end of the week from his tour of +inspection at Yellowstone Park. Sandy could not be held in close arrest +beyond the eighth day; but that the affair would have to be thoroughly +investigated by general court everybody felt and said. Indeed, Ray +himself would be content with nothing less. But what a solemn time was +this for Marion, his devoted mother; indeed for all at Minneconjou. + +Up at the "ranking" end of the row Oswald Dwight lay in the grasp of a +burning fever that, coupled with what had gone before, had weakened his +reason and might well end his life. Under the same roof, visited at +intervals by the charitable, the sympathetic or the merely inquisitive +of their sex and station, Mrs. Dwight and her inseparable companion, +Félicie, made their moan and told their woeful tale to all comers. Inez +had been, she said, suffering all the torments of purgatory, and to many +eyes she looked it. Her husband, in his mad delirium, would not have her +near him: _he_ raved of the wife of his youth. She wept for his boy who +had been taken from her, his proper, his natural, his legal protector at +such a time. Inez was horrified to think of the outrage upon Captain +Foster, their attached and devoted friend. Inez would never believe, she +said, that such a gentleman as Mr. Ray could stoop to so vile a +vengeance, to the level of the assassin, but Félicie had other views. +The episode of that blood-stained gauntlet had been by no means +forgotten, and was dinned into the ears of those who would listen, with +infinite vim and pertinacity; this, too, despite the fact that Ray +denied having worn gauntlets that evening--having worn them, in fact, +that summer. They were no longer "uniform" for cavalry officers, and he +had not set eyes on that glove or its mate for over a month. Possibly +during the move from the major's quarters to the humble home of the +subaltern, but certainly somehow, Ray had lost several items that, +before the change in uniform, had been in frequent use, but of late +would hardly be missed, and of these were the gauntlets. + +So there was distress--anxiety--sorrowing in more than one of the many +households at Minneconjou, and in the midst of it all Priscilla, who had +thought her burden, self-inflicted though it was, quite as much as she +could bear, was confronted with another. Blenke, who had been nervous, +excitable, almost ill on the very few occasions she had seen him since +his return; Blenke, who had promised to confide to her, his +benefactress, the cause of his worries, the story of his woes; Blenke, +whose mournful eyes had blazed with a fine fury when told by Hogan, who +couldn't abide him, of Miss Sanford's salutation from the window of the +reoccupied rookery at the ford; Blenke, who could never set foot on the +floor of the Canteen, turned up missing one night at check rollcall, two +hours after taps, was suddenly and most unexpectedly stumbled on by the +officer of the day making his rounds at 3 A. M.: not, as might have +happened to men of less indomitable virtue, coming from the direction of +Skidmore's, but almost at the very opposite end of the garrison, at the +rear gateway of the field officers' quarters, No. 2, so obviously +obfuscated, so utterly limp, that he could give no account of himself +whatever, was wheeled to the guard-house in a police cart and dumped on +the slanting bunk of the prison room with a baker's dozen of the +"Skidmore guard" sleeping off their unaccustomed drunk. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +MY LADY'S MAID + + +It proved the last pound that broke the back of Priscilla's stubborn +resistance. Men and women who had found much to condemn in Miss Sanford, +who had disseminated and discussed the tale of her correspondence with +the _Banner_ and the talk that followed, who had heard with indignation +that it was after Dwight's conference with Miss Sanford that he so +furiously punished little Jim (for, as we know, Mrs. Thornton had +assured everybody that so far as _she_ was concerned she had done her +utmost to make the major understand that Jimmy never did it on purpose), +who had felt the lash of her over-candid comment on their social or +parental shortcomings, now had no little malicious merriment to add to +the deservedly hard things they had said of her. For a fortnight, +probably, Miss Sanford had been the most unpopular woman that +Minneconjou's oldest inhabitant could name; but the men and women who +saw her as one after another she faced the results of her most confident +efforts, began to feel for the lonely, sorrowing maiden a respect and +sympathy denied her before. It was plain that Priscilla was well-nigh +crushed, and "when women weep" and are desolate and hopeless resentment +turns to pity and blame to words of cheer. No one, of course, was ever +told by Mrs. Ray or by Sandy of what had passed in the sanctity of the +family circle, but in her humility and contrition Priscilla spoke of it +to Mrs. Stone and to others, who soon came to try to show her she was +forgiven. There were a few days after Dwight's fever in which she seemed +utterly heartbroken, and Mrs. Ray believed her seriously ill. There were +days in which she begged Aunt Marion to send her home, when, really, she +had no home; to send her East, then, where she could begin anew and work +her way in the world. If it came to the worst, Maidie Stuyvesant would +keep her from starving. But Aunt Marion would listen to no such +proposition. Priscilla must stay with her and at Minneconjou and live +down the unhappy repute. Aunt Marion knew how very much genuine good +there was in Priscilla when once she could rid herself of that +propensity ever to correct, criticise, and condemn; nor had Minneconjou +been slow to see this and to speak of it. Now that the tide was turning, +by dozens they came to talk of her real charity, her devotion to the +sick and sorrowing, the hours she had given--was ever ready to give--to +reading to the bed-ridden and helpless in hospital or the humble +quarters of the married soldiers. Men who had laughed among themselves +at her lecturing and preaching took to snubbing men who spoke in +disparagement of her motives. One thing was certain, whether they shared +her views or not, all Minneconjou believed in her sincerity, and +soldiers honor those who fight and suffer for their convictions. Of +Priscilla it might therefore be said she had made friends in spite of +herself, and though hardened sinners at the mess and humor-loving +husbands in the quarters _did_ indulge in little flings at the ultimate +and inevitable failure of all feminine meddlings in matters that were +purely military, there were few, indeed, after the first mirthful +explosions, who having seen her sorrowful face did not feel genuine +sympathy for her in the collapse of her Anti-Canteen Soldiers' +Benevolent Association. + +For with Blenke's fall Priscilla was left indeed lamenting and alone. + +Something of a _cause célčbre_ was that of Blenke's when it came to +trial. The summary court officer had had his hands full since payday. +The number of cases of absence without leave, drunkenness, disorder, and +disrespect to non-commissioned officers, etc., had sextupled. All were +what might be called typical cases, and traceable, as a rule, to +Skidmore's; but Blenke's, like Blenke himself, was individual and +peculiar. Moreover, it savored of the mysterious. + +The man seemed overwhelmed with mortification and distress. No one at +Minneconjou had ever known him to take so much as a glass of wine. No +one at Minneconjou among either officers or men ever really knew him at +all, for Blenke kept his own counsel, lived entirely to himself, was +neat as a new pin, prompt and accurate on duty, smart in dress--more so +than many of his officers, if truth be told--ready, respectful and in +fine a model soldier. But he had no friends nor intimates; he had no +confidants, unless we except Priscilla, to whom he had told much more +than Sandy Ray, when told, would for a moment believe. He came before +the court after two days' incarceration, neat and trim as though just +off inspection. He stood with swimming eyes before the desk, pleaded +guilty throughout, declined to summon a soul to say a good word for him +or his general character, would not even glance at the group of officers +hovering inquisitively about, would not even plead "first offense" or +urge a syllable in mitigation of sentence, even though the allegations +against him, as the court intimated to his captain, "seemed piling it +on." One specification might well have covered the entire tale of his +misdoing, but he stood accused of absence from quarters between taps and +reveille, of presence in premises where he had no possible right to be, +and finally of utter drunkenness. Blenke pleaded guilty to all, and +humbly said that, had there been more accusation, he would have done the +same, for he knew nothing of what occurred after fifteen minutes at +Skidmore's somewhere toward midnight. + +Now, the court wished to know and the listeners wished to hear some +explanation of his having turned up so far from the beaten track; of his +having, when so drunk, managed to walk so far; of his having, in fine, +entered the yard of Major Dwight's quarters. What could have suggested +that? But Blenke knew no more than the dead. The only quarters of late +he ever visited were those of Lieutenant Ray, where, said Blenke--and +here the woe in his visage was indeed pathetic--he should never again +dare show his face. Time had been--a happy time--when he had daily, +almost hourly, duties at the quarters now occupied by Major Dwight, whom +he so honored; but that was while his kind friends of Lieutenant Ray's +household were still the occupants. Possibly in his dazed condition that +memory was working in what was left of his brain. There was nothing to +excuse or explain his wandering thither now, said Blenke. He had no +mercy to ask. He deserved none. So the case was closed with a sizable +fine, and the accused sent back to his company. + +But the officer of the day had told a different tale, and the godless +array at the bachelor mess was still having fun with it. Félicie, the +self-styled French maid, had been from the start the object of no little +interest among the non-commissioned element in garrison. Félicie was +pious, if not actually pretty, and assiduous at first in Sunday morning +attendance at the little Catholic church in town, whither Dwight's own +horse and buggy and man were detailed to take her, for Inez could not +think of placing her educated and traveled maid in the same category and +wagon with the soldiers' wives. "Feelissy," from her very first +appearance, was by no means popular with this critical sisterhood, and +when it became evident that some of the best beaux among the sergeants +were also moved to attend early church in Silver Hill, feeling grew +strong against the usurper. Nor was the feeling modified by the fact +soon discovered that the maid had higher aspirations. She was too good +for the soldiers, said her commentators; but that goodness, said her +defamers, wasn't proof against the wiles of those who had more money. +Obviously the officers were aimed at in this observation, and it must be +owned that Félicie's expressive eyes had sometimes wandered toward the +mess, and that her glances fell not all on unresponsive others. The +night of Blenke's wandering was windy. The officer of the day's little +lantern blew out as he rounded a turn from the west gate toward the +bluff behind the post of No. 4, to the end that he stumbled on the +sentry unchallenged, and, when rebuked for his negligence, the sentry +said he was troubled about something at Major Dwight's. He could have +sworn, he said, the door to the high back stoop had opened just a moment +ago, letting quite a streak of light into the darkness for the space of +a few seconds, during which time he was almost sure he saw a slender +feminine shape disappear into the house. Now, he could swear no one had +entered the back gate for ten minutes, anyway, because he happened to be +right there. If it was a woman, as he believed, she must have been out +in the yard as much as those ten minutes, and perhaps someone was there +with her that shouldn't be there. All this had the sentry urged in +excuse of his failure to hear the approach of the officer of the day. It +was a black, moonless, starless night, and the officer concluded to +look. The board fence was high. He stepped within the gate, stumbled +over a loose plank, made quite a noise and said a few audibly profane +things as to the quartermaster's department for leaving walks in such +shape, but he could see nothing. So in a sheltered nook he struck a +match, and the instant he did so a man from the shadows lurched heavily +against him, muttered, "Giv'sh--light--o' man" and sprawled in a heap at +his feet. It proved to be Blenke, and Blenke proved to the satisfaction +of the court that he was blind drunk. + +But the officer of the day and his comrades at the mess were beginning +to see light, as did the sentry on No. 4. Was it possible that Félicie, +who scorned the advances of the more prominent of the rank and file, and +had become an object of no little interest even to certain susceptible +subalterns--had, after all, reserved her smiles for the dark-eyed, +mournful, and romantic Blenke? If so, then Blenke had played the part of +a man with the skill of a consummate actor. + +"I've seen Willard; I've seen Wyndham," said the puzzled captain, "and I +thought I'd seen 'David Garrick' played to perfection, but if Private +Beauty Blenke, of Company 'C,' Sixty-first Foot, wasn't drunk as a lord +that night, then Willard and Wyndham aren't in the business." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +A MOMENTOUS DAY + + +A week,--another long week,--went by at Minneconjou, and Major Dwight at +last was declared out of danger, though a badly shattered man. Mrs. +Dwight, who should have shown corresponding improvement, seemed, +however, not so well. Just in proportion as the major mended, his wife +appeared to fail. Both doctors persisted in the belief that her case was +one of nerves entirely. There was nothing organically wrong. She had +been under a great strain, of course, and her husband, in his lucid +moments, as well as in those of delirium, had shown strong antipathy to +her presence in the sick room. They had persuaded her, without much +difficulty, that it were better she kept away, and though pathetically, +properly grieved, she obeyed. Something, however, was preying upon +her--something she could not and would not confide to Mrs. Stone and +other sympathetic would-be consolers. "Madame was distressed at ill news +from her parents," Félicie had gone so far as to admit, but the ill news +did not seem to refer to illness, for there had been frequent letters +addressed in Farrell's sprawling fist, or the seņora's precise +chirography, and of late these had begun to be supplemented by +telegrams. + +In all this fortnight of alternating hope and anxiety Mrs. Ray had, with +proper inquiries, called but twice. She could do no less. She would do +no more. Mrs. Dwight occasionally appeared for an afternoon drive now, +but always with Félicie by her side in the phaeton--never, now that her +husband's guest and wits were gone, with a man. Other companionship +might have been better for her, it was generally suggested, but she +seemed to shrink from the conversation and, possibly, the interrogations +of those of her own sex and social caste. + +Great was the surprise, therefore, when a polite and perfumed note came +to the Rays for Miss Priscilla Sanford, and would Miss Sanford do Mrs. +Dwight the great kindness to drive with her that day? Priscilla, who +knew not why, and who would gladly have avoided her, ordinarily, was now +doing universal penance according to her lights, and would have gone +driving with a Jezebel. Priscilla accepted, and Félicie, for the first +time, was left at home. + +Sandy Ray's health had been suffering, and Stone saw it, and of his own +motion came over and said he considered it necessary that Mr. Ray should +take exercise. Walking being painful, the colonel said ride, and, +despite his arrest, riding anywhere within five miles' limit of the +flagstaff. Sandy thanked him, but really tried to sulk and stay home, +until the mother's gentle appeal prevailed and he began as the colonel +had suggested. There were men who thought the general would "row" Stone +for such indulgence to a man under serious charges, but Stone said he +knew his business--and the general. He would neither argue nor defend +his position, but he would like to bet two to one the general would +approve. It was rumored the general himself thought of running out to +Minneconjou and perhaps away to Wister and looking into matters along +the lower line, having but recently returned from a look along the +upper. The court had not yet been ordered. It was believed that the +charges might still be withdrawn, so difficult was it to believe Sandy +Ray capable of such a crime. But Ray insisted on trial, said he desired +the most rigid investigation, and could never be content without. It was +a most unsatisfactory situation, so far as he was concerned, and, with +no duty to perform, no drill to stir his blood, nothing to do but try to +comfort mother, reassure Maidie, who was writing every day or two, watch +for the coming of the mail from Manila and the detail for his court, +Sandy Ray was growing morbid. + +He was gone and loping up the valley when the phaeton with pale-faced, +languid Mrs. Dwight stopped at the door for Miss Sanford. Ray did not +wish to see her. He had not seen her to speak to since the night before +Dwight's breakdown, as that episode by common consent was now referred +to. He had altered his manner toward Priscilla, though resentment still +rankled, because of her almost dependent position under their roof. Had +Priscilla owned enough money to take her back to the seaboard States, +and had then remained, Sandy, perhaps, would have found forgiveness +beyond him. Even now he raged at heart when he thought of her willful +exaggeration as to the Canteen, her utter misrepresentation of +facts--especially as to his father. Again and again he owned to his +mother he felt like shaking Priscilla whenever he looked at little Jim, +who so often now became his companion on these daily rides. Once or +twice, when the patient was sleeping soundly, the doctors had taken the +lad to his bedside, but the meeting between them was yet to come. Dwight +was still too weak for experiments, and how he would bear it all when +stronger was a matter of grave conjecture. + +But on this particular day when the phaeton came for Priscilla, little +Jim had again been trouting with Sergeant French and, as luck would have +it, came dancing in with his basket of prizes to show Aunt Marion just +as Priscilla descended from her room, dressed for the drive. Three weeks +agone Priscilla would have reproved his entering without first washing +his hands and smoothing his hair. To-day she bent and hurriedly kissed +his flushed and happy face, and he looked up astonished. They had never +let him know--they could not bear to speak of--Priscilla's share in the +events of that tragic morning, and when in her downright honesty +Priscilla would have sought and told him, Aunt Marion forbade. The boy +who formerly shrank from was now growing to like her. She read to him, +helped him in the daily lessons, Aunt Marion deeming it wise he should +study even though this was vacation time; but never before had he known +Priscilla to tender a caress. Mrs. Ray watched them curiously as +together they left the room to see his catch properly stored in the +icebox. Presently, hand in hand, they returned through the hall and went +forth upon the veranda just as the phaeton suddenly drew up at the gate, +and Priscilla felt the little hand withdrawing. He did not know mamma +was coming. He went unwillingly, but obedient, to receive her effusive +words of greeting, and to hear, unresponsive, that he, dear child, was +looking so much better since dear Mrs. Ray had taken charge of him in +all these dreadful days. But she did not ask him to drive with them, nor +did he wish to go, for she had need to speak with Priscilla, and Jimmy +would have been in the way. + +It seems that matters had come to such a pass that Mrs. Dwight felt that +she must have advice, and, oh, how her heart yearned for a friend! Many +of the ladies had been kind, yes, very kind, Mrs. Stone especially; and +others, even Mrs. Ray, who she felt, she feared, she _knew_, did not +like or trust her, though she had so longed to win Mrs. Ray's +friendship. But even Mrs. Stone and Mrs. Ray could not be to her now +what she so needed--a real friend and adviser, a confidant, in fact, and +these ladies were, though they did not look it, of an age sufficient to +be her mother. What she craved was one nearer herself in years (Miss +Sanford was certainly ten years older and not easily flattered), for now +a time had come, said Mrs. Dwight, when there might be conflict between +the duty she owed her husband and--and----Priscilla gasped and bridled +and began to bristle all over with premonition of what might be coming, +then breathed a sudden sigh of relief, yet of disappointment, as Mrs. +Dwight concluded with "the deference due her parents." In their letters +both her father and her mother had been appealing to her to appeal to +her husband to come further to their financial aid; that Major Farrell +had relied upon the backing of his son-in-law in certain enterprises; +that he was now in desperate straits, and--and finally they had gone so +far as to threaten--threaten her, their daughter, with untold calamity +if she did not instantly assure them that material aid would speedily be +forthcoming. She had written, telling them of her husband's perilous +plight, of the possibly fatal illness, of the impossibility of anything +being done until his recovery, and their telegrams in acknowledgment +were imperative. She felt that she must bring her burden of trouble and +ask Miss Sanford,--of whose charity and gentleness the garrison never +tired of telling by the hour,--for Miss Sanford must feel and know that +since the day he so raged against his own son, he--he had even seemed to +turn against her, his devoted and dutiful wife. + +And now when the doctors said he was almost well enough to be approached +on matters of urgent business, she dared not. She had lost, perhaps, her +influence. "Then what could _I_ possibly do?" asked Priscilla bluntly, +and then came the explanation. The woman whom he most honored, +respected, believed in, the woman who had been the devoted friend of +her,--that was gone, with, alas, his heart buried by her side,--that +woman, Mrs. Ray, if she would but speak with him, plead with him for +her, his fond, but, ah, so cruelly misjudged wife, whose heart was +failing her now, and at a time when for his sake as well as hers she +needed all her strength. If Mrs. Ray could but see her way to do this, +ah, with what gratitude and devotion would she, Inez, ever think of +her--and all Minneconjou knew Mrs. Ray's love for her noble niece. +Everyone said that if Miss Sanford but willed a thing and urged it upon +her aunt it was a thing accomplished. Out of the goodness of her heart +would not Miss Sanford strive for her, a heart-crushed, well-nigh +hopeless wife, upon whom there had but recently dawned the knowledge +that, that--could not Miss Sanford imagine? + +And in the midst of the gush of tears with which she closed came sudden +distraction. They had been trundling easily, aimlessly over the smooth, +hard prairie road, the well-trained, well-matched ponies ambling +steadily along. They had given the cavalry herds and herd guards a wide +berth, and the townward route, for Mrs. Dwight shunned, she said, the +sight of almost any face but the sweet and sympathetic one beside her. +They had turned southward, after rounding Castle Butte, a bold, jagged +upheaval among the nearest foothills, and were winding slowly down this +narrow and crooked ravine toward the broad Minneconjou bottom, when, as +the ponies reached a fairly level bit of road, and were swiftly turning +a point of bluff, they suddenly and violently shied to the right, almost +upsetting the dainty vehicle, and nearly pitching its helpless freight +headlong into the road. Then with the bits in their teeth, away they +tore, full gallop down the next incline, the phaeton bounding after +them, and so, mercifully as it happened, out upon the broad level of the +valley, with the Minneconjou and its fringing line of cottonwoods barely +five hundred yards across the bench. The pygmy tiger had been left at +home; his ears would have been too active, and Mrs. Dwight, though +accustomed to driving her usually gentle and tractable team, was utterly +helpless now. She hung on desperately to the reins. But this was a new +and delirious experience for the merry little scamps in harness. They +were headed for home. There was a deep bend of the stream and a ford +through the shallows, and an abrupt dip of four feet from the bench +level, and the words of their fair, frail charioteer were stimulating +rather than soothing, so away they went, and it was high time for Miss +Sanford, if she wished to save their necks, to throw convention and +etiquette to the wind, to take personal control--and the reins. + +No one ever doubted Priscilla's nerve, yet here sat Priscilla hanging on +to the side-rail with both hands and staring backward, her head twisted +half round, with all her wondering, startled eyes, for the objects that +had stampeded the ponies were a brace of frowsy, blanketed Minneconjou +braves, squatted on the bunch grass in the shade of the bluffs at the +side of the road, in close conference with two men in khaki and campaign +hats, one of them, though instantly the brim was jerked down over his +eyes, she knew to be Blenke,--Blenke whose woe-begone, remorseful +letters she had duly filed and docketed, but who, he declared, was too +shame-stricken to show his face to her of all the world. What on earth +was Blenke doing there in that out-of-the-way nook, and in confab with +Indians? They were hidden from view by a wave of prairie almost as +suddenly as they had been whirled into sight, and then Priscilla had to +give her aid and attention to Mrs. Dwight, who was swaying in her seat. +She grasped the reins with her strong, wiry hands, but the little devils +were within an hundred yards of the brink and reckless of everything but +the mad exhilaration of a runaway. She heard from somewhere a shout, +"Pull your left rein _hard_!" and with both hands she tugged with sudden +and startling result. The ponies almost instantly veered to the left; +the light vehicle tipped slightly to the right, and with that Inez went +toppling headforemost over the low, leathern mud guard, and Priscilla +was alone. Still clinging to that left rein, she swung her discomfited +steeds in broad, big circle, narrowly scraping yet safely missing the +edge, and so, gradually, they found themselves galloping out once more +over the prairie and away from the homeward road and back toward that +narrow ravine whence two Indians were now lashing their finally captured +ponies southward across the valley; and then, still circling, the +pygmies discovering that they were heading westward once more and +farther from home, their enthusiasm by degrees, therefore, became +beautifully less. They slowed gradually down to a lunging canter, then +to a shame-faced trot, and finally, with Priscilla in complete control +of both reins, her own head and theirs, they were brought at a decorous +gait back to the road and the point where their mistress had quit +them--and the lady had disappeared. + +Guiding them carefully down the short declivity to the water's edge, +Priscilla came upon a not unlooked-for explanation. Sandy's horse had +disappeared. His owner was kneeling at the edge of the rippling waters, +bending over a lovely, prostrate form, alternately sprinkling and +fanning the dusty, pallid, but beautiful face, then dropping his hat to +chafe the limp little hands. With eyes full of terror he glanced up at +his cousin. With a voice half-choked with dread, he called to her, "Let +those little brutes go, Pris, and come here quick!" But Priscilla, with +wisdom untrammeled by passion and dread, lashed their bits to a tree +trunk before she would quit her charges, and by the time she reached the +interesting group at the water's edge the dusky head was pillowed on a +tan-colored knee, and further supported by a tan-colored arm, and the +loveliest dark eyes in the world, just unclosing, were gazing +imploringly up into her cousin's agonized features. A faint flush was +rising to the soft cheek, and lips that were colorless but a moment or +two agone, now reddening again, now quivering and beautifully alluring, +seemed almost uplifting, as though to reward, to welcome his, as with +joy unmistakable they murmured, "Sandy--Sandy--I knew--you'd come." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +BLENKE COVERS HIS TRACKS + + +Priscilla Sanford in the next few days, despite the fact that most of +her pupils were gone, found her duties increasing. She had seen Blenke, +but only through enlisting the interest of his captain, who directed +Blenke to call upon Miss Sanford and give account of his stewardship or +be sent thither in charge of a sergeant. Blenke appeared at last in the +dusk of evening and the depth of despond. He wrung his white hands, he +bowed his shapely head in shame. He could hardly speak, such was his +humility, but he stuck to it that his story was true. She knew enough of +his past (at least she should know, since he had told her so much of it) +to believe that he had enjoyed the benefits of travel, prosperity, and +education. He had trusted, however, where he should have guarded, and +devotion to his fellows had resulted in his financial ruin. A man who +owed him hundreds, and had promised to pay, was in Rapid City, and came +thence to find him here at the very time Blenke started to find him +there. The failure of this man to keep his promise had involved Blenke +shamefully. He had borrowed much more than the ten dollars he still owed +his benefactress. It was shame and worry, resulting in prostration and +insomnia, that drove him forth at night, that led to his taking Skid's +prescription, for Skid, who was so very grateful for Blenke's conduct at +time of the fire, did not, however, come forward with offer of financial +aid. He was going to do that, he said, when he got his insurance money, +which was still suspiciously withheld. Skidmore gave Blenke Scotch ale, +warranted to produce sleep. It at least led to oblivion, the +disappearance of his watch, and the train of miserable, disgraceful woe +that followed. How could Blenke ever face Miss Sanford again? Not until +ordered could he bear the ordeal, even though her letters had assured +him of forgiveness and further aid and confidence. As to his being with +those Indians, lurking in that tortuous ravine, the explanation was +simple. The man who had tricked him, a contractor, was said to be over +at the reservation--Indians had so told him. They were forbidden to come +to the fort or be seen about Skidmore's. They could only meet him out of +sight of the post and its slum suburb. He and a comrade met them to hear +their report at the crossing of the old road from Fort Siding by way of +Castle Butte to the Belle Fourche country, and catching sight of +Lieutenant Ray, riding slowly along the edge of the timber, the Indians +had led on into the ravine, where they had hardly dismounted and turned +loose their ponies when the phaeton flashed into view around a point of +bluff, almost running them down, then running away. Startled as he was, +Blenke would have grabbed a pony and galloped to Miss Sanford's aid, but +their ponies, too, took fright and stampeded. The Indians went in +pursuit, and by the time Blenke could again see the phaeton it was +quietly descending the little ramp to the river bottom, and all seemed +well. Then Lieutenant Ray's horse was seen galloping away toward the +fort, and that was another reason why he, a poor private, should not +presume to intrude when an officer was presumably there. He went in +pursuit of the horse. Lieutenant Ray, he said, had never liked him, +while he, Blenke, could almost lay down his life to serve Lieutenant +Ray. + +So Priscilla could say nothing but "Go and sin no more," and come back +to the choir, which Blenke promised faithfully to do. + +Then Major Dwight was at last sufficiently recovered to be pronounced +convalescent, and there had been the meeting with his beloved boy, the +first few minutes of which had been witnessed only by Dr. Waring and +Mrs. Ray, who presently, reassured by his calm, withdrew and left father +and child together. It had been followed by a regular visit each day, +limited to less than an hour for the time being. There had been two +interviews, Dr. Waring only being present and that not all the time, +between Dwight and his wife. From both of these Inez came forth weeping +convulsively, to be comforted by Félicie--and a pint of Pommery Sec. +That something had been sent to the importunate Farrells the doctor had +knowledge, and that something had been said to their daughter to plunge +her in grief inexpressible the garrison was speedily informed. "She +should leave him, this angel," said Félicie, "but she is of a devotion, +my faith, the most incomparable--the most indomitable." + +Then Dwight begged that Mrs. Ray should come to him, and there had been +a long talk, a reconciliation, an understanding that brought comfort to +his heart and rejoicing to hers, and then as convalescence advanced, and +his mind demanded food, Priscilla had come to read to him, and from +reading, first rather less than an hour, she was reading daily now as +much as two. It gave Madame a frightful _migraine_, said the explanatory +and fruitful Félicie, to read aloud at all. + +But the projected alliance, the prospective friendship so desired by +Mrs. Dwight of the elder--the highly gifted--maid had progressed no +further. From the moment of their return from that memorable drive +neither party to the proposed arrangement again referred to it. +Priscilla, who preferred to call at any other house within the limits of +Minneconjou, was now a daily visitor. Sandy Ray, who found himself +longing to go thither, could not go at all. His arrest forbade it, and +he was asking himself what might be his course were his arrest to end, +for a rumor was current at the post that a separation was +threatened--that Captain and Mrs. Dwight were certainly estranged. There +were those who considered it most indelicate under the circumstances +that an unmarried woman should appear upon the scene even as a reader to +an aging and broken man. Perhaps it was, but the doctor smiled approval. +The colonel said "Go ahead." Mrs. Ray considered her niece quite old +enough to judge for herself. Mrs. Dwight declared it angelic, and +Priscilla said nothing at all. Priscilla, who had been prone to speak on +slight reflection, had become as silent or secretive as she had once +been censorious, for never once had she mentioned to her aunt, never yet +had she made known to Sandy, that she had heard the strange words which, +with returning consciousness, Inez, the wife of Oswald Dwight, had +murmured looking up into the pallid face of Sanford Ray. Yet Ray knew, +and soon Inez, that Priscilla had heard and not forgotten. + +It had so happened the day of that memorable drive and catastrophe that +Sandy Ray, dismounting to the aid of Mrs. Dwight, whose slender and +lovely form lay huddled by the roadside, while Priscilla and the ponies +started on their circuit, had given no thought to his own steed, which +fact enabled that inconsiderate brute to trot away homeward. Then when +Inez came to herself (though not to her senses, else would she have said +such shocking things when Priscilla was within earshot?) there arose a +question of transportation. It was only four miles to the fort, but in +his still somewhat crippled condition that was far for Sandy to walk. It +was characteristic of Priscilla that she should promptly suggest her +driving Mrs. Dwight home at once; then, if need be, sending Hogan back +with the horse. Priscilla herself was a famous pedestrian, priding +herself on sometimes "footing" it to and from town, but never once did +Priscilla now suggest that Sandy drive Mrs. Dwight or Mrs. Dwight drive +Sandy. Priscilla, indeed, behaved with some little asperity as well as +impatience when she assured Mrs. Dwight that she had the ponies now +under complete control, and all Mrs. Dwight had to do was to get in at +once. But this required Sandy's aid and encircling arm. Then when Inez +was fairly in her reclining seat, she could not release the hand. "But +surely _you_ are coming? Your horse is gone! What--walk, Miss Sanford? +Indeed, he shall not, and after having carried poor me all that +distance." (For a woman in a dead faint Inez was oddly alive to what had +been going on.) "You are coming right in here, Mr. Ray!" and she edged +vigorously over against the stout structured Priscilla in determined +effort to make room for Sandy beside her. So there he rode, saying very +little, but tumultuously thinking, Heaven only knows what, for Inez had +then eyes, ears, aye--lips, had he dared--only for him. She nestled +close and confiding in the arm trembling about her slender shoulders. He +felt the contact of her rounded form. His head was in a whirl, his heart +was in a tumult, when at last Priscilla reined in at the major's gate, +and again Sandy had almost to carry the lovely burden up the major's +steps and, with one, long, melting gaze from her glorious eyes, with +five murmured words from her exquisite, parted, passionate lips, with a +thrilling pressure from both her little hands, he delivered her into the +waiting arms of Félicie, to become again a limp and prostrate being, to +require at once her handmaid's best services--and champagne. The +quantity of Pommery Sec consumed in that house during the major's +confinement thereto, said Félicie afterwards, was, _o ciel_, of the most +incredible! + +It can readily be conceived that Priscilla could not soon forget the +incidents of that day's drive, the last she ever took with Inez Dwight. +What with the apparition of Blenke and the blanketed Indians at the +ravine, the runaway of the ponies on the prairie, and the astounding +revelation that followed, the honest-hearted girl was utterly at a loss +as to her duty in the premises. Six weeks back she would not have +hesitated. She would have known infallibly just what to say and do, and +unflinchingly would she have said and done it. But, all was different +now. Her faith was strong as ever, firm and unshaken, but her +self-confidence was gone. She had made some of the worst mistakes of her +thirty years within the last three months. She had justly offended her +fondest, truest friends; had brought dire distress, untold suffering, on +a most loving and devoted father, and cruel punishment to an innocent +and trusting child. Her head had been bowed to the dust in +self-condemnation, in humility unspeakable. She could have dragged +herself upon her knees every inch of the road from their door to +Dwight's, and with streaming eyes and clasping hands, a well-nigh broken +and all contrite heart, could have bathed his feet with her tears and +implored his forgiveness. It was characteristic of Oswald Dwight,--the +old Oswald Dwight coming once again through this hell of suffering and +from the very threshold of the other world into the kingdom of +self-search and self-dominion,--that he should send for her,--beg that +she should be brought to him,--that he might lift from her mind a moiety +at least of its weight of self-accusation. It was characteristic of him +thereafter that, after the first few hours with his blessed boy--and God +alone knows what intensity of prayer, petition, love, and resolve surged +through the heart and soul of the almost re-created man--he should try +to show Priscilla Sanford that he blamed himself alone, not her; that he +honored her, respected her, believed in her, and that he rejoiced to see +the friendship that was daily growing between her and his beloved little +son. The readings that seemed so long to the censorious were not all +reading, after all, for presently and little by little the book would be +dropped, the page would be discussed, and, once away from her hobby of +original, sin and universal damnation--the Calvinistic creed of that +stern, pure-hearted if Puritanical woman--there was much that appealed +to the stern, true-hearted soldier nature of the even maturer man. A +famous Covenanter--a Roundhead after Cromwell's own heart--might Oswald +Dwight have been had he dwelt in Merry England, where sunstrokes were +unknown and dark-eyed sirens seldom heard of. As for Priscilla, she +needed but the garb to fit her for the austere duties of the sect whence +sprung her mother and her name. But it was a chastened, softened, +subdued Priscilla that now wrestled in spirit with the problem set +before her. She knew no woman in all Minneconjou except Aunt Marion with +whom to take counsel, and how could she wound, terrify, Aunt Marion with +her growing suspicion! She knew but one man in all Minneconjou on whom +she felt a longing to lean the burden of her deep trouble, and how could +she bring herself to mention it to him! + +For within the week that followed the day of that drive and disaster the +level-headed soldier in command of the department had been to Fort +Wister; had held an official inspection and a personal investigation at +Minneconjou; had interrogated and, it was whispered, instructed Captain +Foster, with the result that, though deeply injured and properly +incensed, that officer, while urging continued effort to bring to +justice his unknown assailants, decided it was unwise to press further, +for the present at least, his charges against Lieutenant Ray. Much to +Ray's disgust, therefore, he was released from arrest without the full +and entire clearance he had hoped for, and now, with the Canteen closed +and no longer demanding his supervision, with little to do at the +Exchange, still unfit for drill or soldier duty, with his soul raging +and dissatisfied, his heart stirred anew with strange and turbulent +emotion, and his brain in a whirl,--nervous, restless, sometimes +sleepless the livelong night,--Sandy Ray had again taken to riding long +hours to get away from himself,--from everybody, as he told his anxious, +watchful, but silent mother. (How little did Priscilla dream how much +that mother knew! How little did that mother know how much Priscilla +dreamed!) And in Ray's avoidance of everything, everybody, he rode never +to town, but ever to the west and often to the clump of cottonwoods +opposite the mouth of that crooked ravine where Inez Dwight, with the +look, the touch, the temptation of the unforgotten days at Manila and +Nagasaki, had come again into his life, and whither Inez Dwight, +decorously accompanied by her sheepdog of a maid, found means to drive, +no matter which way she started, and there or about there, to meet +him,--to see him four days out of the seven,--until the climax came. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +AGAIN THE SALOON + + +For a man of philosophic temperament, one who seldom worried other +people or himself, Colonel Stone had been having a nerve-racking time of +it. He was troubled in the first place about the condition of affairs +military in his big command, which the general himself had referred to +as "a sad falling off," and which Stone saw no way under the law to +correct. The number of men absent without leave, absent unaccounted for, +probably in desertion, or absent "in the hands of the civil +authorities," had increased alarmingly since the closing of the Canteen. +"Skid" and his abominable community across the fords had been doing a +thriving business, and were vastly enjoying the situation. Men by dozens +who had been content, after their sharp drills or when the day's work +was done, with mild and palatable beer, now sat sullenly about their +barrack steps in the summer evenings, or, out of sheer disgust, wandered +off by twos and threes (and a new footbridge erected by Skidmore), to +spend their leisure hours and scanty cash over the reeking counters of +the saloon, deeming themselves robbed of a right accorded every other +wageworker throughout Christendom, and saying things of their Congress +it wasn't safe for their officers even to think. They did not so much +blame the women who had started the movement that spoiled their soldier +homelife--how could women of the Fold be expected to know anything about +the conditions on the frontier?--but, said our sergeants and corporals +and sturdy men-at-arms, the soldier had a right to expect that Congress +would look before it voted. Possibly had the soldiers, too, been voters +their side of the case might have met some consideration; but, being +politically on the same plane with "Indians not taxed," it was safe, at +least, to similarly fix their social status and restrictions. Forbidden +by the people he was sworn to serve, to take his temperate drink at +home, but permitted by the same people to drink his fill of fiery stuff +abroad, abroad the thirsty soldier went, and with him went many a man +who had been content with mighty little, but resented it that he should +be discriminated against, denied the right of the humblest citizen, and +declared the only white man in America fit only to be ruled as is the +red. + +The morning list of prisoners at Minneconjou was something over which +Stone was nearly breaking his heart. Every night now, in numbers, the +men were sneaking off across the stream, lured by the dance music, the +sound of clinking glass and soldier chorus and siren laughter. However +well the colonel might know his own profession, he was powerless under +the law to deal with this question. Here "Skid" had him and the garrison +by the throat. With the knowledge that his men were drinking, dicing, +and going generally to the devil within those ramshackle walls across +the stream, he could neither remove the victims nor dislodge their +tempters. Patrols he could send to search the roads, the open prairie, +the river bottom, but Skidmore had declared that no armed party could +legally cross his threshold, and the courts had backed him. Soldiers +roistering in the roadway in front of the dive would dart within doors +at sight of the patrol, and the officer, sergeant, or private that +entered there left hope behind of fair treatment in the civil courts. +Stone tried sending a big sergeant and six stalwart men unarmed, and +they came back eventually without coats, collars, or character, none of +them without bruises, some of them not without aid. Stone marveled that +so many of his men turned up in town drunk, helpless, and in the hands +of the local police, with fines imposed by the local magistrates, but +that, too, was presently explained. Skid kept a big, twelve-seated "bus" +that on busy nights, as the soldiers got well fuddled and completely +strapped, he would load up with the drugged and drowsy victims and, +instead of driving them over to the fort, would trundle them to town, +dump them in front of some saloon, there to be run in by a ready police, +and locked up until sober and abject. Then would come their arraignment +and the invariable "Five dollars or thirty days." Then their officers +would be notified. The fines at first were paid, until it dawned upon +Stone that Skid and Silver Hill, both, were in the swindling +combination, that after Skidmore had got the last cent of the men there +was still a way of squeezing more from the officers. As soon as the fort +realized the fact the town ceased to realize the funds, and Skidmore was +told to send no more castaways to Silver Hill, so he simply turned them +out to take their medicine where once they took their comfort--at the +post. + +But Skid's was a menace in yet another way, and, so long as his "ranch" +was far over to the southeast, the fort had not felt it. The noble +redman likes liquor, and the low-caste and half-breed crave it. There +were always a shabby lot of hang-dog, prowling, ill-favored +off-scourings of the Sioux lurking about Skid's premises day and night, +bartering when they had anything to barter, but generally begging or +stealing. A drunken soldier, sleeping off his whisky in the willow +patches, was ever fair game, and sometimes now soldiers were found +throttled, and robbed of their very boots and shirts. Serious clashes +had occurred, and were of almost daily happening, to the end that +officers, out fishing or shooting, had been insulted and threatened by +Indians who had sworn vengeance against the soldier, and knew no +discrimination. "We'll have trouble from that yet," Stone had told his +general, and the grave, lined face of the latter showed how seriously he +regarded the possibility. Sandy Ray, riding far out to the southwest one +summer day, had met a brace of young braves who insolently ordered him +to turn back or fight, and this when he had not so much as a pocket +pistol or an inkling that trouble was brewing. Knowing a little of their +"lingo," and something of the sign language, he demanded an explanation, +and got for answer that two of their brothers had been worsted in +conflict with him and his party. Sandy protested he had had no trouble +with any of their people, and got a prompt answer, "Fork tongue!" +"Liar!" and other expletives not printable, and he turned back before +their revolvers, wrathful, helpless, and wondering. He told his tale to +the colonel, and Stone looked solemn: + +"Sandy," said he, "you--take chances riding out that way. I--I've been +getting anxious about you--have been on the point of speaking--before." +Whereat Ray suddenly went crimson, through his coat of sun tan, and bit +his lip to control its quiver. "There's mischief brewing with those +people, I fear. Their agent has written me twice. One drunken brawl at +Skid's has led to clashes where whisky wasn't the inciting cause. He +says two of his young men were set upon by some of our troopers here, +and it isn't safe to meet them alone. Indeed, Sandy, I wish you'd ride +in--some other direction." + +It was what his mother had very gently said to him but yester morning, +before he had heard of any sign of Indian trouble. How _was_ he to hear, +since he seemed to avoid the society of his kind and to prefer to live +alone? Ray left the colonel's presence with his nerves a-tingle. Had it +come to this then, that his father's old friend should say to his +father's son that--he was riding the wrong way? + +Yes. This was another matter that was giving Stone sore trouble. Mrs. +Stone was a woman who paid, ordinarily, little heed to garrison talk. +She and her colonel were the best of chums, and one reason was that, +even when she heard she would never carry to him the little spiteful +rumors often set astir by the envious or malicious. When, therefore, +Mrs. Stone came to him with a story at the expense of man or woman, the +colonel knew there was something behind it. Now, though Mrs. Dwight's +pretty phaeton usually _started_ eastward, it speedily "changed +direction." The country about Minneconjou was very open, almost all +rolling, treeless prairie, and its hard, winding roads could be seen +criss-crossing the gray-green surface in many a mile. It seemed wicked +that Mrs. Dwight should care to stay out so long when her husband had +been so very seriously ill and was still confined to his room. Even +though he did not desire her presence, and was sore angered at and +presumably estranged from her, Minneconjou said she ought not to be +abroad, especially if it involved her meeting a young officer once +thought to have been deeply smitten with her charms. True, no one had +seen them together except from a long distance, and then it appeared +that the horseman rode for a few moments only by the side of the pretty +equipage. But, for what else could she go thither, and why, if bent on +going thither, should she thrice start by way of the east gate and then +make long, wide circuit of the prairie roads? + +Mrs. Stone had heard enough to convince her she ought to speak to Mrs. +Dwight, but first she must consult her husband. Stone had heard just +enough to convince him he ought to speak to Sandy, when they had their +conference, this admirable couple, and that day he spoke. + +And that day, as it happened, Sandy Ray had ridden home, saying to +himself "this must be the last." + +One morning, the first meeting since that of the runaway, she had +surprised him mooning at the cottonwoods, his horse tethered and +cropping the bunch grass, he himself stretched at length at the edge of +the stream lost in deep and somber reflection. Just where she expected, +there she found him, but not as she expected. In spite of her +effusiveness the day of the drive, he was grave, distant, unresponsive, +though she sat beaming on him from the phaeton, Félicie beside her, an +unhearing, unheeding, uncomprehending dummy. The next time Inez took the +air in that direction she saw him afar off, and he her, and rode away. +That evening she promenaded quite an hour on her veranda, and later he +got a little missive: + + Will Mr. Ray, if not too busy, come to me one moment? There is a + matter on which I much desire his aid. + + (Signed) INEZ DWIGHT. + +Ray was slowly crossing the parade, after an hour at the sergeants' +school. He could not stay home, where mother might possibly ask the +questions she sometimes looked, but he need not have feared. Dwight's +one soldier groom came speeding with the note and the word, "Mrs. +Dwight's at the gate now, sor" And at the gate she was, in diaphanous +muslin or _piņa_ or _justi_--how should a man know? Ray neither knew nor +cared. His head was set against her, though his heart was throbbing +hard. He had listened just one day to her soft speeches, quivered under +her melting glance, and thrilled under her touch. Then he saw his danger +and swore he would shun it, coward or no coward. On that following day, +afar up the valley, he had set his face against her when she came in +search of him. Now he could not so affront her, though she had tricked +and affronted him. Again he was civil or coldly courteous, but he held +aloof and would not see her extended hand, whereat her underlip began to +tremble, and she laid her hand upon his arm. + +"Am I _never_ to have a kind word, Sandy?" she pleaded, and there was +intoxication in the glance, the touch, and trembling lip. "Will you +never listen to my story, and know how I was tricked--how--how I lost +you?" + +And bluntly he had answered, "I do not care to know. If that is all you +wish to see me about, good-night," then turned and left her. He was +raging at the thought of her flirtation with Foster. He could not +forgive that, though for a few hours, in the amaze, bewilderment, and +vague delight with which he had heard her waking words, and read the +alluring message in her eyes, and felt the warm throb of her heart, +almost against his, as they homeward drove, with Priscilla stern and +silent at the reins, he had forgotten. He had been carried back, in +spite of all, to the thrill and glamour of those wondrous days and +almost deliriously blissful nights, sailing over moonlit summer seas, +wandering under starry summer skies, with the soft breeze laden with the +perfume of the cherry blossoms stirring her dusky hair and blowing it +upon his warm young lips. But that was far, far in the past now. He +could have listened, _might_ have listened, but between her pleading +eyes--those beautiful, uplifted eyes--and him there stalked the effigy +of Stanley Foster, with that sneering, smiling, insolent, triumphant, +possessive look upon his evil face; and, though Ray hated it, it was +what he needed. Let it be remembered of him, then, that in the stillness +of the summer night when they two stood almost face to face and utterly +alone, despite her restraining hand, her beseeching touch and tone, he +turned sturdily away. + +But alas for human frailty, that was not the last appeal! The summer +night was young, there was a soft wind blowing from the wrong direction, +the southeast, and the strains of music, mellowed and tempered by +distance, had been wafted fortwards from beyond the stream, soon to give +way to louder, harsher strains, and be punctuated by jeering laugh or +drunken yell. It was barely ten o'clock, yet the broad walk and many a +veranda along the row seemed deserted. Walking stiffly homeward, Ray met +only one couple, and never heeded a hail or two from vine-screened +porches. He was in no mood for chat or confidence. He wished to reach +his own room, and reach it unmolested. He breathed a sigh of relief that +there was no one to detain him as he neared his own doorway. The little +parlor, too, was deserted. Mother and Priscilla had apparently gone to +some one of the neighbors. The lights were turned down on the lower +floor and all was darkness above. Doors and windows, army-fashion, stood +wide open, and, as he struck a match on reaching his little room, the +white curtains were fluttering outward under the stir of the gentle air +that swept through from the hall. He had no thought of staying. He meant +to leave his books and papers, to bathe his face and hands, for they +seemed burning, and then--he had no definite plan; he only wished to be +alone. + +At the foot of the stairs, as he reached the lower hall, he heard his +mother's voice. She was at the gate, Priscilla and Captain Washburn, +too, and Sandy turned, tiptoed through the hall, the dining-room, the +deserted kitchen, for the domestics had gone gossiping about the +neighborhood. Back of the kitchen, in the narrow yard, ran the +one-storied shed, divided by partitions into laundry, storeroom, coal +and woodshed, and Hogan's sleeping-room and sanctuary, and a dark form +issued from Hogan's doorway at the instant that Sandy, tiptoeing still, +came forth from the kitchen. "Hogan!" he hailed, but it was not Hogan. +It was someone of his own size and build, someone who started, then +stopped short and faced him with punctilious salute. + +"It is Blenke, sir." + +"And what the devil are you doing--there?" demanded Ray, suspicious, +irritated, nervously angered against everything, everybody; never, +moreover, approving of Blenke, and knowing well how Hogan disapproved of +him. + +But Blenke's voice was gentle melancholy, mingled with profound respect. + +"Looking for Hogan, sir. I had promised Miss Sanford to return some +books. I didn't presume to enter the house, and thought to leave a +message with him. I desired, too, to see the lieutenant, sir. My +application for transfer to the cavalry has been disapproved, and--I +hoped that he might say just a word to help me." + +"After that exploit of yours--last month?" And Ray's eyes grew angrier +yet. "We have too many questionable characters as it is." + +"Lieutenant," spoke the soldier, almost imploringly, "I am doing my best +to live down that--most deplorable affair. I was drugged, sir. There can +be no other explanation, but my captain still holds it against me, and +at the very time I most needed to be here, he has picked me out for +detached duty--to go to the wood camp in the Sagamore to-morrow." + +And at the instant Priscilla's crisp, even tones were heard at the rear +door. "Oh, Blenke? I _thought_ I knew the voice. One moment and I'll +strike a light!" + +And in that moment Sandy made his escape. + +His mother was sitting up waiting for him when, an hour later, he came +in. Tenderly, fondly, she kissed him, and for a moment he clung to her. +Then, looking in her face, he saw impending question. + +"Not--not to-night, mother, darling," he hurriedly spoke. "I _do_ want +to talk with you--to tell you, but not to-night. Bear with me just a day +or two, and"--then again his arms enfolded her--"trust me." + +Her silent kiss, her murmured blessing, was his good-night. Then she +went slowly to her room, leaving him to extinguish the lights and close +their little army home to await the coming of another day. + +But, somewhere about twelve there was trouble down toward the fords, and +Sandy, in no mood for sleep, went forth to inquire. The sentry on No. 3 +was standing listening to the distant jumble of excited voices. "I don't +know what it was, sir. They took some fellow up to the guard-house, and +they're hunting the willows for more." Then No. 4, behind them, set up a +shout for the corporal, which No. 3 echoed, and Sandy, not knowing what +to expect or why he should go, trudged westward up the sentry post and +found No. 4 fifty paces beyond the last quarters, the major's, and +wrathful because "some fellers," he said, had sneaked in across his +post. The corporal came panting on the run, and Ray scouted on along the +bluff, saw nothing, found nobody, turned to his right at the west gate, +glanced upward where the night light burned dimly in the patient's room, +at the closed blinds and shades of the room he knew to be hers, and all +was hushed and still within the sleeping garrison as a second time he +walked slowly homeward along the row, unseen of anybody, probably, from +the moment he left the corporal and No. 4, who had some words over the +sentry's report, and parted in ill humor. "Don't you yell for me again +until it's business, d'ye hear?" was the corporal's last injunction. + +Less than fifteen minutes later No. 4 was startled by a sudden sound--a +woman's half-stifled scream, followed by commotion at Major Dwight's. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +A MOTHER'S DREAD + + +Little Jim came over somewhat earlier than usual in the morning. He had +returned to his own room adjoining his father's as soon as the +physicians deemed it wise to permit, and the permission was given +earlier than others might have deemed wise because the doctors, both +senior and junior, agreed that Dwight's recovery would be retarded if +the boy were not close at hand, with his fond smile and caressing touch, +eager to answer the faintest call. There was something more than +pathetic in the way the somber deep-set eyes of the weak and broken man, +so infinitely humbled in his own sight, now followed Jimmy's every +movement about the room, and as soon as Dwight was strong enough to +leave his bed for a moment at a time he would be up again and again +during the night hours to gaze into Jimmy's sleeping face, to softly +touch his hand or forehead. Stratton, of the hospital force, detailed +for duty with the major, told later how the big tears would gather in +the major's eyes as he bent over the unconscious sleeper; how, many a +time he would find the major kneeling by the bedside, his lips moving in +prayer. Marion's eyes welled over when this was told her, though it +could hardly have been news. She and all who knew him in the old days +must have known how, with clearing faculties, the strong and resolute +man would suffer in the consciousness of the cruel wrong he had done his +boy, must have realized the depth of his contrition, and probably +guessed with fair accuracy the intensity of his grieving and of his +thoughts of her--the wife he had so utterly loved, so sadly +lost--Margaret, the devoted mother of his only son. + +And realizing this, there had come a vital question to the mind of +Marion Ray. What was to be now the father's attitude toward this +girl-wife--she who had been set in Margaret's place, never for a moment +to fill it? All Minneconjou was asking itself what would be her status, +this beautiful young creature, when reason fully resumed its sway and +Dwight was once more able to assume the reins of domestic authority? +Thus far all that was known was that estrangement existed. She, herself, +had sobbingly told her story to eager if not always sympathetic souls. +"He turns from me almost in loathing--he for whom I would gladly die!" +was her melodramatic utterance to one of her hearers, and it was quite +enough to start the story that there would certainly be a separation +just so soon as Dwight could effect it. Meantime, Inez had ever her +faithful Félicie, her phaeton, her flowers from town, her lovely gowns +and fluffy wraps, her long hours abed after sun-up, her late hours and +suppers, concerning which kitchen cabinets of officers' row had +superabundant information, and a certain firm in Silver Hill a +swift-growing account, on the face of which the item, "Case Pommery Sec, +Pints," appeared with a frequency suggestive of supper parties of +several people instead of only one or two. The domestics at the Dwights' +were a disloyal lot, if Félicie's views were accepted, but as members of +the establishment they resented it that the "frog-eating Feelissy" +should dare to give them orders. "Madame much objected to their late +hours." "It was Madame's wish they should be in their rooms by eleven +o'clock, and that even when there was a dance they should be home by +twelve." Their rooms were under the low mansard, on what might be called +the third floor, and a back staircase led from the kitchen to the upper +regions; therefore, there was no need of their entering the dining-room +late at night. Still, they saw no reason why a bolt should have been +placed on the door. They said improper things at the advent of that +obstruction during Foster's brief visit, and, after his unlamented +departure, the spare bedroom on the lower floor, assigned to that +distinguished officer, had been most ostentatiously aired. Foster's +consumption of cigarettes was something abnormal, two receivers being +sometimes left in the dining-room over night, both well burdened with +ashes and discolored ends--the only tips, by the way, the parting guest, +apparently, had time to leave. + +No, those servitors had rebelled at heart against both mistress and +maid, but the master's dictum had for a time enforced obedience. Now, +however, they were in almost open revolt. "It was her that drove him +crazy or he'd never have beaten Master Jimmy!" was the comprehensive +verdict. Yet housewives who heard their tales and reported them to their +lords met sometimes with rebuff. "Growl because they're sent to bed at +eleven o'clock, do they? They'd growl the harder if ordered to sit up +till then," was one way the unresponsive husband had of settling the +story. But wives, who are wiser in the ways of the domestic world, felt +sure there was something coming to explain it all, and something +came--though, so far from explaining, it seemed to make matters all the +more thrillingly inexplicable. + +Jimmy, as has been said, came earlier. Daddy had been up quite a while +during the night and the doctor had come over before sick call. Mamma +wasn't quite well, and Doctor Wallen had directed that daddy be +undisturbed and left to sleep, if possible, during the morning. Mamma, +of course, never came to breakfast at all now. She had her chocolate in +her room, prepared by Félicie, and seldom appeared until long after +Jimmy was out of the house. Indeed, he seldom now met mamma at all, this +in spite of the fact that, since the major's seizure, mamma had declined +all invitations to dine or sup elsewhere, and such invitations had +ceased coming, when now with entire propriety she might accept, if with +entire propriety invitations could be extended. Minneconjou society was +nearly unanimous in the view that, so long as her husband saw no +impropriety in the lady's conduct, she must be bidden. Now that he only +saw her in the presence of the doctor or the nurse, and she had for two +weeks declined to attend, there was warrant for the omission of her name +from social functions. Jimmy lunched either at Aunt Marion's, with some +of his friends, or had a chosen chum to lunch with him at home. Anything +Master Jim desired the kitchen cabinet accorded without demur. He dined +for the present with Aunt Marion, or "had his rations," as he said, when +daddy was served at seven. + +Mamma, attended by Félicie, dined later, in her accustomed state. +Mamma's appetite was very delicate and had to be stimulated, he said +with unconscious truth, and this morning, this particular morning, he +had had to wait for his breakfast. There was some kind of a squabble +between Félicie and the folks in the kitchen. He couldn't understand it. +They didn't like her having beaux around late at night--swore they'd +seen a fellow prowling about there two or three times, and only just +missed nabbing him at the foot of the back stairs last night, and +Félicie was white with rage. She said Butts, the groom, was a _cocaine_ +(though _he_ never kept any, and Félicie did) and she called the cook +_coshon_, and scolded both for having disturbed daddy. Daddy got as far +as the back stairs with his revolver, they said, before the nurse could +get him back, and they swore it wasn't their doing, but hers--her scream +that woke him, and even the sentry heard it out on No. 4 and yelled for +the corporal, and they nearly caught somebody that hid in the woodshed, +and "wasn't it funny, I never heard a thing!" and then Jimmy stopped +short, for Priscilla had stepped to Aunt Marion's side at the little +desk, and Aunt Marion was very pale. Priscilla had thrown him one +warning glance, as though to say "Hush." But Aunt Marion asked a +question. + +"What time did this happen, Jimmy?" + +"Why, after twelve, the nurse told the doctor. But, _wasn't_ it funny +that I didn't hear a thing of it?" + +"Hear what, Jimmy?" said a voice, and Sandy, an hour late for breakfast, +stood at the open door. + +"Go fetch some water, quick!" said Priscilla, and Jim went like a shot, +for Sandy Ray stood just one moment, pallid and uncomprehending, then, +with a cry, sprang to his mother's side, for her eyes had closed, her +head was drooping on Priscilla's arm. "Don't touch her, Sandy! Let +me----It's--it'll be over in a minute! She has had one or two little +turns like this!" And then Jim came running with a brimming glass. Mrs. +Ray sipped slowly, lifted her head, put forth a feeble, wavering hand +toward Sandy and faintly smiled. "How--foolish!" she muttered. "You +shall have your coffee in a moment, Sandy," but Priscilla, with +determined face, stood her ground and retained her hold. "Don't let her +rise yet," said she warningly, her eyes on his face, "and--don't ask +questions of anybody. Wait!" + +For reasons of his own, Dr. Wallen, after hearing from the attendant of +the stifled scream downstairs at 12:25, gave instructions to speak of it +to nobody but the post surgeon when he came. He did not see, he did not +ask to see, Madame. He did not wish to see Félicie, but that ubiquitous +young person was on the landing and the verge of tears. Madame's rest +also had been cruelly disturbed by this disturbance the most +disreputable made by these _miserables_, the _domestiques_ of _Monsieur +le Commandant_. Madame not until after dawn had been able to repose +herself, and as for Félicie, "me who you speak," nothing but the +pathetic condition of Madame could persuade her to remain another day in +a such establishment, wherein she, the experienced, the +most-recommended, the companion of high nobility, the all-devoted, had +been subject to insolence the most frightful----at which point the rear +door to the landing opened, and in came cook, all bristling for combat, +and the wordy battle would have reopened then and there but for Wallen's +stern, "Silence, both of you! Pull each other's hair to your heart's +content in the cellar, but not one word here." Then hied him homeward. + +When the senior surgeon came over later, the patient was sleeping, and, +after hearing that Wallen had been there, he left without interrogating +the nurse. All seemed going well, so Waring had nothing of especial +consequence to tell the colonel when dropping in at the office later. + +Even the officer of the day, in response to the question, "Anything +special to report, sir?" failed to make the faintest mention of the +excitement reported by No. 4 as occurring soon after twelve. But it was +no fault of the officer of the day. He had other and, presumably, far +more important matters to mention first, and by the time he had told +that two sergeants, three corporals and a dozen men had been run in by +the patrols, many of them battered, most of them drunk, and all of them +out of quarters, out of the post and in the thick of a row over at +Skid's; that one of the guard had been slashed with a knife in the hands +of a half-breed; that the patrol had been pelted with bottles, glasses +and bar-room bric-a-brac; that Lieutenant Stowe had been felled by a +missile that flattened the bridge of his nose, and that the prison room +was filled to the limit, the colonel would hear no more. He ordered his +horse and a mounted orderly, strode to the guard-house to personally +look over the prisoners, then set forth to town in search of the +sheriff. + +So the old officer of the day and the old guard were relieved and went +about their business, and while the colonel was closeted with civilian +officials in town a new story started the rounds at Minneconjou--a story +that only slowly found its way to the officers' club or quarters, for, +if the commanding officer didn't care to hear it, Captain Rollis, the +old officer of the day, cared not to refer to it, but there was one set +of quarters besides that of Major Dwight's in which some portion of the +story, at least, had been anticipated. + +Unable to sleep, filled with anxiety about her firstborn, Marion Ray +after midnight had left her room and stolen over to his, hoping vainly +that he might have made his way thither. But the bed was undisturbed, +the room was empty. Then she thought perhaps he might have fallen asleep +in an easy-chair in the parlor; but the parlor, too, was empty, the +lights turned low. The front door was closed for the night and bolted, +so she went to the kitchen and found the back door ajar. Somewhere out +on sentry post there was for a moment a murmur of voices, then silence +fell again, except for distant sounds at the ford--sounds to which they +were becoming accustomed, though still unreconciled. + +For a while she waited irresolute, vaguely distressed, then, finally, +returned to the upper floor and once again entered Sandy's room and +gazed wistfully about her. All was darkness, but the faint flutter at +the west window told her the light curtain was blowing outward, so she +went thither, drew it in and fastened it, then stepped to the other +opening to the south and looked out over the dark valley of the +Minneconjou, the sharp ridge that spanned the far horizon, and the +brilliant, spangled sky above. And while she gazed, she listened, hoping +every minute to hear the sound of his coming, even though it was no +longer the light, quick, springy step that before his wound was so like +the step she so well remembered--his father's, in the old days of the +--th. She was just turning away disappointed when far up at the west she +heard the shrill cry, "Corporal of the guard, No. 4!" heard the prompt +echo of No. 3, the more distant calls of 2 and 1, and, even before these +last, had heard the swift footfalls of the summoned guardian taking the +short cut across the parade. Two--three minutes she waited, listening +for the explanation. Vaguely, dimly, she could make out the form of No. +3 standing at the edge of the sloping bluff, listening, apparently, like +herself, for explanation of the call. None came. Then the sentry stepped +swiftly along his post in the direction of the sound, as though +something further had caught his eye or ear. Then he was lost to view, +and still she waited. Then she heard a voice that was probably the +sentry's, low and indistinct, yet like the challenge and the "Advance +for recognition". Then, a moment later, a hurried footfall, almost at a +run--a halting, uneven footfall, as though one leg was not doing its +share, and that then surely meant Sandy, and Sandy would know all that +had passed and would tell her. Yes, there he came, so vague, so shadowy, +now that, had she not heard the sound, she would not have looked for the +shadow. She saw the dark form dive quickly through the gate, then pause. +Instead of coming further, Sandy had stopped and, leaning at the +gate-post, was peering up along the fence line outside. How unlike Sandy +that seemed! Why should her son seek shelter and then turn and look back +from a safe covert along the path he came? Something urged her to softly +call his name, but, with a moment's thought, she decided against that. +She would go down, meet him, welcome him, see if there were not +something he needed, see him to his room, kiss him again good-night; and +so she took her candle to the lower floor, left it on the dining-room +table, and finally reached the rear door, even as her son came slowly up +the steps. At that instant began at the guard-house the call of +half-past twelve. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +LOVE'S LAST APPEAL + + +Going, as usual, next day to read an hour or so to the invalid major, +still under injunctions not to tax his eyes, Miss Sanford became +conscious of an undercurrent of something akin to sensation, something +approximating unusual excitement. Both doctors had earlier been there, +and Wallen came again. The hospital attendant seemed abnormally anxious +and officious. Félicie, infelicitously named, if it was her name, +fluttered upstairs and down, in and out of my lady's chamber, effusively +greeting the neighbors who somewhat significantly began coming in with +anxious inquiry, tender of sympathy, etc. "Couldn't help noticing the +doctor had been over three times, so fearing the major might have had a +turn for the worse," etc., etc., but it wasn't the man so much as his +wife of whom they hoped for tidings. But Félicie could fence, and would +not favor even the adroit with the desired information. Madame was still +reposing herself. Madame would assuredly promenade at horse or in +vehicle later. Madame adored the fresh, free air, and though Madame was +desolate that, alas, her physicians, these medicines, adjured her that +it was the most important she should at this time live hours in the air +and sunshine, and she was forbidden the bliss of sharing her husband's +confinement and alleviating his ennui, it was for his sake more than her +own and for the sake of their cherished hope that she meekly yield to +their mandates; and was it not a circumstance the most felicitous that +the charming Mademoiselle should be so ever-ready to read to Monsieur +the Commandant? + +With all its graceful, polished pleasantries at the expense of the +unmarried sister of thirty and upwards, the social world that professes +to regard her matrimonial prospects as past praying for, and herself as +oddly unattractive, is quick to take alarm when, apparently accepting +their unflattering view, she likewise accepts duties denied, as a rule, +to those who are attractive. The very girls who giggled behind "Aunt +Priscilla's" back and pitied her undesired lot were promptly and +properly aggrieved that she should prove to be so forward, so +unmaidenly. Because the right man does not happen to come into a woman's +life until so late, or because the wrong one happened in and won her +fresh young heart all too early, it results that many a better, wiser, +lovelier woman lives unmated to-day than many a woman married in her +teens. Lucky is the man the Indian summer of whose life is blessed by +the companionship of such. Minneconjou laughed at Priscilla so long as +she read to the man in hospital or the bed-ridden dames in the married +quarters; but it shied violently at her spending an hour or more each +day in reading to Dwight, even though the attendant was never away, and +Mrs. Ray, with her needlework, was often present. Was Minneconjou +already consigning the present incumbent to outer darkness and thinking +of prescribing another mate for Oswald Dwight? + +Not only did Priscilla note the incessant flittings about the house, but +presently she saw that Dwight's attention was wandering. From the +adjoining room the muffled sound of voices, in petulant appeal or +expostulation, was at times distinctly audible. Félicie wished Madame to +do something, apparently, which Madame was determined not to do. + +Félicie came once or twice with Madame's devoted love to ask if there +was anything Monsieur desired or lacked, and to flash guarded +malevolence at Priscilla. Félicie came again to say Madame was +recalcitrant. She feared Monsieur had not rested well _cette nuit_, and +she wished well to postpone her promenade, but the doctor he had +prescribed and Monsieur he had desired that Madame neglect no +opportunity to take the air, and would not Monsieur again conjure +Madame? Madame was deaf to these the protestations of her most devoted. +Dwight rose slowly from his reclining chair and, excusing himself to the +patient reader, was gone but a moment or two, and Madame was ravishingly +gowned and most becomingly hatted and veiled when, just for a moment, as +the day's session was closing and the fair reader about departing, +Madame rustled in to archly upbraid Monsieur for his cruelty in ordering +her to take her drive when it was impossible for him to be at her side. +"Ah, but next week--next week!"--this, doubtless, for the benefit of +Priscilla--"we shall see!" + +The phaeton was at the door and Priscilla walked silently, thoughtfully, +homeward. Aunt Marion was at her desk, writing pages to the +soldier-husband and father in the distant Philippines. The sweet face +was looking grave and careworn. There were traces of tears, there were +dark lines, about the soft blue eyes, as Priscilla bent and tenderly +kissed her. "Do come down and let me make you a cup of tea," she +pleaded. "You've been writing--and I reading--long. I'd like some, too. +Is--is Sandy home?" + +"Riding," said Aunt Marion briefly, and Priscilla knew. + +Ordinarily, half a dozen women would come drifting in to Mrs. Ray's +during the summer afternoon. To-day there were none. They heard voices +on the walk, voices that seemed to hush as the gate was neared, and only +to resume in low tone after it was passed. Priscilla could not account +for the unusual depression that had seemed to possess Aunt Marion even +when struggling against it herself. At breakfast time Aunt Marion had +been unusually silent, unusually watchful of Sandy, who, before he would +touch his fruit or sip his coffee, had gone forth to the bench in rear +of quarters, searching, he said, for some memoranda he might have +dropped out there at night. He had hunted all through the pockets of his +khaki rig, that he happened to be wearing at that time, and to no +purpose. He must have whipped it out with his handkerchief, he +said--"just that little flat memorandum book" they had often seen him +have, with a few loose pages--no earthly use to anybody but him, no +great consequence, and yet, after breakfast, he was searching again, and +had Hogan searching, and again he returned and hunted all through his +room, and investigated cook and housemaid, and again went forth. +Priscilla found herself unable to cast it from her mind or to cause her +aunt to forget it. Sandy had been gone an hour when she returned, and +had said not to wait dinner; he might ride late and long and far. + +"But not toward the reservation," he assured his mother, seeing the +trouble in her face. "Though I'd more than like to ride over there with +the troop and round up those blackguard reds that turned me back." + +"Those blackguard reds" were forbidden by their agent to set foot north +of the Minneconjou, where the ranchers and settlers and miners were +frequent. But still the mother was anxious, filled with dread she could +not speak, and even as she now sat, absently toying with her teaspoon, +the maid came in with a note. "A soldier friend of Blenke" had just +brought it for Miss Sanford. + +So Priscilla opened and read: + + Miss Sanford will pardon, I pray, the liberty I probably take in + presuming to address her, but our plea to the captain was + fruitless. He insists on my going with the detachment to the wood + camp; so, long before this reaches Miss Sanford we shall have + started, and it may be days before relief will come. Meantime, with + my assurance that with Heaven's help I shall yet redeem myself in + her estimation, I remain Miss Sanford's grateful and humble + servant, + + P. BLENKE. + +Verily, the young man wrote with a pen of the courtier and scholar of +olden time rather than the rude trooper. Verily, Blenke was a man of +parts--and played them. + +"Where is that wood camp?" asked Aunt Marion, with languid interest, +relieved, she knew not why, that Blenke should be gone. + +"Far up the foothills--west. It seems that lately the Indians have been +threatening and abusive," said Priscilla. "That's why the guard was +sent. They march soon after reveille, and--he was so unwilling to go +just now, when he hoped to arrange matters about his--commission," and +Miss Sanford's clear gray eyes, much finer and softer they seemed +without the _pince nez_, were lifted again, half timidly, half +hopefully. + +"How could he expect or hope for such a thing now?" answered Mrs. Ray, +with some asperity. "What officer would recommend him after that--that +exhibition?" + +Priscilla colored. That episode was a sore point, but not a settler. "He +said it depended little on the officers, auntie," was the gently +forceful answer, "so long as he had the senator behind him." Whereupon +Aunt Marion arose and peered through the one window in the little +dining-room that opened to the west. She was forever peering up the +valley now, and Priscilla well knew why. The maid again appeared. +"Phelps, ma'am, Blenke's friend, came back with this," and she held +forth a letter. "He said it was found on sentry post up the bench." + +Mrs. Ray turned quickly and held forth her hand. Silently Miss Sanford +passed the letter to her. It was an ordinary missive, in business +envelope, addressed to Lieutenant Sanford Ray, Fort Minneconjou, and it +had been opened. The torn flap revealed the fact that there were two or +three separate inclosures. For a moment Mrs. Ray turned it in her +slender fingers, thinking intently, then, suddenly recollecting, told +the maid to give her thanks to the soldier if he were still waiting. She +wished to ask had anything else been found, but that, if he cared to, +was for Sandy to do when he came. Then she took the letter to her room, +and stowed it in a pigeonhole of her desk against her boy's return--then +sat her down to wait. + +Meanwhile the object of so much thought and love and care had ridden +many a mile, his brain in a whirl of conflicting emotions. There had +come to him the previous night, in the interval between that brief +interview with Blenke and the later meeting with his mother, a messenger +with a note. It was the same messenger, Butts, the soldier groom, who +had only a short time earlier met him with her note upon the parade. +Ray, fleeing from a possible meeting with Priscilla, had left her and +her soldier _protégé_ together, and slipping out of the rear gate had +gone walking up the bluffs. It was not quite time for taps and the +sentries to begin challenging. He could have gone through the yard of +any one of the adjacent quarters and so reach the front, the promenade +walk and the wide parade, but he wished to be alone, under the starry +skies. He needed to think. What could she have meant by saying, "How +they tricked me--how I lost you?" He had blamed her bitterly, savagely, +for her cold-blooded, heartless jilting of him, without ever a word of +explanation. It was so cruel, so abominable a thing that, perhaps, even +Inez Farrell could not, without some excuse or reason, be guilty of it. +And now she was striving to tell him, to make him understand; now she +was alienated from her husband and not, so Dwight's own references to +Foster would go to prove, not because of this affair with Captain +Foster. She said it was her right to be heard. Perhaps it was. If she +had been tricked, deceived, wronged--such things had happened--the story +was old as the Deluge and might be true, and if true, was it decent to +treat her with studied contempt? If she had been tricked into throwing +him over--if, if she had been true in saying she loved him, as fervently +she swore that last sweet night under the cherry blossoms in Japan, was +it manly to--to crush and scorn her now? + +He was again, with downcast eyes, slowly pacing the bluff and in rear of +the major's quarters when, far over toward the guard-house, the soft, +prolonged notes of "Lights out" were lifted on the night, and he almost +collided with a man coming quickly forth from the gate. The rear door +had closed with a bang but the moment before, and Félicie's voice, in +subdued tone, had been faintly audible. The man proved to be the same +who had come to him so short a time before, and the mission was +practically the same, "A note for the lieutenant." + +Ray took it to the west gate and read it under the lamp. + + I ask for only five minutes, at the old place, about the same hour + to-morrow. I will never ask again, for I am to leave + Minneconjou--and him--forever. + +Startled, stunned, he read her words. Was it then so _very_ serious as +this would imply? Was it her doing, or her husband's, that she should +leave? Was it possible that he, Sandy Ray, was even remotely a cause? He +could not fathom it. He would not rudely refuse. That would be simply +brutal. But why could she not see him here at home on the veranda? Why +must the meeting be so far from the post--so close to the--clandestine? +Mother had said----Then suddenly he bethought him that mother wished to +speak with him, that he had promised her to be home about taps, and, +even though he could not, dare not, talk with her to-night, he could and +should go to her at once. + +He started; then, hearing laughing voices and light footsteps along the +walk ahead of him, hesitated. Some of those teasing, tormenting garrison +girls, of course! He could not face them. Abruptly he turned again, +passed round in rear of Dwight's, stowing the note in a little notebook +as he sped and the book in the breast pocket of his khaki tunic. Some +backstair flirtation was going on in the dusk of the summer night, not +ten paces ahead, for there was sound of playful Hibernian pleading, a +laughing, half-repelling, half-inviting "Ah, g'wan now!" followed by a +slap. A trim young trooper leaped backward from a gateway to avoid +another shock--and met it on Ray's stout shoulder. The collision +startled one and staggered both. The Irish lad, all confusion, sprang +for his officer's hat and restored it with, "Beg a thousand pardons, +Lieutenant," and blessed his young superior's kindly, "No harm done, +Kelly," as, whipping out his handkerchief, Ray sped along, dusting off +the felt. + +And that harm had been done he never knew till later. + +He had managed to put mother off until the following day; had gone forth +a second time, as has been told; had passed a second time the gate where +earlier in the evening she had awaited him. All at the moment was +apparently quiet. He had almost reached home when the sound of harsh +voices out beyond the east gate caught his ear--more poor devils coming +or being dragged home from the hog ranch. Suddenly there came the sound +of muffled curses and blows. Sandy wondered why No. 2 did not call the +corporal. He hastened onward and out beyond the gate and came upon the +explanation: no need to call the corporal when two were already there, +with several of the guard, striving hard to lug peaceably to the prison +room a sextette of soldier revelers who resented being either lugged or +persuaded. The guard couldn't bear to hurt their fellows: who could say +but that conditions and parties might be reversed within the week? The +row subsided with the sight of Lieutenant Ray, but not until it had +prevented his hearing the call for the corporal that came from No. 4. He +found the front door bolted when he got back to the house, and, +remembering having bolted it, passed round to the rear steps and +then--met his mother at the door. + +She had even more to ask him then, yet once more he pleaded: "Wait until +to-morrow night." So wait she did, patiently, prayerfully, trustfully, +until the morrow's night; and then, not so patiently, but, oh, even more +prayerfully, longer, very much longer. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE LOST FOUND + + +"At the usual place and about the usual hour" the pretty phaeton, with +its fair charioteer and her black-browed companion, drew up that +afternoon under such shade as the cottonwoods afforded and waited for +the coming of a rider who, starting some time ahead, was now some time +behind. Nor did he seem to hasten when finally he came suddenly into +view at the mouth of that well-remembered ravine, and rode straight but +slowly to the rendezvous. She, the charioteer, exquisitely gowned as we +saw her parting from her invalid husband, watched him with dilating +eyes, alighted as he neared the grove, walked a dozen yards or so to +meet him and by his side as he led his mount to a point beyond earshot +of the carriage. "_You_ may trust that woman, Mrs. Dwight," said he, +"but I do not. I have come at last and against my judgment to hear----" + +"_Mrs. Dwight!_" she began, with pouting reproach. "Are we at the hop +room, Sandy, or are we,"--and the dark eyes slowly lifted,--"are we back +again at Nagasaki?" + +"We are never _that_!" was the quick reply, as he bent and knotted the +reins about a sapling at the brink; then, suddenly facing her: "I said I +should not meet you here again. I have come for this last time solely at +your urging. Never until this week have I shrunk from my mother. Never +after this day shall I do it again. You say I have wronged you--hurt +you--inexpressibly, and you wish to tell me why. Go ahead!" + +With that he pulled his hatbrim well down to his eyebrows, folded his +arms, crossed one spurred heel over the tan-booted mate and leaned +against a sturdy cottonwood. There was just a spice of the theatrical +about it all, but he was young, sore-hearted and hurt. It left no +support for her, unless she leaned on him, which nothing in his attitude +seemed to invite. Inez had no use for folded arms. To her they should be +either outstretched or enfolding. + +"You are harsh and cold and bitter, Sandy. You make it so much harder +for me to begin," she whimpered, pathetically, prettily, like a spoiled +child sure of ultimate triumph. "Why did you never answer my letter from +San Francisco?" + +"I never got it." + +"Then even that early he had begun to doubt me and to fear--you," and +again the lovely eyes were making play. "And now he hates me, because he +himself was a brute to his boy. He upbraids me for that, and--and for +Mr. Foster." + +"God! I should think he might!" + +"Sandy, Sandy!" she cried, stepping impetuously a pace nearer. "Do you, +too--do you _dare_ think me so base--me, when at Naples I would not even +let you stay--you whom I longed to speak with? Ah, how unjust!--how +mean! how cruel! And now, when I am almost friendless, you who professed +so much--_you_ are the first to turn from me." Indeed, he was turning, +and his face was growing very white again--his eyes were gazing anywhere +but at her, and she saw it, and with both her firm little hands seized +his left arm as though to turn him back. "Sandy, you _shall_ hear me, +for I'm desperate, starving, and that man, he--he tells me I lied to +him; and I did, I did lie--_for you_! He talks to me of +a--settlement--of sending me home. Why, I _have_ no home! I have no +father. My own was buried years ago. I have no mother, for she has no +thought but for him--who has disgraced us all and robbed Major Dwight of +thousands and dared to threaten me--_me_, because the major would not +send more. Oh, you _shall_ listen! It's for the last time, Sandy, and +you _shall_ know the truth! Oh, how _can_ you so humiliate a woman +who--who----_Look_ at me, Sandy, look, oh, my soldier boy, and see for +yourself! They robbed me of you, my heart's darling! They stole every +letter. They never let me see you, and they----Oh, you think this the +old worn-out story of the cruel parent and the suffering child, but I +_will_ convince you!" And now her hands quit their hold upon his arm and +tore at the bosom of her dainty gown--tore it open to the filmy lace and +ribbon underneath--tore off the driving glove from her right hand, +hurling it to the ground, and then the slim, nervous little fingers went +burrowing within. "You _dare_ doubt I love you!" she cried, and now her +eyes were ablaze, her rich, red lips were parted, her breath came +panting through the pearly gate, her young bosom was heaving like a +troubled sea. "I told you I had burned your letters--such as I had. They +burned them for me, but they could not burn your picture--_I_ did +that--I, with my mad kisses, Sandy!" And from its warm nest she drew it, +the very one he had given her in Manila, the brave, boyish face in its +tiny frame of gold, moist and blurred as though indeed her lips, her +tears, had worn it dim. "You will not look?" though one quick glance he +shot, then, with the blood surging through his veins, he turned again +and covered his eyes with his arm. "Then hear--this--and this," and +long, passionately, repeatedly she kissed the senseless, unresponsive +counterfeit, and then, letting it hang by its slender chain, once more +seized his arm and burst into a passion of tears. Then suddenly, +fiercely, she thrust him aside, turned, started swiftly away, took but +four tottering steps and, finally, almost as she did the day of the +drive, toppled headlong. + +When Félicie thought it time to take another decorous look, Mr. Ray was +kneeling by that fair, prostrate form, lifting the lovely head upon his +knee, one arm about her neck, the other drawing her to his breast, and +he was raining kiss after kiss upon the sweeping, long-lashed eyelids, +upon the pallid cheek, upon the exquisite mouth, and presently a slender +arm stole languidly about his neck and drew and held his lips to hers. + +It was nearly five that evening when the pretty phaeton whirled homeward +through the west gate. It was nearly nine when Lieutenant Ray came +slowly up-hill from the stables and, climbing the short flight to the +rear doorway, found his mother and Priscilla awaiting him in the +dining-room. He had eaten nothing since a late breakfast, and an +appetizing supper was in readiness. He looked very pale, very tired, and +to the fond and anxious eyes uplifted hopefully at first, very ill--too +ill, perhaps, to note how ill she looked, the loving and tender and +faithful one, who long hours had been waiting, watching, listening for +his step, praying for his safe return, hoping for the promised +confidence. She knew when the phaeton came, though she said naught of it +to her niece. Nearly a mile of the valley road could be seen from +Sandy's window, where she hovered much of the time until the sun went +down. Now she quickly rose and went to him, and with her soft hands on +his temples kissed his forehead, for he bowed his head, and for the +first time in his life his lips dared not even touch her cheek. "I--I'm +about used up, mother," he faltered. "I--can I have some tea? Then I'll +get a warm bath, please, and go to bed. Has--anyone been here for +me--inquired for me?" + +The sudden upward look, the anxiety in his tone, might well have warned +her, but there was something she had to know, something that ever since +evening gunfire had been preying on her mind. No. 4's story had spread +by this time all over the post, growing, probably, with each repetition. +There had been a tragic scene of some kind at Major Dwight's shortly +after midnight. Jimmy had prepared her for that much. No. 4 had heard +screams; then lights went flitting to and fro, and there was sound of +scuffling and running about, and the guard had almost arrested someone +who came dashing from the rear gate and was lost in the darkness and the +yards below. No, nobody had come to ask for Sandy! It seemed strange +that so very few of the officers had even passed that way. Everybody had +business at the office, the Club, the barracks, the guard-house; even at +Dwight's there had been a sort of impromptu conference, but nobody had +been there to disturb them in any way--no officers, at least; but Sandy +read the impending truth in his mother's eyes. She was talking +nervously, with hardly a pause, as though she wished him to know all she +knew before he could speak, and, even as Priscilla moved noiselessly +about, brewing his tea and arranging his supper, Marion, the mother, +talked rapidly, wretchedly on. + +Yes, there was something. The notebook had been found and brought home. +She would get it for him. It was right there in her desk. Priscilla +handed it, and he almost snatched it from her, swiftly turning the +leaves; then, seizing it by the back, shook it vehemently. A few scraps +and clippings fluttered to the floor, but not the paper he needed. + +"Who brought it? How did it come?" he demanded, a world of trouble, +almost terror, in his eyes. + +"Major Dwight's man," she answered, her blue eyes almost imploringly +fixed upon his face. + +"_Dwight's_ man! But how, _how_, mother? Was there no word? Was it +wrapped, or----?" + +"Just as you see it, Sandy. He merely said it had been picked up and +left at the house. He brought it here when he heard it was yours." + +The tea stood untasted before him. He had not even taken his seat. Pale +to his lips, and with hands that trembled almost as did her own, Sandy +stood facing his mother, and Priscilla stepped quietly from the room. + +"Did he say _who_ found it--and where?" he asked. + +"He finally said it was--picked up _at_ Major Dwight's," was her answer, +and imploringly still the blue eyes searched his face, and for an +instant lighted with hope. + +"But I never set foot at Major Dwight's--I've never been inside his +gates since I called there with you. The nearest I've been was the front +gate, and then, _this_ couldn't have been with me." + +"Why, Sandy?" + +"Because it was in the breast pocket of my khaki--the thing I wore when +we said good-night; but it seemed to grow chilly--or I did. I changed to +the blue coat before going out at twelve. Lucky, too, for I had to go +out front and help with some poor devils brought in from Skid's. I saw +your light when coming home over the parade and wondered if the row had +kept you awake." + +"You--came in the _front_ way, Sandy?" And the blue eyes seemed to +implore him to stop, to reflect, to remember. + +"Why, certainly, mother. I was afraid you'd hear me trying the front +door or hobbling round on the planks. What brought----Why, _mother_!" + +With her heart almost stilled, with her hands on her breast, with a +blanched face and stricken eyes, Marion slowly found her feet, then +rested one hand upon the table before she could steady herself to speak: + +"Sandy, think! Do you mean you were not--_there_ when the sentry No. 4 +called; that you did not come hurrying home and stop there--at the back +gate?" + +"Mother, dear, what can you mean? When I met you at the door I had just +come round from the front, from over near the guard-house. The officer +of the guard had his hands full and----Priscilla, quick!" + +And Priscilla came at speed, and, after one swift look as they lifted +the drooping form to a sofa, whispered: "The doctor! Run!" + +And though running was beyond him, Sandy limped in frantic haste, for +the mother's heart and health had seemed failing her for weeks, and this +was most alarming. Even at ten o'clock she had not fully regained +consciousness, but was mending, and by that time both doctors had come +to her, and Mrs. Stone was at her bedside, while Priscilla, calm, grave +and self-poised, was answering the many anxious, sorrowful inquiries, +for no woman at Minneconjou was loved and honored more than Marion Ray, +who, believing the evidence of her own senses sufficient to confirm an +ever-growing, dreadful suspicion, had gone down under the blow. + +There had been, as was said, some kind of conference during the late +afternoon. The colonel, the post surgeon, two or three wise-heads among +the field and senior line officers and that indispensable adjutant. +There had come quite late an aide-de-camp of the department commander, +who had been at Wister and at some investigation over at the Minneconjou +agency, who had something to say concerning the state of mind in which +he found Captain Foster, which was bad; the state of mind in which he +found the redmen--which was worse; and finally the state of things on +both sides of the stream at Minneconjou--which was worst of all. +Foster's rancor against Ray was venomous as ever, and he claimed to have +new evidence, the mention of which made both Stone and the surgeon look +grave. The agent's worry as to his turbulent charges was doubled by new +events, and he demanded immediate aid. The post guard reports and the +ranch-keeper's defiance told all too vividly how the devil had triumphed +at Minneconjou. The colonel, the chaplain, the commissioned force, were +helpless against the Act of Congress that had taken away their best hold +on the men and turned the men over to the enemy. The situation, so far +as Skid and his saloon and satellites were concerned, was past praying +for. But there were "some things, thank God," said Stone, in which he +could still strike for the good name of his garrison. Foster's new +evidence should be investigated, said he, and as for the agent, he +should have his guard, and a strong one, forthwith. + +"How did you leave Mrs. Ray, doctor?" he asked his medical man and +next-door neighbor on the left, as Waring came tramping home soon after +taps. + +"Resting quietly, colonel. She will do very well to-morrow." + +Stone had come down to the gate to meet him. One glance he threw to the +right and left, then lowered his voice. + +"Any reason why Sandy shouldn't go in command of a guard to the agency +in the morning?" + +"No reason why he shouldn't, sir, and--several why he should." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +A WELCOME PERIL + + +"For such light duty as he may be able to perform," read the order that +had brought Sandy Ray to Minneconjou. First it was the Canteen, and +under the young officer's zealous management that fiercely assailed and +finally abolished institution had been a credit to the post and a +comfort to the men. It was not the duty Ray best loved, by any means, +but, being debarred by his wound from active exercise, compelled as yet +to ride slowly and with caution, he had thankfully accepted and +thoroughly performed it. Then had come his serious trouble, and then, +when, had he known the stories in circulation, he should have remained +to face them, he was ordered away, leaving, like Sir Peter Teazle, his +character behind him. + +He was ordered to a difficult, probably dangerous and possibly perilous +duty, and, knowing this, he could not for an instant delay or demur. It +wasn't in the blood of the Rays to shirk. Far better might it have been +for Sandy had someone, either friend or foe, suggested that his being +selected, when he belonged to neither regiment represented in the +garrison, was in itself intimation that the stories at his expense were +believed, and if that were true he should be sent to Coventry--not to +command. There were young fellows in both the cavalry and infantry at +Minneconjou who would eagerly have welcomed the detail, with its chance +of swelling an efficiency record. Under any other circumstances there +might have been protest, there would have been growling. Now there were +only silence and significant looks. Even at the Club (Minneconjou had +set its seal against the time-honored, but misleading, appellation +"Mess"), where her name could not be mentioned, even in a whisper, the +order was accepted without comment. There was a woman in the case! + +Ordinarily, under circumstances demanding the detail of a guard for such +purposes, post commanders would send a company under a captain, or half +a company under a subaltern; but Stone hated to lose a unit from his +regimental line. He had sent to the wood camp a sergeant with a dozen +picked men--one or two from each of his infantry companies. Now he sent +a lieutenant and thirty of the rank and file, selected at random, to the +aid of the agent. Of this thirty a sergeant, two corporals and twelve +men were taken from the squadron, for it might be necessary to send out +mounted men to make arrests, said the agent, and the agency police were +sullen over recent happenings. Sandy was notified by a call from the +post adjutant about 11:30, just as he was softly locking up for the +night. He listened in silence, made no comment, asked no questions, +completed his few preparations, bade Priscilla keep it all from his +mother until after he was gone, for rest and sleep were most essential, +and at dawn, with dark-rimmed eyes and solemn face, he stole to the +half-open doorway, beyond which the night lamp dimly glowed; listened; +entered one moment and softly kissed the dear hand that lay so wearily +upon the coverlet; looked fondly at the gentle, careworn face, and then, +with firm, set lips, turned stealthily away. Priscilla was up and had +hot coffee ready for him below stairs, and possibly admonition, but this +she spared him. Oh, if Priscilla had but known what Aunt Marion had seen +at the rear gate two nights before, what might she not have said to +both! for Priscilla, too, had had her vigil, had both seen and heard and +knew more than Aunt Marion even thought she knew. + +"It is barely ten miles," said Sandy. "Couriers will be riding to and +fro. Then there's the telephone by way of town, unless the wires are +cut. Let me hear of mother night and morning, Pris. Now, I've got to +go." + +She stood at the window of his room an hour later, watching the little +command as it wound away among the dips and waves of the southward +prairie, until finally lost to sight. This was a new phase to the +situation. Priscilla had never pictured the modern redman save as she +had heard him described at church sociables, peace society meetings and +the occasional addresses of inspired "Friends of the Indian," who came +soliciting the sympathies--and subscriptions--of the congregation. The +few specimens that had met her gaze about town, the station and the +fords were, she felt sure, and justly sure, but frowsy representatives +of a magnificent race. It was only when the agent, himself a godly man, +had come and told his recent troubles, after evening service, that +Priscilla began to realize how, despite his innate nobility of character +and exalted ideals and eloquence, the average ward of the nation was not +built on the lofty plane of Logan, Osceola and Chief Joseph. He was +quite capable of extravagant demands of his own and of raising the devil +when he didn't get what he wanted. + +There were other eyes, and anxious eyes, along the bluffs and the +southward windows of officers' row. There were women and children, even +at that early hour, clustered at the little mound beyond the west gate, +whence the last peep could be had at the "byes" as they breasted and +crossed Two-Mile Ridge. There were garrison lads on their ponies, little +Jim among them, who rode forth with the detachment as far as the +railway, and were now racing back. There were even watchers in the upper +windows at Skid's, for the word had gone from lip to lip that the +Indians were in a fury and meant business this time. But there was +darkness, there was silence, there were only drawn blinds and lowered +shades and apparent indifference at Major Dwight's. Possibly Jimmy was +the only one who had heard. Possibly Inez did not know; mayhap she did +not care. + +The boy's face was hot and flushed that afternoon, and he lay down a +while, an unusual thing with him, but he had been up very early and out +very long and riding in the breeze. All this might tend to make him +drowsy. He had come as usual to tell his father all about Mr. Ray's +march and the boy escort. A prime favorite and something of a hero was +Sandy Ray among the boys about the post, and Jimmy did not know just why +daddy seemed so uninterested. Perhaps he, too, was tired. After +breakfast Jim had gone to see Aunt Marion, and returned disappointed, +and, after an inning or two of ball, which he played but languidly, had +come home for a snooze, and found daddy talking gravely with gentlemen +from town who had been to see him before, and had queer-looking papers +for him to sign, not a bit like the innumerable rolls, returns and +company things he had to attend to when captain of a troop. Jim awakened +only with difficulty and only when called. He had promised to lunch with +Harold Winn, and went, slowly and heavily, but came back soon with a hot +headache, and was again sleeping when the phaeton drove round for mamma +and Félicie, and he did not know that this time mamma came not to see +daddy before starting. He did not know that Miss Sanford came not to +read. He did not know just what to make of things when he found daddy +bending over him at sunset, with anxiety in his face, and young Dr. +Wallen was helping undress and get him regularly to bed. + +Mamma and Félicie had come home before the usual time, and Jim never +knew that, or what happened later, until very long after. But something, +it seems, had occurred during the drive to greatly agitate mamma, and +that evening her condition demanded the ministrations of both the +physician and her maid. That night something further occurred that led +to much more agitation and weeping and upbraiding and reproaches and +accusations and all manner of things his father evidently wished him not +to hear, for he firmly closed the door between their rooms. The doctor +came a third time, and in the morning, burning with fever and caring +little whither he went, Jimmy was only vaguely conscious that he was +being gently borne down the stairway and into the open air, and thought +he was flying until again stowed away between sheets that seemed so +fresh and cool, and once he thought daddy was standing over him, dressed +again in his uniform, and he was sure Aunt Marion had bent to kiss him, +and then that every now and then Miss 'Cilla placed a slim, cool hand +upon his forehead and removed some icy bandage that seemed almost to +sizzle when it touched his skin. From time to time something was fed him +from a tiny spoon, and all the time he was getting hotter and duller, +and the lightest cover was insupportable, and he wished to toss it +off--toss everything off--toss himself off the little white bed; and +then, mercifully, Jim knew nothing at all but dreams for many a day +until he and Minneconjou came once more slowly to their senses, for +Minneconjou had been every bit as flighty, as far out of its head, as +Jimmy Dwight, and it had not typhoid to excuse it, either. + +The day following Jimmy's seizure, Major Dwight appeared in public again +for the first time since his strange attack. He had ever been of spare +habit, but now he was gaunt as a greyhound, and his uniform hung +flabbily about his wasted form. He looked two shades grayer and ten +years older. His eyes were dull and deep-set. His face was ashen. He was +not fit to be up and about, said the doctors, but could not be kept at +home. Mrs. Dwight was in semi-hysterical condition, requiring frequent +sedatives and unlimited Félicie. There had been--yes, in answer to +direct question, the physicians had to own--there had been a scene +between the aging husband and the youthful wife and, though the details +were fairly well known to these gentlemen, they were almost as fairly +kept inviolate. But for the voluble, the invaluable Félicie, Minneconjou +might have been kept guessing for ten days longer. Dwight spent his +waking hours mostly at the Rays', wistfully watching the doctor and +pleading to be admitted to the bedside of the burning little patient, a +thing they could not permit, for Dwight was still too weak to exercise +the needed self-control. It seemed as though he had forgotten the +existence of Inez, his wife, the existence of Foster, the existence of +Sandy Ray and everybody and anybody beyond Jimmy and those who were +ministering to him. Mrs. Ray, once again moving, though languidly, about +her household duties (for Priscilla was utterly engrossed with the boy) +had made the major as comfortable as he would permit in the little +library below stairs, where he had an easy chair in which he could +recline, and books, desk, writing material, but no one to read to him; +and, as it turned out, he would do nothing but move restlessly about, +listen for every sound from the upper floor where Jim lay in Sandy's +bed, and waylay the doctors or anybody who might have tidings. Once or +twice, there or at home, he had to see the colonel, the adjutant or his +own second in command, Captain Hurst, but the lawyers came no more. All +proceedings were called off for the time being. Everything in his mind +hinged on the fate of Jimmy, and, one thing worth the noting, Madame and +the phaeton went no more abroad. + +But if he had apparently forgotten, Félicie had not, the incidents of +that stormy meeting, the episode that led to it and the consequences to +be expected. Félicie felt that the public should be enlightened and +public opinion properly aroused as to the major's domestic misrule. It +was high time all Minneconjou was made to know this monster and "the +hideous accusations he make against this angel, and this angel's the +most devoted myself that to you speak." From the torrent of her tirade, +occasionally, drops of information seemed to accord with the rumors +dribbling about the garrison. Minneconjou knew that the well-named and +impenetrable post commander was in possession of facts he could impart +to nobody; that he had been questioning and cross-questioning corporal +and men, the latter recent occupants of sentry posts Nos. 3 and 4; that +these gentry had been ordered by him to hold no converse with anybody; +that he had again called up two of the three men incarcerated at the +time of the assault upon Captain Foster, and it was now definitely known +that these two had both served under Foster in the --th Cavalry, +although both now protested they always considered him a model officer +and a perfect gentleman. To offset this was the statement of Sergeant +Hess, of the Sixty-first, who said he had once served at the same post +with them, though not in the cavalry, and knew they bore bad characters +and would bear watching. Then he was sent for, and then it transpired +that No. 3 of the suspected trio had gone with the guard to the agency, +and he, said Hess, had been the worst of the lot. His name to-day was +Skelton, but in those days they knew him as Scully. Had it not been that +a dozen other men were out the night of that assault, this might have +clinched the case against them. It was enough, at least, to keep them +under surveillance. + +But other stories, readily confirmed by Félicie, were to the effect that +Dwight had accused his wife of deliberate falsehood in denying that she +had met Mr. Ray at Naples; of deliberate intent to make him believe +Jimmy a liar when adhering to his story that Mr. Ray had come and spoken +to her (a dream! a vision! declared Félicie); of deliberately accusing +him of rudeness, insolence, affront to Captain Foster and herself in +refusing to deny he had seen them together in the parlor during church +time ("a mere incident of the most innocent," said Félicie, "of which +this infant terrible would have made a mountain"). Moreover, the monster +had "accused Madame of all manner of misdoings with this most amiable +the Captain Fawstair," and Félicie's humid eyes went heavenward at the +retrospect; "and of lying to him, her husband, about, _ah, ciel_, that +man!" And then to think that he should demand of Madame in her condition +that she confess the truth about that midnight affair when her scream +aroused the household! It was she, Félicie, who screamed. Madame could +not sleep. She needed a composing draught. She, Félicie, had gone down +to prepare it, had unbolted the back door, and was passing to and fro +between the kitchen and the refrigerator in the addition without, and +she could not find the cork-screw, and could not open the--Apollinaris, +and Madame had become impatient, nervous, and had herself wandered down; +and just as Félicie was returning they encountered at the doorway and, +to her shame be it said, she screamed, so was she startled, "and Madame +uttered too a cry, because I cry, but it was nothing, nothing!" + +Nevertheless, Minneconjou was hearing of a slender form seen skulking +along the back fence, hurrying away from Dwight's, and of items picked +up at dawn near Dwight's back steps, and of a notebook sent to +Lieutenant Ray, who had himself been out searching very early and very +diligently. Then, something or other, picked up early that morning, had +been sent to the colonel, for it came with his mail; and the adjutant +and the orderly heard his exclamation, saw the consternation in his +face, and the orderly told of it--told Kathleen at the doctor's; then +had to tell other girls or take the consequences. Then there were these +drives up the valley and the meetings at the cottonwoods. People who +called to ask after the presumably lonely mistress of the house began +asking after something Félicie had hoped no one had noticed. + +For in upbraiding Inez, his wife, Major Dwight not once had mentioned +her meetings near Minneconjou with Lieutenant Ray, who, as all this was +going on at the post, stood facing a condition that called for the +exercise of all his nerve and pluck and common sense. The Indian +leaders, three days after his coming, had mustered their force and +demanded the instant withdrawal of himself and his men, leaving all +horses and arms and certain of their charges behind them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +CRISIS + + +There had been frequent communication with the agency by courier and by +telephone. Ray held the fort, he said, and though there had been some +bluster and swagger on part of a few Indians, the agent seemed relieved, +reassured. They no longer crowded, bullying, about his office. "They are +obviously," wrote the agent (not Ray), "impressed by the firm stand I +have taken, and now I shall proceed to arrest the ring-leaders in the +recent trouble, employing the lieutenant and his troopers for the +purpose, in order that the Indian police may see that I am entirely +independent of them." Stone received this by mounted messenger about +nine o'clock of a Wednesday night, and Mrs. Stone knew the moment his +lips began to purse up, as she expressed it, and to work and twist, that +he much disliked the letter. "I'll have to go over to the +quartermaster's," said he, "and call up Ray by 'phone. This agency man +will be making mischief for us, sure as--sure as the reds are making +medicine." But the last words were muttered to himself, as he took his +cap, and leave. + +Stone had served many a year on the plains, and knew the Indian, and had +his opinion as to the value of civil service in dealing with him. Stone +had served two years in the South in the so-called reconstruction days, +and in his mind there was marked similarity between a certain few of the +Indian agents he had met and an uncertain number of the deputy marshals +of the "carpet-bag" persuasion, then scattered broadcast over the States +"lately in rebellion." If there was one thing more than another the +deputy loved and gloried in, it was riding about his bailiwick, with a +sergeant and party of dragoons at his back, impressing the people with +the idea that he had the army of the United States at his beck and call. +Now, here was a new man at the business over a thousand-odd Indians, +many of whom had fought whole battalions of troopers time and again, and +were not to be scared by a squad, and this new man reasoned that, +because the Indians had been undemonstrative for two days, they were +ready to surrender their leaders and be good. Stone knew better. + +It took ten minutes to get the agency by way of town, and but ten +seconds thereafter to get Ray. He and his guard were billeted about the +main building. "What do you think of this idea of going out and +arresting ring-leaders?" asked Stone. "You weren't sent there for any +such purpose." And Ray answered: "He has gone to a pow-pow with Black +Wolf's people, and was thinking better of it after a little talk we +had." + +"Well," said Stone, "how about the--the situation? Do you think they'll +make trouble? Do you need more men?" + +And Sandy answered "Not to-night, sir. Tell better in the morning." + +Stone did not like the outlook, but what was he to do? The agent had +called for no more troops, and, until he called, Stone was forbidden to +send unless some dire emergency arose, and then he must accept all +responsibility, as one or other side was sure to get the worst of it, +and he the blame. He went over and told Mrs. Ray he had just been +talking with Sandy, who was all serene, said he, and all reassuringly he +answered her anxious questions. Then he asked for Jimmy, whose +temperature was ominously high, and for Dwight, whose spirits were +correspondingly low. Dwight came out from the den, haggard, unshaven, +gaunt. Never before had he been known to lack quick interest when danger +threatened a comrade. To-night he hardly noted what Stone said about the +situation at the agency. He was thinking only of his boy, and Stone, +vaguely disappointed, went in search of Hurst, the senior captain, and +Hurst looked grave. He, too, had had his share in Indian experience, and +liked not the indications. + +"I don't fancy the agent's going to that pow-wow. He should have had the +chief men come to _him_," said Hurst. + +"They wouldn't--said they feared the soldiers might shoot," said Stone, +in explanation. + +"Anybody with him, sir?" + +"Ray says he insisted on an orderly, so one man went with him, to hold +his horse while he talked. Skelton was chosen. He speaks a little +Sioux." + +"Man we had a while ago on account of the Foster matter?" asked Hurst, +with uplifted eyebrows. + +"Same. He's at home among the Indians, and some of them like him. Guess +he's seen 'em before." + +At 11:30, when Stone would have called again to speak with the agency, +it transpired that Central always went to bed at eleven--there was not +enough night business to warrant the expense of keeping open. At 7 A. +M., when again he would have spoken, Central had not come. It was eight +before news could be had from the agency, and then it came in a +roundabout way, for the line was down or cut or something was wrong far +over toward the Minneconjou reservation. At 8:10 the trumpets of the +cavalry were ringing, "To Horse!" the bugles of the foot, "To Arms!" At +8:30 the squadron was trotting, with dripping flanks, up the southward +slope beyond the Minneconjou, a gaunt skeleton, with pallid cheek and +blazing eye, leading swiftly on. + +Give the devil his due, the first man to warn the fort that there was +"hell to pay at the agency" was Skidmore himself. He had kicked the +truth, he said, out of a skulking half-breed, who drifted in to beg for +a drink soon after seven. They hated each other, did Stone and Skid, but +here was common cause. The trouble began at the pow-wow. The agent +refused the Indians' demands; was threatened; "got scared," said the +frowsy, guttural harbinger of ill, and swore he'd arrest the speakers in +the morning, and they arrested him right there. In some way word of his +peril reached the agent's wife, and she rushed to the lieutenant, who +mounted, galloped, and got there just in time to rescue Skelton, who had +pluckily stood by the lone white man, whom some mad-brained warrior, +madder than the rest, had struck in fury; Skelton in turn had felled the +Indian assailant, and, despite the efforts of the chief, who knew it +meant defeat in the end, the lives of the two would have been forfeit +but for the rush of Ray and a few troopers to the spot. It was the +lieutenant's first charge in nearly a year, but he forgot his wound. He +managed, thanks in no small measure to the resonant orders of old Wolf +himself, to get the two back to the buildings, more dead than alive. He +tried to send word to the fort of the new peril, but the wary Indians +were on the lookout and drove back his riders, while a furious council +was being held at the scene of the strife. From all over the reservation +warriors young and old came flocking to Black Wolf's lodge, and the +elders were overwhelmed. In spite of warning, entreaty and protest from +chiefs who knew whereof they spoke, the turbulent spirits had their way. +Brethren had been beaten and insulted in Skidmore's old place. Brethren +had been beaten and abused at the new. Brethren had been swindled and +abused by that very young chief of the soldiers now at the agency, and +some of his men; and, finally, Strikes-the-Bear, son of a chief, a chief +to be, had this night been struck down by the soldier the fool agent +dared bring with him. Let the warriors rise in their wrath and strike +for vengeance! If the little band of soldiers showed fight, and the +chances were that many a brave would bite the dust before the buildings +could be fired and the defenders driven out and killed, then offer +terms. Against such hopeless odds the young white chief would easily +yield. Get him and his men into the open; promise safe conduct to the +fort, then let others surround and slowly butcher them, while they, the +negotiators, took care of the agent, the assailant of Strikes-the-Bear, +the employees and their families. Aye, promise to spare the lives of the +lieutenant and his men; say that they might go back to their friends at +the fort, but they must leave the agent; they must leave their comrade +who struck the redman; they must leave their arms and their horses. Mad +as it was, that was the ultimatum of the deputation at the door of the +agency at five o'clock in the morning, and Sandy Ray answered, just as +his father's son could be counted on to answer, and in just three +comprehensive and significant words. + +It led before long to a battle royal. It led first to barbaric council +and speechmaking, then to a display of savage diplomacy, and finally to +the spirited climax: savage science, skill, and cunning, with +overwhelming numbers on the one hand, sheer pluck and determination on +the other. The defenders were to fight, to be sure, behind wooden walls +that hid them from sight of their swarming and surrounding foes, but +that might be an element of danger just so soon as the Indians could get +close enough to fire them. Anticipating precisely such a possibility, +Ray had set his men to work beforehand. Sacks of meal, flour, and bacon, +bales of blankets, tepee cloth, etc., had been piled breast-high and +around all four walls of the storehouse within. All the available tubs +and buckets and pails had been fresh filled with water and stowed +inside. The horses were removed from the stable and turned into the +corral. Each of the eight barred windows had its two or three marksmen. +The women and children of the whites about the agency were all before +dawn moved over into the main building, for when his messengers were +driven back Ray well knew what to expect. Ray himself posted a keen and +reliable man at the forage shed, and one or two others in certain of the +outlying buildings, with kerosene-soaked tinder in abundance, and orders +to fire them at his signal, then run for the storehouse; Ray would leave +no structure close at hand to serve as "approach" or cover for the foe. +So long as no wind arose to blow the flames upon his little stronghold, +no harm would result to them, whereas the smoke would surely attract +attention at the distant fort and speedily bring relief. Ten days +earlier, before seeing his wards in war paint, the agent would have +forbidden such wanton destruction of government property. (Ten days +later, indeed, the Indian Bureau might call upon the War Department for +reimbursement, and the department upon Ray, but the youngster took no +thought for the morrow, only for his men and those helpless women and +children). So long as the warriors kept their distance and contented +themselves with long-range shooting, so long would Ray spare the torch, +but just the moment they felt the courage of their numbers and charged, +up should go the shingles. The find of a few small kegs of powder lent +additional means to the speedy start of the fire when needed, and now, +with his little fort well supplied and garrisoned, with the big fort +only ten miles away, with thirty or more stout men to stand by him, with +only one man demoralized,--the agent, small blame to him,--and only one +as yet disabled, Trooper Skelton, whom Ray had practically dragged from +under the knives of the savages, that young soldier felt just about as +serenely confident of the issue as he did of his men, and happier a +hundred fold than he had been for nearly a year. + +Moreover, his dauntless front and contemptuous answer had had its effect +on the Indians. "The young chief must be sure the soldiers are coming," +reasoned the elders, so before taking the fateful plunge it were wise to +take a look. Young warriors dashed away northeastward over the rolling +divides, and others galloped after to intermediate bluffs and ridges, +but it was well-nigh an hour before the signals came whirling back. "No +soldiers, no danger," and even then they temporized. In trailing war +bonnet, his gleaming body bare to the waist, his feathered head held +high, his nimble pony bedizened with tinsel and finery, a white "fool +flag" waving at the tip of his lance, with two young braves in +attendance, each with his little symbol of truce, Black Wolf came riding +gallantly down from the distant southward bluffs, demanding further +parley. Black Wolf had tidings worth the telling, he said. He had stood +the white man's friend and endeavored to prevent hostilities, but since +the affair of the previous night all that was hopeless, and now he must +stand by his people. His young men, he shouted, at dawn had attacked the +guard at the wood camp, and the scalps of every man, still warm and +bloody, hung at the belts of his braves, even now galloping back to +swell the ranks of their brothers. He urged the young white chief to +make no such error as had the sub-chief, the sergeant, at the camp, who +had fired upon his warriors when offered mercy. There was still time for +the young chief to consider. He was surrounded, cut off from help and +home. His brethren dare not quit the shelter of the fort to come to aid +him. They would be annihilated on the open prairie, as was the "Long +Hair" at the Little Horn a generation ago. This, then, should be the +young chief's warning and his opportunity. Let him and his men, save +one, depart in peace, leaving everything and everybody else as they were +before the young chief came. Black Wolf would await the reply. In +resonant periods, in ringing, sonorous tones, the speech of the +orator-chief had been delivered, his deep, powerful voice fairly +thundering over the valley, and echoing back from the crags of Warrior +Bluff, a mile away to the west. A spirited, barbaric group it made, that +magnificent savage with his bright-hued escort all gleaming in the +slanting sunshine, full two hundred yards away. On every little +eminence, on every side, were grouped listening bands of his braves. One +could almost hear their guttural "Ughs" of approval. One could almost +count their swarming array. Farther to the south, along the jagged line +of the barricade ridge, score upon score of blanketed squaws and +bareheaded children huddled in shrill, chattering groups, too distant to +hear or to be heard, but readily seen to be wild with excitement. Out in +front of the grimly closed and silent agency, with only the half-breed +interpreter at his side, but in humorous recognition of the solemn state +of the Indian embassy, with two sergeants in close attendance, Ray stood +listening, and turned for explanation to the official go-between, +impatiently heard him half through, then flung out his hand, palm +foremost, in half circular sweep to the front and right--the old signal. +"Be off," it said as plain as did the later words of the assistant. +"Tell him to go where I told him before," said Ray. "If he wants the +agent, or my soldiers, or my guns, or me, let him come and take them," +winding up as he faced his antagonist, with the swift, significant +gesture that the Sioux know so well: "Brave, that ends it!" and turned +abruptly away. + +"What did you answer?" whispered the agent, as the young soldier +returned to his post. It was the Bureau man's first real clash with his +red children, and thoughts of Meeker, a much-massacred predecessor in +the business, had dashed his nerve. + +"He wanted you and this poor fellow who fought for you," said Ray +bluntly, as he went on and bent over the blanket on which lay Skelton, +bandaged, weak, but clear-headed, "and I told him where to go--where, by +gad, we'll send him if he comes again." + +The eyes of the wounded soldier, fixed full upon his young commander, +began slowly to melt and then to well over. A silent fellow was this odd +fish of a trooper, a man little known among the others and even less +trusted. He looked up through a shimmer of moisture into the pale young +face with its dark, kindly eyes and sensitive mouth. He put forth a +feverish and unsteady hand, while his lips, compressed and twitching +from pain, began to frame words to which Sandy listened, +uncomprehending. + +"Lieutenant, I wish I'd known you, 'stead of classing you the way I--was +taught. If I ever get out of this all right, there'll be a story +comin'." And Ray wondered was Skelton wandering already. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +BLACK WOLF'S BATTLE + + +And then from the northwest, with vast clamor and shoutings and much +wild horsemanship, came the reinforcements from the foothills of the +Sagamore, where yesterday had stood the guarded wood camp; and then, +five to six hundred yards away, in broad circle, their swift ponies at +full gallop, scores of young warriors, all in war paint and finery, +dashed and darted to and fro, some of them brandishing at the tips of +their lances ragged, dangling objects limp and dripping. Black Wolf's +story might indeed be true. Far away westward from the fort, as was the +agency from the southwest, there had been no timely warning, no chance +to send for aid. Overwhelmed at dawn by hundreds against their dozens, +the guard had probably died fighting, and the wolves and lynxes by this +time were scenting their breakfast and scurrying to the scene of +butchery. The savage display had its effect on the little garrison, +but--not just what was expected. Black Wolf's young braves might well +have had a "walk-over" at the wood camp, pounced in a red torrent upon +the unsuspecting party, and, with little loss to themselves, massacred +all the hated palefaces. That sort of fighting the Indian most +loves--that in which he can do and not suffer. Now came a different +proposition. From chief down to little children the Indians well knew +that thirty soldiers behind barricades were not to be "rushed," though a +thousand essayed it, without many a warrior biting the dust; and that +sort of fighting, said the Indian, is fool-fighting--lacks sense or +science. Bravely and desperately as he will battle against odds when +once in a hole, he will not battle at all, no matter how great his +numbers, if by strategy he can "win out" another way. What Black Wolf +and his warriors had hoped was so to weaken the nerve of the defenders +that they would listen to his promise that their lives be spared, agree +to the Indian terms, leave the demanded victims, their arms and horses +and start out afoot for the fort; then, as was intimated, once fairly +out on the open prairie, they could be butchered at leisure, and if the +young chief could not be captured alive to furnish sport for the squaws +and children of the braves he had defrauded and abused, at least they +could have his scalp to hang in the lodge when once again peace was +declared. Meantime the warriors, women and children,--all,--they could +be off to the Big Horn before the troops at the fort would get word of +the battle. Who, indeed, was to tell, with the lightning wire severed, +and the whole party slain? + +But the warriors wasted their time. Three hours spent in trying to scare +were three hours lost to the redman. It was just about eight by the +agency clock that in one magnificent dash, half a thousand strong, the +legion came sweeping, chanting, and shouting down the slopes to the +south, rode in solemn phalanx until almost within rifle range, then, +bursting asunder like some huge human case-shot, scattered its wild +horsemen in mad career all over the open prairie, and in a minute +thereafter, amid the thunder of hoofs, half deadened by the rising pall +of dust, twenty-score in number, the yelling braves were circling the +agency, firing swiftly on the run. + +Never a shot did they receive in reply. "Hold your fire till they come +in closer, and you get the word!" growled the sergeants. Never a match +did the besieged apply, for there was still no attempt to charge. It was +young Ray's first tussle with the Sioux, but many a time as a boy at his +father's knee had he begged for the stories of the old battles of the +--th, and listened with quickened heartbeat and panting breath. He knew +just how they would circle and charge, shout and shoot,--just what to +look for and how to meet it,--and there were only two things about the +defense that gave him the faintest worry. + +East of the storehouse, barely fifty yards away, was the agent's modest +little home, a shelter to the warriors should they decide to turn loose +their ponies and collect two hundred strong behind it, ready for a rush +in force upon his doors and windows the moment a similar force could be +ready behind the shop and stable buildings at the corral. They probably +could not force an entrance even then. They would surely lose many +warriors in the attempt. But what they could do would be to rush upon +the storehouse, crouch low at the walls and under the floor of the +porch, where the rifles of the besieged could not reach them, and then +start fire all at once in a dozen places, crawl back under cover of the +smoke, and so burn out the defenders. Much as the mounted warrior hates +to fight afoot, this was too obvious an opportunity, and presently Ray +saw indication that something was coming. No time, therefore, had he or +his people for further compunction. + +"The shops, first," said he. "Start them at once. Open the corral gates +and--get back," were his orders to the young corporal who stood ready to +carry his message. "Our horses will make a break for home. The Indians +will catch most of them, perhaps, but not all. Between them and the +smoke the fort will see that something's up, and--you all know the +colonel." + +And so it happened that, just as the squadron, already alarmed, was +spattering through the shallows of the Minneconjou, a black column of +smoke was sighted far away to the southwest, sailing aloft for the +heavens, and now every southward window, the roofs of many a building, +the tower over the post Exchange, the cross-trees of the flagstaff, the +crests of neighboring bluffs,--all had their occupants, staring through +field-glasses or the unaided eye for any sign of the far-distant +detachment under Ray--for any symptom of any check or signal from the +swift advance of the squadron under the gaunt, semi-invalided major. + +Barely three miles out, trotting in parallel columns of fours, the right +troop was seen to swerve to the west, and presently in a far-away clump +of willows in a deep ravine, found something, apparently, that gave them +just a moment's pause. "A human being," said the lookouts with the best +glasses, "and they're sending him in." True. Someone dismounted and +helped something into a saddle. A sergeant and trooper came presently +ambling homeward, leading between them a limp and drooping form. Many +people could not wait. They ran out to the bluffs, and were not amazed, +nor were they too well pleased, to find the lone watcher at the willows +to be none other than that strange creature Blenke--Blenke in a state +bordering on exhaustion. Straight to the colonel they led him, where +that officer sat in saddle in front of his battalions and ready for a +move. He was just about ordering the senior major to follow on the trail +of the cavalry, when, followed by curious eyes innumerable, the sergeant +with his prize came riding through the west gate. + +"Private Blenke, sir," said he, saluting. "He can best tell his own +story," and with trembling lips and mournful eyes Blenke began. Things +looked so ominous the night before that it was evident the Indians meant +mischief. Sergeant French, commanding the guard, decided that the +colonel ought to be warned. Somebody would have to try to sneak through +the prowling, truculent warriors, make his way to the post, and tell of +their plight. The sergeant would order no man to risk his life in the +attempt. He called for volunteers, and, modestly Blenke said, at last he +felt it a duty to dare it. He found every rod of the valley beset by +foes. He found it impossible eastward or northward to pass them even in +the dark. He finally made his way out to the southward and, in wide +circuit, dodging and skulking when night riders came hurrying to and +fro, he at last managed by daybreak to get in view of the flagstaff, +only to find dozens of Indians watching the post and skulking between +him and the desired refuge. At last--but Stone shut him off: + +"Take two companies, major," he ordered, "march for the wood camp and +see what you can find. You know what to do." + +So again was Blenke, the silent, in spite of prejudice and prediction, +the hero of the occasion. They bore him off to be fed and fęted, but he +begged first that Miss Sanford might be informed of his safe return. +Then Stone, with anxious brow, dismounted, clambered to the tower of the +Exchange, where his glasses swept the wide expanse of country and told +him the excitement, so vivid here at the fort and over "beyond Jordan" +at Skidmore's, was already spreading to Silver Hill. God grant his +rescuers had not gone too late--or slowly! + +Slowly at least they did not go, for Dwight, possessed of a very devil +of nervous energy, pushed his four troops at steady trot. Well he knew +it would not be long before some one of the ridge lines, successively to +be passed, would suddenly spit fire at his advance, and that every +device known to Indian strategy would be brought into play in the effort +to stay his coming until all was over with Ray's little party at the +agency. Physical weakness, personal danger, even Jimmy, his only child, +now tossing in the throes of burning fever, he seemed for the time to +have forgotten. Hurst, the senior captain, who had counted on leading +the dash, reckoned without due comprehension of his major that day, and +looked amazed when Dwight had come trotting down to the formation, his +grim face lighting with something of the old fire, and sent his second +in command to the head of the first troop. Once well out beyond the +railway the major ordered a few picked skirmishers forward at the gallop +from the head of each of his four columns, other active light-horsemen +to cover the flanks, and the wary scouts and marksmen of the Sioux, +crouching behind the crests, shook their scalp-locks in chagrin. There +could be no picking off of prominent officers at close range, no +ambuscading crowded ranks or columns. This chief knew his business, and +they might better serve Black Wolf and their comrades in arms by +galloping away to the agency and urging one desperate assault. Stopping +this fellow was out of the question. The one stand, made just six miles +out, resulted in no check to the cavalry, but a dead loss to two of +their own braves. + +And so it happened that toward ten o'clock of that blithe, sunshiny +summer morning, when all nature was at its loveliest along the broad +winding valley of the Cheyenne,--all save that cloud of black smoke that +soared high into the otherwise unclouded heavens and there flattened out +like some gigantic pall,--the bold heights that framed the wide bottom +lands, the crags at Warrior Bluff, crowned with shrill yelling, +applauding squaws and children, the grim, smoke-veiled walls of the +remaining buildings at the agency all on a sudden awoke to the maddening +chorus of renewed battle. There had been a lull to the fight. The shops +had burned like tinder, and were a heap of smoldering ruins in a dozen +minutes. The stampeded horses had rushed away over the prairie, to be +rounded up and driven by Indian boys, with keen rejoicing, away toward +the dismantled villages, for already the old men and most of the +families were in full flight up the valley. If headed off from the hills +they could scatter over the prairies and mingle with their red kindred +at the other agencies, whence, indeed, came not a few young men to take +a hand in the scrimmage. The agent's house, spared until after nine, had +gone up in smoke. It covered too much of the charging front, and finally +was blown to flinders at an expense of four kegs of rifle powder, +borrowed for the occasion from the Indian supplies. Now, when the +warriors rallied and charged and strove to reach Ray's wooden walls, it +had to be over a dead level only faintly obscured by smoke, and dotted +here and there by the corpses of war ponies lost in previous attempts. + +Half-hearted, possibly, at dawn, old Wolf was all fire and fury now. One +after another four assaults had been beaten back by the slow, sure, +steady aim of the defense, and unless he could reduce that little +fortress at once his power and prestige as a war chief were gone for all +time, and a good name and reputation for all manner of deviltry in the +past was utterly blasted for the future. + +Of the defenders only three, besides Skelton, were out of the fight. A +chance shot from the Indian circle had pierced the brain of one stout +soldier, who never knew what hit him. Others had wounded two of the men, +and Skelton, himself, who, in spite of his wounds, had crawled to a +loophole to have a share in the fight, was now prostrate with a shot +through the shoulder. It was God's mercy and Ray's fortune that that +bullet was not through the head. + +Water and food they still had in abundance, but ammunition was running +low. The men thrust their hot rifles into the nearest tub, and laughed +at Finnegan's loud claim for a patent on "K" Company's way of "bilin' +wather." Sheltered by the bales and barricades, the women and children +crouched unharmed. Corporal Sweeny, who had "swarmed" up a ladder to the +garret, in defiance of shots that tore through the flimsy woodwork, +called down the scuttle-hole that "the fellers must be comin' from the +fort--there's Indians gallopin' back by the dozens!" And Sweeny was +right, and his words carried cheer when cheer was needed, for now began +the supreme effort of the redmen, and in one magnificent, yelling, +streaming, lance-waving circumference they seemed to spring into view +from every conceivable point of the compass, still a good thousand yards +away from the threatened center, and, slowly at first, brandishing arms, +beating shields, shouting encouragement and vengeance, they bore +steadily inward, a slowly diminishing periphery, until they seemed +almost to join for some barbaric "all hands round." Then, at sudden +signal, unseen, unheard at the agency, all of the eastward semi-circle +broke instantly into a mad race for the center, the dust and turf flying +from the ponies' heels, the feathered crests and painted forms bending +flat over the outstretched necks of the darting steeds, plumes, pennons, +war-bonnets streaming in the wind, and every warrior screeching in +shrill rage and exultation. To right and left at the same instant the +westward warriors broke away, so as to avoid the rush and shots from the +selected front, and then, rallying north and south, they, too, rode +again into line in time to attack so soon as the first grand assault +should sweep by. A gorgeous sight it was to see Black Wolf's chosen +braves, a tremendous torrent of savage war, but Ray and his men gave no +heed to its grandeur. The sharp, spiteful bark of the low-aimed rifles +began the instant the foremost warriors came bounding across the road to +the railway, Ray's five-hundred-yard mark, and here and there as the red +surge came rushing on, a pony went down, a warrior was hurled to the +plain, but up, and by, and beyond, with terrific clash and clamor, the +yelling horde whirled past the fire-jetting walls; and out upon the +westward prairie a keen old fighter saw that certain ponies, riderless, +went loping after their fellows, and so shouted a word to Ray. "They've +dropped a few, sir," and Sergeant Scott begged leave to take +half-a-dozen men and rush out and tackle the dozen that had probably +crept to the foot of the wall or squirmed through the dust cloud, like +so many snakes, underneath the wooden piazza. Well they knew what that +meant: Fire--fire as fierce as that the defenders themselves had kindled +in the outbuildings, only a thousand times more terrible, for it meant +fearful torture and death to these imprisoned ones within the walls, or +the certain bullets of the merciless foe when driven forth. But, before +this sally could be made down came the rush from the northward, less +powerful and spectacular only in point of numbers, and every man of the +defense was needed at the loopholes and windows again. Their shots told, +too, for Sweeny yelled delightedly from his perilous perch aloft that +half-a-dozen were down and the ponies loose; and then could be seen the +dash of comrades to pick up and bear away the dead and wounded, a feat +of daring and devotion in which the Indians of the plains have no +superior. Now the shots of the defenders were telling in more ways than +one. They busied so many of Black Wolf's people that the next rush was +delayed, and delays to _his_ plan were more than dangerous. Someone had +passed a field glass up the loft ladder, and Sweeny was shrieking new +delight and encouragement. "Sure's yer born, sir, I can see the byes +comin' like hell!" To the mind of the agent, livid and trembling behind +his little parapet of blankets, more than enough, perhaps, in the way of +hell had reached them already, but men at the windows set up a cry of +thanksgiving that faltered a moment at sound of shot and shout from +underneath, then swelled again into something like triumph, for Ray had +prized up two or three boards from the floor; two or three slim fellows +had crawled through the opening and wriggled to the low walls of rough +stone which served for foundation, and here and there a would-be +incendiary got sudden quietus and his fellows a stay, but not for long. +There came presently another superb dash from the southern side that +swept by like some human tidal wave of destruction, leaving its wreckage +on the hard sod of the prairie, and, alas, its well-nigh desperate +fire-workers at the edge of the wall. Ten minutes more and Ray's +improvised stockade was encompassed on every side by a ring of yelling, +firing, infuriated demons, most of them sprawling flat and shooting low, +and the leaden missiles tore through the wooden walls in every +direction, and the man who lifted head or arm above the parapet did it +at risk of life or limb. Poor Sweeny's glass came clattering down from +aloft, and he, poor follow, striving feebly to reach his friends and +partial shelter, tumbled in a heap at the foot of the ladder, his +life-blood welling from his gallant heart. Then--then other smoke, +pungent pinewood smoke, came sifting through knotholes and seams, with +ominous sounds of crackling and snapping from the side of the long +porch. Then, coughing and strangling, the two men who had ventured below +forced their way once more through the hole in the floor, a volume of +thick smoke rushing up as they were dragged into the room. Then shrill +yells of triumph and rejoicing rose on every side without, and then, +within, the piteous, hopeless wailing of helpless women and children. + +But the end was not yet. Even in their extremity Ray and some of his old +hands had noted how nervously the warriors seemed to be watching the +slopes to the northeast. There was a long, low wave of prairie that +closed the view in that direction to all on the ground floor, and it was +madness to go sight-seeing to the loft. If they could only hold out ten, +fifteen minutes it might mean life to all, save the two or three already +slain. "Grab those buckets, you, and you, and you!" shouted Ray, picking +out his men. "Stick to the east front, Scott! Stand 'em off just three +minutes! Dip a dozen blankets in the tub--at least you can do _that_, +damn you!" This to a cowering wretch whom even the sight of the women, +weeping yet working like heroes, had not yet shamed. The fire had been +safely, scientifically started in half-a-dozen places under the porch, +and already, probably, was eating its way through every crevice. Water +could not reach it, but wet blankets, spread above, would hold it for a +while, and others stuffed in the open spaces at the foundation wall +would choke it below. Ripped from the floor came plank after plank, and +down into the smoke dived both women and men, dripping blankets in tow, +while, with revolver in one hand and filled bucket in the other, Ray +mustered a squad at the east door ready for their desperate rush. +"Through the thick black breath" that billowed up from below the young +leader's voice reached every ear, and even children seemed to still +their cries and listen. "Now, blaze away as we rush out. Aim over us as +we spread these things. We'll drench 'em well before we come in. _Now_, +men, come on!" + +Out they darted, crouching and bending low, driving a few shots first at +the skulking warriors nearest, then scattering along the ground at the +edge of the low platform crackling fiercely from the flames underneath. +Swiftly the wet blankets were spread and doused anew. Even though they +might check the flames but three minutes, three minutes might mean years +of life. Then back into the choking cloud they dove, and manned the +walls again, ready to shoot down the first who dare rush to undo their +valiant work, and the smoke thus pent beneath the boarding billowed +hotter and thicker into the long, dim, resounding room. "Burst open the +shutters!" was the next order. It was better to die fighting than +choking to death--better to meet one's fate in the open than be roasted +alive. Through the eddying clouds, with seared, smarting eyes, Ray and +his sergeant could see the crest of that prairie wave long half mile +away; and, just as a tongue of flame burst in through the bales at the +southeast window, there came a rush of mounted Indians, leading spare +ponies by the bridle-reins, swiftly picking up their red marksmen from +the sod, and both voices went up in a shout of glorious hope and joy, as +here and there and presently everywhere along that prairie wave campaign +hats and khaki blouses came popping into view, and then long lines of +racing horsemen, carbines advanced, guidons streaming, officers +launching well out in front, and all following the lead and signals of a +tall, spare, sinewy form. "The major! the major himself!" shrieked the +watcher; and then, all peril forgotten, the beleaguered party, men, +women, and children, well-nigh despairing but the moment before, burst +from their stifling refuge and went, gasping, groping, stumbling into +outer air. Last to reach it,--dragging with him from the blazing doorway +the helpless and crippled form of Skelton, his khaki coat ablaze, his +hat, his hair and eyebrows gone,--came their young commander, and +helping hands were drenching him with water as he toppled exhausted on +the sod. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION + + +There was wrath mingled with the rejoicing that thrilled all through the +garrison that afternoon. Scattering far and wide, the ring-leaders, the +more prominent braves engaged in the revolt at the agency, were seeking +the refuge of kindred bands, leaving the old men and many Indian +households to explain the situation and secure eventually the peace +always so readily accorded. Placing a guard over the unconsumed +property, and sending most of the cavalry in pursuit of the renegades, +Stone telegraphed brief statement to department headquarters, lauding +Ray and his plucky detachment as they deserved, and Dwight and the +squadron as well, for their swift and skillful dash to the rescue. By +sunset the few dead, the several wounded and many homeless women and +children had been conveyed to the fort, Silver Hill turning out in +force, and the Argenta and rival stables contributing rigs in abundance. +Major Dwight was again beneath the same roof with little Jim, the father +well-nigh as helpless as the fever-stricken boy, for, the excitement +over, his duty done and splendidly done, and he himself shocked and +shaken by the fall of his horse, shot down almost at the last moment of +the charge, Dwight was brought back in the ambulance and assisted again +to his reclining chair in the den. Home he quietly refused to go. Mrs. +Dwight, as was proper and decorous, so soon as she could rally, under +the ministrations of Félicie, from the prostration that befell as a +result of seeing her adored, though deluded, husband riding off to +battle without ever a word or kiss to his suffering one, lost little +time in coming to implore her Oswald to return to his own room and her +arms. But Dr. Waring gravely told her it was then impossible, and +persuaded her, deluged in tears, to leave him in peace. Her parents, he +said, would soon be with her. They had been telegraphed for, and were to +start at once. Every provision should be made for their comfort and +hers, and, he added, for her future; but she must understand that for +the time being Major Dwight begged to be permitted to give his entire +attention to his son, whose case was desperate. + +So Inez, veiled and leaning heavily on the arm of Félicie, went sobbing +homeward through the dusk of the closing and solemn day, followed by +many curious eyes, and was once more within doors before Sandy Ray had +been restored to his mother's arms. Not until the last of his "forlorn +hope" had been gathered up and shipped back to Minneconjou would Sandy +consent to be driven thither himself, to find almost every door at the +post open to welcome him except his own, where there were now three or +four more denizens than there were beds. Stone himself was on hand to +say that Mrs. Stone had one of their spare rooms all prepared for him, +and this, too, in spite of the fact that Stone had stowed away, where +none could see, a certain letter that, unexplained, might yet render +Sandy Ray ineligible to residence under any roof at Minneconjou for all +time to come. + +But, unbeknowst to the colonel, the matter of Sandy's billet had been +settled beforehand. Lieutenant Purdy, of the Sixty-first, a near +neighbor, had met the "conquering hero" almost halfway, with the +information that his room was ready for him; his mother had already been +in to see and to approve, and there he must make himself at home, close +to his own quarters; and possibly Stone was grateful. + +There were several things in connection with the day's work for which he +could give no thanks whatever, and one of these was the news that +finally came from the wood camp. Black Wolf's thunderous harangue of the +early morning was not all an empty lie. Only the poor remains of the +sergeant, seven of his little guard, and several of the workmen, each +body surrounded by empty cartridge shells, mute witnesses of their +desperate battle for life, were left of those who had so cheerily +marched away; and, Blenke being safe lodged within the post, there were +still three absent unaccounted for. Blenke himself seemed crushed by the +tragic fate of these comrades whom he had vainly risked his life to +save. There was great sympathy expressed for Blenke throughout the +depleted garrison that night. There was talk of his daring essay all +over the post. There was whispering of it even in the dim-lighted wards +of the hospital, where lay the wounded and the scorched and seared. +Possibly it was the torment of his burns that made Skelton toss, mutter, +and finally blaspheme outright, but blaspheme he did at each successive +mention of Blenke, and, presently, with frightful, spiteful vehemence +and virulence. The steward in charge thought him delirious, and Skelton +said perhaps he was. 'Twould make a cat laugh and a man stark mad to +have to listen to such infernal rot, and this, as in duty bound the +steward told to Wallen at his earliest appearance, whereat that wise +young practitioner looked long at Skelton and--wiser still before he +came away. + +With all the official turmoil that grew and throve at Minneconjou in the +week that followed, this narrative has nothing to do. The general came +and went, and lots of troops and dozens of officers. Even Wister, far to +the west, was called upon for its contingent for field service in +rounding up the renegades, and Stanley Foster's troop, Stanley and all, +came over the Sagamore by special delivery, so to speak, and detrained +at Fort Siding, whence a detail sped to the fort for such supplies as +were needed, and the troopers marched at dawn, a wearied-looking captain +at their head. There was much to do in the field; there was much ado at +the fort. This last, which barely escaped becoming official, had to do +mainly with these, our _dramatis personæ_, and may now briefly be +recorded, and then our story is done. + +The center of human interest, of local interest, at least, was for a +memorable week shifted from the major's quarters to those where lay our +little Jimmie, tossing night and day in fever that threatened to burn +out everything but itself, tended night and day by gentle hands, by +devoted women, by one especially whose pluck and patience never gave +out, and whose physical powers proved indomitable--Priscilla Sanford. +There were days in which they could not induce the father to remain +below. His whole being seemed centered in that desperate fight for life, +wherein he, a soldier of many a heady fight, could wield no weapon for +the cause for which he would instantly have laid down life itself could +it but insure that of his only son. There came one awful day in which, +as he bent over the stricken form, his lips moving in piteous prayer to +Heaven, his eyes imploringly fixed upon the flushed and fevered little +face, suddenly a gleam of recognition seemed to flash from the now +dilating eyes, and as he and Priscilla leaned eagerly forward, in +shuddering terror the writhing form shrank from his touch, the sobbing +cry, startling in its utter amaze, incredulity--its imploring appeal +burst from the burning lips, "Don't strike me, daddy; _please_ don't! +Indeed, _indeed_ I didn't lie!" And with a groan of anguish unspeakable +Oswald Dwight dropped upon his knees and, sobbing aloud, buried his face +in his quivering hands. It was Priscilla who finally raised him to his +feet, and Waring led him, exhausted, from the room. From that hour, in +which it seemed as though Heaven itself had directed the final lesson +should be given, and through him, the patient victim of human +fallibility, the boy began to mend; and one day Waring and Wallen, +coming forth together, stopped and solemnly shook hands at the head of +the stairs and left the chastened father and that dauntless nurse +silently communing in the presence of the fluttering, yet reawakened, +life the one had so nearly imperiled, the other had so indomitably +battled to save. + +And all this while there were other lives and other fates and other +fortunes almost as desperately entangled and endangered. The general had +summoned Stone to follow him afield. It was hard work finding those +scattered wards of the nation, those lambs of the flock fled afar from +the agency, and Stone left with the fate of his three wood guards still +undetermined, for the soldiers had searched in vain. He left, too, with +most of his men, while Major Layton, ordered up from Niobrara, took +temporary command of the post, Dwight being, as yet, unfit for duty of +any kind. Stone was a week away, scouting through the Sagamore and over +toward the Belle Fourche, and brought back with him some four-score +"reds" of various ages and sexes, and two well-nigh starved and +exhausted men, two of French's devoted band, who, they said, had been +sent out the night before the attack to build and fire a beacon on the +summit of a tall, sharp, pine-crested height a mile away from camp. +French thought the signal might bring help from the post. They never +reached that crest. They heard the Indians shouting to each other in +pursuit. They made their way farther into the hills and lived on what +they had in their haversacks, hiding by day, for the hills seemed full +of redskins. They were taken to hospital to recuperate, and meantime, +while Stone's battalion settled down again into quarters, and business +at Skidmore's resumed its normal aspect, and the guard and prisoners +their abnormal number, Major Layton returned to Niobrara after imparting +to Colonel Stone a story he had succeeded in tracing back to three +sentries, a story he could neither stifle nor throttle, and that he left +with Colonel Stone to deal with as best he might; and Stone, thinking +again, as he had thought a thousand times before, of that letter in +feminine hand, and in his private desk, felt his heart go down to his +boots. In brief, the story was that twice during the week a young and +slender officer had issued from the rear gate of Lieutenant Purdy's +quarters, made his way in the black shadows of the fence-line to the +rear gate of Major Dwight's, where once, at least No. 4 could swear, it +was nearly an hour before he reappeared. + +Stone took council that very evening with Waring, the senior surgeon. +Waring had just come from Rays', saying little Jim, though dreadfully +weak and emaciated, was surely convalescing--that Dwight, with all his +joy, seemed humbler than a little child. "I believe, by gad, that in his +present frame of mind he'd forgive her, that incomprehensible little +wretch of a wife of his, no matter what she'd done, if she'd come and +ask him now." + +Whereupon Stone abruptly said, "By ---- he sha'n't! Come in here," and +he closed the study door behind them. Within twenty minutes thereafter +Dr. Waring had mastered the contents of three precious papers. First, +Major Layton's memorandum of the sentry's statements; second, a little +note that said, "at the usual place and time" and informing somebody of +the writer's intention of quitting "Minneconjou--and him--forever"; +third, a note explanatory of the second, and this note was type-written +and without signature: + + The inclosed was found in a notebook belonging to Lieutenant + Sanford Ray, which had been dropped last night at the rear entrance + to the quarters of Major Dwight. The major will know who wrote the + inclosed, and should know for whom it was written. + +Two nights thereafter, toward one o'clock, Major Dwight, with the post +adjutant and Dr. Waring in attendance, knocked for admission at his own +front door and knocked repeatedly before Félicie could be induced to +appear with the to-be-expected plea that Madame had but just composed +herself after nights of sleepless weeping, and surely she could not now +be disturbed. Dwight demanded instant admission and, finding parley +useless, Félicie unbarred the door and unloosed her tongue. "Shut up, +you Jezebel!" said the doctor impolitely. "Sit down there and be quiet." +Dwight was already mounting the stair, and presently could be heard +demanding admission to his wife's room. There was whimpering appeal in +the response, but the door was speedily unlocked, and the voice of Inez +could be heard in tones suggestive of unspeakable shock and grief and +sense of indignity and injustice. Presently Dwight came down again. +"Unbolt that dining-room door--and the back!" said he curtly to the +trembling maid, and when she would have demurred, seized her not too +gently by the arm, almost as he had seized little Jim, and propelled her +ahead of him into the dining-room. It was significant that the adjutant +remained at the front door. It was more significant that when the rear +door finally swung open there stood a silent sergeant of the guard, +while the waning moon glinted upon the bayonets of certain soldiers on +the level below. Félicie shrank at the announcement, yet could hardly +have been unprepared for it: "Someone opened from within a moment ago, +sir, and darted back at sight of the cap and buttons." + +"Bring two men and come in," was the brief answer, and then with lighted +candles and a lantern a search began, a search for many minutes utterly +without result, though another sergeant came and the officer of the day, +and all this time Félicie was begging to be restored to Madame, who +would assuredly again be prostrated and in need of her, and Dwight said, +"Let her go," whereat, as was noted, she darted first to her own room, +not to Madame's, and presently the search began again on the second +floor; and, to the amaze of the domestics aloft, soon invaded the very +garret itself, where first there was found the print of stocking feet on +a dusty plank, just as from under a box in the kitchen a pair of shoes +were pulled forth never worn by any authorized inmate of those quarters. +Then more lanterns went up the back stairs and more prodding followed in +the loft, and presently the watchers below heard stifled sounds of +excitement and scurry, and then, wild-eyed and striving to be strictly +professional, Sergeant Jennison descended and said: "We've got him, sir. +He's chokin' like." + +And presently again, limp, half-suffocated, smeared with dust and dirt, +in shirt sleeves and trousers coated with cobwebs and lint, there was +lowered to the second floor and shoved out on the landing at the head of +the stairs an almost unrecognizable creature, still struggling for +breath. "No man that wasn't made of rubber instead of flesh and bones +could have doubled himself in where he was," said the corporal to the +silent group, and, indeed, it looked as though he were doubling up +again, for the knees gave way, the head fell forward, and but for +restraining arms down would he have gone. The sergeant propped him up +again. The doctor plied a wet sponge, and Félicie, at the door of her +mistress' chamber, gasped in amaze: "_Mon Dieu!_ the miscreant who has +terrified Madame!" Whereat the dull eyes of the miscreant began slowly +to burn, and then to blaze; and, finally, as a faint color showed in his +sallow cheek, and the officer of the day, his official captor, bluntly +demanded explanation of his being in this house and at this time of +night, and both he and Waring and the adjutant, too, as it later +appeared, had all swiftly decided that the one explanation, the only +one, conceivable would be burglarious intent, to the utter amaze of +every man present, to the dismay of Félicie, who screamed aloud, the +head went suddenly up and back--oh, how well those who knew the Rays +knew that gesture!--the dark eyes flashed in hate and rage, and the +"miscreant's" voice rang out in defiance, triumph, almost exultation: + +"What explanation? I'd have you know I'm the only man in this post who +has legal right in that room. Ask the lady herself." + +Dwight's jaw was drooping. Slowly he turned to where Félicie, after one +short, half-stifled scream, stood staring wildly upon the prisoner, her +hands clasped to her frizzled head. "Ask--this--woman, you mean?" he +faltered, in the midst of almost breathless silence. + +"That woman? No! _Ask my wife, who lies in that room!_" + +Then, before any man could lay hand on and stop him, Dwight had sprung +forward and struck the miscreant down. + +Next morning the guard report bore the name, as a prisoner under sentry +in hospital, of Private Blenke, of Company "C," and next night did +Private Skelton, another patient, a precious tale unfold. + +It was true that Skelton had once served in the old --th Cavalry, and, +in common with many a man in his troop, had detested his first +lieutenant, Foster. It was true that there were now in the garrison of +Fort Minneconjou--two in the infantry and one in the cavalry--three men +who had an ancient grudge against that officer. It was true that the +sight of his hated face, hovering ever about the major's wife, had +revived all the old rancor. Two of the number had sworn that if ever a +time came when they could wreak their revenge upon him they would do it. +He had robbed one man of his sweetheart and two of their liberty, and +had driven these two into desertion. Skelton had once been rather +well-to-do, but drink and this trouble had ruined him. He had known +Blenke as much as a year, had been a "super" in a traveling show company +of which Blenke was a member. Blenke was a gymnast and trapeze performer +of some note, and not a bad actor in dialect and minor roles. The +company stranded. They were hundreds of miles from "home," without +money, hope, or credit. Skelton steered Blenke to a recruiting office, +and, once arrived at Minneconjou, Blenke became ambitious. He knew +nothing of the regular army before; now he was determined to become an +officer. Skelton alone knew anything of Blenke's past, and Skelton +promised not to "split." The coming of Mrs. Dwight brought a remarkable +change in Blenke, and when Captain Foster followed her and hung about +her all day long, Skelton saw there was something much amiss. Blenke +seemed going crazy through watching that lady and that man. Blenke had +some clothes of Lieutenant Ray's that he kept hidden at Skidmore's, and +Skelton felt sure that when the story went round about Lieutenant Ray's +being seen at night, prowling back of the major's quarters, that Blenke +was the real culprit. They were talking one day--Skelton and his former +chums--of the chance they'd have now of waylaying the captain, and +Blenke twitted them of not daring, even if they had the chance. They +vowed then that if he would only show them a way, he could count on +their doing it, and they did. Blenke had a plan matured, when suddenly +the captain left, after the row with Lieutenant Ray, and then Blenke +seemed just to take fire. He sent for them and unfolded another. The +Captain's train was five hours late and he knew a way to lure him out on +the road. He hated him, too, he said, and "we were beginning to see why. +He was so dead gone on the lady himself." He fixed the whole business, +got a note to the captain, he said, the captain couldn't tell from her +own writing, and it fetched him out just as was planned, and the rest +was pretty much as the captain told it. Skelton at first didn't much +care that an officer got credit for it all; Blenke had seen to that. +Blenke seemed to hate Lieutenant Ray--though he was forever copying +him--most as much as he hated Foster; but when Skelton got to the +agency, got to know Ray, got knocked down at the pow-wow and rescued by +Ray, got shot and left to roast to death at the agency, and was again +rescued by Ray, Skelton made up his mind that he'd sooner go to +Leavenworth for life, if he lived, or to hell if he didn't, than permit +Mr. Ray to suffer another day in suspicion. It was Blenke who wore his +dress at night and copied his very limp. It was Blenke that kept +prowling about the major's, lallygagging with that French maid. It was +high time Blenke himself was in limbo, and now they'd got him, they'd be +wise to keep an eye on him. + +And so, with the case--the two cases--against Sandy Ray abruptly closed, +the colonel, the surgeon and the adjutant, who had heard the confession, +seemed also to think; for the sentry at the bedside of the mournful-eyed +invalid received orders to bayonet him if he attempted to budge. + +And all in vain, for, with the dawn of a bleak to-morrow, Private +Blenke, no one could begin to say how, had slipped by his possibly +drowsing guard and escaped. The prairie, the Minneconjou valley, the +trains, were fruitlessly searched. The agile prisoner had fled from the +wrath to come. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +EXEUNT OMNES + + +There is little left to tell. With the vanishing of the mysterious +Blenke, "the man of the mournful eyes," there came swift unfolding of +the pitiable scheme that, for a time, had set Minneconjou's nerves on +edge, bewildering almost every man from the colonel down, and bedeviling +most of the women. When one's own mother is ready to believe a man +guilty, small blame to the rest of her kind and to the man's best +friends that they should be of the same way of thinking. Moreover, +neither then nor thereafter did Sandy Ray consider himself an innocent +and injured person. + +"If ever a fellow came within an ace of falling," said he to himself, +and later to his best friend, his father, "it was I; for I believed her +story--believed myself loved--believed she had been tricked into +throwing me over for Dwight, and that, now that he had thrown her over +because of it, and would have no more to do with her, she would soon be +free. Then our marriage could follow. A greater ass than I has never +lived, but I was sincere in my assininity." + +Nor was Sandy Ray the ass he declared himself, for if ever that +exquisite, catlike creature, Inez, loved anybody besides herself, she +loved Sandy Ray, and was bent on winning him back, cost what it might. +She quickly saw that his love for her lay dormant, not dead. She reveled +in the joy of her probable power until, all on a sudden, one terrible +night there came to her the shock of seeing a face she believed long +since buried beneath the waves of the Pacific--that of the boy lover and +husband who wooed and won her inflammable heart nearly five years +earlier. + +Blenke in a romantic epistle to Miss Sanford, Inez, through her lawyers, +and her latest dupe, Stanley Foster--whose resignation from the army +went eastward by the same train that bore him and that fair fugitive +from Minneconjou--and finally the impeccable Farrells, all gave versions +more or less veracious of that early marriage episode. But sifted down, +this much of truth was ascertained. The two were cousins, with the +vehement blood of the Antilles coursing in their veins. They loved, were +married by a Texan justice of the peace, and, after a brief honeymoon +across the Mexican line--a honeymoon of mingled bliss and battle--found +the old people relentless and themselves squabbling and stranded. The +elders swooped upon the girl-wife, bore her back to Texas and sent the +strolling player to South America, with the promise never to return or +bother them. They told her, and she refused to believe, that he speedily +met his death at the hands of a jealous husband in Valparaiso. They +later told her, and she fully believed, that, in defiance of his promise +and in desire for her, he had determined to reclaim her as they were +going to San Francisco, and was washed overboard from the _Colima_ by a +tidal wave. Inez, like a certain few of her sex, could believe anything +possible for love--of her, and Stanley Foster went far toward confirming +her views for as much as the month that followed their mad flight. Then, +with his commission gone--and his illusions--he found himself bound to a +woman whose fast-fading charms were no compensation for anything he had +lost. Much of their misery, and her own, was told in metropolitan +circles by Félicie, who applied unsuccessfully about this time to Mrs. +Gerald Stuyvesant for the position of nursery governess, or _bonne_. +Félicie had gone thither in hopes of extracting something from Foster's +people, as nothing could be gotten from the Farrells since nothing short +of extradition proceedings could induce their return to the States. It +was the same miserable old story, and Sandy Ray many a time thanked +Heaven, and Stone, and the senior surgeon, for the order that took him +to the agency and away from Inez Dwight. Would he have succumbed had he +stayed? Older and presumably wiser men have done worse, so why not +Sandy? Perhaps mother and Priscilla were not all wrong in their +forebodings. + +But what a scene of love and repentance and rejoicing was that when +those two women, Aunt Marion and her niece, compared notes over the +episode of that night's vigil and Sandy's part therein. Then his story +of his coming was true, after all! Priscilla had seen him entering the +front gate; had heard him at the door; had heard him pass round to the +side of the house. Blenke it was who, counterfeiting even the painful +little limp that still hampered Sandy's movements, had caused so many to +believe it was Billy Ray's firstborn, in the dead of night, invading the +quarters of a brother-officer, to the scandal of the service. They saw +it all now, these good people who had dreamed so wildly, and some few +there were who went to Ray during the brief fortnight that followed her +final disappearance and said: "We knew you couldn't have been guilty of +such a thought," but Sandy did not thank them. In his downright +impulsiveness he had gone to Stone and told him the truth, and said he +_had_ been guilty of such a thought, and asked the commander what he +ought to say to Dwight; and Stone, after pondering over the matter, +replied in effect, though not in these precise words, that he'd be +d--elighted if he knew. + +Time and Dwight solved that problem, as time solves others. The major +remained not long at Minneconjou, nor did the Rays. The former, with +little Jim ever at his side, went eastward for a while, whence letters +came occasionally from both father and son. The latter found divided +duties. An interesting event, an arrival extraordinary, called for the +presence of Mrs. Ray in distant Manhattan, and Priscilla looked her last +for many a day upon the fords of the Minneconjou and those hated +tenements on the hither shore, to whose permanence and prosperity her +own efforts had lent such unlooked-for aid. A wiser woman in many a way +was Priscilla Sanford when she turned her clear eyes eastward again. +Firm as before was her faith that she had a mission, but she had learned +a lesson still needed by many of her sect, and by many of both sexes. +She had a tale to unfold to most excellent theorists in the field that +taught a new gospel in the cause of man's uplifting. They were found by +Dwight and Jimmy at the seashore, late that summer, and Priscilla +strolled hand in hand with her boy friend along the shining sands, and +talked long and gravely with his sire as to the real way of reaching the +moral nature of the enlisted soldier. They were joined by Sandy for a +day or two in September--a rather grave-faced young gentleman, despite +recent promotion and longed-for orders to join his troop in far Luzon. +They were in no wise startled when a cable came from Colonel +Ray--"Grandfather Billy" in spite of his looks--suggesting that they, +too, come with Sandy. They were all at Manila in the late autumn, except +the Dwights, and long before Christmas Priscilla had found in Colonel +Blake, that old-time friend and comrade of Uncle Will, a most delighted +listener to her theories. "Legs" was forever stumping round to the +bungalow and starting Priscilla on her hobby, as he called it, and with +preternatural gravity "drawing her out" as to the chief end of man. +Somebody had told him of her Anti-Canteen and Soldiers' Aid Association +at Minneconjou--and of its disruption, but he never twitted her as to +that. It was the new scheme for the higher education and mental +development of the soldier to which her energies were now bending, and +as Blake was in town with little to do but nurse a wounded leg and serve +on some perennial court-martial, he found his fun in frequent +disquisitions with Priscilla, sometimes prolonging them until Mrs. Ray +lost patience and drove him homeward, and privately wrote her liege +lord, who was forever afield, running down _ladrones_, that he really +must repress that irrepressible wag. "He isn't trying to flirt with +Pris, is he?" asked Ray, inconsequently, on coming home, and was dull +enough not to catch the full force of his wife's reply. "Flirt? Gerald +Blake never knew how, and he's too much in love with his wife; +and--besides----" + +Priscilla was far too serious to flirt with any man, much as she might +long to reform him. She did wish that the long, lank cavalryman could be +induced to take her views as seriously as she took them herself, and as +Major Dwight seemed to take them, for Dwight's letters were coming at +regular intervals, and to Miss Sanford now rather than to Marion Ray, +and for a time Priscilla read them aloud for the benefit of Blake, the +scoffer, and that of Aunt Marion and Uncle Will, the ever-indulgent. And +thus that warm, sunshiny Manila winter went its way and the summer rains +began to flood the streets, and people took to aquatics, and excursions +to Nagasaki and Yokohama; and thither flitted our friends, the elder +Rays, with Blake to see them off, and a promise to keep Miss 'Cilla's +library project moving. And the day the transport dropped them into +waiting sampan in Nagasaki's wondrous harbor two packages of home +letters were handed them by the resident quartermaster, just received by +rail from Yokohama and the Nippon Maru, and that evening, on the broad +white veranda of the old hotel, Priscilla Sanford's cheeks took on the +hue of the summer sunset, and still Uncle Billy saw--and Aunt Marion +said--nothing. + +One afternoon, a few months later, the _Sheridan_ dropped anchor a mile +or more out in the shallow, land-locked bay of Manila, and the launches +and lighters brought the army passengers ashore, many of them for their +second visit to the Philippines; and just as the band at the _kiosk_ on +the Luneta began the daily concert, and carriages of every kind drew up +along the curb, and officers in spotless white went cap-doffing from +point to point, and fair women smiled and flirted their fans, Colonel +Stone, but recently arrived, began telling for the twentieth time, at +least, the story of the marvelous escapade by means of which the +renowned Blenke secured his final freedom: + +"Caught in Chicago; shipped back to the guard-house; shammed crazy, sir, +till he fooled every surgeon in the Cheyenne Valley; got ordered to the +government hospital for the insane; got supply of Skidmore whisky, +properly doped; got the corporal drunk who went in charge of him, and, +by gad, sir, got the corporal's outfit and papers and turned _him_ over +at Washington as the insane man; got his receipt and vanished--the last +ever heard of him. What became of her? Oh, after her flare-up with that +poor devil Foster--you know the child didn't live--she got back to +Mexico somehow: women like her never die--but she'll never be able to +bother Dwight. That marriage, of course, wasn't legal. He'd simply been +tricked. No, old Dwight's a free man, and I reckon he'll think twice +before he tries it again." + +Whereupon Stone was swiftly kicked in the shin by the long-legged +lieutenant-colonel of cavalry at his side, for, in his enthusiasm, the +colonel had turned and addressed his closing remarks to the two ladies +in the nearmost carriage, and one of them was reddening like the rose. + +"Dwight's here, you owl," said Blake, in explanation, later. "Came in on +the _Sheridan_ this very afternoon, and he isn't so confounded free as +you were in your remarks. Why--hadn't you _heard_? May be another case +of 'out of the frying-pan into the fire'--a toss-up 'twixt 'Cilla and +Charybdis, but----" + +"Good Lord!" cried Stone, "and what did I say? You don't mean she's +going to marry Dwight?" + +"She can't help herself. He won't take no for an answer." + +"Well--I'll--be--hanged," said Stone, reflectively, "and I ought to be. +It's just what my wife said--when the daily readings were going +on--would likely be the upshot of the whole business. She said more than +that--and she knows women, too--that Priscilla Sanford would make for +him the best kind of a wife." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SOLDIER'S TRIAL*** + + +******* This file should be named 32311-8.txt or 32311-8.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/3/1/32311 + + + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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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 <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre> +<p>Title: A Soldier's Trial</p> +<p> An Episode of the Canteen Crusade</p> +<p>Author: Charles King</p> +<p>Release Date: May 9, 2010 [eBook #32311]</p> +<p>Language: English</p> +<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p> +<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SOLDIER'S TRIAL***</p> +<p> </p> +<h4>E-text prepared by Mary Meehan<br /> + and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br /> + (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net/c/">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br /> + from page images generously made available by<br /> + Internet Archive/American Libraries<br /> + (<a href="http://www.archive.org/details/americana">http://www.archive.org/details/americana</a>)</h4> +<p> </p> +<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;" cellpadding="10"> + <tr> + <td valign="top"> + Note: + </td> + <td> + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/American Libraries. See + <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/soldierstrial00kingrich"> + http://www.archive.org/details/soldierstrial00kingrich</a> + </td> + </tr> +</table> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h1>A SOLDIER'S TRIAL</h1> + +<h3>AN EPISODE OF</h3> + +<h3>The Canteen Crusade</h3> + +<h2>BY GENERAL CHARLES KING</h2> + +<h4>AUTHOR OF "A DAUGHTER OF THE SIOUX," "COMRADES<br /> +IN ARMS," "THE MEDAL OF HONOR," ETC.</h4> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<p> </p> + +<h4>NEW YORK<br /> +THE HOBART COMPANY<br /> +1905</h4> + +<h4><span class="smcap">Copyright, 1905</span>,<br /> +BY THE HOBART COMPANY</h4> +<p> </p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Brig.-Gen. Frederick D. Grant, U.S.A., says: "It is distressing that the +prosperity of the keepers of vile resorts is due to the activity of good +and worthy though misguided citizens, who have succeeded in abolishing +the canteen in the army."</span></p> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + +<div class="figcenter"> +<img src="images/illus1.jpg" alt=""/> +</div> + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> + + + + +<h2>CONTENTS</h2> + +<!-- Autogenerated TOC. Modify or delete as required. --> +<p> +<a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I. <span class="smcap">Two Announcements</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II. <span class="smcap">A Face from the Philippines</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III. <span class="smcap">A Night at Naples</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV. "<span class="smcap">She is Coming Here!</span>"</a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V. <span class="smcap">Premonitory Symptoms</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI. <span class="smcap">A Bride—and a Beau</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII. <span class="smcap">The Wolf in the Sheepfold</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII. <span class="smcap">Accusing Letters</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX. <span class="smcap">An Invitation—to Go</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X. <span class="smcap">A Gathering Storm</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI. <span class="smcap">Deeper in the Toils</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII. <span class="smcap">What the Women Told the Major</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII. <span class="smcap">Worst Deed of His Life</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV. <span class="smcap">Reaction</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV. <span class="smcap">Retribution</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI. <span class="smcap">My Lady's Maid</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII. <span class="smcap">A Momentous Day</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII. <span class="smcap">Blenke Covers His Tracks</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX. <span class="smcap">Again the Saloon</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX. <span class="smcap">A Mother's Dread</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI. <span class="smcap">Love's Last Appeal</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII. <span class="smcap">The Lost Found</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII. <span class="smcap">A Welcome Peril</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV. <span class="smcap">Crisis</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV. <span class="smcap">Black Wolf's Battle</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI. <span class="smcap">Truth Stranger than Fiction</span></a><br /> +<a href="#CHAPTER_XXVII">CHAPTER XXVII. <span class="smcap">Exeunt Omnes</span></a><br /> +</p> +<!-- End Autogenerated TOC. --> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2>A SOLDIER'S TRIAL</h2> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2> + +<h3>TWO ANNOUNCEMENTS</h3> + + +<p>The war with Spain was at an end, and so were the hopes and aspirations +of many a warrior. For several reasons Colonel Ray of the ——th +Kentucky was a disappointed man. One of the best soldiers doing duty +with the volunteers, he had had some of the worst luck. Through long +years of service in the regular cavalry he had borne the reputation of +being a most energetic and valuable officer. He had won a name as an +Indian fighter the Indians themselves respected. He had campaigned all +over the frontier before the railways came and conquered. He knew +Arizona and New Mexico even better than his native State, and was known +from the upper Missouri to the lower Colorado far more generally than in +the "blue grass" country of his boy days. Apache and Arapahoe, Comanche +and Cheyenne, Sioux and Shoshone, they all had met, and many had +measured spear with, the dark-eyed, curly-headed Kentucky +light-horseman. He bore the scars of more than one sharp encounter; had +given more than he had received, yet found himself in no wise blessed +with profit or promotion. The Civil War was fairly ended when he stepped +from the Point into his first commission. Over thirty years had he done +valiant and faithful duty in the line, yet was he only just wearing the +gold leaves as junior major of his regiment, when the long-expected +happened in the spring of '98, and the nation called out its first levy +of volunteers. Slow as had been his advancement, it was phenomenally +swift as compared with that of classmates who, choosing the artillery +arm, had languished those thirty years in the line of file closers. Ray +had no complaint to make. He was even rejoiceful in his luck when called +to Kentucky to command one of her regiments of volunteer infantry. He +was, indeed, among the few envied men in the army where so very few have +anything to excite the cupidity of their kind. His record and reputation +were things no man could undermine, though some might underestimate. His +temperament was sweet and sunny. He had long been happily, most happily, +married. His wife was charming, admired, and beloved. His children were +all a father's heart could wish. Health and competence had always been +theirs. They had, indeed, for years known the joys of moderate wealth, +for Mrs. Ray had brought her husband something besides beauty and grace, +physical and spiritual. The Marion Sanford of the Centennial year of '76 +was reputed an heiress, and the children that had come in course of time +to bless their union were certainly born to the purple. But army people +of those days lived long years in the far West, had to trust their +business affairs to agents in the far East, and some agents could not +stand such prosperity. Mrs. Ray's property was mainly in real estate, +some of which became gradually unproductive. Then there came the +financial storm of '93, and a subsequent flitting of financial agents, +some to the convenient Canadas, some to the Spanish Main.</p> + +<p>Then another thing happened, almost whimsical in the way of retributive +justice where Mrs. Ray's relatives were concerned. That the resultant +burden should have been saddled on her cavalry husband was perhaps not +quite so diverting. There were several of Mrs. Ray's nearest of kin who +had by no means approved of her marriage in the army, and to a nameless, +moneyless subaltern at that. "He will make ducks and drakes of her +fortune," said they. "He will drink and gamble it away," said certain +others. Ray had possibly heard, had probably expected this. At all +events he had steadfastly declined to use his wife's money. He had gone +so far as to grieve her not a little by very gently, but very firmly, +declining to undertake the management of her property. That was all left +in the hands of her people. It was the agent of their choice who made +ducks and drakes of much of it, as well as of their own, and, at the +time the Spanish War broke out, from his pay as major in the line of the +army "Billy" Ray was contributing to the support of certain of the +children of his former detractors.</p> + +<p>Then came partial relief. "Sandy" Ray, their eldest son, commissioned +like his father in the cavalry, was no longer to be provided for. +Indeed, he was sending every month a certain quarter of his salary +direct to his mother to repay her for moneys advanced for him when they +were much needed. Maidie Ray, their lovely dark-eyed daughter, had +married the man of her choice, a well-to-do young New Yorker of most +excellent family. There was only Billy, Junior, among their olive +branches now to be provided for until he could look out for himself. +There was even prospect of his being sent to West Point within the year +to make a try at that which had proved too hard a problem for his +unmathematical elder brother, for Sandy had worn cadet gray long enough +to get much of the practical teaching of our famous school, though he +could not assimilate the requisite amount of the theoretical. It was the +year after the surrender of Santiago and the muster out of most of the +State volunteers that, in the goodness of his heart, Colonel Ray turned +to Marion, his wife, and said:</p> + +<p>"Why not have Beth and 'Cilla come to us?"—and thereby hangs very much +of this tale.</p> + +<p>"Beth," be it said at once, did not come, for, even in her reduced +circumstances and somewhat mature years, this excellent woman was sought +by an old admirer, once deemed ineligible. Beth wrote thankfully and +appreciatively to Uncle Will and dear Aunt Marion: "The Doctor has +returned to New Jersey and—the old subject." There was now no stern +parent to say him nay, and she—could not. But Priscilla would gladly +and gratefully come, and, whether or no Priscilla was grateful, +Priscilla proved assuredly glad, for Priscilla was a woman with a +mission and long in search of a field. Priscilla had often marveled at +Aunt Marion's blindness in not having earlier looked to her as the best +possible guide, example, and companion for Aunt Marion's most +interesting if much-indulged brood. Priscilla never doubted her powers, +and never dreamed of the instant protests developed when, in mischievous +mood, probably, papa had suggested having Cousin 'Cilla come to the +frontier to help mother school the little Rays. All their recollections +of that prematurely mature young kinswoman were somewhat appalling. They +regarded her as healthy children are sure to look upon an elder cousin +who seeks ever to improve her opportunities and their moral nature. Life +had had no greater trial to the trio than those rare and even +regrettable visits to mother's home and kindred where first they learned +to know the superior gifts and graces of Cousin 'Cil.</p> + +<p>It has been said that Colonel Ray, the Spanish part of the war ended, +was a disappointed man, and that so was many another. Never waiting to +see what might result from the general rally of the Filipino insurgents, +following speedily the first general scatter, the government swiftly +mustered out all the State volunteers not actually on duty in the +distant islands, filled up the regulars with raw recruits, and shipped +them straightway, undisciplined, undrilled, across the wide Pacific. +Then new regiments of volunteers were authorized,—National volunteers, +instead of State,—and, though their field officers as a rule were +chosen from the regular service, there were by no means enough to go +around among the many deserving applicants. The forty odd colonelcies +went, in most cases, to the right men, but there were many "left," and +Billy Ray was one. He had had no luck whatever with his Kentucky +regiment. He had been sent to Chickamauga, and thence to Florida, and +thence nowhere worth mentioning. They saw no service without the States; +heard no hostile bullets whistle; found, like most of the State +volunteers, they were to have no part in the Cuban campaign, and, that +being the case, they wished to go home. They hadn't enlisted to play +soldier, said they, and much as they admired and honored Colonel Ray, +they could not be made to love soldier life that had no fighting. "Give +us a chance to <i>do</i> something," was their cry, "and we'll stay till hell +freezes over; but no more of this sort of thing for us." Ray had tried +hard to keep alive regimental interest and enthusiasm, but few could +feel either interest or enthusiasm in a daily routine of drill, parade, +and police duty in a hot, malarious Southern camp under Southern summer +skies. Other regiments about them were getting orders to go home for +muster out, and some of these individual Kentuckians had begun to go, +too. If Ray could have moved them a few miles away from the other camps, +and close to the sparkling sea water, things might have gone better, but +his original brigade commander, a regular whom he knew, and who knew +him, had gotten orders for the Philippines, and gone.</p> + +<p>He was succeeded by a brigadier whom Ray had never heard of, nor +apparently had anybody else outside the contracted limits of his +commonwealth, and this gentleman, having never before served with +troops, and knowing nothing about modern military conditions, had +imbibed his impressions from foreign pictorial papers. His conception of +the functions of a general officer found concrete form in a daily +circuit of his camps, mounted and accompanied by his full staff and +escort. When not so occupied he sat in much state under the fly of his +marquee, and had his colonels come and stand attention and listen to his +homilies on the military art, which differed from anything they had +previously conceived upon the subject. It was this unschooled, unskilled +brigadier who turned down Ray's appeal to march his regiment five miles +over to the seashore. The colonel of over thirty years' practical +experience was being lectured by the general who had none. The +unterrified Kentucky rank and file took to guying their civilian +star-bearer. There were presently demonstrations that Ray could neither +foresee nor prevent. The general thought he could and should, and so +informed him, and likewise the division commander. Ray demanded +investigation. The division commander sought to smooth matters over, and +failed. Ray resigned in disgust, sought orders to his own regiment, and +found himself once again at the head of his squadron of regular troopers +in the midst of scenes he loved. But his soul longed for action. He was +offered a lieutenant-colonelcy of one of the national regiments of +volunteers, but that was a step down, not up. It would have placed him +under a colonel ten years younger than himself, and he said he preferred +the gold leaves in the regulars to the silver in the volunteers, which +ended for the present his prospects. Maidie's wedding, too, had +something to do with the decision. But now that was over with, and here +were he and Marion occupying delightful quarters at old Fort +Minneconjou, with every prospect of soon being sent to the Philippines, +where their colonel was commanding a division in the field, leaving +Major Ray to look after the post, its men, and its military morals. Here +it was, in the bracing air of the Dakotas and within range of the bold +foothills and remoter pine-crested heights of the Sagamore, that they +opened their hearts and doors to Mrs. Billy's niece, Priscilla Sanford, +and affairs at Minneconjou, stagnant a while after the departure of the +----d Infantry, once more became alive with interest, for Miss 'Cilla, +as has been said, was a woman with a mission and, as perhaps should be +said, with some thirty years to her credit, rather more than she had +dollars.</p> + +<p>Time had been when, with abundant means and few cares, Miss Sanford +busied herself in local charities and became a social power in her +community. But with loss of money came lack of appreciation. She who had +long managed the Mission kindergarten, and mainly financed it, was +presently superseded as president of the board. She who had ever been +foremost in the counsels of the Infants' Home and the St. Mary's Guild +found herself gradually slighted in the matter of entertainments, etc., +though still graciously permitted to do most of the clerical work.</p> + +<p>For nearly a dozen years she had served as secretary and treasurer of +the Young Woman's Church Aid and Temperance Union, a beneficent +organization that still held many meetings but few converts. It had the +backing of three or four wealthy congregations, however, and the control +of a generous fund. When the year '94 was ushered in and the victims of +the panic of '93 were enumerated, the case of Priscilla Sanford had +excited prompt and rather widespread interest; but the sympathy that +might have been as readily accorded was tempered by the reflection that +Miss Sanford had ever been what they termed "bossy," by which it was by +no means meant to imply that bovine sluggishness and submission were +Miss Sanford's marked characteristics, for Miss Sanford was energy +personified in petticoats. It had been moved, seconded and carried, in a +spasm of feminine generosity, that the secretary and treasurer should be +paid a salary, small, to be sure, but something, and Priscilla Sanford, +who had labored without fee or financial reward a dozen years, was +permitted to hold the position as a salaried official just one year +longer, by which time it was determined that Miss Sanford had really +been secretary much too long, and, anyhow, that somebody else stood much +more in need of it. So Priscilla's party found itself outvoted at the +annual election, and the Young Woman's Church Aid ceased, except in +name, to be a temperance union. With much that was intemperate in tone +and language, the union burst its bonds and flew to pieces, one or more +to each congregation. Then Priscilla tried her hand at writing for the +various journals of the clerical order. Some few published, but none +paid for, her contributions. Then Aunt Marion began sending occasional +drafts that were not to be mentioned to anybody. Then came Priscilla's +bid to join Uncle Will and Aunt Marion at Minneconjou, and +then—Priscilla herself.</p> + +<p>She had been there barely forty-eight hours when there arrived from the +Philippines a bulky letter from Lieutenant Sandy Ray, eldest son and +hope and heir, dated "Camp Lawton, Benguet." It had been nearly three +months on the way. It brought tidings that made his mother's soft cheek +pale with anxiety and caused Colonel Ray to look up startled as he read +it, to go over and take his wife in his arms, lead her to the sofa, and +hold her close as he went on with the final pages—a boy's rhapsody over +a boy's first love:</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">My Own Mummie</span>:—Not until I could send you the inclosed, the +portrait, and by no means flattering one, of the loveliest girl +that ever lived, could I write to tell you of my almost delirious +happiness. But <i>look</i> at her—<i>look</i> at her, and see for yourself +and rejoice with me, best, blessedest, dearest of mothers, that +this exquisite creature loves me—<i>me</i>, your no 'count, ranch boy +Sandy—loves <i>me</i>, and will soon, please God, be my own wife. +Mother, mother, I have hardly slept in my wild joy, and now I can +hardly wait for your approval and blessing. Dad will love and +admire her, I know, but mothers, they say, never think any woman +good enough for their boys, while I—I could kiss the very ground +she treads so lightly. I almost worship the very glove she left me +for a souvenir.</p> + +<p>As yet I can't quite realize my wondrous luck. Why, Mummie, the +other fellows were simply mad about her during her brief stay at +Manila. Quite a lot of us, you know, were ordered there when poor +Jack Bender was court-martialed. He got a stay of proceedings of +some kind, so while the witnesses should have been back with +General Young here, they were dancing attendance on her, and the +way I got the inside track was, when her parents had to go over to +Japan, I coaxed a ten days' leave out of the General and went with +them—her father, mother and her own sweet self—on the <i>Hancock</i> +to Nagasaki, and came back desolate on the—I don't know what.</p> + +<p>I met her at a dance at the Club. She attracted me the instant I +set eyes on her, so like is she to Maidie, only darker, perhaps, +and taller, and a bit more slender. But her eyes, hair, teeth, +coloring, are all so like Maidie's. Her features, perhaps, are more +regular. Shannon, of the Twenty-third, was doing the devoted, and +he presented me. She danced like a sylph, she danced right into my +heart, Mummie, and there she lives and reigns and has her being—my +queen! my queen!</p> + +<p>Oh, what nonsense this must sound to you! All my wise resolutions +as to young men marrying on lieutenant's pay thrown to the wind! +That, however, need not worry us. The major, her father, is +well-to-do, and she's an only child; but this is sordid. It is +<i>she</i> that I love, and the man does not live who could see and know +her and not worship. Why, even our old friend Captain Dwight was +fascinated and didn't half like it that I should have gone with her +to Nagasaki, and he was stiff as a ramrod when I came back. But to +return to her father. He, of course, doesn't expect to remain in +the army after the war. He was made major and quartermaster, I +presume because of his financial experience and worth, and he was +so patriotic he felt he had to get into the field as something. He +is a Texan by long residence, if not birth; owns two or three +ranches, and his wife, my darling's mother, is a Spanish lady whom +he met years ago in Cuba, then Seņorita de la Cruz y Mendoza y +Fronteras, etc., etc., but she, my lady, never speaks of this. She +is simplicity and sweetness itself. She bears her father's honored +name, and that alone, except for her own Christian name, the +sweetest ever—Inez.</p> + +<p>The major's health has suffered much in Manila, but it is hoped +that six weeks in Japan may restore him entirely. If not, they will +take the homeward voyage by way of Vancouver in one of the fine +ships of the Empress line instead of our crowded transports. +Hundreds of State volunteers are going back by every one of these +and, being discharged, or as good as discharged, they consider +themselves relieved from all discipline—which makes it unpleasant +for families of officers. They (the Farrells) may winter in +'Frisco, where I hope to join them in the spring, and where you +will be sure to see them when you and Dad and the squadron embark +for the Islands. There won't be anything left of the insurrection, +or much of the insurrectos, at the rate things are going, by the +time you come, but meanwhile, like the loving Mummie you are, write +to them, especially to <i>her</i>, that your future daughter may know a +loving welcome awaits her. She seems timid as to that and fears you +may not like her, and Dad will, of course, write to Major Farrell, +who is as keen a lover of horses as ever he was, and who owns some +of the finest blooded stock ever seen in the South. This letter +goes registered because of the priceless photograph, which was +taken at Hong Kong, Inez tells me, just after their voyage over, +when she was looking like a fright. Being registered, it must go +slowly and may be long in reaching you, but fancy your Sandy's joy, +if you can. Send this to Maidie, if you will, for I have no time to +write to both. I am commanding my troop and we march at dawn for +the mountains, and may be weeks now in the jungle, chasing +Aguinaldo. Several of our fellows have broken down and had to go to +the sea or back to Corregidor, even over to Japan, to recuperate, +but I feel like a fighting cock and am going in now to win a name +for myself, and for her, that you'll all be proud of. One thing I +can tell you proudly, mother dear: never since that day at the +Presidio, ever so much more than a year ago, have I let even a sip +of wine pass my lips, the first and only teetotaler among the Rays, +and perhaps <i>that</i> has something to do with my perfect physical +trim. I owe you this, and have gladly kept the faith. Now in my +new-found happiness I feel as if I could keep that and every other +faith to the end. Lovingly, devotedly, your boy,</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Sanford Ray.</span></p> + +<p>P. S.—Inez says it should not be announced until you all have +approved, whereas I wished and would be for shouting the news from +the housetops. There is a chance of getting this to you quicker +than I thought. Captain Dwight has never been himself since +Bender's trial and conviction. General Young wanted him to take +sick leave last month and go to Japan, but he wouldn't. Now he's +fairly broken down and has to be left behind, so this will go to +Manila with him. I wonder—I can't help wondering—what he'd think +if he knew what was in it. The fellows do say she could have had +him and his money, yet she chose your boy, <span class="smcap">Sandy.</span></p></blockquote> + +<p>For a moment after reading the final page Colonel Ray sat in silence. +Aloft could be heard the firm footfalls of Miss Sanford as she bustled +about her room unpacking her belated trunks. Within, with merry snap and +sparkle, the fresh-heaped wood fire blazed in the broad open fireplace. +Without, the orderly trumpeter, away over by the flagstaff, was winding +the last note of stable call. The late afternoon sunshine flooded the +valley of the Minneconjou. The mountain air, cool, bracing, redolent of +pine and cedar, stirred the tracery of the white curtains at the open +southward window and fluttered the silken folds of the standard and +guidons at the parlor archway. Anxiously the mother heart was throbbing +by his side, and the fond eyes sought the soldier's strong, storm-beaten +face. Then she noted the look of bewilderment in his gaze, for again he +was studying that postscript. Then suddenly he stretched forth his hand, +took from the little pile of newspapers on a chair a copy of a recent +army journal, swiftly turned over a page or two, searching the columns +with half doubtful eyes; then, finding what he needed, thumbed the +paragraph and held it where she could easily see. "Read that," said Ray, +and Marion read aloud:</p> + +<blockquote><p>"<span class="smcap">San Francisco</span>, —— 18.—Among the arrivals at the Occidental by +the <i>Sheridan</i> from Manila and Nagasaki are Major, Mrs. and Miss +Farrell and Captain Oswald M. Dwight, the latter of the —th +Cavalry. Major Farrell, Quartermaster U. S. Volunteers, is the +owner of valuable properties in Texas, whither he is soon to +return. Captain Dwight, one of the most distinguished of our +squadron leaders, is rapidly recuperating from serious illness +contracted in the Philippines. The voyage proved a blessing in more +ways than one, for the dinner given by Major and Mrs. Farrell last +night, to a select coterie at the Bohemian Club, was to announce +the engagement of their lovely daughter, Inez, to this gallant +trooper, who won his spurs in the Apache campaign of the '80's, and +the sympathy of hosts of friends on the Pacific coast in the death +of his devoted wife six years ago. They will now rejoice with him +in his joy, and unite with us in wishing him and his young and +beautiful bride all possible felicity."</p></blockquote> + +<p>Mrs. Ray turned, all amaze, incredulity and distress; then, with +something like a sob, buried her face on the sturdy blue shoulder. There +was suspicious moisture about her husband's blinking eyes, and he for a +moment could hardly trust himself to speak.</p> + +<p>"Is it—<i>our</i> boy now, dear?" he gently asked, and her head came up at +the instant, her blue eyes welling over with indignant tears:</p> + +<p>"Oh, Will," she answered, "you know well what I'm thinking. It is of +<i>her</i>—of Margaret—it is of <i>their</i> boy—poor little motherless Jim!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2> + +<h3>A FACE FROM THE PHILIPPINES</h3> + + +<p>The man did not live who could say, much less think, that Oswald Dwight +did not devotedly love his devoted wife and had not deeply, even +desolately, mourned her untimely death. Margaret Welland was not a woman +to be soon forgotten. For six years she had been the object almost of +reverence among the officers and men of her husband's regiment, almost +of worship among the women. Gentle, generous, and charitable, gifted +with many a physical charm and almost every spiritual grace, she had +lived her brief life in the army an uncrowned queen, and died a +martyr—almost a saint. For long weeks afterward the women would weep at +mere mention of her name. The casket that bore the fragile, lifeless +form and that of her infant daughter to their final rest was literally +buried in flowers that were wet with tears. Strong men, too, turned +aside or hid their faces in trembling hands when with bowed head Oswald +Dwight was led by, clasping to his breast his sobbing little boy. There +were some who said that Dwight could never have pulled up again if it +hadn't been for Jimmy. It was long months before the stricken soldier +was restored to them. It was longer still before little Jim returned, +and every day meantime, after Dwight's appearance, regularly as he rose +and went silently about his duties, the father wrote his letter to be +read aloud to his only living child, and the one thing that spurred the +merry-hearted little fellow to his studies was the longing to read and +to answer for himself. Jim's first missive to his father, penned by his +own infinite labor, was the event of the second winter at Fort Riley, +for it was shown in succession to nearly every comrade and to every even +remotely sympathetic woman at the post. There were maidens there who +would fain have consoled the tall, distinguished, dark-eyed trooper, so +interesting in his depth of melancholy, so eligible as a catch, for +Dwight, for an army man, was oddly well to do. Obstinately, however, he +refused all consolation from even such a sympathetic source, and would +for long brook no companion on his solitary walks or rides. All his talk +now was of his boy. All his thoughts, plans, projects, seemed centering +on little Jim, who, for the time being, had to be housed among his +mother's people. He was still too young for the care of a soldier-father +who any day might be compelled to take the field. But then came station +at Fort Riley, with its big garrison, its school and its society, and +then the yearning at his heart could no longer be denied. The Wellands +nearly cried their eyes out when Oswald, toward the end of the third +"leave" since Margaret's death, told them that the time for which he had +scrupulously sought to prepare them had come at last: he must have his +boy—he could not live without him.</p> + +<p>Then when Jimmy came it seemed as though an entire garrison had started +in to spoil him. He was the merriest, sunniest, friendliest little chap, +frank, brave and even beautiful, with all his mother's lovely coloring, +with her deep, heavily-lashed, soulful, violet eyes, with her soft +curling brown hair, with her sweet, sensitive mouth and pretty white +teeth. No wonder big Oswald used to set him on his knee and look long +into the smiling little face, so fond and trustful, yet filled with +vague wonderment why daddy should so wistfully gaze at him; and then +with relief, Jim knew not why, when the strong arms would suddenly draw +the lithe, slender little body to that broad and heaving chest and hold +it there, close strained, while bearded lips sought and kissed again and +again the sunny curls. Dwight just lived for that boy, said Fort Riley, +small blame to him! Dwight made little Jim his friend, his confidant, +his companion. Jim had his own little pony as soon as he could safely +bestride one. Jim had his own little camp bed in the room opening off +his father's. Jim had his own shower bath rigged up in his own closet. +Jim had his regular setting-up drill and calisthenics, with daddy +himself for teacher, his rub-down and his soldier toilet, with daddy to +teach him breathing exercises that took the oxygen deep down into his +lungs and sent the red blood whirling through his sinewy little frame. +Jimmy had his own racket for tennis, his own target rifle, his own +kites, tops, marbles, soldiers of every conceivable size, costume and +corps, his own railway tracks and trains, his own books and bookshelves, +his own desk and study table—pretty much everything a boy could have +except his own way, which he was the better without, and his own +mother—without whom boy life can never be complete.</p> + +<p>Fort Riley could be censorious, Heaven knows, when cause existed, and +sometimes when it didn't; but, save the cherished thought of certain +sentimental women that little Jim should have a mother's care as well as +a father's, Fort Riley had few critics so unwise as to question Dwight's +methods with his boy. Jim did not lack for playfellows of his own +age—the fort was full of them and they as full of mischief and +merriment as even army boys are apt to be; but, though at school and in +the "all-round" sports of boyhood Jim mingled with them unreservedly, +the father had made it his business to know most of them well before he +brought Jim to take his initiation among them. There were some few whose +homes Jim was cautioned not to visit. There were some whom, even on +rainy days when the railway was in successful operation all over the +second story, Jim was not permitted to invite to join his +fellow-operatives. A few carping critics there were who thought such +indulgence would be sure to spoil any boy, but, under his father's eye +and guided by his father's hand, Jim worked and studied quite as +steadily as he played. The staff of the little army household was made +up mainly of former trooper Hentzler and his buxom wife, Hentzler being +butler, steward, and valet, Frau Hentzler cook and housemaid. Mrs. +Feeny, of the troop, was their laundress, and Trooper Mehl "boots," +striker and groom. But it was Dwight himself who roused his boy for his +morning bath and exercise, who sat with him through his study hour, saw +him off to school; walked, rode, drove, sometimes shot and fished with +him, going for the purpose far up the Smoky Hill. It was Dwight who read +with him after their evening tea and who finally knelt with him night +after night before he tucked the little fellow into his white bed, +imploring God's guidance for himself, God's blessing for his boy.</p> + +<p>And so never again had they been separated, Dwight and his boy, until +the squadron sailed for Manila and little Jim, refusing to be comforted, +had been left with his mother's kindred until matters should shape +themselves in the Philippines. But the shaping process that might have +been a matter only of months, had the army found no other enemy than the +insurgents and their climate, proved long and costly in life, limb, and +treasure, thanks to the aid and comfort given that enemy by our +fellow-men at home. Dwight had led his squadron through a campaign +fierce in its occasional fighting, but well-nigh fatal through hardship +and heat prostration to many besides himself. Dwight had had to turn +over his command to Captain Gridley, his next in rank, and go to the sea +and Corregidor for rest and recuperation. What good effects might have +been obtained were offset by the court-martial of an officer whose mind, +it was believed, had been affected by sunstroke, yet Captain Dwight was +compelled to appear and remain some time in Manila to testify against +him. He returned to the field little benefited by the enforced +separation from his fellows, and speedily showed symptoms of returning +prostration that led the general commanding to order him again to the +seashore and recommend his being sent on a sea voyage. It was during +this voyage that, after four wonderful days at Nagasaki, he found +himself daily, almost hourly, in the presence of Inez Farrell, as +beautiful and graceful a girl as ever his eyes had seen. He was strong +neither physically nor mentally. He was still an invalid when they met +on the veranda of the old hotel overlooking that wonderful land-locked +harbor. He had by no means forgotten the impression created by her +beauty and her lissome grace when dancing at the club at Manila. He was +invited by Major Farrell to be one of their little party on a rickshaw +ride over the green hills to Mogi. It was an ideal day. It was an ideal +night, with the moon nearing full as they sat later on the upper +veranda, gazing out upon the riding lights of the shipping +thick-clustered on the placid bosom of the bay. It was followed by other +nights as beautiful both ashore and at sea. He was twenty years her +senior, yet she seemed to look for him, wait for him, prefer him in +every way to younger officers, also homeward bound, and these youngsters +left him to his fate.</p> + +<p>What time he was not walking the deck, with her little hand resting on +his arm, or flung in long, low steamer chair close to hers, where he +could watch the wondrous beauty of her face and feel the spell of her +soft, languorous, lovely eyes, Dwight found himself in converse with her +father, a patriotic quartermaster, the owner of valuable properties in +the Lone Star State, to which he must speedily return—his "boys," two +nephews, were not trained to business, said he, and they, too, had been +seeing service and unsettling their minds and habits with the volunteers +that didn't get to Cuba. His daughter was his chief anxiety, he +admitted. She had her mother's luxurious Spanish temperament; needed a +guiding hand—a husband to whom she could look up with respect and +honor, not a callow youngster with no ideas beyond scheming for +promotion and better pay. Several of these young chaps had been buzzing +about her at Manila, but she had "turned them all down," said Farrell. +She had sense and power of observation with all her possibly romantic +admiration for soldiers, but what she really admired was the real +soldier—a man fit to command and lead, a man with a record behind him, +not an uncertainty ahead. Dwight's seat, at the request of the veteran +general officer going with them to the States, had been at the captain's +table, but Dwight soon effected—at least Farrell effected and Dwight +got the <i>dis</i>credit of it—a transfer with the officer who had been +seated at the side of Inez Farrell, and Dwight's mental condition can +perhaps be judged of by the fact that he never noticed that General Hume +thereafter not once addressed him on the voyage.</p> + +<p>Enough said. Oswald Dwight's many friends throughout the service read +with much surprise, most of them with vague disquietude and some few +with downright dismay, the announcement of the marriage at Los Angeles, +by the Right Reverend the Bishop of the Diocese, assisted by the Very +Reverend Fathers Moran and Finley, at the Church of the Immaculate +Conception, of Inez, only daughter of Major and Quartermaster James +O'Donohue Farrell, U. S. V., of Santa Rosita, Texas, and Maria Mercedes +de la Cruz y Mendoza y Fronteras, his wife, to Captain Oswald M. Dwight, +—th U. S. Cavalry.</p> + +<p>When the happy pair set forth upon their wedding journey some comment +was created by the fact that, while they went to New Orleans, the +parents of the bride did not go to Texas, as had been planned. Moreover, +the major, it seems, had not anticipated that orders honorably +discharging him from the volunteer service would meet him within the +week of his arrival within the Golden Gate. Officers of the Department +Staff, interrogated on the subject, said little but looked volumes. +Major Blake, of the Cavalry, an old and intimate friend of the Rays, was +understood to say that it was a wonder the major had been honorably +discharged at all. Farrell, who was to have gone to his Texas property, +found that certain mines in Mexico demanded immediate looking after. +Indeed, it was this fact that precipitated an earlier marriage than Miss +Farrell, whose trousseau was by no means in readiness, had for a moment +contemplated. Farrell said he might be as much as six months in the +mountains beyond Guadalajara and other places. The seņora had, of +course, wealthy kindred with whom she could stay at Mexico or Vera Cruz, +but the hitch was about Inez, who, said her father, was so Americanized +that she couldn't get along with her mother's people—they were forever +at swords' points, and what more natural than that the ardent swain +should promptly urge immediate union; then the Farrells could go their +way in peace and he could bear away his beautiful bride to the Atlantic +seaboard, to be made known to his people, and to embrace little Jim. To +this Inez responded coyly that she could not think of such a plan. She +could not go back to San Francisco, a bride, in the gowns she wore while +there as Miss Farrell. Then said Dwight, we'll go straight to New +Orleans, where her mother had many friends and kinsfolk, where the best +of modistes abound, where everything a bride could possibly wear could +surely be found, and Farrell added his dictum to the pleadings of the +groom-elect. The plan appealed to him most, as it would cost him least.</p> + +<p>When Farrell gave them his tearful benediction and farewell, ten +thousand dollars of Dwight's money was stowed away in bills of exchange +on the City of Mexico for investment in the fabulous mines of the +Sierras, and Dwight's signature was on the back of one or two bills left +in the hands of Farrell's friends and correspondents at the Bank of +California, purely, of course, for safe-keeping. And so they went on +their respective ways, Farrell not soon to be seen in God's country +again.</p> + +<p>Three months later, with little Jim at his side and the young +step-mother dawdling along after them in her easy carriage, Captain +Dwight was tramping through Switzerland. The surgeons had said in so +many words he must not return to the Philippines for half a year, and +neither before nor after his marriage had a word reached him from the +Rays, who were his next-door neighbors and Margaret's most devoted +friends until Jimmy was nearly two years old. Even thereafter, though +stationed far apart, Marion Ray and Margaret Dwight had kept up their +correspondence almost to the end. Dwight, indeed, had seen barely half a +dozen of his former comrades, and that only by accident and in haste. +There had come since his second marriage the usual number of cards in +response to the wedding announcement sent to so many friends both in and +out of the army. There had come a curiously unusual dearth of letters of +congratulation. But every man was on the move, he persuaded himself. +Everybody was either busy in the Philippines or voyaging to or from +them. They, too, were moving from pillar to post, and letters must be +miscarrying, so few, for instance, had come from Father-in-law Farrell, +and those that did come made no mention of matters Farrell could hardly +have ignored, and that Dwight had rather counted on.</p> + +<p>Still, Dwight's health was mending every week. Inez had seen so much of +foreign life in her younger days she could not be expected to care to go +poking about, as he did with Jimmy, into all manner of odd nooks and +corners. Father and son once more were hand in hand—hand in glove—for +hours each day, and but for a shyness Jim would surely soon get over—a +queer, silent shrinking from his beautiful young mother—but for this +and one or two little worries due to the non-appearance of letters that +ought to have come and doubtless would come, Dwight strove to persuade +himself that he was again a happy and an enviable man.</p> + +<p>Then came a day that left its impress on them all. There had been +something very like demur on part of the Welland family when Dwight +first announced his intention of taking Jimmy with them to see the Old +World. What would Inez—they spoke her name with effort—think of such a +plan? Was not a young bride justified in expecting the undivided +attention of her husband? Would not any girl, placed as she was, prefer +a honeymoon unclouded by the presence of the children of her +predecessor? Inez had not warmed to her other kindred by marriage; could +she be expected to welcome and, all at once, to warm to little Jim? +Conscientiously and consistently they had tried to like Inez, and could +not. She was beautiful; she was appealing; she was apparently all desire +to please, but she was not convincing. The more they saw of her the less +they liked, but Dwight's infatuation was complete. And still he would +have his boy, and they spoke at last. He had answered by summoning her +to the room—a strange proceeding—and bidding her speak for him, and +she did. She said her heart had yearned for little Jim ever since the +captain first began to tell of him, and when she realized later how +utterly the father's heart was bound up in his boy, she had prayed for +guidance that she might prove a second mother to the little fellow, and +it was her earnest desire that the lad might come with them. How else +was she to hope to win his trust, his affection? There was nothing left +for them to say; but the dread and desolation that fell upon the +household when, for the second time, they were compelled to part with +Margaret's boy, no one but the Wellands was permitted to know.</p> + +<p>Inez, who had been a model sailor on the Pacific, kept much to her +stateroom on the gray Atlantic, though the voyage was unusually placid. +Nor had she later made much effort in her quest for Jimmy's trust and +affection. She could not climb mountains, pedal wheels or ride +quadrupeds. She cared little for scenery—she had seen so much in her +girlhood. She admitted feeling languid and inert. Perhaps mountain air +was not congenial. She would be better when they got to sunny Italy. She +wished there to see everything and to live in the open air—it was what +the doctor said the captain must do—and then she was always exquisitely +gowned and ready to meet them when in the late afternoon they came home, +all aglow, with just time to get out of their tweeds and into dinner +dress. Then Jimmy went early to bed, and she had the long beautiful +evenings with her husband. But now they were in sunny Italy and, except +to drive in beauteous toilets and dine in evening garb still more +resplendent, Inez had no interest in her surroundings and but little in +Jim. They were to sail for home, taking the <i>Hohenzollern</i> at Naples, +after the Easter week in Rome. They had been driving much of the day and +dining early on the balcony of their hotel, looking out upon the +glorious view toward Sorrento and Capri, with grim Vesuvius, +smoke-crowned, in the middle distance. Any moment, said their host, they +should sight the graceful hull of their expected steamer cleaving the +blue beyond the rocky scarp of Posilipo, when Jimmy, gazing steadily +through the glass at the crowding fleet of shipping off the Dogana, +spoke excitedly: "It is our flag, daddy, and the funnel has three +stripes!"</p> + +<p>"A transport," said his father, who had been bending over Inez. "She +must have come in while we were driving." Yet, even as he spoke, +anxiously, tenderly, he was studying her face.</p> + +<p>"Then—that was one of our officers that spoke to you, mamma?" said Jim, +turning quickly, eagerly toward her.</p> + +<p>She had been unusually inert and silent since their return, had herself +suggested dinner on the balcony. It would save the bother of dressing, +and then repacking, since they might have to go on board any hour that +evening. She had been gazing listlessly out over the beautiful bay, +almost dazzling in the rays of the setting sun. Now she suddenly +started, shivered, but almost as suddenly, quickly rallied.</p> + +<p>"Spoke to <i>me</i>, Jimmy! Why, child, you've been dreaming!"</p> + +<p>"Why, no, mamma! Don't you remember—while daddy was in at the bank?" +and the boy's big violet eyes turned full upon her. The white hands +gripped the arm of her reclining chair, but she laughed lightly, and the +words came quick.</p> + +<p>"Jimmy boy, you were sound asleep on the front seat. Don't you remember, +Oswald, dear?"</p> + +<p>Dwight, too, laughed merrily. "Surely! Why, little man, your peepers +were shut and you were curled up like a pussy cat——"</p> + +<p>"But I'd waked up, daddy. Mamma gave a little scream and I thought +somebody'd hurt her, and there was this gentleman with his hat raised, +just standing and staring at her till she bent over and said something +quick——"</p> + +<p>"Well, of all the <i>traeumbilder</i> I ever heard!" and Mrs. Dwight's pearly +teeth gleamed through rosy lips as she laughed delightedly, merrily. +"Why, Jimmy boy, I had to shake you awake when I saw papa coming. That's +what I bent forward for. You called him for something, dear, or I +shouldn't have disturbed him."</p> + +<p>"Certainly, I wanted him to see those Italian cavalry officers coming +by, and his eyes could hardly open in time. Just look at 'em now."</p> + +<p>They were, indeed, worth looking at—big and violet, blue and round and +full of wonderment, of incredulity—almost of shock and distress—gazing +fixedly upon the lovely, laughing face of the girl in the deep reclining +chair.</p> + +<p>And then, soft stepping, apologetic, salver in hand, a waiter appeared +at the long Venetian window. Dwight took the card, read, and fairly +cried aloud:</p> + +<p>"By all that's jolly, Inez, it's Sandy Ray!"</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2> + +<h3>A NIGHT AT NAPLES</h3> + + +<p>There was a joyous time at the Salone Margherita that evening. Homeward +bound, the <i>Burnside</i>, from Manila to New York <i>via</i> Suez, had anchored +that morning off the Dogana quay, and twoscore officers and ladies and a +numerous contingent of discharged soldiers had come swarming ashore to +see what they could of Naples before again proceeding on the morrow. The +fact that most of the officers were invalided home, convalescing from +wounds or severe illness, seemed but moderately to cloud their +enjoyment. By six o'clock most of their number had heard that Dwight of +the cavalry, with his bride, was at the Grand, whither several went at +once before ordering dinner. First to arrive, alone, and looking pallid +and ill, was a young soldier in civilian dress, who seemed nervously +impatient at the delay that followed the sending up of his card, and by +no means delighted when three or four of his fellows came in and +followed suit before his own was acknowledged. So uncompanionable, +indeed, was he that he stepped outside to the southward terrace as +though to avoid these others, and, but for the cards, the observant +<i>portier</i> might have thought them strangers to each other. The late +arrivals, as a rule, were garbed in khaki, just as they had come away +from Manila, and were objects of polite curiosity to the elegantly +capped, cloaked and uniformed Italian officers sauntering in from the +Piazza Umberto, many of whom saluted courteously, though few could tell +from the dress worn by the Americans which was officer and which was +private soldier.</p> + +<p>It was full fifteen minutes before Captain Dwight appeared, though +little Jim had come bounding down the carpeted stairway all joy at +seeing a face or two he well remembered, and in meeting new friends, who +were unspeakably welcome because they were soldiers, American soldiers, +<i>our</i> soldiers. Father, he said, would be down in a moment. Mamma was +not quite well, over-tired, perhaps, from the long drive and day at +sight-seeing and shopping. Even when Dwight appeared, shaking hands most +cordially, rejoicefully, with all, and, indeed, nearly embracing Sandy +Ray, whom he had known since that young gentleman's babyhood, it was a +disappointment to all his visitors that he seemed worried and harassed. +Mrs. Dwight, he explained, had not benefited as they had hoped by the +journeyings abroad, and she had just had something like a sinking spell. +They would have to excuse her a while. She'd be down later. "But you, +too, Sandy boy! What a tough time you must have been having! I hadn't +heard of your being ill. I haven't heard anything, in fact. Your father +hasn't written to me at all. What has been the matter?"</p> + +<p>And then it appeared that Sandy had been ailing for weeks on top of a +not very serious wound, "wasn't at all fit," yet didn't wish to come +home—had been ordered out of the Islands, in fact. And then, as it +further appeared, when Dwight turned, looking for little Jim, all +eagerness that Sandy should see how splendidly the lad was grown and +developed since their parting in Arizona years ago, when Jimmy was just +beginning to toddle about and talk, there stood the boy, his big blue +eyes fixed on the pallid, solemn face of Lieutenant Ray with a look of +bewilderment and trouble. Fowne of the Engineers spoke of it later to +Foster, who just at that moment had seized Jimmy and swung him to his +shoulder, where, instead of gleefully pounding his captor's head and +laughing merrily, as of old he would have done, Jimmy was straining his +violet blue eyes again, staring after Ray, whom a waiter, bearing his +card, had summoned to follow him. Three or four of the laughing party at +the moment had surrounded Dwight, compelling him with their chatter, so +that he stood with a hand still extended toward the spot where Jimmy had +been standing, and did not even see that Ray had been summoned and was +gone. Question and answer were flying thick and fast, for full five +minutes before, looking about him, Dwight missed his boy. Foster, +finding the little fellow unresponsive, at least, had presently set him +down, and then, plunging eagerly into the talk over the latest newspaper +tidings of the doings of the Islands—of Otis's probable home-coming and +MacArthur's succeeding to the command, of what could be looked for at +Samar and Mindanao—he, too, had lost sight of the lad. "Hullo!" said +Dwight, "Jimmy has taken possession of Ray. Well, that's as it should +be. How was Gridley when you last saw him, Foster? And tell me about the +Gillettes. They were mighty kind to me when I was so knocked out after +Bender's trial. Fit now? I should say so! Never felt finer in my life. +I'm going back to Manila just as soon as I can place my wife and Jimmy, +no matter what the doctors say."</p> + +<p>And so it happened that, for ten minutes or more, neither Lieutenant Ray +nor little Jim was greatly missed. But then Dwight began bethinking him +it was high time for Inez to appear. She had promised to come down and +meet his old comrades. Only a few minutes would be needed, she declared, +in which "to prink a bit." She had been looking so white, or yellow, +rather—so wan and weak, yet, after a bumper of champagne, had rallied +gallantly, had bidden him run down to meet them and keep them +entertained. She'd soon be there. That was now full twenty minutes back, +and these fellows were getting impatient for dinner. The head waiter was +even now announcing that their table was in readiness. Excusing himself +a moment, Dwight hastened from the salon and ran swiftly up to their +apartments. She was not there. He went out upon the gallery—the last +look by day over that incomparable panorama of earth and sea and sky, +for the sun was just kissing the far westward wave and throwing a glow +of ruddy gold all over the Vesuvian shore. The waiter was clearing the +table. Would the signor finish his wine? The signor needed none. Since +that heat prostration in Luzon, Dwight found that a single glass would +sometimes go to his head, and so when Inez was fatigued on land or ill +at sea, and on her account he had ordered champagne, he merely sipped +it, as it were, for her sake. There stood the generous flask still +beaded with its icy dew, but most of its contents were gone. So was +Inez. That waiter had then the proverbial "cheek" of his class—to drink +half their wine and offer the signor the dregs. No, he wished no wine. +Where was the signora? The signora, with the signorino, said the waiter, +had been there but the moment before. The signora had reëntered her +apartment as the signor ascended. Dwight tapped at her window, and +presently her voice answered him, in apparent exasperation. She had been +having "no end of bother" changing her gown. She couldn't come down to +meet his friends in the dusty traveling suit she had worn all day. She +had hunted through two trunks before she found what she needed, and was +so sorry for the delay, but she heard the party was to dine there. She +had a maid to help her now, so she was trying to look her best and be +worthy of him. Could he help in some way? Oh, dear no. Run back to them, +there's a good boy, and in a few minutes she would be there.</p> + +<p>So Dwight returned to the laughing party and went with them to their +table and sat with them—an odd group in their service-worn suits of +khaki amid the sumptuously attired guests in the brilliant room. Yet +even among the wearers of the handsome Italian uniform the incessant +glances toward the American party were far from critical. These men had +but recently seen sharp service, and soldiers respect and envy soldier +achievement. It was Dwight who first missed and asked for Ray. Ray? Why, +Ray wasn't of our party. Ray wasn't of any party, in fact. Ray was "off +his feed, if not off his base." The fellow was utterly hipped, said +Foster. "No more like his father than I to Hercules, and nobody knows +why." Ray came ashore with the rest of the crowd, had business at Cook's +Bank, wandered off by himself and had been mooning by himself most of +the voyage. Foster buried his muzzle deep in his brimming glass of +Chianti and didn't care a billy what had become of young Ray. Gone back +to the ship, probably, to sit and sulk the rest of the voyage. Obviously +the quartette was out for pleasure, and Ray would have been a +spoil-sport. None the less, Dwight felt that he should find him, if +possible, and so went to the office. But assuredly, said the smiling, +gold-banded official, the tenente departed as they were all in +conversation. The tenente wished not to disturb them. The signorino went +with him to his carriage and, behold! the signorino himself! Jimmy, +indeed, came through the portal at the moment from the Piazza Umberto +side, but not the blithe, bounding, joyous Jimmy of the morning. The +young face was clouded with a look the father never before had seen, and +when he called and Jimmy suddenly turned and saw him, though the bright +eyes lighted instantly with all the old love—perhaps, too, with some +relief—the cloud did not entirely vanish, nor did the boy come +bounding. He ran; he took his father's hand and looked up in his face, +and when he was asked what he had done with Mr. Ray, said slowly: "Why, +daddy, he isn't a bit like what I 'sposed he'd be. He only spoke to +mamma a minute or two, and—I guess he isn't well. He didn't have time +to speak to me—he hardly said good-by, or—anything."</p> + +<p>"Oh, then mamma saw Mr. Ray! I'm glad of that," said Dwight, though +remembering she had not mentioned it.</p> + +<p>"Yes, on the gallery," said Jimmy. "At least, I suppose so. He came out +through the corridor, and then mamma sent me after him with the gloves +he had left. I wanted to ask him——" hesitated Jimmy. He did not know +whether to go on or not, but he need not have worried. Papa had suddenly +turned from him, turned to meet his new mamma—his beautiful young +mamma, who, with bared neck and arms, in dinner toilet, was coming +slowly and with trailing skirts down the broad and carpeted stairway and +looking more radiant and beautiful than Jimmy ever before had seen her; +she whom, a few minutes earlier, he had found on the gallery pallid and +excited, trembling from weakness, perhaps. Now she had diamonds in her +ears and at her creamy throat, diamonds flashing in her corsage. There +were shimmer and spangle and firefly sparklings in the lustrous folds of +her gown. There were starlight twinklings from the bands of those +wondrous, dainty, high-heeled little "slipper shoes," as Jimmy called +them. There were glowworm gems in the dark masses of her luxuriant hair. +There were rich and precious stones upon her slender, clasping fingers, +for Dwight had been lavish to an extent he only now began to realize, +for, though his heart leaped in unison with the instant admiration and +worship in his eyes, it ached in strange, dull foreboding and reproach +for the thought that instantly seized him: How utterly unlike Margaret!</p> + +<p>A moment later and the men in khaki were being presented. They had +sprung to their feet at sight of the radiant vision in the doorway, +where for a moment Inez seemed to hesitate. Beautiful she was beyond +question, with the rich, dusky beauty of the passionate South, and they +who gazed upon her marveled not at the lover worship in Dwight's +deep-set eyes—at the pride with which he watched her gracious, +graceful, yet half-appealing and timid acknowledgment of their soldier +homage. They made way for her, and would have it that she should sit +with them as they lingered a few moments over their wine. And then +Farnham, their senior present, raised his glass to her with a word of +soldier compliment and greeting, after the manner of the days of his +forefathers, and they joined in the toast, one and all, and Inez blushed +and beamed upon them, and looked up into her husband's eyes as though +begging that he should speak for her, and sipped just the tiniest ripple +from the brimming glass of champagne. They had not too much time, for +boxes had been reserved for all their party at the Salone Margherita, +and could not—would not Mrs. Dwight and the captain join them? Several +of the ladies from the transport were to be with them, and now it would +be incomplete without Mrs. Dwight. Again the deep, dark, lustrous eyes +sought the husband's face, as though she would say in this, as in +everything, he must decide. The transport was to proceed at dawn. The +<i>Hohenzollern</i> could not be going earlier. How she <i>would</i> shine, this +bird of paradise, among those simply-garbed army women who perforce were +limited to such toilets as could be evolved from the little steamer +trunks. It was Dwight who negatived the project. She would be utterly +overdressed for the place and the occasion, but he based his regrets +upon the long and fatiguing day, the packing that had to be done, the +coming at any moment of their ship. Even now she was announced, said +Jimmy, hastening in. And so the others went their way without the +Dwights and joined their fellow-voyagers in their revel, the merriest +group in all that laughing company, and only once or twice did someone, +some gentle-hearted woman, speak the thought that more than once or +twice occurred to many present: Why should Sandy Ray have withdrawn from +all companionship? Someone said he had returned to the steamer—alone.</p> + +<p>It was long after midnight when they came rippling back to the huge bulk +of the troopship, with silver raining from the blades of their oars into +the sparkling bosom of that wondrous bay. A joyous little flotilla of +Neapolitan water craft was theirs, for they had chartered several of the +clumsy, unwieldly looking, yet most serviceable barklings, each with its +dusky, brown-throated oarsman. They had spent some merry hours after the +long, hot voyage through Indian seas and under torrid skies. They had +heard much catchy music that all could appreciate and few words, +fortunately, that any could understand. They were chatting and singing +and recalling the brilliant scene, the dazzling lights, the lustrous +corridor and stairway of pure white marble, the coaxing, wheedling swarm +of beggar children, the sharp and ever-recurrent contrast between +splendid opulence and squalid misery, and as they circled under the +massive overhang of their stanch and trusty ship, and one after another +each merry boatload came again in full view of the frowning cone of old +Vesuvius, belching lurid flame and billowing ruddy streams of molten +lava from its crest, some sweet-voiced woman in the foremost boat +uplifted her heart in the barcarole from "Masaniello": "Behold how +brightly breaks the morning," and, though morning was yet some hours +away, here but a league or two across the star-reflecting deep and under +the shoulder of the mountain furnace lay the vine-covered walls of +Portici, where first was trilled that exquisite welcome to Aurora. And +so with music and merriment and laughter, homeward bound from distant +service in defense of a beloved flag, they came trooping up the side, +the opulence of their gladness all the sharper contrast to the dull +apathy of one lone watcher who shrank from their approach and sought +seclusion across the deck and in the shadow of the long boat.</p> + +<p>Ray was not in his stateroom when Foster bustled thither to inquire. Ray +had returned some hours before, said the ship's official on duty. Ray +was not found, however, until nearly four bells, when Foster, who had +smoked too much to feel sleepy and wished to "stay up and see Vesuvius, +anyhow," made an extended inspection of the silent deck. Foster had +taken it amiss that Ray should seem so downhearted and be so +uncompanionable. Foster felt that the time had come when, in the absence +of Sandy's own, he (Foster) should assume paternal rights, or at least +those of elder brother, and take the youngster to task. Here and there +about the big ship he found, in knots of two or three, silent or +conversing in low tone, comrades of the commissioned list or of the +ranks, unwilling to seek their berths so long as so gorgeous a panorama +lasted. These were ranged along the starboard side, where best they +could study that superb sweep of shore line, of light and shadow, of +slope and mountain, of curving strand—white, flashing in the moonbeams, +of twinkling villages low-lying, of distant, rock-ribbed isles, but +among these worshipers there was no Ray.</p> + +<p>It was over on the other—the dark, the port—side, and all alone, +sprawled in a steamer chair he had lugged to the upper deck and the +shadow of the big boat, that Foster came upon the lad. His field glasses +were in his hand; his eyes fixed dreamily upon the dwindling, +diminishing night lights of the westward suburbs, and Foster hailed +brusquely. It was time to jar the boy out of his mooning:</p> + +<p>"Hello, Sandy! Where on earth have you been all night?"</p> + +<p>"Nowhere," was the short reply.</p> + +<p>"Where on sea then, if you will be captious?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, admiring scenery," and Sandy yawned suggestively.</p> + +<p>"Scenery is all on t'other side, man! Nothing here but ships and shore +lights."</p> + +<p>"Well—that's what I'm—looking at."</p> + +<p>Foster turned sulkily. He disliked being "stood off" by anybody, +especially a youngster. Dimly in the soft moonlight the sleeping city +lay outspread before him. Standing on the rail, grasping a stanchion, he +could see, save where the charthouse and huge funnel interposed, the +entire sweep from Posilipo at the west around almost to Sorrento. Ray, +seated under the shadow of the long boat, could see only from Posilipo +to a low-lying cluster of lights almost at the water's edge. That then +was the Piazza Umberto, and those few twinkling, starlike sparkles to +the left, dancing so merrily on the intervening wave—those were from +some still open casements at the Grand. Then Foster saw what Sandy Ray +was looking for, and turned and left him.</p> + +<p>At dawn they were weighing anchor, but the big ship had not yet swung +her nose to the west when Foster again appeared on the dripping deck and +again found Ray almost at the same spot. Some of the same lights, a very +few, were still faintly to be seen to the west of the Piazza, and Ray's +signal glasses were lifted to his eyes. Aloft the sentinel stars were +paling, their night watch ended. Ashore, along the quays and basin and +about the Dogana, the lantern lights told of the stir of coming day and +departing shipping. Beyond the heavy smoke all about the lone and +threatening mountain, the skies were taking on a rose hue of their own +that dulled the glow of the sluggish streams rolling ever down those +scarred and desolate slopes. Near by in silvery chime ship after ship +announced the passing of the night hours, the birth of the infant day, +and a long, light-girdled shape, floating easily close at hand on the +swelling tide, slowly changed from shadowy black to gray, from gray to +violet, and finally—as the still invisible sun peered long leagues away +beyond the Italian mountains, beyond the Adriatic wave, above the dim +Ægean shore, and sent his flashing signals through the upper ether—from +cream to snowy white, there lay the <i>Hohenzollern</i>, "all a taunto and +impatient" for her westward voyage for "Gib," for the Azores, for home, +and they of the bulkier, heavier transport envied possibly the lithe and +lissome build of the famous pleasure craft, once the pride of the old +German Lloyds. She might follow in the run past Ischia and Sicily. She +would lead far in the chase for Sandy Hook.</p> + +<p>"Been up all night, Sandy?" hailed Foster sharply, believing it high +time to break in upon these romantic moonings.</p> + +<p>"No," said the young soldier slowly. "I've been—down."</p> + +<p>"Poor boy," thought Foster, as he turned away. "He looks it! Poor, +nonsensical, damn little fool!"</p> + +<p>Yet Foster was not so very big, so very wise, so very safe and sure. He +had yet to know for himself much that Ray knew now.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2> + +<h3>"SHE IS COMING HERE!"</h3> + + +<p>The valley of the Minneconjou was looking its loveliest in the joyous +sunshine of mid-May. The post had been enlarged to meet the needs of the +increasing garrison. A colonel of infantry had been sent to assume +command, there being now two of his battalions at the station and only +one squadron, of four troops, of Ray's old regiment, the —th Cavalry. +At any moment our friend of that name and many years, now become +lieutenant-colonel in his own right, could expect orders for the +Philippines, and he was ready as ever, though there were just a few +reasons why he hated to go. It had been decided that Marion, his wife, +hitherto his almost inseparable companion, should not venture to Manila. +The detail at most would not exceed two years. It might cover only one, +for it was certain that, with the coming enlargement of the army, Ray +would soon be promoted to the full rank of colonel, and that would +probably bring him home again, for, as things had been going in Samar +and Mindanao, colonels were in that sort of campaigning about as useful +as most of them in church. Keen young captains and lieutenants were in +demand. Field officers, so-called, were of less account in the field +than in fortified places. Occasionally a sizable column—a major's +command perhaps—would push forth into the jungle, where it speedily had +to split up into small detachments, probing in single file, and in +pursuit of scattering bands of ladrones or banditti, the bamboo or the +mountain trail. Moreover, much of the vim and spirit had been taken out +of the soldiery, officers and men, old and young, by the fate of the +more daring and energetic of their number, who had fallen victims, not +to lance or bullet of lurking foe at the front, but rather "the slings +and arrows of outrageous fortune" at the rear. A powerful party at home +had shown far more concern over the alleged ill-treatment of the few +insurgent bands than their actual treachery to our men-at-arms. Officers +and men listened in silence to the public rebukes and sentences +administered to the leaders who had shed their gloves and fought the +insurrecto with weapons far more effective, yet infinitely less deadly, +than fire and steel. Officers and men in silence set forth upon their +next ordered expedition, and in silence returned and announced the +result—practically nothing. Elusive and flitting little bands of native +warriors, vanishing like shadows among the thickets, were not to be +trapped by the methods prescribed for dealing with an army arrayed in +front of Washington. "Don't come unless you have to," wrote Major Blake +from the hospital at Manila to Billy Ray at Minneconjou. "The +courts-martial of Hill and Dale and Langham have taken the heart out of +our fellows. The young officers say they dare not go out for fear they +might do some damage somewhere."</p> + +<p>So Ray, who had fought Indians all over the West for many a +year—sometimes, it is true, coming in for a Puritanical scorching from +press and pulpit in far New England, where, two hundred years ago, with +prayerful zest our forefathers burned witches at the stake and put +Pequots to the sword—now found himself shrinking from the task of +tackling savages with gloves who treated men without mercy. Marion, as +has been said, was not to accompany him to the Islands and be near to +counsel and to comfort. She was not too well now, and had had many an +anxiety. Billy, Junior, when he should have been studying for West +Point, had been spooning over a pretty girl not yet in long dresses, and +Sandy, their firstborn, the soldier boy, had come home from the Islands +wounded in body and soul. The scar of the bullet would not be long +healing, but the sting of that other shock and sorrow, who could say +what that might yet import? for Sandy would not speak of it. Sandy would +not so much as refer to his brief dream of bliss and the girl that +inspired it. Sandy had come to them at Minneconjou to recuperate, +detached from his own regiment "for such light duty as he might be able +to perform" with his father's squadron of the old —th. Sandy was a sad +and silent man. "Let him alone to beat it out in time," said the +soldier-father. "It is the only way." But Marion's mother heart yearned +over her boy and his wordless sorrowing. He must have loved that +beautiful but unprincipled creature with all his fervent young heart.</p> + +<p>Colonel Stone, who was now in command at Minneconjou, had known the Rays +for years and was firmly their friend. Without so much as a hint from +any source, he had divined that Sandy's low spirits were not the result +of that bullet wound. He could not but note the solicitude with which +his cavalry friend and oft-time fellow-campaigner regarded the silent +young soldier, his eldest son. Colonel Stone had suggested at first that +Sandy be put at surveying the reservation—something to keep him long +hours each day in the open air. But barely six months had elapsed since +the Engineers, under orders from department headquarters, had completed +with chain, rod and transit thorough plotting of the six mile square, to +the end that a very finely finished map was received almost at the time +the colonel first broached the subject. Sandy could not yet take part in +the sharp mounted drills that were his father's delight. Something had +to be done to give him measurably congenial occupation. He could not +play tennis, croquet or billiards. He would not play poker or find +solace in Scotch highballs. He might have derived some comfort from +reading and study, but Priscilla was beset with desire to prescribe his +reading and guide his studies, for Priscilla, being several years his +senior in age and many volumes his superior in reading, was ever mindful +of the mission which no conscientious woman should be without. Priscilla +had thought to start a school for the children of the garrison, but +found that many of the elders were driven every day to town and its high +school, while most of the mites were corraled each morning in the +basement of the post chapel, pupils of a sergeant schoolmaster whose +success had been quite remarkable, so much so that parents were +reluctant—and their progeny rebellious—when other and more modern +methods, Priscilla's, were suggested. It must be owned that the little +ones from the start found Miss Sanford unsympathetic, if not impossible. +Children love being catechized as little as do their elders, and they +resented it that this somewhat prim, yet by no means unprepossessing, +spinster should consider it her duty and her privilege to cross-question +them as to their infantile responsibilities and, all uninvited, to +undertake supervision of their noisy sports. Finding no opening for a +day school, Miss Sanford had sought to interest the weans in an +afternoon reading class. The first day or two the major's spacious +quarters were well filled, so were the children with alluring goodies +they could thoroughly appreciate. But when sermons began to take the +place of sandwiches, and moral admonitions and questionings were +administered in lieu of lemonade and lady-fingers, Miss Sanford's +kindergarten dissolved in air and the would-be gentle monitress in +disappointed tears. Uncle Will had whimsically striven to console her +with the promise of better luck when school stopped in June, but Aunt +Marion had smilingly though silently shaken her head. She knew +Priscilla's propensities of old. She had convictions, said Aunt Marion, +and theories as to how children should be taught to see the serious side +of life. Priscilla was suffering from an accumulation of pent-up zeal +and enthusiasm that was yet to find an outlet.</p> + +<p>Then one day the outlet came.</p> + +<p>Lieutenant Parker, "Exchange officer," so-called, was suddenly ordered +to duty at West Point, and Colonel Stone asked Sandy Ray if he would +take his place. "Strictly speaking," said he, "I should name one of my +own officers, but I have other work for all of them, and lots of it. You +have really very little else just now that you can do, except, perhaps, +go to stables."</p> + +<p>Now, if there was one institution more than another at Minneconjou +against which Priscilla Sanford had set her seal, it was the post +Exchange. In all her months of residence under Uncle Will's, the +major's, roof, never once had the others there sheltered forgotten the +day of her first acquaintance with the subject. Sandy was still beyond +seas, but Billy, Junior, was of the household when, just as they took +their place at table for luncheon, the husband and father spoke:</p> + +<p>"Maidie wife, they have some capital cider at the Canteen and I ordered +some sent over."</p> + +<p>Miss Sanford looked up inquiringly over her poised spoonful of soup.</p> + +<p>"The—Canteen?" she asked.</p> + +<p>"Yes. The Post Exchange, it is called officially. It's the post shop, +restaurant, club, amusement hall, etc.," answered the head of the house, +while Marion, his wife, glanced just a trifle nervously at her niece.</p> + +<p>"But why—Canteen? It isn't, is it, a—bar?" And Miss Sanford's tone +betrayed the depth of her disapprobation of the name.</p> + +<p>"Yes, and no," said Uncle Will pleasantly, his dark eyes twinkling under +their heavy brows and lashes. He rather liked to have 'Cilla mount her +successive hobbies, and thought it better, as a rule, to let her air her +theories first in the sanctity of the family circle. "After +experimenting a hundred years or so we found it wiser to prescribe the +drinks as well as the meats of our men, and to provide a place for them +at home where they can have rational amusement and refreshment, rather +than send them out into the world where they get the worst of +everything."</p> + +<p>"But, uncle, do you mean you let—you encourage—these young soldiers +to—drink?" And the slender gold chain of Miss Sanford's intellectual +<i>pince nez</i> began to quiver, as did the lady's sensitive nostrils.</p> + +<p>"Encourage? No! Let? Yes, so long as it is nothing but sound beer or +light wine—things we buy for them from the most reliable dealers and +provide them practically at cost. You see they have their own clubroom, +and billiards, checkers, chess, dominoes, coffee, cake and sandwiches. +It keeps them here. It helps and contents them. They can't drink more +than is good for them."</p> + +<p>"Is it good for them that they should drink—at all?" demanded +Priscilla.</p> + +<p>"Possibly not. The ascetic in everything would be, physically perhaps, +the ideal soldier. But precious few soldiers are ascetics, though many +are total abstainers."</p> + +<p>"Then why not all, since it is best for so many?"</p> + +<p>"Because, 'Cilla, a large number refuse to be abstainers, and we can't +make them. They won't enlist or serve if such conditions are imposed. If +forbidden to use mild and carefully selected stimulant here they will go +elsewhere and get the vilest the frontier can furnish, to the ruin of +their stomachs, reputation and moral nature. We teach temperance—not +intolerance."</p> + +<p>But Priscilla had been reared in the shadow of the stanch old +Calvanistic church and the strictest of schools.</p> + +<p>"I—cannot see how you dare place such temptation in their way," said +she. "You thereby take their souls in the hollow of your hand and become +responsible——Oh!"—with a shudder of genuine distress and +repugnance—"I knew—I had heard—there was drinking; but I never +supposed it was countenanced, <i>encouraged</i> by—by those who ought to be +their shield against such temptation and trouble." And here Priscilla's +words were oddly reminiscent of the editorial columns of the <i>Banner of +Light</i> and certain other most excellent organs of the Prohibition +element.</p> + +<p>"We do it to keep them from vastly worse temptation and trouble, +Priscilla," said the veteran soldier kindly, and signaling Marion not to +interpose. "You are right, dear, in the abstract, but we have to deal +with men as we find them. We would be glad indeed of ideals, but the +ideal doesn't, as a rule, enlist."</p> + +<p>"The Bible teaches us it stingeth like an adder," said Priscilla +solemnly, with suggestive glance at Billy, Junior, whom she but +yesterday had rebuked for sipping claret at the colonel's dinner.</p> + +<p>"The Bible also tells us Who turned water into wine at a certain +marriage feast," said Uncle Will, his mustache twitching.</p> + +<p>Whereat Priscilla flushed; the tears started to her eyes; she arose and +left the table, her soup unfinished. It was one thing to quote the +Scriptures in support of her views; it was quite another to array them +on the other side. When Aunt Marion went to Priscilla's room a little +later, with a tray of tea and comfits and a word of gentle +expostulation, she found her niece in anything but melting mood. To +Priscilla's mind such argument as Uncle Will's was impious. To Aunt +Marion's suggestion that at least it was from like authority with her +own, Priscilla could find no better reply than "That's different."</p> + +<p>Down in her heart of hearts Priscilla thought it a grave mistake on part +of somebody that the episode of the marriage of Cana of Galilee had any +place in Holy Writ. Indeed it may be hazarded that, long schooled by the +<i>Banner</i> and the eloquent lessons of her favorite preachers, Priscilla +could have listened with becoming modesty, but no surprise, had it been +suggested that she undertake the preparation of an expurgated edition of +the Word.</p> + +<p>At the date of this initial clash Uncle Will was still commanding the +post. Stone, with the Sixty-first, came later. Priscilla, finding her +uncle ever smilingly tolerant of her views, but never shaken in his own, +had first essayed an inspection of the Canteen—she would not call it +the Exchange—and then had descended upon the chaplain—a gentle divine, +gifted with much faith but little force, a kindly, sweet-tempered cleric +ever ready to follow if never to lead in good work that demanded +personal push and energy. Priscilla had spent sleepless hours in thought +over the situation. She could not abolish the Canteen since the law +("The law <i>and</i> the prophets," said Uncle Will, though Priscilla would +not hear) sustained it. She could, she reasoned, conduct a rival +establishment that should wean the soldier from the false faith to the +true, and to this end she sought the aid of the cassock.</p> + +<p>Uncle Will had taken her, at her request, to see the objectionable +institution, and she had peered curiously about the cozy interior. At +sight of their much honored squadron leader, the few troopers at the +tables, busy with checkers, dominoes or billiards, had sprung to +attention, facing him and the grave-eyed lady by his side, and there +stood in soldierly respect. Ray smilingly acknowledged their homage, +bade them go on with their games; he merely wished his niece from the +East "to see how we manage to live in the West." Then he showed her the +bookshelves and the reading room with its illustrated weeklies and +magazines, the well-furnished writing tables whereat certain young +soldiers were working at their letters home; the refreshment counter, +with its appetizing little stack of sandwiches and polished urn of +steaming coffee, and all this Priscilla saw without sign of surrender. +What she looked for she did not find—symptoms of the inevitable +intoxication and debauchery to be expected wherever liquor was sold or +used. Some of the men had half-emptied beer glasses at their elbow. Two +German non-commissioned officers were sipping appreciatively the wine of +their native Rhineland as they chatted in quiet comfort over their +little table at the window. A veteran sergeant stepped forward and +begged the honor of tendering the colonel and the lady a glass of their +wine, and again every man was on his feet as Ray drank to their health, +and Priscilla thanked their entertainers and said she would be glad of a +little coffee—she never used wine. She was silent as she came away—all +was so orderly, so cheery; the men seemed so content with their +surroundings, so pleased that "the colonel" (never did they forget his +volunteer title) should come to see them. She owned that—yes—they +looked very—decent <i>now</i>, but—but, it was only the first step; it was +what it all <i>led</i> to, said she, that made it so dangerous, so dreadful! +Indeed, the mere fact that all was so well ordered made it, presumably, +to Priscilla's mind, all the more alluring and terrible. It was the +devil's way always, she had been taught—imperceptible, inviting, +insidious. Priscilla prayed long that night and pondered. She had almost +decided on a campaign of conquest and overthrow, when the new commander +came, and in Colonel Stone she found an obstacle quite as firm as Uncle +Will—and far less tolerant.</p> + +<p>Meantime, however, Priscilla had organized her "Soldiers' Advancement +Association"; had started in a vacant set of quarters a rival to the +Canteen, where even better coffee and sandwiches could be had and much +more improving conversation, but no beer, and Priscilla was presently in +the seventh heaven; so many soldiers came she had to send for more seats +and more supplies. Every evening after dinner, putting behind her the +unworthy, if worldly, impulse to go and join in the music or the dance, +Priscilla met her martial friends and pupils, learned their soldier +names, something of their history and much of their needs. The chaplain +at first was quite assiduous in his attendance, but the chaplain, she +speedily decided, was slow, prosy, unconvincing. He did not seem to +<i>stir</i> them as they should be stirred, and when one night the kindly old +gentleman failed to come, and his goodwife sent word she feared her +husband had caught a heavy cold, Priscilla took the Word, as the French +would say; read the chapter of her choice; expounded vehemently after +the manner of her favorite exhorters, and came home radiant. No less +than six of the men had come to her to thank her for her soul-stirring +words, and to say that if they had had such teaching as that in their +past they would never have brought sorrow to a mother's heart, as some +of them feared they had. Uncle Will's eyebrows went up significantly +when Priscilla named her converts, and once or twice, as he sat writing +to Blake that night in his little den, sounds as of irrepressible +chuckling came from that sanctum, and Marion slipped in to say a word of +caution. Priscilla, however, at last had found her opportunity and could +not be laughed out of it. The chaplain was warned, he said, that +exposure to the wintry night air was hazardous, and he was reluctantly +compelled to withdraw, and Priscilla, by no means reluctantly, to part +with him. She was in desperate earnest and in the full tide of apparent +success, with all Minneconjou watching with absorbed if mischievous +interest. Priscilla's mourners' bench, it must be owned, was graced by +the presence of one or two veteran troopers, the mention of whose names +was enough to start the risibilities of that godless array, "the Mess." +There was Shaughnessy, who had served six enlistments and never kept the +chevrons six months at a time. There was Kelly, the "champeen +thrumpether," who could blow "Taps" that would bring tears to your eyes +one day and maledictions on his head the next. There was Costigan, who +had been "bobtailed" out of two of the best regiments of infantry of the +service, and only "taken on" in Ray's old troop by special permission, +because of his undeniable valor in Indian campaign and the fact that +when he let whisky alone there was not a neater, nattier soldier, Horse, +Foot or Dragoon, to be found in the field. Priscilla had indeed gathered +in some of the reprobates, and sought to reach more. She begged that, in +accordance with their plaintive request, the inmates of the guard-house, +immortal "Company Q," might be allowed the benefit and privileges of the +Association. Had not He said He came not to call the just but the +sinners to repentance? and, as Uncle Will whimsically remarked, "If what +Priscilla wants are sinners—she's got 'em."</p> + +<p>And this was the state of things when Stone arrived; took command, +reinforced the garrison with eight stout companies and band of the +Sixty-first, and the guard-house with a score of military malefactors +who, hearing of Miss Sanford's Soldiers' Advancement Association, begged +leave to partake of its blessings, including the coffee and sandwiches. +Then Stone suddenly "tumbled to the scheme," as Billy, Junior, a fierce +skeptic from the start, described it. Then Stone himself attended a +meeting, to the obvious embarrassment of the congregation, though +Priscilla beamed upon him in the sudden belief that here indeed was a +heart worth the moving. What Stone saw was quite enough to convince him +of the utter absurdity of permitting the further attendance of, at +least, the guard-house contingent, but he would not wound Priscilla or, +without abundant reason, disturb the edifice builded under Ray's +administration. The Association might even have lived and thrived +another week on Priscilla's ministrations—and at Ray's expense—for +daily coffee and sandwiches for all comers, forty odd, at least, was +proving costly. It was "Company Q" itself that broke it up. The +privilege and the darkness combined enabled certain of its unhallowed +spirits to smuggle whisky into the prison room, and, thus stimulated, a +gifted ex-professional of the "dramatic line" set up a wonderfully if +wickedly witty burlesque of the evening's lecture, to the irrepressible, +and presently uproarious, mirth of his fellow-jailbirds. It was just +what Stone was expecting, and so far from ordering it stopped, he sent +for Ray and bade him listen. Then the post and the squadron commander +shook hands in silence. "You see for yourself," said Stone. "I, too, +have been expecting it," said Ray. Then the guard was sent in. The +impious revel was suddenly and summarily squelched. Then Ray gently told +Priscilla the sinners could come no more, but mercifully would not tell +her much, at least, that he had heard. So the Soldiers' Advancement +Association retrograded in numbers to less than half, and then, as +others not at the moment under guard took alarm, to less than a dozen. +But Priscilla wrapped herself up in the nine that were left, and, as all +barrack room was now needed, for these they fitted up a little apartment +in the basement of the major's quarters, and then came Sandy Ray, as has +been said, and spring was turning to summer, and Priscilla's band of +stalwarts had been reduced to six, and of these six the apple of her +spiritual eye was Blenke.</p> + +<p>One of the recruits, regimental and bibli-classical, was Blenke, but +already a marked man. Small of stature, lithe, slender and sinewy, with +dainty little hands and feet, with pallid face and regular features and +great big, mournful brown eyes that looked pleadingly into those of his +superiors, Blenke wore the uniform of a private with the ease and grace +and care of a dandy subaltern. Blenke's gloves and shoes could not be +furnished by the quartermaster's department; they did not deal in such +small sizes; but Blenke brought with him all he could need of such items +for months to come. Blenke was a silent fellow in barracks. Blenke never +whistled or sang. Blenke rarely spoke and never smiled. It was not that +Blenke's face was set in gloom, but an air of gentle melancholy hung +ever about him. He made no intimates, sought no confidences and gave +none among the men. Whatever he was put to do he did surprisingly well. +Corporal Donovan, detailed to drill him when he, with the rest of the +little party, arrived, informed the first sergeant that "that young +feller knew more settin'-up drill than any non-com at the post." So it +proved also with the manual of arms. Blenke was an expert. When put into +a squad for aiming and position drill, Blenke had nothing to learn, and +his shooting and gallery practice was on a par with the best. They sent +him out to the rifle range west of the post and there he "qualified" at +known distance and excelled at the silhouettes, and still he declared he +had never before "taken a blanket." He learned his drill and shooting +with the militia, he said; gave "clerk" as his occupation and wrote a +beautiful hand, though his spelling at times might be criticised. Blenke +had a watch, card-case, shirts, shoes and underwear that told of better +days. Blenke, apparently, had no vices. He neither drank, smoked, +chewed, gambled nor, unless closely pressed as to his past, was he +believed to lie. Blenke looked about him a bit before going either to +church or town. Then Blenke began appearing regularly at chapel service, +and then, modestly, sought permission to enter Miss Sanford's Soldiers' +Advancement Association, where speedily he attracted the especial notice +of that devoted and devotional young woman. Then Blenke offered his +services as writer, copyist, etc., and Priscilla, being much occupied, +gladly installed him at a desk whereat he spent much time when not +elsewhere on duty, and all the while, neat, handy, silent, unobtrusive, +yet seeing everything with those deep, mournful, watchful eyes, Blenke +found means to make himself more and more useful, and presently to +communicate the fact that though his present lot was humble there had +been "advantages" in the past, there were ambitions for the future. To +begin with, he wished to transfer into the cavalry. He knew little, he +said, of the relative merits of those arms before enlisting. He had seen +much since, he said, to convince him that for a young man of spirit the +cavalry offered opportunities not to be looked for in the infantry. +This, he judged, would not displease the squadron commander, whose +influence through Miss Sanford he earnestly sought, and so it resulted +that Blenke, little by little, was far more frequently to be found about +the major's quarters than his own.</p> + +<p>Ray did not like it. Neither did Blenke's captain, yet neither wished to +throw cold water on Priscilla's efforts, and really nothing could be +less obtrusive or more precise and soldierly than Blenke. He never +presumed to speak except in answer to questions. He was scrupulous in +dress, bearing, conduct and military courtesy. His salute was precision +itself. His captain really wished to make him a corporal, but a veteran +first sergeant respectfully protested. "The men wouldn't stand for it, +sir, and him not two months in the company." Sandy Ray, who came home in +mood to carp at anything, liked it least of all that he should be +forever encountering Blenke about the lower floor or around the walks +and quarters. But Priscilla was forever talking of Blenke's helpfulness, +his piety, high character, and his modest hopes. Blenke was beginning to +talk with her about studying for a commission. Blenke was beginning to +be disliked among the men because he ignored them so.</p> + +<p>Then one day came the expected. Lieutenant-Colonel Ray, —th Cavalry, +was ordered to proceed at once to San Francisco, and thence by transport +to Manila. Then came tidings of deaths in the Islands, and retirements +at home, and, six months sooner than he had hoped for such a thing, +Oswald Dwight saw the gold leaves of a major dangling before his mental +vision, and the night before Colonel Ray was to bid his loved ones +good-by and take train for the coast, and he and Marion, arm in arm, +were coming home from some parting calls, they saw Blenke standing at +their gate, a telegraphic message in his hand; Priscilla and Billy, +Junior, following, closed upon the elders as Ray tore open the envelope. +Blenke, having delivered it, stood scrupulously at attention just beyond +the gate, gazing with his mournful eyes straight out at the flagstaff in +the middle of the parade. Ray read, turned a bit pale, and glanced +hurriedly about him as though in search of someone. Sandy was not in +sight. He was busy with the affairs of the Canteen.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Will?" asked Marion anxiously, her gloved hand trembling a +bit upon his arm.</p> + +<p>"Of all things—queer," said Ray. "Dwight gets my squadron, and—<i>she's</i> +coming with him."</p> + +<p>Then unaccountably Private Blenke's forage-cap, always worn well +forward, tilted off and fell at his feet.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2> + +<h3>PREMONITORY SYMPTOMS</h3> + + +<p>Colonel Ray was no coward, but it must be owned that he was glad to be +well away from Minneconjou before the coming of the Dwights. What +troubled him most was, not how Sandy, his eldest boy, but how Marion, +his beloved wife, might suffer. Never to either father or mother had the +young officer spoken the name of the second Mrs. Dwight. Never since his +coming to Minneconjou had he referred to his infatuation of the previous +year, nor had he even remotely mentioned the meeting at Naples. They +knew of it, of course. There were so many aboard the transport who had +heard all there was to hear about it, and some of these many could not +be expected to keep it to themselves. Sandy, indeed, reached the post +only a day or two in advance of this interesting piece of news. Marion +heard it before her husband and refrained from telling him, in hopes +that Sandy himself would open his heart and tell her all there was to be +told; but presently it dawned upon her that the boy shrank from the very +mention of "that woman's" name—then that Will, too, had heard the +story, and not from Sandy, and then that each feared to tell the other. +Then as of old, she nestled into her husband's arms, and there, in her +refuge, said:</p> + +<p>"After all, Will, isn't it better he should have seen her and—had done +with it?"</p> + +<p>"If only he has done with it," thought the colonel, as he watched the +young soldier going doggedly about his duties. "If only he <i>has</i> done +with it!" he thought again, when he saw the red burning on the young +fellow's cheek that told he knew at last of the impending arrival. But +the boy had shown splendid nerve and grit in that vital matter of the +gradual repayment of the moneys lost through his neglect at the Presidio +in '98. He had shown such manliness in abjuring wine after that one +almost excusable lapse so long ago. A boy who could keep himself so +thoroughly in hand, said the colonel, in two cardinal points, can be +counted on to keep his head even when he may have lost his heart. No. +Ray had trusted Sandy thoroughly in the past, and Sandy had thoroughly +justified it. Ray meant as thoroughly to trust now to the manfulness and +honor of his son. Pride, too, would help the lad even were "that woman" +to seek to lure him again.</p> + +<p>But it was hard to leave Marion to meet the Dwights. In all her army +life, with the possible exception of Grace Truscott, never had Marion +met a woman for whom she felt such depth of affection and regard as for +Margaret Dwight. The two, as has been said, were devoted friends, and +when Margaret died, leaving her husband, crushed and heartbroken, and +that idol of her heart, little Jim, it is doubtful if among her own +people she was mourned as utterly as she was by Mrs. Ray. In the years +that followed Marion was forever planning for the little fellow's +future, and pouring forth a perfect flood of sympathy for that bereaved +soldier, his father. It came as a shock inexpressible that Oswald +Dwight, after six years' brooding, had married again, and had given +Margaret's place to—what?—a girl, young, beautiful, obscure, +unprincipled—the girl whom her own Sandy had rapturously, loved and +implicitly believed in. And now Marion was called upon to meet this +woman in "the fierce white light that beats upon" garrison life—see her +daily, hourly, possibly as a next-door neighbor, and no husband's arm or +counsel to lean upon.</p> + +<p>Nor was this all. It had been arranged that the families of officers +ordered on foreign service should retain quarters at the station from +which said officers took their departure, provided the quarters were not +actually needed by the garrison. Three out of five the big army posts +had been left with but a detachment to guard them. Minneconjou was an +exception. Hither had come Stone, with two battalions of Foot. +Headquarters, staff, band and one squadron of the cavalry had been +there, but band and headquarters were now shifted to Niobrara. How +Marion wished the squadron could have gone, too! But that was not to be. +There were still the four troops at the station, and the Rays were still +quartered in the big, roomy house to the right of the post +commander's—Marion, her sons, her niece and their two servants. There +was even abundant space for her niece's diminishing Advancement +Association—the secretary's desk and the mournful-eyed young secretary +being much in evidence at the basement window on the north side. Three +sets, the colonel's and the flanking field officers', had been built +with high piazzas and well-lighted basements beneath; all the others +were squat on the hard prairie ground. Stone had two majors with him, +both junior to Ray and the post surgeon, so they had taken root in the +lines and, for army men, were quite content. All on a sudden one day the +new major, Dwight, drove out from the railway station in town, reported +with soldierly precision to Colonel Stone, and accepted the promptly +tendered invitation to be the colonel's guest until ready to occupy his +own quarters. Dwight came earlier than had been expected; explained that +he "came ahead to select quarters," would send Mrs. Dwight the +measurements of the rooms, then ask for a week's leave to return and +fetch her with their goods, carpets and variegated chattels from +Chicago. Had any letters or dispatches been received for him? None? +Dwight looked queer and grave. Indeed, Stone, who had heard much of him +and had met him once or twice in by-gone days, confessed to his wife +that Dwight must have "gone off" not a little in more ways than one. Was +it the old sorrow or—the new wife—or, mayhap, the sunstroke in the +Pampangas?</p> + +<p>That afternoon Marion Ray, seated on the vine-shaded piazza, writing to +her husband, looked up suddenly at sound of a footstep and, startled and +for a moment speechless, gazed into the once familiar features of +Margaret Dwight's once devoted husband. She was slow to rise and hold +forth her hand, so strange was the expression in his tired eyes. When +she could speak it was to say, though her heart fluttered, "Welcome +again, Major Dwight, but I'm so sorry Will is not here, too! It is +barely a week since he started."</p> + +<p>"I have hurried," was the answer, as he took her hand. "I am so tired of +leave, of dawdling, of—almost everything. I'm wild to get to work—to +<i>work</i> again, Mrs. Ray! That's what a man must have."</p> + +<p>All the old strength and repose of manner had gone. She was shocked and +troubled at the change, and hurried on in her words lest he should see +it.</p> + +<p>"And how is my boy—our little Jim? And—I hope Mrs. Dwight is well, +and—we're to see her soon," she ventured.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Dwight is looking remarkably well, though she and I are anxious +about her mother. Indeed, I had hoped to find dispatches—or +something—here from Major Farrell," and surely Dwight's face betrayed +rather more than his words. "Jimmy's in fine trim," he hurried on. "They +got to be fast friends voyaging. They were up on deck all the homeward +way, whereas I'm a very poor sailor. I could hardly, hold up my head +from the time we left Gibraltar."</p> + +<p>"I'm glad of that—friendship," said Marion gravely, guardedly, for +already, in the friendship Minneconjou had been hearing of, little Jim +was not included. The <i>Hohenzollern</i>, after a stop-over at Algiers, had +been boarded at Gibraltar by two crestfallen gentlemen in khaki and a +quandary. The transport had preceded the liner into the shadow of the +sleeping lion just thirty hours, and, steaming on to sea before the +latter was signaled, found some hours out that Foster and Gibson had +been unaccountably left behind. At their own expense, their soldier +wardrobe and toilet replenished by a score of jovial Britons who had +also contributed to their detention, these two warriors completed their +voyage, and Gibson said he was practically alone, for, from morn till +nearly midnight, from off Cadiz until held up at quarantine, Foster had +been dancing attendance on the lovely Mrs. Dwight, the captain being +much of the time down with <i>mal de mer</i>.</p> + +<p>Now, Sandy had merely referred to "two fellows left at 'Gib,'" without +going into particulars. Sandy, of course, could not be expected to know +what might have transpired on the <i>Hohenzollern</i>. Sandy had said nothing +about the Dwights at Naples. Sandy had not mentioned even Jimmy, and so +long as he shrank from the subject the mother wisely would not question. +She was glad now that Sandy was not at home, that he was busy with his +accounts over at the Exchange. She was glad that Priscilla was not +within earshot, that she was busy with her Bible class on the floor +below. Priscilla, Aunt Marion owned, was inquisitive at times, and her +theory of a mission among men was not limited to the rank and file. +Priscilla had ambitions embracing the moral improvement of every officer +from "C.O. to sub.," and Priscilla had heard things somewhere about the +post that set her to asking all manner of questions of her aunt, +questions that set the mother heart to fluttering lest Priscilla next +might direct her batteries on Sandy. No good could come from that, she +knew, for one of Sandy's earliest antipathies had been Cousin 'Cil, whom +he called a preacher in petticoats. Sandy was civil to her now, but by +no means inviting, and Priscilla took it much amiss that her cousin +rather held aloof, refused to argue the canteen question with her, and +could not be drawn into doctrinal discussion of any kind.</p> + +<p>Below stairs could be heard the low hum of voices through the open +casement. Priscilla had been reading aloud to her soldier wards, but +police and stable call would presently be sounding—the signal that, +save the secretary, would take away her pupils, and Aunt Marion hoped +Priscilla might not appear upon the scene before Dwight departed, yet +longed to hear him tell of little Jim, and Dwight seemed intent only on +telling her of Inez—Inez and her perfections. Dwight seemed to feel +that he must make this devoted friend of his first wife fully aware of +the manifold perfections of the second. To all she listened with such +attention as she could command, but when again she asked for Jim and +whether he was greatly grown and whether he was studious,—or what,—for +well she remembered all Margaret's cherished plans for her boy, again +Dwight responded with what Inez said and Inez thought. Inez so loved +him. Inez so delighted in having him with her in her walks and rides. +Inez thought him so keen, so quick, so intelligent. Inez admired his +eyes, his face, his slender boyish beauty. Inez could not say enough in +praise of him. It was Inez this and Inez that. There would only be three +of them, said he, when they came to Minneconjou,—Inez, Jim and himself. +They would have no use, said he, for the big house occupied by the Rays. +He really preferred one of the sets of captain's quarters. Marion had +been wondering whether Inez would not prefer to occupy these—whether, +in fine, they would not have to move out and give the Dwights +possession, but Dwight said no. In fact, he would not decide what set to +take, now that he had seen them, until Inez herself arrived; whereat +Mrs. Ray breathed freer.</p> + +<p>And then the bugles blared across the broad parade and the white stable +frocks began to dot the distant and severe faįade of the frontier +barracks, and 'Cilla's pupils came forth and hastened to their duties, +and, catching sight of Colonel Stone and certain of his officers wending +their way to the club, Dwight took his leave and started for the steps. +He would see Mrs. Ray again within a day, he said. He was eager to see +Sandy, who, somehow, had not seemed himself when they met at Naples. And +then Priscilla's even tones were heard below, and the low-pitched, +murmurous voice of the deferential secretary, and Marion would have +detained the major, she hardly knew why, but he was nervously saying +adieu and hurriedly descending the steps just as Miss Sanford and her +assistant issued from beneath. At sight of the strange officer +Priscilla's glasses went up for deliberate survey, the secretary's hand +in quick salute. At sound of his name, as Mrs. Ray spoke a word in +parting, Miss Sanford's face beamed with instant interest, the +secretary's paled with as instant emotion. Standing in the slant of the +afternoon sunshine, where Mrs. Ray could not but distinctly see him, +Private Blenke had turned yellow-white as unbleached cotton and was +biting his lips to control their twitching. Then, without a word, the +moment Dwight went his way, Blenke faced about and bolted another.</p> + +<p>Miss Sanford followed the major with curious eyes, then turned to resume +certain instructions to her satellite, and behold, he was scurrying away +across the parade in pursuit of the earlier departures. "Why, I—hadn't +half finished," said she, as she turned to her aunt. "What took him off +in such a hurry?"</p> + +<p>There was none to answer, however, for Mrs. Ray had turned back to her +letters; and on the following day Dwight hastened to Chicago. Within the +week came Colonel Stone, with a face eloquent of perplexity.</p> + +<p>"Mrs. Ray," said he, "this is simply unaccountable, but Major Dwight +writes me that, after all, he shall have to claim the privilege of his +rank and—this set of quarters. It seems that Mrs. Dwight is now +expecting her mother and others to pay her an extended visit as soon as +she is settled, and captain's quarters would not be large enough."</p> + +<p>Which was how it happened that, two days later, the goods and chattels +of the Rays were being stowed in another and much smaller tenement some +distance down the line. There was a very good set—a really roomier +set—that Priscilla much preferred only two doors away from that which +they were vacating, but Aunt Marion would have none of it. She had made +neither comment nor remonstrance when Stone came in with his unwelcome +news. She would say nothing about it now. That she should retain the +quarters of a field officer was something to be accorded as a courtesy; +it could not be demanded as a right, save at certain large posts with +small garrisons. But men and women who knew Marion Ray, and they who +knew her honored her, felt confident of one thing, that she was intent +on getting as far away from the coming household as lay in her power to +do. Sandy was but a second lieutenant still and entitled by law to only +one room and a kitchen. They were in luck, perhaps, in finding so good +and new and commodious a set of quarters as these to which they were +assigned.</p> + +<p>Sandy had not opened his head on the subject of Major and Mrs. Dwight, +even when, at their instance, he, his mother and their household had +been dispossessed. Sandy had found an easy horse and, with the consent +of the surgeon, had begun to spend some hours in saddle again when not +at the "shop." Then Priscilla, believing lonely brooding to be a bad +thing for any man, found means to a mount and surprised him one day by +appearing in habit and saddle ready to ride. For the life of him Sandy +could not look pleased at the prospect. Five years earlier, when +Priscilla was well-to-do, he might have found excuse to avoid or to +leave her. Now, in the days of her dependence, he could and would not; +but he proved a silent companion.</p> + +<p>Across the fords and just at the eastern edge of the reservation they +passed on their return some ramshackle buildings, only two of which +showed signs of recent human occupation, and Priscilla spoke of their +abandoned look and then—wished she had refrained.</p> + +<p>"Time was," said Sandy, "when they were bustling and lively enough. We +had no Exchange then, and the men wandered out here for their beer, and +here parted with their money and their hopes. Here they were drugged +till their last cent was wheedled or bullied out of them. Then they were +kicked out in the cold to take their punishment at the fort. Then it was +our <i>men</i> that went to ruin. Now, as you see, it is only the ranch."</p> + +<p>It was useless arguing with people so narrow-minded as her cousins, +thought poor 'Cilla, as she sharply touched her broncho with the lash +and drove him hock deep through the foaming waters. What all men should +see was that alcohol in any form was an enemy to be shunned and set +aside, a thing never to be tampered with or tolerated, and here were +sane and, in many ways, excellent people—people who had been to her +most loving and kind and charitable—who were willing to concede that +what she said might all be true, but were equally convinced that what +she would do was utterly impracticable—people who themselves eschewed +the use of wine, yet blindly persisted in providing it for these +children of the nation, the soldiers, because, as they said, most of the +soldiers could not be made to see the harm in malt or mild wine and +would drink vilest whisky if deprived of them. She considered Sandy a +scoffer, whereas Sandy did not scoff at all. He simply cited facts. She +longed for opportunity to convert him to her views and believed +implicitly that if he could but be made to listen he would surely see +the light, but whenever Cilla brought her batteries to bear he +confounded her with some such incontrovertible truth as this or—changed +the subject. This day she had planned a coup, and he had met her, +unexpectedly, more than halfway. By the time she had regained her +self-control they were past the sentry line and well within the post.</p> + +<p>"I want to have a <i>real</i> talk with you, Sandy," she said, as he swung +her to the ground in front of their old quarters, where still they lived +while fitting up the new.</p> + +<p>"You'll have to do it all, 'Cil, if it's Canteen you're hitting at," was +the answer, as he led the way up the broad steps; then stopped suddenly, +his young face darkening.</p> + +<p>A slender, soldierly form had suddenly issued from the hallway at the +sound of voices, and there stood Blenke, hand at cap visor, the mournful +eyes in mingled depth of respect and appeal, fixed upon his young +superior. It was plain to see that Lieutenant Ray little relished the +sight. Blenke's desk and duties had been confined to the floor below. +Blenke had no occupation or right on the upper deck. Mechanically the +subaltern returned the salute, but there were both suspicion and +displeasure in his voice as, almost sharply, he inquired:</p> + +<p>"What is it, Blenke? Why are you here?"</p> + +<p>"By accident, sir," was the prompt reply, subordination and sorrow +mingling in tone, as mournful as the mournful eyes. "I was leaving when +I thought my name was called—that Mrs. Ray had called me, and I turned +back. There seems to be no one here—yet the door was wide open."</p> + +<p>"I cannot imagine who could have called you—or why," answered Ray +coldly, never relaxing his odd scrutiny of those dark, reproachful eyes. +"But, first call has sounded. I won't keep you."</p> + +<p>Blenke saluted. One quick glance he shot at the flushing face of his +friend and teacher, as though to say, "Plead for me"; then lithe and +quick he went bounding down the steps, Priscilla looking after him. Ray +pushed on into the dismantled hallway—into the parlor where rugs and +carpets were rolled and heaped and curtains stripped from the rods. He +passed through into the little room where stood his father's desk and +bookcase, "the den" now doubly lonely and forlorn. He passed swiftly +through the dining-room and into the rear hallway, where wide open stood +the door to the basement stairway. It proved nothing, however, that that +door was unbolted and ajar. In the work of packing and moving the men +had been going and coming all the afternoon. Sandy came again to the +front and followed Priscilla to the second story. Mother was not in her +room, the room that soon in all probability would be hers—the girl-wife +of his father's old friend—the girl-wife whose name Sandy Ray had +ceased to whisper even to himself. He turned back and Priscilla stood +confronting him at the doorway.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Sandy? Why should you be so—annoyed at Blenke's believing +he was called back?"</p> + +<p>"Because I don't believe <i>him</i>" said Sandy bluntly, "and—I don't like +prowling."</p> + +<p>"Oh, how can you be so unfair? Blenke is no prowler, Sandy!" said +Priscilla, in fervent reproach. "Blenke is a born gentleman, and I know +it, and so will you when you hear his story."</p> + +<p>"Oh, fudge!" said Sandy, as he turned impatiently away, entered his own +room and slammed the door.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2> + +<h3>A BRIDE—AND A BEAU</h3> + + +<p>Colonel and Mrs. Stone in the course of the following fortnight had +occasion twice, as the society columns expressed it, to "entertain at +dinner for" Major and Mrs. Oswald Dwight, and Mrs. Dwight was the topic +of all tongues at Minneconjou before she had been two days at the post. +They arrived on a Saturday evening; were met at the station by the +hospitable Stones; driven at once to the quarters of that efficient and +valuable commanding officer; were the recipients on Sunday of many +calls, the guests of honor at dinner Monday evening, at which function +they met three of the senior officers and the adjutant of the +Sixty-first, each accompanied by his better half; were again on dinner +duty Tuesday evening to meet eight others prominent in the military +social swim, and at nine o'clock were escorted to the hop room, where +the regimental band and practically all the officers and ladies of the +garrison were arrayed to welcome them and where until midnight the dance +moved merrily on.</p> + +<p>To neither dinner was Mrs. Ray invited. She preferred not to make a +formal call on Sunday, and when, accompanied by Priscilla and her eldest +son, she appeared at the colonel's quarters on Monday afternoon, Mrs. +Dwight and Mrs. Stone had not yet returned from a drive. As little Jim +had spent a long hour that morning with his and his own mother's old +friend—Dwight himself bringing him over—it is within the bounds of +possibility that the drive had been mentioned. The major had remained +but a few moments. He was obviously nervous and ill at ease. He had that +matter of his change of mind about the quarters to explain, and Marion +had desired that he say nothing whatever about it. It was his right. He +was bound to consult his wife's wishes before those of any other woman, +so why refer to it? But Dwight haplessly stumbled on. There was still +something to be said. Mrs. Dwight had expected to have her mother and +two cousins with her all summer and September, but Major Farrell found +it impossible to leave Mexico after all. Mrs. Farrell could not think of +leaving him, especially as his health had suffered very much, thanks to +their enforced sojourn in an unsanitary section of old Manila. It +appeared that the major was even an applicant for a pension on that +ground—a strange proceeding with one so overcharged with mining stock +and cattle profits. It might be a month or six weeks yet before the rest +of the family came, but Mrs. Dwight was eager to get settled under her +own roof where they would be an incumbrance to nobody, and she was going +that very day with Mrs. Stone in search of servants. Only a maid had +come with them, a maid whose ministrations Inez declared she <i>must</i> have +if expected to appear to any advantage in the society to which her +husband was accustomed. Mrs. Stone knew of a good cook in town at the +hotel whom Mrs. Dwight might tempt away, and then the major had to hurry +to the station to superintend the unloading of their car of furniture.</p> + +<p>Not until Tuesday night at the reception, therefore, did the Rays meet +Mrs. Dwight. Mother and son again came together, Marion in simple +evening toilet, Sandy, as required of all officers for that occasion, in +full-dress uniform. Mrs. Dwight stood at the colonel's left. The +adjutant, facing her, made all the presentations. She was gowned again, +as she was that night at Naples, beautifully, extravagantly, and her +jewels were, as then, too much in evidence. She had been looking, so +remarked her hostess, somewhat pale and sallow during the day, but there +was no lack of color, of radiance, of sparkle now. Her face was +exquisite in its dark beauty, wondrous in its witchery. Her smile was +sweetness itself, and many a woman envied her those perfect teeth rather +more than the diamonds. Her soft Southern accent lent a charm of its own +to her few words of gracious welcome and acknowledgment. It was noted +that she said very little, that she repeated much; but what she said was +so sweetly said, and the meaning smile lent so very much more to make it +all impressive. Her very attitude was one of supple, sinuous grace, and, +whatsoever may have been lacking in the form and variety of her verbal +response to Minneconjou's welcome, there could be no warrant for saying +that she did not look, at least, her part. Women stood and watched her +and marked the play of her slender little hands, the unconscious, +languorous use of her beautiful fan, and women marked how alert, too, +were the wonderful dark eyes—how, even as they meltingly and feelingly +were uplifted to greet each newcomer, they saw each comer before that +comer stood in her presence. She was at her best when Mrs. Ray, pausing +first to greet Mrs. Stone and the colonel, was passed on to the star of +the evening, and the smiling adjutant, with unpremeditated preference in +his tone, announced "Mrs. Ray, Mrs. Dwight; your predecessor at the head +of our squadron." And then for the first time that night the bride +stepped forward, if only a single pace, and, as though her heart went +with it, her hand seemed to leap forward in impulsive greeting.</p> + +<p>"I have known Mrs. Ray ever since I first met Major Dwight," said she, +with such wealth of gladness in her tone. She never seemed to see the +young officer standing with pale, unsmiling face, awaiting his turn to +be advanced to the presence. "I cannot begin to say how glad I am to +meet her—at last," she continued. And Marion Ray, thoroughbred woman of +society, if not of the world, stood in quiet, smiling grace and dignity, +listening—without a sign of rancor to the swift patter of words from +the beautiful lips of the girl who had played havoc with her firstborn's +honest young heart, studying the beauty of the newcomer's wondrous face, +and wondering, as mothers will, that even a lover could see therein a +resemblance to her own daughter—her dark-eyed Maidie. She hoped that by +this time Sandy, too, would see that he had been blind. She responded +without embarrassment or effort. Not for a royal ransom would she let +this fascinator see that her son had ever so far taken her seriously +enough to speak, even to his mother, of a possible admiration.</p> + +<p>"The major was very long our near neighbor," she said. "And it is good +to have him with us again—and to welcome Mrs. Dwight." Then her hand +was extended to Major Dwight as, still smiling and chatting, she seemed +imperceptibly sidling toward him; and then Sandy emerged into the field +of vision. "So glad to see Mrs. Dwight again," said he, in off-hand +assumption of jovial indifference. "Gibson's here, you know. He'll be +trotting past the grandstand presently." And though the little hand, +slipped into his, gave faint, fluttering, tentative pressure, he edged +along, yielding place to 'Cilla and Will, the next comers, and +precipitated himself on Dwight. There was unmistakable glance of +reproach, perhaps even of pain, from those glorious eyes as the young +officer passed unfaltering on, but it was instant; it was unseen by the +aging and adoring soldier at her side.</p> + +<p>And in this wise was the dreaded meeting accomplished with no one +possibly the wiser, with no one warned by word or sign of the +complications and catastrophes to come.</p> + +<p>It took Major Dwight but four or five days to set his own house in order +and move his birdling into the pretty cage he had planned for her. +Willing hands by dozens, both officers and troopers, had wrought with +him in the transformation. Beautiful rugs, carpets, and curtains, rare +in army parlors, had been lavishly provided—this, too, despite +well-founded rumors that Dwight had no such bank account to-day as that +he owned to at Manila. Saying no word upon the subject, Marion Ray had +noted, nevertheless, how much more expensive and luxurious were the +surroundings of Inez than had been those of wise and provident Margaret +Dwight. They gave their first dinner, did the Dwights, one week from the +date of Colonel Stone's first, and to this was Marion bidden. She had +not expected it, had not provided herself with a previous engagement, +<i>had</i> to accept or decline at once, and accepted.</p> + +<p>"Mother," said Sandy, coming in at the moment, "have you seen—has +anything been seen of a blouse of mine sent home Tuesday evening? I +can't find it, yet the troop tailor swears he left it here himself."</p> + +<p>"Who received it?" asked Mrs. Ray. "We were all home dressing for the +reception."</p> + +<p>"Why, that's the queer part of it," was the answer. "He says he found +the back door open, knocked twice and nobody answered, so he walked in +the kitchen, laid the bundle on the table and came out and shut the door +after him."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray thought a moment. "I gave Sarah permission to be out, and +Minnie was up here helping us. That may have accounted for his knock +being unanswered. You went down before I did, 'Cilla," she continued, +turning to her niece, who was busy at the desk. "Was Sarah back then? I +thought I heard you speak to someone."</p> + +<p>"To two of the Bible class," said 'Cilla. "They came to say we couldn't +have the use of that little room back of the chapel. I don't understand +it at all. We offered to clean it out and store the boxes in the cellar, +but——" And 'Cilla shrugged her shoulders. She had begun to believe +that the chaplain was jealous of her influence over certain intractables +in the garrison, and was aiming to thwart her. This view Mrs. Ray could +not share. She presently put down her pen and passed out into the +dining-room.</p> + +<p>"It's a dark little hole at best, Pris," said Sandy, "and I offered you +a good bright room at the Exchange—the very one your paragon used for +about the same purpose when he was stationed here." Sandy <i>would</i> tilt +at his cousin's fad at times, and this was a time, for Sandy had been +crotchety for a week.</p> + +<p>"My paragon, as you call him—my ideal of the soldier as we saw him +after Porto Rico," answered 'Cilla, with dignity and precision, "held +his classes there when the rest of the building was not what it is +to-day—a rumshop."</p> + +<p>"Not a drop of rum to be had on the premises now, Pris—though there +might have been then."</p> + +<p>"I don't believe it! <i>My</i> general was an ascetic. No one ever heard of +his using liquor—and wine is only liquor in another form."</p> + +<p>"Come to the library and I'll show you what your General Ascetic wrote +of himself after he was so horribly shot in the Sioux campaign. He said +he owed his recovery to a winter in California and drinking plenty of +good red wine that made blood."</p> + +<p>But Priscilla knew that Sandy "had the papers to prove it," and +preferred not to see them, lest her ideals come tumbling. "That might +have been necessary and by physician's prescription," said she. "What I +condemn is its usage when there is no excuse. I should feel that I was +enticing my class into temptation if I led them daily to the Canteen, +and most of them feel as I do about it. Blenke, for instance—though you +don't believe in him, Sandy—when I told him of your offer, he said he +would rather not set foot under that roof."</p> + +<p>"When was that?" asked Sandy curiously, seeing a chance for a palpable +hit. "He was sent to Leavenworth with the guard of those deserters +Wednesday morning, and I didn't have it to offer to you until Tuesday +afternoon."</p> + +<p>"He came that evening to say he was ordered away with the guard detail. +Two of my men have gone. You can see for yourself, Sandy, that for any +important duty the total abstainer is chosen."</p> + +<p>But Mr. Ray did not answer. He was thinking intently. "Was Blenke one of +the two you—spoke of, 'Cilla?" he presently asked.</p> + +<p>"No. He came by himself just after they'd gone. He took his leave a very +few minutes later. We heard you coming down."</p> + +<p>"And where did you receive your visitors, Pris?"</p> + +<p>"I spoke with them at the rear door—what other place was there? since +you dislike my having soldiers come to the house. Why, Sandy Ray! what +are you thinking of? You don't mean——"</p> + +<p>"Hush!" said Sandy. There were footsteps at the front and laughing +voices, and a bang at the gongbell. Minnie, the housemaid, fluttered +through the hallway. "Are the ladies at home?" "Mrs. Stone and Mrs. +Dwight!" stage-whispered Priscilla, but in an instant Sandy Ray had +found his feet and followed his mother, who was interviewing cook at the +kitchen door. "Mrs. Stone and Mrs. Dwight," he echoed, waited until Mrs. +Ray had gone to greet the callers, then bolted through the sacred +precincts of Sarah's own domain and into the afternoon sunshine beyond. +There Minnie presently fetched her young master his broad-brimmed +campaign hat, wondering why he should look so pale. Making wide detour, +Sandy found himself presently within hail of the club. It was but an +hour before sunset. The cavalry people were just coming back from +stables to supper. There were not five officers on the broad veranda, +but among them stood a man in civilian dress, whose back had a strangely +familiar look and whose voice, when he whirled about and shouted +greeting, sent a thrill of astonishment not unmixed with wrath, nerve +racking, through the young soldier's slender frame.</p> + +<p>"Hullo, Sandy! Got over being grumpy yet? Come up and see a fellow."</p> + +<p>What brought Stanley Foster, of all men, here to Minneconjou now?</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2> + +<h3>THE WOLF IN THE SHEEPFOLD</h3> + + +<p>A week rolled on and matters at Minneconjou had become electric. The +weather was superb. The sun rose in a cloudless sky long hours before +society, as represented at our frontier city and station, followed suit, +shook off the fetters of sleep and began bestirring itself for the day. +And days were long in that northern latitude, long enough for even the +most ambitious and enthusiastic of commanding officers intent on the +instruction and development of the force intrusted to his care. Yet the +days seemed hardly long enough for Oswald Dwight, whose first difference +with the post commander was on the subject of morning gunfire and the +reveille. To the scandal of the cavalry service, let it be recorded that +in the point at issue, without exception the members of Minneconjou's +mounted service sided with the easy-going infantryman at the head of +affairs, and against their own immediate leader—the over-energetic, the +nervously pushing, prodding, spurring, stirring squadron commander.</p> + +<p>During the sweet summer months, all along the broad lands of the +Dakotas, the morning gun thundered its salutation to the newborn day as +the hands of the clock so nearly lapped at half-past five. What Dwight +demanded of Colonel Stone was permission to rout out the cavalry at +half-past four. It was broad daylight, said he. It was the cool and +beautiful time of the day. The men could have their coffee at once, then +march to stables, lead to water,—the steeds having been already fed by +the stable guard,—groom for twenty minutes, march back to barracks, get +their matutinal scrub, a hearty breakfast and be out to squadron drill +when all was still fresh, sparkling and exhilarating before the mountain +breeze, the lowland dust, or indeed before garrison society, was astir; +then they could all be back in time for guard-mounting and the +multifarious drills and duties of the morning. Dwight found his people +well up in saddle work, as was to be expected of men long led by so +genuine a trooper as "Billy" Ray, but they were correspondingly slack in +foot and sabre drill, and Dwight in his day had been one of the famous +drillmasters of the —th, and seemed beset with desire to keep up the +record now. "What would you be doing from nine to noon?" asked Stone, +strumming the desk with his finger tips and studying curiously the pale, +keen, eager face of the cavalryman.</p> + +<p>"Company drill afoot, sabre drill, setting up—almost anything!" was the +impatient answer. "These men are soft, sluggish, torpid. Troopers should +be all wire and catgut. I want to put those four commands in perfect +trim for anything, Colonel, and I can't do it under five hours' drill a +day."</p> + +<p>But Stone shook his head. There was no occasion he maintained, for +robbing them of an hour of their sleep. They had to work harder than his +men, anyhow, and, if anything, should be given more sleep, not less.</p> + +<p>"Then put them to bed at ten o'clock—or nine, if need be," said Dwight, +impatient of demur; but Stone proved obdurate. "I see no reason for so +radical a change," said he, to the relief of the juniors, who feared +Dwight's vehement onward nature might prevail over the placidity of +Stone; and so the new-made major was fain to content himself with +sounding mess call right after reveille, then "Boots and Saddles" in +place of "Stables," and, by dispensing with morning grooming, getting +his troops into line on the flats to the south and starting a humming +squadron drill before seven o'clock.</p> + +<p>Time had been in the long-ago happy days when it was quite the thing for +Mrs. Ray, Mrs. Truscott, Margaret Dwight, and other women of the old +regiment to ride, drive, or stroll out to the ground and watch their +soldier-husbands through much of the morning's dashing drill. The effect +was good in more ways than one. It keyed up the pride of the men and +kept down the profanity of their mentors, some of whom, as was a way in +the old days of the mounted service, <i>would</i> break out with sudden and +startling blasphemy when things went wildly amiss. It is easy on foot to +bring instant order out of apparent chaos. The stark command "Halt!" +does the business; but, given tenscore, high-strung, grain-fed, spirited +steeds, tearing at their bits and lunging full gallop in mad race for a +charge, it often happens that neither voice nor trumpet, nor tugging, +straining bridle arm can prevail, and it is then the air rings with +expletives. No one ever heard Truscott swear. He was a model of +self-control. Dwight, too, had been renowned for the success with which +he handled horses and men and maintained his personal serenity. But +Marion Ray more times than a few in the earlier days of her married life +had cause to blush for Billy, who, the idol of his men and perhaps the +most magnetic drillmaster and troop leader in the regiment, so lost +himself in the enthusiasm and dash of squadron drill at the trot or +gallop, that his Blue Grass exhortations could be heard over the thunder +of a thousand hoofs, to the entire delight of the sorrel troop, the +sympathetic joy of their rivals and the speechless dismay of the pious.</p> + +<p>"Tut-tut-tut!" was a dear old chaplain wont to say; "is it not strange +that so good a man can use such very bad language?" Yet Captain Ray in +private life shrank from profanity as he did from punch. On mounted +drill it rippled from his lips with unconscious, unpremeditated fluency.</p> + +<p>Just as in the old days, therefore, wives, sisters, and sweethearts of +the dashing horsemen of Minneconjou were now riding, driving, or +strolling out to the edge of the drill ground and enjoying the spirited +scene. It gave them an hour of bracing air and sparkling dew and early +sunshine and a wonderful appetite for breakfast. Mrs. Ray did not go. +Neither her husband nor her son had now any part in the panorama, and, +looking from her window she could see all she cared to see of what might +be going on—and more. The sound of Sandy's boot-heels overhead told her +that he, too, was up and observant, though Sandy, when Priscilla, as +usual precipitate, managed to refer to it at the breakfast table, +parried the tongue thrust with a tale about "best light for shaving."</p> + +<p>No, there were none of Mrs. Ray's little household who went forth to see +the early squadron drill, but there were others—many others—and most +observed, if not most observant of these, was the beautiful young wife +of the squadron commander and her invariable escort, Dwight's former +fellow-campaigner, their fellow-voyager of the <i>Hohenzollern</i>, and now +their very appreciative guest, Captain Stanley Foster, only just +promoted to his troop in the —th Cavalry and waiting orders at +Minneconjou.</p> + +<p>Mrs. Dwight was not much given to walking. She could dance untiringly +for hours, but other pedestrianism wearied her. Mrs. Dwight was as yet +even less given to riding. She explained that the major preferred she +should wait a while until her horse and English horse equipment came. +Lieutenant Scott, who had met her in Manila, said he had a little +tan-colored Whitman that would just suit her, whereat Mrs. Dwight, +between paling and coloring, took on something of a tan shade over her +dusky beauty and faltered that "the Major preferred the English—to the +forked-seat—for a lady." It would seem as though she desired it +forgotten that her normal way of riding was astride, whereas more than +half her auditors, the officers at least, regarded that as the proper +and rational seat for her sex. Mrs. Dwight, caring neither to walk nor +to ride, therefore was quite content to appear for two or three +successive mornings in a lovely little phaeton with a pony-built team in +front, a pygmy "tiger" behind and a presentable swain beside her. The +fourth morning brought a rain and no drill, the fifth no rain nor Mrs. +Dwight, nor did she again appear at that early hour despite the fact +that the drills daily became more dashing and picturesque. Her interest, +she explained, had been rather on her husband's account, but she knew so +little about such matters she felt her inferiority to <i>real</i> army ladies +who had been born and bred to and understood it, and then after dancing +so late she wondered how anybody <i>could</i> be up so early.</p> + +<p>The major himself, probably, could not have stood it, but he, not being +a dancing man, had taken to skipping away to bed at or before eleven on +such nights as Minneconjou tripped the light fantastic toe, but "Inez so +loved to dance" he considerately left her to finish it, with Foster to +fetch her home; which Foster did.</p> + +<p>But, of the few elders at Minneconjou who had personal knowledge of +Dwight's prowess as a cavalry drillmaster in by-gone days, and of the +many who, being told thereof, had gone forth to see and to enjoy, there +lived now not one who had not suffered disappointment. So far from being +the calm, masterful, yet spirited teacher and leader, clear and explicit +in his instructions and serene and self-controlled where men and horses +became nervous and fidgety, Dwight proved strangely petulant and +querulous. His tone and manner were complaining, nagging, even snarling. +Nothing seemed to please him. Troop leaders, subalterns and sergeants +were forever coming in for a rasping, and each successive day the +command paced slowly, sedately homeward, cooling off after a hot drill, +looking more and more sullen and disgusted. Officers dismounted at the +Club, quaffed "shandygaff" and sometimes even "Scotch and soda" in +silent sense of exasperation. The men rode away to stables, rubbed down +and, as they plied the wisps, said opprobrious things between their set +teeth. As for the horses, they took counsel together when turned out to +herd and settled it to their satisfaction that something was sorely +amiss with the major—who had at last begun to swear.</p> + +<p>And something was sorely amiss with Dwight, as anyone who noted his +brilliant, restless eyes, his haggard face and fitful manner could not +fail to see. It was at this stage of the proceedings, as Stone squarely +owned up later, that he as post commander should have taken Dwight to +task, even to the extent of administering correction. But the strongest +soldier is sometimes disarmed at sight of a fellow's suffering, and, for +fear of adding one pang, will suppress a needed word. Thus it happens +that occasionally a commander passes unrebuked a soldier's fault. Thus +it happens time and again that men, stern and unflinching in dealing +with their fellows, submit in silence to years of a woman's abuse, +because "she's such a sufferer."</p> + +<p>But here was something Stone might, and possibly should, have done and +thereby measurably cleared the social sky and surely earned Dwight's +silent gratitude, and this Stone did not do, even though spurred thereto +by a clear-visioned wife, and that was—say a word of admonition to +Captain Foster.</p> + +<p>He deserved it. All Minneconjou was a unit on that head. He was as +utterly out of place there as a cat in a creamery. They who had heard +the story of his attentions to Mrs. Dwight during the <i>Hohenzollern's</i> +run from Gibraltar to Governor's Island were disturbed by his sudden and +unheralded appearance at the post, and distressed that Dwight should be +among the first to welcome him, and the one, and at first the only one, +to invite him to a room under his roof. Men looked every which way but +at each other and held their tongues when it was announced that Foster +was the guest of the Dwights. Women looked into each other's eyes and +gasped and said all manner of things as the news went round. Yet what, +at first at least, was there to block the plan? The infantry officers +felt that <i>they</i> must not take the initiative; it was purely a cavalry +affair. Dwight and Foster had served together several years. Dwight +possibly did feel, as he too often took occasion to say, more than +grateful to Foster for "his courtesy to Mrs. Dwight while I was cooped +up in my stateroom." Two or three cavalry chums, taking secret counsel +together, hit upon a blundering, clumsy, best-intentioned scheme, and +Washburn, who couldn't bear Foster and had never foregathered with him, +was deputed, as the only captain with spare rooms and no family, to take +the bull by the horns and the unwanted visitor to his ingle nook, which +Washburn did with simulated joviality and about as follows:</p> + +<p>"Say, old man, <i>you</i> don't want to be roosting in a dove-cote while the +birds are billing and cooing. You can't have any fun at Dwight's. You'll +get nothing but Apollinaris between meals. Come to my shack, where +there's a room—and a demijohn—all ready for you," which bid proved, +unhappily, none too alluring. Foster thanked him with a glint in his +eye. "Dwight asked me long ago," said he, which was the petrified truth, +though Dwight's words were perfunctory, and the invitation one of those +things so often said to a man when the sayer hopes to Heaven he's seeing +the last of him.</p> + +<p>But now that Foster <i>was</i> here, his guest, nothing could exceed the glow +of Dwight's hospitality. It was painful to note the eagerness with which +he sought to assure all Minneconjou of his long-standing friendship for +Foster in face of the fact that some of the squadron well knew they had +never met in Margaret's day, and were never really comrades thereafter. +Moreover, they were men of utterly divergent mold and temperament. +Dwight had been reared in the shadow of the flag, a soldier by birth, +lineage and education. Foster had come in from civil life, after a not +too creditable career at college. He had come, moreover, with the repute +of being a Squire of Dames in "swagger" Eastern society. He danced well, +dressed well, and talked well—when he felt like it. He "knew a lot," +said men who knew little outside of the army.</p> + +<p>He knew enough, at all events, to realize that army society would be far +less tolerant of a "squire" of his kind than had been that of Gotham, +and during his decade of service that, at least, had not been held as +his principal fault. A semi-cynical manner, a propensity for stirring +fellows on their sore points, a pronounced selfishness and an assumed +intimacy with men who disliked him were the things that most conspired +to make him unpopular. He had ability; he could be agreeable, but +indolence and indifference dwarfed his powers. It was not until he came +under the spell of this dark girl's grace and beauty that Stanley Foster +had succeeded in doing anything worthy of mention. Now he was being +mentioned far more than he wished, and, though he heard it not, he knew.</p> + +<p>But they went to a dance the night of the day he came, and Dwight gave a +dinner the next night, and another the next. Then there had to be others +given in return, and morn, noon, afternoon and evening, Foster found +himself at the side of Mrs. Dwight. What could she do? He came to stay +only three days, but the week went by, and so, possibly, did his orders. +Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday they were out at morning drill. Then the +pretty phaeton and its lovely occupant and her vigilant convoy came no +more. Inez said she "looked like a fright at that hour of the morning, +anyway," in which statement most women agreed. Possibly it was that that +stayed her.</p> + +<p>However, a second Sunday had come since Foster's advent, and the +squadron was having a rest and the chaplain holding service, and Major +Dwight, as was his wont, came, book in one hand and little Jim clinging +fondly to the other, to kneel among the worshipers, to reverently follow +the beautiful service, his boy snuggling to his side and reading aloud +from the same page. It was the service Margaret had loved, and taught +her husband to honor, and had won his promise that Jimmy should ever be +led to it, and loyally, devoted, had the father fulfilled the promise, +even after the young wife came to wean him from much that Margaret had +inspired. Inez this day came not with them. To begin with, Inez had been +reared in the fold of the Mother Church, and, though years had served to +loose the bonds and possibly sap what little she ever had of faith, she +had sought, at least, no substitute. Obediently had she gone at first +with her soldier-husband and looked, in the eyes of his kith and kin, +the picture of meek piety and adoration as she followed the new, strange +ritual. But, once away from family observation, Inez had found refuge in +hebdomadal headaches that came with the Lord's Day and kept her from +church. She was "feeling far from well this morning," said Dwight, in +answer to queries, and had been persuaded to remain in bed. So he and +Jimmy had come to church and Foster had gone to the Club to write some +letters and wire to Washington, and all were "present or accounted for," +as Captain Washburn grimly announced at the Club. It was a lovely warm +Sunday, too, and the old chaplain was effective as a reader. The choir +was capital, despite Priscilla's criticisms, and the attendance was +large. Army folk, as a rule, flock but sparsely to the sanctuary, but +Minneconjou had not a few devout church people, even in the ranks, +Blenke being so earnest in his piety that when detailed for Sunday guard +he never failed to effect an exchange, even though it cost him two tours +for one. Furthermore, it was communion service, and unusually long.</p> + +<p>Marion Ray had entered early—Sandy, pale-faced and thin, at her side; +and together they had knelt, mother and son, and then sat silently +awaiting the "Processional." When Dwight and Jimmy walked up the aisle +and took a pew on the other side and nearer the altar, Marion had smiled +fond greeting to the little fellow, and he had answered. Twice as she +gazed at them later, Dwight's arm about Jimmy's curly head, his sinewy +hand resting on the further shoulder and drawing him to his side, heavy +tears welled up into the blue eyes of the tender-hearted woman. Never +yet had that strong, sinewy hand been uplifted to inflict the lightest +chastisement on Margaret's beloved boy. Only the day before on his +regular visit, nestling to her knee and telling her laughingly how +Sergeant Shock, the schoolmaster, had walloped Scotty Burns, the band +leader's eldest hope, Jimmy had looked up suddenly into her eyes. "Why, +Aunt Marion," he said, "only think! I've never known what it was to be +whipped. Can you fancy daddy's ever using a strap on me?"</p> + +<p>"God forbid!" she shuddered, not knowing why, thinking perhaps only what +agonies that would have cost Margaret, and then Priscilla had come in +and their confidences ceased. Priscilla was firm in her theory that +children were too much petted and coddled nowadays, and that more of the +rod and less of rhubarb was what they needed.</p> + +<p>Suddenly, just after the second lesson, while the rich ringing voices of +the soldier choir were chanting the "Gloria," little Jim was seen to bow +his head and burrow for his handkerchief. Dwight looked down, bent over +him, whispered a word or two, smiled encouragement and fond assurance, +and, blushing very much, with downcast eyes and his face half hidden in +cambric, the lad came forth and hastened down the aisle and out into the +brilliant sunshine beyond.</p> + +<p>"Nose-bleed," whispered Dwight to Mrs. Stone, who leaned back, +sympathetically, from her pew. "It sometimes seizes him just that way."</p> + +<p>And the stately service went uninterruptedly on, and Jimmy over home, +and little more was said of the incident until the coming of another +day.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2> + +<h3>ACCUSING LETTERS</h3> + + +<p>For a week Miss Priscilla Sanford had been in a state of mind bordering +on the ecstatic. For months letters of portentous size, bearing the +stamp of a great and powerful organization of Christian women, had been +left at her door, and many an hour had that energetic maiden been +devoting to correspondence with boards, committees, secretaries, etc., +adding much to the burden of the mail orderly, and not a little to his +malevolence. A dour and unsocial Scot was McPherson, as he called +himself, but there was wisdom in the selection, for Kennedy, his +predecessor, was as genial as Mac was glum, and Kennedy's fall from +grace was due mainly to his amiable weakness for the opposite sex, a +trait that had led to his lingering far too long in the early spring +mornings—and many a "storm house"—along the row, and to concomitant +complaint. Letters delayed, letters even diverted from their proper +destination, had been all too often charged to him, for more than one +housemaid, not to mention a mistress or two, was possessed of a devil of +curiosity as to the correspondence of many another, and Kennedy was too +much interested in all of them to be austere. Not so McPherson. There +was not another of his clan, there were but three of his nationality, in +the entire garrison, for seldom, save under the flag of Great Britain, +is the Scot in peace time a soldier. Mac had served his native country +in the "Forty Twa"; had come to the States a time-expired man; had met +his fate, married, and been bereft and deserted within two years, and, +like many another man, he had sought in the profession of arms the peace +denied him at the domestic fireside. Uncle Sam employs no recruiting +solicitors; he needs none, for the petticoat drives to his ranks more +men than he will take. Something of Mac's history was made known to his +colonel, and when Kennedy had to be replaced, although Mac had not been +a year in the regiment, Stone issued his mandate. "<i>There's</i> the man for +the place," said he to the adjutant. "There'll be no peeping and prying +with that red-headed Sawny in charge."</p> + +<p>Priscilla had not been slow to note the substitution, nor to divine the +cause. Priscilla had much disapproved of Kennedy, and Kennedy of her. +"That prayin', pryin', pesterin' old maid beyant," he described her to +the surgeon's becapped and bewitching Kathleen, the belle of the +non-commissioned officers' ball. Priscilla found in Presbyterian Mac a +far more promising subject, and was aggrieved and dismayed at her lack +of success. McPherson would only stand at salute, frigidly respectful, +but as icily impenetrable. Mac scented mischief at the outset. He had +heard much among the men about Miss Sanford's kindergarten, the Bible +class, the prayer meetings, and her persistent preachings against the +Canteen. Now, Mac himself disapproved of that institution, and hearing +of this—I fear me Sandy told her, and for motives altogether +mischievous—Miss Sanford had lain in wait for Mac, and held him one +brief moment in converse at the door. The story of that episode +delighted Minneconjou and the minority, let us say, when it was later +told in Congress.</p> + +<p>"I'm so glad to hear, McPherson," said Miss Sanford, beaming upon him, +as she took from his hand the little packet of letters, "that you, too, +are one of the right sort of soldiers. Now, tell me why <i>you</i> disapprove +of the Canteen," for Priscilla was sending that day another long letter +of experiences to the <i>Banner of Light</i>; and the reply came, prompt, +unflinching, uncompromising, but—most unsatisfactory:</p> + +<p>"Because, mem, ye canna get a drap o' whusky."</p> + +<p>And so saying McPherson was all simple sincerity. Bred to its use in the +raw fogs of his native glen, accustomed to his modest daily tot even +when on "sentry go" at the Castle, or the water gate at Gibraltar, he +and his comrades of the Black Watch had been reared in the broad faith +that teaches temperance, not intolerance. Their canteen sergeant set the +limit, not the pace, and doubtless Mac in 'listing for a soldier in the +land of liberty had looked perhaps for even greater license. Beer he +called "swipes," and despised. Rhine wine, tasted but once, set his grim +face awry, and presently townward. Mac's one peccadillo since joining at +Minneconjou was a rantin', roarin' drunk in Silver Hill that cost Uncle +Sam three days of his services, and the Highlander three months of his +pay. There were fines both military and municipal. In disgust Mac swore +off. He "had na use for a consairn that compelled a mon to walk three +miles to get a wee drappie—and lose three months' siller."</p> + +<p>But Priscilla was undaunted still. She had written glowingly, +enthusiastically, unceasingly, of all her efforts to promote the cause +of temperance among the nation's soldiery. She had told much of her +converts to total abstinence, and little of their backsliding. She had +managed, through Blenke and others, to get a transcript of the daily +guard report, and the punishments awarded by the summary and general +courts-martial. Minneconjou had now a garrison of some eight hundred +men, with a big and bustling frontier town only a few miles away. Thanks +to the system of the post Exchange and the careful supervision, both of +its customers and its supplies, drunkenness had been reduced almost to a +minimum. Not one out of one hundred men was in confinement, either +awaiting or serving sentence. Not more than ten in two months had been +fined for minor breaches of discipline due to drink. Some old topers, +relics of the sutler-shop days of the army, were still to be found, men +whose stomachs could not be always appeased by mild measures, and +demanded the coarser stimulant—in bottles smuggled from town; but every +case, however mild, had been made, it seems, the text for one of +Priscilla's vivid letters descriptive of the depravity still rampant in +the army, and due entirely to the presence of that blot upon Christian +civilization—the Canteen.</p> + +<p>And well had they served their purpose. In fancied security, knowing +that their methods had resulted in the greatest good to the greatest +number, the officers on duty with troops had read with smiling tolerance +marked copies of Eastern papers detailing the concerted efforts of the +crusaders against the post Exchange. Congress had been memorialized. +Congress had good naturedly listened to the successive readings of a +bill abolishing the system and forbidding the sale of either beer or +wine at any military post in the United States. Then, brimful, bustling +with excitement, and rejoicing, Priscilla read that her letters had been +largely instrumental in winning over certain of the opposition, and that +when the question came to a vote the noble leaders of a noble cause +would be present in force, and when the House sat, there—there would +they sit and watch, and woe betide the advocate of the arch fiend rum +that dare vote against their sacred measure. Before the army could +realize what was coming, the House sat in judgment on the bill, the +Society sat in judgment on the House; its members glanced casually at +the subject and fearfully at the galleries and—succumbed. "The Senate +will kill it, anyhow, so we might as well make ourselves solid,—it's +only the army, anyway," was the expression of one long-headed +legislator. Priscilla screamed—squealed rather—in ecstasy over the +telegram brought her at breakfast, threw the paper to Sandy and herself +into a <i>pas seul</i> that fairly amazed Aunt Marion and scandalized the +cat. But, when a week or so later the Senate, too, quailed before the +basilisk eyes in the galleries, and the bill went to the President and +became at once a law, it is safe to say that, for one memorable day, +Miss Sanford not unwarrantably looked upon herself as of infinitely more +consequence than the commanding officer.</p> + +<p>Then, in the midst of the amaze and bewilderment that fell upon the +fort, came sensation. Colonel Stone sent for Sandy Ray, nodded +"withdraw" to his adjutant, who closed the door behind him, and then +looked up with somber eyes at the pale-faced young fellow before him.</p> + +<p>"Your occupation's gone, Sandy," said he sorrowfully. "They've pulled +from under us the best prop to order and discipline that ever we had. It +hasn't been a square deal. They won by methods we couldn't hope to meet, +and,"—drawing forth certain newspaper clippings,—"here are specimens. +For your father's sake, I liked you before I grew to like you for your +own; but if your father himself were here, and head of the house instead +of yourself, I'd have to hold him to account as I must hold you. +Read—that."</p> + +<p>And Sandy, turning paler still, and quivering with mingled wrath and +shame, stood and read somewhat as follows:</p> + +<blockquote><p>At Fort Minneconjou the situation is even worse. We have it from +indisputable authority that, so far from seeking to check the evil +among their men, officers of the highest rank freely mingle with +them at the garrison saloon, and urge and incite them to drink. Is +it to be wondered at, therefore, that the sickening scenes depicted +by our correspondent are of almost daily occurrence?—that young +lads, fresh from the pure influences of peaceful homes, the +mother's blessing still echoing in their ears, the mother's kiss +still warm upon their brows, are forced to witness such revolting +crimes, to hear such ribald oaths, and gradually, through the +example of officers seeking doubtless to increase the revenue +derived from the sale of the vile poisons they purchase at +wholesale from equally vile distillers, and in the hope of winning +the favor of these all-powerful superiors, to forget the teachings +of home, the prayers of parents and kindred, and to yield to the +tempter and become in turn slaves of the soul-destroying habit, +helpless victims of rum? How long, O Lord, how long will the +representatives of a free and enlightened people continue to +sanction such infamy?</p></blockquote> + +<p>"That's one of a dozen editorials," said the colonel. "What most +concerns us is the one of a dozen letters on which it is based. Now, +look at this." And Sandy read.</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Fort Minneconjou, S. D.</span>, <i>May 30, 19—</i>.</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">Editor Banner of Light</span>:</p> + +<p>Since My Last, of a Week Ago, No Less Than Seven Soldiers, Men Who, +Could They Be Divorced From Drink, Would Be Ornaments To The +Service of Their Country, Have Been Thrown Into the Garrison +Prison, Or Hauled Before Their Judges,—these Latter the Very Men +who advocate and encourage the sale of intoxicants,—to receive +their punishment for various crimes and misdemeanors committed +while under the influence of drink. And so it goes. They, the +helpless victims, must suffer the consequences of the crimes of +their officers, who are able to divide each month the profits of +their nefarious traffic, and go utterly unwhipped of justice. Only +two days ago, speaking of this matter after morning service, one of +our veteran soldiers said, with tears in his eyes, "If the +Christian people of this land only dreamed what sins were being +committed under cover of the devil-inspired Canteen, they would +rise up as one man and demand its extinction." But, as I said +before, so long as their most popular officers are permitted +unrebuked to meet them, and carouse with them, and thereby teach +and inspire the young and thoughtless soldier to drink, what can we +accomplish? The sights and sounds, the fearful scenes and frightful +curses to which I have been witness here, all due to the demon that +lurks within that protected rum hole opposite my window, would +appall a Christian community—which this is not.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Sandy turned to the wrapper, his lips almost as gray as his young face. +It was the copy of a letter from the pastor of a church in a far Eastern +city, inclosing five newspaper clippings, and calling upon the Secretary +of War to order the instant court-martial and dismissal of the military +officers responsible for the abominable state of affairs existing at +Fort Minneconjou; which letter the Secretary had respectfully referred +to the Commanding General, Department of the Middle West, for +"investigation and report," which paper and inclosures that official had +respectfully referred to the commanding officer, Fort Minneconjou, with +similar demand. Stone had received, read, remarked and—sent for Sandy.</p> + +<p>An hour later, as Miss Sanford was sallying forth on "an errand of +mercy," as she had usually heard such missions described,—she was going +to the post hospital with a fresh supply of temperance tracts and a +small box of cherries,—she encountered her cousin at the door, and +something in his face made her own lose color. The Dwights' phaeton came +bowling down the road at the moment, Mrs. Dwight bowing and smiling +bewitchingly, Captain Foster gallantly lifting his derby, for, when +others could not wear it, Foster favored civilian dress. Miss Sanford +responded vaguely, Sandy not at all. Possibly he did not wish to see. +Possibly, said Priscilla to herself, it is <i>that</i> that has so upset him. +She hoped, indeed, it might be that, and not that which, almost +instantly, she feared. He said no word at all, merely motioned to her to +turn back. Priscilla was accustomed to dominate, not to domination, but +she saw the look of the father in the stern young face before her. Uncle +Will she knew was the mildest of men in his dealings with women, until +fully aroused. Then Uncle Will became dangerous, and looked very much as +did Sandy now. The first question as he practically backed her into the +little army parlor was, "Is mother home?"</p> + +<p>Priscilla looked aloft. "In her room," she said.</p> + +<p>"Then I cannot—speak to you now," said Sandy. "Colonel Stone has called +me to account for one of the five inclosures to this paper. Before I +answer we've got to have, you and I, a clear understanding, and before +we can have that you must read these, and think over what other slanders +you have written."</p> + +<p>"I was going to the hospital," faltered Priscilla. "Sullivan's +worse—and Blenke's been so queer——"</p> + +<p>"The hospital, Sullivan, and Blenke can wait," said Sandy firmly, though +his voice was shaking. "Colonel Stone and I cannot. I shall say nothing +to mother of this as yet. Be ready to see me here at twelve o'clock. +Mother will not be home."</p> + +<p>So saying, and leaving in her hands the fateful packet, Ray turned +abruptly and left the house, Priscilla mounting slowly to her room.</p> + +<p>It still lacked an hour to noon, and she had time to read and to think. +It was past the hour at which Jimmy Dwight generally came running in to +say good-morning to Aunt Marion, but Jimmy had not come. Out on the +sunlit parade a dozen garrison boys and girls were in the midst of a +shouting, shrieking, frolicsome game of "Pull-Away," and Jimmy, usually +one of the blithest and merriest, was not there. Priscilla had noted +this when, from the little veranda of the lieutenant's quarters but a +few minutes before, she had been disapprovingly watching the sport—it +was so uninstructive, thought Priscilla. She could not, from the window +at the side, see much of the parade. Over against it, midway along the +barrack line of the northeast front, she could see the Exchange +building, could see Sandy more than halfway across, walking even more +swiftly, stiffly, than ever. She saw the few loungers and convalescents, +sunning themselves on the southern benches, rising to their feet at the +approach of the young officer. She could hear the tramp of the two +battalions and the majors' ringing commands, exercising, one on the +plain to the south where Dwight's squadron disported itself before +breakfast, the other out on the parade. She could hear faintly the fine +band of the infantry practicing at the assembly room adjoining the +Exchange. From the open window of Sandy's room, across the hall, she +could have seen the deserted veranda of the officers' club. Half an hour +hence it would be swarming with thirsty and perspiring gentlemen in +khaki just in from a lively drill. She felt rather than saw what was +said in that relentless paper on her dressing table, and she shrank from +the opening and reading. Sandy's face had told her what to expect. +Sandy's tongue had spoken of slanders—slanders that well she realized, +like curses, had come home to roost. She could not say, even to herself, +that what she had written was never meant for public eyes. She had +hoped—she had meant—it should be published, and that all good +Christian men and women, readers of the <i>Banner of Light</i>, should +approve and applaud her righteous efforts in behalf of so great and +glorious a cause. But it had not occurred to her that the <i>Banner</i> +would ever find its way to so godless a community as this at +Minneconjou—where her statements might be challenged. She was stunned, +temporarily, by this most unlooked-for catastrophe. Uncle Will and Aunt +Marion had been her best friends and benefactors, and, even though duty +demanded that she should make clear to them how deeply they erred in +their attitude on so vital a question as that of the Canteen, she knew, +and well knew, that what she had written in the enthusiasm of her faith, +the intensity of her zeal, was far from warrantable by the cold facts in +the case. She followed Sandy with her eyes as he neared the +veranda,—saw the hands of the half dozen men go up in salute,—saw him +suddenly turn and, facing west, salute in turn, and then the colonel +marched into her field of vision, and the veteran of the Civil War and +the subaltern of a few skirmishes stood a moment in conference, then +strode away together toward the townward gate and the "auxiliary" +guard-house, the orderly following after.</p> + +<p>And then she heard her aunt's voice at her door.</p> + +<p>"Have you seen anything of Jimmy this morning, 'Cilla? It's strange he +has not come," and then cook from the kitchen appeared at the landing. +"That young man, mum, Mr. Blenke, would like to speak with Miss Sanford +a minute." And, leaving the papers on her bureau, glad of a respite, +Priscilla hastened down.</p> + +<p>Blenke's big mournful brown eyes had of late been darker than ever, and +dark circles had sunk in beneath them. Blenke's sallow face had taken on +an even sallower hue. "Nothing but indigestion and lack of exercise," +said the junior doctor, of whom Priscilla had made inquiries. "The man +spends his leisure hours moping or mooning around by himself. He ought +to be made to play ball, tennis, spar, ride, wrestle, or something. He's +a day-dreamer—maybe a pipe-dreamer," hazarded he, in conclusion, with a +queer look at Priscilla, who had flushed indignantly at the insinuation. +Blenke had sorrowfully and virtuously repelled that insinuation the +moment she brought it to his attention, but circumstances had been +combining to make her uneasy about her paragon. If not a "pipe-dreamer," +Blenke was becoming odd and nervous, queer, and twitchy. To-day he came +with a plea she had never heard him make before. Blenke, who never +drank, gambled, smoked, swore, or otherwise misconducted himself, had +come to tell Miss Sanford in the best of language that he had urgent +need of ten dollars and two days' pass. The pass his captain had signed +on the spot, but he wouldn't stand for the ten dollars. Blenke would +tell Miss Sanford all about it on his return, but now there was not a +moment to lose unless he lose also the train to Rapid City. Would Miss +Sanford help him?</p> + +<p>Priscilla had but ten dollars to her name, but swiftly she sped upstairs +to get it. The bugle was sounding the recall from drill as she entered +her little room, unlocked an upper drawer of the dressing-table, and +found the two bills in her slender <i>portemonnaie</i>. The batch of official +papers, with the portentous, red ink-lined, third indorsement uppermost, +still stared at her from the prim, white-covered top, and impatiently +she thrust it into the shallow pocket of the summer skirt and hastened +away downstairs. Blenke's eyes were eloquent with subdued sadness, +mystery, and gratitude as he received the money and turned away. The +children out in front on the parade, with shrill shouting and laughter, +had just gone racing away toward the eastward gate, and as their clamor +died in the distance Priscilla's quick ear caught the sound of sobbing +and a piteous wail for help.</p> + +<p>Ever sympathetic with those in distress, she hurried through the +hallway, out through the gate and there, crouched at the foot of the +little shade tree at the edge of the parade, with blood streaming +through the clutching fingers from a slashing cut at the edge of the +left eye, was little George Thornton, son of a junior officer of +infantry. Priscilla in an instant was bending over him.</p> + +<p>"What is it, Georgie, dear? Oh, how <i>did</i> you get so cruel a hurt?"</p> + +<p>Sobs and screams were at first the only answer. Clasping her kerchief to +the wound with her right hand, and leading the little fellow, half +running, with the left, she guided him homeward, where presently a badly +frightened brace of women, mother and housemaid, busily hindered her +skilled fingers in bathing and bandaging the cut. It was not long before +the bleeding was stanched, the patient soothed and comforted and the +maid had gone for the doctor. Meanwhile the mother, too, had made her +demand, "Who—who could have done this?" And to every such query there +was but one answer, "Jimmy Dwight."</p> + +<p>"Surely not on purpose!" ventured Priscilla, in the interest of peace, +truth, and justice, only to receive with vehement emphasis the +to-be-expected answer of the stung, angered, and irresponsible child.</p> + +<p>"He <i>did</i>, I tell you! We were racin', an'—an' when I was gettin' past +him, he just whacked me with all his might."</p> + +<p>The boys had all disappeared, when presently Priscilla again came forth, +homeward bound. They had swarmed over to the stables, where some troop +horses had broken away from their herd, and were having a hilarious time +of it, but one or two little girls were slowly returning, and to the +foremost of these Priscilla addressed herself for information. Was Jimmy +Dwight with the other boys? Yes, he had only come out a few minutes ago. +Had they seen how Georgie Thornton was hurt? They had not. <i>They</i> had +started with the foremost, and George and Jimmy had run back after a +ball, and so got behind. But presently came Kitty Blair, and Kitty <i>had</i> +seen. Tiring of the chase she had dropped out as the last boys went +bounding by her, and Jimmy Dwight was swinging his jacket, and he just +slashed Georgie Thornton right in the face with it. Yes, she was sure. +Millie Cross had seen it, too, and had run home to tell her mother.</p> + +<p>Thoughtfully, with downcast eyes, Priscilla retraced her steps. Orderly +and mess call were sounding now, and with a start she remembered that +this was the moment set by Sandy for her explanation as to the clipping, +and, glancing up in sudden fright, she found standing at the doorway, +the accusing papers in hand, not her cousin, but her cousin's mother, +her hostess and her benefactress—Marion Ray.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2> + +<h3>AN INVITATION—TO GO</h3> + + +<p>Between early morning drills and the fact that Jimmy was now quite big +and old enough to look after himself, the father's supervision of the +morning tub, rub, and toilet had ceased, and there was but time for a +hug and a word before the major swallowed his solitary cup of coffee, +swung into saddle, and trotted away. On this eventful morning he had +kept his men at their work rather longer than usual and to no good +purpose. In common with the rest of the garrison, Dwight had heard the +fate of the Canteen, and heard it without remark. An abstemious man, he +preferred that others should be the same, but other far more pressing +matters were uppermost in his mind; matters here at Minneconjou—matters +in far-away Mexico, where an importunate father-in-law, after making +ducks and drakes of the thousands liberally supplied him, was now +demanding more, or "all would be lost." Then it transpired that a lawyer +in town had been retained, by certain of that father-in-law's creditors, +to press Major Dwight for payment of the same, or with evidence of +fraudulent doings on part of Mr. Farrell. To meet this lawyer, Dwight +had ridden to town right after drill, and up to noon had not returned. +Foster and Mrs. Dwight, driving thither in the pretty phaeton, with the +pygmy tiger, were surprised, possibly disconcerted—to see his orderly +with the two horses patiently waiting in front of the office. Possibly +that had something to do with their return soon after twelve o'clock. +Possibly there was design in Foster's selection of that hour of the day +to visit the office of the post Exchange, still in active operation +along all its accustomed lines, awaiting official orders, so far as +comforting fluids were concerned, to close. At all events, there were no +witnesses to a scene,—and but few to certain very audible words,—that +became memorable in the chronicles of Fort Minneconjou from that day +forth.</p> + +<p>It will be remembered that Priscilla saw the meeting between the post +commander and his Exchange officer, and their move in company toward the +townward gate. But at that distance it was not to be expected that she +could see the deep concern in the colonel's face or hear anything of the +conversation that passed between them. It was barely an hour since their +brief interview at the office. The colonel then looked solemn enough, +but now the concern and smoldering wrath in his deep-set eyes exceeded +anything his adjutant had ever seen or that Sandy Ray deemed possible in +a soldier usually so placid and philosophical.</p> + +<p>"Come with me, Mr. Ray," said Stone, in the hearing of the listening +men. "There's a matter I want to talk over." Then, once fairly out of +earshot, and after a glance to see that his orderly was well to the +rear, "Sandy, were you at your office yesterday morning?"</p> + +<p>"No, sir; I was at church."</p> + +<p>"Ah, yes. I should have known. <i>I</i> used to go, too, while I had a +mother," sighed the colonel. "But that was very long ago." Then, with +sudden energy, "You wouldn't know whether—er—Captain Foster had been +over here at the Exchange—writing letters? Ah—er—who would?"</p> + +<p>"Sergeant Bates, sir, probably."</p> + +<p>"It's a bit of business I don't like, Sandy. Nobody but my adjutant +knows, though some may guess, and I'm going to tell you because——"</p> + +<p>"I wish you <i>wouldn't</i>, sir. I—own I don't like Captain Foster," was +the blunt interruption.</p> + +<p>"I've got to, lad, for I may have to act! But it was your father who +spake there, and you have known Foster longer and perhaps better than +any man here—Major Dwight possibly excepted. There are reasons why I +<i>can't</i> ask Dwight."</p> + +<p>"Then, Colonel," and with face still graver the young officer turned +appealingly to his commander, "all the more I ask you—don't ask me."</p> + +<p>"See here, Ray," said the colonel, halting short. "No, keep back, +orderly, I don't want you!" he added with impatient wave of the hand. +"There's a piece of devilment going on at this post that it's my +business to stop before it gets too late. Pray God it isn't too late +<i>yet</i>! That man has no business here as Dwight's guest. He has no +business here at all. He isn't straight. He tells everybody he can't +imagine where his orders have gone, and that he's been wiring everywhere +to find them. This morning I find that he's lying. Yesterday he left +Dwight's house to write letters at the Club, as he said, and send more +dispatches. He stayed there only about fifteen minutes, until church was +fairly started. Then he said he wanted some keg beer which can't be had +at the Club, and so he left, saying he'd go to the Canteen and finish +the beer and his letters at your desk. That's almost the last they saw +of him, but before eleven he went through the east gate and down to old +Sergeant Sweeny's on the south flats. Sweeny served with him seven years +ago, and he's laid up with rheumatism. The second relief started just at +eleven, and the first problem the recruit on No. 4 had to deal with, +before the relief that left him was fairly out of sight, was what to do +with a gentleman, in civilian dress who was crossing his post. The +sentry stopped him, and the stranger said: 'I'm Captain Foster, staying +at Major Dwight's,' and went on in the back way. If Sweeny confirms this +story I shall send for Captain Foster and—until this is settled never +mind about that other matter. Er—have you seen Miss Sanford?"</p> + +<p>"Yes, sir," answered Ray, half choking, "and—she was to answer me fully +at twelve o'clock."</p> + +<p>"Well—er—I may be able to see Sergeant Bates and perhaps you again. I +won't take you farther. Wait for me at your desk, will you?"</p> + +<p>A distant horseman, trotting swiftly homeward, splashed through the ford +at the moment; but long before he reached the gate the colonel had gone +on through upon his regular daily tramp, making the rounds of the big +wide-spreading post. The young officer, silent and pale, had gone back +to his office. The sentry at the gate presented arms as the tall +haggard-looking rider came trotting in, sitting very erect and squarely +down in the saddle. At the parting of the roads he suddenly reined in +and dismounted. "Take him to the stables and get your dinner, Gribble," +said he to the trumpeter boy. "I shall not ride again to-day." Then, +with grave, anxious, downcast face, went striding up the southward line +to his quarters at the farther end—the quarters that had been the +Rays'.</p> + +<p>On the gallery of Lieutenant Thornton's were two or three young army +wives and mothers, who ceased chatting and somewhat curiously studied +the coming officer. In brief, absent-minded fashion he lifted his cap +and passed them by. Young Dr. Wallen was just coming forth and calling +cheerily to them. "Oh, he'll do very nicely now. Miss Sanford handled +him admirably;" then, "Oh, beg a thousand pardons, Major," as he bumped +sideways into the tall soldier passing by.</p> + +<p>"Who's hurt?" asked Dwight with scant interest.</p> + +<p>"Why—er—Georgie Thornton got a little—er—gash playing. His mother +was scared a bit, and I was coming that way and she called me in. The +eye isn't injured."</p> + +<p>"Why—how'd it happen?"</p> + +<p>"Oh, er—well, I don't know, exactly," answered Wallen, in deep +confusion. "Some boy scrap—mishap—accident, probably, +and—er—good-day," he finished lamely, as he darted off.</p> + +<p>Queer, thought Dwight. Is everybody seeking to avoid me? He only vaguely +heard, and for the moment gave little heed to, the angry words that +followed him from the open doorway. "Ask your boy how it happened, Major +Dwight," for the mother was suffering still, and some natures, +suffering, <i>will</i> spit and scratch. Not then, but just a little later, +as Jimmy came bounding gladly to meet him and to seize his hand, did +Dwight remember Mrs. Thornton's words, and looking down into the joyous, +beaming, flushing face, with the big, wide-open, violet eyes, the father +questioned:</p> + +<p>"What's this about Georgie Thornton? How was he cut?"</p> + +<p>"Georgie? Cut? Why, daddy, I didn't know it. Is he hurt?"</p> + +<p>"You don't, Jim? Why, they told me to ask you, as though <i>you</i> would +know. Weren't you with him?"</p> + +<p>"Why, yes, daddy. I—I got out late," and here the young face began to +cloud. "And then—such fun!" and the laughter once more came bubbling +joyously from his happy heart. "Some 'B' Troop horses got loose, and we +all ran to see the round-up, and we were hinder-most at the start, +Georgie and I, but <i>I</i> caught 'em, and got there with the foremost, an' +I guess he got tired and went home because we ran away from him, +really."</p> + +<p>But already the father's attention was diverted. His eyes were following +Stanley Foster, who, dancing lightly down the steps, waved his hand with +exuberant cordiality to the pair as he crossed the road and struck out +over the parade.</p> + +<p>"When that fellow begins putting his hand on my shoulder or patting my +back or calling me old chap I know he's playing to 'do' me some way," +once said a brother officer of Foster's, and Sandy Ray was thinking of +it when three minutes later Foster came bounding breezily in, +confidence, cordiality, and jovial good-fellowship beaming from his +well-groomed visage:</p> + +<p>"Sandy, old boy, lend me a horse this afternoon, will you?"</p> + +<p>Ray was alone at his desk. The bare little army office, with its few +maps and ornamental calendars adorning the unpapered walls, its +barrack-built table and chairs, its stacks of letter-files, boxes and +tins of samples, was an uninviting place at best, yet had never hitherto +appeared inhospitable. Even under the management of the still +half-crippled cavalryman, himself an abstainer from the cup that +sometimes cheers, and a partaker of a cup that always saddens, there had +ever been frank and cordial greeting for visiting comrades, followed +usually by invitation to taste the good cheer of the Canteen and +suggest, if possible, additional improvement. But it was a lack-luster +eye that turned on the entering officer this day. Sergeant Bates had but +just left the room after having, in answer to question, briefly stated +that no one but Captain Foster had visited the lieutenant's office +during church time Sunday. The captain had merely tasted the beer, +glanced about him, and then departed. No, not the way he came, the +parade side. The captain had looked into the reading-room and through +the billiard-room, which latter was closed on account of the day, and +had strolled out through the rear doorway, a short cut to the east gate. +That, then, seemed to complete the chain of evidence described by the +colonel, and the heart of Sandy Ray was seething when Foster bustled in, +while his voice, when presently there came reply, was as icily cold. All +the same he turned in his revolving chair and looked his visitor +straight in the eye, as he arose.</p> + +<p>"What do you want him for?"</p> + +<p>Foster flushed. He read unerringly the intense dislike in the young +officer's gaze, but he dissembled:</p> + +<p>"To ride, 'bout four o'clock," was the matter-of-course reply.</p> + +<p>"Major Dwight said both his horses were at your disposal. He's only had +one out to-day. Is Mrs. Dwight going to ride the other?"</p> + +<p>Foster's eyelids shut to a narrow slit. His mustache began to bristle at +the ends. Now the red was flitting and his face was turning sallow.</p> + +<p>"While I consider that none of your business, Mr. Ray—yes!"</p> + +<p>"Then," said Sandy, his cheek white, his lips set, his eyes aflame, "you +can't have mine."</p> + +<p>The low hum of voices, the gurgle of laughter drifting through the +stove-pipe hole and through the crevices of the pine partition from the +lounging-room beyond, seemed to die away almost at the moment. Ray had +hardly uplifted his voice. For an instant a silence fell on the facing +pair in the Exchange office—the one rather tall, fair, stylishly garbed +in the latest civilian fashion; the other short, slender, trimly built, +with dark curling hair and snapping black-brown eyes; both men trembling +now, but neither dropping an eyelid. Then with clinching fist and fiery +eyes the elder took a step forward. He was throwing off the mask. He was +speaking angrily, audibly:</p> + +<p>"By Heaven, Ray, if I didn't happen to know that you are, or had been, +madly in love with Mrs. Dwight, I—I'd consider that an insult."</p> + +<p>"Well," came the ready response, "why not so consider it—anyhow?"</p> + +<p>In an instant the larger, heavier, stronger man had hurled himself on +the slender junior and, one sinewy hand on the back of the neck, the +other at the throat, Foster shook him furiously—but only for a second. +No sooner did Ray feel himself seized than he "let go" with both fists, +and both fists found their mark on Foster's face—one swing, the right, +stinging him on the unguarded jaw. Two more followed in the flash of a +second, and Foster, stunned and amazed, dropped his hold and for a +second recoiled. In blind fury the next moment he rushed again, Ray +springing lightly aside, whirling and sending his right with electric +snap square to the already smarting jowl—a blow that staggered yet did +not fell the stronger man, the man who even in his rage managed +partially, at least, to recover his wits, for as he straightened up he +held forth protesting hand and panted: "Stop! Not now. They hear us, and +by the God that made me you'll hear from me. You dare to strike—your +superior officer!"</p> + +<p>"Superior be damned!" shouted Ray, raging for battle and reckless of +consequence. "You rank me two grades on the roster, but you're miles +behind as a man. Come again, if you dare, you cad!" And like a young +bantam the army-bred lad was dancing eagerly about, forgetful of his +lameness and watching like a cat his bulky antagonist.</p> + +<p>"Not here, I say, nor with blackguard weapons you seem to know how to +handle; but—next time we meet, young man—next time!"</p> + +<p>"Next time, this time, <i>any</i> time!" shouted Ray. "And mind you, you +villain, make your will before you meet me!"</p> + +<p>"And meantime, Captain Foster," came the stern commanding words from the +threshold, where suddenly stood the colonel, "pack your belongings and +quit the post. There, sir," and significantly he shook an open telegram, +"there, sir, are your orders."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2> + +<h3>A GATHERING STORM</h3> + + +<p>Minneconjou that afternoon was the vortex of a revolving storm of +sensation, speculation, and excitement. The few men at the Club spoke +with bated breath and shrugging shoulders, with hands thrust deep in +side pockets and with occasional semi-hysterical giggle. Men at the +Canteen retailed in whispers, and with possibly unconscious +editorialisms of their own, the story of the encounter at the office as +heard through the partition in their own premises. Women along the line +of officers' quarters and women among the humbler homes of the married +soldiers went flitting from door to door gathering in wide-eyed, +gossiping groups,</p> + +<div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> +<span class="i0">"For the colonel's lady and Judy O'Grady<br /></span> +<span class="i0">Are sisters under their skins."<br /></span> +</div></div> + +<p>There were three women, however, prominent in this chronicle and others +not individually mentioned, who kept within doors and bounds until the +sun was well down behind the Sagamore and the line was formed for +parade. Even then Mrs. Dwight did not appear, but Mrs. Ray sat for a +while with Sandy on the little veranda, and a very red-eyed Priscilla +went forth, as she said, for needed exercise. Just what had passed +between her aunt and herself was never referred to outside of the +family. Mrs. Ray, it seems, had also heard the childish wail of +distress, had come down to inquire the cause, but not until Priscilla +had succeeded in leading the little sufferer home. Then in the hall, +probably, Marion had picked up the official batch of papers; thought it +something of Sandy's, for open official wrappers of newspaper clippings +are not privileged communications and he who runs upon them may read. +Presumably Mrs. Ray had read, and, if so, the meekest, mildest of women +in her place would have had a rod in pickle for Priscilla when that +energetic maiden returned. It had at least one point in favor of Sandy. +It relieved him from the necessity of "interviewing" his cousin. But for +the life of him Sandy Ray could not be kind or cordial to Priscilla for +many a day. She wrote to him, at her aunt's demand, a letter to be shown +to the colonel commanding, and a portion of this letter appeared in his +returned indorsement. She admitted that the only instance of officers +"carousing" with and tempting the men to drink was when Uncle Will took +her to see the Canteen and sipped his glass of Rhenish when the +sergeants drank his health. "But," was the ingenuous argument, "if Uncle +Will, who is so abstemious and conscientious, could do that much, I +naturally reasoned that others whom I knew to be neither abstemious nor, +in such matters conscientious, would do infinitely more, and therefore +considered my statement justifiable in view of the vital importance of +the matter under discussion." As to the other points in her allegation, +Priscilla had no better or broader foundation. It was one of those +instances of "justifiable vericide" wherein many a worthy woman, and +man, has soothed a protesting conscience with "the end justifies the +means."</p> + +<p>But Priscilla had to promise also to write full confession to the +<i>Banner of Light</i>, and it was sent registered. Aunt Marion saw to that; +and duly received but never, even in part, was it published—that would +be doing violence to editorial ethics.</p> + +<p>At three o'clock that afternoon the colonel's adjutant had called +ceremoniously at the quarters of Major Dwight, and at four o'clock the +colonel's ambulance had followed. Half a thousand eyes, probably, +followed that official vehicle as it whirled away townward, a raging +captain of cavalry being the sole occupant of the interior, the driver +and an orderly conversing in low tones at the front. Major Dwight had +come forth with his guest, escorted him down the steps to the waiting +wagon, had ostentatiously shaken hands with him twice—thrice; had even +held him in conversation as though reluctant to part, and had then gone +stalking over to the colonel's quarters with twitching lips and fingers +to demand an explanation of this summary expulsion of his guest. If +Captain Foster was to be ordered off the post because of a personal +encounter with Lieutenant Ray, what was to be done with Mr. Ray? was +what the major wished to know, and Colonel Stone, instead of snubbing, +censuring or sending him back in arrest, went halfway down the steps to +meet him, took him by the hand and said, "I've been expecting you, +major, and have much to tell you," beckoned the adjutant to follow and +led on into an inner room. The post surgeon was also there, by +invitation.</p> + +<p>"Major Dwight," said Stone, "I have asked these gentlemen to be present +as witnesses to what I have to tell you, and if there's any man of your +own corps you'd like to have present, my orderly will fetch him at once. +No? Then I'll proceed. I assume you wish to know why Captain Foster was +formally invited to proceed on his way this afternoon. You fancy, I +believe, and he possibly—probably—told you, it was for attacking +Lieutenant Ray at the Canteen. It was not. There are several reasons, +and the moment I have told you enough I wish you to say stop. I do not +like your fr—your guest, but I desire to say no more at his expense +than may be absolutely necessary. Do you understand?"</p> + +<p>Dwight bowed gravely. "I think I do, sir," was his answer, and the party +settled into chairs and for the moment into silence.</p> + +<p>Then Stone began again:</p> + +<p>"When Captain Foster arrived here he took occasion to tell me he had +just dropped in for a day or two—that he was expecting his orders any +moment. Connor, lieutenant-colonel commanding the —th, is a classmate +of mine, and in writing me two weeks ago he spoke of the shortage of +officers. He said that Foster's application for a month's delay had been +negatived by him and that he was then expecting him any moment. Thursday +last came another letter. Short as he was of officers, three of his best +had been taken away for court-martial duty. Foster's troop was commanded +by a sergeant, and going to seed. Foster was apparently lost, for a copy +of his order to report without delay had been there a week. His adjutant +had wired to Foster's address and got no answer. That evening, as it +happened, I met Foster again, and he went out of his way to tell me he +couldn't imagine what had become of his orders. He had left directions +with his home people to open everything that came and wire him here at +once, and nothing had come, at least to him. This was queer. Friday he +repeated it. That afternoon at the telegraph office in town the operator +asked me if a Captain Foster was at the post. Three messages had come +for him, two calling for reply, and he had sent by wire, at least, no +answer. Two, said the operator, were from New York, saying important +orders were there, and what should they do with them? Now, I don't like +double dealing, Dwight. I at once wired Connor that his lost captain was +found—here—claiming to be without orders. Connor probably wired the +War Department, and on Monday noon came this." Saying which, the colonel +took from his desk and held forth a telegram, which Dwight solemnly +received and read, then sat one moment in silence. It was from the War +Department, Washington, and as follows:</p> + +<blockquote><p><span class="smcap">Commanding Officer</span>,</p> + +<p>Fort Minneconjou.</p> + +<p>If Captain Stanley Foster, —th Cavalry, is still at your post +notify him that his orders were sent June —— to his address, New +York City. Secwar directs that he proceed at once to Fort Wister +and report to his regimental commander for duty. Acknowledge +receipt and report action.</p></blockquote> + +<p>"Secwar" being the official telegraphic abbreviation for Secretary of +War, that order was beyond appeal. Without a word Dwight carefully +refolded the message, arose, and handed it to the post commander. Then, +after a moment's pause, straightening up, he spoke.</p> + +<p>"I have been wrong, sir, and I—beg your pardon. I, too, had been led to +suppose he was awaiting orders. Moreover, he led me to suppose his +virtual expulsion was due to his resenting insulting language from +Lieutenant Ray. I—will you?—have I your permission, sir, to be absent +from parade and the post this evening?"</p> + +<p>The surgeon bent quickly forward, his eyes on Stone. The colonel +started, faltered, then, pulling himself together, arose, once more +extended his hand, which Dwight took mechanically, and then, after a +moment's reflection, spoke:</p> + +<p>"Major Dwight, I have the highest respect for you as a soldier and as a +man, but I ask you to withdraw that request. Frankly, sir, it is my +desire that you do not quit the post—to-night."</p> + +<p>A moment later when the door had closed upon the tall, spare, almost +angular form, the colonel mopped his brow and said: "If I let that man +go he'll follow Foster to the station and throttle him—he so hates a +liar and a lie."</p> + +<p>"I thought Foster got away in time for the Flyer," said the doctor, +after a pause. He had been intently watching Dwight's every move and +gesture.</p> + +<p>"In plenty of time," answered the colonel, "though he planned it +otherwise, and don't know it even now. He was scheming to miss to-day's +Overland and so wait until to-morrow, but I sent the adjutant, with a +man to help him pack, and the word that the ambulance would call for him +at four. He <i>could</i> decline the help, but he couldn't the ambulance. +Now, as luck would have it, they wire me that the Flyer's five hours +late."</p> + +<p>"If that's the case at Valentine," said the adjutant, "she'll be six +behind by the time she strikes Minneconjou."</p> + +<p>"Then," said Dr. Waring, "we may not have seen the last of Stanley +Foster. Is Ray, too, confined to the post?"</p> + +<p>"No," said the colonel, "I hadn't thought about that at all."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2> + +<h3>DEEPER IN THE TOILS</h3> + + +<p>Dress parade went off that evening in somewhat perfunctory fashion. Even +the alert and soldierly adjutant had a preoccupied air. Stone rejoiced +in his three battalions, as they really were—the cavalry squadron +consisting, like the infantry units, of four companies—and ordinarily +loved to hold them quite a while at the manual, and later for the march +past. This evening he ordered but a few casual shifts and dispensed +entirely with the review. Almost every piazza had its little group of +spectators. The walk was lined with visitors, the roadway with vehicles +from town, and Stone had never seemed to notice them. What he did notice +was that Dwight, standing stark and alone in front of the center of his +squadron, began swaying before the sergeant's reports were rendered, and +was obviously faint and ill. It was on his account entirely that Stone +curtailed the stately ceremony, and thereby disappointed spectators. He +took the major by the arm and walked with him to his door and left him +there with promise to send the surgeon without delay. Dwight declared +the doctor unnecessary, but thanked most earnestly his commanding +officer. A pert young woman in cap and ribbons met them at the threshold +with the information that Madame had partaken of a <i>tisane</i> and begged +that she might not be intruded upon, as it was Dr. Wallen's mandate that +she should sleep, if a possible thing. Stone looked queerly, sharply, at +her and turned away. The major made no reply to her remarks, but desired +that Master James be sent to him as soon as he returned. It seems that +Jimmy had accompanied Sergeant French, a keen angler, to a trout stream +up in the Sagamore Range early in the afternoon. It might be late before +they returned. "Lucky thing, that!" thought the colonel, as he hastened +homeward to lay aside his full uniform, the orderly, meantime, speeding +over to the post surgeon's.</p> + +<p>"What do you make of him?" asked the colonel, an hour later, as the +senior medical officer came lumbering up the steps.</p> + +<p>"He seems, physically, all right now," was the answer. "There is no +functional disorder. He's sound as a dollar as far as our tests can +determine, but Dwight has been under a strain, as we know, and +then—there's that Luzon sunstroke. Any time, almost, that may lead to +such symptoms as you noted at parade."</p> + +<p>"Lucky Dwight isn't a drinking man," said Stone grimly. "There won't be +any more <i>Banner of Light</i> descriptions of our depravity for a time, +anyhow; but—fancy the story <i>that</i> would make in expert hands—and a +Prohibition sheet. God grant no worse scandal come to us," he added +piously, and in guarded tone, as the surgeon took his leave.</p> + +<p>It was barely nine o'clock when, some garrison callers having departed, +Mrs. Stone picked up a light wrap and said she believed she would stroll +down the line and see Mrs. Ray. Everybody by this time had heard of the +fracas at the office of the post Exchange at noonday, and the few who +had caught sight of the left side of Foster's face bore testimony to the +fact that Sandy Ray had lost little, if any, of one science he picked up +at the Point. Mrs. Ray would surely be feeling anxious and distressed, +said Mrs. Stone, even though everyone assured her, in manner if not in +words, that public sympathy was all with Sandy.</p> + +<p>"I believe I'll go, too," said Stone. "I'm feeling woozy to-night." So, +arm in arm, this Darby and Joan of the frontier betook themselves down +the row, past many an open casement and doorway, softly lighted, with +whispering couples in the shadows and laughing, chatting groups upon the +steps, with the tinkle of mandolin and guitar to mingle with the soft +murmur of voices, despite many a hospitable bid to "Come and join us," +the couple kept sturdily on and found, just as they expected, that other +sympathetic souls had been before them, that Mrs. Ray was still holding +quite a reception, Priscilla and Sandy being conspicuous by their +absence, Priscilla having retired with a throbbing headache, Sandy, +still tingling and nervous, having sent for his horse but a short time +before and gone for a ride. They stayed quite a while, did the Stones, +and Mrs. Ray seemed gladdened and comforted by their coming. It meant so +much just then. Indeed, the bugles were sounding the ten o'clock call +when finally they took their leave, and Sandy had not returned. True, he +had then been gone little over an hour, and he could ride but slowly, +though he declared he had neither strained a muscle nor started anew the +trouble in the old wound. Perhaps it was too soon to be sure, but at all +events a ride, a gentle amble on a nimble, easy horse over the elastic +turf in the soft, summer moonlight would soothe and quiet him more than +anything else, so, wisely, Marion had interposed no objection.</p> + +<p>Taps sounded and the lights were lowered in the barracks and the +sentries called off half-past ten o'clock, and still there had come no +sign of the westbound Flyer, far over the southward waves of prairie, +slowly breasting the long upgrade to the Pass. The big compound engine +of the Midland Pacific had a deep-toned, melodious, flute-like signal, +utterly different to the ear-piercing shriek of the old-fashioned +railway whistle, and on still evenings the sharp, rhythmical beat of the +exhaust, the steady rumble of the heavy Pullmans, and the occasional +blast, rich and mellow, of the misnamed whistle could be followed +westward for many a mile, until at last the echoes of the signal died +away among the cliffs and caņons of the frowning Sagamore.</p> + +<p>Some distance out across the rolling prairie, a mile or more beyond the +Minneconjou, was the siding of a deserted station, once built there by +the quartermaster's department with the idea of making a much shorter +haul for supplies than that afforded by the broad and fairly level road +from town. The wear and tear on mules, harness and running gear +consequent upon the up-hill and down-dale character of the road, and the +unprecedented volume of blasphemy supposedly necessary to successful +fording of the Minneconjou, within earshot of the pious-minded at the +post, led to eventual abandonment of that route in favor of the far +longer but undeniably safer line to Silver Hill. It was a fine sight on +clear evenings to see the long trail of electric lights gleaming white +against the darkness, come rounding a distant bluff to the east, and +then, skirting for a mile or so the south bank of the Minneconjou, go +alternately burrowing and bridging the prairie divides and hollows until +finally lost behind the sharp spur known as Two-Mile Ridge. The Flyer +had a way of waiting at Omaha for the last of the express trains of five +great railways bringing their loads from Chicago and St. Louis, all +scheduled to reach Council Bluffs about the same hour, and some one or +more of them being frequently behind. The Midland could make up no time +between the Missouri and the Minneconjou, so light was the roadbed, so +heavy the traffic, so many the stops. It was not until beyond the +Sagamore the Flyer began to deserve its name. Due at Silver Hill this +year of which we write as early as 5:30, the Flyer not infrequently +stopped for supper as late as eleven, and not until eleven this night +did the sentry on the southward front hear the big compound tooting for +the crossings at Bonner's Bluff, and see the long line of electrics come +gleaming into view far down the eastward valley.</p> + +<p>Private O'Shea, sentry on No. 3, overlooking the flats whereon stood the +stables, was straining his ears to catch the expected call of eleven +o'clock from No. 2, and watching the distant trail of lights, and was +able to say next morning that the Flyer was just shoving its nose behind +Two-Mile Ridge as the second call, that of eleven o'clock, started +round. The moon in its first quarter, though bright and clear, was then +dipping low in the west and objects were by no means as distinct as they +had been when he came on post soon after nine and saw Lieutenant Ray set +forth, mounted, up the Minneconjou. O'Shea remembered that Hogan, who +took care of the lieutenant's horse, had come back across his post, and +they had had a brief talk about him, Hogan saying the lieutenant wasn't +half satisfied with having blackened the eyes of a bigger man. "He was +that savage and snappy he rowed me for keeping him so long waiting, +when, dear knows, he couldn't have stood at the back gate ten minutes." +O'Shea owned that he and Hogan, "all the fellers, for that matter," had +wished their little bantam of a canteen officer could have had two +minutes more at "the big feller." Foster had no friends among the +enlisted men at the fort. It presently became a question whether or no +he had not enemies. Hogan was just saying the lieutenant told him not to +sit up for him when they became aware of someone approaching, heard the +rattle of a sword, and saw the officer of the guard barely forty yards +away, whereat Hogan skipped for the stables. Then came the next +important point in O'Shea's statement. Just as the tail lights of the +big train disappeared behind the ridge he heard the sudden single blast +of the whistle sounding the old-time signal "down-brakes," noted the +instant change from the loud, pulsing exhaust to the scream of escaping +steam, heard even the squeal and grind of the tightly clamped wheels as +the Flyer slowed down to a standstill. He was wondering what had +happened when the third relief came round and Private Schmitz took his +place on post, as subsequently he replaced O'Shea on the stand.</p> + +<p>Schmitz was an honest Teuton, but by no means brilliant. Schmitz told a +straightforward tale, and one that had strange and significant bearing +on the case that became presently of paramount interest at Minneconjou. +Schmitz said that he heard the train going on westward after the relief +had disappeared, and that, just after the call of 11:30, he walked way +up to the far end of his post, the west end, came slowly back, and when +about in rear of Lieutenant Ray's quarters he heard a sort of cough down +the slope toward the stables and saw a dark form approaching. He +challenged in low tone, as he had been taught. The answer was, "Officer +of the post," and before he could think how to say, "Advance and be +recognized," the officer said, "Lieutenant Ray, sentry," and went on +without stopping. When asked to describe the officer, Schmitz said the +moon was then "owudt" and it was pretty dark, but it was a "leetle, +schmall yentleman. He walk and talk and look yust like Lieutenant Ray +effrey day does." Questioned as to the dress, he said the lieutenant +wore his "kempyne hat bulled down ofer his eyes—his blue blouse mid +shoulder straps, poots unt bants." He added that, though the officer +hadn't come nearer him than fifteen feet, if it wasn't Lieutenant Ray, +who was it? Schmitz stood pat on this proposition, and that was all that +could be elicited from him, except that the Herr Lieutenant had gone +through the back gate to his quarters.</p> + +<p>About the same hour the telephone in the quartermaster's office, the +only telephone the United States would permit or, at least, pay for at +the post, set up a sharp ringing, that finally roused from his heavy +slumber a veteran employee serving as clerk. Shuffling to the instrument +in his slippers, the clerk desired to be informed what in sheol Silver +Hill wanted waking people that hour of the night? The reply was a +question. The Argenta's livery stableman wished to know if anything had +been seen of a horse and buggy of his at the fort. A gent had hired one +just about dark, said he, a gent who said he'd be back about ten, and +who hadn't come. The gent had had supper in his room at the Argenta and +had ordered his traps sent to the railway station to meet the Flyer. +They said at the hotel office that he was a Captain Foster, whereat the +clerk became interested, notified the stableman that he would make +immediate inquiry at the guard-house, and did, and the guard said that +neither Foster nor his buggy had been seen about the post. The clerk was +beginning to dribble this through the 'phone, when he was suddenly cut +off by the counter announcement: "Oh, it's all right! The rig's just +back. Cap took the Flyer west and sent a boy home with it. Never even +got change for the ten dollars he deposited."</p> + +<p>But when mine host of the Argenta came back from seeing the Flyer off +for the west he, too, had questions to ask as to Foster. Did the office +clerk see anything of him? Nothing. "Queer," said Boniface, "we gave his +hand baggage to the Pullman porter, as directed, but his trunk is there +yet. Reckon I'll have to wire after him and tell the conductor to send +them things back by No. 5."</p> + +<p>And this, before he went to bed, the landlord proceeded to do, but no +Captain Foster appeared during the night to claim the trunk or +remonstrate about the luggage; nor came there any answer to the dispatch +to the Flyer until the following morning, when there was handed the +proprietor a slip somewhat as follows:</p> + +<blockquote><p>Man calling himself Captain Foster put aboard last night at Fort +Siding, slugged and robbed. Taking him on to Wister. Physician in +charge. Better notify police.</p></blockquote> + +<p>This was about eight o'clock, at which time the old guard was cleaning +up about the guard-house and the companies detailed for the new were +assembling in front of their quarters, and the officer of the guard, a +young lieutenant recently joined from civil life, new to his trade and +strange to the traditions of the army, was cross-questioning a reluctant +corporal about an unauthorized item of equipment found tucked into his +cartridge belt when the guard paraded at reveille—an officer's gauntlet +of the style worn in the cavalry a year before this time. The corporal +explained that it had been picked up by No. 3 just before his relief was +taken off post at 5:15, that it had been handed him, the corporal, just +before sentry's shout of "Turn out the guard!" at the approach of the +officer of the day, and he had stowed it there for want of a better +place and before he had had time to examine it.</p> + +<p>But No. 3, it seems, had <i>had</i> time to examine, and had told some of his +mates of his discovery. They had gone to Corporal Clancy to see for +themselves, and had been told to go about their business, which led to +more talk that finally reached the lieutenant's ears. Clancy had had a +clatter with the sergeant and had been refused permission to go to his +quarters anywhere, for a strange story was flitting about the post +concerning two or three men of "B" Troop who had been out late the +previous night, had got liquor over at a vile resort far across the +Minneconjou, and a little southwest of town, and had had a sanguinary +fight of some kind, for Sullivan was badly cut and Connelly had a nasty +eye, and there was something black and ugly back of it they were trying +to hide, unless veteran sergeants were in error; and finally the +sergeant of the guard told the lieutenant of the story and said he +believed Corporal Clancy was secreting evidence that might be of value, +whereupon Clancy was ordered into the presence and told to produce that +gauntlet.</p> + +<p>But neither lieutenant nor sergeant dreamed of what was before them when +Clancy at last reluctantly complied, dragging from beneath his blouse +what had been a dainty bit of military finery, a soft white gauntlet, +that bore within the cuff the inscription, "Sanford Ray," and that +without was soaked and stained with blood.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2> + +<h3>WHAT THE WOMEN TOLD THE MAJOR</h3> + + +<p>It was another lovely summer morning, sweet, moist and still. The +squadron had been out as usual, but the drill had been anything but +snappy or spirited. Every officer knew, and most men decided, that +something was weighing heavily on the major's mind, for, though he +labored conscientiously through his duties, comments and corrections +were few, and, to the surprise of all, he even dismissed the troops some +few minutes before the sounding of the recall. Captain Washburn looked +back over his shoulder at the tall, spare, sinewy figure riding slowly, +even dejectedly, with downcast eyes and troubled visage, back toward the +big quarters at the end of the row, and shook his own head as he +marveled what would be the outcome of all this foreboding. Minneconjou +had breathed freer, for all its subdued chatter, over the elimination of +Captain Foster from the column of probabilities. Minneconjou had seen +little of the lovely Mrs. Dwight of late, for though she appeared at +every dance, several dinners and on many a drive, few women had speech +with her, thanks to Foster's incessant supervision, and, looking at +another woman without unlimited conversation is not "seeing" her as +understood in feminine society. Since Foster's departure the previous +day only the doctor and the maid had been admitted to the presence of +Mrs. Dwight, though there had been callers with "kind inquiries." It was +now time for guard-mounting and the busy routine of another day. One +after another prettily gowned matrons and maids began to appear on the +verandas and flit from door to door, and the band marched forth and took +its station on the parade and the details were being inspected by the +sergeants in front of their quarters, while, well over toward the west +end of the big quadrilateral, a dozen army-bred lads of various ages, +from fourteen down to five, were gleefully surrounding a pair of Indian +ponies recently bought for the doctor's twin boys. Prominent in the +group, Jimmy Dwight, ever a prime favorite, was bestriding the more +promising of the pair, a wall-eyed, surly-looking pinto, and, as perhaps +the most accomplished horseman in the lot, was trying to make the +unwilling brute show his paces, a thing that only an Indian, as a rule, +can successfully do. Officers on their way to their company duty stopped +to see the fun. The adjutant paused before signaling to the drum major +and said a laughing word of caution to the merry crowd, lest their +gleeful shouts and laughter should disturb the dignity of the coming +ceremony. The senior surgeon, coming forth from his quarters, Silver +Hill's morning journal just received, open in his hand, moved an +adjournment to the rear of the administration building. But the colonel +himself, likewise provided by a rushing newsboy with a fresh copy of our +morning contemporary, sallied forth from his gate and shouted +encouragement to the plucky little rider. "Stick to him, Jimmy boy, and +you others don't yell so; keep quiet, and the pony will tire of +kicking."</p> + +<p>Then he and the doctor fell into converse over the telegraphic headline, +and then the bugles pealed adjutant's call, the band crashed merrily +into "Hands Across the Sea," and the details of the twelve companies +came marching jauntily forth upon the green. The colonel, with soldierly +appreciation in his eyes, stood watching the sharp, snappy formation of +the line, the paper dangling unheeded from his thumb and forefinger, +while the surgeon, more alive to the news of the day than the niceties +of military duty, turned over the outer page, began to scan the +headlines of the inner column, as suddenly, impulsively, unthinkingly +startled the colonel by the exclamation "God!" Stone whirled about in +sudden anxiety. For a moment the doctor simply stared and read, then +glanced at the post commander, and, without a word, handed him the +sheet. Stone, too, stared, started, looked quickly into the surgeon's +face, and then said: "Let's get inside." So together these veterans of +their respective corps quit the field and the sight of men and boys and +went to confer within the depth of the vine-shaded veranda.</p> + +<p>At that same moment the tall, gaunt form of Major Dwight was seen to +issue from the front doorway of the first quarters on the southward +line, the field officer's roomy house, and, looking neither to the right +nor the left, straight, stern and rigidly erect, he strode forth upon +the grassy parade, heading for the merry group about the ponies. The +band had ceased its spirited march music. The adjutant had assigned +officers and non-commissioned officers to their posts. The lieutenant +commanding had ordered "Inspection arms!" and once again the strain of +sweet music swept across the green carpeted quadrangle, and Marion Ray, +seated on her piazza far down the line, chatting with a neighbor who had +just dropped in, lifted her head and listened. It was one of Margaret's +old favorites, a song she used to sing and loved to sing, a song played +by many an army band for many a year, and it seemed never to grow +wearisome or stale—"Happy Be Thy Dreams." With her thoughts all of +Margaret and her eyes following her thoughts, she arose, stepped to the +rail, looking for little Jim, whom she had recently seen but seldom, and +then caught sight of the major a long distance away, bearing straight +and swift upon the romping group at the westward end of the parade. +Barely twenty minutes before, as she was giving Sandy his coffee, for +Sandy had come down late after a restless, almost sleepless night, she +had heard Dwight's deep tones at the front gate in earnest conversation +with Priscilla, who now had entirely disappeared. More than once of late +the two had been in talk over some of Priscilla's schemes, but the +housemaid said she thought Miss Sanford had gone now with the major down +the row, perhaps to Lieutenant Thornton's. Why should they go thither? +Priscilla had been so very silent, subdued and, it was hoped, contrite +since the exposure of her correspondence with the <i>Banner</i> that Mrs. Ray +marveled at her early resumption of the old dominant way; for, though +low-voiced and almost reluctant, for her, Priscilla's words to the major +had been spoken firmly, unflinchingly. Only two or three of these words +had reached the ears of her aunt; the others were not sufficiently loud +or articulate, but whatever they were, they had led to immediate action, +for the major had departed, Priscilla with him, and, anxiously, inspired +partially by the music, partially by some indefinable sense of something +going sadly amiss, something that should be stopped at once, Marion +stepped forward, gazed eastward down the row and saw Priscilla in close +conversation with little Mrs. Thornton, only five doors away, and then, +all in a flash, she remembered——</p> + +<p>Sandy, before starting for his office, had gone back to his room. He at +least was on hand and ready to act in case she needed him, but as yet +she did not call. Forgetful, for the moment, of her visitor, she stood +clasping the rail and staring, inert and even possibly fascinated, along +the westward line, following intently and with startled, troubled eyes +the major's movements. Others, too, had noted both among the spectators +along that front and among the laughing lads themselves. By this time +the ponies had been favored with new riders and the riders with every +conceivable suggestion as to what to attempt. Jimmy had given place to +Harold Winn, and rejoicefully was bidding him clamp tighter with his +legs and knees and keep his hands down on the withers, but too late. A +sudden lunge with his heels, a dive with his shaggy head, and the spunky +little brute, half-savage as a result of all-savage training, had +propelled his would-be conqueror sprawling to the edge of the gleaming +waters of the <i>acequia</i>, and a shout of mingled delight and derision +went up from a dozen boy throats, and Jimmy, helping his playmate, +unhurt but shaken, to his feet, caught sight of the loved form speeding +toward them over the green, and, bubbling over with fun, laughter, high +health and spirits, just as of old went bounding joyously, confidently, +to meet him.</p> + +<p>Of just what was passing in Oswald Dwight's bewildered mind that morning +God alone could judge and tell. All his soldier life he had loved truth +and hated a lie. All his fond and confident teaching of his only boy, +Margaret's darling and his hope and pride, had been to speak the truth, +frankly, fearlessly, fully, first, last and all the time. "Never fear to +come to me with anything you may have done. Never let anything tempt you +to swerve from the truth and the whole truth. Nothing you can ever say +or do will ever so hurt me as will a lie." And so, fearlessly and fully, +from the time Jim had begun to prattle he had learned to own his little +faults, sure of sympathy and forgiveness. He had learned to strive to +conquer them for the sake of the love and trust that was so unfailing, +and in response to the grave but ever gentle admonition, and it had been +the father's fond belief for years that between him and his only son +there lived utter confidence and faith, that Jim would ever shrink from +a lie and never from him. Between the two, father and son, never had +there seemed to come a shadow, until of late that darkly beautiful face +had for the time, at least, replaced—that other. Since then, time and +again when Dwight spoke of his pride and trust in Jim, the new wife had +listened, unresponsive. Since that last night in Naples, whenever Dwight +spoke of his confidence in Jimmy's word she had sometimes looked up +appealingly, timidly, as though she longed to believe as he believed, +yet could not—quite. Sometimes she had looked away. Once or twice she +had ventured a faint negation. Jimmy would not <i>deliberately</i> tell a +falsehood; oh, she was <i>sure</i> of that, but, like all children, she said, +when suddenly accused, the impulse would be to deny, would it not? and +then—had not the major observed?—did he not remember—that Jimmy was +just a bit—imaginative? Dwight puzzled over her apparent unbelief.</p> + +<p>But very recently he had noticed other little things that vaguely +worried him. Could it be that, as his boy grew older and mingled more +with other boys, he was learning to be influenced more by them and less +by the father? Could it be that he was seeing, hearing, things, to speak +of which he dared not? There might be things of which he would be +ashamed. Certainly the father had seen at times, since the homeward +voyage, a certain hesitancy on part of the son, and within the past few +days, for the first time in Jimmy's life, Dwight had noted symptoms of +something like avoidance, concealment, embarrassment, <i>some</i>thing that +told his jealous, over-anxious heart the boy no longer utterly confided +in the man. It was late the previous evening when the little fellow had +returned with his stanch friend, Sergeant French, and a fine string of +trout, happy, radiant, proud of his success, but so tired he could +hardly keep his eyes open long enough to undress and get to bed. Dwight +had met him at the door, cautioning silence on mamma's account, and the +young face that beamed up at his, all delight and eagerness at first, +clouded almost instantly at the word. Jimmy did not even care for the +tempting supper set aside for him—he had had such a big lunch, he said, +in smothered tone, as he prattled eagerly to his father and showed his +finny prizes, and sipped at his glass of milk. But Dwight had been +brooding over little things that had come to him since Foster's assisted +emigration. He had returned straight from his conference with Stone and +the surgeon to find Inez reduced to the sofa and smelling salts—to tell +her at once that their guest was gone, not because of a fracas with Ray, +as Foster had furiously declared, but because of telegraphic orders from +Washington that had come, possibly, as the result of Foster's own +telegraphic inquiries of Saturday and Sunday. Not for a star would +Dwight let his wife suppose that Foster's protracted visit had given him +the least uneasiness! But the maid, that pert and flippant young person +so much in evidence about the house, so indispensable to Inez, so +intangibly a nuisance to him, kept flitting in and out, with her +persistent, "Madame should compose herself"; "Madame should not try to +talk."</p> + +<p>The "young person's" nationality, Dwight believed, was Swiss-Italian, +rather than French. They had picked her up in Milan, but her +professional interests, it seems, were advanced by the adoption of +French methods and mannerisms. She had early striven to establish +herself as companion rather than maid, to be called Mademoiselle rather +than Félicie, but the dragoon had sharply drawn the line, and in the +beginning, at least, the man was master. As ills accumulated, however, +and masculine strength deferred to feminine weakness, he succumbed to +their wishes, with the result that the ascendency of the domestic was +becoming a matter of gossip. Once established at the post, Félicie's +swift methods of acquiring knowledge of all that was going on about her, +and unlimited means of imparting the same to her mistress, had quite +speedily established confidential relations to which the putative master +of the house was a stranger. There is a garrison "Service of Security +and Information" that differs widely from that of the field—and is even +more comprehensive.</p> + +<p>Félicie had heard the various versions of the affray at Ray's office. +Félicie had heard of the lamentable affair of Georgie Thornton's injury +and its cause, and Félicie had been quick to see and suggest how this +incident might be utilized in case Master James could not be persuaded +to forget that, when he came hurrying in from church the previous day, +mamma, who had been too ill to arise at ten o'clock, was in most +becoming morning toilet <i>tęte-ā-tęte</i> with Captain Foster in the parlor. +Félicie had even assured Madame that she could and would influence +Master James accordingly, and this, too, after one unsuccessful attempt +on Sunday. Félicie had fairly flown, all sympathy and helpfulness, to +fetch Master James fresh, cool water, towels, ice for the back of his +neck, a preventive the most assured for nose-bleed, and all this despite +Jimmy's repellent silence, for the lad shrank from her instinctively. +She had then striven to coax him to promise that he would mention to no +man that mamma was dressed and downstairs: it would so annoy the doctor, +who had said she should remain in bed, and, indeed, she (Félicie) and +the dear captain had remonstrated with mamma, and were even then +striving to persuade mamma to return to her room, as later she had to +when—Master James came so hurriedly in. The only response had been a +blank look of bewilderment and dislike and an uncompromising: "Well, +'spose somebody <i>asks</i> me?"</p> + +<p>All this, of course, was known at the moment only to the three; but, as +luck would have it, when Dwight came walking slowly homeward from church +with Mrs. Ray, communion service ended, Jim had run to meet them, the +nose-bleed already forgotten, and, to the father's "I hope you didn't +disturb mamma, my boy. She was trying hard to sleep," the little man had +promptly, impulsively responded: "No, indeed, daddy, mamma is up and +dressed——" And then he remembered, faltered, blushed.</p> + +<p>Dwight did not question his boy about his new mamma. That was another +thing from which the father shrank. He saw the lad's sudden confusion, +and knew that something was being held back, but it was something that +should be held back. In all his teachings as to utter frankness, truth, +confidence, he, of course, had never meant that his boy should be a +tale-bearer—above all that he should ever come with tales of his new +mamma; yet Dwight, unfortunately, had never given him to understand that +there were matters, now that the boy was growing older and observant, +concerning which no confidences were expected or invited. But it had set +him to thinking—to questioning Inez as to her sudden recovery, and +again, more pointedly that Monday afternoon between the hour of his +visit with the colonel and his ominous symptoms at parade, thereby +bringing on a fit of nerves for her and a swimming of the head for +himself. It was while he was waiting for Jimmy's home-coming that +Félicie—ostentatiously bustling to and fro, all sympathy for Madame in +her prostration and anxiety as to M'sieu, the Commandant—had contrived +to intimate that Monsieur James had been so imprudent as to rush, all +ensanguined, into the presence of Madame, and now and under such +circumstances, and in virgin modesty, Félicie's eyelids drooped, "Madame +should be spared all possibility of shock or emotion." Under any other +circumstances with what a thrill would he have listened to her words! +Did not Monsieur conceive? And Madame's heart and sympathies so +all-responsive! Had they not already been lacerated by the story of the +suffering of the little George, an infant, oh, heaven, the most amiable! +But assuredly Monsieur James had apprised his father of all that had +taken place. He, too, was an infant the most amiable, and Dwight, +overwrought and bewildered, before Jimmy went to his bed that night, had +again asked him what all this meant about Georgie Thornton, and, looking +squarely into his father's face, with Margaret's soul speaking from his +clear, unflinching, fearless eyes, the little man had said again, "Why, +daddy, I haven't an idea! I didn't even <i>hear</i> he was hurt until you +told me."</p> + +<p>Then had come a morning's drill following an almost sleepless night, and +during drill he had rebuked young Thornton for the faults of his +platoon, and after drill had lectured him a bit for seeming neglect or +indifference, and even of sullen acceptance of deserved criticism. Then, +suddenly, remembering, he ceased his rebuke, turned the subject and +asked how was George, and then as they were parting, again asked how it +happened, and was again startled by the words: "Ask your own boy, sir," +for Thornton, like many an older, stronger, wiser man, accepted +unchallenged the views of his wife. Jim had had his breakfast and was +gone by the time Dwight reached home, but Félicie, in answer to +question, with infinite regret and becoming reluctance owned that Miss +Sanford and other witnesses of the unfortunate affair united in saying +that Monsieur James had, in a moment of boyish petulance perhaps, swung +his jacket full in the face of Monsieur George, never thinking, +doubtless, of the cruel, sharp-edged, metal button that should so nearly +cut out the eye; and then, terrified at the sight of so much blood, was +it not natural that any child should run from the sight and try to +forget, and perhaps <i>might</i> forget, and so deny?</p> + +<p>Dwight listened in a daze, spurning the toothsome breakfast set before +him; then, rising, took his cap, left the house without another word +and, hastening thither, found Priscilla Sanford on the veranda at the +Rays'.</p> + +<p>As she herself subsequently admitted to her aunt, Priscilla, who had +been bred to the doctrine of original sin and innate propensity for +evil, who had long thought that the major stood sorely in ignorance as +to Jimmy's spiritual needs, and who herself stood solemnly convinced of +the truth of the Thornton story, now conceived it her duty to fully and +unreservedly answer the major's questions. Had she witnessed the affair? +She had in great part, she said, little considering that of the most +essential part, the actual blow or slash, she had seen nothing. Was it +true that his son was—the assailant? Priscilla answered that, though +she was not at that instant where she could herself <i>see</i> the blow, she +an instant later saw everything, and the relative position of the boys +was such that there was no room for doubt it was James who struck. She +heard the scream when near the door and at once ran out. And had not +Jimmy stopped to offer aid or—do anything? No, Jimmy had rushed on as +though bent on overtaking the leaders, as though he never heard what, +much farther away, she had heard distinctly. And then Priscilla owned +that the look of agony in the father's face was such that her resolution +well-nigh failed her.</p> + +<p>But, unhappily, not quite. There are possibly no people so possessed +with the devil of meddling in the management of other people's children +as those who never had any, or else have been phenomenal failures in the +rearing of their own. Dwight asked her presently to go with him to the +Thorntons', which she did, beginning to tremble now as her eyes studied +his face. Mrs. Thornton was on the veranda. Young hopeful, with bandaged +forehead, was blissfully chasing a little terrier pup about the yard. +She, too, began to tremble; the little wrath and resentment left was +oozing from her finger tips as Dwight lifted his cap from the lined and +haggard brow and she saw the infinite trouble in his deep-set eyes. But +he gave her no time to speak.</p> + +<p>"I have come," he said, "to express my deep sorrow at what I must now +believe my son has done. I should have come before had—had——" He +stumbled miserably. Then, with sudden effort, "I will see Mr. Thornton +and make my acknowledgments later, and see the doctor, but first——" +Then abruptly he bent, caught Georgie by an arm, lifted the bandage just +enough to see the adhesive plaster underneath, muttered something under +his breath, dropped his hand by his side, looked appealingly one instant +in Priscilla's eyes as though he would ask one more question, never +heeding, perhaps never hearing, Mrs. Thornton's: "Oh, Major, I'm sure +Jimmy could not have meant it!" Womanlike, all vehemence in accusation +at first, all insistence in extenuation now that vengeance threatened. +The next moment Dwight was gone, and Priscilla dare not follow the first +impulse of her heart to run home and tell Aunt Marion and Sandy, or to +run after him. She saw the major turn stiffly in at his own gate, far up +the row, saw Aunt Marion come forth, and, like guilty things, the maiden +of mature years, the mother of immature mind, held there, shrinking, not +knowing what to look for—what to do. They, too, saw Dwight come forth +again; but none of the anxious eyes along that anxious line had +witnessed what had befallen in the few minutes Dwight spent in presence +of his wife. That was known, until some days later, only to Félicie.</p> + +<p>She was still abed, sipping her chocolate, and looking but a shade +lighter, when he abruptly entered. She could almost have screamed at +sight of his twitching face, but he held up warning hand.</p> + +<p>"Just a moment, Inez. You had come home—you were on the veranda, I +believe; did you see—anything of that—that trouble among the boys +yesterday?"</p> + +<p>She had seen nothing. She was listening at the moment with downcast lids +and heaving bosom to Foster's eager, hurried words. She had heard the +shouts of merriment, and faintly heard the screams, and had not even +looked to see the cause, but Félicie had found no inapt pupil. Inez +buried her face in her jeweled hands. Under the filmy veiling of her +dainty nightdress Dwight could see the pretty shoulders beginning to +heave convulsively. Was she sobbing? Stepping closer, he repeated the +question. "I <i>must</i> know," said he.</p> + +<p>"Ah, Oswald—how—how can I? You love him so! You love him so much more +than—me, and he—he hates me! He shrinks from me! He would not shrink +from—poisoning you—against me!"</p> + +<p>"Inez, this is childish! Tell me at once what you know—why +you—distrust him?"</p> + +<p>Again the sobs, the convulsive shoulder-heaving before she would speak, +and, as though fired with wrath inexpressible, Dwight started for the +door. Then she called him. Félicie was there, all distress, anxiety, +concern for Madame. Indeed, Monsieur should refrain—at such a time, and +then there were two to talk, each supplementing—reminding the other. It +was true that little Monsieur James could not seem to respond to the +love of his young mother, this angel, and he was rude and insolent to +Félicie, who adored him, and he—he so hurt and distressed Captain +Foster, who was goodness itself to him. It was for rudely, positively +contradicting the captain she, Inez, had been compelled to send James to +his room and require him to remain there until his father's return, not +thinking how long the father would be gone on his visit to town, and +even then James was obstinate; he would not apologize, although she had +striven, and Félicie, too, to make him understand how his father would +grieve that the son he so loved could so affront his guest; and they +feared, they feared James deceived sometimes his noble father. The +Naples incident was brought up again, and Jimmy's odd insistence that an +officer had spoken to and frightened her, and then—those little things +he had told on the homeward voyage (Heaven knows how true they were!) +and then, oh, it wrung their hearts to see the father's grief, but when +Jimmy denied all knowledge of the injury to Georgie Thornton, they knew +and Jimmy knew—he <i>must</i> have known—it was his own doing. Leaving them +both in tears, the father flung himself from, the room and down the +stairs, and with his brain afire went straightway in search of his son. +Good God! To think that, after all his years of hope and prayer and +faith and pride—of careful teaching and utter trust—that it should +come to this, that the boy on whom his great heart was centered should +after all—after all prove a coward and a liar! His eyes seemed clouded. +He saw only as through a lurid glass. The sunlight in the crisp, +delicious air was clear as crystal, yet there was a blur that seemed to +overshadow every object. There was a ringing in his ears that dulled the +sweet strains of the song his wife, his own wife, his love, his +treasure, Jimmy's mother, used to sing, for now he never heard it. His +temples throbbed; his head seemed burning, yet the face was ashen. The +twitching lips, bitten into gashes, were blue between the savage teeth +marks, and yet at sight of the straight, soldierly form he loved, little +Jim had quit his fellows and, to the music of his mother's song—just as +of old, beaming, joyous, confident, brimming over with fun and +health—had come bounding to meet him.</p> + +<p>It had been the father's way at such times to halt, to bend forward with +outstretched arms, almost as he had done in Jimmy's earliest toddling +baby boyhood, but he never halted now. Erect and stern he moved straight +on. It was the boy who suddenly faltered, whose fond, happy, radiant +face grew suddenly white and seemed to cloud with dread, whose eager +bounding ceased as he neared his sire, and, though the hands as of old +went forth to clasp the hand that never yet had failed them, for the +first time in his glad young life Jimmy Dwight looked in vain for the +love and welcome that had ever been his, for the first time his brave +young heart well-nigh ceased its beating, for the first time he seemed +to shrink from his father's gaze.</p> + +<p>And in fear, too, but not for himself; oh, never for himself! Vaguely, +strangely, of late he had begun to feel that all was not well with the +father he so loved, and now the look in his father's face was terrible. +"Oh, daddy!" he cried, a great sob welling up in his throat, but the +answering word checked him instantly, checked his anxious query, turned +his dread at the instant into relief, almost into joy. It was not then +that his father was ill and stricken. It was that he was angry—angry, +and at him, and in the flash of a second, in that one hoarse +word—"Home!" he knew what it must be, and though his lips quivered and +his eyes filled and again the sobs came surging from his breast, just as +of old, all confidence that his word could not be questioned, he strove +to find his father's hand, even as homeward now, with Inez and her +hellcat of a handmaid peeping trembling through the slats, the father +striding, the little fellow fairly running before, the two went hurrying +on, and Jimmy, looking back, found tongue, and his one thought found +words:</p> + +<p>"Oh, daddy, indeed I wasn't—impudent to Captain Foster—to mamma, at +least, I didn't mean it! They <i>were</i> there in the parlor when I ran in +from church, and he wanted me to promise——"</p> + +<p>And then Marion Ray, far down the line, with one cry for Sandy, sprang +forward to the gate, for Oswald Dwight, with heavy hand, had struck his +little son across the face and stretched him on the turf.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2> + +<h3>WORST DEED OF HIS LIFE</h3> + + +<p>There was no one near enough to reach them at the moment. Jimmy was on +his feet again in an instant, dazed, half-stunned, breathless, but still +unbelieving. Father could not have heard. Father would surely hear; but +now the father's hand had seized his arm, and, when the boy again began +to gasp his plea, it was almost dragging him across the <i>acequia</i>. Blood +was beginning to trickle from the corner of the piteous little mouth. +There was foam upon the set and livid lips of the man. "Silence! You've +lied enough!" was the savage order, as Dwight thrust the boy through the +gate. "Not there, sir!" as Jimmy, dumbly striving to show his loyalty, +his obedience, his unshaken trust, would have run on up the steps. "To +the cellar!" and in fury he pointed to the walk that circled the house, +and Jimmy hurried on. They had vanished from sight as Marion Ray, with +terror in her eyes, came almost running up the row, Priscilla and Mrs. +Thornton staring, speechless and miserable, after her. A lone trooper, +an humble private soldier, riding in from the westward gate, had sprung +from saddle, thrown the reins over a post and, with consternation in his +face, had started after them. It was young Hogan, faithful henchman of +the Rays, still borne on the rolls of Ray's old squadron. They were in +the cellar, under the rear of the quarters, when he reached them, and +Jimmy's jacket was lying on the floor, while the lad, with streaming, +pleading eyes, was looking up in his father's face.</p> + +<p>"Your shirt, too, sir!" Dwight ordered, as Hogan came bounding in.</p> + +<p>"For the love o' God, Major, don't bate the boy! Sure he never knew he +did it, sir. I saw——"</p> + +<p>"Out of here, you!" was the furious answer. "Out or I'll——" And in his +blind rage the officer grasped the unresisting soldier by the throat and +hurled him through the doorway whence he came. "Off with that shirt!" he +again shouted, as he turned. It was already almost off. Ah, how white +and smooth and firm was that slender, quivering little body, as, for the +last time the streaming eyes were imploringly uplifted, the slender arms +upraised, the sobbing prayer poured forth only to be heard—only to be +heard.</p> + +<p>"Face the window! Turn your back, sir!" was the sole answer through the +set teeth, while with sinewy hand the father swung a yard-long strip of +leather, some discarded stirrup strap the boys had left upon the bench, +and poor Hogan, with a cry and curse upon his lips, rushed again to the +front in search of aid. One savage swish, one sharp, cruel, crashing +snap, one half-stifled, piteous scream, and then the doorway was +suddenly darkened, the maddened man was thrust aside, and, breathless, +panting, but determined and defiant, Marion Ray had flung herself upon +the bent and shrinking child, her fond arms clasping the bared and +quivering back to her wildly throbbing heart, her own brave form thrust +between her precious charge and the again uplifted scourge. "Jimmy boy, +my darling!" she sobbed, as strong and safe and sure she held him. Then, +with her blue eyes blazing, she turned on him.</p> + +<p>"Oswald Dwight, are you mad?"</p> + +<p>Then again the door was darkened as Sandy Ray came limping in. One +glance was enough. The strap was wrenched from the father's hand and +hurled to the open, empty, black-mouthed furnace. Then both hands were +needed, for Dwight, just as on Monday evening at parade, had begun to +sway and was groping for support. There was no one to interpose, no one +to interfere, when Marion Ray, having at last stilled poor Jimmy's heavy +sobbing and bathed his face and hands and helped him to dress, led him +unresisting away to her little home, for Madame "in her condition"—as +Félicie explained individually to the dozen men and women who thronged +the major's quarters that unhappy morning—was prostrated, desolated, +distracted by the tragedy that had come to arrive. It was as well, +perhaps, that at last it manifested itself what monster was this who +held this angel in bondage—the monster himself, meantime, having been +led to his room by Dr. Wallen. There, half-dazed, half-raving, he +resisted and declaimed until at last their measures took effect, both +doctors being with him now, and he was partially disrobed and compelled +to lie down upon the bed. There one or both of them sat and watched the +rest of the livelong day. There, finally, after nightfall a trained +nurse took station with attendants in readiness in the hallway, for +delirium had set in and Dwight's condition was declared critical.</p> + +<p>Bad as it was, this was by no means the sole topic of talk for +Minneconjou's seething population. Among the women, Mrs. Ray stood +foremost as heroine of the occasion, and half the feminine element of +the garrison had been to call and congratulate and praise her before the +day was done. But Marion was in no mood for either. It had come to her +as a vital question what to do with Priscilla. Sandy had charged his +cousin in so many words with having deliberately incited Major Dwight to +his furious and unreasoning assault, so Sandy regarded it, upon his only +son, and Sandy had for a week or more been looking upon Dwight as a +wronged and injured man. Priscilla, as we know, had virtually and +virtuously admitted much of her error to Aunt Marion, but persisted that +though they both, Mrs. Thornton and she, considered that it was high +time Jimmy was punished instead of petted, they never dreamed to what +length the father would go. "Punished for what?" indignantly demanded +Aunt Marion. "For his having so cruelly hurt Georgie Thornton, and then +denying all knowledge of it," was the reply. Words are inadequate to +describe the indignation with which Mrs. Ray heard and answered. Jimmy +never knew it at the time or heard, until late that night, of what had +happened. Hogan, and others for that matter, saw the entire affair. +Jimmy was whirling his English-made jacket about his head as he raced in +pursuit of the leader, never realizing that Georgie Thornton, swift +almost as himself, was close at his right hand. The button had cut its +keen-edged way without so much as a shock or pause. Jimmy never even +suspected it. In that, as in everything else, said she, he had told his +father the entire truth, though Mrs. Ray herself hardly dreamed how much +he had to tell. So by noontime Priscilla had again shut herself in her +room to ponder over the miscarriage of her excellent intentions, and to +pray, as well she might, for future guidance.</p> + +<p>But while at the Rays', and possibly at the Dwights', there was little +thought or talk of any other topic all the morning, all over the +garrison was buzzing a second story that started soon after the newsboy +from town, cantering out on his cow pony just before guard-mounting, +sold his three dozen <i>Stars</i> inside of an hour and sent him back for +more. The colonel and surgeon were first to receive and read. Dwight +received, but never read, and other majors, captains and subalterns—not +to mention non-commissioned officers and privates—chased the newsboy in +eagerness to buy. It was a paragraph on an inside page, modest and +moderate enough in itself—for the frontier press has learned to know +the army and not to defame it—but it stirred a sensation at Minneconjou +its editor refused to start in town. In brief, it was as follows:</p> + +<h3>ASSAULT ALLEGED</h3> + +<blockquote> +<p>Just as we go to press a dispatch is received from a representative +of the <span class="smcap">Star</span>, who left last night on the westbound Flyer. The train +was flagged at Fort Siding and boarded, with the assistance of a +ranchman, by Captain Stanley Foster, of the Cavalry, lately +visiting friends at Minneconjou. The officer was bruised, bleeding, +and well-nigh exhausted, but managed to tell that he had been held +up while driving, had been forcibly carried out on the open +prairie, and brutally beaten by ruffians whom he declares to be +soldiers, all strangers to him with one exception. The captain +names as ringleader a prominent and well-known young officer of the +post.</p> + +<p>Dr. Fowler, of Sagamore Heights, was called by wire, met the train +at the Pass, and went on with the injured man. The story, of +course, sounds incredible, and cannot as yet be substantiated.</p></blockquote> + +<p>It was just after lunch time when a messenger came to the Rays. The +surgeon asked if the lieutenant could come to Major Dwight a moment, and +the doctor himself met Sandy at the door. The veteran's face was very +grave. He had known the young officer but a few months. He had known his +father long. "Are you feeling fit for a hard interview?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"If need be. What's the matter?"</p> + +<p>"Dwight is in a fearful frame of mind, and the Lord only knows how it is +to end. Dwight realizes now that Jimmy was entirely innocent of any +knowledge of that thing the Thorntons charged him with. Your mother sent +Hogan and a trumpeter up here. Both had seen the whole affair, and +Dwight <i>would</i> see them. He never could have rested till he got the +facts. We have persuaded him that he must not question his wife, and +that French cat says she cannot leave her mistress an instant. He's +raging now to see you, and I reckon it's no use trying more sedatives +until you are off his mind. Will you come in?"</p> + +<p>Ray pondered a moment, then, "Go ahead," said he.</p> + +<p>They found Dwight pacing the floor like a caged and raging lion. He +whirled on the two the moment they entered, Wallen vainly preaching +self-control and moderation. The misery in the man's face killed the +last vestige of Ray's antipathy. It was something indescribable.</p> + +<p>"Sandy, I'm in hell, but—it's the truth, the whole truth, and nothing +but the truth I must have. Did you—before you joined us at the Grand in +Naples—did you meet—did you see Mrs. Dwight?"</p> + +<p>"Yes," said Ray.</p> + +<p>Dwight halted, resting his shaking hand on the back of a chair, and the +shake went down through the back and legs to the very floor.</p> + +<p>"Where? How?"</p> + +<p>"In front of Cook's Bank. Mrs. Dwight was in an open carriage; why +shouldn't I speak to her?" And the head went up and back, so like his +father.</p> + +<p>"No reason whatever, but why should she lie? Tell me that! Why should +she swear that my boy, Margaret's boy, lied? Oh, my God, tell me that!"</p> + +<p>"Major, Major!" pleaded Wallen, with outstretched hand. "This will never +do. This——"</p> + +<p>"Let him alone," said the senior bluntly. "It's got to come."</p> + +<p>"Because," said Ray, looking straight at his man, "I was fool enough to +fall in love with her the same time you did at Manila. Perhaps she +thought I'd be blackguard enough to follow her after she became your +wife."</p> + +<p>"You—you met her—called upon her—at the Grand, I remember."</p> + +<p>"I did, and I'd do the same thing again. I wanted my letters, and I had +a right to them. She said that she had burned them all, and that ended +it. There's never been a line between us since. I have never seen her +since—when I could decently avoid it. I hope to God I'll never have to +see her—again."</p> + +<p>"There, there, Dwight, that's more than enough," said Dr. Waring, +watching narrowly the working features. "Thank you, Ray. Nothing more +could be asked or expected." Then, <i>sotto voce</i>, "Get out quick!" and +Ray, every nerve athrill, passed forth into the hallway, passed another +door, which quickly opened, and out came Félicie, finger on lip, eyes +dilated, one hand held forth in eager appeal.</p> + +<p>"Oh, Monsieur—Mr. Ray, just one second, I implore—Madame implores. She +beg to see you." And the hand just grazed his arm, as he burst +impetuously, angrily by. "You go to ——" was on his furious lip, but he +bit the words in twain and bolted down the stairs and out into the open +air, mopping his heated brow.</p> + +<p>The adjutant was coming swiftly up the row. He had hastened forth from a +vine-covered piazza well toward the eastward end just as Ray, with heart +still hammering, came limping again into the glare of the sunlight. As +they neared each other—the staff officer with quick, springy step, the +subaltern somewhat halting and lame—the latter caught sight of a sabre +swinging at the senior's hip. What but one thing at that hour of the day +could this portend? One moment brought the answer:</p> + +<p>"Mr. Ray, I reg——" with reddened cheek and blinking eyes, began the +adjutant, who liked him well. Then, with sudden effort, "I—you are +hereby placed in close arrest and confined to your quarters—by order of +Colonel Stone."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2> + +<h3>REACTION</h3> + + +<p>That colonel was a very unhappy man. "All the devils in the calendar," +said he, "have broken loose here at Minneconjou. My cavalry commander +has gone stark, staring mad, and it takes four men to hold him. His wife +cannot stay under the same roof and live, says the maid. Madame must +repose herself, or die. Mrs. Stone says she might take the mistress +under our roof, but she'll be damned if she'll take the maid—at least +she meant that. I said it. The maid says the mistress will die if they +are separated an instant, which suggests a happy end to one of our +troubles, and the cause of all the rest; and to cap the climax, Billy +Ray's boy has done the maddest thing ever dreamed of in Dakota. Why, +doctor, I tell you it <i>can't</i> be doubted! Foster wires the +identification was complete. He dropped the handkerchief that hid his +face. Department Headquarters wired at once to slap him in arrest and +investigate, and the further we look the worse it looks for Ray—and +then, by gad, he denies the whole thing and demands a court-martial! Was +ever a man so mixed as I am!"</p> + +<p>It was even as Stone said. Dwight was for the time being, at least, as +mad as a maniac. "Brain fever," said the wiseacres about the post, +"superinduced by sunstroke abroad and scandal at home." Since Tuesday +night he had recognized no one, had raved or muttered almost +incessantly, and at times had struggled fiercely with his attendants in +the effort to leave his bed. Mrs. Dwight's room adjoined that in which +he lay, and Félicie had incurred the wrath of the doctor by urging that +Madame's condition demanded that Monsieur be removed to hospital or to +some remote apartment about the neighborhood. To take him to hospital +meant that a score of sick or semi-convalescents should be disturbed. If +Madame could not sleep where she was, let Madame move. There was nothing +on earth the matter with, Madame but nerves—and a nuisance in shape of +a maid, said the doctor, whereat Félicie had proclaimed him, too, a +monster, and fled to Madame. Mrs. Stone had indeed come and offered Mrs. +Dwight shelter under the colonel's roof, but she said at the same time +the colonel drew the line at the maid, and told Wallen he would not +tolerate that bunch of frippery and impudence. Mrs. Dwight was in dread +and misery. What <i>could</i> have happened to so prostrate her beloved +husband? No, a thousand times no, she could not think of leaving him! +What she needed was restoratives—something to give her strength that +she might hie to his bedside and tenderly nurse and care for him. She +had had too much restorative, swore Wallen, when he heard this tale. +"We've shut off the champagne with which that hussy had been dosing +her—not that she didn't demand it—and now it's Katzenjammer as much as +anything else. If anybody is to move, let the maid move her to the spare +room on the floor below—where Foster slept." But Inez could not think +of moving so far from her husband's side.</p> + +<p>Of Dwight's sudden insanity (so most of Minneconjou regarded it) and his +furious treatment of little Jim the garrison spoke with bated breath and +infinite compassion and distress. Nothing but mental derangement could +account for it. Mrs. Thornton and Priscilla, it may be conjectured, did +not confide to their neighbors any too much of their share in the +matter, Mrs. Thornton assuring all who questioned her that <i>she</i> had +done her <i>best</i> to assure the major that Jimmy could not possibly have +purposely or knowingly struck her boy, which was partially true; and +Priscilla had declined all conversation on the subject, save with her +aunt, and Mrs. Ray, it may be surmised, was not the woman to tell +broadcast of her niece's responsibility in the premises, whatever she +might later say to Oswald Dwight. Moreover, Marion Ray was not then in +mood to talk confidentially with anyone outside of her own doors, for +the misfortune—the wrong—that had come to Sandy had well-nigh +overwhelmed her.</p> + +<p>Like the man he was, Stone had called at the house the moment she +intimated through his own messenger that she was in readiness to see +him. The adjutant before returning to report his action to the post +commander had so far departed from the strict letter of his duty as to +confidentially inform the dazed young officer that the order had come by +wire from St. Paul. It was not the colonel's doing.</p> + +<p>Sandy was in his room, "cooling off," as he said, when, with all his own +troubles and others' deeds upon his head and clouding his honest old +face, the post commander himself came in, took the mother's hand and led +her to a seat. "It can't upset you more than it has me, my friend," said +he. "I s'pose the explanation of it all is that they met +somehow—accidentally, perhaps—renewed the quarrel; Sandy was possibly +getting the worst of it and the men, whoever they were, couldn't stand +that, for they worshiped him, and pitched in. There are few of our +fellows, especially in the cavalry, that don't just love Sandy. There +are some here that hate Foster," and then Stone stopped, astounded, +confused, for Marion Ray, with rising color, interrupted:</p> + +<p>"Why, Colonel Stone, you speak as though you thought it possible that my +son <i>could</i> have been concerned in this affair!"</p> + +<p>For an instant the colonel struggled for words, his red face mottling in +the violence of his emotion.</p> + +<p>"Why, how can I help it, Mrs. Ray, with all I have heard? But—but I'm +more than glad you don't. What does he say?"</p> + +<p>"That he never dreamed of such a thing," was the brief answer, and Stone +hitched half a dozen different ways in his chair.</p> + +<p>"Colonel Leale, Department Inspector, was on that train," said Stone +slowly, "and reported Foster's story verbatim, I suppose, to department +headquarters, where the arrest was ordered at once, and they demand that +we apprehend the confederates. The general's away, and there isn't a man +at headquarters that smelt powder in the Civil War—or they'd know +confederates weren't so precious easy to apprehend. The men who might +have been implicated all swear they were in town at the time and can +prove an alibi; and unless Sandy will tell, who can?"</p> + +<p>"You still speak as though he could have had something to do with the +assault, Colonel. I'll call him to speak for himself." So Sandy came +down. Colonel and subaltern were left together, and Marion, with sore, +wounded and anxious heart, stepped into her own little snuggery to look +at the picture of her far-away husband (ah, how she missed him and +needed him!) and of Maidie, her sweet and winsome daughter, now Mrs. +Stuyvesant of Gotham, of Sandy in the cadet uniform of his yearling days +and the khaki of Manila, of Billy, Junior, now far away studying for the +entrance exams at the famous Academy. Of the four beings she most +devotedly loved, only one was with her now, her deeply, doubly wronged +Sandy, whose impetuous, indignant tones she could hear so distinctly as +he told his own story to the colonel's sympathetic ear. So distinctly +indeed could she hear her own boy that for a moment she failed to hear +Margaret's little Jim, standing patiently, pathetically at the +threshold; but at sight of his sorrowful face her arms went out to him +instantly. Jim could think—speak—of nothing but his father, his father +who, they all told him, was so ill that he would not know his own +blessed boy, who could not have known him or himself or anybody that +dreadful morning! Love and anxiety, utter trust and forgiveness, were +uppermost in the loyal little heart, and Marion, speechless, held and +rocked him in her arms as she listened to his broken words and to the +sound of the brave young voice in the parlor. Oh, what would she <i>not</i> +have to tell in that next letter to her husband, now so many a weary +league of land and sea beyond possibility of call!</p> + +<p>A badgered man was Stone, as he tramped back homeward, taking a short +cut across the parade, ostensibly to look at the patchwork along the +<i>acequia</i>, the morning's task of the fatigue details, but only too +obviously to avoid the eyes and greetings of the many women along the +row. Sandy Ray's story was told in utter sincerity, so far as Stone +could judge. Yet how was it to help him? Sandy admitted having set forth +westward up the valley, having ridden lazily out beyond the butts of the +rifle range, and then over the southward range to the prairie. He was +gone fully two hours, he said. The moon was so low when he returned +that, after leaving his horse with the man in the stables, he could only +barely see the sentry on No. 3 some distance up the post, and the sentry +apparently did not see—he certainly did not challenge—him at all. That +was bad. It would have been so much better if No. 3 had seen, recognized +and could vouch for him. Stone did not tell Sandy of the sentry's story. +He wished to think that over. Sandy said that the sentry at the stables +was some distance down his post and the only man with whom he spoke was +this unrecognized soldier, presumably on duty at the quartermaster's +stables, where the lieutenant's mount was kept and cared for. No, Sandy +didn't know his name, he didn't even notice him particularly. Two or +three men, he thought, were smoking their pipes at the corral corner, +away from stables, as required, and one of these had come forward as he +neared the gate, and asked should he take the lieutenant's horse. Ray +thanked him, dismounted and turned away. Now, what bothered the colonel +was that both the sergeant in charge and each one of the four men +previously questioned declared he did not know the hour at which +Lieutenant Ray returned. They had gone to bed at or before 10:30, +leaving the door on the bolt, so that Hogan or the lieutenant himself +could easily enter. One man, in fact, went so far as to say that coming +down from the Canteen about 10:30 he could have sworn almost it was +Lieutenant Ray who was slowly climbing the slope to the post of No. 3, +and the rear of the officers' quarters. This accorded in a degree with +the statement of Schmitz. What good was Sandy's story to do him if +Foster firmly adhered to the statement made to the Department Inspector?</p> + +<p>There was to have been a dance at the Assembly room Tuesday evening, but +no one seemed to feel like dancing even among an indomitable few of the +lassies and younger officers with whom, lads and lassies both, Sandy Ray +had been vastly popular. The night wore on, dark, overcast, with the +wind blowing fitfully from the Sagamore, slamming doors in resounding +hallways and carrying the watch calls of the sentries weirdly over the +eastward prairie. Earlier in the evening little groups appeared in some +few of the verandas, but gradually broke up and went within doors long +before the signal "Lights out." The officer of the day and the adjutant, +under instruction from the post commander, had been questioning the +three worthies who had been out the night before about the time of the +alleged assault on Captain Foster. To a man they stoutly maintained that +the signs and scars of battle, borne by one or two of their number, were +due entirely to the free-for-all affair that occurred at that +disreputable dive southwest of Silver Hill, some four miles away from +the post. Virtuously were they indignant that anyone should suppose that +they were in any way concerned in so abominable a transaction as the +"doing-up" of an officer of the army who so recently had been the guest +of their honored major. But two of them were troopers with shady +records, men who had been but a short time at the station, and one of +these had formerly served an enlistment in Dwight's old regiment, the +—th. The adjutant was of opinion that he must have known Foster in +those days and might well have been one of quite a number of men, none +of whom liked and some of whom hated the imperious and abusive +lieutenant. The —th had had few of Foster's stamp since the days of +Canker and Gleason, and his case was therefore the more conspicuous. The +two officers were talking of this as slowly they strolled homeward up +the northwest side of the parade, when, faint and wind-buffeted, the +call of the sentry at the main gate caught their ears. No. 2 wanted the +corporal and No. 1 promptly echoed, although already the corporal was +going on the jump. There was a ring and vim to the cry that told its own +story. The sentry saw something that demanded instant attention. It was +not half a minute before the corporal came racing back to the +guard-house, nor a full minute before the bugler of the guard came +chasing in pursuit of the officer of the day. "A fire, sir," he cried, +"'way out beyond the Flats!"</p> + +<p>Together the officers hastened eastward across the parade, and even +before they reached the gate the cause of the alarm became visible. The +low-hanging, swift-driven clouds blackening the valley were taking on a +lurid glare, and, once at the gate the fire could be distinctly seen. +"Well, if that isn't a blessing!" cried the adjutant gleefully. "It's +Skid's old hog ranch, as sure as you're born!"</p> + +<p>It was useless, of course, to send aid even if aid had been desirable. +Ever since Silver Hill became the county seat and a mining town of much +importance, Skidmore's dive had been the bane of the community. Driven +from town by a vigilance committee made up of the best citizens, the +divekeeper had resumed business beyond the corporate limits and at a +point where he could draw custom from three different sources, the town, +the fort and the agency, for only a few miles beyond the Cheyenne were +the supply depot and buildings of the Minneconjou tribe, their brethren +of Brulé being far over to the southeast and the Ogalallas at Red Cloud. +Many a desperate deed had been charged to the gang ever hovering about +these unsavory walls of Skidmore's, many a poor fellow had been beaten +and drugged and robbed, more than one good soldier had met his +death-blow in brutal affray beneath its grimy roof, and still it lived, +detested but unhampered. There was no good reason why the fort should +send a soul to the rescue of such a concern. There was many a reason why +the town would not. Stone ordered a sergeant with a small party to ride +over, "See if any of our men are there and find out what has taken place +and the extent of the damage," which he hoped was total, "and report on +your return."</p> + +<p>It was after twelve when they got back, bringing a grimy fellow-soldier +who had had a narrow escape, the gratifying intelligence that there +wasn't so much as a shingle left unconsumed, and the unwelcome +announcement that the proprietor said he didn't care a damn. He had +leased and was going to open up next week, anyhow, in the old rookeries +at the ford, right under the nose of Uncle Sam, yet without his +jurisdiction. They brought, also, rather a remarkable piece of news—the +wife and daughter of the manager had been rescued from burning alive by +one of the colonel's own men—Private Blenke, of Company "C."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2> + +<h3>RETRIBUTION</h3> + + +<p>Whoever it was who planned or placed Fort Minneconjou, one blunder at +least could be laid at his door—that it had enabled the enemy to +"locate" almost at the door of the fort. An odd condition of things was +this that resulted from the discovery of precious metals in the +magnificent tract misnamed the Black Hills—black presumably only in the +dead of winter, when their pine-crested peaks and ridges stood boldly +against the dazzling white of the Dakota snows. In '75 the Sioux had +bartered their secret to chance explorers, and Custer came down with his +scouting columns and confirmed the glittering rumor. In '76 the Sioux +squared accounts with Custer afar to the northwest in the affair of the +Little Big Horn, but while they were about it the miner and settler +swarmed in behind and staked out claims and cities from which they could +never be driven, for Crook's starved horses and starving men were +fortunately so numerous they kept the southward tribes of the savage +confederation too busy to bother with settlers. <i>They</i> could be settled +later, after the warriors had dealt by Crook as they did by Custer. When +winter came, however, with Sitting Bull and the Uncapapas thrust beyond +the British line, and Crazy Horse, raving, done to death by the steel of +the guard he so magnificently defied, with Red Cloud disarmed and +deposed, with Dull Knife disabled, with Lame Deer doubled up by the +sturdy Fifth Infantry, and old Two Moons hiding his light in some +obscure refuge of the wilderness, and the old men, the women and +children herded on the reservation under the rifles of the army and the +young men scattered or slain, there was nothing left for the +hard-fighting, proud-spirited lords of the Hills—Ogalalla, Brulé and +Minneconjou—but sullen acceptance of the great father's terms; and in +this wise came Silver Hill to the heart of the fair valley, nestling +under the screen of the Sagamore and its eastward spurs and the shield +of Uncle Sam, who sliced off for military purposes a block from the +Minneconjou reserve, and by way of compliment and consolation named the +cantonment therein established after the tribe thereof dispossessed. All +went swimmingly for the emigrant, the miner, the settler and the +subsequent supremacy of the white man until in course of time a big post +had to be built to replace the old log barracks, and from motives of +economy, in order to reduce to a minimum the expense of hauling supplies +and materials of the quartermaster's department, the new buildings were +planted at the extreme eastern edge of the reservation, and before the +first coat of paint was dry on the lintels the opposite bank of the +stream, a short pistol shot from the line, was planted thick with +shacks, shanties and saloons, and every known device of the devil to +prey upon the soldier.</p> + +<p>In the five years that followed, that particular quarter section of what +soon became South Dakota was a storm center of villainy, especially when +the bi-monthly payday came round. By scores the soldiers were drugged +and robbed, by dozens they were beaten and bullied. By twos and threes +they were set upon, slugged and not infrequently someone was murdered. +No jury could be found in those days to convict a civilian of any crime +against the life or property of a servant of Uncle Sam. There came a +time when two of the best men of the garrison, veteran sergeants, having +been shot to death in cold blood by a brace of desperadoes in front of +Skidmore's saloon, the garrison turned out almost to a man. The +murderers fled to town on the horses of their victims; fifty troopers +followed, while over fifty tore Skidmore's to shreds. Silver Hill had a +riot that night, in which two deputy marshals bit the dust; so did two +or three troopers, but that didn't matter. The majesty of the law that +turned the original murderers loose had been violated by a brutal and +ungovernable soldiery, six of whom were later surrendered to be tried +for their crimes by a jury of their sworn enemies, while their +commanding officer was tried for his commission by a jury of his peers. +The soldiers were sent to civil prison and the colonel to military +Coventry—estopped from further promotion, and Silver Hill (pronounced +with an "e" in those days) for as much as a month exulted and rejoiced +with exceeding joy. Then a new general came to the command. Then Silver +Hill thrust its hands deep in its pockets and whistled in dismay, for +the general's first deed was to order Minneconjou's big garrison into +summer camp long marches away, to leave only men enough at the post to +take care of the property and thus to defraud the denizens of fringing +settlement, known to the Army as Thugtown, of some thousands <i>per +mensem</i> of hard-earned cash—very hard. Moreover, when winter set in, +the garrison was distributed much to the betterment of Meade, Laramie, +Robinson, Niobrara, etc., and to the howling protest of the sturdy +settlers of Silver Hill, "thus robbed," said their eloquent +representative in Congress assembled, "of the protection assured them by +the national government." It was rich to hear the appalling description +given that December of the perils and privations of the people of the +southwestern section of the Dakotas. The Sioux were on the point of +rising and butchering the helpless and scattered settlers, said Senator +Bullion, and to do the county justice it must be owned that it did its +level best to stir up the Minneconjous, but those "troubled waters" had +been stirred too much in the past and refused now to boil over at the +beck of the politicians, so what could not be done in one way was worked +in another. The cat, in shape of the command, came back, and with the +onward march of civilization men and women of a higher class were drawn +to Silver Hill, and the "e" from the last part of its name.</p> + +<p>And then in army circles there came to the front a man with a head on +his shoulders and a hand on the steering gear. In the interest of +civilization and civilian dealers Congress had cleaned out the old-time +sutler shop, which was no deplorable loss, and transferred the traffic +of his successor, the post trader, to his ubiquitous rival, the +publican. "The soldier's pay comes from the people and should return to +the people," said the advocates of the measure, and the soldier +non-voter, having about as many friends at the seat of government as a +crow in a corn field, matters at Minneconjou speedily became bad as +ever, for, reform having started at Silver Hill, the gamblers and +harpies being kicked from its corporate limits, these philosophers,—the +flotsam and jetsam of the frontier,—lost little cash and less time +before settling again, and in greater numbers, on the skirts of Uncle +Sam.</p> + +<p>And then it was that, after a year or two of turmoil and trouble, "in +our day there lived a man" who solved the problem, dealt rum, the flesh +and the devil the worst blow known to the combination, and started under +the auspices of the post Exchange the common sense and only successful +system ever tried in the army, known to the Press and its civilian +readers by the name of the Canteen.</p> + +<p>And then again after a few years of peace, prosperity and contentment, +good order and discipline, after the man whose monument is inscribed +"The Soldier's Friend," his good work finished, was gathered to his +fathers, the resultant years of thought and experiment were overthrown +in a day. A congress of women over-mastered a congress of men. Exit the +Canteen: Re-enter the grog shop, the hell and the hog ranch. Burned out +at the borders of Silver Hill, the way blazed for him and his vile +retinue of swindlers and strumpets by the best intentions that ever +paved the streets of sheol, back to the gates of Fort Minneconjou came +the saloon and its concomitants—and the day of order and discipline was +done.</p> + +<p>"I wouldn't say a word against it," protested Colonel Stone to the +grave-faced Inspector sent out from St. Paul to investigate the first +killing, "if, when they shut up <i>our</i> shop they had shut up <i>those</i>!" +and with clinching fist he struck savagely at empty space and the +swarming row of ramshackle tenements beyond the stream. "Of what earthly +good was it to anybody, I ask you,—except the distiller and dealer in +liquors,—to close our guarded, homelike tables and reopen that +unlimited unlicensed hell?"</p> + +<p>A new road to Silver Hill, albeit roundabout, had become a necessity. +The old well-worn beeline through by way of the ford had become +impracticable for women and children and self-respecting people in +general. It was skirted for some two hundred yards by tenements and +tenants not easily described in these pages. The colonel had been jeered +at by painted sirens at upper windows. Priscilla Sanford, starting one +morning to town, turned crimson at the shrill acclaim of the scarlet +sisterhood, two of whom had kissed their hands to her. Stone, when he +heard of it, would have leveled the shack with the ground, but the +mournful plight of his predecessor, condemned for not preventing what +Stone would almost precipitate, gave him timely pause. Sandy might have +sallied forth and shot somebody not feminine, but Sandy was still in +arrest. The paymaster had come and gone. So had most of the money; so, +worse luck, after two days of salooning, had gone no less than fifty of +the garrison. In nearly two years Minneconjou had not had as many +desertions as resulted from those two days.</p> + +<p>But, sorrowful to relate, among the first to go and the last to be heard +from were two of Priscilla's trusties—gone no man could say +whither—and in addition to this catastrophe something had strangely, +surely gone amiss with her paragon, Blenke—Blenke the scholarly, Blenke +the writer and linguist—and Priscilla's world was reeling under her +well-shod feet.</p> + +<p>To begin with, how came Blenke, the impeccable, the would-be candidate +for transfer to the cavalry and aspirant for commission, to be +sojourning even for an hour at so disreputable a spot as Skidmore's? +Blenke, it will be remembered, had a forty-eight hour pass to enable him +to visit Rapid City on important personal business. Blenke was supposed +to have taken the westbound Flyer on Monday—the Flyer that flew five +hours late. Blenke was supposed to be spending all Tuesday, or most of +it, in the heart of the Hills. Blenke was not due at the post until the +afternoon of Wednesday, and was not expected to leave Rapid City until +Wednesday morning; yet here he was, of all places in the world, at that +hog ranch on Tuesday night. Stone sent a patrol over at 1 <span class="smcap">A. M.</span> with a +spare horse and invitation for Private Blenke to return at once and +account for his eccentric orbit at office hours in the morning. The +patrol trotted over, nothing loath, but Blenke had disappeared. "Gone to +town for a doctor," said the abandoned few still groping about the +smoldering ruins. So the patrol returned without him. It was represented +that Blenke had scorched his face, singed off his eyebrows and burned +his hands in his gallant essay to save the women. But this was all +hearsay evidence.</p> + +<p>When Blenke did appear on Wednesday afternoon his hands were bandaged, +his face was disfigured a bit, but his eyes were as deep and mournful, +his dignity and self-poise quite as unimpeachable, as before. He seemed +grieved, indeed, that his captain and colonel both so sharply questioned +him. He had intended going to Rapid City, but at the last moment in town +received information rendering his visit unnecessary, indeed +inadvisable. A man with whom he had had business associations in the +past, and who owed him much money, had been there, but had headed him +off by promising to meet him in Silver Hill. The train came, but not the +man, yet the conductor said such a man had boarded the train at the +Junction and must have dropped off as they slowed up for town after +passing Bonner's Bluff. Blenke had spent most of Monday night and all of +Tuesday in further search. Tuesday evening came a clue. The evasive +"party" had been seen at Skid's drinking heavily, and Blenke hastened +thither in partial disguise, he said, and was there when late Tuesday +night the shrieks from Skidmore's private quarters told of peril. The +drunken crowd in the bar at first took no heed. Shrieks were things of +frequent occurrence, but Blenke had rushed, found the shack all ablaze +within, and with difficulty and much personal risk had succeeded in +pulling out Mrs. Skidmore and her terrified child.</p> + +<p>Blenke by manner, not by words, continued to convey to his inquisitors +that he took it much amiss that a soldier who had done such credit to +his uniform and the service should on his return be subjected to such +rigid cross-questioning, and be treated with such obvious suspicion. But +both colonel and captain had more to ask. Had he seen aught of the trio +from the fort who claimed to have spent Monday evening at Skidmore's? +Blenke declared he had not. He had spent that evening searching about +town; but he had heard of them, yes. There was no little talk among the +cowboys, tramps, toughs, and ranchmen in and about Skidmore's concerning +a party of soldiers that had been there hours Monday evening "raising +the devil." There had been a rough-and-tumble fight, too, but Blenke +virtuously disclaimed all personal knowledge of the men or their +misdemeanors. Asked to name some of the places he had visited Monday +evening and Tuesday in town, Blenke unhesitatingly mentioned as many as +a dozen. The adjutant jotted them down, and when the colonel sent an +officer in to investigate, it was found that Blenke's statement, like +his manner, was irreproachable. Moreever, it was found by the testimony +of certain hangers-on at Skidmore's that the story told by the +incarcerated trio was equally true. They had been seen about the +premises, drinking, card-playing, loafing, early in the evening, and +"off and on" all of the evening, until toward 10:30 o'clock they became +so ugly and quarrelsome and had so little money left that Skid refused +them further admission, even to wash the blood from their battered +faces. If the purpose of the examination was to connect these men, any +of them, with the assault upon Foster, it had certainly failed.</p> + +<p>Even when Foster's verbatim statement came, duly type-written and +vouched for, and further examination was made, and Blenke and the three +worthies were further investigated, nothing was admitted and little +learned. Foster's statement was read by the adjutant and received in +grim silence by the colonel and one or two seniors called in for the +occasion. Smarting under the indignity with which he had been treated, +said Foster, and finding the Flyer would not be along before ten or +half-past ten, he decided to take a buggy, drive out to the post and +seek an interview with the colonel and certain other officers. It was +due to his honor that his statement be heard. He ordered his traps sent +to the train, so that if delayed he could drive thither at once, or even +have the ranchman caretaker at Fort Siding "flag the train." Barely two +miles out from town he overtook some soldiers apparently drunk; one of +them reeled almost under his horse's nose; he pulled up in dismay, and +instantly they attacked him on all sides at once. He was knocked +senseless, and when he came to himself they were all out on the +southward prairie. He could see the lights of the fort far away. He was +propped against a wheel and they were wrangling among themselves. He was +bleeding, dazed, had been cruelly beaten, but his wits were returning. +The moonlight was clear, and suddenly, in a row that broke out among +them, they fell upon each other, and a young, slight-looking man, who +seemed to be their leader, in striving to quell the row, lost the +handkerchief that hid his face. His light raincoat was torn open, +revealing the uniform of a lieutenant of cavalry. The form, features, +the dark little mustache, all that he could see, were certainly those of +Lieutenant Ray. Staggering to his feet, he unhappily drew their +attention again to himself, and then he was slugged and knocked +senseless and knew no more until he was being helped aboard the Pullman. +One of the men he vaguely remembered having seen before, but the only +one of the party he could have recognized was Lieutenant Ray. All +Minneconjou, he said, knew of the fracas between them that day; but few, +perhaps, had heard the lieutenant's threats, and in this brutal fashion +had he fulfilled them.</p> + +<p>Copies of this, of course, had gone to Department Headquarters. The +commander was expected back at the end of the week from his tour of +inspection at Yellowstone Park. Sandy could not be held in close arrest +beyond the eighth day; but that the affair would have to be thoroughly +investigated by general court everybody felt and said. Indeed, Ray +himself would be content with nothing less. But what a solemn time was +this for Marion, his devoted mother; indeed for all at Minneconjou.</p> + +<p>Up at the "ranking" end of the row Oswald Dwight lay in the grasp of a +burning fever that, coupled with what had gone before, had weakened his +reason and might well end his life. Under the same roof, visited at +intervals by the charitable, the sympathetic or the merely inquisitive +of their sex and station, Mrs. Dwight and her inseparable companion, +Félicie, made their moan and told their woeful tale to all comers. Inez +had been, she said, suffering all the torments of purgatory, and to many +eyes she looked it. Her husband, in his mad delirium, would not have her +near him: <i>he</i> raved of the wife of his youth. She wept for his boy who +had been taken from her, his proper, his natural, his legal protector at +such a time. Inez was horrified to think of the outrage upon Captain +Foster, their attached and devoted friend. Inez would never believe, she +said, that such a gentleman as Mr. Ray could stoop to so vile a +vengeance, to the level of the assassin, but Félicie had other views. +The episode of that blood-stained gauntlet had been by no means +forgotten, and was dinned into the ears of those who would listen, with +infinite vim and pertinacity; this, too, despite the fact that Ray +denied having worn gauntlets that evening—having worn them, in fact, +that summer. They were no longer "uniform" for cavalry officers, and he +had not set eyes on that glove or its mate for over a month. Possibly +during the move from the major's quarters to the humble home of the +subaltern, but certainly somehow, Ray had lost several items that, +before the change in uniform, had been in frequent use, but of late +would hardly be missed, and of these were the gauntlets.</p> + +<p>So there was distress—anxiety—sorrowing in more than one of the many +households at Minneconjou, and in the midst of it all Priscilla, who had +thought her burden, self-inflicted though it was, quite as much as she +could bear, was confronted with another. Blenke, who had been nervous, +excitable, almost ill on the very few occasions she had seen him since +his return; Blenke, who had promised to confide to her, his +benefactress, the cause of his worries, the story of his woes; Blenke, +whose mournful eyes had blazed with a fine fury when told by Hogan, who +couldn't abide him, of Miss Sanford's salutation from the window of the +reoccupied rookery at the ford; Blenke, who could never set foot on the +floor of the Canteen, turned up missing one night at check rollcall, two +hours after taps, was suddenly and most unexpectedly stumbled on by the +officer of the day making his rounds at 3 <span class="smcap">A. M.</span>: not, as might have +happened to men of less indomitable virtue, coming from the direction of +Skidmore's, but almost at the very opposite end of the garrison, at the +rear gateway of the field officers' quarters, No. 2, so obviously +obfuscated, so utterly limp, that he could give no account of himself +whatever, was wheeled to the guard-house in a police cart and dumped on +the slanting bunk of the prison room with a baker's dozen of the +"Skidmore guard" sleeping off their unaccustomed drunk.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2> + +<h3>MY LADY'S MAID</h3> + + +<p>It proved the last pound that broke the back of Priscilla's stubborn +resistance. Men and women who had found much to condemn in Miss Sanford, +who had disseminated and discussed the tale of her correspondence with +the <i>Banner</i> and the talk that followed, who had heard with indignation +that it was after Dwight's conference with Miss Sanford that he so +furiously punished little Jim (for, as we know, Mrs. Thornton had +assured everybody that so far as <i>she</i> was concerned she had done her +utmost to make the major understand that Jimmy never did it on purpose), +who had felt the lash of her over-candid comment on their social or +parental shortcomings, now had no little malicious merriment to add to +the deservedly hard things they had said of her. For a fortnight, +probably, Miss Sanford had been the most unpopular woman that +Minneconjou's oldest inhabitant could name; but the men and women who +saw her as one after another she faced the results of her most confident +efforts, began to feel for the lonely, sorrowing maiden a respect and +sympathy denied her before. It was plain that Priscilla was well-nigh +crushed, and "when women weep" and are desolate and hopeless resentment +turns to pity and blame to words of cheer. No one, of course, was ever +told by Mrs. Ray or by Sandy of what had passed in the sanctity of the +family circle, but in her humility and contrition Priscilla spoke of it +to Mrs. Stone and to others, who soon came to try to show her she was +forgiven. There were a few days after Dwight's fever in which she seemed +utterly heartbroken, and Mrs. Ray believed her seriously ill. There were +days in which she begged Aunt Marion to send her home, when, really, she +had no home; to send her East, then, where she could begin anew and work +her way in the world. If it came to the worst, Maidie Stuyvesant would +keep her from starving. But Aunt Marion would listen to no such +proposition. Priscilla must stay with her and at Minneconjou and live +down the unhappy repute. Aunt Marion knew how very much genuine good +there was in Priscilla when once she could rid herself of that +propensity ever to correct, criticise, and condemn; nor had Minneconjou +been slow to see this and to speak of it. Now that the tide was turning, +by dozens they came to talk of her real charity, her devotion to the +sick and sorrowing, the hours she had given—was ever ready to give—to +reading to the bed-ridden and helpless in hospital or the humble +quarters of the married soldiers. Men who had laughed among themselves +at her lecturing and preaching took to snubbing men who spoke in +disparagement of her motives. One thing was certain, whether they shared +her views or not, all Minneconjou believed in her sincerity, and +soldiers honor those who fight and suffer for their convictions. Of +Priscilla it might therefore be said she had made friends in spite of +herself, and though hardened sinners at the mess and humor-loving +husbands in the quarters <i>did</i> indulge in little flings at the ultimate +and inevitable failure of all feminine meddlings in matters that were +purely military, there were few, indeed, after the first mirthful +explosions, who having seen her sorrowful face did not feel genuine +sympathy for her in the collapse of her Anti-Canteen Soldiers' +Benevolent Association.</p> + +<p>For with Blenke's fall Priscilla was left indeed lamenting and alone.</p> + +<p>Something of a <i>cause célčbre</i> was that of Blenke's when it came to +trial. The summary court officer had had his hands full since payday. +The number of cases of absence without leave, drunkenness, disorder, and +disrespect to non-commissioned officers, etc., had sextupled. All were +what might be called typical cases, and traceable, as a rule, to +Skidmore's; but Blenke's, like Blenke himself, was individual and +peculiar. Moreover, it savored of the mysterious.</p> + +<p>The man seemed overwhelmed with mortification and distress. No one at +Minneconjou had ever known him to take so much as a glass of wine. No +one at Minneconjou among either officers or men ever really knew him at +all, for Blenke kept his own counsel, lived entirely to himself, was +neat as a new pin, prompt and accurate on duty, smart in dress—more so +than many of his officers, if truth be told—ready, respectful and in +fine a model soldier. But he had no friends nor intimates; he had no +confidants, unless we except Priscilla, to whom he had told much more +than Sandy Ray, when told, would for a moment believe. He came before +the court after two days' incarceration, neat and trim as though just +off inspection. He stood with swimming eyes before the desk, pleaded +guilty throughout, declined to summon a soul to say a good word for him +or his general character, would not even glance at the group of officers +hovering inquisitively about, would not even plead "first offense" or +urge a syllable in mitigation of sentence, even though the allegations +against him, as the court intimated to his captain, "seemed piling it +on." One specification might well have covered the entire tale of his +misdoing, but he stood accused of absence from quarters between taps and +reveille, of presence in premises where he had no possible right to be, +and finally of utter drunkenness. Blenke pleaded guilty to all, and +humbly said that, had there been more accusation, he would have done the +same, for he knew nothing of what occurred after fifteen minutes at +Skidmore's somewhere toward midnight.</p> + +<p>Now, the court wished to know and the listeners wished to hear some +explanation of his having turned up so far from the beaten track; of his +having, when so drunk, managed to walk so far; of his having, in fine, +entered the yard of Major Dwight's quarters. What could have suggested +that? But Blenke knew no more than the dead. The only quarters of late +he ever visited were those of Lieutenant Ray, where, said Blenke—and +here the woe in his visage was indeed pathetic—he should never again +dare show his face. Time had been—a happy time—when he had daily, +almost hourly, duties at the quarters now occupied by Major Dwight, whom +he so honored; but that was while his kind friends of Lieutenant Ray's +household were still the occupants. Possibly in his dazed condition that +memory was working in what was left of his brain. There was nothing to +excuse or explain his wandering thither now, said Blenke. He had no +mercy to ask. He deserved none. So the case was closed with a sizable +fine, and the accused sent back to his company.</p> + +<p>But the officer of the day had told a different tale, and the godless +array at the bachelor mess was still having fun with it. Félicie, the +self-styled French maid, had been from the start the object of no little +interest among the non-commissioned element in garrison. Félicie was +pious, if not actually pretty, and assiduous at first in Sunday morning +attendance at the little Catholic church in town, whither Dwight's own +horse and buggy and man were detailed to take her, for Inez could not +think of placing her educated and traveled maid in the same category and +wagon with the soldiers' wives. "Feelissy," from her very first +appearance, was by no means popular with this critical sisterhood, and +when it became evident that some of the best beaux among the sergeants +were also moved to attend early church in Silver Hill, feeling grew +strong against the usurper. Nor was the feeling modified by the fact +soon discovered that the maid had higher aspirations. She was too good +for the soldiers, said her commentators; but that goodness, said her +defamers, wasn't proof against the wiles of those who had more money. +Obviously the officers were aimed at in this observation, and it must be +owned that Félicie's expressive eyes had sometimes wandered toward the +mess, and that her glances fell not all on unresponsive others. The +night of Blenke's wandering was windy. The officer of the day's little +lantern blew out as he rounded a turn from the west gate toward the +bluff behind the post of No. 4, to the end that he stumbled on the +sentry unchallenged, and, when rebuked for his negligence, the sentry +said he was troubled about something at Major Dwight's. He could have +sworn, he said, the door to the high back stoop had opened just a moment +ago, letting quite a streak of light into the darkness for the space of +a few seconds, during which time he was almost sure he saw a slender +feminine shape disappear into the house. Now, he could swear no one had +entered the back gate for ten minutes, anyway, because he happened to be +right there. If it was a woman, as he believed, she must have been out +in the yard as much as those ten minutes, and perhaps someone was there +with her that shouldn't be there. All this had the sentry urged in +excuse of his failure to hear the approach of the officer of the day. It +was a black, moonless, starless night, and the officer concluded to +look. The board fence was high. He stepped within the gate, stumbled +over a loose plank, made quite a noise and said a few audibly profane +things as to the quartermaster's department for leaving walks in such +shape, but he could see nothing. So in a sheltered nook he struck a +match, and the instant he did so a man from the shadows lurched heavily +against him, muttered, "Giv'sh—light—o' man" and sprawled in a heap at +his feet. It proved to be Blenke, and Blenke proved to the satisfaction +of the court that he was blind drunk.</p> + +<p>But the officer of the day and his comrades at the mess were beginning +to see light, as did the sentry on No. 4. Was it possible that Félicie, +who scorned the advances of the more prominent of the rank and file, and +had become an object of no little interest even to certain susceptible +subalterns—had, after all, reserved her smiles for the dark-eyed, +mournful, and romantic Blenke? If so, then Blenke had played the part of +a man with the skill of a consummate actor.</p> + +<p>"I've seen Willard; I've seen Wyndham," said the puzzled captain, "and I +thought I'd seen 'David Garrick' played to perfection, but if Private +Beauty Blenke, of Company 'C,' Sixty-first Foot, wasn't drunk as a lord +that night, then Willard and Wyndham aren't in the business."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2> + +<h3>A MOMENTOUS DAY</h3> + + +<p>A week,—another long week,—went by at Minneconjou, and Major Dwight at +last was declared out of danger, though a badly shattered man. Mrs. +Dwight, who should have shown corresponding improvement, seemed, +however, not so well. Just in proportion as the major mended, his wife +appeared to fail. Both doctors persisted in the belief that her case was +one of nerves entirely. There was nothing organically wrong. She had +been under a great strain, of course, and her husband, in his lucid +moments, as well as in those of delirium, had shown strong antipathy to +her presence in the sick room. They had persuaded her, without much +difficulty, that it were better she kept away, and though pathetically, +properly grieved, she obeyed. Something, however, was preying upon +her—something she could not and would not confide to Mrs. Stone and +other sympathetic would-be consolers. "Madame was distressed at ill news +from her parents," Félicie had gone so far as to admit, but the ill news +did not seem to refer to illness, for there had been frequent letters +addressed in Farrell's sprawling fist, or the seņora's precise +chirography, and of late these had begun to be supplemented by +telegrams.</p> + +<p>In all this fortnight of alternating hope and anxiety Mrs. Ray had, with +proper inquiries, called but twice. She could do no less. She would do +no more. Mrs. Dwight occasionally appeared for an afternoon drive now, +but always with Félicie by her side in the phaeton—never, now that her +husband's guest and wits were gone, with a man. Other companionship +might have been better for her, it was generally suggested, but she +seemed to shrink from the conversation and, possibly, the interrogations +of those of her own sex and social caste.</p> + +<p>Great was the surprise, therefore, when a polite and perfumed note came +to the Rays for Miss Priscilla Sanford, and would Miss Sanford do Mrs. +Dwight the great kindness to drive with her that day? Priscilla, who +knew not why, and who would gladly have avoided her, ordinarily, was now +doing universal penance according to her lights, and would have gone +driving with a Jezebel. Priscilla accepted, and Félicie, for the first +time, was left at home.</p> + +<p>Sandy Ray's health had been suffering, and Stone saw it, and of his own +motion came over and said he considered it necessary that Mr. Ray should +take exercise. Walking being painful, the colonel said ride, and, +despite his arrest, riding anywhere within five miles' limit of the +flagstaff. Sandy thanked him, but really tried to sulk and stay home, +until the mother's gentle appeal prevailed and he began as the colonel +had suggested. There were men who thought the general would "row" Stone +for such indulgence to a man under serious charges, but Stone said he +knew his business—and the general. He would neither argue nor defend +his position, but he would like to bet two to one the general would +approve. It was rumored the general himself thought of running out to +Minneconjou and perhaps away to Wister and looking into matters along +the lower line, having but recently returned from a look along the +upper. The court had not yet been ordered. It was believed that the +charges might still be withdrawn, so difficult was it to believe Sandy +Ray capable of such a crime. But Ray insisted on trial, said he desired +the most rigid investigation, and could never be content without. It was +a most unsatisfactory situation, so far as he was concerned, and, with +no duty to perform, no drill to stir his blood, nothing to do but try to +comfort mother, reassure Maidie, who was writing every day or two, watch +for the coming of the mail from Manila and the detail for his court, +Sandy Ray was growing morbid.</p> + +<p>He was gone and loping up the valley when the phaeton with pale-faced, +languid Mrs. Dwight stopped at the door for Miss Sanford. Ray did not +wish to see her. He had not seen her to speak to since the night before +Dwight's breakdown, as that episode by common consent was now referred +to. He had altered his manner toward Priscilla, though resentment still +rankled, because of her almost dependent position under their roof. Had +Priscilla owned enough money to take her back to the seaboard States, +and had then remained, Sandy, perhaps, would have found forgiveness +beyond him. Even now he raged at heart when he thought of her willful +exaggeration as to the Canteen, her utter misrepresentation of +facts—especially as to his father. Again and again he owned to his +mother he felt like shaking Priscilla whenever he looked at little Jim, +who so often now became his companion on these daily rides. Once or +twice, when the patient was sleeping soundly, the doctors had taken the +lad to his bedside, but the meeting between them was yet to come. Dwight +was still too weak for experiments, and how he would bear it all when +stronger was a matter of grave conjecture.</p> + +<p>But on this particular day when the phaeton came for Priscilla, little +Jim had again been trouting with Sergeant French and, as luck would have +it, came dancing in with his basket of prizes to show Aunt Marion just +as Priscilla descended from her room, dressed for the drive. Three weeks +agone Priscilla would have reproved his entering without first washing +his hands and smoothing his hair. To-day she bent and hurriedly kissed +his flushed and happy face, and he looked up astonished. They had never +let him know—they could not bear to speak of—Priscilla's share in the +events of that tragic morning, and when in her downright honesty +Priscilla would have sought and told him, Aunt Marion forbade. The boy +who formerly shrank from was now growing to like her. She read to him, +helped him in the daily lessons, Aunt Marion deeming it wise he should +study even though this was vacation time; but never before had he known +Priscilla to tender a caress. Mrs. Ray watched them curiously as +together they left the room to see his catch properly stored in the +icebox. Presently, hand in hand, they returned through the hall and went +forth upon the veranda just as the phaeton suddenly drew up at the gate, +and Priscilla felt the little hand withdrawing. He did not know mamma +was coming. He went unwillingly, but obedient, to receive her effusive +words of greeting, and to hear, unresponsive, that he, dear child, was +looking so much better since dear Mrs. Ray had taken charge of him in +all these dreadful days. But she did not ask him to drive with them, nor +did he wish to go, for she had need to speak with Priscilla, and Jimmy +would have been in the way.</p> + +<p>It seems that matters had come to such a pass that Mrs. Dwight felt that +she must have advice, and, oh, how her heart yearned for a friend! Many +of the ladies had been kind, yes, very kind, Mrs. Stone especially; and +others, even Mrs. Ray, who she felt, she feared, she <i>knew</i>, did not +like or trust her, though she had so longed to win Mrs. Ray's +friendship. But even Mrs. Stone and Mrs. Ray could not be to her now +what she so needed—a real friend and adviser, a confidant, in fact, and +these ladies were, though they did not look it, of an age sufficient to +be her mother. What she craved was one nearer herself in years (Miss +Sanford was certainly ten years older and not easily flattered), for now +a time had come, said Mrs. Dwight, when there might be conflict between +the duty she owed her husband and—and——Priscilla gasped and bridled +and began to bristle all over with premonition of what might be coming, +then breathed a sudden sigh of relief, yet of disappointment, as Mrs. +Dwight concluded with "the deference due her parents." In their letters +both her father and her mother had been appealing to her to appeal to +her husband to come further to their financial aid; that Major Farrell +had relied upon the backing of his son-in-law in certain enterprises; +that he was now in desperate straits, and—and finally they had gone so +far as to threaten—threaten her, their daughter, with untold calamity +if she did not instantly assure them that material aid would speedily be +forthcoming. She had written, telling them of her husband's perilous +plight, of the possibly fatal illness, of the impossibility of anything +being done until his recovery, and their telegrams in acknowledgment +were imperative. She felt that she must bring her burden of trouble and +ask Miss Sanford,—of whose charity and gentleness the garrison never +tired of telling by the hour,—for Miss Sanford must feel and know that +since the day he so raged against his own son, he—he had even seemed to +turn against her, his devoted and dutiful wife.</p> + +<p>And now when the doctors said he was almost well enough to be approached +on matters of urgent business, she dared not. She had lost, perhaps, her +influence. "Then what could <i>I</i> possibly do?" asked Priscilla bluntly, +and then came the explanation. The woman whom he most honored, +respected, believed in, the woman who had been the devoted friend of +her,—that was gone, with, alas, his heart buried by her side,—that +woman, Mrs. Ray, if she would but speak with him, plead with him for +her, his fond, but, ah, so cruelly misjudged wife, whose heart was +failing her now, and at a time when for his sake as well as hers she +needed all her strength. If Mrs. Ray could but see her way to do this, +ah, with what gratitude and devotion would she, Inez, ever think of +her—and all Minneconjou knew Mrs. Ray's love for her noble niece. +Everyone said that if Miss Sanford but willed a thing and urged it upon +her aunt it was a thing accomplished. Out of the goodness of her heart +would not Miss Sanford strive for her, a heart-crushed, well-nigh +hopeless wife, upon whom there had but recently dawned the knowledge +that, that—could not Miss Sanford imagine?</p> + +<p>And in the midst of the gush of tears with which she closed came sudden +distraction. They had been trundling easily, aimlessly over the smooth, +hard prairie road, the well-trained, well-matched ponies ambling +steadily along. They had given the cavalry herds and herd guards a wide +berth, and the townward route, for Mrs. Dwight shunned, she said, the +sight of almost any face but the sweet and sympathetic one beside her. +They had turned southward, after rounding Castle Butte, a bold, jagged +upheaval among the nearest foothills, and were winding slowly down this +narrow and crooked ravine toward the broad Minneconjou bottom, when, as +the ponies reached a fairly level bit of road, and were swiftly turning +a point of bluff, they suddenly and violently shied to the right, almost +upsetting the dainty vehicle, and nearly pitching its helpless freight +headlong into the road. Then with the bits in their teeth, away they +tore, full gallop down the next incline, the phaeton bounding after +them, and so, mercifully as it happened, out upon the broad level of the +valley, with the Minneconjou and its fringing line of cottonwoods barely +five hundred yards across the bench. The pygmy tiger had been left at +home; his ears would have been too active, and Mrs. Dwight, though +accustomed to driving her usually gentle and tractable team, was utterly +helpless now. She hung on desperately to the reins. But this was a new +and delirious experience for the merry little scamps in harness. They +were headed for home. There was a deep bend of the stream and a ford +through the shallows, and an abrupt dip of four feet from the bench +level, and the words of their fair, frail charioteer were stimulating +rather than soothing, so away they went, and it was high time for Miss +Sanford, if she wished to save their necks, to throw convention and +etiquette to the wind, to take personal control—and the reins.</p> + +<p>No one ever doubted Priscilla's nerve, yet here sat Priscilla hanging on +to the side-rail with both hands and staring backward, her head twisted +half round, with all her wondering, startled eyes, for the objects that +had stampeded the ponies were a brace of frowsy, blanketed Minneconjou +braves, squatted on the bunch grass in the shade of the bluffs at the +side of the road, in close conference with two men in khaki and campaign +hats, one of them, though instantly the brim was jerked down over his +eyes, she knew to be Blenke,—Blenke whose woe-begone, remorseful +letters she had duly filed and docketed, but who, he declared, was too +shame-stricken to show his face to her of all the world. What on earth +was Blenke doing there in that out-of-the-way nook, and in confab with +Indians? They were hidden from view by a wave of prairie almost as +suddenly as they had been whirled into sight, and then Priscilla had to +give her aid and attention to Mrs. Dwight, who was swaying in her seat. +She grasped the reins with her strong, wiry hands, but the little devils +were within an hundred yards of the brink and reckless of everything but +the mad exhilaration of a runaway. She heard from somewhere a shout, +"Pull your left rein <i>hard</i>!" and with both hands she tugged with sudden +and startling result. The ponies almost instantly veered to the left; +the light vehicle tipped slightly to the right, and with that Inez went +toppling headforemost over the low, leathern mud guard, and Priscilla +was alone. Still clinging to that left rein, she swung her discomfited +steeds in broad, big circle, narrowly scraping yet safely missing the +edge, and so, gradually, they found themselves galloping out once more +over the prairie and away from the homeward road and back toward that +narrow ravine whence two Indians were now lashing their finally captured +ponies southward across the valley; and then, still circling, the +pygmies discovering that they were heading westward once more and +farther from home, their enthusiasm by degrees, therefore, became +beautifully less. They slowed gradually down to a lunging canter, then +to a shame-faced trot, and finally, with Priscilla in complete control +of both reins, her own head and theirs, they were brought at a decorous +gait back to the road and the point where their mistress had quit +them—and the lady had disappeared.</p> + +<p>Guiding them carefully down the short declivity to the water's edge, +Priscilla came upon a not unlooked-for explanation. Sandy's horse had +disappeared. His owner was kneeling at the edge of the rippling waters, +bending over a lovely, prostrate form, alternately sprinkling and +fanning the dusty, pallid, but beautiful face, then dropping his hat to +chafe the limp little hands. With eyes full of terror he glanced up at +his cousin. With a voice half-choked with dread, he called to her, "Let +those little brutes go, Pris, and come here quick!" But Priscilla, with +wisdom untrammeled by passion and dread, lashed their bits to a tree +trunk before she would quit her charges, and by the time she reached the +interesting group at the water's edge the dusky head was pillowed on a +tan-colored knee, and further supported by a tan-colored arm, and the +loveliest dark eyes in the world, just unclosing, were gazing +imploringly up into her cousin's agonized features. A faint flush was +rising to the soft cheek, and lips that were colorless but a moment or +two agone, now reddening again, now quivering and beautifully alluring, +seemed almost uplifting, as though to reward, to welcome his, as with +joy unmistakable they murmured, "Sandy—Sandy—I knew—you'd come."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2> + +<h3>BLENKE COVERS HIS TRACKS</h3> + + +<p>Priscilla Sanford in the next few days, despite the fact that most of +her pupils were gone, found her duties increasing. She had seen Blenke, +but only through enlisting the interest of his captain, who directed +Blenke to call upon Miss Sanford and give account of his stewardship or +be sent thither in charge of a sergeant. Blenke appeared at last in the +dusk of evening and the depth of despond. He wrung his white hands, he +bowed his shapely head in shame. He could hardly speak, such was his +humility, but he stuck to it that his story was true. She knew enough of +his past (at least she should know, since he had told her so much of it) +to believe that he had enjoyed the benefits of travel, prosperity, and +education. He had trusted, however, where he should have guarded, and +devotion to his fellows had resulted in his financial ruin. A man who +owed him hundreds, and had promised to pay, was in Rapid City, and came +thence to find him here at the very time Blenke started to find him +there. The failure of this man to keep his promise had involved Blenke +shamefully. He had borrowed much more than the ten dollars he still owed +his benefactress. It was shame and worry, resulting in prostration and +insomnia, that drove him forth at night, that led to his taking Skid's +prescription, for Skid, who was so very grateful for Blenke's conduct at +time of the fire, did not, however, come forward with offer of financial +aid. He was going to do that, he said, when he got his insurance money, +which was still suspiciously withheld. Skidmore gave Blenke Scotch ale, +warranted to produce sleep. It at least led to oblivion, the +disappearance of his watch, and the train of miserable, disgraceful woe +that followed. How could Blenke ever face Miss Sanford again? Not until +ordered could he bear the ordeal, even though her letters had assured +him of forgiveness and further aid and confidence. As to his being with +those Indians, lurking in that tortuous ravine, the explanation was +simple. The man who had tricked him, a contractor, was said to be over +at the reservation—Indians had so told him. They were forbidden to come +to the fort or be seen about Skidmore's. They could only meet him out of +sight of the post and its slum suburb. He and a comrade met them to hear +their report at the crossing of the old road from Fort Siding by way of +Castle Butte to the Belle Fourche country, and catching sight of +Lieutenant Ray, riding slowly along the edge of the timber, the Indians +had led on into the ravine, where they had hardly dismounted and turned +loose their ponies when the phaeton flashed into view around a point of +bluff, almost running them down, then running away. Startled as he was, +Blenke would have grabbed a pony and galloped to Miss Sanford's aid, but +their ponies, too, took fright and stampeded. The Indians went in +pursuit, and by the time Blenke could again see the phaeton it was +quietly descending the little ramp to the river bottom, and all seemed +well. Then Lieutenant Ray's horse was seen galloping away toward the +fort, and that was another reason why he, a poor private, should not +presume to intrude when an officer was presumably there. He went in +pursuit of the horse. Lieutenant Ray, he said, had never liked him, +while he, Blenke, could almost lay down his life to serve Lieutenant +Ray.</p> + +<p>So Priscilla could say nothing but "Go and sin no more," and come back +to the choir, which Blenke promised faithfully to do.</p> + +<p>Then Major Dwight was at last sufficiently recovered to be pronounced +convalescent, and there had been the meeting with his beloved boy, the +first few minutes of which had been witnessed only by Dr. Waring and +Mrs. Ray, who presently, reassured by his calm, withdrew and left father +and child together. It had been followed by a regular visit each day, +limited to less than an hour for the time being. There had been two +interviews, Dr. Waring only being present and that not all the time, +between Dwight and his wife. From both of these Inez came forth weeping +convulsively, to be comforted by Félicie—and a pint of Pommery Sec. +That something had been sent to the importunate Farrells the doctor had +knowledge, and that something had been said to their daughter to plunge +her in grief inexpressible the garrison was speedily informed. "She +should leave him, this angel," said Félicie, "but she is of a devotion, +my faith, the most incomparable—the most indomitable."</p> + +<p>Then Dwight begged that Mrs. Ray should come to him, and there had been +a long talk, a reconciliation, an understanding that brought comfort to +his heart and rejoicing to hers, and then as convalescence advanced, and +his mind demanded food, Priscilla had come to read to him, and from +reading, first rather less than an hour, she was reading daily now as +much as two. It gave Madame a frightful <i>migraine</i>, said the explanatory +and fruitful Félicie, to read aloud at all.</p> + +<p>But the projected alliance, the prospective friendship so desired by +Mrs. Dwight of the elder—the highly gifted—maid had progressed no +further. From the moment of their return from that memorable drive +neither party to the proposed arrangement again referred to it. +Priscilla, who preferred to call at any other house within the limits of +Minneconjou, was now a daily visitor. Sandy Ray, who found himself +longing to go thither, could not go at all. His arrest forbade it, and +he was asking himself what might be his course were his arrest to end, +for a rumor was current at the post that a separation was +threatened—that Captain and Mrs. Dwight were certainly estranged. There +were those who considered it most indelicate under the circumstances +that an unmarried woman should appear upon the scene even as a reader to +an aging and broken man. Perhaps it was, but the doctor smiled approval. +The colonel said "Go ahead." Mrs. Ray considered her niece quite old +enough to judge for herself. Mrs. Dwight declared it angelic, and +Priscilla said nothing at all. Priscilla, who had been prone to speak on +slight reflection, had become as silent or secretive as she had once +been censorious, for never once had she mentioned to her aunt, never yet +had she made known to Sandy, that she had heard the strange words which, +with returning consciousness, Inez, the wife of Oswald Dwight, had +murmured looking up into the pallid face of Sanford Ray. Yet Ray knew, +and soon Inez, that Priscilla had heard and not forgotten.</p> + +<p>It had so happened the day of that memorable drive and catastrophe that +Sandy Ray, dismounting to the aid of Mrs. Dwight, whose slender and +lovely form lay huddled by the roadside, while Priscilla and the ponies +started on their circuit, had given no thought to his own steed, which +fact enabled that inconsiderate brute to trot away homeward. Then when +Inez came to herself (though not to her senses, else would she have said +such shocking things when Priscilla was within earshot?) there arose a +question of transportation. It was only four miles to the fort, but in +his still somewhat crippled condition that was far for Sandy to walk. It +was characteristic of Priscilla that she should promptly suggest her +driving Mrs. Dwight home at once; then, if need be, sending Hogan back +with the horse. Priscilla herself was a famous pedestrian, priding +herself on sometimes "footing" it to and from town, but never once did +Priscilla now suggest that Sandy drive Mrs. Dwight or Mrs. Dwight drive +Sandy. Priscilla, indeed, behaved with some little asperity as well as +impatience when she assured Mrs. Dwight that she had the ponies now +under complete control, and all Mrs. Dwight had to do was to get in at +once. But this required Sandy's aid and encircling arm. Then when Inez +was fairly in her reclining seat, she could not release the hand. "But +surely <i>you</i> are coming? Your horse is gone! What—walk, Miss Sanford? +Indeed, he shall not, and after having carried poor me all that +distance." (For a woman in a dead faint Inez was oddly alive to what had +been going on.) "You are coming right in here, Mr. Ray!" and she edged +vigorously over against the stout structured Priscilla in determined +effort to make room for Sandy beside her. So there he rode, saying very +little, but tumultuously thinking, Heaven only knows what, for Inez had +then eyes, ears, aye—lips, had he dared—only for him. She nestled +close and confiding in the arm trembling about her slender shoulders. He +felt the contact of her rounded form. His head was in a whirl, his heart +was in a tumult, when at last Priscilla reined in at the major's gate, +and again Sandy had almost to carry the lovely burden up the major's +steps and, with one, long, melting gaze from her glorious eyes, with +five murmured words from her exquisite, parted, passionate lips, with a +thrilling pressure from both her little hands, he delivered her into the +waiting arms of Félicie, to become again a limp and prostrate being, to +require at once her handmaid's best services—and champagne. The +quantity of Pommery Sec consumed in that house during the major's +confinement thereto, said Félicie afterwards, was, <i>o ciel</i>, of the most +incredible!</p> + +<p>It can readily be conceived that Priscilla could not soon forget the +incidents of that day's drive, the last she ever took with Inez Dwight. +What with the apparition of Blenke and the blanketed Indians at the +ravine, the runaway of the ponies on the prairie, and the astounding +revelation that followed, the honest-hearted girl was utterly at a loss +as to her duty in the premises. Six weeks back she would not have +hesitated. She would have known infallibly just what to say and do, and +unflinchingly would she have said and done it. But, all was different +now. Her faith was strong as ever, firm and unshaken, but her +self-confidence was gone. She had made some of the worst mistakes of her +thirty years within the last three months. She had justly offended her +fondest, truest friends; had brought dire distress, untold suffering, on +a most loving and devoted father, and cruel punishment to an innocent +and trusting child. Her head had been bowed to the dust in +self-condemnation, in humility unspeakable. She could have dragged +herself upon her knees every inch of the road from their door to +Dwight's, and with streaming eyes and clasping hands, a well-nigh broken +and all contrite heart, could have bathed his feet with her tears and +implored his forgiveness. It was characteristic of Oswald Dwight,—the +old Oswald Dwight coming once again through this hell of suffering and +from the very threshold of the other world into the kingdom of +self-search and self-dominion,—that he should send for her,—beg that +she should be brought to him,—that he might lift from her mind a moiety +at least of its weight of self-accusation. It was characteristic of him +thereafter that, after the first few hours with his blessed boy—and God +alone knows what intensity of prayer, petition, love, and resolve surged +through the heart and soul of the almost re-created man—he should try +to show Priscilla Sanford that he blamed himself alone, not her; that he +honored her, respected her, believed in her, and that he rejoiced to see +the friendship that was daily growing between her and his beloved little +son. The readings that seemed so long to the censorious were not all +reading, after all, for presently and little by little the book would be +dropped, the page would be discussed, and, once away from her hobby of +original, sin and universal damnation—the Calvinistic creed of that +stern, pure-hearted if Puritanical woman—there was much that appealed +to the stern, true-hearted soldier nature of the even maturer man. A +famous Covenanter—a Roundhead after Cromwell's own heart—might Oswald +Dwight have been had he dwelt in Merry England, where sunstrokes were +unknown and dark-eyed sirens seldom heard of. As for Priscilla, she +needed but the garb to fit her for the austere duties of the sect whence +sprung her mother and her name. But it was a chastened, softened, +subdued Priscilla that now wrestled in spirit with the problem set +before her. She knew no woman in all Minneconjou except Aunt Marion with +whom to take counsel, and how could she wound, terrify, Aunt Marion with +her growing suspicion! She knew but one man in all Minneconjou on whom +she felt a longing to lean the burden of her deep trouble, and how could +she bring herself to mention it to him!</p> + +<p>For within the week that followed the day of that drive and disaster the +level-headed soldier in command of the department had been to Fort +Wister; had held an official inspection and a personal investigation at +Minneconjou; had interrogated and, it was whispered, instructed Captain +Foster, with the result that, though deeply injured and properly +incensed, that officer, while urging continued effort to bring to +justice his unknown assailants, decided it was unwise to press further, +for the present at least, his charges against Lieutenant Ray. Much to +Ray's disgust, therefore, he was released from arrest without the full +and entire clearance he had hoped for, and now, with the Canteen closed +and no longer demanding his supervision, with little to do at the +Exchange, still unfit for drill or soldier duty, with his soul raging +and dissatisfied, his heart stirred anew with strange and turbulent +emotion, and his brain in a whirl,—nervous, restless, sometimes +sleepless the livelong night,—Sandy Ray had again taken to riding long +hours to get away from himself,—from everybody, as he told his anxious, +watchful, but silent mother. (How little did Priscilla dream how much +that mother knew! How little did that mother know how much Priscilla +dreamed!) And in Ray's avoidance of everything, everybody, he rode never +to town, but ever to the west and often to the clump of cottonwoods +opposite the mouth of that crooked ravine where Inez Dwight, with the +look, the touch, the temptation of the unforgotten days at Manila and +Nagasaki, had come again into his life, and whither Inez Dwight, +decorously accompanied by her sheepdog of a maid, found means to drive, +no matter which way she started, and there or about there, to meet +him,—to see him four days out of the seven,—until the climax came.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2> + +<h3>AGAIN THE SALOON</h3> + + +<p>For a man of philosophic temperament, one who seldom worried other +people or himself, Colonel Stone had been having a nerve-racking time of +it. He was troubled in the first place about the condition of affairs +military in his big command, which the general himself had referred to +as "a sad falling off," and which Stone saw no way under the law to +correct. The number of men absent without leave, absent unaccounted for, +probably in desertion, or absent "in the hands of the civil +authorities," had increased alarmingly since the closing of the Canteen. +"Skid" and his abominable community across the fords had been doing a +thriving business, and were vastly enjoying the situation. Men by dozens +who had been content, after their sharp drills or when the day's work +was done, with mild and palatable beer, now sat sullenly about their +barrack steps in the summer evenings, or, out of sheer disgust, wandered +off by twos and threes (and a new footbridge erected by Skidmore), to +spend their leisure hours and scanty cash over the reeking counters of +the saloon, deeming themselves robbed of a right accorded every other +wageworker throughout Christendom, and saying things of their Congress +it wasn't safe for their officers even to think. They did not so much +blame the women who had started the movement that spoiled their soldier +homelife—how could women of the Fold be expected to know anything about +the conditions on the frontier?—but, said our sergeants and corporals +and sturdy men-at-arms, the soldier had a right to expect that Congress +would look before it voted. Possibly had the soldiers, too, been voters +their side of the case might have met some consideration; but, being +politically on the same plane with "Indians not taxed," it was safe, at +least, to similarly fix their social status and restrictions. Forbidden +by the people he was sworn to serve, to take his temperate drink at +home, but permitted by the same people to drink his fill of fiery stuff +abroad, abroad the thirsty soldier went, and with him went many a man +who had been content with mighty little, but resented it that he should +be discriminated against, denied the right of the humblest citizen, and +declared the only white man in America fit only to be ruled as is the +red.</p> + +<p>The morning list of prisoners at Minneconjou was something over which +Stone was nearly breaking his heart. Every night now, in numbers, the +men were sneaking off across the stream, lured by the dance music, the +sound of clinking glass and soldier chorus and siren laughter. However +well the colonel might know his own profession, he was powerless under +the law to deal with this question. Here "Skid" had him and the garrison +by the throat. With the knowledge that his men were drinking, dicing, +and going generally to the devil within those ramshackle walls across +the stream, he could neither remove the victims nor dislodge their +tempters. Patrols he could send to search the roads, the open prairie, +the river bottom, but Skidmore had declared that no armed party could +legally cross his threshold, and the courts had backed him. Soldiers +roistering in the roadway in front of the dive would dart within doors +at sight of the patrol, and the officer, sergeant, or private that +entered there left hope behind of fair treatment in the civil courts. +Stone tried sending a big sergeant and six stalwart men unarmed, and +they came back eventually without coats, collars, or character, none of +them without bruises, some of them not without aid. Stone marveled that +so many of his men turned up in town drunk, helpless, and in the hands +of the local police, with fines imposed by the local magistrates, but +that, too, was presently explained. Skid kept a big, twelve-seated "bus" +that on busy nights, as the soldiers got well fuddled and completely +strapped, he would load up with the drugged and drowsy victims and, +instead of driving them over to the fort, would trundle them to town, +dump them in front of some saloon, there to be run in by a ready police, +and locked up until sober and abject. Then would come their arraignment +and the invariable "Five dollars or thirty days." Then their officers +would be notified. The fines at first were paid, until it dawned upon +Stone that Skid and Silver Hill, both, were in the swindling +combination, that after Skidmore had got the last cent of the men there +was still a way of squeezing more from the officers. As soon as the fort +realized the fact the town ceased to realize the funds, and Skidmore was +told to send no more castaways to Silver Hill, so he simply turned them +out to take their medicine where once they took their comfort—at the +post.</p> + +<p>But Skid's was a menace in yet another way, and, so long as his "ranch" +was far over to the southeast, the fort had not felt it. The noble +redman likes liquor, and the low-caste and half-breed crave it. There +were always a shabby lot of hang-dog, prowling, ill-favored +off-scourings of the Sioux lurking about Skid's premises day and night, +bartering when they had anything to barter, but generally begging or +stealing. A drunken soldier, sleeping off his whisky in the willow +patches, was ever fair game, and sometimes now soldiers were found +throttled, and robbed of their very boots and shirts. Serious clashes +had occurred, and were of almost daily happening, to the end that +officers, out fishing or shooting, had been insulted and threatened by +Indians who had sworn vengeance against the soldier, and knew no +discrimination. "We'll have trouble from that yet," Stone had told his +general, and the grave, lined face of the latter showed how seriously he +regarded the possibility. Sandy Ray, riding far out to the southwest one +summer day, had met a brace of young braves who insolently ordered him +to turn back or fight, and this when he had not so much as a pocket +pistol or an inkling that trouble was brewing. Knowing a little of their +"lingo," and something of the sign language, he demanded an explanation, +and got for answer that two of their brothers had been worsted in +conflict with him and his party. Sandy protested he had had no trouble +with any of their people, and got a prompt answer, "Fork tongue!" +"Liar!" and other expletives not printable, and he turned back before +their revolvers, wrathful, helpless, and wondering. He told his tale to +the colonel, and Stone looked solemn:</p> + +<p>"Sandy," said he, "you—take chances riding out that way. I—I've been +getting anxious about you—have been on the point of speaking—before." +Whereat Ray suddenly went crimson, through his coat of sun tan, and bit +his lip to control its quiver. "There's mischief brewing with those +people, I fear. Their agent has written me twice. One drunken brawl at +Skid's has led to clashes where whisky wasn't the inciting cause. He +says two of his young men were set upon by some of our troopers here, +and it isn't safe to meet them alone. Indeed, Sandy, I wish you'd ride +in—some other direction."</p> + +<p>It was what his mother had very gently said to him but yester morning, +before he had heard of any sign of Indian trouble. How <i>was</i> he to hear, +since he seemed to avoid the society of his kind and to prefer to live +alone? Ray left the colonel's presence with his nerves a-tingle. Had it +come to this then, that his father's old friend should say to his +father's son that—he was riding the wrong way?</p> + +<p>Yes. This was another matter that was giving Stone sore trouble. Mrs. +Stone was a woman who paid, ordinarily, little heed to garrison talk. +She and her colonel were the best of chums, and one reason was that, +even when she heard she would never carry to him the little spiteful +rumors often set astir by the envious or malicious. When, therefore, +Mrs. Stone came to him with a story at the expense of man or woman, the +colonel knew there was something behind it. Now, though Mrs. Dwight's +pretty phaeton usually <i>started</i> eastward, it speedily "changed +direction." The country about Minneconjou was very open, almost all +rolling, treeless prairie, and its hard, winding roads could be seen +criss-crossing the gray-green surface in many a mile. It seemed wicked +that Mrs. Dwight should care to stay out so long when her husband had +been so very seriously ill and was still confined to his room. Even +though he did not desire her presence, and was sore angered at and +presumably estranged from her, Minneconjou said she ought not to be +abroad, especially if it involved her meeting a young officer once +thought to have been deeply smitten with her charms. True, no one had +seen them together except from a long distance, and then it appeared +that the horseman rode for a few moments only by the side of the pretty +equipage. But, for what else could she go thither, and why, if bent on +going thither, should she thrice start by way of the east gate and then +make long, wide circuit of the prairie roads?</p> + +<p>Mrs. Stone had heard enough to convince her she ought to speak to Mrs. +Dwight, but first she must consult her husband. Stone had heard just +enough to convince him he ought to speak to Sandy, when they had their +conference, this admirable couple, and that day he spoke.</p> + +<p>And that day, as it happened, Sandy Ray had ridden home, saying to +himself "this must be the last."</p> + +<p>One morning, the first meeting since that of the runaway, she had +surprised him mooning at the cottonwoods, his horse tethered and +cropping the bunch grass, he himself stretched at length at the edge of +the stream lost in deep and somber reflection. Just where she expected, +there she found him, but not as she expected. In spite of her +effusiveness the day of the drive, he was grave, distant, unresponsive, +though she sat beaming on him from the phaeton, Félicie beside her, an +unhearing, unheeding, uncomprehending dummy. The next time Inez took the +air in that direction she saw him afar off, and he her, and rode away. +That evening she promenaded quite an hour on her veranda, and later he +got a little missive:</p> + +<blockquote><p>Will Mr. Ray, if not too busy, come to me one moment? There is a +matter on which I much desire his aid.</p> + +<p>(Signed) <span class="smcap">Inez Dwight</span>.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Ray was slowly crossing the parade, after an hour at the sergeants' +school. He could not stay home, where mother might possibly ask the +questions she sometimes looked, but he need not have feared. Dwight's +one soldier groom came speeding with the note and the word, "Mrs. +Dwight's at the gate now, sor" And at the gate she was, in diaphanous +muslin or <i>piņa</i> or <i>justi</i>—how should a man know? Ray neither knew nor +cared. His head was set against her, though his heart was throbbing +hard. He had listened just one day to her soft speeches, quivered under +her melting glance, and thrilled under her touch. Then he saw his danger +and swore he would shun it, coward or no coward. On that following day, +afar up the valley, he had set his face against her when she came in +search of him. Now he could not so affront her, though she had tricked +and affronted him. Again he was civil or coldly courteous, but he held +aloof and would not see her extended hand, whereat her underlip began to +tremble, and she laid her hand upon his arm.</p> + +<p>"Am I <i>never</i> to have a kind word, Sandy?" she pleaded, and there was +intoxication in the glance, the touch, and trembling lip. "Will you +never listen to my story, and know how I was tricked—how—how I lost +you?"</p> + +<p>And bluntly he had answered, "I do not care to know. If that is all you +wish to see me about, good-night," then turned and left her. He was +raging at the thought of her flirtation with Foster. He could not +forgive that, though for a few hours, in the amaze, bewilderment, and +vague delight with which he had heard her waking words, and read the +alluring message in her eyes, and felt the warm throb of her heart, +almost against his, as they homeward drove, with Priscilla stern and +silent at the reins, he had forgotten. He had been carried back, in +spite of all, to the thrill and glamour of those wondrous days and +almost deliriously blissful nights, sailing over moonlit summer seas, +wandering under starry summer skies, with the soft breeze laden with the +perfume of the cherry blossoms stirring her dusky hair and blowing it +upon his warm young lips. But that was far, far in the past now. He +could have listened, <i>might</i> have listened, but between her pleading +eyes—those beautiful, uplifted eyes—and him there stalked the effigy +of Stanley Foster, with that sneering, smiling, insolent, triumphant, +possessive look upon his evil face; and, though Ray hated it, it was +what he needed. Let it be remembered of him, then, that in the stillness +of the summer night when they two stood almost face to face and utterly +alone, despite her restraining hand, her beseeching touch and tone, he +turned sturdily away.</p> + +<p>But alas for human frailty, that was not the last appeal! The summer +night was young, there was a soft wind blowing from the wrong direction, +the southeast, and the strains of music, mellowed and tempered by +distance, had been wafted fortwards from beyond the stream, soon to give +way to louder, harsher strains, and be punctuated by jeering laugh or +drunken yell. It was barely ten o'clock, yet the broad walk and many a +veranda along the row seemed deserted. Walking stiffly homeward, Ray met +only one couple, and never heeded a hail or two from vine-screened +porches. He was in no mood for chat or confidence. He wished to reach +his own room, and reach it unmolested. He breathed a sigh of relief that +there was no one to detain him as he neared his own doorway. The little +parlor, too, was deserted. Mother and Priscilla had apparently gone to +some one of the neighbors. The lights were turned down on the lower +floor and all was darkness above. Doors and windows, army-fashion, stood +wide open, and, as he struck a match on reaching his little room, the +white curtains were fluttering outward under the stir of the gentle air +that swept through from the hall. He had no thought of staying. He meant +to leave his books and papers, to bathe his face and hands, for they +seemed burning, and then—he had no definite plan; he only wished to be +alone.</p> + +<p>At the foot of the stairs, as he reached the lower hall, he heard his +mother's voice. She was at the gate, Priscilla and Captain Washburn, +too, and Sandy turned, tiptoed through the hall, the dining-room, the +deserted kitchen, for the domestics had gone gossiping about the +neighborhood. Back of the kitchen, in the narrow yard, ran the +one-storied shed, divided by partitions into laundry, storeroom, coal +and woodshed, and Hogan's sleeping-room and sanctuary, and a dark form +issued from Hogan's doorway at the instant that Sandy, tiptoeing still, +came forth from the kitchen. "Hogan!" he hailed, but it was not Hogan. +It was someone of his own size and build, someone who started, then +stopped short and faced him with punctilious salute.</p> + +<p>"It is Blenke, sir."</p> + +<p>"And what the devil are you doing—there?" demanded Ray, suspicious, +irritated, nervously angered against everything, everybody; never, +moreover, approving of Blenke, and knowing well how Hogan disapproved of +him.</p> + +<p>But Blenke's voice was gentle melancholy, mingled with profound respect.</p> + +<p>"Looking for Hogan, sir. I had promised Miss Sanford to return some +books. I didn't presume to enter the house, and thought to leave a +message with him. I desired, too, to see the lieutenant, sir. My +application for transfer to the cavalry has been disapproved, and—I +hoped that he might say just a word to help me."</p> + +<p>"After that exploit of yours—last month?" And Ray's eyes grew angrier +yet. "We have too many questionable characters as it is."</p> + +<p>"Lieutenant," spoke the soldier, almost imploringly, "I am doing my best +to live down that—most deplorable affair. I was drugged, sir. There can +be no other explanation, but my captain still holds it against me, and +at the very time I most needed to be here, he has picked me out for +detached duty—to go to the wood camp in the Sagamore to-morrow."</p> + +<p>And at the instant Priscilla's crisp, even tones were heard at the rear +door. "Oh, Blenke? I <i>thought</i> I knew the voice. One moment and I'll +strike a light!"</p> + +<p>And in that moment Sandy made his escape.</p> + +<p>His mother was sitting up waiting for him when, an hour later, he came +in. Tenderly, fondly, she kissed him, and for a moment he clung to her. +Then, looking in her face, he saw impending question.</p> + +<p>"Not—not to-night, mother, darling," he hurriedly spoke. "I <i>do</i> want +to talk with you—to tell you, but not to-night. Bear with me just a day +or two, and"—then again his arms enfolded her—"trust me."</p> + +<p>Her silent kiss, her murmured blessing, was his good-night. Then she +went slowly to her room, leaving him to extinguish the lights and close +their little army home to await the coming of another day.</p> + +<p>But, somewhere about twelve there was trouble down toward the fords, and +Sandy, in no mood for sleep, went forth to inquire. The sentry on No. 3 +was standing listening to the distant jumble of excited voices. "I don't +know what it was, sir. They took some fellow up to the guard-house, and +they're hunting the willows for more." Then No. 4, behind them, set up a +shout for the corporal, which No. 3 echoed, and Sandy, not knowing what +to expect or why he should go, trudged westward up the sentry post and +found No. 4 fifty paces beyond the last quarters, the major's, and +wrathful because "some fellers," he said, had sneaked in across his +post. The corporal came panting on the run, and Ray scouted on along the +bluff, saw nothing, found nobody, turned to his right at the west gate, +glanced upward where the night light burned dimly in the patient's room, +at the closed blinds and shades of the room he knew to be hers, and all +was hushed and still within the sleeping garrison as a second time he +walked slowly homeward along the row, unseen of anybody, probably, from +the moment he left the corporal and No. 4, who had some words over the +sentry's report, and parted in ill humor. "Don't you yell for me again +until it's business, d'ye hear?" was the corporal's last injunction.</p> + +<p>Less than fifteen minutes later No. 4 was startled by a sudden sound—a +woman's half-stifled scream, followed by commotion at Major Dwight's.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2> + +<h3>A MOTHER'S DREAD</h3> + + +<p>Little Jim came over somewhat earlier than usual in the morning. He had +returned to his own room adjoining his father's as soon as the +physicians deemed it wise to permit, and the permission was given +earlier than others might have deemed wise because the doctors, both +senior and junior, agreed that Dwight's recovery would be retarded if +the boy were not close at hand, with his fond smile and caressing touch, +eager to answer the faintest call. There was something more than +pathetic in the way the somber deep-set eyes of the weak and broken man, +so infinitely humbled in his own sight, now followed Jimmy's every +movement about the room, and as soon as Dwight was strong enough to +leave his bed for a moment at a time he would be up again and again +during the night hours to gaze into Jimmy's sleeping face, to softly +touch his hand or forehead. Stratton, of the hospital force, detailed +for duty with the major, told later how the big tears would gather in +the major's eyes as he bent over the unconscious sleeper; how, many a +time he would find the major kneeling by the bedside, his lips moving in +prayer. Marion's eyes welled over when this was told her, though it +could hardly have been news. She and all who knew him in the old days +must have known how, with clearing faculties, the strong and resolute +man would suffer in the consciousness of the cruel wrong he had done his +boy, must have realized the depth of his contrition, and probably +guessed with fair accuracy the intensity of his grieving and of his +thoughts of her—the wife he had so utterly loved, so sadly +lost—Margaret, the devoted mother of his only son.</p> + +<p>And realizing this, there had come a vital question to the mind of +Marion Ray. What was to be now the father's attitude toward this +girl-wife—she who had been set in Margaret's place, never for a moment +to fill it? All Minneconjou was asking itself what would be her status, +this beautiful young creature, when reason fully resumed its sway and +Dwight was once more able to assume the reins of domestic authority? +Thus far all that was known was that estrangement existed. She, herself, +had sobbingly told her story to eager if not always sympathetic souls. +"He turns from me almost in loathing—he for whom I would gladly die!" +was her melodramatic utterance to one of her hearers, and it was quite +enough to start the story that there would certainly be a separation +just so soon as Dwight could effect it. Meantime, Inez had ever her +faithful Félicie, her phaeton, her flowers from town, her lovely gowns +and fluffy wraps, her long hours abed after sun-up, her late hours and +suppers, concerning which kitchen cabinets of officers' row had +superabundant information, and a certain firm in Silver Hill a +swift-growing account, on the face of which the item, "Case Pommery Sec, +Pints," appeared with a frequency suggestive of supper parties of +several people instead of only one or two. The domestics at the Dwights' +were a disloyal lot, if Félicie's views were accepted, but as members of +the establishment they resented it that the "frog-eating Feelissy" +should dare to give them orders. "Madame much objected to their late +hours." "It was Madame's wish they should be in their rooms by eleven +o'clock, and that even when there was a dance they should be home by +twelve." Their rooms were under the low mansard, on what might be called +the third floor, and a back staircase led from the kitchen to the upper +regions; therefore, there was no need of their entering the dining-room +late at night. Still, they saw no reason why a bolt should have been +placed on the door. They said improper things at the advent of that +obstruction during Foster's brief visit, and, after his unlamented +departure, the spare bedroom on the lower floor, assigned to that +distinguished officer, had been most ostentatiously aired. Foster's +consumption of cigarettes was something abnormal, two receivers being +sometimes left in the dining-room over night, both well burdened with +ashes and discolored ends—the only tips, by the way, the parting guest, +apparently, had time to leave.</p> + +<p>No, those servitors had rebelled at heart against both mistress and +maid, but the master's dictum had for a time enforced obedience. Now, +however, they were in almost open revolt. "It was her that drove him +crazy or he'd never have beaten Master Jimmy!" was the comprehensive +verdict. Yet housewives who heard their tales and reported them to their +lords met sometimes with rebuff. "Growl because they're sent to bed at +eleven o'clock, do they? They'd growl the harder if ordered to sit up +till then," was one way the unresponsive husband had of settling the +story. But wives, who are wiser in the ways of the domestic world, felt +sure there was something coming to explain it all, and something +came—though, so far from explaining, it seemed to make matters all the +more thrillingly inexplicable.</p> + +<p>Jimmy, as has been said, came earlier. Daddy had been up quite a while +during the night and the doctor had come over before sick call. Mamma +wasn't quite well, and Doctor Wallen had directed that daddy be +undisturbed and left to sleep, if possible, during the morning. Mamma, +of course, never came to breakfast at all now. She had her chocolate in +her room, prepared by Félicie, and seldom appeared until long after +Jimmy was out of the house. Indeed, he seldom now met mamma at all, this +in spite of the fact that, since the major's seizure, mamma had declined +all invitations to dine or sup elsewhere, and such invitations had +ceased coming, when now with entire propriety she might accept, if with +entire propriety invitations could be extended. Minneconjou society was +nearly unanimous in the view that, so long as her husband saw no +impropriety in the lady's conduct, she must be bidden. Now that he only +saw her in the presence of the doctor or the nurse, and she had for two +weeks declined to attend, there was warrant for the omission of her name +from social functions. Jimmy lunched either at Aunt Marion's, with some +of his friends, or had a chosen chum to lunch with him at home. Anything +Master Jim desired the kitchen cabinet accorded without demur. He dined +for the present with Aunt Marion, or "had his rations," as he said, when +daddy was served at seven.</p> + +<p>Mamma, attended by Félicie, dined later, in her accustomed state. +Mamma's appetite was very delicate and had to be stimulated, he said +with unconscious truth, and this morning, this particular morning, he +had had to wait for his breakfast. There was some kind of a squabble +between Félicie and the folks in the kitchen. He couldn't understand it. +They didn't like her having beaux around late at night—swore they'd +seen a fellow prowling about there two or three times, and only just +missed nabbing him at the foot of the back stairs last night, and +Félicie was white with rage. She said Butts, the groom, was a <i>cocaine</i> +(though <i>he</i> never kept any, and Félicie did) and she called the cook +<i>coshon</i>, and scolded both for having disturbed daddy. Daddy got as far +as the back stairs with his revolver, they said, before the nurse could +get him back, and they swore it wasn't their doing, but hers—her scream +that woke him, and even the sentry heard it out on No. 4 and yelled for +the corporal, and they nearly caught somebody that hid in the woodshed, +and "wasn't it funny, I never heard a thing!" and then Jimmy stopped +short, for Priscilla had stepped to Aunt Marion's side at the little +desk, and Aunt Marion was very pale. Priscilla had thrown him one +warning glance, as though to say "Hush." But Aunt Marion asked a +question.</p> + +<p>"What time did this happen, Jimmy?"</p> + +<p>"Why, after twelve, the nurse told the doctor. But, <i>wasn't</i> it funny +that I didn't hear a thing of it?"</p> + +<p>"Hear what, Jimmy?" said a voice, and Sandy, an hour late for breakfast, +stood at the open door.</p> + +<p>"Go fetch some water, quick!" said Priscilla, and Jim went like a shot, +for Sandy Ray stood just one moment, pallid and uncomprehending, then, +with a cry, sprang to his mother's side, for her eyes had closed, her +head was drooping on Priscilla's arm. "Don't touch her, Sandy! Let +me——It's—it'll be over in a minute! She has had one or two little +turns like this!" And then Jim came running with a brimming glass. Mrs. +Ray sipped slowly, lifted her head, put forth a feeble, wavering hand +toward Sandy and faintly smiled. "How—foolish!" she muttered. "You +shall have your coffee in a moment, Sandy," but Priscilla, with +determined face, stood her ground and retained her hold. "Don't let her +rise yet," said she warningly, her eyes on his face, "and—don't ask +questions of anybody. Wait!"</p> + +<p>For reasons of his own, Dr. Wallen, after hearing from the attendant of +the stifled scream downstairs at 12:25, gave instructions to speak of it +to nobody but the post surgeon when he came. He did not see, he did not +ask to see, Madame. He did not wish to see Félicie, but that ubiquitous +young person was on the landing and the verge of tears. Madame's rest +also had been cruelly disturbed by this disturbance the most +disreputable made by these <i>miserables</i>, the <i>domestiques</i> of <i>Monsieur +le Commandant</i>. Madame not until after dawn had been able to repose +herself, and as for Félicie, "me who you speak," nothing but the +pathetic condition of Madame could persuade her to remain another day in +a such establishment, wherein she, the experienced, the +most-recommended, the companion of high nobility, the all-devoted, had +been subject to insolence the most frightful——at which point the rear +door to the landing opened, and in came cook, all bristling for combat, +and the wordy battle would have reopened then and there but for Wallen's +stern, "Silence, both of you! Pull each other's hair to your heart's +content in the cellar, but not one word here." Then hied him homeward.</p> + +<p>When the senior surgeon came over later, the patient was sleeping, and, +after hearing that Wallen had been there, he left without interrogating +the nurse. All seemed going well, so Waring had nothing of especial +consequence to tell the colonel when dropping in at the office later.</p> + +<p>Even the officer of the day, in response to the question, "Anything +special to report, sir?" failed to make the faintest mention of the +excitement reported by No. 4 as occurring soon after twelve. But it was +no fault of the officer of the day. He had other and, presumably, far +more important matters to mention first, and by the time he had told +that two sergeants, three corporals and a dozen men had been run in by +the patrols, many of them battered, most of them drunk, and all of them +out of quarters, out of the post and in the thick of a row over at +Skid's; that one of the guard had been slashed with a knife in the hands +of a half-breed; that the patrol had been pelted with bottles, glasses +and bar-room bric-a-brac; that Lieutenant Stowe had been felled by a +missile that flattened the bridge of his nose, and that the prison room +was filled to the limit, the colonel would hear no more. He ordered his +horse and a mounted orderly, strode to the guard-house to personally +look over the prisoners, then set forth to town in search of the +sheriff.</p> + +<p>So the old officer of the day and the old guard were relieved and went +about their business, and while the colonel was closeted with civilian +officials in town a new story started the rounds at Minneconjou—a story +that only slowly found its way to the officers' club or quarters, for, +if the commanding officer didn't care to hear it, Captain Rollis, the +old officer of the day, cared not to refer to it, but there was one set +of quarters besides that of Major Dwight's in which some portion of the +story, at least, had been anticipated.</p> + +<p>Unable to sleep, filled with anxiety about her firstborn, Marion Ray +after midnight had left her room and stolen over to his, hoping vainly +that he might have made his way thither. But the bed was undisturbed, +the room was empty. Then she thought perhaps he might have fallen asleep +in an easy-chair in the parlor; but the parlor, too, was empty, the +lights turned low. The front door was closed for the night and bolted, +so she went to the kitchen and found the back door ajar. Somewhere out +on sentry post there was for a moment a murmur of voices, then silence +fell again, except for distant sounds at the ford—sounds to which they +were becoming accustomed, though still unreconciled.</p> + +<p>For a while she waited irresolute, vaguely distressed, then, finally, +returned to the upper floor and once again entered Sandy's room and +gazed wistfully about her. All was darkness, but the faint flutter at +the west window told her the light curtain was blowing outward, so she +went thither, drew it in and fastened it, then stepped to the other +opening to the south and looked out over the dark valley of the +Minneconjou, the sharp ridge that spanned the far horizon, and the +brilliant, spangled sky above. And while she gazed, she listened, hoping +every minute to hear the sound of his coming, even though it was no +longer the light, quick, springy step that before his wound was so like +the step she so well remembered—his father's, in the old days of the +—th. She was just turning away disappointed when far up at the west she +heard the shrill cry, "Corporal of the guard, No. 4!" heard the prompt +echo of No. 3, the more distant calls of 2 and 1, and, even before these +last, had heard the swift footfalls of the summoned guardian taking the +short cut across the parade. Two—three minutes she waited, listening +for the explanation. Vaguely, dimly, she could make out the form of No. +3 standing at the edge of the sloping bluff, listening, apparently, like +herself, for explanation of the call. None came. Then the sentry stepped +swiftly along his post in the direction of the sound, as though +something further had caught his eye or ear. Then he was lost to view, +and still she waited. Then she heard a voice that was probably the +sentry's, low and indistinct, yet like the challenge and the "Advance +for recognition". Then, a moment later, a hurried footfall, almost at a +run—a halting, uneven footfall, as though one leg was not doing its +share, and that then surely meant Sandy, and Sandy would know all that +had passed and would tell her. Yes, there he came, so vague, so shadowy, +now that, had she not heard the sound, she would not have looked for the +shadow. She saw the dark form dive quickly through the gate, then pause. +Instead of coming further, Sandy had stopped and, leaning at the +gate-post, was peering up along the fence line outside. How unlike Sandy +that seemed! Why should her son seek shelter and then turn and look back +from a safe covert along the path he came? Something urged her to softly +call his name, but, with a moment's thought, she decided against that. +She would go down, meet him, welcome him, see if there were not +something he needed, see him to his room, kiss him again good-night; and +so she took her candle to the lower floor, left it on the dining-room +table, and finally reached the rear door, even as her son came slowly up +the steps. At that instant began at the guard-house the call of +half-past twelve.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2> + +<h3>LOVE'S LAST APPEAL</h3> + + +<p>Going, as usual, next day to read an hour or so to the invalid major, +still under injunctions not to tax his eyes, Miss Sanford became +conscious of an undercurrent of something akin to sensation, something +approximating unusual excitement. Both doctors had earlier been there, +and Wallen came again. The hospital attendant seemed abnormally anxious +and officious. Félicie, infelicitously named, if it was her name, +fluttered upstairs and down, in and out of my lady's chamber, effusively +greeting the neighbors who somewhat significantly began coming in with +anxious inquiry, tender of sympathy, etc. "Couldn't help noticing the +doctor had been over three times, so fearing the major might have had a +turn for the worse," etc., etc., but it wasn't the man so much as his +wife of whom they hoped for tidings. But Félicie could fence, and would +not favor even the adroit with the desired information. Madame was still +reposing herself. Madame would assuredly promenade at horse or in +vehicle later. Madame adored the fresh, free air, and though Madame was +desolate that, alas, her physicians, these medicines, adjured her that +it was the most important she should at this time live hours in the air +and sunshine, and she was forbidden the bliss of sharing her husband's +confinement and alleviating his ennui, it was for his sake more than her +own and for the sake of their cherished hope that she meekly yield to +their mandates; and was it not a circumstance the most felicitous that +the charming Mademoiselle should be so ever-ready to read to Monsieur +the Commandant?</p> + +<p>With all its graceful, polished pleasantries at the expense of the +unmarried sister of thirty and upwards, the social world that professes +to regard her matrimonial prospects as past praying for, and herself as +oddly unattractive, is quick to take alarm when, apparently accepting +their unflattering view, she likewise accepts duties denied, as a rule, +to those who are attractive. The very girls who giggled behind "Aunt +Priscilla's" back and pitied her undesired lot were promptly and +properly aggrieved that she should prove to be so forward, so +unmaidenly. Because the right man does not happen to come into a woman's +life until so late, or because the wrong one happened in and won her +fresh young heart all too early, it results that many a better, wiser, +lovelier woman lives unmated to-day than many a woman married in her +teens. Lucky is the man the Indian summer of whose life is blessed by +the companionship of such. Minneconjou laughed at Priscilla so long as +she read to the man in hospital or the bed-ridden dames in the married +quarters; but it shied violently at her spending an hour or more each +day in reading to Dwight, even though the attendant was never away, and +Mrs. Ray, with her needlework, was often present. Was Minneconjou +already consigning the present incumbent to outer darkness and thinking +of prescribing another mate for Oswald Dwight?</p> + +<p>Not only did Priscilla note the incessant flittings about the house, but +presently she saw that Dwight's attention was wandering. From the +adjoining room the muffled sound of voices, in petulant appeal or +expostulation, was at times distinctly audible. Félicie wished Madame to +do something, apparently, which Madame was determined not to do.</p> + +<p>Félicie came once or twice with Madame's devoted love to ask if there +was anything Monsieur desired or lacked, and to flash guarded +malevolence at Priscilla. Félicie came again to say Madame was +recalcitrant. She feared Monsieur had not rested well <i>cette nuit</i>, and +she wished well to postpone her promenade, but the doctor he had +prescribed and Monsieur he had desired that Madame neglect no +opportunity to take the air, and would not Monsieur again conjure +Madame? Madame was deaf to these the protestations of her most devoted. +Dwight rose slowly from his reclining chair and, excusing himself to the +patient reader, was gone but a moment or two, and Madame was ravishingly +gowned and most becomingly hatted and veiled when, just for a moment, as +the day's session was closing and the fair reader about departing, +Madame rustled in to archly upbraid Monsieur for his cruelty in ordering +her to take her drive when it was impossible for him to be at her side. +"Ah, but next week—next week!"—this, doubtless, for the benefit of +Priscilla—"we shall see!"</p> + +<p>The phaeton was at the door and Priscilla walked silently, thoughtfully, +homeward. Aunt Marion was at her desk, writing pages to the +soldier-husband and father in the distant Philippines. The sweet face +was looking grave and careworn. There were traces of tears, there were +dark lines, about the soft blue eyes, as Priscilla bent and tenderly +kissed her. "Do come down and let me make you a cup of tea," she +pleaded. "You've been writing—and I reading—long. I'd like some, too. +Is—is Sandy home?"</p> + +<p>"Riding," said Aunt Marion briefly, and Priscilla knew.</p> + +<p>Ordinarily, half a dozen women would come drifting in to Mrs. Ray's +during the summer afternoon. To-day there were none. They heard voices +on the walk, voices that seemed to hush as the gate was neared, and only +to resume in low tone after it was passed. Priscilla could not account +for the unusual depression that had seemed to possess Aunt Marion even +when struggling against it herself. At breakfast time Aunt Marion had +been unusually silent, unusually watchful of Sandy, who, before he would +touch his fruit or sip his coffee, had gone forth to the bench in rear +of quarters, searching, he said, for some memoranda he might have +dropped out there at night. He had hunted all through the pockets of his +khaki rig, that he happened to be wearing at that time, and to no +purpose. He must have whipped it out with his handkerchief, he +said—"just that little flat memorandum book" they had often seen him +have, with a few loose pages—no earthly use to anybody but him, no +great consequence, and yet, after breakfast, he was searching again, and +had Hogan searching, and again he returned and hunted all through his +room, and investigated cook and housemaid, and again went forth. +Priscilla found herself unable to cast it from her mind or to cause her +aunt to forget it. Sandy had been gone an hour when she returned, and +had said not to wait dinner; he might ride late and long and far.</p> + +<p>"But not toward the reservation," he assured his mother, seeing the +trouble in her face. "Though I'd more than like to ride over there with +the troop and round up those blackguard reds that turned me back."</p> + +<p>"Those blackguard reds" were forbidden by their agent to set foot north +of the Minneconjou, where the ranchers and settlers and miners were +frequent. But still the mother was anxious, filled with dread she could +not speak, and even as she now sat, absently toying with her teaspoon, +the maid came in with a note. "A soldier friend of Blenke" had just +brought it for Miss Sanford.</p> + +<p>So Priscilla opened and read:</p> + +<blockquote><p>Miss Sanford will pardon, I pray, the liberty I probably take in +presuming to address her, but our plea to the captain was +fruitless. He insists on my going with the detachment to the wood +camp; so, long before this reaches Miss Sanford we shall have +started, and it may be days before relief will come. Meantime, with +my assurance that with Heaven's help I shall yet redeem myself in +her estimation, I remain Miss Sanford's grateful and humble +servant,</p> + +<p><span class="smcap">P. Blenke.</span></p></blockquote> + +<p>Verily, the young man wrote with a pen of the courtier and scholar of +olden time rather than the rude trooper. Verily, Blenke was a man of +parts—and played them.</p> + +<p>"Where is that wood camp?" asked Aunt Marion, with languid interest, +relieved, she knew not why, that Blenke should be gone.</p> + +<p>"Far up the foothills—west. It seems that lately the Indians have been +threatening and abusive," said Priscilla. "That's why the guard was +sent. They march soon after reveille, and—he was so unwilling to go +just now, when he hoped to arrange matters about his—commission," and +Miss Sanford's clear gray eyes, much finer and softer they seemed +without the <i>pince nez</i>, were lifted again, half timidly, half +hopefully.</p> + +<p>"How could he expect or hope for such a thing now?" answered Mrs. Ray, +with some asperity. "What officer would recommend him after that—that +exhibition?"</p> + +<p>Priscilla colored. That episode was a sore point, but not a settler. "He +said it depended little on the officers, auntie," was the gently +forceful answer, "so long as he had the senator behind him." Whereupon +Aunt Marion arose and peered through the one window in the little +dining-room that opened to the west. She was forever peering up the +valley now, and Priscilla well knew why. The maid again appeared. +"Phelps, ma'am, Blenke's friend, came back with this," and she held +forth a letter. "He said it was found on sentry post up the bench."</p> + +<p>Mrs. Ray turned quickly and held forth her hand. Silently Miss Sanford +passed the letter to her. It was an ordinary missive, in business +envelope, addressed to Lieutenant Sanford Ray, Fort Minneconjou, and it +had been opened. The torn flap revealed the fact that there were two or +three separate inclosures. For a moment Mrs. Ray turned it in her +slender fingers, thinking intently, then, suddenly recollecting, told +the maid to give her thanks to the soldier if he were still waiting. She +wished to ask had anything else been found, but that, if he cared to, +was for Sandy to do when he came. Then she took the letter to her room, +and stowed it in a pigeonhole of her desk against her boy's return—then +sat her down to wait.</p> + +<p>Meanwhile the object of so much thought and love and care had ridden +many a mile, his brain in a whirl of conflicting emotions. There had +come to him the previous night, in the interval between that brief +interview with Blenke and the later meeting with his mother, a messenger +with a note. It was the same messenger, Butts, the soldier groom, who +had only a short time earlier met him with her note upon the parade. +Ray, fleeing from a possible meeting with Priscilla, had left her and +her soldier <i>protégé</i> together, and slipping out of the rear gate had +gone walking up the bluffs. It was not quite time for taps and the +sentries to begin challenging. He could have gone through the yard of +any one of the adjacent quarters and so reach the front, the promenade +walk and the wide parade, but he wished to be alone, under the starry +skies. He needed to think. What could she have meant by saying, "How +they tricked me—how I lost you?" He had blamed her bitterly, savagely, +for her cold-blooded, heartless jilting of him, without ever a word of +explanation. It was so cruel, so abominable a thing that, perhaps, even +Inez Farrell could not, without some excuse or reason, be guilty of it. +And now she was striving to tell him, to make him understand; now she +was alienated from her husband and not, so Dwight's own references to +Foster would go to prove, not because of this affair with Captain +Foster. She said it was her right to be heard. Perhaps it was. If she +had been tricked, deceived, wronged—such things had happened—the story +was old as the Deluge and might be true, and if true, was it decent to +treat her with studied contempt? If she had been tricked into throwing +him over—if, if she had been true in saying she loved him, as fervently +she swore that last sweet night under the cherry blossoms in Japan, was +it manly to—to crush and scorn her now?</p> + +<p>He was again, with downcast eyes, slowly pacing the bluff and in rear of +the major's quarters when, far over toward the guard-house, the soft, +prolonged notes of "Lights out" were lifted on the night, and he almost +collided with a man coming quickly forth from the gate. The rear door +had closed with a bang but the moment before, and Félicie's voice, in +subdued tone, had been faintly audible. The man proved to be the same +who had come to him so short a time before, and the mission was +practically the same, "A note for the lieutenant."</p> + +<p>Ray took it to the west gate and read it under the lamp.</p> + +<blockquote><p>I ask for only five minutes, at the old place, about the same hour +to-morrow. I will never ask again, for I am to leave +Minneconjou—and him—forever.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Startled, stunned, he read her words. Was it then so <i>very</i> serious as +this would imply? Was it her doing, or her husband's, that she should +leave? Was it possible that he, Sandy Ray, was even remotely a cause? He +could not fathom it. He would not rudely refuse. That would be simply +brutal. But why could she not see him here at home on the veranda? Why +must the meeting be so far from the post—so close to the—clandestine? +Mother had said——Then suddenly he bethought him that mother wished to +speak with him, that he had promised her to be home about taps, and, +even though he could not, dare not, talk with her to-night, he could and +should go to her at once.</p> + +<p>He started; then, hearing laughing voices and light footsteps along the +walk ahead of him, hesitated. Some of those teasing, tormenting garrison +girls, of course! He could not face them. Abruptly he turned again, +passed round in rear of Dwight's, stowing the note in a little notebook +as he sped and the book in the breast pocket of his khaki tunic. Some +backstair flirtation was going on in the dusk of the summer night, not +ten paces ahead, for there was sound of playful Hibernian pleading, a +laughing, half-repelling, half-inviting "Ah, g'wan now!" followed by a +slap. A trim young trooper leaped backward from a gateway to avoid +another shock—and met it on Ray's stout shoulder. The collision +startled one and staggered both. The Irish lad, all confusion, sprang +for his officer's hat and restored it with, "Beg a thousand pardons, +Lieutenant," and blessed his young superior's kindly, "No harm done, +Kelly," as, whipping out his handkerchief, Ray sped along, dusting off +the felt.</p> + +<p>And that harm had been done he never knew till later.</p> + +<p>He had managed to put mother off until the following day; had gone forth +a second time, as has been told; had passed a second time the gate where +earlier in the evening she had awaited him. All at the moment was +apparently quiet. He had almost reached home when the sound of harsh +voices out beyond the east gate caught his ear—more poor devils coming +or being dragged home from the hog ranch. Suddenly there came the sound +of muffled curses and blows. Sandy wondered why No. 2 did not call the +corporal. He hastened onward and out beyond the gate and came upon the +explanation: no need to call the corporal when two were already there, +with several of the guard, striving hard to lug peaceably to the prison +room a sextette of soldier revelers who resented being either lugged or +persuaded. The guard couldn't bear to hurt their fellows: who could say +but that conditions and parties might be reversed within the week? The +row subsided with the sight of Lieutenant Ray, but not until it had +prevented his hearing the call for the corporal that came from No. 4. He +found the front door bolted when he got back to the house, and, +remembering having bolted it, passed round to the rear steps and +then—met his mother at the door.</p> + +<p>She had even more to ask him then, yet once more he pleaded: "Wait until +to-morrow night." So wait she did, patiently, prayerfully, trustfully, +until the morrow's night; and then, not so patiently, but, oh, even more +prayerfully, longer, very much longer.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2> + +<h3>THE LOST FOUND</h3> + + +<p>"At the usual place and about the usual hour" the pretty phaeton, with +its fair charioteer and her black-browed companion, drew up that +afternoon under such shade as the cottonwoods afforded and waited for +the coming of a rider who, starting some time ahead, was now some time +behind. Nor did he seem to hasten when finally he came suddenly into +view at the mouth of that well-remembered ravine, and rode straight but +slowly to the rendezvous. She, the charioteer, exquisitely gowned as we +saw her parting from her invalid husband, watched him with dilating +eyes, alighted as he neared the grove, walked a dozen yards or so to +meet him and by his side as he led his mount to a point beyond earshot +of the carriage. "<i>You</i> may trust that woman, Mrs. Dwight," said he, +"but I do not. I have come at last and against my judgment to hear——"</p> + +<p>"<i>Mrs. Dwight!</i>" she began, with pouting reproach. "Are we at the hop +room, Sandy, or are we,"—and the dark eyes slowly lifted,—"are we back +again at Nagasaki?"</p> + +<p>"We are never <i>that</i>!" was the quick reply, as he bent and knotted the +reins about a sapling at the brink; then, suddenly facing her: "I said I +should not meet you here again. I have come for this last time solely at +your urging. Never until this week have I shrunk from my mother. Never +after this day shall I do it again. You say I have wronged you—hurt +you—inexpressibly, and you wish to tell me why. Go ahead!"</p> + +<p>With that he pulled his hatbrim well down to his eyebrows, folded his +arms, crossed one spurred heel over the tan-booted mate and leaned +against a sturdy cottonwood. There was just a spice of the theatrical +about it all, but he was young, sore-hearted and hurt. It left no +support for her, unless she leaned on him, which nothing in his attitude +seemed to invite. Inez had no use for folded arms. To her they should be +either outstretched or enfolding.</p> + +<p>"You are harsh and cold and bitter, Sandy. You make it so much harder +for me to begin," she whimpered, pathetically, prettily, like a spoiled +child sure of ultimate triumph. "Why did you never answer my letter from +San Francisco?"</p> + +<p>"I never got it."</p> + +<p>"Then even that early he had begun to doubt me and to fear—you," and +again the lovely eyes were making play. "And now he hates me, because he +himself was a brute to his boy. He upbraids me for that, and—and for +Mr. Foster."</p> + +<p>"God! I should think he might!"</p> + +<p>"Sandy, Sandy!" she cried, stepping impetuously a pace nearer. "Do you, +too—do you <i>dare</i> think me so base—me, when at Naples I would not even +let you stay—you whom I longed to speak with? Ah, how unjust!—how +mean! how cruel! And now, when I am almost friendless, you who professed +so much—<i>you</i> are the first to turn from me." Indeed, he was turning, +and his face was growing very white again—his eyes were gazing anywhere +but at her, and she saw it, and with both her firm little hands seized +his left arm as though to turn him back. "Sandy, you <i>shall</i> hear me, +for I'm desperate, starving, and that man, he—he tells me I lied to +him; and I did, I did lie—<i>for you</i>! He talks to me of +a—settlement—of sending me home. Why, I <i>have</i> no home! I have no +father. My own was buried years ago. I have no mother, for she has no +thought but for him—who has disgraced us all and robbed Major Dwight of +thousands and dared to threaten me—<i>me</i>, because the major would not +send more. Oh, you <i>shall</i> listen! It's for the last time, Sandy, and +you <i>shall</i> know the truth! Oh, how <i>can</i> you so humiliate a woman +who—who——<i>Look</i> at me, Sandy, look, oh, my soldier boy, and see for +yourself! They robbed me of you, my heart's darling! They stole every +letter. They never let me see you, and they——Oh, you think this the +old worn-out story of the cruel parent and the suffering child, but I +<i>will</i> convince you!" And now her hands quit their hold upon his arm and +tore at the bosom of her dainty gown—tore it open to the filmy lace and +ribbon underneath—tore off the driving glove from her right hand, +hurling it to the ground, and then the slim, nervous little fingers went +burrowing within. "You <i>dare</i> doubt I love you!" she cried, and now her +eyes were ablaze, her rich, red lips were parted, her breath came +panting through the pearly gate, her young bosom was heaving like a +troubled sea. "I told you I had burned your letters—such as I had. They +burned them for me, but they could not burn your picture—<i>I</i> did +that—I, with my mad kisses, Sandy!" And from its warm nest she drew it, +the very one he had given her in Manila, the brave, boyish face in its +tiny frame of gold, moist and blurred as though indeed her lips, her +tears, had worn it dim. "You will not look?" though one quick glance he +shot, then, with the blood surging through his veins, he turned again +and covered his eyes with his arm. "Then hear—this—and this," and +long, passionately, repeatedly she kissed the senseless, unresponsive +counterfeit, and then, letting it hang by its slender chain, once more +seized his arm and burst into a passion of tears. Then suddenly, +fiercely, she thrust him aside, turned, started swiftly away, took but +four tottering steps and, finally, almost as she did the day of the +drive, toppled headlong.</p> + +<p>When Félicie thought it time to take another decorous look, Mr. Ray was +kneeling by that fair, prostrate form, lifting the lovely head upon his +knee, one arm about her neck, the other drawing her to his breast, and +he was raining kiss after kiss upon the sweeping, long-lashed eyelids, +upon the pallid cheek, upon the exquisite mouth, and presently a slender +arm stole languidly about his neck and drew and held his lips to hers.</p> + +<p>It was nearly five that evening when the pretty phaeton whirled homeward +through the west gate. It was nearly nine when Lieutenant Ray came +slowly up-hill from the stables and, climbing the short flight to the +rear doorway, found his mother and Priscilla awaiting him in the +dining-room. He had eaten nothing since a late breakfast, and an +appetizing supper was in readiness. He looked very pale, very tired, and +to the fond and anxious eyes uplifted hopefully at first, very ill—too +ill, perhaps, to note how ill she looked, the loving and tender and +faithful one, who long hours had been waiting, watching, listening for +his step, praying for his safe return, hoping for the promised +confidence. She knew when the phaeton came, though she said naught of it +to her niece. Nearly a mile of the valley road could be seen from +Sandy's window, where she hovered much of the time until the sun went +down. Now she quickly rose and went to him, and with her soft hands on +his temples kissed his forehead, for he bowed his head, and for the +first time in his life his lips dared not even touch her cheek. "I—I'm +about used up, mother," he faltered. "I—can I have some tea? Then I'll +get a warm bath, please, and go to bed. Has—anyone been here for +me—inquired for me?"</p> + +<p>The sudden upward look, the anxiety in his tone, might well have warned +her, but there was something she had to know, something that ever since +evening gunfire had been preying on her mind. No. 4's story had spread +by this time all over the post, growing, probably, with each repetition. +There had been a tragic scene of some kind at Major Dwight's shortly +after midnight. Jimmy had prepared her for that much. No. 4 had heard +screams; then lights went flitting to and fro, and there was sound of +scuffling and running about, and the guard had almost arrested someone +who came dashing from the rear gate and was lost in the darkness and the +yards below. No, nobody had come to ask for Sandy! It seemed strange +that so very few of the officers had even passed that way. Everybody had +business at the office, the Club, the barracks, the guard-house; even at +Dwight's there had been a sort of impromptu conference, but nobody had +been there to disturb them in any way—no officers, at least; but Sandy +read the impending truth in his mother's eyes. She was talking +nervously, with hardly a pause, as though she wished him to know all she +knew before he could speak, and, even as Priscilla moved noiselessly +about, brewing his tea and arranging his supper, Marion, the mother, +talked rapidly, wretchedly on.</p> + +<p>Yes, there was something. The notebook had been found and brought home. +She would get it for him. It was right there in her desk. Priscilla +handed it, and he almost snatched it from her, swiftly turning the +leaves; then, seizing it by the back, shook it vehemently. A few scraps +and clippings fluttered to the floor, but not the paper he needed.</p> + +<p>"Who brought it? How did it come?" he demanded, a world of trouble, +almost terror, in his eyes.</p> + +<p>"Major Dwight's man," she answered, her blue eyes almost imploringly +fixed upon his face.</p> + +<p>"<i>Dwight's</i> man! But how, <i>how</i>, mother? Was there no word? Was it +wrapped, or——?"</p> + +<p>"Just as you see it, Sandy. He merely said it had been picked up and +left at the house. He brought it here when he heard it was yours."</p> + +<p>The tea stood untasted before him. He had not even taken his seat. Pale +to his lips, and with hands that trembled almost as did her own, Sandy +stood facing his mother, and Priscilla stepped quietly from the room.</p> + +<p>"Did he say <i>who</i> found it—and where?" he asked.</p> + +<p>"He finally said it was—picked up <i>at</i> Major Dwight's," was her answer, +and imploringly still the blue eyes searched his face, and for an +instant lighted with hope.</p> + +<p>"But I never set foot at Major Dwight's—I've never been inside his +gates since I called there with you. The nearest I've been was the front +gate, and then, <i>this</i> couldn't have been with me."</p> + +<p>"Why, Sandy?"</p> + +<p>"Because it was in the breast pocket of my khaki—the thing I wore when +we said good-night; but it seemed to grow chilly—or I did. I changed to +the blue coat before going out at twelve. Lucky, too, for I had to go +out front and help with some poor devils brought in from Skid's. I saw +your light when coming home over the parade and wondered if the row had +kept you awake."</p> + +<p>"You—came in the <i>front</i> way, Sandy?" And the blue eyes seemed to +implore him to stop, to reflect, to remember.</p> + +<p>"Why, certainly, mother. I was afraid you'd hear me trying the front +door or hobbling round on the planks. What brought——Why, <i>mother</i>!"</p> + +<p>With her heart almost stilled, with her hands on her breast, with a +blanched face and stricken eyes, Marion slowly found her feet, then +rested one hand upon the table before she could steady herself to speak:</p> + +<p>"Sandy, think! Do you mean you were not—<i>there</i> when the sentry No. 4 +called; that you did not come hurrying home and stop there—at the back +gate?"</p> + +<p>"Mother, dear, what can you mean? When I met you at the door I had just +come round from the front, from over near the guard-house. The officer +of the guard had his hands full and——Priscilla, quick!"</p> + +<p>And Priscilla came at speed, and, after one swift look as they lifted +the drooping form to a sofa, whispered: "The doctor! Run!"</p> + +<p>And though running was beyond him, Sandy limped in frantic haste, for +the mother's heart and health had seemed failing her for weeks, and this +was most alarming. Even at ten o'clock she had not fully regained +consciousness, but was mending, and by that time both doctors had come +to her, and Mrs. Stone was at her bedside, while Priscilla, calm, grave +and self-poised, was answering the many anxious, sorrowful inquiries, +for no woman at Minneconjou was loved and honored more than Marion Ray, +who, believing the evidence of her own senses sufficient to confirm an +ever-growing, dreadful suspicion, had gone down under the blow.</p> + +<p>There had been, as was said, some kind of conference during the late +afternoon. The colonel, the post surgeon, two or three wise-heads among +the field and senior line officers and that indispensable adjutant. +There had come quite late an aide-de-camp of the department commander, +who had been at Wister and at some investigation over at the Minneconjou +agency, who had something to say concerning the state of mind in which +he found Captain Foster, which was bad; the state of mind in which he +found the redmen—which was worse; and finally the state of things on +both sides of the stream at Minneconjou—which was worst of all. +Foster's rancor against Ray was venomous as ever, and he claimed to have +new evidence, the mention of which made both Stone and the surgeon look +grave. The agent's worry as to his turbulent charges was doubled by new +events, and he demanded immediate aid. The post guard reports and the +ranch-keeper's defiance told all too vividly how the devil had triumphed +at Minneconjou. The colonel, the chaplain, the commissioned force, were +helpless against the Act of Congress that had taken away their best hold +on the men and turned the men over to the enemy. The situation, so far +as Skid and his saloon and satellites were concerned, was past praying +for. But there were "some things, thank God," said Stone, in which he +could still strike for the good name of his garrison. Foster's new +evidence should be investigated, said he, and as for the agent, he +should have his guard, and a strong one, forthwith.</p> + +<p>"How did you leave Mrs. Ray, doctor?" he asked his medical man and +next-door neighbor on the left, as Waring came tramping home soon after +taps.</p> + +<p>"Resting quietly, colonel. She will do very well to-morrow."</p> + +<p>Stone had come down to the gate to meet him. One glance he threw to the +right and left, then lowered his voice.</p> + +<p>"Any reason why Sandy shouldn't go in command of a guard to the agency +in the morning?"</p> + +<p>"No reason why he shouldn't, sir, and—several why he should."</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2> + +<h3>A WELCOME PERIL</h3> + + +<p>"For such light duty as he may be able to perform," read the order that +had brought Sandy Ray to Minneconjou. First it was the Canteen, and +under the young officer's zealous management that fiercely assailed and +finally abolished institution had been a credit to the post and a +comfort to the men. It was not the duty Ray best loved, by any means, +but, being debarred by his wound from active exercise, compelled as yet +to ride slowly and with caution, he had thankfully accepted and +thoroughly performed it. Then had come his serious trouble, and then, +when, had he known the stories in circulation, he should have remained +to face them, he was ordered away, leaving, like Sir Peter Teazle, his +character behind him.</p> + +<p>He was ordered to a difficult, probably dangerous and possibly perilous +duty, and, knowing this, he could not for an instant delay or demur. It +wasn't in the blood of the Rays to shirk. Far better might it have been +for Sandy had someone, either friend or foe, suggested that his being +selected, when he belonged to neither regiment represented in the +garrison, was in itself intimation that the stories at his expense were +believed, and if that were true he should be sent to Coventry—not to +command. There were young fellows in both the cavalry and infantry at +Minneconjou who would eagerly have welcomed the detail, with its chance +of swelling an efficiency record. Under any other circumstances there +might have been protest, there would have been growling. Now there were +only silence and significant looks. Even at the Club (Minneconjou had +set its seal against the time-honored, but misleading, appellation +"Mess"), where her name could not be mentioned, even in a whisper, the +order was accepted without comment. There was a woman in the case!</p> + +<p>Ordinarily, under circumstances demanding the detail of a guard for such +purposes, post commanders would send a company under a captain, or half +a company under a subaltern; but Stone hated to lose a unit from his +regimental line. He had sent to the wood camp a sergeant with a dozen +picked men—one or two from each of his infantry companies. Now he sent +a lieutenant and thirty of the rank and file, selected at random, to the +aid of the agent. Of this thirty a sergeant, two corporals and twelve +men were taken from the squadron, for it might be necessary to send out +mounted men to make arrests, said the agent, and the agency police were +sullen over recent happenings. Sandy was notified by a call from the +post adjutant about 11:30, just as he was softly locking up for the +night. He listened in silence, made no comment, asked no questions, +completed his few preparations, bade Priscilla keep it all from his +mother until after he was gone, for rest and sleep were most essential, +and at dawn, with dark-rimmed eyes and solemn face, he stole to the +half-open doorway, beyond which the night lamp dimly glowed; listened; +entered one moment and softly kissed the dear hand that lay so wearily +upon the coverlet; looked fondly at the gentle, careworn face, and then, +with firm, set lips, turned stealthily away. Priscilla was up and had +hot coffee ready for him below stairs, and possibly admonition, but this +she spared him. Oh, if Priscilla had but known what Aunt Marion had seen +at the rear gate two nights before, what might she not have said to +both! for Priscilla, too, had had her vigil, had both seen and heard and +knew more than Aunt Marion even thought she knew.</p> + +<p>"It is barely ten miles," said Sandy. "Couriers will be riding to and +fro. Then there's the telephone by way of town, unless the wires are +cut. Let me hear of mother night and morning, Pris. Now, I've got to +go."</p> + +<p>She stood at the window of his room an hour later, watching the little +command as it wound away among the dips and waves of the southward +prairie, until finally lost to sight. This was a new phase to the +situation. Priscilla had never pictured the modern redman save as she +had heard him described at church sociables, peace society meetings and +the occasional addresses of inspired "Friends of the Indian," who came +soliciting the sympathies—and subscriptions—of the congregation. The +few specimens that had met her gaze about town, the station and the +fords were, she felt sure, and justly sure, but frowsy representatives +of a magnificent race. It was only when the agent, himself a godly man, +had come and told his recent troubles, after evening service, that +Priscilla began to realize how, despite his innate nobility of character +and exalted ideals and eloquence, the average ward of the nation was not +built on the lofty plane of Logan, Osceola and Chief Joseph. He was +quite capable of extravagant demands of his own and of raising the devil +when he didn't get what he wanted.</p> + +<p>There were other eyes, and anxious eyes, along the bluffs and the +southward windows of officers' row. There were women and children, even +at that early hour, clustered at the little mound beyond the west gate, +whence the last peep could be had at the "byes" as they breasted and +crossed Two-Mile Ridge. There were garrison lads on their ponies, little +Jim among them, who rode forth with the detachment as far as the +railway, and were now racing back. There were even watchers in the upper +windows at Skid's, for the word had gone from lip to lip that the +Indians were in a fury and meant business this time. But there was +darkness, there was silence, there were only drawn blinds and lowered +shades and apparent indifference at Major Dwight's. Possibly Jimmy was +the only one who had heard. Possibly Inez did not know; mayhap she did +not care.</p> + +<p>The boy's face was hot and flushed that afternoon, and he lay down a +while, an unusual thing with him, but he had been up very early and out +very long and riding in the breeze. All this might tend to make him +drowsy. He had come as usual to tell his father all about Mr. Ray's +march and the boy escort. A prime favorite and something of a hero was +Sandy Ray among the boys about the post, and Jimmy did not know just why +daddy seemed so uninterested. Perhaps he, too, was tired. After +breakfast Jim had gone to see Aunt Marion, and returned disappointed, +and, after an inning or two of ball, which he played but languidly, had +come home for a snooze, and found daddy talking gravely with gentlemen +from town who had been to see him before, and had queer-looking papers +for him to sign, not a bit like the innumerable rolls, returns and +company things he had to attend to when captain of a troop. Jim awakened +only with difficulty and only when called. He had promised to lunch with +Harold Winn, and went, slowly and heavily, but came back soon with a hot +headache, and was again sleeping when the phaeton drove round for mamma +and Félicie, and he did not know that this time mamma came not to see +daddy before starting. He did not know that Miss Sanford came not to +read. He did not know just what to make of things when he found daddy +bending over him at sunset, with anxiety in his face, and young Dr. +Wallen was helping undress and get him regularly to bed.</p> + +<p>Mamma and Félicie had come home before the usual time, and Jim never +knew that, or what happened later, until very long after. But something, +it seems, had occurred during the drive to greatly agitate mamma, and +that evening her condition demanded the ministrations of both the +physician and her maid. That night something further occurred that led +to much more agitation and weeping and upbraiding and reproaches and +accusations and all manner of things his father evidently wished him not +to hear, for he firmly closed the door between their rooms. The doctor +came a third time, and in the morning, burning with fever and caring +little whither he went, Jimmy was only vaguely conscious that he was +being gently borne down the stairway and into the open air, and thought +he was flying until again stowed away between sheets that seemed so +fresh and cool, and once he thought daddy was standing over him, dressed +again in his uniform, and he was sure Aunt Marion had bent to kiss him, +and then that every now and then Miss 'Cilla placed a slim, cool hand +upon his forehead and removed some icy bandage that seemed almost to +sizzle when it touched his skin. From time to time something was fed him +from a tiny spoon, and all the time he was getting hotter and duller, +and the lightest cover was insupportable, and he wished to toss it +off—toss everything off—toss himself off the little white bed; and +then, mercifully, Jim knew nothing at all but dreams for many a day +until he and Minneconjou came once more slowly to their senses, for +Minneconjou had been every bit as flighty, as far out of its head, as +Jimmy Dwight, and it had not typhoid to excuse it, either.</p> + +<p>The day following Jimmy's seizure, Major Dwight appeared in public again +for the first time since his strange attack. He had ever been of spare +habit, but now he was gaunt as a greyhound, and his uniform hung +flabbily about his wasted form. He looked two shades grayer and ten +years older. His eyes were dull and deep-set. His face was ashen. He was +not fit to be up and about, said the doctors, but could not be kept at +home. Mrs. Dwight was in semi-hysterical condition, requiring frequent +sedatives and unlimited Félicie. There had been—yes, in answer to +direct question, the physicians had to own—there had been a scene +between the aging husband and the youthful wife and, though the details +were fairly well known to these gentlemen, they were almost as fairly +kept inviolate. But for the voluble, the invaluable Félicie, Minneconjou +might have been kept guessing for ten days longer. Dwight spent his +waking hours mostly at the Rays', wistfully watching the doctor and +pleading to be admitted to the bedside of the burning little patient, a +thing they could not permit, for Dwight was still too weak to exercise +the needed self-control. It seemed as though he had forgotten the +existence of Inez, his wife, the existence of Foster, the existence of +Sandy Ray and everybody and anybody beyond Jimmy and those who were +ministering to him. Mrs. Ray, once again moving, though languidly, about +her household duties (for Priscilla was utterly engrossed with the boy) +had made the major as comfortable as he would permit in the little +library below stairs, where he had an easy chair in which he could +recline, and books, desk, writing material, but no one to read to him; +and, as it turned out, he would do nothing but move restlessly about, +listen for every sound from the upper floor where Jim lay in Sandy's +bed, and waylay the doctors or anybody who might have tidings. Once or +twice, there or at home, he had to see the colonel, the adjutant or his +own second in command, Captain Hurst, but the lawyers came no more. All +proceedings were called off for the time being. Everything in his mind +hinged on the fate of Jimmy, and, one thing worth the noting, Madame and +the phaeton went no more abroad.</p> + +<p>But if he had apparently forgotten, Félicie had not, the incidents of +that stormy meeting, the episode that led to it and the consequences to +be expected. Félicie felt that the public should be enlightened and +public opinion properly aroused as to the major's domestic misrule. It +was high time all Minneconjou was made to know this monster and "the +hideous accusations he make against this angel, and this angel's the +most devoted myself that to you speak." From the torrent of her tirade, +occasionally, drops of information seemed to accord with the rumors +dribbling about the garrison. Minneconjou knew that the well-named and +impenetrable post commander was in possession of facts he could impart +to nobody; that he had been questioning and cross-questioning corporal +and men, the latter recent occupants of sentry posts Nos. 3 and 4; that +these gentry had been ordered by him to hold no converse with anybody; +that he had again called up two of the three men incarcerated at the +time of the assault upon Captain Foster, and it was now definitely known +that these two had both served under Foster in the —th Cavalry, +although both now protested they always considered him a model officer +and a perfect gentleman. To offset this was the statement of Sergeant +Hess, of the Sixty-first, who said he had once served at the same post +with them, though not in the cavalry, and knew they bore bad characters +and would bear watching. Then he was sent for, and then it transpired +that No. 3 of the suspected trio had gone with the guard to the agency, +and he, said Hess, had been the worst of the lot. His name to-day was +Skelton, but in those days they knew him as Scully. Had it not been that +a dozen other men were out the night of that assault, this might have +clinched the case against them. It was enough, at least, to keep them +under surveillance.</p> + +<p>But other stories, readily confirmed by Félicie, were to the effect that +Dwight had accused his wife of deliberate falsehood in denying that she +had met Mr. Ray at Naples; of deliberate intent to make him believe +Jimmy a liar when adhering to his story that Mr. Ray had come and spoken +to her (a dream! a vision! declared Félicie); of deliberately accusing +him of rudeness, insolence, affront to Captain Foster and herself in +refusing to deny he had seen them together in the parlor during church +time ("a mere incident of the most innocent," said Félicie, "of which +this infant terrible would have made a mountain"). Moreover, the monster +had "accused Madame of all manner of misdoings with this most amiable +the Captain Fawstair," and Félicie's humid eyes went heavenward at the +retrospect; "and of lying to him, her husband, about, <i>ah, ciel</i>, that +man!" And then to think that he should demand of Madame in her condition +that she confess the truth about that midnight affair when her scream +aroused the household! It was she, Félicie, who screamed. Madame could +not sleep. She needed a composing draught. She, Félicie, had gone down +to prepare it, had unbolted the back door, and was passing to and fro +between the kitchen and the refrigerator in the addition without, and +she could not find the cork-screw, and could not open the—Apollinaris, +and Madame had become impatient, nervous, and had herself wandered down; +and just as Félicie was returning they encountered at the doorway and, +to her shame be it said, she screamed, so was she startled, "and Madame +uttered too a cry, because I cry, but it was nothing, nothing!"</p> + +<p>Nevertheless, Minneconjou was hearing of a slender form seen skulking +along the back fence, hurrying away from Dwight's, and of items picked +up at dawn near Dwight's back steps, and of a notebook sent to +Lieutenant Ray, who had himself been out searching very early and very +diligently. Then, something or other, picked up early that morning, had +been sent to the colonel, for it came with his mail; and the adjutant +and the orderly heard his exclamation, saw the consternation in his +face, and the orderly told of it—told Kathleen at the doctor's; then +had to tell other girls or take the consequences. Then there were these +drives up the valley and the meetings at the cottonwoods. People who +called to ask after the presumably lonely mistress of the house began +asking after something Félicie had hoped no one had noticed.</p> + +<p>For in upbraiding Inez, his wife, Major Dwight not once had mentioned +her meetings near Minneconjou with Lieutenant Ray, who, as all this was +going on at the post, stood facing a condition that called for the +exercise of all his nerve and pluck and common sense. The Indian +leaders, three days after his coming, had mustered their force and +demanded the instant withdrawal of himself and his men, leaving all +horses and arms and certain of their charges behind them.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2> + +<h3>CRISIS</h3> + + +<p>There had been frequent communication with the agency by courier and by +telephone. Ray held the fort, he said, and though there had been some +bluster and swagger on part of a few Indians, the agent seemed relieved, +reassured. They no longer crowded, bullying, about his office. "They are +obviously," wrote the agent (not Ray), "impressed by the firm stand I +have taken, and now I shall proceed to arrest the ring-leaders in the +recent trouble, employing the lieutenant and his troopers for the +purpose, in order that the Indian police may see that I am entirely +independent of them." Stone received this by mounted messenger about +nine o'clock of a Wednesday night, and Mrs. Stone knew the moment his +lips began to purse up, as she expressed it, and to work and twist, that +he much disliked the letter. "I'll have to go over to the +quartermaster's," said he, "and call up Ray by 'phone. This agency man +will be making mischief for us, sure as—sure as the reds are making +medicine." But the last words were muttered to himself, as he took his +cap, and leave.</p> + +<p>Stone had served many a year on the plains, and knew the Indian, and had +his opinion as to the value of civil service in dealing with him. Stone +had served two years in the South in the so-called reconstruction days, +and in his mind there was marked similarity between a certain few of the +Indian agents he had met and an uncertain number of the deputy marshals +of the "carpet-bag" persuasion, then scattered broadcast over the States +"lately in rebellion." If there was one thing more than another the +deputy loved and gloried in, it was riding about his bailiwick, with a +sergeant and party of dragoons at his back, impressing the people with +the idea that he had the army of the United States at his beck and call. +Now, here was a new man at the business over a thousand-odd Indians, +many of whom had fought whole battalions of troopers time and again, and +were not to be scared by a squad, and this new man reasoned that, +because the Indians had been undemonstrative for two days, they were +ready to surrender their leaders and be good. Stone knew better.</p> + +<p>It took ten minutes to get the agency by way of town, and but ten +seconds thereafter to get Ray. He and his guard were billeted about the +main building. "What do you think of this idea of going out and +arresting ring-leaders?" asked Stone. "You weren't sent there for any +such purpose." And Ray answered: "He has gone to a pow-pow with Black +Wolf's people, and was thinking better of it after a little talk we +had."</p> + +<p>"Well," said Stone, "how about the—the situation? Do you think they'll +make trouble? Do you need more men?"</p> + +<p>And Sandy answered "Not to-night, sir. Tell better in the morning."</p> + +<p>Stone did not like the outlook, but what was he to do? The agent had +called for no more troops, and, until he called, Stone was forbidden to +send unless some dire emergency arose, and then he must accept all +responsibility, as one or other side was sure to get the worst of it, +and he the blame. He went over and told Mrs. Ray he had just been +talking with Sandy, who was all serene, said he, and all reassuringly he +answered her anxious questions. Then he asked for Jimmy, whose +temperature was ominously high, and for Dwight, whose spirits were +correspondingly low. Dwight came out from the den, haggard, unshaven, +gaunt. Never before had he been known to lack quick interest when danger +threatened a comrade. To-night he hardly noted what Stone said about the +situation at the agency. He was thinking only of his boy, and Stone, +vaguely disappointed, went in search of Hurst, the senior captain, and +Hurst looked grave. He, too, had had his share in Indian experience, and +liked not the indications.</p> + +<p>"I don't fancy the agent's going to that pow-wow. He should have had the +chief men come to <i>him</i>," said Hurst.</p> + +<p>"They wouldn't—said they feared the soldiers might shoot," said Stone, +in explanation.</p> + +<p>"Anybody with him, sir?"</p> + +<p>"Ray says he insisted on an orderly, so one man went with him, to hold +his horse while he talked. Skelton was chosen. He speaks a little +Sioux."</p> + +<p>"Man we had a while ago on account of the Foster matter?" asked Hurst, +with uplifted eyebrows.</p> + +<p>"Same. He's at home among the Indians, and some of them like him. Guess +he's seen 'em before."</p> + +<p>At 11:30, when Stone would have called again to speak with the agency, +it transpired that Central always went to bed at eleven—there was not +enough night business to warrant the expense of keeping open. At 7 <span class="smcap">A. +M.</span>, when again he would have spoken, Central had not come. It was eight +before news could be had from the agency, and then it came in a +roundabout way, for the line was down or cut or something was wrong far +over toward the Minneconjou reservation. At 8:10 the trumpets of the +cavalry were ringing, "To Horse!" the bugles of the foot, "To Arms!" At +8:30 the squadron was trotting, with dripping flanks, up the southward +slope beyond the Minneconjou, a gaunt skeleton, with pallid cheek and +blazing eye, leading swiftly on.</p> + +<p>Give the devil his due, the first man to warn the fort that there was +"hell to pay at the agency" was Skidmore himself. He had kicked the +truth, he said, out of a skulking half-breed, who drifted in to beg for +a drink soon after seven. They hated each other, did Stone and Skid, but +here was common cause. The trouble began at the pow-wow. The agent +refused the Indians' demands; was threatened; "got scared," said the +frowsy, guttural harbinger of ill, and swore he'd arrest the speakers in +the morning, and they arrested him right there. In some way word of his +peril reached the agent's wife, and she rushed to the lieutenant, who +mounted, galloped, and got there just in time to rescue Skelton, who had +pluckily stood by the lone white man, whom some mad-brained warrior, +madder than the rest, had struck in fury; Skelton in turn had felled the +Indian assailant, and, despite the efforts of the chief, who knew it +meant defeat in the end, the lives of the two would have been forfeit +but for the rush of Ray and a few troopers to the spot. It was the +lieutenant's first charge in nearly a year, but he forgot his wound. He +managed, thanks in no small measure to the resonant orders of old Wolf +himself, to get the two back to the buildings, more dead than alive. He +tried to send word to the fort of the new peril, but the wary Indians +were on the lookout and drove back his riders, while a furious council +was being held at the scene of the strife. From all over the reservation +warriors young and old came flocking to Black Wolf's lodge, and the +elders were overwhelmed. In spite of warning, entreaty and protest from +chiefs who knew whereof they spoke, the turbulent spirits had their way. +Brethren had been beaten and insulted in Skidmore's old place. Brethren +had been beaten and abused at the new. Brethren had been swindled and +abused by that very young chief of the soldiers now at the agency, and +some of his men; and, finally, Strikes-the-Bear, son of a chief, a chief +to be, had this night been struck down by the soldier the fool agent +dared bring with him. Let the warriors rise in their wrath and strike +for vengeance! If the little band of soldiers showed fight, and the +chances were that many a brave would bite the dust before the buildings +could be fired and the defenders driven out and killed, then offer +terms. Against such hopeless odds the young white chief would easily +yield. Get him and his men into the open; promise safe conduct to the +fort, then let others surround and slowly butcher them, while they, the +negotiators, took care of the agent, the assailant of Strikes-the-Bear, +the employees and their families. Aye, promise to spare the lives of the +lieutenant and his men; say that they might go back to their friends at +the fort, but they must leave the agent; they must leave their comrade +who struck the redman; they must leave their arms and their horses. Mad +as it was, that was the ultimatum of the deputation at the door of the +agency at five o'clock in the morning, and Sandy Ray answered, just as +his father's son could be counted on to answer, and in just three +comprehensive and significant words.</p> + +<p>It led before long to a battle royal. It led first to barbaric council +and speechmaking, then to a display of savage diplomacy, and finally to +the spirited climax: savage science, skill, and cunning, with +overwhelming numbers on the one hand, sheer pluck and determination on +the other. The defenders were to fight, to be sure, behind wooden walls +that hid them from sight of their swarming and surrounding foes, but +that might be an element of danger just so soon as the Indians could get +close enough to fire them. Anticipating precisely such a possibility, +Ray had set his men to work beforehand. Sacks of meal, flour, and bacon, +bales of blankets, tepee cloth, etc., had been piled breast-high and +around all four walls of the storehouse within. All the available tubs +and buckets and pails had been fresh filled with water and stowed +inside. The horses were removed from the stable and turned into the +corral. Each of the eight barred windows had its two or three marksmen. +The women and children of the whites about the agency were all before +dawn moved over into the main building, for when his messengers were +driven back Ray well knew what to expect. Ray himself posted a keen and +reliable man at the forage shed, and one or two others in certain of the +outlying buildings, with kerosene-soaked tinder in abundance, and orders +to fire them at his signal, then run for the storehouse; Ray would leave +no structure close at hand to serve as "approach" or cover for the foe. +So long as no wind arose to blow the flames upon his little stronghold, +no harm would result to them, whereas the smoke would surely attract +attention at the distant fort and speedily bring relief. Ten days +earlier, before seeing his wards in war paint, the agent would have +forbidden such wanton destruction of government property. (Ten days +later, indeed, the Indian Bureau might call upon the War Department for +reimbursement, and the department upon Ray, but the youngster took no +thought for the morrow, only for his men and those helpless women and +children). So long as the warriors kept their distance and contented +themselves with long-range shooting, so long would Ray spare the torch, +but just the moment they felt the courage of their numbers and charged, +up should go the shingles. The find of a few small kegs of powder lent +additional means to the speedy start of the fire when needed, and now, +with his little fort well supplied and garrisoned, with the big fort +only ten miles away, with thirty or more stout men to stand by him, with +only one man demoralized,—the agent, small blame to him,—and only one +as yet disabled, Trooper Skelton, whom Ray had practically dragged from +under the knives of the savages, that young soldier felt just about as +serenely confident of the issue as he did of his men, and happier a +hundred fold than he had been for nearly a year.</p> + +<p>Moreover, his dauntless front and contemptuous answer had had its effect +on the Indians. "The young chief must be sure the soldiers are coming," +reasoned the elders, so before taking the fateful plunge it were wise to +take a look. Young warriors dashed away northeastward over the rolling +divides, and others galloped after to intermediate bluffs and ridges, +but it was well-nigh an hour before the signals came whirling back. "No +soldiers, no danger," and even then they temporized. In trailing war +bonnet, his gleaming body bare to the waist, his feathered head held +high, his nimble pony bedizened with tinsel and finery, a white "fool +flag" waving at the tip of his lance, with two young braves in +attendance, each with his little symbol of truce, Black Wolf came riding +gallantly down from the distant southward bluffs, demanding further +parley. Black Wolf had tidings worth the telling, he said. He had stood +the white man's friend and endeavored to prevent hostilities, but since +the affair of the previous night all that was hopeless, and now he must +stand by his people. His young men, he shouted, at dawn had attacked the +guard at the wood camp, and the scalps of every man, still warm and +bloody, hung at the belts of his braves, even now galloping back to +swell the ranks of their brothers. He urged the young white chief to +make no such error as had the sub-chief, the sergeant, at the camp, who +had fired upon his warriors when offered mercy. There was still time for +the young chief to consider. He was surrounded, cut off from help and +home. His brethren dare not quit the shelter of the fort to come to aid +him. They would be annihilated on the open prairie, as was the "Long +Hair" at the Little Horn a generation ago. This, then, should be the +young chief's warning and his opportunity. Let him and his men, save +one, depart in peace, leaving everything and everybody else as they were +before the young chief came. Black Wolf would await the reply. In +resonant periods, in ringing, sonorous tones, the speech of the +orator-chief had been delivered, his deep, powerful voice fairly +thundering over the valley, and echoing back from the crags of Warrior +Bluff, a mile away to the west. A spirited, barbaric group it made, that +magnificent savage with his bright-hued escort all gleaming in the +slanting sunshine, full two hundred yards away. On every little +eminence, on every side, were grouped listening bands of his braves. One +could almost hear their guttural "Ughs" of approval. One could almost +count their swarming array. Farther to the south, along the jagged line +of the barricade ridge, score upon score of blanketed squaws and +bareheaded children huddled in shrill, chattering groups, too distant to +hear or to be heard, but readily seen to be wild with excitement. Out in +front of the grimly closed and silent agency, with only the half-breed +interpreter at his side, but in humorous recognition of the solemn state +of the Indian embassy, with two sergeants in close attendance, Ray stood +listening, and turned for explanation to the official go-between, +impatiently heard him half through, then flung out his hand, palm +foremost, in half circular sweep to the front and right—the old signal. +"Be off," it said as plain as did the later words of the assistant. +"Tell him to go where I told him before," said Ray. "If he wants the +agent, or my soldiers, or my guns, or me, let him come and take them," +winding up as he faced his antagonist, with the swift, significant +gesture that the Sioux know so well: "Brave, that ends it!" and turned +abruptly away.</p> + +<p>"What did you answer?" whispered the agent, as the young soldier +returned to his post. It was the Bureau man's first real clash with his +red children, and thoughts of Meeker, a much-massacred predecessor in +the business, had dashed his nerve.</p> + +<p>"He wanted you and this poor fellow who fought for you," said Ray +bluntly, as he went on and bent over the blanket on which lay Skelton, +bandaged, weak, but clear-headed, "and I told him where to go—where, by +gad, we'll send him if he comes again."</p> + +<p>The eyes of the wounded soldier, fixed full upon his young commander, +began slowly to melt and then to well over. A silent fellow was this odd +fish of a trooper, a man little known among the others and even less +trusted. He looked up through a shimmer of moisture into the pale young +face with its dark, kindly eyes and sensitive mouth. He put forth a +feverish and unsteady hand, while his lips, compressed and twitching +from pain, began to frame words to which Sandy listened, +uncomprehending.</p> + +<p>"Lieutenant, I wish I'd known you, 'stead of classing you the way I—was +taught. If I ever get out of this all right, there'll be a story +comin'." And Ray wondered was Skelton wandering already.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2> + +<h3>BLACK WOLF'S BATTLE</h3> + + +<p>And then from the northwest, with vast clamor and shoutings and much +wild horsemanship, came the reinforcements from the foothills of the +Sagamore, where yesterday had stood the guarded wood camp; and then, +five to six hundred yards away, in broad circle, their swift ponies at +full gallop, scores of young warriors, all in war paint and finery, +dashed and darted to and fro, some of them brandishing at the tips of +their lances ragged, dangling objects limp and dripping. Black Wolf's +story might indeed be true. Far away westward from the fort, as was the +agency from the southwest, there had been no timely warning, no chance +to send for aid. Overwhelmed at dawn by hundreds against their dozens, +the guard had probably died fighting, and the wolves and lynxes by this +time were scenting their breakfast and scurrying to the scene of +butchery. The savage display had its effect on the little garrison, +but—not just what was expected. Black Wolf's young braves might well +have had a "walk-over" at the wood camp, pounced in a red torrent upon +the unsuspecting party, and, with little loss to themselves, massacred +all the hated palefaces. That sort of fighting the Indian most +loves—that in which he can do and not suffer. Now came a different +proposition. From chief down to little children the Indians well knew +that thirty soldiers behind barricades were not to be "rushed," though a +thousand essayed it, without many a warrior biting the dust; and that +sort of fighting, said the Indian, is fool-fighting—lacks sense or +science. Bravely and desperately as he will battle against odds when +once in a hole, he will not battle at all, no matter how great his +numbers, if by strategy he can "win out" another way. What Black Wolf +and his warriors had hoped was so to weaken the nerve of the defenders +that they would listen to his promise that their lives be spared, agree +to the Indian terms, leave the demanded victims, their arms and horses +and start out afoot for the fort; then, as was intimated, once fairly +out on the open prairie, they could be butchered at leisure, and if the +young chief could not be captured alive to furnish sport for the squaws +and children of the braves he had defrauded and abused, at least they +could have his scalp to hang in the lodge when once again peace was +declared. Meantime the warriors, women and children,—all,—they could +be off to the Big Horn before the troops at the fort would get word of +the battle. Who, indeed, was to tell, with the lightning wire severed, +and the whole party slain?</p> + +<p>But the warriors wasted their time. Three hours spent in trying to scare +were three hours lost to the redman. It was just about eight by the +agency clock that in one magnificent dash, half a thousand strong, the +legion came sweeping, chanting, and shouting down the slopes to the +south, rode in solemn phalanx until almost within rifle range, then, +bursting asunder like some huge human case-shot, scattered its wild +horsemen in mad career all over the open prairie, and in a minute +thereafter, amid the thunder of hoofs, half deadened by the rising pall +of dust, twenty-score in number, the yelling braves were circling the +agency, firing swiftly on the run.</p> + +<p>Never a shot did they receive in reply. "Hold your fire till they come +in closer, and you get the word!" growled the sergeants. Never a match +did the besieged apply, for there was still no attempt to charge. It was +young Ray's first tussle with the Sioux, but many a time as a boy at his +father's knee had he begged for the stories of the old battles of the +—th, and listened with quickened heartbeat and panting breath. He knew +just how they would circle and charge, shout and shoot,—just what to +look for and how to meet it,—and there were only two things about the +defense that gave him the faintest worry.</p> + +<p>East of the storehouse, barely fifty yards away, was the agent's modest +little home, a shelter to the warriors should they decide to turn loose +their ponies and collect two hundred strong behind it, ready for a rush +in force upon his doors and windows the moment a similar force could be +ready behind the shop and stable buildings at the corral. They probably +could not force an entrance even then. They would surely lose many +warriors in the attempt. But what they could do would be to rush upon +the storehouse, crouch low at the walls and under the floor of the +porch, where the rifles of the besieged could not reach them, and then +start fire all at once in a dozen places, crawl back under cover of the +smoke, and so burn out the defenders. Much as the mounted warrior hates +to fight afoot, this was too obvious an opportunity, and presently Ray +saw indication that something was coming. No time, therefore, had he or +his people for further compunction.</p> + +<p>"The shops, first," said he. "Start them at once. Open the corral gates +and—get back," were his orders to the young corporal who stood ready to +carry his message. "Our horses will make a break for home. The Indians +will catch most of them, perhaps, but not all. Between them and the +smoke the fort will see that something's up, and—you all know the +colonel."</p> + +<p>And so it happened that, just as the squadron, already alarmed, was +spattering through the shallows of the Minneconjou, a black column of +smoke was sighted far away to the southwest, sailing aloft for the +heavens, and now every southward window, the roofs of many a building, +the tower over the post Exchange, the cross-trees of the flagstaff, the +crests of neighboring bluffs,—all had their occupants, staring through +field-glasses or the unaided eye for any sign of the far-distant +detachment under Ray—for any symptom of any check or signal from the +swift advance of the squadron under the gaunt, semi-invalided major.</p> + +<p>Barely three miles out, trotting in parallel columns of fours, the right +troop was seen to swerve to the west, and presently in a far-away clump +of willows in a deep ravine, found something, apparently, that gave them +just a moment's pause. "A human being," said the lookouts with the best +glasses, "and they're sending him in." True. Someone dismounted and +helped something into a saddle. A sergeant and trooper came presently +ambling homeward, leading between them a limp and drooping form. Many +people could not wait. They ran out to the bluffs, and were not amazed, +nor were they too well pleased, to find the lone watcher at the willows +to be none other than that strange creature Blenke—Blenke in a state +bordering on exhaustion. Straight to the colonel they led him, where +that officer sat in saddle in front of his battalions and ready for a +move. He was just about ordering the senior major to follow on the trail +of the cavalry, when, followed by curious eyes innumerable, the sergeant +with his prize came riding through the west gate.</p> + +<p>"Private Blenke, sir," said he, saluting. "He can best tell his own +story," and with trembling lips and mournful eyes Blenke began. Things +looked so ominous the night before that it was evident the Indians meant +mischief. Sergeant French, commanding the guard, decided that the +colonel ought to be warned. Somebody would have to try to sneak through +the prowling, truculent warriors, make his way to the post, and tell of +their plight. The sergeant would order no man to risk his life in the +attempt. He called for volunteers, and, modestly Blenke said, at last he +felt it a duty to dare it. He found every rod of the valley beset by +foes. He found it impossible eastward or northward to pass them even in +the dark. He finally made his way out to the southward and, in wide +circuit, dodging and skulking when night riders came hurrying to and +fro, he at last managed by daybreak to get in view of the flagstaff, +only to find dozens of Indians watching the post and skulking between +him and the desired refuge. At last—but Stone shut him off:</p> + +<p>"Take two companies, major," he ordered, "march for the wood camp and +see what you can find. You know what to do."</p> + +<p>So again was Blenke, the silent, in spite of prejudice and prediction, +the hero of the occasion. They bore him off to be fed and fęted, but he +begged first that Miss Sanford might be informed of his safe return. +Then Stone, with anxious brow, dismounted, clambered to the tower of the +Exchange, where his glasses swept the wide expanse of country and told +him the excitement, so vivid here at the fort and over "beyond Jordan" +at Skidmore's, was already spreading to Silver Hill. God grant his +rescuers had not gone too late—or slowly!</p> + +<p>Slowly at least they did not go, for Dwight, possessed of a very devil +of nervous energy, pushed his four troops at steady trot. Well he knew +it would not be long before some one of the ridge lines, successively to +be passed, would suddenly spit fire at his advance, and that every +device known to Indian strategy would be brought into play in the effort +to stay his coming until all was over with Ray's little party at the +agency. Physical weakness, personal danger, even Jimmy, his only child, +now tossing in the throes of burning fever, he seemed for the time to +have forgotten. Hurst, the senior captain, who had counted on leading +the dash, reckoned without due comprehension of his major that day, and +looked amazed when Dwight had come trotting down to the formation, his +grim face lighting with something of the old fire, and sent his second +in command to the head of the first troop. Once well out beyond the +railway the major ordered a few picked skirmishers forward at the gallop +from the head of each of his four columns, other active light-horsemen +to cover the flanks, and the wary scouts and marksmen of the Sioux, +crouching behind the crests, shook their scalp-locks in chagrin. There +could be no picking off of prominent officers at close range, no +ambuscading crowded ranks or columns. This chief knew his business, and +they might better serve Black Wolf and their comrades in arms by +galloping away to the agency and urging one desperate assault. Stopping +this fellow was out of the question. The one stand, made just six miles +out, resulted in no check to the cavalry, but a dead loss to two of +their own braves.</p> + +<p>And so it happened that toward ten o'clock of that blithe, sunshiny +summer morning, when all nature was at its loveliest along the broad +winding valley of the Cheyenne,—all save that cloud of black smoke that +soared high into the otherwise unclouded heavens and there flattened out +like some gigantic pall,—the bold heights that framed the wide bottom +lands, the crags at Warrior Bluff, crowned with shrill yelling, +applauding squaws and children, the grim, smoke-veiled walls of the +remaining buildings at the agency all on a sudden awoke to the maddening +chorus of renewed battle. There had been a lull to the fight. The shops +had burned like tinder, and were a heap of smoldering ruins in a dozen +minutes. The stampeded horses had rushed away over the prairie, to be +rounded up and driven by Indian boys, with keen rejoicing, away toward +the dismantled villages, for already the old men and most of the +families were in full flight up the valley. If headed off from the hills +they could scatter over the prairies and mingle with their red kindred +at the other agencies, whence, indeed, came not a few young men to take +a hand in the scrimmage. The agent's house, spared until after nine, had +gone up in smoke. It covered too much of the charging front, and finally +was blown to flinders at an expense of four kegs of rifle powder, +borrowed for the occasion from the Indian supplies. Now, when the +warriors rallied and charged and strove to reach Ray's wooden walls, it +had to be over a dead level only faintly obscured by smoke, and dotted +here and there by the corpses of war ponies lost in previous attempts.</p> + +<p>Half-hearted, possibly, at dawn, old Wolf was all fire and fury now. One +after another four assaults had been beaten back by the slow, sure, +steady aim of the defense, and unless he could reduce that little +fortress at once his power and prestige as a war chief were gone for all +time, and a good name and reputation for all manner of deviltry in the +past was utterly blasted for the future.</p> + +<p>Of the defenders only three, besides Skelton, were out of the fight. A +chance shot from the Indian circle had pierced the brain of one stout +soldier, who never knew what hit him. Others had wounded two of the men, +and Skelton, himself, who, in spite of his wounds, had crawled to a +loophole to have a share in the fight, was now prostrate with a shot +through the shoulder. It was God's mercy and Ray's fortune that that +bullet was not through the head.</p> + +<p>Water and food they still had in abundance, but ammunition was running +low. The men thrust their hot rifles into the nearest tub, and laughed +at Finnegan's loud claim for a patent on "K" Company's way of "bilin' +wather." Sheltered by the bales and barricades, the women and children +crouched unharmed. Corporal Sweeny, who had "swarmed" up a ladder to the +garret, in defiance of shots that tore through the flimsy woodwork, +called down the scuttle-hole that "the fellers must be comin' from the +fort—there's Indians gallopin' back by the dozens!" And Sweeny was +right, and his words carried cheer when cheer was needed, for now began +the supreme effort of the redmen, and in one magnificent, yelling, +streaming, lance-waving circumference they seemed to spring into view +from every conceivable point of the compass, still a good thousand yards +away from the threatened center, and, slowly at first, brandishing arms, +beating shields, shouting encouragement and vengeance, they bore +steadily inward, a slowly diminishing periphery, until they seemed +almost to join for some barbaric "all hands round." Then, at sudden +signal, unseen, unheard at the agency, all of the eastward semi-circle +broke instantly into a mad race for the center, the dust and turf flying +from the ponies' heels, the feathered crests and painted forms bending +flat over the outstretched necks of the darting steeds, plumes, pennons, +war-bonnets streaming in the wind, and every warrior screeching in +shrill rage and exultation. To right and left at the same instant the +westward warriors broke away, so as to avoid the rush and shots from the +selected front, and then, rallying north and south, they, too, rode +again into line in time to attack so soon as the first grand assault +should sweep by. A gorgeous sight it was to see Black Wolf's chosen +braves, a tremendous torrent of savage war, but Ray and his men gave no +heed to its grandeur. The sharp, spiteful bark of the low-aimed rifles +began the instant the foremost warriors came bounding across the road to +the railway, Ray's five-hundred-yard mark, and here and there as the red +surge came rushing on, a pony went down, a warrior was hurled to the +plain, but up, and by, and beyond, with terrific clash and clamor, the +yelling horde whirled past the fire-jetting walls; and out upon the +westward prairie a keen old fighter saw that certain ponies, riderless, +went loping after their fellows, and so shouted a word to Ray. "They've +dropped a few, sir," and Sergeant Scott begged leave to take +half-a-dozen men and rush out and tackle the dozen that had probably +crept to the foot of the wall or squirmed through the dust cloud, like +so many snakes, underneath the wooden piazza. Well they knew what that +meant: Fire—fire as fierce as that the defenders themselves had kindled +in the outbuildings, only a thousand times more terrible, for it meant +fearful torture and death to these imprisoned ones within the walls, or +the certain bullets of the merciless foe when driven forth. But, before +this sally could be made down came the rush from the northward, less +powerful and spectacular only in point of numbers, and every man of the +defense was needed at the loopholes and windows again. Their shots told, +too, for Sweeny yelled delightedly from his perilous perch aloft that +half-a-dozen were down and the ponies loose; and then could be seen the +dash of comrades to pick up and bear away the dead and wounded, a feat +of daring and devotion in which the Indians of the plains have no +superior. Now the shots of the defenders were telling in more ways than +one. They busied so many of Black Wolf's people that the next rush was +delayed, and delays to <i>his</i> plan were more than dangerous. Someone had +passed a field glass up the loft ladder, and Sweeny was shrieking new +delight and encouragement. "Sure's yer born, sir, I can see the byes +comin' like hell!" To the mind of the agent, livid and trembling behind +his little parapet of blankets, more than enough, perhaps, in the way of +hell had reached them already, but men at the windows set up a cry of +thanksgiving that faltered a moment at sound of shot and shout from +underneath, then swelled again into something like triumph, for Ray had +prized up two or three boards from the floor; two or three slim fellows +had crawled through the opening and wriggled to the low walls of rough +stone which served for foundation, and here and there a would-be +incendiary got sudden quietus and his fellows a stay, but not for long. +There came presently another superb dash from the southern side that +swept by like some human tidal wave of destruction, leaving its wreckage +on the hard sod of the prairie, and, alas, its well-nigh desperate +fire-workers at the edge of the wall. Ten minutes more and Ray's +improvised stockade was encompassed on every side by a ring of yelling, +firing, infuriated demons, most of them sprawling flat and shooting low, +and the leaden missiles tore through the wooden walls in every +direction, and the man who lifted head or arm above the parapet did it +at risk of life or limb. Poor Sweeny's glass came clattering down from +aloft, and he, poor follow, striving feebly to reach his friends and +partial shelter, tumbled in a heap at the foot of the ladder, his +life-blood welling from his gallant heart. Then—then other smoke, +pungent pinewood smoke, came sifting through knotholes and seams, with +ominous sounds of crackling and snapping from the side of the long +porch. Then, coughing and strangling, the two men who had ventured below +forced their way once more through the hole in the floor, a volume of +thick smoke rushing up as they were dragged into the room. Then shrill +yells of triumph and rejoicing rose on every side without, and then, +within, the piteous, hopeless wailing of helpless women and children.</p> + +<p>But the end was not yet. Even in their extremity Ray and some of his old +hands had noted how nervously the warriors seemed to be watching the +slopes to the northeast. There was a long, low wave of prairie that +closed the view in that direction to all on the ground floor, and it was +madness to go sight-seeing to the loft. If they could only hold out ten, +fifteen minutes it might mean life to all, save the two or three already +slain. "Grab those buckets, you, and you, and you!" shouted Ray, picking +out his men. "Stick to the east front, Scott! Stand 'em off just three +minutes! Dip a dozen blankets in the tub—at least you can do <i>that</i>, +damn you!" This to a cowering wretch whom even the sight of the women, +weeping yet working like heroes, had not yet shamed. The fire had been +safely, scientifically started in half-a-dozen places under the porch, +and already, probably, was eating its way through every crevice. Water +could not reach it, but wet blankets, spread above, would hold it for a +while, and others stuffed in the open spaces at the foundation wall +would choke it below. Ripped from the floor came plank after plank, and +down into the smoke dived both women and men, dripping blankets in tow, +while, with revolver in one hand and filled bucket in the other, Ray +mustered a squad at the east door ready for their desperate rush. +"Through the thick black breath" that billowed up from below the young +leader's voice reached every ear, and even children seemed to still +their cries and listen. "Now, blaze away as we rush out. Aim over us as +we spread these things. We'll drench 'em well before we come in. <i>Now</i>, +men, come on!"</p> + +<p>Out they darted, crouching and bending low, driving a few shots first at +the skulking warriors nearest, then scattering along the ground at the +edge of the low platform crackling fiercely from the flames underneath. +Swiftly the wet blankets were spread and doused anew. Even though they +might check the flames but three minutes, three minutes might mean years +of life. Then back into the choking cloud they dove, and manned the +walls again, ready to shoot down the first who dare rush to undo their +valiant work, and the smoke thus pent beneath the boarding billowed +hotter and thicker into the long, dim, resounding room. "Burst open the +shutters!" was the next order. It was better to die fighting than +choking to death—better to meet one's fate in the open than be roasted +alive. Through the eddying clouds, with seared, smarting eyes, Ray and +his sergeant could see the crest of that prairie wave long half mile +away; and, just as a tongue of flame burst in through the bales at the +southeast window, there came a rush of mounted Indians, leading spare +ponies by the bridle-reins, swiftly picking up their red marksmen from +the sod, and both voices went up in a shout of glorious hope and joy, as +here and there and presently everywhere along that prairie wave campaign +hats and khaki blouses came popping into view, and then long lines of +racing horsemen, carbines advanced, guidons streaming, officers +launching well out in front, and all following the lead and signals of a +tall, spare, sinewy form. "The major! the major himself!" shrieked the +watcher; and then, all peril forgotten, the beleaguered party, men, +women, and children, well-nigh despairing but the moment before, burst +from their stifling refuge and went, gasping, groping, stumbling into +outer air. Last to reach it,—dragging with him from the blazing doorway +the helpless and crippled form of Skelton, his khaki coat ablaze, his +hat, his hair and eyebrows gone,—came their young commander, and +helping hands were drenching him with water as he toppled exhausted on +the sod.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI</h2> + +<h3>TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION</h3> + + +<p>There was wrath mingled with the rejoicing that thrilled all through the +garrison that afternoon. Scattering far and wide, the ring-leaders, the +more prominent braves engaged in the revolt at the agency, were seeking +the refuge of kindred bands, leaving the old men and many Indian +households to explain the situation and secure eventually the peace +always so readily accorded. Placing a guard over the unconsumed +property, and sending most of the cavalry in pursuit of the renegades, +Stone telegraphed brief statement to department headquarters, lauding +Ray and his plucky detachment as they deserved, and Dwight and the +squadron as well, for their swift and skillful dash to the rescue. By +sunset the few dead, the several wounded and many homeless women and +children had been conveyed to the fort, Silver Hill turning out in +force, and the Argenta and rival stables contributing rigs in abundance. +Major Dwight was again beneath the same roof with little Jim, the father +well-nigh as helpless as the fever-stricken boy, for, the excitement +over, his duty done and splendidly done, and he himself shocked and +shaken by the fall of his horse, shot down almost at the last moment of +the charge, Dwight was brought back in the ambulance and assisted again +to his reclining chair in the den. Home he quietly refused to go. Mrs. +Dwight, as was proper and decorous, so soon as she could rally, under +the ministrations of Félicie, from the prostration that befell as a +result of seeing her adored, though deluded, husband riding off to +battle without ever a word or kiss to his suffering one, lost little +time in coming to implore her Oswald to return to his own room and her +arms. But Dr. Waring gravely told her it was then impossible, and +persuaded her, deluged in tears, to leave him in peace. Her parents, he +said, would soon be with her. They had been telegraphed for, and were to +start at once. Every provision should be made for their comfort and +hers, and, he added, for her future; but she must understand that for +the time being Major Dwight begged to be permitted to give his entire +attention to his son, whose case was desperate.</p> + +<p>So Inez, veiled and leaning heavily on the arm of Félicie, went sobbing +homeward through the dusk of the closing and solemn day, followed by +many curious eyes, and was once more within doors before Sandy Ray had +been restored to his mother's arms. Not until the last of his "forlorn +hope" had been gathered up and shipped back to Minneconjou would Sandy +consent to be driven thither himself, to find almost every door at the +post open to welcome him except his own, where there were now three or +four more denizens than there were beds. Stone himself was on hand to +say that Mrs. Stone had one of their spare rooms all prepared for him, +and this, too, in spite of the fact that Stone had stowed away, where +none could see, a certain letter that, unexplained, might yet render +Sandy Ray ineligible to residence under any roof at Minneconjou for all +time to come.</p> + +<p>But, unbeknowst to the colonel, the matter of Sandy's billet had been +settled beforehand. Lieutenant Purdy, of the Sixty-first, a near +neighbor, had met the "conquering hero" almost halfway, with the +information that his room was ready for him; his mother had already been +in to see and to approve, and there he must make himself at home, close +to his own quarters; and possibly Stone was grateful.</p> + +<p>There were several things in connection with the day's work for which he +could give no thanks whatever, and one of these was the news that +finally came from the wood camp. Black Wolf's thunderous harangue of the +early morning was not all an empty lie. Only the poor remains of the +sergeant, seven of his little guard, and several of the workmen, each +body surrounded by empty cartridge shells, mute witnesses of their +desperate battle for life, were left of those who had so cheerily +marched away; and, Blenke being safe lodged within the post, there were +still three absent unaccounted for. Blenke himself seemed crushed by the +tragic fate of these comrades whom he had vainly risked his life to +save. There was great sympathy expressed for Blenke throughout the +depleted garrison that night. There was talk of his daring essay all +over the post. There was whispering of it even in the dim-lighted wards +of the hospital, where lay the wounded and the scorched and seared. +Possibly it was the torment of his burns that made Skelton toss, mutter, +and finally blaspheme outright, but blaspheme he did at each successive +mention of Blenke, and, presently, with frightful, spiteful vehemence +and virulence. The steward in charge thought him delirious, and Skelton +said perhaps he was. 'Twould make a cat laugh and a man stark mad to +have to listen to such infernal rot, and this, as in duty bound the +steward told to Wallen at his earliest appearance, whereat that wise +young practitioner looked long at Skelton and—wiser still before he +came away.</p> + +<p>With all the official turmoil that grew and throve at Minneconjou in the +week that followed, this narrative has nothing to do. The general came +and went, and lots of troops and dozens of officers. Even Wister, far to +the west, was called upon for its contingent for field service in +rounding up the renegades, and Stanley Foster's troop, Stanley and all, +came over the Sagamore by special delivery, so to speak, and detrained +at Fort Siding, whence a detail sped to the fort for such supplies as +were needed, and the troopers marched at dawn, a wearied-looking captain +at their head. There was much to do in the field; there was much ado at +the fort. This last, which barely escaped becoming official, had to do +mainly with these, our <i>dramatis personæ</i>, and may now briefly be +recorded, and then our story is done.</p> + +<p>The center of human interest, of local interest, at least, was for a +memorable week shifted from the major's quarters to those where lay our +little Jimmie, tossing night and day in fever that threatened to burn +out everything but itself, tended night and day by gentle hands, by +devoted women, by one especially whose pluck and patience never gave +out, and whose physical powers proved indomitable—Priscilla Sanford. +There were days in which they could not induce the father to remain +below. His whole being seemed centered in that desperate fight for life, +wherein he, a soldier of many a heady fight, could wield no weapon for +the cause for which he would instantly have laid down life itself could +it but insure that of his only son. There came one awful day in which, +as he bent over the stricken form, his lips moving in piteous prayer to +Heaven, his eyes imploringly fixed upon the flushed and fevered little +face, suddenly a gleam of recognition seemed to flash from the now +dilating eyes, and as he and Priscilla leaned eagerly forward, in +shuddering terror the writhing form shrank from his touch, the sobbing +cry, startling in its utter amaze, incredulity—its imploring appeal +burst from the burning lips, "Don't strike me, daddy; <i>please</i> don't! +Indeed, <i>indeed</i> I didn't lie!" And with a groan of anguish unspeakable +Oswald Dwight dropped upon his knees and, sobbing aloud, buried his face +in his quivering hands. It was Priscilla who finally raised him to his +feet, and Waring led him, exhausted, from the room. From that hour, in +which it seemed as though Heaven itself had directed the final lesson +should be given, and through him, the patient victim of human +fallibility, the boy began to mend; and one day Waring and Wallen, +coming forth together, stopped and solemnly shook hands at the head of +the stairs and left the chastened father and that dauntless nurse +silently communing in the presence of the fluttering, yet reawakened, +life the one had so nearly imperiled, the other had so indomitably +battled to save.</p> + +<p>And all this while there were other lives and other fates and other +fortunes almost as desperately entangled and endangered. The general had +summoned Stone to follow him afield. It was hard work finding those +scattered wards of the nation, those lambs of the flock fled afar from +the agency, and Stone left with the fate of his three wood guards still +undetermined, for the soldiers had searched in vain. He left, too, with +most of his men, while Major Layton, ordered up from Niobrara, took +temporary command of the post, Dwight being, as yet, unfit for duty of +any kind. Stone was a week away, scouting through the Sagamore and over +toward the Belle Fourche, and brought back with him some four-score +"reds" of various ages and sexes, and two well-nigh starved and +exhausted men, two of French's devoted band, who, they said, had been +sent out the night before the attack to build and fire a beacon on the +summit of a tall, sharp, pine-crested height a mile away from camp. +French thought the signal might bring help from the post. They never +reached that crest. They heard the Indians shouting to each other in +pursuit. They made their way farther into the hills and lived on what +they had in their haversacks, hiding by day, for the hills seemed full +of redskins. They were taken to hospital to recuperate, and meantime, +while Stone's battalion settled down again into quarters, and business +at Skidmore's resumed its normal aspect, and the guard and prisoners +their abnormal number, Major Layton returned to Niobrara after imparting +to Colonel Stone a story he had succeeded in tracing back to three +sentries, a story he could neither stifle nor throttle, and that he left +with Colonel Stone to deal with as best he might; and Stone, thinking +again, as he had thought a thousand times before, of that letter in +feminine hand, and in his private desk, felt his heart go down to his +boots. In brief, the story was that twice during the week a young and +slender officer had issued from the rear gate of Lieutenant Purdy's +quarters, made his way in the black shadows of the fence-line to the +rear gate of Major Dwight's, where once, at least No. 4 could swear, it +was nearly an hour before he reappeared.</p> + +<p>Stone took council that very evening with Waring, the senior surgeon. +Waring had just come from Rays', saying little Jim, though dreadfully +weak and emaciated, was surely convalescing—that Dwight, with all his +joy, seemed humbler than a little child. "I believe, by gad, that in his +present frame of mind he'd forgive her, that incomprehensible little +wretch of a wife of his, no matter what she'd done, if she'd come and +ask him now."</p> + +<p>Whereupon Stone abruptly said, "By —— he sha'n't! Come in here," and +he closed the study door behind them. Within twenty minutes thereafter +Dr. Waring had mastered the contents of three precious papers. First, +Major Layton's memorandum of the sentry's statements; second, a little +note that said, "at the usual place and time" and informing somebody of +the writer's intention of quitting "Minneconjou—and him—forever"; +third, a note explanatory of the second, and this note was type-written +and without signature:</p> + +<blockquote><p>The inclosed was found in a notebook belonging to Lieutenant +Sanford Ray, which had been dropped last night at the rear entrance +to the quarters of Major Dwight. The major will know who wrote the +inclosed, and should know for whom it was written.</p></blockquote> + +<p>Two nights thereafter, toward one o'clock, Major Dwight, with the post +adjutant and Dr. Waring in attendance, knocked for admission at his own +front door and knocked repeatedly before Félicie could be induced to +appear with the to-be-expected plea that Madame had but just composed +herself after nights of sleepless weeping, and surely she could not now +be disturbed. Dwight demanded instant admission and, finding parley +useless, Félicie unbarred the door and unloosed her tongue. "Shut up, +you Jezebel!" said the doctor impolitely. "Sit down there and be quiet." +Dwight was already mounting the stair, and presently could be heard +demanding admission to his wife's room. There was whimpering appeal in +the response, but the door was speedily unlocked, and the voice of Inez +could be heard in tones suggestive of unspeakable shock and grief and +sense of indignity and injustice. Presently Dwight came down again. +"Unbolt that dining-room door—and the back!" said he curtly to the +trembling maid, and when she would have demurred, seized her not too +gently by the arm, almost as he had seized little Jim, and propelled her +ahead of him into the dining-room. It was significant that the adjutant +remained at the front door. It was more significant that when the rear +door finally swung open there stood a silent sergeant of the guard, +while the waning moon glinted upon the bayonets of certain soldiers on +the level below. Félicie shrank at the announcement, yet could hardly +have been unprepared for it: "Someone opened from within a moment ago, +sir, and darted back at sight of the cap and buttons."</p> + +<p>"Bring two men and come in," was the brief answer, and then with lighted +candles and a lantern a search began, a search for many minutes utterly +without result, though another sergeant came and the officer of the day, +and all this time Félicie was begging to be restored to Madame, who +would assuredly again be prostrated and in need of her, and Dwight said, +"Let her go," whereat, as was noted, she darted first to her own room, +not to Madame's, and presently the search began again on the second +floor; and, to the amaze of the domestics aloft, soon invaded the very +garret itself, where first there was found the print of stocking feet on +a dusty plank, just as from under a box in the kitchen a pair of shoes +were pulled forth never worn by any authorized inmate of those quarters. +Then more lanterns went up the back stairs and more prodding followed in +the loft, and presently the watchers below heard stifled sounds of +excitement and scurry, and then, wild-eyed and striving to be strictly +professional, Sergeant Jennison descended and said: "We've got him, sir. +He's chokin' like."</p> + +<p>And presently again, limp, half-suffocated, smeared with dust and dirt, +in shirt sleeves and trousers coated with cobwebs and lint, there was +lowered to the second floor and shoved out on the landing at the head of +the stairs an almost unrecognizable creature, still struggling for +breath. "No man that wasn't made of rubber instead of flesh and bones +could have doubled himself in where he was," said the corporal to the +silent group, and, indeed, it looked as though he were doubling up +again, for the knees gave way, the head fell forward, and but for +restraining arms down would he have gone. The sergeant propped him up +again. The doctor plied a wet sponge, and Félicie, at the door of her +mistress' chamber, gasped in amaze: "<i>Mon Dieu!</i> the miscreant who has +terrified Madame!" Whereat the dull eyes of the miscreant began slowly +to burn, and then to blaze; and, finally, as a faint color showed in his +sallow cheek, and the officer of the day, his official captor, bluntly +demanded explanation of his being in this house and at this time of +night, and both he and Waring and the adjutant, too, as it later +appeared, had all swiftly decided that the one explanation, the only +one, conceivable would be burglarious intent, to the utter amaze of +every man present, to the dismay of Félicie, who screamed aloud, the +head went suddenly up and back—oh, how well those who knew the Rays +knew that gesture!—the dark eyes flashed in hate and rage, and the +"miscreant's" voice rang out in defiance, triumph, almost exultation:</p> + +<p>"What explanation? I'd have you know I'm the only man in this post who +has legal right in that room. Ask the lady herself."</p> + +<p>Dwight's jaw was drooping. Slowly he turned to where Félicie, after one +short, half-stifled scream, stood staring wildly upon the prisoner, her +hands clasped to her frizzled head. "Ask—this—woman, you mean?" he +faltered, in the midst of almost breathless silence.</p> + +<p>"That woman? No! <i>Ask my wife, who lies in that room!</i>"</p> + +<p>Then, before any man could lay hand on and stop him, Dwight had sprung +forward and struck the miscreant down.</p> + +<p>Next morning the guard report bore the name, as a prisoner under sentry +in hospital, of Private Blenke, of Company "C," and next night did +Private Skelton, another patient, a precious tale unfold.</p> + +<p>It was true that Skelton had once served in the old —th Cavalry, and, +in common with many a man in his troop, had detested his first +lieutenant, Foster. It was true that there were now in the garrison of +Fort Minneconjou—two in the infantry and one in the cavalry—three men +who had an ancient grudge against that officer. It was true that the +sight of his hated face, hovering ever about the major's wife, had +revived all the old rancor. Two of the number had sworn that if ever a +time came when they could wreak their revenge upon him they would do it. +He had robbed one man of his sweetheart and two of their liberty, and +had driven these two into desertion. Skelton had once been rather +well-to-do, but drink and this trouble had ruined him. He had known +Blenke as much as a year, had been a "super" in a traveling show company +of which Blenke was a member. Blenke was a gymnast and trapeze performer +of some note, and not a bad actor in dialect and minor roles. The +company stranded. They were hundreds of miles from "home," without +money, hope, or credit. Skelton steered Blenke to a recruiting office, +and, once arrived at Minneconjou, Blenke became ambitious. He knew +nothing of the regular army before; now he was determined to become an +officer. Skelton alone knew anything of Blenke's past, and Skelton +promised not to "split." The coming of Mrs. Dwight brought a remarkable +change in Blenke, and when Captain Foster followed her and hung about +her all day long, Skelton saw there was something much amiss. Blenke +seemed going crazy through watching that lady and that man. Blenke had +some clothes of Lieutenant Ray's that he kept hidden at Skidmore's, and +Skelton felt sure that when the story went round about Lieutenant Ray's +being seen at night, prowling back of the major's quarters, that Blenke +was the real culprit. They were talking one day—Skelton and his former +chums—of the chance they'd have now of waylaying the captain, and +Blenke twitted them of not daring, even if they had the chance. They +vowed then that if he would only show them a way, he could count on +their doing it, and they did. Blenke had a plan matured, when suddenly +the captain left, after the row with Lieutenant Ray, and then Blenke +seemed just to take fire. He sent for them and unfolded another. The +Captain's train was five hours late and he knew a way to lure him out on +the road. He hated him, too, he said, and "we were beginning to see why. +He was so dead gone on the lady himself." He fixed the whole business, +got a note to the captain, he said, the captain couldn't tell from her +own writing, and it fetched him out just as was planned, and the rest +was pretty much as the captain told it. Skelton at first didn't much +care that an officer got credit for it all; Blenke had seen to that. +Blenke seemed to hate Lieutenant Ray—though he was forever copying +him—most as much as he hated Foster; but when Skelton got to the +agency, got to know Ray, got knocked down at the pow-wow and rescued by +Ray, got shot and left to roast to death at the agency, and was again +rescued by Ray, Skelton made up his mind that he'd sooner go to +Leavenworth for life, if he lived, or to hell if he didn't, than permit +Mr. Ray to suffer another day in suspicion. It was Blenke who wore his +dress at night and copied his very limp. It was Blenke that kept +prowling about the major's, lallygagging with that French maid. It was +high time Blenke himself was in limbo, and now they'd got him, they'd be +wise to keep an eye on him.</p> + +<p>And so, with the case—the two cases—against Sandy Ray abruptly closed, +the colonel, the surgeon and the adjutant, who had heard the confession, +seemed also to think; for the sentry at the bedside of the mournful-eyed +invalid received orders to bayonet him if he attempted to budge.</p> + +<p>And all in vain, for, with the dawn of a bleak to-morrow, Private +Blenke, no one could begin to say how, had slipped by his possibly +drowsing guard and escaped. The prairie, the Minneconjou valley, the +trains, were fruitlessly searched. The agile prisoner had fled from the +wrath to come.</p> + + + +<hr style="width: 65%;" /> +<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVII" id="CHAPTER_XXVII"></a>CHAPTER XXVII</h2> + +<h3>EXEUNT OMNES</h3> + + +<p>There is little left to tell. With the vanishing of the mysterious +Blenke, "the man of the mournful eyes," there came swift unfolding of +the pitiable scheme that, for a time, had set Minneconjou's nerves on +edge, bewildering almost every man from the colonel down, and bedeviling +most of the women. When one's own mother is ready to believe a man +guilty, small blame to the rest of her kind and to the man's best +friends that they should be of the same way of thinking. Moreover, +neither then nor thereafter did Sandy Ray consider himself an innocent +and injured person.</p> + +<p>"If ever a fellow came within an ace of falling," said he to himself, +and later to his best friend, his father, "it was I; for I believed her +story—believed myself loved—believed she had been tricked into +throwing me over for Dwight, and that, now that he had thrown her over +because of it, and would have no more to do with her, she would soon be +free. Then our marriage could follow. A greater ass than I has never +lived, but I was sincere in my assininity."</p> + +<p>Nor was Sandy Ray the ass he declared himself, for if ever that +exquisite, catlike creature, Inez, loved anybody besides herself, she +loved Sandy Ray, and was bent on winning him back, cost what it might. +She quickly saw that his love for her lay dormant, not dead. She reveled +in the joy of her probable power until, all on a sudden, one terrible +night there came to her the shock of seeing a face she believed long +since buried beneath the waves of the Pacific—that of the boy lover and +husband who wooed and won her inflammable heart nearly five years +earlier.</p> + +<p>Blenke in a romantic epistle to Miss Sanford, Inez, through her lawyers, +and her latest dupe, Stanley Foster—whose resignation from the army +went eastward by the same train that bore him and that fair fugitive +from Minneconjou—and finally the impeccable Farrells, all gave versions +more or less veracious of that early marriage episode. But sifted down, +this much of truth was ascertained. The two were cousins, with the +vehement blood of the Antilles coursing in their veins. They loved, were +married by a Texan justice of the peace, and, after a brief honeymoon +across the Mexican line—a honeymoon of mingled bliss and battle—found +the old people relentless and themselves squabbling and stranded. The +elders swooped upon the girl-wife, bore her back to Texas and sent the +strolling player to South America, with the promise never to return or +bother them. They told her, and she refused to believe, that he speedily +met his death at the hands of a jealous husband in Valparaiso. They +later told her, and she fully believed, that, in defiance of his promise +and in desire for her, he had determined to reclaim her as they were +going to San Francisco, and was washed overboard from the <i>Colima</i> by a +tidal wave. Inez, like a certain few of her sex, could believe anything +possible for love—of her, and Stanley Foster went far toward confirming +her views for as much as the month that followed their mad flight. Then, +with his commission gone—and his illusions—he found himself bound to a +woman whose fast-fading charms were no compensation for anything he had +lost. Much of their misery, and her own, was told in metropolitan +circles by Félicie, who applied unsuccessfully about this time to Mrs. +Gerald Stuyvesant for the position of nursery governess, or <i>bonne</i>. +Félicie had gone thither in hopes of extracting something from Foster's +people, as nothing could be gotten from the Farrells since nothing short +of extradition proceedings could induce their return to the States. It +was the same miserable old story, and Sandy Ray many a time thanked +Heaven, and Stone, and the senior surgeon, for the order that took him +to the agency and away from Inez Dwight. Would he have succumbed had he +stayed? Older and presumably wiser men have done worse, so why not +Sandy? Perhaps mother and Priscilla were not all wrong in their +forebodings.</p> + +<p>But what a scene of love and repentance and rejoicing was that when +those two women, Aunt Marion and her niece, compared notes over the +episode of that night's vigil and Sandy's part therein. Then his story +of his coming was true, after all! Priscilla had seen him entering the +front gate; had heard him at the door; had heard him pass round to the +side of the house. Blenke it was who, counterfeiting even the painful +little limp that still hampered Sandy's movements, had caused so many to +believe it was Billy Ray's firstborn, in the dead of night, invading the +quarters of a brother-officer, to the scandal of the service. They saw +it all now, these good people who had dreamed so wildly, and some few +there were who went to Ray during the brief fortnight that followed her +final disappearance and said: "We knew you couldn't have been guilty of +such a thought," but Sandy did not thank them. In his downright +impulsiveness he had gone to Stone and told him the truth, and said he +<i>had</i> been guilty of such a thought, and asked the commander what he +ought to say to Dwight; and Stone, after pondering over the matter, +replied in effect, though not in these precise words, that he'd be +d—elighted if he knew.</p> + +<p>Time and Dwight solved that problem, as time solves others. The major +remained not long at Minneconjou, nor did the Rays. The former, with +little Jim ever at his side, went eastward for a while, whence letters +came occasionally from both father and son. The latter found divided +duties. An interesting event, an arrival extraordinary, called for the +presence of Mrs. Ray in distant Manhattan, and Priscilla looked her last +for many a day upon the fords of the Minneconjou and those hated +tenements on the hither shore, to whose permanence and prosperity her +own efforts had lent such unlooked-for aid. A wiser woman in many a way +was Priscilla Sanford when she turned her clear eyes eastward again. +Firm as before was her faith that she had a mission, but she had learned +a lesson still needed by many of her sect, and by many of both sexes. +She had a tale to unfold to most excellent theorists in the field that +taught a new gospel in the cause of man's uplifting. They were found by +Dwight and Jimmy at the seashore, late that summer, and Priscilla +strolled hand in hand with her boy friend along the shining sands, and +talked long and gravely with his sire as to the real way of reaching the +moral nature of the enlisted soldier. They were joined by Sandy for a +day or two in September—a rather grave-faced young gentleman, despite +recent promotion and longed-for orders to join his troop in far Luzon. +They were in no wise startled when a cable came from Colonel +Ray—"Grandfather Billy" in spite of his looks—suggesting that they, +too, come with Sandy. They were all at Manila in the late autumn, except +the Dwights, and long before Christmas Priscilla had found in Colonel +Blake, that old-time friend and comrade of Uncle Will, a most delighted +listener to her theories. "Legs" was forever stumping round to the +bungalow and starting Priscilla on her hobby, as he called it, and with +preternatural gravity "drawing her out" as to the chief end of man. +Somebody had told him of her Anti-Canteen and Soldiers' Aid Association +at Minneconjou—and of its disruption, but he never twitted her as to +that. It was the new scheme for the higher education and mental +development of the soldier to which her energies were now bending, and +as Blake was in town with little to do but nurse a wounded leg and serve +on some perennial court-martial, he found his fun in frequent +disquisitions with Priscilla, sometimes prolonging them until Mrs. Ray +lost patience and drove him homeward, and privately wrote her liege +lord, who was forever afield, running down <i>ladrones</i>, that he really +must repress that irrepressible wag. "He isn't trying to flirt with +Pris, is he?" asked Ray, inconsequently, on coming home, and was dull +enough not to catch the full force of his wife's reply. "Flirt? Gerald +Blake never knew how, and he's too much in love with his wife; +and—besides——"</p> + +<p>Priscilla was far too serious to flirt with any man, much as she might +long to reform him. She did wish that the long, lank cavalryman could be +induced to take her views as seriously as she took them herself, and as +Major Dwight seemed to take them, for Dwight's letters were coming at +regular intervals, and to Miss Sanford now rather than to Marion Ray, +and for a time Priscilla read them aloud for the benefit of Blake, the +scoffer, and that of Aunt Marion and Uncle Will, the ever-indulgent. And +thus that warm, sunshiny Manila winter went its way and the summer rains +began to flood the streets, and people took to aquatics, and excursions +to Nagasaki and Yokohama; and thither flitted our friends, the elder +Rays, with Blake to see them off, and a promise to keep Miss 'Cilla's +library project moving. And the day the transport dropped them into +waiting sampan in Nagasaki's wondrous harbor two packages of home +letters were handed them by the resident quartermaster, just received by +rail from Yokohama and the Nippon Maru, and that evening, on the broad +white veranda of the old hotel, Priscilla Sanford's cheeks took on the +hue of the summer sunset, and still Uncle Billy saw—and Aunt Marion +said—nothing.</p> + +<p>One afternoon, a few months later, the <i>Sheridan</i> dropped anchor a mile +or more out in the shallow, land-locked bay of Manila, and the launches +and lighters brought the army passengers ashore, many of them for their +second visit to the Philippines; and just as the band at the <i>kiosk</i> on +the Luneta began the daily concert, and carriages of every kind drew up +along the curb, and officers in spotless white went cap-doffing from +point to point, and fair women smiled and flirted their fans, Colonel +Stone, but recently arrived, began telling for the twentieth time, at +least, the story of the marvelous escapade by means of which the +renowned Blenke secured his final freedom:</p> + +<p>"Caught in Chicago; shipped back to the guard-house; shammed crazy, sir, +till he fooled every surgeon in the Cheyenne Valley; got ordered to the +government hospital for the insane; got supply of Skidmore whisky, +properly doped; got the corporal drunk who went in charge of him, and, +by gad, sir, got the corporal's outfit and papers and turned <i>him</i> over +at Washington as the insane man; got his receipt and vanished—the last +ever heard of him. What became of her? Oh, after her flare-up with that +poor devil Foster—you know the child didn't live—she got back to +Mexico somehow: women like her never die—but she'll never be able to +bother Dwight. That marriage, of course, wasn't legal. He'd simply been +tricked. No, old Dwight's a free man, and I reckon he'll think twice +before he tries it again."</p> + +<p>Whereupon Stone was swiftly kicked in the shin by the long-legged +lieutenant-colonel of cavalry at his side, for, in his enthusiasm, the +colonel had turned and addressed his closing remarks to the two ladies +in the nearmost carriage, and one of them was reddening like the rose.</p> + +<p>"Dwight's here, you owl," said Blake, in explanation, later. "Came in on +the <i>Sheridan</i> this very afternoon, and he isn't so confounded free as +you were in your remarks. Why—hadn't you <i>heard</i>? May be another case +of 'out of the frying-pan into the fire'—a toss-up 'twixt 'Cilla and +Charybdis, but——"</p> + +<p>"Good Lord!" cried Stone, "and what did I say? You don't mean she's +going to marry Dwight?"</p> + +<p>"She can't help herself. He won't take no for an answer."</p> + +<p>"Well—I'll—be—hanged," said Stone, reflectively, "and I ought to be. +It's just what my wife said—when the daily readings were going +on—would likely be the upshot of the whole business. She said more than +that—and she knows women, too—that Priscilla Sanford would make for +him the best kind of a wife."</p> + +<p> </p> +<p> </p> +<hr class="full" /> +<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SOLDIER'S TRIAL***</p> +<p>******* This file should be named 32311-h.txt or 32311-h.zip *******</p> +<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br /> +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/3/1/32311">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/3/1/32311</a></p> +<p>Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed.</p> + +<p>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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For +example an eBook of filename 10234 would be found at: + +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/1/0/2/3/10234 + +or filename 24689 would be found at: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/4/6/8/24689 + +An alternative method of locating eBooks: +<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL">http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/GUTINDEX.ALL</a> + +*** END: FULL LICENSE *** +</pre> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/32311-h/images/illus1.jpg b/32311-h/images/illus1.jpg Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..2abdaaf --- /dev/null +++ b/32311-h/images/illus1.jpg diff --git a/32311.txt b/32311.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c132dd8 --- /dev/null +++ b/32311.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8313 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Soldier's Trial, 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: A Soldier's Trial + An Episode of the Canteen Crusade + + +Author: Charles King + + + +Release Date: May 9, 2010 [eBook #32311] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SOLDIER'S TRIAL*** + + +E-text prepared by Mary Meehan and the Project Gutenberg Online +Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images +generously made available by Internet Archive/American Libraries +(http://www.archive.org/details/americana) + + + +Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this + file which includes the original illustrations. + See 32311-h.htm or 32311-h.zip: + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32311/32311-h/32311-h.htm) + or + (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/32311/32311-h.zip) + + + Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/American Libraries. See + http://www.archive.org/details/soldierstrial00kingrich + + + + + +A SOLDIER'S TRIAL + +An Episode of the Canteen Crusade + +by + +GENERAL CHARLES KING + +Author of "A Daughter of the Sioux," "Comrades in Arms," "The Medal of +Honor," Etc. + + + + + + + +New York +The Hobart Company +1905 + +Copyright, 1905, +by the Hobart Company + + + + +Brig.-Gen. Frederick D. Grant, U.S.A., says: "It is distressing that the +prosperity of the keepers of vile resorts is due to the activity of good +and worthy though misguided citizens, who have succeeded in abolishing +the canteen in the army." + + + + +CONTENTS + + + CHAPTER I. TWO ANNOUNCEMENTS + + CHAPTER II. A FACE FROM THE PHILIPPINES + + CHAPTER III. A NIGHT AT NAPLES + + CHAPTER IV. "SHE IS COMING HERE!" + + CHAPTER V. PREMONITORY SYMPTOMS + + CHAPTER VI. A BRIDE--AND A BEAU + + CHAPTER VII. THE WOLF IN THE SHEEPFOLD + + CHAPTER VIII. ACCUSING LETTERS + + CHAPTER IX. AN INVITATION--TO GO + + CHAPTER X. A GATHERING STORM + + CHAPTER XI. DEEPER IN THE TOILS + + CHAPTER XII. WHAT THE WOMEN TOLD THE MAJOR + + CHAPTER XIII. WORST DEED OF HIS LIFE + + CHAPTER XIV. REACTION + + CHAPTER XV. RETRIBUTION + + CHAPTER XVI. MY LADY'S MAID + + CHAPTER XVII. A MOMENTOUS DAY + + CHAPTER XVIII. BLENKE COVERS HIS TRACKS + + CHAPTER XIX. AGAIN THE SALOON + + CHAPTER XX. A MOTHER'S DREAD + + CHAPTER XXI. LOVE'S LAST APPEAL + + CHAPTER XXII. THE LOST FOUND + + CHAPTER XXIII. A WELCOME PERIL + + CHAPTER XXIV. CRISIS + + CHAPTER XXV. BLACK WOLF'S BATTLE + + CHAPTER XXVI. TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION + + CHAPTER XXVII. EXEUNT OMNES + + + + +A SOLDIER'S TRIAL + + + + +CHAPTER I + +TWO ANNOUNCEMENTS + + +The war with Spain was at an end, and so were the hopes and aspirations +of many a warrior. For several reasons Colonel Ray of the ----th +Kentucky was a disappointed man. One of the best soldiers doing duty +with the volunteers, he had had some of the worst luck. Through long +years of service in the regular cavalry he had borne the reputation of +being a most energetic and valuable officer. He had won a name as an +Indian fighter the Indians themselves respected. He had campaigned all +over the frontier before the railways came and conquered. He knew +Arizona and New Mexico even better than his native State, and was known +from the upper Missouri to the lower Colorado far more generally than in +the "blue grass" country of his boy days. Apache and Arapahoe, Comanche +and Cheyenne, Sioux and Shoshone, they all had met, and many had +measured spear with, the dark-eyed, curly-headed Kentucky +light-horseman. He bore the scars of more than one sharp encounter; had +given more than he had received, yet found himself in no wise blessed +with profit or promotion. The Civil War was fairly ended when he stepped +from the Point into his first commission. Over thirty years had he done +valiant and faithful duty in the line, yet was he only just wearing the +gold leaves as junior major of his regiment, when the long-expected +happened in the spring of '98, and the nation called out its first levy +of volunteers. Slow as had been his advancement, it was phenomenally +swift as compared with that of classmates who, choosing the artillery +arm, had languished those thirty years in the line of file closers. Ray +had no complaint to make. He was even rejoiceful in his luck when called +to Kentucky to command one of her regiments of volunteer infantry. He +was, indeed, among the few envied men in the army where so very few have +anything to excite the cupidity of their kind. His record and reputation +were things no man could undermine, though some might underestimate. His +temperament was sweet and sunny. He had long been happily, most happily, +married. His wife was charming, admired, and beloved. His children were +all a father's heart could wish. Health and competence had always been +theirs. They had, indeed, for years known the joys of moderate wealth, +for Mrs. Ray had brought her husband something besides beauty and grace, +physical and spiritual. The Marion Sanford of the Centennial year of '76 +was reputed an heiress, and the children that had come in course of time +to bless their union were certainly born to the purple. But army people +of those days lived long years in the far West, had to trust their +business affairs to agents in the far East, and some agents could not +stand such prosperity. Mrs. Ray's property was mainly in real estate, +some of which became gradually unproductive. Then there came the +financial storm of '93, and a subsequent flitting of financial agents, +some to the convenient Canadas, some to the Spanish Main. + +Then another thing happened, almost whimsical in the way of retributive +justice where Mrs. Ray's relatives were concerned. That the resultant +burden should have been saddled on her cavalry husband was perhaps not +quite so diverting. There were several of Mrs. Ray's nearest of kin who +had by no means approved of her marriage in the army, and to a nameless, +moneyless subaltern at that. "He will make ducks and drakes of her +fortune," said they. "He will drink and gamble it away," said certain +others. Ray had possibly heard, had probably expected this. At all +events he had steadfastly declined to use his wife's money. He had gone +so far as to grieve her not a little by very gently, but very firmly, +declining to undertake the management of her property. That was all left +in the hands of her people. It was the agent of their choice who made +ducks and drakes of much of it, as well as of their own, and, at the +time the Spanish War broke out, from his pay as major in the line of the +army "Billy" Ray was contributing to the support of certain of the +children of his former detractors. + +Then came partial relief. "Sandy" Ray, their eldest son, commissioned +like his father in the cavalry, was no longer to be provided for. +Indeed, he was sending every month a certain quarter of his salary +direct to his mother to repay her for moneys advanced for him when they +were much needed. Maidie Ray, their lovely dark-eyed daughter, had +married the man of her choice, a well-to-do young New Yorker of most +excellent family. There was only Billy, Junior, among their olive +branches now to be provided for until he could look out for himself. +There was even prospect of his being sent to West Point within the year +to make a try at that which had proved too hard a problem for his +unmathematical elder brother, for Sandy had worn cadet gray long enough +to get much of the practical teaching of our famous school, though he +could not assimilate the requisite amount of the theoretical. It was the +year after the surrender of Santiago and the muster out of most of the +State volunteers that, in the goodness of his heart, Colonel Ray turned +to Marion, his wife, and said: + +"Why not have Beth and 'Cilla come to us?"--and thereby hangs very much +of this tale. + +"Beth," be it said at once, did not come, for, even in her reduced +circumstances and somewhat mature years, this excellent woman was sought +by an old admirer, once deemed ineligible. Beth wrote thankfully and +appreciatively to Uncle Will and dear Aunt Marion: "The Doctor has +returned to New Jersey and--the old subject." There was now no stern +parent to say him nay, and she--could not. But Priscilla would gladly +and gratefully come, and, whether or no Priscilla was grateful, +Priscilla proved assuredly glad, for Priscilla was a woman with a +mission and long in search of a field. Priscilla had often marveled at +Aunt Marion's blindness in not having earlier looked to her as the best +possible guide, example, and companion for Aunt Marion's most +interesting if much-indulged brood. Priscilla never doubted her powers, +and never dreamed of the instant protests developed when, in mischievous +mood, probably, papa had suggested having Cousin 'Cilla come to the +frontier to help mother school the little Rays. All their recollections +of that prematurely mature young kinswoman were somewhat appalling. They +regarded her as healthy children are sure to look upon an elder cousin +who seeks ever to improve her opportunities and their moral nature. Life +had had no greater trial to the trio than those rare and even +regrettable visits to mother's home and kindred where first they learned +to know the superior gifts and graces of Cousin 'Cil. + +It has been said that Colonel Ray, the Spanish part of the war ended, +was a disappointed man, and that so was many another. Never waiting to +see what might result from the general rally of the Filipino insurgents, +following speedily the first general scatter, the government swiftly +mustered out all the State volunteers not actually on duty in the +distant islands, filled up the regulars with raw recruits, and shipped +them straightway, undisciplined, undrilled, across the wide Pacific. +Then new regiments of volunteers were authorized,--National volunteers, +instead of State,--and, though their field officers as a rule were +chosen from the regular service, there were by no means enough to go +around among the many deserving applicants. The forty odd colonelcies +went, in most cases, to the right men, but there were many "left," and +Billy Ray was one. He had had no luck whatever with his Kentucky +regiment. He had been sent to Chickamauga, and thence to Florida, and +thence nowhere worth mentioning. They saw no service without the States; +heard no hostile bullets whistle; found, like most of the State +volunteers, they were to have no part in the Cuban campaign, and, that +being the case, they wished to go home. They hadn't enlisted to play +soldier, said they, and much as they admired and honored Colonel Ray, +they could not be made to love soldier life that had no fighting. "Give +us a chance to _do_ something," was their cry, "and we'll stay till hell +freezes over; but no more of this sort of thing for us." Ray had tried +hard to keep alive regimental interest and enthusiasm, but few could +feel either interest or enthusiasm in a daily routine of drill, parade, +and police duty in a hot, malarious Southern camp under Southern summer +skies. Other regiments about them were getting orders to go home for +muster out, and some of these individual Kentuckians had begun to go, +too. If Ray could have moved them a few miles away from the other camps, +and close to the sparkling sea water, things might have gone better, but +his original brigade commander, a regular whom he knew, and who knew +him, had gotten orders for the Philippines, and gone. + +He was succeeded by a brigadier whom Ray had never heard of, nor +apparently had anybody else outside the contracted limits of his +commonwealth, and this gentleman, having never before served with +troops, and knowing nothing about modern military conditions, had +imbibed his impressions from foreign pictorial papers. His conception of +the functions of a general officer found concrete form in a daily +circuit of his camps, mounted and accompanied by his full staff and +escort. When not so occupied he sat in much state under the fly of his +marquee, and had his colonels come and stand attention and listen to his +homilies on the military art, which differed from anything they had +previously conceived upon the subject. It was this unschooled, unskilled +brigadier who turned down Ray's appeal to march his regiment five miles +over to the seashore. The colonel of over thirty years' practical +experience was being lectured by the general who had none. The +unterrified Kentucky rank and file took to guying their civilian +star-bearer. There were presently demonstrations that Ray could neither +foresee nor prevent. The general thought he could and should, and so +informed him, and likewise the division commander. Ray demanded +investigation. The division commander sought to smooth matters over, and +failed. Ray resigned in disgust, sought orders to his own regiment, and +found himself once again at the head of his squadron of regular troopers +in the midst of scenes he loved. But his soul longed for action. He was +offered a lieutenant-colonelcy of one of the national regiments of +volunteers, but that was a step down, not up. It would have placed him +under a colonel ten years younger than himself, and he said he preferred +the gold leaves in the regulars to the silver in the volunteers, which +ended for the present his prospects. Maidie's wedding, too, had +something to do with the decision. But now that was over with, and here +were he and Marion occupying delightful quarters at old Fort +Minneconjou, with every prospect of soon being sent to the Philippines, +where their colonel was commanding a division in the field, leaving +Major Ray to look after the post, its men, and its military morals. Here +it was, in the bracing air of the Dakotas and within range of the bold +foothills and remoter pine-crested heights of the Sagamore, that they +opened their hearts and doors to Mrs. Billy's niece, Priscilla Sanford, +and affairs at Minneconjou, stagnant a while after the departure of the +----d Infantry, once more became alive with interest, for Miss 'Cilla, +as has been said, was a woman with a mission and, as perhaps should be +said, with some thirty years to her credit, rather more than she had +dollars. + +Time had been when, with abundant means and few cares, Miss Sanford +busied herself in local charities and became a social power in her +community. But with loss of money came lack of appreciation. She who had +long managed the Mission kindergarten, and mainly financed it, was +presently superseded as president of the board. She who had ever been +foremost in the counsels of the Infants' Home and the St. Mary's Guild +found herself gradually slighted in the matter of entertainments, etc., +though still graciously permitted to do most of the clerical work. + +For nearly a dozen years she had served as secretary and treasurer of +the Young Woman's Church Aid and Temperance Union, a beneficent +organization that still held many meetings but few converts. It had the +backing of three or four wealthy congregations, however, and the control +of a generous fund. When the year '94 was ushered in and the victims of +the panic of '93 were enumerated, the case of Priscilla Sanford had +excited prompt and rather widespread interest; but the sympathy that +might have been as readily accorded was tempered by the reflection that +Miss Sanford had ever been what they termed "bossy," by which it was by +no means meant to imply that bovine sluggishness and submission were +Miss Sanford's marked characteristics, for Miss Sanford was energy +personified in petticoats. It had been moved, seconded and carried, in a +spasm of feminine generosity, that the secretary and treasurer should be +paid a salary, small, to be sure, but something, and Priscilla Sanford, +who had labored without fee or financial reward a dozen years, was +permitted to hold the position as a salaried official just one year +longer, by which time it was determined that Miss Sanford had really +been secretary much too long, and, anyhow, that somebody else stood much +more in need of it. So Priscilla's party found itself outvoted at the +annual election, and the Young Woman's Church Aid ceased, except in +name, to be a temperance union. With much that was intemperate in tone +and language, the union burst its bonds and flew to pieces, one or more +to each congregation. Then Priscilla tried her hand at writing for the +various journals of the clerical order. Some few published, but none +paid for, her contributions. Then Aunt Marion began sending occasional +drafts that were not to be mentioned to anybody. Then came Priscilla's +bid to join Uncle Will and Aunt Marion at Minneconjou, and +then--Priscilla herself. + +She had been there barely forty-eight hours when there arrived from the +Philippines a bulky letter from Lieutenant Sandy Ray, eldest son and +hope and heir, dated "Camp Lawton, Benguet." It had been nearly three +months on the way. It brought tidings that made his mother's soft cheek +pale with anxiety and caused Colonel Ray to look up startled as he read +it, to go over and take his wife in his arms, lead her to the sofa, and +hold her close as he went on with the final pages--a boy's rhapsody over +a boy's first love: + + MY OWN MUMMIE:--Not until I could send you the inclosed, the + portrait, and by no means flattering one, of the loveliest girl + that ever lived, could I write to tell you of my almost delirious + happiness. But _look_ at her--_look_ at her, and see for yourself + and rejoice with me, best, blessedest, dearest of mothers, that + this exquisite creature loves me--_me_, your no 'count, ranch boy + Sandy--loves _me_, and will soon, please God, be my own wife. + Mother, mother, I have hardly slept in my wild joy, and now I can + hardly wait for your approval and blessing. Dad will love and + admire her, I know, but mothers, they say, never think any woman + good enough for their boys, while I--I could kiss the very ground + she treads so lightly. I almost worship the very glove she left me + for a souvenir. + + As yet I can't quite realize my wondrous luck. Why, Mummie, the + other fellows were simply mad about her during her brief stay at + Manila. Quite a lot of us, you know, were ordered there when poor + Jack Bender was court-martialed. He got a stay of proceedings of + some kind, so while the witnesses should have been back with + General Young here, they were dancing attendance on her, and the + way I got the inside track was, when her parents had to go over to + Japan, I coaxed a ten days' leave out of the General and went with + them--her father, mother and her own sweet self--on the _Hancock_ + to Nagasaki, and came back desolate on the--I don't know what. + + I met her at a dance at the Club. She attracted me the instant I + set eyes on her, so like is she to Maidie, only darker, perhaps, + and taller, and a bit more slender. But her eyes, hair, teeth, + coloring, are all so like Maidie's. Her features, perhaps, are more + regular. Shannon, of the Twenty-third, was doing the devoted, and + he presented me. She danced like a sylph, she danced right into my + heart, Mummie, and there she lives and reigns and has her being--my + queen! my queen! + + Oh, what nonsense this must sound to you! All my wise resolutions + as to young men marrying on lieutenant's pay thrown to the wind! + That, however, need not worry us. The major, her father, is + well-to-do, and she's an only child; but this is sordid. It is + _she_ that I love, and the man does not live who could see and know + her and not worship. Why, even our old friend Captain Dwight was + fascinated and didn't half like it that I should have gone with her + to Nagasaki, and he was stiff as a ramrod when I came back. But to + return to her father. He, of course, doesn't expect to remain in + the army after the war. He was made major and quartermaster, I + presume because of his financial experience and worth, and he was + so patriotic he felt he had to get into the field as something. He + is a Texan by long residence, if not birth; owns two or three + ranches, and his wife, my darling's mother, is a Spanish lady whom + he met years ago in Cuba, then Senorita de la Cruz y Mendoza y + Fronteras, etc., etc., but she, my lady, never speaks of this. She + is simplicity and sweetness itself. She bears her father's honored + name, and that alone, except for her own Christian name, the + sweetest ever--Inez. + + The major's health has suffered much in Manila, but it is hoped + that six weeks in Japan may restore him entirely. If not, they will + take the homeward voyage by way of Vancouver in one of the fine + ships of the Empress line instead of our crowded transports. + Hundreds of State volunteers are going back by every one of these + and, being discharged, or as good as discharged, they consider + themselves relieved from all discipline--which makes it unpleasant + for families of officers. They (the Farrells) may winter in + 'Frisco, where I hope to join them in the spring, and where you + will be sure to see them when you and Dad and the squadron embark + for the Islands. There won't be anything left of the insurrection, + or much of the insurrectos, at the rate things are going, by the + time you come, but meanwhile, like the loving Mummie you are, write + to them, especially to _her_, that your future daughter may know a + loving welcome awaits her. She seems timid as to that and fears you + may not like her, and Dad will, of course, write to Major Farrell, + who is as keen a lover of horses as ever he was, and who owns some + of the finest blooded stock ever seen in the South. This letter + goes registered because of the priceless photograph, which was + taken at Hong Kong, Inez tells me, just after their voyage over, + when she was looking like a fright. Being registered, it must go + slowly and may be long in reaching you, but fancy your Sandy's joy, + if you can. Send this to Maidie, if you will, for I have no time to + write to both. I am commanding my troop and we march at dawn for + the mountains, and may be weeks now in the jungle, chasing + Aguinaldo. Several of our fellows have broken down and had to go to + the sea or back to Corregidor, even over to Japan, to recuperate, + but I feel like a fighting cock and am going in now to win a name + for myself, and for her, that you'll all be proud of. One thing I + can tell you proudly, mother dear: never since that day at the + Presidio, ever so much more than a year ago, have I let even a sip + of wine pass my lips, the first and only teetotaler among the Rays, + and perhaps _that_ has something to do with my perfect physical + trim. I owe you this, and have gladly kept the faith. Now in my + new-found happiness I feel as if I could keep that and every other + faith to the end. Lovingly, devotedly, your boy, + + SANFORD RAY. + + P. S.--Inez says it should not be announced until you all have + approved, whereas I wished and would be for shouting the news from + the housetops. There is a chance of getting this to you quicker + than I thought. Captain Dwight has never been himself since + Bender's trial and conviction. General Young wanted him to take + sick leave last month and go to Japan, but he wouldn't. Now he's + fairly broken down and has to be left behind, so this will go to + Manila with him. I wonder--I can't help wondering--what he'd think + if he knew what was in it. The fellows do say she could have had + him and his money, yet she chose your boy, SANDY. + +For a moment after reading the final page Colonel Ray sat in silence. +Aloft could be heard the firm footfalls of Miss Sanford as she bustled +about her room unpacking her belated trunks. Within, with merry snap and +sparkle, the fresh-heaped wood fire blazed in the broad open fireplace. +Without, the orderly trumpeter, away over by the flagstaff, was winding +the last note of stable call. The late afternoon sunshine flooded the +valley of the Minneconjou. The mountain air, cool, bracing, redolent of +pine and cedar, stirred the tracery of the white curtains at the open +southward window and fluttered the silken folds of the standard and +guidons at the parlor archway. Anxiously the mother heart was throbbing +by his side, and the fond eyes sought the soldier's strong, storm-beaten +face. Then she noted the look of bewilderment in his gaze, for again he +was studying that postscript. Then suddenly he stretched forth his hand, +took from the little pile of newspapers on a chair a copy of a recent +army journal, swiftly turned over a page or two, searching the columns +with half doubtful eyes; then, finding what he needed, thumbed the +paragraph and held it where she could easily see. "Read that," said Ray, +and Marion read aloud: + + "SAN FRANCISCO, ---- 18.--Among the arrivals at the Occidental by + the _Sheridan_ from Manila and Nagasaki are Major, Mrs. and Miss + Farrell and Captain Oswald M. Dwight, the latter of the --th + Cavalry. Major Farrell, Quartermaster U. S. Volunteers, is the + owner of valuable properties in Texas, whither he is soon to + return. Captain Dwight, one of the most distinguished of our + squadron leaders, is rapidly recuperating from serious illness + contracted in the Philippines. The voyage proved a blessing in more + ways than one, for the dinner given by Major and Mrs. Farrell last + night, to a select coterie at the Bohemian Club, was to announce + the engagement of their lovely daughter, Inez, to this gallant + trooper, who won his spurs in the Apache campaign of the '80's, and + the sympathy of hosts of friends on the Pacific coast in the death + of his devoted wife six years ago. They will now rejoice with him + in his joy, and unite with us in wishing him and his young and + beautiful bride all possible felicity." + +Mrs. Ray turned, all amaze, incredulity and distress; then, with +something like a sob, buried her face on the sturdy blue shoulder. There +was suspicious moisture about her husband's blinking eyes, and he for a +moment could hardly trust himself to speak. + +"Is it--_our_ boy now, dear?" he gently asked, and her head came up at +the instant, her blue eyes welling over with indignant tears: + +"Oh, Will," she answered, "you know well what I'm thinking. It is of +_her_--of Margaret--it is of _their_ boy--poor little motherless Jim!" + + + + +CHAPTER II + +A FACE FROM THE PHILIPPINES + + +The man did not live who could say, much less think, that Oswald Dwight +did not devotedly love his devoted wife and had not deeply, even +desolately, mourned her untimely death. Margaret Welland was not a woman +to be soon forgotten. For six years she had been the object almost of +reverence among the officers and men of her husband's regiment, almost +of worship among the women. Gentle, generous, and charitable, gifted +with many a physical charm and almost every spiritual grace, she had +lived her brief life in the army an uncrowned queen, and died a +martyr--almost a saint. For long weeks afterward the women would weep at +mere mention of her name. The casket that bore the fragile, lifeless +form and that of her infant daughter to their final rest was literally +buried in flowers that were wet with tears. Strong men, too, turned +aside or hid their faces in trembling hands when with bowed head Oswald +Dwight was led by, clasping to his breast his sobbing little boy. There +were some who said that Dwight could never have pulled up again if it +hadn't been for Jimmy. It was long months before the stricken soldier +was restored to them. It was longer still before little Jim returned, +and every day meantime, after Dwight's appearance, regularly as he rose +and went silently about his duties, the father wrote his letter to be +read aloud to his only living child, and the one thing that spurred the +merry-hearted little fellow to his studies was the longing to read and +to answer for himself. Jim's first missive to his father, penned by his +own infinite labor, was the event of the second winter at Fort Riley, +for it was shown in succession to nearly every comrade and to every even +remotely sympathetic woman at the post. There were maidens there who +would fain have consoled the tall, distinguished, dark-eyed trooper, so +interesting in his depth of melancholy, so eligible as a catch, for +Dwight, for an army man, was oddly well to do. Obstinately, however, he +refused all consolation from even such a sympathetic source, and would +for long brook no companion on his solitary walks or rides. All his talk +now was of his boy. All his thoughts, plans, projects, seemed centering +on little Jim, who, for the time being, had to be housed among his +mother's people. He was still too young for the care of a soldier-father +who any day might be compelled to take the field. But then came station +at Fort Riley, with its big garrison, its school and its society, and +then the yearning at his heart could no longer be denied. The Wellands +nearly cried their eyes out when Oswald, toward the end of the third +"leave" since Margaret's death, told them that the time for which he had +scrupulously sought to prepare them had come at last: he must have his +boy--he could not live without him. + +Then when Jimmy came it seemed as though an entire garrison had started +in to spoil him. He was the merriest, sunniest, friendliest little chap, +frank, brave and even beautiful, with all his mother's lovely coloring, +with her deep, heavily-lashed, soulful, violet eyes, with her soft +curling brown hair, with her sweet, sensitive mouth and pretty white +teeth. No wonder big Oswald used to set him on his knee and look long +into the smiling little face, so fond and trustful, yet filled with +vague wonderment why daddy should so wistfully gaze at him; and then +with relief, Jim knew not why, when the strong arms would suddenly draw +the lithe, slender little body to that broad and heaving chest and hold +it there, close strained, while bearded lips sought and kissed again and +again the sunny curls. Dwight just lived for that boy, said Fort Riley, +small blame to him! Dwight made little Jim his friend, his confidant, +his companion. Jim had his own little pony as soon as he could safely +bestride one. Jim had his own little camp bed in the room opening off +his father's. Jim had his own shower bath rigged up in his own closet. +Jim had his regular setting-up drill and calisthenics, with daddy +himself for teacher, his rub-down and his soldier toilet, with daddy to +teach him breathing exercises that took the oxygen deep down into his +lungs and sent the red blood whirling through his sinewy little frame. +Jimmy had his own racket for tennis, his own target rifle, his own +kites, tops, marbles, soldiers of every conceivable size, costume and +corps, his own railway tracks and trains, his own books and bookshelves, +his own desk and study table--pretty much everything a boy could have +except his own way, which he was the better without, and his own +mother--without whom boy life can never be complete. + +Fort Riley could be censorious, Heaven knows, when cause existed, and +sometimes when it didn't; but, save the cherished thought of certain +sentimental women that little Jim should have a mother's care as well as +a father's, Fort Riley had few critics so unwise as to question Dwight's +methods with his boy. Jim did not lack for playfellows of his own +age--the fort was full of them and they as full of mischief and +merriment as even army boys are apt to be; but, though at school and in +the "all-round" sports of boyhood Jim mingled with them unreservedly, +the father had made it his business to know most of them well before he +brought Jim to take his initiation among them. There were some few whose +homes Jim was cautioned not to visit. There were some whom, even on +rainy days when the railway was in successful operation all over the +second story, Jim was not permitted to invite to join his +fellow-operatives. A few carping critics there were who thought such +indulgence would be sure to spoil any boy, but, under his father's eye +and guided by his father's hand, Jim worked and studied quite as +steadily as he played. The staff of the little army household was made +up mainly of former trooper Hentzler and his buxom wife, Hentzler being +butler, steward, and valet, Frau Hentzler cook and housemaid. Mrs. +Feeny, of the troop, was their laundress, and Trooper Mehl "boots," +striker and groom. But it was Dwight himself who roused his boy for his +morning bath and exercise, who sat with him through his study hour, saw +him off to school; walked, rode, drove, sometimes shot and fished with +him, going for the purpose far up the Smoky Hill. It was Dwight who read +with him after their evening tea and who finally knelt with him night +after night before he tucked the little fellow into his white bed, +imploring God's guidance for himself, God's blessing for his boy. + +And so never again had they been separated, Dwight and his boy, until +the squadron sailed for Manila and little Jim, refusing to be comforted, +had been left with his mother's kindred until matters should shape +themselves in the Philippines. But the shaping process that might have +been a matter only of months, had the army found no other enemy than the +insurgents and their climate, proved long and costly in life, limb, and +treasure, thanks to the aid and comfort given that enemy by our +fellow-men at home. Dwight had led his squadron through a campaign +fierce in its occasional fighting, but well-nigh fatal through hardship +and heat prostration to many besides himself. Dwight had had to turn +over his command to Captain Gridley, his next in rank, and go to the sea +and Corregidor for rest and recuperation. What good effects might have +been obtained were offset by the court-martial of an officer whose mind, +it was believed, had been affected by sunstroke, yet Captain Dwight was +compelled to appear and remain some time in Manila to testify against +him. He returned to the field little benefited by the enforced +separation from his fellows, and speedily showed symptoms of returning +prostration that led the general commanding to order him again to the +seashore and recommend his being sent on a sea voyage. It was during +this voyage that, after four wonderful days at Nagasaki, he found +himself daily, almost hourly, in the presence of Inez Farrell, as +beautiful and graceful a girl as ever his eyes had seen. He was strong +neither physically nor mentally. He was still an invalid when they met +on the veranda of the old hotel overlooking that wonderful land-locked +harbor. He had by no means forgotten the impression created by her +beauty and her lissome grace when dancing at the club at Manila. He was +invited by Major Farrell to be one of their little party on a rickshaw +ride over the green hills to Mogi. It was an ideal day. It was an ideal +night, with the moon nearing full as they sat later on the upper +veranda, gazing out upon the riding lights of the shipping +thick-clustered on the placid bosom of the bay. It was followed by other +nights as beautiful both ashore and at sea. He was twenty years her +senior, yet she seemed to look for him, wait for him, prefer him in +every way to younger officers, also homeward bound, and these youngsters +left him to his fate. + +What time he was not walking the deck, with her little hand resting on +his arm, or flung in long, low steamer chair close to hers, where he +could watch the wondrous beauty of her face and feel the spell of her +soft, languorous, lovely eyes, Dwight found himself in converse with her +father, a patriotic quartermaster, the owner of valuable properties in +the Lone Star State, to which he must speedily return--his "boys," two +nephews, were not trained to business, said he, and they, too, had been +seeing service and unsettling their minds and habits with the volunteers +that didn't get to Cuba. His daughter was his chief anxiety, he +admitted. She had her mother's luxurious Spanish temperament; needed a +guiding hand--a husband to whom she could look up with respect and +honor, not a callow youngster with no ideas beyond scheming for +promotion and better pay. Several of these young chaps had been buzzing +about her at Manila, but she had "turned them all down," said Farrell. +She had sense and power of observation with all her possibly romantic +admiration for soldiers, but what she really admired was the real +soldier--a man fit to command and lead, a man with a record behind him, +not an uncertainty ahead. Dwight's seat, at the request of the veteran +general officer going with them to the States, had been at the captain's +table, but Dwight soon effected--at least Farrell effected and Dwight +got the _dis_credit of it--a transfer with the officer who had been +seated at the side of Inez Farrell, and Dwight's mental condition can +perhaps be judged of by the fact that he never noticed that General Hume +thereafter not once addressed him on the voyage. + +Enough said. Oswald Dwight's many friends throughout the service read +with much surprise, most of them with vague disquietude and some few +with downright dismay, the announcement of the marriage at Los Angeles, +by the Right Reverend the Bishop of the Diocese, assisted by the Very +Reverend Fathers Moran and Finley, at the Church of the Immaculate +Conception, of Inez, only daughter of Major and Quartermaster James +O'Donohue Farrell, U. S. V., of Santa Rosita, Texas, and Maria Mercedes +de la Cruz y Mendoza y Fronteras, his wife, to Captain Oswald M. Dwight, +--th U. S. Cavalry. + +When the happy pair set forth upon their wedding journey some comment +was created by the fact that, while they went to New Orleans, the +parents of the bride did not go to Texas, as had been planned. Moreover, +the major, it seems, had not anticipated that orders honorably +discharging him from the volunteer service would meet him within the +week of his arrival within the Golden Gate. Officers of the Department +Staff, interrogated on the subject, said little but looked volumes. +Major Blake, of the Cavalry, an old and intimate friend of the Rays, was +understood to say that it was a wonder the major had been honorably +discharged at all. Farrell, who was to have gone to his Texas property, +found that certain mines in Mexico demanded immediate looking after. +Indeed, it was this fact that precipitated an earlier marriage than Miss +Farrell, whose trousseau was by no means in readiness, had for a moment +contemplated. Farrell said he might be as much as six months in the +mountains beyond Guadalajara and other places. The senora had, of +course, wealthy kindred with whom she could stay at Mexico or Vera Cruz, +but the hitch was about Inez, who, said her father, was so Americanized +that she couldn't get along with her mother's people--they were forever +at swords' points, and what more natural than that the ardent swain +should promptly urge immediate union; then the Farrells could go their +way in peace and he could bear away his beautiful bride to the Atlantic +seaboard, to be made known to his people, and to embrace little Jim. To +this Inez responded coyly that she could not think of such a plan. She +could not go back to San Francisco, a bride, in the gowns she wore while +there as Miss Farrell. Then said Dwight, we'll go straight to New +Orleans, where her mother had many friends and kinsfolk, where the best +of modistes abound, where everything a bride could possibly wear could +surely be found, and Farrell added his dictum to the pleadings of the +groom-elect. The plan appealed to him most, as it would cost him least. + +When Farrell gave them his tearful benediction and farewell, ten +thousand dollars of Dwight's money was stowed away in bills of exchange +on the City of Mexico for investment in the fabulous mines of the +Sierras, and Dwight's signature was on the back of one or two bills left +in the hands of Farrell's friends and correspondents at the Bank of +California, purely, of course, for safe-keeping. And so they went on +their respective ways, Farrell not soon to be seen in God's country +again. + +Three months later, with little Jim at his side and the young +step-mother dawdling along after them in her easy carriage, Captain +Dwight was tramping through Switzerland. The surgeons had said in so +many words he must not return to the Philippines for half a year, and +neither before nor after his marriage had a word reached him from the +Rays, who were his next-door neighbors and Margaret's most devoted +friends until Jimmy was nearly two years old. Even thereafter, though +stationed far apart, Marion Ray and Margaret Dwight had kept up their +correspondence almost to the end. Dwight, indeed, had seen barely half a +dozen of his former comrades, and that only by accident and in haste. +There had come since his second marriage the usual number of cards in +response to the wedding announcement sent to so many friends both in and +out of the army. There had come a curiously unusual dearth of letters of +congratulation. But every man was on the move, he persuaded himself. +Everybody was either busy in the Philippines or voyaging to or from +them. They, too, were moving from pillar to post, and letters must be +miscarrying, so few, for instance, had come from Father-in-law Farrell, +and those that did come made no mention of matters Farrell could hardly +have ignored, and that Dwight had rather counted on. + +Still, Dwight's health was mending every week. Inez had seen so much of +foreign life in her younger days she could not be expected to care to go +poking about, as he did with Jimmy, into all manner of odd nooks and +corners. Father and son once more were hand in hand--hand in glove--for +hours each day, and but for a shyness Jim would surely soon get over--a +queer, silent shrinking from his beautiful young mother--but for this +and one or two little worries due to the non-appearance of letters that +ought to have come and doubtless would come, Dwight strove to persuade +himself that he was again a happy and an enviable man. + +Then came a day that left its impress on them all. There had been +something very like demur on part of the Welland family when Dwight +first announced his intention of taking Jimmy with them to see the Old +World. What would Inez--they spoke her name with effort--think of such a +plan? Was not a young bride justified in expecting the undivided +attention of her husband? Would not any girl, placed as she was, prefer +a honeymoon unclouded by the presence of the children of her +predecessor? Inez had not warmed to her other kindred by marriage; could +she be expected to welcome and, all at once, to warm to little Jim? +Conscientiously and consistently they had tried to like Inez, and could +not. She was beautiful; she was appealing; she was apparently all desire +to please, but she was not convincing. The more they saw of her the less +they liked, but Dwight's infatuation was complete. And still he would +have his boy, and they spoke at last. He had answered by summoning her +to the room--a strange proceeding--and bidding her speak for him, and +she did. She said her heart had yearned for little Jim ever since the +captain first began to tell of him, and when she realized later how +utterly the father's heart was bound up in his boy, she had prayed for +guidance that she might prove a second mother to the little fellow, and +it was her earnest desire that the lad might come with them. How else +was she to hope to win his trust, his affection? There was nothing left +for them to say; but the dread and desolation that fell upon the +household when, for the second time, they were compelled to part with +Margaret's boy, no one but the Wellands was permitted to know. + +Inez, who had been a model sailor on the Pacific, kept much to her +stateroom on the gray Atlantic, though the voyage was unusually placid. +Nor had she later made much effort in her quest for Jimmy's trust and +affection. She could not climb mountains, pedal wheels or ride +quadrupeds. She cared little for scenery--she had seen so much in her +girlhood. She admitted feeling languid and inert. Perhaps mountain air +was not congenial. She would be better when they got to sunny Italy. She +wished there to see everything and to live in the open air--it was what +the doctor said the captain must do--and then she was always exquisitely +gowned and ready to meet them when in the late afternoon they came home, +all aglow, with just time to get out of their tweeds and into dinner +dress. Then Jimmy went early to bed, and she had the long beautiful +evenings with her husband. But now they were in sunny Italy and, except +to drive in beauteous toilets and dine in evening garb still more +resplendent, Inez had no interest in her surroundings and but little in +Jim. They were to sail for home, taking the _Hohenzollern_ at Naples, +after the Easter week in Rome. They had been driving much of the day and +dining early on the balcony of their hotel, looking out upon the +glorious view toward Sorrento and Capri, with grim Vesuvius, +smoke-crowned, in the middle distance. Any moment, said their host, they +should sight the graceful hull of their expected steamer cleaving the +blue beyond the rocky scarp of Posilipo, when Jimmy, gazing steadily +through the glass at the crowding fleet of shipping off the Dogana, +spoke excitedly: "It is our flag, daddy, and the funnel has three +stripes!" + +"A transport," said his father, who had been bending over Inez. "She +must have come in while we were driving." Yet, even as he spoke, +anxiously, tenderly, he was studying her face. + +"Then--that was one of our officers that spoke to you, mamma?" said Jim, +turning quickly, eagerly toward her. + +She had been unusually inert and silent since their return, had herself +suggested dinner on the balcony. It would save the bother of dressing, +and then repacking, since they might have to go on board any hour that +evening. She had been gazing listlessly out over the beautiful bay, +almost dazzling in the rays of the setting sun. Now she suddenly +started, shivered, but almost as suddenly, quickly rallied. + +"Spoke to _me_, Jimmy! Why, child, you've been dreaming!" + +"Why, no, mamma! Don't you remember--while daddy was in at the bank?" +and the boy's big violet eyes turned full upon her. The white hands +gripped the arm of her reclining chair, but she laughed lightly, and the +words came quick. + +"Jimmy boy, you were sound asleep on the front seat. Don't you remember, +Oswald, dear?" + +Dwight, too, laughed merrily. "Surely! Why, little man, your peepers +were shut and you were curled up like a pussy cat----" + +"But I'd waked up, daddy. Mamma gave a little scream and I thought +somebody'd hurt her, and there was this gentleman with his hat raised, +just standing and staring at her till she bent over and said something +quick----" + +"Well, of all the _traeumbilder_ I ever heard!" and Mrs. Dwight's pearly +teeth gleamed through rosy lips as she laughed delightedly, merrily. +"Why, Jimmy boy, I had to shake you awake when I saw papa coming. That's +what I bent forward for. You called him for something, dear, or I +shouldn't have disturbed him." + +"Certainly, I wanted him to see those Italian cavalry officers coming +by, and his eyes could hardly open in time. Just look at 'em now." + +They were, indeed, worth looking at--big and violet, blue and round and +full of wonderment, of incredulity--almost of shock and distress--gazing +fixedly upon the lovely, laughing face of the girl in the deep reclining +chair. + +And then, soft stepping, apologetic, salver in hand, a waiter appeared +at the long Venetian window. Dwight took the card, read, and fairly +cried aloud: + +"By all that's jolly, Inez, it's Sandy Ray!" + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A NIGHT AT NAPLES + + +There was a joyous time at the Salone Margherita that evening. Homeward +bound, the _Burnside_, from Manila to New York _via_ Suez, had anchored +that morning off the Dogana quay, and twoscore officers and ladies and a +numerous contingent of discharged soldiers had come swarming ashore to +see what they could of Naples before again proceeding on the morrow. The +fact that most of the officers were invalided home, convalescing from +wounds or severe illness, seemed but moderately to cloud their +enjoyment. By six o'clock most of their number had heard that Dwight of +the cavalry, with his bride, was at the Grand, whither several went at +once before ordering dinner. First to arrive, alone, and looking pallid +and ill, was a young soldier in civilian dress, who seemed nervously +impatient at the delay that followed the sending up of his card, and by +no means delighted when three or four of his fellows came in and +followed suit before his own was acknowledged. So uncompanionable, +indeed, was he that he stepped outside to the southward terrace as +though to avoid these others, and, but for the cards, the observant +_portier_ might have thought them strangers to each other. The late +arrivals, as a rule, were garbed in khaki, just as they had come away +from Manila, and were objects of polite curiosity to the elegantly +capped, cloaked and uniformed Italian officers sauntering in from the +Piazza Umberto, many of whom saluted courteously, though few could tell +from the dress worn by the Americans which was officer and which was +private soldier. + +It was full fifteen minutes before Captain Dwight appeared, though +little Jim had come bounding down the carpeted stairway all joy at +seeing a face or two he well remembered, and in meeting new friends, who +were unspeakably welcome because they were soldiers, American soldiers, +_our_ soldiers. Father, he said, would be down in a moment. Mamma was +not quite well, over-tired, perhaps, from the long drive and day at +sight-seeing and shopping. Even when Dwight appeared, shaking hands most +cordially, rejoicefully, with all, and, indeed, nearly embracing Sandy +Ray, whom he had known since that young gentleman's babyhood, it was a +disappointment to all his visitors that he seemed worried and harassed. +Mrs. Dwight, he explained, had not benefited as they had hoped by the +journeyings abroad, and she had just had something like a sinking spell. +They would have to excuse her a while. She'd be down later. "But you, +too, Sandy boy! What a tough time you must have been having! I hadn't +heard of your being ill. I haven't heard anything, in fact. Your father +hasn't written to me at all. What has been the matter?" + +And then it appeared that Sandy had been ailing for weeks on top of a +not very serious wound, "wasn't at all fit," yet didn't wish to come +home--had been ordered out of the Islands, in fact. And then, as it +further appeared, when Dwight turned, looking for little Jim, all +eagerness that Sandy should see how splendidly the lad was grown and +developed since their parting in Arizona years ago, when Jimmy was just +beginning to toddle about and talk, there stood the boy, his big blue +eyes fixed on the pallid, solemn face of Lieutenant Ray with a look of +bewilderment and trouble. Fowne of the Engineers spoke of it later to +Foster, who just at that moment had seized Jimmy and swung him to his +shoulder, where, instead of gleefully pounding his captor's head and +laughing merrily, as of old he would have done, Jimmy was straining his +violet blue eyes again, staring after Ray, whom a waiter, bearing his +card, had summoned to follow him. Three or four of the laughing party at +the moment had surrounded Dwight, compelling him with their chatter, so +that he stood with a hand still extended toward the spot where Jimmy had +been standing, and did not even see that Ray had been summoned and was +gone. Question and answer were flying thick and fast, for full five +minutes before, looking about him, Dwight missed his boy. Foster, +finding the little fellow unresponsive, at least, had presently set him +down, and then, plunging eagerly into the talk over the latest newspaper +tidings of the doings of the Islands--of Otis's probable home-coming and +MacArthur's succeeding to the command, of what could be looked for at +Samar and Mindanao--he, too, had lost sight of the lad. "Hullo!" said +Dwight, "Jimmy has taken possession of Ray. Well, that's as it should +be. How was Gridley when you last saw him, Foster? And tell me about the +Gillettes. They were mighty kind to me when I was so knocked out after +Bender's trial. Fit now? I should say so! Never felt finer in my life. +I'm going back to Manila just as soon as I can place my wife and Jimmy, +no matter what the doctors say." + +And so it happened that, for ten minutes or more, neither Lieutenant Ray +nor little Jim was greatly missed. But then Dwight began bethinking him +it was high time for Inez to appear. She had promised to come down and +meet his old comrades. Only a few minutes would be needed, she declared, +in which "to prink a bit." She had been looking so white, or yellow, +rather--so wan and weak, yet, after a bumper of champagne, had rallied +gallantly, had bidden him run down to meet them and keep them +entertained. She'd soon be there. That was now full twenty minutes back, +and these fellows were getting impatient for dinner. The head waiter was +even now announcing that their table was in readiness. Excusing himself +a moment, Dwight hastened from the salon and ran swiftly up to their +apartments. She was not there. He went out upon the gallery--the last +look by day over that incomparable panorama of earth and sea and sky, +for the sun was just kissing the far westward wave and throwing a glow +of ruddy gold all over the Vesuvian shore. The waiter was clearing the +table. Would the signor finish his wine? The signor needed none. Since +that heat prostration in Luzon, Dwight found that a single glass would +sometimes go to his head, and so when Inez was fatigued on land or ill +at sea, and on her account he had ordered champagne, he merely sipped +it, as it were, for her sake. There stood the generous flask still +beaded with its icy dew, but most of its contents were gone. So was +Inez. That waiter had then the proverbial "cheek" of his class--to drink +half their wine and offer the signor the dregs. No, he wished no wine. +Where was the signora? The signora, with the signorino, said the waiter, +had been there but the moment before. The signora had reentered her +apartment as the signor ascended. Dwight tapped at her window, and +presently her voice answered him, in apparent exasperation. She had been +having "no end of bother" changing her gown. She couldn't come down to +meet his friends in the dusty traveling suit she had worn all day. She +had hunted through two trunks before she found what she needed, and was +so sorry for the delay, but she heard the party was to dine there. She +had a maid to help her now, so she was trying to look her best and be +worthy of him. Could he help in some way? Oh, dear no. Run back to them, +there's a good boy, and in a few minutes she would be there. + +So Dwight returned to the laughing party and went with them to their +table and sat with them--an odd group in their service-worn suits of +khaki amid the sumptuously attired guests in the brilliant room. Yet +even among the wearers of the handsome Italian uniform the incessant +glances toward the American party were far from critical. These men had +but recently seen sharp service, and soldiers respect and envy soldier +achievement. It was Dwight who first missed and asked for Ray. Ray? Why, +Ray wasn't of our party. Ray wasn't of any party, in fact. Ray was "off +his feed, if not off his base." The fellow was utterly hipped, said +Foster. "No more like his father than I to Hercules, and nobody knows +why." Ray came ashore with the rest of the crowd, had business at Cook's +Bank, wandered off by himself and had been mooning by himself most of +the voyage. Foster buried his muzzle deep in his brimming glass of +Chianti and didn't care a billy what had become of young Ray. Gone back +to the ship, probably, to sit and sulk the rest of the voyage. Obviously +the quartette was out for pleasure, and Ray would have been a +spoil-sport. None the less, Dwight felt that he should find him, if +possible, and so went to the office. But assuredly, said the smiling, +gold-banded official, the tenente departed as they were all in +conversation. The tenente wished not to disturb them. The signorino went +with him to his carriage and, behold! the signorino himself! Jimmy, +indeed, came through the portal at the moment from the Piazza Umberto +side, but not the blithe, bounding, joyous Jimmy of the morning. The +young face was clouded with a look the father never before had seen, and +when he called and Jimmy suddenly turned and saw him, though the bright +eyes lighted instantly with all the old love--perhaps, too, with some +relief--the cloud did not entirely vanish, nor did the boy come +bounding. He ran; he took his father's hand and looked up in his face, +and when he was asked what he had done with Mr. Ray, said slowly: "Why, +daddy, he isn't a bit like what I 'sposed he'd be. He only spoke to +mamma a minute or two, and--I guess he isn't well. He didn't have time +to speak to me--he hardly said good-by, or--anything." + +"Oh, then mamma saw Mr. Ray! I'm glad of that," said Dwight, though +remembering she had not mentioned it. + +"Yes, on the gallery," said Jimmy. "At least, I suppose so. He came out +through the corridor, and then mamma sent me after him with the gloves +he had left. I wanted to ask him----" hesitated Jimmy. He did not know +whether to go on or not, but he need not have worried. Papa had suddenly +turned from him, turned to meet his new mamma--his beautiful young +mamma, who, with bared neck and arms, in dinner toilet, was coming +slowly and with trailing skirts down the broad and carpeted stairway and +looking more radiant and beautiful than Jimmy ever before had seen her; +she whom, a few minutes earlier, he had found on the gallery pallid and +excited, trembling from weakness, perhaps. Now she had diamonds in her +ears and at her creamy throat, diamonds flashing in her corsage. There +were shimmer and spangle and firefly sparklings in the lustrous folds of +her gown. There were starlight twinklings from the bands of those +wondrous, dainty, high-heeled little "slipper shoes," as Jimmy called +them. There were glowworm gems in the dark masses of her luxuriant hair. +There were rich and precious stones upon her slender, clasping fingers, +for Dwight had been lavish to an extent he only now began to realize, +for, though his heart leaped in unison with the instant admiration and +worship in his eyes, it ached in strange, dull foreboding and reproach +for the thought that instantly seized him: How utterly unlike Margaret! + +A moment later and the men in khaki were being presented. They had +sprung to their feet at sight of the radiant vision in the doorway, +where for a moment Inez seemed to hesitate. Beautiful she was beyond +question, with the rich, dusky beauty of the passionate South, and they +who gazed upon her marveled not at the lover worship in Dwight's +deep-set eyes--at the pride with which he watched her gracious, +graceful, yet half-appealing and timid acknowledgment of their soldier +homage. They made way for her, and would have it that she should sit +with them as they lingered a few moments over their wine. And then +Farnham, their senior present, raised his glass to her with a word of +soldier compliment and greeting, after the manner of the days of his +forefathers, and they joined in the toast, one and all, and Inez blushed +and beamed upon them, and looked up into her husband's eyes as though +begging that he should speak for her, and sipped just the tiniest ripple +from the brimming glass of champagne. They had not too much time, for +boxes had been reserved for all their party at the Salone Margherita, +and could not--would not Mrs. Dwight and the captain join them? Several +of the ladies from the transport were to be with them, and now it would +be incomplete without Mrs. Dwight. Again the deep, dark, lustrous eyes +sought the husband's face, as though she would say in this, as in +everything, he must decide. The transport was to proceed at dawn. The +_Hohenzollern_ could not be going earlier. How she _would_ shine, this +bird of paradise, among those simply-garbed army women who perforce were +limited to such toilets as could be evolved from the little steamer +trunks. It was Dwight who negatived the project. She would be utterly +overdressed for the place and the occasion, but he based his regrets +upon the long and fatiguing day, the packing that had to be done, the +coming at any moment of their ship. Even now she was announced, said +Jimmy, hastening in. And so the others went their way without the +Dwights and joined their fellow-voyagers in their revel, the merriest +group in all that laughing company, and only once or twice did someone, +some gentle-hearted woman, speak the thought that more than once or +twice occurred to many present: Why should Sandy Ray have withdrawn from +all companionship? Someone said he had returned to the steamer--alone. + +It was long after midnight when they came rippling back to the huge bulk +of the troopship, with silver raining from the blades of their oars into +the sparkling bosom of that wondrous bay. A joyous little flotilla of +Neapolitan water craft was theirs, for they had chartered several of the +clumsy, unwieldly looking, yet most serviceable barklings, each with its +dusky, brown-throated oarsman. They had spent some merry hours after the +long, hot voyage through Indian seas and under torrid skies. They had +heard much catchy music that all could appreciate and few words, +fortunately, that any could understand. They were chatting and singing +and recalling the brilliant scene, the dazzling lights, the lustrous +corridor and stairway of pure white marble, the coaxing, wheedling swarm +of beggar children, the sharp and ever-recurrent contrast between +splendid opulence and squalid misery, and as they circled under the +massive overhang of their stanch and trusty ship, and one after another +each merry boatload came again in full view of the frowning cone of old +Vesuvius, belching lurid flame and billowing ruddy streams of molten +lava from its crest, some sweet-voiced woman in the foremost boat +uplifted her heart in the barcarole from "Masaniello": "Behold how +brightly breaks the morning," and, though morning was yet some hours +away, here but a league or two across the star-reflecting deep and under +the shoulder of the mountain furnace lay the vine-covered walls of +Portici, where first was trilled that exquisite welcome to Aurora. And +so with music and merriment and laughter, homeward bound from distant +service in defense of a beloved flag, they came trooping up the side, +the opulence of their gladness all the sharper contrast to the dull +apathy of one lone watcher who shrank from their approach and sought +seclusion across the deck and in the shadow of the long boat. + +Ray was not in his stateroom when Foster bustled thither to inquire. Ray +had returned some hours before, said the ship's official on duty. Ray +was not found, however, until nearly four bells, when Foster, who had +smoked too much to feel sleepy and wished to "stay up and see Vesuvius, +anyhow," made an extended inspection of the silent deck. Foster had +taken it amiss that Ray should seem so downhearted and be so +uncompanionable. Foster felt that the time had come when, in the absence +of Sandy's own, he (Foster) should assume paternal rights, or at least +those of elder brother, and take the youngster to task. Here and there +about the big ship he found, in knots of two or three, silent or +conversing in low tone, comrades of the commissioned list or of the +ranks, unwilling to seek their berths so long as so gorgeous a panorama +lasted. These were ranged along the starboard side, where best they +could study that superb sweep of shore line, of light and shadow, of +slope and mountain, of curving strand--white, flashing in the moonbeams, +of twinkling villages low-lying, of distant, rock-ribbed isles, but +among these worshipers there was no Ray. + +It was over on the other--the dark, the port--side, and all alone, +sprawled in a steamer chair he had lugged to the upper deck and the +shadow of the big boat, that Foster came upon the lad. His field glasses +were in his hand; his eyes fixed dreamily upon the dwindling, +diminishing night lights of the westward suburbs, and Foster hailed +brusquely. It was time to jar the boy out of his mooning: + +"Hello, Sandy! Where on earth have you been all night?" + +"Nowhere," was the short reply. + +"Where on sea then, if you will be captious?" + +"Oh, admiring scenery," and Sandy yawned suggestively. + +"Scenery is all on t'other side, man! Nothing here but ships and shore +lights." + +"Well--that's what I'm--looking at." + +Foster turned sulkily. He disliked being "stood off" by anybody, +especially a youngster. Dimly in the soft moonlight the sleeping city +lay outspread before him. Standing on the rail, grasping a stanchion, he +could see, save where the charthouse and huge funnel interposed, the +entire sweep from Posilipo at the west around almost to Sorrento. Ray, +seated under the shadow of the long boat, could see only from Posilipo +to a low-lying cluster of lights almost at the water's edge. That then +was the Piazza Umberto, and those few twinkling, starlike sparkles to +the left, dancing so merrily on the intervening wave--those were from +some still open casements at the Grand. Then Foster saw what Sandy Ray +was looking for, and turned and left him. + +At dawn they were weighing anchor, but the big ship had not yet swung +her nose to the west when Foster again appeared on the dripping deck and +again found Ray almost at the same spot. Some of the same lights, a very +few, were still faintly to be seen to the west of the Piazza, and Ray's +signal glasses were lifted to his eyes. Aloft the sentinel stars were +paling, their night watch ended. Ashore, along the quays and basin and +about the Dogana, the lantern lights told of the stir of coming day and +departing shipping. Beyond the heavy smoke all about the lone and +threatening mountain, the skies were taking on a rose hue of their own +that dulled the glow of the sluggish streams rolling ever down those +scarred and desolate slopes. Near by in silvery chime ship after ship +announced the passing of the night hours, the birth of the infant day, +and a long, light-girdled shape, floating easily close at hand on the +swelling tide, slowly changed from shadowy black to gray, from gray to +violet, and finally--as the still invisible sun peered long leagues away +beyond the Italian mountains, beyond the Adriatic wave, above the dim +Aegean shore, and sent his flashing signals through the upper ether--from +cream to snowy white, there lay the _Hohenzollern_, "all a taunto and +impatient" for her westward voyage for "Gib," for the Azores, for home, +and they of the bulkier, heavier transport envied possibly the lithe and +lissome build of the famous pleasure craft, once the pride of the old +German Lloyds. She might follow in the run past Ischia and Sicily. She +would lead far in the chase for Sandy Hook. + +"Been up all night, Sandy?" hailed Foster sharply, believing it high +time to break in upon these romantic moonings. + +"No," said the young soldier slowly. "I've been--down." + +"Poor boy," thought Foster, as he turned away. "He looks it! Poor, +nonsensical, damn little fool!" + +Yet Foster was not so very big, so very wise, so very safe and sure. He +had yet to know for himself much that Ray knew now. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +"SHE IS COMING HERE!" + + +The valley of the Minneconjou was looking its loveliest in the joyous +sunshine of mid-May. The post had been enlarged to meet the needs of the +increasing garrison. A colonel of infantry had been sent to assume +command, there being now two of his battalions at the station and only +one squadron, of four troops, of Ray's old regiment, the --th Cavalry. +At any moment our friend of that name and many years, now become +lieutenant-colonel in his own right, could expect orders for the +Philippines, and he was ready as ever, though there were just a few +reasons why he hated to go. It had been decided that Marion, his wife, +hitherto his almost inseparable companion, should not venture to Manila. +The detail at most would not exceed two years. It might cover only one, +for it was certain that, with the coming enlargement of the army, Ray +would soon be promoted to the full rank of colonel, and that would +probably bring him home again, for, as things had been going in Samar +and Mindanao, colonels were in that sort of campaigning about as useful +as most of them in church. Keen young captains and lieutenants were in +demand. Field officers, so-called, were of less account in the field +than in fortified places. Occasionally a sizable column--a major's +command perhaps--would push forth into the jungle, where it speedily had +to split up into small detachments, probing in single file, and in +pursuit of scattering bands of ladrones or banditti, the bamboo or the +mountain trail. Moreover, much of the vim and spirit had been taken out +of the soldiery, officers and men, old and young, by the fate of the +more daring and energetic of their number, who had fallen victims, not +to lance or bullet of lurking foe at the front, but rather "the slings +and arrows of outrageous fortune" at the rear. A powerful party at home +had shown far more concern over the alleged ill-treatment of the few +insurgent bands than their actual treachery to our men-at-arms. Officers +and men listened in silence to the public rebukes and sentences +administered to the leaders who had shed their gloves and fought the +insurrecto with weapons far more effective, yet infinitely less deadly, +than fire and steel. Officers and men in silence set forth upon their +next ordered expedition, and in silence returned and announced the +result--practically nothing. Elusive and flitting little bands of native +warriors, vanishing like shadows among the thickets, were not to be +trapped by the methods prescribed for dealing with an army arrayed in +front of Washington. "Don't come unless you have to," wrote Major Blake +from the hospital at Manila to Billy Ray at Minneconjou. "The +courts-martial of Hill and Dale and Langham have taken the heart out of +our fellows. The young officers say they dare not go out for fear they +might do some damage somewhere." + +So Ray, who had fought Indians all over the West for many a +year--sometimes, it is true, coming in for a Puritanical scorching from +press and pulpit in far New England, where, two hundred years ago, with +prayerful zest our forefathers burned witches at the stake and put +Pequots to the sword--now found himself shrinking from the task of +tackling savages with gloves who treated men without mercy. Marion, as +has been said, was not to accompany him to the Islands and be near to +counsel and to comfort. She was not too well now, and had had many an +anxiety. Billy, Junior, when he should have been studying for West +Point, had been spooning over a pretty girl not yet in long dresses, and +Sandy, their firstborn, the soldier boy, had come home from the Islands +wounded in body and soul. The scar of the bullet would not be long +healing, but the sting of that other shock and sorrow, who could say +what that might yet import? for Sandy would not speak of it. Sandy would +not so much as refer to his brief dream of bliss and the girl that +inspired it. Sandy had come to them at Minneconjou to recuperate, +detached from his own regiment "for such light duty as he might be able +to perform" with his father's squadron of the old --th. Sandy was a sad +and silent man. "Let him alone to beat it out in time," said the +soldier-father. "It is the only way." But Marion's mother heart yearned +over her boy and his wordless sorrowing. He must have loved that +beautiful but unprincipled creature with all his fervent young heart. + +Colonel Stone, who was now in command at Minneconjou, had known the Rays +for years and was firmly their friend. Without so much as a hint from +any source, he had divined that Sandy's low spirits were not the result +of that bullet wound. He could not but note the solicitude with which +his cavalry friend and oft-time fellow-campaigner regarded the silent +young soldier, his eldest son. Colonel Stone had suggested at first that +Sandy be put at surveying the reservation--something to keep him long +hours each day in the open air. But barely six months had elapsed since +the Engineers, under orders from department headquarters, had completed +with chain, rod and transit thorough plotting of the six mile square, to +the end that a very finely finished map was received almost at the time +the colonel first broached the subject. Sandy could not yet take part in +the sharp mounted drills that were his father's delight. Something had +to be done to give him measurably congenial occupation. He could not +play tennis, croquet or billiards. He would not play poker or find +solace in Scotch highballs. He might have derived some comfort from +reading and study, but Priscilla was beset with desire to prescribe his +reading and guide his studies, for Priscilla, being several years his +senior in age and many volumes his superior in reading, was ever mindful +of the mission which no conscientious woman should be without. Priscilla +had thought to start a school for the children of the garrison, but +found that many of the elders were driven every day to town and its high +school, while most of the mites were corraled each morning in the +basement of the post chapel, pupils of a sergeant schoolmaster whose +success had been quite remarkable, so much so that parents were +reluctant--and their progeny rebellious--when other and more modern +methods, Priscilla's, were suggested. It must be owned that the little +ones from the start found Miss Sanford unsympathetic, if not impossible. +Children love being catechized as little as do their elders, and they +resented it that this somewhat prim, yet by no means unprepossessing, +spinster should consider it her duty and her privilege to cross-question +them as to their infantile responsibilities and, all uninvited, to +undertake supervision of their noisy sports. Finding no opening for a +day school, Miss Sanford had sought to interest the weans in an +afternoon reading class. The first day or two the major's spacious +quarters were well filled, so were the children with alluring goodies +they could thoroughly appreciate. But when sermons began to take the +place of sandwiches, and moral admonitions and questionings were +administered in lieu of lemonade and lady-fingers, Miss Sanford's +kindergarten dissolved in air and the would-be gentle monitress in +disappointed tears. Uncle Will had whimsically striven to console her +with the promise of better luck when school stopped in June, but Aunt +Marion had smilingly though silently shaken her head. She knew +Priscilla's propensities of old. She had convictions, said Aunt Marion, +and theories as to how children should be taught to see the serious side +of life. Priscilla was suffering from an accumulation of pent-up zeal +and enthusiasm that was yet to find an outlet. + +Then one day the outlet came. + +Lieutenant Parker, "Exchange officer," so-called, was suddenly ordered +to duty at West Point, and Colonel Stone asked Sandy Ray if he would +take his place. "Strictly speaking," said he, "I should name one of my +own officers, but I have other work for all of them, and lots of it. You +have really very little else just now that you can do, except, perhaps, +go to stables." + +Now, if there was one institution more than another at Minneconjou +against which Priscilla Sanford had set her seal, it was the post +Exchange. In all her months of residence under Uncle Will's, the +major's, roof, never once had the others there sheltered forgotten the +day of her first acquaintance with the subject. Sandy was still beyond +seas, but Billy, Junior, was of the household when, just as they took +their place at table for luncheon, the husband and father spoke: + +"Maidie wife, they have some capital cider at the Canteen and I ordered +some sent over." + +Miss Sanford looked up inquiringly over her poised spoonful of soup. + +"The--Canteen?" she asked. + +"Yes. The Post Exchange, it is called officially. It's the post shop, +restaurant, club, amusement hall, etc.," answered the head of the house, +while Marion, his wife, glanced just a trifle nervously at her niece. + +"But why--Canteen? It isn't, is it, a--bar?" And Miss Sanford's tone +betrayed the depth of her disapprobation of the name. + +"Yes, and no," said Uncle Will pleasantly, his dark eyes twinkling under +their heavy brows and lashes. He rather liked to have 'Cilla mount her +successive hobbies, and thought it better, as a rule, to let her air her +theories first in the sanctity of the family circle. "After +experimenting a hundred years or so we found it wiser to prescribe the +drinks as well as the meats of our men, and to provide a place for them +at home where they can have rational amusement and refreshment, rather +than send them out into the world where they get the worst of +everything." + +"But, uncle, do you mean you let--you encourage--these young soldiers +to--drink?" And the slender gold chain of Miss Sanford's intellectual +_pince nez_ began to quiver, as did the lady's sensitive nostrils. + +"Encourage? No! Let? Yes, so long as it is nothing but sound beer or +light wine--things we buy for them from the most reliable dealers and +provide them practically at cost. You see they have their own clubroom, +and billiards, checkers, chess, dominoes, coffee, cake and sandwiches. +It keeps them here. It helps and contents them. They can't drink more +than is good for them." + +"Is it good for them that they should drink--at all?" demanded +Priscilla. + +"Possibly not. The ascetic in everything would be, physically perhaps, +the ideal soldier. But precious few soldiers are ascetics, though many +are total abstainers." + +"Then why not all, since it is best for so many?" + +"Because, 'Cilla, a large number refuse to be abstainers, and we can't +make them. They won't enlist or serve if such conditions are imposed. If +forbidden to use mild and carefully selected stimulant here they will go +elsewhere and get the vilest the frontier can furnish, to the ruin of +their stomachs, reputation and moral nature. We teach temperance--not +intolerance." + +But Priscilla had been reared in the shadow of the stanch old +Calvanistic church and the strictest of schools. + +"I--cannot see how you dare place such temptation in their way," said +she. "You thereby take their souls in the hollow of your hand and become +responsible----Oh!"--with a shudder of genuine distress and +repugnance--"I knew--I had heard--there was drinking; but I never +supposed it was countenanced, _encouraged_ by--by those who ought to be +their shield against such temptation and trouble." And here Priscilla's +words were oddly reminiscent of the editorial columns of the _Banner of +Light_ and certain other most excellent organs of the Prohibition +element. + +"We do it to keep them from vastly worse temptation and trouble, +Priscilla," said the veteran soldier kindly, and signaling Marion not to +interpose. "You are right, dear, in the abstract, but we have to deal +with men as we find them. We would be glad indeed of ideals, but the +ideal doesn't, as a rule, enlist." + +"The Bible teaches us it stingeth like an adder," said Priscilla +solemnly, with suggestive glance at Billy, Junior, whom she but +yesterday had rebuked for sipping claret at the colonel's dinner. + +"The Bible also tells us Who turned water into wine at a certain +marriage feast," said Uncle Will, his mustache twitching. + +Whereat Priscilla flushed; the tears started to her eyes; she arose and +left the table, her soup unfinished. It was one thing to quote the +Scriptures in support of her views; it was quite another to array them +on the other side. When Aunt Marion went to Priscilla's room a little +later, with a tray of tea and comfits and a word of gentle +expostulation, she found her niece in anything but melting mood. To +Priscilla's mind such argument as Uncle Will's was impious. To Aunt +Marion's suggestion that at least it was from like authority with her +own, Priscilla could find no better reply than "That's different." + +Down in her heart of hearts Priscilla thought it a grave mistake on part +of somebody that the episode of the marriage of Cana of Galilee had any +place in Holy Writ. Indeed it may be hazarded that, long schooled by the +_Banner_ and the eloquent lessons of her favorite preachers, Priscilla +could have listened with becoming modesty, but no surprise, had it been +suggested that she undertake the preparation of an expurgated edition of +the Word. + +At the date of this initial clash Uncle Will was still commanding the +post. Stone, with the Sixty-first, came later. Priscilla, finding her +uncle ever smilingly tolerant of her views, but never shaken in his own, +had first essayed an inspection of the Canteen--she would not call it +the Exchange--and then had descended upon the chaplain--a gentle divine, +gifted with much faith but little force, a kindly, sweet-tempered cleric +ever ready to follow if never to lead in good work that demanded +personal push and energy. Priscilla had spent sleepless hours in thought +over the situation. She could not abolish the Canteen since the law +("The law _and_ the prophets," said Uncle Will, though Priscilla would +not hear) sustained it. She could, she reasoned, conduct a rival +establishment that should wean the soldier from the false faith to the +true, and to this end she sought the aid of the cassock. + +Uncle Will had taken her, at her request, to see the objectionable +institution, and she had peered curiously about the cozy interior. At +sight of their much honored squadron leader, the few troopers at the +tables, busy with checkers, dominoes or billiards, had sprung to +attention, facing him and the grave-eyed lady by his side, and there +stood in soldierly respect. Ray smilingly acknowledged their homage, +bade them go on with their games; he merely wished his niece from the +East "to see how we manage to live in the West." Then he showed her the +bookshelves and the reading room with its illustrated weeklies and +magazines, the well-furnished writing tables whereat certain young +soldiers were working at their letters home; the refreshment counter, +with its appetizing little stack of sandwiches and polished urn of +steaming coffee, and all this Priscilla saw without sign of surrender. +What she looked for she did not find--symptoms of the inevitable +intoxication and debauchery to be expected wherever liquor was sold or +used. Some of the men had half-emptied beer glasses at their elbow. Two +German non-commissioned officers were sipping appreciatively the wine of +their native Rhineland as they chatted in quiet comfort over their +little table at the window. A veteran sergeant stepped forward and +begged the honor of tendering the colonel and the lady a glass of their +wine, and again every man was on his feet as Ray drank to their health, +and Priscilla thanked their entertainers and said she would be glad of a +little coffee--she never used wine. She was silent as she came away--all +was so orderly, so cheery; the men seemed so content with their +surroundings, so pleased that "the colonel" (never did they forget his +volunteer title) should come to see them. She owned that--yes--they +looked very--decent _now_, but--but, it was only the first step; it was +what it all _led_ to, said she, that made it so dangerous, so dreadful! +Indeed, the mere fact that all was so well ordered made it, presumably, +to Priscilla's mind, all the more alluring and terrible. It was the +devil's way always, she had been taught--imperceptible, inviting, +insidious. Priscilla prayed long that night and pondered. She had almost +decided on a campaign of conquest and overthrow, when the new commander +came, and in Colonel Stone she found an obstacle quite as firm as Uncle +Will--and far less tolerant. + +Meantime, however, Priscilla had organized her "Soldiers' Advancement +Association"; had started in a vacant set of quarters a rival to the +Canteen, where even better coffee and sandwiches could be had and much +more improving conversation, but no beer, and Priscilla was presently in +the seventh heaven; so many soldiers came she had to send for more seats +and more supplies. Every evening after dinner, putting behind her the +unworthy, if worldly, impulse to go and join in the music or the dance, +Priscilla met her martial friends and pupils, learned their soldier +names, something of their history and much of their needs. The chaplain +at first was quite assiduous in his attendance, but the chaplain, she +speedily decided, was slow, prosy, unconvincing. He did not seem to +_stir_ them as they should be stirred, and when one night the kindly old +gentleman failed to come, and his goodwife sent word she feared her +husband had caught a heavy cold, Priscilla took the Word, as the French +would say; read the chapter of her choice; expounded vehemently after +the manner of her favorite exhorters, and came home radiant. No less +than six of the men had come to her to thank her for her soul-stirring +words, and to say that if they had had such teaching as that in their +past they would never have brought sorrow to a mother's heart, as some +of them feared they had. Uncle Will's eyebrows went up significantly +when Priscilla named her converts, and once or twice, as he sat writing +to Blake that night in his little den, sounds as of irrepressible +chuckling came from that sanctum, and Marion slipped in to say a word of +caution. Priscilla, however, at last had found her opportunity and could +not be laughed out of it. The chaplain was warned, he said, that +exposure to the wintry night air was hazardous, and he was reluctantly +compelled to withdraw, and Priscilla, by no means reluctantly, to part +with him. She was in desperate earnest and in the full tide of apparent +success, with all Minneconjou watching with absorbed if mischievous +interest. Priscilla's mourners' bench, it must be owned, was graced by +the presence of one or two veteran troopers, the mention of whose names +was enough to start the risibilities of that godless array, "the Mess." +There was Shaughnessy, who had served six enlistments and never kept the +chevrons six months at a time. There was Kelly, the "champeen +thrumpether," who could blow "Taps" that would bring tears to your eyes +one day and maledictions on his head the next. There was Costigan, who +had been "bobtailed" out of two of the best regiments of infantry of the +service, and only "taken on" in Ray's old troop by special permission, +because of his undeniable valor in Indian campaign and the fact that +when he let whisky alone there was not a neater, nattier soldier, Horse, +Foot or Dragoon, to be found in the field. Priscilla had indeed gathered +in some of the reprobates, and sought to reach more. She begged that, in +accordance with their plaintive request, the inmates of the guard-house, +immortal "Company Q," might be allowed the benefit and privileges of the +Association. Had not He said He came not to call the just but the +sinners to repentance? and, as Uncle Will whimsically remarked, "If what +Priscilla wants are sinners--she's got 'em." + +And this was the state of things when Stone arrived; took command, +reinforced the garrison with eight stout companies and band of the +Sixty-first, and the guard-house with a score of military malefactors +who, hearing of Miss Sanford's Soldiers' Advancement Association, begged +leave to partake of its blessings, including the coffee and sandwiches. +Then Stone suddenly "tumbled to the scheme," as Billy, Junior, a fierce +skeptic from the start, described it. Then Stone himself attended a +meeting, to the obvious embarrassment of the congregation, though +Priscilla beamed upon him in the sudden belief that here indeed was a +heart worth the moving. What Stone saw was quite enough to convince him +of the utter absurdity of permitting the further attendance of, at +least, the guard-house contingent, but he would not wound Priscilla or, +without abundant reason, disturb the edifice builded under Ray's +administration. The Association might even have lived and thrived +another week on Priscilla's ministrations--and at Ray's expense--for +daily coffee and sandwiches for all comers, forty odd, at least, was +proving costly. It was "Company Q" itself that broke it up. The +privilege and the darkness combined enabled certain of its unhallowed +spirits to smuggle whisky into the prison room, and, thus stimulated, a +gifted ex-professional of the "dramatic line" set up a wonderfully if +wickedly witty burlesque of the evening's lecture, to the irrepressible, +and presently uproarious, mirth of his fellow-jailbirds. It was just +what Stone was expecting, and so far from ordering it stopped, he sent +for Ray and bade him listen. Then the post and the squadron commander +shook hands in silence. "You see for yourself," said Stone. "I, too, +have been expecting it," said Ray. Then the guard was sent in. The +impious revel was suddenly and summarily squelched. Then Ray gently told +Priscilla the sinners could come no more, but mercifully would not tell +her much, at least, that he had heard. So the Soldiers' Advancement +Association retrograded in numbers to less than half, and then, as +others not at the moment under guard took alarm, to less than a dozen. +But Priscilla wrapped herself up in the nine that were left, and, as all +barrack room was now needed, for these they fitted up a little apartment +in the basement of the major's quarters, and then came Sandy Ray, as has +been said, and spring was turning to summer, and Priscilla's band of +stalwarts had been reduced to six, and of these six the apple of her +spiritual eye was Blenke. + +One of the recruits, regimental and bibli-classical, was Blenke, but +already a marked man. Small of stature, lithe, slender and sinewy, with +dainty little hands and feet, with pallid face and regular features and +great big, mournful brown eyes that looked pleadingly into those of his +superiors, Blenke wore the uniform of a private with the ease and grace +and care of a dandy subaltern. Blenke's gloves and shoes could not be +furnished by the quartermaster's department; they did not deal in such +small sizes; but Blenke brought with him all he could need of such items +for months to come. Blenke was a silent fellow in barracks. Blenke never +whistled or sang. Blenke rarely spoke and never smiled. It was not that +Blenke's face was set in gloom, but an air of gentle melancholy hung +ever about him. He made no intimates, sought no confidences and gave +none among the men. Whatever he was put to do he did surprisingly well. +Corporal Donovan, detailed to drill him when he, with the rest of the +little party, arrived, informed the first sergeant that "that young +feller knew more settin'-up drill than any non-com at the post." So it +proved also with the manual of arms. Blenke was an expert. When put into +a squad for aiming and position drill, Blenke had nothing to learn, and +his shooting and gallery practice was on a par with the best. They sent +him out to the rifle range west of the post and there he "qualified" at +known distance and excelled at the silhouettes, and still he declared he +had never before "taken a blanket." He learned his drill and shooting +with the militia, he said; gave "clerk" as his occupation and wrote a +beautiful hand, though his spelling at times might be criticised. Blenke +had a watch, card-case, shirts, shoes and underwear that told of better +days. Blenke, apparently, had no vices. He neither drank, smoked, +chewed, gambled nor, unless closely pressed as to his past, was he +believed to lie. Blenke looked about him a bit before going either to +church or town. Then Blenke began appearing regularly at chapel service, +and then, modestly, sought permission to enter Miss Sanford's Soldiers' +Advancement Association, where speedily he attracted the especial notice +of that devoted and devotional young woman. Then Blenke offered his +services as writer, copyist, etc., and Priscilla, being much occupied, +gladly installed him at a desk whereat he spent much time when not +elsewhere on duty, and all the while, neat, handy, silent, unobtrusive, +yet seeing everything with those deep, mournful, watchful eyes, Blenke +found means to make himself more and more useful, and presently to +communicate the fact that though his present lot was humble there had +been "advantages" in the past, there were ambitions for the future. To +begin with, he wished to transfer into the cavalry. He knew little, he +said, of the relative merits of those arms before enlisting. He had seen +much since, he said, to convince him that for a young man of spirit the +cavalry offered opportunities not to be looked for in the infantry. +This, he judged, would not displease the squadron commander, whose +influence through Miss Sanford he earnestly sought, and so it resulted +that Blenke, little by little, was far more frequently to be found about +the major's quarters than his own. + +Ray did not like it. Neither did Blenke's captain, yet neither wished to +throw cold water on Priscilla's efforts, and really nothing could be +less obtrusive or more precise and soldierly than Blenke. He never +presumed to speak except in answer to questions. He was scrupulous in +dress, bearing, conduct and military courtesy. His salute was precision +itself. His captain really wished to make him a corporal, but a veteran +first sergeant respectfully protested. "The men wouldn't stand for it, +sir, and him not two months in the company." Sandy Ray, who came home in +mood to carp at anything, liked it least of all that he should be +forever encountering Blenke about the lower floor or around the walks +and quarters. But Priscilla was forever talking of Blenke's helpfulness, +his piety, high character, and his modest hopes. Blenke was beginning to +talk with her about studying for a commission. Blenke was beginning to +be disliked among the men because he ignored them so. + +Then one day came the expected. Lieutenant-Colonel Ray, --th Cavalry, +was ordered to proceed at once to San Francisco, and thence by transport +to Manila. Then came tidings of deaths in the Islands, and retirements +at home, and, six months sooner than he had hoped for such a thing, +Oswald Dwight saw the gold leaves of a major dangling before his mental +vision, and the night before Colonel Ray was to bid his loved ones +good-by and take train for the coast, and he and Marion, arm in arm, +were coming home from some parting calls, they saw Blenke standing at +their gate, a telegraphic message in his hand; Priscilla and Billy, +Junior, following, closed upon the elders as Ray tore open the envelope. +Blenke, having delivered it, stood scrupulously at attention just beyond +the gate, gazing with his mournful eyes straight out at the flagstaff in +the middle of the parade. Ray read, turned a bit pale, and glanced +hurriedly about him as though in search of someone. Sandy was not in +sight. He was busy with the affairs of the Canteen. + +"What is it, Will?" asked Marion anxiously, her gloved hand trembling a +bit upon his arm. + +"Of all things--queer," said Ray. "Dwight gets my squadron, and--_she's_ +coming with him." + +Then unaccountably Private Blenke's forage-cap, always worn well +forward, tilted off and fell at his feet. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +PREMONITORY SYMPTOMS + + +Colonel Ray was no coward, but it must be owned that he was glad to be +well away from Minneconjou before the coming of the Dwights. What +troubled him most was, not how Sandy, his eldest boy, but how Marion, +his beloved wife, might suffer. Never to either father or mother had the +young officer spoken the name of the second Mrs. Dwight. Never since his +coming to Minneconjou had he referred to his infatuation of the previous +year, nor had he even remotely mentioned the meeting at Naples. They +knew of it, of course. There were so many aboard the transport who had +heard all there was to hear about it, and some of these many could not +be expected to keep it to themselves. Sandy, indeed, reached the post +only a day or two in advance of this interesting piece of news. Marion +heard it before her husband and refrained from telling him, in hopes +that Sandy himself would open his heart and tell her all there was to be +told; but presently it dawned upon her that the boy shrank from the very +mention of "that woman's" name--then that Will, too, had heard the +story, and not from Sandy, and then that each feared to tell the other. +Then as of old, she nestled into her husband's arms, and there, in her +refuge, said: + +"After all, Will, isn't it better he should have seen her and--had done +with it?" + +"If only he has done with it," thought the colonel, as he watched the +young soldier going doggedly about his duties. "If only he _has_ done +with it!" he thought again, when he saw the red burning on the young +fellow's cheek that told he knew at last of the impending arrival. But +the boy had shown splendid nerve and grit in that vital matter of the +gradual repayment of the moneys lost through his neglect at the Presidio +in '98. He had shown such manliness in abjuring wine after that one +almost excusable lapse so long ago. A boy who could keep himself so +thoroughly in hand, said the colonel, in two cardinal points, can be +counted on to keep his head even when he may have lost his heart. No. +Ray had trusted Sandy thoroughly in the past, and Sandy had thoroughly +justified it. Ray meant as thoroughly to trust now to the manfulness and +honor of his son. Pride, too, would help the lad even were "that woman" +to seek to lure him again. + +But it was hard to leave Marion to meet the Dwights. In all her army +life, with the possible exception of Grace Truscott, never had Marion +met a woman for whom she felt such depth of affection and regard as for +Margaret Dwight. The two, as has been said, were devoted friends, and +when Margaret died, leaving her husband, crushed and heartbroken, and +that idol of her heart, little Jim, it is doubtful if among her own +people she was mourned as utterly as she was by Mrs. Ray. In the years +that followed Marion was forever planning for the little fellow's +future, and pouring forth a perfect flood of sympathy for that bereaved +soldier, his father. It came as a shock inexpressible that Oswald +Dwight, after six years' brooding, had married again, and had given +Margaret's place to--what?--a girl, young, beautiful, obscure, +unprincipled--the girl whom her own Sandy had rapturously, loved and +implicitly believed in. And now Marion was called upon to meet this +woman in "the fierce white light that beats upon" garrison life--see her +daily, hourly, possibly as a next-door neighbor, and no husband's arm or +counsel to lean upon. + +Nor was this all. It had been arranged that the families of officers +ordered on foreign service should retain quarters at the station from +which said officers took their departure, provided the quarters were not +actually needed by the garrison. Three out of five the big army posts +had been left with but a detachment to guard them. Minneconjou was an +exception. Hither had come Stone, with two battalions of Foot. +Headquarters, staff, band and one squadron of the cavalry had been +there, but band and headquarters were now shifted to Niobrara. How +Marion wished the squadron could have gone, too! But that was not to be. +There were still the four troops at the station, and the Rays were still +quartered in the big, roomy house to the right of the post +commander's--Marion, her sons, her niece and their two servants. There +was even abundant space for her niece's diminishing Advancement +Association--the secretary's desk and the mournful-eyed young secretary +being much in evidence at the basement window on the north side. Three +sets, the colonel's and the flanking field officers', had been built +with high piazzas and well-lighted basements beneath; all the others +were squat on the hard prairie ground. Stone had two majors with him, +both junior to Ray and the post surgeon, so they had taken root in the +lines and, for army men, were quite content. All on a sudden one day the +new major, Dwight, drove out from the railway station in town, reported +with soldierly precision to Colonel Stone, and accepted the promptly +tendered invitation to be the colonel's guest until ready to occupy his +own quarters. Dwight came earlier than had been expected; explained that +he "came ahead to select quarters," would send Mrs. Dwight the +measurements of the rooms, then ask for a week's leave to return and +fetch her with their goods, carpets and variegated chattels from +Chicago. Had any letters or dispatches been received for him? None? +Dwight looked queer and grave. Indeed, Stone, who had heard much of him +and had met him once or twice in by-gone days, confessed to his wife +that Dwight must have "gone off" not a little in more ways than one. Was +it the old sorrow or--the new wife--or, mayhap, the sunstroke in the +Pampangas? + +That afternoon Marion Ray, seated on the vine-shaded piazza, writing to +her husband, looked up suddenly at sound of a footstep and, startled and +for a moment speechless, gazed into the once familiar features of +Margaret Dwight's once devoted husband. She was slow to rise and hold +forth her hand, so strange was the expression in his tired eyes. When +she could speak it was to say, though her heart fluttered, "Welcome +again, Major Dwight, but I'm so sorry Will is not here, too! It is +barely a week since he started." + +"I have hurried," was the answer, as he took her hand. "I am so tired of +leave, of dawdling, of--almost everything. I'm wild to get to work--to +_work_ again, Mrs. Ray! That's what a man must have." + +All the old strength and repose of manner had gone. She was shocked and +troubled at the change, and hurried on in her words lest he should see +it. + +"And how is my boy--our little Jim? And--I hope Mrs. Dwight is well, +and--we're to see her soon," she ventured. + +"Mrs. Dwight is looking remarkably well, though she and I are anxious +about her mother. Indeed, I had hoped to find dispatches--or +something--here from Major Farrell," and surely Dwight's face betrayed +rather more than his words. "Jimmy's in fine trim," he hurried on. "They +got to be fast friends voyaging. They were up on deck all the homeward +way, whereas I'm a very poor sailor. I could hardly, hold up my head +from the time we left Gibraltar." + +"I'm glad of that--friendship," said Marion gravely, guardedly, for +already, in the friendship Minneconjou had been hearing of, little Jim +was not included. The _Hohenzollern_, after a stop-over at Algiers, had +been boarded at Gibraltar by two crestfallen gentlemen in khaki and a +quandary. The transport had preceded the liner into the shadow of the +sleeping lion just thirty hours, and, steaming on to sea before the +latter was signaled, found some hours out that Foster and Gibson had +been unaccountably left behind. At their own expense, their soldier +wardrobe and toilet replenished by a score of jovial Britons who had +also contributed to their detention, these two warriors completed their +voyage, and Gibson said he was practically alone, for, from morn till +nearly midnight, from off Cadiz until held up at quarantine, Foster had +been dancing attendance on the lovely Mrs. Dwight, the captain being +much of the time down with _mal de mer_. + +Now, Sandy had merely referred to "two fellows left at 'Gib,'" without +going into particulars. Sandy, of course, could not be expected to know +what might have transpired on the _Hohenzollern_. Sandy had said nothing +about the Dwights at Naples. Sandy had not mentioned even Jimmy, and so +long as he shrank from the subject the mother wisely would not question. +She was glad now that Sandy was not at home, that he was busy with his +accounts over at the Exchange. She was glad that Priscilla was not +within earshot, that she was busy with her Bible class on the floor +below. Priscilla, Aunt Marion owned, was inquisitive at times, and her +theory of a mission among men was not limited to the rank and file. +Priscilla had ambitions embracing the moral improvement of every officer +from "C.O. to sub.," and Priscilla had heard things somewhere about the +post that set her to asking all manner of questions of her aunt, +questions that set the mother heart to fluttering lest Priscilla next +might direct her batteries on Sandy. No good could come from that, she +knew, for one of Sandy's earliest antipathies had been Cousin 'Cil, whom +he called a preacher in petticoats. Sandy was civil to her now, but by +no means inviting, and Priscilla took it much amiss that her cousin +rather held aloof, refused to argue the canteen question with her, and +could not be drawn into doctrinal discussion of any kind. + +Below stairs could be heard the low hum of voices through the open +casement. Priscilla had been reading aloud to her soldier wards, but +police and stable call would presently be sounding--the signal that, +save the secretary, would take away her pupils, and Aunt Marion hoped +Priscilla might not appear upon the scene before Dwight departed, yet +longed to hear him tell of little Jim, and Dwight seemed intent only on +telling her of Inez--Inez and her perfections. Dwight seemed to feel +that he must make this devoted friend of his first wife fully aware of +the manifold perfections of the second. To all she listened with such +attention as she could command, but when again she asked for Jim and +whether he was greatly grown and whether he was studious,--or what,--for +well she remembered all Margaret's cherished plans for her boy, again +Dwight responded with what Inez said and Inez thought. Inez so loved +him. Inez so delighted in having him with her in her walks and rides. +Inez thought him so keen, so quick, so intelligent. Inez admired his +eyes, his face, his slender boyish beauty. Inez could not say enough in +praise of him. It was Inez this and Inez that. There would only be three +of them, said he, when they came to Minneconjou,--Inez, Jim and himself. +They would have no use, said he, for the big house occupied by the Rays. +He really preferred one of the sets of captain's quarters. Marion had +been wondering whether Inez would not prefer to occupy these--whether, +in fine, they would not have to move out and give the Dwights +possession, but Dwight said no. In fact, he would not decide what set to +take, now that he had seen them, until Inez herself arrived; whereat +Mrs. Ray breathed freer. + +And then the bugles blared across the broad parade and the white stable +frocks began to dot the distant and severe facade of the frontier +barracks, and 'Cilla's pupils came forth and hastened to their duties, +and, catching sight of Colonel Stone and certain of his officers wending +their way to the club, Dwight took his leave and started for the steps. +He would see Mrs. Ray again within a day, he said. He was eager to see +Sandy, who, somehow, had not seemed himself when they met at Naples. And +then Priscilla's even tones were heard below, and the low-pitched, +murmurous voice of the deferential secretary, and Marion would have +detained the major, she hardly knew why, but he was nervously saying +adieu and hurriedly descending the steps just as Miss Sanford and her +assistant issued from beneath. At sight of the strange officer +Priscilla's glasses went up for deliberate survey, the secretary's hand +in quick salute. At sound of his name, as Mrs. Ray spoke a word in +parting, Miss Sanford's face beamed with instant interest, the +secretary's paled with as instant emotion. Standing in the slant of the +afternoon sunshine, where Mrs. Ray could not but distinctly see him, +Private Blenke had turned yellow-white as unbleached cotton and was +biting his lips to control their twitching. Then, without a word, the +moment Dwight went his way, Blenke faced about and bolted another. + +Miss Sanford followed the major with curious eyes, then turned to resume +certain instructions to her satellite, and behold, he was scurrying away +across the parade in pursuit of the earlier departures. "Why, I--hadn't +half finished," said she, as she turned to her aunt. "What took him off +in such a hurry?" + +There was none to answer, however, for Mrs. Ray had turned back to her +letters; and on the following day Dwight hastened to Chicago. Within the +week came Colonel Stone, with a face eloquent of perplexity. + +"Mrs. Ray," said he, "this is simply unaccountable, but Major Dwight +writes me that, after all, he shall have to claim the privilege of his +rank and--this set of quarters. It seems that Mrs. Dwight is now +expecting her mother and others to pay her an extended visit as soon as +she is settled, and captain's quarters would not be large enough." + +Which was how it happened that, two days later, the goods and chattels +of the Rays were being stowed in another and much smaller tenement some +distance down the line. There was a very good set--a really roomier +set--that Priscilla much preferred only two doors away from that which +they were vacating, but Aunt Marion would have none of it. She had made +neither comment nor remonstrance when Stone came in with his unwelcome +news. She would say nothing about it now. That she should retain the +quarters of a field officer was something to be accorded as a courtesy; +it could not be demanded as a right, save at certain large posts with +small garrisons. But men and women who knew Marion Ray, and they who +knew her honored her, felt confident of one thing, that she was intent +on getting as far away from the coming household as lay in her power to +do. Sandy was but a second lieutenant still and entitled by law to only +one room and a kitchen. They were in luck, perhaps, in finding so good +and new and commodious a set of quarters as these to which they were +assigned. + +Sandy had not opened his head on the subject of Major and Mrs. Dwight, +even when, at their instance, he, his mother and their household had +been dispossessed. Sandy had found an easy horse and, with the consent +of the surgeon, had begun to spend some hours in saddle again when not +at the "shop." Then Priscilla, believing lonely brooding to be a bad +thing for any man, found means to a mount and surprised him one day by +appearing in habit and saddle ready to ride. For the life of him Sandy +could not look pleased at the prospect. Five years earlier, when +Priscilla was well-to-do, he might have found excuse to avoid or to +leave her. Now, in the days of her dependence, he could and would not; +but he proved a silent companion. + +Across the fords and just at the eastern edge of the reservation they +passed on their return some ramshackle buildings, only two of which +showed signs of recent human occupation, and Priscilla spoke of their +abandoned look and then--wished she had refrained. + +"Time was," said Sandy, "when they were bustling and lively enough. We +had no Exchange then, and the men wandered out here for their beer, and +here parted with their money and their hopes. Here they were drugged +till their last cent was wheedled or bullied out of them. Then they were +kicked out in the cold to take their punishment at the fort. Then it was +our _men_ that went to ruin. Now, as you see, it is only the ranch." + +It was useless arguing with people so narrow-minded as her cousins, +thought poor 'Cilla, as she sharply touched her broncho with the lash +and drove him hock deep through the foaming waters. What all men should +see was that alcohol in any form was an enemy to be shunned and set +aside, a thing never to be tampered with or tolerated, and here were +sane and, in many ways, excellent people--people who had been to her +most loving and kind and charitable--who were willing to concede that +what she said might all be true, but were equally convinced that what +she would do was utterly impracticable--people who themselves eschewed +the use of wine, yet blindly persisted in providing it for these +children of the nation, the soldiers, because, as they said, most of the +soldiers could not be made to see the harm in malt or mild wine and +would drink vilest whisky if deprived of them. She considered Sandy a +scoffer, whereas Sandy did not scoff at all. He simply cited facts. She +longed for opportunity to convert him to her views and believed +implicitly that if he could but be made to listen he would surely see +the light, but whenever Cilla brought her batteries to bear he +confounded her with some such incontrovertible truth as this or--changed +the subject. This day she had planned a coup, and he had met her, +unexpectedly, more than halfway. By the time she had regained her +self-control they were past the sentry line and well within the post. + +"I want to have a _real_ talk with you, Sandy," she said, as he swung +her to the ground in front of their old quarters, where still they lived +while fitting up the new. + +"You'll have to do it all, 'Cil, if it's Canteen you're hitting at," was +the answer, as he led the way up the broad steps; then stopped suddenly, +his young face darkening. + +A slender, soldierly form had suddenly issued from the hallway at the +sound of voices, and there stood Blenke, hand at cap visor, the mournful +eyes in mingled depth of respect and appeal, fixed upon his young +superior. It was plain to see that Lieutenant Ray little relished the +sight. Blenke's desk and duties had been confined to the floor below. +Blenke had no occupation or right on the upper deck. Mechanically the +subaltern returned the salute, but there were both suspicion and +displeasure in his voice as, almost sharply, he inquired: + +"What is it, Blenke? Why are you here?" + +"By accident, sir," was the prompt reply, subordination and sorrow +mingling in tone, as mournful as the mournful eyes. "I was leaving when +I thought my name was called--that Mrs. Ray had called me, and I turned +back. There seems to be no one here--yet the door was wide open." + +"I cannot imagine who could have called you--or why," answered Ray +coldly, never relaxing his odd scrutiny of those dark, reproachful eyes. +"But, first call has sounded. I won't keep you." + +Blenke saluted. One quick glance he shot at the flushing face of his +friend and teacher, as though to say, "Plead for me"; then lithe and +quick he went bounding down the steps, Priscilla looking after him. Ray +pushed on into the dismantled hallway--into the parlor where rugs and +carpets were rolled and heaped and curtains stripped from the rods. He +passed through into the little room where stood his father's desk and +bookcase, "the den" now doubly lonely and forlorn. He passed swiftly +through the dining-room and into the rear hallway, where wide open stood +the door to the basement stairway. It proved nothing, however, that that +door was unbolted and ajar. In the work of packing and moving the men +had been going and coming all the afternoon. Sandy came again to the +front and followed Priscilla to the second story. Mother was not in her +room, the room that soon in all probability would be hers--the girl-wife +of his father's old friend--the girl-wife whose name Sandy Ray had +ceased to whisper even to himself. He turned back and Priscilla stood +confronting him at the doorway. + +"What is it, Sandy? Why should you be so--annoyed at Blenke's believing +he was called back?" + +"Because I don't believe _him_" said Sandy bluntly, "and--I don't like +prowling." + +"Oh, how can you be so unfair? Blenke is no prowler, Sandy!" said +Priscilla, in fervent reproach. "Blenke is a born gentleman, and I know +it, and so will you when you hear his story." + +"Oh, fudge!" said Sandy, as he turned impatiently away, entered his own +room and slammed the door. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +A BRIDE--AND A BEAU + + +Colonel and Mrs. Stone in the course of the following fortnight had +occasion twice, as the society columns expressed it, to "entertain at +dinner for" Major and Mrs. Oswald Dwight, and Mrs. Dwight was the topic +of all tongues at Minneconjou before she had been two days at the post. +They arrived on a Saturday evening; were met at the station by the +hospitable Stones; driven at once to the quarters of that efficient and +valuable commanding officer; were the recipients on Sunday of many +calls, the guests of honor at dinner Monday evening, at which function +they met three of the senior officers and the adjutant of the +Sixty-first, each accompanied by his better half; were again on dinner +duty Tuesday evening to meet eight others prominent in the military +social swim, and at nine o'clock were escorted to the hop room, where +the regimental band and practically all the officers and ladies of the +garrison were arrayed to welcome them and where until midnight the dance +moved merrily on. + +To neither dinner was Mrs. Ray invited. She preferred not to make a +formal call on Sunday, and when, accompanied by Priscilla and her eldest +son, she appeared at the colonel's quarters on Monday afternoon, Mrs. +Dwight and Mrs. Stone had not yet returned from a drive. As little Jim +had spent a long hour that morning with his and his own mother's old +friend--Dwight himself bringing him over--it is within the bounds of +possibility that the drive had been mentioned. The major had remained +but a few moments. He was obviously nervous and ill at ease. He had that +matter of his change of mind about the quarters to explain, and Marion +had desired that he say nothing whatever about it. It was his right. He +was bound to consult his wife's wishes before those of any other woman, +so why refer to it? But Dwight haplessly stumbled on. There was still +something to be said. Mrs. Dwight had expected to have her mother and +two cousins with her all summer and September, but Major Farrell found +it impossible to leave Mexico after all. Mrs. Farrell could not think of +leaving him, especially as his health had suffered very much, thanks to +their enforced sojourn in an unsanitary section of old Manila. It +appeared that the major was even an applicant for a pension on that +ground--a strange proceeding with one so overcharged with mining stock +and cattle profits. It might be a month or six weeks yet before the rest +of the family came, but Mrs. Dwight was eager to get settled under her +own roof where they would be an incumbrance to nobody, and she was going +that very day with Mrs. Stone in search of servants. Only a maid had +come with them, a maid whose ministrations Inez declared she _must_ have +if expected to appear to any advantage in the society to which her +husband was accustomed. Mrs. Stone knew of a good cook in town at the +hotel whom Mrs. Dwight might tempt away, and then the major had to hurry +to the station to superintend the unloading of their car of furniture. + +Not until Tuesday night at the reception, therefore, did the Rays meet +Mrs. Dwight. Mother and son again came together, Marion in simple +evening toilet, Sandy, as required of all officers for that occasion, in +full-dress uniform. Mrs. Dwight stood at the colonel's left. The +adjutant, facing her, made all the presentations. She was gowned again, +as she was that night at Naples, beautifully, extravagantly, and her +jewels were, as then, too much in evidence. She had been looking, so +remarked her hostess, somewhat pale and sallow during the day, but there +was no lack of color, of radiance, of sparkle now. Her face was +exquisite in its dark beauty, wondrous in its witchery. Her smile was +sweetness itself, and many a woman envied her those perfect teeth rather +more than the diamonds. Her soft Southern accent lent a charm of its own +to her few words of gracious welcome and acknowledgment. It was noted +that she said very little, that she repeated much; but what she said was +so sweetly said, and the meaning smile lent so very much more to make it +all impressive. Her very attitude was one of supple, sinuous grace, and, +whatsoever may have been lacking in the form and variety of her verbal +response to Minneconjou's welcome, there could be no warrant for saying +that she did not look, at least, her part. Women stood and watched her +and marked the play of her slender little hands, the unconscious, +languorous use of her beautiful fan, and women marked how alert, too, +were the wonderful dark eyes--how, even as they meltingly and feelingly +were uplifted to greet each newcomer, they saw each comer before that +comer stood in her presence. She was at her best when Mrs. Ray, pausing +first to greet Mrs. Stone and the colonel, was passed on to the star of +the evening, and the smiling adjutant, with unpremeditated preference in +his tone, announced "Mrs. Ray, Mrs. Dwight; your predecessor at the head +of our squadron." And then for the first time that night the bride +stepped forward, if only a single pace, and, as though her heart went +with it, her hand seemed to leap forward in impulsive greeting. + +"I have known Mrs. Ray ever since I first met Major Dwight," said she, +with such wealth of gladness in her tone. She never seemed to see the +young officer standing with pale, unsmiling face, awaiting his turn to +be advanced to the presence. "I cannot begin to say how glad I am to +meet her--at last," she continued. And Marion Ray, thoroughbred woman of +society, if not of the world, stood in quiet, smiling grace and dignity, +listening--without a sign of rancor to the swift patter of words from +the beautiful lips of the girl who had played havoc with her firstborn's +honest young heart, studying the beauty of the newcomer's wondrous face, +and wondering, as mothers will, that even a lover could see therein a +resemblance to her own daughter--her dark-eyed Maidie. She hoped that by +this time Sandy, too, would see that he had been blind. She responded +without embarrassment or effort. Not for a royal ransom would she let +this fascinator see that her son had ever so far taken her seriously +enough to speak, even to his mother, of a possible admiration. + +"The major was very long our near neighbor," she said. "And it is good +to have him with us again--and to welcome Mrs. Dwight." Then her hand +was extended to Major Dwight as, still smiling and chatting, she seemed +imperceptibly sidling toward him; and then Sandy emerged into the field +of vision. "So glad to see Mrs. Dwight again," said he, in off-hand +assumption of jovial indifference. "Gibson's here, you know. He'll be +trotting past the grandstand presently." And though the little hand, +slipped into his, gave faint, fluttering, tentative pressure, he edged +along, yielding place to 'Cilla and Will, the next comers, and +precipitated himself on Dwight. There was unmistakable glance of +reproach, perhaps even of pain, from those glorious eyes as the young +officer passed unfaltering on, but it was instant; it was unseen by the +aging and adoring soldier at her side. + +And in this wise was the dreaded meeting accomplished with no one +possibly the wiser, with no one warned by word or sign of the +complications and catastrophes to come. + +It took Major Dwight but four or five days to set his own house in order +and move his birdling into the pretty cage he had planned for her. +Willing hands by dozens, both officers and troopers, had wrought with +him in the transformation. Beautiful rugs, carpets, and curtains, rare +in army parlors, had been lavishly provided--this, too, despite +well-founded rumors that Dwight had no such bank account to-day as that +he owned to at Manila. Saying no word upon the subject, Marion Ray had +noted, nevertheless, how much more expensive and luxurious were the +surroundings of Inez than had been those of wise and provident Margaret +Dwight. They gave their first dinner, did the Dwights, one week from the +date of Colonel Stone's first, and to this was Marion bidden. She had +not expected it, had not provided herself with a previous engagement, +_had_ to accept or decline at once, and accepted. + +"Mother," said Sandy, coming in at the moment, "have you seen--has +anything been seen of a blouse of mine sent home Tuesday evening? I +can't find it, yet the troop tailor swears he left it here himself." + +"Who received it?" asked Mrs. Ray. "We were all home dressing for the +reception." + +"Why, that's the queer part of it," was the answer. "He says he found +the back door open, knocked twice and nobody answered, so he walked in +the kitchen, laid the bundle on the table and came out and shut the door +after him." + +Mrs. Ray thought a moment. "I gave Sarah permission to be out, and +Minnie was up here helping us. That may have accounted for his knock +being unanswered. You went down before I did, 'Cilla," she continued, +turning to her niece, who was busy at the desk. "Was Sarah back then? I +thought I heard you speak to someone." + +"To two of the Bible class," said 'Cilla. "They came to say we couldn't +have the use of that little room back of the chapel. I don't understand +it at all. We offered to clean it out and store the boxes in the cellar, +but----" And 'Cilla shrugged her shoulders. She had begun to believe +that the chaplain was jealous of her influence over certain intractables +in the garrison, and was aiming to thwart her. This view Mrs. Ray could +not share. She presently put down her pen and passed out into the +dining-room. + +"It's a dark little hole at best, Pris," said Sandy, "and I offered you +a good bright room at the Exchange--the very one your paragon used for +about the same purpose when he was stationed here." Sandy _would_ tilt +at his cousin's fad at times, and this was a time, for Sandy had been +crotchety for a week. + +"My paragon, as you call him--my ideal of the soldier as we saw him +after Porto Rico," answered 'Cilla, with dignity and precision, "held +his classes there when the rest of the building was not what it is +to-day--a rumshop." + +"Not a drop of rum to be had on the premises now, Pris--though there +might have been then." + +"I don't believe it! _My_ general was an ascetic. No one ever heard of +his using liquor--and wine is only liquor in another form." + +"Come to the library and I'll show you what your General Ascetic wrote +of himself after he was so horribly shot in the Sioux campaign. He said +he owed his recovery to a winter in California and drinking plenty of +good red wine that made blood." + +But Priscilla knew that Sandy "had the papers to prove it," and +preferred not to see them, lest her ideals come tumbling. "That might +have been necessary and by physician's prescription," said she. "What I +condemn is its usage when there is no excuse. I should feel that I was +enticing my class into temptation if I led them daily to the Canteen, +and most of them feel as I do about it. Blenke, for instance--though you +don't believe in him, Sandy--when I told him of your offer, he said he +would rather not set foot under that roof." + +"When was that?" asked Sandy curiously, seeing a chance for a palpable +hit. "He was sent to Leavenworth with the guard of those deserters +Wednesday morning, and I didn't have it to offer to you until Tuesday +afternoon." + +"He came that evening to say he was ordered away with the guard detail. +Two of my men have gone. You can see for yourself, Sandy, that for any +important duty the total abstainer is chosen." + +But Mr. Ray did not answer. He was thinking intently. "Was Blenke one of +the two you--spoke of, 'Cilla?" he presently asked. + +"No. He came by himself just after they'd gone. He took his leave a very +few minutes later. We heard you coming down." + +"And where did you receive your visitors, Pris?" + +"I spoke with them at the rear door--what other place was there? since +you dislike my having soldiers come to the house. Why, Sandy Ray! what +are you thinking of? You don't mean----" + +"Hush!" said Sandy. There were footsteps at the front and laughing +voices, and a bang at the gongbell. Minnie, the housemaid, fluttered +through the hallway. "Are the ladies at home?" "Mrs. Stone and Mrs. +Dwight!" stage-whispered Priscilla, but in an instant Sandy Ray had +found his feet and followed his mother, who was interviewing cook at the +kitchen door. "Mrs. Stone and Mrs. Dwight," he echoed, waited until Mrs. +Ray had gone to greet the callers, then bolted through the sacred +precincts of Sarah's own domain and into the afternoon sunshine beyond. +There Minnie presently fetched her young master his broad-brimmed +campaign hat, wondering why he should look so pale. Making wide detour, +Sandy found himself presently within hail of the club. It was but an +hour before sunset. The cavalry people were just coming back from +stables to supper. There were not five officers on the broad veranda, +but among them stood a man in civilian dress, whose back had a strangely +familiar look and whose voice, when he whirled about and shouted +greeting, sent a thrill of astonishment not unmixed with wrath, nerve +racking, through the young soldier's slender frame. + +"Hullo, Sandy! Got over being grumpy yet? Come up and see a fellow." + +What brought Stanley Foster, of all men, here to Minneconjou now? + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE WOLF IN THE SHEEPFOLD + + +A week rolled on and matters at Minneconjou had become electric. The +weather was superb. The sun rose in a cloudless sky long hours before +society, as represented at our frontier city and station, followed suit, +shook off the fetters of sleep and began bestirring itself for the day. +And days were long in that northern latitude, long enough for even the +most ambitious and enthusiastic of commanding officers intent on the +instruction and development of the force intrusted to his care. Yet the +days seemed hardly long enough for Oswald Dwight, whose first difference +with the post commander was on the subject of morning gunfire and the +reveille. To the scandal of the cavalry service, let it be recorded that +in the point at issue, without exception the members of Minneconjou's +mounted service sided with the easy-going infantryman at the head of +affairs, and against their own immediate leader--the over-energetic, the +nervously pushing, prodding, spurring, stirring squadron commander. + +During the sweet summer months, all along the broad lands of the +Dakotas, the morning gun thundered its salutation to the newborn day as +the hands of the clock so nearly lapped at half-past five. What Dwight +demanded of Colonel Stone was permission to rout out the cavalry at +half-past four. It was broad daylight, said he. It was the cool and +beautiful time of the day. The men could have their coffee at once, then +march to stables, lead to water,--the steeds having been already fed by +the stable guard,--groom for twenty minutes, march back to barracks, get +their matutinal scrub, a hearty breakfast and be out to squadron drill +when all was still fresh, sparkling and exhilarating before the mountain +breeze, the lowland dust, or indeed before garrison society, was astir; +then they could all be back in time for guard-mounting and the +multifarious drills and duties of the morning. Dwight found his people +well up in saddle work, as was to be expected of men long led by so +genuine a trooper as "Billy" Ray, but they were correspondingly slack in +foot and sabre drill, and Dwight in his day had been one of the famous +drillmasters of the --th, and seemed beset with desire to keep up the +record now. "What would you be doing from nine to noon?" asked Stone, +strumming the desk with his finger tips and studying curiously the pale, +keen, eager face of the cavalryman. + +"Company drill afoot, sabre drill, setting up--almost anything!" was the +impatient answer. "These men are soft, sluggish, torpid. Troopers should +be all wire and catgut. I want to put those four commands in perfect +trim for anything, Colonel, and I can't do it under five hours' drill a +day." + +But Stone shook his head. There was no occasion he maintained, for +robbing them of an hour of their sleep. They had to work harder than his +men, anyhow, and, if anything, should be given more sleep, not less. + +"Then put them to bed at ten o'clock--or nine, if need be," said Dwight, +impatient of demur; but Stone proved obdurate. "I see no reason for so +radical a change," said he, to the relief of the juniors, who feared +Dwight's vehement onward nature might prevail over the placidity of +Stone; and so the new-made major was fain to content himself with +sounding mess call right after reveille, then "Boots and Saddles" in +place of "Stables," and, by dispensing with morning grooming, getting +his troops into line on the flats to the south and starting a humming +squadron drill before seven o'clock. + +Time had been in the long-ago happy days when it was quite the thing for +Mrs. Ray, Mrs. Truscott, Margaret Dwight, and other women of the old +regiment to ride, drive, or stroll out to the ground and watch their +soldier-husbands through much of the morning's dashing drill. The effect +was good in more ways than one. It keyed up the pride of the men and +kept down the profanity of their mentors, some of whom, as was a way in +the old days of the mounted service, _would_ break out with sudden and +startling blasphemy when things went wildly amiss. It is easy on foot to +bring instant order out of apparent chaos. The stark command "Halt!" +does the business; but, given tenscore, high-strung, grain-fed, spirited +steeds, tearing at their bits and lunging full gallop in mad race for a +charge, it often happens that neither voice nor trumpet, nor tugging, +straining bridle arm can prevail, and it is then the air rings with +expletives. No one ever heard Truscott swear. He was a model of +self-control. Dwight, too, had been renowned for the success with which +he handled horses and men and maintained his personal serenity. But +Marion Ray more times than a few in the earlier days of her married life +had cause to blush for Billy, who, the idol of his men and perhaps the +most magnetic drillmaster and troop leader in the regiment, so lost +himself in the enthusiasm and dash of squadron drill at the trot or +gallop, that his Blue Grass exhortations could be heard over the thunder +of a thousand hoofs, to the entire delight of the sorrel troop, the +sympathetic joy of their rivals and the speechless dismay of the pious. + +"Tut-tut-tut!" was a dear old chaplain wont to say; "is it not strange +that so good a man can use such very bad language?" Yet Captain Ray in +private life shrank from profanity as he did from punch. On mounted +drill it rippled from his lips with unconscious, unpremeditated fluency. + +Just as in the old days, therefore, wives, sisters, and sweethearts of +the dashing horsemen of Minneconjou were now riding, driving, or +strolling out to the edge of the drill ground and enjoying the spirited +scene. It gave them an hour of bracing air and sparkling dew and early +sunshine and a wonderful appetite for breakfast. Mrs. Ray did not go. +Neither her husband nor her son had now any part in the panorama, and, +looking from her window she could see all she cared to see of what might +be going on--and more. The sound of Sandy's boot-heels overhead told her +that he, too, was up and observant, though Sandy, when Priscilla, as +usual precipitate, managed to refer to it at the breakfast table, +parried the tongue thrust with a tale about "best light for shaving." + +No, there were none of Mrs. Ray's little household who went forth to see +the early squadron drill, but there were others--many others--and most +observed, if not most observant of these, was the beautiful young wife +of the squadron commander and her invariable escort, Dwight's former +fellow-campaigner, their fellow-voyager of the _Hohenzollern_, and now +their very appreciative guest, Captain Stanley Foster, only just +promoted to his troop in the --th Cavalry and waiting orders at +Minneconjou. + +Mrs. Dwight was not much given to walking. She could dance untiringly +for hours, but other pedestrianism wearied her. Mrs. Dwight was as yet +even less given to riding. She explained that the major preferred she +should wait a while until her horse and English horse equipment came. +Lieutenant Scott, who had met her in Manila, said he had a little +tan-colored Whitman that would just suit her, whereat Mrs. Dwight, +between paling and coloring, took on something of a tan shade over her +dusky beauty and faltered that "the Major preferred the English--to the +forked-seat--for a lady." It would seem as though she desired it +forgotten that her normal way of riding was astride, whereas more than +half her auditors, the officers at least, regarded that as the proper +and rational seat for her sex. Mrs. Dwight, caring neither to walk nor +to ride, therefore was quite content to appear for two or three +successive mornings in a lovely little phaeton with a pony-built team in +front, a pygmy "tiger" behind and a presentable swain beside her. The +fourth morning brought a rain and no drill, the fifth no rain nor Mrs. +Dwight, nor did she again appear at that early hour despite the fact +that the drills daily became more dashing and picturesque. Her interest, +she explained, had been rather on her husband's account, but she knew so +little about such matters she felt her inferiority to _real_ army ladies +who had been born and bred to and understood it, and then after dancing +so late she wondered how anybody _could_ be up so early. + +The major himself, probably, could not have stood it, but he, not being +a dancing man, had taken to skipping away to bed at or before eleven on +such nights as Minneconjou tripped the light fantastic toe, but "Inez so +loved to dance" he considerately left her to finish it, with Foster to +fetch her home; which Foster did. + +But, of the few elders at Minneconjou who had personal knowledge of +Dwight's prowess as a cavalry drillmaster in by-gone days, and of the +many who, being told thereof, had gone forth to see and to enjoy, there +lived now not one who had not suffered disappointment. So far from being +the calm, masterful, yet spirited teacher and leader, clear and explicit +in his instructions and serene and self-controlled where men and horses +became nervous and fidgety, Dwight proved strangely petulant and +querulous. His tone and manner were complaining, nagging, even snarling. +Nothing seemed to please him. Troop leaders, subalterns and sergeants +were forever coming in for a rasping, and each successive day the +command paced slowly, sedately homeward, cooling off after a hot drill, +looking more and more sullen and disgusted. Officers dismounted at the +Club, quaffed "shandygaff" and sometimes even "Scotch and soda" in +silent sense of exasperation. The men rode away to stables, rubbed down +and, as they plied the wisps, said opprobrious things between their set +teeth. As for the horses, they took counsel together when turned out to +herd and settled it to their satisfaction that something was sorely +amiss with the major--who had at last begun to swear. + +And something was sorely amiss with Dwight, as anyone who noted his +brilliant, restless eyes, his haggard face and fitful manner could not +fail to see. It was at this stage of the proceedings, as Stone squarely +owned up later, that he as post commander should have taken Dwight to +task, even to the extent of administering correction. But the strongest +soldier is sometimes disarmed at sight of a fellow's suffering, and, for +fear of adding one pang, will suppress a needed word. Thus it happens +that occasionally a commander passes unrebuked a soldier's fault. Thus +it happens time and again that men, stern and unflinching in dealing +with their fellows, submit in silence to years of a woman's abuse, +because "she's such a sufferer." + +But here was something Stone might, and possibly should, have done and +thereby measurably cleared the social sky and surely earned Dwight's +silent gratitude, and this Stone did not do, even though spurred thereto +by a clear-visioned wife, and that was--say a word of admonition to +Captain Foster. + +He deserved it. All Minneconjou was a unit on that head. He was as +utterly out of place there as a cat in a creamery. They who had heard +the story of his attentions to Mrs. Dwight during the _Hohenzollern's_ +run from Gibraltar to Governor's Island were disturbed by his sudden and +unheralded appearance at the post, and distressed that Dwight should be +among the first to welcome him, and the one, and at first the only one, +to invite him to a room under his roof. Men looked every which way but +at each other and held their tongues when it was announced that Foster +was the guest of the Dwights. Women looked into each other's eyes and +gasped and said all manner of things as the news went round. Yet what, +at first at least, was there to block the plan? The infantry officers +felt that _they_ must not take the initiative; it was purely a cavalry +affair. Dwight and Foster had served together several years. Dwight +possibly did feel, as he too often took occasion to say, more than +grateful to Foster for "his courtesy to Mrs. Dwight while I was cooped +up in my stateroom." Two or three cavalry chums, taking secret counsel +together, hit upon a blundering, clumsy, best-intentioned scheme, and +Washburn, who couldn't bear Foster and had never foregathered with him, +was deputed, as the only captain with spare rooms and no family, to take +the bull by the horns and the unwanted visitor to his ingle nook, which +Washburn did with simulated joviality and about as follows: + +"Say, old man, _you_ don't want to be roosting in a dove-cote while the +birds are billing and cooing. You can't have any fun at Dwight's. You'll +get nothing but Apollinaris between meals. Come to my shack, where +there's a room--and a demijohn--all ready for you," which bid proved, +unhappily, none too alluring. Foster thanked him with a glint in his +eye. "Dwight asked me long ago," said he, which was the petrified truth, +though Dwight's words were perfunctory, and the invitation one of those +things so often said to a man when the sayer hopes to Heaven he's seeing +the last of him. + +But now that Foster _was_ here, his guest, nothing could exceed the glow +of Dwight's hospitality. It was painful to note the eagerness with which +he sought to assure all Minneconjou of his long-standing friendship for +Foster in face of the fact that some of the squadron well knew they had +never met in Margaret's day, and were never really comrades thereafter. +Moreover, they were men of utterly divergent mold and temperament. +Dwight had been reared in the shadow of the flag, a soldier by birth, +lineage and education. Foster had come in from civil life, after a not +too creditable career at college. He had come, moreover, with the repute +of being a Squire of Dames in "swagger" Eastern society. He danced well, +dressed well, and talked well--when he felt like it. He "knew a lot," +said men who knew little outside of the army. + +He knew enough, at all events, to realize that army society would be far +less tolerant of a "squire" of his kind than had been that of Gotham, +and during his decade of service that, at least, had not been held as +his principal fault. A semi-cynical manner, a propensity for stirring +fellows on their sore points, a pronounced selfishness and an assumed +intimacy with men who disliked him were the things that most conspired +to make him unpopular. He had ability; he could be agreeable, but +indolence and indifference dwarfed his powers. It was not until he came +under the spell of this dark girl's grace and beauty that Stanley Foster +had succeeded in doing anything worthy of mention. Now he was being +mentioned far more than he wished, and, though he heard it not, he knew. + +But they went to a dance the night of the day he came, and Dwight gave a +dinner the next night, and another the next. Then there had to be others +given in return, and morn, noon, afternoon and evening, Foster found +himself at the side of Mrs. Dwight. What could she do? He came to stay +only three days, but the week went by, and so, possibly, did his orders. +Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday they were out at morning drill. Then the +pretty phaeton and its lovely occupant and her vigilant convoy came no +more. Inez said she "looked like a fright at that hour of the morning, +anyway," in which statement most women agreed. Possibly it was that that +stayed her. + +However, a second Sunday had come since Foster's advent, and the +squadron was having a rest and the chaplain holding service, and Major +Dwight, as was his wont, came, book in one hand and little Jim clinging +fondly to the other, to kneel among the worshipers, to reverently follow +the beautiful service, his boy snuggling to his side and reading aloud +from the same page. It was the service Margaret had loved, and taught +her husband to honor, and had won his promise that Jimmy should ever be +led to it, and loyally, devoted, had the father fulfilled the promise, +even after the young wife came to wean him from much that Margaret had +inspired. Inez this day came not with them. To begin with, Inez had been +reared in the fold of the Mother Church, and, though years had served to +loose the bonds and possibly sap what little she ever had of faith, she +had sought, at least, no substitute. Obediently had she gone at first +with her soldier-husband and looked, in the eyes of his kith and kin, +the picture of meek piety and adoration as she followed the new, strange +ritual. But, once away from family observation, Inez had found refuge in +hebdomadal headaches that came with the Lord's Day and kept her from +church. She was "feeling far from well this morning," said Dwight, in +answer to queries, and had been persuaded to remain in bed. So he and +Jimmy had come to church and Foster had gone to the Club to write some +letters and wire to Washington, and all were "present or accounted for," +as Captain Washburn grimly announced at the Club. It was a lovely warm +Sunday, too, and the old chaplain was effective as a reader. The choir +was capital, despite Priscilla's criticisms, and the attendance was +large. Army folk, as a rule, flock but sparsely to the sanctuary, but +Minneconjou had not a few devout church people, even in the ranks, +Blenke being so earnest in his piety that when detailed for Sunday guard +he never failed to effect an exchange, even though it cost him two tours +for one. Furthermore, it was communion service, and unusually long. + +Marion Ray had entered early--Sandy, pale-faced and thin, at her side; +and together they had knelt, mother and son, and then sat silently +awaiting the "Processional." When Dwight and Jimmy walked up the aisle +and took a pew on the other side and nearer the altar, Marion had smiled +fond greeting to the little fellow, and he had answered. Twice as she +gazed at them later, Dwight's arm about Jimmy's curly head, his sinewy +hand resting on the further shoulder and drawing him to his side, heavy +tears welled up into the blue eyes of the tender-hearted woman. Never +yet had that strong, sinewy hand been uplifted to inflict the lightest +chastisement on Margaret's beloved boy. Only the day before on his +regular visit, nestling to her knee and telling her laughingly how +Sergeant Shock, the schoolmaster, had walloped Scotty Burns, the band +leader's eldest hope, Jimmy had looked up suddenly into her eyes. "Why, +Aunt Marion," he said, "only think! I've never known what it was to be +whipped. Can you fancy daddy's ever using a strap on me?" + +"God forbid!" she shuddered, not knowing why, thinking perhaps only what +agonies that would have cost Margaret, and then Priscilla had come in +and their confidences ceased. Priscilla was firm in her theory that +children were too much petted and coddled nowadays, and that more of the +rod and less of rhubarb was what they needed. + +Suddenly, just after the second lesson, while the rich ringing voices of +the soldier choir were chanting the "Gloria," little Jim was seen to bow +his head and burrow for his handkerchief. Dwight looked down, bent over +him, whispered a word or two, smiled encouragement and fond assurance, +and, blushing very much, with downcast eyes and his face half hidden in +cambric, the lad came forth and hastened down the aisle and out into the +brilliant sunshine beyond. + +"Nose-bleed," whispered Dwight to Mrs. Stone, who leaned back, +sympathetically, from her pew. "It sometimes seizes him just that way." + +And the stately service went uninterruptedly on, and Jimmy over home, +and little more was said of the incident until the coming of another +day. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +ACCUSING LETTERS + + +For a week Miss Priscilla Sanford had been in a state of mind bordering +on the ecstatic. For months letters of portentous size, bearing the +stamp of a great and powerful organization of Christian women, had been +left at her door, and many an hour had that energetic maiden been +devoting to correspondence with boards, committees, secretaries, etc., +adding much to the burden of the mail orderly, and not a little to his +malevolence. A dour and unsocial Scot was McPherson, as he called +himself, but there was wisdom in the selection, for Kennedy, his +predecessor, was as genial as Mac was glum, and Kennedy's fall from +grace was due mainly to his amiable weakness for the opposite sex, a +trait that had led to his lingering far too long in the early spring +mornings--and many a "storm house"--along the row, and to concomitant +complaint. Letters delayed, letters even diverted from their proper +destination, had been all too often charged to him, for more than one +housemaid, not to mention a mistress or two, was possessed of a devil of +curiosity as to the correspondence of many another, and Kennedy was too +much interested in all of them to be austere. Not so McPherson. There +was not another of his clan, there were but three of his nationality, in +the entire garrison, for seldom, save under the flag of Great Britain, +is the Scot in peace time a soldier. Mac had served his native country +in the "Forty Twa"; had come to the States a time-expired man; had met +his fate, married, and been bereft and deserted within two years, and, +like many another man, he had sought in the profession of arms the peace +denied him at the domestic fireside. Uncle Sam employs no recruiting +solicitors; he needs none, for the petticoat drives to his ranks more +men than he will take. Something of Mac's history was made known to his +colonel, and when Kennedy had to be replaced, although Mac had not been +a year in the regiment, Stone issued his mandate. "_There's_ the man for +the place," said he to the adjutant. "There'll be no peeping and prying +with that red-headed Sawny in charge." + +Priscilla had not been slow to note the substitution, nor to divine the +cause. Priscilla had much disapproved of Kennedy, and Kennedy of her. +"That prayin', pryin', pesterin' old maid beyant," he described her to +the surgeon's becapped and bewitching Kathleen, the belle of the +non-commissioned officers' ball. Priscilla found in Presbyterian Mac a +far more promising subject, and was aggrieved and dismayed at her lack +of success. McPherson would only stand at salute, frigidly respectful, +but as icily impenetrable. Mac scented mischief at the outset. He had +heard much among the men about Miss Sanford's kindergarten, the Bible +class, the prayer meetings, and her persistent preachings against the +Canteen. Now, Mac himself disapproved of that institution, and hearing +of this--I fear me Sandy told her, and for motives altogether +mischievous--Miss Sanford had lain in wait for Mac, and held him one +brief moment in converse at the door. The story of that episode +delighted Minneconjou and the minority, let us say, when it was later +told in Congress. + +"I'm so glad to hear, McPherson," said Miss Sanford, beaming upon him, +as she took from his hand the little packet of letters, "that you, too, +are one of the right sort of soldiers. Now, tell me why _you_ disapprove +of the Canteen," for Priscilla was sending that day another long letter +of experiences to the _Banner of Light_; and the reply came, prompt, +unflinching, uncompromising, but--most unsatisfactory: + +"Because, mem, ye canna get a drap o' whusky." + +And so saying McPherson was all simple sincerity. Bred to its use in the +raw fogs of his native glen, accustomed to his modest daily tot even +when on "sentry go" at the Castle, or the water gate at Gibraltar, he +and his comrades of the Black Watch had been reared in the broad faith +that teaches temperance, not intolerance. Their canteen sergeant set the +limit, not the pace, and doubtless Mac in 'listing for a soldier in the +land of liberty had looked perhaps for even greater license. Beer he +called "swipes," and despised. Rhine wine, tasted but once, set his grim +face awry, and presently townward. Mac's one peccadillo since joining at +Minneconjou was a rantin', roarin' drunk in Silver Hill that cost Uncle +Sam three days of his services, and the Highlander three months of his +pay. There were fines both military and municipal. In disgust Mac swore +off. He "had na use for a consairn that compelled a mon to walk three +miles to get a wee drappie--and lose three months' siller." + +But Priscilla was undaunted still. She had written glowingly, +enthusiastically, unceasingly, of all her efforts to promote the cause +of temperance among the nation's soldiery. She had told much of her +converts to total abstinence, and little of their backsliding. She had +managed, through Blenke and others, to get a transcript of the daily +guard report, and the punishments awarded by the summary and general +courts-martial. Minneconjou had now a garrison of some eight hundred +men, with a big and bustling frontier town only a few miles away. Thanks +to the system of the post Exchange and the careful supervision, both of +its customers and its supplies, drunkenness had been reduced almost to a +minimum. Not one out of one hundred men was in confinement, either +awaiting or serving sentence. Not more than ten in two months had been +fined for minor breaches of discipline due to drink. Some old topers, +relics of the sutler-shop days of the army, were still to be found, men +whose stomachs could not be always appeased by mild measures, and +demanded the coarser stimulant--in bottles smuggled from town; but every +case, however mild, had been made, it seems, the text for one of +Priscilla's vivid letters descriptive of the depravity still rampant in +the army, and due entirely to the presence of that blot upon Christian +civilization--the Canteen. + +And well had they served their purpose. In fancied security, knowing +that their methods had resulted in the greatest good to the greatest +number, the officers on duty with troops had read with smiling tolerance +marked copies of Eastern papers detailing the concerted efforts of the +crusaders against the post Exchange. Congress had been memorialized. +Congress had good naturedly listened to the successive readings of a +bill abolishing the system and forbidding the sale of either beer or +wine at any military post in the United States. Then, brimful, bustling +with excitement, and rejoicing, Priscilla read that her letters had been +largely instrumental in winning over certain of the opposition, and that +when the question came to a vote the noble leaders of a noble cause +would be present in force, and when the House sat, there--there would +they sit and watch, and woe betide the advocate of the arch fiend rum +that dare vote against their sacred measure. Before the army could +realize what was coming, the House sat in judgment on the bill, the +Society sat in judgment on the House; its members glanced casually at +the subject and fearfully at the galleries and--succumbed. "The Senate +will kill it, anyhow, so we might as well make ourselves solid,--it's +only the army, anyway," was the expression of one long-headed +legislator. Priscilla screamed--squealed rather--in ecstasy over the +telegram brought her at breakfast, threw the paper to Sandy and herself +into a _pas seul_ that fairly amazed Aunt Marion and scandalized the +cat. But, when a week or so later the Senate, too, quailed before the +basilisk eyes in the galleries, and the bill went to the President and +became at once a law, it is safe to say that, for one memorable day, +Miss Sanford not unwarrantably looked upon herself as of infinitely more +consequence than the commanding officer. + +Then, in the midst of the amaze and bewilderment that fell upon the +fort, came sensation. Colonel Stone sent for Sandy Ray, nodded +"withdraw" to his adjutant, who closed the door behind him, and then +looked up with somber eyes at the pale-faced young fellow before him. + +"Your occupation's gone, Sandy," said he sorrowfully. "They've pulled +from under us the best prop to order and discipline that ever we had. It +hasn't been a square deal. They won by methods we couldn't hope to meet, +and,"--drawing forth certain newspaper clippings,--"here are specimens. +For your father's sake, I liked you before I grew to like you for your +own; but if your father himself were here, and head of the house instead +of yourself, I'd have to hold him to account as I must hold you. +Read--that." + +And Sandy, turning paler still, and quivering with mingled wrath and +shame, stood and read somewhat as follows: + + At Fort Minneconjou the situation is even worse. We have it from + indisputable authority that, so far from seeking to check the evil + among their men, officers of the highest rank freely mingle with + them at the garrison saloon, and urge and incite them to drink. Is + it to be wondered at, therefore, that the sickening scenes depicted + by our correspondent are of almost daily occurrence?--that young + lads, fresh from the pure influences of peaceful homes, the + mother's blessing still echoing in their ears, the mother's kiss + still warm upon their brows, are forced to witness such revolting + crimes, to hear such ribald oaths, and gradually, through the + example of officers seeking doubtless to increase the revenue + derived from the sale of the vile poisons they purchase at + wholesale from equally vile distillers, and in the hope of winning + the favor of these all-powerful superiors, to forget the teachings + of home, the prayers of parents and kindred, and to yield to the + tempter and become in turn slaves of the soul-destroying habit, + helpless victims of rum? How long, O Lord, how long will the + representatives of a free and enlightened people continue to + sanction such infamy? + +"That's one of a dozen editorials," said the colonel. "What most +concerns us is the one of a dozen letters on which it is based. Now, +look at this." And Sandy read. + + FORT MINNECONJOU, S. D., _May 30, 19--_. + + EDITOR BANNER OF LIGHT: + + Since My Last, of a Week Ago, No Less Than Seven Soldiers, Men Who, + Could They Be Divorced From Drink, Would Be Ornaments To The + Service of Their Country, Have Been Thrown Into the Garrison + Prison, Or Hauled Before Their Judges,--these Latter the Very Men + who advocate and encourage the sale of intoxicants,--to receive + their punishment for various crimes and misdemeanors committed + while under the influence of drink. And so it goes. They, the + helpless victims, must suffer the consequences of the crimes of + their officers, who are able to divide each month the profits of + their nefarious traffic, and go utterly unwhipped of justice. Only + two days ago, speaking of this matter after morning service, one of + our veteran soldiers said, with tears in his eyes, "If the + Christian people of this land only dreamed what sins were being + committed under cover of the devil-inspired Canteen, they would + rise up as one man and demand its extinction." But, as I said + before, so long as their most popular officers are permitted + unrebuked to meet them, and carouse with them, and thereby teach + and inspire the young and thoughtless soldier to drink, what can we + accomplish? The sights and sounds, the fearful scenes and frightful + curses to which I have been witness here, all due to the demon that + lurks within that protected rum hole opposite my window, would + appall a Christian community--which this is not. + +Sandy turned to the wrapper, his lips almost as gray as his young face. +It was the copy of a letter from the pastor of a church in a far Eastern +city, inclosing five newspaper clippings, and calling upon the Secretary +of War to order the instant court-martial and dismissal of the military +officers responsible for the abominable state of affairs existing at +Fort Minneconjou; which letter the Secretary had respectfully referred +to the Commanding General, Department of the Middle West, for +"investigation and report," which paper and inclosures that official had +respectfully referred to the commanding officer, Fort Minneconjou, with +similar demand. Stone had received, read, remarked and--sent for Sandy. + +An hour later, as Miss Sanford was sallying forth on "an errand of +mercy," as she had usually heard such missions described,--she was going +to the post hospital with a fresh supply of temperance tracts and a +small box of cherries,--she encountered her cousin at the door, and +something in his face made her own lose color. The Dwights' phaeton came +bowling down the road at the moment, Mrs. Dwight bowing and smiling +bewitchingly, Captain Foster gallantly lifting his derby, for, when +others could not wear it, Foster favored civilian dress. Miss Sanford +responded vaguely, Sandy not at all. Possibly he did not wish to see. +Possibly, said Priscilla to herself, it is _that_ that has so upset him. +She hoped, indeed, it might be that, and not that which, almost +instantly, she feared. He said no word at all, merely motioned to her to +turn back. Priscilla was accustomed to dominate, not to domination, but +she saw the look of the father in the stern young face before her. Uncle +Will she knew was the mildest of men in his dealings with women, until +fully aroused. Then Uncle Will became dangerous, and looked very much as +did Sandy now. The first question as he practically backed her into the +little army parlor was, "Is mother home?" + +Priscilla looked aloft. "In her room," she said. + +"Then I cannot--speak to you now," said Sandy. "Colonel Stone has called +me to account for one of the five inclosures to this paper. Before I +answer we've got to have, you and I, a clear understanding, and before +we can have that you must read these, and think over what other slanders +you have written." + +"I was going to the hospital," faltered Priscilla. "Sullivan's +worse--and Blenke's been so queer----" + +"The hospital, Sullivan, and Blenke can wait," said Sandy firmly, though +his voice was shaking. "Colonel Stone and I cannot. I shall say nothing +to mother of this as yet. Be ready to see me here at twelve o'clock. +Mother will not be home." + +So saying, and leaving in her hands the fateful packet, Ray turned +abruptly and left the house, Priscilla mounting slowly to her room. + +It still lacked an hour to noon, and she had time to read and to think. +It was past the hour at which Jimmy Dwight generally came running in to +say good-morning to Aunt Marion, but Jimmy had not come. Out on the +sunlit parade a dozen garrison boys and girls were in the midst of a +shouting, shrieking, frolicsome game of "Pull-Away," and Jimmy, usually +one of the blithest and merriest, was not there. Priscilla had noted +this when, from the little veranda of the lieutenant's quarters but a +few minutes before, she had been disapprovingly watching the sport--it +was so uninstructive, thought Priscilla. She could not, from the window +at the side, see much of the parade. Over against it, midway along the +barrack line of the northeast front, she could see the Exchange +building, could see Sandy more than halfway across, walking even more +swiftly, stiffly, than ever. She saw the few loungers and convalescents, +sunning themselves on the southern benches, rising to their feet at the +approach of the young officer. She could hear the tramp of the two +battalions and the majors' ringing commands, exercising, one on the +plain to the south where Dwight's squadron disported itself before +breakfast, the other out on the parade. She could hear faintly the fine +band of the infantry practicing at the assembly room adjoining the +Exchange. From the open window of Sandy's room, across the hall, she +could have seen the deserted veranda of the officers' club. Half an hour +hence it would be swarming with thirsty and perspiring gentlemen in +khaki just in from a lively drill. She felt rather than saw what was +said in that relentless paper on her dressing table, and she shrank from +the opening and reading. Sandy's face had told her what to expect. +Sandy's tongue had spoken of slanders--slanders that well she realized, +like curses, had come home to roost. She could not say, even to herself, +that what she had written was never meant for public eyes. She had +hoped--she had meant--it should be published, and that all good +Christian men and women, readers of the _Banner of Light_, should +approve and applaud her righteous efforts in behalf of so great and +glorious a cause. But it had not occurred to her that the _Banner_ +would ever find its way to so godless a community as this at +Minneconjou--where her statements might be challenged. She was stunned, +temporarily, by this most unlooked-for catastrophe. Uncle Will and Aunt +Marion had been her best friends and benefactors, and, even though duty +demanded that she should make clear to them how deeply they erred in +their attitude on so vital a question as that of the Canteen, she knew, +and well knew, that what she had written in the enthusiasm of her faith, +the intensity of her zeal, was far from warrantable by the cold facts in +the case. She followed Sandy with her eyes as he neared the +veranda,--saw the hands of the half dozen men go up in salute,--saw him +suddenly turn and, facing west, salute in turn, and then the colonel +marched into her field of vision, and the veteran of the Civil War and +the subaltern of a few skirmishes stood a moment in conference, then +strode away together toward the townward gate and the "auxiliary" +guard-house, the orderly following after. + +And then she heard her aunt's voice at her door. + +"Have you seen anything of Jimmy this morning, 'Cilla? It's strange he +has not come," and then cook from the kitchen appeared at the landing. +"That young man, mum, Mr. Blenke, would like to speak with Miss Sanford +a minute." And, leaving the papers on her bureau, glad of a respite, +Priscilla hastened down. + +Blenke's big mournful brown eyes had of late been darker than ever, and +dark circles had sunk in beneath them. Blenke's sallow face had taken on +an even sallower hue. "Nothing but indigestion and lack of exercise," +said the junior doctor, of whom Priscilla had made inquiries. "The man +spends his leisure hours moping or mooning around by himself. He ought +to be made to play ball, tennis, spar, ride, wrestle, or something. He's +a day-dreamer--maybe a pipe-dreamer," hazarded he, in conclusion, with a +queer look at Priscilla, who had flushed indignantly at the insinuation. +Blenke had sorrowfully and virtuously repelled that insinuation the +moment she brought it to his attention, but circumstances had been +combining to make her uneasy about her paragon. If not a "pipe-dreamer," +Blenke was becoming odd and nervous, queer, and twitchy. To-day he came +with a plea she had never heard him make before. Blenke, who never +drank, gambled, smoked, swore, or otherwise misconducted himself, had +come to tell Miss Sanford in the best of language that he had urgent +need of ten dollars and two days' pass. The pass his captain had signed +on the spot, but he wouldn't stand for the ten dollars. Blenke would +tell Miss Sanford all about it on his return, but now there was not a +moment to lose unless he lose also the train to Rapid City. Would Miss +Sanford help him? + +Priscilla had but ten dollars to her name, but swiftly she sped upstairs +to get it. The bugle was sounding the recall from drill as she entered +her little room, unlocked an upper drawer of the dressing-table, and +found the two bills in her slender _portemonnaie_. The batch of official +papers, with the portentous, red ink-lined, third indorsement uppermost, +still stared at her from the prim, white-covered top, and impatiently +she thrust it into the shallow pocket of the summer skirt and hastened +away downstairs. Blenke's eyes were eloquent with subdued sadness, +mystery, and gratitude as he received the money and turned away. The +children out in front on the parade, with shrill shouting and laughter, +had just gone racing away toward the eastward gate, and as their clamor +died in the distance Priscilla's quick ear caught the sound of sobbing +and a piteous wail for help. + +Ever sympathetic with those in distress, she hurried through the +hallway, out through the gate and there, crouched at the foot of the +little shade tree at the edge of the parade, with blood streaming +through the clutching fingers from a slashing cut at the edge of the +left eye, was little George Thornton, son of a junior officer of +infantry. Priscilla in an instant was bending over him. + +"What is it, Georgie, dear? Oh, how _did_ you get so cruel a hurt?" + +Sobs and screams were at first the only answer. Clasping her kerchief to +the wound with her right hand, and leading the little fellow, half +running, with the left, she guided him homeward, where presently a badly +frightened brace of women, mother and housemaid, busily hindered her +skilled fingers in bathing and bandaging the cut. It was not long before +the bleeding was stanched, the patient soothed and comforted and the +maid had gone for the doctor. Meanwhile the mother, too, had made her +demand, "Who--who could have done this?" And to every such query there +was but one answer, "Jimmy Dwight." + +"Surely not on purpose!" ventured Priscilla, in the interest of peace, +truth, and justice, only to receive with vehement emphasis the +to-be-expected answer of the stung, angered, and irresponsible child. + +"He _did_, I tell you! We were racin', an'--an' when I was gettin' past +him, he just whacked me with all his might." + +The boys had all disappeared, when presently Priscilla again came forth, +homeward bound. They had swarmed over to the stables, where some troop +horses had broken away from their herd, and were having a hilarious time +of it, but one or two little girls were slowly returning, and to the +foremost of these Priscilla addressed herself for information. Was Jimmy +Dwight with the other boys? Yes, he had only come out a few minutes ago. +Had they seen how Georgie Thornton was hurt? They had not. _They_ had +started with the foremost, and George and Jimmy had run back after a +ball, and so got behind. But presently came Kitty Blair, and Kitty _had_ +seen. Tiring of the chase she had dropped out as the last boys went +bounding by her, and Jimmy Dwight was swinging his jacket, and he just +slashed Georgie Thornton right in the face with it. Yes, she was sure. +Millie Cross had seen it, too, and had run home to tell her mother. + +Thoughtfully, with downcast eyes, Priscilla retraced her steps. Orderly +and mess call were sounding now, and with a start she remembered that +this was the moment set by Sandy for her explanation as to the clipping, +and, glancing up in sudden fright, she found standing at the doorway, +the accusing papers in hand, not her cousin, but her cousin's mother, +her hostess and her benefactress--Marion Ray. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +AN INVITATION--TO GO + + +Between early morning drills and the fact that Jimmy was now quite big +and old enough to look after himself, the father's supervision of the +morning tub, rub, and toilet had ceased, and there was but time for a +hug and a word before the major swallowed his solitary cup of coffee, +swung into saddle, and trotted away. On this eventful morning he had +kept his men at their work rather longer than usual and to no good +purpose. In common with the rest of the garrison, Dwight had heard the +fate of the Canteen, and heard it without remark. An abstemious man, he +preferred that others should be the same, but other far more pressing +matters were uppermost in his mind; matters here at Minneconjou--matters +in far-away Mexico, where an importunate father-in-law, after making +ducks and drakes of the thousands liberally supplied him, was now +demanding more, or "all would be lost." Then it transpired that a lawyer +in town had been retained, by certain of that father-in-law's creditors, +to press Major Dwight for payment of the same, or with evidence of +fraudulent doings on part of Mr. Farrell. To meet this lawyer, Dwight +had ridden to town right after drill, and up to noon had not returned. +Foster and Mrs. Dwight, driving thither in the pretty phaeton, with the +pygmy tiger, were surprised, possibly disconcerted--to see his orderly +with the two horses patiently waiting in front of the office. Possibly +that had something to do with their return soon after twelve o'clock. +Possibly there was design in Foster's selection of that hour of the day +to visit the office of the post Exchange, still in active operation +along all its accustomed lines, awaiting official orders, so far as +comforting fluids were concerned, to close. At all events, there were no +witnesses to a scene,--and but few to certain very audible words,--that +became memorable in the chronicles of Fort Minneconjou from that day +forth. + +It will be remembered that Priscilla saw the meeting between the post +commander and his Exchange officer, and their move in company toward the +townward gate. But at that distance it was not to be expected that she +could see the deep concern in the colonel's face or hear anything of the +conversation that passed between them. It was barely an hour since their +brief interview at the office. The colonel then looked solemn enough, +but now the concern and smoldering wrath in his deep-set eyes exceeded +anything his adjutant had ever seen or that Sandy Ray deemed possible in +a soldier usually so placid and philosophical. + +"Come with me, Mr. Ray," said Stone, in the hearing of the listening +men. "There's a matter I want to talk over." Then, once fairly out of +earshot, and after a glance to see that his orderly was well to the +rear, "Sandy, were you at your office yesterday morning?" + +"No, sir; I was at church." + +"Ah, yes. I should have known. _I_ used to go, too, while I had a +mother," sighed the colonel. "But that was very long ago." Then, with +sudden energy, "You wouldn't know whether--er--Captain Foster had been +over here at the Exchange--writing letters? Ah--er--who would?" + +"Sergeant Bates, sir, probably." + +"It's a bit of business I don't like, Sandy. Nobody but my adjutant +knows, though some may guess, and I'm going to tell you because----" + +"I wish you _wouldn't_, sir. I--own I don't like Captain Foster," was +the blunt interruption. + +"I've got to, lad, for I may have to act! But it was your father who +spake there, and you have known Foster longer and perhaps better than +any man here--Major Dwight possibly excepted. There are reasons why I +_can't_ ask Dwight." + +"Then, Colonel," and with face still graver the young officer turned +appealingly to his commander, "all the more I ask you--don't ask me." + +"See here, Ray," said the colonel, halting short. "No, keep back, +orderly, I don't want you!" he added with impatient wave of the hand. +"There's a piece of devilment going on at this post that it's my +business to stop before it gets too late. Pray God it isn't too late +_yet_! That man has no business here as Dwight's guest. He has no +business here at all. He isn't straight. He tells everybody he can't +imagine where his orders have gone, and that he's been wiring everywhere +to find them. This morning I find that he's lying. Yesterday he left +Dwight's house to write letters at the Club, as he said, and send more +dispatches. He stayed there only about fifteen minutes, until church was +fairly started. Then he said he wanted some keg beer which can't be had +at the Club, and so he left, saying he'd go to the Canteen and finish +the beer and his letters at your desk. That's almost the last they saw +of him, but before eleven he went through the east gate and down to old +Sergeant Sweeny's on the south flats. Sweeny served with him seven years +ago, and he's laid up with rheumatism. The second relief started just at +eleven, and the first problem the recruit on No. 4 had to deal with, +before the relief that left him was fairly out of sight, was what to do +with a gentleman, in civilian dress who was crossing his post. The +sentry stopped him, and the stranger said: 'I'm Captain Foster, staying +at Major Dwight's,' and went on in the back way. If Sweeny confirms this +story I shall send for Captain Foster and--until this is settled never +mind about that other matter. Er--have you seen Miss Sanford?" + +"Yes, sir," answered Ray, half choking, "and--she was to answer me fully +at twelve o'clock." + +"Well--er--I may be able to see Sergeant Bates and perhaps you again. I +won't take you farther. Wait for me at your desk, will you?" + +A distant horseman, trotting swiftly homeward, splashed through the ford +at the moment; but long before he reached the gate the colonel had gone +on through upon his regular daily tramp, making the rounds of the big +wide-spreading post. The young officer, silent and pale, had gone back +to his office. The sentry at the gate presented arms as the tall +haggard-looking rider came trotting in, sitting very erect and squarely +down in the saddle. At the parting of the roads he suddenly reined in +and dismounted. "Take him to the stables and get your dinner, Gribble," +said he to the trumpeter boy. "I shall not ride again to-day." Then, +with grave, anxious, downcast face, went striding up the southward line +to his quarters at the farther end--the quarters that had been the +Rays'. + +On the gallery of Lieutenant Thornton's were two or three young army +wives and mothers, who ceased chatting and somewhat curiously studied +the coming officer. In brief, absent-minded fashion he lifted his cap +and passed them by. Young Dr. Wallen was just coming forth and calling +cheerily to them. "Oh, he'll do very nicely now. Miss Sanford handled +him admirably;" then, "Oh, beg a thousand pardons, Major," as he bumped +sideways into the tall soldier passing by. + +"Who's hurt?" asked Dwight with scant interest. + +"Why--er--Georgie Thornton got a little--er--gash playing. His mother +was scared a bit, and I was coming that way and she called me in. The +eye isn't injured." + +"Why--how'd it happen?" + +"Oh, er--well, I don't know, exactly," answered Wallen, in deep +confusion. "Some boy scrap--mishap--accident, probably, +and--er--good-day," he finished lamely, as he darted off. + +Queer, thought Dwight. Is everybody seeking to avoid me? He only vaguely +heard, and for the moment gave little heed to, the angry words that +followed him from the open doorway. "Ask your boy how it happened, Major +Dwight," for the mother was suffering still, and some natures, +suffering, _will_ spit and scratch. Not then, but just a little later, +as Jimmy came bounding gladly to meet him and to seize his hand, did +Dwight remember Mrs. Thornton's words, and looking down into the joyous, +beaming, flushing face, with the big, wide-open, violet eyes, the father +questioned: + +"What's this about Georgie Thornton? How was he cut?" + +"Georgie? Cut? Why, daddy, I didn't know it. Is he hurt?" + +"You don't, Jim? Why, they told me to ask you, as though _you_ would +know. Weren't you with him?" + +"Why, yes, daddy. I--I got out late," and here the young face began to +cloud. "And then--such fun!" and the laughter once more came bubbling +joyously from his happy heart. "Some 'B' Troop horses got loose, and we +all ran to see the round-up, and we were hinder-most at the start, +Georgie and I, but _I_ caught 'em, and got there with the foremost, an' +I guess he got tired and went home because we ran away from him, +really." + +But already the father's attention was diverted. His eyes were following +Stanley Foster, who, dancing lightly down the steps, waved his hand with +exuberant cordiality to the pair as he crossed the road and struck out +over the parade. + +"When that fellow begins putting his hand on my shoulder or patting my +back or calling me old chap I know he's playing to 'do' me some way," +once said a brother officer of Foster's, and Sandy Ray was thinking of +it when three minutes later Foster came bounding breezily in, +confidence, cordiality, and jovial good-fellowship beaming from his +well-groomed visage: + +"Sandy, old boy, lend me a horse this afternoon, will you?" + +Ray was alone at his desk. The bare little army office, with its few +maps and ornamental calendars adorning the unpapered walls, its +barrack-built table and chairs, its stacks of letter-files, boxes and +tins of samples, was an uninviting place at best, yet had never hitherto +appeared inhospitable. Even under the management of the still +half-crippled cavalryman, himself an abstainer from the cup that +sometimes cheers, and a partaker of a cup that always saddens, there had +ever been frank and cordial greeting for visiting comrades, followed +usually by invitation to taste the good cheer of the Canteen and +suggest, if possible, additional improvement. But it was a lack-luster +eye that turned on the entering officer this day. Sergeant Bates had but +just left the room after having, in answer to question, briefly stated +that no one but Captain Foster had visited the lieutenant's office +during church time Sunday. The captain had merely tasted the beer, +glanced about him, and then departed. No, not the way he came, the +parade side. The captain had looked into the reading-room and through +the billiard-room, which latter was closed on account of the day, and +had strolled out through the rear doorway, a short cut to the east gate. +That, then, seemed to complete the chain of evidence described by the +colonel, and the heart of Sandy Ray was seething when Foster bustled in, +while his voice, when presently there came reply, was as icily cold. All +the same he turned in his revolving chair and looked his visitor +straight in the eye, as he arose. + +"What do you want him for?" + +Foster flushed. He read unerringly the intense dislike in the young +officer's gaze, but he dissembled: + +"To ride, 'bout four o'clock," was the matter-of-course reply. + +"Major Dwight said both his horses were at your disposal. He's only had +one out to-day. Is Mrs. Dwight going to ride the other?" + +Foster's eyelids shut to a narrow slit. His mustache began to bristle at +the ends. Now the red was flitting and his face was turning sallow. + +"While I consider that none of your business, Mr. Ray--yes!" + +"Then," said Sandy, his cheek white, his lips set, his eyes aflame, "you +can't have mine." + +The low hum of voices, the gurgle of laughter drifting through the +stove-pipe hole and through the crevices of the pine partition from the +lounging-room beyond, seemed to die away almost at the moment. Ray had +hardly uplifted his voice. For an instant a silence fell on the facing +pair in the Exchange office--the one rather tall, fair, stylishly garbed +in the latest civilian fashion; the other short, slender, trimly built, +with dark curling hair and snapping black-brown eyes; both men trembling +now, but neither dropping an eyelid. Then with clinching fist and fiery +eyes the elder took a step forward. He was throwing off the mask. He was +speaking angrily, audibly: + +"By Heaven, Ray, if I didn't happen to know that you are, or had been, +madly in love with Mrs. Dwight, I--I'd consider that an insult." + +"Well," came the ready response, "why not so consider it--anyhow?" + +In an instant the larger, heavier, stronger man had hurled himself on +the slender junior and, one sinewy hand on the back of the neck, the +other at the throat, Foster shook him furiously--but only for a second. +No sooner did Ray feel himself seized than he "let go" with both fists, +and both fists found their mark on Foster's face--one swing, the right, +stinging him on the unguarded jaw. Two more followed in the flash of a +second, and Foster, stunned and amazed, dropped his hold and for a +second recoiled. In blind fury the next moment he rushed again, Ray +springing lightly aside, whirling and sending his right with electric +snap square to the already smarting jowl--a blow that staggered yet did +not fell the stronger man, the man who even in his rage managed +partially, at least, to recover his wits, for as he straightened up he +held forth protesting hand and panted: "Stop! Not now. They hear us, and +by the God that made me you'll hear from me. You dare to strike--your +superior officer!" + +"Superior be damned!" shouted Ray, raging for battle and reckless of +consequence. "You rank me two grades on the roster, but you're miles +behind as a man. Come again, if you dare, you cad!" And like a young +bantam the army-bred lad was dancing eagerly about, forgetful of his +lameness and watching like a cat his bulky antagonist. + +"Not here, I say, nor with blackguard weapons you seem to know how to +handle; but--next time we meet, young man--next time!" + +"Next time, this time, _any_ time!" shouted Ray. "And mind you, you +villain, make your will before you meet me!" + +"And meantime, Captain Foster," came the stern commanding words from the +threshold, where suddenly stood the colonel, "pack your belongings and +quit the post. There, sir," and significantly he shook an open telegram, +"there, sir, are your orders." + + + + +CHAPTER X + +A GATHERING STORM + + +Minneconjou that afternoon was the vortex of a revolving storm of +sensation, speculation, and excitement. The few men at the Club spoke +with bated breath and shrugging shoulders, with hands thrust deep in +side pockets and with occasional semi-hysterical giggle. Men at the +Canteen retailed in whispers, and with possibly unconscious +editorialisms of their own, the story of the encounter at the office as +heard through the partition in their own premises. Women along the line +of officers' quarters and women among the humbler homes of the married +soldiers went flitting from door to door gathering in wide-eyed, +gossiping groups, + + "For the colonel's lady and Judy O'Grady + Are sisters under their skins." + +There were three women, however, prominent in this chronicle and others +not individually mentioned, who kept within doors and bounds until the +sun was well down behind the Sagamore and the line was formed for +parade. Even then Mrs. Dwight did not appear, but Mrs. Ray sat for a +while with Sandy on the little veranda, and a very red-eyed Priscilla +went forth, as she said, for needed exercise. Just what had passed +between her aunt and herself was never referred to outside of the +family. Mrs. Ray, it seems, had also heard the childish wail of +distress, had come down to inquire the cause, but not until Priscilla +had succeeded in leading the little sufferer home. Then in the hall, +probably, Marion had picked up the official batch of papers; thought it +something of Sandy's, for open official wrappers of newspaper clippings +are not privileged communications and he who runs upon them may read. +Presumably Mrs. Ray had read, and, if so, the meekest, mildest of women +in her place would have had a rod in pickle for Priscilla when that +energetic maiden returned. It had at least one point in favor of Sandy. +It relieved him from the necessity of "interviewing" his cousin. But for +the life of him Sandy Ray could not be kind or cordial to Priscilla for +many a day. She wrote to him, at her aunt's demand, a letter to be shown +to the colonel commanding, and a portion of this letter appeared in his +returned indorsement. She admitted that the only instance of officers +"carousing" with and tempting the men to drink was when Uncle Will took +her to see the Canteen and sipped his glass of Rhenish when the +sergeants drank his health. "But," was the ingenuous argument, "if Uncle +Will, who is so abstemious and conscientious, could do that much, I +naturally reasoned that others whom I knew to be neither abstemious nor, +in such matters conscientious, would do infinitely more, and therefore +considered my statement justifiable in view of the vital importance of +the matter under discussion." As to the other points in her allegation, +Priscilla had no better or broader foundation. It was one of those +instances of "justifiable vericide" wherein many a worthy woman, and +man, has soothed a protesting conscience with "the end justifies the +means." + +But Priscilla had to promise also to write full confession to the +_Banner of Light_, and it was sent registered. Aunt Marion saw to that; +and duly received but never, even in part, was it published--that would +be doing violence to editorial ethics. + +At three o'clock that afternoon the colonel's adjutant had called +ceremoniously at the quarters of Major Dwight, and at four o'clock the +colonel's ambulance had followed. Half a thousand eyes, probably, +followed that official vehicle as it whirled away townward, a raging +captain of cavalry being the sole occupant of the interior, the driver +and an orderly conversing in low tones at the front. Major Dwight had +come forth with his guest, escorted him down the steps to the waiting +wagon, had ostentatiously shaken hands with him twice--thrice; had even +held him in conversation as though reluctant to part, and had then gone +stalking over to the colonel's quarters with twitching lips and fingers +to demand an explanation of this summary expulsion of his guest. If +Captain Foster was to be ordered off the post because of a personal +encounter with Lieutenant Ray, what was to be done with Mr. Ray? was +what the major wished to know, and Colonel Stone, instead of snubbing, +censuring or sending him back in arrest, went halfway down the steps to +meet him, took him by the hand and said, "I've been expecting you, +major, and have much to tell you," beckoned the adjutant to follow and +led on into an inner room. The post surgeon was also there, by +invitation. + +"Major Dwight," said Stone, "I have asked these gentlemen to be present +as witnesses to what I have to tell you, and if there's any man of your +own corps you'd like to have present, my orderly will fetch him at once. +No? Then I'll proceed. I assume you wish to know why Captain Foster was +formally invited to proceed on his way this afternoon. You fancy, I +believe, and he possibly--probably--told you, it was for attacking +Lieutenant Ray at the Canteen. It was not. There are several reasons, +and the moment I have told you enough I wish you to say stop. I do not +like your fr--your guest, but I desire to say no more at his expense +than may be absolutely necessary. Do you understand?" + +Dwight bowed gravely. "I think I do, sir," was his answer, and the party +settled into chairs and for the moment into silence. + +Then Stone began again: + +"When Captain Foster arrived here he took occasion to tell me he had +just dropped in for a day or two--that he was expecting his orders any +moment. Connor, lieutenant-colonel commanding the --th, is a classmate +of mine, and in writing me two weeks ago he spoke of the shortage of +officers. He said that Foster's application for a month's delay had been +negatived by him and that he was then expecting him any moment. Thursday +last came another letter. Short as he was of officers, three of his best +had been taken away for court-martial duty. Foster's troop was commanded +by a sergeant, and going to seed. Foster was apparently lost, for a copy +of his order to report without delay had been there a week. His adjutant +had wired to Foster's address and got no answer. That evening, as it +happened, I met Foster again, and he went out of his way to tell me he +couldn't imagine what had become of his orders. He had left directions +with his home people to open everything that came and wire him here at +once, and nothing had come, at least to him. This was queer. Friday he +repeated it. That afternoon at the telegraph office in town the operator +asked me if a Captain Foster was at the post. Three messages had come +for him, two calling for reply, and he had sent by wire, at least, no +answer. Two, said the operator, were from New York, saying important +orders were there, and what should they do with them? Now, I don't like +double dealing, Dwight. I at once wired Connor that his lost captain was +found--here--claiming to be without orders. Connor probably wired the +War Department, and on Monday noon came this." Saying which, the colonel +took from his desk and held forth a telegram, which Dwight solemnly +received and read, then sat one moment in silence. It was from the War +Department, Washington, and as follows: + + COMMANDING OFFICER, + + Fort Minneconjou. + + If Captain Stanley Foster, --th Cavalry, is still at your post + notify him that his orders were sent June ---- to his address, New + York City. Secwar directs that he proceed at once to Fort Wister + and report to his regimental commander for duty. Acknowledge + receipt and report action. + +"Secwar" being the official telegraphic abbreviation for Secretary of +War, that order was beyond appeal. Without a word Dwight carefully +refolded the message, arose, and handed it to the post commander. Then, +after a moment's pause, straightening up, he spoke. + +"I have been wrong, sir, and I--beg your pardon. I, too, had been led to +suppose he was awaiting orders. Moreover, he led me to suppose his +virtual expulsion was due to his resenting insulting language from +Lieutenant Ray. I--will you?--have I your permission, sir, to be absent +from parade and the post this evening?" + +The surgeon bent quickly forward, his eyes on Stone. The colonel +started, faltered, then, pulling himself together, arose, once more +extended his hand, which Dwight took mechanically, and then, after a +moment's reflection, spoke: + +"Major Dwight, I have the highest respect for you as a soldier and as a +man, but I ask you to withdraw that request. Frankly, sir, it is my +desire that you do not quit the post--to-night." + +A moment later when the door had closed upon the tall, spare, almost +angular form, the colonel mopped his brow and said: "If I let that man +go he'll follow Foster to the station and throttle him--he so hates a +liar and a lie." + +"I thought Foster got away in time for the Flyer," said the doctor, +after a pause. He had been intently watching Dwight's every move and +gesture. + +"In plenty of time," answered the colonel, "though he planned it +otherwise, and don't know it even now. He was scheming to miss to-day's +Overland and so wait until to-morrow, but I sent the adjutant, with a +man to help him pack, and the word that the ambulance would call for him +at four. He _could_ decline the help, but he couldn't the ambulance. +Now, as luck would have it, they wire me that the Flyer's five hours +late." + +"If that's the case at Valentine," said the adjutant, "she'll be six +behind by the time she strikes Minneconjou." + +"Then," said Dr. Waring, "we may not have seen the last of Stanley +Foster. Is Ray, too, confined to the post?" + +"No," said the colonel, "I hadn't thought about that at all." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +DEEPER IN THE TOILS + + +Dress parade went off that evening in somewhat perfunctory fashion. Even +the alert and soldierly adjutant had a preoccupied air. Stone rejoiced +in his three battalions, as they really were--the cavalry squadron +consisting, like the infantry units, of four companies--and ordinarily +loved to hold them quite a while at the manual, and later for the march +past. This evening he ordered but a few casual shifts and dispensed +entirely with the review. Almost every piazza had its little group of +spectators. The walk was lined with visitors, the roadway with vehicles +from town, and Stone had never seemed to notice them. What he did notice +was that Dwight, standing stark and alone in front of the center of his +squadron, began swaying before the sergeant's reports were rendered, and +was obviously faint and ill. It was on his account entirely that Stone +curtailed the stately ceremony, and thereby disappointed spectators. He +took the major by the arm and walked with him to his door and left him +there with promise to send the surgeon without delay. Dwight declared +the doctor unnecessary, but thanked most earnestly his commanding +officer. A pert young woman in cap and ribbons met them at the threshold +with the information that Madame had partaken of a _tisane_ and begged +that she might not be intruded upon, as it was Dr. Wallen's mandate that +she should sleep, if a possible thing. Stone looked queerly, sharply, at +her and turned away. The major made no reply to her remarks, but desired +that Master James be sent to him as soon as he returned. It seems that +Jimmy had accompanied Sergeant French, a keen angler, to a trout stream +up in the Sagamore Range early in the afternoon. It might be late before +they returned. "Lucky thing, that!" thought the colonel, as he hastened +homeward to lay aside his full uniform, the orderly, meantime, speeding +over to the post surgeon's. + +"What do you make of him?" asked the colonel, an hour later, as the +senior medical officer came lumbering up the steps. + +"He seems, physically, all right now," was the answer. "There is no +functional disorder. He's sound as a dollar as far as our tests can +determine, but Dwight has been under a strain, as we know, and +then--there's that Luzon sunstroke. Any time, almost, that may lead to +such symptoms as you noted at parade." + +"Lucky Dwight isn't a drinking man," said Stone grimly. "There won't be +any more _Banner of Light_ descriptions of our depravity for a time, +anyhow; but--fancy the story _that_ would make in expert hands--and a +Prohibition sheet. God grant no worse scandal come to us," he added +piously, and in guarded tone, as the surgeon took his leave. + +It was barely nine o'clock when, some garrison callers having departed, +Mrs. Stone picked up a light wrap and said she believed she would stroll +down the line and see Mrs. Ray. Everybody by this time had heard of the +fracas at the office of the post Exchange at noonday, and the few who +had caught sight of the left side of Foster's face bore testimony to the +fact that Sandy Ray had lost little, if any, of one science he picked up +at the Point. Mrs. Ray would surely be feeling anxious and distressed, +said Mrs. Stone, even though everyone assured her, in manner if not in +words, that public sympathy was all with Sandy. + +"I believe I'll go, too," said Stone. "I'm feeling woozy to-night." So, +arm in arm, this Darby and Joan of the frontier betook themselves down +the row, past many an open casement and doorway, softly lighted, with +whispering couples in the shadows and laughing, chatting groups upon the +steps, with the tinkle of mandolin and guitar to mingle with the soft +murmur of voices, despite many a hospitable bid to "Come and join us," +the couple kept sturdily on and found, just as they expected, that other +sympathetic souls had been before them, that Mrs. Ray was still holding +quite a reception, Priscilla and Sandy being conspicuous by their +absence, Priscilla having retired with a throbbing headache, Sandy, +still tingling and nervous, having sent for his horse but a short time +before and gone for a ride. They stayed quite a while, did the Stones, +and Mrs. Ray seemed gladdened and comforted by their coming. It meant so +much just then. Indeed, the bugles were sounding the ten o'clock call +when finally they took their leave, and Sandy had not returned. True, he +had then been gone little over an hour, and he could ride but slowly, +though he declared he had neither strained a muscle nor started anew the +trouble in the old wound. Perhaps it was too soon to be sure, but at all +events a ride, a gentle amble on a nimble, easy horse over the elastic +turf in the soft, summer moonlight would soothe and quiet him more than +anything else, so, wisely, Marion had interposed no objection. + +Taps sounded and the lights were lowered in the barracks and the +sentries called off half-past ten o'clock, and still there had come no +sign of the westbound Flyer, far over the southward waves of prairie, +slowly breasting the long upgrade to the Pass. The big compound engine +of the Midland Pacific had a deep-toned, melodious, flute-like signal, +utterly different to the ear-piercing shriek of the old-fashioned +railway whistle, and on still evenings the sharp, rhythmical beat of the +exhaust, the steady rumble of the heavy Pullmans, and the occasional +blast, rich and mellow, of the misnamed whistle could be followed +westward for many a mile, until at last the echoes of the signal died +away among the cliffs and canyons of the frowning Sagamore. + +Some distance out across the rolling prairie, a mile or more beyond the +Minneconjou, was the siding of a deserted station, once built there by +the quartermaster's department with the idea of making a much shorter +haul for supplies than that afforded by the broad and fairly level road +from town. The wear and tear on mules, harness and running gear +consequent upon the up-hill and down-dale character of the road, and the +unprecedented volume of blasphemy supposedly necessary to successful +fording of the Minneconjou, within earshot of the pious-minded at the +post, led to eventual abandonment of that route in favor of the far +longer but undeniably safer line to Silver Hill. It was a fine sight on +clear evenings to see the long trail of electric lights gleaming white +against the darkness, come rounding a distant bluff to the east, and +then, skirting for a mile or so the south bank of the Minneconjou, go +alternately burrowing and bridging the prairie divides and hollows until +finally lost behind the sharp spur known as Two-Mile Ridge. The Flyer +had a way of waiting at Omaha for the last of the express trains of five +great railways bringing their loads from Chicago and St. Louis, all +scheduled to reach Council Bluffs about the same hour, and some one or +more of them being frequently behind. The Midland could make up no time +between the Missouri and the Minneconjou, so light was the roadbed, so +heavy the traffic, so many the stops. It was not until beyond the +Sagamore the Flyer began to deserve its name. Due at Silver Hill this +year of which we write as early as 5:30, the Flyer not infrequently +stopped for supper as late as eleven, and not until eleven this night +did the sentry on the southward front hear the big compound tooting for +the crossings at Bonner's Bluff, and see the long line of electrics come +gleaming into view far down the eastward valley. + +Private O'Shea, sentry on No. 3, overlooking the flats whereon stood the +stables, was straining his ears to catch the expected call of eleven +o'clock from No. 2, and watching the distant trail of lights, and was +able to say next morning that the Flyer was just shoving its nose behind +Two-Mile Ridge as the second call, that of eleven o'clock, started +round. The moon in its first quarter, though bright and clear, was then +dipping low in the west and objects were by no means as distinct as they +had been when he came on post soon after nine and saw Lieutenant Ray set +forth, mounted, up the Minneconjou. O'Shea remembered that Hogan, who +took care of the lieutenant's horse, had come back across his post, and +they had had a brief talk about him, Hogan saying the lieutenant wasn't +half satisfied with having blackened the eyes of a bigger man. "He was +that savage and snappy he rowed me for keeping him so long waiting, +when, dear knows, he couldn't have stood at the back gate ten minutes." +O'Shea owned that he and Hogan, "all the fellers, for that matter," had +wished their little bantam of a canteen officer could have had two +minutes more at "the big feller." Foster had no friends among the +enlisted men at the fort. It presently became a question whether or no +he had not enemies. Hogan was just saying the lieutenant told him not to +sit up for him when they became aware of someone approaching, heard the +rattle of a sword, and saw the officer of the guard barely forty yards +away, whereat Hogan skipped for the stables. Then came the next +important point in O'Shea's statement. Just as the tail lights of the +big train disappeared behind the ridge he heard the sudden single blast +of the whistle sounding the old-time signal "down-brakes," noted the +instant change from the loud, pulsing exhaust to the scream of escaping +steam, heard even the squeal and grind of the tightly clamped wheels as +the Flyer slowed down to a standstill. He was wondering what had +happened when the third relief came round and Private Schmitz took his +place on post, as subsequently he replaced O'Shea on the stand. + +Schmitz was an honest Teuton, but by no means brilliant. Schmitz told a +straightforward tale, and one that had strange and significant bearing +on the case that became presently of paramount interest at Minneconjou. +Schmitz said that he heard the train going on westward after the relief +had disappeared, and that, just after the call of 11:30, he walked way +up to the far end of his post, the west end, came slowly back, and when +about in rear of Lieutenant Ray's quarters he heard a sort of cough down +the slope toward the stables and saw a dark form approaching. He +challenged in low tone, as he had been taught. The answer was, "Officer +of the post," and before he could think how to say, "Advance and be +recognized," the officer said, "Lieutenant Ray, sentry," and went on +without stopping. When asked to describe the officer, Schmitz said the +moon was then "owudt" and it was pretty dark, but it was a "leetle, +schmall yentleman. He walk and talk and look yust like Lieutenant Ray +effrey day does." Questioned as to the dress, he said the lieutenant +wore his "kempyne hat bulled down ofer his eyes--his blue blouse mid +shoulder straps, poots unt bants." He added that, though the officer +hadn't come nearer him than fifteen feet, if it wasn't Lieutenant Ray, +who was it? Schmitz stood pat on this proposition, and that was all that +could be elicited from him, except that the Herr Lieutenant had gone +through the back gate to his quarters. + +About the same hour the telephone in the quartermaster's office, the +only telephone the United States would permit or, at least, pay for at +the post, set up a sharp ringing, that finally roused from his heavy +slumber a veteran employee serving as clerk. Shuffling to the instrument +in his slippers, the clerk desired to be informed what in sheol Silver +Hill wanted waking people that hour of the night? The reply was a +question. The Argenta's livery stableman wished to know if anything had +been seen of a horse and buggy of his at the fort. A gent had hired one +just about dark, said he, a gent who said he'd be back about ten, and +who hadn't come. The gent had had supper in his room at the Argenta and +had ordered his traps sent to the railway station to meet the Flyer. +They said at the hotel office that he was a Captain Foster, whereat the +clerk became interested, notified the stableman that he would make +immediate inquiry at the guard-house, and did, and the guard said that +neither Foster nor his buggy had been seen about the post. The clerk was +beginning to dribble this through the 'phone, when he was suddenly cut +off by the counter announcement: "Oh, it's all right! The rig's just +back. Cap took the Flyer west and sent a boy home with it. Never even +got change for the ten dollars he deposited." + +But when mine host of the Argenta came back from seeing the Flyer off +for the west he, too, had questions to ask as to Foster. Did the office +clerk see anything of him? Nothing. "Queer," said Boniface, "we gave his +hand baggage to the Pullman porter, as directed, but his trunk is there +yet. Reckon I'll have to wire after him and tell the conductor to send +them things back by No. 5." + +And this, before he went to bed, the landlord proceeded to do, but no +Captain Foster appeared during the night to claim the trunk or +remonstrate about the luggage; nor came there any answer to the dispatch +to the Flyer until the following morning, when there was handed the +proprietor a slip somewhat as follows: + + Man calling himself Captain Foster put aboard last night at Fort + Siding, slugged and robbed. Taking him on to Wister. Physician in + charge. Better notify police. + +This was about eight o'clock, at which time the old guard was cleaning +up about the guard-house and the companies detailed for the new were +assembling in front of their quarters, and the officer of the guard, a +young lieutenant recently joined from civil life, new to his trade and +strange to the traditions of the army, was cross-questioning a reluctant +corporal about an unauthorized item of equipment found tucked into his +cartridge belt when the guard paraded at reveille--an officer's gauntlet +of the style worn in the cavalry a year before this time. The corporal +explained that it had been picked up by No. 3 just before his relief was +taken off post at 5:15, that it had been handed him, the corporal, just +before sentry's shout of "Turn out the guard!" at the approach of the +officer of the day, and he had stowed it there for want of a better +place and before he had had time to examine it. + +But No. 3, it seems, had _had_ time to examine, and had told some of his +mates of his discovery. They had gone to Corporal Clancy to see for +themselves, and had been told to go about their business, which led to +more talk that finally reached the lieutenant's ears. Clancy had had a +clatter with the sergeant and had been refused permission to go to his +quarters anywhere, for a strange story was flitting about the post +concerning two or three men of "B" Troop who had been out late the +previous night, had got liquor over at a vile resort far across the +Minneconjou, and a little southwest of town, and had had a sanguinary +fight of some kind, for Sullivan was badly cut and Connelly had a nasty +eye, and there was something black and ugly back of it they were trying +to hide, unless veteran sergeants were in error; and finally the +sergeant of the guard told the lieutenant of the story and said he +believed Corporal Clancy was secreting evidence that might be of value, +whereupon Clancy was ordered into the presence and told to produce that +gauntlet. + +But neither lieutenant nor sergeant dreamed of what was before them when +Clancy at last reluctantly complied, dragging from beneath his blouse +what had been a dainty bit of military finery, a soft white gauntlet, +that bore within the cuff the inscription, "Sanford Ray," and that +without was soaked and stained with blood. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +WHAT THE WOMEN TOLD THE MAJOR + + +It was another lovely summer morning, sweet, moist and still. The +squadron had been out as usual, but the drill had been anything but +snappy or spirited. Every officer knew, and most men decided, that +something was weighing heavily on the major's mind, for, though he +labored conscientiously through his duties, comments and corrections +were few, and, to the surprise of all, he even dismissed the troops some +few minutes before the sounding of the recall. Captain Washburn looked +back over his shoulder at the tall, spare, sinewy figure riding slowly, +even dejectedly, with downcast eyes and troubled visage, back toward the +big quarters at the end of the row, and shook his own head as he +marveled what would be the outcome of all this foreboding. Minneconjou +had breathed freer, for all its subdued chatter, over the elimination of +Captain Foster from the column of probabilities. Minneconjou had seen +little of the lovely Mrs. Dwight of late, for though she appeared at +every dance, several dinners and on many a drive, few women had speech +with her, thanks to Foster's incessant supervision, and, looking at +another woman without unlimited conversation is not "seeing" her as +understood in feminine society. Since Foster's departure the previous +day only the doctor and the maid had been admitted to the presence of +Mrs. Dwight, though there had been callers with "kind inquiries." It was +now time for guard-mounting and the busy routine of another day. One +after another prettily gowned matrons and maids began to appear on the +verandas and flit from door to door, and the band marched forth and took +its station on the parade and the details were being inspected by the +sergeants in front of their quarters, while, well over toward the west +end of the big quadrilateral, a dozen army-bred lads of various ages, +from fourteen down to five, were gleefully surrounding a pair of Indian +ponies recently bought for the doctor's twin boys. Prominent in the +group, Jimmy Dwight, ever a prime favorite, was bestriding the more +promising of the pair, a wall-eyed, surly-looking pinto, and, as perhaps +the most accomplished horseman in the lot, was trying to make the +unwilling brute show his paces, a thing that only an Indian, as a rule, +can successfully do. Officers on their way to their company duty stopped +to see the fun. The adjutant paused before signaling to the drum major +and said a laughing word of caution to the merry crowd, lest their +gleeful shouts and laughter should disturb the dignity of the coming +ceremony. The senior surgeon, coming forth from his quarters, Silver +Hill's morning journal just received, open in his hand, moved an +adjournment to the rear of the administration building. But the colonel +himself, likewise provided by a rushing newsboy with a fresh copy of our +morning contemporary, sallied forth from his gate and shouted +encouragement to the plucky little rider. "Stick to him, Jimmy boy, and +you others don't yell so; keep quiet, and the pony will tire of +kicking." + +Then he and the doctor fell into converse over the telegraphic headline, +and then the bugles pealed adjutant's call, the band crashed merrily +into "Hands Across the Sea," and the details of the twelve companies +came marching jauntily forth upon the green. The colonel, with soldierly +appreciation in his eyes, stood watching the sharp, snappy formation of +the line, the paper dangling unheeded from his thumb and forefinger, +while the surgeon, more alive to the news of the day than the niceties +of military duty, turned over the outer page, began to scan the +headlines of the inner column, as suddenly, impulsively, unthinkingly +startled the colonel by the exclamation "God!" Stone whirled about in +sudden anxiety. For a moment the doctor simply stared and read, then +glanced at the post commander, and, without a word, handed him the +sheet. Stone, too, stared, started, looked quickly into the surgeon's +face, and then said: "Let's get inside." So together these veterans of +their respective corps quit the field and the sight of men and boys and +went to confer within the depth of the vine-shaded veranda. + +At that same moment the tall, gaunt form of Major Dwight was seen to +issue from the front doorway of the first quarters on the southward +line, the field officer's roomy house, and, looking neither to the right +nor the left, straight, stern and rigidly erect, he strode forth upon +the grassy parade, heading for the merry group about the ponies. The +band had ceased its spirited march music. The adjutant had assigned +officers and non-commissioned officers to their posts. The lieutenant +commanding had ordered "Inspection arms!" and once again the strain of +sweet music swept across the green carpeted quadrangle, and Marion Ray, +seated on her piazza far down the line, chatting with a neighbor who had +just dropped in, lifted her head and listened. It was one of Margaret's +old favorites, a song she used to sing and loved to sing, a song played +by many an army band for many a year, and it seemed never to grow +wearisome or stale--"Happy Be Thy Dreams." With her thoughts all of +Margaret and her eyes following her thoughts, she arose, stepped to the +rail, looking for little Jim, whom she had recently seen but seldom, and +then caught sight of the major a long distance away, bearing straight +and swift upon the romping group at the westward end of the parade. +Barely twenty minutes before, as she was giving Sandy his coffee, for +Sandy had come down late after a restless, almost sleepless night, she +had heard Dwight's deep tones at the front gate in earnest conversation +with Priscilla, who now had entirely disappeared. More than once of late +the two had been in talk over some of Priscilla's schemes, but the +housemaid said she thought Miss Sanford had gone now with the major down +the row, perhaps to Lieutenant Thornton's. Why should they go thither? +Priscilla had been so very silent, subdued and, it was hoped, contrite +since the exposure of her correspondence with the _Banner_ that Mrs. Ray +marveled at her early resumption of the old dominant way; for, though +low-voiced and almost reluctant, for her, Priscilla's words to the major +had been spoken firmly, unflinchingly. Only two or three of these words +had reached the ears of her aunt; the others were not sufficiently loud +or articulate, but whatever they were, they had led to immediate action, +for the major had departed, Priscilla with him, and, anxiously, inspired +partially by the music, partially by some indefinable sense of something +going sadly amiss, something that should be stopped at once, Marion +stepped forward, gazed eastward down the row and saw Priscilla in close +conversation with little Mrs. Thornton, only five doors away, and then, +all in a flash, she remembered---- + +Sandy, before starting for his office, had gone back to his room. He at +least was on hand and ready to act in case she needed him, but as yet +she did not call. Forgetful, for the moment, of her visitor, she stood +clasping the rail and staring, inert and even possibly fascinated, along +the westward line, following intently and with startled, troubled eyes +the major's movements. Others, too, had noted both among the spectators +along that front and among the laughing lads themselves. By this time +the ponies had been favored with new riders and the riders with every +conceivable suggestion as to what to attempt. Jimmy had given place to +Harold Winn, and rejoicefully was bidding him clamp tighter with his +legs and knees and keep his hands down on the withers, but too late. A +sudden lunge with his heels, a dive with his shaggy head, and the spunky +little brute, half-savage as a result of all-savage training, had +propelled his would-be conqueror sprawling to the edge of the gleaming +waters of the _acequia_, and a shout of mingled delight and derision +went up from a dozen boy throats, and Jimmy, helping his playmate, +unhurt but shaken, to his feet, caught sight of the loved form speeding +toward them over the green, and, bubbling over with fun, laughter, high +health and spirits, just as of old went bounding joyously, confidently, +to meet him. + +Of just what was passing in Oswald Dwight's bewildered mind that morning +God alone could judge and tell. All his soldier life he had loved truth +and hated a lie. All his fond and confident teaching of his only boy, +Margaret's darling and his hope and pride, had been to speak the truth, +frankly, fearlessly, fully, first, last and all the time. "Never fear to +come to me with anything you may have done. Never let anything tempt you +to swerve from the truth and the whole truth. Nothing you can ever say +or do will ever so hurt me as will a lie." And so, fearlessly and fully, +from the time Jim had begun to prattle he had learned to own his little +faults, sure of sympathy and forgiveness. He had learned to strive to +conquer them for the sake of the love and trust that was so unfailing, +and in response to the grave but ever gentle admonition, and it had been +the father's fond belief for years that between him and his only son +there lived utter confidence and faith, that Jim would ever shrink from +a lie and never from him. Between the two, father and son, never had +there seemed to come a shadow, until of late that darkly beautiful face +had for the time, at least, replaced--that other. Since then, time and +again when Dwight spoke of his pride and trust in Jim, the new wife had +listened, unresponsive. Since that last night in Naples, whenever Dwight +spoke of his confidence in Jimmy's word she had sometimes looked up +appealingly, timidly, as though she longed to believe as he believed, +yet could not--quite. Sometimes she had looked away. Once or twice she +had ventured a faint negation. Jimmy would not _deliberately_ tell a +falsehood; oh, she was _sure_ of that, but, like all children, she said, +when suddenly accused, the impulse would be to deny, would it not? and +then--had not the major observed?--did he not remember--that Jimmy was +just a bit--imaginative? Dwight puzzled over her apparent unbelief. + +But very recently he had noticed other little things that vaguely +worried him. Could it be that, as his boy grew older and mingled more +with other boys, he was learning to be influenced more by them and less +by the father? Could it be that he was seeing, hearing, things, to speak +of which he dared not? There might be things of which he would be +ashamed. Certainly the father had seen at times, since the homeward +voyage, a certain hesitancy on part of the son, and within the past few +days, for the first time in Jimmy's life, Dwight had noted symptoms of +something like avoidance, concealment, embarrassment, _some_thing that +told his jealous, over-anxious heart the boy no longer utterly confided +in the man. It was late the previous evening when the little fellow had +returned with his stanch friend, Sergeant French, and a fine string of +trout, happy, radiant, proud of his success, but so tired he could +hardly keep his eyes open long enough to undress and get to bed. Dwight +had met him at the door, cautioning silence on mamma's account, and the +young face that beamed up at his, all delight and eagerness at first, +clouded almost instantly at the word. Jimmy did not even care for the +tempting supper set aside for him--he had had such a big lunch, he said, +in smothered tone, as he prattled eagerly to his father and showed his +finny prizes, and sipped at his glass of milk. But Dwight had been +brooding over little things that had come to him since Foster's assisted +emigration. He had returned straight from his conference with Stone and +the surgeon to find Inez reduced to the sofa and smelling salts--to tell +her at once that their guest was gone, not because of a fracas with Ray, +as Foster had furiously declared, but because of telegraphic orders from +Washington that had come, possibly, as the result of Foster's own +telegraphic inquiries of Saturday and Sunday. Not for a star would +Dwight let his wife suppose that Foster's protracted visit had given him +the least uneasiness! But the maid, that pert and flippant young person +so much in evidence about the house, so indispensable to Inez, so +intangibly a nuisance to him, kept flitting in and out, with her +persistent, "Madame should compose herself"; "Madame should not try to +talk." + +The "young person's" nationality, Dwight believed, was Swiss-Italian, +rather than French. They had picked her up in Milan, but her +professional interests, it seems, were advanced by the adoption of +French methods and mannerisms. She had early striven to establish +herself as companion rather than maid, to be called Mademoiselle rather +than Felicie, but the dragoon had sharply drawn the line, and in the +beginning, at least, the man was master. As ills accumulated, however, +and masculine strength deferred to feminine weakness, he succumbed to +their wishes, with the result that the ascendency of the domestic was +becoming a matter of gossip. Once established at the post, Felicie's +swift methods of acquiring knowledge of all that was going on about her, +and unlimited means of imparting the same to her mistress, had quite +speedily established confidential relations to which the putative master +of the house was a stranger. There is a garrison "Service of Security +and Information" that differs widely from that of the field--and is even +more comprehensive. + +Felicie had heard the various versions of the affray at Ray's office. +Felicie had heard of the lamentable affair of Georgie Thornton's injury +and its cause, and Felicie had been quick to see and suggest how this +incident might be utilized in case Master James could not be persuaded +to forget that, when he came hurrying in from church the previous day, +mamma, who had been too ill to arise at ten o'clock, was in most +becoming morning toilet _tete-a-tete_ with Captain Foster in the parlor. +Felicie had even assured Madame that she could and would influence +Master James accordingly, and this, too, after one unsuccessful attempt +on Sunday. Felicie had fairly flown, all sympathy and helpfulness, to +fetch Master James fresh, cool water, towels, ice for the back of his +neck, a preventive the most assured for nose-bleed, and all this despite +Jimmy's repellent silence, for the lad shrank from her instinctively. +She had then striven to coax him to promise that he would mention to no +man that mamma was dressed and downstairs: it would so annoy the doctor, +who had said she should remain in bed, and, indeed, she (Felicie) and +the dear captain had remonstrated with mamma, and were even then +striving to persuade mamma to return to her room, as later she had to +when--Master James came so hurriedly in. The only response had been a +blank look of bewilderment and dislike and an uncompromising: "Well, +'spose somebody _asks_ me?" + +All this, of course, was known at the moment only to the three; but, as +luck would have it, when Dwight came walking slowly homeward from church +with Mrs. Ray, communion service ended, Jim had run to meet them, the +nose-bleed already forgotten, and, to the father's "I hope you didn't +disturb mamma, my boy. She was trying hard to sleep," the little man had +promptly, impulsively responded: "No, indeed, daddy, mamma is up and +dressed----" And then he remembered, faltered, blushed. + +Dwight did not question his boy about his new mamma. That was another +thing from which the father shrank. He saw the lad's sudden confusion, +and knew that something was being held back, but it was something that +should be held back. In all his teachings as to utter frankness, truth, +confidence, he, of course, had never meant that his boy should be a +tale-bearer--above all that he should ever come with tales of his new +mamma; yet Dwight, unfortunately, had never given him to understand that +there were matters, now that the boy was growing older and observant, +concerning which no confidences were expected or invited. But it had set +him to thinking--to questioning Inez as to her sudden recovery, and +again, more pointedly that Monday afternoon between the hour of his +visit with the colonel and his ominous symptoms at parade, thereby +bringing on a fit of nerves for her and a swimming of the head for +himself. It was while he was waiting for Jimmy's home-coming that +Felicie--ostentatiously bustling to and fro, all sympathy for Madame in +her prostration and anxiety as to M'sieu, the Commandant--had contrived +to intimate that Monsieur James had been so imprudent as to rush, all +ensanguined, into the presence of Madame, and now and under such +circumstances, and in virgin modesty, Felicie's eyelids drooped, "Madame +should be spared all possibility of shock or emotion." Under any other +circumstances with what a thrill would he have listened to her words! +Did not Monsieur conceive? And Madame's heart and sympathies so +all-responsive! Had they not already been lacerated by the story of the +suffering of the little George, an infant, oh, heaven, the most amiable! +But assuredly Monsieur James had apprised his father of all that had +taken place. He, too, was an infant the most amiable, and Dwight, +overwrought and bewildered, before Jimmy went to his bed that night, had +again asked him what all this meant about Georgie Thornton, and, looking +squarely into his father's face, with Margaret's soul speaking from his +clear, unflinching, fearless eyes, the little man had said again, "Why, +daddy, I haven't an idea! I didn't even _hear_ he was hurt until you +told me." + +Then had come a morning's drill following an almost sleepless night, and +during drill he had rebuked young Thornton for the faults of his +platoon, and after drill had lectured him a bit for seeming neglect or +indifference, and even of sullen acceptance of deserved criticism. Then, +suddenly, remembering, he ceased his rebuke, turned the subject and +asked how was George, and then as they were parting, again asked how it +happened, and was again startled by the words: "Ask your own boy, sir," +for Thornton, like many an older, stronger, wiser man, accepted +unchallenged the views of his wife. Jim had had his breakfast and was +gone by the time Dwight reached home, but Felicie, in answer to +question, with infinite regret and becoming reluctance owned that Miss +Sanford and other witnesses of the unfortunate affair united in saying +that Monsieur James had, in a moment of boyish petulance perhaps, swung +his jacket full in the face of Monsieur George, never thinking, +doubtless, of the cruel, sharp-edged, metal button that should so nearly +cut out the eye; and then, terrified at the sight of so much blood, was +it not natural that any child should run from the sight and try to +forget, and perhaps _might_ forget, and so deny? + +Dwight listened in a daze, spurning the toothsome breakfast set before +him; then, rising, took his cap, left the house without another word +and, hastening thither, found Priscilla Sanford on the veranda at the +Rays'. + +As she herself subsequently admitted to her aunt, Priscilla, who had +been bred to the doctrine of original sin and innate propensity for +evil, who had long thought that the major stood sorely in ignorance as +to Jimmy's spiritual needs, and who herself stood solemnly convinced of +the truth of the Thornton story, now conceived it her duty to fully and +unreservedly answer the major's questions. Had she witnessed the affair? +She had in great part, she said, little considering that of the most +essential part, the actual blow or slash, she had seen nothing. Was it +true that his son was--the assailant? Priscilla answered that, though +she was not at that instant where she could herself _see_ the blow, she +an instant later saw everything, and the relative position of the boys +was such that there was no room for doubt it was James who struck. She +heard the scream when near the door and at once ran out. And had not +Jimmy stopped to offer aid or--do anything? No, Jimmy had rushed on as +though bent on overtaking the leaders, as though he never heard what, +much farther away, she had heard distinctly. And then Priscilla owned +that the look of agony in the father's face was such that her resolution +well-nigh failed her. + +But, unhappily, not quite. There are possibly no people so possessed +with the devil of meddling in the management of other people's children +as those who never had any, or else have been phenomenal failures in the +rearing of their own. Dwight asked her presently to go with him to the +Thorntons', which she did, beginning to tremble now as her eyes studied +his face. Mrs. Thornton was on the veranda. Young hopeful, with bandaged +forehead, was blissfully chasing a little terrier pup about the yard. +She, too, began to tremble; the little wrath and resentment left was +oozing from her finger tips as Dwight lifted his cap from the lined and +haggard brow and she saw the infinite trouble in his deep-set eyes. But +he gave her no time to speak. + +"I have come," he said, "to express my deep sorrow at what I must now +believe my son has done. I should have come before had--had----" He +stumbled miserably. Then, with sudden effort, "I will see Mr. Thornton +and make my acknowledgments later, and see the doctor, but first----" +Then abruptly he bent, caught Georgie by an arm, lifted the bandage just +enough to see the adhesive plaster underneath, muttered something under +his breath, dropped his hand by his side, looked appealingly one instant +in Priscilla's eyes as though he would ask one more question, never +heeding, perhaps never hearing, Mrs. Thornton's: "Oh, Major, I'm sure +Jimmy could not have meant it!" Womanlike, all vehemence in accusation +at first, all insistence in extenuation now that vengeance threatened. +The next moment Dwight was gone, and Priscilla dare not follow the first +impulse of her heart to run home and tell Aunt Marion and Sandy, or to +run after him. She saw the major turn stiffly in at his own gate, far up +the row, saw Aunt Marion come forth, and, like guilty things, the maiden +of mature years, the mother of immature mind, held there, shrinking, not +knowing what to look for--what to do. They, too, saw Dwight come forth +again; but none of the anxious eyes along that anxious line had +witnessed what had befallen in the few minutes Dwight spent in presence +of his wife. That was known, until some days later, only to Felicie. + +She was still abed, sipping her chocolate, and looking but a shade +lighter, when he abruptly entered. She could almost have screamed at +sight of his twitching face, but he held up warning hand. + +"Just a moment, Inez. You had come home--you were on the veranda, I +believe; did you see--anything of that--that trouble among the boys +yesterday?" + +She had seen nothing. She was listening at the moment with downcast lids +and heaving bosom to Foster's eager, hurried words. She had heard the +shouts of merriment, and faintly heard the screams, and had not even +looked to see the cause, but Felicie had found no inapt pupil. Inez +buried her face in her jeweled hands. Under the filmy veiling of her +dainty nightdress Dwight could see the pretty shoulders beginning to +heave convulsively. Was she sobbing? Stepping closer, he repeated the +question. "I _must_ know," said he. + +"Ah, Oswald--how--how can I? You love him so! You love him so much more +than--me, and he--he hates me! He shrinks from me! He would not shrink +from--poisoning you--against me!" + +"Inez, this is childish! Tell me at once what you know--why +you--distrust him?" + +Again the sobs, the convulsive shoulder-heaving before she would speak, +and, as though fired with wrath inexpressible, Dwight started for the +door. Then she called him. Felicie was there, all distress, anxiety, +concern for Madame. Indeed, Monsieur should refrain--at such a time, and +then there were two to talk, each supplementing--reminding the other. It +was true that little Monsieur James could not seem to respond to the +love of his young mother, this angel, and he was rude and insolent to +Felicie, who adored him, and he--he so hurt and distressed Captain +Foster, who was goodness itself to him. It was for rudely, positively +contradicting the captain she, Inez, had been compelled to send James to +his room and require him to remain there until his father's return, not +thinking how long the father would be gone on his visit to town, and +even then James was obstinate; he would not apologize, although she had +striven, and Felicie, too, to make him understand how his father would +grieve that the son he so loved could so affront his guest; and they +feared, they feared James deceived sometimes his noble father. The +Naples incident was brought up again, and Jimmy's odd insistence that an +officer had spoken to and frightened her, and then--those little things +he had told on the homeward voyage (Heaven knows how true they were!) +and then, oh, it wrung their hearts to see the father's grief, but when +Jimmy denied all knowledge of the injury to Georgie Thornton, they knew +and Jimmy knew--he _must_ have known--it was his own doing. Leaving them +both in tears, the father flung himself from, the room and down the +stairs, and with his brain afire went straightway in search of his son. +Good God! To think that, after all his years of hope and prayer and +faith and pride--of careful teaching and utter trust--that it should +come to this, that the boy on whom his great heart was centered should +after all--after all prove a coward and a liar! His eyes seemed clouded. +He saw only as through a lurid glass. The sunlight in the crisp, +delicious air was clear as crystal, yet there was a blur that seemed to +overshadow every object. There was a ringing in his ears that dulled the +sweet strains of the song his wife, his own wife, his love, his +treasure, Jimmy's mother, used to sing, for now he never heard it. His +temples throbbed; his head seemed burning, yet the face was ashen. The +twitching lips, bitten into gashes, were blue between the savage teeth +marks, and yet at sight of the straight, soldierly form he loved, little +Jim had quit his fellows and, to the music of his mother's song--just as +of old, beaming, joyous, confident, brimming over with fun and +health--had come bounding to meet him. + +It had been the father's way at such times to halt, to bend forward with +outstretched arms, almost as he had done in Jimmy's earliest toddling +baby boyhood, but he never halted now. Erect and stern he moved straight +on. It was the boy who suddenly faltered, whose fond, happy, radiant +face grew suddenly white and seemed to cloud with dread, whose eager +bounding ceased as he neared his sire, and, though the hands as of old +went forth to clasp the hand that never yet had failed them, for the +first time in his glad young life Jimmy Dwight looked in vain for the +love and welcome that had ever been his, for the first time his brave +young heart well-nigh ceased its beating, for the first time he seemed +to shrink from his father's gaze. + +And in fear, too, but not for himself; oh, never for himself! Vaguely, +strangely, of late he had begun to feel that all was not well with the +father he so loved, and now the look in his father's face was terrible. +"Oh, daddy!" he cried, a great sob welling up in his throat, but the +answering word checked him instantly, checked his anxious query, turned +his dread at the instant into relief, almost into joy. It was not then +that his father was ill and stricken. It was that he was angry--angry, +and at him, and in the flash of a second, in that one hoarse +word--"Home!" he knew what it must be, and though his lips quivered and +his eyes filled and again the sobs came surging from his breast, just as +of old, all confidence that his word could not be questioned, he strove +to find his father's hand, even as homeward now, with Inez and her +hellcat of a handmaid peeping trembling through the slats, the father +striding, the little fellow fairly running before, the two went hurrying +on, and Jimmy, looking back, found tongue, and his one thought found +words: + +"Oh, daddy, indeed I wasn't--impudent to Captain Foster--to mamma, at +least, I didn't mean it! They _were_ there in the parlor when I ran in +from church, and he wanted me to promise----" + +And then Marion Ray, far down the line, with one cry for Sandy, sprang +forward to the gate, for Oswald Dwight, with heavy hand, had struck his +little son across the face and stretched him on the turf. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +WORST DEED OF HIS LIFE + + +There was no one near enough to reach them at the moment. Jimmy was on +his feet again in an instant, dazed, half-stunned, breathless, but still +unbelieving. Father could not have heard. Father would surely hear; but +now the father's hand had seized his arm, and, when the boy again began +to gasp his plea, it was almost dragging him across the _acequia_. Blood +was beginning to trickle from the corner of the piteous little mouth. +There was foam upon the set and livid lips of the man. "Silence! You've +lied enough!" was the savage order, as Dwight thrust the boy through the +gate. "Not there, sir!" as Jimmy, dumbly striving to show his loyalty, +his obedience, his unshaken trust, would have run on up the steps. "To +the cellar!" and in fury he pointed to the walk that circled the house, +and Jimmy hurried on. They had vanished from sight as Marion Ray, with +terror in her eyes, came almost running up the row, Priscilla and Mrs. +Thornton staring, speechless and miserable, after her. A lone trooper, +an humble private soldier, riding in from the westward gate, had sprung +from saddle, thrown the reins over a post and, with consternation in his +face, had started after them. It was young Hogan, faithful henchman of +the Rays, still borne on the rolls of Ray's old squadron. They were in +the cellar, under the rear of the quarters, when he reached them, and +Jimmy's jacket was lying on the floor, while the lad, with streaming, +pleading eyes, was looking up in his father's face. + +"Your shirt, too, sir!" Dwight ordered, as Hogan came bounding in. + +"For the love o' God, Major, don't bate the boy! Sure he never knew he +did it, sir. I saw----" + +"Out of here, you!" was the furious answer. "Out or I'll----" And in his +blind rage the officer grasped the unresisting soldier by the throat and +hurled him through the doorway whence he came. "Off with that shirt!" he +again shouted, as he turned. It was already almost off. Ah, how white +and smooth and firm was that slender, quivering little body, as, for the +last time the streaming eyes were imploringly uplifted, the slender arms +upraised, the sobbing prayer poured forth only to be heard--only to be +heard. + +"Face the window! Turn your back, sir!" was the sole answer through the +set teeth, while with sinewy hand the father swung a yard-long strip of +leather, some discarded stirrup strap the boys had left upon the bench, +and poor Hogan, with a cry and curse upon his lips, rushed again to the +front in search of aid. One savage swish, one sharp, cruel, crashing +snap, one half-stifled, piteous scream, and then the doorway was +suddenly darkened, the maddened man was thrust aside, and, breathless, +panting, but determined and defiant, Marion Ray had flung herself upon +the bent and shrinking child, her fond arms clasping the bared and +quivering back to her wildly throbbing heart, her own brave form thrust +between her precious charge and the again uplifted scourge. "Jimmy boy, +my darling!" she sobbed, as strong and safe and sure she held him. Then, +with her blue eyes blazing, she turned on him. + +"Oswald Dwight, are you mad?" + +Then again the door was darkened as Sandy Ray came limping in. One +glance was enough. The strap was wrenched from the father's hand and +hurled to the open, empty, black-mouthed furnace. Then both hands were +needed, for Dwight, just as on Monday evening at parade, had begun to +sway and was groping for support. There was no one to interpose, no one +to interfere, when Marion Ray, having at last stilled poor Jimmy's heavy +sobbing and bathed his face and hands and helped him to dress, led him +unresisting away to her little home, for Madame "in her condition"--as +Felicie explained individually to the dozen men and women who thronged +the major's quarters that unhappy morning--was prostrated, desolated, +distracted by the tragedy that had come to arrive. It was as well, +perhaps, that at last it manifested itself what monster was this who +held this angel in bondage--the monster himself, meantime, having been +led to his room by Dr. Wallen. There, half-dazed, half-raving, he +resisted and declaimed until at last their measures took effect, both +doctors being with him now, and he was partially disrobed and compelled +to lie down upon the bed. There one or both of them sat and watched the +rest of the livelong day. There, finally, after nightfall a trained +nurse took station with attendants in readiness in the hallway, for +delirium had set in and Dwight's condition was declared critical. + +Bad as it was, this was by no means the sole topic of talk for +Minneconjou's seething population. Among the women, Mrs. Ray stood +foremost as heroine of the occasion, and half the feminine element of +the garrison had been to call and congratulate and praise her before the +day was done. But Marion was in no mood for either. It had come to her +as a vital question what to do with Priscilla. Sandy had charged his +cousin in so many words with having deliberately incited Major Dwight to +his furious and unreasoning assault, so Sandy regarded it, upon his only +son, and Sandy had for a week or more been looking upon Dwight as a +wronged and injured man. Priscilla, as we know, had virtually and +virtuously admitted much of her error to Aunt Marion, but persisted that +though they both, Mrs. Thornton and she, considered that it was high +time Jimmy was punished instead of petted, they never dreamed to what +length the father would go. "Punished for what?" indignantly demanded +Aunt Marion. "For his having so cruelly hurt Georgie Thornton, and then +denying all knowledge of it," was the reply. Words are inadequate to +describe the indignation with which Mrs. Ray heard and answered. Jimmy +never knew it at the time or heard, until late that night, of what had +happened. Hogan, and others for that matter, saw the entire affair. +Jimmy was whirling his English-made jacket about his head as he raced in +pursuit of the leader, never realizing that Georgie Thornton, swift +almost as himself, was close at his right hand. The button had cut its +keen-edged way without so much as a shock or pause. Jimmy never even +suspected it. In that, as in everything else, said she, he had told his +father the entire truth, though Mrs. Ray herself hardly dreamed how much +he had to tell. So by noontime Priscilla had again shut herself in her +room to ponder over the miscarriage of her excellent intentions, and to +pray, as well she might, for future guidance. + +But while at the Rays', and possibly at the Dwights', there was little +thought or talk of any other topic all the morning, all over the +garrison was buzzing a second story that started soon after the newsboy +from town, cantering out on his cow pony just before guard-mounting, +sold his three dozen _Stars_ inside of an hour and sent him back for +more. The colonel and surgeon were first to receive and read. Dwight +received, but never read, and other majors, captains and subalterns--not +to mention non-commissioned officers and privates--chased the newsboy in +eagerness to buy. It was a paragraph on an inside page, modest and +moderate enough in itself--for the frontier press has learned to know +the army and not to defame it--but it stirred a sensation at Minneconjou +its editor refused to start in town. In brief, it was as follows: + + ASSAULT ALLEGED + + Just as we go to press a dispatch is received from a representative + of the STAR, who left last night on the westbound Flyer. The train + was flagged at Fort Siding and boarded, with the assistance of a + ranchman, by Captain Stanley Foster, of the Cavalry, lately + visiting friends at Minneconjou. The officer was bruised, bleeding, + and well-nigh exhausted, but managed to tell that he had been held + up while driving, had been forcibly carried out on the open + prairie, and brutally beaten by ruffians whom he declares to be + soldiers, all strangers to him with one exception. The captain + names as ringleader a prominent and well-known young officer of the + post. + + Dr. Fowler, of Sagamore Heights, was called by wire, met the train + at the Pass, and went on with the injured man. The story, of + course, sounds incredible, and cannot as yet be substantiated. + +It was just after lunch time when a messenger came to the Rays. The +surgeon asked if the lieutenant could come to Major Dwight a moment, and +the doctor himself met Sandy at the door. The veteran's face was very +grave. He had known the young officer but a few months. He had known his +father long. "Are you feeling fit for a hard interview?" he asked. + +"If need be. What's the matter?" + +"Dwight is in a fearful frame of mind, and the Lord only knows how it is +to end. Dwight realizes now that Jimmy was entirely innocent of any +knowledge of that thing the Thorntons charged him with. Your mother sent +Hogan and a trumpeter up here. Both had seen the whole affair, and +Dwight _would_ see them. He never could have rested till he got the +facts. We have persuaded him that he must not question his wife, and +that French cat says she cannot leave her mistress an instant. He's +raging now to see you, and I reckon it's no use trying more sedatives +until you are off his mind. Will you come in?" + +Ray pondered a moment, then, "Go ahead," said he. + +They found Dwight pacing the floor like a caged and raging lion. He +whirled on the two the moment they entered, Wallen vainly preaching +self-control and moderation. The misery in the man's face killed the +last vestige of Ray's antipathy. It was something indescribable. + +"Sandy, I'm in hell, but--it's the truth, the whole truth, and nothing +but the truth I must have. Did you--before you joined us at the Grand in +Naples--did you meet--did you see Mrs. Dwight?" + +"Yes," said Ray. + +Dwight halted, resting his shaking hand on the back of a chair, and the +shake went down through the back and legs to the very floor. + +"Where? How?" + +"In front of Cook's Bank. Mrs. Dwight was in an open carriage; why +shouldn't I speak to her?" And the head went up and back, so like his +father. + +"No reason whatever, but why should she lie? Tell me that! Why should +she swear that my boy, Margaret's boy, lied? Oh, my God, tell me that!" + +"Major, Major!" pleaded Wallen, with outstretched hand. "This will never +do. This----" + +"Let him alone," said the senior bluntly. "It's got to come." + +"Because," said Ray, looking straight at his man, "I was fool enough to +fall in love with her the same time you did at Manila. Perhaps she +thought I'd be blackguard enough to follow her after she became your +wife." + +"You--you met her--called upon her--at the Grand, I remember." + +"I did, and I'd do the same thing again. I wanted my letters, and I had +a right to them. She said that she had burned them all, and that ended +it. There's never been a line between us since. I have never seen her +since--when I could decently avoid it. I hope to God I'll never have to +see her--again." + +"There, there, Dwight, that's more than enough," said Dr. Waring, +watching narrowly the working features. "Thank you, Ray. Nothing more +could be asked or expected." Then, _sotto voce_, "Get out quick!" and +Ray, every nerve athrill, passed forth into the hallway, passed another +door, which quickly opened, and out came Felicie, finger on lip, eyes +dilated, one hand held forth in eager appeal. + +"Oh, Monsieur--Mr. Ray, just one second, I implore--Madame implores. She +beg to see you." And the hand just grazed his arm, as he burst +impetuously, angrily by. "You go to ----" was on his furious lip, but he +bit the words in twain and bolted down the stairs and out into the open +air, mopping his heated brow. + +The adjutant was coming swiftly up the row. He had hastened forth from a +vine-covered piazza well toward the eastward end just as Ray, with heart +still hammering, came limping again into the glare of the sunlight. As +they neared each other--the staff officer with quick, springy step, the +subaltern somewhat halting and lame--the latter caught sight of a sabre +swinging at the senior's hip. What but one thing at that hour of the day +could this portend? One moment brought the answer: + +"Mr. Ray, I reg----" with reddened cheek and blinking eyes, began the +adjutant, who liked him well. Then, with sudden effort, "I--you are +hereby placed in close arrest and confined to your quarters--by order of +Colonel Stone." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +REACTION + + +That colonel was a very unhappy man. "All the devils in the calendar," +said he, "have broken loose here at Minneconjou. My cavalry commander +has gone stark, staring mad, and it takes four men to hold him. His wife +cannot stay under the same roof and live, says the maid. Madame must +repose herself, or die. Mrs. Stone says she might take the mistress +under our roof, but she'll be damned if she'll take the maid--at least +she meant that. I said it. The maid says the mistress will die if they +are separated an instant, which suggests a happy end to one of our +troubles, and the cause of all the rest; and to cap the climax, Billy +Ray's boy has done the maddest thing ever dreamed of in Dakota. Why, +doctor, I tell you it _can't_ be doubted! Foster wires the +identification was complete. He dropped the handkerchief that hid his +face. Department Headquarters wired at once to slap him in arrest and +investigate, and the further we look the worse it looks for Ray--and +then, by gad, he denies the whole thing and demands a court-martial! Was +ever a man so mixed as I am!" + +It was even as Stone said. Dwight was for the time being, at least, as +mad as a maniac. "Brain fever," said the wiseacres about the post, +"superinduced by sunstroke abroad and scandal at home." Since Tuesday +night he had recognized no one, had raved or muttered almost +incessantly, and at times had struggled fiercely with his attendants in +the effort to leave his bed. Mrs. Dwight's room adjoined that in which +he lay, and Felicie had incurred the wrath of the doctor by urging that +Madame's condition demanded that Monsieur be removed to hospital or to +some remote apartment about the neighborhood. To take him to hospital +meant that a score of sick or semi-convalescents should be disturbed. If +Madame could not sleep where she was, let Madame move. There was nothing +on earth the matter with, Madame but nerves--and a nuisance in shape of +a maid, said the doctor, whereat Felicie had proclaimed him, too, a +monster, and fled to Madame. Mrs. Stone had indeed come and offered Mrs. +Dwight shelter under the colonel's roof, but she said at the same time +the colonel drew the line at the maid, and told Wallen he would not +tolerate that bunch of frippery and impudence. Mrs. Dwight was in dread +and misery. What _could_ have happened to so prostrate her beloved +husband? No, a thousand times no, she could not think of leaving him! +What she needed was restoratives--something to give her strength that +she might hie to his bedside and tenderly nurse and care for him. She +had had too much restorative, swore Wallen, when he heard this tale. +"We've shut off the champagne with which that hussy had been dosing +her--not that she didn't demand it--and now it's Katzenjammer as much as +anything else. If anybody is to move, let the maid move her to the spare +room on the floor below--where Foster slept." But Inez could not think +of moving so far from her husband's side. + +Of Dwight's sudden insanity (so most of Minneconjou regarded it) and his +furious treatment of little Jim the garrison spoke with bated breath and +infinite compassion and distress. Nothing but mental derangement could +account for it. Mrs. Thornton and Priscilla, it may be conjectured, did +not confide to their neighbors any too much of their share in the +matter, Mrs. Thornton assuring all who questioned her that _she_ had +done her _best_ to assure the major that Jimmy could not possibly have +purposely or knowingly struck her boy, which was partially true; and +Priscilla had declined all conversation on the subject, save with her +aunt, and Mrs. Ray, it may be surmised, was not the woman to tell +broadcast of her niece's responsibility in the premises, whatever she +might later say to Oswald Dwight. Moreover, Marion Ray was not then in +mood to talk confidentially with anyone outside of her own doors, for +the misfortune--the wrong--that had come to Sandy had well-nigh +overwhelmed her. + +Like the man he was, Stone had called at the house the moment she +intimated through his own messenger that she was in readiness to see +him. The adjutant before returning to report his action to the post +commander had so far departed from the strict letter of his duty as to +confidentially inform the dazed young officer that the order had come by +wire from St. Paul. It was not the colonel's doing. + +Sandy was in his room, "cooling off," as he said, when, with all his own +troubles and others' deeds upon his head and clouding his honest old +face, the post commander himself came in, took the mother's hand and led +her to a seat. "It can't upset you more than it has me, my friend," said +he. "I s'pose the explanation of it all is that they met +somehow--accidentally, perhaps--renewed the quarrel; Sandy was possibly +getting the worst of it and the men, whoever they were, couldn't stand +that, for they worshiped him, and pitched in. There are few of our +fellows, especially in the cavalry, that don't just love Sandy. There +are some here that hate Foster," and then Stone stopped, astounded, +confused, for Marion Ray, with rising color, interrupted: + +"Why, Colonel Stone, you speak as though you thought it possible that my +son _could_ have been concerned in this affair!" + +For an instant the colonel struggled for words, his red face mottling in +the violence of his emotion. + +"Why, how can I help it, Mrs. Ray, with all I have heard? But--but I'm +more than glad you don't. What does he say?" + +"That he never dreamed of such a thing," was the brief answer, and Stone +hitched half a dozen different ways in his chair. + +"Colonel Leale, Department Inspector, was on that train," said Stone +slowly, "and reported Foster's story verbatim, I suppose, to department +headquarters, where the arrest was ordered at once, and they demand that +we apprehend the confederates. The general's away, and there isn't a man +at headquarters that smelt powder in the Civil War--or they'd know +confederates weren't so precious easy to apprehend. The men who might +have been implicated all swear they were in town at the time and can +prove an alibi; and unless Sandy will tell, who can?" + +"You still speak as though he could have had something to do with the +assault, Colonel. I'll call him to speak for himself." So Sandy came +down. Colonel and subaltern were left together, and Marion, with sore, +wounded and anxious heart, stepped into her own little snuggery to look +at the picture of her far-away husband (ah, how she missed him and +needed him!) and of Maidie, her sweet and winsome daughter, now Mrs. +Stuyvesant of Gotham, of Sandy in the cadet uniform of his yearling days +and the khaki of Manila, of Billy, Junior, now far away studying for the +entrance exams at the famous Academy. Of the four beings she most +devotedly loved, only one was with her now, her deeply, doubly wronged +Sandy, whose impetuous, indignant tones she could hear so distinctly as +he told his own story to the colonel's sympathetic ear. So distinctly +indeed could she hear her own boy that for a moment she failed to hear +Margaret's little Jim, standing patiently, pathetically at the +threshold; but at sight of his sorrowful face her arms went out to him +instantly. Jim could think--speak--of nothing but his father, his father +who, they all told him, was so ill that he would not know his own +blessed boy, who could not have known him or himself or anybody that +dreadful morning! Love and anxiety, utter trust and forgiveness, were +uppermost in the loyal little heart, and Marion, speechless, held and +rocked him in her arms as she listened to his broken words and to the +sound of the brave young voice in the parlor. Oh, what would she _not_ +have to tell in that next letter to her husband, now so many a weary +league of land and sea beyond possibility of call! + +A badgered man was Stone, as he tramped back homeward, taking a short +cut across the parade, ostensibly to look at the patchwork along the +_acequia_, the morning's task of the fatigue details, but only too +obviously to avoid the eyes and greetings of the many women along the +row. Sandy Ray's story was told in utter sincerity, so far as Stone +could judge. Yet how was it to help him? Sandy admitted having set forth +westward up the valley, having ridden lazily out beyond the butts of the +rifle range, and then over the southward range to the prairie. He was +gone fully two hours, he said. The moon was so low when he returned +that, after leaving his horse with the man in the stables, he could only +barely see the sentry on No. 3 some distance up the post, and the sentry +apparently did not see--he certainly did not challenge--him at all. That +was bad. It would have been so much better if No. 3 had seen, recognized +and could vouch for him. Stone did not tell Sandy of the sentry's story. +He wished to think that over. Sandy said that the sentry at the stables +was some distance down his post and the only man with whom he spoke was +this unrecognized soldier, presumably on duty at the quartermaster's +stables, where the lieutenant's mount was kept and cared for. No, Sandy +didn't know his name, he didn't even notice him particularly. Two or +three men, he thought, were smoking their pipes at the corral corner, +away from stables, as required, and one of these had come forward as he +neared the gate, and asked should he take the lieutenant's horse. Ray +thanked him, dismounted and turned away. Now, what bothered the colonel +was that both the sergeant in charge and each one of the four men +previously questioned declared he did not know the hour at which +Lieutenant Ray returned. They had gone to bed at or before 10:30, +leaving the door on the bolt, so that Hogan or the lieutenant himself +could easily enter. One man, in fact, went so far as to say that coming +down from the Canteen about 10:30 he could have sworn almost it was +Lieutenant Ray who was slowly climbing the slope to the post of No. 3, +and the rear of the officers' quarters. This accorded in a degree with +the statement of Schmitz. What good was Sandy's story to do him if +Foster firmly adhered to the statement made to the Department Inspector? + +There was to have been a dance at the Assembly room Tuesday evening, but +no one seemed to feel like dancing even among an indomitable few of the +lassies and younger officers with whom, lads and lassies both, Sandy Ray +had been vastly popular. The night wore on, dark, overcast, with the +wind blowing fitfully from the Sagamore, slamming doors in resounding +hallways and carrying the watch calls of the sentries weirdly over the +eastward prairie. Earlier in the evening little groups appeared in some +few of the verandas, but gradually broke up and went within doors long +before the signal "Lights out." The officer of the day and the adjutant, +under instruction from the post commander, had been questioning the +three worthies who had been out the night before about the time of the +alleged assault on Captain Foster. To a man they stoutly maintained that +the signs and scars of battle, borne by one or two of their number, were +due entirely to the free-for-all affair that occurred at that +disreputable dive southwest of Silver Hill, some four miles away from +the post. Virtuously were they indignant that anyone should suppose that +they were in any way concerned in so abominable a transaction as the +"doing-up" of an officer of the army who so recently had been the guest +of their honored major. But two of them were troopers with shady +records, men who had been but a short time at the station, and one of +these had formerly served an enlistment in Dwight's old regiment, the +--th. The adjutant was of opinion that he must have known Foster in +those days and might well have been one of quite a number of men, none +of whom liked and some of whom hated the imperious and abusive +lieutenant. The --th had had few of Foster's stamp since the days of +Canker and Gleason, and his case was therefore the more conspicuous. The +two officers were talking of this as slowly they strolled homeward up +the northwest side of the parade, when, faint and wind-buffeted, the +call of the sentry at the main gate caught their ears. No. 2 wanted the +corporal and No. 1 promptly echoed, although already the corporal was +going on the jump. There was a ring and vim to the cry that told its own +story. The sentry saw something that demanded instant attention. It was +not half a minute before the corporal came racing back to the +guard-house, nor a full minute before the bugler of the guard came +chasing in pursuit of the officer of the day. "A fire, sir," he cried, +"'way out beyond the Flats!" + +Together the officers hastened eastward across the parade, and even +before they reached the gate the cause of the alarm became visible. The +low-hanging, swift-driven clouds blackening the valley were taking on a +lurid glare, and, once at the gate the fire could be distinctly seen. +"Well, if that isn't a blessing!" cried the adjutant gleefully. "It's +Skid's old hog ranch, as sure as you're born!" + +It was useless, of course, to send aid even if aid had been desirable. +Ever since Silver Hill became the county seat and a mining town of much +importance, Skidmore's dive had been the bane of the community. Driven +from town by a vigilance committee made up of the best citizens, the +divekeeper had resumed business beyond the corporate limits and at a +point where he could draw custom from three different sources, the town, +the fort and the agency, for only a few miles beyond the Cheyenne were +the supply depot and buildings of the Minneconjou tribe, their brethren +of Brule being far over to the southeast and the Ogalallas at Red Cloud. +Many a desperate deed had been charged to the gang ever hovering about +these unsavory walls of Skidmore's, many a poor fellow had been beaten +and drugged and robbed, more than one good soldier had met his +death-blow in brutal affray beneath its grimy roof, and still it lived, +detested but unhampered. There was no good reason why the fort should +send a soul to the rescue of such a concern. There was many a reason why +the town would not. Stone ordered a sergeant with a small party to ride +over, "See if any of our men are there and find out what has taken place +and the extent of the damage," which he hoped was total, "and report on +your return." + +It was after twelve when they got back, bringing a grimy fellow-soldier +who had had a narrow escape, the gratifying intelligence that there +wasn't so much as a shingle left unconsumed, and the unwelcome +announcement that the proprietor said he didn't care a damn. He had +leased and was going to open up next week, anyhow, in the old rookeries +at the ford, right under the nose of Uncle Sam, yet without his +jurisdiction. They brought, also, rather a remarkable piece of news--the +wife and daughter of the manager had been rescued from burning alive by +one of the colonel's own men--Private Blenke, of Company "C." + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +RETRIBUTION + + +Whoever it was who planned or placed Fort Minneconjou, one blunder at +least could be laid at his door--that it had enabled the enemy to +"locate" almost at the door of the fort. An odd condition of things was +this that resulted from the discovery of precious metals in the +magnificent tract misnamed the Black Hills--black presumably only in the +dead of winter, when their pine-crested peaks and ridges stood boldly +against the dazzling white of the Dakota snows. In '75 the Sioux had +bartered their secret to chance explorers, and Custer came down with his +scouting columns and confirmed the glittering rumor. In '76 the Sioux +squared accounts with Custer afar to the northwest in the affair of the +Little Big Horn, but while they were about it the miner and settler +swarmed in behind and staked out claims and cities from which they could +never be driven, for Crook's starved horses and starving men were +fortunately so numerous they kept the southward tribes of the savage +confederation too busy to bother with settlers. _They_ could be settled +later, after the warriors had dealt by Crook as they did by Custer. When +winter came, however, with Sitting Bull and the Uncapapas thrust beyond +the British line, and Crazy Horse, raving, done to death by the steel of +the guard he so magnificently defied, with Red Cloud disarmed and +deposed, with Dull Knife disabled, with Lame Deer doubled up by the +sturdy Fifth Infantry, and old Two Moons hiding his light in some +obscure refuge of the wilderness, and the old men, the women and +children herded on the reservation under the rifles of the army and the +young men scattered or slain, there was nothing left for the +hard-fighting, proud-spirited lords of the Hills--Ogalalla, Brule and +Minneconjou--but sullen acceptance of the great father's terms; and in +this wise came Silver Hill to the heart of the fair valley, nestling +under the screen of the Sagamore and its eastward spurs and the shield +of Uncle Sam, who sliced off for military purposes a block from the +Minneconjou reserve, and by way of compliment and consolation named the +cantonment therein established after the tribe thereof dispossessed. All +went swimmingly for the emigrant, the miner, the settler and the +subsequent supremacy of the white man until in course of time a big post +had to be built to replace the old log barracks, and from motives of +economy, in order to reduce to a minimum the expense of hauling supplies +and materials of the quartermaster's department, the new buildings were +planted at the extreme eastern edge of the reservation, and before the +first coat of paint was dry on the lintels the opposite bank of the +stream, a short pistol shot from the line, was planted thick with +shacks, shanties and saloons, and every known device of the devil to +prey upon the soldier. + +In the five years that followed, that particular quarter section of what +soon became South Dakota was a storm center of villainy, especially when +the bi-monthly payday came round. By scores the soldiers were drugged +and robbed, by dozens they were beaten and bullied. By twos and threes +they were set upon, slugged and not infrequently someone was murdered. +No jury could be found in those days to convict a civilian of any crime +against the life or property of a servant of Uncle Sam. There came a +time when two of the best men of the garrison, veteran sergeants, having +been shot to death in cold blood by a brace of desperadoes in front of +Skidmore's saloon, the garrison turned out almost to a man. The +murderers fled to town on the horses of their victims; fifty troopers +followed, while over fifty tore Skidmore's to shreds. Silver Hill had a +riot that night, in which two deputy marshals bit the dust; so did two +or three troopers, but that didn't matter. The majesty of the law that +turned the original murderers loose had been violated by a brutal and +ungovernable soldiery, six of whom were later surrendered to be tried +for their crimes by a jury of their sworn enemies, while their +commanding officer was tried for his commission by a jury of his peers. +The soldiers were sent to civil prison and the colonel to military +Coventry--estopped from further promotion, and Silver Hill (pronounced +with an "e" in those days) for as much as a month exulted and rejoiced +with exceeding joy. Then a new general came to the command. Then Silver +Hill thrust its hands deep in its pockets and whistled in dismay, for +the general's first deed was to order Minneconjou's big garrison into +summer camp long marches away, to leave only men enough at the post to +take care of the property and thus to defraud the denizens of fringing +settlement, known to the Army as Thugtown, of some thousands _per +mensem_ of hard-earned cash--very hard. Moreover, when winter set in, +the garrison was distributed much to the betterment of Meade, Laramie, +Robinson, Niobrara, etc., and to the howling protest of the sturdy +settlers of Silver Hill, "thus robbed," said their eloquent +representative in Congress assembled, "of the protection assured them by +the national government." It was rich to hear the appalling description +given that December of the perils and privations of the people of the +southwestern section of the Dakotas. The Sioux were on the point of +rising and butchering the helpless and scattered settlers, said Senator +Bullion, and to do the county justice it must be owned that it did its +level best to stir up the Minneconjous, but those "troubled waters" had +been stirred too much in the past and refused now to boil over at the +beck of the politicians, so what could not be done in one way was worked +in another. The cat, in shape of the command, came back, and with the +onward march of civilization men and women of a higher class were drawn +to Silver Hill, and the "e" from the last part of its name. + +And then in army circles there came to the front a man with a head on +his shoulders and a hand on the steering gear. In the interest of +civilization and civilian dealers Congress had cleaned out the old-time +sutler shop, which was no deplorable loss, and transferred the traffic +of his successor, the post trader, to his ubiquitous rival, the +publican. "The soldier's pay comes from the people and should return to +the people," said the advocates of the measure, and the soldier +non-voter, having about as many friends at the seat of government as a +crow in a corn field, matters at Minneconjou speedily became bad as +ever, for, reform having started at Silver Hill, the gamblers and +harpies being kicked from its corporate limits, these philosophers,--the +flotsam and jetsam of the frontier,--lost little cash and less time +before settling again, and in greater numbers, on the skirts of Uncle +Sam. + +And then it was that, after a year or two of turmoil and trouble, "in +our day there lived a man" who solved the problem, dealt rum, the flesh +and the devil the worst blow known to the combination, and started under +the auspices of the post Exchange the common sense and only successful +system ever tried in the army, known to the Press and its civilian +readers by the name of the Canteen. + +And then again after a few years of peace, prosperity and contentment, +good order and discipline, after the man whose monument is inscribed +"The Soldier's Friend," his good work finished, was gathered to his +fathers, the resultant years of thought and experiment were overthrown +in a day. A congress of women over-mastered a congress of men. Exit the +Canteen: Re-enter the grog shop, the hell and the hog ranch. Burned out +at the borders of Silver Hill, the way blazed for him and his vile +retinue of swindlers and strumpets by the best intentions that ever +paved the streets of sheol, back to the gates of Fort Minneconjou came +the saloon and its concomitants--and the day of order and discipline was +done. + +"I wouldn't say a word against it," protested Colonel Stone to the +grave-faced Inspector sent out from St. Paul to investigate the first +killing, "if, when they shut up _our_ shop they had shut up _those_!" +and with clinching fist he struck savagely at empty space and the +swarming row of ramshackle tenements beyond the stream. "Of what earthly +good was it to anybody, I ask you,--except the distiller and dealer in +liquors,--to close our guarded, homelike tables and reopen that +unlimited unlicensed hell?" + +A new road to Silver Hill, albeit roundabout, had become a necessity. +The old well-worn beeline through by way of the ford had become +impracticable for women and children and self-respecting people in +general. It was skirted for some two hundred yards by tenements and +tenants not easily described in these pages. The colonel had been jeered +at by painted sirens at upper windows. Priscilla Sanford, starting one +morning to town, turned crimson at the shrill acclaim of the scarlet +sisterhood, two of whom had kissed their hands to her. Stone, when he +heard of it, would have leveled the shack with the ground, but the +mournful plight of his predecessor, condemned for not preventing what +Stone would almost precipitate, gave him timely pause. Sandy might have +sallied forth and shot somebody not feminine, but Sandy was still in +arrest. The paymaster had come and gone. So had most of the money; so, +worse luck, after two days of salooning, had gone no less than fifty of +the garrison. In nearly two years Minneconjou had not had as many +desertions as resulted from those two days. + +But, sorrowful to relate, among the first to go and the last to be heard +from were two of Priscilla's trusties--gone no man could say +whither--and in addition to this catastrophe something had strangely, +surely gone amiss with her paragon, Blenke--Blenke the scholarly, Blenke +the writer and linguist--and Priscilla's world was reeling under her +well-shod feet. + +To begin with, how came Blenke, the impeccable, the would-be candidate +for transfer to the cavalry and aspirant for commission, to be +sojourning even for an hour at so disreputable a spot as Skidmore's? +Blenke, it will be remembered, had a forty-eight hour pass to enable him +to visit Rapid City on important personal business. Blenke was supposed +to have taken the westbound Flyer on Monday--the Flyer that flew five +hours late. Blenke was supposed to be spending all Tuesday, or most of +it, in the heart of the Hills. Blenke was not due at the post until the +afternoon of Wednesday, and was not expected to leave Rapid City until +Wednesday morning; yet here he was, of all places in the world, at that +hog ranch on Tuesday night. Stone sent a patrol over at 1 A. M. with a +spare horse and invitation for Private Blenke to return at once and +account for his eccentric orbit at office hours in the morning. The +patrol trotted over, nothing loath, but Blenke had disappeared. "Gone to +town for a doctor," said the abandoned few still groping about the +smoldering ruins. So the patrol returned without him. It was represented +that Blenke had scorched his face, singed off his eyebrows and burned +his hands in his gallant essay to save the women. But this was all +hearsay evidence. + +When Blenke did appear on Wednesday afternoon his hands were bandaged, +his face was disfigured a bit, but his eyes were as deep and mournful, +his dignity and self-poise quite as unimpeachable, as before. He seemed +grieved, indeed, that his captain and colonel both so sharply questioned +him. He had intended going to Rapid City, but at the last moment in town +received information rendering his visit unnecessary, indeed +inadvisable. A man with whom he had had business associations in the +past, and who owed him much money, had been there, but had headed him +off by promising to meet him in Silver Hill. The train came, but not the +man, yet the conductor said such a man had boarded the train at the +Junction and must have dropped off as they slowed up for town after +passing Bonner's Bluff. Blenke had spent most of Monday night and all of +Tuesday in further search. Tuesday evening came a clue. The evasive +"party" had been seen at Skid's drinking heavily, and Blenke hastened +thither in partial disguise, he said, and was there when late Tuesday +night the shrieks from Skidmore's private quarters told of peril. The +drunken crowd in the bar at first took no heed. Shrieks were things of +frequent occurrence, but Blenke had rushed, found the shack all ablaze +within, and with difficulty and much personal risk had succeeded in +pulling out Mrs. Skidmore and her terrified child. + +Blenke by manner, not by words, continued to convey to his inquisitors +that he took it much amiss that a soldier who had done such credit to +his uniform and the service should on his return be subjected to such +rigid cross-questioning, and be treated with such obvious suspicion. But +both colonel and captain had more to ask. Had he seen aught of the trio +from the fort who claimed to have spent Monday evening at Skidmore's? +Blenke declared he had not. He had spent that evening searching about +town; but he had heard of them, yes. There was no little talk among the +cowboys, tramps, toughs, and ranchmen in and about Skidmore's concerning +a party of soldiers that had been there hours Monday evening "raising +the devil." There had been a rough-and-tumble fight, too, but Blenke +virtuously disclaimed all personal knowledge of the men or their +misdemeanors. Asked to name some of the places he had visited Monday +evening and Tuesday in town, Blenke unhesitatingly mentioned as many as +a dozen. The adjutant jotted them down, and when the colonel sent an +officer in to investigate, it was found that Blenke's statement, like +his manner, was irreproachable. Moreever, it was found by the testimony +of certain hangers-on at Skidmore's that the story told by the +incarcerated trio was equally true. They had been seen about the +premises, drinking, card-playing, loafing, early in the evening, and +"off and on" all of the evening, until toward 10:30 o'clock they became +so ugly and quarrelsome and had so little money left that Skid refused +them further admission, even to wash the blood from their battered +faces. If the purpose of the examination was to connect these men, any +of them, with the assault upon Foster, it had certainly failed. + +Even when Foster's verbatim statement came, duly type-written and +vouched for, and further examination was made, and Blenke and the three +worthies were further investigated, nothing was admitted and little +learned. Foster's statement was read by the adjutant and received in +grim silence by the colonel and one or two seniors called in for the +occasion. Smarting under the indignity with which he had been treated, +said Foster, and finding the Flyer would not be along before ten or +half-past ten, he decided to take a buggy, drive out to the post and +seek an interview with the colonel and certain other officers. It was +due to his honor that his statement be heard. He ordered his traps sent +to the train, so that if delayed he could drive thither at once, or even +have the ranchman caretaker at Fort Siding "flag the train." Barely two +miles out from town he overtook some soldiers apparently drunk; one of +them reeled almost under his horse's nose; he pulled up in dismay, and +instantly they attacked him on all sides at once. He was knocked +senseless, and when he came to himself they were all out on the +southward prairie. He could see the lights of the fort far away. He was +propped against a wheel and they were wrangling among themselves. He was +bleeding, dazed, had been cruelly beaten, but his wits were returning. +The moonlight was clear, and suddenly, in a row that broke out among +them, they fell upon each other, and a young, slight-looking man, who +seemed to be their leader, in striving to quell the row, lost the +handkerchief that hid his face. His light raincoat was torn open, +revealing the uniform of a lieutenant of cavalry. The form, features, +the dark little mustache, all that he could see, were certainly those of +Lieutenant Ray. Staggering to his feet, he unhappily drew their +attention again to himself, and then he was slugged and knocked +senseless and knew no more until he was being helped aboard the Pullman. +One of the men he vaguely remembered having seen before, but the only +one of the party he could have recognized was Lieutenant Ray. All +Minneconjou, he said, knew of the fracas between them that day; but few, +perhaps, had heard the lieutenant's threats, and in this brutal fashion +had he fulfilled them. + +Copies of this, of course, had gone to Department Headquarters. The +commander was expected back at the end of the week from his tour of +inspection at Yellowstone Park. Sandy could not be held in close arrest +beyond the eighth day; but that the affair would have to be thoroughly +investigated by general court everybody felt and said. Indeed, Ray +himself would be content with nothing less. But what a solemn time was +this for Marion, his devoted mother; indeed for all at Minneconjou. + +Up at the "ranking" end of the row Oswald Dwight lay in the grasp of a +burning fever that, coupled with what had gone before, had weakened his +reason and might well end his life. Under the same roof, visited at +intervals by the charitable, the sympathetic or the merely inquisitive +of their sex and station, Mrs. Dwight and her inseparable companion, +Felicie, made their moan and told their woeful tale to all comers. Inez +had been, she said, suffering all the torments of purgatory, and to many +eyes she looked it. Her husband, in his mad delirium, would not have her +near him: _he_ raved of the wife of his youth. She wept for his boy who +had been taken from her, his proper, his natural, his legal protector at +such a time. Inez was horrified to think of the outrage upon Captain +Foster, their attached and devoted friend. Inez would never believe, she +said, that such a gentleman as Mr. Ray could stoop to so vile a +vengeance, to the level of the assassin, but Felicie had other views. +The episode of that blood-stained gauntlet had been by no means +forgotten, and was dinned into the ears of those who would listen, with +infinite vim and pertinacity; this, too, despite the fact that Ray +denied having worn gauntlets that evening--having worn them, in fact, +that summer. They were no longer "uniform" for cavalry officers, and he +had not set eyes on that glove or its mate for over a month. Possibly +during the move from the major's quarters to the humble home of the +subaltern, but certainly somehow, Ray had lost several items that, +before the change in uniform, had been in frequent use, but of late +would hardly be missed, and of these were the gauntlets. + +So there was distress--anxiety--sorrowing in more than one of the many +households at Minneconjou, and in the midst of it all Priscilla, who had +thought her burden, self-inflicted though it was, quite as much as she +could bear, was confronted with another. Blenke, who had been nervous, +excitable, almost ill on the very few occasions she had seen him since +his return; Blenke, who had promised to confide to her, his +benefactress, the cause of his worries, the story of his woes; Blenke, +whose mournful eyes had blazed with a fine fury when told by Hogan, who +couldn't abide him, of Miss Sanford's salutation from the window of the +reoccupied rookery at the ford; Blenke, who could never set foot on the +floor of the Canteen, turned up missing one night at check rollcall, two +hours after taps, was suddenly and most unexpectedly stumbled on by the +officer of the day making his rounds at 3 A. M.: not, as might have +happened to men of less indomitable virtue, coming from the direction of +Skidmore's, but almost at the very opposite end of the garrison, at the +rear gateway of the field officers' quarters, No. 2, so obviously +obfuscated, so utterly limp, that he could give no account of himself +whatever, was wheeled to the guard-house in a police cart and dumped on +the slanting bunk of the prison room with a baker's dozen of the +"Skidmore guard" sleeping off their unaccustomed drunk. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +MY LADY'S MAID + + +It proved the last pound that broke the back of Priscilla's stubborn +resistance. Men and women who had found much to condemn in Miss Sanford, +who had disseminated and discussed the tale of her correspondence with +the _Banner_ and the talk that followed, who had heard with indignation +that it was after Dwight's conference with Miss Sanford that he so +furiously punished little Jim (for, as we know, Mrs. Thornton had +assured everybody that so far as _she_ was concerned she had done her +utmost to make the major understand that Jimmy never did it on purpose), +who had felt the lash of her over-candid comment on their social or +parental shortcomings, now had no little malicious merriment to add to +the deservedly hard things they had said of her. For a fortnight, +probably, Miss Sanford had been the most unpopular woman that +Minneconjou's oldest inhabitant could name; but the men and women who +saw her as one after another she faced the results of her most confident +efforts, began to feel for the lonely, sorrowing maiden a respect and +sympathy denied her before. It was plain that Priscilla was well-nigh +crushed, and "when women weep" and are desolate and hopeless resentment +turns to pity and blame to words of cheer. No one, of course, was ever +told by Mrs. Ray or by Sandy of what had passed in the sanctity of the +family circle, but in her humility and contrition Priscilla spoke of it +to Mrs. Stone and to others, who soon came to try to show her she was +forgiven. There were a few days after Dwight's fever in which she seemed +utterly heartbroken, and Mrs. Ray believed her seriously ill. There were +days in which she begged Aunt Marion to send her home, when, really, she +had no home; to send her East, then, where she could begin anew and work +her way in the world. If it came to the worst, Maidie Stuyvesant would +keep her from starving. But Aunt Marion would listen to no such +proposition. Priscilla must stay with her and at Minneconjou and live +down the unhappy repute. Aunt Marion knew how very much genuine good +there was in Priscilla when once she could rid herself of that +propensity ever to correct, criticise, and condemn; nor had Minneconjou +been slow to see this and to speak of it. Now that the tide was turning, +by dozens they came to talk of her real charity, her devotion to the +sick and sorrowing, the hours she had given--was ever ready to give--to +reading to the bed-ridden and helpless in hospital or the humble +quarters of the married soldiers. Men who had laughed among themselves +at her lecturing and preaching took to snubbing men who spoke in +disparagement of her motives. One thing was certain, whether they shared +her views or not, all Minneconjou believed in her sincerity, and +soldiers honor those who fight and suffer for their convictions. Of +Priscilla it might therefore be said she had made friends in spite of +herself, and though hardened sinners at the mess and humor-loving +husbands in the quarters _did_ indulge in little flings at the ultimate +and inevitable failure of all feminine meddlings in matters that were +purely military, there were few, indeed, after the first mirthful +explosions, who having seen her sorrowful face did not feel genuine +sympathy for her in the collapse of her Anti-Canteen Soldiers' +Benevolent Association. + +For with Blenke's fall Priscilla was left indeed lamenting and alone. + +Something of a _cause celebre_ was that of Blenke's when it came to +trial. The summary court officer had had his hands full since payday. +The number of cases of absence without leave, drunkenness, disorder, and +disrespect to non-commissioned officers, etc., had sextupled. All were +what might be called typical cases, and traceable, as a rule, to +Skidmore's; but Blenke's, like Blenke himself, was individual and +peculiar. Moreover, it savored of the mysterious. + +The man seemed overwhelmed with mortification and distress. No one at +Minneconjou had ever known him to take so much as a glass of wine. No +one at Minneconjou among either officers or men ever really knew him at +all, for Blenke kept his own counsel, lived entirely to himself, was +neat as a new pin, prompt and accurate on duty, smart in dress--more so +than many of his officers, if truth be told--ready, respectful and in +fine a model soldier. But he had no friends nor intimates; he had no +confidants, unless we except Priscilla, to whom he had told much more +than Sandy Ray, when told, would for a moment believe. He came before +the court after two days' incarceration, neat and trim as though just +off inspection. He stood with swimming eyes before the desk, pleaded +guilty throughout, declined to summon a soul to say a good word for him +or his general character, would not even glance at the group of officers +hovering inquisitively about, would not even plead "first offense" or +urge a syllable in mitigation of sentence, even though the allegations +against him, as the court intimated to his captain, "seemed piling it +on." One specification might well have covered the entire tale of his +misdoing, but he stood accused of absence from quarters between taps and +reveille, of presence in premises where he had no possible right to be, +and finally of utter drunkenness. Blenke pleaded guilty to all, and +humbly said that, had there been more accusation, he would have done the +same, for he knew nothing of what occurred after fifteen minutes at +Skidmore's somewhere toward midnight. + +Now, the court wished to know and the listeners wished to hear some +explanation of his having turned up so far from the beaten track; of his +having, when so drunk, managed to walk so far; of his having, in fine, +entered the yard of Major Dwight's quarters. What could have suggested +that? But Blenke knew no more than the dead. The only quarters of late +he ever visited were those of Lieutenant Ray, where, said Blenke--and +here the woe in his visage was indeed pathetic--he should never again +dare show his face. Time had been--a happy time--when he had daily, +almost hourly, duties at the quarters now occupied by Major Dwight, whom +he so honored; but that was while his kind friends of Lieutenant Ray's +household were still the occupants. Possibly in his dazed condition that +memory was working in what was left of his brain. There was nothing to +excuse or explain his wandering thither now, said Blenke. He had no +mercy to ask. He deserved none. So the case was closed with a sizable +fine, and the accused sent back to his company. + +But the officer of the day had told a different tale, and the godless +array at the bachelor mess was still having fun with it. Felicie, the +self-styled French maid, had been from the start the object of no little +interest among the non-commissioned element in garrison. Felicie was +pious, if not actually pretty, and assiduous at first in Sunday morning +attendance at the little Catholic church in town, whither Dwight's own +horse and buggy and man were detailed to take her, for Inez could not +think of placing her educated and traveled maid in the same category and +wagon with the soldiers' wives. "Feelissy," from her very first +appearance, was by no means popular with this critical sisterhood, and +when it became evident that some of the best beaux among the sergeants +were also moved to attend early church in Silver Hill, feeling grew +strong against the usurper. Nor was the feeling modified by the fact +soon discovered that the maid had higher aspirations. She was too good +for the soldiers, said her commentators; but that goodness, said her +defamers, wasn't proof against the wiles of those who had more money. +Obviously the officers were aimed at in this observation, and it must be +owned that Felicie's expressive eyes had sometimes wandered toward the +mess, and that her glances fell not all on unresponsive others. The +night of Blenke's wandering was windy. The officer of the day's little +lantern blew out as he rounded a turn from the west gate toward the +bluff behind the post of No. 4, to the end that he stumbled on the +sentry unchallenged, and, when rebuked for his negligence, the sentry +said he was troubled about something at Major Dwight's. He could have +sworn, he said, the door to the high back stoop had opened just a moment +ago, letting quite a streak of light into the darkness for the space of +a few seconds, during which time he was almost sure he saw a slender +feminine shape disappear into the house. Now, he could swear no one had +entered the back gate for ten minutes, anyway, because he happened to be +right there. If it was a woman, as he believed, she must have been out +in the yard as much as those ten minutes, and perhaps someone was there +with her that shouldn't be there. All this had the sentry urged in +excuse of his failure to hear the approach of the officer of the day. It +was a black, moonless, starless night, and the officer concluded to +look. The board fence was high. He stepped within the gate, stumbled +over a loose plank, made quite a noise and said a few audibly profane +things as to the quartermaster's department for leaving walks in such +shape, but he could see nothing. So in a sheltered nook he struck a +match, and the instant he did so a man from the shadows lurched heavily +against him, muttered, "Giv'sh--light--o' man" and sprawled in a heap at +his feet. It proved to be Blenke, and Blenke proved to the satisfaction +of the court that he was blind drunk. + +But the officer of the day and his comrades at the mess were beginning +to see light, as did the sentry on No. 4. Was it possible that Felicie, +who scorned the advances of the more prominent of the rank and file, and +had become an object of no little interest even to certain susceptible +subalterns--had, after all, reserved her smiles for the dark-eyed, +mournful, and romantic Blenke? If so, then Blenke had played the part of +a man with the skill of a consummate actor. + +"I've seen Willard; I've seen Wyndham," said the puzzled captain, "and I +thought I'd seen 'David Garrick' played to perfection, but if Private +Beauty Blenke, of Company 'C,' Sixty-first Foot, wasn't drunk as a lord +that night, then Willard and Wyndham aren't in the business." + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +A MOMENTOUS DAY + + +A week,--another long week,--went by at Minneconjou, and Major Dwight at +last was declared out of danger, though a badly shattered man. Mrs. +Dwight, who should have shown corresponding improvement, seemed, +however, not so well. Just in proportion as the major mended, his wife +appeared to fail. Both doctors persisted in the belief that her case was +one of nerves entirely. There was nothing organically wrong. She had +been under a great strain, of course, and her husband, in his lucid +moments, as well as in those of delirium, had shown strong antipathy to +her presence in the sick room. They had persuaded her, without much +difficulty, that it were better she kept away, and though pathetically, +properly grieved, she obeyed. Something, however, was preying upon +her--something she could not and would not confide to Mrs. Stone and +other sympathetic would-be consolers. "Madame was distressed at ill news +from her parents," Felicie had gone so far as to admit, but the ill news +did not seem to refer to illness, for there had been frequent letters +addressed in Farrell's sprawling fist, or the senora's precise +chirography, and of late these had begun to be supplemented by +telegrams. + +In all this fortnight of alternating hope and anxiety Mrs. Ray had, with +proper inquiries, called but twice. She could do no less. She would do +no more. Mrs. Dwight occasionally appeared for an afternoon drive now, +but always with Felicie by her side in the phaeton--never, now that her +husband's guest and wits were gone, with a man. Other companionship +might have been better for her, it was generally suggested, but she +seemed to shrink from the conversation and, possibly, the interrogations +of those of her own sex and social caste. + +Great was the surprise, therefore, when a polite and perfumed note came +to the Rays for Miss Priscilla Sanford, and would Miss Sanford do Mrs. +Dwight the great kindness to drive with her that day? Priscilla, who +knew not why, and who would gladly have avoided her, ordinarily, was now +doing universal penance according to her lights, and would have gone +driving with a Jezebel. Priscilla accepted, and Felicie, for the first +time, was left at home. + +Sandy Ray's health had been suffering, and Stone saw it, and of his own +motion came over and said he considered it necessary that Mr. Ray should +take exercise. Walking being painful, the colonel said ride, and, +despite his arrest, riding anywhere within five miles' limit of the +flagstaff. Sandy thanked him, but really tried to sulk and stay home, +until the mother's gentle appeal prevailed and he began as the colonel +had suggested. There were men who thought the general would "row" Stone +for such indulgence to a man under serious charges, but Stone said he +knew his business--and the general. He would neither argue nor defend +his position, but he would like to bet two to one the general would +approve. It was rumored the general himself thought of running out to +Minneconjou and perhaps away to Wister and looking into matters along +the lower line, having but recently returned from a look along the +upper. The court had not yet been ordered. It was believed that the +charges might still be withdrawn, so difficult was it to believe Sandy +Ray capable of such a crime. But Ray insisted on trial, said he desired +the most rigid investigation, and could never be content without. It was +a most unsatisfactory situation, so far as he was concerned, and, with +no duty to perform, no drill to stir his blood, nothing to do but try to +comfort mother, reassure Maidie, who was writing every day or two, watch +for the coming of the mail from Manila and the detail for his court, +Sandy Ray was growing morbid. + +He was gone and loping up the valley when the phaeton with pale-faced, +languid Mrs. Dwight stopped at the door for Miss Sanford. Ray did not +wish to see her. He had not seen her to speak to since the night before +Dwight's breakdown, as that episode by common consent was now referred +to. He had altered his manner toward Priscilla, though resentment still +rankled, because of her almost dependent position under their roof. Had +Priscilla owned enough money to take her back to the seaboard States, +and had then remained, Sandy, perhaps, would have found forgiveness +beyond him. Even now he raged at heart when he thought of her willful +exaggeration as to the Canteen, her utter misrepresentation of +facts--especially as to his father. Again and again he owned to his +mother he felt like shaking Priscilla whenever he looked at little Jim, +who so often now became his companion on these daily rides. Once or +twice, when the patient was sleeping soundly, the doctors had taken the +lad to his bedside, but the meeting between them was yet to come. Dwight +was still too weak for experiments, and how he would bear it all when +stronger was a matter of grave conjecture. + +But on this particular day when the phaeton came for Priscilla, little +Jim had again been trouting with Sergeant French and, as luck would have +it, came dancing in with his basket of prizes to show Aunt Marion just +as Priscilla descended from her room, dressed for the drive. Three weeks +agone Priscilla would have reproved his entering without first washing +his hands and smoothing his hair. To-day she bent and hurriedly kissed +his flushed and happy face, and he looked up astonished. They had never +let him know--they could not bear to speak of--Priscilla's share in the +events of that tragic morning, and when in her downright honesty +Priscilla would have sought and told him, Aunt Marion forbade. The boy +who formerly shrank from was now growing to like her. She read to him, +helped him in the daily lessons, Aunt Marion deeming it wise he should +study even though this was vacation time; but never before had he known +Priscilla to tender a caress. Mrs. Ray watched them curiously as +together they left the room to see his catch properly stored in the +icebox. Presently, hand in hand, they returned through the hall and went +forth upon the veranda just as the phaeton suddenly drew up at the gate, +and Priscilla felt the little hand withdrawing. He did not know mamma +was coming. He went unwillingly, but obedient, to receive her effusive +words of greeting, and to hear, unresponsive, that he, dear child, was +looking so much better since dear Mrs. Ray had taken charge of him in +all these dreadful days. But she did not ask him to drive with them, nor +did he wish to go, for she had need to speak with Priscilla, and Jimmy +would have been in the way. + +It seems that matters had come to such a pass that Mrs. Dwight felt that +she must have advice, and, oh, how her heart yearned for a friend! Many +of the ladies had been kind, yes, very kind, Mrs. Stone especially; and +others, even Mrs. Ray, who she felt, she feared, she _knew_, did not +like or trust her, though she had so longed to win Mrs. Ray's +friendship. But even Mrs. Stone and Mrs. Ray could not be to her now +what she so needed--a real friend and adviser, a confidant, in fact, and +these ladies were, though they did not look it, of an age sufficient to +be her mother. What she craved was one nearer herself in years (Miss +Sanford was certainly ten years older and not easily flattered), for now +a time had come, said Mrs. Dwight, when there might be conflict between +the duty she owed her husband and--and----Priscilla gasped and bridled +and began to bristle all over with premonition of what might be coming, +then breathed a sudden sigh of relief, yet of disappointment, as Mrs. +Dwight concluded with "the deference due her parents." In their letters +both her father and her mother had been appealing to her to appeal to +her husband to come further to their financial aid; that Major Farrell +had relied upon the backing of his son-in-law in certain enterprises; +that he was now in desperate straits, and--and finally they had gone so +far as to threaten--threaten her, their daughter, with untold calamity +if she did not instantly assure them that material aid would speedily be +forthcoming. She had written, telling them of her husband's perilous +plight, of the possibly fatal illness, of the impossibility of anything +being done until his recovery, and their telegrams in acknowledgment +were imperative. She felt that she must bring her burden of trouble and +ask Miss Sanford,--of whose charity and gentleness the garrison never +tired of telling by the hour,--for Miss Sanford must feel and know that +since the day he so raged against his own son, he--he had even seemed to +turn against her, his devoted and dutiful wife. + +And now when the doctors said he was almost well enough to be approached +on matters of urgent business, she dared not. She had lost, perhaps, her +influence. "Then what could _I_ possibly do?" asked Priscilla bluntly, +and then came the explanation. The woman whom he most honored, +respected, believed in, the woman who had been the devoted friend of +her,--that was gone, with, alas, his heart buried by her side,--that +woman, Mrs. Ray, if she would but speak with him, plead with him for +her, his fond, but, ah, so cruelly misjudged wife, whose heart was +failing her now, and at a time when for his sake as well as hers she +needed all her strength. If Mrs. Ray could but see her way to do this, +ah, with what gratitude and devotion would she, Inez, ever think of +her--and all Minneconjou knew Mrs. Ray's love for her noble niece. +Everyone said that if Miss Sanford but willed a thing and urged it upon +her aunt it was a thing accomplished. Out of the goodness of her heart +would not Miss Sanford strive for her, a heart-crushed, well-nigh +hopeless wife, upon whom there had but recently dawned the knowledge +that, that--could not Miss Sanford imagine? + +And in the midst of the gush of tears with which she closed came sudden +distraction. They had been trundling easily, aimlessly over the smooth, +hard prairie road, the well-trained, well-matched ponies ambling +steadily along. They had given the cavalry herds and herd guards a wide +berth, and the townward route, for Mrs. Dwight shunned, she said, the +sight of almost any face but the sweet and sympathetic one beside her. +They had turned southward, after rounding Castle Butte, a bold, jagged +upheaval among the nearest foothills, and were winding slowly down this +narrow and crooked ravine toward the broad Minneconjou bottom, when, as +the ponies reached a fairly level bit of road, and were swiftly turning +a point of bluff, they suddenly and violently shied to the right, almost +upsetting the dainty vehicle, and nearly pitching its helpless freight +headlong into the road. Then with the bits in their teeth, away they +tore, full gallop down the next incline, the phaeton bounding after +them, and so, mercifully as it happened, out upon the broad level of the +valley, with the Minneconjou and its fringing line of cottonwoods barely +five hundred yards across the bench. The pygmy tiger had been left at +home; his ears would have been too active, and Mrs. Dwight, though +accustomed to driving her usually gentle and tractable team, was utterly +helpless now. She hung on desperately to the reins. But this was a new +and delirious experience for the merry little scamps in harness. They +were headed for home. There was a deep bend of the stream and a ford +through the shallows, and an abrupt dip of four feet from the bench +level, and the words of their fair, frail charioteer were stimulating +rather than soothing, so away they went, and it was high time for Miss +Sanford, if she wished to save their necks, to throw convention and +etiquette to the wind, to take personal control--and the reins. + +No one ever doubted Priscilla's nerve, yet here sat Priscilla hanging on +to the side-rail with both hands and staring backward, her head twisted +half round, with all her wondering, startled eyes, for the objects that +had stampeded the ponies were a brace of frowsy, blanketed Minneconjou +braves, squatted on the bunch grass in the shade of the bluffs at the +side of the road, in close conference with two men in khaki and campaign +hats, one of them, though instantly the brim was jerked down over his +eyes, she knew to be Blenke,--Blenke whose woe-begone, remorseful +letters she had duly filed and docketed, but who, he declared, was too +shame-stricken to show his face to her of all the world. What on earth +was Blenke doing there in that out-of-the-way nook, and in confab with +Indians? They were hidden from view by a wave of prairie almost as +suddenly as they had been whirled into sight, and then Priscilla had to +give her aid and attention to Mrs. Dwight, who was swaying in her seat. +She grasped the reins with her strong, wiry hands, but the little devils +were within an hundred yards of the brink and reckless of everything but +the mad exhilaration of a runaway. She heard from somewhere a shout, +"Pull your left rein _hard_!" and with both hands she tugged with sudden +and startling result. The ponies almost instantly veered to the left; +the light vehicle tipped slightly to the right, and with that Inez went +toppling headforemost over the low, leathern mud guard, and Priscilla +was alone. Still clinging to that left rein, she swung her discomfited +steeds in broad, big circle, narrowly scraping yet safely missing the +edge, and so, gradually, they found themselves galloping out once more +over the prairie and away from the homeward road and back toward that +narrow ravine whence two Indians were now lashing their finally captured +ponies southward across the valley; and then, still circling, the +pygmies discovering that they were heading westward once more and +farther from home, their enthusiasm by degrees, therefore, became +beautifully less. They slowed gradually down to a lunging canter, then +to a shame-faced trot, and finally, with Priscilla in complete control +of both reins, her own head and theirs, they were brought at a decorous +gait back to the road and the point where their mistress had quit +them--and the lady had disappeared. + +Guiding them carefully down the short declivity to the water's edge, +Priscilla came upon a not unlooked-for explanation. Sandy's horse had +disappeared. His owner was kneeling at the edge of the rippling waters, +bending over a lovely, prostrate form, alternately sprinkling and +fanning the dusty, pallid, but beautiful face, then dropping his hat to +chafe the limp little hands. With eyes full of terror he glanced up at +his cousin. With a voice half-choked with dread, he called to her, "Let +those little brutes go, Pris, and come here quick!" But Priscilla, with +wisdom untrammeled by passion and dread, lashed their bits to a tree +trunk before she would quit her charges, and by the time she reached the +interesting group at the water's edge the dusky head was pillowed on a +tan-colored knee, and further supported by a tan-colored arm, and the +loveliest dark eyes in the world, just unclosing, were gazing +imploringly up into her cousin's agonized features. A faint flush was +rising to the soft cheek, and lips that were colorless but a moment or +two agone, now reddening again, now quivering and beautifully alluring, +seemed almost uplifting, as though to reward, to welcome his, as with +joy unmistakable they murmured, "Sandy--Sandy--I knew--you'd come." + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +BLENKE COVERS HIS TRACKS + + +Priscilla Sanford in the next few days, despite the fact that most of +her pupils were gone, found her duties increasing. She had seen Blenke, +but only through enlisting the interest of his captain, who directed +Blenke to call upon Miss Sanford and give account of his stewardship or +be sent thither in charge of a sergeant. Blenke appeared at last in the +dusk of evening and the depth of despond. He wrung his white hands, he +bowed his shapely head in shame. He could hardly speak, such was his +humility, but he stuck to it that his story was true. She knew enough of +his past (at least she should know, since he had told her so much of it) +to believe that he had enjoyed the benefits of travel, prosperity, and +education. He had trusted, however, where he should have guarded, and +devotion to his fellows had resulted in his financial ruin. A man who +owed him hundreds, and had promised to pay, was in Rapid City, and came +thence to find him here at the very time Blenke started to find him +there. The failure of this man to keep his promise had involved Blenke +shamefully. He had borrowed much more than the ten dollars he still owed +his benefactress. It was shame and worry, resulting in prostration and +insomnia, that drove him forth at night, that led to his taking Skid's +prescription, for Skid, who was so very grateful for Blenke's conduct at +time of the fire, did not, however, come forward with offer of financial +aid. He was going to do that, he said, when he got his insurance money, +which was still suspiciously withheld. Skidmore gave Blenke Scotch ale, +warranted to produce sleep. It at least led to oblivion, the +disappearance of his watch, and the train of miserable, disgraceful woe +that followed. How could Blenke ever face Miss Sanford again? Not until +ordered could he bear the ordeal, even though her letters had assured +him of forgiveness and further aid and confidence. As to his being with +those Indians, lurking in that tortuous ravine, the explanation was +simple. The man who had tricked him, a contractor, was said to be over +at the reservation--Indians had so told him. They were forbidden to come +to the fort or be seen about Skidmore's. They could only meet him out of +sight of the post and its slum suburb. He and a comrade met them to hear +their report at the crossing of the old road from Fort Siding by way of +Castle Butte to the Belle Fourche country, and catching sight of +Lieutenant Ray, riding slowly along the edge of the timber, the Indians +had led on into the ravine, where they had hardly dismounted and turned +loose their ponies when the phaeton flashed into view around a point of +bluff, almost running them down, then running away. Startled as he was, +Blenke would have grabbed a pony and galloped to Miss Sanford's aid, but +their ponies, too, took fright and stampeded. The Indians went in +pursuit, and by the time Blenke could again see the phaeton it was +quietly descending the little ramp to the river bottom, and all seemed +well. Then Lieutenant Ray's horse was seen galloping away toward the +fort, and that was another reason why he, a poor private, should not +presume to intrude when an officer was presumably there. He went in +pursuit of the horse. Lieutenant Ray, he said, had never liked him, +while he, Blenke, could almost lay down his life to serve Lieutenant +Ray. + +So Priscilla could say nothing but "Go and sin no more," and come back +to the choir, which Blenke promised faithfully to do. + +Then Major Dwight was at last sufficiently recovered to be pronounced +convalescent, and there had been the meeting with his beloved boy, the +first few minutes of which had been witnessed only by Dr. Waring and +Mrs. Ray, who presently, reassured by his calm, withdrew and left father +and child together. It had been followed by a regular visit each day, +limited to less than an hour for the time being. There had been two +interviews, Dr. Waring only being present and that not all the time, +between Dwight and his wife. From both of these Inez came forth weeping +convulsively, to be comforted by Felicie--and a pint of Pommery Sec. +That something had been sent to the importunate Farrells the doctor had +knowledge, and that something had been said to their daughter to plunge +her in grief inexpressible the garrison was speedily informed. "She +should leave him, this angel," said Felicie, "but she is of a devotion, +my faith, the most incomparable--the most indomitable." + +Then Dwight begged that Mrs. Ray should come to him, and there had been +a long talk, a reconciliation, an understanding that brought comfort to +his heart and rejoicing to hers, and then as convalescence advanced, and +his mind demanded food, Priscilla had come to read to him, and from +reading, first rather less than an hour, she was reading daily now as +much as two. It gave Madame a frightful _migraine_, said the explanatory +and fruitful Felicie, to read aloud at all. + +But the projected alliance, the prospective friendship so desired by +Mrs. Dwight of the elder--the highly gifted--maid had progressed no +further. From the moment of their return from that memorable drive +neither party to the proposed arrangement again referred to it. +Priscilla, who preferred to call at any other house within the limits of +Minneconjou, was now a daily visitor. Sandy Ray, who found himself +longing to go thither, could not go at all. His arrest forbade it, and +he was asking himself what might be his course were his arrest to end, +for a rumor was current at the post that a separation was +threatened--that Captain and Mrs. Dwight were certainly estranged. There +were those who considered it most indelicate under the circumstances +that an unmarried woman should appear upon the scene even as a reader to +an aging and broken man. Perhaps it was, but the doctor smiled approval. +The colonel said "Go ahead." Mrs. Ray considered her niece quite old +enough to judge for herself. Mrs. Dwight declared it angelic, and +Priscilla said nothing at all. Priscilla, who had been prone to speak on +slight reflection, had become as silent or secretive as she had once +been censorious, for never once had she mentioned to her aunt, never yet +had she made known to Sandy, that she had heard the strange words which, +with returning consciousness, Inez, the wife of Oswald Dwight, had +murmured looking up into the pallid face of Sanford Ray. Yet Ray knew, +and soon Inez, that Priscilla had heard and not forgotten. + +It had so happened the day of that memorable drive and catastrophe that +Sandy Ray, dismounting to the aid of Mrs. Dwight, whose slender and +lovely form lay huddled by the roadside, while Priscilla and the ponies +started on their circuit, had given no thought to his own steed, which +fact enabled that inconsiderate brute to trot away homeward. Then when +Inez came to herself (though not to her senses, else would she have said +such shocking things when Priscilla was within earshot?) there arose a +question of transportation. It was only four miles to the fort, but in +his still somewhat crippled condition that was far for Sandy to walk. It +was characteristic of Priscilla that she should promptly suggest her +driving Mrs. Dwight home at once; then, if need be, sending Hogan back +with the horse. Priscilla herself was a famous pedestrian, priding +herself on sometimes "footing" it to and from town, but never once did +Priscilla now suggest that Sandy drive Mrs. Dwight or Mrs. Dwight drive +Sandy. Priscilla, indeed, behaved with some little asperity as well as +impatience when she assured Mrs. Dwight that she had the ponies now +under complete control, and all Mrs. Dwight had to do was to get in at +once. But this required Sandy's aid and encircling arm. Then when Inez +was fairly in her reclining seat, she could not release the hand. "But +surely _you_ are coming? Your horse is gone! What--walk, Miss Sanford? +Indeed, he shall not, and after having carried poor me all that +distance." (For a woman in a dead faint Inez was oddly alive to what had +been going on.) "You are coming right in here, Mr. Ray!" and she edged +vigorously over against the stout structured Priscilla in determined +effort to make room for Sandy beside her. So there he rode, saying very +little, but tumultuously thinking, Heaven only knows what, for Inez had +then eyes, ears, aye--lips, had he dared--only for him. She nestled +close and confiding in the arm trembling about her slender shoulders. He +felt the contact of her rounded form. His head was in a whirl, his heart +was in a tumult, when at last Priscilla reined in at the major's gate, +and again Sandy had almost to carry the lovely burden up the major's +steps and, with one, long, melting gaze from her glorious eyes, with +five murmured words from her exquisite, parted, passionate lips, with a +thrilling pressure from both her little hands, he delivered her into the +waiting arms of Felicie, to become again a limp and prostrate being, to +require at once her handmaid's best services--and champagne. The +quantity of Pommery Sec consumed in that house during the major's +confinement thereto, said Felicie afterwards, was, _o ciel_, of the most +incredible! + +It can readily be conceived that Priscilla could not soon forget the +incidents of that day's drive, the last she ever took with Inez Dwight. +What with the apparition of Blenke and the blanketed Indians at the +ravine, the runaway of the ponies on the prairie, and the astounding +revelation that followed, the honest-hearted girl was utterly at a loss +as to her duty in the premises. Six weeks back she would not have +hesitated. She would have known infallibly just what to say and do, and +unflinchingly would she have said and done it. But, all was different +now. Her faith was strong as ever, firm and unshaken, but her +self-confidence was gone. She had made some of the worst mistakes of her +thirty years within the last three months. She had justly offended her +fondest, truest friends; had brought dire distress, untold suffering, on +a most loving and devoted father, and cruel punishment to an innocent +and trusting child. Her head had been bowed to the dust in +self-condemnation, in humility unspeakable. She could have dragged +herself upon her knees every inch of the road from their door to +Dwight's, and with streaming eyes and clasping hands, a well-nigh broken +and all contrite heart, could have bathed his feet with her tears and +implored his forgiveness. It was characteristic of Oswald Dwight,--the +old Oswald Dwight coming once again through this hell of suffering and +from the very threshold of the other world into the kingdom of +self-search and self-dominion,--that he should send for her,--beg that +she should be brought to him,--that he might lift from her mind a moiety +at least of its weight of self-accusation. It was characteristic of him +thereafter that, after the first few hours with his blessed boy--and God +alone knows what intensity of prayer, petition, love, and resolve surged +through the heart and soul of the almost re-created man--he should try +to show Priscilla Sanford that he blamed himself alone, not her; that he +honored her, respected her, believed in her, and that he rejoiced to see +the friendship that was daily growing between her and his beloved little +son. The readings that seemed so long to the censorious were not all +reading, after all, for presently and little by little the book would be +dropped, the page would be discussed, and, once away from her hobby of +original, sin and universal damnation--the Calvinistic creed of that +stern, pure-hearted if Puritanical woman--there was much that appealed +to the stern, true-hearted soldier nature of the even maturer man. A +famous Covenanter--a Roundhead after Cromwell's own heart--might Oswald +Dwight have been had he dwelt in Merry England, where sunstrokes were +unknown and dark-eyed sirens seldom heard of. As for Priscilla, she +needed but the garb to fit her for the austere duties of the sect whence +sprung her mother and her name. But it was a chastened, softened, +subdued Priscilla that now wrestled in spirit with the problem set +before her. She knew no woman in all Minneconjou except Aunt Marion with +whom to take counsel, and how could she wound, terrify, Aunt Marion with +her growing suspicion! She knew but one man in all Minneconjou on whom +she felt a longing to lean the burden of her deep trouble, and how could +she bring herself to mention it to him! + +For within the week that followed the day of that drive and disaster the +level-headed soldier in command of the department had been to Fort +Wister; had held an official inspection and a personal investigation at +Minneconjou; had interrogated and, it was whispered, instructed Captain +Foster, with the result that, though deeply injured and properly +incensed, that officer, while urging continued effort to bring to +justice his unknown assailants, decided it was unwise to press further, +for the present at least, his charges against Lieutenant Ray. Much to +Ray's disgust, therefore, he was released from arrest without the full +and entire clearance he had hoped for, and now, with the Canteen closed +and no longer demanding his supervision, with little to do at the +Exchange, still unfit for drill or soldier duty, with his soul raging +and dissatisfied, his heart stirred anew with strange and turbulent +emotion, and his brain in a whirl,--nervous, restless, sometimes +sleepless the livelong night,--Sandy Ray had again taken to riding long +hours to get away from himself,--from everybody, as he told his anxious, +watchful, but silent mother. (How little did Priscilla dream how much +that mother knew! How little did that mother know how much Priscilla +dreamed!) And in Ray's avoidance of everything, everybody, he rode never +to town, but ever to the west and often to the clump of cottonwoods +opposite the mouth of that crooked ravine where Inez Dwight, with the +look, the touch, the temptation of the unforgotten days at Manila and +Nagasaki, had come again into his life, and whither Inez Dwight, +decorously accompanied by her sheepdog of a maid, found means to drive, +no matter which way she started, and there or about there, to meet +him,--to see him four days out of the seven,--until the climax came. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +AGAIN THE SALOON + + +For a man of philosophic temperament, one who seldom worried other +people or himself, Colonel Stone had been having a nerve-racking time of +it. He was troubled in the first place about the condition of affairs +military in his big command, which the general himself had referred to +as "a sad falling off," and which Stone saw no way under the law to +correct. The number of men absent without leave, absent unaccounted for, +probably in desertion, or absent "in the hands of the civil +authorities," had increased alarmingly since the closing of the Canteen. +"Skid" and his abominable community across the fords had been doing a +thriving business, and were vastly enjoying the situation. Men by dozens +who had been content, after their sharp drills or when the day's work +was done, with mild and palatable beer, now sat sullenly about their +barrack steps in the summer evenings, or, out of sheer disgust, wandered +off by twos and threes (and a new footbridge erected by Skidmore), to +spend their leisure hours and scanty cash over the reeking counters of +the saloon, deeming themselves robbed of a right accorded every other +wageworker throughout Christendom, and saying things of their Congress +it wasn't safe for their officers even to think. They did not so much +blame the women who had started the movement that spoiled their soldier +homelife--how could women of the Fold be expected to know anything about +the conditions on the frontier?--but, said our sergeants and corporals +and sturdy men-at-arms, the soldier had a right to expect that Congress +would look before it voted. Possibly had the soldiers, too, been voters +their side of the case might have met some consideration; but, being +politically on the same plane with "Indians not taxed," it was safe, at +least, to similarly fix their social status and restrictions. Forbidden +by the people he was sworn to serve, to take his temperate drink at +home, but permitted by the same people to drink his fill of fiery stuff +abroad, abroad the thirsty soldier went, and with him went many a man +who had been content with mighty little, but resented it that he should +be discriminated against, denied the right of the humblest citizen, and +declared the only white man in America fit only to be ruled as is the +red. + +The morning list of prisoners at Minneconjou was something over which +Stone was nearly breaking his heart. Every night now, in numbers, the +men were sneaking off across the stream, lured by the dance music, the +sound of clinking glass and soldier chorus and siren laughter. However +well the colonel might know his own profession, he was powerless under +the law to deal with this question. Here "Skid" had him and the garrison +by the throat. With the knowledge that his men were drinking, dicing, +and going generally to the devil within those ramshackle walls across +the stream, he could neither remove the victims nor dislodge their +tempters. Patrols he could send to search the roads, the open prairie, +the river bottom, but Skidmore had declared that no armed party could +legally cross his threshold, and the courts had backed him. Soldiers +roistering in the roadway in front of the dive would dart within doors +at sight of the patrol, and the officer, sergeant, or private that +entered there left hope behind of fair treatment in the civil courts. +Stone tried sending a big sergeant and six stalwart men unarmed, and +they came back eventually without coats, collars, or character, none of +them without bruises, some of them not without aid. Stone marveled that +so many of his men turned up in town drunk, helpless, and in the hands +of the local police, with fines imposed by the local magistrates, but +that, too, was presently explained. Skid kept a big, twelve-seated "bus" +that on busy nights, as the soldiers got well fuddled and completely +strapped, he would load up with the drugged and drowsy victims and, +instead of driving them over to the fort, would trundle them to town, +dump them in front of some saloon, there to be run in by a ready police, +and locked up until sober and abject. Then would come their arraignment +and the invariable "Five dollars or thirty days." Then their officers +would be notified. The fines at first were paid, until it dawned upon +Stone that Skid and Silver Hill, both, were in the swindling +combination, that after Skidmore had got the last cent of the men there +was still a way of squeezing more from the officers. As soon as the fort +realized the fact the town ceased to realize the funds, and Skidmore was +told to send no more castaways to Silver Hill, so he simply turned them +out to take their medicine where once they took their comfort--at the +post. + +But Skid's was a menace in yet another way, and, so long as his "ranch" +was far over to the southeast, the fort had not felt it. The noble +redman likes liquor, and the low-caste and half-breed crave it. There +were always a shabby lot of hang-dog, prowling, ill-favored +off-scourings of the Sioux lurking about Skid's premises day and night, +bartering when they had anything to barter, but generally begging or +stealing. A drunken soldier, sleeping off his whisky in the willow +patches, was ever fair game, and sometimes now soldiers were found +throttled, and robbed of their very boots and shirts. Serious clashes +had occurred, and were of almost daily happening, to the end that +officers, out fishing or shooting, had been insulted and threatened by +Indians who had sworn vengeance against the soldier, and knew no +discrimination. "We'll have trouble from that yet," Stone had told his +general, and the grave, lined face of the latter showed how seriously he +regarded the possibility. Sandy Ray, riding far out to the southwest one +summer day, had met a brace of young braves who insolently ordered him +to turn back or fight, and this when he had not so much as a pocket +pistol or an inkling that trouble was brewing. Knowing a little of their +"lingo," and something of the sign language, he demanded an explanation, +and got for answer that two of their brothers had been worsted in +conflict with him and his party. Sandy protested he had had no trouble +with any of their people, and got a prompt answer, "Fork tongue!" +"Liar!" and other expletives not printable, and he turned back before +their revolvers, wrathful, helpless, and wondering. He told his tale to +the colonel, and Stone looked solemn: + +"Sandy," said he, "you--take chances riding out that way. I--I've been +getting anxious about you--have been on the point of speaking--before." +Whereat Ray suddenly went crimson, through his coat of sun tan, and bit +his lip to control its quiver. "There's mischief brewing with those +people, I fear. Their agent has written me twice. One drunken brawl at +Skid's has led to clashes where whisky wasn't the inciting cause. He +says two of his young men were set upon by some of our troopers here, +and it isn't safe to meet them alone. Indeed, Sandy, I wish you'd ride +in--some other direction." + +It was what his mother had very gently said to him but yester morning, +before he had heard of any sign of Indian trouble. How _was_ he to hear, +since he seemed to avoid the society of his kind and to prefer to live +alone? Ray left the colonel's presence with his nerves a-tingle. Had it +come to this then, that his father's old friend should say to his +father's son that--he was riding the wrong way? + +Yes. This was another matter that was giving Stone sore trouble. Mrs. +Stone was a woman who paid, ordinarily, little heed to garrison talk. +She and her colonel were the best of chums, and one reason was that, +even when she heard she would never carry to him the little spiteful +rumors often set astir by the envious or malicious. When, therefore, +Mrs. Stone came to him with a story at the expense of man or woman, the +colonel knew there was something behind it. Now, though Mrs. Dwight's +pretty phaeton usually _started_ eastward, it speedily "changed +direction." The country about Minneconjou was very open, almost all +rolling, treeless prairie, and its hard, winding roads could be seen +criss-crossing the gray-green surface in many a mile. It seemed wicked +that Mrs. Dwight should care to stay out so long when her husband had +been so very seriously ill and was still confined to his room. Even +though he did not desire her presence, and was sore angered at and +presumably estranged from her, Minneconjou said she ought not to be +abroad, especially if it involved her meeting a young officer once +thought to have been deeply smitten with her charms. True, no one had +seen them together except from a long distance, and then it appeared +that the horseman rode for a few moments only by the side of the pretty +equipage. But, for what else could she go thither, and why, if bent on +going thither, should she thrice start by way of the east gate and then +make long, wide circuit of the prairie roads? + +Mrs. Stone had heard enough to convince her she ought to speak to Mrs. +Dwight, but first she must consult her husband. Stone had heard just +enough to convince him he ought to speak to Sandy, when they had their +conference, this admirable couple, and that day he spoke. + +And that day, as it happened, Sandy Ray had ridden home, saying to +himself "this must be the last." + +One morning, the first meeting since that of the runaway, she had +surprised him mooning at the cottonwoods, his horse tethered and +cropping the bunch grass, he himself stretched at length at the edge of +the stream lost in deep and somber reflection. Just where she expected, +there she found him, but not as she expected. In spite of her +effusiveness the day of the drive, he was grave, distant, unresponsive, +though she sat beaming on him from the phaeton, Felicie beside her, an +unhearing, unheeding, uncomprehending dummy. The next time Inez took the +air in that direction she saw him afar off, and he her, and rode away. +That evening she promenaded quite an hour on her veranda, and later he +got a little missive: + + Will Mr. Ray, if not too busy, come to me one moment? There is a + matter on which I much desire his aid. + + (Signed) INEZ DWIGHT. + +Ray was slowly crossing the parade, after an hour at the sergeants' +school. He could not stay home, where mother might possibly ask the +questions she sometimes looked, but he need not have feared. Dwight's +one soldier groom came speeding with the note and the word, "Mrs. +Dwight's at the gate now, sor" And at the gate she was, in diaphanous +muslin or _pina_ or _justi_--how should a man know? Ray neither knew nor +cared. His head was set against her, though his heart was throbbing +hard. He had listened just one day to her soft speeches, quivered under +her melting glance, and thrilled under her touch. Then he saw his danger +and swore he would shun it, coward or no coward. On that following day, +afar up the valley, he had set his face against her when she came in +search of him. Now he could not so affront her, though she had tricked +and affronted him. Again he was civil or coldly courteous, but he held +aloof and would not see her extended hand, whereat her underlip began to +tremble, and she laid her hand upon his arm. + +"Am I _never_ to have a kind word, Sandy?" she pleaded, and there was +intoxication in the glance, the touch, and trembling lip. "Will you +never listen to my story, and know how I was tricked--how--how I lost +you?" + +And bluntly he had answered, "I do not care to know. If that is all you +wish to see me about, good-night," then turned and left her. He was +raging at the thought of her flirtation with Foster. He could not +forgive that, though for a few hours, in the amaze, bewilderment, and +vague delight with which he had heard her waking words, and read the +alluring message in her eyes, and felt the warm throb of her heart, +almost against his, as they homeward drove, with Priscilla stern and +silent at the reins, he had forgotten. He had been carried back, in +spite of all, to the thrill and glamour of those wondrous days and +almost deliriously blissful nights, sailing over moonlit summer seas, +wandering under starry summer skies, with the soft breeze laden with the +perfume of the cherry blossoms stirring her dusky hair and blowing it +upon his warm young lips. But that was far, far in the past now. He +could have listened, _might_ have listened, but between her pleading +eyes--those beautiful, uplifted eyes--and him there stalked the effigy +of Stanley Foster, with that sneering, smiling, insolent, triumphant, +possessive look upon his evil face; and, though Ray hated it, it was +what he needed. Let it be remembered of him, then, that in the stillness +of the summer night when they two stood almost face to face and utterly +alone, despite her restraining hand, her beseeching touch and tone, he +turned sturdily away. + +But alas for human frailty, that was not the last appeal! The summer +night was young, there was a soft wind blowing from the wrong direction, +the southeast, and the strains of music, mellowed and tempered by +distance, had been wafted fortwards from beyond the stream, soon to give +way to louder, harsher strains, and be punctuated by jeering laugh or +drunken yell. It was barely ten o'clock, yet the broad walk and many a +veranda along the row seemed deserted. Walking stiffly homeward, Ray met +only one couple, and never heeded a hail or two from vine-screened +porches. He was in no mood for chat or confidence. He wished to reach +his own room, and reach it unmolested. He breathed a sigh of relief that +there was no one to detain him as he neared his own doorway. The little +parlor, too, was deserted. Mother and Priscilla had apparently gone to +some one of the neighbors. The lights were turned down on the lower +floor and all was darkness above. Doors and windows, army-fashion, stood +wide open, and, as he struck a match on reaching his little room, the +white curtains were fluttering outward under the stir of the gentle air +that swept through from the hall. He had no thought of staying. He meant +to leave his books and papers, to bathe his face and hands, for they +seemed burning, and then--he had no definite plan; he only wished to be +alone. + +At the foot of the stairs, as he reached the lower hall, he heard his +mother's voice. She was at the gate, Priscilla and Captain Washburn, +too, and Sandy turned, tiptoed through the hall, the dining-room, the +deserted kitchen, for the domestics had gone gossiping about the +neighborhood. Back of the kitchen, in the narrow yard, ran the +one-storied shed, divided by partitions into laundry, storeroom, coal +and woodshed, and Hogan's sleeping-room and sanctuary, and a dark form +issued from Hogan's doorway at the instant that Sandy, tiptoeing still, +came forth from the kitchen. "Hogan!" he hailed, but it was not Hogan. +It was someone of his own size and build, someone who started, then +stopped short and faced him with punctilious salute. + +"It is Blenke, sir." + +"And what the devil are you doing--there?" demanded Ray, suspicious, +irritated, nervously angered against everything, everybody; never, +moreover, approving of Blenke, and knowing well how Hogan disapproved of +him. + +But Blenke's voice was gentle melancholy, mingled with profound respect. + +"Looking for Hogan, sir. I had promised Miss Sanford to return some +books. I didn't presume to enter the house, and thought to leave a +message with him. I desired, too, to see the lieutenant, sir. My +application for transfer to the cavalry has been disapproved, and--I +hoped that he might say just a word to help me." + +"After that exploit of yours--last month?" And Ray's eyes grew angrier +yet. "We have too many questionable characters as it is." + +"Lieutenant," spoke the soldier, almost imploringly, "I am doing my best +to live down that--most deplorable affair. I was drugged, sir. There can +be no other explanation, but my captain still holds it against me, and +at the very time I most needed to be here, he has picked me out for +detached duty--to go to the wood camp in the Sagamore to-morrow." + +And at the instant Priscilla's crisp, even tones were heard at the rear +door. "Oh, Blenke? I _thought_ I knew the voice. One moment and I'll +strike a light!" + +And in that moment Sandy made his escape. + +His mother was sitting up waiting for him when, an hour later, he came +in. Tenderly, fondly, she kissed him, and for a moment he clung to her. +Then, looking in her face, he saw impending question. + +"Not--not to-night, mother, darling," he hurriedly spoke. "I _do_ want +to talk with you--to tell you, but not to-night. Bear with me just a day +or two, and"--then again his arms enfolded her--"trust me." + +Her silent kiss, her murmured blessing, was his good-night. Then she +went slowly to her room, leaving him to extinguish the lights and close +their little army home to await the coming of another day. + +But, somewhere about twelve there was trouble down toward the fords, and +Sandy, in no mood for sleep, went forth to inquire. The sentry on No. 3 +was standing listening to the distant jumble of excited voices. "I don't +know what it was, sir. They took some fellow up to the guard-house, and +they're hunting the willows for more." Then No. 4, behind them, set up a +shout for the corporal, which No. 3 echoed, and Sandy, not knowing what +to expect or why he should go, trudged westward up the sentry post and +found No. 4 fifty paces beyond the last quarters, the major's, and +wrathful because "some fellers," he said, had sneaked in across his +post. The corporal came panting on the run, and Ray scouted on along the +bluff, saw nothing, found nobody, turned to his right at the west gate, +glanced upward where the night light burned dimly in the patient's room, +at the closed blinds and shades of the room he knew to be hers, and all +was hushed and still within the sleeping garrison as a second time he +walked slowly homeward along the row, unseen of anybody, probably, from +the moment he left the corporal and No. 4, who had some words over the +sentry's report, and parted in ill humor. "Don't you yell for me again +until it's business, d'ye hear?" was the corporal's last injunction. + +Less than fifteen minutes later No. 4 was startled by a sudden sound--a +woman's half-stifled scream, followed by commotion at Major Dwight's. + + + + +CHAPTER XX + +A MOTHER'S DREAD + + +Little Jim came over somewhat earlier than usual in the morning. He had +returned to his own room adjoining his father's as soon as the +physicians deemed it wise to permit, and the permission was given +earlier than others might have deemed wise because the doctors, both +senior and junior, agreed that Dwight's recovery would be retarded if +the boy were not close at hand, with his fond smile and caressing touch, +eager to answer the faintest call. There was something more than +pathetic in the way the somber deep-set eyes of the weak and broken man, +so infinitely humbled in his own sight, now followed Jimmy's every +movement about the room, and as soon as Dwight was strong enough to +leave his bed for a moment at a time he would be up again and again +during the night hours to gaze into Jimmy's sleeping face, to softly +touch his hand or forehead. Stratton, of the hospital force, detailed +for duty with the major, told later how the big tears would gather in +the major's eyes as he bent over the unconscious sleeper; how, many a +time he would find the major kneeling by the bedside, his lips moving in +prayer. Marion's eyes welled over when this was told her, though it +could hardly have been news. She and all who knew him in the old days +must have known how, with clearing faculties, the strong and resolute +man would suffer in the consciousness of the cruel wrong he had done his +boy, must have realized the depth of his contrition, and probably +guessed with fair accuracy the intensity of his grieving and of his +thoughts of her--the wife he had so utterly loved, so sadly +lost--Margaret, the devoted mother of his only son. + +And realizing this, there had come a vital question to the mind of +Marion Ray. What was to be now the father's attitude toward this +girl-wife--she who had been set in Margaret's place, never for a moment +to fill it? All Minneconjou was asking itself what would be her status, +this beautiful young creature, when reason fully resumed its sway and +Dwight was once more able to assume the reins of domestic authority? +Thus far all that was known was that estrangement existed. She, herself, +had sobbingly told her story to eager if not always sympathetic souls. +"He turns from me almost in loathing--he for whom I would gladly die!" +was her melodramatic utterance to one of her hearers, and it was quite +enough to start the story that there would certainly be a separation +just so soon as Dwight could effect it. Meantime, Inez had ever her +faithful Felicie, her phaeton, her flowers from town, her lovely gowns +and fluffy wraps, her long hours abed after sun-up, her late hours and +suppers, concerning which kitchen cabinets of officers' row had +superabundant information, and a certain firm in Silver Hill a +swift-growing account, on the face of which the item, "Case Pommery Sec, +Pints," appeared with a frequency suggestive of supper parties of +several people instead of only one or two. The domestics at the Dwights' +were a disloyal lot, if Felicie's views were accepted, but as members of +the establishment they resented it that the "frog-eating Feelissy" +should dare to give them orders. "Madame much objected to their late +hours." "It was Madame's wish they should be in their rooms by eleven +o'clock, and that even when there was a dance they should be home by +twelve." Their rooms were under the low mansard, on what might be called +the third floor, and a back staircase led from the kitchen to the upper +regions; therefore, there was no need of their entering the dining-room +late at night. Still, they saw no reason why a bolt should have been +placed on the door. They said improper things at the advent of that +obstruction during Foster's brief visit, and, after his unlamented +departure, the spare bedroom on the lower floor, assigned to that +distinguished officer, had been most ostentatiously aired. Foster's +consumption of cigarettes was something abnormal, two receivers being +sometimes left in the dining-room over night, both well burdened with +ashes and discolored ends--the only tips, by the way, the parting guest, +apparently, had time to leave. + +No, those servitors had rebelled at heart against both mistress and +maid, but the master's dictum had for a time enforced obedience. Now, +however, they were in almost open revolt. "It was her that drove him +crazy or he'd never have beaten Master Jimmy!" was the comprehensive +verdict. Yet housewives who heard their tales and reported them to their +lords met sometimes with rebuff. "Growl because they're sent to bed at +eleven o'clock, do they? They'd growl the harder if ordered to sit up +till then," was one way the unresponsive husband had of settling the +story. But wives, who are wiser in the ways of the domestic world, felt +sure there was something coming to explain it all, and something +came--though, so far from explaining, it seemed to make matters all the +more thrillingly inexplicable. + +Jimmy, as has been said, came earlier. Daddy had been up quite a while +during the night and the doctor had come over before sick call. Mamma +wasn't quite well, and Doctor Wallen had directed that daddy be +undisturbed and left to sleep, if possible, during the morning. Mamma, +of course, never came to breakfast at all now. She had her chocolate in +her room, prepared by Felicie, and seldom appeared until long after +Jimmy was out of the house. Indeed, he seldom now met mamma at all, this +in spite of the fact that, since the major's seizure, mamma had declined +all invitations to dine or sup elsewhere, and such invitations had +ceased coming, when now with entire propriety she might accept, if with +entire propriety invitations could be extended. Minneconjou society was +nearly unanimous in the view that, so long as her husband saw no +impropriety in the lady's conduct, she must be bidden. Now that he only +saw her in the presence of the doctor or the nurse, and she had for two +weeks declined to attend, there was warrant for the omission of her name +from social functions. Jimmy lunched either at Aunt Marion's, with some +of his friends, or had a chosen chum to lunch with him at home. Anything +Master Jim desired the kitchen cabinet accorded without demur. He dined +for the present with Aunt Marion, or "had his rations," as he said, when +daddy was served at seven. + +Mamma, attended by Felicie, dined later, in her accustomed state. +Mamma's appetite was very delicate and had to be stimulated, he said +with unconscious truth, and this morning, this particular morning, he +had had to wait for his breakfast. There was some kind of a squabble +between Felicie and the folks in the kitchen. He couldn't understand it. +They didn't like her having beaux around late at night--swore they'd +seen a fellow prowling about there two or three times, and only just +missed nabbing him at the foot of the back stairs last night, and +Felicie was white with rage. She said Butts, the groom, was a _cocaine_ +(though _he_ never kept any, and Felicie did) and she called the cook +_coshon_, and scolded both for having disturbed daddy. Daddy got as far +as the back stairs with his revolver, they said, before the nurse could +get him back, and they swore it wasn't their doing, but hers--her scream +that woke him, and even the sentry heard it out on No. 4 and yelled for +the corporal, and they nearly caught somebody that hid in the woodshed, +and "wasn't it funny, I never heard a thing!" and then Jimmy stopped +short, for Priscilla had stepped to Aunt Marion's side at the little +desk, and Aunt Marion was very pale. Priscilla had thrown him one +warning glance, as though to say "Hush." But Aunt Marion asked a +question. + +"What time did this happen, Jimmy?" + +"Why, after twelve, the nurse told the doctor. But, _wasn't_ it funny +that I didn't hear a thing of it?" + +"Hear what, Jimmy?" said a voice, and Sandy, an hour late for breakfast, +stood at the open door. + +"Go fetch some water, quick!" said Priscilla, and Jim went like a shot, +for Sandy Ray stood just one moment, pallid and uncomprehending, then, +with a cry, sprang to his mother's side, for her eyes had closed, her +head was drooping on Priscilla's arm. "Don't touch her, Sandy! Let +me----It's--it'll be over in a minute! She has had one or two little +turns like this!" And then Jim came running with a brimming glass. Mrs. +Ray sipped slowly, lifted her head, put forth a feeble, wavering hand +toward Sandy and faintly smiled. "How--foolish!" she muttered. "You +shall have your coffee in a moment, Sandy," but Priscilla, with +determined face, stood her ground and retained her hold. "Don't let her +rise yet," said she warningly, her eyes on his face, "and--don't ask +questions of anybody. Wait!" + +For reasons of his own, Dr. Wallen, after hearing from the attendant of +the stifled scream downstairs at 12:25, gave instructions to speak of it +to nobody but the post surgeon when he came. He did not see, he did not +ask to see, Madame. He did not wish to see Felicie, but that ubiquitous +young person was on the landing and the verge of tears. Madame's rest +also had been cruelly disturbed by this disturbance the most +disreputable made by these _miserables_, the _domestiques_ of _Monsieur +le Commandant_. Madame not until after dawn had been able to repose +herself, and as for Felicie, "me who you speak," nothing but the +pathetic condition of Madame could persuade her to remain another day in +a such establishment, wherein she, the experienced, the +most-recommended, the companion of high nobility, the all-devoted, had +been subject to insolence the most frightful----at which point the rear +door to the landing opened, and in came cook, all bristling for combat, +and the wordy battle would have reopened then and there but for Wallen's +stern, "Silence, both of you! Pull each other's hair to your heart's +content in the cellar, but not one word here." Then hied him homeward. + +When the senior surgeon came over later, the patient was sleeping, and, +after hearing that Wallen had been there, he left without interrogating +the nurse. All seemed going well, so Waring had nothing of especial +consequence to tell the colonel when dropping in at the office later. + +Even the officer of the day, in response to the question, "Anything +special to report, sir?" failed to make the faintest mention of the +excitement reported by No. 4 as occurring soon after twelve. But it was +no fault of the officer of the day. He had other and, presumably, far +more important matters to mention first, and by the time he had told +that two sergeants, three corporals and a dozen men had been run in by +the patrols, many of them battered, most of them drunk, and all of them +out of quarters, out of the post and in the thick of a row over at +Skid's; that one of the guard had been slashed with a knife in the hands +of a half-breed; that the patrol had been pelted with bottles, glasses +and bar-room bric-a-brac; that Lieutenant Stowe had been felled by a +missile that flattened the bridge of his nose, and that the prison room +was filled to the limit, the colonel would hear no more. He ordered his +horse and a mounted orderly, strode to the guard-house to personally +look over the prisoners, then set forth to town in search of the +sheriff. + +So the old officer of the day and the old guard were relieved and went +about their business, and while the colonel was closeted with civilian +officials in town a new story started the rounds at Minneconjou--a story +that only slowly found its way to the officers' club or quarters, for, +if the commanding officer didn't care to hear it, Captain Rollis, the +old officer of the day, cared not to refer to it, but there was one set +of quarters besides that of Major Dwight's in which some portion of the +story, at least, had been anticipated. + +Unable to sleep, filled with anxiety about her firstborn, Marion Ray +after midnight had left her room and stolen over to his, hoping vainly +that he might have made his way thither. But the bed was undisturbed, +the room was empty. Then she thought perhaps he might have fallen asleep +in an easy-chair in the parlor; but the parlor, too, was empty, the +lights turned low. The front door was closed for the night and bolted, +so she went to the kitchen and found the back door ajar. Somewhere out +on sentry post there was for a moment a murmur of voices, then silence +fell again, except for distant sounds at the ford--sounds to which they +were becoming accustomed, though still unreconciled. + +For a while she waited irresolute, vaguely distressed, then, finally, +returned to the upper floor and once again entered Sandy's room and +gazed wistfully about her. All was darkness, but the faint flutter at +the west window told her the light curtain was blowing outward, so she +went thither, drew it in and fastened it, then stepped to the other +opening to the south and looked out over the dark valley of the +Minneconjou, the sharp ridge that spanned the far horizon, and the +brilliant, spangled sky above. And while she gazed, she listened, hoping +every minute to hear the sound of his coming, even though it was no +longer the light, quick, springy step that before his wound was so like +the step she so well remembered--his father's, in the old days of the +--th. She was just turning away disappointed when far up at the west she +heard the shrill cry, "Corporal of the guard, No. 4!" heard the prompt +echo of No. 3, the more distant calls of 2 and 1, and, even before these +last, had heard the swift footfalls of the summoned guardian taking the +short cut across the parade. Two--three minutes she waited, listening +for the explanation. Vaguely, dimly, she could make out the form of No. +3 standing at the edge of the sloping bluff, listening, apparently, like +herself, for explanation of the call. None came. Then the sentry stepped +swiftly along his post in the direction of the sound, as though +something further had caught his eye or ear. Then he was lost to view, +and still she waited. Then she heard a voice that was probably the +sentry's, low and indistinct, yet like the challenge and the "Advance +for recognition". Then, a moment later, a hurried footfall, almost at a +run--a halting, uneven footfall, as though one leg was not doing its +share, and that then surely meant Sandy, and Sandy would know all that +had passed and would tell her. Yes, there he came, so vague, so shadowy, +now that, had she not heard the sound, she would not have looked for the +shadow. She saw the dark form dive quickly through the gate, then pause. +Instead of coming further, Sandy had stopped and, leaning at the +gate-post, was peering up along the fence line outside. How unlike Sandy +that seemed! Why should her son seek shelter and then turn and look back +from a safe covert along the path he came? Something urged her to softly +call his name, but, with a moment's thought, she decided against that. +She would go down, meet him, welcome him, see if there were not +something he needed, see him to his room, kiss him again good-night; and +so she took her candle to the lower floor, left it on the dining-room +table, and finally reached the rear door, even as her son came slowly up +the steps. At that instant began at the guard-house the call of +half-past twelve. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI + +LOVE'S LAST APPEAL + + +Going, as usual, next day to read an hour or so to the invalid major, +still under injunctions not to tax his eyes, Miss Sanford became +conscious of an undercurrent of something akin to sensation, something +approximating unusual excitement. Both doctors had earlier been there, +and Wallen came again. The hospital attendant seemed abnormally anxious +and officious. Felicie, infelicitously named, if it was her name, +fluttered upstairs and down, in and out of my lady's chamber, effusively +greeting the neighbors who somewhat significantly began coming in with +anxious inquiry, tender of sympathy, etc. "Couldn't help noticing the +doctor had been over three times, so fearing the major might have had a +turn for the worse," etc., etc., but it wasn't the man so much as his +wife of whom they hoped for tidings. But Felicie could fence, and would +not favor even the adroit with the desired information. Madame was still +reposing herself. Madame would assuredly promenade at horse or in +vehicle later. Madame adored the fresh, free air, and though Madame was +desolate that, alas, her physicians, these medicines, adjured her that +it was the most important she should at this time live hours in the air +and sunshine, and she was forbidden the bliss of sharing her husband's +confinement and alleviating his ennui, it was for his sake more than her +own and for the sake of their cherished hope that she meekly yield to +their mandates; and was it not a circumstance the most felicitous that +the charming Mademoiselle should be so ever-ready to read to Monsieur +the Commandant? + +With all its graceful, polished pleasantries at the expense of the +unmarried sister of thirty and upwards, the social world that professes +to regard her matrimonial prospects as past praying for, and herself as +oddly unattractive, is quick to take alarm when, apparently accepting +their unflattering view, she likewise accepts duties denied, as a rule, +to those who are attractive. The very girls who giggled behind "Aunt +Priscilla's" back and pitied her undesired lot were promptly and +properly aggrieved that she should prove to be so forward, so +unmaidenly. Because the right man does not happen to come into a woman's +life until so late, or because the wrong one happened in and won her +fresh young heart all too early, it results that many a better, wiser, +lovelier woman lives unmated to-day than many a woman married in her +teens. Lucky is the man the Indian summer of whose life is blessed by +the companionship of such. Minneconjou laughed at Priscilla so long as +she read to the man in hospital or the bed-ridden dames in the married +quarters; but it shied violently at her spending an hour or more each +day in reading to Dwight, even though the attendant was never away, and +Mrs. Ray, with her needlework, was often present. Was Minneconjou +already consigning the present incumbent to outer darkness and thinking +of prescribing another mate for Oswald Dwight? + +Not only did Priscilla note the incessant flittings about the house, but +presently she saw that Dwight's attention was wandering. From the +adjoining room the muffled sound of voices, in petulant appeal or +expostulation, was at times distinctly audible. Felicie wished Madame to +do something, apparently, which Madame was determined not to do. + +Felicie came once or twice with Madame's devoted love to ask if there +was anything Monsieur desired or lacked, and to flash guarded +malevolence at Priscilla. Felicie came again to say Madame was +recalcitrant. She feared Monsieur had not rested well _cette nuit_, and +she wished well to postpone her promenade, but the doctor he had +prescribed and Monsieur he had desired that Madame neglect no +opportunity to take the air, and would not Monsieur again conjure +Madame? Madame was deaf to these the protestations of her most devoted. +Dwight rose slowly from his reclining chair and, excusing himself to the +patient reader, was gone but a moment or two, and Madame was ravishingly +gowned and most becomingly hatted and veiled when, just for a moment, as +the day's session was closing and the fair reader about departing, +Madame rustled in to archly upbraid Monsieur for his cruelty in ordering +her to take her drive when it was impossible for him to be at her side. +"Ah, but next week--next week!"--this, doubtless, for the benefit of +Priscilla--"we shall see!" + +The phaeton was at the door and Priscilla walked silently, thoughtfully, +homeward. Aunt Marion was at her desk, writing pages to the +soldier-husband and father in the distant Philippines. The sweet face +was looking grave and careworn. There were traces of tears, there were +dark lines, about the soft blue eyes, as Priscilla bent and tenderly +kissed her. "Do come down and let me make you a cup of tea," she +pleaded. "You've been writing--and I reading--long. I'd like some, too. +Is--is Sandy home?" + +"Riding," said Aunt Marion briefly, and Priscilla knew. + +Ordinarily, half a dozen women would come drifting in to Mrs. Ray's +during the summer afternoon. To-day there were none. They heard voices +on the walk, voices that seemed to hush as the gate was neared, and only +to resume in low tone after it was passed. Priscilla could not account +for the unusual depression that had seemed to possess Aunt Marion even +when struggling against it herself. At breakfast time Aunt Marion had +been unusually silent, unusually watchful of Sandy, who, before he would +touch his fruit or sip his coffee, had gone forth to the bench in rear +of quarters, searching, he said, for some memoranda he might have +dropped out there at night. He had hunted all through the pockets of his +khaki rig, that he happened to be wearing at that time, and to no +purpose. He must have whipped it out with his handkerchief, he +said--"just that little flat memorandum book" they had often seen him +have, with a few loose pages--no earthly use to anybody but him, no +great consequence, and yet, after breakfast, he was searching again, and +had Hogan searching, and again he returned and hunted all through his +room, and investigated cook and housemaid, and again went forth. +Priscilla found herself unable to cast it from her mind or to cause her +aunt to forget it. Sandy had been gone an hour when she returned, and +had said not to wait dinner; he might ride late and long and far. + +"But not toward the reservation," he assured his mother, seeing the +trouble in her face. "Though I'd more than like to ride over there with +the troop and round up those blackguard reds that turned me back." + +"Those blackguard reds" were forbidden by their agent to set foot north +of the Minneconjou, where the ranchers and settlers and miners were +frequent. But still the mother was anxious, filled with dread she could +not speak, and even as she now sat, absently toying with her teaspoon, +the maid came in with a note. "A soldier friend of Blenke" had just +brought it for Miss Sanford. + +So Priscilla opened and read: + + Miss Sanford will pardon, I pray, the liberty I probably take in + presuming to address her, but our plea to the captain was + fruitless. He insists on my going with the detachment to the wood + camp; so, long before this reaches Miss Sanford we shall have + started, and it may be days before relief will come. Meantime, with + my assurance that with Heaven's help I shall yet redeem myself in + her estimation, I remain Miss Sanford's grateful and humble + servant, + + P. BLENKE. + +Verily, the young man wrote with a pen of the courtier and scholar of +olden time rather than the rude trooper. Verily, Blenke was a man of +parts--and played them. + +"Where is that wood camp?" asked Aunt Marion, with languid interest, +relieved, she knew not why, that Blenke should be gone. + +"Far up the foothills--west. It seems that lately the Indians have been +threatening and abusive," said Priscilla. "That's why the guard was +sent. They march soon after reveille, and--he was so unwilling to go +just now, when he hoped to arrange matters about his--commission," and +Miss Sanford's clear gray eyes, much finer and softer they seemed +without the _pince nez_, were lifted again, half timidly, half +hopefully. + +"How could he expect or hope for such a thing now?" answered Mrs. Ray, +with some asperity. "What officer would recommend him after that--that +exhibition?" + +Priscilla colored. That episode was a sore point, but not a settler. "He +said it depended little on the officers, auntie," was the gently +forceful answer, "so long as he had the senator behind him." Whereupon +Aunt Marion arose and peered through the one window in the little +dining-room that opened to the west. She was forever peering up the +valley now, and Priscilla well knew why. The maid again appeared. +"Phelps, ma'am, Blenke's friend, came back with this," and she held +forth a letter. "He said it was found on sentry post up the bench." + +Mrs. Ray turned quickly and held forth her hand. Silently Miss Sanford +passed the letter to her. It was an ordinary missive, in business +envelope, addressed to Lieutenant Sanford Ray, Fort Minneconjou, and it +had been opened. The torn flap revealed the fact that there were two or +three separate inclosures. For a moment Mrs. Ray turned it in her +slender fingers, thinking intently, then, suddenly recollecting, told +the maid to give her thanks to the soldier if he were still waiting. She +wished to ask had anything else been found, but that, if he cared to, +was for Sandy to do when he came. Then she took the letter to her room, +and stowed it in a pigeonhole of her desk against her boy's return--then +sat her down to wait. + +Meanwhile the object of so much thought and love and care had ridden +many a mile, his brain in a whirl of conflicting emotions. There had +come to him the previous night, in the interval between that brief +interview with Blenke and the later meeting with his mother, a messenger +with a note. It was the same messenger, Butts, the soldier groom, who +had only a short time earlier met him with her note upon the parade. +Ray, fleeing from a possible meeting with Priscilla, had left her and +her soldier _protege_ together, and slipping out of the rear gate had +gone walking up the bluffs. It was not quite time for taps and the +sentries to begin challenging. He could have gone through the yard of +any one of the adjacent quarters and so reach the front, the promenade +walk and the wide parade, but he wished to be alone, under the starry +skies. He needed to think. What could she have meant by saying, "How +they tricked me--how I lost you?" He had blamed her bitterly, savagely, +for her cold-blooded, heartless jilting of him, without ever a word of +explanation. It was so cruel, so abominable a thing that, perhaps, even +Inez Farrell could not, without some excuse or reason, be guilty of it. +And now she was striving to tell him, to make him understand; now she +was alienated from her husband and not, so Dwight's own references to +Foster would go to prove, not because of this affair with Captain +Foster. She said it was her right to be heard. Perhaps it was. If she +had been tricked, deceived, wronged--such things had happened--the story +was old as the Deluge and might be true, and if true, was it decent to +treat her with studied contempt? If she had been tricked into throwing +him over--if, if she had been true in saying she loved him, as fervently +she swore that last sweet night under the cherry blossoms in Japan, was +it manly to--to crush and scorn her now? + +He was again, with downcast eyes, slowly pacing the bluff and in rear of +the major's quarters when, far over toward the guard-house, the soft, +prolonged notes of "Lights out" were lifted on the night, and he almost +collided with a man coming quickly forth from the gate. The rear door +had closed with a bang but the moment before, and Felicie's voice, in +subdued tone, had been faintly audible. The man proved to be the same +who had come to him so short a time before, and the mission was +practically the same, "A note for the lieutenant." + +Ray took it to the west gate and read it under the lamp. + + I ask for only five minutes, at the old place, about the same hour + to-morrow. I will never ask again, for I am to leave + Minneconjou--and him--forever. + +Startled, stunned, he read her words. Was it then so _very_ serious as +this would imply? Was it her doing, or her husband's, that she should +leave? Was it possible that he, Sandy Ray, was even remotely a cause? He +could not fathom it. He would not rudely refuse. That would be simply +brutal. But why could she not see him here at home on the veranda? Why +must the meeting be so far from the post--so close to the--clandestine? +Mother had said----Then suddenly he bethought him that mother wished to +speak with him, that he had promised her to be home about taps, and, +even though he could not, dare not, talk with her to-night, he could and +should go to her at once. + +He started; then, hearing laughing voices and light footsteps along the +walk ahead of him, hesitated. Some of those teasing, tormenting garrison +girls, of course! He could not face them. Abruptly he turned again, +passed round in rear of Dwight's, stowing the note in a little notebook +as he sped and the book in the breast pocket of his khaki tunic. Some +backstair flirtation was going on in the dusk of the summer night, not +ten paces ahead, for there was sound of playful Hibernian pleading, a +laughing, half-repelling, half-inviting "Ah, g'wan now!" followed by a +slap. A trim young trooper leaped backward from a gateway to avoid +another shock--and met it on Ray's stout shoulder. The collision +startled one and staggered both. The Irish lad, all confusion, sprang +for his officer's hat and restored it with, "Beg a thousand pardons, +Lieutenant," and blessed his young superior's kindly, "No harm done, +Kelly," as, whipping out his handkerchief, Ray sped along, dusting off +the felt. + +And that harm had been done he never knew till later. + +He had managed to put mother off until the following day; had gone forth +a second time, as has been told; had passed a second time the gate where +earlier in the evening she had awaited him. All at the moment was +apparently quiet. He had almost reached home when the sound of harsh +voices out beyond the east gate caught his ear--more poor devils coming +or being dragged home from the hog ranch. Suddenly there came the sound +of muffled curses and blows. Sandy wondered why No. 2 did not call the +corporal. He hastened onward and out beyond the gate and came upon the +explanation: no need to call the corporal when two were already there, +with several of the guard, striving hard to lug peaceably to the prison +room a sextette of soldier revelers who resented being either lugged or +persuaded. The guard couldn't bear to hurt their fellows: who could say +but that conditions and parties might be reversed within the week? The +row subsided with the sight of Lieutenant Ray, but not until it had +prevented his hearing the call for the corporal that came from No. 4. He +found the front door bolted when he got back to the house, and, +remembering having bolted it, passed round to the rear steps and +then--met his mother at the door. + +She had even more to ask him then, yet once more he pleaded: "Wait until +to-morrow night." So wait she did, patiently, prayerfully, trustfully, +until the morrow's night; and then, not so patiently, but, oh, even more +prayerfully, longer, very much longer. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII + +THE LOST FOUND + + +"At the usual place and about the usual hour" the pretty phaeton, with +its fair charioteer and her black-browed companion, drew up that +afternoon under such shade as the cottonwoods afforded and waited for +the coming of a rider who, starting some time ahead, was now some time +behind. Nor did he seem to hasten when finally he came suddenly into +view at the mouth of that well-remembered ravine, and rode straight but +slowly to the rendezvous. She, the charioteer, exquisitely gowned as we +saw her parting from her invalid husband, watched him with dilating +eyes, alighted as he neared the grove, walked a dozen yards or so to +meet him and by his side as he led his mount to a point beyond earshot +of the carriage. "_You_ may trust that woman, Mrs. Dwight," said he, +"but I do not. I have come at last and against my judgment to hear----" + +"_Mrs. Dwight!_" she began, with pouting reproach. "Are we at the hop +room, Sandy, or are we,"--and the dark eyes slowly lifted,--"are we back +again at Nagasaki?" + +"We are never _that_!" was the quick reply, as he bent and knotted the +reins about a sapling at the brink; then, suddenly facing her: "I said I +should not meet you here again. I have come for this last time solely at +your urging. Never until this week have I shrunk from my mother. Never +after this day shall I do it again. You say I have wronged you--hurt +you--inexpressibly, and you wish to tell me why. Go ahead!" + +With that he pulled his hatbrim well down to his eyebrows, folded his +arms, crossed one spurred heel over the tan-booted mate and leaned +against a sturdy cottonwood. There was just a spice of the theatrical +about it all, but he was young, sore-hearted and hurt. It left no +support for her, unless she leaned on him, which nothing in his attitude +seemed to invite. Inez had no use for folded arms. To her they should be +either outstretched or enfolding. + +"You are harsh and cold and bitter, Sandy. You make it so much harder +for me to begin," she whimpered, pathetically, prettily, like a spoiled +child sure of ultimate triumph. "Why did you never answer my letter from +San Francisco?" + +"I never got it." + +"Then even that early he had begun to doubt me and to fear--you," and +again the lovely eyes were making play. "And now he hates me, because he +himself was a brute to his boy. He upbraids me for that, and--and for +Mr. Foster." + +"God! I should think he might!" + +"Sandy, Sandy!" she cried, stepping impetuously a pace nearer. "Do you, +too--do you _dare_ think me so base--me, when at Naples I would not even +let you stay--you whom I longed to speak with? Ah, how unjust!--how +mean! how cruel! And now, when I am almost friendless, you who professed +so much--_you_ are the first to turn from me." Indeed, he was turning, +and his face was growing very white again--his eyes were gazing anywhere +but at her, and she saw it, and with both her firm little hands seized +his left arm as though to turn him back. "Sandy, you _shall_ hear me, +for I'm desperate, starving, and that man, he--he tells me I lied to +him; and I did, I did lie--_for you_! He talks to me of +a--settlement--of sending me home. Why, I _have_ no home! I have no +father. My own was buried years ago. I have no mother, for she has no +thought but for him--who has disgraced us all and robbed Major Dwight of +thousands and dared to threaten me--_me_, because the major would not +send more. Oh, you _shall_ listen! It's for the last time, Sandy, and +you _shall_ know the truth! Oh, how _can_ you so humiliate a woman +who--who----_Look_ at me, Sandy, look, oh, my soldier boy, and see for +yourself! They robbed me of you, my heart's darling! They stole every +letter. They never let me see you, and they----Oh, you think this the +old worn-out story of the cruel parent and the suffering child, but I +_will_ convince you!" And now her hands quit their hold upon his arm and +tore at the bosom of her dainty gown--tore it open to the filmy lace and +ribbon underneath--tore off the driving glove from her right hand, +hurling it to the ground, and then the slim, nervous little fingers went +burrowing within. "You _dare_ doubt I love you!" she cried, and now her +eyes were ablaze, her rich, red lips were parted, her breath came +panting through the pearly gate, her young bosom was heaving like a +troubled sea. "I told you I had burned your letters--such as I had. They +burned them for me, but they could not burn your picture--_I_ did +that--I, with my mad kisses, Sandy!" And from its warm nest she drew it, +the very one he had given her in Manila, the brave, boyish face in its +tiny frame of gold, moist and blurred as though indeed her lips, her +tears, had worn it dim. "You will not look?" though one quick glance he +shot, then, with the blood surging through his veins, he turned again +and covered his eyes with his arm. "Then hear--this--and this," and +long, passionately, repeatedly she kissed the senseless, unresponsive +counterfeit, and then, letting it hang by its slender chain, once more +seized his arm and burst into a passion of tears. Then suddenly, +fiercely, she thrust him aside, turned, started swiftly away, took but +four tottering steps and, finally, almost as she did the day of the +drive, toppled headlong. + +When Felicie thought it time to take another decorous look, Mr. Ray was +kneeling by that fair, prostrate form, lifting the lovely head upon his +knee, one arm about her neck, the other drawing her to his breast, and +he was raining kiss after kiss upon the sweeping, long-lashed eyelids, +upon the pallid cheek, upon the exquisite mouth, and presently a slender +arm stole languidly about his neck and drew and held his lips to hers. + +It was nearly five that evening when the pretty phaeton whirled homeward +through the west gate. It was nearly nine when Lieutenant Ray came +slowly up-hill from the stables and, climbing the short flight to the +rear doorway, found his mother and Priscilla awaiting him in the +dining-room. He had eaten nothing since a late breakfast, and an +appetizing supper was in readiness. He looked very pale, very tired, and +to the fond and anxious eyes uplifted hopefully at first, very ill--too +ill, perhaps, to note how ill she looked, the loving and tender and +faithful one, who long hours had been waiting, watching, listening for +his step, praying for his safe return, hoping for the promised +confidence. She knew when the phaeton came, though she said naught of it +to her niece. Nearly a mile of the valley road could be seen from +Sandy's window, where she hovered much of the time until the sun went +down. Now she quickly rose and went to him, and with her soft hands on +his temples kissed his forehead, for he bowed his head, and for the +first time in his life his lips dared not even touch her cheek. "I--I'm +about used up, mother," he faltered. "I--can I have some tea? Then I'll +get a warm bath, please, and go to bed. Has--anyone been here for +me--inquired for me?" + +The sudden upward look, the anxiety in his tone, might well have warned +her, but there was something she had to know, something that ever since +evening gunfire had been preying on her mind. No. 4's story had spread +by this time all over the post, growing, probably, with each repetition. +There had been a tragic scene of some kind at Major Dwight's shortly +after midnight. Jimmy had prepared her for that much. No. 4 had heard +screams; then lights went flitting to and fro, and there was sound of +scuffling and running about, and the guard had almost arrested someone +who came dashing from the rear gate and was lost in the darkness and the +yards below. No, nobody had come to ask for Sandy! It seemed strange +that so very few of the officers had even passed that way. Everybody had +business at the office, the Club, the barracks, the guard-house; even at +Dwight's there had been a sort of impromptu conference, but nobody had +been there to disturb them in any way--no officers, at least; but Sandy +read the impending truth in his mother's eyes. She was talking +nervously, with hardly a pause, as though she wished him to know all she +knew before he could speak, and, even as Priscilla moved noiselessly +about, brewing his tea and arranging his supper, Marion, the mother, +talked rapidly, wretchedly on. + +Yes, there was something. The notebook had been found and brought home. +She would get it for him. It was right there in her desk. Priscilla +handed it, and he almost snatched it from her, swiftly turning the +leaves; then, seizing it by the back, shook it vehemently. A few scraps +and clippings fluttered to the floor, but not the paper he needed. + +"Who brought it? How did it come?" he demanded, a world of trouble, +almost terror, in his eyes. + +"Major Dwight's man," she answered, her blue eyes almost imploringly +fixed upon his face. + +"_Dwight's_ man! But how, _how_, mother? Was there no word? Was it +wrapped, or----?" + +"Just as you see it, Sandy. He merely said it had been picked up and +left at the house. He brought it here when he heard it was yours." + +The tea stood untasted before him. He had not even taken his seat. Pale +to his lips, and with hands that trembled almost as did her own, Sandy +stood facing his mother, and Priscilla stepped quietly from the room. + +"Did he say _who_ found it--and where?" he asked. + +"He finally said it was--picked up _at_ Major Dwight's," was her answer, +and imploringly still the blue eyes searched his face, and for an +instant lighted with hope. + +"But I never set foot at Major Dwight's--I've never been inside his +gates since I called there with you. The nearest I've been was the front +gate, and then, _this_ couldn't have been with me." + +"Why, Sandy?" + +"Because it was in the breast pocket of my khaki--the thing I wore when +we said good-night; but it seemed to grow chilly--or I did. I changed to +the blue coat before going out at twelve. Lucky, too, for I had to go +out front and help with some poor devils brought in from Skid's. I saw +your light when coming home over the parade and wondered if the row had +kept you awake." + +"You--came in the _front_ way, Sandy?" And the blue eyes seemed to +implore him to stop, to reflect, to remember. + +"Why, certainly, mother. I was afraid you'd hear me trying the front +door or hobbling round on the planks. What brought----Why, _mother_!" + +With her heart almost stilled, with her hands on her breast, with a +blanched face and stricken eyes, Marion slowly found her feet, then +rested one hand upon the table before she could steady herself to speak: + +"Sandy, think! Do you mean you were not--_there_ when the sentry No. 4 +called; that you did not come hurrying home and stop there--at the back +gate?" + +"Mother, dear, what can you mean? When I met you at the door I had just +come round from the front, from over near the guard-house. The officer +of the guard had his hands full and----Priscilla, quick!" + +And Priscilla came at speed, and, after one swift look as they lifted +the drooping form to a sofa, whispered: "The doctor! Run!" + +And though running was beyond him, Sandy limped in frantic haste, for +the mother's heart and health had seemed failing her for weeks, and this +was most alarming. Even at ten o'clock she had not fully regained +consciousness, but was mending, and by that time both doctors had come +to her, and Mrs. Stone was at her bedside, while Priscilla, calm, grave +and self-poised, was answering the many anxious, sorrowful inquiries, +for no woman at Minneconjou was loved and honored more than Marion Ray, +who, believing the evidence of her own senses sufficient to confirm an +ever-growing, dreadful suspicion, had gone down under the blow. + +There had been, as was said, some kind of conference during the late +afternoon. The colonel, the post surgeon, two or three wise-heads among +the field and senior line officers and that indispensable adjutant. +There had come quite late an aide-de-camp of the department commander, +who had been at Wister and at some investigation over at the Minneconjou +agency, who had something to say concerning the state of mind in which +he found Captain Foster, which was bad; the state of mind in which he +found the redmen--which was worse; and finally the state of things on +both sides of the stream at Minneconjou--which was worst of all. +Foster's rancor against Ray was venomous as ever, and he claimed to have +new evidence, the mention of which made both Stone and the surgeon look +grave. The agent's worry as to his turbulent charges was doubled by new +events, and he demanded immediate aid. The post guard reports and the +ranch-keeper's defiance told all too vividly how the devil had triumphed +at Minneconjou. The colonel, the chaplain, the commissioned force, were +helpless against the Act of Congress that had taken away their best hold +on the men and turned the men over to the enemy. The situation, so far +as Skid and his saloon and satellites were concerned, was past praying +for. But there were "some things, thank God," said Stone, in which he +could still strike for the good name of his garrison. Foster's new +evidence should be investigated, said he, and as for the agent, he +should have his guard, and a strong one, forthwith. + +"How did you leave Mrs. Ray, doctor?" he asked his medical man and +next-door neighbor on the left, as Waring came tramping home soon after +taps. + +"Resting quietly, colonel. She will do very well to-morrow." + +Stone had come down to the gate to meet him. One glance he threw to the +right and left, then lowered his voice. + +"Any reason why Sandy shouldn't go in command of a guard to the agency +in the morning?" + +"No reason why he shouldn't, sir, and--several why he should." + + + + +CHAPTER XXIII + +A WELCOME PERIL + + +"For such light duty as he may be able to perform," read the order that +had brought Sandy Ray to Minneconjou. First it was the Canteen, and +under the young officer's zealous management that fiercely assailed and +finally abolished institution had been a credit to the post and a +comfort to the men. It was not the duty Ray best loved, by any means, +but, being debarred by his wound from active exercise, compelled as yet +to ride slowly and with caution, he had thankfully accepted and +thoroughly performed it. Then had come his serious trouble, and then, +when, had he known the stories in circulation, he should have remained +to face them, he was ordered away, leaving, like Sir Peter Teazle, his +character behind him. + +He was ordered to a difficult, probably dangerous and possibly perilous +duty, and, knowing this, he could not for an instant delay or demur. It +wasn't in the blood of the Rays to shirk. Far better might it have been +for Sandy had someone, either friend or foe, suggested that his being +selected, when he belonged to neither regiment represented in the +garrison, was in itself intimation that the stories at his expense were +believed, and if that were true he should be sent to Coventry--not to +command. There were young fellows in both the cavalry and infantry at +Minneconjou who would eagerly have welcomed the detail, with its chance +of swelling an efficiency record. Under any other circumstances there +might have been protest, there would have been growling. Now there were +only silence and significant looks. Even at the Club (Minneconjou had +set its seal against the time-honored, but misleading, appellation +"Mess"), where her name could not be mentioned, even in a whisper, the +order was accepted without comment. There was a woman in the case! + +Ordinarily, under circumstances demanding the detail of a guard for such +purposes, post commanders would send a company under a captain, or half +a company under a subaltern; but Stone hated to lose a unit from his +regimental line. He had sent to the wood camp a sergeant with a dozen +picked men--one or two from each of his infantry companies. Now he sent +a lieutenant and thirty of the rank and file, selected at random, to the +aid of the agent. Of this thirty a sergeant, two corporals and twelve +men were taken from the squadron, for it might be necessary to send out +mounted men to make arrests, said the agent, and the agency police were +sullen over recent happenings. Sandy was notified by a call from the +post adjutant about 11:30, just as he was softly locking up for the +night. He listened in silence, made no comment, asked no questions, +completed his few preparations, bade Priscilla keep it all from his +mother until after he was gone, for rest and sleep were most essential, +and at dawn, with dark-rimmed eyes and solemn face, he stole to the +half-open doorway, beyond which the night lamp dimly glowed; listened; +entered one moment and softly kissed the dear hand that lay so wearily +upon the coverlet; looked fondly at the gentle, careworn face, and then, +with firm, set lips, turned stealthily away. Priscilla was up and had +hot coffee ready for him below stairs, and possibly admonition, but this +she spared him. Oh, if Priscilla had but known what Aunt Marion had seen +at the rear gate two nights before, what might she not have said to +both! for Priscilla, too, had had her vigil, had both seen and heard and +knew more than Aunt Marion even thought she knew. + +"It is barely ten miles," said Sandy. "Couriers will be riding to and +fro. Then there's the telephone by way of town, unless the wires are +cut. Let me hear of mother night and morning, Pris. Now, I've got to +go." + +She stood at the window of his room an hour later, watching the little +command as it wound away among the dips and waves of the southward +prairie, until finally lost to sight. This was a new phase to the +situation. Priscilla had never pictured the modern redman save as she +had heard him described at church sociables, peace society meetings and +the occasional addresses of inspired "Friends of the Indian," who came +soliciting the sympathies--and subscriptions--of the congregation. The +few specimens that had met her gaze about town, the station and the +fords were, she felt sure, and justly sure, but frowsy representatives +of a magnificent race. It was only when the agent, himself a godly man, +had come and told his recent troubles, after evening service, that +Priscilla began to realize how, despite his innate nobility of character +and exalted ideals and eloquence, the average ward of the nation was not +built on the lofty plane of Logan, Osceola and Chief Joseph. He was +quite capable of extravagant demands of his own and of raising the devil +when he didn't get what he wanted. + +There were other eyes, and anxious eyes, along the bluffs and the +southward windows of officers' row. There were women and children, even +at that early hour, clustered at the little mound beyond the west gate, +whence the last peep could be had at the "byes" as they breasted and +crossed Two-Mile Ridge. There were garrison lads on their ponies, little +Jim among them, who rode forth with the detachment as far as the +railway, and were now racing back. There were even watchers in the upper +windows at Skid's, for the word had gone from lip to lip that the +Indians were in a fury and meant business this time. But there was +darkness, there was silence, there were only drawn blinds and lowered +shades and apparent indifference at Major Dwight's. Possibly Jimmy was +the only one who had heard. Possibly Inez did not know; mayhap she did +not care. + +The boy's face was hot and flushed that afternoon, and he lay down a +while, an unusual thing with him, but he had been up very early and out +very long and riding in the breeze. All this might tend to make him +drowsy. He had come as usual to tell his father all about Mr. Ray's +march and the boy escort. A prime favorite and something of a hero was +Sandy Ray among the boys about the post, and Jimmy did not know just why +daddy seemed so uninterested. Perhaps he, too, was tired. After +breakfast Jim had gone to see Aunt Marion, and returned disappointed, +and, after an inning or two of ball, which he played but languidly, had +come home for a snooze, and found daddy talking gravely with gentlemen +from town who had been to see him before, and had queer-looking papers +for him to sign, not a bit like the innumerable rolls, returns and +company things he had to attend to when captain of a troop. Jim awakened +only with difficulty and only when called. He had promised to lunch with +Harold Winn, and went, slowly and heavily, but came back soon with a hot +headache, and was again sleeping when the phaeton drove round for mamma +and Felicie, and he did not know that this time mamma came not to see +daddy before starting. He did not know that Miss Sanford came not to +read. He did not know just what to make of things when he found daddy +bending over him at sunset, with anxiety in his face, and young Dr. +Wallen was helping undress and get him regularly to bed. + +Mamma and Felicie had come home before the usual time, and Jim never +knew that, or what happened later, until very long after. But something, +it seems, had occurred during the drive to greatly agitate mamma, and +that evening her condition demanded the ministrations of both the +physician and her maid. That night something further occurred that led +to much more agitation and weeping and upbraiding and reproaches and +accusations and all manner of things his father evidently wished him not +to hear, for he firmly closed the door between their rooms. The doctor +came a third time, and in the morning, burning with fever and caring +little whither he went, Jimmy was only vaguely conscious that he was +being gently borne down the stairway and into the open air, and thought +he was flying until again stowed away between sheets that seemed so +fresh and cool, and once he thought daddy was standing over him, dressed +again in his uniform, and he was sure Aunt Marion had bent to kiss him, +and then that every now and then Miss 'Cilla placed a slim, cool hand +upon his forehead and removed some icy bandage that seemed almost to +sizzle when it touched his skin. From time to time something was fed him +from a tiny spoon, and all the time he was getting hotter and duller, +and the lightest cover was insupportable, and he wished to toss it +off--toss everything off--toss himself off the little white bed; and +then, mercifully, Jim knew nothing at all but dreams for many a day +until he and Minneconjou came once more slowly to their senses, for +Minneconjou had been every bit as flighty, as far out of its head, as +Jimmy Dwight, and it had not typhoid to excuse it, either. + +The day following Jimmy's seizure, Major Dwight appeared in public again +for the first time since his strange attack. He had ever been of spare +habit, but now he was gaunt as a greyhound, and his uniform hung +flabbily about his wasted form. He looked two shades grayer and ten +years older. His eyes were dull and deep-set. His face was ashen. He was +not fit to be up and about, said the doctors, but could not be kept at +home. Mrs. Dwight was in semi-hysterical condition, requiring frequent +sedatives and unlimited Felicie. There had been--yes, in answer to +direct question, the physicians had to own--there had been a scene +between the aging husband and the youthful wife and, though the details +were fairly well known to these gentlemen, they were almost as fairly +kept inviolate. But for the voluble, the invaluable Felicie, Minneconjou +might have been kept guessing for ten days longer. Dwight spent his +waking hours mostly at the Rays', wistfully watching the doctor and +pleading to be admitted to the bedside of the burning little patient, a +thing they could not permit, for Dwight was still too weak to exercise +the needed self-control. It seemed as though he had forgotten the +existence of Inez, his wife, the existence of Foster, the existence of +Sandy Ray and everybody and anybody beyond Jimmy and those who were +ministering to him. Mrs. Ray, once again moving, though languidly, about +her household duties (for Priscilla was utterly engrossed with the boy) +had made the major as comfortable as he would permit in the little +library below stairs, where he had an easy chair in which he could +recline, and books, desk, writing material, but no one to read to him; +and, as it turned out, he would do nothing but move restlessly about, +listen for every sound from the upper floor where Jim lay in Sandy's +bed, and waylay the doctors or anybody who might have tidings. Once or +twice, there or at home, he had to see the colonel, the adjutant or his +own second in command, Captain Hurst, but the lawyers came no more. All +proceedings were called off for the time being. Everything in his mind +hinged on the fate of Jimmy, and, one thing worth the noting, Madame and +the phaeton went no more abroad. + +But if he had apparently forgotten, Felicie had not, the incidents of +that stormy meeting, the episode that led to it and the consequences to +be expected. Felicie felt that the public should be enlightened and +public opinion properly aroused as to the major's domestic misrule. It +was high time all Minneconjou was made to know this monster and "the +hideous accusations he make against this angel, and this angel's the +most devoted myself that to you speak." From the torrent of her tirade, +occasionally, drops of information seemed to accord with the rumors +dribbling about the garrison. Minneconjou knew that the well-named and +impenetrable post commander was in possession of facts he could impart +to nobody; that he had been questioning and cross-questioning corporal +and men, the latter recent occupants of sentry posts Nos. 3 and 4; that +these gentry had been ordered by him to hold no converse with anybody; +that he had again called up two of the three men incarcerated at the +time of the assault upon Captain Foster, and it was now definitely known +that these two had both served under Foster in the --th Cavalry, +although both now protested they always considered him a model officer +and a perfect gentleman. To offset this was the statement of Sergeant +Hess, of the Sixty-first, who said he had once served at the same post +with them, though not in the cavalry, and knew they bore bad characters +and would bear watching. Then he was sent for, and then it transpired +that No. 3 of the suspected trio had gone with the guard to the agency, +and he, said Hess, had been the worst of the lot. His name to-day was +Skelton, but in those days they knew him as Scully. Had it not been that +a dozen other men were out the night of that assault, this might have +clinched the case against them. It was enough, at least, to keep them +under surveillance. + +But other stories, readily confirmed by Felicie, were to the effect that +Dwight had accused his wife of deliberate falsehood in denying that she +had met Mr. Ray at Naples; of deliberate intent to make him believe +Jimmy a liar when adhering to his story that Mr. Ray had come and spoken +to her (a dream! a vision! declared Felicie); of deliberately accusing +him of rudeness, insolence, affront to Captain Foster and herself in +refusing to deny he had seen them together in the parlor during church +time ("a mere incident of the most innocent," said Felicie, "of which +this infant terrible would have made a mountain"). Moreover, the monster +had "accused Madame of all manner of misdoings with this most amiable +the Captain Fawstair," and Felicie's humid eyes went heavenward at the +retrospect; "and of lying to him, her husband, about, _ah, ciel_, that +man!" And then to think that he should demand of Madame in her condition +that she confess the truth about that midnight affair when her scream +aroused the household! It was she, Felicie, who screamed. Madame could +not sleep. She needed a composing draught. She, Felicie, had gone down +to prepare it, had unbolted the back door, and was passing to and fro +between the kitchen and the refrigerator in the addition without, and +she could not find the cork-screw, and could not open the--Apollinaris, +and Madame had become impatient, nervous, and had herself wandered down; +and just as Felicie was returning they encountered at the doorway and, +to her shame be it said, she screamed, so was she startled, "and Madame +uttered too a cry, because I cry, but it was nothing, nothing!" + +Nevertheless, Minneconjou was hearing of a slender form seen skulking +along the back fence, hurrying away from Dwight's, and of items picked +up at dawn near Dwight's back steps, and of a notebook sent to +Lieutenant Ray, who had himself been out searching very early and very +diligently. Then, something or other, picked up early that morning, had +been sent to the colonel, for it came with his mail; and the adjutant +and the orderly heard his exclamation, saw the consternation in his +face, and the orderly told of it--told Kathleen at the doctor's; then +had to tell other girls or take the consequences. Then there were these +drives up the valley and the meetings at the cottonwoods. People who +called to ask after the presumably lonely mistress of the house began +asking after something Felicie had hoped no one had noticed. + +For in upbraiding Inez, his wife, Major Dwight not once had mentioned +her meetings near Minneconjou with Lieutenant Ray, who, as all this was +going on at the post, stood facing a condition that called for the +exercise of all his nerve and pluck and common sense. The Indian +leaders, three days after his coming, had mustered their force and +demanded the instant withdrawal of himself and his men, leaving all +horses and arms and certain of their charges behind them. + + + + +CHAPTER XXIV + +CRISIS + + +There had been frequent communication with the agency by courier and by +telephone. Ray held the fort, he said, and though there had been some +bluster and swagger on part of a few Indians, the agent seemed relieved, +reassured. They no longer crowded, bullying, about his office. "They are +obviously," wrote the agent (not Ray), "impressed by the firm stand I +have taken, and now I shall proceed to arrest the ring-leaders in the +recent trouble, employing the lieutenant and his troopers for the +purpose, in order that the Indian police may see that I am entirely +independent of them." Stone received this by mounted messenger about +nine o'clock of a Wednesday night, and Mrs. Stone knew the moment his +lips began to purse up, as she expressed it, and to work and twist, that +he much disliked the letter. "I'll have to go over to the +quartermaster's," said he, "and call up Ray by 'phone. This agency man +will be making mischief for us, sure as--sure as the reds are making +medicine." But the last words were muttered to himself, as he took his +cap, and leave. + +Stone had served many a year on the plains, and knew the Indian, and had +his opinion as to the value of civil service in dealing with him. Stone +had served two years in the South in the so-called reconstruction days, +and in his mind there was marked similarity between a certain few of the +Indian agents he had met and an uncertain number of the deputy marshals +of the "carpet-bag" persuasion, then scattered broadcast over the States +"lately in rebellion." If there was one thing more than another the +deputy loved and gloried in, it was riding about his bailiwick, with a +sergeant and party of dragoons at his back, impressing the people with +the idea that he had the army of the United States at his beck and call. +Now, here was a new man at the business over a thousand-odd Indians, +many of whom had fought whole battalions of troopers time and again, and +were not to be scared by a squad, and this new man reasoned that, +because the Indians had been undemonstrative for two days, they were +ready to surrender their leaders and be good. Stone knew better. + +It took ten minutes to get the agency by way of town, and but ten +seconds thereafter to get Ray. He and his guard were billeted about the +main building. "What do you think of this idea of going out and +arresting ring-leaders?" asked Stone. "You weren't sent there for any +such purpose." And Ray answered: "He has gone to a pow-pow with Black +Wolf's people, and was thinking better of it after a little talk we +had." + +"Well," said Stone, "how about the--the situation? Do you think they'll +make trouble? Do you need more men?" + +And Sandy answered "Not to-night, sir. Tell better in the morning." + +Stone did not like the outlook, but what was he to do? The agent had +called for no more troops, and, until he called, Stone was forbidden to +send unless some dire emergency arose, and then he must accept all +responsibility, as one or other side was sure to get the worst of it, +and he the blame. He went over and told Mrs. Ray he had just been +talking with Sandy, who was all serene, said he, and all reassuringly he +answered her anxious questions. Then he asked for Jimmy, whose +temperature was ominously high, and for Dwight, whose spirits were +correspondingly low. Dwight came out from the den, haggard, unshaven, +gaunt. Never before had he been known to lack quick interest when danger +threatened a comrade. To-night he hardly noted what Stone said about the +situation at the agency. He was thinking only of his boy, and Stone, +vaguely disappointed, went in search of Hurst, the senior captain, and +Hurst looked grave. He, too, had had his share in Indian experience, and +liked not the indications. + +"I don't fancy the agent's going to that pow-wow. He should have had the +chief men come to _him_," said Hurst. + +"They wouldn't--said they feared the soldiers might shoot," said Stone, +in explanation. + +"Anybody with him, sir?" + +"Ray says he insisted on an orderly, so one man went with him, to hold +his horse while he talked. Skelton was chosen. He speaks a little +Sioux." + +"Man we had a while ago on account of the Foster matter?" asked Hurst, +with uplifted eyebrows. + +"Same. He's at home among the Indians, and some of them like him. Guess +he's seen 'em before." + +At 11:30, when Stone would have called again to speak with the agency, +it transpired that Central always went to bed at eleven--there was not +enough night business to warrant the expense of keeping open. At 7 A. +M., when again he would have spoken, Central had not come. It was eight +before news could be had from the agency, and then it came in a +roundabout way, for the line was down or cut or something was wrong far +over toward the Minneconjou reservation. At 8:10 the trumpets of the +cavalry were ringing, "To Horse!" the bugles of the foot, "To Arms!" At +8:30 the squadron was trotting, with dripping flanks, up the southward +slope beyond the Minneconjou, a gaunt skeleton, with pallid cheek and +blazing eye, leading swiftly on. + +Give the devil his due, the first man to warn the fort that there was +"hell to pay at the agency" was Skidmore himself. He had kicked the +truth, he said, out of a skulking half-breed, who drifted in to beg for +a drink soon after seven. They hated each other, did Stone and Skid, but +here was common cause. The trouble began at the pow-wow. The agent +refused the Indians' demands; was threatened; "got scared," said the +frowsy, guttural harbinger of ill, and swore he'd arrest the speakers in +the morning, and they arrested him right there. In some way word of his +peril reached the agent's wife, and she rushed to the lieutenant, who +mounted, galloped, and got there just in time to rescue Skelton, who had +pluckily stood by the lone white man, whom some mad-brained warrior, +madder than the rest, had struck in fury; Skelton in turn had felled the +Indian assailant, and, despite the efforts of the chief, who knew it +meant defeat in the end, the lives of the two would have been forfeit +but for the rush of Ray and a few troopers to the spot. It was the +lieutenant's first charge in nearly a year, but he forgot his wound. He +managed, thanks in no small measure to the resonant orders of old Wolf +himself, to get the two back to the buildings, more dead than alive. He +tried to send word to the fort of the new peril, but the wary Indians +were on the lookout and drove back his riders, while a furious council +was being held at the scene of the strife. From all over the reservation +warriors young and old came flocking to Black Wolf's lodge, and the +elders were overwhelmed. In spite of warning, entreaty and protest from +chiefs who knew whereof they spoke, the turbulent spirits had their way. +Brethren had been beaten and insulted in Skidmore's old place. Brethren +had been beaten and abused at the new. Brethren had been swindled and +abused by that very young chief of the soldiers now at the agency, and +some of his men; and, finally, Strikes-the-Bear, son of a chief, a chief +to be, had this night been struck down by the soldier the fool agent +dared bring with him. Let the warriors rise in their wrath and strike +for vengeance! If the little band of soldiers showed fight, and the +chances were that many a brave would bite the dust before the buildings +could be fired and the defenders driven out and killed, then offer +terms. Against such hopeless odds the young white chief would easily +yield. Get him and his men into the open; promise safe conduct to the +fort, then let others surround and slowly butcher them, while they, the +negotiators, took care of the agent, the assailant of Strikes-the-Bear, +the employees and their families. Aye, promise to spare the lives of the +lieutenant and his men; say that they might go back to their friends at +the fort, but they must leave the agent; they must leave their comrade +who struck the redman; they must leave their arms and their horses. Mad +as it was, that was the ultimatum of the deputation at the door of the +agency at five o'clock in the morning, and Sandy Ray answered, just as +his father's son could be counted on to answer, and in just three +comprehensive and significant words. + +It led before long to a battle royal. It led first to barbaric council +and speechmaking, then to a display of savage diplomacy, and finally to +the spirited climax: savage science, skill, and cunning, with +overwhelming numbers on the one hand, sheer pluck and determination on +the other. The defenders were to fight, to be sure, behind wooden walls +that hid them from sight of their swarming and surrounding foes, but +that might be an element of danger just so soon as the Indians could get +close enough to fire them. Anticipating precisely such a possibility, +Ray had set his men to work beforehand. Sacks of meal, flour, and bacon, +bales of blankets, tepee cloth, etc., had been piled breast-high and +around all four walls of the storehouse within. All the available tubs +and buckets and pails had been fresh filled with water and stowed +inside. The horses were removed from the stable and turned into the +corral. Each of the eight barred windows had its two or three marksmen. +The women and children of the whites about the agency were all before +dawn moved over into the main building, for when his messengers were +driven back Ray well knew what to expect. Ray himself posted a keen and +reliable man at the forage shed, and one or two others in certain of the +outlying buildings, with kerosene-soaked tinder in abundance, and orders +to fire them at his signal, then run for the storehouse; Ray would leave +no structure close at hand to serve as "approach" or cover for the foe. +So long as no wind arose to blow the flames upon his little stronghold, +no harm would result to them, whereas the smoke would surely attract +attention at the distant fort and speedily bring relief. Ten days +earlier, before seeing his wards in war paint, the agent would have +forbidden such wanton destruction of government property. (Ten days +later, indeed, the Indian Bureau might call upon the War Department for +reimbursement, and the department upon Ray, but the youngster took no +thought for the morrow, only for his men and those helpless women and +children). So long as the warriors kept their distance and contented +themselves with long-range shooting, so long would Ray spare the torch, +but just the moment they felt the courage of their numbers and charged, +up should go the shingles. The find of a few small kegs of powder lent +additional means to the speedy start of the fire when needed, and now, +with his little fort well supplied and garrisoned, with the big fort +only ten miles away, with thirty or more stout men to stand by him, with +only one man demoralized,--the agent, small blame to him,--and only one +as yet disabled, Trooper Skelton, whom Ray had practically dragged from +under the knives of the savages, that young soldier felt just about as +serenely confident of the issue as he did of his men, and happier a +hundred fold than he had been for nearly a year. + +Moreover, his dauntless front and contemptuous answer had had its effect +on the Indians. "The young chief must be sure the soldiers are coming," +reasoned the elders, so before taking the fateful plunge it were wise to +take a look. Young warriors dashed away northeastward over the rolling +divides, and others galloped after to intermediate bluffs and ridges, +but it was well-nigh an hour before the signals came whirling back. "No +soldiers, no danger," and even then they temporized. In trailing war +bonnet, his gleaming body bare to the waist, his feathered head held +high, his nimble pony bedizened with tinsel and finery, a white "fool +flag" waving at the tip of his lance, with two young braves in +attendance, each with his little symbol of truce, Black Wolf came riding +gallantly down from the distant southward bluffs, demanding further +parley. Black Wolf had tidings worth the telling, he said. He had stood +the white man's friend and endeavored to prevent hostilities, but since +the affair of the previous night all that was hopeless, and now he must +stand by his people. His young men, he shouted, at dawn had attacked the +guard at the wood camp, and the scalps of every man, still warm and +bloody, hung at the belts of his braves, even now galloping back to +swell the ranks of their brothers. He urged the young white chief to +make no such error as had the sub-chief, the sergeant, at the camp, who +had fired upon his warriors when offered mercy. There was still time for +the young chief to consider. He was surrounded, cut off from help and +home. His brethren dare not quit the shelter of the fort to come to aid +him. They would be annihilated on the open prairie, as was the "Long +Hair" at the Little Horn a generation ago. This, then, should be the +young chief's warning and his opportunity. Let him and his men, save +one, depart in peace, leaving everything and everybody else as they were +before the young chief came. Black Wolf would await the reply. In +resonant periods, in ringing, sonorous tones, the speech of the +orator-chief had been delivered, his deep, powerful voice fairly +thundering over the valley, and echoing back from the crags of Warrior +Bluff, a mile away to the west. A spirited, barbaric group it made, that +magnificent savage with his bright-hued escort all gleaming in the +slanting sunshine, full two hundred yards away. On every little +eminence, on every side, were grouped listening bands of his braves. One +could almost hear their guttural "Ughs" of approval. One could almost +count their swarming array. Farther to the south, along the jagged line +of the barricade ridge, score upon score of blanketed squaws and +bareheaded children huddled in shrill, chattering groups, too distant to +hear or to be heard, but readily seen to be wild with excitement. Out in +front of the grimly closed and silent agency, with only the half-breed +interpreter at his side, but in humorous recognition of the solemn state +of the Indian embassy, with two sergeants in close attendance, Ray stood +listening, and turned for explanation to the official go-between, +impatiently heard him half through, then flung out his hand, palm +foremost, in half circular sweep to the front and right--the old signal. +"Be off," it said as plain as did the later words of the assistant. +"Tell him to go where I told him before," said Ray. "If he wants the +agent, or my soldiers, or my guns, or me, let him come and take them," +winding up as he faced his antagonist, with the swift, significant +gesture that the Sioux know so well: "Brave, that ends it!" and turned +abruptly away. + +"What did you answer?" whispered the agent, as the young soldier +returned to his post. It was the Bureau man's first real clash with his +red children, and thoughts of Meeker, a much-massacred predecessor in +the business, had dashed his nerve. + +"He wanted you and this poor fellow who fought for you," said Ray +bluntly, as he went on and bent over the blanket on which lay Skelton, +bandaged, weak, but clear-headed, "and I told him where to go--where, by +gad, we'll send him if he comes again." + +The eyes of the wounded soldier, fixed full upon his young commander, +began slowly to melt and then to well over. A silent fellow was this odd +fish of a trooper, a man little known among the others and even less +trusted. He looked up through a shimmer of moisture into the pale young +face with its dark, kindly eyes and sensitive mouth. He put forth a +feverish and unsteady hand, while his lips, compressed and twitching +from pain, began to frame words to which Sandy listened, +uncomprehending. + +"Lieutenant, I wish I'd known you, 'stead of classing you the way I--was +taught. If I ever get out of this all right, there'll be a story +comin'." And Ray wondered was Skelton wandering already. + + + + +CHAPTER XXV + +BLACK WOLF'S BATTLE + + +And then from the northwest, with vast clamor and shoutings and much +wild horsemanship, came the reinforcements from the foothills of the +Sagamore, where yesterday had stood the guarded wood camp; and then, +five to six hundred yards away, in broad circle, their swift ponies at +full gallop, scores of young warriors, all in war paint and finery, +dashed and darted to and fro, some of them brandishing at the tips of +their lances ragged, dangling objects limp and dripping. Black Wolf's +story might indeed be true. Far away westward from the fort, as was the +agency from the southwest, there had been no timely warning, no chance +to send for aid. Overwhelmed at dawn by hundreds against their dozens, +the guard had probably died fighting, and the wolves and lynxes by this +time were scenting their breakfast and scurrying to the scene of +butchery. The savage display had its effect on the little garrison, +but--not just what was expected. Black Wolf's young braves might well +have had a "walk-over" at the wood camp, pounced in a red torrent upon +the unsuspecting party, and, with little loss to themselves, massacred +all the hated palefaces. That sort of fighting the Indian most +loves--that in which he can do and not suffer. Now came a different +proposition. From chief down to little children the Indians well knew +that thirty soldiers behind barricades were not to be "rushed," though a +thousand essayed it, without many a warrior biting the dust; and that +sort of fighting, said the Indian, is fool-fighting--lacks sense or +science. Bravely and desperately as he will battle against odds when +once in a hole, he will not battle at all, no matter how great his +numbers, if by strategy he can "win out" another way. What Black Wolf +and his warriors had hoped was so to weaken the nerve of the defenders +that they would listen to his promise that their lives be spared, agree +to the Indian terms, leave the demanded victims, their arms and horses +and start out afoot for the fort; then, as was intimated, once fairly +out on the open prairie, they could be butchered at leisure, and if the +young chief could not be captured alive to furnish sport for the squaws +and children of the braves he had defrauded and abused, at least they +could have his scalp to hang in the lodge when once again peace was +declared. Meantime the warriors, women and children,--all,--they could +be off to the Big Horn before the troops at the fort would get word of +the battle. Who, indeed, was to tell, with the lightning wire severed, +and the whole party slain? + +But the warriors wasted their time. Three hours spent in trying to scare +were three hours lost to the redman. It was just about eight by the +agency clock that in one magnificent dash, half a thousand strong, the +legion came sweeping, chanting, and shouting down the slopes to the +south, rode in solemn phalanx until almost within rifle range, then, +bursting asunder like some huge human case-shot, scattered its wild +horsemen in mad career all over the open prairie, and in a minute +thereafter, amid the thunder of hoofs, half deadened by the rising pall +of dust, twenty-score in number, the yelling braves were circling the +agency, firing swiftly on the run. + +Never a shot did they receive in reply. "Hold your fire till they come +in closer, and you get the word!" growled the sergeants. Never a match +did the besieged apply, for there was still no attempt to charge. It was +young Ray's first tussle with the Sioux, but many a time as a boy at his +father's knee had he begged for the stories of the old battles of the +--th, and listened with quickened heartbeat and panting breath. He knew +just how they would circle and charge, shout and shoot,--just what to +look for and how to meet it,--and there were only two things about the +defense that gave him the faintest worry. + +East of the storehouse, barely fifty yards away, was the agent's modest +little home, a shelter to the warriors should they decide to turn loose +their ponies and collect two hundred strong behind it, ready for a rush +in force upon his doors and windows the moment a similar force could be +ready behind the shop and stable buildings at the corral. They probably +could not force an entrance even then. They would surely lose many +warriors in the attempt. But what they could do would be to rush upon +the storehouse, crouch low at the walls and under the floor of the +porch, where the rifles of the besieged could not reach them, and then +start fire all at once in a dozen places, crawl back under cover of the +smoke, and so burn out the defenders. Much as the mounted warrior hates +to fight afoot, this was too obvious an opportunity, and presently Ray +saw indication that something was coming. No time, therefore, had he or +his people for further compunction. + +"The shops, first," said he. "Start them at once. Open the corral gates +and--get back," were his orders to the young corporal who stood ready to +carry his message. "Our horses will make a break for home. The Indians +will catch most of them, perhaps, but not all. Between them and the +smoke the fort will see that something's up, and--you all know the +colonel." + +And so it happened that, just as the squadron, already alarmed, was +spattering through the shallows of the Minneconjou, a black column of +smoke was sighted far away to the southwest, sailing aloft for the +heavens, and now every southward window, the roofs of many a building, +the tower over the post Exchange, the cross-trees of the flagstaff, the +crests of neighboring bluffs,--all had their occupants, staring through +field-glasses or the unaided eye for any sign of the far-distant +detachment under Ray--for any symptom of any check or signal from the +swift advance of the squadron under the gaunt, semi-invalided major. + +Barely three miles out, trotting in parallel columns of fours, the right +troop was seen to swerve to the west, and presently in a far-away clump +of willows in a deep ravine, found something, apparently, that gave them +just a moment's pause. "A human being," said the lookouts with the best +glasses, "and they're sending him in." True. Someone dismounted and +helped something into a saddle. A sergeant and trooper came presently +ambling homeward, leading between them a limp and drooping form. Many +people could not wait. They ran out to the bluffs, and were not amazed, +nor were they too well pleased, to find the lone watcher at the willows +to be none other than that strange creature Blenke--Blenke in a state +bordering on exhaustion. Straight to the colonel they led him, where +that officer sat in saddle in front of his battalions and ready for a +move. He was just about ordering the senior major to follow on the trail +of the cavalry, when, followed by curious eyes innumerable, the sergeant +with his prize came riding through the west gate. + +"Private Blenke, sir," said he, saluting. "He can best tell his own +story," and with trembling lips and mournful eyes Blenke began. Things +looked so ominous the night before that it was evident the Indians meant +mischief. Sergeant French, commanding the guard, decided that the +colonel ought to be warned. Somebody would have to try to sneak through +the prowling, truculent warriors, make his way to the post, and tell of +their plight. The sergeant would order no man to risk his life in the +attempt. He called for volunteers, and, modestly Blenke said, at last he +felt it a duty to dare it. He found every rod of the valley beset by +foes. He found it impossible eastward or northward to pass them even in +the dark. He finally made his way out to the southward and, in wide +circuit, dodging and skulking when night riders came hurrying to and +fro, he at last managed by daybreak to get in view of the flagstaff, +only to find dozens of Indians watching the post and skulking between +him and the desired refuge. At last--but Stone shut him off: + +"Take two companies, major," he ordered, "march for the wood camp and +see what you can find. You know what to do." + +So again was Blenke, the silent, in spite of prejudice and prediction, +the hero of the occasion. They bore him off to be fed and feted, but he +begged first that Miss Sanford might be informed of his safe return. +Then Stone, with anxious brow, dismounted, clambered to the tower of the +Exchange, where his glasses swept the wide expanse of country and told +him the excitement, so vivid here at the fort and over "beyond Jordan" +at Skidmore's, was already spreading to Silver Hill. God grant his +rescuers had not gone too late--or slowly! + +Slowly at least they did not go, for Dwight, possessed of a very devil +of nervous energy, pushed his four troops at steady trot. Well he knew +it would not be long before some one of the ridge lines, successively to +be passed, would suddenly spit fire at his advance, and that every +device known to Indian strategy would be brought into play in the effort +to stay his coming until all was over with Ray's little party at the +agency. Physical weakness, personal danger, even Jimmy, his only child, +now tossing in the throes of burning fever, he seemed for the time to +have forgotten. Hurst, the senior captain, who had counted on leading +the dash, reckoned without due comprehension of his major that day, and +looked amazed when Dwight had come trotting down to the formation, his +grim face lighting with something of the old fire, and sent his second +in command to the head of the first troop. Once well out beyond the +railway the major ordered a few picked skirmishers forward at the gallop +from the head of each of his four columns, other active light-horsemen +to cover the flanks, and the wary scouts and marksmen of the Sioux, +crouching behind the crests, shook their scalp-locks in chagrin. There +could be no picking off of prominent officers at close range, no +ambuscading crowded ranks or columns. This chief knew his business, and +they might better serve Black Wolf and their comrades in arms by +galloping away to the agency and urging one desperate assault. Stopping +this fellow was out of the question. The one stand, made just six miles +out, resulted in no check to the cavalry, but a dead loss to two of +their own braves. + +And so it happened that toward ten o'clock of that blithe, sunshiny +summer morning, when all nature was at its loveliest along the broad +winding valley of the Cheyenne,--all save that cloud of black smoke that +soared high into the otherwise unclouded heavens and there flattened out +like some gigantic pall,--the bold heights that framed the wide bottom +lands, the crags at Warrior Bluff, crowned with shrill yelling, +applauding squaws and children, the grim, smoke-veiled walls of the +remaining buildings at the agency all on a sudden awoke to the maddening +chorus of renewed battle. There had been a lull to the fight. The shops +had burned like tinder, and were a heap of smoldering ruins in a dozen +minutes. The stampeded horses had rushed away over the prairie, to be +rounded up and driven by Indian boys, with keen rejoicing, away toward +the dismantled villages, for already the old men and most of the +families were in full flight up the valley. If headed off from the hills +they could scatter over the prairies and mingle with their red kindred +at the other agencies, whence, indeed, came not a few young men to take +a hand in the scrimmage. The agent's house, spared until after nine, had +gone up in smoke. It covered too much of the charging front, and finally +was blown to flinders at an expense of four kegs of rifle powder, +borrowed for the occasion from the Indian supplies. Now, when the +warriors rallied and charged and strove to reach Ray's wooden walls, it +had to be over a dead level only faintly obscured by smoke, and dotted +here and there by the corpses of war ponies lost in previous attempts. + +Half-hearted, possibly, at dawn, old Wolf was all fire and fury now. One +after another four assaults had been beaten back by the slow, sure, +steady aim of the defense, and unless he could reduce that little +fortress at once his power and prestige as a war chief were gone for all +time, and a good name and reputation for all manner of deviltry in the +past was utterly blasted for the future. + +Of the defenders only three, besides Skelton, were out of the fight. A +chance shot from the Indian circle had pierced the brain of one stout +soldier, who never knew what hit him. Others had wounded two of the men, +and Skelton, himself, who, in spite of his wounds, had crawled to a +loophole to have a share in the fight, was now prostrate with a shot +through the shoulder. It was God's mercy and Ray's fortune that that +bullet was not through the head. + +Water and food they still had in abundance, but ammunition was running +low. The men thrust their hot rifles into the nearest tub, and laughed +at Finnegan's loud claim for a patent on "K" Company's way of "bilin' +wather." Sheltered by the bales and barricades, the women and children +crouched unharmed. Corporal Sweeny, who had "swarmed" up a ladder to the +garret, in defiance of shots that tore through the flimsy woodwork, +called down the scuttle-hole that "the fellers must be comin' from the +fort--there's Indians gallopin' back by the dozens!" And Sweeny was +right, and his words carried cheer when cheer was needed, for now began +the supreme effort of the redmen, and in one magnificent, yelling, +streaming, lance-waving circumference they seemed to spring into view +from every conceivable point of the compass, still a good thousand yards +away from the threatened center, and, slowly at first, brandishing arms, +beating shields, shouting encouragement and vengeance, they bore +steadily inward, a slowly diminishing periphery, until they seemed +almost to join for some barbaric "all hands round." Then, at sudden +signal, unseen, unheard at the agency, all of the eastward semi-circle +broke instantly into a mad race for the center, the dust and turf flying +from the ponies' heels, the feathered crests and painted forms bending +flat over the outstretched necks of the darting steeds, plumes, pennons, +war-bonnets streaming in the wind, and every warrior screeching in +shrill rage and exultation. To right and left at the same instant the +westward warriors broke away, so as to avoid the rush and shots from the +selected front, and then, rallying north and south, they, too, rode +again into line in time to attack so soon as the first grand assault +should sweep by. A gorgeous sight it was to see Black Wolf's chosen +braves, a tremendous torrent of savage war, but Ray and his men gave no +heed to its grandeur. The sharp, spiteful bark of the low-aimed rifles +began the instant the foremost warriors came bounding across the road to +the railway, Ray's five-hundred-yard mark, and here and there as the red +surge came rushing on, a pony went down, a warrior was hurled to the +plain, but up, and by, and beyond, with terrific clash and clamor, the +yelling horde whirled past the fire-jetting walls; and out upon the +westward prairie a keen old fighter saw that certain ponies, riderless, +went loping after their fellows, and so shouted a word to Ray. "They've +dropped a few, sir," and Sergeant Scott begged leave to take +half-a-dozen men and rush out and tackle the dozen that had probably +crept to the foot of the wall or squirmed through the dust cloud, like +so many snakes, underneath the wooden piazza. Well they knew what that +meant: Fire--fire as fierce as that the defenders themselves had kindled +in the outbuildings, only a thousand times more terrible, for it meant +fearful torture and death to these imprisoned ones within the walls, or +the certain bullets of the merciless foe when driven forth. But, before +this sally could be made down came the rush from the northward, less +powerful and spectacular only in point of numbers, and every man of the +defense was needed at the loopholes and windows again. Their shots told, +too, for Sweeny yelled delightedly from his perilous perch aloft that +half-a-dozen were down and the ponies loose; and then could be seen the +dash of comrades to pick up and bear away the dead and wounded, a feat +of daring and devotion in which the Indians of the plains have no +superior. Now the shots of the defenders were telling in more ways than +one. They busied so many of Black Wolf's people that the next rush was +delayed, and delays to _his_ plan were more than dangerous. Someone had +passed a field glass up the loft ladder, and Sweeny was shrieking new +delight and encouragement. "Sure's yer born, sir, I can see the byes +comin' like hell!" To the mind of the agent, livid and trembling behind +his little parapet of blankets, more than enough, perhaps, in the way of +hell had reached them already, but men at the windows set up a cry of +thanksgiving that faltered a moment at sound of shot and shout from +underneath, then swelled again into something like triumph, for Ray had +prized up two or three boards from the floor; two or three slim fellows +had crawled through the opening and wriggled to the low walls of rough +stone which served for foundation, and here and there a would-be +incendiary got sudden quietus and his fellows a stay, but not for long. +There came presently another superb dash from the southern side that +swept by like some human tidal wave of destruction, leaving its wreckage +on the hard sod of the prairie, and, alas, its well-nigh desperate +fire-workers at the edge of the wall. Ten minutes more and Ray's +improvised stockade was encompassed on every side by a ring of yelling, +firing, infuriated demons, most of them sprawling flat and shooting low, +and the leaden missiles tore through the wooden walls in every +direction, and the man who lifted head or arm above the parapet did it +at risk of life or limb. Poor Sweeny's glass came clattering down from +aloft, and he, poor follow, striving feebly to reach his friends and +partial shelter, tumbled in a heap at the foot of the ladder, his +life-blood welling from his gallant heart. Then--then other smoke, +pungent pinewood smoke, came sifting through knotholes and seams, with +ominous sounds of crackling and snapping from the side of the long +porch. Then, coughing and strangling, the two men who had ventured below +forced their way once more through the hole in the floor, a volume of +thick smoke rushing up as they were dragged into the room. Then shrill +yells of triumph and rejoicing rose on every side without, and then, +within, the piteous, hopeless wailing of helpless women and children. + +But the end was not yet. Even in their extremity Ray and some of his old +hands had noted how nervously the warriors seemed to be watching the +slopes to the northeast. There was a long, low wave of prairie that +closed the view in that direction to all on the ground floor, and it was +madness to go sight-seeing to the loft. If they could only hold out ten, +fifteen minutes it might mean life to all, save the two or three already +slain. "Grab those buckets, you, and you, and you!" shouted Ray, picking +out his men. "Stick to the east front, Scott! Stand 'em off just three +minutes! Dip a dozen blankets in the tub--at least you can do _that_, +damn you!" This to a cowering wretch whom even the sight of the women, +weeping yet working like heroes, had not yet shamed. The fire had been +safely, scientifically started in half-a-dozen places under the porch, +and already, probably, was eating its way through every crevice. Water +could not reach it, but wet blankets, spread above, would hold it for a +while, and others stuffed in the open spaces at the foundation wall +would choke it below. Ripped from the floor came plank after plank, and +down into the smoke dived both women and men, dripping blankets in tow, +while, with revolver in one hand and filled bucket in the other, Ray +mustered a squad at the east door ready for their desperate rush. +"Through the thick black breath" that billowed up from below the young +leader's voice reached every ear, and even children seemed to still +their cries and listen. "Now, blaze away as we rush out. Aim over us as +we spread these things. We'll drench 'em well before we come in. _Now_, +men, come on!" + +Out they darted, crouching and bending low, driving a few shots first at +the skulking warriors nearest, then scattering along the ground at the +edge of the low platform crackling fiercely from the flames underneath. +Swiftly the wet blankets were spread and doused anew. Even though they +might check the flames but three minutes, three minutes might mean years +of life. Then back into the choking cloud they dove, and manned the +walls again, ready to shoot down the first who dare rush to undo their +valiant work, and the smoke thus pent beneath the boarding billowed +hotter and thicker into the long, dim, resounding room. "Burst open the +shutters!" was the next order. It was better to die fighting than +choking to death--better to meet one's fate in the open than be roasted +alive. Through the eddying clouds, with seared, smarting eyes, Ray and +his sergeant could see the crest of that prairie wave long half mile +away; and, just as a tongue of flame burst in through the bales at the +southeast window, there came a rush of mounted Indians, leading spare +ponies by the bridle-reins, swiftly picking up their red marksmen from +the sod, and both voices went up in a shout of glorious hope and joy, as +here and there and presently everywhere along that prairie wave campaign +hats and khaki blouses came popping into view, and then long lines of +racing horsemen, carbines advanced, guidons streaming, officers +launching well out in front, and all following the lead and signals of a +tall, spare, sinewy form. "The major! the major himself!" shrieked the +watcher; and then, all peril forgotten, the beleaguered party, men, +women, and children, well-nigh despairing but the moment before, burst +from their stifling refuge and went, gasping, groping, stumbling into +outer air. Last to reach it,--dragging with him from the blazing doorway +the helpless and crippled form of Skelton, his khaki coat ablaze, his +hat, his hair and eyebrows gone,--came their young commander, and +helping hands were drenching him with water as he toppled exhausted on +the sod. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVI + +TRUTH STRANGER THAN FICTION + + +There was wrath mingled with the rejoicing that thrilled all through the +garrison that afternoon. Scattering far and wide, the ring-leaders, the +more prominent braves engaged in the revolt at the agency, were seeking +the refuge of kindred bands, leaving the old men and many Indian +households to explain the situation and secure eventually the peace +always so readily accorded. Placing a guard over the unconsumed +property, and sending most of the cavalry in pursuit of the renegades, +Stone telegraphed brief statement to department headquarters, lauding +Ray and his plucky detachment as they deserved, and Dwight and the +squadron as well, for their swift and skillful dash to the rescue. By +sunset the few dead, the several wounded and many homeless women and +children had been conveyed to the fort, Silver Hill turning out in +force, and the Argenta and rival stables contributing rigs in abundance. +Major Dwight was again beneath the same roof with little Jim, the father +well-nigh as helpless as the fever-stricken boy, for, the excitement +over, his duty done and splendidly done, and he himself shocked and +shaken by the fall of his horse, shot down almost at the last moment of +the charge, Dwight was brought back in the ambulance and assisted again +to his reclining chair in the den. Home he quietly refused to go. Mrs. +Dwight, as was proper and decorous, so soon as she could rally, under +the ministrations of Felicie, from the prostration that befell as a +result of seeing her adored, though deluded, husband riding off to +battle without ever a word or kiss to his suffering one, lost little +time in coming to implore her Oswald to return to his own room and her +arms. But Dr. Waring gravely told her it was then impossible, and +persuaded her, deluged in tears, to leave him in peace. Her parents, he +said, would soon be with her. They had been telegraphed for, and were to +start at once. Every provision should be made for their comfort and +hers, and, he added, for her future; but she must understand that for +the time being Major Dwight begged to be permitted to give his entire +attention to his son, whose case was desperate. + +So Inez, veiled and leaning heavily on the arm of Felicie, went sobbing +homeward through the dusk of the closing and solemn day, followed by +many curious eyes, and was once more within doors before Sandy Ray had +been restored to his mother's arms. Not until the last of his "forlorn +hope" had been gathered up and shipped back to Minneconjou would Sandy +consent to be driven thither himself, to find almost every door at the +post open to welcome him except his own, where there were now three or +four more denizens than there were beds. Stone himself was on hand to +say that Mrs. Stone had one of their spare rooms all prepared for him, +and this, too, in spite of the fact that Stone had stowed away, where +none could see, a certain letter that, unexplained, might yet render +Sandy Ray ineligible to residence under any roof at Minneconjou for all +time to come. + +But, unbeknowst to the colonel, the matter of Sandy's billet had been +settled beforehand. Lieutenant Purdy, of the Sixty-first, a near +neighbor, had met the "conquering hero" almost halfway, with the +information that his room was ready for him; his mother had already been +in to see and to approve, and there he must make himself at home, close +to his own quarters; and possibly Stone was grateful. + +There were several things in connection with the day's work for which he +could give no thanks whatever, and one of these was the news that +finally came from the wood camp. Black Wolf's thunderous harangue of the +early morning was not all an empty lie. Only the poor remains of the +sergeant, seven of his little guard, and several of the workmen, each +body surrounded by empty cartridge shells, mute witnesses of their +desperate battle for life, were left of those who had so cheerily +marched away; and, Blenke being safe lodged within the post, there were +still three absent unaccounted for. Blenke himself seemed crushed by the +tragic fate of these comrades whom he had vainly risked his life to +save. There was great sympathy expressed for Blenke throughout the +depleted garrison that night. There was talk of his daring essay all +over the post. There was whispering of it even in the dim-lighted wards +of the hospital, where lay the wounded and the scorched and seared. +Possibly it was the torment of his burns that made Skelton toss, mutter, +and finally blaspheme outright, but blaspheme he did at each successive +mention of Blenke, and, presently, with frightful, spiteful vehemence +and virulence. The steward in charge thought him delirious, and Skelton +said perhaps he was. 'Twould make a cat laugh and a man stark mad to +have to listen to such infernal rot, and this, as in duty bound the +steward told to Wallen at his earliest appearance, whereat that wise +young practitioner looked long at Skelton and--wiser still before he +came away. + +With all the official turmoil that grew and throve at Minneconjou in the +week that followed, this narrative has nothing to do. The general came +and went, and lots of troops and dozens of officers. Even Wister, far to +the west, was called upon for its contingent for field service in +rounding up the renegades, and Stanley Foster's troop, Stanley and all, +came over the Sagamore by special delivery, so to speak, and detrained +at Fort Siding, whence a detail sped to the fort for such supplies as +were needed, and the troopers marched at dawn, a wearied-looking captain +at their head. There was much to do in the field; there was much ado at +the fort. This last, which barely escaped becoming official, had to do +mainly with these, our _dramatis personae_, and may now briefly be +recorded, and then our story is done. + +The center of human interest, of local interest, at least, was for a +memorable week shifted from the major's quarters to those where lay our +little Jimmie, tossing night and day in fever that threatened to burn +out everything but itself, tended night and day by gentle hands, by +devoted women, by one especially whose pluck and patience never gave +out, and whose physical powers proved indomitable--Priscilla Sanford. +There were days in which they could not induce the father to remain +below. His whole being seemed centered in that desperate fight for life, +wherein he, a soldier of many a heady fight, could wield no weapon for +the cause for which he would instantly have laid down life itself could +it but insure that of his only son. There came one awful day in which, +as he bent over the stricken form, his lips moving in piteous prayer to +Heaven, his eyes imploringly fixed upon the flushed and fevered little +face, suddenly a gleam of recognition seemed to flash from the now +dilating eyes, and as he and Priscilla leaned eagerly forward, in +shuddering terror the writhing form shrank from his touch, the sobbing +cry, startling in its utter amaze, incredulity--its imploring appeal +burst from the burning lips, "Don't strike me, daddy; _please_ don't! +Indeed, _indeed_ I didn't lie!" And with a groan of anguish unspeakable +Oswald Dwight dropped upon his knees and, sobbing aloud, buried his face +in his quivering hands. It was Priscilla who finally raised him to his +feet, and Waring led him, exhausted, from the room. From that hour, in +which it seemed as though Heaven itself had directed the final lesson +should be given, and through him, the patient victim of human +fallibility, the boy began to mend; and one day Waring and Wallen, +coming forth together, stopped and solemnly shook hands at the head of +the stairs and left the chastened father and that dauntless nurse +silently communing in the presence of the fluttering, yet reawakened, +life the one had so nearly imperiled, the other had so indomitably +battled to save. + +And all this while there were other lives and other fates and other +fortunes almost as desperately entangled and endangered. The general had +summoned Stone to follow him afield. It was hard work finding those +scattered wards of the nation, those lambs of the flock fled afar from +the agency, and Stone left with the fate of his three wood guards still +undetermined, for the soldiers had searched in vain. He left, too, with +most of his men, while Major Layton, ordered up from Niobrara, took +temporary command of the post, Dwight being, as yet, unfit for duty of +any kind. Stone was a week away, scouting through the Sagamore and over +toward the Belle Fourche, and brought back with him some four-score +"reds" of various ages and sexes, and two well-nigh starved and +exhausted men, two of French's devoted band, who, they said, had been +sent out the night before the attack to build and fire a beacon on the +summit of a tall, sharp, pine-crested height a mile away from camp. +French thought the signal might bring help from the post. They never +reached that crest. They heard the Indians shouting to each other in +pursuit. They made their way farther into the hills and lived on what +they had in their haversacks, hiding by day, for the hills seemed full +of redskins. They were taken to hospital to recuperate, and meantime, +while Stone's battalion settled down again into quarters, and business +at Skidmore's resumed its normal aspect, and the guard and prisoners +their abnormal number, Major Layton returned to Niobrara after imparting +to Colonel Stone a story he had succeeded in tracing back to three +sentries, a story he could neither stifle nor throttle, and that he left +with Colonel Stone to deal with as best he might; and Stone, thinking +again, as he had thought a thousand times before, of that letter in +feminine hand, and in his private desk, felt his heart go down to his +boots. In brief, the story was that twice during the week a young and +slender officer had issued from the rear gate of Lieutenant Purdy's +quarters, made his way in the black shadows of the fence-line to the +rear gate of Major Dwight's, where once, at least No. 4 could swear, it +was nearly an hour before he reappeared. + +Stone took council that very evening with Waring, the senior surgeon. +Waring had just come from Rays', saying little Jim, though dreadfully +weak and emaciated, was surely convalescing--that Dwight, with all his +joy, seemed humbler than a little child. "I believe, by gad, that in his +present frame of mind he'd forgive her, that incomprehensible little +wretch of a wife of his, no matter what she'd done, if she'd come and +ask him now." + +Whereupon Stone abruptly said, "By ---- he sha'n't! Come in here," and +he closed the study door behind them. Within twenty minutes thereafter +Dr. Waring had mastered the contents of three precious papers. First, +Major Layton's memorandum of the sentry's statements; second, a little +note that said, "at the usual place and time" and informing somebody of +the writer's intention of quitting "Minneconjou--and him--forever"; +third, a note explanatory of the second, and this note was type-written +and without signature: + + The inclosed was found in a notebook belonging to Lieutenant + Sanford Ray, which had been dropped last night at the rear entrance + to the quarters of Major Dwight. The major will know who wrote the + inclosed, and should know for whom it was written. + +Two nights thereafter, toward one o'clock, Major Dwight, with the post +adjutant and Dr. Waring in attendance, knocked for admission at his own +front door and knocked repeatedly before Felicie could be induced to +appear with the to-be-expected plea that Madame had but just composed +herself after nights of sleepless weeping, and surely she could not now +be disturbed. Dwight demanded instant admission and, finding parley +useless, Felicie unbarred the door and unloosed her tongue. "Shut up, +you Jezebel!" said the doctor impolitely. "Sit down there and be quiet." +Dwight was already mounting the stair, and presently could be heard +demanding admission to his wife's room. There was whimpering appeal in +the response, but the door was speedily unlocked, and the voice of Inez +could be heard in tones suggestive of unspeakable shock and grief and +sense of indignity and injustice. Presently Dwight came down again. +"Unbolt that dining-room door--and the back!" said he curtly to the +trembling maid, and when she would have demurred, seized her not too +gently by the arm, almost as he had seized little Jim, and propelled her +ahead of him into the dining-room. It was significant that the adjutant +remained at the front door. It was more significant that when the rear +door finally swung open there stood a silent sergeant of the guard, +while the waning moon glinted upon the bayonets of certain soldiers on +the level below. Felicie shrank at the announcement, yet could hardly +have been unprepared for it: "Someone opened from within a moment ago, +sir, and darted back at sight of the cap and buttons." + +"Bring two men and come in," was the brief answer, and then with lighted +candles and a lantern a search began, a search for many minutes utterly +without result, though another sergeant came and the officer of the day, +and all this time Felicie was begging to be restored to Madame, who +would assuredly again be prostrated and in need of her, and Dwight said, +"Let her go," whereat, as was noted, she darted first to her own room, +not to Madame's, and presently the search began again on the second +floor; and, to the amaze of the domestics aloft, soon invaded the very +garret itself, where first there was found the print of stocking feet on +a dusty plank, just as from under a box in the kitchen a pair of shoes +were pulled forth never worn by any authorized inmate of those quarters. +Then more lanterns went up the back stairs and more prodding followed in +the loft, and presently the watchers below heard stifled sounds of +excitement and scurry, and then, wild-eyed and striving to be strictly +professional, Sergeant Jennison descended and said: "We've got him, sir. +He's chokin' like." + +And presently again, limp, half-suffocated, smeared with dust and dirt, +in shirt sleeves and trousers coated with cobwebs and lint, there was +lowered to the second floor and shoved out on the landing at the head of +the stairs an almost unrecognizable creature, still struggling for +breath. "No man that wasn't made of rubber instead of flesh and bones +could have doubled himself in where he was," said the corporal to the +silent group, and, indeed, it looked as though he were doubling up +again, for the knees gave way, the head fell forward, and but for +restraining arms down would he have gone. The sergeant propped him up +again. The doctor plied a wet sponge, and Felicie, at the door of her +mistress' chamber, gasped in amaze: "_Mon Dieu!_ the miscreant who has +terrified Madame!" Whereat the dull eyes of the miscreant began slowly +to burn, and then to blaze; and, finally, as a faint color showed in his +sallow cheek, and the officer of the day, his official captor, bluntly +demanded explanation of his being in this house and at this time of +night, and both he and Waring and the adjutant, too, as it later +appeared, had all swiftly decided that the one explanation, the only +one, conceivable would be burglarious intent, to the utter amaze of +every man present, to the dismay of Felicie, who screamed aloud, the +head went suddenly up and back--oh, how well those who knew the Rays +knew that gesture!--the dark eyes flashed in hate and rage, and the +"miscreant's" voice rang out in defiance, triumph, almost exultation: + +"What explanation? I'd have you know I'm the only man in this post who +has legal right in that room. Ask the lady herself." + +Dwight's jaw was drooping. Slowly he turned to where Felicie, after one +short, half-stifled scream, stood staring wildly upon the prisoner, her +hands clasped to her frizzled head. "Ask--this--woman, you mean?" he +faltered, in the midst of almost breathless silence. + +"That woman? No! _Ask my wife, who lies in that room!_" + +Then, before any man could lay hand on and stop him, Dwight had sprung +forward and struck the miscreant down. + +Next morning the guard report bore the name, as a prisoner under sentry +in hospital, of Private Blenke, of Company "C," and next night did +Private Skelton, another patient, a precious tale unfold. + +It was true that Skelton had once served in the old --th Cavalry, and, +in common with many a man in his troop, had detested his first +lieutenant, Foster. It was true that there were now in the garrison of +Fort Minneconjou--two in the infantry and one in the cavalry--three men +who had an ancient grudge against that officer. It was true that the +sight of his hated face, hovering ever about the major's wife, had +revived all the old rancor. Two of the number had sworn that if ever a +time came when they could wreak their revenge upon him they would do it. +He had robbed one man of his sweetheart and two of their liberty, and +had driven these two into desertion. Skelton had once been rather +well-to-do, but drink and this trouble had ruined him. He had known +Blenke as much as a year, had been a "super" in a traveling show company +of which Blenke was a member. Blenke was a gymnast and trapeze performer +of some note, and not a bad actor in dialect and minor roles. The +company stranded. They were hundreds of miles from "home," without +money, hope, or credit. Skelton steered Blenke to a recruiting office, +and, once arrived at Minneconjou, Blenke became ambitious. He knew +nothing of the regular army before; now he was determined to become an +officer. Skelton alone knew anything of Blenke's past, and Skelton +promised not to "split." The coming of Mrs. Dwight brought a remarkable +change in Blenke, and when Captain Foster followed her and hung about +her all day long, Skelton saw there was something much amiss. Blenke +seemed going crazy through watching that lady and that man. Blenke had +some clothes of Lieutenant Ray's that he kept hidden at Skidmore's, and +Skelton felt sure that when the story went round about Lieutenant Ray's +being seen at night, prowling back of the major's quarters, that Blenke +was the real culprit. They were talking one day--Skelton and his former +chums--of the chance they'd have now of waylaying the captain, and +Blenke twitted them of not daring, even if they had the chance. They +vowed then that if he would only show them a way, he could count on +their doing it, and they did. Blenke had a plan matured, when suddenly +the captain left, after the row with Lieutenant Ray, and then Blenke +seemed just to take fire. He sent for them and unfolded another. The +Captain's train was five hours late and he knew a way to lure him out on +the road. He hated him, too, he said, and "we were beginning to see why. +He was so dead gone on the lady himself." He fixed the whole business, +got a note to the captain, he said, the captain couldn't tell from her +own writing, and it fetched him out just as was planned, and the rest +was pretty much as the captain told it. Skelton at first didn't much +care that an officer got credit for it all; Blenke had seen to that. +Blenke seemed to hate Lieutenant Ray--though he was forever copying +him--most as much as he hated Foster; but when Skelton got to the +agency, got to know Ray, got knocked down at the pow-wow and rescued by +Ray, got shot and left to roast to death at the agency, and was again +rescued by Ray, Skelton made up his mind that he'd sooner go to +Leavenworth for life, if he lived, or to hell if he didn't, than permit +Mr. Ray to suffer another day in suspicion. It was Blenke who wore his +dress at night and copied his very limp. It was Blenke that kept +prowling about the major's, lallygagging with that French maid. It was +high time Blenke himself was in limbo, and now they'd got him, they'd be +wise to keep an eye on him. + +And so, with the case--the two cases--against Sandy Ray abruptly closed, +the colonel, the surgeon and the adjutant, who had heard the confession, +seemed also to think; for the sentry at the bedside of the mournful-eyed +invalid received orders to bayonet him if he attempted to budge. + +And all in vain, for, with the dawn of a bleak to-morrow, Private +Blenke, no one could begin to say how, had slipped by his possibly +drowsing guard and escaped. The prairie, the Minneconjou valley, the +trains, were fruitlessly searched. The agile prisoner had fled from the +wrath to come. + + + + +CHAPTER XXVII + +EXEUNT OMNES + + +There is little left to tell. With the vanishing of the mysterious +Blenke, "the man of the mournful eyes," there came swift unfolding of +the pitiable scheme that, for a time, had set Minneconjou's nerves on +edge, bewildering almost every man from the colonel down, and bedeviling +most of the women. When one's own mother is ready to believe a man +guilty, small blame to the rest of her kind and to the man's best +friends that they should be of the same way of thinking. Moreover, +neither then nor thereafter did Sandy Ray consider himself an innocent +and injured person. + +"If ever a fellow came within an ace of falling," said he to himself, +and later to his best friend, his father, "it was I; for I believed her +story--believed myself loved--believed she had been tricked into +throwing me over for Dwight, and that, now that he had thrown her over +because of it, and would have no more to do with her, she would soon be +free. Then our marriage could follow. A greater ass than I has never +lived, but I was sincere in my assininity." + +Nor was Sandy Ray the ass he declared himself, for if ever that +exquisite, catlike creature, Inez, loved anybody besides herself, she +loved Sandy Ray, and was bent on winning him back, cost what it might. +She quickly saw that his love for her lay dormant, not dead. She reveled +in the joy of her probable power until, all on a sudden, one terrible +night there came to her the shock of seeing a face she believed long +since buried beneath the waves of the Pacific--that of the boy lover and +husband who wooed and won her inflammable heart nearly five years +earlier. + +Blenke in a romantic epistle to Miss Sanford, Inez, through her lawyers, +and her latest dupe, Stanley Foster--whose resignation from the army +went eastward by the same train that bore him and that fair fugitive +from Minneconjou--and finally the impeccable Farrells, all gave versions +more or less veracious of that early marriage episode. But sifted down, +this much of truth was ascertained. The two were cousins, with the +vehement blood of the Antilles coursing in their veins. They loved, were +married by a Texan justice of the peace, and, after a brief honeymoon +across the Mexican line--a honeymoon of mingled bliss and battle--found +the old people relentless and themselves squabbling and stranded. The +elders swooped upon the girl-wife, bore her back to Texas and sent the +strolling player to South America, with the promise never to return or +bother them. They told her, and she refused to believe, that he speedily +met his death at the hands of a jealous husband in Valparaiso. They +later told her, and she fully believed, that, in defiance of his promise +and in desire for her, he had determined to reclaim her as they were +going to San Francisco, and was washed overboard from the _Colima_ by a +tidal wave. Inez, like a certain few of her sex, could believe anything +possible for love--of her, and Stanley Foster went far toward confirming +her views for as much as the month that followed their mad flight. Then, +with his commission gone--and his illusions--he found himself bound to a +woman whose fast-fading charms were no compensation for anything he had +lost. Much of their misery, and her own, was told in metropolitan +circles by Felicie, who applied unsuccessfully about this time to Mrs. +Gerald Stuyvesant for the position of nursery governess, or _bonne_. +Felicie had gone thither in hopes of extracting something from Foster's +people, as nothing could be gotten from the Farrells since nothing short +of extradition proceedings could induce their return to the States. It +was the same miserable old story, and Sandy Ray many a time thanked +Heaven, and Stone, and the senior surgeon, for the order that took him +to the agency and away from Inez Dwight. Would he have succumbed had he +stayed? Older and presumably wiser men have done worse, so why not +Sandy? Perhaps mother and Priscilla were not all wrong in their +forebodings. + +But what a scene of love and repentance and rejoicing was that when +those two women, Aunt Marion and her niece, compared notes over the +episode of that night's vigil and Sandy's part therein. Then his story +of his coming was true, after all! Priscilla had seen him entering the +front gate; had heard him at the door; had heard him pass round to the +side of the house. Blenke it was who, counterfeiting even the painful +little limp that still hampered Sandy's movements, had caused so many to +believe it was Billy Ray's firstborn, in the dead of night, invading the +quarters of a brother-officer, to the scandal of the service. They saw +it all now, these good people who had dreamed so wildly, and some few +there were who went to Ray during the brief fortnight that followed her +final disappearance and said: "We knew you couldn't have been guilty of +such a thought," but Sandy did not thank them. In his downright +impulsiveness he had gone to Stone and told him the truth, and said he +_had_ been guilty of such a thought, and asked the commander what he +ought to say to Dwight; and Stone, after pondering over the matter, +replied in effect, though not in these precise words, that he'd be +d--elighted if he knew. + +Time and Dwight solved that problem, as time solves others. The major +remained not long at Minneconjou, nor did the Rays. The former, with +little Jim ever at his side, went eastward for a while, whence letters +came occasionally from both father and son. The latter found divided +duties. An interesting event, an arrival extraordinary, called for the +presence of Mrs. Ray in distant Manhattan, and Priscilla looked her last +for many a day upon the fords of the Minneconjou and those hated +tenements on the hither shore, to whose permanence and prosperity her +own efforts had lent such unlooked-for aid. A wiser woman in many a way +was Priscilla Sanford when she turned her clear eyes eastward again. +Firm as before was her faith that she had a mission, but she had learned +a lesson still needed by many of her sect, and by many of both sexes. +She had a tale to unfold to most excellent theorists in the field that +taught a new gospel in the cause of man's uplifting. They were found by +Dwight and Jimmy at the seashore, late that summer, and Priscilla +strolled hand in hand with her boy friend along the shining sands, and +talked long and gravely with his sire as to the real way of reaching the +moral nature of the enlisted soldier. They were joined by Sandy for a +day or two in September--a rather grave-faced young gentleman, despite +recent promotion and longed-for orders to join his troop in far Luzon. +They were in no wise startled when a cable came from Colonel +Ray--"Grandfather Billy" in spite of his looks--suggesting that they, +too, come with Sandy. They were all at Manila in the late autumn, except +the Dwights, and long before Christmas Priscilla had found in Colonel +Blake, that old-time friend and comrade of Uncle Will, a most delighted +listener to her theories. "Legs" was forever stumping round to the +bungalow and starting Priscilla on her hobby, as he called it, and with +preternatural gravity "drawing her out" as to the chief end of man. +Somebody had told him of her Anti-Canteen and Soldiers' Aid Association +at Minneconjou--and of its disruption, but he never twitted her as to +that. It was the new scheme for the higher education and mental +development of the soldier to which her energies were now bending, and +as Blake was in town with little to do but nurse a wounded leg and serve +on some perennial court-martial, he found his fun in frequent +disquisitions with Priscilla, sometimes prolonging them until Mrs. Ray +lost patience and drove him homeward, and privately wrote her liege +lord, who was forever afield, running down _ladrones_, that he really +must repress that irrepressible wag. "He isn't trying to flirt with +Pris, is he?" asked Ray, inconsequently, on coming home, and was dull +enough not to catch the full force of his wife's reply. "Flirt? Gerald +Blake never knew how, and he's too much in love with his wife; +and--besides----" + +Priscilla was far too serious to flirt with any man, much as she might +long to reform him. She did wish that the long, lank cavalryman could be +induced to take her views as seriously as she took them herself, and as +Major Dwight seemed to take them, for Dwight's letters were coming at +regular intervals, and to Miss Sanford now rather than to Marion Ray, +and for a time Priscilla read them aloud for the benefit of Blake, the +scoffer, and that of Aunt Marion and Uncle Will, the ever-indulgent. And +thus that warm, sunshiny Manila winter went its way and the summer rains +began to flood the streets, and people took to aquatics, and excursions +to Nagasaki and Yokohama; and thither flitted our friends, the elder +Rays, with Blake to see them off, and a promise to keep Miss 'Cilla's +library project moving. And the day the transport dropped them into +waiting sampan in Nagasaki's wondrous harbor two packages of home +letters were handed them by the resident quartermaster, just received by +rail from Yokohama and the Nippon Maru, and that evening, on the broad +white veranda of the old hotel, Priscilla Sanford's cheeks took on the +hue of the summer sunset, and still Uncle Billy saw--and Aunt Marion +said--nothing. + +One afternoon, a few months later, the _Sheridan_ dropped anchor a mile +or more out in the shallow, land-locked bay of Manila, and the launches +and lighters brought the army passengers ashore, many of them for their +second visit to the Philippines; and just as the band at the _kiosk_ on +the Luneta began the daily concert, and carriages of every kind drew up +along the curb, and officers in spotless white went cap-doffing from +point to point, and fair women smiled and flirted their fans, Colonel +Stone, but recently arrived, began telling for the twentieth time, at +least, the story of the marvelous escapade by means of which the +renowned Blenke secured his final freedom: + +"Caught in Chicago; shipped back to the guard-house; shammed crazy, sir, +till he fooled every surgeon in the Cheyenne Valley; got ordered to the +government hospital for the insane; got supply of Skidmore whisky, +properly doped; got the corporal drunk who went in charge of him, and, +by gad, sir, got the corporal's outfit and papers and turned _him_ over +at Washington as the insane man; got his receipt and vanished--the last +ever heard of him. What became of her? Oh, after her flare-up with that +poor devil Foster--you know the child didn't live--she got back to +Mexico somehow: women like her never die--but she'll never be able to +bother Dwight. That marriage, of course, wasn't legal. He'd simply been +tricked. No, old Dwight's a free man, and I reckon he'll think twice +before he tries it again." + +Whereupon Stone was swiftly kicked in the shin by the long-legged +lieutenant-colonel of cavalry at his side, for, in his enthusiasm, the +colonel had turned and addressed his closing remarks to the two ladies +in the nearmost carriage, and one of them was reddening like the rose. + +"Dwight's here, you owl," said Blake, in explanation, later. "Came in on +the _Sheridan_ this very afternoon, and he isn't so confounded free as +you were in your remarks. Why--hadn't you _heard_? May be another case +of 'out of the frying-pan into the fire'--a toss-up 'twixt 'Cilla and +Charybdis, but----" + +"Good Lord!" cried Stone, "and what did I say? You don't mean she's +going to marry Dwight?" + +"She can't help herself. He won't take no for an answer." + +"Well--I'll--be--hanged," said Stone, reflectively, "and I ought to be. +It's just what my wife said--when the daily readings were going +on--would likely be the upshot of the whole business. She said more than +that--and she knows women, too--that Priscilla Sanford would make for +him the best kind of a wife." + + + +***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A SOLDIER'S TRIAL*** + + +******* This file should be named 32311.txt or 32311.zip ******* + + +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: +http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/2/3/1/32311 + + + +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. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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